Beginners rules questions

[rodericksalas]

Bought the starter set, played with my son.

Those A5 cards you get with the mechs and armour diagrams, what do people use to record damage? I was thinking a whiteboard marker?

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

Is minimum distance and mech heat a thing?

How do you deal with a leg being destroyed?

Having played the Battletech PC game I was suprised when he was using his LRM from 1 hex away with no difficult modifiers lol.

Where do I go from here? Embrace the beginners rules or add some flavour or play the full rules?

[Hydrofoil Goat]

The A5 sheets are dry-erase, so yep designed to be used with a whiteboard marker.

Movement dice aren't absolutely necessary but are an easy way to record movement. You'll definitely need something for games that are more than 1v1 as the memory starts to strain pretty quickly. You can use anything though, I've even just used a bit of paper to note down the modifiers for each turn when nothing else was at hand. As long as you have a reliable way to record movement type and distance you're golden.

Minimum distance, heat, limb destruction, critical hits, internal structure, and much more are all part of the full rule set. The beginner rules are very stripped down and intended as a taster, as well as being a good way to ease in to the full rules.

From here I'd recommend picking up the Game of Armored Combat box. It has full baseline rules for mechs, dealing with heat, criticals etc, as well as another double sided map sheet and 8 more minis.

As far as stepping up, it depends on how much complexity you and your son can handle at once. You can always add rules one by one, for instance add in heat and minimum ranges one game, critical hits the next, piloting rolls the next. I do think it's worth adding rules in bits and pieces and working up to the full rules as it can be a big leap from beginner to full ruleset depending on your level of experience with tabletop games.

The beginner rules can be a lot of fun for a quick pickup game, but they're very unbalanced and lose a lot of the flavour and narrative that comes with the full ruleset.

[Paul]

You got some good advice from the hydrofoil goat. Wasnt expecting to have to type that.

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

I think so, especially once you start doing 4 on 4 fights: they really help keep track of what units have moved already, and it avoids having to remember what each Mech did.

Is minimum distance and mech heat a thing?

Yes. LRMs for example have a minimum range of 6.
That means that at range 1, you take a 6 to-hit penalty, and then you reduce the penalty for each hex the target is further away. So 5 penalty at 2, 4 penalty at 3. At range 6, the penalty is 1, at range 7, there is no penalty.

Al most all weapons generate heat. An LRM20 creates 6 heats for example. After the weapons and physical phases are done, you total up all heat you generated and received that turn, and then subtract the heat your heatsinks can remove (often: 10, though some 'Mechs can do more. An Awesome can sink 28...!)

How do you deal with a leg being destroyed?

You automatically fall, and the lost leg causes a 5 penalty to any piloting skill rolls after that. You'll need one immediately to avoid MechWarrior damage, and then in future turns you can attempt to stand on your remaining leg, though you'll have that 5 penalty again. Every time you fail to get up, you take more falling damage. Surrendering the 'Mech after it loses a leg often makes sense.
Another thing you can consider doing in such a situation: firing while prone. Possible while you have 2 arms: you push up with both and can then fire all torso weapons, and the weapons of 1 arm of your choice.
Well, also any Head mounted weapons; those are rare.

Where do I go from here? Embrace the beginners rules or add some flavour or play the full rules?

No shame in doing the beginner rules a few times until you're comfortable with them and want to learn more. Information overload is a thing.

[garhkal]

Bought the starter set, played with my son.

Welcome to the game.  Hope you and your son enjoy it for many years to come..  Now onto your questions.

Those A5 cards you get with the mechs and armour diagrams, what do people use to record damage? I was thinking a whiteboard marker?

Those work nice..  You can also use crayola markers.

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

Yes.  IF you can, get a small pack of smaller d6 than you otherwise use, with a few red, blue and white die (or red/black/white)..  Use the white for walking, blue (or black) for running and red for jumping.
IF you have plenty of screws and bolts you can also use them.  Use permanent markers on them, to mark the #'s and a big W/R/J for walk, run jump..

Is minimum distance and mech heat a thing?

For beginner games, probably not..  Full rules, yes.

How do you deal with a leg being destroyed?

I do not know if the starter set goes into criticals and limb losses...

Having played the Battletech PC game I was suprised when he was using his LRM from 1 hex away with no difficult modifiers lol.

Beginner rules, iirc don't include some of those other rules..  Its just like some stores give folks 'samples' of their food, then you can get the full  monty after joining..

From here I'd recommend picking up the Game of Armored Combat box. It has full baseline rules for mechs, dealing with heat, criticals etc, as well as another double sided map sheet and 8 more minis.

As far as stepping up, it depends on how much complexity you and your son can handle at once. You can always add rules one by one, for instance add in heat and minimum ranges one game, critical hits the next, piloting rolls the next. I do think it's worth adding rules in bits and pieces and working up to the full rules as it can be a big leap from beginner to full ruleset depending on your level of experience with tabletop games.

The beginner rules can be a lot of fun for a quick pickup game, but they're very unbalanced and lose a lot of the flavour and narrative that comes with the full ruleset.

I agree about tiering the full rules, and gradually putting them into play..  Though that CAN Depend on the age of your son.  Someone say 6-10, start slowly, otherwise you might overwhelm him.
11+, he may have the mental ability to handle it more..

[Inxentas]

I'm also a new player and I recommend A Game Of Armored Combat as well. You get a lot of 'mechs for your investment, and the booklet it contains is a nice step up from the Beginner Box rules. It's the full thing, with Heat and Criticals and Minimum Range etc. What it doesn't contain is rules for combined arms (infantery, vehicles, etc) but I would consider those rules as "advanced and completely optional". The booklet is surprisingly complete, and even though I've moved on to an even thicker book with advanced rules (Total Warfare), we often use it as a reference at the table because it covers 99% of the things that actually come up in our games.

[Aotrs Commander]

Bought the starter set, played with my son.

Those A5 cards you get with the mechs and armour diagrams, what do people use to record damage? I was thinking a whiteboard marker?

Alternate options include non-permanent fine liners (I swear by these myself) or Crayola washable wax crayons (though the might be a bit thick). I use the former for all record sheets and some dungeon markings (I have an A1 plastic wallet for roleplaying) and the latter from drawing the dungeons on.

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

I don't play Alpha Strike, but for BT I stole the idea of the computer game Battletech using evade chevrons to track the Target Move Modifier. (Though a cursory check of Alpha Strike boxed set - bought for the figures! - suggests that TMM are static in AS.)



(I 3D printed mine because it weas easiest, but card markers would work just as well.)

But some sort of marker (like the one in the middle there on that photo) that you just flip over to show what's gone and what's might still be useful (and in my opinion be better than dice, I always feel the place of dice on the table top should only be when they are rolled).

[General308]

Bought the starter set, played with my son.

Those A5 cards you get with the mechs and armour diagrams, what do people use to record damage? I was thinking a whiteboard marker?

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

Is minimum distance and mech heat a thing?

How do you deal with a leg being destroyed?

Having played the Battletech PC game I was suprised when he was using his LRM from 1 hex away with no difficult modifiers lol.

Where do I go from here? Embrace the beginners rules or add some flavour or play the full rules?

So on the movement dice.  I 100% would not buy the deticated "BT" movement dice.   It is much faster, cheaper and easier to just buy different color dice to represent walk run or jump and to use numbers on the dice.   The deticated movement dice are over priced and have smaller print that are harder to read than normal dice

[wundergoat]

So on the movement dice.  I 100% would not buy the deticated "BT" movement dice.   It is much faster, cheaper and easier to just buy different color dice to represent walk run or jump and to use numbers on the dice.   The deticated movement dice are over priced and have smaller print that are harder to read than normal dice

I think the dedicated movement dice can absolutely be a worthy investment, and indeed mine have been.  While you are right that standard dice are cheaper and easier to read, the dedicated dice essentially have the rules reference on them.  My playgroup doesn’t play regularly, so having that reference lowers the mental overhead demands (and questions I need to answer).

Even if your group is solid on the rules, the dedicated status dice (I’ve mostly seen them in black) can be very useful.  Just having the terrain indicator has eliminated the “is that in woods?” question, and again lowers mental overhead.

[garhkal]

So on the movement dice.  I 100% would not buy the deticated "BT" movement dice.   It is much faster, cheaper and easier to just buy different color dice to represent walk run or jump and to use numbers on the dice.   The deticated movement dice are over priced and have smaller print that are harder to read than normal dice

You don't even need dice..  I saw a guy using cardboard chits he got from several other games..  White (with black #s) brown (with white #s) and black (with white #s), with numbers from 1 to 5...

[Charistoph]

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

I'm going to say, yes.  No matter which type you pick up, they are a worthy investment.

Aries and Fortress have dice bricks that provide 9 12mm dice in each color already to go, or you can get dice in bricks of all in one color if you ever plan on having a lot of units on the table.  Also helpful is getting some green dice in this size for Wood Markers.  I've also gotten clear pink for ECM and Sensor Ghosting, and light purple for Piloting Skill Rolls.  I'm looking on how to get colors for a +/- Level for those times on a 2D mat and the unit is covering the hex.

Some fun guys have developed dice which give you all the numbers you need on a single facing of the dice.  (I know a few on Etsy, but I'm unsure about the rules about linking them here.)  These are great for beginners, as you just grab the right color, look up how far you moved and put that facing up, and you have the TMM and AMM right there.  However, they can be a bit harder to read for those whose astigmatism needs correcting, and they can also be a crutch.  So be careful.

One advantage normal dice have over those fancy Movement Dice, though, is that some unit types have bonuses beyond the normal color.  VTOLs and WiGEs have a +1 to their TMM by being Airborne whether they are moving at a "Walking" (aka Cruising) or "Running" (Flanking).  Battle Armor also have a native +1 To-Hit them, and I like to incorporate that in to their TMM dice for convenience.

No matter which path you choose, though, I highly recommend them.  I wish someone had thought of them back in the 90s when I first started playing and suggested them in the books.

[paladin2019]

For movement dice, I use d10s instead of d6s because they are an arrow (to show facing and torso twists) and have 0s. If I could reasonably get d8s numbered 0-7 I would do that as d10s are a little wobbly.

[mechasaurus]

Bought the starter set, played with my son.

Those A5 cards you get with the mechs and armour diagrams, what do people use to record damage? I was thinking a whiteboard marker?

Yes, any dry erase marker.  I like to put them in plastic sleeves, and then you don't even get smudges

Are movement dice a worthy investment?

Yes

Is minimum distance and mech heat a thing?

Not in the Beginner Box.

How do you deal with a leg being destroyed?

On pg. 8 of the Quick-Start Rules, it explains the various damage effects.  For a leg blown off, you can't move or even make facing changes, but you can still shoot weapons.

Having played the Battletech PC game I was suprised when he was using his LRM from 1 hex away with no difficult modifiers lol.

Where do I go from here? Embrace the beginners rules or add some flavour or play the full rules?

My son and I played the Beginners Box for a while before moving on to AGoAC, so you could do that.  Now we're in a group, using more of the Total Warfare and Battlemech Manual rules.