Hello,

As I am getting back into MW, there are a *lot* of things I've missed; I had a giant collection of about $2k which I dumped c. 8 years ago. :nervous:

That was DA/FFE/DFA, with a couple LI units and an AOD demo kit. Since there had been a huge number off additions / changes, here are my questions:

- what are the major rules changes / additions?
- where exactly can I find them?
- which units are 'broken good' / bad?
- what are the most cost-effective units [I mean $USD, not points per se]?
- most importantly, which 'stock' [i.e., non-Unique/LE] units are best?

Hopefully someone reads this pretty soon; it sure is quiet and dusty here...thanks,

The biggest rules changes that I can think of are to the mechs. They can do "assault" orders now. An assault order is, either move the mech up to its full speed and subtract 1 from its attack value, then make a close combat attack or move the mech up to 1/2 its speed value, subtract one from its attack value, then and make a ranged combat attack. Then you give the mech 1 click of heat, in addition to any other heat generated by the order. This mechanic gave mechs across the board a huge power boost and pretty much centralized them as the main power figures in the game.

Another major change was the ability to customize mechs by equipping them with plastic pilot and gear cards. Each mech could be equipped with either one pilot, which could boost its speed, attack, and defense, or any combination of the three, or gear cards which granted new gear to the mech. The mechs were divided up into 4 major weight classes- light, medium, heavy, and assault. Gear and pilot cards also fall into these classes. The capabilities of a mech which seems merely okay can be vastly improved upon depending on which pilot and gear are equipped to the mech.

There are also unique pilots for the unique mechs. These pilots can pilot other mechs as well, but they only have access to certain Pilot abilities when piloting their mech, which is called their preferred mech. Some abilities could be very powerful and really unorthodox.

Another change were the addition of other cards elements such as Faction Prides, which could grant abilities and bonuses to entire armies built around a specific faction. There were also cards called "Situational Alliancees". These cards granted abilities or bonuses to armies built around two specific factions. Some of these faction Prides and Situational Alliances encouraged faction pure play because they grew more powerful depending on how many points were spent on the specific factions listed.

Their were also mercenary contracts one could use to recruit mercenary forces into you faction of choice. These mercenary contracts granted mercenary figures the abilites and bonus granted by the Faction Pride or Situational Alliance cards, if you chose to use them.

The last kind of cards were Planetary Conditions. Planetary Condition Cards usually altered the entire battlefield by introducing conditions which had many different effects. Some made it difficult to cool your mechs, some made it easier for certain speed types to move, some were damaging to certain unit types. There was a whole slew of them, and I thought they made the game more interesting. But it was never a requirement to use them, so you didn't have to if you didn't want to.

Go check out warrenborn.com and click on the mechwarrior link. They have a full figure list and downloadable rules and ability cards.

Anymore, it's difficult to find mechwarrior figures and cards just about anywhere except ebay stores. You can find some booster packs at miniaturemarket.com as well.

The "so good they're broken" are all either very expensive or very difficult to find, but they are findable on ebay most of the time.

War Wolf,
Thanks for the replies!

I have d/l the MW:AoD rules, and copy/pasted them into a .rtf file for consolidation / edit.

I appreciated the recap in your messages; so do you still play?

I have been to a couple places which have boosters / cases fs, and bought a case of AoD boosters. We split it 4 ways; looks like I'll have to buy another. :surprised:

Do you know where you can get a complete SEC including all the 'purple' SE's?

Thanks,

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/acq/fi...s_SEC_Card.pdf

This should be what your looking for.

As to broken units, most units are okay. It's the combos you have to watch out for. Here are a few examples. You can look up the stuff on warrenborn.

SAD:
Seka's Pride (Wolf Hunter HEavy Mech)
-Aiko Ryohara (or other +2 defense heavy pilot)
-RISC Hyperlaser

Zombie HF:
Hammerfall Atlas
-One Eye Jack Ferrel
-Streak Missiles
+Bannson's Raiders Faction Pride
+Repair unit

Soli Swarm:
BR Solitaire x 2 or x 3
-+2attack+2defense pilot
-decoy or pulse
Speedy high defense little buggers. Good thing they're glass jawed.

A few meta solitary units:
Jack Nightstalker
-LE Julie Kolchak
Makes it possible to target other units through blocking terrain.

Vengeance Solitaire
-Phelan Ward
Locks down a specific opposing mech, usually the opponent's big gun with Ward's Zellbrigen ability.

The twins:
Gloria and (can't remember) Pannichelo
Can grant each other free actions.

There are a lot of ways to beat these guys, but they can all be terribly effective in the right hands.

I'll try to remember some good common units with decent loadouts and post them for you later.

And, yes. I still play. Just not as often as I would like.

Some common units I enjoy using:
Light mechs
SW Blade
WH Mjolnir
Solitaires
Havocs
Hellions
Vixens
Jackalopes
Anubis

Mediums-
Raptors
Thunder Foxes
Goshawks
Griffins
Avalanche

Heavies:
Loki
Thor
Madcat MK IV
Vulture MK IV
Nova Cat
Scourge

ASSAULT
ATLAS
Marauders
Kodiak
Hellstars

So do you not advocate using the 'early' MW [pre-card] pieces?

Also, do you just play 'point' games, e.g.: 900 each side, 3' square area? Or do you do campaign / thematic / scenario play? THAT is what I am going for; not necessarily the 'broken combo', or OP units. That gets old fast, in my book.

I am getting a fairly thorough education here; so by all means, keep on! :)

I enjoy larger thematic/scenario play. Most of the games I play are 600pts. I don't really have the time to jump into a campaign. But if I did, I totally would. When we do play, we use AoD rules exclusively, but we either use the AoD Mechs or DA mechs. Only rarely do we combine the two. Few mechs from DA seem very viable in an AoD environment. Most of the ones that are, are usually unique. DA era common mechs don't really seem to have the raw stats to hang with the AoD mechs. DA and AoD VTOL's, Vehicles and Infantry are viable regardless and I've found some from Dark Age to be even more useful than the post Age of Destruction vehicles and infantry.

We have been using Call To Honor rules [with mods, as usual]; well worth the extra effort, IMO. :)