ScrapYard Armory

I’ve got the Channel Campaign blues.

You can download the Leviathans Channel Campaign Open Alpha for free from the BattleShop.  It is a very nice little PDF with what look to be a well crafted set of campaign rules for small to moderate sized forces in the Leviathans universe.  I’s got nicely sized diagrams and well described examples.  It’s all there.

And then I go to my copy of Strategic Operations and carefully feather through the pages.  Pages 47 through 50 are there, mocking me.  I’m talking about the Linked Scenario rules for BattleTech.  I had high hopes for this particular section of Strategic Ops.  Official BattleBlogs fed my interest.

The Linked Scenarios rules from Combat Operations was one of the better received sections of that book. They provide a simplified and easy-to-use framework for building a campaign used in conjunction with the Creating Scenarios section of Total Warfare.  They’ve been included here, as ever updated and expanded as appropriate.

Only there were no expansions.  The whole section was a straight copy-paste from Combat Operations.  I have to be honest and tell you that I felt let down.  Strategic Operations gave us so much great content full of examples and diagrams.  Rules for Aerospace, maintenance, repair, BattleForce, and QuickStrike all got a proper amount of attention, detail and explanation.  Linked Scenarios simply had the dust shaken off and reprinted.

It may have been that there just wasn’t enough room.  The core rulebooks are each monsters in their own right in the “Yeah, we got a rule for that” era.  A casual look at the back of the book reveals no blank pages or advertisements, each evidence of no more room to put an eight page printing block.

Looking Closer

So what is wrong with the rules as written?  There is much confusion over how forces are matched against each other.  When you are not using a campaign map (an abstract campaign) it can be frustrating if it is not clearly discussed by both parties before the campaign begins.

Try to use maps for strategic movement and you see just how incomplete the rules are.  It feels like there just wasn’t enough time devoted to it.

Long story short, you can give the Channel Campaign to two players familiar with Leviathans and they will be able to play the game to completion under the rules as written.  No further explanations or agreements are required.  They just sit down and start playing.

Strategic Operations fails this test.  I have attempted campaigns twice now and each failed to complete due to disagreements sucking the fun from an otherwise enjoyable evening of gaming.  Here are a few posts from the official forums that describe what I’m seeing.

• Linked Scenario Questions
• Combat Ops, Linked Scenarios
• Any of you have ever played with…

Where Are The Maps?

Further, while it talks a good fight about using maps and having strategic moves the rules for such actions are no where to be seen.

This may be something Catalyst is busy working to include in Interstellar Operations.  After all, we have been receiving gorgeous new maps on a regular basis from Historical and Jihad Turning Points pdfs.  We need a reason to use them.  Here’s hoping Interstellar Operations has a few answers for us.

What’s the End Game?

I’m not here to rant and rave all day without doing something about it.  There are issues but none that are insurmountable.  After all I’ve only attempted to play twice and both ended before properly concluding.  BattleTech is a game where house rules are encouraged.  Whatever you have to do in order to make it fun.

Time to be a little proactive.

I’d like to hold public linked scenario campaigns here on my blog.  We have all the tools we need namely MegaMek and another tool I will be describing in a future post.

I have a few goals;

1. Make it work.
2. Make it fun.
3. Post examples that will encourage others to use the rules and host their own linked scenario campaigns.

There will be two parts;

1. Abstract Campaign (no strategic map)
2. Map Based Campaign

All I Need is a Little Help

Have MegaMek and a few hours to help out?  Order writing will be done in house but the actual games can be outsourced to you the readers.  If you are interested in playing some games and help us churn out the campaign missions we will be able to accomplish more.

Lets do our own Alpha Testing.  Leave a comment if you are game.  Roll Call!