Game Terms
Base To-Hit Number A unit’s base to-hit number equals its Gunnery Skill rating.
Modified To-Hit Number When a unit’s base to-hit number is modified for range, terrain and other factors, it becomes the modified to-hit number.
Modified Piloting Skill When a unit’s piloting skill is modified for events that take place during a turn – for preexisting damage and so on – this number becomes the modified piloting skill.
Target Number Any action in Battletech that requires a dice roll has an associated target number, representing the difficulty of the action. If the roll result equals or exceed this target number, the action succeeds. If the result is less than the target number, the action fails.
Modified Target Number A target number may be modified up or down (consequently making the action more or less difficult), based on various circumstances such as terrain, range, damage to the unit taking the action and so on. The final number against which a player makes a dice roll is called the modified target number.
Attacker Movement Modifier When an attacking unit has moved during the same turn, the target number is modified (making a successful attack more difficult) to reflect the attacker’s movement type: walking, running, jumping and so on.
Target A target defined as anything a unit may attack, whether with a weapon or physically. This can be another enemy unit (a friendly can never be the target of a direct attack, though it can be damaged through the effects of another attack), terrain (such as woods) or even a clear hex. Anything can be the target of an attack, as long as the rules for the type of attack in question do not disallow it.
Target Movement Modifier If a target has moved during the turn in which an attack is made against it, the number of hexes entered may modify the target number. The more hexes moved, the more difficult it is to hit the target.
Damage Value Damage value is defined as the specific amount of damage each weapon inflicts on a target. The Weapon and equipment tables list the damage values of each weapon.
Some weapons do not deal their full damage value to a single location. Instead, the points of damage from the weapon are divided into damage value groupings (each weapon has its own way to determine how the damage value is divided up) and then each grouping is assigned to a separate location.
Armor Value is defined as the total number of armor circles in a location on a unit’s record sheet. Some rules also use the terms points of armor or armor points to reference the number of armor circles in a location, or the number of remaining armor circles in a location.
Mapsheet This general term refers to a single 17X22 playing map.
Playing area This general term refers to the total playing area of a given game – anywhere from a single mapsheet to dozens.
Scenario This term usually describes a game with specific forces and set-up conditions. It can also be used to describe a single game – for example, the one-off game currently involving the players.