Top products from r/mechwarrior

my friend, I've read around ten to twelve random books from the battletech line, my favorite by far is definitely the Legend of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy

It's an amazing read, none of the BT books are really expensive anymore, so I'd pick up a few that are mentioned in this post.

I haven't decided yet, but these are the ones I've found so far that look like they match my criteria:

Saitek Aviator

Thrustmaster T.16000M

Cyborg V.1

The important things are they can be operated left handed and they have an easily accessible throttle. Problem is, none of them look very high quality. Unfortunately it seems like all the high-end ones are right handed. Right now I'm leaning toward the aviator as the throttle placement looks like it will be easier to use one handed. Then again I might just bind the Y-axis to throttle and leave it at that.

For minis the lance packs like these are available (costs you around $12 average): https://www.amazon.com/Catalyst-Game-Labs-35715CAT-BattleTech/dp/B00SYI25WG

You can also buy pre-made terrain too... search around.

Edit: For maps... probably get her some battlemats, search around for cheaper options for your budget. Battlemats have printed terrain on rubber backing, something like this: http://www.tablewar.com/the-f-a-t-mat/3x3-f-a-t-mat/ Make sure to get the ones with hexes or get some PDFs and print them out in kinkos or something.

Maybe hit the official BT website and print out the free quick start rules and some mech sheets (laminate them and supply a couple of dry-erase markers too) to give your mom a personal starter set.

If you specifically want to tinker with it and mess around with settings or drivers go for it, that's fun too.

If you just want to play games I'd recommend just getting a new HOTAS. There's a Thrustmaster stick and throttle for maybe $50 that is really good for the money: https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-Flight-Stick-PC/dp/B001CXYMFS

Sounds like you've gotten covered on the Tabletop wargame aspect of things so let me give you some book recommendations.
I'll link amazon UK stuff since that's where you are.

First off, The Warrior Trilogy. It's about the 4th succession war & events leading up to it. I'm only seeing Kindle version on Amazon UK but it is in print again so you might be able to find paperback copies somewhere if you prefer that. I found paperbacks I bought for a friend on Amazon US.
This is my personal recommendation for a starting point.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071992LLM/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

The Grey Death Saga is highly touted, though I'm loathe to admit I haven't read this one. Need to fix that. The individual books appear to be available on Amazon UK but the reading order isn't terribly obvious so I found this site which lists [& sells] them:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/saga-of-the-grey-death-legion/39093/

Wolves on the Border is about one of the major Mercenary Units & their dealings with the Draconis Combine whom aren't very friendly towards mercs in general. I enjoyed this one, along with "Wolf Pack" which is about a civil war within the same unit ~30 or so years after the events of "Wolves on the Border."
Don't read Wolf Pack before the next one though, because timelines.

This will be the last recommendation I make right now. Though there are many other good books, these will get you started on the book lore.

The Blood of Kerensky trilogy.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071992LLM/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

It's about the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere told mainly from the perspective of Clan Wolf. I'd recommend reading The Warrior Trilogy before this one because spoilers about certain events that happen in that.

If you're looking for something that it HOTAS, I just got a Thrustmaster T-Flight, it runs about $50. When the game first came out, I had an MS Sidewinder and it did a fine job except it didn't have Z-Axis for torso twist. I'm actually finding that having throttle and some of the buttons in my left hand is actually really nice. One word of warning, there are two inputs for z-axis on this setup, the twisting stick and a rocker on the front of the throttle. The game does not recognize the rocker.

If you're looking for something on a budget, the thrustmaster t16000m joystick and throttle are pretty solid. Also if you choose to move to a dual stick setup, the t16000m sticks are configurable for both hands

Thrustmaster T16000M FCS HOTAS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KCHPRXA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ile2DbZXHCDWW

This is pretty straightforward for SOME versions.
You need to pay attention to which edition of MW2 you have. The first one I had was this edition http://www.amazon.com/MechWarrior-ATi-3D-Rage-Edition/dp/B000BERQ8O
Which would only play through a tedious tutorial setup which ends with you always running the game through dosbox.

Titanium edition, however, is as simply as putting the disk in, and running MechVM

I've been an avid reader of the Battletech books and played through all the MW games on PC, along with the Mech Assault 1&2 on Xbox. I wanted to try out the tabletop game myself so I recently purchased the Beginner's Box. Check it out. There are a lot of expansions to the tabletop game with more mechs and scenarios.

Battletech Beginner's Box - Amazon

I mainly use the 3D Logitech Pro joystick for my flight sims and other games that needs a flight stick including the Mechwarrior games. https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-3D-Pro-Joystick-Windows/dp/B00009OY9U

Not too fancy but it gets the job done for the price.

I'm all about compensating authors etc for their work, but let's get serious.

Ugh, I just tried to respond to this and it failed me, so I have to start over. You remember those separate gaming pads? Like this? You could make a set of those that do whatever you wanted.
https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Orbweaver-Chroma-Progammable-Adjustable/dp/B013P0HW7K/ref=asc_df_B013P0HW7K/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312181276443&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10605063449593392509&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031328&hvtargid=pla-352077304559&psc=1

Yep, there was a Mech Assault game called "Mech Assault Phantom War" for the Nintendo DS.

Here's a link to the Amazon page:
https://www.amazon.com/Mech-Assault-Phantom-War-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000E4FD9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500670091&sr=8-1&keywords=mechassault+ds