ScrapYard Armory

Mark of the Jaguar is a scenario I’ve envisioned for some time now.  Ever since I read through the Unique Mech Record Sheets PDF (available as a FREE download at Battlecorps) I knew I wanted to spread the story of Cernunnos.

Do yourself a favor and add this PDF to your own collection.  There are many great stories inside.

I hope you enjoy this scenario.  I had a lot of fun making it!

MARK OF THE JAGUAR

“I wish I could have seen the look on that poor fool Drac pilot when he got visual.  I bet he dumped a load when he saw those damn spots we painted our ‘Mechs in.”

“Yea, I know.” Jacobs chuckled.  “The way he turned tail, he damn near tripped up getting out of his own way.”

The four men around the campfire laughed as the fading sunlight cast a fiery sheet of light on the horizon.  The wind was picking up.  No doubt a storm was heading their way.  Shame they wouldn’t get to enjoy the fire much longer.  The provisions and extra water from their last raid into the Draconis Combine would hold them off for some time no matter how bad the weather got.

“So what’s our next target Jacobs?” One of the other men asked after the laughter had died down.

Jacobs shot to his feet, his face twisting into a scowl.  “That’s Captain Jacobs you twit!”

The rest of the startled pirate lance glanced around uncomfortably, obviously waiting for the other to step in and attempt to calm the fuming lance leader.

“I run this lance and the lot of you should show some respect!”  Jacobs scanned the three seated men back and forth still irate over the apparent insult.

“Hey hey, calm down… Captain Jacobs,” Ryan said after a short silence trying to sound as sincere as possible. “Everybody knows you’re the boss.”

“You’re damn right I am!  It was my idea to paint up our ‘Mechs wasn’t it?!  You know how many times those chicken shit militia have gone walkabout when we showed up!”

A low and almost imperceptible rumble began underneath the four pirates.

“That may have been the best damn idea I’ve ever had!”  Jacobs stopped, suddenly aware of the rhythmic vibrations under his feet. “Hey, what the hell is that noise?”

SITUATION

Pirate forces in the Periphery have taken to painting their ‘Mechs in Clan Smoke Jaguar colors in order to intimidate those who would resist them during raids.  The tactic has proven very successful in striking fear in the hearts of their victims especially as reports of rogue Smoke Jaguar remnants begin to swirl around the Periphery.

Rezak’s Hole, a well known Pirate staging planet was recently the scene of a battle involving what is believed to be rogue elements from Clan Smoke Jaguar that managed to evade destruction on Huntress.  The alleged Smoke Jaguar force ambushed an isolated pirate raiding lance near a badlands oasis.

Hard facts from the encounter are hard to come by.  Operatives have been sent to access the situation and determine if any risk exists to our blessed order.

GAME SETUP

Arrange two Classic Battletech maps as shown below.  The east map is Open Terrain #2.  The west map is the standard Classic Battletech.

DEFENDER

The defenders consist of elements of a pirate raiding force known for painting their Battlemechs in Smoke Jaguar colors in order to intimidate their victims.

Mechwarriors

Battlemechs

DEPLOYMENT

The defender’s ‘Mechs begin the game on the West mapsheet in the locations shown below.  The Pirate player may choose which pilot goes in which ‘Mech and where each ‘Mech will be placed including facing.

ATTACKER

The attackers consists of elements from a renegade Smoke Jaguar Trinary led by a Clan Mechwarrior known only as Cernunnos.

DEPLOYMENT

The attacker enters the game on turn 1 from the east map edge.

SPECIAL CASE RULES

Caught With Their Pants Down

The Pirates are caught unprepared and need time to get all of their Battlemechs started up.

The Pirate player must nominate two of his ‘Mechs to start the game shutdown and immobile.  Before the game begins, the Pirate player writes down in secret one ‘Mech to start up on turn 3.  The remaining ‘Mech will start up on turn 6.

Dusk

Cernunnos often attacks at night in order to catch his prey off guard and out of their Battlemechs.

Apply a +1 to-hit modifier to all weapon attacks (not physical attacks).  For every 25 points of heat apply a -1 modifier  to all weapon attacks on that unit.

Moderate Gale

A brewing storm is the perfect opportunity to further disorient Cerunnos’ opponents.

Apply a +1 to-hit modifier to all missile weapon attacks.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

None Shall Live

These Dezgra will pay for their insult.  The Jaguar will show them no honor, no mercy!

The Smoke Jaguar player achieves a complete victory if all of the pirate ‘Mechs are crippled or destroyed.  A partial victory can be achieved by destroying three of the pirates and exiting Cernunnos off any map edge.

Escape!

Save who we can and get the hell out of here!

The Pirate player must exit at least half of his force through the Attacker’s home edge on turn seven or later to achieve a complete victory.  A partial victory can be achieved by destroying Cernunnos and escaping at least one ‘Mech off the Attacker’s home edge.

AFTERMATH

Another lance of Pirates were ambushed in the Periphery last week.  Investigators from the Explorer Corps once again are late to the show and found only a cold trail.  The local population remains uncooperative with media attempts to identify the source of the attack.  Rumors have been flying across the Periphery concerning the continued presence of these mysterious Clan forces and their ability to attack and evade capture seemingly at will.

No civilian casualties or collateral damage were reported.

The real question remains, what’s so bad about a few jittery Pirates anyhow?

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.

UPDATE: January 27, 2009

From information gathered from the Classic Battletech forums it seems that I was a bit lucky when I made my first order.  An order from Hotz may take anywhere from two weeks to three months based on the experiences of other forum goers.  I’ll be sure to post when I do receive my new mat.

I’m glad he didn’t go walkabout with our money, but it is a bit distressing that Eric is not making every effort to keep in touch with his customers.

Bottom line, if you can afford the wait, Hotz Mats are a great gaming investment.  I love my current mat.  I wish it were possible to buy them without the hassle.

UPDATE: January 26th, 2009

I made contact with Eric and he is simply running behind due to the high volume of snow and extreme cold in his part of Canada.  Here are a few ways to get in touch with Eric if you are having difficulty reaching him.

Email:

whitewash.city@gmail.com

erichotz@shaw.ca

erichotz@direct.ca

Phone:

(604) 619 – 6925

ORIGINAL POST:

I ordered a new mat from Hotz Artworks around December.  It has been over a month now and I haven’t been able to make contact with Eric over email.

I have called his listed number (left a voice mail) and sent additional emails to two known email addresses.

I am not about to jump to the conclusion that he is ripping anyone off just yet.  There is the chance that something could have happened to him and he is unable to make good on his current game mat orders.  I know of at least one other person from the Classic Battletech forums who has an order in limbo.

Until I can confirm just what is happening with Hotz Artworks, DO NOT PLACE AN ORDER ON HIS WEBSITE.

I will keep this post updated with the latest and greatest as information becomes available.  I love my current mat from Hotz.  I hope that everything is well and this is all just a misunderstanding.

What a week!  There is lots going on in the Classic Battletech world.  In the event that you missed one, two, or possibly more bits of news, here is a rundown of what’s been going on.

Changes at Iron Wind Metals

• The deadline for Figure Archiving has been extended to Friday, February 15th.

Now is your chance to get those soon to be expensive archive figures from IWM.  The list is huge and includes a lot of figures you may not expect to have been at the bottom of the sales list, including protomechs, battle armor, VTOLs, and more than a few good looking ‘Mechs.

• All IWM orders are now shipping with delivery confirmation.

Honestly, I don’t know why they ever didn’t use confirmation on all orders.  I’ve done a bit of eBay selling in my day, and it is just common sense to list in your auction “Delivery Confirmation Included” just to keep away the riff raff.  Good move for IWM.

New Products from Catalyst

• Jihad Turning Points New Avalon was released.

You can read my review of Jihad Turning Points: New Avalon.

• Record Sheets: Project Phoenix Upgrade is released in multiple formats.

As an added surprise from the developers at Catalyst, we now have updated Project Phoenix record sheets using the new Total War format.  Did you know that all Total War style record sheets produced to date have been done by hand?  Can you imagine the Catalyst team hunched over using their PDF editor and putting each and every individual armor bubble in it’s place?  Well, no longer.  In the credits and introduction Randall mentions a new application for record sheet construction.

Also, RS:PPU is being released in a brand new way.  You can buy the entire work for around $10, or buy a faction specific set of record sheets for under $2 (price depends on the faction).

You can get a free preview of the Project Phoenix Upgrade.

Classic Battletech Forums in Danger

You’ve probably noticed the symptoms if you’ve been lurking around.  The double and sometimes triple posts.  The connection errors.  The long lag.  It is official now.  Death Shadow has announced that there is something rotten in Denmark and the forums may have to be wiped if a backup cannot be found and installed.

The latest and greatest is that the forums have been saved for now, but a purge of old posts is coming soon regardless.  Time to back up any old posts you are fond of.

A New Editor Joins the Scrapyard

I am pleased to announce that ScrapYard commenter and friend SaxyWolf has joined the scrapyard as a contributing editor.  It will be SaxyWolf’s job to tidy up the jibberish I sometimes manage to write as well as make contributions in the form of playtesting and post writing.

I’m looking forward to working with SaxyWolf with the site producing more great content and more importantly, playing great games.

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.

As a player and a collector I love seeing large uniformly painted forces in my battles.  I kicked off this quest with my first demi-company of Free Worlds League Militia.  For the most part, the militia were easy.  The colors just worked and I found little trouble duplicating the color scheme later on when I added a Perseus and a Cerberus for the Twilight of the Clans collection I painted for a friend.

So I moved on, and started an even bigger force, this time a reinforced company of Regulan Hussars.  For whatever reason, orange is just difficult for me.  The worst part of it is, the full company is sitting on my work bench on corks waiting to be finished because I am not happy with how they are coming out.  Since I decided to do the whole kit and kaboodle at once, I have all those miniatures waiting for me to break out of a color confused malaise.

Test Pieces

Make a test piece before you embark on anything larger than a lance.  Get a representative miniature, not something too difficult to prepare or anything with a complicated pose and slap some paint on.  Work out the details and don’t be afraid to toss the results and try again.  Pine Sol cures all woes.

Since I’m a little embarrassed to show my Hussars, I’ll let you in on a few other examples that I am working on for a friend and ScrapYard commenter Quigs.

In the first picture are two different tries at an admittedly difficult 2nd Donegal Guards.  I’m not happy with either attempt.  The first (the one on the right) came out far too flat and the second (the one on the left), far too dark.  I am going to Pine Sol both and adjust my technique for a third and hopefully successful paint job.

Moving on, I attempted another Lyran scheme in a color I think I am usually pretty comfortable with.  The 15th Lyran Regulars use a familiar drab green with khaki highlights.

Suffice to say, I am much happier with the results.  I think the only thing I would change is making the highlight color a little bit lighter.  It looks more light brown than it does khaki.  For the most part, this mini seemed to paint itself.  I painted him up start to finish in a single day.  Dry times between coats were absorbed with other tasks, like coding for Solaris Skunk Werks and writing this blog.

I’m looking forward to replicating this paint scheme to give this lonely Avatar a lancemate or three.

Take Some Chances with Your Brush

You never know what is going to work and what isn’t until you try.  You’ve got to pick up the brush and give it a go.

Life’s too short to play with badly painted minis.

Twilight of the Clans: Battle Four

The fourth battle of the Great Refusal takes place near a Mountain Lake.  Can the Comstar elite defeat the ferocious Jade Falcons to save the Inner Sphere?

See other battles from the Great Refusal in the After Action Category or by searching for Twilight of the Clans in the sidebar search.

Jade Falcons

Comstar

Turn 1 – Comstar Wins Initiative

Both forces rush towards each other forgoing the protection of nearby forests.  Khan Marthe challenges Demi-Precentor Havanna who accepts, thus pitting saKhan Clees in her undersized Nova against Precentor Harvison’s Black Knight.

Luck is not on Comstar’s side early on.  All weapons fire directed at the Clan Omnis miss their mark.  The Falcons ended up in a slightly better range bracket.  Marthe fires and hits with everything in her Summoner, stitching energy beams, missiles, and autocannon shells across the Shootist’s torso.  Of six lasers fired, only one hits the Black Knight.

Turn 2 – Comstar Wins Initiative

saKhan Clees triggers her jump jets sending her Nova into a ballistic arc landing inside a dense group of trees.  The Black Knight races in close to engage.

Cautiously eyeing the Shootist’s dangerous AC20, the Summoner backpedals to the edge of the battle tempting the Shootist to advance.  Demi-Precentor Havanna is happy to oblige and rushes forward, hoping to eventually corner the Falcon and bring the AC20 to bear.

The Nova unleashes another volley of six ER Medium Lasers netting four hits of which three are through armor criticals.  Only one critical results, destroying a heat sink.  The Summoner fires and hits with everything again ripping through an already damaged torso and critically damaging the Shootist’s gyro.

The Shootist misses with the AC20 but hits with medium lasers; one to the head, injuring Khan Pryde.  The Black Knight unleashes a torrent of laser fire at the Nova nestled in the woods.  The shots are concentrated and burrow deep into the left torso but no criticals result.

The Shootist falls from the Gyro hit injuring Demi-Precentor Havanna in the process.

Although her Black Knight is armed with a formidable hatchet and the Nova would make a great place to put it right now, Precentor Harvison knows what is at stake and is careful not to break clan tradition knowing that if Comstar is the victor, she cannot give the Jade Falcons any reason to declare the battle invalid.

Turn 3 – Comstar Wins Initiative

The Nova brazenly rushes into the open.  The Black Knight follows the Clanner and positions himself for a near point blank fire fight.  Meanwhile, the Summoner begins to circle to his left, unable to keep the Shootist at bay any longer.

The Nova senses an opportunity and lets fly all twelve lasers at the Black Knight.  Ten hit, causing massive damage.  Alas, the only critical hit is a lower leg actuator.   The Black Knight returns fire, ripping completely through the left torso and with it six of the Nova’s lasers and four heat sinks. The inrush of heat from the weapons fire forces the Nova to shutdown.

The Summoner fires and yet again hits with everything, slagging away tons of armor but again not finding internal locations.  The Shootist finally connects with the AC20, landing square in the center torso.  The Summoner shrugs off the damage while Demi-Precentor Havanna fails to keep the Black Knight upright taking another point of damage from the fall but remaining conscious.

Turn 4 – Jade Falcon Wins Initiative

Havanna struggles with the controls of the Shootist managing to stay conscious from another fall.  Undeterred, she forces the controls to do her bidding and the 70 ton machine finally cooperates.  The Summoner, meanwhile, kicks into a run and puts some distance between her and the AC20 Khan Pryde fears so much.

With the Nova shutdown, and Havanna keeping Khan Pryde busy, Precentor Harvison lines up the killing blow. A point blank alpha strike reply for the shutdown Nova.  Amazingly, the damage does not destroy the Clan Omni.  A crueler fate is in store for saKhan Clees.  The Nova’s right arm is ripped from the shoulder leaving no weapons remaining.  When the ‘Omni manages to start up, saKhan Clees will be forced to withdraw from combat, defeated and disgraced.

The excess heat from the barrage released by the Black Knight is more than its own heat sinks can handle resulting in an emergency shutdown.

The Shootist strikes out at the maneuvering Summoner but only manages to hit with one laser at the longer range. Torso twisting back, the Summoner once again hits with her entire arsenal, coring through the Shootist’s center torso.

Turn 5 – Jade Falcon Wins Initiative by Default

Khan Pryde wraps around a grouping of woods for a clear shot at the last Comstar ‘Mech.  The Summoner hits with everything a final time, racking up no less than five critical hits in the center torso resulting in two engine hits and three gyro hits.

Precentor Harvison succumbs to the inevitable and cedes the battle to the Jade Falcons.

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.

Somehow, I missed this one completely.  I can’t say how as I frequent the board enough that I should have caught any announcement.  Regardless, the developers have been getting really good about polishing up the transcript and posting it for all.

The transcript for this chat is already available, get it here.

The Rundown

• Topps has removed Battletech and Shadowrun from negotiations.

Due to the immense value of the Shadowrun and BattleTech properties, Topps has made the decision to withdrawal those properties from the sale.

• The next release of Jihad Turning Points is New Avalon, followed by Tharkad and then two yet to be determined locations.
• Maps are coming back into print under the Catalyst aegis.  They will most likely be combined with some sort of additional rules or scenarios.  No mention of the map tiles though.
• A special 25th Anniversary product is in the works and an announcement should be coming soon.
• More Historicals source books are in the long term horizon but additional StarterBooks less so.

I’m a bit disapointed in Topps decision.  However, they are most likely looking at things from a business perspective.  The Battletech and Shadowrun properties are far more valuable for them to hold and collect payments from Catalyst and Steam and Tinker.

So, for the time being anyways, status quo.