BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => Alpha Strike => Topic started by: psionics313 on 07 October 2017, 22:36:55
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I've noticed on some of the alpha strike cards provided by MUL, a certain range bracket (usually long) sometimes reads as zero damage with an asterisk next to it. Can anyone clarify what this means? I'd provide a certain variant for evidence but I can't recall which ones exactly have them. Do these mechs have certain specials that effect the damage?
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It means the unit does a minimal amount of damage. So, a unit with a 0* may do some damage or it may not. If an attack is successful, roll 1d6, on a result of 4-6, the attack will deal 1 point of damage. Obviously on a roll of 1-3, the attack hit, but did not do significant damage to cause an effect.
This is often used to represent attacks like that of an LRM 5, it could do 5 points of damage (1 damage in AS) or 1 point of damage (0 damage in AS).
See page 38 in the 2nd edition AS rules for full rule details.
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Yes, it means that the weapons at that range have a variable damage amount which might not be enough to make a point consistently. More notable a single lrm5 will cause this.
For this, you roll after hitting to see if it does a damage. I can't remember what the target is, but I think it is 4+ on a d6.
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Minimal damage rule. pg 18 Alpha Strike Companion.
If an attack does 0* damage. On a hit, roll 1D6. On a 4+ 1 damage is applied. Other terms and conditions may apply.
Dang Ninja's posting firster :P
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Here is the specific wording from the rule book on page 38. Some additional distinction to be made toward the bottom on other effects noted:
Minimal Damage: Some units in Alpha Strike deliver damage
on a scale so low that their attacks can potentially have no effect.
This typically occurs with lightly armed units, such as ProtoMechs,
which typically rely on numbers to make up for their limited
firepower. Units that fall into this category will feature a damage
value of “0*” (zero, with an asterisk) at the appropriate range
bracket. This value indicates that the unit can deliver minimal
damage at that range, rather than no damage at all.
Every time a unit executes a successful attack at a range bracket
with 0* damage, its controlling player must make a 1D6 roll. If the
result is 4 or higher, the attack delivers a single point of standard
damage. Otherwise, the attack still hits, but delivers no damage.
Successful minimal damage attacks that fail to deliver any actual
damage may not resolve any Critical Hit or Motive Hit checks,
but will prompt hull breach checks if they occur in underwater
or vacuum environments. In the case of special rules that modify
a unit’s damage and require rounding, minimal damage attacks
always round down to 0.
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One of my playing group members borrowed my rule books so I can edumacate himself on the inner workings of the game while I build terrain. Couldn't get ahold of him to look it up for me, but you guys came through. Thanks guys!
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Post goes up, 10 minutes later, 3 different people respond all within the same minute with the answer. Heh.
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because of the way the game rounds damage, before the 0* rule you had some designs that literally did no damage. they now have the ability to do some damage.. but not reliably. which makes those designs a bit more useful in actual play, increasing the odds of them being used in actual play.
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Standard damage was always round up before, so a one-shot SRM-2 Gabe you 1 damage at short and medium. (Actual canon example was one of the submarines).
Trivia: Herb came up with 0* to shut up those of us objecting to giving 1 damage to individual protomechs when he wanted to stop them being a Star to a single unit. We then applied it universally to all unit types.
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Standard damage was always round up before, so a one-shot SRM-2 Gabe you 1 damage at short and medium. (Actual canon example was one of the submarines).
Trivia: Herb came up with 0* to shut up those of us objecting to giving 1 damage to individual protomechs when he wanted to stop them being a Star to a single unit. We then applied it universally to all unit types.
Plus, it gave some degree of potential use for things like infantry. But yeah, I wanted Protos to be able to separate, since that's how they're usually played in the main game.
- Herb
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Also tends to help with Units like the Blackjack ... which doesn't normally do enough, at long range, to significantly add to a battle..... except when it gets lucky, and does............
Nahuris
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Going from 1 to 0* doesn’t help the Blackjack..
Adding 0* did give a lot of units IF0* that didn’t have IF at all before.
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So I was thinking about this after game last night. If a unit that has IF or LRM benefits from from Narc, does the damage go from an example of IF0* to IF1 or roll for the effects of IF 0 with a damaging roll then producing either 0 or 2 damamge?
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So I was thinking about this after game last night. If a unit that has IF or LRM benefits from from Narc, does the damage go from an example of IF0* to IF1 or roll for the effects of IF 0 with a damaging roll then producing either 0 or 2 damamge?
It'd actually be 1 or 2 damage. Let me see if I can link the relevant ruling here for ya..
EDIT: Here (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=47823.msg1106467) it is.
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That makes for some interesting times. Thanks for the heads up. Doesn't make much sense, but should make for a decent experiment at some point.