17 replies to this topic

[Oversight99]

So, I've never played table top and was wondering about a few aspects of play. Is there anyone who played table top who can help out with a few questions?

So, in table top rules...

1 - When mechs take damage to an area of the torso, is there a chance a heatsink will be damaged/destroyed?

2 - When a mech loses an arm, do any heat sinks in the arm go away?

3 - When legs are damaged, is there an immediate loss of speed, or is it gradual based on damage?

4 - When equipment (say... a BAP for example) is mounted somewhere, can it be destroyed? Would it take a crit, or is a lot of damage to one area sufficient?

5 - Are there actually table top rules for mechs cooling because they are standing in armor?

6 - Can mechs take leg damage from jump jet flight? If so, it is possible to take damage when jumping and landing on the same elevation or is an elevation change required?

7 - How do the rules account for torso twist speed?

Just curious... never played table top and wondered how the original rules worked.

Thanks!

[grimzod]

Oversight99, on 07 June 2012 - 07:37 PM, said:

So, I've never played table top and was wondering about a few aspects of play. Is there anyone who played table top who can help out with a few questions?

So, in table top rules...

1 - When mechs take damage to an area of the torso, is there a chance a heatsink will be damaged/destroyed?

2 - When a mech loses an arm, do any heat sinks in the arm go away?

3 - When legs are damaged, is there an immediate loss of speed, or is it gradual based on damage?

4 - When equipment (say... a BAP for example) is mounted somewhere, can it be destroyed? Would it take a crit, or is a lot of damage to one area sufficient?

5 - Are there actually table top rules for mechs cooling because they are standing in armor?

6 - Can mechs take leg damage from jump jet flight? If so, it is possible to take damage when jumping and landing on the same elevation or is an elevation change required?

7 - How do the rules account for torso twist speed?

Just curious... never played table top and wondered how the original rules worked.

Thanks!

1. Wherever a heat sink is allocated, it can be destroyed. In the mechlab it looked very much like a traditional mech layout so i'd say yes. Of course a large portion of HS are in the engine and not subject to individual destruction - unless they've implemented crits to engines increasing heat output and you'd suffer the same effect as losing a random heat sink (what was it 1 hit = 3 heat 2 = 5, cant remember).

2. if the arm is destroyed you lose the effects of all the equipment in that arm (tt rules)

3. you lose speed when hip actuators and foot actuators are damaged individually. If the leg is destroyed the effect is drastic.

4. it is damaged on a crit to its allocated space in the crit chart.

5. yes. stand in water of a certain level and HS in your legs can cool you off faster. And if armor boggles you, all heavy combat equipment has exhaust fans and ducts. So do mechs.

6. yes, failing a piloting roll is bad. as long as your not suffering gyro damage a jump is a jump. if you are hit mid-air and have to roll for being knocked down (20 plus points of damage), then things get nasty if you fail that piloting roll. as in crash landing.

7. during weapon attack phases you can twist the torso one hex side left or right of its current facing.

Edited by grimzod, 07 June 2012 - 07:46 PM.

[Jakeyda]

1 - If it goes to the internals and a critical is scored, yes.
2 - when an arm is lost, everything there is lost. this includes weapon, heat sink, ammo, ect...
3 - if there is a critical from internal structure damage, yes and it is immediate
4 - anything can be destroyed if a critical is scored
5 - I assume you mean water and yes
6 - If they land on something that is destroyed in the process like a building or mech, yes the legs can take damage. Also if they fail a piloting check when landing I believe. I am a little fuzzy on all the rules as it has been quite some time since I've played regularly.

[Faceless Priest]

I tried to make all these answers not the same as the 2 already listed, many of them are tangent instead of direct.

1-There is also a possibility in your CT (and with XL engines your side torsos) that you will get engine hits, witch increase heat per turn.

3 - As well as what the other guys said, crits to the legs usually make it so that you start possibly falling anytime you do anything

4 - The larger items are space wise the easier they are to be destroyed usually, since it means there are more slots that can be hit

5 - Water has a limit on how much it can cool but in general doubles any heatsinks that are under the water

[Fabe]

Classic Battletech quickstart rules ,what better way to learn the answers to all your question then to play

http://bg.battletech...Start-Rules.pdf

[IceSerpent]

1 - When mechs take damage to an area of the torso, is there a chance a heatsink will be damaged/destroyed?

-- Yes, it can be destroyed. There's no "damaged heatsink", it either works or it's gone.

2 - When a mech loses an arm, do any heat sinks in the arm go away?

-- Yes, along with everything else that was in that arm (weapons, ammo, etc.)

3 - When legs are damaged, is there an immediate loss of speed, or is it gradual based on damage?

-- Gradual - each damaged actuator causes a small loss of speed, destroyed leg causes you to faceplant the ground.

4 - When equipment (say... a BAP for example) is mounted somewhere, can it be destroyed? Would it take a crit, or is a lot of damage to one area sufficient?

-- Yes, it can be destroyed by either a crit on that particular critical slot or complete destruction of the section.

5 - Are there actually table top rules for mechs cooling because they are standing in armor?

-- Nothing related to armor itself. There are different rules for standing in water / on the dry surface.

6 - Can mechs take leg damage from jump jet flight? If so, it is possible to take damage when jumping and landing on the same elevation or is an elevation change required?

-- You will take damage if you land on another mech or on a building and that building collapses. You also take damage if you fail piloting check and crash land.

7 - How do the rules account for torso twist speed?

They don't - all mechs can twist one hex (60 degrees) in each direction. An arm can cover extra 60 degrees (another hex) from that.

[Skylarr]

1. There are 2 ways (in TT) that a Mech has a chance to take critical hit in any location. regular Heatsinks take up one crit slot. A double Heatsink take up 2 crit slots.

• a) Any time that the Internal Structure takes damage there is a cahnce of a Crit. The attacker rolls for possible number of crits. (2 thru 7 = non, 8 or 9 =1, 10 or 11 = 2, 12 = 3.)
  
• If the attackers rolls a 2 on 2d6 on the location chart. Then the Center Torso it is considered to have taken a possible crit (My TT uses a house rule that if you do roll a 2 you roll again to see what location may get that possible crit. Makes it a little more fun.)

2. Most Mechs do not have Heat SInks in the Arm.
3. Speed is not effected until the mech takes a crit one of the 3 Actuators in the Leg. The loss of a leg does reduce the Mech movement by allot.
4. Equipment take up Crit Slots. Anytime it take at least one hit it stops working altogether.
5. If you have 4 Heatsinks in your legs then you will dissipate 4 additioanal heat.
6. The act of landing after using your JJ does not require a Piloting Roll unless you are landing in Rubble, or you had a cric in either leg or Gyro Crit.
7. Mech have a Firing Arc. There are 3 Arcs (Front, Right Side, Left Side and Rear. Front being the largest.) All Mech Torso Twist at the same speed (One hex facing Left or Right).

Edited by Skylarr, 07 June 2012 - 09:13 PM.

[Arctic Fox]

IceSerpent, on 07 June 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

They don't - all mechs can twist one hex (60 degrees) in each direction. An arm can cover extra 60 degrees (another hex) from that.

This is true under standard rules, but if you're playing with StratOps Quirks, some 'Mechs (The Bushwacker is mentioned as one) have no (or negligable) torso twist while others have extended torso twist that can twist up to two hexsides. Still doesn't account for the actual speed of it, of course, but that doesn't actually matter much with 10 second turns.

Edited by Arctic Fox, 07 June 2012 - 09:20 PM.

[Promptus]

also don't forget http://megamek.info

[Jordan Kell]

grimzod, on 07 June 2012 - 07:45 PM, said:

1. Wherever a heat sink is allocated, it can be destroyed. In the mechlab it looked very much like a traditional mech layout so i'd say yes. Of course a large portion of HS are in the engine and not subject to individual destruction - unless they've implemented crits to engines increasing heat output and you'd suffer the same effect as losing a random heat sink (what was it 1 hit = 3 heat 2 = 5, cant remember).

2. if the arm is destroyed you lose the effects of all the equipment in that arm (tt rules)

3. you lose speed when hip actuators and foot actuators are damaged individually. If the leg is destroyed the effect is drastic.

4. it is damaged on a crit to its allocated space in the crit chart.

5. yes. stand in water of a certain level and HS in your legs can cool you off faster. And if armor boggles you, all heavy combat equipment has exhaust fans and ducts. So do mechs.

6. yes, failing a piloting roll is bad. as long as your not suffering gyro damage a jump is a jump. if you are hit mid-air and have to roll for being knocked down (20 plus points of damage), then things get nasty if you fail that piloting roll. as in crash landing.

7. during weapon attack phases you can twist the torso one hex side left or right of its current facing.

In regards to HS loss on Engine hits...you lose 5HS with the first hit(10 if double), then the last 5(10) with the second engine hit, then you go BOOM!!! if it happens again.

[Skylarr]

Jordan Kell, on 07 June 2012 - 09:22 PM, said:

In regards to HS loss on Engine hits...you lose 5HS with the first hit(10 if double), then the last 5(10) with the second engine hit, then you go BOOM!!! if it happens again.

There is only a chance ( 10 on 2d6) of a fusion happening for every 4 engine hits. 3 Engines hits is an immediate shut down. So if an IS Mech with XL looses a torso it shuts down.

Each engine hit causes and addition 5 additional Heat to be generated. Weather it is because Heat Sinks in the engine are destroyed or the Engine develops crack that allow heat to escape into the chest cavity is not stated anyplace.

Edited by Skylarr, 07 June 2012 - 10:05 PM.

[Pvt Dancer]

I also want to point out that in the old rules (From the Battletech Compendium) that your not allowed to put double heat sinks in legs.

[UncleKulikov]

Once I shot a Pheonix Hawk when it was jumping onto a 6 story building. It failed the pilot skill roll, and crashed to the roof of the building. The guy rolled again, and landed on his back(!) armor, and then rolled to see if he fell through that story.

He did, landing on his back again.

And he fell through the next story, and the next, and the next, and the next, until he hit the ground and had to roll to see if there was a basement in the building. That pheonix hawk didn't get up.

[Nosforontu]

Pvt Dancer, on 07 June 2012 - 10:34 PM, said:

I also want to point out that in the old rules (From the Battletech Compendium) that your not allowed to put double heat sinks in legs.

Odd I thought the only limitation to putting double heat sinks in the legs was because the IS/Star League era Double Heat Sinks required three Crit slots and the legs only have two available Crit Slots.I always thought that it was legal to put Clan Double Heat Sinks in the legs since they only used up 2 slots. Of course it has been years since I have played the TT so I might be misremembering things or be the victim of a rules update that I never saw.

[Skylarr]

UncleKulikov, on 07 June 2012 - 10:40 PM, said:

Once I shot a Pheonix Hawk when it was jumping onto a 6 story building. It failed the pilot skill roll, and crashed to the roof of the building. The guy rolled again, and landed on his back(!) armor, and then rolled to see if he fell through that story.

He did, landing on his back again.

And he fell through the next story, and the next, and the next, and the next, until he hit the ground and had to roll to see if there was a basement in the building. That pheonix hawk didn't get up.

It should be noted that every time you took a certain damage lvl you had to make a piloting roll. 20 was a +1, 40 was a +2, 60 was a +3 and so on. So while a jumping does not need to make a Piloting roll to jump and land. If he took more than 20 points of damage during Fire Phase in the next Phase he had to make a piloting to start standing.

I think what theUncleKulikov is talking about is a House Rule.

If a Mech weighting 45 Tons lands on a build that could only support 40 Tons then the Mech would crash through the roof. Building have Hit points. so a Mech, during Movement Phase, landed on a roof that could support it. Then in Fire Phase Opposing Mech destroy the Building the Mech will fall several stories.

Like in the original Video that PGI put out. The Heavy Mech took out a Light Mech by destroying a Building it landing on. Then an Atlas appearred from behind the cloud of dust that was kicked up by the collasping building.

Also, A building could a a basement, There is a chart for that also. So If a Mech enters a building that has a 3 lvl basement and the Mech does not have Jump Jets then the Mech is stuck.

McCarron's Armored Calvery Scenerio Pack has rules about Mech Traps and Anti Mech turrets. Nasty book. Set in original Rules, but, I am sure easy to apply to Modern Warfare rule book.

[Mason Grimm]

Moving to Table Top section.

[Pvt Dancer]

Nosforontu, on 07 June 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

Odd I thought the only limitation to putting double heat sinks in the legs was because the IS/Star League era Double Heat Sinks required three Crit slots and the legs only have two available Crit Slots.I always thought that it was legal to put Clan Double Heat Sinks in the legs since they only used up 2 slots. Of course it has been years since I have played the TT so I might be misremembering things or be the victim of a rules update that I never saw.

They easily could have changed it in a newer version of the rules after the set I have, but when that book was released, neither Clan or IS could mount DHSs in the legs (pg 117 under Heat Sinks). Further rules were that you couldn't mix or match. One of the odder rules I found was that XL engines were not inherrantly DHS, you still had to buy them seperatly... so really any engine could be fitted with double heat sinks and standard heat sinks. It is one of the main reasons why I will not buy XL engines in this game, as 3 Engine hits is a kill condition.

Your memory isn't to bad though, as you have the crit numbers right (IS=3, Clan=2) and they were one ton each.

[Toothman]

Nosforontu, on 07 June 2012 - 10:42 PM, said:

Odd I thought the only limitation to putting double heat sinks in the legs was because the IS/Star League era Double Heat Sinks required three Crit slots and the legs only have two available Crit Slots.I always thought that it was legal to put Clan Double Heat Sinks in the legs since they only used up 2 slots. Of course it has been years since I have played the TT so I might be misremembering things or be the victim of a rules update that I never saw.

Would it really matter? 4 singles or 2 doubles still equals 4 points of dissapation doubled for the water is still 8 points total