Block Mania: Happy Hour
Block Mania: Happy Hour Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Replacement Counters
Each new counter replaces one from the main game.
Remove one City-Def counter from each player when adding Jaeger counters.
Replace these counters when adding new Hardware counters: Four Spray Paints, one Buzz Saw, one Vibro Drill, two Fire Bombs.
Replace these counters when adding new Armoury counters: Five Spit Guns, two Demo Charges, two Flamers, two Missile Defence Lasers, one Missile Launcher.
Blockers
'There's a sucker born every minute' - PT Barnum
Jaeger Squad
Jaeger means hunter. Jaeger squads are the elite of the blocks' city-def forces. The Jaeger squads are particularly expert in commando style operations such as surprise attacks, mountaineering, demolition and sabotage. They have roughly the same mentality as the twentieth century SAS - roughly half-way between grim determination and a crazed death-wish.
Generally Over-Keen: Jaeger squads have a command value of zero. This means they can be activated free and so can be moved each turn.
Armoury: Jaegars are deployed with an Armoury counter.
Gung-ho: Jaegars are assumed to be carrying enough mountaineering equipment to employ Sucker Gun Movement. Note that Jaegers using sucker gun movement are subject to all the rules given below for Sucker Gun Movement, including Splat, Surprise, Surprise, VWWWWWoosh Crash!, and Splat Revisited.
Hardware
'I never knew there was so much in it' - 20th century advertising slogan
Robodogs
Real pets of any kind are a rarity in MC-1. Foodstuffs are in short-supply, licenses are expensive and the penalties for letting a pet foul a mall or block park are, like most punishments in the Mega-City, draconian in the extreme. For this reason 'real' pets are extremely rare, most people prefer cleaner, more hygenic and less risky robotic substitutes for their 'best friends'.
Fido Kill! Robodogs may be unleashed and sent to kill the nearest opponents. This is treated as, and is subject to, all the normal rules for Defensive Fire, except of course that it can't be done against flying troops. The robodogs attack with a strength of +3 but the counter must be removed from play immediately.
Sucker Guns
Sucker Guns shoot a lightweight but intensely resilient thread attached to a sucker or grapnel head. These are fired at the walls of neighbouring blocks and allow their users to swing downwards and across the gap between the blocks.
Sucker Gun Movement: A counter equipped with sucker guns can move from one window square to another on an opposite wall. Swinging across costs only one move point - the unit moves directly to the window square three levels down on the opposite wall. When counting these levels down don't include the one which the blocker starts from, so a unit swinging across from the 7th level up would impact on the fourth level up.
Splat: Blocker counters who try to use sucker gun movement from a window square which is on the first second or third level hit the 'tween-block plaza. They are removed from play.
Surprise, Surprise: A blocker counter which uses sucker gun movement to enter an enemy occupied square is immune to defensive fire in the same way as troops using pedway, mega-way and sky-rail movement.
VWWWWWoosh Crash!: Blocker counters entering a close assault receive a +1 dice roll bonus for the first round only.
Splat Revisited: Blockers using sucker gun movement can't be entirely sure that instead of heroically crashing through a window, they might not instead ignominiously hit the block's wall - with extremely painful consequences. Every time a counter attempts to use sucker gun movement the owning player should roll a dice - if it scores a '1' the blockers hit the wall with +2 damage. If they survive, they bounce back off the wall, smash through the windows and complete the move and any close combat attacks as normal. They do not lose their Surprise, Surprise or VWWWWWoosh Crash! bonuses.
Armoury
'Zap them all!' - Anonymous Pancho Villa blocker on the outset of Block Mania
Trip-Mine
Trip-Mines are large explosive charges which, once set, are detonated by heat seeking and vibration sensors which detect the presence of people passing nearby.
Mine Laying: A blocker counter carrying a mine may lay it in any block square, or the 'tween-block plaza. Mine counters cannot be laid on the sky-rail, pedway or mega-way. Laying the mine costs 1 movement point, the blocker counter must move out of the square immediately. Blocker counters which haven't got enough move points left to move on must use converted command points (see 5.v. Extra Movement) or they may not lay the mine.
Proximity Detonation: The mine detonates as soon as a counter moves onto the square. This is treated as ordinary Shooting attack but outside the normal Combat Phase sequence. The mine attacks with +4 damage. After the counter has been hit, remove the mine, replace it with a structural damage counter and roll for collapse as detailed under 9.ii Structural Damage. Mines aren't detonated by counters moving through the square via elevator or grave chute sky-rail or vehicle movement.
Dummies: Astute players may already have considered the notion of leaving ordinary armoury counters face-down in a square to make the enemy think that it could be a mine. There's nothing to stop them doing this although a counter which moves onto a dummy mine to discover that it's some other sort of armoury counter may pick up the piece of equipment at no extra cost in move points.
Spit Cannon
Spit Cannon are simply heavier versions of the ordinary spit pistols to be found in any Block's City-Def armoury. They're principally designed for fire against flying vehicles but are equally devastating against personnel and plascrete.
Heavy Weapon: Spit Cannons are Heavy Weapons.
Incendiary fire: The +6 damage profile given on the counter is when firing ordinary anti-personnel or armour-piercing rounds. Owning players may on any shot declare that the weapon is firing incendiaries. This reduces the damage bonus to +5 but allows the player to place one fire marker in the target square. (The printed sheet reads "in the the target square"; one "the" is removed here.)
Secret Weapons - Armoury Counters
Warning: Using Secret Weapons can seriously unbalance your games.
Thermo-Bombs
Thermo-bombs are similar to but far more powerful than demo-charges. On detonation they release colossal quantities of heat, melting away and evaporating everything within several metres.
Terminal Fatality Levels: Blocker counters using ordinary demo charges are allowed to set them off in their own square - as they'd stand at least a slim chance of surviving. They don't have any such chance with a thermo-bomb. Blocker counters aren't allowed to detonate the bomb while they still are in the same square. Once the charge has been set, the blocker counter must move out of the square. Blocker counters which haven't got enough move points left to move on must use converted command points (see 5.v. Extra Movement) or they may not set the bomb.
Delayed Detonation: The counter carrying the thermo-bomb leaves it in
[Transcription gap: the printed sentence ends at "leaves it in" at the bottom edge of the photographed sheet. The remainder of this rule is not legible in the scan and has not been reconstructed. Check against the printed sheet or the Rebellion reprint before relying on this rule.]