Author Topic: Battle Armor Primer  (Read 2747 times)

Colt Ward

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Battle Armor Primer
« on: 12 November 2019, 13:42:51 »
If you were teaching a player who had so far only done mech vs mech, what sort of information would you convey in a BA primer?  To keep the BA simple, I would say limit it to pre/early-Jihad models.
Colt Ward
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Crimson Dawn

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #1 on: 12 November 2019, 14:10:44 »
Personally I think it would be good to make sure you show off the situations where BA shines and also where it is bad so the player can get a feel of not just how they work but what they are good for or how to combat them.

Same vein I think the mechs in the game should be a combo of designs that are bad and excellent against BA so he can see that certain weapons work better against them than others.

Weirdo

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #2 on: 12 November 2019, 14:13:01 »
I'd stick solely with standard Elementals to start. Start with how they take damage, then how they move. If they comment on the low speed, explain the gist of the mechanized infantry rules, while also pointing out the high speed of most Clan Omnis. Tell them about the guns, first what each suit carries, then explain that they fire as a squad, so they shouldn't think of a suit with a Small Laser and SRM-2, it's actually a Point with an SL-5 and an SRM-10. Explain leg asks and swarm attacks, going through an example of each to show what damage suits can do at pointblank range.

If you have access to the old Battle of Twycross scenario book, The Terrible Toads is an excellent scenario for introducing an inexperienced player to Elementals.
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Tangoforone

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #3 on: 12 November 2019, 18:38:33 »
Probably a point of elementals and a medium omni VS a single heavier medium or low weight heavy omni. Create and provide a cheat sheet for the elementals and go over all of their rules prior to the start of the game. Use a single mapsheet, probably one of the new grasslands sheets. I find that less is more when teaching stuff.

Greatclub

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #4 on: 12 November 2019, 19:57:48 »

Apocal

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #5 on: 14 November 2019, 09:09:58 »
If you were teaching a player who had so far only done mech vs mech, what sort of information would you convey in a BA primer?  To keep the BA simple, I would say limit it to pre/early-Jihad models.

1. What BA can do in broad terms as part of a combined-arms force on the table.
2. The best situations and tasks for employing BA.
3. The worst places for BA to be and worst things for them to do.
4. Common BA types and their differences.
5. A short, small-scale vignette-style scenario.

Church14

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #6 on: 15 November 2019, 13:35:20 »
If you were teaching a player who had so far only done mech vs mech, what sort of information would you convey in a BA primer?  To keep the BA simple, I would say limit it to pre/early-Jihad models.

1) Attacks with BA. Cluster rolls and physical attacks, etc.
2) Good/Bad terrain for BA
3) Methods to convey BA to the middle of the map and/or target locations
4) How to maximize damage to BA
5) BA and objective play compared to BA in death matches.

Minemech

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #7 on: 06 February 2020, 23:14:27 »
I'd stick solely with standard Elementals to start. Start with how they take damage, then how they move. If they comment on the low speed, explain the gist of the mechanized infantry rules, while also pointing out the high speed of most Clan Omnis. Tell them about the guns, first what each suit carries, then explain that they fire as a squad, so they shouldn't think of a suit with a Small Laser and SRM-2, it's actually a Point with an SL-5 and an SRM-10. Explain leg asks and swarm attacks, going through an example of each to show what damage suits can do at pointblank range.

If you have access to the old Battle of Twycross scenario book, The Terrible Toads is an excellent scenario for introducing an inexperienced player to Elementals.
I agree.

Retry

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #8 on: 07 February 2020, 14:55:13 »
Don't show them any suits touting APGRs.  Once they get a taste of those, they won't take anything without one ever again...

Daryk

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #9 on: 07 February 2020, 17:23:11 »
The danger of AOE weapons...

Colt Ward

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #10 on: 07 February 2020, 17:57:44 »
One thing that drove things home to me in a fight once was a single map sheet- I selected what I thought was a very powerful mech to challenge the Bears . . . they sent the equivalent BV of a Clan veteran warrior piloted Thunderhawk at me.  Sure I killed a few points since each Gauss hit killed a Elemental, but I got swarmed under by something like a binary or more of Elementals.  Bad bidding on my part, it would have been better using some sort of system like the Tukayyid bidding which assigns a point value outside of BV.

But it was a excellent bid from the Bear player.
Colt Ward
Clan Invasion Backer #149, Leviathans #104

"We come in peace, please ignore the bloodstains."

"Greetings, Mechwarrior. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Daoshen and the Capellan armada."

Daryk

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #11 on: 07 February 2020, 17:59:16 »
Yeah, if you'd had a Sniper Artillery Cannon instead of a Gauss, that would have been one POINT per shot vice one suit...

Shin Ji

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Re: Battle Armor Primer
« Reply #12 on: 07 February 2020, 20:20:19 »
A Long Tom Cannon will not only wipe out the ones in the hex you hit, it'll strip the armor of any of them in the surrounding hexes! Of course, for 20 tons and 20 heat, you can do a lot better for Area Effect stuff. I like Arrow IV, though admittedly it has problems when they get too close!