Capture the Prize!

Do I know you from somewhere?

Nick and I got together for a game this past week. Looking for something fun but simple, we opted for the previously played 'capture the prize' scenario, albeit at 5500BV, Lostech Era. He would be fielding the objective mech this time, and oh so scary Highlander HGN-732 (I think) with it's fully functional gauss rifle. Yikes!

I was fielding the Marik Militia with a Quickdraw QKD-4G, A Chameleon TRC-4B, a Marauder MAD-3M, an Ostroc OSR-2C and (due to the odd BV limit), a Cicada CDA-2A with a 4/4 pilot. 

Baxter's warming up the table. 

Making their battlefield debut were Nick's mercenaries, the 'Swamp Foxes'. He was fielding the Highlander HGN-732, a Quickdraw QKD-4G, a Maraduder MAD-3R and a Valkyrie VLK-QA. 

So Impressed was I with Nick's paint jobs, the freehand in particular that I thought I'd show a few of them off before getting to the battle report. 

The Marauder 'Skull Crusher' (that name is painted on the other side).

"Bad Luck'

Most impressive!

Swampy bases to go with the unit's name.

The Battlefield on my new battlemat from Mats by Mars (same place I got my older city mat). 

Opening maneuvers and a few ranging shots. 

The Ostroc hit with all of its shots, but was not prepared for the gauss slug that knocked it off of it's feet!

One of several passes Neeka made across the board during the game. 

This one got up close and ugly real quick! The Ostroc & Chameleon unloaded and overheated something terrible, but most of their shots counted. 

Speaking of, at point blank range the Chameleon is a literal death by a thousand paper cuts. Fun fact: (in hindsight) Skip the large laser at this range or it will take 2-3 turns to shed the excess heat. 

Mirror match! 

Meanwhile the Cicada was taking a highspeed tour of the backfield...

Guess who lost said mirror match?

The Valyrie likewise falls from a multitude of hits. 

As my Marauder moves into range and the Chameleon jumps into cover, Nick's Quickdraw jumps into the Marauder's rear arc much to my surprise! The Chameleon came to it's aid wrecking my intent to sink the excess heat. Luckily the Quickdraw wiffed!

The Valk regains it's feet only to find the Cicada on approach.

All shots hit followed by a savage kick that took off the Valyrie's leg!

Hard to recall what all happened here other to say it was an ugly scrum. I want to say that Nick's Marauder lost a side torso, forcing it to try and withdraw. 

This moment of potential terror was averted when the Gauss slug went into my Marauder's arm, rather than it's back! It tooks some LRMs to the back, but nothing went thru. 

The scrum meanders back towards Nick's side of the board. 

Unable to shoot the Highlander, the Ostroc keeps pounding away at the Marauder.

Which goes down in an epic double kill! Nick's fell to an ammo hit whereas mine to a headshot that critted the cockpit, killing the pilot!

Unfortunately, this did not bode well for the Highlander's escort which was down to the now battered and bruised Quickdraw...

..and as such Nick ran up the white flag and powered the Highlander down. Victory to Marik, Huzzah!

Well that was fun. It was kinda funny in how both of our lists sort of mirrored one another with a Quickdraw and Marauder each. Am hoping it won't be too long before our next game, but he is out of town often due to work, so we will see. 

The latest paints

 o/

Totally not carrying the Captain General's battlefield wardrobe and personal bivouac replete with waterbed and satin sheets...

So...my favorite Cyclops variant is also the least effective variant on the tabletop. That's almost like a theme with me. Anyways...the CP-10-HQ model is a free roaming forward operating command center, the AC-20 was removed and in it's place and strapped to the mech's back is a Collapsible Command Module. 

The fold-a-fort parts are carried in the mech's 'backpack'.

Its not entirely toothless still having an LRM-10, SRM-4 and lastly a medium laser in each arm. 

The mech is usually in a command lance and it's weaponry is more defensive than offensive as the B-2000 computer system, when connected to said module makes this an effective command center for a planetwide assault. Thus it is too risky a mech to use in an assault. If anything, headhunter units will likely try to capture or destroy this mech if it's presence is detected. Few command modules survived the Succession Wars intact and the surviving CP-10-HQs likely had lesser systems in its place. 

Something about this pic just bugs me...

Like so many catalyst KS rescuplts, the new Cicada sculpt is fantastic! During the succession Wars, Marik only had access to the base model, but their neighbors the Capellans had a few of the more interesting variants, and most likely donated a few along with a planet or two...

Fast and fragile fire support. 

Note the tiny unit logo on the shoulder plate.

Last up is a new mech for my beloved TBAGers: a Valkyrie. Ya know, in all of my years of playing Battletech, I have never owned one of these mechs or at least not that I can recall (am damned near 50 at this point, so take my memory with a grain of salt).

Shoot & scoot baby! Shoot & scoot...

I'm adding a lance of light/fast mechs to my otherwise slow and plodding TBAGers. Previously recon was left to a Phoenix Hawk and oh so average speed Panther. I plan on adding a Commando and Vulcan which will at least offer some speed, if not firepower. 

But wait, there's more...

Last but certainly not the least: The following pic was taken from FB IM and is evidence of Screech finally painting mechs! Looks pretty good to me.

Insert grey joke here: 

Production! Production!

 o/

Technically, this isn't all of them...

This is more like 2ish weeks of painting or so. As mentioned above there is one more, a repaint of the (now former) Hotshot of the Whipits. That mech can be seen running around in my prior post. Here are the latest mechs up close: 

Just a minor conversion of an existing conversion. 

Previously, this Urbie was one of two UM-R68 conversions (the other one is here). However I recently bought the new Urbie lance box and got an actual UM-R68. So, with the addition of a little bit of plasticard, and a decal of 'IV' to drive the point home, I present to you the UM-AIV. The artillery Urbie that has been known to launch nukes from time to time. Of the two, this one turned out better, so the other went to eBay (I seriously don't need two arrow IV Urbies) and is currently transiting the inner sphere enroute to a repeat customer of mine Texas.  

Yeah, this is too dynamically posed to be an actual Catalyst model. 

Originally I gave this stats for an industrial mech called the 'Tonka' that could be modified in times of crisis to wield a modular LBX-10. That said, more likely than not I'll just use it as an Arbiter (if ever).

Marik Militia Ostroc & Quickdraw.

The Quickdraw, I have yet to use this mech but it seems decent enough on paper.

I just love the garish color scheme of the Marik Militia.

The Ostroc, another new KS mech, and a vast improvement over the old model! 

Years ago I had the ancient lead version of this mini and it did fairly well on the tabletop, it was just hideous looking which resulted in it getting sold off.

The whole, newly finished lance together. 

Why did the Dark Caste Bandit cross the road?

This is another mech where the base was harder to do than the mech itself.

The Starslayer is...kinda ugly, but it's grown on me. These guys must've been digging deep into the trash heaps to find and refurbish this old STY-2C-EC (Early Clan). 

Closing out with a group shot. 

Tonight I am going to the FLGS for some campaign games hopefully (I'm waaaay behind on those) and next wednesday Nick is coming over tentatively for the first mini game to be held at our new house. So I should have some battle reports to post on next week!