Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

We might have a line on some stolen missiles
Don't talk about the tanks

unanimous

"Dropship spare parts, huh?" Captain Okamoto replies. "I think we might be able to help you out with that. Have your people send us a manifest. I'll send out a list of potential search areas, have your people coordinate with ours."

And so we do. While our Jumbo's crew diligently works to put their ship back together; with the spare parts, a week later, most of the hull breaches are sealed. Replacing the avionics system is the biggest job, that got fried something fierce. The dropship's chief engineer goes into some extreme detail, but nobody really understands it except for other dropship engineers, who all nod sagely. Long story short, they have to take the entire system out and re-install it.

We "find" the missiles on board our dropship and hand them over, which accounts for a portion of what the FedCom people are looking for. Eventually, our search pattern turns up sensor signatures from the rest.

November 12, 2059

After allied aerial recon locates them, Gamma-Battle and Gamma-Striker lance move in to surround a bunch of cargo vehicles and mechs hiding in a jagged debris field, borrowing Lich to replace the Rifleman with the damaged arm. On the surface, the hostiles have no chance: it's a heavy and a light-medium mech lance, guarding a bunch of civilian-grade units, against two of our heavy lances.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our jump-capable units occasionally rise above the debris field to keep an eye on things while the ground-bound units have found a cracked, beat-up, overgrown road that they can use to keep up at a reasonable pace.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Can't see anything in this crap." Stefan comments as his Trebuchet plows through debris towards the sensor contacts up ahead. "Hey Bass, what're the odds we actually see any of the bad guys?"

"Pretty low." Bass replies. "But hey, at least they're not going anywhere fast, either."

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Found you!" Lich calls out, exchanging fire with a surprisingly well-armed civilian model mech - the two trade laser blasts, but a 75-ton Timber Wolf is going to put out a little more firepower than a 35-ton converted LoaderMech. Still, the lighter unit's armor holds up as it steps back a little.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Wolf jumps further north, into the middle of several sensor contacts, snapping off a shot with one of the Hellbringer's PPCs at a threatening-looking LoggerMech. Lich, meanwhile, switches targets to an actual military mech, a Hunchback, which cuts across the Timber Wolf's armor with one of its arm lasers but takes multiple laser and missile-induced torso armor breaches from behind in exchange.

"Man, I love these LRMs." Lich comments, dragging the reverse-jointed mech's foot across the Hunchback's left leg, the motion causing one of the heat sinks to rupture and spray green coolant fluid everywhere.

"Yeah, we know." comes the reply from our Catapult's operator.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Stefan lays into the LoggerMech that Wolf designated, the Trebuchet's lasers breaching the weakly-armored torso and frying the arm. The internal combustion engine lights up, cracking the mech wide open.

"Think we're supposed to try to capture them intact?" Lich asks, questioningly.

"Yes, like this." Wolf comments, surgically removing the leg from a SecurityMech to the north with one of the Hellbringer's PPCs - the mech emits multiple creaks, groans and clouds of debris as it hits the ground.

Our Grasshopper takes a good laser hit from the surprisingly durable and well-armed Loadermech, frying a heat sink and a laser. The mechwarrior brushes it off and joins our Catapult in returning fire, forcing multiple armor breaches and watching a gout of flame emerge from the Loadermech's engine. It stumbles, allowing our Grasshopper to crack its right leg in half with a kick. The engine lets out one last puff of red smoke then stalls.

Bass, meanwhile, engages and exchanges fire with an overweight Wasp to the east to little effect other than armor damage.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Lich leaves the Hunchback to our Grasshopper and Catapult, moving against other targets. The Catapult attracts a little AC/20 fire, but that allows the Grasshopper to sneak around behind the 50-ton medium and put multiple laser blasts through its pre-breached rear torso armor. This time, they connect with an ammo bin, the explosion ripping the mech to shreds.

To the north, Wolf opts not to engage a Warhammer, a Crusader and a couple of light mechs all alone - the Hellbring is good, but not that good. Instead, our mechwarrior hops east, using the 65-ton mech's lasers to cut through an ultra-light mech's center torso, melting its engine to slack.

Bass engages an Ostsol, multiple laser blasts from the Stormcrow removing enough armor that the mech becomes unbalanced and falls over.

"Hey, anybody want to get this stupid Wasp off of me? It's getting annoying." our mechwarrior calls out after yet another laser blast removes a little more armor from his mech.

"On the way." Lich responds, cracking a Stinger's leg with a kick. Upon impact with the ground, the mech's right arm comes off as well, its right torso section crushed.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Bass continues working on the Ostsol, ignoring the minor damage from the Wasp - the 60-ton mech's rear armor is opened up in multiple places and its right arm hangs limp after multiple laser blasts, and that's before it keels over in front of Lich and Bass, who proceed to crunch a large amount of armor on the downed mech.

To the north, Wolf engages a Crusader, the 65-tonner avoiding most of the Hellbringer's weapons fire, but being tripped up by a kick to the ankle joint.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Bass and Stefan combine fire on the beleaguered Ostsol as it gets up and tries to move away - multiple engine hits and nearly all of its weapons disabled don't bode well - it drops to the ground and its power readings drop to zero.

Wolf and Lich engage the Crusader and a Phoenix Hawk, supported by a couple of lighter units. Wolf's weapons fire knocks the Phoenix Hawk's right arm out, dropping the hostile mech to the ground, while Lich switches it up to fire at the Crusader, knocking one of its LRM launchers with a laser blast - Inner Sphere LRMs are nearly useless in this environment, but a weapon knocked out is a weapon knocked out.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Stefan sees an opportunity as a Wasp silhouettes itself against the skyline and fires off a salvo with the Trebuchet's LRMs - a good number of the missiles strike true and the bug mech's left leg breaks, sending it tumbling back down. Bass gets its right leg to make sure it stays down.

Lich and Wolf switch targets, Wolf going back to the Crusader to fry its right arm with a PPC blast while Lich penetrates the Phoenix Hawk's left torso section with a laser, blowing the machine gun ammo sky high. The Crusader simply drops to a knee, which allows Wolf to bring the Hellbringer's leg down on its right leg, crushing the part sticking out.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Just as Wolf gets excited about being able to salvage some parts from a 65-ton mech for all our mechs that need them, the guy in the Crusader tries to get up. Predictably, the crushed right leg gives out, sending the mech back down to the ground, where it crunches one of its many, many ammo bins.

Stefan fries an APC trying to make its way out of the ongoing massacre, while our Catapult zaps a smaller loadermech, damaging leg actuators and frying its arm, while Lich takes the engine out from a construction mech.

Wolf knocks another random industrial mech over - the ID on the heads-up display reads as "Marco" and so our mechwarrior has to fight very hard to avoid calling out "Polo" over the general frequency as it drops to the ground and its left arm comes off.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

"Finally, some action!" Leraje calls out as he plows his slightly slower Warhawk through the last of the Debris and moves to engage the hostile Warhammer at point blank range. The 70-ton mech's right leg comes off under extended-range PPC fire, its torso and left arm not doing too well, either - the counterattack flakes some armor off our 85-ton monster, but it's too little too late.

Our Grasshopper disables the last of the APCs, while Bass and Xwraith work on the last of the loadermechs, removing an arm.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

With Stefan slicing the last of the cargo vehicles in half with the Trebuchet's lasers, our Catapult and Grasshopper team up on the remaining Crusader to bring it down to the ground.

"Got the missiles." Leraje reports, panting as the Warhawk cools down - pretty rapidly, but it got really hot in there after firing all four PPCs.

"Not all of them. We're still missing a pretty big stack." Captain Okamoto radios back.

Turns out, in practice, they also had no chance - we barely took any damage. Salvage is good - with parts from that Crusader, we're able to get the rest of our off-lined 65-ton mechs back into working order, and we even score a spare medium pulse laser.

---

Over the next month, our Jumbo's techs pull the avionics system out and give it a complete overhaul. Meanwhile, we continue sending mech patrols out to coordinates indicated by our employer. For some reason, nobody interferes with us any more. Perhaps we blew them all up.

The Jumbo repairs are still a couple of weeks from finishing when our employer calls us up.

"Recon reports that dropships carrying the rest of the Barracudas are getting ready to burn for the jump point. We don't have the right vector for it, but you guys do. Get your aerospace fighters and whatever dropships you can up there and stop them." she says.

Zenn7 scrunches up his face. "You don't have *anything* you can send to help?"

Okamoto thinks for a second. "Sure, we've got a pair of Cheetahs that can probably make it in time."

Zenn7 sighs. "That's like telling a mech jock you're sending him a couple of bug mechs for backup."

She shrugs. "Yeah, well. If you've got something to change the rate at which time advances or the rate at which the planet rotates, I'm all ears."

A Condor and a Union are making a break for it, escorted by three light, two medium and a heavy fighter. Both are transports rather than combat dropships. We want to leave some firepower on the ground, but we can't take the dropships and fighter escorts with just fighters.

[] Launch the Thunderball (Overlord-class dropship)
[] Launch the Moonraker and Sparrow (both Union-class dropships)

[TotallyNotEvil]

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Wolf jumps further north, into the middle of several sensor contacts, snapping off a shot with one of the Hellbringer's PPCs at a threatening-looking LoggerMech. Lich, meanwhile, switches targets to an actual military mech, a Hunchback, which cuts across the Timber Wolf's armor with one of its arm lasers but takes multiple laser and missile-induced torso armor breaches from behind in exchange.

"Man, I love these LRMs." Lich comments, dragging the reverse-jointed mech's foot across the Hunchback's left leg, the motion causing one of the heat sinks to rupture and spray green coolant fluid everywhere.

"Yeah, we know." comes the reply from our Catapult's operator.

Man, if those ever blow up and we are out of replacements, I will cry.

Out of curiosity, did you run out of ammo with the LRMs?

As for the last intercept, not gonna lie, that sounds like it's going to cost us way more in parts than they are paying us. I wanted some money for the missiles, dammit!

[Zenn7]

A Condor and a Union are making a break for it, escorted by three light, two medium and a heavy fighter. Both are transports rather than combat dropships. We want to leave some firepower on the ground, but we can't take the dropships and fighter escorts with just fighters.

[] Launch the Thunderball (Overlord-class dropship)
[] Launch the Moonraker and Sparrow (both Union-class dropships)

I'm assuming we can send at enough if not more than enough fighters to cover their fighters and ensure they won't be going after our dropship(s).

The threat to our dropship(s) is primarily, their dropships. And we are relying primarily on our dropship(s) to take theirs out.

In that case, doesn't the Overlord have more firepower than both Unions combined?

Let's get their pair of Cheetahs too... ablative armor if nothing else.

[Leraje]

Heh, when you get the Dracs so pissed off at you that they design a mech specifically to kill you...

That's not too unusual. What's unusual that they actually got it right in the first iteration

[Leraje]

A Condor and a Union are making a break for it, escorted by three light, two medium and a heavy fighter. Both are transports rather than combat dropships. We want to leave some firepower on the ground, but we can't take the dropships and fighter escorts with just fighters.

[] Launch the Thunderball (Overlord-class dropship)
[] Launch the Moonraker and Sparrow (both Union-class dropships)

I'm assuming we can send at enough if not more than enough fighters to cover their fighters and ensure they won't be going after our dropship(s).

The threat to our dropship(s) is primarily, their dropships. And we are relying primarily on our dropship(s) to take theirs out.

In that case, doesn't the Overlord have more firepower than both Unions combined?

Let's get their pair of Cheetahs too... ablative armor if nothing else.

+1 for sound reasoning.

[Captainwolfer]

Overlord weapons:
6x PPCs
2x AC/20
6x AC/5
12x Medium Lasers
3x LRM-20s
6x Large Lasers
Overlord Weapons:
Fore: 22
Sides: 21
Aft: 15

Union Weapons (multiply by 2 since we have 2 unions):
3 x PPCs
6 x AC/5s
6 x LRM-20s
12 x Medium Lasers
5 x Large Lasers
Union Armor:
Fore: 18
Sides: 18
Aft: 10

Not sure how the weapons are divided across the the fire arcs

[NickAragua]

Out of curiosity, did you run out of ammo with the LRMs?

Nah, they were at about 50%.

[TheMix]

Based on the weapons the Captain outlined, it might be more prudent to send the two Unions. The firepower seems similar, but that would allow some flexibility to pull one back if it starts to get damaged. i.e. putting the eggs in two baskets.

However, I don't know how the armor compares between the Unions and the Overlord. If the latter has more substantial armor, then that would probably be the smarter play.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Out of curiosity, did you run out of ammo with the LRMs?

Nah, they were at about 50%.

Huh, only fired about three full volleys? Heat problems, or just never had any good opportunities that wouldn't waste the ammo?

I was pondering on the worthwhileness of losing 2 JJs for a ton of ammo and adding the ERML back, so I'm really keen on knowing if the theory of "I can fire enough missiles fast enough, that by the time ammo runs out, it's only mop-up left" actually works.

[NickAragua]

Out of curiosity, did you run out of ammo with the LRMs?

Nah, they were at about 50%.

Huh, only fired about three full volleys? Heat problems, or just never had any good opportunities that wouldn't waste the ammo?

I was pondering on the worthwhileness of losing 2 JJs for a ton of ammo and adding the ERML back, so I'm really keen on knowing if the theory of "I can fire enough missiles fast enough, that by the time ammo runs out, it's only mop-up left" actually works.

I was mostly managing heat and a good number of the targets were crappy little civilian units that weren't worth wasting LRM/20 salvos on.

In my experience, most fights in this ruleset last between 8 and 16 turns, so 12 shots for a general-use ammo weapon is about as low as I'd go. When firing up the jump jets, the mech can do one of the ER large lasers (+12), both the smaller lasers (+7) and 2-1-2-1 with the LRMs to stay heat neutral, so we're looking at ~8 rounds of sustained fire.

The jump jets made a huge difference though, especially in this terrain (where basically every hex was "woods" or heavy "woods").

[TotallyNotEvil]

Out of curiosity, did you run out of ammo with the LRMs?

Nah, they were at about 50%.

Huh, only fired about three full volleys? Heat problems, or just never had any good opportunities that wouldn't waste the ammo?

I was pondering on the worthwhileness of losing 2 JJs for a ton of ammo and adding the ERML back, so I'm really keen on knowing if the theory of "I can fire enough missiles fast enough, that by the time ammo runs out, it's only mop-up left" actually works.

I was mostly managing heat and a good number of the targets were crappy little civilian units that weren't worth wasting LRM/20 salvos on.

In my experience, most fights in this ruleset last between 8 and 16 turns, so 12 shots for a general-use ammo weapon is about as low as I'd go. When firing up the jump jets, the mech can do one of the ER large lasers (+12), both the smaller lasers (+7) and 2-1-2-1 with the LRMs to stay heat neutral, so we're looking at ~8 rounds of sustained fire.

The jump jets made a huge difference though, especially in this terrain (where basically every hex was "woods" or heavy "woods").

Yeah, while I hate seeing an ERML go, much less running with only six full salvoes, the JJs are just too good, right? Especially with Jumping Jack on Lich.

An interesting heat management strat, the ERSL will only be in range for knife-fighting, and if you are jumping you can ride the heat curve up to +7 without penalties. ERLL x1 + ER ML x1 + LRM20 x2 + JJ x5 is 34 heat, the mech sinks 32. Could do 2-2-2-1 without any real downsides, and you'd neatly end back up at zero heat. That's, of course, assuming there are worthwhile targets for the LRMs. Little point in wasting limited ammo on 10+ or higher to-hit rolls. Then again, running out of LRM means the other ERLL gets into play for exactly the same heat output. I suppose the better strat is run-and-gun with both ERLLs to try and land bigger, concentrated hits at long range- it's not like it costs you anything to take the potshots- and then LRM every round when you get close for the whopping 40 point volleys with no minimum.

Have I told you how I love these missile launchers?

[$iljanus]

Based on the weapons the Captain outlined, it might be more prudent to send the two Unions. The firepower seems similar, but that would allow some flexibility to pull one back if it starts to get damaged. i.e. putting the eggs in two baskets.

However, I don't know how the armor compares between the Unions and the Overlord. If the latter has more substantial armor, then that would probably be the smarter play.

I’m not well versed on space combat but the two Unions have ordinance similar to the Overlord as TheMix said so there’s an advantage to having our target having to worry about two ships which can mutually support each other.

[Hyena]

Based on the weapons the Captain outlined, it might be more prudent to send the two Unions. The firepower seems similar, but that would allow some flexibility to pull one back if it starts to get damaged. i.e. putting the eggs in two baskets.

However, I don't know how the armor compares between the Unions and the Overlord. If the latter has more substantial armor, then that would probably be the smarter play.

I’m not well versed on space combat but the two Unions have ordinance similar to the Overlord as TheMix said so there’s an advantage to having our target having to worry about two ships which can mutually support each other.

This was my thinking, as well. Agreed.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Send up the Moonraker and Sparrow

November 25, 3052
Low Polar Orbit

"Moonraker, on intercept vector towards targets. Launching fighters. Gunnery crews stand by."

"Sparrow, likewise."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Targets are initiating main engine burn - limited interception window. All fighters, accelerate and see what you can do to slow them down."

"Understood. Keep to the port of that Condor, its guns all point fore."

"Strike two, I'm hit. Armor holding."

"Strike three, my fuel tank's leaking! Sensors damaged! Someone get this guy off my tail!"

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Shit, that Union's blocking the Condor. Two, see if you can get around him."

"Negative, One, I'm hit and tumbling. Trying to recover."

"Sparrow reporting, minor weapons bay damage."

"Strike four, target Sabre is barely holding together and falling back. Re-targeting."

"Moonraker gunnery reporting, target Sparrowhawk is drifting."

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Anybody order a pair of Cheetahs?"

"[audible sigh]"

"Four here, damage to Union's sensor cluster."

"Sparrow reporting damage to Condor's maneuvering thrusters. Hey, check it out, the Union's leaking mechs! Is that a Locust floating out of there? Oh shit, damage to autocannon bay, is the ammo all right?"

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Interception window is closing, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get this done."

"Four here, good hit on... gaaah! Wait, I'm ok. Gauss ammo doesn't actually explode."

"Moonraker reporting, target Union is crippled and no longer capable of main engine burn."

"That damn Condor is still getting away!"

"Two here, I'm overheated and tumbling.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"All units, target that Condor before it gets away!"

"Holy shit, Moonraker, did your gunners just blow out a crew compartment?"

"... and a cargo bay from the looks of it. Hope those missiles were part of the stuff that tumbled out of there, because we're never catching up to that thing now."

"Moonraker to crippled Union-class dropship. You are surrounded, your fighters are out of position. Surrender immediately and adjust your flight path to the designated vector. You have thirty seconds to comply."

Thankfully, they "heave to" - we hold them in orbit for a while, long enough for the Green Egg to send a crew up to help search their cargo bays. After a while, we transfer the remaining missiles over to our dropships and let the Union go. The Moonraker and Sparrow take turns searching the debris cloud left from the Condor's cargo bay and breach, but don't find anything matching the Barracudas' sensor signatures; it's actually fairly gruesome as the infantry bay that got breached was apparently... occupied. Operative word being "was".

---

"Thanks for the help, Overlords." Captain Okamoto tells us as the FedCom mechs and fighters return to her Overlord. "I don't think we got all the missiles back, but we got most of them." She smirks. "Next time the clanners show up with their warships, we'll have a little surprise for them."

With that, the Green Egg departs, having traded a substantial amount of dropship spare parts for very little damage on our end - we no longer have to hunt down any Leopards or take any offensive action to get our dropship fixed - we just need time. And with nobody really interested in coming after a cluster of four dropships and a concentrated battalion of mechs with tank, artillery and aerospace support, we have the time.

Fully replacing the avionics system on a Jumbo-class dropship winds up taking us into 3053 - we celebrate the new year on the dry, depressing, low-atmo rock that is Sakhalin. A quick trip to the HPG settles the rest of the payment from our original employer, and once the Jumbo is fixed, it is time for us to leave. Which we do, with great enthusiasm, burning up to the zenith jump point and attaching to our jumpships, a small contingent of our company already looking forward to playing the traditional round of "jump puke".

A review of the publicy available contracts shows that there is little work at the moment for a battalion-sized unit, and a significant number of our mechwarriors have expressed a desire to take a sabbatical or retire altogether. Money is not much of a concern, we can continue to maintain and operate our two jumpships and four dropships (and smaller units) for several years, while paying our personnel top rate. Once we pick up the force we "detached" for a side contract, we'll have a decision to make regarding the company's future.

[] Give everyone a year off - visit wherever they want, go home, etc.
[] Keep working, split the company up into smaller groups; nobody needs a battalion right now, but there's plenty of work for smaller sized units.

---

AN:
For a while now, I've been kind of struggling with the size of the company - with 48+ mechs, it's tough to give everyone involved reasonable "screen time", especially with the reduced update frequency. And also hard to justify finding people who need a batallion of elite mechwarriors during "off years".

So, what I'd like to do is downsize - ditch the NPC mechwarriors basically. This'll reduce the company's size to ~24 mechwarriors. We'll keep the armor, artillery, infantry and aerospace support and the dropships, letting the other guys "spin off" into a mostly independent unit. Additionally, I'll probably run smaller sub-contracts simultaneously, although the last time I did that it was kind of a pain and virtually impossible to do a fair "screen time" distribution - some contracts naturally feature a lot more action than others.

When it comes time to fight the clans again though, the team will get back together.

It'll also mean that a large number of people who are currently leading lances won't be any more, and the ranks will either get adjusted downwards or not be uniform across the lances. Sorry.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

[Isgrimnur]

"Understood. Keep to the port of that Condor, its guns all point fore."

[NickAragua]

Well, at least I got the "port" part right, heh.

[Isgrimnur]

Fore is fine, too. I’m just wondering why, if all the guns point forward, the left side is the safest.

[NickAragua]

Fore is fine, too. I’m just wondering why, if all the guns point forward, the left side is the safest.

Right side is also ok - basically, on aerodyne dropships like the Condor, most of their guns fire into the forward 120 degree firing arc, with a few in the 60-degree rear firing arc. This leaves the 60 degrees on each side of it completely without any firepower facing in that direction. No idea why they couldn't put a couple of turrets there or something.

[Zenn7]

And see, now we left w/o ever hunting down that bugger we promised death to.

I fear I'm getting too old and will retire before long. I'd rather like to get another year of action under my belt first rather than vaca now.

[El Guapo]

Well, I'm going to take time off until my Daishi is fully repaired and functional. Once that's done I'd be happy to participate in any action that's worth the time and money. If Battallion-level engagements don't earn enough money to be worth it, then I'd be happy to direct things on our new base world to help get it up and fully functional.

[Freyland]

I scout. It's what I do.

Oh, and kill dropships, apparently.

[gbasden]

So, what I'd like to do is downsize - ditch the NPC mechwarriors basically. This'll reduce the company's size to ~24 mechwarriors. We'll keep the armor, artillery, infantry and aerospace support and the dropships, letting the other guys "spin off" into a mostly independent unit. Additionally, I'll probably run smaller sub-contracts simultaneously, although the last time I did that it was kind of a pain and virtually impossible to do a fair "screen time" distribution - some contracts naturally feature a lot more action than others.

When it comes time to fight the clans again though, the team will get back together.

It'll also mean that a large number of people who are currently leading lances won't be any more, and the ranks will either get adjusted downwards or not be uniform across the lances. Sorry.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Sounds good to me!

[AWS260]

I agree.

[Leraje]

So, what I'd like to do is downsize - ditch the NPC mechwarriors basically. This'll reduce the company's size to ~24 mechwarriors. We'll keep the armor, artillery, infantry and aerospace support and the dropships, letting the other guys "spin off" into a mostly independent unit. Additionally, I'll probably run smaller sub-contracts simultaneously, although the last time I did that it was kind of a pain and virtually impossible to do a fair "screen time" distribution - some contracts naturally feature a lot more action than others.

When it comes time to fight the clans again though, the team will get back together.

It'll also mean that a large number of people who are currently leading lances won't be any more, and the ranks will either get adjusted downwards or not be uniform across the lances. Sorry.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Sounds good to me!

Sounds good.

[Hyena]

So, what I'd like to do is downsize - ditch the NPC mechwarriors basically. This'll reduce the company's size to ~24 mechwarriors. We'll keep the armor, artillery, infantry and aerospace support and the dropships, letting the other guys "spin off" into a mostly independent unit. Additionally, I'll probably run smaller sub-contracts simultaneously, although the last time I did that it was kind of a pain and virtually impossible to do a fair "screen time" distribution - some contracts naturally feature a lot more action than others.

When it comes time to fight the clans again though, the team will get back together.

It'll also mean that a large number of people who are currently leading lances won't be any more, and the ranks will either get adjusted downwards or not be uniform across the lances. Sorry.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Sounds good to me!

Sounds good.

Also also sounds good.

[moleymoleymoley]

I feel that nick, once I get to 4 or more lances my interest dwindles rapidly, my favourite MWs get less time and contracts take forever, happy with any reorganization

Also happy for a year off

[TotallyNotEvil]

I don't mind downsizing, it will probably help a lot in keeping things straight.

We can also pool together a hell of a batallion if we concentrate on our better machines.

[NickAragua]

Once we hit the jump point, the company more or less splits up.

The Thunderball, Jumbo and Moonraker attach to one of our jumpships, along with approximately half the company's mechwarriors. This group will head to Outreach to seek further employment. The rest, carried by the Sparrow and Seeker, will return to Dowles for some downtime.

There's not much work for a full batallion, but a couple of companies with tank and aerospace support can find plenty of smaller contracts to undertake. Amusingly enough, money isn't really an issue for our company nowadays - with liquid assets well in the billions of C-Bills, we could buy most of our mechwarriors a good sized plot of land on a not-so-out-of-the-way world somewhere, and let everyone retire. The ones that choose not to do so aren't in it for the retirement money, though. One way or another, driving a mech is the way of life for them. As for the techs, dropship crews and other support personnel: we pay well.

Upon reaching Outreach, we cash in all our "high tech requisition vouchers" that we've stacked up, while pulling double heat sinks out of junked mechs. By the time we're done, we've scored a good thirty of the things, in addition to the thirteen we pulled out of a wrecked Griffin. Now, it's time for some mech upgrades.

Moneyshot's Hunchback HBK-5M, on paper, is a straightforward upgrade over the classic HBK-4G. The heat sinks are replaced with doubles so it will never overheat, the left torso has cellular ammunition storage (CASE) installed so when the ammo for the AC/20 blows it doesn't take the rest of the mech with it, and the head-mounted small laser is upgraded to a pulse model. Unfortunately, the House Marik designers who worked on this forgot that sometimes a mechwarrior may need to fire their autocannon more than five times during a battle, and that their cockpit doesn't necessarily need to be cold enough to prevent organic material decomposition. In other words, it has only one ton of AC/20 ammo and three too many heat sinks.

Moneyshot proposes ditching a couple of the heat sinks and replacing them with extra ammo bins. This is a pretty straightforward refit - trade three of the heat sinks for three tons of ammo for a total of four. The mech will still be completely heat neutral barring engine shielding damage and will likely get reduced to scrap before it runs out of ammo.

Another proposal is to add just one ton of AC/20 ammo while replacing the standard medium lasers with medium pulse lasers. This will up the mech's short-range firepower quite a bit while still preventing it from running out of ammo during most fights; but the pulse lasers have a 33% shorter range than the standard ones, so it will be an already slow mech with only one weapon that can shoot out to "medium" range.

A third proposal is to add another half-ton of armor (about all the mech's chassis can hold) and mount a Guardian ECM suite somewhere, in addition to an extra ton of AC/20 ammo. Given the on-going proliferation of missiles with advanced guidance systems (e.g. Artemis IV and NARC beacons) and C3 networks (a recent Kurita invention for enhanced targeting data sharing making its way into the general military population of the Inner Sphere), it may not be a bad idea to increase our ECM coverage to disrupt some of that stuff.

[] Hunchback Refit - ditch three heat sinks for three tons of AC/20 ammo
[] Hunchback Refit - ditch three heat sinks for two medium pulse lasers and a ton of AC/20 ammo
[] Hunchback Refit - ditch three heat sinks for a ton of AC/20 ammo, 1/2 ton of armor and a Guardian ECM unit

Now that we're back to civilization, we can put a Hunchback together for Thud again. Or, our mechwarrior could stick with the Hatamoto-Hi that particular mech is also in line for a double heat sink refit - it generates so much heat that even the double heat sinks only barely cover its cooling needs. We've got some mechwarriors that like a little extra heat, but these Dracs are crazy sometimes.

[] Pick one of the three Hunchback refits above
[] Keep the Hatamoto-Hi, with double heat sink refit

We wind up being able to fix most of El Guapo's Dire Wolf over the course of about a month's worth of work. The only things we won't be able to replace are the twin ultra autocannons. On the plus side, this frees up 16 tons of space. On the down side, what do we do with all of it? One option is to mount a gauss rifle and a ton of ammo. This has the El Guapo seal of approval, although 8 shots of gauss ammo isn't that much and will likely run dry in most fights.

Another option is to mount an LB-10X autocannon with two or three tons of ammo, adding another ton of LRM ammo and upping the heat sink count by any remaining tonnage. While not as much firepower or range as the gauss rifle, the LB-10X is a solid, reliable autocannon capable of making a mess of tanks, aircraft and mechs equally at range.

All of these weapons would be Inner Sphere versions - we don't have any spare clan gauss rifles or LB-10X autocannons. Well, we do, but we've already got mechs using them and it's likely we'll see a situation where spares are needed.

[] Dire Wolf refit - replace destroyed clan UAC-5s with single gauss rifle
[] Dire Wolf refit - replace destroyed clan UAC-5s with single LB-10X and more ammo

Akalon's Vulcan is up for a double heat sink refit. One straightforward proposal is to replace the heat sinks with doubles (ditching two), add an extra ton of armor, and another clan-spec extended-range medium laser. This will bring it closer in line to the original VL-5T spec while increasing armor coverage.

Atrophy's Annihilator will finally be getting its XL engine installed, along with a double heat sink refit. The weight savings will allow the installation of two additional tons of armor. It's still no Atlas, but now it'll move like one.

CJ's Victor could also go for a double heat sink upgrade - replacing its heat sinks with doubles will allow us to save three tons, which we can use to either max out the armor or almost max out the armor and add CASE for the SRM ammo to increase "long term durability".

[] Victor refit - replace heat sinks with doubles, add armor
[] Victor refit - replace heat sinks with doubles, add slightly less armor but with CASE

Between that and a couple of months of required yard time for our Jumbo to repair the excessively stressed internal structure, our technical personnel have their work cut out for them.

On the galactic news front, things have been pretty quiet since the passing of Hanse Davion just half a year ago, as the Federated Commonwealth continues integrating under Archon Melissa Steiner and her children.

In tech news, multiple varieties of non-crappy battle armor have been introduced - specifically, the Gray Death Legion and Inner Sphere Standard models. Of little interest to our mechwarriors, but perhaps we can get rid of our poorly performing "Waddles" so that our battle armor operators can have actual weaponry and jump jets, or at least not drive something that looks like a 7 year old kid drew it up on a piece of toilet paper using a crayon.

Of greater interest is stuff like FedCom rolling out Thunder LRM ammo and the DCMS rolling out dead-fire ammo. Thunder LRMs have nothing to do with thunder, but they do seed the target area where they land with land-mines; allowing units equipped with them to engage in area denial without having to pre-position said mines. Dead-fire missiles are currently only available to Draconis Combine units and not for sale outside the nation, but are basically the opposite of the "increased guidance system" trend, replacing complex flight control mechanisms with large amounts of additional explosives for greater damage potential. Rumor has it they are favored by more skilled mechwarriors who already know how to shoot a missile and want a little extra punch.

All of this new ordnance fits into standard LRM and SRM launchers.

We might also see the Bandersnatch BNDR-01A, a Marauder derivative that packs twin LB-10X autocannons and multiple standard lasers. Although, rumor has it that the rear-facing lasers have poor cooling jackets. Which is ok, we don't really favor rear-facing weapons anyway.

AN:

Spoiler:

Next update may get delayed - I want to re-work the contract generation system. Currently, because of our unit rating (A+++++++ etc), the only contracts we're getting offered are "relief duty" (it's a roll on a table with a straight unit rating modifier), which is kind of dumb. And also the payouts are always in the multi-billion C-Bill range (although we cut that in half with share payouts). The system was obviously designed with "struggling merc startups" in mind, not "well-established crowds of elite bad-asses piloting the latest tech".

[El Guapo]

[] Dire Wolf refit - replace destroyed clan UAC-5s with single gauss rifle
[X] Dire Wolf refit - replace destroyed clan UAC-5s with single LB-10X and more ammo

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).

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Seeding the area with landmines remotely. That should be interesting at our next lawsuut from shitty town xyz!

[NickAragua]

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).

[Zarathud]

Thud:
Hunchback Upgrade - +1 ton ammo, 1/2 ton armor and Guardian ECM

I remember having an AC combat bonus, so I want to use it. And survival is important if we’re dropping our mech numbers.

[Leraje]

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

[TotallyNotEvil]

Clan MPLs are good, but I'd easily drop one for two tons of GR ammo- the Daishi is something of a mobile turret anyway. It's not like going from 4 MPLs to 3 MPLs is going to hurt you any, but 24 shots of GR will help a lot.

[Hyena]

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

Dear lord, would we just hang all that directly on the chassis and forego armor altogether? LOL

[Leraje]

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

Dear lord, would we just hang all that directly on the chassis and forego armor altogether? LOL

Nope, it'll still have 19T of Standard armour.

[TotallyNotEvil]

It's hard to wrap one's head around "over fifty tons of pod space" when we have a lot of mechs whose entire machine doesn't weight that, and are pretty good.

Hell, my old Griffin was 55t of murder for the entire package.

[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.

[TotallyNotEvil]

I don't think anything beats ERMLs in damage/ton. It's completely busted, essentially being a Large Laser that weights 1 ton.

I'd worry about us running out of ERMLs tho, we are operating a bunch of clan mechs, and they are really nice additions to a whole host of models besides. Hell, we even have a Nova running exactly 8x ERML or so (instead of the standard 12x that overheats it to hell).

[Leraje]

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.