7 replies to this topic

[Cruize]

i just bought the introductory box set after playing TT at a few cons. Ran a game with my brother but realized there was no heat dissipation amount or ammo amount on the sheets (that i could see). can anyone help tell me where they are on the sheet or how to figure it out -based on amt of heat sinks or tons of ammo etc?

also how do you determine gunnery and pilot skills? i just made it 4/5 for us and ignored heat and ammo for our short trial run

[Sidney]

Cruize, on 14 October 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

i just bought the introductory box set after playing TT at a few cons. Ran a game with my brother but realized there was no heat dissipation amount or ammo amount on the sheets (that i could see). can anyone help tell me where they are on the sheet or how to figure it out -based on amt of heat sinks or tons of ammo etc?

also how do you determine gunnery and pilot skills? i just made it 4/5 for us and ignored heat and ammo for our short trial run

That's the introductory rules. They're designed for someone who is brand new to the game and hasn't played before- so some things (such as critical hits and heat) have been removed to make the game easier to learn.

The full tournament rules can be found in "Total Warfare", a (rather large) book you can purchase once you're ready to move on from the intro stage (hence the box being 'introductory' ). Be warned it has a lot of stuff in it, such as vehicles, Protomechs, infantry, Aerospace etc.so you should add rules as you're comfortable with them. (Try out 3050 technology, or the Clans. Then add infantry, or vehicles- then move onto aerospace etc.)

Note though that "Total Warfare" doens't include construction rules. Those have all been moved to "Techmanual", which is dedicated to creating and customizing units. It has construction rules for everything in Total Warfare (Mechs, Protos, vehicles, support vehicles, battle armour, aerospace etc.)

Finally, if you want to move on from there- and that should be a while- you can get Tactical Operations and [url=http://bg.battletech.com/?wpsc-product=strategic-operationsStrategic Operations[/url]. The former has advanced rules (Artillery, advanced and experimental tech, advanced movement and combat etc.) all of which are optional while the latter has (as I recall) dropship and warship construction, Battleforce rules (large scale games using large groups of units as if they were individual units), quirks for units and pilots etc.

Actual units can be found in various "Technical Readout" books (TROs), such as 3039, 3050, 3060 etc.

In other words:

Introbox -> Total Warfare -> TROs as desired -> Techmanual -> Tactical Operations (TRO: Prototypes if desired) -> Strategic Operations

Is the progression.

Note that if you don't care about the 'fluffl' of units, and just want the raw stats, you can always grab "Solaris Skunk Works" off the internet- it's a free program that lets you build 'Mechs and has many (though not all) of the units available for download.

As for Gunnery and Piloting: That's up to you. Total Warfare has suggestions for creating random scenarios- and that includes figuring out piloting skills. One way is through rolling them on a table, or another would be factoring them into the 'Battle Value' of your force. Typically:

Legendary: 0~1G / 0~2P
Elite: 2G / 3P
Vetran: 3G / 4P
Regular: 4G / 5P
Green: 5G / 6P

With Clan Pilots being 1 lower for both Gunnery and Piloting (Clan Vetran would be 2G / 3P). Jaime Wolf, Natasha Kerensky, Kai Allard Liao are all 0G/0P while other characters such as Victor Steiner Davion are 1G 2P (as I recall)

Edited by Sidney, 15 October 2012 - 07:25 AM.

[Crucis Lancer]

Since Sidney covered all the bases very well the only thing I can thing to add is that there are threads on the forum to help you find TT players in your area if you are interested in expanding your circle of players.

[Arctic Fox]

Sidney, on 15 October 2012 - 07:18 AM, said:

That's the introductory rules. They're designed for someone who is brand new to the game and hasn't played before- so some things (such as critical hits and heat) have been removed to make the game easier to learn.

Actually, the Introductory Rulebook does include ammo, critical hits and heat. Only the Quick-Start rules (which are also in the box set) remove these elements.

On the standard Record Sheet, heat levels and heat sinks are located on the bottom right and ammo bins are on the Critical Table. If you can't find those, you're probably using the Quick-Start Record Sheets (easily identifiable by taking up only half a page rather than a full page). Flip through the RS book you get with the box set to make sure you're using the right ones.

[SajuukKhar80]

Arctic Fox, on 15 October 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

Actually, the Introductory Rulebook does include ammo, critical hits and heat. Only the Quick-Start rules (which are also in the box set) remove these elements.

On the standard Record Sheet, heat levels and heat sinks are located on the bottom right and ammo bins are on the Critical Table. If you can't find those, you're probably using the Quick-Start Record Sheets (easily identifiable by taking up only half a page rather than a full page). Flip through the RS book you get with the box set to make sure you're using the right ones.

I just picked up the game also and I noticed on the new record sheets, I cant find any spot where it lists the ammo carried by the mech. yes in the critical hit location it shows where the ammo is stored and how much, but on my old record sheets, from 2nd edition, and some of the ones from the tech readouts lists all the ammo carried on board.

Or am I just blind and cant find it?? How does one track ammo with the standard sheets? Do you write it down some where on any blank space on the sheet?

[SteelWarrior]

I always played BT with standard pilots being 4/6 Gunnery/piloting.

[Keisuke Nagisa]

They should be on their as long as your not using the quick start sheets. You can also print sheets for free using solaris skunk werks. They have almost all the mechs and variants available and their sheets are really easy to use.

http://www.solarisskunkwerks.com/

[KalebFenoir]

SteelWarrior, on 06 November 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

I always played BT with standard pilots being 4/6 Gunnery/piloting.

a 6 piloting?? Wow. You like the challenge, eh? Last time I played with someone, they had a Salamander pilot who had a pretty good gunnery (I think he scored a 3 or something) and a piloting of 6 (which in my mind says 'hey, I just stepped into the pilot seat; what does THIS button do??' )

First round, he stepped into some level 1 water, and had to do a piloting roll because you're supposed to. Problem was, instead of it being auto-compensated or damn-near by being a 3 or 4 (so easy to roll better than that), he rolled less than 6. So his mech went down. We calculated where his damage would be, and it ended up on his head. So instant internal on the head. Rolled for crits, and he got one. Roll for that, and goodbye pilot. Seems that his green-as-grass pilot with the unerring accuracy, tripped his mech, and fell on a spike of rock hidden below the waterline.

Was a moment of silence for that pilot....