Author Topic: Mech combat in AToW  (Read 4940 times)

Halo_One

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Mech combat in AToW
« on: 31 January 2011, 13:31:20 »
It's going to happen in your game sooner or later, so why not talk about it.
Stuff like communications, ECM's, sensors, and heat? How do YOU handle mech combat in your game?
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Cannon_Fodder

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #1 on: 01 February 2011, 02:43:55 »
It's going to happen in your game sooner or later, so why not talk about it.
Stuff like communications, ECM's, sensors, and heat? How do YOU handle mech combat in your game?

Communication Equipment use Communications/Conventional
ECM, Beagle Active Probe and Sensors use Sensor Operations
Heat - Avoid  Shutdown use Computers or even Piloting/'Mech

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Halo_One

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #2 on: 01 February 2011, 13:13:52 »
Communication Equipment use Communications/Conventional
ECM, Beagle Active Probe and Sensors use Sensor Operations
Heat - Avoid  Shutdown use Computers or even Piloting/'Mech

OK. Not quite what I was hopping for, but I think that's my fault.
What I meant to ask is, what do you do for mech combat. Do you use Total Warfare, the Tactical Combat in AToW, or a mix of old stuff (like Solaris VII)? And what about house rules, double-blind rules, and the kitchen sink?
« Last Edit: 01 February 2011, 15:03:41 by Halo_One »
"The two most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

Yea verily, though I charge through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am driving a house-sized mass of "f**k you."

CitizenErased

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #3 on: 01 February 2011, 14:21:04 »
Last campaign I ran, I just had my players go by standard TW rules as far as turns, fire rate, movement, and so on, because I was feeling lazy and we were using a hexmap. However, I still had them using AToW rules for skill rolls. I feel like houseruling in double-blind bits would be appropriate - visual range is 60 hexes in clear weather, for example, but they'd have to roll Perception to actually see something moving at that distance - and requiring Sensor Ops rolls to detect hidden targets at certain ranges.
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Cannon_Fodder

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #4 on: 02 February 2011, 01:27:00 »
OK. Not quite what I was hopping for, but I think that's my fault.
What I meant to ask is, what do you do for mech combat. Do you use Total Warfare, the Tactical Combat in AToW, or a mix of old stuff (like Solaris VII)? And what about house rules, double-blind rules, and the kitchen sink?

Sorry. We are using AToW modified back to 2D10 similar to the Solaris 7 rules.

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GBL

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #5 on: 03 February 2011, 18:44:09 »
I once just got players to describe their mech actions as if they were a player, rolling gunnery skills on 2D10 and using the battletech sheets as an additional character sheet. We didnt have any pilot hits, but if we did i was just going to bust up the players with the stats for a baseball bat or something.

Flowed really well actually.

TheOldGuy

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #6 on: 03 February 2011, 19:36:45 »
I'd be curious to hear as well what people are doing.  I've played BT for a long time, but A Time of War is my first foray into a role playing game and as I am also the GM I'd appreciate hearing how people integrate AToW.  We've just been using Total Warfare rules for BT games (with Chaos Campaign scenarios) and my concern with AToW rules is that it bogs down the game, coupled with the fact that our "role playing" only really occurs within the BT games, ie. not much happens outside of scenarios so that character advancement would be minimal (although that could be compensated for).

Runeslinger

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Re: Mech combat in AToW
« Reply #7 on: 04 February 2011, 07:11:37 »
I am running a campaign by email at the moment, and the first mech combat ran with the Tactical Combat addendum. We used 5 second rounds, with heat and indirect fire being applied over two turns, on a hex map with a 15m scale.

We found it gave a lot of control over detail and options for action to the players, but as it is a PBeM, it dumped a lot of 'extra' calculation on me. The next combat will be run using Total Warfare rules, but character injuries will be resolved according to AToW. We preferred the level of detail in the Addendum, but for the sake of time, will use TW for all but the smallest and/or most important mech combats.

I have been posting records about the game on my blog, Casting Shadows, if you'd like to read the actual play reports, and the commentary about how things were implemented.
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