It’s also a well laid out, full color rule book with a mixture of art and photos of painted minis, something that feels good for setting the mood of the game. Three of the previous edition's four scenarios ("Final Exam", "Trial by Fire", and "Divide and Conquer") were included in the rulebook, with small changes; most importantly, the original (now Unseen) 'Mechs in these scenarios were exchanged for different 'Mechs from BT4's new lineup. A small molded number is given on the underside of the base either near the front or back rim (with bottom of the text being oriented towards the model's front side). Also available is this product, providing counters and a map supporting the BattleForce, Strategic BattleForce and Inner Sphere at War rulesets, as found in Interstellar Operations: BattleForce.

The only let-down is that they’re PVC rather than the HIPS you’d get with a GW model, and have softer details and bigger mold lines. Delayed in production so that it actually came out 26 years after the BattleTech, 2nd Edition boxed set, this anniversary edition included a number of changes.

Expanding out from this my first purchase would be the Alpha Strike Commanders Edition rulebook (or PDF). Essentially a re-release of the Anniversary Edition boxed set with largely identical content, the most important changes in this box over the previous one were the new cover, and better quality plastic miniatures using improved sculpts. These PDFs have everything you need to dive into the various ways in which you can enjoy the BattleTech universe at your gaming table.

It covers what the universe is, who the major factions are, and what they’re doing at this point in the timeline.These towering machine of destruction are led into battle by experienced MechWarriors that could either be soldier-of-fortune or part of one of the noble Great Houses fighting for supremacy. miniatures sprue with 8 'Mechs on it, 58 paper standees, record sheets, two all-new exclusive mapsheets ("Countryside" and "Mine") and an 80-page rulebook including rules for Clan technology and a mini-campaign of five scenarios about the Clan Jade Falcon invasion of Barcelona. The vehicle and infantry rules from Battledroids were dropped, but the construction rules were kept with some adjustments. Broadly speaking, these are the same rules that you’ll find in the full rulebook, just removing extraneous rules about working with non-mech unit types and special rules not found on the included mechs. Second, some of the 'Mechs from the older line were actually assembled from multiple parts but were remade to be molded as a single part in the new line.

Keith, a foldout map with bullet points explaining the BattleTech universe during the Succession Wars era, and two six-sided dice.Beyond these free record sheets, players will find the full line of print record sheets that include a selection of units from a given Technical Readout, as well as PDF-only Unabridged record sheets with all the various units and variants. As an original German publication that was never translated into English, the BattleTech Starterset as such does not meet the criteria for canon. In 2022, BattleTech Beginner Box, Second Edition was released with a Vindicator replacing the Wolverine. By this time the "Classic" part had been dropped from the name again and it had reverted to simply "BattleTech". It would definitely be more expensive, and I get that Catalyst doesn’t have the budget of GW to do HIPS.