Q: What are Express Battles?

Express battles are a way for groups to resolve attacks using fewer players when there are alot of attacking and defending forces.  Basically, the cost of each mech is dramatically increased to reduce the number of drops needed to resolve an attack.  Mech costs for normal and express battles are found on the http://www.mechreg.org/missions.asp screen.  Production Value is used for normal battles and Market Value is used for Express battles.  These values represent the cost of sending 1 player to a drop and include all 3 mechs the player will be using.

A good rule of thumb is: if either team has more than 1000 points per player ( not including the leader who is running the battle), the battle should be considered for the EXPRESS format.   

Yes you can only work for one side or the other on each battle. Just show up to the battle server with your men. Be sure to negotiate contract BEFORE the battle. Organizing battles is enough work without haggling with mercaneries during the battle. Remember you can only work for units in wich your contracted under.
 

Each player has to have a unique email address. Serial number sharing is dependent on your group however. You can get a free email account through hotmail or others on the net, so get your brother another email address and have him register.
 

A merc can work for ANY UNIT, clan or inner sphere alike. That is up to the mercanery group and their employer. It is a personal preference, plus a matter of what work is available. Payments are handeled by the EoM.
 

YES!! Your troops are launched and are in route to the planet in question. This is designed to be realistic, so your troops won't land as soon as u launch, but will land within the hour (depending on jump distance). If you can beat your opponent to the punch, you might even place reinforcement before they finishing attacking a certain planet. Timing and tactics are very important.

Q: How do I attack a group on behalf of an ally or Employer when I don't have a planet in range?

You goto the movement screen, from there choose the planet you are attacking from.  Next, you are brought to the destination screen.  You then goto the bottom of this screen and there is an ally HOP table.  Choose the ally planet to HOP from. You will return to the same page again, but this time you will see the planets in range from the HOP planet.  Choose the destination and continue on as you normally would by following the screens that complete the attack.

Make a report of the persons nickname and serial number to the League, and an investigation will take place. Please try questioning your opponent before you report them.  Also while still in game ask them to take an ALT-Printscreen and paste it into an email when the game is over. This will show the HUD and all thier weapons and defenses.  Be sure they select you in thier sights so that you are sure that it was the mech from the battle in question.
 

With Regens for both sides, this is not such a heated issue. If they eject or press Ctrl+z, it is a lost mech. If someone is dropped for any other reason, besides running out of mechs, then everyone else should also exit the game, reconvene on the server, grab the same players and continue with the HUD count as the number of mechs lost. If the kill does not show up on the HUD, then it doesn't count. When you continue ALL players should use the EXACT same mech configuration when resuming the match. If one player is ALMOST dead the players should decide if it is fair to give them a fresh mech before restarting. If there is any question the opposite team of the dropped player gets to decide if that player loses thier mech.
 

A unit can attack once time a month for each drop ship the unit owns and as long as it has mechs and pilots to fight its battles. Each Dropship holds 12,000 rp (about 1200 Tons).
 

Well you can kill them to the last mech and take all their planets. This means tracking down their men if some of them are hidden on other planets, ect. If you take their last planet, you get 25% of their resources. They have one week to find a group willing to give them planets or they will be pronounced dead.
 

There is a page with rankings. There are overall rankings and also rankings by group type in three different categories, total production, total planets, and standing armies. If either group is in the top 5 on ANY of these lists, then the merger is prohibited. Remember the owner of terra can make such an exception to the rule

 

Q. How many players are needed to fight a battle?

To complete a battle at the scheduled time the following rules apply:

If a planet is defended by a group they must have 3 players weekdays and 5 players weekends available to defend the planet freeboot defenders. Allies and Mercs are not counted for this calculation.  One player being the leader, this leaves 2 drops worth of players to play out the defense.  This is not applicable to open defense planets, since it is certain that we can find freebooters to defend the planet, and some defending leader must have scheduled the battle.

Attackers must retreat if they cannot present the correct number of players not including allies and mercs. One being the leader, Remaining points are then subtracted and the battle is reported.

Players need not worry about running out of points or what mechs to use. Leaders will add any overages to the opponent when reporting the battle.  ( for example, if team ABC has 100 points left and team XYZ has -300 points left the leaders will report the battle as ABC 400.0  XYZ 0.0 )
 

Q. If our opponent doesn't show up for a battle how long should we wait?  Then what happens ?

You should wait 45 minutes after the scheduled battle time. If the battle hasn't accumulate enough players to start (as per above) the group that has been waiting has 2 choices.  First, they can reschedule the battle with in the 10 day limit in an attempt to accomodate all groups involved.  Second, they can report the battle by subtracting the two garrison amounts to determine the victor.  Leaderfaq has more information.

There is a limit of how far you can move. This is called jump distance and the automated system will calculate this for you when doing a movement. You can use the starmap to find what planets are in range.
 

The only limits you have are time and money(like in real life). All mechs used on an attack are available. The ratios are recalculated every round. Both sides can regen until they run out of mechs.
 

No way! This ladder is meant to be fun and not being able to play is not fun for the person taken bondsman. A person can role-play this, but that is entirely up to the individual and is beyond the scope of the game system.
 

Generally it can make things confusing, but it is possiable. :)
 

Why haven't you been recruiting? This is a fun ladder, surely you can find some people to play for your group. If this is your first deadline or you just dropped below, I'll give you a another week to go on kali and ask for members. After that, you're history, time to turn in your spot and the next person on the waiting list gets to take your place. The minimum number of players is 5.

Funds can be transfered from another group only from their main bank and this is done by Group leaders using the CO's Office page.
 

Starting a group is very simple, just open the Level1- Teams Area and there is a form to start your own unit.
 

Timing is everything. Good thing I'm here. OK log on to the automated system right now and send an attack force from one of your planets without a battle flag sent onto a planet you expect him to launch an attack from. That will stick his men there. If your opponent sent in just a few mechs, he is probably scoping you out. If you have a weak planet that he found, send in reinforcements now, before he launches his main attack(s) onto that planet. Seconds could count here.
 

Well this is a fast paced ladder, so make sure that someone is on your leader list who WILL be around. If not, FIND someone and ADD them to the list. That is why many groups have several people that get attack messages.   You may also change your player profile to someone elses email address who will be answering your emails for you.
 

The player who is at a disadvantage should report the drop as if they were in a relatively smaller mech. For example, if you used a 60 ton mech in a 1v2 report it as a 30 ton mech.  Mech tonnages are available at the mechs and missions page. If you play a 2v3 match, report the disadvantaged team's mechs as a mech that weights 2/3*actual mech tons.  If a 1v3, match report the disadvantaged pilot's mech as 1/3* actual mech tonnage. 

No! You can't jump behind front line planets, but every planet within jump distance of an enemy planet is a front line planet. Once you are on an enemy planet a battle flag is set by the automation system. Once a battle flag is set, no one can leave that planet and further points cannot be placed directly there and production cannot be changed. So effectively, until the battles on that planet are resolved and the battle flag has been removed, your jumping is effectively halted until you can hold the planet long enough to attack from it. Troops can still be sent to the planet from adjacent planets which are not engaged in warfare.
 

Go to the automated system and fill out the movement form. Everything else like figuring whether it is in range is done automatically. The people with mechs on the planet are informed of your attack and all forces there are listed. The planet conditions are also listed. The only information not listed is it's production. Now you need to decide how you are going to spend your points for mechs and schedule the battle. Oh, yeah! You have to fight the battle too.
 

If all spots are full you will be added to the waiting list. Periodically we will make room for waiting list units to play! While you're on the waiting list you can make deals with registered groups and fight under their banner, but remember you can still be in only one group at a time, so your group would technically be part of their group. Your patience will be rewarded.
 

Get someone to give you a planet elsewhere and freepassage to the battle front. Then you attack somewhere completely unrelated to your main location and play a new opponent. You could also ally with someone far away and use the ALLY HOP option to launch attacks from your planet via thier planet.

In battletech, drop ships are considered non-combatant.  This means that your ships can move freely to allied territory.
 

Get them to grant you passage by adding you to there friends list. You can't go into someone else's space without being welcomed. As a friend, you are granted passage through there space. This list can change at any time. If your points still remain on there planet, then any movement you make after that would have to be an attack on them.
 

The defender group has the total amount of Garrison points on the planet. The attacking groups have the number of points for their attack available. Attacks are done for individual planets in order. If the attack is successful, they take the planet and become the defender. If they are unsuccessful, the remaining forces retreat. If the next wave is a defending force or their ally, they become reinforcements.