The BattleTech Dynasty: Chapt 2, 3039

[Abe Sargent]

Hello kind folks and welcome to my newest dynasty. This is a continuance of a dynasty I started over a year ago, and ended just a tad less than a year ago. You can find that dynasty here.

The Battletech Dynasty - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=65552)


Okay, so here is what I will be doing. While playing MechCommander 2 for the Free Game dynasty, i got back in a BattleTech mood, so I am going to kill two birds with one stone. I am revisiting this old dynasty and continuing my game, and I am also playing it on a freeware game called MegaMek, which attempts to simulate BattleTech on the computer, so I can do a review for MegaMek for the free games dynasty. Two dynasties, one dynastic stone.

I will be continuing the storyline of the Kilts and Commandos mercenary unit throughout the universe of 3039. It's a big yera, and its going to take a while.

Don't know much about BattleTech universe but want to follow along? Great! In the first thread, I give the history of the universe, and talk about some BTech basics, and then in this on, I intend to give you some updates on the Inner Sphere ten years later, plus what's been going on with K&C, everyone's favorite mercenary command.

[Abe Sargent]

My Character Updated


Braham Essex, 35, 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.

In January of 3031, he took his first contract as the commander of the Kilts and Commandos, a new mercenary unit built from the disaffected from the old Capellan Confederation. Over time, he won various contracts, battles and campaigns, and built his unit to over 40 BattleMechs plus infantry and vehicles.

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

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

On Feb 3, 3038, Braham Essex emerged from almost a year’s convalescence and has been training and retraining with his troops on Epsilon Eridani.


Braham Essex
State Academy, State University, Two terms of service.
Piloting Skill - 3
Gunnery Skill - 4
Influence - 3
Member Modifiers - -2 family, +3 friends, +6 unit

Age: 35
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry

Skills:

Edge: 2
Tactical Genius

Myomer Left Arm, Left Leg


I am considered to be veteran again 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.

[Abe Sargent]

Other characters:


Ted Izumo was an academy trainer at the Tikonov Training Academy who met and befriended a young James Essex, and was a founding member of the Kilts and Commandos. His skill in a mech is very good, but as Ted grew older, he agreed to step aside as XO of Kilts and Commandos and run the Essex Training Academy and supervise the operation of the company at Epsilon Eridani. After Essex was injured, Ted reactivated himself and ran the company in his absence, forcing everyone to come home and begin new training. Ted is 60 years old, and can still pilot with the best of them. He has retained his active role as XO of the Kilts and Commandos.


Adele Thompson was an old childhood friend of Braham Essex from Epsilon Eridani, and the daughter of a modest nobleman. She has many connections on planet. She pilots a modified Firestarter and had led many scouting excursions for Braham. She is okay in a Mech, between regular and veteran in ability. 39 years old, Adele married long ago for love and class to another nobleman, but retained her last name. She had a child out of wedlock with Braham Essex.


Thoma Marie Essex was born on Aug 3, 3036. The child of Braham Essex and Adele Thompson, Thoma is now two and a half years old. Thoma is the female version of the name Thomas, and has been around for about 150 years or so, but became popular 50 years ago for a while, but died out a bit, and is now uncommon. Braham’s recuperation also gave him a good year and a half to spend with his daughter. Although Adele is her mother, and will visit her and care for her, Braham is the primary parent to Thoma.

[law90026]

Omg it's back! Will definitely be following :D

[Abe Sargent]

The Political Powers in 3039:


Lyran Commonwealth - Archon Katrina Steiner is ruling the Lyran Commonwealth but is at an immense age. The Lyran Commonwealth is the economic power of the five major houses. Melissa Steiner, Katrina’s heir, is married to Hanse Davion, of the Federated Suns, in a union that will hopefully unify their nations.

Federated Suns - Epsilon Eridani is currently located in the Federated Suns. Hanse Davion, an older gentleman, has launched wars and runs the strongest military in the Inner Sphere. He is married to Melissa Steiner.

Capellan Confederation - House Liao’s Confederation was cut in half by the Fourth Succession War, launched by Hanse Davion over ten years ago. The smaller nation then held off attacks by two adjacent powers, the Duchy of Andurien and the Magistracy of Canopus. It is now ruled by the crazy and evil Romano Liao, and the realm is only held together behind the scenes by the only person Romano trusts - her consort, Tsen Chang.

Free Worlds League - Run by Thomas Marik, the industrial ox of the Inner Sphere is a league of a variety of states, but after the succession of Andurien and the Marik crisis of 3035-6, Thomas Marik, the son of Anton Marik and rightful heir, has consolidated numerous powers under himself, the Captain-General of the Free Worlds League.

Draconis Combine - This Japanese flavored realm is run by Coordinator Takashi Kurita, although his son, Theodore Kurita has been named Genji no-kanrei, an honorific in charge of all military matters. Takashi is a old guard man with old ways of fighting, honor, and more. Theodore has been surreptitiously updating various units, and replacing the old guard with people of vision and skill instead of dedication to older doctrines and loyalties. The Draconis Combine underwent the Ronin Wars of 3036 after a large chuck of systems declared themselves independent as the Free Rasalhague Republic and Theodore moved to support them. One fifth of the DCMS was declared ronin as a result and was attacked and destroyed.

Free Rasalhague Republic - This nation was formed from some Lyran worlds and many Draconis worlds. The resultant state has a Scandinavian flavor and it is trying to build itself in its nascent days.

Duchy of Andurien - It declared independence from the Free Worlds League in 3030, and then attacked the Capellan Confederation in a bid to gain more systems and grow itself. That bid failed, and for the last four years, Marik forces have taken one system after another. Now, just two remain, and one has no Andurien troops on it and will be taken any day. The other, is Andurien itself.


St. Ives Compact - These 18 systems split off from the Capellan Confederation and became an independent state after the Fourth Succession War. Candace Allard-Liao is the sister to Romano Liao and would have inherited the entire Capellan Confederation if she had only waited a few years, but love for the Davion spy Justin Xiang Allard led her to lead the defection of 18 systems she had control over away from the Capellan
Confederation.

ComStar - The organization that guards HPG stations is also a player behind the scenes in Inner Sphere politics. No one knows to what extent.


The Periphery - There are several minor states outside the Inner Sphere generally referred to as the Periphery. The major ones are the Outwords Alliance, Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus, but there are others like the Oberon Confederation and Marian Hegemony.

[Abe Sargent]

Omg it's back! Will definitely be following :D

Glad ta see you happy!

[Abe Sargent]

The Unit:

Kilts and Commandoes:

Flag - Black, crossed rifle and sword, on a tartan background.
Homeworld - Epsilon Eridani
Current Contracts - Defense of nearby Kressly Warworks, for ten years, started one year ago.

Epsilon Eridani is one jump from several important worlds, including: Terra, Carver V, Outreach, Fletcher in the Free Worlds League, Procyon, Fomalhaut, Caph, Northwind and 9 other inhabited systems. Northwind is the home of one of major mercenary units, Outreach the mercenary home, Terra includes Earth, Fletcher is in the Free Worlds League and planets like Caph and Carver V will become important later.

The Kilts and Commandos have one company awarded the Andurien Star for major action against the Free Worlds League in destroying and killing the CO of a regiment of Marik troops.

The Kilts and Commandos fought for the Free Rasalhague Republic during the Ronin Wars, and brought several planets in line. Due to their actions, K&C has a status of significance in the FRR’s eyes. While the FRR shies away from hiring mercenaries in general, the FRR will approach K&C for contracts on a regular basis.

Due to their similar views, K&C sent a letter to the fives houses saying that they would not accept a contract by a Great House against the St. Ives Compact, Duchy of Andurien, or Free Rasalhague Republic.

Kilts and Commandos have a base of operations around the Essex Training Academy. It includes mech bays, headquarters, barracks, training areas, supply depots, security stations and more.


The Essex Training Academy opened its doors in January 3039. It takes a trainee three years to graduate. The first class, which is just 5 students, are now freshmen. Upon graduation, qualified MechWarriors are accepted into the Kilts and Commandos mercenary command, if they wish. The Training Academy was built by Braham Essex and Ted Izumo during the 3030s.

Epsilon Eridani is the setting of the novel, Initiation to War.

[Abe Sargent]

Within the first week of 3039, our liaison on Outreach has received two contract offers of significance. The first comes from the Duchy of Andurien and our old friends there. They would like us to land our forces on Andurien in preparation for a major, major assault by the Free Worlds League. It’s a suicide mission, and there is no question that Marik will take back this world.

The other contract comes from the Federated Suns. They want us to join an offensive against the Draconis Combine of massive proportions. Hanse Davion has been chomping at the bit for a war with Kurita for a decade now, and he is about to get it. We would be on a retainer with the Federated Suns war effort for a year.


Both contracts have value to me. However, I cannot in good conscious risk the entire unit on Andurien. Therefore, I make a decision.

I will personally lead one company of mechs to Andurien to assist the Duchess, while Ted Izumo will take the rest of the unit into the Davion contract and join their offensive.


My personal company was savaged in the action on Somerset that resulted in my injury. Of the 12 mechs and MechWarriors that entered, I lost my mech. We lost Nadia Romanov, an elite pilot, and her assault level Stalker. Jacob Ovango’s Wolverine had its head blown off and it was gone and he died. Veteran Roger Stephens had his Wolfhound legged and we had to leave both behind. Finally, Justine Dempsey, and her modified Phoenix Hawk with its medium pulse lasers was crippled and left behind as well.

That’s five out of 12 mechs lost and four MechWarriors either killed or left behind in the rush to evacuate.

During our time down, we spent 16 million CBills on building some buildings and upkeep of our units. I take an unused BattleMaster as my new mech. We had many unmanned mechs, and part of our time was spent recruiting on Outreach for some of our unused mechs.

We also went through several reorganizations as part of our new look, and to get new mechs, new pilots, and the infusion of the Kressly Warworks mechs and tanks in order to get a new team.


As you may know, we absorbed the Kressly Warworks units and agreed to be their defense for ten years last year. We gained four manned mechs and a full company of manned vehicles. We decided to keep those vehicles together, since they were used to working together. We put the four mechs and their pilots into various places as we saw need.

The four mechs we inherited, in case you care, were Awesome, Crusader, Wasp and Hunchback.

[Abe Sargent]

This next few posts are for the dorks among us who love this stuff so much they know every mech by name and heart. I will be listing our companies and their roster. If you are not an uber-BTech nerd, you can skip this part.

However, in order to assist those not familiar with the BTech universe, for each mission we do, I will post a picture and a quick blurb about a mech being used by our side, so that slowly you can be introduced with these machines of hot death.

[Abe Sargent]

Our new units:


Aleph Company:


Anvil Lance

Capt. Braham Essex, BattleMaster
David Bengurion, Striker
Kennedy Martin, Hunchback
Daniel Rayburn, Warhammer


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Rafael Gomez, Archer
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Su Yuan, Champion
Chao Diochan, Griffin


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Adele Thompson, Firestarter modified
Liu Chen, Spider
Elena Stoyovich, Mercury
Longfeather Bluehawk, Jenner


Steve Sanders, Anti-Mech Jump Infantry
Mvundi Atterson, SRM infantry

[Abe Sargent]

Phaeton Company (2):


Anvil Lance

Lt. Martin Fitzgerald, Awesome
Edgar Lopez, Warhammer
Earl Ray Williams, Thunderbolt
Bryant McKinnon, Panther


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Anakago Intade, Griffin
Aurelia Yevgina, Dervish
David Delgado, Rifleman
Eleanor Bates, Catapult


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Mary McDonnell, Falcon
Raquel Sanchez, Javelin
Aaron Cohen, Phoenix Hawk
Edgar Steinbocker, Hermes II


Marsha Smith, Foot Rifle Infantry
Natalia Shevchenko, Motorized Rifle Infantry

[Tellistto]

Nice to see you back finally! Love this dynasty, hope the bug keeps on bugging you!

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Trinity Company:


Anvil Lance

Lt. Elizabeth Smythe, Atlas
Bonita Endicia, Thunderbolt
Latasha Jenkins, Hatchetman
Barbara Morse, Zeus


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Jason Thomas, Ostsol
Thad Karamanlis, Trebuchet
Janice Flanders, Goliath
Maeve Vega, Rifleman


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Orpah Jones, Ostscout
Hassan Mohommad, Phoenix Hawk
Chiang Xe, Spider
Anna Cafincelli, Cicada

[Abe Sargent]

Nice to see you back finally! Love this dynasty, hope the bug keeps on bugging you!

Tell

Thanks! Welcome back.

[Abe Sargent]

Delta Company:


Anvil Lance

Lt. Miguel Juarez, Banshee
Melissa Darrow, Awesome
Clyde Naller, Warhammer
Adrick Lee, Atlas


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Estelle Galverson, Crusader
Cristina Fernandez, Trebuchet
Stacey Dutch, Catapult
Maggie Fratticelli, Black Knight


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Nei Vanda, Spider
Maria Santos, Javelin
Khalid Hussein, Hermes II
Samir Azif, Wasp



This is the first company I had to use garrison units to fill out, and it has a few mechs I do not like - the Wasp and Hermes II. The rest of the unit is fine though.

[Abe Sargent]

Cinq Company:


Anvil Lance

Lt. Mika Kotone, BattleMaster
Alan Roderick, Awesome
Dale Snyder, Hunchback
Martine Kobolev, Wolverine 6M


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Lynda Karatos, Zeus
John Abram, Griffin
Roger Von Harkness, Crusader
Roman Richards, Archer 2S


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Ian Hall, Vulcan 5T
Cassia Jenkins, Wasp
Esther Edelstein, Spider
Umbria Mutunde, Locust


This is the first of my brand new companies formed from the many mechs I had in mechbays. The Wasp and Locust are crappy. The rest of this is fine though, with 3 assault mechs plus an Archer and Crusader. That's a strong unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Hex Company:


Anvil Lance

Capt. Ted Izumo, Stalker
Tanya Meekins, Grand Dragon
Wendy Worthington, Vindicator
Raymond Diggs, Kintaro


Hammer Lance

Sgt. Sam Martez, Orion
Deborah Kreiner, Banshee
Marsha Fehr, Whitworth
Mara Fehr, Enforcer


Thunder Lance

Sgt. Natalie Bronson, Spider
Steve Ovango, Phoenix Hawk
Patricia Enchbayar, Thorn
Naila Nazirah, Commando


Marsha and Mara are twin sisters. This is my final one. The Thorn, Commando, Banshee, and Vindicator are not the sort of mechs that make me happy to see, and I feel like I stretched to get this company up and running, so we'll see how they perform.

[Abe Sargent]

A lance of mechs and vehicles each are left on the planet to garrison the factory Kressly Warworks and our compound.


We also have two companies of vehicles, which I will skip past right now.


I am going to run each contract independent of the other. In other words, I’ll run one contract from beginning to end, and then run the other contract from beginning to end.

[DataKing]

Glad to see this is back Abe. I played a ton of BattleTech back in the day, and reading this makes me nostalgic for those days. I'm also glad to see a couple of Thunderbolts on your TO&E. The TDR-5S was always one of my favorites...squat, ugly, and tough as nails. :devil:

I'll be reading.

[Warhammer]

Is that HERII a 2M or the standard variant? The Marik variant of the HER is a beast. Plus, gotta love the WVR-6M, another awesome, er... very good mech.

[Abe Sargent]

Welcome back all, its like we almost never left.

The Hermes II is the normal sucky AC5 wieding mech. Sorry, not the good one. Thunderbolts rock, Warhammers are okay, and I'm in a mech I really like - the BattleMaster of love.

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s begin with Aleph Company and Andurien. We will start with the negotiations.

Note that Aleph Company is now rated B on Dragoon’s rating.


I’ll just give you the final contract terms:

Shared Salvage
House Command
Straight Support 50% of support cost plus 50% Battle Loss Compensation
Remuneration - 5% bonus
Full Transport
Length of Service - 1 year
Salary - 1.5 x 1.3 x 3.7
16% Bonus paid at beginning of contract

Since I get a bonus right now, let’s figure this out.

2,106,491 salary
337,038 bonus on top of that. We get that now.



My mech, the BattleMaster, is an 85 ton assault mech with long range, medium range, and short range weapons of all types. From its Particle Projection Cannon (PPC) that generates essentially manmade lightning to a Short Range Missile Rack with 6 missiles (SRM-6) to a ton of medium lasers, and even a pair of infantry deadly machine guns. The mech is well armored, and one of the true beasts of the era.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-10/426395/BATTLEMASTER3025.gif

[Abe Sargent]

April 6, 3039 - Aleph Company arrives at Andurien. No other mercenary anywhere will take Andurien contracts now. I have faith in me and my men and my metal, but we could easily end this with a major loss of people and mechs, just like on Somerset. Our contract has begun.

April 17, 3039 - Thomas Marik arrives in the Andurien system. He contracts the Duchy of Andurien and begins negotiations to end this peacefully. Blockade of Andurien begins.

May 19, 3039 - After a month of fruitless negotiations, sabres begin rattling. ComStar issues orders that Andurien and the Free Worlds League had better not mess with the HyperPulse Generators or the hospitals in the capital city of Jojoken. Otherwise, the group who does will have the wrath of ComStar on them.

June 10, 3039 - Massive Marik flotillas arrive at both the Zenith and Nadir points in the Andurien system. They establish control over both jump points, and move en masse to Andurien.

June 25, 2039 - Meanwhile, several smaller JumpShips jump into various pirate points. All Andurien AeroSpace assets are scrambled to protest the major Free Worlds League flotilla, and the ones at the pirate points arrive uncontested on Andurien soil.

With all of the military units about to be involved in the struggle for Andurien, there would be more troops involved here than in any other engagement since the fall of the Star League until Tukayyid many years later.

The Andurien landings are protested by the Andurien Defenders. The Marik Guards capture several areas with two days, including the military spaceport of Hulan, and a variety of key transport and administrative hubs in the northern continent. Due to their established position, the main Marik flotilla is able to land their troops on Andurien virtually unprotested.

[Abe Sargent]

June 30, 3039 - The Free Worlds League continue to solidfy their position on the Northern Continent, and the Andurien forces are sending out patrols and scouts to test their defenses and see if they can find, and perhaps exploit weaknesses. We are sent out on one such mission.

The goal of this mission is to hit and fade.

We do not know the numbers or size of the Marik forces. We skirt their defensive line, and look for weaknesses while sending back information to the Andurien forces, because many Andurien satellites have been destroyed by Marik AeroSpace forces.


While stumbling around, we come across a company of Marik vehicles. Because they are not intending this to be a major fight, they are just looking to hit and fade, and will run at the first sign of trouble.

All of these Marik forces are vets.


The first round arrives and fire is exchanged while positions are set up in these scrub woods. Our Archer rapes their Ontos’s movement. That’s an Assault tank that just got hammered by the Archer’s missiles. I have to make a piloting skill roll after taking a bunch of damage, and I miss the 5, rolling a 4, and fall down.

The next round arrives. I get up and back up a few steps. The modified Firestarter piloted by Adele Thompson jumps behind a Saladin and tears into its rear armor with fie machine guns and Flamers. The Saladin blows up with an ammo explosion. Our Striker Assault mech destroys the left side of the Ontos, taking out the Assault tank. That is Bengurion’s 4th kill for us.

With two tanks dead, including an assault, the Marik forces flee.

We are able to recover the Ontos and take it back with us for repairs and perhaps later use.


This is a Striker Assault mech. It is usually reserved for garrison and second line duty, so you don’t see it much, but there are actually hundreds in the Inner Sphere right now. Our elite pilot, David Bengurion, pilots one.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/7e/Striker.jpg




End of Mission 1:

About 6 tons of armor needed to patch holes
Recovered Ontos with destroyed movement system and destroyed LS.

[law90026]

Oh cool, I hadn't seen the new Striker's pic. Old one looks nicer though :P

[Abe Sargent]

Oh cool, I hadn't seen the new Striker's pic. Old one looks nicer though :P

It's from the 3058 tech readout.

[Abe Sargent]

Bengurion gets Edge: 1.



Later that day, as we near base, we get word that an Andurien scout mech was lost out in some more scrub. We are ordered to send our scout lance to investigate.

We find the position the Andurien last was heard from. We get hot spots on our sensors and approach. We find an enemy scout lance, but it’s pretty heavy with three mediums and just one light - A Javelin, Cicadaa, Hermes II and Griffin. We also notice our Friend or Foe picking out an ally from behind a corpse of trees. We have found the lost scout mech. It is a Locust. It joins our side, so it’s 5 on four, but 5 light mechs on 3 mediums and one light and all veteran. The Andurien pilot is Elite, not that it matters. That mech sucks.

The first round is just maneuvering and a bit of movement.


I manage to get my Spider behind the Griffin’s back. I also charge in with my Jenner and walk my Mercury behind their Hermes II. Let’s see what happens. My Mercury criticals the Hermes II’s engine with its lasers. My Mercury takes 20+ damage and misses a kick, but is still standing, and their Griffin is still standing after a kick from my Spider.


In the third turn, I jump my overheated Jenner behind the back of the Hermes II because of the opportunity, even if I choose not to take it, it presents. I move my Mercury into the Hermes II rear arc again. Adele’s Firestarter walks around the Cicada’s back. Their Griffin lands by my Spider. I fire only the SRM4 from the Jenner because it can find criticals in the Hermes II’s empty rear CT armor. Adele’s Firestarter really gets into the Cicada’s armor. The Mercury hit’s the Hermes II’s engine twice more and it shuts down from too much engine damage. A kill for the Mercury. That is Elena Stoyovich;s 4th kill for us. Our ally Locust was opened up by their Javelin and had a Heat Sink opened.

However, with one mech gone, the enemy jumps away and leaves us.

We recover an engine x3 hit Hermes II with no other issues. It will take about 5 tons of armor to fix us.

Elena gets one better at Piloting skill - she is now a vet.

Here is Adele’s Firestarter, a light 35 ton mech that specializes in jetting the heat up on a mech she hits. She also has a ton of Mgs making her an ideal anti-infantry mech.


http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/firestarter1.gif




End of Mission 2.

[Abe Sargent]

We keep making small insect bites. A captured medium scout mech here, a couple of tanks there. But it was a good day for us.

Note that, because we are behind a blockade, we cannot get any items to repair our mechs unless they are in our supply, the Defenders supply, or on planet. Since the Andurien Defenders have been at war for 8 years now, their supplies are running a bit thin. If a mech loses an arm, leg, or whatnot, unless we have it in store, it will be gone until we can salvage a new one.


July 5, 3039 - We are asked back t o action in a probing scout mission along the Andurien line.

We find nothing.


July 7, 3039 - We are back in the rotation again. This time we find something.

We run into an entire mech company. Of the elite First Fusiliers of Oriente. This may be nasty.

Their company:

BattleMaster
Shadow Hawk
Hermes
Stalker
Stinger
Atlas
Locust - 1M
Locust
Javelin
Griffin
UrbanMech
Archer

This is a very mixed company. There are a lot of great heavy metal mechs there - Atlas, Archer, BattleMaster, Stalker. Then we have a ton of light dinky mechhs - two Locusts, Hermes, Stinger, Urbie, Javelin. Then we have two heavier mediums in Shadow Hawk and Griffin, but the S Hawk blows.

Because they are elite, we have a problem. They are actually a higher battle value than us, meaning the odds favor them. Like previous encounters, this one will be played to the first mech or two destroyed, and then the loser will flee.

Here is Kennedy Martin‘s Hunchback, a 50 ton medium mech built around the most devastating weapon in the age, the AutoCannon 20 (AC20), a close range weapon that sloughs off more than a ton of armor from the location it hits. It is very heavy, and the mech is built around it.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/hunchback0.gif

[Abe Sargent]

Let me see if I can get some smaller pics. That hunchy and Firestarter look like they are going to come out of this thread and kill me.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, let’s begin our game.

We move around the map and take the central copse of trees. They expose their Stalker, so I send some fire its way. I also send some fire their Griffin’s way. Their Griffin’s PPC blows off the Right Arm of our Mercury. Our Centurion takes 20+ damage and yet stays standing.

I hop my Spider behind their Archer and retreat into hiding with my Centurion and Mercury. We concentrate our fire on their Stalker. Their UrbanMech blows the RA off my Spider - it’s a Limb Blow off critical instead of dealing damage and destroying it, so it is laying on the ground. My Spider almost falls.

I flee the field with my Spider and Mercury, just in case they get attacked. I really concentrate my fire on the Stalker again, every single mech attacks it. We open up its Right Arm and hit a Heat Sink. It manages to stay standing.

The next turn is here, and more maneuvering. Even more fire on their Stalker. I destroy its Right Arm with my BattleMaster. Everybody stays standing.

At this point, they decide to call it off and leave before their Stalker dies. It is open in the RT and missing its RA. We keep the field and are able to recover the Spider arm.


Results:

About 10 tons of armor needed to replace that gone
Techs are able to reattach arm to Spider
Mercury lost RA - We do NOT have a spare 20 ton RA in our bin. On planet we have two factories, but one makes vehicles and the other makes fighters, no Mech companies.


My techs manage to fix up the Hermes II, so I will be moving my pilot to that mech for now.


End of Mission 3

[Abe Sargent]

July 15, 3039 - After getting our mechs fixed back up, and the Hermes II in working order, we are sent out again for another probe mission. We find nothing.

July 17, 3039 - We are sent back out again, since we were undamaged from the 15th’s foray. We spot a few VTOLs who scamper away when they see us. Nothing else though.

July 20, 3039 - We are sent out again. We surprise a scout lance, but as we move ourselves into position to fight, a company each of mechs and vehicles moves towards us from the treeline. We retreat.

July 21, 3039 - We are sent out again and run into a company of vehicles. They are all veterans.


Elena Stoyovich’s Mercury, a very light 20 ton scout mech that was originally made hundreds of years ago, and has lost the LosTech it used to have and been replaced with simpler parts.

http://www.orloff-academy.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/cguard12mercury.jpg



We are fighting in the ruins of an old rural industrial area with a few ruined and destroyed buildings. There is a road that cuts through here, and the spare woods meet the beginning of a swamp area, and there are a few places that are wooded and a few that are swampy.

I position my fastest mechs to grab the heavy woods in the right middle of the area we are fighting in. That way I can establish a presence in the best defensive spot on the map. My mechs take targets of opportunity instead of concentrating their fire. Our Archer destroys a Hetzer’s fuel tank and it explodes. That is Rafael Gomez’s 8th kill for us. They flee and since their tanks are all speedy, they get away quickly.


Rafael Gomez gains Edge.


End of Mission 4.

[Tellistto]

I chuckled at the pic comment. Thank you, that was funny to me.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

I chuckled at the pic comment. Thank you, that was funny to me.

Tell

:)

[Abe Sargent]

July 24, 3039 - The decision is made to abandon the beachhead that the Marik forces made and retreat to more defensible forces. We move father away, and allow the Free Worlds League to stretch their borders and expands their territory on Andurien.

July 30, 3039 - We are asked to send out our scout lance to destroy a listening post supposedly defended by a few tanks and infantry.

We arrive and find a trio of medium vehicles, a light vehicle, and three squads of infantry. There are no trees, just some rocks and hills, so my mechs are very exposed.

In the first round, we just dance around, and my Hermes II is the only person that hits in the first round.

We move some of our forces right next to each other, including Liu Chen’s Spider running right behind their Galleon Light Tank. Adele’s Firestarter knocked their Drillson;s movement system out of whack. The Drillson is immobile. Our Spider kicks the Galleon Light Tank and it is about to die in the back.

The third turn sees Adele and the Jenner rape their Drillson. Then Liu Chen kicks it and destroys its left side.

The tanks and infantry begin to leave, and concede the Listening Post to us. We destroy it and move back.

Needs just 2 tons of armor.

We can recover the Drillson, but we were unable to repair its drive system, and that needs to be replaced.


End of Mission 5.

[Abe Sargent]

August 2, 3039 - We are sent out in force to repel an attack against an Andurien position. However, it is a feint to draw us out, and the Marik forces sneak in, steal some supplies, sneak back out, and the forces charging us flee and we cannot pursue into their artillery.

August 4, 3039 - In order to encourage the troops, Dame Humphreys grants all unit’s the Andurien Star that do not already have it That includes my company. Additionally, I have been personally awarded the Andurien Epaulet, an award that recognize individual service to the Duchy.

August 7, 3039 - The Free Worlds League has split up its forces and sends a large force to capture the town of Callan where the Third Andurien Defenders are. The Andurien Campaign so far has been feints, probes, and minor missions. The campaign is about to turn into full out war.

August 9, 3039 - We get news that the Regular Hussars, a Marik unit, have surprised the Third Defenders and forced them into Callan.

August 10, 3039 - We are sent to distract a Marik force that has gotten to close to Andurien lines. We are meant to hold them until more forces arrive.


Here is Sgt. Rafael Gomez’s Archer. It is a Heavy mech weighing 70 tons. It is one of the best fire support mechs in 3039, as it has 2 Long-Range Missle systems each with 20 missiles (called an LRM-20). It can launch 40 missiles each turn, plus it has four medium lasers for close range defense and solid armor. It’s a great mech and lots of people like em.

http://www.solaris7.com/Images/TRO/BattleMechs/3025%20Archer1.jpg

Their mechs:

Stalker
Hunchback
BattleMaster
Stinger
Hermes II
Wasp x2
Vulcan
Grasshopper
Locust
Shadow Hawk
Wolverine


Half are elite, half are veteran. The major threats are the assault Stalker and BattleMaster, and the medium Hunchback. The other mecs are either pushovers (Vulcan, Grasshopper, Shadow Hawk) or weak (Stinger, Wasp, Wasp, Locust) or underpowered but adequate (Wolverine, Hermes II).

[Warhammer]

I love the comment on the 2S Shadow Hawk... I only have one question, is there such a thing as a good Shadow Hawk?

[Abe Sargent]

Not without LosTech there's not.

[Abe Sargent]

We are fighting by a small suberb with a variety of buildings and streets, but we have some trees too. No elevation changes here at all.

We can only see one mech of theirs at the beginning of the game. After some maneuvering, Adele tries to set some of their woods on fire with her Inferno rounds. Adele misses the 6 needed to hit the woods (at range to be fair) and all other people miss too.

We are moving around this central suburb. I move Adele’s Firestarter against their Wasp and Stinger, with the hope of blasting away some armor with her MGs. They move their Shadow Hawk in against Adele’s FS, so I move my BattleMaster in as well, to close with their Shadow Hawk. I order Adele’s FS to attack the Shadow Hawk instead, and try to burn it. Several of my mechs key off on their Shadow Hawk. Their Stinger is exposed on top of a level 3 building so several of my mechs tee off on it. I use up all of my Edge on the Shadow Hawk’s attack. Twice it rolled a Through Armor critical and then rolled criticals, and my edge rerolled those and prevented them, so I have no Edge left for my BattleMaster. My BattleMaster returns the favor by tearing int the Head of the Shadow Hawk with its PPC. It hit’s the sensors and cockpit, killing the pilot. Dead Shadow Hawk, killed at my hand. Our Warhammer and Archer tear into their Stinger, and go critical in various places, but it survives and is still standing. Adele is kicked but stays standing.

Well, that was a good round. Let’s see what else we can do. I keep moving up my infantry. Infantry in buildings is money. My Jump Laser Platoon is now in a level 3 building. It is hard to damage infantry in buildings, but if the building collapses, many dead infantry. Just an exchange of fire.

The 4th round arrives. I’m internal in Adele’s Firestarter LL. I move my BattleMaster, Centurion and Hunchback into the city and challenge their Hunchback sitting here. I also move my laser infantry into LOS. Their Hunchy hits my BM’s torso and gets a Through-Armor Critical (TAC) and hit’s a Medium Laser. Our Hunchback destroys the LT and throws the LA clear of their Stinger. Our Archer hit’s the Stingers gyro. Our Champion hit’s the Stingers RT, blowing off its RA (YAY), then destroys its CT.

Another good round. Their Hunchy has been damaged a bit, and none of my mechs are that badly hurt, except Adele’s FS which jumped away back into a hard area to hit it from. Liu Chen jumps her Spider behind their Vulcan’s back. I jump the Jenner behind their Hunchback. I was waiting my Jenner behind a level 3 building for forever waiting for someone to come nearby that I could jump out and behind, and their Hunchback exposed his rear. Liu Chen’s Spider hit’s the Vulcan’s rear torso, then gets a critical on the AC2 ammo and it explodes. Kill for the Spider. Our Laser Jump platoon nails the leg of one of their Wasps and goes critical, hitting two leg actuators. Our Jenner goes internal on their Hunchback and smacks its AC20 twice. Their Wasp falls but their Hunchy stays standing. Our Jenner kicks the downed Hunchback for more damage. It fails to fall.

Three times in this game, we have lost initiative only to get it on the reroll due to my Tactical Genius ability. They try to stand up their Wasp and it fails, falling down and destroying its damaged leg. It braces itself against the building it is adjacent to, and stands up this time successfully. I jump Liu Chen’s Spider behind their Wolverine. My BattleMaster hit’s the shoulder actuator on the Wolverine’s RA just before our Warhammer destroys its LA. Our Jenner ran around the back of their Hunch again, and blows it up after hitting the AC20 ammo. Boom! Their Wolverine falls. Our Spider missed a kick on the downed Wolverine and falls. Our Jenner shuts down from overheat.

I move some of my mechs to support the overheated Jenner. I stand up my Spider and run it behind some trees. Two of their mechs fall down while running to get to my Jenner - they skid and crash into buildings - the good Wasp and their Grasshopper. Our Warhammer opens up the torso of their Wolverine and hits its SRM6. My BattleMaster kicks their Wolverine, takes out the external armor on its LL and it falls down.

We hear some jet sounds above us and see contrails as Marik AeroSpace fights move to our position. We begin to move behind the buildings for cover. When we look back up, they have moved their mechs off. We cannot follow for a few minutes until Andurien fighters are scrambled to drive off the Marik ones, and we recover salvage.

Four kills for Liu Chen since founding our unit, just her 4th kill (she started Green). She will now be regular after a piloting skill bonus.

With the Stinger LA recovered, we can try to attach it to the Mercury. It works but it will take about 5 days for our techs to get ready.

About 15 tons of armor needed.


End of Mission 6.

[Abe Sargent]

August 14, 3039 - The Third Defenders in Callan have pushed back the Marik troops and have turned that battle to a stalemate. Clashes continue through the night.

August 15, 3039 - In the morning, more Free Worlds League troops are moved to the Callan Offensive. The Eleventh Atrean Guard arrives and allows the Regulan troops to withdraw with the Atreans keep hammering the Defenders. The Third Defenders make a last ditch effort to break off from the fresh troops, but are unable to do so when another regiment, the First Fusiliers of Oriente arrive to support their fellow troops, and after giving as good as they can, the Third Defenders are annihilated and eliminated as a unit.

Among the dead is Michael Humphreys, son of Dame Catherine Humphreys and her heir.

The Free Worlds League have captured Callan.

August 18, 3039 - The LCCC (League Combined something or other) are realigning their defenses and Andurien is using the pause in the fighting to make repairs and fix some things up.

August 22, 3039 - The Fourth Andurien Defenders capture a company of First Marik Militia mechs away from their regiment at Darnel Bridge and destroy all of their mechs. Camera shows four MechWarriors ejecting from their mechs, and various citizens surround the Marik MechWarriors and beat them to death, and then hang their bodies from the Darnel Bridge. Andurien troops do arrive and breakup the mob, but it is too late. Video cameras catch the Darnel Bridge Massacre and it enrages troops around the Free Worlds League. Although many atrocities had been done by FWL units against Andurien citizens throughout the war, and although this is the first one against Marik forces, it comes at the wrong time. It emboldens and strengthens the resolve of the various Marik factions. There’ll be no more pause now. They are coming for blood. They believe its not just Dame Humphreys anymore that is their enemy, and not just eh military, but the entire planet.

I request money for the first few months of action, and I get it. Just in case, you know.

[Abe Sargent]

August 24, 3039 - 35 klicks west of the Darnel Bridge, the First Marik Militia and the Fourth Andurien Defenders meet for battle. The First Marik Militia is out for blood, incensed by the deaths of their comrades. The Fourth Andurien Defenders wants to deprive Marik of their best unit. The two begin a slugging match and no-holds-barred match that lasts much shorter than you might normally think. Instead of the normal strategy, each side just goes for the jugular of the other. At the end of the epic battle, the Fourth Andurien Defenders are destroyed and the First Marik Militia is battered and bruised so badly they have to permanently withdraw from the Andurien campaign.

Allies wearing Andurien colors are quickly diminishing in number.


August 25, 3039 - We are sent to harass and perhaps destroy a few mechs of the Marik First Militia, but as we approach, their withdraw is covered by the entire Eleventh Atrean Guard. We retreat before getting too close.

August 26, 3039 - After the devastation of the Marik First Militia, Thomas Marik simply sits behind his defense and sends the First away to get fixed, healed, and replenished.

With such few Andurien units left, and less land to defend, sorties, probes and scouting sessions have been diminished significantly.

Sept 2, 3039 - We are sent on a quick scout mission, and see nothing.

[Abe Sargent]

Sept 3, 3039 - We get word that several Free Worlds League JumpShips have arrived in system.

Sept 8, 3039 - Numerous regiments land on Andurien to support Thomas Marik’s position. We are now facing the following regiments:

Eighth Orloff Grenadiers
Eleventh Atrean Guard
First Regulan Hussars
Second Fusiliers of Oriente
Stewart Dragoons Home Guard
Forth Marik Militia
Always Faithful, mercenary regiment



And we have:

First Andurien Defenders
Fifth Andurien Defenders
Sixth Andurien Defenders
Kilts and Commandoes Aleph Company


Although the Defenders were originally Regiment sized, long ago, most are now running at half strength. The Marik forces are not. That’s bad odds. Andurien will fall, but we can decide how.

We have reduced, even more, our scouting expeditions, raids, sorties, and such to nothing, due to the overwhelming numbers our opponents are able to commit to their own scouting.

[Abe Sargent]

Sept 12, 3039 - The city of Qinda, third largest on Andurien, is behind the Marik lines, but is held by Andurien forces. Remnants of the Third and Fourth Defenders have joined forces with a few minor militia mechs to keep the city in Andurien hands. Our intelligence puts Andurien forces there at about 45 mechs. Thomas Marik assigns three regiments - Hussars, Fusiliers and Grenadiers - to assault and take Qinda.


Sept 15, 3039 - After three days of trying to entice out the Andurien forces, the three Marik regiments have no choice but to begin to sweep Qinda street by street and block by block.

October 8, 3039 - After 23 days, Qinda falls. The Marik forces lost sixty mechs, but eventually force out the Andurien troops, destroy most of them, and capture Qinda. During this time, Thomas Marik refused to send out troops to harass us or attack us, content to sit behind his defensive lines while his forces removed any potential threat from Qinda.

All repairs and fixes have been done to mechs, vehicles, and such long ago, This lull in fighting is starting to get at some Anduriens, who have been fighting for a long time. In fact, we haven’t been in a fight since early August. We’ve been sent out a few times to scout, just to make sure an invasion isn’t coming, but Thomas Marik knows he has time and troops on his side, and he is happy to spend both for a certain victory.

October 18, 3039 - Thomas Marik has finished securing and consolidating Qinda, and moves the forces just in battle back to his defensive and reserve and moves out troops to attack Baroda, the second largest city on Andurien, currently garrisoned by the Sixth Defenders.

October 31, 3039 - Several sorties have been occurring at Baroda of significance. We are asked to stand by, although we are currently garrisoned at Jojoken, the capital city of Andurien.

November 6 - Two more regiments are added to put pressure on Baroda - Always Faithful and Fourth Milita join the Eleventh Guards.

November 9, 3039 - Several major battles have occurred at Baroda, but the Sixth Defenders have stood firm. Banking on Thomas Marik remaining conservative, the First Defenders and us are dispatch to Baroda along with all of our equipment, to move our headquarters there temporarily.

[Abe Sargent]

November 10, 3039 - We arrive in Baroda and move to support the Sixth Defenders. After establishing a base, we are asked to move out and stop a probe company from the Always Faithful mercenary regiment from getting deep into the city.


Always Faithful

UrbanMech
Awesome 8T
Locust
Shadow Hawk
Firestarter
Victor
Scorpion
Dervish
Orion
Banshee
Cicada
Quickdraw

They are veteran

The major foes here are the Orion and Awesome.

Here is Michael Adkins’s Centurion. It is a 50 ton Medium Mech that is better than you might think at first, with its Long-Range 10 Missile rack (LRM-10), 2 Medium lasers (but one races the rear) solid armor and an AutoCannon 10 (AC10) a strong weapon in this era.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/centurion0.gif

[Tellistto]

Not looking good at all for the Anduriens. Hopefully you have some type of exit strategy if/when the worst happens.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

I always have a strategy.

[Abe Sargent]

We are facing some heavy woods, pavement and roads in a state forest type area on the outskirts of Baroda. Just maneuvering and small attacks. The woods my Warhammer was in caught on fire, which sucks cause I wanted to keep him here sniping.

Turn two sees more closing and targets of opportunity abound. Nothing major happens.

We are just dancing around each other. I need to move my major mechs against them, out from hiding, and just slug it out for a round or two, and then I can concentrate fire and bring my big guns to bear. I move out my Striker, Hunchback, BattleMaster and Warhammer into the open to chase down their Orion. After several mechs hit the Orion, our Warhammer cracks open its center torso, exposing it to other mechs. Our Archer blows off the RA of their Locust. Then our Champions destroys its RL, then the Jenner hits its Engine. It tumbles to the ground. Their Orion joins it on the ground. You gotta know when to push in the open, and when to hide in cover. It was time to push, and it worked. This past time, instead of moving my heavier mechs first and then my maneuvering ones later, I did it in opposite order in order to charge out with as little warning as possible.

Smoke and fire are spreading behind us. I move towards the Orion and they move a few units over to help, but by now, I have position and heavy metal there. Our Centurion joins us in the tag game, while my other units try to snipe or jump behind the other enemy units to keep them occupied. I hop Adele’s Firestarter over by their Dervish. Their Orion manages to stand. Adele tries to heat up the Dervish. My BattleMaster hit’s the Orion’s engine x2. Our Hunch destroyed its RA. Our Warhammer hits their Quickdraw in the head with a PPC - two criticals -sensors and life support. The mech is still ticking, but the Mech is wounded. Their Victor’s AC20 hits our Warhammer’s head, but it’s a glacing blow, so just ten damage and no internal. Then their Firestarter shoots with its Flamers and deals two the Warhammers head, and it is destroyed, and our elite MechWarrior has died. Several kicks are exchanged, and no one falls. Their Dervish avoids shutdown because of heat.

They got lucky with the Warhammer head hit. Sucks. Our Hunchback gets the Overkill award of the day by hitting the savaged Orion in its head with the AC20. We moved a lot of fire to the Quickdraw but failed to end its life. Our Champion is hit in several places and is open in the RL.

I began moving my Archer in too last turn, and I continue that now. I move my BattleMaster next to their Firestarter. Our Jump Laser Platoon gets the Limb Blown Off critical against the Locust’s LL. It is now missing both legs. That makes it officially recoverable. Their Firestarter falls after missing a kick. Our Griffin destroys the LL of their Firestarter. Both of my guys miss kicks but remain standing.

I have several options o try and find dead mechs. Quickdraw and Firestarter are obvious targets, so I move to get em. I destroy the LA of the Firestarter with my BM, then our Hermes II destroys its LT. The pilot also blacks out from a Flamer to its head. Our Hunchbacks need a 12 to punch the Quickdraw, and gets it, and destroys its LA from the damage.


With three mechs down, and more damage, the Maris begin to move away., Instead of chasing, we gather salvage and head back, not knowing if another patrol will come through soon or not. We recovered:

Our own Warhammer sans Head
Locust missing two legs and RA
Locust LL
Firestarter w/o LT, LL, or LA
Orion, sans Head

Okay, we lost a MechWarrior, which totally sucks.

We will need about 25 tons of armor to fix my troops.

What can we fix with parts in our bay?

I do not have a 35 ton LT, so no go on the Firestarter. I have no head for a Warhammer. I reattach the Leg to the Locust. I don’t have the other parts for a Locust.

It will take two weeks to repair the Orion;s engine, but we can do it.

So we are down to 11 MechWarriors, but we have 12 mechs, because the Mercury is fixed and not being used right now.


End of Mission 7

[law90026]

The head hit on the Warhammer really sucks.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, but look what my Hunchy did back!

[law90026]

Heh I guess that's true to some extent :P But you lost a good pilot (apparently not good enough :P)

[Abe Sargent]

Today I got what looks to be a fun little TRO for BattleTech called the Vehicle Annex. It includes stats for police cars, ambulances, fire engines, transport vehicles, motorcycles, racing cars, riot suppression vehicles, boats, trains, public transportation, construction vehicles and so forth. It looks like a lot of fun, and perhaps I use this to make a few more interesting scenarios in the future.

[Abe Sargent]

Awesome, they have a News helicopter

[Abe Sargent]

I also picked up TRO 3075, which inlcudes another lost memory core on New Dallas from teh Star League, and has even more schematics for mechs fromt hat era, and some are getting built again.

This is an opportunity to bring into the modern game the missing "mechs."

See, the game was originally sold as BattleDroids in the early 80s. It took various mech desgins from mecha anime in Japan, and then designed the game called BattleDroids. These droids did modestly well, and then the company rebranded it as BattleTech and it took off. The timelines were the same, and the universe was teh same, they simply released battleTech as the second edition and moved on.

Most of the droids made teh conversion to mechs in technical readouts (TROs). Stinger, Archer, Bombardier, Rifleman, Warhammer, Marauder, etc. However, a few of the original droids were lost, never to be seen again. Schematics existed for them from the original game, but they were never mentioned or seen in any release since.

These mechs were the Firebee, Cestus, Crossbow, Gladiator, Behemoth and Battleax. They were lost to time. Now, the in-universe explanation is that they actually were lost, and have been found and reintroduced, along with various other designs. Nice. Once again, you can play with the Firebee or the Crossbow. (Not the Behemoth though, it appears to be permanently retired, because they introduced a Behemoth mech in 3055 TRO and there is a Behemoth tank too).

Anyway, I am very happy.

[Abe Sargent]

Another thing the vehicle annex finally gets right is the inclusion of exoskeletons and industrial mechs. The universe has always had mechs that do things other than battle, plus exoskeletons for industrial work. they are mentioned in the novels going all the way back to some of the first ones, but there have never been any of them in a TRO until now. Finally we have schematics on LoggerMechs and HarvestMechs and LoaderMechs and my favorite, CattleMasters.

[Abe Sargent]

November 12, 3039 - We are sent back out on patrol. When we are sent out, we have the ability to choose what and where to do We can push, attack in force, withdraw, harass and whatever at my leisure.

Our scout units spy an opposing lance of heavier mechs supported by a company of tanks. Why not?

It is Dusk so the DUSK rule is in effect. Everybody is at +1 to hit.

More Always Faithful, and all Veteran


Banshee
Crusader
JagerMech
Victor

And then 12 tanks


The major foes are the double AC assault tank Demolisher, the triple LRM20 LRM Carrier, and the Crusader mech.

We actually hit them outside of the city by a river. The land is flat, with a few rocks, a few trees, a river, and a road and bridge crossing it. With little cover, we run towards each other. Our Spider takes an AC20 from their Victor in its RA. That RA no longer exists.

The next round arrives. Liu Chen stands up her Spider and runs away a maximum of ten spaces. Their Demolisher hits Adele’s RT and destroys it, leaving its RA on the ground. Our Archer destroys the Scorpion Light Tank’s RS. It is not recoverable so we take its weapons. Adele’s Firestarter falls.

Adele stands up her Firestarter and runs as far as she can. We exchange fire, and then my BattleMaster kicks and destroys the front end of a Harasser Missile Platform, which I can salvage.

I move my light forces away from the battle. This open terrain is not the map for them, so I flee with the damaged Spider, and set up Adele’s Firestarter for fleeing next turn. Their Crusader’s LRM15s pepper my Striker and destroy its head. Elite mega pilot David Bengurion has died. Our Centurion destroys both the front side and the right side of their Demolisher. We can recover the damage, but we cannot repair the drive system.

Well, I have to keep pushing now, if I want to get my own mech back. Failing to recover an assault mech after losing the elite pilot would suck even more. It sucks because the Striker was probably going to kill the other Harasser Missile Platform with its kick - only needed a 5. I am moving my support mechs out - Centurion, Champion, Griffin, to give more targets of opportunity. The Archer stays where it is because it is a bit overheated. Their Victor takes an AC20 hit from our Hunchback and exposes the RL and then it falls, hitting its foot actuator.

I send my Archer way overheat to attack their Behemoth Assault tank once more. We can’t play games, and it’s time to push hard. Our Griffin destroys the Behemoth’s front side, taking down their 100 ton assault tank. It is recoverable. We will be unable to repair the damaged sensors though. They hit our Centurion’s LRM10.

The 7th round arrives. I have severely injured their JagerMech. I cannot attack with my massively overheated Archer this turn. Here’s something you’ll almost never hear, I managed to outflank someone with our Hunchback, I order it behind their Victor. Our Hunchback blasts the Victor with its AC20 in its rear Center Torso, goes critical, and hit’s the engine once and gyro twice. Dead Victor, can’t move. It will take us about 5 weeks to fix that gyro, just one week for the engine, but we can do it. Even without its LRM10, our Centurion destroys the LS of one of their Scorpion Light Tanks. That is recoverable. Their Victor falls and blows off its LL (Limb Blow Off). Our Jenner goes severely overheat, then kicks their Harasser and stuns their crew for three turns.

With one mech down, another mech about to go down, and five tanks destroyed, another with stunned crew, and an LRM Carrier out of ammo, they decide to retreat. The Battlefield is ours.

Whew

Results:

We recover:


Demolisher w/o drive system
Behemoth Assault Tank w/o sensors
Victor with Gyro and Engine damage - will take five weeks to fix
Striker - Missing Head - This is our own mech
Scorpion Light Tank
Recovered Firestarter RA - Ours
Harasser Missile Platform x2
2 Medium Lasers
2 Machine Guns


Areas of Need:

Striker missing Head
Spider missing RA
Firestarter missing RT, RA
Centurion LRM10 - Fixed
45 tons of armor

[Abe Sargent]

The first thing we do is salvage the RT and RA of the Firestarter we received in a previous mission, and move it to Adele’s mech. This is easy, it just takes time. It will take 10 days. For 10 days, Adele’s mech will be sidelined.

I don’t have any assault mech heads, let alone an 80 ton one for the Striker. It will be benched. Actually, hold on, I have an old Goliath head. Let me see if that will work. We must have had this thing for years. Yes, that will work. Whew. It will take 6 days to fit the Goliath H on the Striker.

In 6 Days, our Assault Mech will be back and running, but not our dead MechWarriors. It sucks to lose two elite MechWarriors.

Right now, the Spider, Warhammer, Striker and Firestarter are down but the Firestarter and Striker are able to come online soon. We have an extra mech, the Hermes II. For now, I will return Elena Stoyovich to her Mercury, and move Adele Thompson to the Hermes II. Spider pilot Liu Chen will remain unmeched.

I move our headquarters to a DropShip we are paying for transit off Andurien. That way, if we have to move off hot, we won’t have to move all of our stuff too.


End of Mission 8

[Abe Sargent]

We have, in our spare parts, an Orion LA which we have attached to the salvaged Orion. It is now only missing a head.

November 14, 3039 - I’m not stupid, so I have now paid a deposit for a pair of DropShips that have been stuck here in Boroda behind the blockade. I pay them to be ready to lift us out at a moment’s notice, and I promise them we will get permission to take off.

November 15, 3039 - We are asked to send out eligible units to hit a scout lance that had made their way near the spaceport that we are using as a base.

We move out, and find, not only a scout lance, but some VTOLs too.


The Elite Mariks:

Phoenix Hawk
Wasp
Spider
Cicada
Two Warrior VTOLs
Two Cavalry VTOLs

Since they are scouting defenses, they will be retreating after round 4 no matter what.

We are fighting in a very dense metro area of Baroda, with tons of buildings.

Here is Su Yuan’s Champion. It is a heavy mech at 60 tons with lighter armor than you’d expect, but solid weapons and speed. It is another mech, like the Mercury, that has been around a long time, since the Star League, but has been modified over the years by lower levels of technology as LosTech became lost.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/champion0.gif

[Abe Sargent]

I just got back from a Moby concert and may have a chance to finish up the next mission, perhaps not, we'll see how sleepy I feel.

[Abe Sargent]

We are trying to search out our foes in this city, but they may get lost and hide, then run away after turn 4. That would be quite valid. Their forces get close to us, but we need unbelievably high number sot hit. A VTOL is adjacent to my BattleMaster and I need 11s to hit with my weapons. Sheesh. I moved my mechs into the larger street in the middle of the area and several targets flew or ran into sight. Our Centurion opens up their Wasp’s CT with its AC10 and then hits its Jump Jet once, then the LRM10 from the Centurion hits its arm and destroys its Medium Laser. For some reason, Michael Adkins and his Centurion is a machine of death. My BattleMaster is pocked by a bunch of SRM hits from both Cavalry VTOLs.

I hop my Jenner and Griffin around t try to find hidden mechs. I leave my BattleMaster and several other mechs just standing still, in order to increase their chance of hitting. Our Hunchback hit’s a Warrior’s Fuel Tank with its AC20 and it explodes. Our Jenner destroys the LA of their Spider. We kick their Cicada three times with my Griffin, Jenner and Hermes II. Its LL is destroyed, it kicks our Hermes II and it falls too.

Round 3 arrives. Adele moves her Mercury next to their damaged Wasp. I hop our Jenner on top of a building to get to a place we can shoot their retreating VTOL from. it’s a risk, it could collapse. It holds, luckily. Our Griffin destroys their Cicada’s LA. The Hermes II follows by destroying its LT. Adele’s Mercury destroys the Wasps LA. The Cicada is kicked twice and is still alive absorbing another 19 damage. Their Wasp is kicked by our Mercury, but remains standing.

One more round. One of their VTOLs flees the board. Lots of stuff happened in movement. Our Hermes II skidded and fell. Their Spider skidded into a building their Wasp was standing on top of. Destroyed the building, and the Wasp fell down too. Their Spider destroyed its LT and the Wasp hit its engine twice and gyro once. It has just one armor point in its CT internal structure.

Their Phoenix Hawks takes the AC20 of our Hunchy in its RA and it is destroyed. Our Centurion hit’s the P Hawk’s hip actuator in its LL. Our Champion hits their Cicada and destroys its engine. Its engine undergoes catastrophic engine failure and it explodes. Our Hermes II is caught in the blast, and its ammo is ignited, and it explodes. Gone Hermes II. Our Griffin takes 32, the Champion takes 16, Mercury takes 8, Wasp takes 16 and its CT is destroyed. Dead Wasp. Another kill for Su Yuan. The Spider takes 16 damage, its CT is destroyed, another kill for Su Yuan. The Warrior Attack Helicopter takes 16, it’s right side is destroyed, and it goes despite having never been hit by any weapon. ANOTHER kill for Su Yuan. So, in one attack, Su Yuan destroyed the Cicada, our own Hermes II, their Wasp, their Spider, their Warrior VTOL, dealt 32 to our Griffin, 16 to our Mercury and itself. Wow. Oh, and a couple of buildings collapse. Their Phoenix Hawk falls to the ground.

Let me see what salvage we get from these dead mechs:

Cicada RL
Hermes II LA, RL, RT, RA
Wasp H
Warrior Attack VTOL is completely recoverable

Our BattleMaster kicks the P Hawk and destroys its LL.


And that’s time. Some of their infantry pour from neighboring buildings and we retreat, taking our salvage with us. Crazy.

We need 20 tons of armor

We lost another mech, although we did so spectacularly.

Su Yuan is now elite.


End of Mission 9

[Abe Sargent]

I still can;t believe that in one shot, a Mechwarrior fgot for kills plus one dead on our own team.

[Abe Sargent]

These last three missions have been savage.


November 16, 3039 - We are sent out to relieve a company of Defender mechs that are being attacked by a company of Marik mechs. By the time we arrive, the battle has ended, and the Marik mechs were forced away.

While on our way back, we spy Marik AeroSpace fighters flying overhead but they are too fast to attack.


November 17, 3039 - We are asked to do some scouting in Baroda. We find nothing.

Thomas Marik commits another Regiment of troops to the Baroda Campaign.

November 18, 3039 - The Striker is back and healthy. We assign Liu Chen to it until her Spider can be fixed. We are tasked with heading out and finding some enemies in Baroda, called free ranging. Our Free Ranging runs us into a company of light tanks, but they flee before us.

November 19 - Good news! The Sixth Defenders were caught out of position today and bulldogged the LCCC forces despite a bad position. They were forced out of Baroda completely, and defenses have been reestablished at the edge of the city. No more Marik incursions into Baroda for the moment.

November 20 - We are sent to defend the line, and Marik sends a probe to test us.

We are facing:

Awesome
Locust
Wasp
Javelin
Crusader
Locust 1M
Trebuchet
Shadow Hawk
Goliath
Rifleman
Orion
Hermes II

There are a bunch of crappier mechs, and then Orion, Crusader, Awesome and Trebuchet, so they have some serious long range power.

We are playing at the end of a city, with some trees, a small hill, and pavement in the area.


Here is Longfeather Bluehawk’s Jenner, a classic light mech from the Draconic Combine. This 35 ton mech has speed, jumping capacity, massively great weapons, but serious heat problems.


http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/87/3025_Jenner1.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

We set out our troops, and hold the line. Our foe swings towards us. Practically no fire exchanged.

Our Archer rains missiles on their Crusader and gets a through armor critical on its CT and hits its engine twice. Chen’s Striker’s AC10 opens up its leg and hit’s a foot actuator, but it does not fall.

They begin to withdraw, before they lose their Crusader, we let them go.

We weren‘t even hit once


End of Mission 10.

[Abe Sargent]

Nov 24, 3039 - After several days of defensive work, Adele’s Firestarter is repaired. Marik forces have surged several times, but have not punched through.

Nov 26, 3039 - We are on defensive duty when an entire battalion of Free Worlds Mechs comes charging in. We hear VTOLs and AeroSpace fighters buzzing ahead. It’s can’t be a full out assault with just 36 mechs or so, but the Andurien Defenders move out to support us.

With a moment, the Marik forces withdraw, and we get suspicious, and check scout units. Marik hover and VTOL units are striking the port from the sea. We are dispatched to handle it. By the time we reach it, however, a warehouse has been raided, several buildings have been destroyed, and the ultra fast units have scampered back across the sea.

That was a smart raid. Now we have to guard the shore too.

Nov 29, 3039 - After a few days of low grade probing, the LCCC begins to get ready for a major assault.

Dec 2, 3039 - The LCCC begins its final assault on Baroda. We get word that two regiments of mechs - that’s more than 200 mechs, are moving towards the main assault point of our defenses. Meanwhile, the other two regiments are moving to flank Baroda from each side. We are ordered to the east side, where the foe is the weakest unit the Marik forces have, the Always Faithful mercenary group. Although initially a regiment of mixed forces, most of their tank units have been destroyed, leaving only around a Battalion of mechs or so. That means we have 10 mechs and two infantry platoons against around 35 mechs. That’s good odds for death. I get the CO of the Third Andurien Defenders to agree to allow us to use some of the precious few resources left, and I dispatch my men to get them, and put them in position.

We have laid tons of mines in the main approaches. We want to funnel them into the main streets to open up the lines of firing for our best mechs - Archer, BattleMaster, Centurion, Champion, Hunchback, Griffin, Striker. The remaining mechs - Firestarter, Jenner, Mercury - will try and dart in and out and take targets of opportunity.

The First Andurien Defenders have a few surprises left, and we are calling in a favor. In a few minutes, two of the last Andurien AeroSpace fighters left on the planet do a strafing run against the Always Faithful, who are totally surprised and because they are marching in single lines in the streets, take a lot of damage. The fighters have remained hidden in Baroda for months now, and the Mariks thought they were all destroyed. I radio my thanks before they north to head towards the main assault to assist the Defenders.

The Always Faithful now have some damaged mechs from the strafing run, and are about to run into my mines. We have squirreled away several lots of ammunition in this side of the city, and our mechs can slide to them, power down for 15 minutes, and reload, knowing where they are.

Our FOF radar begins to pick some a lot of bogeys. Looks like the strafing forces back several of them. 25, perhaps more, are still coming.

Here we go.


Here is Chao Diochan’s Griffin. It’s a rpetty common 55 ton Medium mech. It moves and jumps, but it only has two long range weapons - the LRM 10 and the PPC. If it fires both, even if standing still, it goes overheat. I generally jump them from firing spot to firing spot and snipe from a lot closer than my normal snipers, to compensate.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/griffin0.gif

[law90026]

Nice buildup to what could possibly be the final battle of this campaign!

Good luck.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks!

[Abe Sargent]

I'ma going to play it out now.




Let’s roll up some mechs to face us:

These are the Oriente Hussars, veteran mechwarriors.


Phoenix Hawk
Banshee 3M
Dervish
Whitworth
Stinger
Thunderbolt
Grasshopper
Marauder
Locust
Hermes II x2
Awesome
Javelin
Orion
Hunchback
Griffin
Goliath
Firestarter
Wolverine 6M
Valkyrie - They must have salvaged this from the Suns


That’s 20 mechs, almost two full companies, including some serious heavy hitters like Thunderbolt, Awesome, Orion, Hunchback, assault mech Goliath, and Marauder. The Banshee is a variant that is better but still not grand. It features two PPCs and 2 Medium Lasers, for a 95 ton mech, that’s not much, but its better than the AC5 and PPC version.

[Abe Sargent]

They have 20 mechs and a BattleValue of twice mine. Alright, here we go.

One of their first mechs, a Hermes II, runs into the minefield, takes damage to both legs, hits a hip actuator, and falls down. They move in a heavier Goliath and it survives despite taking mine damage. They get smart and keep some of their heavier units back to prevent them getting hit. Another Hermes II blows off its LL. A mech appears to have been destroyed, I see a MechWarrior ejecting and an arm from a mech on the ground. I wonder what happened there. They get smart and start jumping mechs on top of buildings, but that makes them targets for my team. We blew off the leg of a Firestarter who jumped on a Vibrabomb I placed. Vibrabombs are powerful mines, but they have to be set up to go off at a certain weight, and they will only go off for that weight, or near it. I set a few in places I thought they might jump to, and set them for 30 tons, so that any mech between 20-40 tons would set them off. Firestarter weighs 35 tons. There is a Marauder and Griffin in one of my lines of fire, besides downed mechs, so I send some fire their way.

The next turn arrives. Their Dervish jumps and lands on a mine and falls after taking some leg damage. Their Hermes II tries to stand, fails, drops down, blows its RL to bits, and its RT follows, and RA in the ground. They’ve already jumped about 5 or 6 mechs beyond the minefield. Their Grasshopper hops into an Inferno mine. This mines erupts with a napalm like jell that attaches to the mech and drives its heat up. Time for Adele to go to work on it next turn. Their Goliath falls and it tries to advance., My BattleMaster hits their Griffin in the head with my PPC and hits its life support. Our Archer opens up their Marauder’s head and hits its Life Support too. The pilot goes unconscious, and the mech falls into the minefield. Ouch.

At the end of the second turn, I roll for Always Faithful. Is the CO staying or going? Going. They begin to retreat, and we cannot cross the minefied to protest, so we let them go.

Salvage -

A very nice Marauder with only Life Support hit once. We can repair it in three days.
Hermes II with only LA, LT, CT and H left.
A few limbs: Javelin LL, Locust LA, RL


He mine field will stay here, and I doubt anyone will try to approach Baroda from this direction.

We get our salvage back to our DropShip as quickly as possible.

About ten tons of armor for me, and ten for my salvage to get it ready.


End of Mission 11.

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 2, 3039, Late Evening - We get news that Tomas Marik has gone against type. This entire campaign he has been tentative, conservative, and now, instead of committing his reserve to Baroda, he sent it all to Jojoken. Jojoken is the largest city and capital of Andurien. It is also where the only other Andurien regiment lies, the Fifth Andurien Defenders. Marik has sent all of his troops to hit Jojoken hard and take it, while we and the Sixth and First are tied down here in Baroda. We have been ordered to continue at our post on the east side of town and prevent any Marik forces from coming over the minefield and hitting us from the flank.

Dec 3, 3039 - Our defenses in Baroda fall, and the LCCC is again into the city. We are told to retreat back to the HQ for our defense, an athletic compound. The LCCC is securing the boundaries of the city to prevent us from leaving.

Dec 5, 3039 - The LCCC is finished securing the border. I suspect they will come for us soon.

Dec 6, 3039 - The televids are broadcasting the capture of the Humphreys Palace in Jojoken. The city has been overrun and the palace captured. However, Dame Humphreys has not been found. We fight on.

Dec 7, 3039 - Spurred on by news of the successful campaign in Jojoken, the Marik forces here push and assault our athletic complex HQ. I have reassigned Elena Stoyovich from the Mercury to the Marauder, a heavy mech that is solid except for a bad critical assignment for the AC5 ammo.

Because I have an unused mech, the Mercury, I am being temporarily assigned a dispossessed Defender MechWarrior named Grant Hollis. Grant is elite, and will be in the Mercury. They have also spent the time over the past week fixing the salvaged Shadow Hawk, and now it is up and running, and another MW is assigned to it and my company, Aurelia Jenson, also elite. Both are with my company until further notice. It’s all hands now. That brings me to a full company again.

[Abe Sargent]

Here they come.

We are guarding the southside of the complex when we hear the sound of fighters overhead. They have begun bombing our position. Within seconds, the roof is splitting. Several mechs turn and fire out the roof at the passing AeroSpace fighters. No one knows if it connected, but it does appear to sop the bombing.

We are trapped in here. We have to get out now. This could be a death trap. Fortunately, I’ve never been one to camp down in a place unless I have a second exit. The south side of the complex is retractable, for opening up to sunlight during some games. I order our troops to take position, and then have an Andurien tech start the procedure to split the wall like two curtains parting. Outside are…many mechs.

Our goal is to exit on the other side of the map. That’s it just move to one side, and exit. I can attack, fight, kick, punch, jumps charge, and do whatever else I want on my way. We will begin in the center of the map, with buildings and streets around us, and they can set up on any edge.




Here is Elena Stoyovich’s Marauder. The Heavy mech features two PPCs, an AC5, and a few close range weapons. The design flaw is AC5 ammo in one of the torsos with nothing else there. The result is that any critical in that torso will hit the ammo, and blow up the mech. It is one of the key iconic mechs of the era along with the Warhammer and Atlas.


http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/marauderm.jpg


These are also Oriente Hussars, veteran mechwarriors, identical to the last foes we faced.


Shadow Hawk
Banshee 3M
Ostroc
Whitworth
Stinger
Hermes II
Stalker
Orion
Flea
Hunchback
Thunderbolt
Hermes
Grasshopper
Warhammer
Locust
Griffin
Cyclops
Firestarter
Wolverine 6M
Valkyrie - They must have salvaged this from the Suns
Clint


That’s 21 mechs, almost two full companies, including some serious heavy hitters like Thunderbolt, Stalker, Orion, Hunchback, 90 ton Cyclops with its AC20, and Warhammer.

Our infantry automatically flee through the buildings, and they will not be a part of this battle.

[Abe Sargent]

This is an interesting scenario, because there is no retreat. I either make it, or kill them all, or die as a unit.

This map will be 25x25.

The map is laid out so that there is a central area all of the roads lead to, which indicates our HQ where we start. I have my own BattleMaster there to see down six roads and see where the opposition might be. I can basically play this two ways. Try to win as a scenario, against 20 mechs, or try and run and escape from the same edge. I decide to go for the edge to our north. I set up a few mechs to run over in one turn - the Jenner, Mercury and Firestarter. Our Griffin and Shadow Hawk are set to jump into safety and from thence to the north. However, it will take a few turns to get my slower mechs over there. I set up my Archer, Striker, BattleMaster and Marauder to guar our flanks, and they start coming.

A PPC from their Banshee lances into our Hunchback’s left arm and gets a through armor critical, but does not hit anything. A few other mechs exchange fire.

The second round, I run with the Mercury, Jenner and Firestarter and run my other mechs to the north. We are at different lines of fire, and have different mechs firing at us this turn. My BattleMaster takes a ton of damage from various mechs, but I manage to stay standing.

On the third turn, I run with the Shadow Hawk of suckiness, Champion, and Centurion. I get most of the other mechs to the side of the board, and run my BattleMaster in, to prevent further damage. Exposed is our Striker, Hunchback and Marauder. We take some fire at the Striker, but a lot of the fire misses.

The next round, we evacuate everything but the Hunchy, Marauder and Striker, but I move them to the edge, and most are hidden. A fe wmechs arrives around the corner and their Griffin jumps on a roof next to our Hunchback, but falls down when the building collapses. We take some minor fire from lighter mechs.

The next round we run with all remaining mechs.


We need about 6 tons of armor or so.

End of Mission 12.

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 8, 3039 - We have found an abandoned warehouse here on the eastern edge of the town where the minefield helps to protect our flank. Depowered mechs have been repaired. Our infantry is back on the DropShips, and we will not have them for the rest of the campaign, I guess. I have to make a decision.

Jojoken has been captured, and with it the ducal palace. Does our contract still hold for us? There are two things keeping me here. The Duchess is still out there, and therefore there has been no official capitulation and thus our employer is still alive. Secondly, the blockade is still going on, and that certainly means we couldn’t evacuate even if I wanted to.

We get armor and ammo in our mechs and are ready to head back out into the unknown.

Dec 9, 3039 - We find nothing while out scouting, but the Marik forces have overrun the area we camped at yesterday, and I have to find a new place. We don’t know how many Andurien forces are still here, we don’t know if the LCCC troops are listening on our channels, or anything.

[Abe Sargent]

Then we run into a unit of Marik mechs, just a scout lance. They see us and bolt away. With a few minutes, their entire company comes over the rise. This is not patty-cake anymore, this is a slugfest, and its time to step up and take a few hits in order to deliver some of our own.

The elite Fusiliers:


Javelin
Awesome
Locust 1M
Grasshopper
Hermes II
Stalker
Cicada
Whitworth
Hermes
Wasp
Archer
Wolverine




We are fighting on the outskirts of the suburbs and the city has died out, and instead we have a few houses, and some roads, but also a gentle slope and trees plus a small park and stream to worry about. The threats are the Archer, Stalker, and Awesome. The Whitworth is a solid missile boat with three medium lasers for when someone closes. The rest of the mechs are no big deal to face. So my goal is to hammer the Archer, Stalker or Awesome if possible, and then take them down, leaving us a much easier time of it.

[Abe Sargent]

This is not going to be probes, or sorties, or anything of the sort, but instead is a slug fight. Time to trade some punches with an elite foe.

The Battle Value is in their favor slightly. Less see how it plays out.

We move out and start establishing a defensive perimeter. We concentrate fire on their Awesome, and they on my BattleMaster. We both stay standing.

They move a Hermes next to our Archer and Centurion, and I get ready to hammer it. I even order the Marauder next to it. More fire exchange and their Awesome falls to the ground. Our Archer kicks and destroys their Hermes RL.

They stand their Awesome back up. Our Centurion destroys the LA of their Hermes. Our Strike kicks and destroys the RT of their Hermes. Our Centurion kicks and destroys the CT of their Hermes. Another kill for Michael Adkins. We cannot salvage it, just its pieces.

Our Hunchback’s AC20 tears into the RL of their Cicada and destroys it, it tumbles to the ground. Their Wolverine fires an SRM6 at our Hunchy and gets a through armor critical and tacks the engine once. Adele’s Firestarter is open in its LA and a Flamer is hit. Our Griffin kicks and destroys the LT of their Cicada. Adele’s RL is opened after a kick by their Javelin.

They hit an Upper Leg actuator on our Centurion’s RL and it falls. Our Griffin destroys their LA on their Locust 1M. Su Yuan’s Champion hit’s the Awesome‘s head with its AC10 and nails the sensors. Our Jenner destroys the Cicada’s RT and hits is gyro and engine. Their Wasp is still standing after getting kicked by the FS and missing a kick.

I order our Shadow Hawk to close to their big mechs in order to throw them off while I retreat our injured Centurion and try to cover its tracks. I decide to follow with Su Yuan’s Champion, right up against their Awesome, but one level above, to give it a chance at a head punt. Both the Champion and Shadow hawk are untouched by damage yet. Our Striker destroys the Awesome’s RA. Our Griffin ignites the LRM5 ammo on their Locust and it explodes. Our Champion hits and destroys the RT of their Awesome, and hits its Engine once. The Awesome falls and…hits its head and it is destroyed. No one gets the kill, but a very recoverable Awesome.

That was a good round because our concentrated fire finally paid off. Now let’s move to other mechs. Our Shadow Hawk still hasn’t been hit and Su Yuan‘s Champion took just 4 damage from an SRM hit. Also our Striker is untouched, so I move them forward. Our Archer gets a through armor critical on their Grasshopper and hits an engine and gyro. It falls. Their Javelin goes unconscious when my Griffin hits its in the head with missiles from an LRM10.

I run my BattleMaster up beside their Stalker. Let’s take it down. Their Grasshopper arises and I order Su Yuan to run up to it. I order the Striker to get close to their Archer, so that next turn we can start punching and kicking its face. Our Griffin hit’s the gyro on their Javelins. My BattleMaster touches up the LRM ammo in the Stalker’s arms (stupid design decision) and it goes up. Boom! That is my 16th kill in the Kilts and Commandoes, and my skills will increase after this battle. Their Grasshopper takes more than 20 damage from Su Yuan’s Champion who goes overheat badly to unload into it. It falls, since its gyro was already hit. The Champion kicks it for 13 damage. Their Javelin pilot wakes up.

Their Javelin falls down while trying to stand, the pilot takes damage, and blacks out again. I hop Adele’s Firestarter next to it. Actually, no I don.t Right now that Javelin is perfect salvage with no parts missing and a blacked out pilot. Let’s push my luck and try elsewhere. My opponent has got to be close to retreating. They’ve lost an Awesome, Stalker, Locust, Cicada, blacked out Javelin, badly injured Grasshopper. If we push enough this turn, they may leave before that Javelin pilot wakes up. I run my BattleMaster next to their Grasshopper, our Shadow Hawk next to their Archer, Striker next to their Archer and keep the Champion next to the Grasshopper. The Grasshopper fails to stand. (its hard with a gyro hit), then stands on a second attempt. I press a lot of mechs into heavy heat in order to see what I can push this turn. My BattleMaster misses 5 7s that were needed to hit their Grasshopper. They get limb blown off critical for the Champions LA, so its on the ground. Our Jenner gets a shoulder actuaotr hit in its LA. Champion will be ready in five days, Jenner is fixable in a couple of hours. Su Yuan hit’s the Grasshopper’s engine and gyro again, that’s two gyro hits, a dead mech. Our Jenner hit’s a Wasp’s gyro twice and destroys its LA, so another mech down. We kick the Archer twice but it remains standing.

And they leave, with just their Archer, Hermes II, Whitworth, Wolverine leaving the field. We killed a Hermes, Cicada, Wasp, Grasshopper, Awesome, Locust, Stalker and blacked out the pilot for a Javelin.

Salvage:

Javelin, 1 engine hit - fixable in one day
Locust RA
Awesome missing H, RT, RA
Champion LA - Our own
Grasshopper with two gyro and one engine hit
Wasp missing LA with two gyro hit
Cicada LA, RA
Cicada missing RT, LT, RA, LA, LL


Fix Timetable:

Champion needs arm reattached, will take 5 days
Javelin up in one day
Grasshopper will take 8 days
Wasp arm reattached with Stinger arm in salvage in one day. Gyro cannot be repaired, must be replaced

Need about 60 tons of armor for these mechs and mine.


I lower my gunnery skill by one.


End of Mission 13

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, great salvage, but our Champion is out for now. I hide our salvage in a nearby building, and then get it to the DropShips over the cover of darkness. The Starport isn’t guarded much because only commercial DropShips are here under the blockade, the military DropsShips for Anduriens isn’t even here in Baroda. We get our materiel in the Ship, and get our techs working on splicing armor and reloading our weapons. We leave just before it gets light without Su Yuan or her mech.


Dec 10, 3039 - While out trying to find a temporary shelter, we get a communique from Matthew Humphreys, nephew of Dame Humphreys and leader of First Andurien Defenders’s Beta Battalion. He messages us with direct laser communication beamed from a building. He is the highest ranking officer in Baroda, and has taken charge of the defenses. He gives us some needed intel on the Marik forces and lets us know where several safe houses are for Anduriens that we can use. Matthew is surprised to still see us out and about, and thought we might be using this chaotic time to leave our contract. The remnants of the First and Sixth Andurien Defenders have been broken into company and lances groups and are acting in small numbers. The LCCC have yet to actually mount a united scourge of Boroda, and instead just send in mech patrols, AeroSpace fighters, and other units. The citizens of Baroda are holed up on the west side of town in shelters and homes, and neither side is going over there, in order to keep them safe.

We arrive in an Andurien safe “house” for the evening.

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 11, 3039 - We discover that fewer Marik troops are being sent into Baroda, and instead, the Marik forces are building a perimeter around the city to prevent anyone from coming out. Apparently, they are trying to wait us out.

Dec 12, 3039 - We capture a company of mechs in one of the suburbs near their line, but before I can move to attack, we get more bogeys hitting our IFF sensors. (Identify Friend or Foe). We turn and leave without a shot being fired.

Later that day we come across a battlefield where a few tanks are still smoldering, and bring the salvage back to the Anduriens.

Dec 13, 3039 - The Marik patrols have really shrunk in size, and now they are all around us. By evening, no one has eve nseen a patrol in over 6 hours.

Dec 14, 3039 - We get word that the Free Worlds League forces have encircled the city, and are beginning to march towards the center of the city. They will march slowly, inexorably, until they push us into a fight or a surrender.

Dec 15, 3039 - One of our safe houses, now abandoned, was found by the advancing mechs, vehicles, infantry and fighters.

Dec 17, 3039 - The noose is getting closer and closer. We are being pushed deeper and deeper into the city. There have so many forces, we can’t even ambush them or anything.

Dec 18, 3039 - The LCCC troops have stopped moving, and are standing still. What is happening?

[Abe Sargent]

On Dec 18, 3039, Dame Catherine Humphreys was captured by the Guards when she was being moved from one safe house in Jojoken to another. After being captured, in order to spare her people further, she voluntarily sent the following communication to all Andurien forces, people, and us.

She tells us to put down our weapons, and surrender. There are no specific instructions for us, and I pull up our contract. Yup, now that the government has officially ended, so does our contract with them. We’re not going to get paid as much as we should have. Ah well, we also don’t have to split our salvage either.

Here are the options Andurien loyalist forces are being given:

Surrender your mechs, fighters, tanks, and weapons to the Mariks, and then;

1). Join the LCCC as a solider and warrior
2). Leave fighting forever and rejoin the Free Worlds League as a citizen
3). Expulsion from the Free Worlds League, without your mech, fighter, vehicle, etc.


I make an executive decision and radio Matthew Humphries with a fourth option.

I don’t have just one DropShip waiting by, I have two. I anticipated the possibly of having a lot of salvage or downed mechs to deal with, so I got extra space.

We can take former members of the Defenders of Andurien with us. I make Matthew Humphries the following offer for his men:


1). Bring all of your war materiel and join us, instead of joining the Marik forces.
2). You will become an independent unit of the Kilts and Commandos operating under my jurisdiction, but will still be together.
3). You are not required to ever take a contract from the Free Worlds League,
4). Should another Duchy of Andurien movement start, you may leave the Kilts and Commandos, and take your mech, tank, fighter, etc with you, with our blessing.
5). Dec. 18 shall be a day of mourning and consideration for all members of the Kilts and Commandos in perpetuity.
6). Everyone who accepts our offer will get a 6 month layover on Epsilon Eridani to get used to our organization, do some like garrison and training duty, and take the time off.


I really feel for the Andurien Defenders at this point. Who will take us up on the offer?

Well, not everyone is from Andurien proper. Some are from other systems in the Duchy, and they might not be as willing to leave everything. Some are weary of war. They have done it for ten years, and they are tired ,won down, and ready to retire. Some are weary of the dying, the pain, and the emotional burden of fighting. Some are ready to switch allegiances, since Marik is again their true leader. However, there are some who want to leave. The dream is dead, and they want to get away, but they also want to stay true to themselves. We are warriors.

Where multiple people have to agree to defect to us, many choose not too. It’s hard to get most or all of the people of a 28 member infantry squad to agree to us. Even a tank crew might have problems. There are no AeroSpace fighters left in Adurien hands, so its just mechs that join us.



Say hello to:

Lt. Matthew Humphreys, Archer
Maureen O’Brien, BattleMaster
Michael Henry, Stalker
Indervir Multani, Stinger
Jesus Hernandez, Javelin
Gia Alletelli, Hunchback
Bryson Abasi, Grasshopper (ick)
Charles Wangai, Whitworth
Sun Chen, Locust
Madison Tolteca, Warhammer
A.J. Hussein, Phoenix Hawk
Orlof Magnusson, Firestarter
Haisha Slater, Orion
Marcus Jackson, Griffin
Jussi Johanssen, Hermes II



More than a company worth of elite MechWarriors.

However, many of their mechs are damaged and will require money to fix up.

Additional, Matthew helps us out by having his defecting troops bring various materiel with us, instead of leaving it behind for Marik.


With two hours, everybody is on board our two DropShips at the Starport. I order everyone to wait for another hour. Then I head up to our DropShip captain, and tell them to contact the Marik forces in space. I show them my papers certifying that my unit is on board, that only my unit is board, and that my contract for Andurien is now over, and I would like to leave as soon as possible. I pretend to be pissed off at Andurien for such a sucky mission, talk about how I lost mechs like a Warhammer, Hermes II, Striker to lucky shots from the LCCC, and basically try to be a nuisance, like they would expect me to be. They bump me up to three different supervisors, before someone finally relents and gives me the okay. Our two DropShips lift off.

Within three days, we have reached the JumpShips, including one going our way. By now, the blockade has long since been lifted, and we are free to go, no one missing the 15 missing mechs and mechwarriors, because frankly no on had a count of just how many troops were running around Baroda except for Matthew, the only person in contact with all of them. Frankly, I’m even not sure Marik would care that much about the missing materiel or men.

Dec 22, 3039 - We jump out of Andurien.

March 15, 3040 - We arrive back at Epsilon Eridani

[Abe Sargent]

A financial accounting of this trip.


Costs:

1,039,624 paid to MWs and upkeep
2,180,000 - Armor
2,800,000 - Transport back, two DropShips
1,255,000 - Ammo



Reimbursements:

84,800 - 50% support costs for 8 months until the $$ stopped flowing
400,000 - Early payment of salary
105,325 - Remuneration

Total Costs: 7,274,624
Total Reimbursements: 590,125


Okay, so obviously we lost 6684499 on this contract, but we gathered a ton of materiel, so let’s unload some of it. What did we get from the Andurien Defender materiel gathered by our defectors?


Minor spare parts we don’t need worth 550,000 C-Bills.
Various limbs we don’t need for 1.430 million C-Bills
10 tons of LRM ammo - 300,000
6 Medium lasers
2 Small Lasers
1 Large laser
1 PPC
2 AC5
1 AC10
6 Machine Guns
2 Flamers
1 LRM 5
2 SRM4


Total value of all of this is: 3,576,250
I sell it for 2.9 million.


3784499 still needed.

[Abe Sargent]

I sell the Victor for 7 million. That leaves us about 3.2 million left in surplus. I use that to fix the missing parts for mechs and vehicles. I also sell the bruised body of a Firestarter we recovered to help get us some funds for these. The following are now fixed:

Our Warhammer
Our Spider
Our Champion

Salvaged -

Orion
Locust
Hermes II
Awesome
Grasshopper
Wasp
Javelin


Vehicles:

Warrior Attack VTOL
Behemoth Assault Tank
Scorpion Light Tank
2x Harasser Missile Platforms
Demolisher Assault Tank
Ontos Heavy Tank


I move the Locust, Hermes II, Grasshopper, Javelin and Wasp to our garrison. They can be used for training mechs for those at the Essex Training Academy and can also be piloted by them in an emergency, like an invasion. I also temporarily transfer the vehicles to our garrison.


The Orion and Awesome are good enough to send elsewhere.

I switch the Shadow Hawk in my outfit to the garrison I move my elite pilot, Aurelia Jenson, to our Striker, and Liu Chen is back into her Spider. I send back the Marauder to the garrison and move Grant Hollis to the Warhammer. Elena Stoyovich is back in her Mercury.

I leave the Orion and Awesome vacant for now, but with the intent to fill them with someone soon.


Event: Feb 4, 3040 - Dame Catherine Humphreys has died of natural causes. As a result, Thomas Marik decides to take it easy on the wayward Duchy and grants clemency to most. Andurien is back in the Marik fold. The war brought the Free Wolds League closer together than it has ever before. It turned the League into one entity, instead of many disparate ones working together.

[law90026]

Nice ending to the campaign. Grats on the additional company.

[Tellistto]

Very nice indeed! Looking forward to what's next with this!

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all.

[Abe Sargent]

For the next chapter, I will be using, heavily, the War of 3039 sourcebook, which details every unit, every planet, and every aspect of the War.





Okay, let’s dial back the thread a year, to Jan, 3039, and let’s take the other contract with the rest of the unit, under the command of Ted Izumo.

Our contract with House Davion and the Federated Suns.


Shared Salvage
Full Transport
One Year - Retainer
No Remuneration
House Command
70% of support costs
Salary - 161,820 our monthly military costs. X12 for a year. X 2.4 for a combined C rating. X 1.4 for being the FedSuns. X 1.5 for Planetary Assault duty. Total salary for the contract: 9,786,874 C Bills.

They tell us to leave some vehicles behind. We are only taking one company of vehicles.

Event: March 15, 3039, Katrina Steiner abdicates the throne in favor of daughter Melissa Steiner. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

[Abe Sargent]

March 22, 3039 - We arrive at the launching point for the first wave. We are given the opportunity to purchase a new piece of technology - Listen-Kill missiles. These LK missiles use a new guidance system to increase their accuracy a bit. They cost 1.1 times the normal cost, and give +1 to hit, but are very subject to counter-measures.

We are in the system of Breed, ready to launch under the command of Field Marshal James Sandoval.

What is about to happen is the largest offensive in a long time. The combined Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns, plus a ton of mercenary units, are about to all assault the Draconis Combine in four thrusts, all occurring simultaneously. We are a part of the Benjamin thrust, under the command of Field Marshal James Sandoval.

Each thrust has a variety of targets they are attempting to take down, and there are numerous waves planned. We are going to be a part of the second attack of the first wave, on the planet Marduk.

Marduk is a planet just on the other side of the border between Combine and Suns. It is a valuable world for several reasons. First of all, its location is ideal for further staging into the Combine. Secondly, it is an agricultural and industrial world, that has a lot of economic worth. Thirdly, it was lost ten years ago to the Draconis Combine during the Fourth Succession War when Davion gobbled up a ton of Capellan worlds, but the Dragon took a few worlds from the less protected border. That means this world was Davion for a long time, and it still has a lot of pro-Davion sentiment among the populace. Finally, the world is home to several military contractors, and getting their materiel would be a big help to the offensive. That means that, of all of the targets in all Wave One actions, Marduk is one of the single most important.

Therefore, Field Marshal James Sandoval is leading the assault of the planet himself. Here are those going with us:

Kilts and Commandos, two battalions
First Robinson Rangers (veteran)
Tenth Deneb Light Cavalry (veteran)
93rd Mechanized Brigade (regular)

The first two, Rangers and the Tenth are Regimental Combat Teams. Abbreviated RCTs. What that means is one regiment of mechs, one regiment of vehicles, and at least one of infantry. That means the First Robinson and Tenth Deneb Light Cavalry are about 6 regiments total, plus and the 93rd. That’s a ton of units moving to Marduk, but it is one of the jewels of Wave One.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT - April 15, 3039 - Hanse Davion uses persecution of former Davion worlds, such as Marduk, in the hands of the Dragon as a casus belli for declaring war. War has begun.



We launch a few days later.

[Abe Sargent]

May 17, 3039 - After an uncontested jump in system we fly in, but Combine fighters create a powerful screen. They destroy to DropShips (luckily none of ours) and several DropShips are forced to make an emergency landing. One of those contains our Vehicle Company, and they secure and garrison the area where the DropShip landed, until we can get them later. The assault force lands outside of Marduk‘s planetary capital of New Pontiac. We march immediately into the city to assault the defender’s position.
Here is who is on Marduk:

6th Benjamin Regulars (Green)
Marduk Militia (Several regiments of vehicles, infantry, one of bottlenecks - green)


There is one regiment of armor and infantry fortifying Fort Ea, just outside of New Pontiac. Take that, and we get the city. There are other units in the city. I (Ted Izumo) volunteers to take Fort Ea. Field Marshal Sandoval laughs off our request, and then Ted makes it again. “Let’s see what you boys got” comes over the radio, and we’ve been okayed.

We use a variety of Sandoval’s fighters to establish air superiority over the Fort. With that, we are able to sneak our infantry platoons into position and they blows several holes, simultaneously, into the Fort. One company, each, of mechs pours into each of the holds, laid out in the middle of each wall. One company, the Hex Company, will be held in reserve in case they are needed.

Fort Ea is more like Palisade Ea. It has walls, and a few turrets easily taken out by AeroSpace fighters, and the wall encloses a headquarters. It’s easy to bust intoi.

[Abe Sargent]

Battle the First:

Charging in on the north side, by the main gates but left of them, is Phaeton Company, led by Lt. Martin Fitzgerald in his Awesome.

We spy a large number of tanks and infantry inside, but as intel suspected, there are no mechs or fighters to be seen here.

We have the following rule in place. Once, we can retreat with our mechs if we are getting savaged and replace them with Hex Company.

Each company will be getting approximately 2 companies of vehicles and a bunch of infantry to fight, but the numbers are not going to be equal to that.

The Assault on Fort Ea begins.


Here is Fitz’s Awesome, a great assault mech with nothing more or less than three PPCs and a huge amount of armor. With no ammo to explode and great armor, the Awesome can prove to be a major factor on the field.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/awesome.gif

[Abe Sargent]

There is nothing to hide behind on this side of Fort Ea, just charge and attack. I’m not going to even begin to tell you how many or list the defenders. Suffice it to same there are many. They also have two VTOLs on this side. Okay, here we go.

The major threats they have are an LRM Carrier with 3 LRM 20s, an SRM Carrier with a ton of Srms and you have to kill it before it closes, a few vehicles with AC20s and a Schrek PPC Carrier, which has all of the epower of an Awesome in tank form. Because we surprised them, they can deploy anywhere, instead of the edge of the map away from us, so they can place close range tanks closer to us. Sucks, I know.

The way to win this scenario is to figure how much force to apply to a vehcile in order to kill it, but not overkill it. If I send all of my weapons every turn at one tank, it will die, but after ten rounds, I’ll still be facing 14 tanks and 12 infantry, and by then, I may be severely savaged. I need to know how much force to apply.

We charge forward and begin the exchange of fire. I send five PPCs from our Warhammr and Awesome into the LRM Carrier, hoping to take it out this turn. I also send some fire the SRM Carrier’s way. With luck, both will be dead. Okay result s- LRM Carrier destroyed by Awesome. LS destroyed. Yes recoverable. Our Rifleman’s AC5 causes the SRM Carrier’s fuel tank to explode. Boom! Two tanks down.

The next two targets are the 100 ton Behemoth with two AC10s and a bunch of LRMs and SRMS, and the three PPC Shrek. Both are well armored. We see one of their tanks skids from the area and is gone. After a lot of damage was doled out to the Shrek, our Rifleman’s AC destroys its LS. It is recoverable.

Another round arrives. Their Falcon Hover Tank opens up the LA of our Rifleman and hit’s the shoulder and an AC5. We can repair both in three days. The crew for their Vedette Medium Tank is stunned for a turn after taking three PPCs from our Awesome.

Next round is here. The Awesome destroys the Right Side of a Vedette but it is not salvageable. The Thunderbolt destroys the right side of a Behemoth Assault Tank. It is salvageable. One of their tanks skidded and slid off the field.

Another turn. Our Dervish destroys a Falcon Hover Tanks Front side. It is not recoverable. Our Hermes II destroys a Peregrine Attack VTOL. It is recoverable.

The next turn sees our Awesome destroy the front end of a Goblin Medium Tank which is recoverable. Our Warhammer gets a heat sink hit when its LL is opened by fire. We can fix it in two days. Our Falcon destroys the rear armor of a Maxim Heavy Hovertank. It cannot be recovered. Our Hermes II kills an infantry platoon, but no kills for that. Finally, our Phoenix Hawk kills a Hunter Light Support Tank. It’s left side is destroyed and it is not recoverable. Our Warhammer kicks and destroys the left side of a Harasser Missile Platform. It is recoverable. That’s a lot of kills.

With just five tanks remaining, and 11 infantry platoons, the people on our side surrender and are turned over to the Davion forces later.


Result:

Salvaged:

Harasser Missile Platform
Goblin Medium Tank
Behemoth Assault Tank
Peregrine Attack VTOL
Shrek PPC Carrier
LRM Carrier
1 AC10
1 LRM20
3LRM5
2 Machine Guns
2 Medium Lasers
1 Flame


It will take two days to repair Warhammer, three for Rifleman.


Our Dervish pilot is now elite, and Lt. Martin Fitzgerald is getting Gunnery: Laser as a special skill. He can’t increase his piloting and gunnery anymore, so now its time to get skills.


End of Mission 1

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, btw, major question for those following this dynasty who know the BTech universe. When I talk about what is going on the universe, there are behind the scenes things occurring that are not revealed until much later.

Do you want me to reveal them now? Some of these might be spoilers for anyone following the BTech universe, reading the novels, etc. LMK.

[law90026]

I'm fine whether you reveal or not, pretty much since I read most of the sourcebooks/novels for this period in Battletech history.

[Abe Sargent]

So you don't mind if I tell you who Martial Focht is, or who Sun Tzu's father really was, what's going on in the Deep Periphery, what actually happened to the Minnesota Tribe and Wolverine and so forth.

[law90026]

No issues for me.

[Tellistto]

I'm not in any position to read any of this stuff outside of this thread anyways, so whatever direction you decide to take is fine with me. I find it all enjoyable and appreciate the peek into the universe your offering.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Trinity Company pours in from the east into Fort Ea.

This is Lt. Elizabeth Smyth’s Atlas, a 100 ton monster that is called the best mech in existence. It has mega weapons for all ranges, including an AC20 and LRM20 and numerous other weapons, armor, and heat sinks. This is the big daddy of them all.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/atlass.gif

[Abe Sargent]

The tanks to watch out for here are the SRM Carrier, Demolisher, a few AC20 vehicles like the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun, and Rommel, and the Ontos, Manticore and Partisan, heavier tanks with a lot of weapons.

Okay, first turn is here, and like before, we have no cover, only this area appears to be the scrapyard, so there are tons of rubble and scrap in here, slowing us down, but also creating lanes of fire because the tanks cannot all go into them. Our Goliath destroys a Scorpion Light Tank. We failed ot put down the Ontos and SRM Carrier despite weapons fire at each, so I have to take at lest one, and preferably both, now.

The next turn arrives. I hop a few mechs here and there. Our Hatchetman hit’s the Ontos’s LRM5 ammo and it explodes. Boom! We also savage their Manticore, but it and the SRM Carrier are still around.

Let’s see what we can do this round, I start to move my mechs forward. Our Rifleman destroys their SRM Carrier. The Fuel tank explodes. Our Ostscout destroys the left side of their minor AC2 Carrier. It is recoverable. This is was more of a target of opportunity than anything else. Our Cicada destroys the Right Side of their Manticore Heavy Tank, but it is not recoverable.

Our Atlas destroys the Demolisher’s Front side. The double AC20 assault tank is not recoverable, but takin git out really decrease their ability to hurt us. Our Thunderbolt destroys the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun’s right side, and similarly, it is not recoverable, but taking out another AC20 vehicle was great. Their Condor Heavy Hover Tank lances a Medium Laser at the head of Lt. Elizabeth Smythe’s Atlas, a head that has already been hit once, and it is destroyed, and the Lt. is killed, and the Atlas taken down. Damn! This turn, her kill had gotten her 8 kills, and I was giving her Edge next, and she could have used it to reroll a head shot, surviving this hit in the future. Damn! That sucks. Finally, our Goliath destroys the Falcon Hover Tanks left side. It is recoverable.

The next turn arrives. Our Trebuchet hit’s the fuel tank on their Goblin and is explodes. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the fuel tank of a Striker Light Tank and it goes up.

And with that, there are only a handful of operational vehicles left. Their Vedette and Pegasus Scout Tank are both immobile, and we capture them as the rest surrender and are turned over to the Davion forces.


Salvage:

Scorpion Light Tank
AC2 Carrier
Falcon Hover Tank
Vedette
Pegasus Scout Tank
PPC
3 AC20
SRM6
LRM10
Medium Laser


Our own Atlas sans head

We have several pilots get advances.

Zeus pilot Barbara Morse gains as edge
Latasha Jenkins, in the Hatchetman, gains Melee Specialist
Maeve Vega, in the Rifleman, has gotten one better at piloting and is now veteran
Janice Flanders, Goliath pilot, is now elite after one better in piloting.


End of Mission 2

[Abe Sargent]

Time for Delta Company to rock it from the south. This area has some roads and a few buildings, but nothing major, its still very open. The Fort Ea defenders are sending three companies of vehicles to Delta company - that’s an entire battalion.

12 mechs vs. 36 tanks. If any company will need the Hex Company pulled in as a reserve, it will be this one. All right, here we go.


Here is Sgt. Nei Vanda’s Spider. I have several of them, because they are one of my favorite light mechs from the era. At 30 tons, they have massive speed and jumping capability and two medium lasers to dice into things. Their speed and maneuvering ability is ideal in flanking foes and makes them very hard to hit.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/spider0.gif

[law90026]

Head kills are becoming a real issue!

[Abe Sargent]

I knows.

[Abe Sargent]

There are several threats, but at this point, there’s not much sense in going over them. Everything is a threat. We have to take out numerous vehicles every turn.

Well, here comes turn one. Our Catapult destroys the Shrek PPC Carrier’s front side. Cannot recover. I was hoping for more kills, but I took out something major, so let’s continue.

The next turn arrives, and I move some of my vehicles around. Our Warhammer destroys their Hetzer Assault Gun’s left side, and its salvageable. Our Awesome’s RA is destroyed. Our Atlas lights the MG ammo up on their Bulldog Medium Tank and it goes up, Boom! Our Crusader destroys the rear armor of their LRM Carrier and its ammo at the same time. Another Boom! Our Awesome falls. It also got vehicle flamered and is really over heat.

We killed 4 vehicles, but we are losing one of our best mechs, so this may not be a good trade. After consideration, we choose to ejct from the Awesome. The RT is almost gone, the mech badly overheat, It will stand up, and then get attacked by ten or fifteen tanks, and then be destroyed, no question. Our Atlas takes a lot of damage and falls. We don’t manage to kill anything this round, and that’s a bad sign.

The 4th round is here, our Atlas pilot is unconscious from the fall, and our Awesome has been ejected. That leaves us ten mechs to deal damage with, and the two biggest damage dealers are down. We have to have a big body count this round, or else we may have to call it off soon and have Hex Company step in and finish them off. Since I know everyone will be targeting the Atlas this turn, I can expose my mechs in order to get the best shots. Let’s see what damage we can do. The order is given to push mechs heat where applicable in order to finish off tanks.

Our Javelin destroys the Von Luckner’s front side. It is not recoverable. Our Atlas’s LA is blown off. Our Spider destroys a Peregrine Attack VTOL. It is not recoverable. The Atlas’s ammo is hit and it goes up, and the MechWarrior is automatically ejected even while unconscious. The pilot survives but is damaged, and the Atlas is a complete write-off. The only thing we recover in its RA. They go internal on our Crusader in two places, hitting afoot actuator and a medium lasre and LRM15. Our Warhammer destroys the LS of their Galleon Light Tank. Our Crusader destroys their Partisan’s front side. The Crusader’s RA is destroyed in later attacks. Our Trebuchet destroys the Hunter Light Support Tanks RS. It is not recoverable. Our Catapult falls under some damage. Our Trebuchet then kicks and destroys a Pegasus Scout Hover Tank.

Well, we destroyed 6 vehicles that turn. We went crazy. However, we permanently lost that Atlas, no recovery, it’s gone. We also have a really injured Crusader now. Why can’t I lose a mech I don’t care about, like the Wasp or Hermes II instead of an Atlas? Crazy. I stand up our Catapult. I eject the Crusader pilot. She had 2 armor left, and a bunch of tanks had swarmed her. It was the right call. They hit the ammo on the Trebuchet and it blows up too. Damn it. Our Catapult destroys a Goblin Medium Tank. Our Spider kills a Striker Light Tank. One of the LRMs on our Catapult is hit. Our Banchee kicks and destroys Scorpion Light Tank.

How many vehicles do they have left? I’m quickly running out of mechs. I do a quick count. Looks like 17 left, and four of those are immobile, leaving just 13 fully operational tanks. If I can push for another turn or two, I can probably get them to concede. I eject the Catapult. I have to at this point. I still have an untouched Warhammer and Black Knight I can try and rally behind. Normally, the mechs that die, lose limbs, or get ejected are light mechs, but not this time, its all heavy metal. I’m literally down to 7 after destructions and ejections. Our Black Knight destroys a J Edgar hover Tank. Our Jav destroys a Saracen Medium Hover Tank. A hand actuator on our Wasp is hit. We can repair it in a day. Our Warhammer kicks and destroys a Galleon Light Tank.

That leaves them with 14 tanks out of 36, and 9 are functional with the others being immobile or stunned. They radio their concession. This was an expensive battle. We still have one more to go.




Salvage:


Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Galleon Light Tank
Partisan Heavy Tank
Pegasus Scout Hover Tank
Goblin Medium Tank
Striker Light Tank
Scorpion Light Tank
Saracen Medium Hover Tank
J. Edgar
Scimitar
3 PPC
1 LRM 20
1 LRM 10
2 SRM6
3 SRM4
2 SRM2
1 ML
1 AC 20
4 MG


Atlas RA - was ours
Trebuchet LA, RT, RA



End of Mission 3.

[Tellistto]

Rough battle there with the loss of the heavies. Hopefully the next one won't be quite so costly.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, but 1:3 odds even against tanks is going to probably have some losses.

[Abe Sargent]

Cinq company is up, coming through the last blast on the western side of the fort, and they have two companies of tanks to deal with. This is Cinq Company’s first action for us, so here’s hoping.


Here is Sgt. Lynda Karatos’s Zeus. This 80 ton Lyran Commonwealth special is an adequate assault mech with a PPC, Large Laser and AC5, but not much else. It’s adequate, but not great or anything.


http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/zeus0.gif


Oh, the Archer we have is the S variant with just LRM15s instead of 20s, and SRM4s, but no extra heat sinks, which would have been nice.

This is the weakest of the five companies so far, because the mechs aren’t collectively the best group, and the MechWarriors are mostly regular and veteran, with a few green and a few elite. Well, let’s get them some kills.

[Abe Sargent]

They have way more battle value than us. Alright, here we go. Major foes are the 2x AC20 Demolisher, Behemoth, Sturmfeur, and more, but I’ll take targets of opportunity with this group, we have to drop their numbers fast. One last time, we charge forward, with absolutely no cover. I concentrate a lot of attacks on their Demolisher. Will it pay off? Not this turn, we don’t kill any tanks.

Second turn, let’s kill some tanks. Our Awesome destroys the Demolisher’s front side. Our Hunchy destroys the left side of their AC2 carrier. Our Archer destroys a Scorpion Light Tank. All three are salvageable. Our Awesome falls under a lot of damage. Our Locust misses a kick and falls.

I stand up our Locust and run it in order to get away from the nearby tanks. They exposed the LT of our Awesome, so I get it up and run to expose its right side. That makes it less likely to see a LT, LL, or LA hit. They open up our Awesome;s RL leg and hit a hip actuator. The Awesome falls. Our Archer kicks and destroys a Scorpion Light Tank’s side. Their Zhukov is immobile and the crew is stunned, so hopefully we can take them down this turn.

I stand up the Awesome despite the damage it has taken. The BattleMaster destroys the Zhukov in a ball of fame as its ammo ignites. Despite taking a ton of damage and a damaged hip actuator, our Awesome manages to stay standing.

The next turn arrives. After consideration, our pilot ejects from the Awesome. There is just one point of damage left internally in the left torso and the right arm internally is almost gone. Time to cut our losses. ‘s ok, I think we were able to use it as a target for long enough to give ourselves momentum. The Zeus and BattleMaster have some damage, but they are still ticking. Our BAttleMaster destroys a Goblin Medium Tank. A Medium laser on our Zeus is hit. It cannot be repaired but it can be replaced in a day from other company’s stock. Our Wolverine destroys the Marsden II Battle Tank. It cannot be recovered since its fuel tank ruptured. An engine on the Zeus is hit. We can repair that in two days.


Okay, let’s keep pushing. Their Behemoth Assault Tank opens up the LA of our Crusader and hits its LRM15 twice. Our Lt.’s BattleMaster once again kills a vehcile as the LRM ammo on their Sabaku Kaze Hover Tank is ignited and goes up.

Their Pike Support Vehicle hits our BattleMaster’s lower arm actuator on its LA. We can fix that in less than a day. Our Crusader destroys a Hunter Light Support Tank’s LS. It cannot be salvaged. They have an immobile tank in their Striker Light Tank, and with that out, they have less than half of their original tanks.

We have destroyed 58% of their starting force, so they surrender, and we win!




Salvage:

Demolisher
AC2 Carrier
Scorpion Light Tank x2
Goblin Medium Tank
Striker Light Tank
1 LRM20


All told, for all four scenarios, we need about 92 tons of armor to replace that which is gone, plus about 115 tons to get the tanks up and running.

End of Mission 4

[Abe Sargent]

http://www.mackenzieshaven.com/Images/RPGs/Symbols/minnesotatribe-331st.gif

[Abe Sargent]

With only a few mechs destroyed, we have taken down a whole regiment of vehicles with just four companies of mechs. Field Marshal Sandoval congratulates us. We are allowed to hole up here in Fort Ea for a few days, mending our mechs as best we can, while his troops finish cleaning New Pontiac.

May 19, 3039 - Our Vehicle Company, along with a variety of other units, are extracted by other units, and return to us.

May 22, 3039 - New Pontiac has been quelled, and the remaining Marduk units defending have fled into the Tillerbee Jungle. We are leaving behind our infantry platoons and vehicle company because neither would really work in the Tillerbee Jungle. Back here is Victory Industries, and we are going in with our mechs.

May 23, 3039 - Hex Company is attacked by a large number of VTOLs. This is Ted Izumo’s personal company, and he is not about to let some VTOLs raid us.


Here is Ted’s Stalker, one of the most common Assault Mechs in the Inner Sphere. It has two LRM10s, 2 large lasers, and a smattering of assorted short range weapons. It also has, stupidly, ammo in the arms. That’s a real design flaw, to my mind.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/stalker.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

There are a really large number of VTOLs. Ted suspects that they polled all of their surviving VTOLs into a harassment force. On the move, through the jungle, there will be no chance for repairs, the most we can do is staple on new armor and reload, and that’s it. Although Ted is battle tested, this unit is not, and we’ll have to see what they can do.

This is a hit and run, here we go. Ted understands the power of the VTOL, or lack thereof, and its weakness. He orders all units to stand completely still and aim for the super fast machines, rather than try to jump or run and chase them. Only those units which have to move for defense, like the Spider, are ordered to move.

In fact, the VTOLs are going to be here for just one round. This is, literally, a hit and run. Can we take out any? Will they blast any limbs or such away?

Ted Izumo destroys one and it falls to the ground in pieces. Our Vindicator destroys one. The Kintaro’s many SRMs blow up another. The Banshee’s AC5 tears into a 4th VTOL and it is even recoverable after being destroyed. Our Whitworth killed a 5th. Finally, our Orion destroys a 6th one when its fuel tank ruptures. No other kills, and no major damage. The Kintaro, up on a hill, manages to punch and immobilize an Cavalry Attack Helicopter, and we get it as salvage too.





Salvage:

Warrior Attack Helicopter
Peregrine Attack VTOL
Cavalry Attack Helicopter.


End of Mission 5

[Abe Sargent]

As we continue, a lance of heavy assault mechs can suddenly pop out at close range by Trinity Company.

For Trinity Company, Sgt Jason Thomas, in the Ostsol, has been field promoted to Lieutenant, after the death of their company’s CO.

The Kurita Mechs are:

Stalker
Longbow
BattleMaster
Charger 1A1 (the sucky one)


Unlike the normal units we face, these are regular pilots.

I haven’t seen a Longbow in a while. It’s a fun mech.

It is obvious we are out gunning them, but I think their hope is to destroy one or two of my mechs before they have to retreat.

We are fighting in some seriously heavy jungle.


Here is Lt. Jason Thomas’s Ostsol, a rare 2750 era mech that has lost its factory hundreds of years ago, and remains alive today. It has no weapons in the arms, and then puts minimum armor on them too, in order to concentrate on the good stuff. It has lasers ats its only weapons, which allows for prolonged combat behind enemy lines.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/5/54/3025ostsol.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

This area is so thick with the heaviest vegetation that we are having serious trouble moving. It takes an extra movement point to move through it than normal, so my heavier mechs are moving very slowly. I have no idea why they would attack with assault mechs here. Perhaps they are the vanguard of a full company about to attack? Our Hatchetman jumps next to their Longbow. I would love to salvage another Longbow, after our first went down in a pile of smoke. I can’t even locate their BattleMaster right now, so I send my scout mechs jumping around looking for it. Ah, my Ostscout found it to our north, when it decided to charge right next to it after it jumped in. I hop our Spider next to it, on higher ground so it can try and punt the head. I also hop our P Hawk to its rear. Many of our mechs cannot even fire at each other.

Our Hatchetman fires its AC10 and hits their Longbow in its head, and it goes internal. No critical, but there is a chance we can head kill it anytime, with any weapon. Their Longbow unfortunately falls and takes damage under the onslaught of our Hatchet man (unfortunate, because now we can’t try and hatchet it). Our Hatchetman deals out 11 damage to their Longbow, and we kick the BattleMaster twice with small mechs, and it falls down.

Well, after turn one, two of them are already on the ground, despite only being able to fire with 4 of my mechs at the enemy. Let’s push hard. I want that Longbow, but I’ll take the death of any of them. Their Longbow stands up and moves. I run our Ostsol right in front of it and jump the Hatchetman behind it. They stand up their BattleMaster. Our Thunderbolt is close enough to their Charger to start firing at it. After taking more damage, once again, their Longbow falls. The Hatchetman kicks and doles some damage to its CT.

I jump my three scout mechs back to their BattleMaster in a hope of more physical damage being dealt. Their Longbow gets up. Our Hatchetman hit’s the Longbow in the CT and hits an engine. I was really hoping for a gyro. Its pilot has taken 3 damage already and very close to blacking out. Our Thunderbolt kicks and damages two leg actuators on their Charger. Our Hatchetman was on a lower elevation this turn, hatchets a leg, and hit’s a leg actuator. Their BattleMaster takes a kick in the head from our Phoenix Hawk and blacks out. Their Charger falls and hits its hip actuator, and blacks out. Their Longbow, however, still standing. Suck.

With two mechs blacked out, they begin to very slowly retreat, we begin to chase, when two mechs have armor blown off their legs from a minefield they must have placed. We let them go, take the salvage, and live to fight again.

Salvage:

Charger, 1A1, which sucks, with three actuators damaged
BattleMaster - with no internal damage anywhere

The Charger can be fix in 6 days. The BM, literally, can be up and running in a few hours, once armor is stapled on, ammo is loaded, and our techs get past the fail safe devices installed, but there aren’t that many if it is already running. However, because of the nature of this jungle campaign, the salvage is sent back instead of getting fixed immediately.

My guess, 10 tons to fix us, and the same amount for our friends.



End of Mission 6

[law90026]

Their BattleMaster takes a kick in the head from our Phoenix Hawk and blacks out.

Heh sorry, this bit just really struck me as funny.

[Abe Sargent]

Heheh

[Abe Sargent]

Although other FedCom units see action today, we don’t see any more ourselves.


May 24, 3039 - Field Marshal James Sandoval is not a dick, just demanding, despite rumors to the contrary. He seems to like us alright now, after Fort Ea. He has ordered his fighters to strafe and bomb the jungle ahead of us, to clear it out. We near Victory, but they have heavy installations and bases. Sandoval is moving slowly in order to reduce the chance of ambush and its effectiveness.


While the scout lance for Delta Company is out, it is ambushed by an entire company of vehicles moving through openings in the Jungle the defenders know well. They can either fight their way out, or run away.

They choose to fight. In order to escape, all we have to do is make it to the north edge of this 30x30 grid from the south, and then at the beginning of a turn, choose to escape.

Here are our mehcs : Spider, Hermes II, Wasp, Javelin. The Jav is a good anti tank mech, so we may have something there, plus the pilots are good.

Here is Maria Santos’s Javelin:

This light mehc features strong movement and jumping ability, plus a bunch of short range missles that spread when you hit with them, dealing a wide range of damage, and peppering a target, great for fighting vehicles in getting a missile into its crannies. It is good at exploiting holes someone else made, but bad at making its own.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/javelin0.gif

[Abe Sargent]

We wait in the first turn, and move nothing, just seeing if they give us an opening to exploit with our fast Thunder Lance. One of their tanks skids off the area, but it was one of their weakest. I try to ignite forests near them with the AC5 on our Hermes II - success. Fire has begun.

There is a copse of trees I am going to try and run behind. I move out, under cover of burgeoning smoke and range and trees and speed. They spy what we are doing, so I audible everyone to move to the other side of the map and go up the east side.

The 3rd turn arrives and we keep moving. Our Hermes II hit’s the turret critical with its AC5 of a Drillson, but no critical results.

We finally win initiative in the 4th round. Smoke is spreading. The Spider jumps over one set of heavy woods into another, our Hermes II runs into the first, but our Javelin and Wasp are lagging. They both jump next to the Drillson in order to hit it, because they are unable to make the trees this turn. Our Javelin destroys the engine of their Drillson and it is immobile.

Smoke and fire continue to build in the center of the map. The Hermes II is running through a forest. The Jav and Wasp jump away. Our Javelin launches missles from 7 spaces away and through woods, but still manages to hit the immobile Drillson twice for 6 missles and 5 missles, hitting for 22 damage, spread throughout the left side. It is destroyed, kill for us. Our Spider starts another fir eto give cover for those coming after.

Our Spider jumps next to the north edge, but the edge is all open, so longer range tanks can hit it this turn. Our Hermes II runs out of the forest and along the ground. Our other two mechs jump They have moved three vehicle sinto the forest with close range weaponry. Here was a fun shot. Our Wasp takes a shot on a 12 with a Medium Laser on their Hunter Support Vehicle. They hit the 12, which is just a 1 in 36 chance. Its also glancing blow, so it only doe shalf damage, however it goes internal and destroys its engine. Good shot.

The Spider has fled. They are moving fast hover tanks over to outflank us on the east. Our Jav hits their Hunter, and that’s he only damage exchanged this turn.

The Hermes II runs next to the north edge. The Wasp joins it. Our Javelins hit the SRM ammo on their Maxim Hovertank and it explodes The Jav is overheat and needs to stop firing now. The hermes II and Wasp flee, leaving just the Jav. It does not fire, but kicks the Scimitar.

The Jav jumps next to the north edge. Many people fire at it and deal some damage It misses a kick but manages to stay standing.

10th turn, the Jav runs.


Only about 3 tons of armor are needed.

Maria Santos is now a veteran.


End of Mission 7

[Abe Sargent]

May 25, 3039 - More forces have landed and Field Marshal Sandoval decides to end this. He orders an all out assault on Victory Industries. We hold position until more troops join us.


May 27, 3039 - After some quiet days, those troops arrive.

May 28, 3039 - Sandoval orders the assault of Victory Industries.

They are going to throw everything they can at us. Mines, turrets, tanks, VTOLs, infantry, mechs, AeroSpace fighters, and more if they can find it. Between the natural defenses of Victory Industries and the Kurita forces that fled here from New Pontiac and the forces already in the area now here, it should be quite a battle.

We are attacking Victory Industries, which makes, among other things, Griffin and Wolverine mechs, plus a lot of components.


Although Sandoval’s units are at the head of the attack, we are expecting some serious action, and oh look, we get it.


Phaeton Company is walking into a major area of defense.

The defenders will get a bonus on their initiative rolls.


Their mechs:

Panther
Dragon
Hunchback
Crusader 3K variant
Rifleman
Wasp


Their vehicles:

Partisan
Ontos
Patton
Hetzer x2
Maxim
Vedette
Condor
Striker x2
Harasser
Galleon


Their VTOLs: None here

Infantry:

Four platoons

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, here we go.


Our Awesome takes 20 to its legs from a vibrabomb. Oh, btw, the Galleon on top of a Rifleman, the combined picture looks almost exactly like a Masakari. We take targets of opportunity. After taking some damage, their Crusader and Rifleman both fall.

The are moving down the west side in concentration, but I set up our forces on the other. I’ll have to adjust for that. Our Awesome destroys a Harasser Missile Platform. Recovered. We continue to hammer their Crusader with long range fire, and it tumbles again.

On the third turn, their Crusader fails to stand, and I run our Warhammer right next to it. I unload our ‘Hammer and Thunderbolt into it, and move my other mechs to fire at their Panther. Our Awesome destroys both legs of their Wasp, which makes it salvage and it falls. Our Warhammer destroys the Crusader’s LA. Our Crusaders ignites the Crusader’s Machine Gun ammo and it goes up. Boom! Our Hermes II hits their Panther’s gyro with its AC5. It is the mech falling this turn. Our Awesome destroys the Panther’s RA with a kick. Our Jav misses a kick on a tank but remains standing.

Our Thunderbolt hit’s a mine while moving. Their Panther fails to stand. I think I’m going to want to modify this Falcon sometime. It’s not that great, but its rare, so it might be worth making better. Rear facing weapons on a light mech with 6/9/6 movement? And they are Machine Guns? Yuck. Our Awesome kicks in the CT of their Panther and it goes up. The engine explodes and hit’s the Awesome for some damage, and our Warhammer for some damage, their Panther MechWarrior is caught in the blast and dies before he can get free. Sorry dude.

We hit their Rifleman a lot but it stands. Not much this turn, just weapons fire and a rearranging of the firing arcs of my support mechs.

Everything is working beautifully. I have Thunder Lance hopping in and out, Anvil Lance nearby, and Hammer Lance raining fire from afar. Our Griffin destroys the Ontos Heavy Tank.

7th turn is here and we are doing well, but its slower than I’d want. Safe, but slow. Inexorable, really. Our Awesome’s angle is gone in the smoke, so he wades in. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the CT of their Rifleman. It is unrecoverable.

Two of their tanks, Hezter and Striker, are immobile. Our Warhammer hit’s a mine. We savage their Hunchy and it falls. The Awesome destroys the Striker that is not immobile with a kick. With the immobile tanks and destroyed Striker, they begin to retreat, and our objective is secure, and we begin to mark found mines on the map and bring in vehicles to find the others.






Lt. Martin Fitzgerald gets Edge

Salvage:

Harasser Missile Platform
Striker Light Tank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Ontos Heavy Tank
Wasp without RL and LL
Crusader parts: RL, LL, RT, RA
Rifleman: H, RT, LT, RA, LA, LL, RL


We need only about 20 tons for this mission. We never put any unit in danger.


End of Mission 8

[Abe Sargent]

May 29, 3039 - There are not large swaths of land here, and as such, the front is rather small. The defenders are able to keep Field Marshal Sandoval from using all of his troops to widen the front and pound. Artillery from Victory Industries rains down intermittently into the Davion forces. Because his front is relatively small, he is rotating in and out units. He orders our Thunder Lances to scout around us for possible traps, ambushes, mines, etc. While they are out, a strong counterattack by a small united group of militia forces Sandoval to order us in. Trinity and Cinq companies are closest, so their Hammer and Anvil lances are sent in to relieve the counterattack, and a small number of the 93rd run behind us to escape while the enemy closes around. That’s 15 mechs from us against, well, who knows?


Here is what is charging us:

Mechs:

Grasshopper
Shadow Hawk
Jenner
Firestarter
Scorpion
Vulcan
Victor
Griffin
Javelin
Hunchback
Dragon
Thunderbolt


Vehicles:

Hetzer
Schrek
J Edgar x2
Pegasus
Maxim
Scorpion Light Tank
Partisan Heavy Tank
Von Luckner Heavy Tank
Brutus Assault Tank
Condor Heavy Hovertank
Scimitar Medium Hovertank
VTOLs:

Peregrine Attack Helicopter x2


Infantry, Mines, Turrets? None



We have a company of mechs, a company of tanks, and 2 VTOLs heading our way. That’s 26 foes. Alright, here we go….


This is Janice Flanders’ Goliath. It is a large assault mech, and one of only a few designs that uses the quad design instead of the more traditional upright one. Since neurohelmets that are used to pilot a mech use the driver’s sense of balance fed into the mech, the quad mech is simply really ungainly, and something you have to train yourself for very heavily, beyond the normal upright mech. There are some rules for quads too, but suffice it to say that they are not looked upon highly. This Assault mech packs two LRM10s, 1 PPC, and two machine guns, which is a lighter load for an 80 ton mech.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/d/d3/3025_goliath.jpg/191px-3025_goliath.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Because of the speed of their counter-attack and the lack o us establishing a defensive position, we are fighting in a more confined space. We begin already in range of all long range weapons. This will likely be a slug fest.

Our Ostsol hits and destroys their Pegasus Scout Tank. It’s fuel tank blows up, boom-boom-BOOM. They set the woods my Trebuchet on fire, which sucks because I am using the area nearby for sniping with many fire support mechs and now I have to move them.


Round two is here and we continue to move forward. Our Awesome destroys the Maxim Heavy Hover Transport. Our Trebuchet rapes a Peregrine and destroys three sides of its armor and it falls four elevations and is completely destroyed. We also injure their Shrek’s movement system badly. Our Hatchetman hatchets the rear of their Jenner and goes internal on the Left Torso rear and hit’s a jump jet.

Here is the next round: Our Hunchback destroys their Jenner’s RA. Our Wolverine destroys its LT. Zeus from Trinity Company destroys a Scimitar Medium Tank. Our Trebuchet destroys the Jenners RT, and then CT. It is unrecoverable. Our Goliath destroys their Shrek PPC Carrier. Our Archer kicks and destroys a J Edger Hovertank. The other Zeus from Cinq Company kicks and destroys the other J Edgar. Our Hatchetman hachets their Vulcan;s leg, and how? I though hatchets did damage on the punch table. That must have been a change in the newest edition. That makes them a lot worse. That was a good turn, we killed a mech and a bunch of tanks.

Their Dragon pilot is unconscious after skidding and falling, so I run a Zeus up to it. Perhaps I can take off its head. Our Hatchetman hops behind their Grasshopper. Our Ostsol destroys the RA off their Firestarter, Cinq’s Zeus’s Large Laser decapitates their Dragon. Our Hunchy hits their Vulcan badly, getting a gyro, jump jet and lower arm actuator. Their Vulcan falls, hits its CT, and is destroyed. Not recoverable. Our Wolverine punches and hits an SRM6 on their Javelin. Their Hetzer is knocked immobile.


I lead with several mechs wading up the middle of the map. A Zeus and Battlemaster lead the way. Their Grasshopper’s large laser hit’s the sensors on our Hunchy. It will take 5 days to repair. Our Griffin destroys their Brutus Assault Tank. Our Thunderbolt destroys their Condor Heavy Hovertank. Our Ostsol blow the LL and RT of their Firestarter, and then this its gyro twice. Dead mech. It falls and destroys its own CT, and is no longer recoverable. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the hip actuator of their Griffin. No fall though.


At that, they elect to retreat, and we have salvage to recover, including an immobile Hetzer, so we allow them.


We need about 25 tons of armor for our mechs



Salvage:


Scimitar Medium Hovertank
J Edgar Light Hovertank
Brutus Assault Tank
Condor Heavy Hovertank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Shrek PPC Carrier
Dragon minus H
Jenner LA, LL, RL, H
Vulcan LA, RT, RA, LT, H, LL, RL
Firestarter H, RL, LT, LA
3 LRM5


Hunchback needs 5 days to fix sensors.


End of Mission 9

[Abe Sargent]

After an initial push forward, the assault gets bogged down by terrain, mines, turrets and artillery.

We lose about 10 tons of armor due to peppering by artillery.


May 30, 3039 - The Deneb troops send a battalion out and get a wedge into the defenders. They use it as a fulcrum to swing other allied units at the defense.

We are asked to move forward, all five companies together, and get a chance to crack their defense. We lose a leg on Hex Company’s Commando, some actuators hit on an exposed arm on Trinity company’s Ostscout and a destroyed arm on Cinq’s Locust - all to artillery.

Replacement costs: 600,000 and 1 day to fix the Ostscout.

As we continue to advance, we see a large number of their units move out to us, well over a regiment, mostly mechs. We are recalled as Field Marshal Sandoval wants to take this opportunity to send his best troops against the massive counter-strike that looks like all of their remaining units. The rest of the Deneb and other units advance, and we are asked to skirmish the edges and keep them contained and getting defeated. Due to our presence on the edges, the defenders cannot not try to outflank or get cute. After losing over half of their units during a 12 hour battle, the Drac units retreat. We lost communication with Sandoval temporarily. Despite no orders that tell us this, Ted realizes that he has o cut off the Drac retreat back into the factory, and plunges all units forward, to cut off the beaten and bruised Dracs. Despite mines and artillery, we get the front area and clear out defending infantry. Caught between us and the regular Davion troops, the battered and beaten Drac militia surrender.

Due to us running a gauntlet of artillery and mines, we have lost a variety of armor and limbs, and it will take about 2.2 million to replace the missing parts.

May 31, 3039 - After capturing Victory Industries, Field Marshal Sandoval captures what materiel it had, and also takes various mechs they had made, and starts making more. He intends to use these Griffins and Wolverines to supplement the lost units from his forces.

[Abe Sargent]

June 5, 3039 - Most of the repairs have been done. There were plenty of body parts and armor here to fix our mechs.

June 7, 3039 - Field Marshal Sandoval orders a mech battalion from the Tenth Deneb and the 93rd Mechanized behind to guard and garrison Victory Industries. We have not seen any sign of the Benjamin Regulars, the unit defending this planet. The Robinson Rangers, Tenth Deneb, and us begin to scour the planet for signs of the Regulars.

June 11, 3039 - A scout company of Deneb mechs in the central fields of eh southern continent goes missing.

June 12, 3039 - All units have converged on the southern continent.

Field Marshal Sandoval orders all of his forces to spread out in a thin line across the continent and move, slowly, giving no place to hide, and trying to flush out the Regulars.

June 13, 3039 - All is quiet, and we keep moving.

June 14, 3039 - The entire Regulars unit pops up on radar by James Sandoval and viciously attacks him and his command. The Rangers in the area form up on Sandoval and fiercely defend him despite heavy losses until the Tenth and us arrive from our positions.

June 15, 3039 - In the early morning, we arrive, and all of the forces left on Marduk, Us, the Tenth, the Rangers, and the Regulars, are about to engage in a battle that will turn the Manschemman Dune Field into a salvage yard.

We arrive at the flank of the Regulars. Knowing us to be mercenaries, and facing to RCTs from the FedCom, the Regulars just send a few troops to deal with us. Ted sends Phaeton and Trinity companies to help out the beleaguered Sandoval while the remaining battalion of Hex, Cinq and Delta companies hit’s the units detached by the Regulars to “deal” with us.

Delta Company is first, they move to the left to try and flank our foes, and they pull off a company of Regular mechs. This is straight up company of mechs vs. company of mechs. They will fight to the death as they are cornered and know it.



Cristina Fernandez, whose Trebuchet was destroyed, is running the new BattleMaster we acquired and fixed up and Adrick Lee, who was in the Atlas is now in the crappy 1A1 Charger with its small lasers, but its a mech at least.

[law90026]

Adrick Lee, who was in the Atlas is now in the crappy 1A1 Charger with its small lasers, but its a mech at least

LOL

[Abe Sargent]

We are fighting in very open terrain with some rolling dunes and only a handful of trees.


Here are our foes:

Griffin
Phoenix Hawk x2
Dragon
Wasp 1K - a variant with no SRM2 but more armor and machine gun
Warhammer
Scorpion
Atlas
Archer
Ostroc
Jenner
Javelin



Here is the Scorpion we are facing, another quad mech that isn’t that great. It’s a medium mech at 55 tons and has a PPC and SRM6. Quad mechs have special rules, and some of them really help. There are negatives, however. Unlike a upright mech who can lose an arm and still be fine, losing any limb is a lost leg and it hurts.

http://www.thewreckingcrew.us/readout/Equipment/Inner%20Sphere/mechs/3050/images/scorpion.gif

[Abe Sargent]

LOL

Can you imagine a bigger downgrade while staying within your weight class than Atlas to 1A1 Charger?

[law90026]

Seriously, I will never understand why the original Charger was invented. If I were Adrick, I would resign :P

[Abe Sargent]

I think it was originally created with an XL engine during Star League times, and then as the technology was lost, it was repclaed witha regular engine, which no longer made the mech work.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, here we go. We concentrate all of our fire on their Archer. It takes a lot of damage, and then falls.

The next round arrives. We are crashing into each other in the center of the map. With 8 heavy or assault mechs on our squad, and four lights, the strategy here is just to drive and smash. I order the Charger to charge a Phoenix Hawk. Here goes the fire. Their Warhammer gets a through armor critical on our Charger and hit’s a hip actuator. Our Black Knight destroys the Archer’s RA. Our Spider hits two leg actuators on their Jenner’s LL. Our Javelin gets an LRM ammo explosion on their Archer and it explodes big! Boom! Our Charger falls, this ends the charge. Their Jenner falls and destroys its RA.

I stand up the Charger and order it into some heavy woods. Their Jenner tries to rise, fails, and the pilot is knocked unconscious. I send some weapons their Atlas’s way when I can. Both their Atlas and their Griffin fall. Our Banshee kicks their Warhammer, hit’s a hip actuator, and it falls. Taking down to the ground three mechs, an assault, medium and heavy, is a very good thing.

Their Jenner does not wake up. I run the Charger out of the middle combat area of the map. I run our Jav behind the Atlas’s back after it rises. Their Griffin gets up too. Their Warhammer fails and stays on the ground. Our Banshee hits their Griffin’s gyro. Our Catapult buries the Atlas in missiles, and their head is hit twice, dealing two damage to the MechWarrior and opening up the head for further damage. The Black Knight destroys the Griffin’s ammo and it explodes. Their Atlas falls again.

The Jenner pilot wakes up. Their jenner tries to stand up, fails, hits its engine, and the pilot again blacks out. Their Warhammer is still down. Their Atlas actually ries. Our Warhammer hit’s the ammo in the Dragon and it explodes. Our Cat hit’s the engine once on their Atlas. Our Banshee kicks and destroys the LL of their Javelin. Our battle master kicks and destroys their LT of their Warhammer. Their Jav falls, hits its ammo, and explodes. Since it fell from one kick, the kill is given to that kick.

The Javelin’s engine ruptures and explodes! It hit’s the Banshee, Black Knight, battleMaster, their Warhammer, their Scorpion, their Jenner, their Wasp. It destroys the LA of their Wasp, RA of their Warhammer.

They began with 12 mechs. They have a unconscious Jenner, a savaged Atlas, a savaged Warhammer, Javelin, Scorpion and untouched two Phoenix Hawks and Ostroc. They choose to keep pushing, and I will make them regret that. We manage to run our Awesome behind the back of their Ostroc. They manage to stand their Warhammer. I don’t even fire a weapon at it, I’ll just kick it back down. Our banshee hits two foot actuators on the Scorpion. The LA of their Ostroc is destroyed by Maggie’s Black Knight. LT of their Wasp taken down by our BattleMaster. Their Ostroc falls and their pilot blacks out. Their Warhammers loses its RL and RT from the kick by our Banshee. Is it now unable to move (lost both arms and one leg) and it salvageable. It hits its engine on the fall once.

Their Jenner stays unconscious. They choose to keep pushing, and I don’t know why. They are not doing anything to us. I run our Spider up to their Ostroc in order to behead it. Their Atlas hits an Upper Arm actuator on our ‘Hammer. Our Crusaders destroys a leg on the Scorpion. RA on the Ostroc is destroyed. Their Wasp’s CT is destroyed by the Black Knight. Our BattleMaster destroys the Scorpions RT. The Scorpion falls and hits its gyro and engine. With both legs off on one side, it is immobile.

They choose to leave at this point, their Atlas, Phoenix Hawk and Phoenix Hawk the only mechs retreating.


Salvage:


Archer LA
Dragon LA, H, RA
Warhammer LA
Wasp LL, RL, H
Scorpion RFL
Scorpion missing RRL, RFL, RT
Warhammer with just LL, CT, H, and a engine hit
Jenner with engine hit and missing RA
Ostroc missing RA, LA


To fix Warhammer: 1 day

Need 25 tons of armor


End of Mission 10.

[Abe Sargent]

Delta Company did a great job. Next up is Cinq Company.

Their unit is:


Awesome
Phoenix Hawk
Chameleon
Stinger
Atlas
Jenner
Wolverine
Griffin
Orion 1K variant
Whitworth
Striker
Quickdraw

This is a heavier and better unit. Three assaults - Atlas, Awesome and Striker. Orion is a great heavy. The Quickdraw is a heavy but acts like a medium mech. The Chameleon, Wolverine, Griffin and Whitworth are all solid medium mechs. The Phoenix Hawk is okay. Just two light meches, the Stinger and Jenner. This is a powerful company.

The Chameleon is a mech regularly used for training, with solid weapons. The Striker is an assault mech often found in garrisons, and this unit was garrisoning, so it makes sense to find here. I actually like both for this era. The Orion is a great variant with max armor and some superfluous weapons gone.

Here is the Chameleon. This 50 ton mech moves 6/9/6, making it quite fast, and sports a large laser, 2 medium lasers, 3 small lasers and 2 machine guns. It has just 7 tons of armor, and I’d like to see more, and it has just 10 heat sinks, low for a jumping mech.


http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/thumb/1/17/Chameleon.jpg/191px-Chameleon.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, for those interested in seeing the entire Inner Sphere in massive huge glory, here is a map to show you what's what. Zoom out to see the states well, and then you can zoom in and find the places we talk about and hit up.

http://home.ifi.uio.no/~oysteint/btech/3050.pdf


You can find Epsilon Eridani, our home planet, in the narrow band of yellow between the purple and red. The big giant star in that area is Terra, aka Earth. From there, head southwest about five planets and you hit us.


You can also tell from this map that Epsilon Eridani is the capital of this small region of space that makes up the smallest line, and planets like Bryant, Carver V, Fletcher, Small World, New Home, Keid, Procyon, etc. This region is part of the Sarna March of the Federated Suns.


We are currently assaulting Marduk. Want to know where that is? Go right along the Red/yellow border and try and find a system with a circle around it called Robinson. It it just north of the big line that separates two Marches in the Federated Suns. That is the capital of the Draconis March in the Federated Suns. Once you find it, go up until your hit the Draconis Combine border, and you will find Marduk, just across it. You can also find Breed, which was our launching point to hit Marduk.

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s begin. There are a few more trees here, so I order my fire support mechs by it in order to set up sniping positions. We just exchange fire.

More fire exchanged. Their Striker falls and hits its PPC. Our Wasp and Griffin both fall after being kicked.

Our Griffin arises. The Wasp gets up and runs too. Their Striker tries to get up, falls, destroys its RT, then gets up. Our Wolverine gets a critical on their damaged Striker and hits its gyro. The Archer hit’s the Strikers engine twice. It manages to stay standing. He needed a 10 twice, and made the save each time. Our Zeus hit’s the hip and lower leg actuator on their Chameleon with a kick. Our Locust misses a kick and falls. Their Chameleon falls and hit’s a third actuator. Their P Hawk misses a kick and falls.

We stand up our Locust and run it away. Our BattleMaster hit’s the LRM20 of their Atlas on a through armor critical. The Chameleon’s LA is destroyed by the Zeus’s weapons. The Zeus kicks the undamaged Stinger, blows off its RL, destroys its RT, and then goes internal and hits its gyro in the CT. That’s a good kick. It falls to the ground. Their Striker is massively overheat from two engine hits and it keeps firing.

Their Striker tries walking through trees with a gyro hit and falls down. Our Crusader hits and destroys the Awesome’s head with missiles. They set the forests on fire with missed attacks where we are. Our Wasp kicks and destroys their Stinger’s CT

Our Zeus is singlehandedly fighting four mechs - Quickshot, P Hawk, Stinger and Chameleon. One is now dead, the other is down and severely damaged. Our Zeus destroys their P hawk’s RA. Their Atlas falls under an onslaught of weaponry.

Their Chameleon manages to stand, so I hop over the Spider for a rarely used physical attack. I run the BattleMaster into the heavy woods in front of their Atlas. Their Striker remains on the ground, overheating each turn with its two engine hits. it’s in woods, so let’s see if we can’t set those woods on fire. Our Griffins ignites the hex! Our BattleMaster hits their Atlas’s AC20. Our Zeus destroys the LA of their P Hawk. Our Vulcan destroys the LA on their Jenner. Their Atlas falls. Our Spider tries to trip their Chameleon. Success, and their Chameleon falls over again, and needs a 10 to stay awake, and gets it. Our Zeus hits an actuator on the P Hawk’s leg, an it falls. Their Jenner is kicked by our Vulcan, and it hit’s the SRM4 ammo. Dead Jenner. Their Chamelon tries to stand up, fails, destroys its CT, and its engine explodes, dealing a bunch of damage to our Spider, Griffin, Crusader and Zeus. Our Spider loses both arms and our Wasp one. Our Griffin is savaged. It also hit their Quickdraw and Phoenix Hawk. Their atlas tries to arise, fails, and destroys its RT. Their Striker pilot blacks out. Their P Hawk and Q Draw fall from the damage they received. Zeus destroys their P Hawks RT. Our Hunchback has hit their Atlas with its AC20 five times and that bastard is still alive. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the P hawks LT.

I don’t even know why they are still coming, but they are. We order the Spider to flee. Their Atlas fails to stand. Their Striker pilot is still blacked out. Our Battlemaster hit’s the AC10 on their Orion. Our Zeus destroys the RA of their Quickdraw. Our Griffin destroys the Orions RT. Their Qdraw falls again. Our Zeus kicks and destroys their P Hawk’s LL. Now it is salvageable.

Striker is still unconscious. Our Wasp flees. Their Atlas tries to stand, fails, injures the MechWarrior and they black out. Our Wolverine ignites their Quickdraw’s ammo and it goes boom.


And with that, they lease off. Their Griffin, Whitworth, savaged Orion and Wolverine are the only elements able to leave.

We need about 40 tons of armor to fix our peops.


Salvage:

Awesome missing H
Striker RA
Atlas RA
Jenner LA
Orion RA
Quickdraw LA
Stinger RA, H, LA, LT, LL
Phoenix Hawk with just RL, CT and H.
Striker missing RT, RA, with hits on enginex2 and gyro x1.
Atlas without LA, RT, RA and LRM20 hit, foot actuator

Spider missing two arms.
Wasp is missing RA


End of Mission 11

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, time for Hex Company.

Our foes:

Warhammer
Ostroc
Hunchback
Merlin
Panther
Whitworth
BattleMaster
Goliath
Rifleman
Wasp
Javelin
Mongoose


The Mongoose is a rare 2750 era mech but lost its technology over time. That would be a nice grab. The Merlin was introduced in 3010, and was the first new mech made in a long time. It hasn’t proliferated like other medium mechs, but its not too bad as a lighter heavy mech.

Two assaults and 4 heavies.

This is Hex Company’s Grand Dragon. It is a solid heavy mech weighing at 60 tons. The Dragon, a similar mech, was built for the Combine for age,s but they decided to retool the company and make a new mech, very similar, called the Grand Dragon. It has a PPC, LRM10 and three medium lasers, one of which faces the rear. I like this pic, by the way.


http://www.solaris7.com/Files/Members/4267/GrandDragon_3050U.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s see what Ted Izumo’s Stalker can do against the Dracs. We concentrate a lot of fire on their BattleMaster.

The next turn arrives. We continue to assault the Battlemaster, and also do some damage to their Merlin, which falls.

Their Merlin stands back up. Their Warhammer shears off our Orion’s head with its PPC. Elite pilot Sam Martez has died. Their Merlin falls after the Orion hits its foot actuator. Our banshee destroys their Wasp’s Rl with a major kick. Our Enforcer destroys its LL with a major kick, leaving it legless and fully salvageable without ever attacking it with a weapon.

I try to set some woods on fire near their beginning area where several of their mechs are still hiding. It fails. Ted’s Stalker hits two actuators on their Battlemaster. Our Banshee destroys the LA of their Mongoose. Our Enforcer destroys its RL. Their BattleMaster falls under another barrage of missiles, lasers, ppcs and auto cannons.

Their Merlin fails to stand. Their battleMaster falls uner a fourth round of attacking, hits its SRM ammo and explodes. Their Hunchback also falls. Our Banshee kicks the Hunchback in its Head, and it dies. Their Javelin falls after being kicked by our Enforcer.

This turn, the Merlin stands. Our Banshee destroys the Merlins RL and it goes right back down. Their Warhammer falls too.

Currnetly four of their mechs - Mongoose, Merlin, Warhammer and Wasp, are on the ground. Only one of those cannot get back up. Our Kintaro hit’s the Warhammer’s ammo and it explodes. Our P Hawk hits their Mongoose’s Gyro.

We begin to move in all mechs, in order to end this quickly. The only mech they have left I am considered about is their Goliath. Our Grand Dragon charges it. It will do a bunch of damage if it hits. I jump an Enforcer behind their Jav’s back. Our Spider gets behind their Rifleman. Out Stalker destroys the LT of their Mongoose and hits its gyro a second time. Another kill for Ted Izumo. Our Enforcer’s AC10 blows through the LT rear armor of the Jav, blows it off.

Their Rifleman kicks and destroys the LL of our Grand Dragon. The Grand Dragon charges their Goliaht and doles out 36 damage, which hits, among other things, its head and goes internal and hits Life Support. Our Grand Dragon falls because it was legged. Their Goliaht falls as well, plus their Ostroc falls after being kicked by our Phoenix Hawk.

They keep pushing, so I will as well. Grand Dragon ejects. Their Ostroc and Goliath stand. Their Rifleman hit’s a hip on our Commando. We hit an LRM10 on their Goliath. Their Goliaht destroys its RL. Our Enforcer destroys their Jav’s LL. Their Merlin’s RA is destroyed by a Kintaro kick. The Phoenix Hawk hit’s a actuator on the Rifleman, and it managed to fall well. Our Commando falls, and the MW blacks outs.

They continue to push. Alright then. Our fire support mechs arrive in this little scrum we have going. They probably want to kill my Commando before leaving. Their Rifleman fails to stand. Alright, time to stop playing footsie with these mechs intending to get salvage. Let’s just kill them. Our Phoenix Hawk ignites he Rifleman’s AC ammo and it explodes. The Enforcer destroys the Javelin’s CT and the engine explodes. It peppers a lot of nearby mechs. Our Banshee destroys the Merlin’s LT. Their Goliaht takes out the Commando’s RA. Their Merlin’s MW baclsk out.

And with that, they try and leave. All that is left is their Whitworth, a savaged Goliath and a savaged Ostroc.

About 50 tons of armor are needed on this one.




Salvage:

Wasp, missing two legs
Hunchback without H
Mongoose ,without LT, LA, RL and with two gyro hits, 1 engine hit.
Merlin without LT, LA, RA

Pieces:


Battlemaster RA, H
Rifleman RA
Warhammer RA, H, LA
Merlin LA
Javelin LA



Our own Orion sans H



Repair:

Grand Dragon LL
Commando RL, RA



End of Mission 12

[Abe Sargent]

Before Phaeton and Trinity companies arrive to support the Field Marshal, the battle has begun to die down. The out numbered and out experienced Regulars are falling quite easily before all of us. Are there losses? Of course there are, especially among the Rangers who suffered the initial attack. However, by the end of the day, there are three regiments of Regular mechs scattered throughout the plains, and organized resistance on Marduk has ended.


June 24, 3039 - After several days of salvage operations, fixing things, and so forth, we are basically back to as full strength as we are going to get. Sandoval gives us a Griffin and Wolverine from Victory Industries as additional thanks beyond our contract for our assistance. Having been impressed with us, he decides not to waste us as garrison forces, and sends us back to Breed, one jump away, to rest and then join an invasion force that will arrive there in a month or so, and begin Wave Two.

June 26, 3039 - We lift off from Marduk

June 30, 3039 - We arrived at a JumpShip already charged. A few hours later, we arrive in the Breed system.



End the first campaign in the War of 3039. We are about the begin the second campaign. Our contract is up at the end of contract, not now, so we cannot get salvage, although we can use it, as long as we pay for its repair.

[Abe Sargent]

July 3, 3039 - We land at Breed and begin to stretch our muscles.

On Breed are:

Us
Three various Davion RCTs
Second Robinson Rangers - a battlemech regiment
First NAIS Cadre
Various local militia

The 2nd Rangers are regular troops, not vets or elite. The First NAIS Cadre are training mechwarriors at the New Avalon Institute of Science War College, one of the best training academies in the Inner Sphere. They are green, but quite eager.

The RCTs are invasion forces staging here until the Wave Two is ordered.

July 6, 3039 - The RCTs leave to head out to staging areas to be in the first attacks of Wave Two. That leaves just Us, the NAIS, the Rangers, and various militia on planet.


July 11, 3039 - A large number of unknown JumpShips arrive in system. They bear no symbols and their DropShips move towards Breed at high speed. We have to assume they are hostile. They refuse to answer hails.



On July 15, 3039 - The first counter-attack by the Draconis Combine would hit the staging world of Breed after the invasion troops had mostly left. The units landing on Breed are unknown and unregistered, the 3rd and 4th Ghost Regiments.

[Abe Sargent]

In order to get you up to speed on the events that are about to occur, we need to stop, pause, and talk about what is happening in the Inner Sphere.


First of all, you might recall that the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine is Takashi Kurita. About 70 years ago or so, the Combine underwent a Japanese renaissance. Japanese culture became a part of the people, the country, and the society. Part of this was a revelation in the military. The old code of Bushido was studied and adopted, and a focus on single combat and personal honor, instead of Draconis honor, because the operational way. Current aged coordinator Takashi Kurita is a strong adherent of the old order.

However, his son, Theodore Kurita, was a nouveau sort of general. He wanted to renovate the DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) into a more modern form of combat that put glory on the state, not on the person.

The old DCMS was filled with old school Bushido style generals and warriors. When Theodore Kurita was promoted to Gunji no-kanrei by his father (because his father had too, not because he wanted too), they began a battle of wits with the DCMS as the prize. Theodore tried to place new and forward thinking people in positions of authority while Takashi wanted older school.

Knowing that his realm could not survive a full fledged war against both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, Theodore entered into an agreement with ComStar. He would allow the Free Rasalhague Movement to form, and in return, ComStar would give him mechs. For years, Theodore did not use his forces to silence rumbling in Rasalhague, and when it seceded in 3034, he endorsed it. One fifth of the DCMS would not allow it, however, the old school people, and Theodore declared them Ronin, and thus began the Ronin Wars which we fought on behalf of Rasalhague.

At the end of it, the DCMS had lost about a fifith of their military, and Rasalhague had taken many of their systems and planets. However, Theodore was ableto purage the DCMS of most of its old school people. He created units, the Ghost regiment, with materiel gleaned from Comstar, and in order to fill it, he recruited yakuza mechwarriors to pilots the mechs.

As a result, he had a large private army that no one knew about fielding mechs no one knew still existed from the old star league era. He also provided some tricks like changing the Charger to a good mech and putting it in his forces so that Davion troops would be surprised by the mech. Between new mech designs like the Hatamoto Chi and the Daboku, and modifications to mechs like the Dragon and Charger, he was able to completely surprise Davion in the War of 3039.

One more thing Theodore gave ComStar as part of the deal. The Draconis Combine had a secret POW that only a few knew about from the Fourth Succession War. Someone they captured, but who everybody believed was dead. Someone they could not use as a tool because he was persona non grata back where he came from, but someone ComStar wanted quite badly. Someone who would change the history of ComStar and the Inner Sphere forever - Frederick Steiner. ComStar got him as part of the exchange.

As predicted, in the War, Davion and Steiner were able to juggernaut the Draconis Combine. Within a month, FedCom forces were on 34 Draconis planets. Takashi Kurita issued an order to hold the line at all costs, a foolish order that would be suicide against the well coordinated juggernaut.

So Theodore rescinded it quietly, and ordered his best troops to counterattack. The Ryoken and Ghost regiments, reporting directly to him and with LosTech and various new mechs in them, he struck at Davion with all of his might, hitting a large number of planets. Theodore was outgunned, outplanned and outflanked, so he did the one thing he could do. He gambled. His gamble was that if he counter punched hard enough, with units and mechs that did not exist, he would stun Hanse Davion and stall the war effort long enough to give his people the time they needed to organize the defense and recapture of Combine systems.


We have two Ghost Regiments bearing down on us with a lot of speed. Of course, we don’t know all of that, we just know that these two unnamed and unknown regiment sized ships are burning to Breed form the Zenith Jump Point in the system.

[Abe Sargent]

Now, let’s talk bout LosTech, and before we do that, we have to back up a bit.

The only weapons still left to man are few, because many Star League era technology is gone. However, with the rediscovery of the Star League memory core on the planet Helm in 3028, it was circulated and many places have tried to remake it. By the War of 3039, the first two mechs built with LosTech: Hatamato-Chi and Daboku have been built by the Draconis Combine and issued to key regiments like the Ghost and Ryoken regiments. Some prototype LosTech can be found on mechs in all five houses, and we are about to fight Ghosts, so we need to talk about what LosTech is, isn’t and what else is running around.


Here are the weapons we currently have with 3025 technology:

Long Range Missiles
Short Range Missiles
Lasers
Machine Guns
Flamers
Particle Projection Cannons
Autocannons

And that is it. Weapons have various sizes. For example, Autocannons have tiny, small, medium and large sized bore, but they cannot go as far. These are referred to as AC2, AC5, AC10 and AC20 based on how much damage they do to another mech. The smaller the bore size, the farther it can be fired but the less damage it can deal.

Long and Short range missiles have racks. Short-Range missiles come in racks of 2, 4 or 6. They deal two damage each, and when you hit, you roll to see how many missiles hit, and then each missile hit’s a different area. Long Range Missiles come in 5, 10, 15 or 20 racks, and you roll to see how many of those hit, and then group them in 5 missile lots. Each missile does one damage, and you roll to see where th damage is dealt.

Lasers come in three sizes, small medium and large The bigger the are, the farther they can go, and the more damage they deal, but also they more they weigh, the more heat they make and the more space they take up.

Machine Guns make no heat, deal little damage, and have short range, but are useful in anti-personnel roles where they deal double damage. They will become more valuable later, but for now, infantry are jokes, and machine guns are not good.

Flamers can be used to either add heat to a target, or deal two damage. They have the same damage and range as a machine gun but make as much heat to fire as a medium laser, and they generally just are not good.

PPCs go far, deal as much damage as an AC10, have better range, and give a bunch of heat. They give you 10 heat, by far the most in the era.

Machine Guns, ACs and missiles require ammunition to fire them, and that ammo can explode dangerously. They can also run out of ammo. Energy weapons (lasers, flamer, PPC) do not require ammo, but they make more heat, which requires more heat sinks to compensate.

There are some variable payloads. SRMs can be equipped with Inferno ammo instead of normal ammo, and it will deal 2 more heat per missile to the target for three turns. That’s pretty nifty. You just saw the brand new Listen-Kill missiles for LRM and SRM launchers for this War.

You can also equip a hatchet, which is a close range weapon that allows you to do kick damage. It used to only do it on the punch table, which gave you a 1 in 6 chance of hitting the head, but I see that is no longeer the case, which makes them much less useful. Only the Hatchetman uses these.

Mechs have heat sinks. The engine holds 10 heat sinks automatically, and you have to add more if you want them. Each one dissipates one point of heat. Standing in fire makes heat. Jumping makes one heat per hex jumped. Walking makes one, running two. Firing weapons is your main source of heat on a non-jumping mech.

You can equip a mech with jump jets, and each one gives it one jumping move. As mechs get heavier, so too do jump jets. On a 20 ton mech, they are only half ton each, but on a 100 ton mech, they are 2 tons each.

And that it in 3025 world.

[Abe Sargent]

However, we are about to encounter Star League era LosTech. Let’s look at what we are going to run into:

Pulse Lasers - Small, Medium and Large lasers can also come in pulse varieties that fires lasers in small bursts instead of in one blast. This makes a bit more heat, and cuts down the range, but it increases damage a bit in many cases, and it also makes the weapon more accurate. They are the most accurate weapon in LosTech world.

ER Large Laser - Only the Large Laser has had ER technology perfected. This Extended Range weapon makes a bunch more heat for no additional damage, but the range is much farther.

ER PPC - The Extended Range PPC makes a heavy 15 heat, and does no more damage, but it can hit from much farther away.

SRM-2 Streak - This missile system uses a small guiding laser to lock onto opposing foes. Once it does, it launches, and all of the SRMs fire and follow the lock. This means all of the missiles hit the same location. They do not fire, if you do not get a lock. So you do not waste ammo or make heat unless you are going to hit, and this makes them very nice. Only SRM2s have streak technology. Alternate payloads are not compatible with the SRM2 Streak.

Gauss Rifle - Meet the new king of the hill as far as weapons go. 15 damage at a very long range for virtually no heat at all, and its ammunition doesn’t even explode. This rifle uses magnetic acceleration to fire a ferrous-nickel slug as a foe at high velocity. The rifle itself is quite heavy and if it is hit, you take 20 damage, but you can often survive that, you are not surviving an ammo explosion. (see CASE below for exception)

AC5 Ultra - This tries to fire twice the number of shells as a normal AC5, but it sometimes jams, and its burns through ammo twice as fast. When you hit with it, you roll to see if you hit once or twice, and you will deal 5 damage or one spot, or 5 damage rolled twice. Only the AC5 is available in Ultra form.

LB10-X Autocannon - Another classic. This is just like an AC10 and you can use normal AC10 ammo and it will fire like an AC10. You can also take and fire cluster rounds. These rounds are like shotgun fire, and when you hit, you roll to see how many of them hit, up to 10. You won’t normally hit with that many. However, each hit goes to a separate location. The LB 10 X is not available in other sizes. It is a bit easier to hit with cluster rounds. The LBX technology is the only technology around that combines a weapon that punches holes, like a Gauss, PPC, Large Laser, AC20 or 10: with a weapon that can find holes, like a SRM or LRM. This gives you a lot of versatility.

There are new payloads. Thunder LRM ammo creates a minefield where it hits, and cannot be fired at mechs. Swarm LRM ammo will fire all missiles that missed one target at adjacent targets, and so forth, until all adjacent targets have been hit, or you run out of missiles.

There is also a lot of equipment that was lost, and now comes back:

Artemis IV FCS - This Fire Control System is linked to one SRM or LRM launcher and increases the number of missiles that hit when you hit. It’s great for bigger missile systems like LRM 15 or 20. It weighs a ton. You have to have one for each missile system. Streaks do not work with it.

CASE - This weighs half a ton and is assigned to either the right or left torso (or both). An ammo explosion that is in that section will blows out instead of in, keeping the mech alive. It will still get shutdown with an XL engine though, but even then, no destruction. It is an essential in every mech with ammo, in my opinion, from here on out.

Beagle Active Probe: This probe actively scans for anything within four hexes. It can find hidden units, and it is great in think jungles or urban fighting.

Guardian ECM - This is one of my favorites. It shuts down anything that passes within six hexes of it, such as Artemis, Beagles, Narcs, Streaks, Listen-Kill missiles and TAG. As more and more complex things are introduced, remember that the ECM shuts them all down.

Narc Missile Beacon - This fires a beacon that attaches to the target mech and acts like Artemis IV for all mechs firing at it with Narc equipped missiles on your side. It requires ammunition and takes up a lot of space between itself and the ammo. It does not work with Artemis IV, Streak, Swarm or Thunder missiles.

TAG - This guidance system paints a target and then keeps it there in order to guide artillery to the target. When used in conjunction with artillery, it can bring a lot of hurt.

Anti-Missile System - Basically a point-blank machine gun that uses complex circuitry to shoot down missiles before thy hit you. If you want to use it, do so, roll to use up ammo, roll to see how many missiles are knocked down, and then they roll to attack you with fewer missiles. You can only use it once per turn, it uses ammo like a pig in heat, and you can only use it on one flight of missiles before the to-hit roll is made, so you don’t even know if they are going to hit or not. As such, this is not a piece of equipment you will ever see me liking.


It also reintroduced a few new ways to build mechs:

Double Heat Sinks - Taking up three criticals each and dealing with double the heat, these freezers are a godsend to 3025’s biggest problem - heat.


Ferro-Fibrous Armor - This takes up 14 criticals in the torso but allows you to get about 12% more armor. You can’t have anymore armor than normal, but the amount of weight you need to maximize your armor reduces.

Endo Steel - This reduces, by half, the weight of your internal structure but takes away 14 crits.

XL Engine - This is the other big one, besides 2x HS. These engines weigh half as much, allowing you to have some fast mechs, or a lot of weapons space in mechs that go 3025 speed. However, three critical spaces are taken up in each of the Left and Right torso. Remember that three engine hits forces a mech to shut down, so if an RT or LT is destroyed, a mech with an XL engine will shut down. This makes XL mechs much less survivable once they start taking hits, but they can massively increase speed, armor and/or weapons and equipment.

MASC - Myomer Acceleration Signal Circuitry allows a mech to walk at double their normal walking movement. So a mech that might normally move at 5/8 can now move 5(10)/8 if it has MASC. However, the more you use it, the more likely it is to freeze and your legs will stop working. The first time, it only fails on a 2. Then each subsequent turn it is used that number increase to 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. This has weight based on the mech. Obviously, the faster your speed, the more you get from MASC. A mech that is 3/5 doesn’t nearly as much from MASC as a mech that is 6/9.


And there we are. That is all LosTech. As we begin to fight mechs with pulse lasers, ER PPCs, ECM suites and more, I want you to know what it is and what it does, and I may even take some of it for myself and add it to our mechs to make them LosTech equipped.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, here we go.


July 16, 3039 - The two Ghost regiments make landing far away on Breed and the DropShips, unusually, head immediately back up and move to the JumpShip, stranding the Ghosts here. Odd.

July 17, 3039 - We are under the command of General Conroy Baden-Powell. A descendent of the guy who founded the Boy Scouts? No clue. The Ghosts strike a small city and fade before anyone can answer.

July 18, 3039 - They do another hit and fade to a minor military base and deal some damage to the militia stationed there. Later that day, another regiment hits a small factory and absconds with some materiel.

July 19, 3039 - Their DropShips arrive back to the JumpShips, and do not appear to be leaving the system. No attacks today.

July 20, 3039 - Their DropShips are burning back towards Breed, even faster than before. A raid on a city by the Ghosts. General Conroy Baden-Powell is done with this. He convenes a meeting of Ted Izumo, himself, and the CO and XO of both the NAIS Cadre and the 2nd Rangers. He orders an offensive campaign against the Ghosts. By now, the large number of older mechs, some that haven’t been made in centuries, has been noticed. The guess is that the Dragon found one or more Brian Caches from the Star League and added recovered mechs to their registry. We split up our forces to a variety of areas across Breed in order to be able to respond to calls immediately.

July 22, 3039 - The 2nd Rangers sends a battalion at the Ghosts immediately after they are declared attacking a small industry on top of a plateau. The battalion is able to respond and holds them until more forces arrive. Two of our companies, Delta and Cinq, are nearby, and arrive after battle has been enjoined. Also a regiment of troops and tanks form the militia was close too, so they also arrive.

Battle begins, as our two companies approach from virtually opposite ends.

[Abe Sargent]

We get near a company and they turn to meet us.


Delta Company vs. the Ghosts


Their mechs:

Lancelot
Champion
Guillotine 4L
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Hermes
Wasp 1K
Awesome 8T
Thorn
Sentinel 3M
Griffin
Battle Master 2C *********
Stinger 3G


Shit! I rolled, and I am not kidding, a super super super super rare mech in the opposing company. When I roll a BattleMaster for a Ghost or Rykoen company, I roll a 1d6, and on a 6, it is a uber-BattleMaster, and I got one in the first company. A handful of Star League BattleMasters held a second cockpit, which could be used by the battle commander to direct his forces while someone else pilots the mech, and can switch back in if needed.

It’s super rare. Only a handful of these were accidentally given to the Kurita forces. It also has super rare sensors from the Star League era. This is a treasure. If I can take it out and retrieve it will be party time for the Kilts and Commandoes. The only major areas are in the head (second cockpit and sensors). I have to get its head. Because of how rare it is, I can only assume that the pilot is elite because a CO of a battalion is in it. Luckily, Delta Company is the heavy metal company, still fielding a Charger and extra BattleMaster after their mechs were destroyed.

The Lancelot is a 60 ton mech with 2 large lasers, a PPC, double heat sinks and an XL engine. This is the original Champion, not the one we already have. It has Ferro-Fib armor, an LB10X, SRM6 with Artemis IV, two medium and two small lasers. The Hermes is also rare, with Ferro-Fib armor, Endo Steel, a ton of speed at 9/14, two medium lasers and a flamer. The Thorn is a 20 ton 2750 era mech with Endo and CASE, LRM5, two medium lasers. This Sentinel has an Ultra AC5, SRM2, medium laser, and is not largely armored.

Okay, the Guillotine is normally a 2750 heavy mech, but this is a downtick version with out LosTech on it, just 22 heat sinks, a ton of armor and large laser, srm6, and 4 medium lasers.

The Wasp variant has a MG instead of SRM2 and adds more armor. The 8T Awesome drops the PPCs for two large lasers and 2 LRM15s. I like it better, actually. The P Hawk 1K has more heat sinks and no ammo Mgs, just large laser, 2 mediums and a small. The Stinger variant drops the two machine guns for a second medium laser and much more armor. I like it too.


The result is 6 LosTech mechs, and many solid variants of mechs - a good Stinger, good Awesome, good Phoenix Hawk, meh Wasp, and the always solid Griffin plus a Guillotine. This is two assaults, three heavies, three lights and four mediums.

Alright, here we go.


This is the Lancelot we are facing. It’s a solid, fast, high weapon mech. However, the XL engine is a severe weakness.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/diagrams/lancelot.gif

[Abe Sargent]

Due to their BattleMaster, they get +2 to their initiative roll each round.


Okay, here we go.

We being to position ourselves and then fire. Our Listen-Kill missiles appear to not be working against the Ghosts. We concentrate our long range fire on the 2C BattleMaster. It uses it’s Anti-Missile system on our Crusader’s missiles. It looks like it engaged after it was hit, so perhaps the new rules make the AMS better. Their BattleMaster does not fall.

More fire in the second round on their 2C. He uses the Anti-Missile System again against an LRM 15 from our Crusader after it hit, so I think the rule on that was changed for sure. It stays standing.

Round 3 is here. I continue to advance our heavier mechs up the middle of the area to pressure the Dracs. Our Black Knight hits their Battlemaster’s ER PPC. It still stays standing. Our BattleMaster also took some damage and remains upright.

I hop our Spider up to their Guillotine. I charge the Charger right up next to their 2C. Our Crusader destroys the 2C’s Right Arm, destroying the ER PPC. Then the Catapult hits and destroys its LA, gets a critical on the LT, and hit’s the Anti-Missle System. The Pilot automatically ejects from the ammo explosion, but the ammo only deals 20 damage because most of the ammo was used. The LT takes most of it, but it is not even destroyed. Result, a dead 2C without either LA or RA. Our Javelin hits their Lancelot’s foot actuator. Their P Hawk destroys the LA of our Spider. Their Lancelot falls.


Round 5 is here, and we have taken out their 2C with their best mech, pilot, leader and are ready to keep rocking this. The injured Spider hops away. Our Charger runs behind the back of the injured Lancelot. Our Cat hits two more leg actuators on their Lancelot. Our Charger hit’s a large laser and a fourth leg actuator. It falls and hit’s a hip actuator. Their Awesome falls under some damage. I am going to kick with my Charger, but this could be very bad. We destroyed its LL. Good, I was hoping for a leg kill, or some serious damage to the CT, and not something worse.

Round 6 and we win initiative for the first time. Get this, I just looked at the Lancelot and this is rare. I’ve never even seen it before. One leg is destroyed and the other has all four actuators hit, meaning it can’t move, and it is salvageable. I’ve never gotten a salvage of that before. They lit on fire the forest our Awesome was standing on, so time to move it. Also, our Charger is down on armor. Their Awesome arises. Our Warhammer shears into their Awesome’s head with a PPC but does not get a critical. It falls down again.

The Awesome again stands. Their Champion falls. That’s it.

Their Awesome falls after trying to move backwards over an elevation change. Our Crusader destroys the RT of their Champion. Our Wasp destroys its LA. Our BattleMaster hits their Awesome’s head and it is destroyed, after hitting an LRM15 twice. Their Hermes hit’s a hip actuator on our Charger with a kick and yet we manage to stay standing

The next round arrives again. Our banshee hits two engines on their Champion. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Sentinel. Another actuaotr hit on our Charger. Our Warhammer destroys the Champion’s CT. Our BattleMaster hit’s the AC ammo in the sentinel and it lights up. Our BM falls and hit’s a hand actuator.


And at that, our foes begin to fade away. They have left a Thorn, Guillotine, Wasp, Stinger, Hermes and Griffin and Phoenix Hawk. They lost a Lancelot, Awesome, battle master, Sentinel and Champion. That’s two assaults, two heavies and a medium. We took out the strength of their company and thus away they go.

We’ll need about 50 tons of armor for this one.

Salvage:

BattleMaster 2C minus LT, RT
Lancelot without LL and with Large Laser and 4 leg actuators hit
Awesome 8T, without head, 2 LRM15 hits, engine hit
Champion RA, H, RL, LL, LT
Sentinel RA, RT, H




Repair:

Spider missing LA
Charger, hip and foot actuator.
Battle Master - hand actuator

Cristina Fernandez, BattleMaster pilot, is now elite.
Clyde Naller, Warhammer pilot, gains Gunnery: laser



End of Mission 1

[law90026]

Cool campaign.

This was actually one of my favourite eras in Btech (the other being when the IS finally took the fight back to the Clans).

[Abe Sargent]

Yeha, I was so happy to see LosTech especialy since I just scored a BattleMaster 2C. I already have a plan for it.

[Abe Sargent]

Cinq Company meets stiffer resistance, and runs into 16 mechs, a reinforced company. Here are their foes.

Lancelot
Crab 20
Guillotine 4L
Hatamato-Mizo
Phoenix Hawk 1k x2
Jenner
Stalker 4N
Shadow Hawk 2K
Locust 3V
Kintaro 18
Wolverine 6K
Jenner 7F
Wolverine 6R
Grand Dragon
Thug 10E

This is such a 3039 Kurita unit, it’s like I rolled almost perfectly. A Hatamato, two Jenners, a Grand Dragon, several older mechs with low tech in the Thug, Guillotine, Crab and Thug, and thn the old school Lancelot, plus your normal P Hawks, S Hawk, Stalker, Locust, two Wolverines. Man, if I had rolled a Panther, this would be perfect.


Oh, I will be creating my own unit sheet for the Ghost and Ryoken units, because this one is too old and has problems. For example, no Daboku, no Shootist, etc. There are missing mechs and after this, I will create my own roll sheet, and let you know what it is.

[Abe Sargent]

Hell, let’s just do it now:


Light Mechs:

Thorn
Hussar
Mercury
Hermes
Mongoose

These are the only five light mechs in the 3039 sourcebook you can roll

Medium Mechs:

Crab 20 *
Kintaro 20
Sentinel 3M
Sentinel 3K *
Wyvern

Since two of these mechs are the same, this is a really small category too. * represent old tech mechs that had new tech stripped off. They are also found on the regular mech rolling chart. You can geta Crab 20 with a 2 on medium mechs, for example.


Heavy:

Flashman
Guillotine 3N
Guillotine 4L *
Exterminator
Dragon 5N
Lancelot
Champion
Black Knight

7 mechs, with two low tech in here.

Assault:

Hatamato Hi, Chi, Kaze, Ku, Mizo
Mauler
King Crab
Highlander
Charger 1A9 *
Katana
Thug

7 mechs here. The Mauler did not exist at this time, instead the Daboku was the mech that the Mauler was later based on when the Daboku had some design problems unveiled in the War of 3039. It was a lot more common than a roll of 12 too. There are seven mechs here, including one low-tech variant. The Charger 1A9 should be in the normal chart, not here, it’s just a variant of an existing mech, not LosTech.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, here are the additions needed:

Light:

Add Jackrabbit, Firebee, Talon, Toro


Medium:

Replace low tech Crab 20 with high tech, which simply has ferro-fib armor. Nothing says that the Com Guards stripped the old armor off the chassis and replaced it with new ones, a highly expensive switch.
Add Kyudo, Gladiator, Icarus II, Phoenix



Heavy:

Add Bombardier, which is a severe oversight since it’s in the 2750 TRO and not on the list.
Add Cestus, Excalibur, Shootist, Galahad, Hammerhands, Koschei, Crossbow
Pull the low-tech Guillotine



Assaults:


Pull Charger and Mauler.

Add Doboku, Xanthos, Ymir



These older Star League era mechs were produced in huge numbers, and suggest that ComStar has them in its caches, which in turn, would likely have fallen into Kurita hands. We are still missing a lot. Do you know that all of the Star League era mechs that are in 3025/3050 era we have no schematics for from the Star League? We still have never seen what the original Ostroc looked like. The original Crusader. The original Stinger, we just know everything from 3025 on in. Would it not make sense for some of these mechs to be in the ComStar caches and given away? Which would you rather give away, an original Griffin where there are a ton of Griffins in the Inner Sphere, or an original Lancelet when there are virtually no Lancelots in the Inner Sphere? I would love to see a Star League TRO that just has the original schematics for many of these mechs, like the Chameleon, Striker, Shadow Hawk, Scorpion, and more.

Some of them may have the same payload. The comments made about a couple of them in other areas make it seem like some were the earliest designs, before LosTech happened, but how about seeing the original changes based on new technology in the Star League? That would be cool.

One of the problems with he 3039 sourcebook is that, although it was written just a few years ago, they didn’t use it as an opportunity to streamline history. Over the years, they continue to flesh out the past, and in doing so, add more info that could have been used in the present. Take the Talon. This SLDF light mech was introduced in the 3058 TRO long ago, and in it is said that the Star League use to have hundreds of these. It would make scout lances of three Talons and one Mongoose. There were three Talons to every Mongoose. Mongoose are in the list of mechs in 3039 that ComStar gave Kurita, so why not Talons. Which existed in greater number? Because the Mongoose was in the 2750 TRO and was mentioned, but not the Talons.

They say that the Mauler 1R, with the 2 ER Large Lasers, 4 AC2s, and 2 LRM15s, XL engine and ferro fib armor, was in the thing according to the War of 3039 sourcebook, but in the 3039 TRO itself, it says that the Daboku was in the War. The Daboku had 2 large lasers, 4 AC2, regular engine, 2 LRM10s, and CASE. In fact, the Mauler description says that it was first seen in 3050, not the War of 3039, so why would the recently printed 3039 sourcebook have them on the list? Seems silly.

So I will make my own list.

[Abe Sargent]

Back to the game. Here are the mechs we are fighting again:

Lancelot
Crab 20
Guillotine 4L
Hatamato-Mizo
Phoenix Hawk 1k x2
Jenner
Stalker 4N
Shadow Hawk 2K
Locust 3V
Kintaro 18
Wolverine 6K
Jenner 7F
Wolverine 6R
Grand Dragon
Thug 10E

As you can see, the well-equipped Kuritans typically have the best variants of regular mechs, and we are encountering them in large numbers. Just three lights in 16 mechs. Ugh.


The Hatamato-Mizo is one of several variants of the Hatamato-Chi. The Mizo has two PPCs and one ER Large Laser. That’s it. It has max armor for a 80 ton mech, endo steel chassis, and just 22 heat sinks, which means it can’t even come close to dissipating the heat it makes from firing all three of its weapons simultaneously. They are all long range too, which means it’s just a poorly designed mech. They should have given it 19/38 double heat sinks, and then added 3 medium lasers for up close defense.

Here is the Hatamato mech design for all variants. I like this pic, by the way.

http://www.solaris7.com/images/TRO/BattleMechs/TRO3039/Hatamoto-Chi%203039.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s get to playing. I move my mechs out slowly. I fire our long range energy weapons at their Grand Dragon. Our Awesome falls and hits its head under some damage.

Our Awesome stands up. I try to set some of the hexes they are hiding behind on fire. We catch two on fire.

I slice into their Dragon and Wolverine, they moistly miss us.

Our Awesome falls down twice, once when trying got walk up a hill backwards and once when trying to get up from that. Stupid mech. I manage to set another set of woods on fire. Our Awesome is hammered and our Zeus unloads into their G Dragon.

We fail twice more to stand up the Awesome. That’s four failures when all that was needed was a fricking 5 on 2d6. Damn it. I move our BattleMaster towards their Grand Dargon but behind a screen of trees from everyone else. We take targets of opportunity and they retreat with their G Dragon.

Wow, I actually stand up the Awesome and run with it away. More trgets of opportunity.

Our Awesome finally makes it to heavy woods and will snipe from here after losing a bunch of external armor. This has become a long range battle, where they move mechs in and out, and we are not charging their good defensive position, and vice versa. We set another fire.

Round 8 is here, and this is really slow. Our BAttleMaster’s PPC HIt’s the Grand Dragon in the head and it is down for the count. Our Vulvan kicks a Locust, hit’s a hip actuator, and knocks it down.

Great, we are on the 9th turn and still practically nothing has been done. They stood their Locust back up. Our Awesome destroys their Locusts LT and LA. The Vulcan destroys its CT and it dies. Well, we are picking it up now.

We run our BattleMaster behind one of their Wolverines. The BattleMaster lasers the Wolvie’s head once, and goes critical in a few places, but no results.

Welcome to round f’in 11. They get a through armor critical on our Zeus and hit the LRM ammo, but there were only two shots left My Mechwarrior ejects, and the LT is destroyed, but the CT is wounded but stable, so I lost ht emech for this battle, but it is still around, as is my MechWarrior.

Rnd 12 is here. They expose a few light mechs so I run my Hunchback out of seclusion and hope to take advantage. Our battleMaster kicks and destroys the LL of their JR7-F Jenner.

They brought their Guillotine out. I run our Hunchy next to one of their wounded Wolvies. Our Awesome destroys the LT of their Wolvie 6K. Our Griffin destroys its RT. Their Jenner and Wolvie fall, as does our Crusader.

Here comes Round 14. Our Crusader tries to stand, fails, and then finally gets up. Our Awesome hits and destroys their Lancelot in the head. That’s got to piss them off. Their Guillotine falls after taking damage. Our BattleMaster kicks and destroys the LT of their Jenner 7F. It falls again.

Here comes round 15. Their Guillotine stands. Our Hunchback hits their regular Jenner in the CT with its AC20 and destroys it. Dead mech. We rolled an 11 and that section is recoverable, so now let me rool for the gyro and engine. Both are repairbale. It’ll take a while. One of their Wolvies hit’s the PPC on our BattleMaster. Our Hunchy kicks and destroys the RL of their JR7-F variant, taking out its second leg and making it immobile, and the pilot blacks out too.

Round 16 is here, and we are starting to get the momentum. They withdraw, and frankly, we let them. We took out two Jenners, a 2750 with LosTech Lancelot, a Grand Dragon, and a Locust, and many of their mechs were savaged like both Wolvies, Guillotine, and more, so they leave.


Salvage:

Grand Dragon missing H
Lancelot missing H.
Locust H, RT, RA, LL, RL
Wolverine 6k LA, RA
Jenner normal variant will take a month to repair
Jenner 7F missing RL, LL, LT, LA
Jenner LA



Repair:

Zeus missing LT, engine hit once
BattleMaster two hits on PPC.


We will need about 50 tons of armor for our peops.


That one took forever. I have some pilots who leveled.

Lt. Mika Motone now has Edge:1
Sgt. Ian Hall now has Edge: 1


End of Mission 2

[Abe Sargent]

The battle is a draw as both side retreat. There were some that were losses, some that there wins, and many that were like our last mission, where just a bit of long-range fire was exchanged, and then both groups retreated. So both sides withdraw and the first battle between the forces of Breed and the Ghosts was a draw.




July 24, 3039 - After a small amount of downtime, another regiment of Ghosts hit’s an industrial town. While our units nearby are engaged there, more DropShips land outside of an area that was guarded by another Ghost regiment, and take off again in a few hours, once again burning for the JumpShips.

Only one of our companies is near the Ghosts this time. A regiment of conventional arms are in the city and they delay the Ghosts until we and the NAIS arrive. Who will be fighting? Hex Company.

Hex Company arrives as a battalion of NAIS Training Cadre plus the conventional regiment have joined forces and are currently in a stalemate. It is hoped that our 12 mechs hitting them in their rear will pull away enough of their defenses that the tide will turn in our favor. They understand this too, and only split off 7 mechs to fight us, keeping the majority of their forces trained on their far more important foes. But wait until you see these mechs:

Here is who Hex Company is fighting. Using new rolling charts.

Thug
Koschei
Charger 1A9
Grand Dragon
Orion ON1-K
Panther
Marauder


That’s a very heavy group of foes.

It case you are not familiar with it, here is the 4L Koschei:

65 tons, 5/8 movement, 12 tons of armor, Endo chassis, 2x Heat sinks, LRM15, Large Pulse Laser, Medium Pulse Laser, Artemis for the LRM15. That is a very respectable mech for the era. Debuting in 2504, the Koschei was one of the key mechs for the Capellan Confederation for a century, but as technology imporves, and mech design got better, it lagged behind, and after a century, this updated 4L was introduced and put the Koschei back of the map.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/b6/Koschei.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Will they be able to stand up against Ted’s Hex Company. I guess we’ll find out. They are arrogant to just sent out 7 foes, even if two have LosTech and two assaults and four heavies among them. However, Hex Company has just two assaults and one is a sucky Banshee, and two heavies. This might be the one company of ours this is a good strategy against.

As a reminder, here is our company: Stalker, Banshee, Grand Dragon, Orion 1-K, Phoenix Hawk, Kintaro 18, Vindicator, Whitworth, Enforcer, Commando, low tech Thorn, Spider. The interesting thing about this company is that almost every mech has a long range weapon, except for Commando and Spider.


Just a bunch of misses and setting up in the first round.

We pepper their LosTech Thug and it falls. We are advancing their position rapidly, because I think we have the weapons to end this quickly.

The 3rd turn is here. Their Thug stands up. We hammer their Thug badly, going internal in two places, and it falls again. We got a Limb Bowl Off critical on its RL and it is off and on the ground. It has just three internal structure left in its LT. That’s how close we came to savaging it more.

Their Thug faisl to stand so I run our Orion up to it. I hop our Spider behind their Orion. We concentrate our fire on their Marauder and it falls. Our Enforcer misses a kick and falls, and their Orion is kicked by our Spider, and falls.

Our Enforcer gets up and runs into woods. Just an exchange to fire this turn.

I get the Phoenix Hawk behind their Koschei. In trying to stand, their Thug destroys its LT when it falls back down. Our Grand Dragon destroys their Marauders LA. Two edge are used when critical rolls hit SRM ammo on Ted’s mech, but he has two edge left still. His SRM6 is hit instead. I rarely choose to punch over a kick, but I decide to pu nch the Marauder with my Grand Dragon because I;m behind it, and if I hit the RTR, iI go internal, and any critical is guaranteed to hit the AC% ammo, and I’ve taken all oarmor of its CTR, so I can also hit that, so I punch. I hit its head, go internal, get one criticla, hit the cockpit, and the Marauder falls ot the ground, with H still there, but a dead pilot. Our P Hawk falls after missing a kick.

Their Thug tries standing, falls down, and the pilot blacks out. Our P Hawk getsup and runs away. Our Stalker hits their Orion’s gyro. Our Kintaro hits its engine. Our Banshee destroys the Koschei’s RA and our Whitworth it’s RT> Our Commando takes out its LA, and then hits ammo and it explodes. Both our Grand Dragon and their Orion tumble.

And with the dead Koschei, they begin to fade back into their unit. Missiles from their long range mechs keep us away from pushing in.


We win need 30 tons of armor

Salvage:

Thug RL, LA
Marauder without LA and with cockpit hit on H.
Koschei LL




Repair:

Stalker’s SRM6


End of Mission 3

[Abe Sargent]

Once again, this battle is a stalemate, with both sides withdrawing after more fire exchange.

July 27, 3039 - The General is quite upset that we haven’t had a victory yet, and he orders units at three high profile targets sneaking in and hiding, in case they try and strike at any of them. Intel says that there are now three regiments on planet.

July 28, 3039 - The Hebroun Military Complex, one of the three priority targets, is being attacked by the Ghosts, in order to get some materiel. Our forces have some conventional forces there, and the entire 2nd Rangers are in the area, and can pop out at any time. Instead, we are ordered to surround the Complex with a big distance, and form a giant ring in order to trap the Ghosts inside.

Ted sends a message after getting these orders. “Wait a second, despite overwhelming numbers in our favor, you want us to split our forces up, and then thin them, so they can strike with strength wherever they want?” General Baden-Powell’s attachee affirms this, and points out that many of Breeds conventional forces will be joining us in the ring.

So we do what we are told, and our six companies are all right by each other. Normally, you might expect the Ghosts to attack us, because we are mercenaries after all, but we are also the one that have been beating them in three engagements, so they pick on the green NAIS Cadre. Just as Ted Izumo predicted, their entire regiment of forces hit’s the spread out NAIS Cadre, and the conventional forces are not enough, they are slaughtering them. All of our troops are ordered in to hit them from the sides and rear, like a trap, but Ted has concerns that the Ghosts can break through long before we get there.

In fact, that does not happen. The Ghosts choose to stay after bruising the NAIS, and we are approaching, along with conventional forces and the Rangers. However, from our rear, another Ghost regiment pops up and dashes towards our forces. In other words, they have us caught, when we were supposed to catch them. Now, the first Ghost Regiment is not trying to leave, they are the anvil that the second Ghost Regiment intends to smash our allies and us against. Quick thinking is needed here.

Ted orders two companies to hold our position, and the other four to charge the anvil - the first Ghost regiment here. We need to break out of the trap, and the new regiment has not been in battle, and thus has not been damaged, low on ammo, etc. Hex, Vehicle, Delta and Cinq companies charge, which Trinity and Phaeton hold the line, along with other forces turning to face the new threat.

With a battalion of mechs and a company of vehicles bearing down on their anvil, they are forced to send many of their troops against us. We need to smash them in the mouth. However they make an odd choice. Realizing that we are the best troops on Breed on our side, instead of dispatching a Battalion to deal with us, they leave a Battalion back against the NAIS and conventional forces, and move the remnants of two battalions against us. Now, it looks like they have suffered some losses. A quick guess is we have about 50 to 55 mechs bearing down on us, when two battalions is normally 72 mechs.

Ted orders our units to split up, and sees how they respond. He combines the vehicle and Hex company in the middle, while Cinq and Delta split off one to each side. How will they respond?

They Ghosts send two companies each way. Due to damage dealt, this is around 17-20 mechs each prong. Alright, here we go. We will begin with Delta Company.

[Abe Sargent]

Of our companies, Delta is the one most likely to trounce Dracs with a heavy roster. As a reminder, here are Delta’s mechs. Charger 1A1, BattleMaster, Awesome, Banshee, Warhammer, Catapult, Crusader, Black Knight, Spider, Javelin, Hermes II, Wasp.


Here are our foes.

Guillotine 3N
Dragon 5N
Hermes
Excalibur
Mongoose
Bombardier
Griffin
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Trebuchet 7K
Jenner 7F
Shadow Hawk 2K
Jenner 7D x2
Wolverine 6K
Panther
Atlas
Archer 2K
Spider 5k
Thug 10E


The biggest threats are the low tech Thug, Atlas, Archer, Bombardier and high tech Guillotine.

The Excalibur is a rare mech with a Gauss Rifle, LRM 20, Artemis, 5/8 movement on a 70 ton mech, XL engine, Anti-Missile system, 11 heat sinks, CASE for both torsos, and just 120 points of armor (7.5 tons), super light for a 70 ton mech. That is its weakness.

http://sarna.net/wiki/images/a/a7/Excalibur.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

We fixed the actuator damage to our mechs. Phaeton Company had the arm to fix our Spider and it was reattached and it is also ready to go.

Let’s destroy some mechs.

Just maneuvering and long range firing.

We manage to base their Mongoose with our Charger. They get a through armor critical on our Hermes II and hit the AC5. Their Bombardier falls under some serious damage.

Another turn, more movement. I back my forces up this turn, because I like being at medium range for this company. Their Bombardier arises and they run with their Mongoose. Our Wasp loses its RA.

After another turn, their Bombardier is back on the ground, their Shadow hawk’s PPC has been hit making into longer function.

Little bastards outflanked me with their Hermes and got it behind my fire support mechs. Wow, that normally doesn’t happen/. He exposes the Excalibur for the first time and I can get three mechs on it - Warhammer, BattleMaster and Black Knight. They stand that Bombardier again. Their Thug destroys our Hermes II RA. Our Battlemaster gets a limb blown off critical on their Excalibur’s RA. That means this Guass Rifle is just sitting on the ground in the RA waiting for us to win today. Our Wasp and their Wolvie both miss kicks and fall down.

We stand up the Wasp and run it into some woods. Our Banshee hit’s the Excalibur’s RT and hits its Engine three times. Shut down Excalibur. Our Crusader destroys the RT of their Grand Dragon 5N, One of their jenners destroys the RA of our Jav. Their Panther hit’s the gyro and engine of our Jav. Our injured Wasp manages to hit two leg actuators on their Mongoose. A gyro hit on our Hermes II. Our Jav stay standing, the Hermes II and their Mongoose fall. Our gyro hit Jav kicks and destroys the LL of one of their Jenner 7Ds. Our Spider and Jav fall after getting kicked.

Round 7. We stand the gyro hit and injured Hermes II and walk it behind some light trees. Our Spider arises and runs into some smoke. I walk our javelin briskly away after getting it up. Their Mongoose destroys its RL while trying to stand and failing. They expose their Phoenix Hawk and I intend to take advantage of that. Our Battlemaster hits an engine on their P Hawk. It fals and hits its engine a second time. Our Charger’s kick destroys the RT of their wounded Jenner.

Next turn is here. Our BM hit’s a leg actuator on their Shadow Hawk. Their Wolvie destroys our Wasp’s RT and hits an engine. Our Awesome destroys the RT of their P Hawk then hits its engine, and it shus down. Kill by Awesome. The mech is savaged more by the Warhamme rthough, and a bunch more parts are destroyed, ruining our salvage. Our Wasp misses a kick and falls. Our BattleMaster misses a four needed to kick, but stays standing.

Round 9. Their savaged Jenner tries to stand up, falls, and the pilot blacks out. Their Hermes gets stuck in a swamp and I move the Catapult over to it. They have been rotating opponents, and have many savaged ones, Shadow Hawk, Jenner, Grand Dragon, Bombardier, Mongoose. It’s juts hard to take them down. I eject the savaged Wasp. Our Crusader destroys the Dragon’s CT, and it is dead. Our BM’s machine gun hits their Mongoose’s head, and the pilot blacks out. Our Cat kicks and destroys their Hermes LL. Our Charger kicks and destroys the CT of the blacked out normal Jenner and it is done. Their Hermes destroys its RT when it falls.

The next rounds arrives. The previous round was good. Two kills, and we added their Hermes to the list of savaged mechs, plus a blacked out Mongoose pilot is terrific. Their Wolverine pilot blakcs out after an SRM missle from our Crusader hits him in the head. Our Catapult hits their Hermes gyro twice, and that’s a kill. Our Charger’s small laser gets a through armor critical against a barely touched Griffin and hits its LRM ammo and it explodes. Dead mech. It’s engine explodes. The Charger takes 27, Battlemaster 13, Their Mongoose 13, destroys Mongoose LL which kills it, since it now has no legs, another kill for the Charger. Their Wolvie falls. Their Mongoose pilot wakes up.

We hit an SRM6 on their Wolvie, and SRM4 on their Thug. Our BM gets a limb blown off critical for their S Hawks LL and destroys its RA. Our Charger kicks and destroys the RL of their Spider. Their Wolvie pilot awakens.

Round 12 is here. We are out of LRM ammo for the Cat and start to move it up. Their Shadow Hawk tried to rise, fell, and the pilot blacked out. Our ‘HAmmer’s PPC takes out the LA of a Jenner. 7D. Our B Knight takes out the RA. Our BM hit’s the ammo on their Wolvie and it ignites. Our Banshee punches the head right off their Jenner 7D. Our Charger kicks and destroys the RA, RT, and one gyron hit after a kick on their Spider.

And with that, they fade. I was hoping for a Bombardier or Thug, but them’s the brakes. We’ll take it

This will take about 60 tons of armor, all o my big guys were in the yellow armor wise severely except my Crusader.




Salvage:


Excalibur missing RA, 3 engine hits
Excalibur RA
Grand Dragon 5N H, LL, RL, RA, LA, LT
Jenner RA
P Hawk RA, LA
Phoenix Hawk missing RA, RT, LL, LT
Jenner H, LT, LL
2750 Hermes RA
2750 Hermes missing RT, RA, LL with 2 gyro hits
Griffin RA, H, RL
Mongoose w/o LL, RL
Shadow Hawk LL
Wolverine RA
Jenner w.o RA, LA, H
Shadow hawk missing RA, LL

Repair:

Hermes II AC5, RA, gyro
Wasp RA, RT, engine
Javelin RA, gyro and engine hit.

I have a few promotions.

Estelle Galverson, in Crusader, gets Edge: 1
Adrick Lee, in Charger, gets Melee Specialist
Lt Miguel Juarez, Edge: 1


End of Mission 4

[Abe Sargent]

The Ghosts nearing Cinq company suddenly turn and head back quickly. With that sort of speed, we are unable to catch up. That leaves only the thrust at both Hex Company and Vehicle Company.


This will be the first time, ever, that Vehicle Company will be in combat. They will fight alongside Hex Company.

As a reminder, here is Vehicle Company:


Schrek PPC Carrier - Lt Sun Xiang
Vedette Medium Tank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Scorpion Light Tank
Striker Light Tank
Hunter Light Support Tank x2
Partisan Heavy Tank
Bulldog Medium Tank
Galleon Light Tank
Goblin Medium Tank
Pike Support Vehicle

The experience ranges from Green to Elite.


Here is Lt Sun Xiang’s Schrek. This assault tank carries a powerful barrage of three PPCs, the same deadly force an Awesome has.

http://www.camospecs.com/images/schemes/24_Cold_Spike_10th_Deneb_Schrek_PPC_Carrier1.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Ghosts:

2750 Thorn
2750 Highlander
Katana
2750 Exterminator
Talon

Spider 5K
Charger 1A9
Stinger
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Wasp 1K
Marauder
Archer 2K
Hunchback
Jenner
Cyclops
Wolverine
Warhammer 6K
Longbow 7Q
Locust 3V
Wasp

That’s 20 mechs barreling down on our position. The 7Q variant has more armor and less speed.

Now let’s talk for a second. If the Battlemaster 2C was rare, the Exterminator is uber-massively-massive-rare. It is something completely out there. Exterminator’s were built to kill opposing CO’s. They were designed to hunt them down, and destroy them. They were very effective, and so they were killed very quickly. They had the best stealth system the Star League could make, and they were still killed. They have not been seen on a battlefield in over a hundred years. However, it is a fact that ComStar kept a lot of Star League mechs hidden away, and not being used. They had Exterminators, and they had enough to give a few to the Draconis Combine, and we are facing one now.

This is a super rare mech. This 65 ton Heavy Mech sports 6/9/6 movement with an XL Engine, 10.5 tons of armor, 2x heat sinks, 4 medium lasers, an LRM10, a small laser, an ant-missile system, and special stealth armor called a Null Signature System. It also has a Chameleon Light Polarization Field.

Here is the Exterminator:

http://www.solaris7.com/files/members/69/Exterminator_3050U.JPG

[Abe Sargent]

The Following Posts have Absolutely no bearing on this dynasty, and are just a fun little project I did in my office for those who know the BTech universe.

[Abe Sargent]

The BattleMech Naming Society now calls to order its first official meeting. First up is to create a Taxonomy of BattleMech Names, in order to facilities the future naming of BattleMechs.


Let us begin. Please note, these lists are not exhaustive, but intended to show the names of mechs commonly used.


A) Myths and Legends and Religions


1). Deities:

Helios, Zeus, Loki, Thor, Hermes, Hercules, Mercury, Atlas, Anubis, Osiris, Vulcan, Apollo, Grim Reaper, Jupiter


2). Monsters:

Griffin, Barghest, Ti Ts’Ang, Grendel, Wyvern, Dragon, Imp, Cerberus, Kraken, Wraith, Cyclops, Rakshasa, Bandersnatch, Spector , Men Shen, Garm, Bishamon, Chimera, Fafnir, Wight, Ymir, Phoenix, Gargoyle, Naga, Phantom, Hellhound, Scylla


3). Characters:

Lancelot, Beowulf, Goliath, Merlin, Black Knight, Galahad, Icarus II, Grendel


4). Word of Blake religious Names

Lightray, Deva, Grigori, Preta, Seraph, Archangel

[Abe Sargent]

B). Animals:


1). Birds:

Goshawk, Battle Hawk, Shadow Hawk, Falcon Hawk, Phoenix Hawk, Night Hawk, Black Hawk, Falcon, Albatross, Raven, Raptor , Thunder Hawk, Black Hawk-KU, Eagle, Crimson Hawk, Warhawk, Stormcrow, Horned Owl, Peregrine, Vapor Eagle, Fire Falcon, Kingfisher, Stooping Hawk, Vulture


2). Insects and Bugs:

Wasp, Hornet, Scorpion, Firefly, Locust, Flea, Cicada, Grasshopper, Mantis, Spider, Tatantula, Firebee, Fire Moth, Glass Spider, Stalking Spider, Fire Scorpion, Stinger


3). Dogs and Cats (and similar animals):

Jackal, War Dog, Panther, Wolverine, Wolfhound, Silver Fox, Lynx, Arctic Fox, Dire Wolf, Timber Wolf, Kit Fox, Ice Ferret, Mist Lynx, Arctic Cheetah, Ebon Jaguar, Shadow Cat, Mongrel, Nova Cat, Cougar, Arctic Wolf, Snow Fox, Pack Hunter, Canis, Arctic Wolf, Savage Coyote, Mad Cat, Rabid Coyote, Ocelot


4). Lizards:

Cobra, Copperhead, Snake, Sun Cobra, Adder, Viper, Black Python, Blood Asp, Komodo, Great Turtle, Chameleon, Battle Cobra,



5). Other:

Crab, King Crab, Salamander, Porcupine, Razorback, Bear Cub, Jackrabbit, Howler, Baboon, Stone Rhino, Grizzly, Kodiak, Piranha, Ursus, Thunder Stallion, Mandrill, Hellion, Burrock, Toro

[Abe Sargent]

C). Groups of People:


1). Ethnic or Cultural:

Highlander, Cossack, Hollander, Huron Warrior, Viking, Dervish, Hussar, Spartan


2). Someone who does something:

Marauder, Stalker, Exterminator, Flashman, Annihilator, Crusader, Sentinel, Hatchetman, Bombardier, Paladin, Gunslinger, Watchman, Enforcer, Firestarter, Pillager, Archer, Mauler, Penetrator, Strider, Sunder, Striker, Starslayer, Shootist, Devastator, Grand Crusader, Vanquisher, Summoner, Hellbringer, Pouncer, Conjurer, Huntman, Thresher, Predator


3). A profession:

Axeman, Sentry, Hitman, Buccaneer, Thug, Linebacker, Hauptmann, Assassin, Commando, Centurion, Hoplite, Falconer, Marshal, Shugenja, Brigand, Legionnaire, Gladiator, Executioner, Matador


4). Label for someone:

Kintaro, Champion, Hunchback, Quickdraw, Caesar, Shogun, Ronin, Avatar, Emperor, Initiate, Yeoman, Black Watch, Patriot, Warlord, Daimyo, Valiant, BattleMaster

[Abe Sargent]

D). Items


1). Close Range Weapons:

Warhammer, No-Dachi, Battleax, Cestus, Naginata, Stiletto, Katana, Aquagladius, Cudgel, Excalibur, Ninja-to, Talon, Blackjack



2). Long Range Weapons:

Javelin, Catapult, Trebuchet, Bombard, Dart, Daikyu, Enfield, Longbow, Dragon Fire, Duan Gung, Crossbow



3). Equipment:

Hammer, Anvil, Guillotine, Hammerhands, Kabuto, Hatamato-Chi

[Abe Sargent]

E). Names


Owens, Clint, Toyama, Victor, Whitworth, Crockett, Mackie, Von Rohrs, Corvis

[Abe Sargent]

F) Weather, Stars, etc

Thunder, Thunderbolt, Tempest, Maelstrom, Nightsky, Tsunami, Nova, Supernova, Icestorm, Red Shift, Sagittaire

[Abe Sargent]

Unclassifiable:


Stealth, Fireball, Venom, Thorn, UrbanMech, JagerMech, Awesome, Jenner, Scarabus, Blitzkrieg, Nexus, Flashfire, , Blue Flame, White Flame, Legacy, Defiance, Black Lanner, Night Gyr

[DataKing]

Interesting list. One correction though...an Ocelot is a type of cat, not a bird.

Edit: You were thinking of an Osprey maybe.

[Abe Sargent]

Moved. I prolly was

[chesapeake]

Some suggested changes:
-In addition to the card game, a blackjack is a small baton used as close range weapon. I think fireball qualifies as a long-range weapon.
-I'd consider BattleMaster to be a name for someone akin to a Champion. A Daimyo certainly is. Valiant can also be used as a noun.
-RedShift and Sagittaire fit in stars.
-Toro is an animal; and that's no bull! Or is it?

[Abe Sargent]

Some suggested changes:
-In addition to the card game, a blackjack is a small baton used as close range weapon. I think fireball qualifies as a long-range weapon.
-I'd consider BattleMaster to be a name for someone akin to a Champion. A Daimyo certainly is. Valiant can also be used as a noun.
-RedShift and Sagittaire fit in stars.
-Toro is an animal; and that's no bull! Or is it?

I make changes - thanks!

I'm leaving Fireball because I'm not sure they are talking about D&D fireball or Flamethower Fireball instead of just a mere explosion Fireball.

[Abe Sargent]

Back to the dynasty already in progress:

Here we go. Battle Value wise, this is ours, but we’ll see. We fixed the Orion and have a dispossessed MW from another company in it.

We are fighting near a lake, and they stupidly jump some mechs in thr water and some fall and one is breached, but I don’t know which one cause I can’t see it. Idiots. Your mechs aren’t invincible. Their Highlander’s Gauss makes our Scorpion Light Tank immobile. Their Marauder destroys the RS of it. Their Katana falls after taking some damage.

I move my main mechs to the central area where a few trees are. Our Schrek destroys the RL and RT of their Thorn. Their Highlander’s Gauss opens up Ted’s Stalker leg and hit’s an actuator. One of our Hunter’s hit’s a hip actuator on their Jenner. Our Stalker and their Thorn both fall.

Our Stalker arises. I hop our Spider by their Exterminator. I hop our Phoenix Hawk by their Charger who is standing by the water, so I can try and push him in. Their Jenner fails to stand. Our Schrek PPC Carrier hit’s the Exterminator in the Head with a PPC and hits its life support. The pilot roll s atwo and BLACKS OUT. Our Partisan destroys their Stingers RA. Out Hetzers gets a rear attack at their Wolverine with its AC20, hit’s the LT and destroys it. Their Marauder destroys Ted’s RT of his Stalker. Their Exterminator falls because ehte pilot has blacked out. In the water it is standing in. The water rushes in through the opened head, floods the head compartment and drowns the unconscious MW. We have killed their Exterminator without it taking any damage at all except a damaged Life Support. We push their Charger into the water, and it falls several levels into depth two water, and takes damage, and then the mech is breached and shuts down.

I can see that the mech that was destroyed early was their Talon. That means they are down a Charger, Talon and Exterminator. We have a savaged Stalker and lost one tank. They have a savaged Thorn, Jenner, Katana and Wolverine. We have nothing damaged beyond the Stalker, but is severely damaged. It can’t even move anymore, so Ted ejects. Our P Hawk was not hit last turn, so I hop it behind the injured Wolverine. Their Thorn tries to stand up, falls down, and destroys its own CT. Tat’s four of their mechs down. Our Schrek PPC Carier hits their Highlander in the head and shears off its head, its falls to the ground. Dang. Two head hits in two turns, both on heavier mechs with 2750 technology. We hit the Katana’s engine once. Their Katana and our Orion both fall. Our Vedette’s movement system is destroyed.

Next turn begins. Our Orion stands. I hop our Spider by their Longbow. Mostly Targets of Opportunity this round. Their Cyclops destroys our Vedette Medium Tank’s RS. It is not recoverable. Our Hetzer hits their Wasp in the LA with an AC20, it destroys it, goes critical on the LT, hit’s the SRm2 ammo stored there, it explodes, and dies. Our Orion hit’s the Katana’s ammo and it explodes. Our Spider pushes their Longbow into the drink. It falls, takes some damage, and breaches just one arm, but gets a bunch of critical hits there.

They keep pressing, so I’ll press back. We taken out their Katana, Highlander, Talon, Charger, Wasp, Exterminator and Thorn. But they are still pushing. At this point, I would call it if I was them. I manage to get our Commando behind their untouched Locust. I hop our Phoenix Hawk by their Archer. Our Bulldog Medium Tank destroys their Stinger’s LA, RT, and CT. Their Hunchy destroys the RA of our P Hawk. Our Whity hits an engine on their P Hawk. Our Banshee falls under the weight of many hits. Our Kintaro destroys the RL of their Locust with a meaty kick. Our Spider destroys the RA of their other Wasp with a kick. Their Wasp falls and it is breached and shuts down.

It looks like they stood their Longbow back up out of the water and back onto dry land. It looks like an LRM20 was damaged in the breach. Our Banshee stands. Their Wolvie falls while moving in water, and it is so savaged that it is breached everywhere. Our Bulldog destroys the RA and LA of their P Hawk. Our Goblins destroys their Locust’s RT. Our Vindicator destroys the Locusts CT. Our Enforcer destroys the P Hawks LL. Our Thorn hits its engine and gyro each once. Our Enforcer kicks it, destroys the RT, and then get two more engine hits on the CT, and it shuts down.



Salvage:

2750 Thorn RA, H, LT, LA, LL
Wolverine LA
Stalker RA
2750 Exterminator with life support damaged
Talon
Charger 1A9
2750 Highlander missing head
Large Laser
Katana RA, LL
Stinger H, LT, LL, RL
Wasp missing RA
Locust RA, LL, LA, H
Phoenix Hawk, missing RT, RA, LA, LL with 3 enigne hits, 1 gyro hit
Wolverine missing LL, LA, LT


Repair:

Scorpion Light Tank, needs armor
Stalker RT, RA
P Hawk RA



It will take about 45 tons of armor to fix us up.


End of Mission 5

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, the naming rules also usually apply to vehicles too. For example:

Ferret
Bulldog
Scimitar
J. Edgar
Von Luckner
Pike
Rommel
Beagle
Gabriel
Lightning
Zephyr
Thor
Demon
Marksman
Magi
Rhino
Puma
Saracen
Warrior
Karnov
Hunter
Pegasus
Saladin
Goblin
Condor
Manticore
Monitor
Demolisher
Partisan
Schrek
Behemoth
Neptune
Centipede
Blizzard
Cavalry
Badger
Peregrine
Yellow Jacket
Bandit
Fulcrum
Typhoon


etc

[Abe Sargent]

And AeroSpace Fighters


Shiva
Sparrowhawk
Trident
Tomahawk
Rapier
Ahab
Hellcat
Corsair
Slayer
Thrush
Cheetah
Stingray
Lucifer
Chippewa

etc.

[Abe Sargent]

We manage to get our salvage taken back while Cinq company rejoins us after their foes fled before battle was enjoined. Delta Company rejoins us, and the four companies see that the Anvil Ghosts are holding their ground against the other forces except the NAIS where they are winning.

The hammer Ghosts, however, are not. They are slashing through the 2nd Rangers. Just before they get to our Phaeton and Trinity companies, we get a call over the radio for a general retreat. With our vehicles and mechs towing salvage we have not yet grabbed, we retreat while Phaeton and Trinity companies cover for us and several of our allies as well.


July 28, 3039 - About a quarter of the NAIS and 2nd Rangers regiments have been lost. That’s about 50 mechs gone from our allies. The Ghosts have had losses, but over all this battle was a victory for them, despite our personal winnings. The Ghots made off with three DropsShips full of materiel, that is thousands of tons of ammo, spare armor, weapons, and more.

July 29, 3039 - Our allies are demoralized and distraught and damaged. General Baden-Powell orders them to leave for Robinson, the capital system of the area.

July 30, 3039 - Our allies leave planet, leaving just us and ten regiments of conventional troops on planet.

August 4, 3039 -After several strikes against us, one regiment of Ghosts leaves Breed. According to intel, that leaves just two left on planet.

August 6, 3039 - General Baden-Powell orders all of his conventional troops to go to the biggest targets, and we are tasked with striking any Ghost raids.

Aug 8, 3039 - Phaeton Company comes across a pair of companies of Ghost mechs, but they immediately withdraw before fire is exchanged. General Baden-Powell orders us not to follow, since it might be a trap.

Aug 9, 3039 - A bold raid against a mining company has Baden-Powell pulling hair out of his head. However, we are still ordered to take this cautiously.

Aug 10, 3039 - Cinq Company is nearby when a raid occurs near a logging complex. Cinq Company investigates and discovers a scout lance of Ghost mechs who zoom away. We do not follow.

[Abe Sargent]

Aug 12 - 3039 - Another raid, this time at a sea port where conventional forces fight against the Ghosts, slowing them down long enough for nearby Trinity Company to protest their appearance. They arrive just as the Ghosts are leaving.



Here are the Trinity mechs, as a reminder, Thunderbolt, Hatchetman, Zeus, Ostsol, Trebuchet, Goliaht, Rifleman, Ostscout, Cicada, P Hawk, Spider.


Just 11 mechs right now.


Here are our foes:

Sentinel
Flashman
Dragon 5N
Doboku

Ostscout
Panther
Griffin
Orion 1K
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Jenner
Charger 1A9
Shadow Hawk K



The Doboku is the other new mech fighting for Kurita is addition to the Hatamato. It is a heavy assault mech with 4 AC2, 2 LRM10, 2 large lasers, CASE for each torso, 3/5 movement, just 12 heat sinks, and just 9.5 tons of armor.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/5/5f/Daboku_3039.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

I want to get something good. I’d love to walk away with one of the new Chargers, or that Flashman. I don’t really want the Doboku. The Ostscout would be nice to get a second of.

Alright here we go.


Fire exchange in the first round.

2nd round is here. Their Shadow Hawk falls when walking backwards over elevation changes. More exchange of fire.

3rd round. We manage our Hatchetman behind their Flashman. We hammer their Flashman but fail to go intrenal nor to knock it down. Our Cicada punches their Flashamn and hits an engine, nbut the Hatchetman misses the 4 he needed to hatchet it. Their Phoenix Hawk falls down while walking backwards, falls into the Flashman, the Flashman falls an elevation and tumbles to the ground and their pilot blacksout. I rush my Tbolt over and perhaps I can decapitate their mech. Our T Bolt fails. Out H Man hits two leg actuators on their Ostscout. It falls. Our Ostscout hit’s the AC5 ammo on their Sentinel and it explodes and its engine goes with it. Damage to Zeus, our Ostscout T Bolt and Flashman. Our Ostscout loses its LA>


With two mechs down, they choose to hit and fade. They quickly leave, and I quickly secure their Flashman.

Salvage:

2750 Flashman

Repair:

Ostscout missing RA



Just 12 tons of armor needed, many of that cause of the booms of the engine.


End of Mission 6

[Abe Sargent]

Aug 15, 3039 Another raid, and when confronted by two regiments of conventional troops the battalion of Ghosts apparently left.

Ted has a serious question. Why are they constantly running? Sure, the General could be right, and they could be setting a trap sometimes, but certainly not every time. Ted decides to do a little extracurricular work with his units. Deeming Delta Company to be the most powerful, he send it out early at night or a special unscheduled patrol. After a few hours, they hide in the foothills with mechs deactivated and the two infantry platoons from Phaeton company watching out. In the morning hours of the 16th, they spy company of Ghost mechs, and warm up their vehicles. As soon as the Ghosts see the warm ups, they retreat. There was no way they knew Delta company was there, no way. It could not have been a trap, it could not have been their expectance that someone was there, they simply ran. Delta Company returns and Ted has a ponder.


Aug 17, 3039 - No raids for a few days. Ted requests permission to take out all six companies in strength. The request is denied.

Aug 18, 3039 - Ted sends a coded message to Field Marshal Sandoval on Marduk for further instructions.

Aug 23, 3039 - After two more raids, a message comes back from James Sandoval. It’s just two words, “Do it.”

[Abe Sargent]

Ted immediately grabs all six companies, and moves them out, over General Baden-Powell’s protestations. Intel has put the two Ghost regiments within a small area in the Hills of Abbadok. We are heading in there, loaded for bear. Ted shows the message to the General, along with Sandoval’s seal. After a quick consultation, the Genereal will be sending out fast conventional forces and conventional fighters to keep the area pinned, while we go in to win.

It’s just 5 mech companies and one vehicle one against two regiments of Ghosts, but it’s time to finish this. Something fishy is going on. They keep retreating and retreating.

Aug 24, 3039 - We take up our position, and the march begins. The Generals forces are doing a good job at keeping the area contained, and we head in, from several directions at once, searching for the Ghosts. Hex Company finds the first sing of Ghosts when it spies some scouts, who quickly scurry back. Phaeton Company is stopped by an entire company of mechs, but after seeing it, they too, retreat inward. This continues as more and more sightings are seen. Finally, we reach the are they are using as a camp, and finally, finally, the truth is revealed.

There are not two regiments of Ghosts on this world, just one. There are maybe 85 mechs in this camp. However, most of them are moving at us, and we don’t have 85 mechs, we have just 60 or so. They are not splitting their forces up and hitting each spar. Instead, they are moving at one area. Support is immediately called for as Phaeton and Cinq companies are approached by over 80 mechs. They quickly retreat under the threat of dying. We all try to catch up.

It’s the same maneuver we tried before, with their large forces trying to break out of a circle, only now the gig is up. Even if we let them go, the knowledge is out there. Baden-Powell now knows what he is dealing with. The Ghosts are bearing down on us just as the first fighters arrive. They begin to strafe areas in front of our companies, and the Ghosts have to slow down. Almost as one, they break to the left and run, while a few run and turn, laying down cover fire against the fighters. Within a few moments, the Kurita fighters arrive to support their position, and dogfights begin overhead. Meanwhile, the Ghosts are hitting a small wedge of conventional troops and we are unable to reach them, before they are too far away to catch up with.

It’s alright though. We won the war of information.


Aug 28, 3039 - Baden-Powell has kept us back as a reserve, and brought in all ten of his conventional regiments to crush the Ghosts once and for all. He has them isolated against the ocean, and surrounded by a seas of vehicles. We are there simply to make sure tht if any of their mechs break free, that we will get them. Nearby is a small sea port, that has several dropports. As the fighting begins, several DropShips lower from the sky. It took them four days to get here from their JumpShip. They land, and the Ghosts begin to load up. The conventional forces tear into them as their number becomes fewer and fewer as some load and others are destroyed. Within a few hours, they have loaded up, and the last of their fighters puts up a screen that enables them to get away.

That is the end of the Dragon on Breed.


End of War of 3039 Scenario 2: The Breed Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

Sept 3, 3039 - After a few days rest and repair, we have been ordered back to Marduk, where Field Marshal Sandoval is encountering heavy resistance from other forces that landed there.


Sept 9, 3039 - We arrive in Marduk.


Sept 13, 3039 - We land in New Pontiac and get a full situation report on the status of Marduk. The 8th Galedon Regulars and the Sixth Benjamin Regulars have arrived from the Dragon to protest the Davion presence on their planet. These two regiments are veteran and green, respectively. Their commanders do not get along, and Sandoval has noticed that they take different strategies on the field.

Davion forces still hold Victory Industries, New Pontiac and the industrial city of Deshler. The suburbs of New Pontiac are largely in ruin, as well as the city of Stanton. The Drac forces were routed from New Pontiac after attacking, and ran all the way to Fort Stroum. Fort Stroum is not like Fort Ea, which was more of a small wall for security purposes more than anything else. Fort Stroum is built on an old Star League era military compound, and it is quite hard to deal with as an attacker.

Since Sept 3, Davion forces have been besieging Fort Stroum is what looks like a medieval siege of a baron‘s castle. On Sept 8, two regiments of DCMS militia and mixed arms landed in Fort Stroum, but they haven’t helped. We are to place ourselves under the command of General Theodore Perry of the Tenth Deneb while Sandoval, here in New Pontiac, is communicating with his forces and coordinating attacks, counter attacks, raids, supplies and more.


Sept 14, 3039 - We arrive at the Fort Stroum siege. The mechs, vehicles and infantry are, literally, laid out a medieval siege. One side of Fort Stroum is against some heavy mountains, so our forces are around the other three sides.

Sept 16, 3039 - After a few days of raids by the Dracs to test our defenses, they try and sneak some mechs through the mountains behind them in order to hit us from behind, but they are spotted and it fails.

Sept 20, 3039 - After a few days of quiet, another regiment of conventional forces lands in Fort Stroum. They are only able to land due to turrets. Davion forces control the airspace elsewhere. This prevents them from ranging too far from Fort Stroum.

Sept 29, 3039 - Just the occasional weapons fire exchange when someone gets too close.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT: Oct 6, 3039 - After more quiet, Hanse Davion, sends a message to all Davion forces in Combine space. Theodore’s gambit worked. New mechs, old mechs, new units, and a counterstrike that struck deep into Davion space was enough to scare Hanse Davion, and he choose to end the offensive. The War was ending.

[Abe Sargent]

Oct 7, 3039 - Field Marshal Sandoval orders that we strip every last thing from Marduk, from mechs from Victory Industries to parts, ore, equipment, whatever we can take, we do. Our own DropShip is busting to the seems with items the Davion folks stuffed in there.

Oct 13, 3039 - We leave Marduk, back to Breed, and from thence to Robinson along with Field Marshal Sandoval.


Oct 27, 3039 - We arrive in Robinson.

Oct 31, 3039 - We land at Robinson, the capital of the Draconis March, and the homeworld of a very pissed off Duke Sandoval. He spends the next couple of weeks trying to convince the powers that be to continue the offensive.

November 21, 3039 - Sandoval is unsuccessful, and the new borders are being drawn. The allies captured 7 systems - Murchison, Markab, Skat, Cylene, Lima, McComb, and Royal. The Dragon capture three in its counter attack - Fomalhaut, Saffel, and Quentin. Fomalhaut and Quentin are highly valuable worlds with Quentin having a premier BattleMech factory and boith being highly industrial.

Dec 1, 3039 - Duke Sandoval has a ceremony for many of the units under his command that operated with efficiency. Our unit is included, and is one of only six mercenary units being decorated today. Each member of the Kilts and Commandos here is awarded the Dragon Slayer’s Ribbon. This Ribbon is given out to people in the service of House Davion who perform military tasks well against the Dragon. Ted Izumo is also given the Robinson Medal of Valor as an honor for his actions on Breed.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT: January 4, 3040 - Former Archon Katrina Steiner dies peacefully of her cancer.


EVENT: January 19, 3040 - The Exeter Accords are signed, and peace is once again brought to the Inner Sphere.

[Abe Sargent]

January 31, 3040 - As the conflict that caused our contact ends, they have chosen to end our contract early. Time to figure out a ton of stuff.

Let’s start.


Costs:


4,192,680 Here is how much we paid in salary and upkeep, through March 31, 3040:
7,970,000 = 797 tons of armor used to repair and fix salvaged things too.
9,450,000 - Ammo
16,135,000 = Spare parts to repair our own mechs

Total:

37,747,680


Pay:

9,786,874 salary
1,020,000 support

Total:

10,806,874

[Abe Sargent]

Shared Salvage:


This is going to be major. Here we go, get ready for some bookkeeping:


Marduk:

Behemoth Assault Tank - 3,045,000
Shrek PPC Carrier x2 - 7,650,000
LRM Carrier - 1,872,000
Falcon Hover Tank - 1,350,000
Vedette - 941,000
Pegasus Scout Tank x2 - 1,682,000
Scimitar Medium Hover tank - 727,000
J Edgar Light Hover tank - 729,000
Brutus Assault Tank - 3,694,000
Condor Heavy Hover tank - 1,217,000
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gunx2 1,325,000
Galleon Light Tank - 323,000
Partisan Heavy Tank - 1,872,000
Goblin Medium Tankx3 - 1,820,000
Harasser Missile Platformx2 - 1,120,000
Ontos Heavy Tank - 2,265,000
Striker Light Tankx3 - 1,690,000
Saracen Medium Hover Tank - 815,000
J. Edgar - 729,000
Scimitar - 727,000
4 PPC - 800,000
3 LRM 20 - 750,000
2 LRM 10 - 200,000
6 LRM5 - 180,000
3 SRM6 - 240,000
3 SRM4 - 120,000
2 SRM2 - 40,000
1 Flamer - 7,500
4 ML - 160,000
4 AC 20 - 1,200,000
1 AC10 -200,000
7 MG - 35,000
Demolisher - 1,850,000
AC2 Carrierx2 - 2,170,000
Scorpion Light Tank x5 - 1,650,000
Warrior Attack Helicopter - 545,000
Peregrine Attack VTOLx2 -3,050,000
Cavalry Attack Helicopter. - 705,000
Charger, 1A1 - 7,520.000
Battle Master - 8,500,000
Wasp without RL and LL - 1,250,000 to fix: 475,000
Dragon minus H - 4,350,000 to fix - 655,000
Merlin without LT, LA, RA - 3,800,000 to fix 1,050,000
Scorpion missing RRL, RT - 4,600,000 to fix 750,000
Warhammer with just LL, CT, H - 3,300,000 to fix 3,700,000
Jenner missing RA - 2.700,000 to fix 505,000
Ostroc missing RA, LA - 4,400,000 to fix - 650,000
Awesome missing H - 5,750,000 - to fix 825,000
Phoenix Hawk with just RL, CT and H. 2,250,000 - to fix, 2,800,000
Striker missing RT, RA - 6,350,00 to fix, 1,350,000
Atlas without LA, RT, RA 7,400,000 to fix 2,200,000
Wasp, missing two legs - 1,150,000 to fix, 550,000
Hunchback without H - 2,800,000 to fix 650,000
Lowtech Mongoose ,without LT, LA, RL - 1,150,000 - to fix 650,000
Battlemaster w/o RA, H - 7,250,000 to fix 1,350,000
Rifleman RA - 650,000
Warhammer RA, H, LA - 1,900,000
Merlin LA - 450,000
Javelin LA - 150,000
Jenner LA, LL, RL, H - 1,150,000
Vulcan LA, RT, RA, LT, H, LL, RL - 2,900,000
Firestarter H, RL, LT, LA - 1,175,000
Archer LA - 475,000
Striker RA - 535,000
Atlas RA - 750,000
Jenner LA - 220,000
Orion RA - 625,000
Quickdraw LA - 375,000
Stinger RA, H, LA, LT, LL - 900,000
Dragon LA, H, RA 1,575,000
Warhammer LA - 550,000
Wasp LL, RL, H - 1,000,000
Crusader parts: RL, LL, RT, RA - 1,875,000
Rifleman: H, RT, LT, RA, LA, LL, RL - 3,300,000

[Abe Sargent]

Breed:


BattleMaster 2C minus LT, RT - 10,050,000 to fix, 2,750,000
2750 Lancelot without LL - 11,550,000 to fix 1,550,000
Awesome 8T, without head - 5,970,000 - to fix 825,000
Grand Dragon missing H - 4,450,000 to fix, 720,000
2750 Lancelot missing H - 12,200,000 to fix 900,000
Locust H, RT, RA, LL, RL - 900,000
Wolverine 6k LA, RA - 750,000
Jenner - 3,200,000
Jenner 7F missing RL, LL, LT - 2,300,000 to fix 900.000
2750 Champion RA, H, RL, LL, LT - 2,000,000
2750 Sentinel RA, RT, H - 1,300,000
Thug RL, LA - 1,650,000
Marauder without LA -5,700,000 to fix 750,000
Koschei LL - 650,000
Excalibur B2 - 16,000,000
LosTech Dragon 5N H, LL, RL, RA, LA, LT - 3,100,000
Jenner RA - 250,000
P Hawk LA - 300,000
Phoenix Hawk 1K missing RT, LL, LT - 2,900,000 to fix 1,250,000
Jenner H, LT, LL - 750,000
2750 Hermes missing RT, LL - 2,800,000 to fix, 825,000
Griffin RA, H, RL - 1,350,000
2750 Mongoose w/o LL, RL 1,550,000 to fix 650,000
Wolverine RA - 550,000
Jenner w.o RA, LA, H 2,400,000 to fix 1,300,000
Shadow hawk 2k missing RA - 3,950,000 to fix 620,000
2750 Thorn RA, H, LT, LA, LL - 2,100,000
Wolverine LA - 550,000
Stalker RA - 825,000
2750 Exterminator 15,800,000
Talon 5W - 6,000,000
Charger 1A9 8,000,000
2750 Highlander missing head - 8,200,000 to fix: 850,000
Katana RA, LL - 1,650,000
Stinger H, LT, LL, RL - 1,000,000
Wasp missing RA - 1.400.000 to fix 250,000
Locust RA, LL, LA, H - 950,000
Phoenix Hawk 1K, missing RT, RA, LA, LL - 2,450,000 to fix 1,450,000
Wolverine missing LL, LA, LT - 3,400,000 to fix1,700,000
2750 Flashman - 17,800,000


This is going to take a while to figure out. All right, here we go.

371,915,500 is our total salvage value for the contract.

We get to keep 50% of this value, which is:
185,957,750

[Abe Sargent]

Here are some things I know I want to take:


2750 Exterminator 15,800,000
Talon 5W - 6,000,000
2750 Highlander missing head - 8,200,000 to fix: 850,000
2750 Flashman - 17,800,000
BattleMaster 2C minus LT, RT - 10,050,000 to fix, 2,750,000
2750 Lancelot without LL - 11,550,000 to fix 1,550,000
Excalibur B2 - 16,000,000
2750 Lancelot missing H - 12,200,000 to fix 900,000


81,580,000 right there


I also want some of their parts:


2750 Champion RA, H, RL, LL, LT - 2,000,000
2750 Sentinel RA, RT, H - 1,300,000
Koschei LL - 650,000
Katana RA, LL - 1,650,000

87,180,000 so far.

Okay, what else would I like?

Some mechs I want:

Jenner 7F missing RL, LL, LT - 2,300,000 to fix 900.000
Awesome 8T, without head - 5,970,000 - to fix 825,000
Grand Dragon missing H - 4,450,000 to fix, 720,000
Merlin without LT, LA, RA - 3,800,000 to fix 1,050,000
Warhammer with just LL, CT, H - 3,300,000 to fix 3,700,000
Ostroc missing RA, LA - 4,400,000 to fix - 650,000
Awesome missing H - 5,750,000 - to fix 825,000
Phoenix Hawk with just RL, CT and H. 2,250,000 - to fix, 2,800,000
Striker missing RT, RA - 6,350,00 to fix, 1,350,000
Atlas without LA, RT, RA 7,400,000 to fix 2,200,000


What does that put me at?

133,150,000


2750 Hermes missing RT, LL - 2,800,000 to fix, 825,000
2750 Mongoose w/o LL, RL 1,550,000 to fix 650,000
Charger 1A9 8,000,000
Lowtech Mongoose ,without LT, LA, RL - 1,150,000 - to fix 650,000
Battlemaster w/o RA, H - 7,250,000 to fix 1,350,000
Phoenix Hawk 1K missing RT, LL, LT - 2,900,000 to fix 1,250,000
Phoenix Hawk 1K, missing RT, RA, LA, LL - 2,450,000 to fix 1,450,000


159,250,000

Jenner w.o RA, LA, H 2,400,000 to fix 1,300,000
Jenner - 3,200,000
LosTech Dragon 5N H, LL, RL, RA, LA, LT - 3,100,000 - just parts
Battle Master - 8,500,000
Demolisher - 1,850,000
Hunchback without H - 2,800,000 to fix 650,000
Dragon minus H - 4,350,000 to fix - 655,000


18,5450,000

Got enough for this:

Galleon Light Tank - 323,000

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, now let’s repair these things:


To repair:

29,750,000



Total Costs:

67,497,680


Total Revenues:

196,764,624


Overall net Gain:

129,266,944



That’s a lot of money. In this case, war paid really well. We leave with 32 new mechs (remember we got a Griffin and Wolverine from Sandoval after helping to take Victory Industries.) We are also leaving with a bit of LosTech in those pieces, like 2x heat sinks, Ultra AC5, ERPPC, and more.

The Davion accountant was a bit upset at the LosTech. Technically, market value was what was listed, but in reality the BattleMaster 2C and Exterminator could go for tons on the open market, as we all knew. The rest of it could go for a lot too, especially if we sold it on the market.




So, at the end of a year of grinding war in Andurien, Marduk and Breed, we end the year with over 50 new mechs, and now have over a regiment in mechs. Finally. It took us ten years to get here.


We have some debt from the facilities Ted built while we were in a year of rebuilding, so I take 25 million out to finish paying that off. We also set aside 20 million for the Essex Training Academy to expand and add various things.

We now have a group of third year students at the Academy, a group of second year students, and a group of first year students. The Academy will start to give us an input of graduated, quality MechWarriors each year we can add to our roster.

The Andurien mechs and MWs take some $$ to fix them up, and there goes another 15 million.

That leaves us 69,266,944 which is still a ton of money. War pays well.

[Abe Sargent]

March 13, 3040 - We arrive back at Epsilon Eridani, and we donate the BattleMaster 2C to the Essex Training Academy. It is a perfect training mech, with a second cockpit for training. It is also super rare, and something no other Training Academy has. We immediately add it to our recruiting materials. Train in a Star League vintage BattleMaster with a second cockpit, for simply the best training available.

Ted requests to move back to heading up the Kilts and Commandos Military Complex and Essex Training Academy, and I agree. He leaves behind Hex Company, and takes back up his role as headmaster and CO. He’s getting older, and he has seen a lot of battle this past year. It is time for him to take another break, although I doubt this is the last we will see of Ted Izumo in his old Stalker.

Braham Essex arrives back with a beleaguered and tired Aleph Company and some ragged former Andurien Defenders. It also introduces the next character in our war opera, Matthew Humphreys, new CO of the Defender Company of Kilts and Commandos. Braham Essex is now promoted to Colonel.

Now that we are regiment sized, and have several medals from various campaigns, the contracts are expected to come in. Any day now folks. Any day now.


March 18, 3040 - No offers in yet, and nothing we jump at. Our liaison on Outreach gets a visit from a high level Davion envoy. Reminding her that we are Davion citizens, it is gently requested that we not take any more contracts against the Federated Suns while we have our home on Epsilon Eridani. Fair enough.

[Abe Sargent]

March 25, 3040 - After some R&R, Braham Essex proposes to Elizabeth Walters, CEO of Kressly Warworks, Inc. They met several years ago and had an initial attraction, and began seeing each other regularly. Now, after a long conflict, Braham is back for a while, and proposes to her, and she accepts.

[Abe Sargent]

April 1, 3040 - The first contracts are coming in now, and they are the usual. Hunt pirates. Garrison a planet. We get a retainer offer from Davion for several years. Many of the best mercenary groups do this. They are retainered for 5, 7 or 10 years to a house, and just do what the house tells them to do. I don’t like it for extended periods of time because its boring. The whole point was to not be a house unit anymore, and I don’t want to go back. No thanks Davion.

The contracts are the same old, same old. After a year of a lot of war, the Inner Sphere seems to be quiet right now.

April 5, 3040 - Before everybody starts to head back out to contracts, we decide to have our wedding. Allow me to introduce the newest character in our BattleTech opera, Elizabeth Walters:


Elizabeth Walters is the daughter and only child of Phillip Walters, founder of Kressly Warworks, Inc who died over five years ago, and left the company in his daughter’s hands. She is 34, a native of Epsilon Eridani, and CEO of the company as well. She will be hyphenating her name, Elizabeth Walters-Essex.

[Abe Sargent]

April 11, 3040 - Some of our commands are beginning to head out for small and minor contracts. Because the contracts have diminished, we are once again doing them in company lots.


We still have an unresolved question - what to do with the pristine Exterminator. There are four options:

1). Sell it on the open market to the highest bidder. This would make us a ton of money and solve the problem.

2). Keep it and use it in combat. People would not know what to even expect. It’s rare. The stealth systems on it are great. It’s a strong mech. However, we would have very little ability to keep it operational for long. The armor is normal, and the internal structure is normal, so we could replace an arm or something. We could not replace the equipment that is in it, however.

3). Keep it for a rainy day. Perhaps, as technology increases, we’ll get to the point that upkeeping it will be possible, so let’s keep it until then, just in case.

4). Give it to a research lab for them to dissect and use as a way to figure out the technology. As a citizen of the Federated Suns, technically, the obvious place would be the New Avalon Institute of Science, arguably the strongest thinktank in the Inner Sphere. I could give this to them and perhaps they could crack the issue of this.


None of these is an ideal solution. The value of this mech may decrease significantly in 5 or 10 years. We all know that LosTech is slowly and steadily getting put on mechs. New designs are being worked on in every house in order to use the new technology. If I am going to sell it, now is the time. Who knows what it could go for, it has not been seen in the Inner Sphere for 200-250 years, and it has a technology that is not even in the Helm Memory Core. This is rare stuff. If I use it in combat, I feel like I am risking something major each time I take it out. If I hold onto it, I feel like I am missing a window. If I sell it, I feel like I am squandering a resource. If I give it away, I feel like I got rid of something very valuable without any recompense and without knowing it could even be done.

Fine, I’ll keep it for now. I certainly don’t need money right now.

[Abe Sargent]

April 15, 3040 - After a ten day honeymoon, Braham is back and had made a decision. He is heading out, by himself, without his unit. While they do minor little stuff, he is going to push himself as far as he can.


Braham will be taking a few techs, a few mechs, one support personnel, and relocating to Solaris VII for a while. There he will test himself in the arenas against other fighters for a chance to become one of the all time greats.


Meanwhile, Kilts and Commandos will be doing contracts and working for others.


That is the end of the 3039 crucible. Join the next thread for the Solaris VII years.

[Abe Sargent]

The BattleTech Dynasty: The Solaris VII Years - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=2146244#post2146244)