stats have been simplified.

Armor is equal to 1/5 of the armor factors of the mech

Weapons are noted as 'fire factors' and equates to roughly five points of damage.

So if a weapon 'hits' it takes off a point of armor.

Pretty simple.

---

How do you hit?  Much like battletech, you compare the mw gunnery skill with the targets ability to essentially get out of the way.

Add +0 for Short  Range
Add +1 for Medium Range
Add +2 for Long   Range

Target Defense Modifier

ie.  A Green Mechwarrior is trying to shoot a Locust at Short Range {+4 Def Mod +0 Range}
The Mechwarrior will need to roll '6' on a D6, followed by a second roll of 5+ to land a hit on the nimble target.

A Veteran Mechwarrior trying to hit the same target, at the same range will need only a 5+
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:00, Thu 28 Nov 2019.

So lets say your Phoenix Hawk Pilot is a regular skilled MW.

And you're shooting at say Kasanagi's Commando.

Presume there is no terrain to consider.

You look at the mechwarriors skill 'Regular' and the Mechs defense '3', and presume not adjustment for short range.


This pilot will need a roll of 5+ on a d6 to hit.  If they hit they do a point of damage.

The P Hawk at short range has '3' Weapon factors, which means they roll three dice at short range.

so you roll 3d6, and every die roll of 5 or 6 is a hit.... so...

23:06, Today: Precentor Kitty rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,5,3.  Test roll.

There are two 5's, so the commando takes two hits.
So the commando's armor drops from a 12 to a 10.

It should be noted that every third hit is marked off as an 'internal'.  For arguements sake lets say that the Commando took a point of damage earlier, so they take a point of internals 'now'.  You roll a critical.

Roll d6 for each critical hit

1-2 = Leg Actuator               (Decrease the Units movement by one)
3   = Jump Jet                   (Decrease the Units jump by one) / If no jump jet, (Decrease movement by one.)
4   = Weapon Destroyed           (Decrease Attack Rating for all ranges by one)
5   = Mech Warrior injured       (Mech Warrior takes (1) Damage)
6   = Ammo Explosion / Pilot Hit (Mech destroyed) / If no ammo, Pilot Takes (2) Damage

Criticals are pretty brutal.  There are no 'good' criticals.  Just ouch and OUCH.

A mechs defense is based on movement, so if they took a leg actuator hit and lose a point of movement, not only do they move slower oon the map, their defense drops a point to, so this P Hawk pilot will have an easier time hitting a defense of '2' needing only a 4+ roll now.

MW injury is pretty bad too.  When they take a point of damage, they 'lose' a level of skill.  So if this Commando pilot was a Regular skilled pilot, they just became 'green'.  Ammo explosions are still pretty fatal.  If the mech has no ammo, the consequences are still pretty bad, the pilot takes two damage, and that green pilot just becomes 'stationary'.  Green ~> to unconscious (for the whole battle) ~> to dead pilot.

So... yeah taking criticals is pretty bad.  If you're in something like a war hammer, with a movement of 2, two leg actuator hits later and you're a stationary building.

Just like in battle tech, small mechs usually die from running out of internals, big ones usually get incapacitated from criticals or dead pilots.

That's the gist of shooting and taking combat.

The goal is to simplify combat, without sacrificing too much of the normal game feel.

It should be observed, that for this campaign, i do use bits of Solaris rules.

ie. Weapon speeds and initiative will feel different.

Weapon speeds makes ballistic weapons more attractive, especially mg, and NON-instantaneous combat, makes initiative more interesting.

Because do you want to wait and see what that player is going to do, or work with the map you have and do your damage now before they do.

etc...

HOpefully that clears some of it up, and after one practice game things should get alot easier.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:05, Thu 28 Nov 2019.

Okay the flood of activity has settled down from Thanksgiving so i'll make an effort to post something for Reyvak tomorrow.

I had originally wanted to try a player vs player mission, but it seems Kusanagi is still distracted by issues in the flesh and blood world.  They've acknowedged my message, but has made no further contact, that being the case i will procede without him.

If we can get two or three 'practice' missions done, to iron out the rules, and get a 'sample' mission of for players to look at, i'll feel better about opening the game for public consumption by new players.

Okay just got word from Kusa, that he's in so it'll be player vs player.


The mission will have stated 'objectives', and the first player to reach their score objective wins.

Kusa has five mechs, and will be allowed to field all five of his mechs.

Reyvak SHOULD have a fifth mech for 'himself', which he should pay for and roll up (you wont get a pilot for this mech).

Right.

Test mission is now ACTIVE.

If you missed it, the link for the map in use is...
http://fav.me/dcukbdz

---

Things i need from the players during set up.

In a private message you may submit to me (2), hexes of interest that your opponent is interested in scouting.  (hint: its in your interest to not make it anywhere easy for them to get to)

In a private message, you shall tell me which pilots are in which mechs.

In a private message, you shall tell me where in your starting area, your mechs are deploying.

---

Reyvak, You will also roll for a fifth mech, which will be made a public record for Kusanagi to be aware of what is on the opposition's team.

Mission is to 'ten points', which at the moment requires you to annihilate your opponent, unless you are mindful of 'secondary' objectives like scouting the lay of the land and destroying/saving/stealing resources from one another.

A fair variety of ways to score points.

Each hex is around 180 meters (6 hexes), so given the number of units on the map, there is no stacking limitations.

So it's possible to form 'teams'.  (Testing this concept out)


The (4) AMC's are considered a 'team', and will move and fire as a single unit, unless you decide to splinter them apart.

So to sum up, each player will have 8~9 units to balance offense and defense with.

Will give you guys a day or so to get me your private messages in.

We're not a on a super fast schedule, but i would like things to move at a reasonable pace.  At LEAST one response every three days, at least until the holidays hit, then if you have things distracting you, that's understandable.

---

First mission will be a learning experience, so if you make mistakes, that's fine, please accept that you're on the learning curve, and that things may not work the way you think they may.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  This is a practice game and now it the time to find out if something doesnt work the day you thought it did.

Also, the sooner you get the turns in the quicker the pace of the game.  You two will decide the pace since i'm just here to referee.

As a side note... I will NOT be updating the map.  I'll have a table with the locations of mechs, and supplies and what not, but i'm out of practice and really dont have a place to host maps at the moment.  Thankfully, upkeep on this game should be simple enough not to matter.

If you REALLY have trouble visualizing it, print out the map and mark things with coins or something is my suggestion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:46, Mon 02 Dec 2019.

*waves to Reyvak and Kitty*

Wanted to actually pop in and make a simple post so you knew for sure I was here.  Will refresh myself today and see about answering Kitty's questions in a second post in the test mission thread.

Answer in the mission with a private tag, or drop me a private message, either works for me.

Though remember that when i archive the mission for a sample of the rules, that private messages will be made public.

ummm... its been a few days (going on a week?) since he's checked in.  Maybe a little slow getting over thanksgiving is my guess?

Hopefully he'll check in soon.

When deciding stuff for the mission, think of it as a battletech mission, to help you decide on the specifics like if scouting is worth while or not, is it easier to steal or too much trouble and just blowing it up for cheap points is the way to go.  etc...

If the rules work out right, what works in one should work in the other... more or less...

Looks like Reyvak is declining to roll for a new mech, so we'll call it in transit and shipping.  Will offer him (2) AMC's to help make up for it,but really they're a poor substitute.

Yeah sorry, USCIS decided they wanted to have a meeting with the wife and the letter got to us in the mail only a day before the thing was supposed to take place.  Had to drop everything and make it happen so she could finish up her naturalization process.

Also...

I noticed that I rolled for the upgrade from light to medium and got a Trebuchet.  Then after the hiatus you asked me to roll again and I got the Enforcer, lol.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:55, Fri 06 Dec 2019.

I was wondering about that.

I hadnt finalized the stats on your unit cause i wasnt sure about that, we should make it a Trebuchet then.

Sounds good.

Just swap out the Enforcer drop point for the Trebuchet and keep the same pilot in it.

Okay, I still need to fix Kusanagi's stats, then i will post the set ups, and the first tomorrow (i'm off to bed now).

per Message 5
link to a message in this game

You should start with initiative.

You both have Vetaran Commanders, which is a +3 mod to the roll, so experience wont make a difference here.  You both have Veteran second in commands too, so even if you get head hunted it wont make a difference any time soon.

So the person with the higher die roll will have initiative, and decide who goes first after i post the set up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:50, Fri 06 Dec 2019.

14:29, Today: Kusanagi Nagamichi rolled 5 using 2d6.  Initiative Red.

I'm assuming that Reyvak didn't pick the same spots for me to scan that I picked for him to scan right?  Otherwise that's going to be pretty easy...

In reply to Kusanagi Nagamichi (msg # 75):

Correct, an error of copy pasting, i believe everything on the thread is currently up to date and correct.

Some obvious notes on movement / Weapon Fire has been posted.

Rixx if you Win initiative, you may elect to make Kusa go first, or opt to go first yourself.  If you opt to go first, please post your movement with your die roll.

Whew... I suppose this test game really is needed, i feel like i'm typing up a tutorial for a video game on this end.  I think i have enough information for now.  Being veteran Btech players you should have a decent enough grasp and understanding to get by.  We just need Rixx to roll initiative now.

btw,
Kusa, Hope everything worked out with your wife?  As usual flesh and blood issue over virtual ones.

That said, sorta nice to slowly get into the groove of playing b tech again.  Forgive me for saying so, but not having to edit maps and post updates is a huge relief for me, so hopefully you guys can get by without map updates.  Making new mission maps to play on is about the limit of the graphic map work i would like to do this time around...

>.>
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:04, Fri 06 Dec 2019.

Cool.

Looks like the Cicada entry on the first post has the armour through long numbers of the Enforcer.

Yeah when you have mechs moving and shooting at the same time and going back and forth when it comes to maps it would be prohibitively difficult.  I've got it tossed into my photoshop to keep track and move things around.  We'll have to see how things go but I might be able to use the website I used for Amber Trumps to host maps and every time I get done with my 'side' movement and fire I could upload the new map as a small thumbnail sort of thing/link to the image to see the full size one.  All depends on time :)

As for the wife, yeah it went well even though there were unforeseen issues that turned a 20 minute visit into a two hour long one.  Ultimately they were resolved so all that is left for her is the swearing ceremony and she'll officially be a citizen come January.

Good catch, yeah i was working on the tables this afternoon and table work is always a bit of a pain, let me know if you see any other issues.

Yeah tables are a pain when you have a bunch of small numbers.  Really easy to slip.

Think OR, Short, Medium, Long are still Enforcer numbers.  Don't get me wrong if it was a PPC Cicada maybe but, lol.

Corrected.

The OR and Short were actually correct, though the Medium and Long are not.

It's got a +4 Over Run rating because it has two small lasers (6) each and a kick for 8.

6+6+8 ~> 20 / 5 = +4 OR bonus

(3) ML = 3 Short range damage

Yes there are only (2) SL and (2) ML mounted, but Solaris Rules state that they can all fire 'twice' in the span of battletech turn, so the number double... though the heat sinks do not, which is how you have 'three'  Medium lasers calculating to a 3 Short range.

---

Taking these weapon notes into account the Cicada and the Jenner have a lot in common.  The Cicada can take slightly more damage and the Jenner can jump, though the Jenner does have the option to seriously burst fire it's weapons and seriously go into heat doing so.  What ever it shot better be dead though, cause over heat rules are pretty brutal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:06, Fri 06 Dec 2019.

Your AMC hexes are off...

Unless there are (4) of my AMC's in 0505 and two sets of (3) of Blue Teams AMC's also in 0505.  For the time being in the map I made I put all (6) in the stockpile hex as a placeholder.  I made a map of sorts and uploaded it to Imgur...tossed a small thumbnail and a link to the larger size.  If it looks good great. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 04:52, Sat 07 Dec 2019.

Yes, my bad.

I had them listed on supply depots, and for some reason i read your depot his his for some reason when i was typing out stuff.

To my defense i was typing alot of stuff and more concerned with the rules i thought you might need to make a decent judgement of first moves and so forth.

>.<

ugh ~ just when i got motivated too....

I'll give him two more days, which would make a full week he's been offline, and then I'll fill in for him if he still hasn't shown.

>.<