BattleTech UK Open

The Catalyst Demo Team is proud to present the first UK Open tournament!

The Open is a format unique to BattleTech and has proved exceptionally popular over the decades both at the big US conventions and in a Europe-wide competitive circuit.  Rather than selecting your own forces, you’re given a small selection of options for each round that are determined by the tournament organisers, allowing for a level playing field between the players while still giving interesting selections of weapons and technology in each round.

Full tournament rules are available here with the following modifications:

• There are four rounds in the event
• Rounds last 90 minutes
• Pairings are available before the event
• Maps for the games are pre-set
• You have one edge point per round instead of two for the tournament.
• Prior to the beginning of a round, you may designate ammo bays for the following weapons to be carrying any of the ammo types listed in parenthesis after them: LB-X autocannons (solid or cluster), MMLs (LRM or SRM), ATMs (ER, Standard, or High Explosive).  Any appropriate missile launcher can mount NARC or Artemis-compatible missiles.

The following optional rules are in use:

• Floating critical hits (TW:AR pg. 75, BMM pg. 45)
• Enhanced flamers (BMM, pg. 99)
• Weighted Initiative. When a player loses initiative, they gain a +1 bonus to the subsequent turn’s initiative roll.  This is cumulative–if they lose initiative again, they gain a +2 bonus on the next turn.  The bonus is removed when the player wins initiative, and the other player will gain a +1 on their next turn.
• In round 1 only, the dazzle mode rules (Gothic, pg 79) are in effect
• In round 1 only, all pilots count as Frayed MechWarriors for the purposes of taking damage from dazzle mode lasers (Gothic: pg 78)

Schedule:

10:00 Registration

10:30-12:00 Round 1

12:30-14:00 Round 2

14:00 Lunch

15:00-16:30 Round 3

17:00-18:30 Round 4

19:00 Results and prize giving

The forces are:

Round 1: The bats have left the bell tower, the victims have been bled. Red velvet lines the black box

1. Marauder MAD-3H (3/4) and Phoenix Hawk PHX-11T (4/4)
2. Marauder MAD-3H (4/4) and Hammer Hawk PXH-1S (3/4)
3. Marauder MAD-3H (4/4) and Phoenix Hawk Special PXH-1GU (3/3)
4. Rifleman RFL-3B (3/3) and Phoenix Hawk PHX-11T (3/5)
5. Rifleman RFL-3B (3/5) and Hammer Hawk PXH-1S (3/3)
6. Rifleman RFL-3B (3/4) and Phoenix Hawk Special PXH-1GU (2/5)

Round 2: Let off a sharp burst and then turn away, roll over, spin 'round to come in behind them

1. Nova Cat E (3/4) and Grizzly 3 (3/3)
2. Nova Cat E (2/4) and Thunderbolt IIc 2 (3/4)
3. Nova Cat E (3/3) and Rifleman C 2 (3/3)
4. Thor (Summoner) D (2/5) and Grizzly 3 (4/4)
5. Thor (Summoner) D (4/4) and Thunderbolt IIc 2 (2/4)
6. Thor (Summoner) D (4/3) and Rifleman C 2 (3/3)

Round 3: Some sort of computer game nonsense

1. Thanatos THS-4S (Felix) (4/4) and Hellspawn HSN-9F (2/4)
2. Thanatos THS-4S (Felix) (3/5) and Uziel UZL-2S (Jacob) (3/5)
3. Thanatos THS-4S (Felix) (3/4) and Chimera CMA-1S (4/5)
4. Argus AGS-5D (3/5) and Hellspawn HSN-9F (3/3)
5. Argus AGS-5D (3/4) and Uziel UZL-2S (Jacob) (4/5)
6. Argus AGS-5D (3/5) and Chimera CMA-1S (3/5)

Round 4: The boys from the special boxes

1. Penetrator PTR-7D (4/4)
2. Thunder Hawk TDR-7Y (4/5)
3. Dragon Fire DGR-5F (3/4)
4. Axman AXM-5N (4/5)
5. Spartan SPT-NF (2/4)
6. Tian-Zong TNZ-N3 “Jasminda” (3/4)

Record sheets and equipment rules can be found here

After purchasing your ticket please fill out this form  to submit your force selections before 22nd May 2026