“Crush Your Enemies” 1996 BattleTech Fourth Edition Advertisement

If a brand remains on store shelves for enough years, there comes a time when you get to watch a complete visual refresh, with the general art style and tone of the brand changing to remain relevant and exciting for the marketplace. In the world of game publishing, that refresh often joins with a new edition, such as we see in this 1996 ad for the BattleTech boardgame. Boardgame or war game? Or is it a miniatures game? An RPG? BattleTech has always blurred the lines when it comes to game style, though I think it is safest to call it a miniatures boardgame since that is how I best remember the game. Send your unit (or units, if running a lance battle) to attack your enemy and blast away until one of you is wiped from the map. Yes, so very much fun, kids.

The above advertisement comes from a 1996 issue of Pyramid magazine and features one of the coolest BattleTech paintings of the nineties.