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.

It may be the 1/72 scale kit of the Macross mech (can't remember the name) which has recently been re-released.

Otherwise Mr Treesong may have hung on to his kit from the 80s. I used to have a load of 1/72 scale kits for Battletech and I sold them all off.

Part of the issue with the large model is scale of everything else. Even if you do find large models cheap enough, how much interaction is the large model going to have on the table? A few pieces of terrain dont take advantage of the model, as both sides will hole up.

If you also have an awesome set of terrain that can fill an entire 6x4 table, then yeah the large model is awesome. If you have scarce terrain then there is no point in having the mech that large, since big mechs need lots of big terrain to play with.

How integral to your vision is the huge model? A more abstract system could be done as a mech board game, which allows for cards, drones, infantry counters ect a lot easier than the large scale you have planned.

Then again, if you do have enough terrain to fill a 6x4 table sufficiently to allow 2 large mechs to interact with at least 50% of it, then I see why you like the big mech idea from an aesthetic point of view.

DevianID wrote:
Then again, if you do have enough terrain to fill a 6x4 table sufficiently to allow 2 large mechs to interact with at least 50% of it, then I see why you like the big mech idea from an aesthetic point of view.

If IIRC part of OPs vision was city fights. Would be pretty easy to spray paint things like cereal boxes, coffee cans, etc up as buildings if you needed to fill a table fast.

The way I look at futuristic combat, the various forces will almost always be fighting over a "valuable objective".....in my mind, that will rarely be an empty field. Ok, in key situations when that field contains a natural resoruce, maybe, you could imagine two forces fighting over it....but that's very specific.

So most battles would be fought around cities, research bases, military installations, etc.....

Regarding the scale. I'm kinda open on this. If people feel that 28mm scale is too big, we could do two things....1. Work the game in a smaller scale, 6mm maybe....the only problem with doing this, IMHO, you might as well play Battletech...

Option 2. We can downsize the expectation of how big a Mech should be in a 28mm scale setting. After all, theres no rule that says a Mech should be 12 stories high, etc...a "Large" Mech could be four times the size (in all dimensions) of a standard human, and big enough to contain a single pilot or two pilots at most....

At this stage, I would say the whole project is open.

I have someone working on the game engine! I'm working on the fluff, and collating the ideas we have generated as a group...so hopefully we should have something to show soon

Please keep the ideas coming.

Do you think you're angling for a "realistic" vision, where walking tanks have a reason for existing, or more like Battletech/Gundam where they're basically just walking fighter jets, existing because they're "cool"? The reason I ask is because James Cameron's _Avatar_ did a pretty good job with realistic "light" mechs. That setting was one of the only ones where the mechs presented made sense.

-It was an undeveloped area, so not many roads were blasted through some very rough terrain, making wheeled vehicles pretty impractical.

-There was very limited resupply, and the mechs could do double duty in non-combat functions (construction & logistics)

-They were lightly armored, so could be carried by transport helicopters.

Anyway, this could inform a more "realistic" setting, in a world on the outer edges of colonization, where mechs would be the preferred vehicle for work and warfare (often combined). This would serve to both limit the size (sentinel to dreadknight size) and the weapons. In a "realistic" setting, any military grade weapons are probably one-shot one-kill. If you're talking about militia-grade military surplus, using simple weapons maintained by non-experts, it serves to reduce ranges and damage to something less absurd on tabletop ranges.

I'm not certain what you're going for, but these are just a few thoughts.

I really like the idea of using the more unrealistic mechs, for a couple reasons. They're very unrealistic, sure, but there's a huge amount of inspiration to draw from, and I think more importantly, models to use for building.

As far as scale goes, I think 28mm or possibly 15mm would probably be best, but that's more for convenience than anything. Again I'm basing this off the idea of using things like gundam and macross models, but I think that a decent 40k cities of death board would provide a great amount of cover. Light mechs (sentinel, dreadnought, maybe AT-43 mechs) would be able to find a lot of hiding places and sneak around the city. Medium mechs (Most anime mech models, maybe even dreadknights, etc) could easily get cover behind the big buildings. Heavy mechs (small titans, etc) would be hard pressed to find too much cover except for the largest of buildings, and would be better off just blasting away and letting their armor take the hits. And that all sounds about right to me.

[quote=Delephont
We can downsize the expectation of how big a Mech should be in a 28mm scale setting. After all, theres no rule that says a Mech should be 12 stories high, etc...a "Large" Mech could be four times the size (in all dimensions) of a standard human, and big enough to contain a single pilot or two pilots at most....

Moment of madness here... would it be too cheesy to have a team of smaller robots that can fuse together to make one giant mech. I'm thinking (don't slam me down too hard) power rangers.

Just a thought, that'd have the potential of getting round the problem, and if we ever got to commissioning models to be made there'd be options for everyone.

I dont think I'm 100% behind it myself, just for how cheesy the PR reference is but just putting the old grey matter out there


Automatically Appended Next Post:
i could have probably explained the mental images better there, but i'm knackered to be honest. Wdyt - good or bad suggestion, no offence will be taken if you say what i think you'll say

I don't think any suggestion is a bad suggestion. I realise you've used Power Rangers to best explain a concept....not that you wish to have a wargame based on Power Rangers ....I hope.

To be really honest, if we talk about "commissioning" miniatures, we've just pushed the game project into the realms of ....never gonna happen. Nobody is (and rightfully so) willing to pony up the investment for sculptors and reproduction services to get models done....

I think we have more chance of getting something off the ground if we base the game around people being able to use their own sourced models, with "counts as" load out.

That said, it would be very restrictive to find models that lock together in the way you describe....that means that such a stipulation would present a barrier to entry for the game

We'll work something out.....we have the technology!

Delephont wrote:

I think we have more chance of getting something off the ground if we base the game around people being able to use their own sourced models, with "counts as" load out.

Not really much need for counts as wepaons. Part of the construction/creation system should be weapon design as well as mech design.

Take a look at the Shockforce/Warengine creation rules for some good inspiration. So far its my favorite 28mm 40k style game.

Heres is the troop and weapon builder rules for Warengine: http://warengine.darktortoise.com/index.php?title=Troop_Builder_v2.1

@ Mad4Minis

I had a look at your email suggestions. I think the idea is awesome, I'll get a more detailed repsonse out to you later!

Regarding the weapons, I guess if we all know going into this, that people will be using models from a variety of sources, it makes sense to build that into the rules in terms of weapons design (as you've mentioned above). I'll speak to "my" rules mechanic and see what he thinks, and how best he could bake that in......

I agree that rules for 'building' your weapons would work best in a game where you're using models from 8 kajillion different sources.

In rules sets like that, would it make sense to still break them into different basic categories? Could be as simple as projectile vs energy, and have them bypass armor/shields differently, draw from different random damage decks, or something of the sort. Or would that complicate things unnecessarily?

kitch102 wrote:Moment of madness here... would it be too cheesy to have a team of smaller robots that can fuse together to make one giant mech. I'm thinking (don't slam me down too hard) power rangers.

Or Voltron, or certain Transformers, or (i think) a few Gundam variants... Combiners are definitely a trope for the 'Super Robot' genre.

And, thus, completely in character if that's the kind of game you're making.

I'd say that it's a little bit too cheesy.

But in that vein, it wouldn't be too completely absurd to have battlesuited infantry able to 'attach' to the heavy mechs.

I like the idea of making your own weapons, and warengine has a very simple system of making them

Not a fan of the 'combiners' idea, just my personal opinion

For model size, I was thinking sentinels/landspeeders/piranhas/raiders would be light vehicles,
chimeras/hellhounds/basilisks/stormravens/valks would be medium
leman russes/hammerhead gunships/predators would be heavy
then Shadowswords/Scout titans would be super-heavy vehicles

battlesuited infantry drop ships anyone?
with Javelin Missile Systems...

Ok, so here are some thoughts regarding "army" composition:

Large Mechs: Normally heavy armoured / shielded units. 1 per army. Most likely to stand around 8 inches or more high. Up to two crew members.

Support Mechs: Acts as scout units, fire support, etc. Around 6 per army. Most likely to stand around up to 3 - 4 inches high. 1 Crew member.

Support Infantry: Power amoured / Mech suits. Based in squads of 10 troops. Human size, normally deployed by drop ship or APC.

Given the broad army unit types, if everyone thinks they can work, we can start to break them down into more detailed units, and we can start to consider their role in the game. For example, for the Support Infantry, we can look at rules for APC, drop ships, etc...we can look at different unit members, and also different grades of Support Infantry...maybe we have Special Forces Infantry units or Regular....for example.

We can do this for the Mech classes as well.

Delephont wrote:Ok, so here are some thoughts regarding "army" composition:

Large Mechs: Normally heavy armoured / shielded units. 1 per army. Most likely to stand around 8 inches or more high. Up to two crew members.

Support Mechs: Acts as scout units, fire support, etc. Around 6 per army. Most likely to stand around up to 3 - 4 inches high. 1 Crew member.

Support Infantry: Power amoured / Mech suits. Based in squads of 10 troops. Human size, normally deployed by drop ship or APC.

Given the broad army unit types, if everyone thinks they can work, we can start to break them down into more detailed units, and we can start to consider their role in the game. For example, for the Support Infantry, we can look at rules for APC, drop ships, etc...we can look at different unit members, and also different grades of Support Infantry...maybe we have Special Forces Infantry units or Regular....for example.

We can do this for the Mech classes as well.

I can go along with that. Maybe an option for a "blitzkreig" version that substitutes a large mech for the infantry. Basically a fast moving and hard hitting army, but with relatively poor objective holding ability.

Also, how about power army infantry in smaller squads, like SM terminators.

Delephont wrote:
I have someone working on the game engine!

That would be me then.

It's quite bizarre really, much of the content come wish lists in this thread are pretty much reflected in the game engine I had written a while ago for mech style combat.

I basically wanted a wargame that felt like the Mechwarrior PC games, I didn't want it getting bogged down in reams of paperwork and tables so the engine is fairly simple.

You can build your own mechs (at the moment I have 3 classes of mech, kinda light medium and heavy) and outfit them as you like the only restriction being the maximum tonnage of the mech, and the available location slots, so it's a balance between armour, firepower, systems and energy. The idea being that you can build some crazy mechs, but you wouldn't last too long if you did.

It includes a simple energy management system, and a damage repair system, ECM, blah blah blah. I had no ammo limits in mind, simply to stop the game bogging down recording such things

It was designed without a scale in mind (not strictly true, kinda 1/144 initially but not set in stone), but to be played on a 4' square table with typically 3 - 7 mechs a side (tonnage limits based).

The old fluff I had written was set in the Solar System in the mid future as mankind mines some kind of clean fusion energy source etc. etc. as it's so super valuable folks will fight over it etc.

The mechs were originally for mining / construction / paving the way for heavy machines that otherwise wouldn't be able to move around Mars etc. and as people decided to take rather than mine the energy source the mechs got tooled up to fight, this concept is reflected in the weapons types etc.

Factions were gonna be an Americas faction, European Union faction, Chinese / Asian faction, CIS faction and various Independance movements, you know the usual cliched stuff.

I think the fluff that the OP has in mind is VASTLY different to this, so I'll stop there.

HarryPotter.
Can you post a link to your rules outline?

So we can have a look see....please!

Not just yet I'm afraid, it's about 70% written down, 30% in my head so to speak, as in I can describe it all day long, but if I showed you what had been written thus far it'd make no sense whatsoever

In the immortal words of him.....

"Are you Ned Starks bastood son?"

What's the latest on this then dudes? I've taken a bit of a back seat in all things that aren't work related lately, have any more ideas come up that aren't listed on here?