ScrapYard Armory

Some Battletech games suck for reasons beyond the terrain and miniatures that grace the tabletop.  Sometimes the game itself is so short its unsatisfying.  When your Fafnir takes a Through Armor Critical on turn one causing a double gyro you can’t help but feel cheated.  On the flip side games that never finish are equally deserving of frustrated sighs from players.  To me, long winded convention games are the worst offenders.  One-hour turns consumed by moving alone?  No thanks.

The sweet spot for Battletech games in my opinion falls between eight and twelve turns.  If your games do not come to a reasonable conclusion within that range you may need to make some adjustments.  Here are a few ideas to help you bring your games into the sweet spot.  Whether you are running short or going long there are ideas a plenty to try out.

Lengthen Your Games

Mix Up Your Units

• Take away the XL engines.  There are plenty of high tech units out there that don’t need the XL crutch to pile on the firepower.  You don’t have to play 3025 exclusive if you don’t want.
• Slow down and bulk up.    Slower heavier units, on average, are going to be harder to bring down helping your games go the distance.

Add a Little Edge

Give each Mechwarrior an edge point or, for bigger games, a pool of Edge points for each force to use.  An ‘Edge point’ can be used to force a re-roll of any to-hit or location roll.  Once the re-roll occurs that’s it.  No Edging an Edge for obvious reasons.

Shorten Up Your Games

Mix Up Your Units (again)

• Add in more XL engines and advanced technology.  More damage and softer targets will lead to more destruction per ton.
• Use faster units.  Speedy mediums and heavies will have more opportunities for optimal firing and rear shots which will inevitably cause more critical hits throughout your game.
  

While 3025 purists will turn their heads at the idea of adding shiny new equipment from later years there are subtle ways to introduce a little extra damage into your games.  Even in 3039 there are prototype Gauss Rifles, Pulse Lasers, and other goodies.  With a little modification even stalwart 3025 designs can pack a little extra under the hood without completely throwing out the knights errant aesthetic.

Decrease the Game Area

Just because you own an ‘OMG Uber Mega Large Size’ game mat doesn’t mean you have to use every inch in every game you play.  Keep in mind how many mapsheets you would use for a regular game when using your game mats.  Would you use a four by four mapsheet battlefield for a lance on lance game?  Not at all.  You’d use about half that and have a great game.  Keep that in mind before you start units at either end of your biggest game mat.  If you are spending the first three turns making only long range shots you are doing something wrong.

Forced Withdrawal

About as simple as it gets.  Battletech doesn’t have to be only about the absolute destruction of the enemy.  On the contrary protecting assets so they can fight another day is a much more realistic strategy in the far flung worlds of the Inner Sphere.  When units are forced out of combat your games end sooner and lose their win at all costs mentality.

Add Meaningful Objectives

Objectives should be more then the plain old “go kill the other guy” variety.  A little flavor can make a huge difference.  Players should have something to fight for!  It gives your games more meaning instead of the mindless absolute destruction of the opposing force.

Total warfare can get you off to a good start.  The Scenario section starting on page 256 has a few generic mission objectives for you to use and give you ideas for creating your own.  Just about every mission besides Stand-up Fight has a little something to offer.

After you’ve had a chance to test the basics you can find a mother load of useful objective ideas from the wealth of Chaos Campaign sources.  We have Starterbooks, Jihad Sourcebooks, Jihad Turning Points eBooks, and a hoard of community created tracks that are chock full of ideas ranging from the mundane to the truly novel.  Here are a few of my personal favorites from the Community Created Warchest Track Threads.

1. Full Metal Sandwich – Not a Scratch: A Heavy Wheeled APC must be escorted off the northern edge of the battlefield. (works great with TacOps shielding rules)
2. Desolation Row – Send Me Some Lovin’: Render at least one Stealth Armor ‘Mech salvageable. (all of a sudden particular units become more meaningful including their method of destruction)
3. Just When You Thought it Was Safe – Escape: At least half of the Attacking units must enter a level 2 water hex on the coastal terrain map after turn 8.  A submersible transport is waiting and will pick up all retreating units that exit the map in this fashion. (Better not get too banged up of you are going to have to leave someone behind because of potential breaches)

These are just a  taste of some of the great ideas available in the Community Created Warchest Tracks.  Have a browse and get your creative juices flowing.  Life in the Inner Sphere is better with objectives.

At Cold Wars 2009, the ScrapYard met with Jim Fox, the Iron Wind Metals representative at the exhibitor booth for Cold Wars and all the other HMGS conventions.  I think there are a lot of Battletech players who have heard of Mike Noe and the Office Wench but have not had a chance to get to know Jim more.  I sat down with Jim and asked a few questions to help the rest of the Battletech community break the ice.  There is more to Iron Wind Metals than the headline owners after all.

SYA: Tell us a little about yourself and how you fit into the Iron Wind Metals family.

JF: So, basically, at age 12 I went to the factory because I knew a friend of one of the owners and grew up there.  Thirty years later here I am.  I was there when it was all lead figures and you bought them one at a time and started with Dungeons and Dragons. You know, Battletech didn’t even exist then or historicals… So I’ve been around for a long time.

SYA: How long have you been coming to Heavy Metal Gaming Society Events like Cold Wars and Historicon?

JF: I started going with one of the former owners about 10 years ago.  That was the first convention I’d been to.  Although I went to a small one in Cincinnati in high school back in ’82.

SYA: Do you play CBT yourself?

JF: That’s a good question.  I played Battletech in about ’87 in college two or three times and that’s the only time I’ve ever played. I was really into Dungeons and Dragons as a kid and got into fantasy and I’m now more of a miniatures collector.  Although I really like Battletech, I just never got back to it and now I’m so busy making sure we have the booths ready I have very little gaming time.

SYA: Speaking of, you have a great collection of miniatures that you bring to all of the conventions. How did you end up with all of them and do you know who painted them?

JF: Well, often what would happen is the person who… we used to have six sculptors on staff and as they created stuff about half of those guys were Golden Demon type painters. So some of those guys painted them and then we also have fans who are tremendous painters who would offer to paint certain ones for trade or for favors. So, we have acquired that painting collection over a very long time period from various painters.  As a matter of fact most of them we would be like, yea we don’t remember who painted that.  But then a guy will come up and go “yeah, I painted this.”  It’s a real hodge-podge and that’s why you’ll see a variety of finishes on them. Some of them are a bit more glossy than others, all of them are beautiful but you’ll see different tastes and directions with them.

SYA: Historicon is going to be changing venues in 2010. Could you tell us what you think that would mean for Battletech players?

JF: I think it has the potential of making it the best Battletech venue we have ever had.

SYA: Including GenCon?

JF: Yes. I really do, because Historicon is smaller as a con and I think we can make more of a mark there than we do at GenCon because you are competing with 30,000 other interests there.  You have 33 or 34 thousand people going there and most of them don’t play Battletech.  Historicon is more of 5,000 or so attendees so percentage wise we have a higher percentage and with the bigger venue we will be able to go to them and say, “Ok instead of a side room I want two rooms.  Instead of a side room I want to be in the main gaming hall.  I want exposure.  I want this, I want that.”

It’s got a rail system right to the front door.  The entire east coast can hop a train and make it there and come for a day or whatever.  They had a meeting on Friday night to inform us about why and a lot of the details about that venue and afterward I think we are going to do a limited special piece for anyone who pre-registers and comes and plays Battletech.  And that will be their first chance to get it and they will get it for free.  It stinks of opportunity for us.  I really really believe that.

SYA: How closely do you work with Catalyst Game Labs when deciding on new product?

JF: Catalyst is a company, if I understand it right, that has a lot of guys who work from home and they connect via the internet so they are kind of a scattered out company. At Origins last year we actually took them to dinner and said, “Ok What direction are you guys going and what can we do to buddy up with you guys?”  We try very hard to work with them but it doesn’t always work that way.  They are very busy just trying to get their stuff done on their end of it.  Although we would like to work even closer with them… we try.

But it’s two separate companies functioning two different ways and we actually manufacture product.  They’re authors and publishers and they create a lot of stuff overseas.  Two totally different companies, but we try.  I know that they have some more box sets coming out and we want to know as soon as possible whats in there so we can make sure we are heading in the right direction.  It keeps getting better and better.  They’ve grown very fast and they’ve had some growing pains too.  And actually Battletech in the past few years has had a very good up swing mostly due to them.  They’ve done a really good job and that’s been great for us.

SYA: How many people have you had come to the booth to buy their first Battletech miniature?

JF: You get a handful every show because of the gaming that’s here.  It introduces a lot of guys.  What we really see are a lot of guys who come up and say “I haven’t played Battletech in 20 years but I played it last week”.  We get a lot of that.  It’s one of those game systems that is so solid that you remember it again very quickly, pick it up again, and it’s a great game system. It’s a fall back for a lot of guys.  But, we do get a handful every show. Four, five, six something like that.

SYA: How much do you work with Mark “Speck” who runs the Battletech events here at the HMGS conventions?

JF: As closely as we can.  Because he’s put his heart and soul into what you guys do over there so we do everything we possibly can and he may even help us set up the booth and help us take it down.  So if it wasn’t for those guys we couldn’t do this.

SYA: Speaking of convention support, you have been giving great support in the form of product coupons, how have those been working out for you?

JF: I think they work pretty well.  For instance this morning we had a kid who obviously played in one of the games over there and he came over and bought a fantasy piece.  So there is a lot of cross over gaming and I think it works very well. It really does.

SYA: Is there any recent work being put into the Iron Winds of War game?

JF: That game itself is a stand alone game system where you can plug any figures into it you want.  So the work is mostly done on that. We spend about 99% of our time making ‘Mechs.  Between casting them and producing them and packing them and shipping them, we spend about 105% of our time. We are always behind.  I encourage anyone who can visit Cincinnati to visit the factory to see what we really do and see how much much work goes into it.  It’s a craft really.  We make 100% of this product right here in the United States. Hand made, hand packaged, hand shipped.  It’s pretty cool to see it.  It takes a lot of time and effort so there is not a lot of time being spent on some of the other things we’d like to do.

SYA: Was that a real offer to visit the IWM factory?  How would that work?

JF: Yeah, well you would want to email them first because their schedules are real mixed up.  They work a lot of weekends but not all weekends so it’s a hodge podge and they have a lot of part time people so some of them work funny hours.  But yeah, you can contact them.

SYA: I see that most of the resin products have sold out already. [Pointing to the empty shelf where boxes of radar dishes and drop ships were just the day before.]

JF: They just came in.  We don’t manufacture any resin.  It’s a whole different technology so we have somebody that we contract that with and the first order; twelve dropships came in two weeks ago so we go, “Ok, we can’t even announce they are here.”  Then another 24 came in last week so right before [Cold Wars 2009] Mike Noe came to me and asked if I wanted to take some. So I brought a limited amount to the show here and of course they’re gone.  They’re beautiful. I brought eight radar dishes in and actually most of those got sold to people who aren’t Battletech players.  They are just so cool that guys were like, “yeah, I got to have one of those.”  We are going to continue to add to the resin line for more things like the radar dish.  More generic things that crossover. They are just such pretty pieces.

SYA: Thank you very much, I appreciate you taking the time.

Opening Fiction

By far, Wild Things is the very best fiction so far out of the Jihad Turning Points books. The story telling is superb.  I really felt the primal desperation of the resistance fighters on the frozen tundras of Tharkad.

Tharkad

The planetary map and terrain tables follow the JTP formula and are just as you would expect from a planet half frozen and half blasted to oblivion.

Combatants

Continuing on the opening salvos of Tharkad’s liberation, the combatants section offers bites of information that tell the bigger story.

From my reading, there are not a whole lot of shockers.  Not like the over the top antics we saw in New Avalon.  In a way, I think that the end product is more realistic and a bit easier to swallow.

Additional flavor is provided by the Clans, both the Wolves and the Falcons oddly.  Whenever you get these two factions on the same world, fighting for the same goal, you are bound to get some interesting angst.  Too bad the combatants section is ill-sized to tell the full story.  Suffice it to say, there are plenty of role playing opportunities introduced for game masters who have the initiative.

Tracks

The Tharkad tracks continue the downward slide of creativity in optional bonuses and victory conditions. I doubt that the writers spend much time playing in these tracks themselves. Unfortunately a lot of the tracks being presented from New Avalon and on look virtually the same. While there is value to game masters and role players to have the proper unit lists, terrain, and back story, the simple war gamers among us will be disappointed.

The majority of victory conditions in Tharkad involve destroying the opposition.  It stinks of laziness.  I’m sorry to say, but no matter the objective, I’m going to try to kill my opponent regardless.  So please, add a little flavor into the objectives.  Add meaningful optional bonuses that make me think.   Need some hints?  There are plenty hidden in the rough at the community created Warchest track thread.

Good news of sorts is the return to six tracks per book.  I was a little worried when New Avalon only contained five.  The more Warchest tracks the better providing fodder for the imagination of Battletech gamers.

Record Sheets

Two proper Lyran ‘Mechs grace the Tharkad Turning Points book.   Neither under 75 tons.  The first is a Word of Blake modified Fire Falcon sporting a Heavy Gauss and some extra energy weapons to boot.  It’s a curious design that also includes C3i.  Certainly a salvage special.

The next ride is a Fafnir from Peter Steiner-Davion himself.  C3 slave and ECM provide a curious electronics package.  While the ECM is an excellent fit against the WoB the C3 slave is suspect.  But thats nothing compared to what comes next.  Hold on to your potatoes.

Fafnir Peter has a single Heavy Gauss with some lasers sprinkled in.  But then, the balance is filled with a boatload of Rocket Launchers.  Ten ten packs.  My goodness.  This is what the Lyrans equip their Archon in the face of invading religious fanatics?  They deserve the five year occupation and the whole sale nuking of their planet.

Tharkad is loaded with Warships.  Six in total including the Essex, Fox, McKenna, Mjolnir, Sovetskii Soyuz , and a Tharkad.   The warship record sheets are honestly almost worth the price of admission into the Jihad.  At the very least they are a pleasant bonus that hopefully entices some of the ground pounders out into the depths of space.

Planetary Maps

The planetary maps of Tharkad round out this PDF. We are still waiting for planetary assault rules so these will be on my back burner until Interstellar Operations comes out.

Overall Tharkad contains some of the best fiction and the most immersive storyline of the series.  I found the Warchest tracks relatively unimaginative but it follows the formula for what you would expect.  Beaucoup warships makes for a happy aerospace player.  And by the way you really should try some warship battles.

If you like the other Jihad Turning Points than there is no reason not to add this volume to your collection for only $5.  If you are looking to get into the series I’d recommend you check out Luthien first to see if the style and content is up to snuff.

Everyone loves a good campaign. Every miniature wargame worth it’s salt has some form of campaign system.

Classic Battletech is in a unique situation among wargames in that it does not offer a standardized or well regulated competitive environment. While there are those that would love to have it made available, the distinctive casual flare of the game is a lure for many.

What it lacks in the area of competitive play Battletech more than compensates with an abundance of campaign settings complete with unique rules sets and quirks. Look hard enough and you’ll be sure to find a home within the Battletech universe.

For the uninitiated this can all be a bit daunting. I’ve queued up a list of the campaign engines worth your time. Each system has its own unique character that I hope to convey to you the reader in as concise a style as possible. It is up to you to determine just what floats your boat though.

Chaos Campaign

Chaos Campaign is a plot driven campaign system that debuted with the Dawn of the Jihad source book. The system is now a free download.

The premise of the rules set is to abstract all of the background functions of running a force down to a single point value, Warchest Points. Each scenario or Track has a Warchest point cost to enter. This accounts for all of the maintenance and transportation costs that are required to get your force to the battlefield. During the track you will vie for objectives that earn Warchest points back. Optional bonuses that make the Track potentially more difficult or dangerous up the ante, but carry with them an extra Warchest point reward if you manage to complete your objectives in spite of them.

After creating a force, you determine it’s Force Size Modifier and Technology Rating. These modifiers will affect the conversion of Warchest Points to Support Points. Support points are used to repair your units and buy new materials and equipment as well as hire new personnel. This allows a Chaos Campaign to scale to just about any level the players desire. You can play through a campaign with a single company with tracks involving between 4 and 8 units as well as Battleforce scale forces. The flexibility is endless and works well if you ignore some of the Support Point tables.

In addition to the wealth of Jihad era tracks available for purchase from Catalyst, there is a great forum post at ClassicBattletech.com with community created Warchest tracks dealing with many other Battletech Eras.

Materials Required

• Chaos Campaign (Free PDF)
• Any or All; Dawn of the Jihad, Jihad Hotspots 3070, Jihad Hotspots 3072, Jihad Turning Points Luthien/New Avalon

Game Master Required?

• Yes. The GM picks and runs opposing forces to fight the player group as well as introduces additional hooks and expansion ideas.

Starterbooks

Forget the Starter moniker. These books mean business and are a worthy addition to any gamers collection, young old or anywhere in between.

Based on the Chaos Campaign Warchest system, each Starterbook is a self contained campaign featuring two famous forces from the Battletech universe. Sword and Dragon tackles the War of 3039 using the Fox’s Teeth and Sorenson’s Sabres while Wolf and Blake takes place during the Jihad Era with the Wolf’s Dragoons facing off against the Word of Blake.

Each force tackles a series of generic missions like Recon, Defend, and Strike in order to build up their force. Once you feel you have enough upgrades and are ready, you play Touchpoint missions. Each Touchpoint revolves around a particular battle and adds additional flavor to the mission. Eventually in each book there is a final showdown that pits the two headline forces against each other.

Both Starterbooks work well with a single player if you have someone to play opposing forces for you and is easily adapted to two player head to head.

The only noticeable drawback in the Starterbooks is the sometimes annoying proof reading mistakes and rules omissions. For instance, while both books mention the ability to upgrade pilots, you’ll go blind trying to find those rules anywhere in the book. A little bit of common sense will go a long way to maneuvering through these inconsistencies. Don’t let it ruin your game. Both books are well worth your time despite their flaws.

Materials Required

• Starterbook: Wolf and Blake (either or)
• Starterbook: Sword and Dragon (either or)

Game Master Required?

• Required for single player. Optional for two-player versus.

Strategic Operations/Combat Operations Linked Scenarios

Linked scenario rules provide an extension of the scenario generation section of Total Warfare. Players build forces using an agreed upon method and play out smaller battles between units after issuing strategic orders in an order writing phase. There are three new scenarios that are used to build on those provided in Total Warfare.

Linked Scenarios is an abstract system that does not track force position absolutely. Each force during a turn will seek out combat with the enemy and is assigned opponents using a simple set of assignment rules. The smaller individual battles that result affect the campaign and will eventually determine a winner before the other force is totally destroyed.

Linked scenarios presents an oddity in terms of its current rules set. Strategic Operations contains a virtual copy-paste from the FanPro product Combat Operations. Not something I was happy to see to be honest. I am working on new additions to make this rule set much more palatable to a game theory advocate such as myself. Stay tuned.

There are certain areas of the rules that are never truly fleshed out like move orders. Without proper rules for the use of a strategic map, movement orders are relatively useless. Hope remains that Interstellar Operations will add this functionality. Don’t hold your breath though.

Materials Required

• Combat Operations OR Strategic Operations

Game Master Required?

• No.

Mercenaries

Guns for hire in the 31st century toting 100 ton anthropomorphic tanks bristling with weapons. Yes please. I’ll have some more thank you.

Running your own mercenary force, or at least attempting to, is a right of passage in the Classic Battletech game. Even the Chaos Campaign borrows from this fundamental theme for it’s Jihad plot line.

Field Manual Mercenaries takes you through a rather detailed process of generating a mercenary force from the commander to the administrative paper pushers. You get very detailed when it comes to unit maintenance by tracking time, material, and money. For some, this can be a turn off. If you’d rather spend time playing the actual game instead of figuring out what ‘Mech will get it’s weekly maintenance due to a Tech shortage stick with the Chaos Campaign which hides this minutia.

However, if you do enjoy the fine tuned control and the gritty down in the weeds detail then Mercenaries is the right campaign for you. You may very well spend as much time handling post mission logistics as you will playing missions.

Another aspect of Mercenaries that is unique is the roleplaying bend that the developers took when it comes to mission resolution. Tables and charts will get you right up to arriving in system for your contract but from there on, you are at the mercy of a Game Master who’s in charge of generating encounters and resolving missions.

Materials Required

• Field Manual Mercenaries Revised
• Field Manual Mercenaries Supplemental (optional)
• Field Manual Mercenaries Supplemental II (optional)

Game Master Required?

• Yes.

Solaris VII

The bright lights of the Solaris arenas have been a draw for many players. Who wouldn’t want to try their hand at crawling up the Solaris ranks for a shot at the championship?

A campaign on Solaris VII can take different paths. For example, each player may choose to operate as an individual Mechwarrior plying his trade in the arenas. This kind of adventure can be tightly integrated with the Classic Battletech RPG and has a decidedly roleplaying feel.

If players are looking for a different experience each player may choose to take on the role of an owner/operator of a Stable or Cooperative. You’ll manage your cadre of ‘Mechs and pilots in hopes of racking up victories and hopefully placing one of your elite into the Grand Melee at the end of the season.

Solaris VII is the kind of campaign where the more players involved the more fun it can be.

The information available to players is varied and sometimes difficult to pull together into a tight and coherent campaign.  Make sure all your players are in agreement on how the campaign will be run including how many matches are run each week, what kind of materials and supplies are available, etc. There is a lot of room for player interpretation which is a well known double edged sword for gamers.

Material Required

• Map Pack Solaris VII
• Mechwarriors Guide to Solaris VII (optional but recommended)
• Solaris The Reaches (optional)

Game Master Required?

• Yes.

Quick Summary

One of the vital and entertaining parts of a Chaos Campaign as well as either of the Starterbook campaigns is managing your Mechwarriors.  There are a variety of events that would require you to shift around your pilots between ‘Mechs.  Pilots get injured.  ‘Mechs get destroyed.  New and better ‘Mechs are either bought or salvaged.  Sometimes, a different mix of pilots and ‘Mechs just makes sense for one mission over another.

I got tired of constantly erasing the pilot data off all of my record sheets when I shifted around my pilots.  I was also afraid as the campaign missions become more heated, I’d forget what pilot had what damage.  I came up with a way to keep a record of each pilot separate from the ‘Mech record sheet.

Make a small cut with an exacto knife just above the Mechwarrior data section on your ‘Mech record sheets.  With a small cut and a #1 paper clip, you can swap out pilots at will between missions.

Blank Pilot Sheet (PDF, 60KB)

I modified a Classic Battletech record sheet with multiple Mechwarrior Data sections.  Cut them out for your force and use a blank to hold them all between missions.  When a pilot gets injured and he needs a few missions to rest you can put him aside for a track or two to heal up.

I am looking forward to using this tool in my campaign and I hope some of you out there find it useful as well.

I love the Chaos Campaign Warchest system.  The simplified campaign accounting rules help you to spend more time playing games and less time crunching numbers.  Who wants to work out the cost of every repair and ammo reload when what you really want to do is blast a PPC crater into an opposing ‘Mechs chest?

At the end of the Chaos Campaign rules PDF (available online for free), there is a Campaign Record Sheet that can be used, if you like, to help keep track of your unit’s progress.

I hate to be blunt, but I can’t help it.  This record sheet was designed by someone who has obviously never played through a Chaos Campaign before.

For every track, there are six lines for Options Used, seven lines for Objectives Gained/WP Earned, and a measly four lines for Downtime costs.  On the example record sheet, we can see how the developers imagined this record sheet be used.  It is all very self explanatory.

I have read through both Starter Books, Jihad Hotspots 3070 and 3072, and very few use more than three options or three objectives.  The most I found was the odd track that used four.

Why would they devote so many lines for something that will never actually be used?  Wasted space.  Meanwhile, with only four lines of downtime costs, you can’t possibly fit all the information you’d like.  There are missions that have you running two or more lances of ‘Mechs into combat.

I’ve been abbreviating up to now.  One line for ALL repairs, and one line for ALL salvage, and one line for ALL post track purchases.  It sucks because if there were more lines I could tell the story of my campaign much easier.

I went ahead and warmed up my PDF editor and made some changes.

Chaos Campaign Record Sheet Upgrade (PDF, 72KB)

I left only four lines each for Options and Objectives and put the balance under the Downtime Costs.  I’m already using these for my Wolf and Blake campaign.  With the added detail, I hope to be able to look back on these later on and remember the campaign.

Wow, I remember that Strike mission I ran!  What a disaster.  I almost lost my Griffin and Uziel in that mess.  I was lucky to get my pilots out alive!

We are crafting stories here when we play linked battles with characters and Battlemechs with names and unique quirks.  Make them memorable.  Hope you find the new record sheet useful.

JTP: New Avalon is the second in a new series of PDF only releases by Catalyst Game Labs.  This product is affordable and jam packed.  For those who already know and love the Chaos Campaign system, this is an invaluable tool to add to your collection.  Not a fan of the Jihad?  There is still some value to it when it comes to the planetary assault maps and terrain descriptions.  You can use this PDF to fight campaigns from any era including the prominent Federated Commonwealth Civil War.  If you are still not convinced skip it for now and wait for a Succession War era release if there is one in the future.  I’m hoping for one myself.

If you are on the fence here is my rundown on this newest release.  I also have a review of JTP: Luthien.

Opening Fiction

A great piece of work that demonstrates the desperate plight of the Inner Sphere forces trying to repel the Word of Blake.  Even when you have the home field advantage the battle doesn’t get any easier.  Sometimes you have to pull out all the stops and get down and dirty to get the job done. Here we are introduced to Sparky 2.0 who we will see more of later.

Great short fiction to open up this PDF, worthy of what I have read in the Battlecorps Anthologies.

Atlas

The atlas section follows the formula laid out by JTP: Luthien.  A brief history writeup is included alongside a large mapsheet table.  The FedCom civil war is touched upon as a major contributor of damage to the city prior to the Blakist invasion.  Perhaps the robes aren’t completely to blame for the sorry state of the FedSuns capital?  Regardless, I’m sure they will be blamed for it all anyways.

Great section for those of us who are either avid roleplayers or perfectionists.  You have all the details you need terrain wise to make an authentic New Avalon campaign during the Jihad or ANY other era.

Combatants

All coherent forces involved in the New Avalon campaign are detailed briefly including unit logo, commanding officer, average experience, appropriate RATs, force abilities (some of them we have seen before like Overrun and Off-Map movement, some are brand new), and Notes.

The Notes section for each unit consists of a few sentences describing a snippet of a larger story.  This is important because when you read them through from start to finish (the units are described in chronological order of arrival), you get a bigger picture of the whole battle.  There are nuggets buried in these unit descriptions.

Notable Notables

• The name of the game for the FedSuns is merger.  Lots of consolidation going on.
• Finally, somebody had the kahones to throw some nukes at the Word of Blake.

Tracks

While Luthien contained six Warchest tracks, New Avalon contains only five.  After reading through, I wasn’t inspired by the choice of objectives or optional bonuses.  While they did not feature as many of the irregularities I found in Luthien, they tended to be a bit bland and lacking in character.  I’ve definitely read and played better tracks in the Jihad Hot Spots source books.

Regardless, the Aftermath sections continue the process of piecing together the overall story of New Avalon.

Annex

We are treated to custom variants of the Atlas, Griffin, and Grim Reaper.  The Griffin is the highlight of the Annex section.  Combined with the opening fiction and the throwback flavor to the knights errant Succession Wars era, Sparky 2.0 is a fearsome upgrade to the venerable Griffin platform that has character to spare.

The ‘Mechs are followed up by three warship record sheets, using the new Strategic Operations record sheet design.  Included are the Eagle frigate, Essex destroyer, and Riga frigate.

Last But Not Least

A large multi-page planetary assault map of New Avalon rounds out this PDF offering.  Now if only we had rules to use them.  There is always Interstellar Operations.  Keep your fingers crossed.

How about a game of Aerospace with all the bells and whistles?  Including the new Electronic Warfare rules into your Warship battles adds complexity, but dials up the strategy.  Hopefully you’ll get the opportunity to blast your opponents into space junk, but a little help along the way wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? (except your opponent maybe…)

The Electronic Warfare rules in Strategic Operations include new uses for ECM and Active Probes for Fighters.  Proper use of your ECM fields coupled with the disruption of your opponent’s will mean the difference between victory and a cold silent death in deep space.

Unfortunately, there are not a whole lot of options when using only canon fighters.  They can be divided into two categories: Offense and Defense.  Offensive fighters mount an Active Probe that will effectively cut through the bonus provided by all enemy ECM fields.  Let me repeat, that includes all ECM fields.  Fighters, small craft, and large craft are all affected.  Defensive fighters mount an ECM suite.  These will only defend against enemy fighters and small craft, so it won’t stop an opposing Warship from blasting you with Anti-Fighter Laser Batteries.  But every bonus counts, and staying alive and getting through a fighter screen to put some heat on those Warships is all part of the game.

OFFENSIVE

HCT-213B Hellcat II

The Hellcat is a great medium EW fighter that fits its niche nicely.  While skimpy on the offensive punch (only two large and one medium laser) it mounts an impressive amount of armor.  Your opponents are going to have to chew through 215 points of armor to down this monster.  Until that happens the Active Probe will be doing it’s own damage by cutting through ECM fields left and right.

Vandal (Prime)

This light Clan Omni-Fighter will need some protecting to get it into the knife fight required to bring the Active Probe into play.  It has a pitiful armament for a Clan unit (only 3 tons of pod space total).  Decent armor for a light fighter is the only saving grace.

DEFENSIVE

Sabutai (B)

The Sabutai is an all around Fighter with good weapons, good armor, and impressive speed for a Heavy.  The addition of a Guardian ECM adds this Omni to the list.  Watch your heat though, and use your alpha strikes wisely.

Jengiz (Prime)

Along the same lines as the Sabutai, the only thing to gripe about with this Fighter is the heat sink capacity.  But then, with the monstrous amount of weapons on the thing, it is a wonder anything but another Heavy fighter will be left alive after an Alpha Strike.  As you would expect from Clan Technology, this thing is a beast.

S-HA-0 Shade (Invictus)

This 35 ton Word of Blake Omni-Fighter packs quite a punch with a nose mounted Heavy PPC complemented by a pair of pulse lasers.  Honestly this thing is scary for an Inner Sphere Fighter.  Plenty of speed and armor make it a clear threat. Damn Word of Blake is always up to no good.

Don’t See What You’d Like?

While I didn’t see anything to confirm my prediction of bomb rack mountable EW equipment, we still have plenty of Omni-Fighters out there.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few home-brew variants pop up that remove a few unused lasers to fit an EW pod.  Don’t like what you see?  Make your own up on the spot with only minor modifications.

Watch out because you can easily go overboard.  Every fighter in the game had better not mount both Probes and ECM.  That would make for an overly complex and ultimately boring game.  Once every fighter in the game is special, no one is.  Agree with your opponent on a set number of EW pods (players choice of either ECM or Probes) available for each force.  Now you have some options to make things interesting and strategic.

Do you run majority ECM in hopes of taking a defensive advantage?  Or do you tack on all the Probes you can muster in hopes of doing enough damage quickly to counteract the lack of ECM.  Better yet, do you spread those pods around or stack your ECM and Probes into single squadrons?  Is putting all your eggs in one basket a game winner in Deep Space?

See the evolving strategies?  You’ve got a lot of things to think about if you chose to build your own forces this way.

The Bottom Line

So what is the net effect?  I would expect that all EW fighter squadrons will attract a significant amount of attention from your opponent.  This makes sense to a point but you have to think about the big picture.  Every shot fired at a fighter squadron is one less shot directed at your opponent’s Warships.  Don’t win the battle so you can lose the war.

No not that.

Although I’m sure we have all met an odd or unusual character across the gaming table I’m talking about an odd number of people.

What games do you play when you don’t have even teams for a more traditional stand-up fight?  Everyone knows the trusty Grinder.  The omnipresent free-for-all is a staple of Battletech players the world over.  Many a newcomer has cut their teeth mixing it up in a Grinder.

But how about some other options? A little something different.

It’s no surprise that a lot of inspiration can be had from Solaris 7.  The Game World has a lot to offer besides the famous one on one ‘Mech duels in the headline arenas.

Mech Rally

First up is a classic.  The Mech Rally is a race to finish by any means necessary.

Setup your map or terrain with a series of beacons.  These beacons are what each player needs to “tag” in sequence to finish the race.  To keep things even it is recommended that each player use ‘Mechs with the same movement profile.  If one guy has a Locust, the rest should be as fast to avoid any one sided speed demon shenanigans.

While the rules do call for the ‘Mech Rally beacons to be tagged in sequence you could easily forgo this and let the winner be determined by the first player to tag all beacons on the board.  Start each player at a different spot on the board and you end up with a bit more strategy and less obvious solutions to winning the game.

King of the Mountain

This one is a personnel favorite of mine.  It works great for groups of three players and up.  The maximum number of players is limited only by your map size.  This game incentivizes losing initiative and features fast play.  Once someone is King of the Mountain, they are sure to be the lightning rod for that turn.

Pick a map with a big mountain somewhere in the middle.  If you happen to have the Solaris 7 Map Pack, you already have a great map, you guessed it, King of the Mountain.  Nominate a single hex (more if you have a big map/lots of players) as the objective hex.  Players start at any map edge.

The goal is to take the high ground (hence the name).  At the end of each turn, the King of the Mountain gets 2 points if they are standing and 1 point if they are prone.  Also, each player gets 1 point for participating in a kill (anyone who declares fires and hits gets a point).  Let the carnage continue for a fixed turn length, a fixed time period, or maybe until the game night comes to an end.  Your call.  When a player gets his ‘Mech shot out, pick out a new one using your preferred method (Random, Grinder Ladder, etc).

Solaris 7 Melee Challenge

I played my first Solaris 7 Melee Challenge during GenCon 2008.  I had a blast.  It was a fast paced and fun way for a lot of people to mash ‘Mechs together for fame and profit.

What many might not know is that the Solaris Melee Challenge Rules are available as a free download at the Classic Battletech site.

In a nutshell the SMC starts everyone off with a fixed amount of money to buy their ‘Mechs and enter the arena.  CBills, character points and fame are awarded for crowd pleasing events.  Things like physical weapon attacks, dealing critical damage, and others make the crowd go wild.  Meanwhile, things like blowing up a ‘Mech half your size will result in your precious CBills being taken away and loss of fame.  Nobody likes a bully.

Once you have a few CBills in your pocket, you can exit the map through any pre-determined exit point.  You can then repair damage to your ‘Mech or buy a new one with the money you’ve earned.  Character points can be redeemed for skill improvements and pilot perks.  Then it’s back into the fray to teach your opponents a lesson or two!

Tips on Playing

• Multiple teams can make things very interesting.  Consider starting each team from a different stable with a different stable perk.  These are listed in the Solaris 7 Mappack as well as a smaller selection in the SMC rules.
• Be sure to read through the rules and make adjustments for your group.  At GenCon, nobody wanted to be out of the action for long (we were essentially paying by the hour with game tickets).  We did away with the mandatory off board time to maximize playing time.
• Playing cards for initiative is a must. Read more here.
• Make sure there are a few exit/entry points available.  It sucks being stuck and surrounded without an option to bail to fight another day.  This is supposed to be a fun event for all and not a culling of the weak.

I hope you find some great ideas for your games.  I’m always looking for new and exciting ways to play so if you have a great game you use with your gaming group, leave a comment and let us all know.  Classic Battletech has much more to offer than the standard Stand up Fight.  Mixing things up is a great way to keep things interesting, entertaining and most important, fun.

For readers not familiar with the Chaos Campaign rules, see my original review here.

Those of you playing through your first Chaos Campaign may come to the realization that the support point costs for purchasing new units feels inadequate.  There are only two distinctions made for ‘Mechs and vehicles; those using Introductory rules and everything else.

Using this system, a ‘Mech with a single non-Introductory rules component would be double the cost of a ‘Mech without.  There just isn’t a lot of granularity in the system.

Examining the StarterBooks

Both available StarterBooks eliminated Support Points in favor of a straight Warchest Point system.  I whipped up a spreadsheet to examine the relationship between Warchest points, Support points, CBills, and Battle Value.

I assumed that each force was an ‘A’ rated unit with a Force Size Modifier of 3 (three lances in a company).  Given these inputs, here is a quick view of what my spreadsheet looked like.

Chaos Campaign Evaluation (XLS file, 100KB)

For each ‘Mech used in the StarterBooks, I took the average value between the Introductory Support Point cost and the Advanced Support Point cost.  Converting to Warchest points using my Force Size and Tech Rating assumptions yielded some interesting results.

I evaluated 57 unique ‘Mechs from the StarterBooks.  Of those, 23 had StarterBook Warchest point cost that EXACTLY matched the calculation I performed above.  A good number of them were eerily within 10%.  Scary!  Have I somehow stumbled on the thought process of the developers or is it merely a freak coincidence?

Two Ways to Calculate

Battle Value

If you would like your games balanced by combat effectiveness, convert Battle Value to Warchest points.

Treat the Battle Value of your desired ‘Mech as if it were Support Points.  Thus to convert to Warchest points, divide by your Force Size Modifier and Technology Rating Modifier.

Example:

Ellis wants a shiny new HBK-4G Hunchback for his Jihad campaign force.  Its Battle Value is 851.  Ellis’ force has a Force Size Modifier of 3 and a Tech Rating of B (Technology Rating Modifier of 1.5).  Divide 851 by 3 and again by 1.5.  That new Hunchback will cost Ellis 190 Warchest Points.

CBills

On the other hand, if you prefer a slightly different dynamic to your games, convert CBills to Warchest points.

The Chaos Campaign rules include an easy way to convert CBills to Support Points.  Converting CBills to Warchest points, you get a completely different feel to your campaign.  Expensive ‘Mechs are almost unobtainable while more economical units become much more valuable.  This provides a great deal of flavor in constructing your force.  I would expect less high tech gadgetry in favor of more economical and sustainable designs.

If you convert CBills straight up with the formula found in the Chaos Campaign PDF the Warchest Point costs end up much lower than the Battle Value equivalent.  To remedy this, I fiddled with a simple modifier to bring CBill costs in line with the Battle Value calculation.  Using a multiplier of 1.75 normalizes the CBill costs to Battle Value based on the 57 ‘Mechs I evaluated (about half are above their Battle Value cost  and half are under).  Your mileage may vary of course.  Some day down the line I may make a bigger sample using the Peter LaCasse faction list (more on that later).

To convert CBills to support points, divide the cost by 10,000 and then multiply by 1.75.  Then convert them again to Warchest points if desired.

Example:

Ellis wants to know how much that same Hunchback would cost if he were balancing his campaign by CBills.  The Hunchback is an economical design that does not contain much advanced technology.   It is a steal at 3,467,876 CBills.  Dividing by 10,000 and multiplying by 1.75 (the Cost Multiplier from above), the Hunchback would cost 607 Support Points.  Dividing by 3 and 1.5 gives a final Warchest point cost of 135.  What a difference!  Cheap ‘Mechs are definitely in style!

Repair Costs

I really enjoyed the tiered repair costs in the StarterBooks.  It is easy to use this kind of a system instead of the one repair fits all in the Chaos Campaign PDF.

I came up with these numbers after again evaluating costs in the StarterBooks.  I use repair costs as a percentage of the unit purchase price.  That way, they work no matter what method you use to balance your game.

Shake Things Up

How about an interesting twist?  Balance purchase price by Battle Value but repair costs by CBills.  Sure, you can have that fancy AWS-9M Awesome at a reasonable price but the costs to keep it in fighting trim may bankrupt your force.

Just one example of how you can spice up your campaign.

Conversion Made Easy

Think it’s too damn complicated to run all these numbers.  Never fear.  Turning to the Peter LaCasse faction list, we can add two new columns and with one fill down, you instantly have almost every unit with custom prices calculated, sortable by Faction, Unit Type, Era, and more.

The Peter LaCasse Faction List

Have Some Fun

The Chaos Campaign is a great compromise between AccountTech and too simple to swallow.  Agree with your fellow gamers just what the rules are going to be before you delve into your campaign.  But don’t be afraid to change mid stride if you feel something is out of whack.  I’d love to here from anyone out there who puts some of these ideas into practice.

Every campaign is special in its own way.  Make yours one to remember, just the way you want using the rules that make sense for you.