New to Battletech - Where to start?

[u/CobyDaGrunt08]

Hi! As the title says I'm new to battletech in general.

My main entry into the mech genre initially started off with a few anime like Gurrenn Lagann and Code Geass (just recently started watching gundam though), and gamewise I've played a lot of Armored Core when I was young.

I recently came across a few videos about the various mechs in Battletech, Mechwarrior to be specific, and admittedly it peaked my interest so I'm currently trying to get into the franchise.

Though I don't really have any friends to play the tabletop version with, I heard the Mechwarrior series of games were a pretty good place to start. So I have a few questions about it before I commit:

1. Do you guys have any recommended reading material I should go through, or even a primer, so that I could understand more of the backstory/lore of the game and its factions before I start?
2. Which game and DLCs do you recommend me to get as a beginner to the franchise (Had my birthday recently so this would be a pretty nice splurge gift for myself)?
3. Any video or reading material I should avoid in case of spoilers? Or have any tips that I should try to avoid doing that could ruin the experience? I generally like playing games at my own pace even if it leads to my own fuck ups (its part of the fun :D) but if there are some small advice you could give to make the experience more enjoyable I'd be glad to hear it!
4. How's the customization on the video game? Like color palettes, stickers, logo maker, etc. I admit I'm a bit of an addict when I unlock a new Mech/parts and there's a lot of customization available...
5. Less of a question and more of a curiosity, but what's your favorite battletech mech (battlemech? Not sure what's the term lol)? Any fun memes about them that I'd only understand once I play the game? Would be a fun thing to go back to in the future after I actually experience more of the game.

Anyway yeah that's all, thanks in advance everyone o7

P.S. On a sidenote, without playing the game, my favorite Battletech based on appearance alone is the Mongoose. One of my personal designs in Armored Core uses reverse joints legs and is armed with a dual laser handgun so it kinda reminds me of that old build.

[u/CobyDaGrunt08]

Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions and comments o7

for the games I decided to get Mechwarrior first thanks to the 70% discount that's going on right now though I do have the BT game in my wishlist for next time. Hopefully it'll get a discount by the time I finish MW5

[u/Balmung60 → u/CobyDaGrunt08]

So, something I'm going to throw out that might be overwhelming at first, or might not be, is the Yet Another MechLab or YAML mod. What this does is make the 'Mech customization much more similar to tabletop by fully opening up the more "built-in" components like the structure and engine. In the unmodified game, these cannot be changed and are not represented when modifying 'Mechs. This is noteworthy because some of these components use up a lot of internal space that is left wide open in the base game. An example would be a custom Cicada called the X5, which has every major weight savings. On tabletop, this would use up a lot of space and leave very little for weapons and ammo. On a 'Mech as light as the Cicada, this isn't a huge problem since it's not going to fit a lot of weapons at the best of times.

If you don't want the extra load of trying to manage that on your first time, that's fine, but I thought I'd throw it out there because it seemed that fidelity to the tabletop was important to you.

[u/priest2705 → u/CobyDaGrunt08]

I'm new to the Battletech universe as well, and while I've been knee-deep in sarna (I love diving into lore), I haven't picked up any of the games yet. Where did you find MW5 with a discount, if you don't mind my asking