Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
See if we can finagle the Kintaro - 5
Pass - 2
After a brief consultation with our legal department, we put the pirate "on the books" as a new recruit. The Kintaro will take a couple of weeks to get back up and running, between the completely busted leg and having to re-attach the left arm, but we'll get it working.

Delta-Ranger gets to try out their new toys, as some pirates, not necessarily from the "Queen of Butte Hold" group, buzz one of our checkpoints. Alongside a Star Guards Phoenix Hawk, we've got Madmarcus in the trusty Wolverine, Freyland in the Cronus, Archinerd in the upgraded Dervish DV-7D(A) and a new recruit in the Griffin GRF-1DS. We haven't had a chance to downsize the double heat sinks yet in that one, but it'll still be interesting to give it a try.

Our checkpoint consists of four random-ass turrets we scrounged from the scrap heap, but we've got a triple-barrel Thumper to help soften up any bad guys as they approach.

We've also got a lance from Beta company approaching from the east, so we just need to engage these guys until our overwhelming force gets into position.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Delta-Ranger lance moves up, pushing their mechs to maximum speed to close in with the hostiles faster. Still about a kilometer out from maximum LRM range, but a pair of our turrets are getting beat-up on already. Our Thumper turret starts blasting out artillery rounds at the hostile tanks.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
One of the Thumper rounds lands and lightly grazes the back of a Galleon tank, slightly damaging its treads, while an MG turret pops up as an LRM Carrier is driving by and really works that tank's treads over.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
More of our artillery rounds land, this time blasting bits off an SRM Carrier, which ought to prevent the tank from getting into or out of the fight in time to make any sort of difference.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Our lance engages the hostile light mechs, about two lances' worth. The plan is to string their light units to the east while our artillery blasts the slower units. Not too much in the way of damage gets inflicted, although our Griffin's first shot with its pulse laser strikes true, blowing out a jump jet on an approaching Kurita-model Spider, along with all the armor on its left torso.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
A lot of weapons fire is exchanged but basically nothing hits, except for our Star Guard buddy, who continues blasting teh approaching Spider, methodically removing three out its four remaining jump jets with the Phoenix Hawk's right-arm large laser and bursts from the MG.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Ok, fall back to nav beta." Madmarcus informs everyone. "No need to get swamped by anklebiters."

The poor SRM Carrier in the back gets its motive systems completely blasted by our artillery piece.

Our lance jumps back by the numbers.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Our lance uses its slight range advantage (large lasers, LRMs) to keep the anklebiters back while falling back towards Beta Company's position, scoring some armor damage on a couple of bug mechs, although the slippery little bastards make it hard to keep lasers on them for any significant period of time.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
"Goddammit, Ranger-Two, get your ass back in formation." Madmarcus calls out, exasperated, as Archinerd halts the orderly retreat and jumps west, getting in behind a Locust. Most of the Dervish's weapons fire misses, although a couple of streak SRMs manage to lock on to the bug mech and blast most of its rear torso armor plating off. Our mechwarrior's attempted kick doesn't really work out, either.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
"Sorry, boss." Our chastised mechwarrior returns, jumping back towards our formation, the Dervish firing a salvo of LRMs as it jumps - the missiles land on target, immobilizing a Scimitar hovertank.

One of our artillery shells lands right on top of an LRM Carrier way in the back, blowing it to smithereens.

Unfortunately, some of the light hostile units are in weapons range of our artillery battery, so that turret is going to go away shortly.

Round 10:
As our lance hunkers down behind a solid rock hill, a Locust makes a brave move, coming around the hill to blast armor off our Griffin with its lasers. Unfortunately, this doesn't pay off. The mechwarrior jukes away from Freyland's lasers, but then eats multiple shots from Madmarcus and the Griffin, which results in its right weapons pod being fried and multiple center torso armor breaches - as it falls over, the right torso section is crushed as well.

As Beta Company comes into sensor range, the hostiles suddenly lose their desire for a fight and rapidly disengage.

"That's one way to de-escalate." Freyland comments.

And indeed, that was a remarkably low-casualty engagement - one completely destroyed LRM carrier, two other disabled tanks, and two beat-up light mechs on the pirate side, minor armor damage on ours. And, even better, the Thumper stayed intact!

---

Having given the Griffin 1DS a shakedown, we've got some hard data and suggestions from the mechwarrior driving it. The conclusion is that it's got three more heat sinks than it needs (generating a maximum of 21 heat, but sinking 28), so if we take some of those off, we can add extra equipment.

Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Ton of armor
[] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 pm
Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[X] Ton of armor
[X] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[X] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[X] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
I like the idea of making it into an ECM/ELINT mech.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 pm [] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[x] Ton of armor
[x] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[x] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:55 pm
NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 pm
Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[X] Ton of armor
[] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[X] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[X] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
I like the idea of making it into an ECM/ELINT mech.
I'm just not sensing that great of value in the Artemis IV. Clustering is valuable with the LRMs, but don't recall exact game mechanics well enough to think it's worth while?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 1:08 am I'm just not sensing that great of value in the Artemis IV. Clustering is valuable with the LRMs, but don't recall exact game mechanics well enough to think it's worth while?
It gives you a +2 on the cluster roll for missiles, so if you hit you do more damage. For smaller missile racks it's basically worthless, that one ton buys you an extra point of damage on average, but when you go up to an LRM/20 rack, you're basically upping the average damage by 4 (still capped by the number of missiles fired, of course). So it's an ok improvement if you've got the spare tonnage.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

gbasden wrote:
NickAragua wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 pm
Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[X] Ton of armor
[X] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[X] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[X] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
I like the idea of making it into an ECM/ELINT mech.
I like this idea.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:02 am
Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 1:08 am I'm just not sensing that great of value in the Artemis IV. Clustering is valuable with the LRMs, but don't recall exact game mechanics well enough to think it's worth while?
It gives you a +2 on the cluster roll for missiles, so if you hit you do more damage. For smaller missile racks it's basically worthless, that one ton buys you an extra point of damage on average, but when you go up to an LRM/20 rack, you're basically upping the average damage by 4 (still capped by the number of missiles fired, of course). So it's an ok improvement if you've got the spare tonnage.
The trade off for getting rid of the 4th double heat sink is that we would occasionally not fire the LRM20 - not sure how much of a fire improvement that is to increase the number of missiles that hit when we do hit vs not being able to fire it quite as often.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:11 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:02 am
Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 1:08 am I'm just not sensing that great of value in the Artemis IV. Clustering is valuable with the LRMs, but don't recall exact game mechanics well enough to think it's worth while?
It gives you a +2 on the cluster roll for missiles, so if you hit you do more damage. For smaller missile racks it's basically worthless, that one ton buys you an extra point of damage on average, but when you go up to an LRM/20 rack, you're basically upping the average damage by 4 (still capped by the number of missiles fired, of course). So it's an ok improvement if you've got the spare tonnage.
The trade off for getting rid of the 4th double heat sink is that we would occasionally not fire the LRM20 - not sure how much of a fire improvement that is to increase the number of missiles that hit when we do hit vs not being able to fire it quite as often.
It would seem like there wouldn't be that many times where the long range and shorter range weapons would always both be in use. I would think there would be natural cooldown periods where there would be no enemies in view in one of the two ranges, but maybe I'm mistaken.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:12 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:11 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:02 am
Zenn7 wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 1:08 am I'm just not sensing that great of value in the Artemis IV. Clustering is valuable with the LRMs, but don't recall exact game mechanics well enough to think it's worth while?
It gives you a +2 on the cluster roll for missiles, so if you hit you do more damage. For smaller missile racks it's basically worthless, that one ton buys you an extra point of damage on average, but when you go up to an LRM/20 rack, you're basically upping the average damage by 4 (still capped by the number of missiles fired, of course). So it's an ok improvement if you've got the spare tonnage.
The trade off for getting rid of the 4th double heat sink is that we would occasionally not fire the LRM20 - not sure how much of a fire improvement that is to increase the number of missiles that hit when we do hit vs not being able to fire it quite as often.
It would seem like there wouldn't be that many times where the long range and shorter range weapons would always both be in use. I would think there would be natural cooldown periods where there would be no enemies in view in one of the two ranges, but maybe I'm mistaken.
Possible I suppose. And based on my own play-style - getting more damage in quicker is worth something even if the net long-term firepower is the same. Potentially taking an opponent out 1 round sooner significantly offsets possibly not firing every single weapon next turn.

So - I change my mind, incde the Artemis IV as well, get rid of 4 Double Heat Sinks.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
ECM, Beagle, Artemis IV, Armor - 3
ECM, Beagle, Armor - 1

However: turns out ECM and Beagle are 1.5 tons each, so we can't fit the Artemis IV in anyway.
We wheel the Griffin into a bay and start taking it apart, pulling four heat sinks out to install electronic warfare equipment and extra armor, mostly around the limbs (but also adding a bit to the center torso). Scrub also has a minor customization done to her royal Warhammer, dropping half a ton of MG ammo for, you guessed it, armor.

As the month goes on, bad news continues rolling in on the war front. Rasalhague, the capitol of the FRR, has fallen - despite being garrisoned by multiple regiments of mechs and combined arms forces, the defenders have been swept aside and the world occupied. Surviving units have evacuated to the south, as have surviving elements of the national government. Multiple worlds have been reported as lost from the Draconis Combine. On the FedCom side, Dompaire and Colmar, which are to the south of us, so it almost looks like the invaders are establishing a pocket.

August 26, 3050
Orbital Ascent

It looks like the Butte Hold guys are finally getting it through their heads that it's time to leave. Under the cover of night, a bunch of infiltrators get into the local spaceport and steal a 10th Donegal Avenger-class dropship. Our employer is obviously not pleased with this turn of events, but is unable to seize the dropship back before it lifts off. As such, they send a flight of aerospace fighters to take it down, dealing with their own problems for a change.

Just kidding, they tell us to take care of it - the aerospace fighters they're sending are three lights, hardly sufficient to the task of taking down a dropship. We've got Beta-Strike in the air, and Alpha-Strike scrambling as well. Simple job: take down the dropship before it leaves atmo.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Our fighters form up with the 10th Donegal guys.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Avenger being escorted by a swarm of light fighters that have come out of the woodwork.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Our fighters open up with their long range weapons, including the Starfire making its debut with a sustained burst from its ultra autocannon. The UAC misses, but our Chippewa scores multiple LRM hits - a large plate comes off one of the dropship's sides, perhaps a cargo bay door.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
This is probably our only chance to get some serious damage in before we get swarmed and have to expend our effort screening the hostile fighters instead of shooting at the dropship. In fact, one of the Star Guards light fighters blasted by long-range weaponry. The aero jock reports avionics damage and losing altitude.

Our fighters inflict a good amount of damage on the Avenger, blasting sensor clusters and a couple of turrets off as the unwieldy craft can't bring any of its weaponry to bear on us - it's designed as a dropship hunter-killer, not for taking down lighter, nimbler fighters.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The Avenger continues taking a beating, including from Alpha-Strike which is flying in from the west. Unfortunately, they screwed up their intercept vector, so they're only at maximum rather than optimal weapons range. Weapons fire from the dropship forces one of our Lucifers off, our aircraft losing altitude. The light fighters provided by the 10th Donegal screen our heavies pretty well, although one of them gets picked off and spirals into the ground.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The Avenger loses control after a little too much thruster damage and drops to the ground. A little unfortunate, but at least the pirates won't be getting it.

The kerfluffle with the Avenger allows the rest of the pirate dropships to lift off uncontested and make for a pirate jump point. Several weeks later, we detect a jump-out signature. Did their jumpship survive the process? Who knows.

The 10th Donegal guys are pretty livid about the whole episode, while we maintain it wasn't our responsibility to provide ground security for their dropships. Other than that (and one of our mechs having to "step in" to resolve a dispute between the Star Guards and some corporate militia that results in two mechs completely blown up and a legged Griffin, neither of those things on our end), things are pretty quiet locally until the end of September. The 10th Donegal and the 12th Star Guards conduct refits and repairs to the best of their ability, we tweak our mech loadouts to reduce unnecessary ammo capacity, and the Marshal (Sarah) Steiner pronounces her unit "as ready as we're going to get."

At which point a small flotilla of (incredibly heavy) JumpShips arrives at both the nadir and zenith points and beginnings a burn for the planet (our sensor operators have to do a double take to make sure it's the JumpShips and not detached dropships), which we detect at the same time as a transmission comes in on the general frequency. Scrub is in the room with Marshal Sarah Steiner of the 10th Donegal and General Mitch DeChavilier of the 12th Star Guards when it comes in.

"This is Star Colonel Damien Kozyrev of Clan Jade Falcon." a man with a shaved bald head who appears to have never skipped a workout day or 'nutritional supplement intake' in his life announces from the trid projector, his demeanor dripping with derision as if addressing a pile of dirty laundry. "I hereby issue a trial of possession for this system and all fixed installations contained therein. Two clusters of battlemechs and aerospace fighters stand ready to do battle. What forces stand against our steel talons?"

The three force commanders look at each other, the Marshal and General looking a little green, sweat beading down the Mitch's forehead while Sarah just stares at the holo image, knuckles turning white as she grips the edge of the table.

"Guess we're not getting any wolves." Scrub mumbles under her breath.

To be continued after new years (cliffhanger music):
[] Dun Dun DUUUUUN
[] Nuh nuh nuh nuh NUUUUUUUUUH
[] Nuh nuh tweelelelele brbrbrbrbrbr
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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"This is Star Colonel Damien Kozyrev of Clan Jade Falcon." a man with a shaved bald head who appears to have never skipped a workout day or 'nutritional supplement intake' in his life announces from the trid projector, his demeanor dripping with derision as if addressing a pile of dirty laundry. "I hereby issue a trial of possession for this system and all fixed installations contained therein. Two clusters of battlemechs and aerospace fighters stand ready to do battle. What forces stand against our steel talons?"
ALL OF US YOU BALD FREAK!

Image

(hey, umm, is our drop ship fueled up and ready to flee...? And it would be awesome if it was a tradition for the Jade Falcon command staff to look like the legendary warrior of olde as passed down through the generations, Mr Clean! As the tales tell, nothing could stand against him!)

Fragment of the Legend of Mr. Clean:

Mr. Clean gets rid of dirt and grime and grease in just a minute!
Mr. Clean will clean your whole house and everything that's in it!


Obviously it talks about destroying the corrupt and immoral denizens of a ruling House!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

So we get the Viridian Parakeets...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

My soon to be replacement votes for contracts on the other end of the inner spheres.

What say everyone else's soon to be replacements?

:)

Eh... who am I kidding. That'd be boring. If we're going out, let's go out in a blaze of (hopefully) glory!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Zenn7 wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:12 pm My soon to be replacement votes for contracts on the other end of the inner spheres.

What say everyone else's soon to be replacements?

:)

Eh... who am I kidding. That'd be boring. If we're going out, let's go out in a blaze of (hopefully) glory!
...If we're going out? :)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

The Clans are so full of themselves and I look forward to being a minor inconvenience to them!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Captainwolfer »

"I hereby issue a trial of possession for this system and all fixed installations contained therein. Two clusters of battlemechs and aerospace fighters stand ready to do battle. What forces stand against our steel talons?"
[/quote]
So, going off Sarna.net, each cluster will have 20-150 points of units (A point is either a single mech or two aerospace fighters)
Assuming a fifty-fifty split, we are looking at 20-150 mechs and 40-300 aerospace fighters.
The order is- Lady Harrington, and no mercy!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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"We would relish the opportunity to meet Clan Jade Falcon on the field of battle. But first you must bring us...a shrubbery!"
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 12:00 pm

To be continued after new years (cliffhanger music):
[X] Dun Dun DUUUUUN
[] Nuh nuh nuh nuh NUUUUUUUUUH
[] Nuh nuh tweelelelele brbrbrbrbrbr
Clearly the correct choice.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:17 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:12 pm My soon to be replacement votes for contracts on the other end of the inner spheres.

What say everyone else's soon to be replacements?

:)

Eh... who am I kidding. That'd be boring. If we're going out, let's go out in a blaze of (hopefully) glory!
...If we're going out? :)
Our replacements could go to the other end of the Inner Spheres and keep our company a going concern. Or we could focus on fighting the clans until we're ground into the ground, out of funds and become a defunct company.

Wherein Nick finds a new hobby besides writing this interactive novel, or starts the next series in his battletech world. :)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Still love the Jade Falcon intro.

I assume that we're doing the right thing and slinking out the back door like cowards? Can we still do that?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:35 am Still love the Jade Falcon intro.

I assume that we're doing the right thing and slinking out the back door like cowards? Can we still do that?
We will confound them - let them know we are defending with our primary asset - a blimp brigade! Lets see how they respond to that!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

Depends on whether that brigade has Anti-Missile Systems, if not then the C-LRMs are going to shred them at range.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Looking to gauge level of interest and (if present) determine participants for playing some or all of these upcoming battles out in a "play by post" manner. Could be fun, could be a disaster.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

In, as always. Failure is always more memorable than success.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by $iljanus »

I’m game. That way it won’t be our blood on your hands if we’re calling the shots.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Im in
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

I'm game.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

In!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

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

Post by Hyena »

I'll be a bystander. But feel free to give someone control of my meatbag inside my mechskin... Or I trust you, either way.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

Same here. If the Clan has come, we need all our Awesomes on the field. Where they will die.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

But like....can we still retreat?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

Or if we HAVE to engage, make damn sure that we send at least a company vs a clan star.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

We actually sped some time considering the possibility of simply ditching out. Two things play against it - first, given the position of our (thankfully unmolested) JumpShip, our dropships would have to run a gauntlet of JumpShips capable of moving from jump point to planetary orbit. Second, given the current political situation, we'd be unlikely to find any work for one of the major houses again. Unlike the last time we ditched out on a contract, where House Marik put in a good word for us with the arbitrators after kicking our asses, it's unlikely that these invaders would do so. And also they haven't kicked our asses yet.

"So... are we gonna do this or what?" Scrub asks. "Think these guys would accept a surrender?"

"Yes, and no." The Marshal replies after loosening her grip on the holo projector rails. "These 'clans' are here, looking for a fight and they like to take salvage and prisoners. So they're likely to 'ask' for a good chunk of our units even if we surrender, and from what I hear, people who surrender without a fight don't get treated too well. Only reason we got away from our last fight was because they let us go after we 'fought fair' according to their rules."

Scrub considers the idea of declaring assets and agreeing to conduct battles via one-on-one duels idiotic, especially when our technology is significantly inferior to the opposing force, and states her opposition to doing any of those things. Especially the weird rules of engagement. She's overruled on the force declaration, but the marshal leaves rules of engagement up to her.

"Well bargained and done." Comes the response.

---

October 3, 3050
Mud Bath HQ

Alpha Company has been tasked with defending an area known as the "Mud Bath", which contains a number of strategic facilities.

The 10th Donegal has set up a forward command post with pre-fab buildings out here. They're not too sturdy, but they do have some auto-turrets that'll help fend off any attackers. The downside is that one of the pre-fab buildings houses the 10th Donegal's local command staff (it's only a Captain and some junior officers, but still). Given our familiarity with the planet, we got asked for advice on where to place the facility:
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
Wet or Dry?
[] All depth 0 water hexes become mud instead (mud costs +1 MP to move into, and tanks may "bog down"). This will reduce overall mobility in the northern half of the map, for both us and the incoming hostiles
[] Keep the depth 0 water as is

Woods or Swamps?
[] All woods (foliage or otherwise) become swamps instead, increasing visibility but reducing mobility, especially on the northern half of the map
[] Keep the woods

Designate four sets of coordinates for the buildings (x and y must be greater than 8 and less than 24). Also (in spoiler tags, so I can't see), nominate one of the buildings to be the actual command center. Each building is CF 40 (aka has 40 hit points) and may be of any height. Some of the more relevant heights are 1 (mechs can use them as partial cover), 2 (mechs can hide behind them completely) and 3 (buildings will poke over most terrain, allowing good lines of fire for the turrets mounted on them, but also exposing them to enemy fire). Each building has a turret with an AC/10 (2 tons of ammo) and 2x medium lasers, and is pretty heavily armored (all attacks do 1/2 damage, rounded down).

"Home Edge":
Pick a cardinal direction. The hostiles will be coming in from the opposite direction. Our units can retreat off this edge as well, allowing them to survive to fight another day if we don't hold the field after the battle. Pretty much all our lance leaders recommend making the hostiles come through the crap terrain to the north, leaving our mechs a clear line of retreat to the south if it comes to that.
[] North
[] South
[] East
[] West

Sensors show an incoming force of five BattleMechs - four mediums and one heavy. The heavy has active ECM, preventing us from getting detailed readings. Two of the mediums are loaded down with what appear to be external cargo. Sensors also show a pair of medium aerospace fighters vectoring in.

Which Alpha Company lance is currently defending the HQ?
[] Alpha-Heavy - El Guapo/Marauder, Fury/Guillotine, Thud/Awesome, "Guru"/Thug
[] Alpha-Ranger - Cujo/Wolverine, Bass/Griffin, Stefan/Trebuchet, Yuki/Ostroc
[] Alpha-Urban - Isgrimnur/Hatchetman, Paingod/Blackjack, Hyena/Grasshopper, "Phung"/BattleAxe

Additionally, we can make recommendations for auxiliary forces that the 10th Donegal has allocated to help defend this HQ, according to this chart (for convenience and my sanity, the actual units will be rolled randomly once the types are picked). Generally speaking, VTOLs and hovercraft are harder to hit and faster but don't pack as much of a punch, while armor is tougher and packs a punch but is slower. Infantry is none of those things, but is cheaper, can be deployed in large numbers, and can hide in the buildings for extra survivability. None of our lance leaders think that minefields will be too helpful in this situation, given the relatively wide-open terrain. We can also, instead, get the 10th Donegal guys to hook up mid-air refueling for our aerospace fighters and get our guys in on air superiority to keep hostile aircraft off of us or on ground attack runs. If no hostile aircraft are detected, units on air superiority will make strafing runs against ground targets, but the results won't be as spectacular. Given that we're on the defensive against a highly mobile force, our lance leaders don't consider artillery a worthwhile option at this time.

We have 24 support points:
[] VTOL: 5 - crap firepower, weak armor, super fast (e.g. Warrior VTOL)
[] Light Hovercraft: 4 - good firepower, weak armor, fast (e.g. Pegasus hovertank)
[] Medium hovercraft: 5 - good firepower, medium armor, fast (e.g. Drillson hovertank)
[] Light armor: 4 - light firepower, light armor, fast (e.g. Skulker scout tank)
[] Medium armor: 4 - medium firepower, medium armor, medium speed (e.g. Vedette)
[] Heavy armor: 5 - good firepower, heavy armor, slow (e.g. Manticore)
[] Assault armor: 7 - major firepower, massive armor, basically a turret (e.g. Shreck PPC Carrier)
[] Mechanized Infantry: 2 - crapshoot firepower (33% chance of field guns), wheat before the scythe for armor, slow
[] Jump Infantry: 2 - no firepower (but can swarm mechs), no armor to speak of, slow
[] Air support (limit 1): 6 - Alpha-Strike aerospace flight participates in the battle
[] air superiority
[] ground attack

[Gamplay mechanics notes]
For those whose mechs aren't present on the field and wind up without a mech to drive, you'll get to control the support units.

Scanning - in order to "identify" a target, a unit must end its movement within three hexes of it for two turns in a row, foregoing attacking during both turns. If the unit has a "probe", "improved sensors" quirk or "sensor geek" SPA, that's five hexes instead, and the unit can shoot and kick/punch to their heart's content.

To save on my sanity, the player force always wins initiative.

"Foliage" - this is woods that are the height of a tank (aka shrubbery), meaning that mechs don't derive protective benefits from them as from normal woods, unless the foliage happens to be on top of a level 1 hill (e.g. the foliage in hex 0409 provides the +1 to hit penalty between hexes 0309 and 0510). They still slow down movement though by the usual amount.

Swamp - +1 MP to move through. Units entering a swamp hex must make a PSR or get bogged down.

Mud - Like swamps, except mechs don't get bogged down.

Depth 0 water - does nothing

Rough terrain (e.g. 0607) - +1 MP to move thorugh

Scenario objectives:
The attacker (the clans, in this case) must identify, via scanning, the HQ building, then destroy it. Or, I guess, just level all the buildings, but that'd mean having to do a lot of damage. Point value: 200

Destroy or cripple at least 50% of the opponent's force, not including aerospace fighters. Point value: 100.

The defender must destroy the attacker's commander. This is the Loki. Point value: 200

Whoever scores the most points wins and holds the battlefield. In case of a tie, the side with the most non-crippled remaining units (not including aerospace fighters) wins. In case of a tie there, we'll play it by ear (either the side with the most BV or keep playing until there's a winner).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

So Jade Falcon isn't bringing any armor then, right? So the mud would be more detrimental to us, if we bring armor?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 12:31 pm So Jade Falcon isn't bringing any armor then, right? So the mud would be more detrimental to us, if we bring armor?
Correct and it depends on a) what kind of armor and b) where the clanners come in from. Hovercraft/VTOLs ignore mud/swamps. If the clanners come in from the north (our home edge is south) then they'll have to slog through mud while we're dry. If the clanners come in from the south, we probably want to minimize the mud.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Captainwolfer »

Over on Sufficent Velocity xpentakill suggested the following:
[X] All depth 0 water hexes become mud instead (mud costs +1 MP to move into, and tanks may "bog down"). This will reduce overall mobility in the northern half of the map, for both us and the incoming hostiles
[X] All woods (foliage or otherwise) become swamps instead, increasing visibility but reducing mobility, especially on the northern half of the map
[X] South
[X] Alpha-Heavy - El Guapo/Marauder, Fury/Guillotine, Thud/Awesome, "Guru"/Thug
[X] VTOL: 5 - crap firepower, weak armor, super fast (e.g. Warrior VTOL)
[X] Medium hovercraft: 5 - good firepower, medium armor, fast (e.g. Drillson hovertank)
[X] Medium hovercraft: 5 - good firepower, medium armor, fast (e.g. Drillson hovertank)
[X] Jump Infantry: 2 - no firepower (but can swarm mechs), no armor to speak of, slow
[X] Air support (limit 1): 6 - Alpha-Strike aerospace flight participates in the battle
[X] air superiority
His reasoning:
My reasoning for the having the heavies at HQ is that our heavy is probably only as strong as their mediums.
My reasoning for the supports are as follows:
VTOL - to stick to their mechs and get a identification
Medium hovercraft - to kite the enemy, I am not picking light because I am worried even a graze will kill those.
Jump Infantry - Honestly, these guys are a point dump. I have the rest totaling to 21 so I had points to throw away.
Air support - Air support to kill the enemy fliers and to annoy the opposite mechs. They have shown very good results thus far imo.
Air superiority - More annoyance is good.
I have suggested swapping 1 of the medium hovercraft and the jump infantry for an assault tank. Also his vote doesn't specify where to put the buildings. I suggest we put the building behind woods or hills as much as possible.

Also, note that 2 of the mediums have cargo, which I am positive will be Elementals (Battle Armor)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Leraje »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 10:48 am Wet or Dry?
[x] All depth 0 water hexes become mud instead (mud costs +1 MP to move into, and tanks may "bog down"). This will reduce overall mobility in the northern half of the map, for both us and the incoming hostiles
[] Keep the depth 0 water as is

Woods or Swamps?
[] All woods (foliage or otherwise) become swamps instead, increasing visibility but reducing mobility, especially on the northern half of the map
[x] Keep the woods

Designate four sets of coordinates for the buildings (x and y must be greater than 8 and less than 24). Also (in spoiler tags, so I can't see), nominate one of the buildings to be the actual command center. Each building is CF 40 (aka has 40 hit points) and may be of any height. Some of the more relevant heights are 1 (mechs can use them as partial cover), 2 (mechs can hide behind them completely) and 3 (buildings will poke over most terrain, allowing good lines of fire for the turrets mounted on them, but also exposing them to enemy fire). Each building has a turret with an AC/10 (2 tons of ammo) and 2x medium lasers, and is pretty heavily armored (all attacks do 1/2 damage, rounded down).

"Home Edge":
Pick a cardinal direction. The hostiles will be coming in from the opposite direction. Our units can retreat off this edge as well, allowing them to survive to fight another day if we don't hold the field after the battle. Pretty much all our lance leaders recommend making the hostiles come through the crap terrain to the north, leaving our mechs a clear line of retreat to the south if it comes to that.
[] North
[x] South
[] East
[] West

Sensors show an incoming force of five BattleMechs - four mediums and one heavy. The heavy has active ECM, preventing us from getting detailed readings. Two of the mediums are loaded down with what appear to be external cargo. Sensors also show a pair of medium aerospace fighters vectoring in.

Which Alpha Company lance is currently defending the HQ?
[x] Alpha-Heavy - El Guapo/Marauder, Fury/Guillotine, Thud/Awesome, "Guru"/Thug
[] Alpha-Ranger - Cujo/Wolverine, Bass/Griffin, Stefan/Trebuchet, Yuki/Ostroc
[] Alpha-Urban - Isgrimnur/Hatchetman, Paingod/Blackjack, Hyena/Grasshopper, "Phung"/BattleAxe

We have 24 support points:
[x] VTOL: 5 - crap firepower, weak armor, super fast (e.g. Warrior VTOL)
[] Light Hovercraft: 4 - good firepower, weak armor, fast (e.g. Pegasus hovertank)
[] Medium hovercraft: 5 - good firepower, medium armor, fast (e.g. Drillson hovertank)
[] Light armor: 4 - light firepower, light armor, fast (e.g. Skulker scout tank)
[] Medium armor: 4 - medium firepower, medium armor, medium speed (e.g. Vedette)
[x] Heavy armor: 5 - good firepower, heavy armor, slow (e.g. Manticore)
[x] Assault armor: 7 - major firepower, massive armor, basically a turret (e.g. Shreck PPC Carrier)
[] Mechanized Infantry: 2 - crapshoot firepower (33% chance of field guns), wheat before the scythe for armor, slow
[] Jump Infantry: 2 - no firepower (but can swarm mechs), no armor to speak of, slow
[x] Air support (limit 1): 6 - Alpha-Strike aerospace flight participates in the battle
[x] air superiority
[] ground attack

Alpha-heavy - need to compensate for tech advantage with superior tonnage.
Mud to slow things down
Woods to break line of sight and at least slightly reduce Parakeet's range advantage. While swamps may slow them down, their superior range more than compensates for reduced mobility.
VTOL for scouting and Mobile turrets for support.
Alpha strike as air-support to keep the OpFor flyers away and provide extra diversions

Preferably position the buildings behind hills or woods and keep their profile as low as possible (similar positions to 2624).

Hex 0330 - who lost the arm? :)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Heh, didn't even notice that. It's an official map, too. Well if someone needs a club, you can walk over there and pick it up. :D

Game post is ready to go: http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 16&t=97950
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
letitgo.gif
"Right. See you around, then. Heavy lance, all allied units, stand down." El Guapo orders, letting out a breath and relaxing his white-knuckled grip on the Marauder's controls, as the mech's heat sinks work fast to dissipate the residual heat from rapid firing PPCs.

"That wasn't too bad, right?" Fury says, bringing the Guillotine around to look at the destroyed HQ.

"Speak for yourself." Guru retorts, shoving wires and tubes spewing steam from the life support system out of his face while levering the Thug up to a standing position.

Thud remains silent, shaking the dirt and debris off the beat-up Awesome.

Our losses on this operation amounted to a pair of Galleon tanks (and one crew member from each). The Lyrans lost their Partisan and a pair of turrets, as well as, probably more importantly, everyone in the HQ building. However, we did rout the Jade Falcon aerospace fighters, destroyed a 70-ton mech and were able to salvage a 55-tonner for our employer. Along with six completely wrecked suits of battle armor - cut to bits with laser fire, fried with PPCs, and, in one case, basically disintegrated by a gauss slug. Of the Loki, nothing remains. At least, that's functional. Our mechs are more or less in good shape, other than Guru's Thug, which needs its life support system repaired, and one of our aerospace fighters, a Lucifer, which took a hit to the avionics system.

Our techs get a good luck at the Ryoken - what's left of it anyway. It's got endo-steel structure and ferro-fibrous armor, which, unlike what we have, don't take up half the space in the mech, leaving more room for guns. The engine is a 330-rated XL, but, again, taking up a lot less space than the XL engines we have. The heat sinks are all integral to the engine, but are similar in construction to our double heat sinks. Just smaller. It mounts an LB-10X autocannon (with three tons of ammo!) in the left arm and a large pulse laser in the right arm for main guns, while a pair of medium pulse lasers sit in each of the side torso sections.

The trick is that it's about 16% faster than, for example, a Wolverine, while mounting nearly the maximum weight of armor for its chassis. And putting out more damage at longer range, without overheating. This particular mech also has a nice wide stance, which helps it stay upright when being rocked by incoming attacks.

Performance-wise, the LBX autocannon is on par with Inner Sphere ones, but is a ton lighter. Although it does use incompatible ammo. The medium pulse laser has a longer range and does more damage than our counterparts. The ammo incompatibility means the LBX autocannon isn't that desirable as salvage, but the medium pulse laser could be potentially something we can adapt for use on one of our mechs. We could probably attempt to cash in a favor with our employer to see if we could keep it.

[Mechanically speaking, we've got 20 "favor points" due to our pretty solid performance throughout this contract]
[] Cash in a favor for the medium pulse laser
[] Cash in a favor for the LB-10X autocannon
[] Skip

The other part that our techs drool over is that the weapons and ammo bins are hooked up via standardized interfaces. Normally, if you want to take an autocannon from a Rifleman and mount it onto a Shadow Hawk, you have to spend hours disconnecting all the mounts points, power lines and ammo feeds, fabricate a bunch of power adapters and cutting holes for screws, looking up schematics for the new mech it's going to, then spend hours reconnecting stuff. And then you have to re-calibrate the gyro. With the Ryoken, all the mount points are of the same dimensions, the power connectors are clearly labeled and all have the same plug size... "I could swap this laser and autocannon's around in an hour." our tech comments.

The battle armor is pretty impressive as well. Our mechwarriors observed these suits taking a PPC hit and remaining functional. None are intact enough for a detailed examination, but, of the ones recovered, each one had a right-arm-mounted flamer, two SRM tubes on the shoulders and a rifle in the left hand. That is an impressive amount of equipment to fit onto a suit of armor worn by a single guy. Although, our examination of the bodies (two of those - while we were cleaning up, the survivors got away) leaves our people astounded - the individuals involved are over two meters tall (the average human is about 1.7m) and both look like they're pushing 150 kilos (as opposed to the average human 75kg). "This is one gi-gantic mother-fucker." one of our medtechs comments. "Uh, I mean, uh, subject exceeds all expectation of human body size." he corrects himself after everyone stares at him.

Having held off the Jade Falcon advance, Alpha Company's sector remains clear for a while.

The same can't be said for the other three sectors we've been assigned to defend. Who's up next?

[] Beta Company - River Delta/Mountains terrain, heavier mechs
[] Gamma Company - Plains/Mountains, mix of mech weights
[] Delta Company - Lakes/Desert, lighter mechs
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