MECHS FIGHTING EACH OTHER – THE GAME
(based on miniatures from Battletech:Alpha Strike)

0. GAME OVERVIEW
MFEO is a game for 2 to 4 players in which players control squads of huge battle robots - mechs . Each turn power is generated in the form of Power Dice and these dice are allocated to different subsystems, allowing mechs to perform actions like traversing terrain, powering up shields or shooting each other. This comes at a cost, however. The more power is allocated, the more heat is generated and mechs risk overheating which puts them out of action for a few critical moments. Players need to manage the risks of overheating versus the efficiency of actions they want to perform in the game.


(to make the game less generic it may be a good idea to theme mechs in some way, for example as Victorian Era steam mechs. The rules with minor tweaks can be used to represent spaceship combat or even operations of special forces (for example replacing Heat by Combat Stress etc).)



COMPONENTS
To play MFEO you are going to need:
-this rulebook
-plenty of six-sided dice (D6) At least 6+ (6/every mech in the game)
-miniatures representing your mechs. The Alpha Strike box for the game Battletech is going to provide enough miniatures for 2 to 4 players.
-profile cards for your mechs (included here)
-a counter to put on the heat track (1/mech), you may also use an 8-sided die
-a counter to put on the damage track (1/mech) , you may also use a 12- or 20-sided die
-a 22”x30” playing area
-some terrain to put on the board
-measuring tape or measuring widgets
-any object to be your First Player Token












1. TURN SEQUENCE
The game is played over several turns. The number of turns may be determined by the scenario played. In case of some scenarios the game is played until one player meets the victory conditions.
Every turn players perform the same steps in order:

0.Start of Turn
1.Heat management
2.Generate Power Dice
3.Determine Initiative
4.Activate Mechs
5.Check Victory Conditions
6.End of Turn

0.Start of Turn
-Other effects that happen during the Start of Turn step.

1.Heat management
-All players check how much Heat each of their mechs have.
-If a mech has Heat at or above its maximum level it immediately suffers 2 points of damage, a Critical System Failure effect and then shuts down its reactor. Remove all Power Dice from this mech’s Reactor and Shields spaces. Remove half of this mech’s Heat, rounding up.
-Any mech MAY shut down its reactor. Remove all Power Dice from this mech’s Reactor and Shields spaces and put them in its Power Dice pool. Remove half of this mech’s Heat, rounding up.
-All mechs that didn’t shut down their reactors remove 2 Heat.

2.Generate Power Dice
-For every mech Players discard the Power Die from the Reactor space on this mech’s Profile Card and roll the number of Power Dice equal to the discarded die’s value. Then they put these Power Dice in this mech’s Power Dice pool space on its Profile Card.

3.Determine Initiative
-Starting from the First Player and continuing clockwise, every player allocates one Power Die, or declares not allocating a Power Die, to the Initiative space on the Profile Card of their every mech. Allocate Initiative to every mech of one player before continuing to the next player.

4.Activate Mechs
-Players activate their mechs, one at a time, in the order of the values of Power Dice allocated to Initative Spaces on these mechs Profile Cards, starting with the highest and counting down.
If there are more mechs with the same value of Initiative, players alternate activating these mechs, one at a time, starting with the First Player and continuing clockwise.

Example: Each player has two mechs. Ally, who is the First Player has mechs with Initiative 4 and 2, both Brett’s (2nd player) mechs have Initiative 3 and Carl’s (3rd player) mechs have Initiative 6 and 3.
Carl’s mech with Initiative 6 is activated first.
Than Ally’s mech with Initiative 4
Then Brett activates one of his mechs with Initative 3
Carl gets to activate his mech with Initative 3
Brett activates his other mech with Initative 3
Ally finishes the step by activating her mech with Initative 2

-Each time a mech is activated it uses its pool of Power Dice to perform actions as described in the next chapter: Power Dice. Not every Power Die has to be used, but at the end of a mech’s activation any remaining Power Dice in its pool are discarded.
During a mech’s activation Power Dice may be allocated to perform actions/processes in any order.
Players must finish an action before allocating Power Dice to perform another action (for example a mech can’t stop in the middle of a move, shoot and continue moving).
Every action can be performed only once, with the exception of Weapon action which can be performed once for each weapon.
-Once all mechs have activated, mechs that shut down their reactors in the Heat Management step of this turn are allocated a Power Die with the value of 2 to their reactors. This Power Die doesn’t come from their Power Dice pool (which is empty) but rather from the game’s general supply of dice.

5.Check Victory Conditions
- Players consult the victory conditions of the scenario they are playing. This will be specified in scenario descriptions.
-If one or more of the players satisfy the victory conditions of the scenario, the game ends.

6.End of Turn
-Player with the First Player Token passes it to the next player clockwise.
-Various effects may take place at the End of Turn step

















2. POWER DICE
Power Dice represent energy generated by mechs’ potent reactors and are the main resource that players need to manage in the game. Without Power Dice your mechs can’t do anything! Don’t forget to allocate a Power Die to your mechs’ Reactors every turn!
Power Dice are generated in the Generate Power Dice step of the turn. Every mech has its own separate pool of Power Dice.

Power Dice are allocated during Determine Initiative and Activate Mechs steps of every Turn. In some cases Power Dice are discarded immediately after allocation, but with Initiative, Reactor, and Shields they are placed on the appropriate spaces on the mech’s Profile Card. Every action/process, with the exception of Weapons can have only one Power Die allocated to it in a turn.

Every time a Power Die is allocated, if its value is 5 increase heat of the active mech by 1. If its value is 6, increase heat of the active mech by 2. Heat can never be increased above its max level in this way (but it may happen due to some other effects, for example being a target of incendiary weapons).

Players allocate Power Dice to following actions/processes:

1.Initiative
2.Reactor
3.Shields
4.Tactical Computer
5. Weapons
6.Movement

1.Initiative
This is the only instance a Power Die is allocated outside of a mech’s activation. In the Initiative step, starting from the First Player and moving clockwise, every player allocates Initiative to every one of their mechs. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool
-place it on the Initiative space on this mech’s Profile Card
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat

You may choose not to allocate a Power Die in this step. Initiative of a mech without a Power Die for this turn is 0.

2.Reactor
During a mech’s activation players plan how much energy this mech is going to generate next turn. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool
-place it on the Reactor space on this mech’s Profile Card
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat

3.Shields
During a mech’s activation players may power up this mech’s energy fields to increase its survivability until its next activation. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool
-place it on the Shields space on this mech’s Profile Card. You do not need to discard it until it is spent, but you may want to replace it with a Power Die with a higher value.
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat

4.Tactical Computer
During a mech’s activation players may manipulate the energy output of its reactor to optimize power distribution between its systems. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool and discard it
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat
-for every point on the discarded Power Die you may perform one of the following actions
* re-route – you may re-roll one Power Die from this mech’s Power Dice pool
* fuse – you may discard two Power Dice from this mech’s Power Dice pool and replace them with one Power Die with a value equal to the sum of their values to a maximum of 6 (surplus value is lost)
* split – you may discard one Power Die from this mech’s Power Dice pool and replace it with two Power Dice with the sum of their values equal to the value of the discarded Power Die

5.Weapons
During a mech’s activation players may power up its weapons for maximum damage. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool and discard it
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat
-perform an attack with a chosen weapon on the active mech’s Profile Card. For every point on the discarded Power Die you roll one Attack Die during this attack.

Usually a mech will have more than one weapon. You can allocate more Power Dice to use different Weapons during a mech’s activation, but every weapon can only have one Power Die allocated to it during one activation.

6. Movement
During a mech’s activation players may use energy from its reactor to reposition it on the board. To do this:
-take one Power Die from a mech’s Power Dice pool and discard it
-if the value of the Power Die is 5 or 6 increase heat
-for every point on the discarded Power Die this mech receives 1” of movement. If it is a Heavy Mech, it receives an additional 1” of movement. If it is a Light Mech, it receives an additional 3” of movement.
NOTE –Mechs don’t receive this extra movement if no Power Dice is allocated to their Movement.




3. MOVEMENT

When a mech is allocated a Power Die to its Movement it generates as many inches of movement as is the value of the allocated Power Die. A Light Mech generates 3 extra inches of movement while a Heavy Mech generates 1 extra inch..

A mech may spend any number of these inches of movement to move in any direction.

A mech may change its facing by pivoting on the spot freely at any point during its movement.

A mech cannot change its facing without using a Power Die for Movement. If you want your mech to change its facing you need to allocate a Power Die to its Movement, even if it doesn’t use any inches of movement and just pivots on the spot.

During movement bases of mechs (friendly or enemy) can never overlap at any time.

Terrain may affect movement and these effects are described in the TERRAIN section.




























4. ATTACKS AND DAMAGE

When a mech performs an Attack action by allocating a Power Die to one of its weapons, players perform following steps.

1.Choose a valid target
2.Create an Attack Dice pool
3.Roll Attack Dice and determine the number of hits
4.Activate Shields
5.Inflict Damage
6.Inflict Critical System Failure
7.Inflict other damage effects
8.Remove destroyed mechs

1.Choose a valid target
-A valid target for an attack is any mech belonging to the opposing player that is within the active mech’s Front Zone, within its Line Of Sight and within weapon’s Range.

Mechs in WFEO:TG have Front and Back Zones. This is determined by dividing the base of each mech in half, everything that is at least partly in the area to the front of a mech is in its Front Zone. Everything that is completely in the area to the back of the mech is in its Back Zone.

(Insert picture)

LOS between two mechs is determined by creating imaginary straight lines (Lines of Sight) running between their bases.

If there’s no such line that doesn’t cross the footprint of LOS-blocking terrain or a base of another mech, there is no Line Of Sight between these two mechs.

If there is at least one such line that doesn’t cross the footprint of LOS-blocking terrain or a base of another mech, but at the same time there is at least one line that does, there is Line Of Sight between these two mechs but the target mech is In Cover.

If all possible Lines of Sight don’t cross the footprint of LOS-blocking terrain or a base of another mech, there is Line Of Sight between these two mechs and the target mech is not In Cover.

(Insert pictures with 3 examples)

The target mech is in Range if it’s base is not farther from the active mech’s base than the number of inches listed under the used weapon’s RNG stat on the active mech’s Profile Card.

If a mech is not a valid target, the player controlling the active mech may choose another target or return the Power Dice allocated to this weapon to the Power Dice pool of the active mech.
Some weapons have minimum Range. An enemy mech which is at least partially within minimum Range of a weapon is not a valid target for an attack with this weapon.

If a target is within 3” of the attacking mech, this attack is made at Point Blank range. This has several consequences:
-the attacking mech has Advantage
-the target mech is never In Cover
-the target mech can’t use shields to protect itself from this attack


2.Create an Attack Dice pool

-The player who controls the active mech takes as many dice as was the value of the Power Die used allocated to the Weapons system for this attack. This is the Attack Dice pool for this attack.
-The Attack Dice pool may be modified by Advantage (adding an extra Attack Die to the pool) or Disadvantage (removing an Attack Die from the pool). A single Attack Dice pool may be modified by several Advantage and Disadvantage effect and these stack.

List of Advantages:
-the active mech is in the target mech’s Back Zone
-the target mech is within Point Blank range of the firing weapon
-the active mech is aiming (to aim discard a Power Die of any value from the active mech’s Power Dice pool. This mech can’t allocate a Power Die to Movement in this activation)
-the active mech is on an elevated position

List of Disadvantages
-the target mech is In Cover

Cover
A mech is In Cover if it is completely within the footprint of traversable terrain that grants Cover or if there exist Lines of Sight between it and the attacking mech that cross the footprint of terrain that blocks LOS or a base of another mech.


3.Roll Attack Dice and determine the number of hits
-The player who controls the active mech rolls all the dice in the Attack Dice pool. All dice with results of 3+ are considered to be Hits. Sum up the number of Hits.

4.Activate Shields
-If there’s a Power Die in the Shields space on the target mech’s Profile Card, the player who controls the target mech may choose to activate Shields. To do this this player rolls the number of dice equal to the value of the Power Die in the Shields space. Every results of 4+ cancels one Hit. Discard all cancelled Hits.
-The Power Die in the Shields space of the target mech is then turned to show a value that is lower by one for each successfully cancelled hits.

Example: Suzie’s mech was hit by an attack causing 5 hits. It has a Power Die with a value of 6 on the Shields space. Suzie activates its shields and rolls 6 dice, scoring 3 results of 4 or more. These cancel 3 hits. The mech is hit twice. Then the Power Die on the Shields space of the target mech is turned to show 3 (starting 6-3 cancelled hits).

5.Inflict Damage
- Every remaining Hit inflicts 1 point of Damage on the target mech. Note this by adjusting the Wounds counter.

6.Inflict Critical System Failure
-If the target mech suffered 4 or more points of Damage from this attack, it immediately suffers a Critical System Failure effect.
-To generate a Critical System Failure for the target mech draw a random Critical System Failure tile from the stack and place it on the affected mech’s Profile Card.

(these could be generated from a random table but I think, at the cost of creating an extra component, the entire process can be more tactile and engaging, not be a break in the flow of the game and also allow players to have a visual reminder of the ongoing effect on the Profile Card)

A Critical System Failure of Initiative, Reactor, Shields, Tactical Computer, Weapons or Movement means that from now on to allocate Power Dice to this system you need to allocate two Power Dice, generate Heat for both of them and immediately discard the one with the lower value.

A Critical System Failure of Cooling means this mech doesn’t decrease its Heat by 2 at the end of the Heat Management step of the turn. This mech may still decrease its Heat by other means (for example standing in water or turning off its reactor).

A Critical System Failure of Hull means this mech immediately suffers 2 more points of Damage. It has no ongoing effect.

7. Inflict other damage effects
-Any effects (for example weapon effects) that take place at the end of the Attack.

8.Remove destroyed mechs
-Mechs that have as many or more Damage points as their Max Damage are destroyed and removed from the game









5. TERRAIN

The board in MFEO:TG consists mostly of open ground. It doesn’t affect the game in any special way. Most of the time you want to make things more interesting by putting some terrain pieces on the board. These will always cover take up sme area, and this area is called terrain footprint. In terms of the game’s rules only the footprint affects gameplay, no matter how it is represented in 3D.

Terrain can affect two things:
1.movement
2.attacking

1.Movement can be affected by terrain in the following ways:
Traversable – mechs may enter the footprint of this terrain
Impassable – bases of mechs may not at any point overlap the footprint of this terrain
Difficult – if, at any point during its movement, a mech’s base overlaps the footprint of Difficult terrain, this mech loses 1” of its movement for this activation if it is Heavy and 2” of its movement for this activation if it is Light (heavier mechs being able to barge their way through more easily)

2.Attacking can be affected by terrain in the following ways:
Blocks LOS – LOS corridors can be blocked (fully or partially) when crossing the footprint of this terrain. Fully blocked LOS disallows the attack altogether while partially blocked LOS grants Cover to the target.
Grants Cover – a mech with its base fully within the footprint of this terrain is In Cover

Examples of terrain:
Forest or ruined cityscape – Traversable, Difficult, Grants Cover, Blocks LOS from one side to the other side of its footprint, but not to mechs partially or fully within its footprint
Burning forest or ruined cityscape – as above. In addition, if a mech is partially or fully within this terrain’s footprint at any time during its activation, it gains 2 Heat (only once per activation)
Large building or rock formation – Impassable, Blocks LOS
Lake or river - Traversable, Difficult, Grants Cover. In addition, if a mech is fully within this terrain’s footprint during the Manage Heat step of the turn, at the end of this step it decreases its Heat by an additional 2.
Elevated position, for example a hill – Traversable, Blocks LOS from one side to the other side of its footprint, but not to mechs partially or fully within its footprint. A mech with its base fully within the footprint of this terrain gains Advantage on its attacks against targets that do not have bases fully within the footprint of elevated position terrain.








6. SET UP AND SCENARIOS

To prepare a game of MFEO:TG players perform the following steps:
1.Set up the board
2.Choose scenario – these are listed at the end of this section
3.Choose mechs – players decide how many and which mechs they would like to use. Both players should control the same number of each class of mechs (Heavy and Light)
as the time limits for this contest do not allow for extensive playtesting, it is advisable for all players to have identical mechs. With more time and manpower for playtests it should be possible to balance the types of mechs offering different playstyles to leave the choice of individual mechs to players.
4.Prepare models and accessories like appropriate Profile Cards, dice, rulers, Critical Failure tiles etc.
5. Set up terrain – players alternate placing terrain elements on the board until they are happy with the result. There should be enough terrain on the board to make finding LOS for long range shooting difficult but not so much that mechs would find it almost impossible to move around without being slowed down. About 1/3 to ½ coverage of the board should be ok.
6. Set up scenario elements – in most cases these are going to be scenario objectives.
7.Randomly determine the First Player and give them the First Player token
8.Place a Power Die with the value of 4 in the Reactor space on the Profile Card of every mech
9.Deploy mechs – described later in this section
10. Start playing!


Deploying mechs.

Mechs usually enter combat by being dropped from orbit. The entire formation arrives to the battlefield at the same time, immediately getting into action. Unless a scenario specifies otherwise, use the following method to deploy your mechs on the board.

-Starting from the First Player and continuing clockwise, every player chooses a drop point anywhere on the board by placing one of their mechs there. The chosen drop point must be within 3” of any board edge and more than 12” from any other drop point.
-Starting from the First Player and continuing clockwise, every player deploys one of their mechs within 3” of their mech deployed in the drop point, until all mechs of all players are deployed.

Placing and controlling objectives.

Objectives are flat markers placed on the board. They do not affect movement or LOS in any way. Mechs may stand on objectives. All distances to and from objectives are measured to and from the centre of the markers.

When placing objectives players must follow these rules:
-objectives can’t be placed closer than 3” to any board edge
-objectives must be placed more than 6” from other objectives
-objectives can be placed partially under Impassable terrain, but their centre can’t be covered by the footprint of such terrain

Mechs control an objective if they are within 2”of that objective and there are no enemy mechs within 2” of that objective.

Scenarios

WIPEOUT
This is the suggested scenario when you are learning the rules of the game.
No objectives, no special rules. The player with the last mech standing is the winner.

DOMINATION
In the Set Up Scenario elements, starting with the player to the right of the First Player and continuing counter-clockwise (so in the reversed order of the turn), players place 5 objectives on the board, one at a time.
In the Check Victory Conditions step of every turn every player marks objectives controlled by their mechs as Secured by that player. Objectives stay Secured by a player until they become Secured by mechs of another player.

After that every player gets one Victory Point per their Secured objective.

If, after that, one player has at least 3 more Victory Points than any other player, they win the game, or, after 4 turns the player with the most Victory Points wins the game.

FIELD REPAIRS
In the Set Up Scenario elements, starting with the First Player and continuing clockwise, players place X objectives on the board, one at a time, where X is the number of players. These are Field Repair Stations.

In the Check Victory Conditions step of every turn, if mechs of a player control a Field Repair Station, each of their mechs within 2” of that Field Repair Station removes 2 Damage points.

The player with the last mech standing is the winner.


SUPPLY DROP
The game’s Set Up and victory conditions are identical to the Domination scenario. There are following changes:
Objectives do not become Secured in this scenario.

At the end of the Check Victory Conditions step of every turn, every controlled objective is removed from the board. Then the same number of objectives is placed on the board, following normal rules, with an additional limitation that no objective can be placed closer than 6” to any mech controlled by the player placing the objective. If it is impossible to place some objectives because of that, they are not placed.


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