Created by Simon "Elbola" Calcutt Based on Battletech universe of Wizkids Play-tested by: Mystic, Skandranon, Mistake, Khan-Blade, ExecutionR, Templis, Champion, Zoid, and Harad. Battletech Diplomacy Webpage: www.geocities.com/elbola1/ TABLE OF CONTENTS GAME MECHANICS 1.0 Requirements 1.1 Object of the game 1.2 Unit break down 1.3 Unit Option 1.4 Starting/setup 1.5 Turns PRINCIPLES OF WAR 2.0 Meetings 2.1 Underlying economic structure of the game 2.2 Clan Transport Points 2.3 Loss of a center 2.4 Impending doom 2.5 Death of a unit 2.6 War Table MOVEMENT OF THE ARMY 3.0 Move by jumpship 3.1 Retreats 3.2 Disbanded Units 3.3 Attacks/battles 3.4 Recon mission 3.5 Raid mission VICTORY BY ALL MEANS 4.0 Destroying disbanded forces 4.1 Jumpships 4.2 Space Offensive 4.3 Mercenary attacks and defense 4.4 Mercenary buying mechs BLAKE'S DREAM 5.0 Role of Comstar 5.1 Upgrading Factories and Aerodromes 5.2 Purchasing Factories and Aerodromes 5.3 Ares Conventions 5.4 Nukes OPTIONAL RULES 6.0 Solaris games 6.1 Salvage rights 6.2 Exchange rates 6.3 Star League Caches 6.4 Deception in the ranks 6.5 Spy Rules 6.6 Word of Blake Note to Gamemasters/admin SECTION 1 - GAME MECHANICS 1.0 REQUIREMENTS ICQ or other agreed upon online chat system, these rules, a Battletech Diplomacy Starmap, 3050 pdf map, acrobat reader(to view the pdf), and some free time. [Minimal number of players is 5(one for each house) and 1 admin(Comstar)] 1.1 OBJECT OF THE GAME Using the rough idea of the old classic game of Diplomacy from the 50's and Wizkids' Battletech universe, we've created Battletech Diplomacy. The object of the game varies depending on the player type you choose from. There are 4 types of players in the Inner Sphere (the human sphere of influence spanning 150 light years from earth) House Lord: Playing as one of the five House Lords you're goal is to maintain internal stability of your realm with your lesser nobles while waging war with the clans and/or houses. To win as a House Lord you must surivive and eliminate both the House Lords and Clans ability to wage war. Lesser Noble: As one of the lesser nobles within one of the five houses. You run a "district" within a great house and have to contend with inter-house politics while making sure that your House Lord doesn't neglect your region of space. While you can contest and even rebel against your own Lord, this is often deadly. Your main goal to win is similar to your Lord's with the exception that you're out only for your district's welfare, not necessarily the entire house. Clan Khan: Some admin may opt to not include the clans as they drag out the duration of the game since they are not so easily destroyed as a house is in comparison.The clans initially do not own any worlds in the Inner Sphere and have to claim their occupation zones through an invasion. Their arrival date and attack corridor of each clan are determined by either trial or agreement with the ilKhan. For a clan to win they must have a secure supply line between the periphery to Terra and be the first clan to land on and hold Terra until Comstar and/or WoB can no longer attempt to reclaim it. Mercenary Commander: The mercenary commander has possibly the toughest job and also the easiest. They tend to own between a company to a regiment in mechs and own no worlds of their own. It is their job to seek out contracts with either lesser nobles or house lords to grow rich and powerful. Mercenaries have set dates at which the Mercenary Review Board determines a winning merc unit. This is normally the richest and most intact after about 5-10 years of active serivce. The player can then decide if they wish to remain in the game or if they wish to retire their unit. The average turn (although this can be modified by the admin to suit their time restraints) generally consists of one real life week. During Monday through to Friday, players are encouraged to meet with one another to write up contracts, make defense and offensive agreements, and other verbal meetings with other players. Then on Saturday your unit's orders are issued to the admin. Comstar puts out it's weekly news cast based on rough things in the turn orders or complete fabrication. Then by Monday (depends on the admin) your unit results are sent back to you with details like your fiancial balance and how the battles your forces were in fared. The game usually ends when all or most parties feel that they cannot defeat a successful house or clan and victory is declared. The alternative is that if there is no clear winner by a pre-determined date then the best off of each player type by that date is declared the winner of the game in their catagory. 1.2 UNIT BREAK DOWN Below are the common units units in the Inner Sphere by both Inner Sphere and Clans. INNER SPHERE UNITS Regiment (27 lances) Battalion (9 lances) Company (3 lances) Lance (4 mechs) CLAN UNITS Galaxy (3 Clusters) Cluster (3 Binary/Trinary) Trinary (3 stars) Binary (2 stars) Star (5 mechs) 1.3 UNIT OPTIONS Lyran Commonwealth House Lord: Archon Steiner Skye Province: Duke Alarion Province: Duke Bolan Province: Duke Coventry Province: Duke Donegal Province: Duke Federated Suns House Lord: Prince Davion Crucis March: Duke Draconis March: Duke Capellan March: Duke Capellan Confederation House Lord: Chancellor Liao Tikonov Commonality: Prefect Sarna Commonality: Prefect Capella Commonality: Prefect St. Ives Commonality: Prefect Sian Commonality: Prefect Free Worlds League House Lord: Captain-General Marik Marik Commonwealth: Duke Abbey District: Duke Rim Commonality: Duke Duchy of Andurien: Duke Principality of Regulus: Duke Draconis Combine House Lord: Coordinator Kurita Pesht Military District: Duke Dieron Military District: Duke Galedon Military District: Duke Benjamin Military District: Duke Rasalhague Military District: Duke Kell Hounds Mercenaries Wolf's Dragoon's Mercenaries Grey Death Leagion Mercearies McCarron's Armored Cavalry Mercenaries Lindon's Company Mercenaries 21st Centari Lancers Mercenaries Eridani Light Horse Mercenaries Hansen's Roughriders Mercenaries Waco Rangers Mercenaries Crater Cobras Mercenaries Clan Jade Falcon Clan Wolf Clan Ghost Bear Clan Smoke Jaguar 1.4 STARTING/SETUP Each unit starts with a number of regiments(galaxies for clans), jumpships, and c-bills. It is up to the commanders to place these well. An undefended border is easy prey. The clans will not use the c-bill system and cannot hire mercenaries as that would be unclanlike. Each house will get mech production centers(6 per house) that may be established on any world in their space. All units will get their starting info of how many jumpships and regiments(galaxies) they start with and may station them on any world they wish in their space. Clanners do not start with planets and must win them before they can station their forces. Until that time all their forces remain off map. Before the clans can invade they must hold a vote as to who among them will act as ilkhan and designate which clans get what attack corridor on the coreward side of the Inner Sphere(Top side). It is generally advised that players do NOT trust on tradition canon relationships between units as this is a false notion and can lead to your units untimely demise. 1.5 TURNS Turns will go in the following phases: -Turn Comstar News(Not always 100% fact) -(Battle outcomes will be calculated and reported back to those involved) -Clans will receive "transport points" that allow them to call on help from home. -Money will be distributed according to the number of factories owned. -Mechs will be distributed based on the number of mech factories owned. -Mercenaries will recieve pay from employers(if they sent out a paycheck) -Mercenaries will recieve the mechs they ordered in the previous turn and cash will be subtracted from their accounts if resources were avalible. -Monday-Friday players are welcome to meet each other privately to scheme, plot, plan, deal and the like over ICQ, email or other online chat system.(Lying is allowed as is the selling or leaking of meeting information, basicly no rules for these meetings.) -Friday from 12am-11:59pm all will "issue" your orders (NOTE!!! The order the issues are recieved will be the order played out. Please use jot note form.) to the admin via email (elbola1@yahoo.com) in the format below: 1) Movement of your troops:retreats,holding,recons,troop movement,by pirate point,normal,or by jumpship 2) Attacking:who and where, then with what forces(just your forces not your allies. They decide if they are going to help you or not.) 3) Payments to Mercenaries:Not what others are expected to pay you, they may not 4) Payments to Comstar:include for what services(See section 5 Blakes dream) -By Monday turns will begin again (Optional lenght)One real week will be seen as 6 months Inner Sphere time. 2 weeks being a whole year. If deemed so you can also play as 1 week equals 1 year. (decided by comstar) SECTION 2 - PRINCIPLES OF WAR 2.0 MEETINGS Monday-Friday are the planning days. You meet with those that you wish to lie or bargain with for what you want. If you choose to ignore this part of the game you will find that you will not last long alone. The game is created so each house is basically even. If you do not make deals and plans to unbalance this then you will not win. Simple as that. There are very few restrictions on these bargains which can range from offering to send all your forces to defend an ally, to offering to buy out a mercenary from under another players nose. Or you may decide it is one-sided to help your ally and leave him/her hanging. Clanners may challenge each other in trials if they wish over planets, honor, whatever but the fights won't be done until orders are issued at week's end. 2.1 UNDERLYING ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE GAME Each Great House at the beginning will be given 6 HOME mech production centers. Each HOME center will produce a battalion (9 lances) per turn. A production center may fall under the control of various foreign Houses as the game progresses. If a production center is captured and it is not retaken the turn after, it will produce a Company of mechs per turn. You must control a enemy center for a turn before it can produce a Company per turn. For each center a House Lord owns he will be paid 5 billion c-bills per turn. C-bills can be used for bribing, buying mercenaries, or if you have a lot of money, use it to purchase some advancement from Comstar for a slight advantage. Any money NOT spent will recieve 2% interest the next turn. If a clan captures a IS production center then after 2 turns it will produce a binary of mechs. Clans depend on transport points instead of c-bills. See section 2.2 clan transport points. 2.2 CLAN TRANSPORT POINTS Clanners don't get c-bills, they get transport points. The more honor you gain by each victory, the more transport points you gain. 1 point will allow you to bring in 1 new binary to the IS along the coreward border(Top of map). Transport points can also be used to call a trial of refusal against another clan or to call a ilkhan election. 100 transport points gives a clan the ability to cast two votes in the same ilkhan election. This can be used to vote for the same person twice, and thus help win the election. 2.3 LOSS OF A CENTER If you loose all your centers then you can not produce any mechs. If you have sufficient numbers left though you can continue to try and retake your lost production centers. Technically, a House is not out of the game till they can no longer hold or retake their production centers. Loss of a center also means a deduction of 5 billion c-bills that would normally go to your account. 2.4 IMPENDING DOOM If your unit's demise is clear and you rather go out with a bang than a wimper these are your options. You man choose to scrap your jumpships so that they are not captured. Send your remaining forces underground as guerrilla forces(disband). If you are playing with a clear route to the core you can pack up your jumpships with as many troops as you can and leave the IS(this is only an option if game is planning on including the clans and explorer corps rules). The other option is the "final stand". This recalls all your forces to one frontline world to assault your foe with a +6 bonus in attack but all your forces will go down in a continued assault till all of your forces or all of theirs are gone. If the final stand is successful then your units all suffer from weariness and take a -2 attack the following turn. Final stand can then not be used again. 2.5 DEATH OF A UNIT If a House dies, it is out of the game and all remaining jumpships go to the victor if they have not been scrapped or destroyed. Remember that a unit is only dead when their military can no longer fight and/or they cannot produce any more forces. If a clan dies to a IS unit then they are dishonored and that house, merc, or lesser noble unit gains a tech bonus for attack and defense. If a clan dies to a clan, the winning clan gains 100 transport points. If a merc unit dies nothing happens other than that unit is cleared from the map and his c-bill account defaults to Comstar. 2.6 WAR TABLES Combat in Battletech Diplomacy depends primarily on these tables. RANDOM MODIFIERS TO ATTACK VALUES Ambush -4 Command lost -4 Comm jam -3 Disorganized drop -3 Friendly fire -2 Lost logisitics -2 Damaged supplies -2 Bad weather -1 No Bonus +0 Add second mod (second roll) Superior training +2 Accurate intel +2 Perfect combat conditions +1 Unprepared garrison +4 STANDARD DAMAGE PER UNIT Standard Damage Per Unit Lance = 1 Star = 2 Company = 3 Binary = 3 Trinary = 5 Battalion = 9 Cluster = 10 Regiment = 27 Galaxy = 30 RCT = 36 ATTACK TYPES Cost Modifiers Aggressive assault 5 million c-bills +3/-4 Military normal jump 10 million c-bills +1/+0 Military pirate jump 20 million c-bills +3/+1 Planned assault 15 million c-bills +2/+2 Normal assault 0 +0/+0 Cautious assault 5 million c-bills -4/+3 HALO Drop 10 million c-bills +2/+1 COMBAT ADVANTAGES Tech level 1 = +0/+0 Tech level 2 = +1/+1 Tech level 3 = +2/+2 Clan tech 1 = +2/+2 Clan tech 2 = +3/+3 Military Academy= +1/+1 SECTION 3 - MOVEMENT OF THE ARMY 3.0 MOVE BY JUMPSHIPS This is the movement of troops to a MILITARY jumpship with the intention of using the jumpship to get the additional points for attacking an area via either pirate(+2) or standard jump point(+1). It is automaticly assumed you use a civilian jumpship if you do not use one of your military jumpships. 3.1 RETREATS A unit may not retreat to any location that is occupied by the enemy, nor to a space which was left vacant due to mercenary abandonment during that turn. If the area that the unit occupies is cut off from friendly space then no place is available for retreat. If an attempt is made and the district is blocked off from friendly space then this unit is destroyed and removed;if this force includes a jumpship then that ship is captured. A player may choose to disband a unit, removing it from play, rather than to retreat it (see 3.2 disbanded units). An example of a retreat command is as follows. CC forces in SIC will retreat to CC if FS forces exceed 15 regiments. If you retreat to a neighboring district then that force is subtracted by a lance and now located in the new area. If the retreating force is only a lance and it includes a jumpship then the jumpship and the lance escape. If it is just a lance then the lance is destroyed. 3.2 DISBANDED UNITS Disbanded units go underground and can not be issued orders by their House Lord/commander; nor can they be attacked directly. It takes 3 turns to totally destroy a disbanded unit. If the area is liberated where a disbanded unit exists the disbanded unit then rejoins the game at a value equal to half of it's original value or full value if it is a lance. (See unit-rating table 1.2) The disbanded unit will minus one lance from the enemy occuping the area it occupies for each turn it is in existence. Disband can also be actived the same as a retreat order. Example: If CC forces in SIC are attacked by a force exceeding 12 regiments then disband force(which allows attacking house to claim the District but force goes underground.) 3.3 ATTACKS/BATTLES When you attack, you can only attack a neighboring location. Who wins in a battle depends on a point system(see war table 2.6). Random factors such as weather, the way you arrive in system, and with how many lances you attack with, will determine the points and who will win (See war table 2.6). A maximum of 4 players can be on any area at a time. 2 being defenders that have temporally allied and two being the attackers. If the two are allied in a district that has a production center then it is in the control the owner, if it is not the owner's then it is ignored. There are also several different attack orders you can issue your forces (see attack types table under 2.6). If you use an attack other than normal, it will cost your c-bill account to carry out the orders. If your account does not have the funds to see your order through. The order is cancelled and your troops go no where. An example of an attack order goes as follows. Example1 FS-Kittery: 1 regiment aggressive assaults CC-Taga. Example2 FS-Kittery:1 regiment HALO drops and aggressive assaults CC-Taga. 3.4 RECON MISSION A recon will provide the player with information on the size of a opposing force on a planet for the begining of the next turn in their turn data. A recon will use a force no larger than 1 Lance. Say you had a company at a planet. If you wanted to recon a enemy planet, 1 lance would not attack in the previous turn but would instead be ordered to provide recon. Then at the begining of the next turn. If you did a recon on an area then you will be provided with up to date data on the size of the force in that district. HOWEVER, there is a 20% chance the recon force will be intercepted. If it is, the recon force is destroyed and no damage will be done to the force who was being reconed. 3.5 RAID MISSION This attack steals mechs equal to the points done to a target. If you do a raid and get 4 points, instead of doing 4 mech damage you'll capture 4 mechs. BUT the opposing force will still do damage according to table 2.6 as in a normal attack. All raids get a -1 of defense damage to them because it is a quick strike, not a long campaign. SECTION 4 - VICTORY BY ALL MEANS 4.0 DESTROYING DISBANDED FORCES It takes 3 turns to fully drive out the disbanded forces from a world (It's a lot of space to hide in). For each turn they exist they will do 1 lance of damage to the owner of the district's forces. It requires a full company to dig out a disbanded force and destroy them. Once you have sent the order for them to hunt the disbanded forces, this company can no longer attack since it is occupied with the hunt. Although the company cannot attack it is still fully capable of defense although quite often it will face a "unprepared" loss. If an area has more than a company then the rest of the force can cover for the company in a defense or still attack as usual. Remember, if you only had a company on a planet to hunt the disbanded force, you'll have to keep sending another lance there for each of the 3 turns because you will lose a lance from the attack of the disbanded force. 4.1 JUMPSHIPS These are representing the rare military owned jumpships. Normal cross border movement is assuming that you are using merchant jumpships which are abundant. No one can ever produce more jumpships (although admin might hand out a new one to someone as a random event later in the game). As you already know a jumpship that pirate jumps gives an attacking army a large advantage. Unfortunately there is a 40% chance that the ship will mis-jump and arrive at a wrong location. If you do a standard jump there is a 2% chance of a miss-jump (hope you don't get the 2%). Jumpships should not be destroyed as this is against the Ares Conventions. This does not mean a ruthless House lord won't or a clan Khan won't although this is frowned upon and they probably will face severe punishment for doing so from the admin. If and when a clan space assault is possible, jumpships may be attacked by clanners or vice versa. For more on this see Space Offensive 4.2. 4.2 SPACE OFFENSIVE (optional rule) Space combat is very simple. A warship will always do 9 lance damage except for planetary assualt in which case it has a 50/50 chance of hitting and doing 27 lances damage. Jumpships and Warships have 54 lance hit points. 4.3 MERCENARY ATTACKS AND DEFENSE Contrary to normal shared defenses the Mercenary unit takes the heavier damage instead of the home unit(Unless specified in merc turn orders to admin). On the attack it would still act the same as a house unit except that they will hold a captured area till house regiments fill it or else the zone becomes a neutral area when the mercenaries abandon it. House Lords and Mercenaries make sure to include in your bargaining the portion of whom claims taken land and by what time since Mercenaries cannot claim the land in their name. When mercenaries are hired on by a house they can only attack an area that that house would be able to attack. 4.4 MERCENARIES BUYING MECHS Mercenaries use currency as a way to buy mechs. The purchasing of mechs will be through other houses and occassionally Comstar(admin). On Fridays a Mercenary may place an order with comstar or preferably a house lord for mechs. (Average of 20 billion c-bills for a lance) The price will vary with demand. Basically you will have to bargain with the house lord or admin for those since they hold the right to set what ever price they wish. Beware! There are times when no mechs are avalible for purchase! SECTION 5 - BLAKES'S DREAM 5.0 ROLE OF COMSTAR Comstar in the Battletech universe maintains a monopoly of all communication systems and banks. To simulate this all orders are issued through Comstar (admin). Comstar also make sure those orders make it to your troops on the frontlines. The admin informs you of how much money you have although you all should have an idea. Also, as Comstar's role in Battletech Diplomacy, the occasional order may be changed ever so slightly but this would be a rare occasion and will happen at random, to simulate the conspiracy that Comstar plots from time to time. Comstar will always provide communications to all houses unless someone is caught trying to cheat (I don't see how but you might try it.) If caught then Comstar will cut your ability to control your troops for a turn or two(big problems for you). Natural factors in the IS might also change how much currency is handed out to House Lords per turn. An example for that would be, water shortages cause you to send money to transport in fresh water. Thus this would come out of your normal income. Comstar might also hire mercenaries from time to time to pile on more trouble for the IS. If this happens the mercenaries would attack at random a house in the name of another house who (if the Mercenary wins) would gain some land or trouble if it was an ally. A news flash email will be sent out at the begining of every turn. This news can be filled with fact or fiction or a bit of both. If you want something specific in the news then ICQ or email the admin and ask for such. It will cost generally 1 million c-bills to fake 1 subject such as an attack on a district or information that you recieve numerous attacks or something creative to give you an advantage. Truthful articles are free of charge. SOME RESTRICTIONS on Comstar are: Terra owns 12 mech production centers. Thus Comstar can produce 4 regiments per turn. If the game master/admin desides to connect a Diplomacy/btech league to a 3050 Diplomacy/btech league then Comstar may want to be more restrictive on how many mechs it sells since it may need them to defend it self from the clans. Comstar also makes 60 billion c-bills per turn. 20 billion from people of earth and 40 billion from service charges on the banks and communications systems. Comstar will also own 2 jumpships and 1 warship. 5.1 UPGRADING FACTORIES This allows houses to spend 100 billion to upgrade 1 factory(flexible pricing). This will result in that factory being able to produce an extra company per turn. 5.2 BUYING NEW FACTORIES To purchase a IS factory(which produces 1 battalion per turn) it will cost a IS unit 500 billion c-bills. (Mercenaries cannot buy these but can ask a house to build one for them as part of their payment.) 5.3 ARES CONVENTIONS Ok, these are the laws of war basicly that if broken will cause major hardship to all players but heaviest on the one causing the breach of the law. 1. No killing jumpships 2. No nuking planets 3. No slaughtering of civilians 4. No "unprovoked" attacks on mercenaries directly or neutral worlds. 5. No destroying of factories, aerodromes, or shipyards. If any of the above are broken then this is what will happen: The offender's factories will drop to basic production of 1 lance per turn. All other houses will suffer the effects of this type of war with all their factories dropping production to 1 company per turn. All tech levels of all houses immediately drop to lowest levels. 5.4 NUKES Although band by the Ares Conventions, you CAN produce and use these. A losing force may wish to pull out everthing to hold back total defeat. Houses do not hold the ability to build their own nukes but they can buy them off the blackmarket. Costs for nukes range from 1000 billion - 1500 billion. When used on a planet they stand to destroy 100% of all enemy forces there along with a 50% chance of destroying a mech factory. These MUST be bought through Comstar's blackmarket. You can't buy them off of a house that bought one or anything like that. Nukes can be used only to hit frontline areas just like mechs. *note*:Using a nuke violates Ares Conventions 2,3,and possibly 5. SECTION 6 - OPTIONAL RULES 6.0 SOLARIS GAMES (Optional) Works like this. 5(one for each house) people who own mechwarrior 2,3,4,mercenaries or whatever will play 1 on 1 games with each other during a week. Players can then bet on certain players. If that player wins and a player bet on them then they will get back double what they bet. If they lose, the player gets zip. Note that house lords can bet on warriors from other houses. 6.1 SALVAGE RIGHTS (Optional) After a fight salvage of 10%(round up) of the total forces lost go to the "winner". Clans can salvage up to 20%(round down). 6.2 EXCHANGE RATES (Optional) Events that happen in different states effect their currency value. Not all houses h-bills(house-bill) are 100% equal to a standard c-bill(comstar-bill). All houses will always be paid house bills equal to the number of centers they own. (5 billion per center). But 1 billion in the Lyran Commonwealth could easily be equal to 500k in the Capellan Confed. This will be up to the gamemaster(comstar). It provides a way to stop mercenaries from always taking employment from a friend or long time ally. If they start taking 50% casualties and the money they are getting paid is only worth 25% of a c-bill then they better switch employment or lose their livelyhood. 6.3 STAR LEAGUE CACHES (Optional) To add more adventure for players. Include random findings of star league caches for units. Mercenaries and Houses could then deside if they wish to sell the tech or keep it for themselves. Caches range from mechs, tech upgrades, or other goodies that might aid a player. Example: Tech Level 2 (+1/+1) 6.4 DECEPTION IN THE RANKS (Optional) This is when the gamemaster(Comstar) accepts a cash amount from a house or mercenary, to accually be reported in the turn INFO as another unit. (Note: INFO not news). This can add to major backstabing fun. Use this carefully. It simulates the tactic of painting your mechs in the war colors of another unit and waving the banner of another. 6.5 SPY RULES (Optional) A Spy is a special unit with the following features: One spy per power. Secret moves - no one knows where a spy is . Spies may be sent ANYWHERE. Each spy has an Home. By default it is the Power's Capital (eg. Tharkad if Lyran).If the player looses its Capital, he must inform the Game Master of its new Home (any original planet, with or without production center). In each turn, a spy can move and then issue an order. The set of possible orders are: 1.Reveal - returns ALL spies on that district and in the adjacent ones and if there are any attachments to himself (see next point). It also reveals and deactivates any Sabotage (see below)in process by one of those spies. 2.Shadow Spy - if a Spy is revealed in the previous turn, this order "attaches" the spy to the tracked one. Where the tracked spy moves, the tracking spy also moves there. All orders issued by a tracked spy are void. When the tracking spy orders something different, the attachment is broken. 3.Return Home - the spy returns to his Home, and all attachments are broken. 4.Sabotage - prevents any building on that world. Takes effect the turn following the turn sabotage was issued. 5.Block - prevents the move of any regular unit (i.e., Lance or Jumpship). 6.Reveal Orders- must be ordered in the other player's Capital. This returns all orders issued by a player. 6.6 WORD OF BLAKE (Optional) The Word of Blake faction is unlike any other and is one to be feared. If you find the game is a bit slow, find a reliable player with experience. Word of Blake uses 10 regiments of mechs, but more importantly, has 10 spy units. Their goal is to destroy Comstar and all allied with it...and cause wide spread havok. Basicly they distrupt a dull game. Choose the player carefully cause WoB has much power and if not used properly could ruin the game for everyone. WoB can also purchase nukes at only 500 billion c-bills. They own two mech production centers, which can be secretly placed anywhere in the Inner Sphere. WoB mechs can slip by borders undetected and attack deep in other territories. This unit also recieves a +5/+5 fanatic attack/defense bonus in all combat. *NOTE TO GAME MASTERS* Many of these rules can be altered if need be and changed to fit minor problems you run across with different players. The IS is a big place with many events happening all over that are not covered by the rules. It is up to the game master if they wish these to have any effect. Some examples may be a Viral Epidemic or food shortage. And after extensive trial runs, try and limit the number of players to 30 or less as more means slower turns.