The Urbie Menace!

Well, that's what they were called by a friend of mine. After seeing pics of my Royal Cavaliers lance, he made that comment and I thought to expand on that by posting a pic of the entire Urbie horde. 

GLORIOUS!

The photo above includes: 

13) UM-R60s - 6,552 points 

1) UM-R68 - 561 points

1) UM-AIV - 603 points

1) UM-R27 - 610 points

1) UM-R80 - 699 points (this one is just to have TAG on something for the Arrow IV Urbie.)

All told that clocks in at: 9,025 points. 

Were it not for the advanced actuators and CASE, this could easily be a Succession Wars variant. I may have to make one of those in Megamek to get some use out of this mini.  

The UM-R27 above is the oddball being an Ilkhan era only model. If I take that one out, and drop back to the Jihad era, it rounds my Urbies out to an even 16, making for a reinforced company (with its own integral artillery support). Let's say they're the mercenary command called The Skittles: Taste the Rainbow bitches!

The base UM-R60s can be swapped out for the other various cannon armed variants, moving the point totals all over the place, just using those 13 mechs alone: 

13) UM-R90s - 10,049 points

13) UM-R63s - 7,020 points

13) UM-R69s - 7,657 points

13) UM-R80s - 9,087 points

13) UM-R60Ls - 6,110 points That's 13 AC-20s (((shudder)))

13) UM-R70s - 9,412 points

In between the Jihad and the IlKhan eras, are a few other over-engineered Urbies...

13) UM-93s - 11,622 points

13) UM-R96 - 11,076 points

Lastly, waaay back in the 3040s, I could also make one of them the prototype UM-R100 which clocks in at 915 points on its own (no doubt the golden Urbie), and the most expensive of Urbies...well, barring perhaps the Urie LAM (which I don't have, but only but have seen on the store shelves). 

As impressive as these numbers are, I'm sure that halfway thru this post Kushial stopped reading and started tallying up the points on his Battalion of Urbanmechs...

A Hokie post to start off 2024

 o/

Happy 2024! Currently (as in the time of this posting) the Southern Snowpocalypse ought to be in full swing, which ought to amount to 2-3 inches of snow. Yes, by all means laugh at us as the region shuts down and chaos on the roadways ensues.

I had intended this to be painted in Jade green in honor of the Jade Turkeys, but my son had other ideas...

Its been a bit slow here on the Battletech front here of late, though I have a few updates. First up, The VTH-1 Hokie battleturkey -mech. This STL was released back around Thanksgiving by Hardware Studios and I bought it intending to make a Jade Turkey mockery-mech. I believe Bishop Steiner himself even came up with stats that would ensure that this bird would be cooked if it alpha-struck with all of it's weapons! 

As Frankie only plays Alphastrike, I'll use the stats of the Firestarter FS9-M for this. That is armed with twin medium & small lasers, and a pair machine guns which match this mini's poultry paltry weapons array.

As this rocket booster of a backend will attest, it also moves 12" a turn and can jump which he ought to like. There was a slight misprint, so I painted that up as battle damage.

Frankie however is a HUGE Virginia Tech fan (for those not familiar, their mascot is a Hokie which is another name for a turkey) and instead requested that this be painted in their colors. As such he was thrilled with this and has claimed it for future use.

As of yet, I have no idea which unit will be blessed with this mech's addition...

*****

Next up, I painted up a Golden Urbie that I had intended to use as a plinth mounted, monument-terrain piece to honor the Urbanmech and all of it's gloriousness. However suitable mounts are stupid expensive. As such, it instead it joined Ace Darwin's Whippets under the callsign of 'Hero'. 

Urban warfare at it's finest. Note the fallen Grasshopper behind Hero. When it came to piloting checks, I apparently I couldn't roll higher than a 3 on 2D6 for most of the night. Several mechs fell as a result. 

Hero made it's combat debut which was anything but golden after it failed a piloting check and broke it's LBX-10 during the fall. Unable to flee, it stood its ground and blazed away with small lasers (neither of which missed, for what little that is worth) as it was hacked apart by Kushial's Hatchetman. 

Speaking of, Kushial ought to have a battle report up soon. However by game's end I'd reached the obvious conclusion that Shadowhawks just plain suck. The two which are in my Whippets unit are liable to be retired from service after two consecutive games of fruitlessly plinking away at the enemy with their crummy weaponry. 

As I continue to be a Thorn in your side...

 o/

Yet another Thorny prospect...

As the year winds down, not all has been quiet on the Battletech front. Earlier this month, Kushial and I played a pair of Classic Battletech games on his birthday. Being bloggers the two of us, we naturally forgot to take any photos of said games. 

The first pitted my son Frankie's Fast & the Furious Alpha Strike Jade Falcons vs. Kushial's 'Yowza! Brigade'. The Falcons lasted longer than I thought they would, but ultimately could do little vs. a bunch of Rommels and Goblins and I eventualy ran up the white flag. I took out two goblins and a lone Urbie in exchange for the loss of three Clan light mechs and several elementals. 

The second game featured my new Rasalhague force (still sans Axels) vs. his ELH. This one was more of a traditional brawl with heavy losses all around. My FFR troops gave a good accounting for themselves (well, aside from the worthless LRM carrier), including a headshot from my Catapult K2 which dropped a Thug. Ultimately however my forces started to crumble towards the end leaving him two victories to savor on his drive home. 

Kicking a Flatbed truck off of the road is about as threatening as thing will likely get. 

Lastly, the aforementioned Axel tank lance and a lone Thorn FINALLY arrived after having to send an inquiry out to the Etsy seller a month after purchase. 'They'll go out tomorrow' read to me as 'they've been done, I've just been sitting on them as I've gotten more orders than I can handle.' 

Regardless they're here. The tanks look too big (Ontos sized), but the new Catalyst plastic vehicles look bigger as well, so may not be an issue in the long run. The tanks came with magnets and pre-molded holes for the same which was a nice touch. 

As for the Thorn, its not pretty, but far better than the cannon sculpt. With twin medium lasers and an LRM-5, you can expect this to be lobbing Thunder munitions down range and generally trying to avoid getting shot. I know the fluff states that thunder munitions aren't an honorable weapon, but the Fucking Wobblies are unconcerned by such niceties. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year folks, I'll see you again in 2024!

Free Rasalhague Republic's 3rd Drakøns

 o/

Pay no attention to the random minis in the background...

Here's another unit that I've painted here recently. Indeed, I only finished the Catapult and Hetzers earlier this week. This brings my recent Battletech paint jobs up equal to that of a company in total numbers (even if the factions within said company are diametrically opposed, mortal enemies).  

Currently, this demi-company clocks in at about 200 points for Alpha Strike, which is only 2/3 the allotment of our normal games (unless all the pilots and crews are stupidly skilled). So I ordered a lance of Axel heavy tanks off of Etsy to bring this force up to both a full company in strength & 300 points. 

Any resemblance to the modern day Leopard is purely coincidental...

I'm not sure how many points these would currently amount to in Classic Battletech, but I'm sure Kushial will give me an opportunity to find out sometime in the near future...

Hell's Horses Iota Galaxy Part 2...3...ish?

 o/

Honestly, I think the paint job on the Clan Demolisher came out the best of all of these. 

I finished painting up this force just in time for a game of Classic with Kushial and his favorite Eridani Light Horse this past weekend. The Clan Demolisher and Stinger C's were repaints, the Demolisher just had a generic urban camo scheme that matched nothing else and the Stingers were previously painted for The Buffet Assault Group itself. 

The light tanks are from Microworld Games and used as counts as Mithras light tanks. The actual Mithras mini looks more like a tracked and turreted farm tractor to me than a proper tank. On the tabletop the Mithras lasts about as long as a farm tractor as both died to a single volley of fire. Granted, in one case said volley was all 40 LRMs (seriously WTF?) fired from an Archer!

These three would not survive the coming battle...

I believe Kushial will be doing a more in depth overview of the game, so I just have a few pics here. This list is set up more for Alpha Strike as one of Frankie's preferred 'fast & the furious' type lists. In Classic, with all 4/5 pilots and crews save the Hellhound which had a 3/5 pilot, the above list came out to 8000 points even.

My army's MVP by a mile!

In Alpha Strike, again with all skill 4 pilots and crews, if I drop both of the Mithras tanks, the list comes out to 142 points. That leaves enough left over to boost 1 mech up to a level 3. While the Demolisher isn't fast, it is furious, having fired a dozen AC-20 rounds and hit with all but two! Only one was a cluster round and we didn't even get to that as the target had already disintegrated.

In the end the Demolisher only had a few nicks and scratches, whereas everything else still standing on the board had had the living shit kicked out of it!

So many battles!

 o/

A dual to the death between two heavy recon mechs.

Well the Inner Sphere is well and truly aflame here locally, with three games of Battletech played since my last post, two of Alpha Strike and one of Classic. 

Painted up for the occasion; like any self respecting newly painted minis, they all died!

First up, Frankie and I played a civil war era game of Alpha Strike vs. Rob & his Capellans. Frankie was running mercs and I had Capellans, the St. Ives Compact. This was a fun game and our FIRST victory in Alpha Strike, huzzah! Frankie tends to write notes all over his unit roster page with all of the mech cards printed on it, and I noted when we got home that 'we won!' was written across the page, lol. 

UM-R69s providing covering fire for Frankie's advancing Mercs. 

This firefight became known as the alley of death, and decided the game. 

Later that weekend, my Whipits got their battlefield debut vs. Kushial's Davion forces. Rather than retell a story already told, you can just read his account here. 

Yeah, this about sums up that debacle.

This past Wednesday, neither Rob nor Screech were available, so instead our 300 point force split in half and Frankie and I battled each other in a 150 point game at home (after 14 months, it was the first mini game played in our new house). 

Tired after a long road march, the FWLM voted for dinner at the next Urbie Burger on the route, only to hear over coms that their Wobbly allies were pulling up at a Dunkin Davions instead. Naturally this disagreement lead to a fight to the death!

A nasty firefight this was. 

+4 to hit was no matter, my Guillotine turned the cocky little Mercury into a greasy smear.

The last two on the board, my Wolverine with one point of damage vs. Frankie's untouched Vulcan. This fast moving dual would cover several turns and about half of the board. 

In the end I got him though, the extra tonnage pulling me thru! That said, the Wolverine was down to 2 points of structure remaining and only a 5" movement rate.

I just squeaked out that one! He was kicking my ass early on taking down my battle armor squad and Scorpion mech by the end of turn two. Had Frankie had a battle lance with rerolls like I did, rather than light strikers with the speed demons SPA (+2" movement to all but the Crabs), odds are I'd have lost. Indeed, following the game he said 'I want to play this list again! I think I like fast mechs rather than the big heavy ones you usually give me, but I think I want the rerolls next time.' 

And there we have it folks. Not only is Frankie definitely hooked (speaking of, Kushial donated some more reading material for Frankie), but he's even found his preferred playstyle! This makes me a happy Dad.

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.

When obscure militias collide!

 o/

There seems to be heavy traffic in the Valley of Death.

Kushial  and I managed to get in a game this past weekend. I only took a handful of pics that are below as he intended to post a battle report I think...

My Dixie CTM  force gathered up for a glamor shot.

Kushial's Ozawa (aka: Yowza!) Urban Defense Brigade,

deployed on what he was calling 'Fort AC-10'.

Both of our initial deployments. The (shallow) river was just counted as difficult terrain so that the tanks wouldn't be hamstrung in their movement options.

Early on with the fast movers out in front and the infantry deploying out of the heavy APC on the island.

Optimal range = a short ranged bloodbath. Also known as a place where that Commando seriously did not belong!

I won't post any spoilers in regards as to who won in hopes of a future battle report via Kushial. It was fun to play a game in which every model was painted (as opposed the Alpha Strike game being played behind us, in which nothing was even primed!).

The Battle against the Mech that shall not be named

 o/

The following battle report is of my game vs. Kushial that we played Saturday night. Kushial said that it's been at least three years since we've played Battletech against one another and while I find that hard to believe, I gave up on trying to find a battle report on here of the two of us playing a game. 

We played our usual 8k points at the local FLGS on one of their 3D printed maps which was really quite a treat! He was fielding the Lyran Alliance's Donegal Guards whilst I had the Clan Snow Raven's Epsilon Galaxy. 

Both sides deployed.

Moving up the center with a Shadow Hawk C and Hellhound, my pilots started to question their superior technology in the face of all of the massed tonnage and firepower before them...

As my Star Commander's Adder drops off it's load of Elementals, the mech that shall not be named is spotted and a furious exchange of gunfire ensues. The Adder loses that fight as virtually all of the enemy mech's fire connects with the Adder's right leg (while it's UAC-5 rounds fly off into the ether)!

On the rest of the board, my fire was a bit of a mixed bag, with the Shadow Hawk likewise taking a LOT of damage to it's right leg whereas I seemed to be carving thru his right torsos. Then of course there was the piranha, blazing away with lasers and a dozen machine guns a turn and hitting with just one MG on average before his Valkyrie jumped away again. 

The Mech that shall not be named outmaneuvered me following a mistake on my part, and dishonorably kicked the Adder's already crippled leg, destroying it and removing the mech from the game. The Shadow Hawk took command as it was painted, only to lose it's leg a turn later. 

Command then fell to my Primed Hellhound which had the most surviving paint left in my force (and was also inflicting the most damage overall). Here it unloads in the the Mech that shall not be named while in the background the Elementals and piranha collectively sandblast about 40 points of armor off of the sides of the Donegal Black Knight! As heavily armored and undamaged as the Knight was, it merely found this experience to be irritating.

The Hellhound punches thru one of the side torsos of the not named mech and hit the SRM Ammo, obliterating it and avenging the fallen Star Commander! He hoped that this act would inspire his remaining troops...

However it was not to be as the piranha, dreadfully overheated due to an engine hit, tried to duke it out at point blank range with the Donegal HBK-4P. A dazzling exchange of 8 medium lasers vs. 12 MGs and an ER small laser ended in the only obvious result.

At this point my 2 remaining Hellhounds (of which the unprimed one had lost half of it's weapons) bugged out, leaving the 4 remaining Elementals for dead. 

As crushing of a defeat as it was, this was still a fun game and I'm looking forward to vastly more frequent games with Kushial in the future!

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

 o/

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. 

The first Urbie is painted!

Just taking in the fall colors along with all of the other tourists...

Shut up Kushial, nobody wants to hear about the battalion you painted in the same span of time it took me to paint just this one! (...sigh...) This is the first of my fourteen Urbies and unlike Kushial, I doubt I'll have anymore than a single lance in the same color scheme.

Rather it'll be more like: AN URBIE FOR EVERYBODY!

As for this one, it's painted in the colors of the 1st St. Ives Cheveau-Legers (Light Horse). Originally I had intended to make a unit of the St. Ives Lancers, but I liked the blue trim more than yellow. So onto the light horse it is!

Nothing stops traffic like an Urbie!

Being a Capellan unit first, and then of the later independent St. Ives Compact arguably at least one more Urbie ought to join this one, but we'll see I guess...