Challenge Magazine was published for a span of ca. 55 issues, starting its count in the mid-20s (!), during the late 80s/early 90s. It was the in-house publication of GDW and as such its flag-ship game articles were Traveller (2300) and Twilight: 2000. Like all gaming magazines of the time, games of other companies were covered, too - even White Dwarf featured a review of BatteDroids!
The games that were the focus of this magazine meshed *very* well with the numerous BattleTech articles that were published. Sadly (for this site), most of the articles were some rather excellent scenarios or interesting experimental rule expansions. There were only a few, albeit excellent TRO articles.
Please note:
all record sheets created with Heavy Metal programmes, all BV = BV 1
'Mechs:
Afterburner: Pending completion. Bear with me, this is going to be a mess....
Cestus: Challenge #44, pp. 88-89, ________________. This one is not an original Challenge publication. Dale L. Kemper (of TRO: 3025 fame) had this design published in Space Gamer #79 of 8/9 1987. The text and the stats are identical. The picture is completely new. The original picture was drawn by John Bridges and was an exact reproduction of the Cestus BattleDroid, the Challenge picture was drawn by _________ and represented a new design that had more in common with a Rifleman than either the BattleDroid or the 3058 Cestus. A final paragraph at the end of the article featured in the Space Gamer article, only:
PLEASE NOTE! Ral Partha Enterprises offers a fine scale model of the CST-3S in their extensive BATTLETECH miniatures line (Catalog Number 20-814). Check them out at your local gaming supply store.
Armour allocation incorrect. Originally had a CT armour distribution of 35/8, 1 over maximum. I removed 2 points and added one each to the legs (which were shown with 14 instead of 15 internals, thus capping at 28). Jump jets were not allocated, I put them in the legs to mirror the BattleAx(e). Also originally had 12 heat sinks an thus was 2 tons overweight. It is strange that these errors were not fixed for the Challenge reprint. This explains the two throwaway remarks about A) "additional heat sinks" and B) less heat sinks on the variant.
Armour allocation and model number of variant by me
Listed speed: 46.7 kph / 62.6 kph.
Vehicles:
Free F
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