(Answered) Length of multi-hex vehicles from Reinforcements: CI box

[Alfaryn]

Are lengths of multi-hex vehicles depicted on support unit tokens in Reinforcements: Clan Invasion box correct? I believe they may be too long.

This is a question that I've wondered about ever since information about these tokens appeared on CI kickstarter page, but seems to be more pressing now, considering the rumor that at least some of these vehicles will be made into miniatures as part of the upcoming Mercenary kickstarter.

Mobile HQ and MASH vehicles were depicted in the Reinforcements box as two-hex tokens. The only MHQ and MASH vehicles I could find in my TROs are 20-ton MASH from p. 20, TRO3039, 25-ton Mobile HQ from p. 32, TRO3039, 20-ton MIT 23 MASH Vehicle from p. 44, TRO3075, and 50-ton Daymyo HQ 67-K from p. 204, TRO3075. All of these vehicles may be shown as tractor-trailer sets on their TRO artworks, but rules-wise they are single light and medium combat vehicles, so I don't see a reason why they would take up more then one hex.

Mobile Long Tom is a bit more complicated. On the token from Reinforcements box it's designation is given as LT-MOB 25 (without a dash between "MOB" and "25"). I believe it is supposed to be the same model as LT-MOB-25 Mobile Long Tom Artillery from p. 78, TRO3039 (with a dash between "MOB" an "25", so there probably a slight designation error either in the TRO or the Reinforcements box). I realize that the stat blocks given in TRO3039 are incorrect, and we are supposed to use the record sheets given on https://bg.battletech.com/downloads/ page. This means that LT-MOB-25 consists of a 75-ton tractor and a number of 10-ton trailers.

I couldn't find any rules for lengths of tractor-trailer sets of combat vehicles, but I suppose that similar rules for support vehicles are supposed to be used instead. These rules also could be more clear, but between p. 205 TW, pp. 117-120 TM, and an example on p. 19 TO:AUE, I figure that both LT-MOB-25 tractors and trailers should be considered medium support vehicles for the purposes of stacking (meaning that two of each of them count as a single unit for the purposes of stacking), and more importantly for the topic at hand LT-MOB-25 set should have length in hexes equal to number of tractors and trailers it consists of divided by two, rounded up.

In other words if my interpretation of the rules is correct a "typical" LT-MOB-25 configuration according to TRO3039 (a tractor and five trailers) would be three hexes long, while a configuration depicted on the tokens from the Reinforcements box (one tractor ant three trailers) should be just two hexes long. Either the five hexes length of the tokens from the box seems to be too much.

Are there any relevant rules I have missed or misinterpreted here, or any official supersized versions of the vehicles in question I don't know about? Or, as I suggested at the beginning of this post, are the multi-hex vehicle tokens from Reinforcements incorrect? And, perhaps most importantly, if the tokens are too long, will the upcoming minis representing the same vehicles also take up too many hexes?

[Xotl]

I can't really answer this as it's more of a production / aesthetics issue than a rules one.  No relevant rules have changed that I'm aware of; it was just decided to make some units larger, for reasons outside my knowledge.  As it is a production issue, it lies outside of rules-based considerations, as with renders being made and miniatures being printed, how the rules might work is not really relevant.  But it's worth noting that the final forms may not reflect what was seen in the Reinforcements box: renders have just started to come out of the various vehicles involved.

[Alfaryn]

So, setting aside the matter of R:CI box or the upcoming minis, does it mean that my interpretation of the rules is correct? MHQ and MASH vehicles should be just one hex long and Mobile Long Tom with 5 trailers should be three hexes long?

I just want to make sure, since the relevant rules (especially in TW) could be worded better IMO. In particular TW doesn't appear to explicitly say that the length of a vehicle set is one hex for each started pair small/medium vehicles in the set plus one hex for each large vehicle. Just that according to stacking rules one side can have no more that that in a hex. Another problem is that tractor and trailer rules in TW appear on p. 205 - in the support vehicles chapter, and as far as I can tell it is left unclear if these rules also apply to combat vehicles like Mobile Long Tom.

[Xotl]

I'd rather wait until I know what the devs are planning before I comment further.  I have no reason to think there's any actual rules changes in the offing, but I'd rather not give a concrete answer and then find out I'm contradicting something.

Perhaps you might ask in Ask The Devs, as Ray or Aaron would be in a better position to say.

[Alfaryn]

Seeing that there is a 1-hex MHQ mini shown in the newest kickstarter preview pdf I think that asking the devs may be a little premature. It looks like the tokens in R:CI box may have been a deviation from the rules that is being corrected. I think I'll start a relevant thread in Ask The Devs if I see something that suggests that the upcoming MLT or MASH minis may not be three and one hexes long respectively.

In the meantime perhaps we should consider the about two small or medium (or one of each) trailers being treated as a single support vehicle and a single small or medium trailer being considered a part of a trailer for the purposes of stacking and movement. This little rule appears in trailers sections on pp. 57 and 205 TW and coupled with the stacking rules that permit up to two units from each side on a hex may lead some people to think that up to four small/medium tractors and trailers belonging to the same "land train" may be fit in one hex. The example p. 19 TO:AUE seems to go against this interpretation, but TW rules obviously shouldn't require TO:AUE to interpret them correctly.

I believe that the above coupled with the confusion about whether any of these rules should apply to combat vehicles I mentioned in my previous post may be things that require TW errata entries.