King of the Hill
Sunday, February 6th at Game Depot
Mission Synopsis: As part of the unit competitions on Solaris VII, groups of mercenaries will compete to be the first to the top of a small mountain, holding it against all comers.
Time: We are scheduled to start at 12:30pm; “last round†will be called four hours after the start of the game. You'll miss the kickoff for the Super Bowl, but should be home in time for the second quarter.
Unit selection: Miniatures & record sheets for pre-made forces will be provided, but players are encouraged to bring their own forces, created in accordance with the rules below. ‘Mechs only – no vehicles, infantry, aerospace, etc.
• Your force will consist of two or more non-identical ‘mechs weighing in total no more than 120 tons. All ‘mechs must be Inner Sphere tournament-legal “book†designs (no customs or modified ‘mechs – it must have been published in a record sheet compilation, either in print or PDF).
• All units will have a Gunnery skill of 3 and a Piloting skill of 4.
• Bringing assembled miniatures that exactly match your units will give each unit one point of Edge that may be used to re-roll one roll directly affecting said unit once during the battle.
Terrain and setup description: The mountain will be created from BattleHex terrain on one 4’x6’ map sheet (2†hexes). There will be at least one cliff face of three levels high, which will have to be climbed or jumped up. It will be possible to reach the top with a jump of only 3, but there may be a shorter route requiring a jump of 4 or more. The top will be a small plateau, three hexes in area. ‘Mechs will set up in one of twelve marked starting areas that will be evenly spread along the edges of the map. Placement will be in random order.
Victory Conditions: When a ‘mech ends a round on the summit, its owner scores one point in the round the ‘mech reached the summit, two points for the second consecutive round on the summit, three for the third, and so on. The first round a ‘mech or ‘mechs ends a round on the summit, a bonus point will be awarded to those ‘mechs. In the event of a tie at the end of the game, the first tiebreak will be being on the summit in that round, the second will be size of said ‘mech, the third will be number of ‘mechs on the summit, and the fourth will be how close any remaining ‘mechs owned by the same player are to the summit.
Special Rules: We will be using the rules in Total Warfare, with the following modifications:
• There is no “edge of the world.†If a ‘mech is up against a map edge, the three hexes that would be surrounding the ‘mech off the board are now legal hexes for movement. If a ‘mech moves into any of those hexes, it opens up all of its surrounding hexes, and so on. This is to prevent ‘mechs from placing their back to an invisible “wall†to protect it.
• Modified initiative: Index cards bearing the players’ names will be dealt out at the start of each round. Movement will be in order. Move half of your ‘mechs, rounded down. (If you have two or three, move one. Four or five, move two. Six, move three.) The order will then be stepped through in reverse, with everyone moving his or her remaining ‘mechs.
• In the event a Death From Above attack fails, the attacker will be displaced into a random empty hex, rather than the defender.
• No teams. If you are good friends with another player (and for some reason you don’t want to blow them to bits), please try to set up opposite them if possible.
• Note that despite the use of three-dimensional terrain, the level two LOS rules will be used. Just because it doesn’t look like you can see another ‘mech doesn’t mean that’s the case – the terrain is still a bit of an abstract representation. Remember: adjacent hexes always have line-of-sight – even if one hex is eight levels higher!
