Suggestions for Adapting Mage Knight for Battletech
     by Dave Van Domelen

     Mage Knight rules are already pretty well suited for playing 3025-era
Battletech.  Very few changes need to be made other than renaming things to
fit the look and feel of Battletech.

New Rules

     1. Mechs may not capture or be captured.
     2. Mechs with a ranged attack get +1 to their Attack if the target is
within half their printed range.  Ranged attacks may be made out to twice the
printed range, but the Mech is at -1 Attack if the target is outside of the
printed range.
     3. When a Mech is destroyed, roll one die and subtract two.  If the
result is equal to or less than the number of stars on the base (* Green, 
** Veteran, *** Elite), the pilot ejects safely.
     4. Victory points = Total of your surviving Mechs + Total of enemy Mechs
destroyed with pilot ejection + 2xTotal of enemy Mechs destroyed with pilot
failing to eject.

Changed Terms

     Pushing now becomes Heat Damage.
     Unit strengths are Green (Weak), Veteran (Standard) and Elite (Tough).

Special Ability Card

SPEED

     Charge - Renamed Jump Jets.  Making a close combat attack at the end of
the move is called Death From Above.  While only mounted units have this
ability in Mage Knight, it's fairly common in BattleTech Knight.
     Quickness - Unchanged.
     Magic Levitation - Not used in BattleTech Knight.
     Flight - Renamed Jump Jets.  Yes, Mechs get both Charge and Flight
together, never just one of the two.  So you get the half and half squares.
     Aquatic - Unchanged, but not used much, if ever.
     Stealth - Renamed Passive ECM, otherwise unchanged.
     Bound - Not used.

DAMAGE

     Berserk - Renamed Override Shutdown.  Mechs on this click do not get
enhanced abilities like Berserking MK characters, but lose the ability to use
ranged attacks.
     Magic Enhancement - Not used.
     Battle Fury - Irrelevant, as there is no capturing.
     Demoralized - Renamed Critical Damage.
     Necromancy - Not used.
     Command - Renamed C-Cubed.  Modified, it loses the healing aspect.
However, more figures have C-Cubed and they have more clicks of it.

ATTACK

     Healing - Not used.
     Weapon Master - Renamed Battle Axe.
     Magic Blast - Renamed Indirect Fire.  Modified: to target through
Blocking terrain, the attacker must have a friendly unit with Line of Sight
on the target to relay coordinates.
     Flame/Lightning - Renamed Missile Pods.
     Shockwave - Replaced by a new ability.  "Rear Weapon" allows the unit to
make a Ranged Combat action through its rear arc, at -1 Attack.
     Vampirism - Not used.
     Magic Healing - Not used.

DEFENSE

     Battle Armor - Renamed Active ECM.  Same combat effects.
     Pole Arm - Renamed Antipersonnel.  Same combat effects.
     Magic Immunity - Not used.
     Toughness - Renamed Heavy Armor.
     Defend - Not used.
     Regeneration - Not used.
     Invulnerability - Renamed Defensive Suite, changed to simply duplicate
the effects of having both Active ECM and Heavy Armor.  It has to be weakened
because there's no healing in thie version of the game.

Factions

     For the most part, all units exist in all factions, but some units are
unique to one faction.  Same formation rules for factions, so a Davion can't
make a formation with a Steiner, etc.


Sample Mechs

     I'm using the "Unseen" here, the Mecha based on designs owned by Harmony
Gold and coming from Robotech and other properties.  This is because I've
been out of Battletech so long they're almost the only ones I can remember.  
     The notation "Speed (8/8/9)" means that the Green units have 8, the
Veteran units have 8 and the Elite units have 9.
     Unless specified, all have Critical Damage on their last click and
Override Shutdown on the second last.
     I have no idea what the points values would be.

     Locust - Speed (8/8/9), Attack (6/7/8), Defense (11/12/13), Range 4,
Damage (1/1/1), Clicks (4/5/6).  Green has no special abilities, Veteran has
one click of Quickness, Elite has two.
     Shadowhawk - Speed (6/7/7), Attack (8/8/9), Defense (13/14/15), Range 6,
Damage (1/2/2), Clicks (5/6/7).  All have Jump Jets (1, 2 and 2 clicks
respectively) and Indirect Fire (1, 1, 2 clicks).
     Archer - Speed (3/4/5), Attack (9/10/11), Defense (15/16/17), Range 12,
Damage (3/3/4), Clicks (6/7/8).  All have Indirect Fire (2/2/3) and Rear
Weapon (3/4/5).
     Marauder - Speed (4/4/5), Attack (10/11/12), Defense (15/15/16), Range
10, Damage (3/4/4), Clicks (7/8/9).  All have Heavy Armor (2/2/3).  The
dreaded jumpjet variant takes one less click of damage before destruction,
but has Jump Jets (1/2/2) and costs a lot more.