ScrapYard Armory

Fresh off a surprise win in the Ogre’s Choice Awards, Catalyst Game Labs had one of their newer books reviewed by the folks over at Tabletop Gaming News.

Ken from TGN gives a very thoughtful and detailed (lengthy but in a good way) review that tackles some great issues.

Warchest System For The Win

For the most part, there was nothing but praise for the book.  Especial praise was given to the Warchest system.  I agree one hundred percent.  I love the idea of the Warchest system and it’s ability to tone down the complexity usually associated with multi-mission campaigns.

FanPro tried once to come up with a campaign system, and it didn’t work.  The Warchest system is a quantum leap ahead.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to test drive the Warchest system, go out and buy one either of the Starterbooks or better yet, Dawn of the Jihad for the scoop.

What About Record Sheets?

The only knock on an otherwise stellar product was the availability of record sheets for playing the campaign. Unless you spring for the PDF download, dead tree lovers without access to Heavy Metal are going to be bending their books in order to make photo-copies to play with.  Seeing as this is a product designed for new players, I doubt many will even know what HMP is.

“Some of the Sword and Dragon ‘Mech record sheets are available to download and print from Catalyst’s web site. Most are not. If you purchase the book, you will have to copy some of the record sheets from the back. I found myself wishing there were PDFs available so I could quickly print perfect record sheets at home without having to explain BattleTech to my co-workers at the copy machine.”

It would be great if the PDF record sheets were fully available online.  The easy answer would be to simply buy the PDF from Battlecorps but that may be a bit disheartening for a new player.  The feeling of getting knickled and dimed is unavoidable for someone who just wants an easy way to play. After all, that is why they presumable bought the Starterbook to begin with.

With the amount of manual labor that I suspect goes into the new (Debuted in 2006?) style record sheets that turn up in these books, I doubt Catalyst will or should be giving anything else away.  They already have made available a huge amount of product for anyone to try out.  That effort should be commended.  I just wish more potential new players knew about it.

It is great to see Classic Battletech in the limelight.  The Starterbooks are a great product even for the experienced players out there.  Everyone will be able to find something to enjoy.