To tackle the large amount of conventional military and support vehicles we wanted to have, there needed to be a way to make them less record intensive during games. Granted the modern fusion engine vehicles will remain using their record sheets representing very advanced equipment as they should. The vehicles I am hinting at are the less advanced units like standard Main Battle Tanks, APCs, IFVs etc... So how do we make them simple enough to not need a record sheet, but complex enough to work in Battletech? Something came together with a little group brainstorm faster then we thought possible. In order to remove the record sheet for each conventional vehicle we had to decide on a way to represent damage in an abstract fashion. We also needed to represent armour without keeping track of its condition. We moved outside the normal game mechanics for this area.
Nation: Parent nation that the specific conventional vehicle belongs to for the purpose of the Luthien campaign.
Movement: To hit a conventional vehicle is still as normal, and the vehicle has simple Cruise and Flank speeds assigned in its stats for use in determining modifiers. Normal movment rules apply for the vehicle motive type which should be obvious based on the model.
Armour: Conventional vehicles will be assigned an armour save value rolled on 1D6. When a vehicle is hit with any weapon, an armour save is made. If the roll is equal to or higher then the vehicles save throw stat it has managed to avoid any form of serious damage from the hit or was a near miss. If it fails the armour save, the shot has penetrated the vehicle. Ex; A vehicle with an armour value of 4+, will stop any shot on a roll of 4 or higher on 1D6. If it rolls lower then 4, the shot has penetrated the vehicles defense.
Penetrating Hit & Firepower: Once a vehicles armour has been passed, it is considered stunned or motive damaged in some way, this is called Shaken. The size of the weapon that hit the vehicle or its DV (Damage Value) is now a very big consideration in if the vehicle lives through the experience or not. So, the vehicle failed its armour save, and the weapon must now make a firepower check. A firepower check involves 2D6 rolled and compared to the weapons damage value. If the combined roll is equal to or under the total damage value of the weapon, the vehicle is destroyed. Ex; A vehicle is hit by an IS Large Laser, and failed its armour save. The weapon has a DV of 8. The player who fired rolls 2D6, and totals the combined amount. If the roll is 8 or less, the vehicle is destroyed. If the roll is 9 or more, the crew has been shaken or the vehicle disabled, but not destroyed.
Obviously from the example above, there are weapons that are too powerful to fail a firepower roll, especially since the 2D6 Firepower roll can't exceed 12. When a conventional vehicle is penetrated by such a weapon, it is automatically destroyed. Weapons that use the cluster table (ie: Missiles) use the total damage of the entire salvo to determine the firepower roll required. Weapons that cause heat damage, will automatically penetrate armour and cause a Shaken result regardless of if the weapon passes its firepower check or not.
Conventional Weapons, Range & Equipment: Vehicles have a basic weapon stat line, as well you should note no ammo is listed. They are not expected to live long enough or be decisive enough to need that sort of record keeping. The stat sheet does provide you with the required information to use that weapon however within the Weapon, Range & Special Rules columns where required.
Some vehicles will use standard battletech equipment in an abstract fashion. Otherwise they will function as normal. They will be noted where they are needed.
An example vehicle stat line is below. Note the AC12 is a fictional weapon not in the normal listing of the Total Warfare rules, but wit a simple stat line it is easy to work in:
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| Vehicle Name/Type | Nation | Movement
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| M1A2 TUSK Abrams MBT | DCMS | C5/F8 | (3+) | AC12/*D12 | S 1-6/M 7-12/L 13-18 | Reactive Armour (Half missile DV for Firepower) |
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| Machine Gun, AP MG |
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