Mechaton rules questions

[Cooper]

Hello,
I purchased this game for my little brother-in-law (13) who happens to be the proud owner of the biggest collection of Lego collection I have ever seen. I have been going over the rules so I can teach him how to play when I give him this game on Christmas and so far, I have a couple of questions. I am not a war gamer and even though I liked Legos, I was never really a Lego person, so forgive my ignorance here:

1.) What is a "9-Long Ruler" (or a "6-long ruler" for that matter)? There are pictures on page 25, but there are several pieces in that diagram, so I am confused. I was thinking of purchasing a couple of hex boards if they have them at the game shop, but in case they do not, I figured I should know what these ruler things are.

2.) What is the total number of dice I will need for 2 players? I figured that it would be best to buy him as many dice as needed possible in case he needs them.

Here is what I came up with:
1d12 (any color?)
16d10 (any color?)
16d6 (white)
16d6 (red)
16d6 (green)
8d8 (red)
8d8 (green)

Is that correct? What about blue and yellow d6s (it stated you needed a zillion and half zillion)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dustin

[Cooper]

Oooops! The most would be 5 players, with 2-4 Mechs each. So, I obviously got my dice number wrong. Sorry.

[cdr]

That's a fine number of dice, including a few extras for getting lost.  The d12 can be any color (I like a big red one, since its The Doomsday Clock).  I also like having different color d10s for each player so they can just be placed next to each mech when rolled, and removed when the Mech gets its turn.  A Mech with fewer than 4 attachments gets multiple initiative dice, so if you don't have lots of d10's you can just make notes instead, but that seems slower to me.

You should have a blue die for each mech and half as many yellow dice, although extra yellow dice are nice.

You could play with as few as 4 each white, red, green d6 and red and green d8, but it'll go faster if every player has his own set of 2 each of white, red, green d6, 1 or 2 red d8, and 1 green d8, plus the blue and yellow dice and d10s as noted above.

As for rulers, Vincent explained in a recent thread:

We play with a ruler about 1/6 the diagonal of the table. On our usual table, that's a 9-unit ruler (with each unit being 5 cm Ithink). When I play on a smaller table, I knock units off the ruler. On a bigger table, I'd increase the size of the units instead - 40 units is about the maximum size I'd want for the world's x or y axis.

So for instance, if you have a 4' round table (48") use 8" for artillery range (or the standard 9" is fine).
If you're putting two 2'x4' tables together then 9" is again fine, with each unit being an inch, and starting things at least 4 inches in from the edges (so you have a 40x40 playing space).

If you're using a bigger table then your units need to be bigger too, or otherwise the Mechs will spend all their time trying to move closer and artillery will be too useful.  A 'unit' is how far you can move if you roll 1 for movement, and its the range for HTH attacks.  An inch is typical on small tables.  In Vincent's quote above he's using 2" (5cm).

Have fun with your Christmas Mayhem!

[Cooper]

Thank you for your help!

That is a LOT of dice.....by my calculations, for 5 people with two mechs each that would be:
1d12
20d10
90d6 (20 each of white, red, green and 10 of yellow)
40d8 (20 each of red and green)

I am going to check to see if our game store has those "mini-dice" because this is going to get expensive (thank god this kid has legos). Or maybe just get enough dice for two players with two mechs each. I guess that would be 1d12, 4d10, 16d6 (4 each of red, white, green, blue and 2 yellow) and 4 red d8s and 4 green d8s.

So for instance, if you have a 4' round table (48") use 8" for artillery range (or the standard 9" is fine).

are you sure you are not talking about "Direct Fire Range," because I thought artillery range was anywhere on the map, while direct fire range was that weird "9-Long" thing? The table that my in-laws play games on (they are really big into "killer bunnies") is a round table of 48 inches. So, direct fire range would be 8" (if we were not using a hex map)... unless I am the one who has this backwards (damn you math!).

[lumpley]

Oh holy cow no! 90d6? No! Yikes!

The table needs 4-6 white d6, 4-6 red d6, 3-4 green d6. For blue and yellow d6, I bought a little brick of 36 mini-sized each, and it's more than we need - really all you need is 1 blue d6 and 1/2 yellow d6 per mech. Since the rules accommodate battles up to around 20 mechs, if you have 20 blue d6 and 10 yellow d6 you'll be set.

The table needs 1-3 red d8 and 1-2 green d8.

It needs a doomsday clock, which can be a d12 or a piece of paper.

Then, yeah, 20d10 will set you up for all the d10s you could possibly use.

But no seriously, 4-6 white d6 will be plenty and then some. You can play okay with as few as 2 white, 2 red, 2 green, plus not quite a blue per mech (like, 8 blue for 10 mechs) and a half dozen yellows. Don't go buy 90 d6.

Saying "8" for artillery range" would just mean that direct fire range ends at 8" and artillery range starts at 8". (Artillery range isn't anywhere on the map, it's anywhere on the map outside of direct fire range.)

-Vincent

[Cooper]

I am so glad! I was thinking that the most expensive thing on this game was the legos, not the dice (we got the legos covered).

Cool! Then all I need is green, blue and yellow d6s, and red and green d8s.

Thanks a lot you two!

Dustin

[cdr]

Sorry!  I should have been clearer I meant dice per player, not dice per mech!  But there's nothing wrong with sharing dice, so go with Vincent's numbers.

[Mantisking]

I got by using five bricks of 16 dice each (Red, Blue, Yellow, White, and Green) for d6's with a handful of d10's.  We had plenty of dice left over, although this was only for a two player game.

[David Artman]

Vincent, can you split and sticky your dice count explanation? I (and others) will likely refer to it when I get the book and am at my FLGS buying (more) dice.

Of course, that's AFTER I find Chessex Borealis Black-on-Clear--the ONLY dice I now buy--in bulk for d4s and d8 to play Dogs (what is it with you and fistfuls of dice?).