When the rules say that you can't have unit stats in front of you at the playing table, what exactly does that mean?

Now I am aware that some of you out there can simply look at a piece for 15 seconds and know exactly when its attack and defense drop, when it loses its SE, when it goes into salvage, and when it dies, etc, but I am not one of those people. I have always had a shady memory on specifics (obviously piece stats would be considered specific information) and I wanted to find a system that would help me remember these without dropping out of school and spending hours upon hours each day scanning unit information to help me out in tournament.

So, is it legal to have encoded information that only helps you remember, not actually gives you the information verbatum.

Say like this:

Archer's Projectile 2 squared and 17(3) of revenge, a couple down to target, e till loss of blood and dusk, with g comes night.

That would be the Arrow IV Artillery, unit #51 of the CounterAssault expansion, with 2 clicks of damage until its attack drops, 5 clicks of damage until it goes into salavage and loses it Armor Piercing, and 7 clicks until dies altogether.

Or maybe just a system with minuscule dots on the sheet you use to tally your points on might be simpler?

And btw, if you don't believe this to be legal and you know a better system to allow me to remember unit stats please tell.

Interesting idea...very creative system. Aside from forgetting what you meant when you wrote one of those and paying attention to what is now a riddle instead of the game, it probably is still not legal. Rules say that you may not have any hardcopy of the stats of any unit in front of you and it does not specify any acceptable forms so I assume that no form is acceptable, even such a cryptic form as you suggest. Were I to rule on that I would say no.

Not being allowed to have the unit stats in front of you on the table doesn't mean that you can't have a piece of paper with the stats of your army with you. Just make sure you don't place that specific piece of paper in front of you on the playing table. Just keep it off the table and you should be fine.

By the way, I didn't know it was tournament illegal to keep tabs of the stats of the miniatures of your army. WizKids apparently loves to treat those who attend official tournaments like children.

Im lucky, I have memorized most of the dials of units in this game, or atleast about when it dies and its starting stats. <_< I would say that system works and would be funny to see in action.

it isn't so much treating you like children.

If you have a hard copy of your units stats, you have an advantage your opponent doenst have. You know what is next on your dial. It is an unfair advantage.

Just like if you have a hard copy of all units (or just your opponents units, you then have the advantage of knowing how many clicks you need to damage a unit to get past it's prime (for sw) or where it's repair marker is, or how hard to hit something to salvage it, but not kill it, or vice versa.

It is a huge advantage if you know my Li targe needs 3 clicks to slavage and 4 to kill it. And you are after a certain VC. you can then tailor your attack to get you the desired results.

As adorabilly said, it would constitute a definate advantage. After all, capturing a mech is much better than destroying it. Etc., etc.

I wasn't aware of this rule, but never tried to do this anyway. But it makes sense.

There is nothing stopping you from studying your favorite units or using cheat sheets during non-sanctioned play. BP prints out very informative tables for this purpose.

I don't see the problem. Other miniature games also allow you to look up strengths and weaknesses of specific units. Many miniature wargames specially work with papers with stats, 15mm wargaming and of course BattleTech are good examples.

I think we've already shown some reasons why so I won't repeat them again here. Simply stated, it allows an element of surprise and randomness to the game. Assuming noone can memorize ALL the units' stats, of course.

Just like you're not supposed to pick up your own unit (or anyone elses for that matter), during a game, simply to see what will happen if you [Fill In The Blank]. I see people at tournaments do this (mostly with heat dials) and usually don't say anything, but I should. If you don't know what will happen if you push that mech, that's to my advantage. Maybe you won't take the chance and I have a shot at you on my turn. Or, maybe you take the chance and end up shutting down, etc.

I think it's obvious why the rule exists.

But if everybody had reference sheets with the stats of their own army with them, what would be the problem? Ok, it gives you the chance to play even more tactical, but since when is that a bad thing?

Then there's people like me who can deal 5 damage to a friends mech and then dictate its current stats, that's when you know your into it too much. And if you worried anout pushing a mech for heat spend some time memorizing the heat dial of the mech you intend on using that week at the tournament since most people make armies ahead of time anyway. And as for whether to hit hard or not I always jundge by were they are on their dial. If they're on starting then hit them hard and if they've taken a loy of damage poke at then lightly since in most cases they wont be able to fight back much anyway.

Basically Nanhold and Stone Mason represent 2 opposing ideas in game sysytems. Every idea

(Stone Mason) Give up randomness for preciseness, allowing for more stratagy. The less luck involved, the further one can predict and see into the future and base actions off that. The most extreme example of this would be Chess.

(Nanhold) Give up preciseness for randomness, allowing for more fun. The less you can predict the future, the more you have to think and adapt. The most extreme example of this would be card games, such as Poker.

Each game has to have a balance of both. I would say MechWarrior holds about 70% randomness (fun) and about 30% preciseness (stratagy). I hope I have summed this up well enough.

While you can NOT play with a "cheat sheet" in front of you, there is nothing that prevents you from carrying a reference guide with you, say a unit by unit print, and referring to it before the tournament so that you are familiar with the "Critical Clicks"

Several people lately have also reported "purposeful mis-clicking" which can be dealt with by reference guides.

Bottom line, know the pieces or you aren't prepared for battle.

LS

If you had it with you, and you got caught, you would be warned once if your BM was feeling generous. Then you would be disqualified. There is nothing wrong with looking through your stats before the rounds, after the rounds, or whenever a piece is not in play.

I've seen some misclicking recently, and I will be issuing warnings accordingly. New players get more room because they have an excuse for not knowing that particular rule.

One trick I've seen recently is having an extra of key units sitting on the sidelines. The player will then "casually" click through the dial when people are absorbed with other things. Guess what: that is worse than having a cheat sheet, and I wouldn't even issue a warning for that.

Bottom line: it's a bad idea.

This is an interesting topic.

I do see where some are coming from in opposition to this rule. More than once I've printed out those sheets from BP and thought how cool it would be to use them in a game. I just didn't do it because no one else did (I didn't know it was a rule). And, like I've said, I see people click-ahead quite often.

It might seem strange that I have no problem with prople memorizing their units' dials, but I am against using a cheat sheet. Let's just say that it's kind of like a final in college. Memorizing takes effort and is fine to use. Cheating is the easy way out and is frowned upon.

So, there is an advantage to be had - it's just not all that easy to use.

By taking away the element of surprise. You could and would change the outcome of the game dramatically. People would not have to push certain unit to do actions. They could actually bring pieces tailor made to deal with most specials.

In my area unfortantly we see the same army winning every tournement. The shame of it is we have his dials memorized but really dont know what ours is as precisely.