I have a couple of questions….

1. Is Dust Tactics similar to Battletech in the way of using a map? Not necessarily  hex based but at least board based.

2. Is it required to paint the minis or are they color coded based on the faction?

Thanks… 

 Yes and yes, maps are square tiles and everything is pre-assembled and and painted with primer by faction allies are green, axis grey and ssu is yellowish. AlSo all model can be bought in a pre painted premium edition and if the square grid is not your thing dust warfare is closer to a traditional table top game and uses inches for ranges and movement without a grid.

I'd like to point out that while Battletech and Dust tactics both use boards, the rules for Dust tactics are much simpler than the Battletech rules. Gameplay is a lot faster in DT, and there is less dice rolling and keeping track of damage to units. On the other hand, units in DT can die rather quickly and the rules for combat don't reflect the unit's situation as well as in BT.

1) I would say that the biggest difference between BT and DT is that all weapons fire in BT happens simultaneously toward the end of the round, but each individual unit in DT completes all of its actions when activated.

In other words: all units on a BT board move in the "you go, then I go" fashion, then they all shoot at the same time; DT units are activated in the "you go, then I go" fashion. DT units individually move & shoot, with each unit completing all of its actions during its activation.

As a long time BT player who "converted" to DT, it took a little getting used to …

2) Yes, each faction's minis are primed in a unique color.