As a miniature wargame Battletech follows a number of core rules and tactics that the savvy MechWarrior needs to know before he climbs into the cockpit and powers up their mech. In this post we are going to take a look at a few of the fundamentals to keep in mind as you play your games…
Battletech is a game of dice and modifiers, the most important being the “TO HIT” modifier. As you move your mechs around on the table really pay attention to your movement and range as this will add modifiers when you roll the dice to score a hit. A +1 or +2 to hit might not seem like much, but over a number of shots each turn it will result in a few misses that otherwise would have hit.
There is a balance to the game where you want to keep your to hit modifiers as low as possible for when you roll the dice, while at the same time make it as hard as possible for your opponent to hit you.
Don’t just look at the current turn, but rather what opposing mechs are in play and where they could potentially be next turn in terms of movement and their ability to fire/range.
Second to this Battletech is also about mech management. Generally speaking you want to fire at the same mech of possible until it is down or destroyed. A destroyed mech is one less game piece to have to take into account, and one less point of shooting that will be incoming to your own mechs.
Losing a mech, even a light mech before your opponent puts one at a disadvantage as there are now again less targets for your opponent to shoot at and less weapons you have to shoot back with.
Mechs need to support each other as a lance, meaning sticking close together modified by their range of weapons. This way if one of your mechs start taking heavy damage you can withdraw with it, or at least start moving away to longer range to add to hit modifiers for your opponent, followed by your remaining mechs plugging the holes in your line.
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