UM-R68, The Anime Missile SPAM Urbie!

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Every. Single. Turn.

It's not quite WYSIWYG but...close enough (and better than most Battletech variants). 

The spent shell ejection port is instead a vent for excess missile fumes.

Anime missile spam, that's what this Urbie is all about! Dropping the big gun for an MRM-30, this little red Urbie is a beast! Unfortunately, I don't have a generic missile face plate that goes up to 30 holes tubes, but the LRM-20 face plate gets the point across. Assuming this works as well as I hope it will, I'm tempted to make another just like it!

Once the ammo hopper runs dry, this is what you'll see as it waddles off into the sunset..

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... 

The Urbanmech company has arrived!!!

 

Aww yeah!

No real progress on the Battletech front, rather just showing off my latest impulse buy! Prior to this I had just two plastic Urbies after selling all but one of the older, ugly originals (the one that I kept is retired to the display case in honor of its 1-shot kill of a King Crab).

It amuses me to no end that this horde is easily able to fill out our usual 8k point lists with room to spare! Don't think I'll ever actually field that, but it's a fun threat that's already horrifies my buddy Screech. 

I previously had been holding off on painting my two new urbies as I have waaaay more factions than urbies, and couldn't decide on which ones would get an urbie. Now however, there are plenty enough to around meaning if I ever field the whole company, it's likely to be a multi-colored menagerie. 

Or maybe I ought to paint the whole company as a single unit unto themselves....

The TBAGers are painted!

The above represents all that was left of the battalion when the FWL terminated their contract following the Andurien Surrender.

It occurred to me while making the list for my last game, that I really ought to be able to at least field a fully painted 8k force painted in the colors of this blog's namesake unit. As such, this past week I set about doing just that. 

Unlike the billboards of old, the unit logo is much smaller and painted on the left lower legs of mechs. 

Starting off with my original Catapult, I painted up a Charger CGR-SB, Hunchback HBK-4G (or H), A Panther PNT-8Z, two Stinger STG-3Gs, and lastly an infantry platoon. In addition to the Catapult, I also had a previously painted captured heavy APC from Warrior House Hiritsu (see below).

Both lances are short one mech apiece. Also it is something of a mystery as to where they managed to find a replacement arm plating for this rare 8Z variant Panther in the Andurien Warzone! Almost have to wonder if they raided a museum's collection of mechs for it...

Paint scheme is that same as with the catapult: 2-tone brown and green camo, with a broad red stripe running from the top of the head, down the center torso. Additional red accents can be added per the Mechwarrior's preference. This scheme is broken up by multitude of grey-primered replacement armor panels following repairs of battlefield damage that they haven't yet had the time to repaint.

The other Mechwarriors have dubbed this mech 'Socky', much to its pilot's annoyance.

Of specific note is the Hunchback's lower left leg. A victim of being 'legged' This mech was successfully recovered and a replacement came from the ruins of an Andurien Defenders' Hunchback. While plenty of new armor plating joins the 'new' lower leg and foot to the rest of the mech, the resulting appearance is amusing to friend and foe alike!

All that remains of the armor and infantry companies. 

At some point amidst the fighting on Betelgeuse from 3031-3032, The TBAGers captured a Heavy tracked APC from Warrior House Hiritsu. In truth it had simply become hopelessly mired in a bog. Its crew, awaiting recovery units fled when TBAGer mechs approached instead. Extricating the APC themselves, a crewman from an accompanying tank drove it back behind friendly lines under escort to avoid a 'friendly fire incident'.

The infantry making good use of cover.

A red stripe down the transport's center along with the initials 'TBAG' on the left and right flanks were applied hastily and it joined the Buffet Assault Group's ranks. Refusal to repaint the APC following its capture has been a point of pride, while also barring simultaneously it from serving the Capellan Confederation due to having possession of 'blatantly stolen' war material.

At last, to battle once more!

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Diplomacy in action...

This past Saturday, my buddy Screech and I got in a game for the first time in forever. Eight thousand points per side, straight up kill each other lack of scenario. The following is more of a highlight reel than a proper battle report as I have since come down with Covid, and as such I currently feel pretty lousy.

That said I'm feeling better than I did just a day ago due to meds, and as of this writing, Screech doesn't seem to have (yet) contracted the virus from me. Fingers crossed that he doesn't. 

Screech's force. Five, very well equipped 3060s era, unidentified inner sphere mechs. Either the Marian Hegemony got itself very well equipped and then decided on an all the way across the fucking Inner Sphere raid, or it is a thinly veiled Wobbly false flag operation. I'm leaning towards the latter though we'll likely never know... 

My DCMS Sword of Light (though not any one in particular) lance with a DEST jump infantry platoon to round out the points. All of Screech's units were 4/5 pilots often relying on cutting edge tech to make up the difference. My pilots & infantry were all better trained (to varying degrees) with older mechs.

Ahh, I see they've taken the Jenner's 'bait' role a bit too seriously. Time to fire (and miss with) the gauss rifle and LRMs!

Not too much to see here aside from my HBK-4P running full tilt down the road to it's doom!

A 100-ton Marauder II vs. a (by this point) maybe 2ish surviving tons of DEST infantry? Sounds like a fair fight!

Just prior to the pic, the Hunchback somehow managed to stand despite having a +4 to its piloting skill due to a multitude of left leg crits! Furthermore, what was left of its the right arm was lying on the ground nearby. Nonetheless, on its feet again it unloaded its laser onslaught to the opposing Warhammer (already heavily damaged from earlier HBK laser hits and LRMs from the far-off Archer) was knocked out of action due to taking three engine hits!

Screech's Wolverine closes the distance and starts to draw my Archer's ire as you can see... (I just love this sculpt!)

Turning to the enemy catapult, the Hunchback put 5 medium lasers into it. The Cat's LRMs and LBX-2s reply with a punishing salvo that ultimately tears the Hunchback's badly damaged leg clean off!

The Archer never moved from its mountain perch. Instead, it camped out lobbing fairly accurate LRM fire out in all directions, whilst often splitting fire to send its arm mounted medium lasers out after the harassing Shadow Hawk in its midst. The Catapult had to keep jumping around from peak to peak to keep my 7F model Jenner off of its tail. Overall, for my first ever use of a Jenner it did well, look for it again in future bat reps.

The irritated Marauder, unable to shake the damned (ineffective) infantry chooses to ignore them and continue it's duel with my Cyclops. The two traded heavy blows for 3-4 turns straight. However, in the end I was outmaneuvered and had to choose between protecting my thin rear armor, or else trying to finish off the beast!

Going for the kill, I hit with everything and certainly sent the Marauder in for some heavy armor replacement maintenance (never got any crits though). The Wolverine however punched thru my rear armor and hit a full LRM ammo bin in the side torso, vaporizing my mech and ending the game. 

We had already planned on ending the game at the end of this last round as it was getting late, however hitting that ammo sent the game out with a literal bang! Having lost 2 mechs to 1, with all other mechs on the board sporting moderate-to-heavy damage I conceded, and the victory went to Screech's raiders!

Happy Birthday Hoss!

Hoss: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

I took a bit of a hiatus both on this here blog, and with playing Battletech in general. Of my few BT opponents: Kushial's new job more or less caused his hobby time to evaporate. It all but takes an act of Congress to get a game in with Rob (and while we've had recent success with 40k, BT games take decidedly longer). 

Screech deployed to a desert, half a world away for the better part of a year. That said, he's back now and trying to coax the local Battletech players back to the tabletop.

Lastly there was Hoss. 

Hoss is all over this blog. Battle reports, such as the pic above which is from only a few posts ago, taken after his first 1-shot-kill of a mech (my Dragon), followed shortly thereafter by the messy demise of my Hunchback. The last comment received on here was by Hoss on the previous post recapping our last game in October of 2021. 

Sadly, it was to be our last ever game. 

Hoss never painted any mechs for PANDA-MONIUM (that I know of anyways), but I'm guessing his colors would have looked something like this.

Hoss, the wily, entertaining and all too AWESOME commander of the PANDA-MONIUM mercenary company passed away unexpectedly about 6 months ago. The pic top was blown up to 20" x 30" or so by another lifelong friend of his and now hangs in the local FLGS where it was taken.

He may have had more black on the arms and legs in proper 'panda' fashion, however I don't think that would have looked too well on this Shadowhawk.

Today is Hoss' birthday. It would make me happy if everyone wished him a happy birthday wherever they are. You don't have to post it on here, though I won't complain if you do. Rather just say a few quiet words for an amazing gamer who has moved on into the light. 

This mini will forever reside in my display case in fond memory of Hoss.

Hoss, today and every day I hope you find yourself surrounded family, friends, and Pandas. Happy Birthday buddy. 

St. Ives Compact border skirmish

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This pic on it's own resulted in a bit of a threadought on the Battletech International FB page...

Hoss' PANDA-MONIUM!! mercenaries, no doubt in the employ of the accursed Capellan Confederation, launched a raid into the St. Ives Compact, and my St. Ives Lancers rushed to intercept! Here's how it all went down...

Turn either one or two, in which both sides (mine on the right) are closing in on one another...

My new Spider's battlefield debut occurred in the employ of Hoss. Whilst the light mech itself is faster than hell, running into point blank range of 2 medium mechs turned out to be folly. As such, the Spider blew up in the first volley. 

However on the next turn, Hoss concentrated fire on my lead Hunchback (HBK-4H). In fact, it was so concentrated that he cored out the center torso to almost the exclusion of all else, and down it went (permanently). 

The firefight starts in earnest, with my Hunchback (HBK-4SP) hammering Hoss' Jagermech, knocking it to the ground for the first time. That Jagermech would prove to be a nigh unkillable zombiemech...

This game was also my first test run of the new Suburbanmechs. With a 50% increase in speed (to a still abysmal 3/5/3) and no internal ammo to blow up I might never run a regular Urbie again! They proved quite dangerous, though as you can see, the one in the backfield fell under a withering onslaught, after it's entire left torso separated from it's body! 

4.5ish hours in my GF called to see how much longer and was kinda incredulous at the notion of it being maybe another hour or two, lol. She was hungry, but you won't like her when she's hangry! So we finished out the turn and this is where we ended up. 

Technically, Hoss' Jagermech wasn't dead with a lone point of structure holding its right leg on (pay no attention to the other pristine leg...). However there was so much internal damage, that the pilot was knocked unconscious, and he/she would have had a +7 to the piloting roll if this mech had attempted to ever get up again. It irks me that I hit most everything internal crit slot in that side torso BUT the ammo...

A late, last turn kill as I'd managed to leg one of Hoss' Panthers.

Whilst this Suburbie survived the battle, I doubt it would ever see battle again instead serving as spare parts for it's brethren.

The dead pile (notably smaller than our last game).

You may have noticed these awesome dice that Hoss both has and the above set which he gifted to me, huzzah! They keep track of all of the movement modifiers and movement rates on one handy little marker. I'd like to get a second set for myself, though they are currently out of stock.

With two mechs destroyed, and a third one effectively if not technically destroyed as well, Hoss handed me the win. That said, his Catapult, Dervish and second Panther, would all exit the field with nary a scratch on them. On my side, there was fairly moderate damage all around barring that one urbie and the K/O'ed Hunchback, and lastly my untouched Jagermech which was parked on a hilltop in the backfield, where it spent the game plinking away with mild effect all game.

As always my good friend, I look forward to our next game and once again thanks for the dice!!

In recognition of valorous acts in combat...

 ...these two have been painted!

Sorry Blood Angel fanbois, but you're not the only ones with tanks in this color scheme!

The Cyclops is still a WIP, though given that it's base coated red, I'm already more than halfway there. The Draconis Combine's Swords of Light flat red color scheme is...really boring to paint. Metal mechanical bits aside, I did add a smidgen of black as an accent color. 

So much for camouflage...

Being the créme de la créme of the DCMS' elite units, means that these are relatively clean (as opposed to my normal filthy paint jobs). No doubt these machines receive considerably more waxing and buffing time than their lessers. 

The laser housings are black which breaks up the monotony of red without deviating too far from the official color scheme.

That said though, even with some very moderate weathering I'm quite pleased with the end result. 

The side no enemy sees, as these honor-bound warriors would rather die where they stand then retreat from a foe in battle.

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.