"Battle Tech to Mech Attack Conversion Table. Thoughts?" Topic

Hello everyone, first let me apologize in advance because this is going to be a LONG post. I am a big B-Tech junkie, but never cared for the rules, preferring the simplicity of Mech Attack. Since my fiancee has gifted me 30 MWDA Clix Mechs I wanted to try to convert the BTech fluff goodness into a format usable with Mech Attack, while staying true to the Mech Attack style of fast and simple. I believe I've worked it out, and so far the few games I've played have worked rather well. If you care to read, let me know what you think and hopefully this helps someone as crazy as I am! I will include a sample sheet at the end so you can plug it together in your head.

Step 1: Armor

Simply multiply the mechs tons by 1.5 and round any odds up by 5s. Divide by 10.

Example: Average Light Mech = 25 tons. 25 x 1.5 = 37.5, rounded to 40. So 4 armor blocks.

This lets you encompass any mech since the games max armor blocks is 15, and a 100 ton mech (heaviest BT designs) would come to 15 armor.

Step 2: Speed

Take the Mechs max kmph, rounded to the nearest 10, then divide by 10 and use that as "rush Movement". Make the standard move 1/2 of this. Then add a modifier based on weight class. Light = +3, Medium = +2, Heavy = +1, Assault = +0

Example: Mjolnir 97 kmh, rounded to 100 kmh. Divided by 10 equals 10". Standard move 5".
After modifiers, 8" normal and 13" rush.

Max Speed listed for BT mechs is exactly that, their max speed when being pushed to their limits. For my purposes, Cruising speed is 1/2 that, because in my mind that would be the optimal speed for maximum handling and firing without hindrance. The modifier ensures Lighter mechs retain their maneuverability bonus over heavier mechs while keeping the
game moving at a faster pace than a few inches per turn.

Step 3: Target Profile.

I simply add 1 to the TPs listed in the original rules, but add an Assault Class. Light = 6 Medium = 5 Heavy = 4 Assault = 3

For Rear Arc Shots, simply -1 from that number. So an Assault caught from behind would have a TP of 2

I find this reflects the difficulty of targeting based on size in the BT universe based on my experiences reading many of the books. Pilot Skill can alter this, though.

Step 4: (Optional) Pilot Skill
After doing all this converting the BP square was always sitting empty on my Sheets so I erased it and changed it to Pilot Skill. Ranging from Green (+/-0) Regular (+/-1) Experienced (+/-2) and Elite (+/-3)

The number is a modifier that can be used on any effect associated with that particular Mech Pilot. So an Elite Pilot would receive a +3 on his to hit rolls, a +3 to his TP, and a +3 to Heat Control. This is OPTIONAL and should be used with restrictions. I usually only employ this during Scenario play to represent notable characters or different force values. Inner Sphere Units generally fall in around Regular while Clanners usually come in at Experienced. Elite is only for Heroes and Green is usually used for Militias and Pirates/Raiders/Unconventional Forces.

Step 5: Heat Control

As with Target Profiles, I use the values in the book, letting the Pilot Skill modify this. A skilled pilot in a Mech will be much better at mitigating his heat gains than an unskilled one. If a Mech is known for particularly effective Heat Control, I add a +1.

Step 6: Armament

After much testing and frustration, I believe I've come up with a good conversion table for BT weapons, to be used in Mech Attack. I tried to cover all the weapons, with a smaller table for variants of weapons (Streak, Artemis, Clan, Pulse) If your mech has more than 4 weapons (the max slots in Mech Attack's standard sheet) simply add more slots to your sheet with Paint or Photoshop or whatever edit with. I use the HV section for showing the Damage Profile of the weapon, and let players keep track of their Heat on a scrap paper. Each section of the Armament Table covers a different Weapon type.

Lasers:

Small. Range = 5"/10" Damage = 2 blocks down. Heat = 1
Medium. Range = 10"/15" Damage = 3 blocks down. Heat = 2
Large. Range = 15"/20" Damage = 4 blocks down. Heat = 3

PPC:

Standard. Range = 20"/25" Damage = 4 blocks down. Heat = 4

Missiles:

Short 5. Range = 6"/12" Damage = 3 blocks wide, 1 block down in center of profile.
Short 10. Range = 6"/12" Damage = 4 blocks wide, 2 blocks spread in second line of profile.
Short 15. Range = 6"/12" Damage = 5 blocks wide, 3 blocks spread in second line of profile.
Short 20. Range = 6"/12" Damage = 6 blocks wide, 4 blocks spread in second line of profile.
Medium 5. Range = 12"/18" Damage = 3 blocks wide, 1 block spread in second line of profile.
Medium 10. Range = 12"/18" Damage = 4 blocks wide, 2 blocks blocks spread in second line of profile.
Medium 15. Range = 12"/18" Damage = 5 blocks wide, 3 blocks blocks spread in second line of profile.
Medium 20. Range = 12"/18" Damage = 6 blocks wide, 4 blocks blocks spread in second line of profile.
Long 5. Range = 18"/24" Damage = 3 blocks wide, 1 block down in center of profile.
Long 10. Range = 18"/24" Damage = 4 blocks wide, 2 blocks spread in second line of profile.
Long 15. Range = 18"/24" Damage = 5 blocks wide, 3 blocks spread in second line of profile.
Long 20. Range = 18"/24" Damage = 6 blocks wide, 4 blocks spread in second line of profile.

Machine Guns:

Small. Range = 4"/8" Damage = 4 single blocks with rolled hit locations.
Medium. Range = 6"/10" Damage = 5 single blocks with rolled hit locations.
Large. Range = 8"/12" Damage = 6 single blocks with rolled hit locations.

Auto Cannons:

AC5. Range = 10"/15" Damage = 4 double blocks with rolled hit locations.
AC10. Range = 10"/15" Damage = 5 double blocks with rolled hit locations.
AC15. Range = 10"/15" Damage = 6 double blocks with rolled hit locations.
AC20. Range = 10"/15" Damage = 7 double blocks with rolled hit locations.

Gauss Rifles:

Light. Range = 10"/15"
Standard. Range = 20"/ 25"
Heavy. Range = 25"/30"

Long – Tom(Rare, limit 3 shots):
Standard. Range = 40" Damage = 5 blocks wide, centered of hit location, 4 rows deep.

Melee Weapons:

Melee weapons simply up your Mech's class by one for use with the Standard Ram Table.
Example: a light mech with a melee weapon would roll as a Medium using the Ram Table. For Assault Mechs, simply treat them as Heavy Mechs and give a +2 to any effect on the Ram Table.

Infantry Weapons: All Infantry fire with a rating of a Small machine gun, or use a towed gun of any kind, restricted to Light Weapons.
Example: Short Range Missile, Small Laser, AC5, Light Gauss

Vehicle Weapons: Use the conversion chart!

Battle Armor: Use the chart, and treat every battle armor as Jump Infantry. Also treat every Battle Armor squad as a Light Mech for Ram purposes.

Weapon Variants!
Missle Variants:

Streak. Re-roll misses at -2 (No lock on Capability)
Artemis. Re-roll misses -1 (Lock on Accepted)
Clan (ER). Add 25% to range

Laser Variants:
Clan (ER). Add 25% to range
Pulse. Re-roll misses at -2. Add 1 Heat

PPC Variants:
Clan (ER). Add 25% to range
Capacitor. Penetrates an extra block. Add 1 Heat

Auto Cannons:
Clan (ER). Add 25% to range
LBX. Re-roll misses at -2. Add 1 Heat

SAMPLE MECH SHEET.

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So thanks for looking and let me know what you think if you bothered to read it all! Happy Gaming! I used Sarna.net for all Official Mech Stats.

EDIT: After reviewing my post I see that I stupidly left out the Heat Value of each weapon, I can add those in assuming people want them!

on a cursory glance it looks good. Not familiar with the rules you're using, and noticed no differentation between IS and CLAN weapons types, as well as specialist weapons like the LB and ULTRA cannons, PULSE and ER lasers, etc.

I'm not terribly upset with this. Battletech itself was an attempt to make a "general use" system for then-currently existing mecha from anime and scifi of the 70's/80's. Some "slice and dice" of it's… "oddities" is inevitable translating to ANY system (especially weapons ranges, armor values, and damage ratios)

At least YOU'RE moving the mechs into another mech game. I had players that wanted to play battletech in an RPG enviroment so I had to "GURPS" the things.

Battletech mechs somehow are 5-7 times the volume of a modern MBT, about the same weight, and simultaneously vastly more rugged and survivable due to "handwavium" armor that somehow can't be used in MBT's. I've invariably had to make the mechs FAR weaker relative to ground vehicles and infantry.

Don't even get me started on physical combat and "grappling"

I started looking at doing something like this myself, but once Alpha Strike came out, and seeing how fast that worked, I've gone fully over to that system. I like Mech Attack, but I'm having more fun with Alpha Strike.

@ TG. Yeah I had a decent time with Alpha Strike and I'm sure I'd like it more with more play, but it never passed the Sniff Test for the guys I game with, they just refused to try it. So I did this.

@ Big. Thanks for noticing the missing AC variant, can't believe I forgot Ultra. To answer your observation the lack of damage difference between IS and Clan is not used because in Mech Attack, the damage is in blocks and even changing all the dmagaes by 1 would make for a DRASTICALLY different dmg profile, so I settled with 25% range and -1 Heat for Clan Weapons. Pulse and ER(listed as Clan) is on there, at the bottom. Again, just didn't give them extra damage because it would muck up the balance of the game far too much, and opted for more range and less heat for Clan.

Anyway thanks for looking!

Nice work!

After a quick look, your stats look like they would work well. I do like Mech Attack as a semi-replacement for standard Battletech, but I wouldn't use it for large battles. To me that's where Alpha Strike would be better (I haven't played it yet though).

Based on your heat stats for the lasers, I drew up the following chart, using the standard 3025 weapons types/heat and coming up with the following ranges:

BT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
--------------------
MA 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4

Weaspon BT = MA
---------------
s laser 1 = 1
m laser 3 = 2
l laser 8 = 3
ppc 10 = 4

lrm 5 2 = 1
lrm 10 4 = 2
lrm 15 5 = 2
lrm 20 6 = 2

srm 2 2 = 1
srm 4 3 = 2
srm 6 4 = 2

ac/2 1 = 1
ac/5 1 = 1
ac/10 3 = 2
ac/20 7 = 3

mg 0 = 0

flamer 3 = 2

I'm still not quite convinced on using the same HC as what is in the rules, but I will start with them and we'll go from there. Some 'Mechs from the BT Universe had a crap-ton of freezers and others just ran hot. Judging from the standard 4 (L/M) or 5 (H/A), the MA 'Mechs are going to run very hot or there is going to be a lot of Medium Lasering going on…

I noticed that too but I left it as is because Heat is a huge aspect of MA. The HCs are very low for most Mechs in MA, so you have to switch up your guns or be conservative.

You can always add HV to Mechs if you feel it's too low. Also don't forget Pilot Skill. An Experienced Pilot (Veteran) would drop all those numbers by 2, making it much more manageable.

Also, for Mechs that do well running hot, you can always make them roll with a modifier on the Overheat Table so the effects are lessened.

I converted the rest of the Mechs we had (Chgowiz had given me some sheets) and played a game, we picked 300 ton limit. I had an Awesome, Hunchback (how can you not), Wyvern and Locust (of course) and got decimated. Sure some bad rolls didn't help but my biggest problem was the Awesome. Three PPC's are useless, I can move and fire one of them otherwise I take heat rolls, if I fire two them I am in real trouble, not moving next time at best, probably not firing and a real potential of doing nothing – fire all three suicide!

Discussing this afterwards we decided modification were required. The point of the Awesome is lots of long range firepower so we changed the PPC for long range medium lasers, range 20/25 HC 2. This gives you options and you can actually do serious damage without killing yourself. We haven't play tested this yet but will soon and let you know how it goes.

Posted elsewhere, but wanted to add it here:

Just wanted to revisit this post – my friends and I finally had the schedules align and sat down for playing Mech Attack with my Battletech conversions. What fun! We had the feel of each 'Mech (Locusts are still annoying survivors, Hunchbacks with that damn AC/20 still punched everyone's lights, Marauders and Warhammers overheated quickly when firing both PPCs and rolling 1s/2s still is bad…) and yet we got through 2 scenarios in less than 5 hours. One was 4x4 Lance combat, the second was a 2x2 "Take The Hill" scenario. That was the best part.

We all left thinking that Mech Attack will be our standard game, with saving Battletech for those rainy days when we want to spend a full 6 to 8 hours rolling the "Box of Death" d6s…

I have record sheets available for the conversions that I did for the 'Mech miniatures I do have. This is not the full 3025 catalog, but I have quite a number of them converted.