Battletech Comments

Comments

Response #2 To The Comments

Scot Smith questioned the use of a ground scale of 30 meters per hex. He thought that the scale was 200 yards per hex.

Scot is, or rather was, correct. The original ground scale for Battletech was set at 200 yards (or meters?) per hex. Also, apparently the new "click-teck" version of Battletech now uses this scale. However, the Battletech Compendium on page 10 clearly states:

"Each hex on the mapsheet represents an area of ground 30 meters (roughly 100 feet) across."

So, why not use this ground scale to evaluate the weapons and movement in Battletech? Because the scale doesn't work!

A ground scale of 200 meters per hex would give quite reasonable ranges for many of the weapons (ex. an Inner Sphere Autocannon/10 with a range of 18 hexes would have a range of 3,600 meters ... quite respectable). It would even make the horribly anemic Machinegun acceptable (with a Long Range of 3 hexes, Machineguns would fire to 600 meters, almost as good as real world weapons).

This larger ground scale would, however, cause the speeds of the mechs to become outrageous. Take for example the RVN-3L Raven described on page 125 of the Compendium. The technical description says it has a Maximum Speed of 90.7 kph (based on a Running MP of 9).
- At 30 meters per hex, 9 MPs give 270 meters per turn, 1,620 meters per minute, or 97,200 meters per hour (97.2 kph). [Note that their math doesn't seem to measure up any better than their grasp of physics.]
- At 200 meters per hex, 9 MPs give 1,800 meters per turn, 10,800 meters per minute, or 648,000 meters per hour (648 kph). Quite an improvement in performance! But not possible.

The larger ground scale creates another bit of illogic; the rate of movement of mech legs.
- At 30 meters per hex, 9 MPs give 27 meters of movement per second. That would be just over one step per second while running. It seems quite reasonable for a 30 to 50 foot tall mech.
- At 200 meters per hex, 9 MPs give 180 meters of movement per second. That would be about four to five steps per second while running. This doesn't seem like something such a huge mechanical device would be able to accomplish.

Ultimately, this just helps to show that there is no simple way to fix Battletech's problems.

To Comments Updated 13 June 2005.