Each weapon does a differing type and amount of damage. Lasers dig deep into a 'Mech penetrating armour and internal structure, Autocannons explode on the surface causing a Mechs armour to be stripped away.
All weapons have their own template, which are shown here (35k)
Lasers:
- Inner Sphere Pulse lasers are the equivalent to their normal counterparts.
- Clan Pulse Lasers (save the small, which has it's own template) use the standard Clan ER templates.
Ballistic Weapons:
- Ultra ACs and LBX ACs in normal mode use the standard AC templates.
- Arrow IV system: Damages as four 5 point LRMs, and two 5 point LRMs in the neighbouring hexes.
- Artillery: Artillery damages as an LRM attack of the following strengths:
- Long Tom III: Attacks as four 5 point LRM attacks and two 5 point LRM attacks in the next hex
- Sniper Cannon: Attacks as two 5 point LRM attacks, and one 5 point LRM attack in the next hex
- Thumper Cannon: Attacks as one 5 point LRM attack, and one 3 point LRM attack in the next hex
- Sniper Cannon: Attacks as two 5 point LRM attacks, and one 5 point LRM attack in the next hex
- Long Tom III: Attacks as four 5 point LRM attacks and two 5 point LRM attacks in the next hex
- Bombs use AC templates.
- MRMs act like LRMs.
- Minefields:
- Conventional Minefields act like an LRM attack, and should be split into 5 point groups and applied.
- Command-Detonated Mines explode as an AC/10 to all units in the hex, and as an AC/5 to adjacent hexes.
- Vibrobombs explode as their points rating as a standard AC template. For example, a standard 10 point Vibrabomb explodes as an AC/10 template, while the Vibrabomb-IV explodes as an AC/20 template.
- Command-Detonated Mines explode as an AC/10 to all units in the hex, and as an AC/5 to adjacent hexes.
- Conventional Minefields act like an LRM attack, and should be split into 5 point groups and applied.
- Clan Light Machine Gun: Due to the template system, there cannot be an accurate representation of the Light Machine Gun, and thus I suggest that whenever it hits an armoured target, roll 1D6, and on a 3+ the gun scores the template damage, else it causes no damage.
Due to the nature of this combat system, it is important that players declare what weapons are firing at which 'Mech, and also the order in that they are fired, before any dice are rolled. Players and referee's alike should be strict in not allowing any further weapon fire, or the order in which weapons were specified as being fired in, changed once the first die has been thrown in combat. If a player forgets to fire a weapon, or wishes to change their mind once a die has been rolled - Tough.
This is an important point, as due to the nature of the weapon templates, a laser fired before an autocannon could have completely different damage effects than if the autocannon was fired first.
Whenever a 'Mech takes damage, roll the location as normal and then roll a D6 to locate the centre of the hit on the location. Once done, select the appropriate weapon template, and centre it on the column being attacked. Lower the template until it is above the highest remaining armour box of the indicated column. The area indicated by the template is the area damaged by the hit, and should be marked off the armour diagram.
If a very low or very high number is rolled, it is possible that a portion of the damage template will overlap another location (such as the case with the torso armour section), or will not cover any boxes at all. If it covers another location, then that location takes damage as normal. If it doesn't cover any boxes, then that amount of damage is lost.
Note that Legs, Arms, and the Head locations cannot pass damage onto another location in this way.
In the first diagram, the armour has been hit by a small laser in column two. Next the armour is hit by a medium laser in column four. The third diagram shows what would happen if an AC/5 hit the armour in column 5. Notice that the template would overlap an already damaged column four, and therefore any damage that would have occurred has been lost. The final diagram shows the same AC/5 hit if instead it hit column four again.
Particle Projectile Cannons and Heavy Lasers have an additional step to template placement because they have templates that are two boxes across, and thus don't have a 'centre' as such.
To place one of these templates, roll a centre number as normal, which will give the location of one half of the template, and then roll another 1D6. On an odd result, the other half of the template is placed to the left of the centre number, and on an even result, the other half of the template is placed on the right hand side.
Once a hit has been determined with LRMs, do not roll for the amount of missiles that actually hit as normal, but instead split the total amount of LRMs into five point units, and then roll for a location for each five point spread as normal. Each five points of LRMs will have their own template. This is done this way as due to the template damage system, it is unlikely that all the missiles will actually hit the 'Mech anyway, and if you had to determine how many missiles hit, and then used the template, LRMs would be greatly reduced in effectiveness.
LRMs are also handled slightly differently than normal damage. They have their own template, but unlike other damage that is centred and marked off together, LRMs only attack the first undamaged armour box that they come to. Note that due to the torso diagram layout, LRMs missing one location may damage the side location.
The diagram shows the result of a hit by a 5 point flight of LRMs, hitting an already damaged 'Mech in location 4. As you can see, the damage is well spread out and not centralised due to the LRMs having to hit the first undamaged armour box that they come to.
When attacking infantry, or units that do not use the template damage system, DO roll for the amount of missiles that hit, as normal.
Other missile systems (like SRMs) roll normally for the amount of missiles that hit the target. This is due to the fact that each missile has a different damage template than LRMs (a more penetrating version) and thus missile damage is not lost due to a low or high centre point roll.
MRMs act exactly like LRMs.
The ATM is handled like an SRM spread of missiles. If it hits the target, roll to see how many missiles actually hit (remembering that it is equipped with Artemis, so has a +2 to this roll). Use the relevant missile hits column in the Master Rules set depending on the ATM being used, so the ATM 3 uses the 3 missiles column, the ATM 9 uses the 9 column, and so on.
Each missile then inflicts damage based on the type of ammunition that is currently being used.
