Training Op!

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Nick sizing up the enemy!

Nick and I got together for another small game of Classic BattleTech. Three thousand points this time. Fielding 6 Urbies was under consideration, but instead I opted to go with just vehicles and infantry. Small games like this are good for trying out new ideas and forces that are outside of the proverbial box. 

The three mechs of Nick's 6th Mccarron's Armored Cavalry in back, and my Corey's Homeguard in front (yes, Corey is my name and yes, Corey is also a world in the Capellan Confederation). Notably, this was my first ever use of a VTOL in a game of BattleTech!

The settlement that would be the site of this battle. 

As the forces in this Op are all (nominally) Capellans, I'm calling this a training exercise. The 6th MAC serving as raiders, with the intent of testing the Homeguard's response. Here's how it went down...

Two standard bulldogs advancing into the city. I was pleased to note that their camo blended in pretty well. 

The warrior swings around wide of the 'fresh from the factory' Schrek.

As is the lot of the average Vedette crew, they charged up the middle with the unenviable task of playing 'Bait'. 

The first connecting shot went to the Warrior when several missiles from it's LRM-10 connected with the Victor, no doubt making it angry. That aside, early 6th MAC shooting was largely at extreme range rendering it ineffective, whereas the Homeguard's shooting was better described as woefully inaccurate.

The HBK-4G goes in for the kill and is surrounded! In the prior turn it's AC-20 shredded all of the armor from one of the Bulldog's Turrets, and the Victor did the same to the Vedette's rear armor sending that tank fleeing for it's life!

The Jump Laser infantry kicked things off inflicting a whopping 2 points of damage to the Hunchback. Clearly this inspired the rest of the troops as the tanks hit it from all directions! The Hunchback unfortunately took several rear torso hits and was critted out with 3 engine and 1 gyro hits! That said, its last gasp was to pump an AC-20 into the front of the AC Schrek! Far off in the backfield, the Warrior harried the Raven's rear inflicting minor damage.

All guns turn on the Victor (including that of the returning, out of picture Vedette). While the Victor expertly puts another AC-20 slug into the armorless Bulldog turret, killing the tank. 

The weight of fire from the Homeguard was telling however and the Victor failed it's piloting check, tumbling to the ground! In the backfield, the Raven and Warrior tangled with one another, resulting in a few damaged rotor blades slinging off into some nearby buildings!

Sensing victory, the 6th MAC chooses to ignore the warrior and far off vedette, and concentrate on the last tank, further damaging the Schrek.

The RVN-1X turned up the white noise of its electronic equipment, only to realize that the Homeguard's sensors were of too old a design to be effected. 

Damaged again with the driver injured, the Schrek tries to limp away to safety, white unleashing a torrent of fire in the form of 3 AC-5s and 6 machine guns at the Victor! I wanted to shoot the Raven, but the +3 to hit meant that I had to continue to plink away at the much more heavily armored assault mech. 

The Schrek's (in)glorious last stand! The rest of my force continued to provide support...

...but in the end was all for naught. 

With the Schrek down, the Vedette and Warrior made a run for it, whereas the jump platoon first headed to the elevators, followed thereafter by the exits. 

Well that was fun! It seems that the elite mercenary's are indeed better than the weekend warriors, despite outnumbering the raiders 2-1. Initially, Nick was very wary of the Schrek, fearing it was the far more dangerous (and thinly armored) PPC toting variety. I like the AC-5 Schreks due to the much thicker armor, but that does unfortunately halve the firepower. The Vedette and Bulldogs did well (once the latter decided to hit something), the Vedette crew's gunnery on the other hand was to be commended! Especially was it was almost always moving at flank speed and never closer than medium range.  

The infantry almost suffered a death from above attack, but Nick figured they weren't worth all of the reading of rules that that would require. Especially as they were inflicting minimal damage. The Warrior did well and didn't die, but wasn't decisive either. The high movement modifiers made it hard to hit, but with only a 4/5 crew, the Raven it was mostly shooting at wasn't an easy target either. 

Looking ahead, Nick will be one of my opponents in the FLGS' 3020s Solaris event on the 5th, not to mention that we have also discussed an all vehicle game at some point in the future. I did that once years ago with Kushial and like the all Urbie game, it was a lot of fun!

This week's roundup.

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The new Charger sculpt reminds me of something, but I just can't quite place it...

lol, as you can see, I painted up my new KS Charger. I love the Charger, its one of my favorite minis, and it will be one of the two mechs that I will be fielding in my local FLGS' upcoming 3020s era, Solaris free-for-all event. 

Bob's Boomerang, your morning commute's eye in the sky!  is reporting heavy foot traffic on access lane 4...

Those large pauldron armor plates are screaming for a logo of some sort! 

Originally, I was thinking of running the original CGR-1A1 as it is a true zombie mech in that the head, Center torso and legs are the only things to worry about. Well, that and I was hoping to try a charge attack, where if the stars all correctly align, the Charger can mete out a whopping 64 points of impact damage (in 5 point increments)! 

 That 'charge maneuver' might work...once. Then, after my poor, hapless target was cartwheeled across the field following its 80-ton impact. I would likely be shot by everything still left on the table (and the winner is the last mech standing). As such, I'll go with my good ol' standby Zombie-Charger, the CGR-SB Challenger. 

Post Solaris event, I'm not sure who will get this mech, be it my deep periphery Mercs: Battle Rattle, or if it'll gain a pink paw print and join my still winless Ace Darwin's Whipits (I was thinking of bringing Ace to the event purely for style points, even if it is out of his era). Or possibly just start a new faction altogether like the DCMS' Dieron Regulars, allowing me to field this as a CGR-1A9.

Queue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries...

The one on the left has a bit of foliage stuck to its turret, apparently it got a bit too close to the treetops!

Run away!

The counter rotating props give these a very Russian KA-52 vibe. I have a feeling that they will be just as ineffective in combat as their real life counterparts...

I also painted up my Warrior attack VTOLS. These make my TBAGers the first (ever) unit of mine to have its own air support, meagre as they might be. These look to easiest to field in Alpha Strike, and will likely be contained to just that form of BattleTech play. Actually on second thought, I'll try one of these out in a game of Classic tomorrow night. I'll let ya know how that turns out.   

All together!

Lastly, I also got my first Steel Haven campaign game in. It was a lot of fun even though I lost the snatch and grab scenario. All damage was free to repair for the first game which is good as my Assassin suffered an ammo hit and was obliterated! While my mech will be rebuilt for free, I am down one mechwarrior as there wasn't enough left of that guy to even bury. 

The Buffet Assault Group and 4th Syke Rangers pose for a pre-game, full company photo op. 

Desert Recon Lance

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Fast & fragile, just the way scouts ought to be!

These were a bit of a speed paint and as good as they look, you can expect to see more models painted to match these four. They give me a bit of a Desert Storm vibe, with rooster tails of sand billowing out behind them as they tear across the desert sands.  

Opposite view.

Three Galleon Light tanks backed up by a Skulker Wheeled Scout tank is nothing to be feared on the tabletop (well, unless they're C3i Wobblie Galleons...). That said,they do have their uses as distractions, spotters, harassers, as well as for the ever popular Alpha Strike past time of shooting enemies in the back. 

The parts to be obscured by all of the flying sand...

The Skulker, if used as the MG variant, can double as an APC.

The 'turret' is more of a remote weapon station, as on modern AFVs.

Curiously the side guns aren't in sponsons, and so only fire in a 45 degree arc out to the sides, rather than a more proper 180 degrees.

Of course, like all of the other KS tanks, the 'turret' rotates.

The lance itself is also generic enough to be useful in any Inner Sphere faction in practically any era. Hell, they'll even work for the Star League in Exile and the Pentagon Powers.

Battletech painting spree!

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Making up for this year's paucity of painted BattleTech Minis!

In a little over a week's time since my Mercenaries Kickstarter minis arrived, I've painted a company's worth of miniatures! Of those, nine were from the KS and naturally (as you can see) they're not all painted in the same color scheme. 

First up are the Defenders of Andurien: 

The Cicada unit leader is a 3D printed mini, the other three came in my KS Mercenaries boxed set and 2 salvage boxes. Also, with the acquisition of the 'new' (to us) table, these are likely the last pics to be taken outside by the house's siding. 

White with blue & green stripes on the arms & legs, how hard could that be?

Bloody awful is that answer to that question!

Don't expect to see anymore Andurien mechs from me!

This lance is armed with: 6 machine guns, 3 flamers, 7 small lasers (6 rear facing) and 8 medium lasers. Clearly this lance is meant for routing out insurgents and pacifying occupied settlements. As such,  I don't expect much out of them on the tabletop...

The Buffet Assault Group's first contract was as a 2nd line support and garrison unit for the Duchy of Andurien during their secession and invasion of the Capellan Confederation. I say 2nd line as they're not a canon unit and therefore not listed in any of the official histories of that time period. The TBAGers didn't see any heavy fighting until first the Capellan counter attack, followed by Marik's reconquest of the Duchy of Andurien. Up until now I've not had any Andurien Defender mechs to run with my TBAGers. This lance is cheap enough to do just that. 

The CCAF is nothing without it's tanks!

Second to be painted is this armor lance which rounds out my Capellan Confederation's Homeguard company. Although, as they're camouflaged, they could easily be one one of a dozen or so Capellan units. So far the Homeguard has been an oh so inflexible 7 Urbanmechs lead by a lone Raven RVN-4X. Hopefully this lance will help mitigate that somewhat. 

Both Urbie lances have 1, 2, 3 & 4 colored stripes on their tops to differentiate mechs. As cavalry's traditional color is yellow, that is what I chose for this lance. 

The Vedette, while kinda worthless in any era prior to maybe the civil war is still fast, cheap and annoying for an opponent to deal with (and the new mini looks great!). The 2 Bulldogs are as always, under armored and over gunned. That said, with their even average speed, they're practically recon tanks compared to the Urbie horde. Lastly the LRM carrier has plenty of long ranged punch and is wrapped in cardboard as one would expect. Since the launcher covers are down, its also an easy proxy for an MRM carrier if I wanted to go that route. 

My opponent was shocked at what a Piranha could do in Alpha Strike at point blank range, and in the rear arc. He killed it in one volley, but by then it was too late and all six points of damage had already been done to his Nightstar!

This past Friday I played my first game vs. an Ilkhan era opponent. We played 250pts of Alpha Strike using whatever era we wanted. I'm not sure which faction my opponent was playing, not that I'd even heard of several of them when I looked that era up on the master unit list. While perusing the MuL, I looked to see what the Capellan Confederation's unit options for that era were, and following that: watch this space for future additions to my Capellans. 

A Griffin IIC and 3 points of infantry.

Speaking of that game, I fielded a late succession wars era, combined-arms binary of my Hell's Horses Iota galaxy. My opponent, 'Badger' (yes his actual real life name) his assault star's lightest mech was an 85 ton Stalker. He was keen to see what a mostly light-medium combined arms force could do against an assault star. Turns out that they can out run, out maneuver, and damned near overwhelm said assault star which was outnumbered by more than 2:1 at the game's outset.   

I've never had any want to field the Savannah Master, so these will serve as two points (platoons) of Fast Recon mechanized infantry. Just imagine a bunch of infantry laser rifles poking out of the side windows! 

I won, though the victory was pyrrhic, as both sides were retreating by games' end. I'd taken down three mechs, with a 4th deep into structure, for the loss of 4 mechs, 2 light tanks, and 2 points of fast recon infantry. In terms of point values of units killed & disabled I was ahead by a mere 25 points! 

These guys planted the final, killing blow to a Sagittaire assault mech! 

Not sure if that makes up for them being such a pain in the ass to paint...

So pleased was I with my force's victory, that I painted up all of the unpainted units used save the Firefly, which I am likely to give to another faction. This leaves me just 1 mech short of a fully painted Iota binary. My paint jobs also drew several compliments which I always enjoy.  While none of the opposing mechs were painted, of the 4 separate forces that Badger had brought with him, collectively about a third of the mechs were painted. 

You just know that the pilot would love to swat that little Elemental out of the sky!

The red & orange ombre was lost under the yellow of this one. 

Speaking of, I met quite a few BattleTech players that evening, and several of those folks play 40k as well. Also, the FLGS has a BattleTech campaign in the works, so I am looking forward to that as I have only ever played 1-off pick up games. 

'Are you painting a Wafflehouse for your game?'

I was quoting my wife with this post's title.

The 3050 financial reports are in and sadly we have bad news for our investors. This was to be the year that Dunkin Davions would move on from dominating just the breakfast pastry industry, and proceed to conquer the fast food market as a whole! 

First quarter sales started off strong, but by late spring things started to take a turn. Here now at the end of the fiscal year, hundreds of locations have closed across the realm's northern edge. Or at least we think they have, its hard to be certain given that HPG communication with so many occupied worlds has been lost...

Note the occupiers, on patrol around the perimeter. The other three from the squad will become basing decorations. 

It looks suitably out of business I think. 

I've had both the hotdog mech and the Dunkin Davions bouncing around in my collection for years now. The building itself has been in the background of many of my battle reports, and I once painted another hotdog mech for my buddy Rob who owns a Dairy Queen. I don't recall him seeing the humor and that mech is probably buried under the seat of his truck, or the like.

The dumpsters are of course Capellan green rather than Davion green. 

This was my guinea pig model for my new AK streaking grime. For my first try on a not so good 3D print (the building, not the mech), it came out alright I think. I was going for the grimy, out of business look for a building in a city wracked (wrecked?) by the smoke and fires of war. 

Also, I know I said in my last post that I would be showing off some painted KS minis in this post. However I wanted to post this off as I just finished it, so those will have to wait till next time.