See Mecha. A baseline-level mecha for the first mass-produced Knightmare Frame. (Bleh, I wonder if these should have subtype Knightmare... it is a silly term, but it is the Code Geass word for mecha, so probably so.)

Borrows heavily from L2i0n0k7's Powered Armor idea. I brought the Eject mechanic a bit closer to original totem armor as seen on Hyena Umbra and friends, because seeing Knightmares destroyed and their pilots ejecting is a pretty common event during the series. I did make it optional because in-game you'll often want to preserve your Trusty Machete rather than your random creature, but that's if anything a slight departure from the series - it's pretty hard to kill a Knightmare pilot without also severely damaging the Knightmare - so perhaps that line should be cut.

I was sure this was going to be something like http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glasgow+kiss , but apparently this is a non-ironic use of glasgow :)

Ha! Yep, afraid so - this is one of the standard Code Geass mecha names. (The others being Sutherland and Gloucester , along with the variant Glasgows called Burai.) The main empire of Code Geass being based on Britain does lead to some strange terminology at times :)

Over on Mecha jmgariepy pointed out that a Shatter taking out a high-power mecha would feel a bit anticlimactic. One interesting point about the Eject ability is that it means creature combat becomes a way to "deal with" mecha (especially if I remove the "you may" so that the mech definitely gets destroyed instead of the creature), so the suggestion of making them an entirely different card type actually has some viability.

Yep, that consideration, along with http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Cockpit_Ejection_System mentioning "if the Knightmare sensors believe that the pilot's life is in danger, it will automatically eject", swings me to make Eject non-optional.

Hmm. I'm not sure if I can actually have this give +2/+1 while still having room for all the generations of Knightmare... The problem is the series does rather have an arms race going on in the technology in use across its 50-ish episodes. Let me enumerate the Knightmares I might include in the set:

> Generations 1-3 were prototypes, probably not reflected on cards, except possibly the Ganymede. > > Fourth Generation: > > * The Glasgow is the bog-standard basic mass-production Knightmare at the start of the series. > * The Burai is a Japanese variant on Glasgow with similar stats. > * The Burai Kai is a much more powerful tweak on the Burai, comparable to the Gloucester, used only by the Four Holy Swords (and optimised for close-quarters combat). > * The Gun-Ru is a mass-produced Chinese fourth gen Knightmare, without eject. > > Fifth Generation: > > * The Sutherland is the mass-produced fifth gen Knightmare. > * The Gloucester is a significant improvement on the Sutherland. Many of Cornelia's staff use Gloucesters optimised for CQ combat. > > Sixth Generation: > > * The Gawain is an experimental, slow, heavy Knightmare with stealth, flight, and a powerful Hadron Cannon. > > Seventh Generation: > > * The Lancelot is Suzaku's iconic experimental seventh-gen Knightmare. > * The Guren Mk II is Kallen's experimental seventh-gen Knightmare, optimised for CQ combat. > * The Vincent is a pre-production version of the Lancelot. > * The Vincent Ward is the mass-production version of the Lancelot (albeit lower-powered). > * The Gekka is a pre-production version of the Guren and an upgrade on the Burai Kai. > * The Akatsuki is the mass-production version of the Gekka. > * The Gareth is a powerful, high-end, mass-produced Knightmare with flight capability used at the end of the second season. > * The Somerset is a transforming flight-capable version of the Glasgow. > > Eighth Generation: > > * The Shen Hu is an experimental version of the Guren given to the Chinese.
> * The Shinkiro is Lelouch's personal command Knightmare, upgraded from the Gawain, with flight and transformation capability. Extremely defensive. > * The Knights of the Round's personal Knightmares are eighth gen, such as Anya's Mordred (defensive with a devastating siege weapon), Bismarck's Galahad , Gino's Tristan (aggressive/manoeuvrable) and Bradley's Percival. > * The Zangetsu is Tohdoh's personal Knightmare, an upgrade from his Gekka. Aggressive/swift, very hard to use. > > Ninth Generation: > > * Lancelot Albion is Lancelot's ultimate form, and > * Guren SEITEN is Guren's ultimate form.

...Wow, that's a lot... Anyway. The point is, the personal Knightmares (in italics) are allowed to be stronger than the mass-production versions, but even restricting consideration to mass produced Knightmares I want

Glasgow < Sutherland < Gloucester < Gareth
.....................^ Burai Kai < Gekka

So if Glasgow gives +2/+1, then I'll want Sutherland to give at least +3/+1, and Gloucester to give even more... and I don't think +4/+4 or higher is something I want on uncommon or common Knightmares in this game. If the Glasgow gives +2/+1 then I think Sutherland wants to be notably better, but then the Gloucester needs to be notably better again...

• Glasgow common +2/+1
• Sutherland common +3/+2
• Burai common +2/+2
• Gloucester uncommon +3/+4 maybe?
• Gareth rare +4/+4 flying
• Burai Kai uncommon +3/+1
• Gekka rare +4/+2 or uncommon +3/+3

The alternative is either allow Sutherland to give the same power bonus as Glasgow, which feels wrong given how much of an upgrade Sutherlands are, or to make Glasgow only give +1 power, which feels wrong given how much stronger any random human in a Knightmare is against any random human not in a Knightmare.

(Edited to add colour affiliations: Britannia or , Black Knights , Japan . Until I decide on their colours China can be and Zero can be .)

You can get away with including some of the personal mecha in the character's stats. That loses eject; I guess.

I don't think applying magic's combat logic overmuch is very sensible. Philospher vs bear? A mammoth can trample past one guy, but not three guys? It's the "knight vs cat" problem all over again.

Anyhow. I'd suggest the later frames should instead add keywords. So maybe the new light frame is no stronger, but it's first-strike so who cares?

Finally - just trim some out of the middle. You don't have to represent each and every one.

"Just trim out some of the middle" - I've already done that two or three times over :) There are vast numbers of Knightmares I didn't include in the list above; and I trimmed the big list drastically down to the basic six or so that I'd really want to be sure to include and have in the right power levels relative to each other.

Most extra keywords wouldn't really help. But first strike is one that would.

I certainly agree I'm not going to get a sensible balance from all the combat logic. That's fine. But a +1/+1 from a Glasgow just doesn't feel like it has enough impact.

However, typing out that enumeration does help me realise that there are (way more than) enough Knightmares in the set for me to consider something I'd been contemplating, which is making Knightmares coloured rather than colourless. I generally dislike coloured artifacts, but it does have some definite benefits - it lets you use more colour-specific abilities, it lets you affiliate certain artifacts with certain factions, and it means not all drafters will be able to snap up a powerful artifact as easily as each other.

The key that makes this possible is that many of the Knightmares above are affiliated with particular factions. The Glasgow is Britannian; the Japanese Resistance have Knightmares equivalent to the Glasgow, but give it a different name, the Burai. I can easily have Knightmares in black and white (Britannia), red (terrorists and Black Knights), green (Japanese and Chinese) and blue (experimental models and perhaps Knights of the Round), even in different proportions.

Good point about the personal mecha though. Especially for the Knights of the Round and perhaps Cornelia and her troops, I could have the character card be assumed to include the Knightmare as well. I'm not that bothered about eject, but if I really wanted I could have such characters ETB with a +1/+1 counter and a totem-armour-like effect to remove it.

Took the costs down a bit. Knightmares with Eject work rather more like Auras than Equipment, and Oakenform is a lot cheaper than Vulshok Battlegear.

Having played with Knightmares a fair amount, the gameplay considerations are clear. Eject is meant to allow interactivity by allowing the knightmare to be destroyed in combat. For that to happen, the knightmares need to give a small enough bonus that there's any hope of destroying them in combat! So I think I'm fine with the Glasgow RPI-11 and the Burai Type-10 giving just +1/+1. I haven't tried the Gloucester RPI-209 yet, but +3/+4 sounds fairly high. The Gloucester Royal RPI-00/SC is definitely way overpowered with +3/+3 and first strike - it makes it pretty much impossible to kill in combat.

I don't care so much about the flavour feel. +1/+1 from a Glasgow is fine compared to Emrakul dying to 15 squirrels.

Can't Emrakul fly? :)

Now I've read squirrel girl, the defeating Emrakul thing makes a lot more sense :)

And so does the names of the Knightmares; those city names and arthurian names are exactly the sort of thing the british empire did used to name things.

I'm impressed that you did, pretty much, manage to squeeze in six generations here :)