Post by mikeydanuke on Jul 23, 2008 12:11:00 GMT -5
This is a long post!
I don't know how things are up in Canada, but down here, south of the border, "Classic" Battletech (BT) is making a revival.
If you have never played BT there are a few things you should be aware of. The Mechs (Huge battle machines piloted by a human pilot) come in 4 classes, which compare roughly with Naval combat vessels. Light Mechs, 20 - 35 tonners, are Destroyers, Medium Mechs, 40 - 55 tonners are Crusiers, Heavy Mechs, 60 - 75 Tonners are Battleships, and Assault Mechs, 80 - 100 are super-battleships. Each Mechs has it's own record sheet, where Damage is recorded, so there is accompanying paperwork involved. There are various tables to determine hits and amount of damage and other stuff.
Each mech has it's own design, and the design is a combination of 3 factors, Armor, Speed, and weaponry. To excel in any one factor means you have to sacrifice on the other two areas. Some mechs are a Jack of all trades, others go for one or two of the factors in their design.
So, I played 4 games of BT on Monday and Tuesday as part of a campaign going on in the local game store.
1ST BATTLE: I was running my game crew, " Clan McIntrye" in a probe of the enemies position. I had my posterior handed to me on a plate. The enemies fire was dead on, and I was suffering 60 pts of damage a turn. I didn't lose any mechs by the time I withdrew, but it was a definite loss. I didn't even come close to hurting any of his mechs. Depressing.
2ND BATTLE: I got to run a NPC force against a player's force. I was heavily out-gunned and out-armored. My shooting was good through, and I managed to get 3 potential torso hits that could have destroyed his mechs (with a little luck) but miffed them all. I went down to defeat, even through I did about as good as I thought I could have. Depressing.
3RD BATTLE: Running the Lads against. By now I was a little depressed and concerned about the previous days showing, and my warchest funds were getting low. I didn't want to lose any mechs, and I needed to win. Fortunately I had to fight a "Fighting withdrawl" scenario, which means running across from one edge of the baord to the other. So I fielded every Fast mechs (Lightly armored, not much weaponry, but fast!) I could, and just ran for the opposite edge of the board. I only got hit twice! An easy, cheap victory, which restored my spirits a little.
4th BATTLE: Running an NPC force again. The enemy was probing my position. Orders from the high command was to stop them dead. At my disposal I had a Hunchback (Med., slow, heavily armored, one BIG cannon) 2 Clints (Med, fast, tin plate for armor) a Quickdraw (so-so heavy mech) and a Grasshopper (Fast and well armed heavy mech). I had to assign one mech as a re-inforcement and took one of the Clints.
The enemy started with 4 mechs: Marauder (Heavy, slow, well armed) Catapult (Heavy, well armed, lotsa armor) Vindicator (So so medium) and a Dervish (So so medium). His re-inforcements would consist of a Grasshopper and a Phoenix Hawk (Fast, well armed, Med. Mech, double tin plate for armor through).
The enemy set up first and spread his Mechs out. I decided my best option for defeating him was to go for one of his heavies and elected the Catapult. As I advanced he hammered me for two turns while my reply fire was minor.
3rd turn: The hunchback was dead on with his big cannon and clobbered the Catapult's center armor for 20 damage (leaving him with 4 left in that area). His return fire was minor.
4th Turn: Despite the Catapult trying to hide behind a small ridge, the Hunchback clobbered him again with his big gun, in the same place, rolled two critical hits*, and destroyed his gyro, the Catapult was now effectively, stationary!
5th/6th? The Hunchback and Clint were amusing themselves shooting at the downed Catapult. The Grasshopper and Quickdraw were taking turns shooting at his medium mechs, the Vindicator and the Dervish.
6th Turn His re-inforcements arrived. I lined up my two heavies to get some rear shots at his Vindicator, he manuevered his Grasshopper, Phoenix Hawk, and Marauder to get some point blank ranged shots at my Quickdraw (10 Potential shots!). His Dervish tried a "Death from above attack"** on my Clint.
The Hunchback was dead on with his big cannon, clobbered the Clint, caused 2 Criticals which ruined his airborne trim and caused him to drift offboard. Chaulk up two for the Hunchback!
His massed fire at my Quickdraw resulted in only 2 hits, doing only minor damage. My two heavies extracted a heavy toll from the Vindicator.
~8/9: The Vindicator tried to escape off board. The Grasshopper, Clint, and Hunchback (Now so heavily damaged it had to withdraw too) ganged up on it. The Clint and Grasshopper did minor damage, but the Hunchback was dead on yet again, and destroyed the damaged Vindy. 3 for the Hunchback! (in case you are keeping count) My Quickdraw was heavily damaged and was trying to withdraw. By now the Catapult was completely destroyed!
10+ The Hunchback continued its withdrawl, and ran across an intercepting enemy grasshopper. The Grasshopper fired, doing minor damage yet again (he was missing a lot of needing 5 or 6's shots to hit, and making a few of his "needs 10'as or 12's to hit"--every had one of those kinds of games?). The hunchback was dead on yet again, got a critical, blew the Grasshopper's arm off, which caused to pilot of the mech to faint, and the mech fell. (4 for the Hunchback!-and that was the last shot of his big gun too-he was now out of ammo) I moved everything I could up to fire at the downed mech (which cost me dear) because I really wanted to destroy yet another mech.
Well, I did! But his fire hit the ammo supply of the Clint, and it died, and he managed to get a kick into the head of my Grasshopper, killing the pilot. But I did destroy the Grasshopper, and killed his pilot! The Quickdraw made it off the edge of the board, which deprived him of 150 Victory points!
The Hunchback (Major contributer to the destruction of 4 of his mechs) almost made it off also. It was 5 hexes away from the edge of the board (and need a movement of 6 to run off) when he managed a critical hit on its leg, dropping it's running movement to 5. Next turn the Hunchback was toast.
So, I lost, 4 out of 6 mechs destroyed. However, I had destroyed 3 Player mechs (I now have the record for destroying the most Player Mechs in a battle! Woot! WOOT!!!). With the exception of my downed Grasshopper, which wasn't too badly damaged, my Quickdraw and a Clint that had escaped, and his Dervish, which had drifted off the board-crippled-every mech was destroyed. That minimized the amount of Salvage he could claim. Counting his 3 destroyed mechs, he only gained 280 Pts for the battle!
And talk about fun! Hoo boy! It's not often a single mech takes out (well, at least was a major contributor) to taking out 66% of the enemy force. Yeah!
Okay, Gil, enough detail? He he!
MDN
* Once a mech has lost all its armor, any hits to the same location destroy the internal structure of the mech, and can cause additional special damage.
** Mechs equipped with Jump Jets can fly into the air and try and land on top of an enemy mech, doing a lot of damage
I don't know how things are up in Canada, but down here, south of the border, "Classic" Battletech (BT) is making a revival.
If you have never played BT there are a few things you should be aware of. The Mechs (Huge battle machines piloted by a human pilot) come in 4 classes, which compare roughly with Naval combat vessels. Light Mechs, 20 - 35 tonners, are Destroyers, Medium Mechs, 40 - 55 tonners are Crusiers, Heavy Mechs, 60 - 75 Tonners are Battleships, and Assault Mechs, 80 - 100 are super-battleships. Each Mechs has it's own record sheet, where Damage is recorded, so there is accompanying paperwork involved. There are various tables to determine hits and amount of damage and other stuff.
Each mech has it's own design, and the design is a combination of 3 factors, Armor, Speed, and weaponry. To excel in any one factor means you have to sacrifice on the other two areas. Some mechs are a Jack of all trades, others go for one or two of the factors in their design.
So, I played 4 games of BT on Monday and Tuesday as part of a campaign going on in the local game store.
1ST BATTLE: I was running my game crew, " Clan McIntrye" in a probe of the enemies position. I had my posterior handed to me on a plate. The enemies fire was dead on, and I was suffering 60 pts of damage a turn. I didn't lose any mechs by the time I withdrew, but it was a definite loss. I didn't even come close to hurting any of his mechs. Depressing.
2ND BATTLE: I got to run a NPC force against a player's force. I was heavily out-gunned and out-armored. My shooting was good through, and I managed to get 3 potential torso hits that could have destroyed his mechs (with a little luck) but miffed them all. I went down to defeat, even through I did about as good as I thought I could have. Depressing.
3RD BATTLE: Running the Lads against. By now I was a little depressed and concerned about the previous days showing, and my warchest funds were getting low. I didn't want to lose any mechs, and I needed to win. Fortunately I had to fight a "Fighting withdrawl" scenario, which means running across from one edge of the baord to the other. So I fielded every Fast mechs (Lightly armored, not much weaponry, but fast!) I could, and just ran for the opposite edge of the board. I only got hit twice! An easy, cheap victory, which restored my spirits a little.
4th BATTLE: Running an NPC force again. The enemy was probing my position. Orders from the high command was to stop them dead. At my disposal I had a Hunchback (Med., slow, heavily armored, one BIG cannon) 2 Clints (Med, fast, tin plate for armor) a Quickdraw (so-so heavy mech) and a Grasshopper (Fast and well armed heavy mech). I had to assign one mech as a re-inforcement and took one of the Clints.
The enemy started with 4 mechs: Marauder (Heavy, slow, well armed) Catapult (Heavy, well armed, lotsa armor) Vindicator (So so medium) and a Dervish (So so medium). His re-inforcements would consist of a Grasshopper and a Phoenix Hawk (Fast, well armed, Med. Mech, double tin plate for armor through).
The enemy set up first and spread his Mechs out. I decided my best option for defeating him was to go for one of his heavies and elected the Catapult. As I advanced he hammered me for two turns while my reply fire was minor.
3rd turn: The hunchback was dead on with his big cannon and clobbered the Catapult's center armor for 20 damage (leaving him with 4 left in that area). His return fire was minor.
4th Turn: Despite the Catapult trying to hide behind a small ridge, the Hunchback clobbered him again with his big gun, in the same place, rolled two critical hits*, and destroyed his gyro, the Catapult was now effectively, stationary!
5th/6th? The Hunchback and Clint were amusing themselves shooting at the downed Catapult. The Grasshopper and Quickdraw were taking turns shooting at his medium mechs, the Vindicator and the Dervish.
6th Turn His re-inforcements arrived. I lined up my two heavies to get some rear shots at his Vindicator, he manuevered his Grasshopper, Phoenix Hawk, and Marauder to get some point blank ranged shots at my Quickdraw (10 Potential shots!). His Dervish tried a "Death from above attack"** on my Clint.
The Hunchback was dead on with his big cannon, clobbered the Clint, caused 2 Criticals which ruined his airborne trim and caused him to drift offboard. Chaulk up two for the Hunchback!
His massed fire at my Quickdraw resulted in only 2 hits, doing only minor damage. My two heavies extracted a heavy toll from the Vindicator.
~8/9: The Vindicator tried to escape off board. The Grasshopper, Clint, and Hunchback (Now so heavily damaged it had to withdraw too) ganged up on it. The Clint and Grasshopper did minor damage, but the Hunchback was dead on yet again, and destroyed the damaged Vindy. 3 for the Hunchback! (in case you are keeping count) My Quickdraw was heavily damaged and was trying to withdraw. By now the Catapult was completely destroyed!
10+ The Hunchback continued its withdrawl, and ran across an intercepting enemy grasshopper. The Grasshopper fired, doing minor damage yet again (he was missing a lot of needing 5 or 6's shots to hit, and making a few of his "needs 10'as or 12's to hit"--every had one of those kinds of games?). The hunchback was dead on yet again, got a critical, blew the Grasshopper's arm off, which caused to pilot of the mech to faint, and the mech fell. (4 for the Hunchback!-and that was the last shot of his big gun too-he was now out of ammo) I moved everything I could up to fire at the downed mech (which cost me dear) because I really wanted to destroy yet another mech.
Well, I did! But his fire hit the ammo supply of the Clint, and it died, and he managed to get a kick into the head of my Grasshopper, killing the pilot. But I did destroy the Grasshopper, and killed his pilot! The Quickdraw made it off the edge of the board, which deprived him of 150 Victory points!
The Hunchback (Major contributer to the destruction of 4 of his mechs) almost made it off also. It was 5 hexes away from the edge of the board (and need a movement of 6 to run off) when he managed a critical hit on its leg, dropping it's running movement to 5. Next turn the Hunchback was toast.
So, I lost, 4 out of 6 mechs destroyed. However, I had destroyed 3 Player mechs (I now have the record for destroying the most Player Mechs in a battle! Woot! WOOT!!!). With the exception of my downed Grasshopper, which wasn't too badly damaged, my Quickdraw and a Clint that had escaped, and his Dervish, which had drifted off the board-crippled-every mech was destroyed. That minimized the amount of Salvage he could claim. Counting his 3 destroyed mechs, he only gained 280 Pts for the battle!
And talk about fun! Hoo boy! It's not often a single mech takes out (well, at least was a major contributor) to taking out 66% of the enemy force. Yeah!
Okay, Gil, enough detail? He he!
MDN
* Once a mech has lost all its armor, any hits to the same location destroy the internal structure of the mech, and can cause additional special damage.
** Mechs equipped with Jump Jets can fly into the air and try and land on top of an enemy mech, doing a lot of damage