More little guys

 o/

This bunch is a mix of very new and a few not so old paint jobs. All have been painted within the past 2 months or so, though none were really worthy of a singular post in their own right. 

1st Royal Cavaliers WASP-WSP-1D 

Generic 10 Ton Tracked APC for no one in particular. Basically it is local militia/PDF

Like all of my 10 Ton APCs, this will be a filler model for when I don't feel like fielding infantry, or rather a horde of infantry. 

1st Royal Cavaliers' 10 Ton Wheeled APC, for when I don't want to spend 1400 points on a Sturmfeur, yet still want to field a lance of armor (and I use that term loosely in this particular case).

 

Wolf's Dragoons' Alpha Regiment Wasp WSP-1A

This is not this mini's first appearance on this blog. Rather that debut was in my last post where it was my Dragoons' sole survivor.

Yes, this is what surviving light mechs look like: Running away!

10 Ton Hover, Wheeled & Tracked APCs. I couldn't resist making a blue 'SWAT' APC to again add to my generic filler forces. The tracked APC is painted to match my Capellan Homeguard, because why wouldn't they have one of these? 

With the teeny tiny skull decal, this hover APC will go to my Dark Caste Bandits, though it would work in a pirate force as well.

Scorpion Light Tank ML/LAC variant(s). This was originally supposed to go to my snowballing out of control desert force. 

On a whim, it got shunted into the 1-off/geneic category after I wanted to try my hand at the old, US Desert Storm era 'chocolate chip' desert camo. 

While I may not have been entirely successful in that endeavor, it looks decent enough.

Let's get this beast home...

o/

Easy-peasy, right? Note: the incorrect die was used for the Atlas' movement. 

Nick came over for another game and below was the scenario that I came up with.  

Unfortunately one of our mechwarriors has fallen gravely ill and had to be medevac'd out immediately. His (canon though quite) unique mech is unfortunately still out in the field and his senior technician is the only other person who knows how to pilot the machine. As he pilots the miserably slow (Urbie slow) machine back to base, a small escort has been detailed to accompany the priceless mech home, we can only hope that enemy forces don't try to ambush us along our route...

Originally I said 5K BV and early succession wars, Nick asked if he could upgrade to a little Star League era tech right about the time I realized that my Wolf's Dragoons showed up in the lostech era. That said, I was running a canon custom mech (albeit with a shitty pilot) and said why not (eschewing advanced weaponry, Nick mainly want after double heat sinks, though there were a few other bells & whistles). 

The objective, was to get my Wolf's Dragoons' Behemoth BHN-6H across the board (theoretically made all the easier as it was a straight shot, and there's a hex of free movement on pavement which is handy as it moves as fast as an Urbie). The technician driving this monster was a 5/5, which dropped the BV down to a reasonable BV of 1533. 

Here's how it all went down:

My Dragoons force: The aforementioned BHN-6H, escorted by an AS7-D, HOP-4B & a WSP-1D

Getting the requisite cat on the game table pic out of the way early.

Nick's OpFor sporting it's new lightning scheme. 

The battlefield during the opening moves. Nick asked what malady befell the Behemoth pilot. Food poisoning? However with the Canopian pleasure circus dropship on the platform, we decided it was an STD. 

You see those modifiers? Yeah, nobody hitting anybody in this corner. 

The Hoplite and Phoenix hawk exchange some early shots. 

Moving in, close and fast!

The Atlas jumps runs out on point taking advantage of the extra movement. 

That's a hellova decoy! I know my LRM 20 lit up the Battlemaster.

And the fun continued with the Battlemaster taking the worst of it. 

The Behemoth lobs some in accurate shots into the surrounding city, while taking several hits in return. Luckily it stayed on it's feet.

The Hoplite just kept hanging back and laying down fairly decent fire support. I do believe it took a PPC to the head right here though. 

Ah, a good old fashioned scrum ensues. The Atlas holds the Warhammer still and puts an AC-20 slug right into the CT rear! Unfortunately (and as would be the case pretty much all game, I failed to roll a crit). It the threw 2 punches, one of which connected and shattered the Warhammer's head, but again failed to Crit. Return fire more or less targeted the Behemoth, though an SRM volley hit the Atlas which had a golden BB that delt 2 engine crits to the already toasty Atlas. Not good. 

While it took a few shots to its heavily armored rear torso with no ill effect, virtually all of the hits sustained by the Behemoth were to either it's head, or its right leg. Mostly though, it was just the leg. 

So, suffering the fate of most of my light mechs, the Behemoth goes down due to a leg loss, costing me the game just a few turns in. 

Seriously, WTF? 

We interrupt this broadcast for a feline intermission...

With the Behemoth down, all guns turned towards the Atlas. It could only return fire with the LRM due to the high heat levels. The Wasp & Hoplite did their best to help the big guy but under the concentrated fire...

Down it went, suffering a gyro hit before falling. THAT would essentially be it's death knell as it's piloting jumped up to an 8. 

After inflicting 20 points of self inflicted damage in failed attempts to get up, it propped itself up and heat be damned it fired the rear lasers hitting the Stinger and sending some LRMs downrange. Damage inflicted on the prone mech knocked the Atlas' pilot out cold for 5 turns. Sad face. 

The wasp jumped in behind the Warhammer, and lost its left torso to the Battlemaster, but in return...

It put a medium laser into the head of the Warhammer which the Atlas had punched earlier, decapitating the mech! 

Yup, time to run!

In the last act of vengeance, the Phoenix Hawk did a death from above, crushing the cockpit of the Hoplite which took a PPC to that location earlier in the game! With that, the Wasp bolted. 

Welp, it seemed like a good scenario, especially with 50+ points of armor and structure in each leg alone, but...when that's all that gets hit (and I watched the rolls, it was totally random) is a single leg for the most part. There's not much you can do about it. 

I was pleased with the Atlas this time around, as most every AC-20 round hit aside from those needing box cars, and it more or less looked like hamburger when it was taken out of action. Whereas the Hoplite only took a few hits, unfortunately two went to the head. 

The Stinger aside, Nick's Battlemaster was in pretty bad shape and and I think the Phoenix Hawk was pretty well beat up as well. It was fun though, and I enjoyed not being on the wrong end of the AC-20 for once! As for the Behemoth, well...next time it is used, it'll be with a real mechwarrior behind the wheel. 

I'll take 25 tons and under for $200 Alex.

 o/

This is a Frankie kind of lance: lots of speed and not much else.

My generic desert force now has mechs, faaaaaaast mechs! I painted them in two different shades, one that I know matched the most recent lance, and the other in hopes of matching the original lance (once again to no avail). 

Removing the excess ink on these was a treat with all of their nooks and crannies!

Close, but still not quite a match.

I have third armor lance in-progress and then that should almost be the end of this color scheme. It just started out as an exercise in quick and easy, and has just snowballed from there. The addition of the Mercuries and Mongoose mean that if I paint up a point of elementals who can tag along in a Maxim, I can even run part of this bunch as a  2nd line clan force.

The (never-intended-to-be) company thus far. 

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

 o/

As mentioned in my prior post, Nick & got together for our all conventional forces battle, on a backwater world somewhere in the Magistracy of Canopus. 4K BV, no mechs or scenario beyond just killing one another. I opted for the attacker as aside from my Ontos, my entire force was fast & fragile. 

Nick (for once) had me outnumbered, with an entire reinforced company of conventional infantry (all ballistic rifle platoons), 2 standard Scorpion Light tanks, an Anti-Infantry Schrek, and standard Demolisher, 2 standard J Edgar light hover tanks, and a Warrior H7 VTOL. 

Here's how it all went down. 

Nick was defending and was deployed more or less at ease. the Warrior and J Edgars were patrolling the outskirts their base in lazy circles.

The tracked tanks were all parked, and the infantry were leaving the mess halls, full from a hearty meal of reconstituted, and generally unidentifiable proteins and carbohydrates.

See! I'm not the only one at the game shop taking pics all the time...

Pandemonium ensues as my Capellan Galleons and Maxims come racing in from the perimeter, the Galleons heading for the infernal weapon of terror: the Thumper Artillery piece! True to form, the Thumper hit nothing before it's demise.

A maxim deploys a heavy mountain platoon which deftly dodge the incoming hail of MG fire from the A-I Schrek. The Maxim and Galleon return fire, inflicting minor damage to the heavy tank.

The first epic moment of the game, a J Edgar fails its piloting roll and slams into the outer wall at high speed, suffering 20+ points of damage!

Patrolling outside the perimeter, my command van, Senior Center activity bus comes under attack from the dastardly Canopian Warrior!

The Galleon inflicts heavy damage to the Thumper before being deleted by the Demolisher (because that is what Demolishers do). 

With the old folks (senior officers) clutching their chests in horror, the activity bus continues to flee! Luckily it is armored well enough to survive several rounds of AC-5 fire. 

My heavy mountain platoons zip to the top of their respective hills, ready to call in indirect fire from the LRM Ontos. This platoon however gets into a rare, all infantry firefight with a ballistic rifle platoon. While they kill a squad's worth of Canopians, they are in turn wiped out. 

Ths quickly turned into a nasty close quarters scrum. The immobilized Maxim blazing away at point blank range, like all of the other tanks around it. In the crossfire, the A-I Schreck's MGs wipe out my other platoon of infantry in short order. The Maxim is destroyed, Nick's tanks take considerable damage, motive crits abound, while the Galleon remains largely unscathed.

The soon to be infamous Galleon #3 finishes off the artillery. It and the Maxim are caught in a close range fight, right where they don't want to be! Trading fire with the infantry and Scorpions while keeping a wary distance from the Demolisher. The Warrior overheard snipes at it's opposite off in the distance. 

The LRM Ontos meanwhile keeps sending in long ranged, indirect LRM fire. Its accuracy is as mediocre as most of my direct firing LRM fire in most games, though it's first volley pumped 30+ missiles into the Demolisher, much to Nick's surprise!

Hang on Myrtle! The activity bus slews around the corner, desperate to get away from the chopper, but not so much so as to come out from behind the wall and into view of the Schrek. 

The gloriously cinematic last stand of the 2nd Maxim! Swarmed by enemy infantry, it fires with its weapons in all directions, 5 separate targets total, doing the most damage to the swarming infantry! It might have even survived were it not for the infernal Demolisher that hit it's already damaged backside with an AC-20 slug!

War crimes? The Capellans don't commit war crimes. 

Galleon # 3 plows thru a Canopian infantry platoon, killing 15 pedestrians enemy troopers. Outraged, the surrounding infantry company sand blast the tinfoil armored tank into oblivion! To quote Nick: "I never thought I would see vehicular manslaughter in Battletech."

With it's LRM 10 hoppers run dry (seriously, what's with the ammo imbalance in the LRM Ontos?), all of it's compatriots lost, and being surrounded by the enemy, The Canopians offer the Ontos' crew an honorable surrender. In return, the Ontos fires a volley of LRMs at the far off Schrek!

This continued for 2-3 turns before the Ontos (now named: The Alamo) was destroyed. It continued to rain missiles into the Demolisher and Schrek, heavily damaging both, but failing to kill either. 

Tabled, but gloriously so! Nick felt that I got robbed as the both the Schrek and Demolisher were deep into their internal structure. I think he said the Demolisher was down to only 2-3 points of structure holding the front end together. As you may have already guessed, the activity bus did finally die, though it's MG was blazing when it did so, inflicting a whopping 2pts of damage to an immobilized J Edgar. yay. 

Nick said that my problem is that my force was wearing the wrong kind of camouflage, lol.

I wish the Capellans could have had the Galleon 200s rather than 100s. The 200s have a bit more armor and more importantly, machine guns which would have been helpful with all of the infantry around. That said, I probably killed about half of Nick's infantry in total, and speaking of...

Galleon #3 shall forever wear the blood of it's victims. 

 I added 3 teeny tiny Death Korps of Krieg skulls as kill markers to the fender. 1 for every 5 casualties. In hindsight, now that the tank is all bloodied up, black skulls would have stood out better.

The Ontos has likewise been branded and now my Capellans my have the battle cry of: 

'REMEMBER THE ALAMO!'