Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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xwraith
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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El Guapo wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2019 4:59 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:14 pm [FYI, starting next week, updates are going to be sporadic or nonexistent for a while, as I adjust to having a newborn infant around. Again.]
Just get your eldest child to do some of the updates. Problem solved.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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May 16, 3039
Alpha-One and Alpha-Two work with Donegal Guards forces to execute a pincer against a particularly troublesome Kurita commander, who deploys his troops to counter both forces. Alpha-One gets the tougher job: getting past a bunch of tanks and light mechs... backed up by an honest-to-god lance of assault mechs. Hawk shows up in an Awesome, leading a lance of shitty salvaged tanks. Isgrimnur's Hatchetman is still getting fixed (the techs are having to basically rebuild the entire right side of the mech from scratch), so he's in an Archer. El Guapo's replacement Marauder is ready - the techs have made the slight modification of moving the almost completely unprotected ammo magazine into the right torso, where it's neighbors with the autocannon. Gbasden in the Awesome and Stefan in the Catapult round the lance out.

The opposition is... intimidating. An 8T Awesome (some kind of silly variant without three PPCs), a "bog-standard" Atlas, a Cyclops (90-tonner featuring an AC/20, a pair of medium lasers, an SRM/4 and an LRM/10), and a Warhammer. Plus the standard assortment of crappy militia tanks and light mechs, although there's an extra Thunderbolt and a Griffin in there as well. It's going to be a slug fest, and entirely possible that we will be unable to break through. Since Alpha-Three is in the area anyway, they'll come in to support the breakthrough.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Our heavier units deploy to the south of a small town, with Isgrimnur, Stefan and three Vedettes flanking in from the southwest.

The heavier Kurita units move forward, screened by lighter elements. We also spot a brief puff of smoke from within the town.

Gbasden's Awesome buckles as LRMs come in from the Atlas. That being the biggest threat on the field, he plows all three PPCs into it, melting off a substantial amount of armor.

Isgrimnur takes out an approaching Galleon tank with a solid spread of LRMs to the right side, while the hostile Manticores target the Lyran LRM Carrier and blow it away, though not before it gets in a salvo of LRMs at one of them. El Guapo heats up his mech, applying a pair of PPC shots to that same Manticore, but it's a tough tank. Still, the damage indicator shows its front armor in the red.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Gbasden backs up a little and switches targets to the Manticore that El Guapo worked over last round. The tank's front armor is breached, and it begins retreating. El Guapo, meanwhile, cools off and only fires a single PPC, but that's enough to give the crew of a Scorpion tank severe burns. Hawk blows away a Harasser that zipped around the back of our formation.

Isgrimnur barely flinches as a laser burns armor off the Archer's right arm, then sends an LRM salvo at a distant Scorpion tank, immobilizing it. Stefan's mech rocks as a PPC takes armor off his right missile rack, but returns as good as he gets, severely damaging the enemy tank's treads.

Pretty productive, we've blunted the Kurita charge. Given the weapon loadouts, it's to our advantage to stay at long range at this point. That might change when we run out of LRMs, but hopefully we'll have whittled them down some more by that point.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur sniffs around. Despite the mech's environmental controls, it smells like something's burning, and the heat gauge is quite higher than expected, possibly due to standing in a blazing inferno. The combination of heat from "external sources" plus the LRMs from the previous turns means it's advisable to cool off, but there's a Javelin *right there*. So Isgrimnur moves his thumb over a little and fires just two of the Archer's lasers. Then two more for good measure. The mech's heat gauge is basically solid red at this point. Three of the four lasers connect. Stefan joins in as well, his Catapult's four lasers breaching the light mech's left torso armor, coolant fluid spraying out. The Javelin returns fire, scoring a couple of laser hits on our Archer, but is unable to compensate for the armor loss and falls over.

To the east, El Guapo drills an approaching Locust through center of mass with a PPC. It remains upright, but any more hits on the center torso section will end it. A J. Edgar and an Ostscout make hash out of the remaining Lyran tanks, disabling a Vedette with LRM support from the distant Atlas and Cyclops.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Lighter enemy units get around our Awesomes and Marauder. With our "screening units" basically gone, we're going to have to deal with these lighter units. Of course, *those* are just a screening force for the Kurita assaults to approach. e.g. the Atlas.

Gbasden nearly jumps out of his seat as the Atlas moves in and opens up with its weapons. Luckily, the autocannon and the other ordnance miss, although the surroundings get a little toasty. He takes a beating from the lighter enemy units though and has to take a knee. Between the two Awesomes, we deliver six PPC shots to a Manticore, which blow off huge chunks of armor, but the tank just keeps on trucking.

Stefan walks over to the Javelin he and Isgrimnur just knocked over and blasts it with a couple more lasers, this time taking the left side of the mech off entirely, while sending a few LRMs at another Javelin. These two are "Fire Javelins", meaning they pack four medium lasers instead of twelve SRM tubes. Their fire is mostly ineffective. Stefan's primary target teeters and falls over again.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Guess what, assholes, reinforcements are here! The Kurita light units are caught between Alpha-Three and Alpha-One. Let's see them pick at us now. Alpha-Three arrives, consisting of a Rifleman (3C variant, El Guapo's old ride), a Shadow Hawk (2K variant, PPC instead of weapons hodge podge), a Trebuchet 5J (three medium lasers, LRM/15) and a Crusader 3L (just like a regular Crusader except with jump jets and downgraded SRM tubes).

The lighter bad guys break left, aiming to pick on Isgrimnur and Stefan. The Jenner zaps Isgrimnur several times with the Archer's lasers, while Isgrimnur returns fire with his lasers, once again causing a cacophany of heat warning beeps. The Archer's armor holds up, while the Jenner throws out sparks as actuators blow out along with one of the lasers. The Jenner's mechwarrior, to his credit, manages to keep the machine upright, but is too distracted to carry out any physical attacks. This leaves the nearby Ostscout by itself. Using his considerable expertise swinging an axe, Isgrimnur swings the Archer's leg, cracking the Ostscout a couple of times, nearly removing both legs. The loss of armor and inherent instability caused by getting booted by a 70 ton mech results in the Ostscout's right leg snapping just below the hip. It's still technically attached, but only by loose myomer and electrical cables.

Hawk aims at the damaged Manticore, finally taking it out, while Gbasden struggles his mech back up and out of the fire and delivers two shots to a laser carrier, which remains intact. Until Stefan sends thirty LRMs its way, with eighteen finding their mark and blasting it to bits.

El Guapo backs away to the south and flips the Marauder's arms backwards, zapping the harassing Locust's right weapons mount off with a PPC shot.

The newly-arrived Trebuchet looses an LRM salvo at a distant Manticore, with a few lucky missiles finding their way through the armor and forcing the tank to spurt oily smoke instead of moving.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
With their Manticores disabled, crippled or destroyed, that leaves just the Kurita assault mechs for heavy firepower. Them and a Von Luckner slowly trundling up. The smoke from the fires is definitely helping us avoid the worst of the damage. Even though it's getting blown away by the light wind, it's still pretty dense due to the number of fires burning.

The Jenner that got worked over by Isgrimnur last round breaks south, but Stefan is on the job, firing the Catapult's laser cluster. The shots strike true, cracking the light mech's leg open below the knee.

Gbasden turns his Awesome towards the Atlas and slows down, smoke billowing past. The Atlas fires on the Rifleman, scoring a couple of laser hits and blowing out some external equipment, but avoiding most damage. Gbasden lines up the Awesome's PPCs and scores a perfect head shot, taking out the cockpit, the assault mech flopping to the ground. The Rifleman does take a hip shot from a Kurita Vedette, cracking the hip joint, but the mechwarrior keeps it upright. Standing nearby, Hawk makes sure to reach around and backhand the nearby Javelin, popping a heat sink in its right torso.

Our Crusader takes a pounding from the nearby Javelin and Locust, the damage forcing the heavy mech to a knee, but capitalizes on El Guapo's earlier center torso hit by cracking the bug mech's gyro housing with a machine gun burst.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
What do you do when you armor is breached and your gyro is poking out from the front of your mech? If you're this Kurita Locust, you run in front of an Awesome with your back facing towards its three PPCs. It's actually not a bad idea when said Awesome, driven by Hawk, is busy (together with El Guapo) targeting a distant Warhammer and knocking it over after three PPC hits and an AC/5 burst. The Trebuchet covers El Guapo, blasting armor off the nearby Vedette's left side. The Locust's plan falls apart, though, when Hawk still takes a second to stick out an 80-ton foot and trip it up, cracking the enemy mech's left leg in the process.

Gbasden takes a break from destroying assault mechs and blows away a Vedette with just two PPCs to cool off. The hip-damaged Rifleman starts pulling back, taking quite a beating and losing both AC/10s and getting knocked over.

Isgrimnur stay in his smoky woods, blasting a nearby Wasp with a couple of lasers, then giving it a one-two (-three-four) punch, which takes the right side of the bug mech off. The Wasp decides to leave. That's the Kurita light lance gone or fled.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Stefan jumps into the smoke and woods with Isgrimnur, blasting a Pegasus as he goes. The hovertank's air cushion deflates and there it is, stopped. The crew runs out as fast as they can.

The Warhammer catches four PPCs, two from Gbasden, two from El Guapo, the latter's last PPC shot breaching right arm armor. Our Trebuchet is pretty busy dueling with the nearby Fire Javelin, exchanging lasers and absorbing a PPC from the Warhammer meant for El Guapo. However, he takes a couple of seconds to lock on to the Warhammer and fire off an LRM salvo, which goes through an armor breach in the right torso and sets off the heavy mech's SRM ammo.

Our Rifleman explodes when the nearby J. Edgar opens up at close range with its considerable amount of machine guns and gets through an armor breach, detonating the AC/10 ammo.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Things calm down briefly. There's still a heavy mech/tank lance advancing down the west flank, along with a Griffin and Wasp who exchange fire with Stefan and Isgrimnur. The J. Edgar that took out the Rifleman gets stomped flat by Gbasden, while Isgrimnur punches the Griffin, severely damaging its arm. Our Trebuchet fights with the Fire Javelin, the enemy mech winding up on the ground after being tripped up.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
El Guapo remains in the forest and targets the Cyclops in the distance as it sends LRMs our way, scoring a hit center of mass with a PPC.

Isgrimnur nails the Griffin with lasers, the enemy mech's left arm going limp. Stefan targets the nearby Wasp with laser, and it unexpectedly blows up as the lasers hit. Turns out Alpha-Three's Shadow Hawk blew out its SRM/2 ammo with a PPC shot. The Fire Javelin continues to skulk around in the smoke, but Gbasden has finally had enough of its lasers to teh back and gives it a solid boot. The smaller mech simply falls apart, as our Awesome has to shake its leg to get bits of gyro and myomer bundles off.

The situation is basically unsalvageable for the Kurita forces at this point and, presumably, the guy in the Cyclops calls a retreat. The Griffin jumps away, the Skulker squeals off as well, and the rest of the forces disengage. We've got work to do, so we don't pursue.

Our salvage crews can't stop drooling over the prospect of working on an Atlas. We also grab the legged lance of light mechs, because why not - a Jenner, a Locust and an Ostscout. The Locust is getting taken apart for spare parts, while the other two we'll keep boxed up. We leave the flattened Javelin carcass and the tanks. Hawk and the remaining two Lyran tanks will remain to supervise salvage operations, while Alpha-One and Three move to assist Alpha-Two. Gbasden's mech is showing red and yellow on limb armor, and we lost Alpha-Three's Rifleman, but otherwise, we're in pretty good shape to reinforce.

While they're marching, we receive word that Beta-Three and a lance of Lyran buddies have successfully eliminated their target (although the allied forces lost a Centurion to an ammo explosion).

Gamma-Air, meanwhile engaged and routed a patrol of lighter aircraft attempting to establish air superiority over Berta, while Gamma-Three reports the presence of an artillery base there. Gamma-Three's recon indicates a company of mechs guarding it (two light lances and a heavy lance), along with a lance of tanks. The artillery is not currently a threat to any of our operations, and our liaison doesn't seem to care much about it. There is the potential for some pretty good salvage though. Do we take it on or leave it?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

If it's not on a contract, does the salvage count against our contract salvage?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

It counts, although we can also hand over salvage to our employer to build up future salvage credit.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Yay! It's back. I guess the kid are all growed up and off to college now.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Welcome back.

I say pass. This campaign is costly enough without risking resources on side missions.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

If we anticipate having to come under these artillery guns in the future, take it. If not, leave it. As Freyland noted, this campaign is too expensive already!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Agreed with Zenn7 - if we think it will become a threat, take it out. Salvaging an Atlas is a good step to making this a profitable venture, though.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

Agree with the above cautionary approach.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

Cylus Maxii wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 12:57 pm Agree with the above culinary approach.
I really need to get checked out. I may have had one or two LRM's too many to the cockpit. I thought you said what I edited it to until I read it again.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We decide to ignore the artillery base for now.

May 18, 3039
Alpha-One and Three march double time over the course of two days. The plan is for Alpha-Two to engage and fix the elimination target in place, then Alpha-One and Three move in and close the noose. Unfortunately, the Kurita guys get the drop on Alpha-Two and their Lyran buddies, and they are surrounded as they enter a medium-sized industrial complex. Alpha-Two is a Merlin, a Trebuchet, a Griffin 1S and a Phoenix Hawk, while the 14th Guards are a nasty group of heavy tanks: a Bulldog, a Manticore, an SRM Carrier and a Demolisher.

The attacking Kurita forces are a heavy mech lance (Warhammer, Archer, Champion, Crusader), a reinforced medium mech lance (Trebuchet, Griffin, Firestarter, Locust, Valkyrie) and some assorted tanks, the nastiest being a Von Luckner. The command vehicle is actually a wussy little Galleon tank.

In response to the distress call, Alpha-Three proceeds at top speed with its three mechs, and will arrive in about a minute, while Alpha-One is slower and almost two minutes out.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Alpha-Two's commander, driving the Merlin immediately gets pounded by a Locust and a J. Edgar hovertank, taking heavy armor damage across multiple locations. She retaliates by disabling the J. Edgar with a PPC shot. Her Trebuchet wingman jumps in and fires lasers at the Locusts, damaging its left weapons mount.

To the south, an allied Bulldog gets blown away by the Kurita Archer sending a cloud of LRMs into the tank's right side.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
As the Merlin is outmanuevered by the Locust (our mechwarrior jumps away, trying to get into some woods for cover, but the faster bug mech runs in behind the Merlin anyway, using its rotating weapon mounts to fire backwards), the allied SRM Carrier annihilates the target command vehicle.

"Target destroyed. We'll attempt to break out to the west." announces the Lyran commander.

"Understood. Alpha-Two-Three and Four, provide cover."

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
That Locust is just kicking the Merlin's ass - despite being about three times heavier. The heavy mech takes serious damage to the right arm, one of the actuators blowing out and a medium laser powering down as well. The Merlin does blow off about half the Locust's weapons with the laser on the other arm, though.

The allied forces perform prett ywell, the SRM Carrier disabling a Manticore. Our Phoenix Hawk watches as the Kurita Von Luckner levels its weapons assembly at the allied Manticore and blows the fellow heavy tank's treads off. The allied Demolisher takes the left torso off a foolish Wasp that didn't close in quite fast enough. We pour fire into the Von Luckner, but it remains intact.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
"Berta-Two here, we're getting pounded. Going to need assistance." comes the call from our Lyran buddies. They've gone from pounding the enemy into dust to having just one vehicle combat effective, the Demolisher.

Our Griffin moves to the west, attempting to retreat, and is intercepted by a Valkyrie. The Kurita pilot has the right idea, trying to get around the back of the Griffin, but the 1S's primary armament is all in the right arm, so he's able to swing all three lasers around and zap teh Valkyrie pretty good.

The Phoenix Hawk gets a pleasant surprise as the mechwarrior circles his mech around the Von Luckner, covering the heavily damaged and disabled Lyran allies. dodging autocannon fire (mostly). The lasers simply melt some armor, but the machine gun burst finds a weak spot in the turret armor, and then seconds later the Von Luckner goes up in smoke. The Phoenix Hawk then gives the nearby Griffin a solid boot, taking a backhand to the left torso in return.

The Locust inflicts some more damage on the Merlin, but has finally had it when the Trebuchet locks on with lasers and blasts through the torso armor, damaging the engine.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Griffin outmanuevers the Valkyrie, disabling its right arm (which means the enemy mech just has an LRM launcher left for weapons). The Phoenix Hawk runs over to target an AC/2 carrier as it blasts away at the Griffin, detonating the vehicle's fuel tank with an MG burst.

In the center of town, the Demolisher is disabled by combined LRM fire from the Archer and Trebuchet, but not before taking the head off the Kurita Archer. Those twin AC/20s are brutal, too bad they're mounted on something so easily immobilized.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Alpha-Three's double-time has paid off, and they arrive in time to intercept the Kurita heavies closing in from the north. It's pretty unnecessary though. After the Griffin detonates the Valkyrie through repeated application of lasers to the LRM ammo bin, and Alpha-Three's Crusader perforates another AC/2 Carrier, the rest of the Kurita units find themselves outnumbered and retreat, no doubt leery of the four additional sensor blips coming in.

Etiquette prevents us from claiming the Archer as salvage, since the Lyrans are the ones who got the kill. We babysit the salvage operations, then return to base. The Lyran tank crews are appropriately thankful that we stuck around to bail them out, and three of the vehicles will be perfectly serviceable once they're repaired. Back at base, our tech crews are on the ball and all of our non-destroyed mechs are repaired. The Atlas will apparently take a few weeks to get back into working order, but the techs are able to pull spare parts from the cockpit of a salvaged Locust, so we won't have to screw around with that.

Analysis of our recon data in Berta sector has yielded the location of quite a number of facilities, including a mech base, a supply depot, and a comm center. This is in addition to the artillery base. The mech base is one of our strategic objectives for this contract, but the other bases are within mutual support range, so that whole system will be a tough nut to crack.

Kurita forces are also detected moving through Emil and Friedrich sectors, no doubt to reinforce a command outpost they have set up in Anton within striking range of our dropships. Hawk plans to lead a lance of Lyran units to intercept the Kurita units moving through Friedrich. He suggests that we don't need to destroy all of said units, just give them a bloody nose and run them around long enough for our forces in Anton to take out the command post.

Our other problem is that we're starting to run pretty low on LRM/15 ammo, which will effectively put all our Archers, Trebuchets and Catapults (and any aircraft with LRM/15s) out of action - at the current rate of expenditure, we're looking at being able to fight this set of sorties, but after that, we'll need to get a hold of some reloads. There hasn't been a supply drop for a while, so our Lyran buddies don't really have the spares, either.

We definitely want to defend our dropship landing zone (at least four lances' worth). The question is, which of the targets in Berta do we hit?

1. Artillery base - unimportant by itself, but those tubes will be shelling anything we send to the other facilities
2. Mech base - strategic objective *and* will be sending out mech backup to the other facilities
3. Comms center - allows the Kurita guys to better coordinate reinforcements going to the other facilities
4. Supply depot - not immediately important, but we're starting to hurt for ammo and spare parts for our heavier units

The trick is, we only have enough "loose" forces to hit three of those - we're deploying two companies to counter the forces advancing on our LZ, and we'd like to avoid deploying Alpha company, since they've been "on the clock" pretty much non-stop over the last week. That leaves one company free to hit the Berta facilities.

One of our mechwarriors does manage to lighten the load a little by pointing out that we've got a lance of artillery tubes who've basically been sitting around doing nothing, and maybe it's time for them to stop sitting around whacking off.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

I say we skip the comms center for now. If we can deal with the artillery and mech base, there shouldn't be as many reinforcements for them to coordinate anyway. And we definitely need the supplies.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 3:05 pm I say we skip the comms center for now. If we can deal with the artillery and mech base, there shouldn't be as many reinforcements for them to coordinate anyway. And we definitely need the supplies.
Agreed. Maybe our arty can help us with the mech base? Or are they better left on defense?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

I think the artillery would be awesome on the mech base mission.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 9:00 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 3:05 pm I say we skip the comms center for now. If we can deal with the artillery and mech base, there shouldn't be as many reinforcements for them to coordinate anyway. And we definitely need the supplies.
Agreed. Maybe our arty can help us with the mech base? Or are they better left on defense?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

After some discussion, we come up with the following plan - Delta and Beta will split the difference on dropship defense. Delta-One and Delta-Two will handle the Kurita forces marching across Emil sector, Beta-One will borrow one of Beta-Three's mechwarriors and go level the command center, while Beta-Two handles Friedrich sector. Delta One/Two and Beta-Two will be assisted by Lyran forces already in the area.

Gamma-three will hit the artillery base, Gamma-Two will attempt to capture the supply depot while Gamma-One will hit the mech base with artillery support. Gamma-Air will be on station to provide air support as needed. The 14th Donegal will be sending two lances to help as well. It'll be a little bit more difficult with the comm center providing coordination for the Kurita forces, but doable.

May 21, 3039
Gamma's assault on the mech base and supporting facilities encounters some initial difficulties - as the Lyran forces move in, a Kurita dropship zips in to let out a swarm of reinforcements. The allied forces call in air support. Gamma-Air is on the job, but before they get there, they are engaged by a Kurita air patrol, and our Slayer winds up having to fight off a light aircraft, while loaded down with bombs. But the aero jock gets it done. The Kurita force turns out to have been a lot smaller than the Lyrans made it sound, and the dropship was a Leopard. Once our aircraft show up and begin their bombing runs, the Kurita guys leave pretty quick. But the delay prevents the Lyran units from join Gamma's assault on the mech base complex. On the plus side, we'll have two aircraft with a full bomb load (and minor armor damage) to support whichever elements of Gamma need it.

Gamma-Three fails to destroy the artillery base. The early night-time raid was a good idea on paper, the goal being to simply jump in, blast the ammo stores, then get out, but the Kurita guys were smart enough to park a lance of artillery tubes a few kilometers away. They shell Gamma-Three on approach, and although our lance manages to disable or destroy three artillery tubes and wreck a few ammo dumps (most of the damage actually done by friendly fire), the base remains functional. Our lance takes catastrophic damage, losing the Ostscout and its mech jock and the Griffin (with the mechwarrior being captured). The Phoenix Hawk and Spider both return to base with severe engine damage. Still, the damage prevents the artillery base from deploying its artillery tubes in time to support the other places Gamma is attacking.

When Gamma-One attacks, the mech base is home to a heavy mech lance, a light mech lance, some garrison tanks and two heavy aircraft flying air support (just happen to arrive at the right time). Gamma-One itself is Hyena back in the Striker, Scrub/Warhammer, Cylus/Grasshopper and Xwraith/Thunderbolt. All we *really* need to do is spot for the artillery so they can blow the base to bits, but if we can get some salvage, so much the better.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We move into a patch of woods and are engaged by lighter enemy units. A Saladin zips in and takes some lasers from Cylus, puffing air and metal chunks out of its skirt. Cylus also sends some missiles at an approaching Panther, the hits clustering around the head.

Scrub and Xwraith engage a Grasshopper in the distance, scoring hits with PPCs and the ER laser respectively, peeling off about two tons of armor.

Hyena's mech rattles a little as a Slayer flies overhead, spoiling his aim with the AC/10. He nails it with a PPC in the tailpipe, though. The aircraft buckles but the aero jock retains control.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Here's something you don't see every day. A Catapult CPLT-K2, otherwise known as a "Katapult". When house Kurita was running low on LRMs, some engineers got the bright idea to take the LRM launchers off a Catapult's shoulders and put PPCs there. Well, the PPCs were pretty heavy and required way more heat sinks, so they took the jump jets off, too, and half the lasers. Then, somebody's cousin probably owned a factory that makes machine guns, so they shoved a pair of those in there too. The twin PPCs make it a dangerous long-range unit.

Cylus jumps clear of the Saladin. The hovertank blasts Scrub's Warhammer with its AC/20, stripping most of the armor off the right arm, but is then zapped with another laser salvo from our Grasshopper, taking it out. A Locust runs up to Hyena, hitting the 80-ton Striker with a laser and some machine gun bursts. Hyena replies by spinning up the autocannon and cracking open the bug mech's right torso, detonating the on-board MG ammo. That's one mech down.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Artillery shells from our battery starts coming down, the Long Tom causing armor and tread damage to a cluster of mechs and tanks.

Scrub's left arm comes off under fire from a large cluster of hostiles plus a Slayer aircraft. She scowls, bringing her remaining PPC to bear on the aerospace fighter and blasts it in the undercarriage. Something puffs out the back, then it corkscrews into the ground right behind the Warhammer.

Hyena and Cylus focus fire on a Panther, blasting armor off the torso and a few of Cylus' LRMs blowing out a heat sink. The loss of armor causes the light mech to stagger and fall face first, where it stops moving for a little bit, presumably the mechwarrior blacked out.

Xwraith surgically cuts armor off a nearby Wasp's right leg with the ER laser, then stomps on a nearby Harasser, flattening it between the ground and the Thunderbolt's 65-ton foot.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
A Long Tom round comes flying in slightly off-target and lands right on top of an unfortunate Harasser, which completely disappears as the on-board ammo (two tons' worth) and fuel add to the artillery shell explosion.

Cylus jumps in to cover Scrub as she pulls back - the Warhammer's right arm takes serious damage as well, one of the actuator snapping under fire from the Katapult. Cylus' fire takes the left arm off a nearby Wasp, then a kick removes the bug mech's left leg, sending it flopping to the ground.

Xwraith jumps forward, disabling a Maxim hover transport with short range laser fire, then stomping a couple of SRM-toting infantry as they clamber out.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub backs the Warhammer up some more, getting ready to retreat. Despite the arm actuator damage, she zaps a nearby Scimitar tank with the PPC, disabling it. A few laser shots from Xwraith reinforce the vehicle's immobility.

Cylus jumps back, firing at some woods to try to put an impromptu smoke screen between our mechs and the enemy swarm - a large laser and an LRM/5 salvo target the Katapult beyond the woods. The laser flakes some armor off the left leg, then the LRMs impact the center torso. It seems like it'd just be a little plink, the Katapult is pretty heavily armored, but it explodes instead. I guess putting that MG ammo there didn't pay off.

To the south, Hyena's Striker beeps at him, reporting a right torso armor breach. He ignores it, blasting the offending Pegasus hovertank, plowing through armor and internal structure with the autocannon. A few blasts from the laser set the nearby woods on fire, forming a smoke screen with better success than Cylus had.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
We create another smoke screen but not much happens otherwise, other than some armor blasting, although Hyena does get into a brawl with a Panther in the smoke, knocking it down to a knee.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
A Jenner charges through the smoke and Cylus sweeps lasers across its legs, taking nearly all the armor off and damaging internals. Xwraith grunts as SRMs and lasers impact around the cockpit, but finishes Cylus' work, taking the Jenner's leg off at the hip. The mech crushes its right-side weapons as it falls.

Hyena backs up a little and cores out the Panther with a laser and autocannon combo.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
There's nothing quite like seeing an infantry platoon caught in the open by a shell from a Long Tom, and Scrub cringes as PBIs go flying everywhere.

Hyena continues the game of cat and mouse in the smoke, poking out to blow up a Scorpion tank as it fires LRMs at Cylus. The Grasshopper is a little bit beleaguered as it gets strafed by the remaining Slayer. The enemy aircraft weathers the return fire and flies off for another pass. The Jenner is being pokey, so it gets a boot to crush the right torso section.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Hyena's mech staggers as the enemy Warhammer bursts through the smoke and unloads short-range weapons. Two heat sinks burst, as well as the PPC. The return fire fails to breach armor, although a boot nearly strips the enemy heavy's right leg.

Xwraith plays hide and seek with the enemy Grasshopper. The ER laser's superior accuracy comes into play as it goes in center of mass, and the Grasshopper lurches and drops to its knees - the beam cuts through the enemy mech's large laser barrel, and its heat readings spike as well.

Cylus jumps south, turning the Grasshopper's lasers on a Harasser, cutting it to bits. The Slayer tries to strafe him but is deterred by a PPC shot from Scrub's Warhammer.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
The smoke is becoming a little too crowded, so Hyena steps out and blasts a Galleon tank to bits with the autocannon.

Scrub engages a Crusader, the Warhammer's short-range assault throwing off the enemy mech's aim as it targets Cylus, then stomps on a nearby Vedette, immobilizing it. Cylus' Grasshopper still takes a hit to the arm from one of the Kurita Thunderbolts, blowing out an actuator.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Cylus moves to back Hyena up, detonating a Striker light tank when one of the Grasshopper's lasers connects to its fuel lines. Hyena's mech shudders as that damn Slayer comes back for another strafing run, and the indicators for the right side go black. At least he gets off a last salvo against the nearby Panther, laying it out on its ass. At that point, Cylus capitalizes by stomping on its chest and crushing pretty much every major internal component.

Scrub shakes her head at this point. Our artillery just isn't being accurate enough, and we're taking too much damage. It's time to pull out.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
As we pull back, Cylus gets a good shot on the enemy Warhammer, jumping over it through the smoke and blowing out its SRM ammo, sending debris sky-high.

The Crusader chases Scrub and Xwraith through the smoke, taking a significant amount of damage but disabling Scrub's second PPC. Xwraith opens up with every laser, then boots it, causing the enemy mech to stagger and drop to a knee.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
The Crusader struggles up and backs out, to be replaced by a Thunderbolt. Xwraith engages the enemy mech, but the 5S model has more firepower, at the expense of not having jump jets, plus our mech is more damaged. Still, no armor breaches yet.

Cylus takes down a Galleon tank that lingers in the woods a little too long.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
That Thunderbolt chasing Xwraith and Scrub through the smoke overshoots its capabilities a little. Xwraith runs around the back of the enemy mech, distracting it with rear attacks, then Scrub sends a fusillade of short range fire at the enemy mech. In addition to the severe leg damage from MG fire and SRMs, one SRM gets through the center torso armor plating and shatters the gyro. Leg actuators crack as the mech keels over.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
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I guess we didn't withdraw so much as pull back into a bunch of smoke and start picking the Kurita guys off one by one. Cylus picks off a Scorpion tank with ease, while Scrub and Xwraith blast the Crusader as it wanders back into the smoke, inflicting multiple armor breaches. Scrub holds its attention while Xwraith kicks the leg out from under it, the heavy mech crushing its right arm as it topples.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
That Slayer comes around for another pass, firing lasers and SRMs at Cylus' Grasshopper, scoring some hits. Xwraith has had enough of it and locks on LRMs, a good number of missiles impacting the enemy aircraft. The aerospace fighter's engine goes out and it goes down.

Unfortunately, it goes down right into Cylus' mech, bouncing off before both the fighter and the mech fall to the ground.

Round 17:
Spoiler:
Image
The legged Crusader starts moving around again and pointing its remaining weapons where it shouldn't, so Scrub unloads on it. A machine gun burst hits the Crusader's MG ammo storage bin, and up it goes.

Round 18:
Spoiler:
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Cylus wakes up, feeling a little groggy. The mech's damage readouts are basically entirely in the red, except for the legs, which are intact for some reason. The right arm is missing entirely, as is a large chunk of torso structure. It's time for the Grasshopper to retire honorably from the field while the remaining enemy units are otherwise occupied.

Scrub takes out the nearby Galleon tank as it approaches the smoke cloud, her Warhammer's short ranged weapons remaining just as effective despite the loss of the two PPCs. Xwraith engages the enemy Thunderbolt, causing major armor loss, and making the enemy mechwarrior fall over.

Round 19, 20:
Spoiler:
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Xwraith briefly steps out of the smoke, taking some fire and delivering a laser blast plus LRMs to the Scimitar. All damage is absorbed by armor, however. The mechwarrior in the enemy Thunderbolt moves into the smoke, hoping to get the drop on Scrub, but she's ready and her short range weapons blow out one of the Kurita mech's lasers. Not the big one, but still. Whereas the enemy mechwarrior must be sweating balls by now, Scrub is keeping nice and cool, as she's got no PPCs to fire. A match up of Thunderbolt and Scimitar hovertank vs Thunderbolt and damaged Warhammer doesn't end well, the enemy mech's left torso ruined and all lasers but one inoperative.
Spoiler:
Image
This leaves a crappy hovertank and two treadheads who spent the time cowering in the base as artillery shells rained around them. The base is pretty wrecked at this point, so we allow the Thunderbolt to grab its left arm and withdraw. The enemy mechwarrior bows to Scrub as he leaves. It's just as well, that was her last SRM salvo. While we're distracted though, the Slayer that bounced off of Cylus manages to fire up its engines and performs a rough ground take off.

What a goddamn meat grinder. But at least we won. And even better, some of the buildings remain intact, so we can salvage some spare parts and ammo, in addition to anything we may or may not get from the supply depot. Unit salvage is pretty good, we pick up the downed Slayer for spare parts for our aircraft, and the gyro'd Thunderbolt, because you can never have enough Thunderbolts. Gamma-One is probably going to be out for a while though as we organize repairs.

Cylus was the MVP on this one, taking down a whopping nine enemy units, including four mechs. Our artillery guys, meanwhile, need to work on their targeting. Scrub spends the whole trip back to base giving the artillery guys an earful. "Not that I don't appreciate you guys scattering that infantry platoon to the four winds, but you assholes fired off sixty three Thumper rounds and twenty one Long Tom rounds, and all you have to show for it is a little armor damage and some dead infantry? Come on!"
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by xwraith »

Soon we shall have a lance of thunderbolts. All with ER large lasers.

Soon.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Gamma-Two, meanwhile, takes on the supply depot, with mixed success. On the one hand, we capture the supply depot. However, Gamma-Two loses the Centurion, while the Kintaro is pretty close to out as well: both the engine and the gyro have been knocked out (although the techs assure us that they don't need complete replacement). The Trebuchet loses its LRM/15 launcher. It's all fun and games until a dropship flies by and three heavy mechs jump in right on top of your lance. Luckily, Gamma-Air is on station and whoops the Kurita ground forces pretty good.

The plus side is that, in addition to capturing a reasonable (though less-than-expected) amount of ammo, we recover another Marauder (bringing our total up to three) and a Guillotine. Once we rebuild it, it'll be a pretty reasonable 70-ton mech, packing an array of four medium lasers, a large laser and an SRM/6 tube. The heat sink content is pretty good too.

Between the supply depot and the looting the mech base, we're able to secure a good amount of ordnance. The liaison even hooks us up with two tons of Listen-Kill ammo for LRM/20s.

-------------
The Kurita forces advancing on our dropships run into some serious problems. Beta-Three hits their staging area, while Beta-One, Delta-One and Delta-Two intercept their forces as they gather. Beta-Three catches the guys at the staging area with their pants down, and they retreat after our Vindicator takes down their commander's mech (a Clint), destroying its gyro and removing a leg.

Beta-One borrows a replacement mechwarrior from Beta-Two, temporarily putting him in a Stalker, and moves, along with Hawk and a lance of Lyran heavy tanks, to intercept and destroy one of the groups heading towards the staging area. Hawk is driving a Vulcan this time, explaining that he feels a need to practice with an inferior mech. Zenn7 shrugs, muttering something about "stupid fickle academy kids these days".

The group being intercepted is eight mechs (one light lance, one heavy lance - an Archer, a Dragon, a Crusader and a Cicada), plus a collection of hovercraft and a couple heavier tanks, slightly short of two lances. The fight begins in a somewhat confused fashion, as the two forces are somewhat intermixed - we ambush the Kurita guys, but they'd spread out a little prior to us starting the party. In the end, we're not sure who really ambushed who.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 is way the hell out of position, but everyone else is already stuck in.

The biggest threat in the area is the SRM Carrier, which gets off a salvo on the Stalker. Most of the missiles go wide or hit trees, a few hit water, and the rest sandpaper off some armor. Moley uses the Thunderbolt's lasers to cut the offending vehicle to bits. The Stalker stays in the water and unloads at point blank range on a nearby Wasp, which, surprisingly enough, remains intact. Minus its entire right side.

Zarathud fires at the SRM Carrier as well, though the Awesome's PPCs are a moot point. Hearing a clang off the front, our mechwarrior looks at the little Firestarter trying to kick our assault mech in the shins and delivers an 80-ton counter-boot, sending the Firestarter flying to the ground, minus a crunched leg.

To the north, the Lyran tank lance and some of the other Kurita units exchange fire - a Panther runs alongside a Von Luckner, firing the PPC and SRMs at the heavy tank's treads, and takes an AC/20 round to the right torso. The mech wobbles as the gyro cracks, and falls over. When the Von Luckner rolls forward, though, it leaves its right-side treads (and most of the wheels) behind, becoming immobile. The Kurita Archer takes an AC/20 round from the "scout" Hetzer and is knocked on its ass as well.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Panther gets up and limps off as best it can.

Moley takes advantage of a Firestarter's misstep to backup up and blast it in the back with a couple of lasers. The mech turns bright red on the infrared scanner, indicating engine damage, then keels over as the damaged gyro is unable to compensate.

The Crusader moves up and Zarathud charges in to its left. Our Stalker fires from the water, scoring multiple laser hits on the enemy mech, which causes it to fall over and Zarathud's point-blank PPC shots to miss. Well, that's why they have a minimum range. Our mechwarrior takes out some frustration by stomping on the Crusader's leg, though the armor holds up. The only major damage to that mech so far is the loss of one of the arm-mounted LRM launchers that got crushed against the ground.

To the north, the Lyran tanks continue brawling with their Kurita counterparts, neither side gaining a decisive advantage.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley's Firestarter target struggles up and backs away, trailing steam and metal bits. Moley turns attention elsewhere, combining fire with Zarathud to blast the Crusader's arm off.

To the north, the Kurita Archer continues taking a pummeling from AC/20s, losing its left arm laser. The Brutus gets beat up a little, the crew rattled around by multiple missile impacts. That "scout" Hetzer trades a ton of AC/20 ammo for a beagle active probe, which would be great in an urban environment looking for concealed units, but kind of useless out here. On the plus side, it's not like a Hetzer will last long enough to fire off three tons of AC/20 ammo anyway. Well, it's an ok field test for experimental equipment.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
As Zenn7 finally closes to weapons range, things turn bad for our Lyran buddies. The Hetzer is immobilized by the Kurita Archer firing LRMs, while the Brutus goes up in smoke and lots of debris, as about five tons of various missiles detonate under fire from the Kurita Dragon. The Rommel is disabled by a Locust. This leaves the rest of the Kurita guys for us and Hawk.

Zarathud fires three more PPCs at the Crusader as it staggers away, breaching armor, then Moley finishes it off with a laser blast to the LRM ammo bin. The Firestarter in front of Moley goes down again under the Rommel tank's last shots and Moley takes the opportunity to stomp on it, crushing the right torso section. The mechwarrior wastes very little time in powering down and climbing out.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Hovertanks swarm around Zenn7 and Zarathud, evading our lumbering mechs' PPCs, but Moley is on the job, disabling a Scimitar hovertank with short range laser fire. Zarathud's PPCs blast the main gun off a Vedette to the east. The Stalker and Dragon exchange fire, but the damage is relatively minor. Until the Stalker steps behind the Dragon as it charges by and scrapes half the actuators off its right leg. Then it goes down.

As he gets up, the guy inside realizes that it's him and a damaged Archer, plus a dwindling number of light tanks (and, uh, a Locust and a Cicada), against three assault mechs, a heavy and a medium. The remaining Kurita forces retreat. Now it's up to Delta to prevent our dropships from being attacked by the remaining Kurita forces.

Salvage is so crappy we don't even bother picking it up, but on the plus side, the Lyrans are able to recover three of their four tanks.

Back at base, our techs strip Gamma-Two's wrecked Centurion for armor and ammo, then put the wrecked chassis in storage for later sale. The damage we've taken is pretty extensive so far, and our techs work around the clock patching up armor and replacing destroyed components.

Mech re-design time:
The Kintaro sucks ass. It's got way too many guns and not enough heat sinks. With 20 heat points worth of lasers and SRMs and only 10 heat sinks, you're basically stuck with alternating laser and SRM fire. And you still overheat anyway if you move. The mechwarrior driving it also complains about the lack of manueverability. Once we finish this contract, one way or the other, this mech becomes a primary candidate for some customization work.

The mechwarrior proposes one modification, but asks the rest of the crew for suggestions. The suggested modification is:

1. Drop the LRM/5 and ammo, add three heat sinks. This will at least ensure that the mech can fire all of its guns without the diagnostic screens going blurry.
2. Write-in

Another decision we should make is whether or not to keep the third Marauder. Never hurts to have a spare, but there are some minor storage and transportation costs associated with it. It'll sell for about 5.6M in its current state.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Keep the Marauder. We have three, but these things tend to blow up periodically for some reason.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

As this meat grinder is proving, it's probably good to keep extra decent mechs on hand.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

Wow - that was an intense battle! I'm surprised I survived the fighter crashing into me. Was my Grasshopper totaled?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Cylus Maxii wrote: Tue May 21, 2019 3:24 pm Wow - that was an intense battle! I'm surprised I survived the fighter crashing into me. Was my Grasshopper totaled?
The right arm got knocked off, but the rest of the mech "just" needed pretty much every armor plate replaced and a few structural repairs, to the tune of ~20k C-Bills and 300+ man-hours worth of work (with two tech teams working in shifts). The techs estimate it'll be fixed up by the end of the week.

The Slayer is scrap, though. Just goes to show how tough some mechs are.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue May 21, 2019 1:34 pm Zenn7 is way the hell out of position, but everyone else is already stuck in.
Who's messing with my nav com???
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Keeping the Marauder it is.

May 24, 3039

Delta-One tracks a rather large force of Kurita units advancing under radio silence towards their (now-non-existent) command post. There's a pretty good number of them - two lances of mechs and a couple of companies of light and medium tanks of various kinds - so they could still do a good bit of damage. Delta-One's Lyran companions will set up at the end of an industrial complex and wait for our guys to lure the Kurita units in, then blast away.

To enhance the effect of the ambush, Delta-One buzzes the Kurita units at night. Making things even easier is the heavy fog rolling through the industrial complex. Now before you take a deep breath and remark about how refreshing it is, remember that, on this planet, it's probably not water.

For this mission, we've loaded Freyland's mech up with Listen-Kill LRMs, so we'll see how they perform. Probably they won't see much use, since it's basically impossible to hit anything in this soup.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Freyland takes the Quickdraw across some rooftops, chased by a bounding Dervish. The enemy mech fires a few SRMs that go spiraling harmlessly into the sky, while Freyland scores hits with two lasers, flaking off armor.

Madmarcus engages a Plainsman hovertank, blasting chunks off the front with the Wolverine's autocannon. The Plainsman is a design we haven't seen before, although it's been around for a few years now - it's basically a heavy-duty SRM platform. Twelve SRM tubes on the turret, plus two shoved in the front. It's basically a Harasser, except, unlike that glorified hover-technical, it can take a couple of laser hits before evaporating.

We also monitor a few Kurita helicopters heading towards our Lyran allies waiting in ambush - it's entirely possible that they'll spot our buddies and ruin the plan. Archinerd takes a shot at one of the helicopters, but the SRMs and lasers go wide.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Yep, the choppers spoiled the ambush. There's a brief flash off to the north as a Lyran tank blows one away, then the ground becomes thick with advancing Kurita units. We still have the advantage of pretty difficult fighting conditions, but not surprise.

Freyland and the Dervish continue bounding across rooftops, firing at each other. Freyland takes a laser hit and a couple of SRMs, then aims at the building where the Dervish is about to land. The alpha strike sends the Quickdraw's heat way into the red, but it pays off - the Dervish's projected landing spot becomes debris, and the 55-ton mech drops to the ground, trailing debris. It's a long way down, and a lot of armor flakes off, in addition to sparks coming from the mech's left leg.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
As the Dervish struggles to get up, to the west, Madmarcus and a Wasp repeat the dance that Freyland and the Dervish just did. The Wasp winds up on the ground after a long fall. Freyland's targeting reticle is still "swimming", but the Quickdraw manages to land a couple of laser shots on a nearby Firestarter, whose return flamers don't really help the Quickdraw keep cool.

Paingod can't find a route over the rooftops so has to drop to the ground, where the Griffin takes a few lasers while avoiding an AC/20. The offending Jenner gets kicked in the right leg and stumbles, having to almost do a split to keep from falling over entirely.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod still has trouble finding a way back to the rooftops, so the Griffin simply jumps down the street, unloading PPC and LRMs at the pursuing hovertanks. A Saladin gets evaporated by the PPC shot, while the LRMs impact a Scimitar, gouging out armor chunks. The hovertank returns fire with its autocannon, hitting Paingod's PPC, which glows suspiciously then powers down and shows up red in the damage readout.

On the plus side, the Firestarter chasing Freyland relents, letting the Quickdraw cool off.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
We begin to disengage, trying to pull the Kurita force north. Not much ordnance hits, except a few LRMs from Paingod to a pursuing Drillson hovertank.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd fires off LRMs at a pursuing Maxim, plastering the hover transport and the road around it. The hovercraft catches some debris through a couple of fans and noses itself down into a crater. Freyland fires some LK missiles from a rooftop at a pursuing Saladin, scoring hits with all ten warheads, but the hovertank takes it on the front armor. Good accuracy, though.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
After three LRM salvos and dodging several laser blasts and LRMs in return, Paingod disables the pursuing Drillson hovertank.

Transmissions from our Lyran buddies in the north indicate that the helicopters are making hash out of their tanks, Madmarcus recommends that they disengage and scatter while the main body of Kuritan tanks hasn't arrived yet.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Freyland's LK missiles find a Harasser as it tries to chase down our slower, but more nimble, mechs, and blast away chunks of the glorified technical, sending it crashing into a light pole. The pole tilts, and the hovercraft stops moving, throwing out sparks.

Round 9:
We fire a few symbolic shots at the pursuing hovercraft as they grow more distant. Normally, they'd be able to keep with us just fine, but navigating these streets, at night, in the fog, is difficult even for the most expert drivers.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
We come in behind the Kurita helicopters as they set up for another strafing run on the Lyran positions to the north. Madmarcus takes an AC/5 round to the torso, then twists the Wolverine's torso way the hell around, pushing its actuators to the limits, and opens up with return fire. The limited armor on the Warrior's left side is blown away by the Wolverine's autocannon, and then the SRMs hit. The helicopter blows up directly above Freyland's Quickdraw, prompting the mechwarrior to reflexively duck and deliver a string of profanities over the comms.

Round 11:
The hovercraft haven't quite given up the chase, and Freyland pings one with a few LRMs, though it continues moving forward.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
A Wasp takes the lead for a lance of light mechs continuing pursuit. Our weapons fire doesn't track very well and most goes wide. Then, a few LRMs from Archinerd spark against the mech's arm, destabilizing it ever-so-slightly. This allows Freyland to lead its arc and fire a set of lasers. Most miss, and the LRMs go overhead, but the last laser cuts the head open, frying the mechwarrior inside. The bug mech reaches the rooftop it was jumping to and flops down.

Round 13, 14, 15:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy pursuit is discouraged somewhat, and we send some LRMs down range to keep them suppressed. Another Wasp jumps up a little too high and gets reminded of its station in life by several autocannon rounds and LRMs, but remains intact. When a Firestarter comes over a building top, Archinerd takes an opportunity to send some LRMs flying at it, breaching leg armor. A blown out actuator causes it to stumble, but the mechwarrior maintains the mech's footing. The last of the Kurita helicopters gets blown out of the sky by a Lyran Patton tank.

With a few parting shots, the Kurita forces cease pursuit as we rendezvous with the main body of the Lyran force. All in all, Delta-One mission-killed about a quarter of the enemy force - technically the Firestarter and Dervish are still combat effective, but it's pretty tough to jump around in the dark with damaged hip actuators, so they won't be able to meaningfully participate in any combat until daytime.

And by that time, they will probably have figured out that the attack on our dropships is no longer on.

Delta-Two, meanwhile, engages a large group of irregular units and infantry backing a small conventional force. The Lieutenant in charge thinks she needs backup, so he calls in Delta-Three as well, who have to sprint overtime to get there, but they show up. We wind up not actually needing them. In concert with a lance of Lyran tanks and a pair of aerospace fighters dropping bombs and firing rockets, the opposing force is pretty much annihilated, with only a few scattered APCs and a couple of Locusts escaping. One of Delta-Two's Phoenix Hawks takes a nasty engine hit, but our mechs are fine otherwise. The Lyran ground units are disabled, but since the Kurita guys flee, they're all recoverable. Most importantly, though, Delta-Two's mechwarriors report being fired upon by a weapon type they don't recognize - slow-firing, extreme-range projectile weapon that the Kurita guys mounted on a couple of their light APCs.

Our salvage crews recover a couple of "samples" of this equipment, along with a Manticore tank since we're hurting for replacement PPCs.

The techs work overtime trying to get all our mechs back in working order, but the next set of sorties comes before we can get them all fixed. Cylus and the Grasshopper are both out of action. Additionally, the PPC on Paingod's Griffin is completely gone, so it'll need to be replaced. Scrub's Warhammer is also short one PPC. The Kintaro is still splayed out in the hangar, techs busily working to restore the engine (and haven't even started on the gyro).

Our command staff gets back together with Hawk to discuss our next steps. With the major targets in Anton, Berta, Caeser and Dora sectors eliminated, and having taken heavy casualties, the Kurita forces are on the run. Hawk tells us that the the 14th Donegal Guards need the week to repair their damaged units, as they've taken more of a beating than we have. Despite having lost several mechs and mechwarriors, our techs are mostly able to keep up with the repair demands, so we're going to be hitting them a few times to keep them off balance. From the looks of it, they've got basically one guy keeping the whole thing together, and one major group of units that we need to crush. Once we take these guys, out, Hawk expects the rest of the militia and regulars to fold "like a guy playing poker with a deck of Capellan cards".

The last couple of fights resulted in us capturing an incredible number of prisoners. Our medical facilities are way overtaxed, and we don't really have the capability to run a prison camp for 135 people - mostly infantry and tank crews, but a few mechwarriors as well, and an aero jock. Morale in the enemy forces must be really low, because, when asked, over half the prisoners request that they not be returned. When we talk about this with Hawk, he kind of cringes.

We have a couple of options that our command staff comes up with:
1) Simply release the ones we can't take care of and don't want to recruit (the aero jock appears interested and performed well against Gamma-One). This means we forego ~2.5M in prisoner capture bonuses, but avoid the risk of being accused of war crimes. A bunch are still probably going to die since there are quite a few with missing limbs or massive internal injuries that really need proper hospital care, but if we give them a few APCs, most will probably make it.

2) Contact the Kurita guys and see if they want to pay a ransom. We'll be getting the money, but run the risk of a bunch of the prisoners dying of their injuries or starvation while we negotiate as we don't have the food or medical facilities to treat or food to feed the poor bastards. Also, the survivors will probably be cycled right back into the meatgrinder against us, regardless of any agreement we make.

3) Hawk shrugs and suggests simply executing the lot of them "then break out the flamer on the Firestarter, and it's like they never even existed". Whe Scrub glares at him, he shrugs again. "What? They're just Dracs."
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

1.
My nephew, Jake - "I mean is there really anything more pure? Than sweet zombie monkey love?"
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Definitely 1.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Irritating that the game doesn't have an adequate option to have the prisoners fight to the death for our amusement.


I mean "1", absolutely "1".
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

3! No i mean 1. Really. 1. Stop staring at me.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

2. We beat these guys already. Anyone putting them back into action will see them retreat. And we get paid, putting the blame on the Kurita bosses for holding out if we don't.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Paingod »

I'd go with 1.

Do we have spare PPC's? It sounded like we might be short on them. I can imagine what an AC round did to the electronics in there. :shock:
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

In #1, wouldn't they also probably come back and fight us? I would say #2, unless there's some way to release them as part of #1 that doesn't result in them rejoining the fight. Can we buy them Space Bus tickets to another planet?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

The main difference between 1 and 2 is how many bodies *we* have to bury and how many of the prisoners go back and complain about "mis-treatment in violation of accepted conventions of warfare", etc. Our legal department prefers 1. So, we "borrow" a bunch of captured APCs from our Lyran buddies, put the Kurita guys in them, drive them out to the site of a previous engagement and set them loose.

We are short on PPCs and will need to either salvage some or wait for the next supply drop (ETA unknown according to Hawk).

With Gamma company severely understrength (basically a five-mech lance at this point, between lost/damaged mechs and injuries), we put them on defense and rotate Alpha Company out to engage the main remaining enemy forces. Alpha-Two will prod, poke and harass the bulk of the enemy units, directing them to where Alpha-One will be waiting to serve as the anvil.

Of course, Alpha-One gets bushwacked on the way there as they pass through a mining complex. Usual loadout - Gbasden/Awesome, El Guapo/Marauder, Stefan/Catapult. Isgrimnur is back in the Hatchetman, the mech looking pretty patchy, but working fine. High winds prevent any hovercraft from operating, so it's basically Alpha-One against a heavy mech lance (three Thunderbolts and a Warhammer) backed up by a pair of heavy tanks. The good part is one of them is a Manticore, so between that and the Warhammer, we should be able to salvage some PPCs.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
The wind prevents any rapid movement on the part of ground-bound units, so we advance slowly, with Isgrimnur moving to the mining complex. A Tokugawa heavy tank opens up at us from long range, but thankfully it's just a pair of AC/2s on that thing. It'll take a while for them to drill through our mechs' armor. If they even hit in the first place.

Round 2, 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur jumps down behind a building, easily avoiding a pair of PPC shots from the Warhammer and a laser blast from a Thunderbolt, returning fire with the autocannon and scoring a pretty miraculous hit on the heavier mech's right torso armor. Other than that, our PPC-equipped mechs advance to maximum range then stop and open fire. We out-range most of their units, and the high winds make missile fire impractical.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Stefan takes a laser to one of the missile racks, but armor holds up.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
A Stinger jumps in, engaging Stefan from the right, but takes four lasers for its trouble, blowing out an actuator in each arm. Gbasden and El Guapo find their targets, delivering a PPC each to the Thunderbolt and Warhammer respectively, taking no damage in return.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Gbasden and one of the Thunderbolts target each other and hit, but an Awesome has a major advantage at long range. Three PPCs put out just a tad more firepower than a single large laser. The enemy mech shudders and drops to a knee. Isgrimnur catches up to the Stinger. The enemy mech damages his left leg a little with fire, then the axe swings in from the right, taking the right leg off entirely and shattering the left, leaving the bug mech a flopping mess on the ground, although Isgrimnur has to take a knee to extract the melee weapon from the debris.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
A Panther jumps in a little too late to help his Stinger buddy out and is engaged by Stefan, although it's a little tougher and its armor holds up.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The Panther tries to move to a building top for a better PPC shot but Stefan follows it, firing at the building as the lighter mech lands on top. The building maintains its structural integrity, until Stefan gives it a bird-kick. The structure comes down, bringing the Panther with it.

To the north, Gbasden and El Guapo continue firing on the Thunderbolt as it struggles to approach through the driving winds. El Guapo carefully aims the Marauder's PPCs and drills the 65-tonner through the right leg, smirking as heat sink fluid sprays out. The mech wobbles and falls over.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The Panther struggles to get up but eventually does so, zapping Stefan in the left torso with a PPC shot. Stefan retaliates with four lasers, and Isgrimnur adds two of his own, leaving the light mech with very little armor. Isgrimnur then repeats his performance with the Stinger, taking both of the 35-tonner's legs off with the axe.

To the north, the downed Thunderbolt proves a bit harder to hit, as El Guapo's PPC shot zaps a rock instead. Gbasden manages to knock out the mech's left arm, though.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Nothing quite like picking off inferior enemy mechwarriors from long range with PPCs, eh guys?

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
One of the Thunderbolts struggles to its feet, zapping some armor off Gbasden's Awesome with a large laser. Gbasden and El Guapo reply with PPCs, El Guapo firing the Marauder's autocannon instead of the second PPC to cool off. The AC/5 shots take off the Thunderbolt's LRM launcher, not that it was doing any good.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
The beat-up Thunderbolt in the front begins backing up rapidly, putting a rock outcropping between it and our mechs. Time to switch to some other targets.

Which we do. Isgrimnur and Stefan have finished "sneaking" around through the town and jump in on the Warhammer. As it's distracted trying to get up, it takes multiple PPC shots and lasers to the left side, the loss of armor unbalancing it and causing the mech to keel over, at which point the left arm snaps off and fluids start leaking out from the breached torso.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
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The second Thunderbolt turns away from our murderous hail of PPCs, but catches one to the dome. The mechwarrior blacks out and the mech faceplants. Guess we're going to get that lance of Thunderbolts after all.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
Stefan and Isgrimnur chase down the remaining units that are performing a fighting retreat, with Isgrimnur sinking the axe into the remaining non-crippled Thunderbolt's head. What a massacre.

In the end, only the one Thunderbolt gets away. The salvage is crazy good, we pick up a whopping *two* Thunderbolts (bringing us to a total of 7! - Moley and Xwraith, Gamma-Two's lieutenant, plus a few we salvaged in earlier fights) and the Warhammer. Since our mechwarriors (with the exception of the guys driving the Awesomes) almost uniformly refuse to operate identical mechs, we'll need to make some refit decisions later. We also grab the Manticore and Panther just so we can pull the PPCs off of them.

Isgrimnur came out with a whopping six out of the eight kills this fight, including 190 tons worth of mechs (two heavies and two lights). Alpha-One is in excellent shape to serve as the anvil to Alpha-Two's hammer, with only minor armor damage and pretty low ammo expenditure.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

:violence-blades:
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

It's nice how you took advantage of us softening them up, you kill stealing ...

I mean, excellent tactical acumen!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by xwraith »

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Just read the updates, and wow...seems not even my Striker is safe anymore. Didn't sound like I took any damage to the squishy parts, but the mech sounds much worse for the wear...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

It's been a pretty rough contract, I still miss being able to use the Victor. On the plus side, we've cleaned out most of our Riflemen. The Striker will actually be ready for action for the next set of sorties, if we have to make them.

May 28, 3039
Through the night, a Kurita column marches through another part of the same industrial complex where Alpha-One fought just a couple of days ago. Most likely, they're trying to reinforce their commander, who is currently being run to ground by Beta-One. We want to prevent that from happening. At daybreak, Alpha-One takes up position at the north end of the complex, while Alpha-Two "buzzes" the enemy formation.

The Kurita commander chooses to move along. Slowly. His formation is a little too much for Alpha-Two to handle by themselves, so Alpha-One will have to hustle to get over there and help out. The Kurita column is a couple of lances of hovertanks, with some heavy tanks mixed in, backed up by two lances of mechs - a light and a heavy.

Alpha Two is a Merlin, a Griffin 1S, a Phoenix Hawk and a Trebuchet 5J, being backed up by our liaison in a Warhammer.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
A VTOL zips by Alpha-Two's Trebuchet, its lasers going wide.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
A Harasser zips around the Lieutenant's Merlin, unloading SRMs across the front. The Merlin retaliates with a near-alpha strike, holding the LRMs. The mech heats up, but the hovercraft is unable to avoid all the ordnance, being evaporated by a PPC.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A pair of Kurita hovercraft swerve to avoid the Merlin and the Warhammer, moving down the street held by the Trebuchet. The 50-ton mech is plastered by SRMs from the Plainsman and takes a couple of lasers from the Sabaku Kaze, the mech rocking from the impacts. The mechwarrior's return fire misses, although he's able to knock a chunk of the Sabaku Kaze's armor off with a boot.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
A substantial group of hovercraft and light mechs charge the Merlin, which jumps in the middle of the formation, firing lasers at a Saladin to cut off the rear half of it while avoiding an AC/20 burst. It takes a few laser hits from the nearby Jenners, but armor holds.

The Trebuchet exchanges more fire with the Plainsman, taking a few more SRMs while delivering lasers to the enemy tank. Despite one of the SRMs impacting the cockpit, the Trebuchet keeps his head straight and stomps the Plainsman into the ground.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Griffin slips on the pavement and falls over, leaving an opening for the Kurita column to charge in. Somehow, the mechwarrior manages to avoid getting plastered by SRMs and AC/20 rounds.

The Merlin exchanges fire with a Jenner, the lighter mech coming away missing an actuator on the right weapons pod.

A Skulker gets by Alpha-Two's Phoenix Hawk. Need to do a bit better guys, the enemy heavies are coming in.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Griffin recovers and gets up, firing lasers at a Saladin as it swerves around him. The hovertank explodes when one of the lasers makes contact with the fuel tank. The focus on the Saladin allows the Sabaku Kaze to get in an alpha strike, landing six laser shots and a couple of SRMs, including a head shot. A nearby Jenner joins the party, and the Griffin rocks as armor flakes off and it starts taking internal damage. To his credit, the mechwarrior remains upright, but his kick is ineffective.

The Merlin moves to take some heat off the Griffin, landing a couple of shots on the Jenner, then taking its leg off with a kick. To the south, Hawk uses the Warhammer's weapons to corral a Galleon tank then stomps it flat.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The Sabaku Kaze putters around the square, blasting the Merlin with its pretty impressive full array of weapons, including a headshot and a left arm armor breach. The Merlin has enough of this nonsense and kicks it into a wall.

To the south, Hawk's Warhammer engages an enemy Panther and a Vedette, causing armor damage but inflicting no armor breaches.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Here comes the enemy heavy metal. Two Thunderbolts, a Hunchback, a pair of Manticores and a Tokugawa - the serious variant with an AC/10, as opposed to the joke with the twin AC/2s. Our Trebuchet takes this perfect opportunity to slip on the pavement and skid to a stop at an intersection in full view of all those guys.

The Griffin moves to cover the Trebuchet, blowing an SRM launcher off a Javelin right after it empties its racks into our jumping mech. The Trebuchet manages to get away with a damaged arm actuator. Until the nearby Jenner kicks it in the back, cracking the engine and gyro. The Jenner pays for it, though with a bunch of busted leg actuators as the Griffin stomps in.

To the south, Hawk steps aside from the crowd of bad guys and engages a Panther as it passes by the alley, taking a few SRM hits but cracking open its right leg with a couple of lasers and sending it flopping to the ground.

The less said about our failed attempts to target the Skulker, the better.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Our guy in the Trebuchet pulls out to the east.

Hawk's Warhammer allows the heavies to pass by, but engages the Panther, which has fallen to the back of the formation. The two mechs exchange some severe damage, with the Warhammer losing a pair of lasers from the right torso while the Panther loses the right leg to an SRM salvo and cracks its engine housing as it flops to the ground. The adjacent Hunchback strips most of the rest of the armor from the Warhammer's front, leaving Hawk's cockpit a disco party of red and yellow lights.

The guy in the Panther bails out.

Alpha-Two's Merlin engages a nearby Bulldog, taking a few laser hits but inflicting some damage of its own, jamming up the turret.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Alpha-One shows up, just in time to catch the remaining lead hovercraft. Gbasden looks with amusement at the Kurita helicopter that appears to have gotten itself stuck in a building.

Alpha-Two's Griffin chases down the Jenner as it tries to limp away. This also serves to avoid the cluster of Thunderbolts and heavy tanks. We'll need Alpha-One's firepower to break those up. The Jenner takes some major internal damage from lasers, but remains upright and returns fire, scoring some more armor off the Griffin.

El Guapo manages to avoid a full SRM and laser salvo from the approaching Pegasus, as well as an AC/20 blast from the Saladin, rattling off a string of lighter autocannon rounds at that hovertank and breaching the right side armor. The Pegasus avoids Gbasden's stomps, but runs right into El Guapo's foot, deflating and settling down. A PPC leveled at the front viewport encourages the crew to climb out rapidly as their Saladin buddy zips away.

The Merlin finally takes out the Skulker, just as the scout car was about to get clear. Although even if he'd gotten away from the Merlin, he'd have run right into Isgrimnur. While the Bulldog's crew work to unjam their turret, the Merlin surgically removes their treads with lasers.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
After pounding on it and trying to pry the turret off for half a minute, our Phoenix Hawk finally takes out the Hetzer he's been brawling with.

As Gbasden advances, a Spider jumps into point blank range, avoiding most of his PPC shots. El Guapo hung back a little, and is able to deliver a PPC shot and autocannon burst which take off the light Kurita mech's right side, and it staggers into a building before collapsing.

While their heavies are still pretty much intact, the remaining Kurita units break off to the east and lose our pursuit within a few minutes.

Our salvage crews grab the Panther, a Jenner and the Spider to strip for PPCs in general and cockpit parts for our newly-acquired Thunderbolts. This leaves Beta-One free to engage and destroy the last of the Kurita commanding officers present in this operating theater (and quite possibly on planet) without any interference.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

With any hope of reinforcements dashed, the remaining Kurita units make their stand as Beta-One approaches. They even spring an "ambush". Their force consists of a lance of light mechs, a couple of lances of heavy tanks and an assortment of hovercraft. And some leftover infantry manning field guns. LordMortis' replacement scoffs, having loaded his Stalker with inferno SRMs for just such an occasion. Other than that, Beta-One is still the two Awesomes and a Thunderbolt.

The battlefield is covered with some kind of falling condensed particulate. I wouldn't call it snow per se, since the actual water content of those flakes is probably about 20%. But it does make aiming a bit harder. Our target is reported to be in a Bulldog, which is annoying, since there are several Bulldogs on the field.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 and Zarathud get to work immediately, blowing away one of the Bulldog tanks with PPC fire - only four out of the six PPC shots hit, but they all hit the same spot and melt the tank down to slag in short order.

Moley moves south to engage an incoming Phoenix Hawk, the two mechs getting into a bit of a brawl. The Hawk has a lot less armor to spare, though.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley decides to relocate as the surrounding woods catch on fire from all the missed shots fired by hostile tanks and the pixie.

The LRM Carrier to the south looses a salvo of sixty LRMs at our Stalker, but only nine hit. It is then evaporated by Zenn7 firing PPCs. Zarathud has to duck some incoming fire from a few Manticores, and the PPCs flying by force our mechwarrior to juke, missing a few shots. The Phoenix Hawk moves to engage our Awesomes at close range, trying to get inside the PPC minimum range, which is a good idea, except that Zarathud breaks its leg with a kick and then Zenn7 puts a fist through the cockpit.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Beta-Two, focus fire on that Von Luckner, it's getting a little too close." Zenn7 calls out, as AC/20 rounds begin flying by. A few AC/2 rounds from a another Bulldog ping off the Awesome's armor, but there's a slightly higher priority target out there now. It takes five PPC hits to the front, but the Von Luckner's armor breaches and the interior of the tank is fried. A pair of Locusts move in to engage our Awesomes, but it doesn't go well for them, as each of the bug mechs loses a leg to pretty much simultaneous Awesome boots.

The Stalker takes a few SRMs and lasers from the surrounding hovercraft, but armor holds up, although the right torso armor is looking pretty weak. The Stalker fires lasers at one of the hovertanks, a Scimitar, ineffectively, but manages to get a few LRMs through a weak spot in a Manticore's armor (opened up earlier by one of our Awesomes' PPCs) and blow the engine out.

Moley takes out another pretty serious threat, an incoming SRM Carrier, plowing lasers through the left side into the engine compartment.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 watches with some amusement as a Scimitar hovertank is unable to maintain control and wedges itself between a couple of trees, while the Locusts try and fail to get up with their broken legs. His PPCs breach the armor on another Bulldog, inspiring the crew to begin retreating (which we shouldn't let them do, since we're tasked specifically with eliminating the Kurita commander, driving a Bulldog).

Zarathud crushes the third Bulldog underfoot, so now we just need to mop up a couple more tanks.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The remaining Kurita units move to cover the retreating Bulldog. A Jenner runs in to fire at Zarathud's Awesome, but takes a PPC to the right leg for its trouble, the limb separating pretty cleanly from the rest of the mech, so when it tries to take the next step it slams into the ground instead. A few infantry zip around on their light hovercraft, firing LRMs, and Zarathud decides to squash a couple as an example to the rest.

The Stalker tries to fire at the escaping Bulldog, but a Saracen crosses the line of fire, leading some of the LRMs astray. The LRMs impact the fuel tank, blowing the hovercraft to bits.

To the southeast, Moley pops the fuel tank and SRM ammo stores on a Pegasus, causing the hovercraft to disappear, more or less.

With very little left in the way of firepower, the remaining Kurita units make a break for it. We let them go. Except for the Bulldog, which gets disabled before it's able to get away.

Not a bad day for Zarathud, with seven kills including two mechs. Salvage is pretty solid. We don't really care much for most of it, but we want to fill up our contract salvage allotment, so our crews grab pretty much everything.

With no meaningful forces left to oppose us, our mechwarriors break out the celebratory beers/engine coolant. The 14th Donegal begin packing up their units and equipment. We're still under contract until almost the end of September, so we'll be hanging out and carrying out garrison duties until relieved by lower-end garrison units. According to commercial HPG traffic (Comstar are being dicks and blacking out FedCom data traffic), the overall offensive is going well, with several worlds having been taken as the Draconis Combine scrambles to respond.

A few Kurita units did escape, so we will need to deploy recon units to hunt them down. Delta is at full strength, so they will sweep the area, rotating out with lighter elements of Alpha and Gamma as necessary.

Hawk tells us with a chuckle and a wink that he's "having trouble finding storage space on the departing dropships" for a few aerospace fighters, so if we could take a few off their hands at a discount, he'd be perfectly happy to arrange it. Our options are as follows:

Chippewa CHP-W5 - a big, fat bomber. It's got way more guns than heat sinks, and pretty crappy armor. As an example, it has four large lasers but only twenty five heat sinks, meaning it can only really fire three of them at a time. 4.5M C-Bills
Lucifer LCF-R20 - our favorite flying brick, able to crash nose first into the ground, then take off like nothing happened. A little undergunned, though. 3.3M C-Bills.
Shilone SL-17 - a reasonably armed fighter, our aero jocks are pretty happy with it. 2.3M C-Bills
Lightning LTN-G15 - a short-ranged brawler with AC/20. 3M C-Bills

Actually, they've got like five Shilones. But we only really need three aircraft to fill out our air wings, and maybe a spare or two. Which ones should we get?

Also, our techs get back the results of their HPG query, and the various databases they queried all point to the fact that the long-range powerful weapons we've acquired are gauss rifles. Which is pretty goddamn awesome. Our techs say that we lack the facilities to mount them currently, but, on the plus side, they fire simple metallic spheres. We really want them sized close to the width of the barrel to avoid wrecking the weapon, but as long as there's a factory with precision machine tools nearby, we can get ammo made. Looking at the schematics, the techs say that they will be able to mount a gauss rifle either on our Hunchback or on one of the Atlases, although they'll have to drop some tonnage from elsewhere to make it happen, as those damn things are heavier than the AC/20s they'd be replacing. An aero tech also pipes up saying that we could mount one on a Lightning fighter, but a nearby mechwarrior glowers at the poor guy so hard that he just about starts crying.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

DUDE. Gauss Rifles! I think we should mount them on, say, a Marauder.

As for aircraft...something like two Shilones, a lightning, and a Lucifer would seem like a good fit.
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xwraith
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by xwraith »

If I was a pilot I would probably pick the Lucifer and two Shilone's -- unless there is a conversion of the Chippewa that would be more effective than the current config.
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