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The first Paint Roulette Invitational was a huge success. So much so that Round 2 was all but inevitable. This time around we had more painters, more options and some incredible raffle prize support for all participants courtesy of Fortress Miniatures and Games. Random paint plans, no judges’ panel, no scoreboards, no bull.

Recently, I was in a major painting slump. I needed to stretch my legs and shake off some rust after a long downtime. But nothing jumped out at me. Nothing spoke to me. I had in the not-too-distant past finished a whopper of a commission and some of my own big projects. Call it the…

Here is a list of model manufacturers and other purveyors of tabletop wargaming goodness, many of them my personal favorites in a given category. If you’re looking for your next favorite mech, padding your vehicle bays or just cruising for stuff to kit out your table, you are bound to find something to your taste below.

Battletech is nominally a skirmish game, but has garnered a reputation as a game that takes a long time to get through. How long? If you are lucky, you can slog through a small scuffle by lunchtime on the day of your funeral. With effort, a company-sized engagement will wrap up before our sun goes out. Hyperbole, yes, but only just if you aren’t running your games with an eye toward efficiency.

Even though most of the firefights in BattleTech are portrayed as happening at short ranges, I don’t believe forcing the fight into these ranges is a good thing. And that outcome is all but certain if you play on a map or board that is too small.

BattleTech’s single biggest strength is also a pretty big hurdle for new players. When any dense, deep-dish, mega-crunchy sci-fi property like this has run for so long, basically unchanged, it accumulates quite a baggage train. That can make it intimidating and hard to navigate for newcomers.