15mm Mechs from Critical Mass Games
With some of the new mech games out like Titanfall we’ve gotten into the mech mood. Obviously the tabletop gaming environment gives far greater variety of engagements limited only by your imagination and, well, miniatures.
To help set some background The Art of Titanfall is a great place to start even if you never plan on playing the game. Likewise the Titanfall: Prima Official Game Guide is also flled with nice art (a lot from the Art book but not all) and looks at the battlefields. If you like graphic novels Hawken Genesis is an interesting story but lacks in mech action. Speaking of Hawken, a nice filler game is the Hawken Real-Time Card Game. It is a fun card game that plays in about 15min. There are two sets out so far that can be combined.
Certainly 6mm with Battletech may be the first thing some think of for mech gaming. But the computer games offer a more personal look so we wanted something with a bit more presence so went looking for 15mm options. The most obvious choice is Critical Mass Games. They have a number of 15mm mech options now and even a new ‘mecha workshop‘ that lets you buy bits to customize your mechs to your own tastes.
Below we have pictures of some of the Critical Mass Games’ mechs. From left to right is the Imperator, Arc Fleet Support Combat Walker, Blackguard, Ravager and Predator Assault Suit. [Note: We used alternate weapon options on the Blackguard and Ravager] They have a number of other models as well within those lines. The Imperator is the big boy of the bunch. We easily magnetized the waist and arms on the Imperator and the torsos on the others. As you can see the various mechs scale well with each other giving you large, medium and battlesuit options along with gun and jumping close assault mechs. Add in the mecha workshop and you can really create a force to your specifications.
But if you are wanting that Titanfall aesthetic have no fear, the new Flytrap mechs fit the bill. The Warfighter Epoch line currently offers three different mech designs along with pilot/troop figs. Unlike CMG these are all metal models. The metal is quite soft as are the details. They are very fiddly to put together and need to be pinned but once complete are nice. The arms and legs are the same on all three models with only the torso unique. Size wise they are sort of in between the Blackguard/Ravager and the Assault Suit.
For rules we are going to try Gruntz and Strike Legion (and if you haven’t seen it yet the new Strike Legion v1.5 Compilation is great) but there are other mech specific rules coming out soon as well that will be worth a try.
[Updated: 13JUN14]
The View from the Turret 