Battletech Update

I notice I've talked about several Battletech plans but I have yet to follow through with them. There were plans to do a battle report for a game and while we did play that particular game, I didn't take enough notes to be able to write a report about it. We made plans to do a campaign about an invasion of the planet David, but between miscommunication and me taking too long to write up a list, those plans fell apart. We still have those notes so it is possible for us to try to do the campaign again sometime in the future. Most recently we had plan to do a Word of Blake scenario this summer. That obviously didn't happen and I can say it wasn't my fault this time. The plan was for me to get as many of the actual mechs in the scenario as possible. I order 4 at my LGS (local gaming store) to start the project. However only 1 ever came in. I've come to learn (or remembered) that my LGS has trouble getting Battletech merchandise in. We still want to do that scenario so I will have to get the mechs elsewhere.

My Battletech collection is about to get a massive surged. Not only did I recently pick up the two new box sets, I've also invested into Catalysis Games Clan Invasion kickstarter. I'm looking at getting 40 to 50 mechs from it depending on how we split our pledge level and paying for additional add ons. With such an influx of models I will be building multiple faction forces. Some will have a history appropriate to the lore of Battletech. Others will be more of my own touch. In general, it will probably be a mix of mechs that faction is known for plus mechs I personally really like the looks of. Some of the factions I'm making armies of are: Word of Blake (obviously), Comstar, "Rome" and the Society. I will be using my own color scheme for each of them though I will try to incorporate something from the official scheme in my version. The plan is to focus my Battletech energies into these 4 forces but I'm getting a lot of stuff from the Clan Invasion and I don't think all of it would fit for the Society. I'll find out more about that in the months coming up. In the meantime, I don't think I will do anything story or games related on the blog for the rest of the year for Battletech. I will be doing updates showing off progress I make with my minis and I'm sure these 4 Battletech forces will be making an appearance.

Word of Blake - Word of Blake are the villains in my Battletech world. When I first heard about them I wanted to have a force dedicated to them. They never meant to be one of the first teams I wanted to work on but that changed when we pick a Word of Blake scenario to play. My friend wanted to play the good guys for once and since I already wanted to painted up Word of Blake minis, this sounded like the perfect scenario to play. As I've have grown tired of playing with proxies all the time, getting the actual minis the scenario calls for is important to me. Since I've only got one miniature for Word of Blake, it will be a while before we can play. I also don't plan on getting much more for Word of Blake outside of what the scenario calls for. I'm more interested in the other 3 factions. I've notice 3 of the mechs I need for the Word of Blake scenario will be available in the kickstarter so that will bring us closer to the scenario when the kickstarter products ship.

ComStar - Besides maybe a Chaos flavor mercenary group, ComStar was the first faction that I really wanted my own version of. The more I learn about the history of the Battletech lore, the more I became fascinated with the Star League and ComStar. Yes, I know Star League and ComStar are two different but related organizations in the lore, but for me I see no reason to separate them for my army. I'm not sure how often I will be able to play as the Star League so it might not be a big deal. Of all my factions, this is the one I don't own any mechs for yet. Any progress for ComStar will have to wait until my Kickstarter stuff comes in. The kickstarter has 2 different ComStar packs and you can be sure I will be getting at least one of each, if not more!

"Rome" - My Rome army is currently my only Battletech force that wasn't inspired by something in Battletech. Instead I was inspired by a character in the media empire "Fate" series by Type-Moon. Fate has many novels and games based on it and probably my favorite character in the Fate series is Emperor Nero. Despite Fate's Nero being a historical figure, you probably have no idea what this character is like unless you are familiar with the way Type-Moon approach to history. She (yes, she) has a personality that combines being supremely arrogant with fun to be around. She isn't the only arrogant character in Fate but she manifest it in a very different way. Characters such as Gilgamesh and Ozymandias feel other beings should be humbled and honored to be in their presence. Nero on the other hand feel that because she is so great, it is her duty to show you a great time by showing off the arts and wonder of her Rome. How this comes back to Battletech is when I learn Battletech has a Rome styled nation in its lore with the Marian Hegemony. I will start my Rome army by picking mechs in the 2 new box sets that are commonly used by Marian Hegemony. I don't know how many that will give me. I have the feeling that most of the mechs in new Box sets were widely used by most nations in the Inner Sphere.

The funny thing I just realize is that I could make my Emperor Nero character be in proper Battletech canon. I supported the kickstarter at the level to get a canon character made into the setting. That's not going to happen. I did the kickstarter with a friend and the canon character was the first thing I gave up to my friend. I didn't want it at the time and my friends knows the setting well enough he could make someone that would fit perfectly. Oh well, it just means I don't have to do a crash course in Battletech lore in the next 2 months so I can get Fate Emperor Nero Battletech history right. It's a "what if" worth thinking about.

The Society - The idea about doing a Society army is based on a random conversation and a single mech, Septicemia. My friend was telling me about his struggles in just finding information about a Battletech source book he wanted. His problem was that the book, Wars of Reaving had a particular mech. When tried to do online searches for the book, he kept getting information about that mech. That mech is the Septicemia. I had a fearful reaction when he told me the name of the mech. The name reminded me of one of the 3 types of plagues that I learn in a college class over a decade ago. I don't even remember what class that was but I told my friend that name probably meant something like blood disease because I remembered the plague had something to do with an infection of the blood. The disease I was thinking of was the Septicemic plague and I was right in that it's an infection of the blood. Eventually my friend was able to get the source book and inform me that the Septicemia was design to be like a blood disease to the Clans Warrior Culture. I might be a little fuzzy on the details but I believe this was because the Clan Warrior Caste thought there was only one way war should be perform and the Septicemia was meant to counter that way of thinking. It is an amazing story how I've learn this bit of Battletech lore and is the reason I decide to make a small Society force, along with me really liking the look of the Septicemia. It was a few months ago but I saw a pack for the Septicemia at my LGS. With the history I told you about, I instantly brought it. It will probably be the only mech I have for the Society for a while, but at least its a good one.

BattleTech: Defense of David Rules

It was a good thing that I forgot some details as the campaign needed a lot more work to make it playable. There are still a few things behind the scenes that needs to get done before we can start but now the framework is done. I will not be posting our full roster until the end of the campaign. The reason for this is when we ironed out the rules, we made the campaign secret. I will get into how this work in a bit. I will be repeating some of the stuff that was in the Introduction. I want all the rules to be in one place and some of the rules have slightly change or have been clarified. In any case, here are the rules:

This campaign is a fight between Draconis Combine and Federated Suns. Each side will get 55,000 battle value points to build their force. Both sides will also get 36 million C-Bills for supplies and repairs. Each point of BV not used will be converted into 10,000 additional C-Bills. The Federated Suns will have to split their force and C-Bills into two; a planetary defense force and a relief force that is on its way to the planet. The Federated Suns can split their force and money in any way they want, it doesn't have to be 50/50 and the Draconis Combine will have no idea what the split is. Both sides force is further divided on the map into elements referred to as Lances which will be 4 mechs, 4 combat vehicles or 4 of any combination of the two. The map will show the movements of Lances on both sides.

Time in the campaign is track by strategic turns which is one day. At the start of each strategic turns except the first, Federated Suns rolls a d20, adding that value to the reinforcement running count. When the reinforcement count reach 100, the relief force has jump into the system and will make planet fall in 12 days. At that time the Federated Suns will have access to both forces and C-Bill totals, and it will now count as one force. Each player may give each of their Lances a single order per strategic turn. A Strategic Move is the amount of distance the Lance can move at the rate of its slowest member. The following are the types of orders that can be given to a Lance:

Fight/Scout - Can move up to its strategic movement to engage a fight. The type of order given will affect the type of battle and win conditions. Also if a side wins while given a Scout order, they get to see the stats of the enemy involved in that fight.
Defend - Can not move but will get a bonus to initiative if engaged.
Repair - Can not move but will get to spend C-Bills to repair, reload and upgrade vehicles in the Lance.
Move - Can move up to 2 times its strategic movement.
Fast Move - Can move up to 3 times its strategic movement, can't move next turn.
Dropship Move - Lances can load up into a drop ship and move into a new hex. This takes 2 turns unless you control the space port in which case it takes a single turn. Draconis Combine have 3 Leopards(dropships), Federated Suns have nothing until the relief force arrive. When that happens Federate Suns will get access to an Union dropship.

The orders for each Lances will be written down in secret and revealed simultaneously.

This is a hex map based campaign using a single continent the length of about 8,000 km. A strategic movement is calculated by how many hexes the slowest vehicle can cross in an eight hour period. Both sides has a HQ base that will allow them to do full repairs and supplies anywhere on the map. If this base is captured by the enemy, then half of the C-Bill stock is lost and that side will only be able to do field repairs. The location of these bases will be chosen right before the campaign starts. The Federated Suns based will be hidden, meaning the Draconis Combine will not know where it is. When the relief force arrive, the Union dropship will act as a second base for Federated Suns. In addition, Federated Suns can setup other hidden bases if they wish. These other hidden bases will be locations where one or more Lances are waiting to spring a trap for a Drcaonis Combine unexpecting force to walk into. There are three other key locations on the map besides the 2 HQ bases. The spaceport which allows a Dropship Move order to be perform in a single turn and two factories. If a side controls a factory then they will receive a 20% discount on the C-bill cost of repairs and supplies, and their mechanics get a 20% bonus on time to finish the work. If one side controls both factories then the bonus increases to 30%.

One side will achieve victory if they can drop their opponent down to 20% of their starting battle value amount. For Federated Suns this is 20% of the planetary force until the relief force arrives in which case it becomes 20% of the combine force. This includes any mech or combat vehicle that can still function in some capacity as well as captured enemy mechs and vehicles.

Other Tidbits -

Any time Federated Suns is the defender, they will get for free three 28-man infantry platoons.

Tech teams can provide 8 hours of work per day. Each Lance has 2 tech teams assign to them. These are the numbers we will used to look up how long it takes for repairs and refits to happen.

Injured pilots can heal 1 point of damage after 2 days of non-combat rest due to the medical teams both sides have access to. Non-combat orders are Move, Repair, Fast Move and Dropship Move, and they don't get engaged by the enemy.

And finally the map itself:

Dots are cities, S is the Spaceport, I are Industrial Cities(which is where the factories are), - are badlands, T are forests, blue lines are rivers, ^ are mountains, curve lines are hills and blank areas are plains. Each hex is equal to 300 mapsheets across.

And that are the rules of our campaign. I still need to make my list and a few questions has come up recently that needs to be resolved. All that should be done quickly and the campaign can begin. Any changes or additions to the rules will be put on the nexus page which will go up sometime next month. Thank you for reading.

Introduction to BattleTech: Defense of David

As I have mention in the Winter Update my friend Chris and myself design a BattleTech Campaign which I have since forgotten many of the mechanics we develop for it. And since he gotten a new BattleTech rule book that deals will some of the stuff the campaign is about, we might as well wait until we can get together to see if we want to adopt any of the new rules. What this post will be about is the general outline of the campaign and how the design came about.

At the beginning I thought we were going to craft our own lore for the campaign. Choose a year in the setting that will serve to limit what technology is available and we would make up everything from there. Instead I was shown that the official lore is so large that it is relatively easy to fit any scenario somewhere in the establish setting. The starting place was still picking a year which I allow Chris to choose since I usually get to choose my preference in our BattleTech games. Unsurprising to me he picked the Fourth Succession War. I favor clan tech along with their more advance mechs and I can tell while he loves nearly all things Battletech, the classic mechs and the tech level where the game started is close to his heart. Next we had to pick sides to play as. My friend was more than happy to play as any of the available choices which left me to decide first and Chris would then pick an appropriate foe. My knowledge on Battletech lore is quite low so my friend had to give me his personal short description of each nation. After hearing about my choices I decided to go with Federated Suns because I like the sound of mixing mechs and combat vehicles working together. Also I was in the middle of playing Tanks! at the time and was beginning to develop a liking for WW2 British warfare which also has some characteristics to Federated Suns. Chris went with Draconis Combine. I was given the choice so I decided to play the defenders. I figure there would be more potential playing the defenders if I decided to write short stories about my part in the campaign. At this stage the only thing we had left to decide was the location for our personal war. Chris looked up all the worlds in Federated Suns that bordered the Draconis Combine during the Fourth Succession War. There were a lot of options but only one planet had a scenario we both were interested in and fit what we had in mind for our campaign. That planet was David.

In the lore David, the second planet in the system, was apart of a skirmish conflict during the Fourth Succession War on the Federated Suns/Draconis Combine border. Under Federated Suns control, David II was the homeworld of the 41st Avalon Hussars. The 41st were deployed elsewhere in the universe so the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry garrisoned David in their place. The Draconis Combine attack David using the 9th Dieron Regulars while the 41st were away. The 12th Deneb Light Cavalry fought the 9th Dieron Regulars using guerrilla tactics. By refusing Dieron Regulars of having a stand-up fight, DLC greatly delay and frustrated the Draconis Combine force. DLC delayed long enough that the 41st Avalon Hussars were able to return, which caused the Dieron Regulars to withdrew from the world. The campaign will be our version of this very scenario.

We gave ourselves 55,000 battle value points each to design our force (which we still need to do). Once this is done I will have to split my force into two to represent the 41st Avalon Hussars and the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry. I will not be basing my force on either of them. Instead I will be choosing my force from anything that was available to Federated Suns during this time. Chris will do the same with the Draconis Combine. Both of us will have 36 million c-bills that we can use for repairs. At the start of the campaign I will only have access to the 12th Deneb Light Cavalry portion of my army. The 41st will show up later in the campaign at a random time neither of us will know about. In the meantime I will have to hold out until they arrive. We will split up our force into banners on a map. We will be giving these banners orders which will affect each unit in said banner. Some of the type of orders we can give banners are fight, scout, defend and move. The campaign splits up time into strategic turns. We will give each banner one order during each strategic turn (which represents one day in the setting). Any battle that I am the defender (I gave my banner the defend order and it got attack) I will get 3 platoons of rifle infantry for free. This will represent the local militia helping defend their planet. At the end of each strategic turn I will roll a d20 and add up the total to previous rolls. Once the total reaches 100, the 41st Avalon Hussars have arrive in the system. They will make landfall 12 days later and join what's left of my force (this is because David jump point stat is 12 days).

And that is a rough outline of our campaign and I doubt any of that information will change. The last time I work on my army list I was struggling to keep the ratio of my mechs, combat vehicles and others items the same as the official Federated Suns Regimental Combat Team. The Regimental Combat Teams was the main reason I pick Federated Suns in the first place so I will find a way to have a facsimile of it in the campaign. Once we rehash out them out, I will post the full rules of the campaign on a nexus page. After that I will post an article that will have our full rosters. At this point, once the map is done, the campaign will begin. My one fear about the campaign is that I will get annihilated before the 21st is even close to arriving since I will be vastly outnumbered. In any case we will find out in the coming months. Thanks for reading.