The latest on my Mercenaries

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This pic explains a few die rolls...

I've been rather productive on Battletech front. We're settling into a summer routine of a game of Alpha Strike once a night per week (fingers crossed it stays that way). Frankie seems to have taken a liking to it the game despite our continued losses. Indeed, he specifically requested that his lance include the Dragon this week, seems he's found a favorite mech. 

Unfortunately I was unable to squeeze my painted CGR-SB Challenger into this list.

Last week's game of AS saw The Buffet Assault Group itself take to the field, and for the first time ever at company strength! Having learned to not put all of our eggs into Frankie's basket, our lists were almost identical in points. Frankie commanded the lance in back, whereas I used the Hunchback lance as I knew he'd have trouble telling them apart. We split the recon lance with 1 Stinger a piece, with him taking the Phoenix Hawk and the Firestarter for myself. 

That's our dead pile on the right, with the three survivors on the left not having taken a single point of damage among them. Curious.

In Frankie's estimation 'I think we did a lot better this time!' (quote), to which I agreed that yes, we didn't get tabled. Rob & Screech both fielded 150pts each themselves with Rob claiming to have the Capellan Confederation and Screech with Steiner as is usual. Once again, without a lick of paint nor primer to be seen, they looked like the Grey Death Legion to us. 

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In a bit of hero warship, rather than stop at a pink paw print, Hotshot has added splotches of pink to his mech's 2-tone purpleflage. 

Prior to that, I painted up the last member of Ace Darwin's Whipits: The WSP-1A who's pilot's callsign is 'Hotshot'. Named by Kushial after a brand of Wasp killer that he no doubt sells in the store that he manages. 

With a name like 'Hotshot', you can (correctly) imagine that this guy has an ego a mile wide crammed into the little mech's even tinier cockpit. An eternal discipline problem for the 18th Marik Militia, he 'wandered off' and was left behind on Hall when that unit suffered a crushing defeat in the War of '39. When the Dragoons radioed the dropships boosting towards orbit, informing them that 'they forgot one', the Marik response was 'he's your problem now'. 

Why stop at a mere pink paw print when you can make your mech's ridiculous camouflage scheme even more garish?

While a discipline problem pilot might normally fit in well with the Black Widows, they were unimpressed with both Hotshot & his mech, and left them both behind as well. Stranded on Hall, Hotshot begrudgingly signed a contract with the Fed Suns' 4th Republican Guards. Often-bored out of his mind by garrison duty (much like his servie in teh FWLM), he would amuse himself by using his mech to play Jenga with their palletized supplies. Quickly, the Davions cashed out their 'contractor' with a 1-way trip off world. 

Eventually making it to Outreach, Hotshot has bounced from command to command and contract to contract. He has quickly earned himself a reputation that few are willing to deal with. That said, he's like a star struck groupie in the presence of Ace, and has even gone so far as to add pink coloring to his Wasp's purpleflage, over and above the mere paw print that Ace requires.

Ace doesn't expect this subdued state to last, but he's hoping that the hero-worship will last for the duration of this contract at the least.

Battle Rattle; Mercenaries fighting on a world far, farrrrr away....

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The whole lance in front of...drop...ships...maybe?

Battle Rattle is another merc unit name that I've used on and off over the past few years in 1-off battles with no continuity of forces or theme. They've never had a specific color scheme until now, when I added in a 3D-printed Cataphract gifted to me by Kushial as well as a recently purchased metal Javelin to the two originally painted Whitworths. 

Below is their backstory:

Battle Rattle is your stereotypical, third rate, 'barely eking out an existence' type of mercenary lance. The lance came together during the latter stages of the Succession Wars consisting of a CTF-1X Cataphract, a pair of WTH-1 Whitworths, and a JVN-10F 'Fire' Javelin along with a handful of support staff. 

Oh have no doubt, these fuckers will run away fall back if the situation looks dire! 

Woefully uncompetitive in the Inner Sphere mercenary market due to their lackluster mechs and an almost complete lack of advanced technology, they've been surviving on anti-piracy garrison contacts in the far reaches of the Periphery. Most often on backwater worlds lacking their own indigenous mech forces. 

Their mechs are all painted in standard Davion Green (all pilots and support staff are Davions by birth) with a black stripe on the right side torso representing their long-standing ties to the Periphery. The unit lacks any sort of official logo, though their CO's Cataphract does sport a hand painted 'BR' on it's lower forward torso. 

 I'm sure that little pickup truck on the base is heading out for spare parts. No doubt these mechs are a nightmare conglomeration of jury-rigged field repairs and a multitude of minor mechanical issues.

Speaking of the Cataphract, it recently suffered significant damage to it's right arm in a clash with an unknown band of pirate raiders. The arm was severed just above the elbow and the logistical nightmare of procuring a new Cataphract arm out on the ass end of nowhere means that until they return to the Inner Sphere, their 'Cat' will have to do without. 

Their techs were at least able to remount the rear firing torso mediums lasers to fire forward, mitigating some of the mech's diminished combat effectiveness due to loss of the PPC.

My first ever Javelin as I never cared for this mini's pose. However, looking as though it is stepping around a tree improves it's odd stance considerably. 

The only advanced tech (if it can be called that) are the Whitworths' LRM launchers, which are frequently modified to be 'one-shot' models out of necessity, again due to their employer's lack of proper logistical support. 

Ah yes, the old but reliable Whitworths, one of my favorite mech classes.

The LRM's ammo capacities more or less depend on when the next jumpship arrives in system, and whether or not it's a friendly trader or a pirate raider! Outside of the sparsely loaded LRM launchers and the Cataphract's AC-10, the unit relies exclusively on medium lasers for offence. 

Firing up the old GM-Coldstart 285 fusion engine...

Luckily Battletech is known for it's old and reliable cold-start reactors to keep their ancient mechs running, and with any luck the metaphorical reactor will do the same to this otherwise seemingly DEAD blog!

As is to be expected, the ol' pandemic shit-canned any and all plans for gaming. Battletech related hobbying pretty much died with it. That said, I've been in the process of rewriting the unit history for this blog's namesake: The Buffet Assault Group. I've hopefully come up with a general overview that fits in nicely with the game's established fluff lore (apparently 'fluff' is for 40k and 'lore' is for Battletech, or so the old grognards say...). Anyways, here's the TBAGers' updated backstory: 

Catalina Styner & the TBAGers

Cursed with a family name that phonetically mimics that Steiner royalty, Catalina would suffer for her family name and lack of political connections throughout her Lyran military career.

Her name aside, she managed to qualify for and enroll in, and graduate from the prestigious Naglering Military Academy. Assigned to the Lyran 2nd Royal Guards, she quickly proved to be a talented mechwarrior and leader who slowly fought her way up through the ranks. Lacking highborn political connections however, Catalina was 'glass ceilinged' at the level of company commander.

After suffering almost two decades of frustrating service, Catalina retired from the Lyran military with both an unblemished career and a long history of promotions lost to the less capable, but well connected 'Social Generals' of the LCAF.

She formed her own mercenary command in 3029, with good prospects given the continuous turmoil of the succession wars. Embittered by her former employers, she dubbed her new command The Buffet Assault Group, a play on her disapproval of many in the LCAF officer corps. 

After assembling a rag-tag combined arms battalion, with one company each of mechs, armor and infantry, Catalina secured a contract with the Free Worlds League's Andurien Province. This contract would be extended to last for the duration of what would become the Andurien Crisis. 

The hard fighting of the Andurien Crisis would take a grievous toll on the TBAGers (as the mercs liked to call themselves), and by the war's end the battalion would be reduced to a lone, understrength company consisting of a mech lance, and an ad-hoc mixed armor and infantry platoon made up of squad remnants and dispossessed armor crews, a trio of tanks and lastly a captured Capellan APC. 

The TBAGers contract was terminated without compensation for losses by the FWLM for siding with their rebellious employers at the conclusion of the Crisis in 3040. Securing passage on a jump ship bound for Outreach, Catalina and her shattered command were expelled from League territory and permanently barred from any future League employment.

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I've also revamped my miniature line up for the ol' TBAGers. Gone is the assault weight fire support lance. Equipped with mechs from the early succession wars, my inability to roll worth a damn on the missile cluster chart, as well as a lack of Artemis IV fire-control meant that the majority of their weapons were neutered for most of the game. Indeed, doesn't matter if it's an LRM-10,15, or 20...I only average 6-8 missiles AT BEST!

Pay no attention to the chaos Marines in the background...

Instead I'm guessing those mechs were sold on eBay lost in combat and my 'surviving' lance hasn't been finalized yet, though will likely still include a Catapult (facepalm).

I've been on a bit of a 40k painting kick for awhile, but I need to rotate some Battletech stuff back into the painting queue. So, hopefully I'll be updating this here blog a bit more regularly. 

In the beginning...

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I've been thinking of moving my Battletech posts off of my main blog, Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop for awhile now. Or rather, to just discontinue updating them on there. Dunno why, I guess that in my mind The Buffet Assault Group (a.k.a.: TBAGers) have taken on enough of a life of their own (in my mind) to justify their own blog.

 No, this won't be updated twice weekly (on average) like da' groop, and will no doubt have a lesser viewership, but I've been wanting to start a secondary blog so I figured I'd just give it a go.

My one painted TBAGers mech.
The round base isn't attached.

The TBAGers started off originally, as a 1-man (me) corp in EVE online, followed by an army for the 15mm Gruntz game system which I never actually played due to the convoluted rule system, and finally were ported over to Classic Battletech. They will make their battlefield debut there this coming Saturday vs. my buddy Hoss.

The TBAGers fluff has also gone thru a considerable evolution, varying from game system to game system. This is what it is currently:

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Sadly, these records have been lost to the ravages of the Succession wars and will need to be rewritten at a later date. 

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...and so there you have it, the beginning of hopefully another successful gaming blog, though we shall see...