o/
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...
