Shrooms, kitties and clan mechs oh my!

 o/

Nick's Awesome AWS-9M taking shelter amongst the giant shrooms.

Earlier this week Nick 2.0 came over for a game, I really didn't take enough pics for a battle report, so am just posting a few photo highlights. 

Poor Neeka, pouting as her lounge table has been turned into a dumb battlefield again. 

Nick's Commando COM-2D skulking behind a burning tower as my Hunchback HBK-4P and an AC-10 Hetzer close in... 

We called the game early due to time. Nick called it a marginal victory in his favor. It was more of a crushing vistory by that point as he had accomplished far more objectives than I. That said, I had beaten the hell out of his Awesome in the last round played. Likewise my Dragon lost a side torso to an ammo explosion but didn't die for once (thank you CASE!). 

*****

The Fast & The Furious sequel number...what? 10? 12, 13?

I also finished up a trio of clan mechs for the Desert Horde. Previously known as the more generic Desert Force, I went back and updated all of the prior post's labels to now say 'horde'. With the addition of these three, to go with my Mongoose and six Mercuries, I will now be able to field a clan second line binary where the slowest mech has an 8/12 movement rate! These three are also the only ones with any appreciable offensive firepower in said binary. 

Piranha, the only mech that makes me want to play Alpha Strike.

Locust IIC, the arms have 8 ER small lasers, rather than the SRM-4s that they look like they carry.

The binary commander's rocket ship Fire Moth.

Some time ago, I also painted up a point of Elementals for the Fire Moth to carry around as ablative armor. I am planning on a third star that will have a much more normal rate of speed, allowing me to field a full second line trinary. 

Mid-week mini-games

Mini as in really small games, not just games with miniatures. 

This doesn't look like a fair fight, but looks can be deceiving...

This all started out with instead of the usual 'hey do you want to play this week?' Nick instead issued the following Batchall:

at an annoyingly high volume

The Wolves of Kerensky have have claimed this world for their own. What tame dogs defend it? A trinary of Delta Galaxy's Red Keshik stand ready to attack!

I challenge you to a Trial of Possession for the relic Griffin 1A known to be in your charge. (I just want the record sheet, I don't have that one) I bid two assault Battlemechs for the for the paltry task of subduing your forces. 

(Yes, I'm quoting him here)

Caught off guard, but playing along I replied:

Greetings lapdogs of Kerensky, we will gladly bestow the blessings of Blake upon you...

 I quickly consulted Google ROM for clan bidding protocols, and thus the bidding began. 

After some back and forth, we settled on 2 'secondline' WoB Medium mechs vs. a single heavy Clan Omnimech, and we both agreed the match up was Bargained well and done!

Not knowing what the lone Clan heavy omni would be, I guessed (correctly) that it would be a Timber Wolf/Mad Cat (a prime variant) with a 3/4 pilot. I opted for a pair of Crab CRB-30s with 4/5 pilots which doesn't seem to be a fair matchup despite being two-to-one, but they're C3i equipped, mwuhahaha!

We also each had a backup lance of 3020s lights & heavies just in case the trial went really quickly. 

The kitties help prepare the battlefield...

Checking line of sight from the rear Crab that was benefiting from the C3i mod bonus!

In the initial exchange, this Crab took a pounding! That said the replied with a few PPC hits in return, including a snake eyes crit roll that dealt an engine and gyro hit!

The next round was brutal again for the lead Crab and the Mad Cat which suffered enough damage to drop it due to the damaged Gyro.

The lead Crab goes down as it's side torso is removed, taking a big chunk of the XL engine with it. Meanwhile the Mad Cat hits the ground again. 

At this point, both opponents were in dire straights and my dice went suddenly cold and so tried to put a bit of space between us resulting in few turns of maneuvering and sniping at range. With only 1 arm remaining and the left torso dangling by a thread, that was not a winning prospect.

Offering his final prayers to the Blessed Blake, the WoB pilot realizes that there is no escape and meets the charge, hitting with all of his remaining weapons!

Unfortunately, so did the Mad Cat and not even halfway thru its damage rolls the Crab's left torso (and again, half of the XL engine) tore away and the soon-to-be-scrapped Timber Wolf was victorious!

With the trial complete, he would receive his record sheet (actually I sent him all of my Primitives XTROs, plus the Retrotech and the custom sheet that I use for the aforementioned Griffin 1A). There was time for a game, but not a full lance each. So we opted for a single heavy and light each, again with base pilots. 

Nick had a base model Marauder & Valkyrie of the Donegal Guards, and I had a Thorn F (the base N model is actually advanced tech) and a primitive Archer of the Arcturan guards. So a training mission it was to be!

Yes! The Thorn can see the Marauder, which also means...

Feline intermission. Neeka doesn't usually like strangers, but she really seems to like Nick. 

Not pictured was the end of the Thorn at the hands of the Valkyrie. Nor was the epic, two-turn continuous close combat brawl between the Archer and Marauder (seriously, WTF? Those two ought never be involved in lose combat of any sort) which resulted in the death of the Marauder due to a leg loss. 

The jumping Valk taunting and dodging the slow moving Archer. Each side was scoring hits, but one was far more heavily armored than the other. 

Finally ready to 'end it'. The Valk surprisingly moves not off of the table edge, but into 'magic range' for the LRMs (7 hexes). In this last brutal exchange of the night, the Valk hits with both its medium laser, and several LRMs land but the wounded Archer still stands. It replied with a whopping 32 LRMs connecting, all but dismantling the already heavily damaged Valkyrie! Which toppled and summarily ran up the white flag. 

All in all it was a very fun night!

Clash of the Clans

Kitties ALWAYS roll box cars!

Screech came over and we had a fun, 12k game of Battletech. He was running an understrength star of Nova Cat omnis: 

Shadow Cat Prime with a 3/4 pilot

Shadow Cat A with a 3/4 pilot

Mad Cat Mk II 2 with a 3/5 pilot

Nova S with a 3/4 pilot

I was running a slightly understrength Mixed Binary from Hell's Horses Eta Galaxy. My list was as follows:

Piranha with a 4/4 pilot

Puma H with a 3/4 pilot (Binary commander)

Crab CRB-27b with a 5/4 pilot (The 5 due to being such an ancient and obsolete mech which is no doubt well passed it's prime, especially in terms of proper maintenance.)

Hoplite IIC with a 3/5 pilot (Custom made clan built Hoplite with 10SHS, Hag 20, LRM-5 w/Art. IV, AP gauss rifle, CASE, 5/8 movement and same armor as the original.) 

Marauder C with a 4/3 pilot

(2) Laser Elemental points with gunnery 5

Clan Foot Infantry point with Gunnery 4

Clan Pike with a 4/5 crew

Clan Demolisher with a 4/5 crew. 

As the Nova Cats are (quote) 'opportunists' and Eta Galaxy is more or less a dezgra unit, zellbrigen would play no part in the following battle. Here's my photo recap:

My deployment. Forgoing the use of 3-dimensional terrain as we got a late start, we used my 'canyons of death' map. The plateau/canyon walls are all level 4 and the few black objectives in the middle were level 1, though we pretty much ignored them. Note: The pike on the left was a top one of these plateaus.  

Screech's deployment, we opted for starting out corner to corner to keep the ranges long, though in and amongst the canyons long range is more or less a moot point. 

As such the first few turns were spent maneuvering at high speed in an attempt to get a clear line of fire. The Pike parked atop it's plateau and it's crew summarily fell asleep, taking no part in the game. I lacked any jump-capable mechs, so it's job was to shoot anything that went for the high ground with it's 5 ultra AC-2s. Not much of a threat, however I'd imagine that Screech is still smarting from his Catapult taking heavy fire and summarily falling off of a level 3 building last spring. Thus, he never landed up on a plateau effectively taking the Pike out of the game due to never having any lines of sight.

Turn 3 finally saw some gunfire as our leading elements arrived into the open. My Marauder put an LPL shot into his lead Shadowcat, and the Crab put a few lasers into the Nova. In return the Nova and Mad Cat began their thorough attempt to dismantle the crab, punishing it heavily right out of the gate. 

The Piranha added to the din though without connecting, however my Hoplite hit the Nova with it's LRM and HAG-20, inflicting moderate damage which included (2) separate head shots! Shortly thereafter one of the Shadow Cat's would pummel the rear armor of the Hoplite, going internal though not scoring any crits. This would be the majority of the damage the Hoplite would suffer all game.

The following turn saw the moment we were all waiting for: The Piranha unloading with everything into the Nova (though the fucker torso twisted ruining my hopes of shredding the thin, rear armor). The lasers took a few chunks off, but the real fun was shooting all twelve MGs! Only a few hit, but it was still fun if a bit laborious.

As the scrum in the middle continued to to play out, my Puma backed up into cover to deploy it's cargo of toads. Screech's Shadow Cat Prime moved to outflank prompting a torso twist followed by a cinematic firing of both heavy large lasers, 1 at the Shadow Cat and the other at the Mad Cat. Only 1 hit though I don't recall which target it was.

Screech's Shadow Cat A rounded a canyon wall and unloaded into my Marauder, ignoring the Demolisher right in front of it. Bad, bad idea...

One MPL, and AC-20 slug, and about a dozen bits of AC-20 buckshot later, and the entire side torso exploded due to an SRM ammo hit! 

Still running...the poor foot slogging infantry never fired a shot the whole game, or even came into view of the enemy. However due to excessive running in the desert heat in full combat gear, we both assumed casualties from physical and/or heat exhaustion were many.

Ah yes, the inevitable visit from this world's mega-fauna. No doubt attracted by all of the commotion of battle. Baxter decided to aid my forces by blocking off the principle avenue of escape for Screech's stricken Shadow Cat which was being harried by the piranha. Speaking of, in just 2 turns the Piranha burned thru more than 10% of it's ammo, lol.

Baxter. watches approvingly as one of my Elementals puts an SRM into the head of the Shadow Cat Prime. A heavy large laser blast along with the elementals' SRM fire would knock the mech from it's feet!

The Nova moves in to try and finish off the beleaguered Marauder, inflicting heavy damage and hitting the UAC-5's ammo, which tore the entire side off of the mech! Speaking of, my Crab on the other side of the field was still standing but so heavily damaged that it likely resembled legs holding up a bunch of garbage!

In return the last round to leave the UAC-5's barrel pasted the Nova's pilot, taking out the mech! With the Nova down and both Shadow Cats heavily damaged, Screech ran up the white flag, much to the relief of my Crab and Marauder pilots, whose mechs were both on their last legs. 

All in all a good game! I was pleased with the performance of the Puma, Demolisher and and Hoplite especially. Though the crab ought to get a thumbs up purely for the resilience of the mech. My Elementals only one fired 1 volley each, however it was my first time ever using them and they did nicely. The new models also look fantastic which is a plus! 

On the down side, the Pike was poorly positioned and never fired a shot and I'm thinking that the Marauder may go into Inner Sphere service as I wasn't too impressed with it in this game. Mainly due to ridiculous overheating issues. I mean seriously, two turns to cool off, WTF?!?

The 'effing' Wobblies vs. Clan Nova Cat

o/

Well, its only taken 2 years, but I finally got Screech to play a (non-digital) game of Battletech! After some debate we settled on 12k points. Originally I was going to field my Wolverines just to irritate his sense of Clan pride, however I would essentially be fielding a carbon copy of a list I've used previously with maybe a single mech swap at best (i.e.: the unpainted one). 

In the typical Wobbly 'false flag' operation, my mechs were using their complete lack of paint to masquerade as Rob's Lyrans, lol. Note: there's a 2nd Stinger deployed on the other side of the Catapult. 

Thus I delved into list hammering for something different.  Initially, I was trying to come up with a Kuritan C3 lance, but the modifiers are just to damned expensive! The only two mechs I have that have C3master variants are the Atlas (which is why the mod. is so expensive) or a Komodo (which is too fragile really). I originally bought the Komodo for the C3M capability, but only for use in a medium-light lance, which really isn't the best choice when fighting against the clans.

OMG! SCREECH PAINTED HIS MECHS!!! Well sorta, lol. Seriously though folks, even just primer is actual progress (though how recent this primer was applied I couldn't tell you). 

However in the end, (mostly) light mechs is what I opted for, deciding to use this game to try out a bunch of mech variants I've never used before. Not to mention, who is better than for fielding new stuff than the Fucking Wobblies? Also no, it wasn't a C3i Level II for the same reasons I didn't field the Kuritans. 

Going for a suicide squad of uber pilots (Urbie excluded) in mostly light mechs, for the 'new' designs I chose the the rocket launcher equipped Panther 14S and  5R Stingers, a Flashman 8K (with that mini making it's battlefield debut), and lastly the R-80 Urbanmech. A Catapult CPLT-K4, the only variant out of this list that I've used before, rounded out the list.

The first couple of turns was merely maneuvering at speed (the Urbie was literally bouncing along lest it never get to shoot) to get into line of sight of one another. 

No scenario, just the typical slugfest on my canyons of death map. We deployed in opposite corners with everyone eventually joining the melee in the middle. We made the black objective markers level 4, the same as the canyon walls just to fuck up lines of sight even when we were out in the open.

My first piloting check and I rolled a fucking snake eyes! yay. 

My initial shooting was in a word: abysmal, hitting with next to nothing. Also, unlike my last game with Hoss where I held the initiative almost all game, in this one I had it maybe once. Eventually the dice warmed up, though with a bunch of light, 1-shot wonders floating around shooting and missing is bad!!!!

Ack! Squiggoth! Squiggo-oh wait, wrong game system. 

You is looking here, so I sits here.

lol, it never fails. Whether I'm doing a crossword at dinner with the Mrs.,  or playing a mini-game, Baxter figures out where our attention is focused and plants himself right in the middle of it every time. After a few of these interruptions, I moved him to one of the hammocks in the kitty tree, where he could watch (and luckily decided to stay).

That said, my crummy little expend-a-mechs took far more punishment than I thought the would, with one out of every two rocket launchers actually connecting with their targets. Heat spikes resulting in lost movement weren't really a concern as the mechs are fast and the excess heat is from 1-shot weaponry (mostly), so you don't continue to add excess heat turn after turn. 

Gauss rifle huh? Yeah well I have a rocket launcher...

Yup, gauss rifle. ...sigh...

The Nov Cat 'war face'. Rumor has it he just tested down to a solahma vehicle crew position, hence his lack of fury/glee.

Still though, Stingers vs. Shadow Cats is anything but a fair contest with both Stingers coming out on the losing sides. The Panther did fairly well vs. the Ryoken, however caught in a crossfire between that mech and the Nova Cat squashed and hope of victory in that exchange.

I believe this is where the Panther started losing it's arms, side torso...eventually in the last turn, the Panther's pilot would have no other option and just reach out of one of his mech's gaping holes and fire his sidearm at the enemy. 

....and another one bites the dust! Have you ever seen what a gauss rifle in the back of a Stinger looks like? It ain't pretty!

Good night sweetheart! This was the 2nd game in a row where an enemy pilot has been knocked unconscious!

To be honest I wasn't looking to win (and its a good thing!), but rather just test out new-to-me designs and was happy just to get a game of anything in with Screech. To that end I'm calling this a draw even though technically the game was a loss for me of 3 mechs lost vs. none (though he didn't kill the Urbie, a mech he loathes especially which is a win in my book!)

Overall I was pleased with the rest of my mechs in their collective test run. Expenda-a-mechs aside, the other three performed well:

My last pic of the game, with the Panther and 2nd Stinger both starting on their ultimately futile attempts to retreat. 

The Urbie was a wobbling and a weaving (i.e.: evasive maneuvers), drawing considerable fire but remaining untouched until taking 2 medium pulse lasers and a gauss slug to the back in the last turn. Despite that, it survived and remained upright! Prior to that mauling it had scored several snub nosed PPC hits on the Ryoken, Nova Cat and one of the Shadow cats.

The Flashman, once it warmed up (both literally and figuratively) proved an excellent combination of speed, firepower, resilience, and heat sinks (though 17 doubles are still easily overwhelmed, so ya need to be careful with it). Expect to see this beastie fielded more often in the future!

As always, the K4 Catapult is a slow but deadly mech. Kind of hampered by terrain and the bouncing Urbie being in it's way early on, once it got stuck in the HPPCs never missed a shot! It is well armored too (for a Catapult) and soaked up a savage last turn exchange in which it and the Nova Cat both fired near point blank alpha strikes at one another with neither missing at all! I should have gotten a photo of that in hindsight but oh well. 

I suppose I'll take something a bit more conventional next time. Something that can absorb the high-powered, clan weaponry. I have altered the TBAGers fluff to have them not be wiped out till the clan invasion. So they can now plausibly face Screech's clan mechs. They might have this time had I not announced early on that I would be using this map which would have neutered both of my Awesomes at the outset. 

Regardless, I just hope it doesn't take another two years to get Screech to play again.