Crossfire for Heavy Gear

[kenohhkc]

I got very excited that someone posted another thread in regards to Crossfire and Mecha.

I want so very badly to have a mod for crossfire for HEavy Gear. I don't know enough about Crossfire to do one, and I can't get anyone to really play it, but I sure would try if someone did that. It sure seems like the game is dying for a good set of rules, and DP9 just can't seem to get there. And there doesn't seem to be any other game that has the capability to show the chaotic hyper movement in smaller sized (the Heavy Gears are only 12-18' tall vs the 30'+ tall Battle Tech Mechs) mech warfare.

My initial thought was to let the gears move like infantry units, and restrict the infantry and artillery and tanks to move like the vehicles in the original rules that everybody hates so much, thus messing with time scale and accelerating the speed at which the Gears are moving.

We tried to play crossfire once and it was an utter failure. We will continue to try it, but it seems to be one of those games that if you play it once with a seasoned veteran, it will all fall into place.

If nothing else I may strip out some of the elements from the game and cobble together something else.

[Jaeger]

Sounds very cool.

Crossfire is ideal for simulating fast mech action, where the suit/mech/mecha relies on speed and maybe not so much wadig through a barrage of fire while attacking.

It does however limit the mech combat to areas with dense terrain (I'll be using an urban setting for my game) as the crossfire rules require this imo.

Crossfire seems to be an aquired taste in wargaming. Don't give up. There's much fun to be had.

/Jaeger

[Dr. The Viking]

It does however limit the mech combat to areas with dense terrain (I'll be using an urban setting for my game) as the crossfire rules require this imo.

One way to go around this would be to introduce range for weapons. But that would be a major alteration of the game.

[kenohhkc]

yes it would, but it would force movement too. the its a pretty different game it seems.

[Jakar Nilson]

Crossfire is ideal for simulating fast mech action, where the suit/mech/mecha relies on speed and maybe not so much wading through a barrage of fire while attacking.

Which also happens to be an accurate description of Heavy Gear Blitz.

[Jaeger]

You could tamper with the allowed number of shooting actions regardless of success. Something I've contemplated myself.

This way an Über unit couldn't overwhelm an entire enemy force.

[midismirnoff]

Hi,
I think that if you stick to 4 dice max, the shooting will stop naturally after a while. And one should try not to make it easy to let more 4d units do fire group. The basic army list of the book (a platoon plus one or two hmg) always gave me a good game. Personally I never found it necessary to put a max on the shooting.

[kenohhkc]

Just so we are clear, I love the HG mechs and own a couple of hundred, at least, old and new. Love the background, love the quality of the new mechs and the designs are the best mech designs bar none. But as I have owned every set of HG rules, from the boxed set, to Blitz! and everything in between, I just never thought the rules were as good as the product. It was always so ponderous and slow.

In the end I just want to play with these awesome mechs I have horded over the years. It always seemed like the way that Crossfire models the initiative idea on the tabletop had real merit. It reminded me of the old Macross cartoons with the swirling spinning action.

Maybe a tabletop game is just too static to model that ideal.

[Jaeger]

I still think Crossfire would be one of the best bets for a game that comes close to what you want.

A couple of hundred of the HG mechs eh?

You lucky git. 

/Jaeger

[kenohhkc]

I've got over 100 of the RAFM ones with tanks and striders. That stuff was cheap when the new ones(probably 10 years now) came out.

[Jaeger]

So... any progress on this project? 

[kenohhkc]

no, not yet. Too much work and life getting in the way of LIFE(miniatures). I'll post when I have something.

[Jaeger]

Uh. Hate when that happens. 

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

/Jaeger

[fourcolorfigs]

This thread has made me curious learn more about Crossfire--I have the same issues with the HG rules. 

Oddly enough, check out the BattleTech Quick Strike rules.  They're the cleanest, fastest set of mecha miniature rules I have ever played!  The only problem is that they are an 8-page insert in the back of the Strategic Operations handbook, a $50 hardcover.

They're really a distillation of the Battleforce rules presented in that book.  I would love some kind of conversion of these rules to HG.