Have you played MegaMek? Here’s: How to get started playing MegaMek. If you are a Battletech enthusiast but are having a difficult time finding players to play with locally, this game could give you the quick Battletech fix you have been craving.
Mirroring the Tabletop rules.
This is not just another video game of Battletech, this is using the tabletop rules. The game is hex based and turned based, just like the traditional game.
Getting Started with MegaMek.
Step one download the correct free version of MegaMek. Click here to download it now. And you will also need to download Java.
Once you have downloaded the game and loaded the files properly, you can start a game.
- Click Start New Game.
- Add Combat Unit.
- Choose Faction, IS or Clan. (FYI Clan Units cost more in BV because they start with a base Gunnery skill roll of 3 and Piloting skill roll of 4, while the base roll for Inner Sphere units is 4 for Gunnery and 5 for Piloting skill rolls.)
- Choose Type of Unit: Mech (or Mek), Infantry, Tank, or Battle Armor.
- Click on Select Map. This is a very important step. I didn’t think about this step when I first started. You can go with a random surprise map by default, but these maps are truly random. Nothing is more frustrating than starting a game when you have a map with level 7 cliffs. Making the map almost impossible to traverse. Or if you choose more than 1 map, you could have completely incompatible maps from one to the next. So you can choose your maps from pre-generated ones.
- Next click Add bot. This is where you choose your opponent’s forces. When playing against the computer, you still have to choose your enemy units. Remember to choose your starting place and your enemy’s starting point. I like to make my enemy start on the North side and my units on the south. I like to challenge myself by playing units with equal BV or an enemy with greater BV than my forces.
- Press Done when you are ready to play a game.
Limitations to MegaMek.
There are so many options in Mega Mek. You can choose from most of the mech and vehicle variants available in the Battletech universe. But there are some mech variants unavailable. For instance, a lot of the mechs and vehicles that use Arrow IV are not on the list of available units.
I haven’t found any artillery vehicles available. You can choose Aerospace fighters but be warned, you will need a lot of map space. Overall, there are tons of vehicle options, including: VTOLS, Support Vehicles, Conventional infantry, Aerospace Fighters, Battle Armor, Tanks and Mechs.
Things I learned about Battletech from MegaMek.
Playing an equal BV battle puts the clans at a disadvantage to the Inner Sphere. Being outnumbered all the time is something you have to get used to if you are playing a clan force versus an inner sphere force. But a Clan versus Clan battle is equally matched.
Series by Merick N.H Ulrik
I recently played a scenario against the clans with Inner Sphere forces. Granted, the clans benefit from better gunnery and piloting skill roles, but that made little difference in the end. I pounded them into dust when I brought three heavy mechs and one well-equipped medium and an elite light mech against two heavy mechs and one light mech and one Elemental point of Battle Armor. But I brought less BV than the Clans brought but I outnumbered them 2 to 1.
Some Glitches in the Game.
- No Swarming or Leg Attacks. Please, someone correct me if I am wrong, but I have found that Mega Mek does not allow Anti-Mech attacks that are essential elements of Battle Armor or Conventional infantry against Mechs or Meks. There is a button for Swarm Attacks, but I’ve never gotten to see it work. There is no Leg Attack option.
- Infantry, including Battle Armor, can’t use their ability to fire into their own hex with a -2 bonus to hit modifier. They can’t even fire in their own hex at all. For mechs, it’s the rule they cannot fire into their own hex, but the rule for infantry is clearly different. These glitches in using infantry make choosing them less advantageous.
- Only works on PC. So far what I can tell is this game does not work on Apple computers.
Conclusion about MegaMek.
While I will always prefer rolling physical dice and the human interaction of playing Battletech in the tabletop form, Mega Mek provides a decent secondary platform for playing the game. And sometimes it’s the only available option when you can’t find an immediate game nearby.
