Walkers vs Mecha was RE: Walkers

If you take giant humanoid machines (mecha) in the anime spirit over the
strict current realism "walker" description, then mecha are a viable
battlefield vechicle.

Why? Well in anime, mecha have at least the mobility of a human, including the
ability to crouch, go prone and even roll. If you view them in that mode, a 20
meter mecha lying prone probably has the same profile head on as a tank. It
then has some advantages that a tank
doesn't normally have - one is that it's guns are on a 5 meter
extensible arm so that it doesn't have to leave the prone position to have the
gun reach a firing position on top the hill or whatever. The
Head/sensor pod is located at the highest point, so you only have to get
the head to clear an obstacle to get full sensor readings. Unless the pilot is
in the head, the "head" can be quite small, maybe a couple of cubic meters,
again a much smaller target than a tank. If equipped with
jump jets / anti-grav it has greater off-battlefield mobility and can
still fit between tall buildings that might inhibit VTOL or larger AG vehicles
from landing.

I think that "walkers" should be allowed to crouch or go prone, reducing
target size by 1 or 2 respectively when in those positions.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----

> B Lin wrote:

> I think that "walkers" should be allowed to crouch or go prone,

In our SGII games we use walkers extensively and have a few house rules to
give them a bit more diversity.

All our walkers are HG gears of the 144/1 and are used in SGII 15mm.

Crouching: if at least 3" of movement are left over in a movement order a gear
can crouch. This decreases its profile by 1 size class. A token is placed
beside the unit to indicate it is crouching (we use IP markers)

Non penetrating hits: A non penetrating hit where a hit to the movement system
is rolled is counted as an exposed weapon hit. Exposed weapons have a D8
armour value. Impact VS armour is rolled normally. The weapon hit is decided
by random die roll.

Gear genades: Mortar sized "hand genades" carried by gears. 3 per capacity
point. Range 12". Deviates 1D3". Blast area: 2" Impact: D10. Place an
artillery marker in the target location and roll a D12 for clock face
deviation.