Battle Machines

"I don't fight to win, I don't fight cause I need the money. I fight to kill, and I'm very, very good at it."

—Carman Skiric, ~~Complete Monster~~ Commander of the Sol armies

Battle machines is a tabletop game that uses a 35mm grid and a army of mecha called a battlegroup. It was created with a simple goal be as easy to play and customizable as possible.It revolves around the aforementioned giant mecha fighting to control territory, although they aren't that interested about whats there at the moment.

The game takes place during the 34th century, Humanity had made a breakthrough in space travel. By altering the gravitational effect of their ships they are able to create permanent portals through space-time, or something. Anyway, Humanity got out there and discovered nothing but lots of planets with no life, but lots of mining potential. Colonies where set up, and after about 150 years there was a war between the colonies and Earth, only stopping after 50 years with the invention of mecha. Unable to afford the new mecha the poorer colonies surrendered to the richer, who then surrendered to Earth.

That was 400 years ago. Planets have changed sides hundreds of times, and the colony ships still fly out to try to find new planets just to reduce the fighting. Human rights don't really mean anything anymore and if you're anywhere other than on Earth you're probably going to get stepped on by the mecha you're mining metal/making parts for. Everything got worse and it won't get any better.

You can find the wiki with the rules hear: Battle Machine Wiki

Tropes used in Battle Machines include:

Abnormal Ammo: flaming black holes anyone?
Apocalypse How: type 0 happen just through the course of playing a game. depending on the value of the planet, it could be recolonised, or just simply strip mined.
Awesome but Impractical: Any mecha with more weapons than it can fire, if they can fire them all however...
Awesome Yet Practical: everything can be this, mecha with guns that shoot lightning that sets things on fire while also producing a black hole, mecha armed with nothing but chainsaws that set things on fire, mecha with miniguns that cause explosions everywhere they hit, and sets things on fire...
Beam Spam: spam shot. A weapon upgrade that adds D6 extra shots can be added to any weapon, so it could be beam spam, bullet spam, rocket spam, self contained miniature black hole spam...
Blood Knight: Carman Skiric, the guy who gave use to the wonderful page quote.
BFS: and axes, chainsaws, hammers, spears...
Critical Failure: It is possible for a mecha to damage itself while running too fast, EMP itself with a malfunctioning energy shield, overheat its minigun and fall into the enemy's shot. In. One. Turn.
Critical Existence Failure: a mech will fight at full capacity until its last point of DAM is lost. But considering how quickly a mech can be torn apart by the weapons on offer, its not like there would be much time to notice a problem.
Chainsaw Good: the chainsaw weapon, any melee weapon with the continuous ability. On an individual note, Carman Skiric has a unique mecha with FOUR chainsaws.
Energy Weapon: turn up all the time. most reduce the armour of mechs that get hit by them
Excuse Plot
Faster-Than-Light Travel: by tearing holes through reality itself.
Frickin' Laser Beams: the rather nasty Focus laser, it shares an ability with the chainsaw
Gatling Good: Just one of the many weapons is the Biggy gun, which can be upgraded with the beforementioned spam shot to gain 3d6 shots.
Humongous Mecha: and they just get bigger.
Lightning Gun: the lightning weapons.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: the reason kinetic weapons are still around is justified by this
Impossibly Cool Weapon: the misc class weapons. With the right upgrades any weapons can become this. Giant flameing, exploading sword? dont mind if I do.
Macross Missile Massacre: easy to make and terrifyingly destructive.
Mecha Mook: the TH series drones are the closest thing to mook in this game. They are also Goddamn Bats, and the bomber type is prone to exploding.
More Dakka: lots and lots of it!
Point Build System
Power Fist: its big, strong and can throw dead opponents through buildings.
The Red Planet: serves as the command base for the solar systems mecha armies.
Rocket Punch: because hitting someone in a giant mecha is cool, the mecha exploding afterwards is AWESOME!
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: There really isn't, any weapon can rip apart all but the most well defended mecha, and that's before we get into the really powerful weapons.
- Really, it could called There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Game.
Transforming Mecha: the transforming mecha base, with a healthy dose of turns red.
Serial Escalation: Well, where do we start? How many variations on a minigun wielding humongous mecha can you create, how many buildings can a mecha rip down with its bare hands, how many explosives can be mounted on one mecha before it becomes impractical...
- bonus points for having a walking fortress (a super-sized humongous mecha) called Beyond the imposible.
Spider Tank : The spider mechs, exceptionaly strong, really tough, an go over rubble without issue. however, they are a bit on the slow side.
Shout-Out: all over the place.
Shotguns Are Just Better: Averted, while cheap and with low energy requirments, shotgus dont have a lot of power or range.
Wave Motion Gun: the void weapons, also possible to make with any weapon and the right add-ons.