Tsuroyu
02/22/10 02:02 AM
75.61.138.59
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Hey, so I wonder if anyone can offer some illumination regarding a couple of issues that have come up in my BT group. This post might get long (I'm verbose), so be warned; if you enjoy thinking about BT and like to answer questions, keep reading. 
A little background. I'm currently GM'ing for a weekly BT group of 11 people, including myself. Most of the group were completely new to the game, though a couple of us had some experience (but not much); we've now been going for about 8 months, and everyone's gotten the hang of it very well. We are a long-standing gaming group, although we usually play traditional RPGs, so everyone is adaptable when it comes to tabletop games. Our battles are usually large-scale--with so many players they have to be--and I don't like to restrict the number of units that can enter the field too much. So rather than short 3v3 match-ups that take a night, we usually end up with large 20v20 battles involving mechs, vehicles, artillery, aero, etc., that take several weeks to complete. In any given session, a lot of rules get invoked, and sometimes adjudicating with such a big group becomes tricky. But this is what I'm working with. Also, we're using the most recent set of rules, from Total Warfare, and are phasing in rules from TacOps and StratOps bit by bit.
So, I can think of a few questions off the top of my head.
1: How the hell does TAG work?! This one is frustrating, as TW words the description very poorly. The way it is written it sounds like one unit TAGs an enemy, and other units equipped with TAG can use that targetting data to make their attacks this round; this is confusing because it sounds an awful lot like a C3i, making it kind of redundant. Also, I was just reviewing the rules for calculating the BV2.0 of a force (in the TechManual), and it mentions something about a BV increase if you have a unit with TAG. But, if a TAG unit requires there to be a 2nd TAG unit for it to be of any benefit, then there would be no increase in BV for a single TAG. Now, I have read about various rules for TAG used to target for ArrowIV and semi-guided LRMs, but these rules seem sort of scattered around the internet and ambiguous.
Can anyone clearly state what the rules are for TAG, and site the location in the rulebooks where you got it? Or maybe help me with a bit of exegesis on the TW description?
2: Averaging the cluster damage from weapons fired by aerospace fighters. As I understand it, aeros use the attack value as the damage on cluster weapons, rather than rolling on the cluster hits table like standard ground units do. This is pretty simple for stuff like LRMs, but we ran into some confusion when considering the Huscarl C-variant, which mounts two ultra AC 20s. It just grates too hard against our common sense to ignore: the attack value (supposedly the average damage) of this weapon is 30, but it doesn't make sense for a couple reasons. For one thing, if you're firing the ultra with 2 slugs, it's impossible that half a slug is gonna hit; seems like it does either 0, 20, or 40, and any increments in between are not possible. Also, dividing the damage up into 5 point clusters not only makes no sense (again, how is a single 20-point slug gonna hit 4 different parts of my plane?), but also misses the entire point of fielding an ultra AC 20, which is to hit one section for 20 damage all at once. And of course, this is not to even mention the fact that, because you have to succeed on a cluster hits roll with the U-AC 20 (8+) to hit with both slugs, you're going to hit with only 1 slug more than half the time, meaning the average damage will come to less than 30, right? Although that last is a moot point, considering my other complaints. Any thoughts on how to resolve this? My group has just ignored the aero-damage-averaging rule in the case of my friend's Huscarl, and resolving it as 2 slugs, per normal.
3: Speaking of aeros, for those of you out there who use them, where on earth do you find the miniatures for them?! My group tries to buy the correct miniatures for every unit we purchase in-game, but for a lot of the aeros this has proven extremely hard, as they're just not available. I know Iron Wind has some of them available directly off their site, but they're usually a little more expensive than 3rd-party retailers. Anyone have a really good, reliable source of aero minis?
4: We play in a campaign format, where each player is essentially heading up a mercenary outfit, and is responsible for their own finances, warehouse stores, etc etc. So, I require my guys to hire pilots and pay their salaries as part of their regular expenses. As far as the costs of pilots go, however, I had a hard time digging up any official rules; it sounds like they're going to (re)publish them in Interstellar Operations. What I did dig up, in my old Combat Operations book, was a little table on personnel salaries, but I found these prices breathtakingly low. Maybe I just load up my players with tons of c-bills, but I want them to keep growing their forces. So, I ended up throwing those values out, and drawing up my own list of pilots for hire from scratch (took forever), with much much higher costs, dependent on the pilots' skill levels. Does anyone else do anything like this? I think the Combat Ops price was something like 1600/month for a standard (5/4) pilot, which my players wouldn't even blink at; I now have them paying 10000/month for a pilot at that level, plus an annual bonus of 1mil (like a signing bonus, to renew the pilot's contract). While this might not be entirely realistic, if you're comparing the cost of real-life military vehicles to the salaries of their drivers, I find it makes more sense in the game, as pilot skill level has an enormous impact on your units' usefulness on the battlefield; if my guys could get 0/0 pilots for under 10000/month, mechs would get annihilated left and right. Anyone have thoughts on pilot salaries, from their own games?
Whew, sorry about writing an entire novel on some simple noob questions, but like I said, verbose. Thanks a lot to anyone who reads and responds, I appreciate it!
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Karagin
02/22/10 04:09 AM
80.149.45.102
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To answer your third question, go to Ironwinds Miniature's web page. They sell the miniatures for the aerospace fighters.
www.ironwindsminiatures.com
Your first question, this may help:
TAG is normally used for ONLY Arrow IV and certain LRM warheads. Unless they have totally changed it in the newer rule books, no one I have played with in the last couple of years have mentioned any changes to the rules for TAG. I will do double check though.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Tsuroyu
02/22/10 08:02 AM
75.61.138.59
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Thanks for your reply, Karagin.
I think you're right about the TAG, as that's how it always worked back in BMR:R, although the fact that they changed it (at least a little) in TW is what threw me off, since now you don't take the +1 to your own attacks in a turn when you are the TAGger. I don't have my books with me to look at the costs of the semi-guided LRMs, but unless they're pretty affordable, it seems that TAG just has a very limited use. Then again, nobody in our group has tried it out, and I usually end up eating my words when I try to judge the effectiveness of equipment without seeing it in action.
As for the minis, yeah, IronWind does have a lot of them, although usually priced higher. Although some it just seems aren't available at all, and some only in microfighter format (yuck). I've got players right now trying to find a Huscarl and a Corax, both of which it seems never existed; gonna have to kitbash them.
I've spent a lot of time browsing around the net looking for unequivocal answers to those questions, especially the issue with TAG, which a lot of people are confused about, judging by the CBT boards. But it seems like I'll ultimately have to settle for a house ruling that TAG will work the way it always has.
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Karagin
02/22/10 08:34 AM
80.149.45.102
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One the miniature, you may want to check some of the other miniature suppliers, they have other things like Ground Zero or Dirty Side miniatures that could work for BT scale or close to it, and they are some times cheaper. I really don't want to recommend eBay, but it might be a place to look as well.
I am starting to think they tweaked all of the rules a little to justify a new set of rules books. For better or for worse.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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