Why Bigger Maps are Best in BattleTech
If you’ve ever read any BattleTech novels, watched a game unfold on the tabletop or played any of the video games you know that fights between mechs take place at ridiculously close ranges compared to actual armored combat as we know it today. Whereas our own modern tanks can reach out with their guns well beyond two miles, some of the longest-ranged weapons carried by mechs and vehicles in BattleTech top out at under a kilometer. The holiest of holy weapons in BattleTech, the one that all mechjocks love, the trusty medium laser, has a canonical range of just 270 meters! A real-life rifle shoots way farther than that!
But all ribbing aside, I do think this conceit is one of the things that makes BattleTech so fun. Colossal shootouts occur at whites-of-the-eyes ranges, often literally! The notion of two giant robotic vehicles tearing each other apart in a point-blank, one-on-one firestorm is nothing short of awesome. You’ll get no complaints from me!
But, even though most of the firefights in BattleTech are portrayed as happening at these short ranges, I don’t believe forcing the fight into these ranges is a good thing. And that outcome is all but certain if you play on a map or board that is too small. I’ll explain why below.
Room to Run is Room for Fun
I assert that your average BattleTech player conducts a game on a map that is far too small to let the mechanics of the game really shine. How so? Small maps basically take all of the maneuver elements out of the proceedings.
When you are constrained to playing on a single map sheet, or maybe two for larger engagements, it is the tactical equivalent of a knife fight in a phone booth: You are constantly entangled with your opponent, withdrawal is impossible, and the only thing that matters is piling on enough damage to stop them before they do the same to you. You won’t be able to find favorable avenues of approach or escape, exploit cover to its fullest or standback and conduct a proper firefight. It is this tendency to cram the game into too small a space that leads to an entirely common occurrence in a game of BattleTech, what I call the the Kickfest; an event which usually ends in a Boot Party.
Kickfests look like this: Both sides get in one turn of shooting as they charge forward, maybe two, and then they meet in close combat and kick it out somewhere near the middle of the map. In BT, Mech-sized kicks are both very damaging, highly likely to cripple and also highly likely to knock down one or both mechs that are so engaged. Those piloting skill rolls will get you in the end! After one mech falls, or maybe both, wingmen from both Kickfest participants will arrive and then the Boot Party begins with any mech on the ground being the guest of honor. Soon enough, one mech is stomped out, being unable to regain its feet and severely disadvantaged trying to shoot from prone.
While undeniably spectacular and for some of us the real joy of the game, this is not what I would call a complex or fulfilling wargame exercise. Strictly in game terms, it is not the best use of your mechs, especially if you’re playing in a campaign setting or multiple linked scenarios where the disposition of your forces at the end of a battle has real consequences for the next one. Why carry all these sweet future weapons if you are just going to brawl? Well, it did happen plenty in the lore…
Small Maps Hamstring Some Mechs
My other major gripe about small maps is that light mechs are unduly punished. Light mechs are usually phenomenal scouts, harassers and flankers, and sometimes backstabbers able to dance around larger foes. But they don’t hold up to more than a turn or two in a serious exchange of fire and they really aren’t designed to, either. A light mech’s speed, ability to get to where it is least welcomed, and ability to quickly threaten crippled or out-of-position units are its best attributes
When you play on a small map these attributes count for little. Unable to lurk out of range, dash from cover point to cover point or exploit circuitous paths to gain advantage, what invariably happens is that light mechs are forced to play against their weaknesses for the duration of the game. They can run the gauntlet and try to take the back of a larger mech, be used as a sacrificial decoy, or committed in a vain attempt to add a little bit of weight to a firefight before they get turned to wholesale scrap.
My point is that light mechs are truly handicapped on small maps. Without any room to really run, no room to maneuver, no space in which to gallop, larger, tougher mechs that can survive the Kickfest, an event that will occur, become the only sensible choices for your BV budget. Lights will be relegated to using up leftover points only, or played for the rare objective game where speed counts above all other considerations.
Objective Games Work Better on Big Maps
Speaking of objectives, larger map size is especially important if you’re playing with any kind of objective, no matter what it is. I’ve watched several games go down where one force had to either break through enemy lines and move off the map edge opposite the deployment zone to win; on a single map sheet, the advancing player was able to do it in just three turns, and six turns on two sheets! For the former, defenders quite literally did not have enough time to lay guns and do enough damage to impede their progress, and the dismay on the defending player’s face was apparent.
On a slightly different tack, any sort of objective raid is made much more interesting on a larger board: steal the supplies, destroy the building, targeted takedown, whatever. Giving defenders more room is giving them ability and opportunity to mount an effective defense without being stuck right on top of the objective. This makes life much harder for the attackers but it also gives them an interesting, and fair, challenge. Starting any objective game on a smaller map means it is likely, if not certain, that the attackers will start within range of the objective.
From there, your only choice to prolong the festivities is to make the target extremely tough. An option, perhaps, but not an ideal one sometimes. These are just a few examples of how larger maps promote better objective play, but I could go on.
Broaden Your Horizons, or at Least the Map Boundaries
The solution to these insidious problems, obviously, is to simply play on a bigger map as a matter of policy; a significantly bigger map than you would think you need for the size of engagement you are playing.
If I’m playing a bog-simple two-on-two with mechs only, I want to play on at least two map sheets, and I can make a great argument for four placed in a 2×2 or 1×4 arrangement depending on the mission. If I am on a 3D terrain board, I think a 3’x3’ is the bare minimum, and 4’x4’ or 6’x4’ is a lot better once you start adding more units and objectives beyond “eliminate the other team. Remember that it is possible to start one player farther in on the field if and when appropriate!
But ultimately, it’s your game and you and your guys should play however you want. If you do in fact desire every, single game to be a short, vicious and violent affair, where luck decides the outcome as much as tactics, smaller maps will facilitate that. If you just want some honest-to-goodness arena combat, a single mapsheet might be the way to go. But if you want to kick in more nuance and subtleties no matter what rule set or optional rules you are using, take my advice and use a bigger map than you think you need. The terrain will be more important, your tactics can become more sophisticated and all unit choices will be a lot more meaningful.
Put it to the test and see what you think.
