Robotech, Battletech and Mechwarrior Mechs for 28mm Wargaming

Thanks to a recent trade with a gentleman on DakkaDakka, I acquired a huge box of mech toys for 28mm gaming. With this acquisition of figures, my collection has gotten pretty big, so I took some time to write up a guide to Robogear, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Macross and other mecha suitabable for 28mm gaming.

Throughout the review I'll refer to them by the name under which they were sold, with the Battletech universe name alongside in parentheses. The figures provided for scale are all Games Workshop Cadian Imperial Guardsmen with Pig Iron Kolony heads. The squares on the background are in inches, but the grid starts about three-quarters of an inch off the table. The angle of the photos will make the largest mechs appear a bit taller.

Exo-Squad/Robogear
In the 90s, after the Playmates toy company had produced the last of its original designs for the "Exo-Squad" line of toys, they reached outside the cartoon (and back a decade) and reissued a wide range of Robogear toys from the 80s. Robogear was the English language version of the Japanese cartoon "Macross." The early years of Battletech also used many Macross designs in the artwork and background. You can see the whole range of ExoSquad toys at the excellent Virtual Toy Chest. Most of these figures are still available for decent prices on Ebay.

Exosquad/Robogear Medium series
This series of 6 to 7 inch action figures are fairly simple with nice articulation, but no separate parts, or pilots. They look great on the wargames table, and are just big enough to work well with 28mm figures. The two on the outside are stock, the middle three have been repainted (and some modified). From left: Invid Scout ship, Excalibur Mk IV (Warhammer), Spartan (Longbow), Raidar X (Rifleman), Gladiator (Archer)

I acquired these three stock versions and the Mechwarrior Legionnaire (more on this later) in the big box!

Robogear large series
These larger vehicles had opening cockpits, lots of articulation and space for pilots (who, curiously, were not also reissued). They are nice toys, but VERY big. From left: Officer's Battlepod (Marauder), Tactical Battlepod, Invid Shock Trooper

Battletech 
These toys were released for the Battletech cartoon of the 90s. They were the first toys made based on non-Macross Battletech designs. Though not in scale with their action figure pilots, most (though not all) of these mechs are very close to 28mm scale. Back row, from left: Bushwacker, Axeman, Thor, Hunchback, Mauler. Front row: Toad (Elemental Battle Armor)

Mechwarrior Die Cast
Released by the Joyride company in the early 2000s to accompany the "Mechwarrior: Dark Age" collectible miniatures game, these metal and plastic models were described as 1/56 scale, but came with 1/87 scale pilots. The same models were produced both as pre-assembled action figures and self-assembled construction kits. Though not all perfectly sized for 28mm, this line contains some of the finest Battletech models yet produced. The Mad Cat in particular (disregarding the size of the pilot) is one of the best. Absent from the picture below is the Jupiter mech, which is very nice looking, but even more out of scale than the rest. These become available with some regularity on Ebay, but unfortunately they often command extremely high prices, especially the Mad Cat. From left: Legionnaire, Mad Cat, Forestry Mech (comes with an interchangeable claw arm, awesome!)

Other Model Kits 
Robogear - With minimal conversion, these remarkably affordable 28mm to 35mm Russian model kits have lot of potential for mech gaming. They're widely available on Ebay.
Macross - Coming in a bewildering array of scales and configurations, these Japanese model kits are very nicely detailed.
Gasaraki - Hard to find, but these beautifully done 1/35 scale model kits look right at home alongside 28mm Battletech and Macross designs.

From left: Robogear Werewolf (lightly modfied), 1/72 Macross Valkyrie (custom gun), Gasraki Shinden Battle Armor (weapon swap on left arm), Robogear Locust (mostly stock)

Here's another photo showing a comparison of the largest of the various lines along side each other. From left: Macross 1/72, Robogear/ExoSquad Medium 7-inch, Robogear Exosquad large series, Mechwarrior by Joyride

Conclusions 
Most of the unmodified mechs described above were recently acquired in the "big box." I've been searching for many of these (especially the Battletech toys) at a price I an afford for a very long time. Unfortunately most of them are significantly larger than the majority of the mechs I have. In my 28mm mech gaming, I'm not a stickler for mech sizes, but the majority of the Battletech and larger Robotech toys are drastically larger than the rest of my current collection of mechs (most pictured below) and would look out of place.

On the positive side, it's great to be able to finally see these toys in person. The Mechwarrior die cast figures and the additional Robogear medium kits will make excellent reinforcements. Even if I end up selling the Battletech and larger Robogear toys, perhaps they can fund the acquisition of some other rare mech models.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Alpha Strike Game Report and Review

At last week's club night, Jon, Tyler and I tried Alpha Strike for the first time. Alpha Strike is the new game set in the Battletech universe, using simplified mechanics and terrain (rather than a hex map) to enable larger battles that play faster than the traditional Classic Battletech rules. Rather than using the usual 6mm Battletech miniatures, we used prepainted 10mm scale miniatures from the Mechwarrior: Dark Age clix game. It's the same fictional universe, but a different game that has since gone defunct (meaning lots of cheap, prepainted minis can be acquired for pennies on the dollar!).

Of course, we rebased the Mechwarrior clix onto traditional wargaming bases. The club bought a huge quantity of these some time ago as an inexpensive entre into mass-scale sci-fi gaming, and they have been used for many different rulesets since.

As it was our first outing with Alpha Strike, we limited ourselves to an 80-point lance (a group of four mechs) per player. Though most Battletech units are available in multiple configurations, we chose the configurations that had the fewest special rules.

We also made a couple of minor house rules. Regarding the rows of trees you can see in the pictures, we replaced the the 6-inch rule for forest cover, instead deciding that if you're adjacent to the trees, you can see through them and be seen (with modifiers, of course). If you're not adjacent, you can neither see nor be seen. We also determined that shooting at someone on the other side of the overpass makes them "obscured." We also decreed that all structures two floors or higher could hide a mech from view.

The card buildings on the layout are free online PDFs, either from Heavy Gear or Battletech, scaled up for Mechwarrior and based on pieces of vinyl floor tile. The roads are painted roofing shingles. The overpasses are from an architectural model board that I purchased at the Games Plus gaming auction. You can see what happened to the rest of the board here.

For our first battle we simply ran a kill-em-all game using the "Standard" level of the rules. My apologies that my Nova Cats (white/grey/gold), Tyler's Nova Cats (white/grey) and Jon's Rasalhague (white/grey/light blue) all have similar color schemes.

Jon proved to be the most adept player, quickly taking me out and nearly defeating Tyler. In the end he and Tyler both lost their last mech in the last turn, so there were no units left on the board! I didn't record a full battle report, but here are some of the battle's highlights, in the order in which they took place.

Jon's Rasalhague enter the field.

The beginning of the end for my Nova Cat Dasher II as it is flanked by a Spirit Cat Marauder II and subsequently takes heavy fire.

Rasalhague Forces cautiously advance through the buildings, making excellent use of cover.

This conservative approach would prove to be a very wise decision, as Tyler and I attacked each other while advancing in his direction. In this pic, a Nova Cat Warhammer IIc takes aim at a Rasalhague forces across the way.

By this time the Nova and Spirit cats had bloodied each other to the point that they agreed to temporarily ally against the Rasalhague forces. Here Rasalhague forces in cover take aim at an advancing Nova Cat Thor.

The Thor is knocked out before reaching the Rasalhague positions.

Spirit Cat Marauder II rains death down from the viaduct.

A Nova Cat Warhamer IIc (ignore the blue Spirit Cat marking, I was proxying...) engages the Karhu.

And dies a turn later, putting the Nova Cats out of the game!

The Rasalhague Karhu proved a dangerous foe as it promptly flanked the Spirit Cat Blackhawk on the viaduct.

A couple of turns later, the only two remaining mechs were a Spirit Cat Cougar and Rasalhague Maurader IIc.

They simultaneously destroyed each other in a blaze of fire at point blank range.

Observations on Alpha Strike 
I really like this game. The rules seem sensible, the play is fast, and I'm really enjoying playing in the Battletech universe that I have enjoyed for so long without gaming in (I never played Mechwarrior and don't like the Classic Battletech rules). It's a small thing, but I like that Alpha Strike gives you (free via the online Master Unit List) a premade card for virtually every Battletech/Mechwarrior unit and/or variation, each with its own card.

Though the rules are not technically new -- an earlier version called "QuickStrike" is included in the massive tome "Tactical Operations" -- this is the first time these rules have been available in a standalone book. The result is a game that is fairly easy to learn (we skipped the "Introductory" rules and went right to "Standard" level), but with enough crunch to make a satisfying game.

I'm looking forward to incorporating new units like VTOLs, armored vehicles and infantry, and even at some point trying the "Advanced" rules for things like ECM and special munitions. We probably spent a bit less than two hours on this game, and now that we know how the rules go, I could easily see a two-player game using two or three times as many units on the field and still resolving the battle in the same time span.

As far as complexity, the overall game is similar in complexity to Mech Attack. The units themselves are simpler, but Alpha Strike adds more rules mechanics and special rules. It's more complex than Panzer 8 Sci-Fi, our club's favorite ultra-fast-playing sci-fi mass battle game, but it could probably handle almost as many units on the table, though it would take longer to resolve. The fairly long movement and firing ranges mean that it probably plays best on big tables. Our 4-foot by 3.5-foot space was fine for small battles, but for large engagements, the extra space on a 4 by 6 or 4 by 8 foot table would be ideal.

No discussion of the game would be complete without a brief mention of the book itself. Alpha Strike is beautifully laid, something we have come to expect from Battletech publications. It's full color with lots of pics, diagrams and even some fluff and background. The rules are separated into Introductory, Standard and Advance rules. Also included is a "Abstract Aerospace" game that can be played alongside the game to involve aerospace units and their effect on each other and the battlefield. The game also features a campaign system and some sample unit lists representing some of the major factions in the Battletech universe.

Lastly (and it didn't affect our game) the points system needs some work. The points values for each mech are simply 1/100th the points values that the mechs had in Classic Battletech. Though the Alpha Strike stats are based -- via an algorithm -- on BattleTech values, the resulting points values don't always reflect the Alpha Strike stats. This is not a huge problem for us, but Alpha Strike really needs a points system based on Alpha Strike stats, not Battletech Stats.

Conclusion
I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a fast-playing sci-fi miniatures ruleset for 6mm or 10mm scales. It's clearly aimed at Battletech players, but the rules and massive list of pre-made units mean that players can proxy any miniatures without much hassle. It's not a "hard" sci-fi game, nor does it feature an abundance of complexity, but Alpha Strike has enough crunch to make a satisfying game. Also, since one book is all you need to play, and there are thousands of unit cards freely available via the online Master Unit List, this might be one of the great gaming bargains of 2013.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

From the workbench: Converted plastic mechs

A number of months ago I sat down one evening and hacked out a bunch of conversions of the inexpensive plastic mechs sold by EM-4 Miniatures, and this week I finally got around to photographing them. These are by no means finished, but I thought I'd share some of the possibilities hidden in these 20-year-old miniatures.

Formerly packaged and marketed as "Steel Warriors" and distributed by several other companies, these remain some of the most affordable figures that are near the the Battletech scale (1/300 or 1/285). The 5-figure box sells for about $4 on the EM-4 website.

For a review of them, check out this article from Reviewing Wargames, from which I've borrowed a couple of photos. Each box contains sprues with parts to build 5 mechs using 3 basic chassis (small, large, and chicken walker) and a variety of arms. Bases are also included.

Though there are many options for assembly, here's what they might look like when built "stock."

Nice enough, but there's even more potential there. Here's what I came up with and how I got there.


Small Body Mech 1

• Fins removed from both shoulders 
• Gun removed from hand/wrist of right hand 
• Gun elongated on the left hand 

Small Body Mech 2

• Shaved cockpit canopy off; upper torso rotated 180 degrees. 
• Upper barrel removed from each arm (formerly double barrel arms) 

Large Body Mech 1

• Shortened the barrel of each cannon arm to look more like a cannon and less like a laser.

Large Body Mech 2 

• File away cockpit 
• Cut body at waist and rotate 180 degrees
• Instead of mounting missiles on regular pegs, I moved them back a bit

Here's a shot of the "back" of the mech showing where I filed the cockpit away. I'll probably find some little greeble to glue on there, though it's not terribly bad looking.

Large Body Mech 3 

I'm particularly fond of this one, as it is very reminicent of the classic Rifleman mech design from old school BattleTech.

• File away cockpit, cut at waist and rotate 180 degrees

Large Chicken Walker 1 
This mech's torso is interesting because either end looks like it could be the cockpit.

• Cut off cockpit 
• Reverse body section so rear faces forward 
• Shorten cannon arm a bit for variety 

Large Chicken Walker 2 

• Cut off rear protruding section (the part used as a cockpit in the mech above) 
• Glue two random bits on that area (in this case the shoulder part of a double cannon arm)
• Saw off the rear pegs where the legs are usually attached 
• Attach legs to forward pegs where arms are usually attached 
• Attach two barrels to flat front of leg shoulder area 

Though the mechs come with either 25mm round or hex bases, I prefer the look of the battletech-style lipped 30mm hex bases. These are also available from EM-4 for the ridiculously low price of £1 GBP for 10 bases. The larger size is nice, and the lipped edge makes your basing/ballast/flock look very tidy. The mechs have little pegs in their feet, and it's easy to carve or drill an appropriately sized hole in the base. Just keep the feet elevated a bit so they will rest nicely on your basing material. Here's a view seen from the bottom of the base.

These miniatures were easy to cut, file and assemble. The plastic is a bit harder than regular polystyrene, but it glues just fine with superglue or my favorite plastic cement (Plastruct Plastic Weld). Even though I don't play BattleTech, I had such a good time with these, that I'll probably come back and convert another batch. Maybe someday they'll even be painted!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member