[Implemented] Rules update coming, to be effective for Turn 5

[Dave Baughman]

Hi everyone,

In response to a recent question in the Q&A area, I have been reviewing the "GM Rulings" area. That sub-board will be going away soon and all of the rulings in it will either be incorporated into the main rules thread (with or without clarifications) or abolished.

Please stand by in this thread for more details, as this will be the temporary holding area for the revised information until the end of the turn (at which time I will update the main rules thread)

[Dave Baughman]

Free Militia
Every faction maintains local small-scale militias for law enforcement and limited planetary defense. Militia can be "called up" when a planet is attacked and when there are no friendly forces eligible to defend.

Note: in the context of this rule, an "attack" is defined as launching a Raid, Battle, or Invasion order targeting the hex. Movement orders, Special Operations, Biological Warfare etc, do not constitute an "attack" for the purposes of activating militia.

Characteristics of militia

• Militia may be Green or Regular
• Militia is always Reliable
• Militia is 1.0 FP (after adjustment for quality, if they are Green)
• The composition of that 1.0 FP is up to the player, but once activated its composition cannot be changed. Create aerospace militia at your own risk, as it cannot be converted back to ground FP until the next turn.
• Militia always has the Static movement class. In other words, no WarShip Militia and no movement type orders
• Militia cannot use guerilla warfare
• Militia does not benefit from damage control
• Militia cannot be repaired
• Militia that is routed surrenders instead of withdrawing
• During GM-rolled combat during the cleanup phase of the turn, militia will always lose (without a die roll) against large invasion forces. It is GM discretion as to whether or not to roll out combat in these situations. (i.e. if you want to try for the 'stacked natural 12s victory', do not let the fight wait until the cleanup phase).
  

Ship's Militia

When boarded, a portion of a WarShip's crew is detailed for internal defense. This Ship's Militia is worth 1.0 FP and follows all the rules listed above for militia (including surrending when a 'routed' result is rolled). Ship's Militia will aid in the defense of a WarShip even if a separate friendly marine force is present.

[Dave Baughman]

Naval Recon
Type: Raid
Minimum Force Size: 0.25 FP
Requirements: May not be executed by static or transported units. Pirate Transit is required.
Effect: On a successful pirate insertion, all enemy naval and aerospace units in the hex are discovered (Name, type, quality, and current FP are revealed). If the pirate insertion fails, the raider has two options...

• The raider may immediately withdraw, without rolling initiative (i.e. there is no opportunity for the enemy to attack them). In this case, the raider  receives no intelligence information.
• The raider may voluntarily lose initiative for the operational round, allowing the enemy to attack it. This may reveal information on some enemy naval forces in the hex.

Background note: Naval Recon was previously listed as "100% accurate." This language was removed because disseminate disinformation and certain other characteristics (such as a unit being in a hidden location) may result in incomplete results.

[Dave Baughman]

Calculating Damage: Critical Events

Critical events may modify the results of a roll on the simple resolution table. Follow the process below to correctly generate the final damage.

1. Roll 2d6
2. Apply any dice roll modifiers
3. Determine the base damage percentage from steps 1 and 2
4. Roll for critical events if applicable
5. Apply the results of any capture/encircle results immediately, before calculating damage.
6. Apply positive or negative modifiers to the damage percentage. For example, critical event #12 increases damage by 30%. If the initial roll was a "7" (40%) then this event will increase the damage percentage to 70%.
7. Apply any multiplicative modifiers. Continuing with the previous example, if critical event #11 was also rolled, it would be applied at this stage, increasing the damage amount to 140%
8. Multiply the attacker's FP (as modified by step 5) by the final damage percentage to determine the amount of FP damage inflicted upon the enemy.

[Dave Baughman]

Allied/Hostile Movement

Effective Turn 5, the GM ruling on Allied and Hostile Movement posting is abolished. The text in the manual will be updated to the following:


Hostile Territory Movement

Under normal circumstances, forces moving through foreign territory are detected by the hex's owner and may be intercepted.

Unless Clandestine movement is used to conceal the move or Allied movement has been granted, a force seeking to leave a foreign hex must accomplish it through hostile territory movement. The sequence of events for hostile territory movement is as follows:

1. (optional) the faction initiating hostile movement may request permission by private message. This PM must include the intended flight plan of the unit and the unit's FP value. This PM must be copied to the GM account. If the defender allows the hostile movement, no action is required. However, in the event that the movement is denied or there is no response by the 12th of the month, continue to step 2.

2. The faction initiating hostile movement must open a hostile movement thread. The thread must indicate the following:

• Flight plan of the unit
• Total FP of the unit
• Whether or not the unit is moving to engage in a combat operation

3. The faction that owns the hex must either approve or deny the hostile movement within a reasonable timeframe. 'A reasonable timeframe' is defined as:

• For units moving to engage in a combat operation: within 72 hours of the request or by the 15th of the month, whichever is later.
• For units moving for any other purpose: by the end of the turn*.

*Note: if defenders intend to resist the hostile movement, they are still bound by normal combat restrictions. Waiting until the last minute and then initiating a large naval engagement is frowned upon by the GMs.

If the response is to allow the movement, this need only be posted in the movement thread. Otherwise, the hex owner must open a combat thread at the point on the hostile mover's flight plan that they will be intercepted on. A link to this combat thread must be posted in the hostile movement thread.


Restrictions on Hostile Movement

• A unit cannot use Hostile Movement and Invasion orders in the same turn
• A unit cannot use more than one hex of Hostile Movement and Raid or Battle orders in the same turn*
• The 'Hunting' order is an exception to this - Hunters may use as much Hostile Movement as desired and still execute their order

*i.e. these order types cannot be more than two hexes "deep" into enemy territory.


Allied Territory Movement

Allies may allow each other to transit military forces through each other's territory. Allied movement may be requested by PM, carbon copied to the GM account. The PM must contain the following information:

• Full identity of the units moving (name, type, quality, current FP)
• Flight plan of the unit
• Whether or not the unit will conduct combat operations this turn within the ally's territory

The procedure for conducting allied movement is the same as hostile movement. At any time, the ally may deny allied movement, automatically converting the order to hostile movement if the mover opts to continue on their flight plan. 

Allied movement has no restrictions on what type of orders can be combined with it.


Failure to Adhere to Movement Posting Requirements

To ensure proper game balance and passive intelligence gathering, the procedures listed above for hostile and allied movement must be followed. Improperly-documented moves automatically fail; additionally, the GM team reserves the right to apply punitive measures - up to an including the loss of all forces attempting an invalid move - in the event of repeat violations.

[Dave Baughman]

Clarification of Critical Events 4 & 5

On both tables, the language of critical events 4 and 5 is ammended as follows:

4 Gain +1 on initiative and simple resolution rolls for the rest of the turn (CO gains experience).
5 Opponent receives -1 on initiative and simple resolution rolls for the rest of the turn (CO killed).

[Dave Baughman]

Force Declaration Requirements

The previous GM ruling on this topic is abolished effective turn 5. However, please see below.


Declaring Forces

When declaring an order (including defensive orders) the full identity of any involved units must be disclosed (name, type, quality, current FP). It is not neccessary to disclose units not participating in the order.

Third Parties' Responsibilities

If a thread goes to GM resolution at the end of the turn, the GM team will look up the forces belonging to the attacker and to the owner of the hex from the orders sheets. Any third parties present are responsible for posting the forces at their disposal before the thread goes to GM resolution. Failure to do so will result in those forces not participating in combat. In the event of repeat failures to notify the GMs of 3rd party forces, the offending forces may be subject to penalties up to and including destruction.

[Dave Baughman]

Obsolete Naval Boarding Rules

It has recently been brought to my attention (during the course of running the Kowloon battle) that the naval boarding rules were not properly updated when Tactical Ops and Strat Ops rolled out the current boarding rules. The following text will replace the earlier hostile boarding rules effective turn 5.


Hostile Boarding Rules

Under certain circumstances,  marine forces may attempt to board and capture enemy vessels. Boarding can occur under the following circumstances:

• When directed by a critical event in simple resolution
• When a small craft carrying marines executes a forced boarding in MegaMek*
• When an EVA marine unit executes a forced boarding in MegaMek*

*As of version 35.24, the actual boarding portion of this procedure is not supported in MegaMek. Once the unit meets the boarding criteria and reaches the appropriate phase, the actual boarding attempt must be rolled manually.

When boarding is dictated by a critical event, the attacking ship with the best marine contingent is assumed to make the attempt, and uses its full marine contingent in the effort. Additionally, up to four battle taxis from that ship may assist - see the special rules for Battle Taxis below.


Naval boarding resolution

Once hostile units are onboard a naval vessel, they immediately begin rolling simple resolution against any defending marines once a turn starting in the turn they board (make this roll in the End Phase).

If hostile boarding occurs during simple resolution and a clear victor is not established after the initial roll, continue rolling simple resolution until the boarding forces are repelled or the ship is captured before moving onto the next operational round. This represents the intense, close-quarters nature of a naval boarding - the rolls represent minutes of combat rather than weeks.

Any ship that begins its turn with no remaining defenders is captured by the enemy. It must disengage at best possible safe speed and may not fire weapons, load or unload craft, or attempt any action that requires a piloting skill roll.

When a ship is captured, the following stipulations apply:

• Until the ship can return to a friendly industrial type hex improvement, it may only execute movement orders (it is assumed to be under operation by a prize crew, and lacks the trained naval crew neccessary to conduct combat operations). The ship may defend itself if attacked but is considered green skill (5/6) and may not use any special weapons modes (bracketed fire, etc).
• Unless fighters or small craft were actually onboard when the ship was captured (this would only occur in MegaMek) those units are not captured with the ship. They become a 'survivor' unit just as would happen if a WarShip was destroyed.
• The ship drops to Green skill until it reaches a friendly industrial type hex improvement. At the end of that turn it takes on new crew, becomes Regular, and loses the combat restrictions mentioned above.

Using Battle Taxis

The NL-42 Battle Taxi is a specialized small craft that improves the effectiveness of marines during their first turn of boarding action. The special bonuses here for Battle Taxis only apply such craft if they are listed in the "BT" column of the naval tab. Note that every faction may build Battle Taxis - if they do not produce the actual NL-42 model, it is assumed they have an equivalent (and statistically identical) local design.

Battle Taxis have the following characteristics:

• Each battle taxis is considered to be a 0.25 FP marine unit for cost purposes
• Like other marine type units, Battle Taxis do not contribute their FP to their parent unit's naval FP
• If a battle taxis successfully docks, it contributes its FP to the first simple resolution roll
• In critical event-directed boardings, if more than one Battle Taxi are available to the attacker, up to four may dock with the target. Roll 1d4 to determine how many dock.

Lupus assault craft: the Wolf Dragoons' clan technology version of the Battle Taxi provided a 0.50 FP bonus in previous versions of the rules. This unit is currently not in MegaMek and is not supported by the current version of the record sheet. Lupus craft will be added back into the game at a future date.

[Cannonshop]

um...point of order?

the "E" column actually adds the FP value on the sheet, will this be updated?

[Dave Baughman]

um...point of order?

the "E" column actually adds the FP value on the sheet, will this be updated?

"E" is working correctly if it adds to the FP value on the sheet (though Battle Taxis really shouldn't be listed as your Fleet Escort... that box is for stuff like the TIG-15, Aquarius, etc that would actually participate in naval combat pew-pew). "BT" by contrast represents marines and only adds its FP to movement point generation, not combat FP. The 0.6x sheet that will replace the current 0.53 will add more flexibility to this, but for now I believe the 0.53 sheet is 'working as intended.'

If it isn't let me know and I'll dig down deeper.

[Fatebringer]

This is sad We have even less chance to board vessels now

[Dave Baughman]

This is sad We have even less chance to board vessels now

Well, that may flip-flop in the other direction later, as the position of the 'boarding crit' on the simple rez table is on the agenda for potentially broken rules that need to be re-examined.

[Dave Baughman]

Mercenary Rules

Due to lack of interest, the PC mercenaries pilot program is abolished.

The NPC mercenaries text is totally rewritten to read as indicated below:



NPC Mercenaries

Mercenaries are private military contractors that offer their services to factions in exchange for payment.

Hiring Mercenaries

When a mercenary unit is out of contract, either due to expiration or due to a contract breach by the client, the MRBC will open bidding for that unit's services. Any faction may bid for mercenary contracts. Whichever faction makes the highest bid wins the contract. Contract points are awarded as follows:

+1 per 5% of the unit's FP that will be paid every month (minimum 5%)
+1 if the bidder guarantees full repairs
-1 if the bidder is to receive all salvage
+0 if salvage is to be split 50/50 between bidder and mercenaries
+1 if the mercenary will receive all salvage
+1 for a 3-turn contract
+0 for a 6-turn contract
-1 for a 9-turn contract
-1 for no signing bonus
+0 for 10% signing bonus
+1 for 25% signing bonus
+1 for a front-loaded contract (50% of the contract pay advanced in first turn of the contract)
-1 if the bidder's house troops fought against the unit in the last three turns
+1 if the bidder is the unit's historical sole client*
-1 if the bidder is a member of the Clan Grand Council
+1 renewing a prior contract on same or better terms**

*based on canon employment history up to 3062.
**only if the underlying contract was awarded under the current version of the rules.

Accounting for Mercenaries

Mercenaries are listed as normal units on the appropriate tab of the client's record sheet. However, they must also be listed in the mercenaries section of the expenses tab, including their per-turn salary and (in the notes column) the terms of their contract.

When a mercenary unit's contract expires, it is the responsibility of the client to post the unit for rebid in the MRBC thread. Failure to do this will result in loss of the +1 contract renewal bonus and in repeat cases will result in the MRBC applying a blanket penalty to future contract bids.

[Dave Baughman]

Tactical Orbital Bombardment

Under the current rules, TOB is a Battle type order and is thus subject to initiative order (and technically only really useful in an Invasion scenario). This reflects an earlier edition of the rules where the combat sequence was not as clearly defined. Effective Turn 5, replace the TOB order's text with the following:


Tactical Orbital Bombardment
Type: Special

Requirements: 5 FP or more of WarShips or capital/subcapital-armed DropShips. Fighters and non-capital DropShips do not count towards this requirement.

Effect: Inflict 2d6 damage to enemy ground units on the target planet. Add an extra 2d6 damage at every 10 FP increment above 5 (i.e. 15, 25, etc.). On a roll of '2' or '3' on each 2d6 rolled, roll again: the amount of damage indicated is applied to a friendly unit in the same location (if there are no friendly ground units, the attack does no damage).

Note 1: Units targeted by TOB may always execute the Scatter order, unless they are prevented from receiving orders (such as being in 'disrupted' status).
Note 2: TOB is executed as a special scenario. In other words, it is declared after normal combat orders are announced and resolved before any simple resolution or megamek is played.

[chaosxtreme]

It was posted somewhere that newly hired merc's will start at Outreach? Might I put the caveat in that they have to travel to the territory of the hiring state before commencing combat operations.

Otherwise ya know. ;-) Easy bake invasion of the FWL, CC, and to an extent the Lyrans.