Solaris Olympiad 1st Session, July 8th

Figured I should go over the agenda for the 1st night.  It is a little ambitious, but I'm pretty sure we can do it.  Goal is to get two games in.  1st is with all players, 2nd will split the players over the two tables.  Smaller battles will go faster.

We will go over rules and any questions folks may have first thing.

Will review....

1. How prizes work (Murphy's awards, and Event winners)
2. Killing other mechwarriors (-10 Fame, but you get their mech)
3. Starting Positions (Init cards)
4. What counts as a "Kill" (Solo vs Assisted)
5. Fire declaration (Init cards)
6. Movement (Init cards and egg timer)
7. How "Off Board Time" works

I'm thinking we will start rolling dice before 7pm.  If we do and there is a player running late...we can have their mech run by two other folks until they can arrive.


Battle #1:  The Factory (Free for all)

Our 1st battle will be a Free for all in  the "Factory" arena.  All players will take part.

First we will flip the Initiative cards to determine starting positions.  As your card is flipped, you will pick up one of the 16 gold markers on the map and place you mech there.

Assuming we have 10+ players, The first 4 players eliminated will get their Murphy Awards.

The first 6 players eliminated (5 players if we only have 10 players) will do their "Off board time" and Move on to start Battle #2A.

The remaining 5+ players will finish Battle #1.

The top 3 will get the Contest Awards.  (Choosing from House Marik Random mech assignment tables or their factions)

Those 5 players will do their off board time, and Move on to Battle #2B

Battle #2A: Ishiyama (Free for all) 

Roll 1D6 and place those terrain coins


Again use init cards to determine starting positions, choosing any space along the board edge.  With the limited number of players, You may not select a space adjacent to a space already selected (leave one at least open space, between players)

With the smaller amount of players the first two eliminated will get the Murphy awards.

Only the final two combatants will get Contest Awards.  (Choosing House Kurita random mech assignment tables or their factions tables)



Battle #2B: Hartford Gardens (Free for all)   

Clear off the Factory terrain and set up Hartford Gardens terrain.

Roll 1d6 and place Terrain coins.

Follow rules for setting up starting points.  Use init cards to determine starting positions.  Leaving 1 empty space between mechs.

With the smaller amount of players the first two eliminated will get the Murphy awards.

Only the final two combatants will get Contest Awards. (Choosing ComStar random mech assignment tables, or their factions tables)

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This is where we will call it for the night.  Off board time can be handled during the month before our next match.     Still working the details for the August event.  Should have the Steiner arena done by then, so we can do the same format with the Coliseum, the Jungle and Devils Bath as the three arenas in August.

So what you could do to prep is, have a couple of plans in place as to what to do if you have some extra C-Bills.  Would you get a sponsor, or a stable, or skip that and get a bigger mech?

Having a spare Laptop or two in the basement on the wireless would help with the Off Board Time as well, so if you have one your willing to share, please consider bringing it.

S. O. S. Profile: Jak "Irish" Black

Name: Jak Black 

Callsign: "Irish"

Player: Jay

Faction: Circinus Federation

Rank: Unknown

Unit: Unknown

Current Battlemechs: 


Black Knight BL-12-KNT (Reaper)



Axman AXM-1N
Marauder MAD-5L

Arena Kills: 11.5

Best finish: 
1st (of 6) - Devil's Bath - Battle #4B
2nd of 12 - Battle #7 - Commando Challenge

Current Stable: Blake's Castaways

Current Sponsors: Clan Diamond Shark

Background: 

To: CLASSIFIED

From: Col Will Blake, 31st Bat, Int Div, FWL.

As per your request this is my summary of the information I was able to compile on Jak Black, aka Durty Jack Irish, Aka William Mullen, Aka Heywood JaBlome, Aka Grahm Palson.

Our informants from within the Circinus Federation have a great deal of information surrounding this individual; however as with any of our other paid informants from the region the information has to be cross checked and verified.  In the case of Jak Black alone I found 11 discrepancies where he was reported to be in two places at once, and one where he was apparently raiding while in prison (when we knew him as Heywood Jablowme) before he was exchanged.

This is what I believe to be true.

He was not originally from the CFed, while they produce some fine pilots in a roughshod and undisciplined way he was obviously trained by someone far better than there cadre.  Recorded Vids and Com traffic of him, or who I have a high amount of belief was him, in various raids and actions puts him above the bar for the normal CFed raiders.

While we had him in custody after being caught on CLASSIFIED before being exchanged for CLASSIFIED we were able to gain a copy of his DNA and retinal prints, thou we found no matches for them, he also bore the signs of several facial cosmetic reconstruction surgery’s.  Most important of note was a synthetic arm and leg that were on grade with our own medical services, far beyond that of the local CFeds.  While it is not unheard of for some of them to gain access to such high end treatment, for a unknown pilot to gain access or have the means for such a thing is unheard of.

After his release he has raided under the command of half a dozen raider Captains.  There CFed tradition of changing names when these groups disperse and reform under a new leader makes him very hard to track.  I can verify that he was involved in the sacking of CLASSIFIED and the kidnapping and ransoming of CLASSIFIED and her household.  Other than that it is hit or miss, he may have been involved in 9 different actions against various state and private entities in the meantime but I am unable to substantiate any real proof.

As for his appearance on Solaris, I was able to learn of how he acquired a mech.  Apparently he won it in a card game, thou the man who lost it was dead soon after and Jak's own group of companions were the only others at the table to substantiate his claim to it.  While other Houses and the like have competition amongst themselves before sending competitors to Solaris, The CFed has no formal procedure, they simply go if they have the means.  

In the case of Jak Black however his departure was considered somewhat abrupt, while the things that would cause such a suspicion to leave  abruptly are countless the re-occurring theme I picked up in my interviews with our informants appeared to involve a female captain who apparently wishes to do him grievous harm.

Repairs Prep for Battle #1

Lets go over the repair rules a little bit. I created a self generating table in Excel that calculates the repair bill for your current mech, if you use the simple repair method. I even did some conditional Formatting, so that if you do not currently have enough C-Bills, the cell displays in the Light red. Unfortunately, Google docs doesn't like the Conditional format conversion process, so I'll post an image every month.

Click image for larger chart that is easier to read...

The three levels of "Full Repairs" are...Destroyed, Crippled or Damaged.

Remember all Armor repair is free, so if you only have armor damage, you have a $0 repair bill. The three "Full Repair" options takes care of all damage to internals, criticals, destroyed components, and lost limbs.

To fully repair your Destroyed mech it cost 45% of the base price.
To fully repair your Crippled mech it cost 35% of the base price.
To fully repair your Damaged mech it cost 25% of the base price.
You add 10% to the repair cost if you ejected from the mech.

"Destroyed" is just that...your mech was destroyed, be it Ammo explosion, engine destruction, Head destruction, etc...only 45% to put the pieces back together.

"Crippled" means your mech was crippled at the end of the match. You either Won, made it off the board, surrendered or ejected from it, before it was destroyed.

"Damaged" means during the battle you did not reach the "Crippled" state. Chances are the folks that are at this level of repair either Won, or surrendered when they were shutdown due to overheating.

There are two potentially cheaper means to repair your mech. Spot repairs,, and jury rigging repairs. I've covered those in the "Off Board Time" link up top.
The Spot repairs go through each section of the mech doing repairs and will quickly become more expensive than "Full repair" options. The Jury rigging repair is a last ditch "Get your mech running because you are broke".

You don't have to do repairs on your mech. The only rule for entering a mech in a battle is that it has to be able to walk. So if you can only enough repairs to get your mech moving again, you are still in the game.

The other option is a "Fallback" mech, any time you can not afford to get one of your mechs fully repaired, you may take a fallback mech from your faction. Details on the fallback mechs are in the fallback link above.

The real point of this post is that looking at all the light red on the chart above...You may want to do some quick math and figure out how many C-Bills you will need to earn in the worse case scenario.

Look at my guy for an example: I have $475,630 in the bank, and a full repair cost for a Vindicator VND-3L Destroyed with Ejection will cost me $1,938,404. So I will need to earn at least $1,462,774 from this first match, or might be in a fallback mech next battle. Looking at the Earning C-Bills tab...I can make that with a Solo Kill of the same level or even 1 level less. I'll get close to what I need just crippling a same level mech. So if it is getting down to the end of the match and I still can't cover my repairs, desperation might step in looking at that $1,000,000 pay out for a DFA that connects.

Arena Terrain Update

Quick Arena update to share what I've been working on.

Factory is done, ready for the Campaign kick off.

Ishiyama, Stone Mountian is also ready to go, with some terrain coins placed about at random.

Finally a sneak peak at the Coliseum. (work in progress).

Sorry, started to lose my voice at the end.

Tracking events, and Counting "Kills"

One of the toughest things to keep track of in this game is what happened when.  I'm going to try to do it this way to start and see how it goes.

There will be one "Tracking Clipboard".  This "TC" will be held by a 4th person observing the shooting and physicals (Attacker, Defender, dude checking the hit location charts, and the TC guy).  On the legal pad that is on the TC there will be columns for "Who" "Event" and "Target".  The TC won't have to write down all the amounts of fame or C-Bills earned just the "event" such as dealing 20 points of damage, or "Kill Solo".  I'll be the default "TC" and like I said we will see how it goes.  I have a couple of "What to track" posters set up downstairs for all to see, and know what we should be looking for.

So when someone is eliminated, we can copy everything they did by checking the "Who" column on to another sheet of paper.  Then with that paper, they could start their "Off Board Time", repairing their mechs, upgrading their character, etc.

Next is the "Who gets credit for a Kill".  This I can see as being a sticking point of the campaign.  The rules are located on the "Earning CP, Fame and C-Bills" page.  But here is some clarification.

All the damage you may have done during a prior turn is irrelevant.  Only the current turn matters, so if you have pounded on a target for 4 turns then on turn 5 you hit the target in the arms and legs, but another mech hits it in the CT killing it, they will get the kill, not you.  Chances are if you pounded on someone for 4 turns you should have at least "Crippled" them, and gotten credit for that.  If not get better mech, or better dice. 

This can get tricky, and that is where "Shared kills" come in to play.  Say a mech has 8 CT internals left, and two guys hit it in the CT, Guy A for 5, Guy B for 10.  Here is how we will handle this.  If we were to say only guy B would get the kill...that would mean we would have to keep track of where everyone's damage was at the start of each round.  But if we say Everyone that hits the CT (or Side torso with an XL engine kill) the turn of a mechs death will get part of a "Kill - Assisted"  That way we will only have to track who did damage to the CT that turn.  Much easier that way, cause I can't image more than 3 guys would be shooting at any one target that often.  Yes this will give an ever so slight advantage to the SRM / LBX carrying mechs who can spread their damage around.

So in summary:
*** Any mech that does damage in a given phase to the location that causes a mechs destruction will be credited with a "Kill - Assisted" ***