Catalyst Game Labs has revealed a new spin off to its long running mech combat game Battletech, called ‘Battletech Gothic’. This expansion will be set outside the game’s main science fiction continuity, taking place in a grimdark spinoff setting where mechs are ornamented with cathedral spikes, giant biomechanical monsters called Abominations stalk the battlefield, and the general vibes are immediately reminiscent of Warhammer 40,000.
Catalyst announced Battletech Gothic on Tuesday via Facebook, dropping a preview video and a fully illustrated lore primer that explains the divergent timeline.
The very first paragraph of the lore guide reads like something from the introduction to Warhammer 40k: “It is an age of endless war. On the blackened worlds of dwindling stars, lumbering BattleMechs and horrific creations of rampant biotechnology tear at one another in a desperate struggle for survival and dominance.”
Battletech Gothic will launch this Summer with a starter set that contains everything needed to play – the contents of the box are revealed in the video, above. The box will include eight variants on existing mech designs – and yes, there’s even a grimdark little Urbanmech.
Though they’re more gothic and less high tech than their regular counterparts, no-one’s going to mistake them for part of a Warhammer 40k faction (not least because they’re in the dinky 6mm scale).
The Atlas included in the box will have interchangeable components so that players can customise its head, back tabard, and bas reliefs to match one of the game’s six main factions.
The game retains the core rules systems of Battletech, “but includes some exciting new additions to reflect the aesthetics of this setting”, according to the reveal video.
That will includes Abominations, biomechanical horrors that in this variant timeline were actually invented before Battlemechs. There’s some interesting art for these beasties in the lore primer, but no miniatures for them in the box set.
Battletech Gothic is being badged as Catalyst’s first ‘Battletech Continuum’ release. Presumably the studio plans to expand the Gothic setting with new lance boxes containing extra ‘mechs and Abominations. And now that it’s released one variant on the Battletech timeline, there’s nothing to stop it creating more.
Battletech is a remarkable game in many ways. It uses pretty much the same core rules as it did in 1984, and subsequent publishers have built on the Inner Sphere setting with an incredible volume of continuous development.
The history of the Succession Wars and Clan Invasion has as much canonical development as anything for the 40k universe – and if you thought the Horus Heresy books were a sprawling sci-fi epic, you’re not ready for the tidal wave of Battletech novels.
I’m a sucker for tiny scale games with big mechs and little buildings. If this variant of Battletech is tempting you and you want to prepare a battlefield for it, Wargamer’s guide to epic scale terrain has some great recommendations. Or if you want to discover another game in the same scale with some incredible minis, check out Full Spectrum Dominance.
Source: Wargamer
