MECHA COMBAT

 

Time

Unlike Man to man combat, Mecha combat takes place in 12 second Rounds instead of the standard 3 second phase.  This is primarily due to the sheer amount of activity involved in mecha combat.  The pilot is often forced to do many different things each of which would be considered an action.  To speed game play Mecha pilots have 4 actions per round instead of one action per phase (it amounts to the same thing but who wants their entire action during a fast paced mecha combat phase to be a sensors check?)

Who Goes First?

There are two methods for determining initiative.  The first more realistic method is to roll 3D6 + MR for each combatant.  The highest roll acting first and so on until the lowest roll turns up and acts last.  While this method best reflects the chaos of combat it requires a lot of bookkeeping.  The quicker method it to line up all characters by REF (Highest to lowest and then have all of the Players act first and all of the NPCs then take their actions.  You could conceivably combine these methods, Rolling 3D6 + REF for all of the PCs and Having the NPCs act after the PCs have gone.

Winning initiative of course means you get to act first, but acting first isn't always the best thing to do in mecha (or Man to Man combat)  Optionally (and I strongly recommend this) you can have the LOSERs declare their actions first and then allow the winners to act upon that information 

Jill lost initiative to Billy.  She declares that she is going to shoot Robert who is unaware of the attack.  Billy now knows what Jill is going to do, so he has the option of trying to shoot Jill before she shoots Robert , trying to warn Robert, or try to knock Robert out of the line of fire.

So It's My Turn. Now What?

You've got four actions that's what.  It's time to decide how you are going to use them.  You can do 4 different things with an action in Mecha combat.  Maneuver. Attack, Defend, or use a skill (such as Sensors).  The astute among you may have noticed that Movement is no included.  This is because While piloting a war machine you are most likely constantly in motion, and anyone with any skill in driving knows that you can easily move in straight line without applying that much attention.  Avoiding road hazards and minding the traffic laws would be considered MANEUVERS in this system.

Tell Me About Those Actions

Actions in mecha are pretty much the same as those out of mecha (with the exception of Movement which isn't considered an action).  So you can pretty much do anything you could do as a Human in your mecha.  Some actions are modified however.

MOVE BY and MOVE THROUGH:  These action no longer exist in mecha combat.  Instead they are considered ramming attacks and are covered later in this chapter.

Taking Action

The Task resolution in mecha combat is mostly unchanged.  It's still AV + 3D6 vs. DV +3D6.  However calculation of AV and DV is changed in Mecha combat.  Back during Character creation you were asked to figure 2 Derived Characteristics Mecha Reflexes (MR) and Mecha Awareness (MA). Now these two come into play.

The formula is:

Your AV (MR or MA + MECHA CHARACTERISTIC + SKILL) + a DIE ROLL

vs. the DV (DIFFICULTY VALUE) + a DIE ROLL

As always the DV for an attack against an active defender is calculated exactly like the Attacker's AV ((MR + Mecha Characteristic + Skill) + a Die roll.

WHICH CHARACTERISTIC DO I USE?


Usually common sense will tell you what Characteristic to use:

ACCELERATION for maneuvers involving raw forward speed, most often escapes or attempts to out run.
ATMOSPHERE AGILITY for dodging attacks. also for maneuvers involving movement in tight spaces. This stat is used ONLY in atmosphere
SPACE AGILITY for dodging attacks. also for maneuvers involving movement in tight spaces. This stat is used ONLY in the void of space
TURNING ABILITY for most other A/SCM.  Yo-yo's, break turns and other moves all rely heavily on the mecha's ability to turn
SENSORS for detecting the enemy.  Also your mecha's bonus to strike with ranged attack (other than missiles)
STABILITY you need a lot of this when you lose control.  This is used in attempts to regain control of the mecha before the big impact
STEALTH a special case, stealth is added to the DV during attempt to detect the Mecha.  Half of the stealth rating (rounded down) is added to the DV to avoid attacks and is added to the AV to avoid Missile attacks.

Which Skill Do I Use?

That depends on what you are trying to do.  For the most part the answer is quite obvious, however, there is a special case for transforming mecha.  When making maneuver or control rolls in transforming mecha, you MUST use the skill most related to the mecha's current mode of operation. (Jet Piloting for fighter mode, Mecha Piloting for battriod mode, and VTOL piloting for GERWALK mode, etc.).  The GM will tell you which skill to use if you are confused.    

What's all this about Maneuvers?

Maneuvers are what's going to keep you alive during A/SCM (Air/Space Combat Maneuvers).  The first and most important rule for good role-playing dog fighting is COLOR.  You must describe your maneuver to the GM or you will suffer a flat -5 penalty to your AV.  Nothing is more dull than "I use my mecha's Turning Ability to try to get behind him".  (fear not, ye who have no combat experience, You'll be pointed at a good web site for ACM before the chapter is through).  In purely game mechanical terms a Maneuver is an unopposed task.  It is unique in that the DV for this task is set by the player, and not the game master.  Failure means that the Mecha has lost control. Success mean that the mecha has completed the maneuver successfully.  Of course, anyone who attempts to follow the player through this Maneuver must at the very least match the DV that the player set.  Thus we have true Dog fighting.  The pursued attempts to shake his pursuer by pushing himself and his machine to limits.

Jeff is under attack by a lone Az-130.  He decides to perform a Split S.  Jeff's MR is 1 his jet piloting skill is 6 and his fighter has Turning Ability of 8. his AV is 16 he sets his DV at 28 and rolls 3D6.  Jeff needs at least a roll of 12 to avoid losing control.  He rolls a 14.  The Az-130 pilot (whose AV is 14 must roll at least a 14 to or lose the dog tail position and overshoot.

More over, in order to maintain his Angle Off Tail, or firing position, the pursuer must beat the opposing pilot's roll by 2.  Failure to do so results in the dog fighting craft in to a Neutral position or a Scissors Fight, which is a bad position to be in.  More on this later.  So in the example above the Az-130 pilot must roll at least a 30 to remain on Jeff's tail.  Finally because the pursuer has something of a head's up as to what the other pilot is doing his DV is 4 points less than the DV chosen by the other pilot.  While beating this lower number allows the pursuer to avoid loss of control, he must still match or beat the DV set by the other pilot to stay behind him.

Angle Off Tail

Some may be wondering what this is.  In basic terms it is the angle formed when you draw limes through the center of each fighter in a dog fight.  The angle where these two lines meet is the Angle off Tail.  The dog fight is all about gaining and maintain Angle off.  When you have a favorable Angle off Tail you are in position to fire at your opponent (basically "getting on his six").  We've already discussed one way of determining whether an attacker has Angle Off.  But there remains one other consideration.  In order to understand this you must first understand Energy and what it means in combat.

ENERGY

Energy Management can mean the difference between life and death in Air combat. (It may well work the same way in space combat but trying to apply these rules to that arena would be prohibitive.)  Energy in real world terms is a combination of the aircraft's Altitude and it's forward velocity.  What makes energy so important is that all Maneuvers reduce the available energy of the aircraft.  (As when you are driving a car.  You lose speed as you turn.) 

In this system Energy is represented by two Stats: Potential Energy (PE) A measure of the aircraft's altitude above ground level and Velocity (VE) which is measure of the Aircraft's speed.  PE is rated from -5 to 95. At 95 PE the aircraft is at 50,000 meters, almost in space  and at -5 PE the aircraft is within a few scant meters of hitting the ground. VE is rated from 0 down. At 0 VE the Fighter moving at it's best Combat speed.  When the fighter's VE is equal to it's Acceleration plus it's Stability LESS than zero the aircraft is dangerously near stall speed. If either of it's energy ratings fall below these minimum values the fighter either crashes into the ground (-5 PE) or stalls and begins to fall from the sky (-[Acceleration + Stability] VE).

What can I do with Energy?

Quite a bit.  Each time you perform a maneuver you can add to your AV from your pool of available Energy. adding + 1 to your AV for every point of Energy expended.  At no time, however, can you add more energy than your acceleration. Going back to our example of the AZ-130 vs. Jeff. 

The -130 pilot must roll at least a 14 just to stay with Jeff.  Our -130 pilot knows that rolling a 14 on 3D6 is no easy task (the average roll is 11) so he decides to hedge his bets buy adding some energy.  Since Jeff declared a Split S (which is, in this case, a diving maneuver, the -130 pilot decides to expend 5 PE in a Diving turn to come around behind his foe.  The 130 has an Acceleration of 8 so the 130 pilot can afford to spend five points on this move. His AV increases from 14 to 19 and he now needs to roll a 9 to stay with Jeff.

Of course you can "buy back" energy as well as expending it.  A pilot may declare that during an action he is going to use his acceleration to replenish his energy. for each point of Acceleration he puts into replenishing energy he gains one point of energy to his pool of energy.  More over a pilot may freely exchange energy between his PE and VE on a one to one basis (basically he is giving up attitude to gain speed or vice versa.).  This is of course limited by his Current acceleration (Remember you can use more energy in an action than you have acceleration 

The AZ-130 pilot above can move opt to increase his PE or VE by 3 points but no more because has used 5 energy already (5 + 3 = 8, the AZ-130's acceleration rating).

Changing modes has an effect on Energy as well.  Whenever a mecha changes from Battriod to any other mode his VE is reduced to it's lowest possible value.  When changing from GERWALK to a faster mode the VE is reduced by half.  GERWALKs VTOLs and Battriods are immune to the stall restriction on VE but cannot go lower than Minimum VE (at this level they are considered to be hovering).  If a Battriod has more than 5 PE it's PE is reduced by 5 point's per action (20 points per combat round) until it falls below 5 PE.  GERWALKS are similarly limited to 10 PE and VTOLs are limited to a maximum of 15 PE.

One might wonder why PE can go as low as -5.  At negative PE the mecha is dangerously close to the ground.  All maneuver rolls take a penalty equal to the Mecha's negative PE, Failure means the Mecha has hit the ground, Hard.

Finally an uncontrolled aircraft falls at a rate of 4 PE per action or 16 PE per round.

G Forces

At the GM's option, G Force rules may be applied.  These rules are simply this: after each maneuver the Pilot must make a CON test against the DV he set for the maneuver.  If he succeeds there is no effect, if he fails the pilot takes SDC equal to 2 + the amount of energy expended in the maneuver. Characters with skill in resisting pain may apply one of those skills to the CON check.

Both Jeff and the Az-130 pilot must make CON tests vs. 28 or take stun from the G's

 

What Mode are you in?

Mode has a heavy effect on combat, so the first thing one must know is that changing modes is a free action.  The primary effect of changing modes it that each mecha gains a flat modifier. 

Mode

 Strike/Dodge

 Maneuver

Battriod

.+8

 -8

Destroid

+6

 -10

GERWALK

+4

-4

VTOL

+4

-2

Fighter

+0

+0

COLOR

All of this is fine and good but combat is dull with out good descriptive "color".  As stated earlier, failure to add color is flat -5 to the AV.  So where does one find Color?  In the imagination, of course.