Mechwarrior: Dark Age to 15mm Mecha

[Grimmnar]

So for weeks now I been cleaning out my hoarded gaming collection in tye garage. I am in 74 totes of 78, splitting into keep and sell piles. Anyway amongst other things I am finding a plethora of Mechwarrior: DA minis anyway M:DA is geared to the 10-12mm scale with sizes all over the place. I was thinking though some of the minis can pass in 15mm scale mecha/robots/vehicles/battle Armor/SPG's and so on.
So I am just curious, anyone thought the same? Got anything to show? Would love to see what the masses have already come up with? So whatcha got?

Grimm

[Maniac]

I briefly looked at this when building 15mm sci-fi groups for FFoL: Galactic Heroes.  I'll see if I can post a pic comparing a DA mech vs a 15mm mech vs 15mm infantry vs 10mm infantry.

At the time I remember thinking the cockpits would all look too small for 15mm, but some pieces "might" work.

[eilif]

There aren't as many good-for-15mm figs as you would expect.

Our club acquired buckets of these back when they were cheap. We divided them up by faction and just decided to stick with the 10mm scale that Mechwarrior Dark Age is (albeit with some variation) and game in that scale. We've used them with a bunch of rules, mostly Alpha Strike and Mech Attack.

If you don't like Alpha Strike or Battletech, 10mm is being used by CAV, Dropship Commander and the upcoming Warpath game.

Among other things, many of our uses for these figs can be seen here:
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/?s=Mechwarrior+

As Mentioned, Mech Attack is a favorite of mine.
https://www.wargamevault.com/m/product/82663
Really great game that is very well suited for MW minis.  Battletech feel and similar size, but plays allot faster.

[Maniac]

Here is a Battlemaster, 15mm Mecha Front Mini, Centurion, Savagery, and 15mm ODST



The Battlemaster could work but would be very cramped, The Centurion is much to small.  The Ravager could act as a robot but not BA.

[Daeothar]

Well over 10 years ago now, I started a 15mm Battletech project, using a whole range of model kits of the original mecha FASA licenced the images of for Battletech. They have since become known as the unseen and have been re-imagined, but because of me using model kits, those were the ones I went with.

The kicker was though, that they were of course not in the right scale for my purposes. So I sourced model kits from Japan through a model broker (yes; that apparently is a thing) and I got some very interesting kits that were never released outside of Japan.

I still had to resize a lot of them, because (especially for this project) I've always been a real stickler for scale. Which is especially ironic, as the source material is notoriously inconsistent when it comes to scale

So I took as my starting point 1/100 Macross kits, as those would provide me with a consistent scale for at least 4 of the mechs (Warhammer, Rifleman, Archer and Longbow). The rest, I would convert around that, taking into consideration the given mass and height from several sources (FASA technical readouts, game resources, Classic Battletech novels and common sense).

All of this meant that I had to 'biggerize' several kits to fit within the approximate 1/100 scale I was adhering to.

As mentioned, I collected data on mechs and model kits, and compiled this info into an XLS-file for easy reference. This is an extract of that info:



And here's a picture of the first two mechs I finished: a Warhammer (the baseline) and a Wasp, which was of course originally a Macros/Robotech Valkyrie, and that model kit was in 1/170 scale, which works out relatively well, as the Warhammer is a 70 ton mech, and the Wasp a 20 ton one.



The valkyrie/Wasp was posed rigidly standing straight, so I slightly reposed it into a patroling stance. The hands are from a Gashapon figure in roughly the same scale, as those worked better with the pose.



Then I started biggerization on a 1/170 Wolverine (Dougram Blockhead). This is a 55 ton mech, so needed to become taller (and wider) by at least 10mm. So I built components of the kit and then cut them in half and added plasticard spacers, which I then filed and sanded back into the shapes. By doing this in three dimensions, I effectively enlarged all components. This is a time consuming and labourious task, but one I strangely enjoy tremendously.







Of course, the advent of 3D-printing completely overtook the project, and doing things this way is now more of a nostalgic endeavour than a time-effective method, but I'll stick to it for at least the mechs I started and/or have kits for.

And finally, I have some pictures of the Locust I've been scratchbuilding, using plasticard, brass tubing and mostly 40K bits. The Locust is my favourite light mech, and as such I will (eventually) build two of them. I didn't have to, but here too, I've stuck to the unseen aesthetics, modeling them after the Crusher Joe Ostall mech:





Like I said, this project has been on the backburner for well over a decade, and probably will be for some time. I will very likely add 3D prints to the line-up too though; we have the technology!

My goal is to eventually have at least two full lances worth of mechs (but preferably two opposing forces of a heavy and a scout lance each), and then add some infantry, tanks and even air assets to the mix. But what rules to use, I've not contemplated just yet. Coincidentally I discussed this very subject with The Voivod just last week, and we're in agreement that the rules will very, very likely not be the original Battletech ones, as they are way too slow, cumbersome and complicated for a light game.

What we do want though, is a set of rules that does include heat-management, damage to sections of the mechs and ammo-management, but is streamlined enough to be easy to grasp and fast enough to play through an engagement in one evening. But I've not even looked at this side of the project just yet...

+++EDIT+++ So enthused to dredge up my own BT project that I totally forgot to answer the original question   I've found the BT clicky minis to be too small to use as Battletech mechs in 1/100 (15mm). But obviously a lot of designs could be used in 15mm as not-BT mechs or even suits. There's a lot of cool designs in there after all.

[Maniac]

Coincidentally I discussed this very subject with The Voivod just last week, and we're in agreement that the rules will very, very likely not be the original Battletech ones, as they are way too slow, cumbersome and complicated for a light game.

What we do want though, is a set of rules that does include heat-management, damage to sections of the mechs and ammo-management, but is streamlined enough to be easy to grasp and fast enough to play through an engagement in one evening. But I've not even looked at this side of the project just yet...

+++EDIT+++ So enthused to dredge up my own BT project that I totally forgot to answer the original question   I've found the BT clicky minis to be too small to use as Battletech mechs in 1/100 (15mm). But obviously a lot of designs could be used in 15mm as not-BT mechs or even suits. There's a lot of cool designs in there after all.

Try Alpha Strike, it doesn't need the reams of special rules (we don't use most of them), but still let's you plunk down mechs, tanks, infantry, vtol, and aerospace  for a great game.  Prior to stumbling across it, I had been converting up FFoL: Starfighters, and that played well enough.

That said for a quick, fast paced game, Alpha Strike is great.  You can get Company+ sized forces down on the table and the game completed in a few hours no problem.  It is quick and brutal.

[Daeothar]

Cheers

I own Alpha Strike, but as far as I recall, it does not provide the crucial heat-management, as it's more geared towards larger unit battles.

Which is great for its intended purpose, but as you can tell, I'm working at a larger scale, with smaller units. So two lances a side at the max, with maybe some inf/cav support. And for those few units, I want to still have to contend with heat, ammo and localized hits.

[Mesh]

I would also suggest Battletech Override, its a fanmade mod by Death from Above Wargaming. It does not have all the aspects like ammo management but heat is more granular than in AS and it does have slightly simplified hit zones and critical hit tables. If you are fast you can play a game of about 2 lances on an evening, especially if you don't play deathmatch but scenarios/missions. It is the favorite way  for my club to play Battletech (and we have a mix of vets like me and newbies).

Rules are for free (you do need the BT rules though as in AS, CBT and ideally BT RPG), however for being able to convert anything of the newer stuff you do need to pay for the patreon.
https://dfawargaming.com/downloads

[Daeothar]

Nice 

[Maniac]

Cheers

I own Alpha Strike, but as far as I recall, it does not provide the crucial heat-management, as it's more geared towards larger unit battles.

Which is great for its intended purpose, but as you can tell, I'm working at a larger scale, with smaller units. So two lances a side at the max, with maybe some inf/cav support. And for those few units, I want to still have to contend with heat, ammo and localized hits.

It does have heat, it is just very simplistic (mechs have an overheat value which they can push to add to damage, and at the 4th heat taken it shuts down)

[eilif]

Cheers

I own Alpha Strike, but as far as I recall, it does not provide the crucial heat-management, as it's more geared towards larger unit battles.

Which is great for its intended purpose, but as you can tell, I'm working at a larger scale, with smaller units. So two lances a side at the max, with maybe some inf/cav support. And for those few units, I want to still have to contend with heat, ammo and localized hits.

You are correct. Alpha Strike is really too abstract for Lance vs Lance battles. I do love it though for games of 10+ units per side.

Your 15mm work looks fantastic.

We may have had this discussion a while back, but you may want to look at Mech Attach as a rules source, or at least as a starting point.  Heat and damage may be slightly more abstracted than you're thinking, but they are present and the damage grid does allot for the destruction of specific weapons and systems.
https://www.wargamevault.com/m/product/82663

I've been doing Mech gaming in 28mm for over a decade. Similarly to you I used allot of Macross kits, but also toys and Wargames models.  I didn't keep everything exactly to Battletech sizes and units, but enough of my units are right that I could credibly put on a lance vs Lance battle in the Battletech universe with infantry and vehicles as well.

https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/?s=Mech+Attack

[Daeothar]

Cheers eilif 

And yes; the topic of 15mm Battletech pops up every couple of years, which makes me dig my project out and contemplate working on it again. But there's so much shiny to contend with, more often than not I post what I have, have some good discussions and then let it fade back into the background till the next time

I've looked over your Chicago pictures many times; so much mech goodness in there. It's a really awesome project and must be a blast to play!

Mech Attack is indeed on my radar as the rules set to eventually try. Probably at your prompting too

Some day...