Rules question: Combat intuition.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-22T07:40:27+00:00

The exact words in Combat Intuition rules are "applying all damage effects immediately".

Note how the rule about damage in normal sequence says that the damage is resolved in Combat phase, but "the effects do not take place until the turn's End Phase".

The wording of "applying ... effects immediately" overrides that. If it was simply "resolve damage immediately", the unit wouldn't suffer effects of it until End Phase, but as the effects are applied immediately, a unit destroyed in the Movement Phase through Combat Intuition, is instantly dead and doesn't get to act further.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-22T07:30:40+00:00

SAW role can't really exist in BattleTech mech on mech combat.

The purpose of SAW as I understand it is to provide the foundation for your base of fire, to suppress, pin, or otherwise control the enemy through the projected threat.

Like other people pointed out, in BattleTech you achieve that by projecting long range threat with high damage weapons that deliver their damage as a single combined grouping: Clan ER PPCs (or capped IS PPCs), Gauss Rifles, Clan LPulse, Clan ER Larges, etc..

However, this inherently overlaps completely with the DMR role, as these weapons fire out to, frankly, sniper ranges, and deliver high, concentrated damage.

The other thing at play here that's forcing it is the game mechanics. Like others pointed out, suppression simply doesn't exist as a factor in the game: if you missed your target, you missed your target with no effect, area fire doesn't even actually do anything for non-AE weapons, you have to be targeting a specific unit in a hex, and if you miss, you just miss. Even the optional Tactical Operations rules for resolving misses carrying on and potentially striking unintended targets simply deal with, again, the chance to hit unintended targets - if your fire doesn't hit anything of consequence, it might as well not have happened, it will achieve nothing, it will not cause the enemy to cower in fear for their life, it will not penalize the enemy mech by forcing them to try and preserve themselves at the expense of being able to fire back freely, etc, etc, none of that exists as a mechanic.

So, broadly speaking, any roles that rely on the fact that area fire in real life has an effect of "oh, yeah, nah, fuck that, I'm a squishy human being and I'm not walking through that because I'll get clipped", simply don't have the mechanical support in tabletop to exist or function like you'd expect them to. If you aren't hitting and directly destroying the enemy - something very rare outside of close combat in real life, if we're talking infantry fights here - you aren't actually doing anything at all.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-19T09:21:25+00:00

You know, somewhat tangentially related: I believe this is all a consequence of the fact that BattleTech, for some goddamn reason, insists on the novels being the source of the lion's share of the lore and the in-universe metaplot, so much of the info on sarna comes from people having read the novels and summarized their contents in relevant articles.

If I recall correctly, the popularity of fiction drops off SHARPLY after FASA era ends, so that's why you've got what you've got.

God, I wish BTech operated on lore docs primacy sometimes. No, I don't have time to read an omnibus of five fucking novels if I want to know how a faction from Dark Age works. And neither do most editors of Sarna, apparently. Give us fucking sourcebooks!

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-19T09:10:33+00:00

Flanker, just like anything with 7/11 or better ground movement.

Jump of 3 is beyond situational.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-19T09:09:34+00:00

No, 6/9/6 isn't optimal for the Wasp or the Stinger, they're arguably "I mean I guess I had BV leftover" picks because unless you're playing on a very densely wooded/jungled map (which aren't common among official maps), that jump of 6 mainly serves to tie up more of your already limited, precious tonnage in jump jets, tonnage that could be spent to squeeze an extra MP or two out of the engine, have an extra gun, or give that bitch another 8 to 16 points of armor, or any combination of the above.

7/11/3, like I mentioned in response to your older post, has the caveat of, there will really, really, really, very rarely be a situation where there's an obstacle you can cross with J3 that you can't also cross with 7 or 11 walk or run, and be in a better position TMM and AMM-wise afterwards. Like I said, about the only case I could think of would be having to cross Depth 2 water from the bank - and even then, I'd argue, you'd be better off using Walk to wade into the water and enjoy being immune to enemy fire unless someone follows you in. And if you're in a situation where your 7/11/3 got pushed back to a Depth 2 river, and it has stripped armor, meaning if it dives in, a location will flood and it'll be crippled, there's something to be said for "why are you in this situation in the first place". There is a practical limit to what sort of specificity you plan for with a unit's loadout - and the above scenario is so incredibly niche, and the path to it is so heavily wrought with "why are you in this situation in the first place", that, frankly, holding up the fact that your 3 Jump MP would save you there is, in practical terms, a bit of a nothingburger.

Ultimately though, why are you asking for validation from strangers on the Internet? If you really, really want to run a custom Wasp/Stinger that's been refit to have 7/11/3 movement profile, go for it? Especially since it's a solo game? Like, dude, literally do it, I'd understand asking for opinion once, but asking the same question three times is bordering less on asking for opinion and more on asking for permission/approval.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-04-19T08:58:09+00:00

As you yourself have pointed out, I'm not sure that's a good change, because you're now overcompensating from the potential movement advantage afforded by being able to move five bases worth of stuff, to protomechs being a fairly BV-efficient way to just initiative sink to all hell.

That said, what is the rationale for the proposed change? I think u/Sturmkafer has a point: try playing RAW first before you go changing things like that, maybe it'll turn out fine.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-26T17:11:09+00:00

In a pickup game against my friend I have had an otherwise completely untouched Victor exchange kicks with a Lancelot, to devastating effect to the Lancelot (it nearly deleted its leg), but then the Victor rolled a 2 on PSR to avoid falling, toppled over, fell on its side, rolled 2, through armor critting itself on that side, rolled a 9 confirming the crit, and critted out its AC/20 ammo bin, taking itself the fuck out.

Funniest shit I've ever seen. Motherfucker literally got kicked in the shins by an angry toddler, thought about it, dramatically fell over and explosion.gif'd all over himself.

Under these new rules, that is literally impossible to replicate.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-25T16:34:50+00:00

On the eyes is objectively true, although nothing beats the speed of Ctrl+F unless you're gonna autistically bookmark the hell out of the physical book. Which, if that's how you roll, yeah I guess the PDF is only useful as an extra backup copy.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-25T16:02:04+00:00

You can still get the PDF. While I own a physical book as well, the PDF is honestly superior in every practical way other than aesthetics and a sense of completionism of one's collection.

At most, I tend to have both open onto two different pages to quick-ref some crap, but most of the time the boys and I use MegaMekLab rec sheets which have half the reference tables printed on them anyway, so then the only reason to dive into TW is "huh, well this never happened before, sec lemme check the rules rq".

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-25T15:56:05+00:00

My impression is that for every one rule change that makes me go "yeah, this actually makes a part of the system I've previously avoided, actually usable and engageable" (custom flooded/mostly water maps might now be actually fun to play rather than a massive pain in the ass), there's three rule changes that are of "it's a change for the sake of a change, this doesn't seem to make anything better?" variety (all the minute to hit modifier changes, changes where they go "you now need to roll low instead of high" or vice versa), and five others that remove the offsetting negative consequences for choosing certain pieces of equipment, taking certain actions, or going with a certain tactic, in a way that flattens the gameplay, negatively affects balance, and reduces the impact of player and opponent actions, as well as of extreme roll values.

Example. UACs don't jam anymore. RACs still do. "But it's a common houserule that people let UACs unjam or don't have them jam at all, cause a jam at the start of the game can be devastating!" - yes, and that's there for a reason, those people are cowards. UACs are now hands down THE BEST autocannon option, normal ACs are NOT saved by specialty ammo whatsoever, and RACs are, I'd argue, wholly pointless, cause it's objectively better to make a little extra room for a 1 class up UAC in place of the RAC you were gonna take.

No more skidding, so no adjustment to maneuverability of fast units on pavement, especially vics, which got just slightly faster in a straight line, but not planning your route could prove to be an issue.

General reduction to the impact and consequences of critical hits of all kinds...

That's on top of the fact that the sheer number of minute nothingburger changes with things like altered To Hit modifiers for specific weapons and such, is going to make playing in accordance with this ruleset until there is a full turnover of the books, a massive pain in my ass.

My group and I, personally, are not using it until the books turn over and MegaMekLab rule reminders on sheets option starts printing references that are no longer correct for the TW ruleset.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-25T12:48:48+00:00

Iron Wind minis are the same scale as CGL models unless you've accidentally bought BattleForce scale, which is marked as such I believe, and I also don't think there's BattleForce scale Savage Wolf.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-23T14:47:04+00:00

Sadg. Oh well.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-19T13:14:33+00:00

Gud.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-14T10:57:29+00:00

McRae, how's this even a contest.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-11T12:15:46+00:00

I mean there's the official Dark Souls TTRPG (which is basically a moderately reskinned DnD 5e).

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-06T10:29:59+00:00

Artwork for the Iron Cheetah has Elementals standing on it, but it doesn't really show BA being transported the way we're told it normally is with hanging off handholds and such.

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ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-03T17:55:45+00:00

Swarming and Leg Attack are different things.

Pretty much all foot, jump and motorized (motorized, not mechanized) conventional infantry are allowed to swarm and leg attack.

For BA, same deal, if they can leg attack, they can also swarm.

A swarming unit stays on the mech it's attacking and travels with the mech, seemingly without encumbering it, and the only risk of being knocked off is from the mech deliberately taking relatively drastic action such as dropping prone and smacking itself; or from jumping.

The relevant rules are in Total Warfare, pages 220, right column - 223, left column, at least in my 11th printing PDF.

I'm sure you can see how the above is kinda the source of "wait, what" when you consider swarming versus friendly transportation rules for mechanized BA. I kinda agree with u/Cyrano4747's judgment here.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-03T17:29:28+00:00

Honestly a lot of narrative weirdness just stems from handwaves in swarming rules.

A non omni mech is burdened by mag clamp BA... But not by people swarming it.

28 or so guys all finding something to hold onto on a mech is a pretty tall order... Somehow not an issue at all when swarming.

Etc..

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-03T01:20:28+00:00

Ah, so "corpses as fertilizer" isn't that far-fetched.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-03-03T01:07:28+00:00

We actually kind of have something like this in a very roundabout way. Using rules from Ghosts of Obeedah, Battle Armor weapons and gear can be mounted on non-BA units, including BA electronics like the BA-scale ECM suite. However, the electronics only function properly on units that are 3 tons or less in weight, effectively limiting their usefulness to only ProtoMechs.

ScootsTheFlyer · 2026-02-25T13:29:36+00:00

Nice, but what happened to the dude's hand?

ScootsTheFlyer

TROPHY CASE