The Second Circuit

Jesse, Avalyn, and Scott talk the next Battle of Luthien! Woo woo Wednesday wepwesent! Too bad the first one was a lot better in the games and the novels than the actual sourcebook. Let's come up with something more practical. Alpha Strike for sure, right? Recreating the tension from the book is not just objective focused, it's character focused. Dracs, tradition versus modernity. Rasalhague, join...

Jesse, Scott, and Jo are 'MechTechs today! Remember MechWarrior 2? Customizing works in the videogames but not on the table. How do we solve that? Scott's made some killer LAMs in MegaMek, but would never bring them to the table. Does BattleTech have to change to allow for customs? Compounding BV? RAT tables for equipment? Can tonnage, C-bills and BV work together in a way to make that work? Are w...

Jesse and Jo are getting in depth with a brush! How do I paint missile launchers?? Sometimes there are missiles and sometimes there are not. Jo says it's a question of scale. Some mistakes can be interpreted as battle damage. Art versus 'realistic'. Context specific is important for the art. Make different parts different colours. Yell-oh-no! This applies to bases as well - Jesse can't do basing b...

Jesse and Scott are exchanging memory cores about their homebrew gear!  - Loitering Missile Ammunition (It's a floating long-range minefield!) - Plasma Sword (Tsushima/Yotei fans get hyped!) - Magnetic Grapple (Lasso up a Fire Moth!) - Torvold Drone Targeting System (Behold the Hammer of Dawn!) - Rotary Micro Pulse Laser (Cutting down on attack rolls!) - Scott Pod (It's a BattleMech briefcase!) -...

Jesse, Scott, and Jo are talking Warships! Jesse likes sc-fi because of big machines that shoot lasers. BattleTech scales well, so let's see what happens at the biggest scale. The Hunters has a cool space battle! Naval assets - using a lot of ECM? Some of the secrets are buried in many old books. The wargaming table could be like a holotank! Please don't mess with electronics if you are untrained,...

Jesse, Jo, and Scott are talking the new Core Rule Changes! Don't take WolfNet's howl. Half ammo means less bombs. Moving into water - viable but still risky. We have invented ramps! Melee is now a thing again. Gird yourself for girders. Is there such thing as too much melee? Ammo is less dangerous, but is that less fun? Ammo explosions don't matter if you don't get shot. Autocannons - too strong?...

Jesse is talking with Paul Clarkson and Josh Derksen about Adepticon! The stuff that was announced and the stuff that is yet to come! Unreleased and barely released products. Paul making enemies - violence scheduled for GenCon! Meeting the team and the Network. A New Challenger Appears - Cru joins the team! Overall impressions and hopes. Some spoilers for the third Aces box, Wrath & Reprisal....

Jesse, Jo, and Avalyn are talking Map-scale versus Mech-scale! Caliburns edge. Small vs Big. Artillery. Turret the weapons? If it's close, are we overtuning it? Different decks can do different things and mixing and matching can have really cool results. Capellans live to die. The laser colours! The Fortress DropShip - "Just one more thing." 3D terrain, is it turning people off? New rules, huh, ye...

Jesse and Avalyn are talking With Sean of Sarna.net! The face of the ultimate Memory Core for all of BattleTech gives us the overview of his Blake-like duties and tying it into the greater community at large. And then we dive into the real interesting stuff - objectively correct BattleTech preferences. PPCs. IS XL Engines. Hunchback Orthodoxy. Adorable Dark Age designs. Lousy Dark Age designs. Kee...

Jesse, Jo, and Avalyn are talking character-level fiction. People care about their MechWarriors! How do we get them to do that in game? Avalyn's RPG games are maybe a great thing to reference here. Start with giving them a name. Reward a name, and maybe stack the reward. There need to be stakes. Lineages! Points to a lineage across the ages. But don't tie gameplay rewards to writing. Battle report...

Jesse, Jo, and Scott welcome special guest Big Red 40TECH to the show! The Mariks. It's so hard to be a Marik fan. In a way, they're the Empire. When they aren't just Arthurian Davions. Thomas Marik who is actually Halas - don't forgive him for what he did! Davions, no Omnis, more bullet. Phoenix Hawk IIC, great video, how did it come together?  What's making long form content like? Why not a fanc...

Jesse and Jo are talking Project Phoenix - it was a band-aid, but was it good? Jo's too new to remember the backlash. Would it be better if they were whole new units as opposed to 'replacements' for our childhood. Mirrored helmets? Come on! Guys in suits, versus tanks with legs, versus refrigerators. The quality of the art though, versus what it represents. When was the last time your cracked open...

Jesse, Avalyn, and Jo are talking BattleMech aerial combat! Hottest Drop! Ease off on jumping TMM? PSRs? Is counting elevation as distance a good mechanic? Cloud templates? Wind direction indicator - a wind vane! Drop the shooting penalty? DFAs - are they just stupid? Jump kicks! Should there be more Mortal Kombat and less WWE? Can DFA become second nature if we just do it more? The math becomes y...

Jesse, Avalyn, and Jo are talking weird new tech and weird old cards! TSEMP! Why does it suck? Does it suck less or more in Alpha Strike? Depending on the size of the game maybe it doesn't. If you ban one thing, do you start having to ban all kinds of other things. Is managing the game to balance things just playing the wrong game? 'Mechs in a vacuum! What was happening in real life when certain r...

Jesse and Avalyn are joined by special guests Bryan Young and Russel Zimmerman, accomplished sci-fi authors and major drivers of modern-day BattleTech fiction! We asked what it's like to write BattleTech for Catalyst where you have to coordinate with such a large and involved universe - and the answer is, predictably, "it's complicated!" Check out Bryan's stuff at https://www.swankmotron.com/ and...

Jesse and Avalyn hypothesize everything they would need for the ultimate BattleTech event. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss would be required. Simplifying rules in exchange for fielding more units. Cool events run at places like Torchlight Hobbies and Games in Burlington Ontario. Hexes versus measuring tape? Putting the game in the narrative rather than the other way around. What to eat? 3D terra...

Jesse and Jo have a fireside chat about Aces Legacy, the new Aces-focused event coming to BattleTech convention spaces. Aces Legacy! How and what. Hobby stuff - new swords? Well, hatchets. Big Tukayyid battle coming to Monday Knights in Barrie! Recreating historical events and the dice fighting you. Playing with hero characters and making them fit in to the game. Is it weird when they can't die? C...

--EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING ON THIS ONE, FOLKS-- Jesse and Scott are joined by Mr. Tex of Tex Talks BattleTech from the Black Pants Legion to talk Mech7 memories, BattleTech, community, and cautionary tales regarding kitchen appliances. What exactly is the BPL? What is making fan film like? Gambling on Star Heroes. Community and creators. What made Randolph P. Checkers the way he is? The Black Kni...

Jesse, Scott, and Avalyn talk the holidays and how they spent them, BattleTech-wise. Scott upgraded his 3D ice-river battleground. How many minis is too many, and how should we paint them? What about decals? Where would a VTOL crash, and should those rules even matter if it's fun? Why doesn't everyone love the Somerset Strikers as much as Jesse? And why isn't more BattleTech happening in full moti...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse, Avalyn, and Jo talk Mercenaries contracts and The Hinterlands. What is the Peacekeeper for? We each have a slightly different way of looking at our ideal BattleTech gaming experience. Hinterlands and Mercenaries rules combine to make Jo's ideal BattleTech long-term engagement. How a long-term campaign differs from quick encounters. How the contracts wo...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse, Scott, and Avalyn talk video game tie-ins and units you've never heard of. What's up with Tigress? Where does the influence come from? It's a little too army-porn for Star Wars. Some thoughts on Wolves of Tukayyid. Why make 'Mech games when you aren't in a 'Mech? What about an Elemental game? Kidnapping Chris Lowery. Think of the cool unique units and...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse, Scott, and Paul recount the excellent adventure that was PAX Unplugged, and the North American launch of BattleTech Aces Scouring Sands! We have a road-trip adventure! Friendships with Catalyst crew are renewed before we all plunge into the fire of the con floor. We all feel proud watching those shelves empty themselves of Aces boxes. Scott becomes the...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse and Scott welcome to the show Josh Derksen, Dylan Birtolo and Russell Zimmerman, the creative minds behind BattleTech Aces! While the Automated Opponent through the Aces cards is the cover model for the box for sure, these three worked hard to bring us an incredible Choose Your Own Adventure-esque campaign book that is, as Josh puts it, the party that t...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse, foolishly allowed to be left to his own devices, ruminates hard on a hypothetical ultimate MechWarrior experience. We'll be back to the regular crew next week!   Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming and powered by MSI. However all opinions expresse...

On this episode of The Second Circuit, Jesse, Henny, and Jo talk scenarios and scenario design! Jesse is pleased to complete his Focht's Network Pokedex by getting all of Focht's on the show. Henny is a big Mercenaries guy, but with maybe a bit of a lean towards the Northwind Highlanders. The best of scenarios tend to have multiple objectives and be super heavily themed based on stuff in the lore....