Vehicle Rules Change?

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xanth
07/10/15 01:27 PM
74.193.232.161

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Back again with another rules question.


I am using the Original (1980's) boxed set supplemented with the Battletech master rules.

I printed off a few tanks from the Solaris Skunk Works program, and noticed a critical hits section covering :Sensor hits, motive system hits and stabilizer hits. Been searching through both my sourcebooks and cannot find the governing rules. Any Ideas where I should look, or a place to print vehicle record-sheets that sync with the master rules?


Appreciate the help!
CrayModerator
07/10/15 05:32 PM
97.101.96.171

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Check the ground vehicle hit locations table. Most of those should be explained under the BMR vehicle hit location tables. They are in my BMR.

Some things were expanded in Total Warfare from BMR. There's now a wider range of crits.

Stabilizer: this is a new vehicle crit result. Stabilizer hit impairs all weapons' targeting abilities, doubling attackers' movement penalties.

Sensors: this is a new vehicle crit result. Each sensor crit adds +1 to to-hit rolls.

"Motive system hits" are not really new, they were just separated from the ground vehicle hit chart in TW. In BMR, you'll see a footnote on the vehicle hit location table that says something like, "Armor (superscript) 1," and would go under the table to footnote 1, which explains your track, axle, lift fan, etc. got shot up and the unit can't move. In TW, you'd be kicked over to a separate table ("motive system damage table" - surprise) and get to roll to see what motive system damage occurs.

This was done to give more room to explain motive system damage because TW covers more unit types than BMR (example: no WiGEs or zeppelins in BMR). It also gives more diversity in results, and allows some new equipment. For example, by having a separate motive system crit roll "vehicular hardened armor" becomes useful because (as I recall) it adds a -2 to the roll. "Armored motive system" is another useful item that also reduces chances of getting motive crits. That'd be harder to incorporate into the single roll and table used in BMR.

ANYWAY...the differences aren't large and not critical to play. The TW vehicle motive system damage table mostly replicates the results of BMR vehicle hit chart footnotes for the standard vehicles BMR handles, so you're not missing anything by sticking to BMR for classic vehicles and equipment. And since BMR's hit location chart won't give sensor or stabilizer hits, you don't have to worry about the effects of those crits (though I explained their entire results above if you want to pencil them into your BMR tables. )



Honestly, I've been playing the crap out of TW vehicle rules the past few weeks and stabilizer and sensor hits rarely come up, so you can ignore them. My group is playing a bunch of fast duels and we've quickly learned to concentrate on medium laser / SRM / Streak / LBX combinations that crit the opponent to death. By the time someone gets a rare sensor or stabilizer crit, they've probably got an immobilized vehicle with a stunned crew and jammed turret that's one hit away from destruction by eliminating all the internal structure in some hit location. So, like I said, you can stick to BMR and not worry about sensor/stabilizer crits - they aren't game changers.

I need to post some my dueling designs, though. I'm proud of my Bug Swatters and Mini-Ontos.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
xanth
07/10/15 05:35 PM
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Appreciate the comprehensive reply.....time to field some Pattons and Rommels!
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