Author Topic: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike  (Read 2971 times)

Death by Lasers

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MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« on: 16 May 2017, 18:28:33 »
  One of the things I love about the Mechwarrior games is how they translate Battletech into a real time first person experience.  By putting you in the cockpit they give a great idea what the *actual* tactics that mechwarriors would use. So with that in mind I was thinking it would be a cool idea to translate maneuvers seen in MWO (and other mechwarrior video games) into Alpha Strike.  So if anyone has any ideas for rules based on MWO maneuvers I would love to see them.

  Here are three I came up with on the fly:

Circle of Death
Description: A mech circles a target mech to make itself a difficult target.
Rules:  Declared during movement phase, costs 2" MP.  Choose a target mech to attack with the Circle of Death that is no more than 2" from the attacker.  Apply an additional TMM/2 (rounded up) to-hit penalty to all attacks made by the targeted against the mech executing the CoD maneuver.  All other attacks made against the players mech recieve -1 TMM bonus.

Pop-Tarting
Description: The mech jumps from behind full (vertical) cover exposing itself only for an instant to fire.
Rules:  Declared during the movement phase by a unit behind full vertical cover.  Costs jump MP equal to the height of the cover.  For line of sight purposes the pop-tarting mech is at a height equal to height of the full cover.  Gives an additional +3 TMM penalty to all shots fired through the full cover at the Pop-Tarting mech.  Shots not passing through the full cover receive a flat +1 modifier and ignore the units TMM.

Peek-a-Boo
Description:  The mech moves in and out of full cover (either vertical or horizontal) to fire and retreat.
Rules:  Declared during the movement phase by a mech behind full cover.  Costs 2" MP.  The mech declares a firing position up 1" of its current position.  All shots are made to and from this firing position for range and LOS purposes.  Any shots against the Peek-a-Booing mech passing through the full cover receive an additional +2 to-hit modifier.  This may be combined with the partial cover modifier if the firing position places the firing mech in partial cover.
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Scotty

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #1 on: 16 May 2017, 21:26:12 »
Pop-tarting is a disease that should die a painful death in MWO where it is at best unfun to play against and only slightly less unfun to use.
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Empyrus

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #2 on: 17 May 2017, 09:54:01 »
Pop-tarting is in no way realistic anyway because MWO jump mechanics are utter crap and very non-BT-like.
Proper BT 'Mechs rocket considerable distance very fast, doing a highly controlled "levitation" doesn't happen in BTU proper. (Perhaps 'Mechs are capable of that under controlled circumstances, but not in combat certainly.)

Also, there needs to be the group tactic "deathball" or "blob of death".

StingerTheRaven

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #3 on: 17 May 2017, 10:58:05 »
Realistically, all of these could only slow the game down by adding yet another mechanic to keep track of in a game filled to the brim with them, while seemingly doing little more than giving their user a free shot with next to no consequence from return fire (peekaboo and poptarting) or putting them in grave danger of incoming fire from somewhere else (circle of death).

Also, experience from Living Legends (which I consider far closer to CBT and AS) reveals to me that poptarting and circling don't quite have the effect shown here; jumping in place leaves you horribly vulnerable to return fire from the entire enemy team, giving you basically one good poptart before you must relocate lest you blow a leg or a side torso on the next jump, while circling arguably makes you easier to hit because they're in a relatively stationary position (right in front of you moving in a consistent, predictable way), all you have to do is compensate for lag and projectile velocity. Peekaboo maneuvering is there, but it's nowhere near fast enough to avoid most return fire aside from LRMs.

Finally, Battletech just has never really focused on these sorts of maneuvers emergent in Mechwarrior, simply because Battletech is actually very different from Mechwarrior; MW is real-time with pilots whose reaction time is measured in the milliseconds, plus the most (yet somehow simultaneously least) maneuverable and disturbingly laser-accurate (you basically have to try to miss a weapon shot) depictions of 'mechs barring MechAssault, while BT pilots have one plan for the next 10 seconds in 'mechs far slower (yet, similar to above, more graceful in movement) than MW ever had, plus ridiculously high to-hit numbers that usually START at 8.

Descronan

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #4 on: 18 May 2017, 07:12:30 »
Circle of Death
Description: A mech circles a target mech to make itself a difficult target.
Rules:  Declared during movement phase, costs 2" MP.  Choose a target mech to attack with the Circle of Death that is no more than 2" from the attacker.  Apply an additional TMM/2 (rounded up) to-hit penalty to all attacks made by the targeted against the mech executing the CoD maneuver.  All other attacks made against the players mech recieve -1 TMM bonus.

Pop-Tarting
Description: The mech jumps from behind full (vertical) cover exposing itself only for an instant to fire.
Rules:  Declared during the movement phase by a unit behind full vertical cover.  Costs jump MP equal to the height of the cover.  For line of sight purposes the pop-tarting mech is at a height equal to height of the full cover.  Gives an additional +3 TMM penalty to all shots fired through the full cover at the Pop-Tarting mech.  Shots not passing through the full cover receive a flat +1 modifier and ignore the units TMM.

Peek-a-Boo
Description:  The mech moves in and out of full cover (either vertical or horizontal) to fire and retreat.
Rules:  Declared during the movement phase by a mech behind full cover.  Costs 2" MP.  The mech declares a firing position up 1" of its current position.  All shots are made to and from this firing position for range and LOS purposes.  Any shots against the Peek-a-Booing mech passing through the full cover receive an additional +2 to-hit modifier.  This may be combined with the partial cover modifier if the firing position places the firing mech in partial cover.

I like the idea of these. Maybe it could be treated like a Special Pilot Ability?

Circle of Death - I would require that the COD unit be in base contact AND pay 2" of movement. IMO, this should only affect units that are 2 sizes larger than the attacker. So a light mech could gain the bonus if it attacks a size 3+ and a medium mech gets the bonus on size 4 mechs.

I feel like the other modifiers for pop-tarting and peek-a-boo are standard parts of the game. If you jump, you get a +1 modifier already.  If you're close to cover, you should get the partial cover bonus.

On partial cover, I'm trying to convince my group to use the hex base as the guideline for partial cover. If any part of the base is behind cover then you get the cover bonus for exactly the reason you listed.

Anyway, I like the idea.

ANS Kamas P81

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #5 on: 21 May 2017, 03:11:12 »
What about the tactic of sending a bunch of light fast 'mechs to go congregate near the enemy when Long Tom fire comes in, and kill the opfor by artillery fratricide? (I thought it was hilarious myself)
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Death by Lasers

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Re: MWO Tactics Translated to Alpha Strike
« Reply #6 on: 21 May 2017, 13:44:03 »
What about the tactic of sending a bunch of light fast 'mechs to go congregate near the enemy when Long Tom fire comes in, and kill the opfor by artillery fratricide? (I thought it was hilarious myself)

  Yes!  Their needs to be an entire section of tactics by TheB33F!
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

J.R.R Tolikien, The Two Towers