Oh, so you elitist Battletech fucks are going to play eh?

lol, I think that means the 40k crowd misses us...

No idea who made this, but it's awesome!

That remark was made tongue & cheek (well, mostly) by Neverness after he asked if I was gaming Saturday, to which I replied yes but not at the FLGS. 

Instead of a night of Kill Team Hoss came over for his first taste of the Clans, well sort of. In their battlefield debut, I was fielding my Operation Klondike era Clan Wolverine star. Essentially, all mechs were SLDF Royals, as the newer clan omni-mech and weapons technologies had yet to be invented. 

One of these is not like the others...

I was fielding a Royal Thunderbolt, Catapult and 3 Wolverine IIs. WestRider and I have discussed in the past the mediocrity of the Wolverine II's main weapon: the Ultra AC 5. That however of little concern because of the 30-40 UAC-5 rounds I fired over the course of the game, exactly TWO hit (and neither in the same volley, because that 8+ roll on the cluster chart is a sheer impossibility for me). 

Needless to say it was infuriating. 

UAC-5, double tapping needs a 4 to hit: it misses, SRM-6 needs an 8 to hit: it hits...seriously WTF?!?

Using superior technology vs. Hoss' Tech I 'Pentagon Powers' force (they were all Star League era mechs, barring a Jagermech refit, but even that was all Tech level I) ought to have been a cake wake, but alas aside from one lone turn in which my Catapult hit with everything and even rolled well on the missile clusters (THANK GOD FOR ARTEMIS IV!!!) my dice were having none of it. 

Hoss bringing the pain!

Instead I had the usual bane of my existence, and 8Q Awesome, with it's Griffin sidekick beating the snot out of my Catapult and Thunderbolt, which were only giving sporadically accurate fire in return. Hell, even Hoss's Urbie was giving my cat hell, whilst proving largely elusive to my return fire. I only managed to silence it's AC-10 in the last turn (couldn't hit that ammo though). 

Yeah...I think it's best not to lend that little guy out anymore.

Speaking of the Urbie, Hoss' list was approx. 600 points short and he was just going to go with that. I would have none of it however and loaned him NOOB! with a 4/4 pilot which clocked in at 580 points. Heh, I use standard urbies so much that I actually have all of that memorized. 

There was an actual strategy in play here as my Wolverines maneuvered into position, well maybe...

My shooting on the other side was decent so long as you ignore my UACs altogether, whilst Hoss was fairly accurate across the board. He wasn't too happy with the Wolverine's mobility though. Spoiled by my usual urbie centric, slow grinding attrition tactics, my fast moving trio that was intent to get into his backfield gave him fits! Especially when he realized that it really didn't matter which way his Jagermech faced, I would have a rear-armor shot! Not sure why he was concerned though given my die rolling...

I have you now! (apparently the dice didn't hear that)

In the end, the hour was late, and both sides were badly beaten though still on their feet, with only my Cat taking an engine hit following a snake eyes, vs. his Urbie losing the AC and a heat sink. We were going to go one more round in which the T-Bolt, Cat and possibly Awesome would all start to display their innards but Hoss instead ran up the white flag and we called it a night. 

T'was a good game all around, but I think my Wolverines need a bit of time in the ol' mini case contemplating their gunnery failures before they see the tabletop again.