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Rules Modifications And Additions - Compendium
      The following rules in the Compendium will be changed as indicated. Additional rules modifications, clarifications, and additions may be defined at any time by the Campaign Master.

Mech Warrior Damage From Ammo Explosions
      The Damage From Ammo Explosions rule (Compendium, page 17) will be modified. This rule requires that a mech warrior sustain two points of damage due to internal ammunition explosions. It may be interpreted as meaning two points of damage per critical location which explodes.
      In this campaign, this rule will be interpreted to mean that the mech warrior takes two points of damage in any turn in which any internal ammunition explosion occurs; but only to a maximum of two points per turn, regardless of the number of critical locations which explode.

Effects Of Partial Cover
      In the Compendium (page 32), the Effects of Partial Cover rule is stupid and only an idiot would play it as written. Therefore, it will not be used in the campaign.
      The replacement Partial Cover Effect rule shall have three related components; first, increased applicability, second, the difficulty of hitting a target, and third, the inability to damage hidden locations on a target.
      Partial cover effects shall apply to anything which is partially obscured from sight. Partial cover shall be defined as being able to see only about one-half of the target, as viewed from the waist of a mech, the turret or upper works of a vehicle, the cockpit of a VTOL, or the heads of an infantry unit. "One-half of the target" shall be defined as all of three or more locations on a mech (ex. left torso, left arm, and left leg), all of both legs of a mech, the turret or upper works of a vehicle (as in a hull down position), half of the width or length of a vehicle, or more than half of a standard hex stand for infantry. Battlemechs, vehicles, VTOLs, infantry, or other units do not obstruct the line of sight for partial cover effects.
      The To-Hit value shall have a +1 modifier applied if the target has partial cover.
      When determining damage for a unit with partial cover, use the standard Hit Location Table for the type of unit (note: specifically, do not use the Battlemech Punch Location Table). Any location on the target of which at least half is not visible to the firing unit may not be hit. If there is any serious question as to whether or not half of a location is visible, it is treated as not visible. Hits which should strike a hidden location are assumed to have struck the object which obstructs vision.

Recording Damage
      In the Compendium (page 41) under Recording Damage (end of 1st paragraph), the rules indicate that when all of the internal structure of a location is destroyed, "Any weapons, equipment, and heat sinks mounted there are totally destroyed." This rule shall not be used. Any applicable critical hits from the attack which destroyed the location must be applied normally. All remaining equipment in the location is assumed to remain on the mech in its final condition, but not usable by the mech until the location is repaired. Notably, any ammunition in such locations shall not be considered to have exploded. Ammunition may only explode as a result of a direct critical hit to the ammunition. Any such equipment or ammunition shall be considered to be salvageable on the battle field.

Transferring Excess Damage
      The Compendium (page 41) under Transferring Damage only describes the transfer of damage inward. Should the internal structure of a Center Torso location (for a mech) or a Body (for a vehicle) be destroyed, excess damage points radiate back out to the other sections of the unit in the reverse of the Damage Transfer Diagram. If there is a choice of which section is next damaged (ex. damage coming out of a center torso eliminates all internal structure of a side torso of a mech), then roll randomly to determine which part (arm or leg) takes the damage next.
      Each section also may take critical hits as for the standard critical hit rules (i.e., roll normally for each section that takes internal damage to see if it sustains any critical hits).
      All points of damage must be allocated somewhere. If all internal structure of a unit is destroyed, transfer the damage to the armor in the same pattern as for the original internal structure damage. Each section which takes damage in this manner must also make a standard critical hit roll.
      Any damage in excess of that required to destroy all internal structure and armor destroys critical hit locations on a one-for-one basis. Roll randomly to determine which occupied critical hit locations within a section are hit.

Ammunition Loads
      There is no requirement that a full load of ammunition be carried by a mech or combat vehicle (reference the Compendium, page 45). This may be done by not reloading ammunition after a mission or by specifically electing to place less than a full load in the unit. If less than a full load is placed into a unit, the normal amount of ammunition is still expended from a unit's stores. For example, a mech which may carry 1/2 ton of machinegun ammunition (100 rounds) may elect to load only 25 rounds. Despite the fact that only 1/8 of a ton of machinegun ammunition has been loaded, 1/2 ton is expended.

Recording Heat Build-Up
      There is no upper limit to the amount of heat which a mech may accumulate. The specified maximum of 30 is based on the standard Heat Track on a battlemech data sheet. Just because the designer of the form did not anticipate extra heat is no excuse for not recording it.

Infantry Carriers
      Infantry Carriers (Compendium, page 67) are listed in the rules for carrying platoons. Maximum Tech introduced infantry squads, and so rules are needed for carrying infantry squads. Note that the introduction of squad rules in the Maximum Tech book was very helpful, as it is absurd to imagine that a combat vehicle would be so large as to carry a whole platoon (no modern Armored Personnel Carrier or Infantry Fighting Vehicle carries even half of a platoon ... no, not even the U.S. Marines huge LVTs ... sorry, dated designation ... they are now called AAVs).
      For a vehicle to be designed to carry one or more squads of infantry, the tonnage equivalent of infantry squads will be needed (this is also needed for the Shipping And Transportation rule herein). The following weights are assigned.

Aerospace Fighters
      Aerospace fighters (Compendium, page 70) will not be used in the initial stages of the campaign. Units may acquire aerospace fighters, but they will not be used in battle. This may be changed later in the campaign.

Off-Board Artillery
      Off-board artillery (Compendium, page 77) will not be used in the campaign. Such equipment may be used in the game, but may not fire from off-board.

Construction
      New mech or vehicle designs (Compendium, page 99) may not be constructed as part of the campaign. Existing mechs and vehicles may be modified as desired to create the equivalent of a new design.

Equipment Weight
      Some items of equipment do not have weights specified for them in the Weapons And Equipment Table (Compendium, page 104). The weight must be known in the campaign for shipping purposes. The following weights are defined. Note that a standard cockpit weighs 3 tons, but includes life support and sensors in that total. The weights for these individual items of equipment have been separated.

Artemis IV Fire-Control System
      With all the changes and additions to the types of missile launchers and types of missiles, it is no longer clear which type of missiles may and may not take advantage of the Artemis IV Fire-Control System (Compendium, page 113). The following missile systems and missile types, and only these types, may benefit from the use of an Artemis IV Fire-Control System. Any type of missile which contains any form of self guidance may not take advantage of an Artemis IV Fire-Control System.

Flamers
      Flamers (Compendium, page 116) are a very poorly documented type of weapon throughout both the Compendium and the Maximum Tech books. The Inner Sphere Weapons & Equipment Table and the Clan Weapons & Equipment Table (Compendium, last two pages of tables) both make it clear that there are two types of flamers; one for mechs, and one for vehicles. Further, the Flamer (Vehicle) requires ammunition (20 shots per ton). However, nowhere in either of the rules books is the cost of Flamer (Vehicle) ammunition listed, although the Flamers rule (Maximum Tech, page 85) indicates that Inferno Fuel costs double. A cost is listed for the fuel for the Heavy Flamer (2,000 C-Bills per ton, Maximum Tech, page 96), which is a variant of the Flamer (Vehicle).
      For this campaign, Vehicle Flamer ammunition shall cost 1,000 C-Bills per ton.

Triple-Strength Myomer
      Although described in the Compendium (page 121), rules for mounting or repairing musculature, and notably Triple-Strength Myomer, are not included in the game rule books. Since the vast majority of mechs are not designed with Triple-Strength Myomer, and since anyone redesigning a mech normally works to eliminate heat problems, Triple-Strength Myomer will not be used or available for use in this campaign. Any mech equipped with Triple-Strength Myomer may be used, but the mech may never be modified.

Costs - Jump Jets
      The Costs section of the Compendium (page 123) does not provide costs for jump jets which are usable in a campaign. The formula for costs requires that the number of jump jets be squared when determining their cost. This might, just possibly, make some sort of twisted sense to someone at FASA, but it makes no sense when trying to value jump jets. If the use of "Tonnage" in the cost formula makes a component unique to a specific weight mech, then the use of Tonnage and Number of Jets must make each jet unique to both the tonnage of the mech and the number of jets installed on the mech. Assuming that the maximum number of jump jets on any mech is about eight (this is not a limit, it is just for this example), then there are 136 different costs for jump jets. "Ludicrous" would be polite way to describe such a concept. It also means that the sizes of jump jets given in the Compendium on page 101 are meaningless, since each jump jet is unique to its installation.
      To be purchased and held in inventory, jump jets must have specific, fixed values. To be transported, they must have specific, fixed weights. While nothing can be done about the stupidity in the mech cost formula, the weight and cost of jump jets will be defined for campaign purposes. The costs given below are based on the cost from the formula for the installation of a single jump jet on the smallest weight mech for the size of jump jet from the Jump Jet Weight Table (ex. the cost for a 0.5 ton jump jet is based on the cost for a 20 ton mech with one jump jet installed).

Rules Modifications And Additions - Compendium, Miniature Conversion
      The following rules in the Miniature Conversion insert of the Compendium will be changed as indicated. Additional rules modifications, clarifications, and additions may be defined at any time by the Campaign Master. Other rules changes caused by the use of miniatures may also be included in the preceding and following sections.
      [Some reader may note some extra sarcasm built into some of the following text. This is the result of the author's disgust with and disdain for the authors at FASA for being so unforgivably lazy (and just plain stupid!) as to think that the Battletech rules could be converted for use with miniatures without hexes in three and one-half pages of apparently quickly created, and highly incomplete, rules modifications. Note that of the seven pages in the Miniature Conversion insert, one is the cover, and over two and one-half pages are on making the miniatures and terrain, thus leaving only half of the already too small insert for the actual rules changes.]

Scale
      While the need to provide a way to play the miniatures version of the game in reduced spaces is understandable, the Scale rule (Compendium, Miniature Conversion, page 5), as written, makes one wonder about the simple native intelligence of the authors (well, many of the rules do this, this one is simply more blatant than others). Apparently in the FASA universe, time and distance are concepts which may be adjusted to suit the whim of the authors, with no apparent relation to the effective ranges and movement distances of the equipment in a "real" world. Or, to put this in the form of a question ... How can you change the ground scale, and not change the weapon ranges to match?
      Regardless of this stupidity, the campaign shall always use the scale of 1 inch equals 10 meters. Although this results in asinine ranges for weaponry, it is consistent with the scale of the hex based play (the asinine ranges are built into the hex based version of the game), and all movement and ranges may be calculated simply by multiplying the standard value by three.

Movement - Free Half-Hexside Turn
      During Movement under the miniatures rules (Compendium, Miniature Conversion, page 5), a moving unit may make one turn of up to a half-hexside (30° or less) per movement phase at no cost in Movement Points, provided it makes some other movement which expends Movement Points. This turn may be made at any point in the movement.
      A unit which executes a turn of up to one half-hexside as its only movement is considered to have walked.

Stacking - Range 0 Attacks
      Unlike other units, infantry (Compendium, page 67, Miniature Conversion, page 5) is capable of a range zero (0) attack (i.e., the infantry may fire at a unit in the same hex as the infantry). The meaning of a range zero attack is not, however, defined in the miniature rules (Compendium, second insert). Since a hex translates to three inches of distance, a range zero attack shall be defined as an attack executed at a range of one-and-one-half inches or less. Thus an infantry unit which is within one-and-one-half inches of a target is considered to be in the same "hex" as the target.
      This rule will apply only to weapons used by an infantry unit, including field guns.

Stacking - Hex-To-Hex Contact
      Although implied in the Stacking rule within Miniature Conversion (Compendium, Miniature Conversion, page 5), the meaning of hex-to-hex contact is never clearly defined for miniatures. The Stacking rule suggests that base-to-base contact is required. This severely limits some forms of close combat. Except for physical attacks by battlemechs, hex-to-hex contact shall be defined as two units being within three inches of each other. Physical attacks will, however, require base-to-base contact.

Falls
      Apparently the miniatures used by the person who wrote the Falls paragraph (Compendium, Miniature Conversion, page 5) are made of glass or some other highly fragile material. Properly assembled and painted miniatures should be able to withstand something as simple as being placed on their side.
      Therefore, whenever a battlemech falls, it will be placed on the ground. To simulate the fall, the mech is tipped (oh ... gently, please!) at the edge of its base in the direction of the fall. Any changes in attitude are shown by rotating the figure around its base, without moving the base from its original location. When the mech stands, the figure is tipped back up at the edge of its base. In this manner, the edge of the base acts as a marker for the correct standing position of the mech.

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Contents Previous Next Updated 20 June 1999.