ScrapYard Armory

We all know how frustrating it can be when your game progress comes to a screeching halt. Classic Battletech is a very detailed game and once you start playing company level battles or better, you run the risk finding yourself unable to finish your games in a decent amount of time. This is especially true at conventions where you often only have 4 to 6 hours before the next game is scheduled to start. Or dinner for that matter.

I’ve compiled a short list of tips to help speed up your games or at least make them a bit more reasonable in length.

Movement Dice

This is probably one you have already seen used if you have played enough Battletech. Once you are done moving a unit, mark it with a die that corresponds to the total target movement modifier. You can expand the idea by using different color dice. I use white for walking, red for running and blue for jumping.

Now any player can, at a glance, know the exact state of the game. To-hit rolls can be calculated on the fly without having to ask your opponent, or several opponents if you are playing a big game, what their movement modifier is. Colored dice help you remember what movement mode your units used without having to resort to tedious record keeping.

This has an added benefit of keeping your players honest. You reduce the risk of anyone forgetting if there ‘Mech walked or ran for that plus 3 modifier.

Playing Cards for Initiative

If you have a large number of units on the board and you can split them into functional groups, give playing cards for initiative a try. Assign each group of units a card out of the deck. Before each turn shuffle the cards together, and when it comes time to move units, flip over the top card. The unit that corresponds to that card has to move.

This idea works great when you have lots of people playing a game, which often happens at conventions. Assuming you are mature enough to have someone on your team being assigned the queen of hearts this can be a huge time saver. Each player has a group of units under his command and an associated card. When his card comes up, its his time to move.

Total Warfare and Heavy Metal Record Sheets

Record sheets can make a difference. If you are using infantry, battle armor, or vehicles then Total Warfare record sheets are an invaluable resource for you. Printed right on the sheets are the tables you will use most often. This is especially true for vehicles who have a new critical hit table and motive system damage tables since Total Warfare.

For ‘Mechs, there still is no better resource than Heavy Metal Pro. Using the reduced size record sheet option, you can have hit-location tables, attack modifiers and cluster tables right on the sheet for easy lookup.

Now if only we could have an updated Heavy Metal program that would print Total Warfare record sheets…

Refresh Yourself on Special Rules

When you know that your upcoming battle will more than likely include situations not regularly encountered on the tabletop you should make sure you know the rules before you sit down to play. Game time should not have to be used looking up and confirming rules. If you know you are going to be using hovercraft for example, take a moment before the game to reread the side slipping rules.

For conventions, this should fall to the Commando in charge. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played a game with a Commando where some obscure equipment or unit was used that no one, not even the Commando running the game, knew for sure how to use it. If you are going to try and use ‘Mech taser equipped Battle Armor or Aerospace units on mapsheets, please do yourself and the players a favor and carefully read the rules before the game.

Commandos can go a step further and make a small cheat sheet for the player that will end up using that obscure unit so that no time is wasted flipping through the rules.

No one can be expected to know each and every rule perfectly from memory. Situations will come up every game but you can reduce the frequency of these trips through the rule book with a bit of reading before hand.