Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Isgrimnur]

Of course.

[Madmarcus]

As a Wolverine pilot I should take piloting but 3 is good enough and guns are more fun.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Sure

[gbasden]

You bet!

[NickAragua]

HPG Raid Mission begins!

[NickAragua]

To make a long story short, we got our clocks cleaned *and* pissed off Comstar to the point where they put an interdiction on the planet (word has it that the interdiction has since been lifted). Isgrimnur discovered a love of swimming, while El Guapo was unable to lift the Stalker curse - I still don't think we've had a single mission where we fielded a Stalker and it didn't get completely blown up or badly mauled.

Setup
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4
Turn 5
Turn 6
Turn 7
Turn 8
Turn 9
Turn 10
Turn 11

After that mess, the Stalker and Gbasden's Awesome are pretty beat up. The techs can fix the damage, but we're missing a large laser for the Stalker and a PPC for the Awesome. The mechwarriors themselves are mostly uninjured, except for Isgrimnur, who caught some superheated glass chunks with his forearm after a laser hit to the Vindicator's head. He'll be fine.

The next two months are spent diligently avoiding any contact with the enemy. We maintain perimeter patrols, but no Kurita forces come close. On August 21st, we pack everything up and load up into the dropships. The captured Kurita personnel are released right before we burn for orbit. The five day flight to the jump point is incredibly boring, but people make do. Some play networked tank hunt, others fire up their CAD software to optimize mechs. Lt. Scrub and the liaison more or less never come out of their quarters.

Current roster:

Spoiler:

A few of the tech team leaders inform the command staff that they'll be retiring once we get to Outreach. Despite our success, this last contract really took a lot out of our people, so we'll be settling in for a pretty lengthy R&R period.

Out of the twelve founding members of the company, only three remain: Gbasden, Lt. Scrub and Zenn7. Of the rest, one went missing in action, three have been killed, and the rest have left the company, taking on a retainer contract with the Free Worlds League.

Our oldest is Archinerd, while the youngest is Xwraith Mk II, at 22 years old. Most of the others are in their late 20s or early 30s. Zenn7 still sits on top of the kill board, with 122 kills.

When we get to the jump ship, there's a great sigh of relief, as people download the latest episodes of "The Seven Grand Dragons" and "Solaris Battle Arena: Undercover". Or whatever else. The travel to Outreach takes six jumps over about two months. Once we land, we conclude our remaining transactions with the Lyran Commonwealth, and (once again) apologize to the Star Guards for shooting their guys up. They don't seem to hold it against us. Too much. The liaison and Lt. Scrub have a "momemnt" on the dropship ramp, then he departs, both him and Lt. Scrub looking like somebody kicked their dog. "I'm fine", she says when asked, but people still endeavor to keep out of her way, especially when she stomps the Warhammer out of the hangar bay and to our planet-side mech bays.

The local Dragoons rep informs us that we've achieved the coveted A rating. On the one hand, that's fantastic. We get access to the Dragoons factories when we need spare parts, and we'll be able to wrangle up better contracts and terms. We'll also be able to carry out "Factory" class refits. On the other hand, since we're considered "pretty damn good", it means we're more likely to get tossed into the meat grinder.

El Guapo finally gets his Marauder. The Hatchetman is up for grabs (I believe Stefan wanted it?), as is the Archer (Xwraith, want another shot?).

Spoiler:

This is our current mech roster - the grayed out ones are mothballed, the yellow ones need repairs. Being mothballed doesn't preclude a mech from needing repairs, it just means that we don't have to have a tech do up to an hour of maintenance on it each day. We're currently fielding sixteen mechs, but can actually equip a little over a battallion's worth (41!).

The command staff considers launching a recruitment drive to bring our mechwarrior count up, so we can actually field that battallion. This will mean a crap ton more money coming in as the great houses trip over each other to offer us contracts. Well, maybe not, but we can accomplish a lot more with a battallion than we can with a reinforced company.

[I'll probably keep the OO folks together and focus the battle reports on the fights containing OO members].

Otherwise, I'll probably unload most of the spare mechs and we'll buy a Mule so we don't have to rely on employers for transport (other than for jumpships, but even the lowly Scout costs 390M).

We could probably do both, but that'd put our funds at a very low level, which I'm not comfortable with.

So, what do you guys think? Grow the company or buy a Mule?

[Isgrimnur]

I notice that we've stopped posting salaries.

[LordMortis]

The name Battalion sounds real nice but I think I like the freedom of having our own transport. Let's get a jumpship. How much could one seriously cost?

[El Guapo]

Sweet! How long until the techs can weld axes to the Marauder's hands/ arms?

Didn't we get our own transport at the end of the last campaign? Or is the mule something else?

Also, I'm pretty sure if you ask, Hepcat will be happy to be a mule.

[gbasden]

I like the idea of the mule.

[NickAragua]

A jumpship is way beyond our price range right now (by a factor of about 2 for the lowly Scout, which only carries one dropship). What we really want is an Invader or something, but those are in the 700M+ range. Our bank account is at ~150M right now.

A Mule is a cargo dropship with a sweet, cavernous ~7000 tons of space. We have a Union, which is great for carrying around mechs and executing combat insertions, but we still have to rent cargo capacity or rely on the employer to ferry our support staff and spare parts, and to store salvage and spare mechs. With a Mule, we wouldn't have to do that, which substantially reduces our transport costs and increases our ability to get paid. And also means the employer is less likely to try to jack us up and take our stuff.

By contrast, having a battalion's worth of mechs will also greatly increase the amount of money we get from contracts, so we'll be able to rustle up spacecraft a little more easily in the long run.

Salaries haven't changed since the last time they were posted. Each share paid about 83k in dividends for this contract, though. If we grow the company, we'll have to restructure our payment system, since I doubt anybody wants to take a 50% pay cut.

[Isgrimnur]

Mule before expansion. I want to lord it over the new guys how lucky they are that they get all the toys from the start.

[xwraith]

The Archer is tempting, but I feel that the T-bolt turned out to be a real good fit. I think my char would want to stick with what worked.

[NickAragua]

Once on Outreach, repair and refit operations proceed incredibly quickly. With access to the Dragoons' factory facilities, our techs are able to get everything done in very short order.

Some noteable sales that we've made:

Brutus Assault Tank (PPC variant, minus PPCs and armor): 1.18M c-bills
Stinger STG-3G (minus armor and heat sinks): 729K c-bills
Flea FLE-4F (minus armor, heat sinks and large laser): 809K c-bills
Griffin 1N (minus armor, jump jet, left arm): 3.3M c-bills
Griffin 1N (minus armor, left leg, two actuators on the left arm): 2.1M c-bills

We find the Mule pretty quickly. Instead of selling off a bunch of good mechs, we opt to take out a loan to bring our funds to sufficient levels to buy the dropship, then set about seeing if we can hook up a contract, since we need the money. The Lyran Commonwealth was impressed by our performance on the last few, so their local rep offers us a few options. We discard the yet another raid, as I've had just about enough of those. That leaves us with the following option:

Relief Duty contract
6 month duration
Location: Menkalinan IV
Green/D allies
Green/C enemies
Liaison command rights
100% transport coverage
30% salvage rights
100% battle loss compensation
134M c-bills pay

From what we find out, Menkalinan is a system that's interesting primarily to a) astronomers and b) mining prospectors. There's a healthy number of rocky worlds in the inner system, where raw materials are extracted, then shipped over to processing plants on planet #4. #4 isn't the greatest vacation spot. It's about .8G, with no atmosphere. On the plus side, it's pretty far from the star, at a nice and comfy 2.56 AU, so the average surface temperature is 17 degrees celsius. On the lit-up side. Surprisingly enough, 40% of the surface is covered with water. The planet has a 23 hour day, which isn't too bad, but the temperature drops to below -50C on the night side. Not cool. Well, actually, it is pretty cool. All the water turns to ice, and it's really kind of neat, if you were watching it on TV from the comfort of your living room several light years away. But anyway.

So, why would somebody a) launch a planetary invasion here, then b) hire mercenaries to help bail the invaders out when they get bogged down?

Well, the Steiner rep begins extolling the virtues and quality of the armor and structural components made at these factories, and how it's really a good chance to stick one in Marik's craw. He's full of crap, but the money's pretty good and we don't really care.

On paper, this looks pretty good. Basically, we'll be fighting on a low G airless iceball, where the vacuum atmosphere means no tanks or infantry, so the opfor will be almost entirely mechs. Good ones. Piloted by crappy Marik pilots. So it'll be a turkey shoot, with decent salvage, and a free ride on a Lyran jumpship. Just, uh, don't eject from your mech. Or have a cockpit breach. Lack of atmosphere means none of this annoying "inclement weather" BS, but also means we'll be stuck in our dropships or in a dome unless on mission. We just got off a low G world, so we're pretty used to how it works and can push our mechs harder if we need to. The pay is pretty good too. Salvage is a little low, but that just means we'll have to be picky with what we take, and bring plenty of spare armor and parts with us.

Alternately, we can spend another month looking around for something a little lower stress, like garrison duty or babysitting... er... cadre duty. Liquid assets are pretty low after buying that Mule though, so we should be wary of sitting around too long.

[Isgrimnur]

Can we buy hard vacuum Mech pilot suits?

[Cylus Maxii]

Negotiate better salvage (say 50+%) and take it.

[LordMortis]

apologize to the Star Guards for shooting their guys up.

The Lyran Commonwealth was impressed by our performance

Something is beginning to smell... off...

[NickAragua]

The 12th Star Guards are technically a mercenary unit, and we only had the one friendly fire incident, and the liaison totally took responsibility for it.

We actually *did* attempt to negotiate better salvage, but the Steiner rep was pretty adamant about it (three identical 2d6 rolls in a row, then I ran out of rerolls!). However, we did talk him into a 10% signing bonus, in addition to a 25% advance payment. 30% should be enough to allow us to grab the good mechs, and since we've got the Mule, we can bring enough supplies to last us the whole six months.

[El Guapo]

Yeah, this mission sounds pretty interesting. Let's go for it.

[Hyena]

Man, what did I do to piss off the brass around here? 43 kills and still a private?

And yes, I say we go for it. Are we able to fix all the mechs up, or am I gonna stick with my Wolverine?

[gbasden]

Agreed. Money in the bank is a good thing.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Agreed. I heard flames in vacuum are pretty

[NickAragua]

We inform the Steiner rep that we'll take the contract. Departure date is October 31st, with about two months of R&R. It's enough. Our guys were starting to get a little stir crazy, and the munitions/fuel bills for training exercises (oh god, the fuel bills) were starting to mount up.

As an aside, the command staff would like to remind people to be wary of scam mech listings on "Craig's Mech List". The capability to manufacture ferro-fibrous armor has been lost for the last two hundred plus years, so which scenario is more likely: "CJimmyB123" has really acquired a second-hand mech made with long lost Star League technology, or that he's trying to sell you a cardboard cutout?

[We've been seeing units mounting lostech in the black market. It's tempting, but they're a) on the lighter side and b) the black market has about a 33% chance of you actually getting a mech. Not worth it, as the improvement is somewhat marginal on the units we're seeing. The consumables, such as ferro-fibrous armor and NARC pods/compatible ammo aren't exactly easy to find at the corner store, while MASC provides only a marginal improvement to mech mobility.]

With the Mule, our transport costs are amazingly low. Each jump only costs about 200k C-Bills, as opposed to up to a million before!

With over 6000 tons of unused cargo capacity, we can actually offer to transport cargo as well. The way things are set up now, food goes in (dome-interior hydroponic gardens notwithstanding) while manufactured goods go out. Our admin guys manage to fill about 60% of the cargo space for a cool 386k c-bills. Well, every little bit helps. With the advance payment, we pay off the loan we took out to buy the mule, and still have 44M left in the piggy bank. With mechs mothballed or on the Union and cargo in the aby, we burn for the zenith jump point to rendezvous with the Invader-class jumpship.

Of course, the profit we make on carrying extra cargo in the mule evaporates when we have to offer a bonus to Dr. Minnie so that she doesn't run off with the backup doc right before the dropship lift off.

Spoiler:

It's a short couple of hops, the whole journey taking less than a month.

Orbital approach is somewhat disorganized, with Marik fighters buzzing us, but we're escorted in by Lyran aerospace fighters and land just outside Moran Dome. As it turns out we get almost a whole week to activate our mechs and get settled before we get our first orders, and Operation Brutal Hydra begins in earnest.

November 26, 3032
Our liaison informs us that our employers need us to capture an enemy mech base. We assign Beta, our heavy metal, to the task. We're looking at a reinforced company of sixteen mechs, plus four gun emplacements whose buildings we can't destroy. Four on one odds don't sound so hot, even against the scrubs driving these mechs, so we send in Gamma lance for backup.

Beta is Zenn7 and Zarathud driving Awesomes, LordMortis driving a Hunchback and Pvt. Rogers driving her Blackjack. Gamma is Lt. Scrub in the Warhammer, Xwraith in the Thunderbolt, Hyena in the Striker and Cylus Maxii in the Phoenix Hawk. The liaison is one Lt. Maryou Vega driving a Dervish 6M. Unlike Archinerd, she's a crappy shot though. Well, she's not bad, but she's no Archinerd.

The operation takes place during the daytime, so the water in the area is in liquid form, great for our Awesomes to take a dunk in and cool off if necessary.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The enemy mechs see us coming and power up when we get there, with a Wolverine leading the charge. Most of our weapons fire hits the building it jumps onto, rather than the mech itself (we try to collapse it but fail). We do score a single AC/2 hit on the center torso. Break out the party hats!

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A puff of debris from within the base indicates that somebody misjudged the sturdiness of a building. LordMortis runs up to the building complex and opens fire on a Wolverine perched up on a hangar close to the edge of the complex. He takes a medium laser to the left torso, but the armor holds up. The Wolverine's left torso, however, does not withstand the pounding from an AC/20. The armor peels off entirely, and the mech's left torso section freezes up entirely. The Wolverine's pilot is unable to keep his mech upright through the salvo and falls over.

For those who haven't seen it before, fighting in a vacuum carries some additional risks. If your armor is hit, there's a chance that the shot is a breach, which means that entire section of the mech is disabled. Following that, if the armor is stripped entirely, the entire section of the mech is disabled. Apparently myomer bundles don't work too well in a vacuum.

Speaking of which, Zenn7 takes the arm off a Locust that decided to run out of the north end of the complex. After taking the PPC shot, the "arm" (it's really more of a mount for a pair of lasers) goes limp and throws sparks, which also travel to the left torso. Doh!

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The damaged Locust goes to charge our mechs, but trips while trying to hop over a water-filled crater and falls on its back. The rear armor on a Locust isn't exactly the sturdiest thing, so it's not too surprising as our Awesome pilots watch a puff of air escape from the little mech. Then it stops moving.

The enemy mechs rally on their damaged buddy, forcing LordMortis to back up a little, so that our Awesomes can support him. He eats a laser and an AC/5, but his trusty armor holds. He retaliates against the offender by taking its already limp right arm off with the AC/20, followed up by a quick slice from a medium laser.

Zarathud blasts away with PPCs at a building underneath a different Wolverine - the building suddenly stops being able to support a 55 ton mech and collapses. Zenn7 blasts away at a third Wolverine, plowing PPCs into the right torso and left leg, inflicting heavy damage.

Our Blackjack opens up on a Firestarter from long range with AC/2s, one causing a breach on the left torso. Even our liaison gets in on the party, scoring a single laser hit (out of four shots) at LordMortis' target.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

LordMortis pulls back briefly as there's a bee-hive of activity brewing. LRMs and light autocannon rounds are exchanged at long range, while the Awesomes and LordMortis continue hammering on the damaged Wolverines and Firestarter.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Wolverine that LordMortis was working on gets up and tries to run away, but misjudges the sturdiness of a nearby building and flops down through the roof, bringing the whole structure down. No further signs of movement.

Zenn7 fires at a limping enemy Wolverine, blasting it in the head. The armor comes apart, and the cockpit is breached. The poor scrub of a mechwarrior inside never has a chance.

LordMortis slams his fist on the control panel as the obnoxious little Spider jumps in front of him and disables his AC/20. Not even with a direct hit, just enough laser fire into the right torso armor that the vacuum seal is broken. He does manage to strip the armor off the Spider's right arm, but that's an unfortunate loss of firepower. He delivers a nasty boot to the Spider's right leg, and all its actuators freeze, forcing the mech to bounce off the ground before rolling to a halt.

The Blackjack breaches armor on a Wasp's left leg and right arm, causing those limbs to seize up, and the mech to fall over.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 order LordMortis to pull back. Without the AC/20 or a medium laser, the Hunchback isn't really able to deliver meaningful damage, and there's no reason to get it shot up. The enemy Spider is unable to get up, while the Wasp miraculously struggles to its feet, limping on one leg. The Awesomes provide covering fire, but most of our shots miss, except a couple of AC/2 plinks.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 is on fire with the head shots today. Because a PPC will strip armor from just about any head, the vacuum makes headshots from these highly lethal. Thus, when a PPC shot connects with the head of a Griffin that's been skulking around, sniping at us, the enemy mech drops to the ground almost instantly. An enemy Hermes comes charging out and connects with an AC/5 to Zarathud's left arm, but then gets perforated by laser fire from LordMortis, our Blackjack and the liaison. The center torso section is breached. The gyro stops spinning and the fusion engine initiates safety shutdown, stopping the mech in its tracks.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Gamma lance arrives to the east. It seems like their presence isn't strictly necessary, but you never know. The enemy Spider and Wasp run for it. Well, limp for it. And fall over.

Our Blackjack trades fire with the enemy Blackjack and Firestarter. Between shots from Zenn7's PPCs and laser fire from the liaison, the enemy mech has to take a knee, and its right autocannon goes limp. However, our Blackjack takes a breaching shot to the right leg and drops to the ground.

Zarathud detonates the offending Firestarter, lighting off the machine gun ammo. Probably in the right torso, but it'll be kind of hard to tell without a detailed examination of cockpit sensor logs.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Gamma lance gets into it, engaging a Hunchback and a Locust, while a Hermes hides behind a building. Zarathud and Zenn7 pound the downed enemy Blackjack as it gets up, along with our Blackjack and liaison, annihilating the mech entirely. Unlike most of the rest of the mechs here, this one is basically good only for spare parts.

Cylus Maxii runs over and engages the enemy Locust, shrugging off a machine gun burst to the right leg, then sawing the left arm off the smaller mech with the large laser. A pair of mediums to the left leg strips armor and lets all the air out, seizing the actuators there and sending it to the ground. Delivers a curb stomp for good measure. The Locust struggles for a bit, then some more air escapes from the center torso and it stops moving.

Xwraith and the Hunchback trade lasers and LRMs, neither coming out ahead.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

A leg breach isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The leg still has structural integrity, so it can be used as a kind of crutch. So, the Blackjack limps backwards after getting up. The remaining enemy mechs appear to be mounting an organized retreat. Well, if they cease fire, we'll let them go.

Lt. Scrub pushes her mech's actuators to climb up to a building and get a rear shot on the retreating enemy Hunchback. Cylus Maxii goes to run over a bridge, trying to get into a Hermes' rear arc. However, the bridge appears to have been built by the lowest bidder and collapses. The Phoenix Hawk is fast and nimble enough though, and almost gets where it was trying to go.

The Hunchback takes seven PPC shots and is fine (other than the melted armor and destroyed weaponry), then a medium laser from the Warhammer punches through the weakend armor on the rear of the mech, hitting the AC/20 ammo. Explosions look a little bit different in a vacuum than they do in an atmosphere, that's for sure.

Cylus Maxii and Hyena fire at the remaining Hermes, with Hyena's PPC taking off the right arm.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The remaining enemy mechs (a pair of Griffins, a Trebuchet and the Hermes) break east. We let them go, we have plenty of salvage to sort through, here.

We pick out a pair of Wolverines for salvage - a 6M and a 6R. We'll be able to get them back in working order pretty shortly, which will help us when growing our company going forward.

So, two decision points:
1) An allied force broadcasts a general call for reinforcements - they're in pursuit of retreating enemy units, but need assistance. Our liaison informs us that this is not considered a part of the contract requirements. It'll be a risky fight. Meanwhile, ignoring these guys means some of them will stick around and mess with us on future missions. Fight or let them go?

2) Do we want to risk 1.8M c-bills for a chance at a MASC system? Well, it's technically mounted in a Mercury mech, but it's a little piece of crap 20-ton mech, so we'd take it out, re-sell the Mercury (after stripping the MASC and ferro-fibrous armor) and mount it on one of our mechs. The good part: it allows a mech to "run" at 2x walk speed (as opposed to the normal 1.5x). The bad part: you roll a 2d6 each time you use it, and on a 2 you take internal leg damage. The other problem is that there's a 33% chance we lose the money outright, and a 33% chance we don't get the mech (but keep our money). I still say Craig's Mech List isn't the most reliable site, but, if you guys think it's worth it we'll give it a shot.

[Freyland]

Are we running any 20 ton mechs? Please don't tell me the game will let you somehow peel those systems out of a 20 ton merch and put them into a Warhammer.
I would pass on the extra mission. Too many chances for crippling our forces or losing MechWarriors to the environmental risks.

[NickAragua]

Are we running any 20 ton mechs? Please don't tell me the game will let you somehow peel those systems out of a 20 ton merch and put them into a Warhammer.

You bring up a good point. Looking at the rules, MASC systems can only be moved around between mechs with identical mass and engine rating. So, uh, one of our techs smacks the mechwarrior with that idea upside the head and calls him a moron, and we table the idea.

[LordMortis]

For those who haven't seen it before, fighting in a vacuum carries some additional risks.

Raises hand. I did not know that.

[Isgrimnur]

Sarna

When the Lyrans introduced the Hatchetman in 3023, it carried the Full-Head Ejection System
...
A Full-Head Ejection System costs 1,725,000 C-Bills.

[NickAragua]

Heh, well, we've got exactly one Hatchetman. If you want to swap out your Vindicator for it...

[Isgrimnur]

If it's got the FHES, I might be tempted until we get off this airless swamp.

[El Guapo]

As for the mission, risky + non-mandatory would seem to add up to a pass.

[gbasden]

As for the mission, risky + non-mandatory would seem to add up to a pass.

But if they come back to reinforce on other missions, that makes many of the rest of our missions riskier, right? I'd say go after them while they are on the run already.

[El Guapo]

As for the mission, risky + non-mandatory would seem to add up to a pass.

But if they come back to reinforce on other missions, that makes many of the rest of our missions riskier, right? I'd say go after them while they are on the run already.

I guess it depends upon what else we would be doing if we didn't take on this assignment. IF we would just be sitting around watching Space Netflix, then maybe it's worth it to reduce the enemy while we can get some shots in. If we have another, better mission, that would be different.

Also I'm not clear how risky is meant by "risky".

[NickAragua]

Risky meaning a chaotic, running fight against probably two companies of mechs, with a lance of incompetent allies for help.

[NickAragua]

After a command staff meeting, we decide to ignore the general transmission, as we're not being paid to chase random enemy units.

Once Beta and Gamma return, repairs are carried out within the day. Four days for the more busted up of the salvaged mechs - the Wolverine 6M's right torso was completely wrecked, so we had to rebuild it from scratch. It's easy to see how a conflict on this rock would drag on for so long. In the last company-level action, only two mechs were actually destroyed - the rest simply went into hangars for repairs and are back out within the week, so the attrition rate for equipment is pretty low. The attrition rate for *mechwarriors* is actually higher (we killed two by explosive decompression), but, let's be honest, those guys are a dime a dozen. At least the wet-behind-the-ears academy rookies both sides are using around here.

The Mariks forces blockade the standard jump points, limiting off-world shipments. So, no more off-world parts shipments, we'll have to make do with what we've got. So, we sit for a couple of weeks.

December 14, 3032
We deploy Delta lance to locate, intercept and destroy (or capture, if possible) an enemy supply convoy, to help alleviate supply shortages caused by the enemy blockade. Our liaison will tag along, so she'll get to see how a real Dervish pilot works. Delta watches the convoy for a while, then stages an interception near (what we hope is) a set of abandoned habitats.

Delta: Archinerd in the Dervish, Madmarcus in the Wolverine, Paingod in the Griffin, Freyland in the Quickdraw. Liaison's still in her Dervish. The convoy escort is a bunch of light mechs, with a few mediums thrown in for good measure. Phoenix Hawks, Swaybacks and a Wolverine. The convoy itself is an unremarkable four industrial mechs, hauling large cargo containers. Ideally, we'll disable them without destroying the cargo. Given Delta's expertise in fast attacks, and our range advantage over the opfor, we should be able to handle this ourselves.

We power up once the convoy gets within range of the town and move in. We wouldn't have been able to really ambush them anyway, they've got two Ostscouts. They are advancing in a very wide formation, so we'll need to split up a little to get at the convoy units.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Paingod fires LRMs at one of the convoy vehicles, a Harvester ant. The damage is minimal, but the integrity on one of the four legs is compromised, and the leg seizes up. The four-legged mech plops down a little bit, and sputters out. It's not quite disabled, but at least it won't be getting away for a little while.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

An enemy Ostscout gets in behind Paingod, which could be unpleasant. The Ostscout whiffs with its laser, while Paingod scores a PPC hit on a Firestarter up ahead, then dodges a kick and throws a punch on the recon mech's left torso, smashing some armor but not causing a breach.

Freyland moves up to intercept a Powerman trying to make a run for it. He hits with every shot, causing armor breaches on both arms, which is great but not very useful. Archinerd takes down a Powerman loadermech, breaking through the pretty weak center torso armor with LRMs, and pretty much obliterating the engine, while dinging the gyro.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Most of the enemy units congregate around the dome cluster. The Haulermech to the south takes a large laser hit to the arm from Madmarcus, while Freyland fires on the Ostscout harassing Paingod. He whiffs the Ostscout, but does score some LRM hits on the Harvester Ant, which had restarted its engine and gotten up, disabling a second leg. Paingod sees an Ostscout mount a nearby warehouse-looking building, so he fires everything he's got into the building. The structure is weakened enough that it's unable to hold the Ostscout up, and the mech tumbles inside in a cloud of debris. Archinerd and the liaison pour LRMs into the Powermech as well, severely damaging a leg. Luckily, the Marik mechs are terrible shots, so the only damage we take is when the annoying Ostscout kicks Paingod's leg. Armor holds, though.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Freyland and Paingod are getting a little bit swarmed, so they back up to the east. Freyland takes the time to put a solid laser shot on the Powerman's right leg, breaching it, and the pilot is unable to remain upright. He takes a kick from a Paingod has to take a few seconds to cool off, as his mech is a sauna after knocking down that Ostscout.

Madmarcus runs north to help out, disabling a Wasp en route - the large laser spears through the center torso armor, causing a large whoosh as it loses atmospheric integrity, and the mech collapses to the ground. Archinerd scores some LRM hits on a Phoenix Hawk harassing Madmarcus, but doesn't hit anything vital.

Over to the northwest, Paingod catches a brief glimps of the Harvester Ant trying and failing to get up. I think it'll be safe to say that he's not going to make it past us.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Somehow, that Harvester Ant gets up. The bastard's only got one working leg (the rest being frozen stiff), but he got up! Same for the Buster Haulermech to the south. For now, they're not going anywhere fast, so we're going to take some of the escorts out.

Madmarcus goes to zap the enemy Phoenix Hawk from behind, working its left side over with lasers and SRMs. The enemy mech turns around and fires weapons from its right arm back. A lucky hit gets through the center torso armor and vents the air there, disabling the mech entirely as the engine and gyro both initiate safety shutdown. Archinerd gets revenge on the Pixie, putting LRMs into the left leg, which goes stiff as the air leaks out, dropping the enemy mech to the ground. "Stay in there, we'll get you out when we're done!"

Freyland takes a hit from an enemy Wasp and an Ostscout, nearly blowing a Locust's arm off as he runs south, then disabling its left leg. For real, not just with an air leak.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The Mechwarrior in the Locust tries to get up, but fails catastrophically, as his machine gun ammo detonates. The poor bastard must have forgotten to disable his auto-ejection system, as he gets flung out of the exploding mech and starts gaping like a fish. An enemy Wolverine goes to pick him up. The Powerman that got knocked down by Freyland earlier loses the damaged leg trying to get up and gives it up as well, powering down.

Freyland backs up out of the forming beatdown and fires his medium lasers and SRMs at the Wolverine. Only one laser hits, but its enough to blow the air out of the left leg and send the mech down to the ground.

Paingod is still getting harassed by the Ostscout, which lands a hit on his rear torso armor. We need to take these little bastards out ASAP. He dances around a pair of kicks, holding his PPC fire to cool off, then throws a one-two punch at the nearby Wasp, ripping the armor off its right torso.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The Wolverine has some trouble getting up, and stops moving for a bit. Mech's still powered up, but the mechwarrior must have passed out. To the north, not that we can see it, but the Harvester Ant finally gives up after breaking its last leg open. That just leaves the Buster Haulermech to the south.

We concentrate around the south of the dome complex, doing our best to avoid the three enemy Hunchbacks. Paingod blows the right torso and arm right off an enemy Wasp with a PPC while dodging fire from the nearby Phoenix Hawk. Archinerd heats up his mech a bit to unload LRMs at a different Wasp, which disable its right arm and leg, then fire SRMs at the same Pixie, disarming it completely by breaching the right torso. The Wasp trips over its own seized-up leg and falls to the ground. Paingod caps the experience off by breaching the Pixie's right leg, so good luck to him getting up.

Freyland scores a couple of good hits on the Firestarter that lands behind him, but loses atmospheric integrity in his right torso, which takes out some of his weapons. The offending weapon is a flamer, of all things. He's down two lasers and the SRM rack.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The Phoenix Hawk pilot bails out (?), while both Paingod and Archinerd's target Wasps from last round begin to retreat, one limping off, the other zipping away.

An Ostscout continues harassing Paingod, hitting him in the left torso with a laser. He takes aim at a more distant Ostscout, blasting through its left torso armor with the PPC. On an Ostscout, the left torso has four of the jump jets, so that means it's going to be hopping around much less than before. The liaison goes to address the Buster Haulermech that's been slowly moving across the southern edge of the battlefield, firing its lone AC/5 at us. Well, good luck doing that without any leg actuators.

Unfortunately, Paingod takes a leg shot from the Ostscout, stripping off the armor, the vacuum disabling all his actuators. That's gonna be rough.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Buster Haulermech to the south has had enough, and the pilot powers down. The Wolverine keeps trying to get up but is unable to do so and knocks himself out again.

Despite limping, Paingod gets up to both feet and blasts the left arm off another approaching enemy Wasp with the PPC, while weathering the laser fire from the Ostscout. Archinerd avoids enemy fire and sticks it to an enemy Hermes, breaching its left leg and torso armor. The mechwarrior is unable to compensate for the sudden lack of leg actuators and stumbles to the ground, causing a large enough crack in the center torso armor that the air blows out and his mech shuts down.

Paingod's right leg barely holds together as the Ostscout keeps working on it.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Paingod backs up, pursued by the tenacious Ostscout. Unable to really target it, he targets a distant Phoenix Hawk instead with all his weapons, heating the mech up, but achieving a breach in the right leg and forcing the enemy mech to a knee. Archinerd blows the right arm off a Wasp with LRMs, while the liaison trades fire with the Firestarter, although both mechs' armor holds.

Paingod's right leg finally gives out and his mech collapses. Although, at least, he throws a punch at the Ostscout breaching the right torso.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

From the "thank Weisman for small favors" column, the Wasp that Archinerd targeted bugs out. The Firestarter and Ostscout converge on the downed Paingod, kicking and firing lasers as the rest of our mechs rally around him. As his left torso is breached, Paingod continues to focus on the enemy Phoenix Hawk with the PPC, scoring another hit. Freyland and Archinerd work on the Firestarter but are unable to breach armor.

Round 12:
Goddamn. One of the enemy Hunchbacks has closed in to weapons range. Even though it's just a Swayback, it's still gonna hurt. The Griffin takes a pounding, but survives. The Firestarter makes a small misstep and eats lasers, SRMs and LRMs from Freyland, Archinerd and the liaison. The combined firepower is scattered but is enough to cause a center torso breach, which "takes the wind out of the sails", so to speak.

The Ostscout delivers one last kick, then bugs out, opting not to fight three mechs by itself. The rest of the enemy force, having nothing to defend and having lost their lighter screening units, pulls back as a whole.

That was pretty rough. Our and our employer's salvage crews get to work. Madmarcus has time to put on his vac suit, then our techs wheel his mech, along with a captured enemy Wolverine, Ostscout and Phoenix Hawk (and their mechwarriors), back to base. Our major damage is Paingod's Griffin, which will remain inoperable for the rest of the campaign, what with the missing leg and all. Good thing we've got a spare. The other mechs really just need re-sealing and the actuators need to be "reactivated". And ammo reloads, we used a crap ton of LRM/10s.

This campaign is turning out to be very unusual compared to our normal fare of mowing down swarms of tanks and hovercraft. It's almost like in the videos, with heroic mechwarrior knights-errant duking it out on the battlefield in their 30th century suits of armor. Except for the part where every other time a mech goes out, the techs have to hose out splattered human remains thanks to the wonderful effects of explosive decompression.

That Phoenix Hawk appears to have gone back and forth between the Steiner and Marik guys... well, quite frequently, as they don't even bother to strip the paint before repainting their logo in the same place - they just slap a sticker on. When the techs go to strip the paint to put *our* symbol on it, they peel off at least five stickers and three layers of paint.

[Isgrimnur]

I definitely want the Hatchetman if it has the FHES.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Brutal ost!

[Zarathud]

It's good for salvage as we have the firepower and experience to pierce their armor fast. Worth the risk.

[Zenn7]

Risky meaning a chaotic, running fight against probably two companies of mechs, with a lance of incompetent allies for help.

How does a single lance of incompetents get 2 companies of mechs on the run??

[NickAragua]

Risky meaning a chaotic, running fight against probably two companies of mechs, with a lance of incompetent allies for help.

How does a single lance of incompetents get 2 companies of mechs on the run??

They're not the ones that got them on the run. They've just been assigned the pursuit duty.

Plus, if you don't look too closely, a lance of greenhorns looks just like a lance of elite badasses.

[NickAragua]

December 17, 3032
This one's going to be a meatgrinder. The liaison informs us that the Marik forces are making a coordinated push along all fronts, and we've been requested to help with the defence of a mech base in sector 2A. The Lyrans already have two lances (an assault and a medium) stationed there, along with a healthy number of defensive emplacements. They've requested just one lance from us, and want to us to prevent the destruction of the facility.

The opposing force consists of a god-awful thirty two mechs. On the one hand, this is obviously way above our "weight class", so to speak. On the other hand, if we win, that's an awful lot of salvage. Luckily, we've got some resources we can call on.

First of all, we deploy Alpha lance, with Gamma as reinforcements. We also ask the liaison if she can wrangle up some more reinforcements. Turns out she can. We get an aerospace lance, a mech lance and an artillery battery. Just kidding about the artillery though, no tanks around here. This will bring the unit ratios to a more reasonable level - thirty two of them to twenty of us with combined arms support. Unfortunately, the aircraft are lights and don't have any bombs. But hey, anything that can shoot at the enemy and take fire helps.

The Marik units are the usual collection of crappy light and medium mechs, backed up by a core of fire support mediums, solid heavies and a pair of assaults. The allied Steiner units are, in true Steiner fashion, on the heavier side. I still have some misgivings about this, but with the reinforcements we've scrounged up, we should be fine.

The enemy units come in on all sides, at dawn. So the ice hasn't melted yet, but as soon as the sun hits the surface, the temperature goes up from a chilly -50 to -15, so no extra heat sinking capacity for us.

Alpha is El Guapo in his relatively shiny Marauder, Isgrimnur testing out the Hatchetman, Stefan temporarily back in the Trebuchet 5J and Gbasden in his Awesome. Gamma is Lt. Scrub in the Warhammer, Xwraith in the Thunderbolt, Cylus in the Phoenix Hawk and Hyena in the Striker.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

This is looking somewhat hairy. But things look up when El Guapo takes his first "live-fire" shots with the Marauder. The PPC hits the target Phoenix Hawk's right arm, then the AC/5 chews up just enough armor on the center torso to let all the air out, and the lighter machine drops to the ground.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The light aircraft come in from the west, which ought to make almost zero difference. This is a *really* sprawling facility.

El Guapo's second set of shots isn't as lucky. He fires a full alpha strike at the incoming Wyvern, but only hits with a PPC and a medium laser.

To the south, a Locust runs around the corner, only to come face to face with Stefan and Gbasden. Stefan zaps the smaller mech with a laser, disabling the right arm. Isgrimnur is mobbed by several light mechs, taking a couple of SRMs, then opening up with the AC/10 and a medium laser on a nearby Wasp. The autocannon burst rips into the right torso, nearly taking it off and popping a heat sink. Isgrimnur's hatchet is a swing and a miss, though, as a kick from the Wasp throws his aim off.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Gbasden and Stefan watch with some amusement as a Locust to the south slips on the ice and pavement repeatedly and the mechwarrior knocks himself out. Then they put the little mech out of its misery and move on.

The little asshole Ostscouts get into the base and start mixing it up. One familiar-looking bastard jumps right up to a Crusader and cores it out with a medium laser. Well, the mech is mostly intact, but yadda yadda hull breach in vacuum. The other one fires at a Stalker, taking out the mech's entire right side with a hull breach.

El Guapo continues his reign of terror to the east. To cool off his sauna of a mech, he fires the medium lasers and autocannon at the damaged Wyvern. The medium lasers cut through the center torso and force a shut down. Unfortunately, he's going to be in tough shape, as he takes a leg shot from a Hermes, venting air and freezing up the actuators, while the Wyvern breaches his left arm, disabling the PPC and medium laser there. He has to take a knee to prevent from falling over.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

As he moves back to where the action is, Gbasden spies a Wasp hopping over some buildings, and zaps it with a PPC shot, sending the little mech tumbling as its right leg seizes up. This makes it a lot easier for Isgrimnur to bring his mech's foot down on its head.

The light mechs mixing it up with the Lyran heavies and assaults inside the base complex take some damage but inflict some as well. The poor Lyran Stalker is down to just its left torso for weapons, while the Archer's arm hangs limp. In exchange, they leg a Stinger, while a particularly nasty turret packing triple SRM/6s blasts a Locust's center torso wide open. Our liaison blows away a Wasp's right torso with SRMs, then cracks its right leg, forcing the mech to the ground where the air goes out of its center torso section and it stops moving. El Guapo trades ineffective fire with a Phoenix Hawk that jumps in to take the Hermes' place temporarily.

To the north, the enemy forces continue blasting away at critical buildings. The structures are pretty sturdy, but it won't be *that* long before they start collapsing.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The liaison figures the Lyrans can handle the two remaining Ostscouts in the middle of the base (but possibly not, given their lackluster performance so far), and hops over to help El Guapo out. The Stinger that got nailed by the Stalker *actually* loses its leg trying to get up, as opposed to just getting hulled.Until it gets almost completely cored out by a full LRM/20 salvo from the Lyran Archer. But not before breaching the left torso on a Lyran Firestarter with a couple of stray machine gun rounds.

The north side of the map is looking pretty awful, though. One of the buildings we're supposed to defend collapses under sustained PPC fire from an enemy Awesome, while a Stinger gets around the back of a Longbow and blasts through it with a laser, shutting the assault mech down. The long and short of it, we need those reinforcements.