Excaliburs: How To Play

The Excaliburs Saga is a single-player, story-driven campaign for MegaMek, the free open source computer game implementing the rules of Classic BattleTech.

It is recommended for players who are familiar with BattleTech.  In particular, MegaMek does not provide written rules for BattleTech.  Players are urged to purchase, at a minimum, the Total Warfare rulebook or the BattleMech Manual.

To play the campaign, follow these steps:

I. Download and install MegaMek.

   MegaMek can be downloaded here.  I recommend using the latest stable release.  After downloading, follow the instructions from the MegaMek site to install.  (Normally this involves simply unzipping the downloaded folder and making sure your Java is up to date.)

II. Download the campaign and merge with MegaMek.

WARNING: If you have made any edits to your localclient_mechset file, you should back that file up, before this step, because this step will replace it!  (If you don't know what that means, this warning doesn't apply to you.)

   The latest version of the campaign can be downloaded here.

   Once you've downloaded it, unzip the zip file and look inside the unzipped folder to find the folder "data."  Move this folder to your MegaMek folder and merge it with the "data" folder located there. 

  (In Windows, for example, you should see this:

Answer "Yes" and you should be good to go.)

III. Read the backstory and briefing for the mission you want to play.

   Stories and briefings can be found here.

IV. Begin the scenario for the mission.

   1. Open MegaMek and click Start A Scenario.

   2. Mission scenarios will be located in a folder named "0Excaliburs" (within the "scenarios" folder, which should open automatically after clicking Start A Scenario).

   3. Set any Game Options you wish and click "Okay."  (Under "Allowed Units and Equipment" do NOT select Canon Units Only, and DO select Experimental Tech Level.  Under "RPG Related" DO select Pilot Special Abilities.)

   4. Planetary Conditions should not need to be modified.  Click Okay.

   5. Under "Set Scenario Players" set Excaliburs (or Purists) to "Me" and all other players to "Other Human."  Click Okay.

   6. On the Start Game screen, click Okay.

   7. The game should begin now!

   8. Once the game has begun, you will need to activate the enemy AI (called "Princess Bot").  Click File:Game"Replace Player

    ---The enemy will be split into several players, one for each unit type.  Choose the first enemy player, select PrincessBot (not TestBot) and choose the appropriate setting under Behavior:

The settings are abbreviated as follows: ENEMY(BER)=Berserk, ENEMY(BRL)=Brawler, ENEMY(JUG)=Juggernaut, ENEMY(MIS)=Missile Boat, ENEMY(SCT)=Scout, ENEMY(SKI)=Skirmisher, ENEMY(SNI)=Sniper, ENEMY(STR)=Striker

   ---Repeat until every enemy player has been replaced with a PrincessBot of the appropriate Behavior type.

   9. You are now all set to play.  Remember that if you save and reload your game, step 8 will have to be repeated whenever you reload.