Reconnaissance in force

What's really fast and hits like a wet noodle?

So, as you can see I had an idea. Having 3 Mercuries, an Assassin and a Mongoose already painted in desert colors (I sold the Ostscout for a tidy sum), why not expand the mech contingent of my generic desert force up to two full lances? 

Mercuries VII & VIII's numbers had to be spread across both shoulders due to their size.

As such I ordered another Mercury and while awaiting that, I soaked my Goliath Scorpion & Jade Falcon Mercuries in simple green, stripping their prior alliegiances off, so all three could be painted at once when the new Mercury arrived in the mail. 

These can be used as most anything with the following coming almost immediately to mind:

SLDF era Mercs

Early Succession Wars Capellans

Commiestar & the Wobblies (a full C3i Level II of MCY-104s could be scary)

Order of the Faithful (Wobblie equipped pirates)

SLDF in Exile and/or Pentagon Powers (such as the the Sand Confederacy)

If I ditch the Assassin, then they can also be:

2nd line/Operation Klondike Nova Cat Star

Or an entire Sept of The Society using the relics taken from an ancient Brian cache

With so many identical mechs, I thought it prudent to number the backs of their bases as well.

Pickett's Charge, but this time with Mechs!

 o/

We're coming to get ya!

Friday night I played the final game in the 2nd section of our campaign. I was teamed up with another player (Kevin) and we were to assault a fortified position and kill the enemy commander's CGR-SB. The enemy force consisted of an Enforcer ENF-4R, Blackjack BJ-1DB, A Hunchback HBK-4G, a Griffin 1N, CGR-SB, Grasshopper-GHR-5H, a Victor & a Longbow (I think that was all of them) and they were supplemented with 5 defensive turrets (and a hellova lot of intervening terrain). 

 A whole lotta whoop ass!

I had a Stalker STK-4N, a Charger CGR-SB, a Merlin MLN-1A, Catapult CLPT-C1 and a Hunchback HBK-4N & Kevin's St. Ives force had a Marauder MAD-3D,  Highlander HGN-733C, Grasshopper GHR-5H, Warhammer WHM-6D, Phoenix Hawk PHX-1D, Griffin GRF-1N and a Charger CGR-1A5

Our primary Target, piloted by Katrina...something.

Here's how it all went down:

The initial surge forward with my allies going after the forward deployed Griffin whereas I zeroed in on an Enforcer and we both shot up some turrets as well. 

Turn 2 was much the same though the enemy griffin was still in the backfield and would continue to be a thorn in our sides. I got a lucky CT crit on the enforcer inflicting 2 engine hits. 

Unfortunately, if I recall correctly the charger's AC-20 missed in this scrum 

In this round my shooting vs. the Enforcer was largely inaccurate, whereas it continued to blaze away, heat be damned!

Hi there!

I thought this side would be an easy shot over a small hill and into the backfield. But there was the small matter of a twin PPC turret and a pair of AC-20s heading my way...

My Hunchback lobbing LRMs forward while somehow that damned Griffin is still over there...

My Stalker unloaded into the approaching mechs (I forget which one) and received an AC-20 slug to the right torso in return! It would fall back the next turn to dump the SRM ammo stored in said torso as a safety precaution. 

My Catapult, closed to point blank range and hit (but didn't kill the Enforcer). No, it's ammo cooked off due to overheating so much!

The Hunchback breaks off to savage the Marauder, while the Victor continues towards my Stalker. 

My Catapult's hoppers start to run empty (no reloads from the last game) as it trades fire with the Longbow on the hill. My charger meanwhile got the absolute shit kicked out of it this turn, taking 2 head shots including a 2 crits that took out the medium laser and the sensors!

Whilst the damned enemy Griffin had gotten the absolute shit kicked out of it, it was still back there and went in for the DFA to try and crush what little was left of my Charger's head!

The Victor closes into knife fighting range and gets lit up as does my Merlin, I didn't direct any fire at the Griffin with a Victor running straight at me!

Which is fine because one of my shots punched thru and hit it's AC-20 ammo bin, vaporizing it!

...and the Griffin failed it's to-hit roll and fell right on by my Charger for an 18 point landing!

At this point, the FLGS was closing and we had to call it. While the enemy Charger had not been destroyed we were declared the winners having inflicted more damage than was taken. In the end the Pirates lost an Enforcer, a Victor, and four of their 5 turrets. all remaining mechs on the table were damaged to varying degrees, but none were down. 

Kevin & I split the salvage, he got an armorless T-Bolt and I got a 1-legged Locust (might not seem even but I have a Locust mini and not a T-Bolt so was fine by me), 200 warchest points, and a pile o' loot as well, huzzah!

Scott (in the blue shirt) playing the OpFor for Barry in the 3rd round scenario that I played here.  

Defend the base

 o/

Spoiler alert!

I finally got to play the next mission in our campaign. There was a 'bonus' mission that I skipped over given that my force on Mica II has been reduced to a lone HBK-4J, and I knew that I would be able to get some of my own reinforcements in this mission.

The battlefield

My force: the last remaining Hunchback HBK-4J, plus 3 'borrowed' mechs from Larsen's Loaners (2 of which were my minis): a Flea FLE-17, a Panther PNT-9R and a Hunchback HBK-4P which I proxied with an HBK-4SP model as my HBK-4P is painted in Swords of Light colors and more importantly not in my miniature case at the time.

My mission was to defend a power generator & communications tower inside a walled fortification. The gate to said fortification as inoperable and open. Also, I would be getting reinforcements from my company: a lance with no BV limitations, which would arrive on a randomly rolled for turn. The OpFor's mission was to destroy the 2 objectives, and then flee the table after passing back outside of the fortification walls. 

The OpFor consisted of a Victor VTR-9B (I think?), x2 Locust LCT-1Vb, a Stinger STG-3b, a Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T Tallman, and a Wolverine WVR-6M.

In my opening move, I sent the Loaner's mechs forward, with the Flea hugging the inside wall.

Checking line of sight (there was a building right behind one of my mechs, blocking my view) as the Stinger hops over the defensive wall.

On turn 2, I got a lucky roll and my reinforcements arrived, Huzzah! Unfortunately, they were all big, slow, and way out in the backfield. Sad face. 

The HBK-4P takes a fall in a nasty firefight which saw more than 20 medium lasers hammering my Hunchback and the T-Bolt. The Hunchback also suffered a thru-armor crit that dealt 2 engine hits! Not good for a laser boat. 

My HBK-4J & the Loaner's Panther try to score hits on all of the fast moving enemy light mechs with disappointing results. The Flea was doing pretty good, but unfortunately the FLE-17 is only a dangerous opponent when fghting against infantry. 

The second wave, mosying forward. The Catapult was aiming for the closest high point from which to lob in some LRM-15 fire support.

While I scored a few hits here, the full potential of this opportunity was lost due to those 2 engine crits. 

Objective #1 comes under fire. 

And in short order goes up in flames!

In a particularly nasty exchange (see the pic below), the Loaner's HBK-4P gets walloped in a crossfire suffering 70 points of damage in one turn! Not only does it stay on it's feet, hitting the T-bolt with 4 mediums and the small laser, it then delivered two punches as well!

Ouch! Nonetheless, I think this mech deserves to have it's paint job completed for not only surviving that onslaught, but for fighting right on thru it.

The HBK-4J hugs the wall, and offers supporting fire while the Flea dukes it out with the locusts, giving as good as it got, from the green & tan Locust (the black one missed entirely).

The 2nd wave still slowly trundling forward, except for the Catapult which perched on a level 3 hill was just barely in LRM range.

With only 3 points of center torso structure left, the HBK-4P alpha strikes with it's remaining 7 mediums and 1 small laser, hitting the Stinger a few times and ending said volley at +12 heat! It died shortly thereafter. 

These two, each down an arm, continue to slug it out in an oddly evenly matched fight (considering the Locust's die rolls).

The Loaner's HBK-4P's funeral pyre.

Finally the comms tower is taken out, causing me to lose by default. 

There were no more pics after this point as time was running short. The OpFor manuvered towards the exits while my reinforcing second wave spread out for a good ol' fashioned roadblock. Unfortunately, it was already past the FLGS' closing time and we had to call it there. 

The Larsen's Loaners' mechs took a beating, whereas none of my 5 TBAGers mechs suffered any damage at all. So while not a win, I'm calling it a moral victory. Also, at the game's beginning I secured another Mobile Repair Unit which I didn't need (unless I wanted to replenish ammo, which I'm opting to not do), so I'll be saving that for the aftermath of the next round. 

The latest paints

 o/

Totally not carrying the Captain General's battlefield wardrobe and personal bivouac replete with waterbed and satin sheets...

So...my favorite Cyclops variant is also the least effective variant on the tabletop. That's almost like a theme with me. Anyways...the CP-10-HQ model is a free roaming forward operating command center, the AC-20 was removed and in it's place and strapped to the mech's back is a Collapsible Command Module. 

The fold-a-fort parts are carried in the mech's 'backpack'.

Its not entirely toothless still having an LRM-10, SRM-4 and lastly a medium laser in each arm. 

The mech is usually in a command lance and it's weaponry is more defensive than offensive as the B-2000 computer system, when connected to said module makes this an effective command center for a planetwide assault. Thus it is too risky a mech to use in an assault. If anything, headhunter units will likely try to capture or destroy this mech if it's presence is detected. Few command modules survived the Succession Wars intact and the surviving CP-10-HQs likely had lesser systems in its place. 

Something about this pic just bugs me...

Like so many catalyst KS rescuplts, the new Cicada sculpt is fantastic! During the succession Wars, Marik only had access to the base model, but their neighbors the Capellans had a few of the more interesting variants, and most likely donated a few along with a planet or two...

Fast and fragile fire support. 

Note the tiny unit logo on the shoulder plate.

Last up is a new mech for my beloved TBAGers: a Valkyrie. Ya know, in all of my years of playing Battletech, I have never owned one of these mechs or at least not that I can recall (am damned near 50 at this point, so take my memory with a grain of salt).

Shoot & scoot baby! Shoot & scoot...

I'm adding a lance of light/fast mechs to my otherwise slow and plodding TBAGers. Previously recon was left to a Phoenix Hawk and oh so average speed Panther. I plan on adding a Commando and Vulcan which will at least offer some speed, if not firepower. 

But wait, there's more...

Last but certainly not the least: The following pic was taken from FB IM and is evidence of Screech finally painting mechs! Looks pretty good to me.

Insert grey joke here: