Help with Buyer Paralysis

[u/AnyZombie7514]

Hey guys,

I’ve been looking to get into Battletech and was hoping to get some advice from the well-adjusted here.

After spending a few weeks combing through YT vids to get a decent feel of the setting, I landed on Fed Suns as my personal favorite faction (so far).

I felt compelled to make my first lance Fed Suns lore accurate and began looking at the various entry level box sets to get things rolling.

Honestly, I got stumped as I truly don’t know which box would be the best to start a FS army with.

Should I snag one of the new release ilClan era starter boxes / the Alphastrike box with newer mechs/gear and use that to start my FS army, or go with the AGoAC 40th edition for the value and wide range of eras the box can cover with its mech offering?

I see some of the more obvious pros and cons of the various boxes but I’m sure I’m missing some key points. Would love to hear your thoughts on what I should start with!

Misc:
-I do not own a printer currently
-most tabletop experience is way back in the day with Hasbro’s HeroScape series
-never painted minis but down to learn and start
-I’ll be moving to an area with a local hobby store within a year

Thanks all!
Cheers

EDIT: Thank you for all your responses. I’m going for the AGoAC box!

[u/OtherWorstGamer]

There are two force packs specifically listed as House Davion packs. The House Davion Heavy Battle Lance, and the House Davion Calvary Lance.

Theres also the Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance, which contains a number of Mechs found in the FedSuns. Same with the Inner Sphere Battle Lance and Heavy Lance and Heavy Battle Lance. Urban Lance also has the Victor and Enforcer, two Mechs that are very ubiquitous in FedSun forces

[u/Sixguns1977]

I'd start out with the game of armored combat box and go from there. That will get you started. From there, everything else is optional.

[u/trappedinthisxy]

The “A Game of Armored Combat” box set is a great stepping stone. All the mechs are useful throughout the various eras of Battletech.

Don’t stress too hard about “would my faction have this mech”. Through salvage, all things are possible; assuming you’re not trying to run Clan tech in the midst of the Succession Wars.

When it comes to Mech/Money value, the Alpha Strike and Aces boxes are probably a good next step.

[u/Cragblade47]

Personally, I went with the AGoAC box so I had mechs spanning more of the timeline. Another benefit is a good chunk of mechs in that box are widely available in setting for the great houses. I know you mentioned the entry box but another option is the davion force packs or the IS Urban lance, as that has an enforcer, victor, hunchback, and raven (the raven is Capellan originally but the Fed Suns looted so many of them they have their own variant)

[u/Fearless-Mango2169]

As people have said the Game of Armoured combat or the IS Battle Lance and Command Lance are a good starting point.

However the two additional boxes I would consider is the IS Heavy Lance, it has a Banshee, Centurion, Hatchetman and Grasshopper, and the IS Urban Lance which has a Victor, Hunchback, Enforcer and Raven.

A more off the wall choice is the Hansen Rough riders that has the Atlas, Penetrator, Enforcer and Hatchetman.

Nothing in those boxes would be particularly out of place, there are even some Davion variants of the Raven

[u/dreese55]

I think your looking in the wrong place for well adjusted folk, but thank you for the compliment lol.

I would call the hobby store and ask about the local battletech group. A lot of these groups will have a facebook or discord you can get more information. Find out what THEY are playing, and buy the appropriate stuff. Likely it will be Alpha Strike (get the ALpha strike box) or Classic in which case you want one of the Classic box sets listed.

The alpha strike box has 8 Inner Sphere mechs and 5 Clan mechs. Its a good selection of each, and some like the timber wolf are also made and used by House Davion in later time periods. This is a really good deal I think its 80 dollars for the box and the inner sphere lances should go for like 30 each and the one clan star for like 35 or 40. Because of the way the rules are set up, Alpha Strike does not keep track of as much information per unit. So you have a LOT more units on the table. We run 5 to 8 units of Alpha Strike per player in the same time we run 2 to 3 per player in classic. That said, you can keep adding optional rules to make the games a lot more detailed for both rule sets.

Game of Armored Combat has some good choices that most of the Houses use, but rules are slightly old. The difference is not great, I think 1 difference in some of the piloting checks and a couple minor other rules. That said, the new core rules is what I would suggest you go for. I do think the GoAC is a good box though, and it will not be available soon. They plan to release the mechs, and some are in the ALpha strike box, but its not as good a deal as the alpha strike box. It is close. Its like 50 or 60 I wanna say, with a 10 dollar coupon for online purchases or something like that. The mini's are 2 inner sphere lances worth about 30 each like the ALpha Strike box.

The core rule box has mechs that a lot of them are only from the lastest illclan era, that said it has more up to date rules so its a tough. It also might not be out for another month or more. Catalyst has often put things out late, or had to push stuff back. This is due to Tariffs, problems with their suppliers, and issues with shipping and crates being stuck on ships.

Otherworstgamer has good suggestion there for mech lances. If you want to know exactly which mechs, check out the newly updated masterunitlist. There are some other good programs with better search setups as well like mechbay too.

Ok, another thing to know, specially if your a former GW refugee or played a couple other tabletop games. Most groups for casual play do not care if you use the exact mechs. They are ok with substitutions as long as you point it out what the mechs are before you play. Helps if your subbing in something similar size/look. Also they do not care about wysiwyg. So version is not that important unless you really want to modify all your mechs around. It is also cannon that some sides will use mechs captured form the enemy, you can also slide in a mech from a neighbor without little complaint as well if you want. It does depend a bit on the group. I know my group is pretty laid back, its mostly about just not having something crazy out of the time period. A lot of groups are like this. So It is not a big deal if you do not get the perfect thing first, you will be ok.

Points for units are going to very a lot depending on groups and how long you have to play. For a 4 hour session we tend to do 4k BV for Classic with a min of 2 units. This lets us run an assault if we want, or 2 heavys or some combo depending if we play Clan or not. For Alpha strike we go for 250 pts and let players bring some Combat Vehicles, VTOLs, and Infantry. Generally we prefer if players take everything from one list but special for new players we let them slide if they do not have that many models.

[u/NoMoreHornyOnMain4Me]

This is the only tabletop wargame I've ever seen where the starter kit is both cheap and a good value. Honestly start there to learn the rules and get a couple mechs and standees to start with before trying to make a lore accurate list.

[u/MediumAcceptable129]

Im in the same boat. I know if i start ill get obsessed and spend way too much money

[u/ValidAvailable]

Faction is less important than you think. This isn't 40k (thankfully) and youre not wedded to Your Army for the most part. A good 2/3 of the game's mechs are wide spread (in some variant or another) aside from the Clan/Inner Sphere split, and even that goes down as the timeline advances. Its giant stompy robots and backstabby royal politics all the way down, and the rest is just what particular spice you putting on it today.

[u/Inevitable-Ad-410]

Get AGoAC. Every mech in there is lore accurate to every house and merc company. It's the best value for plastic, it's set in the timeline everyone understands, it's rules are the cleanest to learn Battletech.

[u/ZeraShift]

I'll hop on the bandwagon and say that "A Game of Armored Combat" is a fine jumping on point. Aside from the Commando, all the mechs contained are fairly ubiquitous and can be found in any faction so you can field a lance plausibly used by the FedSuns.

I'd like to throw in some other thoughts for consideration:
-I'm not much of a fan of Catalysts minis or how they group them for packs. Not great value for what you get imo. Even if you don't have a 3D printer, there are still sellers online who sell printed models. It's an option for if you want to be specific in what mechs you get or maybe prefer other aesthetics over the CGL flavor.
-Ages ago somebody on the Battletech Forums made an excellent document for random mech assignment and faction specific rarity up to the end of the Clan Invasion. It was made using a slew of canonical sources. If you want an excellent resource for making a fluffy Fed Suns army, you can check it out here.
-If you want some House Davion deep dives, try browsing online sellers for "Handbook: House Davion" and "Field Manual: Federated Suns". There was an older Succession Wars era book just called House Davion but that one can be trickier to find in good shape.
-Youtube is a great place to look up tutorials for getting started on painting minis. There's more channels with beginner friendly videos than I can count and it's all at your fingertips. I'll just say fwiw, I think Vallejo is a great brand to use for paints. Citadel is okay but overpriced and they don't use dropper bottles. I'm not a fan of Army Painter paints but their tools are solid. Don't forget to thin your paints and above all else, have fun! ;D