Player Count 6

It's been two years since I last posted about my personal bugbear with the MFZ: Rapid Attack system.  In the intervening time my gaming group has actually had the chance to playtest some of my theories.  We were testing "Even Newer 1.0" and had a three player Battle that saw 21 Frames on the table at the same time.  That could happen with the original rules but that would require all three players to come in Heavy.  Which isn't likely.  Along with increasing the number of Frames on the table at any given point, the new math for calculating Frame counts also pushes up the average number of Frames in a squad needed to play.  Which isn't great for new players or those with limited resources.  We'll also run into these issues with Revision 2.4.  So that leaves one new method, from that post, of calculating Frame counts that could possibly fix my issues with the formula.

New 1.3

        Frames

Players Stations Skirmish Battle War

      2       3 5 to 7  6 to 8 7 to 9

      3       2 4 to 6  5 to 7 6 to 8

      4       2 3 to 5  4 to 6 5 to 7

      5       1 3 to 4  3 to 5  4 to 6

      6       1  N/A          3 to 4 3 to 5

N/A = Not Applicable.

The maximum number of Frames in a squad is still nine but that's also siloed off in another category so it can be ignored if need be.  The minimum number of Frames is increased so we'll have to see how that shakes out in further testing.  Depending on how that goes we could also potentially revert back to Revision 2.3 and give that a try.

Once more -- with feeling -- here's the original version for reference.

Original

                                Frames

Players  Stations Skirmish Battle

    2           3         4 to 6 5 to 8

    3           2         3 to 5 4 to 7

    4           2         3 to 4 4 to 6

    5           1         3 to 4 3 to 5

Base Premise: A core concept of Mobile Frame Zero is that there's a Defender, Attacker, and Primary Attacker.

Desired Result: A way to allow players to pick a different quantity of Frames when they come to the table that allows at least three different levels of choice -- for example 4, 5, or 6.