Enter: The Self-described 9th Level of Hell

 o/

The fist almost looks to be disembodied in front of the backdrop.

In recognition of being the MVP from my last game, I painted my primed Hellhound mech. However, rather than paint it in Snow Raven colors to match the already painted Shadow Hawk C, I instead painted it in the colors of one of my all-time favorite of BattleTech units: The Hell's Horses' Iota Galaxy, whose members refer to the unit as the ninth level of hell. 

The 'fire' was surprisingly simple, just requiring a bit of patience to allow each color to dry before adding the next.

The Iota galaxy is the worst of the Horses' least respectable warriors, the trouble makers, discipline problems, and problem children. Just my kind of unit! Honorable tactics are about as common in Iota as ethics and scruples. 

Lacking any unit colors barring just plain black, the mechwarriors and vehicle crews have taken to painting their machine with fiery motifs for no other reason than that they simply can. 

I knocked this mech out in under an hour which is quite a bit quicker than painting literally anything GW.

I'm debating on whether or not I'll keep the Ravens' Epsilon painted minis, or if I'll adjust their teal blue sections for fiery blue flames instead. 

The Battle against the Mech that shall not be named

 o/

The following battle report is of my game vs. Kushial that we played Saturday night. Kushial said that it's been at least three years since we've played Battletech against one another and while I find that hard to believe, I gave up on trying to find a battle report on here of the two of us playing a game. 

We played our usual 8k points at the local FLGS on one of their 3D printed maps which was really quite a treat! He was fielding the Lyran Alliance's Donegal Guards whilst I had the Clan Snow Raven's Epsilon Galaxy. 

Both sides deployed.

Moving up the center with a Shadow Hawk C and Hellhound, my pilots started to question their superior technology in the face of all of the massed tonnage and firepower before them...

As my Star Commander's Adder drops off it's load of Elementals, the mech that shall not be named is spotted and a furious exchange of gunfire ensues. The Adder loses that fight as virtually all of the enemy mech's fire connects with the Adder's right leg (while it's UAC-5 rounds fly off into the ether)!

On the rest of the board, my fire was a bit of a mixed bag, with the Shadow Hawk likewise taking a LOT of damage to it's right leg whereas I seemed to be carving thru his right torsos. Then of course there was the piranha, blazing away with lasers and a dozen machine guns a turn and hitting with just one MG on average before his Valkyrie jumped away again. 

The Mech that shall not be named outmaneuvered me following a mistake on my part, and dishonorably kicked the Adder's already crippled leg, destroying it and removing the mech from the game. The Shadow Hawk took command as it was painted, only to lose it's leg a turn later. 

Command then fell to my Primed Hellhound which had the most surviving paint left in my force (and was also inflicting the most damage overall). Here it unloads in the the Mech that shall not be named while in the background the Elementals and piranha collectively sandblast about 40 points of armor off of the sides of the Donegal Black Knight! As heavily armored and undamaged as the Knight was, it merely found this experience to be irritating.

The Hellhound punches thru one of the side torsos of the not named mech and hit the SRM Ammo, obliterating it and avenging the fallen Star Commander! He hoped that this act would inspire his remaining troops...

However it was not to be as the piranha, dreadfully overheated due to an engine hit, tried to duke it out at point blank range with the Donegal HBK-4P. A dazzling exchange of 8 medium lasers vs. 12 MGs and an ER small laser ended in the only obvious result.

At this point my 2 remaining Hellhounds (of which the unprimed one had lost half of it's weapons) bugged out, leaving the 4 remaining Elementals for dead. 

As crushing of a defeat as it was, this was still a fun game and I'm looking forward to vastly more frequent games with Kushial in the future!