Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Zarathud
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

Veteran enemies are going to make you earn every credit.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Yeah, I was looking at the enemy pilot stats, and they're all like 2/3, 3/4, that sort of thing, whereas the previous contract they were 5/6, 4/5. I definitely underestimated the difficulty here and it's going to cost us. You might even say I got greedy. Which, I guess comes with the territory when we're talking about mercenaries.

It also doesn't help that we're getting missions mostly in open terrain against swarms of hovercraft.
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LordMortis
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

scrubs in a ... Phoenix Hawk
Hey now!
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

My training unit is turning the corner, and should be ready within the next mission or so.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We buy a Thunderbolt to replace the void left by the Stalker, which goes to Freyland but won't be deployed to the field for a while until I solve the backpack problem: we need to limit lance size to 200 tons, but we have the following tonnage values available: Quickdraw - 60, Thunderbolt - 65, Shadow Hawk - 55, Centurion - 50 (x2), Griffin -55, Flea -20. So I guess 55 + 65 + 60 + 20 would work. Of course, that means putting an 8/7 scrub in a Flea in our primary combat lance. Alternately, we could go up to 280 for a heavy lance: 55 + 65 + 50 + 50 + 60. We'll see.

Meanwhile, our employer decides to pack up and relocate their base and "forgets" to inform us of this so that when our mechs come back to base from their latest patrol, they wind up having to spend a bunch of time tracking down their base and get all grumpy. Thaaat's a contract breach.

Still, they finally get an airstrip organized so we can now fly air support missions. Our 65-ton Lucifer fighter will be able to fly one air support mission per day. Just don't get shot down.

February 6th, 3026
Alpha Lance is ordered to break through an enemy position in the savannah flatlands. It's a little unclear where exactly, as this planet appears to be entirely flatlands as far as we're concerned. We'll approach in pitch blackness and attack the enemy piecemeal, as most of their units are not jump-capable, although they do have three(!) PPC-packing Manticore heavy tanks. Their mechs are a Griffin and a Warhammer, which I'll be happy to take off their hands. Air support also reports a mixed enemy lance approaching from the east, light mechs and medium vehicles, so we'll need to get this done quick.

Alpha Lance is gbasden in the Shadow Hawk, a Centurion, a Griffin, a Wasp and a Stinger. The allied unit is a Phoenix Hawk. Air support will be arriving in eight turns.

The Lyrans will retreat if we destroy 1/2 of their forces. Our unit has been ordered to minimize casualties, so we will retreat if we lose 1/3 of our units, or two mechs.
Spoiler:
Image
The terrain can be described as "almost completely flat", with a couple of small hills sticking out near our deployment zone. Our only advantage here will be our jump jets, so we make use of them.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Our hopping pays off, as all enemy fire whiffs while we score a minor LRM hit on the enemy Griffin. He then proceeds to whiff a kick at our Wasp and fall over.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Griffin has some trouble getting up, sso some of our units stay back to beat him up a little. Three of our units advance towards the Warhammer. We want to get into minimum range on those PPCs quickly - doesn't matter if they're 11s or 12s, eventually they're going to hit. Meanwhile, we can't shoot back.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
We get in there and mix it up. Our Centurion dings the enemy Griffin in the lower arm with an AC/10, damaging the actuator. We score some minor hits on the Warhammer and take a medium laser hit on the Griffin. The flashes from the weapons are pretty much the only light source here, so it's hard to hit anything. Our light mechs whiff on every kick, while the enemy Warhammer twirls around like a graceful ballerina, doing a little plie and then delivering a solid boot to our Wasp, knocking off the left leg and torso, with the impact being so jarring it also knocks the Stinger on his ass.

Round 4:
Time for plan B: mix it up with the tanks. At least they can't kick back. The Wasp pilot thrashes around a little but fails to accomplish anything. Weapons fire is just abysmal, with our Stinger losing a leg and our Centurion taking a PPC to the arm. The one saving grace here is that all kicking rolls whiff, including the Warhammer, which falls over, destroying its searchlight that was flailing wildy around before.

Round 5:
With two of our units crippled, we "lift arms" and withdraw. The Lyrans are in no mood to take prisoners, so their Manticores plaster our Stinger with PPCs, "surgically" removing the left torso in addition to the already removed left leg. Along with the engine, gyro and center torso. The allied Phoenix Hawk also takes a couple of PPCs to the engine as we jump away.

The Wasp pilot somehow manages to come back to base, sans mech (understandable, seeing as how there was only about half of it left). The Stinger pilot doesn't make it back.

Man, I really screwed the pooch with this veteran thing. If we keep losing two mechs per mission, we're not going to have a company left by the time the contract is done.

I decide to try something unconventional. We've already got the elite/veteran vehicle crew, so we purchase a Demolisher heavy tank from the unit market. This thing is pretty serious business:

2x AC/20
4x Machine Gun

Well, ok, only the AC/20s are serious. The MGs are just an ammo explosion waiting to happen.

Next week, a veteran Mechwarrior comes on the market and we snap him up pretty quickly. No mech, but we want the talent.

The week after, a mission comes up that could resolve this contract decisively, regardless of our pretty poor performance previously.
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Archinerd
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

:pop:
All caught up.
Feel free to name one of your guys after me too. I prefer a Jenner (if you get another) but I'm not picky, so whatever.
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gbasden
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

I hereby apologize for my lance's poor performance. We obviously need remedial training.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

This next one is going to take me a little while to push out, as it's larger scale than anything I've ever documented here before and I have some technical issues I need to work out. Here's the setup, though:

February 22nd, 3026

It's time to go big or go home. While we were getting our clocks cleaned, the FWL have located the main Lyran base in our operational theatre (apparently while trailing an enemy salvage unit bringing one of our legless light mechs back). Maintenance facilities, ammo storage, the works. We're going in. We look at the force disposition, and it's not looking so hot. The FWL attacking force consists of three mixed light and medium vehicle lances supported by two medium mechs. Alpha lance is gbasden in the Shadow Hawk, along with our Griffin, Centurion and newly-acquired Demolisher heavy tank, and a liaison in another Griffin. So, 12 vehicles, 7 mechs total.

The enemy force is... larger. Two lances of mechs (light, medium), four vehicle lances. Additionally, the base itself has six turrets and two lances of "lower-quality" units (think industrial mechs and and very light vehicles) and six turrets. Finally, air recon reports another vehicle lance with mech support is coming in from the south. So, we'll be fighting against 24 vehicles, 12 mechs, a "lance" of 4 industrial mechs and the six turrets. With the enemy having a major numbers and skill advantage, it's not looking good.

So, Gbasden makes the call. It's all hands on deck. We ignore the liaison's bitching about "force allocation levels" and "contract breaches" and call in our air support and El Guapo's training lance. Training's over, kids, time for the real deal! Our scrub, shell-shocked LT with a mech loss and rout under her belt organizes an ad-hoc Gamma Lance. Beta Lance is El Guapo in the Orion, Zenn7 in the Awesome, a scrub in the Panther and a slightly less scrubby Phoenix Hawk pilot (she improved!). Gamma lance is Vulcan, Centurion, Quickdraw, Freyland in the Thunderbolt and a scrubby scrub scrub (7/8) in a Flea. Just kidding, we kick her out and sub in Adam "Archinerd" Belak, the veteran mechwarrior we recruited last week. The scrub is perfectly happy not to participate in what could quite possibly be a trap or a suicide run. We'll also have the Lucifer aerospace fighter doing strafing runs at that time. The reinforcements will arrive roughly around the same time as the Lyran reinforcements, so, after turn eight, we'll have reasonable parity in numbers.

The objective is to destroy or disable 20 out of the 40 enemy units, and an additional 3 if the enemy reinforcements show up (almost guaranteed, our vehicle buddies aren't exactly glorious battle machines). We lose if we take 11 out of 19 casualties, or 16 once our reinforcements get there. That last part is important, because, once our backup gets there, it means we can lose the entirety of the allied force and not lose the mission.

If we win this mission, the enemy force will be left without operational support and wither on the vine very shortly. The contract will be fulfilled and, frankly, I don't think anybody will complain. And if we lose, well, there won't be anybody left to complain. Time to cross the Rubicon.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Freyland
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Ready to fight!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

So, we begin. The Lucifer pilot loads up with six HE bombs and six cluster bombs, which should help due to the target-rich environment. It'll slow him down, but not significantly, and it's not like there are any enemy aircraft in the area.

Enlarge Image
The battle map is a crater with the town in the middle. Our goal is to get our mechs into the town as quickly as possible to mess with enemy lines of sight, as we start out on the crater lip, which means everyone will be shooting at us. We deploy all the way across the northern part of the map, while the enemy deploys in a kind of crescent, with their heaviest mechs at the tip nearest to us.

Round 1:
Enlarge Image
We advance to what little cover there is up top. The Demolisher gets pummeled pretty hard and I start to question the wisdom of that investment. We damage an LRM/15 turret, locking it so it can only fire forward.

Round 2:
Enlarge Image
gbasden is feeling a little vulnerable, so I pull him back a bit. The rest of our troops stay on the ridge line. I think we'll wait for reinforcements rather than charge into that swarm. What do you get when you combine two AC/20s at point blank range with a Hunter light support tank? Soup. Our Griffin liaison combines fire with our Centurion and punctures the armor on a Vedette, stunning the crew for three turns in total. When they recover, they'll probably be beating feet. Meanwhile, our own Griffin opens up on an LRM-toting APC, stripping out all the armor. The base crew manning the APC decide they've had enough adventure for the day as well. gbasden and his opponent Phoenix Hawk exchange kicks, with gbasden stripping the armor off his opponent's leg.

Round 3:
Enlarge Image
Our Griffin squad skulks around the left flank, camping out on a hilltop. It's a good place for them, with their long range PPCs and LRMs. Gbasden hangs out behind a building, trying to avoid most of the enemy fire. The demolisher crew turns their AC/20s on gbasden's neighbor, a Quasit Militiamech, which falls over. To add insult to injury, gbasden gives it a boot to the ass as its flailing around. Its gyro is destroyed as a result of all these acrobatics, so it's game over for him. Gbasden's starting to take a beating though so it'll be time to pull him back.


Round 4:
Enlarge Image
The Quasit pilot bails out. Our Griffin squad continues camping out on the west ridge. Gbasden jumps away, hoping for a little break. The demolisher looks like it's going to get at least one more turn of shooting AC/20s at people. In the north east, the enemy gets their first kill, blowing a Galeon to smithereens. Lasers burn off the turret armor, then SRMs fly right on through the hole. The demolisher retaliates by hitting the nearby Quickdraw with an AC/20, but gets beat up a bit and the commander injured. The allied units bombarding an enemy LRM/15 turret finally get the job done, when a stray AC/5 round clears out the crew. Our Griffins put some PPCs into the nearby Hunter light support tank, and then the allied Griffin puts his foot through the left side, ending its presence. On the far east, I note that an allied Hermes has started laying into a flamer turret.

Round 5:
Enlarge Image
Gbasden is out in the open and pulling back. The Griffins continue camping. Our Demolisher is in pretty bad shape, so I have him drive further north. Note the heroic unarmed allied Swiftwind driving into the large pile of enemies. You get some! Off in the southeast, the buzzing allied Peregrine is finally destroyed by a very irate Hunchback. An allied Scorpion is plastered by an enemy Stinger, and an enemy Firestarter dings our Demolisher with a medium laser, wiping out a 3M investment in one hit. Our Griffins team up with some allies to plow the enemy Stinger, knocking off the left arm and torso. Gbasden can't keep up with all the incoming fire, however and falls over after taking a couple of crits to the right leg.

Round 6:
Enlarge Image
Enemy reinforcements deploy to the south. However, they won't affect the battle for another three or four turns. Meanwhile, we also get backup, as our aircraft has arrived, fully loaded with bombs and ready to kick ass. The enemy Stinger keenly feels the loss of his left torso and pulls back. In the wrong direction, but he's withdrawing and not shooting, so I'll take it. Gbasden slowly and painfully gets up and then falls over as his hip actuator betrays him again. At least he's clear of most enemy fire. The Lucifer spots a good set of targets in the center of town and dive bombs, to pretty good effect (dropping all his ordnance, but still). An enemy Shadow Hawk catches a cluster bomblet directly to the head, throwing sparks out as it falls over. An enemy Pegasus spills its contents as a bomb hits the front armor. An enemy Phoenix Hawk also takes some heavy damage. Expensive, but effective.

Elsewhere, an enemy Scimitar disables an allied Galeon with an SRM to the motive system. An allied Hermes blasts an enemy Harvester Ant with laser and AC/5, inflicting heavy internal damage, while our liaison Griffin pops a leg off a Crosscut Loggermech (remember that the enemy base personnel are participating in this). Both civilian mechs fall over, with the Harvester Ant losing a leg. It's a good thing that the Lucifer unloaded all his ordnance, as AA fire dings him pretty hard and he kisses the dirt. Surprisingly, the aircraft remains intact!

Round 7:
Enlarge Image
Scrub LT's Gamma Lance arrives. Just in time, too, this was starting to get a little out of control. The Lucifer pilot manages to get his fighter's engines to restart and performs a vertical liftoff. Amazing! The enemy Quickdraw decides to close with our Centurion for a melee engagement, so I take the opportunity to get behind him with our Quickdraw. Between two of our mechs unloading on it and an allied Harasses plowing SRMs into an enemy Galeon, it simply falls apart. The liaison Griffin nails an enemy Scorpion tank with a PPC, melting the interior to slag. An enemy Pegasus returns the favor to an allied Scimitar, but not before said Scimitar gets a few serious impacts on an enemy Wasp, destroying the left torso and knocking off an arm. Archinerd in the Flea gets his first "kill", as he uses his laser and flamer to disrupt a Scimitar's hover ducts long enough for the vehicle to plow into a nearby cliff and get stuck there. The allied Hermes over in the east finishes off his Harvester Ant buddy by dinging some machine gun ammo with a medium laser.

Round 8: Reinforcements have arrived. El Guapo's training lance shows up, and the situation is looking pretty good. We've destroyed, disabled or forced to withdraw thirteen enemy units. Our losses have been limited to the Demolisher tank and five allied vehicles, but we're now fielding thirteen mechs as a concentrated force, while the enemy is spread out across the map. We actually have a range advantage on them, having taken out four LRM-equipped vehicles. They have more, but most are on the south side of the map. As I deploy the last of El Guapo's reinforcements, it's definitely "to be continued..."
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Did I hit anything?
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

You showed up on round 7, so you've only been on the field one turn, but yes, you hit the Galeon light hover tank. Allied Harasser stole the kill, though.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

NickAragua wrote:You showed up on round 7, so you've only been on the field one turn, but yes, you hit the Galeon light hover tank. Allied Harasser stole the kill, though.
:angry-cussingwhite:

Can you remind me of a T-bolt load-out when you have time?
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Sure:
4/6 movement
15 heat sinks

2x Machinegun
1x Large Laser
3x Medium Laser
1 LRM/15
1 SRM/2

So basically, a mech with two solid range brackets, tending towards better short range firepower.
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Archinerd
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

Well, I hope you're happy. I had a dream about Battletech last night.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Well, hope you're ready for more, because here comes part 2:

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
El Guapo's lance deploys to the north of town, for a little flanking, as the west side is pretty secure, and advances south, engaging a Phoenix Hawk, Firestarter and Pegasus hovertank. The enemy Quickdraw tries to run through our lines, but exposes himself for a rear attack from our Quickdraw and Griffins. An enemy Crosscut tries to get up (missing leg and all) and falls on his ass, knocking himself out, stalling his engine while he's at it. There's some confusion as enemy and allied units both fire on already disabled vehicles for a turn, but: Freyland knocks out the enemy Pegasus, disabling its hover mechanisms, while Zenn7 in the Awesome lines up a head shot on the harassing Phoenix Hawk and surgically removes said head while it's distracted by the Flea behind it. The Flea though, loses its gyro to the now-disabled Pegasus and will be on the ground for the rest of the battle. Circle of life.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
El Guapo's lance advances further into the crater. On the west side, the enemy Quickdraw has had enough and pulls out. We concentrate fire on a J.Edgar, a Commando that gets uncomfortably close to the scrub LTs Vulcan, the Firestarter, and a Hunchback way on the east side of town. Freyland in the Thunderbolt teams up with an allied Scorpion tank to knock out the J.Edgar's engine, taking it out of the fight. The allied Hermes exploits the openings created by Zenn7 and the Panther's PPCs to knock out said Hunchback's gyro, and the pilot bails out. LordMortis, you've got your Hunchback! Some of our "brave" allies kick and shoot the downed civilian mech with the unconscious pilot.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
El Guapo's lance holds position outside the town. Archinerd's Flea is in great danger from the enemy Firestarter, so our Centurion comes to bail him out with an AC/20. Enemy units in the northwest part of the town are either damaged or destroyed, and the Commando tries to beat a retreat. The Lyrans can still regroup in the center of town for a reasonable defense and we can't really get too close due to the quad SRM/6 turret.

The poor APC with an MG to the west gets blown to bits by concentrated fire from... just about every mech on the west flank. We also take an arm off a Loggermech on the east side. Our Scrub LT runs up behind the retreating Commando and kicks it in the right torso, the sparks (and her Vulcan's foot) touching off an SRM/4 ammo explosion. To add insult to injury, she scoops the ejected mechwarrior up.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Short ranged units advance into the town, going in for the kill. Other than dead center of town, the enemy defense has collapsed. A slight counterattack happens to the northeast of town, with some APCs and a Pegasus plinking away at the Awesome haphazardly. The quad SRM/6 turret to the south of town takes a pounding, with the crew dying, as well as the building collapsing. Freyland nails an enemy technical that's buzzing around (a flatbed truck with an SRM launcher mounted on it). The damn Firestarter finally finishes off the downed Flea and manages to dodge the 7+ AC/20 counterattack. The Griffin liaison pops open the armor on a Scorpion tank, and the remaining enemy Hunchback takes enough fire to fall over (but is still intact). To finish things up, our Phoenix Hawk kicks the leg and left torso off an enemy Locust, scooping up an ejected pilot with a hand while he's at it. At this point, with their SRM turrets out of action and our mechs swarming all over town, the Lyran forces call a surrender.

We net a sizeable 350k bonus from prisoner capture, and salvage a Phoenix Hawk (only missing some armor and a head), a Hunchback (only missing an AC/20) and a Quasit (a piece of crap civilian mech but worth 1M c-bills) that we sell right away. We do have to pay out death benefits to the Demolisher crew killed in action to the tune of 2.5M (they were really good!), which will eat into our profit margin. Our damage, other than the lost Demolisher is a destroyed Flea (no big loss, to be honest) and hip damage on gbasden's Shadow Hawk, meaning we'll have to swap out the whole leg.

Despite the (in the liaison's words) "egregious breach of contract terms" and "abandoning your assigned post", the FWL pays up, as the Lyrans abandon this theatre of operations. Nobody retires (we do pay a 100k bonus to our only veteran tech to persuade him to stick around). We spend a significant amount of time (to the tune of a couple of weeks) fixing up mechs and stripping out spare parts from salvaged units to replace damaged bits. Well, the aircraft takes a lot longer, but it did literally plow into the ground. Also, critically, our Dragoons rating goes up from D to C, on account of having no debt and having successfully completed two contracts in a row. This means we no longer have to scrounge for basic mech parts and ammo, and will get better deals on our contracts as well as access to better mechs and personnel on the market.

Once we fix up that Hunchback with an AC/20 salvaged from the Demolisher, we give him to a recent recruit whose only previous mission in our company involved losing a Wasp after getting kicked by a Warhammer. Good luck, Pvt. Suhayb "LordMortis" Ragheb. You're a 5/4 pilot, but you'll probably get better with a Hunchback rather than a tiny little piece of crap mech.

We're also buying a replacement for Archinerd's Flea. I pick out a Clint CLNT-2-3T, a 6/9/6, 40-ton medium packing an AC/5 and 2 medium lasers. It's a little slower than a Jenner on the ground, but has more jump jet power and can actually fire all of its weapons without overheating. I actually really like the fast 40-45 mediums, and we need some of those to compensate for all the 55 and 60-tonners we have kicking around.

Next month rolls around, and we get a whopping four contract offers, three of them from the Lyran Commonwealth (slightly ironic):
The Lyran Commonwealth needs help hunting down pirates on the planet Vulcan:
Liaison command
50% transport terms / 18 jumps away
40% salvage rights
60% battle loss compensation
Green/F allied and enemy forces
5 months duration
2.5M expected profit

They also want us to conduct an objective raid against the Free Worlds League on Bondurant:
Liaison command
100% transport terms / 2 jumps away (probably why they're willing to spring for 100%)
0% salvage rights (bullshit)
40% battle loss compensation
Regular/F allied, Green/F enemy forces
3 months duration
6.4M expected profit

Finally, they want us to conduct an objective raid against the Draconis Combine on Shionoha
House command
100% transport terms / 10 jumps away
20% salvage rights (meh)
40% battle loss compensation
Elite/F allied, Regular/F enemy forces
3 months duration
6.2M expected profit

On the other hand, the Draconis Combine is offering a contract for an extraction raid against the Lyran Commonwealth on Montmarault:
Liaison command
100% transport terms / 15 jumps away
40% salvage rights
40% battle loss compensation
Green/F allied, Regular/F enemy forces
4 months duration
8.3M expected profit

I like the Pirate contract because it'll allow us good access to higher-end parts that, even though we're a Dragoons Rating C unit, we don't have access to, such as LRM launchers. The bad part is that it's on the butt-ass north end of the galaxy in the middle of nowhere and they're only covering 50% transport costs so it'll be expensive as all hell, mothballing mechs or no. The two jumps away contract is nice and convenient, but with 0% salvage rights, it's a non-starter. The objective raid on Shionoha is a decent deal, but salvage rights are a little crap. Finally, the Dracs make a good offer, but, again, it's in the northern butthole of the galaxy, middle of nowhere. And are also known for stiffing mercs on contracts. The other issue with the raid contracts will be the low parts availability, but it's only three or four months so not much of an issue. We can also afford to sit around and wait for a couple of months to get some R&R and scare up some different contracts possibly.

The other thing I want to do is allow folks the opportunity for a little mech customization. We're currently limited to using refit kits to keep it to "stock" variants. I'll make a separate post with company members and their mech stats, as well as eligible variants. You can also name your mechs.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Zenn7 pilots an Awesome-8Q. 3/5, 3x PPC, 1x Small Laser. I have a hard time picturing anyone wanting to change to a variant that doesn't have three PPCs.

LordMortis pilots a Hunchback-4G. 4/6, AC/20, 2x Medium Laser, 1x Small Laser. The other variants are silly because they don't have an AC/20.

gbasden operates a Shadow Hawk SHD-2H. 5/8/3, Medium Laser, AC/5, LRM/5, SRM/2. There aren't any refit kits available, so you're stuck with it. However, if you want to swap for another mech, feel free. You are the company commander after all, we've got 6M in the bank and have units on the unit market.

Freyland drives a Thunderbolt TDR-5S. 4/6, 15 heat sinks, Large Laser, 3x Medium Laser, LRM/15, SRM/2, 2x MG. There are two solid refit kits that I would recommend: The 5SE, which trades the MGs, SRM launcher and LRM/15 for a downgraded LRM/10, 4 points of jump jets and 2 extra heat sinks. The other option, the 5SS instead has a PPC, 3x Medium Laser, SRM/6 and a Flamer.

El Guapo drives an Orion ON1-K. 4/6, AC/10, LRM/15, SRM/4, 2x Medium Laser. There's a down-armored ON1-V variant that trades a Medium Laser for an SRM/4 (?), and a -VA which does the same thing, except it loses the LRM/15 to keep the same armor level. I don't see a reason to modify it personally.

Finally, Archinerd drives a "brand new" (not at all from second hand used mercenary mech auction) Clint CLNT-2-3T. 6/9/6, AC/5, 2x Medium Laser. There's a variant -1-2R that drops the jump jets and a medium laser to upgrade the AC/5 to an AC/10, and a completely awful variant that has two AC/2s instead of the AC/10. Uh, how about you just stick with the one you have. ::shudder::

I'm also considering refitting our Griffin-1N to a 1S, which ditches the PPC and LRM/10 for a Large Laser, 2x Medium Lasers and an LRM/5, as well as extra heat sinks. Downgrade in long-range firepower but no overheating issues.

Finally, we have a Phoenix Hawk PXH-1, that needs to get converted to a 1D. That's pretty simple. Gets rid of the two machine guns and ammo, add two heat sinks. Now it can fire more weapons and isn't a walking ammo explosion.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

[does little dance]
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

NickAragua wrote: Finally, Archinerd drives a "brand new" (not at all from second hand used mercenary mech auction) Clint CLNT-2-3T. 6/9/6, AC/5, 2x Medium Laser. There's a variant -1-2R that drops the jump jets and a medium laser to upgrade the AC/5 to an AC/10, and a completely awful variant that has two AC/2s instead of the AC/10. Uh, how about you just stick with the one you have. ::shudder::
AC-10 is nice but not worth losing jump jets for.

And I like this contract because it looks short and easy. No salvage stinks (can we re-negoitaite?) but there is expected profit. Your call though, boss.
They also want us to conduct an objective raid against the Free Worlds League on Bondurant:
Liaison command
100% transport terms / 2 jumps away (probably why they're willing to spring for 100%)
0% salvage rights (bullshit)
40% battle loss compensation
Regular/F allied, Green/F enemy forces
3 months duration
6.4M expected profit
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

I like my Thunderbolt as is, but if you, the Controller, want to change I would go with the second, overheating option. I also agree with the contract posed just above my post. If you can arrange some salvage, yay, but they do provide some damage comp.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

The Awesome is just... awesome... the way it is.

Regarding the contracts, if none of them are particularly awesome, don't we need some R&R for some reason from time to time? Now might be a good time to take some?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

I'd love to upgrade into something a bit beefier at some point, but I'm not going to kick anyone out of their mech. I do covet a PPC, thought. :)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

gbasden wrote:I'd love to upgrade into something a bit beefier at some point, but I'm not going to kick anyone out of their mech. I do covet a PPC, thought. :)
When I customize 200 ton assault mechs, I'm a big fan of the mech with a PPC in each arm and extra leg heat sinks and the looking for some water waist high water to park in.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

The Orion seems fine. It's been a long time since I played tabletop battletech, but I remember LRMs being mostly disappointing because the damage gets scattered across the mech, which is good, but tends to be more ineffectual than concentrating damage in one location on the mech. So I would be fine with ditching the LRM 15 for something else, although ditching it in order to swap a medium laser for an SRM4 doesn't seem like getting enough in exchange.

What I really want is a Mech with a Gauss Rifle. Those things were awesome in the MechWarrior games - basically PPCs with minimal heat.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

El Guapo wrote:The Orion seems fine. It's been a long time since I played tabletop battletech, but I remember LRMs being mostly disappointing because the damage gets scattered across the mech, which is good, but tends to be more ineffectual than concentrating damage in one location on the mech. So I would be fine with ditching the LRM 15 for something else, although ditching it in order to swap a medium laser for an SRM4 doesn't seem like getting enough in exchange.

What I really want is a Mech with a Gauss Rifle. Those things were awesome in the MechWarrior games - basically PPCs with minimal heat.

LRMs were all about Piloting skill rolls and rolling 2s and 12s after you hit. The scattered damage mean very little otherwise. But every 20 points = pilot skill roll and every head hit means chance to hurt a pilot and every center torso critical is a center torso critical. So that's a bunch of 1 in 18 shots to screw with someone's cherry mech pretty badly. Aside from that, I had little use for them.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/CBT_Tables#Ba ... tion_Table
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

gbasden wrote:I'd love to upgrade into something a bit beefier at some point, but I'm not going to kick anyone out of their mech. I do covet a PPC, thought. :)
As it turns out, there is a Shadow Hawk variant with a PPC, so we'll be doing that refit.
El Guapo wrote:The Orion seems fine. It's been a long time since I played tabletop battletech, but I remember LRMs being mostly disappointing because the damage gets scattered across the mech, which is good, but tends to be more ineffectual than concentrating damage in one location on the mech. So I would be fine with ditching the LRM 15 for something else, although ditching it in order to swap a medium laser for an SRM4 doesn't seem like getting enough in exchange.

What I really want is a Mech with a Gauss Rifle. Those things were awesome in the MechWarrior games - basically PPCs with minimal heat.
LordMortis pretty much summed it up. LRM/15 gets you up to three location rolls each time you score a hit, so it's great for shooting at mechs with stripped armor looking for crits and in general for trying to get head and nut shots. As for Gauss Rifles, those come out in 3040. Going to be a while before we get there (if we get there).

Looking it up in the rules and source code, salvage appears to be completely non-negotiable. Thus, the 0% salvage contract is pretty terrible - raid type contracts have low parts availability and stress out our mechwarriors pretty badly. Last time we were on a contract of this type, when we ran out of spare armor, we were able to salvage it off enemy vehicles. With 0% salvage (non-negotiable), our only way of getting spare parts would be to buy new mechs or strip existing ones. Since we're right on the Marik-Steiner border and are a C-rated unit, we shouldn't have trouble scaring up some different contracts, so, not being terribly impressed by any of these contract options, I decide to hang out for another month. We'll finish refitting our mechs and pick out another contract. We carry out the following refits:
Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 to PXH-1D
Vulcan VL-2T to VL-5T (ditch the AC/2 for three medium lasers and armor)
gbasden's Shadow Hawk SHD-2H to SHD-2K (swap out the AC/5, SRM/2 and medium laser for a PPC)

We also purchase a Vindicator VND-1R, a 4/6/4 with a PPC, LRM/5, Small and Medium laser.

Next month, we get three new contract options, of which two are pretty good (and all of which are against the Draconis Combine):

The Federated Suns need a unit to relieve a garrison at Chichibu, holding out against offensive action by the Draconis Combine.
5 months contract length
House command
Regular/D allies and enemies
50% transport terms (which we "skillfully renegotiate" to 45%)
100% salvage rights!
100% straight support (which we "skillfully renegotiate" to 10% battle loss compensation, our negotiator really did a bang-up job here)
7.7 estimated profit

Lyran Commonwealth is mounting an objective raid on Dromini VI against the Draconis Combine.
5 months contract length
House command
Veteran/D allies, Green/F enemies
100% transport terms
70% salvage rights
100% battle loss compensation
13.0M estimated profit

Finally, the Federated Suns are mounting an objective raid against the Draconis Combine on Shinonoi (I swear I'm not making these planet names up)
4 months contract length (ok)
House command (fine)
Green/D allies, Veteran/D enemies (how about no)
blah blah blah, I don't even bother reading the rest of it

Option #2 is slightly better on paper, but we'll be getting a +2 on our retirement rolls if we serve out the entire contract, as opposed to a +1 for Option #1. We're still only looking at 5s on a 2d6 for our non-officer veterans, which can be reduced by paying out bonuses. So, we'll be going with #2. It's basically just like option #2 from the last round of contract offers, except much better. We pack up our mechs into boxes, load them up onto cargo dropships (for cheaper transport) and ship out.

Image

Unfortunately, we'll be passing through a system called "Zebebelgenubi", which may cause some of our company to die from too much laughing.

En route, two major things happen: We purchase two light mechs: A Valkyrie VLK-QA (5/8/5, Medium laser, LRM/10), and a Spider SDR-5V (8/12/8, 2x Medium laser). These will help round out our heavier lances so we can keep the tonnage "under limit" so our employer doesn't assign us too tough missions. Also, our scrub LT finally figures out how to shoot at an average level, so she's no longer a scrub. I think we'll keep the nickname, though.

We arrive on Dromini VI on June 13th, 3026 and deploy two lances in support of Operation Crimson Summer:
Alpha Lance, headed up by Scrub, featuring a Vulcan, Quickdraw, Griffin and Phoenix Hawk - on scout detail per employer requirement
Beta Lance, featuring El Guapo in the Orion and LordMortis in the Hunchback showing two scrubs in a Panther and a Valkyrie how it's done - on training detail, technically fulfilling employer requirements.

We also hold a heavy lance in reserve:
gbasden/Shadow Hawk, Spider, Zenn7/Awesome, Archinerd/Clint, Freyland/Thunderbolt
and two reserve mechs, as well as two unmanned mechs

The scout lance is all relatively fast, jump-capable mechs so that we can more easily accomplish missions that require us to run across the map. When questioned about holding our heaviest mechs in reserve, the overlord replies: "In chess, the pawns go first."
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

June 22nd, 3026
While conducting reconaissance around the landing zone, Alpha lance encounters an enemy patrol, consisting of twelve vehicles and two mechs. With neither side willing to commit to a full-scale engagement, this is a "Probe" engagement, meaning that we'll call a retreat if we lose 25% of a force. For the enemy unit, that means four units, for us, it means two (remember that the attached allied unit counts as part of our lance). Attached to our lance is an Ostscout-7J with an incredible 2/2 pilot. The downside is that it's an Ostscout, so it's all speed, no guns or armor. The opposing force is a mixture of regular and hover tanks, along with a locust and a Wyvern. If we can knock that Wyvern out, that'll be a welcome addition to our forces. If not, oh well.

The terrain is actually not too bad. A light sprinkling of woods will interfere with the enemy hovercraft and allow us some cover. The incredibly low gravity (.75 earth normal) means our mechs move a lot faster than I'm used to (it took me a while to figure out why the hell our 5/8/5 Griffin was 7/11/7 instead). The downside is that if we move faster than the mech was designed for, we risk mech damage.
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We deploy along the north edge, the Dracs along the south.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Our Phoenix Hawk pilot demonstrates the difficulty of running too fast in low gravity and damages some leg actuators, causing the mech to fall over. We score some good hits on an enemy Saracen and J.Edgar, knocking out motive systems and damaging armor.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The allied Ostscout jumps out into a crowd of enemy vehicles, but due to its high movement mod barely takes any damage. Our Griffin scores a sensor hit on that same enemy J.Edgar while the Ostscout delivers a kick to a Scorpion tank.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
I have trouble resisting the opportunity to get a back shot on the enemy Wyvern. The allied Ostscout takes an AC/20 in the back from a Saladin which completely cores it. So much for elite pilots, I guess. We inflict some good damage on the Wyvern, but he's still up.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We do a lot of jumping and running to get clear of the enemy vehicle swarm, with some success. The Griffin needs to take a turn to cool off unfortunately. The Vulcan knocks some motive systems off the nearby Saladin, slowing it down drastically.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
We pull back further north, except for the Griffin who hangs out in the woods to the south - the enemy force has become a bit strung out with motive system damage. The Phoenix Hawk exposes herself a little but drills through a Saladin's armor, knocking it out completely. She takes a lot of damage in return though - nothing critical but she does get knocked down. The Vulcan kicks an approaching J.Edgar hover tank, knocking half its skirt off to let it know to keep its distance, while the Griffin to the south knocks off the neighboring Locust's leg.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Phoenix Hawk gets up, but is pretty exposed. I jump the Vulcan behind the Wyvern, but we're trying to win so I regretfully focus fire on the Saladin next to the Vulcan instead, immobilizing it. The Phoenix Hawk loses an arm and takes a bunch of internal hits, but survives and stays upright, which is all I really need it to do. The Griffin pounds the Locust some more, knocking off an arm.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
The Phoenix Hawk staggers into the heavy woods to the north, out of sight of many enemy vehicles and into better cover. The Locust pilot knocks himself out trying to get up, so I have the Griffin pilot stay next to him to try to help him out of his mech. The Vulcan runs out of the enemy cluster and heads east, whiffing all his shots. The Griffin actually scores the head shot, but with one structure remaining. Doh! Out of spite, he kicks the Locust, crunching through the left torso.

With the Wasp's torso gone and three vehicles disabled, that's over a quarter of their force, so the remaining enemies withdraw, leaving the field to us. The mission was a wash due to the loss of the allied unit. Additionally, our Phoenix Hawk is so beat up as to be unusable for the remainder of the campaign. We take the Locust and a Saladin as salvage and leave the other Saladin and a J.Edgar to our employer. Scrub walks away from the mission with two kills. Not bad! Once he wakes up, the Locust pilot (who we hauled back with the Locust, as he was not in any position to argue otherwise) offers to join our company. He's uh... a little wet behind the ears, but we'll consider it if his concussion isn't anything more serious.

We sub in our spare Phoenix Hawk and go about our business. The next month comes, and enemy force morale goes to "Very Low". In addition to payment, we scrounge up an LRM-equipped APC. Well, it'll be good for spare armor if we need it.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

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

Post by Freyland »

LordMortis wrote::pop:
+1
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

July 1st, 3026
While conducting reconaissance along the planned route to the mission objective, Alpha lance encounters an enemy unit composed of a medium mech lance and two vehicle lances. The enemy unit calls for backup, and allied air recon reports another two lances of enemy hover tanks approaching. This is another probe engagement, so we need to destroy three out of twelve enemy units while losing less than two of our own. The allied unit is a Commando, which is terrible as he doesn't have jump jets and it's the middle of the night, meaning he'll be slow as molasses. On the plus side, the enemy unit contains only three jump-capable mechs. So maybe they'll come out to us to say hi and leave their buddies behind?

Just in case this engagement drags on, I order the Lucifer pilot to load up with bombs and lift off. He'll arrive on round 7, loaded up with 11 HE bombs.

It's raining as we arrive, which means about 90% of the terrain is sloshy mud. Combined with the low gravity, this creates a weird floating effect and gives enemy hovercraft a huge advantage. Luckily, the terrain is also very hilly and there are only two enemy hovercraft to begin (well, three, but one is unarmed). The other upshot is that the allied Commando will probably get stuck and not get himself killed charging into a crowd of AC/20-wielding enemies (ahem).
Spoiler:
Image
We deploy to the north of a small town, on top of a pretty tall hill. The opposing force deploys to the south on a flat, muddy plain.


Round 1:
Spoiler:
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We jump south, taking care to land on rockier terrain so we don't get stuck. No weapons fire this turn, as we're all out of effective range.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
We jump to the northern outskirts of town. It *looks* like we're in long range with our weapons, but between the jumping, rain and moonlight casting unexpected shadows, we still can't hit anything.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
We take up positions to the west of the town, except for the Vulcan which jumps right in. We can actually hit the Wasp now, but fail to do so, boiling some dirt with PPC and laser instead.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We make contact with the faster elements of the enemy force, but everyone whiffs their shooting.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
We jump back a little, baiting the enemy Wasp to jump forward and get stuck in the mud. The little mech takes a PPC to the leg, along with a couple of laser hits - the leg gives in and the mech falls over. Good luck getting up.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The Drac reinforcements show up. A whole mess of hovertanks, which is highly appropriate for the terrain we're fighting in. We'll need to take advantage of the buildings to keep the odds even. A Hunter tank starts pelting us with LRM 10s from long range. Scrub in the Vulcan splashes into the mud next to the downed Wasp and puts a couple of lasers into it, destroying the right torso and inflicting a gyro and engine hit. She follows it up with a kick directly to the center torso, completely wrecking the mech. Maybe a little overkill there. Our Griffin puts a PPC shot through the left side of the approaching Saladin, turning it into a flaming wreck as it skids along the ground.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Our air support arrives. The enemy Firestarter and Griffin advance, and I have the Vulcan jump in behind them. The aircraft inflicts a couple of hits on the Griffin but nothing major. Our mechs unload on the building where the Firestarter is standing, causing it to collapse, bringing the mech down a couple of floors for some good damage and leaving it prone to boot. We also hit the Condor hovertank with a PPC and a kick, damaging its skirt significantly so it throws sparks as it continues moving.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy mills around the same location, while our aircraft makes a pass on a Vedette way in the south. In case you're wondering, that red line is our allied Commando firing his large laser from way back on top of the hill. Smart! We unload on the Firestarter as it's getting up, inflicting enough damage that he falls over and breaches center torso armor. The Vulcan kicks him while he's down, breaching left leg armor as well.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Our air support leaves the field temporarily - "coming around for another pass!". The Firestarter gets up and engages our Vulcan with its full array of weapons, which ought to heat it up nicely. Scrub takes some fire but inflicts much more damage on the enemy, including a crucial head shot that dings the pilot a little bit and knocks him out. Scrub uses the opportunity to kick the leg out from under the enemy mech, with the pilot inside getting banged around like a rag doll as the machine goes down. On the plus side, he won't have to worry about the heat!

Round 10:
Three more enemy hovercraft have made their way to the south end of the town. We're also starting to take some unacceptable damage from that Griffin that's buzzing around, so he'll be our next focus. All weapons fire whiffs this round though.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
The Firestarter pilot wakes up and bails out. Scrub jumps behind the enemy Griffin, whiffing most of her weapons fire - but landing a kick. The enemy's armor holds though. Our Griffin dings one of the enemy Saladins with a PPC, destroying the front stabilizer, meaning he'll find it even harder to hit anything with that AC/20.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
Our air support comes back, angling in from the west flank. He flies over the large formation of enemy vehicles dithering around in the mud to the south and drops his bomb load. The results are less than satisfactory, as only four bombs hit (but then again, at 9+ odds, that's not too bad), while the rest sploosh in the mud with little effect. The effort does inflict major damage and breach the armor on a Vedette, as well as dinging the commander of a nearby Pegasus hover tank as the vehicle is buffeted around. The Vedette goes into reverse and pulls out. The Lucifer takes some return fire, but the pilot retains control.

To the north, the slowed-down enemy Condor makes the mistake of cresting the hill in front of our three mech campers and catches a PPC to the right side. As it splashes down, it starts sinking into the mud, with the beat-up crew staggering out.

Scrub hasn't quite got the hang of it yet, as she whiffs a kick and falls over.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub gets up and tries to walk it off, but gets stuck in the mud with her back facing the enemy Griffin. Yikes. Thankfully, the enemy mechwarrior whiffs, but does expose himself to fire from the hilltop, so we get some good shots in on him.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
In an embarrasing show, our Phoenix Hawk tries walking forward, but slips on the mud, forcing Scrub to displace herself. She gets in the Griffins left side arc, while our aircraft loops around for a strafing run. The round turns out to be a wash, as nobody really hits anything with gunfire or melee.

Round 15-17:
Spoiler:
Image
We lose initiative, so we pull back a little. Our air support hits the throttle and goes for another strafing run on the southern vehicles. He nails a Saladin with a large laser, poking just enough of a hole in the armor to scrap the engine. He takes some return fire, but nothing breaches, as he's got some serious armor, and he retains control of the aircraft. Our Phoenix Hawk whiffs all his shots, but the allied Commando in the back gets a solid hit on the enemy Griffin with a large laser, scoring the right arm and popping sensitive components off the PPC. The enemy Griffin makes a "charge of the light brigade" at our hilltop mechs, while our Lucifer continues strafing the enemy tanks.

Having lost over a quarter of their force and their heaviest remaining mech severely damaged, the enemy call off the engagement. Their vehicles quit milling around the southern edge of town and pull back, enabling Alpha lance to complete their reconaissance run. We claim the Firestarter as salvage, although we'll need to mothball it for now as we don't have the spare parts to get it running again. That, and it's the crappy overheating variant (then again, they all are). We also net a 200k prisoner capture bonus, capturing four treadheads.

Our Griffin pilot improves his Gunnery score to three, and becomes obsessed with his LRM/10 launcher and angry at his PPC. In fact, several of the tech crew catch him cuddled up in the crook between the cockpit and the launcher, mumbling about how "that PPC won't outshine you anymore" (he gained "Weapon Specialization: Missile", meaning he gets +1 to hit with missiles, but -1 to hit with other weapons). Whatever, as long as it doesn't interfere with his or the rest of the company's ability to accomplish our jobs, I could care less what he does with his personal time.

In the next month, Alpha Lance's scouting detail proceeds without incident, although one of the screwball techs botches a simple maintenance job and irreparably damages the head on Scrub's Vulcan. Don't get shot in the head! Still, Alpha Lance maps out a route to an enemy spaceport and gets a good evaluation of the schedule of a particular enemy dropship. Command informs us that this is our objective, and we will be mounting an assault shortly.

With our mechwarrior corps up to fifteen members, we have room to promote another officer. Due to seniority and ... substantial number of kills, our first choice is Yu-bao "Zenn7" Ting. Want the job?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

Things are looking up!

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Being the guy who piloted the only assault mech we started with, not sure having the most kills is meaningful for qualifying as an officer... but sure. That way I can order people to get the heck outta my line of site! <zzzz-pher> (what does a PPC sound like anyway? too long since I played Battletech pc games to remember...)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

"Never argue with an Assault Mech", that's what I always say.
It makes for odd conversations around the office though.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Welcome to the officer corps!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

August 1st, 3026
With the pending dropship assault, Alpha lance is ordered to run a diversion to distract enemy reinforcements. The Commando from the previous mission re-joins them. Turns out the pilot is an excellent gunner (1/4). Alpha lance "buzzes" a small enemy outpost with LRMs to wake up the defenders, and allied air recon reports that another nearby base has sent out the unit stationed there, and they'll be approaching from the northwest shortly. To make the diversion "stick", Alpha lance needs to engage the initial enemy force until the enemy reinforcements show up, then exchange weapons fire with the reinforcements for at least four turns before retreating off the south edge. We won't be retaining control of the area, so it's fairly important to keep our mechs in one piece and standing.

If we are forced to retreat, then any non-disabled units will reinforce the upcoming dropship assault, in addition to any units already present in the area.

The enemy forces are units that Alpha lance has tangled with before, so they'll be looking for a little payback. As they come out to engage, it begins snowing.
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy unit approaches mostly from the southeast, except for a lone Saracen zipping up the river bed. This river will provide an excellent natural obstacle if we get overwhelmed and need to fall back, as a lot of the enemy units are neither jump nor hover capable.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We jump our units to the riverbanks and whiff some shots, including the Phoenix Hawk, who should have had those 7+ shots easily. The enemy unit strings itself out as the treadheads break formation.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
We remain on the riverbank as the enemy formation starts advancing through the gap to the east. We take and deliver some minor fire but nothing serious.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
We're generating some serious heat, but the snow is helping us cool off. We remain around the riverbank, while most of the enemy unit has clustered to the right. The Vulcan and Commando laser the riverbed Saracen, slowing him down. We also blow out some tires and damage tracks here or there, but nothing significant.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We need to start making some dents in the enemy force, otherwise we'll be fighting these guys *and* the reinforcements in a bit. The Griffin delivers, punching a hole through the Saracen's rear armor and destroying the engine. No, that's not a metaphor, he literally punches the tank with his fist. The Quickdraw's lasers also ding the Hunter tank, stunning the crew for a round.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
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We advance a little to the east, so we can envelop the enemy unit. The Phoenix Hawk immobilizes an LRM-equipped scorpion. Unfortunately, our allied Commando loses his large laser to an AC/2 shot, turning him from a threat to mildly useless. Our game of vehicle soccer is extremely productive though, with the Quickdraw "kicking off" his target Scorpion's AC/5 and machinegun ammo (to the point where he has to quickly pull his leg back to avoid it getting blown off), the Griffin crunching through a Vedette's armor and engine, and the Phoenix Hawk doing the same to the already beat-up Hunter. So that's about half the enemy force gone. The coms crackle: "We're getting pasted overe here, we need backup now! Now, dammit, now!"

Round 6:
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In his panicked retreat, the enemy Scimitar hovertank pilot forgets about the local gravity and hits the gas a little too hard. The front of his vehicle plows the dirt and you can just about see little pieces of internal structure coming off as the vehicle shudders to a halt. The allied Commando proves himself to be no slouch, using his medium laser to core the engine on a Vedette that wasn't quite quick enough to retreat. We let the J.Edgar go for now and look to cool off our mechs and set up so we can engage the incoming enemy reinforcements.

Round 7:
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Based on all the loose mech arms and legs lying around in the open field north of our mechs, it appears that somebody's had a fight here a little while ago and didn't finish off salvage operations.

Round 8:
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The enemy reinforcements arrive, in loose formation. "Just remember, we only need to keep them busy for a little bit." Once they get in range, we'll advance to the forest line to the north of us, pelt them a little bit then pull back across the river and retreat.

Round 9:
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Contact! Enemy units enter long range and open fire, as do we. I presume there was some kind of miscommunication and maybe somebody said "shoot the dirt" or "shoot the sky", because nobody hits anything.

Round 10:
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Two of the enemy tanks take shelter behind a rock outrcropping, a sound tactical move as they wait for the rest of their buddies to catch up. We inflict some damage on the other incoming tanks with long-range weapons fire.

Round 11:
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The enemy Pegasus zips up to our Quickdraw, but when the gunner goes to fire the weapons, his console lights up with a "TROLOLOL" as some pissed off tech appears to have disconnected all his weapons from the cockpit controls. The Quickdraw helps him out of his predicament by planting a foot in the left side, knocking the crew around. Other than that though, yep, we've gotten ourselves flanked. Even the J.Edgar comes back for more. We pound an enemy Vedette, blasting off wheels and treads, knocking it out of the fight.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
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With that, it's time to pull back. I have my units all jump back behind the ridge to the south. The bad guys pursue for now, although I wish their tanks the best of luck crossing that river. We plow firepower into one of the Vedettes cresting the ridge, and are rewarded with a "piff" as the vehicle slowly slides down the hill, leaving engine parts behind. To add insult to injury, the allied Commando knocks the main gun off the turret.

Round 13:
"Command to Alpha Lance, we've begun the dropship assault. Disengage and await further orders." We pull back just as the enemy Hunchback closes to range, no doubt disappointing him immensely. The enemy Griffin gets a solid LRM/10 lock on the allied Commando and perforates his center torso, inflicting two engine crits.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
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We jump back across the river. The enemy force does not seem too eager to follow (seeing as how it'd just be the Griffin, a damaged J.Edgar and a pranked Pegasus tank with no guns against four fully functional mechs). We and the enemy force both deliver a symbolic parting salvo and disengage.

Mission accomplished. Even though we only actually destroyed two enemy units, we disabled six more and kept two additional enemy lances engaged long enough that they will not be able to interfere in the ongoing dropship assault. Sorry guys, no payback for you. Elsewhere, allied air assets have engaged their enemy counterparts, so we should have clear skies for the main assault.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

August 1st, 3026
Spaceport

Our target is a Draconis Combine Triumph dropship that has just landed at a nearby spaceport to refuel. This 8600 ton monstrosity packs multiple instances of just about every weapon in today's arsenal. The sole mission objective is to destroy it.

In addition to the three attached units, our allies have committed a mixed mech/vehicle lance, for a total of five mechs and four vehicles. It's mostly light and medium units though, with a heavy thrown in. In other words, we'll be doing the heavy lifting. That's fine, this is what we're getting paid for.

Alpha lance's previous reports indicate that the garrison consists of a mixed heavy mech/vehicle lance and a pair of light vehicle lances, as well as some static defenses, with an additional two mixed mech/vehicle lances on patrol around the spaceport, which we can expect to show up pretty quickly once the party starts. Thanks to their diversionary attack, there will be no reinforcements coming from other facilities.

Unfortunately, they see us coming and begin powering up weapons and engines as soon as we get there. We'll be deploying on the eastern edge, while a screening enemy force deploys in the center. We have ten turns to destroy the dropship before it takes off and leaves us in the dust. Well, snow.
Spoiler:
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Anyway, our lance shows up on the western edge of the map. There's a pretty large Drac force mustered at the spaceport, but we should have local fire superiority for now. That dropship's guns are a concern though, as they're facing towards us and there's not really any way to get behind him to a weaker spot.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
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Us and the allied force advance. The DCMS mostly stays in their raised fortification. Weapons fire is pretty ineffective, with only El Guapo landing a couple of minor hits on an enemy Crusader.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
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We continue closing with the dropship, as the DCMS units are mostly irrelevant. In our way are a Manticore and three light vehicles. Up top, an enemy Archer pilot gets a little enthusiastic and skids on the pavement, falling over. LordMortis salutes the pilot's skill with a couple of medium lasers (the AC/20 shot whiffed due to gravity). Gbasden tests out his new PPC on the enemy Manticore, knocking out the turret stabilizer. Our Spider and the enemy Pegasus exchange some fire, with the Pegasus coming out a little worse for wear. The Spider pilot also delivers a kick to the Manticore's treads, knocking a little bit off. The enemy Skulker displays some impressive evasive driving, dodging at least three PPCs and a few LRM salvos.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
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The Skulker manages to confuse El Guapo's southern squad a little bit and get them spread out. The rest of our units are now all over the tarmac and firing on the dropship. The dropship fires back, inflicting some damage on Gbasden, our Valkyrie and Spider. Gbasden gets knocked down, the Spider loses an arm. Zenn7 takes the time to train his PPCs on a nearby building housing a laser turret, reducing that building section to rubble. Freyland and the Manticore exchange fire, with Freyland's lasers and SRMs knocking all the treads off one side. The Manticore returns the favor with all its weapons, and a lucky SRM finds its way to the head. Armor holds, but Freyland is knocked around and blacks out for a minute. The mech remains standing. Then, an allied Scorpion tank gets an LRM through one of the holes opened up by Freyland, and the Manticore's ammo stores go up. LordMortis finds himself targeting an enemy Pegasus, and is just about to draw a good bead on it when that stupid little Skulker dings him in the head with a laser, throwing his aim off. He'll be nursing that shiner for a little bit, but he still manages to laser half the skirt off the Pegasus and it grinds into the dirt. He also demonstrates his displeasure with the Skulker by kicking it. It manages to stay upright, but one of the wheels is wobbling.

The spider barely even notices the loss of the arm, as she appears to have blundered into a lance of activating mechs! "Cold start! Light mech lance powering up in the berm next to the dropship!"

Round 4:
Spoiler:
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Despite the hostile mech powerup, we need to continue firing on the enemy dropship and take it out ASAP. The DCMS Von Luckner trundles out of their fortification. Its main feature is the AC/20, backed up by a large number of SRM launchers. Archinerd gets around the side of the dropship, where he's safe from its counterfire. One of the just-activated enemy hovercraft attempts to go over a curb a little too fast, and crunches its underside on it, nearly falling apart. Freyland, having the worst of luck, remains unconscious.

To the south, the allied Archer disables an enemy Bulldog. Freyland's mech takes a pounding and falls over, losing the LRM/15 launcher. LordMortis and our Centurion nail the Von Luckner with their AC/20s, and El Guapo finishes the job with his boot. The allied Wasp kicks the disabled tank once again for spite, causing it to fall apart completely.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
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Freyland finally wakes up and retreats into the woods to the northwest to regroup. We continue to pile mechs into the dropship's blind spot, as it's really giving our armor a workout on the tarmac. The Skulker that's been hounding LordMortis gives up, although he still has company in the form of a Galleon tank and a Wasp.

The allied Archer continues cleaning up in the south, destroying a Scorpion light tank with his lasers and SRM/4s. He takes a lot of return fire though, falling over and passing out. He's kind of screwed. An allied J.Edgar slinks around the back of an enemy Crusader and punctures the rear torso armor, hitting the ammo bin. Unfortunately, the mech had already fired all his LRMs, so we have a rare situation of a mech surviving an ammo bin hit. The brave little hovertank pays for it, taking a number of SRMs to the outside, making it stick to the ground instead of hovering above. The Dracs also disable an allied AC/2 Vedette, which is, frankly, not a big loss.

The good part about this round is that we've inflicted significant damage on the dropship, and that right wing is looking pretty sad.

Aaand that's when the shit hits the fan.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
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The enemy patrol lance shows up. Now we get to play "hide and seek" around the dropship. The good news: our air support finally shows up. We've got about eight mechs surrounding and pounding the dropship, so I think we'll be able to destroy it this or next round. The poor bastard can't even fire back, for the most part. He's still got plenty of targets to go around and punctures the armor on the allied Vulcan, knocking him over, an allied Vedette, and inflicts some damage on our Centurion. Gbasden takes some serious damage from the nearby Jenner, losing a hand actuator. Zenn7's left torso armor is completely stripped away by the Thunderbolt. However, we do an excellent job focusing fire and kicks on the dropship - the right side armor barely holds (one point left!). Any more, and we'll be talking about internal structure, of which the dropship has very little.

Elsewhere, an allied Wasp loses the left torso and arm to laser and machinegun fire from an enemy Locust and Freyland's Thunderbolt holds its own against some enemy light mechs and vehicles. Our Spider immovilizes the nearby enemy Vedette, reducing the amount of firepower coming at us by a little bit.

Round 7
Spoiler:
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I'm reasonably sure we win this round, but I'm going to go for overkill and shoot that dropship like nobody's business. Zenn7 gets his left torso almost destroyed, but him and El Guapo focus on the Jenner, knocking its arm off. Archinerd scores the finishing blow on the Triumph, although the thing was kind of a flaming wreck before. Before the engines sputter out, all systems fail catastrophically and the crew starts piling out, it inflicts severe damage on the allied Vulcan that wanders in front of its guns, knocking off the right torso and supplying multiple armor breaches, and also delivers some more non-threatening damage to gbasden's mech. The enemy Thunderbolt puts up a heroic effort and knocks Zenn7's mech down with a kick, but at this point, it's over. The dropship has been destroyed. The remaining DCMS forces lay down their arms and allow us to leave the field when we signal our intention to do so.

With that, Operation Crimson Summer comes to an early end after only two months instead of five. Or does it?

Due to ongoing interstellar hostilities, our employer invokes the emergency clause and extends our contract for one month. We are to continue reconaissance and raiding operations. Our main battle lance is going to be in the hangar bay unless it's absolutely necessary to make it otherwise - we're missing actuators and weapons. The greatest danger in the next two weeks comes from one of the techs dropping a spanner into a Panther's mech gyro, damaging it beyond repair. Some jackass also irreversibly damages the internal structure on Scrub's Vulcan. Thanks a lot jerks, we really need our own techs trying to destroy our mechs in addition to the DCMS.
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AWS260
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote:The greatest danger in the next two weeks comes from one of the techs dropping a spanner into a Panther's mech gyro, damaging it beyond repair. Some jackass also irreversibly damages the internal structure on Scrub's Vulcan. Thanks a lot jerks, we really need our own techs trying to destroy our mechs in addition to the DCMS.
Deploy those techs in the field!

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Archinerd »

Zenn may have the most kills but I have the biggest, I killed a Dropship! :horse:
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LordMortis
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Archinerd wrote:Zenn may have the most kills but I have the biggest, I killed a Dropship! :horse:
I got in the game! And that's while on a training!
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