I now own one starter and two boosters of MechWarrior, and have a nice long 300-point game under my belt. With these new developments, I can say with definite confidence that MechWarrior has many more robots than Mage Knight does. Like, at least ten.
Also, the problems that stand out in my mind are things like fiddliness – the special attacks (like vehicle rams, ‘Mech charges, and Death From Above – actually, that’s all of them) each operate slightly differently and the differences are tough to remember. The formations have the same problem. We were also constantly looking up the special equipment stuff, but you have to kind of expect that when they specifically printed up a quick reference card for them. Some special abilities don’t have the kinds of effects you expect them to, though – when Evade is encoded as a red patch on Speed, but its ability is to let you reroll attacks made against you, you aren’t necessarily going to notice it immediately because the Speed number doesn’t normally get involved in defending attacks. I guess that even with clicky dials, you still have to know your units.
Keep an eye on the small vehicles and tanks – we weren’t expecting them to be as effective in our game as they were. Some of those tanks are wicked strong and not as expensive as they look. Also, have someone with Repair out there if you’re like me and like to charge in blindly with your ‘Mech because it’s fun, instead of using actual tactics.
I might get impulsive and play in a sealed pack tourney at the store next week – we shall see.