Optional Rules: Conventional Aircraft

Optional Rules Compendium

This is a compilation of "house rules" for the BattleTech gaming system. These rules come from different sources and might not be used by your GM. If your gaming group does not use a GM, then rules can be adopted by general consensus of the players. Please note that some of these rules may conflict with each other; this list is meant to complement existing rules. This list is based on FASA's BattleTech, not the newer version by FanPro (Classic BattleTech).
Use of the phrase "House Rules" in no way implies that the sequenced garbage played in dance clubs in the early 1990's was even music, let alone any good.

Actuators* Armour* Critical Spaces* Conventional Aircraft* Damage and Repair* Endo Steel* Ferro Fibrous* Hatchets* Heat Sinks* Misc.* Physical Combat* ProtoMechs* Quads* Weapons and Equipment
Dropships | Warships
VehiMechs | Centaurs | Spiders

Here are the long lost (and out-of-print) conversion rules for Top Gun/AeroTech.

TOP GUN IN BATTLETECH

The Top Gun movement and combat system can be used to represent traditional aircraft in the BattleTech universe. AeroTech gives the rules on how to fight in space and in the atmosphere with the large interplanetary AeroSpace Fighters. AeroTech also included the rules for bombing and strafing ground targets.

Many of the planets of the Successor States complete their air defense with conventional aircraft, which are much less expensive. In fact, some planets cannot afford anything BUT conventional fighters for their airborne defense.

MOVEMENT

When combining Aerospace Fighters with Top Gun planes, the AeroSpace Fighters will use the AeroTech system of movement and maneuver, while the Top Gun planes will use the Top Gun system of movement and maneuver.
Both types of fighters use the AeroTech Initiative rules. The Top Gun planes will, therefore, choose their maneuvers at the time they move, instead of plotting before movement.]

FIRING TOP GUN WEAPONS

The weapons that Top Gun planes carry will not do much damage to the armored AeroSpace Fighters. Treat these weapons as follows:

Weapon	Damage
Guns	2 points damage
Missiles	8 points damage

Roll all damage locations using the normal AeroTech rules. IR Missiles can still only be fired in the normal IR tracking zone.
The normal AeroTech rules are used when Top Gun planes strafe with their guns. Bombs may be mounted in place of Missiles on Top Gun planes. Each bomb has an attack strength of 10. Bombs carried by a Top Gun plane may only be dropped in the same hex as its target. These bombs do not affect adjacent hexes as do AeroSpace fighter bombs.
Some of the planes described in Top Gun are not designed to carry bombs (such as the F-14 Tomcat). As the BattleTech universe is 1039 years in the future, players should assume that this problem has been solved.

FIRING AEROTECH WEAPONS

The AeroSpace Fighter weapons are much more powerful than those carries by Top Gun planes. The ranges and firing arcs for AeroSpace fighters are the same as in AeroTech.
AeroTech weapons are broken down into two catagories for damage purposes: weapons that act like guns, and weapons that act like missiles. Weapons that act like guns are the small laser, machine guns, flamers, SRM –2 Pack, LRM –5 Packs, and the AC/2.
All other weapons are treated as missiles (especially for damage purposes).

Send in the Clans

The following weapons affect Top Gun planes as guns: Small ER Lasers, Small Pulse Lasers, Artemis LRM-5 packs, Ultra AC/2s, LB-2X Autocannon (includes cluster), Heavy Machine Guns, Heavy Flamers, and Light Machine Guns. Other weapons, including Streak SRM-2 Packs, affect Top Gun planes as missiles.

Chaff can be used to "break" the lock from Streak SRMs. If the to hit roll was within 2 points of missing (as if using the +2 chaff modifier) the shot misses, and the firing player must deduct the ammuntion from his inventory. A chaff equipped plane dispenses chaff automatically when an enemy achieves lock with a Streak SRM system unless the player decides to drop chaff manually (like switching off the auto-eject).

Clan Views

While most clanners tend to ignore such limited air assets as more affrontery from the backwards Inner Sphere freebirth, there are a few exceptions in clan attitude toward convetional air power. The clans do not maintain a force of conventional aircraft.

Clan Smoke Jaguar
Possibly the most agressive of the clans, the Jags cannot stand the idea of airplanes and destroy them agressively. They consider confronting a trueborn warrior or pilot in such an inferior machine as a great offense. They do not take air pilots as bondsman nor claim grounded planes as isorla (crashed planes cannot be salvaged).

Clan Ice Hellion
The Ice Hellions admire the bravery of air pilots but view such token resistance as foolhardy. Ice Hellion pilots will dogfight with air pilots, admiring any pilots of great skill, but mostly for target practice.

Clan Wolf-in-Exile
Clan Wolf-in-Exile, it numbers depleted by war with the Jade Falcons and its succession from the crusader Clan Wolf, has come to recognize the importance of conventional airplanes. Such planes can help garrison a world without incurring the the expense of heartier machines like AeroSpace Fighters and BattleMechs. This allows the Wolves to dedicate more resources to troublesome areas.

Clans Diamond Shark and Nova Cat
Both of these clans have large merchant castes and cannot ignore the commercial aplications of conventional air power. Even if particular MechWarriors or AeroSpace Pilots frown on the idea of airplanes, the powerful merchants use planes for transport as well as try to control related markets. These clans do not use planes for military applications.

Clan Snord
Very little is known of this clan so their use of conventional aircraft is speculative at best.

Clan Wolverine (The Not-Named Clan)
If any members survived and made their way back toward the Inner Sphere, they may well be using conventional aircraft to bolster their forces.