August 18, 2007

In Defense of Powergamers?

Over at CMGRealms, MechThran has responded to PhoenixHawk's attack on powergamers. He's written an apologia for Mechwarrior powergamers. Turning the traditional argument that casual Mechwarrior gamers are purists, while powergamers betray the spirit of the Mechwarrior ethos, MechThran argues that powergamers actually appreciate the nuances of Mechwarrior in a way more casual gamers don't. He also says the very nature of the miniatures gaming system lends itself to metagaming, because casual players are rare.

"The very framework of organized play is currently Competitive in nature. There is a prize for First and Second. Before it wasn't so dramatic as there was a participation prize (which is apparently being reintroduced, ala IT) And as with most games there is a winner and a loser. They're called VICTORY conditions, not, casual conditions, or social conditions. It doesn't mean that good sportsmanship shouldn't be applied, but it does mean that at the end of every game there needs to be someone who "lost."

Posted by Discoshaman at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2007

Let Seka Be Seka?

Over at CMGRealms, they're debating whether or not the Seka's Pride Vulture mech is overpowered. It IS a pretty nasty little mech, after all.

The consensus? Most gamers are saying to keep the mech as it is. Some think it isn't overpowered at all, others just think FAQing mechs opens a can of worms which could disrupt the overall Mechwarrior game.

Posted by Discoshaman at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Mechwarrior Conquest Action Packs?

Highlander, over on the DungeonCrawlers forum had a good Mechwarrior-related suggestion for Wizkids the other day. Afraid that the Mechwarrior line will stagnate, he wants them to introduce Conquest Action Packs similar to Mage Knight. These Mechwarrior Conquest Action Packs would combine terrain pieces with Mechwarrior miniatures. He listed several reasonable-sounding ideas, including the following:

Mech Repair Bay Action Pack

- 1 Repair Bay (should be large enough for Ares)
- 2 Engineers
- 1 Light Mech or Recovery vehicle

Wall Action Packs

- 4 Walls
- 4 Buttresses
- 2 Light lasers for Buttresses
- 1 Mech Repair Vehicle
- 1 light or medium mech

The idea of bundling terrain and Mechwarrior figures together seems logical to me. They could include the build point cost for the turrets and such with the action pack, for instance. Anything that keeps the Mechwarrior product line from stagnating is good with me. . .

Posted by Discoshaman at 04:28 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2007

Battlemechs vs. Tanks?

By tanks we don't mean tanks like the Behemoth or the Cizin. This debate is about mechs versus the tanks of today -- the Leopard II, the M1A1, etc. The Elitist actually does a good job of laying out who would win in a tank v. mech battle. In the end, it all comes down to accuracy. There are no copperhead guided munitions, fire on the move technologies or the like in the Mechwarrior universe. Instead, mechs fumble around at close range, vainly hoping for a hit on one another. Modern tanks, on the other hand, are much more accurate than battlemechs. They can hit oving targets from several kilometers away. Even humble infantry fighting vehicles boast anti-tank missiles which could core an Atlas or Battlemaster before these mechs could even pose a threat. . .

Now in the "real" world, mechs might be more feasible, given the fact that they'd have these same accuracy improvements that tanks enjoy.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from the blogpost:

"Range

The Atlas weapons maximum ranges are 1000m for LRM-20, 300m for Medium Lasers and Autocannon 20, and 250 for SRM-6. The M1A2 120mm cannon with APFSDS rounds has an effective range of 3500m, and an effective range of 3000m with HEAT rounds. The M1A2 FCS (fire control system) range is 4000m and the absolute range (the M1A2 has successfully hit targets approximately 4000m away during the Gulf Wars). This means the M1A2 has approximately 4 times the range of the longest range weapon the Atlas has.

Weapons and Armor

The combat units in question have radically different armor concepts which makes them difficult to compare. The M1A2 uses a composite armor with ceramic inset to make it resistant to kinetic energy penetrators and high heat rounds (depleted uranium rounds are pyrophoric and heat up when they contact the atmosphere). The composite also includes a depleted uranium high density layer for added protection against kinetic penetrators. The M1A2 armor is designed such that it holds together when hit by weapons. Battlemech armor is different. It is discarding armor and is designed to absorb weapon damage by breaking away. Because of this, low powered weapons are useless against an M1A2 while a high enough powered weapon could go right through the armor. Against a Battlemech, the power of the weapon simply determines how many little chunks of armor are going to get destroyed, so even the 50 cal machine gun on an M1A2 would break off armor chunks.

The armor is also distributed differently: an M1A2 has armor fitted on to a chassis about the size of an Atlas cockpit. The Atlas, however, has its armor distributed over a 60ft tall chassis with an area comparable to an office building. What's worse, the cockpit has almost no armor at all and can be easily destroyed with even machine guns (it would take a Battlemech machine gun 5 shots to destroy the cockpit armor and 8 shots to destroy every bit of the cockpit). One shot to the cockpit with a 120mm cannon round and the Atlas would be destroyed. The M1A2 frontal armor can withstand mutiple hits from 120mm and 125mm cannon rounds, and the turret is more heavily armored than the frontal armor.

The LRM-20 does less damage per missile than a 20mm Autocannon 2, using 20 weak missiles to do its damage rather than a few powerful ones. These weapons can't hope to hurt an M1A2. The autocannon 20 is a 203mm cannon. While its range is short, the damage it does is questionable since it uses high explosive rounds which perform quite poorly against composite armor as compared to kinetic rounds. It's tough to tell if the autocannon 20 can destroy an M1A2 or whether it will run out of ammo first. It's also questionable how effective medium lasers would be as the composite armor has excellent heat resistance. The M1A2, on the other hand, would probably do damage somewhere between the Autocannon 20 and the Autocannon 10, as it is a 120mm cannon and the Autocannon 20 is supposed to be around 203mm and the autocannon 10 is around 100mm. It is also to be noted that the Autocannon 20 is the most powerful standard weapon in the Battletech universe. This is a little deceptive, though, as these Autocannon seem to not be high velocity weapons, considering their very limited range. The 120mm cannon fires depleted uranium penetrators over 4000 feet per second. This is a little offset by the fact that the 120mm cannon only fires about 4 rounds per minute (once every 15 seconds), but at least those rounds will do massive damage and will hit their target. That means that, while it's questionable how much damage an Atlas can do against an M1A2, the M1A2 will certainly be able to do massive damage back and even destroy the Atlas with only 1 shot if it hits the cockpit. It would be interesting to see if the M1A2 could destroy the Atlas simply by shooting a 50 cal maching gun at its cockpit.

Speed

If an Atlas and an M1A2 started off at 4000m apart, it would take the Atlas (going at its max speed of 15m per second) 200 seconds to get within missile range of the M1A2. During those 200 seconds, the M1A2 would be able to hit it about 13 times before it can even got close enough to shoot back. If the previous weapon comparisons are approximately accurate, that would be over 130 armor plates worth of damage and would be enough to destroy even the center armor and chasis of the Atlas. If the M1A2 chose to run, the Atlas would never be able to close in to firing range.

Accuracy

A Battlemech has deplorable accuracy. They are the size of a barn and yet seem to have trouble even hitting each other. Getting a "headshot" (shooting the cockpit) is like winning the lottery and an M1A2 is about the size of a Battlemech cockpit. The M1A2 can shoot another tank at a distance of over a mile even while both tanks are moving. That means the M1A2 will be consistently hitting and the Atlas will be getting lucky shots or just missing.

The scenario:

Based on the previous comparison, it's safe to conclude an M1A2 would simply shoot one APFSDS round into the cockpit of the Atlas at 4000m destroying it and killing the pilot. That means that a Battlemech with its cool design, futuristic technology, massive array of weapons, and high output fusion reactor would get mauled by a simple 1980s tank with 1990s improvements firing a conventional 120mm cannon. Battlemechs really aren't the future of warfare, sorry to all Battlemech lovers."

Posted by Discoshaman at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2007

What Classic Battletech battlemechs should Wizids add to Mechwarrior?

One of the weird things about Mechwarrior to me is how many of the really great Classic Battletech mechs have been excluded. Some of the really gorgeous, cool mechs have been ignored by Wizkids, while some really so-so mechs made the cut. For instance, was there really a groundswell of support for the Osiris or the Black Hawk?

Meanwhile, awesome mechs like the Wolverine, Crusader, Archer and Highlander remain in limbo. I mean crimony, where is the standard Marauder mech? Is there anything more iconic in Classic Battletech than the Marauder?

This especially makes no sense from a marketing standpoint for Wizkids. While plenty of kids play Mechwarrior, a huge percentage of the fan base for Mechwarrior comes from old skool Battletech players. We grew up on mechs like the Valkyrie or Marauder. Wouldn’t it make sense for Wizkids to sell mechs that we identify with?

So what mechs should Wizkids add to their lineup? My votes include the Marauder, the Valkyrie and, just for the heck of it, the Awesome, Jr. . . How about you?

Posted by Discoshaman at 04:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2007

Should Wizkids resurrect House Marik for the Wizkids Mechwarrior universe?

What do you think? It could just me my Classic Battletech sympathies, but I really want to see Wizkids bring back House Marik to the list of factions. Of course, I’m a bit of a purist. I still hate the Clans, to some extent. My first experience with Battletech came in sixth grade when everyone played it at lunch. We all took on one Mechwarrior faction or another, and kept track of our conquests. So for years, Battletech to me meant the Inner Sphere. Still though, the Clans did help keep the Battletech storyline moving forward, I suppose.

There have to still be some House Marik fans around, one imagines. Wouldn’t Wizkids be better off giving them their House back? Introducing House Marik into the Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction period would seem to be smart not only for keeping Marik fans happy, but it would also allow them to roll it out in tournament form. They could make the introduction of a major new faction into Mechwarrior be the big event of 2008, with an action pack, several mechs in a standard expansion, and Marik limited edition mechs as tournament and Mechwarrior convention prizes.

Makes sense when you think about it, aff?

Posted by Discoshaman at 04:31 AM | Comments (0)