thread: 2006-11-30 : Mechaton FAQ
On 2006-12-01, Vincent wrote:
Hey Rich!
About cover: that's great with the semicircle. Slick.
What really matters is that you can look at an arrangement of attacker-cover-defender on the table, and everyone knows and agrees what the attacker would have to do to get a cover-free shot. Your semicircle is very cool for that.
About damaging mechs as cover: you're interpreting it correctly. Another way to say it would be, use your opponents' mechs for cover, not your own.
About initiative dice: we use d12s for initiative, just because all my d10s are in my Dogs kit. D20s would work great.
About initiative in general: rolled initiative matters most - almost but not quite exclusively - at the opening of the turn. It sets the stage for the turn, it like lays the geography on which the turn's emergent combat order will build. In other words, yeah, it's reasonably important and also not, and yeah, a mech taken in isolation is almost always better off with an attachment instead. Organize your initiative dice as part of your overall army strategy, don't expect them to balance mech by mech.
There seems to be a great temptation to have armoured artillery units hanging about at the edges of the board and not really getting into the action...
Moving early in the turn and rolling badly for defence seems pretty bad. That is, one of Dave's mechs was sat in the corner and ended it's turn with a 2 in defence about halfway through the second turn. Everybody who had an artillery piece on the field wailed on him, because they knew they would hit! After that, I don't think anyone left a mech with less than 4 defence for he rest of the game.
Taken together, these usually indicate that someone isn't playing to win, or doesn't buy into the victory points. Those are both the obvious correct strategy in free-for-all battles, but they will absolutely screw the attackers if you're playing for victory points. The attackers have to overcome their free-for-all instincts.
You say a brief game. How brief? I find that the game really builds momentum, with the first couple of turns taking the longest and being the least decisive (but, of course, essential to the way the game finally plays out). The overall sensation is roller-coastery, like whoa - whoa - waah - waaaaaah!
