Wave 9 HEXTECH Review | Fortress & Energy Walls | BattleTech

Check out these brand new items from HEXTECH! Dan and Aaron dig into the latest and greatest from Wave 9: fortress walls and energy walls, fully table ready and painted, right out of the box.
These walls are an absolute must-have for BattleTech players (but work well in other games as well!). Build your firebase, create an impenetrable defensive line, or throw up some walls around the spaceport.
Sit back and enjoy as we dig into this great new set.
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[@Bhaalspawn]

The energy wall is an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill keyed to scissors to prevent a repeat of Dan's Campus B Skywalk Incident.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

LOL #1 comment award so far

[@shaneflickinger]

Interesting. I could see this working as terrain for several games systems and scales. Also, and not to brag, I must be a level 5 nerd because I actually got Dan's Defiance reference.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Haha yes!!!! *at least* level 5. Dan is going on level 20. Almost in epic tiers. I am secretly jealous though. 🤣

[@jamesripley8031]

I made and printed my own set of walls a few years ago. Really proud of how they came out! Good design if I do say so myself. And... they are still unpainted. And I'll be picking up a set of these walls when they're for sale, even though I have a ton of walls already, because these will be painted!

[@OptimusJedi]

Hextech is blowing it out of the water. It’s so good that it’s even getting me to consider Legions Imperialis. I’d have terrain for both Battletech and 30k. Awesome!

[@stephenyates1415]

They have terrain specifically designed for legions imperialis too.

[@OptimusJedi]

@ it looks so cool!

[@ronaldwentworth6000]

I agree with Dan, the city shields of Defiance

[@Commander_Nearsight]

That energy wall is cool all the pics I’ve seen online it looked orangeish, but that blue is cool

[@HouseDavieMerc]

Great video! Somehow my comment yesterday got youtubed again.🤔 I have multiples of the Hextech green walls and they're great but have limitations. If you want a usable enclosed area you'll want multiple sets. Don't sleep on the energy wall sections! Hear me out gamers! The openings for the energy walls are around 5mm-the same thickness as the thicker craft foam sheets commonly available. You can easily dry brush black or gray foam sheets to your liking and replace the energy sections with solid sections to your custom length. This also means that you can make angled sections that allow you to change elevations! If you want to spend the time you can also use styrene sheets for a more detailed replacement section. Wish I could post pics to show you. They already have STLs to make your own turrets for the walls on their site. I think they REALLY need to produce a painted version of these next.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Very cool idea with the extended walls!!

[@Bhaalspawn]

The energy wall could be used like the sensor wall from Mw5 Clans for rpg/campaign play.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Love this idea

[@thunderheadstudio7388]

Dan ain't lyin. I'm a huge fan of Defiance. And if we're going by GI Joe rules, blue IS the evil fence!

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Dan never lies! I always trust his judgement on good and evil.

[@thecommuterzombie]

I got two sets of standard walls to go with my Dropbase Delta bundle. The male connectors are pretty fragile and I had a couple that were snapped before I unwrapped them. A little decent glue sorted that but handle with care when separating the sections!

[@madcat3525]

Great video! Aaron, while you being doing a unboxing? And with Everyone? Looking forward to more videos and updates.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

You mean a big KS unboxing? We got it so late it didn’t make sense. But we will continue to get reviews out on the new boxes!

[@madcat3525]

@ understand.

[@madcat3525]

Aaron, is it possible to do a video on the top or favorite Mercenaries KS packs?

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Yah maybe once we are thru them all!

[@verysilentmouse]

The energy walls make me think of the stiener solaris arena

[@raithnor6007]

I was going to say that Energy Walls weren't really a thing in Battletech, given their broken tech base. It works on Solaris because they only use it for very specific Battlemech duels. Although, now that I think about it, electric/energy walls were in the Cresent Hawk's Inception. Which is based on 1st Edition Mechwarrior.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

I also say rule of cool applies to your table! We can’t overburden ourselves too much with accuracy in our fantasy and sci fi games 🙂

[@KaryudoDS]

I was tempted to pick one of these up when I saw it in a store, though "energy walls" feels way more Star Wars than Battletech to me outside of MW4. Though it looks like with the energy bits, that you basically get more wall than the other box to me. Otherwise the fortress box looks better for me. I just want them Mechcommander base walls.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

A few guys made the comment that they could be “ferro glass” which I liked !

[@Bhaalspawn]

You could also use the energy walls by reskinning them as ferroglass like on mech cockpits.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

I love that!

[@itsallfunandgames723]

My feel for Battletech technology is an under-budgeted 1980s sci-fi film. Could they have a laser wall in a cheap 1980s sci-fi film? Yes. Well then they might have one in Battletech.

[@sebastiang.5032]

I don't feel like the energy walls fit the lostech-style BT mostly features, but the production & value looks great on both sets. #Override

[@CanadianFabe]

I agree. did they ever have anything like that even at the height of the Star league?

[@lorcannagle]

@@CanadianFabe Two things come close: The detonator grid in Steiner Stadium on Solaris is a field that covers the top of the arena, any missile or ballistic round that passes through is destroyed and it dissipates the energy of lasers and PPCs, allowing Steiner Stadium to be the only of the big five Solairs arenas to have an in-person audience instead of people watching on holoscreens in an adjacent area. The Blue Shield is a piece of BattleMech equipment that basically acts as a forcefield against PPCs only, but it overloads very easily, it's only mounded on a handful of units (most notably the Quasimodo and Stacy Church's Zeus-X). There's also the Clan Coyote WarShip Ancestral Home, which had some sort of advanced defense system that has never been detailed but made it one of the most fearsome ships in the Wars of Reaving. Apparently the developers have statted out this system but have pledged to never release the rules and stats.

[@HouseMasterPoDing]

The energy walls aren't quite my preferred aesthetic for BT, but I think they would double as terrain for other miniatures games, something like BLKOUT comes to mind. The regular fortress walls, however, look really good for some quick and easy base set-up. I'll definitely keep an eye on these when they come in stock at Aries. With the backlog of stuff I have to paint now from the KS, my disposable income will likely be going to things like terrain and what not, so these reviews are great to see.

[@VictorSteiner]

The energy walls look darn sexy, but I don‘t think that such a technology exists in Battletech lore. Not even the „Fortress Wall“ is a real wall.

[@wonderdog8895]

The male wall connectors are EXTREMLY fragile. Probably fine in their original 3d printed form as plastic prints have a bit of give, but in the brittle cast resin being used here they snap off with any kind of torque applied. Also, shrinkage on the gate sections left the bases of all of mine badly bowed. Finally, the 60 degree corners don't sit flat on the table properly, as they were all cast low on one side so sit askew when connected. Overall, useful and flexible sets, but they're poorly implemented casts, and I would have preferred more robust magnetic interconnects rather than the fragile keyed connectors. QC was not as good as the earlier releases.

[@thunderheadstudio7388]

@wonderdog8895 We've had mixed reviews on the connectors, and I thoroughly appreciate the feedback! I'll be working on an improved version for future waves and expansions to mitigate the brittle nature of cast resin.

[@fherot8200]

Seriously why don’t you guys have 5x the subs. I’ve even finally caved in and started reading up on alpha strike and I blame DFAWG.

[@DeathfromAboveWargaming]

Haha GUILTY AS CHARGED And who knows. YT is a mystery. I think a large portion of the dedicated BT fan base (say 50k total) are lore junkies and could care less about the actual game. I am more towards the other end of that spectrum!! I love blowing stuff up. On the table top of course….