New Rules
Mech Eng Student
The following article contains three new ideas for Battletech. The
first is the use of shields defensively, the second is rules for a
second crewmember in 'mechs and the final one is rules for mechs with a
strange number of limbs, from only 2 legs up to 8 legs and 4 arms.
In recent years the DCMS was becoming increasingly frustrated with the
number of highly trained mechwarriors they were losing to FedCom Axmen
and Hatchetmen. This continued to be a thorn in their side until a
bright young R&D scientist came up with the idea of primitve defense to
primitive attacks. Thus the Shield was born.
Game Use:
A mechwarrior can use a mech mounted shield once per turn.
Immediatley after all targets have been declared the warrior states that
he intends to use the shield to block either the fire OR physical
attacks from ONE enemy mech. He then makes a piloting skill roll
modified by the opponents gunnery (for weapons fire) or piloting. In
Shadowboxing this counts as a dodge for purposes of calculating the
number allowed. If succesful then all damage FROM the relevant mech is
applied to the shield first before any excess passes on to the normal
armour. There are two kinds of shields: those built into mechs or those
carried by mechs equipped with gauntlets. A built in shield takes up
one critical space per ton of armour and can be mounted on any arm (it
is moulded into the structure). A carried shield counts as cargo for
movement effects and can only be carried by mechs equipped with an
unoccupied gauntlet. Any forearm mounted weapons (PxHawk's medium laser
or MG) cannot fire but shoulder mounts (Crusader's LRMs) are not
blocked. No carried shield can be greater than 20% of the weight of the
carrying mech. A shield can be made from any type of armour (normal,
ferro-fibrous etc.) and provides the standard amount of protection per
ton of armour.
Ever since the BLR-1C that Theodore Kurita uses was "accidently
delivered" to the Ghost Regiment there have been schemes in developement
to add a second crewmember to mechs. There have been three succesful
results. The first is a copy of the system found on Theodore's mech.
These have been retrofitted into Regimental Commander's mechs as they
are rotated in for overhaul. By far the most common type is the BLR-2C
which attempts to imitate the Star League version. The second system slaves
all of the gunnery systems to the second crewmember thus freeing up the
concentration of both the pilot and the gunner allowing them to act
with a slightly improved performance. The final idea installs a whole
new cockpit, complete with nuero-helmet and HUD. This effectively
guards against a freak shot taking a whole mech out.
Game Use:
All secondary crewmember systems take up the last critical
place in the head and some rules apply to all three types of cockpit.
i) A head hit will damage both occupants of the mech
ii) If the mech falls both occupants make rolls to avoid damage
seperately
iii) The destruction of one of the crew stations has no effect on the
function of the other although some results of pilot loss will
affect the resolution of combat for the gunner eg. the 'mech falls
down and the gunner receives the firing from prone modifier.
iv) Anybody who is only required to operate one system (piloting or
gunnery) receives a -1 modifier to skill rolls.
v) Except in the case of the Secondary Cockpit, the other
crewmember does not receive damage from ammunition explosions as he
is not wearing a nuerohelmet to transmit the electric shocks.
1) The Commander's position can have one of two effects one the
battle. The commander can either act as a gunner, receiving the single
action modifier, or co-ordinate the efforts of the entire friendly side.
If he does the latter then his team receives a bonus to its initiative
roll equal to either his leadership or his tactics skill level,
whichever is higher. In cases where this value is not known then a
sensible number can be agreed with the opponents, depending upon the
rank and experience. For example Theodore would have a value of around
about 6 whereas a newly promoted captain might only have a level of 1 or
2.
2) The gunner's position is just that, a position where another
crewmember can operate all of the offensive weaponry on the mech,
leaving the pilot to the important business of keeping the 'mech
upright. If for some reason the gunner is rendered hors de combat then
the pilot can take over his duties but he is then once more operating
two systems and couldn't claim the bonus to his piloting.
3) A secondary cockpit duplicates all of the systems normally found in
a mech's cockpit. This allows it to function as the gunner's position
above. The secondary crewmember can also take over the piloting of the
mech if the primary pilot is rendered unconscious or killed.
System Weight Criticals
Gunner's Position 1.0t 1
Commander's Position 1.5t 1
Secondary Cockpit 2.0t 1
With Centaurid mechs having come up the idea struck me for six legged
mechs or even eight legged mechs like spiders, then I thought what about
putting two pairs of arms on a mech which includes a secondary cockpit
etc. I thought about these ideas and here are my rules for them
Any mech can have a different number of limbs than the ordinary
humanoid design. It can have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 8 legs.
Arms can be dismissed altogether or up to one more set may be added.
All limbs must be bought in pairs. If extra limbs are added certain
advantages and extras are gained. For each additional pair of legs the
following additions are made:
+1 walking speed
-2 piloting skill modifier
Add one gyro critical location to the Torso
Also, divide the number of legs by 2 and
multiply the gyro weight by the result. Thus a 6-legged mech with a 240
engine will have a gyro weighing 9t(!). This represents the additional
synchronisation machinary and other computer hardware and software
required for a biped to operate a multi-limbed 'mech.
For each pair of limbs over four +1 is
added to the piloting skill modifier ie. an 8-legged mech with no arms
has a modifier of -2. Certain other restrictions apply to the use of
extra arms. Each crewman can only operate one pair of arms so for a
4-armed mech to function at top efficiency it requires a secondary
cockpit. Only one pair of arms can engage in a physical attack at
any one time. If two pairs of arms are present the actuator
configuration has to be exactly the same in each set.
A mech has a percentage of its tonnage allocated to IS. This is
calculated as follows: 6% for the torso + 2% for each pair of limbs.
This is rounded to the nearest 0.25t. Thus the "armless" Urbanmech only
has an IS requirement of 8% ie 2.5t. The number of points of Internal
Structure recieved and its weight is shown in the table below:
%age 8 10 12 14 16 18
Weight
10 12 16 20 23 23 27
0.75t 1t 1.25t 1.5t 1.5t 1.75t
15 20 23 27 30 40 44
1.25t 1.5t 1.75t 2.0t 2.5t 2.75t
20 23 30 40 44 52 55
1.5t 2t 2.5t 2.75t 3.25t 3.5t
25 30 40 48 55 64 72
2t 2.5t 3t 3.5t 4t 4.5t
30 40 48 55 68 76 88
2.5t 3t 3.5t 4.25t 4.75t 5.5t
35 44 55 68 80 88 98
2.75t 3.5t 4.25t 5t 5.5t 6.25t
40 52 64 76 88 101 108
3.25t 4t 4.75t 5.5t 6.5t 7.25t
45 55 72 88 98 108 119
3.5t 4.5t 5.5t 6.25t 7.25t 8t
50 64 80 96 104 119 135
4t 5t 6t 7t 8t 9t
55 72 88 101 115 131 149
4.5t 5.5t 6.5t 7.75t 8.75t 10t
60 76 96 108 127 142 160
4.75t 6t 7.25t 8.5t 9.5t 10.75t
65 84 101 115 135 156 174
5.25t 6.5t 7.75t 9t 10.5t 11.75t
70 88 104 127 146 167 184
5.5t 7t 8.5t 9.75t 11.25t 12.5t
75 96 111 135 156 181 197
6t 7.5t 9t 10.5t 12t 13.5t
80 101 119 142 167 189 209
6.5t 8t 9.5t 11.25t 12.75t 14.5t
85 102 127 152 181 197 215
6.75t 8.5t 10.25t 12t 13.5t 15.25t
90 108 135 160 186 209 226
7.25t 9t 10.75t 12.5t 14.5t 16.25t
95 111 142 171 194 215 236
7.5t 9.5t 11.5t 13.25t 15.25t 17t
100 119 149 181 203 223 250
8t 10t 12t 14t 16t 18t
The percentage of this number allocated to each system is as follows
arms 0 2 4
legs
2 25% 20% 17%
18.75% 15% 12.5%
18.75% 15% 12.5%
0% 10% 8.25%
4 18% 16% 13%
14% 11.5% 10%
13.5% 11.5% 10%
0% 7.5% 6.75%
6 15% 12.5% 11%
11% 9.75% 8.75%
10.5% 9.25% 8.25%
0% 6.25% 5.5%
8 12% 11% 10%
9% 8% 7.5%
8.75% 7.75% 7%
0% 5.5% 4.75%
The table is laid out as %age to Centre Torso, %age to each side
torso, %age to each leg, %age to each arm.
Some mechs designed using these rules will follow in the near future.
Including BLR-1C, BLR-2C (yes they ARE different mechs), UM-A60 (no
arms) the redesigned Scorpion, Tarantula and Goliath and two called the
SpiderMech and the ScorpoMech.
TTFN
Roderick Easton
2nd year Student Edinburgh University SCOTLAND
MATIS stephane
>
> The following article contains three new ideas for Battletech. The
>first is the use of shields defensively, the second is rules for a
>
>Game Use:
> A mechwarrior can use a mech mounted shield once per turn.
>Immediatley after all targets have been declared the warrior states that
>he intends to use the shield to block either the fire OR physical
>attacks from ONE enemy mech. He then makes a piloting skill roll
>modified by the opponents gunnery (for weapons fire) or piloting. In
>Shadowboxing this counts as a dodge for purposes of calculating the
>number allowed. If succesful then all damage FROM the relevant mech is
>applied to the shield first before any excess passes on to the normal
>armour. There are two kinds of shields: those built into mechs or those
>carried by mechs equipped with gauntlets. A built in shield takes up
>one critical space per ton of armour and can be mounted on any arm (it
>is moulded into the structure). A carried shield counts as cargo for
>movement effects and can only be carried by mechs equipped with an
>unoccupied gauntlet. Any forearm mounted weapons (PxHawk's medium laser
>or MG) cannot fire but shoulder mounts (Crusader's LRMs) are not
>blocked. No carried shield can be greater than 20% of the weight of the
>carrying mech. A shield can be made from any type of armour (normal,
>ferro-fibrous etc.) and provides the standard amount of protection per
>ton of armour.
>
Roderick Easton
An alternate shield rule appeared in Mecha-Press issue 1, p.11; just
helping out. :)
Marc A. Vezina
Editor Mecha-Press