Revised Range Penalties

Ruling: We have revised the range penalties as follows:

Short +0 / Medium +1 / Long +2

Justification: Speed of play. We've been playing this game a long time, and if you're
trying to shoot a mech moving 65 kph at long range, and you've dared to run yourself -
good luck. Even the best pilots with 0 gunnery skill are looking at 42% chance to hit. If
you've got a gunnery of 3 and are running, you're missing north of 80% of the time
against a moving target at long range. Why is this a problem? Because it suffocates the
tactical elements of the game to the point where mechs need to be at short range (or
all standing still) to be effective. Even LRM boats are inclined to hold their fire until they
can waddle up to short range. The revised range penalties still have a meaningful
impact on the game, but that 0 gunnery mech (from the example above) is now going
to hit 72% of the time. More reasonable odds for an ace pilot slinging a PPC at a moving
target in open ground, right? We think so.

Cluster Rolls
Ruling: Instead of using the cluster hit table to determine the number of munitions
that strike a target, use the following rules: determine the number of clusters the
weapon produces (e.g. an LRM-5 has one, while an LRM-20 has four - this is because
LRMs are grouped into clusters of 5 missiles each as described in the rules). For each
cluster, roll a single die. A roll of 3+ will result in a cluster hit, a roll of 1 or 2 means the
cluster misses. If all of the clusters for a single attack miss, the weapon always does a
minimum of 2 damage. If a missile launcher is equipped with Artemis, the same rules
apply, except the player may reroll any 1s (once). A resulting 3+ will hit. If all of the
clusters miss on an Artemis-equipped launcher, the same minimum 2 damage applies.
These rules apply to other cluster weapons as well, like the LBX-10.
Example: A player declares that their CPLT-C1 Catapult is firing two LRM-15s. Assume
both weapons hit the target. The next step is for the player to determine how many
clusters hit from each launcher. Since LRMs are grouped into clusters of 5 damage, the
LRM-15 then has 3 clusters. The player rolls three dice for the first LRM-15, getting a 3,
5, and 1 - two clusters from the first launcher hit. Then the players roll another three
dice for the second LRM-15, getting a 1, 2, and 1. No clusters hit from the second
launcher, but it will still do a 2 point damage cluster as part of the minimum damage
rule. A total of two 5-point clusters and one 2-point cluster are applied to the target.
Note the player would not want to roll all six dice at once, since the minimum damage
rule can only be assessed per weapon.
Justification: Speed of play. It's an amazing thing - and almost hard to believe - that
the math in terms of average damage works out almost identically to the cluster hits
table (which gives most players a migraine every time they have to reference it). In
that regard, there is negligible impact to weapon effectiveness, but a massive gain in
speed of play. What's not to love? The charts below capture the average damage for an
LRM-20 and SRM-4 in four different scenarios: RAW (using the cluster hit table
normally), RAW with Artemis FCS (adding the bonus to the cluster hit table normally),
this House Rule (cluster hits on 3+, minimum damage of 2), and this House Rule w/
Artemis (cluster hits on 3+, reroll 1s, minimum 2 damage). The damage, by target
number, is remarkably close between the RAW cluster hits table versus the house rule.
The greatest variance across all weapons is the LRM-5: less than 1 point of damage at
TN 3+. Pretty close to perfect for the amount of time saved with this simple rule.

Group Fire
Ruling: When rolling to hit, players roll a d6 that represents their "pilot" die, and
another d6 for each weapon being fired. The pilot die is then added to each of the
individual weapon die to determine a hit or a miss. Various size and color dice are used
to represent different types of weapons (we have a chart for that later). When rolling for
location, players follow the same pattern rolling a d6 to represent their "pilot" die, and
another d6 for each weapon that hit the target. The pilot die is added to each individual
weapon die to determine location.
Example: A ZEU-6T Zeus (Gunnery: 2) is firing its PPC, LLas, and a MLas at a target.
Assume the target is 12" away in open ground, has a +2 target modifier, and the Zeus
walked. The PPC is at medium range (+1 TN with the revised penalties), the LLas is at
long range (+2 TN) and the MLas is at extreme range (+3 TN). The target numbers
would end up being 6+ for the PPC, 7+ for the LLas, and 8+ for the MLas.
The Zeus player picks up one yellow die to represent his pilot die. He also picks up one
large blue die for the PPC, one large red die for the LLas, and one medium red die for
the MLas, and rolls them all at once. The player rolls 5 on the pilot dice, and a 2, 6, 2
respectively for the PPC, LLas, and MLas. Adding the pilot die to each of the weapon
dice, the player gets totals of 7 for the PPC, 11 for the LLas, and 7 for the MLas. The
PPC and LLas hit, but the MLas misses.

Next, the player rolls to determine location for the weapons that hit. The player then rolls one yellow
die for his pilot die, one blue die for the PPC, and one red die for the LLas. The player gets a 4 on the
pilot die, 4 on the PPC die, and 2 on the LLas die. Adding the pilot die to each of the weapon dice, the
player gets totals of 8 for the PPC (left torso) and 6 for LLas (right torso).

Always Round Up
Ruling: When playing without a hex grid, ranges can get confusing - especially when
some of the RAW in Strategic Operations tell us to round up (like when measuring
range), but to also round down (calculating minimum range). What about shooting
through a half-inch of forest? Or moving through 1.5" of rubble? Or physical attacks? At
DFA, we simple use the "round up" rule when it comes to measuring distance.
Clarification: Physical attacks on a hexless 3D map are considered to have a range of
1". Charges and Death from Above attacks must end with bases overlapping (i.e. "in the
same hex"), as the rules describe.

Partial Cover
Reference: Strategic Operations pg. 393
Modification: There is no modifier to gunnery for a target being in cover. Instead, if a
location (e.g. right arm) is more than 50% hidden and that location is rolled on the to-
hit chart, the shot misses (hitting the cover instead).
Justification: The stacking penalty for shooting targets in cover is debilitating. Under
RAW - assume that the target's right arm is in cover and you have a TN of 7+ (58.3%
base chance to hit). The +1 penalty reduces the chance to hit by 16.7%. If you hit,
there is an additional 13.9% chance of striking the right arm and dealing no damage.
This reduces your total chance of hitting and dealing damage to 35.9% - overall, the
shot is roughly 22% less likely to hit the target just because one arm was in partial
cover! With the house-ruled revision, the chance to hit and deal damage is 50.2%,
reducing the likelihood to hit by a more reasonable 8.1%.

Default Forest Height

Clarification: Our "default" forest is level 3. In BattleTech, each level is roughly 5
meters (about 16.5 feet). The rules recommend treating forests as level 2 terrain (33
foot tall trees seems reasonable), but google says the average tree height is anywhere
between 40-70 feet. We decided that level 3 (roughly 50 feet) was a good compromise,
requiring at least a level 2 hill or building for a mech to be able to see over the forest.

Dice Reference Guide

Clarification: Since group fire allows players to roll all their weapons at once (i.e. a
fist-full of dice), it's important to distinguish one weapon from another. At DFA, we use
different size and color dice to accomplish this. The sizes we use are 19mm, 16mm,
12mm, 8mm. Red dice represent lasers, white dice stand in for ballistics, black dice
account for missiles, and blue dice constitute PPCs. The larger the die, the more
powerful the weapon - for example, an AC/2 would be an 8mm white dice, and an AC/20
would be the massive 19mm white dice. You can choose to use any colors or sizes that
make sense to you, and more importantly, that you have available. With the
introduction of 3050+ tech, you can use translucent dice or additional colors to
represent tech like extended range or pulse weapons, or special modifiers like damaged
arm actuators. The infographic below illustrates how we typically assign dice to
weapons: