The Battletech Dynasty, Chapter 1 - 3030-38

[Abe Sargent]

Hello all and welcome to my newest dynasty. A while ago, I played through over a decade as a mercenary commander building his own company using various rulesbooks in the Classic BattleTech universe and several programs.

It began when I encountered a program called MegaMek, a freeware way of playing BattleTech, typically online with a human, but you can add Bots to the game. What I do I use a variety of guidebooks and rulebooks, roll some dice, make some choices, then select a contract for my mercenaries to take. After taking that contract, I fight the battle against a Bot, and then I tally the results, including our pay, losses, and salvage.

Now, obviously it’s a lot more complex than that, but for a practiced hand like myself, its pretty good.

Interested?

[Abe Sargent]

Here’s is the detail:


I will create my own character using the rules of BattleTech. I will then create a story, faction allegiance, and so forth for the character. After doing that, I get certain advantages and disadvantages based on the Mercenary Handbook, and other rule books. Using these advantages and disadvantages, I’ll make some rolls, and recruit my initial unit with various BattleMechs, techs, pilots, and so forth.

Then I will use rolls to determine the contracts that people are willing to drop on my newly minted mercenary unit, which will be bad contracts at first. As my unit gets better, bigger, and more skilled, our mercenary rating will rise, which should net us better contracts.

Every pilot in my command will have gunnery and piloting skills, and as they get kills, their skills will increase. There are also some skills that pilots of mechs and vehicles can get, and it is possible that my pilots will get those.

When I play MegaMek, I will need to determine a list of options to use. Over the years, BattleTech had numerous optional rules sets released, and some are better than others, and most are available on MegaMek.

I will then go and fight the contract (in those that have a combat component), then I will relate the battle, highlights, and losses. I may lose pilots or mechs/vehicles or materiel to battle.

Then I come back, and make repairs, purchase new equipment, and so forth, before heading out again.

I will keep track of the campaign in actual time to travel to the planet, fulfill the contract, and then return.

Well, that’s the campaign. I’ll also inform when major events occur that will change the rules of the game. (Examples include the “Death to all Mercenaries” decree by the Draconis Combine, the War of 3039, Grey Death Legion’s discovery of the Lostech Core, The Clan Invasion, Operation: Scorpion, Xin Sheng, and so forth.)

[Abe Sargent]

I love the Inner Sphere and the history of the Battletech universe, and I enjoy the interesting sci-fi setting, which is fully fleshed out and highly realistic. However, I hate the way WizKids ended decades of development with the Jihad and Devlin Stone, so I want to ultimately build an empire that can survive the Jihad and become the salvation of the Inner Sphere, but that would require a long play, through decades of time and ever increasing complexity, and I have no illusions that we would get that far.

Allow me to introduce you to BattleTech’s world, and what I am inserting myself into.



Due to combined military efforts against rogue states, a coalition of western democracies and eastern power states resigns from the ineffective UN to form a new alliance. While retaining their independence, the power of the Alliance Parliament grew as it gained increasing power. Over time, more states joined the AP, and among other things, the AP fostered significant scientific research. By 2024, the AP had replaced the UN fully.

This era of significant research led to the several major discoveries over the next century. Myomers, a plastic that could react like muscle tissue was created, and two scientists at Stanford released a paper to the chagrin of their colleagues that destroyed many accepted ideas of physics. The most important discovery is the invention of the fusion nuclear engine.

Around 2100, the ideas of Kearny and Fushida have come to be accepted as true. The century saw the colonization of several planets in the solar system, as well as the commercialization of the asteroid belt, as companies moved asteroids to sub-orbital platforms around Earth and carved them up for minerals.

In 2102, scientists announced the greatest scientific breakthrough of the era, as a faster-than-light drive is believed to be true. The drive works by accelerating through K-F space, named after the scientists whose ideas were the foundation of the science.

From 2102 until 2313 the era of the Exodus took place. K-F Drives began to fuel ships to the stars. By 2116 the first colony was established outside of the Terran solar system in Tau Ceti IV. By 2172, more than 100 human settlements were spread across a sphere 80 light years in diameter, with Terra in the center. By 2235 that number rose to 600.

As humanity advances towards the stars, they note the lack of alien life. However, that will not translate into a lack of peace.

In 2235, a coalition of fringe worlds broke off from the Terran Alliance, which was surprised to discover that they could not easily retake the worlds. After 18 months of war, the Outer Reaches Rebellion took place, and after no decision had been reached, the ruling Expansionist Party was ousted from office and the Liberal party took over. They declared the war over, and gave the rebels their land, and also released many other colonies that were outside of a 30 light year sphere around Terra, whether they wanted it or not, leaving the other worlds to find for themselves.

By 2313, Expansionist and Liberal parties kept changing hands, continuing to change the policies of the previous administrations, and locking the Terran Alliance in gridlock decade after decade.

In September of 2314, Fleet Admiral James McKenna intervened after actual war broke out between the Expansionist and Liberal parties, ending the short war, and declaring himself the ruler of a new state, the Terran Hegemony. Using military, political and economic tools at his command, he slowly began to expand the Hegemony back into the territory the Terran Alliance had bequeathed.

By 2339, the year of McKenna’s death, over 100 systems had been added back to the Hegemony. Michael Cameron succeeds his uncle and begins the Cameron dynasty, the most important dynastic family in human history.

In 2398,the Free Worlds League and the Cappellan Confederation begin a bloody war, both states laying outside the confines of the Terran Hegemony. In 2412, a particular bloody battle in the war results in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians which leads to the signing of the Ares Conventions by all major states, rules to conflict that are more honorable.

The Ares Convention confined war, but it also perpetuated it. During the 25h century, the Inner Sphere is constantly embroiled in warfare, but an honorable one. Disputes turn into combat and strife.

The Terran Hegemony developed the first BattleMech, the Mackie, in 2439, and quickly moved to using them as the backbone of their military forces. Eventually, mechs would be moved to industrial and agricultural and terraforming roles.

In 2551, Ian Cameron, 13th Cameron in the line, negotiates peace between the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League, and wins the gratitude of their leaders. They also sign secret three way mutual defense pacts, open trade, and more.

By 2571, Ian used his diplomacy skills to bring the Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine with the same treaties. Calling the new state the Star League, Ian waged war against the periphery states which ended in 2596 with the capitulation of the final periphery state.

The Golden Age of the Star League began. For 150 years, until 2750, technology increased, trade expanded, and a new wave of colonization began. The greatest invention of this era was the Hyper-Pulse Generators, which could send signals through K-F space, decreasing communication time to a few months from one side of the Inner Sphere to another.

In early 2751, Simon Cameron died in an accident, and his young son was the heir. The Council declared young Richard Cameron as his heir and Alexandr Kerensky, the admiral, his Regent and Protector. However, the council (formed of the heads of the five previous states), began to pass decries allowing for larger private armies and such.

In 2762, Richard Cameron turned 18 and began to rescind the council’s previous orders, and went even further, ordering the complete disbanding of all house armies. This began a long conflict, in which Alexandr Kerensky was ordered to take all Star League forces out into the war.

One of Richard Cameron’s true allies, Stefan Amaris, transferred his personal units as Cameron’s bodyguard on Terra, until he saw his opportunity and killed Cameron, and declaring himself the new Lord.

Seeing this, Kerensky immediately declared a ceasefire with the houses and began the long journey back to Terra. Over years the battle raged, until 2779 when Kerensky killed Amaris and again declared himself Regent of the Star League. At this, the house lords rebelled, and issued an edict declaring Kerensky a traitor. Tired of the war and the mess made of the Star League, Kerensky choose to leave with over 80% of the Star league forces, taking them with him into the deep periphery beyond the unknown.



And that is the end of the Star League and the dream. For what happened next, see the next post.

[Abe Sargent]

With the absence of the Star League Defense Force, the individual houses reform their original states and move to war. Thus began the Succession Wars.

The First Succession War ran from 2787 to 2821. The war was devastating, with the Ares Convention disregarded. Weapons nuclear and chemical were unleashed. The destruction of infrastructure was a key wartime goal, so factories and drydocks were destroyed en masse.

The Second Succession War ran from 2830 to 2864 and was just as bloody and deadly. Planets were torn apart, and many colonies were abandoned because of the cataclysmic hit that trade took during this time. Colonies that had evolved specialized economies took especial hits, and infrastructures on colonies were often destroyed, requiring evacuation.

By the end of the Second Succession War, it was no longer easy to build advanced computers, large fusion plants, and parts were cannibalized to keep fighting machines in repair. With resources dedicated to keeping machines fit, instead of research and development, technology began a slow downward spiral.

During the Third Succession War, began just two years later in 2866 until around 2925 and saw a different kind of war. With production of jumpships down to a trickle, aerospace assets were respected, and not attacked. The few factories left were not destroyed, but fought over with the loser retreating and hoping to recapture it later. A gentlemanly form of war emerged, often allowed techs onto battle on each side to recover tech.

With slashes in infrastructure and colonies, and the downward spiral of a dark age, feudalism rose again on various planets, although many would still cling to democracy, meritocracy, and so forth. Periphery states emerged hosting pirates, dispossessed and refugee alike.

For a century, this depressed state lasted, with occasional flare ups. Seeing the increased poverty of her people, in 3020, Archon Katrina Steiner, of the Lyran Commonwealth issued peace decrees to the other House leaders, but only Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns responded.

After negotiations, they came to peace, forged an alliance, and signed a pact for Hanse Davion to marry Katrina’s daughter, Melissa Steiner, which would unite two of the successor states for the first time. Uniting the strongest military (Fed Suns) with the strongest economy (Lyrans) was a smart match.

In 3022, the other three successor states signed a hasty set of alliances and peace accords as well, to match the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth.

In early 3028, the Grey Death Legion, while on Helm, discovers a the Helm Memory Core, a computer bank with technical information from the Star League era. They distribute this to all of the successor states but it will take a while before Lostech will trickle out.

On 20 August, 3028, after reaching 18 years of age, Melissa Steiner and Hanse Davion were united in marriage. With all of the successor lords present, Hanse Davion pledges to his new bride a great gift. The Capellan Confederation.

With that decree, the Fourth Succession War began.

By the end of the day, nine Cappellan worlds were attacked by Fed Suns’ forces. The main weight of the Fed Suns attack came against the Cappellan Confederation, and within months, it was cut in half by the Fed Suns, while 18 worlds would split off and declare independence as the St. Ives Compact. Part of the Caps declared independence as the Tikonov Free Republic, and a year later, would vote to join the Fed Suns.

Lyrans attack the Draconis Combine, with the Dracs losing 53 systems, but they would strike back, hurting the Lyrans for around 15 systems themselves.

Having achieved their victories, Katrina Steiner and her stepson Hanse Davion declare peace with the other successor states. ComStar (which will be discussed later) had intervened by interdicting the Fed Suns, until they capitulated and declared peace.

One of the colonies in the Tikonov Free Republic is Outreach. Outreach is granted by Hanse Davion to Wolf’s Dragoons, the preeminent mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere. Wolf’s Dragoons begins to turn Outreach into the central processing headquarters of mercenary units across the Inner Sphere.

Emboldened by the successes, the Duchy of Andurien, a large chunk of the Free Worlds League, has declared independence in September of 3030.

It is January 1, 3031. The Fourth Succession War has ended, the Free Tikonov Republic has joined the Fed Suns, Outreach is becoming the central area for mercenaries, and I arrive with my unit and mechs.

History awaits.

[SirFozzie]

awesome. I should re-download MegaMek sometime :)

[law90026]

Great idea for a dynasty, will be following.

I looooved Battletech, from the Succession Wars all the way till the Clan stuff. Dark Ages though I never bothered with.

[Abe Sargent]

A quick overview of the political entities of the Inner Sphere:


Draconis Combine - Led by House Kurita, the Draconis Combine is currently engaging in war with all mercenaries, so no contracts will come from the House itself, but some could come from minor Drac barons, industries, and so forth. With a samurai culture and Japanese society, the Draconis Combine is a nouveau Japan.

Federated Suns - Led by Hanse Davion, the Fed Suns are a British based society, regularly at war with the Capellans and the Dracs. It has the strongest military and just gained massive numbers of planets from the Capellans.

Lyran Commonwealth - Led by House Steiner, the Lyrans have a German based society, including the usage of terms like leftenant. It has the strongest economy and gained about a dozen worlds from the Free Worlds League and about 40 worlds from the Dracs.

Free Worlds League - A loose alliance led by House Marik with an Arabian and Mediterranean feel to it. There are always issues with the various states that are a part of the FWL. It has the strongest industrial base.

Capellan Confederation - Led by the insane Maximillian Liao, this was always the fifth strongest of the houses, but after the abject devastation of the Fourth Succession War, it is now seen by many as barely stronger than a periphery state. It has a Chinese influence.

The Periphery - Several minor states have formed out here, with varying levels of power and economy. The top three states are the Outworlds Alliance, Taurian Concordat, and Magistacy of Canopus. A place for bandits, dispossessed, religious fanatics, refugees, and the impoverished.

ComStar - Taking over the HPG stations after the fall of the Star League, ComStar is a quasi-religious order that controls communication between the stars and has taken covert missions to keep the Inner Sphere in a balanced state.

St. Ives Compact - This small state consisting of former Capellan worlds is rich but small, and will need help from allies to survive against the Cappellan Confederation.

Duchy of Andurien - The newest state of the lot is the newly independent Duchy of Andurien, near the edge of Free Worlds League space. They are now moving on the battered and beaten Cappellan Confederation, with the hope of annexing enough worlds to solidfy themselves as a major power.

[Abe Sargent]

Glad to see a couple already interested!

[Izulde]

Is there something online like this for Battlesystem?

[Abe Sargent]

Is there something online like this for Battlesystem?

You can play MegaMek online, there are several leagues - top one is MMnet and the Mekwars engine.

http://www.mekwars.org/

But there is no Battlesystem, AeroTech, MechWarrior, ClanTroops or any of the other smaller systems.

[Izulde]

Okay, thanks. :)

I do have an idea for a new dynasty using Battlesystems though... looks like I'll have to do it by hand, but it should be fun.

[Abe Sargent]

On the Nature of Transit

I love the slowness of the universe.

The K-F Drive is not some deus ex machina like in many scifi stories, like warp speed or hyperspace. Going through K-F space requires a massive amount of energy, and the vast size of the engines required to use this energy prevents a JumpShip from entering atmospheres.

A JumpShip jumps into a system, then unfurls giant solar cell chargers, paper thin made of metal. It can take between 8 and 14 days to recharge the batteries enough for another jump. You can only jump around 30 light years with one charge, so you have to jump, charge, then jump again, making travel very long. It can take a year to get from one side of the Inner Sphere to the other, which is around 1000 light years across.

JumpShips have to arrive in the Nadir or Zenith points in the system, where gravity is nullified by the various laws of magnetics. Then, DropShips detach from the JumpShip to land on the local planets, while other DropShips are dispatch to attach to the JumpShip.

Using mathematical models, it is possible to discover temporary eddies in the gravitational fields in a system, and jump into these eddies, called Pirate Points. It’s dangerous. Get one calculation wrong, and the Pirate Point could be a lot farther away, and jump accidents are known to happen. These can cut days off the time to get from a JumpShip to a planet by DropShips, so it is sometimes used in assaults.

As a mercenary, I am expected to purchase my own transit to the place of choice, and then back to Outreach.

[Abe Sargent]

Mechs and Combat

In order to relate to you the battles, changes and so forth that I will be doing, I need to explain how BattleMechs are designed.

Mechs are assigned a tonnage between 20 and 100. 3 tons goes to the cockpit automatically. 10% of the weight goes to the internal structure automatically. Then a mech is given an engine. To determine the speed of the mech, you divide the engine rating by the tonnage of the mech. A 30 ton mech with a 240 engine walks at a speed of 8, whereas a 40 ton mech with the same engine walks 6, and a 60 ton mech walks just 4. You then have to give your mech a gyro, which can be between 1 and 4 tons depending on engine size.

Engines have significantly increased weight as they go up in rating, and thus there is a give and take involved. After assigning weight for engine, gyro, internal structure and cockpit, the remaining weight can be divided between weapons and equipment on one side, and armor on the other. The maximum amount of armor a mech can have is 20% of the weight of the mech, double the internal structure.

Weapons and equipment take up internal space in a mech, and there is only so much space. Each component of a mech (left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, left torso, right torso, center torso and head) has differencing amounts of space, with some slots already taken with things like the engine, sensors, actuators, cockpit, gyro, and so forth.

When a mech is targeted by weapons fire, and a hit is determined, 2d6 are rolled to determine the hit location (usually). You’ll hit the head only on a 12, and you’ll go straight to internal structure on a 2. Otherwise, damage is dealt to various components based on the dice roll. There are also various charts for firing at the side, rear, top or bottom of a mech.

If you roll a 2 for location (which is an auto critical), or you strip away all of the external armor off a location and it goes internal, then you have a chance for a critical, and roll some dice to see if you get criticals, and how many. You might hit any equipment in the area.

Weapons generate heat, and some use ammo. Ammo, if hit, will cause a massive explosion that will likely result in the destruction of the mech. Better hope your pilot ejects first! That makes ammo weapons dangerous, but they generate less heat. Your engine comes with 10 heat sinks already, and you can add more. Each additional heat sink disperses one heat, takes up one critical and weighs one ton.

Laser weapons are light, deal a solid amount of damage, and generate a bunch of heat. Particle Projection Cannons are the most destructive weapons in the era in which I am fighting, dealing ten damage to one location, with a great range, but making a bunch of heat (10). An AC-20 will deal massive amounts of damage, 20, to one location, but are massively heavy, take up a ton of critical space, only get five shots to the ton, and have a shorter range. Other weapons include machine guns, flamers, short-range missiles, autocannons, and long range missiles. For most of these, there are various types, such as small laser, medium laser, and large laser, AC-2, AC-5, AC-10, and AC-20. The are SRM2, SRM4 and SRM6. Missiles may not all hit, you have to roll to see how many hit, and then their damage is splashed around the mech, making them good at hitting exposed areas, but bad at punching through. Well designed bigger mechs have punch weapons (like PPCs or AC10s) and then missiles. There are also hand to hand weapons that can be given to a mech, but right now, only the Hatchetman really uses them

Balancing heat, weight, critical space, tonnage for armor, and more is very intricate, and that means there is no perfect mech design. There are occasional Lostech weapons and equipment that emerge from the long lost Star League era tech, like gauss rifles, double heat sinks, ultra ac-5, and so forth. If you have played Mechwarrior games, you might be familiar with what is called Level 2 tech, Star League era tech which will be rediscovered soon. However, as of right now, we are still in the era of Level 1 tech after the completion of the Fourth Succession War.

Hope that helps!

[Abe Sargent]

On Warfare

There are several types of units can be found on the battlefield.

Mechs - These are the kings of the battlefield. They are the best armored, most powerful, and most deadly piloted vehicles out there.

Vehicles - This generally refers to tracked, wheeled and hover vehicles of various types. These can be anything from traditional tanks to support vehicles to artillery pieces that fire from afar. These can be very deadly, but vehicles are inherently more fragile than mechs.

VTOLs - These are rotary flight vehicles that can be used for quick transport, harassing, and are hard to hit, but are the most fragile unit on the field.

Infantry - There can be jump, foot, and motorized infantry, with different movements. Infantry can be equipped with a variety of weapons, but the best have SRM missile packs which can do some damage to mechs. Infantry are fragile, but they have a lot of people in them, so it can take a few attacks to take them out. Even jump infantry are slow compared to other units, but are faster than other infantry and harder to hit.

Ships - Sea vessels include anything from transports to traditional naval assets. It is rare that you come across gunboats, because there are better options to build for defense, such as hover assets or mechs.

Fighters - The second most powerful unit on the battlefield, fighters can change the tide of battle, but fall under the AeroTech rules, which are not covered by the MegaMek game engine. This means that, unfortunately, I will not be focusing on fighter assets. Ah well.

Fixed Assets - There are things like gun emplacements and such. I might occasionally go up against them, but it will be uncommon.

[Abe Sargent]

My Character


Braham Essex, 27, is a MechWarrior that hailed from the Epsilon Eridani system. 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 is 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 was assigned to the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov. While there, he distinguished himself enough to warrant placement with the Highlanders. 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. He has taken his own Battlemech and gathered other disaffected to create his mercenary cadre.

[Abe Sargent]

This next section is for those who know the game. If you are just interested in the story, you might want to skip it:


The Options

These will be the options I will be using for MegaMek.

Flamers can deal heat instead of damage

Fires may be set accidentally or intentionally

Indirect Fire for LRMs is allowed

Minefields may be used

Double Blind is in effect, and I can only see units that are in LOS of at least one of my units.

TACs Float. When you roll a Through Armor Critical (result of 2 on a placement chart after hitting) you used to automatically TAC the Center Torso. Now you roll again to determine location. Deadly and realistic.

Engine Explosions, although very rare, are now possible.

While prone, a mech missing an arm may still use the other arm’s weapons.

Smoke has light and heavy varieties, and moves and dissipates.

PPC Inhibitors may be turned off to remove the minimum range of the weapon, but firing in this state can damage the weapon.

Glancing Blows are on. If you roll exactly the number needed to hit, you do half damage.

Quad mechs may mulekick.

How to deal with Partial Cover. This is one of the greatest issues in BattleTech. Under the original rules, a mech with Partial Cover received +3 to attack it, but if you hit, you got to roll on the punch chart, which gave you a 1 in 6 chance of hitting the head. Later rules gave an option to change it to just a +1 to hit the mech and roll on the normal chart, counting all hits that are determined to hit legs as misses. It’s a good rule, but it really changes the partial cover dynamic. No other option means as much as this. Take the Spider mech. If it jumps 8 hexes, then you need a +4 to hit it already. Then add partial cover, and even at short range, you’d need a +7 to hit it behind partial cover, and a regular pilot would need to roll an 11 to hit it with short range weapons. Change the rules, and they only need a 9 to hit it, but the occasional hit will actually miss. As you can see, Partial Cover under the first rule is much more powerful than it is under the second. The tough part is that both views make sense realistically. One views the half sized mech as a much smaller target, so it is harder to hit. The other views it as a little harder to hit, but not much more, but the shots that would have hit it before the cover now miss. I am choosing the +3 and a miss. All other cover uses the same idea. Fire at a target through heavy woods, and they get +2, not +1 and roll to see if any shots glance off the trees. So, I will not be using the option to make it +1 and leg misses.

Allow level 3 targeting systems on level 1 or 2 mechs. There are some old Star League era mechs (like the Executioner) that have rare targeting systems, and they are allowed if discovered.

Quad mechs and prone bipedal mechs now have a new hit chart.

Quad mechs and vehicles may “hull down” behind partial cover for additional protection.

Instead of auto-dying by being on fire as in the original rules, vehicles have the new rules for catching fire.

Infantry may now Dig In in clear hexes to give them cover but reduce their firing arc,

New physical attacks are allowed.

Infantry take reduced damage from single shot weapons.

You can hot load LRMs with significant disadvantages, but it is an option.

Vehicles are not considered immobile by engine hits.

Vehicles can be abandoned

Woods have a chance to burn down.

Vehicles may not be the target of an inferno SRM attack (which is otherwise virtual auto-death for them)

You may dump ammo prior to beginning a fight. Useful for broken or damaged or missing weapons with ammo.

Only canon units are shown as eligible for selection.

Clear hexes cannot be targeted for fire

Alright, there we go.





Books Referenced:

The following B-Tech books are being used in the dynasty thus far. Others will be added as time calls for them.


Technical Readout 3025
Technical Readout 3026
The Rules of Warfare
House of Liao Sourcebook (the original one)
Chaos March
BattleTech Field Manual: Mercenaries
Maximum Tech

[Abe Sargent]

Braham Essex
State Academy, State University, Two terms of service.

Piloting Skill - 4
Gunnery Skill - 3
Influence - 3
Member Modifiers - -2 family, +3 friends, +6 unit

Age: 27
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry

Skills:

Edge: 2
Tactical Genius



I am considered to have a veteran level of ability in the mech (as opposed to green, regular or elite). The edge skill allows me to reroll any 1d6 roll I make once for each point I put into edge, and I put two points into 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.

These are the numbers generated from my background. Now I have to determine my unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Kilts and Commandos:

I get to roll for the founding members of Kilts and Commandos. You can get units initially from family contacts, friends, and your old unit. My modifiers for my background and skills are cumulative and listed above. As you can see, I have a disadvantage when recruiting from my family, a bonus to friends, and a large bonus to recruit from my former unit.

Now I roll 1d6 for each area and add my modifier. Will I get any founding members from that area? Time will see.

Family:

I rolled a 4. Subtract 2 and I get a result of 2, which means I get no recruits here.


Friends:

I rolled a 5. Add 3 and I get an 8. Four friends will be joining my escapade.


Unit:

This is my best chance to get some recruits. I rolled a 3, plus 6 gives me a 9. I get eleven people from my old units to join me (an 11 would have given me 23, and a 12 would have given me 35 new people. Ah well)

That means there will be 15 founding members of the Kilts and Commandos other than me. I used the disaffection that fellow former Highlanders and Lancers felt to have them join my unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Now I have three influence points to spend. I am going to recruit two additional MechWarriors. The first will be a highly capable MechWarrior from my past. This MW will be so capable that he will be able to recruit on their own, and given special abilities. I will also spend my last influence point to recruit a character who can recruit on their own, but has no special abilities.


Special Recruit #1

Ted Izumo

Piloting - 4
Gunnery - 3
Influence - 2
Member Modifiers - -3 family/+3 friends/+3 unit

Age: 52

Skills:

Edge: 3

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.

Taking Ted takes away one friend founding member, but he recruit for me later.



Special Recruit #2

Adele Thompson

Piloting - 5
Gunnery - 4
Influence - 1
Member Modifiers - +2 family/+2 friends/+2 unit

Age: 31


Adele Thompson was born of a minor 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. 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.

Like Ted, I lose one of my first units by grabbing Adele, but she can recruit for me later, using her contacts.

Total number of initial units in Kilts and Commandos:

Braham Essex
Adele Thompson
Ted Izumo
13 Others

[Abe Sargent]

Now we need to see what each unit is.


After rolling, the other 13 units consist of three infantry squads, five ground vehicles, and five mechs. That was bad rolling since I had a 50/50 chance of getting mechs, and just a one in six chance at infantry. I then roll for skill level, and we get some green, some vets, and many regular units.

Now its time to roll up some mechs and vehicles.

A few notes. My veteran ground vehicle rolled the second heaviest tank at the time, the Ontos Heavy Tank, which has a ton of medium lasers, but needs to close to be effective. It is very slow. My green MechWarrior rolled a fairly rare Spider, an extra speedy scout mech that is hard to hit but deals little damage and has light armor. It’s a pretty good mech, but bad in the hands of a poor pilot.

I then rolled a second assault tank, the Demolisher, which is devastating at close range, featuring two AC20s, but it needs to close to be any good, and it too is very slow. Later I rolled a second Ontos and two Urbanmech, which support the close range nature of my unit. Urbies are very slow, lightly armored, and ready for close range fighting – not a good combination, and you have to use them right.

My vet MW recruit got a Griffin, well suited for long range support. It’s a good roll for him since it should keep him out of the first line of fire while also having solid armor and good mobility.

I rolled the Maxim troop transport which can carry one of my infantry squads to combat quickly, so I have a little combined arms there.

Now it is time to roll the mechs for my two special recruits, and then, myself.

Ted Izumo grabbed the most common assault mech – a Stalker. Assault mechs are the heaviest class of vehicles, and the Stalker is a low machine of death, with long range, medium range, and close range weapons all combined. Good armor too.

Adele Thompson looks like the only mech she could afford was a light one. A Firestarter is a specialized mech that can use Flamers to add to the heat of a targeted mech to spike its heat index. Remember that mechs have to balance heat, so it is a pretty good mech against certain targets.

Finally, I roll my mech. I rolled a medium mech for me (between 40 and 55 tons). I rolled a Dervish. The DV-6M is a 55 ton mech equipped with jump jets, allowing it to walk 5 hexes a turn, run up to 8, or jump 5. It features a pair of LRM-10s, which gives it decent long range capability, plus two medium lasers and two SRM-2s for closer fighting. It features just 7.5 tons of armor for its size, 3.5 less than the most you could put on a 55 ton chassis. It’s weak in the armor and meant for fire support. It is not a bad mech at all, you just have to use it right. It does have paper thin rear armor, so I need to make sure that I don’t expose my back to the enemy

[law90026]

Your armour lance coupled with the 2 Urbanmechs and Firestarter would be really effective in city missions I think. Nice to see that you have 3 mechs to form a decent command/support lance.

[Abe Sargent]

Your armour lance coupled with the 2 Urbanmechs and Firestarter would be really effective in city missions I think. Nice to see that you have 3 mechs to form a decent command/support lance.

I don't even like Urbies in cities. They need to be faster. 2/3/2 is not a legit speed for a light mech.

[Abe Sargent]

Recruiting:

Now it’s time to recruit for my unit. I only have a few mechs, so I want to try and bring in more of those. They rule the battlefield.

I get +1 to my target number for recruiting until an event occurs to remove it.

I can make recruiting rolls for me and my two special NPCs – Adele and Ted.

In order to recruit, I roll 2d6 and try to hit a target number based on what I am looking for. After rolling for me, Adele and Ted, I got the following:

Regular Light Mech
Regular Medium Ground Vehicle
Green Motorized Infantry

That’s nothing special.


Now that I have my recruiting out of the way, I need to obtain equipment.

I also get a one time chance to get a dropship. I aim for a Union and I need a 12. I roll an 8. No dice.

I hire 10 Astechs, 5 Green techs, 4 regular techs, 2 vets and one elite tech. This allows me to cover 100% of my maintenance for these vehicles, mechs, weapons, and so forth.

I also hire a regular medic, two green administrators to handle the paperwork and a veteran negotiator to handle our negotiations.

Even though we are a brand new unit, the size of our unit, average experience, and full medical, administrative and technical staff give us a Dragoon rating of D, which is the lowest rating, but we are one point away from being classed as a C.

Now it is time to dial up our first contract.

[Abe Sargent]

January 1, 3031

After an initial recruitment effort on Outreach, we try to find someone willing to offer us a contract. I roll some dice and we get two offers.

Now I need to find out who the two offers are from. I again roll some dice.

One offer is from the Federated Suns while the other is from the Draconis Combine.

Now I roll to determine what each one is offering.

Both are offering Objective Raids.

An Objective Raid is a mission to a particular planet held by an enemy. You are to destroy a specific target, and then pull out. Because these missions are dangerous and have little chance of reinforcement, they usually offer good pay and rights.

Now it is time to negotiate the contract. I decide to begin with the Federated Suns. The Drac contract would be offered by a baron or duke, since the Coordinator has deemed the DCMS to kill mercenaries (The Death to All Mercenaries decree is currently in effect). They might not pay as well.

Time to negotiate, which is an interesting process.

The following things are eligible for negotiating – Length of Contract, Payment, Command Rights, Salvage Rights, Remuneration, Support Rights and Transport. I can emphasize the areas of the contract that I want, but by doing so, I give the other person more negotiating points to use against us.

We have a vet negotiator. I roll to see what the negotiator of the Feds is. I rolled a regular negotiator. That gives us an advantage, so we begin with 49.5 bargaining points.

We get to select any of the seven areas of the contract for the negotiation first. The most important areas to me are salvage, length and transport, in that order. I go with Salvage Rights first.

The Fed Suns have to make the first offer. Since I know that an Objective Raid is usually given high rights, I have then offer Shared Rights. I do not like Shared Rights, I wanted Full Rights, but it would cost me 50 points to counter offer, and I do not have that much money. Shared Rights are acceptable for now.

They put the next item on the agenda, and I deem that they care a lot about Support Rights. It can get dicey to pay for a lot of support if we lose a few battles for our employer if they get the wrong sort of support.

They offer Straight Support. This means they will pay 50% of the support costs of our unit. This includes medic and tech salaries. I am going to use my odd numbers to raise this. I am spending four points to raise it to 70% of our costs, giving me 45 points left.

Now we can choose an item to put on the table. I kept my points for this, so let’s get it out of the way. We want to negotiate the length of the contract and I roll a dice to see how long they offer. They offer six months on the Raid, which I know to be silly. I spend fifteen points to cut it to three months, and the negotiator from the Suns agrees. We have 30 points left.

They put Payment up next. They want to buy down our remaining points, so they offer 2.7x the payroll of our military troops. This wipes our points. I choose not to buy any points down.

I choose to add some points, so I select the minor right of Remuneration. I choose that we will not receive Remuneration rights, so we get 10 points back.

They have to choose transport or command rights. I roll up Command Rights and the Fed Suns choose Command Rights and offer a Liaison from the Fed Suns to accompany us on our mission. This does not change the numbers in any way.

Finally, I select the final right, Transport. They offer 40% reimbursement for transport, and this gives us 15 bonus points. We use the 25 points we have left to drive that up to 52% reinbursement.

The final point gives us a small bonus for signing the contract. We get 1300 C-Bills.

The target is a Draconis Combine held plant three jumps from Outreach, which will cost us 300,000 CBills there and another 300k back. We have to pay 144000 each way, but we only have 11,300. I take out a loan for 400000 CBills, which will require 500000 to repay and we head out to the Drac planet.

Transit Time (rolled): 5 weeks.

February 8, 3031 – We arrive in system and it took us a few days to take our DropShip down to the local planet. The defensive forces on the continent we arrived at are a company of mechs. We have to get in and out quickly, or else the forces on the rest of the planet will arrive and fore us off.

Our goal is to destroy a Draconis Combine armory on Cylene. If we win the battle, we automatically destroy the Armory. We cannot get to the Armory without going through the continent’s defenders. I look up Cylene in an online database to discover its climate, and then I will randomly generate a map using MegaMek and the climate of Cylene.

We will be facing twelve Battlemechs and we have just nine of our own, and almost all of those are light. Although we have nineteen units to their twelve, we have no heavy battlemechs and just one assault, whereas we have four infantry platoons which is not great. I believe my route to victory will be to close with my three big tanks and the Stalker, and try to blast through my opponent’s line with their firepower. That’s my hope.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are a few charts of my own creation to determine what units I face:

1 – Patchwork
2 – Conventional Arms
3, 4 – Mixed Arms
5, 6 – BattleMech Arms

Each Unit:

1, 2 – Light
3, 4 – Medium
5 – Heavy
6 – Assault

Expertise:

1, 2 – Green
3, 4 – Regular
5 – Veteran
6 – Elite

I then use these to determine the forces I will be facing.

[law90026]

Good luck on the first mission!

[PurdueBrad]

Good luck. I'm unfamiliar with the game but am fascinated and may have to try it out.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all!

[Abe Sargent]

The First Campaign

8 February, 3031 – We arrive on the southern continent of Cylene and a company of mechs moves to intercept my men. Time to move out and engage.

Cylene is a harsh wintery planet that is beginning a new ice age. Even the Equator experiences freezing winters, but the ore here is valuable and the planet is on the border so it requires a garrison. At this time of year, the southern continent is cold and dry, with remnant of snow and ice from the winter.

Our enemy has one assault mech, the mighty Victor. They also have a large assortment of lights and mediums, and two heavies, a Rifleman and a Grasshopper. We got lucky. If the garrison company here were heavier, we could have had no shot at winning. As it is, we may still take many losses in victory. Several of their mechs are not particularly good, like the Vulcan, Grasshopper, and Clint.

At the end of the first turn my Bulldog Tank is badly bruised, and we hurt one of the opposing light mechs a bit. The first few turns are more maneuvering than fighting.

On the second turn, one of my Ontos Tanks destroys a Kurita Vulcan. They take out my Goblin Medium Tank with a TAC (Through Armor Critical) which knocked out my power plant. We savaged their Rifleman and one of their Javelins (a light mech). The Javelin fell down and both mechs are missing arms.

At the end of the third turn, the same Ontos destroys an opposing Phoenix hawk’s gyro, and it falls, unable to move. One of the Javelin pilots my opponent has completely blacked out from damage.

At the end of the fourth turn, their Grasshopper missed a kick and fell, their Rifleman took a beating and is internal everywhere and on the ground.

After the fifth turn, the Grasshopper fell again after more injuries, and there was an ammo explosion after its exposed internal structure took damage in the fall. Boom! No more Grasshopper.

The following turn sees Ted Izumo blow up the opposing Whitworth after savaging it with his weapons. The Whitworth, a 40 ton medium mech, is actually one I like a lot, and I am sad to see it get destroyed instead of us recovering it. We also pick up the Grasshopper pilot for later.

The next turn sees the opposing Victor blow off my Spider’s arm and torso. The Ontos Heavy Tank once again blasts a mech, this time blowing up the ammo on an opposing Clint and taking it down. My Spider captures the Clint pilot.

I need to get my severely damaged Spider out of there next turn. I also want to focus my energy on a good mech, like the Victor, which if I can get, would be a nice capture for my team. I will likely be getting a Javelin (pilot blacked out, and needs a 10 on 2d6 to wake up each round) and a Phoenix Hawk (destroyed gyro, can’t move, but can still fire still on the field).

The seventh turn sees me destroy the left arm of the Victor.

On the eighth turn, my Stalkers Left Arm is blasted by the opposing Victor. Then my Stalker returns fire, criticaling the Victor’s main weapon – his AC20. Without that, he’s dead in the water. Then the physical attacks occur. My Wasp is one level above the Victor, and tries to kick. The kick works, and he hits the ammo, the Victor explodes. A 20 ton mech just killed an 85 ton mech. My Stalker kicks out the leg from under a 35 ton Panther and knocks it over. Unfortunately, the Javelin pilot finally wakes up and I won’t be getting that mech right now.

On the 9th turn, the pilot once again blacked out when he failed to stand. He also hit the gyro a second time, which takes the mech out of commission. Harder to repair now. No major changes just attrition of armor during the weapons fire phase, but my Wasp kicks the opposing Spider and knocks it down, and it is damaged.

The tenth turns rolls around and their Spider and Panther both fail to stand up. That leaves most of their mechs on the ground for the weapons phase. I suspect this will be ending soon. We blow some more limbs off their remaining mechs, capture the Victor pilot (a vet) and then win the game due to getting 70% of their team destroyed.

[Qwikshot]

Congrats on your victory.

[law90026]

Grats on the win

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all!

[Abe Sargent]

THis next post is a bit technical. I can understand if you decide to skip it.




Damage Report:

Captured Mechs:

One Phoenix Hawk, 45 medium Mech. Hit twice in Gyro and once in Engine. Needs four tons of external armor. Kurita variant of mech.

One normal Javelin, a 35 ton scout mech. Hit twice in Gyro, once in Engine. Missing about three tons of armor.

One normal Rifleman, a 65 ton heavy mech. Missing left leg, damaged Large Laser. Hit on gyro and engine. Destroyed Left Torso medium Laser. Missing about four tons of external armor.

Need To Fix – Jav Gyro, Rifle Gyro, 11 tons of armor, Large Laser, Rifleman LL, Medium Laser



Items I need:

2 tons of LRM5 ammo
2 tons of AC10 ammo
Spider LT, LA, 4 Jump Jets
4 tons LRM10 ammo
1 ton of SRM6 ammo
22 tons of armor for my mechs


Damaged Items

Medium Laser – Stalker, LA *
Heat Sink, Stalker, LT *
Power Plant – Goblin Tank *
Movement – both Ontos’s,0/*/0 Devastator

* - I rolled for these items and those with a * are not reparable, and must be replaced.

Items I Salvaged:

Vulcan LA
Grasshopper RA w/o ML
Whitworth LA
Spider LA
Victor LL
Javelin LA


Captured Four Pilots – Green Javelin pilot, vet Victor, Regular Whitworth and Grasshopper

Now I roll to see if any pilots will join my cause. House pilots are tougher to recruit then mercs, so I need an 11 or 12 to recruit them. Otherwise, I will return them. None join our cause.

The Goblin Tank is a complete write off. Nothing to salvage there.

I pull the ML out of the Grasshopper arm and put it in the Stalker (I have to make rolls for each). I fixed the Devastator, but failed to fix the Ontos who was knocked to 2/3 movement. (I only needed a 4 to fix it, and I rolled a 3). I’ll have my Elite Tech try to fix it next week.

After failing to fix the Javelin and Rifleman Gyros, I will need to order Gyros for each mech. I fixed all other gyro and engine damage.

[Abe Sargent]

Replacement cost of Items I cannot Fix:

Heat Sink – 2000
LRM Ammo – 180000
AC Ammo – 12000
Jump Jets – 24000
SRM Ammo – 27000
Ontos Propulsion System – 176666
Armor – 220000
Spider RT – 298454

Total Cost to Repair and Replace My Wounds: 938320

[Abe Sargent]

To Replace and Repair Salvaged Mechs:

Armor – 110000
Jav Gyro – 600000
Rifleman Gyro – 600000
Rifleman LL – 243000
Large Laser – 100000
Medium Laser – 40000

Total Cost: 1630000

[Abe Sargent]

Now, here is the problem with not having full salvage. With full salvage, we would have notched these three mechs, and could have sold a crappy mech to get these three new ones and buy all needed supplies. However, we don’t have full salvage. We have Shared Salvage for this contract.

Total Value of Salvaged Rifleman: 3837000
Total Value of Salvaged Javelin: 1778000
Total Value of Salvaged Phoenix Hawk: 3588552
Total Value of Salvaged Items: Approx: 500000

Total Value of Salvage: 9703552/2 = 4851776

We can take up to 4851776 worth of goods, and then we will get that much from the Fed Suns in compensation for the other materiel.

As such, I can only get one of the mechs, not all three. I take the Phoenix Hawk and other salvaged items, and we get 4851776 in CBills for the rest (so the Fed Suns made out on that).

40000 to fix Phoenix Hawk armor.

Total Expenses:

978320 (inc loan and interest) for items and to repay loan
209319 Operating Expenses
500000 Loan Repay

Total – 1687639

Total Cash:

178634 – Contract
42000 – War Chest
4852776 – Reimbursement of Materiel

Total – 5073410

Total Money Left After Contract:

3,385,771


The Goblin Medium Tank crew died in the blast. We do not need to pay them.

[Tellistto]

I'll be following this. Nice start so far, look forward to more.

Tell

[law90026]

Swapping a Goblin tank for a Phoenix Hawk overall seems like a good thing.

Interesting to see that your Urbies did just about nothing during the fight based on your report :D

What's your updated roster now?

[Abe Sargent]

Evaluation of Battle:

The two rifle infantry didn’t even get off a shot. They are too slow and too limited in ability. The SRM infantry did well after being dropped off by the Maxim. They hit numerous times and did some damage. The Laser Anti-Mech Infantry were respectable as well.

The Wasp did more than I thought it would. It harassed an opposing Javelin for several turns, got a kill on the Victor, and wounded the opposing Spider. I am going to move the pilot to the Phoenix Hawk. The P. Hawk has the same movement as a Stinger, but is 25 tons heavier, has better weapons and better armor.

The tanks didn’t do much except for the one Ontos. The other Ontos was damaged early, the Bulldog had to run away after getting hit, the Demolisher was damaged early and like the Ontos, was mired in its spot. The maxim was good at getting infantry in battle, and then ran.

The Stalker was the foundation of our mechs’s weapons. We had a lot of power in that mech. I focused my efforts on taking out the weaker mechs like the Vulcan, Clint, Rifleman, and Grasshopper.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT – March, 3031 – The Capellan Confederation is being attacked by combined forces from both the Duchy of Andurien and the Magistracy of Canopus, a periphery realm power. Each wants the power a weakened House Liao can provide.

The Duchy of Andurien desires terminal independence, and views the weakened Successor State as a place to get holdings, power and a stronger economy so that it can stand on its own permanently, and hold off any attacks from the Free Worlds League who want to bring back their wayward Duchy.

The Magistracy of Canopus wants to get over the psychological, technological and political hump of being a periphery power, and sees the Caps as an opportunity to become a full fledged power in the Inner Sphere instead of an afterthought.

Bruised and battered by defections and losing almost half of their planets in the past two years, can the Capellan Confederation hold on?

[Abe Sargent]

June 24, 3031 – We arrive back on Outreach, and can begin another recruiting effort. This time, I have a vacant mech, the Wasp available for a member of the Dispossessed, MechWarriors without a mech hoping for a break. Recruiting them is easy. We are now rated C in the mercenary ratings.

Ted Izumo is able to find us an elite MechWarrior who is dispossessed. Rafael Gomez is our first elite level pilot. To determine a recruit’s name and gender, I roll two dice

Place of Origin:

1 – Europe
2 – Asia
3 – Africa
4 – Oceania
5 – North America
6 – South America

1-3 – Male
4-6 – Female

I rolled Rafael as a North American Male. Then I rolled again to see if he was from Canada, US, or Latin American heritage. He was Latin American, so I created a suitable name.

I am unable to find any other suitable recruits despite three rolls (I have an influence of three). Adele similarly struck out.

Well, it’s time to seek out a new contract. We get three offers this time:

Lyran Commonwealth, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Security



Security contracts are geared to protect or secure a person, place or object from attack. It is a specialized form of Garrison duty that only requires a short amount of time for a specific need. I believe this would be offered by the Caps right now to help protect an area that is currently open, with them moving garrison troops to the front lines of the new war, they need temporary help.

Let me see who the Objective Raids are against. Lyran wants us to attack the Periphery. That’s easy to do, their militaries are typically substandard, but transport time is tough. Caps want us to attack the Duchy of Andurien, which is currently attacking them.

Ipswich, five jumps away, is a minor planet in the Duchy of Andurien, but it is on the border, and as such, has been outfitted with a system listening post. Our goal is to infiltrate the system, destroy the listening post, and then make away.

Time to negotiate, but this time we have fifty points. The Negotiator is a regular, so we gain an extra five points for our negotiator.

This time, I choose to put remuneration first. A minor right, but I choose not to give us any, so we gain ten points, putting us at sixty-five.

The Liao diplomat puts Command Rights next, and offers us Independent Rights, allowing us to do whatever we want. They probably trust me since I was once one of them. That takes ten points and drops us to 55.

Next up I want to take care of Transport Rights. They offer us 40% of transport costs. That gives us 15 bargaining points, putting us at 70. I decide not to negotiate that, I’m happy with it.

Capella puts Payment up next. Like the previous negotiator, they will offer us 2.9 times our military expenses, which drops our points to 45. I drop it to 2.6 and bring our points to 51.

I put salvage up. They offer us Exchange Rights. That gives us five points at 56. I pay 15 points to counter with Shared Rights. 41 points.

They hit support rights next. They offer straight support at 50% of our costs. I don’t move it.

Now I put length of contract up. They offer four months. I drop it to two and spend ten more points. That leaves us with 31 points. I can either half the amount and add that as a signing bonus to the salary of the contract, or I can half it and reopen one area of negotiation. I opt for a signing bonus.

[Abe Sargent]

Swapping a Goblin tank for a Phoenix Hawk overall seems like a good thing.

Interesting to see that your Urbies did just about nothing during the fight based on your report :D

What's your updated roster now?

Yeah, I'll take that easy. I really need to mech up my troops. Vehicles are too fragile, even with a lot of armor, they get treads blown out, power plant hit, turret locked or crew killed way too easily.

[Abe Sargent]

Another event happened while we were gone:


EVENT January 11, 3031 - Thomas Marik arrives back from his tour of duty with ComStar and has been declared Regent while Janos Marik suffers from his third stroke.

[Abe Sargent]

August 26, 3031 – We have arrived in Ipswich and are making our way to the planet now. Capellan Intelligence tells us that the opponent has Mixed Arms. That means we can expect to see vehicles, mechs, and infantry all working together. The planet currently has two companies (24) units defending the Listening Post. We will launch in to the planet and land near the Listening Post. Then we will see how many defenders are nearby to challenge us.

It looks like there is just one company coming against us. However, it looks very powerful. This is a heavy company. There’s no infantry, just mechs and vehicles. There are a lot of assault and heavy mechs. Some of the strongest mechs are against us, including the 75 ton Orion, the 85 ton BattleMaster and the strong 85 ton Stormfleur Assault Tank featuring two LRM20s. Although numbers favor us, with 19 units, we have too many light mechs and vehicles and infantry. We need to hit hard. I’ll use the speed of mechs like the Phoenix Hawk, Spider, Wasp and Firestarter to my advantage, and I should win.


Other mechs and vehicles they have – Shadow Hawk, Spider, Rifleman, Von Luckner, Condor x2, Partisan, Heavy Hover APC, Goblin SRM.


We arrive, and this time it will take us longer to engage (longer map). This is bad for our close up units.

The first two turns is just maneuvering, although I do manage to damage the movement system of a Condor twice on the second turn. By the third turn, some tanks are taking damage, losing movement, and such on both sides.

Turn four sees my Ontos #2, the one that did so well in the last game go up in smoke. They got the first kill.

Turn five makes things start to look bad as my other Ontos is destroyed. My Dervish kills the Partisan Assault tank (80 tons) so at last we are on the board, and I notch my first kill as Lieutanent and Commander of the Kilts and Commandos.

The next turn I lose my Bulldog Tank as well. Tanks are falling on my side everywhere.

The following turn I lose the Demolisher. Tanks are disappointing me today. Ted Izumo killed the Van Luckner tank. My Wolverine TACs the Rifleman’s gyro and it falls. I lost an arm off my Wasp.

On turn eight, their Rifleman fails to stand up and falls back down, going critical on its left leg. We just exchange fire, nothing major this round except I hit the Orion in the head again with a punch. He’s losing armor there quickly. My SRM Infantry took serious damage.

Turn 9 sees me flee with the damaged Wasp. The Rifleman stood up, and then the pilot blacked out. We destroyed a Condor Tank by my Griffin.

Turn 10 sees one of my Urbies take leg damage and fall. My SRM infantry kill the Sturmfeur’s Crew, allowing me to recoup that vehicle if the game ends in our favor. It was not internal anywhere. Now we have taken out both of their assault tanks and immobilized the Rifleman plus the Condor and the 75 ton heavy Von Luckner kill. That leaves them with 7 functional mechs and vehicles. My foot SRM platoon is down to just 6 infantry after some more damage though so I’ll hide it for the rest of the game.

The following turn my Spider is savaged good and gets a Lower Arm actuator hit. I hit the gyro and engine on their Spider. My Spider falls, theirs does not.

I choose to eject out of the Spider, it is savaged, but still fine, and with just a green pilot at the helm, I don’t trust standing up, so I’ll eject and fight another day. More exchange of fire, but no deaths

On round thirteen, more fire is exchanged but we manage to knock the BattleMaster down from damage. Our Firestarter punches and destroys the opposing Spider’s left arm.

While jumping the following round, their Spider fell down and went boom. I move my infantry over by it, I want to take it out if possible. Another round, another sloughing of armor.

I’m outta LRM ammo on my Dervish so I am closing and hopin to use my close range weapons. Their Spider is destroyed when it tries to stand up and falls down, destroying it’s center torso. Ted Izumo’s Stalker takes out the BattleMaster’s main weapon, his PPC.

Round sixteen sees my Phoenix Hawk destroy the BattleMaster’s right arm. During the physical combat phase, my Stalker kicked and destroyed the Heavy Hover APC. It was just a 20 ton vehicle, not much there. The Wolverine had jumped behind their Orion, and I have been savaging its rear with jumping mechs for a while, exposing its weaker armor. He exploited it with a punch and took out its LRM15. Their Shadow Hawk and my Dervish fell from kicks. (when you are kicked or miss a kick you have to make a piloting skill roll to remain standing). Bad news, the Rifleman pilot finally rolls an 11, and is awake again. That’s terrible.

I stand my Dervish back up and move him into woods. The Battlemaster tears open Izumo’s Stalker’s arm and hits a lower arm actuator. Both the Right and Left arms are open, with no armor left but internal structure. The Rifleman hits my Stalker’s engine. I lose the Left Arm of one of my Urbies. The Rifleman falls down after we hit a leg actuator, and the pilot dies. Best news is this – the Wolverine jumped behind Partial Cover and hit a 10 with his AC5 when attacking the Orion. It hit the head, and knocked the Orion pilot out for now. Although my team was savaged, they lost their Rifleman (again) and Orion temporarily in one turn. That’s a big blow.

And it means we have won. They retreat and we claim victory. It was a bloody match, but we end up with three new vehicles for now.

[Tellistto]

Ouch, tough fight that. Hopefully you get some good salvage out of this and some mechs to replace those tanks.

Just tough.

Tell

[law90026]

Grats on another win. It looked bad at the start, glad you pulled it out. Seems like your team took a lot of damage though, hopefully the salvage gets you some decent replacements (Rifleman, Orion or the Sturmfeur tank).

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, it was tough at first. I thought we were going to lose after the first few turns. Well, here is an account of the battle.


Salvaged

Rifleman – Gyro Hit, ML destroyed, Lower Leg and Hip Actuators hit, needs about three tons of armor, 1 ton AC5 ammo

Sturmfuer Tank – Needs five tons of armor, fixed turret, fixed mobility, 2 tons of LRM20 ammo

Orion – LRM15 hit, Heat Sink destroyed. Needs 6 tons of armor, one ton LRM15 ammo, AC10 ammo


Damage:


UrbanMech – Damaged Foot actuator. 2 tons of armor. 1 ton AC10 ammo

Wasp – Missing left arm, 2 tons of armor

SRM6 Infantry – 6 people, need many more

Spider – Lower Arm Actuator, three tons of armor

UrbanMech – Left Arm destroyed. 3 tons of armor, 1 ton of AC10 ammo.

Stalker – Engine, Upper Arm Actuator, 8 tons of armor, 2 tons of LRM10 ammo, 1 ton of SRM6 ammo

Phoenix Hawk – Hand Actuator, 2 tons of armor

Dervish – 2 tons of armor, 2 tons of LRM10 ammom, 1 ton of SRM2 ammo.

Maxim Hover – 1 tons of LRM5 ammo.

Wolverine – 1 ton of SRM6 ammo, 1 ton of armor

Firestarter – 1 ton Machine Gun ammo, 2 tons of armor

Griffin – 1 ton of LRM10 ammo, 1 ton of armor

Salvaged Items:

AC20 from our destroyed Demolisher
SRM4 from destroyed Von Luckner
SRM4 from Heavy Hover APC
Medium Laser and AC5 from Condor
Spider Head, Left Leg, Right Arm

Their destroyed Spider Pilot will choose to join us. He was regular.

Our Bulldog crew escaped death. The others all died when their vehicles died.

[Abe Sargent]

Repairs:

Our Stuff

Stalker engine, Actuator
Phoenix Hawk Actuator
Urbie Actuator
Spider Actuator

Salvaged Stuff

Rifleman Hip and Leg Actuator, Gyro
Orion LRM 15
Sturmfeur fixed turret, mobility



All reparable things fixed this time. I was able to splice the Spider Left Arm we salvaged in our first mission on the UrbanMech to replace its missing arm.


We again have Shared Salvage Rights.


Value of Orion: Normally: 6774250. To Repair: 98000. Current Value: 6676250

Value of Rifleman: Normally: 4860000. To Repair: 74500. Current Value: 4785500

Value of Sturmfeur: Normally: 2395288. To Repair: 110000. Current Value: 2285288

Value of Salvaged Items: AC20 – 300k, SRM4s, 120k, AC5, 125k, ML, 40k, Spider parts, around 750k.

Total Value of all Salvaged Items: 15082038.

We get 7541019 C Bills in compensation for salvage, and can take up to that amount.

I want the Orion, no question. It is a great mech. I also decide to keep the Spider parts and Medium Laser. Or, I could take the Sturmfeur and the Rifleman. The Orion is a great mech, 75 tons with an LRM15, AC10, 2 Medium Laser an SRM4, plus good armor. It was Aleksandr Kerensky’s favorite mech. And it will be mine.

I am taking the Orion for myself. I give my Dervish to the elite Wasp pilot, and the Wasp to our new recruit, Samir Azif

[law90026]

Grats on the Orion! Never a huge fan of it myself (I liked PPCs and Medium lasers on my mechs and really liked Awesomes and Mauraders) but it's a huge upgrade for your unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Total Finances:

Expenses:

98000 to repair Orion
525000 for armor and ammo
82236 for Wasp replacement Arm
375000 for travel to Ipswich
375000 for travel back
207650 for expenses for five months


Total Expenses: 1662886

Income:

7541019 for Salvage
300000 for transport reimbursement
122675 actual value of contract
16640 for support reimbursement


Total Income: 7980334


Net Gain: 6317448

War Chest: 97033219 C Bills

Not bad.

[Abe Sargent]

December 24, 3031 – We arrive back on Outreach. Time for more recruiting. Adele finds replacement infantry for our platoons. Ted strikes out in recruiting. I get a regular medium mech and a regular light mech. My recruits have a Commando, a 25 ton scout mech, and a Centurion, a 50 ton ranged mech with good weapons, adequate armor and slower speed.

I now have enough mechs to have a traditional organizational structure.

A lance is four mechs. A company is three lances. A Battalion is three companies. A Regiment is three Battalions. Now I can organize a full company.


Kilts and Commandos, Company

Leader - Lieutanent James Essex, Orion


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Adjunct Units:

Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Transport
Motorized Rifle Platoon
Anti-Mech Jump Laser Platoon
Foot SRM Platoon
Foot Rifle Platoon

My names for the lances. Thunder strikes quickly, and scouts terrain looking for bad guys. Then they retreat and attack from strategic positions. Good Thunder mechs are quick and expendable. Anvil drives through the center of the enemy, blasting anything. Good Anvil mechs have strong weapons and high armor. Hammer mechs rain damage from far. Hammer mechs specialize in long range weaponry and smash enemies against the Anvil. Those are my names for the lances. My Orion might also supplement Anvil where needed.


Time for a new contract.

[Abe Sargent]

I get two offers.

The Fed Suns want us to do an Objective Raid. The Lyran Commonwealth want us for a Cadre assignment.

A Cadre assignment is for us to train local militia or corporate security, while also nominally being a garrison unit. These contracts last between six and twelve months, and likely won’t see action. I want action. As you have seen, if you can win in battle, and the battle does well, you can do well in getting some nice money in salvage. Salvage one mech, and you can get millions of C Bills.

Thus I want the Fed Suns Objective Raid. I roll to see who the target is (possibilities are Dracs, Caps or Periphery). I roll an Objective Raid against my old nation, the Capellan Confederation. This is the first time I have taken an contract against my old liege.

It’s six jumps to Bandora, a minor planet near the border with the Fed Suns and believed to be the home of Amar Ridzik, one of the Ridzik family that had been so esteemed in the past. Our goal is to land on Bandora, find Amar Ridzik, who has an impressively large Atlas, the largest mech ever created at 100 tons. We are to destroy his Atlas and kill or capture him. He is the leader of a company of full mechs.

I agree to take the contract. Time to negotiate it.

We start with 55 points, and our difference in negotiator skill gives us an extra 11 points putting us at 66.

I start and put length of service on the first one. They offer a simple two months, and I can’t get that smaller (two months is the minimum for this sort of contract).

They put remuneration next and offer it to us, pulling ten points out of the pool. 56 points left.

I want to negotiate salvage rights while I still have 50+ points (so I can buy from Shared to Full salvage in case they offer Shared). They offer Exchange, so I counter with Shared and pull another 15 points to put us at 41.

They want command next, and offer us independent command, pulling out another 10 points. (31).

I want transport next. They offer us 40% reimbursement. That gives us 15. (46). I choose not to dicker it.

They go for support and offer us 50% straight support. I pull 10 points out of the pool and force them to give us Battle Loss Compensation. I then pull 21 points and force them to pay for 42% of armor, ammo, and other losses. We now have 15 points left.

I put up salary. They pay down the final 15 points and give us 2.6 modifier to our military salary.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT January 1, 3032 - The Dragoons complete the construction of a Hiring Hall on Outreach. The +1 modifier for recruiting on Outreach is now gone.

[Abe Sargent]

March 19, 3032 - We arrive at Bandora. Since our enemy is not at any given position, we have to find them. I send my Thunder Lance out for a recon, when they encounter the scout lance of the enemy. This will be a short enounter. I have five turns to inflict damage, and if possible, destroy a mech. Any mechs destroyed in this encounter will not be available later. Any mechs damaged seriously will remain seriously damaged if used later, such as blown off legs, arms and such. However, armor can be replaced and ammo restocked between these battles. Due to the nature of this scenario, any salvage will wait until after the campaign, and is not available after the battle. I have just five turns.


Their Scout Lance:

Locust
Locust
Assassin
Stinger



They outspeed my lance, but many of their mechs are lightly armored. Locusts, for example, are fast 20 ton mechs that move 8/12. The Assassin is a 7/11/7 (the last number is jump) with 40 tons of weapons and armor. The Stinger is very similar to our Wasp, 6/9/6 20 ton mech with two weapons.

[Abe Sargent]

At the end of the first round, My Wasp hit’s the Stingers leg and crits both the hip and lower leg actuator. It falls hard.

It falls down on the second turn before getting back up and moving. My Commando blasts one of the Locust’s legs, hit’s an actuator and it falls this turn. Then my Spider kicks the left leg completely off the Stinger.

On the third turn, the Left Arm of my Firestarter is opened up seriously, about to be knocked off. My Spider kicks the other leg off the Stinger after it hobbled up. Also falling to the ground are a Locust with a damaged actuator and the Assassin who missed a kick.

The fourth turn sees me blow the leg off a Locust. The Commando blows the right arm and right torso off the other Locust. My Spider kicks the arm off the downed Locust (which is now missing two arms and a leg) while my Commando misses a kick that might have blown the leg off the other Locust. One turn left.

The final turn sees the one legged Locust make a ten and stand up. We exchange fire but the other Locust does not go down during the weapons phase. My final chance sees me kick the Locust missing a torso and la twice, once each with the Commando and Spider. One kick, placed properly, can blow the leg off it. I miss both attacks, and despite that Locust having just one point of armor left internal, it manages to get away. We took out a Locust and a Stinger from their normal mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

While my scout lance is out, I catch a blip on our dropship’s radar. Their mechs are within a hundred klicks. If I have any speedy mechs left, I can send out a party to hit their Heavy lance. I do not have to engage. I can send out anything that is 5/8 or faster, which is:

Griffin
Wolverine
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim Hover Transport which can take one Infantry unit


Our radar identifies their heavy (what I call my Anvil lance) as the following mechs:

Atlas
UrbanMech
Orion
Hunchback


I choose not to send out my mechs. All are slow, but it would be too hard to isolate and kill one in five turns. I might kill an Urbie in my best case scenario, but I’d be taking a lot of firepower against me to do it.

[Abe Sargent]

Time for the final battle then. Our scout teams gets back, and damage is repaired. They choose not to send out the Locust with a missing arm and torso. With most of its weapons gone, even fully repaired it has no real combat value.

Their four remaining mechs:

Whitworth
Trebuchet
Catapult
Cicada

The Cicada is a fast mech to keep the slower fire support mechs from getting flanked. The other three are missile boats. They are slow, and feature a lot of LRMs. The Catapult is the best of the lot at 65 tons with two LRM15s and four medium lasers for cloer range fighting plus ten tons of armor. It even sports jump jets to get it out of danger. They are a House Liao speciality.


Due to a lack of pre-battle scouting, we stumble into each other on the field, and so we are on a smaller map inside the ranges of most of our long range weapons. We are fighting around a mountain lake. There is not a single tree in the area. I feel naked.

On the first turn, my Wolverine takes a little damage to the head, and my pilot blacks on (stays awake on a 3 or better after taking one damage, and I rolled a two). Bad news for the mercs early. It tumbles to the ground.

The next turn my Firestarter loses its left arm. Just some armor trading other than that.

The Maxim blows off the LT and LA of a Cicada. I hit the Orion’s head with my Orion, and that’s the second hit this turn there, so I go internal. I roll a critical on the cockpit and kill the pilot. Boom! One mech down, and it’s a great one! Very recoverable too. The head wasn;t even destroyed, just the cockpit. That was a big swing. Then my Spider gets kicked byt eh Cicada, which goes internal on the leg, and it falls. My pilot blacks out (needed a 5 to not do so). Luck gives and luck takes away. The Wolverine pilot wakes up.

My Spider lost a left leg and a right arm from the beatings. If I gain consciousness, I can eject and leave it on the field. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Whitworth, hits for 20+ damage, and then forces it off the map. No more Whitworth.

My Spider is missing both arms and a LL. I eject. Ted Izumo takes out the Trebuchet’s engine with the third hit, after my Orion got two hits. The Motorized Rifle Platoon and Maxim team up to each hit a Cicada gyro. It falls and cannot move.

The next turn we just exchange weapons. Nothing major happened.

The following turn I run up to the Atlas with my Orion and Stalker and blast each other at close range. My Stalker and the Atlas both fall under the assault. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Catapult, hits it, and knocks it from the field as well. It then falls down. My Griffin’s LA was blown off.

I stand up both of my prone mechs. I move the Phoenix Hawk out of the way of fire. It did what it needed this game, knocking two mechs off the board.

One of my Urbies had its RT blown off and its RA is on the floor. The Atlas was battered by a variety of missiles, and the head was hit three times. That means the pilot has to make three consciousness checks, and he fails the third, blacking out. The mech falls to the ground.

The following turn we exchange fire. No major things.

Turn 10 sees Ted Izumo clean up the trash by devastating the opposing Urbie with a nice ammo explosion.

And with that, we have won the Scenario. Our target is unconscious and thus captured by us. We also capture the Atlas.

I had no idea when I drew up the Atlas for the lead guy we had to kill that we would actually be able to capture the Atlas, much less get one in virtually pristine condition.

[law90026]

Wow very nice win. Grats on the Orion and Atlas, hopefully you can get both!

[Abe Sargent]

Salvaged Mechs:

Cicada - No LT, LA, 2x damaged gyro, ML in RT hit.

Orion - Head cockpit hit. Needs two tons of armor, one ton of lrm ammo.

Atlas - No internal damages. Just needs ammo for AC20 and LRM and armor.


Things we salvaged:

Urbie RA from my own mech
Locust LA


Things we need for my mechs:

Griffin - LA, 2 tons of armor, LRM ammo

Firestarter, RA, 2 tons of armor

Urbie - RT, RA, 3 tons of armor, 1 ton AC10 ammo

Maxim - 2 tons of armor, 1 ton LRM ammo

Wolverine - 3 tons armor, 1 ton AC5 ammo, 1 ton SRM6 ammo

Stalker - 1 ton lrm ammo, 1 ton srm ammo, 4 tons armor

Orion - 1 ton armor, AC10 ammo, LRM ammo

2 tons LRM ammo, 1 ton AC10 ammo on other mechs.

Not Bad fellas, not bad.


Value of Salvaged Mechs:

Atlas - AS7-D Normal Value: 9,626,000 Cost to Fix: 105,000 Current Value: 9,521,000

Orion - ON1-K Normal Value: 6,674,500 Cost to Fix: 50,000 Current Value: 6,624,500

Cicada - CDA-2A Normal Value: 3,705,200 Cost to Fix: 1,850,000 Current Value: 1,855,000

We fixed the cockpit on the Orion. We have to replace the gyro on the Cicada which costs 1.2 mill alone.


Locust Left Arm is worth about 150k, plus weapons.


Total value salvaged: 18,180,500 giving us 9,090,250 in CBills as compensation.

We cannot take the Atlas. Get this, if we had managed to fix the gyro, we would have added 1.2 million to the salvage value of the Cicada, which would give us enough compensation to get the Atlas. Ah well.

I take the Orion, Cicada and Locust Left Arm.

To fix Orion and Cicada:

1,900,000

To fix our mechs:

995,000



Total Costs:

1,900,000
995,000
425,000 for jump there
425,000 for jump back to Outreach
264,120 for maintenance and salaries


Total Costs: 4,109,120


Total Compensation:

9,090,250 for salvage compensation
417,900 for 42% battle compensation

380,000 for 40% travel reimbursement
133,998 for actual contract
6,700 for remuneration



Total Compensation: 10,028,848


Net Gain: 5,919,728


Total War Chest: 15,622,947

[Abe Sargent]

July 2, 3032 - We arrive back at Outreach. Time for another recruit drive. I need pilots for the Cicada and Orion. Ted notched an elite dispossessed warrior for the Orion. Adele strikes out. I have three tries. I get another elite dispossessed MW and that’s it.

Martin Fitzgerald, elite, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, elite, Cicada

I also hire a few more techs.

The Cicada is super fast, with an 8/12 speed on a 40 ton mech but it has the armor and weaponry of a 20 ton mech, nothing special at all. What it is amazing at is charging and hitting people. A 40 ton mech that runs 10 spaces to hit you can knock you out. A 20 ton mech that runs 8 spaces, won’t do anywhere near as much damage, so the Cicada is like a charge special. I’ll try to set up for that, and with an elite pilot behind the figurative wheel, it may be time for some dirty damage dealing.

I purchase a Hunter Light Support Tank for my extra crew. It is a cheap, 35 ton tank that sports an LRM20 and has light armor. Just leave it in the back and bring the missles. Then run away if people get close. You can even park it behind an evelvation change and launch LRMs indirectly using a spotter.


Time for some contracts.

We get three offers. They are from:

Lyran Commonwealth for a Garrison contract. Garrison contracts can run for years.

Duchy of Andurien for a Planet Assault!

Magistracy of Canopus for Pirate Hunting

Pirate Hunting is easy, Pirates are usually poor team players, have poor equipment, and simply need to be caught. Garrison contracts are milk work, but you get no real combat action. No one trusts mercenaries with border world garrison contracts.

The Duchy of Andurien is attacking the Capellan Confederation, and that means one thing. Their Planetary Assault contract must be against a Liao world! Interesting.


I am pasuing the dynasty for one reason. There is a sourcebook that has the Duchy of Andurien/Magistracy of Canopus - Cappellan war in it, and I do not have it. As it appears that I am about to be a participant in that war, I will order the book, read it, and then use it for this contract.

[Tellistto]

I'll still be round when you get back to it, no worries there. This is fascinating stuff to me. Rather wish I had the stuff to get into it myself.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Glad ta hear it, thanks.

[mrkilla22]

I'm reading along too. I used to play this a while back with friends. It was a blast. Nice dynasty write-up by the way.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks mrkilla22!

This is for the non B-Tech peops out there.

While waiting, let’s go over a few things.

How do you know if you hit a mech when you fire? Well, you roll 2d6 and check the result of the total against your target number. Start with your gunnery skill. Thus a lower gunnery skill is a good thing.

Add the range of your weapon. For example, a Medium Laser has a 3/6/9 range. Within three hexes is close range, and there is no bonus. At medium range add two, and at long range add four. Some weapons have a minimum range and firing inside the minimum range is tough.

Add your movement. Add one if you walked, two if you ran, three if you jumped, and nothing if you did not move.

Add your opponent’s movement, which is based on the number of hexes they moved. 0-2 hexes moved is no change, 3-4 is one, 5-6 is two, 7-9 is three and 10+ is four. That means super fast mechs are harder to hit. Also, if the target jumped, add and additional one.

Add terrain. Add one for every light woods and two for every heavy woods between you and the target. Add three for partial cover.

Result is your target number. Let me give you some examples. All examples assume a gunnery of 4 (which is average for a regular unit).

You are six spaces away from a Hunchback in your Panther. You have a PPC and an SRM4. You jumped this turn, and the Hunchback moved three spaces. To hit with your PPC, which is at close range, you need an eight. To hit with the SRM4, which is at medium range, you need a ten. Roll for each weapon.

Hope that helps.

[law90026]

Be reading your sourcebook faster! :)

Nice dynasty so far.

[Abe Sargent]

The book that I was waiting for has arrived. Brush Wars. It was published in 2006 as a series of historical sourcebooks fleshing out older conflicts that never had a sourcebook. This book covers three major conflicts:

The Ronin Wars - An internal struggle in the Draconis Combine that may not involve us as mercs.

The Andurien Conflict - The attacks by the Duchy and Magistracy on House Liao.

The Marik Civil War - This was back in 3014 and 3015, so there is no chance of involvement by Kilts and Commandos.

Now I am off to go read it. Catch ya all later!

[Tellistto]

Read fast!

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, I've digested the book.


We are contracted to join the Andurien assault on the key Capellan system of Betelgeuse. A strong industrial center, Betelgeuse has been in battle for over a year with each side contributing troops to the conflict. Every couple of months, each side tosses in more troops into the crucible of Betelgeuse.


Time to negotiate the contract.

We begin with 77 points.

I put up salvage rights first. They offer us Exchange rights, and I choose to pull 50 points out of the pool to buy Full Salvage Rights. This is our first contract with full rights.

They put up command rights next. They offer Integrated command which gives us 15 points, but I but it to house command for twenty, putting us at 22 points left.

I then toss up remuneration just to give me a buffer of 10 points. We will not be receiving any. 32 points.

They put up salary next, pulling out 25 points to give us a 3.4 modifier. That leaves us with 7 points.

I toss up transport, and they offer us the normal 40% reimbursement,which gives us 15 points and I do not protest. 22 points.

They have support and length of service left, and choose support, offering 50% on straight support. I agree. 22 points left.

I put length last. They offer a six month contract. I pull ten points and drop it to four.

We have 12 points left which will give us a 6% bonus to our salary.


We will be landing in Andurien before meeting our fellow troops and jumping to Betelgeuse.

This is eight jumps away. Andurien will be using command circuits to help us out as we get close to their Duchy. Command circuits are JumpShips already charged and ready to go, waiting on your arrival. They cut transport time down significantly, but you still have to transfer from one JumpShip to the next.

[Tellistto]

Mm, this one sounds interesting. Hopefully the loot is good in this one and you don't end up becoming more fodder for the grinder.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

October 9, 3032 - We arrive in Andurien and are informed that Betelgeuse has fallen. Five regiments of the mercenary unit McCarron’s Armored Cavalry arrived and changed the nature of the war. We are being reassigned to Palladaine. With no planetary assaults left for Andurien to send us, we are being sent to shore up defenses on the Cappellan world they captured quickly and easily in the first month of the war. We’ve basically turned into a four month security contract. There is a JumpShip waiting to take us there now,

October 13, 3032 - We have landed on Palladaine. It’s a fairly peaceful world, considering the war that was raged here earlier. It only took ten days for the Third Defenders of Andurien to capture it. They left a battalion of their forces (three companies) here for peacekeeping, but it has been very quiet here. As such, they will be jumping out in a little over a week to join other campaigns and leaving us as the sole garrison forces on the world.

October 15, 3032 - The Free Worlds League Sixth Marik Militia have arrived in system to raid Palladaine. They are a veteran regiment sized force. Luckily, the Third Defenders of Andurien’s one battalion are still here to help us. We have half the troops that this veteran Marik force has. The one thing we have going for us is that the Marik troops have not arrived with the intention of taking the planent, since it is a Capellan planet. They want to raid, destroy or take some supplies, which hurts our war effort, and then leave.


Time for a campaign.

[Abe Sargent]

We came expecting battle with Liao, and instead Marik is attacking.

Troops are most vulnerable when they are landing or taking off. They are bunched up, some assets are in transport DropShips, some assets are scattered or non-functional during a landing or take-off, since pilots aren’t going to be in the seats of their mechs.

The Marik Commander isn’t dumb. He has several options. He can land all of his forces at the same place, knowing that we will be there to challenge his arrival. It’s arriving in force. If we are to overcome 2:1 odds, that would be the place to do it, plus even if he wins, he’ll take major losses. This isn’t about him taking the world, he wants to get supplies.

Another option is to hot drop mechs. You enclose mechs in giant ceramic shells and drop them out of DropShips flying at low altitude. Forces will be spread out, harder hit, but easier to overcome when we do. Again, it comes with some problems. Mechs are known to take damage from the drop, and its used for suberterfuge, and long campaigns to set you up where you need to be without risking a full blown drop and the open area it requires.

A third option is to split into three battalions and land in three different places. Force the defenders to decide where to go and how. The disadvantage is that one group might be defeated if we concentate on it, but the other two groups will be free to hit the supplies. Even if we split up and hit two of the three drops, there is still one free group. If we split into three groups, then we may not have enough mechs at each landing site to overcome the 2:1 ratio. In other words, it is easier for 50 mechs to defeat a 100 than it is for 10 to beat 20 (those are hypothetical numbers).

One subtle advantage that the Marik troops have, in addition to numbers, is in experience. The Andurien Defenders are regular troops, the Mariks are vets.


What strategy are the Marik forces employing? All at once, split into three or hot drop?

There are nine DropShips making for Palladaine. As they arrive close to the planet, they split off in different directions. Not three different directions, with a battalion heading each way, but nine different directions. The Marik Commander is splitting his regiment into companies. That all but guarantees that troops will get through and get the supplies and get out.

What will our commander do?


There are a lot of options If we defended the supply base, with our attackers just landing in one or even three directions, we could defend the base. However, we are in the center of a nine pointed circle. Defending the base would be suicide against so many. We have better odds on the ground.

The problem our side faces is this: Inner Sphere units are operated in lances, companies, battalions and regiments, and they fight thusly. It is not easy to dispatch five or six or seven mechs to take on a target.

Our commander, whom we answer to, has a decision to make. Even were he to split our forces into nine units, he’d be sure that a number of them would fail, and then there would be no real defense for the base. We also can’t sit back and just protect, we are surrounded and would easily fall.

Without much of a choice, he decides to split forces. We have four and a half companies of toops against nine companies. He orders our infantry to stay at the base guarding the defenses against any attackers.

He orders our Anvil and Thunder lances against one enemy, and our other forces against another. He divides all of his companies in half to attack six drops, leaving one drop untouched. It’s just a company of mechs, and he has dispatched a few conventional fighters to harass and delay them until we are done fighting.

[Abe Sargent]

Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech

Under the command of Ted Izumo. I now have random rolling charts from the Brush Wars books to accurately represent the Marik mechs. Here we go.


SPECIAL DROP RULES:

It is dusk. Therefore all to hits are at +1 difficutly, which will favor the Marik forces even more.

Ted’s battle will be at a Lake Area



Marik Forces at Ted’s Drop

Locust
Stinger x2
Firestarter x2
Archer
Stalker x2
Spider
Vulcan
Javelin
Griffin

So we have one Stalker, they have two. The Archer is a heavy mech missle boat with two LRM20 raining long range missles on you. it’s a very good mech, arguably the best heavy mech of its day. That’s their power, and the rest are light and medium mechs.

Roll 1d6 for each mech. That is the round on which it deploys to the map.

[Abe Sargent]

Ready for combat:

I roll for each mech. The good news is that none of the big three (Stalker, Stalker, Archer) begin on the map, so I can take my time blasting their mechs. The bad news is that they all appear on the map on the same turn the 5th. My hope is that I can take the advantage strong enough in the first few turns that I can keep the momentum even after the big guys come out.

My eight mechs looks like this: Assault, Medium, six lights.

Theirs: 2 Assaults, 1 Heavy, 2 Mediums, 7 Lights


Okay, here we go.


There are five lights on the map for the first round. Hopefully I can damage one or two severely this turn. Bad news. Their Locust tears off my Commandos right torso, goes critical, hits the ammo and boom! First turn kill. On my mech. I;m critical on my Wasp’s RA. I did not hit with a single weapon.

A Vulcan is deployed this turn. I unleash on my opponent’s Javelin, but it survives, although it loses an arm. We have to get killing soon, or this engagement will be a loss. During the physical attack step, my Wasp loses its wounded arm, and then falls down from being kicked after rolling a 2 on 2d6 to see if it stands. Argh.

On turn three, no new mechs are deployed by my opponent, but I have to savage them now, this turn. I fail to get up with my Wasp (I needed a five) and took damage. I stood up with it again. Adele Thompson blows off the LT of the Locust, taking its Left Arm with it. She also hits its gyro. Our Wolverine blasts through the rear armor of the Vulcan and tacks its engine and gyro. The Vulcan falls. I was hoping to kill either the Locust or the Javelin, but neither happened. We barely even hi the Javelin this round.

Another light mech joins their squad this round. Next round the three baddies join, so I have to deal maximum damage this round. If there are not multiple light mechs with a Marik symbol destroyed at the end of this round, then I’ll have to consider retreat. With one mech destroyed and another without its arm and weapon, I am lacking strength here. My Wolverine hit’s the Locust, destroys its LL and then destroys its Center Torso, destroying it. That’s it. Sure, I attacked their Stinger well and the Javelin well, but can I destroy them? Nope. They are like annoying gnats. My Spider punches the Stinger in the leg (it was one elevation up) and rolls a 12 when it goes crit. A 12 is Limb Blows Off, so the ll is gone, and the Stinger falls. Heavy machinery comes out of the woods.

The Archer takes out my RT and LA on the Wasp. One of their Firestarters falls after missing a kick. I still can’t kill the Javelin or Stinger. I was hoping to clean them up this week. The final mechs join my opponent’s forces.

My Stalker has taken damage in the first few turns, and has wounded armor. My Wasp is on its way to dying. My Commando is gone. The Marik Company Commander could keep coming our way, but he does not want to kill and destroy us, and he doesn’t want to lose a bunch of mechs doing it. Right now, his only loss is the Locust, and ours a Commando.

I signal my troops to withdraw and test the Marik’s resolve. As expected, he just moves past us towards the base. Instead of a fighting withdraw, I let him past, and now the field is ours.


We lost, yet we get salvage

[Abe Sargent]

Salvaged:

Stinger LL
Commando Head
Locust Head, LA, LT


Damages: Wasp LA, RA, RT all destroyed.

We probably have about 10 tons of armor needed. Our pilot survived the destruction of the Commando.

[Abe Sargent]

The Other Drop Site

We have the following troops available here:


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Lieutanent Braham Essex, Orion
Martin Fitzgerald, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, Cicada
Erik Jannarsson, Hunter Light Support Tank
Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Hover Transport

So this group has just seven mechs, instead of eight, but there are no light mechs here. Perhaps heavy metal will rule the day.

Also, this side will benefit from my tactical genius skill.

[BYU 14]

This is very interesting, how long is it taking you know to get through an average mission?

[Abe Sargent]

This is very interesting, how long is it taking you know to get through an average mission?

Depends on the number of turns it goes. A five turn mission might take an hour or so, some of the longer grinding missions take three or four hours. I play and watch tv at the same time. Right now I am watching the season finale of Workout, for example.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are the forces arrayed against us.

Stinger
Hunchback
Rifleman
Stalker
Hermes II
Javelin
Whitworth
Grasshopper
Firestarter x2
Wasp
Archer


The mechs to fear are the Archer, Stalker combo once again. The Grasshopper is big but not scary. I’ve handled Riflemen before, they are strong in weapons but weak in armor. The Hunchback features a powerful AC20 but has little mobility and can be taken out before it becomes a threat.

Their breakdown

Assault Mechs: 2
Heavy Mechs: 2
Medium Mechs: 3
Light Mechs: 5

That’s actually pretty evenly stretched. If one Light were moved to medium, it would be a perfect distribution.



My opponent only starts with an Archer and Stinger, and the Stalker doesn’t come down until turn 6, giving us a strong chance to deal some damage. I rolled well for my team. We’ll see if that matters.

[Abe Sargent]

We are fighting over a river.



On the first turn, the Orion not piloted by me TACs the Archer’s shoulder actuator, which is good.

The second turn brings out their Rifleman and a few lights like a Firestarter. I’m choosing to concentrate my fire on the good mech, the Archer, over the Rifleman, in the hopes that not only will I kill their second best mech, but also have a chance at getting it for myself. I sandblast off some armor from the Archer, but nothing critical.

One of their medium mechs, the fast Hermes II is deployed this round. Their Archer destroys my Maxim Hover Transport after blowing up its power plant. One of their light mechs, a Stinger, got too close to the other Orion and he blew out its right leg and it falls. We continue to target the Archer with most of our mechs. Not even internal yet. That thing is awesome.

Their Stinger stands up getting the 10 they need to do so. Even more sloughing of armor off the Archer, and my Centurion took out the LA of the Stinger. It falls down from the damage.

Their Whitworth and Grasshopper and Javelin and second Firestarter have joined the fray. Their Stinger falls down while moving. We exchange more fire and no more decision. Then my Orion kicks the downed Stinger in front of him and destroys it by kicking its RA, which transfers to the RT which trasnfers to the CT which kills the mech when it is destroyed.

Their Stalker and Hunchback join the weenie roast. I make a ballsy move and charge an opposing Stinger next to the river. I need an 8 to hit during the physical phase, and I can’t attack with weapons, but if I hit, not only will I do 24 to him for 4 to myself, but I also knock him into the river. My second Orion blows off the Archer’s LT and his LA goes with it. My Phoenix Hawk falls after taking damage. The Cicada misses and then his LA is blown off with a 12 critical, and lays on the ground ready to be brought back.

My Phoenix Hawk is destroyed by engine destruction. I personally screw up the Archer bad - two engine hits and a gyro hit. The other allied Orion TACs the Stalker’s CT and hits a heat sink and the engine. The Archer falls.

I flee with the Cicada the next turn. It was internal everywhere. The Archer tried to stand and failed, falling back down again. After some exchange of fire, both Hunchback and the other Orion fall.

I keep up the pressure. We are losing the battle, but just a bit. I suspect the Marik forces will pull out soon. They don’t want too many losses. Another round, another exchange of fire.

Another round passes. More fire is exchanged. Then the Archer overheats, and shutdown. When an engine critical is gotten, the mech makes a lot more heat, and it had two hits, plus it was still moving and shooting. It overheated and shut down.

Marik begins to retreat to their DropShip. They are too damaged to go to the base, and they do not want to stay around and keep getting beat up. This was more of a ceasefire, than a win.

[law90026]

Ouch on the loss in the first fight. Having said that, your force seemed awfully out-classed from the outset so it's good you didn't lose any really valuable mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, but them's the breaks. Gotta do what the commander orders.

[Abe Sargent]

We lost a Phoenix Hawk and Maxim. Let’s see what else happened:


The Phoenix Hawk pilot survived.
Everything on the Maxim was a total loss
The Cicada lost a LA, but it was left on the battlefield and will be easy to fix




We recovered:

Archer LA
Stinger LL
Phoenix Head, LL, RL

Archer - Engine hit twice, gyro hit once, no LT, no LA, lower leg actuator hit. Could be very expensive to replace this stuff if we don’t get it fixed.

It will take about 20 tons of armor to fix us up.

[Abe Sargent]

Well, we stopped one out of two of our targets from advancing, but we had to let the others by. Let’s see how the rest of the Andurien troops fared.

They stopped three advances, so they averaged 50% too. That leaves five companies making it to the supply depot. I head back there with my quickest mechs.


By the time we reach the supply depot, the mechs have come and gone, lifting out from the base. Our infanty is damaged and brusied, but not badly shaken.


Total Losses:

Commando
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim


Gain:

Archer


Just my luck, I have total salvage and I lose more than I bring in.


Archer ARC-2R Value: 6,384,974. Damage: 1,196,244. Current Value: 5,188,730

I was able to fix the engine, gyro and actuator. Still, replacing an arm, a torso section, and the LRM20 has some expense to it.

I use the Locust LA to fix the Wasp’s broken and missing arm.

[Abe Sargent]

Cost to fix my current stuff:

300000 for armor
750000 Wasp RT, RA
475000 for ammo

1196244 to fix Archer
427648 8 month cost of running the mercs
525000 transport there
525000 back

Total Costs: 4,198,892


Revenue:


407,420 salary
420,000 transit reimbursement
24,446 bonus
38,400 support

Total Revenue: 890,266


Total War Chest After Losses: 11,179,186

When you go for full salvage, you can go from making massive amounts of money to losing money like that. The contract is not over, but I wanted to go ahead and fix the finances so it would be taken care of. I assign the elite pilot Rafael Gomez to the Archer. I was actually considering it for myself, but ultimately decided to keep the Orion for me. I move dispossessed Melissa Darrow to the Dervish.

The Archer and Wasp will not be fixed immediately. It will take a while to get the parts shipped here, so for two months, if we are in combat here, we will not be able to use the Wasp or the Archer.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, let’s see if any other action comes our way.


December 15, 3032 - We receive word from Andurien intel that the Capellan forces are consolidating their hold on their recaptured worlds, and we are being reassigned. We are to raid Scarborough, a nearby world, one jump away in Marik space. It is being used as a base for the Sixth Marik Militia, our previous enemies. Intel says that most of them are currently raiding again. We’ll have limited defenses as a result.

December 23, 3032 - Our arrival on Scarborough is discovered by the remnants of the Sixth Marik Militia still on planet. Instead of dropping hot, or having a drop that involves combat, I choose to drop into swamps several hundred klicks away from one of their supply depots, in a small town. Not trusted the unstable land of a swamp, the Sixth Marik Militia sends out a scout force to engage us as we leave the swamp.


For this battle, we will be fighting against a company of scout mechs. Their goal is to harass and damage us, and hopefully take out one or two of our mechs, then fade away. It is a typical hit and fade tactic, being used against us.

[Abe Sargent]

Our Opponents:

Stinger x2
Hermes II x2
Hermes
Javelin
Griffin
Scorpion
Spider
Locust 1M
Shadow Hawk
Flea


The Hermes IIs, Griffin, Scorpion and Shadow Hawk are all medium mechs. The Scorpion is a rare quad mech, with four legs instead of the normal two legged upright mech. It’s harder to pilot a quad than a normal mech, because the neurohelmet taps into a person;s own sense of balance to pilot a mech, and a quad is just…off.

We do not have the Archer or Wasp on this journey.

We’ll be playing on two maps. One the end of a swamp which we start on, and the other relatively clear terrain on the Marik side.

[Abe Sargent]

We begin to move out on the first turn, no one hits anybody else.

The second tuirn sees us skirmish a bit with weapons fore and continue to maneuver into various positions.

Another turn and some more flirting, but no screwing yet. Too much footsie going on. I’m moving in next turn.

The opposing Griffin hit’s the head of one of my Orions with a PPC and goes internal, but luckily doesn’t hit a critical, I could have lost an Orion from that if a crit had been rolled. Ted Izumo takes out the Flea’s right arm. Then the Centurion hits the Flea’s head with its AC10 and destroys it. That’s one mech that’s fixable. I kick the Shadow Hawk down onto the ground.

The next turn the Shadow Hawk arises, and then we barrage it from all corners. It falls to the ground under the onslaught.

Another turn and another savaging of their Shadow Hawks. It falls down again. My Wolvie falls too after taking a little beating.

And just like that, the Marik troops fade out. I order some support vehicles to grab the Flea while we spend a few hours fixing armor and reloading ammo bays, before moving on.

[law90026]

Archer for a Phoenix Hawk and a Commando? Not a bad trade though your force appears to be coming heavier and heavier over time (not necessarily a bad thing).

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, I love Archers.


Salvage:


Flea

Missing Head, Left Arm, two damaged Small Lasers

Probably about 8 tons of armor needed.
About 100k in ammo needed.

A Flea is a 20 ton mech with 3 tons of armor, a 6/9 movement, it has two medium lasers, two small lasers facing the rear, a flamer and two machine guns. You can make it good by stripping off the machine guuns and ammo for a fourth ton of armor and two more small lasers, and then move the rear facing ones to the front, giving it six lasers: four small and two medium. That’d be a solid mech. I may just sell the remains of the Flea instead of paying to rebuild it. We’ll see.

[Abe Sargent]

A few hours after we are field refitted, I make a decision. Satellite data is telling us that they have moved their defenders (two companies of mechs) around the supply depot. I order all of our quick mechs to move out to the nearby supply depot under the command of Adele Thompson. Then I have all of my other units into our DropShip, and order it to another depot on another continent with light defenses. The mechs moving to the nearby base will force his troops to stay there while my main forces smash and grab.

After an hour, we get more telemetry on their forces. They left a company of mechs at the nearby depot where our light and medium fast mechs are heading. They launched a DropShip to chase us down, but we have a head start. My guess is we’ll have about a half hour to fight through the meager defenses, and then grab what we can before we load back up and get out. Then we’ll have to meet up with our fast forces and launch back to Palladaine.

As soon as our fast mechs get within 50 klicks of the supply depot, I order them back. They have been the diversion I needed, and they retreat back. I suspect the enemy company garrisoning the depot will advance on our troops after they realise what happened.

In the meantime, our heavy and slower forces have landed just outside of the opposing depot on another continent. Taking care of these defenses should be a piece of cake.

Our forces array in this battle:

All four infantry squads
Urbies x2
Orions x2
Stalker
Wolverine
Centurion

Yep, just seven mechs. The infantry are charged with grabbing what we can and then planting bombs on the depot to blow it up as we leave.

The forces we are against

Two industrial flatbed trucks with SRMs attached to the bed.
Two Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
A Swift Wind Scout Car (no weapons but it moves 10/15 and can ram well or scout well)
Calvary Attack Helicopter
Warrior Attack Helicopter
6 squads of infantry
A Griffin and Phoenix Hawk that were escorting the troops here

Marik also has 15 mines around the place.


We are fighting on a warehouse map with several buildings.

[Abe Sargent]

We need our mechs to clear out the stuff so our infantry can get in and get out. If we completely destroy the defense, or they retreat, our mechs each have mesh bags with them we can fill, to increase what we can take with us.

Our Centurion runs over a mine on the first time and takes some damage. Their Warrior Attack Copter tries to thread through two buildings and sideslips into a building and is destroyed. We didn’t even need to hit it. I take out one SRM truck. My third kill as a merc commander. A Skulker is taken out by the other Orion. We hit and do damage elsewhere. Then I kick and destroy the other Skulker and take out two vehicles in one turn.

The second turn sees one of my Urbies hit a mine. Infantry take out the other coptor. Another platoon takes out an SRM truck. An Urbie wants to take out an opposing infantry but they are hiding in a building, so he takes down the building and kills the infantry platoon. I’m not going to count that as a kill officially in the book. We’re going after the mechs this turn. I ran one Orion up to a Phoenix Hawk and the Stalker up to the Griffin. Their Phoenix Hawk falls down from the damage.

Our anti-mech laser troops take out the scout car. No points for a weaponless scout. Our Centurion destroys the RA of the Phoenix Hawk. It falls again. I kick out the left leg of the Griffin it falls. The pilot blacks out. Yay Orion.

I get radioed by the Phoenix Hawk. We’ve taken out their vehicles, some infantry, the Griffin and savaged the Phoenix Hawk. They agree to retreat. I order two mechs to grab the Griffin between them and carry it back to the DropShip.

Infantry and scouring the warehouses for items, placing bombs, and grabbing items. We fill up some of the mesh bags with ammo, boxes of armor, spare weapons, and so forth. Then we load up the DropShip and take off with five minutes to spare before the other DropShip arrives. As we fly away, the warehouses blow up behind us.

[Abe Sargent]

Our take:


50 tons of armor
Millions in ammo and weapons
Griffin with no LL.

We arrive at a predetermined spot in the swamps of the other continent and our light forces load up. As I thought, their mechs were dispatched from the other storage depot, but it will take them a while to arrive, and we’ll be well gone before they arrive.


We got away!


We send a message to Andurien forces. They will dispatch transports to gather the items, and they generously allow us to use the items to fix our mechs first, before taking the rest for themselves.


Flea. Normal Value 1,520,000. To fix: 525,000. Current Value: 995,000

I’m not sure I want to fix it.

[Abe Sargent]

December 29, 3032 - After our arrival back at Palladaine, I order us a Griffin left leg. The Archer and Wasp parts arrived and were fixed. I assign a dispossessed mechwarrior, Justine Dempsey, to the Griffin and the part should again arrive in two months.

We’re back up to sixteen mechs with the captured Griffin and Flea.


February 9, 3033 - Our contract officially ends. Dame Catherine Humphreys, Duchess of Andurien called me to inform me that she was invoking the Emergency Powers Clause of our contract, and extending our tour of duty by an additional month. I remind her that our initial contract was for a Planetary Assault, not for garrision duty or raids. If she extends our contract, then is has to be for the initial purpose of the contract. She relents, and then offers us a new contract on the spot.

I am attracted to the proposal. During the war, Andurien has only had three mercenaries at their call, since most mercs are leery of the Duchy. As such, they are a bit desperate. They will certainly give me good terms. On the other hand, I’d like to go back to Outreach for more recruiting, and I’d like to sell and buy some mechs. It would also give me a chance to see what else is going on in the Inner Sphere and perhaps take a tasty contract elsewhere. Travel time back to Outreach is about two and a half months, and I’d hate to make the trip only to find us not getting a good contract better than the one we had with the Duchy of Andurien.

I suspect that I’ll see plenty of combat fighting for Andurien, but I want a chance to grow my unit, and recruiting is one way to do that. I only have 15 MechWarriors, so you can understand why I am choosing to return to Outreach.

[Abe Sargent]

ADVANCEMENT -

Both myself and Ted Izumo have crossed the four kill threshold and can now increase our stats. I can decrease my gunnery, piloting, or take a special ability. I decrease my gunnery. Ted drops his too.

[Abe Sargent]

April 17, 3033 - We arrive back in Outreach. Time for recruiting!

Ted brings in a regular light Mech with his contacts.

Adele rolls a 12 and recruit’s a regular Assault mech with her one contact!

I get a regular medium mech with my three rolls, and a veteran dispossessed MW that we will pay and take with us until we can find him a mech.


Our recruits:

Umbria Mutunde, LCT-1V Locust, regular

Su Yuan, Goliath, regular (The Goliath is an 80 ton assault mech with a PPC and two LRMs, making it good for long range fighting. It is also the only other quad mech design commonly used, along with the 55 ton Scorpion.)

Samia Oudghiri, PHX-1D Phoenix Hawk, regular. It’s ironic that we got a new Phoenix Hawk after losing one recently. Note this is a variant of the main Phoenix Hawk that strips off the machines guns and adds two heat sinks, making it a better mech because heat problems are regular in P. Hawks.

Roger Stephens, vet, dispossessed.

[Abe Sargent]

I want to do something about these useless Urbies just sitting around taking up space, sucking.

UrbanMech - 1,471,925

The Urbie is the cheapest light mech in the known universe, which is why it’s so attractive for a company like ours. I also can’t just sell them. They came with their MechWarrior which makes them those MW’s property. I have to replace them with something good.

I roll to see if the two mechs I want are available on the market. The first one is.

Say hello to the PNT-9R, the Panther. It is superior to the Urbie in every way except price. Designed to do basically the same thing, it has a half ton more armor, a PPC and an SRM4 for weapons, and three heat sinks to allow it to jump and fire the PPC in the same turn. The PPC removes any need for ammo. 4/6/4 movement allows you to move in such a way as to get a +2 to hit, whereas the Urbie could never get more than a +1, and that was with jumping which gave you a +3 to hit yourself - bad math.


I roll to check and the second mech is available. Say hello to my favorite light mech of the 3025 era. The JVN-10F. This variant of the normal Javelin features more armor, two extra heat sinks, and a barrage of four medium lasers. Jump behind the back of a foe and unleash flame, and you have solid armor. Best thing is all of the lasers are in the torsos, allowing you to survive the loss of an arm or to fire yoru weapons and punch with both hands.

I sell both of my Urbies at a 10% loss and move the pilots to better mechs in both cases.


I hire a few more techs for my unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Time to look for a contract.

We get three offers.

The Outworlds Alliance, a periphery state, wants us to Garrison a world. No thanks

The Magistracy of Canopus, a periphery state that just got hammered against the Caps, also wants us to Garrison a world, probably in wake of losses of their troops. No thanks

The Free Worlds League, non-plussed at fighting against us just now, wants to contract us for Pirate Hunting in the Periphery. Easy battles. I’d prefer to stay close to home.

So I have a choice. Stay here and wait a month and see what comes down the pike. Or take the Marik Pirate Hunting Contract.

Let me look at a timetable.

We arer fifteen jumps away from the part of the periphery Marik wants us to explore. As they move troops from their border with the periphery to answer the threat of the Duchy of Andurien, some pirates in the Periphery have learned boldness and begun striking at the worlds on the edge of Marik space. Instead of disrupting war plans against Andurien, Marik would rather just pay a mercenary cadre to hunt down the pirates.

There are two groups of pirates we are charged with taking out. The first is a company of well-supplied mechs, down a mech after one was destroyed, but well armed and armored and well kept. Still, we outnumber them 18 to 11 and should have little trouble dispatching them.

The second are a group of vehicles and VTOLs that do snatch and grab missions, hitting and fading away with speed.

Our job would be to find each of these pirate groups, take them out, and then our mission is complete.


I’ll skip the normally drawn out negotiation for this one let you know what’s what:

Marik is transporting us themselves, so no costs there.
Full salvage rights.
No remuneration
No support whatsoever
Independent command
Normal 2.4 multipler to salary
2 month contract or as long as it takes, in case it takes us more than two months to destroy both pirate bands. They operate close together, so two months is very doable.

I’ll take the contract. I could use a milk run after the intense battles in the Andurien Wars.

[law90026]

Sounds like a relatively easy contract to get more mech salvage, good luck on that.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks!

[Abe Sargent]

August 15, 3033 - We arrive in the outermost Marik system of Dalcour. We contact the local planet. They were attacked by the company of mechs just one month prior. Some of their supplies were hidden with tracers, showing the system they currently are in. The local government gives us the information on the pirates, and then we jump to the system that we believe has the mechs.

August 23, 3033 - It is an unknown system that we arrive in. We know we hit pay dirt when we see another JumpShip here. I dispatch two DropShips to the planet carrying our troops.

August 24, 3033 - We land in the arctic region of the small planet. Our DropShips are showing bogeys coming towards us. They bear an unusual logo, which I send through the computer. It comes up as Vinson’s Victorious, a mercenary group on contract to House Steiner when they went rogue for some reason, stole supplies from Steiner, commandeered a JumpShip and fled to the periphery, where they apparently became pirates.

The first mech is coming over the hill, and it’s battle time in the ice and snow,

[Abe Sargent]

To represent their well-equipped status, instead of my normal roll to determine weight (1, 2 light; 3,4 medium; 5 heavy; 6 assault) I will be rolling a simple 1,2,3,4 for each class, and reroll a 5 or 6. That will increase the chance for heavier mechs.

Vinson’s Victorious:

Wasp
Whitworth
Atlas
Rifleman
LCT-1M Locust
Quickdraw
Battlemaster
Thunderbolt
Hermes II
Stinger
Longbow


There are a few mechs here we’ve not fought against yet, so I’ll go over them.

The Battlemaster is a really really strong assault mech at 85 tons, featuring 14.5 tons of armor, a PPC, six medium lasers (but two face the rear) and SRM6 and two machine guns. It even sports seven extra heat sinks. It is one of the best assault mechs out there, no question.

The Longbow is arguably the single most dedicated fire support mech in the 3025 world. It’s an 85 ton assault mech with two LRM20s and then two LRM5s, and just two medium lasers for closer combat, which won’t even dissuade the thinnest armored light mechs from closing. You have to protect it. Like the Battlemaster, it also has a massive 232 points of armor from 14.5 tons, so it can stop and just fire missles in, and exchange fire with the enemy from a safe distance.

The Quickdraw is a relatively meaningless 60 ton heavy mech. It has just 8 tons of armor when it could have up to 12 tons. It has just an LRM10, SRM4, and four medium lasers, two of which face the rear. It is mobile with a 5/8/5 movement, but its nothing special at all. There are medium mechs that are better armored and with a better weapons selectiont than that.

The LCT-1M variant of the Locust has LRM5s and just one ton of armor. It’s literally the dumbest light mech of them all. (In my opinion). One ton of armor is a joke. 16 points of armor spread over two arms, two legs, two torsos, a head and a center torso. That’s a joke.

The Thunderbolt is another of the top heavy mechs of the era. It’s a 65 ton mech and it is ugly. It has max armor at 13 tons, a large laser, an SRM2, two machine guns and three medium lasers, plus five extra heat sinks. It is designed to close and blast.

Of course, we are also going up against the 100 ton Atlas, the 40 ton fire support Whitworth, a Stinger and Wasp, Rifleman and Hermes II.

Their breakdown:

Lights: 3
Mediums: 2
Heavies: 3
Assaults: 3

That’s a pretty even distribution for 11 mechs.

There are some central ravines running through the map six hexes down. I can jump down and back up, and jump over. Otherwise, I’ll keep most of my mechs on one side or the other.

[Abe Sargent]

The first turn we move through the snow and past the chasms, firing on the Battlemaster with a lot of long-range missles. Not many hit.

My Wolvie falls down while moving on the ice - its slippery. This turn we are firing at the Atlas who moved out into the snow. Every single mech I have that has range to the atlas is firing, about 14 of my 18 mechs are blasting it. Result? The head is hit by one set of missles, but nothing serious, and it remains standing. It’s not even close to going internal. And I have some good mechs too!

I stand up my Wolvie and run behind a ridge. Then I focus all of my fire on their Atlas. Again. Every single mech except my Goliath which does not have line of sight to the Atlas so he is tacking the Rifleman. One of my Griffins teras open its Right Torso and hit’s the AC20, taking it offline. It takes one damage to its head with some missiles. It’s still standing. I hope another barrage will bring it down. It has been attacked about 25 times by various mechs in two turns.

Their Hermes II slipped and fell down. Thirteen mechs and the Hunter Light Tank all attack the Atlas again. My hope is that we can take it out this round. Ted tears open its right leg, and hits the hip actuator. I hit its foot with my LRM and hit a foot actuator. Our Dervish hits its LRM20 and SRM6, taking out most of its weaponry. Finally, our new Griffin hit’s the Atlas and ignites the LRM ammo, causing a massive explosion and the mech is dead. That’s a confirmed kill for Justine Dempsey.

One mech down, 10 to go.

What I am doing is exchanging my targets. Two turns ago, they concentrated fire on our Phoenix Hawk, so the next turn I jump it out and jump another mech in, the Wolverine. Then I repeat as needed, rotating targets of opportunity and refusing to give them one good target for more than a turn.

This turn we are concentrating fire on the Rifleman a bit, but a few have good Line of Sight to the Whitworth instead, and a few of my light mechs are skirmishing with opposing light mechs. The Jav, in its first battle, opens up the opposing Wasp’s right arm and hits its medium laser, knocking out its weaponry. The other Orion destroys the opposing Rifleman’s head with its AC10, so it is gone, and the mech falls down, headless. We did open up a torso and hit the medium laser, so that will need to be fixed. Our Centurion falls after taking some damage. Our Spider misses a kick on a Locust and falls.

Round six begins. I fire at the Locust with my Goliath with the hope that we can take it out in one turn. I concentrate a lot of my fire on the Battlemaster. If I can take out the major threats, the Atlas, the Battlemaster, the Longbow, and the Thunderbolt, then the rest is gravy. I’m firing the Goliath at the Locust because he has a line of sight, and I doubt it will take much more than that to kill it. A few other folks are trying to take out the Wasp while they have LOS. Our new Jav blows out the Wasp’s RA. Adele Thompson in her Firestarter takes out the RL, LL and LA all in one attack phase. The Goliath blows off the LL and LT of the Locust, although the LA is on the ground beside it. There is just one point of armor left in the center torso of the mech internal, and the engine is hit on a critical. Their Longbow cracks open Ted’s LA on his Stalker and hit’s the LRM10 there. Their Hermes II blows off the LL of my Spider. Our Archer manages to hit the head of the Battlemaster with five missiles off an LRM barrage which rings the bell of the pilot. Our Stalker falls under the onslaught, and a medium laser is damaged. Upper Arm and Shoulder Actuators are hit on our Spider. The Wasp falls, and with both legs destroyed, I give the kill to Adele. The Locust falls with the leg gone, and dies falling, destroying the center torso. I give that kill to Su Yuan, among our newest recruits.

I order my MechWarrior in the Spider to eject, considering how damaged it is. I’m dumping the ammo from the LRM10s, which are in the Stalker’s arm. Dumb place for it. I’m going to have to edit that soon. Ted’s edge saved the Stalker, because the first location rolled for a crit was the ammo, but that was a rerollable die, and it hit the LRM10 the second time. The Longbow hits my Goliath’s head for five damage which deals a damage to Su Yuan. Anakago Intade’s LRM10 on his Griffin goes internal into the Battlemaster and hits the SRM6 ammo causing a major explosion and taking out the mech.

My new target will be the Longbow. A normal unit would retreat now, taking their losses and regrouping, but Vinson was in the Atlas and is not on the field anymore, and these pirates know that their days are numbered. They are fighting for pride. We exchange fire.


I stand up my Stalker and get it ready for more combat, but it is devoid of its LRM10s, due to be dumping my ammo. Still has Large lasers and three mediums and SRM6‘s though. Their Whitworth hit’s the Firestarter’s Shoulder Actuator and Flamer on the Right Arm. Our Jav takes out the Right Arm of a Stinger. Adele’s Firestarter kicks the left leg out from under the Stinger, and it falls without the leg to support itself.

Ted in the Stalker double taps the Longbow’s engine. One more engine hit and it will shut down. An Upper Leg Actuator is hit on the Goliath and the head is hit a second time and goes internal. Our Archer hit’s the head of the Thunderbolt with a few missiles. Our Dervish falls after it takes damage. The Longbow is open in four places, devoid of external armor.

I order the Goliath to do a special move available only to quad mechs. Hull Down, to hide behind the hill. I also decide to take my Stalker prone again. He took some damage and is close to internal in several places. I’ll him back out if/when needed. I get a Through Armor Critical on the Whitworth and hit the engine once. The Goliath TACs the Quickdraw’s lower leg and foot actuators. The Longbow falls under another assault and hits its head. The Longbow loses its left arm when it falls.

Their Quickdraw hops over to my Goliath and prone Centurion intending to fire on us. It falls to the ground on unstable legs. I stand up my Centurion to teach it the error of its choice. Their Longbow stands back up. The Griffin takes out two medium lasers on the Quickdraw. Then just another exchange of fire. No dead Longbow, no dead Hermes, no dead Quickdraw.

The Quickdraw pilot fails to get up and falls down twice, taking damage both times. Then the Stinger pilot blacks out after doing the same. Our Phoenix Hawk hit’s the upper arm actuator on the Quickdraw’s LA. The Hunter Light Tank, with its last round of ammo, destroys the Longbow’s right leg (with a limb blown off critical so it is on the ground) and then destroys the left torso. Then hit’s the gyro and does some damage to the head as well. The Hunter screwed it up. The new Panther destroys the Quickdraw’s RA. The Longbow’s pilot blacks out when it falls. Our Jav jumped behind the Tbolt and laid some medium laser lovin into it. Then when it punches, it tears through the remaining rear armor and hit’s the LRM15,

To recap what it left, the Longbow is blacked out and missing an arm, leg and torso. The Wasp is missing two legs and both arms, and is weaponless Their Stinger is blacked out and missing a leg. Their Quickdraw has lost two arms and is open in three other areas, including just one point of armor left in the left torso, a section with ammo waiting to kill the mech. The Hermes II is critical in three areas. The Whitworth just got sandblasted by missiles this turn, and their only strong mech just lost its biggest weapon.

We get a radio call from the Thunderbolt pilot to discuss terms of surrender. Here’s the deal, any surrendered mechs, as opposed to those we capture, have to be turned over to the Free Worlds League. They get the Thunderbolt, Hermes II, Quickdraw and Whitworth.

[Abe Sargent]

We salvage the following:

Longbow - Missing LA, LT, RL, 2 engine, 1 gyro

Wasp - Missing both legs and arms. Jump Jet and Heat Sink in Left Torso hit.

Stinger - Missing RA and RL.

Rifleman - Missing Head. Medium Laser hit.


Longbow RL
Locust Head, LA, RT, RA

My guys report:

Spider - LL gone, two arm actuators are hit

Stalker - LRM10, Medium Laser

Goliath - Upper Leg Actuator on Front Right Leg.

Firestarter - Shoulder and Flamer


I estimate about 35 tons of armor needed for our mechs. Our Stalker and Goliath each had about half of their armor knocked off, and that’s about 16 tons right there.

I estimate about 10 tons of armor needed to salvaged mechs.

Total armor costs: 450,000

To replace ammo for our mechs:

3 tons of AC10 armor
10 tons of LRM20 ammo
12 tons of LRM10 ammo
3 tons of LRM15 ammo
3 tons of SRM6 armor
1 ton of SRM4 ammo
1 ton of machine gun ammo
1 ton of AC5 ammo

Ammo Costs: 885,500


To fix salvaged mechs:

Longbow. Value - 7,408,325. To Fix - 1,750,000. Current Value - 5,658,325

I was able to reattach its left leg. We were able to fix the engine and gyro as well.

Rifleman. Value - 4,860,000. To Fix - 725,000. Current Value - 4,135,000.

Stinger. Value - 1.615,440. To Fix - 325,000. Current Value - 1,290,000

Wasp. Value - 1,644,720. To Fix - 600,000. Current Value - 1,044,720


We fix the actuators on the mechs, but we have to replace a few damaged items.

Cost to replace - 42,500


Total Costs to fix our mechs and armor their mechs: 1,378,000

Total Costs to fix salvaged mechs: 3,400,000

Total War Chest After paying these costs: 3,767,495

We now have operational Stinger, Wasp, Longbow and Rifleman. They will not be ready, nor will the Spider be fixed, by the time we assault the other pirate base.


I had a spare Spider left leg in our parts which we used to fix up our Spider.

I’ll calculate the rest of the contract later. After the next mission. This was our best mission, we got four mechs, one of which (Longbow) is actually good. The others are chump mechs, but they bulk out your roster and meet legitimate needs.

Three regular pilots that we capture are deemed worthy enough to join us. All want to in order to avoid jail in Free Worlds Space, but we deem three to have become involved in piracy for different reasons, so we take them.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, let’s look at the next group of pirates we have to take down.


September 8, 3033 - We arrive at another nameless system two jumps away from the previous system. Marik intel has this as the location of a minor band of patchwork pirates. This fight will be against many enemies, but few will have value.

September 11, 3033 - We land on the planet outside of the only town here. Our drop is contested by the defenses. We’ll still mop them up. I am giving them an easy drop attack in order to entice them to actually attack us instead of running away.

The same rules in place for when we attacked a drop apply to us now. I roll a die for every mech and vehicle we have. That is the turn they come into play.


Their forces:

Four VTOLs
Four infantry platoons
15 company of tanks
A lance of mechs

Wasp
Wasp 1W - a weird variant with six small lasers
Locust
Shadow Hawk



The deadliest tank is the dreaded LRM Carrier, a tank with THREE LRM20s. It’s slow and has little armor, but if we ignore it, we will get assaulted by missiles.

I will not be dropping my infantry or Hunter Tank. This is a mission for just my mechs.

I issue a rule to my MechWarriors. Don’t use missile weapons unless you have too. They are expensive to replace.

[Abe Sargent]

We only start with one unit, the Cicada, will start in play. My Cicada is literally surrounded and the first round does not go well. I run three steps into water to escape the gang bang, but I am still pummeled. The Cicada loses its RT which causes it RA to fall to the ground, and the pilot blacks out rolling a mighty 2 and needing just a three to stay conscious. Just goes to show you that you never know what is going to happen once battle begins. I can’t even eject from the mech the following turn.

Our Dervish and Goliath join the Cicada on round two. We exchange fire. My elite Cicada pilot needs a 5 to wake up and fails. Sheesh.

The only mech we get on the third turn is Adele’s Firestarter. Hope it is enough to help out. I jump my Firestarter behind the LRM Carrier but misses many of the 7s it needed to put the Carrier out of commission. It gets a gyro and engine taken out. It falls. The Cicada pilot wakes up.

This turn we get both Orions and the Archer out. I order my Cicada and Firestarter pilots to eject. My Archer unloads two LRM20s on the LRM Carrier and destroys the power plant. Our Dervish gets an SRM2 and Lower Arm Actuator hit. It’s dangerously damaged. The other Orion hits a Brutus Assault Tank and causes the fuel tank to explode. Then the Goliath kicks and destroys a Savannah Master. Its armor is down to half the original coverage and almost internal in two areas. The Dervish is savaged.

I get both Griffins, the Panther and Locust this turn. I expose our flank on the south side of the coast, and my opponent decides to exploit it by sending a Wasp over. It’s a smart plan, but he slips and falls in the water. The damage dealt to the mech causes a breach in the mech. Water floods the internal workings and the mech shuts down. It’s virtually damage free once you drain the water, dry it out, and start it up again. They hit a foot and lower leg actuator on our Goliath. Later attacks hit its PPC twice and a machine gun. I destroy the left side of a Hetzer Assault Gun. Ankago’s Griffin takes out a copter. The Archer destroys a Strike Light Tank. Our Panther destroyed the left side of the Vedette and destroyed the engine but no explosion. After taking damage, our Goliath falls. The other Griffin kicked and destroyed a Savannah Master Hovercraft, the power plant exploded.

The next turn brings the Stalker, Wolverine, Centurion, Phoenix Hawk, and Javelin. This is our final selection of mechs. I order Su Yuan to eject from the Goliath. We’re winning, so let’s not risk losing any mechs. My Locust failed a piloting check while turning on a road and skidded right off the map. The Panther gets a kill on the AC2 Carrier’s crew, meaning the tank is still good. Our Dervish explodes when its ammo is touched off by a Drillson tank. Boom! The RA, RT and CT were all destroyed and we’ll see what else after the battle. The Archer destroyed the Wheeled APC’s front armor, taking it out. The Dervish took out all of the movement on the Drillson that hit it, and it is now stationary.

The following turn the Panther destroys a Galleon Light Tank by taking out the front armor. Our Phoenix Hawk takes out the RA of the variant Wasp. We exchange fire mostly this turn.

A couple of their fast hover tanks keep circling behind my backs, its annoying. They just moved their J. Edgar Hover Tank right behind my Archer as an example. They just moved the Condor Heavy Hover Tank behind my Stalker. One of their VTOLs crashs and burns. Ted hit’s the foot and upper leg actuators on the Shadow Hawk’s RL. Then the Orion just blows it off. Anakago’s Griffin destroys a VTOL’s rotor and it crashes to the ground in a fiery explosion. The Archer hit’s the LRM5 ammo on the Shadow Hawk and it explodes, taking the mech with it, but it‘s RA survived. The pilot did not make it out and died in the explosion. I suspect that was the leader, since it was a mech, and the heaviest mech they had.

On the next turn, the Centurion destroys a Striker Light Tank blowing up the power plant. The other Orion blows up the power plant of a Condor Heavy Hover Tank.

We have destroyed four fifths of my opponent’s army, so they surrender. We lost the Dervish, which was my original mech way back when. We gained a Wasp. We turn over the Wasp variant and Locust to Marik, as well as the mobile tanks and VTOLs left.

[Abe Sargent]

One of these pirates is deemed good for our company (I rolled a 12 on 2d6 to determine if he was fit).

Salvaged:

Wasp - No Damage

Drillson Tank - Treads completely destroyed.

AC2 Carrier - Need to fix some damage.

Wheeled APC - Need armor fixed

Shadow Hawk RA
Cicada RA

Some weapons from damaged tanks:

AC20
Medium Laser x2
Small Laser x2


Damages:

Cicada RA, RT

Goliath - Foot and Lower Leg Actuator. PPC x2, MG

Firestarter - Gyro and engine, each hit once

[law90026]

huh, it seemed like the 2nd fight was trickier for you than the first (or maybe i'm just reading it wrong :P)

[Abe Sargent]

huh, it seemed like the 2nd fight was trickier for you than the first (or maybe i'm just reading it wrong :P)

Yeah, the scattered deployment is tough.

[Abe Sargent]

Money Stuff:

Regular techs fix the Goliath except for the MG, which needs to be replaced.

An elite tech fixes the treads on the Drillson.

Vet techs fix the Firestarter’s gyro and engine.


To Fix:

Drillson Tank - 20000

AC2 Carrier - 30000

Wheeled APC - 10000

Cicada - 400,0000


Replacement armor:

300,000

Replacement ammo:

278,000


Total Costs to fix and repair mechs and vehicles:

1,038,000

The jumps back are just 14 instead of 15 from our new location.


Cost to run mercenary group: 608,500


Salary: 175,531


Total Losses: 1,470,969

War Chest: 2,296,526

We lost money, but gained a metric ton of war materiel.

Our new MechWarriors:

Stacy Stowers, regular
Maria Santos, regular
Hassan Mohammad, regular
Elena Stoyovich, regular

We also had two MechWarriors notch four kills.

Anakago Intade, pilot of a Griffin, gets a gunnery gain.

Martin Fitzgerald, the other Orion pilot gain Edge: 1.

[Abe Sargent]

January 15, 3034 - We arrive back in Outreach and another round of recruiting occurs.


The only thing I am able to get are a couple of veteran dispossessed MechWarriors if I want them. I have five, one dispossessed from the last round, and the four we gathered on our missions .

I gained the following mechs:

Wasp x2
Stinger
Rifleman
Longbow

I’m going to hire the two dispossessed vet MechWarriors and put them in the Rifleman and Longbow.

Garman Lopez, veteran, Longbow
David Delgado, veteran Rifleman


I sell my vehicles, except for the Hunter Light Support Tank, for the amount of 3,660,213

War Chest: 5,956,739 C Bills

I make a few calls to see if I can find a few mechs that I like.

It’s a rarer mech, having only been made for about six years, but I am able to locate a Wolfhound (I rolled a 12 on 2d6).

WLF-1 Wolfhound is a 35 ton light mech with max armor, a large laser, four medium lasers, with one facing the rear and 6/9 speed. It’s a great mech. I assign Roger Stephens to the Wolfhound, a veteran dispossessed MechWarrior that we took with us on the mission.

That leaves the two Wasps and a Stinger. I assign three of the four MechWarriors that we recruited while in the periphery.

I order our techs to repair the Flea by using a Locust head and arm. I put the last MechWarrior in the refurbished Flea.

[Abe Sargent]

Total number of operational mechs:

24

That’s two companies of mechs. Time to reorganize the Kilts and Commandos:


Company One - The Kilts

Anvil Lance:

Lieutenant Braham Essex, Orion, veteran
Roger Stephens, veteran, Wolfhound
Salia James, regular, Wolverine
Samia Oudghiri, regular, Phoenix Hawk, PXH-1D


Hammer Lance:

Sergeant Rafael Gomez, elite, Archer
Justine Dempsey, regular, Griffin
Michael Adkins, regular, Centurion
Su Yuan, regular, Goliath


Thunder Lance:

Sergeant Adele Thompson, regular, Firestarter
Liu Chen, green, Spider
Stacy Stowers, regular, Wasp
Elena Stoyovich, regular, Flea

I am assigning the foot (SRM) and anti-mech jump infantry to this company.

[Abe Sargent]

Company Two - The Commandos


Anvil Lance:

Lieutenant Ted Izumo, veteran, Stalker
Sergeant Martin Fitzgerald, elite, Orion
Melissa Darrow, regular, Panther
Anna Cafincelli, elite, Cicada


Hammer Lance:

Sergeant Anakago Intade, veteran, Griffin
Garman Lopez, veteran, Longbow
David Delgado, veteran, Rifleman
Bryant McKinnon, regular, Panther


Thunder Lance:

Sergeant Raquel Sanchez, regular, Javelin 10-F
Umbria Mutunde, regular, Locust
Maria Santos, regular, Stinger
Samir Azif, regular Wasp


I am assigning the Hunter Light Tank and two rifle infantry, one motorized one foot to this company.

[Abe Sargent]

We currently have one dispossessed MechWarriors - and Hassan Mohommad.


I promoted Martin Fitzgerald to Sergeant, Ted Izumo to Lieutenant, Rafael Gomez to Sergeant, Raquel Sanchez to Sergeant.

After assigning mechs, I realize that I have too many scout mechs. I should have 8, perhaps ten to have one in the anvil/hammer section if needed. I have twelve, fully half of my mechs. I do a search and find another Panther for sale. I switch with a Wasp, selling the Wasp for cash.

Here is my War Chest after transactions. 2,065,668

[Abe Sargent]

Break Down of Each Company:

Kilts Commandos


Experience

Green: 1 0
Regular: 8 6
Veteran: 2 4
Elite: 1 2

Mech Size

Light 5 6
Medium 4 2
Heavy 2 2
Assault 1 2


Looks like the second company is better off from an experience view and a size of meches view. Then they get the Hunter Light Support Tank too, but they get the worse infantry.

Now that we have two separate companies, I can do something different.

Take separate contracts.

[Abe Sargent]

Before I do that, I was to institute the first round of Field Refits.

If you want to change things around in a mech, you can. However, you have to roll to see if your techs succeed. A mech is a balanced vehicle and it takes skill and care to change it.

The ideal circumstances are to pull components and weapons for components and weapons that take up the same amount of space and weigh the same.

For example, suppose I want to pull out two Machine Guns in the center torso of a mech for other weapons. A machine gun weighs half a ton and takes up one critical spot, so I am taking out a total of one ton and two crits. If I were to replace them with two small lasers, which weigh a half ton each and take up one crit slot each as well, then I’d still have to roll for it, but it would be easy to do.

Not every refit is gong to do that. Suppose I want to pull both MGs for a Medium Laser. A Medium Laser weighs one ton and takes up one critical slot. I am off by one degree, so the roll will be higher. Similarly, I might want to add an SRM6 which weighs three tons and takes up two crits. I am still off by one degree, only this time it is tonnage instead of space. These are more difficult.

Now, suppose I wanted to replace them with an LRM5, which weighs two tons and takes up one critical space. I am off on tonnage and space as well. This is very difficult. It’s still doable, but the difficulty level rises, because you re still trying to balance the mech.

[Abe Sargent]

Refit Mech #1:

Firestarter. Every mech that wants to be a heatmonger should have an SRM2. There is a special ammo type for SRM2 launchers available called inferno rounds. This is basically a gelatinous napalm like substance., delivered by an SRM2. When it hits an opposing mech, instead of dealing damage, it adds 6 heat for the current round and the next two rounds. If you want a mech designed to force an opponent to overheat, this needs to be part of its arsenal.

I pull out the rear facing Flamer in the center torso and replace it with a front facing SRM2 system. Both weigh a ton and take up one crit. That makes this an easy refit. It succeeds.

Next I need a place for the SRM2 inferno ammo. I am pulling a Medium Laser off its right arm, and adding one ton of inferno ammo to its right torso. This is hard. Let’s see if I can pull it off. My elite tech succeeds, and the replacement is made.

Next I want to pull the Medium Laser off the left arm, and add two machine guns to the right torso. I make a roll. It works on the first roll (I rolled a 10).

Lastly, I want to pull out a ton of MG ammo and add a MG to the RT torso. The weight stays the same, but the crits are changing, so its just off by one degree. Again I succeed on the first throw.

Our new Firestarter, the FS-9Abe

Flamer x3, in RA, LA and CT
SRM2 in CT
Inferno Ammo in RT
MG Ammo in RT
MG in LT
MG x4 in RT

When a critical is rolled, you have an equal chance to hit all components. Putting a bunch of extra Mgs in the RT helps to lower the chance of an ammo explosion. I added the MGs because they are heatless, and sometimes this mech goes overheat badly. Five machine guns also gives the mech a strong anti-personnel role since MGs are slaughter against infantry. It’s also good at shredding back armor.

If I had a couple of months layover, I’d further modify the mech by pulling out both flamers from the arms and adding one to the head and the other to the RT. That way I can fire and punch in the same turn, and my weapons are not in arms which are easy to blow off. Disadvantage is that you cannot reach around any weapons to hit someone in your rear arc, but it’s a tradeoff worth taking.

I need Adele to get some more kills so that she can increase her gunnery skill and be more effective with the Firestarter.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, time for contracts.



Kilts Company Contracts

One Contract offer.

We get an offer from the Draconis Combine, which I take to mean not from the Combine itself, since it is currently under the “Death to Mercenaries” event. Instead, dissident rebels in the faction must be making us an offer. I check to see what it currently going on in the B-Tech universe, and I see that factions in the Rasalhague District are making noise right now. We are contacted by them for a Retainer contract.

A Retainer contract puts you under the control of your employer, and you can be used in any number of ways, from garrison to assault to raids. Anything. It is the only contract we are offered (I rolled poorly).

Looks like we are heading to Drac space to assist the Rasalhague dissidents. Let’s negotiate the contract.

We start with 96 points, up 16 from our normal 80.

I put salvage rights up first, knowing I can make ourselves get anything. They offer exchange rights, and I counter with shared rights. We are down to 86.

They put up contract length at a year. I spend 30 points and knock it down to six months. 56 points remaining.

Next up for me is transport rights. They offer 40% and I accept. We now have 71 points.

They add payment to the contract, and buy out 25 points to offer us a 3.4 multiplier. I choose not to counter. 46 points left.

I roll with support. They offer straight support. I counter with Battle Loss Compensation at 50%. 11 points left.

The Rasalhague dissidents put up remuneration and offer it to us. We gain 5% to our salary and lose 10 points, 1 point left.

The last right is command rights, and they offer a liaison, so there is no change. We end with 1 point left, so we will be getting a minor 0.5% bonus to our salary as a signing bonus.

We are jumping to the Rasalhague system for our first assignment.

[Abe Sargent]

The Commandoes Company

Despite being a newer company, they get three offers.

A Corporation wants them for garisson work

A corporation wants them for an objective raid.

The Federated Suns want them for an obj raid too.

They negotiate with the Suns.

They have 55 points to use.

Ted Izumo puts up remuneration and declines, adding ten points right there. 65 points,

They offer full transport. 65 points.

He adds salvage rights and they offer exchange, and he counters with shared. 55 points.

They put up salary and pull out 25 points. 3.4 multiplier, 30 points.

He puts up contract length. They offer four months, Ted brings that to two months. 20 points.

They offer independent command, dropping us to 10 points.

Support is tossed up next. They offer straight support at 70% and pull out the last ten points.

That’s it, contract is all done.

The Commandos company is raiding a Capellan Confederation world. Let me see what would be appropriate. They will be raiding Minnacora, a Capellan held world six jumps away from Outreach. It’s a plain little planet, not used for much. Apparently a valuable mineral was supposedly discovered here. House Davion wants proof that this valuable mineral is actually there, and if so, may have plans for it. . We are to drop in, kill any resistance, allow a geological team that will be accompanying us to take their samples, and then blast off.

[Abe Sargent]

Today is January 15, 3034. We will arrive at Minnacora on March 13, 3034, and then land on planet two days later, exactly two months from now.

We will run the object raid first, then do the Kilts company second.

When we arrive in system, the handful of Capellan Defenders suspect that we are either here to occupy the world, or to attack their supply depot. The Commandos company blasts down to a geological site with a group of geologic surveyors. When the Capellan’s realize what the Commandos company is doing, they immediately begin boarding their own DropShip and will launch for us. Although there are a battalion of mechs on planet, only one DropShip is nearby and it only has space for a single company.

Their ship burns for us, and the mechs drop away a heavy number of klicks away, so we cannot leave behind the geological team until they have landed. Then we move out and hit their company.

Their company:

Phoenix Hawk x2
Grasshopper
Charger
Battlemaster
Awesome
Stinger
Rifleman
Enforcer
Raven
Wolverine
UrbanMech


The Raven is a fast scout light mech exclusive to the Capellan Confederation. The Enforcer is a typical 50 ton mech with an AC10 and Large Laser. While the Charger is an assault mech, it was one of the worst mech designs. The Charger was a decent mech back when Star League technology knew how to make lighter engines and reduce the weight of steel. It is an assault mech with a speed of 5/8, but only has enough space left for ten tons of armor and five small lasers. The Awesome is an assault mech with three PPCs and almost enough heat sinks to fire them all, plus virtually maximum armor.

We are fighting by some rolling hills.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, here we go:

On the first turn, Ted’s Stalker destroys the RA of the Raven. Their Enforcer breaks through the LL armor on my Cicada and hit’s the upper leg actuator. The Longbow tears into their Raven. It falls under the onslaught. My Cicada stays standing.

Nothing much happens in the second turn, just exchange of fire. We are firing at the Battlemaste with the hope of taking their best mech down.

The following turn arrives. The Battlemaster savages our motorized rifle platoon. The Longbow destroys the other arm of the Raven. It also critical hit’s the LL leg actuator and gets the special crit Limb Blows Off on the RL, so it is laying on the ground. Ted’s Stalker kicks a Phoenix Hawk that came too close and it falls.

The Raven tried to get up, failed, and the pilot blacked out. Our Jav hit’s the Battlemaster’s lower arm actuator on its LA. Ted hits two leg actuators on a Phoenix hawk’s RL. It falls down.

The 5th turn is here. The Phoenix Hawk destroys its RL trying to get up and failing. The Enforcer hit’s a lower leg actuator and jump jet on a Panther’s LL. Our Longbow hit’s the Rifleman’s hip actuator. The Rifleman falls and damages two medium lasers. Then the pilot blacks out.

Our Stinger destroys the Battlemaster’s LL. It falls hard. Their Enforcer also falls under the assault of fire. The Rifleman pilot wakes up. The Orion is getting a lot of armor blasted off.

Their Rifleman takes out the Orion’s AC10. Our Rifleman destroys the Battlemaster’s LA. Their Wolverine destroys our Orion’s left leg. Ted destroys the Rifleman when he touches its ammo and causes it to explode. Our Orion destroys the Battlemaster’s ammo and it goes up too. Then their Charger, despite only having a few weapons, manages to hit our Orion’s ammo and it explodes. Our Griffin kicks off the Stinger’s LA. It tumbles to the ground.

Their Stinger manages to stand back up. Our Wasp hit’s the Charger’s lower arm and hand actuators in the RA. The Griffin hits its upper arm actuator in the LA. Then it tacks the lower foot actuator in the RL. Their Charger falls. The Raven pilot finally wakes up.

The Raven tries to stand up, fails, and the pilot blacks out again. The Hunter Light Support tank destroys the Charger’s LA. Their Urbie hits our Longbow’s head with its AC10 and all of the external armor is sheered off. I decide to finish off some opponents, so the Longbow fires medium lasers at the downed Phoenix Hawk and takes out the left leg and hit’s the head. The pilot blacks out.

Our Griffin tears off the RA of the Charger. The Awesome hits one of our Panther’s in the head with a PPC. The Life Support is hit as a critical. The Charger falls under an onslaught and its RL is destroyed. Their Awesome also falls down under a third turn of fire. The Phoenix Hawk pilot wakes back up.

Round 11 has arrived. The Urbie is out of AC10 ammo so I can basically ignore it. The Charger fails to stand up and hits its engine twice and gyro once. The Awesome does manage to stand. Ted blows out the RT of the Awesome, taking the RA with it. He also hits the Awesome’s engine twice. A Panther follows that by hitting a heat sink and the gyro on the Awesome. Our Rifleman blows off the Stinger’s LL, and that is the end of his AC5 ammo. The Awesome falls again, and hits its engine for a third time. That’s 3 engine hits and the Awesome shuts down. The Stinger also tumbles to the ground. Our Javelin kicks and destroys the LA of the Stinger.

The following turn sees their Enforcer take out the hand actuator on the RA of my Griffin. Our foot rifle platoon takes out the Charger’s engine and it too has an engine shutdown. It also has a gyro hit. One Panther takes out the Stinger’s RT. Another Panther hit’s the large laser and upper arm actuator of the Enforcer. An opposing Phoenix Hawk pilot blacks out again.

The opposing Caps move from the field and we let them go.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:


Phoenix Hawk - Missing LL, RL, shoulder actuator damaged

Raven - Missing, RA, LA, RL

Charger - Missing RA, LA, RL, gyro hit 2x, engine 4x

Awesome - Missing RT, RA, 3x engine





Awesome RA
Orion LA, RA
Raven RL
Rifleman H, LL, RL

Damage to be repaired:

Panther - Life Support

Panther - Lower Leg, jump jet

Griffin - Hand act


Sucks that we lost a solid mech like an Orion.




For ammo - 336,000
For armor (my mechs) - 150,000

Now let’s see if we can repair the damage to the Awesome and Charger. Fix that, and we make a lot of money, but it will be very tough.

I will start with the Awesome. After some work, we were unable to repair the engine. Sucks.

Next up is the Charger. We did repair the engine here. We were not able toe repair the gyro and it will have to be replaced.

Everything but the jump jet is repaired on my mechs.

We manage to reattach the Raven RL to its body. I have a pair of Phoenix Hawk legs in our armory and use them to fully repair the Phoenix Hawk. That does not count towards the salvage value of the mech for purposes of Shared salvage rights, however.

Salvage:

Phoenix Hawk - Normal Value: 4,067,540. To Repair: 600,000. Current Value: 3,467,540

Raven - Normal Value: 4,550,000* To Repair: 455,000. Current Value: 4,100,000

(The Raven has advanced electronics gear which raises its value)

Awesome - Normal Value: 6,598,170 To Repair: (1280000 engine cost) 1,880,000 Current Value: 4,718,170

Charger - Normal Value: 7,520,372 To Repair: (1,200,000 gyro) 2,325,000 Current Value: 5,195,372


Value of Salvaged Rifleman Parts - 1,000,000 approx

Total Salvage Value - 18,481,082.

Total Salvage Money: 9,240,541

We can take up to this amount, and we will get this amount in C-Bills as well. The Phoenix Hawk and Awesome and Rifleman parts are all takable.

[Tellistto]

Tough break on the Orion. Did all your pilots survive that battle? Hard to tell in the writeup.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Account:

Cost of Armor: 150,000
Cost of Ammo: 336,000
Cost to Repair Phoenix Hawk: 40,000 (After adding back two legs)
Cost to Repair Awesome: 1,880,000
Cost to Run Company for 6 Months: 292,038

Total Costs: 2,698,000


Contract:

9,240,541 for salvage money compensation
24,640 for support
134,150 for salary

Total Compensation: 9,399,341

Total Net Gain: 6,701,341



I give the newly dispossessed Martin Fitzgerald the Awesome and our dispossessed Hassan Mohommad the Phoenix Hawk.

[Abe Sargent]

Tough break on the Orion. Did all your pilots survive that battle? Hard to tell in the writeup.

Tell

Yeah, they all survived.

[Abe Sargent]

June 17, 3034 - The Commandos company arrives back on Outreach. Now I am sliding over to Kilts Company:



NOTE - the dynasty is about the change for a while, before heading back to normal. Why? You are about to find out.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT -

March 13,3034 - The Free Rasalhague Republic Declares Independence.

After the Fourth Succession War, Coordinator Takashi Kurita named his son, Theodore Kurita Ganji no-kanrei of the Draconis Combine. As part of his role as the head of the military, he began reforms among the military to modernize them.

Theodore Kurita was also approached by ComStar. They made a pact with Theodore Kurita. He would not prevent the regular Rasalhague independence movement from severing from the Draconis Combine. In turn, ComStar would provide his military with older mechs from the Star League era, usually stripped of most LosTech. Theodore agrees, and for the next four years, he moved troops out of the Rasalhague District and issued minor orders to troops to not attack various rioters and protesters.

In the Fourth Succession War, the Lyran Commonwealth attacked the Dracs and took many of the worlds of the Rasalhague District. With the Draconis Combine’s tacit support of the independence movement through Theodore Kurita, the Lyrans are pressured to release their captured planets. In one swing, without lifting a finger, House Kurita has forced their opponent to lose all of the worlds they worked hard to capture in the previous war while also creating a buffer state between the two realms and gaining them mechs for their armies.

Would that it were that easy. After the declaration of their Independence, many forces in the Draconis Combine used the opportunity to strike. Some higher level soliders were disaffected by Theodore’s reforms and used this as a chance to strike back. Others rallied behind Marcus Kurita who wants to break free of the Combine and forge his own state. Other broke free to protect Combine loyal citizens on FRR worlds where anti-Kurita riots would sometimes injure innocent citizens newly betrayed by their own government.

What could have been a win-win for the Combine is defeated by the defecting of about 1/5th of the DCMS. The Coordinator declares all defecting troops ronin. And so begin the Ronin Wars.

[Abe Sargent]

March 18,3034 - We receive a communique from the Free Rasalhague Republic. Our contract has been moved to the general Republic. They are ordering us to the world of Kandis. Kandis was taken in the Fourth Succession War by the Lyran Commonwealth. The governor of that planet is refusing to acknowledge Rasalhague’s independence. Although the Lyran troops have been withdrawn, she has surrounded the government complex with mercenary troops she had on retainer, the Dragonslayers. Free Rasalhague Republic has very few troops, and does not want to dispatch any to Kandis. Since the Dragonslayers are just a company sized unit, and since we are just two jumps away from Kandis, we are being directed to Kandis to destroy the Dragonslayers, and remove the Lyran Governor by force.

[Abe Sargent]

March 29, 3034 - We land in Kandis, outside of their capital city. I wanted to give the Dragonslayers an opportunity to protest our landing and draw them from outside of the city, but they did not take the bait. I was hoping to do this away from the citizenry, but our contract is quite clear. We are to march into the city, and engage the Dragonslayers who are defending the government complex. There is some cleared space in the area, so hopefully we can keep damage to the city and deaths to a minimum.


The Dragonslayers:

Enforcer
Ostscout
Vulcan
Dervish
Commando
Firestarter
Banshee
Phoenix Hawk
Archer
Hunchback 4SP
Wolverine
Zeus 6T


The Ostscout is a hyper rare scout mech that hasn’t been made since 2780 or so. I rolled a 2 (on 2d6) to get it. It is a charge special, since it has just one medium laser at 35 tons and a 8/12/8 movement. It’s really good as a scout or a physical attack oriented mech. The Hunchback SP replaces the AC20 with a bunch of medium lasers, 2 SRM6s, and six heat sinks. The Zeus is an assault mech, and this is a variant with a PPC, Large Laser, LRM15, and two medium lasers. It rocks 11.5 tons of armor, which is a bit light for an 80 ton mech. The Banshee is a 95 ton terror with PPC, AC5 and a Small Laser. It has a 4/6 movement which is odd on such a big mech and takes up too much space. Like the Charger, it would benefit from more tonnage freed by lighter engines, but that tech is not around right now.

[law90026]

Woo Awesome!! Grats on the win

[Abe Sargent]

Woo Awesome!! Grats on the win

Yeah, I know how you like em

[Abe Sargent]

The Enforcer has their captain


At the end of the first round, we can’t even see each other. We are starting at the end of the city, and still are behind a bunch of buildings.

I jump my Spider in on the second turn and I can see four opposing mechs. Still don’t know where the other eight are. Using the scouting of my Spider I am able to catch them in a pincer movement, between two forces, one significantly north of the other. They were pushed too far forward. Now, I can try to hit some mechs in the back from one direction or the other. The Hunchback blows the RA off my Wasp. I hit the foot and lower leg actuators of the RL of the opposing Commando.

The next turn we just exchange fire.

The fourth turn sees my Archer all after a fierce volley was laid on it.

On the 5th turn, I stand up my Archer, jump my Wolverine behind their Archer, and savage its armor.

More exchange of fire occurs. We need to kill something soon.

I take out the PPC on the Zeus. The Flea hits four actuators on their Vulcan. It falls and it hits its AC2 ammo and explodes. The Goliath blasts through a Commando’s leg and my Orion misses a kick and falls down.

The next turn arrives. My Phoenix Hawk falls and tumbles down when landing on top of a building. I lose its LA. Their Archer falls down when it decides to run and turn on pavement. Crash. Our Wolfhound zaps the LRM15 on the Zeus. Our Archer takes out an opposing LRM20 on their Archer and its RA. Our Wolverine hit’s the hip actuator of their Firestarter. The Goliath blows the head off their Commando. Boom! Our Goliath falls as does their Firestarter. My Orion kicked the LL off the Ostscout. Our Wolverine kicked the RL off the fallen Firestarter. Our Griffin falls after being kicked. The Ostscout pilot blacks out.

Our Phoenix Hawk fails to stand and falls back down. I stand a second time. I get my Griffin back up too. Our Wolverine takes out their Firestarter by hitting its ammo. Boom! Their Banshee targets the Goliath and it explodes. Boom on us! The Centurion hit’s the Archer’s ammo. Boom! Their Wolverine hits my AC10 on the Orion. I kick and blast the LA on the Ostscout. Its pilot wakes up.

Their Hunch hits my Orion’s medium laser and AC10 again. The Wolfhound blast’s the Zeus’s head and shear’s it off. Dead Zeus. The Enforcer nails the Wolfhound’s RA and takes it out. No more Large Laser. Both our Wolfhound and their Hunch tumble to the ground. The Orion kicks and destroys the Orstscout’s LT, and the Phoenix Hawk kicks off its head. Dead Ostscout.

And in two turns, the mechs just fall and fall. Our Griffin hit’s one of the SRM6’s on the Hunchy with its PPC. Their Dervish kicks the hip actuator on our Firestarter-Abe model. Our Phoenix hawk falls after missing a kick. Our Firestarter put their Dervish at +17 heat and it just barely avoided a heat shutdown. Yay for Inferno rounds of SRM2.

I have an exposed LT with AC10 ammo on my Orion. I have already lost an Orion on the other team and now a Goliath. I want to keep my Orion working, so I am backing back into the buildings. The 12th round is just more exchange of fire. Once again the Dervish had to avoid shutdown, also an ammo explosion. It’’s now at 20 over heat.

The 13th round brings the Firestarter add 5 more heat to the Dervish. Our Centurion tears into the rear armor of the Huncy and hit’s a pair of heat sinks. Our Flea hits its foot actuator. It falls to the ground. The Dervish is at 34 extra heat, and it explodes as its ammo ignites. I consider that a kill for the Firestarter.

I radio the Dragonslayer leader in the Enforcer. I offer them surrender. She informs me that her contract states that if she surrenders, all of their remaining equipment will be forfeit to the local governor. I ask her exactly what the contract states, and after a brief respite, she sends me the details. As I thought. It says local governor, not the Lyran governor. I radio her back and inform her that a case can be made that she is to surrender to the rightful governor of Randis, the Free Rasalhague Republic governor. Then her and her unit can survive under the command of the FRR governor. I can hear her smile over the conn. She surrenders.

[knolysis]

I am enjoying this dynasty (as I do all of your dynasties) and am following it very closely. One question, does MegaMek simulate strategy for the opposing forces or are you having to play both sides in your encounters?

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Ostscout, missing Head, LL, LA, LT

Zeus missing Head, PPC hit, LRM15 hit,

Commando, missing Head, LL



Vulcan RA, LL
Firestarter LA
Dervish LA
Goliath Head, RFL, LFL


Need to fix:

Wasp missing RA

Wolfhound RA

Orion AC10, x2, Medium laser

Phoenix Hawk, LA

Firestarter hip actuator

We only have Shared Rights:


I fixed the Zeus weapons.

Zeus 6T: Normal Value: 7,752,000. Repair Value: 950,000 Current Value: 6,702,000

Ostscout: Normal Value: 3,409,200 Repair Value: 1,500,000 Current Value: 1,909,200

Commando: Normal: 1,891,250 Repair: 750,000 Current Value: 1,141,250

Value of FS, Der, and Vul parts: 750,000

Total value salvaged: 10,502,400

SO FAR.

The contract is not over yet.

I spend: 380,000 on ammo
200,000 on armor.
150,000 on RA for Wasp
200,000 for Wolfhound RA
350,000 for Phoenix Hawk LA


I fix all damaged items on my mech.

One DragonSlayer pilot was deemed worthy of joining our unit:

Jacob Ovango, regular, dispossessed

It will take us a month to get items shipped to us. In the meantime, if we see more combat, then we will be four mechs short a full company, rocking only two lances.

Total Outlay for armor, ammo and items: 1,280,000

[Abe Sargent]

I am enjoying this dynasty (as I do all of your dynasties) and am following it very closely. One question, does MegaMek simulate strategy for the opposing forces or are you having to play both sides in your encounters?

Thanks!

I play both sides in everything except for combat. The MegaMek engine only cars about combat, so I am doing salvage, negotations and the occasiona maneuvering outside combat. For example, when the Marik forces raided us at Palladaine, I rolled for their commander. On a lower roll, they would have landed at one place, at a higher roll they split into 3, and a higher roll split them even more, which was an even smarter decision. I also use the level of the enemy as a guide. I allow myself, an elite tactical genius, to outsmart a regualr or green commander pretty reguarly, which is an accurate simulation of events, but when going up against vets and elites, I give them a better chance. For example, an elite enemy might choose to fight my unit in stages, and raids, instead of all at once.

-Abe

[Abe Sargent]

We are ordered to continue to Rahalhague as initially planned.


April 28, 3034 - We arrive in the Rasalhague system. They order us to the planet surface below. Our parts have arrived here, but it will take two more weeks to splice them onto our wounded three mechs.

Rasalhague was previously a battleground as Marcus Kurita, the traitor and leader of many ronin units was rescued by the Eight Regulars and Twelve Sun Zhang. Remnants of both units were left on the planet to harass the Rasalhuage military and leaders. There are three main guerilla forces left on planet.

One is a pair of Sun Zhang companies harassing the mining areas of the planet.

Two is a pair of companies, one each mechs and infantry, from Sun Zhang and the Eighth, retreated into the forest of Skand and have not been heard from since.

Three is a company of vehicles and a lance of mechs led by the XO of the Eighth. They are doing occasional lightning strikes and then fading back into the wilderness.

On planet is one of the three Rasalhague mech regiments, the First Tyr. Only two of their battalions is on planet. They are generally defending the government and buildings instead of launching raids against the guerilla bands. We are going hunting.

Our role is to be a fast strike mobile force, hitting the guerillas when they show.

Upon our arrival, The First Tyr agree to fix our three mechs with their elite techs in labs, and all work is done in a day.

April 30, 3034 - Our first trek across the planet of Rasalhague. Scouts reported seeing a Wasp mech in the area around the forest of Skand. We have been sent to investigate. All of the sudden, a group of mechs and infantry flood out from the woods and begin to attack us.

[Abe Sargent]

With none of their infantry assets to be seen, I suspect that the guerilla forces are doing a quick strike attack. Hit and fade, possibly without any mechs falling.


This game will be just three turns. We’ll have that long to try to kill a mech or two before they fade. Here are their forces:

Sun Zhang are green, Eighth Regulars are elite. I will roll for each mech to see if it is SZ or 8th.


Wasp, 8th
Quickdraw, SZ
Orion, SZ
Phoenix Hawk 1K, 8th
Crusader 3K, 8th
Centurion, 8th
MCY-98 Mercury, 8th
Awesome, SZ
Stalker, SZ
CHP-2N Champion, 8th
Jenner, SZ
Stinger, 8th

So, we have five green Sun Zhang mechs, including two assault mechs and two heavies in that group. We also have some mechs you might not be familiar with. The Jenner is the most common light mech in Draconis Combine space and is virtually only there and no where else. It is a 35 ton light mech with an awkward 7/11/5 movement, four medium lasers, an SRM4, and four tons of armor. There is a variant that strips off the SRM4 and ammo for armor. That’s a good variant, with 7 tons of armor instead of 4.

The Crusader is a common missile boat and heavy mech. Normally featuring a pair of LRM15s, this is the House Kurita version, with just two LRM10s, two SRM6s, two medium lasers, two machine guns and extra heat sinks. It’s a solid heavy mech, and one we’ve not seen before just by chance.

The Mercury and Champion are older Star League era designs that have lost their LosTech long ago. The Mercury is a fast 20 ton mech while the Champion is a heavy 60-ton mech. Without its LosTech, the Mercury is basically a Locust while the Champion sports an AC10, SRM6, two medium lasers, two small lasers and light armor at just 8 tons of armor.

[Abe Sargent]

The first turn has arrived. The woods are a bit thick even at the edge of the Skald. I jump my Spider into their midst so that I can see their locations. We exchange fire. I want to get the Mercury or Champion. However, I’ll take whatever opportunities present themselves. Their Phoenix Hawk tries to kick my Spider and misses, falling down.

The second turn arrives. They stand up their Phoenix Hawk. I try to maneuver to a place I can shoot down the Champion from. Am LRM20 from our Archer hit’s the Champion’s SRM6 and medium laser. It’s LA is blown off and on the ground.

The 3rd turn is here. Can I manage to take out the Champion? I hit the Champion’s LT with my Orion’s LRM 15 and it is destroyed. I also hit the shoulder actuator on the right arm. Our Wolverine hit’s the upper arm actuator. The Centurion destroys its Center Torso. It is done for the count. At the end of the turn, I kick and destroy the opposing Wasp’s LL. It falls to the ground. We have set a lot of the woods on fire. The attackers are able to retreat under the smoke and fire. I choose not to pursue. Their infantry could be laying in ambush,

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Champion, destroyed LT, LA, LL. AC10x2. Destroyed CT.


Champion LL


I roll and the infrastructure for the CT is reparable. What about the engine and gyro? Both are destroyed. I fixed the AC10 and reattach the LL.

Champion: Normal Value - 5,071,200 Repair: (900k/gyro, 1200k/engine, 80k for armor, 35k for ammo, 800k for arm and torso and weapons in those) 3,015,000 Current value: 2,056,200

After doing some quick math, I believe we’ll have to pay around 130k for ammo and armor replacement.


LEVEL UP - Our Centurion pilot, Michael Adkins, has notched his fourth kill. His gunnery is being raised one.

[Abe Sargent]

May 11, 3034 - Satellite feed and information shows that two of the guerilla forces are on the move. The first are the two companies of Sun Zhang cadets. They are marching towards a DropPort in the mining sector of Rasalhague, probably with the intent of leaving the planet and stealing some DropShips from the complex. Also, the company of tanks and lance of mechs is moving towards the government complex. The First Tyr is moving to intercept the Sun Zhang cadets, and they need to move in force. If even some of the cadets reach the DropPort, they can do massive damage. We are asked to delay the other force. If we can take it out, fine, but our goal is to delay their arrival at the capital.

It is dusk, as they move to the capital (SPECIAL DUSK RULE IN EFFECT)

We are fighting by open terrain.

The Ronin Forces - All forces are elite

Charger The Leader is in this mech
Panther
Locust
Griffin

Schrek PPC Carrier
Saladin x3
Saracen
Demolisher
Manticore
Galleon
Pike x2
Partisan
Hetzer

The tanks to worry about are the Schrek with its three PPCs and the Demolisher with two AC20s. The Pikes have AC2s which is not major. The Partisan has some AC5s and LRMs, but for an assault tank, does not pack the punch you’d expect. Note the Hetzer is also rocking an AC20, as are the Saladins. I need to stay away from their forces until I kill a few of these AC20s.

We are very undergunned when you look at Battle Values. Mechs, pilots, tanks and so forth all have Battle Values. This is an estimated performance expectation. We are very undermanned by thousands of BV when compared to them. They have elite pilots, which drives up their BV but they will hit. My first enemy is the PPC Carrier. An elite crew with three PPCs will tear into me in short order. Then I want to axe as many AC20 vehicles as possible.

[Abe Sargent]

The first turn sees us maneuver and no weapons hit.

I missed with both LRM20s on the Archer when I gave myself a nice firing lane on the PPC Carrier (I needed an 8 each time). I need to start taking down some tanks soon.

The Shrek blasts through the armor in my Orion’s LA and hits an upper arm actuator. I then fall under the firepower.

On the 4th turn, I stand my mech back up and move into heavy woods for more protection. Their Shrek shears the head off my Wolverine and it falls to the ground, dead. Our MechWarrior, Salia James, died. On the other hand, our Centurion causes the Schrek’s power plant to explode. Boom! The LA of my Orion is destroyed.

We are getting savaged. I’ll try to turn it around this turn. My Wasp get’s its RA blown off. Alright, let’s keep going. But, I’m getting close to calling it.

My Orion takes out the Hetzer Assault Tank‘s Right Side, destroying the vehicle. That’s one AC20 down. Their Panther takes out my Spider’s LA. Their Charger kicks through the RL of my Firestarter and it is on the ground.

I’m going to push into one more turn. If I can get lucky and off a couple of tanks, I can regain the momentum. Tanks are fragile, and it’s very doable. I eject Adele from her Firestarter. Our Griffin destroys the Demolisher after rupturing its fuel tank. Two more AC20s down.

I’m going to keep going. With the Demolisher down, we get a big boost. There are still three Saladin;s running around, but there is a glimmer of hope. I am ejecting this round from my Orion. I’ve lost an arm, I have about 15% of my original armor left and am internal is about four places. My mech is about to be shot if I keep it up, so I am ejecting. That means, after this round, we will not get my tactical genius bonus. More exchange of fire this round.

The following round I try to maneuver into the right positions. The Charger blasts three jump jets on my Phoenix hawk’s left torso.

I will keep pushing. The Manticore tank takes out the LT of my Spider and hits an engine. My Archer lays into the right side of a Pike and destroys it. Their Saladin fires an AC20 and hit’s the Spider dead center. The center torso is destroyed.

I call it. We have six mechs left. Some are seriously damaged. None but the Archer have any serious power. I order our men and mechs to back away from the ronin troops.

They still have all four mechs, although their Charger is severely damaged. They also have eight vehicles. With a company of mixed assets remaining, they continue to march towards the capital. Still, we have delayed them, and destroyed two of their biggest tanks, the Schrek and Demolisher. We also took out a Pike and a Hetzer. Not bad, but we should have done better. I feel like I really let the Tyr down. We could have stopped this group. The mechs are laughable assets - two lights, a Charger and a Griffin? Come on. I just didn’t get the hits I needed.

[law90026]

I have to say that if you randomly rolled up those armour assets, you were really unlucky. That's a mech killing armour force right there.

[Abe Sargent]

I have to say that if you randomly rolled up those armour assets, you were really unlucky. That's a mech killing armour force right there.

I know. Yup, all random.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

AC20 (The Hetzer was a writeoff) - 300,000

Pike Support Vehicle - 50k to fix. Current Value: 1,015,000





Damage:


Spider - LA, LT, Gyro

Wasp - RA

Orion - LA

Firestarter - RL

Wolverine - H

We managed to fix the Spider’s center torso section and the engine, but the gyro was destroyed with the AC20 shot and it’s irreparable.

Cost to replace it all: (Inc armor, ammo)

3,300,000


I order the parts. It will take a while to get them in. At least a month, and with the war going on, perhaps longer.



The First Tyr at the mining complex stopped the Sun Zhang cadets. When they arrived and saw the First Tyr waiting for them in strength, they surrendered. Several committed seppuku. The units we stopped made it to the city before encountering a heavy company of First Tyr mechs left behind in case we did not stop the guerillas. That company destroyed the Charger’s head, killing the XO of the Eighth Regulars and the rest surrendered.

That leaves the unit out in the forest as the sole guerilla force on planet.



LEVEL UP: Our Griffin pilot, Justine Dempsey, gained a gunnery skill from four kills.

I assign Jacob Ovango to the Wolverine.

[Abe Sargent]

In the War:

With just three Battlemech regiments of their own, the Free Rasalhague Republic has called on the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery, DCMS, to attack the ronin forces in the Republic. Theodore has agreed, but will first cut through the supply bases the ronin have in Combine space. There are several planets in the new FRR that have been captured by ronin forces.

The First Tyr want to blast off world to Predlitz. It is a highly pro-Combine world in the FRR currently used as the base of operations of the organized ronin forces and Marcus Kurita’s new state. In order to jump off world, they need to know that we’ll take care of the remaining guerilla forces. Therefore, they allow us to buy our parts from them, instead of from the normal outlets. Our mechs are up and running in less than a week.

[Abe Sargent]

May 17 - Satellite telemetry has scoured the Skand woods. We have narrowed the location of the guerillas to a four klick square. We are going into the woods to root them out and blast them. I send out my scout unit to find them. However, with Adele’s mech being so specialized, I replace it with the Phoenix Hawk.


We are scouring the woods when our radar begins to show several bogeys to the east. We move to see what they are…


This is a scout on scout battle.

Their Mercury, Phoenix Hawk, Stinger and Jenner are their scout lance.

[Abe Sargent]

Nothing much happens this round. Just positioning.

On the second round, they leave their Jenner on the edge, and I charge the Spider towards it. We exchange some fire. My Spider is hit a few times, and then hit’s the Jenner. It is knocked off the map, but it costs my Spider its RT. Its RA is lying on the ground now too. Well, the sacrifice is worth it. Now the odds are much more even.

Our Flea blows through the rear armor of the Phoenix Hawk and hits its engine. Their Mercury blows off the Wasp’s RA. My Phoenix Hawk kicks the LL out from the Stinger. It falls. Our Spider is kicked and falls as well.

The Stinger tries to stand and falls back down. We exchange weapons.

More weapons fire exchanges.

The Stinger stands up. I blast off the RA of the Phoenix Hawk with my own Phoenix Hawk. Our Spider fell after missing a kick.

The Stinger destroyed its RL getting up and falling again. The Flea blows off the Mercury’s head. No other injuries there. Our Phoenix Hawk tears through the other P Hawk’s RT this time. I then kick the LL out from the Phoenix Hawk as well.

The single mech left in the battle surrenders to us. I radio the position to the local militia and they will collect the Phoenix Hawk and other salvage.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Mercury - Normal Value: 1,580,000 Repair: 600,000 Current Value: 980,000

Stinger - Normal Value: 1,662,000 Repair: 300,000 Current Value: 1,332,000

Spider RA



Need to Fix:

Spider RT, RA

[Abe Sargent]

After blowing through their scouts, we are about to hit their main forces. This is what they have left.




Wasp, 8th
Quickdraw, SZ
Orion, SZ
Crusader 3K, 8th
Centurion, 8th
Awesome, SZ
Stalker, SZ
Jenner, SZ

Plus some infantry.


Time for battle.


I order our Spider to stay behind and recuperate.

[Abe Sargent]

Nothing happens on the first turn but a brief exchange of missiles and beams in the air.

I focus fire on their Crusader and deal some nice damage.

On the third turn I again concentrate fire on the Crusader. My Griffin’s RA is blown off by the opposing Orion. The Griffin blows off the RA of the Crusader.

For the next turn, I again focus fire on the Crusader and we nail two Heat Sinks.

The LRM15 on my Orion is tagged and goes out. The Archer touches the Crusader’s ammo and causes the mech to explode. The Wolfhound misses a kick and falls.

Round 6 sees me stand the Wolfhound back up. Their Centurion hits my Orion’s LRM15 again and nails the SRM4 too. We launch weapons at their Stalker and it falls. I make a ballsy move and charge the Quickdraw. With my own Orion. It works and I force it from the field. Unfortunately I fall down after the charge. My Upper Leg Actuator on my RL was destroyed.

Although still on the ground, I manage to kill the opposing Centurion with my Orion’s remaining weapons. Its ammo went up too.

The following turn I blow off the RA and LL off the Jenner. It tumbles hard. The Centurion blows up the Stalker’s ammo and it goes too.

With the death of their Stalker, we have now destroyed over 66% of their force. With that, they call and offer unconditional surrender. I accept. Their mechs are turned over to the FRR, and we get the salvage.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Crusader H, LL, RL, LT

Stalker RT

Centurion RA


Total Value of Salvaged Parts: 1,850,000



Needs:

Orion - LRM15 x2, SRM4, Upper Leg

Griffin - RA


Need to fix:

I fix the Orion

I replace the Griffin RA with a Shadow Hawk RA.

Ammo: 270,000
Armor: 220,000


And with that, the Rasalhague campaign is over. We’ll be sent elsewhere in the Wars until our contract runs out. However, I want to go ahead and settle up the contract as we are nearing the end.

[Abe Sargent]

Total Salvaged Items:


Zeus 6T: Normal Value: 7,752,000. Repair Value: 950,000 Current Value: 6,702,000

Ostscout: Normal Value: 3,409,200 Repair Value: 1,500,000 Current Value: 1,909,200

Commando: Normal: 1,891,250 Repair: 750,000 Current Value: 1,141,250

Vulcan RA, LL
Firestarter LA
Dervish LA
Value of FS, Der, and Vul parts: 750,000

Champion: Normal Value - 5,071,200 Repair: (900k/gyro, 1200k/engine, 80k for armor, 35k for ammo, 800k for arm and torso and weapons in those) 3,015,000 Current value: 2,056,200

AC20 (The Hetzer was a writeoff) - 300,000
Pike Support Vehicle - 50k to fix. Current Value: 1,015,000

Mercury - Normal Value: 1,580,000 Repair: 600,000 Current Value: 980,000

Stinger - Normal Value: 1,662,000 Repair: 300,000 Current Value: 1,332,000

Crusader H, LL, RL, LT
Stalker RT
Centurion RA
Total Value of Salvaged Parts: 1,850,000

[Abe Sargent]

Total Costs:

I spend: 380,000 on ammo
200,000 on armor.
150,000 on RA for Wasp
200,000 for Wolfhound RA
350,000 for Phoenix Hawk LA

Mission The First


150,000 ammo and armor

Mission the Second


3,300,000 parts, ammo and armor

Mission the Third



225,000 parts, ammo and armor

Mission the Fourth


Ammo: 270,000
Armor: 220,000

Mission the Fifth

[Abe Sargent]

TOTAL DAMAGE REPORT:

Total Salvage Value: 18,025,540

Total Shared Rights: 9,012,725


What I am taking:

I wanted the Zeus, but I really want the Mercury, Ostscout and Champion - those are rarer mechs and I would love an opportunity to field them. Therefore, I pass the Zeus by, and I take:

Mercury
Ostscout
Champion
Commando
AC20
All body parts


I would have liked the Zeus, but I’m content.


Total Cost to Repair Salvaged Mechs: 5,865,000


Total Battle Costs (My Mechs): 5,220,000

[Abe Sargent]

Contract:


Costs:

675,000 transport here
675,000 transport back
387,900 Upkeep of unit, ten months
5,220,000 Battle Replacement

Total Contractual Costs: 6,957,900


Money Made:

9,012,725 Shared Salvage Rights
2,610,000 50% Battle Loss Compensation (Glad I negotiated for this!)
510,394 Salary
540,000 40% Transport Rights
26,000 Remuneration
2,550 Bonus

Total Contractual Profit: 12,200,275

Total Net Profit: 5,242,375

After paying to repair all salvaged mechs: -622,625

War Chest: 1,443,043

LEVEL UP - Braham Essex has notched 8 kills, and so his piloting skill is increasing. He is now officially elite. Rafael Gomez, the Archer pilot, had grabbed his fourth kill. I am giving him Edge: 1 since he is already elite.

[Abe Sargent]

Our contract began on March 18, 3034. It ends on September 18, 3034.

In any future battles, we’ll still get Shared Salvage Rights and 50% Battle Loss Compensation.

I am assigning the Champion to Su Yuan, the Goliath pilot who lost her mech in the early parts of the Ronin Campaign.

June 19, 3034 - We get word that the two main leaders of the ronin movement have died. The first died as the result of a malfunction in his Atlas on Orestes. Orestes was the rallying point for the troops loyal to him. Marcus Kurita, on Predlitz, was assassinated.

There are several major crucibles in the war. We have just cleaned up Rasalhague and our presence is deemed redundant. As the Free Rasalhague Republic continues to build mech companies with surrendered materiel, our company has less of an impact as a garrison force on Rasalhague. There are other crucibles out there, such as Predlitz, Orestes and Kempton. We are being moved to Kempton where we will be joining the forces there in battle.

June 24, 3034 - We launch from the Rasalhague system bound for Kempton.

In April, Kempton had hired a battalion of the mercenary regiment Vinson’s Vigilantes (No relation to Vinson’s Victorious that we fought in the periphery, to my knowledge…) to safeguard the capital. The First Sun Zhang Regulars were on system when the FRR declared independence, and Marcus Kurita sent out the call for all DCMS troops to defect and attack their local planet. The officers of the unit, loyal to the Dragon, were captured and jailed by the lower levels of the unit, so that it could rebel and fight against the locals. The ronin unit and the hired mercenaries began to spar on April 30.

A stalemate set in when the ronin forces took control of a giant petrochemical factory complex and the mercenaries did not want to penetrate the outer defenses and risk blowing up the complex. That ended on June 4, with the arrival of the Second Kavalleri on planet, one of the three Rasalhague mech regiments.

Earlier this month, they landed on planet doing a combat drop in an open area of the complex while the mercenaries pushed at the outer defenses. Caught between a regiment outside and another inside, many of the First Sun Zhang Regulars were destroyed, but several got away into the nearby Cantis Mountains.

Our goal is to guard the capital of Kemptinus while the Second Kavalleri scout the Mountains and root out the remaining First Sun Zhang Regulars. The Vigilantes’ contract has expired and they have returned home, leaving the Second Kavalleri and us on planet.

August 10, 3034 - After having modest success at rooting out the First Sun Zhang, we receive word that the Seventh Regulars, another ronin unit, used a pirate point to enter the system and has landed at rear of the Second Kavalleri. Their CO gets me on the conn. The Sun Zhang are pushing against them in one direction, and the Seventh Regulars are pushing in the other and they are getting crushed. He asks for my help immediately.

Now, I am not under the command of the Second Kavalleri. I am not required to respond to his call for help. We have an FRR liaison who communicates what the FRR wants, and they have told us to garrison this city, not venture out and help when needed. It is not in our contract to go out and help our allies.

However, I love battle. That’s why I am in this business. I confirm that we will be moving out quickly to hit the Sun Zhang on their rear and relieve some pressure on our allies.

Twenty minutes later, I see the first mech.

[Abe Sargent]

An account of the battle:

First Sun Zhang Academy Cadre - Down to about 27 mechs from their original size. They are green experience level. Ronin.

Seventh Rasalhague Regulars - Down to about 80% of original strength. They are veteran troops. Ronin.

Second Kavalleri - Full strength. They are regular troops. Free Rasalhague Republic.

The Kilts Company - Full strength. We have the Champion up and running and I am giving the Mercury to Elena Stoyovich over her previous Flea. The Mercury is a much better mech. Faster, better armored, and no ammo to worry about exploding. We are contracted to the Free Rasalhague Republic.


As we arrive, we find that 4 of the Sun Zhang mechs have already been destroyed fallen and several more have been savaged to the point of not being usable. With our arrival to their rear, the Sun Zhang turn to face us. This frees up the Second Kavalleri to focus their attention on the Seventh Regulars.

We will be fighting over a river.

[Tellistto]

Oh, this one should be good. Lots of troops up against you but they are all green. Hopefully you can whittle them down really quick so that you don't get overwhelmed. Go Kilts and Commandos!

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

The Sun Zhang (Still Standing and in Fighting Form):


Wasp 1K x2
Wasp x2
Jenner x3
Jenner JR7-F
Griffin x2
Quickdraw x2
Wolverine
Panther
Grand Dragon
Firestarter
Shadow Hawk
LCT-3V Locust
AWS-8T Awesome

That’s 19 mechs of the Sun Zhang still operational. Their leader is in the Awesome variant. This Awesome is rocking with two LRM15s and two Large Lasers plus max armor. It’s a nasty little assault mech. The Grand Dragon is a Kurita only design weighing in at 60 tons. It moves 5/8, sports ten tons of armor, and has a PPC, LRM10 and a few medium lasers. It’s not a bad mech at all.

The Jenner variant is one of my fav light mechs. It drops the SRM and ammo for maxing out its armor. It resembles the Javelin variant I enjoy so much, with just four medium lasers, max armor, and a speed of 7/11/5 instead of 6/9/6. However, the Jav is lighter by five tons (which makes it cheaper) and has its lasers in its chest, allowing it to punch, whereas the Jenner’s lasers are in its fragile arm. I would love to get that mech.

The Wasp variant swaps a machine gun and a half ton of armor for the old SRM2. That’s not a good switch. Of course, the old SRM2 is dumb in a 20 ton mech, so I’d pull that out in seconds of I were to build my own mech.

The Locust variant’s not bad, with two Medium Lasers and two machine guns. I’ve seen better payloads (like the Mercury) but it ain’t bad.

All MechWarriors of the Sun Zhang are green except for the Awesome, which is regular.

Normally my plan is to target the biggest threats first, but against 19 mechs? I could lose too many mechs in the three or four turns it would likely take me to off the Awesome. On the other hand, if I take out a bunch of light mechs, I can get ahead quickly, then focus on the Awesome if I need too.

So, my plan going in is to target the basic Jenners when I have a chance. They post a lot of weaponry for less armor than they could otherwise have had. Of course, targets of opportunity abound in battle.

[Abe Sargent]

Here we go.

My Orion’s LRM15 hit’s the Griffin’s head twice. I wanted to target a Jenner D, but only my Archer has a line on one. The rest targeted the Griffin, Awesome, or targets of opportunity. My Archer misses with both LRM20s. It and the Awesome fall down from fire.

I stand my Archer back up and move it into some light woods. I then miss a lot of important attacks against some Wasps but I pepper a Quickdraw real well. Then our Centurion kicks and destroys a Wasp’s RL. Their Quickdraw hit’s a lower leg actuator on my Champion’s LL.

Their Awesome keeps being open, so I am abusing it. My Archer alone hit for 36 damage from its two LRM20s. Our Wolverine kicks and destroys a Jenner’s RA which cuts into its weaponry. The head on my Phoenix Hawk is punched by a Wasp. The Centurion kicks off the RA of the downed Wasp 1K. My Spider falls after getting kicked. That sucks, it needs to stay standing.

I try moving my Spider through the water of the river but it falls. The Archer destroys the Awesome’s LA. It also tacks the foot actuator on its LL. Our Griffin hits its engine once with the PPC. The heaviest mech on the field crashes to the ground. Adele’s Firestarter takes out the LT of the downed Wasp 1K, and then the Centurion kicks it in the center chest and destroys it. Their Grand Dragon after missing a kick.

The Grand Dragon fails to get up. Their Awesome hits our Wolfhound. It hit’s the Upper Arm and Shoulder actuators on the RA. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the Awesome’s center torso section. It is down for the count. Our Centurion hit’s the Grand Dragon’s PPC, and then it falls under the weaponry assault.

I destroy the Locust’s RL, LL, LT, and the LA falls off with my Orion. Then the engine is hit twice by my Archer. When it falls, it destroys its own CT. No more Locust.

The next round is just an exchange of fire but a Jenner falls from losing too much armor and failing to compensate. My Wolverine punches the LA off a Jenner, the JR7-F variant. My Centurion falls after it is kicked and misses a kick.

I stand the Centurion back up. The woods are all on fire now. Our Phoenix Hawk kicks the LL off from the JR7-F. Our Mercury destroys the RA of their Firestarter, Our Champions kicks the LL out from under a normal Jenner.

We’re doing fine with my big guys. My Orion has barely taken any damage at all, and the Archer just too one turn of damage getting in posoiton and since has barely been scratched. I’ve been using their poor aim against them, hopping my jump jet equipped mechs around from woods to woods and then concentrating fire from mechs like the Orion, Centurion, Champion and Archer. The Champion kicks and destroys the downed Jenner (not the variant) by hitting its ammo.

The 10th round arrives. Some of the woods are starting to burn down, leaving rough terrain behind. Our Spider jumped behind the Grand Dragon and got three engine hits. It shuts down and our Spider got the very first kill ever. The LA of the Grand Dragon was destroyed in the barrage from our mechs. The Archer takes out the Jenner variant’s LT which drops its LA to the ground. It is now weaponless. He then gets three hits on the engine and one on the gyro. No more Jenner variant. Our Phoenix Hawk blows the RA and LL off a Jenner regular. The LL is on the ground. It then falls to the ground and hits two engines and a gyro. That mech is going nowhere with that kind of damage.

The momentum is definitely in our favor. I am going to order that our mechs reserve their ammo for the rest of the battle unless something bizarre happens. The Archer destroys the LL of a Wasp with one of its Medium Lasers. Our Wolfhound goes internal on a Quickdraw’s CT and hits an engine. The Quickdraw and Wasp fall. Both pilots black out.

I walk my Orion next to the Quickdraw on the ground prone. When a mech is prone, you can try to aim for a certain part of the body, which includes the head. It’s easier when you are adjacent, but you can do it from anywhere. My Centurion blows the head off the blacked out Wasp, and my Orion does the same with the Quickdraw. Both mechs are now decapitated. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the savaged Jenner on the ground, getting a third hit on its engine. The other Quickdraw falls to the earth. Our Centurion’s LA is blown off.

With half of their mechs destroyed, including two of their three heavies, and their assault mech, and damage to most of their remaining mechs pretty severely, and around 8 of my mechs barely touched, the Sun Zhang radio their surrender. I order the local militia, our infantry and the damaged mechs to take them in custody and to clear out our salvage as quickly as possible.

I get a radio from the Second Kavalleri. They are losing against the Regulars. Although we bought them some time and allowed them to consolidate their front, the Seventeenth Regulars are veteran troops, and are winning. They ask that my mechs that are able to come and help in the crucible. We are charged with approaching the Seventeenth from their flank, with the hope that we can relieve the pressure on the Second Kavalleri.

[law90026]

Nice win and i like how the fight continues on without a real chance to rest and refit. Good luck on the next battle.

[Abe Sargent]

Nice win and i like how the fight continues on without a real chance to rest and refit. Good luck on the next battle.

Thanks

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Locust - Needs LL, RL, LT, LA, CT?

Awesome - Destroyed CT?, LA, Foot Actuator

Grand Dragon - Needs RA, LA, Engine x3, RT

JR7-F - Needs RA, LA, LT, LL, Engine x3, Gyro

Quickdraw - Damaged Hand and Arm actuators. Missing H

Wasp - Missing RL, H

JR7-D - Missing RL, LT, LA, RA, Engine x3, Gyro


Locust LA
Jenner LA
Jenner LL, RA

[Abe Sargent]

Mechs that are unharmed:

Griffin - 1 ton LRM ammo left
Orion - 1 ton AC10 left, 1 ton LRM
Archer - 2 tons left
Mercury
Wasp
Firestarter
Wolverine
Phoenix Hawk

I listed those with ammo issues. Some mechs, like the Mercury and Phoenix have no ammo weapons. Others have such a large amount, like the Wasp and Firestarter, that it isn’t worth even counting.

To be fixed:

Champion Foot Actuator

Wolfhound, Shoulder and Upper Arm actuator (LA)

Centurion LA

[Abe Sargent]

This was a great salvage expedition. We made out, I suspect.

Let’s head to the next battlefront with my eight mechs.


The woods clear out a bit and we are fighting by some rolling hills, with few trees. The veteran Seventeenth Rasalhague Regulars are down to about half of their previous strength. They started 80% down and have lost another 30%. On the other hand, the Second Kavalleri is also down about 50% of their strength. That means that they have around four and a half companies of mechs each. Our arrival on the Seventeenth’s east flank forces them to pull away some mechs to meet our charge. They see two lances of mechs (eight mechs) on their flank, and choose to pull away exactly that number of their own. They could pull a company or more to smash us, but they are playing it close to the vest.

My mechs have limited ammo as mentioned above. I have two heavies, three mediums and three lights moving in. Here we go.


Their mechs:

Victor
Wasp 1K
Wasp
Griffin
Goliath
Spider x2
Trebuchet
They have two assault mechs, the Victor and Goliath, two mediums, the Griffin and the Trebuchet, and then the four lights.

A Victor is a decent enough mech. At 80 tons, it is a 4/6/4 with an AC20, two medium lasers, an SRM4, and 11.5 tons of armor. Frankly, my Orion is better despite being lighter. My Orion has 3.5 tons more armor and better armament, but the AC20 is devastating. We have to kill the Victor as soon as possible - it is the biggest threat.

The Trebuchet is one of the best medium fire support mechs in the 3025 world. You’ve seen medium fire support mechs like the Whitworth, Dervish or even the Griffin. At 50 tons, it rocks two LRM15s, just a little worse than the Archer’s two LRM20s. It even has three medium lasers for defense. It only has 7.5 tons of armor but it does move 5/8.

Just like our mechs are beginning to run out of ammo, so too are the 17th Regulars. A few of their mechs, Trebuchet, Victor, Griffin and Goliath, have used one or two tons of ammo up already.

[Abe Sargent]

I lay into the Trebuchet with my Archer and Griffin. The Griffin;s LRM10 opens up the RA and hit’s the lower arm actuator and a medium laser.

The second turn sees us exchange fire.

The next turn just sees even more fire exchanged. I have now spent half of my Archer’s remaining ammo. It only has three barrages left.

The fourth turn sees my Orion hit the AC20 on the Victor. Then the Archer hit’s the SRM ammo and the mech explodes.

The Trebuchet only has one shot of LRM15 ammo left, so I may concentrate my fire elsewhere to take out other threats. Despite that, it is the only mech my Orion can see, so I fire at him and destroy its RA. I am maneuvering my mechs to fire at other opponents now that the Victor is dead. Very little fire from me this turn, as a result. Our Mercury kicks a Wasp and it falls down.

I crack open the engine on an opposing Spider with my AC10.

The next turn our Phoenix Hawk hit’s a Foot Actuator on the Goliath. I have now fired the final salvo from the Archer. I am charging with it, closing to hit with my two medium lasers. I kick and destroy a Wasp’s RL with my Orion. Both our Wolverine and Orion fall from being kicked.

I stand my Orion back up and walk around behind the rear of a Spider. Our Wasp destroys the LT and LA of their Wasp on the ground. Other than that, just more exchange of fire. I kick the RL off a Spider with my Orion. Our Wasp falls after getting kicked.

The 9th turn brings more damage as the Wasp we control failed to stand once, then falls and takes damage before getting up and moving. Their Goliath gets lucky and tacs the Archer’s LRM20 and hits it three times. Luckily it has no ammo any more. One of their Spiders hit’s the lower and upper leg actuators of our Phoenix Hawk. It falls. The Archer is kicked and then falls. That is the second time one of my heavy mechs has fallen when all they needed was a 3 to stay standing.

On the 10th turn, I can’t roll a 7 with my Phoenix Hawk and fall twice, injured the RA with an upper arm and lower arm actuators hit. I choose to eject from the mech. It’s savaged pretty badly. I stand up the Archer and move towards a damaged Spider. Their Wasp pilot for the mech on the ground, has blacked out. I moved my Wasp next to it, and it slices into its head with its Medium Laser. Another dead mech. That’s Stacey Stowers’ first kill for our company. The Wolverine destroys a Spider by destroying its CT. There was practically nothing left. Our Griffin destroys one of the Goliath’s legs. It falls hard. The Archer destroys the LL of the other Spider with a well placed kick. It falls and takes some damage.

The Trebuchet is moving away from my Orion, but I close again. I want to keep up with it and kill it. With the Goliath temporarily downed and a bunch of their light mechs damaged, it is the second biggest threat with its three medium lasers. It’s also a great mech, in case I can arrange to get it. Adele destroys the foot actuator on their remaining Wasp 1K. Their Goliath opens up the RA on my Orion and hit’s a hand actuator. I blast the Trebuchet’s RL and it falls. The Archer’s medium laser stabs in and finds the machine gun ammo on the Goliath. Boom! I kick and destroy the Trebuchet’s other leg with my Orion, taking it out of combat.

With their two assaults gone, a medium gone, and a light gone, plus the rest all deeply injured, the Seventeenth Regulars retreat. Their retreat is covered by the gun ports of the other mechs in the field, so I cannot pursue.

[Tellistto]

Nice work! Experience and skill are really playing a part it looks like.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Nice work! Experience and skill are really playing a part it looks like.

Tell

Yea, as skill increases, so to does their ability in combat, which really amps up their power.

[Abe Sargent]

Repair:

Archer, LRM20 x3

Phoenix Hawk lower and upper leg actuators. Upper and lower arm actuators.

Orion, hand actuator


Salvage:


Victor RA, LA
Spider H, RT, RL, Engine
Goliath H, Left Front Leg, Right Rear Leg

Wasp - Missing RA, LA, RT, LL, H

Trebuchet - RL, LL gone. RA Medium Laser and Hand Actuator hit.

Our unit is badly wounded. All of my mechs, except the Mercury, have some damage. I order my men to grab the local salvage. The Second Kavalleri is retreating back to the capital under the furious onslaught of the ronin 17th. However, the 17th are injured so badly hat they are not chasing, or destroying infrastructure. Instead, they are salvaging what they can and affecting repairs.

[Abe Sargent]

August 12, 3034 - The Second Sword of Light jumps into the system. They send a communique to the planet announcing their intent to land and destroy all ronin units on the planet. The Second Sword of Light is one of the most decorated and elite units the Dragon has. The Seventeenth Rasalhague Regulars know they have no chance against the Second Swords of Light and the remnants of the Second Kavalleri. They surrender before the Sword of Light even lands.

[law90026]

But....what about the Kilts and Commandos?!?!?

[Abe Sargent]

Just got back from a job interview in Tempe over the 4th of July weekend, so I will be continuing this later tonight or tomorrow.

[Abe Sargent]

But....what about the Kilts and Commandos?!?!?

The fight is over with this uber-elite Drac unit joining our side. So the ronin forces surrendered knowing they had no chance against it, plus teh Kavelleri and us as well.

[Abe Sargent]

Total Salvage:






Salvage:

Locust 3V - Needs LL, RL, LT, LA, CT (inc engine and gyro) - Total Value: 1,553,800 To Repair: 1,150,000 Current Value: 400,000

Awesome AWS-8T - Destroyed CT (inc eng & gyro), LA Total Value 6,598,170 To Repair: 2,800,000 Current Value: 3,798,000

Grand Dragon - Needs RA, LA, RT Total Value: 5,220,000 To Repair: 625,000 Current Value: 4,595,000

JR7-F - Needs RA, LT, LL Total Value: 3,121,426 To Repair: 480,000 Current Value: 2,641,426

Quickdraw - Missing H Total Value: 5,514,500 To Repair: 500,000 Current Value: 5,014,500

Wasp - Missing RL, H Total Value: 1,644,000 To Repair: 555,000 Current Value: 1,089,000

JR7-D - Missing LT, RA Total Value: 3,198,350 To Repair: 275,000 Current Value: 2,923,350

Wasp - Missing RA, LA, RT, LL, H Total Value 1,644,000 To Repair: 900,000 Current Value: 744,000

Trebuchet - RL, LL gone. Hand Actuator needs replaced Total Value: 4,383,000 To Repair: 550,000 Current Value: 4,828,000

Body Parts

Locust LA - 100,000
Victor RA, LA - 700,000 (inc AC20)
Spider H, RT, RL, Engine - 1,600,000
Goliath H, Left Front Leg, Right Rear Leg - 800,000


Total Value of all Salvage:

29,232,926

We get half that: 14,616,463

And we can take that much from the salvage

Ideally, I can take the Awesome, Trebuchet, Jenner variant and Grand Dragon. One of each class of mech (Assault, medium, light and heavy, in that order). Unfortunately, I’m about a million over. What do I want the most?

I want the Awesome first. No question there. Assault mech badly damaged so it doesn’t take much of our money. I really want the Grand Dragon too. It’s a nice design and Combine only, so its hard to find on the market.

I have a ton of light mechs on my squads, but the Jenner is one of the best. On the other hand, the Trebuchet is just a perfectly designed fire support mech. Let’s go with the Trebuchet. I’ll also take the Wasp that is missing just the head and leg. I also have enough money left over to pull the Goliath rear leg.

To fix the salvaged mechs: 4,525,000
To repair and rearm my mechs: 750,000

They give me 50% of armor and ammo: 375,000
Salvage: 14,616,463

Current War Chest: 11,159,505

[Tellistto]

Nice to have this back, really enjoying it. That was some very nice salvage you got there. Not sure you even have pilots to get all those mechs moving right now.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks!


LEVEL UP.

Su Yuan, originally of our Goliath, has notched four kills, which we will us to increase her gunnery. Michael Adkins, rocking the Centurion, has gotten eight kills. His piloting skill increases and he is not considered veteran.

[Abe Sargent]

September 18, 3034 - Our retainer contract ends with the FRR and they choose not to use the Emergency Powers Clause to extend it. All of the main planets have been captured, and most ronin units are destroyed or surrendered.

The FRR employed eight mercenary units during the Ronin Wars, and we and one other unit are the only ones that acted honorably. Many units used unusual and vague language in their contracts to avoid battles and assignments. A couple even savaged local citizen populations. The FRR had no experience in negotiating contracts, and therefore did poorly. In our final battle on Kempton, I chose to join that battle, we were not required too by our contract.

The FRR is turning hostile to mercs. I was going to activate an event claiming the FRR’s hostility to mercs. When they were rolled as the Inner Sphere hiring entity, I would have to roll a second time, and only if I got them twice in a row would they make an offer, otherwise it would be whoever the second die roll landed on. Due to our assistance in clearing out three planets, Rasalhague, Kandis and Kempton, and our willingness to help out in battle despite not being required to by contract, this event will not apply to any unit of Kilts and Commandos.

December 7, 3034 - The Kilts company of Kilts and Commandos has arrived back at Outreach.

[Abe Sargent]

Time to switch back to the Commandos company.


June 17, 3034 - The Commandos company arrived on Outreach. Ted Izumo does a couple of recruiting sessions. His recruiting efforts fail.

Time for contracts.



Our new Merc Rolling Chart for the Inner Sphere:

Merc Rolling Chart – Mid 3030s


2 Free Worlds League
3 Duchy of Andurien
4 St. Ives Compact
5 Capellan Confederation
6 Lyran Commonwealth
7 Federated Suns
8 Free Worlds League
9 Free Rasalhague Republic
10 ComStar
11 Draconis Combine
12 Lyran Commonwealth

As you can see, I added the FRR to the list and the Duchy of Andurien got knocked down from 9 to 3, a much less likely number. The last Capellan world held by the Duchy, Palladaine, the world we once held for them, has fallen to Capellan troops. No mercenaries are crazy enough to take an offer from them, considering the weight of the Free Worlds League will eventually be brought against their wayward Duchy.

[Abe Sargent]

We get two offers. One is from a corporation that wants us for an Extraction contract. We also get an offer from a Periphery state, the Marian Hegemony, for a Guerrilla contract.

Each of these are new for us, so let’s go over them. An Extraction contact differs from an Objective Raid. The goal of an Objective Raid is a smash. The goal of an Extraction is a grab. We are charged with grabbing a person, item or cache of items that have value.

A Guerilla contract is the most challenging and dangerous mission out there. You are dropped in behind enemy lines and train guerillas, occasionally do raids, and more as needed. You are expected to operate without any support or reinforcements for long periods of time. Frankly, the fact that the periphery thinks I am going to travel a long time to do one of the most difficult contracts from one of the stingiest employers is crazy. No thanks.

Let me roll to see who my corporate employer is and where they are from.

It is a Cappellan Confederation company. Military company. Makes Battlemechs.

An old contact in the Cappellan Confederation is now working for Ceres Metals Industries, stationed on the old homeworld of Capella. Ceres makes several mechs and vehicles for the Cappellan Confederation including the House Liao exclusive Vindicator. Due to my previous association with Liao, they have offered my unit a contract.

Due to the distribution of the Helm Memory Core, a Star League Defense Force computer core found on the Marik world of Helm, by the Grey Death Legion (a premier mercenary unit) that has all SLDF LosTech encoded on it, Ceres has been working from the blueprints to make LosTech anew. However, they have been having trouble replicating some of the parts for the Medium Pulse Laser.

Ceres Metals Industries has placed various corporate spies in other companies and factories, and one has reported a case of vintage Star League era Medium Pulse Lasers on a planet deep in Steiner space. Getting actual Medium Pulse Lasers in their hands to take apart and examine would really help facilitate the process. They cannot send any units from the CCAF because the planet is far away, would be unsupported, and could be seen as an act of aggression, which is something House Liao wants to avoid right now. Therefore, they are contracting us to land on the planet, find the case of Medium Pulse Lasers, and then bring them back.

Here is the catch. Ceres Metals Industries will NOT be paying us for the retrieval of the case of MPLs. Instead, we can keep half of what the case contains, and then turn over the other half. They are sending a liaison along with us. In other words, this is more like bounty hunting than actually doing a contract.

We launch for New Kyoto, which is one jump away from major Steiner worlds like Solaris and Hesperus II.

[Abe Sargent]

July 27, 3034 - We arrive in New Kyoto. Doering Electronics is here on planet making Medium Pulse Lasers, and they occasionally use the older ones from the storage cases as samples. That’s why we were sent here. We are two jumps from the Free Worlds League border, but Marik has barely made any noise, so there are not any major troops assigned to New Kyoto. The company has a garrison of a company of mechs.

Our liaison tells us that the case is in a Doering Electronics warehouse on the outskirts of one of their industrial complexes on planet. As we begin marching towards Doering, the garrison is summoned to stop us.

We are fighting at an industrial park.


Doering Electronics Garrison

Ostscout
Shadow Hawk
Trebuchet
Commando
Awesome
Locust
Ostsol
Phoenix Hawk x2
Atlas
Javelin
Hunchback

There are three mechs made from the Ostmann factory back in the Star League era, which was destroyed in the Succession Wars. The Ostscout, Ostroc and Ostsol. Of those, the Ostroc is alright, but the Ostscout and Ostsol aren’t that good. These guys are rare, so if I can can get a chance to score one, I’ll be happy. The Ostsol is a 60 ton heavy mech with 5/8 movement, two large lasers, four medium lasers, with two facing the rear, 16 heat sinks and 9 tons of armor. That’s about three tons too light for me, because I want max armor on my 50-55-60-65 ton mechs so that they can stand up to the big boys if needed. It has enough heat sinks to fire both large lasers and not take any heat if it is standing still.

That Atlas is nasty. Both the Atlas and the Hunchback feature slow plodding mechs with solid armor and AC20s. The Atlas has a ton of other weapons at 100 tons, the 50 Hunchy has nothing else except a few backup lasers.

I am facing two assaults, one heavy, five mediums, and four lights. I’d prefer a lighter party, but I am happy with the higher end of things.

In case you forgot in the amount of time its been since I played this company, I have three assault mechs of my own, a Stalker, Awesome and Longbow, but I only have one heavy mech, the crappy Rifleman, after our Orion was destroyed in the last battle. That pilot is now at the helm of the Awesome, featuring three PPCs, 28 heat sinks, and that’s it. I roll and the Doering pilots are regular troops.

We arrive at the warehouse compounds just a few minutes before the mechs do. Good, it will give us a chance to set up and…uh oh. The doors burst out from several buildings and tanks are moving out. Our liaison did not tell us about vehicles! A company of tanks are moving out!

We have a company of vehicles here now. At the beginning of round six, the mechs will be arriving. We have to devastate the vehicles as quickly as possible if we have any chance of overcoming two companies of forces against us. I roll, and the tank garrison comes back as green. That’s a bit of a relief.

[law90026]

Grats on the salvage.

I'm assuming you're keeping the units separate so that it's easier to handle the fights? Battalion level fights would seem to be a real bitch to resolve.

[Abe Sargent]

They are. Megamek slows down the more units on the field.

[Abe Sargent]

One of our Panthers causes a building to collapse when he jumped on it. Ah well. He falls and takes some light damage to leg and arm. Ted takes out a Scorpion Light Tank on the first turn by taking out its front side. The Awesome destroys the Schrek PPC Carrier by destroying its right side. Well, that was a good first turn. We took out their most powerful tank, the Schrek, and then destroyed a light tank too. If we can keep this up, then we can eliminate most of the tanks by the time the mechs arrive. Ted’s Stalker then kicks and destroys a Condor Heavy Tank’s power plant, causing it to explode. Make it three then.

I stand up the Panther and move my men around. Ted destroys a Stalker Light Tank’s right side. Our Panther falls after taking the damage. Then Ted kicks and destroys the front side of the Galleon Light Tank. That’s four kills for Ted in two turns. Nice.

I stand the Panther back up. On this turn, we just exchange fire with various vehicles.

The RA of my Wasp is taken out on the next turn. Our Cicada takes out the Partisan Heavy tank, the other assault tank.

It’s round 5. This is the final round before the mechs arrive. We need to kill a maximum number of tanks this turn. The Longbow destroys a Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun. Destroyed the front side.

Well, the opposing mechs have arrived. I managed to take out both assault tanks, the one with the AC20, and a few minor ones here and there. I’ll try to finish some of the tanks quickly, in order to focus my fire later on more dangerous targets.

The Cicada destroys a Bulldog Medium Tank’s front section. The Awesome blows off the LL of the Trebuchet, upon which we concentrated a lot of our fire.

The Trebuchet fails to stand and falls again. Ted hits hit actuators on the LA and RA of the Trebuchet. Our Awesome hits their Javelin in its head with a PPC and the mech crumbles to the ground. One mech down.

I order the Cicada to charge the Atlas. Ted hit’s the Commando’ gyro twice, and blows off its RT and its RA falls to the ground. That’s another kill for Ted (double gyro hit). This guy is a killing machine today. The Longbow destroys the left and right arms of the Trebuchet. Their Atlas falls after taking some significant damage. The Longbow kicks and destroys a Goblin Medium Tank’s right side. The charge of the Cicada is canceled since the Atlas fell.

The Trebuchet is out of weapons except for one LRM15 kept in a torso. The Atlas is damaged. We’ve killed one mech a turn. Most of the tanks have been wiped up. They begin to get desperate. They stand their Atlas up. The Trebuchet tries to stand up, falls down, hits its gyro, and the pilot blacks out. Their Awesome hit’s the ammo in one of my Panther’s and it blows up. The pilot ejects safely. Our Phoenix Hawk kicks and destroys the rear armor of the Harasser Missile Platform. Hassan Mohommad gets a kill in his first action with us.

The 10th round arrives. It sucks that I lost a Panther, but I hope to make up for it. I order the Cicada to charge the Awesome. Ted hit’s a pair of actuators on the Atlas’s LA. Their Ostsol destroys the LL of the Cicada. It falls hard. The Hunter Light Support Tank destroys the crew of the Pike Support Vehicle, but its treads were all shot, I’ll still have to repair them. The Locust ran around behind the Ostscout and fired, hitting two gyro shots through the thin rear armor. It falls and it is out of the battle. Their Atlas kicks the LT off our Cicada and the LA is laying on the ground. Their Awesome misses a kick and falls. Their Trebuchet pilot wakes back up.

I eject the Cicada pilot. The mech is toast for now. The Trebuchet pilot blacks out again after standing and falling. Their Atlas opens up the arm on the Locust and hit two actuators and a machine gun. My favorite Stalker pilot, Ted Izumo, hit’s the Atlas in the head and destroys it. Dead Atlas. However, I savaged it before it fell. LT Destroyed, LA fell off. 2 hits on engine from Griffin. Hit on gyro from Longbow. Their Hunchback hit’s the Stinger with an AC20 in the LA, blowing it and the LT off,a nd going critical on the center torso and hitting a gyro. One hit did all that. The Stinger falls. The Stinger is kicked by the Hunchy in the CT and that section is destroyed. The Stinger is possibly recoverable, but gone for now.

Our Longbow hit’s the foot actuator of their Awesome. As a consequence, it falls again. Our Longbow is out of LRM ammo. Just trying to zap people with its Medium lasers now. Our Awesome destroys the RT of their Awesome, and the RA drops too. That’s two PPCs down. The Longbow kicks and destroys the RL of their Locust.

Their Phoenix Hawk gets lucky with its large laser and sheers the head off our Longbow. It falls silently to the ground and Garman Lopez, a veteran pilot, has died. Ted hits two more leg actuators on their Awesome. The Rifleman hits their Awesome’s engine twice. Then our Awesome destroys its LL. It falls, bang. It is internal everywhere, there is not a section that has external armor except in its rear. It is only missing an arm, torso section and leg right now, however.

The Hunter tank is out of ammo so I order it to flee. I try to run my Jav variant behind a Phoenix Hawk and skid right off the map. It’s gone for the scenario. Their Locust on the ground tries to get up, fails, and falls back down, blacking out. Ted is out of LRM ammo in his Stalker. The Rifleman is out of AC5 ammo. Ted destroys the RL of the Awesome. With both legs blown out, it’s not going anywhere. Our Griffin’s LA is destroyed. Their Ostsol is taking some heat, so it falls under the assault. Our Phoenix Hawks kicks and hit’s the hip actuator on the Shadow Hawk. It trips and falls, injuring its AC5.

Their Hunchy charges my Awesome out of desperation and fires the final shot in its AC20. It blasts through the injured LL of the Awesome and our mech falls. Our Phoenix Hawk kicks and destroys the Shadow Hawk’s RL. I run with my Panther to get behind a Phoenix Hawk, and it also slips and slides off the map. Gone for the battle. Been unlucky with that. Their Shadow Hawk hits two jump jets in our Phoenix Hawk. Our Phoenix Hawk responds, destroying the SH’s RA. After taking a ton of damage, their Ostsol falls and hits its gyro once and engine twice. The Phoenix Hawk kicks and destroys the Shadow Hawk’s LA.

Their Phoenix Hawk blows off its right arm when it tries to land on a building, and it collapses beneath it. The LA is laying on the ground (one of those “limb blows off” criticals). Our Awesome destroys the LA of the Ostsol.

Our Griffin destroys the RA of the Ostsol. The Motorized Rifle Platoon kills the crew of the Vedette, taking out the final tank.

The following turn the Motorized Rifle Platoon kills the Ostsol by destroying its LT and CT. Our Griffin shears off a Phoenix Hawk’s head. That was the good Phoenix hawk. It falls down. Two more mechs dead.

And with that, they radio us to concede. They withdraw and the warehouse is ours.

[Abe Sargent]

We got a ton of vehicle salvage, which is good because I lost some mechs to get it. Normally, vehicles blow up or get destroyed beyond repair, but when their side is destroyed, there is a very good chance of recovery (Not guaranteed, but a good chance, I only need to roll a 5). Vehicles are fragile but recoverable as long as you don’t destroy it through a fuel tank rupture or power plant explosion.

We open up the warehouse and find several cases. In one are the aged Medium Pulse Lasers. We take the rest for our unit and leave.

Salvage:

Scorpion Light Tank

Schrek PPC Carrier

Strilker Light Tank

Galleon Light Tank

Partisan Heavy Tank

Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun

Bulldog Medium Tank

Goblin Medium Tank

Pike Support Vehicle - fix treads

Vedette Medium Tank



Awesome, LL, RL, RT - All PPCs hit. Engine x2

Ostscout, Gyrox2, engine

Trebuchet, LL, RA, LA, gyro

Locust - RL

Javelin - H

Commando, gyrox2, LT

Atlas, H, gyro, enginex2, LT

Stinger - LA, LT, CT?

Ostsol - CT? LA, RA, LT


Parts:

Panther RA
LRM10
Phoenix Hawk LA


To Be Fixed:

Wasp RA

Cicada LL, LT

Locust two actuators, destroyed MG

Longbow, H

Griffin LA

Awesome LL

Phoenix Hawk two jump jets

[Abe Sargent]

Two green vehicle crews are willing to join us in case I am interested. None of the MW’s were interested in doing so.


I roll to determine how many MPL’s were in the case. Normally, you’d find 20 in a case, but Doering had used up several. Let me roll. I rolled 11 MPLs. They get six, and we get five.

Medium Pulse Laser - One of the LosTech weapons, a MPL weighs twice as much as a Medium Laser and has 33% less range (2/4/6) and makes four heat instead of three. However, it fires at -2 accuracy, making it much easier to hit with them, and does 20% more damage.

I can try to unload these on the market or use them to splice onto my mechs.

We also got three other crates from the warehouse. Let me look up and see what Doering makes on New Kyoto, hold on. They all have communications and tacking systems for mechs. Worth 50k each, and there are five per box. That means we salvaged 750k of communications systems which I will sell for 650k on the market.


Since we are not under a real contract, there is no support, salvage rights, transport reimbursement, and so forth. So we can keep all salvage but we have to pay everything out of pocket.

Alright, let’s do some math:

To repair all tanks (Armor and ammo): 650,000

To repair our mechs: 1,810,000

To rearm and refit our mechs: 920,000 (Not including Stinger)

To repair, refit and rearm salvaged mechs:

950,000 - Awesome
1,200,000 for Ostscout
630,000 for Trebuchet
180,000 for Locust
440,000 for Javelin
835,000 for Commando
1,460,000 for Atlas
1,165,000 for Stinger
1,780,000 for Ostsol

Total Cost to Fix all Salvaged Mechs: 8,640,000

Other Costs:

450,000 to get there
625,000 to get back (we had to rent a bigger DropShip to carry all of this stuff)
181,463 upkeep on unit

I have to pay these costs first. I also pay the costs to refit and fix our mechs.

I then sell the communications gear for 650k.

Now I need to get a few mechs up and running to replace those damaged. I fix up the Locust, Javelin, Trebuchet and Awesome.

Current War Chest: 514,878

[Abe Sargent]

EXPERIENCE - Ted Izumo got seven kills in the action, and that takes him to eleven. His piloting skill increases by one and he is now officially elite.

[Abe Sargent]

September 10, 3034 - We arrive back in Outreach and our liaison continues on to Ceres Metals Industries with the six Medium Pulse Lasers. I’m not going to do anything with our five MPLs for now, just sit on them.


Ted makes an executive decision. The creation of the Kilts and Commandos Tank Company. We move Erik Jannarsson and the Hunter Light Support Tank to the new company.

Ted begins to recruit dispossessed vehicle crew. He hires an elite dispossessed named Sun Xiang to supervise the unit. The other Sergeants are veteran Monique D’Avignon and Betty Victor. We hire a lot of dispossessed between Ted and Sun Xiang. Most are vets, a few regulars and elites tossed it.

October 10, 3034 - After spending a month recruiting, and we get 1,000,000 in C-Bills from the Kilts Company as seed money for our new command. Sun Xiang begins by trying to find a good contract for the vehicle company. They get two offers. One contract is from a corporation who wants Sun Xiang to participate in combat in an Objective Raid, but I see this company as more of a company that sits back and draws a salary while letting the mechs do the work. Luckily, we got a contract from the Free Worlds League for a garrison contract.

[Abe Sargent]

Sun has 55 points for negotiation. He puts up length of service. They offer two years.

The FWL negotiator puts up support and offers straight support, at 70% which pulls out ten points from the pool.

Sun puts up salvage rights. They offer no salvage, Sun manages to counter with Exchange rights (Exchange rights is like Shared rights only there is no 50/50, the FWL gets all the material and the mercs get that amount of money in Exchange). This costs five points, putting us at 40.

They put up remuneration and offer it to us, pulling out another 10 points.

Sun puts up transport. They offer 40% reimbursement and we gain 15 points. 45 points remaining.

They put up salary and pull 25 points to offer a 3.4 modifier.

Sun rolls with the final item, Command rights. They offer House command, and Sun accepts, adding 5 points.

He finishes with 25 points, so the company will get a 12.5% signing bonus of the full salary value of the contract. I can calculate that now.

Salary is two years. Value is 1,099,837. Bonus is 137,439, which we get right now.

They will be garrisoning the Marik world of Merak, a non-descript little world five jumps away. Sun Xiang’s company lands on November 24, 3034, and will be on planet until November 24, 3036.

[Abe Sargent]

The Commando Company, led by Ted Izumo also looks for a contract. They get two offers.

Offer #1: The Lyran Commonwealth wants the company for an Objective Raid.

Offer #2: The Capellan Confederation is also offering an Objective Raid.

The Capellan Target is the Duchy of Andurien, hitting one of their worlds as revenge. Since the decree went out from the Mariks not to take any systems in the Duchy or the FWL would consider it an act of war, the Caps have to console themselves with the occasional raid.

The Lyran Target is a planet in the newly formed Free Rasalhague Republic. Although they are distancing themselves from the Ronin Wars, they did lost some planets to the new FRR. As such, they want some installation that was once theirs destroyed so the Rasalhague forces won’t use it against them later.

The irony is that both targets are against a minor Inner Sphere power we were aligned with for a major conflict. I feel a little hinky about attacking either this soon after working for them in their plights against the great houses.

I decide to wait a month. Ted can use the time recruiting dispossessed warriors for the unit. Then perhaps a better contract will come down the pike.

[Abe Sargent]

November 10, 3034 - Ted recruits one elite and one veteran dispossessed.

Meet:

Aaron Cohen, elite, assigned to Longbow

Thad Karamanlis, veteran, assigned to Trebuchet.

There is also an unmanned Locust but Ted can only make two recruit rolls per session and was unable to find a third dispossessed MechWarriors.

[Abe Sargent]

New offers:

Offer #1: Federated Suns, Objective raid

Offer #2: St Ives Compact, Cadre

A Cadre contract lasts between six and twelve months and is training of local militia. That’s it, you aren’t even contracted to fight against any attackers (unless you also do a security or garrison contract). It’s considered the lightest possible duty for a merc.

I like the combat. I set up a meeting with the Davion negotiator.

We have 74 points in the negotiation.

Ted puts up salvage. He wants to take care of it right up front. They offer Exchange and he counters with Shared. 64 points

They offer command rights and give us full independent commands. 54 points.

Ted tosses up length. They offer five months, he drops them to two. 39 points.

They put up remuneration and offer it. Pulling out another 10 points. 29 points.

Ted puts up transport. They offer 40% reimbursement and Ted accepts. 44 points.

They offer support rights. They offer straight support at 50%. Ted switches to Battle Loss Compensation at 50%. 9 points.

Ted puts up salary. They offer 2.8 multiplier, taking out all of our points.


Target?

Draconis Combine.

Planet?

Sulafat - Three jumps into Drac space from the Fed Suns border. It is seven jumps away from Outreach., two away from the Free Rasalhague Republic. Let me roll up a target. It’s a boring world, so no factories, or anything like that.

Davion has word that an experimental new Draconis Combine design, cased on the old Charger, is being field tested on Sulafat. He wants us to land on the planet, find the experimental new design, and then bring it back for study. One of the worst kept secrets is that Hanse Davion sees the Ronin Wars as a sign of the continued weakness of the DCMS. They were decimated in the Fourth Succession War and now 20% have defected and the rest are fighting among themselves. Hanse is obviously preparing for war, and he wants us to find the Hatamato, destroy it, and bring the pieces back to him.

He has to send a mercenary unit to get it. With the Ronin Wars winding down, he needs their cover and confusion to get the mech without anyone knowing it was him. It has to be a smaller merc unit, not one of the big ones like Kell Hounds or Wolf’s Dragoons or Grey Death Legion. Those would be too obvious. Therefore, he is contracting our Company Two, a small unit of mechs designed to sneak in, grab the mech, and burn out before we encounter too much resistance.

If Inner Sphere military technology were on a parabola, there would be a centuries-long bottom at the base of the parabola, but we are beginning to get out. The discovered Helm Memory Core is beginning to yield results in the testing factories. In 3010, something happened that had not happened in over 100 years. The first new mech design was introduced, the Merlin. Since then, slowly, new designs have been making their mark. The Lyran Commonwealth debuted the Hatchetman in 3023. The Fed Suns introduced the Wolfhound in 3030. The Cataphract was designed by House Liao and put out a lot of designs for them before the planet was captured by House Davion, who is now making them for themselves.

The fact that the Draconis Combine is testing a new mech design is nothing unusual. However, this new mech, based on the Charger chassis, is supposedly based in part on LosTech from the Helm Memory Core.

[Abe Sargent]

December 29, 3034 - Ted pays some extra money for transport in order to get on a merchant DropShip instead of the normal commercially available military DropShips. They land in an industrial DropPort on the planet, and no one knows that Ted’s mechs are on board. Hearing that Braham Essex was heading back to Outreach, Ted left three mechs back on Outreach along with their MechWarriors, and is only taking twelve mechs with him. Staying behind are the unmanned Locust, Trebuchet and Phoenix Hawk, plus all of the damaged mechs not fixed.

The twelve MechWarriors and infantry spread out, heading to various taverns and such.

This is a good planet for Theodore Kurita to have as his experimental unit. He has a regiment of mechs here, all manned. They are very loyal to him, so he doesn’t have to worry about them going off and joining the ronin cause. They are close enough to be of use in the Ronin Wars if needed, but also far away and on a minor planet.

January 3, 3035 - One of our soldiers has overheard some of their MechWarriors talking about a new mech design. Their lips were loosened by alcohol. The mech designs are supposedly right near here.

January 5, 3035 - It is nighttime, and we suspect that the opponent is likely to be caught off guard. Combat is harder now, with all shots getting +2 to their target number. I order the men to warm up the mechs and the DropShip crew to get it ready for take off, in case we are fleeing from the Dracs.

We head out, intent to find a company of mechs on patrol through the industrial area of the planet. I send out my scout mechs to try to find their location. Anna Cafincelli in the Cicada radios back that she has made contact with twelve mechs. I hear weapons fire, but she escapes unscathed, protected by he speed, the hills, and the poor accuracy of long range combined with night operations.

The troops are ordered to advance, and then Ted makes a terrible discovery. There are twelve mechs on patrol, no question. But they are ALL the new experimental mech. As he sees their formation come around a hill, he is forced to make a decision.

We could push in, and fight twelve assault mechs, all with level two equipment and lily to have top of the line pilots. Or we can retreat.

Ted is no fool. This was not what we were contracted for. He immediately orders a retreat. Cover fire with energy weapons is laid down, although few hit either side as the range and darkness prevent deadlier aim.

He radios the DropShip and tells them he is coming in hot. They load up, and the advancing Dracs would rather let the enemy go than risk damage to the valuable industrial infrastructure.

Two tons of armor is needed to replace the minor damage dealt at extreme range.

This is a failed mission.

[Abe Sargent]

February 18, 3035 - We land back at Outreach. We forward some pictures of the unknown mech to the Fed Suns. A look at the financial implications of the journey:

700,000 there
700,000 back
210,168 upkeep of unit.
20,000 armor


560,000 transport reimbursement
10,000 support
12,742 remuneration

No Salary - did not complete mission.

Total Loss: 1,047,926

[Tellistto]

Oh, that would have hurt to face 12 assault mechs, smart smart move to back out of that one, even with the loss and failed mission.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, that would have hurt to face 12 assault mechs, smart smart move to back out of that one, even with the loss and failed mission.

Tell

Yeah. I make a roll in every mission where we are given intel to see how true it is. Then if it is false, I roll to see how far off it is. The Davions thought there was one Hatamato made. Apparently, they were really, really wrong.

[Abe Sargent]

December 7, 3034 - The Kilts company arrives back at Outreach from their extended tour of duty on retainer for the Free Rasalhague Republic. They arrive and Braham decides to split forces to make a third mech company. He will transfer over Stacey Stowers and her Wasp. The Awesome will stay in Company One. The Phoenix Hawk in the Anvil Lance is transferred to the Thunder Lance. This will give the Kilts Company just one assault mech.

The Kilts Company is now rated B on the Dragoon’s Mercenary Ratings, and the average experience level is veteran. Right now, let’s see what kind of pilot Braham can get for the Awesome.

Braham can make three recruit attempts and Adele one.


Mechs with Pilots and ready to Go:

Phoenix Hawk
Trebuchet
Wasp

Mechs Ready to Go:

Locust
Wasp
Grand Dragon
Ostscout
Commando
Flea
Trebuchet

Mechs to be Fixed:


1,200,000 for Ostscout
835,000 for Commando
1,460,000 for Atlas
1,165,000 for Stinger
1,780,000 for Ostsol


Vet dispossessed
Elite dispossessed
Elite dispossessed
Elite dispossessed

Well, that was good. Braham taps one of the elite dispossessed for the Awesome variant in his unit. The others will be assigned to Company Three. Meet:

Edgar Lopez, elite, Awesome 8T, Kilts Company

Cristina Fernandez, veteran, Trebuchet, 3rd company

Elizabeth Smythe, elite, 3rd company

Jason Thomas, elite, 3rd company

[Abe Sargent]

I have not assigned the pair of elites yet. Elizabeth Smythe will be the company’s lieutenant. Elizabeth, as the leader of a unit, can make one roll per recruiting session for her unit. She rolls and gets a veteran dispossessed MW. Meet Janice Flanders, she is assigned the Grand Dragon.

I order the extra Wasp, Stinger and Flea sold. We have too many light mechs for my taste. I make 4,200,000 on their sales. With that money, I fix the Atlas and Ostsol and give the Atlas to Elizabeth Smythe as her command mech. She is very happy (as any MechWarrior would be to get the daddy of the field).

We stay here for a month to do some more recruiting, and to put the Medium Pulse Lasers on some mechs.

Next month’s recruiting:

Braham:

Maeve Vega, regular, Catapult, 3rd Company
Orpah Jones, elite, dispossessed, 3rd Company assigned to Ostscout and promoted to Sergeant
Lois Cooper, veteran, Hatchetman, 3rd Company
Chiang Xe, elite, dispossessed, 3rd Company, assigned to Locust
John Abram, green, Griffin, 3rd Company

I give the Ostsol to Sergeant Jason Thomas

[Abe Sargent]

The final picture of Company Three:


Looks like the chart I had didn't come out. Let me write this up for you quickly.


Anvil Lance:

Lieutenant Elizabeth Smythe, Atlas
Janice Flanders, Grand Dragon
Lois Cooper, Hatchetman
John Abram, Griffin


Hammer Lance:

Sergeant Jason Thomas, Ostsol
Thad Karamanlis, Trebuchet
Cristina Fernendez, Trebuchet
Maeve Vega, Catapult


Thunder Lance:

Sergeant Orpah Jones, Ostscout
Hassan Mohommad, Phoenix Hawk
Chiang Xe, Locust
Stacey Stowers, Wasp

[Abe Sargent]

Now I am going to use my month in Outreach for fixing up a mech or two with LosTech.

Company Three is now officially named the Trinity Company.

Because Braham Essex is now in charge of four companies, three mechs, he is promoted to Captain.

Trinity Company is looking pretty good, with an average experience level of veteran. With a solid number of good mechs, like an Atlas, two Trebuchets, and a Catapult, it looks pretty capable.

[Abe Sargent]

I’m going to edit the Phoenix Hawk 1D variant:

I want to pull off the Large Laser, two medium lasers, and replace with three medium pulse lasers and a ton of armor. Here we go, let’s start with the LA ML, pulling it off, period. That works.

Now I want to pull the LL and ML out of the RA. That works.

Normally I’d just replace them in the arms, but I don’t want to lose my LosTech by getting am arm shot off.

I put one MPL in the Center Torso. The Original P. Hawk design calls for a ton of Mg ammo here, so we are off by one degree (tonnage) but not the other (critical). This works.

Now I want to put a MPL in the Head. This is a new placement. Off by two degrees, I order my techs to take two weeks with this change (giving me +2 to the roll). It succeeds.

Finally, I want to put a MPL in the RT. This is a new placement. I order my techs to take another two weeks (the full month taken up by these changes). This works.

Adding a ton of armor to the mech is easy to balance out. Our final Design:

Phoenix Hawk 1Abe

9 tons of armor (max amount)
6/9/6 movement
12 heat sinks
3 MPL


This allows us to jump behind other mechs, and despite the big hit for jumping, have accuracy in the back attack. I decide to swap Griffin and Phoenix Hawk pilots. The new Phoenix Hawk pilot is Justine Dempsey, who is 3/5 as a pilot. Samia Oudghiri, a 4/5 pilot is moving to the Griffin. Thus, our LosTech mech is in the hand of a better gunner.

[Abe Sargent]

We still have

1,200,000 for Ostscout
835,000 for Commando
1,165,000 for Stinger

In the bays. I order them sent to our home base in Epsilon Eridani.


Alright, let’s roll up some contracts for the Kilts and Trinity Companies.


January 10, 3035 -

Kilts Company:

Offer #1: ComStar want us for a Defensive Contract

Offer #2: Fed Suns want an Objective Raid.


I’ll take, hmm. Defensive Campaign Contracts are tough. Typically if an asset is under assault and extra forces are needed to shore up defense, that a Relief Contract. Instead, a Defensive Campaign is expecting you to fight a delaying campaign against attackers until reinforcements can arrive. You are operating without supply, reinforcement, with the intent to delay harass and tie down your opponent until another can arrive. I can’t imagine doing that for a campaign. Ick.

So I’m going with the Fed Suns most likely. They want us to attack the Caps. Again. We’ve attacked the Caps before for Davion.

They want us to land and attack a small military outpost on No Return, another minor system among many. No Return is near the Davion-Capellan border, but with their military infrastructure still near the Andurien-Capellan Border and working to subdue minor riots and terrorism in the areas taken by the Duchy and recently recaptured, their defenses are disrupted, and lighter except on planets anticipated as targets for any new strike by House Davion. No Return is not expected to be a target of an attack, so it is lightly defended. Davion wants us to land, destroy any defenders, and take out the military outpost. They hope that by having us strike at that planet, Capellan Confederation Armed Forces (CCAF) will have to garrison it with more troops, thus pulling them out from others.

We’ll take it. Time for negotiation.

[Abe Sargent]

We start with 104 points. Let’s see what we can do with it:

We put up support first. They offer straight support, and I counter with 50% battle loss compensation. 69 points left.

They put up remuneration and pull out ten points for that.

I put up Support while we still have over 50 points, in case they offer Shared Rights. Then I can counter with full salvage. They offer Exchange, and we counter with Shared. 49 points left.

They offer us a 3.7 salary. 24 points.

I put up length. They offer a four month contract, and I dicker them to two months. 14 points.

They offer independent command to pull out ten more points.

Finally I put up transport rights. They offer 40% reimbursement, giving us 15 points and putting us at 19. I counter it up to 50%, and we end with 14 points, giving us a 7% signing bonus.

I take it.

[Abe Sargent]

Trinity Company:

Offer #1: Lyran wants a Garrison contract. No thanks

Offer #2: The Taurian Condordat wants a garrison contract. No thanks.

Offer #3: The Free Worlds League wants a Security contract. Hmm. Where?

Drusibacken, a minor planet is in the heart of the Free Worlds League is part of the Ohren Province, but past most of their holdings. It’s about eight jumps away. The FWL has had problems with small planets declaring independence in the wake of the Andurien declaration, and they expect that independently minded rebels to attack in the next few months due to the distance between the heart of the Ohren Province. It will take a while to get regular military to the planet, so Marik wants to get some mercenaries to secure the world until major troops arrive. There might not even be a rebellion, but if there is, we need to be there.

Since the other two contracts suck, we’ll be taking this one.

We have 66 points to play with. We start with length of contract. They offer six months, and we can drop that to four, but no further. 56 points.

They put salary on the table and immediately take out 25 points and give us a 3.4 salary modifier. 31 points left.

I toss up salvage before it comes off. They offer Exchange Rights. After consideration, I decide to take it. I want to save points for somewhere else. 36 points.

They put up Command rights, and offer a liaison, 36 points.

I put up transport. They offer 40% compensation. I counter it up to 50%. 46 points.

They put up remuneration and offer it to us. 36 points.

We put up support and they offer straight support. I counter with battle loss at 50%, 1 point left.

0.5% bonus.



Let’s play with the Trinity Company first, I want to get my hands wet.

[Abe Sargent]

March 20, 3035 - Trinity Company arrives at Drusibachen and is here for four months. Us and a local militia are the only forces on the planet. In four months, Marik forces will arrive to secure the location. What I will do is roll each month. On a result of 8 or higher, a result will take place during that month.

Month One - Rolled a 7. Nothing.

Month Two - Rolled a 10. Riot.

The local militia is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As such, they join the opposition and we have to fight against them.


We have the following enemies:

Chameleon
MAD-3M Marauder
Griffin
Wolverine 6M
Ostroc
Atlas
Hermes II
Stinger
Hunchback
Wasp
Locust 1M
Shadow Hawk
Rifleman

They have a company of mechs, and a local had found a Chameleon mech. I roll and the troops are regular (except for the Chameleon which is green). Chameleons are a 50 ton mech designed for training exercises. Simulation pods can only get you so for. The mech has long and short range weapons and good speed., plus jumping.

I’m surprised that it took me so long to roll up a Marauder. It’s a pretty common mech at 75 tons. It normally packs a pair of PPCs, an AC5 and a couple of medium lasers. It also lacks heat sinks with just 16. This variant swaps the PPCs for large lasers enabling it to add four heat sinks.

The Locust 1M variant is that crappy one with the two LRM5s and one ton of armor.

The Ostroc is the third of the rare Ostmann mechs, but it is more common than the other two, and the blueprints have been purchased by another firm, perhaps to build them again one day. It’s a 60 ton mech with an LRM5, two medium lasers, and two large lasers.

The 6M variant of the Wolverine sports a large laser instead of an AC5. It gets an extra ton of ammo, two extra heat sinks and a second medium laser from the switch. It’s a much better design than the normal one.


We are fighting by the swamps

[Abe Sargent]

Here we go.


On the first turn we exchange fire. I take attacks of opportunity instead of forcing our troops to fight in a certain direction.

Their Stinger skids and falls on the road going through the swamp when he tries to change directions while running. Looks like we’ll be concentrating fire mostly on their Marauder this round. The AC20 on the Atlas blows off the RA of their Ostroc. That’s all that happened.

This turn I’m focusing on the damaged Ostroc. A Trebuchet hit’s the Ostroc’s large laser and LRM5.

A Trebuchet takes out the RT on the Ostroc. Then our Ostsol destroys its Center Torso section and the mech is down. Our Ostscout falls after getting kicked, which is deadly for it. The Chameleon needed to roll a 9 to kick it, and then the Ostscout piloted needed just a 3 to avoid falling and he fell. Crazy.

I stand our Ostscout back up and run it into light woods. Their Marauder slices the head of the Hatchetman and it falls to the ground. That’s a mechwarrior who died in their first outing with us. A Trebuchet hit’s the Marauder’s hip actuator. The Atlas adds a lower leg and foot actuator. The Marauder falls and hit’s the hip and upper leg actuator on the other leg. That mech isn’t going anywhere.

A Trebuchet blasts the RL off their Stinger. The LA of the Marauder is destroyed by the Grand Dragon. Their Stinger falls and takes some damage.

The 7th round arrives. I order the Ostscout to charge the Atlas, it will deal 31 damage to the Atlas if it hits, and take 10 itself. Weapons fire happens first, so if the Ostscout falls or the Atlas does, the attack is canceled. Their Atlas manages to hit a 10 and hits with the AC20 on the Ostscout, tearing off the LT and leaving the LA on the ground. A Trebuchet destroys their Stinger. The Grand Dragon destroys the LT of their Marauder. Their Hermes II hits our Wasp’s RA lower arm actuator and medium laser. Their Atlas misses the kick on the Ostscout and it hits. 31 damage to the Atlas. Afterwards, we both fall down.. Charging is always exciting.

I order the Ostscout to jump up and flee the battlefield. It is far faster than anything else on the field and gets away easily. They are content to focus on me. Our Catapults hit’s the AC20 on the Hunchy. Exchange of fire other than that.

Our Phoenix runs behind their Rifleman’s back and hits an AC5, Large Laser and Medium Laser. Lieutenant Elizabeth Smythe destroys the Marauder’s engine, taking it out of the fight. The Ostsol destroys the Hunchy’s RT, causing its RA to fall off. Then he destroys its center torso.

The next turn, a Trebuchet lights the Hermes II ammo on fire and it explodes. Boom! Our Phoenix just fires two medium lasers and two machine guns at their untouched Locust and hit’s a gyro and engine. We savaged the Atlas that turn.

The next turn, the other Trebuchet destroys the Atlas’s head. More fire is exchanged.

And with that they surrender. The rebels just lost their leader, and have half of their mechs destroyed, with their Rifleman and Locust and Wasp all damaged significantly. Our Atlas is untouched, as is the Grand Dragon, both Trebuchets, and Locust. They know when they are beat, and as rebels, they won’t fight as long as others would. All surrendered mechs are turned over to Marik.

[law90026]

Nice win, ouchie about the Hatchetman dying so quick.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah. I'm currently on an interview in Kuntucky, btw, so I won't be back until Thurs evening.

[Abe Sargent]

Computer broke down, porbably the power supply. Be back when it is.

[Tellistto]

Hope it's nothing more serious. Looking forward to more when you get back up and running again.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

My desktop should be fixied tomorrow tnight and we can get this back on teh road.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Marauder - Engine x3, RT, RA, five actuators.

Hunchback - CT?, RT

Atlas - H

Ostroc - RA, RT, CT?





To Repair:

Hatchetman - H

Ostscout - LT

Wasp - RA actuator and ML.

It will take about 25 tons of armor and a lot of ammo to restock our squad.

25,000 armor
420,000 ammo
10,000 replace ML in Wasp
850,000 replacement parts for Hatchetman and Ostscout.

[Abe Sargent]

We have an Exchange Contract, so I’ll make this quick:

Current Value:

Marauder: 5,630,000
Hunchy: 2,450,000
Ostroc: 3,460,000
Atlas: 8,670,000

Total Value: 20,210,000

We get no salvage, but full value. Too bad I didn’t take full salvage on this one, I’d have gotten a decent Huncy, very good Marauder, Ostroc, and excellent Atlas. Ah well.

Since there was a rebellion and we put it down, the rest of the time goes smoothly.

Money Stuff:

Our Costs:

334,194 - Upkeep for unit for 7 months
675,000 there
675,000 back
1,305,000 ammo, armor and replacement parts

Our Wages:

20,210,000 for exchange rights
675,000 for transport reimbursement
652,500 for battle loss compensation
589,000 for salary
29,450 for remuneration
2,945 for signing bouus

Total Net Profit and War Chest: 19,169,201




July 20, 3035 - Trinity Company leaves for Outreach.

September 30, 3035 - Trinity Company arrives back on Outreach.

[law90026]

Glad to see it's back!

[Tellistto]

Money is good too, though those mechs would have been very nice.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Now we head back to Kilts Company, doing an objective raid for Davion against Liao.


March 3, 3035 - Kilts Company arrives at the No Return system. We begin to drop to the planet.

March 6, 3035 - We are scheduled to land in the forbidding mountains of the eastern continent. It is about a hundred and fifty klicks from the base we decided to assault. The landing is completely uncontested. Huh. I guess I thought we’d have a firefight on our way out.

We get all of our mechs out of the DropShip, and then begin to move down the mountain. All of the sudden, missiles and laser fire dart out from the adjacent hills and attack my troops. It’s an Ambush!


The forces we are facing:
Assassin
Raven x2
Locust x2
Phoenix Hawk
Enforcer
Vindicator
Charger
UrbanMech 60RL variant (packs an AC20 with one ton of ammo)
Warhammer
Rifleman

The Warhammer is another classic mech and I’m surprised that I didn’t roll one until now, but that’s how it goes. It’s a 70 ton heavy mech that features a PPC in each hand, SRM6, just ten tons of armor (its weakness), 18 heat sinks, two medium lasers, two small lasers and two machine guns. 4/6 movement. It was the original iconic mech, with a Warhammer on the first BattleTech basic set cover.

I’m not sure if we’ve encountered an Enforcer yet or not. They are a staple of the Fed Suns, but Liao must have taken one in salvage and now has one on No Return. This 50 ton mech moves 4/6/4, 12 heat sinks, an AC10, Large Laser and small laser with 9 tons of armor.

The Vindicator is the medium mech of choice in the Capellan Confederation. It has an LRM5, PPC and a small laser in the head. It’s alright, but nothing special.

This is a regular unit of experience.

We will begin in the center of the map, and they are on the edges.

There are no trees on the map. It will be hard to hide. We’ll need to push my mechs heat and end this quickly. We won’t have cover.

[Abe Sargent]

Money is good too, though those mechs would have been very nice.

Tell

I always prefer materiel over money if I can get it. You can sell materiel (for about a 10% hit if you need the money immediately). That makes it solid as an asset and better as someone that can fire and destroy and get you more money.

[Abe Sargent]

They are smart. They spread their forces all around us. They could have deployed from just one edge or two, allowing us to create fronts. Instead they will force us to circle, hitting rear armor if they want to. Very , very bad.

I get an opportunity to jump the modified Phoenix Hawk behind the back of their Rifleman. Let’s see if it works as good as I expect it will. Our Phoenix Hawks hit’s the engine and gyro of the Rifleman after penetrating the rear armor. Excellent. First try was a success. Their Urbie destroys the LA of my Orion after hitting with its AC20. Our Champion destroys the LA of a Raven. Our Wolverine misses a kick and falls. The Phoenix Hawk, now with no weapons in its arms, punches twice, and hit’s the Rifleman pilot in the head.

I charge the Urbie with my Orion and blow off its LT, leaving its LA on the ground. The Wolfhound opens into the Urbie and hits its engine twice. The Champion destroys the RA of the same Raven he destroyed the LA of last round. The Phoenix Hawk moves behind the Rifleman again, firing with its lasers, and destroys the right torso, breaking off its RA. It also fires a medium pulse laser which seeks out the center torso rear and hit’s the gyro. Their Rifleman and Ravens fall, and the mechwarrior at the Rifleman blacks out. The Champions destroys the LT of the Raven on the ground.

Adele’s Firestarter jumps behind the Urbie and fires, destroying its Center Torso. Our Foot Platoon destroyed the Ravens RT. The other Infantry platoon blows the LA off one of their Locusts and its on the ground. The LL and CT of the Raven are destroyed by the Champion. Our Wolverine misses a kick. And falls again. Their Rifleman wakes up.

I stand up the Wolverine. Again. Our Phoenix Hawks jumps behind the Rifleman and attacks for the third and final time, hitting the engine once and gyro twice. That mech is out. Their Locust attacks my Orion and opens up the Left Torso, hitting the SRM and causing my mech to explode! I liked that mech too. Their Enforcer destroys the RA of our Wolverine. Our Archer hit’s the Warhammer’s engine twice, and destroys its LA. Then our Griffin destroys its LT. The Champion runs behind their other Raven and blows off its RA. Our Wolverine falls a third time under the onslaught of weaponry. The Champion kicks and destroys the RT of the downed Raven.

I stand up the Wolverine, Again, and order it to retreat. Let’s not lose another mech today. Our Champion hits two leg actuators on their Raven. It falls, destroys its LL and hits its gyro. It won’t be getting back up.

Their Warhammer is massively overheat so I order Adele there to try to amp up its heat to overload levels. Their Vindicator hits Adele’s Firestarter and gets the Limb Blown Off critical on its LA. The RA is destroyed by their Phoenix Hawk. Our Archer destroys the RL off their Assassin. Then our Mercury dices into the Assassin, hits its LRM ammo, and it explodes. Boom!

I’ve been trying to overheat the Warhammer, now I’m just going to destroy it. Our SRM Foot Platoon hits its ammo and the Warhammer goes boom! Our Awesome destroys the Enforcers RT, and its RA falls off. It falls down. The Vindicator pilot blacks out.

Our Griffin destroys their Phoenix Hawk’s LA. The Champion hits its machine gun ammo and their Phoenix Hawk explodes in a frenzy of body parts, weapons, and rock from the cliff face. The Awesome’s large laser lances out and hit’s the Vindicator’s Head, but its just a glancing blow, so the mech is not destroyed. Our Phoenix Hawk punches a Locust and hit’s its Hip Actuator, but it stays standing. The Vindicator pilot wakes up.

Their Enforcer tries to stand, falls, and hits it gyro. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys a LL of their Locust and it falls hard. The Vindicator falls after getting punched by the Archer. It destroys its LL and LT, so its LA falls off.

With most of their mechs destroyed, on the ground, missing legs, our opponents concede battle. We allow their remaining units to limp away as we scour the battlefield for salvage.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Urbie - LA, LT, CT?

Raven - LL, RT, RA, LT, LA, CT?

Raven - RL, RT, RA, engine x2, gyrox2

Rifleman - RT, engine, gyrox3


Urbie LA
Locust LA
Enforcer RA, LL
Vindicator LA
Phoenix LL
Warhammer H
Assassin LA

To Fix:

Wolverine RA

Firestarter RA, LA


We reattach the LA to our Firestarter.

[Abe Sargent]

I can't believe I lost my mech, the Orion, to a LOCUST. That's embarassing.

[Tellistto]

Just have to find yourself a better mech to climb into now. I have to admit though, seeing that go boom was a bit of a surprise.

Tell

[law90026]

Told you Urbanmechs were underrated >.>

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, a variant mech with just five shots of its only weapon is so good... ;)

Value:

UrbanMech 60L Normally: 1,581,125 To Repair: 1,025,000 Current Value: 576,125

Raven: Normally 4,550,000 To Repair: 2,750,000 (Fixed gyro) Current Value: 1,800,000

Raven: Normally: 4,550,000 To Repair: 2,250,000 (Fixed engine) Current Value: 2,300,000

Rifleman: Normally: 4,860,000 To Repair: 400,000 (Fixed gyro, engine) Current Value: 4,460,000


Value of body parts:

1,300,000


Total Salvage Value: 10,436,125

Half Salvage Value: 5,218,063

None of these mechs are good. The expensive electronics equipment in the Ravens were both destroyed, so I lost a lot of salvage value there, and I have no desire to grab them. Urbie’s suck. Rifleman has too many weapons and not enough armor, so its weak, but I guess I’ll take it. I also grab all of the body parts except the H of the Warhammer.

[Abe Sargent]

Cost of ammo, armor, and replacement limbs for Wolverine and Firestarter.

1,350,000

Cost to Fix Rifleman:

400,000

Upkeep on unit:

240,760

Transport Costs:

1,050,000



5,218,063 Salvage Compensation
675,000 Battle Loss Compensation
525,000 Transport reimbursement
197,999 salary
9,989 remuneration
13,858 signing bonus

Net Increase: 3,598,879

War Chest: 3,983,879

For now, until I can find a suitable replacement, I am personally fighting in an…ugh…Rifleman.

[Abe Sargent]

I order my light forces to penetrate into the now vacated complex and shot it down with their laser beams.


June 5, 3035 - The Kilts Company arrives back at Outreach. I can’t stand being in a Rifleman. The loss of the Orion, our second heaviest mech in Kilts Company, in a strong loss. I have an idea for a replacement, using the money we have and selling the Rifleman for cash, but I want to wait and see if the Commandos company brings back any tasty salvage. Perhaps they’ll salvage a Zeus or a BattleMasters or a Crusader or some such.

The beauty of having a merc company is that you can get a very cosmopolitan feel. If you are a commander of a unit in the Draconis Combine, for example, you will have one of three types of mechs in your command. You’ll have the basic common mechs like Phoenix Hawks, Griffins, Wolverines, Stingers, Locusts, Wasps and Shadow Hawks. These will make up a sizable chunk of your forces. Then you’ll have some house specific designs, like the Panther, Jenner and Dragon. You might also have one or two salvaged mechs from your enemies, the Lyrans and Fed Suns. You might have captured an Enforcer or Valkyrie for your unit. On the other hand, I can have mechs from any state. I have a Panther, Grand Dragon, Wolfhound, Catapult, Hatchetman, and even a few mechs like the Trebuchet and Cicada that lean a certain direction but are not exclusive (but are close).

[Abe Sargent]

February 18, 3035 - Ted arrives back at Outreach with the Commandos company after the loss in Drac space facing a new, mysterious mech design based on the Charger. He makes some recruit rolls.

I notch two elite dispossessed MechWarriors. I’ll take them. Say hello to:


Nadia Romanov, elite, dispossessed, Commandos

Katrin Magnusdottir elite, dispossessed, Commandos


Time for some contract action:

Offer #1: A Tiny Periphery World offers a garrison contract. No thanks.

Offer #2: A corporation offers an objective raid. Let’s see, it’s in the Free Worlds League. Military or no? Nope.

An industrial concern on the minor planet of Ellsworth wants to contract a company to go to the nearby system of Olafsvik, a major world with an independent streak of significance. A separatist group has taken over a medium sized island on the planet, and Marik is leaving them alone right now. However, this industrial company has several warehouse and industrial concerns on the island. They want to hire us to land on the island, smash through the defenses, destroy their fortifications, and then leave for other forces to finish.

Ted takes the contract.

We have 62 negotiation points. Ted puts up salvage. They offer full salvage right up. They don’t want to spend the money on Shared or Exchange rights. 52 points.

They offer remuneration to pull out ten points. 42 points.

I put up transport rights. They offer 40% compensation. Ted takes it. 57 points.

They offer independent command to pull another 10 points. 47 points.

I put up length. They offer 4 months and Ted reduces it to 2. 37.

They offer salary and pull 25 points out to give a 3.4 modifier. 12 points

Ted puts up support. They offer 74% straight support.

[Abe Sargent]

May 8, 3035 - Ted’s company arrives in Olafsvik on their island. I roll to see what sort of defenses we are going up against. Combined arms.

We are fighting on a small chain of islands.

Our foes:

Two Warrior Attack Helicopters
Peregrine Attack VTOL
J Edgar Hover Tank
Striker Light Tank
Scorpion Light Tank
Rommel Tank
Harasser Missile Platform
Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
Predator Tank Destroyer
Devastator

Trebuchet
Goliath
Banshee
Whitworth
Locust x2
Shadow Hawk
Stalker

Four platoons of infantry


They have three assault mechs, an assault tank, but we are on islands and not all of that is mobile.

We are fighting in a series of five islands, connected by bridges. Each bridge cannot support more than 40 tons. You can jump over the bridge with heavier mechs like a Griffin. You can get int eh water. You can hover over the water if you are a hovercraft, and you can fly over the water if you are a VTOL. That means they have more mobility than us.

[Abe Sargent]

One of their Warrior attack copters slideslips into a hills and is destroyed. No weapons fire is exchanged.

Not much happens on round two., nor round three.

One of our Awesomes destroys a Peregrine Attack Helicopter’s front side. I destroy the bridge from their island to the next island. I am moving my Stalker and an Awesome through the water to the second island to get closer to my opponent.

I order the other Awesome to start moving towards the water, with the intent of getting to the next island.

Our new Javelin, the 10N, destroyed the J. Edgar Hover Tank. She hit the power plant. Boom! Unfortunately, it falls under an attack by various enemies.

Our Stalker and one of the Awesomes arrive at the second island from the water. The other Javelin, the 10F variant, destroyed a Harasser’s turret, and it is destroyed.

The other Awesome arrives at island #2. Their Trebuchet falls while walking through water. More fire is exchanged,

The next turn sees our Longbow sheer through the Shadow Hawks armor and hit its AC ammo. Boom! Dead mech. That’s the first kill for newer pilot Aaron Cohen. An Awesome destroys the Right Side armor on the Skulker and its dead.

We exchange more fire.

Their Locust is running through the water, falls down, and it is breached. Dead Locust. Ted destroys their Devastator’s power plant and it goes boom!

The following turn, an Awesome destroys the Rommel’s power plant. More boom!

More exchange of fire.

The Longbow hits and destroys their Warrior Attack Helicopter. That’s the final VTOL taken out. An Awesome takes out the front side armor on the Predator.

I was attacking their Trebuchet, but it is down to just one shot of LRM ammo, so I am moving to their Goliath.

More exchange of fire.

Their Banshee hits an Awesome in the head with a PPC and goes internal. The Head is not gone, but watch it for later. The Awesome falls under the onslaught.

Ted’s Stalker is out of LRM ammo and charges their position as a result. Melissa stands her Awesome back up. Another exchange of fire.

Our Rifleman destroys the Scorpion Tank’s power plant. Boom!

Another round of exchanged fire.

We blast their Banshee and it tumbles to the ground. Their Goliath, Stalker and Trebuchet are all out of LRM ammo so I hope to push the PPC advantage I have with my Griffin, Panther, two Awesomes.

The Banshee tries to get up twice and fails. More weapons exchange.

More exchange of fire.

Our Panther blows off the Banshee’s LA. An Awesome destroys its RT which causes its PPC laden RA to fall to the ground.

Our Griffin hit’s a leg actuator on the Banshee. It tumbles to the ground.

An Awesome hit’s the Banshee’s AC ammo and it splodes.

The Griffin destroys the Striker’s front side. It’s gone.

More weapons fire.

More weapons fire. Again.

Their Whitworth hit’s the Longbow while under water. It is breached. Out for the rest of the battle.

A couple more rounds of nothing.

Five more turns of nothing. Just exchange.

Our Griffin hit’s the Stalker’s gyro. It falls, hits its engine, and the pilot blacks out.

After a turn of weapons exchange, the Stalker wakes up.

Then it stands up. I hopped over our Javelins, hopefully they can exploit some holes. Our Stalker destroys their Stalker’s head with a large laser.

The Goliath tries to run away from my Javelins, goes into the water and falls.

It stands up the following turn. After taking some serious damage, it falls down, and the pilot blacks out.

With all three assault mechs down, all of their tanks destroyed, all VTOLs destroyed, and just a handful of remaining mechs, the Marik forces radio me and offer their surrender. We have devastated the rebel forces, and in fact, have ended the minor rebellion, so we don’t even need to continue. The rebels we did not destroy are picked up by the local Marik militia.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage:

Locust - no significant damage. Breached.

Peregrine Attack Helicopter

Shadow Hawk LA, RA, RL
Banshee RA, LL, LA

Stalker H, actuators,

Goliath - tons of armor damaged, two actuators hit

Predator

Skulker

SRM6x2 (Striker failed but we got its weapons)


Since we have full salvage on this trip, I don’t need to account for total value and what not. I only need to come up with numbers to fix these.

Note that the Goliath and Locust are operational when taken out of the drink, drained, and rejuiced.

To repair the Skulker, Predator, and Peregrine. 70,000

I sell the Predator and Skulker for 950,000, and fix the Peregrine. I also sell the Locust. I’m tired of these dumb light mechs getting captured by my command.

To repair Goliath - 160,000 ammo and armor to repair Goliath

To repair Stalker - 888,000

[Abe Sargent]

Costs:

70,000 fix vehicles
160,000 to repair salvaged Goliath
888,000 to repair salvaged Stalker
300,000 for LRM ammo alone
28,000 for SRM ammo
16,000 for AC5 ammo
300,000 for replacement armor
675,000 transport there
675,000 transport back
326,934 upkeep of unit


Gains:

950,000 sale of Skulker and Predator
1,325,000 sale of Locust
381,300 salary
19,065 remuneration
24,154 support
540,000 transport reimbursement


Even with the sales, we went -199,415


I transfer three million from the Trinity company to us.

[law90026]

Stalker for your new command mech?

[Abe Sargent]

Nah, I've got a better idea...


EXPERIENCE: Ted notched his twelve kill and Martin Fitzgerald got his eighth. Martin is going to second a second point of edge and Ted raises his piloting skill to 2.

Nadia Romanov is given the Stalker. Katrin Magnusdottir given the Goliath.

[Abe Sargent]

August 27, 3035 - Ted arrives back at Outreach.


June 5, 3035 - Braham Essex arrives back at Outreach and I want a new mech, because I am not happy with the Rifleman. I make a few calls (roll the dice), but the mech I wanted, a common heavy Thunderbolt, is not available. I look for some other good mechs. How about a Crusader? I’ve been trying to avoid a Crusader for my main guy, because my main guy in my first run through had a Crusader, and my very first mech in BattleTech was a Crusader. (And my very first shot of an LRM15 killed a clan mech).

Still, I don’t have too many choices. Are there any Crusaders on the market? Nope.

What else? How about a Catapult? Yes. I can find a Catapult. Hmm. After reviewing the company, I believe a Catapult would be a poor choice. It’s a great fire support mech, but I already have those. What I need is a nice anvil mech. What anvil mechs are available, in my price range, and good?

I do a search for a Warhammer variant, the Warhammer 6D. It pulls off the machine guns and SRM6 for more heat sinks and full armor. With no ammo to explode, full armor, and more heat sinks to fire double PPC action, the 6D is a strong 70 ton mech. And it is available (I rolled a ten).

It’s also in my price range.


I sell the Rifleman for 10% under price at 4,400,000

I then purchase a Warhammer 6D (The Federated Suns version) for 5,945,000. Excellent. Easily a mech for a battalion commander.

[Abe Sargent]

I then make some recruiting rolls.

Edgar Steinbocker, regular, Assassin, Kilts Company
Mary McDonnell, veteran, Falcon*, Kilts Company
Latasha Jenkins, elite, dispossessed, Kilts Company


I asterisked the Falcon because it is a very rare mech. Very rare.

It is believed that Wolf’s Dragoons found some significant supply caches from Star League holds, because they have designs that no one else has. The Imp, Annihilator, Falcon, Firefly, Shogun and Hoplite are some examples of their virtually exclusive mechs. Some of those mechs, like the Annihilator, have no existing record from Star League times about them.

The Falcon is a 30 ton light mech believed to be largely extinct from the Star League era although the odd model appears every now and then. It surfaced in large numbers in Wolf’s Dragoons, and our Mary McDonnell is a dissenter from their unit. It moves 6/9/6, carries six tons of armor, and wields two small lasers, a medium laser and two machine guns, while having two extra heat sinks.

The Assassin is a 40 ton mech with 7/11/7 speed but just 4.5 tons of armor and a poor payload featuring an LRM5, SRM2, and Medium Laser. The weapons are poor, but it is a design with potential, and I might modify it later when I have the inclination. I’d pull off the SRM2 and LRM5 and ammo and add some lasers and armor. I’m not sure in what numbers for each, but that’d be my plan.

[Abe Sargent]

Time for Contracts:

Offer #1: A Corporation wants us for an Objective Raid

Offer #2: Fed Suns offer a Recon Raid contract

Offer #3: Fed Suns offer a Objective Raid contract



A recon raid contract is simple. We are to infiltrate a world, and inspect its defenses, test its mettle, and get pictures. Then we send them back to our employer. Davion wants us to Recon a Draconis Combine world.

One of the Inner Sphere’s worst kept secret is that Davion views the Draconis Combine as weak right now. With 20% of their forces turning traitor, a significant chunk of its territory now in the hands of the Free Rasalhague Republic, and it still reeling from the quick but decisive Fourth Succession War, Hanse Davion is looking to finish off the Dragon.

However, the Federated Suns are not ready for another war. The vast number of planets taken from the Capellan Confederation five years ago still require large numbers of garrison and pacification troops. The infrastructure needs to be built up. Intel needs to be gathered.

As such, a negotiator from the Federated Suns is offering us a contract to investigate the defenses and preparedness of the Draconis Combine defenses on a system.

The targeted system is Sadalbari. One jump away from Davion system David, Sadalbari is a world that must be garrisoned by the DCMS. It is seven jumps away, and we will be swinging past my home system of Epsilon Eridani on the way there and back.

[Abe Sargent]

Negotiate the contract time:

110 points

We put salvage up first. They offer Exchange rights, and we counter with Shared rights. 100 points. Hopefully we won’t battle much, if at all.

They put up rights and offer independent command. 90 points.

We put up support and they offer 50% straight support. I counter with 50% battle loss compensation. 55 points.

They put up remuneration. They offer it to us. 45 points.

I toss transport on the table. They offer 40% reimbursement. I counter by raising it to 50%. 50 points.

They pull out 25 points and offer us 3.7 salary. 25 points.

We put up contract length, but they are just interested in a month, so there is nothing to negotiate here.

12.5% signing bonus.

Before we leave I place a few phone calls. I drop 250,000 on a Boomerang Spotter Plane.

The Boomerang Spotter Plane is a 13/20 conventional plane/glider with a half ton of photo equipment and some armor. It weighs 5.5 tons. The Boomerang is collapsible and can fit in the tinier spaces in a DropShip. We head out with our company of mechs and Boomerang and infantry.

[Abe Sargent]

July 17, 3035 - We arrive in the Sadalbari system.

July 19, 3035 - We land in the smallest city in the system to have a DropPort. I will leave our mechs in the DropShip, and hopefully we will not need them. My men assemble the Boomerang.

The defenders on Sadalbari are a regiment strong. I order my infantry squads to separate places on planet. There are three continents on planet, and the defenders are split with one regiment on each planet.

One platoon of infantry gets through with no problems. They are also to establish a perimeter near a Draconis Base and snap some pictures. The other main base is a large fortress overlooking the capital city. That’s too guarded for now.

Our infantry at the other continent also get some information and pictures.

After two weeks on planet, we have a good estimate of their forces. Infantry disguised as peasants have snapped pictures of mechs on patrol, so we have a good indicator of their individual mech counts. However, we have been unable to penetrate the defenses around the fortress.

With out infantry back, I use our aerial asset, the Boomerang. I need to fly the Boomerang over their base, perhaps several times, snapping pictures with its systems. Then we can leave the planet.

As the Boomerang approaches the base’s airspace, it gets a radio. Apparently, it is a no-fly zone over the fortress. The Boomerang goes over the base, snapping pictures, dodging gun emplacement fire with its speed. Anticipating a problem, I order our mechs to warm up.

The Boomerang flies back over their base, and again takes more pictures. I believe I’ll need two more sweeps. It heads back for a third sweep and makes it over, but we see fighters launching from the fortress. As the Boomerang comes back over for a fourth time, it has two Sholagar fighters on its tail. As the Boomerang nears our position, the two fighters open up. I order my men to fire on the Sholagar fighters. One is destroyed while the other is damaged and returns to base. I expect Drac attention anytime now.

Our Boomerang lands behind us, and our infantry begin disassembling it and storing it in the DropShip. This will take several minutes. In the meantime, mech forces are beginning to leave the fortress and should arrive at our position at the DropPort in a few minutes.

[Abe Sargent]

SCENARIO:

We must fight a rearguard action against their mechs until our Boomerang is disassembled and stored in the DropShip. Rules:

On the first turn, any 7 speed mechs or faster are deployed. On the second turn, any 5 or 6 speed mechs are deployed. On the third turn, any 4 speed mechs are deployed, and on the fourth turn, any subsequent mechs are deployed.

One company at the fortress is currently on patrol. The other two companies are heading towards us.

Starting on turn five, I will roll 1d6 and add the turn number. If we get 10 or higher, then the Boomerang is assembled and we can move off. Any mech given a “flee” action at the edge of the map is considered to be boarding. I cannot flee with more than one lance of mechs per turn. (Four mechs).

The Drac forces are numerous, and I will not count them to you now. Suffice it to say that we are fighting a lot of mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Only two Locusts and a Jenner are on the map for turn one. They retreat behind some buildings for some protection until their friends get here next turn. Smart. I spot with my Spider and fire a lot of LRMs at their Jenner. Our Awesome sends two LRM15s over the buildings and destroys the Jenner after hitting it’s ammo.

Nice that we got a kill so quickly. A bunch of their mechs are deploying this round. We’ve got Wasps, a Stinger, Phoenix Hawks, Griffins, a Javelin, a Charger, a Dragon, and more. A Wasp jumps on a nearby building, and it collapses, unfortunately. We could have used the cover it gave. Our Awesome hit’s a Wasp of theirs in the head with a large laser. Dead. Two mech kills in two turns.

The third turn brings some of their slower designs such as a pair of Panthers, a BattleMaster, Rifleman, and such. Another couple of large buildings are being destroyed by mechs jumping on top of them. They just jumped a Quickdraw on top of one. I believe they are doing it on purpose to create clear lanes of fire so that they can take me out quickly and get to the Boomerang. That’s smart. I wouldn’t have thought of it. Our variant Awesome hits their Dragon’s ammo and it is destroyed. Three mech kills in three turns for this guy. Our Griffin kicks and destroys the LL of one of their Panthers.

The fourth turn brings the final mechs like a Stalker. Our Wolfhound destroys the RT of their Stinger, dropping its RA to the ground. Our Archer hit’s the engine on one of their Phoenix Hawks. I fall down in my Warhammer. Our Archer kicks and destroys the LL of their Locust.


If I was with my Commandos company and its four assault mechs, I’d be loving this, going up against big odds and hoping against hope for a win. However, I have one assault mech, and three heavies, and one heavy took some damage earlier and the other is on the ground. I will be leaving when I get the chance.

The 5th turn has arrived. I roll a four. Not a ten (4+5=9), so we cannot begin to evacuate this turn, they are still working on the Boomerang. I stand my Warhammer back up for another round. Adele destroys a Locust with machine guns. She hit its machine gun ammo with a machine gun. Battlefield irony there for ya. Their Stalker hits and destroys our Awesome’s H. Our mechwarrior who killed three people turned around and died. Damn. Our Champion hit a Phoenix hawk’s engine. I ordered my Spider ot pick up the Stinger’s arm.

The 6th turn arrives and I roll a 5. The Boomerang is now stowed away. Well, we lost the Awesome variant, which I really liked. We need to get off this map. I order the Falcon, Assassin, Wolfhound, and Archer to leave. We hit a few foot and leg actuators but nothing serious.

The 7th turn arrives. I flee with my Firestarter, Spider, Mercury, and Phoenix Hawk. They open up my Champion’s arm, hits its AC10 and shoulder. Our Centurion destroys their Phoenix Hawk’s engine, it goes down. Our Champion destroys another Wasp’s head.


I flee with the Champion, Griffin, Centurion and Wolverine, leaving only my Warhammer on the map. My Warhammer manages to destroy a Stinger with its two PPCs and two medium lasers. It’s right arm is destroyed in the barrage. The next turn I flee.

[Abe Sargent]

Salvage

Stinger RA


To Fix:

Warhammer RA

Champion actuator, AC10


150,000 in armor
188,000 in ammo
8,500 shoulder actuator
325,000 RA of Warhammer.


We lost an Awesome and the pilot. That sucks


Total Costs:


250,000 Boomerang
671,500 for ammo, armor and replacement parts
226,000 for upkeep
525,000 transport there
525,000 transport back



Total Reimbursements:

50,000 Shared salvage for Stinger RA
525,000 for transport reimbursement
205,687 salary
10,250 remuneration
25,000 signing bonus
335,750 battle loss compensation


Total Loss: -1,045,800

[Abe Sargent]

EXPERIENCE: After five years with the company and a founding member, Adele Thompson has finally notched four kills. Her gunnery pops up one.

I drop off the Boomerang when we stop at Epsilon Eridani.

This was a lousy contract. We lost money and our only assault mech in the company. Even if we got the info out, it was still a bad contract.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT: June 1, 3035 - While at the war conference to discuss the new war against the Duchy of Andurien, Captain-General Janos Marik, his son and heir, Thomas Marik, and generals Duggan and Duncan Marik are on Atreus. While Duncan steps out to speak with some military advisors, a bomb goes off, killing all on the conference room. Duncan plunged back at the rubble and video feeds show him frantically digging with hands at the rock, extricating the bodies of Janos and Duggan, although Thomas was too close to the blast and all that was left of him was blood.

Duncan Marik declared himself Captain-General of the Free Worlds League and was confirmed b Parliament when the remaining children of Janos Marik showed little desire for the throne.

[Abe Sargent]

June 27, 3035 - Just nine days after being declared Captain-General by Parliament, Duncan Marik addresses his nation. He claims to have proof that the bomb was planted by secessionists in the Duchy of Andurien. Duncan has declared war on the wayward Duchy and is beginning to build the Marik armies and infrastructure.

[Abe Sargent]

August 28, 3035 - The Kilts Company arrives back in Outreach. Yesterday the Commandos company arrived.

Ted’s Recruiting:

Clyde Naller, elite, dispossessed
David Bengurion, elite, Striker, assigned to Kilts.

Since we have a hole in Kilts Company made by the destruction of an assault mech, when Ted is able to recruit an Assault mech, it makes sense to add it to the hole in Kilts company. The Striker is an assault mech typically assigned to garrison duty. It was the original assault mech developed during the Star League, and the Awesome was based on it. Strikers are around, still getting made at a trickle a year, but that is enough since most don’t see heavy combat action. The Striker is not an amazing mech, and if you want an assault mech to go one on one with an opposing assault mech, it might not be up for that.

The Striker weighs 80 tons, and moves 4/6. It has five extra heat sinks, 13.5 tons of armor, and wields an AC5, PPC, large laser and three medium lasers. The locations for the medium lasers are very smart, one in the head and two in the center torso, taking up valuable critical space (decreases the chance of an errant shot hitting vital components when there are more components in the space, plus those are always operational sections of the mech if it is operational. You can lose a leg, arm and left or right torso section and still fight, but you cannot lose your CT or H and keep fighting in the current level of technology).

Like I said, the Striker is not bad, but it’s not great either. It doesn’t have the heat dissipation for the PPC and large laser and AC5 to all be fired at once, so occasionally you have to not fire one of your main weapons

Adele’s Recruiting:

Eleanor Bates, regular, Catapult - unassigned right now

Braham Essex’s Recruiting:

Miguel Juarez, elite, Banshee, unassigned

The Banshee is a 95 ton mech that is crap because it wastes so much space on its engine that allows it to move 4/6. There is a Lyran variant that changes it out for a much lighter engine, and fit’s a bunch of weapons and heat sinks on the mech as a result. This is not the variant. The one good thing is the 15 tons of armor, allowing you to move your Banshee into the middle of the field and draw fire from more fragile mechs. It features just a PPC, AC5 and a small laser, a tiny weapons load for a 95 ton mech. It has the weapons of a medium mech around 50 or 55 tons, it has the movement of an 80 ton mech and the armor of an 80 ton mech. Feh. Still, we need some heavy metal.

Barbara Morse, elite, Victor, unassigned.

The Victor is another assault mech, this one at 80 tons. It moves 4/6/4 and yes, it can jump. It has an AC20, two medium lasers and an SRM4. With all close range weapons, you might think the Victor wants to close in and smack you up close, but it only has 11.5 tons of armor, so it seems like a classic design problem to me. I can understand lower armor on a fire support mech, but not on one designed to get up close and personal.

A failed recruit roll (I rolled a three).

(I got very lucky with recruit rolls this time. THREE twelves and an eleven. Crazy)

We got a lot of heavy metal on Outreach. Three assault mechs and a heavy one, plus a dispossessed warrior. The Commandos company also came home with two salvaged Assault mechs, a Stalker and Goliath.

We need to do some reorganizing.

[Abe Sargent]

I am creating a garrison force to remain on nearby Epsilon Eridani and protect our assets. I do not want to create a fifth mercenary company right now (one tank, three mechs). However, I can give them orders later. This is an opportunity to get rid of a few mechs from my companies that I am not fond of. Our garrison force will currently consist of:

Samir Azif, Wasp (Commandos)
Umbria Mutunde, Locust (Commandos)
Stacey Stowers, Wasp (Trinity)
Samia Oudghiri, Griffin (Kilts)
John Abram, Griffin (Trinity)


I move the Assassin and Falcon to Commandos company to replace their two lost scout mechs.

Trinity company is arriving in a month back from their assignment. I move dispossessed Latasha Jenkins to Trinity company to take the Hatchetman. I order Anna Cafincelli to take her Cicada and add it to Trinity’s thunder lance. I move Nadia Romanov’s Stalker to the Kilts company to replace the Griffin.

That gives me a valuable second assault mech. I add the Victor to Trinity company to replace the green Griffin pilot, and that gives them two assaults as well.

We have a Goliath, Banshee and Catapult left to assign, plus a dispossessed MW. I take the Catapult for the open slot in Commandos, the company with four assault mechs already. I assign the Banshee to Kilts and the Goliath to Trinity, with the dispossessed MW going to Commandos.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, with that, let’s get some contracts:


Kilts Company:

Offer #1: The St. Ives Compact would like us to Garrison one of their worlds. No thanks

Offer #2: The St. Ives Compact would like us for an Objective Raid. Okay.

Where? The only place they’d want to raid is the Caps. I get paid a lot to raid my old stomping ground by various forces. Let me find a suitable world, hold on.

Seven jumps away (and one through Epsilon Eridani if I want it to be) is the system of Capricorn. The Capellan system holds the colony world of Capricorn III. We are being asked to raid the world and destroy a political enemy of the St. Ives Compact. Planetary Governor Chiang Li rules his people with an iron hand and regularly dispenses justice from the guns of his BattleMech. Many St. Ives loyalists have lost their lives at the hands of Chiang Li while he subjugates his people. We are to land on Capricorn III while Chiang Li is in his BattleMech. Psyche profiles suggest that he will lead the charge against us in his mech. Then we will have a chance to take him out. Even if we do not kill him, if we can defeat him in combat visibly in the capital city, it will be enough to discredit him. Ideally, however, we will kill him, allowing a friendlier governor to take over. St. Ives is not interested in taking Capricorn II, they just want the hostile governor removed.

Due to its nature as a border world, Capricorn III does have a garrison, but since it is on the St Ives border, and not the Andurien or Davion border, it only has two companies of mechs, and one is not near the capital city.

We take the contract.

[Abe Sargent]

We have 105 points with which to bargain.

I put salvage rights up front. They offer Shared rights, and I counter with Exchange. 95 points.

They put up salary, buying down 25 points and giving us a 3.7 modifier. 70.

Transport, 50%. 75.

Remuneration, yes. 65.

Support - Battle Loss, 50%. 30.

Independent Command - 20.

Contract length - one month. 20 points.

10% bonus.


We will arrive on Capricorn III in approximately two months, on October 28, 3035.

[Abe Sargent]

Commandos Contract:

Offer #1: Free Rasalhague Republic, Extraction

Offer #2: Capellan Confederation, Extraction

So both of our contracts are Extraction contracts (so called “smash and grab”). Interesting. I’ll take whichever is the closer target, so let’s see. FRR wants us to hit…Lyran Commonwealth. The planet of Seiduts, which is waaaay out there. It’s about two jumps from the periphery. Nope. The Caps want us to raid the Federated Suns. They want us to hit Cammal. Much closer. Work for the Caps it is.

Cammal is a planet eight jumps away, and ironically, just two jumps from Capricorn III. We will be taking the same path for most of our journey, until the last few jumps, so we can save money on the first several jumps. That works out well.

[Abe Sargent]

67 points for Commandos to negotiate with.

Salvage - Full is offered. 57

Salary - 3.4. 22.

Remuneration no. 32.

Independent Command. 22.

Transport 40%. 37.

Support 50% battle loss. 2.

Length - three months.

1% bonus.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright. Let’s roll with the Kilts company first.



October 29, 3035 - We arrive on Capricorn III’s capital and major DropPort. In a few hours, the governor will be using his mech in his weekly judicial ritual. I’m not upset to be taking him out.


We wait inside the DropShip until he has begun the trials. Several people are brought in front of his mechs. He judges them guilty from his mech’s speakers and shoots them down. I am supposed to wait for a half hour or so before heading out to take him out, because then the guards may be more complacent, but anger drives my thumbs to initiate the power up sequence of my mech. Around me, my company follows my lead. Within ten minutes, we have disembarked into the DropPort.

There is always a local militia around to investigate DropShips, shipments, travellers and so forth. I emerge first from the DropShip, and as my Warhammer’s profile fills the area, several militia sound the alert. A small tank fires at me, but hit’s the DropShip. The DropShip captain will not have that, and its guns immediately take out the tank‘s power plant, and it explodes.

I order my company to leave the crowded DropPort and make for a largely abandoned slum area of the city. Our radar makes out some bogeys moving in our direction. Over the conn, I hear the ranting of the Governor, telling us he will kill all of us.

I will be happy to put this guy down.

[Abe Sargent]

Our Foes:

Cataphract - This is the mech the governor is in.
Hunchback
Charger
Blackjack x2
Vindicator
Enforcer
Scorpion
Shadow Hawk
Awesome
Warhammer 6L
UrbanMech
Phoenix Hawk

This is obviously an unusual company of mechs. 8 medium mechs, two assaults, a heavy and one light.

The Cataphract is a real catch if we can get it. It was a Capellan Confederation exclusive until the planet that made it 70 tons, 11 of them armor, 4/6 movement, 6 extra heat sinks, PPC, AC10, and four medium lasers with two facing the rear (easy to change back around if we want too). A solid enough mech.

The Blackjack is a Capellan Confederation and St. Ives Compact specific mech. 40 tons, 4/6/4 movement, an extra heat sink, and the woefully poor AC2. Two of them. Plus four medium lasers to handle you if you get too close. Keep them at range where they suck.

The 6L variant of the Warhammer is nicknamed the Hot Hammer. With flamers instead of machine guns, it’s not that much different.

We haven’t fought a Scorpion for a while, but it is an infamous quad 55 ton mech with a PPC and SRM6.

I roll and they are regular, but the governor is a veteran.

13 mechs against 13 mechs. In the streets of the abandoned slums, we are about to engage in close quarters combat. Here we go.

[Abe Sargent]

Our Champion gets a through armor critical on the Awesome and hits one of its PPCs. I focus a lot of fire on their Warhammer.

My Centurion got blasted last turn, so I back it up while continuing to advance with my other forces. Our new Striker hits an opposing Blackjack’s gyro. I jumped Adele’s Firestarter by their Phoenix Hawk and hit it with inferno missles and amped its heat by two with a flamer. Our Centurion destroys the building the governor hopped up on with his Cataphract. It takes some damage from debris. Our Phoenix Hawk hit’s the Vindicator’s head and takes it off with a medium pulse laser. One dead mech. Our Warhammer destroys the LA of their Warhammer. Their Warhammer’s gyro cannot compensate for the loss of weight and it falls, destroying the LT. Their Blackjack also falls from the gyro hit. Adele misses a kick on their Phoenix Hawk and falls. Our Banshee kicks the governor for 19 damage, but he doesn’t fall.

Adele stands up her Firestarter and runs away from several enemy mechs. Their Warhammer tries to get up twice and fails, falling both times, hitting its gyro twice and engine twice. The Warhammer now has a shut down gyro. Their Awesome destroys the RA of my Champion. Our Archer hit’s the governor’s Cataphract in the head twice with long range missiles. Our Phoenix Hawk hit’s the Hunchback in the head with a Medium Pulse Laser, goes internal, and hits its sensors, making it harder for it to hit anybody else in the future. I personally destroy the LT of the governor’s Cataphract, with its LA falling to the ground. Both their Blackjack and Hunchy fall after taking damage. Our new Striker kicks the Blackjack on the ground and its Center Torso section is destroyed. A kill for him on his first action with us. Our Stalker kicks the Hunchback when it is on the ground and kicks through the head. Another dead mech and another kill for another new pilot with our unit. We are just tearing through these mechs. I think my troops were as disgusted by the actions of this tyrant as much as I was.

The pilot in their Warhammer ejects since the mech is dead. Their Phoenix Hawk is still over heat (14 over). Perhaps I can get Adele over to punish it some more. I order my troops not to further engage the governor. I am going to take him out myself. I hit the Cataphract’s gyro and engine. It falls. Our Wolverine also falls under damage. Adele’s Firestarter falls after getting kicked.

If I had gotten a radio telling me that our opponents surrender after taking the governor’s mech out, I would respect them. But now? They are still fighting. They can’t claim they were just obeying orders. I order my troops to show them no mercy, and cut into them without restraint.

I stand up the Wolvie and the Firestarter. Their Enforcer hits my Wolvie’s foot actuator. I destroy the center torso section of the Cataphract. The mech is downed. Our Wolverine falls again. The Striker opens up the Awesome’s arm and hits three actuators. The Stalker hit’s a PPC through the back armor.

Our Anti-Mech Jump Platoon hit’s a foot actuator on the Shadow Hawk. The Archer destroys the LL of the Charger. We blow the LA off the Awesome with the Champion with a 12 critical. Their Shadow Hawk hit’s two more leg actuators when it falls. Their Charger falls too. They return the favor when their Awesome blows the LL off our Champion with a 12 critical. It takes damage from a fall. Their Phoenix Hawk falls down when it misses a kick.

Their Shadow Hawk failed to get up and fell down again. Our Striker destroys the RT of their Awesome, causing the RA to fall off. The RA and RT of Adele’s Firestarter are destroyed by their Scorpion. Adele hit their Phoenix Hawk with all three Flamers and the inferno SRM as well. Their Awesome hit’s the Champion’s AC10. I destroy the LT of the Urbie and its LA falls on the ground and hits its gyro. Our Stalker savages the Awesome with two gyro hits, an engine hit, a destroyed RL and LT, and then finally destroyed the CT. Four mechs fall from damage. Our Banshee and Adele’s mech, Shadow Hawk and Urbie on their side. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the Urbie’s center torso on a kick.

Adele scrambles up and flees from the battlefield, disappearing into the houses quickly. Their Charger fails to get up and falls. I destroys the Charger’s RA and RT. It took two engine hits, which is three. It is out due to engine failure. Another kill for me. However, the engine block fails, and it explodes!

The following mechs are caught in the engine explosion:


Their Blackjack takes 20 damage
Their Enforcer takes 20 damage
Their Scorpion is caught and loses its FRL. Front Right Leg. It took 10 damage.
Their Phoenix Hawk takes 10 damage
Our Spider takes 10 damage
Our Banshee was adjacent, and takes 40 damage, which hits its AC5 and upper arm actuator

Our Archer cracks open the Shadow Hawk’s center torso and hits its engine. After taking such damage in the blast, our Banshee’s armor is badly damaged. Their Scorpion destroys its RA. Our Shadow Hawk’s LA is destroyed. Our Banshee fires at the Scorpion, and with the sandblasting it has already suffered, hit hit’s the SRM ammo and it explodes. Their Blackjack tumbles. Then their Phoenix Hawk shuts down from heat overload. Sounds like a kill for Adele Thompson.

In that turn, we killed their Charger, Scorpion, their Phoenix Hawk shutdown from heat overload, and they took a bunch of damage from the engine explosion.

Our infantry captured the governor. I want to make sure he does not stay governor. I kill him with a small laser blast from my Warhammer. He who lives by tyranny shall die by tyranny.