I noted in my look at MechWarrior Online that I dabbled with the franchise with MechWarrior 2 and its expansions in the '90s, but that was it. I didn't play any of the Crescent Hawk RPGs, nor the original tabletop game. But lately, courtesy of my smartphone and tablet, I've been playing a lot of digital adaptations of board games--stuff like Neuroshima Hex or Carcassone. Right in the middle of that slight shift in my gaming habits comes an idea that I would have dismissed immediately if you presented it to me a year ago, but I'm actually intrigued by today: a free-to-play browser based collectible card game (CCG)-style MechWarrior.

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The stompy mech game has returned, at long last, though curiously as a free-to-play phenomenon. Hawken and Reign of Thunder have the FPS action side of honking great robots covered, while MechWarrior Online is taking the sim approach, and MechWarrior Tactics is returning to MW's turn-based tabletop roots. The first screenshots of MW Tactics have dropped, showing a hex-based grid, terrain obstacles, and lances of jolly nice robots.

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Roadhouse Interactive and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games have announced that they're partnering with the newly-formed entity Infinite Game Publishing to deliver MechWarrior Tactics, a free-to-play, turn-based tactical combat game for PC later this year.

Set in the year 3025, MechWarrior Tactics will feature asynchronous, turn-based combat, and a large variety of customization options.

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