The key to making charge realistic is not to reduce its range or its damage.

It's to not actually apply the damage until the target's had a chance to attack the charger.

This is the key factor that's been wrong with MWDA since day one: nonsimultanaeity.

I agree Croaker. A few months back there was a great discussion of some return fire rules that were proposed by Corle - basically, any time a mech was attacked (ranged, close combat, or special attack) it was permitted to do a simultaneous return fire attack. There were some details about free spinning, formation attacks, minimum ranges etc. that required very precise wording of the rule, and Corle wanted to make sure there was still some advantage to being the aggressor - he proposed a reduced chance of the return attack succeeding. Anyway, the concept of a simultaneous attack and counterattack is a great one to explore with house rules or casual play.

It fixes charge.
It fixes tankdrop.
It fixes VTOL's.
It fixes capture swarms (to some extent).
If the ability is only given to mechs, it goes a long way toward making them worth their points.

Attempts to develop rule changes proposals on this site have mostly led to frustration and anger due to WK's intellectual property policy (they don't allow "publishing" of alternate rule sets). It's better to discuss the details on the WK forums (like StuManUSA's Believable Rules "scenario") because then WK "owns" the content and can legally incorporate them into the standard rules if they so choose.

Oh just great. Nerf or stop charging just as JF comes in with its DFA abilities. Brilliant. Id rather find a way to kill tank drop or end world hunger.....

Cheers.

The problem with that is that it makes half the currently available Mechs useless in competitive play. ANY Mech, when played properly, should be useful and not only those with x, y or z abilities. As for outcharging the chargers, it was that trend that led to the nickname BumperBots. Whats the point of putting weapons on these mammoths if youre not going to use them?

I think two changes need to be made to the charge rules. The first is that a charger must have LOS to his target when initiating a charge attack, and the charge attack must be in a straight line from charger to target. None of this weaving around stuff and jumping through hoops.

The second is to make the charge range only the printed speed value and not speed x 2. Run, however, should remain the same. Under the current rules, one of the things that makes charge so powerful is the fact that it allows you to effectively take three 'actions', move+move+charge-attack, run allows you to take two actions (move+move) and everything else is one.
If this is changed to moving only the printed speed value when charging then charge will become two effective 'actions' which are move+charge-attack, while run remains the same at 2 actions (move+move). Of course, all relevant heat costs should be applied at the end of the order as usual, although the charge order should now cost one less heat since it only moves once rather than a double movement (i.e. not a 'run' order).

On the subject of damage being based on tonnage and not the primary damage, I definately agree with it. Unfortunately, I dont see how that is feasible. However, if something along the lines above is implemented it shouldnt be too big of a problem anyways. Lighter, faster Mechs will be able to set up charges more effectively, while heavier Mechs will have a harder punch. (Of course, this doesnt address the issue of the Yu Huangs, but hey Im not a miracle worker :p)

Hence outruling ALL SH mechs. Every last one. Even Freeman, with our best defense.

No 23 defense.

No 22 defense for cheap.

Few 21 defense for cheap.

No agility.

No speed.

Stormhammers then just become a sucky faction, because they have no counters to charging.

Ya!

I don't see why they put guns on my mechs, they just get damaged when I crash into things?!?!

My personal fav is the one inch charge..."Tink"

Actually, I'm practicing using two balacs to shield my base when my mech is up against a building or the side of the board.

Even though its meta game, it definitely nerfs the charge monkeys...they cant get to me, but I can get to them :devious:

Here is a strategy i was using last night when me and some freinds were doing some play testing
i was using Seka Ward and all around her i had 3 SW Guilas and 3 SW Fenrirs(plus some more stuff but it isnt important)
placed right no one can get in to harass your mech, not even pesky infantry
this worked well as i could pick my way 6'' up the feild at a time picking off enemys who came too close =)
to get at me you would need more than Seka's 14" range and no one at our venue has mechs with 16" ranges
so the only threat is VTOLs which is why i made up the Mikos-MH1 AA drop which very effectively counters choppers
the only problem with the army was seka's heat and im not sure how it would fare against a pog army
but it kept charging out of everyone's minds because they could not get to me which made it a game of "whos gonna hit first?"
i ended up losing since after 3 hours i just got tired of playing and missed a charge
but with 6 infantry that have the same speed as your mech does they can keep your mech safe from being charged
the only problem is that it takes 3 orders to move all those guys up the field =/
another thing i thought of to change in charge is that it should be center dot to center dot
for example
say you have a mech with 14" range and your opponent has a 12" range mech
if you hop into your range they can still charge you because from the center dot of a mechs dial to the edge is 1" and its two mechs so those 2" you had on your opponent are nullified
effectivley that gives arnis and others an extra 2" on their charge
center dot to center dot would make things more even since it gives mechs an extra 2" to charge with
but i could be wrong and it already does have to be dot-dot
but where we play we play where if you can get part of your mechs base to touch the other mechs base you can charge
well thats my thoughts for now
kahn

Defensive fire is the most basic and simple way to fix 90+% of the problems the game is currently having.

To keep it balanced, the defending unit is treated as if it received an order in all ways -- it gets a token and heat as appropriate.

The old tried and true suggestion of just making 'mechs and vehicles capable of doubling their maximum range value at a penalty of +1 to the target's defense helps counter charging to some extent.

+1 defense for double range!?
thats a little excessive
that gives BH a 24" range, and an 11 attack................
andrzej would have a 12" 6 dmg and 9 attack with 12 speed
you need more than +1 defense if your going to double range
especially with all the high attack value mechs out there
imagine a Sadia Wolf in her sweet spot.........32"range, 11 atack(with the -1) and 5 damage
just a little excessive that they only lose one to attack
my thoughts
kahn

A-hem..
Well, if you are talking about simultaneous play, you should check my Techwarrior rules. We've been playtesting and discussing them for months now. They are not another set of retouches (like StuManUsa's) because they change the way the game is played, though modifying the game only a little (90% of the rules are the same).
And, yes, it fixes charge, dfa, tankdrop, base&break, ranges, artillery, VTOLs an some other things...
Just check the page linked in my signature! (and drop some comment if you want)