Your ideal game of Battletech

[StoneRhino]

Everyone has different things that they want out of the game. Some prefer small games, others want a large game. Others prefer a coop game where people only control a single mech while someone GMs, an rpg without the rpg stats, others want to just play an rpg with no maps and minis.

While I have run and or played most of those styles of game, I'm into BT as a competitive game. Some people take that word as the most vile word in the dictionary, it scares them to death. Typical games have been 1 off scenarios or to the death matches. Some have hated the results of a scenario from one of the scenario packs and didn't want to progress to the second scenario although they had mentioned several times that they wanted to play it.

I would like to play from the Interstellar Ops level down to a company sized game of Battletech. Not just playing out an invasion scenario from the point that the ships jump into system, but a game that is long term where production and deployment decisions come into play. I assume that such a game would take a significant amount of time.

 I think it would be fun to give it a shot, but I have not found anyone that would be willing to try such a game of that scale. Those I have known have an unwillingness to even make a force that they can have on hand in case people find free time so they don't need to spend time making a force that day. Ignoring some nonsense, this suggests that they simply would not be a willing participant in such a game.

Going back to standard scale Battletech, I would like to see more infantry and vehicles being used. One thing about MWDA that I liked about, I never got around to playing it, was that the boxes came with more vehicles and infantry then mechs, IIRC.  Unfortunately, most of the scenario books of the past focused on purely mech based fights. There are few instances where that would make sense.

The last game that I played was a lance on lance game from the First Strike pack. It was nice to play a game, but it was nothing like our old games. I prefer larger games with a mixture of units,myself.

[Daryk]

I roughed out a scenario track for my planetary militia, but it needs some more work.

[MadCapellan]

Story-driven company-to-battalion scale clashes between faction approprate Inner Sphere units as paet of an ongoing campaign or narrative. Combined arms & TacOps rules are highly encouraged.

[Major Headcase]

My favorite  Battletech  is small unit, 1-4 Lances, story driven campaign  play. I love the character aspect of the world and reflect that in my games. We tend to stick to mechs for the "future knight" aspect that drew me to Btech in the 80s, but in later era we do add BA and vehicles as support forces and/or opposition forces.
   I like the look and excitement  of huge battles but have never liked large games with the standard rules, and Battleforce never interested  me at all. Alpha Strike has been a big boon in getting to play larger battles, and I've had great team games with 40-60 mechs per side in the last few years.  :D
   But I still love "struggling Joe mechwarrior" stories and games best.

[Kovax]

In my opinion, the diversity from game to game is the ideal.  One can run the relatively quick "lance on lance" isolated battle on 2 or 4 mapsheets, or put a full combined arms force on the table for an extended campaign.  One can even run a single unit and treat it as a RPG.  BattleTech has the depth and width to handle all of that (some parts of it handled better than others), for whatever size and intensity of combat and force management you want in your game or campaign.

As has been said: "There's a rule for that."

[Sartris]

Something designed to wrap up in three to for hours

[Elmoth]

My fav games are RPG-driven. Quite a few times we do not even use maps for it, since they are narrative running engagements. Or we go on an off between the table for breif firefights and hide and seek sessions roleplayed as such.
Best games are around 3-4 hours long, with friends and pretzels, and include alpha strike (our favourite BT flavour), banter and roleplaying. Integrated in a RPG campaign

[VensersRevenge]

My ideal game would be a long-running campaign that allows the players to grow into roles of power and influence as the game goes on. Starting with a lance or a company and expanding into a powerful group in the universe if the cards are played right.

But I would settle for just a game at this point.

[Foxx Ital]

Battle armor vs waves of battlemechs untill they give up in fear   >:D

[Tai Dai Cultist]

200 ton lances: no customs, no LosTech.  And you get slapped if you ask if you can play Clan tech.

[epic]

Long running campaign games, sandbox style.  Players start as lance commanders and eventually work up to company, battalion and regimental command.  I prefer running a merc unit, so that the players have the option(s) to work for and against different adversaries. 

I tend to use some of IO and strategic level, and then work my way down so that the players can have their battles on Alpha Strike and CBT level. 

CBT preference is given to combined arms, with battles tending to be reinforced companies.  Alpha Strike, will usually do battalion level or reinforced battalion battles.   

[Weirdo]

A pickup game, no background campaign. Both sides have a combined-arms company or two, balanced by BV. By combined arms, I mean real imagination, not just a mostly mech force with some tanks and maybe BA thrown in. Both sides have mission objectives, ones that don't explicitly revolve around killing enemy units. Shooting's gonna happen anyway, but I'd prefer that there's a purpose behind everything that makes players think outside the box.

[Tangoforone]

I have been tossing a few ideas around in my head for a planetary invasion campaign that I need to put down on paper.  It would be a bit where one force would establish a base of operations, while the other would be defending the planet.  Different engagements would be based on unit movements and where they interacted with each other.  The cool thing, at least in my mind, is that there is no guarantee that the battles would be equal.  If I were to deploy an assault company and they ran across a scout lance, tough shit for the scout lance.  They can try to run away, but it could be a potential for the assault lance to get some damage in.  Units could return to the bases to get repaired, and ammo trucks could be deployed to resupply.  I wouldn't bother with having to resupply the bases from off planet for ammo or armor to simplify the game.

In a standard game, I prefer 20,000 BV so as to provide enough points for combined arms, and to have an optional or additional objective other than kill the enemy.  Usually we can end the game in 3-5 hours.

[SteveRestless]

Long-running large-scale campaign games that eschew hardcore accountanttech bookkeeping and genericize some of the bullet and bolt tracking in favor of more opportunities to, as a friend put it "go pew pew and smash mechs together"

This manifests as everything from one on one mech duels and star-to-trinary scale fights (or lance-to-company) to full on combined-arms Galaxy(/Regiment) scale clashes.

[StoneRhino]

200 ton lances: no customs, no LosTech.  And you get slapped if you ask if you can play Clan tech.

We used to have 400 tons per player, in teams of 2. We had customs, clan tech, along with gear from MaxTech and Tactical Handbook. Clan LAMs were a thing for a bit, as were 200 ton superheavy tanks. In no way was it balanced beyond 400 tons, but I recently calculated the average of one player's BV2 total and it was higher then the clan players average. 2 of us were normally I.S. while the other 2 were typically clan.

I wouldn't want to do that again at this point though.

[StoneRhino]

I have been tossing a few ideas around in my head for a planetary invasion campaign that I need to put down on paper.  It would be a bit where one force would establish a base of operations, while the other would be defending the planet.  Different engagements would be based on unit movements and where they interacted with each other.  The cool thing, at least in my mind, is that there is no guarantee that the battles would be equal.  If I were to deploy an assault company and they ran across a scout lance, tough shit for the scout lance.  They can try to run away, but it could be a potential for the assault lance to get some damage in.  Units could return to the bases to get repaired, and ammo trucks could be deployed to resupply.  I wouldn't bother with having to resupply the bases from off planet for ammo or armor to simplify the game.

In a standard game, I prefer 20,000 BV so as to provide enough points for combined arms, and to have an optional or additional objective other than kill the enemy.  Usually we can end the game in 3-5 hours.

The first part sounds a lot like what i saw in Campaign Operations. I read through some of it once, but I don't recall seeing anything about what happens when a scout lance runs into a force that it doesn't want to mess with. If a fight breaks out, is there a minimum or maximum number of turns that forces need to stay on the mapsheet? Clearly a light lance is not going to want to engage with a heavy company unless they can stay out of range and call in artillery or fighters with bombs. If so then the company is going to want to find a way to break away from the lights. How is that determined?


As for the 20k BV games that you mentioned, back in the days our games, by our i mean myself and a few friends, used to finish games in 3-5 hours. That included time to snack and talk about random nonsense and make jokes. There was never a rush. Fast forward yearrrss later and people lose their damn minds at the thought of 10k bv games and manage to drag things out over 2-3 4-6 hour sessions. As i just mentioned in another response, i calculated the BV of the old games which were regulated at the time by tonnage. The BV scores were anywhere from 15-28k per player. Theres definitely a skill difference and serious dragging of feet by some of those I have gamed with in recent years, but its good to see that others are not freaked out by larger amounts of BV.

[Mecha-Anchovy]

My preference is large-scale, long-term RPG campaigns, generally rules-light, and typically focused more on character drama and feudal and interstellar politics.

Perhaps ironically, this means that my ideal BattleTech game doesn't really feature BattleMechs at all. They exist in the background sometimes, on those rare occasions the army shows up, but they are mostly ornamental - and when war happens, characters are talking regiments and jumpships, not individual mechs.

Think weddings and murders and betrayals and conspiracies and invasions, rather than robots shooting each other. This was always a big part of the BattleTech setting and plot, after all. If I read, say, the Clan Invasion storyline, half of it is battles and mechs and lasers, but the other half is a Davion prince falling in love with a Kurita heiress, or Victor deciding whether to try to deceive Thomas about Joshua, or Waterly trying to conclude a secret alliance with the Clans to take over the Inner Sphere, or Takashi swallowing his pride to hand over command to his son or to accept help from his old arch-enemy Hanse, or Sun-Tzu trying to get a read on and manipulate the other heirs at Outreach, or everything that went into the Second Star League on Whitting, and so on.

The "pew pew lasers" fans get all their stuff, and they can have games with little to no politics. At the same time, I get to have games with little or no mechs, but with a lot of soap opera drama. In space. With life or death consequences.

Which is what I'm all about. :)

[Robroy]

My old group did long RPG campaigns using the TT game for the Mech fights. To keep things quick after we got to regimental strength we focused on a company for play and used those results and some dice rolls to determine what happened to the rest of the regiment off map.

Now if only all these guys posting about similar long RPG campaigns where in my area.

[Apocal]

On the table? Lance on lance, maybe augmented lances, mechs-only.

Playing through MM, probably augmented lances or double lances, with supporting vees, BA, artillery, etc.

[Lorcan Nagle]

My ideal game of BattleTech is one where everyone has fun, and every other item is optional.

[Sharpnel]

My ideal game is a mix of RPG and Tabletop with 4-6 players plus the GameMaster. I came into gaming via RPGs and I still enjoy that element of gaming.

[Tangoforone]

Clearly a light lance is not going to want to engage with a heavy company unless they can stay out of range and call in artillery or fighters with bombs. If so then the company is going to want to find a way to break away from the lights. How is that determined?

Theres definitely a skill difference and serious dragging of feet by some of those I have gamed with in recent years, but its good to see that others are not freaked out by larger amounts of BV.

In regards to the light lance engaging heavies, my thoughts would be that it would be up to each player to include artillery or aerospace into their forces.  If I were in the position of, say, the planetary defense, I would have a Long Tom as well as mobile artillery (sniper artillery pieces or naga as an example).  I would say Aerospace can be deployed and their arrival would depend where you are on the overall map.  Artillery could be called in, but there may be multiple battles in the day (obviously you may not complete each one in the same IRL day, so it may take a few sessions to go through an in-game days battles), so you would have to make that decision before all the combat started where your artillery fire may be used.  I like the idea of having the forces maybe need to stay on the map for a certain number of turns, that way you can still get punished for poor movement on the overall 'strategic' map.

And as for the 20,000 BV; I enjoy the bigger fights.  Two stars of clan units easily costs 20,000 BV.  I like WOB and using the Manei Domini implants, so that can make a 1,000 BV unit into 2,000 or 3,000 BV.  And it gives the Inner Sphere an opportunity to bring almost a full company depending on what forces they have. 

It is just a matter of moving units quickly, and using every trick in the book for speeding up the small stuff; I have charts of everything generic that are quickly accessible and easy to read, I have all my units numbered so if I have duplicates they are easily discernible. I track heat and weapons fire very effectively, and, if I know the to-hit is going to be very high, I don't even bother calculating unless the actual roll is an 8 or higher, as I am an aggressive player and believe in the philosophy that it is better to shoot your weapons and try to get that lucky hit instead of being nervous or reserved.  Once I am in range and have visual you can bet I am going to shoot at you. 

[StoneRhino]

My ideal game of BattleTech is one where everyone has fun, and every other item is optional.

But how would you go about setting up such within the context of your personal preferences?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

A brutal, vicious lance-on-lance fight where the winning side is the one with mechs that can leave the field under their own power.

[Lorcan Nagle]

But how would you go about setting up such within the context of your personal preferences?

Send around an email to my friends and ask what everyone wants to do next time.

[StoneRhino]

In regards to the light lance engaging heavies, my thoughts would be that it would be up to each player to include artillery or aerospace into their forces.  If I were in the position of, say, the planetary defense, I would have a Long Tom as well as mobile artillery (sniper artillery pieces or naga as an example).  I would say Aerospace can be deployed and their arrival would depend where you are on the overall map.  Artillery could be called in, but there may be multiple battles in the day (obviously you may not complete each one in the same IRL day, so it may take a few sessions to go through an in-game days battles), so you would have to make that decision before all the combat started where your artillery fire may be used.  I like the idea of having the forces maybe need to stay on the map for a certain number of turns, that way you can still get punished for poor movement on the overall 'strategic' map.

And as for the 20,000 BV; I enjoy the bigger fights.  Two stars of clan units easily costs 20,000 BV.  I like WOB and using the Manei Domini implants, so that can make a 1,000 BV unit into 2,000 or 3,000 BV.  And it gives the Inner Sphere an opportunity to bring almost a full company depending on what forces they have. 

It is just a matter of moving units quickly, and using every trick in the book for speeding up the small stuff; I have charts of everything generic that are quickly accessible and easy to read, I have all my units numbered so if I have duplicates they are easily discernible. I track heat and weapons fire very effectively, and, if I know the to-hit is going to be very high, I don't even bother calculating unless the actual roll is an 8 or higher, as I am an aggressive player and believe in the philosophy that it is better to shoot your weapons and try to get that lucky hit instead of being nervous or reserved.  Once I am in range and have visual you can bet I am going to shoot at you.

 ;D You wouldn't happen to be in California would you? I could use more people like you in my group. My view is that you can bring as many units as you want so long as you are capable of controlling them efficiently. That means knowing your limits which is based upon skill and experience. Some people have horrible planning, either execution or objectives, but can make decisions at a fair pace.  Its also a difference in mentality. There are those that are scared to death to make a move, some that want to spend an hour covering all of the possibilities...of this current turn before moving, those that can accept making a mistake. You can't find out if your moves in turn 1 mean anything during turn 6 if you never get to that point because you burned up the group's time trying to perfectly execute moves of zero value during the 1st turn. However, if you make moves that seem to have a decent chance of not getting you killed during turns 1-5 you can hit turn 6 and see how things worked out, go home, think about it, then come up with possible changes to yield better results next game.

knowing what weapons you are willing to pop off at anything that moves does help speed things up. You said that you play aggressively and take shots that have a low chance of hitting. I try to know what weapons each unit has that I'm willing to do that with. ER LLs that when fired won't build up heat that will carry over into turns that will be within their effective range? 12 or less to hit? Sure, why not. Having an idea if you are within range and at the 12 or under TN number speeds things up. Sometimes I'll pass to help speed things up, but others tend to wait until the point that they need to declare fire to even see if they even have a chance to fire.

One thing that I do is start breaking my record sheets into piles of units that can fire, versus those that cannot fire. Then by which units are firing at what targets. If you also have a good idea of what target you want to shoot at with which units, you can start calculating those to hit numbers as the other player(s) are still moving the rest of their force. The only downside to that is if it to noticeable other players might freak out and change their moves since they see that one unit is already a target meaning it is a bad spot to be in so they try to cut their losses.

[Tangoforone]

;D You wouldn't happen to be in California would you?

knowing what weapons you are willing to pop off at anything that moves does help speed things up. You said that you play aggressively and take shots that have a low chance of hitting. I try to know what weapons each unit has that I'm willing to do that with.

One thing that I do is start breaking my record sheets into piles of units that can fire, versus those that cannot fire. Then by which units are firing at what targets.

Alas, I am in the frozen hell-scape of Wisconsin  :))

I agree with the movement.  I like to play aggressive (and still have fun, definitely not aggressive to the players), so the longest I will take for moving is maybe 30 seconds or so; this also has the added benefit that the opponent might be thrown off by strange or non-optimized movements.  I'm not afraid to lose armor, and I know the general odds of getting those lucky hits, so I am willing to take the risk, even in a campaign. And besides, most learn better when they fail; I learned two weeks ago how dangerous it is to allow enemies in the backs of hovercraft.  The darn thing went from a 10/15 to a 5/7 (I believe) after one round of fire to its rear due to the ease of motive hits coming from the back.  Now I know for the future.

That is a good idea.  I am playing on Saturday, so I think I will try pre-organizing weapons a bit differently; grouping them into weapons that can fire at certain ranges while building either no heat or minimal heat is very clever.

I like the idea of breaking the record sheets into what is firing and what isn't.  Not sure if I would have room for the second part of that though.  My group is of the chess mindset for movement; once it is placed rarely can you take it back (we go a bit easier on new players, but try to enforce the rule), so I wouldn't be too worried about them taking back movements.  I use pencils, and mark down the to-hits next to weapons that are firing, then erase for the next turn. 

[Bison AIs]

Got soft spots for:

2v2, 120 tons IS, 1 stock mech randomly selected, other picked, city fight. Though city rules are super crunchy, i love the multi-dimensionally buildings provide and the variable amount of risk you can opt to accept in how you move and place yourself.

Original Solaris VII rules, Factory , 4+ person free-for all, one stock oldtech mech/player, randomly selected with P/G in proportion to weight class (assault 4/5...light 1/2).

[Colt Ward]

My ideal game of BattleTech is one where everyone has fun, and every other item is optional.

My wife still talks about killing my mech that night.

[Lorcan Nagle]

My wife still talks about killing my mech that night.

The two of you smack talking each other was hilarious