Every now and then I like to poke at the boundaries of two very different fictional universes and see what happens if you force them to line up. Lately my brain decided to run BattleTech and Warhammer 40,000 through the blender. Not a matchup of who-would-win fanboy nonsense, but a genuine thought experiment: what if you tried to translate units from one setting into the language of the other?
The first stop was the illustrious Dreadnought. In 40K they’re these entombed, lumbering coffins of ceramite and rage, revered relics that stride across the battlefield with lascannons, assault cannons, flamers and power fists. But scale them against BattleTech and suddenly they’re too small, too under-armed to really shift anything on the field of battle. What they actually line up with, once you squash the cinematic inflation of 40K’s writing down into BattleTech’s colder calculus, are ProtoMechs. Slower than Protos, but heavily armoured, armed with vehicle-scale weapons (small lasers, HMGs, flamers, SRM-2 packs), and brutal in melee. The Dreadnought slots perfectly as a strange heavy Proto: terrifying against infantry and vehicles, unimpressive in a proper ‘Mech duel.
Thinking of vehicles and contrasts- Predators were next. In 40K they’re Space Marine MBTs, 42–44 tonnes of armoured box with either an autocannon or twin lascannons in the turret, plus heavy bolter or lascannon sponsons. Against 40K infantry, they’re gods. Against actual BattleMechs? They look laughably undergunned. By my mapping: lascannon = small laser, autocannon = Light AC/2, heavy bolter = machine gun. Which means the Predator Destructor is basically a 45-ton Goblin tank in BT, but armed like a very nervous militia. From the 40K perspective, it’s balanced. From the BT perspective, it’s a well-armoured bus with popguns bolted on.
Terminators versus Elementals is a long standing argument among the franchise fans. It’s my humble understanding that Astartes in power armour are not Elementals; they’re a curious in-between; better than baseline infantry, but not sporting true vehicle-scale guns as standard. Terminators, though? That’s the match. Both carry shoulder-mounted missile packs, both lug heavy guns that in any sane world would be stuck on a vehicle, and both have melee gear explicitly designed to crack open armour plate. Storm bolter = AP mount, assault cannon = BA heavy MG, cyclone launcher = SRM-2 pack, chainfist = battle claw. The parallel is so clean it almost feels like plagiarism. Both are elite armoured infantry, terrifying precisely because they break the rules of what infantry is “supposed” to do.
The indulgent cherry on top of my daydreaming was the SpiderMech, that bizarre relic that is in the orbit of non-canon BT lore. A 150–200 ton monster with plasma PPCs and giant missile racks. It’s taller than an Atlas and can crush 70-tonners with its legs. It’s not really a BattleMech anymore (it even breaches the BT ‘accepted’ limits) it functions like a like a classic 40k Titan. Put it nose to nose with an actual Warhound Titan and you don’t get Mech vs Titan—you get Titan vs Titan. Suddenly the silly SpiderMech makes sense if you think of it as a proto-Titan analogue.
BattleTech assumes every unit must be relevant in a world where 100-ton walking tanks exist. 40K assumes everything must look awe-inspiring compared to a guardsman with a flashlight gun. Once you understand that, the mismatches are less jarring. Dreads become Protos. Predators become Goblins. Terminators become Elementals. And the SpiderMech? Well, it finally find a game universe where it makes more sense.
Just thought I’d share on this subject, it’s been a long time fan-debate and I’m sure those that read it and care will have an opinion…