That Guy vs. That Guy = SO. MUCH. NERD. RAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!

 o/

That's me on the left in the brown shirt. 

Okay so first things first: I had fun.  

Two rounds, Lostech Era, with lances provided by the TOs including several custom mechs, randomly chosen by the players for both rounds, so each player didn't field the same lance twice. That said, I believe Sven bucked the trend and did get the same lance for both rounds. Each lance also came with predetermined piloting and gunnery skills which were all over the place too. All lances were play tested by the TOs with those of higher tonnage having lower skilled pilots and vice versa. 

Both of my games were against good opponents, with my games being enjoyable despite my going 0-2. My first game against Sven came down to the wire, with me losing my Vindicator to a trio of headshots (the last of which was delivered via a hatchet) at the very end of the last turn! 

Round two was vs Noah whom I played in my first Battletech tournament (which, as it turns out was the last time he has played a game). As we had both lost our first round and were out of the running, I had suggested we just play a game and ignore the scenario. However, the scenario was rather novel so 2-3 turns in, we made a go of it. 

Both rounds spawned VERY loud arguments, with two of the FLGS' that guys in attendance. One player whom I prefer to avoid gaming with (he's just fine to BS with though) was involved in the both of them. That said, from what bits & pieces I gathered from the 2nd round his arguments were justified. His opponent whom I have played once before was by far the worst of the two that guys playing, refused to even listen to the TOs (both of them) and kept arguing his point. Whatever it was. 

Something about underwater movement, & surviving tonnage of said underwater unit which was unable to move and/or shoot. Honestly, I steered clear of both confrontations. Especially the one in the 2nd round which had me wondering if fists would fly. Remember kids, this is supposed to be fun with giant stompy robots. 

At one point a trio of US Navy Seamen (this is Charleston) were watching bemused from the FLGS' entrance as a couple of guys their dads' age, argued loudly about their toys. Having later played said scenario with Noah, I have no idea what the issue was. However, in my game with Sven, the volume of arguing had gotten so loud however, that Sven and I were having difficulty communicating with one another about what mech hit what, and what damage was applied to where. 

That guy number 2 won 2nd place and a $20 store credit to go with it. He was the one that was arguing with even the TOs as well as the other that guy whom he was playing. I hope he enjoys his store credit, because after this experience, I am sure he will have a hard time finding anyone who was present willing to play against him. Seriously dude, is winning worth it so much that you're content to alienate the entire local player base to get said win?

Anyways, tournament ranting over, below is a photo dump of the festivities (photos of the aforementioned arguments omitted): 

Early on and off to a good start. 

Nick 2.0 had intended to just stop by and shit-talk me. However, as somebody was a no show, he got sucked in for a round. He played this tournament's that guy #2 and unfortunately, as you can tell by this photo, he was not enjoying his impromptu game. 

There is one lance I didn't want (based purely on the paint jobs), and so naturally that is what I got for round 1. The Yen Lo Wang was the only stock model, with the rest being custom mods, and all with Hatchets. The only weapons I had that could reach beyond 9 hexes were two large lasers. 

Tourney Organizer Blaine on the left and my opponent Sven on the right. Am already in the process of working out a timeframe to get another game in with Sven. Note: his t-shirt. 

Sven weighing his options. That or I just did something that threw him for a loop. 

Believe it or not, my Vindicator came thru this exchange completely unscathed!

The Yen Lo Wang goes down! Yes, even the Archer had a hatchet!

Blaine took Nick 2.0's place for round two. Noah on the right is calculating his firing solutions.

My Awesome is starting to feel the 'love'.

My s

My Shadow Hawk (another custom variant, no hatchet though), advancing on the CPLT-K2 in the distance. My Archer spent the game camped on the hilltop, raining sporadically accurate missile fire down on Noah's mechs all game. 

Turn three and the Battlemaster and my Wolverine manage to hop aboard the moving hover train. A shootout was attempted, but nothing came of it. All that was missing from these two were the cowboy hats. 

The train, sans cargo/objectives. My Wolverine captured one while Noah's Battlemaster captured the other two which, along with the loss of my Shadow Hawk (typical) would hand him the win. the train's 'track' was numbered which made for a handy turn counter as well. 

My Wolverine escaped with an objective, garnering me all 27 of my victory points. However, by moving off of the board to capture the 20 VPs, it cost me 55 tons against my surviving tonnage which seemed a bit counter intuitive.

Another train scenario table, much nicer than the one I played on. Nick played on this in the first round and in the second Sven got brutally tabled on it in the 3 or 4 turns.

Mechs for the SLDF (the FIRST one).

 o/

These would not look out of place were there a King Crab in their midst. 

How many Star League Defense Forces (SLDFs) are we up to now? Three, I think? Seriously, if the first two didn't work out, why keep reinventing the same thing expecting it to work this time. Sounds like something our imbicilic government would do, I thought the whole concept of this kind of hobby was to get away from reality? 

But I digress...

The view from the 'gun' side, 3 AC-10s and a single PPC

And of course, the other side where it is missile tubes for everyone, a trio of rinky-dink LRM5s, and a single LRM 15. 

In theory, the original Star League often had whole regiments composed of a single mech chassis, with the only variety coming from subvariants. It makes sense, eases logistics, and the loss of one mech doesn't really hurt anything. That said, I can't think a regiment of Stingers (while comical) would be the best thing to take a planet with. 

A royal Griffin and a Sentinel. 

It is also not that much fun to play or perhaps play against (my all-Mercury list is like a middle finger farm). As such, thus far in my newly painted faction that will likely never see battle since the Ilkhan is where it is at (apparently). I have a lance of Hoplites, with a second clan star of varied designs in progress. 

The Sentinel certainly is an ungainly looking thing isn't it?

I have no unit decals as usual, and pay no attention to the blue, yellow & white stripes on the arms. That's the scheme of no unit in particular, or worth mentioning **cough** Wolverines **cough**. Okay, so the clan star will be an Operation Klondike unit build, though they may revert back to an SLDF lance in the event that they want to take a little jaunt back to the Inner Sphere at some point. 

Heading off to points...unknown.

Regardless, the Wolverines divested themselves of their Hoplites when the proto-Clan formed its Touman. Still in the primed stage I have of course a Wolverine, a Firefly and lastly a Lancelot. The latter being an otherwise extinct mech (in its original form) when the Wolverines-turned-Minnesota tribe were noted to have fielded at least one on their little trip across the DCMS. 

SPORKMAN!

o/

Death by Spork!

The SPK-3F ‘Sporkman’, the 'totem' mech of The Buffet Assault Group. It is a spork armed Hatchetman.

Like the Hatchetman, the torso mounted AC10 & arm mounted medium lasers are still the primary damage dealers.

Note the kill marks on said spork, they are not identified so probably just infantrymen. That said, death by spork is an undignified way to go for anyone.

This is close as you can get to spooning with a mech...

I made a record sheet where I swapped the hatchet for a backhoe to represent the spork. This required the removal of a hand (no, the spork will not be shared), 1 heat sink and 1 ton of ammo. It does 6pts of damage which is marginally better than a punch but is +1 to hit because as we all know, sporks suck!

SQUEEEEE!!

I posted pics of this mech on a FB BattleTech group and got a reply from Sir Mortimer Bombito, the guy who actually sculpted this mini!

Apologies about the weird and wildly inconsistent highlighting. I copied the sporkman text from a similar post on the FLGS' Discord. The highlighting doesn't show in the post editing window, and it seems none of the available shades match the blog's grey background because reasons.

Blogger is a free service, and you get what you pay for.

Photo dump!

 o/

This worked out about as well as you can expect. 'Hamburger' (the Enforcer's pilot) managed to limp away from this dual, sans right arm and torso. 

The home campaign 2.0 is in full swing and the FLGS is also looking to start up another store campaign. Interested players voted and the Lostech era won out for the time period (immediately followed by disagreements on just when the Lostech era is). All of the bad apples that killed the last campaign are showing interest and some are already complaining. 

I will partake; Nick 2.0 is pondering to do so as well. I've already told him my level of expectations which should improve things considerably over the last store campaign: 

This is going to be an absolute shit show!

Having dropped the bar of standards on the floor, it should alright. I am looking to run the Desert Horde as the Fed Suns' Deneb Light Cavalry. Speaking of, onto the recent paint jobs: 

The new Kintaro sculpt, now without the tutu styled hips. 

I have never used one of these before. The DCMS variant is far superior to the Fed Suns' model. But being from a desert force, it should be running HOT! Right?

Note, this mech is numbered #20 in the battalion. However, I currently only have 16 mechs. As such, I will be reusing some numbers as a few Desert Horde mechs have been either sold, or recently an unused Clan 2nd line star was gifted to Screech for his birthday. 

I have decided to name this one: Checkers. Garth Brooks is in the cockpit. 

#13, that's a reissued number, I am rather pleased with how well this one turned out.

From this angle it looks like actual camouflage rather than the stylistic color scheme that it is. 

I don't think I've ever fielded a King Crab before. So far, I've only either been shot by them, or have knocked them over with charging Chargers!

All was quiet on the DCMS front, until this SHD-2K came along.

Like all of my Swords of Light mechs, no inks were used as my usual preference for dirt, grime & filth doesn't fit with the background of this elite brigade that looks more like a parade unit.

Armed with only a PPC & LRM5, this mech is essentially a DCMS Griffin. 

Only the fists and forearms show any kind of damage, as the infernal Davions insist on getting inside my weapons' minimum ranges. 

I broke up one of my foot slogging infantry platoons to add a few guys to every base of these little APCs from Microworld games. These will represent mechanized (tracked) platoons. I have 6 of these, so it will be mech infantry for everybody!

That's all for now. I have several minis in progress currently, so hopefully will have another update soon. 

My latest updates.

 o/

The Cyclops from my last post wasted no time in getting 'stuck-in' in our campaign.

Unfortunately, said campaign ended in a spectacular double kill, with my Cyclops putting an AC20 slug into the Victor's ammo bin, while at the same time the Victor delivered an AC20 slug to the Cyclops' head!

In a nutshell, the above was the end of our home campaign. Both of our forces were thread bare, and neither would be able to replace the losses of the assault mechs.

Screech, taking a snooze in his battlefield debut in the new campaign. 

 As such we threw in the towel and started a new campaign. We moved the timeline up to 3049 & earlier. I am fielding the 1st Chisholm's Raiders whereas Nick is fielding Mercs of an indeterminate name. 

Just in case you were wondering, this is what 'forced withdrawal' looks like. This wreck limped off the board and has since been repaired. Screech however will be convalescing in the med bay for a bit...

In our first three games, I've managed to repair all damage suffered, whereas Nick is already down 3 mechs and 2 pilots (I head capped a Crusader & Griffin in the same game with a gauss rifle)!

The typical lance of random paint jobs. 

My converted STK-4N, this is my CO's mech in the current campaign. It is piloted by 'Major Grognard' a name inspired by Nick 2.0 himself!

The TBAG unit initial decals resulted in the typical memes when I posted these pics on the FLGS' discord. 

Next up, for my Corey's Cavaliers mercs, a pair of Hornets named The Grapes of Wrath. One of these is partaking in the campaign, piloted by John Steinbeck himself! Surprisingly, it survived its first game with only moderate damage. 

This Orion missed the last campaign, and as such will not see battle any time soon. 

I've never once fielded an Orion before, which is a trend that will continue for a bit longer it seems.

Everyone loves lava bases, why a mech would want to be in a lava field is beyond me though. If you haven't already guessed, this will be used as the Blazing Inferno variant.

Lastly, a Blackjack BJ-3 & Wolfhound WLF-1B, both finished up this afternoon.

As you can see above, I've also done a fair bit of painting. The Buffet Assault Group is even up to a company strength formation, combined-arms of course. I'll need to take some group shots soon. 

I hope everyone has a happy 4th of July! Don't go blowing any of your fingers off, it'll ruin your die rolls!