Capturing more bridges...

 o/ 

One hellova fight in progress!

As promised previously, Nick & I played this scenario again with our roles reversed. This time I was playing the defenders and he the attackers. Oddly, I was playing Capellans and Nick Mercenaries, so we also switched factions. 9300 BV this time as Nick's force was a little off again, 3050s era although Nick would end up fielding no upgraded tech. 

Here's how it all went, or as best I can recall as there were a lot of mechs and tanks on the board. 

My Capellan Homeguard force which I called the Jedburg Militia (Jedburg is a town not far from here, with the most redneck sounding name that I have ever heard of). I had a Heavy Mountain Platoon, 3055 LRM carrier, (2) standard Bulldogs, a Liao Vedette, a UM-60, UM-R63, (2) UM-R60Ls (both with 3/5 pilots), an RVN-3L, RVN-4X, CTF-1X and a CPLT-C4C with a 3/5 pilot and serving as my commander. 

The battlefield during our opening maneuvers.

A better view of the same...

I did not get a group photo of Nick's forces, but you can see them pretty good here. In green were The Swamp Foxes fielding a Highlander, Marauder, Quickdraw & Valkyrie, and in blue with the lightning trim were Haim's Hebrew Hammers (yes really), fielding a Battlemaster, Phoenix Hawk, Warhammer and Wasp. All of his mechs were base models & pilots I believe.

Turn two and both sides finally got a good bead on one another with the Vedette leading the charge down the center.

In my backfield, the Infantry platoon was camped atop a building and calling out targets for the hidden LRM carrier's indirect fire. These two units would neither move nor suffer any damage all game. Firing with impunity, they would connect with a fair few missiles on Nick's forces. 

The suddenly, all hell breaks loose! The Cataphract would put an AC-10 into the head of the Highlander deleting it's life support systems (luckily not needed on this world). The Cataphract would suffer heavily for that, but remained standing. In the backfield, Nick would complain that my RVN-4X was tying up an entire lance though in truth that was not so. 

I love this photo. On the left you can see that if any of Nick's mechs were to hop over my Raven and the building behind it, then they would be squarely in cross hairs of a trio of Urbies as well as an immobilized Bulldog (not quite, but the driver was bleeding out...), which were instead sniping at limited targets and doing so at long range. 

With my Catapult, and all of my forces across the 2nd river providing fire support, my Raven-3L, Cataphract and 2nd Bulldog run straight into a hornet's nest! The Raven whiffed other than to plant a Narc beacon onto the Battlemaster, the Cataphract & Bulldog put in a few hits into the Warhammer, which along with the indirect LRM fire, brought that mech to the ground. In return the Cataphract got mauled with it's autocannon being taken out of action, as well as a rear facing ML. The Bulldog was hit as well I think, but nothing major.

The Catapult meanwhile dumped into the Highlander, hitting with both LRM 20s & large laser for a collective 40 points of damage! 

Just another angle of the brawl on the boulevard.

Behind all of this, the first bridge was heating up as well...

Successfully having run the inital gauntlet, the Vedette moved to secure the first bridge. My RVN-4X and Nick's Valk & Quickdraw all jumped onto the bridge as well (luckily it was sturdy). They traded fire but no major damage was suffered as the movement mods were pretty high all around. 

Meanwhile one of my UM-R60Ls held the 2nd bridge, daring something to come around the corner. With so many models firing, the non-firing R60Ls went unnoticed in the chaos. We don't declare mech variants beforehand, so Nick probably assumed that the Urbie on the bridge was another standard one. That said, with 4 Urbies on the table, he commented while we were deploying that there was likely an AC-20 Urbie hiding in there somewhere. 

You're about to find out why Nick really doesn't like this Catapult variant...

Things got rather ugly when Nick's Mercenaries made a late push on the 2nd bridge! The Cataphract backed up to a building to dump its now useless AC ammo (which had little armor by this point to hide behind). The Catapult took a punishing volley of fire that knocked it from it's feet, but not before it put it's large laser into the Highlander's head, vaporizing the mechwarrior within! The Phoenix Hawk & Wasp jump onto the Bridge and the Urbie damned near takes the Phoenix Hawk's leg off with an AC-20 slug! Knocking the mech to the ground. 

The Brawl from the first bridge moves on up the street following the rest of the mechs, while the vedette stayed behind, successfully securing that objective. The Narc'ed Battlemaster ran into some heavy trees to (successfully) avoid any incoming fire and damaging the 3L Raven which whiffed it's shooting at the wasp aside from plunking a Narc beacon onto the back of that mech's head.

My backline continued to fire at whatever was in range all game, the 2nd UM-R60L took a pot shot on this last turn, cratering a building and scaring the be Jesus out of the Battlemaster, but doing little more. Nick was not pleased by the realization that there were two AC-20 Urbies were on the table. Aside from the Bulldog in the trees, none of my units in this last pic suffered any damage in this game. 

By this point in time it was 9:45pm on a weeknight and Nick ran up the white flag. I held 1 bridge, the 2nd was contested with my R60L staring down a Phoenix Hawk and Wasp, both of which had one leg into structure. The Highlander was down, the Warhammer not far from it, and...well everything on that road leading to bridge #2 was moderately to severely damaged in one way or another. 

I still had a pristine LRM carrier, spotter platoon and trio of Urbies in the backfield, The Urbie on Bridge 2 took a ML hit I think. While not mobile by any means, were there still time to play this one out, he wasn't sure his battered forces could weather this untouched force, while still having to deal with my first wave units. 

Once again this was a fun scenario, and again a close one with 1 bridge held and the 2nd contested. After the first game, I was fearing Nick would arrive with his Demolisher tanks, to do to me what I had previously done to him. Likewise while the infantry spotters and 3055 LRM carrier preformed admirably, all it would have taken was 1 VTOL to zip into the backfield and wreck my day. I don't think he did anything wrong tactically, rather I just got really lucky with his traditionally built force. It allowed my static backline and sheer numbers carry the day. 

Since when is a Blackjack the game's 'Hero mech'?

 o/

Take it! Take it bitch take it!

Nick 2.0 came over to my house for a game last week and he had a scenario all set to go. Prior to the battle, all the information I received was the following: 4800BV, Lostech era with at least 1 assault mech required for each force. 

The Scenario:

The attacking force's dropship took a hit coming in and the attacker's mechs were randomly scattered across the field in an emergency evac from the dropship. Over the middle of the board, a D6 for each mech was dropped onto the map and wherever a die landed, so did a mech. The defender would roll to see which long map edge side they would deploy from. Of the attacking mechs, the assault mech's navigational systems were damaged in the emergency drop, and so would need to be escorted off of the field to safety. All attacking mechs needed to flee the field on one of the short board edges, with the escorted assault mech being neither the first or last one off of the field. 

Points were also awarded for mechs that were crippled, had limbs blown off, etc., as well as destroyed and for those that successfully escaped.

The battlefield, with both sides deployed. 

We rolled and I would be the attacker. My 65th Lyran Regulars force consisted of: a Blackjack BJ-1, Whitworth WTH-1, A Javelin JNV-10N, a Griffin GRF-1S, and lastly a Charger CGR-1A1 (which, turned out to be rather fortuitous). Nick was fielding his wife's mercenary command (so why doesn't she come to play?) the Green Knights consisting of: a Spider SDR-5V, a Hunchback HBK-4G, a Centurion CN9-A, a King Crab KGC-000 and lastly (and for only 4 turns when darkness fell and it flew home) a Shilone SL-17.

Nick modified the aerotech rules a bit to make the fighter playable and it worked fairly well. Here is how the game went:

As (bad) luck would have it, the poor Whitworth would find itself all but surrounded on turn one! The Javelin tried to assist, but a few SRMs to the back didn't stop an AC-20 slug from hitting the Whitworth's CT!

Because the King Crab and Shilone weren't enough to worry about, the Spider and Hunchback were coming after the whitworth as well!

My Charger advances while in the background you can see the blinding flash of that AC-20 slug hitting the Whitworth!

Somehow the Whitworth survives, and after the Hunchback moves in front of it I, as Nick put it: 'took the bait' and moved into the Hunchback's rear arc while the King Crab moved in for the kill. 

While my Whitworth dumped the LRM ammo out to avoid any ammo explosions, it managed to score a rear torso hit on the HBK, though not causing any criticals. The King Crab meanwhile missed the Whitworth entirely, huzzah!

In the middle of the field, the Shilone roared overhead, striking the Griffin, as did the Centurion and Spider. 

In return the Griffin cinematically, fired in all directions, putting a large laser in the Spider's leg, almost taking it off, 3 or so LRMs into the far off Centurion and a single medium laser hit to the Shilone's aft!

We interupt this battle for a Neeka induced intermission. 

Then, the Griffin promptly rolled a snake eyes for it's PSR and fell down. It would take (2) attempts to stand back up, beating itself up in the process).

The fast moving Javelin prepares to lead almost as fast moving Charger off of the board!

Somewhere along the line the Griffin had hit the Centurion in the fight torso with it's large laser. As such it was at this juncture that more or less quietly fighting in the background Blackjack made itself known. 

Firing its quartet of medium lasers at the Centurion, it put 3 of them into the mech's right torso, going internal with 2 shots, and hitting the mech's LRM ammo, vaporizing it! 

On the next turn Nick lost the initative, and as my Javelin and Charger fled the field, the BJ-1 opted for a rearguard duty and moved in behind the King Crab. It put a few lasers into the beast and then 1 level up on a hill, delivered a kick to the KC's right arm!

As the Shilone flew overhead, heading out as the light faded, the Hunchback removed one of the Whitworth's arms, scoring Nick a point! The plucky Whitworth nonetheless stayed on it's feet.

While the Whitworth is no faster then the Hunchback, it is also no slower. Thus the heavily damaged mech ran away, keeping the AC20 beast at max range while the Spider harassed it for all it was worth. Despite the terrifying start to the Whitworth's game, it too would successfully flee the field. 

The 5/8/5 moving Griffin was doing the same on the opposite side of the board. Jumping over terrain and likewise holding King Crab at range. Here it is, all lined up for it's victorious run off of the board. 

Which brings us back to the Blackjack. Outnumbered 3-1 (and standing here in some heavy trees), having done most of the damage thus far, it too now had to make a run for it. 

Hopping hills and guns blazing, it had to resort to just a single laser into the spider, and then whipping the arms around to (unsuccessfully) try to hit the KC with it's AC-2s for a turn to bleed heat as it was at a +9 which is quite detrimental in this situation. Especially with AC-20 slugs hitting all around it!

It hopped the hill and did it's best to hide again while the massed AC-20s rearranged the landscape before it also was able to run off of the board at last!

Well, that was a rather crushing victory! I don't recall the points gifted for each mech off of the field but as Nick only had a single point due to removing the Whitworth's arm, the point was moot. My charger kinda messed up his scenario due to it's speed (it never fired a shot and only suffered a few medium laser hits all game). 

While it did not live up to it's name this tiime, I couldn't help but take a few extra pics of Nick's pretty paint jobs.

Note the detailing on the Hiunchback's base!

That said, this coming Wednesday we are playing this scenario again with the same forces, and the roles reversed. Given that my biggest guns will be on the Shilone for 4 turns vs. all of these AC-20s, we will see how that goes...

No, not an Omnimech…but rather an Insomniamech.

Tuesday a rough night where I just couldn't sleep. About 2am-ish I said the hell with it and started painting.  I did manage about 3ish hours sleep later that night, however I was more or less a zombie for most of Wednesday as a result. 

Nonetheless I did get this mech painted. Like all proper metal Javelin minis, this one also has it's very own tree behind which to hide. While normally hiding is a bit hard with a fiery paint job, the fall foliage does help a bit. 

Some of you may have noticed that this paint job matches that of my Hell's Horses Iota galaxy force. The Horses have a pair metal (lead to be exact) of Stinger Cs and a metal Locust C. Add in this Javelin, and I have a lance of 3020s era mercs to use when we're not playing in the later eras. 

This week's mechs

 o/ 

The grab bag continues...

I think one of the things that I like about BattleTech is that I can complete forces before I really get bored of them. I mean, I paint more or less everything piecemeal, barring the occasional burst of impetus with one faction or another in 40K. However when painting random models here and there for 40k, there's little feeling of accomplishment because so fucking many are needed for a damned army of any appreciable point value. 

Whereas with BattleTech, I really don't foresee any of my forces exceeding a company (or maybe a binary for the Clans) in size. Often its a combined-arms company/binary which further breaks things up. Also, in BattleTech, its rare to have too many multiples of the same model. For instance, the lowly but beloved Urbanmech is my most common mech at 14 models, with only 7 in the same color scheme. In 40k, in most cases that's not even a squad!

But anyways, enough pointless rambling! What you see above and below is what I (finished) painting this week. I say finished as I still have another lance's worth in-progress. 

Marik Militia Marauder & Chameleon

The Marauder always was, and still is a pretty mech, all the more so now that it is painted! 

I know that my buddy Neverness loathes BattleTech, but I am sure he grew up on Robotech as much as I did, and would most likely be at least a little nostalgic about this model. Even if only in secret...

Both of these mechs are stomping around on their not-so-friendly neighbor's planet. 

The Chameleon is primarily a trainer in the fluff, but I am hoping that it will be a decent mech in battle.

Its mostly energy weapon load out is supposed to train pilots not to overheat their machines. Well, unless they're in point blank range, I doubt all those small lasers will even fire, much less over tax the heat sinks!

Painting that old Imperial Guard icon in blue, under these mechs was a real treat I can assure you!

Meanwhile in the periphery...

The Masakari T of the Scorpion Empire is the whole reason that this mech was painted in their colors. It mounts the perfect blend of Clan & Inner Sphere tech, with just a splash of periphery garbage to round things out. 

It mounts 2 Clan ER PPCs, 2 plasma rifles with 3 tons of ammo, and most importantly, a circa 1950s era rocket launcher 10!

Oh good, he/she didn't step on their little friend!

Also in the periphery...

This Retrotech Griffin is the newest acquisition of my deep periphery, piss poor mercs: Battle Rattle. Built to primitive standards, yet refitted with a large laser and MML 5 with 1 ton each of LRM & SRM ammo, it wields a missile launcher far more advanced than any other mech in my Battle Rattle force. Yet, it is of course built on a woefully obsolete mech, perfection! 

Its a little hard to see under all of the grime, but it says 'Kill!' on the gun arm. 

I was tempted to fit this arm with modular armor to match the model (this arm is clearly much better armored...well, at least visually), but the negatives vastly outweighed any appreciable benefit. 

This coming weekend is the FLGS' Solaris event. While I have a 'list' of 2 mechs to bring (TOP SECRET: on the very outside chance that any of my opponents Saturday read this), you know me. Meaning, I'll likely be pondering alternative builds from my collection right up until the last moment!