Is this the best Battletech campaign for new players?

[@zemerarts]

It feels like this channel came out of nowhere, and it's such a gift

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

That gives me the warm and fuzzies... thank you!

[@rburt3]

Right!?

[@paulmiddleton8487]

Defo

[@MechsandMead]

Perfect timing! Thank you for posting this!

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Thanks for watching it!

[@yungchris6044]

Nice! I’d love to seem more niche stuff like this on KZbin about Battletech. Like a review on the other Chaos Campaigns

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Oh man, I better add it to the backlog!

[@justinfloyd1471]

Outstanding! My group are just getting into Alpha Strike and were taking about a campaign. Thank you!

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Glad I could help!

[@Daemonettee]

Thanks for educating us 😊

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

My pleasure 😊

[@kierdalemodels]

Good stuff again. I’ll have to look into it. Running a campaign would be good.🤔

[@sbacoya]

Your channel has been a joy! This is a fantastic supplement to your battle reports. Is there a way you can link a .pdf or .word of your war chest conversions from AGAOC to Alpha Strike?

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

That's a great idea! I'll give this a go in the morning and see where I can post it. It will be in the discord, at the least!

[@Kaiju-Driver]

Very cool. A nice primer!

[@SoloAnteelDADO]

I love your material. Like it a lot. I am trying to put the Chaos Campaign system for my universe and out of Battletech Universe, as I like a lot the system.

[@ObiwanNekody]

Ooooo, good video bit 😊

[@Ruggedtoaster]

Tonnage is the recommended method because in the secession war era the limits on technology and smaller number of mechs available means that tonnage is relatively fair but the moment more advanced technology becomes available it starts to fall apart.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

That's a good point! I wonder if that would still hold up with combined arms?

[@Ruggedtoaster]

@@MatanuskaMechworks kind of? Combined arms is always very powerful, and in the early days had to be nerfed repeatedly. Infantries low “weight” means you can bring so many units even with APCs in tonnage game that they can really extend your board control. Hovercraft like Savannah masters or light other hovercraft can give you powerful initiative sinks, that move faster than most scout mechs at the same or lighter weight. Heavy and assault tanks are scary gun platforms that frequently get turned in to pillboxes do to motive crits but can equal most heavy mechs in firepower but they shine more in BV effected games (they are about half the cost of a comparable heavy mech) except LRM carriers at 60 tons with three LRM 20s they are the best indirect fire platforms for their cost or weight if using tonnage with the downsides of being slow and not armored for direct combat.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

As we saw in my most recent battle report, those savannah masters can be sneaky 😅

[@Ruggedtoaster]

@@MatanuskaMechworks they are a menace and I’m glad that the new kickstarter has brought combined arms to the forefront again. Clan tech players will learn why so many tournament packets have a maximum number of units you can take and limits arty and BSPs. It’s Tukayyid all over again!

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Definitely! I think in future campaigns we are going to impose limits like that again. We kind of do now but 4 of any one chassis is our max, and even that seems like too much

[@baxtercs]

Maybe off topic but are you from Alaska? Matanuska?

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Indeed I am!

[@baxtercs]

@@MatanuskaMechworks man that’s awesome I lived and gamed their for 38 years until I moved recently - love your videos - to bad we never got a game in

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Don't worry, I live on the edge of nothing so you probably wouldn't have missed me either way 😅

[@kaipoh265]

I absolutely agree about Chaos Campaign: Succession Wars being a great way to start doing campaigns. In fact, it's too good. Many of the Turning Point pdfs that I have bought are worse in comparison, either too disconnected (changing which combat command is involved between tracks) or just plain poorly balanced (many Warchest costs are out of whack). Really, those Warchest costs are bizarre. Galtor has a starting track that costs 750 points and uses submarines! The loser goes bankrupt almost immediately because the next track has a buy-in cost of 1,000!

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

With mercenaries, I usually have support costs in the contract that help cover a percentage of the buy in for that reason! The original pdf is pretty good though 😁

[@TheYoungKing45]

Ah this is frustrating to learn! I was hoping the other Turning Points would do interesting things with the tracks - maybe offering cheap and more expensive options at the same time so you could “grind up” to big confrontations. I get that losing a hugely decisive battle and not being able to carry on is realistic but uhhh…I’d like to play the game mode that builds in a margin for error for longer than one mission 🫠

[@melvinlemay7366]

I played the Turning Points Helm campaign at an Alpha Strike event and the writer of the supplement was one of the GMs. He told us that he had only play tested in classic. Some of the scenarios were SUPER unbalanced but, I could definitely see how they might not be outside AS. I wouldn't be particularly surprised to find that such is the case with many of the Turning Points books.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

I think one of the keys to playing in a campaign is to have your eyes on the long goal... I always play super cagey because of it. I don't think I mind too much that some of the turning points aren't balanced... I don't think it would hit the same if they were! I'm one of those weird guys that doesn't mind losing though as long as the story is cool 😎

[@kaipoh265]

The Operational Turning Points pdfs that I looked at, Fronc Reaches and Death to Mercenaries, seem better costed in that regard. And they have small "in between" tracks that players can take to rebuild their Warchest.

[@JohnDoe-hc7jf]

Have one for the algorithmn.

[@TheYoungKing45]

I just finished running this in Alpha Strike using some solo play tools to do me vs. AI controlled opposing force. Some observations on my experience: My sequence was: Meeting Engagement -> Pursuit -> Counter Attack -> Breakthrough -> Assault •Track costs seem to REALLY expect you to leverage those options at least sometimes. I found the payouts to be pretty stingy, and was always strapped for points. The opposition however was buying VTOLS like they were candy 🙃. Either side only ever salvaged a single enemy mech though mostly we were scraping our own mechs off the battlefield. • Never ever be afraid to run away! Losing a mech means losing it for good if you don’t hold the field…and sometimes even when you do! • I found it helpful to have the AS Companion in hand for some refit and repair particulars. I imagine those things are covered in Campaign Operations too but I don’t own that book yet, can’t confirm. I think the suggestions made in this video ought to get you through just fine, though. • I guess I understand why Warchest Points are converted to Support points to match up proportions but…I hate not having one easily quantifiable campaign currency that never changes. Overall I had a blast! I shared battle reports on Insta/TikTok and might get them up on KZbin one of these days. Love the video! It was great to hear someone else diving into this!

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Your insight is really helpful, and your experience pretty much matches mine so far! It really depends on the group and the campaign, but I found that reducing the track costs (such as having a percentage covered by the merc contract) helped a lot. I am all for providing incentives for taking track options, however, otherwise they would never get used! As for the repairs and refits, it doesn't change too drastically for standard armor and structure repairs from what I can tell, since it repairs it all at a single go. And since Alpha Strike doesn't log any particular equipment or weapon hits, I just treat it as part of the structure repair. It may not be "crunchy" enough for some but I would rather let people play with their toys than get bogged down too much with the repair minutia! I am doing the research for a campaign operations video in the future, I'll add that to the list of things to double check when I get there. I too appreciate a single currency for the campaign, but I guess I've gotten used to the idea after playing a lot of MMOs... I just think of WP as "premium currency" that I then have to convert down to use for some things and that helps 😅

[@dbul2542]

I find track costs virtually infeasible. For most missions you basically only get positive WP by completing secondary objectives and even then it might not cover your repairs and Mechwarrior healing. I usually cut track cost by 50% at the minimum.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

@dbul2542 that's a good strategy! Another is to have "sponsors", whether that be a house military or mercenary employer, cover a percentage of the cost.

[@derekburge5294]

I mean, keep the razor cat handy anyway. Ya never know after all...

[@johnboyjjb]

ChatGPT works pretty decent in some ways as a GM. Certainly not perfect and will take some working with, but as a "Neutral" third party, it works to some extent.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Interesting! I'm wary of AI but I'm all for using it to aid with creativity rather than replace it. Might be worth looking at

[@ObiwanNekody]

If you don't touch grass it makes it much more difficult to base your minis. You loose one of options for frocking the base or you have to get quite good with tweasers or wear gloves.

[@elithradril]

As a new player that owns only the AGOAC set, I feel this campaign isn't really playable yet. Even though the pdf suggests you only need this set to play, it also suggests 2 companies, and even with the cardboard cutouts (which I would rather not use), you only get 17 mechs.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

Don't let that limit you! Before I had a collection, back in my youth, I would play with whatever I could get my hands on. Paper tokens work just as well in classic battletech as long as you can tell the front from the back!

[@elithradril]

@@MatanuskaMechworks True, you can indeed play it that way. I just wanted to point out that, unless you don't mind printouts or proxies, you're going to have to get more mechs than what you get in the starter box. I personally prefer playing with minis only because it just looks so much cooler :). I guess this campaign is a great excuse for me to buy more stuff.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

@elithradril exactly!

[@ObiwanNekody]

​@@MatanuskaMechworks Othello pieces make for great tokens. Get the circle stickers for yard sales to label what each token is and its facing and you have nicely sized, weighted, and dual color tokens for your forces.

[@kudosbudo]

i think youneed an experienced player to run this. i could not get my head around the fiddly stuff like warchests and converting point etc. its too fiddly for new players. id rather just play the old fasa scenario books campaigns in sequence. much easier.

[@MatanuskaMechworks]

What if I told you.... I am a newer player? 😎 Ok I would be lying, as I have been playing Btech since the 90's, but I never ran a campaign before this current one on my channel. It's not impossible! It's just a big time sink. More so than an experienced player to act as a guide, I think you need somebody with enough time to fiddle with all these things. Also, having the attitude that sometimes you might just get things wrong or have to fudge them, but as long as you are all having fun then that's ok, goes a long way!