MekWars server in Civil War setting

[Clavius1]

Hello! I'm currently working at the new MekWars server (who does not know - this is a shell for MegaMek, allowing to organize global campaigns) in the setting of the Civil War of 3062-3067. I have been working for quite some time, but I hope to launch it somewhere by the end of autumn, at worst - by the end of year.
And I would like to know which of the factions I have chosen will be interesting to people, and in general whether this project will be interesting.
Feel free to ask any question!

[Apocal]

How long do you anticipate the campaign will last?

[Clavius1]

I'm sorry for long pause, have been in another country.

This will be long lasting campaign, there will be no specific win/lose conditions because of MekWars server nature, which, in most cases, prevent to achieve such a global goals. The whole point is metagame, which I'm trying to make diverse, but where anyone can find something - both simple lance vs lance skirmishes and more complex operation and features like raid or convoy operations and selection of specialisation of his own army by player.

If campaign cycle will have die out, there will be restart, with possible changes of any things that are not like by players or seems to unneccessary complicate gameplay.

[TigerShark]

Good luck!

[Clavius1]

OK, here we go again. :)

Work in full swing. I want to keep some attention, so will post here various things about upcoming server.
First of all, I want to tell that there will be such things like formations (those, who played on old Legends server know it as faction focus). To make it simplier, there will be basic formation - it will be called Standard or maybe Battle one (as so it called in the Campaign Operations book). I've borroved some ideas from everywhere, so one of formations characteristics will be access to the possible units. It does mean that, e.g. "assault" formation will have no access to Light and Medium mechs and vees factories (but player still can use such units, if acquired them from salvage or reward pool.
By the way, what is about units stock. Every faction will have wide range of units - 500+ models of mechs, tanks and infantry/BA. Sadly, no aero at start. There will be two way of acqiring units: buy one from factory or bay and buy one from reward tables. Start from the latter: this is very simple, after various operation player will be rewarded with RP points which can be spent on, say, "Federated Suns medium mech". As result, this player get random FS medium mech from 3062-3067 years (I mean, mech was introduced in this period). It's planned that reward units will take ~1/4 of all supply.
Lets look at the factories and bays. This is simple too: there are 3 types of factories - common, shared and unique. Common produce random mech from wide range - like, ones from faction salvage or foreign units, which, by fluff, can be acquired by faction only via trade. Shared produce few units of one manufacturer - like, Earthwerks Keystone factory may produce Phoenix Hawk 3M or Griffin 3M, as they both are medium mech produced by Earthwerks-FWL, but no Thunderbolt 7M (which may be picked up from another Earthwerks factory, though). Finally, unique will produce only one specific mech, but still can give you different variants - like very common Vindicator 3L with 70% probability or old 3R model with 25%, or cutting-edge 5L with only 5%. Most common are varians introduced in 3048-3060, about a 10-25% mechs/40-100% tanks (depends on unit model) are old variants (SW built) and rarest are brand new 3060-3062 variants. Remind you, 3062-3067 ones are in reward tables, so no drowning in 3025 tech. Factories will have a cooldown, because it's not very good if someone will fill his hanger with Gunslingers only. Bays - bays are almost same as factories, but if you never know what you'll get from common or shared factory, you will see, which units are in bays you want to buy from. And yes - 50% discount for all units from bays!
That's all for today, next time I'll tell something about Capellan Confederation (or more precisely, Trinity Alliance) and things that you will see in battle.

[Clavius1]

Another big pause. :)
What's new for today? This is Capellan Confederation (aka Trinity Alliance). Of course, I won't tell you history of CC in 50-60s, but better show, what they've got at this point in time.
Recent military technologies: Stealth Armor, Plasma Rifle, various Arrow IV ammo, various Thunder LRM ammo, also widespread use of Arrow IV, MASC and TSM.
Most common mechs:
Light: Raven RVN-3L, Spider SDR-7M, Wasp WSP-3M, UrbanMech UM-R63, Duan Gung D9-G9
Medium: Vindicator VND-3L, Blackjack BJ-3, Huron Warrior HUR-WO-R4L, Clint CLNT-2-3U, Snake SNK-1V
Heavy: Cataphract CTF-3L, Catapult CPLT-C5, Jinggau JN-G8A, Ti Ts'ang TSG-9H, Thunder THR-1L
Assault: Stalker STK-5M, Victor VTR-9D, Yu Huang Y-H9G, Atlas AS7-K, Longbow LGB-7V
Most common tanks: Pegasus, Ontos, Hetzer, Po, Schreck.
As you see, light and medium Capellan mechs tend to be light and slow machines, but with good firepower, and heavy - vice verse, expensive, but fast and dangerous.

With CC/TA I want to introduce first formation - Combined Arms. With introduction of battle armor and emerging of entirely new vehicles and upgraded versions of old tanks more and more commanders turn its attention to mixed lances and companies. Joint training of these units greatly increase their synergy and even allow them outmaneuver and outperform "classic" mech-only units.
Combined arms formation requires massive use of tanks (at least 50% of army, which grants +1 ini bonus) and infantry (at least one per lance, which grants further +1 ini bonus and allow take up to 2 per lance). Perfect choice for those who like to field something different and unusual.

[Clavius1]

Next one is Draconis Combine.
Its recent military technologies: Stealth BA armor, Sword (mech-sized, of course :)), C3 net, MRM launcher, Streak SRM4 and 6, various PPC tech, Omninech.
Most common mechs:
Light: Panther PNT-10K, Jenner JR7-K, Spider SDR-7M, Wasp WSP-3M, Kabuto KBO-7A
Medium: Phoenix Hawk PXH-3K, Griffin GRF-1DS, Wolverine WVR-7K, Komodo KIM-2, Wolf Trap (Tora) WFT-1
Heavy: Grand Dragon DRG-5K, Marauder MAD-5D, Daikyu DAI-01, Crusader CRD-4K, Catapult CPLT-K3
Assault: Charger CGR-3K, Hatamoto-Chi HTM-27T, Mauler MAL-1R, Victor VTR-9K, Atlas AS7-K
Most common tanks: Schreck, Manticore, Tokugawa, Pegasus, Maxim
DC has a lot of excellent light and medium machines, but many heavy designs are mediocre - they look more like overgrown medium mechs.

And this is perfect for next formation - Striker. Some "iconic" Kurita's tactic is sending swarms of light mechs wave after wave. Historically, it proved itself wrong (at least, as we know about it).
This formation allow to prove such tactic right: if at least 75% of all units have speed at least 5, the player may add +1 ini bonus, but if 75% of all units have speed at least 6 and no units slower than 5, then in addition to +1 ini bonus player can uncheck "front loaded initiative" option before battle. It allows to realize the potential of large quantity of small machines - instead of armor and firepower, you can overwhelm your opponent with numbers and moving.

[Clavius1]

Well, now we've got the biggest (someone also think - the best :)) - Federated Suns. It's really most time consuming factions, up to 50% bigger than says Trinity Alliance. That's why I've spent almost two months on it. Well, OK.

It's recent military technologies: LB-X and RAC Autocannons, Targeting Computer, X-Pulse Laser, Armor-Piercing and Precision AC ammo.
Most common mechs:
Light: Valkyrie VLK-QD, Javelin JVN-11D, Wasp WSP-1S, Fireball ALM-7D, Hornet HNT-171
Medium: Enforcer ENF-5D, Phoenix Hawk PXH-3D, Dervish DV-7D, Blackjack BJ-2, Centurion CN9-D5
Heavy: Cataphract CTF-3D, JagerMech JM7-D, Rifleman RFL-5D, Marauder MAD-5S, Penetrator PTR-4D
Assault: Victor VTR-9D, Nightstar NSR-9J, Longbow LGB-12C, Templar TLR1-O, Emperor EMP-6A
Most comman tanks: Ontos, Partisan, Vedette, Pegasus, Condor
Suns have pretty good balanced pool of mechs, I'd rather say they have many excellent designs as well as some mediocre in all weight classes, but their best machines - medium and heavy powerhouses, often pretty fast.

Formation, which I'll told about today, is Cavalry formation. This is formation, which gives not tactical, but strategic bonuses. First of all, there is no restriction of speed and weight classes of used units. Bonuses of this formation: player can manually set his and opponent deploy zones (any of eight or Edge or Center) and set up to 50% of army to arrive via Assault Drop anywhere on map, on 1 or 2 turn (but only units with 4 or better Piloting may be deployed such way).

[Clavius1]

Hello again! Today we have Free World League and one big change. Let's start with the FWL.

It's recent military technologies: Improved Stealth BA armor, Ultra Autocannons, Light Gauss rifle, ER lasers, Semi-guided and Swarm-I LRM ammo.
Most common mechs:
Light: Locust LCT-3M, Stinger STG-5M, Spider SDR-7M, Wasp WSP-3M, Hammer HMR-3M
Medium: Trebuchet TBT-7M, Wolverine WVR-7M, Hermes II HER-5S, Shadow Hawk SHD-5M, Phoenix Hawk PXH-3M
Heavy: Orion ON1-M, Marauder MAD-5M, Crusader CRD-5M, Thunderbolt TDR-7M, Warhammer WHM-7M
Assault: Stalker STK-5M, Awesome AWS-9M, BattleMaster BLR-3M, Sirocco SRC-5C, Goliath GOL-3M
Most common tanks: Ontos, Hetzer, Schreck, Partisan, Saracen.
FWL have a lot of very common and familiar machines, near all of most common mechs are updates of 50s, mostly good and fine updates. A small part of pool is made up of new FWL signature machines, like Hammer, Apollo or Sirocco.

And there is a news. After some thinking and conversations I decided to make formations concept somewhat simpler. Now, player have not to choose his formation focus as subfaction. E.g. I chose "Striker formation" and have no access to assault units, and at the same time can only conform (or not) rules for the Striker formation. Now every player's army can be built matching one (or more!) formation restriction. E.g. I've built an army, composed of 4 light mechs, 2 medium mechs, 1 light and 1 medium hovertanks, all of them have running/flanking speed of 8 or more, so I get "Striker" formation bonus. If I add 2 more tanks (with 8 or more flanking speed, of course) instead of 2 medium mechs, then I get "Combined arms" formation bonus in addition to "Striker", because I have an army with 50% of vehicles.
So, new formation rules:
0) Standard - may include any and all units in any combinations, but give no bonuses.
1) Striker - must include at least 50% light units, all units must have running/flanking speed at least 8, then player can add +1 ini bonus; if all units have running/flanking speed at least 9, then player in addition of ini bonus player can also switch off "Front-loaded initiative" option. Alternatively, instead of this player can choose deployment zones for any of own units.
2) Assault - must include at least 50% assault units, and no light units, then player can assign second commander in army. Moreover, player can add bonus +1 ini when playing on city/heavy woods map.
3) Combined arms - must include at least 50% any vehicles, then player can add +1 ini bonus.

Exception:
Urbanmech and Panther can be used in Assault armies.

Assault drop requirements: any unit with Piloting skill 4 or better can be deployed anywhere on map via Assault drop rule, on 1 or 2 turn. Only jump infantry may be deployed in such fashion.

Additional infantry/BA rules:
Inner Sphere: any infantry/BA is limited by 1 unit per lance.
Striker may only use mechanized/motorized/jump infantry/BA with at least 3 walk/jump MP, all other infantry/BA must be mounted in transports or on omni-units;
Assault may use any infantry/BA without restriction, moreover, when fighting in defense, player can use up to 2 infantry/BA units per lance;
Combined arms may use any infantry/BA without restriction, moreover player always can use up to 2 infantry/BA units per lance.
Clans: may use any quantity of BA, up to quantity of omnimechs in army.