BattleTech

[Cadfan]

The more I think about this, the more ideas I come up with. Unfortunately, most of them are incompatible with each other.

What I'd really look for in a mech game is something that plays in under 2 hours (or under 1 hour), something where the typical game involves 4 to 8 mechs per side, something where a single mech's rules can fit on a single playing card (or half sheet of paper), and something that can encompass mechs from different genres so that I can have the western military styled mechs and the eastern anime styled mechs under the same roof.

I want to use a heat system, to retain the idea that specific weapons or components can be shot off of your mech, and to retain the idea that maneuvering for the right angle is an important part of playing the game.

But of course these are all concepts, not specifics, and I want to reinvent the wheel a bit rather than just copy battletech. In particular I want to skip the simulationist "every mech is a composite of standardized parts" idea from battletech, and make each mech a custom design. I think that will be better for the game in the long term.

I have a good heat system written. What sorts of things do you guys look for in a mech game?

 

[Ranger REG]

Watch and dream, mechwarriors,

Watch and dream...

I dunno. My dream is a bit more grittier, the mechwarriors are sweaty despite wearing a coolant vest and tank top. Oh, yeah, my dream would be of the Fed's Combat Regimental Team.

 

[MerricB]

Of the twenty mechs that went into that battle, only 4 managed to walk out, leaving a nice radioactive crater in the middle of the canyon. We decided we could never top that, so the invaders just threw up their hands in frustration and left, and we played Goldeneye for the rest of the vacation.

Love it!

Cheers!

 

[Ahzad]

I love my BattleTech as well, but a friend of mine was part of Reaper Minis Black Lightning Demo Teams, and used to host demo games of Reaper's CAV mech game at my store. Great and fast little mech game. Doesn't quite have the same crunch or stuff as BT, but for something fast and fun it would be pretty hard to beat.

CAV HQ at Reaper Games

 

[Cadfan]

I'm going to try it out in two weeks at a convention.

 

[MerricB]

I've now posted session reports of the two BattleTech games we played on the weekend on BGG:

Mission: Supply Run - Sorenson's Sabres vs. Davion militia
Mission: Pursuit - The Fox's Teeth vs. Kurita militia.

Both are illustrated with pictures I took during the day.

Cheers!

 

[Geoff Watson]

They mostly work. There are two major problems, in my opinion.

First, they don't effectively account for weapon synergy within a single mech.

Second, you can sometimes reduce the BV of a mech by adding more weapons. Because BV is pro rated, ie, because they add up the BV of your weapons and then reduce by a certain amount based on how well you can cool those weapons, you can sometimes add weapons you don't care about that generate a lot of heat and take up very little space, in order to bring the overall heat index up as high as possible. Then, in game, you simply do not fire those weapons- they existed purely to minimize your BV cost. This even happens in published mechs, although to be fair published mechs rarely gain more than pocket change in BV advantage by adding redundant weapons.

Does that make sense?

Basically, if you cool 10 heat, and you have 10 heat of weapons, and you add 20 heat of really crappy weapons to your mech giving you a total of 30 heat, you may have a lower BV than you did when you had only 10 heat worth of weapons. Then, in game, you just ignore the 20 heat of junk, and play with the original 10.

They've brought out BV2 which fixes most of the problems with BV.
Overheating only gives a discount on the worst weapons, not all weapons.

Geoff.

 

[Cadfan]

I know. BV2 is way better.

It just isn't perfect. And it probably can't be, because its a generic algorythm applied to something far too complex.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Still WAY better then the good old days when we were balancing on a tonnage basis.

"Yeah, you have a lance of 250 tons of equipment? I'll take 2 Timber Wolves and a Storm Crow. You'll have an entire 45 ton advantage on me!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

My Starter Box arrived. So, the next thing is acquiring someone to play with me.

Damn, there is always a flaw...