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[Rufus Landale]

Heya new board! (And so looking forward to the game in question. Even if I would rather have a boxed solo game. With more Duncan Fisher Solaris commentary..)

Down here in Norwich CT off of Exit 80 on Rt 395 I will be running a 3025 tech Battletech game/demo this upcoming Tuesday around 630 PM.
(That would be 27Mar12 at 1830 if you want to get all military about it.)

A number of new and lapsed players will be playing at the Arkham Asylum comic shop next to the auto parts store and the Dairy Queen. (Off Exit 80 head the OPPOSITE direction of the Wal Mart. Its about 5-10 minutes down the road on the right hand side in a plaza. Its past the TJ Max and Olde Tymes diner.)

I will be bringing a number of mechs and minis, but folks who already have their own and want to bring them can do so following these restrictions:

3025 tech. 4/5 Gunner/Pilot. 925-1050 BV2 Battle Value. Stock designs.

Depending on how it all goes down we might make it a regular thing with an ongoing campaign and the like.
(Or if you are getting out of the game and want to offload your stuff some folks including the store itself might take it off your hands.)

This is the kind of madness I get up to when I run a game:







I've got 3d terrain! I've got counters for all the fun bits! I've got miniatures, mech sheets, and dry erase markers!
When I bring my game the fun is DOUBLED.

So if you want to play either show up around 630ish this Tuesday, or get a hold of me if you want to play but not that day or anything.
(I pretty much can't do weekends much at all. I have had 2 Saturdays off in the past 12 months and 1 of them was a vacation day for Connecticon.)

Want to get ready and hyped for all the Battletech electronic games this summer? Come on down and play the game its based off of! I've been playing Battletech since 1988 so I know my stuff pretty well!

[Rufus Landale]

I said I would have pictures of my 8 player game and here it is. It could have been 9 had I had enough mechs on me. Maybe even more if a few folks were available.

Why so many? I guess my Mechshake brings all the Freebirths to the yard? :v




















[color=#FFFFFF]
I ran an amazing demo game of Battletech Tuesday. 8 players. It could have been 9 but I only had 8 minis and sheets on me. I did NOT expect this kind of turn out.

Its the third time I have run the game for mostly newbies and taught all of them how to play. Most of the folks seemed to really enjoy it too.

I taught it like a videogame tutorial. Show them how to walk and turn with the unit commander. Then they try it. Then I explain how running works. Then I show jumping. Then show the basics of terrains for hills and forests. (I mention water but keep it out of the training mission.)

I have the players follow my commander around my map. (Which was Heroscape terrain. Its really THE way to play Battletech. It might have been part of the reason I had most of the people in the store playing.)

I put a little Gundam blind box figure on the field and explain the basics of shooting and heat. Give a couple examples about movement affecting accuracy, and range. Also get into the basics of critical hits and ammo explosions.

I answer a buttload of questions. Lots of them were about things they were kind of joking being able to do like burn down forests and beat people with their own arms. I say there ARE rules for such things but we are keeping it simple for this session. Battletech is fun but its VERY in depth and has stupid amounts of rules for any bloody thing you might really want to do in game.

I then explain initiative and give the players X turns to go hide somewhere. First 2 turns I have them just worry about movement and placing my Litko movement counters I had made from their Custom option, then the next 2 also placing down their to be hit counters so they get used to actually keeping track of how far their actual movement is in effecting modifiers.

I helpfully say my commander is joining in at a random time and is a 3/4 to their 4/5s and tell them to let the virtual combat begin. No close combat allowed as well.

As everyone goes all Battle Royale/Hunger Games on each other I help answer additional questions, and the 2 players who had any experience help out a bit as well. (One being nice enough to take the Jagermech.) People were mastering the rules FAST this way. By the second weapons free round I was barely needed outside of checking up on various things or refreshing myself on certain rules.

In my style I give the players callsigns based on their actions.

The Rifleman was Nancy, due to his running off and hiding behind a large wall.

The Phoenix Hawk was Backstabber due to his jumping behind a mech and going alpha on it. (He could have also been Weeble Wobble as he took more damage than anyone else and still survived the session. With an Engine AND Gyro hit.)

The Blackjack was Camper as he jumped on a large ruined building and sat there. Till my commander came online and got him out of his perch.

The Wolverine was Wooverine as he tried shooting at 2 targets, one with each arm going all dual wield. Till he realized he didn't have guns in both arms.

The Jagermech was Fry Daddy as he was shot in the back and had a virtual AC5 ammo explosion. Like 100 points of ammo explosion.

The Vindicator was Glory Hole which caused everyone to laugh at it, and was being run by 2 players. A lady and another guy who came in late so they worked together on strategy. Their strategy being to pretty much hug a wall and shoot at things. My commander character said they clearly knew a thing or two about humping walls.

The Shadow Hawk was Me Too! as he seemed to basically just gang up on any target any other mech was shooting at.

(My commander was as always Lepus in his trusty Enforcer. Known for hopping around and not sitting still. Was part of the original 4 members of the "Red Rockets" (Yes its a South Park reference.) unit commanded by Dirty Bob, a man who smelled like a brewery and had the STDs of a frathouse. Generally I say most of the newbie players are his horde of illegitimate kids and his child support payment is a giant combat robot. He died in his Hunchback, having fallen over an ammo dump when drunker than usual.)

Using 3025 tech medium/heavies in the 1000 BVish range with the Solaris Skunkworks sheets that have the nice side charts helped it be enough to play with to be fun but not a ridiculous assault fest or boring scout war.

I once played at a Connecticon BT demo where they gave each player an entire medium/heavy lance of 3060 era tech. Thats not a good demo.

It might be a month or more before we can get to play again, but I am thinking lance on lance with water, close combat, pavement, and possibly fire/smoke rules since outside of buildings that really does cover most of the important BT rules.

Figure each lance with a heavy, 2 mediums, and a scout, and the winning lance has to face the Commander who will have the Refit Enforcer (or a Refit Victor.. I haven't quite decided yet...) and be at his full skill as a 2/3 and see if they can't take him out.

If there is still interest, game 3 would involve tanks and possibly some infantry as the final graduation exercise.

Its funny though. I've taught more people over the years how to play Battletech than the regional Commando has. He sadly seems to follow the normal BT player SOP of "If you don't play exactly when I play in the style I play in the game group I play in you simply don't even exist".
(Seriously BT folk. SOOO many of you seem to do this and I just don't understand why. )

Course for a while I even knew the rules better than he did. I just haven't gotten as many games in the last few years so some knowledge has gone wherever it goes into one's brainmeats when they don't make use of it.[/color]


(Yes I have posted this elsewhere as well, why do you ask?)

See folks. Live in my area of Connecticut USA you ought to come down and game with us some time!