Mech Warrior - Clix-ing away into the past...

It has been nearly 5 years since I have played Mech Warrior, but a photo online (photo above) I came across while surfing the web made me think back to the fun times I had with this gem of a game. At the time it was released, the "clix" games by WizKids (HeroClix, MageKnight, etc.) were really hitting the gaming industry in full force, it is a shame they have recently gone out of business and we have come to the end of an era.

In Mech Warrior, you would basically assemble a small group of Mechs, Troops, Tanks, etc., and do battle against an opponent with an equally sized force. The game mechanic was very simple and the special "clix" bases kept track of your damage as well as your weapons and special abilities. All you really needed to play was a tape measure and dice (and  of course your minis).

There were a few really positive things about this game, and also a few really negative things which I feel was one of the reasons for the eventual downfall of this game (and WizKids as a company). First, the game was random packed, which was a big turn off for a lot of players. In addition to the random nature of the minis, several 'rare' ones were hard to get, and the rare ones were often over powered for their point cost, meaning if you went up against someone with a rare you'd take a beating. This caused you to either spend more money buying more packs to try and get a rare, buy a rare directly for a $25 - $100 price tag, or just go up against the opponent's rare and get frustrated at how you do.

There were a lot of good things though, and (for me at least) the good overpowered the bad enough to want to play... The game was fast and fun, no hour long down time while you waited for an opponent to make a move (cough cough 40k cough cough), and all of the information you needed to play was clearly written on your mini's base, so no long army lists or notes to refer to constantly.

I think if this game had been painted a little nicer than it was (paint jobs were acceptable at best) and the 'rare' minis weren't as 'rare' as they were, then I think this game might have been around a bit longer or maybe even still be going strong today.

When I first started playing this game, it was around the start of 2003, in fact, shortly after that I met Wil who would later become one of my regular gaming buddies. I happened to have some photos of our first Mech Warrior game together, this was in April of 2003 at Odyssey GameShop in South Daytona Beach, Florida. (Wil and I both look a lot younger and thinner in this photo).

If I remember correctly, the gaming table we were using was one that Wil and his Dad had built years before for another game (Warhammer maybe?), and it worked out perfectly for Mech Warrior, it had just the right amount of grass, road and water. Here is a closer view of Wil's terrain table...

Later in the day, we had ended our game and moved on to more important things (terrain building), some of the Terrain that Wil is working on in this photo was used in the photos below.

Here are some more photos showing some more Mech Warrior gaming going on, these were on different tables using some terrain from Necromunda and Warhammer 40k 

One of my favorite memories of this game (and it has nothing to do with the photos above or below it, this just seemed like a good spot to tell my tale)... was a game I played with Wil, right after the 2nd or 3rd series of this game came out (I can't recall which one). I was doing quite well in the battle, and had taken down one of Wil's more dangerous Mechs... I thought I had the game in the bag for sure...

As our game continued, I noticed Wil had a tiny truck moving across the board. It was kind of strange, and I gave it absolutely NO attention whatsoever... What is a little truck going to do? There was no special object he was going for. I figured he was trying to distract me, or get me to divert some forces from the front line to check out his little truck.

Well, the truck finally got about 18" or so away from my guys and I decided I better send someone to take it out... That is when Wil blindsided me. I hadn't realized it, but the new series had released rules for Transports. Wil's truck was filled with infantry and although I can't recall which ones, they packed some firepower for sure. The suddenly rush of troops from behind caused my front line to crumble, and within 2 more turns Wil had turned the game around and taken the victory.

While Wil and I played Mech Warrior and worked on terrain, his friend John (who had driven over from DeLand with him) was stuck with nothing to do, so he got in a few games of HeroClix with my son Brandon (then 9 years old), I specifically remember Brandon winning!  

For those of you who don't know, John is our "Guest Star" player... meaning he doesn't come very often, so when he does, it is like your favorite TV series having a guest start who is only there for that episode... you get a great game and have a good time, but he doesn't come back very often. Here is a photo of Brandon and John playing HeroClix... You can see Wil in the background over looking our game.

Here is another photo of Brandon with his army...

In closing, I'd say that Mech Warrior was a great game for when it came out, it filled in a nice empty spot in gaming (which was later replaced by WarMachine actually - at least as far as games that have giant robots/mechs that clash together in brutal combat), it had a really easy game mechanic and played quickly. I can't think of anyone who I had played with who didn't enjoy their game and have the urge to collect more pieces... However, the random packed and rare minis and the acceptable paint jobs took some points away from this game and caused some people to not play it who I know otherwise would have loved it.

Somewhere in storage I have complete sets of the first few assortments of this game, and one day I'll get them out and let my younger kids experience this game for the first time. Here is one last photo, shortly after the ones above, this is Brandon on Easter and the Easter Bunny brought him some Clix games, showing exactly what the 'hot' items were in April of 2004...