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The Second Circuit: A Casual BattleTech Hangout is a chill, low-intensity chat with folks from the Focht's Network Events Team about the world's greatest way do to math on charts that makes big stompy robots shoot at each other. Also sometimes planes.
Stay tuned for new episodes every Monday morning!
Episodes
May 4, 2026
May 4, 2026
1 hr 10 min
Jesse and Jo are getting in depth with a brush! How do I paint missile launchers?? Sometimes there are missiles and sometimes there are not. Jo says it's a question of scale. Some mistakes can be interpreted as battle damage. Art versus 'realistic'. Context specific is important for the art. Make different parts different colours. Yell-oh-no! This applies to bases as well - Jesse can't do basing because of the risk that a desert base goes on a snow map. Jo would love to hypothetically take it a bit further. Painting is subjective in the end. Jesse is moving on to continuing to kitbash an all RAC unit. Jo hates kitbashing with missile launchers.
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Game Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Apr 27, 2026
Apr 27, 2026
1 hr 19 min
Jesse and Scott are exchanging memory cores about their homebrew gear!
- Loitering Missile Ammunition (It's a floating long-range minefield!)
- Plasma Sword (Tsushima/Yotei fans get hyped!)
- Magnetic Grapple (Lasso up a Fire Moth!)
- Torvold Drone Targeting System (Behold the Hammer of Dawn!)
- Rotary Micro Pulse Laser (Cutting down on attack rolls!)
- Scott Pod (It's a BattleMech briefcase!)
- Continuous Beam Laser (The GTVA Colossus had a ton of these)
- Scott Gun Thing (Targeting Governor - Streak PPCs!?)
- Neuro Myomer (Skilled pilots should be skilled pilots!)
- CVIS (Component Void Integration System - Make Vaccuum Playable Again!)
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Game Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Apr 20, 2026
Apr 20, 2026
1 hr 9 min
Jesse, Scott, and Jo are talking Warships! Jesse likes sc-fi because of big machines that shoot lasers. BattleTech scales well, so let's see what happens at the biggest scale. The Hunters has a cool space battle! Naval assets - using a lot of ECM? Some of the secrets are buried in many old books. The wargaming table could be like a holotank! Please don't mess with electronics if you are untrained, and please don't sue us if you do. Do we lose something not being in 3D? 2D does save a lot of mental load. There is nothing in space. Relatively. Or is there? BattleTech with no terrain sucks. Six-thousand squares!?!?!? The space battle in IKEO wasn't so great. Just one Star Destroyer; is that the golden ratio? Are the Ravens building more warships in the periphery? Is a warship fleet the ultimate weapon? Not if you're looking to actually conquer anything. Clan names, great bands, we'll have to get back to that.
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Game Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Apr 13, 2026
Apr 13, 2026
1 hr 27 min
Jesse, Jo, and Scott are talking the new Core Rule Changes! Don't take WolfNet's howl. Half ammo means less bombs. Moving into water - viable but still risky. We have invented ramps! Melee is now a thing again. Gird yourself for girders. Is there such thing as too much melee? Ammo is less dangerous, but is that less fun? Ammo explosions don't matter if you don't get shot. Autocannons - too strong? Did ATMs need a buff? C3 versus ECM, where's the balance?
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Apr 6, 2026
Apr 6, 2026
1 hr 1 min
Jesse is talking with Paul Clarkson and Josh Derksen about Adepticon! The stuff that was announced and the stuff that is yet to come! Unreleased and barely released products. Paul making enemies - violence scheduled for GenCon! Meeting the team and the Network. A New Challenger Appears - Cru joins the team! Overall impressions and hopes. Some spoilers for the third Aces box, Wrath & Reprisal. The public now knows two of the 'Mechs coming in that one!
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Mar 30, 2026
Mar 30, 2026
1 hr 6 min
Jesse, Jo, and Avalyn are talking Map-scale versus Mech-scale! Caliburns edge. Small vs Big. Artillery. Turret the weapons? If it's close, are we overtuning it? Different decks can do different things and mixing and matching can have really cool results. Capellans live to die. The laser colours! The Fortress DropShip - "Just one more thing." 3D terrain, is it turning people off? New rules, huh, yeah, what are THEY good for? Well a lot, but it'll trip you up for a bit. The old partial cover rule is a bad rule. Hardcopy books versus PDFs. Too Fast, Too Warfare. Why not just do it right the first time? When should a new 'edition' come out? Tactical Options. IS there a Firestarter protagonist?
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Mar 23, 2026
Mar 23, 2026
1 hr 16 min
Jesse and Avalyn are talking With Sean of Sarna.net! The face of the ultimate Memory Core for all of BattleTech gives us the overview of his Blake-like duties and tying it into the greater community at large. And then we dive into the real interesting stuff - objectively correct BattleTech preferences. PPCs. IS XL Engines. Hunchback Orthodoxy. Adorable Dark Age designs. Lousy Dark Age designs. Keeping up with Catalyst. Aces formations (all ENE?!?!?). Metal versus plastic. Getting old.
Check out the Sarna Discord here: https://discord.gg/CPjUMCbk36
And of course your BattleTech home base is https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/
Mar 16, 2026
Mar 16, 2026
1 hr 7 min
Jesse, Jo, and Avalyn are talking character-level fiction. People care about their MechWarriors! How do we get them to do that in game? Avalyn's RPG games are maybe a great thing to reference here. Start with giving them a name. Reward a name, and maybe stack the reward. There need to be stakes. Lineages! Points to a lineage across the ages. But don't tie gameplay rewards to writing. Battle reports, huh, yeah, What are they good for? Hinterlands campaign at Sir-Games-a-Lot, versus walk-up OpFor. A Becker campaign? Water Hazard campaign. Catalyst doesn't seem to prioritize RPGs, they've got bigger fish to fry. Are we (or just Jesse) overthinking things?
Check out Avalyn's RPGs, including the hit Beam Saber, here: https://austin-ramsay.itch.io/
Focht's Network is affiliated with the Catalyst Demo Team and associated with Catalyst Gaming Labs, and is the Events Team for Six Sides of Gaming. However all opinions expressed on this show belong solely to the people expressing them and do not reflect those of any of those entities unless otherwise stated.
Come find us and all the other cool things we're doing!
Focht Hyperpulse Discord: https://discord.gg/8uNkRGM5Nu
Focht's Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fochtsnetwork
Six Sides of Gaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sixsidesofgaming
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fochtsnetwork.bsky.social
Theme song 'Spacesynth' by Liborio Conti: https://www.no-copyright-music.com/