BattleTech and MechWarrior: Running a Mercenary Company for Fun and Profit
Let's talk about putting some legs on tanks...
I’ve decided to kick things off for this new Substack thingamagig by talking about a couple of games that likely flew under most peoples’ radars back when they came out. That’s right, I’m here to talk about BattleTech (2018), and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries (2019). I’m here to tell you why these games are interesting enough to warrant at least a look, and more importantly, I’m going to explain why they’re worth your time and money. For the purposes of this post, I’ll be talking about these games’ PC versions. With all that out of the way, let’s get started.
When it comes to sci-fi settings used for gaming, BattleTech is definitely one of the older ones out there. It started its life as a tabletop war game back in 1984; just 3 years before Warhammer 40,000 would hit the scene and become the de facto sci-fi tabletop war game. To that end, it actually has a surprising number of things in common with Warhammer 40k: they’re both largely confined to the Milky Way galaxy, and they both involve lots of wars that often make use of gigantic machinery. That’s where the similarities largely end, however.
Unlike Warhammer 40k, BattleTech, as a setting, prides itself on explaining everything by using as much science and politics as it possibly can. The mechs from BattleTech, for instance, have an insane amount of details poured into them, right from how they’re powered by nuclear fusion reactors, down to how weight affects their combat capabilities. The BattleTech setting even goes as far as showing us how humanity would commoditise inter-planetary communications in the future.
2018’s BattleTech is a clever take on the setting. The gameplay is incredibly familiar to those who’ve dabbled in games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but for those that don’t know, here’s what’s up: BattleTech is split into two game modes: management and tactical war game. The management side of things involves running your mercenary outfit in the year 3025. You can follow the story or set up a lot of side hustles to make some extra cash. You can then use that cash to hire and train pilots, buy bigger mechs, and outfit those mechs with bigger and better weaponry. All of this leads to the other side of the game: the tactical war game.
Played out over turn-based battles taken from the tabletop war game and modified, BattleTech’s main pull is are the battles. The weight of the mechs on the battlefield decides the order of play, with lighter mechs like Cicadas and Spiders being able to move and attack before the heavier assault mechs like an Atlas. Mechs typically get two action points: one to use for movement and the other to use for attacks. What sets BattleTech apart from something like XCOM, however, is how much of the management aspect of the game bleeds into the combat.
Not only do you have to make sure you have enough missiles to make use of your long-range missile salvos, you also have to make sure that your constant use of short-range laser weaponry doesn’t start overheating your mech. Mechs take damage in a rather realistic manner; a single—often lucky—shot to the head instantly disables a mech since its pilot is dead, while a slow and steady assault on a mech’s legs will eventually make it topple, making it easy prey for another nearby mech’s heavy stomping attacks.
The damage modelling ends up being an absolute blast to play with, and there’s a constant tug-of-war between risks and rewards. Sure, you might nail that headshot and potentially be able to salvage a free mech out of this fight, but you might miss, and then that mech can just destroy your mech’s right arm, leading you to lose your incredibly expensive Gauss Rifle.
It’s these smaller stories that come together to tell the bigger story of your mercenary crew. I’ve personally found this to be one of the biggest strengths of the genre: as good (or boring) as the main story might be, they can seldom match up to the intrinsic drama created by a player fiddling around with systems while playing a dangerous game of chicken against giant robots.
Where BattleTech gives you a more macro look at the action, however, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries gives you a more “boots-on-the-ground” experience. Released in 2019, MechWarrior 5 uses the same 3025 setting as BattleTech, but rather than being yet another strategy war game, it’s an action game. MechWarrior 5 puts players in the cockpit of these hulking machines of war and let you cause—and suffer—all the destruction that BattleTech would otherwise merely imply.
All of BattleTech’s trappings exist in MechWarrior 5 when it comes to macro and micromanagement, but when it comes to minute-to-minute gameplay, the two games couldn’t be further apart. MechWarrior 5 isn’t a particularly fast-paced shooter (unless you’re piloting a light mech), and the attempted simulation aspects give it a feeling more akin to a tactical shooter in the vein of something like SWAT 4—just on a much larger scale. You can still shoot enemy pilots out of their cockpits, and you can still loose your right arm and expensive Gauss Rifle, but the difference is that it all comes down to your own skill at being able to aim and shoot at things while under fire from various tanks, turrets, and of course, enemy mechs.
I originally bought both games for completely different reasons: BattleTech looked like a real cool take on the XCOM formula, and MechWarrior 5 was on sale and just looked like a decent-enough co-op game to play with friends. What ultimately kept be playing both of these games are the small, personal stories that came about from both. Stories of my own mercenary company, how it became one of the most important group of mech pilots in the galaxy, and how the way there was paved with loads of ups, downs, and events so insane that they feel ripped right out of an absurdist comedy.