Here's an easy way to think of the unit you want to make: Inner Sphere ONLY, as Comstar, and later the Clans use different organizational tables. Lance: 4 Company: 12 Batallion: 36, or 40 (36 + 4 for Command Lance) Regiment: 108, or 120, either potentially +12 for Regimental Command Company. The overwhelming majority of your games are going to be roughly Company, or Lance sized. When you get larger, you need more space, and it gets much harder for 1 player per side to handle. So, you don't need a ton of models. 4 to 12 will get you a unit that's fun to play, and that you can build off of. This is especially true of a Mercenary Unit. Most of the Mercenary Commands in the Inner Sphere aren't Multi-Regimental affairs. There are a few that are, many are one Regiment, or Batallion, but most are Company sized, or less. Even if you want to build a unit from a House Regiment, it's easy enough to create a Lance, or Company, such as Sorenson's Sabres. (Yes, I've been playing that long.) And, as the man said: You do you. It doesn't matter if your unit is a Wilson's Hussars, or the Sword of Light, it's your unit. Paint it in happy clouds and have fun!

Picking up on the fact that the Free Worlds League's politics are like those of the Dual Monarchy earned you a sub. It had nothing to do with all the other tid bits. What?

Clan Cloud Cobra 100% salvaged battlemechs 🙏

I literally clicked this video because i didnt realize battletech had factions lol. I thought you were supposed to just toss together a lance and throw down

My steiner grandpa bought me a mercenary company on a wim. It helps explain why I am not the best commander haha.

29:12 "almost cult like" 😂😂😂😂. Why did my wifi just drop?😅

NO, the community does NOT want or need your "ideas". Keep your WG filthy away. If you want to play BT play BT. Do NOT try and twist and pervert it to the WG crap you know or WANT it to be. If you want to play BT as BT and enjoy it as BT, then by all means play. If you seek to CHANGE BT with your "great ideas" kindly FUCK OFF.

Starting to get into Battletech, wargame I have played the most is Infinity, with Nomads (Bakunin) as my main, and ALEPH and Haqqislam as my alts. From what I've read/watched so far, Magistracy of Canopus seems the most similar to Bakunin, and I guess Comstar is kinda similar to Aleph. Haven't found a good Haqqislam analogue yet (Muslim-majority factions that AREN'T basically space Taliban/Al-Qaeda are a rare thing in sci-fi)

Actually your Tex impression was pretty good

I like to see stuff on narc tag you know stuff the Raven has you know how how far do you can you shoot it how far away you have to be to use the tag you know stuff like that stuff that you would see on a smaller Mac like a raven

Still a valuable video years later. I finally decided to kick the idea of 'my faction' and instead have just started building lances and companies around BT Lore historical campaigns...war of Vega 3039, Andurien crisis, whatever. Gives you a ton of different stuff to work on and paint and try out and you can easily catch games with anyone

I recently got back into BattleTech because of Alpha Strike. I loved BattleTech as a kid, and we played it solid for about 1 year until we moved onto Palladium Books RPG's were more fast pace and varied, but mostly fast paced. Then, we never played BT again. However, we FINALLY have decent art for mechs thanks to mostly two guys. Alex Iglesias aka Flying Debris, and Anthony Scroggins, aka Shimmering Sword. Those two guys have made some seriously derpy looking mechs look like diamonds. And then the official art is now using their styles to make the new books and video games. They look awesome, and are finally worth buying miniatures for the game. The new miniatures that look great, combined with a new game system that is simple and plays fast, and now I am playing again vs my grade school aged son.

This video was perfect. Other videos had me lost thinking the game play hinged on factions. Now I can buy a box of mechs that I like the look of.

Timestamp 11.04 ❤❤❤❤😂

I have a Ex Comstar Merc company. After the Comguards was disbanded... well someone misplaced a groub of Mechs... sad XD

Great overview, good presentation! I like your summaries of the different factions and houses, and your vibe.

Do what you want because a pirates is free you are a pirate

It's worth pointing out that, despite being described in-text as "socialistic", nothing about the Capellan Confederation (at least that I can find) actually resembles socialism at all, and instead more resemble the Soviet Union / modern China. Neither of which are/were socialist.

I appreciate this video! I played Battletech when it was first released in the 80's and I was a young teen, so my nostalgia runs deep. I'll never forget that first full page ad in Dragon magazine when I knew it would be next best game. Returning now I know there is a lot to relearn, but happily it seems a lot has remained the same. Thank you for exploring this topic.

I was really impressed by your vision..

The "Pokey Things" on the Glaug would translate to SP Lasers in Battletech (They're anti-personnel lasers) In fact if we were to try and translate the Glaug's kit to BT it'd be: x1 ER L Laser on top x2 PPCs on the arms x2 MP Lasers on the arms x2 SRM 3s on the sides of the cockpit (idk if those actually exist but each set of "holes" is a 3-cell rack of Close-range missiles stored so tightly in the cockpit that the pilot can use them as coasters) x2 SP Lasers on the bottom (the aforementioned pokey things) With strong jump jets to let it jump/skate across the battlefield because God nor the Zentraedi care about gravity (and often actually fight in Zero-G) Glaug bein that big is accurate to Macross scaling, as the Zentraedi mechs each were more like walking gun chairs with a Valkyrie-sized pilot inside. That said: GOD I NEED ME ONE OF THOSE.

Nice it’s fun do alpha strike first

Do you like kilts? Do you like bagpipes? Do you love chinese food? Then join the Northwind Highlanders laddie

Love your talks, while painting Mechs ;-)

Great Excel-Sheet - i love it!

Thank amazon for giving me access to this game, I've been into it since mech warrior 2. I'm going to create a pirate outfit to pay homage to the pirate outfit I was a leader of back in mech warrior 4, mech pilots can be the old members that I can still remember, and work in their play styles to the mech choices. When I get to clan wars I'll do up clan fire mandrels for exactly the same reason, that clan in MW4 went hard into roleplay, and I was all about having to battle my superiors for a promotion lol

wheres the faction for liberating earth from the clans

Great vid and love the fluff nice one

Ok so short story stated as it is factions are pure fluff and every faction has access to every mech and no rule difference between the factions? U sound like a lovely guy but u do waffle loads I’m almost 1/3 way though this and to this point it could have been a 2-4 minute and hit every one of the same points, lol as I’m typing this u point out that every faction can use every mech would have thought that was covered when u said no difference in the factions

Please don’t waste my time with such a long intro where u are constant repeating yourself

I don’t like the commando either. I like the look, but it is useless. I also like the look of the flea, but useless. And the urbanmech is cute with big feet, but useless. I like using the shadow hawk in a lance with an awesome for some reason. As a note I really like the Wolverine and will pick it, but I have had been really beaten up in it. I think the Carapult is a good mech on paper, but I have not had any good luck with it. I think I the last one of mine got legs shot off, fell and exploded. As far as your enforcer, you could have just crawled one hex per turn to get out of the water. From a prone position you can use one arm for support and shoot a weapon from the other arm. Sometimes it is best to stay down. As a final note, I like the Longbow. But one time I got a shot in the head and died before even getting a hit on the enemy.

I have been thinking of getting Total War and using vehicles and infantry. Thanks for the great info! I think this will be be a fun addition to the game.

If I want to paint my Kkklan mech pink with purple stripes - I do not have to make up any in-universe reason. I own the mini so I simply paint it any way I like. And then add bunny slippers!

When in doubt, pick the war crimes factions! Cappelan & Draconis! It's a competition, and they're ahead in points!

Look like something that the Van Zandt Free State Militia would field! So very proud right now *heavy breathing in deep periphery*

It’s a shame the Battletech is infected by the same woke redditors as 40K, but there’s a group on fb and a discord for conservatives.

90%of them. for the simple reason. there is way too many and they are the same just different names

Mad cats madcats for daysss son😂

4 mad cats all you need 😂

So basically what I got out of what I watched is to not stress so much on lore and accuracy so much as long as I'm having fun. My attraction to the game is simply mechs duking it out and it's a good enough reason to get into the game. If I want to focus on lore, do it on my own time without it becoming burdensome

New player here, thank you so much for making this video!

Taurian citizen here. Your Frankenmechs are the best mechs I've seen in a Web. As a proud owner of industrial mech army, I thought I've seen it all. But those are just... gold. Bravo!

3025 isnt the most common though. Thats Clan invasion.

Here is an idea... DON'T PICK a faction create your own.. Build home grown mechs and have fun. But if you have to pick a faction because your group demands it.. MARIK is the only choice. ;)

More Tex impressions! This is an INVALUABLE guide. I got into battletech almost 30 years ago at the tender age of 5 years old. I saw the models in my FLGS and fell in love. I grew up with MW2, MW3, MW4:Mercs, i have always been obsessed but I never touched the tabletop game until just now. I knew what mechs I loved and this is such a great guide for how they fit together.

Clan Jade Falcon inside mah Warhawk, baybey!!!! Oh, beeehaaaaaaave!

Jade Falcon for life.

FYI, there are some optional faction specific rules in the Target exclusive starter box. They are for 5 of the Solaris 7 stables though each stable is backed by one of the great houses and it notes that you can use them for the houses. If one player is playing clans or periphery they could just pick one to try. These are totally optional of course.

Clan honor is optional just like Forced Withdraw rules. If you want to be super fluffy, Inner Sphere factions should use forced withdraw and clan should use the Clan Honor. They aren't mandatory though and they do slow things down a bit.

Custom variants? Absolutely. 100% custom machine from the ground up? No. In-universe, that's the purview of large scale entities like governments and corporations.