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BattleTechBattleTech (MechWarrior) is a science-fiction board game (wargame) (designed by FASA in 1984); which simulates warfare in the distant future of the 31st century, where humans battle in gigantic walking machines powered by fusion reactors (known as BattleMechs), tanks, spaceships and other aircraft, wielding weapons such as lasers, Particle Projection Cannons (PPC), Gauss Rifles and Autocannons. As the game and related stories are centered around the BattleMechs warfare, it can be considered a type of a military space opera. Battletech has won three Origins Awards and its various spinoffs and expansions several more. A role playing game, called Mechwarrior was released soon after the BattleTech wargame. Several computer, Xbox and forum games have been based off the game, as well as a collectible card game, a collectible miniature-based wargame, a televised animation, and more than 70 books. The computer and Xbox games for the most part bear the same name as the role playing game: Mechwarrior. Those game are mostly mech simulation/first person shooter games, with two real time strategy games. There also are fan-created mods that transform non-Mechwarrior real time strategy computer games into Mechwarrior games. An unofficial, online, open source version of the Classic BattleTech game, MegaMek , has been created. It is licensed under GPL. Currently, all level 1 and nearly all level 2 BattleTech rules and technology are working. Even some level 3 rules have been added. An estimated twenty-five million people have played a BattleTech or MechWarrior game or read a BattleTech or MechWarrior novel, and at least ten million people have played the BattleTech/ MechWarrior computer games. More than eleven million copies of MechWarrior PC games and a similar number of MechWarrior: Dark Age Collectable Miniatures Game figures have been sold to date. More than seventy full-length BattleTech or MechWarrior novels have been published (by Penguin Books) and translated into at least fifteen languages. Over three hundred and fifty different BattleTech/MechWarrior game and toy products have been produced to date; several products, such as the Technical Readout series, the core rulebook and base box set, have been in continuous print (in on form or another) since publication. More than five thousand World Wide Web pages have been created to date by the online BattleTech/MechWarrior community.
After FASA ceased active operations, the rights to BattleTech were sold to WizKids, a game company founded by Jordan K. Weissman (one of BattleTech's creators). A new tabletop strategy game in the BattleTech universe, known as MechWarrior:Dark Age, was released in 2002 using three-dimensional, painted models that use the same "Clix" system as Mage Knight. The Clix system uses combat and heat dials built into the base of the models that quantify each Battlemechs attack/defense and performance capabilities. The original BattleTech, now known as the Classic BattleTech, has been licensed by WizKids to FanPro, who continue to release rules updates, sourcebooks, fiction and other new material.
Political Entities of BattleTechBattleTech's universe is comprised of numerous interstellar human governments; these remnants of the effectively defunct Star League are fighting a war over control of the Inner Sphere and five Successor States.
Technology of BattleTechNotable Battletech artists, designers, and writers
See alsoExternal linksThe contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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