Parts of this file are extracted from the Headquarters manual.

Copyright (C) 1997 Andreas Smigielski

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation.

Headquarters
************

This chapter documents the use of the Headquarters program, versions 2.045 and later. Parts of it are extracted from the Headquarters manual.

Requirements
************

Headquarters 2.045 runs with V37+ of the operating system, and should run on any Amiga with at least 512K of memory.

In order to print the documentation on a printer you need TeX, the typesetting language developed by Donald E. Knuth. Try PasTeX the public domain version of TeX.

In order to view the AmigaGuide(R) files, you need the AmigaGuide(R) or MultiView(R) programm.

In order to install Headquarters, you need the Installer(R) programm.

Distribution
************

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Headquarters © Copyright 1989-1997 Andreas Smigielski. All Rights Reserved.

AmigaGuide, MultiWiew, Installer © Copyright 1991-93 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MechForce and BattleTech © Copyright 1985-1997 © FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

About this Software
*******************

This software is similar to BATTLETECH ® A Game of Armored Combat.

"Strap yourself into the ultimate suit of armor -- the BattleMech: thirty feet tall and weighing up to a hundred tons. This humanoid engine of destruction you control is a walking arsenal with enough firepower to level a city. The BattleTech game system takes you into the world of the 31st century, where war has become a way of life, and great empires and tiny factions struggle among themselves for control of humankind."

A Brief History of the BattleTech Universe.

In the years immediately following the second World War, the Virtual Geographic League (TM) gradually began to re-emerge as an active scientific institution. Many of the leading atomic scientists and engineers of the day recoiled in horror at the weapons of mass destruction that they helped to create. The VGL offered a much-needed home to those seeking peaceful applications for these powerful new technologies.

One of these men was George Markov, J. Robert Oppenheimer's chief lieutenant on the Manhattan Project and the man principally responsible for the engineering breakthrough which turned Einstein's theories into reality. Due to his impassioned pacifist speeches to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Markov was essentially unemployable when Einstein invited him to lecture at Princeton in 1949. Within six months, he was running VGL Labs and sending unmanned camera ships on split-second reconnaissance missions.

At the same time on the other side of the world, a young jet-jockey named Sid Mandlebaum was making a name for himself in the skies over Korea. There was more to this pilot than an unusual name -- he was the first Jewish graduate of West Point, a military man by trade, and he shot down six MIGs in a single 1952 mission. He was also the youngest colonel in the armed services when Lindbergh recruited him into the VGL in 1959. Mandlebaum gave the name "BattleTech" to the futuristic technology he saw in the Unv.-137 camera pod photos. During this time Einstein and Markov were able to discover a consistent link to dozens of human colonies in space some two thousand years into the future, emboldening the League to chance new manned missions. On his third mission Mandlebaum became the first VGL pilot to exit his vehicle while in a virtual world. On his fourteenth mission, he disappeared.

When a VGL reconnaissance team finally found Mandlebaum a decade later he had gone completely native, having embarked on a new life as an elite Master MechWarrior. While he refused to return to our world, he did provide numerous technical documents he had been collecting along with a book he authored: Inside the BattleTech Universe. These technical manuals have enabled the VGL and its pilots to achieve safe and consistent translocations into any one of the dozens of Inner Sphere BattleMechs (TM). Our gratitude to him is immeasurable and his deeds will live long in the storied history of the VGL. Sid's only request to the Board of Directors was that we look after his family here on Earth - a duty we do proudly.

How to Install
**************

Run the Installer ® script for propper installation. If you have MCP v1.21 you can skip the installation of the libraries and fonts by leaving them in the $PROGDIR directory.

If you wish to install Headquarers manualy, then place all the files from the Headquarters Lha archive in the same directory and install the libs and fonts in a place the programm can find them.

The Unit Window
***************

The main window you see is the Units window. Units come in different flavors. There are Player Units which can only have Player characters in them, and NPC Units which can have both Player and NPC characters. Units have a fixed number of Warriors, either 4, 8, 12, 24 or 36. Player Units can have up to 50 Warrior, Technician and Mech files. NPC Units don't change. The best way to play the game is to start in a good NPC Unit until you gain a little experience. Then you can branch out and form your own player Unit.

In addition to player vs NPC Unit, there are also Mercenary vs House Units. A Mercenary Unit sells it services to a House, under a contract. It must fulfill its contract before it changes employer or lose reputation. A Mercenary Unit that does not have a contract has no way to get more money from repairs other than through combat. The contract will specify how much the Unit will be paid per combat point, how many combat points the Unit must earn to complete it contract, what percentage of the combat damage the House will pay and what percentage of the Salvage the Unit may keep. Mercenary Units must find their own replacements for lost mechs. A House Unit is given everything, all repairs, replacement mechs, etc. In exchange a House Unit can never change employer, warriors are paid a straight salary, and they do not collect salvage.

To form a Unit, use the pulldown menu and select "New...". In the upcomming window you must at least enter a name for the new Unit. If you do not specify a Warrior as the leader for a Unit, the Unit will have no C-Bills at all. Once the Unit is formed new characters must 'Join' the Unit, and a roll is required for acceptance. Make sure to setup the contracts for the Unit and its individual warriors before you start adding members. Make sure you name the Unit before you try to get a contract. Player Units and NPC Units will be allowed to set the starting size of the Unit and its reputation.

Whenever you load a Unit all Destroyed mechs will be removed.

In a listview selector you will see a list of all warriors, mechs and technicians. Sometimes you will see a '*' behind characters and Mechs names. This will show you that a character and its Mech are out on patrol and are currently not available. A '#' behind characters and Mechs names will indicate that a character has been injured or a Mech has been damaged. If one of the characters has died then a '+' will apear behind the name of that character.

You can change the Unit Name by clicking in the name gadget.

"Add Character" allows you to add members to the Unit to replace lost characters. "Remove Character" allows you to remove a member of the Unit. The person removed will be saved to disk as an individual character and can be used somewhere else or deleted.

"Remove Character" allows you to remove no longer needed characters from a Unit. They will be saved in the Characters directory and can be reused later. Characters that are using a Mech will be removed with the Mech they are assigned to.

"Buy new Mech" allows you to buy new Mechs for the Unit. Characters can change to that Mech. Another way to get Mechs is to salvage them after a won combat.

"Unit Stores" allows you to buy replacement parts for your mechs. The purpose is to provide a system for campaignes. You can buy Units stores for a campaign and then worry about running out of the parts you need to keep your mechs in working condition.

Unit Affiliation/Fee
********************

You can change the Unit Affiliation or Contract, but if the Unit is a House Unit or have not completed the original contract you will lower the Unit reputation and lose some C-Bills. The Unit reputation affects the kind of contract you can get. It is based on you win/loss ratio and the rank of the characters and is checked every time you load the Unit into Headquarters.

You will get better contracts the better the Unit reputation is.

About Headquarters
******************

This will give you information about the programmer of Headquarters and the date the v2.045 version has been assembled for you see Author Info.

The Warrior Window
******************

The Warrior allows you to make Warrior, Technician, etc. characters, and save them into the "Characters" directory. Warriors are a combination of a character and a mech. There are two types of characters. Player character and Non-Player character (NPC). And several character classes. The Mech Warrior is the standard character used for piloting a Mech. Technicains can not pilot a Mech and gain experience points only by repairing Mechs and slavaging Mech parts. Doctors are used for healing characters.

Player Characters
*****************

Player characters, Warriors, Technicians, etc. roll for their starting character points and start off as zero level, or green characters.

Character points are used to 'buy' abilities and skills for your character. Later, you will be able to exchange experience for more character points to further improve your character. The number of character points will vary randomly. You can try as often as you want, but if you are playing in a group you should establish ground rules. Around here we allow a person two chances at a character.

Once you have a character created you can use the initial character points to upgrade character attributes and skills.

"Body" is the amount of damage the character can take. You character hit points is ten times your Body. Body affects your physical skills such as Brawling and Survival. "Dexterity" is how well you move, yours sense of balance and your eye hand coordination. It affects your weapons abilities and piloting abilities. "Learn" is how easily you can pick up technical skills, such as piloting, leadership and mech repair. Learn also determines how many skills your character can 'learn'. You are allowed one skill for each point of Learn and you allowed four skill levels for each point of Learn. "Charisma" is how other people see you, physically and personality. This attribute affects your ability to deal with other people, such as leadership. For a pilot Dexterity and Learn are the most important since they determine you piloting skill and gunnery skill. For a technician Learn is the most important since in determines your ability to repair mechs.

NPC Characters
**************

NPC characters are just like Player characters except you can make them any level you want. On the other hand they are FIXED characters. They do not go up in level and can never be changed after they are created.

Healing Characters
******************

A injured character can be healed. The higher the Rank of the character the higher the amount of C-Bills you need for healing.

If your character is Dead, held Hostage or out in a combat somewhere a requester will inform you. If your character is out you will be asked if you want to bring him home. It cost 5000 C-Bills to bring a character back and will be counted as a lose combat. You should be careful doing it. If your character is in a Saved Game somewhere and you bring him back, later, when you finish the game, your old character will overwrite anything you do to the one that you brought back. The idea is not to have two copies of your character running around.

Training Characters
*******************

Characters can be trained if they have enough character points. To earn character points you must convert available experience points earned in combat. Every character can be trained in all skills. The maximal skill level for all skills depends on Learn Ability.

Advance to next level
*********************

If a character has enough experience points he can advance to the next Rank. This will give him additional character points that can be used for buying skills. There are 4 Ranks and several Elite levels.

Ranking and experience points needed:

  * Green   -        0-2500 experience points;

  * Regular -    2500-15000 experience points;

  * Veteran -  15000-100000 experience points;

  * Elite   - 100000-300000 experience points;

  * Elite 1 - 300000-400000 experience points;

  * Next Elite Rank     +100000 experience points;

The only Update available for NPC characters is to change Units or, if he has lost a mech, to get a new mech.

Upegrade Character Attributes
*****************************

Tere are 4 character Attributes: Body, Dexterity, Learn Ability and Charisma. They describe the personality of a character. Every attribute will give a character special abilities. There are 12 levels in each Attribute. Body is needed to survive and affects the hit points of a character. Dexterity will give a character the ability to act better as a Technician. Learn Ability affects the maximum skill level allowed for all character skills. Charisma allows a character to act better as a Mech Warrior. These attributes will be randomize when creating a new character and will give your characters it's special personality.

Upgrade Character Skills
************************

There are 24 skills in that a character can be trained. Each skill has 12 levels. To upgrade a skill the character needs character points.

A Mech Warrior will buy all Gunnery, Mech and Piloting skills first. A Technician will need also everything that has to do with repairing Mechs and tuning engines and weapons. Leaders of a Unit must be trained in combat Tactics and Leadership too. Consider well which skills your character will need first and save charcter points for these skills.

Convert Experience Points
*************************

The available experience points are the experience points you have earned in combat. These experience points are also used in combat for modifying weapons and skill rolls. You can convert this experience points to character points which you need to buy skills. It is adviced to have some experience points left for modifying weapons and skill rolls when they are needed.

Change Mech
***********

All characters can be assigned to a Mech. If a Unit owns more Mechs then currently assigned, a character can change to one of these Mechs.

Buy Xtended Mech
****************

Characters with lots of C-Bills can buy one of 9 special designed Mechs contained in Headquarters. This Mechs are exclusively contained in Headquarters. Some of this Mechs are also contained on disk but are not as powerful these. A lot of them can't be modified further more. Every Mech has its own special power.

The Factory Window
******************

In the Factory window the design of your combat Mech is entirely up to you. Its design should be a compromise between weight, speed, armor and weapons. In addition, the Factory can be used to repair damaged mechs and to Salvage badly damaged mechs. It is adviced to use Technicains in the Factory, they can earn some experience points here.

The main Factory window will display the current mech in three areas. The top left area lists all the armor for the mech, the point value of its internal structure and where all the internal components are located. Each dot or letter represents one internal location. This is where your W)eapons, A)mmo and H)eat Sinks will be installed. It also shows your where your E)ngine and G)yro are located in the center torso. J)ump J)ets and F)uel are located in the side torsos. The head contains the C)ockpit for the pilot, L)ife support systems and weapon S)ensors. An "x" indicates an arm or leg actuator and a "." indicates an empty location.

  * W - Weapon;

  * A - Ammo;

  * H - Heat Sink;

  * P - Power Jump;

  * F - Full Jump;

  * E - Engine;

  * G - Gyro;

  * L - Life Support;

  * C - Cockpit;

  * S - Sensor;

The bottom area lists all weapons selected for your mech along with statistics for the weapons. The first two letters indicate where the weapon is mounted (if its mounted). So HD would be head, CT, center torso, etc. If there is an "*" in front of the name that indicates the the weapon is mounted to fire backwards. After that you will see the weapon name, the amount of ammo available for that weapon, damage produced when it hits a target, heat produced when firing this weapon and the maximum and minimum range, if any, for a weapon. If a weapon needs no ammo, as Lasers do, you will not see the ammo available for that weapon.

If something has been damaged you will see a '-' in the Mech structure and a '--' in the weapon list.

Sometimes you will notice that some mech-parts have changed its colors. The color stands for:

  * Black  - Good condition

  * Yellow - Warning on condition

  * Red    - Danger on condition

Any damaged areas will appear in Red.

In the upper right corner of the window you will see the combat classification information about your mech. You can use it as a relative measure of the strength of a mech. The size of a Mech is a indicator for the weight in tons of a Mech and it special class. The engine size describes the power the fusion engine has. Weapon Capability is the maximum damage produced on an opponent when firing all the weapons this Mech has at once. Melee Capability describes the capability this Mech has in hand to hand combat. Defense Capability tells you how many armour this Mech has and how long a Warrior can defend himself when he is under attack. Finally cost describes the amount of C-Bills needed when buying such a Mech.

Repair Mech
***********

Normally a Technicain is used to repair Mechs, but also other characters are able to repair a Mech if they have been trained in technicain skills. A repair roll is performed everytime one of your characters is trying to repair a Mech. The computer will check with your technician to see if the item is repairable. If it is not repairable you will have take a replacement part out of Unit Stores or, if you are using a Warrior, buy a new part. Replacement is guaranteed to work, but cost 10 times as much as repair. Repair is a lot cheaper than replacement, but it may not work the first time. You can try to repair as often as you want as long as you don't damage the part beyond repair. Depending on how good your technician is, there is a small chance that a repaired item may fail during combat. The Technician gets experience for each successful repair. For Units the cost to repair and re-arm your mech may be paid in part or in full by your employer, depending on you Unit contract.

Re-arm Weapon
*************

"Reload" checks the current mech and replaces all ammo used in combat. It is an all or nothing item. You can't partially reload ammo. For Unit, the correct ammo must be available in Unit Stores.

Mount Weapon
************

"Mount" allows you to arm your combat Mech. You will see a list of all weapons available along with their weight, damage, heat generated and ammo rounds/ton. Add a weapon by clicking on the weapon. Select the mount area for the weapona and the mount area for the ammo, if any.

To mount a weapon in the back direction, hold down the right mouse button and select the mount area in the appropriate menu by clicking with the left mouse button.

The mounted location is shown in the listview before the name. An asterick '*' indicates that the weapon is pointed backward.

Remove Weapon
*************

"Remove" will remove a weapon from your weapons list and unmount it if necessary.

Modify Weapon
*************

With "Modify" you can change the ammo, the damage and the heat produced if a weapon is fired, the minimal and maximal range and the critical hit for a weapon. You must select a weapon in the listview for doing this.

New Mech Creation
*****************

Select "New..." from the menuand a 20 Ton Mech will be created. This Mech will have neither weapons nor body armour. Creating new Mechs is almost free, if you are a Mercenary or House Unit. Otherwise you have to supply all the internal components in the Unit Stores.

You can modify this mech to your hearts content. You can not modify Armor, Heat Sinks or Jump Jets that are damaged. As a general rule everything should be repaired before you modify. If you modify a damaged mech your total weight may be too heavy when you finally repair the damage.

In fact if your actual weight goes more than five tons over your frame weight, your frame weight will be automatically increased by five tons. You can have a mech with a little extra weight. These tend to be a little unstable in combat with better piloting skill needed to control them on occasion.

The "Image" of the Mech should be changed. You can select the image your mech will use during the game by clicking on the image you want. The image you selected will appear in the main window.

Once you have your weight the next thing you should get is the "Engine". There are only certain engines available. The engine power determines the speed of your mech. The speed of a mech is the time, in seconds, that a mech will take to move one plain hex. The other pair of numbers tells you how many plain hexes you can walk or run in 100 seconds.

"Jump Jets" allow your mech to jump into the air. This is a BIG advantage in combat at close range. How far you can jump is determined by how far you can walk. You can jump the same number of hexes that you walk in 100 seconds. The number for jump is the number of hexes under perfect conditions. It gets less for heat and damage.

"Heat Sinks" get rid of the heat your mech generates. Heat is your worse enemy. All mechs have 12 heat sinks as part of the engine and you can add more. You can "Change" and "Install" the number of heat sinks you want, but only the amount of free spares "." is allowed. This is done automatically for you. To remove a heat sink just move the slider in the other direction.

"Armor" is critical to your mech. It protects your delicate weapons and other internal components from damage. The armor menu item has 11 slider gadgets, one for each armor location. There is a maximum amount of armor allowed for the head. One ton of armor gives 16 pts of protection.

"Hands" is an optional item. You can remove the hand and wrist actuators. This will give you two extra spaces in the arms for weapons, but you will not be able to pick up anything with that arm.

Make sure you give your combat Mech a name and make sure you Save it before you Quit. It will be saved with the mechs name plus its weight. There are currently 8 Mech classes contained in the Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault and Xtended directories. You will be given a warning if you have forgotten to mount any of your weapons.

Damaging Mechs
**************

Why would you want to deliberately damage a mech? There are two reasons. First of all, you might want to create a scenario in which a Unit has received combat damage and has not had time for repair or only partial repair. Secondly, you might have been sabataged. This would leave your mech in faulty condition, but not failed. You can't repair sabatage until it fails. You CAN deliberately damage the weak part and then repair it.

Make sure you save your Warrior or Unit file after you have made your repairs.

Mech Salvage
************

"Salvage Mech" strips a Mech down to its component parts and gives the Unit or Warrior C-Bills in return, see your contract for salvage rights. It is designed to get rid of mechs that have been too badly damaged in combat to be worth repairing. This is the main way to get rid of a mech so that the warrior can try for a new mech. It is also the main way to get rid of extra mechs captured in combat.

Modify Engine Size
******************

Engines will give Mechs its power to run and walk quickly in the terrain. Heavy Mechs with small engines will be slightly slow. Light Mechs with big engines will be rather fast. When modifying engines the weight will change with the power of the engine. Engines with power greater than 390 will weight over 50 tons. Due to the fact, the size of a Mech will change with the engine size. If you notice that the size of the fusion engine will not be enough to speed up your Mech than you need to modify the engine speed.

Modify Engine Speed
*******************

If a Mech is to slow when running and walking in the terrain than here you can enhance the engine to be more efficient. The maximum speed you can achieve in this way will differ from the size of the engine and the size of a Mech. Light Mechs will get less modify advantage then heavy and very slow Mechs.

Modify Jump Jets
****************

Jump Jets are the most powerful add ones for every Mech. They will allow a Mech to jump in the air and jump over hills, forests and deep water. Jump Jets will be used to scout for enemy Mechs and objects hidden in the terrain. When the enemy has been hidden behind a mountain or in deep forests you can use your Jump Jets to scout and destroy them. But the use of Jump Jets will make you a easy target for the enemy. Jump Jets needs free room to be mounted to a Mech. If your Mech has no free spares available in its Mech structure no Jump Jets can be added.

Modify Heat Sinks
*****************

Everything in a Mech produces heat. Heat will be produced by the weapons you are carrying, when running or walking or form a damaged engine. Fire in the forests and explosions in the surroundings of a Mech will also produce heat. For all this reasons your Mech needs extra Heat Sinks. As the Jump Jets Heat Sinks will need spare room in your Mech structure when adding one.

Modify Body Armour
******************

Body armour will protect a Mech from enemy attack. A Mech with no body armour will be soon destroyed. Most important part of a Mech that needs to be protected is the head of a Mech. The head of a Mech is the place where the Mech Warrior will sit in his cockpit and control every part of a Mech. Add here all you can get of armour. There are weapons which will blast your head (and the warrior in it) away with only one shot so watch out. Internal structures are another type of armour. They are not as effective as body armour since the weapons, ammo, Heat Sinks, Power Jumps, engine and gyros are unprotected, but they will simply hold the Mech parts together. Internal structures will change with the size of a Mech. Heavy Mechs have more internal structures than light Mechs. In the menu click the left mouse button to add a armour part or hold down the Right mouse button and click with the left mouse button to remove a body armour part.

Preferences
***********

The Headquarters and MechForce Programms share a config file called "MechForce.cfg". They will look for it in the "$PROGDIR" directory. It works like the old config file except it has new options and can't be easily edited with a text editor. The Preferences window has several string gadgets for all the necessary file paths. In addition to the file paths you can specify the recycle time for ALL weapons. A negative number "-1" will give you the current (preferred) defaults. You can toggle on and off "Aimed Shots". This will reduce the number of head shots during the game. You can specify the delay time for messages and the speed of missiles. You can specify the color for each side. That means ANY color, but only RED and BLACK work well (but try it for yourself). You can disable the save at the end of the game. This turns ALL combat modes into training/simulation.

If you turn saborage on, then Headquarters starts to sabotage every Mech that you load or modify in Headquarters. Sabotage may now occur during combat missions and patrol. The basic sabotage that is always done is sabotaging internal structures. It may occur when a character is asked to perform a skill roll depending on the condition occured in combat, like kicking and punching. If succesfull no dammage will occur. Other sabotage is on weapon. Here the character must perform a skill roll everytime the sabotaged weapon is fired. If successfull no damage will occur.

If you select the 'Save Unit' option, Headquarters will save the current Unit to disk if you exit from the programm.

Frequently Asked Questions
**************************

The answers to the Frequently Asked Questions are based on the most current BattleTech rules as found in the BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare, Third Printing (softcover). Each question appears under the name of the chapter containing the information most closely related to the answer.

PLAYING THE GAME

Initiative

Q: Can a player end up moving more than one unit after his opponent has finished moving all his units?

A: Yes. When one side outnumbers the other, the player with more units will end up moving MORE than one unit last if he wins Initiative.

MOVEMENT

Falling

Q: Do I have to add in all the standard modifiers when making a Piloting Skill Roll to avoid damage to my pilot when falling?

A: Yes. It is a Piloting Skill Roll, and so all normal modifiers apply.

Skidding

Q: Can a unit, after having skidded, continue its normal movement if it has MP remaining?

A: No. A skid ends the unit's movement for the phase, even if it has MP remaining.

Q: If my 'Mech has fallen and is skidding and it runs into a building or mountain before it stops, do I take some type of charging damage?

A: No. The building or mountain would stop your skid, regardless of the height of either obstacle or the construction factor of the building. However, a building would receive damage from the skidding 'Mech per the normal Charging rules.

COMBAT

Critical Damage

Q: Does an Inner Sphere 'Mech with an XL engine have its engine destroyed if it loses all the internal structure of either its right or left torso? What about if it has an ammo explosion in one of those locations and it has CASE?

A: Yes. Regardless of where an engine receives its 3 hits-in the right, center or left torso-if an engine receives 3 critical hits it is destroyed.

Firing Weapons

Q: If one of my 'Mech's arms is destroyed, can I prop up my prone 'Mech with the other arm and fire my torso-mounted weapons?

A: No. A 'Mech must have both of its arms intact in order to fire while prone. While prone, it can fire into its normal arcs, but cannot torso twist.

Heat

Q: What happens when my 'Mech shuts down?

A: When a 'Mech shuts down, it cannot move or torso twist. In addition, all of its systems, including weapons and all electronics-C3 Slave or Master, ECM, etc.-are inoperative until the 'Mech restarts.

Line of Sight

Q: If my unit is firing on another unit that has partial cover but I am an elevation level higher than him, does he still have partial cover?

A: No. No unit can have partial cover from an attacking unit that is at a higher elevation level.

Q: If a 'Mech on Level 0 terrain is prone and adjacent to a Level 1 hill, is the 'Mech in a dead zone?

A: Yes. Only a STANDING 'Mech adds 1 to its elevation for LOS; prone 'Mechs do not.

PHYSICAL ATTACKS

Q: Can more than one unit make a Charge or Death From Above attack against the same enemy unit in the same turn?

A: No. Once a unit has declared a Charge or Death From Above attack on another unit, no other unit may declare an additional Charge or Death From Above attack on that unit.

Q: Does a Club or Hatchet attack hit on the BattleMech Punch Location Table?

A: No. Use the BattleMech Hit Location Table to determine the hit location of a Club or Hatchet attack. However, Club and Hatchet attacks are subject to the Different Elevation rules, as usual.

Q: If I charge or push a BattleMech that, when displaced, would move into an adjacent hex that is more than 3 elevation levels higher, would it still move there?

A: No. A unit subject to a Push, Charge or Death From Above attack will always be displaced unless the rules prevent that displacement, for example, a BattleMech unit changing more than 3 elevation levels up. In such situations, neither unit would move. If the attack is a Charge or Death From Above, only the normal damage for that type of attack would be assigned. No additional damage would occur. Note that a unit CAN be pushed DOWN more elevations than the rules allow for legal movement-which would result in an accidental fall.

Q: If I announce a Charging or Death From Above attack against a prone target, do I receive the -2 to-hit modifier for being adjacent to a prone target?

A: Yes. Although you start your attack in the Movement Phase, at the beginning of the Physical Attack Phase when you actually make the to-hit roll, you are adjacent to the target.

Q: My BattleMech was designed with no hand or lower arm actuators (for example, the OBK-M10 O-Bakemono). Do I still receive the negative modifiers for the to-hit roll and when doing damage in a Punching attack?

A: Yes. However, the 'Mech suffers no penalty to Weapon attacks from those arms.

VEHICLES

Q: What happens when a "critical" result is rolled on a Vehicle Hit Location Table?

A: Like the critical result on the BattleMech Hit Location Table, this provides a chance for one or more critical hits. Roll on the Determining Critical Hits Table. If any critical hits are scored, determine their effects on the appropriate Vehicle Critical Hit Table.

INFANTRY

Q: Can battle armor units enter water of Depth 1 or deeper?

A: No. Battle armor units must follow the same rules as other infantry regarding movement and terrain restrictions, except as specifically noted in the rules.

Q: When infantry-standard or power armor-dismounts at the end of the Movement Phase, will they receive the movement modifier for the number of hexes that the carrying unit moved when resolving fire?

A: No.

Q: Do battle armor units take damage from flamers and fire?

A: Yes. Although some of the BattleTech fiction indicates that battle armor units are immune to fire, the actual game rules do not protect them.

Q: My Point of elementals enters a mined hex and it explodes. Does each elemental take the damage or does the unit as a whole take the damage?

A: The elementals as a unit (Point) take the damage.

CONSTRUCTION

Q: Can I mount two engines in a BattleMech or vehicle?

A: No.

Q: Can I design a BattleMech with a heavier chassis (Internal Structure) than is required? For example, I am designing a 55-ton 'Mech and wish to add a 6-ton chassis.

A: No.

Q: When constructing a 'Mech, can I allocate Triple Strength Myomer anywhere on the 'Mech and split the criticals up between different locations?

A: Yes.

Q: When constructing a 'Mech, can I allocate MASC anywhere on the 'Mech and split the criticals up between different locations?

A: MASC can be allocated anywhere on the 'Mech, but the criticals cannot be split up between locations.

EQUIPMENT

Q: Can an anti-missile system be used against an Arrow IV homing missile?

A: No. Despite its name, the Arrow IV is an artillery weapon, not a missile weapon. An anti-missile system is only effective against missile weapons. The missile category is listed on the Weapons and Equipment Table, and includes LRMs, SRMs, Streak SRMs, and Narc Missile Beacons.

Q: When constructing a Clan 'Mech with a targeting computer, do all eligible direct-fire weapons have to be tied to the targeting computer?

A: Yes. Note that Machine Guns are not eligible weapons; only Lasers, PPCs, Gauss rifles and Autocannons.

Q: What happens when a MASC critical location on a 'Mech is hit?

A: Per the normal rules for equipment, regardless of the number of critical spaces MASC occupies, the first critical hit destroys the MASC.

Q: If I have an AMS and my opponent fires multiple missile packs at my 'Mech, can I choose which one to try and shoot down? What if I have multiple AMS?

A: No. Whichever missile pack your opponent declares first-even if you have multiple AMS-all your AMS will fire upon it.

Q: If my 'Mech has a Gauss rifle that explodes in a location containing CASE, would the CASE protect the 'Mech from further damage just like in an ammo explosion?

A: Yes. Note the pilot also takes 2 points of damage, just like in an ammo explosion.

Q: I have two 'Mechs linked by a C3 computer system. One of my 'Mechs is far away, while my other 'Mech is close to my opponent's 'Mech (which has a ECM suite). If I am trying to hit my opponent's 'Mech using the C3 computer system, will the ECM suite block it?

A: It all depends on whether or not one of the two attacking 'Mechs actually enters the ECM suite "bubble". In other words, if the closer unit is within the 6-hex range of the ECM suite, its "connection" to the other 'Mech has been broken. However, if the unit is 7 hexes or more away from the ECM-equipped unit, the "connection" is intact and the first 'Mech may use the C3 computer system to target its opponent.

SPECIAL CASE RULES

Q: Can I reverse my 'Mech's arms when it is prone?

A: No.

Author Info
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Please send any bug report or enhancement request to

         Andreas Smigielski
         Anklamstrasse 7
         38124 Braunschweig
         Germany

         EMail: A.Smigielski@tu-bs.de

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