Against The Bot Instructions V2 5
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Instructions for playing Against The Bot v2.5 Created by CampaignAnon for use with MekHQ. This article assumes you’d like to play with the most recent, up to date rules for Against the Bot (AtB), as such, here are the following links to download the program: http://megamek.org/downloads Scroll down on this page until you come to the MekHQ variant for your OS of choice, then download the program to your hard drive, extract the .zip file. Included in the newer versions of MekHQ are the Against the Bot rules, which should be referred to for Prisoner Exchanges and other rules as needed. This file is currently named “rules 2.31.xls.” Starting on the next page is a Table of Contents for ease of Reference. Also, for the greatest familiarity with the rules MekHQ uses, make sure to read the Maintenance, Repair, Salvage and Customization chapter in Strategic Operations, the Creating a Mercenary Unit chapter in Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised, or if you are using the rules from Campaign Operations, refer to the Force Operations chapter. Nothing presented in this document is official, and is available solely as a fan resource. Changelog: v1.0: First version (02/21/2017). Added Part 1 (Setting up Against the Bot Rules). v1.5: Second version (02/22/2017). Added Part 2 (Starting your first contract) and Part 3 (Extras) with Step 3.1 v2.0: Third version (02/27/2017). Added ToC, Steps 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4. Updated Step 1.16D’s info about lance ratios, updated Step 2.4 with info about built in GM Tools RAT Generator. v2.1: Fourth version (02/28/2017). Added Changelog, Rule References in opening paragraph and Step 3.5 (Quirks). v2.5: Fifth version (03/03/2017): Completed Step 3.5 Custom Quirk rules, added Step 3.6 Rerolling Battlefield Conditions and Step 3.7 The Salvage Screen Table of Contents Part 1 (Setting up Against the Bot rules):..............................................................................................3 Step 1.1 (New Campaign Dialog):......................................................................................................3 Step 1.2 (Presets):................................................................................................................................4 Step 1.3 (General Options Tab):.........................................................................................................5 Step 1.4 (Repair and Acquisition Tab):.............................................................................................6 Step 1.4A (Repair and Maintenance):...........................................................................................7 Step 1.4B (Acquisition and Delivery):...........................................................................................8 Step 1.5 (Tech Limits):........................................................................................................................8 Step 1.6 (Personnel):............................................................................................................................9 Step 1.7 (Finances):...........................................................................................................................10 Step 1.8 (Mercenary):........................................................................................................................10 Step 1.9 (Experience):.......................................................................................................................10 Step 1.10 (Skills):...............................................................................................................................10 Step 1.11 (Special Abilities):..............................................................................................................11 Step 1.12 (Skill Randomization):......................................................................................................11 Step 1.13 (Rank System):..................................................................................................................11 Step 1.14 (Name and Portrait Generation):....................................................................................11 Step 1.15 (Personnel Market):..........................................................................................................11 Step 1.16 (Against the Bot):..............................................................................................................11 Step 1.16A (Unit Administration):..............................................................................................12 Step 1.16B (Contract Operations):..............................................................................................13 Step 1.16C (RAT Generation):....................................................................................................13 Step 1.16D (Scenarios):................................................................................................................14 Step 1.17 (Saving your Preset):........................................................................................................15 Part 2 (Starting your first contract):....................................................................................................16 Step 2.1 (Splash Screen):...................................................................................................................16 Step 2.2 (Adding Starter Funds):.....................................................................................................16 Step 2.3 (Creating your pilots):........................................................................................................17 Step 2.4 (Generating your BattleMech roster):..............................................................................19 Step 2.5 (Assigning Pilots to ’Mechs, and ’Mechs to Forces):.......................................................21 Step 2.5A (Assigning Pilots to ’Mechs):......................................................................................21 Step 2.5B (Assigning ’Mechs to Forces):....................................................................................22 Step 2.6 (Support Staff):...................................................................................................................26 Step 2.6A (Technical Staff):..............................................................................................................27 Step 2.6B (Astech and Medic Pools):...............................................................................................27 Step 2.7 (The Warehouse):................................................................................................................29 Step 2.7A (Armor):.......................................................................................................................29 Step 2.7B (Heat Sinks):................................................................................................................30 Step 2.7C (Ammunition):.............................................................................................................30 Step 2.7D (Weapon Spares):........................................................................................................30 Step 2.8 (Contract Generation):.......................................................................................................31 Step 2.8A (Transiting to your contract’s objective):..................................................................33 Part 3 (Extras):.......................................................................................................................................34 Step 3.1 (Adding Additional Forces):..............................................................................................34 Step 3.2 (Chase Missions):................................................................................................................35 Step 3.3 (Removing Scenarios):........................................................................................................36 Step 3.4 (Repairs):.............................................................................................................................37 Step 3.5 Custom Quirk rules (option):............................................................................................38 Step 3.5A (Failing Quirk Modifications):...................................................................................39 Step 3.6 (Rerolling Battlefield Conditions):....................................................................................40 Step 3.7 (The Salvage Screen):.........................................................................................................41 Part 1 (Setting up Against the Bot rules): Step 1.1 (New Campaign Dialog): First however, you should launch the program. If this is your first time creating a campaign, click the “Start a New Campaign” button, and you should see something similar to the image below: Set your preferred day and date and move on to the next step. If you don’t have one, there are several eras to choose from. If you wish to play an Introductory Technology game (that is, using only ’Mechs from TRO:3039) then any date before 3050 might be preferable. If you want to play in the Clan Invasion Era, then set the date from 3049 to 3060. The FedCom Civil War is 3060 to 3067, and the Jihad Era is 3067 to 3090. After that is the Dark Age, which runs from 3090 to 3145. For this article, the date will be the default 3067 one above. Step 1.2 (Presets): Next you’ll choose your preset. As a new user you won’t have some of these options, but that’s okay. To start with, we’ll choose the “Official AtB Options” preset, and modify it from there. Step 1.3 (General Options Tab): After choosing your preset you will get the following image: This window is the aptly named Campaign Options, and I’ll go over each tab in some detail. For now though, let’s go over the General tab. I’ve already changed the Unit Name, but feel free to name it whatever you want. Next, the faction menu. For simplicity’s sake, until you are more comfortable with MekHQ and AtB, stick with the Mercenary faction. There are rules to play as a House or Clan unit in the AtB rules file. After that comes the Unit Rating and Unit Rating Method options. Using the Unit Rating is recommended, as this can determine contract bonuses and loans (covered later). The Method itself is up to you, with the options of the rules in Field Manual: Mercenaries (Revised) or in Campaign Operations. I’ll be using the FM: Mercenaries Revised rules due to the AtB rules using its rating system for this guide. Thirdly is the date option, which you’ve already determined and shouldn’t change unless you want errors to creep in. Finally, you have the option for a different camouflage. On the downloads page for MegaMek is a .zip file containing a large number of camo styles available, if the default ones included aren’t to your taste. After confirming these options, we’ll move on to the next tab, Repair and Acquisition. Step 1.4 (Repair and Acquisition Tab): The default tab looks like the image below, but I’m going to cover the tab in two parts to make things clearer. Step 1.4A (Repair and Maintenance): The left half of the page deals with repairing your units and keeping them maintained, something incredibly important if you want to keep going on the AtB game. I’ve set up some of the rules as I recommend them already in this next example: In the Repair section, I tend to not use the Era Mods for Repair Rolls as the option isn’t as effective when you’re a mercenary. Next, “Place tech assigned to unit at the top of the list for repairs” means that whenever you go to the Repair Bay in MHQ, the tech assigned to that tech will be the first available. The next option just resets to the tech at the top of the list. The third option is to allow units to use the Strategic Operations Quirk rules. Finally in Repair, an option that is up to you to leave on or off is the Damage/Destroy parts by MoF. Pretty self explanatory, but I recommend leaving it off if your Techs are inexperienced. In Maintenance, first we have the “Make Maintenance Checks” option, which follows StratOps’ rules on maintenance, where part quality matters. Under this option are the Cycle length, which should be a month for simplicity’s sake, as well as the modifier. The Maintenance Modifier is something that by default can see your units coming apart at the seams with the Damage/Destroy option on. There are several modifiers to use, but the -3 option is the easiest, with 0 or -1 being harder. Next up is the Quality Modifiers in maintenance checks, which means better parts are easier to maintain. Thirdly, the reverse quality names isn’t necessary, unless you want your best parts to have A quality, rather than F quality. The last two options are pretty self explanatory. Step 1.4B (Acquisition and Delivery): Below is an image of how I normally set acquisition rolls: These are all pretty self explanatory, but if you want to make as many acquisition rolls per day as you want, feel free to set it to 0. Step 1.5 (Tech Limits): This tab is pretty simple, though I should stress that unless you are running a really, really high end campaign, or you are beating the Clans like a rented mule, you should leave the “Pay for Clan Parts and Equipment” option off. This is due to how good Clan equipment is, and how rare it should be in Mercenary hands. Step 1.6 (Personnel): Most of these options stay as default, especially the salary portion, though I do increase the NonCom multiplier to 1.5. The rest are pictured below. I do recommend that unless you want to see oddities like toddlers with small arms skills rivaling trained infantrymen, you turn off conception. Step 1.7 (Finances): Aside from increasing the cost of Clan parts to 2.0, rather than 1.0, this page stays the same for the most part. Once your unit owns their own DropShip and JumpShip, you should turn off the “Pay for transportation” option, otherwise you’ll have to pay to transport those two vessels. I’d recommend turning it off even if you just have a DropShip, otherwise transit costs skyrocket. Step 1.8 (Mercenary): This tab leave as the default. These options work well. Step 1.9 (Experience): I tune XP awards like the following image: I also edit the XP costs at high levels of skills, making the points required for 9+ be the previous rank +20. Step 1.10 (Skills): Leave these as is, there’s no change necessary. Step 1.11 (Special Abilities): Leave as is as well, unless you want to edit the Natural Piloting/Gunnery SPAs to make them purchasable. If so, set those SPAs to 60 XP apiece, because of how game changing they are. Step 1.12 (Skill Randomization): Another one to not make any changes with, unless you want to really get into the nitty gritty of skill work. Until you’re really comfortable with AtB, or you want that randomness, leave these as alone for now. Step 1.13 (Rank System): By default as a Mercenary, this is set to the Star League system, though you can change this to any system you want, or create your own. Step 1.14 (Name and Portrait Generation): I prefer to have portraits for everybody, and on the Megamek downloads page you can get various portrait packs to give your pilots personality… ish. Step 1.15 (Personnel Market): Unfortunately, aside from the Dylan’s Method option, the market types will only generate one or two people per week. So to make sure you have a good amount of pilots on hand, you may want to use the following settings: Step 1.16 (Against the Bot): This is the biggest section, so I’m going to cut this into several sub-steps and go over each from there. To make any changes, you’ll have to have the “Use the Against the Bot campaign rules” option on. The Skill Level doesn’t seem to have any appreciable effect on games themselves, only the forces as part of a contract. Though Elite does seem to mess with the RNG a small amount. Step 1.16A (Unit Administration): I use the following options in my games most of the time. While the share system has its merits, if you’re customizing retirement rolls to reduce retirement (which you absolutely will want to do), it doesn’t need to be on. Treating Aero pilots like ’Mechwarriors means those Aero pilots will keep track of their original fighter. Turn off Retirement on contract completion, otherwise you’ll start bleeding pilots after every contract. Additionally, if you want to game the system, turn on “Customize retirement rolls” which happen every year or so, and make it so your pilots can’t retire, so you won’t lose amazing pilots because they (sensibly) want to retire on their salaries. The rest of the rules are pretty self explanatory. Step 1.16B (Contract Operations): This portion is relatively simple. The higher your intensity, the more often you fight, so you can change this number from 1 to fight more or less battles. “Company Size Limits” penalize you for being too big relative to your Unit Rating, which means if you’re a C rated unit but a regiment in size, you suffer, which seems odd. Step 1.16C (RAT Generation): This is down to player preference, though with the addition of the MHQ RAT Generator, you have the option of just using that, and it rolls on an era appropriate table. Step 1.16D (Scenarios): Settings are as follows: For the love of all that’s holy TURN OFF DOUBLE ENEMY VEHICLES, unless you want to drown in a battalion of Scorpions, it needs to be off. The Lance ratios listed here will give you an even mix of lance types, so you won’t face just vehicles forever. However, these settings mean that you will more likely face enemy ’Mechs than not. If you’re having trouble facing mostly ’Mechs, feel free to turn the ’Mech ratio down to 1. The rest are pretty self explanatory, but if you have difficulties with the conditions, you can turn them off, and random enemy capture is also pretty optional. Step 1.17 (Saving your Preset): Once you have all the Against the Bot Options to your liking, click the “Confirm and Save as Preset” option, which will bring up a menu like this: Title your Preset, enter a short description then hit OK. Part 2 (Starting your first contract): Step 2.1 (Splash Screen): Once you save your preset, MekHQ will present you with a screen similar the one below. I’ve shrunk it a bit so that everything fits relatively closely in this first picture. Feel free to click on the tabs to see what they do, but for now, it’s going to be pretty empty. Step 2.2 (Adding Starter Funds): For this article, I’m going to create a company of BattleMechs and their pilots. Before we do anything, since this company of 12 pilots and ’Mechs will be received “for free” at the start of unit creation, turn on GM Mode at the top of the screen, and then go into the Campaign Options and turn off “Pay for Personnel Recruitment” on the Finances tab. This will let you hire your starting pilots for free. Next we’ll need to set up some capital to start with after we hire our pilots. I recommend a starting bankroll of 20 Million C-bills, which offers a comfortable cushion in case you have problems. Go over to the Finances tab on the main splash page, which looks like the following image: Since we have GM Mode on, the “Add Funds (GM)” button is available to click. Click on that and you will get a screen similar to below. I’ve already entered the amount, what type the amount is, and why. Step 2.3 (Creating your pilots): Now that we have funds, it’s time to create our unit’s original CO and pilot corps. To do so, click on the “Marketplace” drop down menu, then scroll to “Hire” and then click on “MechWarrior” once that submenu comes up. You should see the following image before clicking on “MechWarrior”: After bringing up the Hire MechWarrior menu, you should see a menu with options like this: Alright! I got Mister T! Well, he’ll be our CO. Before we go anywhere else on the page, I want to talk about the “Regenerate (GM)” option. This completely tosses out the pilot data for a completely new one, so you can hit that until you get a pilot you want for your first twelve. Next though, we’re going to hit the “Edit Statistics (GM)” option, which will let you tinker with this pilot’s skills, name, and fluff info. The image below has the basics of this new window. As you can see, I’ve changed the CO’s name. Also, I’ve increased his Piloting and Gunnery to 3/4, up from 4/5, as well as given him 2 points of Toughness, which interacts with an optional MegaMek rule to lower the Target Number of Consciousness checks by that amount. Currently, Mister T doesn’t have an original unit, but I’ll add one later, once I have all the pilots and ’Mechs generated. Once you’re done editing the CO, hit “OK” in this window, and that brings us back to our first window, with Mister T’s stats. Next, click on the drop down menu that currently says “None” and scroll down to the Captain rank, like so: After selecting Captain, click “Hire”, and you’ve got your CO! After that, I recommend your next two hires be your two other Lance Leaders, both of whom should be Lieutenants. After that, you’ll need to create the other 9 pilots, and I generally give them the rank of Sergeant. Once you have your pilots hired, you’ll need to generate your initial ’Mech roster. Step 2.4 (Generating your BattleMech roster): This step is (relatively) simple. Roll on an era appropriate Random Assignment Table (RAT) for your starting company. These RAT’s can be found in many BattleTech products, such as Era Reports or Field Manuals. Another RAT source is the unofficial Xotl’s RAT Tables, which cover 3025-3050 based off of canon information. This RAT is available here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357573/30283050%20Random%20Assignment%20%26%20Rarity%20Tables%209.1.pdf There is also the option of the GM Tools RAT Generator, which allows you to choose a faction and roll on that RAT for the designated year, rather than using an outside source. This option is under the Manage Campaign drop down menu. Additionally, you can also choose to use custom unit variants in place of standard ones. So as not to confuse, I won’t be using any custom units, just know that you have the option. For this article, I’m going to be using the Periphery and Mercenary, with a little bit of the FedCom and Lyran Alliance RATs from Era Report: 3062. For a bit of fluffiness, I’m going to have 2 Assaults, 2 Heavies, 6 Mediums and 2 Lights. Once you have 12 ’Mechs rolled (or chosen, I won’t judge), click on the “Marketplace” menu, like below: Then select the Purchase Unit option, which will bring up a new window. My first ’Mech that I rolled was Mr. T’s Battlemaster BLR-3M, which is an Assault ’Mech. I changed the weight class to Assault, while searching for that exact chassis and model. The output is on the following page. Currently, we can’t buy this ’Mech due to the fact that the unit doesn’t have any Administrators. That’s okay, we’ll add those later on. For now, just click the “Add (GM)” button, for your commander’s ’Mech, as well as the remaining 11 you rolled up. Step 2.5 (Assigning Pilots to ’Mechs, and ’Mechs to Forces): Step 2.5A (Assigning Pilots to ’Mechs): Now that we have our company of 12 ’Mechs, we’ll need to assign pilots to them. If you’re not already on it, go to the Personnel tab now. Select your CO, and right click on his bar, like so: Obviously, this has a fair few options available to us, but right now we want two options. The first, which I have highlighted, is “Assign to Unit.” This will let us place our pilots in their respective ’Mechs. I’m putting Mr. T in this BattleMaster BLR-3M. Also, since this is the easiest time to do so, in this same menu, go to the “Special Flags” option, and mark your CO as the “Commander.” This affects rolls and unit size later on. Assign the rest of your pilots to any ’Mech you choose, then go over to the TO&E tab. Step 2.5B (Assigning ’Mechs to Forces): Assuming you haven’t made any changes, the TO&E tab is going to look pretty barren, like the image below: That’s okay, we’re going to make it pop in a moment. First though, let’s go ahead and right click on the “My Campaign” box, which will bring up the options you can see below. Feel free to change top level force name at any time. This is your mercenary unit’s name in the organization. You can also change the Force Icon, which denotes unit size or type. For now though, let’s just click on “Add New Force.” To keep the organization straight, this should be the top level of your forces currently, so call it a company. Once you name the unit and hit “Okay” the Force will not be immediately visible. To make it show up, double click on your very top level unit, and it will appear, like the image on the following page. Next, we’ll need to add three sub forces to this unit. Follow the previous steps, except these are lances, so add them to “The T Company” (or whatever you end up calling your unit), and you should get this, after double clicking on your company: Now that we have our lances, it’s time to add units to those lances. Right click on your first (or command lance), and then click on “Add Unit.” You will get the screen on the following page. Add your Captain, and in this case I’m going to add the Cerberus, War Dog and Gallowglas to Baracus Lance. Follow the previous instructions to add your first Lieutenant to your second lance, and then your second Lieutenant to the third lance. Once that’s complete, each lance of four ’Mechs should look similar to the image below. (Except for the War Dog’s terrible skills) With that, your TO&E is complete for now. As you accumulate more ’Mechs, pilots, and vehicles, you can expand your TO&E however you want. Step 2.6 (Support Staff): Now that we have our combat personnel and ’Mechs squared away, we need to move on to the next part of the equation. There are three major support staff types. These are Doctors, Techs, and Administrators. To start with, we’ll cover Doctors. I prefer to have 1 doctor per 3pilots, so that each person that’s injured has enough doctor time to heal up properly, and I can take on prisoner healing as well. We’ll add Doctors the same way we added ’Mech pilots earlier: Next, Administrators. For a unit of this size, and for simplicity’s sake, just hire one of each of the four Administration types seen above. Each of the four deal with different aspects of contract work and upkeep on your pilots, for the HR Admin. Step 2.6A (Technical Staff): In the same way you’ve hired everyone so far, hire 12 ’Mech Techs. You can also use the “Hire Personnel in Bulk” option to save time, but this option doesn’t allow you to customize the Techs, so you’ll have to do that later. Once you’ve got your techs hired, go to the Hangar tab, and select the mech at the top of the list. Right click on that unit, and you should get the image below: Since this is my CO’s mech, I’m going to assign a Veteran tech to the BattleMaster, and the other Veteran on the Cerberus. While you can assign the same Tech to multiple ’Mechs, since you have enough techs at this point, just give each ’Mech its own technician. Step 2.6B (Astech and Medic Pools): For your Doctors and ’Mech Technicians to be able to do their jobs properly, they will need support from Medics and Astechs, respectively. Doctors are considered at full strength when each Doctor has four (4) Medics, and each ’Mech Tech has six (6) Astechs. There are two ways of filling these teams. The first is hiring personnel in bulk like you’ve done previously, but I’ve noticed tracking all those personnel can bloat the save file pretty heavily once you start expanding your unit out. The other option is on the Marketplace drop down menu, as shown on the next page. This option will add Temp Astechs and Medics (as shown on the bottom of MekHQ), that work, though they don’t gain any experience so you can turn them into real techs, they also don’t bloat the file severely, as once you start approaching regimental levels, you can have almost a thousand Astechs. After you bring both sets of Teams to full strength, be sure to go back into Campaign Options and turn “Pay for Personnel Recruitment” back on in the Finances tab. Step 2.7 (The Warehouse): Now that we’ve got personnel, ’Mechs, and have them assigned, now we need to fill the Warehouse with some essential parts. Go to the Warehouse tab, and you’ll see a blank page currently, but we’re going to change that. First, hit the Marketplace menu, and go to Purchase Parts. This new window is below: As you can see, some parts are impossible for now, and that’s okay. What we’re going to focus on right now is adding Armor, Heat Sinks, Ammunition, and a few Weapons. Step 2.7A (Armor): Change the Part Type to Armor, and you’ll have a standard list to choose from. If you have several units Ferro-Fibrous armor, note that down. Right now though, we’re going to start with 50 tons of Armor, so that you always have a little bit in reserve. If you have a lot of ’Mechs with Ferro-Fibrous, swap to 25 tons of Standard and 25 of Ferro, so you have both. Select the Armor type, and hit “Add (GM).” Luckily, Armor is added in 5 ton lots. Step 2.7B (Heat Sinks): Next, we’ll want to add Heat Sinks. Change the Part Type to “All Parts” and search for Heat Sink. This should look like the image below. If all of your mechs have only Single Heat Sinks, be sure to get those Singles, and vice versa. I recommend 20 to 30 Heat Sinks to start with. Step 2.7C (Ammunition): This is one that’s going to be tricky, as it depends solely on what units you have. I recommend 4 tons of ammunition per ’Mech per weapon, excluding Streak Launchers, 2 tons per. So if you have 3 mechs with a Gauss Rifle, you should have at least 12 tons of ammunition for them. Step 2.7D (Weapon Spares): Also varies, but I don’t recommend you have a lot, since you’re playing a mercenary. Go with a half dozen Medium Lasers and one or two examples of each weapon you have more than one of. Step 2.8 (Contract Generation): Now that we’ve got the unit set up, let’s go to Contract Generation. First, click on the Briefing Room tab, then click on the Marketplace drop down menu and then select the Contract Market option. The Contract Market window looks like the image below: You’ll likely have a few contracts generated already, but go ahead and generate 4 more with the GM mode. Here are my generated contracts below. I’ve chosen an Extraction Raid for the Free Worlds League against the Lyran Alliance. I’ll go over each portion of the contract here. The Mission Type is an Extraction Raid, which is enumerated upon in more detail in the AtB rules document. Next are the Ally and Enemy Ratings, which determine the skills and qualities of your ally and enemy forces. Both sides are Regular skilled, D rated units, which means they have okay pilots and decent ’Mechs. Next we have Overhead Compensation, which are incidental costs like food and the like. Next are Command Rights, which don’t have too much of an effect in AtB, beyond whether you’ll have an allied bot during missions, or extra units that join you on deployment. Transport terms covers how much it will cost you to transit to your contract’s location. Salvage rights determines how much of the equipment you capture you can keep. Straight Support is how much your employers cover your technical costs, and Battle Loss Compensation is how much your employer will pay for repairs. All of these are covered in more detail in Field Manual: Mercenaries Revised. To keep Contracts straight, before you accept the Contract, make sure to give it a name. I prefer to name them after the Planet and Type. So this contract would be the “Eilenburg Extraction Raid.” After naming the Contract, hit Accept, and then Close. On the Briefing Room page, make sure to place your units in the Assignments required in the Contract on the bottom right. Step 2.8A (Transiting to your contract’s objective): Now that we’ve accepted our contract, we need to get to our target. Luckily, the contract was nice enough to include travel time in it. First, go to the Interstellar Map tab, pictured below. Enter your target planet in the Find Planet box, and hit Enter/Return. This will select the planet. Next, hit Calculate Jump Path. Once you have the Jump Path calculated, then click Begin Transit. This will start your journey to your target. Once you’re ready, click Advance Day. If you want to advance multiple days at a time, click on the Manage Campaign drop down menu and hit Advance Multiple Days, as shown below. You’re on you’re way to your first contract! Part 3 (Extras): Step 3.1 (Adding Additional Forces): Once you reach your destination and engage in fights, you can add additional lances to a battle by going to the TO&E tab, and right clicking a Force, and scrolling through the options as below. These units will be initially deployed as Reinforcements, that take (12-Average Walk/Cruise Speed of the force) – 1 for Jump MP turns to arrive. So if you have a lance of 4/6/4 ’Mechs you want to help you, they will take ((12-4)-1) = 7 turns to arrive. If you want to deploy as a unified force, you can edit the deployment like so in MegaMek: You can do this for all of your mechs, just be aware that Against the Bot determines matches by lance, not by company, and it does BV balance. So if you have a High BV lance, you may end up fighting a low of less skilled, but more numerous opponents. Step 3.2 (Chase Missions): Currently, Against the Bot does not apply a turn penalty to Player and Bot Defenders on chase missions, so these have to be added manually. You can edit the enemy Bot’s units exactly like you edit your own units deployment wise. First, if you don’t know the speed of the enemy unit, right click on it and click View, like so: As we can see below, the Cauldron-Born C moves 5/8. From that, we can work out the necessary modifier to its deployment turn. This would be ((12-5)-0) = 7. After bringing up the Configure window for the Cauldron-Born, you would change the ’Mech’s deployment to be before Turn 7, like the image below: Now that we’ve changed the deployment for this first ’Mech, make sure to do it for all of the Bot’s units. Step 3.3 (Removing Scenarios): If you have a Scenario type that you just don’t like, or if the scenario doesn’t play properly, you can remove this scenario. To do so, you will need to have GM Mode on. Then right click on the scenario, as in the image below, and mouse over GM Mode, and click Remove Scenario. This will remove the scenario from the list. Step 3.4 (Repairs): After your first engagement, you’re probably going to be faced an image similar to the one below in your Repair Bay. While you’re free to use the Mass Repair/Salvage option as seen in the image, I recommend that you instead repair each component one at a time. This allows your best techs to work on parts, and your techs will actually finish repairs in a timely manner. Also, as we can see by this example, I have several ’Mechs that need repairs. If you assigned a technician to ’Mech, such as the Dragonfly at the top of the list, that needs only minimal repairs, that Technician can work on other units without issue, such as this Daishi. Step 3.5 Custom Quirk rules (option): NOTE: Nothing in this section is official rules wise. Please do not construe any assertions found here to be fact or canon. With the release of the BattleMech Manual and the TRO: 3145 series, most, if not all BattleMech chassis now have quirks assigned to them for use. There are some examples missing from MegaMek currently (These are Barrel Fist, Directional Torso Mount, Fine Manipulators, Good Reputation, Nimble Jumper, Rugged, Stabilized Weapon, Ubiquitous and Slow Traverse), the rest are in game already. If you want to match canon, you can use the quirk listing from the BattleMech Manual to give the designs you own their canon quirks. However, if you want to apply quirks that design does not normally have, such as Combat Computer or Improved Targeting, there aren’t really any rules in Strategic Operations for adding them beyond point balancing, which can be hard to make sense of, since you’re unlikely to want negative quirks. To that end, I have a dual C-Bill/Tech check method that allows for quirks to be added to designs. This section is still in development, so it may change between versions. First, you’ll need to pay a C-Bill cost for the modification. For individual weapon quirks (these are Accurate Weapon, Fast Reload, Improved Cooling Jacket, and Jettison-Capable Weapon), the cost is 50,000 C-Bills per point of damage the weapon deals, with a modifier of 1.5x for Clan components. This would be expressed as (50,000 x Weapon Damage). For example, if you wanted to add both Accurate Weapon and Improved Cooling Jacket to a Medium Laser (5 damage), both Quirk modifications would cost 250,000 C-bills apiece, for a total of 500,000-C-Bills. The same modifications to a Clan ER Medium Laser (7 damage) would be 525,000 C-Bills apiece, for a total of 1,050,000 C-Bills. If you wish, for whatever reason, to make C-bill costs for modifications more expensive, you can add a multiplier that increases the C-Bill cost per quirk. So the first quirk would be at 1x, while the second would be 2x and so on. After paying the C-Bill cost, you’ll next need to make an associated Tech roll. If you’re working on a ’Mech, this would be the ’Mech Tech skill. A Vehicle would need a Vehicle Tech roll and so on. This roll is made at the Tech’s skill + 4, with an additional modifier of +2 for Clan technology. Using a Veteran Tech with 5+ skill to modify the Medium Laser from earlier, they would need to roll a 9 (5+4) or better to successfully complete the modification. If the same tech was working on a Clan ER Medium Laser, they would to instead roll an 11 (5+4+2) or better. The rules for adding chassis wide Quirks follow the same rules, though their costs are different. These costs are listed below: Anti-Aircraft Targeting: 4 million C-Bills Barrel Fist: 1.5 Million C-Bills per limb modified Battle Computer: 6 Million C-Bills Battle Fists: 3 Million C-Bills Combat Computer: 8 Million C-Bills Cowl: 3.5 Million C-Bills Directional Torso Mount: 6 Million C-Bills Distracting: 1 Million C-Bills Extended Torso Twist: 5 Million C-Bills Fine Manipulators: 1 Million C-Bills Hyper Extending Actuators: 2 Million C-Bills Improved Communications: 2.5 Million C-Bills Improved Life Support: 2 Million C-Bills Improved Sensors: 3 Million C-Bills Improved Targeting: 6, 8, and 10 million C-Bills per range band for Short, Medium and Long Multi-Trac: 4 Million C-Bills Protected Actuators: 3 Million C-Bills Rumble Seat: 500,000 C-Bills Searchlight: 50,000 C-Bills Stabilized Weapons: 2.5 Million per weapon, or 10 million per limb Variable Range Targeting: 5 Million C-Bills Vestigial Hands: 500,000 C-Bills Omitted from this list are some quirks that cannot be purchased for a Chassis, and are intrinsic to their design. These quirks are: Command Mech Compact Mech Easy to Maintain Easy to Piloting Good Reputation Modular Weapons Narrow/Low Profile Nimble Jumper Overhead Arms Reinforced Legs Rugged Ubiquitous Step 3.5A (Failing Quirk Modifications): In the event that a Quirk Modification roll is failed, the weapon or chassis immediately gains 1 negative quirk that cannot be removed. For Weapon modifications, roll 1d6 and consult the following list: 1: Inaccurate Weapon 2: Exposed Weapon Linkage 3: EM Interference 4: Poor Cooling Jacket 5: No Cooling Jacket 6: Nonfunctional Regardless of the roll, you can spend a point of Edge (if the Tech has any), to reduce the roll by 1. For Chassis Modifications, the failed modification is more complex, though some have an obvious 1-1 connection. Anti-Aircraft Targeting and Battle Computer: Sensor Ghosts. Additionally, AA Targeting may also suffer the effects of Poor Targeting, as detailed below Combat Computer: Cooling System Flaws Cowl: Cramped Cockpit, Difficult Ejection, No Ejection System, Poor Life Support and Weak Head Armor. Roll 1d6, using Cramped Cockpit as 1 and No Ejection System as 6. Extended Torso Twist: Roll 1d6. On 5-6, apply No Torso Twist Fast Reload: Ammunition Feed Problem and Static Ammo Feed. Flip a coin, and apply heads or tails. Improved Targeting and Variable Range Targeting: Apply Poor Targeting to the appropriate range band, or roll 1d6 and divide by three for Variable Range Targeting, with (1-2) applying to short range, (3-4) to Medium and (5-6) to Long. Reinforced Actuators: Weak Actuators or Hard to Pilot Some Negative Quirks are, like their positive counterparts, intrinsic to the design itself. These are: Bad Reputation Illegal Design Non-Standard Parts Obsolete Oversized Prototype Weak Legs Step 3.6 (Rerolling Battlefield Conditions): If your lance or force leaders have points in the Tactics skill, you will presented with a choice to reroll Battlefield Conditions such as the Terrain (Map Type), Map (the specific map from the Terrain Type), Light Conditions and Weather. In the image below, you can see the original map options. While you can’t see my units nor the enemy’s I have a series of jumping BattleMechs in this lance, while the Bot has a primarily groundbound force. For a chase mission, this choice of terrain and map type is pretty ideal, so I’m going to keep it. However the weather is pretty rough because of the storm, so I think I’ll see what weather I can get. With 5 rerolls, I have lots of options. But let’s see what I get first. To reroll, click the check box(es) next to the option you want to reroll, then click the (in this case) button saying “5 Rerolls Remaining.” Below, I’ve rerolled. Thankfully, with that reroll, I’ve lowered the wind conditions and not added a blizzard or something. You can reroll as many options as many times as your rerolls hold out. Step 3.7 (The Salvage Screen): After you complete a mission, you’ll see a pop up like the one below: If under the Observations note, it says that the Winner (or Defender or what have you) controls the battlefield and you’ve won. Click yes. MekHQ then loads the image on the following page as a separate popup. This first page shows the units that I deployed on this mission. Two stars of my ’Mechs, in this case. As we can see, I haven’t taken any crippling losses in battle, though my Gargoyle and a Marauder IIC have taken some damage. On this page, any units that you sent out that are rendered combat disabled (those would be marked Inoperative, while a totally destroyed (a ’Mech that has lost all of its Center Torso structure) unit would be marked as Salvage. You can click on View Unit to see the condition of each BattleMech. Let’s go ahead and click Next>>. The next image will be on the following page. This is the status of the pilots involved in the battle. This page specifically covers whether pilots have taken any hits or have died in the battle, so we can move on to the next image. As we can see from the units here, I beat up a significant number of Clan ’Mechs without taking too much damage myself. Any unit marked as Escapes is a unit that I can’t salvage, though the Fenris that escaped actually is missing a Foot and Lower Leg actuator, so I’m not sure how it ran away. At any rate, here you can view any units you’ve destroyed, to determine whether you’d like salvage any of the units you destroyed. I’m always in the market for Ryoken parts, so let’s look at that one. Oof. Well, it’s pretty dead. Luckily, the arms are intact, which will net me a pair each of Clan ER Medium and Large Lasers, plus the remaining armor can be handy, along with whatever Double Heat Sinks Survived. To salvage it, click the checkbox to the left of the ’Mech’s like the image below, then click Next>> Here we have the Captured Enemy Status page. If there are any pilots you’d like, click the button to the right of Dead. Additionally, if you have Random Enemy Capture on, some pilots or personnel will already have the checkbox filled. Go on to our next to last page. Here on this page MekHQ will take the kills made during the MM game and assign them to your pilots. Note that if you have Abandon Vehicles options on, that the units whose crews and ’MechWarriors punch out do not have the kill assigned, so it’s up to you to either turn that option off, or keep track of those units manually to be assigned later. The next page shows the last image of the Salvage Screen, the After Action Report. Here, the Recovered Units and Personnel shows that I recovered everything and everyone I sent out, and I don’t have any lost equipment or MIA or KIA personnel, and came back with a Ryoken. You can fill in the After-Action Report, though this is more if you were playing a GM curated campaign, rather than an AtB game. Feel free to make notes either way. In this case, I won’t though. After you’re done, click Finish.
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