Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Archer was great for 3025 because of so much ammo. If you did the 2/1/2/1 kind of spread for your LRMs you could just dominate from a cliff top and still keep your heat kind of low, gaining an average of 3 per turn. Sooner or later I had to take a break for a turn, often at a very inopportune moment, because my opponents were smart like that. LRM 15s on the Catapult or Crusader were far more heat efficient for a constant barrage, and at the cost of 1 ton of armor, Crusader had just as much ammo and better short range capability. Besides that I always hated drawing the Crusader so I played it suicidally, so it always came out on top because nobody wanted to mess with it.

The ARC-2S was aslo a fun one
2x LRM-15 & 4 Tons of ammo and you only overheated when you move.

Now with the Infernos are Ammo rule those 2 SRM-4s are real fun. One Ton Standard Ammo and One Ton Infernos

The 2S is probably my favorite Mech (That and the Wolfhound).

Btw, I was talking about the Falcons beating the Wolves pre-invasion...I believe it was in Bloodname.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Clan vehicles are 95% gak. Total fething gak. They only way to really get their worth out of them is to play them aggressively. They might have kleenex for armor but they mount things like gauss rifles and large bore auto cannons like they're going out of style.

Tyyr wrote:Clan vehicles are 95% gak. Total fething gak. They only way to really get their worth out of them is to play them aggressively. They might have kleenex for armor but they mount things like gauss rifles and large bore auto cannons like they're going out of style.

That's why I love them. They are balls-out death machines. On a Clan battlefield they MIGHT survive a third turn of fire, but probably not. But boy can they do stupid kinds of damage to a less powerful Inner Sphere force.

And I will stand by the Morrigu as one of the best tanks of all time.

Can't argue with a cheap vehicle with a one-two punchout weapon, even if it dies shortly after you know it made its mark.

Rangerrob wrote:
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.

Not telling them untill afterwards, I like that.

Problem for me if I'd try the same with my gaming group though is that there is a great deal of variance in internet access for people. Some are almost wired into it, others can't check regularly (one is a teacher for instance) and a few have such restricted internet access that the management starts to frown when they want to use Google.
So I could probably predict in which order I would receive my answers.

It would probably have to be random grabs out of a hat or something for me.

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.

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.

Here a pair of my home made designs. I would take 3 Lukust and a single Fire Daemon against Heavy and Assault Lances all of the time and win more than half the time, at least until I started to run into 2 Gunneries. One of them and the Fire Daemon would load up with infernos.

Type/Model: Lukust LKS-2S
Mass: 25 tons
-Walking MP: 8
-Running MP: 12
-Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: 10 Single
(Heat Sink Loc: 1 HD, 1 RL)
Armor Factor: 80 pts Standard [5.00 tons]
Location: Internal [Armor/Rear]
-Head: 3 [9]
-Center Torso: 8 [10/3]
-L/R Side Torso: 6 [8/3]
-L/R Arm: 4 [7]
-L/R Leg: 6 [11/11]

Weapons and Equipment
-1x SRM 2 [RA]
-(Ammo Locations: 1 CT)
-1x SRM 2 [LA]
-1x Medium Laser [CT]

Type/Model: Fire Daemon CLT-S2
Mass: 40 tons
Armor Factor: 120 pts Standard 0 7.50
Location: Internal [Armor/Rear]
-Head: 3 [9]
-Center Torso: 12 [14/5]
-L/R Side Torso: 10 [14/4]
-L/R Arm: 6 [10]
-L/R Leg: 10 [18]

Weapons and Equipment
-1 Flamer [RA]
-1 Medium Laser [LA]
-1 Autocannon/2 [RT]
-(Ammo Locations: 1 RT)
-1 SRM 2 [LT]
-(Ammo Locations: 1 LT)

How on earth did you pull that off? 3 fast light mechs with SRM2s and center mounted ammo and only 80 armor, no jump jets, plus one 40 tonner with the laughable AC/2 and a flamer... versus a bunch of 80+ tonners???!!! What did you do, make them laugh themselves to death? I just don't see much damage output, make you got lucky with a lot of headshots or crit hits on ammo or something but I can't envision them taking on even ONE assault mech (well, charger doesn't count) let alone 4. What's your secret?

Guitardian wrote:How on earth did you pull that off? 3 fast light mechs with SRM2s and center mounted ammo and only 80 armor, no jump jets, plus one 40 tonner with the laughable AC/2 and a flamer... versus a bunch of 80+ tonners???!!! What did you do, make them laugh themselves to death? I just don't see much damage output, make you got lucky with a lot of headshots or crit hits on ammo or something but I can't envision them taking on even ONE assault mech (well, charger doesn't count) let alone 4. What's your secret?

1] Never stop Running
2] Find One and Isolate it, by getting it to chase you
3] Just keep them on fire
4] Always make sure at least one is behined hit
5] Never let the front ones get closer than 7 Hexes.
6] Don't count on the Quick Kill.

It's alot like African Wild Dogs taking down a Cape Bufflo, just keep nipping in the rear.

nicely done

Guitardian wrote:Can't argue with a cheap vehicle with a one-two punchout weapon, even if it dies shortly after you know it made its mark.

That's the problem though. BV wise they aren't cheap, at least not cheap like you'd expect a Vee to be. The BV calcs have never given defense a huge weight so all that tonnage they take from armor and put into guns sends their BV through the roof. In a clan setting they're not terribly good but against IS forces they can be brutal just because of the sheer volume of fire they can put down range.

BAWTRM wrote:

Rangerrob wrote:
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.

Not telling them untill afterwards, I like that.

Problem for me if I'd try the same with my gaming group though is that there is a great deal of variance in internet access for people. Some are almost wired into it, others can't check regularly (one is a teacher for instance) and a few have such restricted internet access that the management starts to frown when they want to use Google.
So I could probably predict in which order I would receive my answers.

It would probably have to be random grabs out of a hat or something for me.

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.

I created a type of "Supply Points" that boiled everything down to simple numbers for repairs and such. It should be mostly complete, covering most siuations if you are interested in it. Tweaking is fully allowed as well.

Rangerrob wrote: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.

Honestly I would hate that. I play to play things I like.

I like repairs coming only from stripped stuff in the dark ages of succession wars 3025. Armor points can be stripped, weapons that match your own, and so on. Structure would be easy enough to fix, Engines/Gyros/Sensors have to just be fixed (unless you can salvage a duplicate engine or whatever to install) which could take time between missions. Eventually you end up with some ramshackle snord-style mechs that have character, as the pilot gets better the mech gets more and more broken down and yet upgraded from time to time too. a bit of leeway could be considered (like putting a salvaged srm4 in place of a ruined srm6, or adding a regular ML in place of a ruined ER ML, or switching up arm cannons (like an AC5 from a clint can take up the same arm as a PPC on a vindicator or something) but thats kind of up to imagination.

Rangerrob wrote:
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.

Ok, that was just downright mean and funny! I'd probably add a little disclaimer to the original request saying that 'it wasn't entirely sure they'd get the mech but I'd look into it'.


I think your supply system looks very elegant and the lack of stress for the GM sure makes it attractive.

Unfortunately I always tend to go for the detailed solution in order to gain 'more realism'. So yes Mattlov, I would indeed be interested in the supply system you designed.

And just to illustrate my penchant for administration heavy campaigns: I once ran a Birthright campaign (AD&D 2nd Ed. 'be a king' kind of campaign for those unfamiliar with it) with 4 players. It took part in the main setting of that world iirc it was called 'Anuire'. Each player ran some kind of realm or hold and me, I ran all the others. Every country, guild, church, wizard domain etc. and ran them through their turns as well. I had a stack of paper (didn't have a computer back then) comparable in height to a pack of printer paper.

Mattlov wrote:

Tyyr wrote:Too bad you botched that part up and got both your Khan's killed.

That's OK. It let us get a couple of GOOD Khans instead.

We had at least one good khan before that. Elias Crichell was toted as a political and tactical genius, if a mediocre warrior. However Stackpole cant write intelligent fiction, he can only make his chosen heroes seem clever by making their adversaries act with transparent stupidity.

BAWTRM wrote:

Rangerrob wrote:
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.

Ok, that was just downright mean and funny! I'd probably add a little disclaimer to the original request saying that 'it wasn't entirely sure they'd get the mech but I'd look into it'.


I think your supply system looks very elegant and the lack of stress for the GM sure makes it attractive.

Unfortunately I always tend to go for the detailed solution in order to gain 'more realism'. So yes Mattlov, I would indeed be interested in the supply system you designed.

And just to illustrate my penchant for administration heavy campaigns: I once ran a Birthright campaign (AD&D 2nd Ed. 'be a king' kind of campaign for those unfamiliar with it) with 4 players. It took part in the main setting of that world iirc it was called 'Anuire'. Each player ran some kind of realm or hold and me, I ran all the others. Every country, guild, church, wizard domain etc. and ran them through their turns as well. I had a stack of paper (didn't have a computer back then) comparable in height to a pack of printer paper.

Birthright was HUGELY cool. We all also had stacks upon stacks of notebooks when we played that. I loved the idea of being a chaotic good ruler of a fiercely independant nation and arguing with all the lawful players all the time. We had 6 sometimes 7 guys playing and all co-ordinating a kingdom. I think that was the highest point of DnD creatively speaking.

Oh yes, it was a great setting. My friends bought up every new book/expansion/whatnot that came out for that game and gave it to me as gifts, just so that it might get used.

There was even talk about starting campaign in the 4 other realms of the continent as well.

But then I went to university and other people started to folllow studies in different cities as well, and it just wasn't very practical to play anymore.

I still have all that stuff though and I hope I'll be able to use it again in the future.