The latest on my Mercenaries

 o/

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. 

***

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.

Alpha Strike, Round 2

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Today is a good day to die!

I got in another game of Alpha Strike this week, again with my son Frankie fielding the 'good' lance, and myself with the lighter weight one. Frankie had a heavy weight, C3 lance. Still inexperienced, he came out cautiously, getting little to no benefit from his heavy armor, weapons, much less the C3. 

I again found myself leading the charge with Urbies, which had predictable results. 

Eventually, he got more aggressive after some prodding by me (and threats to have him field the fragile Urbies next time around). His Dragon did reach Screech's table edge though at one point, unfortunately he pulled a Neverness and blew his collective to-hit rolls and derived minimal benefits from the C3's lack of modifiers.

Screech 'posing' with his Grey Death Legion force.

Honestly, the game became more fun when I told Frankie that the prudent commander would see that the cause was lost and surrender. However the Combine's Bushido philosophy said: NO and the suicide charges began in earnest!

The IFF is...confused. 

(Always remember to paint your mechs kids!)

In a nutshell: we got tabled. As such I can't say that we're improving and I was a little salty for a moment there about Screech's pair of skill 2 pilots, but the game ended on a high note.  And by 'high note', yes I mean suicide charges and glorious last stands. Those being the Hunchback in the first pic, the Marauders above (Screech's survived with a lone point of structure remaining), and our last to fall, the Jenner below. 

Despite have a damaged fire control system, I've found that yelling: "WILD FIRE!' just before rolling the dice still gets good results!. Thus, this fugly little mech, our last to fall, earned itself a proper paint job. 

On to the next list...