A Review of Battledroids

Back before Battletech was Battletech, it was called Battledroids: The Game of Armored Combat. The name-change was do to the threat of legal action by George "No Sense of Irony" Lucas over the use of "Droid" as an abbreviation to "android." As such, Battlemechs ('Mechs) were called Battledroids ('Droids), and Mechwarriors were called Droidswarriors. The rule-set lists the following Battledroids: Stinger, Wasp, Shadow Hawk, Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Archer, Crusader, Warhammer, Rifleman and Marauder. (The Locust, Wolverine, Thunderbolt and BattleMaster were not used in this set.) This review will compare Battledroids to its successor, second edition Battletech — hence forth called Battletech.

In Battledroids, a single hex represented 33 meters (100 feet), instead of 30, as seen in all other Battletech rule-sets. The Record Sheets used in Battledroids note all the same basic information seen in Battletech Record Sheets, but the Armor and Internal Structure Diagrams shows a fat, squat 'Droid that looks like a Dreadnought combat walker form Warhammer 40,000, with all the little circle used to track damage replaced by boxes that forms a set of grids.

Like in the Battletech rule booklet, Battledroids divide its rules into four play levels: Basic; Advanced; Expert; and Optional.

Basic Battledroids
Where the basic rules in Battletech, called Battlemech Training, used a dedicated laser-boat — the CHM-3 Chameleon Training Scout — to teach new players about heat build-up and heat conservation, Basic Battledroids completely omits heat rules. The basic rules also do not include Piloting skill rolls, anything related to falling, dropping or standing up, and the combat system are far different form the normal Battletech rules. The line-of-sight role are the same, but to-hit is different and damage is completely different.

Basic Battledroids have the following stats:

Move; Jump; Armor; Contact; Short; Medium; and Long.

Instead of using different weapons with different ranges and attack power, all 'Droids have variable Damage Values within the following ranges: Contact (1 hex); Short (2-3); Medium (4-10); and Long (11-21). For example, Stingers and Wasps, with their short-range firepower, have Damage Values scores in contact-, short- and medium-ranges, but nothing at long-range. The Griffin on the other hand has good medium- and long range firepower with its particle cannon and long-range missiles, but its short-range value is the lowest, with contact-range only good do to its ability to punch. A 'Droid's base to-hit is 4 for Contact range, and 6 for all other ranges.

Now here is where things get really different: A 'Droid's Armor Value is rated form 5 to 11, where Stingers and Wasps have 5, and Archers with 11 (the highest Armor Value noted in this rule-set). Being hit at the left/right flanks lowers a 'Droid's Armor Value by 1, while being hit at the rear lowers it by 2. Once the players determine the attacker's Damage Value and the defender's Armor Value, the attacker compares the scores to the Armor Penetration Table to figure out the number needed for a Penetration Roll. If the player succeeds, the attacking player rolls on the Damage Effects Table. The effects of the table are similar to a simplified version of the Vehicle Critical Tables seen in Citytech and onward, with results like "Battledroid destroyed", "Weapons destroyed" or "Battledroid cannot move or fire for X-turn(s)."

It is a neat introduction system that allows for quick combat resolution. Unfortunately, the rules need a bit of work to make it feel more complete. Also, it lacks the strategy that comes with exclusion of heat and ammo rules.

Personally, I would have Medium-range as 4-9 and Long-range at 10-18, and Extreme-Range (to account for LRMs) an 19-21, with base to-hit being at: Contact at 6; Short at 4; Medium at 6, and Long and Extreme at 8. This is all new and novel to me, and I feel compelled to make something better of it.

Advanced Battledroids
Here you learn to use Armor and Internal Structure Diagrams, Heat Scales, hit locations (but Critical Hit Charts are not used), and basic physical attacks (punching and kicking only). As the rules for critical hits are not listed, body parts must be fully destroyed — all armor and structural boxes marked-off — to ether cripple (for arms, legs, side torso) or destroy (for head or center torso) the 'Droid. The Sequence of Play is like Advanced Gunnery (form 2nd ed BT), but the Attack Phase divides into a Weapons Fire Phase and a Physical Attack Phase.

Expert Battledroids
The Expect rules expand on the Advanced rules with the inclusion of rules for falling, dropping and standing up, critical hits, injuries to Droidswarriors, aimed shots and expanded physical attacks (pushing and charging, plus the Domino Effect).

The Advanced and Expert rules do not bring anything new to the table, if you all ready played Battletech before. Moving on...

Optional Rules
These are the rules to expand upon the Advanced/Expert rules. Like with Battletech, it includes rules for clearing woods, starting fires, clubs, variable Droidswarrior skills, and Battledroid design. One rule included that was lacking in Battletech, until their inclusion in Citytech, where rules for conventional forces: infantry, jeeps and tanks.

The infantry rules are kinda neat. For one thing, an infantry unit is made-up of 9-men squads, instead of the 28-men platoons established in Citytech. You would not find infantry armed only with riles, as this a "game of armor combat." Instead they are armed around a man-portable support weapon, like a machine gun or missiles launcher. Unlike the current rules where one soldier dies per point of damage, in this edition, one point of damage can kills the entire squad, with the surplus damage transferring to any other squad in the hex! (Up to 10 squads can full a hex.) Their only real defense is that infantry are small and can quickly find cover, impose a +2 penalty to a 'Droid's to-hit. Also, you still have to count ammunition, which is pointless, given how quickly they die.


There is no Vehicle Design system for making unique vehicles; they are all prefab units. Compared to their Citytech counterparts, they are completely weak! Even a light, poorly-armed 'Droid can take a group of conventional forces without much effort. It may not sound fair, but this is a war where 'Droids are the "kings of the battlefield." Plus, the Citytech Vehicle Design system made it possible to field tanks that can hold their own, if not make short work of Battledroids.

All tanks get 4 MPs for movement, or 3 if they fire any weapons, while Jeeps have 6 MP (5 when shooting), and infantry only have 1 MP. They cannot enter heavy woods, lakes, burning areas or elevation changes greater that one level, while infantry ignore all terrain casts, and cannot enter lakes or burning areas. When a tank takes a hit, it can take damage in three location: the Armor, Tracks or Turret. Tanks have 20 points of armor up front, 10 at the sides, 8 at the rear and 5 for the turret (I suspect that this was a typo, where it should have been a 15). If any section of armor is deduce to zero, the tank is destroyed — if the rear armor was destroyed, then a fire starts on a 9+. If the tracks were hit, the tank is immobile. Jeeps only have 5, and do not require a special hit location roll. Like with infantry, any attack that destroys a jeep outright can transfer surplus damage to any other jeep in the same hex. And just like infantry, Jeeps are harder to hit, but with a +1 penalty to-hit. Normally only one 'Droid unit can occupy a hex. But with conventional forces, ether two vehicles or one vehicle and a 'droid can occupy a single hex, and up to ten squads can pile on a single hex without any consideration of 'droids or vehicles.

There are three tanks in the game:

• SCR-8N Scorpion — no turret, three SRM-6 with 15 shots per launcher installed in the front
• HNT-3R Hunter — no turret, one LRM-20 with 18 shots installed in the front
• VDE-3T Vedette — turret-mounted Autocanon/5 with 40 shots and machine gun with 200 shots

The jeeps and infantry can be armed with one of the following weapons:

• Machine gun with 10 shots for jeeps; 25 for infantry
• 2-pack short-range missile launcher with 5 shots for jeeps; 12 for infantry

Here are some houserules for Infantry:
If multiple vehicles and infantry occupy a single hex and are attacked by a power weapon, the order of damage is as follows: Jeeps > APCs > Infantry (Jeeps are vulnerable, but APCs provide cover).

APC: This is like a Jeep, but with 10 points of armor, and they can also carry a squad of troops.

Towed-artillery: An artillery piece is immobile, unless moved by a jeep, APC or tank; it takes one turn to setup. They attack like an Autocannon but requires a turn to reload, and cannot attack anything within six hexes. As they are crewed by exposed men, they take damage like an infantry unit.

With Battledroid design, there are a number of things that were ruled-out by Battletech. Firstly, the rules allow for 5-ton 'Droids. I did the calculations, and found that whet you are left with is something that is slow for its size (up to 5 MP on a 25 Omni Engine) and completely unarmed and unprotected (.5-ton for internal structure; .5-ton for the engine; 3-tons for cockpit; 1-ton for gyroscope). Unless you houserule a smaller cockpit option, all you are left is a useless micro-droid with a large baby-head. The second, is that jump jets weight .5 tons, regardless of 'droid's tonnage, and there are no limits on the number you can place on a 'droid. In fact, the Griffin, which has a walk MP of 5, has 6 jump jets. This lack of limits could allow for heavy 'Droids with only 1 MP to jump great distances, beyond what a maximum-sized engine for their size would allow for normal walking/running movement. And lastly, ALL heat sinks — including the ten free heat sinks that comes with the engine — takes-up space. This is good if you have ammo, as they would soak-up hits, but bad if you are piling-on a lot of weapons and extra heat sinks. Although, now it makes more sense why the Critical Hit Table includes 12 slots for the arms and torso sections. (Personally, I can make do with less.)

If are are interested in 5-ton Micromechs in your games (don't think of them as "Inner Sphere Protomechs", but as "What if FASA ripped off the designs form Armored Troopers VOTOMS"), the internal structure boxes are as following: CT - 3; LRT - 2; Arms - 1; Legs - 1. Maximum armor is 27 points, or up to 1.5 tons of armor.

Here are some houserules for cockpits:

• Mico-cockpit (5-15) - 1-ton; 1 internal structure box; up to 3-points of armor; no backup sensor; no life-support; no ejection seat; +2 to pilot injury rolls; 3 free critical slots
• Small-cockpit (5-25) - 2-ton; 2 internal structure box; up to 6-points of armor; no backup sensor; no ejection seat; +1 to pilot injury rolls; 1 free critical slots
• Normal-cockpit (20-100) - 3-ton; 3 internal structure box; up to 9-points of armor; 1 passenger; 1 free critical slots
• Command-cockpit (80-100) - 4-ton; 3 internal structure box; up to 9-points of armor; +2 intuitive for commanders; no free critical slots (used as extra cockpit slot)
• Armored-cockpit (60-100) - 5-ton; 4 internal structure box; up to 12-points of armor; 1 passenger; -1 to pilot injury rolls; no free critical slots (used as backup sensors)

In the middle of the booklet, with the sheets, there are ten stat-block for the Battledroids. Many of 'Droids have armor placements that differ form what are seen in Battletech, and a few of the stats are full of errors. The Wasp and Stinger are 1-ton overweight (going to armor) and 5 more points of armor then what the extra ton allows. The Crusader is .5 tons underweight, with 8 less points to armor. The Rifleman mounts an over-sized engine (VOX 260 instead of the 240 Pitban; 60 tons x 4 MP = 240 Engine Rating), thus loosing 2 tons — when fixed, it mounts two medium lasers.

And finally, we have the fluff...

A Dark Age: The Succession Wars
Now, you could have read much of this on Sarna.net, but whet it does not state is what was in the Battledroids fluff, that was left out in Battletech. Where the setting text was (literally) marginalized in the sidebars throughout the Battletech rulebook, the setting text in Battledroids took-up their own pages in the back. If you read Battletech, its all the same (save for a lot of "droid" being thrown around): Weapons of the Succession Wars; The Warlords; Soldiers of the Succession Wars; Mercenary Companies; Battledroids Regimental Organization; The Bandit Kings; and Battledroid Warfare. The last part was left out in Battletech.

That is a shame, as to me, Battledroid Warfare was something that feels missing form the second edition Battletech rulebook, as it gives a clear step-by-step Campaign Timetable of a planetary assault, noted in "D-Day" (Drop-Day) with "D-X Days" and "D+X Days"; gives clear motive to such an undertaking: (water, minerals, manufacturing centers, spare parts depots, or the occasional treasure hunt for Star League-era lostech); and notes the lengths pirates and Bandit Kings takes to steal clean water from planets. Much of this gives greater context to the military operations of the 31st millennia.

At the end of the page, it notes an example scenario called Skirmish on Mesa 7. Basically, a Davion scouting party, found Wolf Dragoons presence on the recently discovered planet of Mesa 7, and the Davions are trying to discover what they are hiding, while the Wolf Dragoons want to keep their presence on the planet a secret. It is such a small inclusion that four to six such scenarios could have been squeezed in a single page.

All and all, it was a neat read that gave a lot of historical context in the game's development. The game is buggy with errors here and there, but that is what you get for a first edition. I have been so enamored with the Succession Wars since I first discovered the 2nd edition rulebook, some 15 years ago. The lost rules are worth trying out.

My Battletech Universe

I have never been content with the Clans in Battletech. Hell, I feel the same about Earth's Colonial Expeditionary Forces from Heavy Gear. The Clans was the big build-up from the Stickpole novels, based on the mystery of the Wolf Dragoon, but like the GRELs from HG, the Clans felt like something that was thrown in to shake things up. When I first got into BT, it was the mid-90s, and I was influenced by the non-canon cartoon (dont laugh, I did not know any better), so I assumed they were just an integral part of the fiction - a superior force is taking over the galaxy, and its up to a rag-tag team of heroic Mechwarriors to save the damn day. I did not put much effort to learn the setting (although, I knew about the general background and some key points of history), as I just wanted to blow shit up, so I handed the game like an anime.

Then one day, I found an old mid-80 BT booklet, and it made the whole game look primitive - the art, the layout, the setting, the technology, and everything within - and I liked it! It felt like a whole other take to the fiction: a once great galactic empire that fell to war, and the prolonged conflict knocked the galaxy to the stone-age. All the basic technology and salvage rule made a lot more sense, and the game now feels like Mad Max with mecha!

So now I dont what to have anything to do with the Clans. I never like their retarded sense of honor, their game-braking mecha, and their general intrusion on the setting. It would have made more sense to have one OmniMech to take on a whole lance of basic 'mechs, but their honor would not allow that. Fucking stupid! As much as I hate them, I still like some of the tech, like the Mad Cat & Vulture (the designs, not the stats), Protomechs (not the designs, but the rules) and their second-line 'mechs and vehicles.

So basically, my BT game have no Clans. The Wolf Dragoons are still supported by mysterious outsiders, but they are out-of-the-way worlds that still manufacture Lost Tech. As for Star League 'mechs, I remember seeing them in a 2750 TRO, and they did not live up to the "superior" designs as noted in the old rule books, so I thought:

• The basic "level 1" 'mechs are just the old scrapped-together machines from the Succession Wars;
• The "level 2 IS" 'mechs are built using using technology that was reversed-engineered from an old memory core (as in the canon), so they are the most advanced models to be manufactured, and are seen in limited numbers;
• While the highly advanced "Star League" 'mechs are built useing the same rules as Clan Omnimechs, and are to advanced to be manufactured.

House Warriors would pilot the newer level-2 'mechs, while they provide their loyalists with their old fleet of level-1 models. Protomechs - called "Armored Infantry" - are used for garrison duty, as are seen as nothing more then mechanized infantry. The old Clan designs are just basic level-1 models. The Mad Cat, for example is just armed with some basic lasers, 2 Cluster Missile Pods (see below), 2 light autocannons, and 4 machine guns. I liked the Dark Age IndustrialMechs so much, they are common civilian models. Battle Armor are considered Lost Tech.

Another thing I never cared for, are the blatant historical allusions. Reading the history of the Draconus Combine felt awkward and forced, as the founder was a Otoya Yamaguchi-styled despot, who turned the Combine into galaxy's largest reenactment of Tokugawa dynasty. I dont mind allusions, as long as they are subtle. Forcing a culture to look like a past one dont work, as there are numerous influences that can even supersede even the dreams of a highly charismatic demagogue. I prefer when a setting takes the sprite of what its alluding to, and make something that feels original around it. Plus, after centuries of galactic expansion and cultural developments, there would be whole new civilizations, languages, religions, customs, est. I keep their influences somewhat, but I try to make things feel different and exotic.

OK, so my setting starts out like the old 3025 game, where a prolonged conflict erodes science and technology. Some time in the 3030s, someone found a memory core, which inspired a lot of technological development, but the application was strictly limited. The map changes as usual, but the Federated Commonwealth never formed because the space around the Sol system has been a highly disputed wasteland since the outbreak of the war, and because the Clan invasion never happened, the periphery states are more-or-less still intact.
____________

I have also never been content with the weapon list. It felt like it was held-back from the shortcoming from the original game, so I made some changes (I have made notes, but I cant find them).

• Light Autocannons are more like Machine Guns, but with better range.
• Medium Autocannons are like AC/5s, but can fire off-map as artillery, with a range of 12 maps (as Thumper).
• Heavy Autocannons are like AC/10s, but have the range of LRMs on the map, and as Thumpers off-map.
• Stubcannons are short-barreled Heavy Autocannons, so they have the range of AC-10s.
• Medium Artillery Cannons are like Autocannon/20s and Long Toms.
• Heavy artillery cannons are like the artillery systems from the game, but do more damage (they are like those big-ass guns the Germans like to mount on train cars back in WWII).
• Rotary Autocannons are Light or Medium Autocannons, but weigh more, and have rapid-fire.
• Rail-Guns (MRG, HRG) are like Medium and Heavy Autocannons, but they have greater range and velocity (moves across maps faster), but they produce heat like partial cannons.
• Rail-Cannons (MRC, HRC) are the Rail-Gun equivalents to Medium and Heavy Artillery Cannons.
• Cluster Missiles (CM-5, 10, 15, 20) are like Short Range Missiles, but come in groups of 5s.
• Missiles Launchers (ML-x) are single-shot missiles, that can do 5-points each, and have the range of LRMs on the map, and as Arrow-IVs off-map.
• Melee Weapons comes in all forms: knives, swords, axes, maces, work tools, est.
  

I also like handheld weapons, so I houseruled that too. The two free item slots on each arm are for arm-mounted weapons, while the 6 free slots below them are limited to handheld items. If you what to mount more or larger weapons on an arm, you have to remove the hand and lower arm actuator respectfully. This makes a lot of sense in context, as it never made sense to remove these actuators when you can pile so much stuff on the 8 free slots. An arm have 1 free handheld slot for every 15 tons of tonnage (minimum 1; maximum 6), and the weight of carried item per hand is 5% tonnage (round-up to nearest half-ton), or 10%, if item is carried with both hands - in this case, torso-mounded items are useless. A mech can only hold one type of item in hand at a time, not counting ammo clips, and they are unprotected by armor. Energy weapons require a .5 ton extra for chargers. They may carry armor in the form of a shield.

Other houserules includes:

• Piloting and shooting rolls have static target numbers with normal adjustments, while skill levels are added to the roll. The target numbers are: 6 for piloting; 4, 6, 8 for short, medium and long ranges.
• To-hit penalties from heat build-up now makes a 'mech easier to hit do to increased heat signature.
• With missiles, half damage (round-down) applies to adjacent sections.
• Vehicles have one internal structure box for the main body, with front and rear armor sections (no sides). Turrets have their own internal structure based on its size, and they also have front and rear armor. Rotors have no internal structure.
• Quadmechs have can have turrets. They have 6 slots.
• LAMs in Air-Mech mode cannot run while on the ground, but have a VTOL speed based on Jump speed, plus a bonus based on the Lift Factor of a VTOL.
• Battle Armor have fewer armor points.
• Large cannons impose pilot rolls when fired, to keep the 'mech standing upright.
  

I have other rules and notes (pages full of them) but that it for now. What can I say, I have played this game for years. My first rulebook looks like shit with rough-use, graffiti and cliff-notes. The spine alone is held together with thread, tape, and a prayer!