Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Zenn7]

Frankly, if we level the place we lose access but we also deny it to the enemy. I kind of lean towards using the artillery. I'd rather chance destroying the objective than throw Beta 1 into a meat grinder.

Good point, must be why you are in charge of the company.

Gbadsen - leader for life! (which, in the BattleTech Universe as a MechWarrior, may not be all that long...)

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Load artillery. Fire for effect.
//big explosions here//

[El Guapo]

Yes, I order the artillery to fire.

[xwraith]

*pulls out lawn chair, extends balcony on drop ship, kicks back with a beverage and a pair of binoculars to watch the fun*

[NickAragua]

Zenn7 sighs. "You know what, never mind. If your artillery morons don't want to coordinate with us and blow the base to bits, that's on you."

Beta-One moves out. Zenn7, Zarathud in Awesomes, LordMortis in Victor, Moley in Thunderbolt. The liaison's Jagermech is a JM6-S variant. In other words a piece of crap. Two AC/2s, two AC/5s and a pair of medium lasers, along with paper-thin armor. We'll need to be careful.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

As the allied artillery begins thump-thump-thumping away, we engage the base garrison. Zenn7 fires PPCs at a Hunchback, hitting with one, while absorbing some LRM fire from a Quickdraw. The AC/2 Carrier fires at targets within the base while a few LRMs plink off its not-too-thick armor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The first artillery shells land. Surprisingly enough, the first Long Tom shell lands next to some mobile units, disabling a Manticore. The rest go wide.

Zenn7 engages a Quickdraw, taking a couple of LRMs but putting three PPCs into the lighter mech. The right torso armor is breached and a medium laser is destroyed. Too bad it's the useless rear-facing one. The damage is enough to knock the mech over.

Zarathud and Moley fier on a Grasshopper, with Moley scoring a solid head shot and multiple other hits, while taking the time to kick a Vedette - the tank's armor holds up though as it banks an autocannon round off Zarathud's torso armor.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

More artillery lands, most shots whiffing. Moley gets in behind the Grasshopper, hoping for a good back shot. No such luck - the Grasshopper staggers as it takes two PPCs from Zarathud, which throws off our Thunderbolt's aim. Zarathud takes quite a few lasers in return. Moley does manage to land a solid kick on the Grasshopper's right leg, inflicting severe structural damage and removing the rest of the armor there.

A couple of fast units try to divide our formation, with a Saracen eating two PPCs from Zenn7s while pinging some SRMs off the right arm. The allied Jagermech brings its light autocannons to bear, blowing through the weak spots established by the PPCs and blowing out the hovertank's engine. The Firestarter does pretty well landing hits on the Awesome as well, but its weapons are more suited to anti-infantry work.

LordMortis surgically removes the nearby Vedette's front armor and a lot of treads. Well, as surgically as one can get with an AC/20 and a four rack of SRMs. The tank revs its engine and rolls away, leaving behind an oily trail and metal debris.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

More artillery comes down, hitting a cluster of enemy units, one of which (an SRM Carrier) stops moving and starts belching black smoke instead. We get outmanuevered by the jumping mechs and only inflict minor damage. They don't do much, either.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The artillery is actually doing a reasonable job of not hitting the designated buildings containing the air defense launchers themselves, and a couple of shells come in, splattering an SRM Carrier and a Harasser within the base.

Zenn7 intercepts a Quickdraw jumping around, taking a laser and some SRMs to the front, but hitting the enemy mech with all three PPCs and the small laser to boot, knocking the lighter mech over. For good measure, he stomps on the Quickdraw's right arm, crushing it.

The allied AC/2 Carrier exploits the Grasshopper's weakened right leg as it comes up behind the liaison's Jagermech. A couple of AC/2 rounds pop some actuators, and then LordMortis turns the Victor almost all the way around and nails it in the other leg with the AC/20. The Grasshopper falls to the ground, where its right leg is visibly broken in half.

The Stinger messing with Zarathud and Moley does better than it has any right to, putting a machinegun burst through a weak spot in the Thunderbolt's leg and damaging the hip joint. That's going to be expensive to fix. Moley manages to retain balance by taking a knee, then snaps the bug mech's right arm with a punch. Zarathud deftly avoids its kick and the 20-tonner winds up on the ground.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Stinger knocks himself out trying to get up. Oh well.

Zenn7 keeps an eye on the Quickdraw he just knocked down, but turns his PPCs on the Hunchback to the north, nailing it with all three. That Quickdraw isn't sitting down though and breaches the left leg on the liaison's Jagermech, then staggers as its left arm comes off under fire from the AC/2 Carrier. Its right leg is nearly crushed by a boot from our Awesome.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The Grasshopper tries its best to get up but fails. A few artillery shells hit, and then Zenn7 takes some shrapnel, as his Awesome finds itself in the very outer edge of a Long Tom shell's blast radius.

"FRIENDLY FIRE, ASSHOLES!"

The Hunchback catches another three PPCs, melting the right arm to scrap and frying a pair of leg actuators. Then LordMortis renders that point moot by jumping in and walking fire from the AC/20 up the right side to destroy the leg and the Hunchback's main gun, knocking the 50-ton mech to the ground.

As the Grasshopper is still shooting at us, Moley takes the time to place a large laser shot on its left arm, blowing away a medium laser there.

The allied LRM Carrier is destroyed by the Firestarter. Not like it was doing anything useful anyway.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Zenn7, having had enough of the little bullshit Firestarter jumping around, places two PPC shots on its torso section, breaching armor in both locations.

LordMortis gets a bad feeling and jumps away from his current location, burping up a string of rounds at the nearby Quickdraw on the way. The armor breach is exploited by the allied Jagermech, which uses an autocannon to blow out a jump jet and the LRM launcher.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Hunchback knocks himself out trying to get up, while the guy in the Grasshopper bails out. Not very successfully, as the ejection seat appears to be on fire. The Quickdraw that got nailed by LordMortis stops targeting our mechs and begins a retreat as well, and the Firestarter beats feet. Seems we've started a rout.

An artillery round lands directly on the Hunchback, blowing off the right torso entirely, so he won't be participating in the rest of the fight, either.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

That poor Panther. He tried to get away from Zarathud, but must not have noticed that LordMortis was right there. And he doesn't manage to get away from Zarathud, either. The Awesome sprints down the road, firing PPCs and destroying the lighter mech's right torso. As it staggers, LordMortis puts an AC/20 burst directly through the center torso rear section, coring out the mech completely as it sends a final PPC shot into the air.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

As LordMortis and Zarathud move into the base, a last couple of artillery barrages land, taking out an LRM Carrier. The remaining enemy units - an Orion, a Crusader and a Warhammer, plus a Partisan tank, retreat. Along with the Quickdraws that already ran. So, basically, almost all their heavies got away.

But hey, we captured the air defense facility.

We will be salvaging the Hunchback and Grasshopper, although they're pretty badly beat up, so we'll probably strip them for spare parts then sell them. And the wrecked Panther. Not worth too much. But maybe not the Hunchback, as it turns out we don't have any in stock. Can't have that.

Despite my expectations, the artillery somehow managed to avoid blowing up too many of the buildings housing air defense units, and actually got probably about half the kills. Minor friendly fire incident aside, they did all right. What's a little armor between friends, eh?

Moley's still pretty pissed that a little dinky Stinger got the Thunderbolt so good. Just a little machine gun burst, but the hip joint is so busted up, the mech only moves at quarter speed. The techs will have to rebuild the hip joint, meaning they have to take the leg off, then work on it, the put it back on. It's obnoxious. We'll have to use a replacement mech. On the plus side, we have plenty of spare Grasshoppers, a Griffin and even a Crusader (and also some Phoenix Hawks, but those don't really go with Gamma-One).

--------------------
It's been a while since we've had a gm-ed session, anybody up for one?

[LordMortis]

But hey, we captured the air defense facility.

[Zarathud]

Teamwork FTW!

[Zenn7]

Good work Heavy Metal.

I bet the artillery crew responsible for the friendly fire that I can PPC an apple of all of their heads William Tell style.

[Zenn7]

Yes, I order the artillery to fire.

You'll have to yell quite a bit louder from your position at the other facility where Alpha 1 is defending. Don't think the artillery crew can here you.

GBadsen and I are chatting over the command channel about the situation. I'd suggest you use it, but somehow, I doubt GB gave you access.

[El Guapo]

Yes, I order the artillery to fire.

You'll have to yell quite a bit louder from your position at the other facility where Alpha 1 is defending. Don't think the artillery crew can here you.

GBadsen and I are chatting over the command channel about the situation. I'd suggest you use it, but somehow, I doubt GB gave you access.

Yes, there's some sort of glitch that's preventing me from accessing it. I'm going to talk with our Space IT department.

[gbasden]

Yes, I order the artillery to fire.

You'll have to yell quite a bit louder from your position at the other facility where Alpha 1 is defending. Don't think the artillery crew can here you.

GBadsen and I are chatting over the command channel about the situation. I'd suggest you use it, but somehow, I doubt GB gave you access.

/clap

[NickAragua]

September 1, 3037
Several kilometers away from Marik artillery base

"So. I hear you're interested in joining the officer corps. Order people around and all that."

"That's right, commander. I think I've picked up enough experience that I think can take care of business." El Guapo responds.

Gbasden chuckles. "Ok then. You're in charge of the lance for this mission. If we come out alive and get the job done, we'll talk details."

We rendezvous with a lance of Scorpions units. Not too impressive - a pair of hovercraft, an APC and a Scorpion tank. The opposition is a heavy mech lance (Orion, Vulcan, Warhammer, Hunchback), backed up by an array of light tanks and hovercraft. Oh, and, as we approach, it looks like they've got their artillery tubes set up and firing at us.

"Ok." El Guapo transmits. "Keep it moving and spread out to at least ninety meters. The artillery takes a few seconds to arc back down to the ground, so don't stay in one space for long. If you can, get in close, Alpha-Two says these guys are pretty bad at target discrimination."

Our job here is to engage the enemy forces for about one hundred seconds, which should allow the Scorpions to get counterbattery fire setup to suppress these guys. Of course, we can also just blow the place to hell, if we can. It's not immediately obvious that it's an option, as there are a lot of these guys.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The force present here is quite large. It's possible they want their supply depot back. On the plus side, Gbasden and El Guapo start the party off right, firing their PPCs at maximum range at a Scorpion tank that was a little too slow. Each scores one hit, with El Guapo's PPC melting the armor off the front of the light tank, which guns it forward, main gun down.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Ordnance starts pinging off our armor, and we inflict some minor damage on the enemy units but nothing critical happens. The first rounds of artillery hits dirt behind our mechs.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

There must be something about guys who drive hovercraft. What could possibly make a guy drive into a crowd of eight or so enemy units?

Isgrimnur removes the armor from an SRM Scorpion tank, causing the crew to reconsider their involvement in the fight. El Guapo goes for a swim, hitting a Hunter tank with a PPC.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We get dinged by artillery. Only a little damage, but still annoying. The guy in the hovercraft does a reasonable job, taking a couple of hits but immobilizing a Vedette. Isgrimnur targets the Hunter that El Guapo got previously, exploiting the weak armor to destroy the engine with the autocannon. He takes an AC/5 round to the leg from the nearby Hermes, but no problem. Stefan fires the Catapult's LRM racks at a Skulker, disabling it with multiple LRM impacts to the wheels.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Scorpions to the west are taking hits from the artillery and are somewhat disorganized. Well, they only need to survive for another minute or so. Their Maxim gets disabled, though not before causing major damage to the enemy Warhammer's weapons systems, knocking out the entire battery of weapons in the right torso.

Isgrimnur can't resist the temptation to try to shoot down the helicopter, but whiffs every shot. Which is a shame.

Our firing isn't too effective, only Gbasden hits, breaching armor on a Vulcan's left torso with a PPC.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Alpha-One, Scorpions - time to pull back." El Guapo calls out.

There are actually only two active allied units left, the Pegasus must have gotten disabled without us noticing.

Isgrimnur gets a little schadenfreude as he watches the helicopter zip around, having evaded his shots from before. As it completes a wide circle, it suddenly more or less disintegrates in mid-air, sending rotor blades flying everywhere. Was it poor maintenance? Corporate sabotage? A prank by one of the techs? We'll never know. But at least we don't have a stupid helicopter flying around.

Isgrimnur consoles himself by firing weapons at the back of a Hermes, then swinging the axe to take the right leg off at the hip.

We get dinged by artillery again, El Guapo and Gbasden taking minor hits, which is starting to get annoying, but there's nothing we can do about it - the tubes are all the way on the other side of the base.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur jumps east on the way out of the area, and fires at a building housing a turret. El Guapo and Gbasden had worked on it previously, so it's easy to make it collapse with a short autocannon burst.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The "disabled" Skulker tries to take a shot at Isgrimnur, so El Guapo shoots a PPC at it to put it in its place.

Isgrimnur takes a couple of autocannon hits, but the Hatchetman's armor holds up. The surrounding forest catches on fire, but the Vulcan's left leg cracks when hit twice with an axe.

Round 9, 10+:
Having accomplished our mission, we begin a retreat. Actually, it appears that the Marik artillery tubes have either run out of ammo or are conserving it. Which is fine for us. One of the allied units disables a pursuing Pegasus hover tank as we retreat, but mostly that's about it.

We did a good bit of damage, taking out several tanks and a pair of medium mechs. Well, the mechs will be back in working order eventually, but it'll take them some time. The Scorpions report having moved counterbattery fire into the area, so if those artillery units show themselves again (by, for example, firing on the supply depot), they'll get some of their own medicine back shortly.

"You made the right call on that one, there were just too many tanks and heavier mechs in that base." Gbasden tells El Guapo. "The real question is, they're just going to bring up more ammo and tubes. And they're not just going to shell the supply depot, they'll shell anything that moves in this sector. So what do we do? Do we forget this sector and the supply depot? Or do we call for backup, come back and take the place out?"

[Zenn7]

"You made the right call on that one, there were just too many tanks and heavier mechs in that base." Gbasden tells El Guapo. "The real question is, they're just going to bring up more ammo and tubes. And they're not just going to shell the supply depot, they'll shell anything that moves in this sector. So what do we do? Do we forget this sector and the supply depot? Or do we call for backup, come back and take the place out?"

Isn't this the supply depot we secured for our allies to raid/load up and then we can vacate? If so, come back and blow it to smithereens.

Any chance we can hit the artillery behind it in a more direct attack on that?

We planning on expanding so the Guap can command something? You aren't really going to create our PPC armed blimp brigade and put him in charge of that are you?

[gbasden]

We planning on expanding so the Guap can command something? You aren't really going to create our PPC armed blimp brigade and put him in charge of that are you?

Can you think of a position that would benefit more from the epic leadership that only the Guap can bring?

[El Guapo]

Sweet! Command for the job you want, not the job you have, as they say.

I'm going to be leading up our Secret Alpha Strike Commando Viper Lightning Force: Hard Target.

[El Guapo]

As for the supply depot, haven't we extracted what's there of value at this point? Offer it to the other mercs if they want to hold it, and otherwise take anything else left of value and blow it up.

[NickAragua]

The supply depot was a pretty major one. Neither our fellow mercs nor we have the cargo capacity to load all of it, so they're still rooting around in there. The main problem with leaving the artillery base alone is that, even if we torch the supply depot, they'll be able to shell us whenever we do anything in that sector.

Gamma-Three is able to relatively easily avoid a Marik picket and moves in to help Gamma-Two eliminate the local force commander, taking only light armor damage in the process. Gamma-Two moves in to complete the objective, and then we lose contact with them briefly, but then are able to monitor the following exchange.

"Gamma-Two leader to Crescent-Three, are you reading this? We've got the target dead ahead, but sensors show aircraft closing in. Are they ours?"

"Ours, yes. Yours, no."

"What?"

"Power down your mechs, and get out. We've had a better offer, and you're going to die if you try to fight."

"Seriously?"

"We've been stuck down here for a year, hung out to dry. House Marik has offered us a payoff to take you guys out instead. Now power down those mechs."

"Like hell we will." Gamma-Two leader responds. "Gamma-Two, scatter and regroup at nav epsilon."

What follows is a total disaster. We lose three mechs from Gamma-Two - the Champion, a Rifleman (3N variant, no big deal), and a Wolverine. The Wolverine gets its leg actuators blown out by the "allied" aerospace fighters, the Champion loses a gyro and the Rifleman gets completely taken apart. Gamma-Three arrives in time and manages to spring the Trebuchet loose. Surprisingly enough, they also disable one of the traitor mechs (a Wolverine), two Marik mechs (a Javelin and a Valkyrie), and Gamma-Two's Phoenix Hawk punches out a helicopter. Plus, they actually manage to get the guy we were trying to eliminate in the first place. They lose the Clint to an ammo explosion, though. Two of Gamma-Two's mechwarriors make it back to base. The guy in the Rifleman is captured. Gamma-Two's lieutenant joins Xwraith in the concussion room.

We lost a whole lance on that one, thanks to those asshole Conway's Crescents. That guy's going on our shit list. Thankfully, it appears as though they didn't feel they could take on our dropships and the security force, as they opted to simply march off. The other main consolation is that the captured air defense site - the one that the Marik guys have been trying to recapture for a while now - blows the two Crescents aircraft out of the sky as they depart. As for the mechs we had to leave behind, well, they may be able to put the Champion back together, if the gyro in the Rifleman survived.

The Scorpions report that the Crescents are really working them over. The Scropions' dropship has been forced down. Luckily, they were able to land within range of the captured air defense site, but report that nearby ground forces are mobilizing and they won't be able to hold them off.

Also, an air base they've been using to launch air support is coming under attack.

Finally, there's still the undecided matter of the artillery base. It's not within range of either of the two places we're hitting, but nobody likes artillery coming down on their heads.

We'll probably want two lances for each of these.

We're doing ok, except for Gamma Company, which took a beating. Gamma-One is still good to go, but the rest will need some work, both mechs and mechwarriors. The good part is that we've got the spare mechs to make up the losses.

Moley's Thunderbolt isn't quite ready, so we'll need to pick a replacement mech. I think the spare Grasshopper will do.

Current force status (~80% operational)

Spoiler:

Alpha Company
Alpha-One (command lance, elite)
- Gbasden / Awesome
- Isgrimnur / Hatchetman
- El Guapo Mk2 / Marauder (modified, AC/5 replaced with armor, 2 heat sinks, 2x Streak SRM/2)
- Stefan / Catapult
Alpha-Two (battle lance, veteran)
- Blackjack BJ-1
- Rifleman RFL-3C
- Trebuchet TBT-5J
- Flashman FLS-7K
Alpha-Three (fast attack lance, regular)
- Wolverine WVR-6M
- Quickdraw QKD-4H (modified, all weapons forward, SRM/4 replaced with Streak SRM/2)
- Griffin 1N
- Shadow Hawk 2K (modified, two heat sinks removed, extra LRM/5 launcher added)
Alpha-Air (flying bricks, veteran)
- Lucifer LCF-R20
- Stuka STU-K5
- Shilone SL-17

Beta Company
Beta-One (assault lance, elite)
- Zenn7 / Awesome
- Zarathud / Awesome
- LordMortis / Victor
- Moley / Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (mech damaged, may not be fixed in time)
Beta-Two (battle lance, regular)
- Catapult
- Trebuchet TBT-5S (short-ranged monstrosity)
- Orion ON1-K
- Rifleman RFL-3N
Beta-Three (battle lance, regular)
- Ostsol OTL-4D (modified, all weapons forward)
- Centurion CN9-A (modified, all weapons forward)
- Vindicator VND-1R
- Wyvern WVE-6N
Beta-Air (mixed light/medium, regular)
- Lucifer LCF-R20
- Lightning LTN-G15
- Sabre SB-27

Delta Company
Delta-One (heavy recon lance, elite)
- Archinerd Mk2 / Dervish DV-6M
- Madmarcus / Wolverine WVR-6M
- Paingod / Ostroc OSR-2M
- Freyland Mk2 / Quickdraw (modified, all weapons forward, SRM/4 replaced with Streak SRM/2)
Delta-Two (medium recon lance, veteran)
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D
- Griffin GRF-1N
- Griffin GRF-1S
- Wolverine WVR-6R
Delta-Three (light recon lance, regular)
- Cicada
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified, half-ton of mg ammo replaced with armor)
- Assassin ASN-21
- Firestarter FS9-K (modified, rear flamer replaced with heat sink)
Delta-Air (light air lance, regular)
- Cheetah F-10
- Seydlitz SYD-Z2
- Centurion CNT-1D

Gamma Company
Gamma-One (heavy battle lance, elite)
- Scrub / Warhammer WHM-6D
- Hyena / Striker (modified, prototype LB 10-X autocannon)
- Cylus Maxii Mk2 / Grasshopper GHR-5H
- Xwraith Mk3 / Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (modified, large laser replaced with ER large laser)
Gamma-Two (medium battle lance, regular) (unavailable due to casualties and battle damage)
- Centurion CN9-A (all lasers facing forward)
- Trebuchet TBT-5N
- Icarus ICR-1S
Gamma-Three (fast recon lance, regular) (unavailable due to battle damage)
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1
- Ostscout
- Spider SDR-5V
- Firestarter FS9-H (mg ammo reduced to half ton, rear flamer replaced with heat sink)
Gamma-Air (heavy air flight, veteran) (unavailable due to battle damage)
- Thunderbird TRB-D36
- Lucifer LCF-R15

[El Guapo]

How likely are we to operate in this sector again? If that's likely, let's go ahead and kill everyone and annihilate the artillery. If not, we can let it go.

[Zenn7]

Weren't the Scorpions sent in to help the Crescent's and us to help them both? That doesn't sound like hung out to dry??

Let's hit their artillery base - any chance we can acquire some artillery for ourselves?

Alpha 1/2 help the Scorpion's Air Base.

Beta 1/2 help defend their dropship

Delta 1 (and Gamma 1 if they aren't heavy enough) to the artillery. Thinking lighter/faster can get in to the arty position w/o taking many, if any, hits from the arty. But Gamma 1 for back if they need something heavier.

Beta 3 and our fast lances to defend our dropships.

[Freyland]

Did the game come up with this idea? That's pretty interesting, if so. I wonder how often or under what circumstances this is supposed to occur.

Oh, and because you have so kindly personified them as part of your storytelling, please be advised that I want them all dead. That is all.

[Zarathud]

Oh, and because you have so kindly personified them as part of your storytelling, please be advised that I want them all dead and their mechs captured. That is all.

Fixed that for you.

[El Guapo]

Oh, and because you have so kindly personified them as part of your storytelling, please be advised that I want them all dead and their mechs captured. That is all.

Fixed that for you.

Sounds like a job for Secret Alpha Strike Commando Viper Lightning Force: Hard Target.

[gbasden]

I propose prioritizing any situation where we can kick some Crescent ass. Lets help save the Scorpions and then once we have the Crescents crushed like bugs, then worry about the artillery. These fuckers need to learn that backstabbing us is an unwise move.

[Hyena]

I'm for whatever decision allows me to shoot things. Speaking of which, how am I doing on ammo?

[Zenn7]

I propose prioritizing any situation where we can kick some Crescent ass. Lets help save the Scorpions and then once we have the Crescents crushed like bugs, then worry about the artillery. These fuckers need to learn that backstabbing us is an unwise move.

I agree, but there is only 1 mission involving the Crescents and 3 possible total missions, and we are sending our heavy unit after them. We can do all 3 - try to get the arty (we may want to hit the Crescents in this area in the future, plus if we can capture any arty, we can use that to help w/ our crushing).

[gbasden]

I propose prioritizing any situation where we can kick some Crescent ass. Lets help save the Scorpions and then once we have the Crescents crushed like bugs, then worry about the artillery. These fuckers need to learn that backstabbing us is an unwise move.

I agree, but there is only 1 mission involving the Crescents and 3 possible total missions, and we are sending our heavy unit after them. We can do all 3 - try to get the arty (we may want to hit the Crescents in this area in the future, plus if we can capture any arty, we can use that to help w/ our crushing).

I thought the airbase and the dropship were both Crescents? Anyway, we could push for all 3 - I was just being more conservative holding more units back to protect the base because trechery.

[NickAragua]

Did the game come up with this idea?

Kind of. There's an "allied treachery" event in the AtB rule set that's kind of boring, just gives you the equivalent of a battle victory. In my mind, when you run into "allied treachery", it ought to have a little more impact than that.

I'm for whatever decision allows me to shoot things. Speaking of which, how am I doing on ammo?

You're running low on cluster rounds, but still have enough for a fight. After that, we'll probably need to switch you out to a different mech temporarily.

Weren't the Scorpions sent in to help the Crescent's and us to help them both? That doesn't sound like hung out to dry??

It's amazing the kind of mental exercises a man will perform when offered a large amount of money. We can definitely grab some of the artillery tubes, assuming we don't blow them up. Ammo may be an issue though, depending on the type of artillery we recover. We actually have plenty of Sniper artillery ammo, but no Thumper rounds.

How likely are we to operate in this sector again? If that's likely, let's go ahead and kill everyone and annihilate the artillery. If not, we can let it go.

Pretty likely.

I thought the airbase and the dropship were both Crescents?

Nah, both owned by the Scorpions. The Crescents don't even own a dropship.

[Zenn7]

I thought the airbase and the dropship were both Crescents?

Nah, both owned by the Scorpions. The Crescents don't even own a dropship.

I think GB thought we were fighting against the Crescents in both scenarios. I thought the Crescents were going after the Scorpions dropship and Marik was reclaiming their airfield.

And if the Crescents have such a significant remaining force here, why the heck were they failing so badly?

[gbasden]

I think GB thought we were fighting against the Crescents in both scenarios. I thought the Crescents were going after the Scorpions dropship and Marik was reclaiming their airfield.

[/quote]

Right, this. I thought the Crescents were the Opfor in both of these scenarios.

[NickAragua]

Heh, just because a guy has a lance of heavy mechs and a bunch of tanks, doesn't mean he's any good with them.

September 4, 3037
Grounded Scorpions "Triumph"-class Dropship

Beta-One and Beta-Two gets there before the hostile units do and set up alongside the dropship. The Scorpions have already held off one attack, and, as a result, have exactly one combat-capable lance - a bug mech, a hovertank and two crappy treadheads. It's just as well we're here, because it's going to be a rough ride. Beta-One is the two Awesomes, LordMortis in a Victor and Moley riding in the spare Grasshopper. Apparently it "smells like a jock strap" and "Cylus really needs to clean up afterwards, even if it's not really your mech." Beta-Two is an Orion, a Trebuchet, a Rifleman and an Ostsol.

The approaching hostile force is a mix of Conway's Crescents (salvaged light tanks and hovercraft mostly, with a lance of salvaged light mechs) and Marik heavier units. They've brought out the big guns, and there's an assault lance back there: an Archer, an Ostsol, a Battlemaster and a Stalker. The 3H variant downgrades the large lasers of the standard model to medium lasers, to upgrade the LRM launchers to 20s from 10s.

The plan is for Beta-One's Awesomes to cover the dropship's "blind spots" where its guns can't reach, as necessary. Beta-Two will wait until the enemy units engage then come in behind them. The allied units... well, hopefully they absorb some fire.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Dropship took a little bit of a beating on landing. But luckily, it was on the nose, and the closest bad guys are coming up the tailpipe. Some long-range weapons fire is exchanges, with our guys firing PPCs and LRMs (mostly PPCs, due to our two Awesomes). We score a couple of PPC hits, while Zarathud takes an AC/5 round from a Condor.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

While Zenn7 holds down the trigger on the PPCs, LordMortis waits patiently for enemy units coming up from the south. The PPC barrage pays off - the Awesome shrugs off a few LRMs then annihilates a Bulldog tank with three precision shots to the front. The other weapons fire is mostly for show.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Hi." remarks LordMortis before jumping out from behind his hiding place and completely coring out the approaching Spider with an AC/20 burst to the center of mass.

Zenn7 rotates to the right, putting three PPC shots into a Pegasus hovertank as it fires at and disables an allied Condor. The last one breaches the armor and sets off the SRM ammo, blowing the turret off the hovertank in a series of bright, orange, explosions. Zarathud spots an SRM Carrier coming down the hill to the north and blows it away with PPCs.

Moley gets a two-fer. The laser shots disable an LTV-4 hover tank zipping by, with three medium lasers slicing enough of the hover skirt off that it's unable to maintain an air cushion. The Grasshopper takes a couple of SRMs from a nearby Wasp then, as an afterthought, fires LRMs at a Locust near the dropship as it plinks at the thick armor with lasers and machine guns. Moley doesn't even hit with all five missiles, just three. But, the Locust was already missing armor on the center torso, and one of the missiles goes internal, blowing up the machine gun ammo bin, causing the bug mech to disappear.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Triumph's gunners finally get their shit together and hit something, perforating a Condor hovertank with LRMs. Moley jumps forward into a crowd to delay their approach to the dropship, disabling a Pegasus with lasers, the large laser blowing through the left side and cutting the engine in half. It costs though, as the Grasshopper takes a large number of LRM and SRM hits, with a stray missile blowing out the left shoulder joint and an actuator.

To the south, LordMortis continues jumping the Victor around, this time ventilating a Scorpion tank. It's still intact, but with the turret exposed to the elements, the crew isn't too happy to stick around.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

And there's Beta-Two, coming up behind the Marik assault mechs. The Stalker takes the brunt of their fire, as well as some fire from the dropship, but remains standing. Its right-side armor is just about gone, though. Moley gets in behind the Battlemaster, carving armor off the rear section and kicking it in the back of the leg, but armor holds.

Zenn7 engages a pair of Manticores coming up from the southwest, landing three PPCs on the right side of one, shocking the crew. Their counterfire is ineffective.

To the south, LordMortis gets in behind a Hetzer, detonating its AC/20 ammo with several shots to the rear armor. He takes a few LRM hits from a distant Archer, but no big deal there.

A Saracen takes a PPC shot from Zarathud, but fires LRMs back - a couple of lucky missiles hit the right arm "just right" and blow it off completely, and very cleanly.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 targets the other Manticore while the first one's crew's teeth are still rattling and blasts it with three PPC shots, melting treads and locking up the turret to boot.

The Stalker continues taking a beating. Moley starts it off by cutting off one of the LRM launchers with a laser. Beta-Two's Trebuchet then plows lasers SRMs into the assault mech's rear quarter, breaching the armor and damaging the engine shielding as well as the gyro. The combined firepower knocks the enemy mech over.

Our Rifleman and Ostsol take armor breaches from back shots by Crescents bug mechs, but survive. The Rifleman actually takes multiple laser and SRM shots from the other Marik mechs, and suffers multiple armor breaches. And then gets kicked, popping a leg actuator, but somehow manages to stay mostly upright.

To the south, LordMortis continues his rampage, taking out an SRM Carrier with a short burst from the AC/20. It only needs a short burst, as it falls apart pretty quickly.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Stalker bails out.

Zenn7 blows away the remaining Manticore, clearing out the southwest section of the battlefield. Our beat-up Rifleman tries to back up away from the battle but gets pelted with lasers and SRMs, with the AC/5 ammo detonating after a reasonably lucky SRM flies through the peeled-off armor. After getting dinged pretty hard in the left leg by Moley's Grasshopper, the enemy Battlemaster calls a retreat and the remaining enemy units pull out. A wise move - between Zenn7 moving to the main battle area, them being outnumbered and outmassed, and LordMortis rampaging through their southern units, it's not looking good for them.

And even if they'd beaten us somehow, they'd still have to assault the dropship afterwards.

We call the Manticores, Stalker and a Bulldog for salvage so we can strip ammo and armor (and, in the case of the Stalker, we're keeping it, although we'll be doing some remodeling work on it once we leave this world). The Scorpions get... a bunch of crap. And to recover their disabled Condor. And to keep their dropship, which is perfectly flight-worthy, so they can load up salvage and head back to the landing zone.

We nailed a couple of the Crescents as well, so some satisfaction to be had there. Losing the Rifleman stings, but, let's be honest, the 3N model is nothing to write home about. Now that we have the Stalker, we can look into making Beta-Two an entirely assault lance.

Decision time:
It looks like the units routed from the dropship are looping back around to attack the airbase.

Beta-One and Beta-Two are able to join in to help Alpha-One and Alpha-Two defend the Scorpions-held airbase. Other than the destroyed Rifleman, everyone is in the green or yellow, although Zarathud's right arm is missing (with a PPC), and Moley's left arm is useless, with a damaged shoulder joint and upper arm actuator.

The other option is that Beta-One and Beta-Two simply run down the units from the dropship attack and force them to withdraw.

[Zenn7]

Our heavy metal is not a good pursuit force. Will we be able to effectively pursue them and drive them off? If so, let's run them down!

If not, then lets head over to help Alpha.

[Zarathud]

Sacré bleu, off my arm!

I can still snipe them, boss. Just give me a target at range.

[gbasden]

Running them off just lets them continue living. Come help grind them into powder!

[El Guapo]

So basically the choice for the airbase battle is either:

(Alpha One + Alpha Two) vs. Airbase attackers, OR

(Alpha One + Alpha Two) + (Beta One + Beta Two) vs. (Airbase attackers) + (retreating dropship attackers).



Do Beta One and Beta Two outnumber the retreating dropship attackers? I assume so, since they're retreating and all. If so, they should join the airbase defense. If not, run them off.

[NickAragua]

September 8, 3037
Scorpions-held Airbase

While Alpha-Two and Alpha-Three patrol around the airbase, Alpha-One sets up in the base itself. The incoming attack force is light-weight and fast-moving, consisting of mostly Crescents and their salvaged light tanks, hovercraft and light mechs. There's a large number of them, but they're able to slip past our patrols and engage the airbase directly. Alpha-Two is close enough that they'll be able to reinforce.

Beta-One and Beta-Two make best speed towards the base as well, hot on the tails of the dropship assault force they just routed. Actually, they take a shortcut and will get there before the guys from the dropship. The Scorpions manage to scramble a pair of light aerospace fighters. They won't be much help, but if they get shot down instead of our guys getting shot up, we won't complain too much.

The airbase's fixed defenses are a symbolic joke.

Alpha-One will have to hold on for about a minute before our reinforcements start pouring in. Along with a major weather front - just as the Marik and Crescent guys start moving in, we get hit with a squall. Lightning, rain, driving winds, the works. We have a pretty substantial range advantage, but they have a lot of fast-moving units and will be able to get in close pretty quickly.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The storm appears to have come as a surprise to the attackers - they had a little Ferret helicopter. Emphasis on the "had". The infantry climb out briefly, but wind up having to huddle in the wreckage due to the ongoing weather conditions. Just as well for us.

Stefan breathes a sigh of relief as a Griffin's PPC impacts the building instead of the Catapult's leg, then sends four laser beams at the enemy mech, hitting with one. The rest of the firing phase is disappointing, though one of the allied aircraft, a Sparrowhawk, gets a good hit in on a Firestarter. Which is impressive, given the weather conditions.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The AC/20-equipped enemy units zip in and start firing, although Stefan is able to avoid most of it, and runs some of his lasers along the nearby Hetzer's side. The tank's armor holds up, but then a boot breaks through, knocking off the wheels on the right side as well. Gbasden makes PPC contact with a Saladin but fails to breach armor. Isgrimnur manages to strip armor off a different Saladin however. The wind is making it a bit harder to fire projectile weapons, but energy weapons are still fine. El Guapo tracks a Spider as it jumps on top of a building, firing at one of the fixed emplacements, and blasts it in the right torso with a PPC. The shot knocks out two of the mech's eight jump jets.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Gbasden gets mobbed a little bit. We need to clear some of these little guys out pretty quickly. Him and Stefan team up on a Firestarter, hitting with a laser and a PPC, but failing to breach armor. Stefan gives the lighter mech a solid kick to the right leg, wrecking the hip joint and forcing it to a knee. Gbasden takes a couple of lasers and light autocannon rounds, but armor holds up. El Guapo opens up on a Scorpion tank, overheating his mech a bit, but managing to breach armor, which encourages the tank to retreat. Isgrimnur misses his shots at a Saladin but then brings the axe down on it as he lands next to it. The blade cuts through the front of the hover skirt and nearly crushes the driver.

A couple of Striker tanks and a pair of Spiders have gotten into the base, so we'll need to deal with that soonish. Base garrison also reports that a platoon of infantry have gotten inside. Hopefully they can deal with that.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

El Guapo decides to clean up the units outside the base first - the buildings are pretty tough and the Marauder's not that great up close anyway. His PPC shot is rewarded with a disintegrating Scorpion tank. A Wasp jumps in and deftly avoids the Marauder's kick, tripping it up and forcing it to a knee.

Gbasden continues getting mobbed, taking multiple laser hits, which sends his armor into the yellow. "Alpha-One, need a little backup over here." he calls out as he swings at a Firestarter, missing.

"Gotcha, boss." responds Stefan as he kicks a Wasp from behind, ripping off most of its left half. The mechwarrior wastes no time bailing out.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Alpha-Two arrives from the east, but they're badly out of position and probably won't be too much help. At least they'll be able to get the anklebiters off El Guapo. Their actual firing is pretty symbolic, but still.

Now here's something you don't see every day, a one-shot, improvised rocket launcher system actually doing something useful. An allied rocket launcher turret makes a Striker tank slip its treads with its one barrage. Nice.

Gbasden breathes a sigh of relief as his attackers all focus fire on the base. Well, it's not that great, but at least they're not all dogpiling him. He takes the opportunity to put a pair of PPC shots into a Firestarter's back, blowing off the left arm and knocking it over. He also takes the time to stomp on a nearby Vedette, crushing it. Stefan jumps over, firing less than successfully at a Vedette, but kicking off a Maxim's fans, immobilizing it.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Gbasden tries to clear some of the bug mechs off the critical structures, but no such luck. Still, he manages to nail a Wasp as it harasses Isgrimnur, blowing off its leg. The bug mech falls over and cracks open. Stefan lasers the arms off a Spider as it comes up behind Gbasden. Not very useful, but at least he won't be getting punched in the back. The Awesome still gets dinged though, the Spider's laser shot going clear through the rear armor and knocking out a PPC along with a heat sink. Annoyed, he swings the right arm, knocking off the smaller mech's head with a backhand. One of the defense turrets nails the other Spider, taking the right torso off, previously damaged by El Guapo's PPC fire. Then, to cap it off, Isgrimnur chops down at the adjacent Hunter, immobilizing it.

As Beta-One and Beta-Two approach, the enemy units scatter to the east and west. Except for that one Firestarter that got stuck on the roof. The guys approaching behind Beta turn around as well, abandoning the assault. It's annoying. This means there's still a Marik assault lance out there (although they're more heavy now, since they're missing the Stalker), and the Crescents have the heavy lance. We pick through the salvage and grab the units that pack LRMs and AC/20 rounds, letting the Scorpions have the rest. Their aircraft performed admirably, not getting shot down at all, and they inform us that, having held this facility, their aircraft can provide us air support just about wherever it's needed.

The Scorpions are able to get deal with the infantry that managed to get into the complex, and capture quite a few of them in fact. Not much useful intel out of those guys, so we'll probably try to arrange a prisoner exchange after we're done here.

[NickAragua]

September 10, 3037
Marik Artillery Base

Scrub goes over the plan one more time. "Delta-One - you'll move in rapidly to engage the artillery. Stay moving, that's your primary objective. Secondary targets are the designated buildings, probably housing ammo and spare parts. Gamma-One will move in at the 70 second mark and sweep up any remaining resistance so we can bring salvage in. Try to avoid frying the artillery tubes if you can."

A chorus of "acknowledged" and "roger" comes back, and we move out. Xwraith is still recovering from the concussion, although the doctor informs our mechwarrior that "you can go get blown up again in a week, but I'd advise you to avoid letting the opposition shoot your cockpit", to which Xwraith replies with a terse "thanks, doc." Other than that, lance loadout is as usual.

"Delta-One to Gamma-One. They've got a dropship, Condor-class. What do we do?"

As we approach, we get an unwanted surprise: the Marik guys have landed a Condor-class dropship near the base. This means they're either evacuating or bringing more guys in. A Condor is a pretty big dropship, carrying up to 20 tanks and 12 infantry platoons. If we can take it out, we can put a serious dent in their transport capability.

Scrub makes the call. "Play it by ear. Primary objective is to eliminate the artillery and fixed structures. We'll get the dropship if we can."

Delta-One approaches from the west, intending to take out the artillery units ASAP. Gamma-One will move in from the east. Local weather patterns are a little out of whack, with a major dust storm moving in. Except it's not your standard yellow sandy dust, it's this glare-inducing white dust, like somebody blew up a bunch of storage tanks at a chemical plant.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

There seems to be something wrong with their artillery tubes. Normally, they'd have already started thumping as soon as we kicked it into gear and moved into sensor range. Delta-One notes that the white dust (it can't be snow, it's 40 degrees celsius outside!) is helping the mechs dissipate heat quite a bit better than usual.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

We get a couple of half-hearted thumps as Delta-One moves in. Archinerd fires some symbolic LRMs at a turret, hitting with a few.

Round 3, 4:

Spoiler:

We continue firing long-range shots while moving in on the artillery to the northeast. Half the tubes are right next to the dropship, while half are way to the east of the base. That's where Gamma-One will come in.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Good job numbnuts, you just blew up one of your own buildings. A Vulcan engages Madmarcus' Wolverine and the two of them trade physical attacks, stripping armor off legs and torsos.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

We start taking some fire from the dropship. Delta-One isn't really equipped to deal with it, so we'll need to stay clear of it for now.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Gamma-One arrives to the east and the artillery immediately begins firing on them. This plan's not working too well so far. The distraction gives our guys a chance to make their moves. Freyland collapses one of the designated buildings, while Paingod fires large lasers at an artillery tube set up inside another - the building puts out a cloud of dust but stays up. Our Ostroc then follows up with a kick to a Hermes mech that wandered a little too close, stripping armor. Archinerd has a perfect shot on another Hermes that walked on top of a weak-looking building but blows it.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Archinerd blows through the weak armor of a Harasser, putting a laser through one of the air ducts. The Dervish takes a laser from a nearby Hermes in return, cutting off some armor. Madmarcus jumps over to the building that Paingod started working on and works it over with lasers, SRMs and a boot, collapsing it completely. Freyland engages a nearby Hermes (there are three on the field total, each a different variant), melting armor off its limbs with lasers.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Scrub starts to think that she doesn't have the firepower to take on the dropship AND all the units clustered around it. Time to go to plan b: blow up the artillery and support structures and bug out. Gamma-One continues moving forward, as they'll need to help blowing up the eastern artillery and support buildings. Scrub puts a couple of PPC shots into a Scorpion tank packing LRMs, melting external equipment but failing to breach armor. Madmarcus attracts a lot of fire jumping through that crowd, but the trees and buildings make for decent cover. Freyland continues engaging the Hermes, scoring a headshot and breaching torso armor, one of the lasers damaging the engine shielding - the 1A is a 30-ton mech, packing a flamer and two medium lasers. The main distinction it has from its other 30-ton bretheren is that it's super fast - almost as fast as an Ostscout. No jump jets though.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Freyland continues taking the Hermes apart, zapping the right leg and left arm off. The severe damage forces the mech to the ground, where the mechwarrior blacks out. Just to make sure it stays down, Freyland crushes the left torso with a boot. Madmarcus, meanwhile, immobilizes a pursuing Maxim hover transport, and Scrub finally evaporates her target Scorpion tank. Archinerd misses all weapons fire due to the obnoxious little bastards swarming around, but manages to stomp on one of the Harassers.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Freyland switches places with Archinerd, jumping in to zap a second Harasser out of existence, then kicking over a third.

To the east, Cylus moves forward and disables an LRM-toting Hetzer with a large laser blast through the armor, taking out its engine, then directs some lasers at a nearby turret. Most of that fire whiffs, but one shot locks the turret up briefly. Hyena and the Enforcer concentrate fire on a building where a Pegasus is hiding. The building collapses, and the hovertank is unable to extract itself from the debris.

Scrub would rather nobody mention how she managed to fall into a ditch while trying to avoid artillery fire.

Round 12:
[signal interrupted]
We take down another pair of designated buildings, Scrub and Hyena bringing down one while Madmarcus, Freyland and Archinerd team up on the other. Archinerd gets a reminder that there are still a lot of mobile units out there as a pair of large lasers remove most of the armor from the Dervish's arms, while the Ostroc eats a laser blast and autocannon round from the dropship. The adjacent Hermes gives our Ostroc a boot, but loses most armor off its leg in the process.

The guy in the Hermes that Freyland beat the crap out of wakes up and immediately bails out.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

Gamma-One continues marching towards the eastern artillery, wiping out another turret along the way.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

Paingod's eyes go wide as a Warhammer catches him out in the open. Luckily, the enemy mechwarrior isn't the best shot and whiffs. Freyland fires at another Hermes, scoring hits with four lasers and throwing its aim off against Paingod's Ostroc (although the Quickdraw has to absorb a large laser, leaving the center torso armor almost gone). This effort costs Freyland quite a bit, as his mech is targeted by the dropship. The engine shielding cracks open while the gyro is completely shredded. At least the Hermes got knocked over.

Paingod's Ostroc takes some more fire from a nearby Scorpion, losing an arm, but not before blowing down the artillery tube. A punch with the remaining arm crunches the Scorpion's machine gun.

To the east, Hyena finally gets a bead on one of the artillery vehicles. His autocannon clicks as it jams up, but his PPC flies true. A little too true, if we were planning to capture it actually, the artillery piece falls apart.

Round 15:

Spoiler:

Freyland's mech being disabled means we're committed to routing the enemy force if we want to recover it. On the plus side, there's only one artillery tube left on the field. Scrub disables it shortly with a pair of PPC shots, smiling to herself at her controlled fire, and then the Enforcer fires a large laser and autocannon at it, blowing through the top and detonating all the on-board ammo.

"Dammit, Gamma-One-Four, watch the overkill!" Scrub curses.

Round 16:

Spoiler:

Archinerd appears to have found an ammo storage depot, as a laser blast from the Dervish goes through the target building's wall and then it disappears. Scrub disables a Scimitar tank that was trying to hide out in a parking garage. Nice try. Paingod finishes stalking a Galleon tank, kicking through its right side - the crew gets an up close look at the Ostroc's foot and abandons the fight. This time we've managed to stay clear of the dropship's firing arcs. The main enemy force is hanging out there, calculating (correctly) that we're reluctant to get that close. What they're missing is that, by the time they're done, the base will be useless to them.

Round 17:

Spoiler:

Archinerd "finds" another ammo dump. Paingod jumps in behind a Warhammer - the loss of an arm is annoying, but all the Ostroc's weapons are in the torso sections. This makes it a little less flexible in terms of covering its rear arc, but on the other hand, the loss of an arm doesn't mean the loss of half the guns. A pair of large lasers annihilate the Scorpion that blew the Ostroc's arm off, and the Warhammer gets punched in the ankle, although its armor holds up.

Round 18:

Spoiler:

The white powder (still can't be snow, everyone's thermometers show external temperature as 41C) is now covering everything and has piled up on the ground to the point where a mech landing from a jump actually gets stuck in it. While hilarious, this also severely inhibits our mobility.

Hyena works a Hermes mech over as it runs past Freyland's grounded mech. Cylus and the Enforcer work on the last designated target building.

Round 19:

Spoiler:

Cylus finishes off the last target building, while Hyena, Scrub and Archinerd take advantage of a Vulcan that couldn't jump clear of the accumulated powder, plowing PPC shots and LRMs into the lighter mech to knock it down to the ground.

Scrub switches her radio to general frequency. "So hey, your base is blown all to hell, and you don't have any artillery left. Why don't you guys pack it in and get out while you can? Leave anything that can't move, obviously, we don't have all day."

This is punctuated by Paingod plowing a pair of large laser shots into the back of the Condor from out of its firing arc.

The Marik guys take our advice. The core of their firepower (the dropship, an Orion, a Hunchback and a Warhammer) is intact, and they still have a pair of Hermes and a Vulcan, plus two tank lances, but we have a range advantage. Their tanks (the ones that can move, anyway), pile on the dropship, as do the surviving base personnel. The mechs make it out under their own power.

We salvage the Hermes, and a few LRM-packing tanks, for spare armor and ammo. And we manage to put together one of the artillery tubes. It's a Thumper, and we don't have the ammo for it, but it brings us closer to that artillery lance we wanted to put together over the long term.

This was pretty rough - Paingod's Ostroc and Freyland's Quickdraw will both be out of action for a while - the Ostroc is unrepairable with the supplies we've got, while the Quickdraw will need a couple of weeks at least. Additionally, the LBX autocannon on Hyena's Striker is jammed something fierce. The assigned tech shows Hyena what's going on, and there's a live shell that's stuck in the loader assembly. They'll have to be real careful with that. Zarathud's right arm has been knocked off, and our techs haven't quite finished putting all the armor back on Stefan's Catapult. Xwraith, Freyland and Gamma-Two's lieutenant are out with injuries.

After taking out the artillery base, the liaison confirms that, between us and the Scorpions, we've taken out the targets we needed to take out. So now we just need to weather the incessant counterattacks until we can catch a ride out of here. In three months.

The orbital defense facility in sector 2 comes under attack again, by three separate forces. The liaison "suggests" we defend it to a) keep the skies clear and b) prevent the Marik guys from re-capturing it and shooting us down when we leave. Seems reasonable, but we'll want at least four lances for the job - a lot of bad guys coming that way. The Scorpions have committed two lances to the action as well, so it ought to be a giant mess.

Additionally, a smaller force attacks the supply depot. This shouldn't require more than a lance to deal with.

Current force status:

Spoiler:

Alpha Company
Alpha-One (command lance, elite)
- Gbasden / Awesome
- Isgrimnur / Hatchetman
- El Guapo Mk2 / Marauder (modified, AC/5 replaced with armor, 2 heat sinks, 2x Streak SRM/2)
- Stefan / Catapult
Alpha-Two (battle lance, veteran)
- Blackjack BJ-1
- Rifleman RFL-3C
- Trebuchet TBT-5J
- Flashman FLS-7K
Alpha-Three (fast attack lance, regular)
- Wolverine WVR-6M
- Quickdraw QKD-4H (modified, all weapons forward, SRM/4 replaced with Streak SRM/2)
- Griffin 1N
- Shadow Hawk 2K (modified, two heat sinks removed, extra LRM/5 launcher added)
Alpha-Air (flying bricks, veteran)
- Lucifer LCF-R20
- Stuka STU-K5
- Shilone SL-17

Beta Company
Beta-One (assault lance, elite)
- Zenn7 / Awesome
- Zarathud / Awesome (mech damaged)
- LordMortis / Victor
- Moley / Thunderbolt TDR-5SE
Beta-Two (battle lance, regular)
- Catapult
- Trebuchet TBT-5S (short-ranged monstrosity)
- Orion ON1-K
- Rifleman RFL-3N
Beta-Three (battle lance, regular)
- Ostsol OTL-4D (modified, all weapons forward)
- Centurion CN9-A (modified, all weapons forward)
- Vindicator VND-1R
- Wyvern WVE-6N
Beta-Air (mixed light/medium, regular)
- Lucifer LCF-R20
- Lightning LTN-G15
- Sabre SB-27

Delta Company
Delta-One (heavy recon lance, elite)
- Archinerd Mk2 / Dervish DV-6M
- Madmarcus / Wolverine WVR-6M
- Paingod / Ostroc OSR-2M (mech damaged)
- Freyland Mk2 / Quickdraw (modified, all weapons forward, SRM/4 replaced with Streak SRM/2) (mech inoperable)
Delta-Two (medium recon lance, veteran)
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D
- Griffin GRF-1N
- Griffin GRF-1S
- Wolverine WVR-6R
Delta-Three (light recon lance, regular)
- Cicada
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified, half-ton of mg ammo replaced with armor)
- Assassin ASN-21
- Firestarter FS9-K (modified, rear flamer replaced with heat sink)
Delta-Air (light air lance, regular)
- Cheetah F-10
- Seydlitz SYD-Z2
- Centurion CNT-1D

Gamma Company
Gamma-One (heavy battle lance, elite)
- Scrub / Warhammer WHM-6D
- Hyena / Striker (modified, prototype LB 10-X autocannon) (mech damaged)
- Cylus Maxii Mk2 / Grasshopper GHR-5H
- Xwraith Mk3 / Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (modified, large laser replaced with ER large laser) (mechwarrior injured)
Gamma-Two (medium battle lance, regular)
- Centurion CN9-A (all lasers facing forward)
- Trebuchet TBT-5N
- Icarus ICR-1S
Gamma-Three (fast recon lance, regular) (unavailable due to battle damage)
- Phoenix Hawk PXH-1
- Ostscout
- Spider SDR-5V
- Firestarter FS9-H (mg ammo reduced to half ton, rear flamer replaced with heat sink)
Gamma-Air (heavy air flight, veteran) (unavailable due to battle damage)
- Thunderbird TRB-D36
- Lucifer LCF-R15

Stefan: Do you want to a) improve piloting to 2, b) specialize in LRM/15s, c) specialize in medium lasers?
Cylus: Do you want a) improve piloting to 2, b) specialize in medium lasers, c) get "jumping jack" (reduces jump penalty for firing to 1, from 3)

The following mechwarriors will need to pick a replacement mech:
Zarathud: Stalker, Atlas, Warhammer, Marauder, Orion (all unmodified)
Paingod: Griffin, Phoenix Hawk
Freyland: Phoenix Hawk, Thunderbolt (if Xwraith is ok with it for the week), Grasshopper
Hyena: Pick a replacement mech: Atlas, Orion (selection limited due to ballistic weapons specialization)
Stefan: Thunderbolt, Grasshopper

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Entropy is a bitch and is catching up to us. Nice work surviving the drop ship.

I'll improve piloting as its generic to any mech. and will give the thunderbolt a go.

[Freyland]

Thunderbolt if it jumps and isn't the one Stefan just claimed. Grasshopper otherwise.

[Zenn7]

The orbital defense facility in sector 2 comes under attack again, by three separate forces. The liaison "suggests" we defend it to a) keep the skies clear and b) prevent the Marik guys from re-capturing it and shooting us down when we leave. Seems reasonable, but we'll want at least four lances for the job - a lot of bad guys coming that way. The Scorpions have committed two lances to the action as well, so it ought to be a giant mess.

Additionally, a smaller force attacks the supply depot. This shouldn't require more than a lance to deal with.

Woof... that could have gone a LOT better... intel missing a dropship is NOT good.

Excellent job to everyone involved in accomplishing so much and not getting wiped out or losing any of our people!

Orbital Defense Facility: Alpha1/2, Beta 1/2

Supply Depot: Gamma1

Leaves Beta 3, Gamma 2 for heavy base defense with Delta 1 and all our fast lances for recon around the base.

The scorpions might need to start pulling a little more of their own weight if this keeps up.

[Zarathud]

Warhammer, a solid mech.
The Marauder is the backup.
My choices would be different if these weren't stock.