Help needed with Heavy Gear rules

[Maxx Von Morton]

Hi everybody!

With some gaming pals I would like to try some Heavy Gear game. We painted the mechs, we have some decent scenery but... we are a little bit confused about the rules .
First we get the HG Blitz online rulebook, that turned out to be quite a complex ruleset. Then we had the Core manual, that look lighter, but the rules seem to be pretty different from the previous ... Then we went for the Locked&Loaded manual, that looks good, but missing the Caprice army list, and also has some reference cards, useful but different from the Core manual reference cards ...

Now we really don't what to do. So I'm asking the community help:

Does anyone play HG? Which ruleset do you use? Why there are so many and different ruleset?


Thank you!


Maxx

edit: pics added 

[Evil Dave]

Great looking models.

I'm no HG expert, but I believe the Blitz rules game out in 2006 and were refined in 2008 with Locked and Loaded. I don't know if "refined" constituted a major overhaul or just some clean-up. They stayed like that until 2015 when the War for Terra Nova KS launched, with another refined/updated version.

It has been 12 years since the first version of Blitz came out, two new editions in that time seems pretty normal to me. The bigger companies go through editions at a much quicker rate. Gotta keep changing things to sell new books.

[Maxx Von Morton]

Oh!
Thank you Evil Dave!
This make more sense... so there are different rules developed in time.
So maybe the Core manual is the newest rule version.... then we shall go for it.

It has been 12 years since the first version of Blitz came out, two new editions in that time seems pretty normal to me. The bigger companies go through editions at a much quicker rate. Gotta keep changing things to sell new books.

Sure! I just didn't find a year tag on the rules, so I thought there were more actual version of the same game. I like new rules editions, as soon as the aim is to fix/update the rules 

[Calnala]

Are you using the Living Rulebook?  They are working on a new edition..(Unless they decided to stick with the Living Rulebook).   You can get the free pdf from Drive Thru RPG at: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144759/Heavy-Gear-Blitz-Tabletop-Wargaming--Living-Rulebook?src=hottest_filtered&filters=0_2140_10108_0_0

[Maxx Von Morton]

Good to know, Calnala! Thank you!

We also had some problems to find skill values (for ex, att, def, electonic warfare or leadership) in the Core manual. Even in the reference cards these values are blank 

Maybe the living rulebook can resolve all our troubles?

[BaronVonJ]

I gave up on HG long time ago. Figs are great (if expensive) but the rules are waaaaay too complicated for me and my group. Make your own. I did.
Good Luck!

[Evil Dave]

If you're after something simpler I was a fan of this one:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/79303/Armor-Grid-Mech-Attack

[BaronVonJ]

Yep, Evil Dave, Armor Grid is a blast! I've been using my upcoming Galactic Heroes rules:
http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2018/05/galactic-heroes-battle-suit-alpha.html

[Maxx Von Morton]

Thank you for the suggestion, Evil Dave!

Those Armor Grid Mech rules look interesting... maybe we'll give a try, if Heavy gear turns out to be too complex 

And I'll check your blog too, BaronVonJ, for some inspiration 

[YPU]

Bit late to the topic, but I have been diving pretty deep into heavy gear the past 6 months or so. If you have any questions remaining definetly let me know!

In the meantime let me muddy the waters a bit. The living rule book of Heavy Gear Blitz is indeed the newest edition, its quite different from the previous regular heavy gear blitz (and lock and loaded update) The book is free which is nice, but the current state is frankly terrible. There are multiple errata pages and play test updates along with a rollback on some of those after hefty negative commentary on some changes.
As a result of this a few of the most active forum members on the dream pod 9 forum have started their own version, partially aimed at cutting out redundant and contrived rules, but mostly to simplify and clean up some truly badly worded rules. (by exact wording, you can't see a enemy unless he is in cover)

You can find these rules here: https://duckbrothers.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/heavy-gear-blitz-the-brigand-rules-v1/

Now this is pretty new project so no clue to the longevity of it, but the same can be said for the current living rulebook.