Battletech Heaps: Improved Rocket Launchers

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Improved Rocket Launchers (I-RLs)
What is up with Rocket Launchers? A RL/10 has great range, great damage per ton, and great critical slot efficiency. The RL/15 and 20 both deal less damage per unit weight, have worse range, and take up two to three times as many critical spaces. There is no reason not to take an equivalent number of RL/10's in place of an RL/15 or 20. The heavier platforms save a little heat, but you're only firing them once so who cares?

Name                    Dmg  Heat Min SR MR LR Tons Crits Ammo TH
I-Rocket Launcher 10  10, 5C  3    -   5 11 18 0.5   1    lol! +1
I-Rocket Launcher 20  20, 5C  5    -   5 11 18 1.0   2    lol! +1
I-Rocket Launcher 30  30, 5C  7    -   5 11 18 1.5   3    lol! +1

Why would you not this? Taking big RL pods is now at least as foolish as taking larger LRM racks. At least with a RL/30 if you're wagering everything on one hit, you can go all-in on a target number of "3" or "4" and know they're all going to hit instead of letting fly with a battery of RL/10's and hugging the probability curve. Or it can cut the other way. But it's a choice now, y'know?

And Clan rocket launchers, because why not shoot finely manufactured garbage at someone? Top-tier garbage. Garbage that shines.

Name                     Dmg  Heat Min SR MR LR Tons Crits Ammo TH
CUI-Rocket Launcher 13 13, 5C 3(2)  -   5 11 18 0.5   1    lol! +1
CUI-Rocket Launcher 26 26, 5C 5(3)  -   5 11 18 1.0   2    lol! +1
CUI-Rocket Launcher 40 40, 5C 7(4)  -   5 11 18 1.5   3    lol! +1

Clan RLs can fire any number of rockets when they use the rocket launcher. Used shots are marked off like ammo. When firing half of the RL's total rating or less, the heat generated is equal to half of the launcher's total heat, rounded up (noted in parenthesis, above).

Battletech Heaps: Inner Sphere Streak LRMs

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Inner Sphere Streak LRMs
For some reason, the Clans have Inner Sphere-sized streak LRM launchers, but the Inner Sphere doesn't have obnoxiously-sized streak launchers of their own. Inner Sphere versus Clan streak systems are strange. Clan units are twice the size of their non-streak counterparts while Inner Sphere systems are only 50% larger.

For those of you not familiar with any of this, streak systems never fire unless they hit and when they hit, all of their missiles hit. This is in sharp contract to standard systems which always fire and even when they hit, they only hit with an average of 66% of their payload.

Name   Dmg   Heat Min SR MR LR Tons   Crits Ammo
LRM 5   5/5C  2    6   7 14 21   3.5   2     24
LRM 10 10/5C  4    6   7 14 21   7.5   3     12
LRM 15 15/5C  5    6   7 14 21  11.0   4      8
LRM 20 20/5C  6    6   7 14 21  15.0   6      6

Battletech Heaps: Mass Fire Missiles

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Mass Fire Missiles

To: Khan, Clan Ghost Bear/Nova Cat
From: Xxxx, Ghost Bear/Nova Cat Scientist Caste

Our first approaches to creating a medium-range, mass-fire weapon resulted in an upgrade of Inner Sphere, dead-fire intermediate range missiles which held--in the prototype stages--similar performance characteristics, with approximately half the weight, with only a few efficiency losses we were confident would be ironed out in time. However, the more compact size with the greater rate of missile load caused ammunition feed problems (especially when we tried guided munitions models). This was the focus of our research, but ultimately found that further work would require too much time and too many resources.

We then turned to a new loading system, one which loads one volley of unarmed missiles while the other is ready to fire. The safety systems which protect these 'sitting' missiles, in addition to the dual-rack ammo-feed system, boosts the weapons size to one comparable to the Inner Sphere system it was built off of. Still unguided, these missiles differ from the original Draconis Combine production lines only slightly.

The major benefit of this system is an decrease of 25% in the weapon's cycling time. However, field-tests with experimental control circuits have allowed a much faster cycle, up to twice as fast, causing a virtually constant stream of missiles to issue forth from the launcher. This allows a 'mech to saturate an area in a mass of unguided missiles, even if most of them actually collide with one another or prematurely detonate in flight.

While there were initial concerns that this 'saturation mode' would risk feed jamming, the new feed system is in fact so effective that it is virtually impossible to jam. Analysis and further testing have shown that before constant higher rate of fire causes a short in the control system circuits long before jamming occurs. When this happens, a constant, unstoppable stream of missiles pours forth until the on-board ammunition supply is exhausted. Only a complete shutdown of the affected unit can stop this, and any subsequent use of the weapon will automatically cause it to resume.

Standard Fire:
MFMs act like MRMs, down to the ranges and the +1 to hit modifier.

However, MFMs have another mode of fire:

Saturation Fire
Saturation Fire can either target a unit or a hex. When using Saturation Fire, the MFM uses twice as much ammunition and generates twice as much heat. In addition, it gains a -1 to hit, negating the +1 penalty it usually gains.

When rolling a '2' on a to-hit roll, the MFM remains in Saturation Fire mode as the control circuits are burned out. It will fire every turn, expending two points of ammunition and generating twice the normal heat. If there's not a unit target, the pilot must target hexes. The uncontrollable fire results in a loss of the -1 to-hit. When the 'mech is shutdown, the weapon stops firing.

After startup, the weapon may be only be fired in Saturation Mode and will  automatically become uncontrollable afterwards. The first time it's fired after shutdown, it gains the -1 bonus, but not afterwards.

Targeting Units: When making a successful attack on a unit, the attacking player rolls 3D6 on a column of the Cluster Hits Table, taking the two lowest die to determine the resultant damage, which is then doubled. The die roll result is reduced normally by AMS, and applied in 5-point clusters.

Targeting Hexes: Hexes are targeted with MFMs like Thunder LRM Munitions, and scatter as artillery does. When making a successful attack on a hex, the attacking player rolls 3D6 on the cluster hits table, taking the two lowest die as the result. Each unit in a hex targeted by MFMs takes damage in 5-point clusters from the MFM.

Mass Fire Missiles
Name       Heat Damage    Short  Medium  Long    Tons    Crits     Shots/Ton
MFM 10      4   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     3.0     2         24 
MFM 20      6   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     6.0     3         12
MFM 30     10   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     9.0     5          8
MFM 40     12   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15    12.0     6          6

Battletech Heaps: Compact Heat Sinks

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Mathematical Heat Sinks

I'll be honest; I'm not 100% sure on the origins of this. I'm playing archaeological custom gear and analysis on this one; I just found some tables and notes in my archives. 

It seems like I just ran an analysis of heat sinks, found an extension of the pattern, and then created a piece of equipment to fill it out. Maybe I was baffled at the incredibly narrow niche of compact heat sinks.

Heat Sinks
Type            Tons Heat Crits   Analysis:
Single(SHS)      1.0  1.0  1.0     'k
Double(DHS)      1.0  2.0  3.0     'k...wow.
Compact(CHS)     1.5  1.0  0.5     Sucky. Rather sucky.
x2               3.0  2.0  1.0       
Compact-I(CHS-I) 1.25 1.0  0.5     Okay. Better.
x2               2.5  2.0  1.0                      
H-Compact-Mod    3.0  2.0  1.0*    Me likey. Maybe a Clan version of one of the other ones? It was just the other day I was lamenting the Clans' lack of 3 ton, 1 crit equipment.
L-Compact-Mod    1.5  1.0  1.0*    
*Can be mixed with other HS types.

Battletech Heaps: Unguided Missiles

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Unguided Missiles

Don't get crazy, I just did to Short Range Missiles what Medium Range Missiles did to Long Range Missiles. 

Long Range Missiles are old school weapons shooting out to 21 hexes for up to 20 damage. At some point, someone decided to make Medium Range Missiles, which shoot out to 15 hexes for up to 40 damage. They're also incredibly inaccurate and aren't great.

Why would I not make a new version of a not-great piece of equipment?

Battletech Heaps: Double-Weave Armor

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Double Weave Armor

Double Weave Armor is a new, bulkier armor that is simply more resistant to damage. Its a somewhat linear improvement of basic armor by Clan scientists. It uses larger energy-absorption weaves to reduce damage caused by weapons. Less efficient space-wise than most armors, the Double Weave Armor still yields a standard mass-protection ratio. At certain ranges, AC shells simply bounce off of it, and it stores and radiates energy weapon heat.

Rules Level: Experimental
Available To: Clan Star Adder
Availability: Battlemechs
Game Rules: Double-Weave Armor reduces damage dealt by attacks according to the range they are fired from and the amount of Double-Weave Armor mounted on the 'mech.

Battletech Heaps: Kablooey

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Multi- and Omni- Directional Ammunition Explosions

The Problem

This is a house rule I have and never use. I offer it untested to folks on the chance they might like it, run with it, and make it their own.

Every so often the ammunition inside of a 'mech explodes. Sometimes it takes a critical hit and sometimes the 'mech just runs too hot. Regardless, the ammunition does damage to the internal structure of the 'mech and, as the system is currently written, makes a beeline straight for its incredibly important center torso location.

A 'mech with a destroyed center torso stops being a unit. Ammunition explosions are often such an instant kill that the peripheral rules about pilot damage are often that: peripheral. Also, the unit can't be salvaged; you just tear the gear off of it and slam it into another unit. With the center torso, you can patch it up and add a 'mech to your forces.

Ammo explosions suck and they should suck, but maybe it can be dialed back a bit.

Battletech Heaps: MRM House Rules

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Medium Range Missiles Are Broken; Fix Them
MRMs are not broken in the sense that they're too good. I know they're designed to work with C3 systems and that they have the new Apollo system to help them suck less.

The first step is changing their weights and heats.

Name       Heat Damage    Short  Medium Long     Tons    Crits     Shots/Ton
MFM 10      4   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     3.0     2         24  
MFM 20      6   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     6.0     3         12
MFM 30     10   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15     9.0     5          8
MFM 40     12   1/Missile  1-3    4-8    9-15    12.0     6          6

Second, I'm taking the same route that they took with old school autocannons: Specialty Munitions.

Battletech Heaps: House Rules Flurry

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

Not all house rules require a whole-page write-up. Some are just little gusts of rules that I like for existing weapons.

Bottling Luck

Sometimes, I roll a '12' when I need a '4'. I--like others--feel totally cheated by The Dice Gods when this happens. I mean, what the hell? I could've used that '12' at some other juncture. I wish I could just say, "No thanks, I don't need to be that lucky right now." So why not bottle it?

Once per turn, when you roll a '12,' you may opt to re-roll. If the re-roll hits, you gain an Edge Point. You can spend Edge Points let you re-roll a die.

The once per turn limitation and requirement to hit with the second roll are to keep players from using Pirhanas or other 'mechs with banks of small weapons to farm for Edge Points with them.

Battletech Heaps: The Big Red Die

Whether it's for nostalgia or novelty, Wednesdays are the days that I put up old Battletech house rules I created nigh on 10 years ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the (in)famous, addictive board game of armored combat, I'll add some context, but know that you should abandon all non-courier fonts, ye who enter here.

The Big Red Die
In Battletech, most weapons just deal a big heap of damage all at once. A class 10 Autocannon (AC/10) will deal, yeah, 10 damage all in once place. That's pretty good. Other weapons, like missiles hit in clusters. 5 is the most common, but there are weapons that deal clusters of 2 or 1.

Example: You're shooting a class 20 Long Range Missile Rack (LRM 20). You roll 2d6 to see if you hit. Then you roll 2D6 and consult a Cluster Hits Table to see how many of your 20 missiles hit. You roll a '7', an average roll, and 12 of your missiles hit.

Cluster Hits Table

   2  3  4  5  6  9 10 12 15 20

2  1  1  1  1  2  3  3  4  5  6

3  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  4  5  6

4  1  1  2  2  3  4  4  5  6  9

5  1  2  2  3  3  5  6  8  9 12

6  1  2  2  3  4  5  6  8  9 12

7  1  2  3  3  4  5  6  8  9 12

8  2  2  3  3  4  5  6  8  9 12

9  2  2  3  4  5  7  8 10 12 16

10 2  3  3  4  5  7  8 10 12 16

11 2  3  4  5  6  9 10 12 15 20

12 2  3  4  5  6  9 10 12 15 20

Numbers courtesy of Sarna's "CBT Tables" page.

Sarna.net is a great resource.

You then roll 2d6 for hit location 3 times, twice for clusters of 5 damage and then once more for a cluster of 2 damage (5 + 5 + 2 = 12).

That's tedious. 

Battletech Heap: Laser Equations

Whenever I was doing the FATE inspired by Battletech stuff, I wanted to do some adaptations of some old custom mechs. Because I've changed computers a half-dozen times since I last did any Battletech stuff, it was hard to track down a lot of my records. I had some old Xanga accounts that I kept a lot of it on and I had to download and dig up some of those accounts. For some of the information. And now I have heaps--heaps!--of old Battletech designs and house rules that I'd like to have in an accessible, long-lived place...like here.

If you're the 99% of people reading who don't like Battletech, I'll be explaining stuff a bit, but I won't bullshit you; Wednesdays may not be be a good return on investment for your time so much in the near future. Sorry.

For those of you who are--for you, skiltao, you've probably seen all of this stuff before. Hell, some of this stuff may have been superseded by actual equipment. Whether it's nostalgia or novelty, I hope you enjoy it.

Standard Laser Equations
There are many way to classify Battletech weapons. "Introductory Tech" (sometimes referred to as "Level 1 Tech") is the simplest classification. They're the simplest weapons from which to make a battlemech. There are three types of stanadard laser; large, medium, and small. It's that simple.

Those lasers jump from 3 to 5 to 8 damage with a wide variety of ranges, heats, and tonnages in there. What if we reverse engineer the formulas to derive the other sizes of lasers that are still as simple as the standard lasers?

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle Civ Beta: Episode 11, High Noon

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle Civ Beta: Episode #10, The End of Egypt

As you might be aware, I redownloaded Civilization 2 back in the beginning of November, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #9 The Breaking of Two Tides

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle Civ Beta: Episode #8, The Age of Total War

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #7, A Tribute

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #6 The Greatest of Things

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #5, Roman Contact, Roman Civil War

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #4, the Age of Colonization

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle-Civ Beta: Episode #3, But for mine own part, it was all Jade Falcon to me!

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.