Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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$iljanus
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

Leraje wrote:
NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:54 pm Heh, you actually can fire nose-mounted guns in atmo, but the target has to be above you. Which, if the target is a lighter unit, just isn't going to happen unless they have a death wish. So yeah, for the most part, the nose guns wind up just being paperweights.
That's why I like the ones with an arty on top :)
NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:54 pm I believe we're here until late 3050.
So at least a year left... I'd say get the credit and salvage everything.
Yeah with a year left on the contract there may be some good salvage opportunities between now and the end of the contract. And who knows what slightly dented prized piece of tech will be left on the battlefield?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

$iljanus wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:05 am
Leraje wrote:
NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:54 pm Heh, you actually can fire nose-mounted guns in atmo, but the target has to be above you. Which, if the target is a lighter unit, just isn't going to happen unless they have a death wish. So yeah, for the most part, the nose guns wind up just being paperweights.
That's why I like the ones with an arty on top :)
NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:54 pm I believe we're here until late 3050.
So at least a year left... I'd say get the credit and salvage everything.
Yeah with a year left on the contract there may be some good salvage opportunities between now and the end of the contract. And who knows what slightly dented prized piece of tech will be left on the battlefield?
Also, the dropship crew doesn't want to work for us, which makes sense after we were just shelling them and almost killing them. If we force them to I wouldn't be shocked if we saw acts of sabotage, which wouldn't be ideal.

So yeah, ca$h money.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
cash payout - ||||||||
salvage - |||
After some thought, we take the cash payout. Our ComStar bank account dings to the tune of 131M C-Bills. For the foreseeable future, we'll be handing our salvage over to our employer. Which, granted, so far, has been mostly wrecked tanks which go either straight to the recycling yard or to the planetary militia.

Damage from this one is pretty extensive. Gbasden's mech appears to have developed a permanent fault in its center torso structure. We've got a spare Griffin kicking around, so we'll be able to replace it and use the down-checked mech for spare parts. The Exterminator, Thug, another Griffin and the late Thud's Awesome will all require pretty extensive repairs, but will be back up and running within a week. The Gotha that had an ammo explosion got lucky - the aero jock had managed to use up almost all the LRMs before they went off, so the fighter is actually recoverable (although it'll take several weeks of work to fix the structural damage).

October 24, 3049

We send out some recon lances to confirm our alternate dropship LZ candidate sites. Gamma-Probe hits one which appears to already be occupied by a large number of light armor and infantry in APCs. We've got a liaison from the Star Guards (in a Wolverine) and he calls in some air support to help us out. Gamma-Probe isn't too suited to taking out infantry (with the exception of Akalon's Vulcan, which boasts a flamer and a MG), but they can blow up light armored vehicles and converted industrial mechs just fine. After checking up the command chain and multiple attempts to establish comms with no response, we decide to evict these guys forcibly.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Drazzil and Akalon get to work frying small APC hovercraft, while the liaison's Wolverine takes a few AC/2 hits from field gunners. Akalon will need to get over there post-haste and burn them to a crisp.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our upgraded Phoenix Hawk opens up on a converted Haulermech, stitching pulse laser shots across its torso. One hits through the armor, blasting apart the autocannon ammo bin (this one had an AC/5 and an LRM/10 mounted on it), scattering the converted industrial mech to the four winds. A nearby Haulermech tries to move in for a melee attack but loses a leg for its trouble as our mechwarrior turns around and delivers a kick, severing the left leg, weakened by Akalon's laser fire.

AWS takes a headshot after getting stuck in a swamp for a second, but manages to keep his LAM upright.

Akalon, for his part, also squashes a converted J-27 ordnance transport, which, thankfully, was not full of ammo.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Akalon misses a unit of AC/20-toting field gunners hanging out to the south and breathes a sigh of a relief when an AC/20 round just barely glances off the Vulcan's armor.

Our main success is Drazzil's delayed-reaction elimination of a large heavy lifter. While not armed, it was carrying a lot of cargo and attempting to kick Drazzil's Cronus. Drazzil kicks back. The mech, at first, looks unimpressed, then all hell breaks loose internally and it collapses into a pile of legs and cargo.

Our liaison's Wolverine gets pelted with AC/2 rounds and knocked over - those AC/2 field gun batteries are pretty nasty.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Akalon and Drazzil pull back to cover the liaison's Wolverine as it gets up. Akalon's flamer fries multiple infantry APCs, taking them and their laser-toting infantry out. A Maxim tries to bring a foot platoon into the back of our "formation", but the modernized Phoenix Hawk peppers it with pulse laser blasts until it stops moving. The infantry get out, but they're just standard rifle infantry.

Akalon's deft movement avoids the kick from the nearby LoaderMech, then our Vulcan plants a return kick on the over-extended right leg, ripping off just about every actuator, which causes the hapless mech to keel over to the right, it's damaged leg breaking off on the way down.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Drazzil holds position as AC/2 rounds ping off the Cronus' armor and targets a hover APC trying to make a quick run by his mech to pop off some LRMs. Unfortunately, a large laser puts an end to that crew's plans as it disappears.

AWS and Akalon team up, our LAM zipping forward to distract a bunch of infantry. As they fire ineffectually at the fast-moving Pixie (and a couple unsuccessfully try to duck away from a PPC blast), Akalon hops in and lets rip with anti-infantry weapons, eliminating a platoon's worth of infantry and light APCs, kicking over a crew-served AC/2 in the process.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
AWS puts those improved piloting skills to use, zipping the LAM around to the rear of the hostile force and zapping a heavier APC out of action with the LAM's snub-nose PPC. The Star Guards' air support arrives, one of the heavy fighters dipping down and blasting the only heavy tank in the area. The somewhat ancient machine is immobilized. Unfortunately, anti-aircraft fire from some crew-served gauss rifles brings the Stuka down. Miraculously the aerospace fighter survives the impact with the ground, but it's going to take a while to fix.

To the north, Akalon continues dismantling the crew-served AC/2s, leaving basically one intact.

Our Phoenix Hawk jumps south as well, blasting a LoggerMech with lasers and giving it a solid kick, the combined damage serving to put it face up on the ground.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
With our continued elimination of crew-served autocannons (and setting the cover of the remaining ones on fire, including the group with the AC/20s), the rest of the hostiles lose their appetite for the fight and initiate a retreat. Our Phoenix Hawk takes a glancing hit from an AC/20, but at the end we wind up without any damage beyond armor.

We help the Star Guards recover their beat up fighter, and decide against using this area as an alternate landing zone for our dropships. First of all, it's a swamp. Our dropships would just sink. Second, everyone and their kid brother knows about this place now, so, no thanks.

---

We have a quick memorial for Thud. Pvt. Wayne McIlwraith had been with the company for three years, coming with us after we left the corporate warfare of Unzmarkt behind us. The mechwarrior participated in eight battles and racking up seven kills. Having taken over Gbasden's Awesome after our force commander retired, the mech and mechwarrior never really clicked. In the words of lancemate Fury, "the mech just didn't like him."

After, Scrub sighs as she considers what to do with the captured deserter. She had been with the company for seven years, racking up only two kills over the course of five battles. Perhaps resentful over being reassigned from the Orion (that she got blown up) to an Assassin, the mechwarrior managed to "glide under the radar" in Delta Company. We're not really sure how much info she gave to the guys in the Gazelle (she hasn't been very forthcoming and we didn't recover any data storage devices), or whether what she gave them resulted in any of our people getting killed. She also didn't take her mech when she left. There's no way she's getting "put back into circulation", but, on the other hand, she didn't really break any local laws so the Steiner guys can't take her off our hands.

[] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

[] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
No point expending any more resources on the waste of food cubes than we have to.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[x] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
Off with her head. Examples must be made, besides with a track record like hers she would not be able to get a job with any descent outfit and will end up with some pirates. And we do not want more people with a grudge against us running around especially if they know where our home base is.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Leraje wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:30 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[x] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
Off with her head. Examples must be made, besides with a track record like hers she would not be able to get a job with any descent outfit and will end up with some pirates. And we do not want more people with a grudge against us running around especially if they know where our home base is.
Tough call... don't think we want a rep for executing our problem children though. Definitely drop her off and inform the entire Inner Spheres of her loyalty quality.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Compromise: drop her off *near* an intermediate landing zone. Say, orbit.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [x] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [x] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
Killing her in cold blood seems wrong, and I'm not sure what impact it would have on overall morale. Are we on good terms with any planetary governors that would be on board with imprisoning her? If not, stranding her on some unpleasant world without money seems reasonable.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

AWS260 wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 10:16 am
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [x] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
Hope this doesn’t bite us in the ass.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:56 pm
AWS260 wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 10:16 am
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:46 pm [x] Detain the mechwarrior for now, then kick her to the curb on an intermediate jump after we've left the planet and are heading home
[] Execute her, we treat our people pretty well so there's no excuse for this bullshit
[] Write-in
Hope this doesn’t bite us in the ass.
We will build a good rep of not slaughtering people who wrong us when they are helpless. :angelic-green:
Hopefully, we already have a good rep about killing morons who decide to seek revenge against us on the battlefield. :twisted:
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
detain then ditch - |||||||||
execute - |
"... you will be confined to quarters with read-only network access. Once we've completed our contract and left the system, we will drop you off at the first convenient port of call." Scrub finishes her sentencing, then shakes her head. "I still don't get it. We pay you guys pretty well, you get to drive well-maintained mechs and try out star league toys, we don't send you on suicide runs. And, really, you can cash out basically any time, other than when we're IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ACTIVE CONTRACT. Why bother with this nonsense?"

The mechwarrior remains tightlipped.

"Escort the prisoner to her quarters." Scrub orders our shipboard security detachment.

---

We get a line on a possible location for that Triumph we've been trying to track down. Our recon lances are otherwise occupied, so we send in Beta-Hunter (minus the Zephyr). The Star Guards have a pair of heavy bombers loaded up and ready to go on our request as well. "Inclement weather" impairs visibility a bit, but that'll give us a good chance to sneak up on the bad guys.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Well, this is crap. No dropship in sight, instead a short mixed company of mechs and tanks, including an Archer, a Manticore and a Hunchback, along with some light hovercraft. We exchange long-range fire but no serious damage is inflicted, although a VTOL tries to buzz our lance and is forced a little too low by crosswinds. Our Archer takes the opportunity to grab the thing by the skids and slam it into the ground.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Archer is on fire with taking out little anklebiters. While Wolf and Leraje exchange fire with the Archer and Manticore (and Hunter light support tank) to the northeast, a Locust tries to sneak around the back of our formation, avoiding Xwraith's lasers. Our Archer sticks out a foot and the bug mech loses its left leg.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Wolf blasts the Hunter with two PPC shots. Well, only one actually hits, but it's enough, fusing the missile carrier's treads. Leraje doubles back, burning through a Pegasus hovertank's light armor with the Guillotine's lasers to get at the engine. The enemy Hunchback fires its AC/20 at our Archer, but our mech ducks behind a rock outcropping and avoids the incoming fire.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Hunchback decides to go for it, which opens it up to a rear attack from Wolf, but lets it get a likely shot on one of our mechs. Thankfully, the Archer ducks down again, avoiding another blast from the Hunchback's shoulder-mounted autocannon. The enemy mech takes heavy damage, losing several tons of armor from laser fire, and its right arm going limp as lasers from Wolf and the Archer connect and fry a pair of actuators. The Hunchback does land a kick on Leraje, knocking our Guillotine to a knee.

Xwraith, meanwhile, takes the distant Manticore out of action, the vehicle becoming stuck in the muddy mess its created and immobilized.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
"The snow begins to accumulate."

This doesn't deter the Hunchback from continuing to come after our Archer, which turns out to be a mistake - it might have been helpful to a) hit some of those AC/20 shots and b) pay attention to Wolf's Warhammer, which continues plowing away at the 50-ton mech's weak rear armor with lasers, MG rounds and SRMs. The continued pounding destroys the Hunchback's gyro, putting it on the ground and out of action.

Even though our Archer keels over and crushes its right arm after the hostile Archer unloads LRMs into our mech, the hostiles disappear into the rapidly-worsening weather conditions, leaving our lance and air support unable to find the rest.

---

Scrub's computer "pings" as she gets an email from our administrative team. Apparently, we've gotten hit with a civil lawsuit by the inhabitants of the town that Isgrimnur used for a chokepoint for 4.82M C-Bills for "unreasonable structural damage to civilian structures" and "medical and wrongful death costs incurred by landmines". Which amusingly enough implies that there's a reasonable amount of structural damage that one can do to a civilian structure. The damage to the buildings was about 99% the attackers' fault - we didn't fire at those structures even once. Although we did install the turrets. But our legal department is pretty confident that presenting Battle ROM footage and mechwarrior testimony will get us off the hook for that. We could also do the usual deal and "settle out of court", or maybe see if our liaison can lean on the local authorities to get this stuff dismissed. Granted, that means we'll have fewer favors we can count on later on.

The landmines are a little bit iffy - we did remotely disable and recover them after the battle was over, but it is theoretically possible that we didn't get all of them. Our options are similar to the suit for structural damage, except if we do the actual trial, we'd have to spend a bunch of time going through the affected area to make sure we didn't *actually* leave any land mines behind.

Structural damage:
[] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:14 pm Structural damage:
[x] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
[x] Send in El Guapo to yell "You can't handle the truth!" over and over.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:14 pm Structural damage:
[] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
Provide the ROMs and have the liaison address the need for the presence of our mechwarrios. It's in FedComs's direct interests to keep our forces available for combat at any time.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

AWS260 wrote: Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:07 am
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:14 pm Structural damage:
[x] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
[x] Send in El Guapo to yell "You can't handle the truth!" over and over.
The Guap: YOU WANT THE TRUTH? The truth is I sit in this blimp all day just waiting for the chance to get into action... <RAGING> AND THEY NEVER CALL IN MY BLIMP BRIGADE!!! <RAGING>

And these 2 options.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

Zenn7 wrote:
AWS260 wrote: Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:07 am
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:14 pm Structural damage:
[x] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
[x] Send in El Guapo to yell "You can't handle the truth!" over and over.
The Guap: YOU WANT THE TRUTH? The truth is I sit in this blimp all day just waiting for the chance to get into action... <RAGING> AND THEY NEVER CALL IN MY BLIMP BRIGADE!!! <RAGING>

And these 2 options.
Yes to all of it
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Leraje wrote: Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:42 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:14 pm Structural damage:
[] present footage and testimony - Alpha-Urban and Alpha-Strike unavailable for two weeks.
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook

Land mines:
[] present evidence that we accounted for every land mine - Gamma-Probe unavailable for two weeks - may not work out
[] settle and pay up "without admission of guilt"
[x] see if we can lean on our liaison to get us off the hook
Provide the ROMs and have the liaison address the need for the presence of our mechwarrios. It's in FedComs's direct interests to keep our forces available for combat at any time.
Isn't this why we have a legal department? We *do* have a legal department, right??

Also, we definitely need to do a online forum game version of the courtroom dispute here.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

I chose to "split the baby" and chose to use the liason for the second issue because we may need a future favor. However, it's a good point that we need to be an effective fighting force for the duration of the contract and shouldn't our liason smooth these sorts of things over no matter how many times it's needed and our employers should also lean on or bribe people as needed? (unless we start to cause needless collateral damage and havoc among the civilian population. Then I think our liason will be telling us to knock it off)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
building damage
Present footage and testimony - alpha urban/alpha strike ||||
settle and pay up |
lean on liaison ||

landmines
lean on liaison |||||||

send in El Guapo to yell at them |||
First things first, we ask the liaison to see if he can push on the court to get the minefield-related charges dropped. "Very well, I will take care of it." he says. "Maybe try to place fewer mine fields in civilian inhabited areas going forward." A few hours later, we get a notification from the court that the lawsuit has been withdrawn and an email from the prosecuting attorney apologizing for wasting our time.

Our mechwarriors and aero jocks wind up getting called in for testimony in the relatively speedy trial, with El Guapo, our self-proclaimed legal representative, leading the defense. Advised by our actual legal department. When we learn upon showing up that trials of this nature are normally expected to take several months while the opposing lawyers wrangle over which evidence is admissible and not and other procedural items, El Guapo successfully files a motion for a delay in the trial due to "ongoing combat operations against active pirate and hostile mercenary forces". So we will get our mechwarriors and aero jocks back in a couple of days, but will have to send them back during a 'quiet period' to actually resolve the trial. Classic move, really.

---

October 30, 3049
Geier Commercial Zone

We mount a joint operation with local "law enforcement" units to trap and capture a Phoenix Hawk reportedly being driven by our other deserter. The sonofabitch has apparently stolen AWS' idea of leading a lance of Phoenix Hawks (two standard ones, a Kurita variant and a LAM). He's also backed up by seven light mechs and a lance of tanks.

We're obviously bringing in Gamma-Probe to do this, with Delta-Ranger coming in as backup - Madmarcus feels personally offended that two mechwarriors from Delta Company deserted, and also to keep the odds of actually succeeding at a reasonable level. We've also brought a trainee in a Guillotine - this kid's a stellar shot with the mech's guns so we've been training him up for the last few months and he's finally ready to make his debut.

It's cold and sleeting, but our "law enforcement" buddies are dressed for the occasion. They're not very well equipped though, just standard infantry rifles, with a few grenade launchers ("Check it out, inferno rounds!" one guy boasts - our mechwarriors share an unimpressed silence). There's almost a hundred fifty of them, though, bunkered up in commandeered structures in the center of the commercial zone.

"Look." Akalon reminds the security team. "Just... there's a lot of Phoenix Hawks coming. And a Locust. And a Vulcan. With the flamer. Stay in the buildings, I don't want to be on cleanup detail for the next three days after this is over."

"That's what your mom said last night." Drazzil grumbles, having made sure to mute himself first.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We're camped out in some buildings when the hostile mechs approach. Our recruit scores the first blows, using his Guillotine's lasers to carve up an approaching Phoenix Hawk LAM's armor. No breaches, but the mech is unbalanced by the armor loss and hits the ground.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The recruit's target crawls out of line of sight.

Drazzil is able to engage an enemy Vulcan jumping in while AWS and Akalon wait patiently for our target, the Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K to run by to join the party against the security infantry. He obliges quite well. Between their weapons fire and stepping out to deliver some kicks, the target falls over.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Delta-Ranger shows up to the south, attempting to enclose our target, which gets up and tries to break north, Akalon giving chase. The Vulcan's lasers strip armor off the right side of the Phoenix Hawk as it fires back ineffectually. A few stray MG rounds ding the Phoenix Hawk's cockpit and it falls over.

Drazzil and our advanced Phoenix Hawk continue to camp out in their buildings, as they're pretty sturdy. Drazzil turns left, blasting a Wasp's right arm off, while our Phoenix Hawk engages an Ostscout and causes heavy damage to the lighter mech's right side, frying an actuator with one of the extended-range lasers.

Our newly-arrived lance enters the fight as well. Madmarcus evaporates a Scorpion tank that tries to get in the way, blasting through the armor with lasers then sending some SRMs in to detonate the fuel tank. Archinerd, meanwhile, takes out a Saladin hovertank with laser and SRM fire. A little less spectacularly, but it's still gone.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Drazzil pokes out from his building briefly to take out another Scorpion tank. The anklebiters are always a little easier to take down and you get an immediate firepower reduction. To his northwest, a Phoenix Hawk and Vulcan begin to work on the local infantry, and the comms are filled with panicked screams as motorized security troops are gunned down. Unfortunately, Drazzil hung out in that building a little too long and the basement falls in, causing our mech to take heavy armor damage as it falls.

Akalon looks at the downed Phoenix Hawk. It's still in reasonable shape, so if the mechwarrior wakes up, it could get up and run off. A couple of lasers to the right section removes the right arm and leg, as well as most of the torso, that ought to stop him cold. Our upgraded Phoenix Hawk causes critical damage to the nearby Wasp, the Ostscout having vacated the area temporarily. The Wasp decides that multiple torso armor breaches and an engine hit call for a retreat.

To the south, AWS and Delta-Ranger's exterminator engage a Jenner. The bird-legged mech pays attention to AWS' snub-nose PPC and manages to avoid that, but that gives the Exterminator the opportunity to crack its left leg in half, sending the hapless mech to the pavement.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Phoenix Hawk that Akalon just finished mangling wakes up, doesn't like what he sees, and yanks the ejection lever. The mech being on the ground, the ejection seat slams into a building. Akalon's not optimistic about the man's chances of survival, given the big red splat on the wall. Our lance leader runs north to help bail out the allied infantry, cutting into a Phoenix Hawk with the Vulcan's lasers to distract it somewhat.

Drazzil decides to abandon the building he's been camping out in, scrambling out of the basement and shaking off chunks of masonry as he runs.

Freyland winds up in an awkward position with a Wasp picking at the back of his mech, and is unable to counter attack meaningfully.

Madmarcus teams up with the advanced Phoenix Hawk to more or less remove both of the scout mech's legs as it hops around firing its laser at our units. The left leg is entirely blown off while the right leg loses about half of its actuators. At this point it has no chance to remain upright.

To the west, Archinerd moves down a side street to take out a loose Scorpion tank with lasers and SRMs, followed up by a stomp.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Drazzil and Freyland get involved in a broiling melee along a narrow street. Only enough room for one mech at a time, so there's a lot of crashing against lamp posts and knocking over cars while trying to avoid slamming into buildings. Freyland follows the Wasp that was harassing him previously, putting several laser blasts into the bug mech's torso to blow off its right arm and blow out a heat sink. A second Wasp winds up in the way, so our mechwarrior takes a second to break its right leg, ripping a jump jet and a heat sink off in the process.

As the hostile Vulcan hangs around, trying to shoot at allied security troops, Akalon just about skids along the pavement, rapidly weaving between buildings and cars to get in a position where he can aim his Vulcan's lasers at the back of the enemy mech. The maneuver pays off, as the target's machine gun ammo explodes and it disappears, along with the top of the building it was standing on top of.

Madmarcus engages a Phoenix Hawk trying to sneak up behind our Wolverine, blasting one of its arms and damaging some actuators.

AWS has a somewhat fruitless LAM duel with the fellow LAM. After an exchange of mostly-missing fire, the other LAM transforms and zips off.

To the southwest, Archinerd continues getting bogged down by light tanks, the Dervish unable to join the main battle, but after taking out a Saladin (by timing a perfect jump right behind the tank and giving it a little boot to the back at which point it flips over), the hostiles are out of tanks.

And also willingness to continue the fight, with three Phoenix Hawk type mechs, a Locust and one barely functional Wasp left mobile - the mechs fire up their jump jets and withdraw. The legged Wasp remains on the field.

The allied security troops took some heavy casualties, losing at least fifty troopers. Granted, they brought like a hundred fifty guys to the fight, and, really, what exactly were they expecting, sending infantry to a mech fight? It leaves a sour taste in Akalon's mouth, but at the end of the day it's not our concern.

The relative downer is that the guy we were trying to capture splattered himself against a building wall, so we won't be asking him any questions about anything. But on the plus side, our employer gets a "free" light mech lance, with most of the mechs either having pretty light damage or, in the case of the Wasp, being ridiculously easy to fix. It's no Steiner scout lance, but it definitely is a scout lance.

Speaking of scouting, who wants to take on an Overlord dropship while it's on the ground? One of the facilities that we're charged with defending gets raided while we're busy arranging our dropship LZ relocation. We'll need to intercept the mostly hovercraft and light mech force, but we also work out their probably route, and Delta-Sweep locates a grounded Overlord, engines "warm". It appears to be mostly defended by a swarm of light and medium armor, although there are a pair of heavier tanks and a short mech lance in attendance. Those must be from the Triumph, which is nowhere near. Since Alpha Company is basically unavailable at the moment, we've got Beta Company, Gamma Company (minus Gamma-Probe, still en route back from their capture attempt), as well as supporting aerospace fighters and the artillery battery.

We've got a couple of ways we can handle this. First, we can simply just intercept the raiding units escaping with loot and not risk taking on an Overlord. This is pretty safe - we'll deploy Beta-Hunter so that they can use their relative mobility and intercept the hovercraft convoy at a location of our choosing. We'll have to do this regardless of what we do with the Overlord, since our employer is unlikely to look at us as having fulfilled our contract terms with stuff getting looted from local storage depots.

Second, we can attempt to assault the Overlord. Beta-Assault is going, being the heaviest lance we can field. Zenn7 considers what else to bring with him. Another mech lance won't go amiss, although assaulting an Overlord with just mechs might still go pretty wrong. Some aerospace fighters can drop bombs on the defending tanks and, attempt to make a run at the dropship, or patrol for air superiority (although engaging a grounded Overlord with aerospace fighters basically means you're flying above its nose, which... has a lot of PPCs. And autocannons. And we're not talking about little AC/5s either.) We can also bring in our artillery, but it's damnably slow and will only have a couple of minutes to engage their target before it lifts off (based on how long we know it takes a dropship to go from "warm" engines to "in the sky"), and will also be vulnerable in case the Overlord decides to launch its aerospace fighters, which means that we either dedicate any ASFs we bring to combat air patrol or accept the risk of our Long Toms getting shot up.

[] Just intercept the hovercraft, let the Overlord go

[] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [] Bring artillery
- [] Bring aerospace fighters

AN:
Spoiler:
Sorry about the weird tileset change in the screenshots, didn't notice it until after the battle was over.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [] Just intercept the hovercraft, let the Overlord go

[] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [x] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [] Bring aerospace fighters
Sounds like ASF won't help much against the dropship. Best they're going to do is defense against enemy ASF.

Better to bring more mechs and arty, risking the arty. Our mechs might need to shoot any enemy ASF that go up so they don't go get our arty.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [x] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [x] Bring aerospace fighters
Do what we did to the Intruder before with ASF flying CAP for arty and mechs screening the ground approach.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Sorry guys, no update today. Didn't sleep at all last night and can't focus on anything for more than five seconds.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:44 pm Sorry guys, no update today. Didn't sleep at all last night and can't focus on anything for more than five seconds.
I sure as hell understand that. I think I got about 3 hours, and I'm in the same state.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Leraje wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:52 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [x] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [x] Bring aerospace fighters
Do what we did to the Intruder before with ASF flying CAP for arty and mechs screening the ground approach.
We could try that but I had the impression an Overlord is significantly bigger/tougher than an Intruder with a lot more firepower (enough to most likely take out in a single round of fire any ASF that gets in it's range).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

gbasden wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:54 pm
NickAragua wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:44 pm Sorry guys, no update today. Didn't sleep at all last night and can't focus on anything for more than five seconds.
I sure as hell understand that. I think I got about 3 hours, and I'm in the same state.
As someone who's sleep patterns have been screwed up for the past several months I can commiserate.
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:50 pm
Leraje wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:52 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [x] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [x] Bring aerospace fighters
Do what we did to the Intruder before with ASF flying CAP for arty and mechs screening the ground approach.
We could try that but I had the impression an Overlord is significantly bigger/tougher than an Intruder with a lot more firepower (enough to most likely take out in a single round of fire any ASF that gets in it's range).
The idea is for ASF not to get close to Overlord and stick with arty a few klicks away from it.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »


Leraje wrote:
gbasden wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:54 pm
NickAragua wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:44 pm Sorry guys, no update today. Didn't sleep at all last night and can't focus on anything for more than five seconds.
I sure as hell understand that. I think I got about 3 hours, and I'm in the same state.
As someone who's sleep patterns have been screwed up for the past several months I can commiserate.
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:50 pm
Leraje wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:52 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [x] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [x] Bring aerospace fighters
Do what we did to the Intruder before with ASF flying CAP for arty and mechs screening the ground approach.
We could try that but I had the impression an Overlord is significantly bigger/tougher than an Intruder with a lot more firepower (enough to most likely take out in a single round of fire any ASF that gets in it's range).
The idea is for ASF not to get close to Overlord and stick with arty a few klicks away from it.
I like this plan. Arty to chip away, air cover to discourage hostile air units, and our mechs ready to exploit openings.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

$iljanus wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 12:51 pm
Leraje wrote:
gbasden wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:54 pm
NickAragua wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:44 pm Sorry guys, no update today. Didn't sleep at all last night and can't focus on anything for more than five seconds.
I sure as hell understand that. I think I got about 3 hours, and I'm in the same state.
As someone who's sleep patterns have been screwed up for the past several months I can commiserate.
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:50 pm
Leraje wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:52 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:01 pm [x] Also assault the Overlord (pick 2 from below)
- [] Bring extra mech lance
- [x] Bring artillery
- [x] Bring aerospace fighters
Do what we did to the Intruder before with ASF flying CAP for arty and mechs screening the ground approach.
We could try that but I had the impression an Overlord is significantly bigger/tougher than an Intruder with a lot more firepower (enough to most likely take out in a single round of fire any ASF that gets in it's range).
The idea is for ASF not to get close to Overlord and stick with arty a few klicks away from it.
I like this plan. Arty to chip away, air cover to discourage hostile air units, and our mechs ready to exploit openings.
Sounds good to me.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Leave the overlord alone - 2
Deal with the overlord - use artillery + air support ||||
Deal with the overlord - mech lance + artillery |

Command tie breaker - leave it
Scrub rubs her temples, the last couple of days having gotten to her a little bit. Between the two deserters, losing a mechwarrior, and having been blindsided by the presence of multiple (thankfully, poorly equipped) forces on world, it's pretty stressful.

After some argument among the command staff regarding which approach to take, we decide upon having Beta-Assault act as "spotters" for the artillery, with Beta-Strike running combat air patrol to pick off any hovercraft that make it past our mechs as well as intercept aircraft coming in to try to take out our artillery as we shell the dropship. Beta-Assault and the artillery set out immediately, while the aerospace fighters will launch when they're in engagement range.

Beta-Hunter, meanwhile, intercepts the hovercraft convoy heading for the Overlord. It's two light mechs (a Locust and Firestarter) escorting a swarm of hovercraft and light tanks, all loaded up with stolen cargo. Our goal here is simple. Stop them. The 12th Star Guards have seconded a Warhammer to help us out, and Leraje commandeers the Grasshopper 5N from Beta-Fire lance, since Beta-Hunter is down a mech (the Archer's arm is still being worked on). Corporal Kwan-uk Virmani is an up-and coming mechwarrior, and an expert at stomping (so far, simulated) opponents into the ground using the Grasshopper's feet. He's an ok shot, too. We'll see how he does against a swarm of hovercraft.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
A lance of hovertanks that we didn't spot comes in at our flanks, which is a little rough, but we'll deal with it. Leraje's Guillotine takes some fire from the incoming hovertanks, but armor holds up.

Our Grasshopper shows off his skills by more or less juggling an approaching Harasser missile platform like a soccer ball.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
A Saladin hovertank attempts to fire at Xwraith's Catapult, but our mechwarrior is on the ball and slices into the turret with 65-ton mech's laser array first, causing the assault-class autocannon to throw sparks and smoke instead of firing its deadly payload. A separate stomp at a Scorpion tank with twin SRM/6 launchers on top crushes it.

Leraje cuts open a Scimitar hovertank, not quite enough to destroy it, but the crew aborts their run towards the dropship to the north.

Wolf's Warhammer takes an AC/20 round from a flanking Saladin, the damage going to the mech's left arm. The mech shudders, but our mechwarrior keeps it upright. This effort does disrupt the Warhammer's firing though.

The new guy in the Grasshopper winds up having to quit screwing around and disable another hovertank (a Scimitar) with weapons fire, as the hostile Firestarter comes in trying to bail its buddies out. It scores numerous hits, inflicting good armor damage and heating the Grasshopper up quite a bit, but our mech counterattacks with a 70-ton boor, cracking the lighter mech's left leg and sending it to the ground.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Firestarter gives up trying to get up and ejects.

Wolf backs up to an intersection in the north and turns left as the Saladin that dinged our Warhammer speeds by. Sidestepping an attack from the Saladin's autocannon, our mechwarrior returns fire with a pair of PPC shots, which blow through the hovertank's armor. Not quite destroyed, but completely combat-ineffective, it retreats to the east. Concentrated fire from nearby hovercraft cause armor damage but our Warhammer withstands it. The Star Guards' Warhammer helps out by squashing a nearby Harasser zapping away with its lasers.

Leraje exchanges fire with three hovercraft, taking multiple SRMs which pockmark the Guillotine's armor. In return, the nearby Maxim is disabled by laser fire and SRMs, while a Scimitar is kicked over on its side.

A Drillson avoids Xwraith's Catapult for now, blasting away at the new guy's Grasshopper with its large laser and SRM array, causing armor damage and dinging the head with one warhead.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Leraje walks backwards, hoping to get a good angle on the Skulker remaining in the wreck-strewed street, but the little scout tank dodges into an alley, leaving our mechwarrior to fire on some infantry that have emerged from the Maxim and are pelting our mech with small arms fire (to no effect). The platoon is rapidly reduced from 28 troopers to 8 as our Guillotine's lasers do their work.

Xwraith disables the last target in his lane, a Drillson, whose last act is to pelt the Catapult with SRMs, inflicting no appreciable damage.

Wolf's sector still needs a little help as the hovercraft and remaining Locust have regrouped there and are pressing our Warhammer pretty hard, although our Grasshopper guy is on the job and cracks a Striker's treads in half.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Wolf is unable to stop a Saracen hovercraft and a Skulker scout tank from getting by, but does manage a very rare feat - a total mech kill with a small laser. The basically undamaged Locust (minus a couple of scuff marks from slipping and falling on the pavement earlier) moves up to our Warhammer, intending to run by and be off the field, firing its two machine guns (a few rounds rake the cockpit). The heavier mech lets loose with small lasers and machine guns (the PPCs lightly dinging the Skulker and missing the Saracen entirely). The very first small laser drills through the Locust's center of mass and causes enough engine damage that the safeties kick in and shut it down, dropping the Locust to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Another Saracen hovertank does damage the Warhammer's PPC arm, blowing out a heat sink and the shoulder actuator, which is annoying, that'll take some time to repair. The Star Guards' Warhammer uses the opportunity to smash the hovercraft into a nearby building, where it will remain until recovered by salvage teams.

A Packrat bravely engages our Grasshopper, pinging the heavy mech with SRMs, but the return fire completely obliterates the light vehicle.

In the end, only three units got by us - two hovercraft and a wheeled tank. The rest have been disabled or destroyed, and we call in the salvage teams to sort everything out and get the loot back to the Steiner storehouse from which it was stolen.

Wolf taps the other Warhammer on the shoulder with the non-disabled arm. "Thanks for the help, mechwarrior. Good shooting. Too bad you couldn't get more of your guys out here to help out."

"Yeah, maybe we ought to work on our coordination a little better." The other mechwarrior replies in acknowledgement.

----

Zenn7 spots the flaw with the dropship assault plan as soon as we get to the area - the dropship is set up in a swampy crater with no line of sight to it until you crest one of the adjoining hills. Anyone that does so is in range of the Overlords guns and will get hosed down.

"Sorry, Major." he reports back to base. "I don't think we can do this without a lot of reinforcements or a lot of damage to us. We can try to circle around from another side, but by that point, they'll probably have lifted off."

[] Launch the assault anyway. Risk of severe damage to our mechs.
[] Try to circle around. Risk of dropship lifting off before we can finish repositioning.
[] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

[] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:04 pm [] Launch the assault anyway. Risk of severe damage to our mechs.
[] Try to circle around. Risk of dropship lifting off before we can finish repositioning.
[x] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
Oh well, the best laid schemes of mice and men...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

Isgrimnur wrote:[] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
Sigh, it would have been fun taking it down but a bit too costly
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:17 pm
Isgrimnur wrote:[] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
Sigh, it would have been fun taking it down but a bit too costly
We marched all the way out here for nothing?!?

Shooting the next thing that irritates me with 3 PPCs.

:x
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 4:04 pm
$iljanus wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:17 pm
Isgrimnur wrote:[] Forget it, they're leaving anyway.
Sigh, it would have been fun taking it down but a bit too costly
We marched all the way out here for nothing?!?

Shooting the next thing that irritates me with 3 PPCs.

:x
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Call it a day - unanimous
Zenn7 grips the throttle and aim controls tightly in annoyance, frying several nearby boulders with PPC shots to let off a little steam. Beta-Assault does manage to direct Beta-Strike to intercept the remaining hovercraft trying to make their way to the Overlord. The dropship lifts off and burns for orbit and, presumably, a pirate jump point, leaving empty-handed (at least as far as we're concerned).

The next couple of weeks are pretty quiet, although two of our lances wind up getting called in for a "disturbance"

The rest of November is pretty quiet. With the downtime, we get to take our time picking out a new location for our dropship landing zone. A few promising candidate sites emerge. First, we can simply relocate to the nearby dropport. This will be a little more expensive in terms of having to pay for the space, and everyone knows where it is, but House Steiner defenses here are substantial, and the "riff raff" have been reluctant to attack the facility itself. We could also "repurpose" the landing zone that the Overlord left behind. It's a pretty good defensive position, as long as we run regular patrols and put down a good amount of sensor coverage. The downside is that it's a swamp in the middle of nowhere, so it's dreary, depressing and smells like a mixture of farts and rotten eggs. We could also simply remain where we are, as nobody has actually managed to get through our defensive perimeter to attack our dropships.

Relocation:
[] Local spaceport: +better defenses, -no secrecy, -fees
[] Swamp: +good secrecy, -swamp
[] Remain: +good defenses, +no relocation, -known location

We also start running joint training exercises with the Star Guards, to better cooperate when the next set of raiders come. Particular emphasis is placed on IFF update protocols and information security.

----

As El Guapo is trolling around Mech-E-Bay, he spots a pretty interesting find, calling Isgrimnur over as the fellow lieutenant examines a status update on mech maintenance.

"Hey, check out this mech for sale. 80 tons, endo-steel structure, maximum armor rating. Two PPCs, four medium pulse lasers. Your countrymen are really getting into this Helm Core stuff pretty good!" Our mechwarrior remarks. "Hatamoto-Hi? Serial number HTM-27U".

"Still not my country. Anymore." Isgrimnur responds. "But, it's a good design for sure. Kind of like a Thug, but with lasers."

"Only 8.5M C-Bills. Wonder what those guys on Butte Hold would think about it when we brought one of these babies over to stomp on their periphery pirate hides?" El Guapo muses. "Whatever happened with that planetary inheritance dispute? Used to be we'd see at least one contract offer every month for that place."

"Maybe they settled their dispute." Isgrimnur states.

"Sure, like Davion and Kurita settled theirs." El Guapo snorts. "Actually kind of weird, I've been keeping up with it and we haven't really seen much in the way of contract offers from the northern periphery for a few months now. I heard the Kell Hounds were sending some of their forces out that way, did they kill all the pirates or something?"

"I doubt it." Isgrimnur responds. "Seems like all the pirates are coming here now, instead."

El Guapo shrugs. "Yeah. Weird."

Hatamoto-Hi HTM-27U has come up for sale from "Captain Dan's Lightly Used Discount Mechs". It's not really much of a discount, being sold for 105% of its supposed parts cost. But, it's in good shape, and is basically a Thug with medium pulse lasers instead of SRMs. Captain Dan is not the most reputable seller, though, so where and how he would get a mech that you'd normally only see in elite badass Kurita Sword of Light regiments is questionable.

[] Buy it, 8.5M C-Bills, you can't go wrong with 80 tons of brand new Helm Core tech
[] Pass, we're not that hard up on mechs, and are likely to wind up with 80 tons of scrap metal
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm
Relocation:
[X] Local spaceport: +better defenses, -no secrecy, -fees
[] Swamp: +good secrecy, -swamp
[] Remain: +good defenses, +no relocation, -known location
Civilization + good defenses seems like a pretty good deal.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm Hatamoto-Hi HTM-27U has come up for sale from "Captain Dan's Lightly Used Discount Mechs". It's not really much of a discount, being sold for 105% of its supposed parts cost. But, it's in good shape, and is basically a Thug with medium pulse lasers instead of SRMs. Captain Dan is not the most reputable seller, though, so where and how he would get a mech that you'd normally only see in elite badass Kurita Sword of Light regiments is questionable.

[] Buy it, 8.5M C-Bills, you can't go wrong with 80 tons of brand new Helm Core tech
[X] Pass, we're not that hard up on mechs, and are likely to wind up with 80 tons of scrap metal
I'd happily buy it from a reputable seller, but this seems firmly in "too good to be legit" territory. If there's anything else that we can do to verify that it's real, then I'd say buy it.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

I'm all for energy-only mechs, but, unless it fills an immediate need, I'm fine passing on it.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Leraje
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm Relocation:
[x] Local spaceport: +better defenses, -no secrecy, -fees
[] Swamp: +good secrecy, -swamp
[] Remain: +good defenses, +no relocation, -known location
House-run defenses are good and we can spare some cash.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm [x] Buy it, 8.5M C-Bills, you can't go wrong with 80 tons of brand new Helm Core tech
[] Pass, we're not that hard up on mechs, and are likely to wind up with 80 tons of scrap metal
Can we refit it with JJs and MLs instead of MPLs? If we can I'll gleefully use it -no ammo bomb is always a plus in my book :)
Last edited by Leraje on Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Leraje wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:53 pm Can we refit it with JJs and MLs instead of MPLs?
We can take a look at doing that if we decide to get it.
Black Lives Matter
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AWS260
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm Relocation:
[] Local spaceport: +better defenses, -no secrecy, -fees
[x] Swamp: +good secrecy, -swamp
[] Remain: +good defenses, +no relocation, -known location
Mmm, farts and rotten eggs.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:22 pm [x] Buy it, 8.5M C-Bills, you can't go wrong with 80 tons of brand new Helm Core tech
[] Pass, we're not that hard up on mechs, and are likely to wind up with 80 tons of scrap metal
I believe you, Captain Dan.
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$iljanus
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

Better defenses and possibly a decent sports bar to watch some Solaris Game World video transmissions makes me vote for the spaceport!

I'll let others weigh the pros and cons of buying the mech. Helm Core tech good. Disreputable mech merchant bad.
Black lives matter!

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