37 replies to this topic

[Bishop Steiner]

HanaYuriko, on 01 May 2013 - 05:43 PM, said:

I'm imagining sort of a Battle Chess setup. But instead of checkerboard like a traditional chess set, it's an 8x8 hex grid.

While the pieces move like a traditional chess set, the players have to fight it out to gain territory and/or capture pieces. Considering the movement rates of standard chess pieces, I'd replace the pawns with infantry rather than a light 'mech. Especially since swarm attacks can be fairly effective. If you manage to get an infantry unit to the other side of the board, then they can mount up in a 'mech.

You play one or two rounds using standard Tabletop rules, where the victor is the one that wins a tactical victory. The resulting damage determines whether a piece is destroyed or forced into retreat. If retreat isn't possible (via standard Chess movement) then the losing piece is captured. If there is a draw, then the attacker moves back to their original position.

when do we combine it with 3D Chess from Star Trek?

[Stokes52]

HanaYuriko, on 01 May 2013 - 05:43 PM, said:

I'm imagining sort of a Battle Chess setup. But instead of checkerboard like a traditional chess set, it's an 8x8 hex grid.

While the pieces move like a traditional chess set, the players have to fight it out to gain territory and/or capture pieces. Considering the movement rates of standard chess pieces, I'd replace the pawns with infantry rather than a light 'mech. Especially since swarm attacks can be fairly effective. If you manage to get an infantry unit to the other side of the board, then they can mount up in a 'mech.

You play one or two rounds using standard Tabletop rules, where the victor is the one that wins a tactical victory. The resulting damage determines whether a piece is destroyed or forced into retreat. If retreat isn't possible (via standard Chess movement) then the losing piece is captured. If there is a draw, then the attacker moves back to their original position.

Wow, that sounds pretty cool... and then they could make a VIDEO GAME based off of it where you choose your mechs and change their loadout and fight against other players and stuff.

Oh wait.............

[Khanahar]

So, my dream retirement involves making themed chess sets, so I've given this a fair bit of consideration.

One important thing when trying to get the piece selection right is determining how much you want to emulate speed versus power profiles. In BT, the problem is particularly pronounced, given that lighter 'mechs tend (generally) to be faster than heavier ones, in trade for power. In chess, power and mobility are one in the same.

To best get the flavor, my vote would be to have particularly slow pieces (pawns, king) played by non-'mechs and others to be played by 'mechs. (If you were really getting into it, you could try to line up BV with Chess points, but that's probably overdoing it.) Note that in some cases, you can improve realism by making a piece actually multiple pieces. This can be tricky to model, but can be done in many cases if demanded.

Lining up roles is more obviously important: Knights are mobile (JJ!), Rooks are powerful, Bishops often act as "fire support."


In general:
King= Mobile HQ (can move, but only just barely)... command 'mech is also a possibility
Queen= Centerpiece 'Mech
Rook= Brawler/General purpose
Bishop= Fire Support
Knight= JJ Flanker
Pawn= Vehicles

The real challenge is to do it by faction. I'll start (3050):

Davion:
K=HQ (or Battlemaster if you prefer an all-mech board)
Q=Atlas
R=Centurion/Enforcer duo (or Cataphract, if you don't mind faction overlap)
B=Jagermech (if you want BV accuracy, like 17 of 'em. If you went 'Phract for R, could have CN9 as
N=Victor
P=Vedette

[HanaYuriko]

Khanahar, on 07 May 2013 - 04:01 PM, said:

The real challenge is to do it by faction. I'll start (3050):

Davion:
K=HQ (or Battlemaster if you prefer an all-mech board)
Q=Atlas
R=Centurion/Enforcer duo (or Cataphract, if you don't mind faction overlap)
B=Jagermech (if you want BV accuracy, like 17 of 'em. If you went 'Phract for R, could have CN9 as
N=Victor
P=Vedette

I'll bite.

Kurita (3060)
K= AS7-CM Atas (Or TSH-7S Tai-sho)
Q= Hatamoto Chi
R= DRG-C Grand Dragon
B= SD1-O Sunder
Kn= Black Hawk-Ku
P= Kanazuchi

[Khanahar]

HanaYuriko, on 07 May 2013 - 09:49 PM, said:

I'll bite.

Kurita (3060)
K= AS7-CM Atas (Or TSH-7S Tai-sho)
Q= Hatamoto Chi
R= DRG-C Grand Dragon
B= SD1-O Sunder
Kn= Black Hawk-Ku
P= Kanazuchi

Hey! Love your art.

I dig. I'd swap the Sunder and Grand Dragon though, due to function (Grand Dragon more of an opportunistic fighter, Sunder more of an assault-the-fronter) and value (far higher for the Sunder... depending on variant, maybe even making it a Queen candidate.)

How about themed from video games:
MechCommander 1
Port Arthur, Operation Bird Dog 3060
Attackers: FedCom...1st Davion Guards
Defenders: Jaguars...168th Garrison Cluster

FedCom:
K: Atlas
Q: Awesome (Best IS in the game, even though 3rd smallest, due to 4/6 mobility. Bushwacker better in expansion)
R: Mauler
B: Jagermech
N: Catapult (here by tradition... in MC any 'mech could mount JJ.)
P: Pegasus

Jaguars:
K: Masakari
Q: Mad Cat (again, mobility mattered in this game... a lot)
R: Nova Cat
B: Vulture
N: Thor
P: Elementals

http://www.sarna.net...t_Arthur.5B7.5D

[Keebler]

This is a resurrection, but I actually DID make a Battletech Chess game... kinda. Was using the DreamChess engine in Linux, and only had the Locust and Atlas, but it was playable.... was just a work in progress, and hadn't even started a proper sprite engine.

[Metus regem]

And here I would've gone with the Hunchback 4G for the Bishop with the pawn being the Urbanmech... Maybe Victor as the knight or rook....

[Mechteric]

Having a mech as King instead of a Dropship would make a lot more sense.


Also, would love to see a Battle Chess version with Mechs

[ChapeL]

This thread reminds me of the chess scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. I can see an atlas walking towards a locust, picking it up and crashing it to the ground in victory, while Chewie looks smuggly at Luke.

[Odanan]

Come on, guys:

Clan:

• King: Dire Wolf
  
• Queen: Warhawk
  
• Bishop: Timber Wolf
  
• Knight: Summoner
  
• Rook: Mad Dog
  
• Pawns: Fire Moth

IS:

• King: Atlas
  
• Queen: Battlemaster
  
• Bishop: Marauder
  
• Knight: Warhammer
  
• Rook: Rifleman
  
• Pawns: Wasp

[Mechteric]

Odanan, on 03 August 2016 - 03:03 AM, said:

Come on, guys:

Clan:

• King: Dire Wolf
  
• Queen: Warhawk
  
• Bishop: Timber Wolf
  
• Knight: Summoner
  
• Rook: Mad Dog
  
• Pawns: Fire Moth

IS:

• King: Atlas
  
• Queen: Battlemaster
  
• Bishop: Marauder
  
• Knight: Warhammer
  
• Rook: Rifleman
  
• Pawns: Wasp

What, no medium mechs? I think the Rook should be given to the medium mechs!


Also, I think it would be cool to not have the same mech duplicated across the field, instead just dedicate a weight class to the non-king/queen iconic positions.

Bishop - Assaults
Clan: Gargoyle, Executioner
IS: Zeus, Awesome

Knight - Heavies
Clan: Timber Wolf, Summoner
IS: Warhammer, Marauder

Rook - Mediums
Clan: Nova, Stormcrow
IS: Centurion, Hunchback

Pawns - Lights
Clan: 8 different clan lights
IS: 8 different IS lights

[Keebler]

Careful, you might convince me to redo the game. (I lost most/all of the original files in a drive wipe, but could "easily" remake)...

The biggest challenge is getting the models imported correctly and finding a game engine that's easy enough to work with.

I was going to switch to Saurbraten (Cube2), for it's Opensource Goodness, but not sure the models would be high-res enough. Then thought maybe Unity, but I'm not verse well enough to program the chess engine w/ the Unity Engine, plus, Unity isn't open source, makes collaboration a little harder.

Maybe some day.

[mp00]

Just me but I think the Knight needs to be a JJ mech..

[Tahawus]

IS Queen = banshee...

[kalashnikity]

I must necromancer this thread, because here I was thinking I was the first person to think of this.

Should have known better!

The disagreements in this thread on which chassis to use for each role is hilarious.

Obviously there should be mechs from each weight class included, that's the main complaint I see.

And knights must be jump jet enabled!

[kalashnikity]

I like this, just need to use 3D printed pieces, instead of flat ones with stickers. How to set up the rules would need some thinking...

https://www.ephemera...exagonal-chess/

maybe IS king should be something like an annie, or even an Urbie- slow and can move any direction, an ode to it's turret.

[kalashnikity]

I can't think of a reason to not use different variants for the chassis. So something like a Butterbee Catapult on one side, and a Jester on the other for the IS knights,

And a hunchback 4G on one side, and a 4SP on the other for the IS castles. Something like that. Add some uniqueness. And use lights with lots of variety in armaments for the pawns, to add more uniqueness, maybe even use different chassis that look similar, you could have panthers, commandos and wolfhounds on the IS side for pawns, since they all look pretty similar. Maybe do all chicken walkers for the clan light pawns.

[lllaxmatist]

Pieces and pawns need to be as close as possible to BT.

I'll start with a pawns:

I chess pawn is light, slow, numerous.
the closest thing for BT may be infantry or battle armour. But if you wanna go mechs only? best option is urbie, because it is light cheap and slow.

Next thing is knight. it is light piece (3 pts of material), can jump or attack indirectly(LRM?). Highlander will not do, because it is too heavy. Good option is VND-AA (really jumpy medium mech), viper, for clans Koshi sounds really good, cause 6JJ and lrm as weapons. Another mechs may include Trebuchet, Catapult, maybe LRM-hunchback.

Bishop. Light piece (3.5pts), plays more like fire support role. Good picks here are Rifleman, Blackjack, Jagermech, Vulture, Shadow Cat, Uziel.

Rook, pn pair with Queen is considered heavy piece. Often it stands on open line and sweeps it. In my opinion the best pick is Awesome and Masakari for clans. It is heavy (assault), has not so good mobility (pawns limit rook movements, especially in opening stages)? and has heavy firepower on open lanes.

Queen. The strongest piece on the board. Has high mobility and firepower. Lu Wei Bing fitting here perfectly. For clan side we can pick the Mad Cat (not the 2nd). Another option is Highlander or Victor.

King. Slow piece,important, command, and in endgame it often sees a lot of action in close range. Because of last point, field HQ looks not so good here. Best fit is ATLAS, Cyclops, and anything with command console. For clans, i'll go with Daishi.


TlDR:

IS
Pawns - IS standard, or urbies.
Knight - HBK-4J or Trebuchet
Bishop - Blackjack
Rook - Awesome
Queen - Highlander
King - Atlas

Clan
Pawn - Elementals
Knight - Koshi
Bishop - Shadow Cat
Rook - Masakari
Queen - Mad Cat
King - Daishi