A big ol' scrum

 o/

The view from Anthony's side of the battlefield. One thing of note: this is the first time I have ever seen a Goliath used in a game.

I played in a multiplayer scrum the other night, 6K, clan invasion era, and periodic 'non-agression pacts' that didn't last much longer than the hand shakes that sealed them. 

Jake's forces attacking enmass. Curiously, while all seriously damaged, all three of Jake's Shadow Hawks survived the game. Those LRM carriers however, not so much.

Initially this was just going to be myself and Anthony, but Jake the FLGS' owner joined in as did a new player Aiden, though he only played for a few turns before heading out due to time limitations. 

Below are a few highlights from my side:

My Jagermech JM6-S (which we all know is pure garbage), fired a quartet of autocannon rounds at Jake's far off Longbow. Only one round connected, an AC-2 golden BB that went into a right torso LRM ammo bin, inflicting 120ish points of damage! 

Its celebration was short lived as a gauss rifle removed the Jager's leg shortly thereafter. Still, I am sure the Jager's pilot was smiling as he punched out of his/her wrecked machine knowing that next time they would they would be getting a better mech to pilot.

Later on, Anthony's Scorpion scampered over and put a PPC into the leg of my UMR-90. In return the Suburbie put both it's PPC and a medium laser into the Scorpion's right torso. Punching thru the thin armor and hitting the only thing in there: the SRM-6's ammo bin. Another mech go BOOM!

The UMR-90 would also contribute to the death of one of the LRM carriers and put some more hurt into one of Jake's Shadow Hawks. The Suburbie also survived the game.

The latest paints

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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: 

Celebrating a 1-shot-kill with some paint jobs!

Red Lance, standing by...

My Capellan Urbanmech 'Red Lance' is now painted in recognition of it's glorious actions in combat vs. Frankie who was fielding my Wobblies. I only have a few pics of this action which he won, though it came down to the last die roll. 

The fighting in this shot was brutal with my Urbie, Raven, and his Sentinel going down, and the Blackjack suffering crippling injuries. It should also be noted that this is on Frankie's side of the table meaning that Urbie had crossed almost the entire table!

Indeed his 'victory' was pyrrhic at best as his lone surviving Blackjack had just 1 point of structure left and a 2" rate of movement. You know it's bad when Urbanmechs are trying to run you down!

The last surviving Wobbly mech, the aforementioned Blackjack was hiding behind that ruined tower in the distance. Thus my UM-R63 sprinted (for a few turns) to try and run it down. In the final exchange of fire, my shots were off by 1 and lacking any rerolls, he won by the skin of his teeth!

Yet another Urbie entering itself into the history books!

The BEST part of the game however was when UM-R69 'Red 1' rolled a box cars to hit AND to crit killing that far-off Crab with one shot! Now I've had Urbies 1-shot-kill significantly larger enemy mechs in both Alpha Strike and Classic Battletech (the latter case was years ago in which a UM-R63 had a golden BB that took down a King Crab in 1-shot). 

The previously painted 'Blue Lance'.

As such, I painted the whole lance finishing off my Capellan Homeguard demi-company (for now). Being a Homeguard unit, tanks and infantry are sure to follow at some point.

'Red 1'  now sporting it's well earned kill marking on the autocannon's barrel. 

The forest was full of corpses...

...and that was just the battle's halfway point! 

I got together with my buddy Hoss at the FLGS for a game of Battletech this past Saturday. Unlike our usual bouts where by game's end, everything on the table is staggering around like a bunch of drunken brawlers. This game was an absolute blood bath! Here's how it all played out:

The first two turns were simply advancing at speed. It wasn't till turn three that any shots were exchanged, and these were few (though my Cyclops' AC-20 did vaporize the left arm of Hoss' Panther much to his dismay). Note: my IFV on the left is disembarking a platoon of Ceremonial Guard.

Hoss' borrowed 'suicide box' (MG variant heavy APC) has by this point torn across the map and is in the process of gunning down the aforementioned platoon! The Cyclops' mechwarrior screamed BUSHIDO! and suicidality charged into the enemy's point blank range, whilst blazing away with his own weaponry. Despite being an assault mech, the Cyclops is too lightly armored for this type of fighting.

My Goblin (MG Variant) IFV comes to the aid of my beleaguered platoon, who is cut down by half to Hoss' APC's machine guns. The Panther pumps a PPC round and a few SRMs into my Hunchback which in turn fires a withering volley of medium lasers in reply.

The green turreted tank was a proxy of a Patten heavy tank, and was all too happy to put another AC-10 round into the cyclops. However the cyclops then finished the job started previously by my Hunchback and finished off the tiresome tank. Normally, only I am fielding tanks...so it was kinda eye opening to be on the wrong side of them for the first time in a long time.

As this nasty little firefight continues, the infantry are slaughtered to the last, filling the forest hex they were holding with only the dead and dying. Meanwhile the Hunchback soaks up another PPC blast whilst taking the Panther apart with yet another laser onslaught. Indeed, one such laser bolt struck the short-ranged-missile ammo bin and the panther is vaporized! We didn't total it up, but I'm guessing it was something like 170+ points of internal damage to an already pummeled 35 ton mech! 

Indeed, the dead pile was growing quickly as my borrowed Panther had also succumbed to a multitude of PPC hits. Hoss' Awesome and Catapult K2 had slagged it's leg which took the mech out of action. Not that it had far to go mind you, sponging far too many PPC hits than a mech of this size ought to endure. 

My commander, had been valiantly leading from the rear in his Dragon 1C, sniping targets of opportunity whilst staying clear of the heavy fighting. However with his ceremonial guard dead, one mech down and the other two already in dire straits, he crested the behind which he'd been hiding and fired all of his weapons into the Awesome, getting it's attention in doing so. 

It is at this point I ought to stop and explain the optional floating crit rule we were using: Normally a snake eyes hit location roll represents a possible golden BB that potentially penetrated the center hull armor and hits the juicy bits within. Instead the floating crit, you roll another location after the snake eyes roll, and inflict the armor damage in the 2nd location rolled, and then roll for the crits there instead. Now back to the game. 

The Awesome, turned ponderously at this new threat and returned fire with it's 3 PPCs. 2 hit, with one snake eyes location roll, that switched then from the center to right torso following the 2nd roll. Untouched up until this point, the Dragon absorbed the two hits without notice but...there were 2 crits rolled for in that right side torso. The only thing in there is Autocannon ammo, which came out to a 78 point internal damage explosion. It go BOOM! This was Hoss' first ever 1-shot-kill!! 

I was displeased at this sudden turn of events until the following turn in which my Goblin IFV also scored a floating crit which rolled a box cars the tore Hoss' Griffin's leg off with a single SRM! Unlike my Dragon's demise, or even the earlier Panthers, I do believe all remaining combatants paused for a moment to witness that shocking kill!

A very happy Hoss just after he obliterated my Hunchback in a brutal crossfire.

Once again screaming BUSHIDO! My much overheated Cyclops charges into point blank range and cuts loose at the Catapult, which returns the favor with plenty of help! 

The Next turn would see a 2nd AC-20 slug hit the Catapult's right leg, taking the mech down for good...

...only for the Cyclops to be blown apart moments later! With that, my Goblin IFV, now my sole surviving model, rode off into the sunset with nary a scratch on it.

The dead pile. 

The survivors, the my Goblin on the left being my only one.

Dude!  That was an absolute blast! It's rare to lose more than one or two, it's even rarer to have so many units just flat out die! Also, not only was this the first game in which Hoss had a 1-shot-kill (paint that Awesome Hoss!!!), but it was also the first time he's ever beaten me in Battletech! 

I did not know that. 

As for painting, I think my Goblin, Cyclops and Hunchback all deserve paint for their glorious actions in combat. 

Those Bloody buildings are in the way again!

 o/

Great, it can't see anything...again!

My buddy Screech came over Thursday night and we played an 8k point game of Battletech. I was surprised that he agreed to such a low point limit (locally that's the norm, but most of the time we're all fielding Inner Shpere mechs) as I knew he wanted to use his new shiny clan mechs which tend to be hideously expensive. 

Nonetheless he agreed and we played a straight up kill each other game pitting my Federated Suns force (probably the Chisholm's Raiders as they lack of coherent color scheme which matches my style) vs. his Nova Cats. Here's how it all went down...

The battlefield. The two central, forested areas at the top and bottom were all 'light forest'. Also of note is the Duncan Davions corporate headquarters (for this planet) surrounded by ample tank-scaled parking.

My Davion force consisting of a Charger CGR-SB (my commander), two Enforcer ENF-4Rs with the Blue one dubbed 'Yankee' and the grey one 'Rebel', a Jagermech JM7-D, and lastly a heavy tracked APC and  heavy mountain infantry platoon as filler (my army totaled 7999 points!).

Screech opted for the 'That Guy' list consisting of a Dire Wolf Prime and an Executioner A. Clocking in at 195 tons between just the two of them...all of my pilots, troops and vehicle crew collectively wet themselves at the sight of these monsters! There were enough points available to round out his list with a point of small laser equipped Elementals who would ride on the Executioner.

My right flank just after the first turn's movement. Turns out my Jager was a single hex out of range, damnit!

On my left side, the Charger lived up to it's name and ran straight into the jaws of hell!

On the far left, the APC was slogging thru the forest in hopes or remaining both hidden from view and uninteresting to the enemy assault mechs (and it was mission accomplished!).

Turn one saw the charger shoot poorly, maybe scoring a lone large laser hit, whilst being savaged in return! It's a good thing it has 40 points of armor on the CT, because Screech ground thru 35 points of it in one volley, whilst also scoring 2 engine crits! At least it managed to stay on it's feet!

Not to ignore the rest of my force, Rebel also drew some fire taking a pair of clan LL hits as well. Whereas my return shooting was largely ineffective

What would a bat rep be without a pic of Baxter getting in the way...as usual?

The Infantry dismounts (still within the forest) and it's participation awards for everybody! Seriously, aside from some wandering around in the woods in subsequent turns, this is all the infantry platoon would accomplish in this game.

Turn three....would be the turning point in the game! Up until this point things had predictably gone badly for my force as they desperately fought these two monsters. However Yankee managed a to hit with it's AC-10 and then made a lucky location roll of box cars, putting that AC-10 round right thru the head's canopy! 

2 Crits were rolled, destroying the life support which was irrelevant as what was left of the pilot was splattered around his cockpit as well! With a groan the mech toppled over into the nearby building and it's accompanying shrubberies, scattering elementals all around (slightly wounding 2 in the process). 

Aww yeah! Yankee is now #1 on my painting queue!

In what would become a reoccurring theme, my Jager's line-of-sight to the Dire Wolf was blocked by the intervening buildings. Thus preventing it from actually doing anything. Again. As usual.

Ironically, using these buildings as cover hide behind was largely the reason I purchased them in the first place. Unfortunately it turns out that that was a double edged sword.

In the following turn Yankee would suffer that same fate, rendering it unable to support the Charger which was again being savaged by the Dire Wolf.

Whilst the Charger fires what lasers it's heat sinks will allow (given the engine hits), it and Rebel engages the Dire Wolf, which sponges all incoming fire with no apparent ill effect! 

The Jager meanwhile blazed away into the Elementals missing with virtually everything, fucker. Whereas the Elementals themselves started chewing on Rebel. 

The Dire Wolf then closed in for the kill, whilst my force closed in to surround the beast. Hell even the little APC that could even came flying in, machine guns blazing (spoiler alert: it missed). 

Rebel wanted to flee, but wouldn't in front of Yankee which had already proved itself my MVP! Basically everything pounded the Dire Wolf from all directions, chewing thru armor and inflicting an engine crit (from Rebel) and taking out a heat sink (from Yankee). 

In return the Jager took it's first hits of the game, the Charger's 2nd large laser was disabled and one of the Enforcers took a hit I think as well. Seriously, that damned Dire Wolf has waaaay too many weapons on it! 

At this point we called it as the hour was getting late and we both had to work in the morning. Had I been paying attention to the time I'd have fired another large laser on the Charger, heat be damned. However I'd only fired one plus the medium to bleed heat for the next turn. Oh well. 

We called it a draw as we weren't sure how the chips would have fallen had we gone another round. Having alpha struck, taken an engine hit and suffering the loss of a double heat sink, his Dire Wolf was cooking at 11+ heat! Likewise his Elementals were out of SRMs. 

On my end, the Charger was almost a heat neutral mech once again having lost 2 large lasers, however it was beat all to hell, and most any hits not on the head or left leg would have just gone straight into the internals. The Jager was fine, the Rebel Enforcer was in fairly rough shape though, whereas Yankee was still fit for active duty without need of much repair. 

Still, it wouldn't take much to drop the Charger and Rebel with no guarantee I could finish off the Dire Wolf at the same time. So a draw it was. 

Fun game, and I'm looking forward to the next.