Back in '88 I started getting into a game called Battletech, which is now called "Classic Battletech". It's a game of 31st century combat where the weapon of choice is a 30ft tall "robot". however, they are driven like a walking armored tank. there are no "transformers" here. it's a game based off of the old "Robotech" franchise by Harmony Gold. Plus with the expansion of the universe in this game, Humans have encountered no aliens. it's all human...
Battletech, the board game is fun, run on a hex grid system. It's a long game to play since it uses a "character sheet" for each mech, and you tick off each shot from the armor you have. it's time consuming, but still very fun. AND yes, it's better with miniatures. I started getting some minis for the game to play with. I wound up in '90 going into the state tournaments for the game. Winner would get the chance at world finals at Gencon. I went with a good friend of mine that also played, Hank Holloway. We both played the same team in the tournament. A little bit of luck was also needed for the game, and my luck ran out eventually. I placed 7th overall in the tournament, which is pretty good considering. My friend got a couple of easy matches and placed 2nd. All in the luck of the draw.
Many years later, a company called Wizkids came out with a clix game called Mechwarrior. Based off the franchise, they created a new board game. They jumped the universe many years, and included many odd things. They revitalized the genre with the game, but also destroyed it. the game died when 2.0 came out, about 5 years later. The market saturated, and people had tons of these things. I still have a lot of my minis left from the game. I keep them because they are still rather cool... if you ignore the stylistic mechs they came out with that were rather dumb, the pieces that really didn't fit the universe right, breaking the 100 ton rule, etc. etc.
Bitter? Nah. I just go watch the old cartoon and dream of the day when Hollywood makes a true Battletech movie...
