Lorescape Kickstarter First Look: Battletech Terrain Tiles

 Hey Folks, we’re back today with a first look at the officially licensed Battletech terrain tiles from Lorefoundry.  These are the newest terrain products to the battletech ecosystem, and they have a lot of advantages going for them.  Let’s dig in to what the product is, and then we’ll discuss what they do for the gamer at the table.  Sound good?

These hex tiles sit atop existing paper and neoprene mats and add elevation and other tactical terrain features to your games of Battletech (and to an extent Alpha Strike).  The colored plastic tiles add weight and height to the map, and the caps for battlefield conditions like smoke, fire, trees, or objectives make these more layered and nuanced than other products.  Ive seen the pictures of folks at the home office building entire maps out of them, which i find an interesting way to build your own maps for the budding map designer. 

Note, the tiles are “half height” meaning that a level 1 increase in elevation in the game is represented by a single tile. (If they were scale accurate, they would be twice as tall).  This is an intentional design on the part of the manufacturer, citing production costs, packaging, and storage concerns.  For those interested, they do offer plain filler tiles that you, the map maker, can use to plump up your hills and mountains for a scale accurate battlefield.  

So, some questions:

What are these made of?

ABS injection molded high strength plastic.  The graphics are UV printed directly on the tile and these things have an expected service life of 20+ years of  week in, week out gaming.  They won’t stop bullets, but they will survive the rough and tumble life of tabletop gaming.  

How many tiles come in a box?  

The two primary options for the box are 200 and 300 tiles that represent a specific biome or terrain type.  The biomes unlocked so far are Companion (for the battletech Core Box). Grasslands, Desert, Savannah, Tundra, and Lunar.   Note, the 200 tile boxes only include Grasslands, Savannah, and Desert.  You’ll need to upgrade to the 300 to get the other biome choices.  Further choices are available as stretch goals for the campaign.  

How many tiles do i need for my *Insert map here*?  

Conveniently, our friend at the home office have included a chart to tell you specifically how many tiles you need per map set and neoprene map.  Ive added that chart here, though you can also follow this link back to the kickstarter page here.

How much are these tiles?  

As these folks are in Poland, the currency system used is Euros, and the 200 tile single biome box is priced at 70 Euros (check local exchange rates) and the 300 tile biome is priced at 100 Euros.  Now there are larger packs and groupings of packs listed in the kickstarter page for you to explore.  I’m not sure what the retail breakdown is going to look like when these make into the FLGS/internet economy, yet, but these will be in retail stores eventually.  

Why should i buy these?

Honestly, that’s a personal choice to you the consumer, but these are a neat way to represent elevation changes that are easy to read for the player.  As someone with problems seeing things, this is kind of an exceptional tool for it. I plan on picking up one of the 300 tile biome kits for when i’m running events and hosting games at our table.  Yes, this is an accessory, but its a very solid accessory for its price point.  

Currently, the Kickstarter has been running since the 15th of october and looks like it has 20 days left.  Its met its backing goal and is  cruising towards some stretch goals as of the time of publication.  Back this if you want a new way to look at your battletech table.  I will be. Back the Kickstarter here