Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Hyena]

LordMortis: We can attempt to buy a replacement Hunchback on the black market. Or we can just go nuts and stick you into an Atlas - there's one for sale at "only" 75% of sticker price, 7.2M C-Bills. "Well-used but well-maintained, owner exiled from FedCom space and unable to retrieve.", reads the advertisement.

I didn't mind being a more nimble support for the larger mechs, but sure, I'll upgrade to stationary munitions depot. I'll get used to missiles. Somehow it won't feel safer but as long as I have a lot fire buttons to push, I'll be OK, right?

Plus it might be interesting to be ambushed by said owner when we venture beyond FedCom space. I mean, who's gonna just leave an Atlas sitting around, amiright?

(Unless it's that crappy one from the BattleTech game that can't hold a candle to my foursome of Highlanders that I normally run with... I hate that 'mech)

[Freyland]

Fed-Com sounds like a good plan. How can they resist our winning smile? Well, maybe Isgrimnur's.....

Throw me back in a Quickdraw. Suits my Med-laser skills and I like being the heavy-weight in the recon lance.

[NickAragua]

Before burning for orbit, we have some empty space on the Mule, so we take on about 4500 tons of cargo (agricultural goods and whatnot), to defray transport costs. Well, 450k c-bills isn't too bad, but it barely pays for a third of our fuel costs. Merchants, we ain't.

On the way back to Outreach, we hire a bunch of replacement mechwarriors. A lot of them have their own mechs, but we do buy one additional mech: a Catapult. For those not familiar, it's a 65-tonner, 4/6/4, with four medium lasers and two LRM/15 racks, one on each shoulder. It's lightly armored, but mobile. It'll be a very good addition to our forces.

Just a couple of jumps from Outreach, the Union develops a problem with its engine. It gets fixed, but costs a whopping 140k c-bills in parts.

When we arrive on Outreach, we're almost immediately contacted by a representative from the Free Worlds League. Wants us to head down to Irian and use our "extensive battlefield experience" to train a cadre of recruits over the course of the next four months. Irian is a short two jumps away, and is one of the power house industrial worlds of the Free Worlds League.

Dirty details:
55% transport coverage
10% salvage rights (in case we get into a live fire fight)
20% support costs
Green/F allies and Green/C "opposition"
"House" command
51.7M estimated profit

This should be a nice, relaxing four months. We'll rotate our guys between training exercises and R&R, and maybe see if we can get ahold of those Streak SRM systems. The Marik rep does concede that they occasionally see Lyran or Capellan raiders, but, for the most part, we'll be training rookie elements of the 3rd Free Worlds Guards and the 18th Marik Militia. We'll also have access to the local factories so we can carry out any refits we want, and won't have trouble maintaining our units.

With the Ronin Wars over in Rasalhague being over and the Andurien Revolt on the southern Capellan-Free Worlds border having been put down as well, there's just not much in the way of good contracts. Everything else is "deniable raid this" or "meat grinder diversion that".

Spoiler:

We sign the contract and are on our way shortly. Irian is a pleasant, near-normal gravity world at .95G. It's not all sunshine and rainbows though, there's a lot of heavy industry, most of which is controlled by Irian Technologies or one of its subsidiaries. We arrive in late June, and, by the 29th, are unpacked and ready to get to work. Our command staff spends a few days planning a training regimen with the locals, and soon we deploy on joint exercises with the 3rd Guards. We wind up having to re-organize our units to accommodate having to have three of the scrubs riding along with each of our lances - each company gets a "training overflow lance", into which we put every fourth mechwarrior from the other lances. It's a little awkward, but workable, and we're only here for four months. Since we don't expect much in the way of actual combat, we can simply look for our next contract from here, once we're done.

July 2nd, 3035
Alpha-One (minus Isgrimnur, who's taking it easy by yelling at his own team of Marik recruits) gets to try out their new mechs. Gbasden back in an Awesome, El Guapo in the Banshee, and Stefan in a Trebuchet. We're babysitting a bunch of snot-nosed rookies, driving a Stalker, a Thunderbolt and a Quickdraw. We've come up with an exercise where the "enemy" unit needs to rout us quickly (they've got about two and a half minutes). This will give the Marik rookies with Alpha-One a chance to experience what it's like to engage a superior enemy force, and will give the opfor a chance to fight in sub-optimal conditions with a time limit.

We pick the terrain, a swamp, at dusk. The opposing force consists of a heavy lance (Crusader, Rifleman, Archer, Quickdraw), a medium lance (Wasp, Javelin, Wolverine, Archer) and two heavy tank lances.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Well, it definitely looks like these guys are going to need to work on their piloting skills first and foremost, as a Wasp jumps into some swampy terrain and gets stuck right away. Our simulated PPC shots fly overhead, but it's not a good look.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The Thunderbolt that the Marik rookie scrub is driving is a 5SS variant. It replaces the large laser with a PPC and has three medium lasers, an SRM/6 launcher and a flamer, in addition to 21 heat sinks. It's not too bad, but lacks the jump capability of the SE variant that we use.

We fire several simulated PPC shots and assorted other ordnance at the stuck Wasp, as it's unable to climb out, and by the end of the process, the mech would have been missing all of its limbs. Gbasden got an arm and a leg, Stefan got a leg and the allied Stalker got the another arm. The computer sends the mech into the muck.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A Javelin jumps in within short range of El Guapo, who opens up with the laser array and autocannon. Three laser hits, but no breach or knock down. The stuck Wolverine takes some fire from the scrubs in the Stalker and Thunderbolt - one of the Stalker's large lasers registers a hit on the gyro, and the Wolverine goes down into the much as well. We're definitely going to have to have a conversation about appropriate usage of terrain.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

For a bunch of guys whose job it is to take us down quickly, the opfor is being very timid. Except for the Javelin, who's being suicidal, but somehow manages to avoid getting blown up as both the allied Stalker and Thunderbolt fire on it. A "punch" from the Thunderbolt does knock the left "arm" off, though. El Guapo strips a lot of simulated armor off a Partisan, but the computer only registers moderate motive system damage.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Javelin jumps in behind Stefan, but he's on the ball, swinging the right arm around and putting a pair of medium laser beams into the torso section. Gbasden zaps it with a PPC as well, and the computer simulation shows the little mech's leg snapping off as it falls over. El Guapo finishes off the Partisan - the vehicle shuts down as the low-power PPC shot hits it.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Fine", El Guapo thinks to himself as a bunch of simulated ordnance comes his way. "I'll back up."

Round 7:

Spoiler:

We have some trouble landing shots, while the opfor plinks away at our armor. Stefan's right leg goes yellow after taking a PPC from a distant Brutus assault tank. The Thunderbolt does land a couple of lasers on the Condor, causing its computer to lock the turret up for the crew.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

And so he does. The Condor has a bad day, first with a simulated armor breach from the Thunderbolt, then, as it skids to a halt, a simulated PPC shot from El Guapo's mech through the center.

Round 9:
The allied Stalker and Stefan puts a few lasers and LRMs into a Bulldog, inflicting minor armor and motive system damage. Between El Guapo's PPCs and our other units, the enemy Quickdraw wobbles around, but remains upright. These lasers may be low-powered, but they can still light the woods on fire. Whoops!

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The opposing Quickdraw decides to give Stefan a present and lands in a swamp just sixty meters in front of him, getting stuck and exposing its back to laser fire. He scores hits, but its armor is thick enough to absorb unconcentrated laser fire.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Ugh.

On the plus side, Stefan continues drilling through the opposing Quickdraw's rear armor, and cuts off the LRM/10 launcher, also damaging the upper actuator on the left leg, which forces the mech to lose its balance and fall over.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Stefan and El Guapo's concentrated fire removes the Quickdraw from action. If it was actual combat, the mech would be unsalvageable.

Round 13:
*beep* ammunition explosion detected on target battlemech *beep*, the computer informs our mechwarriors are the allied Thunderbolt finally puts that stuck, legged, gyro-less Wolverine out of its misery. Gbasden takes a couple of PPC shots from the distant Brutus, continuing the duel there.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

We continue exchanging ineffective long-range fire - the Brutus' left side armor is almost gone, while El Guapo begins working on the Rifleman.

At this point, the instructor calls time. "All units cease fire. Defending force has accomplished its objective. Attacking force, return to base."

We spend the rest of the week drilling the Marik forces on proper movement techniques in wetland terrain. Well, their mech guys, anyway. Their tanks did ok, except for the part where half their force decided against even attempting to move forward. That got them a chewing out, for sure.

Next week, we'll be staging a base capture/defense exercise, with Beta-One supervising.

By the way, Stefan, if you want to try out the Catapult instead of the Trebuchet, let me know. Also, Isgrimnur, if you want to upgrade to something beefier than the Hatchetman, feel free to chime in as well. We've got a spare Grasshopper, Orion and Warhammer for heavies, Griffins and Wolverines for mediums.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Whats the cat v tre stats? Both have lrms x2 but armour? And jj?

[NickAragua]

Catapult has 2x LRM/15, 4x medium lasers, 160 armor, 4/6/4 movement, 2 tons of LRM ammo.
Trebuchet has 1x LRM/15, 3x medium lasers, 128 armor, 5/8/5 movement, 1 ton of LRM ammo.

So basically, a Catapult is a slightly slower, but tougher and harder-hitting version of the Trebuchet 5J.

[Isgrimnur]

I think I’ll stick with the hatchet for the time being, recent unpleasantness notwithstanding.

[Freyland]

How the heck do you simulate physical combat?

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Wow. Yeah definitely switch. For some reason i thought it was lightly armoured. Will take movement hit but i will bring the rain on our enemies

[gbasden]

So basically, a Catapult is a slightly slower, but tougher and harder-hitting version of the Trebuchet 5J.

Which just seems totally backwards. When you look at the actual siege engines, the Trebuchet hits harder.

[El Guapo]

So basically, a Catapult is a slightly slower, but tougher and harder-hitting version of the Trebuchet 5J.

Which just seems totally backwards. When you look at the actual siege engines, the Trebuchet hits harder.

It's also weird because Middle Age catapults in fact had stronger jump jets.

[Isgrimnur]

[AWS260]

How the heck do you simulate physical combat?

The mechs tickle each other.

[gbasden]

So basically, a Catapult is a slightly slower, but tougher and harder-hitting version of the Trebuchet 5J.

Which just seems totally backwards. When you look at the actual siege engines, the Trebuchet hits harder.

It's also weird because Middle Age catapults in fact had stronger jump jets.

Well, that's a given.

[NickAragua]

Physical combat is probably simulated the same way that an AC/20 impact is simulated. The firing unit probably sends out a signal saying "I'm kicking you and I hit" or "I'm punching you and I miss", at which point the target unit simulates rattling. Probably easier to do it with mechs, since they already have neurohelmets and gyros. Not sure how you simulate, to a tank crew, being kicked and flipped over. Probably just shut it down?

July 9, 3035
Harlan Airbase

"Tonight, we will be simulating a night-time attack against an enemy airbase." Zenn7 explains to the Marik rookies. "Our objective is to seize the facility intact. So the first thing you need to understand is that, every time you're firing off your weapons, and your targeting reticle is over a building, ask yourself - is this going to render the whole exercise pointless?"

"What about gun emplacements, sir?" Asks one of the trainees.

"Leave them, unless they're particularly nasty, in which case, try to target them directly." Answers Zenn7.

"Now, pay attention. This is a dense, sprawling base, with not much room to maneuver. Manage your sight lines, and watch your speed on the pavement, you'll slip if you go too fast. Stay at least two hundred and seventy meters away from those Demolishers, they will ruin your day otherwise. You, in the Spider, pay attention where you're going. A sneeze will take your mech apart. You, in the Shadow Hawk, use your jump jets and your boots and fire all your guns, your mech is basically heat-proof. You, in the Dervish, watch your heat levels, bracket your fire. Us three in the assaults will form the base of fire, and you guys will be bringing in the flanks. The opfor will be attempting to simulate a Lyran Commonwealth force, so expect a bunch of slow-poke heavy units."

"One more thing. If the computer says that your mech is crippled, you are to withdraw immediately. Same will go for the opposing force. Any more questions?"

"Why are we doing this at night, in the rain, sir?"

"Because it's harder that way." Zenn7 responds with a smirk.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Well, it looks like the opfor is on the ball and has scrambled six fighters already. The pepper the trainees with LRMs, while our AA fire proves ineffective.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

LordMortis "breaks in" the new Atlas by slipping on the pavement and falling over. Good thing none of the rookies were around to see it. The hovertank to the west is called a "Drillson". It's actually been in service in the Federated Suns for about thirteen years now, but some salvage must have made it to the Free Worlds League. It's a pretty beefy 50-ton hovercraft, similar to the Sabaku Kaze. It packs a large laser and two SRM/2 launchers on a turret, plus a front-mounted LRM/10 launcher and some machine guns for dealing with stray infantry. Not a bad hovertank at all, so we'll need to take it out ASAP.

LordMortis also "breaks in" the new Atlas by unloading LRMs and SRMs at a fighter passing overhead. The simulated missiles pepper the little aircraft and the Atlas' computer reports internal damage.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 points a pair of PPCs at a Golden Eagle buzzing by, and the computer reports it destroyed. Zarathud gets a hit on an aircraft as well, but takes damage from the Drillson as it zips in, with a distant Brutus providing LRM fire for cover. LordMortis boots the hovercraft, stripping just about all armor off the turret. The rookie in the Spider's already inside the base, shooting at an LRM Carrier which is helpless to return fire at point blank range.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

LordMortis chases down the Drillson as it zips away and gives it an AC/20 burst to the turret, flagging the hovercraft as destroyed. Zarathud, meanwhile, begins firing at the Brutus, causing substantial (simulated) damage to the treads.

The rookie Shadow Hawk hanging out with Zenn7 exchanges light weapons fire with a nearby Valkyrie, punching it in the right torso as well.

"Concentrate fire!", Zenn7 reminds them.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Valkyrie hops over to try to pick on Zenn7, and eats three PPC shots, with two breaching torso armor. The lighter mech's computer wobbles it around and it falls over.

"So you see, when jumping up to an assault mech, it's best to jump into the rear arc. And even then, you still have to watch out, because sometimes they can torso twist and swing an arm back and get you with an AC/20."

Zarathud and LordMortis combine fire on the Brutus to the west, severely damaging its motive systems, while the allied Spider jumps in and gives the LRM Carrier another laser. The vehicle's armor register as breached. As the mechwarrior is celebrating with a kick to a nearby Pegasus, he whiffs and falls over. That's going to be problematic.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Zenn7's targeting computer reports that the Valkyrie has simulated the loss of the right torso section, and the mech is flagged as crippled. He switches targets to a Vedette down the road, eliminating it.

To the south, LordMortis inflicts substantial damage on a Manticore that comes out, while the Spider gets up and manages to avoid an LRM salvo from the nearby turret, as well as weapons fire from the adjacent Vedette, even giving it a good kick to stun the crew.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The Dervish and Shadow Hawk box the Saracen in, as it tries to get away down an alley. The Shadow Hawk gives the light hovertank a solid medium laser and SRM salvo, breaching its armor.

Zarathud breaches armor on the Brutus, flagging the vehicle as crippled.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

We continue our slow, plodding advance into the city. With help from Zarathud's PPC fire, LordMortis uses the AC/20 to blow away the nearby Manticore (simulated), then looks with disappointment at the Wasp that has chosen to jump in to his left. He sends the appropriate neurohelmet commands to trigger a kick with the left leg, and the bug mech falls over. From the outside, it looks like a marionette with its strings cut, but the computer reports total destruction of the right half of the mech.

The trainee in the Spider continues his reign of terror, picking off a Pegasus hovertank with lasers and a boot. We'll want to keep an eye on this one, he's doing pretty well.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Zenn7's Manticore target moves out of line of sight, so he plows PPC shots into a distant Demolisher instead, almost breaching the armor on the left side. The Dervish supporting Zenn7 gets some LRMs in on the weakened armor, crippling the tank as well.

LordMortis fires his LRMs at a fighter that comes flying overhead for another pass. "*triple beep* ammunition explosion on target". Zarathud also gets another hit in on a fighter, disabling an SRM/2 launcher. These gnats aren't very threatening, but they keep flying around and zapping our mechs in the back, so it's good to take them out as we get the opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Spider trainee immobilizes a Vedette. If he manages to keep his mech intact through the exercise, we'll be impressed.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The trainee Shadow Hawk makes the mistake of jumping into the firing arc of a Brutus and takes multiple hits, a large laser to the left torso and SRMs to the head. Stays up, but pay attention! At least he scores a nasty hit on the motive system with the medium laser.

Zenn7 zaps another fighter out of existence, while Zarathud begins working on a Prowler from long range. LordMortis steps over in front of a Vedette, while firing LRMs at the same Prowler. The Vedette doesn't do too well after being worked over with an AC/20, medium lasers and SRMs. "*triple beep* ammunition explosion on target" comes up again.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

LordMortis takes down the Prowler with the AC/20 as it darts around trying to dodge Zarathud's PPCs. A platoon of jump troopers leaves the tank and strike out on their own (it's allowed under the rules of the wargame). The rookie in the Shadow Hawk closes with the Brutus and begins stomping on it, causing damage to the treads. "That's right, if you stay on top of him, he won't be able to fire back.", advises the guy in the Spider.

Meanwhile, Zenn7 blasts another fighter. It remains intact, but the "crippled" flag comes up, and the opfor flyer is forced to withdraw. Maybe it has something to do with all the armor on the wings and nose having been peeled off.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

LordMortis takes off at a brisk run down the road and unloads on the Manticore up ahead. It was previously damaged by Zenn7, so breaching its armor is no problem when applying an AC/20 burst to the front, followed up by medium lasers. The trainee Dervish opens up with short range weapons on the Hunter, keeping the crew penned up in there for some time.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

The remaining aircraft continue buzzing around, although one of the gnats takes another PPC hit. The trainees stick with their target vehicles and continue peeling off armor. The Shadow Hawk's pilot lets out a triumphant whoop as his computer registers the Brutus' armor breached.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 blows away another gnat, bringing the total to probably about five out of six. The infantry fires on LordMortis, but it's hard to breach the armor on an Atlas with hand-held infantry weapons. He "stomps" on the nearby Scimitar, taking it out of business.

Round 15:

Spoiler:

Another gnat out of the fight by Zenn7. LordMortis takes down the last Demolisher, leaving the base defenders an infantry platoon, a beat-up Hunter and six turrets for defense.

The exercise overseer and the opfor leader call it. "Attacking force wins. Base captured."

We recommend the mechwarrior driving the Spider (one "Kieran Mihajlovic") for a commendation. He's a natural. He did a bang-up job harassing those bottled-up tanks and keeping them from joining the battle against the rest of our units, while keeping his mech more or less in one piece. LordMortis seems pretty happy with the Atlas' performance, having scored no less than eight kills. Zenn7 receives the "unofficial anti-aircraft battery" award, having accounted for a total of five aircraft.

The rest of the week is spent drilling Marik trainees on night-time operations. And the next week, as a lot of them have trouble "getting it". No matter how many times LordMortis explains about searchlights, night-vision systems and light discipline, there always seems to be some doofus who "wanted to see better" and lights up his entire lance trying to get a better shot on a Vedette.

With a routine settling in, a couple of our mechwarriors find themselves at the local military watering hole and run into a Lt. Colonel Geoff Ferrero, who approaches Scrub with a smirk on his face.

"Welcome to the Marik side of the fence, Captain."

"Thanks, for now. Been keeping tabs on me, Lt. Colonel?" Scrub answers.

"Sure, I read the reports. And please, we're off duty. Geoff is fine."

"Zanthe." Scrub says as she extends her hand. "I take it the secret research base business is treating you well?" she asks.

"Of course." Geoff answers with a sly grin. "But we do like to rotate back to civilization once in a while. Speaking of which, any particular reason your company took the contract? It seems pretty low-profit, for a group with battallion of mechs and their own transport."

Scrub thinks for a second. "Well, we're all pretty tired after our stint in Rasalhague territory. This isn't exactly a vacation, but it's a lot less stressful. Not much in the way of other work, either. Our other options were mostly raid, raid, raid... oh, and raid." She shrugs, then considers her options.

Should we see if we can ask the Lt. Colonel about acquiring some Streak SRMs?

[El Guapo]

Sure. Assuming that "streak SRMs" isn't a euphemism for cock, in which case that's up to Lt. Scrub.

[NickAragua]

One last thing I forgot:

The latest from the mech market is that there's a Victor and a Battlemaster available.

The Victor is a strictly short range, 80-ton mech - AC/20, 2x Medium Laser, 1x SRM/4 with a 4/6/4 movement profile. 186 armor. 6.4M C-Bills, a 20% discount off the sticker price, which is weird considering it's coming straight out of a factory on-planet. Manufacturing defect?
The Battlemaster is pretty legendary 85-tonner - PPC, SRM/6, 6x Medium laser, and two machine guns for some reason. 3/5 movement. 232 armor. 7.2M (a 15% discount off the sticker price).

Both are pretty good mechs, although we're flush with heavy metal already. Our warchest is currently at 293M C-bills. We'll definitely buy them if there are any takers. And even if there aren't, I might just pick them up anyway, put them in storage, just for some variety in mechs.

[LordMortis]

LordMortis "breaks in" the new Atlas by slipping on the pavement and falling over.

LordMortis also "breaks in" the new Atlas by unloading LRMs and SRMs at a fighter passing overhead.

[Zenn7]

Sure, Scrubb can discuss streaking with him.

[Hyena]

One last thing I forgot:

The latest from the mech market is that there's a Victor and a Battlemaster available.

The Victor is a strictly short range, 80-ton mech - AC/20, 2x Medium Laser, 1x SRM/4 with a 4/6/4 movement profile. 186 armor. 6.4M C-Bills, a 20% discount off the sticker price, which is weird considering it's coming straight out of a factory on-planet. Manufacturing defect?
The Battlemaster is pretty legendary 85-tonner - PPC, SRM/6, 6x Medium laser, and two machine guns for some reason. 3/5 movement. 232 armor. 7.2M (a 15% discount off the sticker price).

Both are pretty good mechs, although we're flush with heavy metal already. Our warchest is currently at 293M C-bills. We'll definitely buy them if there are any takers. And even if there aren't, I might just pick them up anyway, put them in storage, just for some variety in mechs.

Would you recommend a switch from my Striker for either one of those? The battlemaster sounds good to me if it is worth it.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Buy the mechs i think too

[LordMortis]

So basically, a Catapult is a slightly slower, but tougher and harder-hitting version of the Trebuchet 5J.

Which just seems totally backwards. When you look at the actual siege engines, the Trebuchet hits harder.

It's also weird because Middle Age catapults in fact had stronger jump jets.

Who is doing our shopping?

[NickAragua]

I'd say that the Battlemaster is more or less an upgrade from the Striker. Just as fast, more armor and more firepower. The only problem it has is that it loses the medium-ranged punch from the AC/10. However, it more than makes up for it at short range with twice as many medium lasers and the SRM launcher. Once we get it shipped in, we'll drop the machine gun ammo tonnage down to a half ton and add extra armor.

There's actually a pretty crazy variant that we can refit to that moves at 3/5/3 instead of 4/6. But that'll require several months of work with factory equipment (it's an engine AND a gyro swap). Which we can do, but it means neither the mech nor the tech will be available.

Also, I can't believe nobody made a poop joke yet.

----

"... that", Scrub returns the grin, "and we heard you folks have been working on some fancy new tech, and want to see if we can buy some."

Geoff chuckles. "Well, that depends."

"On what?"

"If your company is willing to do us a couple of favors."

"Such as?" Scrub raises an eyebrow.

"Well, you know. Blowing things up, killing people. Nothing that a merc usually wouldn't do."

Scrub's eyebrow remains raised.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. We're not going to ask you to gun down civilians or anything like that." Geoff rolls his eyes. "But, if you find yourselves out in the north end of Kurita territory or in the middle of Steiner space, we might ask you to eliminate a target. Or allow a target to be eliminated. Or maybe get someone out of a holding facility. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll work out the details before you burn for the jump point."

"Are those streak launchers really that good?" Scrub asks, somewhat incredulous.

"They're pretty good, yeah. You know how normal SRMs are just dumb-fire rockets?" Geoff spreads his arms. "Well, these have guidance systems, fins and wobbly bits. They're a half ton heavier, though, so you'll need to get creative if you want to mount them on your mechs."

"Wobbly bits?" Scrub snorts in amusement.

Geoff shrugs. "I'm not really an expert on the tech. I've used them in my mech, and I can tell you their performance characteristics, but don't ask me to explain how they work. I'm just in charge of security." He gestures to the bar. "Care for a beverage?"

Scrub nods. "Sure, why not. You can tell me all about why so many of your recruits are such scrubs." She says with a smirk.

----
Having identified a non-trivial amount of weaknesses in the Marik recruits' tactics and techniques, we spend the next almost three months on "basic and advanced tactical exercises". Most of the recruits are, frankly, dopes, and it's a wonder that some of those guys are able to zip up their pants in the morning, let alone drive a battlemech. We show them what we can, but only some of them really "get it". When the last month of our contract comes up, we elect to stage a few more simulated-fire exercises.

October 9, 3035
Gamma-One (minus Cylus) takes a group of three attached trainees out to the mountains. It's snowing. Scrub informs the trainees that their goal here is to engage and keep the opposing force occupied for two and half minutes. "The trick", she says, "is that we're not here to kill them, just get them to engage us instead of whatever their actual objective is. They're supposed to try to kill us fast, so that they can move on to said actual objective. As usual, if your computer tells you you're crippled, you are to withdraw immediately, or power down if you can't. Stay on the move, use the terrain to manage line of sight, and don't get blown up."

We don't have the Battlemaster ready yet, so it'll be Scrub in the Warhammer, Xwraith in the Thunderbolt, Hyena in the Striker. The attached trainees are a Flea, a Griffin 1N and a Vulcan 2T. Yes, a Flea. Boy, that guy must have pissed somebody off. Nothing to write home about, but, thankfully, it's only a training exercise. The opposing force has committed a heavy mech lance, backed up by the usual assortment of garbage vehicles. Although, there is an LRM Carrier and a Manticore.

The way it works out is that they're basically coming down a hill at us. Not the most optimal situation.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We exchange LRMs and PPC fire at long range, with not much effect.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Hyena takes a simulated beating from LRMs and PPCs, but keeps the mech upright. One of his lasers winks out, though. We damage the Manticore a little bit, with Scrub and one of the trainees landing PPCs and LRMs on it to register tread damage.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

More fire is exchanged, with no armor breaches on either side.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Hyena backs up away from the incoming swarm and blasts away at a Condor with an AC/10, scoring major damage to the motive system. Xwraith hops to the west, disabling a Pegasus with lasers. Another Pegasus zips right up to Scrub's Warhammer, catching a full load of short range weapons to the front and settling down to the ground with a *beep*. However, we take a pounding - that LRM Carrier and the two Crusaders are really giving us the what-for with their LRMs.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

This isn't looking too hot. On the plus side, Scrub's Warhammer gets to use its machine guns for their intended purpose: anti-infantry work. We loaded the ammo bin with paintballs, rather than actual anti-personnel rounds, so most of that squad is covered in green paint. The attached Vulcan blasts the Condor with a laser and a machine gun burst to disable it, and that's about the only good thing that happens this round. Scrub's Warhammer informs her that "Critical hit, left leg. Critical hit, left arm. Weapon destroyed. Critical hit, left torso.", and then the mech tilts over and falls to the ground. Xwraith's Thunderbolt jumps out to absorb some of the incoming fire and absorbs a little too much - the enemy Grasshopper nails our mech in the center torso with a bunch of lasers, damaging the engine and gyro. The Thunderbolt falls over as well.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

With two of our mechs out of the fight, it's time to begin a tactical advance to the rear. We still want to harass the enemy as we go, though. Hyena breaks east, blasting the harassing Wasp, although it keeps coming. The attached trainee's Griffin jumps north, intending to take the ground, while the Vulcan heads south. The flee moves west and loses the left arm mount to a laser and some LRMs. Well, nothing important there, anyway.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Hyena's Striker reports total mech destruction and powers down on the spot, as pretty much every enemy unit focused fire on him. The attached trainee in the Vulcan does manage to knock down the Wasp, whose mechwarrior blacks out when it hits the ground, but it's a little too late for that.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The trainee guys are on their own now. They'll need to survive for the next minute and a half or so. Can they do it?

The Griffin goes north. The Vulcan stays south. The Flea breaks west.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Griffin runs into a lance of opfor reinforcements. Yikes. The Flea takes some fire, but even a Flea can absorb an AC/2 hit. The Vulcan manages to disable a Vedette, making that his second kill of the exercise.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The Rommel to the northeast is the answer to the question "what is the minimum tank weight at which we can mount an AC/20 and not be a one-shot kill". It's a solid main battle tank. To the south, the Vulcan takes an SRM-fueled beating, but remains upright, although its left leg armor is gone. The trainee still manages to kick a Scorpion, marking the vehicle as destroyed. The Griffin immobilizes an LRM Carrier with a one-two punch, staying clear of the Rommel's AC/20.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Griffin loses the right arm to a Manticore's PPC, along with its main armament (a PPC also). The Vulcan takes some internal damage, but causes some to the Packrat's motive systems, slowing the vehicle's interminable pursuit a bit. The Griffin's troubles don't end there, as the mechwarrior whiffs a kick and falls over.

Round 12:
The Griffin elects to go prone to take cover from that large group of enemy units. Probably a wise decision short-term, but long term? The Flea gets its first and only kill, finally taking out the Packrat. A distant Orion then lines up an LRM salvo, blasting off the left half of the tiny mech and knocking the mech over, at which point the mechwarrior inside blacks out.

Although annoyed at the loss of a third of their force (the lighter, expendable part, suitable for screening), the instructor and Scrub call the exercise in the opfor's favor. She reports to the medbay with sprains on both the right arm and left leg.

It seems that our exercises with the Marik units have borne *some* fruit - they've gotten better.

----

Zarathud: Gunnery or piloting improvement?

Also, Scrub's continued conversations with the Lt. Col. Ferrero basically yields the following terms: each batch purchase of Streak SRM launchers will translate into an owed favor. At an arbitrary point in the future, they will add an extra objective to one of our missions while we are on contract. Alternately, they'll propose a contract to us when we are available. "We'll try our best to make sure it doesn't create a conflict of interest for you, and won't force you to break any contracts. Any further purchases of advanced hardware will be at your discretion, but you'll owe us another favor. Naturally."

So, the meat on Streak SRMs. SRM/2 launchers weigh an extra half ton over the standard SRM/2 launcher (so, 1.5 tons). The weapon will fire when it will hit, and not fire when it'll miss, thus saving heat. Plus, if it does hit, all the missiles hit, unlike for standard SRM/2s. Ammo capacity per ton is the same as standard SRM/2s (50 shots). So, they're good, but...

The half-ton weight increase means we can't just drop these in place of existing SRM/2 launchers, so we'll have to customize mechs. Not sure how I'll handle that, yet, but if we go for it, we'll make it work.

[Freyland]

The limited pro's do not outweigh the numerous con's, which include the meta-gaming portion of the deal. That could get dicey.

[El Guapo]

How does the Streak SRM2 compare to a medium laser? My vague recollection from previous battletech games is that SRM launchers aren't worth getting out of bed for unless they're SRM6s.

[NickAragua]

Streak: 1.5 tons, 4 damage, 2 heat.
MedLas: 1 ton, 5 damage, 3 heat.

So, it's got a better damage/heat ratio (which is improved because you don't generate heat on misses), but worse damage/weight ratio.

[Hyena]

Personally, I don't like being in someone's back pocket, especially if it's just for a slight upgrade.

Now if it was for a batch of heavy laser condoms?

Now yer talkin'...

[Zarathud]

Gunnery. I'm in an Awesome, not anything that should be maneuvering.

[gbasden]

I dunno. I think it might be worth it, given the all or nothing hit and heat savings. An extra objective should be achievable.

[LordMortis]

Personally, I don't like being in someone's back pocket, especially if it's just for a slight upgrade.

Now if it was for a batch of heavy laser condoms?

Now yer talkin'...

First you gotta ask yourself "how does this affect LordMortis?"

I believe my SRMs are SRMs and won't worry about heat as they tend to fire when LRMs can't. So we're good with a pass.

[El Guapo]

How many launchers are in a "batch"? And can we use regular SRM2 ammo in streak launchers?

Assuming that we get a decent number of launchers in a "batch", then I'm fine with the deal. One extra objective or what have you doesn't seem especially onerous. Although, what happens if we fail the bonus objective, or if they give us an absurd objective and we tell them to fuck off?

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it, but would lean towards 'yes' if we get a decent number of launchers out of it.

[Hyena]

How many launchers are in a "batch"? And can we use regular SRM2 ammo in streak launchers?

Assuming that we get a decent number of launchers in a "batch", then I'm fine with the deal. One extra objective or what have you doesn't seem especially onerous. Although, what happens if we fail the bonus objective, or if they give us an absurd objective and we tell them to fuck off?

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it, but would lean towards 'yes' if we get a decent number of launchers out of it.

Yeah, my concern with 'em is they only launch 2 missiles at a time, right? For all the hassle of the .5 tons, most likely special ammo, and being someone else's lackey because of a couple of missiles per shot, I don't think it's worth it.

If these were SSRM 6's, I would be a "hell yeah," but right now I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

[LordMortis]

How many launchers are in a "batch"? And can we use regular SRM2 ammo in streak launchers?

Assuming that we get a decent number of launchers in a "batch", then I'm fine with the deal. One extra objective or what have you doesn't seem especially onerous. Although, what happens if we fail the bonus objective, or if they give us an absurd objective and we tell them to fuck off?

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it, but would lean towards 'yes' if we get a decent number of launchers out of it.

Yeah, my concern with 'em is they only launch 2 missiles at a time, right? For all the hassle of the .5 tons, most likely special ammo, and being someone else's lackey because of a couple of missiles per shot, I don't think it's worth it.

If these were SSRM 6's, I would be a "hell yeah," but right now I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

SRM 2 ammo isn't precious, so it's all about the heat conservation. A miss saves you two heat build up, so it's easier to overmount a shitton of SRM2 s at two heat a piece and push the redline again hedging against missing and taking the risk of overheating for a major hit. Popping 2 SRM streaks on a mech is nothing. Popping 8 of them on a mech hedging for a combo of 16 heat buildup that results in 32 damage broken in 16 shots for internals or headhits? Not a bad hedge.

[Hyena]

How many launchers are in a "batch"? And can we use regular SRM2 ammo in streak launchers?

Assuming that we get a decent number of launchers in a "batch", then I'm fine with the deal. One extra objective or what have you doesn't seem especially onerous. Although, what happens if we fail the bonus objective, or if they give us an absurd objective and we tell them to fuck off?

Anyway, I don't feel strongly about it, but would lean towards 'yes' if we get a decent number of launchers out of it.

Yeah, my concern with 'em is they only launch 2 missiles at a time, right? For all the hassle of the .5 tons, most likely special ammo, and being someone else's lackey because of a couple of missiles per shot, I don't think it's worth it.

If these were SSRM 6's, I would be a "hell yeah," but right now I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

SRM 2 ammo isn't precious, so it's all about the heat conservation. A miss saves you two heat build up, so it's easier to overmount a shitton of SRM2 s at two heat a piece and push the redline again hedging against missing and taking the risk of overheating for a major hit. Popping 2 SRM streaks on a mech is nothing. Popping 8 of them on a mech hedging for a combo of 16 heat buildup that results in 32 damage broken in 16 shots for internals or headhits? Not a bad hedge.

All true facts. But as you asked earlier, how many come in a batch? One? Two? Four? And do we have a mech that has 12 tons of SRM mounts available (for the aforementioned 8 SSRM), and then all the ammo that makes it worth having, probably amounting to 14 tons worth of weight or more total? How many "favors" would we have to do just to outfit one mech? All questions that I think need to be assessed before we agree to become this guy's lap dog.

(mainly I just don't like the word "favor")

[LordMortis]

Where's Izzy's idunno ASCII gremlin thingie?

I got nothing. I was just justifying where I would would use such a beast. As my close range preference of dealing a problems is a single three hundred pound shell. I'm not the man to grasp the subtitles of such things.

[Isgrimnur]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[NickAragua]

October 11, 3035
Marion Mech Base

"Tonight, we'll be simulating what higher-ups like to call an 'asset extraction'." Archinerd opens up the briefing with air quotes. "It's a snatch and grab. We jump in, grab the designated objects from the designated buildings, then jump out. We'll be fighting primarily mechs, with tank support there to back them up. Remember, our job isn't to blow the place up, it's to get the data, personnel or equipment we want, and get out."

"We can't shoot back, sir?" Asks one wiseass.

"Sure, you can. Just keep your eye on the prize."

Delta-One takes a group of trainees in jump-capable mechs down to the local mech base to extract designated assets. Wargame rules are: if our guys and the trainees are able to extract assets from at least five out of six of the marked buildings and take them off map, we win. Otherwise, they win. A mech is only going to be able to carry one crate at a time, and must have hands to pick one up.

Paingod is in the supervisor's booth, so Delta-One is just Archinerd (Dervish), MadMarcus (Wolverine) and Freyland (Quickdraw). The trainees are in a Wyvern, an Assassin and a 6M Wolverine. The opfor has a medium mech lance, and two light mech lances, as well as a couple of lances of tanks, scattered around a field repair base.

The good part for us is that it's basically pitch black, so we'll be a lot harder to hit. We deploy on both east and west of the facility in question and are able to get in pretty close before the opfor detects us.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The Opfor appears to be camped out to the north of the base. That'll make our work easier as they stumble around in the dark trying to get to us. They do have a few jump-capable mechs that will be able to get to us, though, so we'll need to either take those down or avoid them.

One of the turrets gets a lucky hit on a trainee's Wyvern, sending the mech to the ground as the computer disables a right leg actuator. That's not great. Even better, the trainee Wolverine trips and falls as well while trying to recover from a jump jet landing (he may have attempted to kick the infantry squad that was unloaded from the nearby Ferret).

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"If you're having trouble standing up, take your time. Just focus on getting your mech off the ground. Unless you're in a Flea, you can take a little bit of infantry fire." Freyland remarks, giving some advice to the grounded trainees. They take it, and are able to get off the ground.

Madmarcus and the little Assassin buddy jet east. Madmarcus keeps the mech well-heated, firing lasers into a building on top of which a Javelin landed. The little mech's computer informs it that the building has collapsed, and the mech falls over. Archinerd makes a little "whoops" - as he fires a couple of lasers into the gun emplacement on top of the building from which he's trying to grab the marked crate, the computer states that "ammunition explosion detected in target building. Building destroyed. Object no longer recoverable."

We'll need to be careful.

Round 3:
[archive damaged]
The Wyvern is going to be pretty useless with the damaged leg actuator. Only thing it can do now is retreat. Slowly.

The Assassin and Freyland grab their crates. For the Assassin, that means it's time to leave. For Freyland, it means it's time to cover the rest of the group. The Assassin actually breaches the armor on the Javelin's right missile mount. Not bad.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Freyland and Madmarcus combine fire on a Cicada to strip armor off the left leg. Archinerd grabs his crate (this time without blowing the building up). Now it's just Madmarcus and the other Wolverine.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Our Wolverines finish grabbing crates. We're done, time to pull out. It helps that the enemy Cicada falls over, and that Madmarcus' armor holds up under all the incoming fire. Freyland is distracted from firing the Quickdraw's weapons somewhat by a Vulcan landing right next door, but dodges the kick and the Vulcan winds up on the ground.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The opfor Vulcan struggles to get up but eventually succeeds. The Cicada, not so much. Freyland continues putting lasers into the Vulcan, recording damage to the enemy mech's left shoulder actuator. One of the trainees removes the LRM/5 turret from the base, now that we've grabbed what we need.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

We safely make our way out of the base. The poor Ferret, which has been pelting our units with machine gun fire, has finally had it and crashes into a hillside. Only the Javelin pursues, although he's slowed down after taking a kick from Madmarcus and having to go down to a knee (which, incidentally, causes Freyland's punch to swoosh harmlessly overhead).


Round 8:

Spoiler:

As we clear the battlefield, the Javelin takes point, leading a charge by its jump-capable friends. Unfortunately for him, Freyland puts a stop to that with a (simulated) medium laser through the left torso ammo bin. The little mech drops to the ground. We leave without further incident, and the superviors call the exercise in our favor.

The trainees did pretty well under fire, recovering from receiving damage and adapting well to the presence of enemy jump-capable mechs. We only got a couple of "actual" kills (mostly on stationary turrets and infantry), but took no losses. The opposing force did fairly well also, other than failing to properly position their forces to stop us grabbing the marked crates.

"Now normally", explains Archinerd, "we'd probably either call in some heavy metal to hit that base again and take it out, or get ready for them to keep sending more mechs our way every time we get into a scrap. Not this time, though."

That turns out to be the final field exercise. Our training contract expires October 27. Handshakes and backslaps are exchanged all around. Hopefully we've taught those Free Worlds League trainees a thing or two.

=======

At the end of the day, the sentiment seems to be very slightly in favor of accepting Ferrero's offer. After some negotiation, we come to an improved agreement that works roughly as follows: we can request an order of SSRMs and/or ammo. The Free Worlds League will then supply us with an objective appropriate to the size of the order. Once we have completed the objective, we get the stuff. If we choose not to accept it, or fail, then the request is denied.

"You should understand, of course, that this equipment is not meant for re-sale, and you should make a best effort to recover any that is lost on the battlefield." Ferrero states. "We, of course, can't have our high-end equipment being made widely available to rival houses."

Scrub nods.

"Speaking of recovery efforts." Ferrero continues. "I've been instructed to propose a contract."

"Go on." Scrub responds.

"A short while ago, we hired a mercenary outfit to conduct a long-term reconaissance, extraction and sabotage raid on Thorin. One of the industrial power-houses of the Lyran Commonwealth, also home to an aerospace academy."

Scrub shuffles impatiently.

"Anyway, you can read the tourist brochure yourself. The important part is that the mercenaries we hired look like they will be failing their objectives, and will probably be getting captured soon as well. We can't have that, it would be very awkward. That is, unless we can get them some relief. We would like to offer you a contract. Go to Thorin. Prevent the mercenaries from being captured. Finish their job."

Nitty gritty details:
Six month expected contract duration
100% transport coverage (free ride, sweet!)
30% salvage rights (good enough so we can get the good stuff)
80% battle loss compensation
Liaison command
Green/D allies
Regular/F opposition (FedCom forces, Steiner half)
Estimated profit (not including salvage): 191 million C-Bills.

Thorin itself is a normal gravity, earth-type world. Slightly cooler than Earth, but can still reach 50+ C in the equatorial regions. Or -40C if you head north or south.

Upon contract completion, we'll be able to place an order for Streak SRM/2s.

Our current warchest is just shy of 300M. If we take this contract, we'll be at about 500M by the end - only 200M away from having enough money to buy an Invader-class Jumpship (670M)! Or, we'll definitely have enough money for an Overlord (which is about 330M).

Do we take the contract?

=======
RE: Streak SRMs

Point 1: Streak SRMs use their own ammo type.
Point 2: The size of an SRM order is somewhat dependent on stocks available at the time (there's a heavy random component to it).
Point 3: I think LordMortis is correct in that you don't really want to mount lone SSRM/2 launchers (this is actually kind of new territory for me, I'm going to have to do some reading on this). You want to mount them in large batches. We'd probably take a look at some of our mechs that mount a combination of SRMs and small lasers/machine guns (I'm looking at you, Warhammer 6R). For example, we'd basically convert it to a 6K (which takes the machine guns out in favor of armor), then replace the SRM/6 launcher and two small lasers (and a half ton of the just-gained armor) with three SSRM/2s and a single ton of ammo. The machine guns and small lasers are almost completely useless anyway (range three weapons on a ground-bound 4/6 mech), and the SSRM/2s will perform better than the SRM/6.

[Cylus Maxii]

Sounds like a good contract in its own right. The access to Streak SRMs is a bonus.

[El Guapo]

Yeah, sounds good to me.

[gbasden]

Sounds like a good offer.

[NickAragua]

We accept the contract, and pack it in. The Marik guys are paying for the jumpships, so we stock up on armor and ammo while we pack our mechs up, then load everything onto the dropships and burn for the jump point. The Free Worlds League attaches a liaison to keep an eye on things.

Spoiler:

Three jumps. Pretty quick route. We pick up an Enforcer ENF-4R, a 4/6/4 mech with an AC/10, a large laser and a small laser and pretty heavy armor. We'll keep it mothballed for now, but it'll be good to have a spare 50-ton mech. We also recruit a a couple of mechwarriors, a mixture of disposessed and people with their own mechs.

Thorin is one of the "first generation" of worlds settled by human kind as it pushed out from Terra. During the Star League, it was a prosperous world, featuring some of the most prestigious educational institutions of the inner sphere, as well as facilities for manufacturing jump ships. But, as usual, when the Star League fell apart, all of that got blown up.

But, it's still a pretty significant industrial hub, and has its own flight academy and pretty sizable garrison protecting the local industrial facilities. Most likely, we'll be blowing some of those up. But first, we have to get there. We fool the local space traffic control guys for a couple of days with fake transponder codes and manifests, but they eventually work out that we're not there to purchase 8000 tons of milk byproducts and send a batch of fighters to intercept our units. We'll need to run the blockade. All our fighters are in storgae on the Mule, except for a Lightning and a Slayer. So, it'll be up to the dropships and the two fighters to get past the eight enemy fighters of various kinds (four heavies and four lights). As usual, the dropships will stick together to maximize targeting penalties caused by their sensor shadows.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Not much happening here, we're out of engagement range.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

We close in to LRM range of the enemy fighters. People start white-knuckling their seats. The Moonraker (our Union) fires a few LRMs spread out at a couple of the fighters, scoring a pretty nasty hit on the nose of a Sparrowhawk with a salvo.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The enemy heavies move to engage, and space is filled with weapons fire. Our Slayer takes a couple of hits from the enemy Chippewa and Eagle, rattling it around. We concentrate most of the fire on the Stuka heavy, damaging the nose-mounted large laser. The Moonraker takes a few hits as well, but armor holds.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We hit the thrusters, disengaging from the Lyran fighters - the Union sends an LRM salvo towards a stray Sholagar light fighter to discourage it trailing too close, hitting it right on the nose and almost breaching the hull. Their formation has scattered somewhat, so by the time the turn around and accelerate to chase us down, we're already in the atmosphere, burning towards our landing zone on the planet's north continent.

We make contact with the mercs pretty soon when we land. Morrison's Marauders inform us that they're separated from us by a pair of Lyran forces which are running regular patrols, keeping them bottled up. They want to consolidate our bases of operations. We can do that, but we'll need to get through that blockade. From the mercs' reports, there are two command units operating in the area. They suggest capturing and/or eliminating the commanders, as the local garrison's hierarchy is a little top-heavy, and will take a little while to recover from that. Then, we can punch through any remaining, disorganized forces, allowing the mercs to regroup with us. The liaison approves of the idea of eliminating at least one of the commanders, but shrugs and says that the specifics are up to us. While our initial three lances are out fighting, the tech crews on the dropships will be unpacking the rest of the mechs, aerospace fighters and support units, and we should be ready for full-scale operations next week.

Our options are, thus:
1. Beta-One attacks the eastern flank of the Lyran blockade, Gamma-One the west, while Alpha-One punches through the center and escorts the merc convoy to our landing zone.
2. As 1, except we skip attacking the western flank. We won't be doing as much fighting, but it means the guys we leave alone will make trouble for us further down the line.