OT Battle-tech (was Re: DS: Walkers)

A bit heavier, but a VTOL with an AC/2 (longest reach in the game, bar 
none, before clan) could be built that was cheap, nigh untouchable by
most 
mechs (very very very few mounted ac/2's) and could have a movement rate

higher than all but the lightest of mechs...

*shrug*  They actually improved games where I was playing...  It was no 
long a slug-fest of the heaviest mechs you could get your hands on, but
a 
decent mixed arms game with vehicles, infantry, and light mechs being
used.

(If you're wondering)  Infantry do wonders on mechs (If they have cover 
and/or surprise), light mechs to cleanse infantry, vehicles (Atmospheric

fighters, and GEV's to take out the VTOL's, support craft for indirect 
fire), and light mechs to clean infantry and light vehicles (like the 
VTOL's and fighters).

The system could be really good, I could even have forgiven the 
hit-location monstrosity, if they hadn't brought the clan's into it.

At 04:41 PM 2/7/03 -0500, you wrote:
>I noticed the same thing.  Horribly easy to kill, but one could design
a VTOL
>with quite a bit of punch, lots of armor (for a VTOL) and more speed
than it
>would ever need...
>
>Basically, the VTOL hides on every turn he didn't have the initiative
or a
>"free shot" at an NME's back, when he did... zoom in and blast away,
zipping
>off at his earliest opportunity before the enemy could bring weapons to

>bear.
>It wasn't perfect, and it couldn't pull it off alone, but boy the
damage it
>could inflict with minimal risk to itself.
>
>Naturally, my gaming group banned VTOLs, citing that every game
occurred in
>"VTOL Hostile" atmospheres.  I didn't mind, as the game is supposed to
be
>about Mechs, and I didn't play B-Tech that much after the VTOL rules
came
>out.
>
>--Tim
>
>On Friday 07 February 2003 04:26 pm, Damond Walker wrote:
> > On 2/7/03 15:31, "Symon Cook" <Symon@ereshkigal.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > > Many years ago (pre Clan) I read a very interesting series of
Battletech
> > > design philosophy articles by a veteran player in a magazine. His
final
> > > article covered his discovery that a well designed force of GEV
could
> > > take out an equivalent or 'superior' force of mechs EVERY time. He
> > > apparently used to demonstrate this at clubs and cons. I was
amazed that
> > > actually Battletech had got something plausible.
> >
> >	The magical vehicle in the game was the VTOL.  It was possible
to
> > create a 5 ton vtol that cost next to nothing -- mounting a single
LRM-5
> > missle rack.
> >
> >	People didn't take them too often because, well, they were easy
to kill
> > -- but when massed together they cause some major damage.
> >
> > Damo
>
>--
>Flak Magnet (Tim)
>www.geocities.com/flakmagnet72