ScrapYard Armory

The year is 3028 and Wolf’s Dragoons are caught in an epic struggle with House Kurita.  Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the iconic Wolf’s Dragoons will at least have heard of Misery.  I had too, but until now I didn’t have a clear grasp of the scope of the conflict.  Time for a stroll down memory lane as Jason Schmetzer takes the reigns for this next chapter in the Historical Turning Point product line HTP: Misery.

Inconceivable

For such a short bit of fiction I found it more challenging than usual.  I found myself checking the dictionary a few times.  I needed to look up actinic, denuding, and one more.  That combined with the opening sequence of Japanese injections forced me to read it twice just to be sure.

That and the action sequence was fantastic.  The combat is metered and brutal.  It tells the reader in a few short paragraphs all they need to know.  Misery was a long battle fought hard by opposing forces unwilling to give way to the other.  The injustice at the end of the story sets a gloomy tone.  While I am not a Kurita sympathizer, I was forced to feel a certain amount of empathy for the main character in the story.  That empathy was short lived as we continue through the PDF.

Misery

The Misery overview section is long on geographical content and less on history, which I found disappointing.  I would have liked to see a bit more on military significance than the monotone descriptions of coast lines and agriculture.

In one sentence it mentions the Dragoons coming in the mid-3020’s and their “betrayal”.  I would have liked to see more on this considering the topic of the PDF.  I’m not going to hold it against them however.  It’s a lengthy PDF and the best parts are yet to come.  The bulk of the who-what-why details come later anyways in the Battle of Misery section.

Included for adventurous players are random map tables and a set of recommended optional rules from Tactical Operations.

Random Assignment Tables

We have seen RAT tables before in The Red Corsair and HTP: Galtor and I really enjoy seeing the ones here.  It helps solidify the feel of these era specific tracks.  Players can always use more RAT tables and here in these retrospective products, the writers are answering the call and making the product fun and useful.

The Battle of Misery

This section kicks off the official description of how it all came to pass and the outcome of major battles.  The first two paragraphs seem very pro-Dragoon.  Where before there was talk of Dragoon “betrayals” we now read of DCMS criminal acts, minion Warlords, and Dragoons not willing to back down.

The Dragoons are painted in a very positive light.  Makes me want to see them win.  Just a note, in the Credits section they do list a number of resources that the curious could use to fully flesh out the details of this and other conflicts involving the Dragoons.  Obviously, this is a Dragoon Turning Point first.  The Draconis Combine is second fiddle in this story.

The remainder of this section gives a great birds eye account of the entire battle.  Very good stuff and it’s a great appetizer for the tracks to come.

Commanders

New for this Turning Points is a small section devoted to the commanders of the two forces involved.  After a historical brief on each, they are given a RPG makeover in A Time of War style.

Combatants

The combatants section is the bread and butter Turning Points style with the obvious Historical Turning Points differences.   Unit experience continues the standard set in Galtor (which is good) but also continues the lack of a notes section we became so familiar with in the JTP PDFs (which is bad).  I miss the notes which offered short but valuable descriptions of unit history.

The Dragoons as you may expect are heavy on special abilities and random unit generation modifiers.  These units are the best of the breed and their abilities mean business.

Tracks

My favorite section by far is the tracks.  These are the successors to the FASA era scenario packs and continue the tradition of Chaos Campaigns started in Dawn of the Jihad.  We are treated to seven in this release, on the high end of quantity similar to HTP: Galtor.

Mr. Schmetzer continues to impress with his cunning linguistic skills… laager, geld, arroyo.  Way to keep us on our toes.

At first glance, the objectives for the Misery tracks look mundane.  However, once fully read through, I felt an appreciation for how the story was being told.  Each track is a faithful re-enactment of a battle described in brief earlier in the PDF. The tracks do a good job of tying into earlier sections of the PDF.

Complimenting the excellent storytelling are a varied but interesting mix of special rules, objectives and force deployments.  After reading through, each track had a particular flavor that I felt deserved a play through.  Those are the best kinds of tracks; the one I’m so intrigued by that I simply have to give it a try to see how it comes out.   Misery delivers nicely here and is one of the better series of tracks in the Turning Points series.  Top honors still go to Galtor which blew the roof off my expectations.  Still, for one off scenarios or an extended campaign, players are going to find something to like in Misery.

Record Sheets

We have three new custom variants to play with on Misery, two DCMS and one Dragoon.

With only 3025 era technology to play with one shouldn’t expect drastically different designs with oodles of new equipment.  Despite the limitations though, the modifications should lead to vastly different play styles.

Ostroc Michi shakes up it’s movement profile for better armor and weapons loadout while attempting to keep mobility unchanged with the addition of jump jets.  A very interesting change that may fare far better in battle than a standard chassis depending on the terrain involved.  Oh by the way, the Ostroc uses the old unseen artwork!  Nice touch Catalyst!

Stalker Jagawen changes its weapons loadout for a SRM heavy configuration.  This creates a ‘Mech that is better suited for close in combat than the original.  I am a bit more scared of this design, especially in the frigid conditions on Misery that can all but nullify long range combat effectiveness.

Atlas Danielle follows the theme set by the Stalker above and modifies the weapons for a more close combat oriented solution.  As if a 3025 Atlas wasn’t scary enough.

In the End

Misery is another welcome addition to the Turning Point PDF family and is well delivered.  Already I am thinking about playing out a few of these battles with friends and if time allows, follow an entire campaign around the exploits of the Dragoons as they trounce the DCMS.  I’ve heard of Misery plenty of times before and am glad to have gotten a chance to learn more through this PDF.

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!

We have all played in a big game more than once or twice in our BattleTech gaming lives.  Chances are you have played in quite a few over the years.  I’m talking about the big convention games with loads of people piloting more ‘Mechs and combat vehicles than you can shake a stick at on a vast battlefield with all the trimmings.

Inevitably the game’s turns begin to grind.  Full turns are measured in hours not minutes.  You spend more time waiting for your turn than actually executing your movement or attacks.  At least you can drive to pick up some pizza without missing much.

The strategy and tactics necessary to win are lost in the confusion.  Each individual player has little to do with the overall outcome.  There are few opportunities to make good strategic advances when six other people on the team are planning their own opportunities.  The game becomes less personnel, where the strategy and tactics of the individual mean less to the overall success of the mission.

There are obvious exceptions to the rule but in my experience a majority of large convention games regress to an impersonal ‘Mech smashing fest (not that there is anything wrong with that).  If there are more than four players at the table, you can probably kiss goodbye any chance you had at making a meaningful impact on the course of the game.  I wanted a change and set out to make a big game with lots of players who all had a chance to make a difference in the big picture.  Here are my goals.

• Make it Personal – Each player should feel they made an impact on the game.
• Make it Fast – Nobody likes a game that does not come to a reasonable conclusion or turns that drag on and on.

Along Came Historicon 2010

I wanted to try something different and Historicon gave me my  opportunity.  I was on the hook to run one big game for up to 12 people.  My plan was to make a massive battle with ‘Mechs, Combat Vehicles, Battle Armor, Aerospace Fighters, and Artillery (Oh My!).

This game would ultimately use Total Warfare, Tactical Operations, and Strategic Operations.  How cool is that?  We have all of these cool rules so why not use them?

How It Works

Break open your Total Warfare books and read along.  These rules in conjunction with Tactical and Strategic Operations are the back bone of this big game experience.

The foundation of the big game came from using a low altitude map for the Aerospace dogfight.  On this map, each hex represents one ground mapsheet on which the ‘Mechs and Vehicles are fighting.  We used four standard battles each two maps large.

Using numbered BattleForce blip counters, I marked the relevant maps on the low altitude maps.  When a fighter ended movement on one of those hexes I carefully notified the ground forces of their presence.

I say carefully since aerospace fighters move after ground troops.  They should have the privilege to see where the ‘Mechs are and how they are facing before determining their final location.  I allowed ground forces to move at the same time as the fighters to save time.

Synchronized Turns

To keep things running smoothly all of the turns need to be aligned.  When the aerospace fighters swoop in for a strafing run, you had better let the ground troops know there is a fighter in their map so they can act accordingly in the weapons attack phase.

I chose to use a relatively simple solution to keep everyone in sync.  Each battle had a half sheet of paper marked READY (green) on one side and NOT READY (red) on the other.  At the beginning of each turn the players flipped the paper to NOT READY.  With a quick glance I could see who was done and who was still resolving combat.

On a few occasions some players finished well ahead of the other battles.  More experienced players will tend to do that.  However, I also think the force selection had something to do with it.  For future battles done in this style I will try harder to match the average weight and tech level in each battle to avoid major mismatches between battles.

The other half of that problem is when one battle lags behind the others.  That happened twice where a relatively inexperienced player was playing.  Given that no fighters were in their hex, I waited a few minutes and started the other turns.  I simply asked them to head right into their next turn when ready.  That will always be a judgment call based on the activity of the fighter battle but it worked out for us.

Aerospace Support

Using fighters in low altitude requires a good read through of the rules and demands the attention of your most experienced players.  It is a very critical role to fill with many crucial decisions.  When to make a strike run?  Where to position your forces?  How low do you go for fear of becoming a lawn dart?

Total Warfare is not the best tome for parsing all the various rules required to play Aerospace.  That said, I had prepared a cheat sheet to help players who are new to the dog fighting and strafing world of air-to-ground combat.

Fighter Reference Sheet – PDF (45 KB)

The coup de grâce of the game was going to be a fully loaded Leapord Dropship for each side.  Combat drop rules would be used to inject ‘Mechs into the various battles.  Watching the pace of the ground battles I chose to keep the dropships in reserve.  I didn’t see the kind of casualties I thought would require the use of a new lance per side and instead let the battles run their course.

Having thought about it, I wish I had let the players have at it.  The downside would be the potential unbalancing of one battle or another.  However, I believe the coolness factor of combat dropping ‘Mechs would have been worth it.  Plus, any combat dropped ‘Mechs are sitting ducks for at least one turn at best.  Ample opportunity to take cover from opposing ‘Mechs on the ground and point all weapons to the skies!

Fire for Effect

Artillery is an inspiring tool for some and ignored by others.  Each team had access to off board artillery (1 turn flight time) in the form of one Sniper and one Long Tom.  Requests for artillery were delivered to me on note cards and I assigned rounds to the battles in the event that there were more requests than available strikes.

Artillery made for some very interesting situations but did not turn the tide in any battle by itself.  A beautiful example was the city fight.  The first turn, both called artillery on the other when most units were walking along the roads out of LOS.  The damage was brilliant.  Each round struck multiple targets and delivered consequential damage.  The turn after, the ‘Mechs moved the hell off the roads!  It changed the dynamic of the game without breaking it.

‘Mechs are still kings of the battlefield.  Artillery is a spice that was fun and managed to change the tempo for some but not all of the games.  With  a GM running the battle on the sidelines, the note card system worked well but could have used a standard format for requests.

The Report

In a stunning display of combined arms antics, the opening turn saw all four fighters from the Marik side diving into the nearest battle to strike at an enemy Warhammer.  Unfortunately for the fighter group, without any other targets to worry about on turn 1, the entire Lyran lance opened up on the Transit and blasted it out of the sky with a(n) (un-)fortunate fuel tank hit.  Already one fighter down, the Marik player continued to harass ground targets while being picked apart by enemy fighters in the air.

Meanwhile on the ground, the battle raged back and forth but saw a distinct advantage starting to build for the Lyrans.

It was late in the game when the Lyrans won complete air superiority but still the Lyran air commander decided to mostly concentrate on the last remaining Marik fighter.

In the end, the Lyrans had enough of an edge in the ground games to secure final victory for the overall battle.  And with air superiority firmly in grasp there was no stopping the Lyrans.

I had lots of compliments on the game.  Every player with a few obvious exceptions was 100% engaged in the game the entire time.  There were a few turns where one battle finished way early and two occasions where the group was waiting on one battle to finish.  Still, turns averaged a half hour a piece and we got through 8 complete turns in our allotted time with a clear winner at the end.

There was a base battle value (not accounting for pilot’s skill) of over 55,000 in play which included 32 ‘Mechs, 8 vehicles, 1 Battle Armor, and 8 aerospace fighters and we finished the game in less than 5 hours to a clear victor.  Given the opportunity, I’d love to do it again and I bet it would be even better having learned from this first go.

The Red Corsair is a new twist on the Turning Point PDF theme.  For the first time we have a full fledged campaign somewhere between a standard issue Turning Points PDF and a Starterbook (ala Wolf and Blake and Sword and Dragon).  I’ve been excited to get down to reading this PDF but have not had the time until recently.  I hope you all will excuse the late review.

Jason Schmetzer is at the helm for this ambitious PDF product, lets see how it all comes together!

Unexpected Guests

The opening fiction is slightly longer than typical and exciting. It well frames the situation on the ground and the confusing nature of the events surrounding Natural Selection.  Having not read the novel in question, I only have this PDF to piece the story together and it does the job well.

Atlas

Rather than a single world being summarized as in previous Turning Points, the Red Corsair takes place over five planets stretching between the Federated Commonwealth and the Clan Wolf Occupation Zone.  Each planet has it’s own Terrain Table for added authenticity.

Each planet description is an important part of the story-telling and should not be skipped especially if you have not had the luxury of reading Natural Selection.  The Red Corsair is turning into the cliff-notes version of the full length novel.

RAT

Full Random Assignment Tables are provided for the Kell Hounds, ClanWolf/Corsair, and Militia/Other.  This important addition brings this PDF much closer to a full length Starterbook.

The Path of the Corsair

In one short page the entire story is laid out from beginning to end in dry fashion.  If you have ANY intention of reading Natural Selection beforehand, skip this section (or better the entire PDF) and move on to something else.

What a story.  It has all the trappings of a page burner, too bad I have now ruined it for myself.  Not all is lost though.  My BattleCorps subscription keeps me well stocked with fiction to read!

Personalities

After the story is quickly summarized, the personalities complete with illustrations are brought to life with additional detail and interesting bits of information.

As an added bonus, there are brief snippets of RPG information for each of the three main players.  They are not anything near a complete record sheet but enough to capture the most important details.  A good GM can fill in the blanks if they ever had to urge to run a Corsair RPG adventure or in any way mix RPG elements into the Turning Points Campaign.

Combatants

Thank goodness they continue to use a sane method of skill level as presented in HTP:Galtor and not the ever confusing number system devised for the other Jihad Turning Point books.

Each unit is given an experience, RAT, an optional ability, and some notes that give additional flavor to the unit.  A tried and true formula for the TP series.

The Red Corsair Campaign

The campaign is broken up into two parts familiar to owners of either Starterbook.  There are the generic missions and the Touchpoints.  The generic missions are the appetizers to the Touchpoint main course.  I’ll touch on each separately.

For generic missions, we have four, Strike, Defend, Assault and Interdict.  The first three are tracks taken from the Starterbook series with a slightly different mix of optional bonuses and objectives.  Each retains the flavor of their predecessor.  I noticed an interesting change to Strike.  The building scanning objective was taken down a notch in difficulty.  In Wolf and Blake a ‘Mech without a probe must spend two turns scanning.  Now the requirement is only 1 turn.  Probes give you an increased scanning distance.

Interdict is the only completely new addition to the wartrack party and I like it.  It has very interesting objectives (I’m looking at you Interdiction) and challenging bonuses.  It’s a welcome addition to the Chaos Campaign tool chest and I will be very interested in playing it out to see how well the mission flows.

Next up are the Touchpoints, six of them including one aerospace. Each Touchpoint takes place on (or near) different planets during crucial points in the Red Corsair story.  Assuming you take only 1 generic mission between each Touchpoint, you are looking at 11 to 12 missions for the entire campaign.  That will make for a very healthy campaign that will keep you busy for several gaming sessions.  This PDF is looking more and more worth the $8 price tag.

The Touchpoints are a tad disappointing but not without their stars.  I loved the Not So Fast objective which places a premium on destroying targets under specific circumstances.  That said, the majority of the objectives involved some variation of “kill the other guy”.  The optional bonuses were very often confused with optional rules.  In my mind, optional rules and terrain are just that, optional, and should not be an add-on for bonus points during a campaign.

There is something to be said though about making the missions match the canon.  When you are crafting campaign stops along a predetermined story arc I can understand how history may become inadvertent shackles.  While not the most diverse and imaginative tracks I’ve read, the story behind them is so enthralling that I can’t help but forgive the lack of creativity and instead bask in the knowledge that there now exists an easy way to live the story instead of just reading about it in a novel.

Record Sheets

Two record sheets are provided for the unit commanders of the Corsairs and the 31st Wolf.

The Red Corsair pilots a custom BattleMaster (using unseen art for the ‘Mech image!) littered with Clan technology.  It’s a very dangerous combination of long and medium range energy weapons which will have to be bracketed to avoid serious overheating.

The Wolf leader pilots a Man ‘o War which remains characteristically under armored and under armed to make up for the above average speed on the assault class Omni.  The weapons mix of 2 PPCs and 2 Streak-6 make for an excellent combination.  Open up holes with the PPCs and then fill them in with the SRMs.

And All the Rest

I really liked the Red Corsair and believe it is worth the slightly higher price point.  This PDF is an excellent campaign for any gaming group and works well as a tool for Demo Agents or established BattleTech groups.

Even after reading through the whole PDF I was relieved that there still were a few questions left hanging.  While the PDF holds many spoilers there are some interesting anomalies that are never fully explained.  Perhaps Natural Selection will be the next BattleTech novel I get my hands on with the hope that there will be a few answers within its pages.

I’ve received some very helpful feedback on my Chaos Campaign: War of 3039 PDF since it’s release.  I’ve updated the PDF and uploaded the new file to the downloads section.

The Changes

• Updated the copyright notice to Topps
• Lots of spelling and grammar edits
• Added more salvage and more generous WarChest Points

Lots of thanks go our to Steve Satak for his very thorough red ink read through.  Also George “Skyhigh” Blouin and his gaming group for being the first to respond with feedback on game play.  I’ve made some adjustments that give the Players more breathing room.  I may have been a bit harsh when I first sat down to write all of the objectives and bonuses.

Stay tuned as my next Chaos Campaign is not that fall away.  I get a kick out of writing them and hearing back from readers really motivates me.

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded a copy!

GenCon is not that far away if you think about it.  The events list is already up and available for browsing.  Catalyst will be hosting an impressive line up once again including some very interesting new additions.  Here is a quick run down of what to expect in Indy this year.

I hope you can make it if you can.  If you can’t you can rest assured that you’ll find loads of content here at the ScrapYard.

Boot Camp and Pilot’s Lounge

The bootcamp is the first stop for any player who is new to the game.  If you have a friend who is interested in the game, they will find excellent instructors ready and willing to walk you through the basics of movement, firing and basic strategy.

Bootcamps are available from 10AM to 5PM each day except Sunday.

The Pilot’s Lounge is new this year and is essentially the same thing as the Bootcamp just in a different location.  From my reading of the description, these games will be in close proximity to the ‘Mech Pods that were all the rave last year.

Grinder

The Grinder is a staple at GenCon.  Grinders are available from 10AM to Midnight Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Sunday things wind down at noon, but most people are making last minute purchases in the dealer hall and heading to flights anyways.

The Grinder is a great way to kill a few hours if you ever find yourself with some unexpected time on your hands.  Multiple tables in use make sure each battle stays fast and furious.  Bring your generic tickets along for this event.

Lance Battles

Lance Battles is a new event that is an intermediate step between the grinder and the canon events.  Each player controls a lance in a grinder style free for all where lance tactics are taught and practiced.  It’s a great idea for those who may need a little more encouragement before stepping into a bigger event.

There are only 4 occurrences of this event, two on Friday and two on Saturday.  As of the writing of this post over half of the available tickets are already gone which bodes well for this event becoming a more permanent fixture at GenCon.

The Liberation of Terra

This year’s canon event takes place on Terra where Stone’s Coalition force aims to put the final nail in the Word of Blake’s coffin.

After years of the Jihad, Stone’s Coalition has arrived on Terra. Stone’s Allied Coalition takes on the Word of Blake in a large battle for Cairo, where one of Wob’s Castle Brian is located. This city must be taken if Stone is to win Terra. The Allied forces are dropping near the Castle Brian in an effort to establish a small base of operations.

Each instance of this big game is four hours long.  The games run all convention long and the maps and miniatures are not reset following the conclusion of each block.  There are always reinforcements to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to play, but as the body count racks up, the writers will be taking notes.  Results from last GenCon ended up in the Jihad Turning Points Dieron PDF release.

Flight School

Another new event this year is the Flight School.  Each player will pilot an Aerospace fighter in a low altitude dog fight.  Air superiority is on the line.

This event is the fruit of a trial event held last year after hours at GenCon (see my very brief Aerospace Lives! review from last year’s GenCon).  Low altitude combat is one of the often overlooked gems of Total Warfare.  All rules are taught and the games promise to be fast and fun.  I hope it does well as I had a great time playing last year.

Flight school is only available Friday and Saturday from 2PM to 7PM.

Solaris Melee Challenge

Back again this year is the Solaris Melee Challenge, a multi-day competition to rack up fame and fortune in hopes of making into the finals on Saturday evening.

Each time slot for this event is an opportunity to gain money and “fame” by scoring critical hits, destroying opponents, or otherwise appeasing the crowds.  Physical attacks are encouraged and it is in your best interest to keep the pace fast.

I played quite a bit in the Solaris arenas last year at GenCon and I had a lot of fun.  My editor SaxyWolf actually made it into the finals but wasn’t in a competitive enough ‘Mech to make the most of it.  Words of wisdom; have a plan but be prepared to go full throttle if you find yourself lacking targets.  You can’t afford to be cautious in this game.

Regular melee events run 10AM to 8PM Thursday and Friday with the finals held at 4PM Saturday.  There are only 2 regular slots available Saturday before the finals which offer the last opportunity to rack up points to make it to the finals.

BattleTech Open

The BattleTech open is the closest thing this game has to an official tournament system.  Pity it is only once a year.  What ever happened to the Martial Olympiad anyways?

I like the changes they have made to the system last year and hope that we have more good things to look forward too.  The game starts at 11Am on Saturday and lasts 6 hours.  That makes for 3 battles in different categories; Inner Sphere Tournament, Clan Tournament, and Inner Sphere Introductory.  Each round you have to pick a ‘Mech pairing from those provided by the organizers.

Big bragging rights go to the winner of the tournament!

Grand Melee

This GenCon staple will be hosted on Thursday from 2PM to 10PM.  Only the strong will survive in this free for all for the prize of a Blood Name.  Last year the blood name Kerensky was given away to one lucky fan along with some impressive hardware.  Only the strongest will survive.

Seminars

There are two seminars on Friday starting at 11AM that will be of interest for BattleTech fans.  The first two hour slot focuses on Catalyst Game Labs in general.  A third hour focuses on BattleTech in particular.

I am expecting a lot of hard questions to come out of the seminars this year.  I plan on being in attendance with many of my own questions but I hope that Catalyst will take the initiative and provide closure to the obvious concerns of the community.

Battle the Masters

For the second year in a row the Masters will be in attendance to mix it up with the BattleTech masses.  The formula is simple; pick your favorite ‘Mech and see how it does against the best the Developers muster.

This event is scheduled for Saturday night starting at 10PM and goes into the early hours of Sunday morning.  A fitting end to the convention.

Dieron takes us back to the Draconis Combine and also back to Ben Rome, the originator of the Jihad Turning Points series.  How does Mr. Rome handle the return to the Combine sandbox and how does it stack up with the first of the series?  Has the Jihad Turning Points aged well or gone sour?  Read on to find out!

The New Dieron

New Dieron opens up this edition of the Jihad Turning Point series with an action packed fire fight between elite forces from both House Kurita and the Word of Blake.  In a delicate chess match each vies to outplay their opponent.  An entertaining piece of writing from beginning to end and it sets the stage for what is to come.

Something just isn’t right though.  The way the story pans out leaves me wondering.  I expect that the peculiarities I see are evident of my general lack of knowledge of the significance of Dieron in the Jihad.  Hopefully the rest of the PDF will help illuminate the matter.

Some Special Thanks

An interesting note from Ben Rome’s special thanks.

Many thanks to the hundreds of fans who participated in the Origins and GenCon Dieron canon event in 2009, where a few key results from the reclaiming of Dieron in 3077 were determined. (You may even recognize a couple of the events herein.)

It’s great to see fan participation end up in the pages of canon fiction.  Fans of the game can still have an impact on the game even if that impact is a handful of die rolls among the many thousand it must have taken to compile the results of the Origins and GenCon games.

Atlas

The Atlas section gives a thorough account of the geographical features of the planet sprinkled with nuggets of information on the Blakist invasion and eventual liberation.  Equal parts history lesson and geography, we have a neat description of the planet to accompany the full sized planetary map we now expect from the Jihad series.  Par for the course, but the real reason I buy these PDFs is yet to come.

Combatants

Blakists, Ghost Bears and Kurita, Oh My!  My first impression was that the force abilities were rather safe.  A bit too heavy in the use of off-map movement and initiative bonuses.  Rather vanilla.  But things got better as the pages turned.  By the end I have to say I enjoyed the section and the variety of force abilities.

The notes section is full of the kind of information that I love reading as it helps to put the pieces together.  That full picture gives a very nice account of the events that occurred on Dieron during the occupation.

Best force ability goes to the 23rd Division.  When special “arsonist” squads are deployed in a track, you are bound to find yourself in some fun and interesting situations.  Still, anyone using them during a game is going to have a bear of a time following up on all of the fire and smoke rolls.  But if you don’t like rolling dice, maybe BattleTech is not the right game for you to begin with.

Tracks

We have hit the motherload.  Dieron brings us nine tracks, the most ever for the Turning Points series.

The Tracks in Dieron have a slight change.  The Situation section of each track is written as fiction instead of the factual, “who what where” style of Turning Points prior.  I read each introduction and gave it a day to marinate.  After letting it all soak in, I can say that they have grown on me.  The bulk of each track has all the facts anyways, so the extra fiction is a added blessing.  Kudos to Mr. Rome for trying something new.

Dieron provides excellent tracks with a lot to offer.  At times the objectives seem a little on the safe side.  That combined with the liberal use of Tactical Operations add-ins leads to a potential mundane set of wartracks.  The saving grace is the character within the special rules and optional bonuses.

From Banzai Courage, Air Strikes, to unique terrain requirements, the collection of Dieron tracks as a whole brings a healthy dose of creativity to the Turning Points series.  The quality of the Dieron tracks is on par for the series but does not hold a candle to either Sian or Galtor.

Record Sheets

We only get two new unique variants in this Turning Points.  For more tracks, it’s a trade I’d make any day.

Both designs are Clan chassis.  The Dasher is a bit predictable.  Run fast, hit hard and don’t get caught.  The Kodiak is a bit more interesting due to mixed technology.  It’s a frightening standard engine beast with a C3 Master and Inner Sphere weapons.

All The Rest

Dieron finishes up with the expertly crafted planetary assault map.  We are still waiting for Interstellar Operations to give us updated rules to use them but they are a welcome and expected addition at the end of each Turning Point PDF.

Cold Wars 2010 was held in Lancaster, PA this past weekend.  I was able to visit for two days this year and a full line up of games was on the schedule.  Many thanks go to Demo Agent “Speck” and his minions for the excellent games.

Much buzz was in the air over the venue shakeup for HMGS’s signature convention, Historicon.  Historicon will be hosted in Valley Forge, PA this year instead of Baltimore as originally planned.  I’ve never been to the Valley Forge venue but the BattleTech crew seems optimistic about the expected turn out.  I’ll be there ‘Mechs and terrain in tow as I’ll be running at least one game. So, come on out and see what I cook up!

Last Stand of the Davion Guards

The first game on Friday was a BattleForce game from the FedCom civil war.  With only four people at the table we moved through the turns quickly and completed the game to 100% destruction of one of the forces.  A great game!

Did the Davion Guards hold out or did the Robinson Rangers bust through the defensive line to attack the Davion flank?  I’ll have a complete battle report available shortly!

Red versus Blue

Capture the flag in the Solaris arenas.  Each side had two lances of BattleMechs in a long but narrow arena.  The goal was simple, capture the enemy flag and return it to your base.  I had a lot of fun playing this game despite the fact that my team ended up losing.  Inside of four hours we battled and raced across the arena and had a clear winner in the end.  I was pleasantly surprised by how fun this game was.  Maybe it was the map setup or the selection of units but the game just felt right.  It is absolutely something I’d like to do again and possibly create a few maps for in the future.

There are always things to improve.  Some of the faster MASC units may be an unbalancing influence but not something that can’t be countered.  I think it may have been unwise to leave a lone LongBow near our deployment zone to defend the flag.  Any ‘Mech with pulse weapons would have been a better choice.  At the very least we should not have left him so far forward.  The Mercury who stole our flag had a clear shot to race across the board and that was our fault for leaving the door open.

I’ll reiterate; It was a great game.  Look at the photos of the game below and take note of the layout.  I dare say, it almost looks like a concept paintball field (speedball not woodsball, if you don’t play paintball ask someone who does for the reference).

Clash on Labrea

The Ghost Bears fight it out against the Nova Cats for control of a supply depot.  Each side had two stars a piece and the fighting was furious.  Luck was not on the side of the Ghost Bears as they lost more than a few units to through armor criticals and head shots.  Clan ERPPCs are a bitch.

The frequent falls were comical at times.  We had up to four ‘Mechs down in a pile as failed pilot rolls and gyro hits took their toll.  A fun game despite my limited participation.  My Ryoken B was unfortunately caught a bit ahead of the vanguard and ate too many pulse lasers on turn two or three.

The End of Necromo

The Word of Blake is intent on destroying the production facilities on the Capellan world of Necromo.  I was on the side of the Capellans fending off the toaster lovers from laying waste to our power plants and research centers.

The End of Necromo will be another full battle report to be featured in a future post.  Until then, here are a few teasers.

Grand Melee

The Grand Melee is the traditional end of the Saturday evening.  I took to a NovaCat C and ran head first into the awaiting pulse lasers of a Glass Spider.  In the second turn, due to the combined fire from no less than three ‘Mechs, I succumbed to three engine hits.

Sigh.

I didn’t do near the damage I wanted but such is life.  In a perfect world I would of been able to stay at a more significant range to use my autocannons to greater effect.  As it was, I was sandwiched between the Glass Spider and a Rifleman IIC.  Rock and hard place, check.  Not to mention the extra attention from a Kraken in heavy woods and partial cover in the center of the battle.

But, I’m not bitter at all.  Good times were had by all and I got to do some play testing for a future post in the break just before the Melee.  Can’t wait for the next con.

All the Rest

Here are a few pictures from the rest of the convention.  As always there were quite a few fantastic setups.  If you have not been to a HMGS event you need to start.  It may not have the publicity of GenCon or Origins but it is more wargame centric and is in no way a small convention.  Historicon is just around the corner so make a point to come out for a day or more.  You will not be disappointed.

In a surprise move, Catalyst unleashed a new PDF product based off of the Jihad Turning Points series format.  This time around, the developers chose to take a look back to the Succession Wars.

In the credits the writer Geoff Swift mentions in his special thanks that this is the kick off for the Historical Turning Points series.  Suffice to say we can look forward to many more Historical PDFs in the future!

Opening Fiction

In The Deep opens up the first Historical Touchpoint with a peak into the defense of the secret Davion underwater command center.  While not the most action packed short fiction, it provides a nice introduction to the mindset of the Davion command.  So arrogant.  So self assured.  Nothing a few DEST agents can’t fix!

Galtor III

The Atlas section gives a quick history lesson of Galtor III with mapsheet tables that recommend terrain for battles.  Suggested TacOps add-ons round out the terrain information of the planet.

All together this is what we have come to expect from the Turning Point series.  No surprises so far.

Combatants

In the combatants section we find the first major departure from the Jihad series.  Instead of listing the experience in the awkward number system employed by its predecessors, Galtor uses the more traditional (and easier to understand) system familiar to most BattleTech players by listing the unit as Green, Regular, Veteran, or Elite.

Galtor also includes 3025 faction specific RAT tables to augment those found in Total Warfare and other sources.  A heavy emphasis is placed on making things work for your game.

Each force description, unfortunately, does not include the Notes information that we see in the Jihad series.  I think this is a mistake as I loved looking through the necessarily brief but interesting nuggets of fiction.  Its omission from the Historical Series takes away from the experience.  The units seem to have less character leaving the section dull.  Too much dry information, not enough flavor.

Most interesting unit ability goes to the Seventh Sword of Light for their melee prowess and the accompanying thought provoking ability.  A very good use of player choice in a special ability.

The Tracks

Galtor offers up a generous seven tracks with a tangible anti-Chaos Campaign feel.  These missions are designed to be played as stand alone scenarios instead of a coherent series.

From the mega-fauna of Derry Bay to the explosives laden Star League Depot there are an intelligent array of objectives, bonuses, and special rules within each track. With the exception of Galtorian Nights, the Galtor tracks are well prepared and thoughtful.  Possibly the best of all the Turning Point series.  Well done Geoff Swift!

Played as one-off scenarios you will find plenty of fun battles inside these pages.  This product is the true successor to the scenario packs of old.

Record Sheets

The record sheet section gives us seven designs which happen to include two mediocre (but scenario significant) submarines.  A Hunter Killer Neptune variant provides some extra teeth to an old favorite.  Each faction gets two signature ‘Mechs.  Among the four new ‘Mech offerings not a single one is heat-neutral.  Ah the Succession Wars, how we miss you!

The Combine gets a Dragon and an Atlas.  The Dragon has a curious variety of weapons for almost every range bracket.  The Atlas is a very simple three weapon monster.  I like this Atlas for it’s one-two short range-long range punch.

The Davions don’t hold back with a Thunderbolt (featuring unseen artwork!) and a Marauder (displayed in 3039 silhouette). The TBolt is an Ontos Tank with legs!  The frightening array of medium lasers is tempered by it’s nominal speed.  The Marauder has an impressive mix of weapons that would never be fired all at once during normal fighting, but they lend themselves very well to bracket fire.

Overall the ‘Mechs have good style and add spice to the Galtor scenarios.

The Final Word

The first in the Historical Turning Point series impresses me.  It provided additional detail where appropriate (dedicated RATs, cleaner unit skill presentation) while keeping true to the Turning Points format.  The only slip up is the exclusion of the extra fluff we come to expect in the Combatants section.

The excellent series of Tracks (seven in total, a feat matched only by JTP: Atreus) are some of the best I have seen and make this product a must have for the Succession Wars era player and anyone who likes the Chaos Campaign format.  If you have been clamoring for a break from the Jihad, Catalyst has listened.  Time to make good on your intentions, skip the value menu and slap down a Lincoln for this PDF.  You will not be disappointed.

The irony of it all is that the Historical series would probably not be possible without the prior success of the Jihad Turning Points series.  The early success of JTP: Luthien paved the way for the many Historical products that are surely in the pipeline.

Put a Little Chaos in Your Life

I used to play MechWarrior Dark Age.  I played just about through Fire for Effect before noticing the writing on the wall and moving on to what turned out to be greener pastures (for many of you it might be back to greener pastures).  Despite it’s faults though, the MechWarrior game was a fast playing game that endeared a large number of gamers around the world.

There is no doubt in my mind that the BattleTech community has benefited from MechWarrior’s existence.  That benefit continues even today.  I make use of lots of the old MechWarrior figures I have in BattleTech games today.

I’m sure that there are a lot of gamers who are hanging on to their miniatures despite the closing of Wizkids and the death knell of the game.  To prove that the old Click-Tech game still has a little bit of life to it, I worked out a conversion of the popular Chaos Campaign system.  The Chaos Campaign system is a free download from Catalyst Game Labs.  Converting the rules is an easy affair.

PLAYER FORCE

The initial player Force Size should be large enough to support whatever size game desired.  As a rule of thumb, triple the average point value game you would like to play as a track.

Adam would like to play 400 point games on average during tracks.  He chooses to construct a 1,200 point force to begin his campaign (400 x 3 = 1,200).

Players wishing to add flavor to their campaign are encouraged to stick with a particular faction for force construction.

Faction Pride cards can be added to forces to represent Force Abilities similar to those presented in the Field Manual series of Battletech sourcebooks.

OPPOSING FORCES

Players should put together a collection of figures to represent the opposing forces for the campaign.  Figures should have a Regular experience level (Attack Stat of 9 for ‘Mechs and Vehicles and 7 for Infantry, see below) and be representative of what the Player force should expect to see in combat.  Obviously use what you have available.  It’s your collection so you’ll know what works best.

Ambitious players may want to construct an opposing force collection for each faction they own enabling them to switch out opposing forces to fit the particular Track they are playing.

Experience Levels

Tracks often call for opposing forces with different experience levels.  Some of you out there will probably have a diverse enough collection to fit every scenario.  For those who don’t, you can use the following chart to modify the Attack Value of Opposing Forces for each track.  Choose the way that works best for you.  So long as the challenge scales appropriately, you can’t go wrong.

Restricted Units

Let’s face it.  There are some brutal units in the MechWarrior game.  If players agree, make a shortlist of figures that should never be seen in the campaign.  Highlander Sniper Team comes to mind as well as monster game changers like Danni Haag and the Balac Strike VTOL.  We are here to have fun over a longer haul campaign.  Make it so and avoid the meta-game.

TERRAIN

A standard Chaos Campaign map should be 3 feet by 4 feet.  This slightly expanded size will provide the extra room required to incorporate some of the plot elements covered in a Chaos Campaign track.

CAMPAIGN SPECIAL RULES

There are a lot of optional bonuses and special rules that don’t mesh with MechWarrior without some noodling.  It will be up to the players and possibly a game master to come to an agreement how these unique special rules will be adapted to the MechWarrior game.

Obviously for time constraints and other obvious reasons I am not about to make a comprehensive list of each and every bonus and rule published so far.  However, I will go over a few examples to convey the flavor of what I’m talking about.

Adam is playing through the Chaos Unbound campaign and is playing the Vacationing in the Wasteland track.  Looking at the available optional bonuses he sees Blowing Sand, Lethargy, and Harsh Conditions.

In the Battletech game, Blowing Sand adds a +1 To-Hit penalty to all energy weapons.  This works well with MechWarrior and is a quick conversion.  Any unit with an Energy Attack Type gets a -1 To-Hit penalty.

Lethargy penalizes players with a -2 modifier to all Piloting and Initiative rolls.  Since there is no equivalent to Piloting skill in MechWarrior, Adam chooses to apply this modifier to the To-Hit number for all ‘Mechs using a Melee Attack Type.

Harsh Conditions gives a chance for weapons to fail during the track.  This seems a bit harsh as ‘Mechs have only two weapon types and every other unit type only one.  Adam decides that a weapon failure will result in a -1 damage penalty maximum to the affected Attack Type for the remainder of the Track.

You get the idea.  Use common sense and in the event of a disagreement, dice it and get back to playing.

FORCED WITHDRAWAL

Any unit that has the Salvage Special Ability (and most do except those damned Banson’s Raiders) will be affected by Forced Withdrawal if the track calls for it.

WARCHEST POINT SYSTEM

Use the Warchest system for all Chaos Campaign accounting as described in the PDF.  The only difference comes when it is time to repair or purchase units and equipment.  When it comes to these transactions, you would normally convert your Warchest Points to Supply Points.  Instead we convert them to MechWarrior points.

Force Size Modifier (FSM)

The Force Size Modifier allows players to scale the size of their forces to match their tastes.  The Warchest points will be adjusted up or down depending on how large a force you would like to run.

Divide the total MechWarrior point value of your force by 800 and round to the tenth digit (1.375 becomes 1.4).  This becomes your Force Size Modifier for the rest of the campaign.  Do not adjust this number as your force gains or loses units.  It is always based on what your force started the campaign with.

Technology Rating (TR)

Within the MechWarrior framework, Technology Rating becomes a self imposed handicap (or advantage) for the campaign.  Use it to dial up or down the difficulty of your campaign.  Use the following table to choose your Technology Rating.

Adam has just completed his first Track and is anxious to buy some new units to bolster his force and get back to the action.  Adam looks through his collection and spots a Veteran Legionnaire he wants.  The ‘Mech costs 119 MW Points.

Adam’s force began the campaign with 1,200 MW Points which gave him a Force Size Modifier of 1.5 (1,200 / 800 = 1.5).  Adam chose to give his force a Technology Rating of C (1.0).

Using this information, Adam figures out how many Warchest Points he will need to afford his Legionnaire.  He divides the MechWarrior Point cost of the Legionnaire by his FSM and his TR  to get 80 (119 / 1.5 / 1.0 = 79.33 rounded up to 80).  The new Legionnaire will cost Adam 80 Warchest points.

Upgrading Pilots

The costs for upgrading pilots in Chaos Campaign are absurdly low, so skip them for sanity’s sake.  Some things in life just shouldn’t be bought.  Experience is one of them.  I recommend using an experience system similar to what is presented in Total Warfare (pages 40-41).

If players agree, you can even buy the custom pilots for ‘Mechs in your force.

Purchased units are assumed to come with pilots consistent with their Attack Value.

Repairing Units

Repairs between tracks are based on the value of the unit and how much damage they have received.  Use the following table to determine the Mechwarrior Point repair costs.

Obviously this presents a problem when you have repair vehicles in the game that can repair units during a track.  Players may wish to mitigate this anomaly by disallowing them completely.  This is a harsh change to the game but a necessary one.  If you have a good mission going the temptation would be strong to hold off killing the last opposing unit while you ferry your units to the repair vehicle in order to avoid paying repair costs.

For more tips on balancing your campaign purchase and repair costs see my previous Chaos Campaign post Advanced Unit Costs.

Next Track?

Stay tuned as I present a new After Action Report detailing a Mechwarrior force in the Chaos Unbound campaign Track, Look Who’s Coming to Dinner.