Does Bernd know about Battletech? I remember I posted about Battletech the pc game some time ago and there was a minimal interest. Well I got into the tabletop version.
If someone isn't aware what it is, it's basically about giant robots (battlemechs) shooting and punching each other in the distant but not too much distant future (few hundreds years from now).
There's actually few games under that brand: there's the wargame that has like multiple levels of complexity and whether you want to include ground vehicles and spaceships or not; there's Alpha Strike game which is supposed to be very simple and fast; lastly there's the RPG A Time of War where you focus on playing as people and not the mechs, but it strongly encourages to mix it with the wargame (for example the free pdf the creators put on their website has a adventure where the last chapter can be played either as a Battletech or Alpha Strike game).
There's ton of fiction as well and the game lore and what not for all the nerds who like to get into this kind of stuff. I find myself slowly drawn into this while I distance myself from warhammer 40k. As a wargame it feels much more cooler and dramatic, with lots of memorable moments. Im talking about situations like when you score a lucky headshot on an opponent and kill the pilot while keeping his machine intact, or when your mech is badly damaged, limbs blown off and your wounded pilot is doing his best to escape and preserve his life while constantly under fire. Or when your guns got disabled so you uproot a tree or pick up a blown off arm and proceed to beat your opponent to death with it as an improvised club.
I own a boxed set A Game of Armored Combat which has everything you need to play (the figurines, the mapsheets, rulebook etc., just not enough dices) which I occasionally play with friends. Ofc there's a lot more stuff that you buy separately, but unfortunately its kind of lacking. The current producer of those things (Catalyst Game Labs) got their license somewhat recently and they're not a big or popular company like Games Workshop, so some mechs and other things exist only on paper, or as older models (which imo look not good) or 3d prints people made themselves. Thankfully they're constantly working and expanding their wares so this problem can be solved by simply waiting (or getting into 3d modelling and printing).
There's also this fan made application called MegaMek which you can use to play the tabletop wargame on pc, either against other people or against a somewhat competent bot. It's very good at simulating all the original rules (which tbh can feel bloated sometimes), but it also doesnt teach you anything on how to play the game itself, which as I understand it is to avoid any copyright strikes and related stuff. What many people do (myself included) is to play a campaign in megamek where you take on contracts as a mercenary unit, manage your staff, your mechs, finances, logistics etc. Application takes care of computing everything, generating avaiable contracts, stuff on the market, what opponents you will face. You could even print the generated stuff, play a tabletop battle and then input the results back into your pc campaign.
Catalyst have free pdf with introductory rules on their website, I think its enough to get a taste of how the game feels like and perhaps get into full game in MegaMek without the need to get the full rulebook.