ScrapYard Armory

If you are like me, you just love playing in slow Battletech games that are doomed to never finish. I’m talking huge games. Massive games just because we can.

Who needs resolution? We can just conjecture about who won the game. And let me tell you, it should be plainly obvious even if only two ‘Mechs out of twenty-four bit the dust after the 8th hour of play.

Here are some ways to make sure your own games never come to a completion.

Make it One Big Game, Regardless of the Number of People Playing

Splitting a scenario into manageable sub missions is absurd. The goal is to have so many people fielding so many units that each firing phase takes at least an hour. We all love waiting in line to fire at the lead assault ‘Mech in the opponents army. It builds character and gives you time to strike up conversations with your team mates on just how the next turn is going to go. After all its going to be at least an hour from now, so you have the time to chat and get distracted.

A huge mess of people playing in a game also makes for long and involved discussions about who should move first. Initiative should be carefully thought out to make sure your company-plus of ‘Mechs has the best opportunity to waste more time later by baiting your opponent to fire on your nifty light ‘Mech with the plus-four modifier.

Use Ambiguous Terrain

I’ve got some great ideas for terrain. Lets sprinkle flock around the map to make forests. You heard me, just sprinkle it wherever you want forests to be. Who cares if the players won’t be able to see where the woods begin or end. It’ll look great with my model railroad trees! The best part is when the player end up arguing whether or not one ‘Mech or the other really is inside cover.

And while we are at it, lets use realistic water and paint it varying shades of blue to confuse the players even more. The should have to get a game masters ruling each time a ‘Mech tries to forge across the hazard. That’s a piloting skill!

Make the Battlefield As Big As You Can

If you happen to have a 6 foot by 4 foot gaming mat then that’s what you are going to use! Players love spending forty minutes playing out a first and second turns that involve nothing but moving units towards each other. Effective shooting should only be a concern in the third turn at the earliest.

After all, who actually wants to shoot at the other ‘Mechs anyways? This game is more fun moving units than actually accomplishing anything in combat.

And while we are at it, throw in objectives but make sure they are so far away that the become inconsequential. Objectives are nice to look at. But once they become obtainable it takes the fun out of the inevitable middle-of-the-field assault ‘Mech pile on.

Sarcasm Off!

Ok ok, I’m done, but I just had to get that off my chest. And I’m sure that you have probably been in a similar situation if you have played the game long enough.

Classic Battletech is a great game. I love it. But it seems that there are a lot of commandos out there who insist on handicapping their games with some rather absurd tendencies.

There is a better way. I hope to apply what I’ve learned from the many many commando sponsored events I’ve played in at my own event in June.

Pinning is a technique used to strengthen the bond between two part of a miniature, like an arm or leg. It involves drilling a hole in each side of the joint and inserting a pin between them. It gives the glue more surface area to adhere to as well as providing additional structure to the joint.

There are more than a couple written tutorials, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Or a video for that matter.

So I decided to make a quick video tutorial using a Warhawk mini that I’ve had lying around since Christmas. Enjoy.

I am pleased to report that I will be running two Classic Battletech events at NJCon 2008. The Con will take place from Friday June 6th to Saturday June 7th in Kenilworth NJ. Full details including directions and registration are available at NJCon.org.

Here are the events I will be running,

Classic Battletech Grinder :: Friday 6PM-10PM

Leap into the action with the Grinder, a fast paced game designed to teach players the ins and outs of Classic Battletech. Players will pilot their BattleMechs against all comers in a wild free for all.
All materials provided. Rules taught.

Twilight of the Clans: The Great Refusal :: Saturday 2PM-6PM

The brave warriors of Task Force Serpent secretly made the thousand-light-year journey to the Smoke Jaguar home world of Huntress to eliminate the last of the Clan’s holdings. What they find there will test the limits of their skills, their endurance and their loyalty. Come and relive a pinnacle moment in Battletech history as the combined forces of the Inner Sphere, under the banner of the Star League, seek to end the threat of the Clan invasion once and for all.
All materials provided. Some experience recommended.

I promise a great set of games.  Hope to see you there!

Cold Wars 2008 was held in Lancaster Pa just two weekends ago. I’ve gathered up a few thoughts to share.

Commando “Speck” Did an Amazing Job

Never before have I seen a better effort to present and publicize Classic Battletech. The CBT games were actually tucked away in a corner of the convention hotel. But everyone and I mean everyone knew for sure how to find us. It was hard to miss the massive poster in the main lobby. Once you found yourself inside the room, you could look over new product releases on display, pick up fliers for BattleCorp or the Classic Battletech relaunch, as well as snag a business card with yet more information on the game. Wow.

All convention long there were Quick Start Rules ready to be played at a drop of a hat. Indeed, several passers by sat down for a game and shuffled through the contents of the Introductory Box Set on display. I overheard many comments about what a deal the Intro Box Set was. Kudos Catalyst Game Labs.

All convention long, there was a Grinder with intermediate rules. It was very well attended throughout the weekend. Even Saturday night after returning from the blackout many convention goers, including lots of young ones, came over to burn a few hours in the Grinder. It was a sight to be seen.

Each time slot also had an advanced game played with gorgeous terrain and minis. The big game on Saturday night was attended by no less than 16 people!

Well done all weekend long.

Random Event Photos

Unfortunately, I could only get half an AAR out of my notes from the convention. I was trying to play each event while recording the major events each turn. In the end, my notes are almost illegible and don’t capture all of the best moment during the games. All I can say is, well, you had to be there. But in case you weren’t, here are the rest of my event photos in no particular order.

I found this article while browsing the news. YES! Weekly out of Greensboro North Carolina must of had a slow news day and wrote up a story on StellarCon, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Gaming convention in North Carolina. The article is mostly Star Wars musings, but way down in the bottom, there are a few paragraphs on a Classic Battletech game. Here is the quote;

In a room off the main hallway a phalanx of Awesomes maneuver to outflank the Turkina B of Greg Resnik, of Greenville, SC, on a green felt game board as big as a ping-pong table, strewn with plateaus and foliage, and divided into hexagonal spaces.

The Turkina, Resnik assures, “is a much more advanced mechanism than the Awesomes facing it.” He pulls the battle robot back three spaces, out of range, so that only one Awesome has him in his sightline, and then, after the Awesome misses its shot, Resnik proceeds to fire.

He shakes two pair of dice in his hand, looses them onto the green felt playing field. He needs sevens or better. They face up: three and four, six and one. Two hits. To fire his other weapon he needs nines. One pair comes up 11 for a single hit. The next round of rolls determine where on the Awesome his shots hit – left torso, center torso, left leg, marked off as damage on a laminated sheet with the Awesome’s armor and inner machinery diagrammed on it. Resnick’s working the midsection pretty good.

The game they’re playing, BattleTech, is an old-school RPG that came about in the ’80s, and some of the figures on the scale battlefield are more than 20 years old. They represent battle robots piloted by humans, balanced by gyroscopes and powered by fusion engines in the year 3062.

“They average ten to twelve meters in height,” says Chuck Bryant, owner of the trio of Awesomes, from Colombia, SC. “The smallest unit on the field is thirty tons; the largest is ninety tons. And somehow, in the digital future, the range of attack for a weapon is about the length of a football field.”

The Turkina-B is from one of the clans, Resnik says, disciples of the soldiers who left the Inner Circle…something about a civil war and lost colonies… it’s all very confusing.

At his side Resnik has a seven-inch-thick binder filled with diagrams and maps for the game.

“That’s only parts of it,” he says, gesturing to a pile in the corner: rubber tubs, tackle boxes and luggage filled with BattleTech paraphernalia, more than could fit in the trunk of a car.

Good to see Classic Battletech getting some press, even if its buried inside an article so cleverly named The “other” N-word.

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

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

Movement Dice

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

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

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

Playing Cards for Initiative

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

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

Total Warfare and Heavy Metal Record Sheets

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

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

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

Refresh Yourself on Special Rules

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

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

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

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

Iron Wind Metals made the trip to Lancaster Pa last weekend for the Cold Wars gaming convention. They had a rack full of miniatures, all of the new lance packs, and buckets of micro fighters.

They were offering a buy three blisters, get one free all weekend long. The micro fighters were also three for a dollar. Nothing but good reasons to get out to any convention Iron Wind Metals is attending.

On display were a selection of miniatures with truly amazing paint jobs. I forgot to get the painters names and will send out an email to find out if I can. I apologize in advance for the atrocious picture quality. I managed to leave my own camera charger at home so I had to borrow a friend’s camera. Suffice to say, his was an older model.

I’m going to go ahead a cry just a little bit tonight thinking of how far I am from producing such gorgeous paint jobs. Seriously though, Iron Wind Metals had a great presence at the con and I am looking forward to seeing them again whenever possible.

Forces from the Word of Blake descend upon an allied look out post. The defenders, a ragtag mix of units from across the Inner Sphere, stand in their way.

The attacking Word of Blake forces consist of a light/medium ‘Mech Level II and a light/medium Combat Vehicle Level II.

The defending Inner Sphere forces include a light/medium Mech Lance, a light Combat Vehicle Lance, and a standard Battle Armor Lance. The Inner Sphere forces must protect listening posts manned by conventional infantry platoons.

Turn 1:

The Word of Blake rushes at top speed towards the first listening post. Under a barrage of fire, the majority of the infantry inside are killed or injured rendering the post out of commission. The Inner Sphere force, not yet in range, makes haste to defend the other objectives.

Turn 2:

The Word of Blake force splits off into two groups. The first head directly towards the defending ‘Mech force while the other breaks to the right flank to threaten another listening post. An allied battle armor squad stands vigil near the  post on the right flank.

A Word of Blake Jackal lags behind and takes careful aim at the oncoming defenders. An Extended Range PPC shot goes just wide, barely missing the target.

Turn 3:

The Allies send a lone spider jumping atop the local terrain on the left flank just behind a listening post. The allied combat vehicles rush the Word of Blake units attacking the right flank, vainly attempting to head them off. The Word of Blake Scarabus speeds off past the defending forces in search of easier targets to the rear of the engagement.

During a hurried volley of weapons fire, the Allied Wolverine takes a medium laser to the head but the pilot shrugged off the damage. The Battle Armor on the right flank get peppered by missile and laser fire. A Word of Blake Saladin manages to hit the allied Griffin in the leg, almost up ending the ‘Mech in a single blow.

Turn 4:

The Jackal continues to snipe from afar, landing solid hits to the Inner Sphere force engaging the Word of Blake vehicles. The Saladin jams its Ultra AC 20 and is rendered immobile by enemy fire. Both Zephyr hovercraft meet the same fate as they lose all motive systems but remain positioned for shots against the central listening post.

On the right flank, the allied Battle Armor squad is vaporized by a laser volley from Word forces. And then suddenly…

Game Play Note: It was about this time that power was lost at the convention venue. It was not only us, but the entire city block affected. The rolls and results of turn 4 were actually completed by cell phone and lighters.

By the time power was restored it was already too late to finish up before the next game.

I was impressed that everyone was so determined to see out the last turn without the lights. Even the Grinder in the same room continued for a good half hour rolling dice via whatever light source at hand.

Good times, good times…

My thanks to Mark “Speck” Yingling for putting on a great game during Cold Wars 2008 in Lancaster Pa. I hope to have the opportunity to play with him again in the future.