MegaMek, anyone?

[Lord Kelvin]

For the last two months or so (since the start of the C3I campaign) I've been doing research and compiling resources for GM-ing my own MegaMek campaign, with a lot of help from Scav. I've still got a ways to go (in terms of fluff, learning how to use the MegaMek map editor, and setting up spreadsheets for keeping track of things), but I've largely got the framework finished and even a couple pieces of fluff ready to go.

So, now I would like to pose the question: were I to GM a campaign, how many of you would be interested? For the uninitiated, MegaMek (http:\\megamek.sourceforge.net) is a Java version of Classic Battletech, which is what the MechWarrior series is based on. Like in previous campaigns, players will select a lance of four 'mechs and command them over several missions. As you progress, your pilots will gain experience and you'll get opportunities to upgrade your 'mechs or assign your pilots to entirely new ones. Theoretically I can support up to 27 players, but realistically I'll probably limit it to 9 or less, since after a while everybody will be waiting for certain people to take their turns and the whole thing will grind to a halt.

This thread is just to gauge interest, I cannot run a campaign just yet because I am too busy and have not completed my preparations. However, I would like to see how many people are willing to play so I can adjust my preparations as necessary, or just scrap my campaign altogether if nobody wants to play.

The planned setting for my campaign will be during the opening shots of Operation Revival, when the Clans first return to the Inner Sphere. Players will be playing as members of a BattleMech regiment of the Federated Commonwealth, and defending the Lyran half of the Commonwealth from Clan Jade Falcon. How this campaign will differ from previous ones run by Scav is that you may get the opportunity to capture and use Clan tech, namely OmniMechs. Note that since this will likely be my first time GM-ing one of these (as opposed to playing in it), there will probably be errors, delays, and so on as I get used to it. However, I plan to learn what I can and give the best experience possible.

[FlamingPotato]

I'd be down, but fighting jade falcons makes me sad. :o

[fork]

im down if you promise this doesnt end quickly and abruptly. but sign me up anyway!

[Maddog]

I'm always in for some megamek

[Polish Hill]

I will probably not play but follow it enthusiastically and hope for a Fire Mandrills cameo

[Lord Kelvin]

I'd be down, but fighting jade falcons makes me sad. :o

I could let you play as the OpFor, but that's less fun since you don't have a lance that you would regularly control, plus there are certain restrictions on how you can play (and I don't just mean Zellbrigen)

im down if you promise this doesnt end quickly and abruptly. but sign me up anyway!

I'll certainly try not to let it end suddenly, but the problem is that I may simply be unavailable to play whenever everyone else is ready for a turn, because I have a schedule and work and such.

I will probably not play but follow it enthusiastically and hope for a Fire Mandrills cameo

More likely than not, I won't, simply because I'm not up to scratch on the fluff part just yet, and doing the research to write additional fluff does take time.

[Lord Kelvin]

One more thing, to help players get into the swing of things, I'll be hosting one or two pre-campaign training missions once everything is ready. There'll only be room for 6 players max (but in actuality closer to 4), and I would like to use it to help new players get used to MegaMek, so anybody who hasn't played in a MegaMek campaign before will get priority.

[fork]

um... could one of them be me?

[Lord Kelvin]

Depends on how many players I actually get. If this is going to be a small game like all the others have been, then there'll be more than enough room for you to play.

[Fallschirmjager]

Can I play with infantry squads and tanks?

[Lord Kelvin]

You can try, but I would highly recommend against it, for the simple reason that (1) infantry die very easily in this game, and (2) tanks are nowhere near as powerful as 'mechs and will largely be killed in a stand-up fight. Plus, infantry and tank fights will be few and far inbetween anyways, except when you're trying to defend a city, at which point I would probably give each player an assortment of infantry, APCs, VTOLs, and/or tanks to play with alongside their lance.

[ScAvenger001]

You can try, but I would highly recommend against it, for the simple reason that (1) infantry die very easily in this game, and (2) tanks are nowhere near as powerful as 'mechs and will largely be killed in a stand-up fight.

That's not precisely correct. Infantry are a lot more durable now except vs dedicated anti-infantry platforms. Their major drawback is that they don't have the mobility to keep enemies within firing range. Mostly, unarmored infantry are good for city-fighting and not much else. Of course, the only battle-suited infantry will be on the clan side....

Tanks can be hugely potent, and they're also not nearly as fragile now as they were in the 50/50 automatic-death critical chart days. In the right terrain, and under a commander with a sense of finesse, they can make quite a mess against an equivalent-value mech force. Their major drawback is that they don't have the endurance for campaigning. Most tanks require lots of diesel fuel plus consumables for an entire crew (as opposed to some hydrogen and consumables for a single pilot for a 'mech), but more importantly, a wrecked 'mech can usually be glued back together but a wrecked tank is totalled and can only be stripped for parts.

[CaptCommy]

You just wanted to remind everyone that you know more about Battletech than the designers.

[Glock23]

If we were to transport ScAv to the year 3000, he'd probably be the clan's overall general just based on his knowledge of their and IS weaponry.

[ScAvenger001]

Hah, no, you're confusing me with the people on the CBT forums. They're kinda scary sometimes....

I just wanted to point out that Kelvin's description basically boiled down to "no, cuz they suck," but some of those tanks are pretty hardcore and infantry suck a lot less than was previously the case. Using an Ontos LRM tank in a fire support role is one of my favorite evil schemes. 95 tons, 50 LRM tubes, 160 points of armor (30 points at its thinnest point), yours for under 900 BV.

[Lord Kelvin]

Meh, it's just my prior experience that infy are next to useless outside of city fighting since they take a shitload of damage when caught in the open (read: anywhere but in woods or buildings). I did a test trial a few weeks back with BA vs. infy, a regular rifle attack from a BA can cut the infy in half with just one attack.

In other news though, I recently overcame the map editor hurdle, so technically I can start the campaign right now. But, I'm preparing one or two other special surprises for the time being.

[ScAvenger001]

That's at least partly because most BA weapons are considered infantry weapons. In this case, it sounds like they were mounting standard infantry rifles. Those do full damage vs infantry. 'Mech scale weapons don't do nearly as much, again with the exception of dedicated anti-infantry weapons (MGs, flamers, small and micro pulse lasers, etc) that aren't very effective except against infantry. If you'd set them up against a mech, they would have had a much easier time of it. Missiles are the most effective large scale weapon vs infantry, and even they do only 1/5 damage generally. So, a lucky hit with all 20 missiles from an LRM20 rack does a measly 4 damage (8 if the infantry are stupid enough to be in a clear hex, though any other hex type counts as "cover" for this purpose).

Of course, keeping the range closed enough that the infantry can respond is an important tactical problem since most infantry weapons max out at around 3 hexes and even the infantry LRM is a lot shorter ranged than a real mech-scale rack. So yeah, rough terrain and cities.

[Modest Genius]

I'm game for some MM, but slightly suspicious that this will end up like every other campaign we try - one or two battles each, then it becomes impossible to get the people & time required for a match and the whole thing grinds to a halt

also, tanks can be very handy if you can get the best out of them. assault is not their forté, but fire support and scouting can be. infy I'll agree are usually more hassle than they're worth - even if they do pull their weight, you spend so much of the game trying to get the best out of them that you inevitably compromise your other units

[Maddog]

so how's this going?

[Lord Kelvin]

I'm mainly fluff-writing, since my awesome surprise idea fell through, but again, my big hold-up right now is my time availability. As of right now I'm probably only going to be able to play sporadically on Fridays and weekends, and I still haven't tested to see if people can connect to my client through my router.