FYI From the tournament rules section.

Emphasis is mine.

I can see both camps on this one, but I am firmly in the 'memorize as much as possible, and then wing the rest' faction myself. I take the time to look over new (to me) units when I pull them out of the booster, look them over a second time when they go into my war chest, a third time when constructing my army, and then once more before I play them, by clicking all the way through the dial from green to green before placing them on the field of battle. I memorize key things about the unit's dials that are important to me, and though this may be the worst idea ever, if I don't know something about my unit during play, I ask anyone who happens to be standing nearby.

But to bring in my cheat sheets, and write-ups about units, and use those during a game? The only time I would ever do so would be during a proxy game, which I intend to play a whole lot of in the very near future so I can get used to armies like that field by Engineer and other examples of the PogWarrior mentality of play. But in head to head or Campaigns? No, and no.

- GhostPony

Thanks, Terman8or. Looks like the rules are pretty strict about this. Still it strikes me as a bit odd, since many miniature wargames use reference sheets, which are subtly called 'cheat sheets' by WizKids. In BattleTech you had a piece of paper with data for every unit you fielded, also you were allowed to look at the stats of your opponent's warmachines.

Apparently WizKids doesn't want MW:DA to become a 'real' miniature wargame.

You can still look at the CURRENT stats on your opponents units. You can ask them what the stats are, and what special equipment they have. You just cannot look further down their dials.

The main reason goes to the 3 vc's. If for instance you know your opponents mech/vehicle needs 1 more click of damage to go into salvage, or be killed, and you have 2 minutes left in the game. You will go after this unit with everything you have if it will win you the game. The cheat sheets make it very probable that you can do this.

Now if you think you know the dial it is all good. But by actually having this information infront of you makes it an unfair advantage.

(good example from 2 games. I had a mech w/ 1 click before salvage, my opponent thought he had like 4. W/ 5 minutes left, he started ignorning the mech to kill 2 vehicles w/ 2 clicks left. I wond the game because the vehicles were worth less than the mech. Another example w/2 minutes to spare, I took out a SW tank destroyer in the marquee (about 2 minutes because I could see the clock tower when we started and paid attention to it) I knew it's dial, and knew it only needed 2 more clicks to die. If my opponent had known his dials or been allowed cheat sheets, he never would have left it where it was, he would have ran it all over the battlefield.)

GhostPony - According to these rules, you can't legally ask anyone else for the stats either. Even asking for very general information would be considered 'Receiving outside assistance or coaching'.

The only unit information you can use during a tournament is; 1) what is currently showing on the dials, and 2) what you have memorized. That's it!

1) MechWarrior is not a "real" miniatures war game. It is a clix game, which is a different breed of game entirely.

2) The reason you had those info sheets in front of you in CBT is precisely because the figures in that game were not self-contained. They didn't have damage and heat dials. You had to use the sheets to determine capabilities and track damage. The dial takes care of all of that for MechWarrior.

I just don't see the point of these no stats thing rules, they're daft. Games like this are strategy games how are you meant to fight properly if you can't know what your own units do.
It's okay for other games like Warhammer, CBT, Confrontation etc...
It's like asking you to play bindfolded, anyway how are these meant to help you cheat it's not like you can tell what your opponent is thinking by looking at your own units stats.

Extra point: LaoCain quote:


1) MechWarrior is not a "real" miniatures war game. It is a clix game, which is a different breed of game entirely.


Its still a war game whether its on slot bases, no bases or dials
Wargames cover a wide range from paintball to C&C including MWDA because it involves multiple units/figures/pieces etc.

another small thing about that it's called Mechwarrior Dark Age
it has the word WAR in the title.

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Its still a war game whether its on slot bases, no bases or dials
Wargames cover a wide range from paintball to C&C including MWDA because it involves multiple units/figures/pieces etc.

another small thing about that it's called Mechwarrior Dark Age
it has the word WAR in the title.

By looking at your own stats you know "insider information" about your own stuff.

Do I charge with this unit? If I do I take X amount of damage (everyone can tell by looking at current stats) but it will leave me salavaged. So I won't. This is cheating.

A great example of this was in one game I was playing and Mason Dunne was toasted. I was based with an enemy unit showing 3 damage on it's primary. If Mason lives I win. Pretty simple. So I break and try to make a run for it on the last turn of the game and try to break with another unit to base the enemy mech to prevent him from hurting Mason. I fail that second break and I end up getting charged in the very last round of the game. Mason took 4 clicks of damage and it killed him. 3 would have left him on his last click.

If I knew this I would have stayed in base contact with that mech and won the game. And that would be an unfair advantage.

Several people have given many examples of why the rule exists. I don't think those opposed are really not understanding - they just don't like it. That's OK, there are some I don't care for. But rules are rules.

I think we've pretty much covered why the rule exists. We've also settled the fact that MW is NOT CBT or any other war game. Just remember, there's a 'chwa' in MechWarrior too.