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I'm a big fan of the Davion version of the Blackjack.

Hanse Davion, on the other hand, was so impress by the Blackjack's showing on Xhosha that he has begun experimenting with new versions. One of the Davion engineers' first discoveries was that the Blackjack's instability is a myth. One Davion variant replaces dual autocannon with heavy lasers and also radically increases the number of heat sinks. This necessitates the removal of two medium lasers and some armor.

2 LL, 2 ML, 16HS, 4/6/4, and solid armor for a 45 toner.

I'm starting up a once a month Battletech campaign tonight. Taking a break from 40k for a while.

Setting: Port Arthur, 3059, Operation Bulldog.

I'll be running the Smoke Jags against the 10 players.

Made a blog about the campaign, so you can watch the progress of the players and how the campaign unfolds. Battle reports will be posted to the blog as well.

http://operationbulldog.blogspot.com/

Loosely basing the campaign on the original Mechcommander PC game. Smoke Jag forces will have a lot of bondsmen IS tanks units and Solahma warriors in IS mechs to start. Players will face off against the front line omni-mechs later in the campaign.

Mattlov wrote:Oh come on, be meaner than that. Make those poor players face Clan tanks with Elemental support. Make them FEAR a Clan battlefield without an Omnimech on it.

Ha! Got to start out small...No worries they will find out what elementals are all about next month.

BAWTRM wrote:Nice looking campaign Rangerrob! I've even read through all the posts on the blog. Great mood enhancers with using all of those images. Gotta tell me though, where did that wacky 'female' tech picture come from (maybe the same place as that Zimmer pic?)?

So, how did you determine who would ride what mech?

Female tech is a screen capture from Farscape. Zimmer pic I made myself.

How did I determine the original mech selection? I had emailed all the players asking them what "skill" they wanted their mechwarrior to have. The order in which they responded to my email, was the order they picked thier mech...but they didn't know that until they all had sumbimitted their skill.

BAWTRM wrote:
Not telling them untill afterwards, I like that.

Another question, this one about supply in your campaign. Have you just completely reduced that to the 'regular damage get's repaired before next mission' and 'gyro/engine hits take another session of repair'?
Or do you actually have something of a stock of sorts? So that players might not have certain weapon replacements, half-empty ammo bins or insufficient armor to patch the holes in their mechs.

This whole supply issue has been something of a nightmare in previous (small) campaigns I ran to be honest.

1) If you liked the not telling them until aftert you may like what I did my last campaign. I asked all the players to tell me which light inner sphere mech from 3067 or earlier they would like to pilot to start the campaign. When they showed up to play, there was a table set up with a bunch of mech to choose from...none of them being the ones they chose. The mechs they picked made of the opposing force for the first mission. If they really wanted that mech they were going to have to salvage it.

2) I've always played the "all your stuff short of major (engine gyro sensor) damage gets repaired by the next mission". I don't have the time to keep track of supplies and such. I'm trying something mew with this one keeping track of Clan Salvage. you can see the deatils in the latest post on the Blog. Pretty much lets players collect 5 parts to get a clan mech. meaning Salvage a Mad Cat Chassis, Engine, Gyro, Head and Weapon Loadout then they will get a Mad Cat added to their Mechbay.

3) I might throw a raid or surprise assault at the players base later in the campaign where they have all the damage from the prior mission. But I will keep it unscripted so I can throw it in right after a really successful mission by the players. But to be honest my players just want to roll dice and could care less about the details like that.