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Mechaton: Lego Mechs and the Pilots that Love Them
HotSake
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It's that time again, boys and girls! Just like last year, I will be running games of MECHATON, the lego wargame of giant fighty robots, in Tabletop Freeplay. Below section shamelessly pasted from my post in the Tabletop thread:
Mechaton is a lego wargame played like a very simple version of Warhammer. The rules can be picked up in a minute flat, and you play with units that lose pieces as they take damage, trying to control vital points on the battlefield. It really is tons of fun, so come on by. I will bring a couple armies, but you're more than welcome to show off your own creations. Try to build them roughly to this scale:
You need about 4 mechs per player (it's a small scale game).
Building Tips
If you can't find the individual bricks you need, check out Bricklink.com. People set up their own lego stores, and you can browse their inventory, filling your cart with the bits you need. Ask what kind of turnaround they have, and you might find someone who can ship you pieces before PAX. If you're shopping for individual bricks, it helps to know what you're making. MLCad helps for that, since you can design a model on the computer and see a complete parts list for it, down to color.
If you're experimenting and don't quite know what to get, look at small sets. Pay attention to the parts they're made with and pick up anything that looks good to you. They tend not to have many large pieces you wouldn't be able to use anyway, and working with a small inventory forces you get creative in your designs.
You don't have to bring anything, but please feel free! I'll have enough mechs and dice for all, but showing off your army is half the fun. I'll be keeping track of interested parties below, and marking the ones that have their own mechs. If you post pics, or links to pics, I'll include them in your entry.
Proposed Times
Friday 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Saturday 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Sunday 1:30pm to 3:00pm
I am running the game all 3 days. Tell me how these times work for you!
Interested Parties:
- Jerry Holkins (said so at Comic-Con)
- redhalo (has mechs)
- The Derm (has mechs)
- PeasantDave (has mechs)
- Crawford (has mechs)
- Octobot (has mechs)
- Zankabo (and friend) (has mechs)
- pavieca (has mechs)
- super... (has mechs)
- SlickShughes (has mechs)
- Zuzu (has mechs)
- Arco (has mechs)
- houn (has mechs)
- S2000Gan (has mechs)
- Captain Cactus And The Water Preservation Squad (AKA The Marshall)
- Draknodred
- Bambooza
- confracto
- HikariStarshine
- S2000Gan (has mechs)
- Coldbrew
- MaoChan
- majin23x
- faits
- mspencer
- Matev
Please post pics of your mechs or links to pics!
While I've got your attention, let me plug the Pre-Pax Dinner Extravaganza! Our very own community members, Electric Turtle and Astayonix, are paying out of their own pockets to put together an awesome meal and community event for us on Thursday night. If you're going to be in town, please buy a ticket (it's pre-registration only) and help them meet their goal. It's good food, good fun, and good friends (and if you don't show up with any friends, I guarantee you'll leave with plenty). Seriously, just go check out the thread and see what they're offering. It's gonna be a blast!
HotSake on
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Also for those who have never played it try it out, it is SUPER easy to learn but pretty fun to play. Don't be afraid of how awesome it is!
ah you need to buy the right sets
lego used to make $10 robot creator sets that rock for this kind of thing, also the small $3-4 creator sets and the outmoded X pod sets work very well to.
http://papercrafted.com
yet another outlet of my creative goods
A teaser of what I have ordered.
Is that using the custom set creator from LEGO? How much did it cost you?
Thats just a bit of it. I have four mechs total, a few various attachments and three bases for about $20. What worries me is that they supposedly have like a 10 day process time and then ground shipping. I don't know if I will get it in time for PAX.
Well I dug out my box of lego that's followed me through two moves and hasn't been opened in probably twenty years. I've come to the conclusion that I probably don't have what it takes. I spent about an hour screwing around with stuff, and finally got frustrated, put some surf boards and rocket engines on what I was working on, and then added a shark launcher. Now I'm going to do something else.
I highly recommend you buy the rules just because the game is awesome and Vincent Baker (the creator) deserves all your money. If you just want to come down and try it out, don't worry about learning the rules beforehand. It doesn't take but a minute.
Try Bricklink. It's kind of like an eBay for legos. LDraw/MLCAD will spit out parts lists for your designs, which you can then take to Bricklink to shop around. They also tend to have shorter turnaround than lego.com
By all means, come by and play regardless. Bringing your own is entirely optional. If you do, however, you need to bring something a lot smaller than RocketSurfShark. See the pics in the OP for an idea of scale.
Yes, I understand that. What I was originally trying to build before I got frustrated was substantially smaller (in line with what I've seen here, and when I googled.) However, I added a cannon.
You can never have too many cannons.
Or sharks, apparently. This sounds fantastic, and I'd love to dig through my old LEGO, but just like last year I'm going to be on the run so much during PAX that I doubt I'll have time to sit down and learn/play a wargame!
I wouldn't even allot time to learning it. It really is that easy to pick up.
edit: Now that the schedule is up, does anyone have suggestions for times to run Mechaton? What works for you?
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BTW Drak, I still feel a tiny pang of guilt from my betraying you.
Really? Getting Drak iced in Patient Zero was one of the highlights of last year for me!
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Sorry, I thought you'd said in the tabletop thread you were bringing mechs. Disregard!
al;skjda;lskdja;sldkhal;dnealinfl;srv;mini
I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE MARSHALL
stupid hotsake enforcing the rules...
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Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
Anything with lasers, dishes, and any kind of joint. The Star Wars pod racer series was a treasure trove for this stuff. As mentioned above though, if you don't already have a large collection, the most economic way to get ready for PAX is probably just to rip off some designs and buy the parts straight up.
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Also do I get bonus points for building an autonomous bot that can search for, grab, and destroy your puny non-Mindstorms mechs? (Yes this misses the point completely, I know.)
Also why do you get a mechaton thread but I couldn't have a Paranoia thread? X__X
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I will give you for props for making a giant (relatively) mecha-seeking killbot. As for the Paranoia thread, I told you to make a "Paranoia at PAX" thread. Do not fear the hand of Fwacky, for he is a kind and benevolent ruler.
edit: OP UPDATED. Please give feedback on proposed times.
EDIT: So I'm digging through my parts while looking at the pics in the OP, and I might be able to pull something off, but I can't see what all of the parts are, especially on the 4 legged ones. I can't see what connects the legs to the torso! Anyway I can't seem to find any pics or anything on what parts are used and what/not... That would be great!
This isn't like playing marbles, where I lose ownership of physical LEGO pieces if I lose the game, is it? The mention of constructing a crown or chalice makes me worry.
A bot-seeking killbot is actually surprisingly simple: three motors (left wheel, right wheel, open-and-close-jaw), ultrasonic distance sensor, and touch sensor. You rig a touch sensor to a piece on the front that rubs against the table, so it swings down if the front of the bot starts to run off the table. If the pressed touch sensor is ever released, back up a bit and turn. You sit still in the middle of the table and rotate in a circle, taking distance readings. If you find a sudden drop in reading, then you've found an object that's closer to you than any other. Center on that object, drive forward an appropriate distance, and operate the jaw. Note that the jaw is probably just as likely to come off as your mechs are to come apart. On the other hand, Mindstorms NXT motors are really torquey. Driven at full power they feel about like a cordless screwdriver.
So this isn't actually as awesome as it first sounds. Kinda like a roomba running around mindlessly, except instead of vacuuming the floor it would grab LEGO mechs and try to give them a big hug with its claws.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Anything, really. It doesn't even have to be a proper joint to be used in the game. It's not like your mech has to physically walk for it to go anywhere. Just kludge together something that looks roughly like a tiny war machine and you're set. Oh, and the piece that joins the 4 legged mech is the 2x1 hinge plate pair, where one has 3 teeth and the other has 2.
TIMES
People, people, people! I'm doing the game all 3 days. I'm just asking what time of day works best for you. You don't have to vote for a particular day, just tell me when's good.