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Download - Mega Miniatures

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BASICS<br />

Classic BattleTech <strong>Miniatures</strong><br />

Rules is an 80-page soft cover<br />

book published by WizKids.<br />

The cover and inside of the<br />

book are full colors. This<br />

volume provides rules for<br />

playing Classic BattleTech,<br />

MechWarrior: Dark Age, the<br />

large scale BattleTech<br />

miniatures made by Armorcast.<br />

on non-hex table top terrain.<br />

The cover price is $19.99.<br />

BETWEEN THE COVERS<br />

Classic BattleTech Miniature<br />

Rules starts off with a<br />

BattleTech short story. After<br />

this is the first of many pages<br />

of well painted miniatures on a gaming table. The rulebook is liberally<br />

illustrated with these pictures.<br />

The first part of the book deals with the rules for Classic Battletech. It fist<br />

covers the basics of terrain and provides a quick survey of the various general<br />

types of terrain – water, hills, trees, and such. After this, the rules for converting<br />

from the hex-based game to the tape measure system are provided. These rules<br />

include converting hex area to circular areas, movement, stacking, piloting, and<br />

combat. The next thirteen pages consist of pictures of mechs and vehicles from<br />

the various powers and clans.<br />

The next part of the book deals with the conversion of the miniature rules for<br />

use with the large scale BattleMechs. These rules are based on those for Classic<br />

BattleTech given in the first part.<br />

Between the Large-Scale miniature rules and the MechWarrior: Dark Age<br />

rules is another short story, more mech pictures of both Classic BattleTech and<br />

Dark Age miniatures, and an introduction to the MechWarrior Dark Age<br />

background. The miniature rules for Dark Age add firing arc templates and<br />

rules for using them to the rules given for Classic BattleTech miniatures. Then<br />

follows a large section covering Industrial Mechs.<br />

Now that all the basic rules for miniatures have been presented, the next section<br />

gives rules for massive battles. These rules are for games that are larger than<br />

lance on lance. A section follows this on assembling and painting miniatures –<br />

the Classic BattleTech, Large Scale, and Dark Age ones.<br />

The rest of the volume consists of eight pages of advertisements for miniatures,<br />

terrain, and other products for the various flavors of BattleTech.<br />

VALUE<br />

First off, this is a well-made book. The printing and binding is top notch. The<br />

volume also includes all the necessary rules for playing on a non-hex gaming<br />

table. This book is essential for those wanting to play on such a table. For<br />

novice players, the painting guide and color pictures provide a good reference.<br />

That being said, much of this book that has no direct bearing on open-table<br />

miniatures. I would have preferred a smaller volume with out the short stories<br />

and advertisements. I found it interesting that GeoHex was still mentioned,<br />

given that that company closed its doors on February 14 of this year – and has<br />

been taken over by Monday Knight Productions.<br />

In the end, this is a good volume. The conversion rules are well done and the<br />

painting guide is a good introduction. If you’re a BattleTech player who already<br />

has a stash of table terrain without hexes, then you should strongly consider<br />

purchasing this volume.<br />

52<br />

BASICS<br />

The Junkers Force Book for<br />

Void is a 48-page perfect-bound<br />

book in full color (inside and<br />

out), printed on A4 size paper,<br />

with a retail cost of $x.xx USD.<br />

INSIDE<br />

A little bit less than the book is<br />

devoted to the background of<br />

the Junker army. It’s a fairly<br />

quick, but informative, read<br />

with lots of pictures sprinkled<br />

throughout. Some of the<br />

artwork has is a mixture of<br />

hand-drawn and computer<br />

generated and it actually works<br />

pretty well. The computer<br />

generated parts are huge ranks<br />

of Junker troops in massed formations and they do look like blocks of<br />

identical, and basically nameless, fodder ready to charge down the enemy’s<br />

guns.<br />

The Junker army is based around the thought that if I get as many of my guys as<br />

close to you as quickly as possible and make your guys dead I will win the<br />

game. Ok, I can buy that. This is accomplished with lots of very cheap, and<br />

highly expendable, troops which are supported by specialty units that will<br />

probably see a lot of 'cleaning-up' action once the inevitable ‘wall-of-flesh’ hits<br />

the enemy line.<br />

Convict Legionnaires and Suicide Bombers will likely make up a lot of your<br />

Junker army and they are really looked at, by the Junkers and their enemies, sort<br />

of like Doritos chips. You know, “crunch all you want, we’ll make more”, well<br />

in this case it’s more like, “kill all you want, we’ll just throw more at you”.<br />

These are fine and will help to achieve your objective of closing with the enemy,<br />

but the specialty units are the ones that will really catch your eye. There are<br />

three motorized units in the Junker army; Suicide Bikers (similar to the Suicide<br />

Bombers, but they ride bikes that are not entirely reliable), Dune Raiders (units<br />

of armed ATV’s) and finally Desert Marauders (Jeeps that come in four<br />

variations that are my personal favorite unit in the army and will bring a smile to<br />

the face of anyone that ever watched Rat Patrol on television as a kid,<br />

outstanding stuff!).<br />

The army also boasts Sandrunners (giant lizard riders), other hand-to-hand<br />

specialty squads, power armor-ish troops, some artillery and characters, but the<br />

main focus of the army seems very centered around an all-out sledgehammer<br />

assault. You could go against this and create a fast attack mechanized force that<br />

would be a frightful sight to behold if you’re on the receiving end of things.<br />

VALUE<br />

The cost of the Junkers army book, in fact all of the VOID army books, makes it<br />

very conducive to picking it up and starting to put together an army. There are<br />

some wickedly cool motorized units in the Junker army that would certainly<br />

bend my ear in their direction.<br />

The book is very well put together and should hold together very well. The<br />

artwork is really good and everything was easy to read and understand. The<br />

book was very well put together and will hold up nicely even under less than<br />

tender care.<br />

Bottom line is that if you’re a Junker player then this is already on your ‘to<br />

purchase’ list. It’s inexpensive enough for most VOID players to pick up just to<br />

have in-depth knowledge of their opponent’s forces and if you’re not a VOID<br />

player flipping through it could give you some interest in the game.

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