Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

[El Guapo]

I'm torn on this, in that I am dying to have a gauss rifle again, but 8 shot isn't really enough. Is there no way to free up a ton somewhere else in order to get up to 16 shots? If not then hard to argue with the LB-10X model (though I'd also like to call dibs on any clan tech gauss rifle that might fit better).

It'd be a little rough, in that you'd have to give up some other capability. You would have to ditch a heat sink for one extra ton of ammo (8 more shots) or a pulse laser for two (16 more shots).

The good news is that since you're using omni-pods, switching out non-structural objects such as weapons and heat sinks takes a half an hour per item. The reason it took so long to fix was because we had to basically re-build the right torso section from scratch (including, I might add, dismounting, re-mounting and repairing the XL engine at a cost of something like 1.2 million C-Bills - a sum that would have made me cry when the company was starting up; now it's pocket change).

Could always do a radical refit to 2x IS Gauss Rifles with 6T of ammo, 8 Clan ER Medium lasers, 21 DHS and the most important small laser in the head

That's interesting. Would that produce a higher damage per turn than the standard Daishi readout with the LBX-10 swapped in?

Overall I'm inclined to go with the LBX swap in for now. Also as much as I do love gauss cannons, the whole "if the cannon gets a direct hit you explode" thing is a bit of a downside, especially if the mech has two of them.

88 Alpha on the LBX10 variant. Will shutdown or overheat the mech, with 4x ErLLs being the main punch and overall more long-range weapons

84 Alpha on dual-gauss setup. Almost heat neutral, but favours medium range for most oomph.

CASE doesn't work on hits to gauss cannons, right? Is there a CASE-equivalent device to deal with gauss cannon hits?

[NickAragua]

CASE doesn't work on hits to gauss cannons, right? Is there a CASE-equivalent device to deal with gauss cannon hits?

Clan mechs have built-in CASE everywhere, so an arm-mounted gauss rifle blowing up will "only" do 2 damage (out of 6) to your dude and destroy the arm.

[NickAragua]

March 23, 3053

As our refits are under way and the Jumbo is getting some much-needed yard time, we put out some feelers for work. Nobody wants to hire a full battalion of mechs; but one or two companies can find work. The pay is crap though - with merc units de-mobilizing from clan-facing fronts across the Inner Sphere and not much border tension between FedCom and the Draconis Combine, it's an employer's market. A few possible contracts stick out:

Daniels - Garrison Duty

Our colony at Dowles has recently sealed a deal with the nearby world of Daniels; a cold, dry rock orbiting next to a red dwarf star long past its prime. Surprisingly, it's home to half a billion people, and its prime reason for existence is mineral extraction operations. Our colony has contracted a number of firms on world to supply raw materials that are not present locally. However, they've been falling behind on shipments due to pirate raids - ground pirates, space pirates, you name it. Reports indicate the pirates using a mixture of Capellan and FedCom equipment. Our job would be to deploy two companies of mechs to defend local assets long enough for the contract-required shipment of minerals to make it off world, which is estimated at four months.

Local garrison forces are FedCom border troops and planetary militia, but are not likely to become involved unless directly attacked. Expected opposition is unknown, but they've been carrying out raids in the area for a while and have built up quite the arsenal of military equipment.

Duration: 4 months
Expected Payout: 53M C-Bills
Independent Command
60% salvage rights
100% battle loss compensation
Regular/D allies
Veteran/B estimated opposition
Estimated commitment - all six lances
9 jumps one-way

A reasonably chill garrison contract with decent pay. Salvage is all right, and we're in charge of how to get the job done. It's also a pretty short travel time.

Artru - Extraction Raid

While most of our mechwarriors maintain that the "Aurigan Coalition" is a made-up nation that doesn't exist, it appears that several employers - one within Capellan space and one within Taurian space - want to contract a company of mercenaries to support an extraction operation on a series of assets located on the world. With a population of eleven thousand people, other than rumors of Star League Defense Force caches (and an equal number of rumors of them having already been looted or destroyed), it's hard to imagine what kind of assets we could be talking about. We're even approached by a representative of said "Aurigan Coalition" with a similar offer. Our assumption is that the opposition will be the other guys whose contracts we don't take.

Duration: 6 months
Expected Payout: 35M Capellans, 30M Taurians, 25M Aurigans
Command: House (Capellans), Liaison (Taurians), Independent (Aurigans)
Salvage: 60% (Capellans), 65% (Taurians), 70% (Aurigans)
40% Battle Loss Compensation
Regular/D allied forces (if any)
Regular/D estimated opposition
Estimated commitment - three lances
19 jumps one way

Other than flying out into the deep southern butthole of the periphery to an imaginary nation for the purpose of beefing with random mercs, this looks like an easy, if not particularly great, payday. It'll leave us free to deploy a second company elsewhere, however. We have never worked with the Taurian Concordat or the "Aurigan Coalition", and the last time we got hired by the Capellans we almost got tricked into deploying nerve gas against civilians.

Tancredi IV - Various

Home to a vigorous FedCom reconstruction program after being recaptured during the 4th Succession War, this world features a significant number of relatively high-tech factories. It's no New Avalon, but with a population of 680 million, it boasts an A-rated HPG. Multiple organizations within the Draconis Combine and the Outworlds Alliance have put out objective raids against lists of targets here; while the sector FedCom government has put out a pirate hunting contract, presumably to eliminate individuals taking contracts from the former entities. Either way, there's a decent amount of work here.

Objective: Pirate Hunting (FedCom), Objective Raid (Draconis Combine, Outworlds)
Duration: 5 months
Expected Payout: 44M FedCom, 39M Draconis Combine, 34M Outworlds Alliance
Command: House (FedCom), Liaison (Draconis Combine), Independent (Outworlds)
Salvage: 80% (FedCom), 90% (Dracs), 100% (Outworlds)
100% Battle Loss Compensation
Regular/F allied forces (if any)
Regular/C estimated opposition
Estimated commitment - six lances
19 jumps one way

The Combine and Outworlds options here are for non-governmental organizations - likely corporations looking to blow up competitor facilities. The local garrison is planetary militia and FedCom troops, while any attackers are likely to be mercenaries like us, or pirates.

Cimeron - Garrison Duty

It seems that the Combine-FedCom border is experiencing a lot of raids, despite the nominal peace between the two nations. Which is where we come in - the Cimeron planetary government has put out a 4-month garrison duty contract while they wait for FedCom troops to cycle in. Reports indicate opposition is not particularly threatening, but the planetary militia isn't really up to the task.

Duration: 4 months
Expected Payout: 29.5M
Command: Liaison
Salvage: 40%
Battle Loss Compensation: 80%
Regular/D allied forces
Green/D estimated opposition
Estimated Commitment - five lances
16 jumps one way

A cushy, relaxing garrison duty job against random poorly-equipped pirates.

Thessalonika - Objective Raid

Unlike the other contract options, which look relatively chill, this one looks menacing. Why? Well, Thessalonika is three jumps into Clan Ghost Bear territory from the Draconis Combine. The Dracs are prohibited by the terms of the Tukayyid treaty from launching direct attacks on clan space, but they have no problem hiring mercenaries to do that. The goal here would be to hit several targets guarded by second-line clan units and bring back any salvage.

Duration: 5 months
Expected Payout: 30M
Command: "House"
Salvage: 80% - Exchange
Battle Loss Compensation: 80%
Green/D allied forces
Veteran/C opposition
Estimated Commitment - four lances
14 jumps one way

The exchange salvage kind of sucks, as that means we don't get to keep any of the clan-tech loot. However, the Drac representative assures us that they will trade "Star League" quality tech of equal value for every salvaged clan-tech unit we bring back, which could add up to a lot of star league tech. It also lets us split up the party with the Artru extraction raid, sending the two groups to opposite ends of the Inner Sphere.

[] Daniels - Garrison Duty
[] Artru - Extraction Raid
-[] Capellan or Taurian or Aurigan
[] Tancredi IV
-[] FedCom Pirate Hunt or Combine Objective Raid or Outworlds Objective Raid
[] Cimeron - Garrison Duty
[] Thessalonika - Objective Raid

[Leraje]

[x] Daniels - Garrison Duty
[] Artru - Extraction Raid
-[] Capellan or Taurian or Aurigan
[] Tancredi IV
-[] FedCom Pirate Hunt or Combine Objective Raid or Outworlds Objective Raid
[] Cimeron - Garrison Duty
[] Thessalonika - Objective Raid

Badgering Ghost Bears sounds like fun, but not for an exchange salvage and definitely not while working for Dracs.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Fuck that Draconis contract, no giving away clan loot! They've extorted us out of enough of it.

Daniels ain't bad, but Tancredi is very, very far away, but looks fun. Very high salvage/compensation, easy opposition.

[Zenn7]

Rather liking Daniels, being that I would like to get/keep our colony build up to speed and those are OUR minerals they're raiding!

[Hyena]

Rather liking Daniels, being that I would like to get/keep our colony build up to speed and those are OUR minerals they're raiding!

Hell yeah. WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!

[gbasden]

Rather liking Daniels, being that I would like to get/keep our colony build up to speed and those are OUR minerals they're raiding!

Damned straight.

[$iljanus]

[x] Daniels - Garrison Duty
[] Artru - Extraction Raid
-[] Capellan or Taurian or Aurigan
[] Tancredi IV
-[] FedCom Pirate Hunt or Combine Objective Raid or Outworlds Objective Raid
[] Cimeron - Garrison Duty
[] Thessalonika - Objective Raid

Badgering Ghost Bears sounds like fun, but not for an exchange salvage and definitely not while working for Dracs.

Description started out promising with the opportunity to loot the Clan, then it was "exchange Clan loot for equivalent prizes" and the Drac rep was the last straw.

Let's safeguard our precious metals from those nasty pirates on Daniels.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Imagine a pirate lance dropping in and facing a "well balanced lance" consisting of a Dire Wolf, Warhawk, Timber Wolf and a Stormcrow.

Oh yeah, Nick, question: PA dies to fire, right? Does it take a certain amount of fire? I read in another story that after at Inferno kills one PA for every missile above the second or something. Could we use those fancy new mine-laying LRMs to deploy Inferno mines on a square occupied by Toads and insta-roast them?

[NickAragua]

Oh yeah, Nick, question: PA dies to fire, right? Does it take a certain amount of fire? I read in another story that after at Inferno kills one PA for every missile above the second or something. Could we use those fancy new mine-laying LRMs to deploy Inferno mines on a square occupied by Toads and insta-roast them?

Any time battle armor ends a turn in a hex on fire (whether riding on a mech or hoofing it), it rolls 2d6 and, I believe needs an 8+, otherwise it's automatically eliminated. And yes, there is thunder-inferno ammo, so it's possible to lay inferno mines "on the fly". Doesn't look like they're entirely properly implemented in MegaMek though, so while BA stepping on mines will kill individual troopers, it doesn't set the entire hex on fire like standard inferno missiles.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Oh yeah, Nick, question: PA dies to fire, right? Does it take a certain amount of fire? I read in another story that after at Inferno kills one PA for every missile above the second or something. Could we use those fancy new mine-laying LRMs to deploy Inferno mines on a square occupied by Toads and insta-roast them?

Any time battle armor ends a turn in a hex on fire (whether riding on a mech or hoofing it), it rolls 2d6 and, I believe needs an 8+, otherwise it's automatically eliminated. And yes, there is thunder-inferno ammo, so it's possible to lay inferno mines "on the fly". Doesn't look like they're entirely properly implemented in MegaMek though, so while BA stepping on mines will kill individual troopers, it doesn't set the entire hex on fire like standard inferno missiles.

Ah, someone told me about the number of Inferno hits interacting with the troopers, but we aren't using that then. I don't think there'd be any advantage to laying the minefield then? If it's an SRM 2 firing a couple of missiles or an LRM 20 laying the minefield, it's just "fire"?

[NickAragua]

Ah, someone told me about the number of Inferno hits interacting with the troopers, but we aren't using that then. I don't think there'd be any advantage to laying the minefield then? If it's an SRM 2 firing a couple of missiles or an LRM 20 laying the minefield, it's just "fire"?

I decided to go and read the rules in TacOps: Advanced Units and Equipment (page 178), and the rules are convoluted and scattered across multiple rulebooks. Go figure.

Anyway, broadly, you can fire standard inferno missiles with the intent of setting fire. Rack size doesn't matter in this case, it just sets a fire if at all possible given the hex/atmospheric conditions.

Thunder-inferno LRMs "spawn" one point of inferno minefield per missile that hits, and the minefield doesn't actually set a fire, it just hits the triggering unit directly. The max # of minefield points that can be spawned depends on the rack size, so that does make a difference. The damage done is one inferno hit for every two "points" of minefield. Each suit of battle armor can take three such hits before the operator (or the suit) melts to slag.

So, for example, an LRM/20 might spawn, let's say, a 16-point minefield, which would deliver 8 inferno hits when a BA unit walks over it. This would kill two troopers (we round down apparently). This is in Total Warfare page 141.

So, in short, thunder-inferno LRMs don't look like they're that useful against battle armor unless deploying from a large rack.

Imagine having to look this crap up in the middle of a tabletop game, lol - that took me like ten minutes.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Daniels - almost unanimous

Prior to departing for Daniels, we re-organize our force. With only two companies' worth of mechs on "active duty", we opt to organize at lance level. We'll be spending the ride over training in sims and getting acclimated to working with new lancemates.

Alpha Lance is a heavy lance:
El Guapo - Dire Wolf
Cylus - Grasshopper
Isgrimnur - Thug
Thud - Hunchback

Beta Lance is the assault lance
Zenn7 - Awesome
Siljanus - Mackie
CJ - Victor
Atrophy - Annihilator

Gamma Lance is a medium-heavy lance
Wolf - Hellbringer
Bass - Stormcrow
TheMix - Vulture

Delta Lance is the heavy recon (aka medium) lance
Freyland - Nova
Akalon - Vulcan
AWS - Phoenix Hawk LAM
SgtSoldier - Phoenix Hawk

Epsilon Lance is another heavy lance:
Leraje - Warhawk
Moley - Summoner
Hyena - Timber Wolf
Xwraith - Thunderbolt

Zeta Lance is a medium-heavy lance
Lich - Mad Cat
Moneyshot - Hunchback
Stefan - Trebuchet

---

We are joined by Mary "WestOrEast Mk II" Kondo, a FedCom citizen who apparently went to apply to the Wolf's Dragoons but her application was rejected for some reason we're not quite clear on - sim and field exercises show she's a crack shot and an ace pilot, and none of our research indicates any notable mental disorders (other than a desire to ride on top of a 30-ton fusion reactor into battle in random hellholes across the Inner Sphere in exchange for money).

WestOrEast (Mk II), feel free to pick a mech and a lance assignment:

Mech:
[] Hatamoto-Hi - 80 tons, average speed, high armor, 2x PPC, 4x Medium Pulse Laser, heat issues
You know it, you love it. It's a little lacking in the heat sink department, but we'll probably be able to scrounge up some doubles sooner or later for a refit.

[] Executioner - 95 tons, high speed, high armor, LRM/20, Gauss Rifle, ER Large Laser.
This thing is pretty fast for an assault mech, especially with the myomer acceleration circuitry (MASC) system installed. A healthy amount of armor keeps it well protected while the jump jets and MASC allow it to dictate engagement range. Intended to be used at long range.

[] Griffin GRF-3M - 55 tons, high speed, high armor, PPC, 2x ER Medium Laser (clan), LRM/15.
Lich's former ride before our mechwarrior upgraded to a Timber Wolf. This baby is tricked out with twin clan-spec medium lasers and enough heat sinks to avoid melting to slag. Armor keeps it well-protected.

[] Marauder MAD-5S - 75 tons, average speed. 2x ER PPC, 2x Medium Pulse Laser, Gauss Rifle
El Guapo's former ride before the mechwarrior upgraded to a Dire Wolf. The right shoulder autocannon mount has been replaced with a much beefier gauss rifle after the installation of an XL engine and double heat sinks (which still struggle to keep up with all the firepower the mech can deliver).

Lance:
[] Gamma
[] Zeta

---

Starmap:

Spoiler:

Our route will keep us in FedCom space, which is just as well. The Marik people (at least their "national-level" military) are ok with us, but the Capellans...

We'll be arriving in early June, 3053.

En route to Daniels, we have a few of "maintenance issues".

First, the engine falls out of Atrophy's Annihilator. It seems that some techs were working on the newly installed heat sinks in zero G while waiting for the jumpship engines to recharge. Apparently, the easiest way to get at some of those cooling exchange attachment points is to disengage the primary engine restraints. Not a big deal in zero G, the engine is still attached by multiple other hookups so it won't "swim around", and now the techs can crawl into the area and work on the cooling exchangers.

The problem is that, when the dropship undocks and begins thrusting under 1G to the destination, what was holding the engine in place just fine under zero gravity doesn't cut the mustard.

A lot of swearing and screaming and a few fired people later, the damage is a whopping 37 days of work. Thankfully, the engine itself remains intact, as that is one expensive piece of equipment. Good thing it's a cushy garrison contract and not a high-intensity planetary invasion.

Pick from one of the replacement mechs that are WestOrEast's options. Mech choice collisions will be resolved using... unspecified mechanisms.

---

CJ's Victor has a similar, though less catastrophic problem - the gauss rifle isn't properly secured as our dropship initiates the burn from the jump point to Daniels and drops to the ground, taking a large number of power cables with it. Thankfully, it wasn't on or charged, so nothing blew up, but now the techs have to re-install all the power cables running from the right arm to the reactor. Estimated time: 18 days.

Pick a replacement mech in the meantime. Mech choice collisions will be resolved using... unspecified mechanisms.

---

Other than that, the techs continue complaining that the clan mechs are "prima donnas". The technology is similar, but not identical, which means our techs aren't as familiar with it. Thus, a lot of the parts routinely fail checks and require multi-day overhauls. On the plus side, this lets our tech crews get practice with said clan technology - however, if this happens in an active war zone, that could cause trouble. Luckily, we've got a lot of spare mechs sitting in our Jumbo, so while our tech advantage might be slightly unreliable, we'll be able to maintain our numbers.

---

On the plus side, we get a hold of a Hatchetman. Granted, it's an original-model Hatchetman, with no XL engine upgrade or double heat sinks or anything like that. So it's kind of a boner compared to the mechs we've got now. But if we're able to scare up some double heat sinks, we've got a 245-rated XL engine sitting in our Jumbo that we could mount on this baby while this contract is happening and see if we can upgrade the autocannon to an LBX model.

We also fill the last slot with a new recruit - Private Wajeeh Ankoma, hailing from the world of "No Return" in the Capellan Confederation. Apparently, he doesn't want to come back there. He's an excellent shot and a reasonable pilot.

[] Pick a nickname

[TotallyNotEvil]

Ah, someone told me about the number of Inferno hits interacting with the troopers, but we aren't using that then. I don't think there'd be any advantage to laying the minefield then? If it's an SRM 2 firing a couple of missiles or an LRM 20 laying the minefield, it's just "fire"?

I decided to go and read the rules in TacOps: Advanced Units and Equipment (page 178), and the rules are convoluted and scattered across multiple rulebooks. Go figure.

Anyway, broadly, you can fire standard inferno missiles with the intent of setting fire. Rack size doesn't matter in this case, it just sets a fire if at all possible given the hex/atmospheric conditions.

Thunder-inferno LRMs "spawn" one point of inferno minefield per missile that hits, and the minefield doesn't actually set a fire, it just hits the triggering unit directly. The max # of minefield points that can be spawned depends on the rack size, so that does make a difference. The damage done is one inferno hit for every two "points" of minefield. Each suit of battle armor can take three such hits before the operator (or the suit) melts to slag.

So, for example, an LRM/20 might spawn, let's say, a 16-point minefield, which would deliver 8 inferno hits when a BA unit walks over it. This would kill two troopers (we round down apparently). This is in Total Warfare page 141.

So, in short, thunder-inferno LRMs don't look like they're that useful against battle armor unless deploying from a large rack.

Imagine having to look this crap up in the middle of a tabletop game, lol - that took me like ten minutes.

Ah, BA doesn't trigger mines as a unit then? Damn.

A dinky SRM2 with Inferno is by far the best shot at mass-killing them then.

Huh, if we found a Clan SRM2, could we load it alongside half a ton of inferno ammo? That's just a single ton total, not bad for setting fire to stuff at will. Or even a quarter ton inferno, quarter ton smoke?

[NickAragua]

Huh, if we found a Clan SRM2, could we load it alongside half a ton of inferno ammo? That's just a single ton total, not bad for setting fire to stuff at will. Or even a quarter ton inferno, quarter ton smoke?

Unfortunately, construction rules as written, the only ammo you can load in half-ton lots is MG ammo; every other type of ammo comes in 1-ton lots. Annoying for mechwarriors; great for the guys that sell SRM and LRM ammo in bulk (hmmmmm).

[TotallyNotEvil]

You know, I was just talking about Streak 2s in the China Shop thread and I realized they are actually not bad?

Like, you can solve the Kintaro's heat problems while increasing its endurance just by changing 3x SRM6s to 6x Streak 2s. With the Taurians (in that story) signature FF and CASE, you could make a 5/8/5 Kintaro with max FF armor, the ability to still fire a shitload of SRMs even after losing a torso and almost no heat problems, without ever rare DHS and even rarer (and very fragile and expensive) XLFE. Just need to drop the stupid LRM 5. Or you can keep it and not jump at the cost of just half a ton of FF (down from 10.5 to 10, oh no).

You lose no firepower, gain like twice the endurance, get to jump 5- which is a real freaking game-changer, especially on a short-range build- and you solve a notoriously hot mech's heat troubles while not dropping any firepower and still using SHS.

I don't think there's a ride I'd ever trade my Mad Cat out for, because even if a Dire Wolf is stupid, I like 5/8/5, and 75 + Clan Endo + Clan XFLE is as good as it gets for that.

But in something like the 4th Succession War, where DHS are rarer than hen's teeth? That's a very sweet machine.

Huh, if we found a Clan SRM2, could we load it alongside half a ton of inferno ammo? That's just a single ton total, not bad for setting fire to stuff at will. Or even a quarter ton inferno, quarter ton smoke?

Unfortunately, construction rules as written, the only ammo you can load in half-ton lots is MG ammo; every other type of ammo comes in 1-ton lots. Annoying for mechwarriors; great for the guys that sell SRM and LRM ammo in bulk (hmmmmm).

That's kind of crazy, innit? I mean, 1.5t is kind of inconvenient, but it's not impossible to rustle up. I really want those fire machines for killing Toads when the next round comes around. Or do Flamers roast them up good?

[NickAragua]

Huh, if we found a Clan SRM2, could we load it alongside half a ton of inferno ammo? That's just a single ton total, not bad for setting fire to stuff at will. Or even a quarter ton inferno, quarter ton smoke?

Unfortunately, construction rules as written, the only ammo you can load in half-ton lots is MG ammo; every other type of ammo comes in 1-ton lots. Annoying for mechwarriors; great for the guys that sell SRM and LRM ammo in bulk (hmmmmm).

That's kind of crazy, innit? I mean, 1.5t is kind of inconvenient, but it's not impossible to rustle up. I really want those fire machines for killing Toads when the next round comes around. Or do Flamers roast them up good?

Best way to deal with Elementals, in my experience, is to stay 10+ hexes away and fire away with everything you've got; pretty easy since they can't move that fast. Tough if you get ambushed or they ride in on an ultra-fast mech. Alternately, area effect weapons (e.g. aerospace bombs, especially fuel-air, or artillery) work fantastically against them, as they hit every model.

If a group attaches to a mech, the mech's best bet is to either go for a swim in depth 2 water or step into some fire.

Traditional anti-infantry tools don't work that great, but flamers have a very high chance of causing a fire, so they're still useful for denying access to particular hexes.

[NickAragua]

For our final pre-mission personnel shuffle, "Backwash" joins Gamma Lance, driving a stock Griffin 3M to keep up with the fast clan mechs in the lance. WestOrEast grabs Lich's souped-up Griffin (indeed, with an on-board ECM suite), while Atrophy hops into the Executioner and CJ grabs the long-since-hosed-out Hatamoto-Hi, grumbling about the lack of gauss rifle and jump jets.

June 4, 3053

Our operational area is divided into three sectors - Able, Baker and Charlie. Able has a raw materials collection point, from where convoys regularly run to the nearby set of dropship landing pads. An air base operated by local militia watches over the area. We land the Thunderball and Jumbo here.

Baker contains another set of dropship landing pads, guarded by a militia armor battalion stationed nearby. The area is well-covered by a variety of sensor stations. The Moonraker lands here.

Finally, Charlie is another collection point, with other locations of interest being a militia mech maintenance depot, of which we will take advantage - letting us rotate a lance or two through here without having to bring a dropship in. And a local militia artillery base, which, depending on who you ask is either great or a nightmare.

We're met by Zanthe "Scrub" Pappathanassiou - our retired unit leader, who has a visit with a few of the old hands who remember her.

"Hard to believe it's been only three years." she comments, looking at Zenn7. "Yu, you're starting to look a little wrinkly."

Zenn7 smiles. "It's the replacement Awesome. The humidity is all wrong."

Scrub pats him on the shoulder with her left arm, self-consciously holding the other arm - a decent quality cybernetic replacement - to her side. "I miss it, sometimes." she says, looking around the Overlord's hangar, where techs swarm over the Annihilator and Victor.

Zenn7 raises his eyebrows. "Is being a parent not agreeing with you?"

Scrub shakes her head. "No. Not really." she sighs. "When I cashed out, the money was enough to hire nannies twenty four - seven, and that's after being able to buy a small moon. But no, we decided to be 'involved parents'." she says, making air quotes with her left arm. "Well, it's trouble of our own making, others don't have the options that I have." she shrugs. "Anyway, if you guys are up for it, the local militia have been working on a plan to smoke out some of the local pirates. We just need to dress your Overlord up a little bit. Think you're up for it?"

---

June 15, 3053
Atmospheric Ascent

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Unidentified craft, you are on in our departure vector. Move aside."

"I repeat, this is ... oh, for Kerensky's sake, what kind of stupid-ass pirates don't even demand a surrender before locking on weapons and opening fire? All units, engage two nearest targets at will, then re-enter formation once they're eliminated!"

"Take them out quick!"

"Heavy three here, target Chippewa is breaking up, solid gauss shot on target."

"Escort-One here, I'm hit, going down... ejecting!"

"Heavy two, target Eagle is losing altitude."

"Heavy four here, I helped!"

"Sure you did, little guy, sure you did."

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Right, that was stupid. Thunderball here - the jig is up. All craft re-form on me and continue pretend ascent - looks like they're still coming at us."

"Escorts two, three, four, you guys going to get back in formation or what?"

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Escort-three, I'm hit but I'm ok."

"... *grumble grumble* wouldn't get hit so much if you'd get back in formation, dumbass."

"What was that, Heavy-One?"

"... I said you wouldn't get hit so much much if you'd get back in formation, dumbass."

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Congratulations, E-3, you're no longer the fastest moron in the air. Gunnery crews, eng... whoop, and it's evaporated."

"Dammit, Heavy-One, I'm in trouble, quit yapping and get over here, I can't shake them!"

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"Thunderball here, what the hell is wrong with you people, get back in formation!"

"Escort two, target destroyed."

"Heavy two here, target Corsair is damaged, going down. Shit, got a Stingray on my tail, I'm hit!"

"Don't worry, Two, One here - I got him. Target Stingray is breaking up."

"Escort three, my fighter's... screw it, ejecting!"

"Heavy four, I got one, he's out of control!"

"That's nice, little buddy."

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Thunderball here, Eagle's back. Don't worry, my gunnery crew's got him covered... aaand, down he goes."

"Heavy-One here, don't worry Two, I've got that Meteor, he's breaking up."

Round 7:

Spoiler:

"Thunderball here, medium fighter destroyed. And how."

"Escort three, my aircraft shot. Sorry guys, good luck, I'm bailing out."

"Heave-One reporting Corsair detonation."

"Heavy-Three, target Lucifer is wobbling and leaking fuel."

"Targets are running, do we pursue?"

"Negative, heavy flight - there are only three of you left out of the starting eight and I won't be able to keep up. This Overlord only really goes up or down in atmo."

"Come on, though, Thunderball, isn't the point of this to figure out where they're coming from? Let us track them down!"

"Hey, four here, check it out, I got one! He's going down, and kabooom!"

"Nice shot, four. Damn, sorry I gave you a hard time, you're one tough little SOB with that LRM five-rack."

---

Heavy flight (assisted by the Thunderball disguised as a cargo dropship) performed admirably, blasting a good ten pirate fighters out of the sky, including two heavies. We were even able to sneak our only conventional fighter into the engagement, where it racked up a kill all by itself.

The local militia fighters didn't do so hot, all four of them getting shot down and irrecoverable. Our Vulcan took an engine hit which will take it out of action for a while; the Chippewa lost a pulse laser, but it's an inner sphere model, so should be replaceable. That leaves us with a Chippewa and Eagle, both with some armor damage, and the Sparrow light fighter, a surprisingly terrifying ten-ton conventional fighter whose single LRM/5 launcher was responsible for one and a half downed hostiles.

That being said, a stiff breeze will probably cause it to evaporate, and the pilot stressed the internal structure with the way-too-powerful engine.

The two and a half functional fighters want to pursue the retreating hostiles to see where they go, but once we leave the Overlord's protective umbrella of overwhelming firepower, it'll be kind of a crapshoot - there are still five medium fighters out there, and they might have buddies coming or lead us over a hidden anti-aircraft battery or something.

[] Let our fighters pursue, see if we can get an early start on immediate contract completion
[] Pull them back to the dropship

Our salvage will be mostly debris off the ground - none of the hostile fighters made it down intact. Our recovery teams report being able to pull some relatively intact equipment off a Corsair, including a couple of extended-range large lasers and aerospace double heat sinks. The rest of the salvage we'll hand over to the locals for spare parts for their slightly reduced aerospace contingent.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Pull back.

Damn, watching aerospace fights is like watching money evaporate.

[Leraje]

Pull back.

Damn, watching aerospace fights is like watching money evaporate.

Agreed on the pull back. We also need to look into getting some proper (100T) fighters so that we can refit them to carry at least 20T of armour.

[NickAragua]

We also need to look into getting some proper (100T) fighters so that we can refit them to carry at least 20T of armour.

And maybe some cushions for when the aero jock inevitably fails the 3+ PSR and makes a "control-challenged landing".

[Leraje]

We also need to look into getting some proper (100T) fighters so that we can refit them to carry at least 20T of armour.

And maybe some cushions for when the aero jock inevitably fails the 3+ PSR and makes a "control-challenged landing".

True, that way he can just take off right after and go for another run. Just need to train our pilots to "land" on appropriate targets.

[TheMix]

Pull back.

Another vote for pulling back. We have time to track them down. This was just the first engagement.

[$iljanus]

Pull back.

Another vote for pulling back. We have time to track them down. This was just the first engagement.

Agreed. I’m sure we’ll have many opportunities to track down the pirates so no need to rush into things with suboptimal aerospace assets.

[El Guapo]

Can we send a probe droid?

[NickAragua]

Part Name - Count - Tonnage
Probe Droid - 0 - 0

[TotallyNotEvil]

Oh, by the by, Stefan and Moneyshot, what's your ride's model/config?

Pull back.

Damn, watching aerospace fights is like watching money evaporate.

Agreed on the pull back. We also need to look into getting some proper (100T) fighters so that we can refit them to carry at least 20T of armour.

What's our fighter bay capacity?

I'd be interested in taking a contract just so we can freaking buy whichever fighters we want, the good stuff like (Royal) Stukas, Thunderbirds, Rapiers, Eagles.

Would that be possible, Nick?

[Zenn7]

Pull back.

Another vote for pulling back. We have time to track them down. This was just the first engagement.

Agreed. I’m sure we’ll have many opportunities to track down the pirates so no need to rush into things with suboptimal aerospace assets.

Yeah, wouldn't want to end the fun before it even starts. We'll get them later.

[NickAragua]

Oh, by the by, Stefan and Moneyshot, what's your ride's model/config?

What's our fighter bay capacity?

I'd be interested in taking a contract just so we can freaking buy whichever fighters we want, the good stuff like (Royal) Stukas, Thunderbirds, Rapiers, Eagles.

Would that be possible, Nick?

Stefan is driving a Trebuchet TBT-3C - a fast Trebuchet with a lot of LRM ammo, double heat sinks and four lasers.

Moneyshot is driving a Hunchback HBK-5M, modified to reduce heat sink count in favor of more ammo for the AC/20.

We've got hangar space for ten fighters (6 in the Overlord, 2 in the Jumbo, 2 in the Union), and it's all full currently.

I can keep an eye on the market for high-tonnage/high-tech fighters, or we could do more refits next time we're back in civilization. This last fight, we didn't actually lose any fighters, it was all allied units and hostiles getting blown up. But when a fighter gets damaged, repairs usually take a while (the worst offender being "landing gear" and "avionics" which not only seem to get hit all the time but also take weeks to repair/replace). I'll put it up for a "formalized" vote next update.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pursue |
Let them go |||||||

"Negative, Heavy flight. Return to formation. You do realize you're down to below 50% force strength, right? We'll hit orbit, go around once or twice, then back to the landing zone." the Thunderball's captain states.

---

"Not bad." Scrub tells the dropship's captain, then smirks. "I see the local militia got themselves shot to hell again." she adds with a snort.

The captain shrugs. "What else is new?"

"That's why I brought you guys in. Otherwise, these yokels would be screwing around and we'd have to accept a twenty five, fifty, maybe seventy five percent reduction in delivery rates."

"What are you guys building over there?" the captain asks. "Extending the Octagon?"

"Nah." Scrub answers. "Setting up a proper spaceport. Landing pads for giant eggs like your dropship, runways for aerodyne craft, traffic control towers, all that good stuff." She shrugs. "I didn't get into the details, but the boss asked me to take care of this so we can get it finished sometime before the end of the decade."

---

June 20, 3053

For the next five days, we maintain a vigorous patrol schedule, our heavier lances mostly on convoy escort duty while our faster lances range out to investigate "unauthorized" sensor pings.

One such ping is found by Delta Lance, running a patrol along a convoy route, several kilometers ahead of said convoy, alongside a planetary militia Vindicator. Bringing along a Zephyr hovertank lets us use its ECM bubble to move around undetected - right until we run into a bunch of turrets that someone had just finished setting up.

And that someone, as well. Several someones - a reinforced (mostly) light mech lance and a couple of light tanks, plus a random helicopter that visually acquires us (despite the dwindling light and rainfall), precipitating a fight.

Freyland calls in the "on-standby" local militia air support, then orders Delta lance to move in and engage. Our loadout is Freyland/Nova, SgtSoldier/Phoenix Hawk, AWS/Phoenix Hawk LAM, Akalon/Vulcan. The liaison is in a Vindicator, and the air support is about a minute away, according to them.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The main problem here are actually the turrets - extended-range lasers, LB-10X autocannons and even some PPCs in the back. Maybe they should have sprung for some better mechs instead. The turrets are pretty tough though, the ER laser turret's housing absorbs almost the full firepower both of Freyland's Nova and Akalon's Vulcan, which is a lot of medium lasers.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Our Zephyr zips around to the south, rain water splashing off its armor, and opens up on a Scorpion tank trying to hide behind an abandoned bunker. Our hovertank's three lasers find the Scorpion's left flank and cut through armor and treads, leaving the crew wide open to followup attacks (not to mention raindrops). The crew wastes no time bailing out.

A Wasp fires up its jump jets, jumping past SgtSoldier and Akalon to land next to Freyland and send a couple of SRMs his way, which ping off the armor. Freyland focuses the Nova's lasers on the Wasp's center of mass, easily melting through the armor, the engine, the gyro, then out the back - it collapses to the ground and stops moving.

"You *had* to know that would happen, right?" Freyland muses to nobody in particular.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Not much happens - our fire continues gouging chunks out of the turrets, but without any loss of functionality on their end, while the hostiles seem unable to land all but the most glancing of shots on us.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Freyland looks down with derision at a Locust which struggles to find its footing in the uneven terrain and drops to the ground, splashing mud everywhere. And doesn't resume movement. Ignoring the temporarily disabled target, our mechwarrior jumps southeast instead, engaging the only medium hostile mech on the field, a Centurion. The Nova's lasers melt through the weak rear armor of the slower mech, causing its heat readings to spike as engine shielding melts away - it swings the AC/20 arm around and tries to get a shot off on our mech, but can't connect, and the mechwarrior is unable to keep his balance either, faceplanting.

Freyland takes the opportunity to put the Nova's foot through the 50-ton mech's exposed back, pulling away just as quickly and giving the jump jets a quick burn to get clear of the subsequent ammo explosion.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"Hey, look it's the air support!" AWS calls out. "Don't worry guys, we got this, you can go home!"

"Can we really?" the flight leader asks.

"No." Freyland answers flatly, jumping south to fry a Striker tank as it attempts to pursue our damaged Zephyr.

The aerospace fighters go to work, one ensuring that the downed Locust stays down, while Akalon blasts the right arm laser off a nearby Wasp. Our mechwarrior watches with dismay as one of the militia fighters takes multiple LBX rounds to the fuselage and corkscrews into the ground.

"Wow, these guys suck." our mechwarrior says to nobody in particular.

"Great attack run!" SgtSoldier comments.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The allied Vindicator takes a PPC hit to the right leg, causing to wobble and fall down, but not before removing the leg from a nearby Wasp. Meanwhile, our reatreating Zephyr is pelted by LBX pellets and immobilized, the crew forced to bail out.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

As we methodically continue to degrade the surprisingly durable turrets, AWS takes an SRM to the back of the head and is knocked around a little, but is fine otherwise, armor holding up.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Our allied Vindicator (the mech) gives up a little bit - a few too many PPCs to exposed legs and torso sections bring it to the ground.

On the plus side, the SRM/4 turret is finally melted to slag by Freyland.

Round 9:
Freyland melts a second turret down to slag (the triple PPC turret that disabled our Vindicator buddy), prompting AWS to say "Hey, leave some for the rest of us!"

SgtSoldier, AWS and a returning Eagle fighter work the Wasp LAM over with lasers, causing the mechwarrior inside to rethink his life choices. Or at least the most recent one where he stuck around by himself to try to defend four turrets from a medium mech lance.

With no more mobile units (except a Sprint scout helicopter whose only armament is a TAG laser, which deals diddly and squat for damage), the remaining turrets are soon powered down.

Damage to our units is minimal, except for the Zephyr which requires a ride on the back of a flatbed to get back to our dropships; AWS is a little banged up, but should be back in action soon.

Salvage is surprisingly good - we score two LBX-10 autocannons and an extended-range large laser. The Inner Sphere version, sure, but still.

---

Zenn7 walks into the Overlord's briefing room to the cacophonous sound of several aerospace jocks yelling at each other.

"Not now, I've got a headache." the older mechwarrior mutters to himself, then shakes his head and bellows. "Hey! What are you idiots yelling at each other about?"

Everyone straightens out. "Just... having a discussion about the relative merits of fighter weight classes." one pipes up.

"Yeah, we should get the heaviest possible fighters!" another states, still super excited. Before anyone else can respond and make more noise, Zenn7 holds up a hand.

"Why?"

"So we can slap more armor on there and better, longer range guns."

Zenn7 looks at the first aero jock, who's emphatically shaking his head. "You disagree."

"Yeah. All the guns and armor in the galaxy won't do us any good if we can't get to where the fight is in time." he replies.

Zenn7 sighs, rubbing his temples, having heard this argument in some form or other quite a few times over his career. While he personally falls on the 'heavier with better guns' spectrum, the veteran mechwarrior has seen faster units make all the difference as well.

[] Look towards heavier fighters going forward
[] Keep to our current medium-heavy loadout
[] (Headache) I swear to Kerensky, if you people don't quiet down and let me think, you're all going to be flying Cheetahs for the rest of your careers here.

[Zenn7]

[] Look towards heavier fighters going forward
[x] Keep to our current medium-heavy loadout
[] (Headache) I swear to Kerensky, if you people don't quiet down and let me think, you're all going to be flying Cheetahs for the rest of your careers here.

I'll be in a heavier ride w/ more armor/better guns thanks, but I recognize the value of some medium/faster units.
(IRL me would go w/ the headache option).

[TotallyNotEvil]

[X] Look towards heavier fighters going forward

Guys and gals, hear me out: there's little downside in looking towards heavier designs.

They are very hard to come by, and we will very likely keep a couple of speedy designs anyway. But lets not forget that XL engines and ferro aluminum and all that good stuff is coming back, and what was before, by speed, an average medium is just an underweight heavy.

I don't see the harm, but I see a lot of good. There are signficant advantages to the heavier designs, and I'd say far more significant than to mechs, because ASFs suffer from things like TACs and corkscrews, and you flat out need a certain amount of tonnage dedicated to armor in order to prevent or survive that.

ASFs aren't remotely as good at slugging out as mechs are.

Oh, by the by, Stefan and Moneyshot, what's your ride's model/config?

What's our fighter bay capacity?

I'd be interested in taking a contract just so we can freaking buy whichever fighters we want, the good stuff like (Royal) Stukas, Thunderbirds, Rapiers, Eagles.

Would that be possible, Nick?

Stefan is driving a Trebuchet TBT-3C - a fast Trebuchet with a lot of LRM ammo, double heat sinks and four lasers.

Moneyshot is driving a Hunchback HBK-5M, modified to reduce heat sink count in favor of more ammo for the AC/20.

We've got hangar space for ten fighters (6 in the Overlord, 2 in the Jumbo, 2 in the Union), and it's all full currently.

I can keep an eye on the market for high-tonnage/high-tech fighters, or we could do more refits next time we're back in civilization. This last fight, we didn't actually lose any fighters, it was all allied units and hostiles getting blown up. But when a fighter gets damaged, repairs usually take a while (the worst offender being "landing gear" and "avionics" which not only seem to get hit all the time but also take weeks to repair/replace). I'll put it up for a "formalized" vote next update.

I was checking out the variants, it's an interesting Trebuchet. 6/9 and double Artemised 15s isn't bad at all. And while virtually every single mech in the world could benefit from it, swapping a pair of those MLs for C-ERMLs would be amazing.

The Hunchie gave me pause when I realized two things: first, they wisely complained carrying 14 tons of gun on a 50 ton mech just to shoot it five times was incredibly stupid, and then went even dumber when they removed CASE to add ammo. Oh my god.

So, his is the 6N then (even as it might not officially exist yet)?

So, we have two speedy long-range fire support mechs, the Treb and the Griffin, a Hunchie being its usual self being a slow mech-buster with its big cannon and brace of MLs, and my jumping Timby that's honestly happy with any fight, but would probably prefer to exploit range and speed to engage in unfair fights because Clan-tech.

Not the even 5/8/5 lance, but a more diversified spread. I think we had like a Dervish and a Quickdraw, and neither is as focused on a job as a Treb and Hunchie are.

Not sure what I would do with a 6/9 LRM boat tho. Scale heavily wooded hills?

[Leraje]

[X] Look towards heavier fighters going forward

Guys and gals, hear me out: there's little downside in looking towards heavier designs.

They are very hard to come by, and we will very likely keep a couple of speedy designs anyway. But lets not forget that XL engines and ferro aluminum and all that good stuff is coming back, and what was before, by speed, an average medium is just an underweight heavy.

I don't see the harm, but I see a lot of good. There are signficant advantages to the heavier designs, and I'd say far more significant than to mechs, because ASFs suffer from things like TACs and corkscrews, and you flat out need a certain amount of tonnage dedicated to armor in order to prevent or survive that.

ASFs aren't remotely as good at slugging out as mechs are.

Agreed, also bricks with 80-90 points of armour per facing are very hard to crit into internals, which lowers the dreaded avionics damage chances considerably.

The Hunchie gave me pause when I realized two things: first, they wisely complained carrying 14 tons of gun on a 50 ton mech just to shoot it five times was incredibly stupid, and then went even dumber when they removed CASE to add ammo. Oh my god

Must be their answer to Hunchie IIC

[AWS260]

[] Look towards heavier fighters going forward
[] Keep to our current medium-heavy loadout
[x] (Headache) I swear to Kerensky, if you people don't quiet down and let me think, you're all going to be flying Cheetahs for the rest of your careers here.

Definitely this.

[$iljanus]

I like speed but it’s almost self defeating when your aerospace support shows up and gets taken out not long after. Since I don’t think we’re getting rid of the medium fighters I don’t mind adding heavy fighters to our inventory.

[TheMix]

I like speed but it’s almost self defeating when your aerospace support shows up and gets taken out not long after. Since I don’t think we’re getting rid of the medium fighters I don’t mind adding heavy fighters to our inventory.

I agree with this analysis.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Less TAC does mean less expensive and laborious refits, too.

And I think a viable solution to keeping air support at hand, now that we've downsized considerably, would be to have close-by aerospace units with most of every lance that goes out. We have 6 lances and 10 fighters, and we probably hold a lance or two back to protect our dropship. Say there are two lances and two fighters as "homeguard", that's two fighters to escort every lance that goes out- which is the usual best-case scenario for a fighter responding to our calls for help.

And if those eventually become heavier machines, all the better- we are probably never getting many more fighters.

[Zenn7]

If we can keep air support closer to on-hand, sure, go for heavies.

Just historically, we've often been presented with choices that are along the lines of:
Air support in probably useful time (say 40 seconds)
or
Air support when the fights over (say 2 minutes)

Medium air support in 40 seconds that's there to help is better than super heavy air support that arrives after the fight's over.

[gbasden]

If we can keep air support closer to on-hand, sure, go for heavies.

Just historically, we've often been presented with choices that are along the lines of:
Air support in probably useful time (say 40 seconds)
or
Air support when the fights over (say 2 minutes)

Medium air support in 40 seconds that's there to help is better than super heavy air support that arrives after the fight's over.

That's definitely true of ground battles, but most air or space conflicts it seems that we are able to field our choice of craft. For those kinds of fights, heavys are a definite advantage. Now that we are fielding Clan tech, it seems like maybe the close air support isn't *as* critical?