Thread by @JBelcourt73

@TableTopBill and @Pendolino70S so some quick research into #warhammer40000 and woo doggy... To start the biggest differences between #battletech and 40K is the sheer amount of hand-wavium 40K needs. It is far more fantasy than sci-fi. Psychics, aliens, magic it has it all.

BT on the other hand is very human focused, there are no aliens that threaten humanity and the only semi-intelligent life forms found are 2 species of caveman like humanoid "pinkies" and a bird like primitive society that can only be reached accidentally by misjump with no way

back to human space. The factions of the Inner Sphere are thus not divided between species, but between vast star spanning empires. Although admittedly biased, I prefer BT because there is so much less hand-wavium. You can trace Humanities journey to the stars directly back to

Western Alliance that would become the Terran Hegemony and the early colonization efforts that would grow into the great houses of #Davion, #Kurita, #Stiener, #Liao and #Marik plus another couple dozen other factions. The hand wavium is there of course, FTL travel requires it, as

does certain "it just is" rules to make the game playable on a tabletop. In terms of tech, (not counting magic chaos etc) they are not that far apart so in a "head to head" using only sci-fi kit fight I think most BT factions would curb stomp the 40K foe. 40K has titans, but

although larger are slower and don't add much in the way of firepower or armor over a battle mech. The big difference is BT armies deploy them in clusters and regiments not 1's or 2's. The one area where BT has a numerical advantage over 40K is mecha. There may be more than a

quarter million battle mechs running around. But while mecha is the focus of BT, in 40K the focus is the space marine. Here again there is an analog. The Clan Elemental is a genetically modified super soldier, raised invitro, trained from childhood to be a spartan and growing

up to be a 9' tall bad ass who runs around in powered armor with lasers, machine guns, missiles and a battle claw able to crush battlemech armor. There are more vastly more space marines than elementals but they are rough analogs as to type and mission. In combat I would rate the

elementals higher. Yes, the longest-lived space marines would have more skill, but the average space marine will spend so much of his time on the more religious side of his career that the singularly focused Elemental has more practical combat experience on average.

Both factions have a massive body of fiction to support them and active miniatures communities, video games etc. Although BT's foundational ethos that anything can be anything as long as both sides agree is a huge advantage. I can legally use bottle caps and peanuts as

representations of whatever unit I want. So while some like me have hundreds of minis, it does not require a second mortgage to play. Besides peanuts we can also use 3D printed minis, minis from other franchises etc. Its a much cheaper hobby to get into. Adding to the cost

value is the fact that a rule book from 1985 is still 99% valid in 2022. Things get added and occasionally tweaked but the basic mechanics have not changed. Instead of Rules revisions as a mechanism to drive sales, BT uses tech creep. As technology advances and manufacturers add

new models, the natural drive is to buy more stuff.... but... you don't have to. This open acceptance of less than licensed minis and a stable rules set is oen reasons BT has seen such an inflow of new players fleeing the Imperium of Man and looking for a new game that isn't so

stick in the butt about things. I hope you both enjoyed this quick essay.