Boy that dropship mission took a while. Freaking night fighting.
We commit Alpha Company to the task of destroying (or capturing) the dropship. Alpha-One and Alpha-Two will join a lance of assault tanks from the 33rd Avalon Hussars in attacking the Union. Alpha-Three will engage the enemy tank base - the 33rd will be providing some air support in the form of a pair of bomb-equipped aircraft.
Madmarcus is still out nursing a sprained arm, so Paingod will be temporarily in charge of Delta Company, borrowing Beta-Two for the duration. Beta-Two will remain at the air base to handle direct assaults. Delta-One and Delta-Two will maintain roving patrols to intercept, harass and divert incoming enemy forces, and act as mobile reinforcements. Delta-Three will swap its Ostscout for Gamma-Three's Vulcan and engage the infantry and irregular unit formation coming in.
February 8, 3037
Alpha-Three moves in on the tank base as the garrison there gets ready to reinforce the dropship. Looks like most of the faster units have already left. Aircraft from the FedCom airbase sortie to support the attack as well. Alpha-Three nearly loses their Griffin after a lucky headshot and subsequent pummeling, but the mechwarrior is able to "play possum" until the rest of his lance and the supporting aircraft have things "under control". Although I guess it's not too hard to do that if you're actually passed out and unconscious, and your mech is missing an arm and leaking coolant fluid everywhere. She'll be out for at least a month and a half with a concussion and a broken rib.
In the end, the enemy tank units are bottled up inside their base. They shoot down both of the Davion aerospace fighters, but one is able to recover, although it'll probably be under repairs for a while. Then again, so will our Griffin and Wolverine. Still, no extra heavy tanks on the dropship mission is pretty good.
Meanwhile, Alpha-One and the FedCom assault tank lance begin their attack on the dropship. Alpha-Two is about a minute behind. The FedCom guys aren't screwing around, they're bringing a Von Luckner (has an AC/20), a Behemoth (ungodly amount of LRMs), a Partisan (assault technical) and a Devastator (two AC/20s).
The Union deploys its complement of mechs, although it looks like only about half the bays were full - less than two lances and all lights and mediums. There are also some light tanks that must have already made their way here from the tank base, along with a couple of Manticores, a Tokugawa (the serious AC/10 version), and an LRM Carrier. And of course, the Union itself is no joke.
So we still have our hands full. If we want to claim the dropship, we'll have to cripple it *and* blow up a bunch of tanks. The good part is that it's raining and at night, so we'll have a pretty good advantage, due to our generally superior gunnery. It just might take a while. The night-time conditions will also slow our allies down so they don't charge in and get themselves killed by the dropship, and may even provide some actual fire support. Although, I'm being unfair, their aircraft put on a pretty good showing against the tank base.
It also looks like we're on the clock - sensors indicate the dropship's engines are going from "warm" to "hot", a process which takes about five minutes.
Round 1:
We enter the battlefield well outside the dropship's weapons range. The night time makes it difficult to target the enemy units, but they'll close in soon enough. We'll camp out in some woods on top of a hill then trade long-range fire until we run out of ammo (unlikely, we have five PPCs) or they run out of guys.
Round 2:
Here they come! Uh, nobody can hit anything, though.
Round 3:
Lighter enemy units close in, trying to dislodge us. Gbasden whiffs what should have been three easy PPC shots. Oh well, now he gets to fight a Wasp up close.
Round 4:
Another disapopinting round. Gbasden switches targets to an LRM Carrier in the distance, scoring a single hit to melt off most armor off its left side. Isgrimnur and Stefan move north to support him.
Round 5:
The bulk of the Kurita defenders are still way out of range. The LRM Carrier absorbs another PPC while its Scorpion tank buddy takes some LRMs from Stefan, knocking off bits of tread.
Round 6:
Well, Alpha-Two is here. Let's see if we can do a little better now.
The answer, by the way, is no. The good news, the other guys can't either.
Round 7:
Our Rifleman "shines some light on the situation", firing up its search light. That's a little better. Gbasden is finally able to blow away the LRM Carrier, while Stefan fires LRMs at a Saladin as it picks its way through the darkness. The missile salvo mostly doesn't hit, but enough missiles remove chunks of armor and fans that the hovertanks drops to the ground, immobile.
A Wasp keeps hopping around in the middle of our formation and Isgrimnur has enough of it, giving it a solid boot to the left arm which goes limp after throwing out a shower of sparks. Not where the laser was, but that's ok.
"Keep them lit up. Get some smoke in front of that Rifleman!" Gbasden calls out.
Round 8:
The Rifleman lights up some tanks in the distance, then takes the time to remove the right arm from the Wasp with an autocannon burst to give it a matching set. Gbasden takes advantage of this by blowing away one of the Scorpion tanks, although he wishes he'd nailed the one with the LRMs instead.
Unfortunately, the searchlight party comes to an end as a little piece of crap Vedette blows out the Rifleman's searchlight with a well-placed AC/5 round.
Round 9:
The battle devolves into wild firing at shapes in the dark again. Stefan and Gbasden score some minor hits but no kills, while Isgrimnur continues working on the Wasp, blasting through its rear torso armor with a laser, then dropping the right leg out from under it with the hatchet, leaving it completely weaponless and missing three limbs. The mechwarrior decides that he's had enough and piles out.
Round 10:
A Pegasus crashes into a tree to the east, although we don't really find out about it until later. The Ostscout does a pretty good job of hopping around like crazy, moving to engage El Guapo. "I'll get you next time", calls out Isgrimnur, shaking his fist. El Guapo, meanwhile, dodges the Ostscout's single laser and lifts a leg up to avoid the punch. "Amateur".
Round 11:
We continue firing long-range weapons, with Stefan putting some LRMs into a Scimitar hovertank to disable it.
Round 12:
One of the allied Behemoths demonstrates why you don't want to close with a Behemoth, even at night with a jump-capable mech, by laying into a Wasp's right torso with an AC/10 burst. The torso remains functional, just barely. Our Trebuchet lets loose with an LRM salvo, disabling a Pegasus hovertank, while the rest of the weapons fire plinks off or misses. El Guapo's aim continues to be spoiled by the annoying Ostscout hopping around, although that should stop soon now that Isgrimnur's finished hopping over.
Round 13:
Our Flashman takes the left arm off the Ostscout and hits it with a laser in the leg, just to give it a little something to think about it. Stefan's LRM ammo bins click empty, which is problematic. Well, two kills for 240 LRMs is... ok, I guess. On the plus side, no more heat problems.
Round 14:
A J. Edgar light hovertank tries to sneak around the north side of our formation, but our Rifleman is having none of it ,blasting it with autocannons and lasers. The allied Devastator reports heavy motive damage. Not that it was going anywhere, anyway.
Round 15:
The enemy jumping mechs to the south make a mess of the supporting FedCom tanks, disabling the Behemoth completely. Our Rifleman gives the Ostscout a good burst from autocannons stripping off most torso armor, although the enemy mech manages to take the armor off our mech's rear right torso section.
Round 16:
Isgrimnur catches up to the Clint and Wasp that just messed up one of our allied tanks and exchanges kicks, stripping armor off the Clint's right leg while losing some off his own. The better news is that our Trebuchet finally manages to corner the Ostscout. After the Rifleman blasts it twice more with autocannons, the Trebuchet gives it a solid boot to the right leg, disabling the limb and bring it down. With just about no armor left, the enemy mechwarrior gives it up.
He'd have probably done better with some support.
Round 17:
Our long-range gunnery advantage is starting to tell. The Blackjack uses its light autocannons to burst through the Maxim's armor, forcing the hover transport to reconsider its presence. We've crippled, disabled or destroyed ten of their units with none of *ours* being lost. Although the Davion tanks to the south are having a hard time - the Devastator has been completely immobilized, making it two of the allied tanks out of the fight.
It is mildly annoying to have fewer meat shields.
Round 18:
Isgrimnur catches the Wasp that's been hopping around El Guapo with the AC/10 straight through the center of mass, turning it into scrap. To the north, our Rifleman takes out a Scorpion that's been firing LRMs at us for a while.
Round 19:
Things start unraveling for the Combine tanks as their numbers dwindle. Gbasden disables the Tokugawa heavy tank by direct application of PPC to the treads. Isgrimnur goes to clean up the Clint, which is the last jump-capable mech on their side. Well, they miss each other, but on the plus side, Stefan splatters a Saladin hovertank that's gotten lost in the woods.
Round 20:
Not much happens in terms of weapons fire, but Stefan continues his tank-stomping rampage, a Galleon exploding under the Catapult's bird leg.
Round 21:
Stefan's really getting into it, zapping a Pegasus in the fans with a laser to take it out of action, then breaks through another Galleon's armor to send the light tank packing. Our Rifleman blows away a Scorpion with the last of its AC/10 ammo.
It's time for our heavies to advance and engage the dropship, as the Kurita units now lack critical mass to stop us. Hopefully we have enough time to take it down, it looks like they're finishing their engine powerup cycle.
Round 22:
As Gbasden starts his mech moving, he trips over a rock and falls forward down a hill. The Blackjack stands nearby watching, the mechwarrior inside chortling. "Not. A. Word." Our Awesome driver says as he gets the mech back up.
Meanwhile, Stefan's just on a roll. Without having to worry about managing LRM ammo and heat from those launchers, the lasers fly wild, punching through an LTV-4's armor to take out the engine.
El Guapo flips his arms back, firing at the Clint back there as it brawls with Isgrimnur, scoring a torso hit with a PPC and shorting out a laser. Isgrimnur gives it a matching set of punctured torso armor with a boot to the other torso. A jump jet flares up then flickers out. The guy in the Clint has had enough.
I was wrong about the jumping mech count, though, there's still a Firestarter jumping around.
Round 23:
We continue advancing, some mechs faster than others. Our Flashman zaps one of the nearby Locust's weapons mount off with a laser, but otherwise it's once again just a pretty light show for the most part. Well, except Stefan picking off another Vedette with a combination of lasers and a boot while muttering something about anklebiters.
Round 24:
Gbasden turns to the left and blasts the damaged Locust center of mass, cracking the armor and engine shielding. Stefan is unable to puncture the armor on the Manticore, temporarily suspending his streak. Our Blackjack disables Vedette with laser fire, overheating the mech quite a bit, but it's worthwhile.
Isgrimnur continues brawling with the Firestarter, breaking through its left leg armor and nearly stripping off one of the torso sides with the autocannon.
Round 25:
Our Blackjack scores the first symbolic hit against the Union, dinging the heavy armor plating with an AC/2 round. The Firestarter gets in behind Isgrimnur but takes a hatchet to the head instead of what it was planning to do. The armored cowl absorbs most of the initial impact and the standard armor does ok, too but the mechwarrior still gets rattled.
Round 26:
El Guapo closes within range of the Union and opens up, scoring solid hits with two PPCs. We'll need more firepower on it, though.
Round 27:
Our Trebuchet takes a hit from the Union, breaching right leg armor and causing the hip joint to fuse. Stefan disables the nearby Manticore, clearing the area a little bit. Isgrimnur finishes off the Firestarter with an autocannon burst followed up by a hatchet to the head. Ouch.
Round 28:
The Trebuchet gets up, but then is immediately nailed in the same leg by an AC/5 burst from the Union, bringing it back down again. An SRM salvo from the nearby Manticore knocks the mechwarrior out. That mech is in bad shape.
Stefan disables the last Vedette while Gbasden and El Guapo fire PPCs at the dropship, hitting it hard.
Our Rifleman punches out the Locust running around to the east, smacking an autocannon barrel (devoid of ammo) against its left torso to destroy that section.
At this point, the enemy mobiles are a single Manticore and a Hermes.
Round 29:
We concentrate fire on the Union, melting off a bunch of armor.
Round 30:
Gbasden scores some nasty hits on the dropship as more sparks than usual fly out the bottom of the drophsip. El Guapo joins in as well, with one of the engines sputtering out completely.
Isgrimnur and Stefan team up on the Hermes, breaching armor in multiple places with autocannon and laser fire. The smaller mech falls over, unable to inflict any damage on our heavies. Stefan stomps on the right torso to make sure it stays out of the fight.
Round 31:
Despite the incredible damage, the sonofabitch somehow manages to lift off. It's pretty slow to take gain altitude though as the engines sputter. Maybe we'll be able to take him down.
Round 32+:
Nope. The bastard limps away beyond maximum weapons range. Granted, they'll be spending weeks patching that thing up, but still, a golden opportunity wasted. If I'd started advancing literally one or two turns earlier, this would have gone a lot differently.
At least we get plenty of tanks and lighter mechs for salvage. Plus, we didn't actually lose any mechs, and the Davion assault tanks are all easily field-repairable. The Kurita guys, meanwhile, are missing a nearly all the tanks they sent in (a Galleon and Maxim managed to scurry away in the confusion), and only three of their six mechs escaped, with crippling damage.
For this mission, Stefan is definitely the MVP with a whopping 8 tank kills. Isgrimnur comes in second with 4 kills on light mechs.