Rules preview: building your company

[lumpley]

Hello!

In MFØ, your company is made of two kinds of units: stations and mobile frames. The minimum and maximum number of units in your company depends on the scale of the battle you're playing and the number of players.

These are for full-scale battles:
2 players: 3 stations and 5-8 mobile frames.
3 players: 2 stations and 4-7 mobile frames.
4 players: 2 stations and 4-6 mobile frames.
Your company must also carry 3 1-shot rockets.

These are for skirmish-scale battles:
2 players: 2 stations and 3-5 mobile frames.
3 players: 2 stations and 3-5 mobile frames.
4 players: 2 stations and 2-4 mobile frames.
Your company must also carry 2 1-shot rockets.

It's not to your advantage to always just field the largest company you're allowed. See Rules preview: balance & victory for more about that.

For your stations, you can build anything that's stationary and valuable to defend or seize. A downed satellite, a drop ship, a cache of medical supplies, a research facility's data storage drives, a truck with a flat tire and a load of fresh peaches. Whatever.

A mobile frame is made of a frame and attached systems. A frame can carry at most 4 systems, and at most 2 systems of any given type, but is otherwise allowed to carry any mix of systems you want.

There are six types of systems:
Defensive systems: armor, a shield, camoflage, stealth composite surfacing, ECM.
Movement systems: jumpjets, wings, wheels.
Surveillance/communications systems: a radio, a targeting laser, spotlights, a rifle scope.
Hand-to-hand weapon systems: a shock baton, a combat knife, a repurposed jackhammer.
Direct fire weapon systems: an assault rifle, a grenade launcher, a flamethrower, a beam weapon.
Artillery range weapon systems: a mortar, a sniper rifle, a railgun.

Weapon ranges in MFØ are exclusive. You can't attack with a direct fire weapon when you're in hand-to-hand range, and you can't attack with an artillery range weapon when you're within direct fire range.

In play, a frame's systems give you the dice you roll in order to do things, but I'll get into that later. For now, this should be enough to get you all building game-legal companies.

Questions welcome!

-Vincent

[lumpley]

Oh, 1-shot rockets!

A 1-shot rocket can be any powerful single-use weapon, really, but usually they appear as rockets or grenades. A single mobile frame can carry up to 3 1-shot rockets, in addition to its systems. Every company has to have the same number of 1-shot rockets: 2 or 3, depending on the scale of the battle.

1-shot rockets work at direct fire range.

-Vincent

[Roger]

I know some games of this sort get pretty arcane with their terrain selection/placement rules.

Is 'terrain' also a de facto part of the company, or is it its own thing?



Cheers,
Roger

[lumpley]

Good question!

The rules for placing your company on the table are specific - not too arcane - but the rules for terrain aren't. Basically, you lay out the terrain first, and then everybody has to agree that the battlefield is okay before anybody starts placing units.

In play, terrain effects contribute but don't dominate tactics, so agreeing that the battlefield is fine is low-stakes and easy.

One thing to keep in the back of your mind is that if a piece of terrain is really bugging you, you can just open fire on it. It won't last long.

-Vincent

[MittenNinja]

Oh, 1-shot rockets!

A 1-shot rocket can be any powerful single-use weapon, really, but usually they appear as rockets or grenades. A single mobile frame can carry up to 3 1-shot rockets, in addition to its systems. Every company has to have the same number of 1-shot rockets: 2 or 3, depending on the scale of the battle.

1-shot rockets work at direct fire range.

-Vincent

So you can split up the SSRs among your frames or load them up all on one? I was wondering about that.

One other question: When you "double up" weapons of the same range and get the 2d6+d8. Do you lose those systems as a single system? or do you lose half of it first?

[lumpley]

Oh, when you take damage, a doubled-up weapon still counts as two systems, so you lose it by halves.

[Soren]

Just to throw a wrench into the mix: you can make 'harder' and 'softer' cover by varying the number of parts in it. A wall made out of 1x2 plates (dark red or brown is good if you want to make brick walls) is going to last a lot longer than one-piece aluminum sheeting or trees.

[Mantisking]

Just to throw a wrench into the mix: you can make 'harder' and 'softer' cover by varying the number of parts in it. A wall made out of 1x2 plates (dark red or brown is good if you want to make brick walls) is going to last a lot longer than one-piece aluminum sheeting or trees.

Those "trees" look awfully metallic.

[schoon]

I've got what I hope is an easy question:

It seems like most systems are represented by d6, except a few which use d8s.

How is this determined?

[Mantisking]

I've got what I hope is an easy question:

It seems like most systems are represented by d6, except a few which use d8s.

How is this determined?

If you double up a weapon at one range, you roll 2d6+1d8. If you have a mech without Ranged weapons you get a free d8 for Movement.

[benlehman]

Are there still free movement d8s for no ranged weapons in MFØ? If so, I'm definitely rolling with a mostly-melee squad (w/artillery support). If not, must reconsider...

yrs--
--Ben

[Forged]

Time for some math-craft and speculation:

Assumptions:
6 types of system
max 2 of a specific type
Choose up to 4 systems.

You have 164 different combinations of up to 4 systems with the above rules.
If you are only looking at fully loaded Frames with 4 systems, you have only 87 load outs.

For frame creation an interesting note:
A generic frame handling ANY 4 combination is fairly easy since: you only need 2 "types" of slot.
Slot A must be able to hold systems 1-5
Slot B must be able to hold systems 2-6
If you have 2 of Slot A and 2 of Slot B on your frame you can build any combo!


That was fun.

Edit:

With new knowledge on how weapons systems can be mixed there is now:

325 different system combinations of fully loaded frames!
only 5 frame combinations are NOT armed!

533 combinations if your frame can start with 4 or less systems
511 are armed 22 are not.

[MikeDamrat]

Are there still free movement d8s for no ranged weapons in MFØ? If so, I'm definitely rolling with a mostly-melee squad (w/artillery support). If not, must reconsider...

Yes, I believe the all-hand-to-hand green d8 rule is still in effect. He also mentioned something about melee doing more damage than other forms of attack, but didn't elaborate on what that meant.

[Mantisking]

Are there still free movement d8s for no ranged weapons in MFØ? If so, I'm definitely rolling with a mostly-melee squad (w/artillery support). If not, must reconsider...

Yup, it's still in effect.

[RevSylvanus]

I've heard it said that a frame with either no weapons and/or only h2h weapons gets a bonus 1Gd8 for movement. My question is, does an SSR count against this bonus?

[MittenNinja]

I've heard it said that a frame with either no weapons and/or only h2h weapons gets a bonus 1Gd8 for movement. My question is, does an SSR count against this bonus?

my understanding is yes it counts. but you can just launch the thing and then get a nice little speed boost. one guy I'm going to be putting together has three SSRs and h2h. it'll start the match by weakening enemy defenses ance then after those suckers are gone, close in for the kill.

[OrangeKNight]

I've heard it said that a frame with either no weapons and/or only h2h weapons gets a bonus 1Gd8 for movement. My question is, does an SSR count against this bonus?

my understanding is yes it counts. but you can just launch the thing and then get a nice little speed boost. one guy I'm going to be putting together has three SSRs and h2h. it'll start the match by weakening enemy defenses ance then after those suckers are gone, close in for the kill.

I was actually just thinking of the same thing for one of my Frames......I also really want to make a Goldion Hammer, gotta see if the needed parts come on Gold and Orange!

[MrWeasely]

ZOMG, you all have still not settled on a conversion formula between one-shot-rockets and regular attachments? Sheesh, just pick something!!

Heavy Rocket. 3d6. to-hit 9. 100lbs, 1 space. burst effect, $200. 1 shot.
Rocket Launcher 2d6, to-hit 8, 250lbs loaded, 2 spaces, burst effect $1350 loaded. 10 shots.

[Mantisking]

ZOMG, you all have still not settled on a conversion formula between one-shot-rockets and regular attachments? Sheesh, just pick something!!

Heavy Rocket. 3d6. to-hit 9. 100lbs, 1 space. burst effect, $200. 1 shot.
Rocket Launcher 2d6, to-hit 8, 250lbs loaded, 2 spaces, burst effect $1350 loaded. 10 shots.

That is a total Car Wars shout out.

[lumpley]

If you were to corner me, for house rule purposes, I'd say 4.

-Vincent