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 »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:28 am
Zenn7 wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:23 am
El Guapo wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:34 am
$iljanus wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:52 pm [x] Stand your ground and shoot it up, *probably* disabling it before it runs our mechs over

Not today, dropship. Not today.
Also, the relevant mechwarriors are required to utter a badass action-movie line upon (hopefully) stopping the dropship.
I intent to stand there calmly as it comes flying straight at me to blasted off-course at the last moment narrowly missing me, just calmly turning my head and watching it go by and crashing. Knowing it was never going to hit me.
Unless of course, it actually hits me... Then my last words will be "Sometimes you're the windshield... sometimes your the bu-UGG (gasped in my dying breath).
You are a leaf in the wind.
Too soon.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Stand your ground |||
Run for it ||

Image
The Mackie and Awesome both face the dropship and unload their heavy weapons on it. With help from Archinerd to the north and our aerospace fighters coming in, this ends badly for the dropship:
Spoiler:
Image
Multiple PPC blasts and a gauss slug basically gut the craft from the front, and it just kind of sags down as the engines sputter out.

The remaining pirates flee. Except for the Jenner, which gets legged by lasers from Freyland's Cronus. And the Hunchback, which loses a leg to Moley's Thunderbolt as our mechwarrior gets in behind it. So basically, a lance and a half of extremely beat up tanks got away.

Zenn7 lifts his Awesome's right arm PPC into the air, letting the barrel cool off, basking in the blaring heat alarms.

---

"Beta-Strike, proceed to orbital rendezvous with Alpha-Strike, they're intercepting some fighters heading our way and need your backup." Madmarcus informs the remainder of our air support. "And someone go pick up Strike-Three, and see what's left of that fighter."

Spoiler alert: the Gotha's scrap. We'll pull what spare parts we can off of it (most importantly, the double heat sinks). The rest of our units are in pretty good shape. Salvage ought to be pretty good, too. But meanwhile, let's check in on Alpha-Ranger.

---

Cujo's lance is out on patrol alongside one of our client facilities, with a Star Guards Warhammer tagging along, when they get a distress call from a unit identifying itself as Poseidon-Four-Two. Seems that two tank lances (one heavy, one light) and a light mech lance are trying to negotiate a bridge that's leading to the facility. Poseidon-Four-Two is worried that they won't be able to handle the situation and requests backup.

We move out, since we don't want hostile mechs and tanks running around near facilities we're supposed to guard.

"Poseidon, that's a pretty weird call sign. Are you guys into greek mythology?" Cujo wonders.

"No, we are boats."

"Say again?"

"We are naval vessels."

"Huh."

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
As our mechs sprint forward at top speed, we see a pretty chunky explosion from the river up ahead.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The battle picks up as the pirates move on from whatever river patrol boat they sunk. A Panther blasts another boat with a PPC shot, shearing the small river-going craft in two, while return fire knocks out a Vedette's main gun.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Ok, boat dudes, cavalry's here!" Bass calls out as we enter weapons range and watch another patrol boat's crew abandon ship for no particular reason. They do take some fire, but nothing that would seem to have been fatal or worthy of ditching what looks like a perfectly seaworth vessel. Then again, none of us are really experts in seamanship.

A third boat takes a couple of hits to the bridge, but returns fire, and a distant Pike support vehicle explodes as all five tons of its AC/2 ammo and another ton of SRM/2 ammo light up. The 60-ton vehicle's turret arcs up lazily through the air, plopping down out of site with an inaudible thud as secondary explosions continue for some time.

Then a Jenner runs up and sinks the offending boat, leaving the Lyran naval force with just one patrol boat that hasn't sunk beneath the river's waters. Our mechs do what they can, scoring a couple of hits on the Jenner to strip off its armor, but it doesn't help keep the boat above water.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Ostroc jumps across the river to engage a Harasser tank and the Jenner. The Star Guards Warhammer swings its right arm PPC around and fires a single shot, which goes through the hole that the Ostroc put through Jenner's torso armor earlier. The light mech's upper section disappears as its SRM ammo detonates.

The Jenner might be out of action, but a couple of other units blast the remaining boat (a Silverfin coastal cutter, which is more of a civilian patrol vessel than a military craft), sinking it. Our Ostroc smashes the adjacent Harasser with a stomp, but not before the hovercraft unloads the last of its SRMs into said boat. Well, that's it for the Poseidon guys.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Too bad about the river boat patrol, but, on the other hand, they bought us time to intercept these guys and bled them a little. Things are looking ok for us.

Until the two Shilones come screaming in for strafing runs against our mechs, forcing us to pull back from that excellent cluster of woods. The allied Warhammer takes most of the damage from the strafing run, but armor holds. We score a couple of hits on the aircraft, but they're not discouraged.

Round 6:
[camera feed damaged]
The aerospace fighters fly off for another pass, leaving us an opportunity to engage the hostile armor and mechs, which we mostly blow, exchanging a little bit of armor damage on each side.

Although, some of the armor damage is enough to cause the Rhino's crew to power down as accumulated tread damage from Cujo makes the tank immobile.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The allied Warhammer moves into the woods, avoiding most of a Shilone's second pass (other than an AC round pinging off the right arm), then blasts a nearby Vedette with short range weapons, wrecking it. The allied mech takes some major damage from the two nearby Panthers, losing leg armor and taking multiple actuator hits, but Stefan runs over to help out, cutting into one of the Panthers' legs with the Trebuchet's lasers then lashing out with a kick, snapping the damaged limb off.

Bass jumps north with Cujo to encircle the hostile force as their mechs move southwest. A Saracen hovertank eats multiple lasers from the Griffin and plops down in the rubble it was hovering over, scattering rocks as it slides along. Cujo, meanwhile, works on a laser carrier, taking its laser array out of action with an SRM hit to the fuel tank.

On its way out, the Shilone takes a nasty laser hit to the nose from our Ostroc, sparks and components flying off. The remaining hostiles retreat rapidly, leaving our salvage crews to pick up the scrap and help the Star Guards Warhammer limp back to base. Not to mention recovering all the crews on the sunken Lyran boat crews.

"Good shooting, Ranger-Five." Bass remarks. "That Jenner never knew what hit it."

"The boat guys set a pretty low bar, but I'm happy to clear it." the mechwarrior in the Warhammer remarks.

---

Alpha-Strike is in sensor contact a small flotilla of aerospace fighters violating restricted orbital space (meaning they're above a region containing several facilities we're contracted to defend), but their flight vector doesn't indicate that they're planning a descent. They're not responding to IFF or direct comms. The group consists of two 100-tonners, four heavies and four lights.

We can handle this a couple of ways. First, we could burn upwards with Alpha-Strike and the two (almost undamaged) fighters from Beta-Strike and engage them. With five heavy fighters and likely much better formation discipline on our side, it'd be pretty even odds. Second, since they're not really making any moves on any of our stuff, we can simply tail them and see where they're going (until they ditch us or our fuel runs out). Or, we could just let them go.

[] Burn upwards and engage
[] Tail and see
[] Let them go
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

HEY - I said badass action movie lines. You're both fired.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:36 pm
[] Burn upwards and engage
[X] Tail and see
[] Let them go
No point in killing anyone necessarily, but we do need to protect those facilities, so we should be sure that they're not up to something.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:36 pm [] Burn upwards and engage
[x] Tail and see
[] Let them go
They are not outright hostile so far.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:49 pm HEY - I said badass action movie lines. You're both fired.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:36 pm
[] Burn upwards and engage
[X] Tail and see
[] Let them go
No point in killing anyone necessarily, but we do need to protect those facilities, so we should be sure that they're not up to something.
I kinda liked my use of the GoT "not today". kicks smoking piece of enemy dropship rather dejectedly

But it don't matter none because Zenn and I are a pair of gorram heroes! :horse:

If it all ended badly I was going to hijack Spock's dramatic death scene at the end of Wrath of Khan. (In a rough voice as I grab El Guapo's sleeve with my remaining hand "Lance...out of danger?" El Guapo chokes out a single word, "Yes".)

But enough of that. Let's see where our little friends are off to.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:49 pm HEY - I said badass action movie lines. You're both fired.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:36 pm
[] Burn upwards and engage
[X] Tail and see
[] Let them go
No point in killing anyone necessarily, but we do need to protect those facilities, so we should be sure that they're not up to something.
What's more bad ass than standing there supremely calmly as if there is no danger when death is about charge down and rip your head off?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Tail and See - unanimous
We opt to follow the unidentified pirate aerospace fighters at maximum sensor range rather than engage. They're re-joined by the Shilones escaping from Alpha-Ranger's river-boat fiasco. As those craft enter atmo and decelerate, our aerospace fighters are driven off by anti-aircraft fire from a small building complex. Review of the sensor data indicates three Thumpers and a Long Tom, none of which we want hanging out anywhere near facilities we're supposed to defend.

The Triumph that we shot up gets valued at 130M C-Bills, bringing us to a total of 366M in salvage. To our employer. But hey, pretty good progress. We bag a few (eight or nine, at this rate) more dropships or a jumpship, and we can start salvaging things again.

On the downside, the Gotha is permanently out of action. On the plus side, the Starfire refit is pretty straightforward, so we'll just slot that fighter in. It's... less, but it's what we've got for now. Although, since we are in Lyran space, you can find a Lucifer in basically every corner store, so we could always look around for one of those instead (and then apply our standard customization to it, since we have a glut of double aero heat sinks). Prices for mechs and aerospace fighters have gone up a bit though, given that the house militaries involved (Steiner, Davion and Kurita) are basically snapping up everything as soon as it comes out of the factory and sending it into the meatgrinder rolling in from the northern periphery. Normally, one would use the word "slow" to describe a meatgrinder, but this one isn't.

The other notable "maintenance issue" is that the MG ammo feed for the Exterminator is completely borked, and, despite replacing the relevant parts twice (they're cheap enough), the mech simply refuses to fire its MG. For now, we've taken the expedient step of removing the half-ton of MG ammo.

June 15, 3050
Firebase Oberon

"Probe Lance confirms presence of artillery on site." Scrub calls out over comms. "Move in and neutralize."

Gamma-Command and Gamma-Probe will be taking on the dual-purpose artillery/anti-aircraft site. A Firestarter from the Star Guards will be coming along as well.

"Mech power-up detected. Seismic sensors says we've got an assault lance in there." AWS informs the commander.

At this point, though, the shooting's already started.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub cringes as her Warhammer's targeting computer lights up a mech straight ahead. AS7-D. It moves down an alley to the west, though. "Angel. You have company."

"Thanks, major." The mechwarrior replies, as the 100-tonner lumbers down the street towards our Flashman, firing its LRMs. Angel stays out of AC/20 range, opting to unload the mech's large lasers on a Thumper artillery piece that's exposed behind the Atlas, fusing its treads and barrel in place. The Atlas scores a few hits with its LRMs, but the Flashman's armor holds up. Still, that's going to be a tough fight without backup.

To the south, Xwraith takes some LRMs from the hostile center of mass, but the damage is minor. "We, uh, have a Cyclops up here too, and I'm pretty sure I see a BattleMaster back there."

"Eyes on Awesome." Cylus adds.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
"Yeah, no." Angel states as the Atlas barrels down the street towards our Flashman, opting to back out of the way rather than face the AC/20 and other assorted weapons mounted on the 100-tonner.

Cylus and Scrub briefly focus fire on a second Thumper, Scrub's PPCs putting multiple holes in the treads, then Cylus LRM salvo jamming the barrel elevation mechanism.

Xwraith steps aside, but not fast enough to clear an AL-model Centurion, which gets a good piece of our Thunderbolt with its lasers.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
We mostly stay out of line of sight, opting instead to engage, with limited success an LRM turret.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
"That's better." Scrub nods as her PPCs blow the entire building housing said LRM turret to smithereens. It's been pretty good at targeting our units, flaking off bits of armor here and there, so removing the twenty tubes is a benefit.

Cylus backs up and disables a Long Tom by cutting its barrel off, thus reducing the most damaging artillery piece present.

Xwraith takes advantage of the nearby Cicada being a little confused to crack its left leg with a boot and some lasers, taking it out of the fight. The Thunderbolt's computer reports a center torso armor breach, so it's time for our 65-tonner to pull back.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Gamma-Probe has arrived.

"Take down the rest of the artillery and the turrets, then disengage. We can't take these assault mechs." Scrub states.

But Akalon and our Phoenix Hawk 3D are already on the ball, as the Atlas tries to re-orient and chase after Angel. The two mechs jump in behind the assault and use their lasers to drill through the rear armor. It's Akalon's last laser that does the trick, "lightly brushing" the engine and gyro, which starts wobbling and sends the 100-ton behemoth to the ground. Our two mechs overheat pretty badly, but the severe damage will likely knock the Atlas out of the fight.

AWS is just showing off at this point, using the Phoenix Hawk LAM's air-mech mode to zip in behind a Griffin and kick it in the back of the left leg. The 55-tonner stumbles but remains upright.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Atlas disabled, we're going to cool off." Akalon reports as heat alarms blare. The Atlas doesn't seem to be getting up, so our mechs hop away to do as indicated.

Cylus continues to battle the Centurion to the south, flaying more armor off than the Grasshopper loses, while Angel's Flashman backs away from the BattleMaster to engage a Phoenix Hawk hopping around.

Drazzil, meanwhile, slips off to the side out of the line of fire of a Cyclops and takes out a quad laser turret. Small lasers, but still.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub briefly distracts the Centurion by moving her Warhammer forward, which gives Cylus an opening to blast it in the left torso with lasers and set off the LRM ammo. The bin is half-empty, but blows the mech apart anyway, both arms spinning off in separate directions.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
As Scrub collapses a building with a small laser turret in it, Akalon and our Phoenix Hawk go to work on the BattleMaster to the north. One of the Phoenix Hawk's lasers punches through the relatively weak rear armor, blowing out a pair of lasers on the assault mech, while its left leg armor disappears under laser fire.

Angel's Flashman takes some leg damage, losing a heat sink to attacks from a Griffin.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Angel backs up, turning the Flashman's lasers on the last remaining Thumper, melting down motive systems to the point where the artillery vehicle becomes inoperable. Scrub and Cylus jockey for position with the BattleMaster and Awesome, while AWS whizzes by, attracting and avoiding fire from the BattleMaster with easy due to the Phoenix Hawk LAM's incredible speed.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
As our light mechs fade, Scrub and Cylus step and jump out of cover respectively, engaging the BattleMaster. The hostile mech returns fire, melting a ton of armor off the Warhammer with its PPC and lasers, but can't put out nearly as much firepower as it wants due to earlier damage. Our Warhammer and Grasshopper have no such problems. Actuators blow out on the 85 ton mech under laser fire, then, as it keels over, its left leg snaps off.

The Star Guards Firestarter to the north takes some major leg damage from a nearby SRM turret and falls over.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Drazzil hops over and puts an end to the quad SRM turret, at which point we disengage - our mechs have taken heavy armor damage and started losing internal components, while there are still two basically pristine assault mechs in the area plus another two mediums. Our job is done, the artillery pieces out of action, and we've definitely blown up at least one ammo dump. Plus, inflicted severe damage to two assault mechs.

Akalon clotheslines the hostile Phoenix Hawk on his way out, following up by a full laser salvo to discourage pursuit. With help from AWS, who zips across the battlefield with the LAM to deliver some laser blasts and a shot from the snub-nose PPC to the back of the 45-tonner, the Phoenix Hawk basically loses both arms. The right arm is technically still attached, and the large laser operational, but all the other guns are gone.

"And that, rookie, is how you take down an Atlas with a pair of lighter medium mechs." Akalon informs the guy in the Phoenix Hawk, with no small measure of pride. "We're lucky the poor bastard was facing the other way, though." He adds, with a smirk and a chuckle.

---

The Star Guards propose to us a joint operation, using the computing power contained in the data center that we've defended twice now to crunch numbers. There's a lot of sensor data that comes across the various planetary networks - satellites, seismic sensors, etc - that we just don't have the bandwidth, CPU cycles or manpower to manage. But with the on-going crisis, we could ask our liaison to exercise some war powers on our behalf and either seize or "rent" some computing assets that are currently busy crunching market and production data. For places like Twycross, which is currently under heavy assault and is looking like it will be lost within a few weeks at most. If we could get access to these computing resources, we could process sensor data a lot better and our first indication of incoming raids won't be pings on our patrols' sensors or footage of mechs stomping through facilities we're supposed to defend on the twenty six o'clock news.

Well, it's not quite that bad, but a little more early warning would help get us the drop on all the random pirates and mercs running around here.

The Star Guards have the technical expertise to get this going fairly quickly, but do need us to provide a lance of mechs for base security, and would expect us to defend their technical personnel as necessary.

[] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center
[] Pass, it's a liability we don't really need
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

[x] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center

Since there’s so many would be pirates running around on this planet it’s not a bad investment of resources.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:12 pm [x] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center

Since there’s so many would be pirates running around on this planet it’s not a bad investment of resources.
Agreed.

Also - kudos to Gamma on crippling 2 assault mechs in that mess!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

$iljanus wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:12 pm [x] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center

Since there’s so many would be pirates running around on this planet it’s not a bad investment of resources.
Agreed.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »


Zenn7 wrote:
$iljanus wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:12 pm [x] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center

Since there’s so many would be pirates running around on this planet it’s not a bad investment of resources.
Agreed.

Also - kudos to Gamma on crippling 2 assault mechs in that mess!
Yeah, that was impressive to follow!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

$iljanus wrote: Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:12 pm [x] Commit a lance (rotating as necessary) to defend the data center
This. Also, all future battles involving assault-class opfor should be handled by Gamma-Probe.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Commit lance - unanimous
Our liaison is receptive to the idea and gets his part done quickly. We work out the necessary patrol rotation changes while the Star Guards get their tech people into the facility. Our investment bears fruit almost immediately, as we identify an unauthorized lance of mechs and heavy tanks escorting a bunch of cargo-carrying units away from one of our employer-designated facilities.

Sorry guys, you don't get to steal stuff on our watch.

Alpha-Urban handles the interception, aided by a BattleMaster(!) from the Star Guards. And some patrol boats from our employer once we ring the alarm bell.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
"So how come they have all these patrol boats?" Paingod wonders, the Blackjack pacing along behind Isgrimnur's Hatchetman. "It's a desert, and can't they just use VTOLs?"

"Irrelevant. It gives the hostiles something else to shoot at." Isgrimnur replies, shrugging. "Also, don't drink the water. It's salty."

The boats will be covering the central route through the area, while Alpha-Urban comes in from the south to cut off that escape.

"Overlords lance to hostile units. Would you care to surrender now?" Isgrimnur calls out over the open frequency.

"No! The Supreme Queen of Butte Hold lives!" Comes the response.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
"Great." Isgrimnur grumbles, then gives the LBX autocannon ammo bin a test switch. It works. "At least one thing the techs fixed." The anti-aircraft computer reports failure again, though. At least there are no aircraft on the field this time. The autocannon scores a long-range hit on one of the hostile mechs, although the cluster ammo isn't that great at blasting through armor. Still, something good.

Our BattleAxe scores a PPC hit on one of the hostiles as well, although its armor holds up.

Return fire is completely ineffective.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Isgrimnur takes a few LRMs as our PPC fire continues to be ineffective, but jumps in behind a Griffin. The hatchet makes contact, but the enemy mech's armor holds up (although the leg armor isn't looking too good).

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod blasts one of the mechs trying to run past us, a Harvester AgroMech (not to be confused with a Harvester Ant, which is a 4-legged mech). The PPC shot punches through the center torso armor, frying the gyro a bit, which causes the mech to fall over.

The Griffin gets behind our Hatamoto-Hi, ducking underneath its backhand and scoring some hits on the right leg armor.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Hatamoto-Hi and BattleMaster charge in, with Paingod's Blackjack and the BattleAxe providing PPC cover from a treeline to the east. Paingod blasts a Crosscut LoggerMech's left arm off, while the BattleMaster turns right and knocks the Griffin over with a laser salvo. Say what you will about the standard BattleMaster design, but it packs a mean punch up close.

The Hatamoto-Hi demonstrates why keeping ammunition in a mech's arms is a terrible idea - as the Dervish unloads its short-range weapons, the much heavier Kurita-designed mech blasts it in the right arm, where the ton of SRM ammo blows up, the chain reaction traveling inwards, leading the 55-ton mech to crumple to the ground in a heap.

Isgrimnur sees the tell-tale sign of a gauss slug whizzing by his mech from a nearby Buster HaulerMech (converted, obviously) as he jumps forward to enter melee - the LBX autocannon pings rounds off a nearby tank while the hatchet smashes down onto the gauss rifle. The weapon's capacitor blows, the explosion taking out the poor mech's gyro and engine.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod continues dismembering the Crosscut, this time, melting the left hip joint with a PPC blast. This sets off a catastrophic cascade as the mech falls over and then its internal combustion engine goes completely critical.

The Hatamoto-Hi takes a good amount of laser fire from a Vulcan 5T that lands nearby to support a Prowler transport vehicle, returning fire on the Prowler but failing to breach armor.

The Griffin tries to get up, but our BattleMaster is still there, blasting away with its lasers. The Griffin's right leg and left arm give out under continued fire. A curb stomp takes out the left arm as well, leaving the 55-tonner armed with a single LRM/5 launcher and one leg.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Hatamoto-Hi hops into a nearby salty lake, using its pulse lasers to core out what looks like a law enforcement mech nearby. The damage doesn't look that bad until the ICE blows out. Isgrimnur brings the hatchet down on the Prowler, but the vehicle remains intact. Although the hatchet looks like it's been painted dark red.

"Ew." our mechwarrior states.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
As our BattleMaster and Hatamoto-Hi step down into the nearby lake to cool off, the remaining pirates pull back out of the range of our PPC-equipped Blackjack and BattleAxe. The Prowler eats multiple pulse lasers from our Hatamoto-Hi and is disabled, the remaining infantry climbing out as fast as they can, while the Vulcan takes a center torso hit from the Star Guards' BattleMaster. The mechwarrior manages to keep upright, however.

At this point, the remaining tanks and mechs move to disengage. At the same time, Beta-Fire lance reports that the data center has come under attack by a company of hostiles with similar markings - a medium mech lance, a heavy tank lance and some "assorted units", including a Charger 1A9. Not to worry, though, it's just a Charger, a much-maligned mech that was supposed to be an assault-weight recon unit, but wasn't really very good at either being an assault mech or a recon unit. The 1A9 was a refit (with a smaller engine, bigger lasers and an LRM launcher) deployed en masse by the Combine during the War of '39, to mixed results. We actually had one in our unit as well, a while back, and Zarathud drove it for all of one battle before panning it as complete crap. Anyway, twelve mechs and tanks, medium and heavy, vs four of our heavies and a butt-load of turrets.

Between Beta-Fire and the fixed turrets that have been deployed around the data center (including upwards of 80 LRM tubes), they can probably take it, but you never know. Alpha-Urban is in position to get there in time to make a difference, but this will leave their current engagement zone unsecured, preventing us from collecting salvage (for our employer, but still). Alpha-Urban is mostly in the green and yellow, with no armor breaches. Our Star Guards buddy offers to oversee salvage operations, but he'll be hard pressed to actually secure the area by himself if the pirates come back. We'll have to leave him (and the Hatamoto-Hi) behind anyway if we want to get to the new flashpoint in time to make a difference.

[] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »


gbasden wrote:
NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
I'm all about the intimidation! Send in Alpha-Urban to help out.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:14 pm
gbasden wrote:
NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
I'm all about the intimidation! Send in Alpha-Urban to help out.
Send Captain Blood to the rescue!

Besides, with the Hatamoto-Hi helping the Battlemaster secure the area, they should be able to handle the surviving forces of the last encounter (unless they find reinforcements).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

gbasden wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:34 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
Agreed. But we need to keep an eye on Isgrimnur, if he paints his mech red by squishing PBIs and starts mumbling about "blood for the blood god" we may have a problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Leraje wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:22 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:34 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
Agreed. But we need to keep an eye on Isgrimnur, if he paints his mech red by squishing PBIs and starts mumbling about "blood for the blood god" we may have a problem.
Or... we have an opportunity for a dark ops lance? For when we don't want to officially get our hands dirty with blood money.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Zenn7 wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:14 am
Or... we have an opportunity for a dark ops lance? For when we don't want to officially get our hands dirty with blood money.
I like the way you think!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:14 am
Leraje wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:22 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:34 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:00 pm
[X] Alpha-Urban reinforces Beta-Fire, minus Hatamoto-Hi for rapid deployment
[] Stay here, Beta-Fire can handle it
Beta-Fire might be able to handle it, but they don't have a bloodstained Hatchetman for intimidation factor!
Agreed. But we need to keep an eye on Isgrimnur, if he paints his mech red by squishing PBIs and starts mumbling about "blood for the blood god" we may have a problem.
Or... we have an opportunity for a dark ops lance? For when we don't want to officially get our hands dirty with blood money.
Yes, we definitely do not already have a black ops lance. :ninja:
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Reinforce Beta-Fire, leave Hatamoto-Hi behind
The hostile Vulcan doesn't make it off the field, its gyro having gotten dinged somewhere along the line. The fighting retreat doesn't pay off for the Rommel tank, either, as its AC/20 is disabled and it winds up slipping a tread going up a hill (more due to the incoming lasers and SRMs, but still).

Isgrimnur leaves the Hatamoto-Hi and BattleMaster behind to secure the area then moves to assist Beta-Fire lance at the data center. Our force already there is two Archers, a Stalker and a Crusader. Between them, that's 110 LRM tubes. The turrets the Star Guards have deployed add another 150 or so. If things go well, Alpha-Urban will arrive just in time to pick up the scattered pieces of the incoming force.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Beta-Fire engages the approaching hostiles as they come in from the southeast, unloading LRMs at an SRM Carrier. The poor thing doesn't have a chance. Which is just as well, we don't want it trying to close in and letting rip with its sixty SRM tubes.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
A lance of hostile mechs moves to engage our lance - it's their only reasonable option, really, to try to get inside our minimum LRM range so they don't get picked apart. Unfortunately for them, our mechs also have short-range weapons, which is how the Champion winds up on the ground with no armor on its arms.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Ugh." One of our Archer pilots grunts as a stray autocannon round slams into the mech's shoulder, destroying the actuator. The Champion attempts to kick our mech, but our heavier unit pivots to the side, delivering a kick of its own, with the Champion ending on the ground again.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
As Isgrimnur arrives to the south, it's time to mix it up at close range. Our Crusader disables a nearby Bulldog tank with laser and machine gun fire, while our Stalker focuses on the Champion, blowing its right arm off while cutting through the center torso armor with a large laser and sending some SRMs in to ding the gyro - the 60-ton mech wobbles and drops to the ground, the mechwarrior inside having blacked out.

"What are you morons doing, they've got two mechs in the base!" Isgrimnur calls out, firing up the Hatchetman's jump jets. It's a good point - while Beta-Fire was busy blasting their targets, a Wolverine and a Griffin used their jump jets to clear the nearby hill and have started picking off turrets inside the data center.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod's Blackjack and our BattleAxe arrive shortly behind Isgrimnur, engaging the cluster of heavy tanks and the Charger that their lance leader left behind as he tries to stop the Wolverine and Griffin from leveling the data center. The two tail mechs destroy a Partisan tank, taking its autocannons out of the battle.

To the north, our mechs focus fire on a Trebuchet to the north, which takes enough missiles and lasers that the armor loss renders it unbalanced, at which point it collapses in the woods where it took cover. A Quickdraw is a little more nimble and avoids most of the incoming fire, though.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The Quickdraw attracts the ire of our Stalker, which carves a hole through the lighter mech's center torso with lasers, then dings the engine with an SRM. Given that the mech already jumped and fired a bunch of lasers, that's going to be pretty warm in there.

The Trebuchet's right arm comes off under sustained fire from our Crusader and Archer, and although the 2K Archer's armor is red on the right side, the Trebuchet is basically done - both its LRM launchers and two of its medium lasers are gone, leaving just one laser in a shaky-looking left arm.

Paingod and the BattleAxe continue working on the Charger and Devastator tank to the south, avoiding the Devastator's line of fire to minimize the number of AC/20 rounds coming their way and cracking

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Against all odds, the Devastator manages to get a clear shot on Paingod, blasting the Blackjack's right PPC off. However, our mechwarrior's counterattack results in four lasers aimed at the second AC/20 barrel just as the round is about to leave it, causing the round to detonate inside, taking the assault tank out. Still, that was a nasty hit, and our Blackjack drops to a knee.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod levers the Blackjack up and moves out of the crater, blasting away at the Charger as it returns fire. Our BattleAxe uses its PPCs to melt the "assault" mech's left arm to slag, reducing its laser count and ability to punch things, but not before Paingod's mech loses a heat sink.

To the north, the hostile Trebuchet is blown away by out Stalker's applied firepower - nobody's quite sure whether it was the lasers or SRMs that scored the kill, but the 50-ton mech's ammo bins blow as the mechwarrior hadn't tried to dump his ammo yet.

Isgrimnur is finally able to get into the data center and distract the Griffin, the two mechs exchanging laser fire.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
This one's pretty decisive - Paingod detonates the Charger's LRM ammo with a PPC blast, our Stalker annihilates the Quickdraw, and Isgrimnur assists the turrets by blasting through the Wolverine's center torso armor, allowing the LRMs to stream in towards the breach and crack multiple core systems - damage to the gyro and engine renders the mech combat incapable.

The Wolverine and Griffin pull back, as does a Tokugawa tank that's been hanging out on the periphery to the south, plinking away with its AC/2s.

The damage to the facility isn't too bad, mostly turrets destroyed rather than any of the buildings housing the computers we're actually using. That's the point of turrets, so, good on them. That Griffin/Wolverine team did a pretty good job on those, taking out five turrets in total.

With the salvage we've collected from the last two missions, we're at about 380M worth of salvage in our employer's warehouses. It's looking like they'll need it.

More of our mechs with half-ton MG ammo bins develop ammo feed problems. After a few man-weeks of investigation, it turns out the issue is with our local MG ammo supplier. Apparently, they've put anti-tampering software on the ammo loads they send out (which is why the hardware diagnostics all showed up fine). What we've been doing so far is basically the moral equivalent of cutting the ammo belts in half to fit them into half-ton bins. Which works fine, except it causes the software to render the MG ammo supplied by the locals inoperative. Kind of obnoxious.

Our techs come up with two options for us. We can suck it up and buy the specialized half-ton ammo loads, which are more expensive (on a per round basis). It's still chump change for us, but pretty obnoxious and introduces potential for logistical complications (you'd be surprised how often people can confuse ordering one and a half tons of MG ammo for one ton of MG ammo and one half-ton of MG ammo). Alternately, we could take our MG-wielding mechs down for a software "upgrade" to overcome the anti-tampering software, which means that nine of our mechs will be down for a week - two Warhammers (Scrub and Wolf), the Merlin, Akalon's Vulcan, a pair of Phoenix Hawks, a Firestarter, and a pair of Crusaders. So we'll be using a lot of spare mechs this week, with all the requisite bitching about ass-grooves and the cockpit not smelling right. Also annoying, but a chance to stick it to the man without having to blow up facilities we're supposed to defend. Akalon's tech winks at him and says it'll work just fine - "just like that time we put in a patch for that gyro hitch you were having."

Akalon frowns. "My mech fell over when I was walking it out of the gantry and nearly squashed one of you guys."

"Yeah, that'll learn him good to test his code properly. Plus, hey, we fixed the bug afterwards, just a little off-by-one error." The tech grins.

Akalon sighs.

[] Buy separate half-ton ammo loads for the rest of this contract
[] Take two lances' worth of mechs down for software upgrades for a week
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:52 pm [x] Buy separate half-ton ammo loads for the rest of this contract
[] Take two lances' worth of mechs down for software upgrades for a week
The savings are not worth it. We may need the mechs active and ready - things have been rather busy lately.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:52 pm [x] Buy separate half-ton ammo loads for the rest of this contract
[] Take two lances' worth of mechs down for software upgrades for a week
[x] Why are we using machine guns? Remove them and replace them with something useful.
But seriously, why are we using machine guns? They're significantly more likely to destroy our own mechs (via ammo explosions) than any enemy mechs.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Can't imagine taking mechs offline for that.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

[X] Buy separate half-ton ammo loads for the rest of this contract

This planet really sucks.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 3:47 pm
NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:52 pm [x] Buy separate half-ton ammo loads for the rest of this contract
[] Take two lances' worth of mechs down for software upgrades for a week
[x] Why are we using machine guns? Remove them and replace them with something useful.
But seriously, why are we using machine guns? They're significantly more likely to destroy our own mechs (via ammo explosions) than any enemy mechs.
Anti-infantry would be my guess. But I'd think we could swap out MG/Ammo for a flamer for that job.

Whatever the case, buy 1/2 ton loads for now, find a better long term solution.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

$iljanus wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 4:30 pm This planet really sucks.
Still better than pretty much any high-gravity world.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:48 pm
$iljanus wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 4:30 pm This planet really sucks.
Still better than pretty much any high-gravity world.
Or a desert world. I hate sand. It gets in all the servos.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:03 pm
NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:48 pm
$iljanus wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 4:30 pm This planet really sucks.
Still better than pretty much any high-gravity world.
Or a desert world. I hate sand. It gets in all the servos.
And the frozen worlds. Too cold. I can barely get warm in an extended fight blazing away with all 3 PPCs...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Buy the half-ton ammo bins - almost unanimous
- have discussion with supplier about advisability of nonsense
We tell our logistics people to buy the specific half-ton ammo bins for now.

June 30, 3050
38km north of Flegmann Storage Depot 8A

Our continued control of the data center pays off again, allowing the Star Guards techs to alert us to a force of unidentified hostiles - a medium mech lance and a bunch of tanks - advancing towards a storage depot on our list. El Guapo's re-constituted Alpha-Heavy lance moves in to intercept. The Star Guards are able to vector a lance of hovercraft in our direction. Elements of Beta-Fire (minus the Stalker which has developed problems with its leg actuators and has been down-checked), plus a Spider from Delta-Recon (the rest of the lance being occuped chasing down hovercraft) are also on approach and should arrive at the interception point shortly.

A light fog has rolled in, requiring cautious movement on the part of everyone involved, which is ok for the most part for us - it'll slow down the incoming tanks. Just not the jump-capable medium mech lance.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Our mechs are in position. Zarathud and El Guapo take pot shots at maximum range, but fail to score hits, while a Saracen to the north pings a few LRMs off our Awesome's armor.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
El Guapo moves to a small cluster of trees to the west and goes to work on an approaching Phoenix Hawk, blasting it with a PPC to melt the armor off the right arm and a glancing hit with a gauss slug off the left torso.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Our replacement Thug operator scores his first kill, using the 80-ton mech's SRMs to pepper an approaching Pegasus, the warheads blasting off drive fans and a hole through the skirt.

The Phoenix Hawk attempts to kick over a Star Guards Savannah Master, but gets blasted by a PPC from El Guapo and whiffs, falling over.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud nestles into a nice little firing position behind a cylindrical building of some sort and blasts away with the Awesome's PPCs. A Saracen hover tank takes three, deflating.

El Guapo and the Thug blast away at the Phoenix Hawk as it tries to get up. Combined with fire from the Star Guards hovercraft, the 45-ton mech simply falls apart. A hostile Wolverine does manage to kick over one of the allied hovercraft, a Plainsman. The crew scampers out pretty quickly.

Fury breaks the Guillotine in, taking a couple of SRMs then splattering a Scimitar hovertank after landing the mech right next to it and lasering it.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Beta-Fire arrives to the south, hopefully they'll block any fast units that make it past Alpha-Heavy.

A Panther won't be doing so, after Zarathud melts its right leg with a pair of direct PPC hits.

Our Thug switches targets, putting a pair of PPCs through a Vedette, leaving not very much of the tank on the field.

Fury continues picking off little tanks, breaching a Galleon tank's armor and disabling pretty much all of its weapons systems (except a small laser on the wrong side of the tank).

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Delta-Recon's Spider jumps north and disables an LRM Carrier with a couple of laser blasts just as it starts lobbing clouds of missiles at our Thug. Fury moves to back the little mech up, cutting a Scorpion tank down to size with the Guillotine's lasers. To the west, El Guapo is forced to let the Wolverine by, but does put a hole through a Galleon tank's armor, the PPC blast dissipating before really getting into the tank. The heat and "fresh" air convince the crew to turn the tank around, however.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Fury punches through a Hetzer's armor, while our Thug flattens a Skulker scout tank trying to get away.

Beta-Fire doesn't do so well stopping the Wolverine and Phoenix Hawk from getting by them, the Crusader getting punched in the dome while the Archers do little other than overheat. But, those are the only two units that get by, the rest of the ground-bound hostiles pull out.

The garrison at the Flegmann depot is able to drive off the two medium mechs that make it past us, so, mission accomplished.

El Guapo breathes a sigh of relief - didn't lose any mechs or get anyone killed this time.

---

When Archinerd opens up his email the next morning, he can barely keep himself from drooling. Captain Dan's Lightly Used Discount Mechs has a Dervish for sale. Not just any Dervish though, an upgraded one. Now, of course, Archinerd's Dervish is already upgraded with double heat sinks. But this one is a DV-7D, straight from New Avalon. With a few pit stops along the way. In addition to the standard LRM/10s, it's upgraded the SRM/2s to streak versions, and mounted the ammo in CASE to prevent it from blowing apart. It's even got shiny new endo-steel structure and ferro-fibrous armor.

Obviously we're buying it, but our mechwarrior feels that two tons of SRM/2 ammo is a little overkill, especially for streak launchers (it translates to 100 shots, enough for 50 rounds of sustained fire - most of our battles rarely last more than 15 rounds). So, our mechwarrior comes up with two proposals. The first option is to replace a ton of Streak ammo with LRM ammo, giving the twin LRM launchers a little more endurance (from 12 to 18 rounds of sustained fire). The second option is to pull the ammo bin entirely and use the saved mass to mount more armor (from 143 to 171 points, which is about a ton short of the maximum amount of armor protection you can mount on a 55-tonner). We could also put the kibosh on this - while Captain Dan hasn't tried to stiff us, it's an interesting question as to where the hell he got a mech that only started factory production three years ago.

[] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:48 pm [] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[x] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
Thanks, Cap'n Dan!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:48 pm [] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[X] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
Worth a shot since the supplier is thus far reputable. And in general I haven't found LRMs to be *that* useful, so I'd prefer keeping the mech in a non-exploded form.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

Do we get a discount if we allow Captain Dan to plaster his logo all over the mech, NASCAR-style?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

I think he's going to do that anyway.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Drop ammo to make room for more ammo.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

[x] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor

Survivability is a useful perk.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:48 pm [] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[x] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
LRMs are situational, armour is always useful.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:22 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:48 pm [] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[X] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
Worth a shot since the supplier is thus far reputable. And in general I haven't found LRMs to be *that* useful, so I'd prefer keeping the mech in a non-exploded form.
Unexploded mechs do tend to be more useful. Lets go this way.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

AWS260 wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:57 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:48 pm [] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> LRM ammo
[x] Buy the mech, SRM ammo -> armor
[] Pass on the mech, suspicious
Thanks, Cap'n Dan!
This!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Dervish, extra armor - almost unanimous
Captain Dan comes through again, delivering the Dervish within a day of our payment going into escrow. 5.7M C-Bills is worth it. Taking the ammo bin out is pretty easy, and only takes a few days.

July 2, 3050
Checkpoint 7H

Our control of the data center continues to yield results, allowing us to intercept a group of unidentified hostiles heading towards a corporate convoy moving in our control zone. Delta-Ranger moves in to carry out the interception. Archinerd doesn't get to try out the new Dervish, as it is still in one of our dropship hangars. But that's ok, we're just facing a medium mech lance with light mech and tank support. And we've got some turrets in place to help us out. Mostly crap, but there's a triple SRM/6 turret which will be pretty unpleasant for anything that gets too close.

There's a little bit of a dust storm going on too, which lightly impairs visibility, but nothing our mechwarriors can't handle.

Round 1:
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The two forces exchange long-range fire, with nothing hitting, although the autocannon on the opposing force's Shadow Hawk looks a little droopy.

Round 2:
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Madmarcus scores a series of very precise laser hits on an approaching Saladin hovertank, blowing off all of its drive fans. Then Archinerd's LRMs home in a couple of seconds later, completely blowing the poor thing away. Our lance leader shrugs.

Round 3:
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Archinerd backs up, sending a salvo of LRMs at an approaching Falcon hover tank. The SRM and laser-equipped light hovercraft catches half a stream of missiles and embeds itself into a nearby hillside.

Our Exterminator jumps north, firing at a Phoenix Hawk and taking off a good amount of armor with the lasers, but takes a headshot from one of the enemy mech's guns, and the mechwarrior blacks out, landing our expensive mech in a pile on the ground. The enemy mechwarrior takes advantage of this by ripping off our mech's right leg.

Madmarcus jumps inside a Griffin's effective weapons range, using the Wolverine's mass to knock the other mech over.

The hostiles also blast apart a building housing one of our MG turrets. Well, whatever, that thing was useless anyway.

Round 4:
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"Ranger-Four is down. Ranger-Two, rally on me." Madmarcus orders.

Freyland moves to intercept the two light mechs working on the turrets, but misjudges the structural strength of a building and winds up in a pile on the ground in the middle of a bunch of rubble.

The hostile Phoenix Hawk decides to finish off our Exterminator, opening up with lasers at close range. One of the lasers is mis-aimed however, setting off the LRM ammo bin, evaporating our mech. The ejection seat doesn't fire, either. Madmarcus and Archinerd's fire does blow off one of the Phoenix Hawk's arms, but too late to make a difference. Scowling, Madmarcus kicks over an adjacent Scimitar, the crew rapidly crawling out.

Round 5:
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Freyland gets up and runs south around a building, running into a Wasp - while the enemy mech tries to dodge the jets of flame from a nearby flamer turret, our mechwarrior fires up the Cronus' right arm laser, disabling the bug mech's right arm, then sending another laser and four SRMs into its lower section, popping multiple right leg actuators. The bug mech falls over. A curb stomp squashes its right half, ensuring it won't be doing much of anything else.

Archinerd uses the Dervish's LRMs to disable a Condor hovertank harassing Madmarcus as our mechwarrior jumps over to clean up the riffraff.

The Ostscout, meanwhile, gets away and takes out our SRM turret, absorbing a few missiles in the process.

Round 6:
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This round is fairly unproductive, except that the hostiles finish off the flamer turret, while our mechs work on the Phoenix Hawk to not quite enough effect.

Round 7:
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Freyland suddenly finds himself engaged by the Griffin and Shadow Hawk, in addition to the Ostscout. Our mechwarrior keeps his cool though, jumping in behind the Shadow Hawk and blasting through a weak spot in its rear armor to melt a jump jet and ding the engine shielding, then kicking it in the back of the right knee for good measure, causing the mech to trip and drop down to avoid faceplanting.

Archinerd uses the Dervish's LRMs to pop the treads on an annoying Hunter support tank that has survived multiple LRM salvos and laser blasts, while Madmarcus immobilizes a Plainsman hovertank (while avoiding its multitude of SRMs), the Wolverine's SRMs turning it into swiss cheese.

Having lost all of their screening elements, the five remaining mechs retreat. We choose to let them disengage, having enough of a mess of our own to clean up. The checkpoint is basically useless now, with the turrets having all been blown up or disabled.

Pvt. Marianna Connibeer has been with the company for two years. She started out driving an Archer, but quickly adjusted to driving the Exterminator after we acquired it. Her performance with the mech was acceptable - scoring nine kills over six missions, including two light mechs. Overall, the Exterminator suffered from a lack of long-range firepower, and the mechwarrior never really clicked with the rest of the lance, but it's still a shame. She was thirty two years old, originating from Chamdo, a former Capellan holding annexed by the Federated Suns during the 4th Succession War. Her final payout goes to a younger sister.

We'll need a replacement mech for Delta-Ranger. We've already got an elite mechwarrior lined up as a replacement, but can't decide on the mech. Our two options are Archinerd's old Dervish (inspired by the customization to the new Dervish, we'll also ditch one of its SRM ammo bins in favor of extra armor), or a Griffin GRF-1DS that's come up on the mech market. It's an interesting upgrade over the standard Griffin model, replacing the PPC with a large pulse laser, upgrading the LRM rack from a 10 to a 20 and mounting 14 double heat sinks to keep everything cool. That's entirely too many heat sinks for the mech's weapons load, but we can fix that.

[] Dervish DV-6M (DA) - standard Dervish, but with double heat sinks and an extra ton of armor
[] Griffin GRF-1DS (A) - upgraded Griffin with better short-range capability but slightly reduced long-range firepower

The other good news is that the doctors clear Hyena for active duty, so the Hatamoto-Hi will be re-assigned to another lance, and Hyena will re-join Alpha-Urban lance. Our employer is now up to 388M in recovered salvage, leaving us with approximately 800M to go. Probably not happening unless we start capturing jumpships.
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