Photo dump!

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This worked out about as well as you can expect. 'Hamburger' (the Enforcer's pilot) managed to limp away from this dual, sans right arm and torso. 

The home campaign 2.0 is in full swing and the FLGS is also looking to start up another store campaign. Interested players voted and the Lostech era won out for the time period (immediately followed by disagreements on just when the Lostech era is). All of the bad apples that killed the last campaign are showing interest and some are already complaining. 

I will partake; Nick 2.0 is pondering to do so as well. I've already told him my level of expectations which should improve things considerably over the last store campaign: 

This is going to be an absolute shit show!

Having dropped the bar of standards on the floor, it should alright. I am looking to run the Desert Horde as the Fed Suns' Deneb Light Cavalry. Speaking of, onto the recent paint jobs: 

The new Kintaro sculpt, now without the tutu styled hips. 

I have never used one of these before. The DCMS variant is far superior to the Fed Suns' model. But being from a desert force, it should be running HOT! Right?

Note, this mech is numbered #20 in the battalion. However, I currently only have 16 mechs. As such, I will be reusing some numbers as a few Desert Horde mechs have been either sold, or recently an unused Clan 2nd line star was gifted to Screech for his birthday. 

I have decided to name this one: Checkers. Garth Brooks is in the cockpit. 

#13, that's a reissued number, I am rather pleased with how well this one turned out.

From this angle it looks like actual camouflage rather than the stylistic color scheme that it is. 

I don't think I've ever fielded a King Crab before. So far, I've only either been shot by them, or have knocked them over with charging Chargers!

All was quiet on the DCMS front, until this SHD-2K came along.

Like all of my Swords of Light mechs, no inks were used as my usual preference for dirt, grime & filth doesn't fit with the background of this elite brigade that looks more like a parade unit.

Armed with only a PPC & LRM5, this mech is essentially a DCMS Griffin. 

Only the fists and forearms show any kind of damage, as the infernal Davions insist on getting inside my weapons' minimum ranges. 

I broke up one of my foot slogging infantry platoons to add a few guys to every base of these little APCs from Microworld games. These will represent mechanized (tracked) platoons. I have 6 of these, so it will be mech infantry for everybody!

That's all for now. I have several minis in progress currently, so hopefully will have another update soon. 

My latest updates.

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The Cyclops from my last post wasted no time in getting 'stuck-in' in our campaign.

Unfortunately, said campaign ended in a spectacular double kill, with my Cyclops putting an AC20 slug into the Victor's ammo bin, while at the same time the Victor delivered an AC20 slug to the Cyclops' head!

In a nutshell, the above was the end of our home campaign. Both of our forces were thread bare, and neither would be able to replace the losses of the assault mechs.

Screech, taking a snooze in his battlefield debut in the new campaign. 

 As such we threw in the towel and started a new campaign. We moved the timeline up to 3049 & earlier. I am fielding the 1st Chisholm's Raiders whereas Nick is fielding Mercs of an indeterminate name. 

Just in case you were wondering, this is what 'forced withdrawal' looks like. This wreck limped off the board and has since been repaired. Screech however will be convalescing in the med bay for a bit...

In our first three games, I've managed to repair all damage suffered, whereas Nick is already down 3 mechs and 2 pilots (I head capped a Crusader & Griffin in the same game with a gauss rifle)!

The typical lance of random paint jobs. 

My converted STK-4N, this is my CO's mech in the current campaign. It is piloted by 'Major Grognard' a name inspired by Nick 2.0 himself!

The TBAG unit initial decals resulted in the typical memes when I posted these pics on the FLGS' discord. 

Next up, for my Corey's Cavaliers mercs, a pair of Hornets named The Grapes of Wrath. One of these is partaking in the campaign, piloted by John Steinbeck himself! Surprisingly, it survived its first game with only moderate damage. 

This Orion missed the last campaign, and as such will not see battle any time soon. 

I've never once fielded an Orion before, which is a trend that will continue for a bit longer it seems.

Everyone loves lava bases, why a mech would want to be in a lava field is beyond me though. If you haven't already guessed, this will be used as the Blazing Inferno variant.

Lastly, a Blackjack BJ-3 & Wolfhound WLF-1B, both finished up this afternoon.

As you can see above, I've also done a fair bit of painting. The Buffet Assault Group is even up to a company strength formation, combined-arms of course. I'll need to take some group shots soon. 

I hope everyone has a happy 4th of July! Don't go blowing any of your fingers off, it'll ruin your die rolls!

The dying art of blogging.

90 tons of: I'm gonna get you sucka!

The mini campaign continues, casualties have been high. Indeed, the past several games have been blood baths, more like 1-off battles to the death than campaign games, where pilots and machines are preserved (speaking of, the Ostroc's reign of terror has come to a crushing end, and its pilot has been hospitalized with multiple injuries). 

So, why haven't I posted about any of this?

In the campaign, currently the counts as CP-10-Q on the left is being overhauled into the CP-10-Zr that you see in the middle. the 'r' is because it will be a custom variant the turns the SRM-4 into a 1-shot weapon and uses the spare half ton of weight, to add C.A.S.E. and all of the ammo to the left torso. Finally, it won't be an ammo bomb. Hell, I might even use that version on the regular!

The Orion in back is a WiP currently.

I can post a fully detailed, battle report on here, pics of the game, play-by-play recaps aaaaaand, get maybe a dozen views. In the first week. It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw once that said: More people have seen this shirt than your blog. 

Painful, but true.

I can post a pic or three on Instagram along with a blurb of text more or less saying: 'we played a game' and get 20-30 likes. Curiously, my Instagram followers are predominantly BattleTech fans. My Star Wars Legion posts get about half that on average. 

Or...

I can post the same few pics and blurb in a Facebook, BattleTech group and have in a few cases gotten upwards of 300+ likes and dozens of comments and discussions going on said post. 

So...that's where we're at as far as the private digital diary TBAGers blog's lack of posting is concerned. 

I good view of the side that always seems to get shot at the most.

Well, that and lately I have been on a SWL painting kick, so the Cyclops CP-10Zr above, is the first mech that I have painted in quite a while. Also, once it comes out of overhaul, 2 missed games from now, it will be gifted to the now destroyed Ostroc's, by then recovered pilot (named Kushial). 

This blog is not dead (but I'm working on it...).

lol, I've just been on a big Star Wars Legion kick here of late and when one blog goes active the other tends to get neglected. I have been playing sporadic campaign games with Nick 2.0 when he is available, But I haven't taken many pics in game, nor have I really painted anything BattleTech here of late. 

I had a recent encounter with Nick's Pink Panther, which is painted far better than my own!

An in-game pic from this past Tuesday. The pizza template replacement helped to convey the actual altitude of the Warrior VTOL. My most notable action in this game was the (by then armless) Ostroc managing a 30point charging hit on the Dervish a few turns after this pic was taken.

Mini-Campaign game

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Wait, what?

Nick 2.0 was in town, and devised a mini campaign using tonnage rather than BV. Unit build specs were a heavy lance in weight, with no more than 1 Assault mech, a light recon lance that could include vehicles, and a mixed weight lance. Each lance would have a lead unit with a 3/4 skill, all else would be 4/5. Lostech era. 

Unable to field a full company in the same color scheme under those requirements, I mixed two forces, using the Desert Horde as the Calloway Training Battalion with an assist from a lance from the Marik Militia. As this is the Lostech era, most of the training mechs and tanks are garbage variants (rookies don't get the good stuff). Force comp would vary per game. I took the Ostroc, Quickdraw, Crusader, Assassin, J. Edgar, 10 Ton hover APC for this match, all were base models aside from the APC being the MG version, and the Ostroc the 2M variant.

The scenario was an attacking dropship had crashed, and the central memory core could be captured/destroyed. Forced withdrawal would also be in play. The defender would also have 2, CF20 objectives for defend from being destroyed. I opted to defend and failed miserably at it. 

I didn't take enough pics for a true bat rep, so here are some highlights:

My company, post-game with the 10-ton hover APC & J. Edgar having not survived.  

Due to motive crits these two would be bricked and fight point blank all game. The J. Edgar died first but only just, with the Pegasus down to 1 point of internal structure holding the back end together.

The Assassin doing Assassin things. Basically running & jumping around in full distraction mode while inflicting minimal damage.

With my (lack of a) plan already falling apart, the Ostroc opted to enter the drop ship thru a side door and punch the memory core into scrap!

The intermission is brought to you by an annoyed Neeka.

The highlight of the game for me: After several turns of being little more than a distraction, the Assassin went into Kamikaze mode and charged the Panther connecting for 24 points of damage! Both remained upright afterwards, though the Panther's left arm was pancaked into scrap.

Post game clean up with my 'supervisor' annoyedly awaiting the table's reassembly and her cushions being put back in place. 

Post game I was only able to repair one mech, so I opted for the Ostroc which proved more effective than I thought it would. The Crusader hung out in the backfield and never took a hit, the Assassin and Quickdraw are both fairly beat up and will likely sit the rest of the campaign out until I can either afford repairs (or things get really dire). I believe Nick was able to repair all of his damaged units.