The Battletech Dynasty: Chapt. 5 - The Invasion, 3050-3056 - Completed [Archive]

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 11:41 AM

How does this thing work?

This is a dynasty I started in 3030. That year began with a small mixed mercenary company of mechs, infantry and vehicles. During the past 20 years, we have won salvages, money in contracts, and more. We now have 1 full regiment of mechs and warriors stationed on the planet of Thule(one regiment is nine companies, or three battalions). We have one full battalion of mechs on the system Last Frontier. One company of elite mechs with high technology is currently on Outreach and another four companies are on our home planet- Epsilon Eridani. We went from one mixed company to 17 full companies of mechs, plus 21 mechs in our garrison. In addition, we have four companies of tanks, hovercraft and other military vehicles. We also have 12 platoons of infantry, and various support vehicles, like ordinance trucks, unmanned spy planes, VTOLs and more.

Twice before, I have gotten into the mood to play some more BattleTech and continue this storyline, to see where it goes. The first time, I did the 3030’s through 3038. I ended at the big year of 3039. Then I came back in 2010 and I did the War of 3039 and the moved through the 3040s and ended at the end of 3049. Four chapters of this story have been written, and I already know where it will go. I have completed chapter four – The Explorer Corps Years. Next up is the 5th of 8 chapters. Now the battles will come fast and fierce, and campaigns will start to be impressive.

It is not necessary that you have read the first four chapters, but if you like this one, you might as well check them out.

In order to run this dynasty, I am using four major sources:

1). The sourcebooks of various sorts. I have used a variety of books in the BattleTech and MechWarrior lines. In particular, Mercenary Handbooks, Maximum Tech and the Field Manual, plus the various Technical Readouts are the primary sources, although many others have been used heavily in the past (such as Brush Wars, Explorer Corps, War of 3039 and others).
2). MegaMek and HeavyMetal Plus. I use HMP as my software for editing and making mechs, and I can save in a format that MegaMek reads. MegaMek is freeware allows me to play against the computer under the actual rules of the game. The AI is adequate, but not greats – the main issue is that sometimes it makes odd moves and it doesn’t concentrate its fire as much as it should. That will be less of a problem in about three months…
3). The Internet. There are a lot of BattleTech sources out there. As much as possible, I like to look at a few – Sarna wiki, Inner Sphere Atlas, and Solaris 7 are the major sites I use.
4). My own made up rules. I regularly find that BattleTech has great and amazingly detailed rules for a lot of stuff, but not even close to everything. For example, when I’ve gotten a contract from someone, what are the chances that the intel received from the buyer is accurate? I have no way of knowing. So I roll dice. I roll 2d6, and if I get an 8 or higher, the info was off. The higher the number, the more off it was. Twice I’ve gotten 12s and I was unable to finish the mission. In both cases, the amount of mechs we were facing jumped massively. Once, we were asked to get a mech the Draconis Combine was working on, and they told us there were a couple of prototypes on this planet, so we land, and then run into a whole bunch of them on patrol – and they were way to powerful to take on! The other time, the info was completely wrong because it was fed to the Lyrans from a separatist movement in order to catch them doing something illegal when they hired us to take out a group of separatist. We ran into an entire regiment with our company of mechs 12vs 108 – not good odds. You’ve gotta make up charts and such. Chapter 6, or 7 we will have to make up a massive amount of rules for doing something there’s no handbook for.

I would like to at least get through Chapter 5 this go around. I expect it to take a while, but you never know!

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 11:42 AM

A Brief History of the Clans

At the beginning of this dynasty, I gave those who were unfamiliar with the background of the Battletech universe a few posts of information that brought them up to speed. I am beginning this section of the dynasty with a quick history of clans, up until 3050. If you want more, check out chapter 1 for a lot of good detail.

Alexandr Kerensky was the noble general who defended the Star League successfully against the Amaris Coup, but saw the League fall anyway as the house lords seceded and stripped away his titles and Generalship.

Rather than continue the bloody civil war against the house lords, he instead took those troops loyal to him from the Star league Defense Force (SLDF) and fled. By some estimates, upwards of 80% of the SLDF left with him. He vowed to return someday. In his absence began the bloody Succession Wars, which would destroy planets, systems, and technology. Over the course of the next few hundred years, humanity would fall into a virtual Dark Age.

But what happened to Kerensky and his forces? What came of them?

After wandering the deep periphery for more than a year without finding a home, a small number of people mutinied and tried to go back home. Kerensky issues General Order 137, and then kills the rebels. Kerensky’s orders regularly read as more than a quick “Do this” and were full documents distributed and read by his followers. This one included what the clans refer to as the Hidden Hope Doctrine. This is the passage from 137 that is the HHD:

"Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return, and return we shall, our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters."

The morale of his people was strengthened and after another year, in 2786, they arrived at a quintet of systems in an almost perfect pentagon, and hidden from the Inner Sphere by a nearby nebula. They were barely habitable, but the massive flotilla of Star League forces began to settle and colonize the Pentagon Worlds of Arcadia, Babylon, Circe, Dagda and Eden. (ABCDE in order – not very clever is the military mind)

The problems were two. The old cultural divides of the Inner Sphere began to manifest on the worlds as racial, ethnic, and house loyalties were found hard to die. The largest issue was the very large military class Kerensky had. Those that had followed him were almost exclusively warriors, and now many of them were farming, logging, building, mining, and doing the work of laborers. The combination of these people feeling unappreciated by Kerensky, pushed them further into their own pre-Exodus groupings.

The people who hailed from systems that belonged to the five Great Houses began to migrate as each of the five worlds became a mini-house for its own people.

At the age of 100, Alexandr Kerensky died in June of 2801. He left his eldest son, Nicholas Kerensky as his heir. The death of the legendary general that they had all followed, coupled with the previously mentioned struggles going on, led to a general rebellion among the Pentagon Worlds.

Determined not to let his father’s vision die, Nicholas began to move among the worlds and gathered those troops still loyal to him. Once again, a Kerensky left the current strife with only those loyal. The remaining five worlds warred for supremacy.

Nicholas found a wealthy planet much farther away and named it Strana Mechty. Learning the lessons of the first Exodus, here he created a brand new society, with warriors at the top. It was an ideal society for warriors. Gone were old loyalties and old divisions. He created 20 clans, named after various animals (one, Blood Spirit, was named after the esprit de corps among warriors) that he though suitable totems to demonstrate various aspects of being a warrior. There were five castes – warrior, scientist, merchant, laborer and technician.

He pushed for changes to the very way that people waged war. He moved the clans towards a system of fighting that put honor and cleverness at its forefront. His system minimized bloodshed and ancillary damages.

In July of 2821, with a full base of operations on Strana Mechty, his forces landed on the Pentagon Worlds. His warriors were better, since they were the ones who had won matches and had never been demoted to lower ranks. The Pentagon worlds had less materiel, and had been at constant war for years, and were ripe for conquering.

After taking the worlds, Kerensky’s clans began to settle nearby worlds of their own. He would join Clan Wolf, which would have the Kerensky bloodname as its own.

Over time, the clans would be reduced in number as a couple lost Trials of Absorption by others clans, and one, Clan Wolverine, was destroyed in a Trial of Annihilation. Remnants of Clan Wolverine would arrive back at the Inner Sphere, strike a base in the Combine to free prisoners and materiel, and then encounter ComStar. After encountering ComStar, they would join forces, and move to a few planets in the Inner Sphere but not on the star charts. ComStar made sure they stayed off. ComStar and Wolverine would become intertwined, with the best of both rising in the others. The best manipulators in ComStar’s history were Wolverine (but most in ComStar never knew it was Wolverine they were involved with)

Their society now has genetic breeding programs from their greatest warriors, competitions for bloodnames which are the names of the warriors who founded the clan, and more. In many clans, being trueborn means you have a much higher level of respect from everyone over the freeborn.

Over time, the clans have formed two philosophies around Kerensky’s words. One group calls themselves the wardens. They believe their task is to protect the Inner Sphere from disaster and from outside influence. The other group are the crusaders. They believe their role is to attack the Inner Sphere, reclaim Terra, and create a new Star league.

Each clan has at least a few wardens and crusaders, but the clans themselves lean one side or the other. At the time of 3050, the invading four clans count exactly one warden clan in their number – Clan Wolf. The next wave has one more warden among it – Steel Viper (but they are barely warden, viciously antagonistic towards the Inner Sphere).

With the crusaders rattling the sabers to attack the Inner Sphere, the wardens, led by Clan Wolf, suggested a compromise to send a few troops in as mercenaries to work for the various houses, and to be spies. These troops took the name Wolf’s Dragoons and became the Inner Sphere’s finest mercenaries, bar none

When an Explorer Corps vessel from ComStar accidentally arrives in a world run by Smoke Jaguar, the clan captures, interrogates, and pushes for a renewed invasion. Smoke Jaguar sells the ship as perhaps the first ship in an invasion fleet, and with that threat over their head, every clan save Wolf votes for the invasion. Operation Revival begins. The clans fight to see who will be in the invasion. The crusader clans, wanting to force this through, put Wolf clan in the invading forces automatically, because of Kerensky’s bloodname. The others fight, and at the end, several Trials of Refusal occur, and eventually the invasion corridors are drawn up.

Clan Jade Falcon will be invading the corridor deep into Lyran space. Clan Wolf will be invading space in Lyran and Rasalhague space. Clan Ghost Bear will be invading Rasalhague and Draconis space. And Clan Smoke Jaguar will be on the end, in exclusively the Draconis Combine.

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 11:43 AM

For those interested:

Here are the books used so far in this dynasty:

BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare
Invading Clans
Wolf Clan Sourcebook
The Chaos March
The Periphery
The Explorer Corps
Solaris VII Boxed Set
Brush Wars
War of 3039
Maximum Tech
Tactical Handbook
Field Manual: Mercenaries
Mercenaries Supplemental
Mercenaries Supplemental II
Technical Readout: 2750
Technical Readout: 3025
Technical Readout: 3026
Technical Readout: 3050
Technical Readout: 3055
Technical Readout: 3058
Technical Readout: 3060
Technical Readout: 3067
Technical Readout: 3075
Technical Readout: 3085
Technical Readout: Vehicle Annex

(Later technical readouts often include specs on earlier mechs, such as the Merlin and Mackie)

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 12:40 PM

Dramatis Personae (3050):

Colonel Braham Essex, 46, is a MechWarrior. Born the son of a military adjutant to the Capellan Forces on Acamar. His mother passed away in childbirth. Quite rare these days but not unheard of. Raised on his parent’s homeworld of Epsilon Eridani, Braham was raised a bit by his adopted family in the Capellan barracks. Although he spent some time on Acamar with his father, both his father and himself considered EE their home. Like many children, Braham wanted to be a MechWarrior from an early age, and despite the lack of family resources to purchase one, he was determined. When his father died in a raid on Acamar by the Dracs when he was 11, he continued to train and push harder and harder. After testing well enough to gain entry to the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov, he continue to push himself until he graduated as the best MechWarrior in his class of 23. With a high set of credentials and references, Braham was a recruit for the Northwind Highlanders, a house mercenary unit for the Capellan Confederation. During the Second Succession War, the Federated Suns captured the planet of Northwind, and House Liao used the atrocities committed by House Davion to cement the loyalty of the Highlanders, and pledged to them full independence should Liao recapture Northwind. Over the centuries, Capella failed again and again to capture Northwind, and the Highlanders continued to be among the elite units serving House Liao. Then, in 3028, Hanse Davion secretly contacted the Highlanders prior to launching the Fourth Succession War. He offered to give them Northwind in return to fealty to him. After discussing it for a long time, the Highlanders decided to leave their many years of service to Capella and pledged loyalty as a house unit of the Federated Suns (not even a mercenary unit any more). In return, Davion gave them an amount of freedom. A small minority of Highlanders chose to defect from the unit, believing that their contract with Capella should be honored. Among those defectors was Braham Essex. He defected and was assigned by the Capellan Confederation to fight with the veteran Blackwind Lancers.

The Fourth Succession War had begun. When Candace Liao falls in love with a Davion spy, she decides to use the war to declare the St. Ives Commonality now independent of the Capellan Confederation. This succession brings many military units from the CCAF with her, including the Blackwind Lancers.

Once again faced with choosing to defect from his unit or defect from his state, Braham Essex chooses to leave the Lancers. By now, the Tikonov Free Republic has been created, with one of the highest and most trusted military leaders, Pavel Ridzik, choosing to also vacate the realm he had served all of his life in order to create a new state. The planet of Epsilon Eridani joined the Tikonov Free Republic. In the wake of these dissidents, and two elite units Braham was serving leaving to join others, he realized that the Confederation was falling apart. With his own homeworld no longer a part of the Confederation, he felt his loyalty waning. Braham also felt no love for the St. Ives Compact, Tikonov Free Republic, or Federated Suns. Choosing instead to form his own mercenary company, the Kilts and Commandos, he left for Outreach, making some contacts with other disaffected MechWarriors from the Northwind Highlanders and the Blackwind Lancers.

At the age of 16, Braham Essex arrived at the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov. While there, he distinguished himself enough to warrant placement with the Highlanders, and he met Ted Izumo, an instructor. Essex has won the Liao Sunburst of Gallantry during battle with the Highlanders for the destruction of several enemy Battlemechs after his lance mates all fell, and completing the objective by himself. It is the most minor of Liao decorations and regularly given out.

After graduating from the Tikonov Academy, Essex served a full tour of duty with the Highlanders and had begun his second term with them when they left. He then served with the Lancers for most of his remaining term before they too defected.

In January of 3031, he took his first contract as the commander of the Kilts and Commandos, a new mercenary unit built from the disaffected from the old Capellan Confederation. Over time, he won various contracts, battles and campaigns, and built his unit to almost two regiments of troops.

He began by piloting his own a medium fire support mech he took with him when everything fell apart, a Dervish, but upgraded to a heavier Orion, which was lost in combat. Then he purchased a heavy and iconic Warhammer before moving to a Cataphract, a Liao design that had been used by the Governor of a planet that Braham killed while doing a contract for the St. Ives Compact.

The first high profile action the unit saw was in 3034, when the unit was contracted to fight alongside the Rasalhague Rebellion as they formed the Free Rasalhague Republic. As many elements in the Draconis Combine fought against this in the Ronin Wars, the battle pitted some Combine elements against themselves, the new Rasalhague units, fighting, and mercenaries. At the end of the War, most of the mercenary units had used minor clauses in their contracts to not help out the Republic, but Braham forced his unit to assist, and was rewarded with the Rasalhague Star. At the end, the FRR developed a dislike for mercenaries, and hired them rarely, but Kilts and Commandos is treated with respect and will eventually become one of the main FRR military forces in the mid to late 3040s.

After taking a contract in 3037 on the planet of Somerset, Braham’s Cataphract was destroyed in an ammo explosion. The ejection seat failed to function properly and Braham was flung from the wreckage. His body was broken, burned, bruised and bloody. After a long recovery, Braham lost his left leg and left arm, and they were replaced by myomer limbs. His skills degraded and he had the skills of a regular pilot again.

On Feb 3, 3038, Braham Essex emerged from almost a year’s convalescence and had been training and retraining with his troops on Epsilon Eridani. He began training with his unit again. While most of Kilts and Commandos joined the combined assault on the Draconis Combine in the War of 3039, Braham took one company and fought in the final year of the Andurien War and served at the Fall of Andurien, the bloodiest campaign in the first half of the 31st century. While there, he won the Andurien Epaulet.

After Andurien fell, Braham moved to Solaris VII and began a campaign as a gladiator MechWarrior. After showing some flash, Braham allied himself with Starlight Stables and worked his way up the system. He won a Grand Melee, placed in another, and climbed up the rankings to #8. His only duel he lost was to the #1 ranked MechWarrior. He is elite status again as a MechWarrior.

Receiving an interesting contract from ComStar, Braham chose to leave his Solaris VII career behind and led a company of mechs in a 5 year mission for the ComStar Explorer Corps, exploring beyond the periphery in the unknown. He came back recently, and has been organizing the unit, and moving most to contracts with the Free Rasalhague Republic.

After piloting mechs like Orion, Atlas, Hunchback, Jenner in the Solaris arenas, and an Awesome for the Explorer Corps, plus the Exterminator in a stealth mission, he is continuing in a modified Orion as the CO of a new Shadow Company, a powerful elite company with all LosTech mechs that operates independent of the command structure of his mercenary unit.

Braham Essex
State Academy, State University, Two Terms of Service.
Piloting Skill - 2
Gunnery Skill - 2
Influence - 3
Member Modifiers - -2 family, +3 friends, +6 unit

Age: 46
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry; Rasalhague Star; Andurien Epaulet

Skills:

Edge: 5
Tactical Genius
Gunnery: Ballistic
Ace Maneuvering

Myomer Left Arm, Left Leg

The edge skill allows a reroll of any d6 roll in combat for each point I put into edge, and I have five points in it, allowing me to reroll a critical piloting skill roll or other game roll. The Tactical Genius ability allows me to reroll initiative at the beginning of each turn if I want.

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 02:38 PM

Captain Ted Izumo, 72, XO of the Kilts and Commandos unit, Headmaster of the Essex Training Academy, and in charge of the garrison force on Epsilon Eridani. Although initially an academy dropout, Ted’s three tours of duty as a MechWarrior gave him some influence and experience. He was later offered a job as an academy trainer, despite never graduating himself, allowing his experience to be a teacher. As a trainer, he met Braham Essex and became one of his closest mentors. When his planet of Tikonov declared independence from Liao, the academy fired many of its trainers, including Ted. When he got a call from Braham Essex, he gladly chose to join the fledgling Kilts and Commandos as Braham’s main advisor.

Later in the 3030s, after the Essex Training Academy was formed, Ted semi-retired to run it, and build up the Headquarters for the unit, supervise and train the garrison force, and more. After Essex was defeated on Somerset, Izumo brought everyone back home to train, and regroup. He ran the unit for a year and a half until Essex was ready to take back over.

During the War of 3039, Izumo led the Kilts and Commandos against the Draconic Combine. He planned and won the siege of Fort Ea, and then fought against the Ghost Regiment counter-attack. He led and organized the defense of Breed on behalf of the Federated Commonwealth despite a local general who tried to reel him in. For his success in the Breed Campaign, Izumo was personally awarded the Robinson Medal of Valor by Field Marshal Sandoval. He also won the Dragon Slayer’s Ribbon as part of the campaign against the Draconis Combine.

After the War of 3039, he came out of retirement to lead an assault against the Lyran world of Westerstede after a company of ours was captured and subsequently abandoned by our employer. He continues to pilot the same Stalker he had when he came into our unit. He has also piloted the Exterminator in combat and the BattleMaster 2C in training recruits.

Ted Izumo

Piloting - 2
Gunnery - 2
Influence - 2
Member Modifiers - -3 family/+3 friends/+3 unit

Skills:

Edge: 4
Tactical Genius
Decorations: Dragon Slayer’s Ribbon, Robinson Medal of Valor

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 02:42 PM

Sergeant Adele Thompson, 50, was born of a minor, but politically connected, noble on Epsilon Eridani. She was family-trained and then sent off to a private academy on Sarna. As a child, she met Braham Essex and the two were boyfriend and girlfriend for seven months while he was 12 and she was 15. Even then, she saw a mature and intelligent person behind the boyish exterior. After graduation, she was assigned to a garrison unit on Acamar, but met action when the Federated Suns attacked and decimated her unit. Her Crusader mech was destroyed and only her personal money prevented her from being one of the dispossessed as she found and purchased a Firestarter. With her unit destroyed and her homeworld no longer Capellan, she drifted to Outreach to find a new life as a mercenary before a chance meeting brought her and Braham Essex together again, this time as one of his new recruits to the Kilts and Commandos mercenary unit.

She is still a sergeant of the same lance she had when she started with Kilts and Commandoes 19 years ago. She had not excelled nor demonstrated a desire or ability to take full command. In 19 years she has destroyed 8 targets (mechs. tanks, VTOLS) total.

She married a local noble, again with contacts and of a minor nature.

She had a child with Braham Essex out of wedlock, and she is raised on Episilon Eridani largely by her step-mother and Ted.

Piloting - 4
Gunnery - 2
Influence - 1
Member Modifiers - +2 family/+2 friends/+2 unit

Adele, Ted, and Braham are the founding members of the Kilts and Commandoes unit.

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 04:54 PM

Colonel Matthew Humphries, 40, is in charge of one of the regiments currently in service in the Free Rasalhague Republic. Operationally, he is third in command of K&C. He was in charge of a battalion of troops for the First Andurien Defenders and fought for ten years in the Andurien Wars. After his planet and duchy fell, he chose to defect, along with many other mechwarriors, to our unit. Over the past decade, he has risen in our ranks to run a regiment.

He is a distant nephew of Dame Catherine Humphries, the late Duchess of Andurien, and is something like 12th in line to the throne. He has seen the worst of war, and although still a warrior, he has no tolerance for endangering civilians from his men, or the enemy.

Elizabeth Walters-Essex, 44, CEO of Kressly Warworks. She is the granddaughter of Steve Walters, who bought the factory from the Kressly family years ago. She was the only child of her father, and has been the CEO of Kressly for most of her adult life, after her father died when she was a child and her grandfather died when she was 23 in 3029. She is a native of the planet and quite loyal to it. Ten years ago, she married Braham Essex after they spend a year and a half together while he was on planet recovering.

After spending a couple of years on Solaris VII to, in part, be near her, he took a contract and left the Inner Sphere for almost 6 years before returning for almost a year. Elizabeth has raised both her son with Braham and her step-daughter.

Under her watch, Kressly has become a leading seller of several tanks, with the Brutus Assault Tank their banner product. She has regularly discussed the possibility of opening up a mech line with her techs and K&C. K&C could field test designs and give comments. K&C have created a few field made mechs for their own use, and Kressly likes several of their designs, particularly the Attila.

Kilts and Commandos have been the garrison force at Kressly Warworks for more than a decade, and continue to do it. They get a 20% discount on any purchases from it.

Thoma Marie Essex, 13. The daughter of Braham Essex and Adele Thompson is being raised on Epsilon Eridani and by her step mother Elizabeth Walters-Essex and in part by Ted Izumo. 16 months ago, she began training on industrial mechs after expressing an interest in continuing in her parents’ shoes. She is already a good pilot of mechs, and will soon transition to learning weapons.

James Roderick Essex, 9. The son of Elizabeth and Braham is being raised on Epsilon Eridani by his mother and again, in part, by Ted. He has not, so far, expressed an interest in BattleMechs, but instead in Kressly Warworks and the tanks and components made there. .

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 06:54 PM

Allies and Friends:

Leftenant General Pierre Benton – This local MechWarrior rose through the ranks of the Federated Suns military and then took an assignment in 3049 on his home world of Epsilon Eridani as the commander of the forces on planet. As a local, he has regular communication with his world’s favorite son, Braham Essex, and his unit. They coordinate defense of the local area, and run around in some similar circles.

Duke James Sandoval – After taking over the Draconis March in 3048 after his father died, former Field Marshal James Sandoval becomes the ruler of the systems that are next to the Draconis Combine. Our unit fought directly under James on Marduk in the War of 3039, and then got permission from Sandoval to attack the enemy on Breed rather than keep following the mewling orders of the on planet general. Since then, we’ve done contracts for Sandoval or his father several times in the 3040s. We also sold them a new Wolverine 7K variant with LosTech for them to analyze after we captured it.

Baron Jorgennson – A baron in the Free Rasalhague Republic whose family’s wealth is significant. We came across one of his deep periphery extraction teams on a LosTech rich planet. Later, Braham Essex would trade the location of a very old, and thence very valuable, JumpShip for a modern merchant class JumpShip for us. Recently, our troops have been sent to garrison several planets under his rulership in the corner of Rasalhague space.

Enemies:

Pada Vinson, CO of Vinson’s Vigilantes, we’ve had several run-ins with this mercenary group. We have fought them on Galatea and in the periphery. Each time, they’ve been a bit unprofessional. We were both working for the Free Rasalhague Republic during the Ronin Wars, but they broke their contracts and left. They have also sued a half a dozen people because they didn’t get the prime salvage they wanted in the War of 3039. They give mercenaries a bad name. Worst of all, while Essex was fighting in the Solaris VII arenas, he killed a young and rising mechwarrior piloting a mech when his attack destroyed an Atlas’s head. The cockpit went with it, and the pilot – Jason Vinson, was Pada’s son. Pada swore a death oath on killing Braham Essex.

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 07:40 PM

Military Assets:

The Robin Hood, a Union class DropShip – auxiliary
The Star River, a Union class DropShip
The Scots Flotilla, a Merchant class JumpShip

After the local troops are rotated off for refit and repair once several raids by Periphery pirates reduced their number, we send a regiment of troops to garrison Thule. This regiment of mechs is under the control of Col. Humphries. Because we have an emphasis on company tactics and strategy, our components are interchangeable, and we regularly move companies in an out of regiments as needed. Here are the companies currently on Thule.

Aleph
Phaeton
Trinity
Delta
Cinq
Hex
Defender
Heliades
Brawler

We also have a battalion on Last Frontier, helping to garrison against Drac attacks.

Lance
Mustang
Tethys

As of January 1, 3050, Epsilon Eridani has these

Rebel, Boxer, Styx and Typhon mech companies
Tank Battalion and Vehicle Delta Company
14 platoons of infantry
21 mechs in our garrison
BattleMaster 2C in the academy, 13 students in the Academy
Ted Izumo and his Stalker
The Robin Hood Union DropShip
12 tanks
14 graduates of the Essex Academy in various mechs as needed. 12 are green, two are regular.
3 VTOLs

Other assets like Boomerang Spotter Planes, ordinance trucks, etc

Shadow Company is an elite strike company led by Braham Essex and is currently on Outreach.

law90026

09-20-2011, 09:19 PM

Oman it's back!

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 10:25 PM

Oman it's back!

Oh yes!

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 10:26 PM

Thule, 3050. The Free Rasalhague Republic enjoyed fairly calm borders with the Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine. Both long-term enemies gained something by having a buffer state between them. The Republic features roughly 80 inhabited systems but only 15 mech regiments to hold it (plus tanks, infantry, fighters, etc). Because of this one full regiment and a battalion of our mechs have been placed on retainer contracts with the Republic. The major border issue is with the periphery that hold bandits, pirates, and rogues. Raids on the border worlds result in many damages.

Due to Thule’s proximity to both the Periphery and the Combine, and its isolation, in the far corner, it needs a full regiment for garrisoning. It is one jump away from just four inhabited systems, two Dracs, the pirate planet of Porthos, and one FRR system – Damian. With losses sustained by the 1st Hussars, one of those 15 FRR regiments, to several pirate raids, they have been rotated out and we have been moved to Thule to garrison it until they are able to return. Colonel Matthew Humphries is the CO of this regiment. Thule is one of several systems that fall under Baron Jorgensson’s purview.

(If you want a detailed map, go here: http://iscs.teamspam.net/pdf/iscs_3040.pdf - top center, zoom in much. For a less detailed map that just shows diplomatic lines, this will suffice: http://iscs.teamspam.net/povray/iscs_3040.20020918.jpg - we are in the top right corner of the top purple blob.)

Thule has three major continents, and has a rich water economy. Spring water from Thule is considered to have medicinal properties and a great taste, and it is bottled and sold as a luxury item. One of the continents is a great northern waste – Husavik. The next is Akranes, near the equator and the major agricultural center. The final one is Vik. Vik has the capital city, Thule City, a wide and very hot desert, and several large cities along the coasts.

Thule will become very important very soon.

Abe Sargent

09-20-2011, 11:04 PM

EVENT - January 1, 3050 – The C3 computer has been completed by the Draconis Combine, and will be seen in the field this year. Due to the stigma it has for not being honorable, it will not take root for a years. It’s a great system for mech lances and very expensive.

Additionally, field refit kits with LosTech like double heat sinks, pulse lasers, and more have become wide enough that they are able to be purchased on the market by any buyer who has the C-Bills. They come with an additional 10% cost to mercenary units to represent the difficulty of getting them.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 12:04 AM

With this, since Braham Essex is still not undergoing a contract with Shadow Company, he uses some of the time on Outreach to look over the T&O of the mercenaries, and pick up some refit kits. Shadow Company already has 12 mechs with LosTech. These are one jump away at Epsilon Eridani. Rebel, Boxer, Styx and Typhon mech companies. Braham begins by reviewing these and seeing if there are refit kits out there, and if so, does he want them, and for how much.

The first thing Essex does is pick up a Gauss Rifle and ammo (400k) for the Cyclops in Styx Company. Swapping the AC20 for the Gauss is a common field replacement many are doing.

The only other mech in Styx Company to receive a field refit kit will be the Wolfhound, which will be getting an ER Large Laser and double heat sinks. To replace the 2x HS requires opening up the engine and pulling out the old ones. It will take a lot longer than the Cyclops. The refit kit for the WLF-2 will cost 300k.

That will take 2 weeks to do to Styx.

We are unable to find a refit for a Stalker in Typhon. I want to do a simple change to our Centurion, and I may come back, but it won’t be a simple kit. Boxer already has a LosTech BattleMaster – the 3M.

We make no changes to Boxer.

For Rebel company, we manage to purchase a 5N refit. This includes double heat sinks only. The normal 5M change drops a ton of ammo for the AC20 for CASE and to upgrade a Small Laser to a Small Pulse Laser. That gives you just 5 shots of the AC20, so we will keep the old configuration for 120k. IT will take two weeks. It could use some more modification, because it can drop three doubles to still have 10/20 heat, which is perfectly fine

We will not be making any additional changes:

820k for upgrades to three mechs, total time, two weeks. By the end of the month, they should arrive and have been upgrades.

What about those in the garrison?

Nothing other than a normal Cataphract appeals to me. I want to start pulling off AC10s for LB10Xs.

Time to modify the Cataphract and Centurion. This requires some die rolls. A BattleMech is a balanced and tested creature. To undue this is not guaranteed.

Centurion:

Remove the AC10 – RA, weighs 12 tons, uses 7 criticals
Replace with LB10X – RA, weighs 11 tons, 6 criticals

By being off in both weight and internal space used, this is not an easy task. I bring in my best techs. We succeed. This part can be done. We write the technical specs down. From now on, we can make this change automatically with Centurions.

Next:

I want to add another medium laser Right Torso. It already has two tons of ammo. This will add a critical section and a ton to that area. After several tries, we succeed. We may now make these adjustments to all of the Centurions we have. While I am here, I flip the rear facing Medium Laser in the Center Torso to the front. This succeeds easily. I have ammo in both the left torso (LRM) and right (LB 10X- AC). I try to move the LRM ammo to the right, plus a Heat Sink from the Left Torso. This is three tons and three crits. Very hard. I manage to roll a 10 with my elite tech, and he able ot do the work. This adds a lot of time.

Cost for LB 10-X and ammo and laser, move ML(R) to front, move ammo. – 475k

In documents, we will referring to this version of the Centurion as the CN9-FR for Field Refit. We will normally be using one ton each of regular ammo and it’s special shot. When using the buckshot version, it is easier to hit, and locations hit are rolled for. We roll on the LRM 10 chart to see how many of them it. It’s a great way to find a section of an opponent hat has been opened.

This will take my techs 4 weeks to refit.

Now for Cataphracts:

We were just barely able to make the same adjustments to a Cataphract, swapping in an extra ton of ammo for the LB 10-X. I also swap two rear facing medium lasers to the front. Again, a refit takes 3 weeks and 475k for everything. We will be calling this one the CTF-3FR. While working, I try to move the Medium Laser from the Left Arm to the Left Torso, where the ammo is. Success. I try to do the same with the Right Arm’s Medium Laser. Success as well. The LT now has three medium lasers, a heat sink, and two tons of ammo. The RA has a PPC and the RT the LB 10-X and a medium laser.

We pay the money and refit the Centurion in Typhon company and the Cataphract in Garrison.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 12:39 AM

Braham begins recruiting for some new people. I want to recruit an Aerospace Company. Our two regiment+ sized group has enough of a reputation to start recruiting. Braham gets three rolls a months and Ted has arrived for two more.

Green, medium, fighter and pilot
Regular, medium, fighter and pilot
Nothing
Nothing
Veteran, heavy, fighter and pilot

We’ll figure out fighters and names and such later, when the entire unit is assembled.

Now let’s see what contracts come in for my people. I have 5 companies not currently doing contracts, plus four companies of vehicles.

The Capellan Confederation is looking for assistance with a garrison somewhere
They are also looking for an Extraction Raid.

Braham contacts them about the second one. Extraction Raids are smash and grabs. Go get this and bring it back. The target could be an object, technology, a mech, or even a person. These are usually done behind someone’s back. They are often asked for by corporations, who want their stuff back. (or want secrets from a competitor).

The target is their own system of Bithinia. It’s on the border with both the Free Worlds League and the FedComs. It’s a major resort and tourist destination. They also mine iron and make steel, and have a small mech factory – Bithinian Ballistics. The CC has had a delivery of its supplies to the factory go missing, and intel suggests that it has been procured by a private company, which has stored it in an old iron mine, pending shipment off planet. The company is a joint Capellan and Marik effort, and the CC doesn’t want to ruffle political feathers by going in guns blazing to retake the supplies. So, they want to hire a mercenary unit to do it and keep them with a level of deniability.

Bithinia is 10 days from the jump point, and it’s 6 jumps away. It would take a company from Epsilon Eridani 2 months to get there. That’s not bad at all, so Braham takes the contract.

This will be Rebel Company’s shakedown mission.

Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.6, x1.4
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 25% paid(1.2 mill total paid, so 250k received)

They gave us generous things in command, salvage, remuneration and salary so that they could drop support and transport costs and increase length.

With EE just one just from Outreach, communication by Hyper Pulse Generator is the same day easily, and that leads to Rebel loading up. They should arrive in the system on March 3rd, and at the planet on the 13th.

The garrison contract is for 3 years, and Braham is not interested.

In order to determine what my many units are doing, I have an updated roster of my units. It looks like this:

Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company -
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company – Arrive at Bithinia on March 16th.

Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company

I will regularly update this roster with movements and such.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 02:01 AM

February 1, 3050 – Braham and Ted begin another round of recruiting on Outreach, and grab:

Nothing
Elite, dispossessed, pilot
Regular, light, pilot
Regular, medium, pilot
Nothing

New contracts?

St. Ives Compact, garrison
Magistracy of Canopus, Pirate Hunting
Outworlds Alliance, Guerilla and Planetary Assault
Magistracy of Canopus, Cadre/ Garrison

So, this month is Mr. Periphery month at Outreach, eh? Just for fun, I contact the Magistracy’s representative about the Pirate Hunting contract. They have been experiencing some raids by pirates from their anti-spinward direction, which they believe have been agitated and funded in part by the Marian Hegemony. It would take a company from EE 18 jumps to get to the border of the Magistracy, and then another 6 to get to the destination. That’s a total of 24 jumps there and back again. This would take, roughly, seven months each way. It would cost 3.45 million to pay for the jump there and back. For a contract that would only pay for a few months of hunting, we would be paying for the unit’s upkeep for probably a year without any compensation. To send a company away for roughly 16 months is just not something I feel comfortable doing.

So, no thanks periphery.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 03:55 AM

March 1, 3050 – Another month has arrived. What do the contracts look like now?

Capellan Confederation wants a Diversionary Raid. Very unusual. The goal is to hit someone or something while another thing is going on, and pull all of their attention away. Their target is the FedCom system of Lesalles, which is 5 jumps away and on the border with the Caps, and is actually one jump from Bithinia.

The others:

ComStar wants a security contract

Free Rasalhague Republic wants an Objective Raid. Target? Lyran system of Laurent, which is 12 jumps away. It would take three months to get there, and then an additional 8 days. We could have a
company there by June 27, 3050,.

Let’s do both raids:

Capellan Confederation, Diversionary Raid

They want us to hit Lesalles in full Capellan colors and the nation’s symbols on our mechs. They want the defenders to think we are Caps, and hitting them. Then they will move forces to hit us, while the Death Commandos will slip in and do whatever they need to so. We aren’t given that information.

Interesting. Let’s do it.

We will be sending Boxer Company on this mission, since they haven’t done one either.

Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.8, x1.4
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: 60% paid(900k total paid, so 540kreceived)

We will arrive at Lasalles on May 12, 3050.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 03:56 AM

Typhon will be sent to do the FRR contract. They want us to destroy a listening post on the fourth moon of Laurent.

Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x4, x1.6, x1.1
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: 50% paid(1.8 mill paid, so 900kreceived)
10% Bonus

They will arrive at Laurent on June 27th

Here is the updated roster:

Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company – Arrive at Laurent, June 27th
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company – Arrive at Lasalles on May 12th
Rebel Company – Arrive at Bithinia on March 16th.

Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company

More recruiting rolls:

Regular, medium, pilot
Nothing
Elite, medium, pilot
Elite, heavy, pilot
Green, light, pilot

What I like to do is jump ahead and do a contract, and then roll back and keep going overall. This month, Rebel company arrives at Bithinia, so I want to do that, figure out everything, play it out, resolve issues, and send them back. Then I’ll rewind if necessary and keep going.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 10:01 AM

March 16 – Rebel Company has arrived on Bithinia. The Capellans made sure that we could lands on planet. After getting our bearings, we meet a local contact who informs us that recent intel suggest that a mercenary company called Ambition’s Grave is guarding it for the company.

Mar 17 – After unloading, we move our unit to the cave system. The intel is right on, and we are facing a regular company of MWs. Here are the mechs of Ambition’s Grave:

2 lights
4 mediums
2 heavies
4 assaults

Javelin 10N
Commando 2D
Vindicator 3L *
Quickdraw 5M *
Bombardier, vet pilot
Whitworthx2
Phoenix Hawk, green pilot
Charger
BattleMaster
Banshee 3E
Cyclops, Vet pilot

*- These mechs are equipped with LosTech.

As a reminder, here is our unit:

ATA-1A Atilla
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
VTR-9A Victor
HBK-5N Hunchback
WHM-6R Warhammer
CRD-3R Crusader
RFL-3N Rifleman
WTH-1 Whitworth
JVN-10F Javelin
FS9-M Firestarter
CDA-2A Cicada
HER-1A Hermes

This is a weaker company mech wise. 8 of the pilots are elite, 2 veteran and 2 regular.

Here is our special field made mech, the Atilla:

85 tons
3/5 movement
22 heat sinks
263/263 armor

2xPPC, one in each torso
2xSRM6, one in each torso
7x Medium Laser, in torsos and head
2xtons of ammo, one in each torso.

It’s designed to punch holes from far away (that makes 22 heat if I’m running) and then when up close you can slide into all seven medium lasers (21 heat made) or use the SRM6s and 4 mediums (20 heat made) or even 1 PPC and two SRM6s and a medium laser (21 heat made). In a pinch, you can blow through more to go over heat.

This is the Whitworth, a mech that will see a lot of action today, since there are three on the field.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/8/8d/3050U_Whitworth.jpg/630px-3050U_Whitworth.jpg

The Whitworth is a 40 ton fire support mech, with 4/6/4 movement, two LRM 10s and a few medium lasers for close combat if someone get too close or after the ammo runs out. It the lightest mech that I actually like for fire support roles.

AnalBumCover

09-21-2011, 10:32 AM

I missed the first 4 chapters. Definitely gonna play catch-up now.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 01:38 PM

My strategy will be to take out the Vindicator for salvage and the Quickdraw. The Quickdraw is a poorly designed mech, especially the updated one. It has just 8 tons of armor and is armament is poor – just two front facing medium lasers, and LRM10 and a one-shot of SRM4, plus two rear facing Medium lasers. They usually jump right up to your guys and you can blow their 60 ton mech right off the field. After that, attacks of opportunity, but I always want good mechs over bad ones (Battle Master over Cyclops, Charger or Banshee; Bombardier, etc).

Here we go:

We are fighting near the caves that supposedly have the crates. There are a few small hills and trees, with a minor pond near the middle of the battle. We are coming in from the north and they from the south.

We lose initiative

Turn 1 - We deploy several of our assets on top of a small hill and into some forests. I find decent positions for a few of my snipers. After moving in and around stuff, we have several mechs in position into attack them, and vice versa. Their Bombardier nails my Attila and gets a through armor critical on the right torso and knocks out a PPC. Their BattleMaster’s PPC nails the head of my Thunderbolt and goes internal, but does not take out the head. We aren’t close enough for physical attacks and everybody is still standing.

Turn 2 – We win initiative. After cracking open their Charger with the Atilla, our Warhammer destroy its hip an lower leg actuators on the right leg and a shoulder actuator on the left arm. Srms from the Crusader hits two more leg actuators on the right leg. Later, our Whitworth hits the head of their Vindicator with some missiles, but everything is alright. The Charger falls and destroys its right leg.

Turn 3 – We lose init. I hop my Javelin next to one of their Whitworths and they do the same to mine. We pepper each other, but nobody takes that much damage this round. Everybody misses kicks.

T4 – We lose again. Lots of mechs base each other – heir Cyclops and Javelin to my whiteworth an Hunchback. My Cicada to their Commando. Our Cicada destroys the RL of the Commando. Their Cicada opens up my Attila’s RT and nails a medium laser. We focus some fire on their Cyclops when it move sup to use it’s AC20. Both my Victor and Hunchy hit it with teir own big guns. After opening up its CT, our Rifleman follows by nailing a gyro and SRM4. Their Commando and Cyclops both fall, as does my Whitworth after taking an AC20 and several Bombardier missiles. Our Hunch kicks the Jav and goes internal on a leg and nails a jump jet. Their Jav falls from the kick.

T5 – We win init. The Cyclops tries to get up, falls down, and blows off the left arm, its on the ground. Their Jav fails to stand. I get a Firestarter behind their Vindicator, a Jav in front of their Vindicator and I run a couple of mehcs to the downed ones. I run my Attila up to their Quickdraw. If I push it, it will fall into the water. Lt, Medini Sengupta in our Atilla completely destroys their Commando. Nothing survived from it. Our Rifleman tears into their grounded Jav and destroys is RA, LA and RT, and hits a gyro and an engine. It’s down. Our Hunchback hits the engine twice on their Cyclops after nailing it in the CT again with an AC20. Their Vindicator falls from all of the damage it took. Our own Javelin;s LL is destroyed by their Bombardier. We push their QD intro the water with the Attilla.

T6 – We win init again. Their Cyclops guy ejects. Our Jav pilot ejects after being surrounded by three of their mechs. We run a Victor next to one of their Whitworths. Their QD does not get up. We focus fire on their exposed P Hawk. Our Rifleman goes internal with a large laser there, but nothing happens. Their P Hawk falls.

T7 – We lose init. We all move a lot of mechs close together. The QD doesn’t even try to stand, but their P Hawk is up. Their Vindicator destroys the RA of my Firestarter. One of their Whitworths falls to a AC20 from a Hunchy after it blows out the RL. Our Firestarter takes out the RA of their Vindicator. No ER PPC – sad. A Medium Laser from the Attilla lances into the P Hawk’s head and shears it off. Dead mech. Our Victor blows into the gyro of their Vindicator. Our Crusader also destroys the LA and LT of the P Hawk. Our Warhammer gets an ammo explosion on the P Hawk, so it is completely destroyed. Their damaged Whitworth loses an LRM10 and a jump jet from our Whit-y. Their Vindicator pilot blacks out.

And with that, Ambition’s Grave signals their retreat. The QD stands and emerges from the water. We do not allow them to keep the mechs that were savaged, because we won the field of battle. Afterwords, we break into the mining complex. We hit a few mines, but nothing major, and we procure the shipment, bring it out on our rented DropShip, and then head back up to a commercial JumpShip, where the cargo transfers to another attached DropShip for the Caps, and we settle up. We sta in the area for a while, because we are on a 3 month deal. Nothing happens.

We leave and will arrive back at Epsilon Eridani on September 28, 3050

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 01:39 PM

I missed the first 4 chapters. Definitely gonna play catch-up now.

Welcome, welcome!

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 05:36 PM

Cyclops, 2xengine,1xgyro, SRM4, reattach LA
Vindicator, 3L, missing RA, gyro hit 1x,
Charger, missing RL, hit two actuators on left
Javelin – Missing RA, LA, RT engine nad gyro each once

Our Jav – missing LL
Our Firestarter – missing RA

Armor – replacement at 15 tons
To fix – 10 tons for these downed mechs

Ammo – 170k – this was a pretty beam and AC heavy group, and the only expensive ammo is missiles. LRM10 ammo for the Whitworth and LRM15 for the Crusader and some SRM6 for various mechs was it.

To fix:

Cyclops: We fail to fix the engine, and will have to get a replacement (suck). We fixed the gyro, SRM4 and reattached the arm. Total time involved – 6 days. To fix it completely, including a new engine, would cost 2.5 mill (the engine on the Cyclops is one of the most expensive out there and clocks in at 2.16 mill).

Vindicator 3L, gyro is fixed, have to purchase a new arm plus ER PPC, which will cost, total, 520k and take just 3 days to fix and replace.

The Charger’s actuators are fixed easily. As a reminder, we are on a full salvage contract. Instead of replacing it, if we were to sell it, we could get the money we need for repairs, ammo, getting these others running, and to make money from the contract, instead of losing it. We could get 6.25 million C Bills after a missing leg, damaged armor, and a reduced price for purchasing it on the market (you can never sell for asking price for things, and this price is 300k less than it would actually cost to buy it). Let’s do it. Our contacts easily manage to sell it.

We fix the gyro and engine on their Jav. We remove its LL and move it to our own to fix ours.

We purchase a RA for our Firestarter. It costs 85k including weapons and armor and the arm itself.

In order to fix their Jav, now missing a LL, RA, LA, RT – it will take 405k – that includes weapons, ammo, materials, and armor.

Total cost to refit and fix everything I have, including missing armor, repaired parts, getting new mechs up and running and more:

3.93 mill

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 06:23 PM

We sold the Charger and made: 2.32 mill

Here was our contract

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.6, x1.4
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 25% paid(1.2 mill total paid, so 250k received)

We get this from the contract:

250k travel
163k Battle Loss (Armor and replacement limbs)
1,235,840 salary
+5% Remuneration

Total Made – 1,731,282

We spent:

1.2 mill transport
502,101 – Expenses and Salary for 9 months

Total received after expenses: 29,131

Including expenses and refits and sales: 3,959,131

We now have:

Vindicator 3L
Javelin 10N
Cyclops

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 08:40 PM

How do you know if a mech is out of action? Excellent question:

1). If its ammo or engine explodes and the mech does too – a new piece of equipment called CASE will localize any explosion to the left or right torso. A mech that has an ammo explosion in the RT will not lose anything besides the RT and RA and can still fight (except for #3 below). Otherwise, ammo explosions = dead mechs. A mech with enough engine hits in one round can have that explode.
2). If its gyro is hit twice. The gyro stabilizes the mech, and two critical hits mean that the mech is unable to move.
3). If it has three engine hits. There are several internal spaces in the center torso for engine, and hitting it three times shuts it down. Each engine hit produces 5 heat per round. Extra Light engines also use three spaces in each torso (two for clans). If a torso section is destroyed, the engine shuts down. An ammo explosion in a mech with CASE and an XL engine will save he mech, but shut down the engine and it’s done for in the fight.
4). If the head is destroyed. The pilot likely died, the cockpit is gone, as is life support and sensors.
5). If the pilot passes out. This happened with the Vindicator above. Each time a pilot takes damage (from falling, damage to the head, shocks) they roll to stay conscious. A failed roll means they have to try and wake up at the end of each round. If they are passed out when the battle ends, you get the mech.
6). If the pilot dies. This is rare, but it is possible to deal enough damage to a pilot to kill them - usually through falls.
7). Very rare, but if you hit both sensors in the head, it’s blind. The mech can move, fire, etc – but does do purely on looking out the cockpit window. Most of the time, that’s the end.
8). If it’s knocked down, and cannot get back up – examples are blowing off both legs, or both arms and one leg. Mechs that are legged can stand up. They can barely move.
9). In the very rare occasion that one leg is destroyed and the other has all four leg actuators hit, the mech is immobile. Mechs that are on the ground and can’t get up can still fire their weapons, sometimes. (armless mechs can’t. for example).
10). The mech can shutdown from overheating. This happens in the old tech world, but now that double heat sinks are becoming more and more common, this happens less and less.
11). Mechs can be breached by water or vacuum. An area of the mech is breached and can’t work. If the center torso or head is breached, the mech is destroyed.
12). Destroyed the Center Torso of a mech destroys the mech.

The mech is recoverable in every situation but the first. However, overheating can lead to ammo explosions. Sometimes, enough engine hits can cause the engine to explode.

When ammo explodes here is what happens:

If the arm is still around, it is blown off and survives. Damage transfers to the CT and it is destroyed. (based on how much ammo is left, obviously). Mech pieces on the other side of the explosion may survive – Head, legs, torso and arm. I roll for each piece and I need a 9 for it to survive.

Although not too common, it is possible to survive ammo explosions. Suppose my Attila’s SRM6 ammo in the RT was hit late in the match, with only two shot remaining, and 18 points o’ internal damage left in that section. SRM6 ammo does 12 damage per round. It would deal 24 damage to the Attila, blowing off the RT completely, and only carrying over 6 to the CT< which it likely could survive. I’d say maybe 29 in 30 explosions in mechs without CASE take in out.

Abe Sargent

09-21-2011, 09:09 PM

Now, what I want to do is fast forward and run the Boxer and Typhon contracts. Then I’ll rewind back to March and continue the story. I find it easier to do things like this, all at once, then to do a campaign, and stop midway to do a company with a quick contract somewhere else.

Boxer Company and Lasalles

May 11 - we arrive on planet late on the day of the 11th, one day ahead of schedule. The Caps want us to attack the local Federated Commonwealth in Cap regalia to drive them off. Normally I have been asked to not do missions against the FedCom, since EE is in FedCom space. However, we are just a diversionary raid.

May 28 – We were able to land in a small industrial dropport away from everything else, and then prepare an exit. We are going to move in and attack the local militia here, which is just tanks and infantry, and then do enough damage to bring the mechs down to the area.

We move in with Boxer:

BLR-3M BattleMaster
WHM-6D Warhammer
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
ZEU-6T Zeus
ARC-2R Archer
RLF-3N Rifleman
GRF-1N Griffin
CLPT-C1 Catapult
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
CMT-1 Comet
JVN-10F Javelin
HER-2M Hermes II

This is also a company with 7 elite, 1 vet, and 4 regulars. The Comet is another of our field made mechs. We often find scraps of 20 ton mechc after battles, so we used them to make some 20 ton scout mechs by hand.

Comet
20 tons
5/8/5

4 tons of armor – the max

2x Medium Lasers
5x Small Lasers

This is our Javelin, a pretty solid light mech with good movement and good weapons

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/6/62/3055U_Javelin.jpg/606px-3055U_Javelin.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-22-2011, 12:03 AM

Here are the tanks and vehicles and infantry we’ll be fighting.

Partisan – elite
Vedette
2x Goblin Medium Tank
3x Scorpion Light Tank
2x Pegasus Scout Hover Tank
J. Edgar
Brutas Assault Tank
Patton
Drillson
6x squads of infantry., all veterans.

This is a cake walk. They will leave easily.

We’ll be fighting on open concrete with only a few buildings for cover. The goal is to tear into them, and destroy them as quickly as possible, so that they’ll flee and we can reload before the mechs arrive a few hours later, and the real battle begins.

Turn 1 – We lose initiative. The combination of the speed of their scout elements and our forces running forward means we are in close combat already. Our Battle Master destroys the front of a Scorpion. Their Partisan hits a LL on a Rifleman after going internal on a through armor critical. Our Warhammer immobilizes a Pegasus by taking out the movement system. Their Patton gets a glancing blow against the head of our BattleMaster. Our Zeus immobilizes another Pegasus with an LRM15. The Zeus kicks and destroys one of the immobilized Pegasus rear armors. It’s gone.

Turn 2 – W lose init. Their Drillson charges my Griffin. All of the piloting skills were made by us and them. You can sometimes skid on granite when running or flanking speed with vehicles. Our Rifleman immobilizes their Vedette. Thunderbolt’s RA is opened up and its LL hit once. Our W-Hammer hits the fuel on a Goblin and blows it up. Our Catapult immobilizes their Drillson. Their Jump Platoon, Flamer hits both an engine and gyro on the Thunderbolt. The T Bolt falls. The W Hammer kicks and blows up the Vedette’s machine gun ammo – boom! The Griffin kicks and destroys the front of a Drillson.

Drillson, repair front, movement
Scorpion, front
Pegasus, rear, movement
Pegasus, movement

To fix:

Engine, gyro, large laser on T Bolt
Large Laser on R Man

Abe Sargent

09-22-2011, 02:01 AM

We cannot repair the Thunderbolt, so we wheel it off along with the tanks. We rearm, rearmor and get the other mechs into working order. We move them, not to the DS we landed on, but to another on the other nearby DropPort 25 klicks away.

5 hours later, three DropShips arrive, and each has a company of mechs on board. They unload and flank us in and keep us from our original DS, which they think we were planning on leaving. We begin to run as if caught in a trap. As they unload, they try to harass us. Several light mechs manage to catch up, but they don’t have the power so they snipe from long distance just to keep us honest. Eventually, they fall back as their slower mechs are unable to keep up. We make it to the DS and blast off. We were expecting them to cover the exit, but they didn’t think to do it (I roll these things just to see, but nothing happened on their behalf)

We covered a full battalion fir a half day, and our liaison thanks us.

We blasted off, and will arrive back at the JumpShip and return quickly. We have to return to Cap space first, and then jump back.

We can’t fix the second Pegasus. We manage to take a Medium Laser and two SRM6s. We fix everything else for 710k.

We have to buy a new gyro for the T Bolt, and everything else is fixed:900k

Total cost for fixing and rearming and rearmoring and gyro:

1.905 mill

Pay:

879,877 Salary
275k battle loss
540k transport

1,800,000 Total

Costs:

900k transport
478,287 salaries and upkeep
1.905 refitting, reammo, gyro, and armor

Total lost: 1.483 mill

Equipment acquired:

Drillson
Scorpion
Pegasus

They will arrive back on September 5, 3050.

Abe Sargent

09-22-2011, 11:59 AM

Typhon Company, Laurent

June 19 – We arrive in system, Here’s our elite company, in case you forgot since the last time we played:

Typhon Company:

WHM-6D Warhammer
HBK-4G Hunchback
STK-3F Stalker
AWS-8Q Awesome
MAD-3D Marauder
CLPT-A1 Catapult
CN9-FR Centurion
OTL-4D Ostsol
PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk
GHR-5N Grasshopper
JR7-F Jenner
OTT-7J Ostscout

The pilots are 11 elites and 1 veteran.

We made like we were landing on the planet, move to the moon a the last minute, land, drop out, and fight in the vacuum. We move quickly to the base around the post, and out comes…our intel is wrong…it’s too high. When intel misses, I check to see if it underestimated or overestimated. I rolled a 10, so that’s a serious miss, but it’s an under miss (2-6 in undermiss, 7+ is over miss). It’s not a company of mechs, but a reinforced lance of mechs (that’s five).

Our foes:

Rifleman 5M, veteran, LosTech mech
Goliath
Griffin 1E (variant with 5 MLs and PPC)
Scorpion
Spider

One of the iconic mechs of all time is a Marauder, and this is ours:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/0/06/3025_marauder.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 04:57 AM

With these forces so overwhelmed, I lowered the requirement to retreat. They won’t leave with 25 or 30 or 40%, but 10%.

Turn 1 – We lose init, and in 0.6 gravity and a vacuum, things are a little weird. Several mechs fall during movement – our Ostscout, their Scorpion and Rifleman. Our Jenner hopped behind their Rifleman and destroys its rear CT armor and the vacuum breaches and it is destroyed. It’s RA is breached by our Awesome as well. They immediately hope out and retreat. We destroy the listening post within an hour, reboard the drop ship with the Rifleman and head back before they can respond from the planet.

Rifleman 5M, breached

We fix the breaches, and get the mech for free.

We keep the Rifleman 5M because we made need it soon

Money Made:

775k salary
900k transport
25k armor and ammo

Money Spent:

50k armor and ammo
1.8 mill transport
430k salary and upkeep

Lost 455k

We will not be tracking back home just yet. I may need to go somewhere else instead.

Updated Roster:

Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company – Finished contract Laurent on June 28th
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company – Return to EE on September 5, 3050
Rebel Company – Return to EE on September 28, 3050

Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company

Okay, here we go.

The reason I ran those three contracts was, in addition to being a merc, I wanted preambles to what is about to happen. I also wanted no interference as we move to the meat of the dynasty. It’s about to all happen now. Starting now, we aren’t doing minor little contracts for the powers across the inner sphere. Starting now, wars will begin, and despite a few pauses here and there, they will continue for the rest of the story.

We are about to be forged in war or blasted in war.

End of the Prelude for The Invasion

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 10:12 AM

Mar 2, 3050 – An unusual trio of JumpShips arrives at the Nadir Point in the Thule system. The locals are quite worried because they don’t match any known configuration, and they are bigger than normal. JumpShips aren’t like BattleMechs. You could, theoretically, hide a BattleMech factory or come across a new mech in some cache from the Star Legaue that has fallen off the face of the map, there are hundreds of models out there. Jump Ships are largely beyond the technology of today. You can’t just design a new one, and there were never that many designs to begin with. Whoever has these configurations has a massive amount of wealth and military or mercantile power. Many DropShips have left the JumpShips and are heading to Thule. Thule is not your normal system, and it takes more than 20 days to arrive at the planet.

Mar 24 – The many DropShips have arrived at the planet and are in orbit. They have not landed. As the last arrive, a hail is received at the military base of that Colonel Matthews runs. The following conversation is held:

“I am Khan Theresa DelVillar, of the Ghost Bear Clan. Who defends this world, and with what forces?”

Several FRR people tell the Colonel not to answer, but he points out that these are hardly pirates and hardly any other IS group – he suspects the Minnesota Tribe. Matthew Humphries moves to the screen, and orders communication back. “I am Colonel Matthew Humphries of the Kilts and Commandos. I hold this world. Who is attacking?”

“I am the Kahn of the great clan, the controller of three galaxies of the finest troops in all the Clans. What forces will you use to defend this world, and where will you fight?”

Matthew ponders for a moment. “You’ll let us choose the location, so there will no fighting near cities or people?”

“Of course!” snaps Khan DelVillar angrily.

The Rasalhague liaison pulls Matthews aside and “recommends” not giving the information. Humphries points out that this is a new group, we know nothing of them. Brand new JumpShips? Roughly 30 or 40 DropShips in orbit, also many with new configurations? There have been rumors of something strange happening in the periphery? He doesn’t know what is going on, but he knows one thing - any chance to avoid civilian casualties will be ones he takes.

He orders the file of the regiment he has sent to the Khan and her many DropShips. After a moment, she looks down and quickly reviews them.

“Your mercenary unit appears to specialize in small group combat. While I would like to honor that, all three galaxies want to fight for Thule.”

Matthew ponders for four seconds, and then responds, “We could fight one galaxy per continent. I will send out three separate companies of mechs to each location we choose, far away from any population center or infrastructure. Whoever wins the best two out of three wins.”

“That is satisfactory. Where would you like to fight, and what companies will you choose?”

After looking over the rosters, Matthew selects three companies. He’s been on Thule long enough to know exactly where to fight for each of them. He sends the information on. While thinking about it, he pushes it.

“Now, what happens if we win? It hardly seems fair that you can attack us without us winning anything.”

“In addition to keeping whatever you can salvage, you have the right to name an equal prize if you win.”

“What would be equal to a planet?” Matthew thinks. “How about one of those ships you jumped in here with?”

“We value our WarShips too highly. They are worth a lot more than a planet. I could give you a DropShip if you are interested.”

“How about two DropShips, since you seem to have so many.”

“I believe a DropShip is sufficient. Our ships are much better than your own. ”

“Alright, that seems fine by me.”

“Bargained well and done.”

“Um…bargained well and done to you too.”

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 10:50 AM

The plan:

Each company will face a bid of clan mechs. The people in each galaxy will bid, until the lowest bid wins. The warrior who bids the lowest amount of materiel will lands and face off against one of our companies. As the battle progresses, should the winning bidder feel it necessary, they may add to the battle whatever forces take them back up to the previous low bid without a loss of honor (although if they do that, they also won’t win honor). Suppose, for example, that one person wins with a bid of 5 mechs and 25 elementals. The next lowest bid might be 5 mechs and 30 elementals. During the battle, if they need the extra firepower they could grab those 5 elementals. Losing is always a loss of honor, and it is better to take the extra forces you have in reserve than to lose honor by being beaten. There is a lot of strategy and politics in the bidding process.

Each battle will be fought, and then an hour delay will take place while sides recalibrate, and then the next will happen. If one side wins the first two, the Trial of Possession is over.

Here are the places and companies Matthews has chosen:

The continent of Akranes, light forested area, Defender Company, led by Colonel Humphries himself. All elite, and the company has 13 mechs normally, but he will be leaving the Comet behind. He wants to see if they can start out right, and he will be doing that personally. Defender Company are the ex-Defenders of Andurien that joined our unit.

The continent of Husavik, snow, cold, Delta Company, 8 elites 3 vets, 1 regular. This is our next best mix of mechs and man.

The continent of Vik, desert, very hot. Trinity Company, 9 elites, 2 vets and a regular. It’s a bit lighter than we would like for what is clearly going to be a brawl.

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 10:55 AM

What I need to do is figure out what the bids will be. Here is what I know:

1). The Ghost Bears are the second cockiest clan at the expense of common sense, (at this stage of their Inner Sphere experience).
2). They have a very low opinion of all things mercenary
3). They believe that the forces and opposition in the Periphery represents the Inner Sphere as well.
4). This is the first planetary assault against an Inner Sphere target for Clan Ghost Bear, they might bid low to be involved.

The combination of these four factors leads me to believe that the Ghost Bears will not be cautious with their bid, but instead very aggressive.

Going down to two stars is easy to see (one star is five points. A mech is one point, and 5 elementals are one point, so a star has five mechs or 25 elementals). That is an easy bid against 12 Inner Sphere mechs, mercenaries, and so forth. Someone will bid that down to one mech star and one elemental star. Will that win? We’re going to say yes. Normally, I’d suspect that it would go lower, but the Defender Company includes Colonel Matthews himself. He is the only person so far to actually bid for the planet, so that comes with respect for the title and the bid.

The bid for Delta Company is quick. It goes to 7 mechs. The same bid wins against Trinity Company. Each of those can bring in an addition mech, but the first bid cannot bring in anything more, because the highest bid was a tie (two stars to two stars, with the elementals being considering the lower bid due to their nature).

Defender Company will be facing 25 elementals and 5 front line OmniMechs. Delta and Trinity will each be facing 7 frontline OmniMechs. The battles are staggered and everybody will be watching.

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 01:44 PM

Defender Company, without the Comet:

AS7-K Atlas (LosTech Mech)
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
GHR-5H Grasshopper
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
JNV-10N Javelin
GRF-1N Griffin
HER-2M Hermes II
FS9-M Firestarter

This is a fairly balanced roster, Inner Sphere wise, with two assaults, three heavies, five mediums, and two lights. We removed the 20 ton light Comet.

We will be entering the woods from the west, and they from the east. We have arranged to begin battle in a fairly confined space, so that the fighting will be fast and furious.

How clan battles differ:

1). The clans will push these battles to the max. There will be no surrender or leaving after losing a few mechs. In fact, I am ordering no end to the battle, and I will end it when I honestly believe one side or the other has actually won. Because they push hard, expect mechs to fall. This isn’t a campaign with tactical retreats. We can surrender at any time, of course

2). The clans will not engage in physical attacks - they deem them dirty. This may come to a head with Trinity Company, which has a Hatchetman.

3). Clanners want to fire one on one engagements in the field of battle. It is dishonorable for more than one foe to attack the same foe, unless that foe already attacked more than one themself. In fact, you will often see a side where one person fires at multiple foes, and then gets fired on by multiple enemies, but everybody else still engages in one:one combat. If a side violates this, everybody will. Because of this, scout mechs don’t have the same function to clans as they do to the IS, and stars do not fight as a coherent unit. (However, we can’t get MegaMek to abide by these rules of Zellbrigen, so they’ll just concentrate their fire like everyone else).

4). The clan mechs are massively better than anything the Inner Sphere has ever seen. They have longer ranges, weigh less, deal more damage, etc. Equipment, armor, XL engines, CASE, everything is better.

5). Elementals are highly trained and capable warriors in battle armor. They are a real threat.

6). Due to training and genetics, clan pilots are always one better at gunnery and piloting than the equivalent rank of IS pilot. Thus, an elite IS pilot is as good as a clan vet. The cap on skills by IS MechWarriors is 2/2, but the cap on clanners is 1/1.

For these contests, no pushing off the map is allowed.

These are the mechs that Defender Company has drawn: (The OmniMech each has two names, an IS name for it and the clan for it, the clan is first) – we’ll be using their Inner Sphere names.

Fire Moth aka Dasher, Primary Config, 20 tons
Viper aka Dragonfly, Alternate A, 40 tons
Mad Dog aka Vulture, Primary Config, 60 tons
Hellbringer aka Loki, Alternate B, 65 tons
Executioner aka Gladiator, Primary Config, 95 tons

Each of these pilots is elite 1/2

Each of the five points of Elemental Armor is veteran 2/3 save one is 1/2.

This is their Vulture, a 60 ton OmniMech with a lot of space for weapons, but not a lot of other stuff.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/4/4e/Mad_Dog.jpg/462px-Mad_Dog.jpg

MacroGuru

09-23-2011, 03:25 PM

Just wanted to let you know I am enjoying this...I had to go back and read from the 1st to now, but it's definitely a good read.

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 04:25 PM

The Battle Value is 26998 us and 26301 them. This should be very close.

Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We win initiative. Matthews isn’t sure what these toad like looking things are, but his best guess is battle armor – although they are bigger than any battle armor he’s ever heard of. Their Mad Dog Prime goes critical on my Orion and hits three actuators on the leg. Their Fire Moth Prime gets a through armor critical and nails the hip on my grasshopper. The head on the Grasshopper is hit three times with missiles from Elementals and the pilot blacks out. My Atlas destroys the LT, LA and LL of their Fire Moth/Dasher. The LL was blown off. It survives if we win. My Orion and Grasshopper fall. SO does their Dasher.

T2 – I lose init. I stand the Orion and spin it. Our Warhammer destroys the RT of their Dasher and blows off the RA and destroys the engine. Their Hellbringer focuses on e immobile Grasshopper and hits the gyro and engine each once. Their Executioner Prime destroys the CT of it, and our Grasshopper is gone. They out maneuvered me that turn.

T3 – We lose init. Our Firestarter hits the engine once on their Mad Dog Prime. The AC20 is hit twice on my Hunchy by their Mad Dog. My Atlas hits the engine on their Hellbringer. We miss some easy shots – 6 on AC 20, 5 on Gauss, etc. We kick elementals and the MD Prime.

T4 – We finally win init. Our BM destroys the LT of their Mad Dog, Our Atlas destroys its RT. Our Orion takes out the engine of the Mad Dog. An Elemental hits the LRM 10 on our Griffin.

T5 – We win init again. We kill a few Elementals this round, and my Whitworth falls after taking damage.

T6 – We lose init. I stand up the WW. Their Hellbringer blows off the LA of my Griffin. Their clan elemental hits the LRM10 in my WW. Our Warhammer ignites the LB5X ammo on their Hellbringer but CASE keeps it alive. Col. Humphries in his Atlas destroys the LT and CT of their Viper. We destroy four more troops in various squads.

T7 – We lose init again. Our BM hits the Gyro once and Engine twice of their Hellbringer. That’s three engine hits and it is destroyed. Elementals destroy the LA of my Javelin. Our jav destroys one of the elemental units. An Elemental hits the engine on our Orion.

T8 - We lose initiative. Our Atlas hits the machine gun ammo on the Gladiator and blows up the LT. We kill two more troops as well, one with a big ol’ Atlas kick.

T9 – We win init. The only weapon the E Prime has left is a Gauss. We kill seven troopers and the Firestarter takes out a squad. An Atlas kick kills an 8th trooper. With one mech with only a Gauss Rifle in one hand, and a handful of elementals left, they call it.

Dasher RA, LL
Vulture missing RT, LT, enginex1, LA, RA
Dragonfly, LA, H, LL, RL, RT, RA
Loki, missing LA, enginex4, gyrox1
Gladiator LA

Grasshopper H, RL, LL
Missing Jav LA

To fix – AC20x2, Hunchy; Orion three actuators, 1 e ngine; LRM 10 Griffin, reattach LA of Griffin, WW LRm10,

Well, we lost a Grasshopper and are down to 12 mechs (The Comet didn’t fight) – the pilot lived though.

We’ll come back later and look at replacemnts, weapons, fixing things and so forth.

Oh, and MechWarrior Michael Henry of the BattleMaster will now have Edge: 1

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 04:25 PM

Just wanted to let you know I am enjoying this...I had to go back and read from the 1st to now, but it's definitely a good read.

Thanks!

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 06:00 PM

Delta, Husavik, the cold

Delta’s Company:

BNC-3E Banshee
AWS-8Q Awesome
WHM-6D Warhammer
DRG-1N Dragon
CRD-3R Crusader
BLR-1G BattleMaster
CLPT-C1 Catapult
BL-7-KGT Black Knight
SDR-5V Spider
PSH-1 Phoenix Hawk
HER-2S Hermes II
WSP-1A Wasp

Let’s see what mechs the Ghost Bears will be using:

Koshi, Prime
Dragonfly, D
Black Hawk, Prime
Vulture, Prime
Thor, C
Man o’ War, B
Masakari, Prime

It’s -10 degrees outside. The place we are fighting Is not snowed in, it’s a taiga with a small number of conifers and a gentle hill.

All of their pilots are elite 1/2.

This is their Masakari, a power 85 ton OmniMech

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/b/bd/3050U_Masakari.jpg/566px-3050U_Masakari.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-23-2011, 10:57 PM

The Battle Values are 32925 us and 33779 them.

Their mech sizes are 25 tons, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 85.

T1 – We lose initiative. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Koshi. Their Thor hits a shoulder actuator on our Black Knight’s LA. Their Man o’ War destroys our Wasp’s LA. Our Phoenix Hawk has its RA blown off.

T2 – We win init. I stand up the Phoenix Hawk and run into heavy woods. We destroy the Koshi’s CT with the blast of a BattleMaster’s PPC. It’s RL was also destroyed by LRMs from a Crusader. Our Wasp’s H is sheared off by an ER PPC that deals 15 damage – Gauss Rifle level of damage. Samir Azif died. A through armor critical from a Catapult’s LRMs hits the Ultra AC20 on their Thor – nice!

T3 - We win init. The RA of our Banshee is destroyed in a blast of fire from several mechs on it. Our Black Knight hits a hip actuator on their Dragonfly. Both our Banshee and their Dragonfly fall.

T4 – They win init. We exchange more fire. The only major damage is their Dragonfly, which is internal isn both legs. We kicked it with a Spider and hit two more actuators. It fell again.

T5 – We win init. Our Dragon ignites the srm ammo in the LA of the Man o’ War. Boom! No more left arm, CASE prevents the mech from going too. The LRM 10 was also there, so all it has left is a Gauss Rifle. Their Black Hawk manages to destroy the RT and RA of my Hermes II. A massive BattleMaster kick destroys the left leg of their Thor.

T6 – The Thor tries to stand and fails. We pour fire into it and the BattleMaster kills it after hitting the gyro twice and engine twice on critical. Their Dragonfly is also taken down after missiles from our Crusader destroy both legs. An LRM 15 on our Catapult is hit twice and a foot actuator on the RL is hit. It remains standing.

T7 – A pair of ERPPCs from the Masakari lance into the Hermes II and hit the AC5 ammo. It explodes. Our Dragon’s AC nails the Masakari back and gets a through armor critical, nailing the targeting computer. The Awesome’s triple PPCs tear off the Black Hawk’s RT. A kick from a Phoenix Hawk takes down their Black Hawk.

With the Dragonfly, Koshi and Thor dead, and a one weapon Man o’ War, and no more ammo left for the LRM20s of the Mad Dog and now with a savaged Black Hawk and Masakari, they are reeling. They surrender and we call it.

We have on two of the three battle and won a DropShip. Let’s look at scraps.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 12:45 AM

Recovered:

Koshi, RT, RA, LT, H, LL
Thor, gyrox2, nginex2, 2xAc20 Ultra, missing LL.
Dragonfly, missing both legs
Black Hawk RA

Hermes II - LA, H

Phoenix Hawk – reattach RA
Wasp – missing LA, H
Black Knight – repair shoulder act
Banshee - RA
Catapult, LRM15, actuator

Winning stuff from the Clans is not like Inner Sphher estuff. We don’t have ammo for their weapons, their ferro fib armor is better than ours, so we can’t take their Dragonfly, and suddenly replace it with Inner Sphere legs. It has advanced Endo Steel beyond the endo we have in the Inner Sphere, so I can’t replace it. I can’t replace ferro fib armor and so forth.

We lost three mechs in the two matches, and one is recoverable. Let’s look overall at our salvage and discoveries and such:

We fix – Hunchy’s AC 20, Orion’s engine and actuators, Griffin LRM 10 and reattached arm, Whitworth’s LRM10, reattached P Hawk’s arm, fixed Black Knights actuator, and fixed both issues in Catapult.

We need to acquire Banshee RA, Wasp LA and H, and Javelin LA. Total cost:

1.84 mill

For armor, we’ll need 35 tons for the first match and 25 for the second. 600k. We blew through a lot of missile boats, and need 1.25 mill in ammo replacements (missiles are expensive).

Total for armor, ammo and replacements:3.69 mill This fixes our mechs and gets them back in order, but it does not replace the Grasshopper or Hermes II that are gone.

For reference, here is our contract with the FRR.

Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Length:5 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2 with a 25% bonus for long campaigns
12.5% bonus

We keep everything we find, and that looks really good now. It ends May 1, 3051. Twelve companies have this contract.

I get half of my battle loss, so I only lose 1.845 mill. Plus I get half the value of the two mechs I lost, minus their items. I make 3.55 mill as my 50% loss. Thus, I actually gain 1.705 mill.

We manage to fix everything in the Thor. We find an extra leg of the right size which will work (no endo steel) and we strip scraps of ferro fib armor from the pieces to shore it up. In two weeks, we will have a working Thor C for 450k.

We fix the Vulture engine.

I attach the RL and LL Dragonfly parts I took in the first battle with the damaged one. Both fit. In 5 days, I’ll have a working Dragonfly D.

We fix the gyro on the Loki, but not the engine. It will need replaced. Since it is a clan XL engine, we will be unable to replace it on the market.

My techs strips off Clan weapons and equipment from salvaged arms and legs. We get:

Clan Tech:

SRM 6x2
Artemis IV FCS
ER Medium Laserx9
ER Large Laserx2
1 double Heat Sink
Beagle Active Probe
Streak SRM 4 – half ton of ammo
Machine Gun

The OmniMechs that we just faced, and that we have two of now, are different sort of BattleMechs. They have built in pods and modules with universal adapters and circuits for various weapons and equipment. They can quickly and effortlessly switch configurations based on mission, pilot choice, and environment. Nobody owns things in the warrior caste, so a Vulture that one MechWarrior might take out would be very different than another Vulture being taken for a spin. This modular-ness makes clan weapons and equipment easy to take off various sections. It’s also easy to put things on, if I have clan tech items. Inner Sphere items like C3 Computers would have to be adapted to fix in these pods and work with these electronics.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 11:55 AM

We won a Union-C, a recently built Union with clan technology, clan weapons, and a bigger size to accommodate 15 mechs instead of 12 in the old Unions. We rechristen it the Serendipitous Victory. We’ll need to find a crew for it, which will take some time adjusting to new controls and such. It features 6 Gauss Rifles, 3 ER Large Lasers, 5 Large Pulse Lasers, 12 Medium Pulse Lasers and 3 LRM20s with Artemis.

Khan DelVillar makes sure that the Union-C is delivered promptly. She meets with Col. Humphries later that day. She tells him that she is impressed. No one else has answered the clan’s batchall in their invasion of the periphery or inner sphere, let alone actually manage to beat them. She advises him that other groups might do a Trial of Possession for Thule, but there is a history in the Clan of not going after the same thing over and over again I hopes of being lucky – so her three galaxies will leave Thule alone for a while.

Several of the Clanners are despondent. Humphries allows the Ghost Clan Galaxies to stay on planet for a few days, stretching their legs, fixing machines, and regrouping their plans. They are proud to tell him that they are Clan Ghost Bear, one of the 20 clans of Nicholas Kerensky, and his father Alexandr Kerensky. They aren’t interesting in giving history lessons, but it’s clear that one of the greatest mysteries of history, what happened to Kerensky’s fleet, has been solved. While it is clear that they have an odd culture, Humphries respects their restriction of war and combat to keep infrastructure and civilians safe. Both the Clan and Col. Matthew Humphries havea new respect for each other,.

Before they blast off, they let him know that they have taken systems in the periphery and there are no pirates left back there. They also have their spirits lifted when messages come in that they have taken three other Rasalhague targets – Holmsbu, Damien and Pinnacle. An assault on a Draconis system will occur in a couple of weeks.

Tellistto

09-24-2011, 01:40 PM

Very nice, Abe! Back on board for more of the show!

Tell

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 02:59 PM

I admit, that this is the first time the history of the Inner Sphere has changed as a result of the existence of Kilts and Commandos. Every other mission, assault, invasion or planetary defense has not seen the results change. Breed ended a month or two early because of Ted Izumo. Other than that, everything has been on the fringes of history. This is a change.

In real history, Thule was very tough to take, but the Bears managed it, but then lost it and had to retake it, and other world they left paltry garrisons on. You have to understand that having the clans coming from the great beyond is one of the great storylines of the entire BattleTech universe. In order to make the clans a serious juggernaut and threat, they had to portray them as virtually unbeatable. No assaults would lose for some time. The handful of victories would require guile, severe wars, and massive engagements. Those systems will become clarion calls for the Inner Sphere – Remember Wolcott and Luthien.

This is a war game. The universe is constantly at war, and the storyline is always pushing something forward as the next conflict. Even though it would make perfect sense for the cocky clans (everybody but Wolf) who are early on severely underestimating the Inner Sphere opponents to lose a battle here and there. You can bet that future battle with Col. Humphries will be rougher.

Also, most COs would not have trusted his enemies like Matthew did. I placed the one person in the Inner Sphere who would most want to trust them in order to avoid civilian casualties right in their way. Thule has emerged from a planetary assault with no damages and no deaths other than a few warriors. Figuring out what the clans wanted and working with it is just a bit off the cuff, but not that unreasonable. All of the evidence suggested that these were not pirates or an IS state, and only some unknown was possible. For his trust in the enemy, Col. Humphries was rewarded. He has sent a message to the battalion garrisoning Last Frontier.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 02:59 PM

Very nice, Abe! Back on board for more of the show!

Tell

Glad you are ready and happy!

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 05:01 PM

EVENT - Apr 1 – Due to the current upheaval in the Inner Sphere, no mercenary contracts are available for the next three months.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 05:01 PM

April 2, 3050 – Ghost Bear forces blast off Thule and head to continue their invasion against the Inner Sphere.

April 4 – A message arrives from Baron Jorgensson. After losses to the clans on his other systems, the Clans have taken control and are changing government and systems and laws. It’s a radical shift of power. Of his systems he controls, only Thule remains free, so the Baron will be arriving in the system soon and on planet by the end of the month.

Apr 7 – It appears that ComStar has decided to assist the Ghost Bears in running their new systems.

Apr 11 – The invasion is worst than originally thought. Information has begun t pour in from the news networks. Other systems have been falling with speed. Seven more Rasalhague systems have fallen to Clan Wolf already. Rumors are that at least five systems have fallen in the Combine and the FedComs have lost at least five as well. New reports from Thule and victories here against the clans are making major news.

Apr 15 – Several major news networks have serious news programs about the ComStar collaboration with the invaders.

Apr 16 – A major biography of Col. Braham Essex and his Kilts and Commandos unit was a leading documentary story today. The only unit to actually defeat the clans is a mercenary unit from Epsilon Eridani.

Apr 23 – The Ghost Bears have jumped out of the system.

Apr 26 - A message has arrived at system commending Humphries and his people from Braham.

April recruited from Outreach by Braham and Ted.

Medium, regular, pilot
Elite, light, pilot
Elite, dispossessed
Nothing
Assault, green, pilot

Here is the new AeroSpace company, with 14 fighters:

Lt. Larry Rowe, elite, Transgressor
Sgt. Charlene Marshall, elite, CHP-W5 Chippewa *
Sgt. Steve Harrison, elite, SL-17 Shilone *
Elite, Meghan Gomez, CSR-12 Corsair
Elite, Sparrowhawk, SPR-H5, Anatoly Shevchenko
Green, Gustav Rivaldi, CHP-W5 Chippewa
Green, James Ovango, LTN-G15 Lightning
Green, Barbara Fleischauer, F-10 Cheetah
Veteran, LCF-R15 Lucifer, Cao Biyu
Regular, Sparrowhawk, SPR-H5, Gita Sharma
Regular, CSR-12 Corsair, Irene Gaines
Regular, CSR-12 Corsair, Ryan Fletcher
Regular, THK33-Tomahawk, Salva Mestina
Regular, F-90 Stingray, Molly Ensworth

I bought the ones in asterisks for the two dispossessed pilots. I spent 8.8 mill for them both.

Ted and Braham and Shadow Company will head back to EE for a rest of April with our AeroSpace company. They need to regroup and come up with a new plan

April 26 - Several other systems have fallen to the clans. As of right now, the best guess is that 25-30 (The real number is 33) systems have fallen, with news of another system that is taken appearing to come out every day.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 06:59 PM

April 27 – Baron Jorennson lands at Thule by using a pirate jump point. The Baron gets a look at the clan OmnIMechs we have up and running, and spends a day to give out some awards, the Rasalhague Star to each member of Defender Company and Trinity Company. Col. Humphries is awarded the Tyr Cluster. Everybody is talking about Matthew Humphries and Kilts and Commandos this month. It’s the only positive news, and people need good news right now.

Now it is time to plan the next level.

Both the Baron and Matthew believe that the Trial of Possession can be enacted by the IS just as it was used in defense by Matthew. Most other planets haven’t even responded to the batchalls by the clans. The Baron wants Matthew to take a battalion of troops and try to retake planets already taken. Since Thule can be targeted, we have to leave behind the bulk of our forces. The Baron brought some extra transportation with him, and he wants Matthew to leave within three days.

Our first goal will be to hit Damian, the only FRR system within one jump. From there, targets will be at Humphries’s discretion.

May 2 – We blast off from Thule, and will jump to Damian on the 14th. after arriving at a pirate jump to jump out. We’ll arrive at the planet by May 20th. Col. Mathews has been given operational command of a JumpShip and two Drop Ships.

He will be taking Defender Company, Trinity and Delta, since they are experienced and his best. A field promotion to Captain is temporary given to Lt Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company, and he will be running the defense. He gets a detailed instruction on batchall and more.

May 8 – Inner Sphere resistance against the weak garrison units left by the Clans is growing and a lot of people are getting upset at ComStar helping to run these planets.

May 9 – New information arrives that more systems are falling. Thule gets the info quicker because it is so close to the action. Many of these systems are two or three or four jumps away, so the news is fast. Two months ago, the Free Rasalhague Republic had more than 80 systems. Today, it has around 65, and falling quickly.

May 10 – In order to push against the invasion, our battalion on Last Frontier is ordered to Trondheim and another force will be rotated in.

May 14 – We arrived at the Damian system at the nadir point. A message comes in from the planet. A mercenary company named Black Omen. They hid when the normal assault occurred and then came out and surprised and took out the clan garrison. Humphries decides to skip Damian for now and move to Holmsbu.

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 10:24 PM

May 17 – A Ghost Bear WarShip jumps in at the Nadir Point, but is a bit off from this area, and in a few minutes, an asteroid hits it. Humphries gets to the command center and orders the captain to give him info. The WarShip was damaged, and it looks like a large DropShip was totally destroyed. Matthew Humphries orders communications established with the nearby ship and the DropShips readied for zero g. The captain refuses at first but Humphries reminds her that he is operational control, and that supersedes her rank. She continues to refuse, and Humphries has her relieved and puts a lieutenant in charge temporary. The lieutenant contacts the clan and Humphries introduces himself and offers his assistance. They recognize him, and accept.

Within 15 minutes, all three DropShips lift off from the JumpShip and head to the WarShip. Crew get out in zero g suits and help bring in people and open up material and seal holes. After a few hours, everybody realizes that the destroyed DropShip is a total write off. A full cluster of MechWarriors and mechs was in there, and that’s about equivalent to 40-50 MechWarriors. It’s a major hit to the Clan.

After Beta Galaxy recovers, in part due to Humphries’s aid, they tell him that they are here to recapture Damien. Humphries contacts the Black Omens and tells them to receive the Batchall and not to avoid it. They refuse too, and the lieutenant refuses to listen to Humphries’s operational command or higher rank. Humphries considers about possibilities. The Ghost Bears wouldn’t agree to a Trial of Possession for their other two DropShips. You couldn’t do one out here, because he doesn’t have command over the planet right now. The Black Omen is about to get hammered. Without the ability to catch the clans off guard, Humphries will move on.

May 22 – They jump to Holmsbu.

May 26 – After arriving at Trondheim, our battalion from Last Frontier discover that is was captured by Ghost Bear two days ago. They are being redirected to Radlje, just past Last Frontier. The Wolves are driving deep into Rasalhague space, and the news from the Draconis Combine and then the Federated Commonwealth is not encouraging.

May 28 – The Ghost Bears order a gathering at Damian to honor their lost cluster

Abe Sargent

09-24-2011, 11:11 PM

May 29 – We arrive at Holmsbu and Humphries offers a batchall like he learned. He uses the exact same language, word for word. There is a trinary left on the planet as a garrison (10 mechs, 25 elementals). They will all be defending the planet. They want Col. Matthews to return their DropShip if he loses, and he agrees. It’s a black eye they’d like to erase. They will be defending a set of open land with a small number of hills and trees. Humphries decides to land Trinity and Defender companies one side of their trinary and Delta on the other side. He wants to separate their forces because three stars of their forces are too tough for one of our companies and yet they are used to fighting in groups of 5 as Stars, and not necessarily in 15, and we are used to 12 and not necessarily 24 or 36.

Humphries tries to push his troops toward each other, and expects that they’ll spin and attack the Delta, rather than face the two other companies. Once they begin to do exactly that, he orders the light and super fast elements of all three companies to speed out and around the clan mechs, drawing lines with fire and speed to keep them corralled. They easily manage to break out – they are just faster overall. Delta is able to keep a distance so they turn and move towards Defender and Trinity. Despite his attempts to split them, he is unable to do so.

It will be Defender and Trinity companies combined vs 10 OmniMechs and 25 elementals. This will be a major battle.

Trinity:

AS7-D Atlas
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
HCT-3F Hatchetman
ZEU-6S Zeus
OTL-4D Ostsol
TBT-5N Trebuchet
GOL -1H Goliath
RFL-3N Rifleman
OTT-7J Ostscout
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
SDR-5V Spider
CDA-2A Cicada

Defender:

AS7-K Atlas
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
Thor C
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
CMT-1 Comet
JNV-10N Javelin
GRF-1N Griffin
HER-2M Hermes II
FS9-M Firestarter

The elite Grasshopper pilot was given the Thor, with its Ultra AC 20

What will they have?
Dasher, Primary
Uller, Primary
Dragonfly, B
Dragonfly, Primary
Ryoken, Primary
Vulture, Primary
Vulture, C
Mad Cat, Primary
Masakari, A
Gladiator, D

Being on the garrison means you are among the worst MechWarriors, so these are all veterans, which is equal to our elite.

We will be on the east and they on the west

Here is their Dragonfly, a 40 ton fast mech that Ghost Bears love:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/9/9d/CCG_Unlimited_Dragonfly_Prime.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 04:34 AM

Turn 1 – We lose init. I try to move my troops to take the woods. Our Spider hits the Engine and a double HS on their Dasher. Our Warhammer nails an LRM20 on their Vulture Prime. Their Masakari hit s the engine on our Hatchetman. Our Warhammer falls.

T2 – We lose init again. The Rifleman trips and falls while moving. We stand our Warhammer up. Our Hunch hits the Upper Leg actuator on a Dragonfly. Col Humphries hits the engine on their Vulture prime. THE lower leg actuator and AC5 on our Rifleman is hit by a Dragonfly Prime. Our Zeus destroys the LT of their Vulture Prime. The pilot takes two damage from exploding LRM ammo and blacks out. The Goliath hits and destroys the CT section of their Dasher. The other Atlas kills two troopers. Our Goliath is savaged by their Gladiator and damaged PPC and LRM10 twice. Their Vulture Prime falls. We kick and kill two more troops with peoples.

T3 – We lose init. One of their elementals hits the head of a BattleMaster but its still okay. Our Firestarter finishes out a star of elementals. Their Mad Cat hits an engine on our Goliath. Their Gladiator nails an actuator on its front right leg. We kick and kill another trooper with our BattleMaster.

T4 – We win ini.t. Our FS kills two troopers, and our BattleMaster destroys the RA of their Dragonfly B. Our Orion opens up the Shoulder on their Uller’s RA. The Whitworth kills a trooper. Our Warhammer destroys the Uller’s LA. They jumped a Dragonfly over by our fallen Rifleman and get two engine hits and destroy its LA. An Atlas and Thor each kill troopers. Their Mad Cat destroys the RT and RA of our Trebuchet. A Vulture hits its engine once. AC20 is hit once on my Atlas by their Gladiator. That Atlas turns around and destroys a star of elementals. We kick and kill a trooper and our Spider kicks and hits the Upper Leg actuator on their Dragonfly B’s RL and it falls.

T5 – We win init again. Our BattleMaster takes out the RT and engine of their Uller. Our Zeus destroys the LA of their Ryoken. Their Mad Cat destroys the LA of our Ostsol. An Atlas kicks and destroys the RT of a Dragonfly.

T6 – We win init. One of the wooded hexes that had an elemental in it last turn was set on fire, and this tunr, while leaving, they were burned up and dead. Elementals hit our Whitworth’s head but no problems beyond that. Our Hermes II hits the engine on their Dragonfly Prime. Our Loki hits the ER PPC on the RA of their Dragonfly B twice and destroys its LL. Our Zeus destroys the head of their Ryoken. Boom! Our Thunderbolt destroyed the LA and RA of their Dragonfly B. The Hatchetman kills two troopers. Their Gladiator hits a hip actuator on Col. Humphries Atlas . Both leg damaged mechs fall. The Dragonfly is unable to stand back up with no hands and one missing leg.

T7 – We lost init. Our wounded Atlas rises. We move and tear into their mad Cat. Our Loki hits with an AC20 Ultra twice, once in the LL and once in the LA. Our WW kills a elemental. The Warhammer hits an engine and gyro on the Mad Cat. Our Hermes II destroys the RA of their Dragonfly Prime. An Atlas destroys the LL of their Mad Cat. Our Hunchback’s LA is destroyed by elementals and Gladiator. Our P Hawk destroys the RT of their Mad Cat and that’s three engine hits and it shuts down. Their Masakari hits the LRM20 on our Atlas. Our Whitworth and Ostscout each kill troops with kicks. Our Hatchetman nails the back of their Dragonfly Prime with its Hatchet and hits an engine.

They begin to leave the battlefield and we allow it. They had just two elementals and four mechs left, two of which were quite damaged. The Dragonfly Prime, Masakari, Gladiator and Vulture C with the two gauss rifles will be leaving.

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 01:42 PM

Their Vulture Prime pilot never woke up. We’ve got ourselves a prisoner.

Vulture Prime LA reattached, enginex1, destroyed LT
Dasher Prime H, LL, RL, RT, LT, RA, LA
Uller Prime missing RT, enginex3m reattach RA
Ryoken, missing H, LA
Dragonfly B, missing LA, LL, RA
Mad Cat, missing Rt, engine x3, gyrox1,

To fix:

Hatchetman engine, Rifleman AC5 acutaor, 2x engine, missing LA; Goliath PPCx2, LRM10x2, enginex1, FRLx1; RA and RT destroyed on Trebuchet, 1xengine; AC20x2 Atlas; Ostsol missing LA; Atlas hip; Hunchback LA destroyed;

We have retaken Holmsbu!

Our prisoner is a MechWarrior named Magnus. Magnus is a veteran (for clans, 2/3). We have taken him aboard our DropShip for now. The Ghost Bears gather their things and leave later that day, but they never asked a about Magnus.

We fix: Hatchetman, Rifleman everything but LA, Goliath, Trebuchet engine, Atlasx2. We need – Hunch LA, Ostsol LA, Trebuchet RA, RT and Rifleman LA. Total costs: 1.655 mill. These will take 11 days to repair and 2 more weeks to reattach limbs. Local Holmsbu folks will help us speed that up considerably.

For armor and ammo – 750k

What we do is what Braham Essex calls a Rotating Target strategy. He would move one mech to an exposed position, and people would target it, and few would attack the other mechs. Then he’d expose another. This tactic works against the clans, but they do a lot more damage. In these battles, each time we’re losing body parts and weapons and going internal in three places. It’s crazy.

We only have to pay half, due to our contract: 1.5775 mill

Clan repairs:

Mad Cat Prime, fixed save RT and still unattached RA
Vulture Prime, fixed save destroyed LT and still unattached LA
Uller Prime, fixed, missing RT and still unattached RA
Dragonfly B – Attached arms from old Dragonfly parts, still missing LL

Items stripped from extra Dasher limbs:

SRM6
SRM4
2xER Medium Laser

We didn’t get any new stuff.

Our Thor doesn’t have the ammo for the Ultra AC 20, so I need to replace it

Experience:

Defender Company’s Firestarter pilot Orlof Magnusson is getting Edge: 1.
Trinity’s CO Captain Jason Thomas in the Atlas is getting Edge: 2.

Col. Humphries moves to meet with Magnus, who is currently in a locked room. Magnus looks up expectantly from his rest bed, where he is convalescing. He greets Matthew warmly. After talking with him, Magnus seems to expect that he will be joining Kilts and Commandos now. Due to the reputation that Humphries has with his people as an honorable man, Magnus tells him that captured personnel of any sort are usually taken as Bondsmen. They are given a bondscord and must re-earn their previous place and prove their new loyalty. Humphries agrees and cuts off a length of tassel from his dress uniform and binds it about Magnus’s left wrist. When Magus is deemed to be ready, the cord is cut. Some clans have three cords, but not all do. After being defeated in combat, Magnus is looking forward to joining Kilts and Commandos.

Over the next few weeks, Magnus will be Matthew Humphries’s attaché. He guides Matthew through various instructions about clan society, including the various Trials.

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 05:50 PM

May 31 – News comes in of more systems falling.

June 3 – There are Ghost Bear Services at Damien, and no offensives are occurring right now.

June 5 – Our battalion arrives at Radlje from Trondheim, and begins to garrison it.

June 6 – The base armor and reloads and some refits are done to our mechs, and we lift off from Holmsbu again.

June 9 – Ghost Bear takes a vote, and they decide to keep pressing, despite their losses.

June 10 – By now, Can Wolf has taken 16 systems, Jade Falcon at least 20, Smoke Jaguar 15, and Ghost Bear 7, but they lost Holmsbu to us just now, so 6.

June 13 – Shocking images arrive today across the Inner Sphere as the Smoke Jaguars have destroyed the city of Edo on the planet of Turtle Bay after rebels struck several places. They used orbital bombardment to destroy it. That is a weapon not used since the earliest succession wars. More than one million people had lived in Edo.

June 14 – A WarShip has arrived at Holmsbu, and Ghost Bear is arriving to recapture the planet. At the same time, Humphries jumps out to Damian to get news.

June 15 – Col. Matthew Humphries and his unit has arrived back at Damian and gets the news that it was retaken by the Bears, and this time, they have left very large garrisons. We won’t be able to land and retake them in a simple Trial of Possession. They would use all of their forces to defend the planet. There could be 40-55 mechs there, and there is no way that Matthew’s 36 would win. They use the KF batteries to ump again.

June 16 – They arrive at Pinnacle, another system taken by the Bears that was once Rasalhague. Reports a while ago suggested that the Bears had put a small garrison here too. Holmsbu has fallen again to the Bears. Matthews moves towards the planet .

June 20 - Khan Jorgensson contacts Clan Steel Viper to garrison their worlds.

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 07:46 PM

June 22 – Matthew arrives at Pinnacle in DropShips and issues a Batchall. It is received and they send back information about the defenders. They have 15 mechs. They want to fight in the nearby hills.

Humphries orders his troops down. All of the damages have been fixed, except for those to clan mechs. We have to send a different configuration of the Thor, since we have no more Ultra AC 20 ammo. Our techs were able to make regular AC20 ammo into Ultra AC 20 ammo after spending some time at it. We have ammo for the Ultra AC 20.

These are their mechs:

Dasher EUK
Dasher D (Nasty variant)
Uller, Prime
Dragonfly, Prime
Dragonfly, F- UK (With 4 SRM4s, 2 ER ML and 1 ER SL)
Fenris B
Fenris C
Black Hawk, D
Vulture C
Vulture Prime
Vulture F-Uk (Two large pulse lasers, 4 medium pulse lasers)
Thor A
Man o’ War Prime
Gladiator D
Gladiator I-UK (2 large pulses, 4 medium pulses targeting computer, AMS, ECM Suite

Everybody is a veteran (IS equivalent of elite).

Instead of using our normal units, we will be using Hammer and Anvil lances in each company (the fire support and close combat mechs). Due to the weakness of the scout units, we will not be using any scout lances. That gives us:

Defender:

AS7-K Atlas
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
Thor C
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
GRF-1N Griffin

Trinity:

AS7-D Atlas
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
HCT-3F Hatchetman
ZEU-6S Zeus
OTL-4D Ostsol
TBT-5N Trebuchet
GOL -1H Goliath
RFL-3N Rifleman

Delta:

BNC-3E Banshee
AWS-8Q Awesome
WHM-6D Warhammer
DRG-1N Dragon
CRD-3R Crusader
BLR-1G BattleMaster
CLPT-C1 Catapult
BL-7-KGT Black Knight

We’re going to man up and try to blast the clans off Pinnacle

Here is the Thor, which both of us now have. It’s a solid 70 OmniMech design with 5/8/5 movement.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/2/2f/Summoner.png/450px-Summoner.png

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 10:16 PM

The BV favors us by a lot now that we’ve dropped the scout guys. 61k to 51k

We start on the west and they on the east, they have a favorable side, with more tree cover.

Turn 1 – I win init. There’s a lot of weapons exchange, but eventually, some mechs get sliced. Our Whitworth nails the LA of their Dasher D and its destroyed. Their Mad Cat hits an Upper Leg actuator on a Rifleman. A Vulture Prime’s LT is destroyed by Col Matthews. Our Thor follows up and hits its eingine once and gyro once and it shuts down. Our Trebuchet destroys the LT and hits an engine in the CT of their Dasher D and it shuts down. That’s Thad Karmanlis’s 12th kill for us. Our Rifleman falls and hits its engine twice and gyro once.

Turn 2 - We lose init. After a lot of fire exchange again, Col Humphries’ Atlas destroys the LA of an Uller. Their Fenris C gets a engine hit.

T3 – We lose init. Our Black Knight destroys the Left Arm of their Fenris B. A BattleMaster hits he engine on their Gladiator I-UK. Our Orion hits the Head of their Man-o’War Prime with its Ac10, goe internal, and destroys the cockpit, killing the pilot. A Vulture destroys the RA of our Ostsol. The Ostsol destroys the MASC on their Gladiator D. Ou rWarhammer kicks and destroys the head of their Dragonfly F-UK. That was a pristine mech too, we had never targeted it until. I moved two mechs to try and punt the head. That was a good turn, I took out an untouched mech and a barely touched assault 80 ton machine.

T4 – We again lose init. I have successful flanked them from the front and the right side. I pushed them back and back and now I am surrounding their forces. Our BattleMaster destroys the RT and RA of their Dasher E-UK. Our Crusader’s missiles find an engine hit on their Gladiator I-UK. The AC5 on our 60ton Dragon lances into the Gladiator I-UK and destroys its LT. That shuts it down from three engine hits. However, our Huncgback follows up with AC20 ammo at the same time and destroys its CT section, so it is not recoverable. Col. Humphries’s Atlas fires a gauss slug into their Uller Prime and it destroys the CT. Our Trebuchet destroys its LT as well. Our regular Atlas also destroys its LL. Their Gladiator D tears into our Ostsol. They destroy its LA and LT, and then hit the engine three times and gyro once and shut it down.

T5 – We lose init again. I run my guys in as much as possible. Tightening the noose. Our Warhammer destroys their Fenris C’s head with his PPC. Co. Humphries lances an LRM 20 and Gauss Rifle at their Dasher EUK and it takes two more engine hits and shuts down. The Vulture C’s twin gauss rifles destroy the LA of our Hunchback. That’s the wrong arm to destroy on a Hunchy, it’s still got its AC20. Their Vulture F-UK hits the BattleMaster’s RA and gets a limb blown off critical, and it’s lying on the ground. Our Goliath destroys the LA of their Gladiator D. Their Vulture C falls.

T6 – We win init. We exchange a lot of fire. Our Dragon opens the center torso on their Vulture and hits the engine. One of the BattleMasters hits the head of the same Vulture and the pilot blacks out after the damage is dealt. Our Warhammer blows off the LA of the Vulture C and the Atlas destroys its LL. Our Loki then destroys its RT and the RA falls. One of our BattleMasters loses its RT to their Gladiator D. An Atlas falls.

T7 – We lose init. We offer our foes hegira. This is an offer of an honorable withdraw from combat. We learned it from Magnus. They accept. They have a Vulture that is savaged in four places and has just one point on its internal RT left (and a dead RA). They have another pair of savaged mechs in the Gladiator and Fenris. We have ever fired at their Black Hawk or Dragonfly. We have a lot more left.

Abe Sargent

09-25-2011, 11:43 PM

Vulture Prime, LA reattached, LT destroyed,enginex3, gyrox1
Dasher D, destroyed LA, LT, enginex3
Man-o’-War Prime, destroyed cockpit
Dragonfly F-UK missing H
Gladiator I-UK LA, LL, RL, RT, RA, H
Uller Prime, H, RT, RA, RL
Fenris C, destroyed H
Dasher E-UK, enginex3
Vulture C LA and RA reattached, engine, RT and LL destroyed

To fix:

Ostsol RA, LA, LT, enginex3, gyrox1; Rifleman enginex2, gyro, actuator; Hunchback missing LA ; BattleMaster reattach RA, RT destroyed:

We have taken back Pinnacle.

We fix all of the things we can, and purchasing new parts for our mechs will cost us:2.65 mill. An additional 550k givesus the ammo and armor we need.

We pay 1.6 mill after 50% battle loss.

For the clan mechs:

We fix everything we can, including the cockpit. Here’s what we have left:

Man-o’-War Prime, up and running.
Dasher D, fixed after using parts from previous Dashers that survived.
Dragonfly F-UK is fixed and up and running after we replace the head with a salvaged one
Uller Prime, I used the salvaged Right Torso to fix one damaged earlier that needed one
Dasher E-UK, fixed the engine, and it is up and running, and it sucks – LB2X? That’s crap.
Vulture C, We cannibalize the RT and LL from the Vulture Prime and reattach the arms, which had the weapons.

Items:

2xLarge Pulse Lasers
4x Medium Pulse Lasers
Targeting Computer
Guardian ECM Suite
SRM 4
SRM 6

We also found unconscious MechWarrior, veteran named Irene. She’s a veteran and we make her a bondsman as well.

Experience:

Matthew Humphries is gaining Edge: 1
Bryson Abasi, the Thor pilot, is gaining Edge:11 as well
Madison Tolteca, our Warhammer 6R pilot in Defender company will also be getting Edge: 1
Thad Karamanlis, Trinity’s Trebuchet pilot, is getting Edge: 1 too

We will be staying on Pinnacle for a while and its new garrison force. We took Holmsbu, but we didn’t have the forces to keep it. We’ll try too here.

Abe Sargent

09-26-2011, 10:46 AM

June 23 – Our garrison is now at Radlje . A large Ghost Bear task force has arrived at Last Frontier. For the next few days, the defenders will exact a massive toll on the Ghost Bears, and Khan DelVillar will die in the fighting tomorrow. After securing Last Frontier, Aletha Kabrinski is voted in as the new Khan. She will immediately declare the other Khan, Bourjon, incompetent. A vote of no confidence is held, and aerospace pilot Bjorn Jorgensson will be elected the new Khan and defeated Bourjon in a Trial of Refusal. This all takes places over the next few days, and again, it will slow down Ghost Bear’s attack.

June 24 – A Ghost Bear Drop Ship arrives at Thule for another attempt to take it. They issue a batchall. We had planned for this defense prior to Matthew Humphries leaving. Captain Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company tells them that he will be defending this planet with just himself, in his Atlas, in a cornfield. If they lose, the Ghost bears have to give one pristine OmniMech – a Masakari. The Ghost Bears bid down to one elite MechWarrior.

Captain Martin Fitzgerald, 2/2, Edge: 2, Gunnery: Laser
Atlas AS7D

They are in a Gladiator Prime

This is their 95 ton assault mech:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/9/95/Executior.png/518px-Executior.png

Abe Sargent

09-26-2011, 08:59 PM

One on One, here we go.

T1 – I lose init and we can’t see each other. I move to the center.

T2 – I win init and run into a copse of trees but don’t see him on the other side.

T3 – I win init and he runs to the edge of the trees. We can see each other, but not fire.

T4 – I lose init and move into some heavy woods and he moves closer. Our AC20 opens up his RA. We hit with both medium laser and 5 SRM missiles, one of which dings hit head. He misses with the Gauss Rifle and a ER laser, but hits with an ER Large Laser on my RT.

T5 – We lose init and stay standing still. He torso twists to protect his RA. AC20 to his LL, medium lasers ot LT and LL. Missed with an SRM6 and I tried a desperate LRM 20 and needed a 9 and missed. I take a Gauss to my RA, a glancing blow ER Large Laser to my CT and another to my LT.

T6 – We win init and he moves away from us. We run in right behind him. He hits my LT and LA each with an ER LL. Our AC20 hits his L and goes internal Medium Laser to the head, one to the rear armor and then 4 SRM6 missiles hit various places. We kick for 20 damage and his LL is destroyed and he falls.

T7 – We win init and he stands and spins. We move to his rear again. He hits our LT and RL with ER Large laser. AC20 to the Right Torso rear and its barely hanging on, but we didn’t hit any critical space with it. Two medium lasers lance out and hit, and our SRMs hit five places, and one hits some Gauss Ammo. It doesn’t explode Gauss ammo is just a metal slug. We kick him in his one leg, but he stays standing.

T8 – We win init. He tries to run and hide, but we find him. He hits the Atlas with everything but his Gauss and only hits legs. Our Atlas blows 20 into his Right Leg from an AC20 and hits with other weapons but no critical. He falls hard. Our kick tears into his right arm and goes internal. Martin offers hegira and the MechWarrior accepts.

We have won and again defend Thule. We gained a Masakari Prime in mint condition. That was Fitzgerald’s 20th kill, and he gets another edge.

Abe Sargent

09-27-2011, 07:04 PM

We had decided to go for these smaller matchups because it appeared that the Bears would just increase their bid. This time they bid a 95 ton OmniMech and elite pilot over a 100 ton mech that didn’t even have LosTech, let alone clan tech. The BV was 2000 in their favor (3500 to 5500 or so).

Knowing this, we wanted to limit our losses by having one of our best pilots face them. We don’t think this trick will work that often, but it does make sense here.

June 27 – Our company from Laurent, Typhon, will be joining us on Thule, and should arrive on September 2.

The Ghost Bear clan has arrived at Radlje. They send out a batchall. We negotiate for two stars of elemental armor, that’s ten suits, if we win.

In order to prepare for this eventual assault, we moved some MechWarriors around with the three companies on planet. They are not the most experienced MechWarriors ever. We also switched a Quickdraw for a Locust. Now Mustang Company is as ready for the Clans as it can be.

The new Mustang Company:

ON1-K Orion
STC-2S Striker
AWS-8Q Awesome
HBK-4G Hunchback
WHM-6K Warhammer
STK-3F Stalker
MAD-Marauder
WTH-1 Whitworth
CMT-1 Comet
JR7-F Jenner
QKD-5G Quickdraw
COM-2D Commando

With 10 elite pilots and two veterans

With us having beaten the Ghost Bears several times, they are no longer going to reduce their bids for our Inner Sphere-ness. Now we are facing two full stars of mechs:

Dasher C
Puma D
Dragonfly D
Dragonfly B
Black Lanner Prime
Vulture D-UK (with two LB10X and 4x ER Medium Laser)
Loki B
Mad Cat D
Man-o-War B
Masakari A

The Mad Cat D is an odd combination with two rear facing SRM6 streaks, perhaps they know our tendency to run around the backs of mechs when possible. The Masakari A is nasty, with 2 ER Large Lasers, LRM 15, LB 10X, Streak SRM6. That is, in my option, the best variant of the Masakari.

This is their Mad Cat, probably the most iconic clan mech. They are used in Ghost Bear, but they are really used Wolf. Ghost Bear’s favorite heavy is clearly the Vulture. Which I like so that’s okay.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/8a/Madcat_PPC_fire.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-28-2011, 01:14 AM

All pilots are elite (1/2) save for the veteran Dragonfly B pilot. They are heavily favored, the BVs are 24613 for us and 40174 for them.

Here we go!

Turn 1 – We lose init. The Black Lanner’s MASC freezes and it takes damage on its legs – two actuators are hit. Our Comet ran behind their Black Lanner and fires a laser into its rear CT and hits an engine. Their Puma destroys the RA of our Comet. Then their Dragonfly D destroys its CT. Our MechWarrior is injured on the way out and unconscious on the ground. The winner gets the prize. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Dasher. Their Man-o’-War lances fire into our Quickdraw and hits the LRM ammo and it explodes! Their Masakari open up the right leg of our Stalker and nail a hip actuator and it falls. And destroys its leg.

Holy crap that was a bad turn. We need to turn this.

T2 – We lose init. We stand up our Stalker luckily it’s in heavy woods. Our Marauder opens things up by hitting the SRM ammo on their Black Lanner and its RT and RA are gone. Their pilot blacks out. Our long range weapons open up their Mad Cat and I ran in the Commando, and it follows with its many SRMs. A missile hits the LB 10-X ammo on the Mad Cat’s LT and that explodes – it also has two engine hits and a gyro hit. Their pilot blacks out too. Both unconscious mechs falls.

Well, I think we’re back in it, we just need to build on this momentum.

T3 – We lose init. Their Dragonfly B destroys the LA and LT of our Commando. Our Warhammer hits the upper leg actuator on their Mad Cat’s LL. Their Mad Cat hits the ammo on our Orion and it explodes. Our Commando hits two gyros and an engine on their Mad Cat. Dead Mad Cat. Our Awesome tumbles.

T4 – We lose init. We stand our Awesome back up. Our Awesome hits the hip actuator on their Masakari. Their Masakari hits the AC20 ammo on our Hunchback and it goes up.

T5 - We lost init. The Puma takes out the RA of our Whitworth. Our Stalker gets a Limb Blow Off critical against their Masakaris RL. Our Stalker and Whitworth fall under more damage.

T6 - We lose init again. We stand up the Stalker. I risk running my Jenner up against their Puma. Their Maskari fails to stand. As does our WW and our pilot blacks out – ugh. LRMs from our Stalker destroy the left arm of their Loki. Their Puma’s SRm2 streak ammo lights up from a PPC from our Mrauder. The RT is destroyed. Their Man-o-war destroys our Jenner’s RA and hits the hip and lower foot actuators on its LL. Our Jenner remains standing. Our WW pilot wakes up, but theirs do not.

T7 – We win init. That’s our first win this game. The Masakari fails to stand but it does spin so its facing us with its weapons. OurWW rises. The Strikers autocannon chews into the Dragonfly B and hits its engine. A PPC from our Warhammer swings into their Loki’s head and goes internal but only hits life support. Our Stalker destroys the LA of their Masakari. Twin PPCs jut from our Marauder into their Puma and destroy its engine.

T8 – We lose init. The manage to stand the Masakari. Our Jenner falls while moving. Another PPC lands from our Warhammer, and destroys the rest of the Loki’s head. Our Stalker alpha strikes the Masakari but only hits the engine once. Theor Loki destroys the LA of our Whity. The Man-o’-War destroys its RL and RT. Three PPCs knife into their Dragonfly B. One destroys its RA and another its LT. Both our Whity and their Masakari fall.

T9 – We win init. I eject the Whitworth pilot. Both our Jenner and their Masakari are back on our feet. Our Striker hits a hip and foot on their Dragonfly B’s right leg. Their Dragonfly D destroys ou rJenners LL and LT. Their Man O War destroys its RT. Our Marauder destroys the RT of their Masakari. Two hit on gyro and engine shut it down. Their Man O War, Dragonfly and our Jenner all say hello to the earth in a very intimate way.

T10 – We lose init. I eject our Jenner pilot. We focus our fire on their Man-o’-War. Our Marauder hits the lower leg actuator on its LL. Our Awesome adds a gyro and engine hit. It falls and hits its foot too.

T11 – We lose init. Their Glady rises. Just an exchange of weapons fire but their Gladiator takes so much damage that it falls and blows off its LL and hits its engine. We get on the transmission and offer hegira. One Dragonfly cannot rise, the Gladiator is legged and has one gyro and two engine hits, the Dasher is injured and has just an LRM5 left, and one Dragonfly is virtually unscatehed. Meanwhile, I have untouched Warhammer, virtually so Marauder and Awesome, and have damaged Stalker and Striker. They agree and leave the field.

That was a rough battle. We lost a lot of mechs, and a few were severely damaged, but we survived and kept Radlje from falling.

Abe Sargent

09-28-2011, 02:02 AM

Vulture D-UK, destroyed LT, reattach LA, gyrox1
Black Lanner RA reattached, missing RT, life support, two leg actuators
Mad Cat LA reattached, LT destroyed; gyro hit twice, engine one, actuator,
Masakari A missing RT, reattach RA
Puma RA reattach, destroyed RT, engine x3,
Loki, missing H
Dragonfly B LA
Gladiator LL

Quickdraw LA, H, RL
Comet, LA, LT, LL, RT, RL, H
Orion RA, H, LL
Hunchback LA, H, LL

To Fix: Stalker’s RL. Commando’s LT, LA: Whitworth RA, RL, RT and LA; Jenner RA, LT, LL, RT reattach LA;

We capture two MechWarriors, elite (1/2) – Rachel and Evan. Both are taken as bondsman.

Fixing my dudes: This will take a lot. To fix those listed will cost:3.31 mill.

To rearm and re armor my guys will cost 950k:

I have to pay this: 2.13 mill

Now, I get compensation for my dead mechs:6,462,000 – This is the total cost of our lost mechs minus the pieces we recovered, divided by two.

We “made” 4,332,000

Now, let’s look at salvage.

We fix everything that doesn’t require a spare

Loki B – we take the head from the salvaged Loki we were unable to get up and running and put it here.

Clan Items:

ER PPC

I lost for mechs and got only one replacement, and that’s only after we get salvage sent from two jumps away. It will take a month to get my mechs back and in running order.

We gained 10 suits of elemental armor.

We are currently in “possession” of three worlds - Pinnacle, Radlje and Thule.

Abe Sargent

09-28-2011, 01:22 PM

June 29 – Another clan WarShip jumps into Thule at a Pirate Point.
July 1 – News of Ghost Bear worlds being treated much better than other Clan worlds is a major leading story. They are having the people rebuild infrastructure and more. As a result, uprisings on Bear held worlds are much lower than the other worlds.

July 3 – Bidding for the right to attack Rasalhague, the capital, is won by Clan Wolf. The Invasion will begin tomorrow. Rasalhague will fall after bitter fighting destroys more than 70% of the buildings in Rasalhague City and destroys much of the world. It will fall on July 16.

July 5 – We get news that planets like Holmsbu and Damian now have Steel Viper garrisons, and they are quite large. Our opportunity to nip in and take them due to weak garrisons is gone. We just have to hold our three planets.

July 8 – A Drop Ship arrives at Thule from the pirate point. We get a batchall, but this time, it’s not from Ghost Bear.

“This is Star Captain Caslon Stiles of the mighty Smoke Jaguars. Since those idiot Bears can’t seem to take your backwater planet, we are here to capture it for the glory of the Smoke Jaguars. With what forces shall you defend this pitiful planet?”

Captain Martin Fitzgerald will be defending with his own Phaeton Company. He asked for a several OmniMechs if they win, but the Jaguars laughed at him. He carefully taunts them, “If the Jaguars are afraid of a little mercenary unit beating them…” and they agree to two OmniMechs. He wants a Gladiator and a Mad Cat. He is told that they don’t have any of those pitiful Gladiators, but they’ll give him a Masakari, and he agrees.

Just like the Bears did originally, they have no respect for a mercenary Inner Sphere unit. They will be bidding 8 OmniMechs.

Phaeton Company:

AWS-8Q Awesome
WHM-6L Warhammer
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
PNT-9R Panther
GRF-1N Griffin
AS7-D Atlas
RFL-3N Rifleman
CLPT-C1 Catapult
JVN-10F Javelin
CMT-1A Comet
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
HER-2S Hermes II

This group includes 7 elite, 3 vets and 2 regular.

The Jags

Koshi Prime
Fenris B
Ryoken Prime
Ryoken C
Vulture A
Loki D-UK (with ER LL, Ultra AC5, 4 Medium Pulse Laser and one ER SL)
Masakari B
Daishi Prime

Just one light mech. They are all elites (1/2)

This is their Daishi, a 100 ton mech with maximum armor and more than 50 tons of space for weapons. The one we are facing has four ER large lasers, LRM10, 4 medium pulse lasers, 2 Ultra AC5s. It is truly nasty. It is loaded for bear.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/b2/CCG_Unlimited_Dire_Wolf.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-28-2011, 09:19 PM

They are coming with heavy heat. Two assaults, two heavies, three mediums and one light. The mediums are on the heavy side (45, 55, 55) and the Vulture is always nasty. That Loki variant is hot. Masakaris and Daishis are amazingly powerful.

Battle value – 34k for them, 28k for us.

There’s always a strategic issue when fighting a team that includes a mech as powerful as this Daishi. Do I focus all of my weapons on it until it falls? I know that doing so could take a few turns of concentrated fire, which means when it falls, my foes will have several turns of taking out my mechs. On the other hand, suppose that we let it stay while we take out more vulnerable mechs until I outnumber the Daishi.. Can I honestly allow a mech as powerful as the Daishi to attack me for a large portion of the battle? Which is the greater sin, to not challenge it, or to challenge it too much? In this case, we don’t know that Daishi that well, so my guess is that the Masakari is the target of choice.

Our first battle with a clan not named Ghost Bear. Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We win init. We are fighting by a few small hills and woods, with a central river. We focus a lot of our fire on their Daishi because it is the easiest to hit. Our Awesome hits its head with a PPC and nails the life support. We lost a RT on our Comet from their Fenris B. Just for fun, I totaled up how much damage we dealt to their Daishi – 76 damage. That’s it. That’s not too bad I suppose

T2 – We lose init. We hop our Javelin 10F behind their Loki. They are focusing some fire on our Griffin. Our Jav goes into the Loki’s armor and hits the gyro once. It falls and destroys its LA. Just weapons fire. They moved their Daishi behind some woods and few of my mechs had lines of fire. Our Javelin misses a kick on the downed mech and falls. Hilarity ensues. Their Daishi took 45 damage.

T3 – We lose init. Their Loki rises and spins. Our Jav fails to stand up once ,but it does on a second try. Our Awesome hits the head of their Daishi and it has no more external armor. A Ryoken destroys the RT of our Javelin. The other Ryoken destroys both legs. Their Vulture destroys its LA, LT and CT. A completely destroyed mech. Their Loki took two engine hits from our Javelin before it wen Their Daishi took another 94 damage from us and it still is not internal in any place. A through armor ctical from their Fenris hits a PPC on our Awesome

T4 – We lose init. Our Awesome destroys the LT of their Loki and then hits the engine twice in the CT, putting it out of commission. Our T Bolt is the first to hit an internal component on their Daishi – an engine. Our Griffin hits and destroys the RT of their Vulture. Before it goes their Loki destroys the LL and CT of our Comet. Our Phoenix destroys the LT of their Daishi. We hit two double heat sinks on the Daishi. Our Atlas hits a foot actuator on their Vulture. Their Daishi destroyed the Comet RA before it goes. The Daishi goes overheat and shuts down (engine hits make 5 heat a turn, add the lack of het from the 2x and it was already going overheat from lasers, and shut down.)

T5 – We win init. I have armor about half way down on 5 of my mechs – Warhammer, Rifleman, Thunderbolt, Griffin and Awesome. Can we manage to take out the rest of the mechs, or did I spend too much time on the Daishi? I guess we’ll find out. Their Masakari hits two foot actuators on my Warhammer. Our Awesome gets a limb blown off, LA, on their Ryoken C’s RA. Okay, this is going to be confusing, so get ready. Our Catapult launched LRM15 missiles at their wounded Vulture. They hit the engine twice, and destroys the CT section. The engine has a cascade reaction and blows up. It was right by the downed but will reboot at the end of the turn Daishi. I hopped my Phoenix Hawk next to it and tried but was unable to take off its head. Our Phoenix Hawk takes 15 damage from the explosion. Their damaged Ryoken takes 7. But their Daishi takes 30 from it. It hits the Daishis gyro and engine each once, and that’s an engine shutdown on the Daishi. Both are down. Our Rifleman falls under the damage.

T6 - We win init. I stand my Rifleman up, go behind a one level hill and intentionally go prone so no one can see me this turn. I run my Griffin up on their Koshi. Our Griffin’s RA is blown right off and able to be reattached. The SRM6 on our Warhammer is hit. Our Griffin kicks and destroys the RL of their Koshi and it falls hard.

T7 – We lose init. I stand up our Rifleman and twist so I can aim and deal some damage. Their Koshi fails to stand. I run my Thunderbolt up to it. The RA, RT and RL of our ’Hammer is destroyed. Our T Bolt blows up the RT of their Koshi. After combat, a kick destroys the CT.

T8 – We lose init. I eject the Warhammer pilot. No one knows who’s winning this. They have a Masakari, two Ryokens and a untouched Fenris. We have an untouched Hermes II and Catapult, a savaged Rifleman, a damaged Thunderbolt, Griffin, Atlas, Awesome, Panther and Phoenix Hawk. They could easily finish a couple off this turn and swing things back their way. Last turn I basically lost a heavy mech and they lost a light mech. Not a good trade. I risk my P Hawk by jumping to their injured Ryoken C. Our Atlas’s AC20 hits the head of their Masakari and it falls down. Before it went, it hits the AC20 on our Atlas.

T9 - We lose init. Their Ryoken destroys the RL of our Griffin. Our Rifleman hits and destroys the CT of their Ryoken Prime. We used up all of the LRM ammo b your Catapult. With two mechs left, we offer them hegira, and they accept.

Abe Sargent

09-28-2011, 11:30 PM

Loki D-UK, Destroys LT, LA, enginex5. Gyrox1
Vulture A RA
Daishi Prime reattach LA, enginex3, gyrox1, destroyed LT
Ryoken C RA
Koshi Prime RA, H, LT, LA, LL
Masakari, missing H,
Ryoken Prime H, LL, RL, RT, LT, RA, LA

Awesome PPC; Griffin reattach RA destroyed RL; Warhammer, actuators, SRM 6, replace RA, RL, RT;

Comet LT, LA, RL, H
Javelin RA, H;

We won a Masakari and Mad Cat Prime each

We permanently lost a Comet and Javelin.

We must pay to fix: 1.9 mill

Rearm and Rearmor: 820k

We gained 415k after our 50% battle loss kicked in.

Salvage:

We put the Vulture RA on a chassis that is missing it but is still missing other pieces too.
Masakari B, I moved a H from a Masakari chassis we have to this one.
Ryoken Prime – I had a Prime chassis missing a H and La, and we are able to move these two pieces to that. (I roll each time, but it’s not hard to make it – I need a 4 on 2d6, if I fail, I can reroll with a bettr tech, but it adds another week)

Clan Items:

ER PPC
Large Pulse Laser
ER Large Laser
ER Medium Laserx2
9x Double Heat Sink

Experience:

David Delgado, the Rifleman Pilot is getting Edge:1
Earl Ray Williams, in the Thunderbolt, is getting Edge: 2

The Jaguars leave Thule with their tail between their legs.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 12:39 AM

July 10 – After taking Polcenigo, the Ghost Bears will stop invading for a month while they regather themselves. They will bring in supplies, rotate in garrison clusters instead of front line units (and let Steel Viper go) and bring in troops to replace those lost in the collision with the asteroid around Damian.

July 12 – The Steel Vipers have bid for the right to attack the three worlds that we hold.

July 14 – A WarShip jumps into Pinnacle.

July 22 – We are hailed by Clan Steel Viper, who wants to take Pinnacle. Their batchall is different. Instead of asking us what forces we will be using, they inform us that they will be using a full cluster of troops.

Humphries looks at Magnus, and he says that this would only be done as an insult. He recommends responding with an insult. Humphries responds with, “As we can see, what the Bears have told us in true, the rusted snakes have no honor.”

They get pissed. Humphries pushes, “I’ll tell you what. You come down here and fight me personally. You win, you get Pinnacle. If I win, you have your techs fix up the mechs we’ve won from the Bears and I take you as a bondsman.”

The Star Colonel is quite pissed off, but agrees to fixing the mechs, but not to be a bondsman. Matthew assents, and he grabs the mech he wants. He normal mech is the Gauss Rifle, LRM20 and 2x ER Large Laser equipped Atlas. For this battle, he will instead be piloting the Masakari Prime he won earlier.

Our foe:

Star Colonel 1/2, Edge:2
Gladiator Alternate Config A

They have three large pulse lasers, four ER Medium lasers, and a machine gun. IT is also a fast mech with 4/6/4(8) movement.

Our Masakari does waste some space:

It has 4 ER PPCs, but can only disperse 40 a turn. Each one makes 15 heat. It also has an LRM 10 and a precious targeting computer.

Our BV is 5813 and theirs is 6971

The place we’re fighting on is a flat plan with some rocks and rough patches sin areas, but no terrain at all.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 03:18 AM

T1 – Col. Humphries wins init. He hits with two pulses and a nER Laser and we hit with an ER PPC and a LRM10 for 4 missiles.

T2 – We win init and continue to try to stay away from our foe. We nail his right torso with two ER PPCs and go internal and hit a double heat sink. We take two large pulse lasers to legs.

T3 – We lose init. We miss with both ER PPCs and hit with just 6 missiles. We get hit with every weapon they have.

T4 – We lose init. This time we hit with 2x ER PPC and LRM10 full missiles, but they miss, after we moved far away from the range o the large pulses. We’ve never been closer than 10 hexes.

T5 – We lose init. We miss with an ER PPC and then get a glancing blow with the other and missiles. Once again they hit with lots.

T6 – We lose init. We’re internal on the Right Arm. The Masakari is a lot more wounded than his Gladiator. We go to long range and only hit once.

T7 – We win init. Nobody hits this time, still at long range.

T8 – We lose init. We hit with 6 missiles and they with a Large pulse laser to the CT of our Masakari.

T9 – We lose init. They use MASC twice in a row to get close, and no failure. We hit their jump jet and upper leg actuator on the left leg. They open up the right arm more and hit the shoulder actuator there.

T10 – We win init. We are internal in both torsos and have just one internal armor left on the right arm. They try and hop away but we run up to them. Two ER PPCs meet at the center torso of their mech. Still haven’t gone internal there.

T11 – We win init. We fire two ER PPCs and they destroy the RT and RA of their mech. Three large pulse lasers lance into our torso, and one hits the RT and destroys it, and the other hits our CT, goes internal, and hits the engine twice more. Our engine shuts down. We have lost.

Steel Viper has gained the Masakari Prime and Pinnacle.

Ah well. We were winning that one too near the end.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 03:58 AM

July 23 – We blast off from Pinnacle.

July 25 - Rasalhague falls. The elected prince flees the planet, being screened by Tyra Miraborg and her 1st Drakons.

July 30 – We leave the system and arrive at Holmsbu. The Provisional Garrison Cluster of Ghost Bear has arrived here and the Vipers are gone. Humphries and Magnus have been discussing what to do, and have a plan.

July 31 – By the end of this month, Clan Wolf has captured an additional 9 systems, including Rasalhague itself. The Jaguars captured 3 more systems from the Dracs and the Jade Falcons four more. The total number of inner sphere systems under Clan control is 35 for Wolf, 1 for Viper, 29 for Falcons, 8 for Bears and 23 for Jaguars. That’s 96 systems all told that have gone to the Clans since mid March. Thule is now five jumps away from the nearest system not currently under the control of a Clan save Radlje.

Aug 5 – The Ghost Bears have arrived at Radlje and again issue a batchall for the system.

Since we lost so many mechs earlier, and we have few good pilots in few good mechs, Captain Gabriel Williams orders Lt. Akwasi Oppoku from Lane Company to fight solo in his Attila. The Ghost Bears mention they are tired of these minor skirmishes, and their warriors want war.

Captain Williams has been given the same intel that everyone else has. He knows how to work the enemy. He chuckles at the Bear’s claim, and says, “Can’t any one of your warriors beat one of ours?”

The Ghost Bear agrees, and nods. We ask for 5 of their techs if we win. We need help getting things like their armor, their ammo made, and more. They agree.

Akwasi is elite

They are sending:

Man-o’-War, C – with Ultra AC20, and 6 ER medium lasers

The Attila has two PPCs, 2 SRM6s, 7 medium lasers, max armor for 85 ton mech - 263/263

They have 211 armor out of possible 247 and they are a 5/8 mech vs 3/5 for the Attila.

Alons-y!

DataKing

09-29-2011, 11:11 AM

Hey there Abe. Just wanted to let you know you've got another loyal follower here. I'm an old-school BattleTech gamer who is looking forward to watching the Kilts and Commandos kick some Clan butt.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 11:54 AM

T1 – We lose init. Our battlefield is rocky, wit trees and a depression. We take 45 damage total and only dealt 5 from a glancing blow. Not an auspicious start.

T2 – We win init. We slice a PPC into its CT and it misses us (heavy woods).

T3 – We win again. We are hit by five medium lasers and miss twice. They set our hex on fire.

T4 – We lose init. We creep out of the fire and into an adjacent heavy woods hex. We lance a PPC into their head. We hit sensors and life support. I want to close to fire SRM6s to see if I can’t hit it again.

T5 – We lose init. We stand still and fire 5 medium lasers and two SRM6s at the foe. We hit with 5 lasers and 5 missiles. We get hit for 16 damage from lasers.

T6 – We win. They run, and we can’t change too much, so back to PPCs. We hit with two glancing blows. We are hit three times by lasers.

T7 – We win init. We mostly miss each other, only a glancing blow from us and two medium lasers from them.

T8 – We lose init. Their Man o war charges us. We miss with our SRM6s (only needed a 6) and hit with some mediums. They hit us too. We still aren’t internal anywhere, and they are only internal in the head.

T9 – We lose. We run up to them. They just twist. This is going to be a massive turn. We hit with 12 SRM missiles, but none hits the head for the kill. All of these lasers and missiles does hit their Ultra AC20 (it was out of ammo this round anyway) and engine once. They open up our left torso and hit a heat sink and laser. An ER medium laser hits the Attila’s head.

T10 – We win init. They move up a hill and we move to their left side and open up. We destroy the la.

T11 – We lose init. I stand still and go 5 overheat to fire all lasers and missiles. We destroy their LT. It falls to the ground, hits its engine, and the pilot blacks out. The engine shut down. Yay!

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 11:54 AM

Hey there Abe. Just wanted to let you know you've got another loyal follower here. I'm an old-school BattleTech gamer who is looking forward to watching the Kilts and Commandos kick some Clan butt.

You got it!

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 12:36 PM

We gain:

Man o’ war with enginex3, life support, sensors, destroyed LA, LT

Getting the sensors hit early helped us stay alive as it accounted for a few misses.

We captured:

Michael, elite, 1/2, made a bondsman

We also gained 5 techs, when they send over.

That was a real battle of fire for our own mech.

We’re told that the Ghost Bears want a bigger fight next time, and that these small proxy battles just aren’t going to keep cutting it. They do really respect that we won without using any physical attacks.

We fix everything but the sensors. The clan techs fix them however (if we didn’t have the clan techs, we would’ve had to replace them).

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 03:41 PM

Aug 7 – We arrive at Holmsbu and declare a Trial of Possession for two stars of elemental warriors to be our bondsman, so we can use the elemental armor we have (we realized that normal IS people can’t use it, they aren’t big enough, and we need the genetically enhanced warriors). You can fight for anything. They want Humphries to stop attacking them for a couple of months. They send the specs on their provisional garrison. It does not have many front line OmniMechs.

They choose to fight on a old abandoned industrial area with a lot of pavement and some buildings. They send a supernova of forces for defense. A supernova is two stars of mechs and two stars of elementals – 20 units in all.

Magus has been assigned to Delta company and is piloting the Dragonfly F-UK. It’s replacing a lost scout mech.

Their mechs:

Gladiator, A – elite pilot, leader
Loki B, elite pilot, star leader too
Koshi B
Peregrine
Grizzly
Galahad
Griffin IIc
Shadow Hawk IIc GB variant
Rifleman IIc
Supernova

All pilots are vets. When the clans left the Inner Sphere, they took many IS era mechs with them. Refitting them and making new ones with clan technology seems like an obvious thing to do. Some of these venerable designs have worked for centuries, so upgrading them works. They may have different weights, movements, and weapons payouts, but they work.

The Peregrine is the only other light mech up there besides the Koshi. The assault mechs are the Gladiator at 95 tons, the 90 ton Supernova with its 6 ER Large lasers. The Galahad is a 60 ton mech with double gauss rifles. The Rifleman IIc rocks four large pulse lasers, the Shadow Hawk variant has double er large lasers, 3 small pulse lasers and 2 er small laser. Th Griffin IIc is just 40 tons and has 4 LRM 5 launchers, an ER Large laser and a backup er small laser. Even at 35 tons, the Peregrine rocks a large pulse laser and two medium pulses.

This is their Grizzly. It’s one of their totem mechs. It’s 70 tons with 4/6/4 movement. It comes with a large pulse laser, an LRM 10, a gauss rifle, a medium and small pulse laser, and 208 points of armor (out of possible 217). It’s a very good mech with serious long range punch.

All of the elementals are veteran except one elite and two regular.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/15/CCG_Arsenal_Grizzly.jpg

We will be using Defender and Delta companies against these 20 enemies.

25 mechs on 10 mechs and 10 squads of elementals. We should have this, because they are not front line mechs or warriors.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 04:47 PM

How do you become a garrison warrior:

1). Age. As you get older, if you have not advance up the ranks, you will be put out to pasture, so to speak. A lot of older warriors end up in garrisons
2). Freeborn. Those who are not born from genetic enhancement, but instead from normal birth are usually ostracized and included here in garrisons.
3). Dishonored. If you have done something that offends your clan, this is where you may end up.
4). Out of favor. Perhaps you are just not that good. Or perhaps you are a warden in a Crusader clan, or vice versa. Or perhaps you are a political opponent of the new Khan. You could end up here, as a leader of garrisons.

Because of the lack of honor that comes with this assignment, the people tend to not be as good and also fight with chips on their shoulders . This battle is an opportunity for these people, and they will be taking it.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 09:22 PM

We start with our light and jumpy mechs by and around the buildings, and a large power mech group above, ready to move in one giant group.

T1 – We win init. Their Loki nails a PPC in the Banshee. We focused fire on the Gladiator but was too far away to hit with much.

T2 – We win init. Their Elementals are moving towards the buildings. Crusader missiles fly out and hit the head of their Gladiator and destroy the cockpit, dead Gladiator. Other than that, nothing else.

T3 – We win again. Their Peregrine falls while trying to jump on top of a building to get a great attacking angle on us, but the building fell. Their Rifleman IIc hits our Whitworth in the head with a large pulse laser. The Supernova hits an engine on our Thor. Our Firestarter pilot blacks out after getting hit in the head three times. I fire my Javelin and some others at a building that has some Elementals on top and destroy it. Our Spider falls after missing a kick.

T4 – We lose init. They set up Elementals on top of a lot of buildings for nasty killing zones. Their Supernova cracks our Banshee open more and hits a gyro and destroys its RA. Their Koshi gets two engine hits on our Javelin. Our Black Knight responds by destroying the Koshi’s LT. An engine is hit on the Firestarter. The Elementals destroys its CT section – dead Firestarter. Our Orion’s AC10 opens the head of their Supernova and hits the life support. The pilot blacks out. Our Jav destroys the CT of their Koshi.

T5 – I win init. I charge several mechs into the building near the elementals to take out a few of them – crusader, Black knight, phoenix hawk, and thor. Their Loki hits my Awesome’s head with an srm missile. Their Peregrine destroys my Spider’s LL. We killed several troopers in various squads, and a BattleMaster took out one. My Orion’s RL is destroyed. Our Spider and Orion fall. Their Supernova pilot fails to awaken

T6 – We lose init. The Javis 20 overheat, and there’s no way I can get back down with the engine hits so I eject. I don’t want an ammo explosion from the heat. I eject the Spider too. An entire building collapsed and the Peregrine and a Elemental unit died. Their Griffin IIc hits an engine on the Awesome. Col. Humphries’s Atlas shears off the head of their Rifleman IIc with LRM Missiles after the Awesome hit it with a PPC earlier in the turn.

T7 – We win init. Magnus and the Dragonfly hope behind their Griffin IIc and we have pushed their mechs in a corner. An Awesome PPC hits the sensors on their Loki’s head. Our BattleMaster hits the gauss in the LA of their Galahad, and it explodes and destroys the arm and the pilot blacks out. Our Dragon gets a limb blown off critical against their Griffin IIc’s la. A BattleMaster’s short range missile hits the head and rings the bell of their Shadow Hawk IIc. Our Huncy focuses fire on hit and blows up the LA from the SH IIc. Our Thor’s Ultra AC20 chews into their Loki’s RT and destroys it.

T8 – We win init. I keep Magus’s Dragonfly behind their Griffin IIc after they try and jump away. A Warhammer cracks the foot on their Grizzly. A BattleMaster hits the Loki’s engine five times and gyro once. Unfortunately, Warhammer PPCs snake in and destroy the CT. Our Thor destroys the LT of their Shadow Hawk IIc.

T9 –We lose init. We run out of LRM ammo for the Catapult this turn. Their Shadow Hawk IIC gets a missile to the head of our Crusader. A BattleMaster destroys a elemental troop. An AC20 from our Hunchback destroys the Grizzly’s head. Their Shadow hawk IIc tumbles. Neither of their pilots awakens.

T10 - We win init. Their Shadow Hawk IIc stands and moves away. An elemental hits the head of our Comet. A BattleMaster destroys the CT of their Shadow Hawk IIc. We also kill 6 more troopers in various squads. Our Wasp kicks and destroys the last trooper in a squad. A Griffin does the same. Their pilots stay unconscious. We radio and offer hegira and they accept.

Abe Sargent

09-29-2011, 11:03 PM

Shadow Hawk IIc GB version, H, RT, LT, LL, RL, LA, RA
Griffin IIc - LA
Koshi B LA, RA, RT, LL, RL, H
Gladiator A – cockpit
Rifleman IIc – missing H
Supernova – life support
Galahad – missing La
Loki B – RA, H, LT, LA, LL, RL
Grizzly, missing H, RA

Firestarter H, LL, RL, LT, LA, RT, RA

Banshee, gyro, PPC hit; destroyed Ra; Javelin enginex2; Spider LL; Orion RL; Awesome enginex1;

Supernova Pilot, veteran, Kevin, now a bondsman
Galahad Pilot, veteran, Helga, now a bondsman
10 veteran elementals, bondsmen
After the battle, Magnus, who has proved himself, is no longer a Bondsman, but now a full member of K&C.

We lost a mech. We have to pay 400k even after battle compensation.

Salvage:

Gladiator A – up and running easily
Supernova – and this as well
Loki D-Uk – I use the extra pieces here to get this up and running.

Clan Items:

Beagle Active Probe
2x ER Medium Lasers
2x SRM6
ER Small Laser
Gauss Rifle

Experience:

Michael Henry, Defender’s BattleMaster, Edge: 2
Gia Alletelli, Hunchback, Edge: 1
Griffin’s pilot Marcus Jackson is getting Edge: 1
Estelle Galverson, Crusader, Edge: 2

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 12:39 AM

Aug 13 – Lt. Rafael Gomez, who has been with the unit since 3030 has died of a disease that was discovered was too late to cure. He was an Archer pilot for Aleph Company and he was the one who took over after Braham Essex left. Michael Adkins is promoted to Sgt and Aurelia Jenson is giving command, in her Striker. Adele Thompson still has no desire to be promoted above her scout lance. The Archer is given to dispossessed MechWarrior Sergei Monotov, regular.

Aug 15 – After some quiet time, Humphries arrives at the Thule system.

Aug 16 – Ghost Bears have arrived at Radlje. They are moving to the planet.

Aug 18 – The Ghost Bears have returned from recalibrating their machine, and have begun to attack the Rasalhague system Vipaava.

Aug 24 – They arrive and issue a batchall.

They will be attacking with a full cluster. Nothing we say will change their mind. What will we use? The entire battalion. If we win, with this large of a battle, we want another DropShip.

They land in the swamp we have suggested for battle. All of our scout units have created an ad-hoc scout company that hits them from the east but quickly fades. They dispatch a binary to chase them down (binary is two stars, a star is five points, five fighters, squads of elementals or mechs). Meanwhile, our other forces are to the west. Missiles launch in from our fire support mechs and batter nothing but mire and plants. Their better sensors note where we are and have accommodated. They move the rest of their forces west towards us.

Our light company manages to elude the binary sent after them, without any weapons fire hitting anyone. Meanwhile, the other 45 mechs are slogging their way towards our 24 mechs. They break off into 15 mech trinaries and peel them off. We back up but have our backs to the worst section of the bog, and we’re too slow. Within fifteen minutes, our 24 mechs are surrounded on every side by 45 clan mechs.

With a minute, four of our mechs are destroyed and we haven’t damaged any of theirs. Tethys’s Griffin, Mustang’s Whitworth and Lance’s Banshee and Trebuchet have been destroyed. They offer us hegira, and with being as surrounded as we are, and outnumbers 2!: against superior forces in superior positions – we accept.

We have lost Radlje.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 01:18 AM

Aug 25 – Baron Jorgensson sent troops to grab tech from the damaged WarShip in Damian. They found nothing, it was already stripped by someone.

Aug 30 - After discussing it, the board of directors for Kressly Warworks has decided to expand into BattleMechs. With the video of a Kilts and Commandos Attila defeating a clan OmniMech in one on one combat making the rounds of the inner sphere, they are going to build them. The Attila will be updated with a bit LosTech, since that’s the hot new stuff. Since field trials are not necessary, adding a mech line to their factory will take roughly a year before they will be making the first one.

The new Atilla:

ATA-2 Atilla
85 tons, 3/5/3 movement
Maximum armor
17(34) double heat sinks
2xER PPC, one in each arm
3xSRM 6, all three in LT along with CASE and two tons of ammo
Medium Laser in H, 5x in RT, 1 in CT

Jump Jets in legs and CT. 2x HS are all over the place

Changes – weight saved from the switch to double heat sinks is used for jump jets and CASE and a 3rd SRM6. ER PPCS fit easily. We can jump and fire both ER PPCs without going overheat. When closed, we can fire all seven medium lasers and all three SRM6s and we make 33 heat. This assault mech will not go overheat. It does not have any expensive components like ferro-fib, endo steel or XL engines. It doesn’t need the weight savings. We had to remove the hand actuators to fix two double heat sinks in each arm.

Cost: 8.663 mill C Bills
Battle Value: 1,728

Compared to other mechs on the drawing board or just coming off in this era:

AS7-K Atlas, which is Col. Humphries btw, is 22.5 mill for 2175 BV
Albatross – 25 mill for 1650 BV
Stalker 5M – 8.25 mill and 1670 BV
Salamander – 18.4 mill, 1769 BV
Mauler – 1473 BV off 18.8 mill
Grand Titan 1820 BV off 29 mill

So the combination of value and cost is really good for the upgraded Attila.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 01:49 AM

Aug 31 – By the end of August, the Bears have captured two more systems, the Jaguars grab another, the Falcons add 3 and the Wolves take 4 more. 10 more systems have fallen to the inexorable Clan Advance.

Sept 4 – Humphries and his battalion arrive at Thule and are joined by Typhon Company. We now have 10 companies of mechs on Thule.

Sept 6 – The battalion from Radlje arrives in the Thule system

Sept 7 – The clan techs manage to fix the engine on the Loki Prime we captured a long time ago. Their next project is to move the arm from the Griffin IIc to a Dragonfly B chassis, which they say will be easy. After that, a Fenris C will be restored after getting a Shadow Hawk IIc head grafted to its body as a replacement.

Sept 10 - We meet with Baron Jorgensson to discuss possible battle strategies. We want to do more than just sit here and wait for an invasion. And yet, we have no support from the rest of Rasalhague, and the Baron wants to send us to help on the front lines. The Bears are attacking three more Rasalhague systems right now, and the Wolves are taking two more. Rasalhague systems as far away as Kandis are falling. We are five jumps away from the nearest free system – Spittal, but it is right next to three systems currently fighting Bears – by the time we arrived, it would likely have fallen already. There’s just not a lot of options. We will wait for the battered battalion from Radlje to arrive to get fixed up, and then we need to figure some things out.

Sept 15 – Thule had been left out for a while, but a clan JumpShip arrives in the system. It’s just a JumpShip, and not a full blown WarShip. We get news that the Bears took Pinnacle from the Vipers.

Their bondsmen do not give us military information on the clan, which we are okay with. They won’t give us information on home planets, defenses, that sort of thing – just information about things like culture, language, the Trials, and more. That’s fair, we know that if one of ours is taken as a bondsman, the clans would not expect sensitive information to be given. These clan techs we took aren’t giving us schematics to build our own OmniMechs, but they are helping us repair them an getting them ready.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 02:21 AM

We are going to shift our language. Previously, we have referred to Star League/Modern era technology as LosTech, the new clan level of technology as ClanTech and the old 3025 era without any special terms. Now we will be calling them level 1, level 2 and level 3.

Level 1 Tech:

Small, Medium and Large Lasers
SRM 2, 4, 6
LRM 5, 10, 15 and 20
PPC
Machine Gun
AC 2, 5, 10 or 20
Flamer
Hatchet

Level 2 Tech:

Gauss Rifle
ER PPC
ER Large Laser
Large, medium and small pulse lasers
LB 10-X
Ultra AC5
SRM 2 Streak

Anti-Missile System
Guardian ECM Suite
Beagle Active Probe
Target Acquisition Gear
Narc Missile Beacon
Artemis IV Fire Control System
C3 Computer

Ferro Fibrous Armor
Endo Steel Construction
Double Heat Sinks
XL Engines
Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment (CASE)
Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (MASC)
Triple Strength Myomer

Level 3 Tech:

ER Medium and Small Lasers
Ultra AC 2, 10 and 20
LB 2-X, 5-X, 20-X
SRM 4 and 6 Streak
Anti-Personnel Pods

Targeting Computer

Their weapons are also better. For example, a level 1/2 LRM 20 weighs 10 tons, has a range of 7/14/21 with a minimum range of 6, and makes 6 heat and uses 5 critical slots. A clan level 3 LRM 20 weighs just 5 tons, has a 7/14/21 range with no minimum and makes 6 heat and uses 4 critical slots. An Inner Sphere ER LL weighs 5, uses 2 crits, makes 12 heat, does 8 damage and has a 7/14/19 range. The clan one weighs 4 tons, uses 1 crit, has a range of 8/15/25, does 10 damage and makes 12 heat.

All of their machines are massively better than the IS ones, except for the Gauss Rifle. The clan version does weigh 20% less and uses one less critical space, but it has the same damage, range and heat.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 02:37 AM

Sept 20 – After suffering from a massive counter attack by the Federated Commonwealth, the planet of Twycross is retaken by the FedComs.

Sept 21 – The clan JumpShip leaves Thule.

Sept 22 – All of our troops are on planet and we have an awards ceremony

For valor against the clans, and for defeating them on several occasions, every unit which has fought against them gets the Tyr Clusters for furthering the freedom of the FRR. These companies get it:

Delta
Trinity
Defender
Tethys
Mustang
Lance
Phaeton

For defeating clan opponents in solo combat, Captain Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company and Lt. Akwasi Oppoku of Lance company get the very rare Mannerheim Cross

For organizing the defense, Col. Matthew Humprhies gets both the Mannerheim Cross and Sheild of Heimdall for protecting citizens.

All three of those are also given the Tartan Badge, the highest honor that we can give to our company.

The following people get the Black Badge, our second rank of honor we bestow. Captain Gabriel Williams, Mustang Company

Sept 30 – By the end of the month, Wolf has captured 5 more systems total, the Jaguars grab 3, the Ghost Bears took 5 and the Falcons 4.

Oct 1 – After discussions with Baron Jorgensson, we dispatch the entire K&C unit - 13 companies, techs, spares, extra mechs, and more from Thule. Only 4 companies of assembled mechs from various planets that lost will garrison it. The Baron understands that his last planet will likely fall, but the FRR needs us on the front battle lines. Besides, the planet could fall anyway, even with us there.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 03:25 AM

Oct 2 – The Smoke Jaguars arrive at Wolcott and move to the planet

Oct 10 – The Jaguars arrive at Wolcott and issue a batchall. The Combine has taken two regiments of mechs that are elite, given them a new unit name and claimed they are green, and then used them against the Jaguars. Soon, the Jaguars will lose, and the clans will begin to understand that the IS will abuse their batchall system. The Jaguars win 10 suits of elemental armor, some pristine omnimechs to dissect, and the pledge that the Jaguars will never attack Wolcott.

Now everyone has a victory against the clans – Twycross, Thule and Wolcott.

Oct 13 – Upset by how much better Clan Wolf is doing than his own clan, Smoke Jaguar, ilKhan Leo Showers orders a Gran Kurultai to meet with the invading clans on board the Dire Wolf WarShip in the Radstadt system.

Oct 21 – One day before our DropShips arrive at a flotilla of JumpShips waiting for us, a clan WarShip jumps in at a pirate point. It’s only a few days from Thule. We contact them and as if we should return, but we are told to get going.

Oct 23 – We jump out of Thule.

Oct 29 – Thule has fallen to the Ghost Bears

Oct 31 – After suffering many technical difficulties and being thought dead, the Prince Elect arrives in the Radstadt system with his escort of 1st Drakons, a powerful Aerospace screen. In the Radstadt system is the Dire Wolf, a clan WarShip currently getting ready to host the Grand Kurultai. Thinking the clans will attack and destroy their prince, the 1st Drakons move out an attack the WarShip. The clan weapons are clearly too much for the Rasalhague pilots, but they keep on, trying to buy their prince time to escape. One fighter after another is cleared from the space, but one fighter slips through, piloted by Tyra Miraborg. Damaged and bruised, a suicide attack on the WarShip’s bridge destroys much of it. Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is pulled away in time, but ilKhan Leon Showers does not make it, and he dies in the space around Radstadt.

By the end of October, the clans have conquered:

Ghost Bear: 19 Inner Sphere worlds.
Wolf: 43
Smoke Jaguar: 26
Jade Falcon: 40

Total Number: 128 systems under Clan Control in just seven months.

ComStar knows that the clan ilKhan has passed.

The war effort was organized between clans that normally were at each other’s throats, and it is carefully balanced. One push could put the clans back on each other, rather than on the Inner Sphere. The meeting is held with the invading clans, and Steel Viper suggests the appointment of a new ilKhan, which requires all khans and bloodnamed warriors to return to their capital world and talk with others from their clans and the other clans. They will leave the Inner Sphere in a few weeks, leaving only garrison forces on the planets.

Once there, they will try to pin the blame of Showers’s death on Ulric Kerensky, but once that fails, they will appoint him as the new ilKhan. He orders Clan Nova Cat to return as an invading clan sharing the Smoke Jaguar corridor and Clan Steel Viper to return and share the Jade Falcon corridor. This is to help them get better, but Ghost Bear was the one who looked to need it the most. It was clear that Ulric Kerensky wanted to weaken the Jaguars and Falcons by forcing them to work with clans they hated. He will appoint the black widow Natasha Kerensky as the new clan of Wolf to replace him.

They will return in force in almost a year, but until that happens, the Inner Sphere has a chance to breathe, to rebuild, and to mourn.

End of Chapter 1 of The Invasion.

law90026

09-30-2011, 04:31 AM

I have to say that this period was probably my favourite period (closely followed by the 3rd Succession War) and you're doing a really great job with the story.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 01:11 PM

I have to say that this period was probably my favourite period (closely followed by the 3rd Succession War) and you're doing a really great job with the story.

Thanks, thanks!

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 02:32 PM

Nov 13, 3050 – Our unit has arrived at the Kempten system after being ferried by command circuits and KF batteries. This is seven jumps from Thule, and along the Draconis Border. The Rasalhague Republic has just 34 star systems left. 7 of their 15 BattleMech regiments are completely destroyed with many others having vast losses.

We will now move to the regional capital Skandia, the only regional capital left after Rasalhague and Radstadt fell. Braham Essex will meet us there with Shadow Company.

Nov 28 – We arrive at Skandia. For the rest of our contract, the FRR wants us to assist in training their remaining mechs in anti-clan strategies.

Dec 18 – We honor the fall of Andurien

Dec 31 – During this year, technology introduced includes the Mauler BattleMech, the C3s we mentioned earlier, and triple strength myomer hitting the markets.

We have 8 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 12 enroll for next year:

5 regular, 2 green, 2 veteran

Year 3 - 8
Year 2 - 6
Year 1- 12

We have decided to add Oct 29 to our holidays as a remembrance of the fall of Thule.

Jan 1, 3051 – During this down time, two of our older mechwarriors are choosing to retire after this massive campaign:

Aleph Company’s Liu Chen and Elena Stoyovich. We are sending two veteran recruits from the academy to replace them:

Emmanuel Sanders, given the Javelin
Bayama Badar, given the Jenner

Our Training Academy is expanding in a full four year training academy. It adds a Dasher E-UK from those captured, and it advertises learning in an OmniMech and a BattleMaster 2C – both of which are really expected to bring them in now. Expect the quality of our recruits to increase. Those currently enrolled are offered the 4th year if they want it.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 02:52 PM

Updated Roster:

Aleph Company – FRR, Skandia
Phaeton Company – FRR, Skandia
Trinity Company – FRR, Skandia
Delta Company – FRR, Skandia
Cinq Company – FRR, Skandia
Hex Company – FRR, Skandia
Defender Company – FRR, Skandia
Typhon Company – Skandia
Heliades Company – FRR, Skandia
Tethys Company – FRR, Skandia
Brawler Company – FRR, Skandia
Lance Company – FRR, Skandia
Mustang Company – FRR, Skandia
Styx Company - EE
Boxer Company – EE
Rebel Company – EE

Shadow Company - Skandia
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion – EE
Delta Company – EE
Aerospace Company - Skandia

Robin Hood - Skandia
Star River - Skandia
Scots Flotilla - Skandia
Serendipitous Victory - Skandia

Those listed as EE are on our home world, Epsilon Eridani

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 03:26 PM

Jan 10, 3051 – A blip appears on our screen nearby Kressly Warworks. A company of mechs unloads, but instead of hitting either Kressly or us, they are going after a nearby mining complex. The planetary garrison is too far away, and the mine is going to be hit. We do not have a contract with the planet in any way shape or form. Still, Ted decides to send out Styx Company to hit them.

Styx is already on patrol around the Warworks, so they are close and already hot, He orders Boxer into their mechs to spell the garrison.

Styx easily puts themselves between the mine and the attackers. They must have thought we wouldn’t fight them off, because they pause. Styx uses the pause to move in:

AWS-8Q Awesome
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
WHM-6D Warhammer
CP-11-A Cyclops
CRD-3D Crusader
TBT-5N Trebuchet
BJ-1DB Blackjack
RFL-3N Rifleman
JVN-10F Javelin
JR7-F Jenner
LCT-1E Locust
WLF-2 Wolfhound

The Cyclops and Wolfhound are level 2 mechs with a few upgraded weapons. 6 elites, 1 vet, 5 regulars

The enemy:

AS7-K Atlas – Upgraded Atlas, elite pilot
Rifleman
Grasshopper
Panther
Valkyrie
Hatchetman
Hunchback
Stalker
Charger 1A9 variant
UrbanMech R63- upgraded level 2 mech
Commando
Thunderbolt

They are all regular pilots.

This is their Valkyrie, a fairly common light mech in the Federated Commonwealth with 5/8/5 movement, an LRM 10 and usually a backup weapons of some sort, like a medium laser.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/3/31/VLK-QD-Valkyrie.jpg/463px-VLK-QD-Valkyrie.jpg

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 07:02 PM

The area we are fighting has hills, some minor woods, a road, a bridge, a river, a lake. It’s very diverse.

Here we go!

T1 – We lose init. We just exchange simple weapons fire.

T2 – We lose again. I run my Jav behind their Rifleman. Our Crusader fires missiles at their Rifleman and destroys its RT. Their Commando’s gyro and engine each once are hit by our Jenner’s. Stalker missile shit the Crusader’s H but just ding off right now.

T3 – We lost. I hop my Jav by their Stalker and Jenner by their wounded Rifelman. Our Warhammer opens up the CT on their Stalker and hits its engine once. Large Laser from the Blackjack knifes into the Stalker’s H. A medium laser from the Jav follows and heads the Stalker. Our Jav pilot blacks out after being knocked twice in the head by their Urbanmech’s LB 10-X.

T4 – We lose init. Their Atlas destroys the LA of my Awesome. My Jav’s RL is destroyed. Their Commando’s RA is destroyed by our Warhammer. Our Crusaders fires in missiles, destroys the Rifleman engine, and then an explosion hits and destroys the Commando. Their Panther’s PPC destroys our Jav’s LL, and a Hatchetman follows by taking out the LA and LT. Their Hunchback destroys the Jav’s RA. I’m just glad it survived. We win and they leave. They were just here to raid and they’ve already lost three mechs.

Rifleman RA
Stalker missing H

To fix: Awesome LA; Javelin RL, LL, LT, LA, RA;

We pay 400k for ammo and armor, 2.2 mill to fix the Awesome, Jav and Stalker

So basically we pay 2.6 mill for a Stalker.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 07:47 PM

Jan 15 – By now our clan techs on Skandia have done some more modifications.

Rifleman IIc - They pull the head off a Loki to fix it

Vulture Prime – The Galahad’s LT was used for it

Since they both have clan endo steel and ferro fib, this works.

January 20 – After fighting with them and training, all clan MechWarrior bondsman are made official warriors.

We have quite a few dispossessed warriors from destroyed mechs. We have 25 mechs at the garrison that are up and running. We make these choices. Of them, some are not really good enough to send out (like Fleas). That leaves these unassigned mechs in the garrison:

Panther, Stalker, Cataphract, Rifleman 5M, Javelin, Vindicator 3L, Cataphract 3L, BattleMaster 3M, Marauder 3L, Hatamato-Chi, CP-11-A Cyclops

We also have 15 unassigned clan mechs plus the two we’ve assigned.

We spend 1.9 million to purchase parts for our Firestarter and Comet that has CT sections destroyed.

We get a Firestarter and Comet back. The Comet is sent to Mustang Company and the Firestarter will be sent there too and replace the destroyed Quickdraw.

We are not taking any new contracts right now, since we only have a few forces on EE and don’t want to risk sending any away.

Jan 14 – The Inner Sphere hosts a conference on Outreach to verify that the clans are the descendants of the Exodus Fleet and that Jaime Wolf and the Wolf’s Dragoons, the premier mercenary unit on the IS, were a clan spy mission to work for all of the leaders in turn and get them info.

Jan 25 – While touring and visiting our garrison, Leftenant-General Pierre Benton thanks Ted for his jumping in and stopping the raid on the mines, even though we didn’t have a contract. He is glad that we look out for our own, something the Houses don’t understand.

Feb 1 – Braham Essex has personally returned home to spend some time with his family before the clans return.

Feb 10 – Ted is again trying to find upgrades for current mechs using the level 2 technology currently available.

1.2 mill for a Hunchback reassembled from parts plus a center torso.

We send the Stalker to Defender Company.

Javelin and Vindicator are sent to Phaeton Company.

Mustang was hit hard, so we send the Cyclops, Cataphract 3L and Rifleman 5M

Okay, we’ve now added mechs back to companies that lost them and have recalibrated.

We assemble a Jav 10F from parts for various light mechs. It cost 730k.

We spend 1.1 mill to assemble an Archer.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 10:09 PM

March 1, 3051 – EVENT The entire Inner Sphere is quiet. Factories are churning out new mechs, traders and military people are acquiring level two technology and refitting mechs, fresh and elite pilots are rotated to the front lines against the clans. Everybody knows that there will be another offensive, and they are holding their collective breath until that happens. Documentaries discuss clan occupations and everybody is an expert as to what is happening when. With everybody’s attention Clan-ward, pirates on the periphery are getting more leeway, and contracts are virtually non-existent from Inner Sphere powers. The occasional garrison or retainer contract is the only thing coming down the pike from the Great Houses. The money is being churning into infrastructures, building new mech lines, expanding factories, and purchasing and refitting materiel. There is no money for destroying listening posts or raiding factories or any other of the normal sort of contracts that come mercenaries way. The quality and quantity of contracts for the rest of the year will be strongly reduced. This is the eye of the storm.

Abe Sargent

09-30-2011, 10:47 PM

Apr 4 – With nothing on the inner sphere radar, repeats of stories begin to make another circuit of news. Wolcott, Twycross and Thule are in the news again.

Apr 12 - Our elementals and techs are no longer bondsman but full members of the unit. Even clan elementals have failed to teach normal infantry how to use the suit.

May 1 – Our contract has ended with the Free Rasalhague Republic. They want to extend it with the Emergency Powers Clause, the most they can do is one month at a time for three months in a row, so they prefer to do another contract. Let’s do the money for the current one that ended first:

Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Length:5 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2 with a 25% bonus for long campaigns
12.5% bonus

Here is how much we spent on salary a month for these twelve companies of mechs: 741009

Over the course of 5 years, we spend 44,460,540 in salary and support for these companies.

2.592 mill of that is upkeep of the mechs
2.146 mill is Overhead and Administration

We make 286,598,126 in salary from the FRR

We also get a 12.5% bonus, which is applied to all of the things, but in this case, just the salary, since the other is all paid.

After the bonus and costs, we made: 277,962,351

Now, we aren’t done removing money. I haven’t paid down the administration costs for EE in two years, so that’s 30 mill gone for the academy and our headquarters. Additionally, I have some units that haven’t been in contracts and they need to have been paid, so let’s pay them:

1.317 mill for garrison troops for two years
2.882 mill for 18 months of Styx, Boxer and Rebel companies
2.42 mill for 24 months of Vehicles Companies
600k for 1 year of aerospace company

Total gained: 240, 743, 351

War pays good.

How does the FRR have the money to pay us this when they are way behind? Most mercenary contracts of repute use a bond process, and you put most or all of the money you will pay in an account controlled by ComStar of the Dragoons. They paid us a long time ago, and now we get the pay.

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 12:08 AM

I am going to skip the normal contract offer process.

We have been offered two retainer contracts – one by the Free RR and the other by the Fed Coms, who want to hire us and move us to the front lines.

We want to face the clans, no question. No one wants to sit on the sidelines when the invasion returns. We do a one year deal with the FRR:

Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Length:1 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2, x1.5 for clan contract
20% Bonus

Standard merc deals are adding some money for expected service vs the Clans.

The major differences are that the bonus is higher, we have the clan bonus, it’s just a one year deal and their support is dropping to 25%.

This contract applies to everybody on Skandia: Aleph, Phaeton, Trinity, Delta, Cinq, Hex, Defender,
Typhon, Heliades, Tethys, Brawler, Lance, Mustang, Shadow, Aerospace

We will continue on Skandia training for now. Intel experts believe that the clans will return no earlier than late September.

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 01:16 AM

June 20 – Assignments have been laid out, and we will be garrisoning the world of Kempten with five of our best companies. Additionally we are garrisoning Vorarlberg with the rest of our forces. During the invasion, Shadow and Aerospace Companies will slip behind enemy lines and take targets of opportunity where one can.

July 17 – We are being shipped out to our new billet early, in order to get a lay for the land.

August 29 – We have landed at Vorarlberg and Kempten.

Kempten:

Delta
Defender
Trinity
Mustang
Phaeton

Vorarlberg:

Aleph
Cinq
Hex
Brawler
Heliades
Tethys
Typhon
Lance

Shadow and Aerospace are at Vorarlberg, waiting to be sent out or to help in defense.

We use this time to investigate future combat sites and more. We also have a tricky inner sphere surprise. We have heavily mined an area in Vorarlberg and Kempten with a large number of mines and it’s a death trap there. A few months of growth over the area should convince people that there are not mines there. We have three different areas large enough for about ten mechs to stand shoulder to shoulder and ten mechs deep. These will each have a mech equipped with a Guardian ECM Suite to keep away sensors from detecting the mines. This is our field of last resort if it’s needed. We prefer to play everything on the up and up, but we get our orders from Overste Whittaker, our boss and liaison with Rasalhague in all things military.

We are expected to hold Kempten, and if we need it, we have our best mechs and men in Shadow Company, ready to bust out and help.

Sept 15 – Braham Essex has arrived on Kempten after leaving behind EE and his family.

Sept 30 – We’ve sent up defenses, explored areas for battle, and yet, no word from agents on the clan occupied worlds that the clans have arrived.

Oct 15 – The first Attila ATA-2 rolls off the production line at Kressly Warworks. We get one for free for providing the design. The rest are to be sold to the market, with us as a primary purchaser for those we want. As of right now, they are churning out one a month.

Oct 31 – We still have seen no sign of the clans, and we’ve used these last two months for more training and more. Our ex-Bondsmen tell us that there were four waves in the invasion previously, and many more waves. We are about to be hit by Wave 5.

End of Interlude II, Chapter 5 The Invasion

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 01:17 PM

Nov 15 – We get word that several systems have been attacked already.

Nov 18 – A large WarShip had jumped into the Vorarlberg system. It does not appear to be Ghost Bears.

Nov 26 – Galaxy Commander Conal Ward contacts the world and issues a batchall he doesn’t expect to be answered.

Colonel Braham Essex responds, and identifies his unit. The Wolves seemed happy to see him, since his troops, the 11th Wolf Guards Cluster wants to try their mettle against his forces. Clan Wolf is the only clan to win all of its battles. There is no Twycross or Wolcott or even a Thule on its history. It took more systems than any other clan and suffered no losses. Clan Wolf also has a tendency to keep battle away from civilians, but there are exceptions. They believe in overwhelming force and being out in the open.

Braham offers a battle against just a company of his men and mechs, nothing special. We’ve fought smaller battles against the Ghost Bear, Steel Viper and Smoke Jaguar. Wolf is very interested in a small battle that can be done in an hour and decides everything – they are interested in steam rolling as many systems as possible.

They had expected the Ghost Bears to attack, and had a garrison for them, but things change. Braham will be defending with his best company, his own Shadow Company. He will not be taking Wolf to the minefield.

(For the Wolves, I don’t even have to roll up units – the exact units and names of pilots and everything is included in the Wolf Clan Sourcebook. )

As a reminder, here is Shadow Company’s all Level 2 company with mostly older designs from the Star League and Braham’s special Orion.

ON1-Abe Orion
HGN-732 Highlander
ST-8A Shootist
FLS-8K Flashman
LNC25-01 Lancelot
GRF-3M Griffin
BJ-2 Blackjack
THG-11E Thug
LNX-9Q Lynx
PXH-1b Phoenix Hawk
STY-2C Starslayer
TLN-5W Talon

Here are the units bid against us:

Binary Battle of 11th Wolf Guards Cluster
All elite save one (1/2)

Alpha Battle Star:

Star Captain Layna Kerensky, Phantom
Tora, Pouncer
Insusa, Puma C
Leander, Mad Cat
Dancer, veteran, Fenris B

Bravo Battle Star:

Star Commander Vlad, Elite, Man O’ War
Amel Carns, Puma A
Drison, Puma A
Capil, Fenris
Spilurn, Black Hawk

The Delta Galaxy of Wolf Clan has a reputation for fast hard hitting mechs.

This is the Pouncer, a Clan Wolf exclusive OmniMech that weighs 40 tons. The prime version has 6/9/5 movement, two ER PPCS, an ER Small laser and a targeting computer for them. It’s a good mech.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/4/4b/CCG_Pouncer_B.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 07:10 PM

We are playing on a mountain lake.

Our Battle Value is 33776 and theirs is 39792.

Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We lose init. Our Blackjack takes 5 damage to the head from a Puma. Another one destroys its RA.

Turn 2 – We win init. They hop their Black Hawk above my Lynx. Our Lancelot nails the head of their Mad Cat Prime with a PPC. It goes internal and destroys the life support.

T3 – We lose init. Our Flashman’s large laser destroys a Puma A RA. Our Thug follows by destroying its RT. It falls and destroys its LA.

T4 – We win init based off tactical genius. Braham’s Orion hits and destroys the LT of their Puma A and the engine took four hits and it shuts down. Our Thug takes 5 damage to the head from their Mad Cat’s LRM20. Their Pouncer’s RA is destroyed by our Starslayer. Our Phoenix Hawk loses its LA and goes severely internal in the LT. As a mech with an XL Engine, it’s not about to die, and I eject it to save it

T5 - We win init based off tactical genius again. They hop their Pouncer to my Blackjack. I move my Lancelot above it. Their Pouncer can’t take two AC20’ hitting it from our Shootist and modified Orion. It’s LT and CT are destroyed. Their Black Hawk destroys the LA on our Talon. Pouncer weapons tear into the Blackjack, as do LRMS from a Puma. They hit a double heat sink in the RT but nothing else. A minor SRM hit to the head of their Black Hawk manages to knock out their pilot, which then falls, and the pilot takes more damage.

T6 – We win init based off tg again. I eject our BJ since it’s a wonder it’s not dead and it’s internal everywhere but the head and right leg. Besides, we are wining this right now, despite a slow start. We jump our Lynx next to their Black Hawk. Our Flashman backs up beside it too. I’m going to try to shoot off its head. I jump my Griffin over too. I run our Lancelot behind their remaining Puma A. Our Highlander hits a ER Large Laser on the Fenris B. Their Puma A’s LT is destroyed by an AC20 from the Shootist. We only hit the Black Hawk with a Flamer and a glancing shot with a Medium Laser. Our Flashman kicks and destroys the Black Hawk’s H. We also kicked it in the CT and LL, but no internal damage.

T7 – Yet another tac gen win for init. They try to escape our Lancelot but they don’t. After several turns of shelling off armor when we can, we have gone internal in the Man O War’s CT. Their Mad Cat goes internal on our Thug’s H and RT. All they hit is a double heat sink. Lancelot destroys the RA of the Puma A. Our Shootist kicks and destroys the RL of the Puma, and it falls and destroys its LT section and that’s an engine shutdown.

T8 – We lose init. A gauss fires from our Highlander into the CT of their Man O War and hits the engine once and gyro twice. Dead mech. Our Griffin added another engine hit. A Fenris hits the foot and upper leg actuators on our Highlander after getting a through armor critical. It doesn’t fall though. We intentionally set the woods on fire that their Puma and Mad Cat are hiding in. I want to force them out.

T9 – We win init. We manage to hop the Highlander into cover despite two damaged actuators. Our Thug has been targeted for four turns, and is internal in five places. We are wining, so I eject it. They only have five mechs left and the Phantom and both Fenris’s are damaged. They run the Fenris B behind our Lynx. Our Shootist takes a Medium Pulse Laser ot the head but survives. Braham’s Orion destroys the RT of their Puma C. Our Griffin’s LLRMs and PPC both nail the Puma’s CT and it is destroyed. Dead Puma. Our Lancelot destroys the head and right leg of their Fenris B.

With three mechs – Mad Cat, Fenris and Pouncer left, we offer the Wolves hegira and they accept. This was a good win, dominated by elite pilots, level two technology, and foes that were fast with great weapons but light, so when we tagged them, we hurt them

Tellistto

10-01-2011, 07:24 PM

Nice win with the A team!

Tell

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 08:13 PM

Pouncer Prime, RT , RA, H, LL, RL, LA
Puma A missing RT, LT, RL, engine x3
Black Hawk Prime, missing H
Man O War -enginex2, gyrox2
Fenris B RA reattached, missing RT, H, RL
Puma C RA, LT, LA, LL, RL, H

Blackjack – RA destroyed;
Phoenix Hawk LA destroyed
Talon LA

It will cost us just 1.15 mill for parts and 650k for ammo and armor. We have to pay 1.35 mill.

The Man o War is easily fixed and ready to go

Puma A - We fix the Puma engines, but it goes to the shop.
I need a RT for a Puma badly. I already have one in the shop missing only that, and now I have two more missing that part.

Clan Items

ER PPCx2
LRm15x2
Medium Pulse Laser

Targeting Computer (for 2 ER PPC and ER SL)

Experience – Rachel Perry, of the Shootist, gains Edge: 1

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 08:13 PM

Nice win with the A team!

Tell

I was happy!

Abe Sargent

10-01-2011, 10:36 PM

Dec 2 - A WarShip arrives at the Kempten system. It does look like a Ghost Bear War Ship we’ve seen before.

Dec 10 – Braham Essex and Shadow Company, plus our Aerospace company blast off from Vorarlberg into Ghost Bear territory.

Dec 12 – The Bears have arrived at the planet and issue a batchall. They are refusing a smaller battle and want to send down a cluster. (In reality, they sent a trinary of 15 OmniMech and captured the planet with that, but now we are here). The 12th Bear Chevaliers Cluster has 45 OmniMechs and 10 squads of Elementals. Because this is an actual campaign, we have been advised that we can ask for more than normal. We ask for the same status as Wolcott – to not be attacked by Ghost Bear here again, but they inform us that the clans aren’t ready to bid that any more.

Instead, we ask for a company of omnimechs, including one Daishi. They discuss it, and then disagree. That’s just too much. They’ll give us 12 second line mechs and refits though. They can send them to us. We agree. If we win, we get a company of clan garrison mechs, with three of each weight type.

We have agreed to war on a large island in the tropical zone. There are no people or infrastructure there, so it is away from everyone and everything (and it includes our mine field, if we need it).

The Bears agree and move towards the large island, and we have our mechs too. As this is a campaign, it will require strategic attacks, withdrawals, surprises, and more. They have 45 Omnis and 15 squads of Elementals. We have:

Delta
Defender
Trinity
Mustang
Phaeton

We also have the 10 Elemental, so 2 squads, and ex-clansmen. That gives us 60 mechs plus the extra surprises.

We are easily outmatched in terms of technology, but we have numbers - barely. However, one good thing, the 12th are a veteran unit, not elite.

Normally when we have done major campaigns like this, we have been a part of a much larger battle – Andurien, Breed, Marduk and more. This campaign will be done completely by us, against clanners who have learned a lot about inner sphere tactics in the last year.

This will be rough. We do have that surprise mine field that doesn’t appear to be mined, and we already spent months investigating the area, that gives us some advantage.

Our fastest mechs are easily outdistanced by their Dasher, but it doesn’t jump. The Dragonfly does though, and it’s a faster jumper than any of our mechs save Spiders and Ostscouts. There’s just no way we will easily hit and fade with our fast mechs.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 01:00 AM

What we can do is set up a trap. My goal is to hit their column with fast jumping units, like Phoenix Hawks, Javelins, and similar mechs. Then when they chase us, we leap over a chasm, which will prevent Dashers from following us, but their scout jumpers – such as Dragonflies, can easily jump over and pursue. Then we hit them with a bunch of fire support mechs who will pour missiles into the area and then retreat. Hopefully, after 20-30 seconds of sustained missile and PPC and ER Large laser fire they will crumble and retreat. However, it’s fairly obvious that a hit and fade is a trap. It’s a pretty common thing. We have to be able to sell it. What I want in the original group is something that looks like a full company – medium mechs, heavy mechs, and light mechs. We are also going to have them “come across” our company, rather than have them attack.

Here are the mechs we will be using for the hit and fade:

Quickdraw
Firestarter
Spider x2
Dragonfly
Phoenix Hawk x2
Catapult in the back
Javelin x2
Griffin
Thor

This group has heavies, mediums and lights, and should look like a real company from a distance. We’re even giving them a similar paint scheme to back that up. Then they will flee and jump over the chasm-like ravine. It’s a mass of jangled plants and thickets and rocks and streams down in the bottom, and any mech that runs down there in order to get back up will get caught quickly. Just in case anyone is stupid enough to do it, we have our elementals hidden down there.

We place our company in the way of their column as they move into the island from the beach on which they landed. Now I roll to see if they believe it is a company when they come across us. They easily do (I roll a 4 on 2d6, I felt the plan here was very good, and required a 10 or higher to break). Will they chase us? Barely (I rolls a 7, I figured an 8 or higher ruined it). They move in, and we move quickly, so they send out their fast units. Will the jump the chasm? (I figure a 7 or higher breaks it – I roll a 6 exactly). Yes, those that are fast jump.

These are the pursuers’:

5 Dragonflies
2 Thors

16 fire mechs rain down weapons – Crusaders, Riflemen, Warhammers, Trebuchet, Whitworths, Archer, Catapults, and more. T Col Humphries’s Atlas with a Gauss and two ER LL and an LRM20 is among the 16. The mechs realize what is happening, and 5 manage to make it out, both Thors and Dragonflies. The other two ‘Flies are completely destroyed. Nothing is salvageable. We fade.

We have taken out two Dragonflies. When fighting the G Bears, I want to focus on taking out the fast mechs. If we can eliminate their Dashers, Dragonflies, and any other very fast units (such as Koshis), then we should be in a strong place strategically.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 01:44 AM

The Ghost Bears camp for the night, fix the damaged mechs that fled, and prepare their own plan. Coming in, they saw a nearby ravine, from a different creek, that had two exists, and would be an ideal ambush. Everybody knows that. What they want to do is appear to split up into Trinaries, and then move one into the ravine, opening up to an ambush. Meanwhile under the cover of an ECM another trinary split up and sneak into position on each side of the ravine with Elementals backing them up. When we come to ambush the Trinary moving through the ravine, we will e ourselves ambushed and outflanked.

Again, it relies on a common trick, do something that obviously weakens you, and then show that it was a trap. We prepared by disguising our mechs and unit. Will they? No, they don’t think of it (they rolled poorly). We don’t need a high number to realize what’s going on. We figure out that it is a trap. There are several things to do when you realize that there is someone trying to trap you, and ideally, you trap the trappers. Now that you suspect that they have a trap prepared for those who ambush the unit below, you can prepare, but we don’t know what their plan is. Our scouts tell us that they split into three groups and left, one for the ravine. We decide to leave it alone – it’s just too obviously a trap, and without better intel about what they are specifically doing, we would walk into the trap. For example, they could have rigged the sides of the canyon t explode down.

We are using an old cave system as our base. We have the maps and there are three entrances we have guarded. Ores in the rocks and ECM systems prevent them from finding us. We’re not going to risk it heading out.

It is decided that we will instead send out a pair of company of mechs to look like we are doing stuff and perhaps run into one of their units – we dispatch Lt. Miguel Juarez’s Delta Company and Capt. Jason Thomas’s Trinity Cpompany. Our scout mechs determine that one of their trinaries is moving in a direction perpendicular to Delta, and if we want, we can meet up with them in n area with thinner trees.

After consideration, we decide to push in. It’s the one trinary that is not involved with the trap or bait. It’s the 63rd Assault Trinary with 15 omnimechs. They’ve only been here one day. They don’t know the land yet, so we can leave anytime we want. Ejecting will only result in us keeping our mechs and people if we win the field, but the goal of this is not to win the field, in a 12 vs 15 battle against OmniMech, but to slash and destroy one or three and then fade.

Here is their trinary:

Dasher Prime
Dasher D
Gladiator Prime, elite
Man o War B
Dragonfly B
Fenris Prime
Vulture Primex2
Vulture C
Masakari Prime, elite
Loki A, elite
Ryoken C
Uller Prime
Thor C

They only have 14 mechs, and that suggests that they lost a Dragonfly yesterday.

It’s 12 v 14 and we are down tech and numbers but not ability – Delta has 9 elites and 3 vets.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 12:58 PM

Here we go:

T1 – I lose init. Each force grabs a copse of woods to hide in. This is a campaign, so losses like arms and legs being zarked have a major impact. Ammo and armor is in stores, but not a bunch of extra legs and such. We focus our fire on their Ryoken. Our Awesome hits the engine on their Ryoken after cracking its CT.

T2 – We lose again. Our Crusader hits the Ryoken’s gyro. Our Wasp nails the CT and hits the engine twice more and takes out the engine. Our BattleMaster sheared off the LL of their Loki. Their Thor’ hits a gyro and engine on my Warhammer. Their Loki falls and hits its engine, but our Warhammer doesn’t.

T3 – We win init. I went overheat with some of my mechs, expecting an alpha strike, but only the Warhammer is damaged with anything of concern to me. I can pull out now, and we took out one mech and legged another, but in a few days, the engine damage is healed. Let’s push and see what happens. Their Loki tried to stand but failed. I pull my Warhammer back behind some heavy woods, since I can’t risk ejecting. Our Dragon hits ammo on the RT of their Loki, and that’s a RT gone and a RA on the ground. Their pilot blacks out. They hit the PPC on our Banshee. That’s two mechs we’ve destroyed, essentially, since the Loki won’t be able to move away from here and the pilot is blocked out anyway. Let’s keep pushing.

T4 – We win init. We focus fire on their Masakari. A lot of head hits this round. Magnus’s ER Medium Laser from his Dragonfly nails the Masakari in the head. A group of LRMs nail our Catapult in the head. Their Vulture nails the Cat for a LRM15. Our Cat responds by launching LRMs at their Masakari – boom head. Dead Masakari after the head is destroyed. A second hit through a lot of woods on my Warhammer staggers it with a hip hit. In combination with the gyro hit, it falls, as does our Cat. Their pilot does not wake up (they need a 10 to do so).

T5 – We lose init. With kills of a Masakari, Ryoken and essentially a Loki, we essentially have momentum. On the other hand, they are internal in lots of places. If they leave, they are giving us a Masakari, Ryoken and Loki in salvage. Losing a Masakari is a big deal, but they still have triple Vultures, and a Gladiator and Man o War in the assault range. Here is my situation:

Awesome – Internal in two places, PPC hit, has 68 points of armor left on the front.
Banshee - Has lost at least 5 ton of armor
Warhammer – Savaged
Catapult – Savaged

Now, that’s it. I could spend a few turns making it hard for my foe to take these guys out while my Crusader, BattleMaster and more tear through another couple of clan mechs, but this is still far from over. I hate to leave salvage behind, but I have to.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 01:36 PM

We fade. It should take them two-three days to fix the Ryoken’s engine and another day or two for the gyro and then half a day for the armor.

We won and killed an elite leader and his mech plus and the Loki is unfixable.

That night, we recuperate. It will take two days to repair our mechs with all of our techs working on them.

The following day, we move out, and we create another ad hoc scout company from the scout lances from Phaeton, Trinity and Mustang companies. If we run into trouble we want speedy backup. While jumping and running through a thick area, the Bears spring a surprise on us. Out from cover burst the first of ten squads of elementals. Battle has begun.

Our scouts:

FS9-M Firestarter JR7-F Jenner CMT Comet COM-2D Commando
JVN-10N Javelin VND-3L Vindicator PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk HER-2S Hermes II
OTT-7J Ostscout PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk SDR-5V Spider CDA-2A Cicada

This is their Elemental Power Armor. It comes with ten points of armor, an ER small laser in one hand, a powerful gripping claw in another and two shots of SRM missiles.

http://www.solaris7.com/images/TRO/BattleArmor/Elemental_LT.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 07:00 PM

There are ten squads of five elementals each.

In order to simulate being caught, we are beginning in the center and they around the edge. We are also on a smaller map to simulate being caught in a trap. We’re just on a little 12x12 grid for the map. Their goal is to hit and fade me. If they can take out a mech or two, that’s beauty for them, and with two loads of SRM ammo, they can hit very hard the first two or three turns. Then they leave.

T1 – We lose init. There’s virtually no cover. We literally surround one squad with six mechs. If I give them a lot of targets to shoot, hopefully they’ll spread their fire out too much. Our Javelin kills that troop we surrounded. SRMS hit our Firestarter in the head thrice. Our Ostscout kicks and kills a trooper.

T2 – We lose init again. The spread fire out between five of my mechs, and didn’t do enough damage to any of them to take them down. Good stuff. I want to speed them up this round to make them harder to hit while giving targets of opportunity for other mechs. We use the tactic to surround another one. Our Jenner takes a hit on a medium laser. Our Jav gets hit on an SRM6. They hit both the a Phoenix Hawk’s engine and gyro once. Our Jav kicks and finishes off the squad we surrounded. Two kills for the Javelin.

The elementals didn’t get push they wanted, and they’ve used up most of their SRM missiles. In the next turn or two light mechs would start falling, but we are ahead and would likely kill moist of their elementals before they did any serious damage to us.

-2 elemental squads for them.

Experience: Raquel Sanchez, in the Javelin, gains a piloting skill. This makes her a veteran officially.

By the end of the third day, they are down five mechs and 2 elemental squads. One mech comes back online in a few days.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 08:05 PM

During the night, we send out ECM equipped mechs with elementals on them. It’s time for our next ambush. We slice many trees in the thicket part of the forest near their camp. We cut deeply into them near the bottom. They are carefully balanced and should fall with only a little force. Our Elementals rig up some chain to connect several trees together. We will flee down this area, and then as they chase us, pull out and drop the big, heavy trees on top of them.

We set up the trap, and then move in. It’s later evening/early morning, and PPC fire from two Griffins launches into the area where their sentries are around their camp. Immediately, their sentries start moving towards us, but they are radioed back, and they don’t leave the edge of their camp. Well, if they aren’t going to leave, then we’ll teach them why. Suddenly, 18 PPCs from two Awesomes, Warhammers, a Goliath, a Panther and Griffins lance out. The mech on the edge of the camp loses boh legs - a Dasher.

-1 Dasher

Now they are coming. I know that they have range and damage on us, so I included mechs in this battle that have PPCs. Due to their damage and range, they inflict some respectable wounds even on clan mechs.

They begin to pursue us with 712th Assault Trinary, which was doing scout and sentry duty. Their OmniMechs are picking up the pace, but we have organized a healthy retreat with PPCs as cover. As they close, suddenly, LRM fire from Whitworths and Catapults arrive my jump capable missile boats. It’s not that much, but it is enough to keep them back. It also makes it appear like these were the surprise, a few extra missile boats. Standard defensive formations against the spread of missiles is to group yourself together and go through, since missiles spread all over the place.

They start marching towards us and they are getting close when our Elementals begin to pull the chains. Does it work? Yes it does, and trees rain down on their company. A few are battered beneath the wood, but not enough. Beagle Active Probes have been added to their OmniMechs and they are fleshing out our positions.

It appears that 4 mechs of their Trinary were damaged of significance – an Uller lost a LL and LA, and a Black hawk was pinned underneath three trees that crossed over it. Another fell right into the cockpit of a Loki and took it out. The fourth was damaged badly, but not internal anywhere.

Facing our PPC and LRM laden mechs, (the good ones), they choose to retreat a bit. They are still in scanning range, but not in weapons range. They are certainly calling for reinforcements. We can’t unearth the Black Hawk for salvage – the operation would take too long. Once again, we have to leave their wreckage to them. However, we managed to take out their Loki and Uller, and also damage a Black Hawk to an unknown degree.

-7 mechs, and -2 elemental platoons.

Please note that since they’ve won salvage, they may be able to start fixing up mechs. For example, they have a Dasher missing both legs. If we destroy Dasher’s CT in the next engagement, they could use the legs on the wounded Dasher and get that back up and running – getting salvage is very important is this sort of campaign, and so far, we’ve got tremendous momentum, but we need to start collecting items.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 08:42 PM

Dec 18 – After not seeing each other for a couple of days, we discover one of their Dragonflies near our caves system, it appears that they have finally located our base. We prepare some traps for them, much like we’ve done before when guarding caves – we place a case of SRM and LRM ammo by the entrances. We can fire into them and ignite them if needed for protection or defense.

Dec 19 - We send out Trinity and Defender Companies for scouting. While out there, Defender Company comes across a pair of scout mechs from the clanners off to the distance. They run and we choose to let them go, fearing a trap (there was none). They come back with their full trinary in just 20 minutes and we have a battle at the delta of a river. There is a ton of water here, and not much dry ground.

This is the 63rd Assault Trinary again. They have their Ryoken back.

Dasher Prime
Dasher D
Gladiator Prime, elite
Man o War B
Dragonfly B
Fenris Prime
Vulture Primex2
Vulture C, elite
Ryoken C
Uller Prime
Thor C

It looks like the Loki pilot moved into the 2x gauss rifle equipped Vulture C. This is a mutual engagement. What that means is that no one has an advantage over another in terms of the strategic campaign. Either group may leave at any time. Additionally, either side may run a mech off the edge of the field in which you started in order to retreat with it. It is doubtful that either side will want to push too much, but it is also possible that we will have a slugfest that lasts forever.

Here is their Uller, a 30 ton scout mech with 6/9 movement. This one has er ll, lb 5-x, streak srm 4 and small pulse.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/f/fb/CCG_Counterstrike_Uller.jpg

They have a BV of 14000 more than we do.

Abe Sargent

10-02-2011, 08:43 PM

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/b7/MapRiverDeltaDrainageBasin2.jpg

This is the map we are playing on, River Delta 2. Sometimes I use created maps and sometimes random maps made by MegaMek. I usually use randomly generated maps for hills, trees, rubble and such, but these for other things- drop ports, coats, deltas, the fun stuff.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 01:38 AM

T1 – We win init. One of their mechs risked going waterward and got breached, but I don’t know which mech or what sections, so I can’t see it. They destroy the RT of our Comet. That sucks, one mech down. Our Warhammer hits the gyro on their Dasher D. Otherwise, just exchanges of fire.

T2 – We lose init. I hop some mechs, like the Griffin and Thor into the center heavy woods in the middle of the map. It appears that the breached mech was their Man o War, breached in RA and LL, which means no gauss. Our Stalker hits and destroys the RA of their Dasher D. Their Executioner Prime destroys the CT of our Comet. Their Dasher D falls under the damage and the gyro hit into the water and the CT is breached, it is out of commission.

T3 – We lose init. We are only getting small fire lanes, so we have to split our fire among many different targets. I hope my Thor and Phoenix Hawk next to their other Dasher. The Dasher’s RT is destroyed by our Thor. It also nails a pair of hip and leg actuators. It falls. Our Phoenix Hawk kicks it and destroys its H. We’ve now taken out two of their20 ton mechs to one of ours.

T4 – We win init. Our Orion nails the LT of a Vulture Prime and ignites ammo and its gone. It falls. That’s the only wound of significance this round. Our BattleMaster is internal in four places.

T5 – We win init. Their Vulture rises. We hop our Jav next to their Ryoken I hop our Thor next to their wounded Vulture. Our Thor’s Ultra AC 20 hits twice and one of those blows off the Vulture’s H. We also destroyed its RT. Their Ryoken nails our Griffin’s LA and destroys it. Their Vulture Prime nailed the H of our Griffin with a large pulse laser but nothing was damaged. A leg actuator on my BM is hit.

T6 - We win init. I run my BM off the board. This was a horrible map for a BattleMaster – woods and streams. It doesn’t have the jump capability to get over the water, it does have the speed to go down and come back up in a single turn so it would expose itself by staying in water and it doesn’t have the long range weapons to just sit back and snipe like our Warhammer and Atlas and Stalker are doing successfully. On this map, a panther would be better, with the same long range weaponry but better mobility. So I used the BM as a damage sponge, and exposed it a bit and took fire round and round. IT did its job very well. Our Orion’s SRM4s get two engine hits on their Ryoken. Their Ryoken hits a leg actuator on our Jav. Our Jav responds by destroys their LT and hitting their head with SRMs and blacking out the pilot. Our Warhammer’s PPC nails the right torso engine on their Vulture C. Their Man o War opens up our Griffins Right Arm and nails the shoulder and PPC. Both their Ryoken and Vulture fall to the ground. We kick the Ryoken but nothing beyond some damage to a leg.

T7 – We win init – yay. At this point, if I were the clans, I’d flee. They have 9 mechs left, two are on the ground, one has an immobile pilot and is out of commission. However, they keep pushing, so we need to push back. I hope our P Hawk next to the downed Ryoken and hope to blow the H off. The Man O War falls. We jump the Thor next to it. Their Vulture Prime has an engine hit and RA destroyed by our Stalker. Our Hermes adds a gyro hit. My Thor hits two engines on their Man O War. Their Thor blows off the LL of our Jav. Their Ryoken awakens.

T8 – We win again. Our Whitworth pilot takes damage twice from their Uller Prime’s LB 5-X. Their Fenris Prime destroys the Javs RT and CT. The Orion gets a third engine hit on their Ryoken. Missles from our Whitworth fly into exposed circuitry on their Man O War and hit the engine twice more, and it shuts down. I’ve basically traded a Griffin, Comet and Javelin for a lot of mechs.

T9 – We lose init. They have 7 mechs of an original 12. They have lost two Dashers, a Vulture a Ryoken and a Man O War. There other mechs have four with external armor but none too bad. Our Thor is out of Ultra AC 20 ammo. They are clans, and they will push. I eject my Griffin pilot. I need to keep materiel right now, and I have this. I wish I had ejected my Jav, in retrospect. Nothing happens but shaving armor.

T10 – We win init. Col Matthews Atlas nails an engine on their Vulture C’s CT. The Stalker destroys the LA of their Vulture Prime and hits the gyro once. Our Hermes falls under an onslaught of weapons and lands in the delta, and its CT section is breached and it is out the fight and shutsdown. Their Vulture Prime does the same, falling down and breaching both its RT and LT and it shuts down too.

T11 – Without any leadership to pull them back, they keep on. We win init. That’s a trade I’ll make every day – Hermes for Vulture. Our Atlas blows up the LA of their Uller Prime. Our Warhammer falls after taking double gauss slugs from their Vulture C.

T12 – We win init. I stand up our Warhammer. Our Atlas destroys the RL and LT of their Uller. Their Fenris launches an attack and hits an engine on my Warhammer. Their Vulture C cracks it again with two gauss’s, one destroys the RT and the other gets two engine hits and a gyro hit. Dead Warhammer. Our Whitworth destroys the CT of their Uller. Well, we traded mechs again, and this time, we traded down, a good solid heavy mech for a fast little light guy.

T13 – They keep coming. As they take out my mechs, they are probably getting happier. We lose init. My Stalker is now out of LRM 10 ammo. Their Thor’s Ultra AC20 cracks my Atlas twice, and one hit nails the LRM 20. Our Thor destroys the engine on their Vulture C after getting two more engine hits. Their Gladiator destroys the Stalker’s RT and it falls. Again, we’ve traded one mech for another. However, we have four more mech companies, they have just two more mech trinaries.

T14 – They continue to push. We win init. I stand the Stalker. Their Thor is now out of AC20 ammo too. I hop our P Hawk to their Thor. Missiles fly from my Whitworth to their Gladiator’s H but just ring the bell.

T15 – We win init again. I hop my Thor to theirs. Our Thor’s RT is destroyed. They also hit an engine on our Atlas. Meanwhile, that Atlas destroys the LT of their Dragonfly with an ER LL. Their Thor falls from the damage and breaches it’s CT. Dead Thor. They pull out and we win.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 01:40 AM

Dasher D – gyrox1, RA destroyed
Dasher Prime – RT destroyed, H destroys, two actuators hit
Vulture Prime missing H, LT, RT
Ryoken missing LT, enginex3,
Man O War – enginex4, breached leg and arm
Vulture Prime, missing LA, gyrox1, breached RT and LT .
Uller Prime, H, LL, RA, RT
Vulture C – enginex4
Dragonfly B LA
Thor C, breached CT,

Comet RA, RL, LL, LA, LT, H
Griffon missing LA, PPC hit,
Javelin LA, LT, RA, RL, H
Hermes CT breached
Warhammer, one gyro, three engine, missing RT
Stalker missing RT
Thor C RT destroyed

They have a Dragonfly, Gladiator and Fenris survive. The Dragonfly is out of the campaign until they can replace its torso and arm.

Because breached mechs bring with them water into the mech under water, the ejection system does not work. Therefore, we have captured the Vulture Prime and Man O War and Thor C pilots. We make them bondsman.

Gustave, veteran, 2/3
Rebecca, veteran, 2/3
Sigurd, veteran, 2/3

Our injured mechs are out for a while or the rest of the campaign. We get the salvage.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 02:00 AM

Dec 20 - The next day, the wounded Ghost Bears make a fateful decision, they are losing this campaign. They now have just two mechs in the 63rd and 12 in the 712th and 14 in the Command Trinary, plus 13 squads of Elementals. 28 mechs and 13 points of elementals. They decide that this needs one major push, and perhaps they can break out of the slump. They know where we are, so they order a full attack. They know we have three exits, so they split the elementals and send the elementals to blow up two of the exits. Their mechs will all assault the middle entrance/exit.

It’s a clever plan, and I roll dice to see if it works. The first exit is destroyed. The second is as well. The mechs are coming. We order all of our forces into the cave and then wait for them to enter. It will be a killing zone. They left us the biggest entrance, and it’s about three mechs wide. Suddenly, three wide, mechs start pouring in. We order energy weapons to fire, to show that we are doing what they expect. When roughly half of their force is in, we launch an attack at the ammunition crates on either side, and the explosion drops the cave entrance. We are completely sealed in. The collapse was slow enough that no mechs were caught, but only 15 mechs are inside, vs three companies - Trinity, Phaeton and Delta. Mustang is out double checking the others 15 vs 36 is bad odds even for clans. We lance fire into their mechs. PPCs and large lasers dance into them. We order no ammunition used save in case where we have tons of ammo like an LRM5. The outside mechs are firing at the rocks and we can see them blast. It takes five rounds to blast open the rockslide. During that time, ten of their mechs are destroyed. We offer them hegira, with just 18 mechs left, and they accept.

We have defeated the Ghost Bears. We gain a company of second line mechs, but they won’t arrive for a couple of weeks.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 02:20 AM

Let’s look at salvage and fixing stuff:

750k armor
1.2 mill ammo

2.25 mill to fix the parts on mechs I can buy

Comet and Jav loss: 2.5 mill

We can’t buy parts to fix the Thor C that lost its RT but we do fix up the other Thor C and just switch them. The RT does count for battle loss, and it and the equipment in it were valued at 1.75 mill

How much we paid: 4.2 mill

How much we got back from Battle Loss at 25%: 2,112,000

Total Paid: 2.087 mill

Salvage:

Thor C, replacing damaged Thor C.
Vulture C – all fixed
Ryoken C – fixed with spare Ryoken parts in storage

Dasher – we tried to move the RA from the Dasher Prime to the Dasher D to fix it, but we couldn’t get it to work – rare, but it does happen. Instead, we’ll take the RT and H from the Dasher D and put it on the Dasher Prime.

Then we have in our salvage pieces with Company One on the other planet Dasher pieces that will fix this up. In a month we’ll have the Dasher D up and running.

We fail to fixed the Man’o’-War’s engine. Even though we should have been able to have it up and running without any part,s we simply aren’t able to fix it. Perhaps our clan techs with Aleph Company will be able to. (I roll, and nope, they are unable as well (I rolled a 3 on 2d6). Annoying.

I move the parts from it to one we have with Aleph Company that needs a LT and LA. We move them from this chassis.

The Vulture Prime is not fully fixed by my guys, but the breaches are fixed by the clan techs in a few months. We spice a LA onto it and it’s good as new.

Clan Items:

ER PPC
Streak SRM 4
LB 5-X

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 10:57 AM

In a few weeks, our mechs arrived, and we bargained for three of each weight class:

Light:

Peregrine
Vixen
Locust IIc

Medium:

Shadow Hawk IIc
Griffin IIC
Hellhound

Heavy:

Galahad
Grizzlyx2

Assault:

Warhammer IIc
Kraken
Highlander IIc

This is clearly their way of clearing out some stuff in mothballs. The Highlander IIc is old and the Kraken is not a design that appeals to me. I mean, we’ll take them, and this might even be a good company for an elite Shadow-like profile.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 04:13 PM

December 25 – Five of Wolf’s Dragoons and 2 of Kell Hounds arrive at Luthien, the capital of the Draconis Combine, on loan from the Federated Commonwealth, in order to prepare for a coming assault from Nova Cat and Smoke Jaguar to take the greatest prize yet in the Clan Invasion.

December 31 – By the end of the year, Laser Heat Sinks are introduced by Jade Falcon, the Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle has finished development for the FedCom, and serval mechs are introduced included Kressly Warworks Attila and the Wolf Trap, the new Hornet and more.

What happened when level 2 tech came back is that some field refits were done, and some factories retooled to make new designs incorporating the new technology into old designs. Some factories has ceased production because they didn’t have the parts for level 2 tech, and they’ve been restarted, so really old mechs, like the Guillotine and Hermes are coming back. However, new designs are also starting to roll off the presses – including the Wolf Trap, Mauler and our own Attila.

By the end of this month, Clan Wolf had taken 18 more systems, the Ghost Bears 4 more, the Jade Falcons 3 more, the Jaguars 5 more, The Steel Vipers took Twycross and took 2 others form the Inner Sphere (and some from Jade Falcon), and Nova Cat took 2. The 5th wave has already resulted in another 35 worlds falling to the clans. Of those, 10 are from the FRR.

Essex Training Academy

We have no graduates from the Essex Training Academy, as they all wanted to return for a 4th year. We have 13 enrollees.

Year 4 - 8
Year 3 - 6
Year 2- 12
Year 1 - 13

January 1,3052 – A giant flotilla of WarShips arrives in Vorarlberg.

January 4, 3052 – The assault on Luthien begins, two Nova Cat Galaxies and three Smoke Jaguar galaxies are attacking.

January 6 – At the end of two brutal days of fighting that raged across the war and pitted 21 Inner Sphere regiments against the clans, the combined Davion/Kurita forces manage to win a staggering victory on Luthien.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 05:28 PM

EVENT – Jan 7, 3052 – After winning the Battle of Luthien in part due to the help from mercenaries and a hated enemy, relations between the two states begin to relax and the “Death to all Mercenaries” decree of the Draconis Combine is relaxing. Soon, they will take on more mercenary contracts.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 06:03 PM

Jan 8 – In a private meeting, ilKhan Ulric Kerensky shares with ComStar Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht (previously known as Frederick Steiner) that the clans ultimate goal is Terra itself, held by ComStar. ComStar can no longer be neutral, and even helpful towards the clans.

Jan 9 - We get a communication from Khan Natasha Kerensky, telling us that the entire Alpha Galaxy of Clan Wolf has arrived to oust us from Vorarlberg. They will not allow a mercenary unit to keep it. With just a handful of companies, and with two companies already gone, this is not going to be a successful defense. Alpha Galaxy has four clusters, and each won has three or four trinaries of mechs and elementals, but mostly mechs. That’s, a rough guess, 200 mechs. (each cluster had 40-60 mechs, and there are four clusters.

The simple fact is that Wolf will use overwhelming force to completely destroy our garrison and take the planet. They are not ashamed, and they will not bid their forces down again against us – they are loaded for overkill.

We negotiate a peaceful withdrawal. We will move to garrison a fall back planet – we are moving to Halesowen, on the border with the Dracs and right by Skandia, but Skandia is well defended, so we are going to help this lightly defended world.

Jan 13 – Braham Essex and his group arrive at Predlitz and have issued a batchall for 10 clan technicians from Ghost Bear. We show them we are a small, 12 person mech company and send all of the details,

They have responded and sent us their location. They want to fight in some abandoned hills. They have mostly second-line and garrison mechs. They are vets. If they win, they want us to turn over our ten elemental warriors, which we agree to. 10 for 10 is a perfectly acceptable number.

Ghost Bear Garrison

Dragonfly Prime
Mad Cat A
Man o War Prime, elite
Marauder IIc
Kodiak, elite
Peregrine
Locust IIc
Griffin IIc
Hunchback IIc
Galahad

These people will use physical attacks, because the IS has been using them on the clans for a while. The clans are a bit meaner after taking a year off to focus and come up with new plans.

This is a powerful binary, led by a pilot is one of the Ghost Bear’s own special mechs, the Kodiak, a 100 ton beast. It has an Ultra AC20, ER Large Laser, 2 SRM6 Streaks, 8 ER Medium Lasers, 17.5 tons of standard armor, 4/6 movement and 20(40) heat sinks. It’s nasty:

http://www.solaris7.com/Images/TRO/BattleMechs/Kodiak.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 06:13 PM

The map has just rubble and hills.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/a/ab/MapDesertHills.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 08:12 PM

Here we go:

Turn 1 – we win init. The hills split our fire from one half of my mechs onto their Marauder IIc and their Man O War. Braham Essex’s AC 20 from his Orion cracks the Marauder right in the CT – a good start. Their Locust IIc goes internal and his an SRM on the Thug.

T2 – We win init. We have a real melee on the left side where the hills come together. These mechs are all next to each other – Their Peregrine, Dragonfly, Locust IIc, and our Highlander, Orion, Shootist and Flashman. I expect to focus some fire on these guys to take out one or two this turn. I hop the Starslayer over to get some damage in. The very first shot to hit the Locust IIc is Braham’s modified Orion’s AC20 and it destroys the CT. Our Highlander takes three AC20 hits from the Hunchbacks double ultra AC 20s and is not internal anywhere. Our Lynx fires an ER PPC at their Galahad and hits an engine, gyro, and gauss ammo. (Gauss ammo does not explode). A gauss from our Highlander nails their Marauder’s LT and hits both engines there. Their Man o War nails a shoulder actuator on our Blackjack. No one falls, although 8 mechs took 20 or more damage this turn on both sides combined. Our Flashman kicks and destroys the RL on their Peregrine.

T3 – We lose init. I run my Flashman behind their Hunchy IIc. I move the Shootist next to it too, and our Orion next to their Marauder IIc. We won the last melee, let’s see how far we can push this. Our Flashman destroys the LT of their Hunchy. Our Shootist takes the AC20s this turn. A cluster of missiles from the LRM 20 by our Griffin nails the head of their Kodiak. Their Peregrine gets a limb blown off critical on the Thug, whose RA is now gone. No one falls. Our Thug kicks and destroys the LT of their Peregrine. Out Shootist kicks an actuator on their Hunchy.

T4 - We win init. I hop our P Hawk behind their Man o War. Braham’s Orion gets behind their Kodiak. Their Kodiak destroys the LT and RT of our Thug after hitting it’s ammo and being saved by CASE. Our Highlander destroys the LA and LT of their Dragonfly. Our Lynx destroys the Peregrine’s RA, and his it gyro and engine once each. Our Talon reaches back, fires an ER PPC and shears off the H of their Man O War. Their Galahad falls and the pilot blacks out. Our Thug falls. I run my Talon by the Mad Cat, and hop my P Hawk to it as well.

T5 – We win init. I eject the Thug pilot. I jump the Lynx by their Galahad to try and snipe off the head. It only hit the head once with a Medium Laser. The Highlander dances a Gauss slug into the CT oftheir Marauder IIc and hits a gyro. Our Shootist destroys its RL and RT and destroys the Mad IIc with a shutdown of the engine. The engine explodes, and the Lynx takes damage, as does the Galahad, who loses its LT. Our Flashman destroys the Hunchys CT. Before it goes, it fires an ER Medium Laser into the head of our Flashman but Rachel Perry shakes it off. Their Griffin IIc punches the head of our Lynx and goes internal but hits nothing. The Galahad pilot misses the 7 he needs to waken.

T6 – We rock init. Their Peregrine tries to stand, fails, falls down and blows off its other leg. I run the Talon behind their Mad Cat. I run my Orion and Flashman above and next to their Kodiak. Our Flashman took two shots from an Ultra AC20 and is still standing. Our Shootist destroys the Galahad’s H with a carefully aimed pulse laser. Our Lynx destroys the Griffin IIc’s RA. The Talon destroys the Mad Cat’s LA. Our Flashman kicks in the Kodiak’s Head and it is a dead mech.

T7 – We win with tactical genius. We off the four remaining Bear mechs hegira and they accept. They limp and hobble off the three mechs they have left - Griffin IIc, Mad Cat and Dragonfly. All three were damaged and missing limbs.

We have won another 10 clan techs.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 09:42 PM

Locust IIc RT, LT, RA, LA, H, RL, LL
Peregrine missing LT, RL, LL
Man o War, missing H
Marauder IIc, gyrox1, enginex3, missing RT, RL.
Galahad missing H and LT
Hunchback IIc H, RA, RT, LA, LL, RL
Kodiak missing H

Thug, reattach RA, LA, replace RT and LT.

The pilot in the Peregrine is captured and made into a bondsman of Braham.

Annika, veteran, 2/3

The Money Stuff:

We spend a lot to get my Thug back and working – Case, torsos, arms, SRms, loads. 1.525 mill. We also spend 650k for armor and 150k for ammo. AC ammo is cheap and this company has a lots of energy weapons. Only the Griffin has LRMs.

After 25% off, we pay 1,744,000

Salvage:

Man O War Prime – We sent it to Aleph Company, where they pull the H off the one we got with the broken engine and move it to this one.

The rest go into our salvage and sent to Aleph Company.

It will take about a month to get the parts and repair the Thug.

Abe Sargent

10-03-2011, 11:07 PM

Jan 18 – We blast off Predlitz

Jan 31 – By the end of the month, Wolves have taken 4 systems, including the one from us. The Bears have grabbed another quartet of systems as well. The Jags took none, losing at Luthien and losing a lot of material has stymied their assault momentarily. The Nova Cats grab 4 as well. The Vipers and Falcons are bickering with themselves and their push has slowed.

Feb 8 – Our unit arrives at the Halesowen system, and discovers it fell to the Bears. We are ordered to the nearby system of Maule to see how things are faring there.

Feb 10 - The Wolves have attacked the FRR world of Skandia. It will fall shortly.

Feb 15 – Romano Liao and her consort are slain by Candace Liao in their sleep after they tried to assassinate her and her husband (and did kill him). Sun-Tzu Liao gains the throne.

Feb 21 – We arrive in the Maule system and it just fell to the Bears yesterday. Skandia has fallen. We are ordered to Utrecht, which has no major garrison of any sort at all.

Feb 23 – Braham arrives at Casere and demands for a Trial of Possession for ten more suits of elemental armor and ten bondsman for it. They have none, so he asks for a Trial for 10 each of every clan energy weapon. They accept. They want the captured Kodiak back, because that’s a totem mech that they really appreciate, and Braham agrees, although he’ll have to ship it back.

The Bear office decides to send out heavier elements in order to stop us. Just one light and two mediums. A 100 ton mech, a 85 ton mech, two 80 tonners, a 65 ton, 60 ton, a 70 ton rounding things out.

The Bear Garrison Binary:

Kraken
Grizzly
Warhammer IIc
Marauder IIc
Rifleman IIc
Shadow Hawk IIc
Man O War B
Peregrine
Vulture Prime
Black Hawk A

All are vets.

Here is their Peregrine, a 35 on light mech with 6/9/6 movement, a large pulse laser, two medium pulses and 6 tons of armor.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/1d/CCG_Mechwarrior_Horned_Owl.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-04-2011, 02:52 AM

They have 5000 more BV

Here we go, in an open rocky field.

T 1 – We roll init. We focus a lot of fire on their Grizzly. Our Thug gets hit in the RL by their Peregrine and hits an actuator, and then blows up the LT on their Grizzly. Our Talon adds an engine hit on the Grizz. Our P hawk falls.

T2 – We win off tactical genius. I stand up our P Hawk and run 7 with it. An Orion’s AC20 to the Shadow Hawk IIc’s RA destroys it. Their Kraken hit the Thug in the head with one of its many AC 2 UltrasA large laser from our Flashman nails an engine in their Grizzly. Our Lynx fires in an ER PPC and h destroys the Grizzly’s RT and then some damage rolls over and destroys its CT. Out Thug falls and hits a shoulder.

T3 – We lose init. Time to eject the Thug pilot. I run my Flashman to their Shadow Hawk IIc. Our Shootist destroys the RT on the Shadow hawk IIc. LRM missiles from Brahams Orion nail the head of their Warhammer IIc for three damage. Their Kraken hits the head of our Flashman. A leg actuator on their Vulture is nailed by our Lynx. Their Peregrine hits na engine on our Flashman. Their Vulture falls and destroys is LT and RA. Our Flashman falls and hits the engine.

T4 – We win init. The two engine hits on the Flashman have it overheat and thus much slower, and it has two engine hits an XL engine with exposed left and right torsos. I eject it. I get our Shootist to the rear of their Warhammer. P Hawk in the back of their S Hawk IIc. Our Highlander nails the hip on their Vulture. Our Griffin destroys the Vultures RL and RT and gets an engine kill. Their Man O War goes internal on our Phoenix Hawk and nails the ER Large Laser. Our Orion punches the Warhammer twice in the RA.

T5 – We win init. Braham runs the Orion behind their Rifleman IIc. Shootist behind their Kraken. Their Marauder IIc destroys the RT of our Shootist. Their Black Hawk destroys the LL of it. Our BJ destroys the LT of their Shadow Hawk iic. Their Shadow hawk falls and destroys its gyro with two hits and the pilot blacked out too. Our Highlander falls. Braham punches the Rifleman in the head. It falls.

T6 – Init is ours again. I eject the Shootist. Our Highlander rises and runs three hexes. I hop our BJ by their WH iic. Our Highlanders destroys the LA of their Rifleman IIc. The Lancelot destroys the RL. Our BJ destroys the Warhammer IIcs RA. Our Talon destroys the LA of their Peregrine. The Lynx his the LPL of the Peregrine. Both Rifleman and Warhammer tumble. A BJ kick destroys the Warhammer’s LA.

T7 – Loss of init. Their Rifleman fails to stand, falls again, and their pilot blacks out. Braham runs up next to their Marauder IIc. Our Griffin nails a gyro on their Warhammer IIc. The Lynx hits their Marauder’s ER PPC on the RA. He also hits the head with a Medium laser. Our Talon’s ER PPC destroys the LL of their Peregrine and it falls. So does the Warhammer. Braham’s Orion double punches the H of their Marauder once and crushes it, dead mech. Our Highlander kicks and destroys the RT of their ‘Hammer.

T8 We win because of tactical genius. We offer them hegira. With a unconscious Rifleman pilot, W Warhammer on the ground and missing both arms and a torso (and has just two MPLs lefts), a legged Peregrine, a pristine Kraken and just lightly dusted Black Hawk, we’ve won this. They accept.

Abe Sargent

10-04-2011, 09:37 AM

Grizzly LA, RL, LL, RA, H
Vulture Prime missing LT, RT, RA, RL, enginex3
Shadow Hawk IIc missing LT, enginex2, gyrox2, RA, RT
Marauder IIc missing H, PPC hit
Rifleman IIc - Missing RL and LA, enginex1

To repair: Thug RT; Shootist RT, LL;

We have won 10x SPL, MPL, LPL, ER PPC, ER LL, ER ML, ER SL.

Costs and Stuff:

Ammo – 200k
Armor – 650k
Pieces for Thug, Shootist – 1.855 mill

Total Paid After Discount – 2.028

Grizzly – We use the H and RA to fix the one in storage with Aleph Company, but not for two months

Shadow Hawk IIc – Ditto this getting fixed with pieces we have from another Shadow Hawk IIc

Marauder IIc – We weren’t able to move the head from the other one to this one, but we are able to move the RT and RL to the other one from this one.

Bondsman –

Chester, veteran, was the Shadow Hawk IIc pilot
Mabel, veteran, was the Rifleman IIc pilot

Abe Sargent

10-04-2011, 10:47 AM

Feb 25 – We blast off Casere

Feb 27 – While moving troops to the front, the Ghost Bears divert a cluster to Kempten, and they issue a batchall. Col. Matthews responds and this time, the Beras are more amenable to a simple 1:1 battle again for the planet, since the last time they went full Cluster it was decimated.

We will be sending Captain Jason Thomas, a 2/2 pilot, Edge:2 in his Atlas AS7-D. The commander of Trinity Company has selected a pasture for battle.

They will be sending a Masakari A with a 1/2 elite pilot. This is what we want our Atlas to do:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRzgxiUCL6wOMyenp0Non6e5GZeBtAJeNB9VThi-LuhGB1EB3rhNC_ZLHYq

Abe Sargent

10-04-2011, 05:17 PM

Okay, here we go:

Jason is on the east edge and their pilot on the left.

T1 – Just maneuvering, following by some peppering of Jason’s mech by the lasers.

T2 – Jason runs to their Masakari and the foe moves as well. The Atlas’s LRMs nail them, and an er large laser lances into Jason’s CT and gets a through armor critical there. It hits the gyro twice.

Dead mech.

Damn, that was…fast.

We are allowed to recover and fix the Atlas, but we lost Kempten. Man, I was hoping for a bit more.

Abe Sargent

10-04-2011, 05:56 PM

Feb 28 – By the end of the month, Precentor Martial Focht has selected the sight he intends to use against the clans. It’s a backwater, lowly populated planet in the Rasalhague Republic, with very little import to anyone. In a few short months, it will be the biggest name in the Inner Sphere.

Wolf has captured 8 systems, Bear 4, the Falcon and Viper none, Jaguars 2, and Cats 2. Another 16 systems have fallen

Mar 2 - We blast off from Kempten. There are no systems near us that are free, and the closest free system, we think is Diosd, which is 5 jumps away and by the time we get there, it should be late April. – who knows.

Mar 5 – Our forces that garrisoned Vorarlberg and have been moving to fid a world to garrison have arrived at the Utrecht System. The Bears are in system and the planet has already surrendered to them before they even landed a mech.

We are sent to Altenmarkt

Mar 12 – Altenmarkt has fallen to the Wolf. We move on.

Mar 20 – From Altenmarkt our forces originally on Vorarlberg have arrived at Ramsau and it has not fallen. We land on the planet a few days later. It has no defense beyond a few aging warriors.

Mar 31 – By the end of March, Precentor Martial Focht has entered tentative negotiations with ilKhan Kerensky about his plan, and they have been accepted and he leaves for their ship.

Wolf takes no worlds in March. The Bears take 5. The Cats grab another. The Jags another another.

The Ghost Bears came back reinvigorated, it was felt hat they had lost something of their own camaraderie, their own sense of family. It was what made them unique, and they felt they lost it, and a renewed sense of purpose dawned on them, and they have returned with a much different clan.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 12:25 AM

Apr 2 – Braham Essex and his forces arrive at Vorarlberg, but the Wolves here are not interested in batchalls right now, they are preparing for something. He blasts off for Kempten.

Apr 10 –Kempten’s Bears are also preparing for something, and the ilKhan has recommended that no additional battles be fought right now. Essex will return.

Apr 12 – Wolves arrive at Altenmarkt, and it’s another full galaxy. They issue a batchall, and again say, they’ll send everything they have if they have too, and destroy the world and yadda. After consultation, the government wants to surrender and we are granted to leave, and we head to the next system on our list, Tukkayid, no, our liaison tells us instead we’ll be going to Dehgolan. Our contract ends on May 1, but we’ve been told to expect extension under the Emergency Powers Clause.

The clans have agreed to fight a proxy battle for Terra on the planet of Tukkayid. Each of the 7 invading clans will have two cities as targets. Each clan is to take and hold both of their targets, and once one side agrees to retreat, the winner is declared. If a majority of clans are the victor, then the clans win not only Terra, but ComStar agrees to be their administrative arm. If they lose then they may not continue the invasion for 15 years.

The battle will begin on May 1.

In early April – Wolf took 2 systems, Jaguars 2, Bears 1.

May 1 – The Battle of Tukkayid has begun. By the end on the 20th of May, 5 of the 7 clans had lost to ComStar, with Falcon given respectable loss for inflecting worse losses then they sustained but never taking a city, Ghost Bear a marginal victory and Wolf a victory. This is the largest battle in recorded history. No other battle comes close in the history of the Inner Sphere.

Also on May 1st, the Primus of ComStar Myndo Waterly enacts Operation: Scorpion. This is an attempt to take control of the entire Inner Sphere by hijacking and interdicting all HPG communications, calling for insurrections on all worlds with ComStar garrisons, and clan held worlds, and more. It was leaked by a spy in the high circuit of ComStar who gave the Inner Sphere leaders a heads up. Upon his triumphant return from Tukkayid, Focht would assassinate Myndo Waterly and place Sharilar Mori as the new Primus.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 12:45 AM

May 25 – Sun-Tzu Liao has been betrothed to Isis Marik, daughter of Thomas Marik.

May 31 – With no more clan invasion on the map, the Free Rasalhague Republic has been reduced to just six systems. Tukkayid is ceded to ComStar to use as a training grounds and the front line of the next invasion. We are not extended further.

Contract:
Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Length:1 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2, x1.5 for clan contract
20% Bonus

We pay 10.618 mill for our salaries and upkeep for 13 months

We make, salary wise – 98.655 mill

Then add in the bonus: 118 mill

-10.618 mill
-10 mill for academy

97.546 mill

We now have a huge war chest.

Everybody will arrive back home on EE by Sept 10. Then it’s time for restocking, refitting, and more.

End of Chapter 2, The Invasion

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 02:46 AM

June 3 – In protest of what she feels is Focht’s coup of ComStar, Precentor Demona Aziz leaves ComStar and invites all of those who feel similarly to leave as well, and found a new order based in the Free Worlds League called Word of Blake. As Primus Mori reforms ComStar into a more secular organization, more and more of those who embraced the religious nature will defect to Word of Blake.

June 16 – The Free Worlds League has agreed to allow Word of Blake to run their HPG stations instead of ComStar. Thomas Marik is named Primus-in-Exile of Word of Blake. Behind the scenes, this is because Thomas is secretly a ComStar spy and most definitely not Thomas Mark.

June 17 – Hanse Davion passed away from a stress-related heart attack

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 02:47 AM

EVENT – July 1 – With many of the biggest victories of the Inner Sphere against the clans being done by mercenaries (Grey Death Legion beat Jade Falcon on Pandora, Kell Hounds on Twycross, them and Wolf’s Dragoons on Luthien, us on Thule and several other worlds) the glory of mercenaries is at an all time high. Enrollment is much easier, especially for large units that have tradition and valor, such as us, Eridani Light Horse, 21st Centauri Lancers, McCarron’s Armored Cavalry, 12th Vegan Regulars, etc.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 10:41 AM

Aug 1 – After a successful year of selling Attila’s, Kressly has doubled the speed of production of their line and now makes two a year. We purchased two more of the Attilas.

We give several pieces of Clan Tech to Kressly to dissect and look at. It should help them down the road, but not now of course. We give them one of the Vulture prime chassis to work with, plus one each of many weapons and equipment, such as double heat sink, beagle active probe, and more. This is a massively valuable gift and a leg up on the competition. As a result, the relationship between Kressly and Kilts and Commandos gets even closer.

Braham has his Orion modified again. With the help of both some clan techs and elite techs, here is his new Orion:

ON1-AbeC

75 tons, Orion
4/6
Max Armor
14/28 with Clan Double Heat Sinks

Clan Gauss Rifle in the RT with two tons of ammo 1 heat and 15 damage.

Clan ER PPC in the CT. 15 heat and 15 damage

Clan SRM6 in the LT with one ton of Ammo and Clan CASE. 4 heat

3x ER Small Lasers, one in H, and other two in LT. 2 heat each, total 6.

The total heat this bad boy makes with weapons is 26, and running is 28. It will always run cool.

The leader gets the best toys to play with.

Our Clan Techs manage to take the H and arm from a Rifleman IIc to get a Loki Prime up and running.

A Puma Prime is brought back online by using parts from the Peregrine chassis.

Black Hawk Prime is restored with a Hunchback IIC H

We tried to move the LT from the Kodiak to the Daishi chassis we can’t, because the Daishi has a regular standard chassis. We can purchase parts for it! We purchase parts for the Daishi to get it up and running

(These all have clan endo chassis, and at the same weight are compatible)

I spend 2.88 mill to restore the Javelin and Comet from pieces.

Clan ferro-fib armor is now something our clan techs can modify IS ferro-fib armor to fit on their machines. It can’t be duplicated on a machine and has to be done a bit at a time, so we can replace clan ferro fib with IS stuff as armor erodes.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 11:32 AM

September 15 – It’s time for some R&R and reorganization and refitting and more.

We have salvaged 31 of their mechs, plus the 12 we won. That’s 43 clan mechs we currently have. Some of them are quite sustainable, like the Rifleman IIc with no ammo needs, and lasers we have a ton of in stock to replace as they are destroyed.

The problem is that we can only splice clan pieces onto clan technology, except for mechs without endo steel – such as the Kraken (which sucks as a mech, btw). If we take a few clan mechs into our next contract, and a Vulture Prime is head shot killed by an opposing force, what do we do? I have a few chassis I can move the H from to replace it, but it’s a finite supply. Eventually, the only way we can get supplies is by fighting the clans. Do I launch an attack independently every so often to force them to fix my mechs? Level 2 tech is barely available on the market right now, and it would be a long time before clan tech is equaled. These are risky mechs to pilot.

On the other hand, using clan tech mechs with my great pilots and our great battle tactics would allow us to cut a swath through most inner sphere mechs. We would devastate.

What to do?

My plan is not field all 43 mechs. Take those that are easily sustainable, like the Daishi, Highlander IIc and perhaps even a modified Kraken. Then take those that have endo steel but shouldn’t prove too difficult, like Rifleman IIc, Black Hawk Prime, Puma Prime, my 2 Dasher Ds, Dragonfly B, and Vulture C with the twin gausses. Gauss ammo is the same. We can’t get Streak SRM6 or SRM4 ammo, and we’ve just figured out how to turn regular AC ammo into ultra ammo.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 11:52 AM

Alpha Regiment – Col. Matthew Humphries

Myth Super-Battalion

Heliades Company - Veteran
Styx Company - Veteran
Tethys Company - Regular
Typhon Company – Elite

Star Battalion

Defender Company – Elite – Matthew Humphries gets the Daishi Prime
Cinq Company - Veteran
Brawler Company – Veteran

Heater Battalion

Delta Company – Elite
Trinity Company – Elite
Laser Company – Regular (renamed from Lance Company) We added Jav 10N, Trebuchet and Cataphract 3D

Beta Regiment – Col. Martin Fitzgerald

Ganges Battalion

Phaeton Company – Elite
Boxer Company – Veteran
Rebel Company – Veteran

Amazon Battalion

Mustang Company – Elite
Hex Company - Veteran
Raven Company - Veteran

Rheims Battalion

Aleph Company - Veteran
Butler Company – Regular
Sabre Company - Elite

Bruiser Company and Shadow Company and 2 squads of Elementals – Col. Braham Essex

Aerospace Company

Tank Battalion and extra Company

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 12:11 PM

Let’s look at the new companies:

Raven Company

Lt. Meagan Jones, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Steve Strongsparrow, veteran, HBK-4G Hunchback
Lenny Atusco, veteran, BLR-1D BattleMaster
Gina Catorri, regular, DRG-5N Dragon *

Sgt. Gerry Handly, veteran, Arc-2R Archer
Matilda Green, veteran, MAD-3L Marauder
Bertha Ovango, elite, CRD-3D Crusader
Mike Jenkins, veteran, WHM 6-L Warhammer

Sgt. Gus Haddock, elite, JVN 10-F Javelin
Heather McKinnon, regular, CMT Comet
Robin Shevchenko, veteran, PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk
Becky Finnigan, regular,WLF-2 Wolfhound *

*- designates a level 2 tech mech

We purchase the BM, Dragon, Crusader, Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk and Wolfhound. It cost us 33 mill.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 02:09 PM

Butler Company

Lt. Rachel Invande, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Bob Green, Regular, TDR-5S Thunderbolt
Mei Ling, Regular, CN9-A Centurion
Jonathan Ude, veteran,VTR-9A Victor

Sgt. Gloria Juarez, veteran, LGB-7Q Longbow
Hunter Diaz, Regular, GLT-5M Guillotine *
Zuzan Tasker, Regular, TBT-5N Trebuchet
Giselle Minard, Regular, RLF-3N Rifleman

Sgt. Hamir Raglit, Regular, VL-5T Vulcan
Harley Wilson, Green, LCT-1E Locust
Summer Wilson, Regular, COM-2D Commando
Geter Jaani, Regular, JVN-10F Javelin

I purchased everything but the Attila and Locust. I spent 49 mill.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 03:24 PM

Sabre Company

Lt. Andrea Demirovic, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Gustave, veteran, Grizzly
Amaury Vassili, Elite, BLR-3M BattleMaster *
Michael, Elite, Ryoken C

Sgt. Miroslav Kostadinov, elite, Supernova
Helga, veteran, Galahad
Kevin, veteran, Vulture Prime
Martin O’Conner, elite, HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi

Sgt. Tiego Chan, elite, Shadow Hawk IIc
Irene, veteran, Dasher D
Wangari Maathai, elite, JVN 10-F Javelin
Allen Hussein, elite,

I bought the Jav and PXH-3k for 11 mill total

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 04:34 PM

Bruiser Company

Lt. Patricia Kaas, elite, AS7-K Atlas
Chester, veteran, Highlander IIc
Mabel, veteran, Gladiator A
Evan, elite, Warhammer IIc

Sgt. Sevil Aliyeva , elite, Rifleman IIc
Rachel, elite, Vulture C
Annika, Veteran, Marauder IIc
Aysel Teymurzadeh, Elite, ARC-4M Archer

Sgt. Nika Heteron, elite, Dragonfly B
Rebecca, veteran, Peregrine
Sigurd, veteran, Dasher D
Belinda Robertson, elite, Phoenix Hawk-3K *

I bought the Phoenix Hawk 3K and Archer 4M for 17 mill. This is another company that will be teamed with Shadow, all elites and the best mechs. I wanted IS pilots in charge of the clanners for now. Just to help them acclimate. These two companies have the elementals with them as well.

We recruited people from Outreach that were elite and a couple of veterans. The rest are members of our graduating classes. The one name people are clanners.

Total spent on companies: 110 mill.

We spent some time on outreach recruiting, and this will not resemble our unit until the end of the year.

It’s good that we were able to get to two full regiments of mechs, plus four companies of tanks, one of aerospace fighters, and two extra-special companies, with infantry, garrison, and more.

While recruiting, we get lucky and recruit one of the few assets out there – The Union DropShip Amalgamated Bliss.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 04:38 PM

EVENT – October 1, 3052 – With the destruction of most of the FRR, it’s not hiring mercenaries much. With the slacking of the Draconis Combine’s previous Death to all Mercenaries order, it is hiring more. ComStar wants to hire to shore up defenses due to massive losses at Tukkayid, and the Word of Blake is here now, and looking to hire to add to their small but growing roster. Here is our new hiring chart:

2 - FedCom
3, 4 – Word of Blake
5 – Cappellan Confederation
6 - ComStar
7 - Federated Commonwealth
8 - Free Worlds League
9 - Draconis Combine
10 - St. Ives Compact
11 – Free Rasalhague Republic
12– FedCom

Tellistto

10-05-2011, 05:31 PM

Very nice stuff, Abe! Looking forward to more!

Tell

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 05:40 PM

Oct 12 – We have to kick out Jonathan Wesley, a regular MW in Boxer Company. He was a discipline case. We promote regular graduate from the academy Nathan Taylor to his spot.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company -
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company –
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company -
Aleph Company –
Butler Company –
Sabre Company -

Bruiser Company -
Shadow Company -

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison
Delta Company – EE, garrison
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla -
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss –

Everything is at EE until the end of the year, when people head out for contracts again.

We go ahead and sign Tank Battalion to a garrison contract with the major mining interests here on the planet, the ones we protected earlier this year, despite not having a contract. Here is Tank Battalion’s contract:

Tank Battalion Garrison:

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.1, x2.1, x0.9
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: N/A

Ends on October 15, 3055

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 05:41 PM

Very nice stuff, Abe! Looking forward to more!

Tell

Thanks!

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 06:40 PM

October 29 – We honor the Fall of Thule

December 18 – We honor the fall of Andurien

December 31 - This year saw the introduction of Thunder LRM munitions, the first of many new munitions for missile warheads in development to reach production. The Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor is introduced by many companies and generally available. It attempts to mimic the Elemental Armor as much as possible, but it’s not great at it. The Grey Death Legion used Gray Death Standard Battle Armor in Pandora in their victory over Jade Falcon.

The biggest technological mech introduced is the Raptor. This is a Combine OmniMech, using Inner Sphere technology to create the modular nature of an Omni. This proves that the IS can make Omnis, and more will roll off the lines in the next ten years.

Essex Training Academy

We have 8 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 11 enrollees for next year. Of these 8, all are at least regular, 3 are veteran and 1 elite.

Year 4 - 6
Year 3 - 12
Year 2- 13
Year 1 - 11

During the end of the year, Steel Viper took several worlds from the FedCom in order to bolster their possessions. They can’t go past the Tukkayid line, but they did take a few more planets.

The Inner Sphere is reeling. The Dracs, FedCom, Rasalhagues and ComStar have all lost tons of materiel, and Word of Blake wants some and the Caps want some in order to get back to what they were before the 4th Succession War. With everybody gasping for materiel, good mechs like the Attila are gobbled up. Everybody needs mechs.

Because of this need, mechs are being rotated from the garrison to the front lines. Garrisons are losing mechs and relying solely on vehicles and infantry for defense. As such, the number of Objective and Extraction Raids is up. Destroying a rival’s warehouse, stealing equipment, and more have become very popular with interests both private and governmental. The number of Raid contracts is at an all time high.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 09:21 PM

EVENT – On Dec 31, 3052, Thoma Marie Essex chooses to enroll in MechWarrior Academy. She has shown great skill on the agro mechs and jumping mechs, and early results show her to be a crack shot as well. However, in order to get some distance between her and the unit. Several schools offered her, including the Robinson Battle Academy, Nagelring and Legionary Training Academy on Andurien. Our allies in the Draconis March (Robinson) and Andurien have made sure she has a place to go. She was declined the NAIS, which was a bit puzzling. There must be a political thing going on. The Nagelring is the best one, but it’s also a bit…clique-y. There’s defiantely a have and have not thing ging on. Good grads from it include Victor Ian Steiner-Davion and Morgan Kell. However, this has diminished with the Fed Com pushing towards less social officers and more competant ones. As such, Thoma Marie Essex has enrolled at The Nagelring, located on Tharkad. She will graduate on December 31, 3055, where she will move to a training cadre for a year before finished on December 31, 3056.

Abe Sargent

10-05-2011, 11:40 PM

Jan 1, 3053 – We announce that Kilts and Commandos are taking contracts again.

End of Interlude II– The Invasion

The new map of the IS can be found here in detail: http://iscs.teamspam.net/pdf/iscs_3052.pdf

It’s here in general: http://iscs.teamspam.net/povray/iscs_3052.20020918.jpg

We take a look at the contracts offered:

Word of Blake wants a Garrison
ComStar Objective Raid
Draconis Combine Defense against Clans
FedCom Security

We take the ComStar contract. They want us to hit a corporation in the Free Worlds League and destroy a facility that they believe is supplying the Word of Blake with materiel. When the schism occurred, Word of Blake took most of the intel officers ComStar had, and the few that remain are suspect. ComStar kept most of the military, however. Because of the large number of spies that Blake is suspected of leaving behind, this is an operation supported and planned solely by the ComGuards.

They want us to hit Gomeisa, a very quiet planet, with very little to offer save that its only 4 jumps away, and they make a material from ore mined on planet which is a component in Ferro Fibrous Armor. This conversion facility is so upstream of ferro fib armor that it is very lightly guarded and Gomeisa is so quite that is had no regular Marik forces on it at all, just the local militia, which includes only a handful of mechs total for the entire planet.

The FedCom wants security for a planet right next to the Steel Vipers for 6 months until they can get more troops rotated there. The planet is Tomans, and its 9 jumps away and they want at least a battalion. If we fight against clans during our stay, we get an extra 50%.

We decide to not take the Drac or Blake contracts.

Tomans Security, Myth Battalion

Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.2, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if clans
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 6 months
Transport: Full

They will arrive on March 10, 3053. Let’s roll. There are no assaults by Steel Viper during this time, and they rotate off nice and quietly on September 10, 3053, and they return on November 29, 3053.

Money:

196198 paid each month to my four companies in Myth Battalion.

For a year – 2,353,536

With remuneration, we made 3.414 million after payment in salary and stuff.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 12:17 AM

Alright, let’s do the Objective Raid by ComStar. We are sending Sabre Company for their shake-down mission.

Sabre Company, Objective Raid for ComStar

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x4.0, x1.6,
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Independant
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full
22.5% Bonus

We arrive on Gomeisa on Feb 16.

Feb 16 - Our rented DropShip drops off Sabre Company at a local DropPort. The facility we want to hit is in this town, roughly five miles.

Feb 20 – After scouting the area, we believe that the ComStar intel is right, and that only vehicles garrison the facility. It’s more that ComStar thought though -0 they believed it was a company, but it’s about 20 vehicles. We intend to do this though. We rent extra space on the DropShip for the way home – expecting salvage from vehicles.

Nothing on this planet looks new, certainly not the tanks. This should be easy.

Feb 24 – We leave our DropShip around mid-afternoon and move hot to the complex. There are no mechs in the area, and we are a complete surprise to everyone

We arrive at our destination in a half hour, after making sure not to trample cars or people. The garrison was informed of our coming and they are waiting for us in a giant ferrocrete loading section of the facility. Our goal is to destroy these guards and then destroy the facility.

We are facing 20 random tanks. It would take too long to list them. You’ll recognize them from previous attacks.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 01:33 AM

T1 – We lose init. We run the Ryoken right up to a Drillson Hover Tank. Our Jav joins. Here we go:

Our Attilla ATA-2 immobilizes a Striker Light Tank.

After taking two gauss shells from our Galahad, the Shadow Hawk IIc destroys the engine on their Von Luckner.

Four clan ER Large Lasers lance from the Supernova to destroy the Shrek PPC Carriers LS. Earlier, it had hit with all three PPCs on our BattleMaster.

Our Ryoken C destroys the Drillson’s LS with very accurate fire from its pulse lasers and LB 10-X. That’s our first kill by an ex-clanner.

Our Vulture Prime destroys their Harasser Missile Platform’s front side. That’s our second kill.

They quit and leave. They have no desire to continue after losing 5 of their 20 tanks in one turn plus facing clan mechs. We announce to the facility that we will be destroying it in 10 minutes allowing evacuation time. Meanwhile, we order some mechs to carry back the salvaged tanks.

Striker Light Tank, immobilized
Von Luckner, destroyed engine
Shrek PPC Carrier, LS destroyed
Drillson LS
Harasser Missile Platform FS

We pay 50k to fix armor.
We pay 450k to get these five tanks up and running again.

We made 1.382 mill

We will return on May 15

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 02:21 PM

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company –
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company -
Aleph Company –
Butler Company –
Sabre Company – Return on May 15, 3053

Bruiser Company -
Shadow Company -

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla -
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss –

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 04:40 PM

Rewind

Feb 1, 3053 – Contracts!

St. Ives Compact wants Riot/Garrison contract
Dracs want Obj Raid on Jag World
Extraction Raid by company

The company is a Davion Holding that wants us to raid Caps on the world of Masterson. It’s relatively quiet, 6 jumps away, and we can have a group there by April 27. They want us to grab a mech chassis that is being worked on in secret on the world and bring it back. It’s something called a Huron Warrior.

We will be sending Raven Company for their first mission. The expected defense is just infantry and that’s it – anything else would be suspicious. We go in, we break some heads, and we grab the mech chassis and head out.

Raven Company, Extraction Raid for Company

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.1, x2.4, x1.6,
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: Half

The Drac’s Objective Raid is on Kabah, and it would take waaay to long to get there and do the raid, so we say no.

The Compact wants a company for Riot Duty/Garrison on Vestallas for 4 months. They’ve had some restless demonstrations and such due to Pro-Liao propaganda in the wake of Sun-Tzu’s rise to power in the Capellan Confederation. A unit can be there on June 24. We contract Butler Company to do their first contract.

Butler Company, Riot/Garrison for St. Ives

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.3, x2.8,
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 4 months
Transport: Full

They will arrive on June 24. We roll for each month. After four months, nothing happens and they return. They will come back on Jan 5, 3054.

Money: 463,588 spent for the year for Butler. We made 55k total.

We send out Raven Company. The intel is spot on and we return. Due to the half transport aspect, we lost 722k.

Raven returns on Dec 10, 3053.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 05:45 PM

Apr 30 – We arrive at Masterson, a bit behind schedule

May 5 – After a lot of scouting, we have narrowed down where we think the Huron Warrior chassis is being worked on.

May 12 – We have confirmed that the Chassis is at a warehouse on the other side of ht eplanet.

May 25 – If we had just blasted off and moved ot the other DropShip, people would have been suspicious, so we blast off, returned to the JumpShip, and relanded.

That night, we break out and move for the warehouse. Infantry scatter and we find a chassis being worked on. We grab it, bring it back, and run into no problems at all.

May 26 – On the way out, we run into some fighters ,but they aren’t able t keep up and drop off.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 08:35 PM

Rewind

March 1 – Contracts:

Company wants: Security
Free Worlds League wants: Defense
Free Rasalhague Wants: Obj Raid
FedCom wants: Cadre

Let’s look at the last first. The FedCom wants to pay a unit that fought the clans to go to a world in the Lyran half and help train the local militia how to fight clans. The goal is to land at Kelenfold and help out the locals for 8 months. Cadre duty is very easy and very cheaply paid. We decide to send Laser Company, formerly known as Lance. Their Lt. Akwasi Oppoku defeated the clans in a one on one battle with her Attila. They know the clans very well.

Laser Cadre Contract

Salvage: N/A
Salary: x0.75, x2.6, x1.3
Support: 50% Straight Support
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 8 months
Transport: Full

We will arrive on Kelenfold on June 5. Our contract will end on February 5 and they will return on April 21, 3054. They are not allowed to fight as per their contract.

We make 816k. We spend 665k for 16 months of upkeep and salary, so we made 151k.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 09:57 PM

The Objective Raid the FRR wants is actually, surprise surprise, not on a clan held world. They want us to hit the Drac world of Trolloc Prime. They are 7 jumps away and it would take us . It’s near the border and well guarded. We will take Bruiser and Shadow Company, and our own transport – The Scots Flotilla Merchant-class JumpShip and two Unions – Serendipitous Victory and Robin Hood.

The goal is to get in, and destroy the stolen FRR technologies that are being taken apart and studied in a Drac lab.

Shadow/Bruiser Objective Raid on Trolloc Prime

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4.0, x1.1
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 100% Repaid
17.5% Bonus

We will arrive in the system on June 16 and land on the planet on June 24th.

Let’s roll.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 10:36 PM

June 23th – We arrive on planet a bit earlier than scheduled. Our intel is not up to date, and it appears that the FRR stuff has been moved to several locations on the planet, and not just one. Shadow Company has the Union-C and the Elementals on one side of the planet and Bruiser is on the other.

June 25 – We believe that FRR tech is in three places. One is in the largest city on the planet – Davis City. Davis is a trading city, and it’s also the capital and home of the major planetary university, which is where some of the FRR tech is being taken apart and researched. We believe this will require a covert mission, and not mechs.

We are still looking for the other two locations.

June 28 – We’ve found the other two. The planet has very little in the way of mining, but there are some nice tin deposits that bring in little cash. Due to the low value of tin, they were not mined in the last few hundred years, but now the planet needs money. The tin mines are built around an industrial center, and we believe that several items are being researched in one of the buildings there.

The other is in a central garrison location, and there FRR weapons are being broke apart by the techs.

The garrison location is near Bruiser Company and no one is near the tin mines.

July 12 – We launched and landed our DropShip and are in the large city. We use FRR contacts to get access to the university. We set up ten elementals around the perimeter to assist if needed. After penetrating, we discover a simple lab. With overwhelming force of arms, we breaks into the lab, kill the scientists, and destroy the FRR technology, and then leave. No one is alerted until after we are gone. The first one is done.

July 14 – Patrols comb the streets of Davis City and all DropShips were not cleared for two days while they searched for the saboteurs. Eventually they find nothing and we are allowed to leave. Meanwhile, Bruiser Company is getting ready.

Brusier Company is attacking the garrison just as our clan Union-C does a hit landing just outside of the tin mines and Shadow Company breaks out.

Shadow Company, led by Braham Essex in his new Orion.

Out come the mine defense. It was supposed to be vehicles and infantry only, but it is reinforced with a lance of mechs and another mech.

Abe Sargent

10-06-2011, 11:48 PM

Their mechs:

Goliath, Veteran
Wolverine 7K *, veteran
Rifleman
Panther
Stinger 3G variant

Tanks:

Scorpion Light Tankx2
Hunter Light Support Tank
Saladin Assault Hover Tank
Goblin Medium Tank, green
Vedette Medium Tankx2
Zhukov Heavy Tank
Bulldog Medium Tank
LRM Carrier
Sturmfeur Heavy Tank, veteran
Ontos Heavy Tank

Infantry:

Foot SRM Platoon
Laser Jump
Flamer Jump
SRM Motorized
Laser Motorized

Everybody else is a regular unless noted

The BV is 15k vs 36k for us.

This is our Shootist. It’s a 70 ton mech designed as a command mech but replaced by the BattleMaster. They were created 400 years ago. This one is a normal one, and it comes with an ER Large Laser, an AC20, two medium pulse lasers and a small laser. It has ferro-fib armor and almost max protection. It moves 4/6 and disperses 13/26 heat. It’s a very good mech, and it’s basically an upgraded Hunchback with more armor, better support close-in weapons and a long range weapon. You could modify it with a Gauss Rifle instead of the AC20 to make it a long range mech but I like it as a mech that charges in, firing its ER LL to warm an opponent and then dashing it with AC20 fire, 2 tons of ammo (plus CASE). It’s a mech that actually uses level 2 tech well.

http://www.solaris7.com/Images/TRO/BattleMechs/Shootist.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 01:48 AM

Here we go:

T1 – We lose init. An LRM from their Goliath nails our Thug in the head. Our Lancelot hits the ammo on their Zhukov and it ignites. An ER PPC from our Phoenix Hawk knifes into the right side of their LRM Carrier and follows the gauss slug that hit that side earlier. It’s destroyed, dead tank. The Starslayer immobilizes their Scorpion Light Tank. Braham’s Orion’s ER PPC and Gauss meet to blow off the front side of a Vedette. Our Thug falls

T2 – We win init. I stand up the Thug and run away with it. This time I move some of my fire to the mechs. Our Griffin destroys the RT of their Panther. That’s a PPC we just claimed in the RA. Our Flashman destroys a Saladin’s Right Side. Our Lynx destroys the Wolverine’s LA.

T3 – We lose init. The Grif takes out an Ontos’s Front. After taking a lot of hits, including an engine hit from an Elemental squad, their Rifleman falls over and blows up its RT. They retreat, we destroy the empty buildings and take the salvage back to the Union C before others come in

LRM Carrier, left side destroyed
Scorpion Light Tank, immobilized
Vedette, front side
Saladin Right Side
Ontos, FS
Panther RA
Rifleman RA

Experienced Gained:

Braham Essex, gained Gunnery:Laser a little bit easier to hit with energy weapons now
Ricardo Diaz, gains edge: 1, Flashman pilot

It should take roughly 350k for ammo and armor for my boys and 250k to get these tanks up and running.

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 03:16 AM

Now, the other side.

Simultaneously, out comes Bruiser Company. Intel about the garrison is dead on, and a company of mechs warm up as we approach:

BattleMaster
Stalker
Hatamato-Ku, veteran *
CRK-5003-2 Katana, veteran *
ON1-K Orion
Thunderbolt
Dragon
CN9-D Centurion *
PXH-3k Phoenix Hawk, veteran *
Jenner
Locust 1M variant
Enforcer

This is not a bad company by any means. Here is the Katana, an old Star League design called the Crockett which was acquired 25 years ago when ComStar gave the Dragon a bunch of mechs, mostly stripped down, in order to bolster their defense against the Davion attack soon to come. It has been renamed the Katana and they have been duplicated and are now being manufactured. This is a later Drac design with level 2 tech, including an LB 10-X, but that’s it, not even double heat sinks or endo steel. In addition to the LB 10-X, it features 2 large lasers, 2 SRM 6s and 2 small lasers. That’s a pretty spicy 3/5/3 85 ton mech.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/f/f3/3050U_Crockett.jpg/749px-3050U_Crockett.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 04:14 PM

T1 – We lose init. We are fighting on rocks and rough terrain outside of the garrison. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the LA of their Jenner. Our Vulture C launches two gauss rifles at the Jenner and they destroy its RA, RT and CT. We focus a lot of weapons at their Katana and finally our Dasher hits its hip and lower leg actuator. Then our Warhammer IIc destroys its LL entirely. It falls. Meanwhile, that stupid Locust variant is sent spinning after our Gladiator destroys its RA and RT.

T2 – We lose init again. Their Locust pilot tried to rise, fell and knocked itself out. Our Marauder IIc destroys their Phoenix Hawk’s LA. Our Warhammer IIc hits the AC5 ammo on their Hatamato-Ku and it goes up! We aimed at the head of their immobile Locust with the 3 large pulse lasers of our Gladiator, and one hits and tears it off. Dead mech. Their Centurion falls. Our Phoenix Hawk’s ER PPC lances into their Katana and destroys the other leg. Our Marauder IIc kicks and hits the machine ammo on their BattleMaster, and it blows up. Our Gladiator kicks and destroys the RT of their Centurion, and due to an XL engine it is destroyed.

In two turns, we’ve destroyed 58% of their fighting force. Boom! They move to retreat, and we have a few mechs go ahead and blow up their garrison buildings while the rest grab salvage for the ride home.

Jenner LL, RL, LT, H
Hatamato-Ku RA
Locust 1M, missing H, RA, RT
BattleMaster LA, H, RT, RA
CN9-D Centurion missing RT
CRK-5003-2 Katana missing both legs

The cost to our people would have been roughly 100k.

To fix up the Locust (and make it a 1E) and Centurion and Katana costs 2.22 mill

We head back out and will arrive back on October 2.

Money: We made 350k after all costs are deducted. We also made nice surplus.

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 05:35 PM

Rewind:

April 1 – We’ve spent some money meanwhile making mechs like a Comet, Archer and BattleMaster from the spare parts we have.

FedCom wants Defense Against Clans for a year. Nope.
Corporation wants Cadre/Garrison
Corp wants Extraction Raid.

The company that wants Cadre/Garrison work is Pandora – Red Devil Industries wants us to train their own security for anti-clan techniques and to garrison their company for 6 months in that time. They are one jump from Clan space and the Falcons attacked on planet once already, so the need is great. They want a full battalion. That’s fair. We’ll send them Col. Matthew Humphries’s Star Battalion, Defender, Cinq and Brawler companies.

Star Battalion, Cadre/Garrison Pandora

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.1, x1.5 if we fight clans
Support: Full Support
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 6 months
Transport: Full

We will arrive on August 12. The Contract ends on February 12, and our group will return on June 15, 3054.

After speeding through, we discover that no clans attack.

Money Stuff: Our pay for 6 months is 5.367 mill. We paid our guys, for 16 months, 2.884 mill. We made some decent cash.

The Extraction Raid is from the St. Ives Compact. A company there wants us to hit and take technology from the Capellan system of Madras. That’s about 6 months away, so a company sent to do that would be gone for, roughly, a year. For just one raid. No thanks.

Laser Company returned.

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 08:15 PM

May 1 roster

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company – Return on June 15, 3054
Cinq Company - Return on June 15, 3054
Brawler Company – Return on June 15, 3054
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company – Return on Dec 10, 3053
Aleph Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054
Sabre Company – Return on May 15, 3053

Bruiser Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053
Shadow Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Star River -
Scots Flotilla - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Serendipitous Victory - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Amalgamated Bliss –

Abe Sargent

10-07-2011, 10:58 PM

Contracts –

The Magistracy of Canopus wants an Objective Raid – too far away
FedCom wants Pirate Hunting – where? Issaba, waaaay too far away to care
Marik wants Recon Raid – could be interesting – target? Wasat – very close by too – but the FC doesn’t like it when we do contracts against them
Marik also wants an Objective Raid against the Caps. Target Aldertaine, 9 jumps away – 3.5 months-ish
ComStar wants an Objective Raid against the Marik/Blake world of Bernardo. Very close too.

Let’s look at the Recon Raid first

Wasat has been under the control of the Federated Suns, Free Worlds League, Capellan Confederation and others like the Tikonov Free Republic and FedComs. It’s right in the middle, and thus heavily guarded. The Free Worlds League was unable get a foothold on the planet with intelligence, so they need someone to scout out the defenses. We agree to take it if they keep it on the d/l.

We will be sending Aerospace Company, the Star River and Aleph Company, plus four platoons of veteran infantry from the garrison and a few tricks.

Aleph Company, Aerospace Company, Star River, and Infantry Platoons

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
15% Bonus

We arrive on Wasat on May 28 (one jump away). We begin to do recon. Wasat has three major military installations, and it has both FedCom troops and a planetary garrison. We have repainted our DropShip and mechs with the color scheme of Vinson’s Vigilantes. Might as well get them in trouble and not us.

June 3 – Our infantry have mapped out several important strategic areas to bring back to our employers. New buildings, new areas to fight in and such.

June 10 – We have the maps of their garrison in a city done.

June 17 – All maps are done, now we need more.

June 30 - After preparing, we send out our company of mechs. They are storming through an industrial center after jumping off the DropShip that had been there for days. They fire harmlessly into the ground and so forth. Meanwhile, Aerospace Company is launched from another DropShip at the same place and flies out, strafing and causing problems. We watch how quickly their fighters arrive, and count the fighters with our infantry and two Boomerang Spotter Planes – silent unmanned planes that can glide and hide from radar while also snooping and with over a have ton of surveillance equipment.

Meanwhile, armor and vehicles begin to arrive on the ground, and we get to count them all. We enter our own DropShip, which is not the one we left, and load everything up and blast off very quickly. Our fighters create a screen, and then land with a DropShip that launched from another DropPort and blast off.

The recon is done. We arrive in Irian, meet with our employer give them our data and collect our stuff, and repaint our mechs and head back.

We should Return on Aug 1, 3053

We made 1.8 mill after salaries and such.

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 12:00 AM

Let’s look at the next May contract.

ComStar wants an Objective Raid on Bernardo. With such a small army, Word of Blake is stretched very thin. They just want us to land, attack the HPG station on planet, destroy the ComGuards, and leave it operational. They have just 1 company of mechs, guaranteed, and we are tasked with removing it from the Blake-ists.

We decide that this is a good contract for one of our heavy hitters – Trinity Company.

Trinity Company Objective Raid on Bernardo

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
12.5% Bonus

Bernardo is two jumps away and we can be there on June 13.

Meanwhile, let’s do the economics for the other contract:

Marik wants us to hit Aldertaine. We can be there on Sept 2, and then hit the planet. They want a minor ore refining plant destroyed, and it shouldn’t be guarded too heavily. We are to wear the colors of Davion Mercenary unit The Blue Star Irregulars. The Caps and Marik are allies, and this is done on the Davion border in order to push the Caps closer.

Sounds like a job for…

Delta Company and Aerospace Company, Objective Raid on Aldertaine

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 25%
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full

I’m diverting Aerospace Company to Aldertaine.

Arrive on September 2

Let’s do the Bernardo contract first.

June 13 - We arrive on planet easily enough via contacts in ComStar. The HPG is in the capital, and we get out. Trinity Company hits the ground hot. This is just a smash and dash. We charge the HPG and out came the ComGuards, but ComStar’s intel was off. Instead of a company of mechs, we have a reinforced company - 16 mechs. Let’s take a look.

CRK-5003-1 Crockett *elite
OSR-2D Ostroc * elite
CHP-3N Champion * (Made for Tukkayid, and taken by WoB) regular
STN-3L Sentinel * veteran
Wasp, green
Spider, veteran
UM-R63 UrbanMech * elite
Firestarter, regular
CRB-27 Crab * regular
Orion, green
Cyclops, elite
HBK-5M Hunchback *green
PNT-8Z Panther variant, veteran
ASN-23 Assassin * regular
BL9-KNT Black Knight * (another refit made for Tukkayid), green
Goliath, elite

These 16 mechs are all over the spectrum in ability level. It’s an ad-hoc unit.

This is a Goliath, which each of us has. It’s a one of the few quad mechs, with 2 LRM10s, a PPC, and 2 Machine guns. It’s not a good mech. It does have a solid amount of armor, but that’s it.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/e/e3/GOL-3M.png/447px-GOL-3M.png

Now, BV wise, this is supposedly close. We are at 23746 and they 22593. However, being behind by 4 mechs is rough, and 9 have level 2 tech. This is not easy.

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 01:18 PM

Now, BV wise, this is supposedly close. We are at 23746 and they 22593. However, being behind by 4 mechs is rough, and 9 have level 2 tech. This is not easy.

Here we go:

We are fighting on a large ferrocrete slab, with some buildings here and there. This is the map we are on:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/16/MapDropPort2.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 01:19 PM

T1 – We win init. There’s not much to do but charge in and hope. This wins only when we destroy their forces or we choose to retreat or if they, instead of retreating they surrendered. I need to take out a mech fast. I don’t have the devastating weaponry of the clans backing up this company, and we in a dangerous place. If I take out a chump light mech, what have I done to their force? Not much. If I spend three turns taking out something like the Orion then I will lose. I need quick kills to even things. I think the best target are those mechs with XL engines. Those are: Champion and Black Knight. I need to target them. They do 42 damage to my Zeus, and we do not kill the Black Knight. We took off more than half of its external armor and yet didn’t go internal anywhere. I also peppered a Panther a bit from my Goliath and Rifleman because they had a better LOS on it.

T2 – We win init. I have an opportunity to jump my Phoenix Hawk behind their Crockett, but I’m not taking it – the mech is too well armored back there. I put it behind their Hunchy instead. Our T Bolt hits a leg actuator on their Black Knight and it falls down. Otherwise, just exchange of fir e- bad for me. This is exactly what we needed to avoid.

T3 – I win init again. Their Knight tried to stand, failed, fell and destroyed its RL. Their Orion skids and falls. Spider behind the Sentinel. Our Atlas destroys the LA and RA of their Champion. Our Goliath hits the LB10-X and engine of their Urbie, so they have no real weapons left on it. With its last shot, it hits a gyro and blows off the LL of our Hatchetman. The limb is on the ground. Our Trebuchet destroys the And LT and CT of their Champion with missiles. The Thunderbolt’s missiles nail the head of their downed Black Knight and the pilot goes unconscious.

T4 – We lose init. Their Orion safely rises. My Ostsol runs into their Wasp behind a building one:one and I open up with an Alpha Strike. Their Crocket takes out the CT of my Hatchetman, and others will destroys its RT and LA this turn. Our Ostsol destroys the LL of their Wasp. A kick destroys its RT and its RA is on the ground. That means it’s weaponless.

T5 – We lose init. They hop their Firestarter next to my Trebuchet. The Atlas destroys the LA of their Cyclops. The Cyke’s LL hip and foot actuators are nailed by our Goliath. Our Cicada destroys the LA of their Firestarter. The Cyke falls and hits its head. They set the woods on fire my Trebuchet was sniping from. Our Ostsol kicks in the Wasp’s Ct and takes it out. Our Spider kicks and destroys the RL on their Firestarter, It falls and the pilot blacks out. This was a good turn, we are starting to get an advantage. They are out of AC20 ammo for the Hunchy.

T6 – We win init. The Cyke stands and faces us. We try to hop our P Hawk u on a building behind the building their Panther is on, but the section the Hawk jumps on collapses and it falls. It destroys two jump jets. Our Spider and Cicada each hit the head of their downed ‘Starter once. The Atlas destroys the RA of their Cyclops. It’s gyro is hit by the Trebuchet. It falls and breaks its LL. The Cyclops is down because it is missing both arms and a leg and cannot move. Neither of their pilots wake up (each needs a 10)

T7 – We win init. We stand our P Hawk up. They run their Hunchy behind my Atlas. I jump my Spider behind their Orion. Their Crocket hits the LRM 15 on our T Bolt. Their Panther’s Large laser nails my Atlas’s head. Their Crocket falls and hits a foot and hip. Our Atlas punches the H of the Hunchback and destroys it. Nobody wakes up.

T8 – We win init. Our Atlas has about a quarter of its starting armor and is internal in four places. I run my Goliath and Rifleman up in an attempt to distract them. I run the Zeus to their Crab. Their Crockett hits an engine and destroys the RA of our Atlas. Our Ostsol destroys the Crockett’s LL. Their Orion goes internal and destroys the LRM ammo on our Atlas and it ignites and explodes. Our P Hawk destroys the LA of their Panther. Our P Hawk kicks the building out from under their Panther and it falls hard. No wake-sies.

T9 – We rock init. The stand the Panther. I run the T Bolt up and turn its right side to them, since it’s barely touched. For example 20 on the RA vs 3 on the LA and 24 on the RT vs 8 on the LT. These little tricks are how you survive in clear terrain. The Zeus is out of LRM ammo. Despite, it still destroys the LT of their Crockett. Their Goliath gets a limb blown off critical on the Zeus’s LA. It’s on the ground, ready to be used. Our Ostsol kicks and destroys the Crocket’s CT. Their Panther punches out a ML on my Cicada.

T10 – Init is ours again. Their Panther destroys our Spider’s LA. Our Ostscout destroys their Spider’s RT. Our Zeus’s lone long range weapon, its large laser, nails the Orion’s gyro once. Our Goliath hits the AC ammo on it and it explodes. Dead Orion. Once again, or P Hawk kicks and collapses a building their Panther is on, and it falls and brakes its RL.

T11 – We win init again. It’s like we’re having two battles. One with scout mechs in the buildings and woods above the field and rest with the heavy hitters below the field. In order to force my opponent to finally attack the Goliath, I don’t move it at all. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys their Panthers CT and causes an engine explosion. The explosion does 14 to the Ostscout, 3 to our Phoenix Hawk, 3 to the Cicada, 14 to their Sentinel, it hits the Sentinel’s AC5 ammo which explodes and destroys the Sentinel, and 7 to their Spider. And the building collapses. Their Spider was on top, It falls and hits its hip and lower leg on the right one. The Black Knight and Firestarter don’t awaken.

T12 – We continue to dominate initiative. We are out of AC5 ammo for the Rifleman. Our Goliath blows off the LL of their Crab. Our P Hawk hits the engine once and gyro twice of theirs.

T13 – We have lost init. We hop the P Hawk and Ostscout by their downed Crab. Their Assassin destroys the LA of my Ostsol. Our Goliath hits an LRM10 on theirs.

T14 – We win init. Their Goliath destroys the FLL of mine. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the LL on their Urbie.

T15 – Win again. I run my Ostsol and Cicada up to their Assassin. Their Ostroc destroys the LT of my Goliath. Our Ostsol nails the foot actuator of their Assassin and it falls and hits a leg actuator too.

T16 – Who wins init? This guy! I eject the Goliath. I run our Spider up to their Goliath. Their Assassin rises. Their Goliath destroys the LT of my Cicada, Their Assassin adds a gyro hit. Our P Hawk destroys the RLL of their Goliath. The Cicada stays standing, but not their Goliath. Their Firestarter pilot actually managed to wake up.

T17 – We win init. They try to stand the FS, it falls, and the pilot blacks out again. Heh. I eject the Cicada pilot. Their Goliath rises. Our Zeus hit t he hip on their Gol’s FRL. Our Ostsol blows off the LL of their Assassin. Our Ostscout gets a gyro and two engine hits on their Goliath. Their Goliath falls, destroys its RT, and then hit an engine and gyro. A kick destroys the La of their Assassin.

T18 – We win again. Their Assassin tries to stand, falls, and the pilot is knocked out. The same with their Urbie.

T19 – We lose init. Their Crab manages to stand finally. I hop my Spider to it. Their Ostroc hits two jump jets on my Ostscout. Our Ostsol hits their Ostroc’s foot actuator. Our Spider destroys its LA. Our T Bolt kicks and destroys its LL. Our Spider kicks their Crab, it doesn’t even go internal, but the pilot blacks out on the fall.

T20 - We lose initiative. If we can take out the injured Ostroc this turn, then we win, because everybody else is knocked out. Their Ostroc tried to stand, fell, and shattered its RA. We surround it. We destroy the LT and RT and then our T Bolt takes out the CT. We’ve annihilated our enemy completely. We took out 16 mechs. Whew!

Tellistto

10-08-2011, 03:00 PM

Rough battle but tactics in the end win out!

Tell

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 03:27 PM

Firestarter, missing RL, LA
Champion – H, LL, RL
Wasp RA, RL, LT, LA, H
Cyclops missing LL, RA, LA
Black Knight missing RL,
Hunchback, missing H
Crockett LA, H, RL, RT, RA
Spider enginex1, gyrox2, missing RT, actuators.
Panther RA
Sentinel RA
Crab LL reattach
Assassin missing LL, LA
Goliath, destroys two legs,RT, enginex3, gyrox2
Urbie missing RL
Ostroc H, RL

Hatchetman LL, H, RA, LT, RL
Atlas LA,
Zeus, reattach LA
Spider missing LA
Ostsol missing LA
Goliath missing FLL, LT,
Cicada missing LT. gyrox1

Five captured Blake prisoners

Experience:

Sgt. Orpah Jones, in the Ostscout is now a Melee Specialist

The Money Stuff:

We will be spending 850k on armor alone
An additional 650k on ammo
To repair our Zeus, Spider, Goliath, Ostsol and Cicada will cost 3.82 mill

We will spend 5.32 mill to repair and fix things

For Battle Loss, we lost an Atlas and Hatchetman, minus the parts and 50% of that is 5,127,500

To fix the Firestarter, Crab, Cyclops, Urbanmech, Goliath, Assassin, Hunchback, Spider and Black Knight will cost us 5.9 mill including armor and ammo.

555k salary

We have paid 566k in salary this year.

Total: -3.453 mill

We lost an Atlas and Hatchetman and 3 and a half million. We gained UM-63 UrbanMech, Assassin, CRB-27 Crab, Firestarter, Spider, Cyclops, HBK-5M Hunchback, Goliath, and BL9-KNT Black Knight. It was totally worth it.

We purchase an ATA-2 Attila to replace their dead Atlas. The Hatchetman is replaced by their Hunchback. We are changing it to the 5N version that adds a ton of ammo at the expense of CASE and a small pulse laser being downgraded.

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 03:32 PM

Rough battle but tactics in the end win out!

Tell

You don't see me take it to 20 very often, nope.

The AI is usually pretty good about some things. It knows how to position a mech to protect a wounded side. It knows when to move a mech adjacent to mine and up an elevation to try for that 1 in 6 chance to punt the head into the bleachers. It knows when to just stand still and snipe, but it does sometimes make really stupid decisions movement wise - it risks too much underwater and on ferrocrete and roads and jumping on buildings.

Shooting wise, it always selects the easiest target, and when choosing more than one, it can go with the lighter one or the more damaged one or the one others are targeting. Which all makes sense.

So I have to tactically work around it.

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 08:38 PM

Now, let’s do the Delta Contract:

September 5 – We arrive at Aldertaine.

Sept 17 – It appears that the Marik intel is spot on, and the area is lightly guarded around the ore refining plant. With our Blue Star painted mechs, we unload and surprise everyone. This is clearly not a normal planet that sees a lot of mechs attacks.

Our mechs move out, and only a few infantry squads are in the way, and we easily muscle them aside and the plant is destroyed by energy weapons.

We move back out and head to our DropShip, but now, fighters are attacking. We knew this was a fighter heavy planet, so our own fighters fly out and begin to mix it up. In a few minutes, we have destroyed one of their fighters but our own Stingray is limping, so we return. We grab seats and blsat off.

We will arrive back home on January 21, 3054.

We made 769k

We pay 1.043 mill to Delta Company through Jaunaru and AeroSpace Company to the same. Plus we spent 30k on armor after our 25% off.

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 09:21 PM

Rewind:

June 1 – Sabre Company returned last month. Contracts!

Garrison – Fed Com
Blake – Security
Retainer – FedCom
Objective Raid – Illium Naval Engineering on the Marik world of Ionus had discovered a spy base on the moon of a nearby system of Tongatupu, and wants us to destroy it.

Most mercenaries love long term contracts, and yet we try and keep it short. Why? You saw how much money we made on the 5 year 12 company retainer with the FRR. What’s going on?

The problem is lack of fighting. We got lucky with the FRR contracts, but aside from occasional pirate hunting or Drac raids, it was all quiet. If there had not been a clan invasion, how many mechs would we have captured? 12? 15? Not that many, certainly. This is the problem with a long term contract. In five months, we’ve done several raids and we’ve walked away with 12 mechs and tons of tanks. Sure, we’ve lot a couple of mechs too, but we’ve really made out. The short term deals don’t make money, but they mostly pay our costs while we gain a ton of materiel. For example, if we were to sell the 12 mechs we took, we’d make at least 60-70 million. That’s how much money we made. Making cash and converting it to mechs works, but this is faster and more fun!

On the other hand, our unit is getting too large for everybody to be participating in these raids. Perhaps a retainer with the FedComs wouldn’t be a bad idea. We permanently swap Laser Company and Butler Company.

We negotiate with the FedComs for Beta Regiment, retainer:

Beta Regiment, Retainer

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: Full
10% Bonus

We will travel to Fort Loudon to temporarily garrison the world after the Jade Falcons raided it and nearly destroyed a regiment of Blue Star Irregulars. We can be there on October 4, 3053. Aleph Company will join us there, and raven will be there Dec 15.

This contract will end on October 4, 3056

Abe Sargent

10-08-2011, 10:27 PM

As of right now, every unit in Alpha and Beta Regiments is away. We have Defender, Cinq and Brawler returning in two weeks, so I look at the other contracts this month to see if any fit for one of them. We will be sending Defender Company in. Illium doesn’t mind a two week delay in order to sign Col. Matthew Humphries for a contract!

Defender Company, Objective Raid on Tongatupu

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.4,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
32.5% Bonus

We will arrive at Tongatupu’s moon on Oct 20, 3053.

October 20 – Right on schedule, Tongatupu’s moon is inhabited. Unlike many planets it didn’t need terraforming or anything, it’s just a habitable moon, with vast farmland and very little industry. Tongatupu is where all of the valuable industry, tourism and trading occurs, and all of the farming is done on the moon, a nice little division of labor. Because of the moon’s lower value, it has few military installations of any sort. It is fairly close to the capital world of Atreus, and a strong commercial world, so there is a good garrison force on the planet. The moon doesn’t get much at all.

That makes it a good place to hide a spy base looking straight at Ionus. Now, let’s find it. We have some intel which proves incorrect, so we have to find it ourselves.

Oct 31 – We found the spy post, and its under a small ridge of hills and aimed upwards. Despite the obvious military implications of the installation, there do not appear to be any troops around, which suggests this has a nefarious purpose – like scanning Ionus.

Nov 3 – After three days of constant study by our mechwarriors, we believe that the installation is guarded by a mixed group of various military installations that include infantry, armor, VTOLs, hidden gun emplacements, and probably at least a lance of mechs, based on our heat signature scanning.

Nov 7 – We have explored and now we are loaded up. The 13 mechs of Defender Company are churning farmland beneath them. We get close to the installation and suddenly an explosion tears up from the ground. Mines! We have to navigate mines while the defenders stat to pour out. Here is what we are facing:

Trebuchet
UM-60L UrbanMech variant (the one with an AC20)
Locust
Quickdraw
Griffin
3x Saladin Assault Hover Tanks with each one rocking an Ac20
2x Scorpion Light Tank
2x Pegasus Hover Scout Tank
LRM Carrier
2x Schrek PPC Carrier (each has 3x PPCs)
2x Manticore Heavy Tank
2xIS Standard Battle Armor SRM troops
4x Laser Motorized Platoon
2x Cavalry Attack Helicopter
Peregrine Attack VTOL

That’s one full company of tanks, five mechs, 6 platoons if infantry and 3 VTOLs – a full two companies of combined arms.

There are an unknown number of mines. No turrets though, we were wrong about that.

This should be fun!

This is their Peregrine Attack VTOL:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/1/15/Peregrine_VTOL.jpg/800px-Peregrine_VTOL.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 12:51 AM

We are fighting in a quarry, depressed, in the earth, tons of rock and rubble and elevation.

Turn 1 – We lose init. Our Hunchback hits a mine. Col. Humphires in his Daishi destroys a Saladin. He took out the right side. The BattleMaster destroys another Saladin. Our Warhammer immobilizes the third Saladin. You know what my targets were the first turn! Our Thor immobilizes a Scorpion Light Tank.

T2 – We lose init again. Our Orion destroys a Scorpion’s front. Our Comet destroys the LA on their Locust. Due to damage, our Orion tumbles. Our BM punches and destroys the Locusts LT.

T3 – We win init. We stand our Orion and run next to their Pegasus. It is immobilized by the Orion’s weapons. Our BattleMaster destroys a platoon of infantry. Our Warhammre destroys the RA of the Locust. Our Stalker lights up the Urbies ammo. Boom! It also kills the infantry in the same square. Two kills. Their Locust falls.

The defenders fade. We destroy the spy post and grab our salvage before we go. We do hit two mines, but for minor damage.

Saladin, missing RS
Saladin missing LS
Saladin, immobile
Scorpion immobile
Scorpion FS destroyed
Pegasus immobile
UrbanMech RA, LL

We barely paid ammo and armor. We made 940k which pays to get these tanks refitted and the minor damages sustained.

Defender Company return on February 26 , 3054.

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 01:03 AM

July 1, 3053 – Contracts

Company wants security
Dracs wants Assault
FedCom wants Riot/Garrison
FWL wants Pirate Hunting

Nah

July 20 – After a successful introduction of the Attila, Kressly begins developing another mech, they will call the Lineholder.

August 1 – 3053 – Contracts. Trinity is back with the Star River.

ComStar wants Garrison
Company wants Garrison
Periphery wants Security

ComStar would like Extraction Raid on a Blake facility in the FWL. Target – Alphard. They want a company to grab some materiel back that was taken from them when the Blakists left. All we have to do is punch into Alphard, grab the stuff from a warehouse, and pop out. Trinity is in the Star River and we can send them both. Trinity just did a contract for ComStar, so they are happy to have them do another.

We can be at Alphard on September 5.

Trinity vs Blake

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.2,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
10.5% Bonus

Sept 3 – We get there earlier. Time to see if the ComStar intel is on. Nope. We try and find the warehouse.

Sept 9 – Luckily their intel led us in the right direction to the right spot. ComStar expect a group of mechs, but there is nothing here and just shuck aside the paltry defense. We grab the material and return. On our way back, three companies of Blake mechs burst out from three different warehouses. We can’t stop and fight, there’s too many.

We run as fast as possible while some mechs fire backwards with large weapons. We lay down heavy fire in order to keep them away, but they push forward. They run into the fire and keep coming. That’s what I would do too. All of our mechs get out, save the Rifleman. It’s just too slow and with too weak of armor. It is quickly legged. We can’t stay, so we lose it and the MW.

-1 Rifleman and we lost Maeve Vega.

We replace it with an Archer from our garrison. We promote the elite MW that graduated to her spot. Say hello to Raphael Stevens.

Money: We make 516k. We spend 60k on ammo and armor.

Our battle loss is half a Rifleman. 2,430,000

We “made” 2.5 mill after costs.

We get back on October 12.

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 01:21 AM

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company – Return on October 12, 3053
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056

Bruiser Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053
Shadow Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Star River - Return on October 12, 3953
Scots Flotilla - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Serendipitous Victory - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Amalgamated Bliss –

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 03:04 AM

Aug 12 – A lot of IS weapons research has gone in several areas. The Clan tech has helped speed up some research. Motivated by a powerful juggernaut of an enemy, the IS researchers will spend the next 20 years developing new technology. The major area of early research is on variable payloads for missile systems. Clan systems are much better than IS ones, so you counter that by having improved warheads. Some of it will really work, and some will not be that successful. Warheads with acid, upgraded electronic systems, smaller cockpits, and more. All of this experimental and new IS-only technology will generally be referred to in this dynasty as level 2.5 tech. In BT it is referred to as level 3 rules. We will be calling them Level 2.5 technology and integrating them into the campaign. Recently, a prototype BattleMech was tearing through Solaris VII arenas, and it features a torso-mounted cockpit, and several other new technologies, but these mechs were destroyed in Solaris City and taken back to the NAIS.

September 1 – Contracts:

FedCom wants a Garrison
Dracs wants a security
Rasalhague would like Cadre/Garrison
St. Ives for garrison

Boring.

October 1 – Bruiser, Shadow and many ships are back tomorrow. Shadow will stay for a while, Braham has some work to do on Outreach for a few months recruiting. We’ve got a lot of tanks sitting openand he wants to recruit crew. What contracts are out there?

Garrison for FWL, O Raid for FWL – target is in periphery, Capellan wants Recon Raid. Interesting –target? Yunnah. Nice.

Ted decides to get out and stretch his legs by jumping in and taking over this assignment. He takes a surprise. Yunnah is sparsely populated, really just used for holidays and as a repair center for machine and man alike. It’s also a place for spiritual retreats. The Caps want us to recon out the system, to see what defenses they have – similar to what we did for the FWL a bit ago.

Brawler Company, Recon Raid

Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.6, x3.4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 30%
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full

We will arrive on December 24.

Dec 24 – We have arrived with four platoons of infantry and some other spoilers. This planet has very little to guard save the repair facilities. It is on the border with the Caps being one jump away, so there are some important strategic reasons to keep it safe.

Dec 30 – After plugging around, we realize that there is just one Davion military base on planet. It’s right adjacent to the repair facilities. Ted’s Exterminator is moving about at night, getting good telemetries on the Davions.

Jan 5 – We have gotten all of the info we need. We have a count of the vehicles that have come out for garrison duty, and the same with mechs and infantry. The scanners in Ted’s mech have worked wonders and it’s been as quiet as a pen dropping in utter space.

Jan 9 – We blast off without any issues at all. We return on March 2, 3054

We made 100k on it.

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 04:06 AM

Rewind:

November 1, 3053 – Contracts –

Company wants Security
Marik wants Pirate Hunting
ComStar wants Security
Marik wants garrison

Not interested – pirate hunting is way too far away. It’s lucrative salvage but too far away.

December 1 – Myth Battalion is back.

Marik wants Objective Raid
FedCom wants Riot Duty
ComStar wants Objective

ComStar wants us to do exactly what we did before, launch a company into Marik space and land on a Blake world and destroy the HPG garrison there completely. Sounds like a job for my clan mechs in Bruser Company.

Bruiser Company and Amalgamated Bliss

Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
37.5% Bonus

We can arrive at their target, Abadan, by Feb 1, 3054.

Feb 2, 3054 – The major industry here is ordinance made for infantry. Rifles, pistols, grenades, hand held lasers, and more are all made here. The HPG station is actually in the civic center of government rather than by the industries. It’s more lightly defended by Marik.

Feb 4 – After scouting around, we see no major Marik defenders here, just the Blake ones. We move out and hit Blake hard. Here is their company:

BMB-12D Bombardier * regular
AWS-9M Awesome * veteran
WSP-1S Wasp * elite
SPR-5F Spector *elite
BJ-2 Blackjack *green
STN-3L Sentinel * veteran
ST-8A Shootist * elite
Rifleman, regular
Longbow, green
CTF-1X Cataphract, veteran
Shadow Hawk, elite
WVR-6M Wolverine, regular

This is their Spector. It’s an old star league era 35 ton mech, but Norse BattleMechs has introduced a new version that lacks the stealth armor of the Spector. This is that Norse version. It has a Guardian ECM, large laser, 2 mediums, 1 small, and 7/11/7 movement with an XL engine, 11/22 heat and 7.5 tons of armor. Even through max armor and mega fast speed, that XL engine is a pretty target.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/85/Spector.jpg

CrimsonFox

10-09-2011, 04:34 AM

But where are the hordes of Wasps and Fleas all critting at the same time! :D

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 12:01 PM

Alons-y

1. We win init. Our Rifleman II c hits the head with a large pulse laser and nails both the life support and sensors. Our Vulture C launches a gauss bullet right into the H of their Bombardier and it falls. Their Shootist destroys the LT of our Phoenix Hawk. It shuts down from engine damage. If that had missed, our Warhammer IIcs ERPPC hit the head too and would have destroyed it. Their Awesome falls.

2. We win again. A gauss from our Atlas heads their Awesome. I focused a lot of fire on it, and I suspect it will get more destroyed. Eventually its RT and RL are also destroyed. Their Sentinel tumbles.

3. We lose init. Their BJ falls. I run our Dragonfly up to it. Our Atlas destroys the LT of their Wasp and our Rifleman IIc follows by blowing off its CT. For the third consecutive turn, a gauss ot the head kills a mech – the Shadow hawk by our Highlander IIc. Again, I was targeting it heavily, let’s see what else was destroyed – RL, LL, RA, LT. Our Dasher destroys the LA of a Sentinel. The Peregrine was savaged by their Shootist. Our Dragonfly kicks and destroys the RA of their BJ.

4. We win init again yay. I eject the Peregrine. The Warhmamer IIc ignites the LRM ammo in the Longbow and it explodes. We hit some weapons too, like the Cataphract’s ML and AC10. Their Sentinel opens up our Atlas’s CT and nails the engine once. Our Atlas kicks and destroys the LL and LT of their Sentinel. Our Warhammer IIc punches with the arm he didn’t fire with and goes internal, destroys the RT of their Cataphract.

5. We win. Their BJ tries to escape us by jumping on top of a nearby roof, the building collapses, and it falls and destroys its CT which causes an engine explosion and destroys more buildings and showers mechs with rubble and energy. Our Gladiator rolls a 2 and skids on pavement and falls. Their Spector’s RA was apparently sheared off in the explosion and its on he ground. Shootist LA destroys by Atlas. Rifleman IIC adds the LT. Our downed Gladiator adds an engine hit. We blow up most of the buildings with our Marauder and Vulture. Our Warhammer unloaded on their Cataphract and it falls, as does our Atlas. Our Warhammer IIc destroys the LL of their Wolverine.

6. We win init. With a pretty damage Atlas, I eject the pilot. I stand the Gladiator and use MASC to run away. Our Rifleman IIc hops next to their Spector. In fact, I just base a lot of their mechs. I expect this turn just to blow them away. Our Vulture destroys the LA of their Rifleman. The LT of their Cataphract is destroys by our clan-made Warhammer. Their Rifleman falls and destroys its LL. Our Highlander IIc kicks and destroys the RA, RT and CT of their Sentinel. The Marauder IIc’s foot blows through the LT of their Wolverine. The Gladiator destroys the RT of their Rifleman. We punch the head of their Spector and their pilot blacks out and the mech falls. We also punches and destroyed its LA. Since their Shootist was hiding in a building, our Vulture kicked the building down, and the falling debris hits the ammo and explodes the Shootist’s torso (CASE) and the pilot blacks out.

With no mechs on the ground, and all of the remaining ones well past the sell-bay date, they surrender if we’ll let the warriors go and take those blacked out. We agree and take their machines. Such as they are. (In real life BattleTech, these would have ejected. A Wolverine is missing its entire left side. The Rifleman is missing both arms and a torso. The Cat is missing both torsos and arms. People would want to keep material intact – life is cheap, mechs aren’t).

Abe Sargent

10-09-2011, 02:58 PM

Bombardier, missing H
AWS-9M Awesome, missing H, RT, RL
Wasp RT, RA, LA, LL, RL, H
Shadow Hawk missing H, Rl, LL, RA, LT
Longbow RA, LA
Sentinel LA, H, RL
Cataphract RA, LA
Spector missing LA
Wolverine missing LT and LL
Rifleman missing RT, LL, LA
Shootist missing LT, RT, RA
Cataphract – missing RT, LT

Phoenix Hawk missing LT
Atlas with engine hit, other minor things like actuators and AMS.

It takes 350k for armor and 160k for ammo. To fix, just 2.56 mill is needed.

To get their stuff up and running will cost – 11.58 mill. We happily spend it.

Money Schtuff: We only made a bit more than 600k

We will return on Apr 30, 3054

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 01:22 AM

Rewind:

Dec 18 – We honor the Fall of Andurien

Dec 31 – By the end of the year, many things have been introduced – old mechs like the Spector and new ones like the Daimyo and Bushwacker. We also see things like new battle armor – the Komodo Assault Battle Armor and the Blue Shield Particle Field Dampener shields for mechs are finished in development.

Essex Training Academy

We have 6 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 15 enrollees for next year. Of these 6, 2 choose not to stay with us, and the remaining 4 have 2 vet, 1 regular and 1 elite.

Year 4 - 12
Year 3 - 13
Year 2- 11
Year 1 – 15

We pay 10 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

This chapter has now done four years, and includes a lot. Let’s do something a little different for a bit.

End of Part 3 of The Invasion

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 01:23 AM

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company – Return on March 2, 3054
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056

Bruiser Company – Return on April 30, 3054
Shadow Company –

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla –
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss – Return on Apr 30, 3054

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 02:09 AM

I want to rewind a bit and do Beta Regiment’s contract, through October 4, 3056. This will not involve what is going on in the IS, and instead will just look at Beta Regiment in the FedCom Retainer contract. I expect this will be the final chapter of The Invasion, and then we’ll move to the next chapter.

Oct 4, 3053 – We start our contract on Fort Loudon, a fairly industrialized planet with large herd animals native to the place called Enyx that are used for meat and leather. They are about the size of a wooly mammoth but look more like antelopes.

January 25, 3054 – After learning of us on Fort Loudon, a Jade Falcon JumpShip has arrived in the system and arrived. We beat the Jaguars, Vipers, Bears and Wolves. They want to test their mettle against us. They are happy to do the smaller battles we’ve done before. They can’t war for the planet, so they just want our CO as a bondsman if they win. We ask for their best warrior if we win, and they agree.

The Jade Falcons

Uller Prime
Uller D
Loki Prime
Loki A
Loki B
Thor Prime
Thor A
Black Lanner Prime
Masakari Prime
Hunchback IIc

The Jade Falcons really love their heavy mechs. They aren’t super big fans of the too heavy to move assault mechs and the too light to have good weapons and armor lights and mediums. They have two lights to keep it respectable and two mediums to do the same and assault to keep you guessing and then heavies a go go.

Their pilots are all clan elite

This is their Black Lanner OmniMech. It’s pretty exclusive to Jade Falcon, and they used them at Tukkayid to great effect. It’s a 55 tonner with 7/11 movements plus MASC so 7/11-14 movement. Add 8 tons of ferro armor and you’ve got a decent mech. The Prime version rocks an LRM 10, SRM 6, ER large laser, 2x er medium lasers and an ECM.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/ef/CCG_Arsenal_Black_Lanner.jpg

We are using Mustang Company. As a reminder, here it is:

CTF-3L Cataphract STC-2S Striker AWS-8Q Awesome CP-11-A Cyclops
WHM-6K Warhammer STK-3F Stalker MAD-Marauder RFL-5M Rifleman
FS9-M Firestarter JR7-F Jenner CMT Comet COM-2D Commando

The scout lance is a bit light for my tastes these days. But there are no medium mechs here – its all heavy metal after the scout lance. It’s 10 elites and 2 vets. The Rifleman, Cataphract and Cyclops are all level 2 mechs.

Their Bv is 44k, and ours is 36k. This will be tough,

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 10:58 AM

We are fighting on a fairly open dry area, with roughs, modest hills and minor trees.

T1 - We lose init, We focus our fire on both of their Ullers. Our Stalker strips both arms off their Uller D. Our Rifleman nails the Ra of their other Uller. Our Cat destroys the LT of their D. Their Prime is headed by a gauss slug from our Cyclops and falls dead. I’m really pissed both our Commando and Marauder fell under damage. Both needed 4 on 2d6 to stay standing. Grrr. Our Warhammer lost about half of its armor. But, we took out two mechs, even light ones. We’ve got heavy armor. If I trade a Warhammer next turn for two Ullers this turn and whatever I damage next one, I’ll be happy.

T2 – We lose again. The remaining Kit Fox is weaponless, and thus the pilot ejects. I stand my Marauder and run with it. I am going to sacrificial bunt my Warhammer. I will hold it steady will I move everybody else. Normally I’d make another target, but I couldn’t move my Marauder much and it’s the light target, but it has much better armor than the Warhammer right now, so the ‘hammer is the choice. My goal this turn is to blow out the Loki Prime. Our Warhammer destroys the RA and RT of their Loki Prime. They blow off its LA and LT. They also destroy our Commando’s RT and hit its gyro and engine once each and it falls. So no one killed anything.

T3 – We win init this time. I eject the Commando. I eject the Warhammer too. It took the attack like I needed, and it actually survived. Amazing. Our Stalker destroys the CT section of the Loki Prime. They split targets among my other mechs, but I begin blasting armor off the Masakari.

T4 – We win init. I run my Awesome up by a Loki B. Our Stalker hits two engines on their Loki A. My Awesome takes three AC20 shots from a Hunchback IIc. They destroy the LT of my Marauder and the LA of my Cataphract.

T5 - We win init. We have to shift targets back to their Masakari after they make their moves. Our Awesome destroys its RA and our Cyclops its Left one. Our Marauder destroys its targeting computer. The Awesome is now bereft of its RA and RT and falls.

T6 – We win again. With no weapons, their Masakari ejects (nothing is left but physical attacks, yet we have not physically attacked them, so their rules of engagement prevent a mech from losing all weapons from a physical engagement.) Since it’s overheated and I can’t move it, I eject the Awesome. Our Cyclops destroys the RA of a Loki A. An LB 10-X from their Thor hits my Cataphract and two shells hit the H and Lt Gabriel Williams passes out. Our Stalker nails a Loki B’s engine once. Our Marauder, damaged and wounded, still manages to destroy the engine on their Loki A and it shuts down. Their Loki B falls and destroys two more engine sections and it is gone too. Our Rifleman destroys the LL of their Loki B on the way down. However, their Black Lanner destroys the LT of our Cataphract, and it shuts down (XL Engine). Our Striker fell.

Both Lt. Williams in the Cataphract and Sgt. Dragomir Osmochescu in the Warhammer are out, so Sgt. Nombeko Prismall, in the Firestarter moves in and takes command.

T7 – With four mechs left, including a Hunchy with no ammo, we offer them hegira, and they accept. We tell them that they were much stronger than some of the clans we fought, and they tell us that they, begrudgingly, respect despite, because we never broke zellbrigen, we used batchall honorably, and we fought with honor, such as when the Warhammer sacrificed his own mech for our unit.

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 04:23 PM

We gained a bondsman, their best MW pilot. Meet Connor Ward, elite, 1/1, Edge:3.

Uller Prime missing H, RA
Uller D missing RA, LA
Loki Prime LA, LT, H, LL, RL
Masakari missing RA, LA
Loki A, enginex3
Loki B enginex3, missing LL

Warhammer, missing LA, LT
Commando missing RT, enginex1, gyrox1
Marauder missing LT
Cataphract missing LA, LT

We were unable to fix the Commando gyro and have to replace it. I have to pay 4.87 for everything – armor, ammo and pieces for wounded mechs. With a 50% battle loss, we pay half. We also get a huge bonus contract wise because the Falcons came at us.
Just like before in the FRR, Aleph Company still has all of our spare clan parts. Let’s look:

Uller Prime – we had both a H and a RA in our stock and this is up and running

Loki A – we fixed the engine

Loki B – LL from the one killed, we fix engine

Masakari A – We move the H and a T to a chassis we have in storage to get it up and running. This will take 6 weeks to perform.

Clan Tech:

ER PPC
3x ER ML
Beagle
ECM
Targeting Computer (for 2x ERPPC, 3x ERML, 1xMG)
4x A-Pods
Anti-Missile System

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 05:59 PM

March 10 – Someone lands to raid a nearby logging company with tanks. We are tasked with defending the world, and commander tells us to send someone out to stop them. Within five minutes we have Rebel Company in the air (we have one company in a DropShip at all times for a fast response). Despite that, we are too far away and they have destroyed a few LoggerMechs and taken something from a warehouse. The armor has disappeared and several attempts to find them with local fighters and our mechs are unsuccessful.

June 28 – A Clan JumpShip arrives in the system

July 4 – The JumpShip has left

August 13 – Another raid against the logging company is occurring, but this time, we are waiting for the tanks. The armor is racing towards the company, and suddenly, Hex Company pops up a pair of klicks away from the company and before they arrive. They are too close to run away, so battle is joined.

As a reminder, here is Hex Company:

BLR-1G BattleMaster DRG-1G Grand Dragon VND-1R Vindicator KTO-18 Kintaro
ON1-K Orion BNC-3E Banshee WTH-1 Whitworth ENF-4R Enforcer
SDR-5V Spider PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk THE-S Thorn COM-2D Commando

This is a bit light for a lot of work, but good for here – 3 lights, 5 mediums, 2 heavy, 2 assault. This probably needs better balance. It also needs a Javelin 10F. It’s hard to have a scout lance that doesn’t rock one. I generally prefer a 3:1 or 4:0 ration of jumpers to non-jumpers in scout lances, and this is on 2:2 and the Thorn is not a good mech, I’m surprised I still have it here. I want to evolve this soon. Fighting these guys should be okay, but I don’t want this unit to run into clans.

This is our Enforcer. It’s a FedCom standard mech that weighs 50 tons, and has two big weapons – a large laser and AC10. It has a small laser as a backup weapon and 4/6/4 movement with 9 tons of armor- pretty close to max for a 50 ton mech. It has 12 heat sinks.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/3/33/3050U_Enforcer.jpg/727px-3050U_Enforcer.jpg

Our foes:

4x Savannah Master
3x J Edgar Hover tank
2x Harasser Missile Platform, both veteran
4x Pegasus Hover Scout
4x Maxim Heavy Hover Transport
4x IS Standard Battle Armor SRM troopers, all veteran

The troopers are each on a Maxim. This is a very fast unit, and it’s clear why they were able to strike quickly before. The Logging Camp is near a small inland lake and thus we are fighting near a wooded coast.

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 06:10 PM

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/ed/MapCoast2.jpg

We are on the north and they the south

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 07:16 PM

T1 – We win the init. Their infantry hops off the transports to move into some woods. Smart. They are speeding their Savannah Masters across the water and up to my Thorn. They only have two skids, but one results in a Harasser Missile Platform going right off the field and it escapes. A J Edgar slides into the woods and breaks its hover movement system. A Maxim’s LRM5 nails the H of our Vindicator. Our Grand Dragon immobilizes a Maxim. Our Whitworth destroys the LS of a Savannah Master. Our Thorn kicks and destroys a Savannah master’s LS. A Banshee kick on a Maxim stuns the crew for a turn. A Spider kick immobilizes a Pegasus.

J Edgar immobile
Maxim Heavy immobile
Savannah Master LS
Savannah Master LS
Pegasus immobile

Their infantry grabs handhold and they dart off, and leave. They are too fast to catch up too and they darted over water anyway, so we can’t catch up to them, but we can spend just 750k to get these up and running.

Good job Hex.

I replace its Thorn with a Comet. That’s better. It’s still too light, but we’ll worry about that later.

Abe Sargent

10-10-2011, 10:36 PM

Dec 23 – We have been approved for a raid on the Viper world of Jabuka. Jabuka is the closest clan held world to Terra. It has the best Vipers available, and we are asked with hitting it just to remind them we can. We are to chose a company to head out to face the Vipers.

Our finalists are Phaeton, Mustang and Sabre

Phaeton is not as light as you think, with just a Panther and Javelin 10N as a light mechs. It also has a ton of mediums and heavies – Phoenix Hawk, Vindicator, Hermes II, Griffin, Warhammer, Catapult, Rifleman and Thunderbolt. Just two assaults – Atlas and Awesome. 7 elite, 4 vet and one regular. The heavies are solid, and the assaults are great, but I just don’t know if this company brings enough heat.

Mustang is mostly elite and has some heavy metal. We just used them against the Falcons.

However, I’m leaning Sabre. This is exactly what companies like Sabre were created for.

Sabre loads up. We also take all of the chassis that we’ve captured.

Jan 15 – Sabre arrives at Jabuka and issues a batchall to the Steel Vipers. The goal is just to hit them, so we demand that Viper fix up all of the chasses that we’ve captured but couldn’t get running. That’s a lot of mechs for us, but not that much for them other than work and some spare parts. They agree, but they want us to turn over all of the captured chassis if we lose. That seems fair, so let’s do it.

As a reminder, here is Sabre:

ATA-2 Attila, Grizzly, BLR-3M BattleMaster, Ryoken C
Supernova, Galahad, Vulture Prime, HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi
Shadow Hawk IIc, Dasher D, JVN-10F Javelin, PXH-3k Phoenix Hawk

Steel Viper’s units:

Fenris B
Uller Prime
Black Hawk Prime
Battle Cobra Prime
Daishi A
Man O war B
Vulture C
Loki A
Loki D-Uk (with Ultra AC5, ER Large Laser, 4x medium pulses, 1 er small laser)
Crossbow Prime

This is their Battle Cobra Omni, a Viper exclusive that weighs 40 tons, has 6/9 movement, does not have an XL engine, 10/20 heat sinks and 6.5 tons of ferro fib armor. Their prime has 2 large pulse lasers and 2 small pulses. I really like the design and the Alternate Config B replaces the LPLs with ER PPCs for massive firepower (but bad heat). This is actually my favorite variant of the BC.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/c/ce/CCG_Crusade_Battle_Cobra_Prime.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 02:58 AM

The BV is virtually identical. They are ahead by 32.

They know our reputation for using terrain to our advantage (see videos of our victory over the Falcons) so they have chosen a flat plain, with a gentle slope.

T1 – We lose init. Their Daishi hits and destroys the RT of my Javelin and hits the engine once. Our BattleMaster destroys the LT of their Uller. Our Dasher hits its engine twice and it shuts down. Our Grizzly hits the gyro on their Crossbow and destroys its RA. Our Hatamato-Chi hits a gyro on their Loki A. Their Loki and Crossbow fall, as does our Jav. Their Crossbow hits an engine and gyro. Dead Crossbow. Our Attila lost more than half of its armor. When someone falls and kills themselves, I usually assign the kill to the obvious one. The Crossbow was destroyed due to two gyro hits, the first was the Grizzly and the second was terra firma. Thus, the Grizzly is given the kill. This doesn’t always work – if a mech was hit by five opponents, fell due to damage taken, and breaks its head wide open and destroys its own cockpit, I can’t assign a kill to just one, but when I can, I do. Two mechs out in one turn - Beauty!

T2 – We win init. I eject our poor 13 overheat Jav. My Scout Lance Shield worked again. Remind me some time to talk about my various strategies for victory. I hop our Phoenix Hawk behind their Loki. Their Fenris nails the H of my PXH with a er medium laser. Our Shadow Hawk IIc hits it in the H with an SRM2 Streak and then a glancing blow from a ER LL from the PXH on the H too. Our Ryoken destroys the RL of their Fenris. A medium pulse laser from their Loki to our Galahad’s H means lots of people are being scared by H hits this round. Both our Shadow Hawk IIc and Galahad tumble.

T3 – We lose init. I rise the Galahad. Their Loki A falls. Our Dasher’s lasers seek and find the AC5 ammo on their Loki and It explodes, destroyed RT. Their pilot blacks outs. Our BM’s RA is destroyed by fire from their Daishi. Their Gladiator nails our Galahad, opens up the CT and hits the gyro twice. Dead Galahad. Our LB 10-X from the Ryoken destroys the other Fenris leg, it’s LL. It’s now legless and destroyed.

T4 – We lose init. I run the Dasher by their Daishi. Our Attila nails the H of their Daishi with an ER PPC and goes internal but comes away with nothing. Their Daishi is equally blessed, as its gauss nails the H of our Hatamato-Chi and kills the MW. Before he dies, he nails the engine once and head once of their Loki A. Our Dasher goes internal on the rear left torso armor and hits ammo, boom! No more LT or LA. The pilot takes feedback damage and blacks out. Our Grizzly this its Ct and this the engine twice and it shuts down. Our Supernova destroys the LA of their Loki A. It responds by nailing na engine one and MPL on our Ryoken

T5 – We win init. We have 9 mechs to their 5. Our BattleMaster and Attila have had some serious external armor scoured from them, but that’s it. Their Loki A has lost its best weapons. The Black Hawk and Gladiator are untouched. The lighter Battle Cobra is dusted and internal in a torso. The Vulture C is scoured of armor too. It’s clear that we are in front. I expect to end the Loki A or Battle Cobra this turn, and perhaps both. The best they can hope for is to finish off a BattleMaster or Attila. I offer them hegira, but they want to continue for now. So let’s keep going. Our BM hits an engine on their Vulture. Our Shadow Hawk IIc takes out its LL. Their Loki hits another engine on our Ryoken. The RT of their Battle Cobra falls to ER Large Lasers from the Supernova. Our Vulture destroys the LT of their Loki A which is an engine overload, and then two more engine hits. Our PXH blows up the LT of their Vulture.

Now they accept hegira.

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 03:17 AM

Loki D-Uk missing RT,
Uller Prime missing LT, enginex4
Crossbow missing RA, gyrox2, enginex1
Fenris B missing both legs.
Daishi A missing LT, enginex4,
Battle Cobra Prime RA
Loki A, enginex5, missing LT, LA
Vulture C LA

Jav missing RT, enginex1,
BattleMaster RA
Galahad gyrox2
Hatamato-Chi missing H
Ryoken enginx2

We captured the Loki pilot, bondsman, and Daishi pilot:

Stacy, 1/2, elite
Foster, 1/2, elite

It costs us 3.025 to fix and replace everything. 1,512,500 post contract

These guys are not part of our agreement with the Vipers. They are not fixed, but every chassis we brought with us is fixed. It takes about a month, but at the end, we have some pristine mechs. Most of Sabre are ex-clan so they are not unaccustomed to life with the Vipers for a month.

Stacy will replace our dead pilot and pilot a Rifleman IIc. We send the Hatamato-Chi back to our garrison. Foster is given a Masakari Prime, and we’re sending him to bolster Aleph Company.

Besides those two, we got: 4x Vultures, 2x Galahad, 2xMad Cats, Kodiak, Peregrine, Marauder IIc, 2x Pumas, Uller, Fenris, Ryoken, Thor and Man o’ War It’s a lot for me, but it’s not a lot for the Vipers, who just gave us some tech time and spare parts. It would be like a level one tech challenging us for the right to give them a few boxes and crates of level 2 tech weapons and parts, plus the tech time to fix their mechs. It’s not much for us, but huge to them. The same is true here. We’re happy, because we added 20 clan mechs to our rolls. But we already had these chassis and such.

We also manage to get their Loki A up and running after refitting Loki limbs from our spares.

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 01:35 PM

July 5 – We get news that the planet has undergone some serious internal dissatisfaction with the local rule and an uprising has begun on planet. We do not have a contract with the local government, but with the Federated Commonwealth. We are ordered to keep the peace but not to attack the citizens. We begin doing riot duty on the planet. A few mechs out at a time help to keep order by showing force. Some infantry have been attacked by citizens, but our job is not to intervene on one side or another, but to do our best to keep peace.

July 7 – Both sides are becoming increasingly hostile to us. The government feels that we should be getting involved on their side despite our FedCom commanders clear instruction not to. Meanwhile, the upset members of the populace just see us as the military arm of the government that props up the local government.

July 10 – Some small arms fire opened up on the citizens near our main base on planet by the government. They were not violent, but just protesting peacefully. 23 people were killed. This is getting ugly

July 17 – After a week of lower violence as an homage to what many are called the July Massacre, violence begins again.

July 18 – Tonight, a police headquarters was destroyed by several rogue industrial mechs that moved it and destroyed it. We get cries from the government to take out their mechs, but our commanders still tell us to decline. We are not to escalate – and attacking and destroying industrial mechs is escalating.

July 21 – Today, a full fledged riot has engulfed the city. Stores are being broken into, people are turning over vehicles, and more. The local police are simply not enough to handle the situation. We have been ordered in to clear things up. Rebel Company is already on patrol and they move into the city and round up people. We are painted as the villain by the rebels.

July 28 – After another week of riot control, we notice a blip on the screen. Suddenly, a large number of industrial mechs from their herding have appeared, and they are destroying the town, they’ve already destroyed a few buildings. We are ordered to go out and end their threat. Boxer Company is on patrol and ordered in.

Boxer Company:

BLR-3M BattleMaster WHM-6D Warhammer TDR-5S Thunderbolt ZEU-6T Zeus
ARC-2R Archer RLF-3N Rifleman GRF-1N Griffin CLPT-C1 Catapult
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk CMT-1 Comet JVN-10F Javelin HER-2M Hermes II

Here are our foes

15x CattleMaster

This is the CattleMaster:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/f/f3/Cattlemaster.jpg

CattleMasters are made for herding. They are a 25 ton mech with 4/6 movement, just 1 heat sink, an ICE engine, and industrial armor. It has three machine guns and two small lasers. It also has a cargo bay inside the torso.

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 04:23 PM

With its weapons, these folks have delusions of grandeur, and it’s our responsibility to fix that.

T1 – We lose init. Our BattleMaster destroys their one CattleMaster’s RA. Our Warhammer hits the ammo on one and it blows up. Boom! The Zeus destroys the RA of another. Our Catapults gets a limb blown off critical on one LA. Two of them fall.

T2 – We win init. The H of a Cattlemaster is destroyed by our BattleMaster. Our Warhammer takes out another LT - our T Bolt blows up a RA, the Zeus gets a triple engine hit on one – Archer – La, Rifleman RA, Catapult LT, PXH blows off a RL, our Comet hits the gyro twice and engine once on one and knocks it out – Jav – RA, two CMs fall and explode.

With that, they flee

CattleMaster LL, LAx3, RL RA, Hx2, RT
CattleMaster missing H
CattleMaster enginex3, missing RA
CattleMaster, enginex1, gyrox2

We fix the engines and gyros. We use a H and RA to fix the broken one sand we have three CattleMasters and parts. We sell the remaining parts for 200k. A full blown CM costs 850k roughly.

Experience: Warhammer pilot Sekhar Mamidi is getting Edge: 1

After we easily handle the mechs in the riot, things start to calm down a bit.

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 08:30 PM

Aug 6 – The local government agrees to some concessions and the rebellion largely subsides. There are a few minor incidents that still occur, but mostly things peter down. The government gives money and homage to the families killed in the July Massacre.

Dec 10 – A battalion of our troops is being dispatched to Kelenfold. Kelenfold has recently had several raids on minor industries from unknown corporate raiders and we are being sent to bolster their forces. Ganges Battalion is on route

Dec 30 – They arrive on Kelenfold

Jan 14, 3055 – Ganges has arrived and is up to speed. (Phaeton, Boxer, Rebel)

Feb 1 – Kelenfold experiences a volcanic eruption near a settlement and we are sent to help get everyone clear.

Mar 3 – While out scouting, Steve Ovango, a mechwarrior in Hex Company’s thunder lance notices something unusual on his mag scanners. He takes a closer look and discovers a hidden cache of weapons on Fort Loudon. They are personnel weapons, not those for tanks, mechs, etc. They look to have been here at least a few years. They are turned over the gorvernment.

June 3 – On Kelenfold, raiders arrive as predicted. They’ve been on the world the entire time, and they’ve timed an attack against the change in guard between the normal planetaria milita mechs and ours. A bunch of mechs swing out and start moving. Phaeton Company is out and on guard, so they move in. Within 20 minutes, we’ve closed to their mechs, only to find that they aren’t battlemechs at all, but just agromechs running and moving like battlemechs. Meanwhile, we get info that a local refinery is being attack by mechs. We leave the agromechs behind and move out. 30 minutes later, we arrive at the factory and discover that is was never attacked. An emergency message was sent and then communcatiosn cut to prevent any double checking. After an hour of chasing phantoms, we miss the strike on a major communications center in the area. We were totally outmaneuvered.

June 5 – With a communications reduction blackout still in effect, we come across a battle while out scouting. A local refinery is being attacked by infantry in unusual power armor we don’t recognize. We move Rebel Company in, and the refinery explodes and the power armored troops melt into the twilight before we can get there.

June 10 – Just as the communications centre is restored, a bomb that had bene placed there waiting for juice explodes and it’s again dead for a while. These guys are sharp.

June 11 – Rebel Company runs into their guys again, this time they turn and move to attack. Out from the thick brush come a horde of armor units and infantry. Scanners ping 30…no…40 units at least. Rebel’s Firestarter jumps in front and uses its flamers to set the thick brush on massively on fire in just a few seconds (imagine what two tons of napalm and flamethrowers does to thick brush) fire and then they run behind the cover.

June 15 – A planetary militia mech unit was completely destroy by a deadfall trap by a bluff that resulted in the entire bluff falling on the company.

June 17 – We finally manage to engage the enemy, after a surprise attack by the local conventional fighters drops fire and forces them our way. Phaeton Company will be engaging.

This is Phaeton:

AWS-8Q Awesome WHM-6L Warhammer TDR-5S Thunderbolt PNT-9R Panther
GRF-1N Griffin AS7-D Atlas RFL-3N Rifleman CLPT-C1 Catapult
JVN-10N Javelin VND-3L Vindicator PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk HER-2S Hermes II

They have 15 tanks and 6 platoons of regular infantry.

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 09:12 PM

T1 – We win init and we are fighting in a quarry, a depression in the earth with rocks and rubble slowing movement . They move in. We drive large wedge into the heart of their troops to split them on our rock. Our Awesome gets an ammo explosion on their Harasser Missile Platform. A Zhukov takes some serious damage from both the Atlas and Catapult and survives. A Schrek PPC blasts the RA of my Vindicator off and spins it on the ground. Our T Bolt ends a Maxim’s left side.

T2 – We lose. I eject the Vindicator. Our PXH kicks in the side of their Zhukov. We immobilize a Hunter Light Support Tank and a Bulldog. Missiles from our Catapult explode the fuel tank on a Patton. Our Hermes II kicks a Striker Light Tank’s front and destroys it.

Their vehicles speed out. We pepper a few with PPCs but we don’t take out any. We take back our salvage and damaged Vindicator.

Maxim left side
Immobilize Hunter, Bulldog
Zhukov right side
Striker front

To fix: Vindicator RA

We pay the money to fix these up easily enough. Our Vindicator takes just 500k to get up, and 250k we spend.

Warhammer

10-11-2011, 09:47 PM

How did I not see this latest update til now? Great read!

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 11:42 PM

Thanks!

Abe Sargent

10-11-2011, 11:43 PM

June 20 – Spy Sattelites discover a guerilla base that our foes are in. The militia move in, and take out the base and roughly 40% of their remaining forces. It appears that these were sent by another nation – many suspect the Draconis Combine, but we are unsure. Yeah, prior to the clans and Rasalhague’s existance the Dracs might make sense, but now? What would they have to gain? We suspect Blake or ComStar.

Aug 5 – After planet is scoured by the militia, we are ordered back to Fort Loudon.

Sept 10 – Ganges Battalion is back

Jan 1, 3056 – We had a fairly quiet year last year, all things told.

Feb 15 – A battalion of mechs suddenly bursts from four Mule DropShips that were on planet for a while. It looks like they were converted for military transport. They plunge into the capital city and destroy a factory completely, decimating the defenders. We are ordered out, and our Rheims Battalion is in the city. Each company is in a different place. The closest is Aleph. They are moving swiftly through the streets they know well, but the yare not able to get to the attackers in time, and they have reboarded and break off. They fly away in four Mules, bu one of the Mules is brought down by the local fighters, and we are ordered in to take out the company of mechs that was in that Mule. Aleph and Sabre are too far away so Laser is up. Laser moves the 12 klicks to their downed Mule. Around it we see several mechs, and they move to attack.

As a reminder, Laser is the new name for Lance Company. Here they are:

ATA-1A Atilla CTF-3D Cataphract CTF-1X Cataphract OSR-2C Ostroc
LGB-7Q Longbow TBT-5n Trebuchet GRF-1N Griffin ARC-2K Archer
JVN-10N Javelin LCT-1E Locust CMD-2A Commando SDR-5V Spider

And here are the mechs that survived the crash of the Mule.

Wasp WSP-1S *
Wolf Trap *
STC-2D Striker *
Banshee
JagerMech
Archer
DV-7D Dervish *
Penetrator *
Hunchback
Merlin
1A9 Charger

This is their Penetrator, a mech that came off the assembly line in 3053. It is a solid heavy mech deisgn with 12/24 heat, and 4/6/4 movement. It features 2 ER Large Lasers for long range combat and 6x medium pulse lasers for close in. Both make 24 heat exactly, so except for movement, either firing mode is compeletely dispersed. Plus it does not have an XL engine – it’s very well designed.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/19/CCG_Mercenaries_Penetrator.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 01:42 AM

They are all vets

We have roughly 500 more BV than they do with an extra mech.

T1 – we lose init. Nothing but a minor exchange of fire.

2 – We lose again. More exchange of fire. A few thing shit of minor consequence and my Trebuchet’s LRM15

3 – Losers again. I jump our Jav next to their W Trap. The Ostroc nails the head of their JagerMech with a large laser and the pilot blacks out. Their W Trap LA is blown to pieces by long range missiles form an Archer. Our Longbow gets a limb blown off crit on the RA of their Archer. The Jav hits two en gine spots on their Trap’s engine. Our Cataphract falls. Our Jav punches the Wolf Trap an hits a third engine – dead Wolf Trap. Our Attila punches the Dervish in the head and all of the armor is gone there.

4 – We win init. I run our Locust behind their Wasp. My Cataphract rises. I fire a bunch of MLs with my Attilla in order to try and decapitate their JagerMech. Their Wasp destroys the LA of my Locust. My Attila does H the JagerMech. Our Cataphract 1X’s RA is destroyed by their Striker. Their Archer nails the Ultra AC5 on the Cataphract. Their Penetrator destroys its RT. Their Archer tumbles. Lots of kicks, but the only person to fall – their Hunchback.

And with that, they surrender to the local government. Man, I wanted that Penetrator.

Archer RA
Wolf Trap, enginex3
JagerMech H

To Repair:

RT, RA Cataphract 1X
LA Locust

3.15 mill for repair, ammo and armor

We fix the Wolf Trap, yay.

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 02:25 AM

Oct 4, 3056 – Our contract is up, and it’s time for the pay pay. The FC is interested in bringing us back, but I don’t know if we even want to. I need to know what else is happening, so its time to flash back.

But first, the money!

This was our contract:

Beta Regiment, Retainer

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: Full
10% Bonus

This is how much we pay our regiment in one month:

489,794

That means, if you were to sell a Battlemech for 5 mill, you could pay for your company for 10 months. Mechs are not cheap, life is.

For three years, we pay 17,632,224

We made, in salary, 204,801,831

187 mill after pay and upkeep. This money is not available until after October 3056.

End of Part 4 of The Invasion

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 04:32 PM

How to fight against foes, Abe’s five biggest tips for BattleTech generally and MegaMek specifically.

1). Rotating Targets. Your opponent will tend to target a mech that is the easiest to hit. While that’s not always the case, it usually is. They will concentrate their fire on mechs that are easy to hit. That makes sense. What I do is I rotate my targets. I’ll have one mech move a smaller number of hexes than others, or perhaps even keep it still, in order to get it targeted. Often I’ll just have it two hexes in front or something. By doing this, you rotate their fire through several mechs. I’ll rotate in high armor mechs first, like BattleMaster’s and Atlas’s, then guys like Thunderbolts and Warhammers. Eventually it’s Crusaders, Archers, and Hunchbacks if we get that late.

2). The Sacrifice Play. Related to the above, sometimes you have a mech that is damaged, and you wan’t to eject. But, you are tilting on the edge. If you eject it now, they will rain fire You will likely lose parts and even the mech itself, but you keep the fire from falling on your other mechs. I’ve used this most often against the clans in the first few turns, before I’ve killed enough of their mechs. I’ve left assault mechs missing a leg or something on the field and let them beat down on it to finish it off while I get a turn of fire virtually free. It’s worth the money lost.

3). The Flying Wedge – When I’m in open terrain, I make a formation I call the Flying Wedge. I put my assaults with good armor in front, then the next layer is light armored assaults (like a Victor) and heavies. Then in my third row are any other mechs I can’t sit back and snipe with. If I’m n a map with a handful of woods and nothing else, I’ll put the other units there. On a barren map I’ll just make a giant Flying Wedge with 7-9 of my mechs in it. I’ll run lights behind with higher number sot hit to keep them trucking until I need to run out to hit someone from close range. I’ll then move this unit in and out of the ideal range for weapons and such. It’s a great way to close with mechs like Hunchbacks and Kintaros behind a line of better mechs all moving at the same speed.

4). The Light Mech Shield – One of my favorite strategies. The goal here is to distract your opponent with these little guys while some sniper isn’t moving at all and hitting you from range. For example, I use Rifleman a lot because I find them, but I don’t like them that much. But they work against my foe. I’ll just put them in a light woods hex (or heavy if possible), and sit and snipe all game long. They’ll rarely target me. First because I’m likely to be using the Flying Wedge, and that leaves mechs in the open and usually closer. Thus easier to hit. Secondly, I use the Light Mech Shield. This requires fast scout mechs that are flying all over short range against my foes. For example, take our favorite scout mech, the Javelin 10F. It moves 6/9/6. When I jump at least 5 or run at least 7 that’s a +3 to hit me. It’s also a +3 for me to hit if I jumped and+2 for the run, but that doesn’t matter. Now, suppose that my Rifleman is sitting down stream at long range. That’s +4 to hit me. If my Jav 10F has run or jumped that +3 right by you, then it is 1 easier to attack the scout mech. That’s if the Rifleman is standing stone cold in open space. Now add a light forest to it or partial cover and it’s another +1. Even if the Jav jumps into light woods two spaces away from you, it’s a +4 for it and a +5 for the Rifleman. Which do you aim for? This is what I call the Light Mech Shield, it’s a way to grab the attention of your enemy so that they aim for and hurt weaker mechs, not stronger ones. This is done by good scout medium mechs too. This is also a real reason why I want scout mechs that jump in at least a 3:1 ratio. I need the Light Mech Shield active at all times. That includes maps with major terrain issues like trees and hills. Mechs that run real far are fine on open maps, like Locusts and Cicadas, but I prefer jumpers in most cases.

5). Fight at your battle level – Elite vs Regular – You need to know how to win against a regular unit as elites, and how to win against higher skilled opponents if you are not. I regularly use this strategy against the elite clan battles. When you are an elite facing a regular unit, you want to make the dice roll hard for both of you. For example, suppose you are at short range. If you jumped 7 and they ran 5, then you need a 7 to hit them and they need a 9 to hit you. You will win that battle. Always push your movement or the terrain to increase the difficulty for you to hit each other. I find that the Ai will often do the right thing and try to stay still to lower their to hit. That is the counter for experience. Going form a 7 to a 9 is a huge difference. Going from a 3 to a 5 really isn’t much of one. If you have less experience, you want to stand still. Grab some woods and just stop moving altogether. You don’t even need woods, just stop moving. If you don’t move you might drop their to hit number by 2-3, but hey, they were likely to hit anyway. If you don’t move you drop yours by 1-3, and that’s what matters. Who cares if you drop their to hit from 5 to 3 if you drop yours from 7 to 4 by not jumping 4 spaces? That’s how you win when there is an experience difference either way.

Four General BattleTech Tips

1). Always place your mechs with knowledge of where you are going to move them on the first turn. I know what terrain my sniper swill hide behind, who won’t move at all, where I’m moving my Flying Wedge too, where my scouts are going, and so forth.

2). Don’t hide from terrain, use it. Use monster terrain in the middle to split their forces and hit one hard while you hold down the other with fast scouts or distant snipers in beautiful positions.

3). Know when to focus your fire and when to fire on the best available target for each mech. I’ll focus when the numbers are there or I need to kill guys, but often I have two or three targets because I’d rather all of my forces have to hit 6s than some 8s because I forced them to fire at a guy who was closer to some but farther away than others.

4). Target the combination of easiest kill plus most weapons. I like to go for heavily armed but weakly armored mechs, like Commando, Jenner, Rifleman, Cyclops, Victor, Clint, and so forth. Taking these out removes a lot of weapons and can be done more easily.

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 08:33 PM

January 1, 3054 – Here is our unit, minus those forces in Beta Regiment.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company -
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company – Return on March 2, 3054
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054

Bruiser Company – Return on April 30, 3054
Shadow Company –

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla –
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss – Return on Apr 30, 3054

As you can see, Delta, Butler and Aerospace Companies return this month. Shadow Company is on a temporary furlough while Braham Essex is at Outreach for a …project. That gives us 6 companies ready to head out and Delta on the way.

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 09:34 PM

Contracts!

A company wants an Objective Raid
A company wants cadre/garrison work
Free World League would like us to go Pirate Hunting

None of those seem that appealing. What else?

Let’s look more closely at the cadre/garrison work. Orestes is the new capital of the Free Rasalhague Republic, and it is now the home of a new military academy, training centers, barracks, government, industry and more. Because all of these people are here, the local place is getting big. One of the major local companies is Odin Manufacturing. Among other things, it also has a BattleMech factory. They would like a unit that was successful against the clans (us) to come in and do some training, while also serving as garrison. They want a battalion of troops. Myth Battalion, which is actually four battalions, is available, and they’re okay with it.

Because the FRR has become a virtual protectorate of ComStar, they are using Odin for making mechs for ComStar, as well as lots of ComGuards around. We are considered the best mercenary unit in the IS for this role, and we are their first choice. I’d like to help out our friends in the FRR as well. They expect that the local manufacturing Janesek Industries (they make an aerospace fighter and parts) plus others will want the training, so they’d like a year. I’m okay with that for my friends.

Myth Battalion Cadre/Garrison:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Straight Support 50%
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 year
Transport: Full
32% Bonus

Orestes is barely two jumps from Fort Loudon, so we are very close to Beta Regiment. Close enough for friends on holiday to visit each other and such.

We begin at Orestes on Mar 21. Our contract ends on March 21, 3055. Let’s see what happens during our year

(In order to see if anything happens, each month I roll 2d6. If I get a10+, then something happens). Nope, it’s all free of stuff.

The Money

We spend 2.491 mill on our four battalions for a full 16 months.

We made 18.379 mill

Total made is 15.888 mill.

We will Return on June 5, 3055

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 10:06 PM

February 1 – Contracts!

Dracs want garrison
ComStar wants Defense
Marik wants Objective Raid – target – Jacomarie, which would take us roughly 6-8 months to get to. No thanks.
Extraction Raid wanted by ComStar. They want the experimental prototype mech taken by Blake they were working on. It would take longer to make a new one than it would be to hire us to get it for them.

It’s on the Marik world of Sorunda. It’s an odd world to choose. Sorunda is the home of the Buddhist Religion in the Free Worlds League. It’s sparsely populated and heavily pacifist. Perhaps the quasi-religious Blakes find comfort in similarly minded monks.

I can have a company on world by April 29. It’s actually not that far away but it’s one of those annoying systems, like Thule, where the trip to the jump points from the planet is waaaay too far away.

ComStar is doing this through military channels to avoid their intel issues with Blake. Blake took all of the good intel, ComStar took all of the good mechs and warriors. They believe that Sorunda has at most a company of mechs, and probably a lot less than that. We’ve seen ComStar intel before. I send in the powerful Delta Company, just in case things go awry. We also are taking along all five of our SRM equipped infantry platoons with inferno and SRMs available as needed. We also refitted a mech in our garrison and will send it out too. Finally, we’ll take the Serendipitous Victory, because we need the extra space.

Delta Company, Extraction Raid for their Raijin Prototype

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: BattleLoss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
25% Bonus

Apr 30 – We have landed on Sorunda. This world has few industrialized places big enough to work on a prototype of a mech, so it should be easy to figure out where it is.

May 5 – It was easy to find the mech, because it was out on patrol last night with a group of Blake mechs. The Raijin definitely looks different. We figure they were taking it through its paces. We will equip our infantry with inferno SRMs to overheat the Raijin and shut it down, while the rest of us take out the other units. We also have some help – we have a modified Firestarter. This is the one that we modified for Adele Thompson long ago, but we went back after double heat inks became common. It should help us overheat the Raijin, and it is being piloted by the elite recent grad from the Essex Training Academy called Denise Sanderford.

May 7- We have our infantry on watch, and the unit of mechs in coming through again. We place our infantry and mechs carefully around the area they have patrolled each of the last two days – you shouldn’t take the same route each night, this is basic level stuff. Perhaps the pacifists are getting to them, or perhaps ComStar really did keep all of the warriors.

They come down and around and walk right into our little ambush. Boom. Out pop our mechs and infantry, and they are surrounded. I radio on an open channel to the mechs that all we want is the Raijin, and we will let the rest go. We have 13 mechs to their 7 – the Raijin plus 6 (ComStar and Blake use units of 6 instead of 4 as their units). They raise their weapons, and Lt Miguel Juarez gives his prearranged signal “Five.” At that, lasers and PPcs lance into a light mech and destroy it in one salvo.

After a brief pause, they agree, and the MechWarrior in the Raijin jumps out. We let them leave. We grab the two limbs of their Mongoose that survived and walk away

That never works.

We check the Raijin prototype for traps , but find nothing our techs can’t clean up. An infantryman with some knowledge of mechs jumps in and we head back. Nothing else gets in our way.

We get on the DropShip and load up. It lifts, and suddenly, shakes. Fighters have arrived to protest our leaving. They must not realize what they are shooting at. The captain is given permission to fire, and our clan-tech Union C tears into them. It’s got more armor, more weapons and better weapons. Four of their fighters are destroyed in 30 seconds and the others fly off. We are not bothered again.

We made 350k. We have our techs give the Raijin a once over before turning it over to ComStar. It’s got light armor for a 50 ton mech, and an XL engine, so we feel it’s a bit too vulnerable for a PPC, 3x MPL, SRM6 and SRM2 streak. We turned it over and made cash.

Our people return on Aug 19.

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 10:14 PM

Mar 1 – Contracts

Marik wants Defenses
FedCom wants Objective Raid on Altair - major Drac world, very close

Altair is regularly raided because the sun is very unstable, and it will often shut down all communications for extended periods of time –days, weeks, even a month or more are known. This makes it an ideal place to attack when the violent sun is undergoing one of its regular solar storms and flare activity is on the rise. The next power outage of note is set to occur on May 24, and to least last three days. They want us on Altair now, before the locals start getting more restrictive on trade. The planet is an underground maze of rich plant life and 3.6 billion people live here. There are a large number of bottled spring water and agriculture ventures, such as herbs and whatnot. The upper world is arid and dusty, but not a desert per se. The dry climate is conducive to manufacturing certain items, due to the lower content of water in the atmosphere. One of those things is ammunition and explosives. The Kurita Combine Munitions Factory makes a large number of these. They also make electronic components like targeting systems, and components for things like DropShips. They also make the F-500 Reiver aerospace fighter.

They want us to raid the munitions factory that makes explosives, and try to do as much damage as possible to it. It’s a large complex, and they would like us to take out the warehouse at least. We get a bonus 1 mill C-Bills for each building we destroy beyond the warehouse – and there are 7 total buildings.

We will be taking infantry and mechs and Aerospace Company and both the Scots Flotilla and the Star River.

We believe that the stealth oriented nature of this mission is not an option for Cinq – they are too light, and not a good choice for Butler, they are too inexperienced. Therefore, Trinity Company will be heading out. In addition, we will be sending a stealth-y surprise in the Exterminator. With our newest mechwarrior addition from Beta Regiment (where we send all disposed pilots) to our garrison – Connor Ward.

Aerospace Company and Trinity, plus Scots Flotilla, Star River, infantry, and Exterminator

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 monthes
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
5.5% Bonus

We will arrive on Altair on March 30. We have painted our DropShips in Drac colors with a Drac symbol. This planet gets a ton of traffic. It’s easy for us to get lost in.

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 11:01 PM

Apr 2 – Everything has worked, and we are berthed in the large industrial DropPort near the factory, plus near many other things. Their factory is a bit pushed back from this area, and inside a palisade-like structure

Apr 15 – Scouting has been promising, and we are ready to rock.

May 20 – We have everything ready for our plan. We’ve had 24-hour surveillance on the factory for a month now. The Combine garrison force on planet are the 3rd Dieron Regulars. They are a battalion of mechs that serve as the main garrison. In addition, there are various planetary units here, including regiments of infantry, some mechs, and lots of armor. Plus, the Factory has its own garrison – which appears to be exclusively armor. Here is the plan.

When the sun goes crazy, communications drop. At this point, we will have an infantry unit line several empty buildings in the industrial area with explosives. As distractions, we can blow up one of the three. One infantry platoon will hold out and detonate them. Just like communications won’t work, neither will remote control detonating, so they have fuses.

Our Exterminator will move out quickly. With communications down and scanners unable to pick him up, he will have a great deal of stealth available. He is in the DropShip that has Aerospace Company. He will get in a position, and then signal by launching his LRMs at a large fuel drum that is nearby on the DropPort.

At that point, our company of mechs will pop out of the DropShip and begin to move out. With the local garrison distracted, we will move into the industrial area and towards the company. We should be there in 20 minutes. Once we’ve made contact, we will signal back by having one of the infantrymen with us use the flare SRMs in his handheld SRM launcher. This will tell the infantry to blow up the first building, and hopefully help to keep away their units while we attack and take out the locals. Meanwhile, with all of these distractions occurring, we will scramble Aerospace Company. While we engage their forces in front of the company, they will fly over and strafe and destroy the buildings inside the factory. By waiting until we have fully engaged, they should have evacuated the area before our air strikes arrives.

When the buildings are destroyed, then we will break off battle if still engaged. Meanwhile the Exterminator should be providing distraction by occasionally striking and fading from the other forces on the planet. That’s our goal. Then we fade and leave. Remember, no one can communicate with any others . We have planned everything and reiterated it again and again for a month. We doubt they will be able to respond to our aerial units – they require a lot of coordination.

May 24 – The day has arrived. Here we go:

The sun’s flares ignite right on time, and communications flicker, and then a few minutes later go out. We wait ten minutes and then the infantry moves out to put up explosives. Another few minutes and the Exterminator is moving out from the DropShip that has our fighters. He moves stealthily out, and is not noticed.

LRMs fire out and all of the sudden there is a big BOOM as the fuel tank ignites. So far, everything is working. Out pops Delta Company, with some infantry in a few jeeps we rented following behind.

Fire crews are moving to the fuel tank, and everyone’s attention is focused on them. Our stealth should be working fine when…..no….are you serious?

Out burst mechs from three different DropShips, all nearby. They start shouting from speakers that “Hello Altair! Prepare to be raided by Hanson’s Horribles! We are going to take all that you have! Who wants some?”

We are on the DropPort where they are too, and we just look at each other. We move away, and Hanson’s does as well, but with their three companies of mechs, firing guns in the air and asking for combat, our stealth has gone In fact, we may risk being thought a fourth company of the Horribles. Idiot pirates or mercs or whatever.

Our infantry platoon has ignited the first building on cue, and it won’t help. Within a few minutes, we scan various units coming in. After looking around, we decide to take defensive postures around our DropShips. A mech runs into the DropShip with the fighters and delivers the news. Ten minutes later, we have hostiles fighting the Horribles as the local garrisons and the 3rd has arrived. This is the perfect distraction, but we are tied in and can’t leave – the way out is through the fight. More soldiers pour in, and we are spotted, and a company of the 3rd breaks off to attack us. We try to tell them that we don’t want to fight via radio, but they aren’t listening. Here comes the 3rd.

Meanwhile, the DropShip with the fighters takes off.

Because we are on the border with the FedComs and because we are one an industrial world raided regularly the 3rd are completely equipped with level 2 tech.

All veterans, save two are regular.

Wolf Trap
CGR-3K Charger
LCT-3S Locust, regular
SDR-9K Venom
Daimyo
CRD-4K Crusader
Mauler
PXH-3K Phoenix Hawk
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk
JR7-K Jenner
GOL-3M Goliath, regular
QKD-5K Quickdraw

As more and more specialized mechs are made for various houses, their units will look more and more unique. Back in lostech world, everybody haad virually the same mechs. A unit with a Locust, Wasp, Stinger, Wolverine, Griffin, Phoenix Hawk, Shadow Hawk, Crusader, Marauder, Warhammer, Archer, Atlas, BattleMaster, and such could be from anywhere. Mechs that were specific to a particular Hose were fairly rare – Panther, Jenner, Valkyrie, Enforcer, Hatchetman and just a few others. Through centuries of warfare, even those could easily appear in another militia. But now, with all of these new designs, you can tell a Liao force with Ravens, Snakes, Thunders from a Kurita force with Wolf Traps, Dragons, Hatamato-Chis and Daimyos. You’ll be able to tell the Anvil, Hammer, Apollo wielding Free Worlds League from the Penetrator, Salamander, Scarabus wielding Federated Commonwealth.

This is their Venom – it’s a fast light mech based on a Spider and made by the same manufacturer. It’s been made since 3050. It uses the same chassis and has similar speed. With an 8/12/8 movement, it uses an XL engine to have 4 medium pulse lasers and just 3.5 tons of ferro armor on a 35 ton mech.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e8/CCG_Mercenaries_Venom.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-12-2011, 11:02 PM

Because we are fighting on a large Drop Port, we are using this map:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/3/30/MapMilitaryBase1.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 01:09 AM

Here we go!

T1 – We win init. Our Ostscout jumps by their Wolf Trap after it falls with trying to land on the building. A T Bolt hits an engine on their Daimyo. Our Goliath destroys its CT and it shuts down,

T2 – We lose init. I hope the Spider next to their Venom. Ostsol next to their Locust. The Trebuchet as well. Our Zeus nails and destroys the LA of their Spider. The Venom destroys our Spider’s LA. Our Spider fires back and hits a medium pulse laser and a engine. Our Spider kicks and destroys the LT of their Venom and it is destroyed. Our Zeus punches the Wolf Trap, hits a leg actuator, and it has to make a piloting skill roll it falls and hits its gyro twice. Dead mech. 3 kills in 2 turns.

T3 – We win init. I hop the Spider behind their Locust. Our Ostsol blows off the Locusts RT. The Attila destroys their PXh’s RA. Theirs responds by nails the engine of the Attila. After focusing a lot of fire on the Mauler this turn, our Trebuchet hits a foot actuator. We punch the PXH’s head with an Attila.

They decide to flee now, before things get too rough. All of my mechs are fine, except the Hunchback and Spider. The Hunchy has taken a lot of external damage, and lost about 60% of his armor. Everybody else is great.

Daimyo RT, LT, LA, RA, H, LL, RL
Venom missing LT, enginex3
Wolf Trap, x2gyro,
LCT-3S Locust RA

Spider missing LA

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 01:26 AM

We finish fighting the 3rd Dieron Regulars, and they move back. We order the Hunchback and Spider to gather salvage and move back into the DropShip.

Meanwhile, our fighter DropShip moved towards the factory and unleashed the fighters. They buzz the factory. We wanted as few casualties as possible, so they strafe the walls first to give warning. Then a few minutes later, they return to buzz the warehouse and it is destroyed. Meanwhile, their vehicles are out and trying to fire at our fighters. They don’t do much, but a few moments later, a sextet of VTOLs move in from nearby to attack our fighters. We manage to down two of the VTOLS and the rest flee, but it takes a few minutes. Meanwhile, infantry at the factory have set up anti-aircraft artillery and begin raking the sky with Autocannons. We need ground support and flee.

After driving off the Regulars, we observe the rest of the battle between the Horribles. They manage to fight through the Dieron, and the locals are broken and begin to flee. Meanwhile, some of the Horribles turn to face us again. This time, they charge our position! What are they doing?

This is a fight between Hanson’s Horribles and the remaining 10 mechs of Trinity Company

Their Mechs:

Axman *
Victor
Hunchback
BLR-3M BattleMaster *
JVN-10P Javelin *
2x HCT-S Hatchetman *
Thunderbolt
Commando
CN9-D Centurion *
WTH-1S Whitworth variant
QKD-5A Quickdraw variant

This is a very good close in company. It’s clear they must specialize in close range combat. The ones with hatchets and BM are veterans, and the rest are regulars.

This is their Axman, a newer mech with an AC20, axe, large pulse laser, 3xmedium pulses, 4/6/4 movement, XL, 10/20 heat and 10 tons of ferro armor.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/9/9a/3050U_Axman.jpg/676px-3050U_Axman.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 01:27 AM

We only have the ten surviving mechs from the previous battle. Our map:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/a/a2/MapMilitaryBase2.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 09:46 AM

We only have the ten surviving mechs from the previous battle. Our map:

T1 – We win init. We focus a lot of fire on their Axman. The Attila hits its head with a medium laser.

T2 – We win again. Rock on. I run a PXH behind their Thunderbolt. Our Attila hits the Head of their Axman with a ER PPC and goes internal and hits the cockpit. Dead mech and pilot. Later on we hit the gyro twice and engine three times. It’s dead three ways! Our Zeus will destroys its LA too. Our Archer crushes their Javelin with 36 missiles from its double LRM20s. Ammo explosion, boom. They kick my Phoenix Hawk and it falls.

T3 – We win yay. I stand the PXH and start running with it but it skids and goes off the field. Our Archer attacks the Quickdraw and hits him once in the head, and he is knocked out. Our Trebuchet destroys the Rt of their Commando. Our T Bolt hits the ammo on their Hunchback and another boom.

They’ve had enough, and Hanson’s Horrible’s retreat. We send the injured P Hawk to the stables. Everybody else is still cooking with gas. They lost the battle the monet they chose to put some of their forces on one side and some on the other of some buildings. On one side, I hid my Archer in heavy woods, and jumped and moved my light mechs around for the Scout Lance Shield strategy. On the other, I put all of my power guys right in front and moved them max speed each time. And that is how you do that!

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 10:52 AM

Axman, fix cockpit, gyrox2, enginex3, missing LA
JVN-10P Javelin RA, LL, LT,LA, H
Hunchback RL
QKD-5A Quickdraw
Commando RA

With everybody wise to us now, defensive troops are getting a problem. We can’t get to the Factory in time to help out, and our fighters retreated. Our Exterminator arrives 5 minutes later. Two more buildings blow up and our infantry return as well. We have garrisoned around the DropShip, and eventually the other one returns. We load up our salvage and men, and get on board and blast off.

We will return on June 28.

Money money money. And salvage!

2.610 mill was the contract.

We have to pay 3.815 mill to fix everything, salaries, etc.

We got parts for the Jav and made it a Javelin 10F. We purchased the CT for Daimyo, engine and gyro – expensive, and fixed it up too. That means we ended up with 7 mechs.

Experience:

Our Goliath MW, Janice Flanders, got her 8th kill and now has Edge: 1.

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 12:24 PM

Rewind:

March 15 – After a long period of recruiting Braham Essex announces some changes:

Epsilon Company

Ontos; Von Luckner; Goblin Medium Tank; Brutus Assault Tank; Ac2 Carrier; Rommel; Hunter; LRM Carrier; Saladin; J Edgar; Saracen; Saladin

Zeta Company:

Schrek PPC Carrier: Brutus; Zhukov; Bulldog; Schrek PPC Carrier; Harasser; Hunter; LRM Carrier; Saladin; J Edgar; Drillson; Saladin

Now we have two full battalions of tanks. We recruited a bunch of vets. The leader of each is elite, and then each one has three or four regular crews as well to make up the numbers.

We have another announcement

We have purchased four sets of IS Standard Battle Armor and adding four veteran platoons to our garrison. Like our other infantry or central assets, they are available at any time.

K&C is also purchasing a lot of equipment. We’ve had a lot of campaigns recently, so we are picking up more equipment for them. They include:

2 more Boomerang Spotter Planes
8 more Ordinance Transports
2 more coolant trucks
2 more engineering vehicles
2 more BattleMech recovery vehicles
7 more Ferret Light Scout VTOL
8 Rock Rovers
6 more Swift Wind Scout Cars
4 Karnov UR Transport VTOL

Different mech companies sell mechs in different ways. For example,e there are a large number of companies that just make one mech for one military. The Venoms are made just for the Draconis Combine, for example. On the other hand, many are just generally available to whoever wants to purchase them.

Recently, the Free Worlds League mech makers have been selling mechs to the Combine and FedComs to replace lost mechs. Marik hasn’t had any major battles or wars for a while, and thus it doesn’t have a lot of holes on T&A charts.

Since many new designs are available to any buyer with the right C-Bills, we have made a few purchases of recently produced mechs:

2 Hollanders – I want to experiment with the 35 ton mech with the Gauss and no XL engine. A lot of Lyrans aren’t fans because it is such an unconventional mech design, but the Panther is a very effective light mech built around one big weapon - the PPC. The Hunchback is built around being a mobile walking AC20. It’s a great mech.

2 Watchman – Designed for our Friend, Duke Sandoval and his people, we really like the Watchman, a cheap, 40 ton mech that has good movement, max armor and good weapons.

2 Apollos – This 55 ton make is being made in giant amounts in the Free Worlds League and sold all over the place. They are 4/6 with 2 LRM15s with Artemis, ad 2 small pulse laser – don’t forget max armor and no XL. It’s one of my favorite mechs from the 3055 TRO. I can’t get many of my others – Huron Warrior, Salamander, Penetrator, Naginata, etc, but I can get these.

2 Gallowglas – From one jump away in Outreach, these are being sold. 70 tons, no XL, 12 tons of armor, 4/6/3, ER PPC, 2x large lasers, 2x medium pulses, small laser, 18/36 heat. A solid energy based design with the ability to be in the field for a while.

Braham will remain on Outreach for another few months, for a final few projects, and then return.

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 04:35 PM

April 1 – Contracts!

Dracs want garrison
ComStar would like security
FedCom wants security
Company would like pirate hunting – in the periphery

At first, I didn’t want to do the security contracts, but then I rolled and the FedCom one is on Nusakan – three jumps away and juts five days from the jump point to the planet. That interests me. Let’s send Cinq to go and play nice with the locals:

Cinq Security

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 4 months
Transport: Full
15% Bonus

We arrive on April 29

The contracts ends on Aug 29 and they come back on Sept 21. Nothing happens during the contract. We made 1.233 mill and we paid 329k for company since last contract.

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 05:17 PM

May 1 – Contracts

FedCom – Garrison
Rasalhague – Recon Raid
St. Ives – Pirate Hunting
Blake – Riot/Garrison

Rasalhague want a recon deep in clan space. Nah

We don’t want any of the others.

June 1 – Contracts

Periphery – O Raid, don’t care who or where
Rasalhague – Extraction Raid – target Drac world of Eltanin
Free Worlds – Relief Duty
Drac – Garrison
ComStar – O Raid on Nathan – 2 jumps away

Bruiser, with Amalgamated Bliss, Extraction Raid

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.2, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
22.5% Bonus

Bruiser will arrive on Aug 14. Once there, the task will be to hit a Drac base hard, and free three Rasalhague prisoners. They are supposedly political prisoners who could help FRR rebuild but are in Drac jail for being too openly Anti-Kurita. We are also sending two squads of infantry.

We also want to do the Smash of ComStar, on a very close by Blake held world. It’s the same as before. They’ve tried other mercenary groups, but many have failed to be as successful as us, so they want us to smash deep and destroys more Blake units.

We’ll send in Defender Company

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 months
Transport: Full
17.5% Bonus

They arrive on June 24.

We’ll’ do them first.

They are all level 2 tech mechs.

KGC-000 King Crab, veteran
Zeu-9S Zeus, elite
HUR-W0-R4L Huron Warrior, regular
GLT-3N Guillotine, elite
WSP-3M Wasp, green
Apollo, veteran
EXC-B2 Excalibur, veteran
FLA-17 Flea, elite
WVR-7M Wolverine, regular
KTO-19 Kintaro, regular
CP-11-A Cyclops, green
CLNT-2-3U Clint, green

This is their King Crab, a 100 ton mech with two AC20s, LRM15, large laser, 15 heat sinks, 16 tons of ferro fib armor, 3/5 movement, CASE and just one ton of ammo for each of its big guns – so 5 shots
each.

Right now, Blake has old Star League era mechs like ComStar, new refits and versions of old mechs, and Marik exclusive mechs they’ve picked up in the last year.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/2/2a/CCG_Counterstrike_King_Crab.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 08:24 PM

Here we go!

T1 – We win init. The Orion nails a leg actuator on their Clint. It falls.

T2 – We win init. They stand up the Clint and move it away. While trying to run and turn on the ferrocrete, their Wolverine skids and falls. Their Cyclops’s MASC freezes and destroys two actuators on its leg. Their King Crab’s AC20 nails the H of our Orion and destroys the mech and kills the MW. Our Whitworth destroys the LT and Rl of their Clint. The Huron Warrior falls. The Clint does too and the pilot blacks out. Our Grif hits the engine on their HW. Their Excalibur destroys the LL on my Jav. Our Jav kicks the Wasp, it’s its ammo, and the LT is gone. It falls into water and its RT is breached.

T3 - We lose init. I eject the Jav. Col. Matthews Daishi returns the favor and blows off the King Crab’s H. Meanwhile, our Stalker destroys its RT. Our BM hits the leg actuator on their Huron Warrior. Our Griffin’s LRm10 missiles hit the head of their Apollo and the pilot is knocked out. It falls again. Their Clint pilot is still asleep.

T4 – We win. I run the PXH by their Apollo. Their HW stands. Thor runs behind their Zeus. Both our Comet and PXH try to take off the heads of the knocked out people they are near. Our PXH’s large laser slices right into the Apollo and erases its head. Perfect. Our Comet hits the Clint’s head twice, but does not go internal. That’s okay though, because that’s two more damage to the pilot, and now the chance of waking up is much worse, an 11 or 12. Their Guillotine hits my Thor’s H twice once with an SRM missile and once with a medium laser Luckily, no blackouts, but that’s crazy. Our Thor does hit with two Ultra AC20 shots but neither hits a torso. Dang. That would have crippled their Zeus. Our Warhammer gets lucky and blows the H of their Excalibur with a PPC. Our PXH and their Kintaro fall under damage. Our Thor’s kick opens up their Zeus’s LL and hit two actuator and it fell. It hits an ER PPC in the fall.

T5 – We win init. Their Kintaro rises. I stand the PXH and run behind some trees. Their Zeus does not successfully stand and instead destroys its own LL. They don’t see the Hunch behind a building and their Cyclops turns and I move my Hunch behind it. Our Hunchback’s AC20 hits the LTR, leaves just three internal left , ignites the LRM 10 ammo and boom! Dead mech. Our BM destroys both torsos of their Kintaro. A PPC from the Warhammer knifes into the left leg of their Huron Warrior and its going to fall again. Our Griffin adds an engine hit to their Kintaro. Col. Humphries destroys the LA, LL, LT and RA of their Flea. That’s a dead mech (missing one leg and two arms means it can’t get up). The Daishi kicks and destroys the HW’s LT which takes it out since its an XL mech.

T6 – We lose init. The Kintaro pilot ejects, as he should. Our Thor destroys the Wasp’s CT and RT. The BM hits two leg actuators on their Guillotine. A PPC from the Warhammer nails his head but doesn’t do anything extra. It tumbles and destroys its own RL. We push the Wolverine into the water with a Hermes and it falls, and breaches the CT.

T7 – We lose init. We offer them their lives and they can want back to Blake right now if only they leave their legged mechs. These are their elite pilots, and they need them. Otherwise, we take them and turn them over to ComStar. We’ll even let them have the blacked out pilots. They agree and leave.

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 08:55 PM

Wasp LA, RA, H, LL, RL
Clint missing RT, LL
King Crab, missing H, RT
Apollo missing H.
Excalibur missing H
Cyclops LA, H
Kintaro missing RT, LT
Flea missing LA, RA, LL, LT
Huron Warrior, missing LT, LA, LL, enginex3
GLT-3N Guillotine missing LL
Zeu-9S Zeus, RL
Wolverine breach in CT

To fix:

Javelin missing LL
Orion missing H

We call up elite pilot Faith Foster to the Orion.

Basically, after everything, we pay 11.024 mill for all of the mechs to work, armor ammo, fixes, and I tossed in our salary too.

Experience:

Col Humphries is getting Tactical Genius
The Thor pilot, Bryson Abasi is getting Edge: 2

They will return on July 28.

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 09:15 PM

Our other contract was Bruiser to the Dracs.

Aug 14 – As scheduled, we land on Eltanin. Our infantry begins to scout. We need to verify targets.

Sept 2 – That took a while. Security is tight here. They camouflaged a prison as a warehouse for meat. It’s took a lot of surveillance to figure that out. Now that we know, we need to get more info.

Sept 26 – After more than 20 days of constant round the clock surveillance, we know where everything is. The defenders appear to be a company of mechs plus a minor number of armor. We will move in Bruiser Company and smash the front gates, and attack hard. They will need to send all of their units if they want to beat our high technology mechs. Once start fighting with everyone, our infantry will blow a hole into the wall from two sides. One should be able to penetrate in and kill any guards, and rescue our prisoners. Once out, we can either leave, or finish the battle and take salvage. We expect the second, but you never know.

Sept 29 – We begin the mission. We’ve plotted a route that avoids patrols until arriving at the meat warehouse. It works easily, and we are not spotted. Our company of mechs smash on the door with lasers and the defenders start pouring out.

Our foes:

All level 2 mechs by the Dracs, and all veteran

Hatamato Chi
Katana
STC-2D Striker
SDR-7M Spider
STG-5M Stinger
SCP-10 Scorpion
CRB-27 Crab
RFL-5M Rifleman
CRD-4K Crusader
PNT-10K Panther
CN9-D Centurion
AS7-K Atlas

Well, there are some good mechs there. They also have:

Partisan Air Defense Tank, level 2 tech, vet
Mauler City Tank
2x Zhukov Heavy Tank
2x Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
2x Medium Goblin Tank

4x Laser Infantry

Their BV is 27k even. Ours is 50980

This is their Striker, an old extinct assault Star League design usually put in garrisons and still with a few hundred models in service.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/7b/CCG_Crusade_Striker.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 09:52 PM

HOLY CRAP. I just found out something severely massive about EE that I didn't know when I chose it as my main planet a long time ago. Now I need to figure out if I want to use it or not.

Tellistto

10-13-2011, 11:14 PM

Do tell!

Tell

Abe Sargent

10-13-2011, 11:19 PM

I may incorporate it in Chapter 6.

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 02:36 AM

T1 – We win init. Our Warhammer IIc nails their Centurion’s engine once and gyro twice. Dead mech. Our Gladiator hits the ammo on their Striker and it explodes. Another dead mech.

T2 – We lose init. Our Archer immobilizes their Mauler City Tank. The Highlander IIc destroys their Goblin’s RS. Our Rifleman IIc immobilizes a Partisan. The Peregrine destroys the RT of their Scorpion, and it falls since it’s right front leg is now gone. A kick from the Atlas destroys the LL of their Hatamato. Our Gladiator destroys the RT. The pilot blacks out from the fall and a Warhammer punch to the head.

T3 – We win init. I hope the PXH by their Stinger. Their Scorpion fails to stands and hits its engine and gyro once each. Our Archer immobilizes a Hetzer. Their Crab destroys the RA of our Dasher. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the RL and RT of their Spider. Their Stinger falls after missing a kick.

T4 – We lose init. I eject the Dasher. The Stinger stands. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the La and Rt of their Katana. Our PXH destroys the RL, RT and LA of their Stinge,r which is a dead mech walking. The Archer immobilizes a Zhukov. Our Atlas takes an SRM missile and LB 10-X shot to the H. Our Pererine immobilized the other Hetzer. Our Gladiator hits the H of their Atlas with a LPL but nothing more. It also destroys the Atlas’s LA.

T5 – We win init. Their Spider fails to stand. Our Atlas’s ER Large Laser destroys the H of theirs. Our Rifleman hits a foot actuators on theirs. Our Rifleman IIc kicks and destroys the CT of their Spider.

They retreat away from the complex and our infantry have grabbed the prisoners and left already. We occasionally snipe some long range fire at them, but we take our time and get the salvage nice and good. We flee and head out.

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 03:04 AM

Stinger missing RL, RT, LA
Katana RA
Striker LA, H
Centurion, enginex1 ,gyrox2
Scorpion, RFL
Hatamato missing RT, RA
Spider RA, LT, LA, LL, H
Atlas missing H

Mauler City Tank, immobile
Goblin, RS
Partisan Air Defense Tank, immobile
Hetzer immobilex2
Zhukov immobile

Ours:

Dasher RA

Experience:

Evan, the ex-clanner in the Warhammer IIc got his 4th kill and gains Edge: 1.

We replace the RA of our Dasher with one in storage.

We have to pay: 6.885 mill for tanks, mechs, armor and ammo.

I had to replace the gyro on the Centurion after we couldn’t; repair it.

We made: 1.344 mill

Total lost – 5.541 mill

We will return on December 13

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 11:29 AM

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company - Return on June 5, 3055
Styx Company - Return on June 5, 3055
Tethys Company – Return on June 5, 3055
Typhon Company – Return on June 5, 3055
Defender Company – Return on July 28, 3054
Cinq Company – Return on Sept 21, 3054
Brawler Company –
Delta Company – Return on August 19, 3054
Trinity Company – return on June 28
Butler Company –

Bruiser Company – return on December 13
Shadow Company –

Aerospace Company- return on June 28
Tank First Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Tank Second Battalion - EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River - return on June 28
Scots Flotilla – return on June 28
Serendipitous Victory - Return on August 19, 3054
Amalgamated Bliss – return on December 13

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 04:04 PM

July 1 – The Star River, Scots Flotilla, Aerospace Company and Trinity Company are back.

Contracts:

St. Ives wants a Garrison
FedCom wants Security
Blake wants assault

Yuck to one and three, and enhhh to two. Where is it? Way out there in Lyran space. Gatineau. Roughly 5-6 months away. No thanks.

We have news:

Aerospace Company is having its name changed to Arrow Company

We have another company we’ve recruited over the last few months, due to the success of the first:

Bolt Company

Lt. Edwin Masters, elite, Typhoon
Kevin O’Bailey, elite, Slayer
Ming Su, veteran, Shilone
May Sheahan, veteran, Shilone

Sgt. Jacques Renault, elite, Chippewa
Giselle Baronne, veteran, Chippewa
Julio Cueva, veteran, Lucifer
Faith Jones, regular, Sholagar

Sgt. Keiko Fukuda, elite, Stuka
Laine Chase, veteran, Lightning
Svetlana Loboda, veteran, Corsair
Molly Mason, regular, Sparrowhawk

July 12 -Takashi Kurita has died and passed the throne on to his son, Theodore Kurita. He committed Seppuku when he realized that his challenge of Jaime Wolf in a duel to the death would harm the Combine no matter who won and who lost. The news of his death was a peaceful heart attack in his sleep.

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 05:10 PM

August 1 – Contracts! Defender came back

FedCom - Defense
Free Worlds league – Garrison
Company – Objective Raid
FedCom – Defense

The company wants us to hit Addicks, a major world in the FedCom and just two jumps away. We’ve been told not to take contracts against the FC, but we’ve done a few minor Recon Raids for the Liaos and Mariks.

The company that is contracting us is Johnston Industries. They are a major military producer of tanks, fighters and mechs. Their original factory is on Addicks, but it makes mostly Goblin tanks and some other minor materiel. The major factory is on New Syrtis. They have information that Drac forces have landed on Addicks and are about to attack their factory there. They’ve gone to the FedComs, but they don’t believe the intel. The company has a garrison, but they want to hire an experiencing and elite small force to head in, investigate, and destroy the Dracs.

That’s different. We won’t get people pissed about that, so we decide to take the contract. We are sending:

Arrow Company, Butler Company, Shadow Company, and several spy things. This won’t even negatively impact our recruiting since it’s two jumps and four days from the jump point to Addicks.

Arrow, Butler, Shadow, equipment, three squads of jump infantry,

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7. x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full
17% Bonus

We will arrive on Aug 19.

Abe Sargent

10-14-2011, 07:17 PM

Aug 19 – Butler Company lands right by Johnston Industries. They make a big show of being added to Johnston’s garrison. Meanwhile, Shadow and Aerospace disembark in a DropPort roughly 250 klicks away.

With the elementals and jump infantry, Shadow begins to explore the area. If there are Dracs on the planet looking to attack then this would be the area they should be. It’s hilly and easy to hide in. It does up into the mountains that are above the factory, but those are heavily patrolled. You could hide here in the foothills, and then move in to strike when you needed to later. The hills nearby that are used for wine are so far away from anything important, that it’s not nearly as heavily patrolled.

Aug 21 – We unpack all three Boomerangs and begin using them to spot from the sky. Meanwhile, our infantry tries to find our enemy. We leave behind the fighters and mechs for now. They are too big and noisy for this work.

Aug 25 – We found them. There is a group of 15 Combine mechs in the hills. They appear to be Combine based on the types of mechs, but they have been painted a neutral color and given FedCom symbols. That might fool a regular person, but when you see a Grand Dragon, a Jenner, a Raptor and a Mauler together, you know it’s the Dragon.

We order our fighters to assemble. They are about 20 klicks away. Butler Company has orders and is loading onto a DropShip right now. They will arrive in 45 minutes. Shadow Company is about 20 away. Our plan is to have our Jump Infantry and Elementals guard our back and the pass, while Arrow boxes them in and gives us time to move in and engage.

The plan works, and Shadow Company is about 15 minutes ahead of Butler, which was can use as reinforcements if the battle goes poorly.

The Dragon:

Raptor Prime
JR7-K Jenner
DRG-5K Grand Dragon
Mauler
PXH-3K Phoenix Hawk
GRF-3M Griffin
CGR-3K Charger
CHP-1N Champion
Venom
HBK-5N Hunchback
GHR-5J Grasshopper
MAD-1R Marauder
OSR-2D Ostroc
WTH-2 Whitworth
WSP-3M Wasp

All units have level 2 tech

4 lights, 2 assaults, 5 heavies and 4 mediums

Most are veterans, but the Mauler and Raptor are elite and the Griffin regular.

This is their Raptor, the first Inner Sphere OmniMech, a 25 ton baby and rolled off the assembly line a couple of years ago. The Prime has 2 medium lasers, 3 LRM5s, 2 small lasers, 2 machine guns, 7/11 movement, an XL engine, 10/20 heat and 3.5 tons of normal armor.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/c/c6/Raptor.jpg/394px-Raptor.jpg

If we could capture it and give it to Kressly, along with a couple of clan omnis, I beat we could have them make an IS OmniMech.

Their BV is 23918. Without our Elementals, ours is 35132

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 01:15 AM

Here we go!

T1 – There are just hills, not any trees here. We lose init. Our Lancelot destroys the LL of their Raptor. Their Hunchbacks AC20 hits the H of Braham Essex’s Orion, but edge rerolls that. Braham gets him back with a clan ER Small Laser to the exposed left torso’s ammo. Boom!

T2 – We win. Their Raptor rises. Our Blackjack blows off the LA of their Raptor and its on the ground. The PXH will destroys the LT and it’s down, Their Charger falls from damage.

T3 – With tactical genius, we crush init. Their Charger rises. Our Highlander nails the gyro once on their Charger. The RL of their Jenner disappears in the blast from a Shootist’s AC20. Our Thug hits the ammo in the Jenner and it CASE explodes. Braham Essex notches his 50th kill when he destroys the LT of their Venom – XL Engine shutdown. The Jenner falls and the pilot blacks out. The Charger falls and nails it engine. Their PXH falls too.

T4 – We win init. Their Chargers fails to stand, falls, hits its engine, and then tries again and succeeds. I run our Flashman over to it. A gauss from Braham’s Orion blasts the H off their Marauder. Our Flashy blows up the RA of their PXH. Their MAD destroys the RA of our Thug – a medium laser hits the Thug’s head, nails the sensors and knocks out the pilot. Starslayer destroys the Charger’s LA. Their Jenner pilot stays unconscious.

T5 – Tac Gen Init. The Highlanders detroys a LA of their Champion. Our Orion blasts the LA of their stroc and the Starslayer hits both the engine and gyro of it. Our Flashman destroys the CT of their Charger. The rest surrender to the planetary militia and we get our salvage.

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 02:27 PM

Raptor – missing LT
Hunchback – LA, RT, RA
Jenner—missing RT, RL
Venom missing LT
Marauder missing H
Charger, RT, LT, RL, LL, H

To Fix:

Thug RA

It costs 6.46 mill to get everything up and running including salvages and such. We give the Raptor and an assault class Man o War Prime and a Loki A. With the ability to look at both versions of omnis, Kressly’s techs feel that in a year they should have figured out the mechanics of designing one, and then we can design an OmniMech and try it out.

We return on September 13.

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 02:42 PM

We have 79 IS mechs in our garrison, and 23 Clan mechs. That includes those non-clan mechs we are getting from Beta Regiment. We also have 22 clan mechs with Beta Regiment right now. That’s 124 mechs we have not being used.

Sept 1 – We have announced that due to our partnership with Kressly Warworks, we have are working on the expansion of the Essex Training Academy to include training for vehicles and infantry. Kressly is donating 4 Brutus to the Academy to help train students. We are donating a Vedette, 2x Maxim and a J. Edgar. We regularly let them use whatever is in our garrison unused, including vintage mechs like a 2750 era Mongoose and a 2750 era Lancelot, as well as older Succession War era mesh like low tech Panther, Locust, Spider and BattleMaster. The Chameleon is designed for use in training academies, but we prefer to use a variety of mechs. Especially the BattleMaster2C.

We donated 2 sets of IS Standard battle armor to the school. Training will be done by our elite and veteran infantry we have stationed there.

This expansion of the program costs us 13.5 million to build and buy the materials. The cost for our academy will rise to 12.5 mill a year upkeep. Vehicle course is one year with an option for a second, infantry two. Most people already know how to drive when they enroll, so there is a quick one year or a detailed two year course. It will open up next year.

Contracts –

Periphery Garrison – nope
St Ives – garrison – nope
Marik – Security
Company – O Raid –

Want us to hit Bithinia, in the Capellan Confederation. It’s a very wealthy world and mega big tourist spot, with several major industries to boot. It’s extensively industrial and commercial. It is also home to Bithinian Ballistics. They make autocannons and machine guns for House Liao.

Bithinia is hard to defend. It’s right on the border with Marik and Davion. Its industry was extensively expanded after the 4th Succession War because the Confederation had to focus on rebuilding what industry it could. Warrior House Ma-Tsu Kai defends the world. Because of the heavy traffic its entertainment, commercial and industry requires, it’s easy to slip things past the ports.

The requirement is to land on Bithinia, sneak in mechs, and then go in. Bithinia has a heavy aerospace element in order to enforce landing zones and such, so we will be taking Bolt Company for sure. Once in, we need to hit a local refinery that makes the metal for Bithinian Ballistics’ ACs. Once we’ve taken out the refinery, it will slow their production by a few months. Then we take off.

Bolt and Trinity Companies, with Serendipitous Victory

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7. x1.4, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
22.5% Bonus

We will arrive on Bithinia on Dec 16.

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 04:00 PM

Dec 15 – We are around the planet now. Most of their military units are around the Ballistics sites. There are two battalions of House Ma-Tsu Kai on planet, and they are focused on protecting the major assets of Bithinian Ballistics. Meanwhile, the rest of the planet has some minor mercenaries, armor, infantry and more. We easily land.

Our target is a refinery about 5 klicks from another refinery that is guarded by Ma-Tsu Kai. Ma-Tsu Kai has to guard to facilities because the Ballistics is built right next to a huge refinery. Anyone who took that refinery could do a lot of damage easily to Bithinian’s factory. So Ma-Tsu Kai has to guard both. Our target is 5 klicks away and we expect Ma-Tsu Kai to come in after we cause some rain.

There is no DropPort near the target. One way they defend the Ballistics is by shipping completed weapons more than 120 klicks away by rail. We grab our DropShip and head in with Bolt Company screening us. Between our 12 fighters and the long range of the clan weapons on the DropShip, we are able to keep them away from us and we land right by the refinery and everybody in Trinity exits. Our fighters destroy defensive turrets. We easily brush aside minor infantry and blast the refinery. After gathering ourselves, fire is heard from the direction of Ballistics. Fighters dodge from mech fire and let us know that Ma-Tsu Kai is sending in a company of mechs to intercept us. Meanwhile, they’ve scrambled local fighters. While it should be as easy to destroy them as mechs destroying tanks, they still need to concentrate on them.

We move out and move in.

Because the Warrior Houses get better equipment, and also due to the location and importance of Bithinina, Ma-Tsu Kai has high quality mechs and some of the first ones that have rolled off the presses.

House Ma-Tsu Kai

VND-3L Vindicator
Jackal
Snake
Hercules
CTF-3L Cataphract
BLR-3M BattleMaster
GOL-3M Goliath
WHM-7M Warhammer
Wraith
RVN-3L Raven
CRD-2R Crusader
LCT-3M Locust

All veteran except the Hercules, BM and Wraith are elite.

This is their Hercules, a 70 ton 5/8 (with XL) 12/24 heat dispersing 11 tons of ferro armor carrying mech that wields LB 10X, ER PPC, 1 MPL, 2 SPL, SRM 2 Streak, and an anti-missile system.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/d/df/CCG_Mercenaries_Hercules.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 10:04 PM

T1 – We lose init. Badly. Their Locust falls and skids on the pavements. We focus some fire on their Hercules when I can. Our Hunchback hits the 10 he needs for his AC20 and hits the hip on their Herc’s LL. It still stays standing though.

T2 – We win it this time. Their Locust stands. Our Attila destroys the LL of their Hercules. Our Cicada nails its engine once. It falls, destroys its LT, and is shut down. Their Crusader tumbles under our fire. Their Jackal missed a kick on our Spider and fell.

T3 – We lose init. I hop the Ostcout above and adjacent to the Locust. They stand their Crusader so I run my Cicada over to it. Our Attila unloads on their Goliath and hits two leg actuators. A Hunchback AC20 destroys the LL of a certain Raven. Their Crusader hits a gyro in our Zeus. Two more leg actuators on the Goliath are destroyed by our Archer. An LRM10 from our Goliath blows off their Crusader’s RA. Our Zeus falls, as do their Goliath and Raven. The Zeus pilot blacks out – grr. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the LT of their Locust.

T4 – We win init. My Ostscout follows their Locust. Spider to the rear, and above, their Warhammer. Their Goliath rises. Cicada behind their Wraith. Their Cat hits our Zeus’s ammo and it explodes. Dead mech. Their Crusader’s RA is shelled by our Trebuchet and two more leg actuators are hit on the Goliath by the Attila. Our Goliath gets a limb blown off crit vs their Jackal’s LA. Ma-Tsu Kai’s Snake hits two leg actuators on our PXH. Their Goliath falls and destroys a leg. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the C of their Locust. Their Warhammer tumbles after being kicked by our Spider. Go light mechs go lights mechs go!

T5 – We win init. Their Warhammer rises. Our T Bolt takes out the Ra of their Cataphract. Our Trebuchet explodes the MG ammo on their Crusader and CASE prevents it from destroying the mech but the pilot blacks out. Their Cataphract hits the engine twice and gyro once on our Attila. The Ostsol destroys their Cataphract after igniting LB ammo. The engine explodes and destroys the Raven’s LT and shuts it down Their Crusader falls and the pilot dies. Our Attila falls too. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the RL of their Jackal.

T6 – We win init. They manage to stand their Goliath. I eject the Attila. Their BM’s ER PPC nails the H of our T Bolt and goes internal, and hits both sensors. The mech is blind and down. Our Goliath destroys the Jackal’s LT which takes it out – XL engine. Our Cicada and PXH combine to kick and take out their Goliath’s RRL and RT.

Their handful of mechs retreats. I wanted the Wraith – it’s worth so much money, but it was just too fast usually. I respect them they fought hard and later than most non-clan units would.

Abe Sargent

10-15-2011, 11:38 PM

Hercules missing LT, enginex3
Locust LA, RT, RL, RA, LL, H
Jackal missing LT< enginex3
Crusader missing LA, LT, RA
Raven missing LT, LL

Zeus –RA, LL, RL, LT
Attila – gyrox1m enginex2
T Bolt – Sensorsx2

Experience -

The Ostsol pilot, Ikh Zanabazar, has gained gunnery skill and is now 2/4.

I lose about 2 mill on the mission. We traded a Zeus for a Hercules, Jackal, Crusader and Raven. Plus some endo steel locust pieces. I transfer a BattleMaster to replace the Zeus.

Bolt Company screens for us and we get the salvage back to the ship. They destroyed many local fighters ,and we manage to salvage a few. Most are not worth anything, but we do fix up two Guardians, solid 20 ton Liao conventional fighters with an SRM6, just a ton of armor, 7/11 that we add to the garrison back home.

We will return on March 19.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 12:58 AM

Rewind.

October 1 – Contracts:

Company wants Cadre/Garrison for 9 months over on Lapida II.
Company wants Garrison
Comstar wants an Objective Raid, this time waaaay back in the back of the FWL
FedCom would like an Extraction Raid. Target? The rack, in the Periphery
Marik wants Garrison

Sigh – I rolled two good raids, but do I want to send a company 14 months to do one attack for ComStar?

Nimakatchi Fusion Products Limited has a factory on Lapida II that makes Spiders. They are one jump away from the Fed Coms, but not right on the line. Therefore, they never had a huge garrison before, just enough to guard the factory and a few other places. But now, with units having been pulled away, Nimakatchi is relying on their own units for protection if a Davion unit comes raiding.

They’ve hired some mechs and have some warriors, tanks, and infantry, but they are pretty green. They need serious training. They would like a company of our mechs to supplement theirs for 9 months while we train them up.

We can be there on Dec 29.

We send…

Brawler Company for Garrison/Cadre

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7. x1.4, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Straight Support 75%
Command: House
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 12 months
Transport: Full

We added some months to the contract in negotiations.

We roll dice to see what happens.

Feb 15, 3055 – A battalion of tanks moves to attack the factory, and our mechs respond in addition to the garrison. Seeing a much more powerful group of defenders than they thought, they break it off and leave before they are committed.

Nothing else happens. They return on March 21, 3056.

We made 2.1 mill.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 02:15 AM

I’m still considering sending Delta or Defender to do the ComStar contract.

I could have a company at Westover on May 28. After doing the contract in a month-ish, I would then get them back on February 12, 3056. A year and four months later. On the other hand, the salvage is really good on these Blast the Blake missions. Is it worth me taking a prime company offline for that long to come back with 6 or 7 mechs?

It really is!

Let’s go Delta, Saddle Up!

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4. x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
42.5% bonus

The salary doesn’t even matter. This is about one thing – salvage.

May 31 - We arrive uneventfully and move towards the HPG, which is right by the DropPort. We have updated intel from ComStar and…it’s actually good (recently, I’ve been giving ComStar bad intel on a 7 or more instead of an 8 or more – I rolled a 6).

Delta blasts in, and out pours 12 Blake mechs – all level 2 mechs

WVR-6M Wolverine
War Dog
Grand Crusader
MON-66 Mongoose
TBT-7M Trebuchet
ST-8A Shootist
GLt-3N Guillotine
THE-N Thorn
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk
QKD-5M Quickdraw
LNC25-01 Lancelot
WSP-3M Wasp

Unlike other Blake units, this was has been made later and all of the pilots are vet.

This is their Grand Crusader, the first Blake specific mech made to fill their roster a couple of years ago. It is an 80 ton assault mech, 3/5, XL, 10/20 heat, maxed out armor, 2 large pulse lasers, 2 LRM20, 2 medium pulse lasers, anti missile system, Artemis IV for the LRMS, 6 tons of ammo for the LRM – and that is actually a really strong machine of death. I don’t normally like XL engines, but on mech like that, they are okay.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/2/22/GrandCrusader.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 03:01 AM

We are on this map

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/5/56/MapSeaport.jpg

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 12:20 PM

Here we go!

That Grand Crusader has to fall early. The War Dog is also a powerful assault. There are a ton of buildings I have to navigate.

T1 – We lose init. The water is depth 2, so you don’t want to fall in. I hop my wasp behind their Mongoose. We focus a lot of fire on their Shootist and Wolverine. We have a group to the north of the lake and one to the south. An Awesome PPC nails the head of their Shootist and hits sensors once. Through its silky thin rear armor, our Wasp nails the gyro twice on their Mongoose. First blood baby! Kick by our BattleMaster wounds the Wolves’ RL.

T2 – We win init. We cornered their Wolverine and force it to jump away and it falls over due to damaged actuators. Our Black Knight spots for indirect LRMS that fall on their Shootist from our Catapult, Crusader.

T3 – We lose init. Just maneuvering mostly.

T4 – We win. We force their Shootist out and I move some people in. Their Wolverine skids, falls into the water and breaches its CT. Their Grand Crusader hits the H of our Wasp with missiles. Our Black Knight destroys the LT and our Dragon the CT of their Shootist. Dead mech. Now I can concentrate my forces on the other main group of mechs.

T5 – We lose init. We started moving down, and mechs hiding behind buildings start destroying the buildings they are hiding behind. Our fire exposed a couple of their mechs.

T6 – We win. Our Crusader destroys the Thorn’s LT. Our Banshee hits the Guillotine’s engine once. Our Dragon opens up the Thorn’s gyro and it falls.

T7 - We win init. Their Thorn manages to stand. Our Dragonfly destroys their Wasp’s ammo and it explodes, but CASE keeps it alive. Then it destroys the other arm. They take off a lot of armor off the Warhammer.

T8 – We win. Our Dragonfly tears off the H of their Wasp. Their Guillotine hits our BM’s head with a medium laser. Our Crusader’s missiles hit the H of their War Dog twice and knock out the pilot. Our BM destroys the War Dog’s LA. After a lot of kicks and punches, their Guillotine is on the ground. It was kicked twice.

T9 – We win. PPC from the Awesome to the H of their Lancelot. Dead mech., Their Trebuchet gets a through armor critical on our Dragonfly, nails the engine twice, it falls into the water and breaches its CT and its out. Dead mech. Our Black Knight has run up to their War Dog and fired and its head since it was immobile. One large laser crumples it. Dead mech. The BattleMaster kicks the RL of their Thorn, destroys it, destroys the RT – dead mech, but it falls and destroys the LL. IT’s literally just a H and CT on the ground. Their Quickdraw was kicked three times and fell.

T10 – We lose. I don’t know why, but they ejected from their Guillotine. We set up the perfect push. I run my Banshee behind their Grand Crusader when they move next to the water. No one fires, we push it over and into the water - it’s LT is breached and it is destroyed. Perfect. We radio the Quickdraw, Trebuchet and Shadow Hawk that we want their surrender and they can leave and take the Wobbie pilots with them, including the knocked out one on the Thorn. No answer

T11 – We lose. Their Quickdraw spins and runs, skids, falls, destroys the RL. More maneuvering

T12 – We lose. Minor weapons fire at the downed QD.

T13 – We lose again. Our Warhammer breaches the CT of their Shadow hawk. Our Warhammer is itself breached and out. Our PXH breaches the RT of their Trebuchet, and it has an XL engine. It’s done. Our Catapult destroys the LL of their Quickdraw, and then its RT and RA. It’s done.

Our strategy to go to the north and take out the handful of mechs there before moving south and putting our whole force the remainder of theirs worked perfectly. We didn’t even lose a limb, although we lost two mechs when they to go underwater to chase the remnants of theirs unit. They are already back up and running.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 01:46 PM

Mongoose, with gyrox2
Wolverine breached CT
Shootist, LA, RA, RT, RL, LL, H
Thorn missing RL, RT, LT, LL
Wasp missing H, RA, LT
Lancelot missing H
War Dog missing H, LA
Guillotine enginex2
Grand Crusader, breached LT
Trebuchet breached RT.
Shadow hawk breached CT
Quickdraw missing RT, RA, LL, RL

Dragonfly enginex2, breached CT
Warhammer breached CT

Experience:

Cristina Fernandez, in the BattleMaster is getting Edge: 1
Maris Santos, in the Phoenix Hawk is getting one better gunnery skill. She is now 2/4

That is Delta’s 15th completed mission. Only Phaeton’s 16 and Aleph’s 21 are better.

We only pay 620k for armor and ammo after discount.

This was worth doing, considering how much salvage we got. 11 of the 12 mechs were salvaged due to fighting near the water causing high salvage. Personally, I would have preferred the Shootist to most of the others, but I don’t make the rules.

The breaches stuff is cheap to fix, and we manage to fix all gyros and engines this time. 7.675 and we have 11 new mechs.

I am also super happy to have a Grand Crusader, those are real mechs.

We return on February 16, 3056.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 05:03 PM

October 22 – A large force is moving towards Kressly. The companies have been sent away, so it looks like we have a battalion of mechs moving in. They may be screwed. Shadow Company is currently patrolling Kressly. In addition to having a mech company constantly on patrol, Kressly has a garrison we maintain – its Tank Second Battalion. They start to warm up while Shadow moves into the gap.

Meanwhile, Ted tells Defender Company, patrolling HQ, to head out and help with Cinq and Butler warming up to guard HQ along with our garrison. He also puts out a call to all 3rd and 4th year students to move to their assigned mech. In an emergency, such as a raid, we press our cadets into service. This is done all over the IS, such as Sun Zhang Cadres, NAIS Cadres, and more. We actually rotate our cadets into mechs for patrols and such when we are light on companies on planet but we have four on planet.

Arrow Company is warming up for use as well. In a few minutes, we’ll have air support.

Shadow Company snipes at the incoming units, but then is forced to back away under the onslaught. They aren’t coming in as lances or companies, but just one big mass of mechs. Shadow is joined by Rank Second Battalion and they set up a defense.

As the enemy rolls in, long range weapons fire can be heard. PPCs and ER Large Lasers destroy a few tanks, but they keep their fire away from the elite Shadow Company pilots with their very good mechs. A Shrek PPC Carrier sheers off the head of an Apollo.

In a minute, a few vehicles are destroyed or running out of ammo, and they push in. Meanwhile, in comes Arrow Company’s first six fighters ,and they strafe the rear of their unit and hit seven mechs, destroying one and legging another. One of their Griffins ignites and explodes.

Shadow’s Elementals have destroyed a Locust, and our Lancelot has lost its LA. Col. Humphries is about another minute away, but by then, they will have pushed too much in and probably broken us. Braham orders a retreat and Arrow covers with fire on the ground.

Suddenly, 5 fighters of the enemy dart in and start firing at Arrow Company, and now Arrow has to focus on them. In a split - second , one of Arrow’s Corsairs is destroyed. Meanwhile, a few more tanks have fallen. An SRM Carrier waiting until they closed has destroyed the gyro of an enemy Crusader and it falls. PPC fire engulfs their Scorpion and its RT is destroyed, with a leg on the ground. They keep pushing as one big mass ,and we’ve lost our cover fire for the retreat. Did they keep their fighters in reserve until we retreated?

In fly some additional assets Ted sent. 2 Warrior VTOLs and a few Ferrets are flying in and nipping about. A Ferret is taken out. They destroy the LT of our PXH and it shuts down due to its XL Engine. The Talon is legged and loses a left arm. We eject it. They keep coming. Two more of their mechs fall to explosions and we destroy the CT of a Goliath but it’s not enough.

Half of our tanks are destroyed, and some, like the LRM Carriers are out of ammo and retreated. As Defender Company arrives, we get an invigoration of energy. Men, mechs, and metal have arrived. We stop falling back. After another minute, we are holding our ground on a ridge. Then Arrow Company has won the air and we have air support and just like that, we move to go on the offensive. Three more tanks are gone, and the Lancelot loses it s other arm and pulls back. It doesn’t matter we have this.

Within ten minutes, they turn to flee before more units arrive to support us. The Guardians have arrived, joined by VTOLS, fighters, mechs, infantry and vehicles. Our combined forces wins the day, and they retreat to the radius around a powerful Overlord. Ted makes a decision. That is big enough for 36 mechs and 6 fighters – exactly what we saw. He sends out Cinq and Butler, and ordered the cadets in Mechs and our garrison assembled. He heads out in his Stalker, leaving behind 24 mechs in the garrison plus the cadets in another 16 machines.

We want that Overlord.

Every single military unit that we can get out there, we do. Savannah Masters come in. Infantry is on transports and heading over.

Their remaining mechs are starting to load up, while others are on guard. They clearly don’t expect us to move in under the DropShip’s radius and attack. The combination of the DropShip’s weapons and their own could turn the tide of battle again.

In order to get them o slow down their debarkation, Izumo orders Arrow to strafe the opening. We lose two fighters but the rest manage to push them back. Cinq and Butler are almost here.

We push in and start exchanging fire with the mechs. Izumo orders everybody to stay in a certain arc, so it can only train some weapons on us. While Shadow and Defender force them to keep mechs out, Cinq and Butler buy the extra time needed to arrive. Meanwhile, our fighters arrive for another pass, and a Guardian plus another fighter are destroyed.

The other two companies arrives and push in very fast. He orders everybody to charge in to close combat. The Savannah Masters, VTOLs and infantry transports nip in and shoot and nip back out.

The Overlord has to unload the mechs that already loaded in order to have a chance, and it’s just too much.

We destroy the right side of the Overlord, and then overwhelm and destroy the battalion of mechs.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 05:27 PM

Results:

We lost 27 of the 36 vehicles in Tank Battalion 2of those, 17 are able to be up and running.

We spend 11.2 million to repair and purchase new vehicles for the 2nd Tank Battalion.

Arrow lost 6 fighters. Of those, just one is recoverable. Additionally, Sparrowhawk pilot Gita Sharma was killed and we’ll replace her with another pilot from Outreach later.

To replace those, we’ll need 17.9 million

We lost 17 mechs total. Of those, 10 are recoverable. We’ll need 45.8 mill to replace and fix those. Cinq company lost Umbria Mutande, its Locust pilot and the Wasp pilot Cassia Jenkins. We replace them with two elite recruits.

We need an additional 18.35 million for ammo and armor and parts here and there.

We also need 2.1 million to replace dead support vehicles like VTOLS and Savannah Masters.

That’s 95.35 million we’ll need to fix and replace our own stuff. It will take months.

We also gained salvage. We manage to find 20 fixable mechs. They drove them hard, and they are in bad condition.

We need 44.4 mill to fix and replace parts and rearmor and rearm them.

We also have the Overlord. We hire special AeroSpace techs to fix it. It will take 21 mill to fix plus take about 6 months to do that project.

We also found lots of salvage - body parts, weapons, chunks of fighters and more. We salvaged around 9.8 mill worth of those.

I randomly add kills to some people.

That’s 150.95 mill to handle everything, and at the end, we have 20 new mechs and an Overlord.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 06:20 PM

An Overlord is worth 335 million C Bills. They aren’t for sale on any market. They deliver 6 fighters and 36 mechs. It is a huge bonus for Kilts and Commandos.

But, we don’t have 150 mill just sitting in the bank, so we have to clear out some stuff. We don’t have 150 mill just sitting around. We have 98 mill sitting around. We have 187 mill coming at the end of Beta Regiment’s contract in late 3056. We have none right now.

Options:

1). Sell some mechs. We have a large number of mech designs I don’t like. Level 1 Fleas, level 1 Shadow Hawk, Cyclops, UrbanMech, Assassin, etc. I could sell these off for money.
2). Start work on fixing and repairing our mechs and fighters – 82 mill. Then work on the damaged mech chasses and tanks as money permits.
3). Instead of buying replacement mechs for the 7 lost mechs, replace them with mechs from the garrison and save roughly 25-35 mill.
4). We have 23 vehicles in our garrison, plus scout units. We could move some over to replace dead ones.
5). Borrow money. It is allowed. It costs your some prestige and merc points but you certainly can do it.
6). Sell the 20 mech chassis instead of getting them up and running. That would reduce my costs by 44.4 mill and then remove whatever we make from them from the rest of what we have to pay.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 07:02 PM

The reason we have extra mechs, in part, is for replacements. Let’s replace the destroyed mechs. Which ones are gone? Let’s roll dice:

Defender permanently lost:

Warhammer 6R
Javelin 10N

They are replaced with CTF-1X Cataphract and Javelin 10F

Shadow permanently lost:

Griffin GRF-3M
BJ-2 Blackjack
LNC25-01 Lancelot

Replaced by:

Apollo for Blackjack
Zeus ZEU-9S for the Lancelot
Gallowglas for Griffin

We just got a lot better in Shadow Company!

Butler lost:

Commando
Thunderbolt

Replaced with:

Watchman for Commando
GLT-3N Guillotine for Thunderbolt

That reduces what we need to spend by a lot. 49.55 mill is needed to get our stuff up and running. We spend it.

I want the Overlord up and running as soon as possible so it won’t be just sitting out there and I spend that money.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 08:11 PM

I do sell some mechs. We need the cash, and I don’t like them that much. We sell:

Venom
Fleax2
Wolf Trap
WVR-7M Wolverine
RVN-3L Raven

We make 33 mill

We fix the 20 mechs.

What were they? Let’s roll:

Apollo
CRD-4K Crusader
AWS-9M Awesome
Anvil
Hammer
2x MAD-5M Marauder
GHR-5J Grasshopper
Tarantula
DV-7D Dervish
CDA-3M Cicada
HER-5S Hermes II
Huron Warrior

Level 1 mechs:

Locust
FS9-M Firestarter
UrbanMech
Phoenix Hawk
Hunchback
Ostroc
Banshee

No very many assaults – just two survived. Unlucky. 5 lights – average. 7 mediums and 6 heavies.

This is an adequate salvage. There are some non-good mechs – Banshee, Hammer, Grasshopper, Locust, UrbanMech. There are some decent mechs – Dervish, Firestarter, Ostroc, Anvil. Then there are some really good mechs –Awesome, Hunchback, Huron Warrior, Hunchback. It’s a mixed bag.

This is a very Marik group of mechs, so we take the prisoners and start interrogating them. They claim they are a mercenary group named Jake’s Toughs, and they were just doing a raid for another company, but they won’t tell us who.

A mercenary group no one has ever heard of with updated mechs all coming from the same place and their own Overlord. If you believe that one, I’ve got a new one for you. My guess is we’ve pissed off Blake with all of these contracts for ComStar, and they wanted to hit us with deniability to send a message. So, they got Marik to fund the mechs and loaned or got them an Overlord. It’s just a guess. They were initially raiding Kressly, but 36 mechs, fighters and an Overlord and all you do is raid a plant that makes one mech line and a couple of tanks plus some weapons? It just doesn’t completely fit. It could be, but it seems a bit off. Perhaps we’ll never know

We will not be taking contracts with our people for a couple of months, while we fix, repair, salvage, and so forth.

Bruiser and ships have returned on Dec 13. They are ready to head back out, but we’ll keep them here until Jan 1.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 08:45 PM

Oct 29 – Leftenant General Pierre Benton, Col. Humphries, Elizabeth Walters-Essex and Ted Izumo look over the battle site. There are a large number of salvage crews and ordnance removers working the area. They discuss the impact of the battle, the assault, what it might mean, and more. We turn over the prisoners to Pierre, as the head military Federated Commonwealth representative on the planet.

Dec 31 – This was a big year technologically. The clans have introduced Light TAG, streak LRMs, and the advanced tactical missile system. The IS has introduced Laser AMS and Extended LRMs. These are Fed Com missile systems that add a booster to the LRM that fires it a bit and then the missile kicks in. This increases the range but also massively increases the minimum range and they lose some advanced tracking options like Artemis IV and Narcs. You also can’t use any special warheads because those are the special warheads already. Many new mechs are rolling off factories. In Aerospace, we have several brand new DropShip designs being made for the first time. This includes the Claymore, Hamilcar and Rose. Lots of upgrades, such as upgraded tanks, mechs, DropShips and more are seeing the light of day.

Essex Training Academy

We have12 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 17 enrollees for next year. Of these 12, 2 choose not to stay with us, and the remaining 10 have 3 vet, 5 regular and 2 elite.

Year 4 - 13
Year 3 - 11
Year 2- 15
Year 1 – 17

We pay 12.5 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

We have just 4.2 mill left.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 08:59 PM

Braham Essex has been on Outreach for over a year now, occasionally nipping home to spend a week here and there with his wife and son, and vice versa. After spending all of that time recruiting, we are adding these units to our T&A:

Trident Company

Lt. Tyrone Ellis, elite, Atlas
Vick Hillers, veteran, Hunchback
Veronica Reeds, elite, ST-8A Shootist
Belle de Croix, elite, Gallowglas

Sgt. Jack Napier, elite, Hatamato-Chi
Su Ling, elite, MAD-5M Marauder
Moya Brennan, veteran, Apollo
Grant Taylor, veteran, Crusader

Sgt. Vanessa DiCartelli, elite, Watchman
Theodore Moore, veteran, Firestarter
Sally Campe, regular, LCT 1E Locust
Leonard Kovalchuk, veteran, Spider

This whole company was formed from mechs in my garrison. I like most of it, although I’m not a super big fan of that Marauder variant. 6 mechs are level 2 – Shootist, Gallowglas, Apollo, Watchman, H-C and MAD.

Abe Sargent

10-16-2011, 09:39 PM

Miner Company

Lt. Burke Miner, elite, BattleMaster
Noorel Zia, elite, CTF-3L Cataphract
Angela Juarez, veteran, Anvil
Helga Mantir, veteran, WVR-6M Wolverine

Sgt. Beverly Cramer, elite, AWS-9M Awesome
Jillian O’Brien, elite, Archer
Jakob Snider, elite, Apollo
Elana Mutari, veteran, Goliath

Sgt. Hector Jones, elite, Watchman
Gavin O’Henry, veteran, Commando
Mikhail Samsonov, regular, Phoenix Hawk
Jasmin Fatirra, veteran, FS9-M Firestarter

Another made from just my garrison mechs. After thinking it up, I’m in love with the name Hector Jones. What a cool sounding name! Hello, I’m Detective Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Doctor Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Professor Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Sir Hector Jones, the third. Awesome! Anyway, good mechs mostly. The assaults are lighter. I’d prefer a simple updated smart Cataphract instead of all of these nonsense uptech ones with XL engines. This company has just 5 level 2 mechs – Cat, Anvil, AWS, Apollo and Watchman.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 12:20 AM

Fallout Company

Lt. Gilda Atwater, elite, AS7-K Atlas
Maya Saban, elite, AWS-9M Awesome
Colbie Callait, elite, BLK-6-KNT Black Knight
James Jefferson, veteran, KTO-20 Kintaro

Sgt. Ziggy Springfield, elite, Hatamato-Chi
Elizabeth Corbett, elite, MAD-3D Marauder
Natalia Indushka, elite, Huron Warrior
Brent Taznan, veteran, Apollo

Sgt. Lance Robbins, elite, QKD-5K Quickdraw
Toshiro Sato, elite, Daimyo
Palmer Rice, elite, Phoenix Hawk
Horace Randall, regular, WSP-1D, Wasp

Yeah, it’s a very random Wasp. The rest of this company is very strong. I realized that most of the company was rocking all of these PPCs and such so I tossed in the Kintaro to turn those holes lethal. I like it here a lot. I ran out of good scout mechs here. I have tons of crappy ones, but not that many good ones. Three companies and not one Javelin – sigh. This company has a lot of level 2 mechs. Just the PXH, Wasp, and Marauder aren’t.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 01:01 AM

Sealion Company

Lt. Conner Ward, clan elite, 1/1 Edge: 3, Mad Cat Prime
Lacey Stowers, elite, Masakari Prime
Tarja Tarunun, elite, Grizzly
Nafisa Ali, elite, GHR-5J Grasshopper

Sgt. Zoltan Boros, elite, Marauder IIc
Ernesto Sanchez, elite, ARC-2R Archer
Xinlin Ye, elite, Galahad
Magnus Knutson, elite, CRD-4K Crusader

Sgt. Edwin Hanson, elite, Shadow Hawk IIc
Elaine McCrimmon, elite, Griffin IIc
Estaban Cruz, elite, Dragonfly A
Paul Dean, veteran, LCT-1E Locust

A third elite strike company, and Bruiser and Shadow are part of it. It’s called Shadow Battalion, and its elite mechs with clan or level two tech almost exclusively. This uses a few mechs sent over from the Beta Regiment clan mech goldmine they are having. We have two level one mechs – Locust and Archer, and two level twos in here just for fun and rounding things out. The name comes from the SEALs from centuries ago.

These four companies add some serious power to our roster, because they are all elite and we chose the mechs. Every one of these mechs we won in battle except for a small number we purchased (like Apollos and Watchmen).

For now, the first group will be adventuring under the name Breaker Battalion. We still have a ton of mechs in our garrison, but most of them we don’t like that much. If we had money, we could fund another couple of battalions around the good mechs here and the good ones we need. For example, we need some cheap good scouts, like Javelins. We also need more smash mouth mechs like Thunderbolts and BattleMasters and Orions. I have one good smash mouth mech I have in reserve for a rainy day – the Banshee 3S variant, and then nothing other than the King Crab, which I’m not sure I want to risk or to use. It has five shots for each AC20 and 8 for the LRM 15 and then all it has is a large laser. I have Centurions, a Huron Warrior, the Hollanders, Rifleman, Bombardier, Panther and Crab – those are all good. I just need some heavy metal, and good scouts. I don’t have it.

We rechristen the Overlord the Defiance.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 01:06 AM

Here is our full group of peoples.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company - Return on June 5, 3055
Styx Company - Return on June 5, 3055
Tethys Company – Return on June 5, 3055
Typhon Company – Return on June 5, 3055
Defender Company –
Cinq Company –
Brawler Company – return on March 21, 3056
Delta Company – Return on February 16, 3056
Trinity Company – Return on March 19, 3055
Butler Company –

Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056

Breaker Battalion:

Trident Company –
Miner Company –
Fallout Company -

Shadow Battalion:

Bruiser Company –
Shadow Company –
Sealion Company -

Arrow Company-
Bolt Company – Return on March 19, 3055
Tank First Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Tank Second Battalion - EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood, Union DropShip -
Star River, Union DropShip -
Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip –
Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Return on March 19, 3055
Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip –
Defiance, Overlord DropShip – Ready on June 1, 3055

I want to get to three mech regiments soon. I can move the 10th one from Alpha to Gamma, and put Bruiser and if I need to Shadow in Gamma Regiment. That’s still just seven, and I’d prefer to leave the heavy stuff to units outside of our traditional Regiments.

Braham gets 5 recruit rolls a moth, which technically he can use to recruit a MW with a mech. I need to get a 4 on 2d6 for an elite disposed MW and a 3 is veteran, and 2 is regular. For those with mechs I need am 8 for elite light, 9 for medium, etc. For example, if I roll a 7 and go veteran light, regular medium or green heavy.

I have tried to avoid that these last 10-15 years for mechs. It feels a bit odd to just sit there and bring back a bunch of new mechs. It certainly happens, but it also gives you very random companies. I could have a 12 person company with all sorts of experience levels and random mechs that don’t work together or even do the normal roles. Nah, it’s too hard.

I did use that for fighters mostly, although occasionally I’d take a very experienced dispossessed pilot and buy them a fighter.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 09:33 AM

January 1, 3055 – EVENT – Now that militaries are starting to refill their destroyed forces with the massive amount of mechs rolling off the lines, Houses are switching gears to updating DropShips, Fighters, JumpShips, making WarShips again, upgraded and new tanks, producing new technology and more. Meanwhile, the furnaces of new mechs are still finding their way to mercenaries and houses across the Inner Sphere. While there is still a massive need, it’s much reduced. As such, the recruiting of mercenaries is back to the regular level.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 10:49 AM

Contracts:

FedCom – Pirate Hunting
Periphery – Obj. Raid
Company – Cadre/Garrison
Word of Blake – Garrison

Hmm. Slim Pickings. Let’s look in more detail at the Periphery contract. The last time I sent a unit way out there, I got 11 mechs, so let’s see what we can see this time.

The Taurian Concordat wants us to hit Rollis, a Cap world on their border. The borderline crazy Protector of the Concordat is Thomas Calderon, and he’s very paranoid about Successor House intervention in his world. He wants us to land on Rollis, and destroy the Capellan Survey Headquarters. While they say the survey is for astronomy projects, he believes it’s a spy station.

If he’s right, it’s heavily guarded. If he’s wrong, it’s a run for nothing. I’ve got 9 companies of mechs just sitting, we need to send someone to do something.

Trident Company Objective Raid, Rollis.

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x2.4 x1.1, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 20%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full

We arrive on Rollis on July 29, 3055

Aug 3 – We arrive on Rollis. It took us a bit of time to unload and all of that. Rollis and the nearby Taurian planet of Laconis have been exchanging raids for a while, and there are some secret Taurian Sympathizers on planet who helps us find the spy base.

Our company unloads and heads for it, and without surprise out pop a company of Liao mechs to defend it. Looks like the Taurians were right.

The Caps, all regular:

Catapult
Rifleman
LCT-1L Locust
Blackjack
BattleMaster
Thunder
WSP-1S Wasp
UM-R63 UrbanMech
Vindicator
VTR-9K Victor
Stalker
Griffin

These mechs are level 2 Locust, Thunder, Wasp, Urbie, Victor.

This is their Thunder. It’s a 70 ton 5/8 mech (with XL, grr) and 11/22 heat sporting a solid 13.5 tons of armor. It features an AC20, LRM5, and three medium pulse lasers. The ammo is CASEd. Lots of militaries send new designs to the Periphery to fight bandits, pirates and other minor conflicts to see how things are going. The Thunder is one of the latest Liao mech designs.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/4/4e/3055u_Thunder.jpg/619px-3055u_Thunder.jpg

I would love to get one, just for fun!

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 12:56 PM

Here we go

T1 – We lose init. My first moves are to jump our Firestarter and Spider into the two heavy hexes in the middle of the map. I can hold them until fire support arrives. We have three AC20s on my squad, and two hit the Rifleman. Our Hunchy’s hits its Hip Actuator on the RL. Our Gallowglas hits a leg actuator on their Blackjack. Both of them fall.

T2 – We lose again. I hop our Spider deep into their territory and then jump our Marauder into the heavy woods it left. I jump the Gallowglas into the other heavy vacated by our Firestarter. Their Rifleman cannot stand but their BJ does. Our Crusader knocks out their BJ pilot and destroys its RL.

T3 – We win this time. Spider behind the Locust. This time, their Rifleman rises. Three AC20s tear into their Thunder. Our Hunchback destroys its RA. Our Marauder hits the Thunders engine. Our Hatamato tears into their Rifleman, destroying its RL and hitting the gyro and engine once each. Our Gallowglas got a glancing blow hit from an ER PPC to the aimed BJ’s head. The Rifelman pilot blacks out when it falls. Our Marauder and Atlas each kick the Wasp. At the end, we have destroyed its LL, LT and CT. Dead mech. This is Trident’s first kill! No wake for the BJ. It’s pilot now needs a 10 instead of a 7, so the ER PPC hit helped.

T4 – We lose again. Out Shootist destroys their Thunder’s CT and there goes the Thunder. The RA of our Hatamato is destroys by their Stalker. Their Griffin shears into the H of our Atlas with its PPC but hits nothing. We pepper the Stalker with damage from a bunch of mechs, it falls and the pilot blacks out. Neither the Rifleman nor BJ pilots awaken – they both need 10s.

T5 – We lose init. I hop the Firestarter over to their Stalker but all it does is hit the head once with a machine gun and the sensors. After eating two AC20s and many missiles, our Atlas destroys their BattleMaster’s LA. It falls under an onslaught from our Marauder, Atlas, Gallowglas, Shootist, Crusader, Apollo and the Hatamato. Their Stalker only needs a 7 to wake but rolls a 6. Our Firestarter’s damage to the head prevented it from waking this turn.

T6 – We win init. Their BattleMaster rises. I sense this is the last turn. I run a Hunchback behind their Victor. Our Watchman destroys the RL of their Locust and nails the gyro once. Our Apollo destroys the RL and RT of the BattleMaster. With both arms and a leg missing, that is a kill. Before it goes, our Gallowglas opens up its CT and hits the engine twice and gyro once. Their Victor falls under damage.

With that, they begin to withdraw and we destroy the spy post and grab our salvage.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 12:58 PM

Wasp H, RT, RA, LA, RL
Blackjack missing RL
Rifleman missing RL
Thunder H, RT, LT, LA, RL, LL
BattleMaster, missing LA, RT, RL, enginex2, gyrox1

Hatamato missing RA

We pay 1.65 mill for our mechs and then cut that by 20%. We sell the parts to the Thunder and Wasp, both level two mechs. We get enough to cover our losses with the contract and to fix the Blackjack and Rifleman. The BattleMaster we’ll have to take with us and look at later.

We return on Mar 24, 3056.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 07:39 PM

We also have a Garrison/Cadre contract, let’s look a little closer. A Cap Company wants their people trained over on Boardwalk. We could have a unit there on April 28.

They want 6 months initially, so let’s negotiate:

Cinq and Butler Company Cadre/Garrison - Boardwalk.

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Straight Support 75%
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 9 months
Transport: Full

We manage the negotiations.

April 26 – We land and begin

Dec 26 – All done, no issues

Mar 18 – We arrived back. We made 2.43 mill

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 08:46 PM

Rewind –

Feb 1 – Contracts:

Word of Blake Recon Raid – Against Marian Hegemony
Marik Pirate Hunting
Rasalhague Retainer

I respect that the FRR still wants a retainer with us. We do need the money of a long term contract. Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal. Myth’s contract ends in the FRR on March 21, and they were returning home, but instead, we’ll give the four company battalion to the FRR.

Myth Battalion Retainer - Boardwalk.

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 years
Transport: Full

Begins March 22, 3055, ends March 27, 3057

Let’s go ahead and do the retainer.

March 22 – We get news that FRR wants us on Dehgolan for a bit, to help train the folks there for a few months.

April 18 – We arrive on Dehgolan

Sept 15 – We have finished training and garrisoning Dehgolan. Grumium was raided by Dracs three days ago, so they want us to head out there and garrison all of the vital areas.

Oct 12 – We arrive at Grumium and set up. Grumium has a lot of major value to the FRR remnants. It has some industries and a new military academy. It just opened this year.

Dec 14 – We are asked to pick a company to raid Altenmarkt, the Wolf Clan held planet. They need some supplies left behind. We are asked to land, raid, extract, and leave. Not very clan like.

We sit down and pour over ComStar reports. Altenmarkt is garrisoned by the Delta Trinary of the 13th Wolf Guards Cluster. That’s’…Elementals? They’re garrisoning the whole world with 15 stars of Elementals? That can’t be right, ComStar, is that right? Yes, the intel is recent.

Here’s our plan. We initiate a Trial of Possession for Altenmarkt, win, take the planet, and then get whatever we need at our leisure. They will come back hard, Altenmarkt is outside of the Tukkayid line, but it should throw them. Rasalhague approves the plan, and we will be taking Typhon Company. They will send a few merchant vessels with us to take the supplies they need after we take Altenmarkt.

Feb 13, 3056 – “We have come to take Altenmarkt. With what will you defend it?” The clans are not required to respond to IS batchalls that abuse the system. We have never, so they take it. They confirm that it is just the Trinary. We will land in a small rocky pit, and fight here with no cover at all.

They have 15 stars of elite elementals.

Abe Sargent

10-17-2011, 10:42 PM

I expect the first few turns to have major damage taken from their SRMs and then things will lighten up.

T1 – We lose init. They hit our Warhammer three times with SRM missiles and knock her out.

T2 – We win init. They don’t even go internal anywhere in the Warhammer but they hit the head once more.

T3 – We lose. They hit the head of the Warhammer again and Lt. Amber Reverlon is dead. The LA and LT were also destroyed. Plus the engine was hit 4x right now. Our Ostol finished a point of elementals.

T4 – We lose again. Nothing but exchanges of fire and a few troopers killed without finishing off a squad.

T5 – We lose. They have reached us physically. Our Grasshopper kills a squad. We kill 6 more troopers in various squads. They are targeting our Grasshopper.

T6 – We win init. Time to step back. Our PXH destroys a squad. Our Centurion kills another one. Our Grasshopper takes out a third. Our Hunchback falls under damage.

T7 – We win. I stand the Hunchback. They are swarming up our mechs. We freed an Awesome and killed the squad on it. Our Marauder kicks and kills a squad.

T8 – We lose init. Elemental Leg Attack on the Hunch hits a hip and lower leg. Our Hunch kills a squad. Our Catapult kills a squad. Leg Attack on the Grasshopper hits an actuator too. Everybody is standing though. We kill four more troopers in the physical attack phase. We offer the wolves hegira and they accept.

We have captured Altenmarkt.

Warhammer missing LA, LT, exginex4

We fix the engine and pay half of 1.92 mill to fix it.

Lt. Amber Reverlon has died.

Experience:

Bao Yu in the Grasshopper now has Edge: 1
Abdullah Malawi in the Ostsol is the same

Sgt Mei Zhen is promoted to Lt and we promote from within.