BattleTech Card Game

The BattleTech card game that was put out by Wizards of the Coast is actually a lot of fun. It's great to be able to grab a deck of cards and have a quick battle, and then do some shuffling and have a whole new game. The game is no longer produced, but it's not too difficult to find some old packs lying around or someone looking to unload their collection.

Melissa Steiner-Davion. Hubba hubba.

After releasing the original card deck and four expansion packs, the card layout was redesigned and the majority of the old cards were released in a massive new set entitled Commander's Edition. One expansion pack called Arsenal was released in the new format before the game was abandoned in early 1999. It's sad when good things come to an end, and I recall at the time being upset that now I had two styles of card that don't look good when combined in a deck. Although Commander's Edition was meant to renew interest in the game, I believe it killed the playerbase that existed at the time. We bought a few pre-constructed decks to use, but continued to play with the old-style cards.

Below you'll find links to some of the factions in the Battletech Card Game. We were an interesting bunch because each of us preferred a different Great House, which made trading and collecting house specific cards much easier. The House Kurita player also had a Clan Wolf deck, Marik had a Jaguar, and Comstar had a Ghost Bear, but they weren't played as often as the Inner Sphere decks.

Faction Overviews by Black Venom:
House Davion
House Steiner
House Kurita
House Liao
House Marik
St Ives Compact
Comstar
Banned List:
Effective Groundwork
Dasher D Firemoth
Elite MechWarrior
Disguised Coordinates
Deck Building Restrictions:
Maximum of 60 cards
Maximum of 10 elementals and vehicles
Should follow Universe Construction Rules
Card Lists:
Limited Edition, released Nov 3, 1996
Counterstrike, released Apr 15, 1997
Mercenaries, released Aug 18, 1997
Mechwarrior, released Nov 10, 1997
Arsenal, released Mar 23, 1998
Commander's Edition, released Aug 11, 1998, and complete list of Box powers
Crusade, released Nov 2, 1998