My birthday presents are starting to arrive!

Wait till you see what will be placed in that open space next to that parking lot!

For my birthday (44, WTF?!?) my Beloved Wolfy and my awesome in-laws got me a Visa gift card with the instructions of: go buy some toys! 

Gladly!

I had wanted to get some terrain from Steelwarrior studios, however the gift card was only valid in the United States, whereas Steelwarrior is located in Canada. Disappointing, but not the end of the world (and I'll save that set for my Christmas wish list). There are other options for terrain, but I'll get to those in my next post after they arrive later this week. As for what has already arrived? well keep reading:

A perfect fit!

First up, I bought a 36" x 36" gaming mat with a battletech hex grid printed on it from Mats by Mars. Its vinyl, water proof, and I can even use dry-erase markers on it were I so inclined (I'm not). It was a bit pricey but I'm happy with it. In the future I may get another (assuming I start running out of room for terrain) and just trim it down to fit side by side with this one, and thus covering the whole of my game table. 

BTW clan players, if you like the IIC's ATM 12 variant, you can easily do that with this missile plate sprue!

Next, from Aries Miniatures, I bought a trio of Hunchback IICs and some generic missile launcher face plates to use as Inner Sphere Hunchback HBK-4N 'Swaybacks'. I love the hunchback's stats, but have never been a fan of the model, and can't afford anymore Aussie MWO sculpts due to them being cost prohibitive. I do like the clan IIC model though and after Aries confirmed that the missile plate ought to be 'workable' to use on the IIC's guns, I bought 'em for some conversions. 

They fit perfectly! Seriously, its like they were made for one another. The simple solution for using these is to simply make a record sheet, with the weapons rearranged to match these minis. That said, I'll likely to custom refits as well. The most basic swapping the 2 LRM-5s and shedding 1 medium laser to fit in an LRM-10. Also, an easy War of 3039 upgrade from that would be to swap out the nigh useless small laser for C.A.S.E. to protect against ammo explosions. Beyond that, these now scream for an MRM-10 refit as well. 

Stay tuned for the next set of toys that I'll also be showing off like an annoying little kid at Christmas, lol! 

The 'effing' Wobblies vs. Clan Nova Cat

o/

Well, its only taken 2 years, but I finally got Screech to play a (non-digital) game of Battletech! After some debate we settled on 12k points. Originally I was going to field my Wolverines just to irritate his sense of Clan pride, however I would essentially be fielding a carbon copy of a list I've used previously with maybe a single mech swap at best (i.e.: the unpainted one). 

In the typical Wobbly 'false flag' operation, my mechs were using their complete lack of paint to masquerade as Rob's Lyrans, lol. Note: there's a 2nd Stinger deployed on the other side of the Catapult. 

Thus I delved into list hammering for something different.  Initially, I was trying to come up with a Kuritan C3 lance, but the modifiers are just to damned expensive! The only two mechs I have that have C3master variants are the Atlas (which is why the mod. is so expensive) or a Komodo (which is too fragile really). I originally bought the Komodo for the C3M capability, but only for use in a medium-light lance, which really isn't the best choice when fighting against the clans.

OMG! SCREECH PAINTED HIS MECHS!!! Well sorta, lol. Seriously though folks, even just primer is actual progress (though how recent this primer was applied I couldn't tell you). 

However in the end, (mostly) light mechs is what I opted for, deciding to use this game to try out a bunch of mech variants I've never used before. Not to mention, who is better than for fielding new stuff than the Fucking Wobblies? Also no, it wasn't a C3i Level II for the same reasons I didn't field the Kuritans. 

Going for a suicide squad of uber pilots (Urbie excluded) in mostly light mechs, for the 'new' designs I chose the the rocket launcher equipped Panther 14S and  5R Stingers, a Flashman 8K (with that mini making it's battlefield debut), and lastly the R-80 Urbanmech. A Catapult CPLT-K4, the only variant out of this list that I've used before, rounded out the list.

The first couple of turns was merely maneuvering at speed (the Urbie was literally bouncing along lest it never get to shoot) to get into line of sight of one another. 

No scenario, just the typical slugfest on my canyons of death map. We deployed in opposite corners with everyone eventually joining the melee in the middle. We made the black objective markers level 4, the same as the canyon walls just to fuck up lines of sight even when we were out in the open.

My first piloting check and I rolled a fucking snake eyes! yay. 

My initial shooting was in a word: abysmal, hitting with next to nothing. Also, unlike my last game with Hoss where I held the initiative almost all game, in this one I had it maybe once. Eventually the dice warmed up, though with a bunch of light, 1-shot wonders floating around shooting and missing is bad!!!!

Ack! Squiggoth! Squiggo-oh wait, wrong game system. 

You is looking here, so I sits here.

lol, it never fails. Whether I'm doing a crossword at dinner with the Mrs.,  or playing a mini-game, Baxter figures out where our attention is focused and plants himself right in the middle of it every time. After a few of these interruptions, I moved him to one of the hammocks in the kitty tree, where he could watch (and luckily decided to stay).

That said, my crummy little expend-a-mechs took far more punishment than I thought the would, with one out of every two rocket launchers actually connecting with their targets. Heat spikes resulting in lost movement weren't really a concern as the mechs are fast and the excess heat is from 1-shot weaponry (mostly), so you don't continue to add excess heat turn after turn. 

Gauss rifle huh? Yeah well I have a rocket launcher...

Yup, gauss rifle. ...sigh...

The Nov Cat 'war face'. Rumor has it he just tested down to a solahma vehicle crew position, hence his lack of fury/glee.

Still though, Stingers vs. Shadow Cats is anything but a fair contest with both Stingers coming out on the losing sides. The Panther did fairly well vs. the Ryoken, however caught in a crossfire between that mech and the Nova Cat squashed and hope of victory in that exchange.

I believe this is where the Panther started losing it's arms, side torso...eventually in the last turn, the Panther's pilot would have no other option and just reach out of one of his mech's gaping holes and fire his sidearm at the enemy. 

....and another one bites the dust! Have you ever seen what a gauss rifle in the back of a Stinger looks like? It ain't pretty!

Good night sweetheart! This was the 2nd game in a row where an enemy pilot has been knocked unconscious!

To be honest I wasn't looking to win (and its a good thing!), but rather just test out new-to-me designs and was happy just to get a game of anything in with Screech. To that end I'm calling this a draw even though technically the game was a loss for me of 3 mechs lost vs. none (though he didn't kill the Urbie, a mech he loathes especially which is a win in my book!)

Overall I was pleased with the rest of my mechs in their collective test run. Expenda-a-mechs aside, the other three performed well:

My last pic of the game, with the Panther and 2nd Stinger both starting on their ultimately futile attempts to retreat. 

The Urbie was a wobbling and a weaving (i.e.: evasive maneuvers), drawing considerable fire but remaining untouched until taking 2 medium pulse lasers and a gauss slug to the back in the last turn. Despite that, it survived and remained upright! Prior to that mauling it had scored several snub nosed PPC hits on the Ryoken, Nova Cat and one of the Shadow cats.

The Flashman, once it warmed up (both literally and figuratively) proved an excellent combination of speed, firepower, resilience, and heat sinks (though 17 doubles are still easily overwhelmed, so ya need to be careful with it). Expect to see this beastie fielded more often in the future!

As always, the K4 Catapult is a slow but deadly mech. Kind of hampered by terrain and the bouncing Urbie being in it's way early on, once it got stuck in the HPPCs never missed a shot! It is well armored too (for a Catapult) and soaked up a savage last turn exchange in which it and the Nova Cat both fired near point blank alpha strikes at one another with neither missing at all! I should have gotten a photo of that in hindsight but oh well. 

I suppose I'll take something a bit more conventional next time. Something that can absorb the high-powered, clan weaponry. I have altered the TBAGers fluff to have them not be wiped out till the clan invasion. So they can now plausibly face Screech's clan mechs. They might have this time had I not announced early on that I would be using this map which would have neutered both of my Awesomes at the outset. 

Regardless, I just hope it doesn't take another two years to get Screech to play again. 

Gyro hits! Gyro hits everywhere...

o/

The TBAGers backed up by a local Marik Militia Urbie piloted by the infamous Levi.

The infamous PANDA-MONIUM!!! Sans their trademark Jagermech, and accompanied by a borrowed Urbie named Noober, lol.

Hoss came over for another round of Battletech Saturday night, and I thought it was about time the rarely seen Buffet Assault Group themselves took to the field for a battle. Sporting their new primer coat of German Ochre (well, except the Atlas), they were joined by Levi representing the local PDF. 

Hoss had demanded an Urbie to be in my force, and after some debate on what to use to counter that, we eventually decided on an Urbie for his force as well (oddly the two would barely even come within range of once another in the forthcoming battle). It was as usual, an hours long slugfest, interrupted only by an enjoyable dinner break out on the deck. Here's my usual, half-assed, psuedo-bat rep:

Initial deployments. 

Note my poorly positioned Atlas. This was the first time I've ever fielded and Atlas, and scraping for points, I chose the newly retconned but canon AS7-A variant as it was the cheapest option. I would soon find that whilst amusing, its not at all a worthy opponent vs. another Atlas in a 1 v. 1 contest. 

Hoss would add some occasional visual commentary to my photos...

It started off well at least, with my Atlas firing a long ball, lucky AC-5 round that rolled a snake eyes location hit, followed by a triple-crit to Hoss' Battlemaster resulting in 2 engine hits and one to the gyro as well! Effectively neutering the beast (all mechs were Tech level 1 machines).

Turn one went well on the other flank as my 8R and 8T Awesomes lit up his rapidly closing Griffin, inflicting another lucky snake eyes, followed by an engine and gyro hit. In return he'd pump 2 PPC rounds into my 8T's left torso.

Seriously, WTF?!?

Ya know, in the past I've been accused by Rob for always hitting the left torso. Well Hoss put 4 PPC hits in as many shots in 2 turns into the left torso of my AWS-8T, hitting the ammo and killing it in a massive explosion (only 90 points of internal damage...)! It usually takes an act of Congress to grind thru an awesome's armor. Normally, the ammo is in the center torso, but I prefer in the side torsos of my mechs due to the all-to-frequent snake eyes rolls. Guess its a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't...

The TBAGers, reeling from the sudden demise of the Awesome, suddenly falter. Whilst Hoss duly pumped an AC-20 round into my Atlas, along with a snake eyes/gyro hit (we were up to 3 by turn 2 if you're keeping score) along with a few other shots. In return mine fired an amusing anime-like SRM volley of 30 SRMs (it packs 5, SRM6s) managing a paltry 12 SRM hits or so. 

The Battlemaster pilot was still crying foul...

Now with a piloting skill of 8 due to the damaged gyro, my Atlas takes the first of several falls...

Ah yes, the good ol' Stalker nose-boop maneuver...

In the olden days...my Stalkers had a notorious habit of running around all game. Saturday night was no different. After trading heavy fire whilst running into point blank range, Hoss' Awesome decided it wanted to slug my Stalker with it's battlefist. 

In the shooting phase the Awesome missed whilst the Stalker hit it with most everything it had (no, not the LRMs), generating many hits, and a head shot, as well as managing to dodge the the incoming right hook yet successfully kicking the Awesome in the shin (and wrecking a heat sink)! When the smoke cleared, the Awesome pilot was knocked out cold whilst the Stalker pilot could have fried an egg on his dashboard he was running so hot.

In the backfield, Hoss' Griffin turned to take advantage of the stalker's rear armor, but only hit it's 'arm' and a leg. In return Screech (yes Screech was no doubt piloting the 8R Awesome, as it never moved all game) realised belatedly that the Griffin was sitting on a level 3 hill, making the intervening trees irrelevant. As such the 8R unloaded punching right thru the back and scoring an engine hit to the Griffin, as well as considerable internal damage to a side torso, and taking out 2 of it's jump jets!

Levi meanwhile, runs up the middle, introducing the Battlemaster to his AC-20!!

Guess how this disaster is going?

Yup, down she goes again, this time for the last time suffering an AC-20 hit to an ammo bin!

Cornered, alone, outnumbered, and heavily damaged my Atlas met its inevitable doom head on, with another anime missile launch accompanied by 2 medium lasers and the the AC-5. Everything hit including an impressive 22 out of 30 SRMs. Still, it wasn't enough, though it was at least a glorious last stand!

Ignoring the sleeping Awesome pilot, my Stalker ran a mere hex into a lake to help dissipate it's +12 heat load. Reversing its arms to lob some LRMs and a pair of medium lasers at Hoss' beleaguered Griffin in the back field.

The hour was getting late, but Hoss was up for one last round...

Levi, desperately low on ammo, charges into small laser range whilst firing his last (and sadly inaccurate) AC-20 slug. Unfortunately for me, the Dervish and struggling Battlemaster would remove the little Urbie's leg, ending his day. Hoss's Urbie would also lob an AC-10 round at Levi (the game's only Urbie v Urbie shot, but it was well off of the mark). 

Yeah, we don't play that one-legged mech nonsense...

Its taken me how many games to finally kill this infernal mech????

The Awesome pilot finally awoke, and turned its guns on the Stalker which had run around the slumbering giant and was angling for the Battlemaster. Only to make a quick about-face, to meet the the renewed threat! The awesome's pilot, apparently still groggy missed with all 3 PPCs! In return the Stalker alpha-striked with everything but the LRMs (again), and hit with everything! I didn't even get halfway thru the damage before the Awesome's pilot ejected as the mech's head disintegrated under the onslaught. 

...and with that, we called it quits.

Once again the Awesome is the bane of my existence, though this time it would be one of my own. I did finally manage to kill Hoss' though. The AWS-8R is really more like a tank, as it has so many heat sinks, that heat isn't even a concern after the 1st engine hit! Still, it was a solid loss to Hoss as I lost 3 mechs to his 1. 

It was a fun time as always though, and am looking forward to finally bringing Screech to battle this evening!

The Silence before the storm...

o/

Its been quiet on the battletech front here of late. As often happens in summer, people's schedules go all to hell and gaming often takes a back seat. I have some big plans on the horizon, but nothing is concrete yet so with leave you to wonder about that ambiguous remark. (...snicker...)

Sculpted by none other than the supremely talented John Bear Ross.

I did however order a 'lance' of Heavy tracked APCs from Khurasan miniatures. Lance was in quotes as they'll likely only ever be deployed individually. I only have a single platoon anyways, so having 4 will allow me to paint one to match each of my factions.  All told they clocked in @ $15 with shipping, which is about the same as ordering just two (plus shipping) of the actual IWM sculpts most anywhere online (nobody sells battletech here locally). However I like these minis more than the the IWM ones. 

Oh, and just one more thing I wanted to mention: Hey WestRider, the Kickstarter cracked that $1.5 million mark you were waiting on just a little bit ago!