Greetings fellow mech jocks! This article is the first in a series that I will be writing on, well, Battletech. They will have no specific focus, instead I will post information that I have learned and will learn playing Btech. I will try to post on a weekly bases. For this week I'll be talking about the difference between tournament and casual play. While the differences may seem small they can make for large problems during play.
 
    During tournament play there is a strict set of rules you follow. They define the limits of game in the most precise manner possible. FASA produces rule updates to fix problems and introduce new rules. There are however some loop holes. In a tournament game both players are well aware of them. People who don't use the tournament rules find the subtle differences quite disturbing. Allow me to give you an example.
    A friend and I were fairly board one day so we decided to play a couple of tournament style games. For our first game we choose the OTT-7K Ostscout. In case you don't no it has no weapons. So the strategy in the game was to jump, kick, pound, etc. until somebody broke. I finally ended the game on a technicality. If your mech leaves the map you fore fit. A well timed jump pushed my opponent off the board. This is a somewhat unusual, but very effective tactic for jump capable mechs. Even if your mech loses a leg it doesn't matter unless you're playing w/ casual rules.
    In a more recent battle no one bothered to declare the game tournament or casual. I had assumed tournament because of the setting, but one of  the other players didn't. He was one of those who had never played tournament style games. My mech couldn't execute the tactic anyhow since it had no jump jets, but I told him about it. He disagreed on the basis of what was reality. Getting pushed over a line didn't mean anything but more damage to his mech.
    I explained the difference to him and he understood. Had I tried the tactic an argument would have followed. We know each well enough for something like that not to have affected our friendship, but it not be that way for everyone...
    So the lesson of the day is to always define what style of play you're using and announce what house rules you would like to use. It will avoid many conflicts over the rules as well as personal conflicts.