Solaris VII event After Action Report

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Hockey games aren't this ugly...

This past weekend was the Solaris VII multiplayer event at out FLGS and it was...alright. I got to meet prettymuch all of the local BattleTech crowd, roll some dice, bullshit with the gang, shoot stuff and of course, have my pink panther be the first mech present to die. All the usual stuff. 

Scott (center) was the primary organizer as with assistance from his buddy Barry on the left there (who's voice sounds a lot like Joe Pesci), and Wyatt to Scott's right. In the foreground you can see Ace & The Master Chief, both ready to rumble! Much to my surprise, no one had every  heard of Ace Darwin's Whipits, or had ever seen anyone with a pink Panther before. 

The whole crew going from left to right: Ian (who sounds surprisingly like my friend Charlie back in TN and is taller than even I am!), Badger (yes, that's his real life name), and again Barry & Scott. 

To the right of Scott is Joe & Chris, Wyatt seen in the 2nd photo above and Jason whom I didn't get a pic of had already left by this point)

And lastly Nick & Dylan. 

The guys who organized the event played in it as well, and given all of the work that they put into 3D printing and painting the terrain, coming up the scenario, etc., why shouldn't they? 12 players, Tech level 1, 3020s era, at least 2 mechs totaling no more than 120 tons (only Chris opted to field a light lance lead by a Crab). 

The initial set up, the blue hexes around the edges being numbered and randomly rolled for. Somehow Ian ended up all on his own on the lefthand side. 

The scenario involved a lot of automated defense turrets that really seemed to bog things down in my opinion. I get what they were aiming for, to force the players into a scrum in the middle, rather than sandbagging in the outfield. However the turrets ate up a lot of time, effectively took Dylan's Orion out of the game on turn 1 with 2 engine crits (notta good experience for a new player). Nick's guillotine took a gyro hit as well.

The Solaris VII, mechs vs turrets game begins...

So many turrets, dear god in heaven, get inside the walls!!

Also, with only Ian on the left side, once his two mechs entered the city (they had a short, straight shot inside the walls), the turrets on that side of the field spun around to attack the nearest target, leaving Nick's Guillotine on our end, and Dylan's now lone surviving Vindicator on the other to run like hell! In total, with 15-16 turrets outside the arena, 2 guarding every gate to the arena and one in the middle, that's like damned near 30! It was a bit...much. 

Yes, exactly.

Armed with a variety of weapons, varying rolls to activate, turrets surrounded by mechs were easily taken down passing out VPs to all who shot them, whereas on the other side, bereft of targets the turrets were ganging up on the few mechs unfortunate enough to be in LRM range.

Skidding at full speed into a wall is a lot of fun, so long it isn't your Wasp doing it! Luckily Ian's other mech was an Atlas. 

At this point, Ace already had no front center torso armor and Chris' Locust at the top was missing an arm or two, and that buttered Crab had seen better days as well. Chris pondered having his Locust run around inside the city, activating all of the turrets. I told him it was a good idea so long as he yelled 'LEERRRRRROY JENKINS! He said sure...why? Ugh, that...hurts...so...much (and I didn't even play Everquest)!

Once inside the city, the wall turrets started to pop-up, and start to attack WTH? When there's already a scrum in progress, who wants to get taken out by a wall turret shooting you in the back?

At this point it was about time for me to go. Originally when I signed up for this we had no plans for the day which was fine as I figured this would take forever with 24+ mechs on the field, commended by a dozen people. However a week and a half ago Frankie heard that a rodeo was in town and so we were going to that in the evening. Thus at the end of turn four, 4.5 hours into the event, my Charger alpha struck into a Blackjack, delivering a 37 points of 'laser good byes', while Ace's Panther disintegrated in the clusterfuck at the wall. Nick checked out as well, not sure if he had plans (he did mention Octoberfest) or had just had enough.

Till we meet again Mr. Blackjack...

As soon as we walked out of the shop and the door closed he turned to me and said: 'So, thoughts?' As I'm sure you can imagine  my first thought was: the turrets need to go. My other thought was to freeze the initiative for the game, or at most reroll when someone dropped out. Instead every turn we rolled for initiative. Followed by roll offs for all of the duplicate rolls, and so on and just that alone was like 10 minutes a turn wasted.  

Nick agreed. Turret combat isn't want Solaris should be about. Again, I get what they were going for but it was just too much. Nick commented that they wanted to really get into the crunchy details whereas at an event like this, streamlining things is better. 

So many thoughts...

Anyways we left, the fam and I went to the rodeo, ate fair food, and here & again I checked my phone to just see 'still going' updates, and after we got home and were chilling out a bit before going to bed, the discord notification came in that the last mech standing was declared at 10:45pm (the game started at 12:30PM), with Scott the winner. 

Hrmm...I know I wasn't there for the last 6 hours, but I always find it a little suspect when an event organizer wins his own event. Those still in attendance didn't have anything but praise, so no foul play appears to have taken place which is good. But still I can't help but wonder...

Reading back thru, this post came a bit more negative than intended. The FLGS is wanting me to help organize an upcoming Urbie Derby. So I guess my turn in the sun to be complained about is coming...

This week's mechs

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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!

This week's roundup.

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The new Charger sculpt reminds me of something, but I just can't quite place it...

lol, as you can see, I painted up my new KS Charger. I love the Charger, its one of my favorite minis, and it will be one of the two mechs that I will be fielding in my local FLGS' upcoming 3020s era, Solaris free-for-all event. 

Bob's Boomerang, your morning commute's eye in the sky!  is reporting heavy foot traffic on access lane 4...

Those large pauldron armor plates are screaming for a logo of some sort! 

Originally, I was thinking of running the original CGR-1A1 as it is a true zombie mech in that the head, Center torso and legs are the only things to worry about. Well, that and I was hoping to try a charge attack, where if the stars all correctly align, the Charger can mete out a whopping 64 points of impact damage (in 5 point increments)! 

 That 'charge maneuver' might work...once. Then, after my poor, hapless target was cartwheeled across the field following its 80-ton impact. I would likely be shot by everything still left on the table (and the winner is the last mech standing). As such, I'll go with my good ol' standby Zombie-Charger, the CGR-SB Challenger. 

Post Solaris event, I'm not sure who will get this mech, be it my deep periphery Mercs: Battle Rattle, or if it'll gain a pink paw print and join my still winless Ace Darwin's Whipits (I was thinking of bringing Ace to the event purely for style points, even if it is out of his era). Or possibly just start a new faction altogether like the DCMS' Dieron Regulars, allowing me to field this as a CGR-1A9.

Queue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries...

The one on the left has a bit of foliage stuck to its turret, apparently it got a bit too close to the treetops!

Run away!

The counter rotating props give these a very Russian KA-52 vibe. I have a feeling that they will be just as ineffective in combat as their real life counterparts...

I also painted up my Warrior attack VTOLS. These make my TBAGers the first (ever) unit of mine to have its own air support, meagre as they might be. These look to easiest to field in Alpha Strike, and will likely be contained to just that form of BattleTech play. Actually on second thought, I'll try one of these out in a game of Classic tomorrow night. I'll let ya know how that turns out.   

All together!

Lastly, I also got my first Steel Haven campaign game in. It was a lot of fun even though I lost the snatch and grab scenario. All damage was free to repair for the first game which is good as my Assassin suffered an ammo hit and was obliterated! While my mech will be rebuilt for free, I am down one mechwarrior as there wasn't enough left of that guy to even bury. 

The Buffet Assault Group and 4th Syke Rangers pose for a pre-game, full company photo op.