Battletech 3D printed tanks > the official metal ones

 o/

The new arrivals.

Yup, I've been buying and selling minis again. My previous, resin cast Bulldog tanks were sold off and replaced with the above forces (which, ok...cost a bit more than the 4 that I sold). 

The out-going lance. 

The Bulldogs above came from Steel Warrior Studios and like the title says, they are far better than the official minis (which is like dropping the bar on the floor...). My biggest complaint with these SWS Bulldogs was their turret attachment design. The turrets dropped off of the hull whenever touched which was quite annoying. The new(er) Bulldogs seems to be better though that remains to be seen till they see the table top.

I'm really tempted to BUY MOAR!!!

However I then found the Bulldog tanks above (the two larger tanks in the middle) and opted for those instead. Along with them I bought a pair of Hetzers and a pair of twin-medium laser/AC-2 Scorpion light tanks as well. I don't have pics of them on hand, but from this same ebay seller I've also bought a pair each of Vedettes, missile carriers, and a lone Demolisher II. All are excellently printed and of the highest quality. Honestly, I can't recommend any other 3D printed tanks over these!

Now I need to order more bases from Gamecraft for these and a few 3D printed mechs that are somewhere in transit. 

Clash of the Clans

Kitties ALWAYS roll box cars!

Screech came over and we had a fun, 12k game of Battletech. He was running an understrength star of Nova Cat omnis: 

Shadow Cat Prime with a 3/4 pilot

Shadow Cat A with a 3/4 pilot

Mad Cat Mk II 2 with a 3/5 pilot

Nova S with a 3/4 pilot

I was running a slightly understrength Mixed Binary from Hell's Horses Eta Galaxy. My list was as follows:

Piranha with a 4/4 pilot

Puma H with a 3/4 pilot (Binary commander)

Crab CRB-27b with a 5/4 pilot (The 5 due to being such an ancient and obsolete mech which is no doubt well passed it's prime, especially in terms of proper maintenance.)

Hoplite IIC with a 3/5 pilot (Custom made clan built Hoplite with 10SHS, Hag 20, LRM-5 w/Art. IV, AP gauss rifle, CASE, 5/8 movement and same armor as the original.) 

Marauder C with a 4/3 pilot

(2) Laser Elemental points with gunnery 5

Clan Foot Infantry point with Gunnery 4

Clan Pike with a 4/5 crew

Clan Demolisher with a 4/5 crew. 

As the Nova Cats are (quote) 'opportunists' and Eta Galaxy is more or less a dezgra unit, zellbrigen would play no part in the following battle. Here's my photo recap:

My deployment. Forgoing the use of 3-dimensional terrain as we got a late start, we used my 'canyons of death' map. The plateau/canyon walls are all level 4 and the few black objectives in the middle were level 1, though we pretty much ignored them. Note: The pike on the left was a top one of these plateaus.  

Screech's deployment, we opted for starting out corner to corner to keep the ranges long, though in and amongst the canyons long range is more or less a moot point. 

As such the first few turns were spent maneuvering at high speed in an attempt to get a clear line of fire. The Pike parked atop it's plateau and it's crew summarily fell asleep, taking no part in the game. I lacked any jump-capable mechs, so it's job was to shoot anything that went for the high ground with it's 5 ultra AC-2s. Not much of a threat, however I'd imagine that Screech is still smarting from his Catapult taking heavy fire and summarily falling off of a level 3 building last spring. Thus, he never landed up on a plateau effectively taking the Pike out of the game due to never having any lines of sight.

Turn 3 finally saw some gunfire as our leading elements arrived into the open. My Marauder put an LPL shot into his lead Shadowcat, and the Crab put a few lasers into the Nova. In return the Nova and Mad Cat began their thorough attempt to dismantle the crab, punishing it heavily right out of the gate. 

The Piranha added to the din though without connecting, however my Hoplite hit the Nova with it's LRM and HAG-20, inflicting moderate damage which included (2) separate head shots! Shortly thereafter one of the Shadow Cat's would pummel the rear armor of the Hoplite, going internal though not scoring any crits. This would be the majority of the damage the Hoplite would suffer all game.

The following turn saw the moment we were all waiting for: The Piranha unloading with everything into the Nova (though the fucker torso twisted ruining my hopes of shredding the thin, rear armor). The lasers took a few chunks off, but the real fun was shooting all twelve MGs! Only a few hit, but it was still fun if a bit laborious.

As the scrum in the middle continued to to play out, my Puma backed up into cover to deploy it's cargo of toads. Screech's Shadow Cat Prime moved to outflank prompting a torso twist followed by a cinematic firing of both heavy large lasers, 1 at the Shadow Cat and the other at the Mad Cat. Only 1 hit though I don't recall which target it was.

Screech's Shadow Cat A rounded a canyon wall and unloaded into my Marauder, ignoring the Demolisher right in front of it. Bad, bad idea...

One MPL, and AC-20 slug, and about a dozen bits of AC-20 buckshot later, and the entire side torso exploded due to an SRM ammo hit! 

Still running...the poor foot slogging infantry never fired a shot the whole game, or even came into view of the enemy. However due to excessive running in the desert heat in full combat gear, we both assumed casualties from physical and/or heat exhaustion were many.

Ah yes, the inevitable visit from this world's mega-fauna. No doubt attracted by all of the commotion of battle. Baxter decided to aid my forces by blocking off the principle avenue of escape for Screech's stricken Shadow Cat which was being harried by the piranha. Speaking of, in just 2 turns the Piranha burned thru more than 10% of it's ammo, lol.

Baxter. watches approvingly as one of my Elementals puts an SRM into the head of the Shadow Cat Prime. A heavy large laser blast along with the elementals' SRM fire would knock the mech from it's feet!

The Nova moves in to try and finish off the beleaguered Marauder, inflicting heavy damage and hitting the UAC-5's ammo, which tore the entire side off of the mech! Speaking of, my Crab on the other side of the field was still standing but so heavily damaged that it likely resembled legs holding up a bunch of garbage!

In return the last round to leave the UAC-5's barrel pasted the Nova's pilot, taking out the mech! With the Nova down and both Shadow Cats heavily damaged, Screech ran up the white flag, much to the relief of my Crab and Marauder pilots, whose mechs were both on their last legs. 

All in all a good game! I was pleased with the performance of the Puma, Demolisher and and Hoplite especially. Though the crab ought to get a thumbs up purely for the resilience of the mech. My Elementals only one fired 1 volley each, however it was my first time ever using them and they did nicely. The new models also look fantastic which is a plus! 

On the down side, the Pike was poorly positioned and never fired a shot and I'm thinking that the Marauder may go into Inner Sphere service as I wasn't too impressed with it in this game. Mainly due to ridiculous overheating issues. I mean seriously, two turns to cool off, WTF?!?

Recent acquisitions and a few repaints

 o/

Long time no post because...well, there hasn't been a whole hellova lot going on aside from the usual array of sporadic games lined up only to be postponed indefinitely if not just outright cancelled. I got my Clan KS stuff, and then summarily sold off most of it. Just not much of a fan outside of Solahma forces. I've also been acquiring a small horde of 3D printed mechs and tanks. 

Below is a gallery of what all I've gotten (aside from that beautifully resculpted Urbie above), and what little I've painted: 

The Enforcer: Simple, rugged, and very utilitarian. Still, it looks infinitely better than the old metal sculpts. 

The two Missile carriers came with hatches to optionally cover the launchers, those will be added to that these will be able to represent the LRM, MRM and SRM variants. Two Vedettes are in the foreground, and a 'freebee' Demolisher II in back. Again, all are vastly superior to the original sculpts (well, barring perhaps the D II).

Aside from the Urbie, all I kept from the Kickstarter was the Puma (my favorite clan mech), Grayson Carlyle's Marauder (or a Marauder C in my case) and the two points of Elementals which look amazing!! Also there are a pair of 3D printed Crabs, and a Piranha which was also a freebee due to being damaged. However said damage is minor and can easily be passed off as battle damage whenever I paint it. 

The Demolisher is the only originally painted mini (i.e.: not a repaint) in quite some time across all game systems. The Clan Pike on the other hand has so many layers of paint slathered upon it's hull that it ought to act as ablative armor by this point (both for the Hell's Horses Eta Galaxy, though are generic enough to be most anybody). 

The Whitworth is also a repaint, for a forthcoming former SLDF mercs/Pentagon Powers force (pay no attention to the monster attacking it from behind...). The Hoplite in back is new and is a custom conversion representing a Hoplite IIC armed with a HAG-20, LRM-5 with art. IV, and an AP Gauss rifle. 

Lastly, the Mauler was also a freebee 2nd, with a mis-molded arm. I replaced it with the arm or a 3D printed Dragon that I didn't like making it into a 'Franken-Mech'. Also not pictured but recently purchased is a 3rd Hunchback (an HBK-4P) and a Charger that looks fantastic!

Tentatively I have a game set up with Screech this coming Wednesday, however being an already once postponed game, I'm not holding my breath. Sometimes it's best to just wait until the holidays are over to resume normal gaming. 

Onward to battle once more!

A viscous clash of the unpainted masses!

For the first time since February (I think...it was pre-pandemic), I managed to get a game in! My buddy Hoss brought his infamous PANDA-MONIUM!! mercenaries over to do battle vs. my own Mercs, the defending TBAGers. Both of us were fielding mostly recently acquired 3D printed mechs, and as such terrain aside, only my Phoenix Hawk was actually painted. 

The battlefield. The desert maps to the side were not in play.

My TBAGers were fielding (left-to-right) a Flashman-7K, (2) Crab-27s and a Phoenix Hawk 2. Hoss had his customized Jagermech (proxied by a blackjack after a record sheet mix up),  Griffin 1S, Shadowhawk 2K and a Dervish-6M. 

Just showing off my (still) half-painted Dropship. Kushial donated these Megaforce toy tanks to my cause for Scorpion Light tank proxies, as well as the wheeled carrier to be used as whatever. However I passed them onto Hoss post-Game as up until this point, he's still bereft of armored support (and quite frankly, I'm running out of room for my tanks). 

My initial left flank deployment, with no opposition before them.

On my right I deployed a crab with the unenviable task of being 'bait' behind the forest/park. Hoss was game and lined his entire lance up across from it. 

Turn one was the usual high speed maneuvers punctuated by random, long ranged potshots that as usual, hit nothing. 

My 'bait' deftly hides behind the forest. It did manage an angled shot off to it's left, killing many trees in the otherwise futile process. 

Turn two and the shots start connecting with enemy targets! My right flank Crab and Hoss's Shadowhawk savaged one another, with my Crab barely maintaining it's footing. However as for Hoss' Shadowhawk...

...my Crab landed 2 large lasers into the center torso scoring 2 snake eyes rolls for location! Those went on to result 2 engine and 1 gyro hit, effectively crippling the mech!

That highlight aside, there was a good pummeling all around elsewhere, with Hoss' Jagermech putting a medium laser into the face of my Flashman! There would be 3 head shots over the course of the game, with Hoss scoring two of them. No pilots were knocked out, though one came dangerously close! 

The short range firefight ensues, with my laser boats generally coming out for the the better. Meanwhile having already survived one heat induced shut down roll, the Shadowhawk starts to disengage, as it's dangerously high  heat levels render it's PPC more of a liability than an asset. 

My phoenix Hawk managed to skirt around the landing pad and outflank Hoss' lance. It did not however manage to hit any of it's targets whilst doing so. Grrrrr...

'DEATH FROM ABOVE!! Shouts the Griffin's pilot! Hoss' has a love of this so-called 'tactic' that borders on the irrational, but to each there own I guess. Whilst my Flashman scored hits but alas didn't shoot the Griffin out of the sky, it did distract the pilot enough to not connect with my mech and instead just suffer heavy leg damage on the rough landing. To the Flashman's rear, the scrum continued unabated. 

By this point the Shadowhawk had successfully disengaged, and I was soon to find that the Derish was angling to do the same after having it's right arm mangled (but I failed to crit the friggin' SRM ammo, damnit!). His Jager and Griffin were engaging in a holding action to allow their comrades to escape. Made all the more easy, as my now well overheated Phoenix could do nothing but flip Hoss' Dervish the bird. 

Taking one for the team, Hoss' Jagermech disintegrates under the all-around onslaught! whilst the Dervish flees the field. As all of my beat up (though none yet showing any internals) lance turns all guns on his lone Griffin, he ran up the white flag and we called it a game.  

HUZZAH! VICTORY AT LAST!! (I'm used to losing most games can't ya tell?). The aggressive up in your face laser lance seems to work for me a bit more than the usual, slow crawling, war of attrition tactics that I usually employ. Indeed, I may need to try this again soon. Admittedly though, the two lucky crit rolls early on that neutered his Shadowhawk -2K was a BIG help!

Still wins are rare and I'll take it! I'm looking forward to our next game my friend!

Getting my name out there!

Granted, its not getting out where my 'core audience' is (assuming I even have one of those), but it is getting out...well, sorta. 

Huzzah!

Now...I'm guessing that most folks who might actually google that name will be disappointed to find that it's just a battletech gaming blog. Something the average Joe has neither heard of nor is inclined to learn about I would imagine.  Much like those poor sods who see a URL of: https://tbagers.blogspot.com/ Only to find it's not even remotely sex-related.

Likewise, I'm rather doubtful that there are any Mech recruiters running around the northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia area, but I can assure you that my little marketing scheme is surely getting noticed and literally seeing far more traffic (ba dum ching!) than it's namesake blog! 

For example:

Last week I was waiting for my curbside order at Chick-Fil-A, and was parked facing the drive thru line. Whilst vastly more efficient than that of the McDonalds across the street, it still takes awhile for folks to crawl thru said line. 

Sitting there I saw 3-4 consecutive cars crawl by where the bored driver looked to their left, read the above tag, and started laughing. Whomever was in the passenger seat wanted to know what they missed, the driver pointed, and they both had a good laugh! 

This makes me happy. :-)

Arguably, I ought to have had a license plate with the name of my primary blog (Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop), but much like the ork decal in the same truck's back window, I'm sure that few folks would 'get it'. 

Yes my truck is 'bloo' and semi-unreliable, thus I refer to it as 'Da Battlewagon'. 

That blog's logo and name are both based off of that of the Long Range Desert Group, and one that only history buffs would likely have any recognition of it. Whereas the Buffet Assault Group's logo is clearly a rip off of the Golden Corral logo which is easily recognizable to most anybody (and for any non-Americans reading this yes, they do have a buffet). 

Amusingly and thru sheer coincidence, The world renowned and hilarious battletech commentator Tex, frequently has the Golden Corral logo inserted into the background artwork of his Tex Talks Battletech videos.

Anyways, this was a fun thing that I wanted to share. I actually have a battletech game lined up with Hoss for Saturday-my first since the pandemic hit. So I'm looking forward to that, and hopefully will have a battle report post following soon thereafter.

Phoenix Hawk

o/

I finished this mini a few weeks ago and had posted it to a Battletech painting facebook group, but a blog post never materialized as my personal life imploded shortly thereafter. Honestly I'd forgotten about it entirely until stumbling across the pics in my dropbox just a little while ago.

It's evident from the poor state of the Andurien Hawk arm that the original mech was anything but new...

The second of my TBAGer mechs to sport their new color scheme, this mech is even more the worse for wear than the Catapult. Like said Catapult, it too sports several portions or recently repaired, primer grey armor plating. However going a step further, the left forearm has been salvaged in its entirety from the apparent wreck of an allied Andurien Defenders' Phoenix Hawk.  

Being a Robotech mini, it lacks the Phoenix Hawk's traditionally large torso mounted jump jets, however they are still at least represented.

Whilst the central red stipe is easily visible, the unit logo patch is MIA because I had forgotten about it until after the mini was 'done', no doubt having been previously painted on one of the now recently replaced armor plates/arm. 

TBAGers redux

o/

Welp, much like their unit fluff The Buffet Assault Group's (those of you who clicked on this post looking for the other kind of TBAGers can close this window now) miniature lineup needed a change as much as their unit history did. Originally, my almost fully painted lance was a woefully static (in their movements, or rather lack thereof), fire support unit that could lob 120+ LRMs down range per turn. 

On average however, maybe a quarter of those actually connected with an enemy model. It was as painful to me as it was a relief to my opponents. 

Look out for that tree!

Operating mechs from the LosTech eras, Artemis IV fire control systems are unavailable to them and that combined with my bad rolling meant they were a largely useless lance. I also wasn't too fond of their color scheme (in hindsight), and the 15mm TBAGer unit logos that I was using (originally for another long defunct and unrelated project) looked like they were sporting billboards for unit emblems. 

It is with no small amount of irony that I sold off a lance of missile boats, only to have their first official replacement be yet another missile boat. This will be the only one though!

As such those mechs were amongst an almost company's worth of mechs and tanks that I recently sold off to a fine gentleman in the Detroit area. This go round, the TBAGers are now sporting a 2-tone woodland camo, with a red center stipe on the torso and head because reasons. Unit emblems are small, hand painted and with squiggles for the otherwise illegible wording (they were barely readable on the 15mm scaled decals!). Additional red trim may be added at the mechwarrior or tanker's preference. 

Sans red on the backside, at least the camouflage will be effective when running away!

As you can see, the Catapult is sporting several armor panels in the shade of primer grey. These represent replacement armor plating that has been added in the field without time for a proper repaint. Fighting on the (losing) side of the Anduriens during the Andurien Secession, my TBAGers mechs and tanks will be painted to look battle worn, dirty, and sporting a patchwork of replaced and salvaged parts. 

I have an AC-2 Partisan conversion done as well (a partial repaint of this), it lacks any primered panels meaning either it was able to maintain a safe distance or it was simply written off as not a viable threat (which isn't too far from the truth). 

Next up on the WIP stage I have a Phoenix Hawk that is pretty close to complete. The plan is to at the least finish that before switching back to painting my 40k spess mahreenz.  

Firing up the old GM-Coldstart 285 fusion engine...

Luckily Battletech is known for it's old and reliable cold-start reactors to keep their ancient mechs running, and with any luck the metaphorical reactor will do the same to this otherwise seemingly DEAD blog!

As is to be expected, the ol' pandemic shit-canned any and all plans for gaming. Battletech related hobbying pretty much died with it. That said, I've been in the process of rewriting the unit history for this blog's namesake: The Buffet Assault Group. I've hopefully come up with a general overview that fits in nicely with the game's established fluff lore (apparently 'fluff' is for 40k and 'lore' is for Battletech, or so the old grognards say...). Anyways, here's the TBAGers' updated backstory: 

Catalina Styner & the TBAGers

Cursed with a family name that phonetically mimics that Steiner royalty, Catalina would suffer for her family name and lack of political connections throughout her Lyran military career.

Her name aside, she managed to qualify for and enroll in, and graduate from the prestigious Naglering Military Academy. Assigned to the Lyran 2nd Royal Guards, she quickly proved to be a talented mechwarrior and leader who slowly fought her way up through the ranks. Lacking highborn political connections however, Catalina was 'glass ceilinged' at the level of company commander.

After suffering almost two decades of frustrating service, Catalina retired from the Lyran military with both an unblemished career and a long history of promotions lost to the less capable, but well connected 'Social Generals' of the LCAF.

She formed her own mercenary command in 3029, with good prospects given the continuous turmoil of the succession wars. Embittered by her former employers, she dubbed her new command The Buffet Assault Group, a play on her disapproval of many in the LCAF officer corps. 

After assembling a rag-tag combined arms battalion, with one company each of mechs, armor and infantry, Catalina secured a contract with the Free Worlds League's Andurien Province. This contract would be extended to last for the duration of what would become the Andurien Crisis. 

The hard fighting of the Andurien Crisis would take a grievous toll on the TBAGers (as the mercs liked to call themselves), and by the war's end the battalion would be reduced to a lone, understrength company consisting of a mech lance, and an ad-hoc mixed armor and infantry platoon made up of squad remnants and dispossessed armor crews, a trio of tanks and lastly a captured Capellan APC. 

The TBAGers contract was terminated without compensation for losses by the FWLM for siding with their rebellious employers at the conclusion of the Crisis in 3040. Securing passage on a jump ship bound for Outreach, Catalina and her shattered command were expelled from League territory and permanently barred from any future League employment.

*****

I've also revamped my miniature line up for the ol' TBAGers. Gone is the assault weight fire support lance. Equipped with mechs from the early succession wars, my inability to roll worth a damn on the missile cluster chart, as well as a lack of Artemis IV fire-control meant that the majority of their weapons were neutered for most of the game. Indeed, doesn't matter if it's an LRM-10,15, or 20...I only average 6-8 missiles AT BEST!

Pay no attention to the chaos Marines in the background...

Instead I'm guessing those mechs were sold on eBay lost in combat and my 'surviving' lance hasn't been finalized yet, though will likely still include a Catapult (facepalm).

I've been on a bit of a 40k painting kick for awhile, but I need to rotate some Battletech stuff back into the painting queue. So, hopefully I'll be updating this here blog a bit more regularly. 

Scenario playtesting

o/

The following is a sorta bat rep for a scenario game I came up with aways back. This was it's first run and predictably, we found several issues with it, but I'll get to those in a bit. Firstly here is the back story and scenario, with the bat rep to follow, and then thoughts/needed revisions at the end. Hope you enjoy!

*****

It’s 3028, the 4th Succession war is just ramping up into full swing, and the Dame Catherine Humphreys, leader of the Duchy of Andurien declares war on the treacherous Capellan Confederation due to an 'unprovoked' attack. The Buffet Assault Group, is deployed to assist the 4th Defenders of Andurien in their assault on Scarborough…

*****

It has been a long day of fire support duties. The TBAGers have spent the past 12 hours, perched atop a ridge, pounding the Capellan defenders back into the stone age. Their ceaseless LRM strikes only interrupted by the frequent need to reload. However after hours of firing, their ammo hoppers (and the accompanying train of Andurien ammo carriers) have all run dry. Wearily, the TBAGers pull back to the rear for a much needed night’s rest. Even their CO Catalina is exhausted, spending the day endlessly patrolling for flanking attacks and escorting the ammo carriers heading both to and from their position against attack. 

As the day draws to a close and the evening fog rolls in, the TBAGers finally have the space port in sight, their barracks lay just beyond. Their minds dulled with fatigue they let their guard down as the Anduriens have a 2nd line garrison lance protecting the town from danger. With the last few straggling ammo carriers in tow, the TBAGers only need to pass thru town before they can enjoy some warm food, hot showers and blessed sleep…

The Scenario:

Eight thousand points per side, 4th Succession War (tech level 1). 

The defender’s Andurien lance and infantry platoon as well as my opponent's forces deploy as per the norm, and my opponent has the initiative for the first two turns as the rookie Andurien lance is thrown into disarray by this ‘sudden ambush behind the lines’. 

At the beginning of turn 2 the TBAGer mechs arrive on their table edge and wearily join the fray. Exhausted from a long day, their P/G skills are awful and all of their LRM hoppers are empty. They may not run in the turn they arrive since the inexperienced Anduriens were taken by surprise and neglected to warn them. Likewise the din of distant battles and the foggy conditions masked this fight from the tired mercenaries. The ammo carriers arrive on turn 3 and also may not run in the turn they arrive. 

The dense evening fog adds a +1 to hit modifier for all shooting rolls at all ranges. Physical combat rolls are unaffected.

In order to win, more than half of the TBAGer mechs and ammo carriers (I only have 2 ammo carriers) need to escape off of the board via the enemy board edge within 6 turns. The Anduriens DO NOT need to escape the board, however the Andurien mechs will fall back and retreat off of their table edge if they start taking internal damage. If the infantry platoon falls to half strength, the remainder will scatter into buildings/cover and be removed from the board.

The Buffet Assault Group in back were all quite tired 5/6 pilots with the 2 ammo carriers having 5/5 crews. The Anduriens in front were all 4/5 pilots, with 3/- Frogmen infantry. The three Urbies were identified as Light Pole, Mini-Bus Shortbus, and Emoji.

The battlefield. Note Felis Gigantus lurking off to the side...

Yes, I will make several strolls thru the middle of your game, and yes I will plop down right in the middle of it too!

Turn one. Due to range, fog and movement, my Anduriens make no shots. Screech's Capellans fire a few times, but no hits are landed. 

Turn 2 and the Tbagers arrive, and note the lonnnnnnng road ahead of them....

Multiple modifiers or not, they can't hit me if there's a water tank in the way!

Turn 3 the ammo carriers arrive, and prepare for their high speed dash across the table. 

Here at the top of turn 3, we realized my assault mechs had no possible chance of making it off of the board. So we added 2 turns to the game. Catalina pulled out of line in her Stalker to provide covering fire to her troops whom she ordered to make a run for it! Meanwhile Emoji, the infantry, and the Capellan scouts start brawling at point blank range. The infantry managed a Commando head shot amidst their little blast of buckshot, much to Screech's annoyance.

My lone gunnery highlight of the game came when 'shortbus' put an AC-10 slug into the head of Screech's Awesome. Sadly there was no crit made. Truth be told, there were quite a few head shots in the game, though this was the only one to penetrate anybody's armor in that location.

An Awesome disobeys orders and peels off to stand and fight. Three 'big guys' running and forgoing all shooting (paltry as it was) is kinda boring to play. Speaking of, 3 of the 4 Tbager mechs would end the game with minimal damage, and near all of it to their rear armor. 

...aaaand its a free-for-all at this point. Damaged urbies were making fighting retreats (albeit slowly), Assaults were running (also but not quite as slowly), the longbow narrowly passed it's piloting check to not fall whilst turning at a run on pavement and in the back field, one of the APCs made an unsuccessful MG strafing run on an enemy Catapult. 

At the bottom of turn 6 we called the game due to the late hour. 

The Awesome that stayed behind took a pounding this last round and would end the game on it's back, the only mech to fail a piloting roll all game! My side's 'hero-mech' title ought to go to my Andurien SHD-1R. It took an absolute ponding, and never once fell despite losing almost all of it's armor from the waist up!

The final, parting shot.

Okay so, thoughts?

Well first of all, success was impossible as I'd handicapped my forces too much. Thus the game essentially ended as a draw when we called it due to time. Had we gone another turn, the APCs would have exited the board, though at the minimum the Longbow and the one Awesome would have needed another 2 turns to exit as well. No units on either side were lost, though mine were sporting heavier damage than his mechs.

I had thought that a straight run across the board would be too easy. Perhaps had we been using a standard mapsheet it would have been. However mine is a 36"x36" map, meaning there was literally no way my lumbering assault mechs could make it in 6 turns! We realized this early on and revised it to 8 turns, but even then 10 might be more realistic, that or use faster mechs. However this was kinda tailored to my Tbagers so the latter isn't much of an option. Placing the Şoarece in the middle of the intersection as a roadblock didn't help matters either. 

The fog needs to go! Exhausted 5/6 pilots, running, and shooting at moving targets (at range) are all but impossible to hit. Adding in a further +1 meant more often than not, I needed a 13 or 14 to-hit roll on 2D6! Yeah, not happening. Indeed, all game my lowest to-hit number was a 7, however the vast majority were 10+ rolls, and box cars were kinda the norm.

Movement: Screech suggested my units be allowed to run on the turns they arrived. Tired or not, mechwarriors still react quickly to the situation and those few extra hexes of movement were sorely needed!

Deployment: He also suggested deploying his force on a flank. It would have been too easy to overload one side or the other, namely on the road itself to all but eliminate any hopes of escape from the outset. It was a conscious decision on his part not to do so.

Still, it was a fun time and we'll give this another go (with revisions) in the future.