In some ways I miss playing mechwarrior. But I promised myself onyl 1 minis game at a time. I enjoyed mechwarrior, knowing each match would be different, even if the 'meta' armies were very few. Map set-up could make or break armies. So I developed this new format to emulate the style of map set-up from that game
New Game format: Varying terrain.
Map: Any blank map.
Army size: 100,150,200
Each player brings 4 tiles with them. The tiles must be of the "5 squares x7 squares" variety. Players each roll D20 to determine who is “defender†and who is “attacker.†The player with the higher role is the defender. The defending player then picks which side of the map the defending forces will deploy from.
After that, the two players then place tiles according to the following sequence:
Defender places 2 tiles
Attacker places 1 tile
Defender places 1 tile
Attacker places 1 tile
Defender places 1 tile
Attacker places 2 tiles.
The tiles may be located anywhere on the blank map. They must not overlap one another, and they must fit within the confines of the blank map and not extend over the edges.
Play then continues with a normal deployment (4 squares from a narrow map edge) and initiative roll.
Gambit points are counted.
Analysis:
The idea behind this is that you will know, in general terms, what half of the battlefield will look like. You can pick tiles that best suit your army. Need a place to hide Mas Ameda? There are some tiles that, if placed against a map edge, make for suitable buildings. But you opponent controls the other half of the map. Do you set up to your advantage, or to thwart your opponents? The choice is yours.
My main concern is the number of tiles that are largely blank space. A 5x7 tile with 2 sqaures of low cover may bias the game towards shooters. But, if the format catches on, other tiles could be made with a more ‘permanent’ structure.
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