Event ID 210603 -- Friday 10am to 4pm (6 hours) -- There will be prizes for all, but perhaps not as cool as last year. Description: The fog of war can be nerve wracking. Two teams of four, each with their own table and GM, same 3D city, same time. Who has the skill and intuition to lead their team to victory in this urban battle? Where the frak is the enemy now, over? New Mech line-ups this year - 300 tons per side. The enemy Mechs (cardboard stand-ups) are way cooler. The city a little rougher for the wear. The scenario is the same as last year, which means its all fluff text and a "pretty" picture - ignore it - KILL THE ENEMY!!! Mission Briefing - released in advance to not favor those that played last year. Here are this year's advance handouts. Rule Summary Battletech Tables Weapon Chart We intend to keep the energy levels up more this year. Overly slow players will be penalized. Yes, mistakes could be made - that is the nature of war! Pay attention, think ahead, do what-if planning. A turn in Battletech represents 10 seconds. We will give people 30 seconds before a mild penalty is imposed and an additional 30 seconds before reducing movement to 0 over the the 60-90 second period. This rule will be applied at our sole whimsy and discretion - some additional leeway will be given to a player that generally decides and acts quickly; the penalties will come quicker for a player that consistently delays the game. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen...errr Mech! Extra Rules and GM administration info - Subject to change at any time ----------- The thread for the 2011 (GC3) event is here: http://www.garycon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=580&start=0
Items that players may want to bring: Clipboard d6s - distinguishable pairs works best (different sizes, colors, etc.) pen / pencil
Some general Battletech resources I've designed: Mech action and affect tracking sheet: Log Sheet (pdf) Firing Arc and Damage Arc grids, in both PNG (graphic format) and PDF. Front & Rear (pdf) Left & Right (pdf) Front & Rear (png) Left & Right (png) low res sample:
A special thanks to Iron Wind Metals (http://ironwindmetals.com/store/index.php?cPath=16_21) who provided Battletech leads for all the participants again this year. This year each player had the chance to get a: Battletech lead mini House (team) button Battletech poster glorious victory Obviously not every player received each and every of the above, but that's just how it goes. With heavier Mechs this year a lot of damage was being distributed. I've never seen so many falls! Not even close. Some of the Mechwarriors must have been hung-over (if not drunk), 'cuz I've never seen so many missed Pilot Skill Checks. The carnage was impressive - one Mech took an amazing amount of damage, causing House Kurita to scream "Why won't he die...? !" and put a bounty out for the live capture of the pilot and recovery of his (suspected) 24" rabbit's foot. I've seen a tougher Mech - once, but still impressive and hilarious. At the other end of the spectrum one Mech's post war repairs probably consisted of a trip to Maaco to touch up some scratched paint from the one and only hit it took: a PPC hit to the center torso late in the game. Plus the virtually untouched Mech was credited with the most kills. This year's line-up: Kurita: Cyclops CP-10-Z, Awesome AWS-8R, Warhammer WHM-6D, Dragon DRG-1C (300 tons, BV2: 5,464) - VICTOR Steiner: Banshee BNC-3E, Zues ZUE-6S, Thunderbolt TDR-5S, Ostol OTL-4F (300 tons, BV2: 5,395 [99% of Kurita's], slight speed and melee advantage)
Plans for the future: Each year so far getting 8 players has been problematic, so next year I may drop it down to 6 players, which should speed up the game and keep it more exciting for each player. I'm tempted to run two versions, one with heavy Mechs like this year and another with lighter jumping Mechs, which could make things pretty interesting. For that I'd have to decide if roof tops are off limits or if I need to find a way to reinforce the buildings. I'm also pondering regular games (non-double-blind), possibly even a tournament. A possible Tournament design would be to choose a tonnage and year, then players can choose any Mech they want up to that tonnage and up to that year's technology. Something like triple elimination would help reward strategy over luck, but might be too time consuming (play-testing will help settle that). Something like randomly chosen environments (temperature and gravity) for each battle might help keep things interesting, but also kicks a little more luck back into the mix. Tournaments would likely be BYoM - I suppose cardboard stand-ups would be acceptable too to not unnecessarily limit participation. An expansion of the idea would be a Stock Tournament (official variants only) and a custom Mech tournament where custom designs would be allowed. I've started collaborating with MakerOfThings on a trophy in case I proceed with this idea.
Excellent event yet again Totan. I really enjoyed myself, even though my virtuous Steiner lance was defeated by those no good snakes. Kidding aside, the Kurita boys played an excellent game and have my congratulations. Our Thunderbolt was the darndest thing though, hey? I've never seen a 'Mech take that much damage and still remain functional. Amazing. I like the ideas you're mulling over and look forward to your events next year. Thanks.
BTW - did someone leave a paperboard clipboard (probably) at the Steiner table? I don't remember packing it up at the Con (so maybe the co-GM did or it fell into the box?), but it sure was there when I unpacked.
