ScrapYard Armory

Across another war torn planet the forces of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Alliance collide in the densely packed corridors of a vital city complex.  Each faction needs to force the other out and claim the city for their own.

Davions

• TLR1-0 A Templar (Gunnery 3 / Piloting 5)
• RFL-8D Rifleman (Gunnery 4 / Piloting 5)
• GRM-01A Garm (Gunnery 3 / Piloting 3)
• GRM-01A Garm (Gunnery 3 / Piloting 3)
• Striker Light Tank (Gunnery 4 / Driving 5)

Lyrans

• ZEU-9T Zeus (Gunnery 3 / Piloting 4)
• COM-5S Commando (Gunnery 2 / Piloting 3)
• WLF-2 Wolfhound (Gunnery 4 / Piloting 5)
• HCT-5S Hatchetman (Gunnery 2 / Piloting 3)
• Bulldog Medium Tank (Gunnery 4 / Driving 5)

Turn 1 – Lyrans win Initiative

Both forces sprint towards the center of the map.  Due to the dense collection of buildings no shots are available for either force.

Turn 2 – Davions win Initiative

The sprinting continues as one of the Davion Garms begins to get close to the Lyran Commando who stays just out of view for the time being.

The Lyran Wolfhound does manage to line up a shot but the two Garms stay close and manage to get a two on one advantage for this combat round.

Luck was not on the Davions side who manage to hit with a single LRM10 doing minor damage.  The Wolfhound finds a kink in the armor and lands a through armor critical hit to the center torso of the lead Garm.  Two critical hits result in a severely damaged engine and a bad start for the Davions.

Turn 3 – Lyrans win Initiative

The Lyran Commando starts to get anxious and moves back, supposedly to a safer position but the speedy Garms both pounce moving to close range.  The Lyran Bulldog Tank moves in to support.

The Davion Rifleman jumps onto a nearby building with partial cover and a clear look over the battle.  The Lyran Zeus backs up to clear his own line of fire on the newly elevated RIfleman.  The Hatchetman jumps to support that Zeus and draws a bead on the Rifleman as well.  The Templar continues to inch forward unable to keep perfect pace with the faster units of his lance.

The Wolfhound hits solidly to the nearest Garm’s center torso.  The Commando follows up with a flurry of SRMs and manages to scrap into the center torso internal structure but fails to crit.  The Bulldog tank fires on the other Garm and pulverizes it’s center torso armor.  The Hatchetman lines up a medium range shot on the nearest Garm but can’t manage to hit.

The Rifleman revvs up the RACs for 3 shots each and lands two rounds on the Zeus’ right arm.  One of the Garm’s hits a slug round to the center torso of the Commando while the Striker tank slags the front armor of the Bulldog Tank with LRM fire.  The Templar misses completely.  Not a good turn for the Davions.

Turn 4 – Lyrans win Initiative

The Davions take quick action and use both Garms to trap the Commando in the narrow city streets.  The Lyran Wolfhound moves to support.  The opposing vehicles go toe to toe to trade shots.  The Zeus moves forward for a shot of his own while the Templar jumps to meet the Rifleman atop the heavy building making good use of the surrounding buildings for partial cover.  The Hatchetman is content to stalk the two heavier ‘Mechs and lurks just out of sight in front of them.

The Lyran Bulldog tank blows the wheels off the Striker tank with a lucky motive roll while return fire peppers the battered front armor but fails to penetrate.  The Wolfhound is beginning the overheat from near constant firing and judiciously holds back this turn and misses everything for his trouble.  The Zeus finally turns to pay attention to the Templar and Rifleman and lands a bunch of weapons fire but unfortunately much of it hits the building in front.  The Commando begins to gain an edge on the nearest Garm and tears through the wafer thin center torso armor and scores two gyro criticals.  Return fire misses while the other Garm turns towards the Zeus and hits with everything, scraping some armor off but doing little real damage.

The Davions roar back and the Templar and Rifleman gang up on the Wolfhound who manages to be just a slightly better shot for both.  The RACs on the Rifleman spew out 5 shots each and the combined firepower decimate the Lyran Wolfhound.  A double hit form the Templar’s UAC10 rip the Wolfhound’s right arm clear off.  Both side torsos are stripped of armor as well as the left leg which loses two leg actuators.  Amazingly, the Wolfhound makes all of his rolls and remains on his feet.

The Garm with the double gyro hit falls and the pilot hit causes the pilot to black out.  No matter, because the Wolfhound and Commando both kick and silence the battered machine.  The other Garm reaches back and sends two punches at the Commando and hits solidly scoring an engine critical hit.

Turn 5 – Lyrans win Initiative

The Lyrans line up to combine their firepower but missposition the Zeus who has no shots this turn.  The Rifleman and Templar stick together but are forced to give up their prime fighting position for fear of a building collapse brought on by enemy fire.  The remaining Garm retreats to safer ground but finds himself in sight of the Lyran Bulldog tank.

The Lyran Commando and Wolfhound combine fire on the Rifleman but only scratch at the thick armor.  The Bulldog tank targets the Striker tank in front of him and peels off more armor unable to crack through to the internal structure.

The Davions unleash hell on the Wolfhound and rip the right side to scrap.  The Wolfhound fails his piloting skill roll and is destroyed by the fall damage.  The Striker tank gets some revenge on the Bulldog and manages to finally score some critical hits, scoring hits on the commander and crew!  The Garm adds in one motive roll but cannot significantly damage the fresh rear armor.

The Hatchetman goes for a kick and misses!

Turn 6 – Davions win Initiative

The wounded Bulldog tank drives for cover, unable to shoot this turn.  A cluster develops in the middle of the city centered around the Hatchetman who can’t resist a generously offered rear shot on the Rifleman.  The recovering Garm squares off against the Commando a stones throw away.

The Davions concentrate their firepower on the Hatchetman and pummel the ‘Mech causing serious damage to the center torso and right leg.  Both sections are internal thanks to the fast firing RAC.

The Commando fires away with a full solvo of SRMs but only manages a single leg critical despite multiple other opening in the armor.  The Zeus and Hatchetman target the Rifleman and do serious damage to the center torso and right torso.  The last medium laser to score a hit finds the weakened right torso internal structure and touches off an ammo explosion that guts the ‘Mech from the inside.

The Templar tries to kick the Hatchetman but misses comically and falls to the ground.

Turn 7 – Davions win Initiative

The Lyrans set the trap for the Templar and put a ‘Mech on either side pinning him between the buildings.  The Templar makes the most of his situation and rushes towards the Lyran Zeus.  The Commando joins the party as the opposing Garm puts some distance between them to utilize its longer range weapons.

The Lyrans shooting this turn is horrible, made worse by a hot running Zeus.  The respite allows the Davion Templar to apply a little pressure and splits fire against the Hatchetman and Commando.  An SRM6 salvo beats up on the Commando causing two engine criticals dooming the 10 heat sink ‘Mech to a slow agonizing death.

The Zeus kicks the Templar but the Templar shrugs off the damage.

Turn 8 – Davions win Initiative

The Templar begins to jump towards safety and is harried by the remaining Lyrans.  Only the Hatchetman can line up a shot.

The exchange of fire does not go well for the ambitious Hatchetman.  The Lyran’s weapons find fresh armor more often than not.  The Templar opens up and scores major hits on the left leg and center torso opening up holes in each.  The Hatchetman loses one leg actuator but narrowly avoids critical hits to the torso.

Turn 9 to the End

The leg damage to the Hatchetman as well as the gaping holes in the armor force the medium ‘Mech to break off pursuit.

The Zeus lacks the jumpjets to make an honest chase.  The Templar continues to jump keeping buildings between him and his pursuers.  The Garm begins to make his move and uses his superior mobility to dart between buildings avoiding the healthier Zeus.

After a few ineffective parting shots both remaining Davion ‘Mechs make it off the battle field to fight another day.  The Lyrans secure the city and ready themselves for the next battle in a long war.

WorldWorksGames

World Works specializes in paper terrain you can print cut and build into fantastic fantasy, scifi, and modern gaming spaces.  We jumped at the opportunity to put it to use in Breaking and Entering.

To capture the feel of the inside of a Castle Brian SDS, we purchased two sets of tiles; Codename: Titan and Titan Control.

The Terrainlinx system sold by World Works is a clever kit that makes it possible to create modular terrain pieces that can be mixed and matched to fit any design you can think of.  The secret is the shape of the floor tiles and the corresponding tabs that link everything together.  I had my doubts at first but when we joined together the first two pieces, I could feel the strength of the connection right away.  They certainly did their homework with this design.

As we plunged into the project we found that our own manufacturing tolerances yielded some less than sturdy connections but that was more operator error than not.  There is an art to making this terrain work and you get the hang of it after the first few pieces.  It is best to complete your first few tiles to completion so you can see and feel how they come together before starting any large batch construction tasks.

Codename: Titan and Titan Control

I recommend 1/4″ posterboard  for the floors if you can find it and don’t mind paying a little extra (over the 3/16″ posterboard) as the .GSD files have crease cut lines that will cause you to fold the vertical sides of the floor tiles that thick.  If you aren’t consistent on how you fold & glue the sides, you’ll have slight variance in how thick the flooring is, though it really isn’t a big deal in the end when all the floors are connected together.

I also recommend cutting the angled edges of the tabs on the bottom of your floor tiles back so you can easily fold the sides at an angle to match the angle you cut the poster board at.  Remember you are supposed to cut the outside edges of the poster board at a 70-80 degree angle under to ensure that they can butt right up against each other.  Whatever you do, do them all the same and test it as you go to make sure you aren’t inserting a fatal flaw that won’t allow them to connect properly.

As we progressed through our project we really felt the weight of the task.  Let me be brutally honest, this is a LOT of work to put even a modestly sized layout together.  Hopefully you can find a friend (or two, or three) to help you out.  The payoff is great but you will have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into your terrain by the time you are finished.

Kitbash

The only modifications we felt were needed was the addition on doors that could be opened and closed as the players made their way through the map.  After a few tries we settled on a rather quick and easy fix which allowed us to move the doors without too much additional work.

Silhouette SD

This terrain would never have been finished if we did not have the help of an automated cutting tool.  We used a Silhouette SD to speed through the cutting phase of the project.  This is my first time using an automated cutting machine and overall it was awesome though not without it’s hiccups.

The first cut I tried, I’m pretty sure I fed it in the right way (bottom first), and part way through, it rolled the guide sheet out in the middle of the cutting and kept going through the process of cutting without the sheet in it.  The second time I decided to turn the page around and feed it in ‘backwards’.  It cut it upside down, but at least it didn’t roll it out in the middle of cutting.  So, I’m really not sure what I did wrong the first time, but I got it to work after that.  The point is, don’t expect it to go perfectly.  A little practice goes a long way.  Here is some knowledge to give you a jump start with using a Silhouette SD:

CR09309K extra sticky carrier sheet: When using the CR09309K extra sticky carrier sheet even the 110lb paper will curl when you peal it off.  After folding and gluing the cut pieces however, it was not noticeable.  After a few dozen prints, the carrier sheet is less sticky and the paper curls less if at all when you peel it off the carrier sheet.

The clear gridded carrier sheet: The grid on the carrier sheet and the fact that it is clear mean nothing for our purposes.  I’m not really sure why they are there, but I’m sure someone else probably has a use for them.

Print vs sticky: Don’t put the printed side of a page against the sticky page holder as the ink will get pulled off.  I don’t know what i was thinking.  I was probably just a little frustrated that i couldn’t get the machine to work yet.  The machine cuts from above and will find three of the marker corners (also from above) to align itself.

But I have 110 lb!: In the ‘Cut Settings’, I had to choose 80lb cardstock when I actually have 110lb, but it worked just fine.

Blue screen: Unfortunately, the program is prone to crashing (no, not to an actual blue screen).  They released an update in the middle of this project, though I didn’t notice much difference.  After the update there was a sheet that just would not find the calibration marks even with half a dozen tries (the second time almost most always worked before), so I clicked on “try it manually”.  I now prefer the manual method.  Unfortunately, it isn’t an option until it fails.

Re-load: It was fairly common for me to have to re-load the print and carrier sheet to re-run the ‘Detect registration marks’ process.  I found that if I tell it to detect the registration marks before even loading the carrier sheet, it will fail and give me the choice to do it manually.  I found that manual is faster and more reliable.  It will find the marks every time.  No having to reload the paper and wait for the head to travel the width of the paper (which sometimes it did quite slowly).

Cut Settings: Remember to change the cut settings!  I kept forgetting when switching cut templates and it would assume it was cutting regular paper.  I don’t know exactly what effect the settings have because the time it took to cut didn’t seem to change, but it made a huge difference in whether it cut all the way through or only scored it.  Even when using the same blade.

Force the carrier sheet to curl up instead of down!  This is a big tip and probably the best idea I had.  This greatly improves the life of any of the sticky sheets and even allows you to use thick stock paper on barely sticky carrier sheets.  There was barely any tack left and it held just fine.  I think it started to cut poorly because the carrier sheet had so many cut marks it was wearing out.  Or, I may have simply forgot to change the cut settings to bond instead of paper.  Anyway, pile some things up in front and behind the cutter and lean a piece of cardboard (or your game manuals as I did in the picture above) on either pile.  This should cause the sticky sheet to bend upwards as it extends out of the Silhouette SD.

Calibrate!  This is the calibration to make sure your cutter is moving the head/paper at the speed it thinks it is.  You shouldn’t have to calibrate the vertical scale, but you should test it anyway.  I don’t have an accurate measuring tool handy, and I doubt many of you do either.

This isn’t how it works, but is how it should work: The calibration print should have print marks to assist with this.  One long line along the top of the page and 5mm dashes set 0.1mm offset.  The mark that is actually 200mm away should be marked as such and the others should be marked with how the cut should be adjusted if it was cut on that mark.  The machine should cut a line (or dashes so you can peel the sheet off easier) along the top line and where it thinks 200mm away is.  The instructions were pretty poor in that they were unclear on some very important parts.  With just a little testing, you too can figure it out though…  If the cut is to the Right/Down of the X mark, the sliders need to be set to the Left/Up.  These instructions should really be printed right on the calibration sheet.

Alignment: Alignment on the carrier sheet doesn’t have to be perfect.  It will find 3 corners and know where to cut.  As far as placement of the sheet to be cut on the carrier sheet or feeding the carrier straight into the machine is concerned, close is good enough as long as the pattern stays within the machine’s cutting width.

Wait, did I calibrate that yet? Unfortunately, the software continues to give you the choice to cut, even though you just unloaded the piece and loaded another piece.  It should only give you the option to find the calibration marks.  I keep forgetting if I ran the ‘find marks’ or not, so quite often I probably ran it twice.

As mentioned in the previous The Succession Wars, Play By Email post, VASSAL  is a free open source board game engine for playing online and several modules have already been made for you to play The Succession Wars using it.

Our commendations to the developer of the 2.0 module, mycenae.  If at first you think it appears simple, you would be mistaken.  I’ve looked at the code and there is a lot of it.  I’m sure the Module Editor helped, but it is still pretty extensive work; not to mention the ton of little images.

The original layout of the 2.1 map was designed by nckestrel, who is currently the GM running A New League.  I’ve helped revise it and adapted the layout several times including for my reference map.  There were some map errors in the 2.0 map caused by the fact that Terra was supposed to be added afterwards when using the region outline available online for the 2.0 map.  This 2.1 map keeps to the original connections of the board game and makes square pieces fit much better.

The House logos were made by Punakettu and there are more beautiful vector logos available in Punakettu’s deviantART Battletech Logos gallery.

You can download the 2.1 version from the ScrapYard Armory Downloads page or from the  The Succession Wars Module wiki page.

UPDATE: mycenae has published version 2.4 of his Succession Wars Vassal Module.

It has been a while but I finally have found the time to pick up my brush and get to work on a new project.  This time around is a Davion reinforced lance made from a Davion Lance Pack I got for a gift ages ago.

I started with the lance pack (which curiously had two Garms) and added in two spare vehicles with accompanying infantry.  I keep a stash of battle armor handy for just such occasions and found a lovely pair of Hauberk Battle Armor to add to the force.  Nothing says good times like a combined arms force ready for a tabletop battle.

The red base of the minis was a three step red drybrush starting with Scarlet Red and Gory Red.  After a wash of black ink Bloody Red finished off the mini with a final highlight.

The black streaks were simple enough.  Black lines were haphazardly painted on each mini and then highlighted with an accompanying streak of grey made from a mix of Black and Dead White.  Gun barrels were drybrushed with Gun Metal.  Missile tips were dotted with white to provide contrasting detail.

The bases were done with Beasty Brown to Plague Brown to a dusting of Dead White.  Some dark mixed flocking spotted the top for good measure.

The two cockpits available to jewel were done in a standard blue pallet that I have used time and time again.  Stormy Blue to Magic Blue to Electric Blue with the smallest Dead White dot to seal the deal.

Decals were from Fighting Pirannha Graphics.

It feels good to have a project completed.  I can’t wait for my next one, which I assure you I am planning right now.  I’d like to keep the brush moving if I can manage.

The ScrapYard is in need of a few good gamers willing to donate some of their time which includes a distinct possibility of playing a game or two.

The game in question is the Succession Wars board game.  If that sort of thing is up your alley drop me a line at brian@scrapyardarmory.com and sign up for a slot.  There are only five available slots so hurry!

Please keep in mind the following short list of general requirements to be a tester.

• Must be available to play between the hours of 8:30-10:00 PM EST (I’d like all players to be available at the same time to aid progress)
• Must be willing to take notes along the way, bugs, improvements, comments and criticism welcome.
• Must be willing to accept that bugs may force the game offline from time to time.  Your patience and perseverance would be appreciated.

Thanks and hope to hear from you!

Vega is the second installment of the Dark Age Turning Points series which takes place during the age of the Republic of the Sphere.  Patrick Wynne is returning to action after writing for another Dark Age Turning Points, Liao.  

Chaos Reigns

The opening fiction wastes no time to throw the reader into the very heart of the conflict that dominates the Dark Age.  As the Republic crumbles the manifestations of war are impossible to keep at bay turning former collegues into mortal enemies.

Chaos Reigns is action packed and a brilliant introduction to the PDF and the conflict on Vega.  I can’t wait to delve further into the fray and learn more about the battle and the forces that have thrown this world asunder.

One thing I noticed above all else was the deliberate inclusion of several Dark Age designs that I was first familiar with through the Click-Tech game.  It is nice to see these designs find a home in new BattleTech fiction.

Vega

Included in all Chaos Campaign PDFs is a large and gorgeous atlas of the planet with all pertinate information game masters need to piece together whatever campaign they could want.  This information is not Era specific so even gamers who are not interested in the Dark Age would find it useful.

A small history writeup is accompanied by a mapsheet table and optional Tactical Operations rules dealing with terrain and weather.

The Vega Campaign

A one page summary wraps up the very eventful life of the planet, Vega, in the Dark Age.  The battle for Vega was a three way contest of sorts and saw significant action spread across many years with many different combatants.  It will be interesting to see how the tracks are framed and packaged when there is so much chaos in the timeline.

Overall the section is a good read with just enough information to summarize the military action on the planet.  Think of it as a cheat sheet for the battle that will be fleshed out further in the tracks section.

Random Assignment Tables

I’m very very pleased to see full RAT tables for all three factions (Republic, Combine, and Ghost Bear).  What makes me even happier is to see vehicles and infantry included as well.

Any opportunity the developers take to encourage combined arms games is a welcome addition.  The availability of mixed force compositions can radically change the tracks.  I really enjoy seeing that option encouraged.

As an added era specific bonus there is also an Industrial Mech RAT table snuck onto the next page to add additional options for force selection.  Industrial ‘Mechs are prominently featured in the tracks section so you will be checking this table often if you plan a battle on Vega.

Combatants

It’s a shame to see, but BattleTech PDFs always seem to be referring to page XX over and over again.  A minor grievance really, so back to the review.

Each combatant involved is detailed with stats for experience, RAT table, Commanding Officer name, unit abilities, extra notes, and a full color logo.

The combatants section is splendid with varied and thoughtful unit abilities that are almost all tied to their descriptions and the circumstances of their individual history.  Abilities from A Time of War and Tactical Operations are used but not abused.  The highlights of the section involve neither and are perfectly crafted.  Top honors are split between Amaterasu who are honor bound to never fire upon a crippled opponent and the Vega Republic Standing Guard who suffer a momentary penalty whenever they lose a commander as their chain of command reforms.

At first I thought that the number of combatants seemed short considering the information provided about the Vega campaign.  As it turns out, a number of additional Warlord factions are given force abilities within the tracks themselves.  This interesting twist was a welcome surprise and made the tracks involving said Warlords a little bit more interesting.

Tracks

We have nine tracks to choose from in Vega.  I’ve noticed a slow uptick in the average number of tracks being offered in these PDFs.  I love the tracks most of all and am very happy to see the increase.  To put things into perspective, the very first Turning Points PDF, Luthien had only six tracks.

Vega begins slowly with Dragonet, an attack in force with a few Dark Age tweaks such as the addition of Industrial ‘Mechs.  I’m a bit disappointed that TacOps rules are included as optional bonuses.  In certain instances these make sense but Bracing and Careful Aim don’t tie into the story or offer unique tactical options related to any objective and are better left for the players to add on their own.  Using them as optional bonuses seems like a cop-out.

The next two tracks pick up the pace with very well put together battles.  Power and Chaos has predictable objectives but is saved by the use of killer mechanics within the special rules.  Turncoats will have you guessing who you can trust and make positioning your units in relation to each other a challenge as you attempt to reduce the potential loss from a bad loyalty roll.

Emptiness, Eagles and Snow is a great story and provides a fantastic backdrop for the battle.  The lovers quarrel atop snow covered terrain make up for the run of the mill objectives.  I hardly notice them after reading into the special rules covering the opposing leaders and the avalanche prone terrain.

Not to be outdone, Grudge Match includes a Monorail, pipelines with volatile chemicals and a barren sand blasted flatlands.  The interactive terrain elements is epic and gets my mental gears turing.  Like a good novel or short story, my imagination is drawn into this track.

The tracks continue along these lines.  There is a good mix of objectives along with a few standard bread and butter kill the other guy variety.  Enough of a mix to keep things interesting.  The terrain layout and special rules are dominate features in almost every track and will have your imagination racing.  Optional bonuses fall flat most of time and seem to rely on Tactical Operations rules far too often.  They seem tacked on as an afterthought.

All together, there are several tracks I would really like to try out.  They are not perfect but more than make up for any shortcomings with amazing attention to setting up the battle.  You will see a venerable cornucopia of terrain configurations and force compositions as you read through Vega.

Record Sheets

Wrapping up Vega is an assortment of unique and not so unique record sheets for use in the Campaign.  The Ghost Bear commander and a Vega Warlord each get custom rides, a Pack Hunter and an Atlas respectively.  Three industrial ‘Mechs round out the offering which are not so much unique but required for anyone who does not have the absolute latest record sheets from Catalyst.  Industrial ‘Mechs are included throughout Vega and it seems right to include these as an option for players to get their game on faster.  The mining ‘Mech MOD isn’t half bad if you overlook it’s abismal speed…  Then again if you are on Vega fighting for your life you have to make due with what you have.

The Final Word

Vega is an excellent addition to the Turning Point line and features some great tracks with a lot of imagination put into them.  Maybe it’s the selection of battles to feature but there doesn’t seem to be a dull moment in these pages.

If you are on the fence about the Dark Age, Vega is worth a look.  For the economical price of $5, who could resist?  For less than the price of lunch you can relive  a plethora of battles between the Clans, the Combine, and ruthless Warlords.  Vega is among the best of the Turning Points series and I’m looking forward to more Dark Age PDFs in the future.

2011 is in the rear view mirror and it was a great year.  The 25th anniversary box set hit the shelves to overwealming interest from gamers.  I played some great games in 2011 and am looking forward to more in 2012.  For all that the past year has given us, 2012 promises much more.  We have a lot to look forward to including the realeas of the next major installment of the Mechwarrior franchise, community playtesting of specific parts of Interstellar Operations, and more great products from Catalyst Game Labs.

Catalyst Game Labs continues to be a force in the gaming industry and reguarly supplies the BattleTech community with new material for our games covering multiple eras.

The ScrapYard has been busy as always and have a full compliment of games, miniatures, and articles to write about in the coming year.  Here are the most popular articles from the past year based on a weighted average of page views.

1. Portable MercRoster
2. Breaking and Entering
3. BattleTroops Reborn in A Time of War
4. Hold the Line
5. Twilight of the Clans, The Great Refusal
6. 25th Anniversary Box Set
7. Dark Age Turning Points: Liao
8. Bad Intel
9. Chaos Reaving
10. Wolves in Exile for a Friend

Thanks to all those who took the time to comment on the many articles here on the ScrapYard.  I really enjoy your feedback and will continue to bring great material to the BattleTech community.

Heres to a great 2012!  Get those dice rolling!

The Succession Wars board game was originally released by Fasa back in 1987.  It took a birds eye view of the five great houses and provided a Risk like game system for playing out the Succession Wars of the early 31st century.

Succession Wars has been long out of print and copies on eBay are a coveted commodity.  That doesn’t mean that the game is out of reach though.  The rules are available to those who know where to look and many conversions have made play by email possible.  This article will dive into the experiences of a small group of gamers who have played the game completely over email and are hungry for more.  We’ve compiled rules, argued intention, and generally made a mess of the place in the hopes of clearing up the cluttered and at times ambiguos rules set.

First, a special thanks to a couple people that have acted as GM while we here at the ScrapYard have participated as players and for the first time got a chance to play this game:

Oboe Cop GM of the “December Winds”, a game that ran from March into October of 2011.

nckestrel GM of the “A New League”, a game just getting started as of this posting.

nckestrel developed a cubic version of the map for displaying the progress of December Winds that we’ve adapted to several other presentations.  I use this one as a reference map:

Playing-by-Email

GM

To play by email effectively, you’ll need a GM to host.  Most importantly, the GM will receive your orders, make the rolls, and clear up or decide any rule interpretations.  However, they can also assist by providing documents to the users for them to fill out.  For instance when the A New League game first started, nkestral provided a list of the starting units with a space for each for where the player wants to deploy them.  Those units that have an assigned location to start had their locations already filled in already.  For placing units and declaring attacks you are generally given 48 hours and for other responses you are given 24 hours.  As usual though, life can get in the way.  Just keep in contact, let everyone know if you need more time, and make a reasonable effort.

Communications

As far as communication procedures go, you email only the GM when it is a secret or a choice made at the same time as someone else such as a bid or what cards to play as you attack.  Otherwise you email the entire play group (and the lurkers).  Some declarations such as changing unit combinations need to be declared with other required responses such as when you decide to retreat or not.

Bidding Procedures

Traditional means of bidding, as can be observed on tv shows such as Storage Wars, would be fairly time intensive when bids are received via email and everyone has to keep track of the latest bid then how do you figure out when to stop accepting bids?  Like ebay allowing bid snipers, and what if players aren’t available?  To speed up the process and not require too much time from players, we use a Highest Unique Bid Auction where all players make a secret bid to the GM within a certain time, usually 24 hours, and only the highest bidder wins.  In December Winds and A New League, the highest bidder paid what they bid, while in A New League the highest bidder will pay 1 more then the 2nd highest bid.

Tracking Tools

By all means, you can use The Succession Wars board game itself.  I think most of us playing have a copy, though maybe not all the pieces.  Also, it is sometimes difficult to give up that much space.  Others may have cats or dogs nicknamed Hurricane.

VASSAL is a free open source board game engine for playing online and several modules have already been made for you to play The Succession Wars using it.  However, I’ve found at least one mistake in version II: Liao is marked as a Regional Capital.  However, this is actually easily fixed since the map is just an image inside the module which is really just a zip file.  Still, once you get used to how to select and expand a stack of pieces or an individual piece it is pretty awesome.  However, a not so easy fix is that Ozawa should be connected to Tikonov, the only enemy territory Almach should only be connected to is Tikonov, and Acula should not be connected to Liao.

Cyberboard is another play by email application. BoardGameGeek hosts a Gamebox for The Succession Wars in the Files section.

If you like to play with the original board game pieces but find the map provided a little unclear or so little space to do anything besides stack the pieces in some regions you could also make your own map with larger boxes and hide it in the basement to keep it from your dog’s tail.  The one on the right is based on the reference map above.  Actually you can see an 8.5″x11″ copy of it along with the original map for size comparison.

Read The Standard Rules Carefully

Stealing Periphery Units: If an enemy bids on and wins a periphery state and then takes all their units elsewhere, simply capture the periphery region and you gain control of it’s units.

Once a player gains control of a Periphery state, he may move and attack with that state’s forces just as if they were his own.  If another player captures the Periphery state’s Region, he gains control of those Periphery forces. -page 12

New Mercenary units are formed in Regional or House capitals.  Rebuilt Mercenary units are placed in Manufacturing Centers in the same way as House units. -page 11

You can control periphery units from the other side of the Inner Sphere: We’ve seen it.  A player leaves no combat units between (nor on) their capital and a Periphery state nearby thinking their front line troops separate their space from the enemies’…  Instead, an enemy bids on and wins a Periphery State just before their move phase and uses those periphery units to take control of an enemy House Capital!

Rules Addendum

Below is a collection of rule additions, subtractions, or clarifications that came up while playing (or preparing for) the game.  Use some, all, none, or modify them to your heart’s content!

Note that these are NOT the official rules that will be used to play, though I’ll probably update these as we play as well.

Placing units: The rules make it sound like you pay for units during the “Spend taxes” phase, but then get to choose where the units get placed during the “Place new units” phase, especially since it talks about not being able to place units at newly constructed factories.  Well duh…

Units purchased during the Spend Taxes phase must have designated locations where they will be built.  i.e. Their placement designation occurs during the “Spend taxes” phase and not the “Place new units” phase.

Hidden Merc Units: Since the rules don’t specify, your GM may allow you to use the card to create Merc units at any capital.  But, it obviously doesn’t seem quite right to be able to hire them behind enemy lines.  Still, you can use them in a surprise attack if your dropship has an extra spot that your enemy didn’t expect filled.

New Mercenary units are formed in Regional or House capitals you control.

Don’t Follow Your Leader: He was bribed…  Don’t follow them.

No troops will change affiliation because a Leader is bribed (with the standard exception of Mercenary Leaders and their associated units).

Standard Game Pieces: Because when playing by email we aren’t playing with a single customized map, it is best to use the standard pieces as they are to prevent confusion and errors in tracking.

Regions, Leaders, Units will not have their names nor stats changed from the rules as in the original rule book.

Bribed Leaders: This is really just a restatement of a rule from the rule book.

Leaders of yours that have been bribed that are in a region you control during the tax phase will reduce your overall tax revenue by their administration skill.

Travel in Terra: Even a Marik Leader starts on Terra according to the rule book.

Jumpships and leaders may pass through and even stop in Terra (while it remains neutral) and will not be captured by Comstar.

More then 2 House Combat: Even the standard rules allow this situation if a 3rd party bids on and wins a merc unit in an already contested region.

When more then 1 enemy House has units in a region where your units are participating in combat, you declare which units of yours are attacking which enemy House.  You may switch their target when you reply that you are not retreating with them.  They will automatically be switched between (not during) combat rounds if all but one enemy House are eliminated.

Extra Cards: These rules make it possible to have more then 4 cards, however it is expressly forbidden by the rules and creates

If you get more than 4 cards in hand, you can look at them all before discarding.  You must discard down to 4 cards before playing any.  Once told what the new ones are, it is too late to play cards before you recieve the new ones.

Discard Cards: Since you can give, trade, or sell cards to other players, why not be able to just get rid of them?

You may discard cards voluntarily to the discard pile.

Changing Combined Units in Play By Email: Because waiting for yet another email to arrive takes time… your choice is simply required with your required response.

You can you mix up the combinations of units from the first attack if you include the combinations with your order to retreat or not retreat.

Interdict and Combine: There is no defined interaction between these rules nor an example.  This rule will encourage keeping combat units from the same ‘unit’ together and reward combining units if an interdict is played.

Interdict effectively occurs after 2 units combine. example: Unit4+Unit3 = Unit7 w/o Interdict = Unit5 w/interdict.

ComStar Regional Interdict: The card is pretty general since it only defines that it affects a region, and a -2 to the roll rather then the attack force would actually be a bonus making the troops more deadly.  However, there is a lengthy description of interdicts further on in the rules manual.

*The card: “ComStar Regional Interdict. -2 on combat rolls in affected region.” is a -2 to all enemy forces in a region just before the attack roll.  These cards (like others) may be played on behalf of another player.

Create new Merc Unit: I think this is a ruling in A New League to get more merc units on the board faster, though I don’t have enough experience yet as to say why.

Merc counters count as one unit when creating new mercs.

i.e. Both counters of the mercs “Bounty Hunters” (a unique unit in the print board game) will count as one for the card to create new merc card.

Combining Conventional Units:

Conventional units are considered to be in the same unit for the purposes of combining attacks.

Build a New House Unit: I was a little confused in that the rules specify rebuilding merc units and also say new House unit.

Rebuilding a House unit is the same as building a new House unit.

Setup:

During setup, you cannot place any units on territory you do not control.

Bidding: I thought some of these auction models were interesting, so I’m providing a sample of options here for you.  A slight change goes a long way here.

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays 1 million more than the next closest bid. (Highest Unique Bid Auction)

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays 1 million more than the next closest bid.

When bidding, each player shall submit two secret bids to the GM.  The winner pays their lowest bid higher then the next closest bid.

When bidding, each player shall submit one secret bid to the GM.  All players pay their bid. (All Pay Auction) It may seem odd, but scholars use it to model lobbying/campaign donations and… bribes.

When bidding, each player may pay 1 million C-Bills to submit only a single secret bid to the GM.  The winner pays [choose something from above]. (Bidding Fee Auction)

Spy-Trade

Spy-Trade cards with another player’s hand.  The player playing this card can look at an opponent’s hand.  The player may then choose any number of cards from the opponents hand to trade with an equal number of cards from their hand.  The target lppayer may not play cards in response to the spy-trade.

Lift House Interdict: It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to lift an interdict from Comstar from an entire house, but leave regional interdicts in place.

Lift House Interdict removes any House interdict and all Regional interdicts for a chosen House.

Death Commando: The Death Commando cards will be removed from the game after they are used.  They could be shuffled into the deck with the rest of the discard pile, but they aren’t called Special Forces cards.

Death Commando cards are removed from the game after being used.

Mercenaries with Leaders: Hired leaders lead their own troops.

If all associated combat units are destroyed, the leader may be automatically moved to where the first new associated combat unit is built for free.  Mercenary leaders can only use their Combat ability while in the same region with at least one of their associated combat units.

If a merc leader is bribed, only the associated combat units change sides, but all associated combat units change sides, regardless of region. (Jaime Wolf is bribed, all Wolf’s Dragoons change sides, but no other units even if in region with Jaime Wolf and without another leader).

“5. Adjust Technology Scale”: Specifically defining that technology is only adjusted at this time for the current player rather then whenever something might adjust it, whereas it may seem that this phase is meant to adjust technology only from the results of combat.

Technology does not change for a player until their Adjust Technology phase.  Technology rolls, cards, gaining/losing regions, etc. do not take effect until that player’s own Adjust Technology Phase.

Official Capital: Some rules assume you have your House Capital, but you could have lost it…

When a player looses their original House Capital or their current Official Capital, they must first choose their Official Capital from other House or Regional Capitals that they control, and then finally they must choose from any plain region they control if they control no Regional nor House Capitals.  If they recapture their original House Capital it automatically becomes their Official Capital.

Periphery Movement: Nothing specifically forbids you to move through a periphery state with your units, although nothing specifically allows it either.  It doesn’t seem right that you could move freely through an enemy region though.

You cannot move freely through Periphery states and they will attack/capture.  If you move units into a periphery state you cannot move them out. i.e. You cannot “pass through”.  Combat will occur during the next combat phase and they will capture any leaders or jumpships that remain.

Faction Leader: This will prevent the last leader of a House from simply being bribed away.  Because a House that controls you leaders gets a portion of your House, this will prevent somone from throwing money at a bribe just to end up getting money back.

If faction leader is bribed/captured/killed, and no other Leaders have * for loyalty, the heir chosen by the player becomes Faction Leader.  The faction leader is always * for loyalty (not bribable).  If an old faction leader that is naturally unbribable (* for loyalty) is returned, the Faction Leader status is automatically switched back to that Leader, returning the previous Faction Leader to their old loyalty.

Elimination Outfall From Losing Your Leaders: There are quite a few holes on what to do when a player is eliminated when they lose control of all of their Leaders.

A player is eliminated if the only Leaders they control are of Houses they do not have the ability to build units of.  If a player is eliminated by losing control of all their leaders, their forces come under control of other houses.

If another House controls all of the Leaders of a House controlled by a player who was just eliminated, the House is merged with the new Controlling player’s House. They gain full control including all Regions, units, money, and cards that were controlled by the eliminated player and they may build new or reconstructed units as that House could. All units and Leaders are now considered to be affiliated with the controlling player’s original House.  Such leaders are no longer considered captured nor bribed.

If more than one House controls Leaders of the eliminated House, the House’s forces are split between the Houses that have control of the eliminated. Immediately after the player is eliminated, the units, money, and cards are split randomly in proportion to how many Leaders are controlled by other Houses.  If there are 3 Leaders left and a House controls 2 of the Leaders, their chance is 2/3 of gaining control of a particular unit.  Money and cards should be split in proportion, but where any remainders of less than 1 million c-bills or 1 card are combined and randomly given to a House similar as to units, 1 card/million at a time.  The Leaders and combat units retain their House affiliation, but combat units are controlled and act as though part of the new controlling House.  No units of the eliminated House can be built nor Leader’s abilities used until a single House controls all of it’s leaders at which point the House merges with the controlling player’s original House and are then considered to be affiliated with that House and those leaders are no longer considered captured nor bribed.  All units that had retained their House affiliation now come under control of this merged house and are now affiliated with the controlling House. If a region has occupying combat units from multiple Houses, combat will take place during the next available combat phase. If the player was eliminated during a combat phase, combat will take place immedately.

Example: Marik’s last leader is captured (as result of capturing a region).  Since Marik’s last leader was captured, the region and jumpships in that region belong to the conquering House, regardless of leaders, and are not affected by player elimination.

Marik had the following in other regions: Jumpship 5 Jumpship 3 Jumpship 1 SuperLegion 9 ScrubbyMilitia 3 HighlyPolishedGuard 2 Conventional Conventional Conventional 32 c-bills 7 cards.

Steiner has 2 of Marik’s leaders, Kurita has 1, Liao has 2.  We roll for each unit separately.  2/5 for Steiner, 1/5 for Kurita, 2/5 for Liao.   (Conveniently we can use a d10, 1-4 Steiner, 5-6 Kurita, 7-10 for Liao).

Kurita could end up with most or even all of the Marik’s combat units and jump ships by sheer lucky dice rolls.  If Kurita gets the Jumpship 5 but no combat units in that region and Steiner gets the one combat unit in that region, next combat phase Steiner takes control of the jumpship (unless Kurita got a move phase before the next combat phase and was able to move it to a safe region).  For the cards, (don’t ask me how Marik got 7 cards…) there’s 1 for each leader, and then the last two are individually rolled for as the units were.  32 c-bills are split 6 per leader, and the remainder of 2 are individually rolled for as the units were.  Regions are conquered as usual…  After combat, whoever is the only one with combat units in the region gains control of  it.  Until then they are still effectively owned by Marik.  But, you can’t move through until you gain control (or there are no enemy combat troops).  For more complex or fractional house asset distribution you can download and use this Distribution of House Assets calculator.

Wrapping it Up

Running or playing a play by email Succession Wars can be a lot of work but it is tons of fun.

If only there were a way to play the game online, with friends or strangers without all the record keeping and rules arbitration.  That would be something indeed…

The Chaos Campaign system is a personal favorite of mine.  The fast playing abstract campaign system has successfully been ported to almost every era in the BattleTech universe from the Jihad to the historical conflicts of the Succession Wars.  The newest entry into the Chaos Campaign ecosystem comes courtesy of The Wars of Reaving sourcebook.

For a complete review of the sourcebook, Chaos Reaving excluded, visit OurBattleTech.com.

The Chaos Reaving rules annex brings a new dynamic to the Chaos Campaign system.  Instead of a collection of individual tracks, the Chaos Reaving campaign provides a build-it-yourself framework that promises to allow players and gamemasters to play out any Clan faction on any number of worlds involved in the Wars of Reaving.

As a build your own system, the Reaving Campaign presents a menu of choices for the players to select from.  The final sum of these parts make up the individual battles the players will fight as they navigate through their custom length campaign.

BattleField Setup

The first selection to be made is the location for the track and there is a long list of target planets to choose from.  Most of them are specific planets but there are two generic options (Deep Periphery and Occupation Zone) to cover all potential targets.  Each location has a table of information for players and game masters to utilize to spice up the battle.  Each mission will use the Warchest Points and Map Sheet Tables.  Optionally, there are weather conditions, advanced terrain features, gravity, and temperature for those detail minded individuals.  Further into the details are purely roleplaying elements such as the Star type, travel time to the jump point and others meant for an adventurous game master to weave a set of battles into an epic yarn.

With no less than fifty locations to choose from, players are sure to find an interesting location or two to battle on.  The available locations feature an impressive array of optional terrain and weather conditions that ensure that no two planets will seem the same.

The Warchest point cost per location is the base cost per mission on that planet and ranges from 200 to 700 points which covers a wide enough range to accomodate those with a flush warchest and those that have not been so fortunate.

Options

The options section is the next step in mission construction.  Players (or game masters as we will see later) select from a range of options that either help or hurt the players to generate War Chest bonus opportunities (or penalties).

Options present a way to tweak the risk/reward curve for the mission.  You can select a bonus which will decrease both the upfront cost of the track as well as the reward for successfully completing the objectives.  Alternatively you could pay more upfront in order to make an additional reward available to you if you are able to complete your objectives.

This presents new avenues for cash strapped commands to continue the campaign or for the more adventurous to increase the potential windfall.  An important note, these options are selected before you know your objectives or your opponent.

By selecting up to two options, you can create an interesting mix of conditions and potential Warchest Point bonuses.  For example, you could take the seemingly impossible bonus of doubling the opposing force size then temper it by increasing your own force’s skill level.  The end result is +100 Warchest cost for the track and a possible +500 in Warchest Points if you can win your objectives.

There are twenty-one options to choose from.  Seven are cost and victory deductions while the rest add to the cost and potential awards.

The available options are often mirrored from positive to negative with some special positive options.  It is up to the player to keep things interesting as the campaign moves along.  After giving the available options some thought, I like what I see.  While you can very easily treat them as linear elements (help me or hurt me!) when combined you are treated to unique conditions and a delightful selection of possible combinations.

Special Rules

As expected for a campaign involving the Clans, Honor is a prominent feature of the rules which borrows from the Dezgra point system originally published in Total Warfare.  The Honor system presents another resource for players to manage.  Since Dezgra points would carry over between tracks, you will be as concerned with your units current honor as much as their pilot damage, experience points, and ‘Mech repairs.

Each faction in the Reaving campaign follows an Honor level specific to the era allowing for unique situations when your opponent does not match your own units Honor level.  The Honor rules are in my opinion a critical piece to the the Reaving Campaign and provides that special flavor that makes the system unique among other Chaos Campaigns.

Other rules including Forced Withdrawal, Salvage, and Isorla round out the mandatory special rules.

Additional Special Rules

Even more special than above, these additional rules are a tad out there.  While some of them are rather benign and carry no Warchest point impact (Dropping Troops, Special Unit Rules, etc.) others can break any track open.  Care should be taken when exercising any of these rules.

Ultimately, common sense should prevail when shopping the Additional Special Rules section.  I think it would be more reasonable for a Game Master to select these for their players.  Inappropriate use of the Operational Timeframe or Betrayal special rules potentially breaks the game and may quickly ruin the difficulty level of the campaign.  These types of special rules don’t seem to fit the pick your own track construction.  Without context, a turn limit on a track does not fit.  Only when you consider its implications in the light of your objectives and terrain does it become a meaningful addition.

Objectives

The center piece of any track are the objectives.  The Reaving Campaign always begins with one, Win your Bid where you attempt to cripple or destroy your opponent.  From there you can add up to three additional objectives.  There are twelve objectives to choose from ranging from destroying a particular building to escaping the battle with a percentage of your force intact.  Each additional objective increases your base cost while providing additional avenues for Warchest point gain.

The range of objectives is fairly standard.  There are no wildly creative additions to the list which is to be expected due to the standardized format of the campaign.  Suffice to say, you will not find anything more than the usual suspects in the objectives made available to you.  While your objectives will guide your overall strategy, the most thought provoking decisions will be made agonizing over the Options section.

I am happy to see opportunities for a well balanced force to be put to good use.  A fast light force has a great chance at acing a track with a destroy the target objective combined with a force preservation objective.  Available campaign selections that will detract from a player force made exclusively by Daishi variants is a plus.  Even so, almost all of the available objectives can be exploited by an ultra heavy death star type force in one way or another.

Opponent

The opponent section is brief and includes a quick table describing the Warchest point adjustment for an opposing force greater or less than the player’s force.  The actual opposing Clan will depend on the players to figure out from the information contained in the sourcebook.  There are three political balance tables available (for three different years) to find an opponent.  However, if you need to know who was fighting who at such and such a time, you have to consult the other 190 or so pages of the sourcebook.

Then again, since this is a make your own adventure campaign you should design your battles as you like them.  Playing Jade Falcons and hate the Steel Vipers?  Go get ’em.

Setting Up a Game

The next section is a generous double page of concentrated examples that give players a feel for how this whole pick your own campaign system works.  There are three different perspectives presented; a basic campaign with a friend playing the opposing force, a more complicated campaign with a friend picking and playing the opposing force, and a campaign where two players go head to head with a game master moderating the action.  Each example goes a little further into the details and are fantastic and approachable introductions to the thinking behind building a track.

I believe that these examples provide a view into the original intent of the author.  It is fun to see how Mr. Rome thought things would shake out as players sat down at the table to construct their campaign.

Downtime

Activities between tracks are exactly as you would expect with some key changes.  You will be repairing units, healing pilots, and acquiring new equipment in order to keep your force in fighting trim.  You will be dealing with Support Points like in other Chaos Campaigns with some Clan related differences.

The Clan milieu takes center stage when it comes to acquiring new units.  Clans don’t “buy” their weapons of war, they use their merchant caste to trade for them.  This major change from the standard Chaos Campaign really makes it feel like a Clan centric campaign and will make for some careful consideration by the players as they weigh their need for equipment versus their greed in the hunt for a Diamond Shark quality bargain.

The Good, The Bad, and the Clans

I’m happy to see the Chaos Campaign format move to new ground in The Wars of Reaving.  While I enjoy seeing a pick your own track system there are potential pit falls to avoid.  In most cases, the guiding hand of a game master is absolutely necessary in order to keep the campaign balanced and fresh.  A numbers minded player generating his own tracks may fall into a dull loop of maxing his Warchest points through a careful mix of options and objectives.  Analysis paralysis is a real threat to creativity and fun in this case.  The Chaos Reaving can be a perfect tool for game masters though.

The Chaos campaign provides near infinite re-playability value and is the best bang for your buck than any other Chaos Campaign offering to date.  If you are a fan of the Clans and plan on getting the sourcebook anyways you are getting this system thrown in for free.  The modular nature of the system ensures that you can generate a campaign with the size and detail that you want.

The critical thing missing from Chaos Reaving is that spark that makes certain tracks in the rest of the series absolutely spectacular.  It’s the wow factor that can never be duplicated by a modular pick it yourself system.

In the end the greatest strength of Chaos Reaving is also it’s greatest weakness.  While modular, scalable, and replayable it will never be able to trump the creative offerings of the best of the Chaos Campaign series.  That is not to say that Chaos Reaving is not worth your while.  There was obviously a great deal of thought put into the available options and objectives and the potential combinations thereof.  The only way to fully explore the hidden fruits of this campaign system is to get down to business and play it out.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Jade Falcons, maybe its time for a Reaving campaign of my own…

Ben Rome is the Assistant Line Developer for the BattleTech line at Catalyst Game Labs.  He is also the creative force behind the Chaos Campaign, a multi-faceted, fast playing, abstract campaign system with game supplements spanning almost every BattleTech era.

I’m a huge fan of the Chaos Campaign system in all its iterations.  You can view previous articles on the Chaos Campaign PDF exclusive series below.

• Chaos Campaign Review
• Youling Zhanshi
• OTP: Falcon Incursion
• Lamenkov’s Liability
• OTP: Death to Mercenaries
• HTP: Misery
• OTP: The Red Corsair
• HTP: Galtor
• JTP: New Avalon
• JTP: Luthien
• HTP: Glengarry
• JTP: Dieron
• JTP: Atreus
• JTP: Sian
• JTP: Tharkad

The newest incarnation of the Chaos Campaign debuted with the Wars of Reaving sourcebook.  The campaign rules in the rules annex provide a pick your own adventure flavor of system that spans all the worlds involved in the Reaving story arc.  I plan on fully reviewing this new campaign in future post.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to interview Mr. Rome about all things Chaos Campaign and a little bit more!

Ben, first off, let me thank you for the opportunity to chat.  It is always a pleasure when the developers make themselves available to the fans.

My pleasure.  I enjoy the interaction, especially since I can never make the online chats any more.

The Chaos Campaign made its debut with Dawn of the Jihad.  Did you view the campaign system as a grand experiment at the time?  Did you have any idea it would grow well beyond the Jihad sourcebooks?

Grand experiment?  Definitely.  Back when Randall and Herb were taking pitches for DOTJ, which was also the first BattleTech product I’d been invited to write in, someone in the ensuing mass email discourse wished we could put in some sort of campaign for players to enjoy the coming “hot mess” of a war.

At the time, I’d been toying with a flexible campaign with my (then) gaming group, the Steel City Mechwarriors over in Pennsylvania.  We disliked “account tech” but were using an abstract system of points derived from victory conditions to affect repairs, reinforcements, and whatnot.  (We also did this with our MechWarrior: Dark Age and Age of Destruction games.)  I’ve always liked the “video game” treatment of campaigns in various games, where certain details are abstracted but others not.  MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and the MechCommander games come to mind.

So, I reasoned, why not attempt to redefine how BattleTech presented scenarios?  Perennially poor sellers, this seemed a way to make them more fun and give the control to the players with regards to force selection and a myriad of other battlefield details.

I quickly pulled a proposal together after mentioning the idea to Paul Sjardijn, who gave some great feedback.  Together we drafted the initial campaign rules and pitched a 12-track arc for DOTJ.  The initial idea was to promote continued replayability for ground, air/space, and RPG games – and that each player’s experience would be different and unique.  Just like a video game.  Both Randall and Herb liked the idea, so I quickly drew up the 12 tracks and crafted how the arcs would work; the whole “choose your own adventure” style seemed to add to the coolness factor.

We had hopes it would be maintained throughout the rest of the JHS books, if only so it would “guarantee” us continued writing work for those books.  We were really excited when fans seemed to take to this new, fresh take on scenarios.

There have been several authors of the Historical, Jihad, and Turning Point Chaos Campaign supplements.  How do you select a writer for a new addition to the line?  Do you have someone in mind based on the faction or timeline involved?

Herb and I still see the TP series as a “breaking in” point for our more new authors, as well as a vehicle for our more veteran writers to use for generating some quick product (and cash).

I’ve sent out a few “calls for proposals” over the last couple of years and got some interesting responses and pitches.  Most of those you’ve seen come into print over the last year or so, such as Geoff Swift’s HTP: Mallory’s World or Jason Schmetzer’s OTP: Death to Mercenaries.

I’ve been pretty open to whatever a writer proposes, as long as it “fits” the aesthetic of the various TP branches (Jihad, Historical, Operational, Dark Age).  More by accident than purpose have we had the Combine as a common antagonist in several TP works; the Dracs seem to be a popular foil and opponent in many a BattleTech war!

At any point did you throw a new writer into the series to shake things up to get a fresh perspective on the system?

The closest I’d come to that is introducing Geoff Swift through the line.  He actually started pulling in more core sourcebook work because of the quality of his stuff for the TP line.  Those writers who work (and write) well with me with this project tend to find me back them for more work with in-print material.

It has been reported that sales of the Jihad Turning Points series (as well as other PDF exclusive products) have performed well.  Has the series kept up the momentum with later releases and the expanded lineup?

It has.  Initially, the idea was simply to do them for the Jihad: all five capital worlds and a couple on some key industrial worlds – Dieron, Hesperus, Irian, Solaris.  Because the reception was so far beyond what we’d thought, it was easy to expand the idea into pretty much any era.  As long as the conflict made sense within the scope of the line, I was willing to give it a go.

Why do you think the Starterbook series which borrows the Chaos Campaign framework has not flourished?

No idea, and that really bummed me out.  And I’m not saying that because I was one of the two principle authors on both projects, either.  Those books were awesome ideas and it really surprised us all they didn’t do so well.  Jason Schmetzer and I had worked up several more ideas for the Starterbook idea and to see it cut off at the knees was a huge disappointment.

Are there any more Jihad Turning Point episodes to come or is the series wrapped up?

For the Jihad line specifically, I still have a few on the table I want to see finished off.  Hesperus, Solaris VII, and a “special” one for Terra.  Of those, Solaris is half-written but has been on hold ever since I had to take on finishing Masters and Minions, then Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, and Wars of Reaving.  I do hope to get back to it to finish it off, as it will help fill in a lot of gaps from that world’s struggle, but I also have Handbook: House Kurita to write.

Hesperus and Irian are writer-proposed projects from some of our authors who have been just avalanched with other life issues, and I’m not sure they’ll ever see the light of day.  Terra’s a project that Øystein Tvedten and I have bounced around but I’ve not had time to do much more than sketch it out.

Most likely, any future Jihad-era Turning Points will end up falling under the “Historical” banner instead, as we’ll be moving BattleTech past that era before I have time to put them out.

The format of the Chaos Campaign has evolved over time. Can you elaborate on some of those changes?  Specifically, between JHS 3072 and JHS 3076 the tracks became more ‘Mech force centric and looked much closer to the PDF only releases.

Part of that shift came from the release of A Time of War, the BattleTech RPG.

Initially, I was writing each track to encompass all portions of the BT line: standard, AeroTech, and RPG.  It’s a little difficult to work a track into a generic enough guideline that can account for each “version” and in some cases, clear delineation needed made such as buildings and asteroids.  And it was pretty impossible to do more for the RPG (such as providing stats, layouts, etc.) other than provide a story framework for a creative GM to build on.

As ATOW continued to be written and shaped into form, we were still progressing with the next couple of JHS books.  Without being a part of the RPG’s reformation, I didn’t want to put in guidelines and rules for that system without it being formally released.  So I either went pretty vague in the hopes that really creative GMs could pull what was needed, or “ignored” it altogether.  There was—and still is—a TP-style RPG-only concept on the table that would help alleviate that need.  But with the JHS campaigns, it came down to addressing the primary two systems in use.

By JHS76, I had really streamlined the process through several Turning Point releases.  With those products, the overall bias by our authors is to be ‘Mech-centric (very understandable) and something I continue to remind them to be aware of going forward.  Time constraints sometimes keep me from really tweaking them to handle or be adjusted to AeroTech-style and RPG play.

Regarding the layout and information for the tracks—yeah, they’ve adjusted with time.  As the TP series began to unfold, it became evident that despite a variable fundamental difference in setup, the overall look needed to be consistent.  So we did some tweaking with regards to presenting the awards amounts, Objective and Options wording, and Special Rules.  I’ve continually aimed to streamline and simplify the language and structure to best get the maximum use of space for providing the necessary game information, and less the standard nomenclature.

On your blog you alluded to the fact that a Chaos Campaign construction system was tossed around for Interstellar Operations.  Can you elaborate on your hesitation to the idea?  Will we ultimately see a generic construction system in the finished tome?

Randall asked me back in 2009 to consider including a base “setup” rules chapter for IO.  I’ve been really hesitant on that for a couple of reasons.

Initially, it was because that was my “in” with the entire line.  By keeping that process insular, I guaranteed myself continued work for future projects.  But that attitude isn’t exactly the best to have within a licensed game line, where we thrive on the concept of a “shared universe.”  What if I’d been hit by a bus?  No more track campaigns!  Paul would’ve been the closest writer to understanding the process but considering out of the first five JHS books, he’s only written one complete track (the rest were constructed and written by me), it would’ve been a steep learning curve.

Contrary to some opinion, there is no actual written-down formula for creating tracks.  What I’ve told my TP authors is to look at the campaign in general and figure where the climax battle will be, as well as the biggest “struggles.”  Those are the “peaks” of the arc; every track that leads to those peaks needs to provide enough gradual points to pay for it—but just barely.  You really want to force the players to step out into risk-taking to really build their cushion to handle those peaks, as well as the increased damages those difficulties will cause.

From there, it’s a matter of keeping the point totals in mind, including how a min/max player might fare if they tried to break the track and scoop the points.  It happens; that’s not something you as a writer can mitigate but have to trust that the gaming group will balance things out instead.

One other thing I look for: ways to make each one challenging beyond “enter battlefield, kill all opponents, leave.” Games are the most fun when you have different objectives and plans besides “kill ‘em all” and I really try to shy away from those formats, especially if the game is played with the bare minimums.

That entire thought process isn’t exactly the easiest to express in written rules.

Finally, there’s another reason: wiggle room.  I’ve found that many projects tend to vary the scope and idea of a campaign arc.  The Starterbooks, for example, are focused on a single company-level unit.  Many of the Historical Turning Points involve forces that can be regimental-sized.  And the Jihad arc is very mercenary-centric.  Each of these really requires different looks and perspectives with regards to the tracks, and that’s simply not a very scalable idea to translate into rules.  By keeping them “unwritten,” I can not only construct tailor-made tracks for various projects, but also keep them from being analyzed and broken down into component parts and compared to a written rule set.  It keeps the focus away from number-crunching and rules lawyering and squarely on what’s important: carrying a story through the game that is personal and unique to your experiences.

Do you have a favorite Chaos Campaign supplement so far?

Wars of Reaving, to be honest.  And yes, I say this in light of what I just mentioned with regards to a possible IO construction chapter.

WOR was a different animal.  With the amazing amount of conflict I put in those pages, there was no real campaign I could offer that would be “generic” enough to allow any Clan unit to adventure through.  While a mercenary angle (and less so, a House unit) works well for the Jihad series, it doesn’t fit at all for the WOR.  And I really, really wanted a campaign set there.

So, I hit upon the idea of making a true “mix-n-match” experience for a Clan campaign while allowing a construction rule set to be made a la IO.  You’ll also notice I made it very clear that the rules for the WOR Chaos Campaign were specific to that time and conflict, keeping it confined within the era but still very wide open for limitless possibilities for player campaigns.

And I think it covered all of those bases fairly well.  As an added bonus, we got to insert planetary data for all of the Clan home systems, several Periphery systems, and even a modified version of Clan zellbregin designed for the CC system.

You were the first author in the expanded Chaos Campaign PDF series.  When it came time to delegate the writing duties for future releases, did it feel like you were giving up something personal? 

Oh, most definitely yes.  But, I had to delegate if I wanted to work on other BattleTech projects.  I simply had no additional time to keep it all to myself.

Did you have any fears that new authors would not be able to do the series justice?

Initially, yes.  But I made sure that I got all of their drafts before shipping them off to playtest.  Tweaking point totals, adjusting options and objectives, adding/deleting special rules was a common occurrence.  I think out of all the authors who’ve done various TP releases, Geoff Swift had the best grasp of what I wanted.

Is there anything you can tell us about the future of the Chaos Campaign series?

It’s not going anywhere!  I’m still inordinately pleased the system is in continued use and that the PDF line is still very successful three years after its first release.  While most of the series will shift to more “Era” specific in the title (e.g. “Succession Wars Turning Point,” “Age of War Turning Point,” etc.), I do not lack for proposed ideas.  If I did every single one of the projects pitched to me that I liked, the line would still be going three years from now—assuming a one- per two months release, that is.  This year’s been a challenging hiccup, as a backlog of product has pushed layout and design of some of the current TPs in production to the bottom of the pile.  But we’ve got a few fixes in the works that will correct this problem in the near future.

As far as upcoming planned titles, we’ve got in various stages of writing:

• DATP: Vega
• DATP: Irian
• DATP: Marik
• HTP: Towne
• HTP: Chesterton
• HTP: York
• HTP: Luzerne
• HTP: Rezak’s Hole
• HTP: Tortuga
• JTP: Solaris VII
• JTP: Hesperus
• JTP: Priori (WOR)
• JTP: Vantaa (WOR)
• OTP: Wolf and the Widowmaker
• OTP: Somerset Strikers

Now, that’s not a definitive list. And understand, it’s not a guarantee that all of those will see publication.  But they are pitches I have accepted or are in progress of some form, so they’re more than just ideas.

Slightly off topic but I must quash my curiosity.  Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming Solaris 7 product tweeted by Randall?

Not really, no.  Though it does tie in somewhat with the upcoming Jihad Turning Point: Solaris VII release, which I hope to finally kick out the door before GenCon next year.

Is there a conflict or significant event in BattleTech history that you would love to see covered in a Chaos Campaign product but know it never will happen?

There’s a couple I can think of that are more RPG-centric that I’d like to see—and hopefully end up covered in Paul’s RPG offshoot of the line.

Probably the best non-candidate I can think of is Tukayyid.  It’s not really conducive to a campaign, per se, and would need a lot of specialization rules to fight that battle.  My concern there is that it would end up more a reworking of the original scenario book and less a campaign-style Turning Point, which defeats the purpose of the line.

But, as in all things BattleTech, you never really know, do you…