I ran a game at Organized Play With a Jenner JR7-F, a Warhammer WHM-6K, a Archer ARC-2R and a Valkyrie VLK-QA against a pair of Mad Dogs (Vulture) in their primary configuration. According to the Battle Value of the forces it was supposed to be a fair fight. In fairness to the system it was version 1.0 not the latest system from the Classic Battletech TechManual.
We are gearing up for a gaming convention and were looking for a way to play a game of Battletech start to finish in less than 4 hours. I suspected the large pulse lasers would be overkill. It was so. I lost the Warhammer, Archer and the Jenner in 4 rounds of play. I jumped the Valkyrie off board. With yackin' and foolin' around it took less than 2 hours.
A game of battletech based on kills has some disadvantages. One player can work hard scrubbing off armor then another player, lurking in the shadows, can move in for the easy kill. Who gets the kill? Not easy to figure out. If you are keep track of who did what kind of damage (say with multi-colored pencils) then how many points does the guy who hits the Machine Gun Ammo get?
Alternative: Extraction
The benefit of the Extraction scenario is that the object of the game is capturing the scenario objective. There is no advantage in holding back for the last shot for a kill. The first one to the objective wins. The mechs defending the objective are only in the way. A unit is more likely to get the kill it is shooting at than having his partner move in at the last second.
The following is an attempt at making the static extraction objective to be a little more interesting.
Scenario: Clan Jade Falcon fighting a running battle on a Steiner world (I'll look up) and they have out run thier supply vehicles. Clan Jade Falcon have sent a unit out into a valley to get stores of supplies and ammo needed to continue the fight. The Steiner forces are not going quietly into the dark night. Their slowest mechs, heavy and assault mechs, have fallen behind the main force and are making a fighting withdraw. Some of the Steiner mechs hidden themselves to shoot the Falcon mechs at point blank range.
Setup: 12 "objective" counters placed on the board: 4 are supply stores; 4 are hidden mechs; 4 are rubble hexes. Each counter will be numbered from 1 to 12 . The counters will be shuffled and randomly placed, number side down, before play. A sheet of paper will list the contents of the counters. The list contents be randomly assigned by rolling 2d6 until 4 mechs, 4 supply stores, and 3 rubble hexes are assigned a number. The first hex on the list will always be a rubble hex as one cannot role a 1 on 2d6.
Each attacking unit (up to 4) will have two Inner Sphere mechs that are attempting a fighting withdraw. The IS mech will be composed of either 2 heavy mechs or 1 heavy and 1 assault mech with 3025 technology. The 4 hidden mechs are a Hunchback HBK-4G, an Urbanmech UM-R60, a Hatchetman HCT-3F and an Enforcer ENF-4R.
The contents of the counters can only be discovered by spending the movment points to enter the hex. If the hex is a objective hex or rubble hex then the pilot must make a successful piloting skill roll to remain standing or pick up the contents. A failure of a pilot skill roll means the unit falls. If the unit successfully completes a piloting skill roll in the objective hex then they cannot perform any kind of weapon or physical attack for that round as they are busy picking it up.
If the hex contains a mech then movement is terminated in the adjacent hex and the unit must make a piloting skill roll or fall in the adjacent hex. If the unit falls then it is subject to the rules regarding Prone Mechs (firing when down/attacking prone targets.
Victory Conditions.
We are gearing up for a gaming convention and were looking for a way to play a game of Battletech start to finish in less than 4 hours. I suspected the large pulse lasers would be overkill. It was so. I lost the Warhammer, Archer and the Jenner in 4 rounds of play. I jumped the Valkyrie off board. With yackin' and foolin' around it took less than 2 hours.
A game of battletech based on kills has some disadvantages. One player can work hard scrubbing off armor then another player, lurking in the shadows, can move in for the easy kill. Who gets the kill? Not easy to figure out. If you are keep track of who did what kind of damage (say with multi-colored pencils) then how many points does the guy who hits the Machine Gun Ammo get?
Alternative: Extraction
The benefit of the Extraction scenario is that the object of the game is capturing the scenario objective. There is no advantage in holding back for the last shot for a kill. The first one to the objective wins. The mechs defending the objective are only in the way. A unit is more likely to get the kill it is shooting at than having his partner move in at the last second.
The following is an attempt at making the static extraction objective to be a little more interesting.
Scenario: Clan Jade Falcon fighting a running battle on a Steiner world (I'll look up) and they have out run thier supply vehicles. Clan Jade Falcon have sent a unit out into a valley to get stores of supplies and ammo needed to continue the fight. The Steiner forces are not going quietly into the dark night. Their slowest mechs, heavy and assault mechs, have fallen behind the main force and are making a fighting withdraw. Some of the Steiner mechs hidden themselves to shoot the Falcon mechs at point blank range.
Setup: 12 "objective" counters placed on the board: 4 are supply stores; 4 are hidden mechs; 4 are rubble hexes. Each counter will be numbered from 1 to 12 . The counters will be shuffled and randomly placed, number side down, before play. A sheet of paper will list the contents of the counters. The list contents be randomly assigned by rolling 2d6 until 4 mechs, 4 supply stores, and 3 rubble hexes are assigned a number. The first hex on the list will always be a rubble hex as one cannot role a 1 on 2d6.
Each attacking unit (up to 4) will have two Inner Sphere mechs that are attempting a fighting withdraw. The IS mech will be composed of either 2 heavy mechs or 1 heavy and 1 assault mech with 3025 technology. The 4 hidden mechs are a Hunchback HBK-4G, an Urbanmech UM-R60, a Hatchetman HCT-3F and an Enforcer ENF-4R.
The contents of the counters can only be discovered by spending the movment points to enter the hex. If the hex is a objective hex or rubble hex then the pilot must make a successful piloting skill roll to remain standing or pick up the contents. A failure of a pilot skill roll means the unit falls. If the unit successfully completes a piloting skill roll in the objective hex then they cannot perform any kind of weapon or physical attack for that round as they are busy picking it up.
If the hex contains a mech then movement is terminated in the adjacent hex and the unit must make a piloting skill roll or fall in the adjacent hex. If the unit falls then it is subject to the rules regarding Prone Mechs (firing when down/attacking prone targets.
Victory Conditions.
- The one with the most objective counters or objective counters + kills wins.
- 3 kills = 1 objective.
- A kill is a BattleMech that is Destroyed according to the conditions described in the Destroying a Unit section of Total Warfare.
- Friendly players can attempt to kill one another to take possession of the objective counters. A unit that is killed drops all its objective counters. Units must not move or make any attacks for 1 round while picking up counters.
- Kills cannot be transferred.
- Objective counters are successfully delivered once a unit is 3 hexes away from the home edge of the board. However units that return to these hexes are considered out of play.
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