ScrapYard Armory

AeroTech is dead.

In its place, Strategic Operations is promising to be one of the most drastic overhauls in Battletech history.  I’m talking of course about the brand new ECM/ECCM rules preview.

While some may say the ECM/ECCM rules are optional, I disagree.  Glancing at the Strategic Operations table of contents, the entire section dealing with Warships is just “Advanced Aerospace Combat, General Rules”.  If you are playing with Warships, you are playing advanced rules.  There is no checklist in the compiled tables, as in Tactical Operations.

Mark my words.  The who’s who of Classic Battletech Warships will all be using these new rules.  All of them.  Bracketing Fire, Emergency Combat Heading Operations, and Capital Missile Bearings Only included.

Your New Best Friend (in space)

External hard points, page 217 in your Tech Manual.  Hard points come free on all Aerospace fighters.  They are meant to carry various bombs and the occasional TAG.  However, based on some curious non-answers from select developers on the forums, as well as the lack of canon Aerospace fighters fielding ECM/Active Probes, I expect some new hard point mountable equipment in Strategic Ops or perhaps a separate ruling.

Carefully crafted forces with overlapping ECM fields and peppered Active Probes will be the kings of deep space.  Combined arms is going to matter even in space now.

But Who Will Play It?

If they write it, there is no guarantee that very many people will play it unfortunately.  Space battles with Warships and even Aerospace fighters to some degree have always been ignored by the community.  Catalyst does not need people to fall in love with Warships to sell Strategic Ops.  There is always Battleforce and the highly anticipated Repair and Maintenance rules to bring out the wallets of the traditional ground pounders.

Hell, I asked the question at GenCon if there would be additional support for Aerospace battles from either Catalyst or the Demo Teams.  They said no.  Not so bluntly of course, but the meaning was clear.  The developers at Catalyst have no say in what games the Demo team play.

In essence, the success of Aerospace warship battles depends on players like you and I to play it, like it, and demand the same from our local Demo team members.

That’s no slam dunk.  And besides, I’m not totally sold on the potential ECM/ECCM tracking nightmare.  I imagine that the best Aerospace players will be able to go into their own Ikaruga trance and just “see” the ECM field on the table top.  That’s a bit duanting, but then, perhaps we all shouldn’t rush out to replay Case White as our first Aerospace game either.