There might be some confusion about how to assign equipment and critical slots to 'Mechs, so this is a clarification to describe exactly what you can and can't do.

As in normal BattleTech, all 'Mechs have a certain amount of critical slots available to them for equipment placement. These slots are in the same places as their normal BattleTech counterparts, and in the same amounts. If you check the the armour diagram, these critical slots should be visible as being defined by thick black lines. All 'Mechs, regardless of their size, have these critical slot locations, and the same amount (exceptions being advanced rules and quad 'Mechs which have four legs). Due to this, a Renegade Tech 'Mech cannot mount equipment that a normal BattleTech 'Mech can't, and a 'Mech design which is illegal under normal rules cannot ever be made legal under Renegade Tech rules.

This means that each arm has 12 critical slots (of which 4 on each are already filled), the head has 6 (1 free), the left and right torsos have 12 free slots, the centre torso has 2 free slots and each leg also has 2 free slots.

With the exception of the head, you'll notice that each thick black rectangle is actually made up of two smaller squares.

Placing equipment and weapons is actually quite easy. All equipment that requires a critical slot must be placed on the armour diagram, and must be located within the thick black borders of the critical locations. The actual location of the equipment is up to the player, and doesn't have to follow the critical slot rectangles already present if desired - they are mainly there to show areas which equipment cannot be placed in and to ease the placing process.

Simply follow these golden rules:

• All equipment must be placed within the Critical Slot areas on the armour diagram.
  Equipment cannot be placed anywhere the player likes in the internal structure.

  Legal placement	Non-legal placement - MGs out of the critical locations

• Equipment cannot be placed in areas that already contain equipment, nor can you move existing equipment for better placement of other equipment.
  For example, you cannot move an Engine Slot to be able to place a weapon there. The only exception to this, is with some arm locations that can be removed (but not moved) as per normal BattleTech rules.

  Legal placement	Non-legal placement - HA moved

• Equipment that requires multiple critical slots must have all the slots placed adjacent to each other.
  Critical slots cannot be placed diagonally.

  Legal placement	Non-legal placement - AC critical slots not adjacent

• Equipment which takes up critical slots but isn't actually placed on the armour diagram (such as Ferro Fibrous armour) isn't placed on the Renegade Tech armour diagram either, but the amount of slots it should occupy are not available for other equipment placement - as normal.
• Equipment doesn't have to be placed within the two square black rectangles already printed on the record sheet within the critical slot locations. However, if placing equipment outside of these areas, all critical slots take up two small squares, and all normal placement guidelines apply.

  Legal placement	Non-legal placement - AC critical slots not adjacent

The Head is a slightly different case. The head may take one critical location and it may only be placed in one location - between the two Sensor mounts. In addition, the critical slot only has one internal square for it, not the usual two.

Using these guidelines should produce a legal record sheet every time.