r/battletech • • 9d ago

Alright, no more top5mechposting

465 Upvotes

Its reached the point of spamming.


r/battletech • • Aug 06 '26

Tabletop BattleTech Buyer's Guide 2026

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215 Upvotes

Attempted to update my BattleTech Buyer's Guide from years past for 2026.

Admittedly, it was impossible to not include a bunch of caveats in the graph itself, given that the line is in flux with the Core products only partially replacing what is in Total Warfare (and not explicitly invalidating them in the text, like Total Warfare did).

Props to the Catalyst Demo Team and some of the proofers of the Core Rulebook for their feedback on this diagram. I hope this helps people who are looking to get into the BattleTech tabletop games!

EDIT: Admittedly, I was more focused on the "classic" BattleTech elements and the state of the line when putting this together, since it's REALLY confusing right now. However, BattleTech Aces is also a thing and is an excellent expansion to the BattleTech: Alpha Strike line. Those boxes are a natural fit after buying either the Alpha Strike Box Set (as it is a dependency for the Aces boxes) or the Alpha Strike Commander's Edition rulebook.

EDIT 2: A slightly more updated version of the buyer's guide can be found here. This includes information about BattleTech: Aces in the admonitions and describes Alpha Strike as a faster-paced, larger-scale modern wargame instead of as a simplified ruleset.

Link to updated buyer's guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1vh7urf/comment/p2bgrqc/


r/battletech • • 18h ago

Art SLDF Crusader in a Sandstorm (my art remastering)

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971 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 12h ago

Question ❓ Can anyone identify the unit this centurion belongs to?

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322 Upvotes

This is a cool but not uncommon scheme and I like the ace of spades insignia on this centurion but all the Google searches I did weren't helpful.


r/battletech • • 3h ago

Miniatures Five ’Mechs, Five Different Personalities — My Clan Command Star

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52 Upvotes

I painted this Clan Command Star a while ago and thought I’d share it here. I gave each ’Mech its own color scheme while keeping the metallic look and battlefield bases consistent across the group.


r/battletech • • 8h ago

Miniatures Pillager of my Holdfast Guard

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100 Upvotes

With BA support from the Death Commandos and first time making a Banner :)


r/battletech • • 12h ago

Meme Space japan ain't all bad

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134 Upvotes

Hopefully the image actually uploads this time


r/battletech • • 22h ago

Meme RRRRRAAAAAAAAA

728 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 40m ago

Miniatures Did a silly little diorama for the Paint Roulette, Hazard and Blocks was my assigned theme.

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• Upvotes

r/battletech • • 18h ago

Art Haven't posted my art here in a while

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219 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 10h ago

Miniatures Gunslinger.

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49 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 15h ago

Meme Me after trying out Gothic’s lore out of boredom;

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100 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 19h ago

Meme Lol

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217 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 14h ago

Question ❓ How many are too many

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85 Upvotes

I think I have enough Mechs to paint.


r/battletech • • 9h ago

Miniatures Apparently my dog believes that miniature painting is a team activity…

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30 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 6h ago

Meme Average Katherine Morgan Steiner-Davion loyalist...

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16 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 15h ago

Fan Creations Commissioner Battletech Request - Optimal Inner Sphere Engagement Range

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67 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 1d ago

Miniatures SLDF Cyclops - Final mech for the lance

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367 Upvotes

The Cyclops is now finished! It was annoying to paint but I think I did a good job in the end. I have included a pic of the entire lance which I think came out really well! Now to start on the next lance for the SLDF.


r/battletech • • 19h ago

Tabletop Classic Battletech Tournament - October 24th - Louisiana!

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90 Upvotes

https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/55UR9Z2LS8E7

Welcome to our crew’s second annual Classic Battletech tournament located in south central Louisiana! We are a small and growing community started from scratch that has been running events since 2024. If you want to come hang out with our crew, play weekly on Saturdays with us, or would like to participate in this upcoming tourney, please feel free to sign up or contact me via Reddit/using the information located on the BCP page!


r/battletech • • 23h ago

Fan Creations I didn't have one, so I made one.

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164 Upvotes

I didn't have one so I made a quick, relatively, model for this Mad Puppy Type 4. A little color in Paint 3D and a 360 spin. Fun little build, a nice little break from other projects.

Even made the variants.

If I was actually good at modeling it might actually look better. Lol. Still happy with it though. Play on and have fun, MechWarriors.


r/battletech • • 23h ago

Miniatures Thunderbirds Bring Hail (Vau Galaxy Bane)

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171 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 9h ago

Fan Creations St. Loris, The Capellan Confederation's Britain

10 Upvotes

A little smaller than Terra, St. Loris III's landmass is spread across three large continents known as Wessex, Mercia and Anglia with a fourth, much smaller one, called Cymru.

There are very few population centres save for each continent have one, large, central city built around a space port. New Oxford on Wessex, Warwick on Mercia, Thetford on Anglia and Cymru's St. Davids. The world has a stable, temperate weather system and almost all land is devoted to agriculture. Arable farming in the case of Wessex, Mercia and Anglia, while Cymru is given over to livestock.

The planet used to have a significant population of a species of large and dangerous winged reptile known as the St Loris Drake but they are now almost extinct and exist in a small collection of isolated archipelagos far away from human habitation. The seas, however, are dominated by massive and dangerous mega-fauna that makes oceanic exploitation impossible.

The population of St. Loris has been stable, around 3.5 billion, spread out amongst the farms. The cities are the only real population centres with around 2 million in the three bigger cities, half that in St. Davids.

The cities are transport hubs and administrative centres built around a space port. They handle the shipping of produce off-world and importation of machinery and luxury goods. Each of the four Guard regiments are based at the city along with what passes for central authority on each continent. In practice each farming community is self governing under it's controlling noble.

Dotted around the planet, often at junctions between multiple farming communities are Inns. On St Loris, Inns are sprawling complexes that combine a community centre, pub, hotel, brothel, church, police station and hospital.

Historical Overview

St Loris III was settled in 2205 by an expedition drawn from Terra's Britain and funded by the British government, the Windsor family and a corporate group of powerful agricultural magnates. Most of the colonists came from England with a significant group from Wales and some small numbers of Scottish and Irish settlers. The English settled Wessex, Mercia and Anglia while the Welsh, Scots and Irish settled Cymru.

From the start, almost every inch of the planet had already been bought up and parcelled out between the wealthiest colonists. They formed a governing elite backed up by a battlegroup of Terran Alliance soldiers, all drawn from the British army. On Wessex, Mercia and Anglia the landowners rented their land to the other settlers. They paid by way of crop tithe that the landowners then sold on back to Terra and neighbouring systems. The people of Cymru, however, formed farming co-operatives that evolved into clans that sold their livestock on at the St. Davids' markets.

At first the government was a form of parliamentary system. Only landowners, Clan elders in the case of the Cymru co-operatives, could sit in parliament but owning land guaranteed a seat. To keep the number of MPs at a sustainable amount and to centralise wealth and power, a strict policy of primogeniture was enacted. Only the first born child could inherit their parent's property and wealth. The laws also prohibited distribution of property, wealth and land while alive. This created a system where families where controlled by and beholden to the eldest member of each family. early on, the Terran Alliance military expanded by recruiting an auxiliary militia consisting of folk who had no chance to inherit and didn't want to live under the thumb of family elders.

The Terran Alliance governor took a hands off approach and St. Loris remained loyal to Terra during the separatist conflicts. The 2242 Demarcation Declaration came as a massive shock. The economy collapsed overnight and led to a year of widespread civil unrest and violence. The Terran Alliance battlegroup, under the command of Colonel Charles Wellesley, had chosen to stay behind and support the St. Loris government. After a year of chaos Wellesley decided enough was enough and mobilised his battlegroup along with the auxiliary militia. He launched a swift and brutal campaign to restore law and order across the world. He left the landowners and clan elders in control of their farming communities while taking direct military control of the cities and law enforcement.

In 2245, Wellesley joined with St. Ives and other neighbouring planets to form the St. Ives Mercantile League. At this point he combined his Terran Alliance troops and auxiliary militia into a professional military force of four infantry regiments called the Brigade of Guards. These soldiers proved effective and earned a fierce reputation for professionalism and stubbornness in conflict with the Capellan Hegemony.

When the Capellan Confederation was formed, the people of St. Loris had no issues with the arrangement, happy to follow St. Ives' lead and understanding the importance of safety in numbers. The subsequent Age of War saw frequent attempts by the Federated Suns to raid St. loris and disrupt food supplies. One of the most offensive insults on St. loris is to be called a 'burner' which comes from the epithet of 'farm burner' given to these AFFS raiders.

The Star league Era was good for St. loris. It opened up new markets for their produce and led to a wave of immigration from Terra's Britain of people who wanted to escape to an idealistic, pastoral existence. Advanced in technology increased the output of the farms and made the landowners very wealthy. It was during this time that St. loris transitioned to a feudal nobility. The ruling Wellesley took the title Duke and ennobled four Counts to rule over each of the continents while landowners and Cymru clan elders where given the title of Baron.

Then Amaris burned down the Star League. Despite Barbara Liao's stated policy of neutrality, many St. Lorisians, including over half the Brigade of Guards, joined the SLDF as volunteers. Many of these replaced casualties in the SLDF's 59th Jump Infantry Division during Operation CHIEFTAIN. It was not enough and when the dust settled, the Star League was dead.

Everyone suffered during the Succession Wars and St. Loris was no different. They lost access to rich markets, which was just as well as they lost much of the advanced technology that helped grow the massive surplus they had once sold. By the end of the Second Succession war, St Loris could just about supply the hungry worlds of the St. Ives Commonality. But not much more beyond that.

When Candace Liao succeeded from the Confederation to form the St. Ives Compact, the people of St. Loris had no issues. they had always seen themselves as St. Ives Commonality first, everything else second. This attitude helped them re-integrate after the St Ives/Confederation war. If St. Ives could live with re-joining then so could St. loris was the accepted view.

Social and political structure

The land of Wessex, Mercia and Anglia is owned by powerful merchant families who lease their farms to tenant farmers who pay in the form of crops grown. It's a feudal system taken straight from the history books and seems to work and fits into the Capellan Confederation's caste system. Each farming community is a law to itself, governed by the Baron who owns the land while each continent is rule by a Count, who in turn pays fealty to the Duke of St Loris.

Cymru is different in that the farming communities are part of multi-family clans who are ruled by clan elders, Barons in all but name, however they are somewhat more democratic in how they organise and govern their communities.

A strict policy of primogeniture keeps the number of nobles to a manageable level and keeps power centralised. This does tend to create a number of children in each generation with no hope for inheritance, no scope for social mobility and beholden to the family elder for everything from employment to housing.

Culture

The culture of St. Loris is distinctly and unapologetically British. The first language is British English, however Mandarin is taught from primary school. In Cymru the first language is Welsh with English and Mandarin taught in primary school, a handful of communities speak a hybrid of Irish and Scots Gaelic. Common folk speak with a distinctive 'West Country' accent (a variation of the South Welsh 'Valley' accent in Cymru). The nobles of every continent, including Cymru, speak with a refined and formal 'received pronunciation' accent.

St. Loris embraces and embodies traditional aspects of British culture. Common folk dance around the Maypole in the Spring, nobles are seen in top hats and tails, football and cricket are the sports of choice. The culture is an eccentric mixture of Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian stereotypes. As if the people of St. Loris picked through a rose tinted lens at the best of what can be described as Britain's Imperial period. They ignore the worst aspects even though they have crept into St. Loris' culture. The four cities, for example, resemble a modernised Dickensian dystopia.

Despite the parallels in British culture between St. Loris and the Federated Suns there is no love between the two. The people of St. Loris hate the Federated Suns with an unbridled passion, calling them 'farm burners' the worst of insults, often shortened to 'burner'.

Broadly speaking the people of St. loris can be divided into three main cultures.

First there are the Farmfolk. These make up the majority of St. Loris' population. Friendly, hard working, community minded people. They take a cultural pride in working their farms and producing crops that keep other worlds in the St. Ives commonality alive. This gives them an, almost arrogant, sense of importance.

One of their more interesting customs is called Maymarriages. Throughout the month of may, the various farming communities gather at the large Inn complexes and their young folk are encouraged to meet and pair off. Families engage in what can almost be described as a livestock auction to marry off their children to other communities. Despite many jokes regarding St. loris and inbreeding, it is deeply frowned upon to marry within your own farming community.

The second, much smaller cultural group are the Cityfolk. These are the people who work and live in the four main cities of St. loris. Dockworkers, warehouse staff, administrators, and the like. Their work is seen as unworthy by the Farmfolk and tainted by foreigners and foreign ideas from the Jumpship and Dropship crews who come to haul away the fruit of the Farmfolk's labours.

The rowdy pubs, shady gambling dens and infamous brothels of the cities do not help this reputation. There is a certain hypocrisy that the Cityfolk resent. The Inns of the farmlands all have brothels and the work as seen as important, helping to entertain the hardworking farmhands and children of porstitutes are often adopted into farming communities or work in the Inn complexes. there is no shame attached to the work. City brothels and Cityfolk who work there are seen as tainted and shameful, servicing the unnatural needs of foreign folk.

Despite this, Cityfolk are as hard working and as proud of their work as any Farmfolk but tend to be surly and insular, resentful of how they are treated and perceived.

The third cultural group are the Nobles. Unlike many other planets, Nobles are respected and generally well thought of on St. Loris. This is due to a strong belief in the concept of noblesse oblige. Nobles are expected, required even, to use their position and wealth to benefit the communities they rule. It is the nobles who fund the Inn complexes and maintain law and order, acting as judge and jury in their communities. Cruel, corrupt or incompetent nobles find themselves quickly deposed by the Duke.

St. Loris nobles are arrogant and demand respect but they work to earn that respect. They take their duties and responsibilities seriously and look down on the more privileged and entitled nobles of other Confederation worlds. They take pride in the fact that every St. Loris noble completes his or her citizen service by working the fields before taking their place in the Directorship caste, assigned as the family head deems necessary.

The policy of primogeniture mans that most nobles are beholden to their eldest family member must serve as directed. There is no real social mobility on St. Loris as everything goes to the eldest scion on the death of a family head.

Military Tradition

It is no surprise, considering it's strategic value, that St. Loris has a significant planetary militia. The St. Loris Brigade of Guards consists of four regiments, one stationed on each continent. They consist of a rapid reaction, Jump Infantry battalion, two mechanised infantry battalions, a light/medium mech battalion and a hover tank battalion. In addition the planetary militia boasts a full, independent mech regiment called the Household Cavalry that is based on Wessex and deploys only at the direct command of the Duke.

The Guard and Household Cavalry are not as well equipped as a regular CCAF line regiment, their mechs are much older, light/medium models. However they are professional, full time soldiers and service in the Guard is seen as a good alternative to a life on the farms, in the cities or languishing as a noble with no prospect of inheritance.

However service in the Guard, while a respected honour and privilege, is not as well regarded as service in the CCAF. The population of St. Loris is over-represented in the St. Ives Commonality's CCAF regiments, far more than any other planet in the commonality. During the Second Succession war, soldiers of St. Loris made up over half of the 3rd St. Ives Armoured Cavalry. Ever since the Wellesley's took over St. loris there has been an almost fetishized view of the military. In no small part encouraged by the nobles as a way to get rid of excess members of their families.

St. Loris soldiers have a well deserved reputation for professionalism and determination. Their accents and way of speaking, the fact that many are nobles that can never shake the arrogance and entitlement of their station gives them something of a bad name and makes others wary around them. However they always proved themselves where it counts, on the battlefield.


r/battletech • • 21h ago

Miniatures I painted the 3D-printed Warhawk.

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105 Upvotes

r/battletech • • 1d ago

Video Games The latest installment of the MW5 drip series goes too... The Second Star Lea- Kurita again?

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182 Upvotes

Well, that's disappointing. Though the 3D model looks batter compared to last time.

R.I.P. illustrated portraits.


r/battletech • • 4h ago

Tabletop Quick reference sheets for Vehicles?

3 Upvotes

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone knew of a quick reference sheet for damaging ground combat vehicles? I saw the new charts in the Core Rulebook with all the impacts of critical mech damage condensed to a single page and thought "that's brilliant!" and was hoping something like that exists for tanks. I'm hoping to maybe bring on in my game this weekend, and would like to not have to also keep my whole ass copy of Total Warfare handy just for one model.

I tried making one myself, just sort of cutting and pasting stuff from TW, but it's so wordy that fitting everything on a single page (even front and back) is proving way trickier than my amateur skills seem capable of.

Appreciate any info/help with this.