BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => Ground Combat => Topic started by: Dahmin_Toran on 18 February 2020, 01:12:08
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When a Mech is destroyed when it's Center Torso is completely destroyed (not by Ammo Explosion, Artillery, or Area Effect weapons), does the Mechwarrior automatically take a Point of Damage when the mech crashes to a heap on the ground like a shutdown mech?
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If they don't eject, they'd definitely take at least 1 point of damage from that kind of fall.
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Yeah, I am going to agree with MLO4H- at least one point of damage and I would say its 50-50 on if they are going to need special equipment to get open the cockpit to release the pilot.
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I play it that any time you'd normally make a PSR to prevent pilot damage but can't make the roll, you take damage as if you'd failed the roll
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Yeah, that would be intuitive based on what happens when the mech's engine is shut down.
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By definition, a mech that has lost its center torso has lost its gyro, and at least one leg. Therefore, you make a piloting skill roll, adding the relevant modifiers for that damage. If you fail, you take a point. If you by some miracle succeed, you managed to ride it down safely, and are free to wander around a high-energy battlefield in your 80s short shorts. Good luck.
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Unless you're riding in a 'Mech with a center torso cockpit, then things might be a bit messier.
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That's sort of your fault for riding in a torso-mounted cockpit to begin with.
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Never saw the value to a torso mounted cockpit . I like to field hovertanks with machine gun arrays /4. Normally have them attack a torso w ammo shooting for the 2 or 12 hit . Even in an Assault mech the torso is hit 6x or more than the head
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Yeah, I am going to agree with MLO4H- at least one point of damage and I would say its 50-50 on if they are going to need special equipment to get open the cockpit to release the pilot.
I'd assume that there's a hatch which is normally easy to access, but MIGHT be blocked if the 'Mech landed on that side or otherwise impeded the opening of the hatch. More like a 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 chance that it's not usable, but still a potential problem. Then there's the 'Mech that gets its torso breached while underwater.... You're just fine until the air runs out. Does the hatch open inward or outward; in the latter case it might be difficult pushing it open against a couple of tons of water pressure (only a few pounds per square inch, but multiplied by the size of the hatch).
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The armor of the head & hatch can be warped by the damage that did in the mech, or just the 8-14 meter fall as the whole thing looses structural integrity. And remember, because it seals for protection and environmental protection the hatch will not have a lot of leeway for warping. When the mech starts to come apart, you never know if something is going to land next to the head to bury the hatch in a few tons of wrecked structure and armor.
Not to mention, the whole head could fall as the mech comes apart to the point the hatch is on the bottom pressed against the ground.
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Wouldn't you automatically eject in that situation? Unless your mech lacked an ejection system, which I know some do.
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It could be disabled . . . if I had CASE on a SFE or Clan XL, or CASE II, I would be disabling the auto-eject. Additionally, if you want to get fluff . . . its not going to work all the time or work right all the time either- too much systems or critical damage.
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Don't the skin-of-teeth ejection rules cover that scenario regardless of automatic ejection being disabled for ammo explosions?