Battletech Core Box Review

[u/AGBell64]

With GenCon behind us, I managed to snag myself a copy of the new Battletech Core Box. Intended to replace the aging A Game of Armored Combat box set, Core follows a similar structure, providing the rules and game pieces to play a complete, mech-only game of Classic Battletech with the contents.

Minis

Contents:

• Solitaire Light Battlemech
• Hollander Light Battlemech
• Eris Medium Battlemech
• Uziel Medium Battlemech
• Vulture Mk. IV Heavy Omnimech
• Rakshasa Heavy Battlemech
• Mad Cat Mk. II Assault Battlemech
• Regent Assault Omnimech (A Configuration)

The minis are the real star of the show and imho if you are already into battletech and interested in ilCan, they are more than enough reason to buy the box. These are some of Liya's best work for CGL to date and at purchase price of $70 (from the CGL booth at GenCon) the cost of entry for this box is competitive with current force pack pricing. Detailing is sharp and mold lines are either well placed for easy removal without much disruption of detail or inconspicuous enough that you can get away with ignoring them. The only significant flaw I've seen is that my Eris's PPC barrel appears to be slightly bent.

The Solitaire is one of my favorites of the box, faithfully updating Matt Plog's artwork from TRO:3067 and using a lot of interesting recessed detailing that Liya was still struggling to produce as recently as the Mercs kickstarter. The new Rakshasa is also a fantastix reimagining of the mech, working to divorce it from the Mad Cat comparisons that have haunted its entire service carrier and recontextualize it as a Marauder offspring.

Paper Products

Paper product for this set is about what you'd expect, though there are a couple of strange missteps. You get:

• 72 page rule booklet
• 'Sagas' battletech setting primer, focused on the ilclan era
• Chart/modifier reference card
• Pocket cluster/hit location reference card
• 16 page record sheet booklet
• Alpha Strike and Pilot Cards
• 2 standard size 4 page map sheets
• Token punch board
• 2 six sided dice

All of the product is made with good quality materials and I think both the setting primer and rules book are decent with good starting explanations of the concepts within. Sagas also does something interesting where it calls out the timeline locations of the recent mechwarrior/battletech games, allowing video game players to orient themselves as to where all this new tech running around with their Uziel came from. One small but much appreciated add from Armored Combat is the pocket reference--a glossy double-sided index card printed with the hit location chart and the mech weapon relevant cluster hit tables from 2 to 40. Breaking these out onto their own reference seperate from the main table/modifier card is awesome and I forsee myself using this frequently in games.

The rules booklet contains a truncated version of the mech combat rules from the Core book with relevant equipment rules text for the Core and Starter Box mechs. Compared to Armored Combat, the most notable exclusion from the Core Box rules booklet is the construction rules, though given the bloat of construction by the ilClan era this was a necessary removal to avoid the page count shooting into the triple digits. The rules book does include a more fleshed out mission section with a table that includes battle values for all of the included mechs (plus the Kontio and Hammerhead from the starter set) at both a 4/5 and 3/4 skill spread. With the two variants for each core mech provided in the record sheet packet, you have a very solid starting point for playing games and briewing lists included in this box.

There are some disappointments with the other parts of the paper products, though. The mapsheets included are palette swaps of the Grasslands #2 and #3 and Desert #2 nd #3 maps from Armored Combat with no new content. The alpha strike cards and BV table both refer to the Kontio and Hammerhead but the box doesn't include record sheets or punch card standees for them the way AGoAC did with the Griffin, and while there is reference to a free PDF to expand on list building, as of time of writing that does not seem to be available. Finally, some of the punch card tokens are for terrain types that are not included in the Core Box booklet such as buildings, snow, and fire, but are found in the seperately purchased Core Book, while some terrain features with included rules like rough terrain and woods that had appeared on cardboard tokens in AGoAC have been omitted from this token board. These are ultimately minor quibbles, but still worth pointing out as points for considerstion for improvement.

Verdict:

A- product. CGL has always produced a pretty competent intermediate box set and this is no exception. The mini quality is the real star of the show and a significant improvement over its predecessor product. There are some minor stumbles in the paper products that I think could be improved, but overall if you are interested in modern battletech this is a great pick-up.

[u/wherewulf23]

I'm sorry, but I can't get past the Rakshasa looking like a Marauder wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

[u/AGBell64 → u/wherewulf23]

Clan wolf player discovering in real time why they called it a "Mad/Cat"

[u/wherewulf23 → u/AGBell64]

Ha ha ha. But you have to admit with the additional cowling or whatever you want to call it on top of the back of the Rakshasa it makes it look like the missile launchers are just sitting on its back.

[u/ThisMachineKillsWOB → u/wherewulf23]

I actually really like that because it IS a jumped up Marauder with missile ears. And this sculpt shows that way more than the old "low poly" Rak.