Mechwarrior Skill levels.

For the purposes of the campaign all mechwarriors from a given unit will have the same skill level.  This should make moving units easier.

Each of the Clanners clusters has rating of Elite, Veteran, or Regular.  All members of the unit have the same skill level, with the exception of special named characters that may be part of that unit.

Clan skills levels

Elite : 3

Veteran: 4

Regular: 5

The ComGuard forces are rated as Elite, Veteran, Regular or Green.  Being Inner Sphere they rate a little lower then the clanners fo the same rating.

ComGuard skill levels

Elite: 4

Veteran: 5

Regular: 6

Green: 7 

Now when building your force, there is a way to improve the skill level of one warrior.  This is where the paint scheme comes in.  I like to have easily identifiable forces on the table.  When you build a Star of 5 mechs for clanners, or a "Level 2" of 6 units for ComGuard, and all the mechs match their paintjob then one random mechwarrior from the clan Star or for the Comguard Level 2 gets to reduce their skill by 1.  Special characters may not reduce their skill this way.

Using the incorrect mini (Proxy) for a mech or vehicle will result in having a skill one point higher (worse).

Hidden Units

From time to time the Comguard players will have Hidden units.  Each scenario will clearly state if the Comguard may use Hidden units.

Some basics about hidden units.
You can hide anywhere you could legally move or deploy the unit (Mech or Tank).  Even in an open field...(Comguard on Tukayyid was known for burying their mechs in the open field then bursting from the earth as clan units walked by in column.)

Any forgotten unit, or unit that should have been deployed but wasn't for whatever reason will be considered  KIA...without firing a shot.  So think long and hard about hiding units.

Hidden units do not get initiative cards.  Their cards are added to the deck when they are placed on the table.

How to deploy Hidden units.
Each hidden unit will be written down on a post it note separately.  These will have the coordinates and facing of that hidden unit.

The coordinates are written in inches from the North-West corner of the table.  The facing may be one of the following.  N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW.

The North table edge is the one closest to the stairs, and the west table edge is the one closest to the wall.

For example.  The Comstar player wants to deploy a Demolisher tank with a hidden setup.
He would write the following down on a post it note.

Demolisher
Facing: North
N: 36
W: 12

So to place the unit on the table you would pass the post it note to your opponent (or someone from the other table) and they would place it on the table.  Measuring 36" from the North edge and 12" from the West edge and facing toward the stairs (North).

There are 5 ways to uncover a hidden unit.

1. An Active Probe equipped unit moves within its working range of the hidden unit.  Clan Probes reach out 10".  However if there is an active ComGuard ECM unit within 12" of the Active Probe Clan unit, the hidden unit will not be exposed, but the clan player will be told his Probe is being jammed by ECM. 
2. Before movement starts if you want to move the hidden unit that turn you must place the unit, before the first initiative card is flipped.
3. Before firing, you must place the hidden unit before the fire declaration phase when people place sticks.  Yes, you can be shot at the turn you pop up out of hiding.  The hidden units movement modifier this turn is considered 0 if it deploys in this manner.
4. The unit takes damage.  Arty hitting a hidden unit will place it on the field.  No, the hidden unit does not get to fire this turn if exposed in this manner.
5. A Clan unit moves within in 1" or through the hidden unit.  (Allows point blank attack by hidden unit)

• Should the walking or running Clan movement go through hidden unit, the Clan units movement stops in base to base contact with the hidden unit.
• Should the Clan movement be jumping, the Clanner moves to their intended landing spot, the hidden unit is placed and the Clan player may adjust the facing of that jumping unit.  Should the intended landing spot contain the hidden unit then the clanner shortens the jump so they may land legally.  No unintentional DFA's.  
• The unit uncovered in this way (and only in this way) may make an immediate attack on the unit that uncovered it.  If the Clan unit was jumping, the hidden unit may choose to shoot at a range of 1" when the detecting unit jumped overhead, or at the clan unit where it finished it's movement.  Remember the hidden units facing matters, and they may not get a shot off.  The hidden unit that shoots in this manner skips firing in the regular fire phase this turn as it has already fired.

Combat rules. (Init, heat, and honor levels)

Some of tweaks to the combat rules that will come into play for the Tukayyid campaign.

1) Initiative

We will be using cards for init.  Each side will have a color card, Comguard will be black (spades and clubs), clanners will be Reds (hearts and diamonds.  Units are not assigned a specific card, so there is some tactical flexibility.  So say there are 18 Comguard Mechs/tanks in a battle and 15 Clan Mechs / Battlearmor squads.  The initiative deck would start with 33 cards.
As each unit moves, their movement mod die will be placed behind the unit.  That will let everyone know which unit has moved this turn, and what ones have not moved yet.

As units are lost be sure to remove the correct color card from the deck.

2) Heat tracking
If you wish to overheat a unit to do the extra damage.

• You must declare it during the targeting phase.
• Place red glass counter per number you wish to overheat with your fire stick (not on your mech yet)
• After you shoot, move the red glass counter to your mech.
• These red glass counter will remain with your mech, on the table until you get rid of the excess heat.

3) Dueling (Honor levels)

There are 4 honor  levels for dueling that clanners will use.  But keeping track of which mech is shooting at which mech will be too cumbersome for the size game we are playing so here is the quick and simple fix.
Remember dueling only applies to mechs, Battle armor squads may attack any unit reguardless of who is attacking it, and Tanks may be targeted by as many clan units that can fire at it.

As for mech to mech....here is how honor will work
Honor Level 1, means no more than 1 Clan Mechs may target a single Comguard mech.
Honor Level 2, means no more than 2 Clan Mechs may target a single Comguard mech.
Honor Level 3, means no more than 3 Clan Mechs may target a single Comguard mech
Honor Level 4, No restriction on targeting.

It does not have to be the same mech each turn, but at the end of the targeting phase, under Honor Level 1 there can only be 1 Mech fire stick pointed at any given Comstar mech.

3) Physical Attacks (Honor levels)


To simplify, we will reduce Clan physical attack honor levels to yes or no.  Either they will do it or they won't. Under the Quick Strike rules...I will be shocked if a clanner makes any physical attacks, even if they are allowed.

4) Retreat (Honor levels)


There are 4 honor levels with regards to retreating.  Why would a clanner ever retreat?  Well, for the purposes of this campaign.  If a unit on the table loses every one if it's minis, it will be removed from the campaign map.  Example: Clan Wolf's Widowmaker company loses all of of their units in a battle, they are lost and the Clan Wolf players now only have 5 "clusters" to move on the campaign map.

Honor Level 1: Never Retreat
Honor Level 2: May only retreat if 20% or less of original force remains
Honor Level 3: May only retreat if 40% or less of original force remains
Honor Level 4: May always retreat

Progress made..ComGuard mechs done.

Finished with the ComGuard mechs list.

Completed the list of all possible mechs that the ComGuard used on Tukayyid.  Each mech has an acquisition number.  Free are readily available.  If there is a number listed such as 4+, the ComGuard player will need to roll that number or better 2d6 to get that mech.  The Royal mechs that comguard pulled out of storage will require an 11+, though the Royals are not always better than the stock version...at least when it comes to Quick Strike.

Added the Quick Strike Stats, including the point cost.   

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiKPflpBkcQldHRVaFJ0WWdacjNqNFR3TTZLQ3J5TGc#gid=1

To Do List for the campaign

Stuff left to do before the campaign starts...(each of these will eventually be a separate post with a link at the top of this page)

1) Finish the Solaris VII Campaign.  (Final two events set and ready to go.)

2) Complete ComGuard mech and Tank availability lists

• Check availability dates for each chassis and variant DONE
• Assign rarity (Availability die roll) DONE
• Decide if "Royal" mechs are usable. DONE
• Make excel sheet with Quickstrike Point costs and stats DONE

3) Complete Mech availability list for each clan.

• Check availability dates for each chassis, weapon loadout, and variant DONE
• Assign rarity DONE
• Decide to use "Royal" mechs or not. DONE
• Make Excel sheet with Quickstrike point costs. DONE

4) Assign Dueling, Physicals, and Retreat levels for each clan

• Which clan increases with each map turn, which stay the same...DONE
• Come up with an easy way to track dueling targets. DONE

5) Make Map Tile "Cards" each having...

• Stack of Cards for Desert, River (Water), Plains, Ruins, City. 
• Advance, Counter attack, or Supply lines/Landing zone
• Scenario details (Special scenario information)
• Table layout details (Terrain)
• ComGuard skill level and Force size adjustment.  (+% over Force bid by Clan player)
• Any special characters / units for ComGuard.  

6) Write rules for Bidding process... Scrapped...bidding takes place is separate phase now.

• 4 Units max (No more than 50% Battle armor)
• 5 Sizes (Assault, Heavy, Medium, Light, Battle Armor)
• Unit Skill adjustment.  Elite count as +2 Sizes, Veteran count as +1 size, Green as -1 Size.  Only comes into play when clanner has multiple units with varying skill levels to bid from. 
• Special characters are not part of the bidding, only units.  if their units are selected the special character may be used as part of the unit build.

7) Set Quick Strike point values for each size of force that may be built. Scrapped this plan

• Clan Stars
• Assault
• Heavy 
• Medium
• Light
• Battle Armor

• Comguard Level 2's 
• Assault Mech
• Assault Tank
• Heavy Mech
• Heavy Tank 
• Medium Mech
• Medium Tank 
• Light Mech
• Light Tank

8) Unit Building Rules. Scrapped

• Must build full units.  5 Mechs for Clans, 6 Mechs/tanks for Comstar...no understrength units
• At least 50% of the unit must be made up of the named size units, Medium Star must have at least 3 Medium sized mechs.
• Must use correct miniature.
• Bonus for having entire Mech unit in same paint scheme? (One mech gets a -1 to their skill?) both Comstar and Clanners can take advantage of this.  Tanks can not use this paint scheme bonus.
• No more than 2 mechs of a clan star may have the ENE special ability.  (Clan Wolf may ignore this rule)
• No more than 1 ARTY per unit?

9) Finish painting unpainted mechs that would be usable for this campaign.

10) Review Artillery Rules

• Modify rules to use 5" GW template, and any part of the base being touched rather than a 6" template and at least half the base being touched.
• Misses? >Deviation or outright misses?
• Which clans can use? Wolf only.

Rough Draft for the Campaign.

Ok Quick Strike is a go.  We will be using it for the Tukayyid Campaign.  So easy and quick...



Now for the rough draft part...

We will be using he Tukayyid scenario book as a guide, but not playing the scenarios out of it exactly as they are written.  This will make more sense in a minute

THE MAP:
We will also be using the Planetary Empires tile Set for our Map.  I'll update our map with an online version, but having a physical map to track progress on I think will be a nice touch.

There are seven "Landing Zones" one for each Clan.  After players have selected their clan and selected their starting zone, and Unit that will drop first...we will see whose landing zone meets with Comstar opposition.  Four of the initial clans landing will have a battle during their drop.  Those will be the first 4 games of the night.  The other 3 clans (one being Clan Wolf) will have unopposed landings and get their Landing Zones for free.  Should a clanner lose the opening drop battle, they will lose that unit for the remainder of the campaign, but get their landing zone tile.

There are two city tiles in the center of the board, surrounded by ruin tiles.  Only one clan may posses a tile other than the two city tiles.  The City tiles can be held my more than one clan.  The landing zone may hold all 6 clan units.  All other tiles may hold no more than 2 Clan units. 

Each clan is tasked with winning one of the ruin tiles and one of the city tiles.  For the clanners to win the overall battle of Tukayyid, they must take 8 total City or ruin tiles.

If a clan owned tile does not have at least unit of that clan deployed in it, the tile will automatically revert to Comguard control.  If a unit does not have a path of tiles connecting them to their landing zone, Any unit that does not have the ENE ability will reduce the damage at each range they can do by half rounding down.


THE MAP TURN:
Each Clan will get one battle during a Map turn.  Clan Wolf being the exception, as they will not get to go the first two map turns. The first map turn is the landing zone battles.

The second map turn will be the other 6 clans (all but clan wolf) taking their turns in a  random order.


THE PLAYERS:
The finishing order of the players from the Solaris campaign will determine  "Draft" order for clan.  Each Clan can have up to two players.    Each clan had differing strengths, weaknesses, and Mech sections.  They are by no means balanced, so look them over and decide how much of a challenge you would like before picking.

The first person to take a clan will be the Khan of that clan.  The 2nd player will be the SaKhan (in most cases).  The Khan will be in charge of force alignment (Where the 6 "units" of that clan are located on the map). 


THE FORCES:
25 Galaxies from the Clanners vs. The 12 Armies (144 regiments) of the ComGuard.

But for the campaign, each clan will have 6 "Units" to work with.  These "units" will represent a Cluster (Part of a Galaxy) of the clans.  Each one having a different base skill level for their forces [Elite, Veteran, Regular, Green].  Some units will have named characters in Italics, these are special characters of note that took part on Tukayyid. Special Characters sometimes have a different skill level than the rest of their unit, all will have a specific mech they they used on Tukayyid.  You do not have to use a special character as part of a force, it is mearly an option.  Should a Special character be killed in battle, You may not use them the rest of the campaign.  Should they lose their mech, they must sit out one battle.  Should a Clan lose both Khans (Killed) they will be ordered to withdraw and will give up any tiles they may hold.  
For example here is Clan Wolf 

Clan Wolf will have 6 Units.

• Silver Keshik (Silver Keshik) [Elite] - Khan Garth Radick
• 13th Wolf Guards (Widowmakers) [Elite] - Khan Natasha Kerensky, Phelan Ward
• 3rd Battle Cluster (Silver Devils) [Veteran]
• 4th Wolf Guards (The Cyclops Cluster) [Veteran]
• 7th Battle Cluster (Hungry Wolves) [Regular]
• 11th Wolf Guards (The Lightning Pack) [Veteran]

Should a force lose a battle and not retreat of the board, they are removed from the clan players pool.




Units on the board:
Each player will control no more than 2 stars worth of mechs or Battle armor.  So at most the clan side will have 20 units.  The players who are not running clanners will control one or more "Level 2's" of Comstar (6 Mechs or Tanks).  Normally, no more than 5 total "level 2's" will be on the board for the Comguards (30 units).  So at most there would be 50 units on a table.


Bidding:

To take a tile the Khan and SaKhan  players for a given clan will bid against each other with the lowest bidder being the overall commander for that battle.  The Khan always open the bidding.  There are 5 possible unit sizes (Assault, Heavy, Medium, Light and Battle Armor).  There will be an entire post later about the details of bidding.  It gets more convoluted when multiple units with different skill sets are involved.

Note, when you are bidding, you will also be bidding against another clanner for 1st picks for mech selection. when building your force.

Taking a Tile:
The Khan will decide which tile they wish to attempt to take.  Then they will Draw a card from the "Tile" deck for that appropriate tile.  Desert tile will draw from the Desert deck, the river delta will draw from the river delta deck, Ruins from the ruin deck, city from the city deck...
.  This card will have the scenario (Many from the Tukayyid book), opposing Unit (force skill level), any special characters the Comguards may have in that force.  Some cards are special one time scenarios that will be linked to a given tile (Devils Bath.)  Some cars will say Counterattack...and the Clanners will be hit in their tile before  they get a chance to advance (Using the same force they just bid on).  Some will say Supply lines hit, and the Clanners will have to fight using units not from the units designated to advance, but from those in the other tiles or landing zone of that clan.  If the card says "Special" it is a one time battle and removed from that deck, otherwise it is returned to the deck and may be drawn again.  


Should the clanners win the "advancing" scenario...then they will take the tile they were attacking.



Using the Correct Mini:
Clanners and Comstar will have to use the correct minis for their mechs when building their forces.  We will have two games going at once.  For the clanners, The lowest bid will get to build their force first (getting the widest selection of minis).   The Comguard force will be built first for the clan player with the highest bid, meaning bidding high will most likely get you facing off against  the tougher batch of Comguard minis.  Not much of a difference really , but a little more incentive to bid low.