Background: How it came to be

Battletech is a rich and deep universe of storytelling.  Most of us who found it in our youth came for the big stompy robots, but we stayed for the storytelling and the complexity of the game play.  I found Battletech in Middle School - so many years ago - when some friends had been playing the Mechwarrior video game and branched out to the tabletop miniature version.  My brother and I dove into it, playing the 1996 box set version of the starter rules. 

Zeus vs a Jaegermech  Note the infantry
in the mid-ground.  Combined arms was 
a thing from the startin Batteltech.




















At the time I got into it the friends who had started playing before me and my brother were all clanners - a common thing in the era of mid 90's BT when everyone was fascinated with the all-powerful clans.  The clans were interesting, but to be honest I never found them that cool.  Who wants to be the guy coming in with all the advantage?  Where is the fun in that.  About this time I was also playing 'Harpoon'; a old school naval simulator where you got to fight the cold war battles that never were at epic scale and with granular detail.  I was immediately drawn to the expansive inner sphere powers.  Which was all the better for my friends who insisted that all games we played had two rules:  IS players only played with 3025 tech (I would change that rule eventually as I got more familiar with the universe... because Arrow IV missiles and TAG for the win) and you could only play the miniatures you had on hand and were painted.
The original artwork from the box set - Atlas for the win


My brother and I adopted Inner Sphere powers - and since most of our games were against each other we choose factions we could fight at home as well as against our clan friends.  One of the group loved the Smoke Jaguars (obviously a sociopath right?) and so I took up the Draconis Combine.  My brother choose House Davion and the Federated Suns - and eventually the FedCom as we moved the storyline forward.  I have always loved the DC, in all its xenophobic atrocity loving glory.  Despite having rings of old school anti-Japanese sentiments held over from stereotypes of WWII imperial japan it is still a ton of fun to play such a unique society in a game as rich as the BT universe.
The original cardboard mechs - all 3025 and all have a special place in my 'Mech loving heart.

That's not to say you will only see Kurita mechs and designs on this blog.  I intend to paint something inspired by every book published in the canon, going deep into the lore to find unique examples of storyline to explore through miniatures.  While my personal preference is for everything up through Tukayyid (the most expansive and deepest part of the BT universe in my opinion) I will be going through all elements of the universe.  Including you clanners our there.

I don't play the game much anymore, but who knows.  Maybe I will pit some cannon 3025 tech units against the clans to see just how much of an advantage they really have in combined arms warfare against the IS.  I have long argued that in campaign rules the IS defeats the clans everytime - logistics wins wars - but maybe we will find out one day.

So come back and check out the work I do - you will see samples of every mech, infantry type, aerospace fighter, warships, dropships, and vehicles drawn from the lore to give me a reason to paint little war machines in my free time.

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