Formation Based Initiative

In this article, I’m going to look at a an official optional rule that was first published in the BattleTech Initiative Deck by CGL in 2022. It presents a different way of handling initiative, which is particularly suitable for larger games with more than one Formation/Lance, and can be used for either “Classic” BattleTech or for Alpha Strike games.

Formations

In formation based initiative each Formation is allowed one Initiative Activation per round of initiative (or initiative pass).

A base formation is defined by the BattleTech lore depending on the faction you are playing. e.g.

• Inner Sphere – 1 Lance is 4 Mechs or 4 Vehicles or 1 company of 4 Platoons of conventional infantry or 4 Squads of 4 BattleArmor
• Star – A Star is 5 Points (each point being 1 Mech, 1 Platoon of Conventional Infantry or Squad 5 Battle Armour, or 2 Vehicles, or 5 ProtoMechs)
• ComStar/WoB Level II – consisting of 6 Level 1‘s (a Level 1 can be a Mech,Vechicle or Platoon of Conventional Infantry or Squad of 6 Battle Armor])
• Other formation types can also been seen in certain factions e.g.
• Marian Hegemony – Groups of 10 units
• Capellen Confederation – Lance of Mechs and 2 Vehicles.

Each formation cam be designated a formation type and a formation leader (which is important when using the formation rules in Campaign Operations/Alpha Strike/Clan Invasion Box). Several formations can then be added together to make a larger Force. Each force can also designate a force commander.

Forces can include (roughly):

• Inner Sphere Company – 3-4 Lances
• Inner Sphere Battalion – 3-4 Companies
• Inner Sphere Regiment – 3-4 Battalions
• Clan Binary – 2 Stars
• Clan Nova – 1 Star of Mechs, 1 Star of BattleArmor
• Clan Trianry – 3 Stars
• Clan Super Nova – 2 Nova’s
• Clan Cluster – 2+ Trinaries
• Clan Galaxy – 2+ Clusters
• ComStar/WoB Level III – 2-3 Level II’s
• ComStar/WoB Division – 2+ Level III’s
• ComStar/WoB Army – 2+ Divisions

Determining Initiative

There are several ways to determine initiative when using formation based initiative.

One roll Per Formation

Each formation rolls 2D6 each turn and applies modifiers based on that formation. The formations then must activate in the order of the intiative.

Card Draw Per Formation

Either using playing cards or the BattleTech Inactive Deck, select one card for each formation (it’s a good idea to use two suits, one for each force). Place each card in the initiative deck and shuffle, then each turn in the initiative phase deal them in order of last initiative to first initiative.

In the Card Draw system there is not an easy way to reflect bonuses to initiative. In this case – I would suggest allowing formations after the initiative cards are dealt out, to move their card one place towards the top of the initiative per +2 (or fraction of).

Note in this use of the Battle Tech initiative deck you don’t use the special abilities.

Initiative Deck Per ForCE

Each players can take one BattleTech Initiate Deck Suit (or they could take 2 suits i.e. half the deck each). At the start of each turn, they shuffle and draw one initiative card per force they have. If their are any draws, then draw a second initiative card as a tie breaker. In this system, each formation benefits from the special ability of their initiative card.

Activations and Initiative

Each time a formation is activated, that formation may choose one (and only 1) unit in that formation to activate (e.g. move or declare fire). Once all formations have had once activation, that round of initiative activations is complete, and the next round of initiative activations begins following the same initiative order.

In games where the number of forces in each players formation are the same this is a simple 1 unit each. In situations where there are an uneven number of units either due to different sized formations or due to units being truly destroyed, then the player with more units will be able to pass for one round of initiative activation (note that immobile, shutdown and KO’d units still count to initiative).

When activating your force, if the opponent has more units that you do in their formation, you may pass one initiative activation. IMPORTANT RULE: Players may not pass for two sequential activations in a row UNLESS their is only one unit left in for formation (this prevents all of the activations for a formation stacking up until the last rounds of activation.).

Here are some examples:

An Inner Sphere player has 3 Lance formations of 4 BattleMechs Alpha Lance, Baker Lance and Charlie Lance. Baker Lance has lost 2 BattleMechs, and Charlie lance is down to only 1! The Clan player has a Nova consisting of a Star of 5 Omni-Mechs, and a Star of Elemental Points (of which 2 have been destroyed). The initiatives are rolled.

• Alpha Lance 6
• Baker Lance 9
• Charlie Lance 8 (2nd roll due to tie 9)
• Clan OmniMech Star 8 (2nd roll due to tie 7)
• Clan Elemental Star 3

The initiative order is shown in the below table (an X indicates an Activation) going from lowest initiative on the left to highest (e.g. moving last) on the right.

Activation Round	Clan Elementals (3) 3 Units	Alpha Lance (6) 4 Units	Clan Omni-Mechs (8/7) 5 Units	Charlie Lance (8/9) 1 Unit	Baker Lance (9) 2 Units
1st Activation	PASS	PASS	X	PASS	PASS
2nd Activation	X	X	X	X	X
3rd Activation	PASS	X	X	PASS	PASS
4th Activation	X	X	X	PASS	PASS
5th Activation	X	X	X	X	X

TOP TIP: It is useful to have a mini whiteboard (or just a paper table in a plastic wallet) to change this table each turn (by just changing the initiative numbers).

Advantages of Formation Initiative

So why use this system? Here are some examples of advantages:

• Good for multiplayer games, where each player has one Lance. This cuts out all the discussion and analysis paralysis of who should go first (a result of using one roll per force).
• Stops “Initiative Banking”, where a player will activate low cost units e.g. infantry and BattleArmor first to gain an advatange
• Speeds up play – although more complex this speeds up game play as the player has to make less decisions about what units to activate (choosing 1 from 4 is easier than 1 from 12).
• Stops uneven activations – e.g. where a player moves all his heavy formation first then light formation last, or moves all the units furthest away first and those in close at the end.