Damanor’s Lair: a Gaming Blog

 Some links that I keep going back to ** Commander’s Handbook ** The Hangar is back The Mobile Frame Hangar Mechatonic Strategy Four Player Brawl Mechaton Strategy Mechaton Strategy (Part Two) Mobile Frame Hangar Battle Simulator Strategy Discussion - Company Build Toolbox Approach to Squad Design Strategy Discussion - Frame Builds It’s a Game Too - Tactics Discussion How to Win When Attacking Weapon System Discussion Artillery Loadout and Strategy Troll Scout Setup Balanced Scenario/Matchup Suggestions ABIJ Must Die Favorite Build/Loadout Removing Systems Demo Companies Interesting Company Compositions Favorite Team and Strategy Mobile Frame Garage MFZ Archetype Archive ** War College ** Orion 6 Builds and Tactics Tactics 101 - Playing the Numbers Game Tactics 101 - Maximizing Damage Tactics 101 - On the Offensive Tactics Talk - 11/13/13 The Transit Gate Table Talk - Playing as the Defender Frame Foundry - Efficiency in Odds

I don’t know why, but I seem to be focusing on Mechs from House Liao’s Capellan Confederation. First the Cataphract, and now - well, this time I’m talking about the Raven . This is another new Capellan Mech design, this one based around electronic warfare. Capellan scientists developed a new ECM suite and probe system they hoped would be close to Star League electronic warfare systems. Unfortunately, the new system was so heavy and bulky that they couldn’t fit it into an existing design. Rather than give up on the technology, they built an entirely new Mech around it in 3024. The new Raven was designed to be a scout for command units. It was supposed to be attached to battalion command lances, usually as a fifth Mech. Unfortunately, the EW system in the RVN-1X Raven had some flaws. Its range was shorter than Star League era ECM and Probes, and it took up much more space in the Mech. When it took damage, the ECM system would actually make it harder for the Raven’s pilot to target enemie...

 (I love the work of Pasukaru76. They are better at building lego sets than I will ever be. Check out their work on Flickr .) In many ways, I prefer Francisco Duarte’s earlier adaptation of the Mechs from Battletech to Mobile Frame Zero. The later one has some appeal, but it actually changes the rules for light and assault Mechs to give them abilities you can’t normally get in vanilla MFZ. By contrast, the earlier version doesn’t change the actual rules at all. You can build any Battletech Mech or other vehicle and use it in a regular MFZ game purely run with the rules as written. Consequently, I’m going to switch to using those rules for my adaptations. If you want to switch to his updated rules, just give light Mechs the green movement D8 and say they’re destroyed when they lose the first white die, and give assault Mechs with a blue defensive system one blue D8 replacing a blue D6, and don’t ever give them the green movement D8. Light Mechs have up to three systems, usually in...

One thing about Mobile Frame Zero is that games are much more interesting and tactical with three or more players. Most war games that I know of, including Battletech, usually assume there are two forces fighting each other. My first game of Battletech was a three way game against two of my brothers, though, which made it a game of alliances and talking other people into destroying your enemies for you. There are a few examples of three-way fights in Battletech fiction. First, near the beginning of the novel Lethal Heritage by Michael Stackpole, Phelan Kell of the Kell Hounds is going after Kenny Ryan and his band of pirates. They are somewhat overmatched, a Wolfhound and Blackjack against a Locust, Panther, Griffin, and Rifleman. (The remaining two Mechs of the Kell Hound lance are away for this battle.) Then it turns out Ryan’s Mechs are being chased by three mysterious Mechs from an unknown source (spoiler: it’s Clan Wolf) who have already damaged their Mechs. Kell and Tang (his lan...

 Here are some pics I found online that fit the Fey In Black feel I’m going for.

. I’m going to be honest, when I was really into Battletech 20+ years ago I thought the Clans were awesome. I wanted to play the Inner Sphere against the (I liked the underdog even then), but I thought they were pretty cool. My opinion of the clans has become less favorable for what it did to the whole setting. Even so, one of the things I thought was cool was the Elemental , or Toad in Inner Sphere parlance. A group of five infantry in power armor, each armored well enough to withstand a medium laser, they were my introduction to a whole sub-genre of science fiction that was established by Heinlein in Starship Troopers and expanded on in John Steakley’s Armor . They were so cool that when my brother (12 years younger than me) saw the Toad toy from the animated series for sale, he called it an elemental and insisted on getting one. That led me to collect all of the toys, but that’s another story. Mobile Frame Zero actually has a simple way to deal with miniature power armor in Interce...

  The FIB is a multinational espionage taskforce using tradecraft and advanced magical tech to police and monitor Fey activities and protect the world. Although individual members may be part of their respective countries’ intelligence agencies, militaries, or other forces, FIB as a whole is accountable only to itself. The primary goals for all FIB personnel: To protect visiting Fey from humanity To protect humanity from visiting Fey To keep the agency secret To prevent the annihilation of the world To locate and monitor gates and access points connecting our world with the feywild To find those capable of performing the duties required of FIB agents in order to maintain a constant level of agency personnel As members of the Feywild Investigation Bureau, your job is to monitor, police, protect, and conceal Otherkin refugees As part of this, you should: Keep it secret - don’t want to start a panic or reveal too much (how many people can make wishes with fae all at once?), want to ke...