Succession Wars has been long out of print and copies on eBay are a coveted commodity.  That doesn’t mean that the game is out of reach though.  The rules are available to those who know where to look and many conversions have made play by email possible.  This article will dive into the experiences of a small group of gamers who have played the game completely over email and are hungry for more.  We’ve compiled rules, argued intention, and generally made a mess of the place in the hopes of clearing up the cluttered and at times ambiguos rules set.

First, a special thanks to a couple people that have acted as GM while we here at the ScrapYard have participated as players and for the first time got a chance to play this game:

Oboe Cop GM of the “December Winds”, a game that ran from March into October of 2011.

nckestrel GM of the “A New League”, a game just getting started as of this posting.

nckestral developed a cubic version of the map for displaying the progress of December Winds that we’ve adapted to several other presentations.  I use this one as a reference map:

Playing-by-Email

GM

To play by email effectively, you’ll need a GM to host.  Most importantly, the GM will receive your orders, make the rolls, and clear up or decide any rule interpretations.  However, they can also assist by providing documents to the users for them to fill out.  For instance when the A New League game first started, nkestral provided a list of the starting units with a space for each for where the player wants to deploy them.  Those units that have an assigned location to start had their locations already filled in already.  For placing units and declaring attacks you are generally given 48 hours and for other responses you are given 24 hours.  As usual though, life can get in the way.  Just keep in contact, let everyone know if you need more time, and make a reasonable effort.

Communications

As far as communication procedures go, you email only the GM when it is a secret or a choice made at the same time as someone else such as a bid or what cards to play as you attack.  Otherwise you email the entire play group (and the lurkers).  Some declarations such as changing unit combinations need to be declared with other required responses such as when you decide to retreat or not.

Bidding Procedures

Traditional means of bidding, as can be observed on tv shows such as Storage Wars, would be fairly time intensive when bids are received via email and everyone has to keep track of the latest bid then how do you figure out when to stop accepting bids?  Like ebay allowing bid snipers, and what if players aren’t available?  To speed up the process and not require too much time from players, we use a Highest Unique Bid Auction where all players make a secret bid to the GM within a certain time, usually 24 hours, and only the highest bidder wins.  In December Winds and A New League, the highest bidder paid what they bid, while in A New League the highest bidder will pay 1 more then the 2nd highest bid.

Tracking Tools

By all means, you can use The Succession Wars board game itself.  I think most of us playing have a copy, though maybe not all the pieces.  Also, it is sometimes difficult to give up that much space.  Others may have cats or dogs nicknamed Hurricane.

VASSAL is a free open source board game engine for playing online and several modules have already been made for you to play The Succession Wars using it.  However, I’ve found at least one mistake in version II: Liao is marked as a Regional Capital.  However, this is actually easily fixed since the map is just an image inside the module which is really just a zip file.  Still, once you get used to how to select and expand a stack of pieces or an individual piece it is pretty awesome.  However, a not so easy fix is that Ozawa should be connected to Tikonov, the only enemy territory Almach should only be connected to is Tikonov, and Acula should not be connected to Liao.

Cyberboard is another play by email application. BoardGameGeek hosts a Gamebox for The Succession Wars in the Files section.

If you like to play with the original board game pieces but find the map provided a little unclear or so little space to do anything besides stack the pieces in some regions you could also make your own map with larger boxes and hide it in the basement to keep it from your dog’s tail.  The one on the right is based on the reference map above.  Actually you can see an 8.5″x11″ copy of it along with the original map for size comparison.

Read The Standard Rules Carefully

Stealing Periphery Units: If an enemy bids on and wins a periphery state and then takes all their units elsewhere, simply capture the periphery region and you gain control of it’s units.

Once a player gains control of a Periphery state, he may move and attack with that state’s forces just as if they were his own.  If another player captures the Periphery state’s Region, he gains control of those Periphery forces. -page 12

New Mercenary units are formed in Regional or House capitals.  Rebuilt Mercenary units are placed in Manufacturing Centers in the same way as House units. -page 11

You can control periphery units from the other side of the Inner Sphere: We’ve seen it.  A player leaves no combat units between (nor on) their capital and a Periphery state nearby thinking their front line troops separate their space from the enemies’…  Instead, an enemy bids on and wins a Periphery State just before their move phase and uses those periphery units to take control of an enemy House Capital!

Rules Addendum

Below is a collection of rule additions, subtractions, or clarifications that came up while playing (or preparing for) the game.  Use some, all, none, or modify them to your heart’s content!

Note that these are NOT the official rules that will be used to play, though I’ll probably update these as we play as well.

Placing units: The rules make it sound like you pay for units during the “Spend taxes” phase, but then get to choose where the units get placed during the “Place new units” phase, especially since it talks about not being able to place units at newly constructed factories.  Well duh…

Units purchased during the Spend Taxes phase must have designated locations where they will be built.  i.e. Their placement designation occurs during the “Spend taxes” phase and not the “Place new units” phase.

Hidden Merc Units: Since the rules don’t specify, your GM may allow you to use the card to create Merc units at any capital.  But, it obviously doesn’t seem quite right to be able to hire them behind enemy lines.  Still, you can use them in a surprise attack if your dropship has an extra spot that your enemy didn’t expect filled.

New Mercenary units are formed in Regional or House capitals you control.

Don’t Follow Your Leader: He was bribed…  Don’t follow them.

No troops will change affiliation because a Leader is bribed (with the standard exception of Mercenary Leaders and their associated units).

Standard Game Pieces: Because when playing by email we aren’t playing with a single customized map, it is best to use the standard pieces as they are to prevent confusion and errors in tracking.

Regions, Leaders, Units will not have their names nor stats changed from the rules as in the original rule book.

Bribed Leaders: This is really just a restatement of a rule from the rule book.

Leaders of yours that have been bribed that are in a region you control during the tax phase will reduce your overall tax revenue by their administration skill.

Travel in Terra: Even a Marik Leader starts on Terra according to the rule book.

Jumpships and leaders may pass through and even stop in Terra (while it remains neutral) and will not be captured by Comstar.

More then 2 House Combat: Even the standard rules allow this situation if a 3rd party bids on and wins a merc unit in an already contested region.

When more then 1 enemy House has units in a region where your units are participating in combat, you declare which units of yours are attacking which enemy House.  You may switch their target when you reply that you are not retreating with them.  They will automatically be switched between (not during) combat rounds if all but one enemy House are eliminated.

Extra Cards: These rules make it possible to have more then 4 cards, however it is expressly forbidden by the rules and creates

If you get more than 4 cards in hand, you can look at them all before discarding.  You must discard down to 4 cards before playing any.  Once told what the new ones are, it is too late to play cards before you recieve the new ones.

Discard Cards: Since you can give, trade, or sell cards to other players, why not be able to just get rid of them?

You may discard cards voluntarily to the discard pile.

Changing Combined Units in Play By Email: Because waiting for yet another email to arrive takes time… your choice is simply required with your required response.

You can you mix up the combinations of units from the first attack if you include the combinations with your order to retreat or not retreat.

Interdict and Combine: There is no defined interaction between these rules nor an example.  This rule will encourage keeping combat units from the same ‘unit’ together and reward combining units if an interdict is played.

Interdict effectively occurs after 2 units combine. example: Unit4+Unit3 = Unit7 w/o Interdict = Unit5 w/interdict.

ComStar Regional Interdict: The card is pretty general since it only defines that it affects a region, and a -2 to the roll rather then the attack force would actually be a bonus making the troops more deadly.  However, there is a lengthy description of interdicts further on in the rules manual.

*The card: “ComStar Regional Interdict. -2 on combat rolls in affected region.” is a -2 to all enemy forces in a region just before the attack roll.  These cards (like others) may be played on behalf of another player.

Create new Merc Unit: I think this is a ruling in A New League to get more merc units on the board faster, though I don’t have enough experience yet as to say why.

Merc counters count as one unit when creating new mercs.

i.e. Both counters of the mercs “Bounty Hunters” (a unique unit in the print board game) will count as one for the card to create new merc card.

Combining Conventional Units:

Conventional units are considered to be in the same unit for the purposes of combining attacks.

Build a New House Unit: I was a little confused in that the rules specify rebuilding merc units and also say new House unit.

Rebuilding a House unit is the same as building a new House unit.

Setup:

During setup, you cannot place any units on territory you do not control.

Bidding: I thought some of these auction models were interesting, so I’m providing a sample of options here for you.  A slight change goes a long way here.

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays 1 million more than the next closest bid. (Highest Unique Bid Auction)

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays 1 million more than the next closest bid.

When bidding, each player shall submit two secret bids to the GM.  The winner pays their lowest bid higher then the next closest bid.

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  All players pay their bid. (All Pay Auction) It may seem odd, but scholars use it to model lobbying/campaign donations and… bribes.

When bidding, each player may pay 1 million C-Bills to submit only a single secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays [choose something from above]. (Bidding Fee Auction)

Spy-Trade

Spy-Trade cards with another player’s hand.  The player playing this card can look at an opponent’s hand.  The player may then choose any number of cards from the opponents hand to trade with an equal number of cards from their hand.  The target lppayer may not play cards in response to the spy-trade.

Lift House Interdict: It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to lift an interdict from Comstar from an entire house, but leave regional interdicts in place.

Lift House Interdict removes any House interdict and all Regional interdicts for a chosen House.

Death Commando: The Death Commando cards will be removed from the game after they are used.  They could be shuffled into the deck with the rest of the discard pile, but they aren’t called Special Forces cards.

Death Commando cards are removed from the game after being used.

Mercenaries with Leaders: Hired leaders lead their own troops.

If all associated combat units are destroyed, the leader may be automatically moved to where the first new associated combat unit is built for free.  Mercenary leaders can only use their Combat ability while in the same region with at least one of their associated combat units.

If a merc leader is bribed, only the associated combat units change sides, but all associated combat units change sides, regardless of region. (Jaime Wolf is bribed, all Wolf’s Dragoons change sides, but no other units even if in region with Jaime Wolf and without another leader).

“5. Adjust Technology Scale”: Specifically defining that technology is only adjusted at this time for the current player rather then whenever something might adjust it, whereas it may seem that this phase is meant to adjust technology only from the results of combat.

Technology does not change for a player until their Adjust Technology phase.  Technology rolls, cards, gaining/losing regions, etc. do not take effect until that player’s own Adjust Technology Phase.

Official Capital: Some rules assume you have your House Capital, but you could have lost it…

When a player looses their original House Capital or their current Official Capital, they must first choose their Official Capital from other House or Regional Capitals that they control, and then finally they must choose from any plain region they control if they control no Regional nor House Capitals.  If they recapture their original House Capital it automatically becomes their Official Capital.

Periphery Movement: Nothing specifically forbids you to move through a periphery state with your units, although nothing specifically allows it either.  It doesn’t seem right that you could move freely through an enemy region though.

You cannot move freely through Periphery states and they will attack/capture.  If you move units into a periphery state you cannot move them out. i.e. You cannot “pass through”.  Combat will occur during the next combat phase and they will capture any leaders or jumpships that remain.

Faction Leader: This will prevent the last leader of a House from simply being bribed away.  Because a House that controls you leaders gets a portion of your House, this will prevent somone from throwing money at a bribe just to end up getting money back.

If faction leader is bribed/captured/killed, and no other Leaders have * for loyalty, the heir chosen by the player becomes Faction Leader.  The faction leader is always * for loyalty (not bribable).  If an old faction leader that is naturally unbribable (* for loyalty) is returned, the Faction Leader status is automatically switched back to that Leader, returning the previous Faction Leader to their old loyalty.

Elimination Outfall From Losing Your Leaders: There are quite a few holes on what to do when a player is eliminated when they lose control of all of their Leaders.

A player is eliminated if the only Leaders they control are of Houses they do not have the ability to build units of.  If a player is eliminated by losing control of all their leaders, their forces come under control of other houses.

If another House controls all of the Leaders of a House controlled by a player who was just eliminated, the House is merged with the new Controlling player’s House. They gain full control including all Regions, units, money, and cards that were controlled by the eliminated player and they may build new or reconstructed units as that House could. All units and Leaders are now considered to be affiliated with the controlling player’s original House.  Such leaders are no longer considered captured nor bribed.

If more than one House controls Leaders of the eliminated House, the House’s forces are split between the Houses that have control of the eliminated. Immediately after the player is eliminated, the units, money, and cards are split randomly in proportion to how many Leaders are controlled by other Houses.  If there are 3 Leaders left and a House controls 2 of the Leaders, their chance is 2/3 of gaining control of a particular unit.  Money and cards should be split in proportion, but where any remainders of less than 1 million c-bills or 1 card are combined and randomly given to a House similar as to units, 1 card/million at a time.  The Leaders and combat units retain their House affiliation, but combat units are controlled and act as though part of the new controlling House.  No units of the eliminated House can be built nor Leader’s abilities used until a single House controls all of it’s leaders at which point the House merges with the controlling player’s original House and are then considered to be affiliated with that House and those leaders are no longer considered captured nor bribed.  All units that had retained their House affiliation now come under control of this merged house and are now affiliated with the controlling House. If a region has occupying combat units from multiple Houses, combat will take place during the next available combat phase. If the player was eliminated during a combat phase, combat will take place immedately.

Example: Marik’s last leader is captured (as result of capturing a region).  Since Marik’s last leader was captured, the region and jumpships in that region belong to the conquering House, regardless of leaders, and are not affected by player elimination.

Marik had the following in other regions: Jumpship 5 Jumpship 3 Jumpship 1 SuperLegion 9 ScrubbyMilitia 3 HighlyPolishedGuard 2 Conventional Conventional Conventional 32 c-bills 7 cards.

Steiner has 2 of Marik’s leaders, Kurita has 1, Liao has 2.  We roll for each unit separately.  2/5 for Steiner, 1/5 for Kurita, 2/5 for Liao.   (Conveniently we can use a d10, 1-4 Steiner, 5-6 Kurita, 7-10 for Liao).

Kurita could end up with most or even all of the Marik’s combat units and jump ships by sheer lucky dice rolls.  If Kurita gets the Jumpship 5 but no combat units in that region and Steiner gets the one combat unit in that region, next combat phase Steiner takes control of the jumpship (unless Kurita got a move phase before the next combat phase and was able to move it to a safe region).  For the cards, (don’t ask me how Marik got 7 cards…) there’s 1 for each leader, and then the last two are individually rolled for as the units were.  32 c-bills are split 6 per leader, and the remainder of 2 are individually rolled for as the units were.  Regions are conquered as usual…  After combat, whoever is the only one with combat units in the region gains control of  it.  Until then they are still effectively owned by Marik.  But, you can’t move through until you gain control (or there are no enemy combat troops).  For more complex or fractional house asset distribution you can download and use this Distribution of House Assets calculator.

Wrapping it Up

Running or playing a play by email Succession Wars can be a lot of work but it is tons of fun.

If only there were a way to play the game online, with friends or strangers without all the record keeping and rules arbitration.  That would be something indeed…

I’m a huge fan of the Chaos Campaign system in all its iterations.  You can view previous articles on the Chaos Campaign PDF exclusive series below.

• Chaos Campaign Review
• Youling Zhanshi
• OTP: Falcon Incursion
• Lamenkov’s Liability
• OTP: Death to Mercenaries
• HTP: Misery
• OTP: The Red Corsair
• HTP: Galtor
• JTP: New Avalon
• JTP: Luthien
• HTP: Glengarry
• JTP: Dieron
• JTP: Atreus
• JTP: Sian
• JTP: Tharkad

The newest incarnation of the Chaos Campaign debuted with the Wars of Reaving sourcebook.  The campaign rules in the rules annex provide a pick your own adventure flavor of system that spans all the worlds involved in the Reaving story arc.  I plan on fully reviewing this new campaign in future post.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to interview Mr. Rome about all things Chaos Campaign and a little bit more!

Ben, first off, let me thank you for the opportunity to chat.  It is always a pleasure when the developers make themselves available to the fans.

My pleasure.  I enjoy the interaction, especially since I can never make the online chats any more.

The Chaos Campaign made its debut with Dawn of the Jihad.  Did you view the campaign system as a grand experiment at the time?  Did you have any idea it would grow well beyond the Jihad sourcebooks?

Grand experiment?  Definitely.  Back when Randall and Herb were taking pitches for DOTJ, which was also the first BattleTech product I’d been invited to write in, someone in the ensuing mass email discourse wished we could put in some sort of campaign for players to enjoy the coming “hot mess” of a war.

At the time, I’d been toying with a flexible campaign with my (then) gaming group, the Steel City Mechwarriors over in Pennsylvania.  We disliked “account tech” but were using an abstract system of points derived from victory conditions to affect repairs, reinforcements, and whatnot.  (We also did this with our MechWarrior: Dark Age and Age of Destruction games.)  I’ve always liked the “video game” treatment of campaigns in various games, where certain details are abstracted but others not.  MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and the MechCommander games come to mind.

So, I reasoned, why not attempt to redefine how BattleTech presented scenarios?  Perennially poor sellers, this seemed a way to make them more fun and give the control to the players with regards to force selection and a myriad of other battlefield details.

I quickly pulled a proposal together after mentioning the idea to Paul Sjardijn, who gave some great feedback.  Together we drafted the initial campaign rules and pitched a 12-track arc for DOTJ.  The initial idea was to promote continued replayability for ground, air/space, and RPG games – and that each player’s experience would be different and unique.  Just like a video game.  Both Randall and Herb liked the idea, so I quickly drew up the 12 tracks and crafted how the arcs would work; the whole “choose your own adventure” style seemed to add to the coolness factor.

We had hopes it would be maintained throughout the rest of the JHS books, if only so it would “guarantee” us continued writing work for those books.  We were really excited when fans seemed to take to this new, fresh take on scenarios.

There have been several authors of the Historical, Jihad, and Turning Point Chaos Campaign supplements.  How do you select a writer for a new addition to the line?  Do you have someone in mind based on the faction or timeline involved?

Herb and I still see the TP series as a “breaking in” point for our more new authors, as well as a vehicle for our more veteran writers to use for generating some quick product (and cash).

I’ve sent out a few “calls for proposals” over the last couple of years and got some interesting responses and pitches.  Most of those you’ve seen come into print over the last year or so, such as Geoff Swift’s HTP: Mallory’s World or Jason Schmetzer’s OTP: Death to Mercenaries.

I’ve been pretty open to whatever a writer proposes, as long as it “fits” the aesthetic of the various TP branches (Jihad, Historical, Operational, Dark Age).  More by accident than purpose have we had the Combine as a common antagonist in several TP works; the Dracs seem to be a popular foil and opponent in many a BattleTech war!

At any point did you throw a new writer into the series to shake things up to get a fresh perspective on the system?

The closest I’d come to that is introducing Geoff Swift through the line.  He actually started pulling in more core sourcebook work because of the quality of his stuff for the TP line.  Those writers who work (and write) well with me with this project tend to find me back them for more work with in-print material.

It has been reported that sales of the Jihad Turning Points series (as well as other PDF exclusive products) have performed well.  Has the series kept up the momentum with later releases and the expanded lineup?

It has.  Initially, the idea was simply to do them for the Jihad: all five capital worlds and a couple on some key industrial worlds – Dieron, Hesperus, Irian, Solaris.  Because the reception was so far beyond what we’d thought, it was easy to expand the idea into pretty much any era.  As long as the conflict made sense within the scope of the line, I was willing to give it a go.

Why do you think the Starterbook series which borrows the Chaos Campaign framework has not flourished?

No idea, and that really bummed me out.  And I’m not saying that because I was one of the two principle authors on both projects, either.  Those books were awesome ideas and it really surprised us all they didn’t do so well.  Jason Schmetzer and I had worked up several more ideas for the Starterbook idea and to see it cut off at the knees was a huge disappointment.

Are there any more Jihad Turning Point episodes to come or is the series wrapped up?

For the Jihad line specifically, I still have a few on the table I want to see finished off.  Hesperus, Solaris VII, and a “special” one for Terra.  Of those, Solaris is half-written but has been on hold ever since I had to take on finishing Masters and Minions, then Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, and Wars of Reaving.  I do hope to get back to it to finish it off, as it will help fill in a lot of gaps from that world’s struggle, but I also have Handbook: House Kurita to write.

Hesperus and Irian are writer-proposed projects from some of our authors who have been just avalanched with other life issues, and I’m not sure they’ll ever see the light of day.  Terra’s a project that Øystein Tvedten and I have bounced around but I’ve not had time to do much more than sketch it out.

Most likely, any future Jihad-era Turning Points will end up falling under the “Historical” banner instead, as we’ll be moving BattleTech past that era before I have time to put them out.

The format of the Chaos Campaign has evolved over time. Can you elaborate on some of those changes?  Specifically, between JHS 3072 and JHS 3076 the tracks became more ‘Mech force centric and looked much closer to the PDF only releases.

Part of that shift came from the release of A Time of War, the BattleTech RPG.

Initially, I was writing each track to encompass all portions of the BT line: standard, AeroTech, and RPG.  It’s a little difficult to work a track into a generic enough guideline that can account for each “version” and in some cases, clear delineation needed made such as buildings and asteroids.  And it was pretty impossible to do more for the RPG (such as providing stats, layouts, etc.) other than provide a story framework for a creative GM to build on.

As ATOW continued to be written and shaped into form, we were still progressing with the next couple of JHS books.  Without being a part of the RPG’s reformation, I didn’t want to put in guidelines and rules for that system without it being formally released.  So I either went pretty vague in the hopes that really creative GMs could pull what was needed, or “ignored” it altogether.  There was—and still is—a TP-style RPG-only concept on the table that would help alleviate that need.  But with the JHS campaigns, it came down to addressing the primary two systems in use.

By JHS76, I had really streamlined the process through several Turning Point releases.  With those products, the overall bias by our authors is to be ‘Mech-centric (very understandable) and something I continue to remind them to be aware of going forward.  Time constraints sometimes keep me from really tweaking them to handle or be adjusted to AeroTech-style and RPG play.

Regarding the layout and information for the tracks—yeah, they’ve adjusted with time.  As the TP series began to unfold, it became evident that despite a variable fundamental difference in setup, the overall look needed to be consistent.  So we did some tweaking with regards to presenting the awards amounts, Objective and Options wording, and Special Rules.  I’ve continually aimed to streamline and simplify the language and structure to best get the maximum use of space for providing the necessary game information, and less the standard nomenclature.

On your blog you alluded to the fact that a Chaos Campaign construction system was tossed around for Interstellar Operations.  Can you elaborate on your hesitation to the idea?  Will we ultimately see a generic construction system in the finished tome?

Randall asked me back in 2009 to consider including a base “setup” rules chapter for IO.  I’ve been really hesitant on that for a couple of reasons.

Initially, it was because that was my “in” with the entire line.  By keeping that process insular, I guaranteed myself continued work for future projects.  But that attitude isn’t exactly the best to have within a licensed game line, where we thrive on the concept of a “shared universe.”  What if I’d been hit by a bus?  No more track campaigns!  Paul would’ve been the closest writer to understanding the process but considering out of the first five JHS books, he’s only written one complete track (the rest were constructed and written by me), it would’ve been a steep learning curve.

Contrary to some opinion, there is no actual written-down formula for creating tracks.  What I’ve told my TP authors is to look at the campaign in general and figure where the climax battle will be, as well as the biggest “struggles.”  Those are the “peaks” of the arc; every track that leads to those peaks needs to provide enough gradual points to pay for it—but just barely.  You really want to force the players to step out into risk-taking to really build their cushion to handle those peaks, as well as the increased damages those difficulties will cause.

From there, it’s a matter of keeping the point totals in mind, including how a min/max player might fare if they tried to break the track and scoop the points.  It happens; that’s not something you as a writer can mitigate but have to trust that the gaming group will balance things out instead.

One other thing I look for: ways to make each one challenging beyond “enter battlefield, kill all opponents, leave.” Games are the most fun when you have different objectives and plans besides “kill ‘em all” and I really try to shy away from those formats, especially if the game is played with the bare minimums.

That entire thought process isn’t exactly the easiest to express in written rules.

Finally, there’s another reason: wiggle room.  I’ve found that many projects tend to vary the scope and idea of a campaign arc.  The Starterbooks, for example, are focused on a single company-level unit.  Many of the Historical Turning Points involve forces that can be regimental-sized.  And the Jihad arc is very mercenary-centric.  Each of these really requires different looks and perspectives with regards to the tracks, and that’s simply not a very scalable idea to translate into rules.  By keeping them “unwritten,” I can not only construct tailor-made tracks for various projects, but also keep them from being analyzed and broken down into component parts and compared to a written rule set.  It keeps the focus away from number-crunching and rules lawyering and squarely on what’s important: carrying a story through the game that is personal and unique to your experiences.

Do you have a favorite Chaos Campaign supplement so far?

Wars of Reaving, to be honest.  And yes, I say this in light of what I just mentioned with regards to a possible IO construction chapter.

WOR was a different animal.  With the amazing amount of conflict I put in those pages, there was no real campaign I could offer that would be “generic” enough to allow any Clan unit to adventure through.  While a mercenary angle (and less so, a House unit) works well for the Jihad series, it doesn’t fit at all for the WOR.  And I really, really wanted a campaign set there.

So, I hit upon the idea of making a true “mix-n-match” experience for a Clan campaign while allowing a construction rule set to be made a la IO.  You’ll also notice I made it very clear that the rules for the WOR Chaos Campaign were specific to that time and conflict, keeping it confined within the era but still very wide open for limitless possibilities for player campaigns.

And I think it covered all of those bases fairly well.  As an added bonus, we got to insert planetary data for all of the Clan home systems, several Periphery systems, and even a modified version of Clan zellbregin designed for the CC system.

You were the first author in the expanded Chaos Campaign PDF series.  When it came time to delegate the writing duties for future releases, did it feel like you were giving up something personal? 

Oh, most definitely yes.  But, I had to delegate if I wanted to work on other BattleTech projects.  I simply had no additional time to keep it all to myself.

Did you have any fears that new authors would not be able to do the series justice?

Initially, yes.  But I made sure that I got all of their drafts before shipping them off to playtest.  Tweaking point totals, adjusting options and objectives, adding/deleting special rules was a common occurrence.  I think out of all the authors who’ve done various TP releases, Geoff Swift had the best grasp of what I wanted.

Is there anything you can tell us about the future of the Chaos Campaign series?

It’s not going anywhere!  I’m still inordinately pleased the system is in continued use and that the PDF line is still very successful three years after its first release.  While most of the series will shift to more “Era” specific in the title (e.g. “Succession Wars Turning Point,” “Age of War Turning Point,” etc.), I do not lack for proposed ideas.  If I did every single one of the projects pitched to me that I liked, the line would still be going three years from now—assuming a one- per two months release, that is.  This year’s been a challenging hiccup, as a backlog of product has pushed layout and design of some of the current TPs in production to the bottom of the pile.  But we’ve got a few fixes in the works that will correct this problem in the near future.

As far as upcoming planned titles, we’ve got in various stages of writing:

• DATP: Vega
• DATP: Irian
• DATP: Marik
• HTP: Towne
• HTP: Chesterton
• HTP: York
• HTP: Luzerne
• HTP: Rezak’s Hole
• HTP: Tortuga
• JTP: Solaris VII
• JTP: Hesperus
• JTP: Priori (WOR)
• JTP: Vantaa (WOR)
• OTP: Wolf and the Widowmaker
• OTP: Somerset Strikers

Now, that’s not a definitive list. And understand, it’s not a guarantee that all of those will see publication.  But they are pitches I have accepted or are in progress of some form, so they’re more than just ideas.

Slightly off topic but I must quash my curiosity.  Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming Solaris 7 product tweeted by Randall?

Not really, no.  Though it does tie in somewhat with the upcoming Jihad Turning Point: Solaris VII release, which I hope to finally kick out the door before GenCon next year.

Is there a conflict or significant event in BattleTech history that you would love to see covered in a Chaos Campaign product but know it never will happen?

There’s a couple I can think of that are more RPG-centric that I’d like to see—and hopefully end up covered in Paul’s RPG offshoot of the line.

Probably the best non-candidate I can think of is Tukayyid.  It’s not really conducive to a campaign, per se, and would need a lot of specialization rules to fight that battle.  My concern there is that it would end up more a reworking of the original scenario book and less a campaign-style Turning Point, which defeats the purpose of the line.

But, as in all things BattleTech, you never really know, do you…

Back in September of last year I reviewed the open source BattleTech tracking tool MercRoster.  After helping a reader through the process of setting up their own instance I thought it would be appropriate to provide a step by step guide to make it portable.

MercRoster is a great tool and I want to show how easy it can be to setup and use.  All you will need is an internet connection (you got here didn’t you?) and a USB stick.

My web stats tell me the vast majority of ScrapYardArmory readers use Windows, so that’s what I’ll use in this post.

XAMPP

Visit the XAMPP project website and download the latest ZIP option.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp

Extract the files into the root of your thumb drive. For me, that ends up being the E: drive but your system is likely to be different.  Inside the xampp directory you will find a executable batch file called setup_xampp.  Go ahead and run it.  It’s job is to figure out what drive letter you are using and map xampp correctly.

Setting Up PHP

To make sure we have a smooth experience I have found that a small modificcation is needed to the php.ini configuration file.  On your thumb drive locate the php.ini file in the following directory E:/xampp/php.

First a little about how we do personal initiative… The standard initiative is 2d6.  Combat Sense makes it 3d6 and ignore the MINimum (or lowest) roll.  Combat Paralysis makes it 3d6 and ignore the MAXimum (or highest) roll.  (Max and Min is sort of habit from working in LibreOffice’s Calc and Excel.)  Furthermore the Tactics/Infantry skill is added to the roll up to a maximum of +6.  The resulting number is displayed using two 6 sided dice adjacent to the character on the map.  The highest initiative a character can have is 12.  The Reflex Attribute breaks ties and where Reflex is the same, the characters act simultaneously (appropriately conducted by the GM).

To see what affect Combat Sense, Combat Paralysis, and the Tactics/Infantry skill have, an analysis was conducted.  The average roll for each was calculated and represented by a bar on the graph below.  The  Combat Sense, Combat Paralysis, and standard initiatives are colored differently so you can see their relationship.  Ignore Max is Combat Paralysis while Ignore Min is Combat Sense.  Then every individual roll’s winning percentage against other rolls was calculated and averaged together to get an average Win % vs 2d6 OR Win % vs All.  Win %’s are the blueish shapes and labeled on the right side of the graph.  The +0 to +6 mods are from the Tactics/Infantry skill bonus to initiative.  The rolls were then ordered by their Average Roll where you can see the standard initiative 2d6+0 averages to 7 as expected.

What I didn’t expect was that only 2 of the Combat Paralysis rolls were lower than 2d6+0, and not really a whole lot lower.  But, the Win % drops off swiftly at the low end.  (Note that 2d6 only wins against itself 44.4% because ties don’t count.)

If you look closely, you will notice that while the Average Roll increases from left to right, the Win % doesn’t always increase.  Ignore Max+3 has an Average Roll a only few hundredths more than Ignore Min+0, but has a slightly lower Win %.  I believe this is due to an increased number of ties (Remember that only wins were counted and a tie is not a win).  You can see this happens again closer to the right, but really neither matters a whole lot since the numbers are still so very close.

You may also have noticed that the colors of the bars are symmetric left to right with Combat Paralysis tending to the left and Combat Sense to the right.

Not too many characters probably end up too far on the right side with high Tactics/Infantry skills, but you can see how they are much more likely to get a high initiative hitting the maximum of 12 more and more often.  With Combat Sense they’ll tend to the right pretty quickly though.  How does this affect our Battle Value?  We’re still not sure as we try to estimate the value of initiative vs other things like weapons, health, etc.

This post is really just meant to share our findings with you so you have a better understanding of the effect your character creation has on Initiative.

Let me start by telling you a little about my situation so you can get an idea of my perspective (Saxywolf).  I like my stories in dead tree format instead of staring at a screen.  I previously have no experience reading ebooks.  I don’t own a Kindle or other special device beyond my Android phone.  I don’t read a whole lot of Battletech fiction (actually I just haven’t read much at all lately).  The last Battletech fiction I read was the 8 novels of The Great Refusal to prepare for our convention games.  I have no real clue what is offered beyond the general description:

Each month we bring you exciting new content, including a mix of exclusive fiction, in-universe new articles, opportunities for interaction with writers, developers, and artists, sneak-peeks at upcoming products, and even scenarios and tracks you can’t get anywhere else!

As I’m writing this portion, I’m still not convinced to purchase a subscription.  I took the plunge anyway just so I could see what the deal was and let you know the details.  I also wanted to get the First Strike: BattleCorps Compilation Vol 2 as a PDF so I could verify some information on an upcoming scenario post.

BattleCorps subscriptions come in three sizes depending on your tolerance for long term commitments.

• 1 Month for $9.95
• 3 Months for $26.95 (saves $2.90 over a monthly subscription)
• 6 Months for $44.95 (saves $14.75 over a monthly subscription)
• Recurring 1 Month is -$1 and recurring 3 Month is -$2.

When ordering the subscription, the page for adding a subscription to the cart has you select a faction and says:

If you do not already have an account, please select a faction below.  Existing accounts will not change faction if a new faction is chosen.

What does that mean and why am I selecting a faction?  Since I’m logged in, it should auto-detect my faction instead of telling me that my choice doesn’t matter.  I realized however that this body of text is not automated.  So, I’m actually not even sure if I had a faction.  There isn’t an option to choose later, but while not immediately obvious you can switch factions.  It isn’t a comprehensive faction list, but it does have the popular ones.  Also, since the faction specific forums are not as active, limiting the choice some helps to avoid joining an inactive forum.

I was pointed to a ClassicBattleTech.com forum with threads announcing releases, but who is going to read a forum like that to figure out what kind of fiction they would have gotten.  Anyway, this is what I got:

• Over 120 products for free download… right away.
• Access to purchase over 440 additional products in ‘Battletech -> BattleCorps’ Fiction
• 5% discount on ALL BattleCorps purchases.
• Access to a faction forum in the BattleCorps forums (Presumably to discuss ‘Mech configurations, tactics, etc.) Not to be confused with the Classic Battletech forums.

A very nice surprise was that it turns out that there is a plethora of previously released products you get for free right away.  There isn’t a list or even a way to figure out what they would be before buying.  But once subscribed, they aren’t too hard to find.  I found 85 free products in my Fiction page right off the bat.  I also found 38 additional free products in the BattleShop under Battletech -> BattleCorps Fiction.  I don’t know why they weren’t automatically added to my fiction page, but I simply sorted the BattleCorps Fiction by price and went down the list adding all the $0.00 products to my cart.  If you too are going to download all the free stuff right away, add the $0.00 products before going down your fiction list and downloading every item so as to avoid having to figure out which you already downloaded.

What exactly does ‘stories from five years of back issues‘ mean?  This seems to be another instance of static text.  It seems I now have access to purchase upwards of 7 years back and all of it is still only for members.

What is the ‘Subscriber Exclusives‘ category?  I don’t see anything in that BattleShop category.  It’s as though I weren’t even logged in.  The message at the top says “Join the Corps” but since I know this body of text is static and not automatically customized for me, why isn’t there also a statement like there is at the top of ‘Battletech -> BattleCorps Fiction’: “If you are a BattleCorps member, but see no fiction on this page, then…”?  I’ve heard talk that at some point there was an exclusive mini, but now the mini has since been made available to non members.

How do subscribers get new products that are released?  Does BattleCorps send a notifications when a new product is released similar to a ‘BattleShop Product Update Alert’ when there is an update to a product previously purchased?  I found an option in the Control Panel to ‘Notify on New Fiction’.  I highly recommend you change this to YES if you sign up so you’ll get a ‘BattleCorps New Fiction Communique’ when something is released.  Otherwise you can periodically check your Fiction page where items with the latest release dates are listed at the top.

How long am I going to have to wait for them to release new products?  Well, there is no comprehensive schedule.  In fact, the only planned date I see is for Exodus Road on Aug 27th a whole 4 months away.  So, I took a look at their release schedule history.  You can see from the chart below that they release products almost every month (Note that I did not include subsequent chapters of a product release if chapters 2 through 10 were released at a later date than chapter 1).  Last year was pretty good and they even seem to be kicking it up a notch this year.

There are dozens of readers, both physical and software, that will read some or all of the dozens of different formats.  Some readers are DRM restricted in that they only allow you to read the ones you buy through that reader.  There are fortunately a bunch of free software readers that will let you read non-DRM ebooks, convert their formats, and help you upload them to any physical reader you may have.  I won’t go into detail (especially since there are so many combinations), but you can read more about readers from your ebook reader’s forums or Google.  Getting the first book to my phone was a bit of a pain, but from here on out at least I have the process down.  It also isn’t so bad reading it on my phone and it’s really nice to have with me whenever I need to kill some time.

Unfortunately, Instead of giving you a download link when viewing your order, there is a link to your fiction page, and then you must search that page to find what you just purchased.  Fortunately it is just one long page so you can do a quick Ctrl+F and type part of the name to find it on the page.  Which reminds me of something else that irks me… You get sent an email when a product you previously purchased has an update for you to download, but instead of linking to the PDF or even just linking to the order that has the download link, they only tell you the order number for you to go find the download link.  On the bright side, there doesn’t appear to be a download time limit on fiction so your collection is always available to you.  I can’t tell you what happens to it if your subscription lapses, let alone if you re-subscribe later.

In case you too thought “Print PDF” would send the ebook to your printer, it’s actually a link to download a version of the product that prints well to hard copy.  It isn’t in color nor does it have fancy graphics in the margin nor any background.  This makes me wonder why the margins in the “PDF” version are so big, though I guess somebody might want to print it in color.  I’m guessing the sidebar graphic is to reduce line length to help make it easier to read (and maybe to increase page count, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt).  It seems kind of random which have “Print PDF” and which have “PDF” (or both).

What about value?  A subscription is $10, $9, and $7.50 per month for the standard 1-, 3-, and 6-month subscriptions respectively.  Here is the current value of the products previously released:

It seems as though you only barely got your monies worth for 2005 through 2008 if you did the 6-month subscription.  However, there have since been a number of products from those years made free (and still exclusive) to subscribers:

If you want to save your money now by not buying a subscription and are willing to wait 3 or more years before buying all the old products, then you’d only have gotten your monies worth for 2006.  All the previous years still would have been cheaper if you had done the 6-month subscription.  If you had the 6-month subscription for 2010 then you would have saved a whopping 64% over purchasing all the products now.  Keep in mind that we are only 1/3 of the way into 2011 and already we’ve seen about as many products released that we would normally see released in an entire year (except 2010).

My biggest problem with BattleCorps and the BattleShop is that it seems to be shooting itself in the foot.  Making it easier to make purchases while clarifying what you are getting for your money are key issues.  I counted 6 products that don’t seem to be available anymore while 4 of them are the beginning parts to stories where additional parts are available.  18 products have slightly different names that make them harder to find counterparts such as “Art of War:  Earth: Part I” and “The Art of War: Earth: Part II” which are not listed anywhere near each other thanks to “The”.  3 items in the BattleCorps fiction seem to have duplicate entries such as “Under Pressure” which has two entries but with different descriptions.  5 of the 16 EPUB novels seem to have duplicates in the BattleCorps Fiction section with different prices.  3 of the BattleCorps Fiction products have a Part 1 released, but no follow up or the subsequent parts are not available.  A bunch of listed release dates aren’t consistent, but that’s not such a big deal.

Still, I’m glad I subscribed and from here on out I plan to be on the 6-month subscription.

If you are still on the edge or even if you decide not to subscribe, head on over to your personalized BattleCorps Fiction page to get a tiny taste of the free stuff you get right away when you subscribe.

Bedwyr has done some great work crafting an online javascript calculator to convert between Warchest Points, Support Points, and CBills.

Inspired by such efforts, I took it upon myself to cook up an offline version in Java.  This app should work on any machine running Java in the event that you are caught without an internet connection.

Please leave some comments if you can find some improvements or bugs.  Links are provided below.

• Online Javascript Calculator
• Offline Java Calculator

A Time of War is a combination and update of BattleTroops and ClanTroops. It is at it’s heart a RPG and not an infantry combat game.  The rules for combat are extensive, but certain situations break under scrutiny.  For a better infantry combat game we’ve made a few tweaks…

Warning, House Rules Ahead

This post is meant to provide additional options for players who want to dive into a BattleTroops type game with additions and tweaks that the ScrapYard believes make the game more balanced and fun.  As always, agree with your buddy before your games what rules are being used.

Turning The World Upside Down

One of the more annoying elements of A Time of War is the use of a static to-hit number.  This may make a lot of sense, but for most of us already familiar with a variable to-hit number in Total Warfare, it can be frustrating.

Negative is good.  Positive is bad.

That’s the way I like it (and the way the rest of the BattleTech universe works) so that is the way I play the game and will introduce it to others.  From here on out, I will use the familiar Total Warfare style to-hit modifiers.

Reduced Lethality Through Armor Effectiveness

I have a bone to pick with the current personal armor system.  There are a few things that just seem off.  First, armor does very little to protect the individual.  The damage reduction it provides under normal game situations is very minimal.  Second, weapons with a higher Armor Piercing rating do not matter so long as the total of the AP and BD values add up the same.  Lets see an example.

A Free Worlds League Soldier armed with a Magnum Auto-Pistol (3B/5) is face to face with a Lyran operative armed with a M&G Service Auto-Pistol loaded with armor piercing rounds (5B/3).  Each wears personnel armor with a ballistic rating of 5 BAR.  Both manage to get off a shot which hits the other.

The Free Worlds League soldier’s armor cannot resist the high AP of the armor piercing round from the Sterns and he will take the full 3 damage and the obligatory 1 fatigue.

The Lyran’s armor provides some protection against the Magnum.  The difference between them (5BAR – 3AP = 2) is subtracted from the base damage.  The Lyran also takes 3 damage and 1 fatigue.

What we end up with is a marginalization of many of the weapon systems in the game.  There is far less variety within weapon classes beyond the sum of the AP and BD values.  We need a change.

I’ve used the following system in my personal games and it works great.  While slightly more complex (adding 1 more step), it creates a more varied experience.  Different weapons will have different outcomes based on their AP/BD values even if they have the same sum.

RULES

After reducing BD as normal, convert remaining damage to fatigue damage for every point the BAR exceeds the AP of the weapon.  This cannot reduce the remaining damage to less than 1 and does not replace the normal 1 fatigue suffered every time a character takes damage.

EXAMPLE

Lets take a look at how this house rule changes things.

The FWL soldier is still under armored against the armor piercing round from the Sterns and takes the full damage from the attack, 3 damage and 1 fatigue.

The Lyran’s superior armor reduces the incoming damage to 3 damage and 1 fatigue as normal.  In addition we also convert the damage remaining to fatigue for every point the BAR exceeds the AP (this would be 2, same as the original damage reduction).  The final damage suffered is only 1 damage but 3 fatigue.

All of a sudden we have a more diverse choice in weapons because the damage they inflict is more varied.  Effective armor now further reduces the damage taken, however, you are also more likely to find yourself in situations where you are forced to duck for cover to recover fatigue or risk getting knocked out prematurely.  More strategy and risk vs. reward to consider during the game.

Burst Firing for Accuracy

Accuracy through volume.  Effectively trading ammo for a better chance to hit rather then more damage, the way standard Bursts works.  This is not meant to replace the rules as written but rather be an additional option.

RULES

Declare you are Burst Firing for accuracy at a target (a Simple Action).  For every 3 rounds fired you gain a +1 bonus to your to-hit (round down, maximum +3).  Damage is applied as though a single shot was fired (do not use the burst fire damage value).

EXAMPLE

You are firing a TK Assault Rifle at a target behind half cover from medium range and declare you are Burst Firing for Accuracy with 6 bullets.  You need a 6 (assume Target Number of 3, Range:+2, Cover:+2, Recoil: +1, Accuracy: -2).

Now you’re firing the TK Assault Rifle at a target at long range behind heavy cover so you declare you are Burst Firing for Accuracy with 9 bullets.  You need an 8 (assume Target Number of 3, Range:+4, Cover:+3, Recoil: +1, Accuracy: -3).

Grenades

Grenades and satchel charges are overpowered.  Almost all of my games from the Beta were settled with a single grenade throw.  The fact that they explode immediately after being thrown has an unbalancing effect on the game especially when high initiative characters are the ones doing the delivery.

ENFORCING THE RULES AS WRITTEN

One mistake I made early on is to allow the use of grenades without preparation.  Make sure you follow the guidelines presented in the Action Complexity Table (page 167).  It costs a simple action to ready or stow a weapon.  You have to ready a grenade before you can throw it and more importantly you have to stow any weapons you are using before you can even ready that grenade.

Of course it’s an option to simply drop your primary weapon (incidental action) to be able to ready and throw in one turn, but then you have to spend a simple action later to pick up your weapon or ready a secondary weapon.

NEW RULES

Grenades do not explode immediately.  A thrown grenade will explode after X completed activations, where X is half the number of active characters in the game when the grenade was thrown (rounded up).

A character may “cook off” a grenade with a simple action.  This will prime the grenade causing it to explode immediately after being thrown or after the character throwing the grenade completes his next simple or complex action, whichever comes first.

Suppressing Fire

The suppression fire rules were tweaked from the Beta release and are much better for it.  Though it still needs adjustment.  The mechanic should be about area denial and a true threat to your opponents.  As it stands, suppression fire is very weak, and ends up underutilized.

RULES

Suppression fire lasts until the shooter activates again (or cannot fire).  Any unit attempting a skill check while in or after passing through Suppressing Fire must add a +2 modifier to the attempt.

Overwatch (Held Actions)

Winning initiative is a very big deal in A Time of War.  In middle to end game situations you need it to clear stuns, run for cover or finish off a wounded opponent.  However, before forces have mixed it up in earnest, there is an overwhelming temptation to hold action with every soldier you can in order to act last.

To avoid turtle tactics, we can inject a little variability into this game mechanic.

RULES

After electing to interrupt another character’s action, an opposed reflex attribute check is used to determine which character gets to act first.  The losing character must act immediately after the winner.

Leadership

The leadership rules in A Time of War are necessarily abbreviated due to the RPG nature of the system.  Any meaningful effect of leadership skills can and should be role played by the players and the GM.  For an infantry skirmish game, we can live with a little extra complexity to give players a reason to use this skill in their games.

RULES

If not using team or squad initiative, a character with the Leadership ability may use a simple action to “Lead” a friendly character.  The following turn, the affected character may add half the Leader’s Leadership skill to their initiative roll (round up).

Stealth

The stealth mechanic needs a retooling in order to bring skill rolls into line with what is reasonable.  In any infantry game, the ability to remain unseen is a huge advantage.  However, once the lead starts flying the ability to remain unseen should quickly diminish.  The Stealth ability and it’s associated modifiers need to be carefully selected to keep game play balanced.

RULES

A hidden character may not be targeted directly by opposing units.  A perception check must be made against the target’s stealth skill to spot the target.  Once spotted, the target is revealed to every other unit.  A character with the Stealth skill may re-hide with a Stealth skill check as a complex action if no opposing units have line of sight.  A character with Stealth may begin the game hidden if no opposing units can draw a clean line of sight.

The following table replaces the Vision Based Action Checks section of the Action Check Modifiers Table (page 41).  It adds two condition modifiers when trying to spot a stealth’d character who fired a gun in his/her last activation.

I’m not very confident regarding the stealth rules and I’m sure they will need some additional play-testing and tweaking to get the balance just right.

Consciousness Checks

A curious change made late in the development cycle (post Beta) was a revised KO Check.  The change had the effect of making each and every character in the game (with few exceptions) exactly the same and imposing a very harsh first hit KO check roll of 7+.  The change saps variety from the selection of characters.  Here are the values I use in my games which has worked well.  Knock outs are still a threat but only after you are either very unlucky or very beat up.

RULES

A consciousness check target number is 12 – Body – Willpower + Injury Modifier + Fatigue Modifier.

Give the Game a Try

A Time of War is a great system with seemingly endless customization options.  The gritty feel of the universe compliments the overall game.  Give the game a try and see how it all works.  You can easily pull together some of the Sample Characters from A Time of War for a demo.

• Kicking the Tires
• BattleTroops Miniatures from Iron Wind Metals
• Infantry Recon
• Side Show

1. Chaos Campaign Mechwarrior Conversion
2. Reinventing the Big Game
3. Jihad Turning Point Dieron
4. Mechwarrior 4 is Finally Free
5. Black Widow Company Recon Lance
6. Last Stand of the Davion Guards
7. Historical Turning Points Galtor
8. Historicon 2010
9. Battletroops Infantry Recon
10. War of 3039 Update

Along with great posts come great comments.  Here are the top commentators for 2010, in no particular order.  Thanks for all of your input.  Looking forward to hearing more from you and others in 2011.

• Paint it Pink – Panther 6 Actual Blog
• Quigs
• Eastwood DC – Giant Battling Robots
• Noobk
• Reinwood99 – CBT Workbench

I hope you have a great New Year.  2011 is in the chamber and ready to rock!

But can’t you protect your ammo by carefully placing it within your ‘Mech chassis? For instance I’ve heard that by placing seven items in a side torso you get some measure of protection against critical hits.

This BattleTech myth has strong roots and even some experienced players fall prey to this misguided logic.

Why Doesn’t This Make Sense?

In order to dis-spell this troublesome myth, you have to first follow the letter of the rules when it comes to critical hits.  For each critical hit, you roll two dice, one for the section (upper or lower) and another for the slot.  Whenever you roll an empty slot you must re-roll BOTH dice.  The process starts from scratch.

But if there are six filled slots in the upper section and only one slot of ammo in the lower, a section roll of 1-3 is guaranteed to hit something other than your ammo.  A section roll of 4-6 by contrast has a 5 in 6 chance of requiring a re-roll.

Is your ammo protected?  Yes and no.  The only thing protecting that slot of ammunition is the fact that there are six other things to hit.

By following the rules as they were intended you guarantee that each slot has a 1 in 7 chance of being hit.  To believe otherwise is a classic case of outcome bias.

Show Me!

I wanted to demonstrate this phenomenon to convince even the most skeptical that ammo protection is a busted myth.  I whipped up a small Java application that simulated critical hit rolls where seven items in a torso or arm are available targets.  The program simulates the exact dice rolling protocol as described in Total Warfare.  The ammunition is placed in the last slot and gratuitous virtual dice rolling ensues.  Here are my results.

The numbers speak for themselves.  Using a very large sample, it is obvious that there is no favoritism in the way critical hits are determined.  Every slot every time has an equal chance of being hit as any other.

In fact the only way to protect ammo is to load the section up with heatsinks or other crit soaking equipment.  More targets to hit means a lower probability that the ammo (and thus your ‘Mech) will be the one going up in smoke.

Paul Sjardijn is at the helm for both these products.  What new adventures await players in this short tome?  Is it worth the combined $5.90?  Let’s delve in to see.

Introspective Enemy

An opening battle filled with missiles, lasers, and concentrated firepower open up this dossier.  This lance has some issues.  The tension evident between the members of the Liability is palpable.  Add to that the sudden realization that a trap has been set and we have the makings of a proper adventure with ample opportunities for twists and turns along the way.

The fiction sets the stage and its now time to meet the actors.

Unit Profile

Each member of the Lamenkov’s Liability is detailed in a profile which is a bit of short fiction that answers a few of the most basic questions surrounding their past.  How did they get started as a MechWarrior?  How did they rise up through the ranks?  How did they end up with Lamenkov’s Liability?

While brief, the bios were entertaining and help to paint a colorful picture of each character’s personality.

Alongside each bio is a brief spot on each member’s BattleMech including a picture of a painted miniature courtesy of CamoSpecs.  All of the ‘Mechs have Strategic Operations Quirks assigned to them.  Some are obvious, like Difficult Ejection, others not so much, like Sensor Ghosts.

Missions

The missions section is a combined Total Warfare and A Time of War adventure pack featuring the Liability and their mission on Schedar within the Republic of the Sphere.  The opening mission, Warm Welcome, picks up where Introspective Enemy left off with a frantic chase.  Both Total Warfare missions use the Chaos Campaign track system.

I was very impressed with this first mission.  The objectives were not a simple kill everything variation and the optional bonuses are actually interesting.  Well done Mr. Sjardijn!  Here we have the first tie in to the sister dossier.  As an optional bonus, Salazar Tsakalotos is included in the pursuing force.

That Could Have Gone Better is an RPG mission with open ended objectives and ample opportunity for anywhere from one to four additional Total Warfare encounters.  I’ve never been a fan of RPGs so this is certainly not my cup of tea.  The two page mission description equips a GM with a patchwork of information from which the overall adventure is constructed.  The quality of your experience is ultimately in the hands of the GM.

The last mission, Nowhere to Run is a final stand where the Liability have their chance to prove their worth.  In this case, I don’t mind the less than imaginative objectives since the fiction dictates that this was a fight to the finish.  I see no other way this mission could have been written.  The tie in to the earlier missions is enough of a hook to keep my interest and the interest of your gaming group.

Record Sheets

Each member of the lance has a complete Time of War record sheet describing their every detail.  Each ‘Mech in turn has a record sheet.

The record sheets look great, no repeat of the Death to Mercenaries issues.  My only complaint is the fact that the Time of War damage monitors are not optimally displayed.  Currently, the health and fatigue circles are grouped in fives.  What would have made more sense, is to have the health grouped in quarters and fatigue grouped in halves.  That way it becomes easier during a game to, at a glance, recognize what the injury and fatigue modifiers are.  Not a huge deal but something I think can be improved in future releases.

Salazar Tsakalotos

Salazar is the chief (albeit unnecessarily optional) antagonist in the Liability story and is available separately for $1.95.  The dossier includes elements exactly the same as the Unit Profile and Record Sheets described above.  There is no opening fiction or missions included.

This independent but intertwined dossier is available separately but should not have been.  I feel that the addition of Salazar as the primary antagonist in this story requires he be included in the Liability PDF.  There is little the community can do with him separately outside the context provided by the story told in the main PDF.

If you plan on buying the Lamenkov’s Liability PDF pick up Salazar as well.  They go together and should not be digested separately if you intend on having the full experience.

Product Tie Ins Galore

The Liability PDF is a shining example of how the multiple volumes of BattleTech rules and lore can be combined and mixed with great success.  Within it’s pages we have recommended/optional injections from no less than the following products:

• Total Warfare
• A Time of War
• Hexpacks
• TRO: Vehicle Annex
• Iron Wind Metals 3085 Lance Pack (the Liability use all of these ‘Mechs)
• Strategic Operations

It’s wonderful to see all of these products mixed together.  The gaming experience is better for it.  We have all of these books full of rules and fiction.  It is refreshing to have official product make ample use of all that there is to offer.  Older players with access to most if not all of these tomes will be glad to take advantage of their stock of information.  New players will feel the pull to buy in deeper into the BattleTech world to see what all the fuss is about.

Overview

The story told in these two products is excellent and well worth the $5.90 combined price.  My only concern is the fact that the full campaign may not fill a long enough session to make it worth the entry fee.  A typical Turning Point PDF contains anywhere from five to seven missions.  The Liability adventure may possibly have up to six missions in them before the campaign comes to an end.  But, if the RPG section is skipped then it becomes only two.  For the level of detail that went into describing this unit I would have liked to see more.

The quality of the product is excellent but the quantity is left up to the GM and and the players.  Under certain conditions there should be ample opportunities to string together multiple battles. However, under certain courses of action the end of the campaign may sneak up unexpectedly.

Still, to put it all into perspective, for less than the price to go to a movie you have yourself several hours over at least two (probably more) gaming sessions to fill your time.  The price of admission is low so give it a shot if your gaming group feels like taking an excursion into the Dark Age.  It may be a short detour but the views are worth it.