Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Paingod
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

One might almost think that piloting a Mech is hard or something. They spend so much time falling over...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Madmarcus »

I love how your replay seems to avoid the many turns of ineffectual armor stripping that I seem to have. It would help if I turned off the doubled vehicle setting; I'm constantly attempting to stay out of overwhelming numbers of tanks.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Yeah, I get a lot of armor stripping, too. The thing with vehicles is that they get disabled really easily (I can't tell you how many times I've seen "chance for motive system damage: engine destroyed" or something like that). If it wasn't for that, it'd be a whole bunch of turns of "laser melts off small amount of armor", etc.

I still skip most of that in my descriptions. It's kind of boring.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

January 2nd, 3028
We rotate Beta lance due to mechwarrior fatigue. It now consists of Gbasden in the Thunderbolt, Isgrimnur in the Vindicator, Paingod and Xwraith both in Phoenix Hawks. For this particular week, we have to limit our lance size to four, due to being shuttled around in a dropship (the familiar Albacore). The plan is to have the dropship drop the lance right on top of the nav point, conduct their scans, then ditch any pursuers as they withdraw. Beta lance's recon efforts have localized the enemy forces and staging areas, and given a pretty good read on their composition, which is just as well since the subcontract is wrapping up shortly.

Our attached CO for this mission is already in the area, a 3/4 driving a Hermes 1B.

The dropship informs us that two lances of heavy enemy vehicles are in the area, so he's not going to stick around after dropping us off. That's fine, we're not here to fight, just get our sensor readings and be out.

Round 1-3:
Spoiler:
Image
The dropship flies overhead and drops us at the far edge of the board, where one of our mechs can begin scanning immediately. The allied Hermes buzzes the enemy armor formation to get them pissed off and lasers the treads on a Brutus Assault Tank (PPC variant). Normally, it wouldn't be a problem, but the vehicle's driver jerks the vehicle and goes sliding down a hill side, flipping himself over.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Our mechs hit the ground running. Most of them, anyway. Paingod hits the ground a little too hard, and not with his feet, crunching a jump jet. Isgrimnur begins the sensor sweep as soon as he hits the ground, while the rest of the lance moves to cover him. The allied Hermes dodges about 5/6 of 120 LRMs, but that's still 20 LRMs and his armor takes a pounding. Him and Xwraith inflict damage on one of the LRM carriers, with Xwraith knocking off one of the wheels.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
"Sensor sweep 33% complete.". Our mechs move up into the heavy woods, with LRMs flying all around.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Sensor sweep 66% complete. Wish they'd make faster sensors.". We continue jumping around through the woods, taking some damage and not really returning any. The Hermes is of particular concern, with its LRM-pockmarked armor.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
"Sensor sweep complete. Bugging out."
"Hey, did someone call for air support?"
Isgrimnur begins his exit. Our air support flies over but can't get a good angle to drop bombs so just strafes an LRM carrier. The large laser strikes home, detonating the vehicle's fuel tank, so Gbasden's would-be perfect shot just lights the fireball up in a different color. Xwraith lasers a couple of wheels off the adjacent LRM Carrier, then follows up with a boot knocking off another one. The vehicle miraculously keeps moving.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The SRM Carriers are a concern, so Xwraith jumps in behind them for some laser and kicking action. The enemy LRM Carrier blows both the Hermes' arms off with an LRM salvo, while we can't quite deliver enough damage to put a stop to the outgoing enemy fire.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The allied Hermes does the smart thing and retreats into some woods to the north. The allied dropship does a strafing run on the SRM Carriers. One more turn and then we disengage completely. The SRM Carriers unload on the Gbasden, but he ducks back, only catching a couple of stray missiles. Xwraith drops the engine block out of one of the SRM Carriers with a laser, while the Albacore completely melts down the other one with weapons fire from a PPC bay.

With half their force gone, not to mention our recon mech having escaped, the remaining enemy units pull back. That was not a good hex for vehicles this game (it contains an LRM Carrier wreck, a "good for spare parts only" SRM Carrier, and the one that Xwraith just cored). We claim the nearly completely intact Brutus for salvage (our techs inform us that it could be worth nearly 1.7M on the open market and collect 30k for prisoner capture.

Alternately, we could keep the Brutus, since it does have an unbelievable amount of armor, along with two turret-mounted PPCs. And we do have some crew lined up. I know, it's demeaning for mechwarriors to work with crawlers, but you guys can probably suck it up. From a practical standpoint, what do you guys think?

Full stats:
75 tons
3/5 (Tracked)
224 armor
2x PPC in turret mount
2x SRM/6, 1x SRM/2 in front
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

I swear, someone's tampering with my gyros. I never tripped, fell, and stumbled so much in my last squad!

That's a potent vehicle and I've always liked PPC's. Is there a cost associated with keeping it (maintenance?) or will it safely sit in mothballs until you need it? A better question might be ... can you tell if you'll end up dropping it into a very vehicle-unfriendly terrain before you get there with it?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

The maintenance costs are pretty low. The main costs will be when we have to haul the thing across interstellar distances and if it ever gets blown up - death benefits for personnel are pretty expensive.

As for advance knowledge of the terrain, not so much. If the lance commander has the tactics skill (which all of ours do at this point), we can reroll the general terrain type a couple of times, but it might still come out crap. Then we're basically stuck with a dual PPC turret on top of a brick.

The other good part is it only counts for half its weight when determining the lance weight class - that's important when generating the opposing force. So even though it's a 75 tonner, it counts for 37.5 tons (so, effectively, 40). So we can get more tonnage (which translates into armor and firepower) but still get opposing forces rolled from the tables for the lower lance weights.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

Keep it! And when it blows up at the worst possible time, you can write, "Et tu, Brute?"
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We'll keep the Brutus and crew in mothballs for now. Never know when we'll lose a bunch of mechs and need an extra 75 tons of vehicle on the field.

January 3rd, 3028
FWL Command informs us that a jumpship has entered the system at the nadir jump point and several Triumph-class dropships are heading towards the planet, and that Alpha, Gamma and Delta lance should "stop screwing around and prepare for imminent contact with enemy forces."

Then, instead of having us deploy to try to intercept the landing dropships, they have us sit around guarding "strategic facilities".

January 9th
Meanwhile, Beta lance is ordered to engage and destroy an enemy force attempting to avoid detection. We find them camping out near a dried out lake bed, but they're ready for us. By our count it's four lances of light and medium vehicles, and air recon reports another two lances of light units closing in. If I didn't know better, I'd say we got sent into a meat grinder. Beta lance is back to being Gbasden, El Guapo, Paingod and a Firestarter, as all our other mechwarriors are back on the job. Kind of. Our attached CO is a guy in a Firestarter. Gbasden calls in air support, which will arrive in six turns (about the same time as the enemy reinforcements closing in).

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We deploy to the south of the main enemy force and engage immediately as the hovercraft zip up to fire their SRMs. A Condor hover tank zips up a little too close to us and gets cut to pieces with lasers. Well, it's technically still intact, but has no hover skirt or air ducts, so it stops moving. Gbasden, El Guapo and the Firestarter all get credit for the "kill", although Gbasden technically hit it first. Meanwhile, our attached CO's Firestarter gets plastered with SRMs and LRMs, taking a gyro and an engine hit, falling over.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
A brief glance at the allied Firestarter shows it's down for the count. We move to the woods to bail him out, but the vehicle swarm coordinates fire on Gbasden's Thunderbolt. He manages to get a couple of lasers off on a Hetzer, slicing apart all the wheels on one side. However, he gets pelted with SRMs and takes an AC/20 round to the left arm, knocking it off completely. Paingod's aim is spoiled by all the missiles flying around and he falls down as well while attempting to kick a Maxim.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Yeah, no way we're going to be able to take all these vehicles on in this terrain. We pull back out of the woods with the intention of bugging out completely next turn. Paingod braves the LRM and SRM swarms to deliver critical damage to a Hetzer's motive systems, although his armor gets sandpapered quite thoroughly, and the mech takes damage to the shoulder actuator. Stays upright, though!

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We pull back out of SRM range for the most part, except for two hovercraft that follow us. There's still a lot of LRM and long-range autocannon fire, but it's much more manageable, as the enemy force shows little interest in pursuing us. Our Firestarter slices an SRM launcher off the pursuing Maxim and boots it, resulting in some of the crew having their teeth knocked out.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod leaves the battlefield, as the shoulder actuator damage makes it practically impossible to operate the Phoenix Hawk's main armament. The enemy force holds position, although they still deliver a good amount of LRM and light autocannon fire, breaching the Firestarter's armor and damaging the lower leg actuator. Our return fire whiffs, but at this point it's intended more to discourage pursuit than anything else.

Gbasden waves the air support off and we depart the area. I don't think that poor scrub in the Firestarter will be keeping his mech. We, uh, didn't actually destroy any of the opposing force. They'll probably just put the wheels back on and duct tape the air intakes back together and be good as new in a couple of days. Our employer's liaison rants about "substandard performance", and we counter with a rant about "inaccurate intelligence". Despite that, Beta lance has delivered a wealth of sensor data on its area of operations and the liaison signs off on Operation Final Engine as "completed". Although we'll miss the extra money, the mechwarriors of Beta lance need a break.

A couple of days later, our liaison informs us that he's authorized to offer a search and rescue contract for the downed mechwarrior. With a bonus for recovering the mech itself.
Last edited by NickAragua on Fri Sep 15, 2017 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote:As an aside, would folks be interested in doing a turn-by-turn play-by-forum version of one of these missions (or more if it pans out), that we'll spin off into a separate thread?

Basically, the idea is that I'd carry out OpFor movement, post a screenshot of the state of the battlefield, collect orders from people and implement them as best I can, then post the turn results and loop back around.
I'm in.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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NickAragua wrote:We'll keep the Brutus and crew in mothballs for now.
This seems cruel. Is it legal?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

El Guapo wrote:
NickAragua wrote:We'll keep the Brutus and crew in mothballs for now.
This seems cruel. Is it legal?
Eh, mothballs are pretty soft, I think the crew will be ok with it.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote:
El Guapo wrote:
NickAragua wrote:We'll keep the Brutus and crew in mothballs for now.
This seems cruel. Is it legal?
Eh, mothballs are pretty soft, I think the crew will be ok with it.
I suppose in the battletech universe that's probably a relatively safe place to be.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

Stays upright, though!
A miracle! I was beginning to think my Mech needed to have an inflated donut installed on its ass.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by xwraith »

At least nobody has blown up my cockpit again (yet!)
I forgot to call it "a box of pure malevolent evil, a purveyor of
insidious insanity, an eldritch manifestation that would make Bill
Gates let out a low whistle of admiration," but it's all those, too.
-- David Gerard, Re: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext grammar, 2010.08.06
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Well, it turns out that I had a much easier time putting the player-participation scenario together than I expected, so here it is.

Search and Rescue, Deployment Turn.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Links to the turn descriptions of the player-run scenario.

Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4
Turn 5
Turn 6
Turn 7
Turn 8
Turn 9
Turn 10
Turn 11
Turn 12
Turn 13
Turn 14
Turn 15
End state
After-action summary

TL;DR - We rescued the mechwarrior, blew up a bunch of buildings and tanks, but Gbasden lost his Thunderbolt.

Gbasden, your mechwarrior is going to improve piloting or gunnery. Which one will it be?
Also, Isgrimnur thinks he's getting the hang of controlling his mech while it's wobbling around with a damaged gyro (improved piloting skill).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Excellent.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

I think Gunnery.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

The damage to Beta lance's mechs is repaired within a few days of returning to base. Gbasden improves his general gunnery skills and finds that he enjoys much better firing weapons without a kickback (gunnery specialization - energy: -1 to hit with energy-based weapons, +1 to hit with all others). The next two weeks pass uneventfully as our units sit around, defending "strategic facilities" and running training exercises.

January 28, 3028
The Magistracy forces are back, and it looks like they've had enough of our interference. Thanks to our employer sitting on their asses and letting a bunch of Maggie dropships land, we now have another battallion's worth of vehicles to deal with.

Alpha Lance responds to sensor detection of an enemy "recon" unit poking around the outer perimeter of the facility they're tasked with defending. I'm not sure what kind of "reconaissance" involves a reinforced company of tanks, but Alpha Lance's liaison advises us that allied command considers it a "contract requirement" to make them go away. As we approach the interception point, it begins snowing quite heavily while night turns to day.

Alpha Lance is Archinerd in a Thunderbolt, Paingod in a Phoenix Hawk 1D, along with a Firestarter and a Shadow Hawk 2K. The attached liaison is in a Crab. The Opfor is sixteen vehicles, mostly Vedettes but a few hovercraft and some modified Hetzers. Our air support reports that another light vehicle lance with mech support is approaching from the north. The interception point is a gently sloping hill with a sprinkling of woods.

Turn 1:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We hang out on top of the hill, moving forward to take advantage of the cover near the north side. Some long-range fire is exchanged, but the only thing that hits is an AC/2 to Paingod's left torso.

Turn 2:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The enemy tanks and hovercraft trundle and zip up the hill respectively. We take a few SRM hits while Archinerd scores a few LRM hits on a Vedette, chipping away at the treads. Our Shadow Hawk boots the Vedette next to him pretty good, stripping off almost all the front armor.

Turn 3:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We pull back to the south edge of the hill. We score some minor motive system damage on a tank, and Archinerd blows away half the motive elements on a Saracen with his LRM launcher. We really ought to stick him in a Catapult. If we find one. Paingod punches an AC/2 Vedette in the turret, while our Firestarter whiffs a kick on the damaged Saracen and falls over in the snow. Good job there, sport.

Turn 4:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Firestarter has some trouble getting up in the snowy conditions, taking a whopping three attempts. At least they were all of the "take a knee" variety, rather than falling over. This puts her in range of many angry tanks though. Archinerd takes another shot at the Saracen with his LRM/10 and this time knocks the motive system out entirely. The Firestarter takes a barrage of AC/5 and SRM rounds, but most miss. A stray machinegun burst damages a heat sink though, which is a problem for a Firestarter.

Turn 5:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
"The snow begins to accumulate." I pick the patch of woods for our units to occupy, and the Firestarter jumps to join everyone else. There's a lot of laser-inflicted armor stripping and some AC/5 hits on our units, but the only things of note are Paingod inflicting minor damage on the Pegasus' air ducts with a boot, and the allied Crab nailing a distant Scorpion tank with a large laser, stripping off almost all the armor and severely damaging the treads.

Turn 6:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
This is a problem. Additional Maggie units arrive to the north. Hovercraft and fast mechs. They'll be joining in shortly. Paingod makes an aggressive move, jumping in behind a Hetzer to target the weak armor in the rear. "Weak armor" is kind of an overstatement though, as the vehicle's plating barely even notices the one medium laser hit and the solid boot. Archinerd unloads on the Vedette to his right, stunning the crew and heavily damaging the treads.

Turn 7:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Our air support arrives, while we seriously need to back the hell up before we get completely chewed to pieces. Paingod feels a little bit hemmed in by the twenty or so vehicles and hops away. The allied Crab takes an AC/10 hit to the left torso, losing a heat sink, while our air support flies overhead and drops some bombs on a cluster of enemy vehicles. The results are less than ideal, with some minor motive damage, a stunned crew and a head shot on an enemy Phoenix Hawk. The Crab and Paingod team up on the Pegasus next to them, and after a little game of mech soccer, the hovercraft is immobilized (but not before delivering a full spread of SRMs to the Crab).

Turn 8:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Paingod once again demonstrates the usefulness of jump jets when he gets surrounded and then jumps out at the last second. As we continue shuffling around the woods, Archinerd takes an SRM hit to the dome but stays conscious. Other than that, there's an amazing amount of missed shots, and our Firestarter immobilizes the Vedette next to the woods by knocking out an engine block with its boot.

Turn 9:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We pull back away from the woods in a more or less orderly retreat. Our air support strafes an enemy Vedette, breaching its armor and destroying the engine. Our Crab loses its right torso armor and another heat sink, making firing both its large lasers problematic.

Turn 10:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We pull back further southeast, with the goal of making another stand in the little patch of woods there. The attached Crab completely cores the AC/2 Vedette driving by, while the rest of us fail to inflict any appreciable damage. Still, most of our mechs are in good working order and we're making a reasonable dent in the enemy force.

And then they pull back. I guess they got what they wanted. Too bad nobody saw that little Saracen slip by to the south under the hail of low-caliber autocannon fire. I'm sure that won't come back to bite us in the ass later.

Battlefield salvage is just a bunch of beat-up tanks, so we leave it to our employer. I guess it's not true that every employer-attached mechwarrior is a giant scrub, as the liaison in the Crab got more kills than the rest of us.

Next up, Cylus Maxii gets to exercise his skills at running away from vastly superior enemy numbers during a training exercise gone completely wrong.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

I wonder why Mechs have guns and lasers sometimes. Good show, though. :)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

January 28, 3028
Gamma Lance Training Exercise

Defending a series of industrial facilities while other people engage battalions of enemy armor is kind of boring, so we stage training exercises against the local militia to bring rookie Mechwarriors up to speed to pass the time.

Gamma lance is a Quickdraw, a Panther, a Griffin 1N, an Atlas, Cylus Maxii in a Spider and an attached liaison in a Wasp, participating in the training exercise. Our mechwarriors are going to learn in a "live fire environment" about escape and evasion, maximizing cover and irregular movement patterns. The local militia will be learning about combined arms pursuit tactics in rough terrain and hostile weather conditions. Our objective here is to reach the northern edge of the board with at least 50% of our units. The other 50% will draw enemy fire then retreat.

We'll be using dud rounds for autocannons and missiles, as well as de-powered energy weapons.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Cylus Maxii is the first to run through these woods. To be honest, he's probably clear of an enemy pursuit already.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
A few enemy hover tanks and light mechs make it into the area ahead of the rest of our lance. Cylus finds himself a nice, thick tree branch for use in clubbing actions if necessary, as that scout helicopter is just too damn fast to actually shoot at.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Wasp liaison arrives, and I deploy him well clear of all the enemy hovercraft. The idea is to jump him forward along the western edge of the map. The woods and snow make it very difficult to shoot at anything, which is great for our escaping mechs.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
A smaller enemy force arrives at the northern end of the map (the very edge of our artillery coverage range). We're going to have to run a gauntlet. As our Griffin and Quickdraw move onto the field, the enemy hovercraft get so very excited for new company and skid: one of them even skids into some trees off the field, inflicting some actual damage. Some PPCs fly between the Griffin and LTV-4, but nothing hits.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Our Panther enters the area, chased by a large number of Vedettes. Luckily, they have trouble navigating the woods. Our jump jet equipped units, not so much. He takes a pot shot at an enemy hover tank, but it's more symbolic than anything else.

Round 8:
Our escape continues pretty well. The woods are *really* impeding enemy progress. Our Griffin can't exactly hit the Jenner running around through the woods, but he does set the woods themselves on fire.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Atlas trundles on to the field. This is really not the place for one, but the Lieutenant's role here is to draw some fire then fade out, meeting up with the rest of the lance later. Looks like the Panther won't be getting away, either, so he'll be joining up with the Atlas for some evasion training. A Saladin hover tank zips up to the Atlas and catches an AC/20 burst to the front, while a low-power medium laser would have sliced off the right side armor. Even with dummy round, getting whacked by an AC/20 knocks the vehicle around, stunning the crew and injuring the driver. The vehicle settles down to the ground. Meanwhile, a Locust runs up to the Griffin and delivers a leg kick. The Griffin kicks back, stripping all armor from the smaller mech's left leg, damaging a heat sink and an actuator - the smaller mech falls over on its back. Look, if you guys are going to play rough, we'll play rough too.

Round 10:
Cylus Maxii is the first to take on the northern gauntlet. He opts to take the western route, booting a J.Edgar hover tank but moving too fast for anything else to hit him. Meanwhile, to the south, the Atlas reports disabling a Scimitar hover tank with rear-firing medium lasers, shortly before taking a simulated SRM to the left torso which would have exploded its internal ammo storage. Yikes.

Round 11:
Cylus Maxii clears the gauntlet without a scratch. The allied Wasp is the second to go on, jumping behind a slightly-slow Cicada. Further south, the Panther gets surrounded. He takes several medium laser hits, but the armor holds. Then he gets knocked down to a knee by several kicks. The mechwarrior elects to fade into the woods to the east, rather than take on four mechs by himself.

Round 12, 13, 14:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We continue our retreat. The rest of the enemy forces have no shot at catching up to us, so it's going to be Griffin and Quickdraw vs a Shadow Hawk and a Cicada, plus some hovercraft. A J.Edgar takes a couple of SRM shots at our Wasp, stripping away armor, but everything whiffs otherwise. Also, the snow starts piling up.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Shadow Hawk can't actually keep up with our units, so now it's just them and the Cicada, which gets around the back of the Griffin and kicks the leg, but the mech stays balanced.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Wasp clears the gauntlet mostly unscathed. The Griffin and Quickdraw are still brawling with a J.Edgar and Cicada, joined by an annoying Ferret buzzing around and occasionally firing machine gun shots. The Cicada doesn't have jump jets, so once our mechs hop over another stream, they're clear. Mission technically complete. It takes the rest of our units another thirty or so seconds to get to artillery coverage range, at which point the militia opfor gives up pursuit. It's just as well, seeing as how the water is starting to freeze over and the snow is *really* piling up to the point where mechs are even getting stuck in it.

I'm not really sure who "won" that one. On the one hand, 2/3 of our force evaded the "enemy". On the other hand, we would have lost the Atlas had we been fighting actual enemy units, which is hardly a win in my book.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

For now, Gbasden gets into Archinerd's old Clint and continues training the rookies.

The next few weeks pass without further incident, as our units guard their assigned objectives without any interference. We hire a veteran mechwarrior in a Javelin - a 6/9/6 mech with two SRM/6 launchers who has decided to muster out of the local militia and see about getting paid a little better, and reshuffle some of our Beta lance warriors to Alpha lance.

Additionally, Cylus Maxii improves his mech handling abilities to the point where he no longer topples his mech over while walking slowly on flat terrain. Most of the time. So we promote him to Private and reassign Scrub (in a Warhammer) to Gamma Lance to bring it up to medium weight.

February 22nd, 3028
A small unidentified force is detected by one of the outlying sensors and Alpha Lance moves to intercept. Rather than stop to engage, the enemy unit attempts to break through. The enemy unit is a lance of light and medium mechs and two lances of vehicles - mostly Hetzers and Vedttes, with a single hovercraft for support. The rain quiets down but turns to gale-force winds instead. The re-shuffled Alpha Lance is Archinerd in a Thunderbolt, Paingod in a Phoenix Hawk, El Guapo in a Griffin 1S and Madmarcus in the Firestarter. We call in some air support since the aero jock is currently sitting around twiddling his thumbs anyway. The allied liaison is a regular pilot in a Griffin.

Our job is to prevent 50% of the enemy units from exiting the "northern" edge of the battlefield.

The interception point is a small town, which should provide some pretty good cover.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We advance and engage the Condor that zips up ahead of the rest of the force. We conserver our heat while firing which is fine because we whiffed just about every shot. The main bright spot is our liaison Griffin melting the wheels off the left side of an LRM-equipped Hetzer with his PPC.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
We decide to let the Condor go and go after the slower units instead. Archinerd unloads lasers on the nearby Scorpion, blasting off treads and stunning the crew. While they're fumbling around trying to recover, he gives the little tank a solid boot, pretty much scoring a field goal with its engine through some nearby trees. Paingod takes a wheel off the nearby Hetzer. We take some return fire, but only a few small lasers and machine guns hit.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy formation breaks up a little, with the Whitworth and SRM Hetzer staying back while the rest of the enemy units move full tilt. Paingod chases after the escaping enemy units in the west and blows the right leg off the Flea with the large laser, then severely damages the right arm with a medium laser. The little mech flops over. It's crappy bug mech salvage, but still salvage. El Guapo and Archinerd try to take down the Vedette to the north but mostly whiff, although El Guapo does manage to kick some treads, ensuring the vehicle isn't really going anywhere. Madmarcus continues working on the Hetzer underneath Paingod's feet, then takes a second to burn the two wheels off the front of the SRM Hetzer next to him. Despite taking nine SRMs and some other assorted weapons fire, Paingod's Phoenix Hawk remains standing.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Flea pilot abandons his mech. Archinerd blasts the damaged Vedette again, breaching the left-side armor and stunning the crew. Paingod and the liaison go chasing after the escaping Quasit MilitiaMech (yeah...), but miss most of their shots. Madmarcus manages to score some small laser hits on the back of his target SRM Hetzer but whiffs the kick when he has to dodge the AC/20 round fired from the other Hetzer.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd's Vedette quarry tries to escape through town, but he's having none of it and breaches the front and turret armor with lasers. El Guapo and Paingod chase down the Quaisit, with El Guapo detonating a half ton of machine gun ammo after breaching the right torso with medium lasers. The allied Liaison disables the SRM Hetzer with some LRMs knocking out the rest of its wheels (he really does not like Hetzers, I guess). Madmarcus and the Whitworth engage in a melee dance - missing all their weapons fire but kicking each other in the legs. Madmarcus loses all his left leg armor while the Whitworth loses a jump jet.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd, Paingod and El Guapo team up on the Whitworth, hitting it with LRMs and lasers. Madmarcus continues working in the standard Hetzer, coring it out with a large laser. Meanwhile, our liaison scores his third kill, destroying the Vedette trying to get out from under Archinerd's mech with a well-placed PPC shot. Not shown: Paingod jumping into a small lake to cool off after firing all lasers and kill the local flora and fauna.

With that, the rest of the enemy force scatters, with the Whitworth jumping off to the west and evading our force. An LRM-equipped APC, Condor, Javelin mech and a Vedette escaped as well, so they'll probably still make trouble somewhere, but it'll be a lot harder without those Hetzers. We claim the Flea as salvage (mostly for our techs to practice on) and leave the rest of the tanks for our employer. We collect a 75k bonus for handing off a few tank crews to our employer as well.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

Additionally, Cylus Maxii improves his mech handling abilities to the point where he no longer topples his mech over while walking slowly on flat terrain. Most of the time. So we promote him to Private and reassign Scrub (in a Warhammer) to Gamma Lance to bring it up to medium weight.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

Those fish had it coming. On the plus side, dinner is free tonight.

When you run a training action, is it pretty much a financial drain in exchange for pilot skill - or was that a contracted gig and you still got paid?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

The training exercise as basically another part of our contract requirement. We get paid per month and more or less do whatever the employer tells us to do. To encourage good performance, we get "bonuses" in the form of a percentage of battlefield salvage, as well as for handing over captured prisoners. Also, if we suck really badly (repeatedly fail mission objectives, refuse orders, kill non-combatants, etc), it's possible that an arbiter will find us in breach of contract.

As an aside, we're contractually obligated to deploy "three separate lances of at least three but no more than five combat units, with a maximum total mass of 380 tons per lance." Since we're under liaison command, we get to organize our units as we see fit as long as we complete the overall objectives - the liaison is there to "provide assistance and advice, and to facilitate communication with allied forces."

February 28, 3028
After a bunch of prodding and poking around Alpha's area of operations, the Maggies decide to attack in force. Two lances of heavy vehicles move in from the south with a mixed vehicle/mech lance trailing behind. As Alpha moves to intercept, another group of enemy units is detected heading in from the east. It looks like they plan to break through Alpha's formation and tie our unit up long enough for a few of their long-range units to get past Alpha's blockade and blow away the warehouse complex where Alpha is staged.

Luckily, Delta Lance is within reinforcement range. Alpha just needs to hold on and prevent six of the enemy units from going off the north end of the map. After that, it's a straight-up brawl.

Alpha lance is the same lineup as last time. Delta lance is Zenn7 in the Awesome, an Orion, LordMortis in the Hunchback, Freyland MK II in the Valkyrie and Xwraith in a Phoenix Hawk. Their attached Liaison is a 4/6 mechwarrior in a Wolverine 6M. Air support is also on station.
Spoiler:
Image
The interception point turns out to be the center of a small town. Apologies to the inhabitants. The plan is to stick around the town and woods to make use of available cover and peek out to engage the short range units as they close. It's also pretty damn cold, with grape-sized hail pattering on our mechs' armor.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Enemy forces advance and we advance. Archinerd scores the only hit of the round, blasting a distant LRM Carrier with some LRMs, while dodging a 60-LRM salvo. I bet the town inhabitants are unhappy about the spread of missiles plastering their homes though.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Madmarcus and El Guapo move through woods on the east flank, hoping to get around those SRM Carriers and not get plastered by SRMs. Paingod and Archinerd engage the heavies in the center. Archinerd gets plastered with LRMs this time, taking a whopping 37 missiles, including a few to the dome. He stays conscious and upright and returns fire at the LRM Carrier, breaching its forward armor.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Madmarcus and El Guapo get around the back of the SRM and LRM Carriers. Except for one that turns around. In keeping with tradition, it unloads on El Guapo's rear armor, sandpapering away just about all of it and damaging both the engine and gyro. This time, he's unable to stay upright. Archinerd engages the LRM Carrier under Paingod's feet, detonating the fuel tank with a medium laser after coring it out with a large laser. Paingod takes a shot at the Manticore to the north, blowing both missile racks off the turret (leaving "just" the main gun, a PPC). Despite being a trivial shot, Madmarcus misses the LRM Carrier at point blank range. He does manage to land a kick, knocking the crew around a bit.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
El Guapo turns around but doesn't get up, continuing his "duel" with the SRM Carrier, while Madmarcus chases down the other two carriers. Paingod and Archinerd continue working the center, with Archinerd scoring another fuel tank kill on the laser carrier. His mech is running a little hot, but it was worth it. El Guapo's mech is blown to smithereens by a whopping 68 SRMs - both arms come off, as well as a leg... and then the LRM/5 ammo goes up. However, he manages to eject. It's a little bit rough, but he'll live. Madmarcus slows down his target SRM Carrier a little bit, so it drops out of the formation.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy SRM Carriers advance, covering each other, making it difficult to get good shots on them without getting plastered. Paingod goes to chase down the escaping Manticore, while Archinerd and Madmarcus work on the eastern flank. Archinerd still gets pounded with SRMs but remains upright. Paingod breaches the left side armor on the Manticore with lasers and a boot, stunning the crew.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
These freaking SRM Carriers are just murdering us. Archinerd's Thunderbolt gets cored out. The engine blinks out after several missile hits, but its a moot point as the LRM ammo goes off. Archinerd manages to eject, landing in some nearby water. No kills from our end - horrendous luck, really. I don't think I've seen this many 2s on weapons fire in a while.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Additional Maggie forces arrive from the south. No way Paingod and Madmarcus are holding against this swarm. The only bright spot here is that our air support arrives. He drops some bombs on the escaping units, breaching SRM Carrier armor and damaging the Bulldog's treads. Paingod chips away at the Manticore some more, but it's a pretty tough vehicle.

Turn 8:
Spoiler:
Image
More enemy units arrive from the east. Our reinforcements are still about ten seconds away, so Madmarcus hops over to scoop Archinerd up from the water before clearing out. The Lucifer gets a revenge kill on one of the SRM Carriers, while Paingod finally finishes off the Manticore, coring it out with medium lasers.

Turn 9:
Reinforcements have arrived. Delta lance deploys on the west edge of the board. We also get some enemy flyers incoming, which isn't too hot. An enemy Condor whizzes by our reinforcements, taking only minor damage. LordMortis tries to target it, but a strafing run from an enemy aircraft knocks off his aim, breaching his rear armor and damaging the engine casing.

Zenn7 blasts one of the enemy aeros with all three PPCs, spreading the damage out. The Lucifer targets a Sabre, causing major damage all around. The enemy Eagle drops a bunch of bombs on our units, causing some damage and knocking the Orion over.

Madmarcus in the Firestarter gets his arm blown off, but his mech survives miraculously, despite being shot at by just about every unit on the east side of the map.

Turn 10:
Spoiler:
Image
The water begins crusting over with ice as Madmarcus retreats behind some buildings to the west. Paingod abandons his lake and jumps off to help bail his fellow surviving lance member out as an enemy Firestarter and some other units chase him down. A pair of enemy units fail to account for the icy conditions - an LRM Bulldog slides onto thin ice and sinks, while an enemy Phoenix Hawk doesn't quite clear the ice on another lake and "drops in". Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but the rear center torso armor scrapes off on the ice and the mech just shuts down.

The enemy Firestarter jumps on top of a not-sturdy enough building, so the Orion unloads on it. The building collapses, taking the Firestarter down a few levels.

LordMortis cools off from the engine damage.

Paingod knocks the wheels off an APC, preventing it from joining its buddies in the north.

Way up north, an allied Griffin disables the escaping Condor with a PPC, while our Lucifer blasts another SRM Carrier to bits in a strafing run. An allied liaison in a Wolverine whiffs a kick on the Saracen and falls over.

Turn 11:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy units pull back out of the center of town and cluster up to the southeast, getting ready for another push. The Firestarter from the collapsed building panics and runs onto some thin ice, falling through. An enemy Shadow Hawk also breaks through some ice, breaching and flooding one of its legs. The Lucifer tries a sweet-looking side slip manuever that would have allowed him to drop bombs directly on the enemy formation, except he runs into some "crosswinds" (of the autocannon variety) and barely maintains control of his aircraft.

Paingod goes chasing after a Bulldog and damages the treads with his lasers and breaching the left-side armor with a boot, knocking the crew around. He loses the rest of the armor on his left arm, though.

Xwraith and Freyland blast away at a Trebuchet standing on a bridge over some ice. Well, they blast away at the bridge, really. The bridge isn't quite strong enough to hold up the 50-ton mech, and it falls over.

Zenn7 melts the armor off the front of a Vedette with a PPC. The smaller vehicle begins retreating.

Turn 12:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Lucifer flies off the map, with autocannon shots trailing after it. The enemy Firestarter clears itself out of the frozen lake and winds up directly in front of the Orion and allied Wolverine. The Orion immediately plows into it with an AC/10 and SRM/4, breaching left torso armor. LordMortis then takes the head off entirely with the AC/20, incidentally marking off his first mech kill. Zenn7 melts down a Scorpion that crosses his firing line. Paingod comes after an LRM Carrier, getting in behind it and lasering off some armor so that he can reach in there with his boot and core it out that way.

Turn 13:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Madmarcus lost his leg armor, so it's time for him to beat a retreat. Xwraith jumps into a crowd of enemy vehicles to cover him. Paingod continues his role as hunter-killer, going for an isolated Vedette. The enemy force definitely begins its push back into the center of town.

The Orion opens up on the Skulker, popping a tire. Zenn7 melts another Scorpion's armor, with the vehicle deciding to beat a retreat. LordMortis comes over and says hi to the escaping Bulldog with an AC/20 to the right side, blowing away all remaining armor and the engine. Xwraith melts down a J.Edgar's motive systems, causing the vehicle to kick up a cloud of snow and ice as it settles in. Madmarcus takes an AC/5 round to the rear center torso, shredding his gyro. As his mech is toppling over, he gets a nice shot at a Vedette as it crests a small bump, hitting the underside armor and completely blasting out the engine.

Turn 14:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Madmarcus bails out - no gyro and within LOS of a bunch of vehicles is no way to go through life.

Our liaison Griffin blows the enemy Skulker away with a PPC followed by an LRM/10 salvo. Zenn7 melts down a distant Saracen with all three PPCs. Xwraith would have also disabled it, but it's a moot point. Paingod finishes off his target Vedette. Somewhere in that mess, LordMortis loses a leg, which throws off his aim with the AC/20 a little. Zenn7 finishes the party off by stomping a Scropion that had wandered underfoot.

With over half of the enemy force destroyed, the rest call a retreat. They were unable to get sufficient units over the north edge of the map - the ones that made it were a Javelin mech with a breached right torso (due to falling through ice) and a Vedette with no front armor, who didn't feel like they could take the warehouse complex static defenses.

This was pretty costly though, we lost a Thunderbolt *and* a Griffin 1S. Not to mention we'll have to get a new gyro for Madmarcus' Firestarter and a leg for LordMortis' Hunchback. Still, nobody died, so that's pretty good.

LordMortis and Zenn7 both crack open their cockpits, grateful for a little bit of cool air.

So, what do we get for salvage? Not too shabby. An almost entirely intact Phoenix Hawk, just a little engine damage. A headless Firestarter. We also claim a bunch of vehicle wrecks to offset the loss of about 6M worth of mechs. After we fix them up, our employer pays us a reasonable 4M for them. The Manticore, SRM and LRM Carrier are only worth it for scrap and spare parts, but they should be able to get the rest back into working order. A 150k prisoner capture bonus won't go amiss, either. Our techs wind up being super busy over the next couple of days - that was a lot of damage. Still, the tech crew is pretty stellar and get most of the damage fixed up.

The FWL representative contacts us and asks if we'd be willing to deploy an additional lance in an adjacent operating theater, for a period of 4 months. With the subcontract paying out an additional 7M and 40% salvage rights, it's kind of a no-brainer, since the OpFor is virtually identical (Regular/D, "Pirates").

LordMortis gets the hang of shooting that AC/20 and improves his gunnery to 3. We also promote him to Corporal.

With 57M in the bank, it may be time to invest in some replacement mechs, since we've taken some losses recently. I'd really love a couple of Thunderbolts, but they don't exactly grow on trees. Instead, we have:

Another Atlas (sweet! but boooooring and costs 9.7M)
Stalker STK-4N:
3/5 movement (sloooow)
26 heat sinks (nice)
216 armor
4x medium lasers
1x LRM/10
2x SRM/6
1x large laser

Similar to Freyland's former ride. This one has better heat management and not as much ammo in the arms. Costs 6.9M.

Also on sale is a Wasp. A 20-ton Wasp. No thanks, we already have a Flea.

There's also a Thunderbird aerotech fighter for sale. This is a 100-ton beast, packing enough lasers and LRMs to give an Atlas a scare. A little bit on the slow side, though, and costs 5.8M. We could use a spare aircraft, however and our aero jock is complaining about having to dogfight four enemy Aero units at once without a wingman.

So, do you guys think we should buy any of those?

Also, Archinerd, El Guapo - you need replacement mechs. We've got the following:
Hunchback 4G (4/6, 160 armor, AC/20, 2x Medium Laser, 1x Small Laser)
Centurion AH (4/6, 136 armor, AC/20, LRM/10)
Centurion ALF (4/6, 169 armor, Large Laser, 2x Medium Laser, Small Laser, LRM/10)

The Centurions are more Archinerd's speed, due to the LRM/10s.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Flying attacks are puppies! We never play with Aerotech!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

It feels like another slow mech isn't really in our best interests given we seem to be getting a lot of scenarios where movement is pretty critical, but we might need it simply to fill out the ranks. I like the Thunderbird, though!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

That was a pretty intense fight. Those 60 LRM's are just gross.

While I'd agree that it seems speed and agility seem to have been key, that last round kind of showed that some heft might be in order. I wish I knew more about how the Altas and Stalker differ in this scenario. Just from my time in other games, I'd go with the Altas - but that's me chasing iconic things.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Their movement profiles are identical, and they both dominate in close combat.

Two major differences -
The Stalker has slightly better long-range firepower with 2x Large Lasers and 1x LRM/10 vs just the one LRM/20 on the Atlas.
The Atlas has 100 points more armor and an AC/20, so it has more staying power and can punch through armor quickly and take heads off.

Our losses last round were mostly down to me not being careful enough around the SRM Carriers. Each one carries 10x SRM/6 launchers, for a total of 60 SRMs. LRM Carriers are about half as bad, as they carry 3x LRM/20 launchers. So they also deliver 60 missiles, trading off extreme range for half damage. So what happens when an SRM Carrier unloads on you is that you get up to 60 separate hits on you (depending on how many missiles hit), each doing 2 points of damage. Not much individually, but it weakens armor all around and can lead to a lot of through-armor criticals. I should have been a lot more conservative and waited until they got to the town, rather than engaging them in the open.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Seems like we should get some missile carriers of our own when we get the chance.

Anyhow, can't say I'm too sorry to see that Griffin go, given how it mostly performed (though the load-out wasn't bad). I'll take the Hunchback - AC20 is pretty sweet, and I think the laser loadout is better than an LRM10.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

The thing about those LRM/SRM carriers is that they are a) super slow (3/5 movement) and b) have 12 armor on each side. So, basically, they die from a stiff breeze. Also, they're 60 tons, cost 2M apiece and need 4 crew to operate. And... every time a crew gets killed off, we get to pay out death benefits.

Now, if our allied planetary militia wants to field some of those to help us out, I'm not going to complain.

Archinerd, it occurs to me that you can also take a stock Phoenix Hawk, since we just finished repairing one.

Phoenix Hawk PXH-1
6/9/6
10 heat sinks
128 armor
Large Laser
2x Medium Laser
2x Machine Gun

This is like Paingod and xwraith's rides, except it's got two machine guns, making it great against infantry but also a built-in center torso ammo bomb. We'll probably refit it to a 1D (which ditches the machine guns and ammo for two extra heat sinks). Even that doesn't help with the heat, though. If only there was some kind of heat sink technology that doubled the heat dissipation of a standard heat sink while retaining the same mass. :think:
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

I was thinking one of the Centurions.

Centurion AH (4/6, 136 armor, AC/20, LRM/10)
Centurion ALF (4/6, 169 armor, Large Laser, 2x Medium Laser, Small Laser, LRM/10)

The ALF seems a little more flexible and has a bit more survivability with the extra armor. It's my first choice if it can manage the heat.
Otherwise AC/20 & LRM/10 looks pretty nice.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We have until March 6th to organize an extra lance. We reconstruct Beta lance with Archinerd in a Centurion ALF, a Griffin 1N ("stock loadout" with PPC and LRM/10), Isgrimnur in his Vindicator and El Guapo in a Hunchback we took out of storage. Delta lance is assigned to "pirate hunting" duty, while Beta lance takes its place guarding "strategic facility B37".

Our techs get plenty of practice fixing up the Firestarter that LordMortis decapitated some time ago - it really took a lot of damage between falling off a six-story building and being trapped underwater and suffering a hull breach.

March 15, 3028
Well, it looks like the civil war we helped simmer down last year (by application of mech firepower) has just flared up again. Delta lance's attached CO (a guy in a Phoenix Hawk as well) takes XWraith out on a recon run, and the two hit the jackpot. They find an urban staging ground for the rebel forces, home to two lances of mechs (including two heavies) and two companies of tanks (a mixed bag of hovercraft, crap and heavies).

The rest of Delta will be airlifted via Leopard dropship. We're also getting support from a nearby artillery piece (a "Sniper"), and, frankly, given the number of enemy units, we're calling air support.

Of course, so are they.
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
That's a lot of vehicles. We're going to need to make good use of the city for cover.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We drop our mechs and launch fighters. I'm tempted to fly in and drop bombs, but that means every enemy unit would be firing at our aircraft. Some AA fire comes our way anyway, but it all misses. The artillery begins thumping away in the distance, we'll see how they do.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our guys all land upright. Xwraith and our allied CO move in to attack an advancing Scimitar. Xwraith scores a large laser and medium hit, damaging the hover skirt. Our aircraft strafe some outlying Vedettes, the Thunderbird coring the engine out of one with a large laser. The allied CO follows up with a boot to the Scimitar's opposite side, ensuring it'll be going nowhere fast.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The main thing will be to stay the hell out of that center street (with the Vulcan and all the Vedettes), or at least keep back. As much as I'm tempted to send LordMortis charging forward to blast that Scimitar, I have him circle around the side instead. An artillery shell lands way in the back, nailing a "Quasit Militiamech" (which feels a bit out of place with all this other heavy duty hardware), and immobilizing a Maxim. A Saladin and the Orion are also damaged. Xwraith zaps an approaching Pegasus, blowing away an SRM/6 launcher and damaging the motive system. Our aircraft take some AA fire, with the Thunderbird not doing too hot. The pilot manages to maintain control, but his engine is knocked out. The pilot manages to fly off the map though.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We continue avoiding the main street that's basically a buzzing hive of angry tanks and PPC-toting mechs. Weapons fire is largely ineffective.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy units move to engage our force. The dropship strafes a bunch of tanks going in a straight line down the street, blowing away the damaged Scimitar and a Vedette. Zenn7 and Freyland team up on the Warhammer down the street, blowing most of the armor off its left torso. It returns fire, blasting through Zenn7's head armor and nearly breaching the cockpit. The third degree burns do little to phase our heat-loving mechwarrior though. LordMortis whiffs a kick on a Pegasus, but manages to take a knee instead of falling over. Xwraith jumps a little too far in and gets pounded, but does manage to land a solid kick on the enemy Firestarter's left torso.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
LordMortis has some trouble getting up, but the fight comes to him in the form a Firestarter. Xwraith follows as well. A lance of hostile aircraft buzz in as well, creating another problem. Our Orion takes a passing shot at a nearby Cheetah, punching through the weak front armor and blowing a laser off one of the wings. The aircraft spins off into the ground, completely disintegrating on impact.

Zenn7 blows away an approaching Saladin with a PPC, although he takes an AC/20 round to the left arm stripping away most of the armor. Technically, Freyland immobilized the Saladin first, but it's a moot point.

Meanwhile, LordMortis' Hunchback takes an AC/20 round from an aircraft to the rear center torso, just about coring the mech. The nearby Firestarter pitter-patters him and he retaliates by nearly coring it out with his AC/20. Then, another annoying little buzzer rakes him over the rear with several large lasers, this time *actually* coring the mech out - there's basically a large hole where the engine and gyro were. The Firestarter falls over, and xwraith gives it a good boot, breaching the right torso armor.

Our Lucifer blows away a pair of Scorpion tanks with bombs, while our Orion takes a cheap shot from some random SRMs, damaging the engine with two crits.

This is fast starting to become unwinnable, so we're going to be retreating, as much as it bugs me to leave this sweet, sweet salvage behind (not to mention LordMortis' Hunchback).

We radio the Leopard for extraction coordinates.

"Roger that - making one last pass then bugging out".

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
We mostly stay in place, trying to cover him as the Orion pilot fights to get his heat under control (10 heat sinks + 10 engine heat = very hot mech). It's a losing battle though, he's going to need to eject if he does anything other than stand still. Still, he pops the adjacent Vulcan in the left arm, damaging an actuator.

The Lucifer gets nailed in the avionics system by an AC/5 from a tank after dropping the rest of his bombs. The bombs destroy a Vedette and severely damage the Warhammer, knocking out all of its left torso weapons, and sending the mech to the ground. Zenn7 continues blazing away with PPCs, breaching an enemy Vulcan's right torso armor. Freyland scores a first kill, lasering the wheels off a Striker light tank firing at Xwraith. Xwraith retaliates by blasting through the Saladin next to him with a large laser, destroying the engine block.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
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Zenn7 walks backwards, firing only two PPCs to cool off. Still, they melt off the left side armor of an approaching Pegasus, with the vehicle rapidly turning around and going the other way. He's stayed in that street a little too long though, as he takes a lot of weapons fire. Luckily, he stays upright. Xwraith jumps in to support the Orion and takes a medium laser from an enemy Stinger, but blasts it in the center torso with a large laser. The Leopard gives us a major break, flying over the damaged enemy Warhammer and delivering a large amount of PPCs, LRMs and lasers to the rear center torso section, detonating the machine gun ammo. A Vedette for some reason decides to go in front of our Orion, losing almost all its left side armor to a boot.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
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Xwraith spots a weak spot in the enemy formation, landing on top of a pair of vehicles, kicking one and zapping a nearby Blackjack in the rear center torso. Armor holds though. The Orion continues to hold the intersection. The Lucifer strafes an enemy tank on the west side of the map, blowing up a Scorpion. Zenn7 decides not to bother screwing around shooting at the jumpy little Vulcan, instead blasting away at the building it landed on. The building can't hold out and the Vulcan falls down, losing its AC/2 and jump jet.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy force doesn't seem too inclined to pursue us. However, there's still the matter of the immobilized Orion, which they seem to still want a piece of.

An artillery round lands right on top of the enemy Orion, dinging him in the head again. Our allied CO blasts the flamer off the pursuing Vulcan's right arm and damages the left torso. It fires at Zenn7 a little bit, but then gets completely taken apart by PPCs detonating its AC/2 ammo. Xwraith loses an arm to an air strike, while our Leopard circles around and blasts a Hetzer. The Orion, despite being on the brink of an ammo detonation, manages to boot an adjacent Vedette into a building.

Zenn7 reminds the opfor that they're down over fifty percent of their force. The continued presence of our Leopard and Lucifer on the field, as well as continued artillery thumping (although, truth be told, he just ran out of ammo) leads the enemy commander to accept a cease fire, letting us drag our wrecks off the field.

LM, you've got three choices:
1) We can put you in an AC/20 Centurion for the time being
2) We buy an Atlas and put you in there
3) We put you in the spare Phoenix Hawk
4) You're sidelined for the next game month while we pull spare parts off the AC/20 Centurion and put them into the Hunchback. Or longer if our techs screw it up.

As an aside, jeez those enemy aircraft are brutal. They're the ones that got the effective kills on the Hunchback and Orion. I really have to watch mech facing when aircraft are around, as they can get across the map in one or two turns and zap mechs in the rear arc. On the plus side, the last two missions have vindicated the work I put in getting the Megamek bot to use aircraft on ground maps.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Stupid aeromechs

An atlas does sound fun....

I'm pretty easy. I remember reading somewhere in the MegaMek campaign docs that pilots don't like being downsized in mechs. That suggests the Pheonixhawk is out. So I guess I'm good with the Centurion or the Atlas... Of course if the Atlas goes down, I don't imagine I'd want go go back down... So maybe the Centurion is best.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Our employer's government implements "cost cutting measures" and cuts power to our base. While we're back up and running within a couple of days on our own power, that's definitely a breach of contract on their end. It takes us a couple of weeks to patch up Xwraith's Phoenix Hawk and the Orion so we sideline them temporarily and bump Delta lance down to medium-strength. We also stick LordMortis in the Centurion for now. He complains about the "weak frame" and "weird angle" of the AC/20. Air support will be out for a while. Did you know that our aero tech estimates it'll take 14,000 minutes to replace the Lucifer's avionics system?

Well, into the shop you go.

March 28, 3028
Delta lance is out on patrol when they detect sensor pings of an enemy unit moving through their sensor range. They give chase, but the enemy unit doesn't appear interested in engaging. We call in our air support (the Thunderbird, loaded up with 10 cluster bombs and 10 HE bombs). Delta lance is Zenn7 in the Awesome, LordMortis in the AC/20 Centurion (AH), Freyland in the Valkyrie and a Firestarter. A heavy fog rolls in, which will make shooting the enemy units difficult. On the plus side, we will make direct contact in a swamp, which will hinder enemy movement considerably. Our attached CO is a Shadow Hawk 2H. He informs us that our goal here is to degrade the enemy force by at least 50%. There's also a sensor return from the far end of the swamp, where some enemy reinforcements are heading in, presumably to cover their buddies' escape.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
When we get there, a few hovercraft and helicopters are already making their way north, along with a reinforced lance of light mechs. We're probably going to have to let those go, which is unfortunate. Our Firestarter pilot gets stuck in some "natural wetland habitat", although she still manages to score a big ding on a Saracen's sensor cluster despite a swarm of incoming SRMs.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
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The opfor screening force arrives to the north. Two light mechs and four tanks. They're not going to be joining the battle most likely, since they have to cross a solid wall of swamp and are mostly ground-bound. Our attached CO deploys to the southeast, while Freyland hops in from the southwest. Freyland gets a good lock on a Condor hover tank zipping along and lets loose with LRMs, blowing apart an air intake and causing the hovercraft to suck in a bunch of swamp muck and splash down. The Firestarter hops on top of some escaping vehicles and lasers an APC, but doesn't breach armor. She does manage to boot a Saracen to the point where it crashes into a hillside and stops moving.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
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Our airsupport arrives, along with a bunch of enemy LRM units. Our air support drops his full load of cluster bombs on a ... cluster of enemy hovercraft that have taken a wrong turn into some heavy woods. The helicopters avoid the blasts, but every hovercraft is blasted to bits.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
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LordMortis arrives and declares AC/20 party time from the eastern ridge. The light mech lance and helicopters are almost sure to escape, but we've got the vehicles boxed in pretty good. The Thunderbird strafes an escaping Wasp, blasting away armor from both legs and setting the surrounding woods on fire. LordMortis disappointingly whiffs what should have been a trivial AC/20 shot (needed a 5+, rolled a 2).

Round 9:
Spoiler:
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Zenn7 arrives with the Awesome. We have an "ineffectual round of armor stripping".

Round 10:
Spoiler:
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This time, we have a round of "completely missing a bunch of 4+ and 5+ shots", while the Firestarter gets beat up and armor breached to the point where it's time for the mech to leave.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
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The Thunderbird circles back and strafes some tanks to relieve pressure on the Firestarter, blowing a Scorpion tank to bits and distracting the other one and the Vedette so they don't shoot at the Firestarter. Zenn7 finishes disintegrating the Vedette - tough little thing took a total of 5 PPC shots to slag. LordMortis is still getting used to the Centurion - he's scoring hits with the AC/20, just not any kills. His LRM work is just fine though, immobilizing a distant Pegasus hover tank. Freyland boots an enemy Hunter, damaging the tracks and probably (realistically) preventing it from escaping.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
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The Firestarter has disengaged from the main battle, but can still pick off isolated enemy units, focusing on a J.Edgar hover tank that took the same wrong turn as its Harasser and Saladin buddies earlier. The Thunderbird strafes a Pegasus with lasers, blowing off the hover skirt and air intakes. The allied Shadow Hawk gets his first kill, blowing up a Scorpion that got stuck in some wetland. Freyland toys with his target Hunter, slicing off the machine gun with a laser.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
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At this point, it becomes obvious to everyone who's getting away and who isn't: the Packrat and anything to the north is clear, everything to the south is going to get blasted. It's just as well, because they give us a few parting crits to the engines and gyros, rendering us more or less unable to pursue.

We need to offset our financial losses from the other couple of missions still, so we claim some loose tanks for salvage to the tune of ~1M on the open market - mostly as spare parts, as it's difficult to claim that a Vedette will "retain full functionality" when half of the vehicle is missing. I prefer to think of it as a "fixer upper" or a "source of weapon stabilizers". A 60k prisoner capture bonus doesn't go amiss, either.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Kills are over rated. Carnage is what I seek.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Yay! I've been effective for two fights!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We re-assign Delta lance to defensive duty to repair and rearm, while Gbasden takes Gamma lance out on combat patrols for Operation Twisted Serpent. I come to the conclusion that we have plenty of mechs and decide to pass on the Atlas and Stalker.

Next month rolls around, and there's an Assassin on the market. 40 tons of pure speed (7/11/7), combined with a medium laser, SRM/2 and LRM/5. Great for getting around the battlefield rapidly and shooting/kicking enemy mechs in the back. A little weak in the firepower department though. I'll get it if anyone wants it, but I think we're all set for mechs for now.

We finally put together enough crew to operate the Brutus Assault Tank. And also a captured Warrior attack helicopter. I know, I know, I thought I swore off using vehicles, but the double PPCs on a turret are awesome, while the helicopter is great for chasing down escaping units.

Our battlefield successes appear to have put a halt to enemy operations against defended strategic facilities, so we leave a token force to defend said facilities and shift our forces to plowing the "pirates". Or "local insurgents". Or whatever our employer wants to call them.

April 19, 3028
After nearly a month of not turning anything up, we get a distress call from an allied convoy. Poor bastards got ambushed by three mech lances in the woods in the middle of the night and are offering up 100k per recovered convoy unit. We hastily scramble whatever units we have available. Given the contents of the enemy force (an assault lance, a medium lance and a light lance), it's going to be a challenge.

The rescue unit is: Paingod in Phoenix Hawk, Madmarcus in Firestarter, Archinerd in Centurion (ALF), Isgrimnur in Vindicator, El Guapo in Hunchback, Gbasden in Clint, Zenn7 in Awesome and LordMortis in Centurion.

Our air support is engaged en route and won't be making it in time to make a difference.

The allied convoy is an assortment of civilian mechs and vehicles, all crap and prone to exploding from a single small laser shot. We will consider the mission a success if more than half of the convoy escapes off our side of the board. We also need to give the opfor a bloody enough nose that they don't try to chase the convoy down. Our force will arrive piecemeal over the first four turns, which is kind of annoying but them's the breaks.
Spoiler:
Image
The convoy starts up holed up in an overgrown, abandoned town. Paingod, Madmarcus and Gbasden arrrive just as the "pirates" do. The pirates cast a wide net, which should help us focus on one point in their line at a time. Jump jets are the only reliable means of moving fast, so we make use of them.

Round 1, 2, 3:
Spoiler:
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We make good time to the center of town, as do the enemy jumpers - five of them in total. El Guapo is in the back of the arriving Centurion/Hunchback pack and trips over a branch. He looks around. Did anybody see? Whistle innocently and move on.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We hear some weapons fire from the southwest corner of town, but no screaming or damage reports. Zenn7 arrives, rounding out our force with a little heavy firepower. He trips over the same debris that El Guapo tripped over. The pictured Loggermech is screwed, if the bad guys can land any shots on it in the pitch black environment. Paingod jumps on top of one of the few sturdy-looking buildings in the area to get a look at the situation and maybe a shot or two off with the large laser. Archinerd also takes the high ground. We can't get a shot off, but neither can the bad guys, that Loggermech must be a ghost.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Madmarcus jumps forward to get a look at what those Wolverines and bugs are doing. Well, they're firing very inaccurately at the lone Loggermech. Madmarcus thinks he can hear "dance, boy, dance!" over the comms. They finally corner the poor little mech and leg it. Then the engine stalls. He's screwed and knows it, so he bails out.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
An enemy Wolverine jumps over the building barrier and takes a pot shot at Paingod, silhouetting himself on top of a building. It misses, but it's time to come down.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Whoosh, whiff.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
An enemy Wasp makes the mistake of jumping onto a weak-looking building, so Isgrimnur and Madmarcus target the building. Unfortunately, Madmarcus is distracted by the jumping mech itself, so the building remains standing. Paingod has some trouble hitting that annoying Wolverine, so he sets the woods around it on fire, then tries to give it a boot, but overextends and barely manages to avoid falling all the way down.

Round 9, 10:
Spoiler:
Image
We've had enough of this pitch black baloney and decide to light the place up. That damn Wolverine picks off a Powerman Loadermech, blasting off a leg - the pilot blacks out, the engine stalls... oh yeah, and the gyro is damaged. A Stinger jumps in and joins in, and the civilian mech explodes in short order. Meanwhile we keep lighting fires. It kind of works, but it's still just about impossible to hit anything.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
We take a few minor hits and start more fires. Really time to get off those buildings. Paingod carefully backs up, holds his fire, takes a kick from the Wolverine, watches the adjacent Stinger get silhoutted by Madmarcus' flamer, then boots the leg off of it. Meanwhile, an APC manages to avoid an enemy Wasp's kick and the mechwarrior trips and falls over. Even better, he's fallen over in a hex that's on fire, so it'll be pretty toasty there. Hey, we're not the only ones on the ground this time!

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
We do poorly in the ranged fire department, but out-kick the opfor, causing leg damaged to a Wolverine. The enemy Wasp fails to hit the APC again and hurts itself falling down.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
Our heavies start to clear the buildings. It's possible I may have been a little too enthusiastic in setting every single thing on fire. The plan was to light up the bad guys while leaving us in the darkness, but I think we may have accomplished the opposite. Still, we do ok, scoring quite a few hits on the lit-up bad guys, and landing some good kicks. The Crosscut Loggermech goes down to the ground, but Gbasden strips the armor off the leg of the offending Wolverine, knocking it down (although the mechwarrior manages to hold himself up on a knee) and damaging the hip and upper leg actuator. Paingod bowls his target over, as well.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur takes careful aim at the Wolverine that Gbasden knocked down and blows the head off with the PPC. That's good salvage!

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur continues sniping, taking some armor off a very slowly approaching Hunchback with his PPC. Madmarcus and Paingod team up on a Wolverine - Madmarcus lights up the hex with the flamer, then Paingod delivers a boot. The mech fights back, knocking Madmarcus' Firestarter on its ass, but then hits the ground and the mechwarrior (being already beat up from previous falls) passes out.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
The lone remaining active enemy Wolverine engages LordMortis, blasting away with everything it's got, but only hitting with some SRMs. LordMortis whiffs the AC/20 counterattack, but avoids the incoming kick. Madmarcus has trouble hitting his target's head this turn. Maybe next turn.

Round 17:
Spoiler:
Image
The Wolverine displays some wisdom in not sticking around, instead rapidly moving around to engage the Zenn7, hitting him with a medium laser. Gbasden starts beefing with two bug mechs, while Madmarcus continues drilling the downed Wolverine.

Round 18:
Spoiler:
Image
This uh, may reflect badly with our employer, especially if we don't get the convoy out. Madmarcus finally drills through the downed Wolverine's head with a small laser, turning the pilot into an ash shadow. One of the bug mechs ditches Gbasden and starts going after one of the convoy APCs, which isn't so hot. Luckily, he whiffs every shot, then trips when kicking and falls over. El Guapo runs at the enemy Wolverine, which takes the time to drill Zenn7 in the center torso with a medium laser, then dodge every shot (granted, 11+, but still) and kick him in the shin. Paingod, meanwhile, gets around the side of a Locust and kicks the leg, damaging an actuator and a heat sink and knocking the little mech on its ass - it thrashes around a little, and then the mechwarrior passes out, after damaging his laser and engine.

Round 19:
Spoiler:
Image
Toro, toro! A Locust charges Gbasden, so he hops right over and lands behind it, stripping the armor from its left leg. The enemy Wolverine continues hopping, but hops directly in front of LordMortis, who whiffs with the AC/20 but grinds armor from the right leg. Every other ranged attack whiffs as well. One of the convoy mechs (a "Buster Haulermech"), has had enough of the enemy Wasp harrassing it, though, so takes advantage of the lighting provided by Zenn7's PPCs to kick its leg off. That mechwarrior passes out as well.

Round 20:
Spoiler:
Image
Good thing this is an *abandoned* town. Although we should probably have checked before setting it on fire? Paingod and Madmarcus engage the enemy Hunchback, while that annoying Wolverine keeps buzzing around. LordMortis finally gets a good bead on it and blows away the right torso armor with an AC/20 shot, although it still gets a good kick in on El Guapo's leg armor. To the northeast, the Buster Haulermech drills the fallen Wasp's engine. Paingod strips the Hunchback's armor, while Gbasden blasts his target Locust's right arm nearly off, then following up with a boot to the right leg.

Round 21:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur takes some LRMs from the distant Thunderbolt, while Gbasden jumps behind his target Locust again and blows away its machine gun and upper arm actuator, following up with a leg shot to crunch the leg and bring it down for good.
Spoiler:
Image
At this point, the only active (useful) enemy mechs are the battered Wolverine and Hunchback, and a Thunderbolt. As our lighter, jump-capable mechs run around the two enemy heavies, the enemy units "lift arms" and surrender. We allow them to walk off with their upright mechs, everyone else is unconscious, dead or bailed out. The "assault" part of the assault lance appears to have been stuck in the woods to the south the entire time. As a final bit of "comedy", the building underneath Isgrimnur catches fire and collapses. As he staggers up, some jackass plays a laugh track over the comms. Then we spend the next twelve hours putting out a major forest fire.

We claim the two Wolverines and a Stinger for salvage, the rest going to our employer. The employer also pays out a 1M bonus for vehicles rescued. We did pretty well here, as normally, these convoys get pounded to bits. While I thought the darkness would work against us, it actually helped out, because the enemy assault mechs couldn't participate in the battle at all and we were able to keep the enemy jumpers away from the convoy. For the most part. Most of the repairs actually take less than a day.

Once we get those Wolverines repaired, we'll be refitting them from the 6R variant to the 6M. To compare:
Wolverine 6R:
5/8/5
152 armor
12 heat sinks
AC/5, SRM/6, Medium Laser

Wolverine 6M:
5/8/5
168 armor
14 heat sinks
Large Laser, 2x Medium Laser, SRM/6

So, by ditching the AC/5, we get a large laser and a medium laser, as well as more armor. The only thing we lose is a little bit of range, but I'm ok with that.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Making headshots allow me to take some ribbing in good spirits.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

With all these fires I started, good thing I like it hot!

(Did I even hit anything???)
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