Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Hyena
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Alright, I'll say it: I've always wanted to try out an Atlas. Of course the LAST time I tried switching mechs I lost a Battlemaster when I fell into a building and was a shooting gallery target...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by xwraith »

You better bring her back in one piece, and with a functioning ER Large Laser! But yes, you can borrow her.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

What is the effect of specializing in Med Lasers?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

You get a +2 on all attacks using that specific weapon.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

c) get "jumping jack" (reduces jump penalty for firing to 1, from 3)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 1:35 pm You get a +2 on all attacks using that specific weapon.
Thanks. I still think I'll take Jumping Jack. I've always had fairly agile and jump capable mech. I like it!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Alpha and Beta companies (each short a lance) rotate out to the air defense facility. Stefan borrows Xwraith's Thunderbolt while Zarathud climbs into a Warhammer that we take out of storage. Our mechwarrior is pleased to find that the mech *has* been modified slightly - we apparently had dropped the MG ammo by half a ton, using the mass savings for extra armor plating. The hole in Beta-Two is made up for by the addition of a Stalker. Moley is still riding in the spare Grasshopper - and it seems that, during all the business, we forgot to patch up the armor and reload LRMs. It's still in pretty good shape, though. "Why's the mech keep tilting to the right? Oh..."

Gamma-One moves to the supply depot to relieve the Scorpions units stationed there. Hyena cracks his shoulders as he pulls the Atlas out of the assembly area. "Let's see how this goes."

Alpha-Two's lieutenant has a quick conversation with Alpha-Three's lieutenant and swaps her Flashman and Rifleman for a Quickdraw and Griffin 1S. This winds up giving Alpha and Beta a single fast-moving lance for picket and reinforcement duty.

September 11, 3037
Beta-One (and the attached liaison and Scorpions heavy lance) are intercepted en route to the air defense facility. Zenn7 manages to avoid them overnight, but eventually they catch us as we crest to a hilly area.

We're not entirely sure it's a superior force. Sure, it's numerically superior, but it's mostly light and medium units. Between Beta-One and the allies (a Crusader, a Stalker, a Rifleman and a pair of heavy tanks: Von Luckner with its "assorted weaponry" turret and a Sturmfeur, which is basically a mobile LRM-40), we have a decisive advantage in unit quality. Honestly, there aren't even any particularly threatening units - the biggest gun they have is a large laser on a Wolverine. It seems they intend to delay us. We will need to dispose of them quickly, otherwise they'll keep hounding us.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud and the liaison swing around the north while the main body of our units comes from the west. This is probably the last we'll see of the allied units - they're slow and unmanueverable and will fall behind. Not that an Awesome is any better, but Zenn7 is a much better pilot and is able to squeeze a lot more out of that Awesome than a regular Scrub out of a Stalker.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
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Well, that's one hovertank that won't be chasing us around.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
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Zarathud takes the first shot of the round, but the PPC flies over the weaving Locust.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
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Two lances of jump-capable enemy mechs move up the hill to meet our main force. To the north, the Locust attempts to engage Zarathud, scoring a hit with a medium laser, which burns of some armor, then gets pounded by the Warhammer's medium lasers and SRMs.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 opens fire at a Trebuchet coming up the other side of the hill, nailing it in the right leg with a pair of PPC shots. Sparks fly as an actuator and a jump jet are destroyed. The mechwarrior keeps his mech upright, though. LordMortis does one of his favorite things, which is to jump up next to a bug mech while avoiding an amusing amount of fire and saw half of it off with a burst from the AC/20. The mechwarrior blacks out on the way down.

To the north, the liaison disables a Saracen hovertank with a 30-LRM salvo. Actually, 18 of them hit, which isn't too bad. Zarathud continues exchanging fire with the Locust - the bug mech has to spend a lot of time avoiding the incoming fire, which it does ok at, only taking a small laser and a couple of machine gun hits, but misses its own shots as a result.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
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The damaged Trebuchet goes down as Zenn7 blasts it with only two PPCs to cool off his protesting mech, then LordMortis follows up with a "long range" AC/20 shot, if there is such a thing. The right leg more or less disintegrates. Zenn7 then takes a second to backhand the nearby Spider - it whiffs its laser shots but manages a "bwongg" off the Awesome's leg armor, at which point the right hand scrapes off all of the smaller mech's center torso armor.

Zarathud curses as the Locust manages to fire its laser at the Warhammer's left leg, melting an actuator, forcing the larger mech to a knee. Its triumph is short-lived as all the Warhammer's short-range weapons evaporate and blow off the last remaining armor. SRMs destroy the left half of the mech, then a couple of "plinks" from the machine guns find the Locust's on-board ammo and make it disappear. Along with the rest of the mech.

The liaison in the Crusader holds a live demonstration on the virtues of not driving directly up to a 65-ton mech in your stupid little tank.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley realizes why the Grasshopper is having so much trouble hitting targets with the left arm laser - the shoulder joint is still busted. Yikes. Ones the mechwarrior figures it out though, it's an easy matter to disconnect that laser from the weapon firing group, then crunch the left torso off the nearby Wasp as it lands right there, trying to pick on Zenn7. The bug mech's gyro must have been cracked because it teeters and falls over.

LordMortis takes on a Wolverine, blasting it in the left arm with the AC/20 and a boot to the right torso, while Zenn7 blows out a Firestarter's flamer and upper arm actuator with a PPC shot and backhands the Spider again, this time ringing the lighter mech's bell with a battlefist to the head. LordMortis takes a couple of LRMs from a Maxim, but that's about it.

The liaison disables the other Vedette, slashing its treads off with a couple of laser blasts.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The Wasp manages to get up and runs off. Zenn7 lets it go, then makes sure the Trebuchet stays down by putting two PPCs center of mass. A lot of equipment comes off the right side - LRM launcher, pieces of the gyro, the arm...

LordMortis pursues the retreating Wolverine, getting into a bit of a pickle and eating a few lasers, but inflicting critical damage on the enemy mech's left torso - the AC/20 removes all armor, while a couple of SRMs blow out the missile launcher and a jump jet.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The Spider and Firestarter continue harassing Zenn7. Moley jumps over and zaps the Firestarter with a large laser, hitting the center torso and nearly puncturing the reactor. The enemy mech blooms but fails to blow up, and follows its Wasp buddy shortly after in a rapid retreat. Zenn7 whiffs with the PPCs but throws a couple of punches at the Spider, taking out large chunks of center torso structure.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley crunches internal structure as the Grasshopper lands but keeps upright. A laser strikes the Spider in the center torso, and the poor mech has simply had enough, falling over.

Zenn7 targets a Firestarter that jumps in to harass LordMortis, blasting armor off the left leg and right arm, forcing the mech to take a knee. LordMortis has to avoid a bunch of fire and whiffs the shot on the Maxim. He does manage to crush a Harasser as it zips around underfoot, firing lasers.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 blows away a Maxim that's been hounding LordMortis with its missiles - its manueverability was limited due to Zarathud coming up from the north and hitting it with a PPC as well. LordMortis manages to avoid getting shot up but the surrounding woods do not, and catch on fire. The enemy Wolverine takes a solid boot - another couple hits and that mech is done.

Round 12:
LordMortis jumps south, firing the AC/20 as he goes. The Firestater's left arm comes off, along with chunks of the left torso. The liaison opens up on an annoying little Galleon tank that's been playing cat and mouse with him for a while, blasting it away with short range weapons.

The armor component of the Marik force (actually, the Crescents, from the looks of it) retreats at this point, leaving the four mechs behind. Which also run off, since two of them are in bad shape and there's a mildly crazed guy in a Victor tearing through them.

The Scorpions units have taken minor damage, and will oversee salvage operations, then move directly towards the orbital defense facility, along with the liaison. We'll take the Trebuchet, and are nice enough to let them have the rest, since they didn't do shit. Even the liaison got a bunch of kills, and we're not talking about an expert mechwarrior here. Beta-One, meanwhile, monitors a call from Alpha-Two. It seems that they've been engaged by a superior enemy force and need backup.

Beta-One is firmly in the yellow - LordMortis' autocannon is about half-empty, Zarathud has a damaged leg actuator (slowing the Warhammer down to the Awesome's pace), while Moley's shoulder joint is still busted. But armor is holding up and nobody's injured. Beta-Two *could* probably get away from their pursuers on their own, but the more the merrier.
Last edited by NickAragua on Fri Feb 08, 2019 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Fine job heavy metal - let's go help our brethren enlighten the enemy as to why you don't want to mess around with assault mechs.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

[Note: mixed up the lances - Alpha-Two are the ones who are being engaged by a superior force, not Beta-Two]

Alpha-Two and their accompanying unit from the Scorpions are in a pickle. They twist and turn to avoid the incoming Marik swarm (a total of 58 units!), but it's no good. Open terrain, lots of hovercraft. The allied units are slowpoke heavy mechs (two Archers, an Ostsol and a Jagermech), and their commander gets on the comms. "Scorpion-Two to Alpha-Two. It looks like we are screwed. We'll hold them off as long as we can. Retreat at best speed."

Lt. Rogers would argue, but the guy has a point. Four heavy mechs aren't going to get away from a hovercraft swarm in open terrain.

The planetary militia doesn't have much in the way of heavy or assault mechs, but hovercraft and tanks are cheap and quick to turn out, and they have plenty of those. Alpha-Two is a Blackjack, a Trebuchet (jump jet variant), a Quickdraw and a Griffin. Beta-One moves to the rendezvous point at the south end of the dust bowl. Hopefully their presence will cause the enemy units to abandon pursuit of Alpha-Two. And if not, there's some more favorable terrain (woods and rough ground) to the north.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Even our crappy "run away" plan doesn't pan out - Alpha-Two gets surrounded by lighter units almost right off the bat. The Trebuchet gets pounded, including a headshot, while the Griffin takes an AC/20 round to the leg. Both manage to remain upright, and the Quickdraw even manages to disable a Saladin.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Alpha-Two's Quickdraw keeps on taking down Saladins, stopping briefly to leg a Locust as well. Lt. Rogers in the Blackjack turns her weapons on a nearby Maxim, blasting through its armor. Combined with earlier damage taking one of its LRM launchers out, the hovertank abandons its pursuit. Our Trebuchet causes significant damage to a Harasser zipping by, and the hovercraft zips away rapidly as well. The Blackjack takes some nasty damage having to go down to a knee.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Alpha-Two pushes its mechs, advancing south in a leapfrog. The Scorpions are giving the Marik militia guys a little trouble, so the pursuit slacks off somewhat. The Blackjack gets up and runs, firing its AC/2s at a Vedette, blowing the turret off with an ammo explosion. It gets pounded, though, a Saladin hits the right torso with an AC/20, removing most of that, then a Scimitar dings the gyro with a couple of SRMs. The mechwarrior is unable to keep the mech upright and falls over. The nearby Phoenix Hawk then crushes the center torso, putting our mech out of its misery.

The Trebuchet gets revenge on the Saladin, booting it and nearly knocking it over. The Quickdraw disables a Packrat with a stomp through the engine block, but then a Spider cracks our mech's left leg open, damaging actuators and sending it to the ground.

The Scorpions report that their Ostsol is crippled and attempting to retreat.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Well, they have taken some pressure off of us, but it's probably too late - even if Alpha-Two gets away, they're not going to be even remotely close to combat effective. Especially not after the Quickdraw goes up in smoke from an ammo explosion. Our Griffin kicks the offending Locust in revenge, legging it, which is great, except that the bug mech falls on the ejected mechwarrior.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
"Scorpion two-two, watch your left fl..." the last of the allied radio traffic fizzles out. Alpha-Two's remaining two mechs are on their own.

Round 6-9:
Spoiler:
Image
Beta-One arrives to the south. At the very least, they'll be able to discourage the hovercraft pursuing the last of Alpha-Two. our mechwarriors note ruefully that this would be an excellent situation for a couple of aircraft equipped with cluster bombs. Over the next thirty seconds, Alpha-Two moves close to Beta-One, and then we roll it up and begin pulling back to the south.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 and Moley take a couple of shots to discourage the more excited pursuers. Zenn7 plants two PPC shots into a Locust, blasting off its left weapons mount and knocking it over.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
That Locust is a tough customer, getting back up, but gets nailed with a PPC to the leg. With multiple limbs about to fall off, the mechwarrior moves aside. The hovercraft get in range and start pelting us with AC/5 rounds, but just about everything misses. We just need to move south to more favorable terrain, at this point. Then we'll be able to ditch the hovercraft, and can outrun or outgun the units that *can* navigate there.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud takes a PPC shot at a pursuing Scimitar, blasting off air ducts with the crackling energy. The hovertank settles down.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
We form a firing line just outside the woods and let loose with PPCs and other long range weapons. Moley and Zenn7 combine fire on another Scimitar tank, leaving it a wreck.

The Marik militia guys don't pursue us, figuring they got a good enough piece. Which is accurate, they got six medium and heavy mechs while losing only a company's worth of light tanks and mechs. And they'll probably be able to put most of those back together again.

Alpha-Two's lieutenant is captured, while the guy that we thought got crushed under the Locust actually manages to get clear. It looks like the militia has finally concentrated enough force to take us on, so we'll need to face them down at the air defense facility itself, Beta-One and the remnants of Alpha-Two moving on the facility. That's going to be a tough fight - between the battalion here and a smaller force approaching from the north. Beta-Two's lieutenant suggest simply torching the place and bugging out - "It's not like we're getting paid to hold on to this place, we just need it to not shoot us out of the sky when we lift off."
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Agreed - if we are going to be badly outnumbered, I'd much rather destroy the facility and bug out.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Is there any chance they'd for some reason bring our captured guy along that we might be able to rescue him? If so, then we might want to try it.

If not, then, much as I hate to run from a fight, I have to agree, torch the place and let's scoot.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Cut our losses and torch the place.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

[Had a cold that took me out of action for four days straight, just getting back into it.]

"So, basically", Cylus explains to the guy in the Enforcer as they march their patrol route while the Scorpions busy themselves unloading more ammo from the supply depot, "the best time to take your shot when you're jumping is just after you turn your jets off. Before, you're getting all kinds of rumbling from the thrusters. And once you start coming down, you're going to want to pay attention to balancing and won't have as much time for targeting."

"I thought the targeting computer handles that?" The Enforcer pilot asks.

"Sure, if by 'handles' you mean 'makes the crosshairs shake like a nervous kid taking his citizenship test'". Cylus answers.

"What?"

"Never mind, it's a Capellan joke."

"Hey, Gamma-One, cut the chatter. Outer perimeter sensors show we've got company coming in. Looks like they got by the Scrops out on patrol. Get to your positions."

The mixed Marik militia and Conway's Crescents force attacking the supply depot is looking on the light side, and at first we see nothing heavier than the 50-ton Vedettes, and a bunch of hovercraft. We also see four much heavier-looking sensor blips closing in from a distance, but it'll take them a while to get to us.

The Scorpions had managed to set up a minefield on one of the roads leading into the supply depot proper. Scrub's Warhammer is hidden inside a warehouse. Low-power, ready to pounce. Not the most ambushy mech ever, but good enough. The rest of Gamma-One is the Enforcer, Cylus in the Grasshopper and Hyena driving around in an Atlas while the techs fix the LBX autocannon on the Striker.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
The first thing that happens is that a Harasser runs over the minefield and disintegrates.

"See? Watch!" Cylus calls out, firing up the Grasshopper's jump jets. SRMs fly up from a nearby Harasser, a few dinging the heavy mech, then the light hovercraft disintegrates under laser fire. A laser from an incoming Locust hits Cylus in the right torso as well, but armor holds up.

Hyena's armor swats aside the nearby Vedette's shot, then spins up the Atlas' hefty autocannon, blowing away the tank's front armor then plowing SRMs into the breach. The tank isn't quite destroyed but begins a rapid retreat.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
A Saladin zips by Scrub's concealed position and she blows it away with a pair of PPC shots. She then can't resist the opportunity to blast another Harasser with her remaining lasers. This redlines her mech, but pays off, as the little hover technical takes internal damage and starts zipping away, trailing smoke. Unfortunately, Scrub's building gets pounded with SRMs and the floor collapses, with the Warhammer losing a bunch of armor from the debris.

The Locust that attacked Cylus last turn gets a little too clever and somehow manages to get around the Grasshopper, but in a very disadvantageous position. Cylus hops back over it to avoid the laser as it struggles to get up. Then takes off the bug mech's left weapons mount and nearly removes the right leg with lasers before snapping it with a stomp.

Hyena and the Enforcer both take headshots from SRMs, but stay conscious. The Enforcer disables the offending Pegasus with a blast from the large laser, while Hyena isn't bothered by a little shrapnel and blows away one of the offending hovercraft as well.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The legged Locust tries to get up, which was an unfortunate choice. The leg can't hold up its weight and it falls back down, driving the right weapons mount into the engine, which immediately goes cold.

Hyena continues taking rapid SRM fire from surrounding units, but the Atlas' armor is easily able to absorb the unfocused pelting. His torso-mounted autocannon spits a steady stream of lead, destroying another Harasser SRM source, then stomps on a Galleon tank as it drives by, firing lasers. It stops firing. And existing as a three-dimensional object. A Wasp tries to kick Hyena in one of the legs, but neither the Atlas nor the mechwarrior inside are moved by the effort and the bug mech winds up on the ground.

Cylus goes after a Scorpion tank, heating the Grasshopper up a bit, but it pays off - lasers soften the armor up to the point where a foot simply crushes the light tank.

Scrub find steady footing within her basement then turns and blows a building out from under a Spider. The smaller mech falls quite a good distance and its heat readings spike.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Cylus continues northeast down the street, rampaging through the light Crescents tanks, zapping another Harasser with the Grasshopper's trusty lasers while gracefully flitting back and forth.

To the south, the Enforcer legs a Wasp, disabling one of its limbs with an AC/10 blast. Miraculously, the enemy mech remains standing briefly. Until it doesn't and falls over.

Hyena glowers at the Wasp to the south as it backs up frantically. Falling over next to an Atlas after failing to kick it, probably not the best plan. Our mechwarrior sends a swarm of LRMs and autocannon rounds after it, turning it into scrap. A Javelin manages to land a few missiles on the back of Hyena's mech, but it's still sandpaper.

Having gotten massacred with very little to show for it, the remaining Crescents peel off. Salvage is gonna be crappy, but man did we take a lot of little bug mechs and crappy hovertanks out of circulation. The only unit we're interested in claiming is the Saladin, which has AC/20 ammo on it. There's a spike of rather annoyed-sounding radio traffic between the retreating anklebiters and the enemy units further out, but it's obvious that the Crescents are panicked and not planning to listen. Wonder what amount of money they actually got offered.

"So where are the enemy units, Captain?" Hyena asks, jokingly.

Elsewhere, Alpha-One and the accompanying lances torch the sector 2 orbital defense facility, blowing away all critical equipment, then return to base.

----

The techs back at the dropships use their week pretty well, working on returning Freyland's Quickdraw to working order. It costs over half a million in spare parts due to gyro and engine damage, but they get it done. Hyena's Striker comes back to working order as well, with the main problem now being that there's very little ammo for the autocannon, barely enough to last a single pitched battle. The spare Grasshopper Moley was riding winds up needing more repairs than we're capable of carrying out, with the left arm being basically useless, but that's ok, because the Thunderbolt is back up.

Xwraith finally emerges from restricted duty, itching to get back into it as well. By the end of the week, everyone's back in their mechs (except the four that we lost). We will wind up having to issue field promotions to a couple of mechwarriors as well, having lost a pair of squad leaders. We'll noodle over who gets the spot.

----

We discuss the present situation with Skolkov, and he suggests that we relocate our dropships, as hostile activity near them has intensified once again. The Scorpions have located a good staging area but it's crawling with Marik infantry and low-quality units, so we'll need to clear that stuff out. But it should reduce the odds off an attack on our landing zone for the time being. Probably need one lance to remove the riffraff.

Marik militia units are poking around our captured orbital defense facility in sector 1. Given that we're moving our dropships, we won't really be needing to hold it, but we do have the opportunity to give the militia guys a bloody nose. Of course, they've shown the capability to absorb an incredible amount of losses (granted, in crappy light tanks and hovercraft, which you can pump out of any random factory that makes tractors and ceiling fans respectively). This would need two lances if we do commit to defending the orbital defense facility. Or, we could just torch it like the other one and be done with it.

Marik forces and Crescents move in on the supply depot again. We still kind of want to hold on to it, and hey it's hard to pass up a chance to blow more of those traitors away. Sensors detect a Marik dropship touching down nearby as well, we may be able to send some mechs to get a piece of it. One lance here, and we'd probably want two to take on the dropship.

Finally, before taking off, a Marik supply convoy is passing near our dropships' current location. It may be worth it to hit it and either capture or destroy the supplies. One lance should be sufficient.

Which of these things should we do?

All lances are at full strength, except Alpha-Two and Gamma-Two, both unavailable due to excessive casualties and battle damage.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

*sigh*

Man, that was fun. I think we should consider saving the ammo on the Striker, and I can just keep stepping on things in the Atlas. I mean, I'm just sayin'...

[And welcome back, Nick. I think, however, a cold that takes you out for four days is called "the flu", but what do I know?]
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:40 pm We discuss the present situation with Skolkov, and he suggests that we relocate our dropships, as hostile activity near them has intensified once again. The Scorpions have located a good staging area but it's crawling with Marik infantry and low-quality units, so we'll need to clear that stuff out. But it should reduce the odds off an attack on our landing zone for the time being. Probably need one lance to remove the riffraff.

Marik militia units are poking around our captured orbital defense facility in sector 1. Given that we're moving our dropships, we won't really be needing to hold it, but we do have the opportunity to give the militia guys a bloody nose. Of course, they've shown the capability to absorb an incredible amount of losses (granted, in crappy light tanks and hovercraft, which you can pump out of any random factory that makes tractors and ceiling fans respectively). This would need two lances if we do commit to defending the orbital defense facility. Or, we could just torch it like the other one and be done with it.

Marik forces and Crescents move in on the supply depot again. We still kind of want to hold on to it, and hey it's hard to pass up a chance to blow more of those traitors away. Sensors detect a Marik dropship touching down nearby as well, we may be able to send some mechs to get a piece of it. One lance here, and we'd probably want two to take on the dropship.

Finally, before taking off, a Marik supply convoy is passing near our dropships' current location. It may be worth it to hit it and either capture or destroy the supplies. One lance should be sufficient.

Which of these things should we do?

All lances are at full strength, except Alpha-Two and Gamma-Two, both unavailable due to excessive casualties and battle damage.
OUCH, let's station Nick far the heck away from the rest of humanity until all traces of that thing are gone! :)

Alpha 1 to clear out the new landing zone and let our commander get a feel for the new area.

Torch the orbital facility - we're down to 10 lances, not sure we have the firepower to do everything and keep this, no need to stretch ourselves quite this thin.

Gamma1 to hold the Supply Depot. Beta 1/2 to get the dropship.

Delta 1 for the supply convoy (we're running out of anything heavier and they'll be fast enough to ensure nothing escapes).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Speaking as the commander of Secret Alpha Strike Commando Viper Lightning Force: Hard Target, I think it would make more sense to put a medium (or possibly medium to heavy) lance on clearing out the riff raff - it's infantry and light vehicles, right? Would seem like more light and medium mech territory. I would think Alpha One would be better suited to attacking the dropship.

Agree with torching the orbital facility.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

September 18, 3037
As the dropships are still packing it in, Delta-One moves out to put the hurt on a Marik convoy. It's a mixture of cargo carriers and industrial mechs, guarded by the usual swarm of hovercraft and crappy tanks. Although they've got a lance of medium mechs on the job as well so it must be somewhat important.

The Scorpions have had some time to prepare the ambush site, so there's a nice little minefield along one of the roads, and they've got four tanks coming in from the southwest. Not sure how useful they'll be, but we'll see. Delta-One is back to their standard loadout - Dervish, Wolverine, Quickdraw and Griffin. Archinerd camps out in a building, everyone else takes their positions as well as the convoy rolls in.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Pretty productive. Archinerd unloads short-range weapons on a Saracen hovertank as it passes by, sending an SRM through an air duct into the vehicle's powerplant. It burps and sits down. An enemy Dervish runs in to help his disabled tank buddy out but his counterattack strikes the building instead of our mech.

A Firestarter runs over the pre-placed minefield, causing severe damage to its legs as mines blow out actuators and heat sinks. All it winds up doing for the rest of the fight is alternating between failing to get up from the ground and the mechwarrior passing out.

Freyland comes around a corner, cutting one of the cargo carrying APCs in half with lasers. A nearby Harasser unloads SRMs into the Quickdraw, but fails to penetrate armor. Another one fires lasers desperately as our mechwarrior closes in, but is unable to target properly and gets squashed.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd remains in that building, as it absorbs some more fire, while hitting a passing Griffin with a short range salvo. Not enough to breach armor, but pretty good hits anyway.

Freyland evaporates another Harasser with laser fire, trying to clear the air a little bit from all the SRMs and lasers flying around. The nearby Buster Haulermech dodges our mechwarrior's kick and kicks back, stripping a bunch of leg armor. Annoying.

MadMarcus gets another cargo carrying truck as well.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A Wasp jumps around on the top of buildings near Archinerd's position. It's a simple matter to punch through the wall of the improvised bunker and fill the neighboring building with laser shots and SRMs. The Wasp winds up on the ground with a damaged shoulder actuator and multiple armor breaches, in a pile of rubble. Archinerd's hiding spot has had enough though, and the Dervish falls through to the basement.

Madmarcus and Freyland engage an IndustrialMech each, while Paingod makes an effort to take out a Killjoy ordnance transport. Freyland's target is a little cocky, having already given the Quickdraw the what-for previously, but Freyland gets the high ground and completely kicks the convoy mech's torso out. Madmarcus' target takes several laser shots and a boot like a champ, remaining upright.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd staggers up, firing at a Saracen outside. The impromptu bunker is just about gone, so it's time to bug out and resume mobile operations.

Madmarcus chases down the escaping Powerman, blasting it with some more weapons fire to soften it up, then breaking the left leg with a swift kick. The convoy' mech's left torso is shredded as it comes down, and the attached arm comes off. The driver bails out shortly.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Freyland comes after a Carbine constructionmech, avoiding the angry swarm of escort vehicles, and scores multiple hits on its rear section, blowing out actuators and internal equipment. Then breaks the right leg off, leaving it flopping around and moving on quickly.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Amazingly enough, some of the Scorpions actually find their way to the fight. One of their Condor hovertanks blows away the Killjoy that's been evading Paingod for the last half a minute.

Freyland gets a lucky hit on a Vedette, pinging the fuel tank with a streak SRM, sending it sky-high.

Archinerd is chased down by a Wasp, which immediately regrets it, after taking multiple lasers and SRMs to the front, then losing a leg.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
At this point we've got just one convoy unit left to take down, then we can leave - nothing much to salvage here. While Freyland and Madmarcus go after it, Paingod assists the Scorpions to the north, disabling a Maxim with a PPC shot.

Round 8:
A lot of weapons fire, and some armor goes missing on both sides, but no critical damage anywhere. Although, Paingod does give a Vedette's crew a nice breath of fresh air when the Griffin's foot rips off the tank's left side armor.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Freyland finishes off the last convoy unit (a Wasp carrying a cargo container) with a laser blast to the center torso. With allied units crippling another enemy tank and nothing else to escort, the remainder of the escorts (including the mechs) leave the battlefield to us.

We do manage to recover some of the cargo, as well as a couple of loads of LRMs and SRMs to bolster our stocks. We haul the good stuff to the dropships, and load up, preparing to lift off.

Freyland had VIP on this one, with 7 kills on various convoy vehicles, mechs and escorts.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

/dance
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:42 am Speaking as the commander of Secret Alpha Strike Commando Viper Lightning Force: Hard Target, I think it would make more sense to put a medium (or possibly medium to heavy) lance on clearing out the riff raff - it's infantry and light vehicles, right? Would seem like more light and medium mech territory. I would think Alpha One would be better suited to attacking the dropship.
FYI:

I don't remember mech weights exceptionally well (had board game and several supplements, the original 2 battle tech games, all the MechWarrior games (not online) but all that has been 15 or more years now and just starting in on the new BattleTech PC game everyone has already beaten the campaign for) so I may be off a bit (or more than a bit even) here, but my general feeling our various lances is that:

Beta1 is the heaviest lance (though not massively heavier than the next, just a little heavier)
Alpha 1, Beta 2 and Gamma 1 are all fairly close to each other and roughly tied for 2nd heaviest
Beta 3 is medium/heavy lance
Delta 1 is medium (more recon/fast attack, not stand up battle)
The others are all light/medium recon/fast attack - lighter than Delta 1.

We need 2 heavier lances for the drop ship, and 1 for the supply depot. Drop ship's probably the hardest, so Beta 1 there + either Beta 2, Gamma1 or Alpha 1. Since there are suitable missions for the other 2 lances, Beta 2 made the most sense. One, just sounds right to send 2 lances from the same company. Two - though we don't see it in game play, in the background universe, it makes sense that Beta 1 and Beta 2 train to work together more than Beta 1 and either Alpha 1 or Gamma 1 (more likely we would have inter-company training than cross-company training for working together). Three - we get a OO names lance in every fight (makes the fights sound more interesting).

I could be significantly off in my assessment of our lances functionality and/or in our needs for any given fight, but that's what I think of when I am thinking of what lances to send where. I trust Nick won't take our suggestions if they are exceptionally stupid in any given situation (err... that's a recon mission, Beta 1 is a bad choice.... err... a light recon lance is not going to fair well in an assault on a dropship...), and will make appropriate substitutions.

I like other peoples feedback, especially when they say why they disagree with me (makes me think more, learn stuff sometimes or just realize I was thinking stupid or, in this case, I think my thought was OK, but providing this long explanation, someone might tell me I am off somehow and then I can hopefully make more intelligent choices in the future).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Dealing with infantry isn't usually so much about unit weight, it's about the equipment - machine guns, flamers and area effect weapons (artillery, bombs from aircraft) all massacre infantry. In the absence of those, any units that mount SRMs are pretty effective against infantry as well, as they can be loaded with inferno rounds. Lacking those, clearing infantry becomes really tedious.

So, for example, Alpha-One wouldn't be too great for clearing infantry: Awesome is all PPCs, Marauder's streak launchers can't load specialized ammo, Hatchetman and Catapult have none of the above weapons, either.

Some examples of pretty decent anti-infantry mechs: Phoenix Hawk (MGs), Firestarter (MGs, flamers), stock Warhammer (MGs, SRMs), Locust (MGs).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

September 19, 3037
"Captain, we've got unidentified aircraft matching our flight vector. Interception time is 10 minutes."

"How many, what kind?" asks the Moonraker's captain as the ship moves through its low-orbit hop.

"Twenty. Mixed-weight. Mostly lights and mediums. A few heavies."

"Right. Tighten up formation. Escort craft, engage at will but stay within our ECM bubble. We're not here to fight, we just need to punch through. Comms, inform the uh... Scorpion... that I recommend they close in formation as well." The captain sighs. "Did they really call their dropship the same name as their company?"

The comms officer can't help but crack a smile.

On the plus side, in addition to the Moonraker, our Jumbo, and the escorts, the Scorpions have sent up a pair of 100-ton Stukas to escort the dropship. So we should have plenty of firepower to punch through the interceptors and be on our way.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Flying forward, still slightly out of engagement range.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Here they come. Maximum missile range. The Union and our fighters belch out a good number of LRMs, pounding a Gotha's front, while one of the Scorpions' aircraft engages a Cheetah lazily drifting by.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Now we're in a real furball. Our dropship open up with as many of their guns as they can as the Marik fighters zip by. A Transit takes a large laser to the left wing, damaging its avionics system. Our Jumbo nails the Riever parked almost on top of the Union, with two of our fighters joining in as well.

Once the flurry of lasers, missiles and even autocannon fire subsides, a large number of enemy aircraft are spinning out of control. Temporarily, at least, until their pilots can get themselves back together.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Of course, by that point, we'll be long gone. The Marik guys wind up unable to organize a turnaround fast enough and wind up having to let us go.

Other than a few minor scratches, our dropships and aircraft are good to go. The "Scorpion" thanks us for the escort as well. Now, we just need to clear out that LZ.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

September 20, 3037
Captured Supply Depot

After some discussion, El Guapo convinces the command staff that Beta-Two is best left in a secondary role. Gamma-One rotates in to guard the supply depot. Alpha and Beta-One will be assaulting the Marik dropship. We let a chunk of the dropship's forces come at the supply depot, then Alpha and Beta will hit the units remaining at the dropship.

Gamma-One is mostly back to normal, with Xwraith back in the Thunderbolt. Cylus continues working the Grasshopper, Hyena is in an Atlas and Scrub leads from the Warhammer.

The units attacking the supply depot are a light-medium mech lance (Shadow Hawk, Hunchback, Locust, Wasp), backed up by the usual swarm of crappy tanks and hovercraft. We'll need to watch out for their one Manticore, and the Hunchback.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith is definitely back in the saddle, lining up the ER laser on an approaching hovercraft and zapping it.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub blasts a Scorpion tank with a PPC, this time getting through the armor and wrecking the light tank. A formation of Harassers zooms in on Xwraith as our Thunderbolt jumps south and eats a PPC from an LTV-4. Hyena takes one down with a burst from the AC/20.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub takes a couple of lasers, one from a Wasp. She holds the second PPC this time, firing just one and the medium lasers at a nearby Harassers, cutting the hovercraft wide open. Cylus continues dueling with the LTV-4, scoring several hits with lasers and taking a PPC shot in return, along with several SRMs before sending another Harasser flying with a boot.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
To the south, Scrub is getting a little mobbed, but her enemies are a swarm of crappy tanks. One stops moving as its engine is blown out by a PPC shot.

The Hunchback moves in on Hyena, missing with its AC/20. Hyena's retaliatory burst nearly removes the smaller mech's left arm. The Atlas takes a few lasers and light autocannon rounds from nearby tanks, but both remain upright.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Hyena's eyes go wide as the Hunchback's autocannon swivels towards the Atlas' head, but a last-second juke sends the autocannon burst off-target. The hundred-tonner still takes a couple of shots to the dome, rattling our mechwarrior around quite a bit. Remembering all those lectures from LordMortis, Hyena aims the Atlas' AC/20 at the Hunchback's left torso and lets rip. The weapon chews through the armor, and then the enemy mech explodes as its AC/20 ammo goes up.

To the south, Scrub disables a Condor hovertank with a PPC shot while absorbing lighter firepower in return. Despite the incoming stream of autocannon rounds and SRMs, her Warhammer stomps on a Vedette as well.

To the north, Cylus finally finishes off that annoying LTV-4, zapping off enough air ducts with the Grasshopper's lasers that the hovertank stops moving.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
As a Vedette tries to get the drop on Cylus, whoever's driving it gets a little too excited and clips the corner of a building. Cylus watches with some amusement as the vehicle belches up a cloud of smoke then stops moving, then opens up lasers and a boot on another Vedette. The tank's front armor doesn't hold up and the crew begins a rapid retreat.

To the south, the Marik units try to focus on Hyena's Atlas. A Wasp abandons its efforts against Scrub's Warhammer and pays the price, losing an arm and a leg to a PPC shot each. Scrub then stomps through another Vedette - leaving the tank technically intact, but completely immobile. Xwraith opens up on a Striker, cutting several wheels off with the ER laser. Hyena focuses fire on the enemy Manticore, breaching its armor and taking out all of its propulsion systems. The enemy units' efforts pay off, however, as an LRM Hetzer fires a salvo of LRMs at the Atlas, scoring another headshot. The assault mech creaks and tips over.

Despite having taken out the Atlas, their heaviest units are gone or inoperable. The remaining Marik militia units retreat rapidly to the east. Scrub takes out another Scorpion tank, but the rest get away, more or less.

The search & rescue guys are able to haul Hyena's wrecked ass out of the Atlas. He'll be eating through a straw for a while, and Dr. Minnie recommends against putting on a neurohelmet, "unless you want to bleed all over it and probably crap your pants too". Enjoy the forty-two day vacation!

The Atlas itself is going to be inoperable for the rest of the campaign, unless we somehow find the spare parts to replace a hundred-ton mech head.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

42 days!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Six weeks of hospital food should serve to remind you to duck in the future.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

An Atlas juking reminds me of the elevator scene in the Mario bros movie.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Never fails... Hundreds of missions in the Striker ( ok, tens of missions) and I'm flying high. Take me out of the Striker and I'm target practice. R.I.P. Battlemaster and (for temp) Atlas.

By the time I'm back in the cockpit, maybe we'll have scored some more LBX ammo. Hell who am I kidding. By the time I get back in, we'll probably be invaded by aliens from the outer reaches of the galaxy or some shit...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

September 23, 3037

Beta-One and Alpha-One advance on the Marik dropship. It's a Union, with two lances of mechs, one light, one medium. Nothing terribly threatening. And a bunch of local tanks, on the heavier side - we're looking at SRM/LRM Carriers, a Bulldog, a Rhino and a Demolisher. The Scorpions have sent in a lance of light tanks to help out, but our mechs will obviously be doing the bulk of the fighting. As we approach, the dropship begins firing up its engines, so we've got probably about five minutes to take it down.

Beta-One will engage the defending units from long range to whittle down their numbers, then Alpha-One will move in about a minute after the shooting starts to put the dropship down. It'd be nice to *capture* it rather than blow it up, but that's a pretty tall order.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
The good part is that we've caught the dropship out by itself with the defending units on the wrong side. The bad part is that we're way too close to the dropship and are going to take some damage. Zenn7 takes a lot of hits, losing the right torso PPC and a bunch of heat sinks.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7's right arm comes off under sustained fire from the dropship, and then one of the anklebiters breaches left torso armor. This leaves Zenn7 on the ground with a small laser for armament. He does manage to sink a Saracen hovertank before getting disabled.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy units shift their fire to our other mechs, having effectively taken Zenn7's Awesome out of action. The Awesome refuses to get up, creaking and groaning instead. Looks like Zarathud is next up on the "get plastered by a Union-class dropship" show. The Awesome's armor holds up (except for the left arm, which comes off) and gives LordMortis a chance to deliver an AC/20 burst across the dropship's engine while Moley blows away a medium laser. We're getting there.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Something explodes at the bottom of the dropship, it shudders and ceases fire. That's good - now we can focus on taking down the ground units and anklebiters. LordMortis starts by blasting a Stinger that jumps in behind his Victor, cracking the bug mech's left torso with the AC/20. Zarathud breathes a sigh of relief, as it appears that the gunnery on the Marik ground units is considerably less skilled than the dropship crew's gunnery.

We also watch with some amusement a Marik Whitworth fail to kick a Galleon and fall over, crunching its right arm armor.


Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud takes a hit to the left torso PPC from an AC/2 Carrier's burst. The allied tanks eliminate a nearby infantry squad. Moley hops over into the river, avoiding fire from the nearby Maxim. A medium laser stuns the crew briefly, which allows our Thunderbolt to bring both fists down on the hovercraft, sinking it.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
One of the allied tanks, the Scimitar, makes a Manticore pay the price for ignoring it, blowing the turret off the heavy tank with an AC/5 shot. The enemy Whitworth, though, finally manages to blow up the Galleon it was having so much trouble with.

LordMortis runs in behind an enemy Trebuchet, letting rip with all weapons. Our mechwarrior's face is somewhat disappointed when an SRM goes through the enemy mech's rear armor and exposes an empty ammo bin. Still, the 50-ton enemy mech falls over under the sustained fire.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
"Alpha-One, need an ETA. We're getting chewed up over here." reports Zarathud.

"Ten seconds." comes the welcome response.

The Trebuchet LordMortis nailed has some trouble getting up due to actuator damage. Moley watches with some curiosity as the enemy Ferret that's been buzzing around disintegrates in mid-air. "Beta-One-Four, careful of that Demolisher!" calls out LordMortis. The Thunderbolt manages to avoid an amazing amount of ordnance, only taking a single large laser hit.

Zarathud, however, gets pasted, taking an engine hit and losing a bunch of heat sinks. Despite that, our mechwarrior manages to avoid a kick from the nearby Firestarter, forcing the smaller machine to take a spill.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Finally, Alpha-One arrives. Just in time, as Zarathud's mech is about to fall apart, and our mechwarrior withdraws from the field. LordMortis opens up on the Demolisher, blowing away large chunks of armor with the AC/20, and popping its treads with the SRM launcher, with Moley helping out using the large laser.

Gbasden blows away an SRM Carrier with a triple PPC shot, while absorbing return fire from the nearby Firestarter. The SRM Carrier empties a full rack of sixty SRMs at the remaining allied Galleon, disintegrating the light tank, but that's about it. Combined with fire from the AC/2 Carrier and Rhino, Gbasden's mech is forced to a knee, but he still manages to backhand the Firestarter, nearly cracking open the light mech's cockpit.

El Guapo ducks under an AC/20 shot from the nearby Saladin, then drills it with a PPC to the left side. The hovertank zips off. Isgrimnur saws the right half off the nearby Flea with the autocannon, causing that mechwarrior to reconsider his presence on the battlefield after its return fire is mostly ineffective.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
LordMortis jumps in to join Stefan as the two of them sandwich a Blackjack. The 45-ton mech takes an AC/20 burst to the center torso, detonating its autocannon ammo. El Guapo picks the Bulldog out from the crowd, breaching its armor with multiple PPC and streak SRM shots.

Isgrimnur eats a bunch of lasers from the nearby Trebuchet, and feeds weapons fire to the Vedette. The axe comes down through the Trebuchet's right leg, popping several actuators and sending the enemy mech to the ground, where its heat spikes as it crunches engine shielding. It stops moving, too, as the mechwarrior inside blacks out.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley breaches the armor on that obnoxious AC/2 Carrier, popping a couple of wheels as well. Gbasden takes a second to focus on the nearby Firestarter, putting a PPC shot through its center torso and into the engine, while taking the right arm off. El Guapo disables a Vedette with PPC shots and streak SRMs, while an allied hovertank disables one of the enemy LRM Carriers.

Without any meaningfully heavy units left (their Rhino actually managed to run out of LRM ammo), the remaining ground units withdraw, leaving the dropship to our tender ministrations.

The downside here is that both of Beta-One's Awesomes are going to be out of action for the rest of the campaign (well, that's not true, we'll be able to put one back together). The upside: we've captured a Union-class dropship. That's about 110 million c-bills' worth of sale value in its current state. For now, we'll put a prize crew aboard and do our best to fix the engine damage. In the long term, we can either keep it (you can never go wrong with a Union) or see if we can sell it on the open market. That'll definitely put us within range of being able to buy a good jumpship.

Gamma-Three clears out the irregular forces from the new dropship landing zone no problem. The Scorpions use the confusion among the enemy forces to capture another Marik militia air base and its attendant aircraft.

The situation for next week:

Our dropships' radar tracks a squadron of aerospace fighters on an orbital trajectory to pass directly over our new landing zone. Obviously this is sub-optimal, so we consider launching fighters to intercept and run them off. The Scorpions will be committing aerospace fighters to this operation.

The Scorpions request our assistance in defending their newly captured airbase.

The Scorpions have located a Marik supply depot that, quite possibly, has some spare parts that we need to fix up Zenn7's Awesome. A quick snatch & grab should get us the parts we need. If we commit to this, the Scorpions are able to send along a mech and air support.

Beta-One is out of action - Zenn7's mech is currently unrepairable, while Zarathud's mech will need at least a couple of weeks of work. Gamma-One is missing Hyena, but our techs have kept the rest of our mechs up and running.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:22 pm September 20, 3037
Captured Supply Depot

After some discussion, El Guapo convinces , leader of the command staff, decides that Beta-Two is best left in a secondary role.
Fixed.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

Everything is Not Awesome.

But we're living the dream.

Who marched us right into the crosshairs? That was crazy. We could have died.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:42 am Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:42 am
El Guapo wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:25 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:22 pm September 20, 3037
Captured Supply Depot

After some discussion, El Guapo convinces , leader of the command staff, decides that Beta-Two is best left in a secondary role.
Fixed.
Was starting to wonder if that super secret lightening strike force thing you were in command of was some sort of secret code for our whole company. You'd actually succeeded in your coup and we just didn't know it. :shock:

As such, I blame our new secret commander for his directions on where to enter the battle... "Right up this way and you'll be fine...". Led us right into their crosshairs you did. Keep that up and you'll be the secret commander of a large amount of scrap metal. :p
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 5:39 pm Our dropships' radar tracks a squadron of aerospace fighters on an orbital trajectory to pass directly over our new landing zone. Obviously this is sub-optimal, so we consider launching fighters to intercept and run them off. The Scorpions will be committing aerospace fighters to this operation.

The Scorpions request our assistance in defending their newly captured airbase.

The Scorpions have located a Marik supply depot that, quite possibly, has some spare parts that we need to fix up Zenn7's Awesome. A quick snatch & grab should get us the parts we need. If we commit to this, the Scorpions are able to send along a mech and air support.

Beta-One is out of action - Zenn7's mech is currently unrepairable, while Zarathud's mech will need at least a couple of weeks of work. Gamma-One is missing Hyena, but our techs have kept the rest of our mechs up and running.
Send fighters to help the Scorpions fighters. Send some lighter fighters I think so they can intercept/chase?

Send Alpha1 to assist the Scorpions airbase defense.

Send the rest of our functional mechs to acquire spare parts to repair my mech! (OK, smash and grab is lighter work? Delta 1 or still heavy work? Gamma 1 or my loyal men in Beta 2?)
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

September 29, 3037
We send Beta-Air up to intercept the incoming aerospace fighters. A Lucifer, Lightning and Sabre against a bunch of light fighters, backed up by a pair of mediums. The Scorpions send up a Hellcat and a Corsair.

We'll wait the minute that it'll take the allied units to rendezvous with us then move out.

Round 1:
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Waiting.

Round 2:
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Hostile aerospace fighters closing in.

Round 3:
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We get the drop on one of the lighter units. The Cheetah eats two large lasers from our Lucifer and three medium lasers to the side from our Sabre - the Sabre's shots find the enemy ASF's engine, causing it to sputter.

Round 4:
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Our Sabre makes a pass at the Gotha, avoiding the enemy fighter's PPC and LRMs, while raking the aft armor with lasers.

Round 5:
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As the Marik forces go for turnaround, the Scorpions move into position. The Gotha whiffs its PPC shot while taking several laser hits, but its armor holds up.

Round 6-11:
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We turn around and wait for the Marik forces to re-engage. Which they eventually do, the mediums first. We pound the Corsair, the Lightning scoring an AC/20 hit on its right wing and blowing out a heat sink. Which is a bigger deal than it is on a mech - aerospace fighters are a lot more sensitive to heat and tend to go out of control. The Scorpions whale on a Cheetah, causing the light ASF to lose control.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
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Our Lightning pursues the Corsair, while the Lucifer goes after a Thrush. The Thrush eats multiple laser hits, breaching armor and taking out a laser, as well as the fire control system. The Corsair takes an AC/20 burst, sending it spinning out of control.

Round 13:
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The Lightning and allied units continue pounding on the Corsair, stripping away armor.

Round 14:
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A Cheetah gets the drop on our Lucifer, but our Sabre swings around behind the enemy ASF. The Lucifer pilot loses control of his aircraft, but so does the Cheetah.

Round 15:
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Our Lightning blows the Corsair away with an AC/20 burst as the enemy aero jock struggles to regain control of his aircraft. Allied units continue firing away as well, crippling a pair of Cheetahs.

Round 16:
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Our Sabre hits the enemy Cheetah pretty hard, zapping a pair of lasers off the enemy spacecraft.

Round 17:
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Both our Lightning and Sabre have to make turnaround as do the remaining Marik units that haven't turned tail and run. The only spacecraft engaging us is a Seydlitz, which takes two large lasers, one from the Scorpions Hellcat and one from our Lucifer, which rattles the aero jock around.

Round 18:
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The Seydlitz isn't quite fast enough to get clear of the Lucifer's range and takes a hit to the sensors.

Round 19, 20:
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That poor guy is a little too brave, I think. He dings our Lucifer with a large laser, but loses probably about half his heat sinks and takes avionics damage as well. Both aircraft are out of control - however, the Seydlitz is missing all of its armor and is barely holding together.

Round 21:
Spoiler:
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Our Lighting and the Marik Thrush come back. The Thrush very briefly, as, in addition to matching vectors with the Lightning, it also matches vectors with a burst from the Lightning's AC/20 and disintegrates.

Round 22:
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We nail the Cheetah as well, cutting it to bits with laser and autocannon fire. The remaining Marik units acknowledge defeat and abandon their main flight vector.

We let the Scorpions have the aerospace fighter wreckage.

As Delta-One moves to approach the Marik supply depot to carry out the snatch and grab, we get a message from the Marik militia forces on open frequencies. They surrender. It seems that we've blown up enough of their crappy hovercraft and tanks that they no longer wish to try to evict us. It's hard to blame them, we've given them a pretty thorough drubbing over the course of about forty five days. We're fine with a cease-fire, since we've destroyed or captured all the targets we were supposed to, according to the liaison's list.

We arrange a prisoner exchange, getting back two mechwarriors in exchange for the ungodly number of tank crews and infantry that we've been keeping around. Now that we're no longer shooting at each other, we can allow our mechwarriors to go into town. Apparently, a large chunk of the planetary population is culturally Hungarian. Despite having had several centuries to adapt to life in a galactic community, they're still pretty hostile to foreigners. The food is good, though, if you like spicy ground meat in soup form, and they like C-Bills well enough.

We arrange for a ride on the next jumpship out, rather than waiting for the FedCom guys to send one. It takes us about a week to pack up. We exchange farewells with the Scorpions, swearing up and down to each other that the Crescents are on our shit list. We never figure out what happened to them. Nothing good probably, most likely the remainder of their equipment was seized by the Free Worlds League, and it's unlikely that they got paid by FedCom, either.

When we get back to Outreach, we'll have a lot of shopping to do. LBX and Ultra AC ammo is now freely available (well, to an extent - we're unlikely to see it at the local Mechs-r-Us on any random world, we have to special order that stuff directly from the FedCom guys). We'll come up with some customization options when we get there, but, it appears that, in addition to LB 10-X and ultra AC/5, we have access to XL engines, courtesy of FedCom.

XL Engines are superb, very light, recently recovered Star League tech. The greatly reduced weight allows you to pack a lot more armor or weapons or what have you onto a mech. However, they're expensive - each engine costs as much as a mech, and takes a couple of months for an elite tech to swap out, given access to a factory. Also, a mech with an XL engine is a lot easier to disable, as the engine pokes out into the side torso sections. Normally, when you lose a side torso, it sucks, but you can usually get the mech back to base and patch it up. With an XL engine, not so much.

For example, swapping an Awesome's 240-rated engine for a 240-XL, costs ~5M C-bills and frees up 5.5 tons. Of course, there's actually very little one can do to improve the Awesome. Maybe add a couple extra heat sinks or something. But, for example, a stock Marauder gains about 8 tons of space by upgrading its 300-rated engine. The engine "extrusion" helps pad the AC/5 ammo, and then you can stick another three tons of armor and seven heat sinks in that sumbitch, letting it fire those PPCs until the cows come home. Or, another good option, upgrade the engine on a Hatchetman, then max out the armor (it's 4.5 tons short). Or, upgrade the engine on the Rifleman and cram in more heat sinks, because god knows it needs them.

Of course, all those upgrades need to be balanced against our desire to purchase an Invader-class jumpship. With the final contract payout (and prior to selling the recently-captured Union), our current war chest is at 828M. An Invader will run us ~680M C-Bills. Not to mention having to spend at least several months trying to find someone willing to sell us one. We're not exactly Kell Hounds or Wolf's Dragoons, hobnobbing around with Hanse Davion or Melissa Steiner or other Inner Sphere royalty, able to get hooked up with a jumpship fresh from Kathil shipyards. We're more like the Gray Death legion. Minus the Star League memory core. Still, we do all right.

So, the general philosophical question: do we focus on upgrading our battlemechs or do we stay the course as we were thinking before starting this contract and try to get ourselves the jumpship?
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Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Get the jump ship. The cost savings will allow us more money to upgrade our mechs in the long run.

ER-PPCs and double heat sinks are what an Awesome has to look forward to I guess? Maybe the armor upgrades.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Jumpship
Sims 3 and signature unclear.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Bigger hatchets. Or a jump ship.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

We still have 2 drop ships? How many dropships will the size jump ship we are looking at carry? Wondering if we will have an opening that we can carry other drop ships (charging appropriate fees) to help defray the costs of owning/operating the dropship.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:11 pm
El Guapo wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:42 am Thu Feb 14, 2019 9:42 am
El Guapo wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:25 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:22 pm September 20, 3037
Captured Supply Depot

After some discussion, El Guapo convinces , leader of the command staff, decides that Beta-Two is best left in a secondary role.
Fixed.
Was starting to wonder if that super secret lightening strike force thing you were in command of was some sort of secret code for our whole company. You'd actually succeeded in your coup and we just didn't know it. :shock:

As such, I blame our new secret commander for his directions on where to enter the battle... "Right up this way and you'll be fine...". Led us right into their crosshairs you did. Keep that up and you'll be the secret commander of a large amount of scrap metal. :p
Hey, we won. Therefore it was a brilliant strategy that worked to perfection.
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LordMortis
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

It's a big jumpship right? We want big. I need to fit all my... all my... Hey wait, I don't think I have any stuff. I need some stuff to fill a great big huge jumpship.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

En route to Outreach, a few Overlords announce their intention to cash out their remaining legacy shares and retire. We can pay out the following retention bonuses to keep our mechwarriors around, or let them retire (their mechs belong to the company so we keep those, with the surprising exception of a Hermes, which would go with Cylus, who apparently brought it when joining the company). The latter is a cheaper option, but the replacement mechwarriors obviously won't be as good.

Overlord - Payout
El Guapo (Mk II) - 6.5M
Freyland (Mk II) - 8.7M
Zarathud - 6.5M
Cylus (Mk II) - 2.3M

Plus a bunch of others who we don't care about as much. Although it is mildly sad that Dr. Minnie wants to retire as well. She is apparently planning to use her payout to open up her own practice in Steiner space. Well, good luck to her.

The captured Union turns out to be a bit of a lemon - we're able to load our mechs and aerospace fighters on it just fine, but when we get to Outreach, every single bay door turns out to be jammed and needs replacement. Not very expensive, but pretty time-consuming. It winds up being a four-month overhaul, which is ok as we're doing some serious R&R as well as looking around for an Invader.

Upon arrival at Outreach, our artillery lance is waiting for us. Three Thumpers and a Long Tom.

The MIIO guy comes by to collect data from the LB-10X autocannon. He frowns slightly when told that it jammed on us, but, on the plus side, points us to a "military surplus" site where we can acquire more ammo.

It takes eight months, but we eventually locate an Invader-class jumpship whose crew is willing to sign on with us. The Invader is a common Inner Sphere workhorse, with three docking collars. It's got a pair of laser bays for defense against space rocks and a pair of hangars for "small craft" (either shuttles and such or aerospace fighters). Perfect for carrying our two Unions and Jumbo. We've been hauling cargo in the Jumbo's spare space to reduce operating expenses, so we can keep doing that. Eventually, I'm hoping to trade the second Union in and grab an Overlord or something, but we'll see.

We carry out an XL Engine upgrade on a Warhammer. Nothing ground-breaking, we use the weight savings to mount five additional heat sinks and three and a half tons of extra armor. Now this thing can pound away with PPCs until the mechwarrior's finger gets tired. Scrub seems pretty happy with it.

We also carry out a refit on a captured Crusader. This 65-ton mech packs two LRM/15 launchers, two SRM/6 launchers, two machine guns and a pair of medium lasers. Too many guns, and we generally prefer a little more mobility on our mechs. Luckily, there's a 3L variant which downgrades the leg-mounted SRM launchers to 4s and mounts jump jets. Combine that with downgrading the machine gun ammo to a half-ton, and we've got ourselves a good fire support mech that can move around.

Once we acquire the Invader, we start looking around for work. It's not too hard to find some, as it turns out, and we scare up a pretty good contract. Actually, two, although one of them is somewhat questionable.

Option 1:
The Federated half of FedCom wants us to carry out an objective raid against the Draconis Combine on the planet Pike IV. The planet itself is another sauna, with an average temperature of 38 degrees celsius and high atmospheric pressure. Gravity is near standard, so that's pretty good. Given the on-going tension between FedCom and the Dracs, this will pretty much lock us in to the FedCom side for the duration (meaning we're unlikely to gain access to any of the high-tech goodies that the Dracs are developing). Details are a little sketchy due to "operational concerns", but it's looking like a pretty straight-forward smash and smash. We do convince the FedCom rep that we don't need to be under anyone's direct command if we do take the contract.

Green/D allies
Regular/B opposition
4 months expected contract duration
100% transport cost coverage (not as important any more, but still)
30% salvage rights
100% battle loss compensation
Liaison command
209M C-bills estimated profit

Option 2:
The "Chainelane Isles" want us to carry out an extraction raid against the "Oberon Confederation". Listen guys, if you're going to make up names for your imaginary Periphery domains, at least *try* a little harder. Apparently, some Oberon pirate lord has kidnapped the heir to some half-pint Periphery realm, and they want to hire a large number of heavily armed mercenaries to a) get the heir back, along with their retinue and b) teach that particular Oberon pirate lord a lesson about who they mess with. We're not really sure where the Chainelaine guys got the money they've put into escrow, but as long as it *is* in escrow, we're ok not asking too many questions.

Nobody's ever heard of Blackstone, other than it's up in the galaxy's northern butthole, so it's quite a shlep. Initially, the Chainelaine rep insists on integrating our force with the units they're sending over, but the conversation goes something like

"Uh, no."

"Ok, how about we assign officers to ride herd on your lances?"

"Uh, how about no."

"Assign a liaison to monitor your progress?"

"Ok, fine."

Nitty gritty details:
Green/D allies
Veteran/F opposition
5 months expected contract duration
100% transport cost coverage
20% salvage rights
80% battle loss compensation
liaison command
160M C-bills estimated profit

The FedCom job pays better, but the opposition will be very well equipped. The Periphery job pays a bit worse and the estimated opposition is pretty tough, if they weren't using crappy equipment held together with duct tape and bailing wire.

So: which contract are we taking, and are we retaining our expensive mechwarriors?
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Cylus Maxii
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

My vote would be to retain Cylus II.
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