Rule Explanations

[WaffleM]

Need a rule explained or clarified?

Post any rules related questions you may have. (Please be patient with our response time. Our chief rules guru is currently stationed in Afghanistan and may need some time getting to your questions)

[counterattack3k]

Does ArmorGrid lend itself to solo play and if so can anyone give me some pointers?

Thanks

[Dagger]

There is a lot of solo-fun to be had with Mech Attack. It is a blast to print and build the miniatures even if you want to display them on a book shelf. Gamewise, it is fun to pick-and-choose the weapons and equipment your units are going to use... trying to find just the right combination that is going to best support your strategy.

Actually playing the game solo can be done, you just have to make decisions and rolls for both sides. This does take some of the fun out of it though, since you know how the other "player" thinks and what their plans are. Playing solo is a great way to test your weapon/equipment combinations though.

[tugunmojo]

Some ideas that other "solo" games take include the following:

• Enemy units will always move toward the closest unit you control. Once they have moved within shooting range, they will stop and fire (note, with the possiblity of being armed with weapons of different ranges, you'll need to decide if that range will be the "best weapons' range" or "all of their weapons' range."
  
• Assign specific "routines" for each type of enemy unit. For example, Mechs will act in the manner illustrated above, but will target units in the following priority: other Mechs, Vechicles, Infantry. All this means is that if faced with the choices, Mechs will be targetted before Vechicles, Veichicles will be targetted before Infantry. A similar idea is to design 2-5 "action cards" that are tailored to each unit type (1 set for Mechs, etc). Draw one of these each turn and follow the directions. Replace back in the "deck" and shuffle at the end of each turn. This gives a little more randomness, but if tailored specifically to each unit it shouldn't be too random.
  
• Assign a specific objective to the "Enemy side." For example, perhaps the Enemy must move to and hold a specific part of the map (a King of the Hill type of scenario). They will fight anyone in their way, but once there, they will not leave the area. This could be further expanded in a similar manner to the "routine deck" described above. Each card is designed with 1 short term objective (Move to and Destroy the Weapons Factory building. May engage opposing units that block their path or take opportunity shots at opposing units, but will not pursue them. Once drawn, the card stays in effect until the objective is completed or Enemy unit is destroyed. This could be done for the entire Enemy Force or for each Enemy Unit. A third option is to design "squads" within the Enemy force and draw an Objective Card for each of them. Squads can be made up any way the player choses.
  

Hope this gives you some ideas and let us know what works for you.

[branflayk]

Critical Damage question

If position 5 is all blocked out, and then takes another hit in that position, does it automatically take a critical damage in position 5, or would I roll D10 and see what the result is and assign damage based on that.

(I think that is how it reads).

Really like the game - should be advertised as "Best. Five. Bucks. Ever" ;D

[Dagger]

"Best. Five. Bucks. Ever" - heh heh... I like that, that's good... I'm glad you enjoy the game.

If hit location 5 has had all armor destroyed... then the Critical Systems Area is fully exposed at that location. Any hit at location 5 will result in a single roll on the Critical Hit Table.

When an attack lands in the Critical Systems Area, it doesn't matter what the Damage Profile is... the goal is just to hit the Critical Systems Area and generate rolls on the Critical Hit Table. Notice that there are no blocks in the Critical Systems Area that get marked out like in the Armor Grid... so you can hit the Critical Systems Area at the same location multiple times.

[davethelost]

Cards are a great way to "program" a solitaire oponent. You use them to determine enemy force composition, movement, tactics, etc.

I remember a card program for the old Ogre game that was mostly attack forward, move ahead, move right, left etc, but included one "Attack Rear" card in the mix. You would shuffle the pack and secretly discard one card before playing, then draw a card for what the Ogre would do each turn. Since the basic game was a straight forward drive on a fixed objective the attack rear could really throw a wrench in your plans.

[Trey]

Question: When a fuel cell explodes for D10 damage per the critical hit tables, do the damage points act like a machine gun or do the damage points blow out a whole column on the armor grid?

It would appear that a fuel cell explosion would be like a missile that penetrated to an already damaged location, but for D10 points that may be too extreme a result for game balance. Not sure how to treat the result. Thanks!

[Dagger]

You've got it right... it works just like a Machine Gun. If I roll a D10 and get a 3, I would roll for three different hit locations and "destroy" the first available block of armor at each one of those locations. If there is no armor left at the hit location, that would be a critical hit. Obviously, the worse shape your armor is in the more dangerous fuel cell explosions can be...

Another option, as a house rule if you want to represent a fuel cell exploding from the inside-out, is to apply fuel cell damage to the bottom of the armor grid instead of the top. When doing this do not remove "blown out" armor and there is no chance for more critical hits. Also, if there is no armor left at the hit location... the blast escaped to the "outside world" without damaging armor so there is no effect.

It's personal preference really... just make sure all players agree on which way you want to play it. Me personally, I like the idea of fuel cell explosions causing critical damage... but others may not.

[jaeger]

Q: What happens when a vehicle or mech reaches 0 Mv?

Solution: If you hit Mv location on the crit table and Mv is 0 roll again.

Q: How do you keep track of which units that have rushed or not and how does it carry over from previous turns?

"I go/you go play"often needs some sort of activation/order counters.

[WaffleM]

The Mech Attack Accessory Pack contains "Activated" tokens to keep track of which units have gone. It is available HERE and it's free! It also contains other status tokens, a ruler with an angled edge to find firing arcs easier, and color coordinated record sheets.

For units that have Rushed, I make note of it on their record sheet using hard plastic card protector sleeves and dry erase markers.

[jaeger]

Doh.

I already had those activated counters. I even had them printed out. My bad.

Making notes on the sheets seems like an ok idea.

So units that have rushed in a previous turn (but haven't been activated in this turn) still counts as having rushed right?

[WaffleM]

I think I see what your question is about units that Rush. Here is how I play the Rush rule, but I defer to Dagger if I've gotten it wrong.

Troops and Vehicles that Rush may not fire that round.
Mechs that Rush generate 2 Heat (instead of just 1 for a normal Move) this round and may fire at a -1 to hit modifier. This combat modifier and the 2 Heat cost do not carryover to this unit's next activation and expire at the end of it's activation.

Remember: All units may execute a movement order (Move, Rush, or Stand Fast) and THEN a combat order (Scan or Fire), not the other way around.

Does that answer your question?

[jaeger]

Gah. No it's me that's blind as a bat.

I misread the modifiers. In Classic Battletech you get negative modifiers for enemy movement (which is a real pain to keep track of), and I mistakenly thought you used the same.

None of the modifiers are dependant on what the target did last turn. That's quite elegant and cuts down on record keeping. Kudos.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Dagger]

That's exactly why there is no combat modifier for the target's movement... the effort of tracking what the target did last turn does not justify any added benefit it might have. Instead, the target's size and speed/agility are factored into it's Target Profile (Tp)...

So you only have to know what your unit did for movement this activation... which is easy because it just happened, not several minutes ago...

The end result is... you really only need to keep track of which units have been activated already... oh, and heat for Mechs....

0 Mv - You've got it right... once Mv has been reduced to 0, the Actuator is considered to be destroyed... so the "*If already destroyed or not equipped, roll again" directive would apply. The same would apply to Heat Vents if Hv is reduced to 0.