Yet another hapless settlement about to be destroyed in battle...
Nick & I met up for another game Wednesday night, this time using a scenario rather than the usual kill everything in sight (though, ultimately they all kind of go that way at some point).
The mission brief.
We upped the game size to 3500points, Lostech era with the exception of one mech sporting some Star League tech of some sort. We then rolled off to see who's mech would be the 'prize' to be captured. Nick had a Blackjack BJ-3 with its new fangled double heat sinks, whereas I had a Cyclops CP-10-HQ, with a still intact Collapsible Command Module (basically a side torso stuffed with a fold-a-fort/field HQ/tent and super computer). This Cyclops variant is more or less an objective/fluff model, and this was the perfect opportunity to actually use it!
I won the roll off and decided my prize was better, and thus my Cyclops would be the hunted mech, meaning it could not be shot at. Erroneously, for the first half of the ensuing game, I was under the mistaken impression that I also could not shoot at Nick's Blackjack, allowing it to roam the field unmolested, doh!
That said, with base 4/5 pilots and a bunch of fast moving mechs with +3 & +4 to modifiers all over the place, there would be a lot of shooting, but not so much hitting. So perhaps that really didn't matter. Throughout the game, the dice were not kind to either of us, though for a turn or two, Nick especially.
Oh look! The city is undefended...
The wall seemingly goes on forever!
The first shots are fired, with the Prize bringing up the rear.
Jenner v. Jenner. At least one of these two ugly machines had the decency to try and conceal itself! These two would tangle with one another throughout the game.
An overhead view of a bunch of small mechs shooting a lot and hitting only a little (odds are the buildings didn't fare too well in these exchanges).
Still not firing at the Blackjack the Dragon put a few rounds into the Panther instead.
Speed is life! My Jenner survived this multi-mech assault with nary a scratch due to its +4 to hit speed modifier. Speaking of, it's reversed guns didn't hit anything for the same reason.
REAR ARMOR? This is a great opportun-oh wait, fuck it has a damned +4 to hit. Take that you damned wall!
Shots were landing here and there, but none too many were recorded. My Wasp was the first to fall (doesn't take much), and my Jenner taking some hits, in exchange for similar (though not yet fatal) damage to nick's Panther and Spider.
Its gotta be interference from the radar and communication towers, that must be what is throwing off our aim!
Ugh, these two again. I believe that by this point my Jenner was down the SRM launcher and one arm (taking 2 lasers with it) which was fine as it had an engine hit as well.
The battle finally moves outside of the city's wall
Well mostly, the Panther hopped the wall and my Cyclops finally put the mech out of it's misery (it had been running around 1 remaining point of CT structure for several turns).
This was a fast moving game of extensive maneuver and atrocious aim! My elite Swords of Light mechs were as sharp as the average spork, and Nick's Vegan Rangers (or the Soy Boys as he called them, lol) weren't doing much better.
Like the Panther before it, my Jenner succumbs to the inevitable, losing a leg.
Similarly, the Dragon, incapable of shooting worth a damn, charges the damaged, 1-armed Spider and punches and stomps the little mech into oblivion!
Any notion of not shooting the Blackjack had long since passed, with my Cyclops and (armless) Dragon making a last stand against the Blackjack, while the Dragon's rear mounted laser shot at the Jenner (again). Indeed, at this point blank range the Cyclops emptied it's LRM's ammo, but it was all to no avail.
The hour was starting to run late and it was a 'school' night. While the tenets of Bushido would rightfully inspire the Dragon to suicidally fight to the end, doing so would only delay the inevitable. As such the Cyclops powered down, and it's pilot turned the keys over to Nick to claim his new Cyclops with it's integral field kitchen collapsible command module...
This past weekend was the Solaris VII multiplayer event at out FLGS and it was...alright. I got to meet prettymuch all of the local BattleTech crowd, roll some dice, bullshit with the gang, shoot stuff and of course, have my pink panther be the first mech present to die. All the usual stuff.
Scott (center) was the primary organizer as with assistance from his buddy Barry on the left there (who's voice sounds a lot like Joe Pesci), and Wyatt to Scott's right. In the foreground you can see Ace & The Master Chief, both ready to rumble! Much to my surprise, no one had every heard of Ace Darwin's Whipits, or had ever seen anyone with a pink Panther before.
The whole crew going from left to right: Ian (who sounds surprisingly like my friend Charlie back in TN and is taller than even I am!), Badger (yes, that's his real life name), and again Barry & Scott.
To the right of Scott is Joe & Chris, Wyatt seen in the 2nd photo above and Jason whom I didn't get a pic of had already left by this point)
And lastly Nick & Dylan.
The guys who organized the event played in it as well, and given all of the work that they put into 3D printing and painting the terrain, coming up the scenario, etc., why shouldn't they? 12 players, Tech level 1, 3020s era, at least 2 mechs totaling no more than 120 tons (only Chris opted to field a light lance lead by a Crab).
The initial set up, the blue hexes around the edges being numbered and randomly rolled for. Somehow Ian ended up all on his own on the lefthand side.
The scenario involved a lot of automated defense turrets that really seemed to bog things down in my opinion. I get what they were aiming for, to force the players into a scrum in the middle, rather than sandbagging in the outfield. However the turrets ate up a lot of time, effectively took Dylan's Orion out of the game on turn 1 with 2 engine crits (notta good experience for a new player). Nick's guillotine took a gyro hit as well.
The Solaris VII, mechs vs turrets game begins...
So many turrets, dear god in heaven, get inside the walls!!
Also, with only Ian on the left side, once his two mechs entered the city (they had a short, straight shot inside the walls), the turrets on that side of the field spun around to attack the nearest target, leaving Nick's Guillotine on our end, and Dylan's now lone surviving Vindicator on the other to run like hell! In total, with 15-16 turrets outside the arena, 2 guarding every gate to the arena and one in the middle, that's like damned near 30! It was a bit...much.
Yes, exactly.
Armed with a variety of weapons, varying rolls to activate, turrets surrounded by mechs were easily taken down passing out VPs to all who shot them, whereas on the other side, bereft of targets the turrets were ganging up on the few mechs unfortunate enough to be in LRM range.
Skidding at full speed into a wall is a lot of fun, so long it isn't your Wasp doing it! Luckily Ian's other mech was an Atlas.
At this point, Ace already had no front center torso armor and Chris' Locust at the top was missing an arm or two, and that buttered Crab had seen better days as well. Chris pondered having his Locust run around inside the city, activating all of the turrets. I told him it was a good idea so long as he yelled 'LEERRRRRROY JENKINS! He said sure...why? Ugh, that...hurts...so...much (and I didn't even play Everquest)!
Once inside the city, the wall turrets started to pop-up, and start to attack WTH? When there's already a scrum in progress, who wants to get taken out by a wall turret shooting you in the back?
At this point it was about time for me to go. Originally when I signed up for this we had no plans for the day which was fine as I figured this would take forever with 24+ mechs on the field, commended by a dozen people. However a week and a half ago Frankie heard that a rodeo was in town and so we were going to that in the evening. Thus at the end of turn four, 4.5 hours into the event, my Charger alpha struck into a Blackjack, delivering a 37 points of 'laser good byes', while Ace's Panther disintegrated in the clusterfuck at the wall. Nick checked out as well, not sure if he had plans (he did mention Octoberfest) or had just had enough.
Till we meet again Mr. Blackjack...
As soon as we walked out of the shop and the door closed he turned to me and said: 'So, thoughts?' As I'm sure you can imagine my first thought was: the turrets need to go. My other thought was to freeze the initiative for the game, or at most reroll when someone dropped out. Instead every turn we rolled for initiative. Followed by roll offs for all of the duplicate rolls, and so on and just that alone was like 10 minutes a turn wasted.
Nick agreed. Turret combat isn't want Solaris should be about. Again, I get what they were going for but it was just too much. Nick commented that they wanted to really get into the crunchy details whereas at an event like this, streamlining things is better.
So many thoughts...
Anyways we left, the fam and I went to the rodeo, ate fair food, and here & again I checked my phone to just see 'still going' updates, and after we got home and were chilling out a bit before going to bed, the discord notification came in that the last mech standing was declared at 10:45pm (the game started at 12:30PM), with Scott the winner.
Hrmm...I know I wasn't there for the last 6 hours, but I always find it a little suspect when an event organizer wins his own event. Those still in attendance didn't have anything but praise, so no foul play appears to have taken place which is good. But still I can't help but wonder...
Reading back thru, this post came a bit more negative than intended. The FLGS is wanting me to help organize an upcoming Urbie Derby. So I guess my turn in the sunto be complained about is coming...
I think one of the things that I like about BattleTech is that I can complete forces before I really get bored of them. I mean, I paint more or less everything piecemeal, barring the occasional burst of impetus with one faction or another in 40K. However when painting random models here and there for 40k, there's little feeling of accomplishment because so fucking many are needed for a damned army of any appreciable point value.
Whereas with BattleTech, I really don't foresee any of my forces exceeding a company (or maybe a binary for the Clans) in size. Often its a combined-arms company/binary which further breaks things up. Also, in BattleTech, its rare to have too many multiples of the same model. For instance, the lowly but beloved Urbanmech is my most common mech at 14 models, with only 7 in the same color scheme. In 40k, in most cases that's not even a squad!
But anyways, enough pointless rambling! What you see above and below is what I (finished) painting this week. I say finished as I still have another lance's worth in-progress.
Marik Militia Marauder & Chameleon
The Marauder always was, and still is a pretty mech, all the more so now that it is painted!
I know that my buddy Neverness loathes BattleTech, but I am sure he grew up on Robotech as much as I did, and would most likely be at least a little nostalgic about this model. Even if only in secret...
Both of these mechs are stomping around on their not-so-friendly neighbor's planet.
The Chameleon is primarily a trainer in the fluff, but I am hoping that it will be a decent mech in battle.
Its mostly energy weapon load out is supposed to train pilots not to overheat their machines. Well, unless they're in point blank range, I doubt all those small lasers will even fire, much less over tax the heat sinks!
Painting that old Imperial Guard icon in blue, under these mechs was a real treat I can assure you!
Meanwhile in the periphery...
The Masakari T of the Scorpion Empire is the whole reason that this mech was painted in their colors. It mounts the perfect blend of Clan & Inner Sphere tech, with just a splash of periphery garbage to round things out.
It mounts 2 Clan ER PPCs, 2 plasma rifles with 3 tons of ammo, and most importantly, a circa 1950s era rocket launcher 10!
Oh good, he/she didn't step on their little friend!
Also in the periphery...
This Retrotech Griffin is the newest acquisition of my deep periphery, piss poor mercs: Battle Rattle. Built to primitive standards, yet refitted with a large laser and MML 5 with 1 ton each of LRM & SRM ammo, it wields a missile launcher far more advanced than any other mech in my Battle Rattle force. Yet, it is of course built on a woefully obsolete mech, perfection!
Its a little hard to see under all of the grime, but it says 'Kill!' on the gun arm.
I was tempted to fit this arm with modular armor to match the model (this arm is clearly much better armored...well, at least visually), but the negatives vastly outweighed any appreciable benefit.
This coming weekend is the FLGS' Solaris event. While I have a 'list' of 2 mechs to bring (TOP SECRET: on the very outside chance that any of my opponents Saturday read this), you know me. Meaning, I'll likely be pondering alternative builds from my collection right up until the last moment!
Nick and I got together for another small game of Classic BattleTech. Three thousand points this time. Fielding 6 Urbies was under consideration, but instead I opted to go with just vehicles and infantry. Small games like this are good for trying out new ideas and forces that are outside of the proverbial box.
The three mechs of Nick's 6th Mccarron's Armored Cavalry in back, and my Corey's Homeguard in front (yes, Corey is my name and yes, Corey is also a world in the Capellan Confederation). Notably, this was my first ever use of a VTOL in a game of BattleTech!
The settlement that would be the site of this battle.
As the forces in this Op are all (nominally) Capellans, I'm calling this a training exercise. The 6th MAC serving as raiders, with the intent of testing the Homeguard's response. Here's how it went down...
Two standard bulldogs advancing into the city. I was pleased to note that their camo blended in pretty well.
The warrior swings around wide of the 'fresh from the factory' Schrek.
As is the lot of the average Vedette crew, they charged up the middle with the unenviable task of playing 'Bait'.
The first connecting shot went to the Warrior when several missiles from it's LRM-10 connected with the Victor, no doubt making it angry. That aside, early 6th MAC shooting was largely at extreme range rendering it ineffective, whereas the Homeguard's shooting was better described as woefully inaccurate.
The HBK-4G goes in for the kill and is surrounded! In the prior turn it's AC-20 shredded all of the armor from one of the Bulldog's Turrets, and the Victor did the same to the Vedette's rear armor sending that tank fleeing for it's life!
The Jump Laser infantry kicked things off inflicting a whopping 2 points of damage to the Hunchback. Clearly this inspired the rest of the troops as the tanks hit it from all directions! The Hunchback unfortunately took several rear torso hits and was critted out with 3 engine and 1 gyro hits! That said, its last gasp was to pump an AC-20 into the front of the AC Schrek! Far off in the backfield, the Warrior harried the Raven's rear inflicting minor damage.
All guns turn on the Victor (including that of the returning, out of picture Vedette). While the Victor expertly puts another AC-20 slug into the armorless Bulldog turret, killing the tank.
The weight of fire from the Homeguard was telling however and the Victor failed it's piloting check, tumbling to the ground! In the backfield, the Raven and Warrior tangled with one another, resulting in a few damaged rotor blades slinging off into some nearby buildings!
Sensing victory, the 6th MAC chooses to ignore the warrior and far off vedette, and concentrate on the last tank, further damaging the Schrek.
The RVN-1X turned up the white noise of its electronic equipment, only to realize that the Homeguard's sensors were of too old a design to be effected.
Damaged again with the driver injured, the Schrek tries to limp away to safety, white unleashing a torrent of fire in the form of 3 AC-5s and 6 machine guns at the Victor! I wanted to shoot the Raven, but the +3 to hit meant that I had to continue to plink away at the much more heavily armored assault mech.
The Schrek's (in)glorious last stand! The rest of my force continued to provide support...
...but in the end was all for naught.
With the Schrek down, the Vedette and Warrior made a run for it, whereas the jump platoon first headed to the elevators, followed thereafter by the exits.
Well that was fun! It seems that the elite mercenary's are indeed better than the weekend warriors, despite outnumbering the raiders 2-1. Initially, Nick was very wary of the Schrek, fearing it was the far more dangerous (and thinly armored) PPC toting variety. I like the AC-5 Schreks due to the much thicker armor, but that does unfortunately halve the firepower. The Vedette and Bulldogs did well (once the latter decided to hit something), the Vedette crew's gunnery on the other hand was to be commended! Especially was it was almost always moving at flank speed and never closer than medium range.
The infantry almost suffered a death from above attack, but Nick figured they weren't worth all of the reading of rules that that would require. Especially as they were inflicting minimal damage. The Warrior did well and didn't die, but wasn't decisive either. The high movement modifiers made it hard to hit, but with only a 4/5 crew, the Raven it was mostly shooting at wasn't an easy target either.
Looking ahead, Nick will be one of my opponents in the FLGS' 3020s Solaris event on the 5th, not to mention that we have also discussed an all vehicle game at some point in the future. I did that once years ago with Kushial and like the all Urbie game, it was a lot of fun!
