A Collection of Time-Saving Hints for Battletech

[iamfanboy]

Okay, seriously, why is there not a thread stickied with all of the various time-saving hints and tips that Battletech players have come up with?

I mean, yeah, straight BT isn't much my game any more, but there SHOULD be a list of all the tricks that vets use at their tables to make sure games go smoothly and fast.

I'll note the ones I remember now, and if anyone else has any jump in and I'll edit the first post to include them. Only one of these is mine, but credit matters less than just having them listed for all to see.

USE DICE TO MARK MOVEMENT
Place a die behind a unit after it has moved, with the number indicating just what to-hit modifier it attained during movement. Use three different colors of dice that mark whether the unit walked, ran, or jumped so the player also knows what modifier to apply for that unit's shooting.

USE PAPERCLIPS TO MARK HEAT
Place a paperclip on the unit's record sheet to mark heat, moving it up and down as appropriate for the unit's current heat level. Harder, but still possible, with old-style record sheets.

ROLL FOR HIT AND LOCATION SIMULTANEOUSLY
Roll 4d6 when making an attack, using two pairs of colored dice; one color is always used for the to hit roll, and the other always used for the location.

CREATE A DICE BOX FOR CLUSTER LOCATION HITS
Find a small, compartmented tackle box or craft box made of clear plastic and put a pair of dice in each compartment. Whenever a bunch of cluster location rolls come up, simply shake the box and use its results quickly.

An example, created by Charlie Tango:

USE DICE ROLLING ANDROID APPS
I have used neither of these, but several people do say they are very solid for what they do.

BT DICE ROLLER handles all the various to-hit location problems quickly and easily; clusters, floating criticals, facing/punch/leg charts.

Battletech Calculator tracks pilot skill, movement, terrain, range, and all the other to-hit modifiers that creep up during a game.

Any others? I'm trying to stay away from rule-changing hints here (otherwise I would have included the one about there only effectively being two depths of water, up to 'Mech waist or over a 'Mech's head), but more about how to speed up the flow of a tabletop game with props or reminders.

[Lorcan Nagle]

Rather than rolling attack and damage together, roll multiple attacks together.  Either fire multiples of the same weapon together, or call which colour dice represents which weapon before you roll.

Similarly, roll on the cluster table for similar weapons at the same time, and on the hit table when firing multiple weapons that do similar damage.

[Colt Ward]

I know I saw some folks at one game while someone else was moving writing the base TH for their most likely targets on the slicks of their sheets.  Which means they by the time it came to roll for fire they already had the numbers figured up.

My wife has a app on her phone that someone made that figures up the THN by hitting checkboxes or putting in movement numbers.  She likes it, I never messed with it.

If you are playing with multiple players you can resolve fire between pairs of players instead of one at a time.

Besides the box of dice to roll hit locations I have also seen a dice 'tower' where you drop the two or three pair you will use, they bounce around inside and then roll into the tray at the bottom.  Keeps them random without having dice shoot all over the table.

We also had a cheat sheat for some of the optional rules we used, summarizing and listing the page number to look them up.  Things like the improved vehicle rules, some BA questions, Semi-G ammo IDF, and a few other things.  We also brought a couple of the quick reference cards from the boxed set.

[NeonKnight]

I know when I play, I make for my mech's a basic to hit chart like the following:

Code: [Select]

PILOT SKILL (4)
Move   Short   Med   Long
Stand     4        6       8
Walk      5        7       9
Run       6        8      10
Jump      7        9      11

Makes combat a lot faster if I know I ran and am at long and they are in forest with cover not to even bother.

[gunner]

Use a D 10 for Movement.    ONE die, placed behind the mech   Point of the die will  tell  the movement type   Torward the mech it ran   Away it walked  Sideways it  jumped or  with a  zero up NO MOVE. Number on top of the die, will tell the distance mod to use.   No chance of confusing the dice with an roll.

[Cannonshop]

Other things that help: group game-screen for holding up charts.  This helps when teaching new players, since you don't have to dig into the book and turn pages, just point to the relevant spot (movement mod chart, range listing, etc.) This tool was something I came up with waaay back when we had an FLGS nearby, a bunch of new players, and free and open saturdays- I used a six-by-four three-way folding display board, and glued photocopies of the various charts, expanded, to it with color codes.  The minutes we no longer had to spend looking through the book were worth the time it took to make it, and having it free-standing meant that players could consult it without looking away from the game map.

(one of the worst time eaters out there, is disagreements that have to be resolved by opening a sourcebook and hunting through page after page of charts.)

The 'old' vehicle record sheets used to have the relevant location charts and rolls right there.  a very useful shortcut, esp. with new players.

For intermediate and expert players, one tweak to make things move more quickly, is to impose time-limits on movement and firing declarations, then enforce it with a timer.  This is kind of like 'speed chess', and may not be for everyone, but when you have four companies on the field and the store closes at 7, it's almost necessary.  (don't do this with NEW players, 'intermediate' players are, at least, familiar with the basic stats and relevant rules of the units they're running.) For this to work, you pretty much need a dedicated GM, but it works pretty well for speeding up double-blind play or handling large battle scenarios.

I'll second the idea of using non-cubic dice for movement markers, esp. with units able to exceed a TMM of 6 these days (with the open-ended TMM chart introduced with Tac Ops, plus all the new options for increasing speed).

[StoneRhino]

Rather than rolling attack and damage together, roll multiple attacks together.  Either fire multiples of the same weapon together, or call which colour dice represents which weapon before you roll.

I find the idea of rolling more then one pair of dice to be questionable when it comes to saving time. Normally it ends up that the individual will spend more time grabbing different pairs of dice then trying to roll all of them at once, watching them scatter, then trying to collect them, then attempting to report how many hits there are. While it appears to be doing more then one thing at once, the same amount of time or even less would have been taken to roll one pair several times and matching it against a number.

Calling out which color dice represents which weapon is bound to lead to questions of what was "actually" called. That again leads to additional mental processing and time collecting dice and adding it up. While it seems simple when someone is trying to do that for several pairs of dice they need to look for each pair separately and where each die of each pair landed is going to lead to a search. Again it seems small, but it has never really added up to saving time. I would suggest that it actually takes more time.

Now the use of one of those dice boxes that are normally mentioned for srms that have the dice in a fixed space and prearranged pairing will remove the time consuming stuff. Unfortunately, I doubt everyone is going to be able to see the dice and that will lead to questions, whereas dice rolled out in the open is viewable to everyone without having to question the individual that is rolling.

[Colt Ward]

Well, the dice box from what I have seen is usually like a small (as in 6 or 8) space tackle box or something from hobby stores for the costume jewelry.  We shake it then drop it which gives a last bounce to all the dice in the little boxes so it sits on the table unmoved after that and you just call off the number.  Usually the person taking the damage has the location chart and will apply it to the right place or the guy who became the commando will call the locations off after the numbers if it is the front chart.

As far as the multiple dice, usually we have 3 or 4 pair in front of us of various type- one a game store set and now I have some of the faction dice- which are declared X & Y for large lasers, Z for LRMs and then rolled.  But you could still use the dice tower which avoids your complaint of them scattering since it has a collection box they land in.



I have not used one but it seems there are instructions on how to build one even.

[Cannonshop]

Well, the dice box from what I have seen is usually like a small (as in 6 or 8) space tackle box or something from hobby stores for the costume jewelry.  We shake it then drop it which gives a last bounce to all the dice in the little boxes so it sits on the table unmoved after that and you just call off the number.  Usually the person taking the damage has the location chart and will apply it to the right place or the guy who became the commando will call the locations off after the numbers if it is the front chart.

As far as the multiple dice, usually we have 3 or 4 pair in front of us of various type- one a game store set and now I have some of the faction dice- which are declared X & Y for large lasers, Z for LRMs and then rolled.  But you could still use the dice tower which avoids your complaint of them scattering since it has a collection box they land in.



I have not used one but it seems there are instructions on how to build one even.

I know quite a few folks that use dice-boxes like this for their D&D campaigns, esp. when they know players who can successfully 'bunk dice' when they hand-roll them.  (yes, it's possible to master the art of making dice turn up the face you want without weighting them-it's a good trick for parties, or to show off  sleight-of-hand skills, but it's a douchey move in a game.)

At Pax in 2014, I got to see a clever "Multiple roller" box that has already been mentioned for doing cluster damages.

(actually, saw several of them at the Catalyst Battletech demo table).  They DO make it a much quicker task to handle that job.

[Terrace]

If I were to do the "cluster box" method, I would attach small labels to the top of each compartment, numbered 1-20. If I use it to roll for an LB 2-X Autocannon or SRM-2, I just pay attention to the first two compartments. If I roll for something like an LB 20-X, I use all the compartments.

[cavingjan]

You don't have to label all of the compartments. Just a few strategic ones. You want it to be clear where to start and if you are ggoing over then down or down then over.

[Colt Ward]

I labeled for my box for each smaller box.  I also used the marker INSIDE the box so it was less likely to be rubbed off.  And yeah, I will tally up the hits- 8 SRM2s or something like 2 ERLL and 3 ML and just call off the number/location going down the row of results.

[hive_angel]

Dice Towers I am still at odds with because the second set of dice to go down can hit the first set of dice and interupt their natural role. Sort of like hitting something on a table and stopping a dice from rolling.

Rolling to hit and location in on role with 4dc might be okay as long as all attacka have been decalred on both sides, otherwise it just goes against the rules themselves.

[mbear]

Here's an example of the "dice box" (a.k.a. "box o' doom", a.k.a. "clusterbox") that iamfanboy mentioned in his post.

Box of Death:




It's actually a bead-storage box from a crafting store (like Michaels/Hobby Lobby) in this case,  not a tackle box.

[iamfanboy]

I find the idea of rolling more then one pair of dice to be questionable when it comes to saving time. Normally it ends up that the individual will spend more time grabbing different pairs of dice then trying to roll all of them at once, watching them scatter, then trying to collect them, then attempting to report how many hits there are. While it appears to be doing more then one thing at once, the same amount of time or even less would have been taken to roll one pair several times and matching it against a number.

Calling out which color dice represents which weapon is bound to lead to questions of what was "actually" called. That again leads to additional mental processing and time collecting dice and adding it up. While it seems simple when someone is trying to do that for several pairs of dice they need to look for each pair separately and where each die of each pair landed is going to lead to a search. Again it seems small, but it has never really added up to saving time. I would suggest that it actually takes more time.

Now the use of one of those dice boxes that are normally mentioned for srms that have the dice in a fixed space and prearranged pairing will remove the time consuming stuff. Unfortunately, I doubt everyone is going to be able to see the dice and that will lead to questions, whereas dice rolled out in the open is viewable to everyone without having to question the individual that is rolling.

This is why I always went with the 4d6, one pair ALWAYS representing the to-hit roll, the other ALWAYS representing the location. Say reds for the to-hit, whites for the location. Simple, unambiguous, and you can't retroactively say, "Oops, I meant to call-" NO. One pair is always to-hit, the other is always location.

(also has the added advantage of being near-impossible to sleight the dice roll; 2 cubes are within manual dexterity limits but 4 would seriously stretch even the most nimble of cheats!)


Colt_Ward, what's the name of the app? Be a helpful thing to put into the first post (or would that count as advertisement? I dunno).

I'll put that image in the first post under the dice box.

Making a game aid screen out of the most commonly used tables seems like a great idea. It seems like it would be a solid thing to make, but even just using Total Warfare there are... 5 pages of 'vital tables'? Just for the basics? That could fit on a triptych screen.

brb, gotta go do some chores, after that I'll edit the first post.

[Colt Ward]

I will ask her what the app is called.  And the Box Set comes with 2 copies of the condensed charts, back & front, so each team can get one.

[beachhead1985]

Here's an example of the "dice box" (a.k.a. "box o' doom", a.k.a. "clusterbox") that iamfanboy mentioned in his post.

I made one of these; not quite sure how to use it; a 2d6 for each group of missiles? or each missile? It's groups, right? like per 5 LRMs?

[NeonKnight]

There are two Battletech [ANDROID] Apps of note

The first I have used a lot in the past is BT DICE ROLLER

This is useful in you can roll for hit locations, based on target type, facing, and can even use some of the optional rules, like Floating Crits, Punches, Shooting High/Low, motive crits etc. Best of all is the Cluster hits based on size, Modifiers (for Artemis or AMS) Group size etc. It also has an initiative tracker, handy for the two sides are far apart in numbers.

Note this will not take care of to hit modifiers, etc. You need to track that your self.

The second (and only other one I have found) is called Battletech Calculator. This one can track Pilot Skill movement, terrain, target, etc and tell you what you need to hit, you can kind of roll for cluster hits, but is not the same as the previous app. I tell this one it is a an LRM 15, and I roll and it tells me how many hits, I then need to go to another section of the app and roll for location.

What I would LOVE to see is an app that combines both.

Even better (if I knew how to build an app) is to make one that I can put my mech into for a game so I know what I need to roll for each weapon, etc, and click the buttons and presto know what weapons hit and where.

[Colt Ward]

I made one of these; not quite sure how to use it; a 2d6 for each group of missiles? or each missile? It's groups, right? like per 5 LRMs?

Alright, it is a matter of subbing those little boxes for a variety of things . . .

If you do like someone else suggests, you declare what each box is (#1 & 2 is ERLL, #3 is LRM15, #4/5/6 is ML on secondary target of IS BA Standard) . . . then you roll.  You figure out if each of the 6 boxes makes the THN.

What a lot of people do is . . . my LB-10X hits on 7 BBs.  Roll the box, then start calling off location starting with box #1.  I have also had boxes that were not quite large enough . . . my little 6 pack roller with 19 SRM was fun, lol.

[beachhead1985]

Alright, it is a matter of subbing those little boxes for a variety of things . . .

If you do like someone else suggests, you declare what each box is (#1 & 2 is ERLL, #3 is LRM15, #4/5/6 is ML on secondary target of IS BA Standard) . . . then you roll.  You figure out if each of the 6 boxes makes the THN.

What a lot of people do is . . . my LB-10X hits on 7 BBs.  Roll the box, then start calling off location starting with box #1.  I have also had boxes that were not quite large enough . . . my little 6 pack roller with 19 SRM was fun, lol.

But doesn't that give cluster weapons a huge edge in scoring head and floating critical hits?

[mbear]

But doesn't that give cluster weapons a huge edge in scoring head and floating critical hits?

Yes, which is the point of cluster weapons. ;)

Sorry I misunderstood your question. No using a clusterbox doesn't increase the cluster weapons chance of scoring TAC and head hits. All you're doing is rolling multiple pairs of dice at once instead of rolling them individually. You still have the same odds, but you don't have to roll 2d6 twenty times.

[Colt Ward]

How does it really give them a edge over rolling individually?  All you did was roll 6-20 dice at the same time rather than individually.  The dice have no memory, so its the same result just saving time and dice flying everywhere.

[iamfanboy]

How does it really give them a edge over rolling individually?  All you did was roll 6-20 dice at the same time rather than individually.  The dice have no memory, so its the same result just saving time and dice flying everywhere.

Uhh... because it DOES save time?

Battletech is a clunky game. It's very much a wargame of the 1980s: Dozens of tables some of which have dozens of entries, little individual rules that only apply in rare cases and sometimes contradict each other, and the key to success not necessarily being maneuver or luck, but just knowing the rules.

All 400+ pages of them.

By heart.

ANYTHING that saves time, cuts the clunkiness of the game down, and lets people who haven't spent the last fifteen years memorizing the rules play the game is to be celebrated and collected, which is what I wanted to do here. Instead some folks seem intent on pooh-poohing the ideas.

First post: modified.

[Weirdo]

But doesn't that give cluster weapons a huge edge in scoring head and floating critical hits?

How? ???

[beachhead1985]

How? ???

Well, if you are rolling individually for every missile that hits; say 16; that's 16 chances to hit the head and cause pilot damage; vs 4 chances (3x5 and 1x1).

[Colt Ward]

Uhh... because it DOES save time?

ANYTHING that saves time, cuts the clunkiness of the game down, and lets people who haven't spent the last fifteen years memorizing the rules play the game is to be celebrated and collected, which is what I wanted to do here. Instead some folks seem intent on pooh-poohing the ideas.

First post: modified.

not talking about saving time, he is talking about it increasing crit chances some how.

Whether you roll 1 pair of dice 16 times or you shake a doom box and use the first 16 results of the 20 dice they are all randomly (taking dice issues into consideration) rolled.  The single dice your roll for the second time does not remember what you rolled the first time and change its probability table.

Oh, you are talking assigning damage . . . the example I gave was for LBX and SRMs- each hit is STILL 2 points of damage I just know all 19 locations at once.  If you are rolling a LRM rack its STILL 4 hit locations (your 3x5 & 1 point) for 16 missiles off that LRM20 rack- I am not rolling 16 hit locations, one for every missile.  I still follow the rules, I just shake a box once to get the 4 hit location results rather than rolling a single pair of dice 4 times.

[Lorcan Nagle]

Well, if you are rolling individually for every missile that hits; say 16; that's 16 chances to hit the head and cause pilot damage; vs 4 chances (3x5 and 1x1).

That's not what he said.

[beachhead1985]

That's not what he said.

So, if neither of those...what did he say?

[Colt Ward]

Its the second paragraph, Lorcan & I responded at about the same time.  The LRM20 getting 16 missile hits rolls 4 locations, which can either be the first 4 boxes on a DoomBox or you can roll a single pair of dice four times for all the results.

[beachhead1985]

Its the second paragraph, Lorcan & I responded at about the same time.  The LRM20 getting 16 missile hits rolls 4 locations, which can either be the first 4 boxes on a DoomBox or you can roll a single pair of dice four times for all the results.

Okay; got it.

SRMs are still "supposed to" roll individually, along with LBX-type weapons, but you common-sense it, right? In case someone runs into an SRM carrier.

[Lorcan Nagle]

In my group. the box of death is basically for those times an SRM carrier gets the big hit.

[Weirdo]

Assuming common-sensing it means to convert SRM damage to five point groups, the whole point of these boxes is to eliminate any need for that. Give the box a shake, then start calling out hit locations. Unless that carrier rules REALLY well, doing the damage properly won't take more than a minute, plus crits.

[Colt Ward]

Alright, let me try this again . . .

I have a SRM carrier that surprises a assault mech walking around the corner of a building due to doubleblind/hidden unit whatever- point is, point blank range for the SRM carrier. 

I take the typical box of doom which has 20 different pairs of dice in little boxes inside as demonstrated by the picture.  I tally up my TH requirement and say I need 6s for all 10 SRM6 on that Zeus.  I shake, rattle and roll the box before dropping it an inch to the table which really rattles and bounces everything good.

Now I need to determine how many of the 10 chances I had hit.  I look at the first 10 boxes in the big box of doom.  Let's say 7 out of the 10 boxes had a result of 6 or better so I hit with seven of the launchers.  I pick up and shake the doom box again, maybe give it a twist.  Now I check for results on the 7 SRM6s launchers that hit by taking the first 7 results in the 20 boxes.  Adding up the result from each box by looking at the Missile chart I find that I hit with 29 out of the possible 42 missiles.

Now to determine where the damage goes . . . I take the box.  Shake shake shake the box, do the small drop again and . . . read off the number for each of the 20 boxes to get a hit location.  Once the targeted mech has all that damage assigned by the opposing player, I shake the box again to rattle around the dice.  To finish I read off the first 9 boxes of hit location numbers (7, 8, 4, 12 Oh man woo!, 7, 6, 7, 3, 10) which are then applied by the opposing player.

Instead of having 10 individual rolls for each SRM6 launcher I rolled with the box once.
Instead of having 7 individual rolls to see how many SRMs hit from each SRM6, I rolled the box once.
Instead of having 29 individual rolls to see where each SRM hit for 2 points of damage, I rolled the box twice to generate 29 hit locations.

Now, I will roll those crit chances individually because I find that a bit more fun.

Make it clear?

[Weirdo]

Also, I've never once seen the need to do that with SRMs. ADD all my life, and my attention span is still more than enough for a minute or two of dice rolling.

[Colt Ward]

Now I am confused, 5 point groups?  You mean LRMs?

[Weirdo]

Some people house rule SRM damage to five point groups to save time. I'm not one of them.

[Lorcan Nagle]

Some people house rule SRM damage to five point groups to save time. I'm not one of them.

If you do that, what's the point of SRMs?

[Weirdo]

Search me. That's why I said I'm not one of them.

[beachhead1985]

Alright, let me try this again . . .

I have a SRM carrier that surprises a assault mech walking around the corner of a building due to doubleblind/hidden unit whatever- point is, point blank range for the SRM carrier. 

I take the typical box of doom which has 20 different pairs of dice in little boxes inside as demonstrated by the picture.  I tally up my TH requirement and say I need 6s for all 10 SRM6 on that Zeus.  I shake, rattle and roll the box before dropping it an inch to the table which really rattles and bounces everything good.

Now I need to determine how many of the 10 chances I had hit.  I look at the first 10 boxes in the big box of doom.  Let's say 7 out of the 10 boxes had a result of 6 or better so I hit with seven of the launchers.  I pick up and shake the doom box again, maybe give it a twist.  Now I check for results on the 7 SRM6s launchers that hit by taking the first 7 results in the 20 boxes.  Adding up the result from each box by looking at the Missile chart I find that I hit with 29 out of the possible 42 missiles.

Now to determine where the damage goes . . . I take the box.  Shake shake shake the box, do the small drop again and . . . read off the number for each of the 20 boxes to get a hit location.  Once the targeted mech has all that damage assigned by the opposing player, I shake the box again to rattle around the dice.  To finish I read off the first 9 boxes of hit location numbers (7, 8, 4, 12 Oh man woo!, 7, 6, 7, 3, 10) which are then applied by the opposing player.

Instead of having 10 individual rolls for each SRM6 launcher I rolled with the box once.
Instead of having 7 individual rolls to see how many SRMs hit from each SRM6, I rolled the box once.
Instead of having 29 individual rolls to see where each SRM hit for 2 points of damage, I rolled the box twice to generate 29 hit locations.

Now, I will roll those crit chances individually because I find that a bit more fun.

Make it clear?

But you wouldn't do that with An LRM-20, right? 5-pt groups. right?

[Colt Ward]

Yes, using the example before  . . . really I would only roll for hit locations to get the four at once.

Though I have used a box to determine all the TH rolls for a single mech- say something like the Toyama, roll for the 2 ERLL, LRM15 and LB-10X . . . really, I have to get 6 or more TH rolls to really start using it.

[Weirdo]

But you wouldn't do that with An LRM-20, right? 5-pt groups. right?

5-point groups for LRMs, 2-point groups for SRMs, y'know, the way it actually goes in the rulebook. Nobody has advocated using dice boxes to completely change the way cluster weapons deal damage.

[GoldBishop]

It's been a while since I played Classic, but I definitely stand by my BBoD (and the cluster hits currently "as is" with HAGs and LRMs in clusters of 5, LB/Flak/RAC/SRMs as single hits)

2/3 pilot in a Turkina E  (1 HAG40, 6 SSRM6) shooting at a Berserker that had recently shut down due to overheat issues (already running hot for TSM, Loki D hit him with Plasma Cannons...  guy rolled snake eyes on to avoid Shutdown).  Needless to say, everything hit  >:D

Rolled like crap for the cluster hits on the HAG (Medium range for 24 total damage, 4 locations at @ 5 pts, 1@ 4 dmg).  Rolled those manually, which included a head hit for 5, but the rest sandpapered both arms and a leg.

Then came the 36 locations for 2 damage each.  Enter the BBOD.
Realizing - with the head hit that round for 5 points - I announced aloud that I only needed to score 4 head hits for the kill.
<shake shake shake shake shake>
<set>
36 pairs of dice for 36 locations exactly.  Scored 6 head hits, 7 TAC, and the rest pretty much chewed out the right torso (through the arm).
I had elected to roll the TACs manually, but the player just shredded his paper and removed the mini from the table.

With two other players at the table - none of which were wielding cluster weapons - I was asked to not use the box (for fear of cheating).  Of course, I obliged... but the next attack by my Turkey hit with 5 Streaks, and we spent quite a few long minutes rolling 30 locations, marking damage, rinse, repeat.  (Gamemaster broke out his MagicTheGathering Life counter to count for us because we lost track, twice).  In the end, 3 head hits and a TAC to an ammo bin = long awaited kill scored (same opponent).  With enough ammo and armor, I went on to a third kill  but didn't roll for the missiles because the HAG went internal on an InnerSphere side torso with an XL engine (though, based on the damage output alone, it would have popped every last bubble).

Whether I use 36 boxes or 12, having my BBoD is a timesafer and enemy maker.

[Ice_Trey]

Memorize the hit location tables. At the very least, the front/rear hit location tables.

Seriously. You learn that, you've effectively halved how much time each game takes.

Most of the players who I've seen complain about a game length are the ones who can't go without a cheat-sheet. I didn't learn overnight, but the less you need to reference the book and tables, the much faster the game becomes.

That, and don't bog the game down with making "The perfect" move. Something like a chess timer to force the other guy to move in a reasonable amount of time will likely speed things up by massive amounts. I don't really mind, but the games often slow down dramatically when hex-counting starts coming into effect.

[Colt Ward]

Hmm, in that vein, one thing that you might do would be to send the teams out of earshot for 5 minutes at the start of the game once initial placement happens, objectives and victory conditions are all clearly stated again.  Both sides can then plot out how/what they are going to do for opening moves and what mechs might need to move last (for hex counting purposes).

When I have played with my group there is no strict 'orders' but there is a agreement how everyone will use what they have to achieve the objectives to include what special equipment (TAG) they may have along to contribute on someone else's forces.

[Fireangel]

Speeding up the game:

Fire sticks.

Take wooden popsicle sticks (available in school supply places), cut then in half and put little points on them. Colour/design code them for each unit you have; one per weapon in the unit. As you declare fire, place the stick representing the weapon that unit is using next to the target(s); not only does it make it perfectly clear who is shooting what at whom, but it also indicates clearly the angle of attack. As you resolve the attacks, remove the sticks from the board.

Side benefit: Speeds up the game a considerable degree. Especially when combined with movement dice. Particularly in large engagements.
Down side: Increases prep time a bit. Storage issues.

[beachhead1985]

Speeding up the game:

Fire sticks.

Take wooden popsicle sticks (available in school supply places), cut then in half and put little points on them. Colour/design code them for each unit you have; one per weapon in the unit. As you declare fire, place the stick representing the weapon that unit is using next to the target(s); not only does it make it perfectly clear who is shooting what at whom, but it also indicates clearly the angle of attack. As you resolve the attacks, remove the sticks from the board.

Side benefit: Speeds up the game a considerable degree. Especially when combined with movement dice. Particularly in large engagements.
Down side: Increases prep time a bit. Storage issues.

I dunno...with my friends they might really enjoy dumping a load of Popsicle sticks on the table

[mbear]

Speeding up the game:

Fire sticks.

Take wooden popsicle sticks (available in school supply places), cut then in half and put little points on them. Colour/design code them for each unit you have; one per weapon in the unit. As you declare fire, place the stick representing the weapon that unit is using next to the target(s); not only does it make it perfectly clear who is shooting what at whom, but it also indicates clearly the angle of attack. As you resolve the attacks, remove the sticks from the board.

Side benefit: Speeds up the game a considerable degree. Especially when combined with movement dice. Particularly in large engagements.
Down side: Increases prep time a bit. Storage issues.

Smaller diameter dowel rods or brass tubing from a hardware store works pretty well too. FWIW, I've found the Medium Laser fire stick the most useful as it's not only the medium laser stick, but the SRM stick and the PPC stick (if you use it twice by flipping it end for end). The square rods work a little better IMHO because they don't roll around when not in use.

[iamfanboy]

Y'know, I made dowels for Alpha Strike, and even though it's supposedly easier, we found ourselves busting out tape measures anyway as they're used for movement AND finding range.

In Battletech, I'd think they'd be even worse, as counting hexes is more important than the actual distance involved.

[Fireangel]

The best thing about popsicle sticks is that they don't roll around and are easy to write on, identifying not only the weapon it represents, but the unit that fired it.

Fire sticks are never used to measure distance... they're too short (a little over two inches long).

Since they are flat, you can also stack them neatly when you pour on the lance's  lovin' into one enemy unit.

They are also cheap; you can get 200-packs for $1 in some places. Heck, they sell them in assorted colors, which cuts prep time.

[StoneRhino]

Memorize the hit location tables. At the very least, the front/rear hit location tables.

Seriously. You learn that, you've effectively halved how much time each game takes.

Most of the players who I've seen complain about a game length are the ones who can't go without a cheat-sheet. I didn't learn overnight, but the less you need to reference the book and tables, the much faster the game becomes.

That, and don't bog the game down with making "The perfect" move. Something like a chess timer to force the other guy to move in a reasonable amount of time will likely speed things up by massive amounts. I don't really mind, but the games often slow down dramatically when hex-counting starts coming into effect.

The "perfect move" has to be the biggest time sink of the game possible. Memorizing the hit table would be nice and reduce the time taken, but this can easily be fixed by having the attacker roll the location and say what number they rolled for location while another person has the table in front of them and then relays what location it was, while the defender marks down the damage. It isn't perfect, but there are times I can barely remember stuff due to the amount of stuff I am normally trying to remember for school.  :P

The perfect move syndrome is something that there is little to do about since only the player making the move can decide to finally make their move. Years ago I realized how much time is taken up by everyone trying to make perfect moves. It helps to avoid problems, but it kills the game time available. I then decided to attempt to speed up my moves and live with it. If I made a mistake and paid for it then I would go home with that mistake bugging me, which led to trying to figure out how to avoid such a problem in the future. I think I am better for pushing myself to make moves faster and then learn from what I did instead of spending a lot more time considering everything several times over.

I believe it shifts the learning of what to do from off times as opposed to trying to learn on the spot during the game. Its one thing if you have time for a game a week or more, but when its every other week at best then having everyone attempting to make the perfect move leads to very few turns, and those turns are rarely the ones that matter. I have noticed that people tend to focus on moves that they perceive to matter the most, yet the opposing player may have already decided that the unit being move does not matter at all and will not bother with it.

[Highball]

"Perfect Move" can be easily solved by using a 30 or 60 second sand hourglass. If they do nothing by the time the sand runs out then you do not move. Makes games run much faster.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

  Time saver:

Assistant GMs -My club is lucky to have several people who have the location and mod tables memorized so they help the mathematically challenged players (we have plenty of them) figure net TNs and help adding die results without having to count their toes... Assistant GMs help, especially with larger battles with 4-5 unit commanders per side, so the GM doesn't have to be everywhere.

Appoint overall commanders per side. I've had campaigns where NOBODY wanted to be in charge. It happens. As a GM, I have the players select their commander...or I will pick the worst of them... The overall commander is held responsible in making sure his subordinates don't waste the GM's time. He makes sure the players make their moves, pick their targets and complete combat in a timely manner in order to keep the game moving smoothly. Failure to perform incurs penalties, such as forfeited moves/shots or adverse initiative modifiers in subsequent turns.

Plenty of training scenarios. Few things slow down play like unfamiliarity with the rules and the flow of play. These things reduce player confidence and the ability to be decisive. I have my veteran players evaluate other players and if we believe training will improve performance, we design scenarios specifically aimed at working on weaknesses. we have one player that NEVER learned how to properly use TSM; He just didn't have the discipline during combat, even though my veteran player used colored pens to highlight which weapons to use while walking, running and jumping in order to maintain the proper heat -The guy always fired too many weapons and lost the TSM sweet spot, dspite taking an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the numbers in his head...and no amount of training helped. We never let him use TSM ever again. Problem solved.

[Fireangel]

  Time saver:

<snip>

Appoint overall commanders per side.

<snip>

Not for every group; I've seen some groups where that is... not a good idea.

[cavingjan]

"Perfect Move" can be easily solved by using a 30 or 60 second sand hourglass. If they do nothing by the time the sand runs out then you do not move. Makes games run much faster.

To help with the transition, give each side X number of extra times. It helps if you have a really tricky move without giving too much time to the rest of the units.

[lordnlkon]

Doing a thread resurrection to see if there are any new ideas out there for speeding things up. Going to be running A Time of War campaign with classic for mech combat for my gaming group and their only concern is how long classic takes. I have no desire to run it in alpha strike.

[Daryk]

Engagement size is the fastest way to speed things up.  Lance on lance is faster no matter how good or tricky you are...

[Failure16]

To help with the transition, give each side X number of extra times. It helps if you have a really tricky move without giving too much time to the rest of the units.

That was MFNA's answer, if I recall correctly. Certain number of minutes per lance. But it's been a loooong time, so I could be misattributing.

[lordnlkon]

Engagement size is the fastest way to speed things up.  Lance on lance is faster no matter how good or tricky you are...

Yeah planning on running it just lance level mostly.

[Daryk]

Then time shouldn't really be a concern for you... :)

[lordnlkon]

Then time shouldn't really be a concern for you... :)

It still does. These are mostly d&d players, so normal classic combat is still going to be very long for them. We did some introductory combat and that was their one complaint.

[Charistoph]

Other than getting familiar with concepts, there isn't that much that can speed things up that I can think of.  That's including being familiar with GATOR, weapon ranges, Damage, as well as the basic Front Damage Locations.

That's what sped up our games the most.  For our narrative campaign group, we've done a reinforced Lance versus a company of Mechs and a company of Vehicles in an urban fight in about 4-5 hours.  It was a pull out, so that may have sped things up.

Someone locally created a GATOR chart to help people get used to using it, as well as write it down so they don't forget.  I've attached it down below.

[DevianID]

So I do a lot of 'one player per mech' narrative games.  What I do:

Each player has their own initiative.  So everyone rolls at the start of the turn, and init goes by player.  The active player moves all their units when it is their turn in games even when each player has multiple units.  (In multiplayer btech games where every player is talking on their side who should move next, or what to save, you waste a lot of time.  With individual init, when its a players turn, they go, no discussion or debate, no moving half now half later after Tommy has moved one or two.  It works great.)

Some people use cards instead, but having done dice and cards, pulling individual cards and all that just adds more time delay and time spent collecting and passing out cards.  With init, everyone rolls dice they already have, no extra card steps, and lowest goes first.

I also usually play as the GM/numbers guy.  It helps to have someone who has the common charts memorized.  So when people are rolling batches of hit locations, I just look at the numbers and tell the players what the locations are.  So if Billy is shooting Tommy, Billy will just say 8, 5, 10, and then ill say to Tommy '5 damage to left torso, right leg, left arm' while Billy gets his next weapon ready.  So 3 players may have rolled up hits, but only 1 person is usually calling out locations at once to reduce chaos, with everyone set with their hit locations rolled on the table up waiting for their initiative to call out the locations.

Finally, I run the bad guys like the bad guys in DnD.  They have a set routine the players know about, and all the enemy forces go on the same initiative.  So when im the GM, each player has their turn, and then I, running the op for, quickly move all the goons and such with their routine.  Its 'move towards someone who has lost initiative and already moved, and shoot the lowest number to hit.'  Speeds up the decision paralysis part, and lets mechs tank or draw enemies away depending on what the players choose to do.  Most importantly, it plays fast, with 12 opfor goons moving quickly versus the 4 player hero mechs.

Other then that, its simple stuff like having movement dice for everyone, multiple pairs of colored dice to batch roll, with little baggies to lend to people matched d6 dice sets, d8/d10/d12 for crit locations instead of upper/lower, roll again.  I also tend to watch the heat of the players and tell them when they have overheated, as they often forget to track heat correctly.

[Charistoph]

Some people use cards instead, but having done dice and cards, pulling individual cards and all that just adds more time delay and time spent collecting and passing out cards.  With init, everyone rolls dice they already have, no extra card steps, and lowest goes first.

What we do with the cards is that everyone picks a card, and that's their card.  We then use another set of the same cards and shuffle that, then turn it over, so that if "5" comes up, it is the turn of whoever has the "5" card.  We don't have to collect cards or anything, and it actually moves faster than trying to figure out Initiative with a group larger than 4.

We don't do that with our narrative campaign, though, as we need to operate as a unit.  We usually start with, "Do you have a move?" or "Who has a move?", and proceed from there.  And this is the group that as I said earlier, can move real quick.  We ran 5 Inner Sphere Mechs against the GM's 2 Clan Mechs in rather quick order, finishing far faster than we normally do.

[truetanker]

When I OpFor, I tend to move two units of tanks per initiative Lance, or the entire Mech unit as one, always pressing forward. Tend to do staggered lines or a diamond formations in support of each other.

TT