From: kgnome@cs.concordia.ca (MATIS stephane)
Subject: Re: Vehicle rules and munchkinism (was Re: high-speed hovertanks REDUX!)
Summary: Neurohelmets vs. Vehicles 
Keywords: Vehicles, Ramming, bleah 
Organization: Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 07:59:18 GMT

(In response to Stephane Matis' post.  Please note that despite the net
address listed, I am not Steph.  I'm a friend of his who he has
gracefully given access to his account.  I usually lurk but this time I
have to give my 0.25$ worth.  I have written some material for FASA
before but nowhere near as much as Steph (I'm a busy student who prefers
RPGs to Tactical Gaming) and yes my name is in the Design section (big
deal)).

(lots of long discussion deleted)

Ok, Steph, you argue that the only vehicle that ever had a chance
against a mech in Btech was the hovercraft.  I beg to differ.  I have
seen nasty little VTOLs (usually small, fast, and expendable and packing
an LRM-5) and various other interesting items.  I'm still trying to
figure out why subs and ships are capped off at 300 tons.  That's puny.
Hell, I seem to remember a certain aircraft carrier in a campaign of
yours a couple of monthes ago... along with a hoard of nasty (albiet not
as impressive as mech's) vehicles.  These were forces on an
industrialized periphery world that had two superpowers.  The numbers of
troops were comparable to today's forces (relative to the population).
That was one of the most interesting Btech'ing sessions I've played in
ages.

Ok, here's my basic idea.

A)  Ton per ton, Mechs are superior to any other vehicle with the
possible exception of the aerospace fighter but since fighters can't
hold territory, mech's are the ideal choice.

B)  Mech's are very expensive weapons, much like modern day stealth
fighers.  Dropship/Jumpship transport is equally expensive and
therefore, Mech's are the ideal choice for ANY planet-to-planet
offencive force.  These Mech's should be supported by effective
aerospace cover.

C)  Most vehicles are not worth putting in a dropship (except perhaps a
high-speed recon hovercraft or VTOL, or maybe submarines to attack an
underwater target) BUT vehicles form the ideal backbone for the defence
of any planet that can produce them.  They are cheaper and more
effective on a cost basis than mechs.  Convential aircraft are likely to
be the backbone of aerospace defence unless a major airless colony
exists (some mining moon or something).  Now, this all assumes that the
world is capable of producing industrial goods.  This requires approx
1940+ tech, a large (preferably millions) population, and a decent
amount of mining.  A typical world might be comparable to Canada (a
large amount of unsettled land with a few highly populated industrial
centres, rich in resources and with a population of around 25 million).
On such a world, only elite units would be given mechs (since they are
so expensive).  A world with 25 million people could easily produce
enough drivers/pilots for a full regiment of vehicles (via a mandatory
draft like in many countries today).  Now, the problem for this world is
not that it hasn't got enough troops to defend it.  It does (a few
thousand vehicles would barely damage their GNP over an extended period
and the entire inner sphere has run on a partial war economy since the
fall of the Star League).  The catch is, where over this HUGE planet do
you place these few thousand troops?  A sizable portion would go into
defending major population centers but the majority would be stationed
outside of major centers (to remove the chance of excessive friendly
civilian casualties in the case of an enemy attack - we aren't Saddam
Hussein here).  Ok, now the attacking force would attack with a MUCH
smaller but MUCH more efficient unit (Mechs/Aerospace/Dropships).  This
unit would probably overwhelm the defenders if the numeric odds were
even but they rarely would be (despite the thining of the defending
troops).  These attacks have a choice to either A) do an objective raid
or B) invade.  The objective raid would be carried out in the usual
manner since the large majority of the defending troops are unable to
mobilize in time to even come near the attackers, only local troops and
the rare elite/rapid-response teams could engage the raiders.  An
invasion would work in a similar manner.  The goal would not be complete
decimation of the defending troops.  Most of them are local and won't
evacuate off-planet if the planet falls (the occasional fanatic unit may
abandon it's homeworld but in my humble opinion, it's not bloody
likely).  The way to conquer a planet is to demolish the defender's C3
(command-control-communications... and I don't mean Kurita's nifty new
networking gizmo).  The small but powerful mech unit would drop in to
surprise the defenders by attacking and (hopefully) capturing all major
governmental and military sites (captial
buildings/state-provincial-regional legislatures/governor's mansions/
major military bases).  By disrupting the chain of command, the
overwhelming defending troops become next-to-useless when faced with an
effective mech force.  If given the choice, most will surrender and or
disband, or perhaps give their allegience to the new regieme installed
by the invaders.
	Ironically, the planets most likely to be defended by mechs are
the one's which are NOT industrialized.  The reason it the same as the
reason mech's are choosen to attack with.  They are the best unit you
can cram into that ever-so-limited dropship space and since the planet
they are going to defend can't produce military hardware, you have to
ship them the stuff.  Therefore, primitive worlds get mechs and
tech-oriented worlds get vehicles.

	Sorry for the _huge_ paragraph up top but the whole thing really
was one idea.  Anyway, I personally think that FASA's new rule about
neurohelmets making mech's SO agile that they out manuever vehicles is
just hipe to make mech's more attractive to players (they ARE the focus
of the game, no?).  A Btech mech has always been descrBp~

arg... line noise..  A Btech mech has always been described as being a
big and cumbersome thing (unlike the increadibly graceful (and very
cool) anime style mecha).  These things have to make piloting checks for
all sorts of nifty conditions (like rubble).  It seems to me they would
have a bit of trouble manuevering normally and the neurohelmets would
just (just barely... because of the awesome reaction times) help to
compensate for the mech's inherent instability.  Neurohelmets could,
however, boost someone's initiative (if using a mostly mech units or if
using individual initiative house rules) because of this
direct-neural-feedback super reaction time (a +2 to init over
non-neurohelmeted troops seems nice..  it gives mechs an advantage
without utterly banning the possibility of vehicles ramming mechs).

	Ok, that's my opinion.  I could never stomach the idea that
empires with TRILLIONS of people have only a few MILLION troops.  In
Btech, war is a way of life supposedly.  When only one in a million
people is a soldier, it's bloody utopia!  Sticking huge (but widely
scattered) native troops would add to the realism of the game without
severely unbalancing it.  (So this planet has a million troops?  Big
deal, try finding enough dropships to move all of that! Ha!)  Mech
become quite scare elite units (even green mechwarriors are elite
compared to an elite tank jockey-- oops, that scarce, not scare in the
preceeding sentance).  Mech would in fact, see just as much action as
they do in the present set up because they are THE front-line units
while vehicles become rear-guard units that can still pack a punch.  The
idea of a single battalion defending a world is generally ludicrous
unless that world has a PUNY population.  I would suggest keeping all
the mech units listing in the Objective Raids book but supplementing
them with planet-bound militia guarding all secondary targets.  The
mechs are elite units and would guard high-security areas ONLY.

	Anyway, that's my idea of how to integrate logical military
concepts with the often soap-opera-ish BattleTech universe.  Don't
throw out the mechs or the vehicles.  Just put each where it belongs.



Gene Marcil

Designer, head-shrinker, and all around pleasant psychopath.

If this had been a real emergency, a message would follow the .sig you
are now seeing.