Welcome to Luzerne #1

Last fall, after my wife was officially declared in remission, I asked her to try a Battletech campaign with me for our anniversary.  I read through Historical Turning Points:  Luzerne.  But what I found were a number of unconnected tracks.  There was no information on the number of support points that each force involved in the conflict would have.  I suppose I could have shoved it into the default Planetary Invasion campaign, but that didn't seem to comport with the story behind the Battle of Luzerne.

We decided to play a couple of the tracks in a disconnected way.  The whole thing broke down quickly.  My wife kept forgetting to apply the SCA's her forces had.  Neither of us decided to use any of our battlefield support points.  Half way through the second track we gave up.

Veteran Battletech players have reported that the system's campaign rules have a mixed reputation.  I think its somewhat unfortunate, because there are mechanical problems with stand up Battletech matches.

"What problems?"

Battletech maps take up a fair amount of space.  two maps takes up the bulk of my kitchen table.  Really, for true tactical richness you have to put out four maps.

Unless you bring faster mechs and vehicles.  Then you need 6-8 maps.  This is an absolute necessity, because if you constrain highly mobile units to just two sheets, they will be picked off by heavy and assault mechs.  It doesn't matter how quickly those lighter mech can move, statistically they will be hit eventually and probably destroyed instantly.

But playing with 6-8 map sheets is completely impractical.  So with nobody able to achieve tactical successes with light mechs and no overarching campaign structure to explain why light mechs might be there in the first place, everyone just fields heavy and assault mechs--which have a far higher "cool" value anyway.

That's before you start to consider things like artillery, minefields, air support, and hidden units.  I think support points/battlefield support points are great.  But it still depends on both players being interested in fully exploring the tactical options available to them.  It also requires that players be presented with a fully fleshed out forces.

What else is there?

After "failing" at making Historical Turning Points:  Luzerne into a real campaign, I started to look at some of the larger scale systems that could be played with Battletech.[1]  Things like Battleforce, Strategic Battleforce, ACS, and Inner Sphere at War might provide a better experience.

In my opinion, a campaign system requires the following pieces:

1. It should have explanatory power for why and where certain forces met and battled at certain places
2. It should place certain constraints and impose long-term consequences on the players as the campaign wages on.
3. It should integrate into the broader story world of the setting.

 Luzerne

 

Here is a basic outline of the battle of Luzerne from Sarna:  A company of SLDF mechs (detacched from the 3rd Davion Guards) sneaks onto Luzerne and has mixed success raiding Clan Smoke Jaguar.  Combined elements of the 3rd Davion Guards and the Comguard 208th Division assault Luzerne, but they fail to repel black-water naval forces, incurring 50% before even reaching the surface.  The dropships scatter, amassing in 3 different locations on the planet's surface.  Heavily suppressed by Clan Smoke Jaguar air power, they slogged along for about a month until reinforcements from the Ryoken-Roku arrived.

I hope that why this outline would not work as a Chaos Campaign is self evident.  You might be able to take a sliver of this campaign and play a smaller engagement that happens in the context of the broader battle.

But the basic frame of the Battle of Luzerne is more-or-less perfect for a planetary map based ACS game.

In my next post I will be discussing gathering sources for your campaign.  See you then!

[1] I mean, is it failing if you don't bother in the first place?