A Thunder Run with our 'Frenemies'!

lol, almost looks like it's been attacked by a salad!

A battalion of the 2nd Chisholm's Raiders are deployed to McComb to serve as a ready reserve for the 1st Chisholm Raiders' operation on nearby Marduk. Just as they settle into their FOB, HPG transmissions arrive telling of the burgeoning FedCom civil war which is rapidly devolving into violence. While ultimately siding with the Archon, at this stage the Raiders like so many units are a mix of troops with varied political affiliations. 

The battalion splits in half along political lines, and while both sides are sorting themselves out, one faction seizes the initiative and captures the nearby spaceport. Unfortunately, the Raider's jumpship is no longer in orbit and both sides are stuck planetside. Having not yet come to blows, trading only insults with their new found frenemies over inter-unit comms, the commanders of both camps are left wrestling with the twin threats of tension and boredom amongst their troops. 

Tired of being on the backfoot, and just sleeping in the mud with the bugs, the Raiders bivouaced at the FOB outside the spaceport decide to make a 'Thunder Run' into to mix things up a bit, and perhaps opening yet another front in the civil war...

The Mission:

6,000 point BV, 3060s era, Fedcom faction availability only. The 'attackers' will enter from one short board edge and need to reach the Dropship's landing pad before turning back to exit via their board edge. Initially caught unawares, the defenders will be deployed midway between the opposite board edge and the landing pad.

 The attackers get the first turn, with the attackers/defenders determined by a die roll. 

Attacker (ground) units get 1 VP for reaching the spaceport, and 1 more for evacing back off their board edge (if not under forced withdrawal). 1 additional VP is scored for each defending frenemy unit destroyed or placed into forced withdraw towards their board edge (standard rules for forced withdrawal apply see page 258 in Total Warfare). Likewise the defenders recieve 1 VP for every unit they prevent from reaching the landing pad, 1 VP for any unit forced to withdraw, and 2 additional VPs if said unit is destroyed thereafter. Otherwise they get 2 VPs for killing a unit outright. 

Note:  Chisholm's Raiders were chosen because they lack a cohesive color scheme and conveniently, the 2nd Raiders were known for their mobility. However unlike the 1st regiment on Marduk, the 2nd's whereabouts during the Civil War are unknown.

Here is how the game went:

Starting with the backrow and going left to right, my force consisted of a Javelin JVN-11A, Whitworth WTH-2, Shadow Hawk SHD-2D2, Griffin GRF-1DS, a standard Vedette tank (which was carrying the) squad of Cavalier SRM battle armor, and lastly a standard Rommel tank. 

Nick's force consisted of an Axman AXM-1N, Nighstar NSR-9FC, Vindicator VIND-5L and a Bushwhacker BSW-X1

The initial set up with just my terrain  which yes, includes Baxter. 

the Thunder Run begins with my forces charging in from the right, while Nick's mechs moved in towards the launch pad for the most part. 

I believe everything that I had that was elligible to shoot in my first turn needed boxcars to hit. Which is to say, everything missed. 

Nick's to-hit numbers weren't much better and the first round of shooting was largely bloodless. 

The Bushwhacker tries to flank me and draws a fair bit of fire in return for it's efforts. 

My Shadow Hawk & Griffin make it to the objective first, scoring me 2 VPs. Knowing that the Shadow Hawk is the weaker link, Nick concentrated fire on it knocking it to the ground (where the Axman delivered a savage chop to it). Damage sustained put it into the forced withdraw category giving Nick his first VP. 

My Javelin zips around into rear, point blank range and startles Nick when it opens up with all 7 MLs! Naturally only 2 hit and Vindi's rear armor was not penetrated. Typical. 

Neeka was pissed that we were using her lounge table for a game and wanted it back! Most of the time, the table is covered with a quilt & kitty cushions where they can lounge in front of the windows all day. She is the most hostile towards gaming member of my household.

The tanks reach the launch pad and the Vedette drops off the Battle Armor, netting me 3 more VPs and an early big lead! I was starting to rethink the scenario...

As my first wave retreats from the pad, the Whitworth which had been hanging back with supporting fire was finally on approach. 

I got lucky here in that the Axman's AC20 & ax both missed the Griffin. Both of our pulse lasers hit though I believe my punch missed as well. The Griffin 1DS is over-sinked which allowed me to jump and alphastrike every turn with impunity. I could do so even with an engine hit had I suffered one! As such, I quite like this variant.

But then the Shadowhawk went down to a trio of engine hits, followed by the Vedette which was obliterated by the Nightstar in just 1 volley! The Vindi which was taking heavy fire, overheated itself by 25 points(!?!) and shut down, falling to the ground. It would not rise again as I kept shooting at it and destroyed the smoldering mech while it lay helpless on the ground.

The battle armor swarmed the Nightstar in the prior turn. I had to look the rules up and in the Total Warfare book, where it explains how the enemy's infantry can also swarm the same mech to fight my troops on said mech before bothering to explain what damage I could actually do with a swarming attack. Well done game designers, well done! It was a mostly superfluous 2 page read to find what I was actually looking for.

The Whitworth, having left the landing pad, waddles away as fast as it can while the Nightstar ignores my battle armor and destroyes the oh so dangerous Rommel. Barely mobile by that point, the tank was stunned in the prior round and unable to defend itself. My lead was quickly dwindling as the casualties were racking up!

In the backfield, despite a last ditch effort to stop it, my Griffin escaped on one side whilst my unopposed Javelin did the same on the other, netting me two more VPs. The battle armor were doing their best to annoy the Nightstar, though as heavily armored as it is, only the 1 head shot got it's attention. Undeterred, the Nightstar ignored the battle armor and obliterated the fleeing Whitworth instead. 

At that point all I had left on the table was the battle armor, and being too slow to escape the overwhelming firepower remaining in Nick's force, I conceeded that they would be casualties. Adding up all of our VPs we ended up with an even tie!

Well that was fun! This scenario is loosely based on an old X-Wing scenario that we used to play called Wolfy's Hit & Run. I was concerned early on when I pulled ahead with an early big lead, but once my casualties started to mount, Nick closed the distance quickly! 

It was kinda hard to make a list not knowing who would play what. Speed is needed primarily as the attacker, but so is the need to put down mechs quickly if defending. Next week we will try this again with roles reversed as we often do. Nick was lamenting about what he ought to take as most of his mechs are on the slower end. I'll try not to tailor my force too much, now that I know that I will be defending on the next go round. 

Project: Recovery

 o/

Covid recovery always involves working on minis for me. 

The past week good ol' Covid decided to stop by & ruin my week for a third time. While I powered thru the best I could at work (I work remotely, so can still push buttons on a keyboard despite feeling like death warmed over). Luckily the fam didn't get it, though they did get...something. The Mrs. was none too happy as my telehealth visit got me some really good drugs whereas hers, not so much.

Anyways, despite the glorious weather outside this past weekend, I didn't do a whole lot out there aside from chilling in our adirondack chairs. When in post covid recovery you tend to get really tired, really fast as so many folks know. That said, I did do a fair bit of painting as you can see above and below. 

You'll note that several photos were taken out in the yard. Why yes, I did lay down in the backyard to take these as any, self respecting 49 year old gamer would. The Mrs. rolled her eyes and the teenager ignored me outright & the dog thought THIS IS GREAT! Or rather he did right up until he got yelled at for stepping on my toys. Clear coat for the win!

A Patton/Rommel for my generic Desert Force that is sucking in units like some sort of fucking black hole!

A second Patton/Rommel as well as a Drillson for my 1st Chisholm's Raiders which is once again a home or my orphaned units and random paint jobs (as the Raiders lacked a coherent color scheme). 

A point of Elementals for the Desert force in case I run my lance of  old Star League mechs as a 2nd line star. Likely as Nova Cats as all of their Galaxies always use appropriate camouflage. 

The Raiders' mech lance made up of survivors from my defunct Comstar/Wobblies and St. Ives formations. I opted to try and tie them together with repainted base edging and a shitload of decals!

40K Ork checker and triangle stripe decals work GREAT on mechs!

Hit 'em Hard The motto of most any Hunchback variant. The Space Wolves paw looks nice on there too. 

Vulcan, not seen in this pic though you can see it above, are the checker stripes across the tops of the shoulders. Also on the MG arm is says Buzzsaw in the same script as the Hunchback's Hit 'em Hard. 

This mini was actively on eBay when is was saved after performing admirably in a game where it was used as a primitive Archer. The decals came out great on this one!

Holy Camouflage Batman! It is a good thing this has blue markings & a brightly colored base, otherwise it would disappear into the background!

Three more models are also in-progress, but I'll save them and whatever else for a fututre post. I'm also hoping to reschedule a campaign game this week coming after cancelling last week due to my case of the black death. 

Those Bloody buildings are in the way again!

 o/

Great, it can't see anything...again!

My buddy Screech came over Thursday night and we played an 8k point game of Battletech. I was surprised that he agreed to such a low point limit (locally that's the norm, but most of the time we're all fielding Inner Shpere mechs) as I knew he wanted to use his new shiny clan mechs which tend to be hideously expensive. 

Nonetheless he agreed and we played a straight up kill each other game pitting my Federated Suns force (probably the Chisholm's Raiders as they lack of coherent color scheme which matches my style) vs. his Nova Cats. Here's how it all went down...

The battlefield. The two central, forested areas at the top and bottom were all 'light forest'. Also of note is the Duncan Davions corporate headquarters (for this planet) surrounded by ample tank-scaled parking.

My Davion force consisting of a Charger CGR-SB (my commander), two Enforcer ENF-4Rs with the Blue one dubbed 'Yankee' and the grey one 'Rebel', a Jagermech JM7-D, and lastly a heavy tracked APC and  heavy mountain infantry platoon as filler (my army totaled 7999 points!).

Screech opted for the 'That Guy' list consisting of a Dire Wolf Prime and an Executioner A. Clocking in at 195 tons between just the two of them...all of my pilots, troops and vehicle crew collectively wet themselves at the sight of these monsters! There were enough points available to round out his list with a point of small laser equipped Elementals who would ride on the Executioner.

My right flank just after the first turn's movement. Turns out my Jager was a single hex out of range, damnit!

On my left side, the Charger lived up to it's name and ran straight into the jaws of hell!

On the far left, the APC was slogging thru the forest in hopes or remaining both hidden from view and uninteresting to the enemy assault mechs (and it was mission accomplished!).

Turn one saw the charger shoot poorly, maybe scoring a lone large laser hit, whilst being savaged in return! It's a good thing it has 40 points of armor on the CT, because Screech ground thru 35 points of it in one volley, whilst also scoring 2 engine crits! At least it managed to stay on it's feet!

Not to ignore the rest of my force, Rebel also drew some fire taking a pair of clan LL hits as well. Whereas my return shooting was largely ineffective

What would a bat rep be without a pic of Baxter getting in the way...as usual?

The Infantry dismounts (still within the forest) and it's participation awards for everybody! Seriously, aside from some wandering around in the woods in subsequent turns, this is all the infantry platoon would accomplish in this game.

Turn three....would be the turning point in the game! Up until this point things had predictably gone badly for my force as they desperately fought these two monsters. However Yankee managed a to hit with it's AC-10 and then made a lucky location roll of box cars, putting that AC-10 round right thru the head's canopy! 

2 Crits were rolled, destroying the life support which was irrelevant as what was left of the pilot was splattered around his cockpit as well! With a groan the mech toppled over into the nearby building and it's accompanying shrubberies, scattering elementals all around (slightly wounding 2 in the process). 

Aww yeah! Yankee is now #1 on my painting queue!

In what would become a reoccurring theme, my Jager's line-of-sight to the Dire Wolf was blocked by the intervening buildings. Thus preventing it from actually doing anything. Again. As usual.

Ironically, using these buildings as cover hide behind was largely the reason I purchased them in the first place. Unfortunately it turns out that that was a double edged sword.

In the following turn Yankee would suffer that same fate, rendering it unable to support the Charger which was again being savaged by the Dire Wolf.

Whilst the Charger fires what lasers it's heat sinks will allow (given the engine hits), it and Rebel engages the Dire Wolf, which sponges all incoming fire with no apparent ill effect! 

The Jager meanwhile blazed away into the Elementals missing with virtually everything, fucker. Whereas the Elementals themselves started chewing on Rebel. 

The Dire Wolf then closed in for the kill, whilst my force closed in to surround the beast. Hell even the little APC that could even came flying in, machine guns blazing (spoiler alert: it missed). 

Rebel wanted to flee, but wouldn't in front of Yankee which had already proved itself my MVP! Basically everything pounded the Dire Wolf from all directions, chewing thru armor and inflicting an engine crit (from Rebel) and taking out a heat sink (from Yankee). 

In return the Jager took it's first hits of the game, the Charger's 2nd large laser was disabled and one of the Enforcers took a hit I think as well. Seriously, that damned Dire Wolf has waaaay too many weapons on it! 

At this point we called it as the hour was getting late and we both had to work in the morning. Had I been paying attention to the time I'd have fired another large laser on the Charger, heat be damned. However I'd only fired one plus the medium to bleed heat for the next turn. Oh well. 

We called it a draw as we weren't sure how the chips would have fallen had we gone another round. Having alpha struck, taken an engine hit and suffering the loss of a double heat sink, his Dire Wolf was cooking at 11+ heat! Likewise his Elementals were out of SRMs. 

On my end, the Charger was almost a heat neutral mech once again having lost 2 large lasers, however it was beat all to hell, and most any hits not on the head or left leg would have just gone straight into the internals. The Jager was fine, the Rebel Enforcer was in fairly rough shape though, whereas Yankee was still fit for active duty without need of much repair. 

Still, it wouldn't take much to drop the Charger and Rebel with no guarantee I could finish off the Dire Wolf at the same time. So a draw it was. 

Fun game, and I'm looking forward to the next.