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Loadout and Construction

Every mech in this game is defined by a grid like this:

When I say defined, I mean fully defined. First, the basics:

• Every frame (basically a chassis for a kind of mech) has HP (Hull Points!) equal to its grid size. So the one you see above has 12HP.
• Every frame has a unique trait based on its grid’s size and shape. (This one gets more movement for having oversized thrusters, for instance.)
• Each component you see listed there has a specific designation as to what it does (some of them relative to the mech’s size) as well as a shape and size. Weapons can’t be rotated but can be flipped.

And then the advanced stuff.

• Every mech is built around a reactor. That needs to power (read: be placed adjacent to) the thrusters, any shields (not present here), any processors, and electronic weaponry.
• Processors need to be be adjacent to anything they benefit. (In this case, the processor benefits the blade and shotgun.) They can also extend reactor power and the effects of any other linked Processors.

So that grid you see there really does define what it’ll do! There are a few other things, though, which we’ll get into when we get into…

Combat

So not only is this grid a matter of construction, it’s extremely relevant to combat.

During combat, when someone rolls to attack, they roll d66 (if unfamiliar, two d6’s with one of them acting as “tens”). Then they compare it to their target’s grid, laid on a 6x6 grid like so:

• If it lands outside the mech’s grid, it misses.
• If it hits your mech in their grid, that part gets damaged (takes a penalty). If every square in a part is damaged, it’s destroyed (including parts with one square, which are uniquely vulnerable). Reactor squares that get damaged don’t power anything attached to them, and if your reactor is destroyed, you’re history.
• If a shot hits a square that was already damaged, it crits.

Complicating things is Accuracy, which is reduced by the target’s Evasion (which is based on how much they’ve moved on their last turn).

• Positive accuracy means the attacker may move the result 1 square up, down, left, or right on that 6x6 grid.
• Negative accuracy means the defender may move the result in the same way. (They can’t move it off the 6x6 grid, but they can make an attack miss.)

A few different permutations of weapons complicate this:

• Single-shot and strong melee weapons tend to have higher accuracy and do more damage on crits, making them better at targeting specific parts.
• Full auto, fast melee weapons, and multiple missiles hitting a target at once make multiple hit rolls for less damage and less crit, but Accuracy is spread out evenly among all attacks (for better or worse): for instance, -5 Accuracy spread out over 5 attacks becomes -1 Accuracy to all of those 5 attacks, meaning even very fast light mechs can’t fully outpace a huge volume of fire.
• Explosive weapons have low accuracy, but if they hit, they damage both the target square and everything adjacent (and some deal a bit of damage everything in the area even on a miss).
• Electronic weapons don’t do almost any damage but disable parts temporarily even when damaging them and ignore armor and shields.

And this ties into construction:

• Shield generators provide an HP buffer to anything adjacent to them that gets hit…but if they get hit directly that buffer drains faster. Bigger generators cover more squares and provide a bigger buffer.
• You’ll have to be careful about chains of power from processors! They can extend power but they’re extremely fragile, and if they’re hit they’re not coming back. (There is an emergency Repair option but it takes 2/3 of the actions on your turn and doesn’t work on destroyed parts.) They do chain effects, though, so high risk, high reward.
• Heavy/Ultra mechs have armor, which reduces damage: any square that takes 0 damage does not affect the protected part.

So there you go! That’s The Grid.