General
Zellbrigen was a method of combat devised after the Exodus from Terra, to minimize huge losses of valuable equipment and human lives in combats and battles. Duels are the core of Zellbringen. The rules below refer to Mech to Mech combat only. I would like to thank the guys at Clan Homeworlds for their nice resume, this enabled me to prepare a good version for us as well.
1. A Warrior will never fire on a ‘Mech already engaged with another opponent. This means that Combined Fire is not allowed.
2. A Warrior will at no time initiate physical attacks. Only in the event that a Warrior has no more weapons at his or her disposal, may he or she engage in physical attacks the turn after losing all their weapons. Accidental skids and falls are not a violation of Zellbrigen.
3. A warrior may offer Hegira to a disabled or one that meets any of the following criteria. If this is refused the Opponent may be fired upon (A disabled opponent is one who is incapable of attacking, and is unlikely to become capable again. For Rolls, 10+ is unlikely.) A warrior may ask for Hegira if he meets any of the following criteria, but his opponent is Never obligated to grant it.
- 1. Mek is legged
2. Mek has double sensor hits.
3. Mek has taken TWO Gyro Hits.
4. Mek has no weapons.
4. A warrior will never fire on a prone unit or on an unconscious pilot, unless the Unit in question either refused hegira under rule 3, or intentionally caused their disability. For example: The unit repeatedly tried to stand with a bad gyro.
5. A warrior will never target the head of a ‘Mech.
6. A warrior will never willingly Flee the field if it is engaged in a duel.
7. While in a Duel a warrior may move out of LOS of his opponent, but must make every effort return to the LOS the following movement phase. Moving into the rear arc, is still within LOS.
8. While in a Duel a warrior may move out of the long range of his or his oponent's weapons, but must make every effort return to inside long range of either his or his oponent's weapons the following movement phase.
9. A warrior will NEVER intentionally interfere with another Zellbrigen duel.
Vehicles, Elementals and Infantry
They are all excempt from the rules above and may shot or be shot at, and also be target of physicals attacks by any units, whether they are in a duel or not.
Total Warfare/Battle of Tukayyid Rules
Below you find the rules as in Total Warfare and the Tukayyid rule books. If there is ever a conflict between the rules below and the ones above, the ones above count.
Under the rules for ritual dueling, or zellbrigen, Clan players must declare a target for each of their dueling ’Mechs. A typical declaration might sound something like, “I am MechWarrior Seth of Clan Steel Viper. I pilot the sole Summoner in Alpha Star. I hereby invoke the ritual of zellbrigen and challenge the pilot of the Orion adorned with the unit designation eleven to a duel of warriors. In this solemn manner, let no one interfere!”
During a duel, no other Clan warrior may attack either of the dueling ’Mechs. If a third unit interferes with a duel, the dueling Clan warrior may attack the interfering unit, provided that another Clan ’Mech has not already challenged the interloper to a duel. A duel ends when one combatant is destroyed, disabled or retreats from the battlefield.
At Honor Level 1, the Clan warrior upholds all the rules of dueling regardless of his opponent’s actions.
At Honor Level 2, the Clan warrior follows the rules of dueling until the Inner Sphere side takes an action that violates the Clan honor codes (a third party interfering, a unit involved in one duel firing on a ’Mech involved in another duel, and so on). If this happens, the duel immediately degenerates into a free-forall. During the Weapon Attack Phase, if a player declares that his unit will fire on a target already involved in a duel, any Clan player whose declaration of zellbrigen follows the Inner sphere player’s declaration of a “dishonorable attack” may attack that Inner Sphere ’Mech without regard for honor rules. Only the violator
may be attacked in this way.
At Honor Level 3, any infringement of Clan honor in the dueling rules renders the entire ritual of zellbrigen null and void, leaving the Clan ’Mechs free to attack any enemy unit without restraint for the remainder of the game. At Honor Level 4, dueling rules do not apply.
Using zellbrigen in a game requires a certain degree of cooperation between players. A crafty Inner sphere player can exploit the rules of engagement to deny the Clan player any targets. Not only is this grossly unfair, but it is also inaccurate in terms of the BattleTech universe (plus, it’s not much fun for the Clan player). Finally, the Clan player should not be expected to adhere to the rules of engagement when it would be foolish to do so, as in the following example:
You are playing the Clans in a scenario with Honor Level 1. You have one Daishi and your opponent has four ’Mechs: a Banshee, an Orion, an Atlas and a Spider. The Spider challenges the Daishi to a duel, which the Daishi accepts. The Spider then uses its superior movement rate to hide behind hills and heavy woods so that the Daishi never gets line of sight to it. Meanwhile, the other three members of the Spider’s lance pound the Daishi to dust. The Daishi cannot retaliate because its player must adhere to Clan honor, which in this case means he can only attack the ’Mech that challenged him to a duel. He vainly attempts to chase the Spider, while “off -limits” enemies destroy his BattleMech.
Requiring the Daishi in this example to strictly obey the rules of engagement means that the Clan player must sit back and allow his unit to be destroyed. To give players some options in such situations, use the following guidelines to adjudicate the use of zellbrigen in game play.
1. Making the Challenge: One of the most important parts of a duel is the challenge. This takes place during the Weapon Attack Phase, when attacks are declared. When a Clan unit declares an attack on a unit that it has not attacked before, it is effectively announcing its intention to duel—the Clan player should verbally issue his challenge at this time. Dueling makes Initiative even more important, as Initiative also determines the order of attack declaration and challenges.
If the Inner Sphere side outnumbers the Clan side, it is considered bold (but acceptable) for a single Clan ’Mech to challenge more than one opponent at the same time. All of a single ’Mech’s opponents are considered part of the same duel and may fi re on the lone challenger. However, at least one target must be left for each ’Mech on the Clan side (this tradition does not apply to non-’Mech Clan units). In fact, Clan
MechWarriors greedy for battlefield glory may force their own armored vehicles, infantry units or even Elementals out of combat in this way.
Though a single Clan ’Mech may challenge more than one Inner sphere ’Mech, additional Inner Sphere ’Mechs cannot invite themselves into an onging duel even if the Clans outnumber their side. Such an action is a breach of zellbrigen.
2. Refusing a Challenge: A Clan warrior need not accept a challenge issued by an Inner Sphere warrior, especially if he suspects the challenge is a ploy to abuse zellbrigen and achieve victory through deceit. As a general rule, a Clan warrior can refuse a challenge from a ’Mech of a diff erent weight class than his own, as long as he issues a challenge against another Inner Sphere ’Mech instead.
Also, though Inner Sphere warriors are not expected to accept or refuse challenges, the Inner Sphere side must abide by Clan honor when Honor Levels 2 or 3 are in eff ect or else risk touching off a melee. In these cases, the Inner Sphere player can refuse challenges from Clan ’Mechs outside the challenged ’Mech’s weight class as long as an alternate challenge is made.
Finally, any challenge must be accepted if no alternate targets are in play.
3. Declaring a Duel Void: Certain situations may render a duel void, even if strict adherence to the rules of engagement (Honor Level 1) is in force. In these cases the judgment of the players must prevail; however, the gamemaster can use the following simple penalty system to judge these situations. The penalty system is intended to enforce the idea that dueling ’Mechs must actively fi ght one another for the duel to be valid.
Because Clan warriors call people without honor dezgra, the penalties are referred to as dezgra points.
Each of the infractions listed below earns the violator a dezgra point, unless the violator’s opponent declines the penalty (which he might do if he decides that the action was tactically appropriate). If a dueling ’Mech accumulates 3 dezgra points, it is clear that the duel is dishonorable, and so it becomes void in the End Phase of the turn in which the third point was earned. No dueling ’Mech can earn more than 1 dezgra point per End Phase.
If a dueling unit intentionally moves out of its opponent’s line of sight, the unit earns 1 dezgra point.
If a dueling unit has line of sight to its opponent but intentionally fails to fi re at the enemy, the unit earns 1 dezgra point. This guideline assumes that at least one shot is possible, meaning that the enemy unit is within the fi ring arc and range of the weapon being fired.
If a dueling unit moves out of firing range of all its weapons, the unit earns 1 dezgra point.
If the unit earns no dezgra points in a turn, it may remove 1 dezgra point in the End Phase of that turn. A unit can not, however, reduce its dezgra points to zero in this way.
Once a unit has accumulated 3 dezgra points, any Clan unit may freely fire on it for the remainder of the scenario without violating the dueling rules.
Area-Effect Weapons: Area Affect Weapons (as well as any system that requires multiple units to operate, such as TAG, C3, semi-guided LRMs and so on) by their nature violate Zellbrigen. No Clan warrior will use any area-effect weapon system or special munitions while fi ghting at Honor Levels 1, 2 or 3. Only at Honor Level 4, when dueling rules do not apply, will a Clan warrior use such systems.
A Clan warrior’s response to an Inner Sphere unit declaring an attack using such a system against a Clan unit depends on the honor level in use. At Honor Level 1, the Clan warrior upholds all the rules of dueling, regardless of the type of weapon used. At Honor Level 2, the duel degenerates into a free-for-all, with the violators—the unit that fired the area effect weapon, designated with TAG or used a C3 system—open to attack by any Clan unit. At Honor Level 3, the use of area-effect systems renders the entire ritual of zellbrigen null and void.
Physical Attacks
Unlike dueling, the Clans’ dislike of physical attacks in ’Mech combat is an informal, if widespread, custom. No explanation is yet known for this distaste, though some experts suspect that Nicholas Kerensky chose to encourage a long-range fighting style among the Clans.
At Honor Level 1, a Clan warrior never makes physical attacks in ’Mech combat. At Honor Level 2, a Clan warrior may make a physical attack only if an enemy unit makes one first. During the Physical Attack Phase, if the Inner Sphere player declares a physical attack, any Clan unit whose declaration follows that violation of Clan honor may freely engage that ’Mech in physical combat.
At Honor Level 3, a single physical attack by an Inner Sphere ’Mech allows all Clan warriors to retaliate in kind against all enemy units for the remainder of the game. At Honor Level 4, the taboo against physical attacks no longer applies.
Retreat
Clan MechWarriors despise their Inner Sphere counterparts because they consider Inner Sphere armies dishonorable warriors fighting in inferior ’Mechs. Therefore, Clan warriors consider retreating from Inner Sphere opponents a disgrace almost beyond redemption. When allowed to choose whether or not to flee a losing battle, many Clan warriors prefer to fight to the death.
At Honor Level 1, a Clan warrior never retreats. At Honor Level 2, Clan warriors may retreat from enemy ’Mechs that are using advanced technology, but never from ’Mechs, vehicles or infantry units using 3025 (introductory) technology. At Honor Level 3, Clan warriors may retreat from any vintage of enemy ’Mech, but will not retreat from vehicles or infantry units. At Honor Level 4, Clan warriors may retreat at will.
