It has only one glaring flaw that stafes and bombing runs are simultaneous with ground base flack or anti air fire . So the enemy can calulate how much is need on average to permanently ground an enemy dropship . Sure if properly defended you shoot down 3 -6 enemy bombers after they finish breaking the dropship. A house rule we put in Tube Artillary shoot HE in Flack mode has a chance to shoot down incoming aircraft the turn before the bombing run and Anti air Arrow IV ammo can do so 2 and one turn before a bombing run .
The ground combat without the simultaneous weapons phase fire is Less an issue but can be in such instances as hover tanks loaded with a bunch of rocket launchers the target has a choice of shooting at the tank in short range that due to simultaneous fire has already did all the damage it is going to or shoot at a harder target at medium to long range that is going to shoot you with everything the next turn . Or the mech goes around a corner and comes across a hidden unit tank with a trailer with 10 SRM 6 iOS launchers . They can shoot at the tank or at an empty trailer which a small exposition blows the hitch connection so the tank can move at full speed in the movement phase .
That's actually one of the things I LIKE about Battletech. One of the things I hate about the Warhammers and WarMaHordes games is when someone can wipe out a unit with narry a response from you.
In fact, that's one of the things I hate about the BSP Air Strikes. The other is that they can hit you with the same value no matter how you moved or what you're standing in, unlike the standard rules for it.
Sure, but you don't need in-depth rules for cleaning the latrine to enjoy the other stuff. The boring stuff (ymmv) happens off stage.
Running tanks, infantry, and aircraft are no where near latrine cleaning duty when it comes to a presence on the stage. Running tanks and aircraft isn't boring unless you choose to make it so. Infantry can be a different story, depending on their mobility and Anti-Mech capability.
Exactly.
And if you aren't really interested in the rooted-in-the-early-game feudal knights aspect of BattleTech (and being ot the Clan generation, I'm really not), bad mechs are just that: bad. The same way loads of real-world military vehicles are and have always been just sometimes bad. (See - at the extreme end - K-Boats for example, because more topical example would be skirting the board rules.)
I'm not saying there shouldn't be rules for those - that BattleTech tries to have a complete package and campaign system is a definite point in its favour overall, even if that part doesn't personally interest me.
But, my point is that the BattleMechs is front an centre and everything else is, essentially ancillary. Which is why aerospace struggles, because for the vast majority of BattleTech players (including the silent majority that Don't Post On Forums, let alone this one); it's even more ancillary because of the nessecary removal from the immediacy of the tactical battle. It's not something that in BattleTech particualrly stands on its own, except for the very, very keen BY universe fans and there are decidedly finite numbers of those.
So how does including aircraft such that they can shoot and be shot at conceptually take away from the Battlemech being the center? Heck, we have 2 Mechs from TRO: 3025 that are dedicated AA units, another coming in with TRO: 2750, and a couple more from those that were retconned with having AA Quirks. In fact, it is taking away aircraft which makes the Rifleman and JagerMech appear even worse as they get stuck in Direct Fire Support Role.
Locally, we've been using the Abstract rules that use the Radar Map when using Aerospace, and it is really nice and simple for including aerospace assets without really taking much away from the ground game. If anything, it helps keep the focus on the ground game even more.
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