| So...updates. Right. I'm new to this, bear with me.
Hrm. Well, I suppose I could talk of this amusing (to myself anyway) even that happened earlier this week, but first, some background for it.
My friends were fans of the Battletech CCG. Apparently it all started when one of them received a starter pack from his grandmother. Of course, I ended up playing a game of it at one of my friend's birthday parties during Grade 9 (Yes, I am a wee young grasshopper compared to you fifty something BattleDroid fiends  ) and I then followed them in picking up the Mechwarrior 3 PC game... and from there, finally, I picked up the Battletech 4th Edition game.
Unfortunately, while we were all running a Mechwarrior3 online Clan... there was not a lot of oppertunities to play the actual tabletop. A few of them didn't like it (Blasphemy, I know) and well...we were already playing the Card Game daily, and running a PC Clan, which filled most of our Battletech needs.
While I had a store that sold many of the FASA products (and later FanPro), and those products would mysteriously disappear from the shelves, the only game that was played at the shop usually was WarHammer40K. The other Battletech players simply played at home. Due to family activities during the weekends, I wasn't one (a lowly teenager) to try and gather the university students and even older fans that already had their games at home to play at the store.
So, case in point, I played very little of the actual Battletech game. I purchased Aerotech2, and MW3rd, to never play them. Over the course of four and a half years, I had maybe played half a dozen Battletech games.
So now... (yes, finally, we are finished with the back story I think) I am standing outside building number four in downtown Maastricht, just this past Wednesday (The 17th) chatting with my fellow students. One of the girls (from Bulgaria) is a big fan of Age of Empires 2. I had mentioned offhand that I'm a fan of Pencil and Paper games. Another of my fellow students hears me, and asks me what game. I reply something along the lines of 'oh, just some pencil and paper game'
Now, what you must understand (okay, I lied, more backstory, but this is quick) is that I tried to find other Battletech players here in Maastricht. I went to both game shops, and was told...several times, that the Dutch simply do not like Battletech for the simple reason that it is too german! The extra detail that I love about the game, such as critical hits, damage locations, deciding which weapons to fire is too... detailed, too militaristic, too imperial, too German! They prefer Dark Age (although I have yet to see it being played in the shops) and...of course, Warhammer.
So. I'm asked again, what pencil and paper game, outside our classroom. I sigh, I reply 'Battletech'. He of course asks 'Battletech?'. So I begin the line that I have said too many times to count over the years. Yes, Battletech is the pencil and paper version of Mechwarrior, a PC game currently by Microsoft...etc. etc.
Except he cuts me off. As soon as I say 'Yes' his arms go up in the air, he grins, and exclaims 'Battletech!'
It turns out that he, unlike me, had not given up hope of finding another player. He, unlike me, still looked for others, and he, unlike me, still asked if the other played Battletech when pencil and paper games came up. Oh, and yes, he isn't Dutch, but German 
So that afternoon, four of us went out for a drink and a bite to eat. While the girls talked other things, such as Age of Empires occaisionally, my conversation with Alex kept returning to things like... 'Clans' and 'LBx20s' and 'Smoke Jaguars' and 'Inner Sphere'. It was...surreal. I have typed 'Maxtech' out on the keyboard who knows how many times. I have discussed it, or mentioned it with my hands online too many times to count.
Never, to my knowledge, have I said it outloud. Perhaps 'Maximum Tech' or maybe I did say it, years ago... but it still felt strange. Alien. It felt... wierd to be using my mouth instead of my hands to discuss Battletech.
So, he and I agreed. The next day my backpack was much heavier then usual. After our QM2 quiz, he and I headed off. We grabbed a drink at a pub until the shop opened at 1Pm, and there... where only White Wolf RPG and WarHammer games have been played... hex covered mapsheets were laid out. Pewter figures were set up... diced rolled, and ammunition depleted, armour boxes were crossed off, and german 'mechs fell  The good ol' red Maple Leaf flew that day above the red, black and yellow.
Damn! It feels good to play an actual game again! MegaMek is good but... just doesn't compare
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Airmail, and took approximately four times the price it would have had I needed it flown to Florida...
