Some random stragglers

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Frenemies?

No gaming for me this week, but I did at least finish off another lance's worth of mechs. That said, they are split amongst three different factions as you can see. 

First up, is a century for the Marian Hegemony's III Legio. 

All of the bases line up nicely. As much of a pain in the ass as that was, this bunch might not get any additional minis...

Corey' Cavaliers, up to a full strength lance, with not a decent mech amongst them (well, maybe the Charger).

Lastly the Cicada joins the ever growning Desert force (I wonder if it is too late to change their link/name to Desert Horde?). There are just as many tanks to go with these, plus a point of Elementals. Why Elementals you ask? Well I just reprimed the former Jade Falcon Fast & the Furious star in wraithbone. Meaning that along with the Mongoose and Mercuries, I'll easily be able to field a 2nd line binary with a minimum speed of 7/11!

This week's round up.

 o/

I just some random updates this time around. 

First up, Nick 2.0 and I played the rematch of the mission from my last post, with just the roles reversed. Again, this one was a lot of fun and while I only took 3 photos, it had a few memorable highlights. Sadly for Nick and fortunately for me, one (1) of his AC-20 rounds hit all game! That said, that one round deleted my Javelin from existance, coring out the CT with 2 points of damage to spare!

The odds of surviving 2 AC-20s at point blank range are 3,720 to 1!

Never tell me the odds!

That said, two of those missed AC-20 rounds, coming from the King Crab allowed my Charger CGR-1A1 to make it's first ever successful charge attack! Crossing 3 hexes prior to impact, it inflicted 24pts of damage on the KC (taking 10 in return) and better yet, the Crab failed it's PSR and hit the ground taking another 10 points on the way down. 

Later on, the final parting shot from my Shilone knocked the KC's pilot out for a turn. Laser fire from these two caused it to fall to the ground, where then a few kicks were delivered for good measure.

In the end, Nick's Spider and Centurion fled the field successfully, the mauled Hunchback was 1 hex away when we called it. While the poor King Crab managed to stand up from the pummeling going on above, it was soon immobilized and the pilot ejected.

All 6 are numbered in the event that they are used as objectives at some point. 

'Choppin Charlie's' chop shop seems to have suffered a fire and is in a serious state of disrepair. 

They're decorated with all manner of neon lights, decorations, corporate logos, warning signs and even the depiction of a church and scripture (which, given your point of view may also be seen as a warning sign...).

Speaking of Nick, he gifted me with some terrain that he 3D printed, and I painted up the first 6 of 8 buildings. There are also several mutli-level hills in the paint queue as well. 

A primitive Dervish (I capped off the lasers in the arms), a Clint and a flamer equipped Hermes, because what's the Marion Hegemony without some warcrimes, right? Right.

Lastly, I finished the first three mechs for yet another faction: The Marion Hegemony's III Legio or conversely, the FedCom and later Lyran Alliance's 4th Alliance Guards. The Marion's get 1st dibs as I have a Cyclops CP-11-H from the Black Remnant box in-progress (the one with all of the rocket launchers) for this unit, as well as a Blackjack to round out the star century of five mechs.

The numbering on the bases all line up nice and properly, even if the mechs themselves do not. I just need to make sure that the remaining mechs numbered 1 & 5 also line up accordingly. 

******

Also of note is that Frankie 16 today!

Since when is a Blackjack the game's 'Hero mech'?

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Take it! Take it bitch take it!

Nick 2.0 came over to my house for a game last week and he had a scenario all set to go. Prior to the battle, all the information I received was the following: 4800BV, Lostech era with at least 1 assault mech required for each force. 

The Scenario:

The attacking force's dropship took a hit coming in and the attacker's mechs were randomly scattered across the field in an emergency evac from the dropship. Over the middle of the board, a D6 for each mech was dropped onto the map and wherever a die landed, so did a mech. The defender would roll to see which long map edge side they would deploy from. Of the attacking mechs, the assault mech's navigational systems were damaged in the emergency drop, and so would need to be escorted off of the field to safety. All attacking mechs needed to flee the field on one of the short board edges, with the escorted assault mech being neither the first or last one off of the field. 

Points were also awarded for mechs that were crippled, had limbs blown off, etc., as well as destroyed and for those that successfully escaped.

The battlefield, with both sides deployed. 

We rolled and I would be the attacker. My 65th Lyran Regulars force consisted of: a Blackjack BJ-1, Whitworth WTH-1, A Javelin JNV-10N, a Griffin GRF-1S, and lastly a Charger CGR-1A1 (which, turned out to be rather fortuitous). Nick was fielding his wife's mercenary command (so why doesn't she come to play?) the Green Knights consisting of: a Spider SDR-5V, a Hunchback HBK-4G, a Centurion CN9-A, a King Crab KGC-000 and lastly (and for only 4 turns when darkness fell and it flew home) a Shilone SL-17.

Nick modified the aerotech rules a bit to make the fighter playable and it worked fairly well. Here is how the game went:

As (bad) luck would have it, the poor Whitworth would find itself all but surrounded on turn one! The Javelin tried to assist, but a few SRMs to the back didn't stop an AC-20 slug from hitting the Whitworth's CT!

Because the King Crab and Shilone weren't enough to worry about, the Spider and Hunchback were coming after the whitworth as well!

My Charger advances while in the background you can see the blinding flash of that AC-20 slug hitting the Whitworth!

Somehow the Whitworth survives, and after the Hunchback moves in front of it I, as Nick put it: 'took the bait' and moved into the Hunchback's rear arc while the King Crab moved in for the kill. 

While my Whitworth dumped the LRM ammo out to avoid any ammo explosions, it managed to score a rear torso hit on the HBK, though not causing any criticals. The King Crab meanwhile missed the Whitworth entirely, huzzah!

In the middle of the field, the Shilone roared overhead, striking the Griffin, as did the Centurion and Spider. 

In return the Griffin cinematically, fired in all directions, putting a large laser in the Spider's leg, almost taking it off, 3 or so LRMs into the far off Centurion and a single medium laser hit to the Shilone's aft!

We interupt this battle for a Neeka induced intermission. 

Then, the Griffin promptly rolled a snake eyes for it's PSR and fell down. It would take (2) attempts to stand back up, beating itself up in the process).

The fast moving Javelin prepares to lead almost as fast moving Charger off of the board!

Somewhere along the line the Griffin had hit the Centurion in the fight torso with it's large laser. As such it was at this juncture that more or less quietly fighting in the background Blackjack made itself known. 

Firing its quartet of medium lasers at the Centurion, it put 3 of them into the mech's right torso, going internal with 2 shots, and hitting the mech's LRM ammo, vaporizing it! 

On the next turn Nick lost the initative, and as my Javelin and Charger fled the field, the BJ-1 opted for a rearguard duty and moved in behind the King Crab. It put a few lasers into the beast and then 1 level up on a hill, delivered a kick to the KC's right arm!

As the Shilone flew overhead, heading out as the light faded, the Hunchback removed one of the Whitworth's arms, scoring Nick a point! The plucky Whitworth nonetheless stayed on it's feet.

While the Whitworth is no faster then the Hunchback, it is also no slower. Thus the heavily damaged mech ran away, keeping the AC20 beast at max range while the Spider harassed it for all it was worth. Despite the terrifying start to the Whitworth's game, it too would successfully flee the field. 

The 5/8/5 moving Griffin was doing the same on the opposite side of the board. Jumping over terrain and likewise holding King Crab at range. Here it is, all lined up for it's victorious run off of the board. 

Which brings us back to the Blackjack. Outnumbered 3-1 (and standing here in some heavy trees), having done most of the damage thus far, it too now had to make a run for it. 

Hopping hills and guns blazing, it had to resort to just a single laser into the spider, and then whipping the arms around to (unsuccessfully) try to hit the KC with it's AC-2s for a turn to bleed heat as it was at a +9 which is quite detrimental in this situation. Especially with AC-20 slugs hitting all around it!

It hopped the hill and did it's best to hide again while the massed AC-20s rearranged the landscape before it also was able to run off of the board at last!

Well, that was a rather crushing victory! I don't recall the points gifted for each mech off of the field but as Nick only had a single point due to removing the Whitworth's arm, the point was moot. My charger kinda messed up his scenario due to it's speed (it never fired a shot and only suffered a few medium laser hits all game). 

While it did not live up to it's name this tiime, I couldn't help but take a few extra pics of Nick's pretty paint jobs.

Note the detailing on the Hiunchback's base!

That said, this coming Wednesday we are playing this scenario again with the same forces, and the roles reversed. Given that my biggest guns will be on the Shilone for 4 turns vs. all of these AC-20s, we will see how that goes...

Corey's Cavaliers

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Securing my wife's tomato plants. Were it not for their basing, these would blend into her raised planter's bed and it's tomato seedlings almost perfectly. 

I don't recall when I first stumbled across this canon mercenary unit but it was quite some time ago. Like so many merc units in Battletech (and Space Marine chapters in 40K), they exist as a random name in a blurb, in a book. That's it. Their minimal background says they inflicted a serious defeat on the St. Ives Cheveau-Leger during the Lostech era, inflicting particularly heavy losses on their air lances. 

Shadow Hawk SHD-3H, which swaps out the SRM-2 for a pair of machine guns. The emblem on the torso marks this mech out as the lance leader. 

The suggestion of 'Kill!' is almost an oxymoron being painted on the side of a lowly LRM-5.

So, the defeated a regimental sized unit (or more likely a smaller detachment thereof) with air support? Did the Cavaliers have extensive AA units? Their own aerospace forces? Did a CGR-1A1 stumble across an airfield and simply run amok? No other details, really? No of course not, these fuckers don't even have a color scheme. 

Charger CGR-1A1, are those two kill marks on the torso? Or the number of mechs that stuck around long enough to get into small laser range? Note this mech is dangerously skirting the edge of a minefield!

The Wolf icon really looked cool on the pauldron. Or, being on a Charger, perhaps its a more sarcastically applied dog...

Well, they didn't until the Unit Color Compendium created one which is about as official as this bunch is going to get. Also, for those that don't know, my name is: Corey, and decades ago when I was in the SCA, my persona was of a Cavalier, so I'm almost obligated to paint some of these up. Also, the UCC color scheme is both striking and pretty easy to paint. 

Rifleman RFL-3N: the epitome of mediocrity, especially as the AA mech that it was supposedly designed to be. 

With their only known action being well within the Lostech era (another favorite of mine), I opted to make my first lance for the Cavaliers (I rarely stop at just one...) as what my old buddy Hoss would call a Lostech FUBAR lance: All crummy/mediocre mechs that are thrown into a front line role because there is nothing else left. Thus far I only have 3 mechs painted for this lance of Corey's Cavaliers, but the fourth (a Vulcan) finally arrived in the mail and is now in progress.

Escort the Spy

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I need to get a Mobile HQ mini so my games don't need to keep using this god-awful 'Command brick truck' model. 

I played the next mission in the 3rd leg of our ongoing campaign this past Thursday. This one ran more or less on rails with limited set piece actions over the course of the first half dozen turns. We were told not to make a list until we were told of the scenario rules/situation once we got there. To save time, I showed up with 9 premade lists from my campaign company and chose what I thought would be the best one. 

I started off with a wedge 'pursuing' the truck, with my locust flanking out at long range. Unfortunatly, terrain and the multitude of AC2s and the indirect firing LRM carrier would make mince meat out of it!

Shadowstar was playing the OpFor, he suffered thru this mission the week prior.

This post is as much a rant as it is a bat rep. Basically my forces were 'pursing' the fugly command truck to a fortified building. In said truck was a mole whole would go in, collect the spy and then make a run for it back along said road (5 hexes movement, no bonus for pavement) hoping to survive where the OpFor would then target the truck over all else. 

The Catapult sat back and used the last of it's ammo (from the prior mision) up taking down AC-2s on the tower. Unfortunately, the cluster chart meant you had to more or less fire 2 LRM launchers or large lasers (from the Stalker) to guarantee a cannon kill. 

Just as the Bulldog goes up in flames, a pair of SRM turrets pop up and replace it. If the popup turrets brings to mind the Solaris debacle, yeah well, the same guys are runing this leg of the campaign.

Prior to the esceape, the OpFor would be defending what they thought was a friendly vehicle from my forces. I took my commander's STK-4N, my CPLT-C1 from the previous mission which was down to 3 volleys of LRM ammo per launcher My intent was to have it running & jumping with lasers so was fine with that given the map, a LCT-1Vb and an HBK-4J. 

Struggling to remain upright due to a gryro and foot hit, and a multitude of other damage from slogging thru hellish terrain and high angled enemy fire, the Royal Locust lasered the LRM carrier to death before fleeing the board with 1 point of remaining CT structure. 

Something like 2-3 turns were spent pounding on tanks and turrets (and vice versa) while waiting for the Mole to fill out the government-like release forms in triplicate. By this point my Stalker's side torsos were so thin that I had dumped all of it's almost 3 full tons of remaining ammo, turning it into a laser boat. 

I was facing a tower with 2 turrets armed with 4 AC-2s each, 10HP per gun to be targeted and destroyed individually (really?). On said tower was also a spotter, and all were high enough to not have to suffer any terrain penalties. Also a pair of std. Scorpion light tanks, a std. Bulldog medium tank (proxied with a goblin) and an LRM carrier. There where no bonuses for pavement on the road and the scenario required a PSR to leave the road at any speed. Additionally, there was a 3MP cost to enter/exit water (6 to cross!) no MP penalties to move in water aside from no running. and once the spy was on the run, a fresh, randomly rolled for OpFor lance would appear 1 mech at a time per turn to take out the spy's truck. 

My mission: destroy everything and make sure the spy & mole escape in the truck. A cakewalk right? If you haven't figured it out from the preceeding pics and captions, it was anything but. 

Once the truck left, the Hunchback and stalker dropped the building in 1 turn, taking its 2 remaining AC-2s with it. Oh an look, the first randomly rolled for OpFor mech arrives, a Guillotine with a 3/3 pilot. Yay, that shooting exclusively at a box with 40 HP sounds fair. 

Followed by a Crab the next turn, I think the truck was down tot 20ish HP by this point, while I was pounding the Guillotine.

Next a Whitworth arrives and the Stalker punishes it for doing so, unfortunately the reversed arms' medium lasers all missed the Crab and it's rear armor. Meanwhile the still in the water Hunchback alpha strikes hitting the whitworth with it's 1 remining LRM and the Gullotine with everything else. In return the Gillotine kicks it in the chest as it was 1 level higher. Technically Shadowstar rolled a headshot, but knowing it would kill my pilot (who had already taken a head hit) he insisted on rerolling it to prevent me from losing a pilot in what he felt was an unfair scenario.

1-turn from the board's edge with 2 remaining hit points...

What? It blew up? The hell you say! The spy & mole managed to clamber out of the wreck after I rolled for them. With the loss of the truck aside, I accomplished all objectives. The cost of victory however...

Okay, so all objectives accomplished basically, I took out all of the guns, tanks, the tower, and damaged the new lance of mechs somewhat. I haven't said to much on damage suffered in this meat grinder. It was extensive, behold:

If this mech does indeed used in part 2, I am dumping its ammo beforehand out of self preservation. Hell, it only has 1 functional LRM-10 anyways.

Were it not for the gyro hit, I would be fine with this one fighting on as is. 

1 point of CT internal structure holding it together and I am supposed to use this? Sure. I should have left it on the board to die.

The part 2 mission is supposed to be some sort of 'pursuit' mission by the OpFor lance. Thinking it will be a rearguard action, and as slow as a Stalker is on the best of days, my CO may try and sacrifice herself while the other mechs escape. 

Now, I have no issue with feeding mechs into the proverbial woodchipper on a weekly basis as you all know. What I take issue with is an overly complicated set up that (as Digger put it) 'railroads you into slogging thru a meatgrinder of a mission' (again, not really unhappy with this, but..). We now need to use the same surviving mechs (I didn't lose any, Digger lost 2), without any repairs for a part 2 pursuit mission (whatever the fuck that means) which follows this one. Sure, the enemy mechs will be in the same boat, but they came on late (and in my game, the Jackalpoe didn't even make it on the board), so their damage is minimal. Well, Guillotine aside, I did beat that one up pretty good. 

Now, at the beginning of this track of the campaign, all mechs were transported to the planet of this campaign after being stuck with the same 4 mechs which caused some discontent in the previous leg, especially if casualties were suffered. So rather than grab some of the 7 pristine mechs I have on site, I need to use these 4, where the Locust is held together with prayers, 3 of the 4 have gyro hits, and all have considerable damage? 

What the actual fuck? 

There has been a lot of grumbling and negative feedback. Funnily enough, I've played the current organizer, and he gets really pissed when his mechs take heavy damage, so I have to wonder if this is all out of some sort of spite. He's a generally nice guy, so don't want to think that, but it's hard to tell at this point.

Nobody who had played thru this scenario has anything good to say about it really for one reason or the other (and several of us won), and one player who is new to the game isn't sure he wants to continue playing if this is how it is always going to be. Seriously guys, what did you learn from the Solaris feedback? 

Notta fucking thing by the looks of it.