I love how partial cover works now because it’s so sweet when either myself or the opponent thinks they landed a hit but then are relieved when they roll legs
I didn't even remember the modifier that partial cover gave..i just remembered that you would resolve hits on the punch table and that was reason enough to avoid partial cover in the old rules. Woods hexes were far more safe!
Solid work here, as a relativity newer player to BT with have a large number of friends that have played from the beginning. So your topics have been very interesting. Also great production value, be proud of your work.
Another aspect of the game that would benefit from a video similar to this one would be Line of Site/Elevation. It seems like if you can find a high enough hill with partial cover you can just wreck the rest of the board. (Especially if the board is missing trees.) I found the whole LOS mechanics from the Tactical Handbook to be more intuitive.
It’s great seeing all of the older rules. I started back in the late 80’s, played until the early 2000’s, and I’m just getting back into it. Sweet terrain too!
Great video thanks. I have a few theories about why some more experienced players make some of the same rules mistakes. I'm still researching and having difficulty finding some of the source materials to confirm them. One common misconception has to deal with vehicle hit locations. IIRC one of the early printings of Citytech had a graphic that was printed incorrectly. That's at least 1 from misprints. Also from the same time period some of the semi-official fanzines printed material that wasn't entirely correct. One of these articles may be about physical attack weapons using the punch hit location table. Several older players have told me they thought they originally read about in a fanzine. If I ever come across an article about it I'll try to post where it came from.
Thanks for this video, I was learning mostly from a collection of PDF from the internet archive and the Total Warfare goes back to the FASA days. I wouldn't want to make a tactical bonehead mistake thinking I'm invincible.
A buddy of mine actually discovered one very harsh weakness in the old partial cover system when he ate an lb-20 blast. Didn't breach the cockpit, but he accrued enough head taps to incapacitate the pilot.
I was wondering when you'd tackle this subject! It's definitely the one I remember getting abused the most back when I played in High School back in the early 90's. So glad things have been cleared up since.
I've been wanting to do partial cover for awhile since viewers voted for it, but by itself it's just not meaty enough of a subject. But when I paired it with Physical Attack modifiers, I felt like I had a good combo - since punch locations were used in both back then! Glad you dug it. I like the new way better too.
I've played the old rules recently just for fun and it was wild lol. Nothing like losing a fresh 'mech to a rolled 6 on a Gauss Rifle hit location lol.
You probably couldn't jump a mech high enough to where you would reach terminal velocity to achieve a true "highlander burial"... Unless you utilize Clan Nova Kitten's patented "Hover Drop" maneuver. Just watch out for enemy aerospace assets.
I prefer the original partial cover rules instead of the current CGL version. during games, I ask my opponent which version they want to use. as for physical attacks, I remember using the piloting skill as the base value as far back as 1988. we disagreed with the rules as written and thought the piloting skill should be more useful.
So this one time I decided to run the last stand of the black watch from the Northwind Highlanders book. I decided we'd use the rules that it was intended to be used with: Battletech Compendium - Rules of Warfare. So, old school rules. An enemy Victor got a lucky shot to land against my Thug in partial cover. 6 for hit location, killing a 100% fresh Thug when we only had 9 'mechs to their 24 as it was. I was like: "using the old rules was a mistake" lol.
The rules barely change as compared to another miniature wargame property that comes out with a new edition every 3-5 years with numeral codices and appendices that they release for their given game.
@@BattleBound We ran into so many situations that were not covered, or poorly explained, we created a book of rules. Not only for Battletech, but DnD as well. We also made a much simpler version for letting the little ones play, they are still too young for math skills. Oddly enough I prefer to GM for them, more than even playing myself. I do plan to graduate them to the regular rules / house rules in a few years when the youngest is up to it.
