Rules for 2017 GenCon events

[Punishermark]

Can someone post the rules for the 2017 GenCon events for Masters&Minions and Open Tournament?

I ask because the new BattleMECH manual is out.

[GreyWolfActual]

The rules for the tournaments have not changed this year from last year. The events can be found here.

[Punishermark]

There is nothing on the Masters. What Mechs can the Minions use? Clan? Advanced? TSEMP? 3150?

[GreyWolfActual]

Here is the event description that we submitted to GenCon. The rules system is Total Warfare so if it adheres to Total Warfare, you're good to go.

Clan: Yes.
Advanced: No.
TSEMP: No.
3150: No.

Game ID:NMN17106109
Gaming Group
/ Company: Catalyst Game Labs
Title:Battletech Masters & Minions
Short Description:Our premiere event! Come play with the creative forces that bring the whole Battletech universe to life!
Long Description:This is a great opportunity for fans of the Battletech Universe to actually play Battletech with the authors, artists, developers, and other movers and shakers who bring Battletech to life. 2 masters play together as a team against 4 players. Each master gets 2 mechs while each player brings 1 (we will print your record sheet on site, you can either bring your own mini or we will provide one). This creates a game of 4 mechs on 4 mechs which will be played on 2 hex boards. Players also have the opportunity to keep the minis of mechs of the masters that they kill. Players do not need to bring their own minis to the game (they can if they like, but the masters will not keep the player minis if the master kills the mech). This year master teams will be listed as competitive or casual so we can better match up the level of play desired by the players and masters.
Event Type:NMN - Non-Historical Miniatures
Game System:Battletech
Rules Edition:Total Warfare
Minimum
Number of Players: 1
Maximum
Number of Players: 40
Minimum Age:Teen (13+)
Experience Required:Some (You've played it a bit and understand the basics)
Materials Provided: Yes, materials are provided for this game. You do not need to bring your own.
Start Date & Time:Saturday at 8:00 PM
Duration: 4 hours
End Date & Time:Sunday at 12:00 AM
Location: ICC : Hall B : Catalyst : HQ
GM(s):Mary Kaempen
Web Address
for more information: bg.battletech.com/information/

[RoundTop]

Last year Jordan Weisman got pasted horribly last year.  He took Introductory tech against a lance of Nova Cats. He and Mitch died a horrible flaming death in the first couple turns.

In 2010 Randall killed me spectacularly with a Hellstar (4xcERPPCs with heat sinks to deal with it)

Remember, max your tech, and keep moving.  Don't use an IS medium or light, you will die very quickly. Go to IS Heavy or Clan Medium at minimum, clan heavy for optimum.

[GreyWolfActual]

Last year Jordan Weisman got pasted horribly last year.  He took Introductory tech against a lance of Nova Cats.

You won't (or at least shouldn't) see things like that this year. With the split into competitive or casual play, those sorts of matchups should be eliminated.

[sadlerbw]

Been meaning to dig up this thread and bring up a couple things:

I want to say that I was able to play in the M&M event at GenCon and had a great time. It was challenging, and even though we got fairly well beat by the Masters, it was still a really good game. However, there was some stuff that ended up confusing me just a bit:

- First, I really had no idea how the mech/skill balancing worked. I get that you don't want to publish every detail and have folks trying to min-max their choices too much, but a table or something of where the skill values started or something would have helped. It would have been nice to have some idea if I was setting myself up for a god-awful pilot or not. Maybe that isn't an easy thing to do, but having, literally, no idea what my mech choice might do to my pilot's skills was a little frustrating.

- Second, it isn't always the easiest thing in the world to figure out what equipment is in Total Warfare and what isn't. For weapons it isn't too bad, as there is a nice table in the back. For other stuff like Engines, Gyros, and Structure the Critical Hits section, of all places, has a decent list of equipment, but I don't know that it is complete. For Improved Jump Jets, I had to search the document, and it turned up exactly one reference to them in the Heat sub-section of the Jump Movement section. They aren't in the appendix or anything, so I doubt I would have found them without the PDF search feature! They are mentioned, so I assume they are legal, but it wasn't all that obvious. The point being, while Total Warfare may be convenient for setting the rules for the tournament, it isn't very friendly when trying to vet a unit to see if it is legal ahead of time. Is there anything we could use as a proxy on the MUL or on a units record sheet to figure out if a given unit would be legal or not? For instance the (Advanced) and (Experimental) tags on the tech base line of the recordsheet: Does a lack of either of those keywords mean a unit is legal under TW rules? If not, is it close enough you might be willing to use it? I don't really mind that some units are legal and some aren't. I'm just looking for a less involved way to tell the difference between the two. Even if you could say what process the Demo Team its self uses when vetting people's choices, that might help.

Thanks again, and I look forward to playing again next year.

[GreyWolfActual]

Does a lack of either of those keywords mean a unit is legal under TW rules?

That is correct. Additionally, Tech Manual only has the construction rules for Total Warfare legal equipment. Anything more Advanced or Experimental would be found in a subsequent rulebook, like Tactical Operations.

[nckestrel]

There are many units post-3080 that do not have advanced or experimental in the rules level, but have equipment not in TW/TM due to TR Prototpyes and later TRs changing the rules levels of equipment post 3080.

[GreyWolfActual]

He wasn't asking about the nebulous, dare say now useless, definition of "Tournament Legal." So as far as Total Warfare and Tech Manual goes, if it's not in there it's no burning.

Additionally, there were zero mechs who became "Tournamemt Legal" but were not prior to the publication of Prototypes. So for any unit published in-universe prior to 3090 the advanced/experimental rule remains valid. For anything after, well, thanks to that terrible advancement chart now we do have a more confusing mess to unnecessarily deal with now.

So salerbw, the best is to consult Total Warfare and Tech Manual. If the equipment isn't in there, it's no good.

[sadlerbw]

I didn't really expect the answer to be 100% simple...I have played this game before  ^-^

Still, if I can at least rule out any units that say 'advanced' or 'experimental' on their record sheets, that will help. I tend to love Dark Age units, so there is a whole lot I can ignore right off the bat if those keywords mean the unit is going to be verboten for sure. Now, if there are other units without those keywords on the record sheet that are STILL illegal...well, that sucks, but at least it is a, hopefully, smaller list. I did go look through TW as well, so I have a decent feel for what tech is going to be a problem. I may still screw up, but it is much less likely now!

I can't speak for anyone else, but I would be willing to throw out some potentially-OK units if it meant I got a very simple method to figure out if a unit was legal ahead of time. For me personally, having a tag that showed up on the MUL indicating if a unit was legal or not would be the ideal situation, but failing that, maybe a list of approved TRO's or Recordsheet products to pick from? For example, there are perfectly valid units in TRO:3145, but I would be willing to accept not using them if it meant the 'Allowed List' was defined as, "Units that exist in one of these recordsheet products: A, B, C."At the very least, maybe include a URL in the event description to a page with more detailed instructions. Just saying 'Total Warfare' as the game rule set wasn't the easiest thing to parse on my end. I know we are all there to have fun...but we also like winning, so we want to pick units that are good, given the rules of the event.

I don't know that this is a high priority problem, but I know at least one player at the table I was at ended up switching units because what he picked ended up with a hideously bad pilot (he had no idea it would be that way), and the mech he replaced it with...well, it doesn't meet the criteria mentioned in this thread so he probably shouldn't have picked that one either! Also, as I said, I tried to stay with 3050's-level tech (clan...but 3050's clan) to make extra sure I was OK, so I was limiting myself more than necessary because I wasn't sure what was legal. I think that I understnad what to look for now, but it might still be a nice idea to make it easier for other new folks in the future.