I'm doing a campaign where the Clans have experienced heavier than expected opposition during Revival. Sufficient that when they break for the election of a new Ilkhan after the death of Leo Showers, the Diamond Sharks are being activated to assist the Ghost Bears.
This then means that there IS no Reserve Clan once the Invasion re-commences.
Thus, the remaining 10 Clans press for a new chance to become a Reserve Clan (and thereby possibly an Invading Clan).
I'm looking for ideas and/or feedback about how such a Trial would take place and be organized. Note: I'm going with the idea that
1. The Cloud Cobra Khans again attempt to refuse to go into such a Trial. However, they lose a Trial of Refusal from several prominent Crusader members and are thereby forced into the Trial. The Khans sabotage the bidding a bit, making the Cloud Cobras a serious underdog (they'll have less BV than almost any other Clan entering).
2. The Star Adders again - seeing that there would be an odd number - enter as an "op for" for the others, to make sure that everyone going is of best quality. They also use it as a sort of impromptu Trial of Refusal, stating that if (somehow) they win, NO further Reserves will be issued.
The original Trials basically only had 3 rounds, as per the Turning Points book (which I have now read extensively for some prep). With only 10 Clans, of which 1 is kinda/sorta Refusing and another is barely in only due to their rank and file successfully Refusing their Khans, is 3 rounds again realistic? Or would there be time - in the background of the election - to have more fights?
Also, approximately what size should said fights be? I was figuring approx Trinary in size. That's also manageable for play, happily.
How would such a ... tournament? score? The Turning points book seems to indicate that it would require 2 losses for elimination. However, with 10 Clans competing, I wonder if it would be either single elimination, or still double, or maybe a tally of overall wins/losses, or even a tally of victory points/conditions.
The mini-campaign for this will be on megamek mostly, and I mostly have fairly keen/available players (still short 1 or 2), so the player participation is not an issue. But from a meta-perspective, I do have to look at the possibility that a consistently losing player could just throw in the towel, so TOO many games is probably unwise.
I'm also trying to figure a way to balance this while allowing for some of the Clan eccentricities and variety to occur. Specifically, using Omnis (and allowing reconfigs) but also allowing some of the Clans to use vees (Hell's Horses, maybe Blood Spirit) or aero (Cobras, Snow Ravens). One rule already would be aeros wouldn't get bombs (as it impacts BV after the fact).
BV was the main way I was thinking, but if the players then can reconfig between battles, it means that some cheese could occur. PV via the mul and the BASE model of the omni was another thought.
Thoughts, suggestions, feedback?