Spicy Frame Zero: Aeroframe Rules

Long time and it has brought something different but still a Mobile Frame Zero Post! Despite probably being the biggest person supporting playing the game as is here is another Alt or House Rule for you to try. Once again this is brought to by a Discussion on MF0: The University; a MF0 Discord server. 

The talk was about trying to add flying units into Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack without making another game. Many other table top wargames have struggled to create rules for aircraft interacting with ground units; be it official or others homebrew. A bit part tends to being some what accurate to aircraft that can usually cross the battlefield if not just over shoot it, even in scales. Below are the rules I presented to keep it simple, direct and be able to operate within the battlefield. It more about feel and balance than any kind of accuracy or such. Despite the name these should work to represent any kind of aircraft.

Sample Aerospace Frame

Aeroframe Rules

Aeroframe(plane) gets a Sprint Green Movement d8 and  1 (only 1) White d6 as base and keeps the Sprint Green Movement d8 no matter the weapon system.  The model of the aeroframe must have a clear front or a base that indicates the front. This special ‘frame’ gets one free unit of movement BUT it must be used first and is always in the direction it is facing. When it ends it move the facing must be in the direction it last traveled in.

That's it! If you like to discuss these rules than head over to the thread I started here: The Hangar

If you like to explore some others rules on flight that are a bit more robust check out these:

Francisco Duarte's Flying Units
CmdrRook's Optional Rules and Philosophies for Combat Vehicles

Spicy Frame Zero - Pilot Leveling for Rapid Attack Beta

Pilot and Frame

First a special thanks to the Pilots/MoF0s who hang out on the Mobile Frame 0: University Discord with me.

Pilot Leveling for Rapid Attack

So this isn't a new topic but just my try at the idea of it. I will create a thread on The Hanger for discussion of my take on this concept which you can find here: Hanger Thread. What am currently presenting is semi refined version of the Pilot Leveling System with a set of options to try out.

Intent: The idea of Pilot Leveling is something new to try/switch things up if a group of friends are planning to play several games or some link games together in some fashion.

Aces: Each player/squad only has 1 designated pilot that is their Ace that can level up.
or
Big Damn Aces: ALL PILOTS ARE ACES and have the potential to level up.

Pilot License: Every Ace has their Pilot License on record and is how you will track their levels and abilities. Either use note cards or sheets of paper. A license includes a Pilot's name, their earned experience points (XP), their level (you could use ranks instead and start at level 0) and a identifying symbol or color(s) that are also on their frame.

Levels and Abilities: All Aces start of at level 0 with no abilities. When an Ace levels up to 1 they must chose a Specialization that will shape the rest of their abilities as they level. Each specialization is one of the frame systems and each weapon system range is a separate specialization. An Ace does not have to carry his Specialized System on his frame during a combat but without it they will not gain their specialized benefits.

Level 0 - Nothing
Level 1 - The Ace can reroll a one once per frame's turn on their specialize system's die.
Level 2 - The Ace can reroll a one on a white die once per turn.
Level 3 - A d6 becomes a d8 on the specialize system.
Level 4 - Special Ability

Special Abilities

Green: As long as you have a green system (not Sprint) when this frame is activated by another frame's attack you may move it behind cover if cover is one unit away. Minus one to your green die roll.

Blue: As long as this frame has a blue system the owner may treat the frame one unit bigger in all direction for determining if it counts as cover for another frame.

Yellow: As long as this frame has a yellow system when it spots a frame it may also had a spot of one on another frame that is up to two units away.

Red, Direct and Artillery: As long as this frame has it's specialized red system and damages cover using it's specialized system's range the owner may remove 3 additional pieces from the cover per successful damage. If the frame attacks through cover and does no damage to it than the owner of the frame may remove three pieces of cover.

Red, Hand to Hand: As long as this frame has a red system and fails to damage it's target during a hand to hand attack the frame gets to make 1 extra attempt at damage but needs to roll a 5 or 6.

Experience Points and Leveling Up

Battle Report: Players earn XP at the end of the game to distribute to their Ace(s). The amount earned is equal to the difference of their Victory Points and that of the player below them. The player at the bottom gains half the XP of the player above them.
or
Spoils: The other idea is an Ace scores XP when ever they captures a station or destroy a frame equal to their Score Per Asset; maybe lose half the Score Per Asset if the Ace abandons a station in the players control. XP is equal to the squad's Score Per Asset.

Each Ace can only level up one time between games.

Level 1 - 12 XP
Level 2 - 27 XP
Level 3 - 45 XP
Level 4 - 66 XP

Pilot Death

So if you want to add another layer making leveling even more precious you can have Pilot Death but this is certainly optional.

Non-Aces and Level 0 Aces don't have to worry about Death Checks.

Ejection System: Remove a White Die from your Ace's frame for the game to guarantee your Ace survives.

Experience Saves: When the Ace's frame is destroyed, roll a d6 to see if the Ace lives. To live you need a 6, add the Ace's Level to the roll.
or
Equalizer: When the Ace's frame is destroyed, roll a d6 to see if the Ace lives. TO live you need a 4 or higher.
or
Inconvenience: As above but you need a 3 or higher.

Ace Death: The Ace is dead, make a new pilot card with a new name. New Aces can inherit a previous Ace's colors/symbol.

LEGO Power Digger Review for MFZ

The Box

 Review system established by Mantis King with additional material expanded by me.

The Instructions

So simply but, I love this set. It makes me wonder if LEGO is actually paying attention to MFZ and helping in subtle ways liking making sets like this that can help bring character to a battlefield. Right off the bat I grabbed three boxes because I knew I wanted one of each build on the table. Even started to give me some ideas of 'local uprising' but we will cover that a bit later. So far I have seen this set carried by Target, Wal-Mart and TRU (with TRU Tax). Now off to the races! *cough couch* review I mean!

Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?
Yes, I built two of them in fact. One is a sad looking little walker that I am not sure anyone could use BUT also made a neat looking wheeled frame which is a variant of the bulldozer variant build. +5 points

Sad Frame is Sad

What's UP

Double Zap!

Can you build a terrain right away?
Yes, the construction vehicles could easily be generic terrain but might one to count 2 or 3 pieces as one brick other wises it might take a lot of hits to blow it away. Also each build might be a decent station in their own rights, how else you going to build a new base? +5 points

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio (10 cents per piece)?
$4.99/64 = 7 cents per piece so below! +5 points.

If you can't build a frame right away, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?
Straight Forward Yes for +5 points.


If you can't build terrain right away, dose it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?
Not for natural but for some kind of structure most definitely or a station. +5

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?
Absolutely for both terrain and frames. +5 for both!

The Pile is the Pieces Left over After Build

Ditto

See Above Caption

So our totals!
Frames: 20 for an +A
Terrain: 20 for an +A

Wow, I didn't realize this could be a could set for frames (hope you like yellow). Nothing I built was very specially but just for raw parts still awesome!

House Rules: The Natives are Restless! (not yet play tested)

So with the purchase of this set came images of people using it to defend their homes from frames, either invades or just tired of getting in the crossfire. These rules will focus more on the 'tired of the crossfire' idea.

First lets give some stats to our construction vehicles which all of the same stats. First give them One White Die, One Blue Defense Die for being built tough, One Green System for having 4 wheels and a Melee Red System but I would suggest using just one 8 sided die. This is to represent lack the lack of built for combat/skill of users but these machines still have power!

When would they go in a round? That is an important question.

1) They have a special turn going first until all the construction vehicles have gone. Activation would happen as normal including chains.

2) Split their special round in half go first and the other half go last, if uneven then the larger group is last.

3)Assign Construction Vehicles asset values, players take turns controlling them each round. With the suggested build I would recommend that every two vehicles count as a frame with 7 systems.

Of course you could just treat them as regular frames then just treat there asset values normally they just don't have SSRs.

Now you can have our civilians acting from turn one chasing after the nearest frames but there could be a few options; you can even have them in a hat to be picked at random to keep it interesting.

1) The civilians start fighting back from round one!

2) The construction equipment is on site and won't come 'to life' unless some kind of perimeter is breached (use something to indicate this like perhaps some kind of fence).

3) The active when a frame gets within Direct Fire Range.

4) Doomclock!  Pick a die (d12?), at the start of each round roll it. On a 1 the construction vehicles become part of all rounds from then forward. At the start of each new round at a +1 to the activation range i.e. Round 1 active on a 1, Round 2 active on 1-2. Maybe have the + be equal to the number of times the Doomclock is ticked down?

Certainly could be interesting or could be used in a special scenario, and will admit still very rough.

MEGA Bloks Dome Battleground Review for MFZ: RA

Our Big Box!

So let's be straight forward about this review. Our usual review system isn't going to work, even the modified one I use for terrain. This set is very unique, specially with my purpose in buying it so I am just going to talk about but there is some old topics to discuss as well.

The Golden Ratio? I picked this up on sale from Target at $46 or $47 but it looks like it has gone back up on the market for $49.99 so we will go with that and we have 527 pieces in the box. Do the math real quick and we have $0.09 per piece so just a penny under the Golden (aka $0.10 per piece). Now, it is mostly brick which is an interesting camo color which could be a great use for building interesting pieces of terrain or stations along with some very unique pieces that could prove usual for building frames or stations. These unique pieces I am talking about are found outside of LEGOs and will be discussed more in my parts break down.

There are also guns, knifes and a turret to build in this set that at a first glance might be usual because the Call of Duty figures look like they might be the same height as our Chubs, more about this further in the post.

This is most likely the most expensive brick building set I have bought myself and certainly the most expensive one I have bought for Mobile Frame Zero. I saw it and instantly thought it could be usual in getting a start on interesting table terrain. Of course something like this would tap into the expanded rules section of MFZ.

So many bags!

So the parts break down! I am going to make this pretty straight forward by showing pictures and slapping captions on them. First I will start with part layout pictures, starting with a wide shot with following closer shots then up close of the pieces that are unique or very similar to some common used parts from the LEGO sets.

The Soldiers have to be put together...I think I install the hands upside down...

These will make up our dome!

That is a lot of parts. I think it took be longer to make this spread then to build it.

I really like these sand bag pieces, I wish there was more...

Now for our parts close ups!

Here is the crate that came with it, I like it and we will talk more about it later.

Here we have a double sided stud 1x2 plate

Here we have a limited version of the Travis

2x2 Plate with studs on both sides

1x4 brick with studs on all the long sides but the bottom

It looks like a minifigure hand but straight and perhaps a bit longer.

1x1 plate with a rod sticking out

Looks cool...

Their version of the clip piece, the yellow is a separate piece.

Double Sided Peg Pieces and a Missile piece.

So what do all these parts make up to build? They build our dome!

The Front with some Chubs to Help with Scale

 So I just want to say that yes that is a satellite 'dish' inside the dome and that dome rotates which is pretty cool. I put some Chubs on it so we can get some idea of scale. As you can see the chubs are too tall to go under the bars but they could easily be fixed by adding some bricks or just removing them. Though they do seem a bit tall for the wall but again extra bricks could fix it if it bother you. The structure itself is 6 bricks tall so it is elevated terrain within the expanded rules for MFZ.

'Side View' With our turret and yes there is a ladder!

Here is the side view of our set including a shot of the turret. This is also where our ladder is, can you make it past the turret? More about that idea later :)

Back of Set open...and introducing my cat...

Back of the Set Closed

So my over all thoughts? I like it but when I played around with it I found some problems. When closed the dome gets in the way of trying to move frames around on the top. Also the space inside is too tight to move Chubs around. Most likely better off sealing it off. I am thinking of removing the dome and putting on a helipad (and here is your helicopter). With the right bricks added it could look like a base guarded by frames.

This isn't all though, there is more! We have a drone!

For Scale

Honestly, I got nothing. It looks cool but I don't know what to do with it...right now it is looking like parts.

Alright, let's talk about the Chub and the weapons that come in the set for the figures.

Here we have a Chub standing next to one of the figures and as you can see the Cub is very much taller. Looks like it could be a power suit for a guy. The Chub is also holding a machine gun and a knife from the set.

At this angle it is a bit easier to see the scale. I think both the knife and the gun are too small plus I had to take the stock off the gun just to make it fit into the Chub's hand. Though look at that crate!

I love this crates; I like the idea of crates made for frames to open and this looks perfect for that. Wish I could just buy a bag of these things.

There was also grenades (too small) and a trench shovel...

So final thoughts at the moment? I am happy with my purchase and I am looking forward to playing around with it to make it perfect for my needs. What about you MoF0s?

House Rule Special: Turret

So the set comes with a turret and it is something I would like to try to utilize but how? Houserules, that is how! Otherwise it could just be a cool station!

So first, mounted turret: A mounted turret is stationary. A turret first in a fixed 180 degree arch established at the start of game. The barrel of the gun should be used to show the middle of the firing arch. Taking control of a turret follows the rules of seizing a station but a frame must stay within melee range to keep using a turret.

A frame that controls a mounted turret may use the turret's d6Rd d6Rd d8Rd (too powerful?) instead of it's own weapon dice. If a frame is to use the turret's attack system then it must move after the attack. Turrets provide cover. Any confirm hit to a turret takes it out. (Maybe two, with a first hit reducing it to d6Rd d6Rd?).

Automated Turret: Automated turrets use the same rules as turrets except for the following rules. Turrets are not operated by frames but still can be seized. At the start of a game a turret is either allied to a squad (who they won't shoot) or independent (shoots everyone). When a turret is seized it changes its affiliation to the squad that just seized it. In special scenarios it may not be possible to seize an automated turret.

Moving into an automated turret's firing arch causes it turn to activate, shooting at the frame that just entered it's range. Like frames, an automated turret only actives once per round.

Not yet play tested, please let me know if you do!

Thoughts?