Another convoy disappears in no man's land...

 Spoiler alert? 

Given all of my bat reps on here of late, no...not really. 

Anyways, this week I got in my rescheduled due to covid campaign game ,where I was to defend 4 truck tokens vs an unknown force. My forces were an HBK-4H & HBK-4J as well as 2 randomly borrowed mechs from Larsen's Loaners (pun intended?), after losing 2 mechs in my previous bout. I randomly rolled for a base model Scorpion & Panther 9Z. 

The OpFor was a CPLT-C1, a flea, a locust (mounting pulse lasers!) a Jenner and a Victor which luckily didn't have an AC-20 though it did have enough medium lasers to compensate. What follows is my usual tale of woe(ful dice rolling). For those who know him, Neverness would be proud!

Digger, the OpFor Commander, scenario creator and our campaign herder of cats. 

The terrain with Digger's diabolical road. The convoy didn't need to roll PSRs for all of the turns, but were also restricted to said road. Some how at least 2 players in the campaign have managed to get a few trucks safely through this nightmare!

My HBK-4H rounds the corner and spots a Victor! The mechwarrior may have needed to change his shorts following that discovery...

Nonetheless, a heavy volley of fire was exchanged and luckily I passed my PSR, whereas the assault mech fell to the ground!

The 'trucks' roll out! The lead truck was a gun truck sporting an MG and some armor (the rest had the bog standard 2 points of armor per side). 

The missile boats start lobbing LRMs back and forth at extreme range, I believe I came out on top in this particular exchange.

Regaining its feet, the Victor finds itself outgunned...or it would have if my typically atrocious dice rolling were not involved. 

Failing to scuttle away, the Scorpion takes a beating to its backside including a 16 point kick!

Tossing me a bone maybe? The Jenner oddly hunkered down, perhaps it was just bait, which I took hook line and sinker! It lost an arm and took a few more hits, whereas the Jenner & Victor savaged my Hunchback in return. 

Why is that flea still alive (much to the bewilderment of the two of us)? I believe it took a spread of SRMs here as the Scorpion's PPC had been disabled by this point. 

Surrounded the Hunchback alphastruck hitting with everything but the infernal autocannon! Speaking of, the AC-10 was disabled in this exchange. The locust lost and arm and its entire side torso if I recall, in return for hits all around on the Hunchback. 

Meanwhile, still camped in the backfield, my HBK-4J decided to be totally unhelpful and miss with both LRM-10s. Schmuck.

Oh and the trucks? 2 down, 2 to go...

The Victor was hoping for a kick but the Hunchback fell to the ground before it had a chance!

Overheated, and beat all to hell, the Hunchback struggles to its feet but not much else. 

Due to my inability to kill any enemy mechs (as usual) the rest of the convoy falls easy prey to the wounded light mechs. 

One 16 point kick later and the HBK-4H falls for the last time with my pilot ejecting for safety. Of the four mechs I brought to Mica II, only 1 is left. I don't think this planet likes me much...

With both weapons disabled and collectively...maybe a half dozen points of structure left in the right side torso and legs, the Loaner's Scorpion scuttles away to safety. 

The Victor takes aim at my last Hunchback with the other wreck burns in the background.

The Panther had been sniping at range out in the midfield most of the game, and not hitting much. The combination of slow speed (for a light mech), woeful inaccuracy and being continuously surrounded didn't serve it too well out here. Mainly it was the inaccuracy though. It landed the occasional hit which was much less than I had hoped for. 

Honestly, I don't think I should have been playing my HBK-4J as a back field fire support mech as when moving in close, the 5 medium lasers it carries is still quite threatening. 

The last parting shot of a PPC to the Catapult which replied with a decent missile spread to the Loaner's Panther. 

At this point we called it on time as it was getting late, and the cause was lost. The convoy had been wiped out, I had lost yet another mech, a second had fled the field in tatters, and the 2 that I had left could hardly hit the broadside of a barn. It was a solid, if not almost overwhelming victory for Digger's OpFor! Prior to my game, this scenario was a mixed bag of 2 player wins and 2 OpFor wins. Not sure if it is good to be the tie breaker or not. 

Digger is looking to add reputation points to the campaign for merc units with good reputations to garner extra bonuses. I dread to think of what the bad reputation points (if any) will result in as I am far more likely to rack up some of those! That said, in the end it was a night rolling dice and laughing with friends, so not a total loss.