Battletech mechs and Flames of Orion

Hey everyone, so last October, I took the boys to the Octogone, a great gaming con in Lyon to meet some friends and dicover new games. Amongst other things, I was offered t test Flames of Orion, a fast paced indie mech gamed. There was obviously no way 2 twelve years olds and me would ever refuse that so we did test the game and had an absolute blast.

It is intuitive, low granularity unlike the original Battletech and you still get the same stupid fun from it by seeing giant robots overheat and explode in cataclysmic balls of fires !

The rules have a free version you can dowload, including all the unit sheets and material you need and you also have options for more material and even printed versions so I really encourage you to check on them HERE.

I also had the opportunity to test Guards of Traitor's toll with good ol'Ad and I got to meet GARY CHALK !!!

But let's get back to our subject : giant robots.

Coming back home, my son was adamant we needed to play that game with his step brother and mates so I went looking for the most convenient source of mechs and I found the Alpha Strike Starter set was extremely convenient (and I do love Alpha strike actually)

13 classic mechs, the opportunity to play the game and Flames of Orion, that was a no brainer so when I received the box, I quickly ported all the mechs into Flames of Orion and that was a blast going into the technical files of each mech to see how to best represent it gear/weapon wise.

I came up with this list :

That was important for me to see how I would split the pack into relatively even sub groups. The aim was to use a triad of colours and apply the 60/30/10 ratio to both tie them all together while making them distinct and obviously, the colours I chose were my old faithful !

Anyway, let's start with the most iconic battletech mech ever, namely the Atlas, the 100t monstrosity and I couldn't resist showing the side comparison with his old plastech counterpart, so cute !

Next is the Warhawk who has proven to be an absolute pain in the oil tank in Flames of Orion due to how I equipped it. Heavy weapons and targetting systems make for a tricky combo to face !

We haven't tested the warhammer yet but no doubt his heavy weapons will be a nuisance.

The Archer has quicky become a favourite in our house, both for his style and game play, Guaranteed to get picked early every game.

As most battletech fans, I still have a very sweet spot for the Timberwolf which is good at pretty much everything and loks so cool.

The blackjack is another one I had a plastech version of and boy was a glowup he got !

The phoenix hawk almost looks like Optimus prime and his performance on the battlefield will make any autobot proud !

We haven't got to try the Nova but I'm fairly sure he can be a real pain with the firepower at hand.

The Pouncer hasn't left the hangar yet but he soon will

The wraith has had a good game so far, jumping over terrain to deliver killing blows, one of my favourite medium weights.

Now onto the light weights and the fire moth has been quite cool last game, equipped ith a flame thrower to help overheating mig mechs to get to the critical state !

The wasp hasn't played yet despite his good boy look but he'll definitely get his time in 3 players games !

And the favourite light weight f the house is the Locust, fastest mech in our pool, can't take much damage but it can deliver a good blow and capture objectives swiftly, perfect !

Now obviously to play the game I needed some terrain and fast. It just happened that the Flames of Orion demo we played was next to the stand of Warkitect who do lasercut carboard scenery and they have this very good set HERE that provides a silly amount of bits you can assemble to do whatever you want with them !

Painting wise, I went the quick way with sprays, washes and drybrushing, leaving the roughed up cardbard provide the texture. The aim being to get ruined concrete buildings more than anything fancy so I reckon it does the job. No point in painting those to a higher standar than the source material is.

So eventually, almost one month after the first game at the con, we were able to get our first game at home with our own terrain and mechs !

Obviously, noone wants to hear about how the game went, that's boring (my son won) but for our fist game, learning the rule by ourselves and testing the possibilities, it only took us 1h to complete a full game with objectives and all and it ended with 6 mechs exploding and one critically overheating so perfect ! can't wait to play some more and start campaigning !

Once again, I really welcome you to test Flames of rion if you have mechs, titans, kaijus around, the game can even handle ground troops, flyers and vehicles.
Check the game HERE.