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Battletech's an interesting game. I got into it around the third edition after picking up the 3025 technical readout just because of how great it looked. The flavour text for the mechs was really fantastic.
The quality of the rules are quite good. At its heart, the game isn't that complicated, and the core mechanics have been explained through so many editions that there really aren't a lot of questions. (The GW style is quite a contrast, with lots of rationale mixed in with the rules, and with innumerable per-unit or per-army rules. I do prefer Epic, but the rules aren't nearly as tight.)
The game feels closer-ranged than it actually is, because the miniatures aren't in scale with the board. (They're actually about four times the size they should be.) This is handled somewhat inconsistently in the mechanics, to the effect that a half-ton laser only shoots three times as far as punching distance.
The main, make-it-or-brake-it aspect of the game is damage resolution. It's something of a demolition derby game, where half the fun is watching the mechs get gradually blasted apart. Armour gets bashed in, joints seize, weapons are blown off and ammunition explosions can blast whole 'mechs apart.
The weapons are quite distinctive. Spreads of missiles strike multiple spots, so they're great at causing critical damage once a few holes are poked in the armour. The heaviest weapon, the Autocannon/20, is large enough to destroy smaller 'mechs outright.
Because of the mechanics, this is always done in some sort of evocative way - autocannon shells ripping through the cockpit, a missile plunging into the hole left by a previous hit. If you go for this sort of thing, it's a lot of fun.
All of this takes time, however. Pre-printed 'mech sheets are vital for keeping the game moving quickly (each 'mech has 11 external hit locations), but even so, it's really a skirmish-level game. A friend and I have recently gotten back into it, and though most of the rules and weapon stats are committed to memory, a six-'mech game can take an evening.
As a result, the 'strategy' of the game isn't all that obvious. There are the usual sensible things to do - concentrate your fire, don't get flanked, etc. Nevertheless, it's invariably a bloodbath. The winning side frequently has to hop away in a single one-legged 'mech.
Now, I'm talking about "old tech" Battletech. Since that time, numerous new 'mechs have come out, with a peculiarly explicit form of power creep: new mechs are twice as good as the old ones. The weapons shoot further, do more damage, have to-hit bonuses. The armour's better, and the heat sinks are twice as good.
I have a certain nostalgia for the old 'mechs; they had their warts and deficiencies, but they have character. The sheer variety of mechs available now, and in particular the omnimechs (who have hardpoints instead of specific weapons, and can take a different player-customized load-out for every game) reduces this significantly.
I confess that I haven't actually played a medium-sized game with the new mechs. I was thinking about it a while ago, however, and I'm wondering if the lethality of the game has been upped. That would improve play, I suspect.
You'd still get the detailed damage effects a lot of the time, but more effective shooting would let you field more 'mechs, since they wouldn't last as long. Turn 10 of an old tech Battletech game is normally a pretty sorry sight.
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