The BattleTech Dynasty - Chapter 8, Brother Against Sister - 3062-3067 - COMPLETE!!!!

[Abe Sargent]

March 4, 3064 - We radio Nanking. They are happy to see our victory, and ready to help us.


On planet –

1st FedCom RCT

FedCom RCT – 1 regiment of mechs, veteran, reliable; aerospace units destroyed in the battle; 3 regiments of armor, regular, unreliable; 5 regiments of infantry, regular and reliable


The 1st Kestrel grenadiers have jumped back to Zurich to help out there. Where bad stuff happens. (Check out the Zurich campaign earlier).


Marshal Ally Swanson, in charge of the 1st, answers a call from Duke Essex. He explains that they were asked to assist by the local government. She knows, she was in contact with the Brest for a while. She cannot, in good conscience, surrender the military-complex of Kallon to Essex. The mech-producing company is too important to vital to the Federated Commonwealth generally, and Victor specifically.


However, she recognizes our legal claim and that we have forced our way here. So, she is going to garrison the factories with her forces, and let the rest of the planet to us. But if we attack her, then all bets are off.

The Coalition forces land and are begun to be seen as liberators. Local Word of Blake plants push the pro-Coalition hysteria.

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 10, 3064 – It’s time to begin to begin the campaign for the factories. As mentioned before, there are secret plans on how to retake Nanking that the Capellan Confederation drew up which Word of Blake supplied to us. Nanking was independent long ago. It voluntarily joined Capella centuries ago. They had it for quite some time. They built a lot of the structures on the world.


And that includes the Brian Castle right by the factory complex that is used as a HQ and garrison by the 1st FedCom RCT. We have the blueprints and schemes for that huge Brian Castle, and it includes a few secrets the FedCom folk never found out about. We are going to exploit that fact in an extreme manner.

Nanking was originally a trade center for the area, and still had strong metals to mine, including a lot of platinum still around. Imagine if you took the mining economy of Genoa, and slapped a center of trade and a large industrial complex on top of it. We’re making tanks and mechs.

Many of its metals are not fancy ones (gold, silver) but useful ones, like iron and titanium. I

Because of this, Nanking has 6 billion people living here. Most aren’t anywhere near the central Kallon factories. They are in the cold mountains, and Nanking has a cooler climate over all. But it has some strong tectonic action.

In the Star League era, The Brian Castle now defended was built over a large geothermal crevice to help keep the people warm. There are no ways down into the giant crevice, because the builders didn’t want to create a back door into their Castle. So instead they used some small pipes and natural vents and such. We couldn’t penetrate that with anything other than maybe, power armored infantry.

We can’t take a lot of units into the crevice either. It’s way too hot. But that wasn’t the Liao plan. Their plan was to explode the bottom of the Castle, thereby causing a large amount of the castle to drop into the crevice below. It’s not even 100 feet deep in most places. But it’ll break stuff, people, and equipment.

Plus, it’ll be a huge psychological bonus to crack their Castle, their un-penetrable fortress, so powerfully.

We begin to unload the huge explosives we brought from home. Our power armored folks will spend the next few days sneaking in occasionally, adding explosives, in this hidden section of the mountain, and then slipping back out.


We load up our fighters with bombs in case we need the heavy stuff.

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 16, 3064 – JumpShips arrive at the Zenith point, and load up the troops and vessels that escaped our battle.

Mar 18, 3064 – After getting a recharge at the Zenith recharge station, they pop back out.


Mar 27, 3064 – We have gotten a lot of locals away from the area, and warned them off. We are ready to go. We send out our forces as close as we feel we can get (about 40 miles away) in a local city and have set up local fornications, pretending to be a part of this camp.

The explosives rock the earth, and work as expected (always use about three times what you think is needed, just in case)

A resounding crack is heard, and much of the Brian Castle falls about 30-40 feet. The front and middle do, but sides and back stay, relatively, firm, although cracks appear in the foundation and more.

Imagine a building so huge and large, that it can hold thousands of troops, support personnel, techs, and more. It can hold hundreds of mechs and tanks, hundreds of tons of supplies, has full facilities from mess halls and barracks to a state of the art medical facility, to prisons and a up to date command and control center with the latest equipment. It has more than a thousand tons of supplies like ammo and guns and personal equipment. It has three separate water wells, as well as enough food for six months for the entire complex, and stored water in case of spoilage.

Now imagine that this sprawling building is in the mountains, and has massive defenses, like gun emplacements, mines ,massive walls and turrets and more. It has very little walls on the outside at all, and the mountain itself is the castle’s fortifications, in a meaningful way. It has numerous gates and entrances in the center, that can be opened to let out tanks, fighters, mechs, and more.

Now imagine that this giant building drops twenty feet. Imagine all of the things that would be torn. People dead, doors to storage rooms, beds, and so forth closed by rock and walls. Tilting floors. Broken materiel. The gates to let out the mechs and tanks are mostly broken. Trapped, inside of this falling castle, is everything the 1st RCT has.

Well, not really, they have a few infantry regiments elsewhere, a few tanks elsewhere. At this point, there’s no need to fight, no need to come out of the three or four doors that still work. More than 200 mechs are bearing down on this position, more than 30 fighters are buzzing it and more than 30 tanks are nearby and closing.

[Abe Sargent]

But the communications are down. There is no one to surrender, and no one to tell the soldiers to surrender either. So a meaningless battle ensues.

Out pour some tanks and mechs that can make it. In the first 15 minutes, it seems around 12 mechs and 20 tanks are out. The mechs are forcing open doors and looking around while infantry try to fix doors, and the tanks have moved into a defensive position. They aren’t thinking. They are running on automatic.

And they are about to get slaughtered if they don’t knock it off.


The first Battalion to arrive on the scene is Water Battalion from Epsilon regiment. They peel off Oasis Company to head in and scout around.

Some gun emplacements almost destroy their Whitworth, so it heads back. If this gauntlet had been better guarded with tanks, infantry, the turrets fully working (some don’t have power), but instead it’s really about hitting mines to take them out and blowing up the defenses. River and Lake Companies move in and Oasis pulls back after cleaning out the local defenses.

River and Lake move in and their tanks are in a defensive position. River Company moves in front to assault the tanks solo, leaving Lake as a reserve, or a company to come in after the tank battle.


River Company:

BLR-3M BattleMaster
ANV-3M Anvil
HNB-4G Hunchback
THR-1L Thunder

AWS-9Q Awesome
Mad Cat D
RFL-5M Rifleman
BMB-12D Bombardier

GRY-1 Greyhound
Clint Iic
ZPH-1A Tarantula
SDR-5V Spider

We have two clan mechs – Mad Cat and Clint IIc

We are facing 21 tanks



This is our Clint IIc, a clan variant of the Clint, more of a refit actually.

http://www.solaris7.com/Images/TRO/BattleMechs/ClintIIC.jpg




They have multiples of the local tanks made here (Partisans and Ontos). Let’s get this party started!


They have a pair of the Rommel Tank variant with a Gauss Rifle. They have a lot of heavier units, and then a lance of four light, hover, J Edgars to help flank, scout, and such.

[Abe Sargent]

This area we are fighting on has a bet of concrete, a bit of elevation, a bit of tries, a bit of rock – really a bit of everything I suppose.


Turn 1 – We lose initiative. This round was mostly positioning. The only major thing was that our Greyhound’s E Medium laser immobilizes one of the J Edgars. Two fires were accidentally set as well.

Turn 2 - We init init. I flanked a group of six mechs down the right side all together. Our Mad Cat’s ER PPC lasers a Rommel and damages its movement. Our Greyhound destroys a J Edgar’s turret and its down. Our Mad Cat took 40+ damage but remained standing.

Turn 3 – We win init. This turn my goal is to bring my beaters in – Hunchbacks Anvils and Thunder’s aren’t that good at range. We charge their flank. Our Tarantula immobilizes one of their many (5) Partisans. Our Greyhound kills a Partisan Air Defense Tank’s front and its gone. Our BattleMaster freezes another J Edgar.

Turn 4 – We lose init. They eject from a J Edgar. We move our mechs in more. Here we go. Our Mad Cat stuns the crew and nails the sensors on an Ontos. An AC20 of love from our Thunder tears into a Partisan’s fuel tank and it explodes. Boom! Our Rifleman kills a 3053 upgraded Ontos’s front. Our Greyhound attacks an unwounded Hetzer, hits with both SRM6s streaks and two ER medium lasers and destroys its front. Welcome to the Greyhound Show, presented by Kressly Warworks Inc! Our BattleMaster destroys a Parisans front. Their Hetzer nailed the engine twice on our Anvil after cracking the torso with its AC20. A Partisan opens up our Hunchback’s leg and hits a foot. Both our Battlemaster and Hunchback falls.

Turn 5 – We win init. I eject the Hunchback, which took a lot of damage last turn. The Ontos tank has a ton of medium lasers, so getting in close can be dangerous too. But we have to do it to clean the defenses out for other companies to come in after us. Our BattleMaster rises. I hop our Anvil out of danger, hopefully. Our Mad Cat immobilizes an Ontos. Our BM immobilizes their final J Edgar. Our Clint stuns the crew of their Ontos.


They are protecting their home, they will keep fighting for now.

Turn 6 – We lose init. Ontos flees. Our Awesome immobilizes their last Ontos. Our BattleMaster then takes out a Rommel. Our Mad Cat immobilizes a Goblin Medium Tank. Our Clint IIc finishes the damaged Ontos by hitting its front. Anvil finishes a J Edgar, but the J Edgar smashes hits head from a SRM 2 before it goes and that’s internal and hits both sensors. Blind mech.


Turn 7 – We win. I eject the Anvil. We are having some ammo concerns. The Bombardier and Rifleman are out of ammo. Their Goblin ejects too. Our Greyhound destroys a Rommel, our Mad Cat a Partisan Air Defense, and our Tarantula a J. Edgar. Their Partisan hits two leg actuators n our Mad Cat. Our BM immobilizes a Myrmidon Medium Tank and then the Awesome kills it. Mad Cat falls.


There are four tanks left. We secure the Ontos, Partisanx2, and Goblin while Lake Company moves past us to hit the Mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Dead Tanks – J Edgarx3, Partisan (ADT)x2 ,Partisan (fuel), Ontos (3053), Hetzer, Partisan, Rommel – gaussx2, Ontos, Myrmidon

Ejected – J Edgar, Ontos, Goblin


Kills – Greyhoundx4, Thunder, Rifleman, BattleMasterx2, Clint IIc, Anvil, Mad Cat, Tarantula, Awesome,


Lake Company moves in behind the battle, and Mountain Battalion, of Epsilon Company is behind and the next set of forces. Meanwhile fighters are lancing over.

[Abe Sargent]

The battle and running the gauntlet by Oasis Company have given our foes time to grab more mechs. Right now, they have 19 mechs out. They hear over the radio that Lake Company, and then Mountain Battalion are en route. They begin to move out and flee. I don’t want a guerilla force on the planet. Fighters begin to strafe and bomb them and attack them since we can’t get there quickly.

Bombing splits them up and strafing does so even more. They aren’t taking traditional anti-fighter tactics, they’ve been beaten. We lose three fighters after a few rounds, and four more have to retreat, but we have severely damaged, destroyed, and forced the ejection of 10 of their mechs.

Then Lake arrives, and there are 9 wounded mechs with a new company and AeroSpace Support. They can’t flee, so they radio their surrender. They aren’t part of the same unit or anything, and no one is ranked higher than Sergeant. But we accept their surrender none-the-less.


Our forces arrive at the local Castle in force, and we set up a garrison. We grab folks as they come up and build a huge, captured section of our camp. After they’ve played this game a few times, no one else comes out.

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 30, 3064 – They have managed to restore enough power and communications to radio their surrender, and we accept. We allow the 1st Fed Com RCT to head off planet, with the folks who surrendered. We take all salvage.

It’ll take a few months to get everyone and everything out, but Nanking is essentially secured, thanks to Word of Blake.


And now that they delivered their promise a while ago, it’s time to deliver on ours.

Nanking used to have a tank factory on it called Rivverson Technologies, that made the Ballista mobile artillery tank. It was the standard mobile artillery tank for about two centuries for the Star League. It was a high quality unit, fast, easy to maintain, accurate, and battle-tested. Ballista tanks were used even in the Succession Wars. The factory was destroyed, and cannot be easily made any more.

[Abe Sargent]

Kallon in a Nutshell makes:

The Ontos Heavy Tank, 95 ton tank debuting in 2832, and rocking a variety of variants over the eras. The base version ran 8 medium lasers and 2 LRM5s. But you can find variants with LRM20s and so forth, In the 3050s, an upgrade to new tech gave it a fusion engine, medium pulse lasers, an LRM15, an SRM4 and 6, Artemis IV for them all, CASE, and ferro-fib armor. They now make this upgraded version here at Nanking


The Partisan Heavy Tank, an 80 ton monster that debuted in 2791 and rocked 4 AC5s and 2 machine guns, with a variety of variants made. One good, but older variant (which we encountered) has 4 LRM 15s. Two newer variants of a Tank called the Air Defense Tank are pretty good.. One has ferro-fib armor, 2 LB5Xs, two Ultra AC5s, and is pretty good against flyers. Another rocks a pair of LB10Xs, 2 Ultra Ac5, and such. They come with C3 slaves, which are not common here in the FedCom, so they aren’t made at the local Plant. They are made at other Kallon plants. They are working on a FedCom special that uses the ubre-popular Rotary AC5, and their version of that Partisan is supposed to roll out in a few months. That’ll be the one we get.


The Wolverine – Kallon created and introduced the Wolverine for the Star League centuries ago. It was a pretty good mech. House Davion upgraded their Wolverine factory on the captured Nanking to make some new guys. They make the 7D variant. It has an XL engine, ferro-armor, MASC to speed you up, ultra AC5, medium pulse laser, SRM6 with CASE, and jump jets. We don’t like XLs, but it’s not that shabby. Kallon has already approved designs for an 8D Variant that has XL engine, endo, rotary AC2, MASC still, SRM6 streak, ER Medium Laser and a targeting computer for the AC2 and laser. It may have some heat issues though (just 10/20 heat sinks). It’s a better design, frankly, which they have begun to work on a prototype of it. Best estimate right now is prototype in three months or so, and begin working on the line switch over a few months, make them early next year.

The Exterminator – In order to save money, in the early 3000s, Kallon began to produce Exterminators on the old blueprint, with none of the high-tech stuff. It just looked like an Exterminator and had a similar weapons payload. They have a wacky new version that shoots things with Narc Pods and ER medium lasers and lots of weird stuff. We don’t like it that much. An Exterminator that does not have all of this fun stuff is not really an Exterminator, and they only make 1/month. It’s also on an exclusive contract to ComStar, since it rocks an iNarc and iC3.


Shadow Hawk – They had a Shadow hawk plant that wants doing too well, and have been a part of Project Phoenix and have retooled it to make the 5D variant of the Shadow Hawk. It rocks a Rotary AC5, streak SRM4, two medium lasers, and lots of fun! It’s very similar to the version that Lang’ll be making over on Caph. They expect it to begin producing Mechs around February 3065.



Nanking did have a huge local garrison, the Nanking SMM. That was destroyed in the Civil War in the early stages. It had 2 regiments of armor, one of mechs, and 2 of infantry. We cannot leave Nanking poorly defended, but we need troops elsewhere.

For now, everyone who came on the mission stays. Major Mei Zhen starts scouring for a useful mercenary to help us out.


Over the next few months, we’ll fly in more units to fix up our flotilla. We’ll be here for a while, essentially garrisoning the place. I sell that salvaged Leopard to help defray the costs of repairing our damaged fleet.



End of the First Nanking Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

I want to get the timeline caught back, after this rewind and then hit y'all with a couple of major "surprises" and then give y'all a full TOE of our unit.

[Abe Sargent]

3064

January 5, 3064 – Kilts and Commandoes, via Duke Essex, send a company of ‘Mechs to Duke James Sandoval, from the Liberty Campaign that were salvaged to help his Draconis March in their ongoing struggle against the Dragon. It includes 2 clan mechs we grabbed, and ten others. All free, to help him out. He needs them a lot more than we do. We’ve donated more than 100 mechs in salvage to places like the Draconis March, Word of Blake, and Free Rasalhague Republic.

Jan 12, 3064 – After the FrankenMech version of the Buckshot is finished, it is taken through its paces. It seems to do well, particularly with the combination of speed on a heavy mech you would not normally be able to afford without the XL engine, but with the added survivability of a Light Engine instead, plus heavy armor, and an adequate payload. The Buckshot is given fully articulated hand actuators in order to push it’s ability to be used as a long term ‘Mech. Kressly greenlights it.

[Abe Sargent]

Jan 14, 3064 – The Coalition looks to hire a garrison for Asmodeus, and they need to be trustworthy, because the colony is a jump from other stuff, but we have just one unit on planet that can jump in if they aren’t: Utopia Company.

Vandelay’s Valkyries suits us perfectly right now:

They helped to win a major battle for the Combine in the 4th Succession War. After garrison work for the FedCom, they left for the Taurian Concordat, where they were a mainstay off the Concordat for a while. As part of the Trinity Alliance with the Confederation, they were assigned to aid the St. Ives war. They had even been assigned some upgraded tech as a part of the Trinity Alliance. Then, about 11 months ago, they were assigned to an assault on a St. Ives world when the defenders intercepted and destroyed one of the three DropShips landing before it even arrived. That was an Overlord with the command battalion on board.

Having lost their leader and landing, dead in the water, leader of the infantry Charles Houver took over the unit, and in a show of brilliance, managed to keep most of the mechs of the second battalion that was landing intact, and fought a mobile retreat for a few days, and left the planet with most of their unit still intact.

But the Taurians thought they should have fought harder and the Caps were not impressed. So, they were paid the balance of their contract and terminated for a poor performance, and their Dragoons rating dropped to a C. That puts a major stigma on their unit. Dropped rating, cut by a Periphery realm early, lost CO in battle early on St. Ives.

Their CO was dead, the unit was floundering. Now CO Charles Houver is trying to rebuild, but no one trusts him enough to do so. He is raising the daughter of the former CO, Sarah Vandelay, to take over after she is old enough. We like that character. That loyalty.

So the Valkyries need a good, long term, relatively quiet deal to enable them to rebuild. That’s a good garrison deal. And that sort of character shows that they are a trustworthy unit, with 20% updated assets.



Vandelay’s Valkyries – Garrison until February 1, 3069. One battalion of mechs (Regular, listed as questionable due to reports from Concordat), one mixed battalion (Same), 2 companies of infantry, regular reliable. They have an Overlord DropShip, a Seeker DropShip, and an Invader JumpShip. Rating C. Garrison on Asmodeus right now.

[Abe Sargent]

Jan 29, 3064 - After the Lyran Guards launched from Keid, they were denuded of any local forces, and their government has cracked. They’ve already been raided twice and their central government has fallen without the support of the Lyran Guards.

This is perfect. The longer Keid goes without stability, the more they’ll welcome it from us.


February 4, 3064 – Word of Blake approached us and Brooks Inc on Liberty, and multiple other worlds. They had given the plans for a omnifighter called the Defiance to the Capellan Confederation, who agreed to build a new factory building in, split the cost, and then let the Word purchase the first two years of the fighter. This has worked really well, but the problem is that the Word wants a lot more Defiance’s and they are all sent to local forces for a while. They’d like to make the same deal with us, only since we’d be adding a fighter line to an existing plant, with the blueprints, and no need to prototype it, we could have Defiances coming off the lines by the end of 3064. We all agree to the deal.


February 11, 3064 – Over on Caph, a Cretaceous Zone is created, sort of a Jurassic Park writ large, with the creation of a nature preserve and the local dinosaur-like animals in the jungles of the continent of Steam. Tourism will start growing as a result.

[Abe Sargent]

March 25, 3064 – After doing both raids, the 48th arrives back on EE and Duke Essex offers them a deal for the Coalition that would be the first long-term one they would sign. No more living contract to contract, with the typical generous terms the Coalition offers, to a retainer deal. We ask them to begin by assisting over at New Home with garrisoning and training the locals.

We will find out, much later after learning their loyalty trust with our own battlefield honor (after…Quentin…again, check in later to see what we are talking about….the foreshadowing continues…), that the 48th were members of the Draconis Combine 5th Amphigean Assault Group, which was destroyed by Ghost Bear on Krenice in the Clan Invasion. They were left behind by the DCMS, who did not want to risk a Bear retaliation on the world to free them. They survived on their own, behind the Bear lines, for years and years, and then captured the clan Overlord, and blasted off. They were now ronin, officially cut off from their homeland. They chose the mercenary way of life, and have desired to bring a level of samurai honor to their unit, the people they serve, and such. Maj. Namhito, by the way, was the tactical offer for the 5th Amphigean Assault, and is a tactical genius and an elite mechwarrior. Better than most. By Far.

[Abe Sargent]

April 1, 3064 – Duke Essex, Ambassador Yee, Chief Foster, and some others arrive at Kallon Industries and take a meeting with their representative.

“You folks have done this dance a few times already. Here on Nanking you once made mechs for House Liao, then captured and making mechs for House Steiner, then moved over and making stuff House Davion, and now we’ve captured you.”

Ambassador Yee speaks up, “As you folks know, it’s pretty much standard operating procedure to have a company cancel all standing orders for their units, and then sell units to the new state and whoever it authorizes.”

“We understand the drill. For however long you can hold Nanking, you get the merchandise, if we get the cash, but the Exterminator is on an exclusive contract with ComStar. Since that’s not a state, that’s not the same thing. ”

“Don’t worry, we have the cash. We also have a few things you might like. The Coalition has a handful of ‘Mech makers. The Nanking Kallon plant is a huge boon, and we are building a lot of forces up to replace battle losses or to build up units on planets.

Meanwhile, we don’t want the Exterminator. Just change your Exterminator to an exclusive deal with Word of Blake instead. That way, we don’t get a state instead.

Third of all, we have allocated the first 6 months of ‘Mechs (Wolverine, Shadow Hawk) to the Capellan Confederation, who will be sending you the cash and the information on where to deliver them. We’ll get the tanks though.”

“That’s an unusual request. You conquered Nanking for Blake and House Liao?”

Essex smiles. “I don’t see the difference.”


Chief Foster - “Now, we’d like to talk about adding a mechline. How does that work with proprietary information?”


“Mechs and tanks we build here must have your approval to be sold outside of your area. We cannot share any of the stuff. So for example, our company has the license to make Partisans with C3 computers, but not in all of the states. We can’t make a C3 Partisan here on Nanking. The same is true of other things as well.”

Foster – “So if you were to add a Mech line, of a new Mech here?”

“We couldn’t produce the same Mech somewhere else. But that would take too long to do anyway. I’d recommend using a chassis that’s battle tested, and we have the right for. ”

Ambassador Yee– “Such as?”

“We have Exterminator, Wolverine, and Shadow Hawk, obviously, since we make those. We make Rifleman, Griffin and Crusaders for others. For newer mechs, we have created the Penetrator, but we have a sole contract with the locals, the same with things like the Templar. We created the Hornet a while ago, and it’s not doing well now at all, so we’d be happy to reboot it for you with a new face. The Falcon Hawk, though, was a Star League design we updated. We make them for everyone for sale, and we could make either at the same run, if you guarantee sales, or we could refit it for you. So if you wanted a ‘Mech to hit the streets quickly, just name your style.”

Duke Essex interrupts. “That’s sad about the Penetrator. I was hoping we could just add that line here with no changes. It’s a high quality unit. How could we go about changing things?”

“It’s made at our major factory, on Talon. We make 10 different Mech Designs there. The Penetrator still sells well, but everyone who wants them tends to already have them, barring the war, of course. We’ve been making them for 10 years, there certainly could be a window of opportunity. You would have to talk with the Federated Commonwealth Office of Procurement. They would have to approve it. But why would they bother?”

“Just brainstorming here, but what if we paid the cost for the new Penetrator line here, and then guaranteed to sell them the first run, so they can get more Mechs for their war effort?”

“I don’t think a 10 year old design is as sexy there as it would be. I don’t think they’d be interested in losing their exclusivity to the design just so they can buy more of it. Not even in the war.”

“So if we want to sell it, could we make some changes?”

“That’s unlikely, Why not just retool the Talon plant instead? I just don’t see it.”

“It was worth the conversation I suppose.”




“Hmm… What about that Falcon Hawk? We could downgrade the Er PPC to an ER Large Laser, freeing 2 tons. Then strip the small pulse laser, and downgrade the medium pulses to mediums. Then we could use that 5 tons to add a second ER large laser. This gives the mech more long range punch that before.”

“That’s not bad, and it’s a solid light fire support version of the mech. But if you want to sell in this climate, you need something new. You have an extra ton from the conversion, by the way, for another double heat sink.”

“Let me give you a different take. Strip off the XL for a light engine. Swap ferro-fibrous armor for endo steel. Pull off that extra heat sink, we don’t need it that much.”


Falcon Hawk FNHK-9N

35 tons, 5/8
Max armor
Endo Steel, Light Engine
2x ER Large Lasers
2x Medium Lasers
13/26 heat
BV – 1115
Cost 3.92 Mill CBills

Now that has something of merit. It’s cheaper than the other Falcon Hawks (XL engines are more expensive) features light engine, has max 100% armor, and has an interesting long range bite to it. You can run, fire both long range weapons, and not go overheat.

Kallon agrees to run with it. Since it’s on a chassis they know, the only issue is finding the right light version of the 175 engine. Other than that, the mech should be out and ready by February, 3065, if they can figure out the engine thing.


That’ll work, giving us a good scout mech to add to our units with some punch to it.



Welcome to the club Kallon!

[Abe Sargent]

April 3, 3064 – After Katrina Steiner hears of our success on Nanking, she turns this into a huge positive media blitz against Victor. How even people outside the FedCom could see he was wrong, and he couldn’t even defeat a force from the small Coalition

[Abe Sargent]

April 15, 3064 – For the first time in a long time, Duke Essex takes a press conference.


Hello media!

“I’d like to welcome you to one of our first press conferences since the Celestial Coalition formed. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Perhaps too long!

I’d like to announce a major decision by the Coalition. As of today, the Celestial Coalition has officially joined an alliance with the Word of Blake and they will be securing all of our HPG stations. I ask that all ComStar guards turn over their stations to the Word of Blake by one month from today. Thank you!

Look, I don’t have a lot against ComStar. They’ve helped us before, and I’ve personally done a lot of contracts with them. ComStar, I want you to listen to me. You are focusing way too much of your time and energy on the Clans, and on the Civil War between two houses that doesn’t involve you. The fact that the leader of the Civil War is your Precentor Martial does not speak well.

You have done great things with the Free Rasalhague Republic. But so many others need you. The Word of Blake has already been helping us, and we continue to expect great things from this alliance!

Furthermore, we have also been enjoined to the alliance of Marik-Liao, and the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus. United by our identity with the Word of Blake, the six of us will move forward to continue to help the betterment of us all, as well as abroad.

We are here today on Nanking. As you know, we came here to Nanking at the request of the people, and they have offered to join the Celestial Coalition, which was approved this morning. We also embraced the people of Zurich last year, and they, too, joined us. Some of you might be wondering if we are warmongering. We’re not. Both worlds were in the former Sarna March, both worlds have shifted hands multiple times, and deserve to be treated better, and both worlds asked us to help them, prior to us having any soldiers on their world. We aren’t going to start grabbing other worlds the Houses have as a warmonger. We are trying to show that there is a different way to act. A different way to rule. Hand in hand, with the people. With the communities. Together!

I also have one more announcement to make. A lot of folks have wondered if the Coalition is just a figurehead for me, since I keep getting reelected as its head. I get that, I do. We are all about community ownership of our government. That’s why the capital moves each year to a new planet. So, we are placing a three-term limit on the position, so that no one can hold it for too long. We changed the term to five years a while ago. The next election is on January 1, 3065. After that, if I am elected, term limits begin, and that will count as my first term in office under the new rules. Therefore, I cannot lead the Coalition beyond December 31, 3080. This is an opportunity, and we cannot allow our worse natures to dictate things to us.

I’ll take questions at this time.”

[Abe Sargent]

April 20, 3064 – We have hired TekTeam Technical Services, a premier merc unit that specializes in salvage, acquisition and repair, to work on the destroyed Brian Castle on Nanking for a while, and then to scout the battlefields and areas of other planets in the Coalition, and to help train local folks as well. TekTeam is on a 2 year contract for the Coalition.


May 3, 3064 – After looking, we have found help. The Free Worlds League have this mercenary group that wants to raise their prices beyond what they wanted. Marik has tried to unload them with Liao, but they didn’t want them either. We can bring them over and basically we’d be looking to extend their deal. We do so.


Swann’s Cavaliers – 1 regiment of mechs, veteran and reliable; 1 of vehicles, regular and reliable; wing of fighters, regular and reliable, reinforced regiment of infantry, veteran and reliable. Dragoons rating B. We extend their deal through January 1, 3068, and we bring them in for garrison work on Nanking. They’ll arrive in a couple of months. We have increased their pay by 10% to secure them. This is a huge deal for us, because in one stroke we bring in enough forces to garrison the major world of Nanking.

[Abe Sargent]

Let me get you a good post-Nanking look at all of our units and such:


Kilts and Commandos Roster:


Battlemechs –

Alpha Regiment: Col. Matthew Humphries, of Star Battalion

Myth Battalion: Capt Foster Keynes, of Typhon Company

Heliades Company – On Elgin
Styx Company - On Elgin
Tethys Company – On Elgin
Typhon Company – On Elgin


Star Battalion: Col. Matthew Humphries, of Defender Company

Defender Company – Arboris
Cinq Company – Arboris
Brawler Company – Arboris


Heater Battalion: Capt. Jason Thomas, Trinity of Company

Delta Company – On Sheratan
Trinity Company- On Sheratan
Butler Company – On Sheratan

Alpha Regiment is currently being used to garrison and train these three places, and I intend to settle them in for now.


Beta Regiment: Col. Martin Fitzgerald, of Ganges Battalion

Ganges Battalion: Col. Martin Fitzgerald, of Phaeton Company

Phaeton Company – Ingress
Boxer Company – Ingress
Rebel Company – Ingress

Rheims Battalion: Capt. Aurelia Jenson, of Aleph Company

Aleph Company – Acamar
Laser Company – Acamar
Sabre Company – Acamar


Amazon Battalion: Col. Gabriel Williams, of Mustang Company

Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company –

I rotated them into other places to free up units for the Nanking assault, with a battalion on EE for aiding folks there.


Gamma Regiment: Col. Gilda Atwater, of Breaker Battalion


Breaker Battalion: Col. Gilda Atwater, of Fallout Company

Trident Company – On Caph until Dec 31, 3063
Miner Company – On Caph until Dec 31, 3063
Fallout Company - On Caph until Dec 31, 3063

Scimitar Battalion: Capt. Mika Sanders, of Vegas Company

Vegas Company – Currently on Acamar
Guile Company - Currently on Acamar
Tango Company - Currently on Acamar

Mesopotamia Battalion: Capt. Kyla Jeffries, of Nineveh Company

Jericho Company –
Babylon Company –
Nineveh Company –


Breaker Battalion is extended on Caph right now, helping with repairing, cleaning, refitting, with pilots safe from dangerous areas inside insulated cockpits.



Delta Regiment: Col. Conner Ward

Bandit Battalion: Capt. Andrey Vihorev

Bandit Company – Nanking
Iron Company - Nanking
Kevlar Company – Nanking


Flame Battalion: Capt. Johan Kreidler, of Blaze Company

Pyre Company – Nanking
Blaze Company – Nanking
Ember Company – Nanking


Armor Battalion: Capt. Jassa Ramgarhia, of Aegis Company

Aegis Company - Nanking
Shield Company – Nanking
Chainmail Company - Nanking


Delta was just used in attacking Nanking


Epsilon Regiment: Col. Dwayne Tarabaev, Water Battalion

Mountain Battalion: Capt. Stacy Weston of Weston Company

Weston Company - Nanking
Buckhannon Company - Nanking
Elkins Company - Nanking


Metal Battalion: Capt. Roderick Goldbeg, Gold Company

Gold Company – Nanking
Bronze Company - Nanking
Titanium Company - Nanking


Water Battalion: Capt. Dwayne Tarabaev, Oasis Company

Oasis Company – Nanking
River Company – Nanking
Lake Company - Nanking


As was Epsilon



Shadow Battalion:

Bruiser Company – On Zurich
Shadow Company – On Zurich
Sealion Company – On Zurich

Was on the Zurich campaign.


Nordic Weapon Battalion:

Gungnir Company – Nanking
Mjolnir Company – Nanking
Gram Company - Nanking

Used for Nanking too.

Utopia Company – On Asmodeus

Currently just a free company awaiting placement in a new Battalion or Regiment we may form later, and helping guard our newest colony.

[Abe Sargent]

Vehicles:

Tank First Battalion – Arboris
Tank Second Battalion - Elgin
Tank Third Battalion – Nanking


Garrison and Infantry – EE Garrison.


Fighters: Col. Larry Rowe, of Arrow Company

Arrow Company – On Terra Firma
Bolt Company – On Acamar
Catapult Company – Nanking
Dart Company –On Ingress
Javelin Company - Nanking

Our companies have a full 12 fighters, which is unusual for the Inner Sphere. This does not include our Naval Assets, which have full Fighters and Small Craft.

[Abe Sargent]

Naval Assets:

Warships –

Swift Justice, Aegis WarShip – Nanking
Brest, Fox WarShip – Nanking, ready Feb 1, 3065
Red Eyrie, Black Lion WarShip – Available December 3067

JumpShips –

Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip – Nanking
Johnny Appleseed, Invader JumpShip – Nanking
Maxim of Glory, Invader JumpShip – Nanking
River of Fate, Merchant JumpShip – M.I.A.
Celestial Vagrant, Tramp JumpShip – Nanking
Majestic Hobo, Tramp JumpShip - Nanking
Field of Duty, Invader JumpShip – Available 1 December, 3066
Merchant of Venice, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Endless Revival, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066


Military Carrying DropShips –

Robin Hood, Union DropShip –
Megan’s Fury, Union DropShip -
Dirty Dozen, Union DropShip –
Charon’s Message, Union DropShip
Star River, Union DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip –Clan Campaign, Available August 5, 3065
Lights of Volga, Union DropShip, Upgraded -
Victory Assured, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Serial Advantage, Overlord DropShip - Nanking
Defiance, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Daily Menace, Overlord DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking
Faith’s Bulwark, Fortress DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking
King Arthur, Excalibur DropShip – Nanking
Peacemaker – Gazelle DropShip -
Turret Diplomacy, Gazelle DropShip -
Profit of Guns, Gazelle DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Honored Living, Colossus DropShip – Nanking
Green Goblet, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark
Roost of War, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark


Aerospace Fighter Carrying DropShips -

Fury Unbound, Vengeance DropShip – Nanking
Galvanic Arc, Leopard-CV DropShip – Nanking
Stellar Phantom, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Fang of the Lion, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Clawhammer, Carrier DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066


Assault DropShips –

Vulcanized Majesty, Claymore DropShip – Nanking
Bannick’s Burn, Claymore DropShip – Nanking, ready Feb 1, 3065
Firebird, Avenger DropShip – Nanking
Arrow of Fate, Achilles DropShip, Upgraded – Nanking
Stalwart Destruction, Model 96 Elephant DropShip – Nanking
Her Majesty’s Interference, Hamilcar DropShip – Nanking
Blaze of Glory, Overlord-A3 - Nanking, ready Feb 1, 3065
Paris West, Intruder DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking, ready Feb 1, 3065
Ribbon of Night, Intruder DropShip - Available January 31, 3067



Cargo DropShips -

Camel’s Luck, Jumbo DropShip -
Jakob’s Ladder, Buccaneer DropShip (Cargo Vessel) – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Donkey’s Wrath, Mule DropShip - Nanking

[Abe Sargent]

Celestial Coalition Forces:

We regularly rotate K&C forces in and out of the various planets of the CC.

Mercs:

The Bouncers – Regiment of mercs, on Capolla until May 3, 3066, Rating B, 40% level 2 tech, 10% clan tech, 1 battalion mechs, 1 battalion infantry, several wings fighters, 1 battalion tanks , veteran.

Smithson’s Chinese Bandits – A regiment of mostly level 2 mechs. Rating A-, veteran, Retainer contract on Terra Firma until September 1, 3066. We expect to keep them around for a while.

The Blackhearts – Garrisoning Genoa until Aug 1, 3066.Rating B, regiment of mechs, and another tanks, plus fighters and infantry. We rotated them to Genoa to help in defense there, from Epsilon Indi. They are also helping to train the local forces. Veteran.

Narhal’s Raiders – Garrison on Fletcher, until November 30, 3065, a regiment of mechs, C+ rating, many upgraded mechs, regular.

The Furies – Regiment of tanks on Ingress until December 31, 3067. A rating. Regular, reliable, 1/3 of tanks are upgraded. Higher quality tanks – such as LRM Carrier, Shrek, Zhukov, Rommel, Patton, etc.

Angel’s Riders - Dragoons rating B, Regiment of mixed troops, one battalion of mechs, two of armor, with about 40% of mechs and 75 % of tanks upgraded with level 2 tech. They are garrisoning Caph until Sept 1, 3065.

Hsien Hotheads – Garrisoning New Home and Keid. A BattleMech regiment with a Dragoons rating of C. Veteran, reliable. We have them until July 19, 3068.

Lindon’s Battalion – Retainer on Acamar. A+ rating. Veteran, reliable battalion of mechs, elite, reliable, wing of fighters, green, questionable, battalion of infantry, through April 1, 3067.

Swann’s Cavaliers – 1 regiment of mechs, veteran and reliable; 1 of vehicles, regular and reliable; wing of fighters, regular and reliable; reinforced regiment of infantry, veteran and reliable. Dragoons rating B. We extend their deal through January 1, 3068, and we bring them in for garrison work on Nanking.

Kraken Unleashed – Regular, garrison and cadre, Keid, D rating, infantry, sea and hover vees, regular fighters, and BattleMechs all trained in water tactics together. Garrison and cadre until April 15, 3067.

TekTeam Technical Services – On Nanking, contract until May 1, 3066; salvage and repair experts ,and doing some cadre work as well. Veteran, reliable



Local Units:

1st Liberty Legion – One regiment each of upgraded mechs and tanks, along with infantry support. Regular, fanatical.

Arboris Avengers - 23 tanks, 7 mechs, 1 VTOL and 5 fighters we captured. One battalion of infantry. Green, fanatical.


1st Capolla Lancers – A Battalion of mechs. Considered green, reliable, but the ‘Mechs were upgraded ones and quite strong.

1st Bryant Regulars – Battalion of tanks, 60 Mechs. Multiple infantry squads. Regular, reliable. We are still building this unit up. We’d like to get the ‘Mechs up to a regiment.

1st Genoan Chargers – Two companies of mechs, ten tanks,5 squads of infantry, 2 Warrior VTOLs.

1st Hsien Regulars – Regiment of tanks, 2 companies of mechs, infantry, 2 fighters. Green, reliable.

1st New Home Hussars – 13 mechs, 17 tanks.

1st Caph Cavalry – 16 vees, 19 Mechs from the Grenadiers, some of those pilots. Green, reliable.


Eridani Guards – Regular, Fanatical. 2 battalions of Mechs, 1 regiment of vehicles, 3 regiments of infantry, a few wings of aerospace fighters, numerous conventional fighters and VTOLs, and some infantry too.

Epsilon Indi Regulars – 1 mixed regiment, fanatical, regular. Some infantry, some tanks, some mechs, some fighters.

Infantry – We have 8 squads of regular infantry on Capolla, Ingress, Asmodeus, Elgin, Terra Firma, Acamar, Sheratan, Keid, New Home, and Ingress. None on Indi, Bryant, Hsien, Arboris, Eridani or Fletcher, which have their own defense forces.

[Abe Sargent]

More on Nanking and Blake and Hall

Now that we have Nanking securely in our possession, that leaves one planet left in our sights that we can reasonably take, and Blake wants us to have it to, so that they can switch over to their control. Hall.



Hall needs to fall.

Once that happens, just three planets are left – Small World, which is not a high priority target, and the former capital of the Duchy of Small, who we have no interest in, and then Outreach and Northwind, which we have huge interests in, but could never, ever, ever take. Well ,after a bloodbath, maybe Northwind. But the planet would be roiling with issues if we did.



Hall is our top priority. We’ll have even added Zurich and Nanking to our totals.



Taking Nanking was good politics for a variety of reasons. Katrina adores it. We have removed a painful element from the Civil War and Victor’s side is down a factory and a WarShip plus some escorts. Now, we did let some Aerospace assets leave, as well as the survivors of the First FC RCT, so we didn’t hurt their war-waging capabilities as much as we could have, but it was still a huge win for us, and a big win for Katrina.

We also get in nicely with Sun-Tzu. We are close enough that he could strike at us. Not likely, but it could happen. We sell him some Davion designed mechs to make him happy, deny the Capellan March a mech factory world, and add it to an ally. That’s a strong plus.

Blake is happy. They get the contract ComStar had for the Exterminator line. That’s good too.

So, Comstar is not happy – they lost the Exterminator line, as well as our change over to Word of Blake. Victor, not happy either. And Duke Hasek is really upset,

[Abe Sargent]

May 5, 3064 – Representatives of multiple interests from Keid has approached us. They want to apply to become a part of the Coalition, and then we’ll move in, garrison their world, and protect them from the ongoing pirate band.

We have accepted them in, and welcome them to the union. We’ll move over a garrison unit to, to help keep things steady.

Because of the presence of the Lyran Guards, Keid’s infrastructure was not damaged as much in the Chaos March problems. Keid is another world with a large amount of water, around 80% of the surface. In addition to worlds like Hsien, Carver V(Liberty), New Home’s large water (due to its Terra-like nature) and more.


Keid is a major commercial center, with large amounts of shopping, trading, merchants, and more. It has a much more modern service-based economy. Melissa Steiner-Davion really developed the world and invested in Keid post-4th Succession War. The population was strongly pro-Melissa, but never pro-FedCom or that much pro-Lyran Alliance afterwards. Keid killed off the leaders of its rebellion in order to keep the peace and it was quick and painless.



Because of the large oceans, Keid has a major industrial company, Bigoti Seacraft. Bigoti makes large blue-water naval vessels, like submarines, ships, support vehicles, and more for the oceans.

Blue water naval assets do not have the popularity of other military craft. They have the least amount of transportability from one planet to another, or from one operational zone of command to another. Meanwhile, humanity has not built a lot of settlements over oceans and such that require a lot of naval vessels to assist. Meanwhile, many worlds are water-poor, and there’s no value at all in a submarine in that sort of place.

Plus, when there’s a need to fight in water there are usually other options. VTOLs, and fighters both Aerospace and Conventional can hit stuff at water. Hovercraft can hover over the water and hit things. Even Mechs can go underwater (and if you add a few things to them, they can be really good under water too).

With a large number of water rich worlds nearby though, Bigoti Seacraft can do some good stuff helping shore up any blue water naval needs we have.


Like Liberty, Keid was a haven for a small WarShip manufacturing company, Thompson’s Shipyards, which made the Carson WarShip, introduced in 2632 and finished by 2722. This Destroyer class WarShip was initially ordered for around 400 to be made, but the Lola III came around later and replaced the Carson before that order was completed and then de-commissioned when the powerful Essex class was commissioned. There are still a few Carsons in service in Word of Blake/ComStar’s navy. The Shipyards were closed down in 2720, long before the Amaris Coup begun. But in the Succession Wars, the Shipyards were destroyed in order to prevent the Capellan Confederation from having the ‘Yards and the capacity to reboot them. Unfortunately for us, they were destroyed so badly, that there’s nothing left for us. They were even stripped down badly, and any useful metals, parts, information, and more was stripped over the centuries since. The Shipyards are just a bit of torn mass, and nothing else today, a sad sign to a once-strong region of space.


So there’s no shipyard potential with Keid. But we have added blue water naval assets to the Coalition if we want. And that sort of diversity is always nice. Yay!


We hire the Kraken Unleashed Mercenary group to garrison Keid, protect the Bigoti Seacraft area, and also to get some experience in blue water naval assets. They specialize in amphibious attacks and more. They were recently formed, just finished their first contrast garrisoning Remshield, wee they took out some invaders, and now we are hiring them for Keid specifically,, but to help many of our water rich worlds generally, get in training and expertise.


(I went ahead and made adjustments on our TOE for Keid's arrival)

[Abe Sargent]

May 14, 3064 - Hsien Hotheads has just finished a contract with the Free Worlds League. This is a unit that was formed more than 250 years ago in 2781. The Capellan Confederation attacked Hsien, captured it, and exiled the noble rulers. The Twohy family. They left and formed a mercenary unit with all of the loyalist people from Hsien that left with them.

They took a ton of JumpShips and DropShips when they left, and they have lots of units and such. They wanted to do lots of assaults and raids to get good money and salvage to pay their upkeep, but over the years they were pushed into debt from being forced to upkeep their transport via garrison deals and such.

After years of keeping their debt deeper and deeper with the FedCom, they were given a ton of cash from Word of Blake to free themselves, (many mercenary units in the FedCom have become virtual house units due to their company store-esque debt). They took a contract for Blake and headed outside of the Inner Sphere into the deep periphery for a few years, then they came back to do a tour of duty in the Free Worlds League.

Their contract is up, and we have a huge offer for them. Come home. After more than 250 years in the wilderness, Hsien isn’t under control of House Liao and the Hotheads aren’t tied down to a major contract. The unit was handed down from parent to child, and the Twohy are still in charge.

They can come home, be a normal unit, no longer worried about finances, no longer worried about debt. United again, at last.


Hsien Hotheads arrive as a regular unit of the Coalition and in the employ of them generally and the local world specially, just like all of the other regular units we have.

They will be garrisoning Hsien and its twin Elgin for us. They have a ton of JumpShips and DropShips from that run.

Hsein Hotheads – Regiment of mechs, veteran, reliable, Col. Brenna Twohy in charge.

They favor attacking, fast medium/heavies with a lot of power, and not that many slower assaults or weaker lights. Speed and power.

After arriving, Brenna Twohy, a direct descendant of the original Duke Robert Twohy, has been widely celebrated locals, and she has refrained from getting involved in politics, but there’s obviously a long lost love there, and we are happy to bring them back together. Note that the government we set up there is democratic, so they could certainly elect Twohy if they wanted, to be their leader, or on their council.

[Abe Sargent]

18 May, 3064 – Ted Izumo, founded member of Kilts and Commandos, has passed at the age of 86. He will be sorely missed here. We split multiple roles of Izumo at the Academy. We promote a trainer to run the academics, another to run the garrison, and a third to run the administration. No one person can fill Ted’s shoes.

[Abe Sargent]

2 June 3064 – After the Coalition and K&C have been investing in the Iveco Burro II as their combat armored transport of choice (and it works really well), and all of their 3065 product has already been bought up, Iveco has been approached by both the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation 9our allies) to build a plant in their territory with the Burro II as their lead feature. They have decided on Jonathan, in the Confederation as their first expansion target.

11 June, 3064 – The first actual prototypes of the Buckshot have been built. Using a Rifleman chassis as the beginning, the chest and legs look similar, but the arms and head are very different. The ‘Mech has shown some long-term and medium range potential. Anticipating sales due to advanced building specs (ER Medium Lasers, MRM 30, Light Engine) the marketing retinue has shown a deep market for this ‘Mech. It can be this generation’s Alexander. Kressly orders a full four lines.


10 August, 3064 – After delays due to the new technology taking longer than expected, the Shadow Hawk SHD-5C begin rolling off the line in Lang on Caph, and 2 a month are beginning to churn out.


Due to its contract, Vicore gets the first 3 months free as part of their compensation. So the November allotment will go on the market. The Coalition has ordered months of Shadow Hawks to help out their various forces. Word of Blake has also ordered two months worth. The Coalition will get Nov-Jan, then WOB gets Feb, Mar, then the Coalition takes production back over.

[Abe Sargent]

August 18, 3064 – A bomb abroad the Brest WarShip sets back it’s refitting by 2 weeks.

August 21, 3064 – A pirate band that escaped from Arboris just struck Terra Firma. We give the Chinese Bandits permission to take a battalion of troops, and hunt them down.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the First Small World Campaign

September 13, 3064 – Chief Foster takes a meeting with Duke Essex. Our priorities may have just changed.

Small World has recently, in the last few weeks, unearthed a huge amount of valuable elements that will put it on the map financially.


Small World is exactly what it sounds like, a smaller world, in a smaller system. Despite being 5th in the system planet-wise, it’s just 2 days from the jump-points, has a Zenith recharging station. 80% of Small World, a world owned by the Small Family for centuries (the family took the name of the world, not vice versa.) is tundra. It is undergoing a massive Ice Age that keeps things bitterly cold.

It has a small population around the equator and tropics, such as they are. There are two, small, island-esque continents on the equator, where all of the major population centers are. Five large cities on those bands have around 90% of the world’s population.

Small World’s economy is very much a one-note economy. Their claim to fame is mining for radioactive elements and then selling them.

“With icebergs floating through its seas and three of its five continents buried under glaciers, Small World's only claim to fame is the radioactive materials that can be extracted from mining operations along the equator. In fact most of the world's wealth comes from supporting these mines. One family, the Smalls, own most of these mines and have been the planet's noble rulers for quite a while. A long-term dream held by the family was to found a star empire”

For a long time, the Duchy collected military surplus from the Federated Suns, equipped it, and began training a unit whose size far outweighed the economy value and strength of the planet. As the dream for the Duchy of Small died, so did dreams o glory among the population. We no longer think they would be as recalcitrant to Celestial Coalition ownership. They’ve become more disengaged, and work-focused, and the Duke has lost his verve with them.

A huge new area of mining has been opened, and they found a lot more in there than expected – by about 350%! It’s a huge opportunity to inject additional cash into the planet’s economy.

We suspect this could lead to other folks coming in and securing Small World. Anyone could do so – Draconis Combine, pro-Victor allied forces, pro-Katrina loyalist forces, neutral-ish folks like the Capellan March Duke Hasek or even the Draconis March Lord Duke Sandoval.

So, we are going to look to head in. Defenders are in the areas in the center area – there’s nothing in the tundra of military value. Just the occasional herders, hunters, and scavengers.

[Abe Sargent]

Small World does not have a lot of defenders. It’s the Ducal Militia. After losing Ingress and Sheraton to us, all remaining troops consolidated to Small World. Duke Small’s declarations of Davion and Liao not helping his world have rung true. It’s not a very valuable world at all. But he made enough money to afford surplus weapons, mechs, and tanks as the Federated Commonwealth was moving to update their mechs. He leased areas of the tundra as remote on the planet, centrally located in the FedCom, places to train and practice, and in exchange, he was able to purchase a lot of surplus at a good rate. He assembled a regiment of tanks and mechs in less than a decade.

Ducal Militia today? One battalion of mechs, 4 companies of tanks. All level one technology. Regular, and reliable.


In a small region, with a small number of forces, that’s a doable situation.

We will be sending:

Mesopotamia Battalion, of Epsilon Regiment. We send along a trio of Unions to carry them there. We will be sending in a company of fighters as well, Arrow Company will be relocating from Terra Firma.

[Abe Sargent]

September 28, 3064 – There is nothing to protest our arrival on Small World – no fighters, no DropShips, nothing. Intel has their forces in garrisons in the five cities, as the mining interests are done in the suburbs of all of the cities – so each city has military, production, and economic value for garrisoning. That spreads out their units. Now they’ve put a full company of mechs and tanks right by the newly open up mining complex.

So we hit that place first. We have Nineveh Company unloading in that area. Within 15 minutes we have reached their compound and they have moved out to attack us. We are facing 12 mechs and 12 tanks with just 12 mechs – but we have higher level tech, some clan tech, they are all regular pilots, we also 50/50 elite/veteran:


Masakari C
ST-8A Shootist
HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas

DVS-2 Devastator
Vulture B
CPLT-C1 Catapult
WHD-6D Warhammer

WTC-4M Watchman
JVN-10F Javelin
PXH-1D Phoenix Hawk
CMT-1 Comet


We’re also a but on the heavy side. 3 assaults (Masakari, Hatamato, Devastator), 2 mediums (Watchman, PXH), 2 ligghts (Comet, jav) and then a ton of quality heavies (Shootist, Gallowglas, Vulture, Catapult, and Warhammer) with two clan omnis in there.

We believe this is a very winnable battle.


This is our Gallowglas:



http://img.masterunitlist.info/BattleMechs/Gallowglas.png



Here is the enemy company of Mechs, all level 1 tech:

Wasp
BattleMaster
Commando
Crusader
Phoenix Hawk
Shadow Hawk
UrbanMech
Scorpion
Cicada
Goliath
Marauder
JagerMech


There’s a lot of reasons these designs might have been sold as surplus and such. First, some might have been captured in war, and then not needed, like the UrbanMech. Quad designs aren’t valued highly, so the Scorpion and Goliath probably reflect that. Some are highly common Davion mechs that would have been replaced by updated and newer models. You can see mechs like the JagerMech and Commando sliding here. Others are mechs that are venerable, fight for a lot of militaries, but are tired – Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Shadow Hawk, Marauder and Crusader.


He has these tanks:

2x AC2 Carriers
Schrek, AC Carrier version
Ontos
2x Harasser Missile Platforms
2x Goblin Medium Tanks
2x Condor Heavy Hover Tanks
Vedette Medium Tank
Saladin Assault Hover Tank



It also looks like about 5 squads of infantry are with them, and a lance of 4 VTOLS is buzzing around too. We did not have the infantry and VTOLs in our scouting report. The VTOLs are all the AC5 carrying versions of the Warrior Attack Helicopter. 2 squads of jump infantry with machine guns, two foot infantry with machine guns, and a foot with SRMS.

Even with all of this, the battle value for this match is 20206 for them and 31461 for us…


Let’s go!

[Abe Sargent]

We have modest roads, some concrete, light trees and hills. There are two nice heavy woods sniper spots for me. I put my Vulture in one. My Devastator is a 3/5 guy, with a bunch of 4/6 escorts, so I put it on the road to move it in too.

Turn 1 – I lose initiative starting out. I can’t see what, but something of theirs skidded. I focus a lot of fire on their Marauder. This is the more durable version that does not have ammo from the AC5 but the extra large laser that you almost never fire. After a lot of fire nailed it, our Masakari’s ER PPC nails the CT, goes critical, and hits the engine 3x and gyro 3x with other stuff. They concentrated fire on our Masakari, but missed. A lot.

Turn 2 – We lose init again. I took out one of their best mechs in the first turn – that was not bad. I back up my heavier units. They are buzzing my flanks with VTOLs while moving down the center to me. A VTOl of their sideslips but is okay. A Shadow Hawk, turned on pavement, skidded and fell. I concentrate some long range fire on their Crusader, and a bit at tanks moving towards us. For example, our Devastator mech has 2 gauss, and 2 PPCs, so it can just blast stuff at range. Our Vulture destroys a Vedette Medium tank’s left side with missiles (SRM6 streaks). PPC from the Devastator opens their Crusader’s LL and hits the hip actuator. Our Masakari follows that by just destroying the LL completely. It tumbles, hard, after taking more than 100 damage this turn. BOOM! Our Jav kicks and immobilizes a Harasser.

Turn 3 –We lose the initiative again. They keep targeting the Masakari, so I run it up behind some trees to give it a turn of not-being-targeted. I back up a lot of my folks again, because we are doing very well at range. They eject their Harasser. Their Shadow Hawk failed to stand – twice, before finally rising. They ran their Cicada to flank the Vulture’s position in the south, and I just unload on it with stuff with pulse lasers and SRM6s. I am quickly falling in love with a Devastator despite that dopey XL. JagerMech is a target of opportunity and long range this turn. Our Vulture destroys the RA of their Cicada. Our Watchman nails the Cicada’s PPC. Our Devastator destroys the LA and RA on their JagerMech. Our Catapult blows off the RL of the JM. Then our Hatamato-Chi hits the AC5 ammo on the JM and it explodes. BOOM! Now, the safety engine on their JM fails. BOOM times TWO! It immobilizes and stuns the crew on a Condor. Two infantry platoons are killed. Our PXH immobilizes a Harasser.


Turn 4 – We still lose baby. We move forward with the big stuff. They eject from a Harasser and Condor. Saladin does as well. I must have missed its injury – it wasn’t on our map – no line of sight to it. Cicada ejects too since it has no weapons (machine guns on destroys arm, dead PPC). Their Pixie bases our Javelin. Now its time to fire at their best mech – BattleMaster. Their Goliath opens up our Jav and hits a jump jet. Our Masakari destroys the right side of a Goblin. We missed a lot that round.

Turn 5 – We lose again. I push forward again, leading with the Shootist, who I want to make relevant. They retreat their Battemaster. Pansy! Their PXH bases our Masakari. The Masakari punishes him by destroying his RA. Both their BM and PXh fall.

Turn 6 – We finally win initiative. Our PXH leaps next to their downed BM. I divert our Shootist to deal with a Commando that circled behind my Catapult, Devastator and Gallowglas. AC 20 from the Shootist hits the Commando in the CT and its destroyed. BOOM! Our Masakari destroys the LL on their Pixie. The Gallowglas hits the medium laser and AC5 on their Shadow Hawk. Their Pixie falls.

Turn 7 – We win again. They eject their Pixie. I continue to charge forward most of my Mechs. I base their Wasp with my PXH I am turning the Catapult, almost out of ammo, into a scouting charge mech with its 4 medium lasers. Our Hatamato destroys the RT of their BattleMaster. Then the Warhammer destroys the front of a Warrior attack VTOl. Hoping to duplicate the one-shot success of last turn, our Shootist’s AC20 carves into their UrbanMech, hits the RA and destroys it. Our Catapult immobilizes their Shrek (AC Version). Our Gallowglas destroys the LA and LT of their UrbanMech. Our Masakari takes out an AC2 Carrier. Their UM falls. Our Pixie kicks, destroys the RL of their Wasp, which tumbles hard.

The mechs still alive are the savaged Shadow Hawk, Crusader, Wasp, UrbanMech and BattleMaster, plus the Scorpion and Goliath. They have lost tanks, infantry, and VTOLs. The Ducal Guard want to move off, but we have surrounded them on the map. Their VTOLs escape, but everything else is forced to surrender.





Ejected – Tanks: Harasserx2, Condor, Saladin; Mechs: Cicada (missing arm), Pixie (missing leg)

Dead tank – Vedette, Goblin, Warrior VTOL, AC2 Carrier

Marauder – 3x engine, 3x gyro
Crusader, missing LL
Wasp missing RL

Commando, LL, RL, H, RT< LT, LA, RA



Kill – Masakari x3, Vulture, Hatamato-Chi x5, Shootist, Warhammer


We have taken the first installation, and done so massively well. I played this one more cautiously due to the number of foes we faced, and we only went internal on a Javelin. Nasty stuff!

[Abe Sargent]

Our second unloading was Jericho Company. They are at the next major garrison, which has a company of Mechs and they unload and face their garrison at the same time. They have some extra infantry too, but no vehicles


Here is the powerful Jericho Company:


Daishi A
GLT-3N Guillotine
FLS-8K Flashman
Loki D-UK

GRN-D-01 Grand Crusader
RFL-3N Rifleman
Mad Cat Prime
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk

WVR-6M Wolverine
WLF-2 Wolfhound
WTC-4M Watchman
SDR-5V Spider

That’s three Omni clan mechs (Loki, Mad Cat, and Daishi). Also 50/50 elite and veteran.

Here’s our Grand Crusader, a design made for Word of Blake and friends, which we captured when we were normally doing Smash the Blake mission for ComStar.


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSF94qFGEQZ9KYwHScIAcMeHqaWFaoifS4qf_GMa5IdZA7BdGR7xw


Our foes:


Banshee
Chameleon
2x Griffin
JagerMech
Jenner
Striker
Zeus
Locust
Stinger
Quickdraw
Rifleman


3 platoons of MG Foot, and 2 of flamer foot

We have, roughly, three times their Battle Value.

[Abe Sargent]

The map has no buildings, elevation, or trees. But we do have a lot of ruins and rough, some concrete too.

Turn 1 – We lose init. I move a strong strike force in the center, led by our Daishi, charging north between some rubble. Our Daishi’s large pulse laser sheers into their JagerMech’s head and goes internal, almost a dead mech! Our Mad Cat follows by hitting the engine and gyro once each on the JM . Guillotine destroys the LA. Meanwhile our Flashman’s large laser nails the gyro on their Locust. Both of their mech’s tumble hard.

Turn 2 – I’m getting used to losing Init a lot I guess. I keep pushing. I think we can end this quickly. Their Locust stands, runs around behind our Guillotine, and then falls. It’s hard to run with a hit gyro. We concentrate fire on their Banshee and dole more than 120 damage into it and it falls hard. Our G Crusader kicks, destroys the LT and CT of their Locust.


Turn 3 –We win init. I base their Striker with our Mad Cat. We are all moving to each other in a big bru-ha-ha. Their JM fails to stand and their pilot blacks out, so I run over our Watchman and Wolfhound to it. Our WLF severs the H of their JM. Meanwhile our Wolverine hits the engine, twice, on their Banshee. Our Guillotine cracks their Striker’s Head with a through armor critical, and hits life support and sensors. Our Mad Cat follows with a pair of engine hits on the Striker too. Finally, our Grand Crusader unloads some LRM20 action and hits the engine twice more and takes out that Banshee. After taking 120+ the Striker just crumples to the ground.


Turn 4 – We lose init again. I don’t think this’ll go on too much longer. Their Striker fails to stand, falls, and the pilot blacks out. I have our Wolverine, Watchman, and Wolfhound surround their Rifleman. After softening it for him, the Grand Crusader destroys the RA, RT, LT, LA of their Rifleman. Our Guillotine hits their Zeus’s head twice, with medium lasers – the pilot blacked out . The the Flashman follows with a medium laser and dead Zeus, H destroyed

With 6 mechs left that aren’t blacked out or defeated (Griffin, wounded Griffin, wounded Chameleon, Jenner, Quickdraw) they radio their surrender.


Rifleman missing LT, LA, RT, RA
JagerMech, missing H, RT
Locust H, RT, RA, RL, LA
Banshee, 4xengine
Striker, just internal damage.
Zeus, missing H


Kills – Grand Crusaderx3, Wolfhound, Flashman

[Abe Sargent]

At precisely the same time, our third company unloads right outside of their final fort with a company of mechs. (The other two cities have a company of tanks each). Our foes begin to flee, but we buzz them with fighters, and they lack fighter support, so they choose to turn and face us full on, rather than have a running battle.


Babylon Company:


ATA-2 Attila
Thor C
THG-11E Thug
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas

GRN-D-01 Grand Crusader
Vulture D-UK
ARC-4M Archer
GRF-3M Griffin

ALX-1kc Alexander
VL-5T Vulcan
CMT-1 Comet
JR7-F Jenner


7 elite, and 5 veteran pilots

Vulture and Thor are clan mechs.


This is our Thor baby:

http://940ee6dce6677fa01d25-0f55c9129972ac85d6b1f4e703468e6b.r99.cf2.rackcdn.com/products/pictures/185661.jpg



They have 5 units of infantry too (3x SRM, 2x MG), plus…

Vindicator
Panther
Longbow
Grasshopper
Commando
Charger
Stalker
Wolverine
Whitworth
Wasp
Warhammer
Blackjack


We are more than three times their BV

[Abe Sargent]

No elevation, and nothing to hide behind, just wide open terrain, with a small river, concrete, and rubble.

Turn 1 – We lose initiative. Again. Light early damage doesn’t do a lot, and their Wolverine falls from something like 20 damage.

Turn 2 – We lose. Again. I am dashing my heaviest units across this field. They base my Vulcan with their Wolverine after it stands. Our Vulture nails a leg actuator on their wasp. Their Wolverine falls again, as does their Wasp.


Turn 3 –We win init. They rise the Wasp. I hop my Vulcan beside their Commando. Jenner runs behind their Longbow. We keep missing – its annoying. Meanwhile, their Panther gets a limb bowl off critical again my Vulcan’s RA. Their Longbow gets a through armor crit and nails a foot actuators in a leg of my Attila. Our Archer’s rear facing medium laser destroys the CT of their Wasp and its down. Whoa! Our Jenner hits the rear of the Longbow, which no one else has touched., First medium laser – center torso rear. Second medium laser? Center torso rear, 3 crits rolls, Gyro, Gryo, AMMO (who puts ammo in the CT of a mech -0 that’s dumb) and it explodes. Our Comet took out most of an infantry squad.


Turn 4 – We lose init. I run my overheated Jenner away. My Thor bases their Stalker. My Vulcan runs behind their Panther. Our Comet kills the platoon of infantry. Our Thor unloads, with the Ultra AC 20 leading the way and hits the Stalker for more than 60 damage by himself. Then our Gallowglas hits LRM 10 ammo in the Stalker’s LA. 60 damage from the explosion. Dead LA Dead LT. Deaad CT. Dead mech. Meanwhile our Vulture destroys the LA and hits some legs on their Blackjack. Everyone is still standing.


Turn 5 – We win init. Jump the Jenner behind their Commando. Lots of basing. They have a bunch of wounded mechs – BJ, Vindicator, panther, Wolverine. I’ma try to take out multiple ones this turn. Expecting an alpha strike, I go overheat on multiple mechs. Our Thor’s Ultra AC20 destroys the LT of their Vindicator. Our Vulcan nails the gyro and engine once each on the Panther. Our Vulture the gyro once and engine twice on their Wolverine. RA of their Panther is destroyed by our Thug. Our Grand Crusader destroys the Blackjack’s LL and the Vindicators RL, and then….CT too looks like. Our Attila destroys the RT, RL, And CT of their BJ. Our Alexander destroys the RT of their Commando. Their Panther and Wolverine fall. Our Vulcan kicks, hits the ammo in the LT and destroys their Panther.


With a pristine Charger and Whitworth, and damaged Wolverine and Commando, they call it.


Wasp, H, LL, RL, RT, LT, LA, LA
Longbow H, LT, LL, RL, LA
Stalker H, RA
Vindicator H, LL, RT, RA, LT, LA
Blackjack H, LT, LA
Panther LA



Us – reattach Vulcan’s RA


Kills – Archer, Jenner, Comet, Gallowglas, Grand Crusader, Attila, Vulcan

[Abe Sargent]

We radio Duke Small. Does he want to concede Small World to the Coalition? Or continue his battle?

After three battles, not only have we not lost a mech, we’ve only lost a couple of limbs. We have 34 of 36 mechs fully operational, plus the fighters on top of that.

After that display, Duke Small is ready to call it.



October 3, 3064 – Duke Small has agreed to have Small World join the coalition. We don’t need to toss him out and hold elections. There’s just one noble family on Small World. That’s all there’s ever been. And the people have a loyalty of centuries to his family. There’s no major uprisings or anything of no either, plus he owns virtually all of the mines, so it would be hard to remove him. Chief Foster recommends leaving behind a small, secret, intelligence team to make sure he remains loyal. But he knows that a Great House that retook Small World would have ousted him, his family, and taken his mines and given them to one of their contractors.

So he’s annoyed, but not massively so.



We’ll leave behind our Battalion as a garrison for now.


We create:

1st Small World Militia – 5 VTOLs, 11 squads of infantry, 19 mechs that surrendered or ejected are used to rebuild the garrison, 29 tanks.


We bring in all of the salvage back home to roost


End of the First Small World Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

October 4, 3064 - An old comrade has arrived at Outreach, and jumped over to Epsilon Eridani to talk with Duke Essex. He is Col. Jurgen Peterson, CO of the Legion of the Rising Sun, a regiment of ex-Combine mercenaries.

The Legion served a variety of states, and both Kilts and Commandoes and the Legion were staging on the world of Wolcott against Clan Smoke Jaguar for the Draconis Combine at the same that. That was the mission were Essex personally led his unit, and found and captured a WarShip the Manassas from the clan, which they then traded to ComStar for the one they have now. Both groups operated from the same base for a while, and that led to mutual meetings together, working on administrative aspects of command, such as materiel and supply, and even had some joint training sessions to keep people fresh a few times.

They finished the Combine deal in 3059 and Word of Blake made them an offer, but they instead took a 5 year deal with the Free Worlds League, which is almost over (It ends December 1, 3064). The price of a mercenary has dropped in the FWLM and they aren’t being offered as much to renew, so they are casting about for new offers. Consider the high price the Coalition offers folks, as well as the professional relationship between Essex and Peterson, he’s here to see what might be done for his unit.

The Legion is a strong regiment of mechs. Peterson considers himself a samurai (albeit a masterless ronin) and he only hires soldiers that meet his criteria of honor, duty, principles, and martial standing. That’s a good fit for who we are – keeping fights out of cities, keeping locals out of battle, restoring and investing in people and more. They are a very good, strong unit, and would immediately give us a nasty force, on the level of us, or Smithson’s Chinese Bandits.

They have their own DropShips, although no JumpShips. They are a veteran reliable unit, withal upgraded units, as well as some clan tech and mechs in there too.

Essex makes Peterson a nice offer. A 5 year contract, as a retainer, in order to be used. We’ll toss in a little extra, plus one more bonus. He escorts Peterson to their mech garage and shows him a clan OmniMech captured during the Liberty campaign. The Blood Asp. It’s a power, potent, nasty assault omni mech recently made. You get that, and the extra money too.

They shake hands. By December 18, 3064, the Legion of the Rising Sun arrives under a contract with the Celestial Coalition and will head to Caph for now. We fear the Combine could strike at Caph now that we are rebuilding it. Putting a unit on planet that is made up of ex-Combine folks, who is on great relations with the DCMS and locals there, garrisoning the world will hopefully keep the Dragon from attacking a world that might end up being a political snafu.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Hall Campaign


Hall is in an odd place. It’s the home of the Ridzek sons who created the New Tikonov Republic. They tried to take Tall Trees, lost, and our moving into worlds near them, like Elgin and Hsien bottled them up. Since then, they have turtled up.


November 1, 3064 – We begin to get the Hall Campaign ready. Blake is aiding us with a very Blacke-ish idea. Hall is the most difficult of the worlds to absorb after Caph. The Ridzeks are okay, but not major players. They conquered the world and brought them together from a variety of factions, and haven’t really sucked as rulers or anything to open up any doors.



So the people of Hall enjoy the Ridzeks.

[Abe Sargent]

Our goal is to sort of “encourage” Hall to join us voluntarily.

Hall’s greatest fear is the Capellan Confederation taking them. They are currently pushing against the Saiph Triumvirate and moving to bring them back into the House Liao fold. That will put Hall as the sole world between Marik, Liao, and us. Both of the major houses could make a play for Hall at any time and we’ve been pretty expansionistic as well, so frankly, Hall probably doubts it will remain the “New Tikonov Free Republic” for long.

What we want to do is to force it to voluntarily join us, while the Confederation is focused on the three worlds of the Triumvirate and finishing them off. (With Blake help as well)


So here is the goal. We are going to take a group of mechwarriors from our garrison here on Epsilon Eridani, assign them with Liao mechs from the garrison, paint them up in the colors of Warrior House Fujita, a group of Warrior House folks with a long and troubled history of nearby contention in the area, and then do an Objective Raid on Hall, in order to push their fear.

[Abe Sargent]

That’s our goal.

We have these mechs assigned to this taskforce:

2x Raven
2x Thunder
3x Lao Hu
3x Men Shen
2x Catapult
Vindicator
2x Commando
Caesar
2x Locust
Warhammer
Snake
Orion
2x Wolverine
Hunchback
2x Firestarter
Rifleman
Crusader
Wasp
Marauder
Black Knight
2x Clint
Goliath
Phoenix Hawk
Blackjack


So this unit includes a lot of House Liao mechs, and then some generic mechs to round out the numbers that could, legitimately, be in a Warrior House unit.

Our garrison MWs are green or regular. We will be heading in a triad of transport JumpShips that will just let us unload, quietly in a local DropPort that is near an industrial complex, hit it quickly grabbing minor but feasible stuff, and fend off any tanks or mechs that might protest our presence, load up on the DropShips (which will be slower, since they are cargo ships) and then blast off and return. We will jump to Tall Trees, then to Aldebaran in the CC< and then two jumps back to EE. That way in case they hear about it.

They just arrived on the planet.

[Abe Sargent]

November 3, 3064 – After scouting around a bit, they have decided to strike at a pair of local warehouses just three miles from the DropPort. They unload and break out. One of our makeshift companies hangs back to secure the landing zone. The other two break out. One will secure the transport area, and makes sure that vehicles, planes, VTOLs, and other things in the area are just civilian, and clears a path, and the third hits the warehouse.

In fifteen minutes, a few infantry platoons arrive at the DropPort and begin to spread out. They are not starting a fight with a company of hostile mechs, but are securing combat zones, evacuating folk, protecting centers of population and such.

As the companies head out, a lance of scout mechs arrive in the area, and are not attacking, because of the huge outnumbered nature of the area. They begin to secure lines of fire to get ready, and attack us.

Meanwhile, the third company is at the warehouses, fired and destroyed the tops of the warehouses, and mechs are reaching in and pulling out boxes, crates, and equipment. The warehouses have military and industrial supplies.

Because we aren’t taking much, within a few minutes, we have secured what we want and begin to fade. A company of tanks arrive but they decide to let us go as our forces are combining together, and they don’t want to face an entire battalion of mechs.

Within less than 2 hours, we have lifted off and the plan worked very successfully. We took about 9 million worth of stuff.

[Abe Sargent]

November 5, 3064 – Local Blake inspired folks have begun to bad-mouth the Warrior House and Liao’s militarization.

Nov 18, 3064 – Demonstrations have begun against Liao expansionism in the Saiph Triumvirate right on Hall. Blake is playing both sides nicely. They helped Liao take the Styk Commonality, now they are helping in Saiph area, but now they are bad-mouthing to push Hall to us.


Nov 24, 3064 – The demonstrations are beginning to take on a pro-Celestial Coalition feel. Local talking heads are talking about the choice between Liao and us, and about how we’ve got a good track record of letting local planets retain power, and investing in their infrastructure.

Dec 14, 3064 – The growing groundswell of pro-Coalition feeling and increased considerably.



Jan 11, 3065 – The Ridzik brothers have agreed, and applied to join the Celestial Coalition. We bring them in a few weeks.


Hall has joined the Coalition, and again, Blake has delivered on a promise as designed.

(In real world, Blake convinced Hall to join the Free Worlds League in 3067. Using Blake in the exact same way Marik would use, for the same benefit, bringing them to an ally, makes pure sense.)


End of the Hall Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

THIRD WHITTING CONFERENCE - 3064


At the 3rd Whitting Conference, against the backdrop of the FedCom Civil War, the Inner Sphere again meets with the 3rd Star League conference.


The First Lord Theodore Kurita arrives and opens the ceremonies here in the Free Worlds League. The earliest business is that of our own election to the Star League. We host a presentation, and point out some of the unique aspects of our nation. Unlike most Inner Sphere smaller powers, we were not formed by civil war or revolution, we carved a state out of the region of space that was left behind by others. We have united fishers and farmers, shepherds and soldiers, merchants and miners.

After consideration, we are granted Star League status, unanimously. We thought Katrina might vote against us for no reason other than to be uppity, but she relented. I think our actions on Nanking have helped pull her around a bit.

More business occurs over the next few days. The Word of Blake is nominated for membership by Thomas Marik, and Duke Essex seconds it. Sun-Tzu Liao nominates the Taurian Concordat and Marik seconds it. That’s supposed to be it for nominations for the Star League, but Essex surprises everyone by nominating the Magistracy of Canopus. After a pause, Sun-Tzu seconds.

At the 4th Conference, in 3067, those three bodies will present and then be voted on for membership. It’ll be held in Tharkad in the Lyran Alliance.

Meanwhile, in the final bit of business, Christian Mansdottir, is elected First Lord of the Star League in a negotiated agreement to have an unaligned member as the leader.

[Abe Sargent]

MercNet Review of Duke James Essex, the Celestial Coalition, and Kilts and Commandoes


After having been a mercenary for more than 30 years, and building his mercenary command from a mixed company to one of the largest, and most famous mercenary units in the Inner Sphere, Duke Essex understands the mercenary business virtually better than anyone. It’s a strong testament to his view of mercenaries that he has hired quite a few since turning his own command into his own nation in the Celestial Coaltion.

Unlike other smaller states, the Coalition embraces the use and value of merc units. Their offers are lucrative, they support other units with tech and transport, and they usually give generous salvage rights. In fact, according to our database, the Coalition pays better and compensates mercenaries better than four of the five great houses.

Another major point to consider is that mercenary units have never been used in a grinding capacity as cannon fodder by Essex and his team. In fact, he has taken on multiple mercenary units, and then actively looked to strengthen them and let them grow from losses in Chaos March battles, the Civil War, or the Clan invasion. The banner example of this is Smithson’s Chinese Bandits, who dropped from two regiments to two battalions, but since then, have bee rebuilt to a full regiment again in just a few years under the auspicies of the Coalition.

Because they are still growing, as well as rebuilding their military, the Coalition has a strong need for mercenaries to supplement their forces. They are at the crossroads of every major House, and at any time, the Combine could decide to pluck Caph or the Federated Suns Acamar or the Free Worlds League Hsien and Elgin, and the Lyran Alliance New Home and Keid and the Capellan Confederation Zurich or Nanking. Because of the uniqueness of their situation, and the lack of a guarantee of extanice (like the Federated Commonwealth gave the St. Ives Compact for so long), the Coalition is likely to need mercenaries from here on out.

[Abe Sargent]

The Civil War in 3064:

As 3064 gets fully underway, the Federated Suns battles are beginning to wrap up. While most of the early flare ups were here, they have been mostly put down and won by one or the other side. But the Lyran battles are fully engaged now, and blowing up. By now, most of the major units are engaged in battles that are ongoing. Other units are getting called in.

Kathil continues to be the crucible of this war, with sides investing troops into the battle. Talon and Tikonov are also major places of concern.

The major battle of this war is the counter attack since the Ghost Bear border conflict was now over, by the Draconis Combine on the captured world. They are mad, and ready to strike hard at Duke Robinson. Massive troops deployments follow.


Because of the huge Jade Falcon Incursion, both sides sort of set their battles aside and fought together in the Alliance. Adam Steiner manages to fight them off after creating a variety of defenses. The Falcons capture more worlds from the Lyrans though, and keep some.




By the middle of Fall, most of the worlds were under fire by the Dragon. By the end of the year, the worlds had been recaptured, and punitive strikes into the Draconis March by the massed were underway.

Kathil continues to be a major battlefield. Tikonov and a few others are also ongoing.

The Free Skye Revolt becomes a major player in the battle in the fall of 3064.

[Abe Sargent]

December 10, 3064 – After the marriage of Sun-Tzu and Isis Marik has brought their realms closer and closer, Sun-Tzu has begin incorporating his alliances with the two Periphery realms of the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus into the Marik-Liao hegemony.

Dec 11, 3064 – The Bandits found the bandits, took them, down, captured two DropShips, and a company of mechs for their unit. Like all of our mercs, they get 100% salvage, so they keep it all. We do have a line that says if they want to sell any salvage, we have the right of first refusal for the full market value. One of the DropShips, a Union, they’ll keep, for the mechs they salvaged. They can add a command company to their unit to bring it to 10 companies, instead of the nine they currently have. The other DropShip is a Mule, which they don’t need. We buy it from them for cargo and transport needs.


December 19, 3064 – After the Oppenheimer Vees begin working on Caph eight months ago, they have cleared out to the two areas of the two factories on planet that we think are recoverable. We suspect we can clean them up in around a half year or so.

[Abe Sargent]

December 31, 3064 -

Essex Training Academy


We have 18 MW graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 28 enrollees for next year. All are staying in the Coalition. We also have 7 graduates of vehicle crews, all regular. We hand them vehicles and move them to our garrison or out to local Coalition worlds. 8 enroll for next year, and 10 infantry squads are now being trained as well. 8 infantry squads are completed, the Aerotech wing has its grads – 5 total. 8 more enroll for the 1st year.

We create an Academy Battalion for the senior class, and its 20 folks.


Year 4 - 20
Year 3 – 24
Year 2 - 26
Year 1 – 28

Armor – 8

Aerospace, Year 2 - 8
Aerospace, Year 1 - 8

Infantry, Year 2 - 8
Infantry, Year 1 - 10

We pay 17.5 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

[Abe Sargent]

The following conversations were recorded by Apollo Office agents that are spying on Duke Hasek's office:




“If we are going into Nanking, we have to win. We can’t expect to arrive at Nanking with a win, and then lose. The amount of materal we would be forced to commit to the campaign requires us to win. If we lose, then that will set us back so much.”

“You are currect Duke.”

“So, let’s take another look at everything they have on planet. We have to take Nanking.”

“The first thing is the flotilla they keep in defense. Sometimes they move it temporarily to help out in another situation, but right now, they have the two WarShips, that include the Fox that they captured from us, as well as the Swift Justice Aegis class they have.”

“Do they have any personnel remain on the Fox that we could use?”

“No, they were very careful about using their own people. They’ve had a WarShip for longer than we have, so they had a lot of folks available to slide over. In addition to the WarShips, they have the pocket WarShip, the Overlord A-3 they took from us, as well as ships like a Hamilcar, Claymores, Achilles, and such.”

“And it seemed like a lot of fighters.”

“It’s taken them some serious cash, but they transferred over some dead pilots, and have sent over many of the Ironsides fighters from Liberty they buy up. They picked up some fighters from the market, and they now are back to almost 80 or 90 fighters. It’s more than your typical assault fighter group by far, but you could have more. They have also replaced their small craft, so the flotillia is a major obstable. Before thinking of the units on planet, we would have to go in hot enough and strong enough to push them aside.”

“Could we create a diversion in another system to pull them away?”

“Not easily. Remember that their Captain, Randall Lewis, is arguably the single most experienced WarShip pilot in the Inner Sphere. He was in numerous WarShip battles during the Star league era, and fought in some of the biggest battles in history. You can’t expect to distract him, or out maneuver him. In order to win, we have to assume that he’ll outsmart you. So you need a big enough force to deal with his surprises, and still win.”

“Setting him aside, what sort of a flotilla would be enough?”

“Well Duke, their Swift Victory is a massively nasty craft. Our own Avalon class WarShip is the only thing in our arsensal that’s close. Let me put this in BattleMech terms. Our Overlord A3 is like a Commando. Our Fox is like a Wolfhound. Together, they can damamge an enemy mech. Their mech is a tough, durable, heavy mech, that’s almost an assault mech, like an Orion or a Warhammer. We can’t rely on just having a lot of Foxes or Overlords. You’ve seen the video from the battle. They dominated, and only were slowed down a it, and were intentionally trying not to destroy the Fox because they wanted to capture it. They blown in out faster had they wanted or needed to. Our Avalon is a missile boat, like an Archer. But the Avalon is a heavy armored Archer, that’s hard to penetrate. Their unit has a ton more weapons than we have, and is the better design, but ours is not bad. So we’d need an Avalon backed by at least two Foxes and three Overlords , or other Pocket Warships to take out their Aegis.”

“We can probably borrow that.”

“Hold on. Now add another Fox and Overlord to counter theirs. Now toss on another Overlord to make sure we have the edge in that battle. We would need an Avalon, three Foxes, and five Overlords (or other ships) to win the battle.”

“Wow…”

“I know. And more. Are you willing to win the battle but lose an Avalon? There’s only 11 out there, and they are roughly divded between Katrina and Victor. Do you think either side will loan you an Avalon to retake Nanking unless you are really sure that they’ll get it back?”

“I’m owed some favors I can call it. Or I can declare for one side, and get an Avalon for it. Anyway, other than the WarShips, what else would you want?”

“Right, now….I’d want at least 120 fighters. Then add in double the number of assault DropShips, say, 20. Take in 15 heavy assault DropShips, 120 fighters, three Foxes, an Avalon, five Overlords, and I think you are likely to win.”

“That is committing a lot for this planet…”

“True, and it’s just the naval forces. Now, the planet ones:

They have the Swann’s Cavaliers unit, one each regiment of veteran mechs, tanks, and infantry, with a strong aerospace presence. That’s one set of problems.

They have their Epsilon Regiment on planet. This is an elite/veteran regiment of mechs, that includes large amounts of clan mechs and upgraded mechs that are extrmemely strong.

Now, add in their Nordic Weapon Battlation, which was designed to be a tough Black Widow Battalion like unit, with all elite pilots, and the best of the best in terms of mechs.

The next is a battlation of tanks that Kilts and Commandoes runs. Not a major problem

Then add in some local militia, including infantry, mercs that work for Kallon and other locals that were vetted by K&C.

Everything on planet are veterans and elites. Infantry, tanks, mechs, fighters, and this is going to be a very difficult nut to crack.”

“Again, best estimate to take them out?”

“Kilts and Commandos have done really well, historically,by having foes that underestimate them. You need to go in three to one to have any chance of taking them out. Especially this regiment and battlation. If you want to take out these 12 companies, you need 36. You need for regiments of elite and veteran mechs. Then you need a regiment of armor against theirs. Then I’d add 2:1 odds against the Cavaliers, who are battle tested, and strong. My realistic chance of taking Nanking would involve 6 regiments of mechs, 3 of armor, 3 of infantry, and an another 36 fighters for the ground support.”

“Wow. That’s a lot more than I thought it would take.”

“It’s a lot. Now, Nanking has really enjoyed their time in the Coalition right now, and they are very popular. They were never a pro-Davion world, but always felt more Steiner, and we’ve had issues keeping it at times. Word of Blake is getting units that ComStar was receiveing from Kallon, and they have some units on planet and are a strong ally with the Coalition. Will Nanking and Blake resist us? It’s likely. How much? Those are wild cards we can’t account for. Here’s another one, Kallon Industries has been building a nice relationship as well, and will be opening another mech line that the Coalition funded.”

“But we can reclaim Nanking. Sure, it’ll be a major commitment. But we can do it.”

“True. But I have this Duke? Is it worth it? If we take them out, but lose three WarShips, 7 or 8 DropShips, 300 mechs, 130 tanks, and 100 fighters, all to take Nanking, is that worth it? The massive amount of financial loss for the potential win is a cost-benefit analysis I think we lose. Kallon Industries on planet made the Ontos and Partisan tank, neither of which aren’t replaceable. They made Shadow Hawks and Wolverines. It would take a decade to replace the mech losses from this battle, from the planet we would capture. That’s not a huge incentive to take it. Especially, if things turn sour. Imagine that Wolf’s Dragoons defended it. You wouldn’t touch it, right? Well, Duke Hasek, sire, if you want me to do this, I will do this as best and as quickly as I can. And we’ll take it back. But, any campaign against Nanking will be a loss before it begins.”


“I’ll think it over then.”




A few weeks later…

“So no one wants to let go of an Avalon. They are split 6-5 in the Civil War, they are guarding precious places, and used in major naval engagements. They are just aren’t available.”

“And if we removed an Avalon from the invasion flotilla, what then?”

“We don’t have a ship that can reliably face a heavy cruiser Aegis class WarShip. It was one of the prides of the Star League. At that point, you’d need to bring like 8 Foxes and 12 pocket WarShips. It’s just not doable without the Avalon.”

“What about a Mjolnir class, what would be the chance of it cracking the Aegis?”

“I see where you are going with this. You think you could borrow or get one from the pro-Victor forces in the Lyran Alliance?”

“Perhaps. So what if we did that?”

“As you know, the Mjolnir was specifically designed to beat an Avalon. No inner sphere WarShip has more armor, and it has a massive amount of weaponry to boot. It’s a Battlecruiser, and an amazingly nasty ship. If you could secure it, that’s a better ship than their Aegis, and it’d push the odds in our favor considerably.”

“Let me see what I can do then.”

“Well, remember Duke that there’s only three of them out there.”





“It was just captured by Clan Wolf-in-Exile? Can we use it? Oh, it was that badly damaged then…”

“Duke Hasek, we’re going to be able to secure them. One is in drydock still beng built, our intel was wrong on that. One was captured by Clan Wolf (Exile), and the other was damaged and under Katrina’s control. “

“Can you think of anyone else willing to help us? ComStar maybe?”

“ They are allied with Blake, Marik, and Liao. Kurita doesn’t care, and ComStar is doing more important stuff. There is no one else out there.”

“I can’t believe that we’ll just let them go, take Nanking, and let them walk away with it!” Duke Hasek slams his hand on the desk and walks out.

[Abe Sargent]

3065


January 6, 3065 – We have taken meetings with Martinson Armaments for their factory on Caph that we will be helping them restore. They have a factory on Terra that makes units for the Word of Blake, using their own designs. So we won’t be making them here. But what we can do is use some older designs that were destroyed.

The first is the Spartan. The SPT-N2 was made by Martinson starting in 2765, for the Star League. 80 tons, almost max armor, 5/8 movment (XL engine, yuck), 13/36 heat sinks, almost full armor, and 3x medium pulse lasers, ER PPC, TAG, 2x SRM2 streaks and an anti-missile system with two tons of ammo. (No CASE though which is dumb). 1605 BV and 20.5 million CBills. That’s pricey.

The next mech they made was the Kyudo, first debuted back in 2443. A later model, the D-02 was made by them. Get ready:

45 tons, almost max armor. No XL Engine, 5/8 movement, 10/20 heat sinks.
LRM20, CASE, 2 tons of ammo, Artemis IV, and ER Large Laser
1286 BV, 4.441 million CBills

We have already fallen in love with it.

So, we have authorized the rebooting of their Spartan and Kyudos on Caph, and the Kyudo will be made with two lines (roughly 2x month) and the Spartan at 1.

(In the main line, after being restored, we don’t know what they made. This stuff makes sense)

This gives them time to find all of the weapons, equipment and such long before everything is secure. But they have the blueprints for the chassis and such already.

[Abe Sargent]

January 9, 3065 – Word of Blake takes a meeting with Duke Essex. After helping to bring in the worlds of Nanking and Hall, they want us to take another world – Errai. It’s right on the border, so it makes map—sense. Errai also makes sense because it has a major factory on world, Maltex Corporation. It used to make BattleMech designs back in the Star League and Succession War eras, but their factory was destroyed, so they became more of a design and licensing firm for military hardware. They are the company that created and made mechs like the Thug, the Wyvern, the Assassin, and such.

After the clan invasion, ComStar needed some more mechs, especially after they lost Terra. A few months later, they approached Maltex with an offer of capital investment to reignite their company and rebuild it. About 15 months ago, the first Thugs and Wyverns rolled off the lines again, and into the ComGuard, which means some are on the pro-Victor side of the war.

For obvious reasons, Victor’s side has secured Errai. He‘s still, technically, Precentor Martial of ComStar. Word of Blake would like us to take Errai, so they can remove ComStar from getting these mechs, and put themselves there instead. They are willing to split production with us 50/50 if we do, and we can add Thugs and Wyverns to our unit. Old Thugs are still made in the Free Worlds League, reintroduced a few years ago and licensed by Maltex. No one is making Wyverns anywhere else though.

While an attack against Errai makes sense from a production and logistical standing, there’s just no way we could sell it as anything other than warmongering. Only two non-Chaos March worlds are a part of the Coalition – Zurich, who asked to join, and Nanking, who was conquered but sort-of willingly. Both were parts of the former Capellan Confederation taken in the 4th Succession War, and both were unhappy with their current situation having been switched from the Sarna March to the Capellan one, and both were ready to more to us.

Errai isn’t. You might think a mech factory world, one on the border, would have switched hands more with the Draconis Combine. Nope. It was originally a Terran Hegemony world, and then post Hegemony fall, the Federated Suns took it, and kept it ever since.

It’s not a smart move politically. It’s in the Draconis March, which has been a useful enough ally for decades. Our ally rules it.

Blake mentions that Maltex is pissed off at ComStar for skipping some payment despite delivery. They want to sell to Blake and others, but can’t. ComStar has an exclusivity contract, and you can see how likely that’d be with pro-Victor units on planet.

In case the political situation on Errai changes, go ahead and plan for us to take it. You never know…..

(Early BattleTech products were weird on this issue. Errai is listed as the place of manufacture for the Hatamato-Chi in Technical readout 3050 and other places, and Errai is the site of the production of the HC and in Combine control in the Objective Raids sourcebook. Later on, to explain this away, Errai and Maltex Corp were used as a smokescreen by the Combine intelligence to keep them from finding the real location of the production of the Hatamato-Chi, although that still doesn’t explain why the Fed-Com would think they Hatamato would be made on a factory in their own space. It’s handwaved as, “Maybe Maltex was building a factory deep in Combine space somewhere?” but that doesn’t answer the issue of why Errai is listed as the homeworld of the mech’s production) So I guess you can take whatever canon view you want on the thing. In our world, we’ll follow the major plotline – Errai does not make Hatamato-Chi, but since they make Thugs, it basically the same thing.

[Abe Sargent]

BEGIN MINOR RANT ON BATTLETECH –

This actually leads me to one of the “changes” that were made to the universe and canon which I’m not overly fond of. In the early days of BattleTech, there were a lot of high-profile early designs that were virtual copies of mechs, or toys, from Japan. The vast majority of mechs in 3025 TRO were of this ilk. Later on, these designs would be used in 3050 TRO as updated LosTech versions of those mechs, and in 3055 with clan refits. A few designs were also outsourced to other companies from TRO 3055 and 3058.

The problem was that a lawsuit emerged and FASA, as part of the resolution of that suit, had to ban all images of the mechs it took from other companies. They also decided to make sure they covered their bases, and even banned those mechs that were outsourced, or those from companies not involved in the legal action. All of these mechs collectively became referred to as Unseen.

The Unseen included absolute classic designs – Shadow Hawk, Griffin, Archer, Phoenix Hawk, Locust, Warhammer, Marauder, and loads more.

Now, imagine trying to sell an updated version of TRO 3025 without all of those mechs? What about 3050 without the updated ones, or 3055 without the clan versions and outsourced designs?

These designs represented Star League era mechs, which had been defanged in the Succession War era, and then refigured on the backside of the LostTech era of the 3040s and 3050s. They can still be mentioned in sourcebooks, but how do you support their existence in a book that is made after they’ve been removed from the TRO? It would be like including monsters in an adventure published for D&D that aren’t explained, and aren’t in the Monster Manual either. TROs are essentially the Monster Manual of BattleTech.

So, they did what they could. They gave the Star League exclusive designs from the 2750 TRO a similar parabola to the Unseen mechs. In the back-story previously, these mechs only existed in lost warehouses, a handful of hand-me-downs, and secretly in the ComGuard. Their factories were destroyed, the technology required to make them was lost, and so forth.

But now, in the new 3025, we have stripped down versions of all of the mechs from the 2750 TRO. These makes some sense. You can see how a mech from 2755 still around in 3025 would have replaced it’s old equipment with lower quality stuff. You could downgrade that ER PPC to a normal one, just as an example. Or ferro-fib armor becomes normal armor. That’s okay, I guess, as a stopgap.

But then they made some changes to the history. Some of these mechs were still made. The Flashman, for example, was still getting made in the 3025 era, just as a downtech version of the unit, similar to other designs like the Griffin, Locust and Valkyrie.

That’s not good. But they pushed it again. In the upgraded 3050, they included them, again, and this time discussed the new places where many of them are being manufactured again. While a handful of designs are still retired (such as the Mongoose), many are being made in large numbers – King Crab, Hussar, Thug, Highlander, Black Knight, and so forth.


This is a problem. First of all, it changed history and the products just to deal with the fallout of a legal snafu that FASA should never have been in. It took stuff that happened in real life and had it effect the actual game world. That’s dumb.

But there are a variety of other reasons why you can’t these sorts of changes. History in the world reflected them. The best example was the War of 3039, in which a mega powerful Federated Commonwealth invades the much weaker, and now denuded, Draconis Combine. While their initial pushes are awesome, and fuelled by successes, they hit some surprising units, weapons, and mechs, and those help to turn the tide. Used in a strong counterattacks as well, units that didn’t exist using mechs that aren’t real and wielding weapons from a history book are fighting strongly. So the war is called off.

Many mechs from the Star league era were given to the Combine by ComStar in order to keep the FedCom restrained. These mechs were the mechs from the 2750 TRO, such a Kintaros, Champions, Flashmen, Crabs, Crocketts, and such. They had the old updated technology.

FedCom units came up against this stuff and were shocked, and lost battles because of it in multiple places. This was recorded in multiple sourcebooks (25 year update or TRO 3050 as two major examples).

Now, how would that work, exactly, if those mechs were really common? Imagine if, instead of a group of the mechs that found, they just came across a set of Shadow Hawks with double heat sinks or a Warhammer with a pair of ER PPCS instead of PPCs. Would that have been so surprised, so shocking, that you would have los the engagement? Obviously not. It was the appearance of LostTech mechs wielding LostTech equipment combined to help defeat the invading forces.

And these historical changes to the 3025 era are all a result of the fallout.

Now, which is the purer vision for my dynasty? When I play through the eras, do I have a bunch of these post-Unseen changes in my world? Are there Flashmen getting made? Obviously, I have retained the Unseen, and I don’t have a whole party of Flashmen we encountered and took out. And now we have these dopey Thugs, Wyverns, Champions, and lots more flooding the area in the post-3050 universe. I’ve tried to keep them at some degree of arms length, but that becomes increasingly more difficult as time marches on.

END RANT-ISH THING

[Abe Sargent]

January 10, 3065 – Much like Martinson, Skobel MechWorks has a Terra factory still rocking. They make a ton of mechs for Word of Blake. They make the Nexus, the Grand Crusader, Excalibur, Mercury, and so forth.

Martinson’s line were destroyed by Amaris. Skobel often just abandoned their mechs, like the Mackie. Many of these are Workd of Blake only designs, but we can take two of the Star League era designs and make them here as well:

Mercury MCY-99 – 20 tons, 2 medium lasers, 2 small lasers, 8/12 movement with MASC, 53/69 armor, no XL engine. A good, solid, stury design for 1.796 mill and with a BV of 586. It basically gives us a better Locust (the design is better, the mech is easier to repair, the hands are free to do stuff with, it’s a better Locust).

We order 2 lines of the Mercury to get redone so we can give our folks scout-oriented and speed merchants

Excalibur is made in other places in the Inner Sphere as well right now, so getting one is not this huge major coup if you will.

EXC-B2b – 70 tons, 5/8 movement (XL engine), 11 heat sinks, 11 tons of armor, gauss rifle, 2 tons of ammo, LRM20, 2 tons of ammo, Artemis, anti-missile system, 1 ton fo ammo, CASE. 1715 BV and a cost of 16.277 mill

We add one/month with them and one line.

[Abe Sargent]

February 1, 3065 – The first upgraded Mobile HQ unit with modern technology rolls off the lines of the Browning-Corning Lmtd. factory on Caph. Mobile HQs were just made by one plant, but proliferated ,until destroyed in the Amaris wars. A few others are here and there, but have not been around that much. It should prove to be a major money maker for them.

An updated battlefield recovery vehicle is slated to be the next one off the line. The Coalition picks up some, but many are heading out across the Inner Sphere.


16 March, 3065 - After being flush with cash, Lantren Corporation on Bryant, has decided to push to another line of mechs, in addition to the Quickdraw and Grasshoppers they do. They are looking for one of the Project Phoenix opportunities of refitting older mechs with all of the latest technology, rather than designing their own mech, which they don’t have any experience in. Duke Essex suggests that they look at an assault mech, since the Coalition doesn’t have a lot of Assault mechs being made.


They decide to contact Vicore to see what could be done. Essex provided a wish list of mechs to use. Vicore was involved in the BattleMaster and Goliath refits, but not those of the Longbow or Marauder II. The BattleMaster is the top of the wish list, so they sit down and begin negotiating.

Basically, Lantren would have to liscence the BattleMaster from another company. The original rights-holder lost their line centuries ago, and others sprung up in various armies and nations. Of those that make the new version, there is one we think might be able to do it.

We contact an agent of J.B. BattleMechs in the Lyran Alliance. They worked with Red Devil industries to mass produce the new BM, but the Red Devil factory was captured by the Falcons, so that has pressured JB to sell theirs. Right now, we have helped out the Katrina side of things a few times, and we just took Nanking from the pro-Victor side of the Civil War, so we suspect that we can work out a deal.

Two weeks later we have an ideal deal:

We make the BLR-4S BattleMaster, licensed as is, no changes. We create three production lines, and for the first two years, we sell them exclusively to the Lyran Alliance to help JB meet their goals. Then Lantren can sell the rest to the Coalition and K&C. That’s a strong deal , and we take it.

Lantren has the exact blueprints and equipment already done, so all that is required is building the lines, which will take around 11 months to get ready and start making these things.

They will begin coming off the lines, hopefully, by March 1, 3066. Then we’ll get the ability to buy them in March 1, 3068.

[Abe Sargent]

March 22 , 3065 – The first quartet of Buckshots have rolled off the lines.


April 6, 3065 – Word of Blake has contacted Kressly Warworks. They continue to produce a ton of Mechs. They want to contract KWI to make an upgrade Ostroc variant, the OSR-5W using high tech stuff, including a C3i computer, exclusively for Word of Blake. They already have the blueprints and Word of Blake has techs that can be in Epsilon Eridani in two weeks that already know how to build the plants and lines and everything. In four months the two lines can be up and running making 24 Ostrocs a year for Blake.

May 1, 3065 – Right on schedule, Kallon’s new updated Falcon Hawk arrives.

[Abe Sargent]

May 5, 3065 – Bombings have occurred on Nanking, and we suspect Duke Hasek’s hand.

May 9, 3065 – Another bombing has occurred, and this time, a newly formed anti-Coalition Coalition is taking acknowledgment of the bomb.

May 12, 3065 – Chief Foster has identified the threat as a pro-Victor unit that is channeling cash from the planet of Firgrove, in the Capellan March of the Federated Commonwealth.

May 15, 3065 – We hold a meeting on Nanking to discuss the ongoing bombing campaign that has clearly begun, and the links to the Capellan March with the leaders of Nanking. We hold a press conference, and the leaders agree to some nasty anti-terrorist activity in order to take it down.

May 18, 3065 – Two more bombs have gone off in Nanking, and they are moving the population in to a very strong anti-Victor and anti-Commonwealth position. Especially considering how they were already more on the Katrina/Steiner/Lyran side of the spectrum

May 20, 3065 – Our counter-terrorism campaign begins in several places where intel has the enemies.


June 1, 3065 – We have decontaminated both of the factories on Caph. Restoration of Martinson Armaments has already begun, and Skobel MechWorks will be underway by the end of the month.

June 11, 3065 – We put down two of the three elements on Nanking but the last one has gone into hiding.


June 15, 3065 – After setting up another set of money from the same bank account as before, Chief Foster follows the money trail and locates the final element.


June 27, 3065 – The terrorism on Nanking is finished for now.

[Abe Sargent]

July 1, 3065 – Over the last year, a small number of small mercenary units have begun to appear on Epsilon Eridani and announcing their availability for hiring. The first was a lance of mechs that was hired by a local mining confederation to garrison their mining interests on our colony world of Asmodeus. Since then, we’ve occasionally hired small units for security contracts, short team deals, and more. The biggest we hired was a mixed battalion called Robert’s Rules of Order that did a four month security contract on one of our worls as we rotated Kilts and Commandoes troops to the frontlines.

This is no surprise. Due to the success of mercenary commands generally, as well as the wealth of potential employers on EE (the local government, companies, Kressly Warworks, Kilts and Commandoes, Celestial Coalition) it’s not a bad place to try to find a contract outside of the local Outreach hiring hall. This is also happening on the nearby world of Northwind where small mercenary groups gather to try and get a contract with other interests outside of the Outreach orbit and Wolf’s Dragoons.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Second Caph Campaign



There is a secret coalition in the Draconis Combine that has been agitating for a return to the old ways. (The Black Dragon Society) They don’t like Clan Nova Cat in the Combine and the loss of so many worlds to other clans, and the loss of some of the deep samurai ways. They were the ones that helped spark battle in the Lyon’s Thumb with the Lyran Alliance, with the Clan Ghost Bear as they inspired units to head out and attack, and with the Federated Commonwealth, they were the ones that crossed the border, riled up the Draconis March, and began that whole thing.


It ‘s a natural thing for them to look at us as another way to either gain territory or to embarrass the Combine. They weren’t looking at us too much, but after we hired and placed the Legion of the Rising Sun on Caph, they felt that the potential embarrassment that attacking the Legion might bring, politically, to the Combine was a useful choice of targets.


Therefore an invasion force, unauthorized, is leaving the Combine and targeting Caph.

[Abe Sargent]

August 4, 3065 – A large flotilla of Draconis ships arrives in the Caph system to protest our presence here.


Alpha Regiments Myth Battalion – 4 companies of K&C

Legion of the Rising Sun – Regiment of mechs, veteran and reliable, on Caph until the end of 3069, with B+ rating, lots of Combine mechs and clan tech. On a retainer contract.

Angel’s Riders - Dragoons rating B, Regiment of mixed troops, one battalion of mechs, two of armor, with about 40% of mechs and 75 % of tanks upgraded with level 2 tech. They are garrisoning Caph until Sept 1, 3065.

1st Caph Cavalry – 24 vees, 24 Mechs. Green, reliable.

Bad timing by the Dracs to catch us here just before the Angel contract is over. We have started negotiating to continue and were going to move them elsewhere, but now they will be helping us.


That’s a lot of stuff, actually. Basically two full regiments of mechs, and basically one of tanks.

We send off a message for assistance long before they arrive, and they land basically uncontested on the world, since they went for places outside of DropZones. It looks like….

[Abe Sargent]

A major foe begins to unload:


40th Dieron Regulars – A larger unit with a regiment of veteran, questionable folks, two battalions of regular questionable tanks, and a regular wing of fighters, and a regiment of infantry, regular, and reliable.

The 40th is a battle forged unit deep in the pocket of the Black Dragons, and are here to oust us form Caph, or to embarrass the Combine. Either way, they win.

Breakdown? 15% of their mechs are clan, 10% of the tanks are too. 40% of mechs are Star League tech and about one in three tanks does as well. 30% of the fighters are Star League eras. Their unit is assigned tech level C when generating units.

The 40th is rolling off in multiple areas across Caph.

We have our own unit, Myth Battalion in the capital city, by the Lang company that makes Shadow Hawks. The Riders are on the south continent working where the new cleaning and investment has been cleaning the area. That’s where the Brown-Corning, Ltmd. plant is.

Meanwhile the Legion has their regiment of mechs mostly in and around all of the areas that are being cleaned up, and the two new factories under restoration.

The 40th wants to hit us hard enough to knock us out of the area. Like others, they have done a quick analysis, and seen that you need a bigger unit to hit us. So they are dropping their best battalion, plus their command company, and then backing that with a battalion of armor and a battalion of infantry plus fighters.

The rest of the 40th is hitting the Legion and the Riders. The Caph Cavalry are in various posts across the world and not a major consideration for this conflict.

[Abe Sargent]

Our foes unload quickly and move against us. They have seen our desire to fight battles in small groups, and therefore have maneuvered their force into one, large, mixed regiment of troops and we have 48 mechs to go out there and smash them.

This battle is going to be epic. There are no small skirmishes prior to it, not multiple flanks, nothing. Just one, big, epic bru-ha-ha, with their best mechs, tanks, and infantry. But we don’t have the best battalion. Myth is one of the easiest of us to defeat. Tethys Company? Regular older level 1 tech mechs. Typhon? Elite, but level one stuff. Styx is a mix of elite, regular and veteran, and level 1 mechs., while Heliades is a mixture of pilot levels with mostly level 1 tech mechs. Not a lot of advanced mechs, not a single clan mech, nothing.


In order to make this battle feasible, we are fighting on a very large map. I don’t know if it’ll work, but I am creating a ton of bots, all on the same side. They will all start on the east.

Three tank bots, four mech bots, one infantry bot


Alright, here we go folks!

[Abe Sargent]

Our Battle Value is 81020. Theirs? Right around 108,000.

Turn 1 – We win init. I created four prong attacks. Our fire support mechs are in the middle, with a large assault force to the south coming in, meanwhile an assault force is just north of the Fire support mechs, and then a smaller assault force to the far north. We have a lot of minor elevation changes, and some forests too. I think I might want to do the typical sacrifice play a few times against these folks, sacrificing one or two mechs that aren’t that good for some of their units that are. That’s often one of the ways that I win this crap. My hope is that they expose a few units so that we can do some damage. So far, not that many. They are doing this cautiously. Alright, after roughly an hour of moving folks, let’s get this first round of weapons done!

Their Loki clan mech blows off the RL of my Wasp. A Nobori-Nin does the same with its RT.
Our Catapult took out a Saladin Hover Tanks front side.
Their clan Hellhound hit the Ostroc and hit two arm actuators
Our Stalker 3F hit a clan tank, an Odin Scout Tank of theirs, and their commander is injured and the crew stunned.

Our Wasp Falls

We had a lot of high numbers to hit that round, no mech took 20+ damage anywhere.


Turn 2 – We win init again. I do not eject the Wasp, I want to use it as bait. I charge forward again with a lot of units. Their Odin tank, damaged, has begun to pull out and flee. Weapons hot time. Their most powerful tank is the Challenger and I take some snipe shots at it. I also have a Nobori-Nin in my sights, and a Mauler assault mech in the south is my target of choice:

Obviously, our Wasp is totally demolished this turn – everything not a H died.
Our Marauder 3D damages their Bulldog Medium Tank #2 and hits the drive system.
A Pixie of ours nails the stabilizer on another Saladin Tank
Our Stalker 5M destroys the front of that Saladin
One of our trio of Awesomes nails the movement on their Challenger twice
Then our Grand Dragon destroys its Stabilizer

Their Mauler fell. That Nobori-Nin is blessed. We aimed at it tons.

So in two turns, despite massive units on the board, we’ve taken out two tanks, and they’ve killed a Wasp. It’s going to be a long one.


Turn 3 – I win initiative again. I continue to push on the northern flank. They have a huge number of mechs in the center though, so I begin to push on the southern flank as well. My two strike teams above the fire support center have united in the north. I back up a few mechs that can’t fit in everywhere. Their Mauler failed to stand once. Time to target this thang up! Hopefully I’ll do more than take out a lightly armored Saladin tank. First thing I want to do is finish that Mauler off. This time a Ryoken is a target in the north. Still going after the wounded Challenger tank as well. I also take a few targets of opportunity here and there and just hope…

An LRM Carrier devastates and destroys my Locust’s CT.
Our Ostoc destroys the right side of another Odin Scout Tank
Their Wolf Trap nails the Head of one of my three Warhammers (the 6D one) and goes internal, hitting the sensors
One of our Trebuchets jams the turret on their Challenger
Our Stalker 3F hits the LRM15 ammo on their mauler, and it goes, up, CASE, < XL engine.

Mechs that fell – Despite takingjust 20+ damage, our Atlas fell. Our BattleMaster took 40+ and dropped. None of their mechs fell. I Swear, they have the luckiest clan mechs up north. Taking no hits at all.

Turn 4 – I lose init. Our Atlas rises and runs. Unfortunately, we can’t stand our BM and run it into heavy woods, so we just stand it after it fell once. I charge in stuff to distract them from the BM. Like our assault Striker and such. Another day, another attack phase. We need to step this thing up. Right now, we are not doing well. Alright, here we go, I’m worried about that BattleMaster…

Our Ostsol immobilizes a Myrmidon Medium Tank
Their Nobori-Nin destroys the BM’s RT
But our BM at least nails the head of their Nobori-Nin back with a PPC.
Our Archer 2R immobilizes one of their Saracen Medium Hover tanks
Our Striker nails an engine on the Nobori-Nin
An Awesome 8Q destroys the left side of their Challenger.
Our Trebuchet takes out the H of one of their Panthers
A Schrek PPC Carrier lances a PPC into our Spider’s leg and hits an actuator.
Their Challenger’s gauss nails our BM’s CT and hits a engine once
Their Mauler hits the H of our damaged Warhammer’s H with an LRM salvo and the mech is down. Our pilot dies.

Falls? Their mauler, our Battle master falls and destroys its engine (which is unfortunate, because it would have made a great target next turn) . Our Atlas took 80 more but is still up. Their Hellhound fell though.

That was a bad pair of turns. Head hits took out the basically pristine Warhammer, falls on the BM forced us to lose it this turn on the fall to the ground, and we have a savaged Atlas. Not good at all. We should have taken out an injured Jenner, we had four fire support mechs with 7s on it, almost all missed. We had a bunch of fire on a LRM Carrier, most missed, etc.


We keep pushing forward though.

Turn 5 – We lose initiative. I hop our Watchman into the heavy woods their Ryoken used to frequent. Their other Odin flees the board. We need to really push things out here. We are losing this battle, but its early days yet. Our Hunchback bases, and is above, their Firestarter O. Their Mauler and Hellhound each failed once in rising. Is this the turn we turn things around? Here we go…

Their Ryoken gets an through armor critical on a Thunderbolt of ours, hits the ammo, and it explodes dead ,mech
Our Cyclops destroys an LRM Carrier
One of their Tokugawa Heavy tanks destroys the LA of my Hunchback #2
Then their Hatamato Hi destroys the Hunchy’s LT and hits the AC 20 ammo. Boom! The Hunchback suffers a cascading engine failure

It does damage, badly, their Tokugawa which has a stunned crew and damaged motor system

Our Awesome 8Q #3 immobilizes their 3rd Saladin
Our Trebuchet destroys another LRM Carrier
Our Crusader destroys the RA and LT of their Ryoken

Nobody falls.

Our Watchman kicks and destroys the H of their Nobori-Nin. This turn I lost two, untouched, good, quality mechs. This can’t keep happening. Gotta keep pushing.


Turn 6 – We win initiative at least. We need a sacrifice play again I’m thinking. Their Bulldog, injured, begins to flee. They eject their Ryuken. I hop our wounded Spider deep in their territory in heavy woods. Luckily we made the piloting skill roll on the other side. They are pushing hard in the south, so hopefully the Spider will distract them. One of their tanks skids, and hits the Ostsol and forces it off the board. And there’s another mech gone. Dang. I leap our Blackjack above and next to their Wasp and Warhammer. Maybe we can land another lucky kick? We aren’t doing badly in the north. We lost the BattleMaster and Thunderbolt, but have taken out lots. We are not doing well in the south flank at all. So I pulled that back some. Weapons hot…

Our Trebuchet #2 destroys the immobile Myrmidon Tank.
Our Ostsol destroys the final Saladin
Their Hatamato-Chi hits the MG ammo on our other Thunderbolt and it goes up too
Their Mauler destroys the LA of a Crusader of ours
Their Owns nails the LRM ammo on one of our Trebuchets and it ignites and is dead


Falling down? Their Avatar and Quickdraw. I fired 15 mechs at their Daikyu, just took 60+ damage . It’s just not in the cards. At least our Crusader didn’t fall.

Our other Hunchback kicks, destroys the RL of their Wasp, and it falls and destroys its LT. That’s a nice consolation prize

[Abe Sargent]

We should pull out. They would likely let us go, and they would have won the battlefield and the salvage.

But, they have a lot of damaged units. Their Quickdraw just took 40 last turn and this turn too, their Avatar Omnimech took 60+ and fell, and we have blasted another Mauler and their Hellhound and another Panther and a Jenner that haven’t exposed themselves since then, and that Daikyu has been hit, and they have some immobile tanks we can easily finish off. If we push, we can likely start finishing some of these nasties.

The Spider was barely touched, despite getting a lot of fire its way. I need to keep that up. So we are down 9 units (8 dead mechs, Ostroc knocked off the board). We have a badly damaged Atlas in the south and Crusader in the north.

My plan for pulling this out –

1). Bring all fire support mechs out now
2). Reform battle lines around untouched assault mechs – 3 Awesomes, 2 Stalkers, Cyclops, Striker.
3). Use light mechs as distractions
4). Provide Crusader as bait next turn.

[Abe Sargent]

Let’s keep on!


Turn 7 – We lose initiative. I initiate our strategy. They eject their Wasp. Both of their fallen mechs rise. I push forward, hard, in the north behind our line. I move the fire support puppies out – the Archer, 2x Riflemen, Trebuchet, etc. I leave our Crusader isolated and alone, and I walk a Comet in the south right next to their wounded Jenner. Alright weapons time. I overheat that Comet good…

Our Comet blasts the Jenner’s RL and CT and both are destroyed. (It has 5x small lasers and 2x mediums)
Numerous parts on the Comet are destroyed, including all three torsos.
Their Loki omnimech takes out the Crusader’s SRM ammo and it lights up.
Our Hunchback’s AC20 on the north flank just carves into their Quickdraw’s CT and its down. A couple other pieces of it will die later this turn as well.
PPCs from a Marauder cascade into a Shrek PPC Carrier and destroy its front. They have two left.
Our Striker kicks and breaks the front side of a Drillson. Dead tank.


That turn went bascially as planned. Took out two damaged mechs (Jenner and Quickdraw) traded a damaged Crusader and a fresh Comet, and then added two tanks as well. That’s the beginning of what I want to see.


Turn 8 – We win init. One of our Rifleman will run out of AC ammo this turn (It’s the 5M with the ultras). We push forward on the north. I have taken a few woods. We retreat from their infantry here though, I don’t want to get too close. Meanwhile, we have established a line along a ridge in the south and I intend to guard it. I move a couple of mechs to the south from the fire support area – another Awesome and the Centurion and Grasshopper. We walk another Comet, this time beside their damaged Hellhound. Weapons fire again.

The Comet is again savaged, and it doesn’t do much. It dies.
LRMs from the Archer take out the RA and RT of their Hellhound though. Medium lasers from our Stalker hit its hip actuator.
Their second Goblin Medium Tank ran near my Ostsol, and it destroys the Goblin’s movement system in punishment.
One of their Hatamato-Chi nails the Atlas and hits the AC20 weapon, shutting it down.
Their Kabuto’s SRM4 streaks both hit the Atlas and it’s RA is destroyed.
We blow the LL off their Avatar in the north, and it is on the ground.
Our Awesome’s PPC nails the Avatar’s RA and destroys it.
A machine gun on our Watchman finishes off an immobilized Saracen.


Falls? Their Hellhound falls very hard, very fast. Their Avatar joins them. Our Atlas almost fell.

Again, that was not a bad turn either. We lost a light mech, and we essentially ended the Hellhound and Avatar as a threat.

Turn 9 – We lose init. I flee with the Atlas (next to the edge of the map). They eject the Hellhound, then try to rise with the Avatar once, it falls again, and they stay down when the pilot blacks out. I run our Cicada and a Jenner next to it. We have fully re-established our lines. This turn they exposed a Shrek and a Warhammer. We fire on both, and the Warhammer takes 40+ damage, the Shrek is da,maged, but fine, and nothing else major happens until the Jenner hits the H twice on their Avatar. . Not one mech of ours took more than 20 damage.

Turn 10 – We win init. We can’t get our Cicada out after they block they block the land exit with tanks and mechs. Our Jenner leaps out though and into heavy woods 5 hexes away. I just Stand the Cicada still, as it is facing a nasty Tokugawa Heavy tank (they have three of them, this one is unwounded). Their Kabutos both charge and base our Marauder in the south.


Their Kabuto gets a through armor critical on the Marauder and nails a leg actuator
Our Stalker 3F savages their Kabuto #2 and it goes internal in four places.
Our Marauder’s short range weapons take out both arms on the Kabuto #2.
Our Cicada is not hit well for a while, but eventually, is taken out.
Their Goblin is destroyed when our Dragon finishes it.
We pepper that Daikyu some more.


Falls? Our Marauder, their Daikyu and Kabuto.

The other Kabuto kicks and misses the Marauder, but keeps standing.


Turn 11 – We win init. We fail the stand to Marauder, once, twice. Dammit! I move both Jenners over to protect it. We move again in the north, pushing down, we have broken that flank. They are pushing back at the center at our fire support mechs. Their Daikyu also fails to rise, then again and breaks its LA, then finally does so on the third try with one arm. I leap a Phoenix Hawk to the rear of that Daikyu.

They savage the Marauder. Their Shrek #3 destroys its wounded LL and it’s now yellow everywhere.
Our Jenner #2 hits the wounded Kabuto and destroys its LL.
Our Awesome #2 carves the Daikyu’s RT into pieces and it dies, XL engine.
Their Owens omnimech hits the H of our Striker assault mech, and that cracks it open, but no critical.
Our Warhammer blasts the RL of the Daikyu as well.
Their SRM motorized infantry hit the Ostsol and destroy its RA.


Falls? Their wounded Kabuto.

Our Pixie kicks and hits the speed of their Tokugawa Heavy tank #2.


Turn 12 – We win init. I intend to use the downed Marauder as the target of off opportunity this turn and I push my mechs forward massively on all flanks. Might as well, since they are targeting that Marauder. They eject their wounded Kabuto many folks are basing each other.

They destroy four parts on the Marauder, including the CT. Dead mech. They also hit the H, and killed the pilot. That’s not what I wanted.
Speaking of head shots, our gauss rifle from the Cyclops just carved a H kill in their Grand Dragon #2.
We finish off the wounded Tokugawa Heavy tank with our Catapult’s final salvo of LRM ammo.
Our Stalker 5M slows down the engine on their Po Heavy Tank #2. Our Pixie follows that up with full on immobilization from its medium laser
Our Rifleman 5Ms large laser dices into another Saracen, hits the ammo, and it explodes.
We pepper their wounded Mauler some more, and open up its torso severely.

Falls? No one. Just one of our units other than the Marauder took 20+ damage, an Awesome in the north after I pulled back the exposed H of the Striker.

We kick a Striker Light Tank with the Grasshopper and it’s right side is destroyed.

As of right now, here is the counter:

We have lost 12 mechs and fled with 2 (Ostroc, Atlas). They have lost 9 mechs and 17 tanks. (Those numbers include ejections and fleeing mechs). Now things are looking a bit better since we began to regroup as things looked bad. We began with 48 mechs, and have 34 left. They went from 90 tanks, mechs, and infantry, down to 64.

They have more left than we began with, and there’s no need to keep things fleeing. So they are still in.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 13 – We lose init. I use the PXH-1 as bait this time, and base that wounded Mauler to keep things real after it walked behind a level 2 hill, by leaping into an adjacent heavy woods. There are all four of their Hatamato mechs back here (Two Chi, 1 Kaze, one Hi), the Mauler, and their Atlas. A bunch of assault fun! Their Loki runs here too. We pull back some of the map this turn, I don’t want to push too much against their infantry and such. I leap the Blackjack next to, and above their Wolf Trap and our Watchman joins us. I haven’t put any weapons into this right now. It’s not really that great of a mech and it’s running low on ammo, but it’s the best target of opportunity this turn.

Their Marauder ‘s PPC smashes the RA of our Valkyrie into pieces. A Panther PPC follows and it’s the RL, going internal and nails two actuators.
They barely hit the PXH. But it’s machine guns hit the ammo on their Mauler and it ignites too.
Their Saracen #2 Hover Tank is just eviscerated by the combined PPCs of two Awesomes and a Warhammer. That was their last Saracen.
Meanwhile we pepper that that Wolf Trap, and expose some areas.

Falling? Our Valkyrie


We kick the Wolf Trap twice and…the Watchman kicks the RT and destroys it. Dead mech.
Meanwhile our JagerMech kicks and damages the movement system of a Maxim Hover unit.

So we keep the Pixie, will likely lose the Valkyrie instead, and took out a tank and a fresh Wolf Trap and that blasted Mauler. Again, a turn that pushes things our way.


Turn 14 – We lose init. I don’t eject or move that Valkyrie. Again, I push hard, moving lighter units into the right places to push our foes. The only major exposed target are tanks and an Assassin. I don’t care about the Assassin, so I focus our fire on the two other Shreks. We lose the Valkyrie badly, and both Shreks fall. A quick little turn where little else was happening.


Turn 15 –We wrest the initiative from our opponent. Hmmm… How to play this turn… I decide to push the position of their Thor, Daikyu #2, Hitman, and a couple of tanks in some woods on the northern part of the east edge of the map, right below our major units there. We charge in with a lot – Stalker, Awesome, Hunchback, Dragon and Ostol and more a few hexes behind. In the south, their assaults have begun to push our line, which won’t be good. I leap my Spider over by them in heavy, and for the first time since it was injured, I failed our piloting skill roll. Their other Kabuto bases our Stalker.

They blast the Spider with everything they have, and all they can do is hit it a few times, and destroy its RL and RA. The +4 for jumping 8 hexes, and +2 for heavy woods was rough to hit through.
They manage to savage my Ostsol some more and destroy its other arm and hit a large laser in the RT.
We carve into the Loki with a lot of close range mechs, after opening it with the AC 20 on the Hunchback we still have standing. We only have one shot left in that thing.
In the south, our Awesome smashes the right side of their Tokugawa and stuns the crew for 3 turns.


Falling? Our Ostsol, their Loki. Our Spider is on the ground already.

Our Stalker 3F kicks and destroys the RL of their Kabuto. It falls and destroys its RA.
Their downed Loki is kicked twice by the Dragon and Hunchback. It loses it’s RA.


Turn 16 – We keep initiative. On the first try, their Loki fails to stand, falls, and the pilot blacks out. Yay! We keep our forces here, and they bring in a Griffin and Daimyo to help out their team. They ejected the Kabuto. Our Ostsol stands on the first try and runs far away quickly, behind some trees. I leave the Spider alone.

They blast the Spider massively. It dies.
Meanwhile, in the northern front, they put a bit of long range weaponry into our Rifleman 5M and open up its armor in two places.
Our Jenner #1 hits the front armor on their stunned Tokugawa and it’s immobilized.
We unload a few PPC mechs onto their 40 ton Daimyo, and even eventually destroy its RT. No XL so its still alive.

Falls? Their Daimyo

We kick the downed Loki and get two gyro hits on the CT and it can’t move, it’s dead Good job Dragon!
Our Trebuchet kicks and hits the Drillson that ran under him, and destroys its fuel tank – boom!


Okay, quick check now:

We lost – 14 mechs; 2 off the board
They have lost – 16 mechs, with a savaged Daimyo, 20 tanks, with 2 more fled. They only have 14 tanks on the board. They still have 32 mechs, which is a lot. We are down to 32 mechs.

They are wasting time. The battle has swung completely in our direction. But, it could swing back ,and they have to keep pushing, they have too.


Turn 17 – We lose init. Their Loki is blacked out still. I decide to use that PXH-1 on a sacrifice play and hop it next to an unwounded Hatamato-Kaze. Their Panther, wounded moves out to expose itself from behind some trees. I continue to push us forward in the north, and in the south, I start pulling back again. They eject from the Tokugawa.


They smash the H of our Striker with an AC5 from their Grand Dragon. That sucked, dead mech and pilot. It was virtually untouched, and I pulled it back to long range because of the H damage, but a random attack from that Grand Dragon is annoying.
Meanwhile their mechs fire into the Pixie as planned, and they hit its machine gun ammo and it explodes.
Our Marauder 3R stabs out and smashes the Panther’s CT. Then our other mechs blow it up a few more pieces.
Our Grasshopper hits a Maxim Heavy Hover Tank #2, and knocks its speed down some
The only other thing we do is pepper their other Daikyu.

No one falls. We kick and wound the Maxim with the Hopper and stun its crew.


Ouch. We took out a wounded Panther, and they took out a Phoenix Hawk and a Striker. Not a good trade. That was the first round they just grabbed momentum back.


Turn 18 – We keep losing that initiative. I move some lighter elements by the wounded Maxim. Our downgraded Wolfhound is the sacrificial offer this time, and it’s exposed, but beside the Maxim, while I also ran both Jenners by it. Their Firestarter O and Pixie hop out by our Stalker 3F in the southern flank. Our Catapult A1 variant is out of ammo this turn, and has no backup weapons, so we start moving it up to, I guess, kick? I set up our Watchman to be the sacrifice play next turn. We push their wounded Daikyu. Here we go!

After cracking their Daikyu #2 open with a few PPC mechs, Our Centurion’s LB10X hits it, and shotguns it, one shot hits its AC5 ammo and it booms. Dead mech.
They pepper our Wolfhound
A Warhammer 6R smashes their other Myrmidon Medium Tank and immobilizes it
Our Jenner #2 lances medium lasers into the Maxim, hit its LRM5 ammo. Boom!
Their Hatamato-Hi smashes the RA right off our Wolfhound. Then an Atlas follows up with its RL and RT.
In the north, they are peppering our Catapult, since I’m moving it up.

Our Wolfhound falls. Our Stalker kicks and just blasts the Firestarter O onto the ground after losing its RL. -

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 19 – We lose init. I leave the downed Wolfhound on the ground as a target. I move back the Jenners, and again, hop the Watchman into a place where it can jump into heavies next turn. All of their remaining tanks are moving forward in a major push. Their Firestarter tries to stand twice, then falls on its H, and destroys it. That’s hilarious! They move Assaults beside the Wolfhound. Our Catapult, denuded of ammo, runs up and into the front of the flank in the north, next to the immobilized Myrmidon and a wounded SRM infantry I occasionally sent close or medium range weapons into. They exposed their Assaults in order to do that though…. I focus every single weapon that reaches him into an untouched Hatamato-Chi. A few smaller range things hit a couple of tanks and such.

Every piece of the Wolfhound, save for its H, is destroyed.
Meanwhile 100+ damage cascades into the Hatamato, and we just smash its armor
They pepper the Catapult some more.

Only the Hatamato falls.

The second Myrmidon tank is hit and destroyed by a kick from our Catapult. So I guess that worked?

Turn 20 – We lose init. I push the Catapult as a sacrificial lamb, and leap it above in a light woods hex, and next to a Hatamato-Chi that’s standing and the one on the ground. Then that one tries to stand, fails once, then succeeds, and it’s in the same spot. That’s a nice target of opportunity. Their Owens and Spider move with their Phoenix Hawk in the south and are pushing us there hard, they jump the Pixie behind our JagerMech.

They blast the Catapult, and destroy its RA.
Our Cyclops just blasts a medium laser into the Hatamato’s RT and hits the SRM6 ammo. Explosion, contained by CASE, but no XL engine, so it’s still here. But, the feedback from the explosion, and the falls previously, have done enough damage to black out the pilot.
Their stupid, stupid stupid Phoenix Hawk nails the CTR of the JagerMech twice and nails its Gyro
Some short range weapons hit the SRM infantry, and our Watchman’s machine guns finish them off.

The Hatamato falls, the pilot takes damage, and dies. That’s unusual, you don’t see a dead pilot without hitting the head very often. Our Jagermech tumbles too. But our Catapult? Makes it’s 8 piloting skill roll and is still standing. Wow Catapult!

We kick. The Catapult kicks the untouched Hatamato-Hi beside it and…misses Ah well. Can’t win them all I suppose. At least didn’t fall down. They kick the JagerMech but don’t do a lot.


Turn 21 – We win init. I rise the JagerMech – good number rolling. It’s behind some hills, so long range mechs don’t have a great line of sight to it. I bring faster mechs over to help, like the Jenners and the upgraded Wolfhound we have. They keep their trio of lighter elements here as well – PXH, Owens, Spider. In the north, we base that final Tokugawa tank, and a gently peppered Warhammer 6K they have. Our Catapult leaps out and I push a Watchman as an option, leaping it into the space the dead Spider used, the heavy woods and a full 5 leap.

Actually, they barely target the Watchman. They gave themselves lines of target on our JagerMech instead, and a Pixie nails the AC2 ammo and it lights up. Dead JagerMech.
Meanwhile we stab fire into the Warhammer and the PPcs from our Awesomes and a Warhammer of our own just savage it.



Their Warhammer tumbles and destroys its LA. Then our Grand Dragon kicks it and destroys its RA. Armless baby! Meanwhile, a kick on the Tokugawa slows it down by our Marauder 3D. We miss a kick in the south with our Wolfhound which was set up nicely on their Spider, but their Spier also misses a kick, and falls down.


Turn 22 – We lose init. Their Spider rises and runs away quickly back to their side, right beside some infantry, and on top of a Po Heavy tank. They eject the Warhammer. I leap the Watchman out and leap in the Ostscout. I don’t want it do die, actually, but the +8 jump plus the heavy woods, and many mechs aren’t near it anymore will hopefully keep it running.

In the north, they choose to fire a lot on our Marauder 3D, which takes 60+ damage.
Meanwhile, in the south, Stalker 3F large laser lance out and gets a limb blown off RA on their own Spider.
Then our Awesome #1 hits the Spider twice with PPcs and opens the CT and nails the engine four times. Dead mech.

But, the Spider’s engine has a cascade failure. Uh oh. Our Ostscout is closer, and takes some damage. Meanwhile, two infantry squads, and the Po are destroyed. (units in the same hex always die) It blasts their Hitman, in the next space over, and the Hitman’s RA and RT are destroyed – dead mech (XL Engine). Other mechs scorched a bit are their Grand Dragon #2 and Marauder. Meanwhile, their Drillson #2, next to the Ostscout, is immobilized

So we took out five units in one shot. Can’t argue with those results!

Back in battle, we fire a lot of weapons into their Hatamato-Hi in the northern flank
Our Wolfhound WLF-2 ER Large Laser knifes into the unmoving Tokugawa and finishes it.
Our Blackjack cascades heat into Maxim and drops its movement by one.

The Hatamato Hi, after taking 60+ damage, falls and gets a limb blown off LL.
Our Marauder tumbles as well.

Our Ostscout was barely touched, other than the explosion. It kicks the Drillson and destroys it. That’s the last Drillson they have.


Now it’s time to take stock:

We have lost: 17 mechs, plus 2 fled, and a pretty well damaged Marauder and Catapult. We have 29 mechs, plus the damaged ones

They have lost: 27 tanks, leaving just 9 on the map. 3 infantry squads, leaving 3 on the map. And 25 mechs, leaving the badly damaged Hatamato-Hi, and 22 other mechs on the field


We have won this battle. It’s pretty clear to see. Even with no more gauss rifle ammo for the Cyclops, and two Rifleman using medium and large lasers, two Archers and a Trebuchet doing the same, we are still pushing. I still have an awesome Blackjack variant with all of the lasers working well out there, three Awesomes barely touched, two Stalkers barely touched, A Cyclops not sucking, that nasty Hunchback in the north, an unmarked Watchman hopping all over, And that’s pretty good stuff.

They have two unmarked Hatamatos, and an Atlas. They have a Quickdraw, two Dragons left, a Marauder, two Phoenix Hawks, that Owens, another Daimyo, and a 3rd Jenner. Other than the heat at the top, that’s a pretty weaker selection of units.

Because I didn’t eject my mechs usually to save them, I was able to force them to waste time finishing them off. So the numbers look really good for us now.


They pull out, and we get to keep the legged Hatamato-Hi.

[Abe Sargent]

Dead Tanks – Saladinx3, Odin Scout Tank (clan), Challenger, LRM Carrierx2, Myrmidonx2, Shrekx3, Drillsonx2, Drillson (tank), Saracenx2, Goblin, Tokugawa Heavy tankx2, Saracen #2 (by explosion), Striker, Maxim (explosion), Po (explosion),

Fled – Odin, Goblin,

Ejected – Wasp, Ryoken, Hellhound, Kabuto #2, Kabuto, Tokogawa, Warhammer 6K, Daimyo

Daikyu missing RA, RT, RL
Daikyu missing RT
Mauler missing LT
Mauler missing RT
Hitman missing RA and RT
Wolf Trap missing RT
Panther missing H
Nobori-Nin missing H
Avatar O, reattach LL, missing H
Grand Dragon #2 missing H
Firestarter O, missing RL, H

Hatamato-Chi, missing RT, dead pilot

Hatamato-Hi, reattach LL

Kabuto missing RL, RA
Kabuto #2 missing RA, LA, LL
Hellhound missing RA, RT
Ryoken missing RA, LT
Wasp missing RL, LT

Dead Spider

Warhammer 6K missing RA, LA

Quickdraw H, RT, LT, LL, RA
Jenner H, LL, LT, LA, RT, RA
Phoenix Hawk LA, H, LL, RL
Panther H, RT, RA, LT

Loki missing RA, gyrox2.

Daimyo missing RT

Ours,

BattleMaster missing RT, enginex3
Warhammer 6D missing H

Thunderbolt LA, RAx2, H, RT
Trebuchet LA, LL, RL
Comet Hx2, LLx2, RA
Crusader LL, LA, RA
Wolfhound H
Spider H
Valkyrie LA, H
Marauder RL, LA
Wasp H
Locust H, LA, RA, LT, RT, LL
Cicada H, RL, LA
JagerMech H, LL, RA

Dead Hunchback #2

Atlas missing RA
Catapult missing RA
Ostsol missing RA, LA, large laser in RT hit,


Kill – Catapultx3, Stalker 5M, Ostroc, Stalker 3F, Awesome 8Q #3 (Heliades), Trebuchet 5Nx2, Cyclopsx2, Watchmanx4, Trebuchet 5N #2x2, Ostsol, Comet #2, Hunchback #2, Marauder 3D, JR7-F Jenner #2x2, Dragonx2, Awesome #2, RLF5M Rifleman, Grasshopper, Phoenix Hawk, Warhammer, MAD 3R, Centurion, Awesome #1x5, WLF-2, Ostscout,


Whew! That battle took more than a day of real life to play, since I started on one day and finished it the next. That was epic!

[Abe Sargent]

After a similar amount of battle, the Legion of the Rising Sun, who had numbers, lost around 9 mechs, and blasted the 40th. Meanwhile we have basically a stalemate with Angel’s Riders, who also have numbers too. But after we pushed back in the other flanks, the major ones, they pull back.

And the 40th are driven back to the DropShips, spend the next few hours under their protection, load up, and blast off.

One day invasion!

The Legion salvaged two more mechs that they lost, so they are fine.

We lost 14 mechs that we cannot salvage. We salvaged 21 mechs from them. We also lost 3 mechwarriors

So here we go:

Our lost mechs, replaced by the ones we salvaged:

Cicada replaced by Daimyo

Wolfhound 1 replaced by Firestarter O

JagerMech replaced by Daikyu

Crusader replaced by Mauler 3R, a variant we fix up for it

Hunchback replaced by Hellhound clan mech

Cometx2 replaced by Kabutox2

Locust replaced by Hitman

Valkyrie replaced by Panther

Wasp replaced by Wasp

Trebuchet replaced by Daikyu

Thunderbolt replaced by Loki clan mech


Spider replaced by Nobori-Nin

Marauder replaced by Hatamato-Chi


We send the Hatamato-Hi, Mauler, Warhammer 6K, Ryoken, Grand Dragon, Wolf Trap, Avatar O,


August 7, 3065 – We have solidified the area and gotten things done.

End of the Second Caph Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

A few days later, Duke Essex arrives to survey the area. We can’t let the Combine just attack us, but the Combine has really counter-punched hard against anyone who punched back. They absorbed the 8 systems of the Lyons Thumb and then counter-attacked the Draconis March and more.

He meets with the CO of Legion of the Rising Sun, Co. Jurgen Petersen, to get his take. Petersen, a guy who really understands the Combine, talks about the reason for the counter punch.

There is a concept of a honorable retribution that is rife in Combine society. We are attacked by a rogue element in our border. If we were to use that as an excuse to invade 4 planets, that would be excessive and unhonorable.

If Duke Sandoval had just raided the worlds in the Combine, as a punishment for the attacks against his people by the Black Dragon Society, and then left, there would likely have been no Combine reprisal, because that would have been viewed as fair.

On the other hand, if we do nothing at all, we could be seen as weak and tempting targets. He recommends a hard raid. And we have a good target, one jump away.


Quentin.

[Abe Sargent]

Now, before I go ahead with the Quentin Campaign, let's do a bit of a rewind and then follow some main plotlines for a bit.

[Abe Sargent]

This conversation was held in the middle of 3065, about six weeks Hall joined us.



Jaime Wolf, CO and co-founder of Wolf’s Dragoons, a ex-clanner who created one of the most iconic mercenary units of all time, and is next door in the planet Outreach, surrounded by Coalition planets in the former Chaos March.


After light pleasantries from two COs of the largest mercenary units in existence, they get down to business.

“So why did you really call Jamie?”

“I wanted to let you know that you are making an absolute mistake allying with Blake. They aren’t who you think they are. They are mean, nasty, prone to lie, splintered into numerous groups. This is going to end badly for you.”

“So you are calling me to chastise me? That’s it? Finger-wagging?”

“You can still get out from this alliance. ComStar will take you back in a minute.”

“So you are chastising me, and you are offering me a lifeline?”

“Exactly.”

“Jamie, let me tell you something. Let me remind you about the real world. In the last 8 years since the Chaos March has formed, all around your fief on Outreach, billions of people have died. They have died to war, to bombings, to famine, to hunger, to illnesses, to devastations, and they have died. They have died in large amounts on planets like Sheratan and Caph.

There have been bandits, huge destructions of mines, roads, DropPorts, farms, plants, factories, cities, towns, schools, and much more. After we freed ourselves here on our home planet, we didn’t just thank our lucky stars and call it a day! For years we have been going out there and ending this crap. We have been waging war against all of the various issues going on around us too.

We’ve fought bandits in Bryant and Acamar. We’ve liberated and defended planets that asked for it with Ingress, Sheratan, Fletcher and Epsilon Indi. We were welcomed as liberators in Liberty, Keid, Caph, Hsien, Elgin and Genoa.

And where were you? With people dying, and infrastructures being destroyed, where were you? Did you help the people around you? Have you helped them now, after the disasters? You could have sent your soldiers, your companies, your technicians, your navy, to eliminate all of these. You could have saved people’s lives by the bucketful. You could have stopped Sheratan from burning, or to have put out the fires early. Where were you?

You didn’t send so much as one battlemech to help. Not one DropShip to shuttle supplies. Not one advisor to help out. Not one engineer to help fix things. Not one, single Cbill, to help out. Nothing. You have sat in what I can only assume is a highly decorated Ivory Tower and done nothing for the people. And then you have to audacity to call me up and tell me that my alliance, with people who actually have helped, is wrong.

With all due respect Jamie, right now, you have all of the moral authority of a cockroach. As far as I’m concerned, this conversation is over.”

Essex hangs up.

Jamie Wolf stands for a moment.

“You are right, I should have done something earlier. Now I will.”

[Abe Sargent]

July 4, 3065 – “Are you kidding me? Major Zhen, did you know about this facility when you did reaserch on the Star League era facilties here on Epsilon Eridani back when we wer looking for the depot here?”

After finding out that no one knew, Duke Essex gets on the phone and calls in CEO and wife Elizabeth Walters-Essex and Leftenant-General Pierre Benton along with Maj. Zhen.

“We have apparently uncovered something so incridble, that you have to see it to believe it. It’s about 20 miles from the Star League depot we found a while ago, hidden in the mountains. As you folks know, we have begun to search the nearby mountains for other things over the years, sincean entire depot was in that area, undiscovered for centuries. Figured we should keep on checking, right? Well, we found something all right, let’s go check it out…”


Roughly nine hours later, the four of them get off a DropShuttle right by the long forgotten facility in the Goushen Highlands.

They walk into a large, hidden facility. It’s centuries old. Vintage Star League technology. The area opens into a huge wind tunnel and hangar, with broken doors preventing them from being opened. The factory has been damaged and broken in some places, but it still has some computers, some dies and such.

“You can feel it, can’t you? The age. The technology. We found this yesterday, and our techs looked over it completely. This is the factory for the Harvard Company. They made one thing, and they made it well – the Wasp LAM. It was made, right here. It was the only place the Wasp LAM was produced.”

They move around and do some more inspecting. Maj. Zhen begins talking, “As you can see, we have a few LAMs in broken condition here and there. We think we can salvage at least two. That’s our target goal. Meanwhile, we have plans, and some dies, for both the original Wasp LAM Mark 1, and a later Mar kII 105 variant that replaced it. We could, theoretically, make them again, but the parts aren’t made. All of the LAM factories were destroyed centuries ago, except for one Stinger LAM facility in Irece, which was shut down by clan Nova Cat a while ago. Parts from the Stinger and Wasp are interchangeable, but no one has been making these parts for a long time.”

The Essex couple discuss the facility. Kressly Warworks has been asked about building a line of fighters for a qwhile, but the start up cost has invariably been way too much. But instead, Kressly could simply refit and fix this place into a new fighter factory, and testing facility.


They purchase equipment, set up tours of the Brooks Inc plant on Liberty, and begin to work on the renovation and conversion of the old Harvard Company facilties in the Highlands. It should take around 2.5 - 3 years to get it up and running.

In order to get a dry run begun, they agree to create a conventional fighter line first, not an aerospace fighter line, or a future Wasp LAM even. Conventional fighters are easy enough to make. In fact, most systems design their own conventional fighters. In order to simplify things, Kressly has agreed to lisence the Defender Medium Strike Fighter. It’s an extremely common conventional fighter, and we’ll be making them roughly sometime between January 3068 and June 3068 – although obviously, it could take some time to figure out the rest, and the project could be delayed considerably (or sped up considerably)

(In the main time line, Harvard Company was rediscovered in the early Jihad years, and then purchased by Kressly and turned into an aerospace fighter making planet in the 3080s. We are speeding up its fnd by a couple of years (like 3 or 4) and then investing in it now.)


After working on Nanking, we are going to move TekTeam Technical Services to here to help with salvage operations, and they will uncover a few more Wasp LAM parts and such, and eventually enough for a 3rd salvaged unit, fully repaired. We extend TekTeam’s contract as well to help us out.

[Abe Sargent]

July 18, 3065 – In the midst heavy fighting on Hesperus II, the Gray Death Legion’s CO, Lori Kalmar-Carlisle is killed in battle. Most of the core leaders and veterans have been killed in the fighting on the world, as the defenders use the GDL as their meat shield. The handful of units surviving, move to fight under local banners.


July 26, 3065 – After hearing about the battle, scion of the Carlisle family, Alexander Carlisle, currently enrolled as officer for the LCAF is approved for some time away n Hesperus II.

Aug 29, 3065 – Alexander arrives at Hesperus II to mourn the loss of his family, and perhaps, his legacy as well. Alexander Carlisle’s request for a more permanent leave of absence to rebuild the Gray Death Legion is refused.

Sept 11, 3065 – No-Longer-Duke Alexander Carlisle is stripped of his title, and his family of their holdings, on Glengarry, the planet ceded to the Gray Death legion by Victor, and re-stated by Katrina.

[Abe Sargent]

Sept 19, 3065 – Chief Ingrid Foster sits down for a normal daily briefing with Duke Braham Essex. She brings to his attention a new possible opportunity for everyone interested. After hearing her proposal, he agrees quickly. It’s very similar to things we did with Storm’s Thunder, Smithson’s Chinese Bandits, and Barber’s Marauders II.


Sept 20, 3065 – Thoma Marie Essex, on world in Hesperus II as a local soldier, meets up with Alexander Carlisle, offers him her sympathies, and then offers him something else. Her father would love a chance to chat before he returns to the LCAF.

Sept 29, 3065 – Alexander Carlisle and Duke Essex meet aboard a JumpShip and have their first meetings. After spending some time getting to know each other, the real conversation begins.


“As I mentioned Alexander, I have an offer for you. I’d like to offer you the full support you need to rebuild the Gray Death Legion as a semi-independent mercenary unit under the auspices of the Kilts and Commandoes unit.

I have a ton of good quality mechs we have salvaged in various campaigns that we are just sitting on. I have the techs, the infrastructure, and the materiel to get you started. You have the contacts. You can find people to pilot the Mechs, grab armor or infantry you want, and so forth.

Plus, your unit can be as independent as you want to be. If you want to keep your own warchest, independent from our own, that’s fine. You can negotiate your own contracts, have your own transport, and so forth. Your unit will exist again, as your parents knew, in the mercenary life. “

“And why would you be willing to make that offer?”

“Not that many reasons. I’ll start off with the most important. We need power armor. The Kilts and Commandoes unit specifically, and the Celestial Coalition generally. I’d like to have your power armor making techs and scientists, Gray Death Technologies, make all of the variants of Grey Death armor for the Coalition and Kilts and Commandoes exclusively. That’s one.

Second, we pull those machines out of mothballs and save our upkeep and expanses

Third, we get a chance to add you and your unit to our roster. You put a line in your contract that, in times of severe emergencies, that you can break the deal and come to Epsilon Eridani, and then help us, in case we are blasted by a major house or somesuch. That helps us too.”

“Battle armor, huh?”

“Absolutely. Basically we are contracting your Battle Armor for a regiment of mechs and some armor and infantry too. You can stay on Glengarry if you want, and can secure a garrison. This is the best deal I think you’ll get. No one is that interested in making a fellow mercenary unit work again. We are.”

“I wouldn’t want to return to Glengarry. It was my home, but that was a lifetime ago now. We were stripped of the title, and the unit has ceased to be according to everything ever read.”

“Your father built the Grey Death Legion. You can rebuild it according to a new way of thinking. You can even garrison on one of the worlds in the Coalition, while you set up your units, techs, and support system.”


“I’ll think about it. I’ll get back to you in a week, with my decision.”

“Sounds fair, we’ll talk to you then.”


Alexander Carlisle takes the offer and goes shopping with it. Can he find a better deal? Or at least an equal one? Wolf’s Dragoons, the Northwind Highlanders, the Kell Hounds, and a lot more. No one is interested in reinvigorating the Gray Death Legion. Many just don’t want the competition, and others aren’t interested in helping a fellow merc with the financial investment that would be involved.

[Abe Sargent]

October 6, 3065 – Alexander Carlisle has agreed to become the CO of Gray Death Regiment, a semi-independent unit under the umbrella of the Kilts and Commandoes.

They will be doing their own transport, contracts, and warchest.

He has already begun placing calls out and such. Like many others, most are ready to get away from Glengarry and it’s disappointment to them as a unit.

Grey Death Technologies has looked at potential new places to call home. Not only did they do a survey of the various planets in the Celestial Coalition to see who was the best, but they looked at some nearby worlds that would fit their needs. Places like Marduk, or Addicks, or Fomalhaut or Quentin. But in the end, they agreed that it seems like having a company in the Draconis Combine or Federated Commonwealth, but not selling them any of the product, would be a recipe for problems down the road.

So they have agreed to move to a place in the Coalition. Acamar, Genoa, and Nanking are all heavy mining planets that would give them all of their needs right there, thus reducing costs. All were rejected though. (Acamar is not the best place to live, Genoa’s mining product is slated for other companies, and Nanking could be recaptured at any point in time).

They actually have a top three list they show us:

Epsilon Eridani – Already has a military-industrial complex that enables quick relation of their group to the world, and the modest mining on planet would help them somewhat.


Asmodeus – Very rich mining-colony we founded, with all of the metals they could want, but he world is not that developed at all.


Terra Firma – Former regional capital of the Sarna March, Terra Firma is a strong planet with a very healthy economy. Larges forests, minerals, and farms have pushed it into a strong, powerful place. It was always well developed, from the early days of settlement, and later usage as a regional capital gave it increased infrastructure with DropPorts and other facilities all over the map. They have 39 spaceports, just as an example, and are growing and developing in new ways.



While they like all three, they will be relocating to Terra Firma and setting up shop there.

[Abe Sargent]

We send the Gray Death Regiment a bunch of mechs, some tanks and 25 million CBills as a way to prime their pump. Carlisle will spend time recruiting, bringing in folks and more. He mentions that there are a few ex-GD folks that have their mechs, and want to bring them over. He’ll just need around 100 mechs.

We send them:

(It’s a big list)

Attilax2
Atlasx2
Barghest
Battle Hawkx2
Blackjack
Bushwackerx3
Caesarx2
Catapultx3
Cestus
Clint CLNT-2-3U
Commando 5Sx2
Crusader
Cyclops
Dart
Dervish DV-7D
Enfieldx4
Enforcer
Falconer
Fireball
Firestarter
Garm
Goliathx2
Grasshopperx3
Greyhound
Griffin 3M
Hammer
Hatamato-Chi
Hatchetmanx2
Highlander
Hollander
Hunchbackx3
Huron Warrior
Jackal
JagerMechx3
Lao Hu
Longbow
Marauder 5Dx2
Merlin
Mongoose
Nightskyx3
Phoenix Hawk 3D
Quickdrawx2
Rakshasa
Raven RVN-3L
Rifleman 5Mx3
Scarabusx2
Scorpion
Sha Yu
Shadow Hawk 5Dx2
Stalker
Starslayerx2
Striker
Valkyrie
Victor
Vindicator
Warhammer 7S
Whitworth
Wolf Trap
Wolfhound
Wolfhoundx2
WVR-7M Wolverine
Zeusx3

Clan Omnis:

Hankyu
Shadow Cat
Ullerx2
Vulturex2


We tried to include enough mechs of each class and type to count. They have assaults mechs like Striker, Goliaths, Zeuses, Atlases, Stalker, Longbow, Highlanders, Hatamato-Chi, Attilas, Victor. Then add in heavies from attacking, in your face heavies (Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Orion, Barghest) to missile boats and other long range mechs (Crusader, Riflemen, Catapults, Cestus, JagerMechs and so forth). We have a large amount of strong medium mechs, from fast scout mechs to strong range mechs to powerful bruisers. Hunchbacks and Nightskys join Whitworth and Vindicator. We also used this as a bit of an opportunity to clean out some mechs we weren’t using much. I had a lance of Nightskys, a bunch fo Zeus and Goliath and Rifleman and Jagers sitting around, not doing anything better. They are all gone now.

You might notice a lot of these mechs come from Liberty and Zurich.

[Abe Sargent]

We also send Carlisle 5 fighters with pilots to begin his unit (we suggest that he increase his fighters from the 8 they used to have), 6 squads of infantry,

We also toss him 18 tanks to get those started (he’d like to get to a battalion at least)

Alacorn
Blizzard x2
Brutus x2
Drillson x2
Harasser
Hetzer
Hunterx2
Legion
LRM Carrier
Maxim
Ontos
Partisan
Pegasus
Striker

So we’ve sent him a lot to get him started on his way.

They’ll arrive and start building up in a month on Terra Firma.

They bring in many of the transport assets the old Legion had – 4 JumpShips, 5 Unions, Gazelle, Condor, Leopards, etc. They still need more though.

Thoma Marie Essex’s most recent tour of duty ends at the end of December, 31, 3055. She has submitted her resignation, and will be joining the Gray Death Regiment as the XO.


By the end of the year, Gray Death has purchased land, Technologies has set up shop, mechs have been stored, Alexander is on Outreach doing recruiting, and we’re looking good.

[Abe Sargent]

The independent planets of Outreach and Northwind today agreed to create a new state called the Allied Mercenary Command, formed to fight against aggression by the Celestial Coalition.

When asked about the reason, Jamie Wolf discussed that neither himself, nor the Highlanders at Northwind felt safe, and that this was a purely defensive response. The AMC would not be attacking any planets from the Coalition without any cause. Meanwhile, Wolf asked that any worlds in the Coalition that want to break free from the Coalition, but are afraid, or don't have the money, should just go ahead and let him know, and the AMC will free them.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Quentin Campaign

On the border, Quentin is home to Independence Weaponry. The number of units it makes its just staggering. It was taken from the Federated Suns in the War of 3039. It makes around 10 different mech lines for the Combine.

Quentin is garrisoned by the 10th Ghost. They were damaged in the fighting against the Draconis March of Duke Sandoval and have not fully recovered yet. They are a veteran mech regiment, with around 60-70 mechs right now, mostly level 2 mechs, with some clan mechs in there as well.

In support of that regiment of mechs, the 10th Ghost has an Aerospace wing, regular, all level 2 fighters, but missing a few; a regiment of regular tanks, 75% strong right now, with 50% level 2 tanks; and 2 battalions of regular infantry.


They are weakened for battle. Independence also has a company of merc mechs guarding their facility.

[Abe Sargent]

Our goal is to hit Quentin so hard that we take it and Independence, using our full naval flotilla then force Independence to make a bunch of units for us for a few months, while the Combine gets a counter group ready. Then we fade before they arrive, and let them have their planet back

In four months of use, we can make a regiment of mechs from Quentin. We expect it’ll take roughly 6 months to rally a naval and ground force large enough to challenge us, because they are in war in other places. We’ll hit the road in 4 months.

[Abe Sargent]

Aug 21, 3065 – We arrive in the Quentin System with the two WarShips, their full escort, more than 75 fighters, and a lot more.

There is a lot of traffic here, naturally. Quentin is a border world after all.

Unfortunately, there is a naval presence here. Uh oh. They weren’t here according to our intel, they must have just arrived. They appear to be escorting some transport vessels and such, probably fearing an attack here on the border by the Federated Commonwealth, so they have a WarShip here just to probably keep away opposing DropShips and fighters from even smelling their units.

And here we are, with two WarShips, a pocket WarShip, a huge flotilla, and the desire to use it…

[Abe Sargent]

Captain Randall Lewis contacts the Captain of the Combine WarShip. We are here to take Quentin, and you know you can’t stop us. You can decide if you think the Combine can lose your ship, because, of the five houses, the Combine is really weak in the WarShip department and 4th out of 5. So, you can leave, with your entire naval flotilla, without any combat.


Their Captain consults with folks. They have a Tatsumaki destroyer class WarShip, who’s goal is to be that escort for folks, The Lair of Mighty Wyrms. It’s a very good, close range WarShip, and it has two droprings, and quite a few powerful assault DropShips are around it. It’s the only one of its kind, the other was destroyed in their Ghost Bear War, and there were some technical issues with it the design, so none others have been planned right now.

Now, imagine that you are the captain of this ship. You have a destroyer class ship which can’t hold a candle to the Heavy Cruiser (BV of a Tatsumaki? 91k Of an Aegis? 174k Of the Fox? 39k). It could likely win against a Fox Corvette, a lighter WarShip. But you have no chance against our naval flotilla.

You are captaining a ship with an uncertain quality to it. It’s not like the Tatsumaki is going to be a massively reliable Ship. Meanwhile, your flotilla isn’t making up for it. If this were another planet, like, say, Fomalhaut, you would flee easily. The Combine has just 14 WarShips. They can’t afford to lose this one.

But this is Quentin. It is the heart and soul of their industrial complex for hundreds of light years. Only Luthien Armor Works makes more mechs for them in one place than Independence at Quentin. They had to build it up, since it was far from the clan lines. And there had been relative peace on the border as well.

So, if the Captain of the Tatsumaki were to leave, without fighting, without bloodying our nose, do you think he would be praised for making the necessary call? Or berated for not defending the dragon?

He defends the dragon.

[Abe Sargent]

Our enemy has:

Tatsumaki WarShip – 18 fighters, 15 small craft (10 of these are combat small craft, 5 transports)
Nekohono’o DropShip – designed to be one of the nastiest assault DropShips, featuring 9 BattleTaxis and 6 fighters, and a lot of naval class weapons
2x Avenger DropShips
4x Leopard CV 24 total fighters from them
2x upgraded Intruders – 4 fighters
Okinawa DropShip – Fighter Carrier with 18 fighters
Model 97 “Octopus” Tug DropShip – 4 small craft
Noruff Class DropShip – Clan, captured by the Combine apparently. Lots of weapons, weak armor.

2x Mule DropShips with cargo all swelled

They also have a ton of transport DropShips on planet, but they keep them down there, not wanting to risk the loss of Unions or stuff like that in this battle.

[Abe Sargent]

We have:


Swift Justice, Aegis WarShip – 18 fighters, 10 small craft
Brest, Fox WarShip – 12 fighters, 2 small craft

Vulcanized Majesty, Claymore DropShip –
Bannick’s Burn, Claymore DropShip –
Firebird, Avenger DropShip –
Arrow of Fate, Achilles DropShip, Upgraded – 2 fighters
Stalwart Destruction, Model 96 Elephant DropShip –
Her Majesty’s Interference, Hamilcar DropShip – 4 fighters, 8 mechs
Blaze of Glory, Overlord-A3 -
Paris West, Intruder DropShip, Upgraded -


Fury Unbound, Vengeance DropShip – 40 Fighters
Galvanic Arc, Leopard-CV DropShip – 6 fighters
Stellar Phantom, Leopard CV DropShip – 6 fighters
Fang of the Lion, Leopard CV DropShip – 6 fighters


To carry stuff with

Donkey’s Wrath, Mule DropShip –
Errand of Duty, Mule DropShip -

Plus we have a ton of our military DropShips (Unions, Gazelles, etc) – We will not be risking these assets.



They have 70 fighters

We have 94 fighters

We have two WarShips and a pocket WarShip to their WarShip and a pocket WarShip (Nekohono’o).

We have a Captain who knows how to fight these big naval battles. They don’t, the Tatsumaki hasn’t been in any major battles in the 17 months since it was deemed ready to go. Their captain was on an assault DropShip before being promoted.

We have fighters, WarShips, and DropShips all in our advantage. They have a few extra small craft and that’s it. They landed the Mules to get them out of the battles.

[Abe Sargent]

August 23, 3065 – Battle is enjoined.

Instead of the normal stuff, I am just using dice and the campaign notes. I will not be regaling this battle in the same detail as the others, because it’s going to be so one sided, that I just want to quick dice resolve it.


After battle, we won. No surprises.


We lose a Claymore, the Vulcanized Majesty is destroyed., which we cannot salvage, as well as a Leopard CV, the Galvanic Arc, which we cannot salvage.

They used their naval weapons to target our Fox for a few turns, and it was moderately damaged.

We are unable to salvage 22 of our fighters. We are able to salvage 28 of theirs though. So we made fighters after operations are complete.

Knowing our desire to take WarShips, we spent a lot of time landing forces on their WarShip and capturing it, lightly damaged actually. We lost the Hamilcar doing it, but we can salvage it and repair it.

Meanwhile, we also lost 11 small craft, including 5 Battle Taxis. We salvaged just 7.


Now, we destroyed many of their elements that are unrecoverable. I would have loved the clan DropShip, but it’s in pieces. The Okinawa is ours, as is one of their Avengers, 2 of the Leopard CVs, and the Octopus. Those will be easy to fix up.

But the major issue is the Nekohono’o. It was badly wounded, and will take a lot to fix, and needs to be taken elsewhere, but we did salvage it. That’s going to be a huge bonus to our fleet.

Salvage operations begin, as we have taken the sky above Quentin.

[Abe Sargent]

25 August, 3065 – Our forces have arrived. We have gone in heavy. We have the surviving fighters able to provide nasty air cover – 50+ fighters. You can’t touch that.

Meanwhile:

First Tank Battalion

Epsilon Regiment

1 battalion of Smithson’s Chinese Bandits mercenary force

Lindon’s Battalion

Lindon is attacking Independence Weaponry, which should fall quickly since it has a company of mercs, plus a company of tanks and some infantry from the 10th Ghosts.

Chinese Bandits and our tanks are securing the LZ and our reserve.

Epsilon Regiment is hunting enemy mechs,


We hit the various places on world where the 10th are supposed to be garrisoning, but they aren’t there. Fighters flying all over the planet can’t locate the defensive force at all.


A few hours later, Lindon has secured the factory, and it looks like the 10ht has gone to hiding, since they can’t escape from the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if we encounter some guerilla warfare or hit and run tactics.

[Abe Sargent]

We meet with Independence. They have always been a neutral company when it comes to international states. While we could force them to make mechs for us, without paying them, with the materials they already have, we decide to pay them the same price the Combine would, at a 12.5% discount.

Meanwhile we begin to relax the rule of the planet. The Combine is more restrictive on traffic and trade in their worlds, as well as with local policies and laws. Meanwhile, on a border world, restrictions rise, and Quentin, as the place for Independence Weaponry, has even more. So we have folks relax and calm down.

We also have a quick conversation with the local Comguard. We have no desire to replace them with Word of Blake, they can continue to work here without any issues at all. I don’t want ComStar push back.

[Abe Sargent]

Aug 30, 3065 – Duke Essex arrives at Quentin and meets with local leaders. Many remember the days of the Federated Suns and the strong value the planet had. Ever since then, the Dragon has not been as nice, but the Dragon has invested in the local military-industrial complex massively, so there have been a lot of benefits there as well. We talk with the local rulers, and let them know that we don’t intend to be here that long, and that we’ll give the world back to the Combine.

In the meantime, we agree to repair all of the damage done in local battles, and make a public display of our mechs fixing and repairing roads and bridges and stuff.

Sept 2, 3065 – Duke Essex takes a meeting with the CO of the 10th Ghosts after radioing that we offered a peace negotiation. We tell them that we’ll give them free passage off the world, if they want it. We could have forced them out of hiding, by attacking their DropShips in the various ports. We have not done so. We have not stripped down the local warehouses of their stuff to take it either. We are not here to wage war on the Combine.

A regiment of Combine troops attacked us, and we are here for one thing – Independence Weaponry. We will be here for a few months, pay Independence for the mechs they make, then leave, then leave voluntarily. That is an appropriate and honorable response to the attack.

[Abe Sargent]

The 10th don’t want to leave their planet, since it’s still theirs.

So Essex offers to have them come out of hiding. And they do. The 10th Ghost have removed themselves from hiding, taking up pickets in various places on the planet. They will wait to see if we keep to our word.

This will remove our need to have as many defenders on world, and it also prevents a lot of the anticipated guerilla activity.


One of the unseen values of taking the WarShip from the Combine is that it will take longer to build a flotilla that’ll take us out, with one less WarShip for them and one more for us.

Right now the Draconis Combine counter attack is still underway, and they have a lot of their naval assets tied up in guarding their forces out there.

So we have more time than previously expected.

[Abe Sargent]

Sept 10, 3065 – We have gathered a lot of salvage and debris, and bring in two more cargo DropShips to gather the salvage from the operations outside of the planet.

Sept 25, 3065 – Duke Essex heads away from Quentin.

Sept 29, 3065 – A few minor, amateur bombings occur against our folks. We ignore it.

Oct 11, 3065 – We are becoming increasingly popular in the local world and among its citizens, as we fix things up, don’t attack the 10th, and relax the local laws and restrictions. But there is a strong counter-current to that of real lovers of House Kurita. People 25 and younger, born on Quentin, were born under the Combine. So they more used to the restrictions. The Combine was the home of their birth. And they’ve seen it get better with increased investment in the military complex of the planet.


Oct 29, 3065 – The first load of BattleMechs from Independence leaves for our space. We also replace two mechs from Lindon that were destroyed in their battle.

[Abe Sargent]

November 22,3065 – Duke Essex has contacted Theodore Kurita, and they agree to meet on Dieron.

December 14, 3065 – Essex arrives at Dieron and meets with Coordinator Theodore

“Hello again Coordinator. Thank you for meeting with me. I wanted to discuss the ongoing situation between our nations.”

Theodore and Duke Essex talk for a while. Essex explains his actions in Quentin are an honorable response by the Coalition to the attack on Caph. We understand you did not authorize the attack, but we cannot have that if we are to be neighbors. So, instead of going after a ton of your worlds, or attacking your people, we have landed on Quentin, and just paid the factories there to make mechs for us, instead of you, for a few months so far. We have not taken anything that is yours – this is not even a raid. We did not take units you had already paid for, and were sitting in your warehouses, we did not take your ammo, armor, mechs tanks, infantry, or anything else. We didn’t attack civilian targets, we didn’t swap ComStar out for Word of Blake, we have not exacted martial law, and we have not forced Independence to make units for us for free, which we could have done, at gunpoint, using the stuff already on planet. We have paid them, so we have actually helped the economy of Quentin. We have even fixed battle damage we caused in our skirmishes.


So far, we have done an honorable response to your actions.

“I know we can’t hold Quentin forever. Even if they asked to join us, you would land 10 regiments of mechs and bring every single WarShip you own in order to knock us off the world. I get that. And that would not be a friendly, neighborly thing for us to do either.

But it would cost you. Your troops are already battle beaten in the Thumb, the Fed Com flank, and the Ghost Bears. You would lose hundreds of mechs, tanks, and thousands of soldiers. You would lose so many fighters. And you would damage the economy and infrastructure of a highly valuable world, one of the ten most valuable ones you have.

Then you would have to bring a full navy and forces against us. And you will do this, Quentin is too important not too. I get that.

So, I’m willing to give you Quentin back, peacefully, without a single shot fired. And, I’ll trade you the WarShip we captured from you too. And there’s just one thing that you have that we want.”

“What would that be?”

“Remember when our units fought together in Operation Bulldog? As you know, the Star League forces there took out a few Smoke Jaguar WarShips. Afterwards, they gave the hulks to you. Some you sat on, some you scuttled, and some your restored to make up your navy.”

“You want the ones we still have.”

“Precisely.”

“I don’t remember them exactly, hold on, let me look it up. They left nine WarShips.

There were two Essexes. One, the Sabre Cat, we have restored. The other, the Dark Claw, we moved and have ready, in case we need to fix it later.

We had two Congresses. One, the Fire Crest, was salvageable, and we were going to do the same with the Dark Claw that we did to it, but it went missing. We suspect Word of Blake took it.

We had two Yorks. One was past its sell by date. The other , the Lioness, is now waiting if we ever want to do anything with it. It’s in the same state as the Dark Claw.

We got a Texas class which was unsalvageable and scuttled.

Finally, we had two Fredesa class WarShips. Both were badly damaged. One was deemed unsalvageable without paying more than the ship is worth. The other could be done, but would require some cash. We did not want to build the infrastructure to refit the clan vessels, so we didn’t bother, and they are towed and in storage as well.”

“And they are right here, above Dieron, right?”

“Yes. So let me get this straight, you want the Dark Claw, the Lioness, and the two Fredasas, one of which you can’t do anything with?”

“Correct. You aren’t using them, they have no value to you right now, and you didn’t spend a lot of money making them or taking them down. As you know, your WarShip is fully captured, repaired, and ready to go. You can get it back, free of any money lost, and a planet back for free as well. And we get four hulks of WarShips.”

“How could a nation your size even begin to get the money together to pay for their restoration, let alone their upkeep?”

“Upkeeping Warships is a lot cheaper than people think. Making them is the expensive deal. The Dragoons have 6 WarShips with one planet, Outreach, supporting them. We have 20ish. Plus, remember the Periphery in the Star League era had dozens of WarShips per state. We can have a few too.

This is a fair offer. You give something not worth that much to you, and we give something not worth that much to us.”

“Oh, and I promise not to have my people put any bombs or spying devices or anything on the WarShip we give you back, but check anyway. Because you never know what Blake will do.”

A smile escapes the coordinator. “I was surprised that you moved your realm to their grip, that won’t end well. You know that the stuff they are doing for you is just to build up their prestige.”

“Of course they are. You remember when ComStar had to admit that they had a he army they never told anyone. The ComGuards, stationed on every planet in the Inner Sphere. It was scary, so for years, they helped out with humanitarian causes and fixing up stuff and helping those in need on every planet. To build up goodwill. But after around 7 or 8 years, they stopped. Blake is doing the exact same thing. But you know what? It helps my people out, so I’m in.”


He wants us to toss in the Okinawa DropShip and pocket WarShip that we captured, and to move up our departure date from Quentin. While we are keeping our ships, I agree to move us out in just a couple of weeks.

[Abe Sargent]

December 31, 3065 – We launch off Quentin, after taking the last of the mechs Independence made this month.

January 4, 3066 – We arrive back in our space, and our flotilla and troops from Nanking head back there.


What did we get, mech-wise,?

8 Atlas AS7-K
8 Tai-Sho
4 Marauder II 4K
8 Akuma
8 Naginata
8 Gunslinger
8 Victor 9K
8 Hatamato-Chi
8 Shugenja
12 Chimera
12 Tessen
12 Excalibur CS
12 Ninja-To
4 JagerMech

That’s 130 mechs we made from the factory. Now, we purchased them at a 12.5% discount, and we immediately help to pay for them by having the Coalition pick up the bill for a lot of them and move them to various militia we are trying to build up. Meanwhile we move many of these mechs to our garrison.


January 29, 3066 – The four hulks arrive in the Terra System just a few days after Duke Essex does. He meets with local Blake representatives.

They are going to repair the Fredasa, York and Congress WarShips for us, for free-ish. We give them the fourth hulk that was damaged too much, and they can fix it up here in Terra. Their specialists tell me it’ll cost less than the Combine estimated. So they get a WarShip added to their roster. Meanwhile we turn over all of the salvage and pieces and armor and weapons from that battle to help pay for stuff.

We also sell them some of the Mechs we produced at Quentin for market price, and made some of the cash back that way.

Meanwhile, we use that cash to purchase two Assault Triumph DropShips from them. They have been refitting Triumph DropShips here with all due speed. We agreed, a while ago, to be able to buy their DropShips and JumpShips coming off their lines because we had neither.

So, total pluses and minuses were strong.

This was a very good campaign, because we doubled our WarShips, Blake will fix them up (they like having a nearby ally with WarShips) and we gave them one of the hulks for them to use, so they increase their fleet (something they are doing madly.). Plus we sent them some mechs, and gave them a bunch of salvage, worth a lot of money, and including parts of DropShips, fighters, and more. Thousands of tons of the stuff. That helps Blake to defray their costs considerably as well.

Plus, we left a happy Quentin behind. IW thought we were oddly nice in dealing with them, and the planet became very pro-Coalition in it’s feelings, after we helped them in a few ways, while also being very honorable and relaxing with the laws. You never know what kind of benefit that might sow down the road. Either the enhanced relations with IW or with the people of Quentin.



End of the Quentin Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

Here’s our current naval assets:



Naval Assets:

Warships –

Swift Justice, Aegis WarShip – Nanking
Brest, Fox WarShip – Nanking
Merchant’s Death, Fredasa WarShip, Available Nov 1, 3067
Dark Claw, Essex WarShip – Available December 1, 3066
Lioness, York WarShip – Available March 1, 3067
Red Eyrie, Black Lion WarShip – Available December 3067

JumpShips –

Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip –
Johnny Appleseed, Invader JumpShip - –
Maxim of Glory, Invader JumpShip –
River of Fate, Merchant JumpShip – M.I.A.
Celestial Vagrant, Tramp JumpShip –
Majestic Hobo, Tramp JumpShip -
Merchant of Venice, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Endless Revival, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066


Military Carrying DropShips –

Robin Hood, Union DropShip – Small World
Megan’s Fury, Union DropShip - Small World
Dirty Dozen, Union DropShip – Small World
Charon’s Message, Union DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Star River, Union DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip –Clan Campaign, Available August 5, 3065
Lights of Volga, Union DropShip, Upgraded – Traded to Blue Star
Victory Assured, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Serial Advantage, Overlord DropShip - Nanking
Defiance, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Daily Menace, Overlord DropShip, Upgraded – Traded to Blue Star
Faith’s Bulwark, Fortress DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking
King Arthur, Excalibur DropShip – Nanking
Peacemaker – Gazelle DropShip -
Turret Diplomacy, Gazelle DropShip -
Profit of Guns, Gazelle DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Honored Living, Colossus DropShip – Nanking
Green Goblet, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark
Roost of War, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark



Aerospace Fighter Carrying DropShips -

Fury Unbound, Vengeance DropShip – Nanking
Stellar Phantom, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Fang of the Lion, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Galvanic Arc II, Leopard CV DropShip – Nanking
Pride of the East, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Clawhammer, Carrier DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066

Assault DropShips –

Bannick’s Burn, Claymore DropShip – Nanking,
Firebird, Avenger DropShip – Nanking
Hawkeye, Avenger DropShip – Nanking
Ninja Dog, Assault Triumph DropShip – Nanking, ready in March 1, 3066
Nightly Devastation, Assault Triumph DropShip - Nanking, ready in March 1, 3066
Arrow of Fate, Achilles DropShip, Upgraded – Nanking
Stalwart Destruction, Model 96 Elephant DropShip – Nanking
Her Majesty’s Interference, Hamilcar DropShip – Nanking
Paris West, Intruder DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking,
Repo Rewards, Model 97 Octopus – Nanking
Sword’s Savagery, Okinawa DropShip – Nanking

Blaze of Glory, Overlord-A3 - Nanking,
Distant Reprisal, Nekohono’o – Nanking, ready January 1, 3067

Cargo DropShips -

Camel’s Luck, Jumbo DropShip -
Jakob’s Ladder, Buccaneer DropShip (Cargo Vessel) – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Donkey’s Wrath, Mule DropShip –
Errand of Duty, Mule DropShip -

[Abe Sargent]

The Octopus is a very weak version of the Elephant.

The Essex and York are both destroyers.



We promote Captain Randall Lewis to Admiral Lewis, now that he has so many more ships. We promote our own people, scan ships for tracers, bombs, spy equipment of all sorts, and do a little recruiting from places where we fully trust people.

We now have the same number of WarShips as the Dragoons.

They have an Aegis like we do, a Congress Frigate, 2 Lola III Destroyers, a Soyuz Heavy Cruiser, and a Vincent mk 42 Corvette. We are lighter, with two corvette/raiders, a corvette, and 2 destroyers, plus the heavy cruiser.

But this is a nice step in the right direction, right? Right!

Once fixed, our WarShip fleet, at six, is just one less than the entire Capellan Confederation with 7.

Now, the Aegis class, which we have, is still, despite a Heavy Cruiser class (below Battle Cruiser and Battleship) is still the 11th best battle value of all ships ever, including the clan Leviathan and the nasty McKenna Battleship. There are multiple battle crusaders and battleships that have a lower BV than our Aegis, such as the Texas Battle Cruiser.

Our new York? 75k BV. The new Essex? 65k. Our Fresada is at 48.7k and the Fox is 39k. Then the Aegis is 174. That’s just a blow out against most modern naval ships.


What we need are more pocket WarShips and assault DropShips. More and more DropShips ar coming off the lines with naval class weaponry, or being refitted with it.

[Abe Sargent]

The York is a clan refit of the old Riga design from the Star League. They added a lot in their overhaul and refitting of the ship. It now carries 50 fighters, 2 small craft, has an LF battery for two jumps, and has a lot of weapons, and armor. It’s good, quality design, and our repair of it will obviously replace damaged weapons and such with Inner Sphere ones, but it’s still a good, strong Destroyer with a carrier back-up role and 2 droprings


The Essex carries 10 fighters and 10 small craft. The Essex is known for doling out a ton of weapons, and having lighter armor though. It’s like the Vulture omnimech or Rifleman of WarShips design. The clans didn’t do that many changes to it post clan. The Essex must be escorted, because it only has naval class weapons. But it has a lot. It can destroy a DropShip in one salvo. Normally it would have an updated computer and tracking system, but that was destroyed in the battle, so we have to use an inner sphere one instead. 0 droprings too


We need a ton more fighters, and it’s getting harder and harder to get fighters on the market.


Did you know that?

Between 3054 and 3058, the Word of Blake helped the Free Worlds League, their ally, salvage more than 8 WarShips from before, and stripped down and found around 14 other WarShips, two of which were given to the Blake as a gift from the League.

Blake has been all over recovering WarShips, that ComStar knew about for centuries, and building a huge fleet.

[Abe Sargent]

October 9, 3065 – After the counter-attack has damaged his March, Duke James Sandoval has been wearied and drained. He is just too spent to continue. Tancred Sandoval takes over as Duke and James officially abdicates

[Abe Sargent]

October 10, 3065 - Angel's Riders take a contract with another group and have left our employ. A company offered them an interesting deal that guaranteed combat, so they turned us down for just boring garrison work.

[Abe Sargent]

October 25, 3065 - Duke Essex has Chief Foster begin to investigate the chance of Blue Star Irregulars WarShip, the Kerensky Blues. They have trouble maintaining it, and they are going into debt, and they don’t know how to use WarShips that well, and are having issues with it in battle.

Can we negotiate for it somehow? Adding another WarShip to the roster would be sexy.

Blue Star used to be a three regiment unit, but were savaged in the clan wars down to one regiment. Perhaps we could offer them a ton of mechs? Maybe they want transport assets? We could give them the money they spent on the ship’s repair and upkeep, plus a bonus, and then a ton of mechs and such.

Actually, about 6 weeks ago, their ship was again damaged, this time in a battle with a single Lyran Fox Corvette. Alright, it’s time to see if we can convince them to cut the tie.


This is the third time they've had to repair it since acquiring it, and that's just pushing things past their budget.

[Abe Sargent]

October 30, 3065 – The first Oppenheimer Hazardous Material Recovery Vehicle have arrived at Epsilon Indi to begin decontamination of the mass nuclear weapon fallout created on the world centuries ago in the Amaris wars.

November 13, 3065 – A raid is committed against Arboris, and it hits near Alpha Battalion’s zone of protection. They aren’t able to keep the raiding forces from achieving their raid against a local winery, but they do force the raiding forces out sooner than they had expected, and we force them off world, without any major exchange of battle. They blast off on a Leopard DropShip and head off world.

December 1, 3065 – Brenna Twohy, leader of the Hsien Hotheads was elected the leader of the planet, and will join Celestial Coalition’s ruling council as their representative.

December 4, 3065 – We have hired one of our former enemies to come work for us. Up until now, the only foe that we hired was the Blackhearts, who we encountered early in the Chaos March campaigns. They were pissed off when they found out they were working alongside terrorists, not the freedom fighters they had expected, left the planet, and gave us some intel on the terrorists which we used to secure and pacify the planet. Hiring them made a lot of sense for us, they had shown their true colors.

The unit we are about to hire was similarly upset at the Free Worlds League, after signing a 10 year deal with them in January 1, 3056, they were loaned to the Capellan Confederation for their attacks on the Chaos March, were on Caph for a few years garrisoning part of the world on their behalf, and then when we won our campaign against them, they then left and rejoined Marik space, finishing out their deal, and licking their wounds on garrisoning worlds.

We have signed….


Always Faithful, for 5 years, until January 1, 3071, for garrison work. We won’t place them on Caph, for obvious reasons. Rating B-, 1 regiment of heavier mechs, regular, reliable, 35% upgraded, with some battle wounds from the Caph Campaign back in 3062.

The Always Faithful has been around for hundreds of years, and have never defaulted on a contract or left one early. They are, as their name implies, honest to a fault. And neither they, nor the Stealthy Tigers their bed-mates on Caph, acted inappropriately during their stay (They weren’t nasty, or cracked down on freedoms, or attacking civilian targets or stuff like that) and they are a suitably solid unit to add to the Coalition’s forces for now.

They are replacing Angel’s Riders.

We have also extended some contracts coming up soon, such as The Bouncers and Smithson’s Chinese Bandits.


December 22, 3065 – Martinson Armaments is fully restored. The first Kyudos and Spartans should roll off the line in two months time!

[Abe Sargent]

December 28, 3065 – We have successfully negotiated for the Kerensky’s Blues. We are giving up some stuff, but we get some stuff too.


We give up:

750 million CBills
1 battalion of mechs, all level 2 tech
1 Company of mechs, all clan omnis
1 upgraded Overlord DropShip for the battalion
1 upgraded Union DropShip for the company


We send:

Daily Menace, Overlord DropShip, Upgraded
Lights of Volga, Union DropShip, Upgraded

Company of clan mechs – Shadow Catx2, Ullerx2, Mad Cat, Vulture, Dasher, Cougar, Ryoken, Koshi, Blood Asp, Hankyu

Battalion of of level 2 mechs – Fireball, Wolfhound, Pillager, Dragon Fire, Atilla, Alexander, Greyhound, Grasshopperx2, Highlander, Wolverine, Enforcer, Hatchetman, Orion, Locust, Commandox2, Hunchback, Clintx2, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Starslayerx2, Assassin, Javelin, Bumblebee, Bandersnatch, Snake, Lao Hu , Sha Yu, Men Shen, Anubis, Razorback, Chimera, Banshee


And then we get the WarShip. We have it arrive in Terra for Word of Blake to repair for us. It’ll take them about six months or so to fix up.

[Abe Sargent]

December 29, 3065 – Kressly Warworks has purchased two blueprints for two tanks from the Star League era from Word of Blake, and now they own the sole rights of distribution. No one is making them for centuries.

Lightning Hover Tank – Originally made in 2696. We’ll be making an RL variant that uses Rocket Launchers, innovated in the periphery, and used with frequency in the alied powers, including Blake, Capella, Taurian Concordat and Magistracy. 7 15 missile rocket launchrs, and two anti-missile systems. 35 ton, 11/17 hover vee, with 62 point sof armor (light), 1,882,750 CBills and 709 BV.

Beagle Hover Tank – First made in 2666, this 15 ton reconnaissance vehicle has a Beagle Active probe, 1 medium laser, small laser, 12/18 movement, and 53 points of armor. 602,875 CBills. BV of 335. We are also making a variant for Blake-only that has a C3i for them.

We are making 3 Lightnings a month and 2 Beagles a month for us and 2 a month for Blake.

The Beagle will give us a very good version of a typical Savannah Master scout hover vee, with the beagle probe as a nice touch. And the Lightning is highly unusual. A rocket launcher is a one-shot weapon, and it this case, fires 15 missiles, unaimed. Is has 7, and that gives it a strong quick strike and retreat profile (the original Lightning was the same, with one-shot SRM launchers, and this is much better with that goal).

We know tanks, and we have the blueprints. We expect to have these coming off the lines in a year.

[Abe Sargent]

December 31, 3065 -

Essex Training Academy


We have 20 MW graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 29 enrollees for next year. All are staying in the Coalition. We also have 8 graduates of vehicle crews, all regular. We hand them vehicles and move them to our garrison or out to local Coalition worlds. 10 enroll for next year, and 9infantry squads are now being trained as well. 8 infantry squads are completed, the Aerotech wing has its grads – 8 total. 7 more enroll for the 1st year.

We create an Academy Battalion for the senior class, and its 24 folks.


Year 4 - 24
Year 3 – 26
Year 2 - 28
Year 1 – 29

Armor – 10

Aerospace, Year 2 - 8
Aerospace, Year 1 - 7

Infantry, Year 2 - 10
Infantry, Year 1 - 9

We pay 17.5 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

[Abe Sargent]

The Civil War in 3065 –


As 3065 opens, Combine forces cross the border. They begin attacking worlds: Addicks, Breed, Cassias, Kentares IV, and Kesai IV. By May 15, 3065, all of those worlds are in combat.


As 3065 continues, one of the obvious themes is that the various sides have begun to exhaust their reserves and materiel. The battlefields are winnowing. Which is not good for Lyran Alliance against the Free Skye Revolt. Other than there, no new battles have broken out at all.

October 10, 3065 Kathil is finally done. The allied forces of Victor supporters have won.

But in free Skye, battles begin for worlds like Hesperus II and Freedom.


More and more people in the Lyran Alliance are seeing Katrina as the wrong person, and the wrong side, and more and more people are crossing over to Victor’s allied forces.

By the end of 3065, Breed is captured as the months drag on, Addicks and Cassias are ongoing battles, Kesai IV is lost and the Dragon pulls from that world.

[Abe Sargent]

3066

January 2, 3066 - The expansion plant of Iveco Corporation, which makes Burro II trucks, among many others, has opened on the Capellan Confederation world of Jonathan. Jonathan is in the systems re-taken from the Federated Commonwealth by the Confederation in Operation Guerrero in 3057. It’s about 65 light years from Arboris and Genoa.


January 14, 3066 – Skobel MechWorks is open and restored.

[Abe Sargent]

February 3, 3066 – We take a meeting with Brooks Incorporated, the company on Liberty that is making the Defiance and Ironsides fighters for us. We need another fighter line for the Coalition and for us.

They have factories in a bunch of places in the Free Worlds League where they make tanks, VTOLs, and such, but we are the only factory where they make fighters. So they don’t have the right to any other fighters.

So we can do a new design, or acquire an existing one.

They suggest us contacting someone in a nation we are allied with to license a fighter, since that would be easier and faster.

We all agree to a perfect solution…

February 6, 3066 – We announce that Brooks Incorporated and Andurien AeroTech have agreed to allow Brooks to license their 100 ton Riever aerospace fighter. We are licensing, strait up without changes, the F700 version of this fighter, from 3050, and we’ll build two lines of it here, and they should be up and running in around a year or so, since we are using existing blueprints, and making no changes. The only rule is that we cannot sell them to the Lyran Alliance or Federated Commonwealth, often seen as an enemy of the state of the Free Worlds League.

Here are the reasons why this was a perfect fit:

1). Our two existing lines are both medium fighters with a 55 and 65 ton body. This gives us that nasty assault, Atlas story fighter.
2). We have a long history of an alliance with the Duchy of Andurien, so this makes them money, and is easy to do.
3). Brooks Incorporated’s main FWL factory is on Andurien too.

Because Brooks is there on Andurien as well as Liberty, and we have close Andurien ties, this just makes a lot of sense.

[Abe Sargent]

Why is Word of Blake such a strong ally for the Coalition, compared to other options?

What is Word of Blake getting out of all of this?

1). After abusing the 21st Centauri Lancers in the capture of Terra, Blake got a bad reputation among mercenaries. Since then, they have tried to recreate their image using mercs, like us. They have hired some folks like Herman’s Hermits and used them as examples of people that work well with Word of Blake. So the first thing they get is the door no longer closed on them.

2). Finances. The next thing Blake gets is money. The amount of money ComStar/Blake gets for running HPG stations on worlds is incredible. It funds virtually everything they do. Now imagine that you are getting the HPG cash for planets with a lot of traffic, like Epsilon Eridani or Nanking or even New Home or Liberty. It’s really a lot of dough. Blake makes out financially from this deal.

3). Military units. From the very get go, we sent some salvaged mechs to Blake for stuff from them. Since then, they have used us for quite a lot. They use Kressly Warworks to make an Ostroc for us, Liberty’s fighter company to make Defiances, lines that were made exclusively for ComStar on Nanking and more of those things will crop up. Blake had very little defections of people from ComStar with military equipment, and the ComGuards were among the least to head out to help form Word of Blake. They continue to just spit out an incredible amount of military materiel, and they are building that stuff up.

4). Turning into a real power. Word of Blake was initially seen as a more suspicious ComStar, since the people who liked the manipulations and secrery were the ones who left after ComStar began secularizing themselves and turning into a kinder, gentler organization. Blake needed to be seen as a legitimate, and nice power. Their work with the Coalition is another feather in that ongoing cap.

So Blake gets money, respect, and improves their military. Meanwhile, we get military, respect, tech, and planets that boost our economy. It’s a good alliance right now for both sides.

[Abe Sargent]

February 15, 3066 – Both Lightnings and Beagles are getting spun from Kressly Warworks.

February 28, 3066 – There has been some push-back over on Quentin after the Combine took back over. Some locals look back on our time there fondly, and the Combine is back, cracking down on again on travel and security and such.

Mar 1, 3066 – The Kyudos and Spartans are being delivered to us and the Coalition.

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 4, 3066 – After a long an unsuccessful era of quiet, James Sandoval has passed away. He spent the last few months in quiet.

Mar 6, 3066 – We receive a communication from Duke Tancred Sandoval. Duke Essex agrees to the message and leaves the Coalition on a command circuit prepared for this journey by Tancred.

March 15, 3066 – New Duke Tancred Sandoval contacts the Coordinator and sues successfully for peace, and the Draconis Combine counter-assault ends.

Mar 30, 3066 - Essex arrives at Robinson, the home of the Sandoval family, and the capital of the Draconis March. Tancred meets him. They go to view the body, which is lying in state.


“We’ll keep it up for a few months at least. We’ve had more people visiting his grave than we expected.”

Essex nods. “Your father was a good man.” Seeing Tancred squint a tad, he adds ”Look, your father wasn’t the easiest of people to get along with. We all know that. But we was a good man. He cared more about the people of his March than the aristocrats who placed him in power. That made him abrasive, but in a very good way.”

Tancred smiles a bit at that. “Yes.” After a short walk they arrive inside the Ducal Palace, a place Essex has been before. Tancred has been a huge supporter of Victor, when his father was a pro-Katrina supporter. That has to weigh on Tancred still.

“While I’m happy to have you come and pay your respects to my father, that was not the only reason I contacted you. Obviously things have changed in your state, and ours as a result. We are more distant now. But my father and you never let that interfere with your letters and messages. You sent a unit of ‘Mechs in the dark days of the March. No, my father never forgot stuff like that.”

“Your father was fiercely loyal. So are you Tancred, even if you forget it.”

“Although to different things. I to Victor, to a comrade-in-arms, to the guy who is the white hat.”

“Your father wasn’t loyal to Katrina. He was loyal to these people. These people who you see all around. The ones visiting grave beyond expectations. That’s a loyalty that’s increasing rare these days. For all of my hassles with Duke Hasek, I can’t fault him for that; he has it too.”

“Perhaps. You knew my father in a different way than I did. Than any child could.”

“True. Although that’s not unexpected.”

Tancred lets out a gentle laugh. “My father’s loyalty. That’s why I’m here. Let’s drink to it!” Tancred passes a drink to Essex and they toast Duke James Sandoval.

“And that’s why I brought you here. After I essentially forced him to resign, he had a few months to put his affairs in order as he grew closer and closer to death. He never forgot a debt. The list of people that he feels he owes things to are just extremely long. He has an entire log!“

“Well, as you can imagine, my father willed that you receive some thing that would help defray the bond, trust, and aid you gave him and his people. Come with me, I think you’ll be suitably please.”


Tancred escorts Essex to the local garage and they get a hover-limo driven by an employee of the Duke. After a drive of a half hour or so, they park in the StarPort, and get out.

“My father was always a savvy man with a sharp mind. He knew what people’s greatest needs were. You had an abundance of ‘mechs and other units, but your mercenary unit and your state were always needing more transport assets. Here she is…”




“As you know, JumpShips are all captured by the two sides in the war for combat transport and have been militarized. Even if my father thought that a JumpShip was a proper repayment, we couldn’t have gotten one. The same is true of proper, good, FedCom built and designed DorpShips. But this? Ah this!

This crashed in one of the battles we fought against the Draconis Combine. It took our techs about 9 months to fix it and get it ready again. It’s not on any of our lists of local DropShips and naval assets, since its not ours. My father felt that, since you would often send him battlefield salvage, the least he could do was return the favor in his will!”

Tancred steps aside to reveal a Nagumo class DropShip.


“You sent my father a company of mechs that included some clan tech. If you were to sell it on the open market, this is about the price. That’s a fair exchange. Plus, you have to love the symmetry. My father was a great man.”


“We salvaged this DropShip from the Combine in the last months of 3063 in our campaign against them. Obviously, repairing the crashed ship would be a real benefit to the war effort. But as the techs looked it over, they realized it would take a while to fix up, so my father prioritized other needs. As the war progressed, and it looked worse and worse for us, you can imagine how a infantry-transporting DropShip was de-prioritized.

Every now and then our techs were able to work on in and fix it up, and then, after my father left the office, he made sure that a variety of projects were finished up, this among them. It was repaired about 13 weeks ago. They even launched it to verify that it works. Shoot, you can even take it home with you if you want!”


The Nagumo, a recently created DropShip, is a heavily armed and armored troop transport DropShip. Designed to land and deliver in a hot zone and to protect itself, it has a lot more armor and weapons than is normally expected of this role. It can carry 12 infantry platoons, and 2,270 tons of cargo. (A battalion of infantry) This enables it to deliver all of the various materiel and support that might be needed – food, guns, ammo, mines, surveillance, medical supplies, and so forth.

The only major issue with a Nagumo, is that leaving the gravity well of the planet requires the reconfiguration of the infantry bays, which takes a few hours. You can’t leave hot.

It’s a nice parting gift from an ally.


Essex leaves with the Lucky James a few days later.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Second Small World Campaign


April 20, 3066 – Sir! You need to see this. We have a huge flotilla that has just jumped into the System. They are at pirate points. It looks like a huge army.

“Why would an army that big come here?”

“I don’t know Duke Small, but it’s going to be an issue if they do.”

A few minutes later Small World receives a communiqué.

“Hello Duke Small. This is Leutnant-General Davis Lille. I have been ordered, by Archon’s officers, to bring the 17th Arcturan Guards to Small World in preparation for further campaigns toward Tikonov. We are going to land on your planet.”

“General, please be advised that Duke Braham Essex, of the Celestial Coalition, is two days away in a nearby system. You will not make any move towards my planet until he arrives on scene. He has already been informed. If you come towards our planet, without received permission from him, it will be considered a military attack, and you will be attacked. Just wait two days.”

“Very well, we will wait. On the third day, we move in.”

[Abe Sargent]

Apr 22, 3066 –

“General Lille, this is Duke Essex, say again your reason for being here?”

…

“Alright listen, in the past, Small World has rented part of its surface to troops, and we are happy to do so again. I have a place cordoned off for your arrival. There is no inhabited area anywhere in a 135 mile radius of you. You and your men may unload, and relax here on Small World.

General, I am going to give you one warning. If this is a trick, or a trap to take Small World, if you start building a permanent fort, if you aren’t off this world in four months, that will be considered an act of war. Right now our actions have helped Katrina out considerably, you don’t want to make an enemy of us. I promise you, that if you violate this agreement, I will personally lead an assault on, and take Ruchbah from you and the Archon, and add it and its military industry to the Coalition. Do you agree?”


“We do.”

“Then welcome to Small World.”

The 17th arrives, and there are no major issues. Everything seems to be going fine. We order some additional forces to the world, just in case:


All arrive


Duke Essex and Duke Small spend a few days outlying all of the possible directions that this could wind up going. They create a lot of scenarios for different potential snags that could occur, from sabotage, or a full on invasion.

[Abe Sargent]

June 11, 3066 – Another large flotilla arrives in the system.


The 5th Syrtis Fusiliers is here, led by Major General Robert Koenig. They are organized as an RCT with 1 regiment of mechs, 2 of armor, and 5 of infantry. The 17th are a bit bigger - they have 1 regiment of mechs, 3 of armor, 5 of infantry. Both have equal fighters – the 17th has an extra regiment of armor.

The 5th announces that they heard that the 17th was on planet, and they have come to destroy it. These are huge units, not small ones that can come, do a little brawl on the border tundra where the 17th Arcturan Guard is, and then hop on out. The amount of infrastructure units this size require is massive – techs, administrative, medical, support staff, and more are all needed.

Dukes Small and Essex discussed the possibility of a pro-Victor group wanting to fight the pro-Katrina group that’s here.


Duke Small contracts Maj. Gen. Keonig and gives him a list of requirements for being allowed to stage a war:


1). Fighting a war like that on our planet could get out of hand. Lines on the planet will be drawn, any combatants that cross over those lines will be fired on by local troops.

2). Any retaliation to the above, or a full blown assault, will result in the Coalition officially declaring war on the side that attacks. They will join the Civil War on the other side, and immediately seek out and attack nearby planets, fleets, and industries of that side in nearby systems.

3). The Coalition gets 50% of the salvage from the battle from the person who keeps it.


At first Maj. Gen. Koenig refuses to accept these requirements. After Duke Small points out if it broke out on Koenig’s home-world, he’d be suitably concerned, and want some sort of payment as well for compensation for using it as a battleground.

We negotiate down to 20% of salvage, and then broadcast the parameters of their battle.

We carve out clear lines for the battle on the ground, with huge posts and blazes, that give them a 400 mile, (roughly) diameter area, which includes the entire base of the 17th, and some locals hills, and flat terrain, and two rivers, plus a small lake, and dottings of forests all over. There is nothing else there. We pulled out all civilians. We also give the 17th an extenuation of how long they can be there, for obvious reasons.


Because this favors them a bit, the 17th also agreed to the 20% salvage. We mobilize our forces, and Duke Small orders in some aerospace fighters for local support….


Meanwhile, the 5th FC RCT arrives to attack the 17th…

[Abe Sargent]

June 15, 3066 – Duke Essex arrives back on planet to supervise what could be some heavy stuff, he bring ssome forces with him to help keep the peace.

June 18, 3066 - After two days, the fighting has been heavy. There have been some dogfights by fighters outside of the markers, but we are comfortable with that, as long as the mechs and tanks and infantry stay inside the marker.

June 30, 3066 – After some early momentum, the battle has turned against the 5th FedCom RCT. Multiple battles have been fought and the 17th has been clever in positioning and such.

July 2, 3066 – The 5th has been pushed to the line on one side of demarcation. We have multiple units on standby there to protect that border. About twenty five miles past the border are some radioactive material mining interests, so we need to keep fighting from the only major industry and economy on Small World.

July 3, 3066 – The 5th FedCom RCT has chosen to send a lance of mechs past the line to scout out their foes. They were probably testing our resolve as well. The lance was killed after 10 minutes of leaving the area. The 5th has chosen not to retaliate after being reminded of the price

[Abe Sargent]

July 5, 3066 – Another small group has arrived via JumpShips, and two battalions of mechs, mercenaries, hired by Maj Gen. Koenig have arrived to help him regain momentum. Wilson’s Hussars are here on Small World. They aren’t exactly a high-quality unit, they “procured” a DropShip under highly questionable means a few years ago and barely survived as a unit scraping the bottom of the merc barrel. Is this the best the FedCom could do?

July 7, 3066 – At first, the battle swings back the 5th’s way today, and they have charged back away from the line, supported by the new mercenary folks.

Then after a few hours of fighting, the gutsy 17th have pushed the 5th, and this time, they aren’t stopping, the 17th are taking out mercenaries and FedCom RCT folks with equal aplomb. They have gained a strong advantage. In order to flank the 5th, Wilson’s Hussars take a battalion of mechs way outside of the operational area. That’s against the rules, and they know that. The pro-Davion side of the FedCom is probably hoping they can “excuse” this as a mercenary issue only, and distance themselves from it.

We move to hit the mercs hard, and punish them for their impunity. Then, we’re going to hit the 5th, hard as well, to punish them for thinking we’re stupid. Duke Essex orders out Mesopotamia Battalion to smash these idiots, everyone else to their machines, and radios the 17th, speaks with Leutnant-General Lillie.

“General, we’re going to take out the Hussars, then the two of us are going to finish the 5th RCT off. Today. Tonight we’ll give your soldiers more time on planet to recuperate, allow you into some cities to get some drinks, food, rest, and whatever else you want, until you are needed somewhere else.”



Mesopotamia is loaded and heading out. One company is nearby on guard, and the other two were hot and ready and nearby, so they were able to sneak out and get to their posts. All three are near the Hussars in 20 minutes.

[Abe Sargent]

Are those? They are! Well, there’s our proof that this was staged by the FedCom. There are power armored troops riding along with the Hussars, grabbing hold of various foot and hand holds on the mechs as they move out.

The Hussars don’t have the tech or money for power armored stuff, and those are RCT standard power armor. So there’s your proof, right there.

They break off to engage us in companies supported by their power armored buddies, and we engage them, company to company.


Here is what Ninevah is bringing to the party:


Masakari C
ST-8A Shootist
HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas

DVS-2 Devastator
Vulture B
CPLT-C1 Catapult
WHD-6D Warhammer

WTC-4M Watchman
JVN-10F Javelin
PXH-1D Phoenix Hawk
CMT-1 Comet


(Wilson’s Hussars are actually on the cover of the Mercenaries Supplemental and this campaign, minus us, was actually where they regained their mojo, but Small World was taken by the pro-Davion guys against the pro-Katrina forces, and here, our presence has changed things instead.)

http://static4.paizo.com/image/product/catalog/FPR/FPR35016E_360.jpeg


2 SRM IS Standard BA and 2 MG IS Standard BA

Axman
Bushwacker
Valkyrie
Vulcan
Warhammer
Zeus
Commando
Dervish
Enforcer
Griffin
Javelin
Orion

About half of these mechs are level 1 tech. They have 5 vet pilots as well. Everyone else is regular.


We have some light terrain, mild hills, and a bit of heavy woods so thick and dense with conifers it’s almost like jungles.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. They aren’t moving around much. But they do hop their Dervish next to our Javelin in the woods to the south. Masakari fire destroys the LL of their Enforcer. It and their Javelin tumble. Our Masakari took some damage but is fine and dandy, just like candy. Our Jav misses a kick and falls.


Tur n2 – We win init. I bull right on in. Our Jav stands and runs 7 hexes away. Then I hop our PXH to its rear to protect it. I run our Warhammer above and in front of their Bushwacker. Their Jav rises and runs. I unload on their Zeus. Our Vulture’s ER Large Laser lances into their jav’s CT and destroys it. Meanwhile their Zeus destroys the La of our Warhammer. Our Gallowglas destroys the RA of their Firestarter. After carving it open with the Devastator, our Catapult nails the gyro on their Zeus. Then our Warhammer loses its RT to their Orion. Both our Warhammer and their Zeus fall.

Turn 3 – We win in init. I eject the Warhammer. Our Hatamato bases their Enforcer. I jump the Gallowglas above and beside their Firestarter. Our PXH jumps next to their dervish, and in some woods. Comet leaps to the rear of their Warhammer. Their Zeus rises. Our Gallowglas destroys the RT of their Firestarter. Our Devastator cracks open the Warhammer in a few places. Our Shootist nails their Zeus and hits an engine once. Their Vulcan destroys the LA of our Comet. Our Catapult nails the gyro again of their Zeus – two gyro hits, it’s out. Our MAsakari nails the engine twice and gyro once on their Warhammer. Their Hammer falls after taking 120+ damage. Our Gallowglas kicks and destroys the LT of their Firestarter, who finally falls. Meanwhile our Hatamato-Chi kicks the Enforcer and nails its tgyrox2 and engine once. It’s down.

Because these are mercenaries with a lot sense of value, they radio their concession pending us letting them walk. We’ve taken out a Warhammer, Enforcer, Zeus, Javelin, and Firestarter in three rounds of weapons fire, and they’ve taken out our Warhammer and damaged our Comet. We grant them their wish.


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

Warhammer, enginex2, gyrox1
Enforcer missing LL, engine, gyrox2
Firestarter missing RA, RT, LT
Zeus, gyrox2, engine


Ours:

Warhammer missing LA, RT
Comet missing LA


Kill – Vulture, Catapult, Hatamato-Chi

[Abe Sargent]

Battle Two!!


Babylon Company

ATA-2 Attila
Thor C
THG-11E Thug
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas

GRN-D-01 Grand Crusader
Vulture D-UK
ARC-4M Archer
GRF-3M Griffin

ALX-1kc Alexander
VL-5T Vulcan
CMT-1 Comet
JR7-F Jenner



Our foes have 4 suits of power armor.

Wasp
Vindicator
UrbanMech (with an AC10 Ultra)
Stalker
Goliath
Victor
Thunderbolt
Stiletto
Shadow Hawk
Firestarter
Enforcer
Clint


They have a mix of some newer stuff and some older stuff as well, plus several are veteran and the Victor pilot is elite.


This is their Stiletto:


http://www.masterunitlist.info/Image/RenderImage?width=300&height=400&file=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.masterunitlist.info%2FBattleMechs%2FStiletto.jpg



We have two small ridges to either side of us on the east of the are. A few conifers and rough patches dot the area.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We win init. I hop some mechs in the south to take the lower trees quickly and our Comet, Thor, jenner and Vulcan have that area secure quickly . Then I move our heavier units in the centers between the two ridges an d west. I keep a few units like the Archer and Vulture in some light trees in the back for now. Light dustings occur, and no one falls or anything.


Turn 2 – We win init again. I hop folks to position for potential back-attack runs next turn. We have a lot of high numbers to hit some folks, so I try to shoot well, taking targets of opportunity. After that turn, still not much, although our clan mech Thor took 40+. Our Vulcan punched their Firestarter’s hip, but it’s still standing


Turn 3 – This is going to be one of those longer, drawn out battles. We lose init. They have a lot of short range mechs that scare me – ultra AC10 on the Urbie, Victor, Thunderbolt, that’s a strong Stalker variant – the 5M, and so forth. Range is their vulnerability I think, but we haven’t been pecking them apart like I’d hoped. I’ll come in some, leadi ng with our Attila. Hope it works! I hop our Vulcan into a heavy woods hex that is at -1 elevation, hoping someone might expose themselves to close. Their FS runs on that hip actuators but manages to keep standing. Idiot. Another slow turn with a few mechs taking some damage, and nothing major happening.


Turn 4 – We lose init again. I back up my forces. I walk my Jenner into a similar trap that my Vulcan was in last turn. Still nothing. I alpha Strike my Jenner at their Firestarter, Our Jenner nails the large laser on their Firestarter. Their Goliath nails a medium laser on our Jenner. Our Vulcan takes out the RA of their Urbie. Our Jenner falls and destroys its RA. The hex with the Jenner in it ignites.

Turn 5 – We win init. I charge everything up. Vulcan in the trap again. I careful stand the Jenner. The Firestarter closed with it. Out Attila destroys the LA and LT of their Vindicator, as well as blowing off the RA. Out Thor unloads on their untouched dStalker with its Ultra AC 20 and such and blows it for a ton of damage. After our Thug follows it up with more with two PPCs and 11 out of 12 SRMs from its packs, the Grand Crusader nails it with a pair of LRM20s, and then a medium pulse laser hits the SRM6 narc ammo. Dead mech (no CASE). Their Vindicator falls, destroys its RT, and the pilot blacks out. Their Shadow Hawk falls (from just 20+ damage) as well.

Turn 6 – We win init. I push some folks forward more. I leap the Attila into some woods and right in front of their force. I move the Alexander in hard as well. Their Shadow Hawk rises. Our Comet gets next to their Firestarter. Our Comet fires all of its mighty weapons load and blows off a RA, destroys a RL and LT. Our Thug destroys their Urbie’s LT, and our Griffin it’s Right Leg. Meanwhile our Vulture cracks the AC20 of their Victor and takes it out. Our Grand Crusader’s large pulse laser hits the Thunderbolt’s head, cracks the armor, and nails the cockpit, killing the MW. After it falls, their Urbie destroys its other leg, and their Firestarter tumbles as well. No one else does. Our Atilla kicks an undamaged Wasp and destroys its RL. It falls.


They call it at that. Too much all at once, plus the lucky kill against the Thunderbolt.


Wasp missing RL
UrbanMech missing RA, LT, RL, LL
Vindicator missing LT, LA, RT, reattach RA
Stalker LA, RL
Firetsarter missing RL, LT, reattach RA
Thunderbolt, fix cockpit


Jenner missing RA


Kill – Grand Crusaderx2,

[Abe Sargent]

And match #3, here we go!



Jericho Company


Daishi A
GLT-3N Guillotine
FLS-8K Flashman
Loki D-UK

GRN-D-01 Grand Crusader
RFL-3N Rifleman
Mad Cat Prime
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk

WVR-6M Wolverine
WLF-2 Wolfhound
WTC-4M Watchman
SDR-5V Spider


Our foes have some battle armor, plus


Archer
Stinger
Rifleman
Tempest
2x Marauder
Jenner
JagerMech
Fireball
Sentry
Crusader
Orion


This is their Tempest!

http://www.masterunitlist.info/Image/RenderImage?width=300&height=400&file=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.masterunitlist.info%2FBattleMechs%2FTempest.png


Not a single assault mech in the lot, but a bunch of heavies to make up for it I suppose. 4 vet pilots too.

No trees in this area, just some modest hills, and a depression in the middle, plus a bit of concrete.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We place our big stuff on the east flank to head south towards our foes, unimpeded by the central depression. We lose init. I move my team down 5 hexes. After focusing on it a bit, we destroy their Rifleman’s LT with our Rifleman, and it shuts down the XL engine the mech is toting. They need an 11 to Gauss rifle our Wolfhound with their Tempest – it works and the Wolvies LT is destroyed. It falls down.

Turn 2 – We lose init. We eject the Wolfhound. I charge in again on the flank. Our Shadow Hawk starts carving into their Marauder and hits a PPC and then the Grand Crusader its LA. Our Flashman destroys the LT of the Stinger.

Turn 3 – We lose init again. Our Daishi (which stands for Great Death) destroys the RA of their Archer while our Lokie nails its leg actuators. Meanwhile our Grand Crusader hits the engine and gyro once on the damaged Marauder. Our Watchman blows out their Stinger’s RL. Our Mad Cat finishes things by hitting the engine twice more on their Marauder. Their Archer falls and breaks its LA into pieces. Stinger falls too.


They call it! All done. We took out their Rifleman and Marauder completely, devastated their Archer and Stinger.


Archer missing RA, LA
Marauder missing LA, enginex3, gyro
Stinger missing LT, RL
Rifleman, missing LT



Wolfhound missing LT


Kills – Rifleman, Mad Cat,


With their concession, the Hussars are down.

[Abe Sargent]

The next thing we are going to do is coordinate our strike against the 5th FedCom RCT with the 17th Arcturan. We’ve been coordinated with Lillie about ways to go.

We’ve brought in our extra forces, don’t a quick reload/rearmor of the mechs we used against the Hussars (we won’t have a Thor, Comet, Warhammer, Jenner, Wolfhound) and head out to smash the weak and losing 5th.

Fighters fly overhead, and we move in.

Mesopotamia Battalion will drive, minus the damaged units, through the south flank on their position. Meanwhile, Nordic Weapon Battalion will drive on their east flank. That gives us roughly 35 mechs flanking them in the middle of a battle with the 17th that they are already losing.

The 5th FedCom sends out some tanks and infantry to slow us down on the flanks so they can keep focusing on the folks in front. It does, but not as much as they probably hoped.

Seeing an impending flanking attack on two flanks, the 5th RCT breaks and flees. Their DropShips are about 2 miles to the north-east. They begin to move for their transport quickly and appear to be quitting Small World. We begin to follow them, and they break off some units to again act as a rear guard to keep them forward. The 17th blows through them and sends their fastest units to harass the 5th and keep them focused.

After a while, the 5th FedCom RCT reaches their place with the local defenders of tanks and troops here protecting their formations, and a bunch of DropShips as well. An RCT has a ton of DropShips, Unions, Leopard CVs, Gazelles, a Mule or two, an Excalibur or two in there, a rare Conquistador, and a lot more.

The 17th begins to build a cordon around them. What is that?

Essex orders our local DropShips to pick up the 6 companies of K&C here and radios Lillie.


“You need to punish these folks. Your side is losing the war on both fronts in the Lyran and FedSuns territories. You need more than a little victory here. You need a total destruction. Push into the Dropzone and smash their forces, and their DropShips. Do a combat drop right on top of them and smash them!


It’ll take the 5th hours to fully load up and begin to leave. You have time to load up, and then do a combat drop right on top of their units. Don’t let them leave yet. Punch again!”


Lillie takes Essex’s advice and they load up. 6 DropShips carrying Kilts and Commandos mechs get ready to do a combat drop on top of the 5th’s position, and the 17th Arcturan Guard are doing the same, while tanks push forward.

We are fighting hard and furiously, for a while.

[Abe Sargent]

They loaded up some of their units already, particularly infantry, and they find out we are coming in, so they get units into defensive positions to fire on us as we drop onto them. DropShips that are fully loaded go ahead and lift up, and around 7 or 8 are heading up.


Like many of our major battles, we are not going to fight every single battle of this drop. Instead, we’ll play a few, maybe one or two, and a follow up or so.

Braham Essex is eyeing that Conquistador. It’s a rare DropShip, hasn’t lifted off, and it not that much loaded. Meanwhile it’s a command DropShip for RCTs that was recently designed. It’s a strong DropShip, and would be a powerful capture.

Outside of the Conquistador is a command company of mechs, all high level, top-of-the-line stuff. That’s going to be our target, and we are going in with our best company to try and blast that company, and the DropShip that’s with it.

[Abe Sargent]

Essex has ordered Mjolnir Company, our best one we have, to drop and stop those folks:



This battle won’t end soon.


Here is Mjolnir:

Daishi A
ON2-M Orion
BLR-3M BattleMaster
ENF-4D-UK Enforcer

GUN-1ERD Gunslinger
Nobori-Nin B
MAD-5M Marauder
CRD-5S Crusader

GHB-6B Grashopper
STY-3C Starslayer
Shadow Cat Prime
FS9-C Firestarter

The company is 7 elite, and 5 veteran.


It’s a potent, powerful company, with a load of level 2 and 3 mechs. All are updated mechs with great stuff behind them.

They have the Conquistador in the back, we can move towards it and fight it if possible.

Here is their Command Company:


Uziel
Hellspawn
Dart
Fafnir
Garm
Enforcer III
Jagermech III
Stealth
Nightsky
Wolf Trap
Maelstrom
Valkyrie


Their units are mostly vet, with a few elite in there too.



This is their Fafnir, a 100 ton assault mech with two heavy gauss rifles, and a few solid close range weapons to boot. Nasty stuff!


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NCxyg0WtqAs/UaDMcjLSYdI/AAAAAAAABt4/VE5QGWanWlQ/s1600/Fafnir1.jpg


This is basically all even and such.

[Abe Sargent]

Here we go.

Their company starts in the middle of the map. We get the edge. Their BV is about 5000 more than ours, even with our sexy clan tech. Here we go!

We have some hills and woods , not a whole lot else. I begin deploying by tossing our Gunslinger into some heavy woods.

Turn 1 – We win init even with the +2 they get to their initiative (due to the DS). They are on a hill in the center of the map, which is obviously probable, fighting uphill. I need to figure out, do I take out a few mechs, and then focus on the big Conquistador, or vice versa? Whoa, they just blazed their Dart right up to me. The Conquistador has 410 armor on the left side, the area we are attacking. (the rear, while more vulnerable, had massive trees, cliffs, and stuff, and they chose this site well for their folks). I make targets of opportunity instead, to reduce the headaches on the map. That’s the Fafnir, standing in heavy woods and not moving. Our Gunslinger blows the LA off their Uziel with a gauss rifle and its medium lasers hit the gyro and engine once each on their Dart. Our Nobori-Nin hits some heavy gauss ammo in the RA of their Fafnir. Their Maelstrom gets a through armor critical on our Gunslinger and nails the engine once. Three of their mechs fall – Dart, Valkyrie, and Fafnir. Their DropShip misses, mostly, although a gauss slug nails my Crusader.


Turn 2 – We win init again. Our Firestarter leaps into light woods and adjacent to their Fafnir. Our Orion takes some woods to the west of their position. I charge the Daishi up at them too. Our Shadow Cat runs around behind their Stealth. Gauss rifle to your rear? Ouch! Their Fafnir stands. Valkyrie too. The Dart even follows suit. Their Maelstrom moves in and bases some of our units. Our Nobori-nin destroys the RA of that Dart. Our Orion nails the ER PPC on their Wolf Trap. Meanwhile our Enforcer nails the LRM 10 ammo in there and boom!! CASE, but dead mech. Their DropShip nails our Enforcer a few times, and it took 60+ damage from it, but it and our Daishi are standing, while their Stealth and Fafnir fall.


Turn 3 – We lost init this time. Their Fafnir rises and our Daishi bases it. Thgeir Stealth rises and runs behind our Shadow Cat. I move our Marauder into the heavy woods the Fafnir was in and base it too. I move some stuff by their Maelstrom. Our BattleMaster bases it. While running, their Dart falls (gyro hit). It was trying to get behind our Gunslinger. Our Gunslinger’s rear facing medium pulse lasers destroy the LT of their Dart. A large pulse laser from our Daishi shears off the head of their Fafnir. We also destroy its RL. Meanwhile, our BM’s ER PPC lances into their Maelstrom’s H and takes it out too. Two headshot kills of the heaviest two mechs. Dang. Our Shadow Cat’s ER Medium Lasr nbails the CT of their Enforcer III and hits the gyro three times. Dead Enforcer III. On the otherhand, fire lances into our Shadow Cat and it fall shard and destroys its RA from their Conquistador.

Turn 4 – We win init. I eject the Shadow Cat. I hop our Marauder next to their Garm. I run our damaged Daishi into the space with the heavy woods the Marauder left. Their Hellspawn bases or BM, so I walk our Crusader behind the Hellspawn. Meanwhile I hop teh Nobori-nin behind both their Uziel and Stealth. Their Dart tries to stand three times, falls down, breaks its RT and hits its gyro a second time, and its down. Our Marauder takes out the RL on the Garm. Our Gunslinger destroys the RT of their Hellspawn, and that’s a kill/shut down with an XL engine. The Garm obviously tumbles.

Turn 5 – We lose init. Whoa! Five squads of powered armor infantry are pouring of the Conquistador! Their Garm stays on the ground. Their JagerMech III tears into my Enforcer some more. Our Daishi destroys the RA and RT of their Stealth. Engine shutdown. Our Marauder takes out the RT, LL, of their Garm. Two legs dead is a kill. Their Conquistador just savages our Starslayer and destroys its RA and RL.


Turn 6 – We lose init. I eject the Starslayer. I have to move my Gunslinger from it’s sniper spot, and our Nobori-Nin is guarding its rear. Our Nobori-Nin finishes their Nightsky by destroying it’s HD with an LB10X without the shotgun shot. Before it dies, it destroys the RA on the Nin. Meanwhile the Gunslinger’s gauss cracks the Uziel open and hits an engine twice on it. Our Marauder destroys the LA of their Valkyrie. Our Enforcer takes even more damage, loses a RL to the Conquistador, and falls.


Turn 7 – We lose again. We eject the Enforcer. RA of their Valkyrie destroyed by the Marauder. I’m focusing fire on their DropShip.

Turn 8 – We win initiative back again. I expose our Firestarter to base their Uziel. The first damage is dealt to the Conquistaor. Our BAatleMaster hits the Fire Control System and a crit on a weapons bay, injures crew, killing two outright, and hits sensors. Meanwhile that Nobori Nin nails the engine and gyro on their Uziel, once each. Engine shut down. They rock the Firestarter, internal, no major damage, and it stands.

The only mechs left are a Valkyrie, badly damaged, and a virtually untouched JagerMech III. Meanwhile, we’ve gone massively internal of the Conquistador, which is weakened.

They surrender. We have captured a Conquistador and some other fun stuff.

[Abe Sargent]

Their Stuff?

Nightsky, missing H
Garm missing RL, RT, LL
Stealth missing RA, RT
Enforcer III, gyrox3, engine
Maelstrom, missing H
Fafnir, missing H, RL
Wolf Trap, missing RT
Dart, missing RA, LT, RT, gyrox2
Hellspawn, missing RT
Uziel, reattach LA, enginex3, gyro

Valkyrie missing RA


Our Stuff

Shadow Cat missing RA.
Starslayer missing RA, RL
Nobori-Nin, missing RA
Enforcer, missing RL


Gunslinger, engine


Kills – Enforcer, Daishix2, BattleMaster, Shadow Cat, Gunslinger, Marauder, Nobori-Ninx2,

[Abe Sargent]

All across the LZ, similar battles are happening. Of our remaining five companies one was pushed back and lost about half of its units (although many ejected, and the mechs are fine). We destroyed a few DropShips, and captured an Excalibur.

Backed by a smashing of armor, the hot drops have been supplemented by a powerful reinforcing threat. All over the area, DropShips are destroyed or captured, and units destroyed. A few DropShips manage to take flight, some wounded.

Duke Essex orders his DropShips and fighters to chase down the wounded DropShips. They destroy a Gazelle and force down an upgraded Triumph. We lost a few fighters though.


A few more hours pass, and the battle is won, as the handful of remaining forces have surrendered by laying down arms.

The 5th FedCom RCT has been absolutely devastated. Of the many DropShips they brought, only 11 actually made it off the planet, some half, or none, full. A Union, with a full company of mechs, is the only mechs that made it off Small World. Meanwhile, about 40 tanks are off, and about two regiments of infantry made it off too. All of the fighters were destroyed.

The Hussars have about 50% loss to their mercenary command.

The 5th has essentially been destroyed as a unit.

(This is exactly what happened on Small World in the mainline story – while retreating and loading up, a huge hot drop, followed by all of the armor smashed them so hard that they changed the retreat into a surrender.. The only difference? It was the 5th on the winning end, and the 17th on the losing side.)

[Abe Sargent]

This is precisely the sort of major victory Katrina and her loyalist forces need.

Leutnant-General Lillie and Dukes Essex and Small meet up to celebrate, and figure out some stuff.

After negotiations for a while, they make the following agreements:

1). In the final battle, units will keep the salvage of things they directly fought against and took down.

2). The 20% battle salvage remittance will not involve anything that was fought for today, but things prior to today(when both sides began fighting the 5th).

3). They have traded 20% of the mechs salvaged from the 5th to all of the tanks salvaged from the 5th (they salvaged around 50 mechs, so we’d get ten mechs. They salvaged about 75 tanks. They don’t want the tanks that much, We’d get 15 tanks, and ten mechs, and we are swapping 10 mechs for 60 tanks, a solid deal)


All of those tanks will be given to the local folks.


The 100% salvage that we have today, alone, is more than enough.

We offer some horse trades of the DropShips we captured with some of those they did. We captured a Conquistador, upgraded Triumph ,upgraded Excalibur, and Leopard CV. We offer them a Triumph for some other mech carriers, or something else we can better use, but they aren’t really interested. They want all of their transport units for this side in the war, which needs more right now.


In other news, we message Blake to tell Maltex Corporation to begin to create the two lines we have discussed. We’re coming in.

[Abe Sargent]

July 7, 3066 –

“Correct, and that’s why we are coming out against the pro-Davion side in the Civil War. Katrina’s forces haven’t attacked us once. Not one time has a single mech of hers landed, or a wing of her fighters come towards us. She could have tried to do so at Keid or New Home or Liberty, or at Nanking or Zurich, or at Small World. But she never did.

But here we have a pro-Davion unit, who specifically violated the agreement, and marched a lance of mechs beyond their line. Then they did so with a battalion a few days later once again, en masse. Intentionally. And this wasn’t the first time. Pro-Victor units destroyed buildings and infrastructure on Zurich as well.”


….

“Hmmm? No, I don’t think that this was an example of mercenaries going rogue. First of all, remember that I’ve been a mercenary since 3030. That’s more than 30 years of battles and contracts. I know the mercenary world, and I can tell you that people hire mercenaries to do things all of the time intentionally, in order to avoid the blame. That’s exactly what happened here. Exactly.”

…

“How do I know? It’s simple. Outreach is the Mercenary Mecca, and its one jump away from Small World. If you wanted to hire some mercenaries to come over and smash, the Federated Commonwealth could have done a lot better than to have hired a unit with a D- rating. There were multiple units on planet, not on contract, that were not even approached by the 5th FC RCT. I’ve provided you all with a list of the units with a rating of C or better on world that could have been hired. They intentionally hired a unit with a low reputation on purpose, to increase the likelihood that it would not come back on them.

Well it will. As of today, we are declaring the anti-Katrina forces of Victor Ian Steiner-Davion persona non grata in the Celestial Coalition. They are to remove themselves from our space lanes and recharge stations in one week’s time, or will force them out. They are no longer welcome in any of our systems, and we will deny them furlough on our planets.

You cannot come to wage a war with someone else on one of our planets, agree to keep the conflict away from our citizens, and then ignore us and our people. We will strike back. Citizens should no longer be a casualty of this war, or any other, and it’s time that Victor learned that lesson.

Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. I want you to listen to me. You are not the good guy here. You are not the white knight. Your armies have violated treaties, your supporters have violated the Ares Conventions, and you have not pulled them back. You are not the white knight. It’s time you realized that. If you want to be, you need to clean up your own back yard first.”

[Abe Sargent]

July 9, 3066 – Lillie offered to stay and garrison the planet and keep the remnants of the 5th under watch, but there aren’t that many that surrendered.

We turned over the captured mechs from the Hussars to the local guard, as well as the 75 salvaged tanks.


Over the next few months, salvage operations are in full force, as well as tech outfits and security requirements and more. Taverns, restaurants, trading bazaars, and more are all heavily used, and the Small World economy is healthier than ever. In fact, the lingering benefits of this travel and economic growth will be felt for some time. Duke Small uses the temporary benefits to invest in additional mining expeditions and equipment, in order to flesh out their economy a bit more with the radioactive mining.


In the meantime, we have salvaged Mech’s and tanks from our hot drop, as well as those DropShips:


Conquistador, DropShip – Ready September 15, 3066
Triumph, Upgraded, DropShip – Ready December 1, 3066
Excalibur, Upgraded, DropShip – Ready September 15, 3066
Leopard CV, Upgraded, DropShip – Ready October 15, 3066

Not sure we need another Leopard CV but the Triumph is a sign we need to push our tanks more.

Here’s why:

The Upgraded Triumph can carry 36 vehicles, and 4 mechs, or cargo. Basically, it can carry an entire battalion of tanks. That’s a pretty useful transport DropShip.


As was mentioned, that Conquistador was the prize. It’s the most expensive DropShip. Ever. It’s 1.42 billion C-Bills in value (according to MegaMek, 1.6 billion according to Heavy Metal), and roughly 15 of them have been made in the last 6 years or so.

They are designed to be the ideal command DropShip for an entire RCT. First of all, they carry a lot of troops:

Fighters? 18 aerospace fighters
Vehicles? 12 tanks
Mechs? 24 mechs
Battle Armor? 20 squads of battle armor
Infantry? 16 platoons of infantry
Cargo? 877 tons of additional cargo space

That clearly has a huge ability to bring a lot of stuff to the table.

In other news, the Conquistador has all of the latest, most up-to-date electronics, including two decks of computing, electronics, scanning equipment, and more. The general can use it to keep abreast of all of the major changes. Meanwhile, after it lands, it has a huge, spacious medical bay that opens up the ship and is turned into a full service combat hospital. It juts requires a skeleton crew to run (so killing a few helped us considerably). It’s designed to be smooth, and luxurious. And it’s expensive. The next most-expensive DropShip is the recently released Nekohono’o, at 873 million. The only ship, clan, IS, or Star league, that is more expensive is the spyship the Pueblo, and it costs more than some WarShips, and was designed in the Star League era to copy the roles of espionage WarShips like the BugEye.

What do to with the Conquistador? There’s going to be a limited market for them, since they were designed with a specific purpose in mind. You have to have a unit which has Mechs, Tanks, Power Armor, infantry, and fighters. And you have to need the pimped up communications, electronics, and all of that. It’s not a typical DropShip.

On the other hand, large units in the Free Worlds League, Capellan Confederation, Draconis Combine, or even Word of Blake/ComStar might find it exceedingly valuable. Merchants and mercenaries aren’t going to be too interested in it.

But a major player might be willing to shell out the dough.

On the third hand, we could fix it up, pick up some power armored troops, and then use it exactly as intended ourselves. It’s a pretty useful thing.

I go ahead and sell the Leopard and use it to fix, and repair, and stock our battle losses and salvage that won’t be coming out of the Celestial Coalition budget. We have about 65 million left after that, which will hit our general budget.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are the mechs we salvaged, get ready for some fun:

Gunslinger
Nightsky
Axmanx2
Garmx2
Stealth
Enforcer III
Maelstrom
Fafnir
Barghest
Bushwackerx2
Victor
Wolf Trap
Dart
Fireball
Hellspawn
Uzielx2
Javelin
BattleMaster
Banshee
Caesar
Devastator
Wolfhoundx2
Battle Hawk

This was on 6 flanks of fighting.

Most of those are on the lighter side of life. The Garms, Dart, Fireball, Javelin, Battle Hawk, Wolfhounds, are all light mechs. Meanwhile the Uziels, Nightsky, Stealth, Enforcer III, Bushwackers, Wolf Traps are all mediums. Only the Gunslinger, Fafnir, Battlemaster, Banshee, and Victor are assaults, so of the 28 mechs we salvaged, just 5 were assault mechs, which is fairly common (target the small stuff first, right?).

This is a huge amount of salvage. All of these mechs are worth some cash. Many can fill holes in the mechs we lost.

[Abe Sargent]

We did a lot of ejecting today, but we still had some mechs get demolished in the heavy fighting. Here are mechs we lost, and who will be replacing them:


Gugnir Company:

Lost HBK-5N Hunchback (center torso of it was destroyed). Replacing it with the salvaged Victor 10D version (with an ultra AC20).


Gram Company :

Sentry did a sacrifice play to keep the company’s Viking alive. It was savaged and destroyed. replaced with a salvaged Javelin.

Meanwhile, Gram’s missile launching Cobra was also taken out, Ammo explosion (no case) took it out. Replacing it with the salvaged Enforcer III


Babylon Company

Unfortunately, Babylon lost the Thor, a clan omnimech. It’s CT and other places were totally destroyed. We only left with a handful of parts for our garrison. This was a major hit to the company. It was not the only one. We replace it with a Vulture from the garrison.

Meanwhile, we lost the Archer and the Griffin from the fire support of the mechs here. We’ll replace them with a Gunslinger and the LRM variant of the Axman

They totally blew out Babylon’s Jenner and it was destroyed. We have a lot of good scout, light mechs to choose from though. I like the Raven, from our garrison, for it, this company could benefit from its electronics suite.


Babylon was the company that lost and had to retreat.



Ninevah –

Ninevah’s Shootist was absolutely destroyed, caught in the crossfire of a DropShip and an opposing fire supporting unit. The salvaged BattleMaster heads in for it. That’s probably an upgrade, really.


However the Phoenix Hawk was blasted, and I have to go with a salvaged Wolfhound. That’s probably a downgrade.


Those are the swaps we have to make.



As a reminder, our Javelin 11-F is a version of the mech that has endo steel, 6/9/6 movement, max armor, 10/20 heat, 5 medium lasers, and a targeting computer. It’s our favorite light mech. It’s a field refit we do of many of our Javelins.



End of the Second Small World Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

April 25, 3066 – The first suits of Gray Death power armor are released to us. We let the GDR get the first few months worth of sales, so they can build their forces up.


May 1, 3066 – The Excaliburs and Mercurys begin to roll off the lines for Skobel.

June 24, 3066, Duke Essex arrives with the Nagumo-class DropShip, the Lucky James.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Errai Campaign

July 10, 3066 – Alright Blake, tell me what you have. You’ve been working on getting us a way onto Errai for 20 months now, you wanted us to go in, and now we have our political excuse. Punishment for Small World. Victor’s side keeps pissing me off.

So let’s hit them. Hard.

What’s the plan?

That easy, eh?


I want the forces in system in a month. Might as well begin now.


The Northwind Highlanders used to have a unit garrisoning Errai. But, after the Highlanders left the FedCom, they left Errai too, so a new group of mercenaries are there, garrisoned on planet – Harlock’s Warriors. And that’s it. Despite the presence of a mech-making factory on planet, it’s clear that it’s not valued that much (probably because the mechs are sold to ComStar, and not kept domestically). The world is a border world with the Combine and us, but apparently not a high profile target.

Take a look:


Harlock’s Warriors – Recently had a purge of units in some infighting, and are now green, reliable.

One regiment of mechs, purge dropped them to 80ish right now.


The Warriors prefer to attack and do raids, not garrison work. Their mechs are faster medium mechs. Very few heavy and assault designs, and those are usually mobile too keep up with the mediums.

They have a squadron of regular, reliable fighters as well.

And that’s it. Not tons of armor or infantry or difficult troops.

We’re elite, bigger, nastier, have the best equipment, and they would be defending, green, outgunned and out numbered.

That’s an easy recipe for success.

So, with the invasion looking downright quaint compared to some of our others, and the political climate being right, and the numbers lining up, one major question remains –

Will the people accept us, or will they spend a lot of time working against us?

And I guess a second question – what will the eventual counter-strike look like? Can we keep Errai?

[Abe Sargent]

Blake has been working on those things for quite some time…


We don’t have an answer to the second question, but will we be resisted?

It’s been a dominion for centuries, since the Terran Hegemony took it first and then the Fed Suns seconds.

Every planet has dissenters, and the Civil War too. There were small outlets of dissent. Remember, at first, the Draconis March was pro-Katrina, and pushing against the Combine. Then it became pro-Victor and befriending the Dragon. That’s a confused thing to do, to yank a people like that. Those created rifts and fractures in the local population, in addition to the typical Civil War stuff.

So right now, the population is roughly 50% Victor and 35% Katrina and 15% don’t care. However, around 55% are pro former Duke James Sandoval, and just 30% are pro-Tancred, his son and now Duke. Those are odd numbers to play with. Tancred’s pro-Victor stance is popular, his lack of an anti-Dragon stance is not.

There is a divide here, and Blake propaganda-ists have been playing it. Now, we don’t think it will get to Zurich/Hall/Nanking levels where we are welcomed prior to heading in, but we do think that things are unsettled enough that an essentially neutral party who is not Katrina, Victor, Steiner, Davion, or Tancred would not be unwelcome.

There would be dissent from some corners, and probably some violence to result, but not as bad as it could have been. Particularly, if we win the world in a more noble way against Harlock’s Warriors. No city fighting, infrastructure derailment, or orbital bombardment.

[Abe Sargent]

August 14, 3066 – We have arrived at the system, where the jumppoints are just 2 days away. Duke Essex escorts the group. Everything looks as expected. Solid amounts of commercial traffic, and nothing untoward. We have brought with us our naval flotilla, just in case they were needed, but it looks like they weren’t.


What else came with?

Delta Regiment

Dart Company (Fighters)

We brought some JumpShips and DropShips over to help us out!


August 16, 3066, After some initial skirmishes with their fighters, Dart Company forces down landings of our people. We unload Delta Regiment in a few places.

Errai was colonized to be an industrial world. That’s all it is, a huge manufacturing, mining, smelting, industrial world with roughly 300 million folks. It makes Mechs for non-battle needs, exoskeletons, weapons, transport, refines and purifies the ore it mines, creates the basic building supplies used in lots of other places and ships them out, and that sort of thing. It’s has a very vibrant, robust industrial economy.

It’s hilly or mountainous pretty much everywhere, and there are multiple mining consortiums and complexes on world that bring out stuff although it’s not a major mining world, like Acamar, Genoa, Nanking or colony Asmodeus. Instead it has a lot of gems and stones and other things that have industrial uses and are getting mined, so diamond cutters, gemstone refractors, inhibitors, and more are all made here. Other mines grab the smaller value stuff locally, so they don’t have to ship it.

Errai is a small world, just two days from the jump points, in a small system. Because of that, it’ s not that hard to defend, it’s not a spread out world or anything.

There are a few solid industrial complexes that are extremely large, and thus viable targets. Each of those has a small fort and garrison, some run locally, and some by the Warriors.

The only other place to have a garrison is the capital, where a battalion of Warriors lay.

We have landed Armor Battalion right by the capital, and they are going to engage in a campaign to capture that area and take out the Warriors.

We split a pair of companies into the three different industrial complexes, roughly equivalent to the local defense force.

Our goal is to have four different strikes occur at the same time, preventing support by each unit. We are not going to try and engage the local militia. We want to drive off the Warriors, and then make a play for Errai.

[Abe Sargent]

August 19, 3066 – Our mechs are out!


The first industrial complex is right outside of one of the deepest and most labyrinthine mining passages on the world. Old mines are right there. Maltex is here as well. So we need to hit fast and hard, because we can’t secure all of the entrances to that mining area, and we don’t want our foes to go into hiding. We have a lance of fighters with us to help retain strategic control of the area, in case they are needed.

We are leading with Iron Company, and we have Bandit Company in the 4 o’clock position. The militia are not here (Maltex gave them a hint to move out for a couple of hours), and we pull up to their defensive position before they notice us, since their pickets are gone. They manage to get two lances of mechs in one company up and hit us with those two lances, plus the one on defensive duty. They aren’t even picking the best firing lanes or defensive positions.

They really are green. Dang.

Here is Iron Company


Guillotine Iic
CGR-1A5 Charger
ON1-M Orion
KGC-000 King Crab

Mad Cat Prime
EXC-B2 Excalibur
Nobori-Nin B
GOL-3M Goliath

ALX-1kc Alexander
Shadow Hawk Iic
CLNT-2-3U Clint
CMT-1 Comet

That unit has four clan mechs (Guillotine IIc, Mad Cat, Nobori-Nin and Shadow Hawk IIc) and two of those are omnis. Then add in an Inner Sphere omnimech (Alexander) and multiple strong mechs of the heavy and assault category (Charger, Orion, King Crab, Goliath, and Excalibur) and Iron Company was created as a heavy assault company. Other than the Clint pilot, they are all veteran.


The King Crab -


http://www.classicgaming.cc/pc/battletech/wallpaper/KingCrab_1024x768.jpg

Our foes?


LowTech –

Warhammer
Scorpion
2x Jenner

LostTech –

Centurion
Bushwacker
Quickdraw
Spider
Trebuchet 7M
Phoenix Hawk 3D
Stealth
Thunder

All green save for a regular pilot in the Thunder

(We are playing on a FASA made DropPort map, because it has a lot of conctete a few buildings and such)

[Abe Sargent]

I will be leading with the King Crab.

Turn 1 – We lose initiative. Their Centurion races behind our Charger, so I move our Excalibur, Mad cat, and such. Our Orion nails the lrm ammo on their Trebuchet with its LB10X after it took a little damage and the CASE stilfed explosion still shuts the thing right on down. Meanwhile our Guillotine IIc’s pulse lasers carve into their Spider and destroy its RL. It falls right on down. We double kick their Centurion and it falls.

Turn 2 – We lose initiative again. I charge again with the King Crab leading the way. None of their lighter mechs want to get near it, I thas a nasty zone of control with its paired AC20s. Our Clint, Excalibur, SHD IIC and Orion base their Warhammer. Their Stealth falls as it gets a MASC failure. Their Centurion rises fine though. I try to unload some serious power on that Quickdraw. LRM missiles from the Mad Cat take out the RT of their Centurion. Dead mech. All three AC20s that I have missed (Charger, 2x King Crab. Sigh). Despite taking 100+ damage, their Warhammer is still standing. We kick it three out of four changes, and it can’t make every roll, falls, hits its hip. That’s it.

One of the obvious questions is, when will they flee? They are facing a huge number of heavier assault and heavy mechs, without even one assault to call their own. They have green pilots, and a quartet of lower tech units. We have a lance of clan tech units and vet pilots. How long would you really want to throw good mechs after bad, as a mercenary?

After losing a Trebuchet, Centurion, getting a Warhammer savaged and Spider legged, they aren’t here for profit any longer, so they begin gto head out and leave.


Trebuchet missing RT
Centurion, missing RT
Spider missing RL


Kills – Orion, Mad Cat

[Abe Sargent]

Meanwhile, Bandit Company pushed behind us on the other company, and they were warmed up due to the delay in getting to them. Seeing the results here, they begin a retreating pattern from Bandit and are covering their losing companions. They aren’t heading towards the mines though, but a large open road that heads away from the complex. They are full on fleeing at this point. Um….okay?

Are being tricked? Or are they just not good when they aren’t on the attack?

The first position has been secured.



The second complex has a lot of refining, smelting operations that try to work with the ore.

Attacking here are Kevlar and Pyre Companies. We have two major routes to the area, and a company moving up the area. They spy us coming in, and instead of playing defender in the keep, they decide to break out and hit us, 2 companies to one.

[Abe Sargent]

They choose the company with the fewer clan mechs to attack – Kevlar:


Kevlar Company –

Behemoth
Highlander Iic
THR-1L Thunder
KTO-19 Kintaro

AWS-9M Awesome
Kingfisher A
TBT-7M Trebuchet
EXC-B2 Excalibur

ALX-1kc Alexander
Corvis
PXH-3M Phoenix Hawk
BUM-1 Bumblebee

The clan mechs are the Behemoth, Corvis, Highlander IIc and Kingfisher.

The Behemoth is a massive and nasty unit. It has a very simple weapons payload – 2 large pulse lasers, 2 gauss rifles, and a small pulse laser.

These are all veterans.


Our foes have 24 mechs, with an emphasis on speed and medium mechs, just like the previous group. All are green save for a Victor and Hunchback 6S variant (with a faster engine).

The Corvis:

http://www.masterunitlist.info/Image/RenderImage?width=300&height=400&file=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.masterunitlist.info%2FBattleMechs%2FCorvis.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

We are on a map with train tracks, the road, some water to the west and some trees and buildings there too.

Turn 1 – We win init. Remember they are trying to escape, so we can retreat anytime and keep the field. I grab some woods in the south with my units and move in. We have a spot of fire exchange as well. They destroy the LL on our Trebuchet. I didn’t blow out any of their units. The hex with the Trebuchet was on fire though, so yay!


Turn 2 – We win init again. They are charging our position in the north, with some light woods and lighter mechs (Phoenix Hawk, Corvis, Bumblebee). In order to help protect our downed Trebuchet, I hop the Alexander into woods on the west flank by their Charger and Valkyrie. A few mechs move out on the south flank, like one of their Wolfhounds, which just based my Behemoth. I leap our PXH to the rear of their Hunchback. Their Locust bases our Awesome. I move the Kintaro in the check this stuff out. Nothing major in the exchange of fire, but we knock down their Whitworth, Enforcer, and Valkyrie. Our PXh took some damage but is fine. Our Kintaro kicks the Locust’s RL and destroys it. Our Awesome kicks its LL and LT and blows through them both. Meanwhile our Behemoth kicks their Wolfhound, and it falls and destroys its RL in the tumble. Hmm. I would have figured we’d have blown through a few enemies by now. I need to concentrate and take out more of these folks.

Turn 3 – We lose it. Their Locust ejects and the Wolfhound stays on the ground by the Behemoth. Their Valkyrie rises after falling once. Their Whitworth, on the other hand, fails twice, and on the third fail, blacks out. Nasty. Their Enforcer stands easily too. I leap our Pixie back into some woods. A Nightsky runs near my southern team. A Cicada follows. I leap the Alexander away. Here comes a Starslayer as well. They are pushing. Our Highlander IIc nails the LT on their Enforcer 5D and destroys it, dead mech. Our Kingfisher destroys the RA on their Nightsky with an ER PPC. Who falls? Their Wraith and Nightsky. Unfortunately, they set the hex with the Kingfisher on fire – which is not good. That’ll spread to the other woods down here and turn my turtle position into a bad place to be. Our Excalibur and Behemoth kick and destroys the LL, RA, and RT of that Wolfhound as well

Turn 4 – We lose init. Their Nightsky fails to move up three itmes. Then a fourth time. Their Starslayer bases some of my stuff. I decide to hop the Alexander over again. They base it with a Jav, and its next to a Griffin. I run the Thunder to the north to help on that flank. Their Cicada gets near our Trebuchet, still on the ground. Our Kintaro bases it. Our Behemoth tears through the RA and RT of their Enforcer III and shuts it down. The Excalibur nails the engine on a Huncback 6S with its gauss rifle. Meanwhile our Awesome ovheats to slag a lotof stuff on the Hunchback, including its LA and LB20x weapon. Finally the Highlander Iic destroys that LT and its down. We drop their Griffin and Starslayer to the ground. We kick a bunch, but nothing too major happened. Their Withworth pilot awakened.

This is going to be the turn we turned the battle around

Turn 5 – We lose init. This time their Whitworth rises. They lead their Anvil out to smash us. I move their Thunder to base it. Their Griffin on the ground misses rises once, twice, then three. Three failures by their Nightsky, but then stands. Our Kintaro runs next to that Nightsky. Their Starslayer fails, falls, and the pilot blacks out. Our Thunder cracks open the Anvil’s LL and hits a hip and upper leg actuator. Then its LRM5 destroys the Griffin #2’s LA. The Corvis nails the RT of their other Wolfhound and destroys it. Our Thunder took 40+ damage and fell, as did their Anvil and Nightsky. The Nightsky pilot blacked out on falling.

They call it.

[Abe Sargent]

We get the blacked out and damaged Starslayer and Nightsky. The Wolfhound gets away, as does their badly damaged Wraith, Griffin and Guillotine.



Wolfhound #2 missing RT
Griffin #2 missing LA
Hunchback missing LA, LT
Enforcer III, missing RA, RT
Enforcer 5D, missing LT
Wolfhound missing RL, LL, RA, RT
Locust missing LL, RL, LT
Nightsky missing RA

Ejected – Locust, Wolfhound


Us - Trebuchet missing LL.




Kills –Highlander IIc x2, Behemoth,


They can’t get past us and we drove them back into the complex, but Pyre Company had already come through on the other sid, so after being surrounded and down to 17 mechs from 24, with a bunch damaged and us having a pristine company in their face, they just surrender.


The second complex is secured.

[Abe Sargent]

The third compound is not in the hills or mountains, but along one of the larest rivers on the world, which is used for transferring cargo down from the extremely high mountain chain the riverheads feed. It’s hard to build a base anywhere else. This is the first real spot on the river to do it.

The river gives us a good opportunity to hit the final group, since etheir base is beside the river. We rent a few giant 100 ton+ barges, and then float down the river, get off down the bank from them, and move to their base from inside the complex. We hit them hard, and away from the local militia, which is guarding the borders of the area.

Their forces get ready too slowly, and our two companies of mechs overwhelming their defensive lance in seconds, and then secure the facility and placed the defensive terrain in a holding pattern for a while, until we hear more.

We have secured all three defensive positions.

[Abe Sargent]

Now it’s time for the major battle, just outside the capital city of Errai.



Captain Jassa Ramgarhia is here with Armor Battalion. We also have the other two aerospace quartets of fighters here helping out.

They have an entire battalion of forces here on the planet.

Aegis Company is flanked out on the western edge of the city, and the Warriors are in and around an outpost outside the city. The local militia is guarding places in the city, and again, we’ll strike hard and fast, with the goal of smashing the mercs and ending all resistance on the world outside of the militia.


They see us coming for a bit, and load up their mechs. The first company of mechs is out and hits Aegis on the flank:


Aegis Company


Daishi Prime
Man o War H
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas
ON1-K Orion

GUN-1ERD Gunslinger
DAI-01 Daikyu
TBT-7A Trebuchet
ARC-2R Archer

STY-3C Starslayer
Jenner Iic
Koshi B
ASN-40 Assassin

This is a strong company, with four clan mechs (Jenner IIc, Koshi B, Man o War, and Daishi). The Orion is a level 1 mech, but it’s a good strong one to face, so no issues there. 10 of these pilots are elite, and the Archer and Assassin are veteran.


And here is our opposition.

Low tech –

Wolverine
Vindicator
Spider

UpTech

Hercules
Battle Hawk
Quickdraw
Phoenix Hawk
Lineholder
2x Watchman
Marauder 5D
Cataphract 3L

10 are green, the last 2 are vet.



Our Jenner IIc

http://www.solaris7.com/Images/TRO/BattleMechs/Jenner%20IIC.jpg

[Abe Sargent]

Here we go!


Turn 1 – We lost init. We’ll be charging up the north on the east flank. 11 of our 12 mehcs are on tha t flying formation. I focus fire on their Wolverine, and the Trebuchet hits its SRM ammo and it explodes. Dead mech. Their Marauder took 80+ and fell too.


Turn 2 – We win initiative. I flank the Jenner IIc and Koshi to the west to keep them honest. I don’t want them to completely come in on my side. Meanwhile, I leap the Assassin deep into their east flank into some light woods, to help build a position for my bigger mechs to use upon arrival. Our Daikyu’s AC5 ultra jams but still manages to rifle an ER PPC at the Battle Hawk and destroys its RL. Our Koshi destroys its LT and gets that kill. Their Cataphract tumbles. They set the woods on fire where our Gunslinger is holing up.


After two rounds of dominating the battle, taking out two mechs and a third badly savaged and on the ground, and with the obvious difference in tech and skill level, and with none of our mechs taking 20+ damage total, let alone in one round, they begin to pull out.

And we let them





Battle Hawk missing RL, LT

Wolverine H, LA


Kill – Trebuchet, Koshi,

[Abe Sargent]

Meanwhile Shield Company is blowing through the miles to cover ground, and another force moves in to protest their presence.

AS7-S Atlas
WHM-6D Warhammer
Man o War H
Kraken-3

ENF-6m Enforcer III
Rifleman Iic
Vulture Prime
BJ-2 Blackjack

STY-3C Starslayer
Locust Iic
ASN-40 Assassin
Shadow Hawk Iic

Yes, that’s right. This company has 6 clan mech, 2 in each lance. It rocks 10 elite pilots as well. The Kraken 3 is arguably the best missile boat mech ever designed. It features more LRMs than a lance of missile mechs. I’m not kidding, it features EIGHT LRM15s. That’s just dirty. It also had 19/38 heat, max armor, and 15 tons of ammo. It’s an amazing mech. If I could, I’d have like 20 of them for is.


Our foes have:


LowTech

Clint
Cicada
Dragon


UpTech

Axman
Assassin
2xShadow Hawk
Commando
Wolf Trap
Grasshopper
Charger
Jenner


All green save for one pilot in the Axman.

[Abe Sargent]

Our map has a lot of open trees, road, concrete, and a tiny hill in the center.

Turn 1 – We lose init. Again, this needs to end quickly, so I created a flying wedge in the center. We are building it around the Atlas and Warhammer. We concentrate fire on their Axman, who comes up to us. After sandblasting it a bit, our Warhammer’s ER PPC of love stabs into that RT and destroys it. Dead mech. Aw crap. Their stupid WolfTrap fires its LB10x, right? It hits a few times, one of which is a htrough armor critical on the Atlas – hits the head, and knocks out both sensors. Well, I guess it could have been a cockpit, so ok?


Turn 2 – I eject the Atlas, it can’t see or do anything as the first decision after I lose initiative. We pepper than Dragon with some damage and it loses a LA. Then we carve some armor off the Cicada running up on us. Both fall down, and the Cicada breaks a hip actuator.

Turn 3 – We grab initiative this turn, so yay that! I dance the Locust IIc into some heavy woods in strking position of that Cicada, which fails to stand. A lot. Then blacks out. Their Commando bases me, and I leave my wreapons ready and hot. LRMs from the Kraken devastate a Wolf Trap which exposes himself and destroyed its LA, LT, and RL – dead mech. The Locust stabs into the downed Cicada, aiming for its head, and destroys it. We miss the Commando a lot, but we take out the RA of that Dragon. It doesn’t fall though. Meanwhile their Commado kicks our Man o War and it falls. Which is just funny, actually.

Anyway, with three mechs dead, and a 4th almost there, they call it, and we win.




Cicada missing H
Dragon missing LA, RA

Axman missing RT
Wolf Trap missing RL, LT, LA


Kill – Kraken, Locust, Warhammer

A similar result happens on the other flank, and we have taken the capital of Errai.

[Abe Sargent]

August 20, 3066 – The next day, we contact the militia and leaders of the planet. After Duke Essex meets with them for some time, including the industrial Maltex Corporation, they make some announcements.


First, by virtue of their invasion of the area, Errai is being annexed. They don’t have any options about that. And Blake is taking over the ComStar controlled HPG station as well, and getting 50% of the product from Maltex, and K&C and the Coalition get the other 50%. Sort of, we’ll talk about that in a bit.

Anyway, the local militia will continue as is, and join a unit we’ll bring things together.


Meanwhile, we’ll leave behind Delta Regiment for now to help garrison the world.

We have another conversation to have though.

Duke Essex sits down with Col. Thomas, CO of Harlock’s Warriors.

“I still don’t get why Errai had just you here. Even in a Civil War, that doesn’t make a lick of sense. Your unit, green on paper and in the battlefield, has the wrong machines and tactics for planetary defense, the wrong experience, and could never hold this world by yourself.

Then, add in the fact that Errai is on the border with both us and the Combine, as well as a valuable economy and a military-industrial complex that not only produces mechs, but also gives a lot of value to anybody who has it, and is in the middle of a Civil War where you don’t want the other side to take it.

Why are you here? Why isn’t there another unit? I don’t get it.”

But of course, Col. Thomas has no idea, he only took over the unit around 2 years ago, and they’ve been on Errai since 3058. We let them head back to the Federated Commonwealth, after taking enough mechs to bring our salvaged total to 20.

We don’t get it either. It seems like someone made a bad choice.


1st Errai Militia – 50 tanks, 1 regiment of infantry, 20 mechs we captured, mechs are green, other units are regular.

[Abe Sargent]

Maltex Corporation –

Producing and creating some of the iconic mechs of the Star League era, particularly the Thug. They also created the Wyvern and Assassin. Their mech lines were restored by ComStar a while ago, and they make Thugs and Wyverns again, exclusively for ComStar.

The Wyvern they make is the Wyvern 10N. LRM10, 8 tons of armor, 4/6/4 speed thus far, ER PPC, medium pulse laser, Guardian ECM, and a C3i computer, 11/22 heat, 1199 BV, no XL engine, 5 million CBills.

Can’t use the C3i. Mech really isn’t the best mech for us outside of urban combat.

Now…

Thug…THG-2E….C3i, 2x ERPPC, 2x SRM6, 17/34, full armor, no xl engine, 4/6, 9.9 mill CBills, 1751 BV

Again, can’t use the C3i

So, what Maltex will be doing is adding one new line to each mech line for us exclusively as well.

We’ll be getting the…


THG-11Eb – A Star League era design that was used in the Star League Royal Guard. 80 tons, 18/36 heat sinks, max armor, 4/6 movement, 2x ER PPC, 2x SRM6, 2 tons of ammo with CASE, 8.77 mill CBills, 1759 BV

We’ll be getting this one at the rate of around 15 a year. It’s a pre-existing version that is already in the database, there are no changes to the chassis, armor, weapons, engine, internal structure. It just swaps some more ammo and CASE for the C3i. They can add the line in three months since they are so close.

And we’ll be getting the Wyvern 9N, created by COmStar to help defeat the clans in the battles at Tukkayid. 45 tons, 4/6/4 movement, LRM 10, Large pulse laser, 2x medium pulses, SRM2 streak, 10/20 heat snks, CASE, but less armor. 3.729 mill, 1067 CBills. We went for a cheaper, high quality mech rather than making our own Wyvenr variant which would take a lot longer to jumpstart. Very similar to the one they are making right now – same type of structure, engine, chassis, and more, and they made for 9Ns for ComStar a while ago, so they can refit a new line for us in two months.

Since we told Maltex to begin the new lines back in early July, we’ll get the first Wyvern and Thug off the line in September 15 and October 15 respectively!

So Blake is getting both of the ComStar exclusive lines exclusively, and we are getting these lines as well. Everyone wins really.


(In the main story line, Word of Blake worked with Maltex to secure some of the mechs and technology heading to ComStar. So again, I’m using a similar parabola to the “Real” story line in resonance with our own).

Duke Essex talks briefly about a new Assassin line with them, but they aren’t ready to do that yet. The Assassin has been much maligned lately, and was never a great mech, so they are happy to have outsourced that to other companies, make some revenue free of charge, and then move on.

Essex tours the plants with his wife and son, and a few other adjuncts, and then they head back off world for now.


End of the Errai Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

August 1, 3066 – Kerensky Blues has arrived, all fixed up. We have no Blake folks working on it, We just move over our own. We also do a deep inspection, just to make sure we have no spy devices or surprises on board. We don’t involve the Apollo Office at all (which was formed with help from Blake ROM). We don’t find any. (It never hurts just to check)

I trust Word about…..75% on stuff like that. No one else will do it well and quickly like they will.

It’s a Fredasa class WarShip captured from the clans by the Blue Star and Black Aces. It’s a corvette class Ship which is more of a fast raider, not an escort guy. It’s the sort of ship that can be used to escort some DropShips, blow out other DropShips, and win without needing additional problems. It can carry 20 fighters, 2 small craft and has a Dropring, so it can be its own escort service with the fighters and the DropShips too. It’s not really a good choice for facing other heavy WarShips, or several pocket WarShips. It’s not a picket, or somesuch. Has an LF battery too though.

After being defeated in a few places, it has very little clan weapons left, Blake and Dragoons have both refitted it as best as theycan do. They have some naval class stuff, as well as lots of normal weapons. It’s one of the fastest WarShips ever, sort of like the Dasher or Cicada or Spider. Be fast with it, keep it up, and you’ll do well in combat. It can get to the target craft and pick it down prior to the escorts getting there. That makes it a very different sort of ship.

Because of how different the ship is, we need someone truly skilled at the helm, so we promoted the XO from the Swift Justice to take over the helm.

A Fredasa, used right, should be able to take out a Fox (BV of a Fredasa is 48783, of a Fox is 39017). It’s mega fast, heavily armored, and has some strong game to bring. It’s a good, quality addition to our roles. (Aegis? 174094 BV Avalon? 156654 BV)

[Abe Sargent]

August 13, 3066 – After raking in dough from the sales of their first two releases, Browning-Corning Lmtd. of Caph, has introduced an updated recovery vehicle for use on modern battlefields, with updated technology.

September 6, 3066 – The Gray Death Regiment is battle ready, and begins looking for contracts.

October 17, 3066 – After spending a few years putting up Storm Reflector Satellites at Bryant, we’ve gotten enough of the area around HartfordCo Industries cleared up that the first salvage team has been dispatched.

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Third Genoa Campaign

In the main story line, in October 3066, after employment for more than 25 years with the Capellan Confederation, a large mercenary unit abandoned its post and attacked Genoa in order to bring it under the Confederation’s control as a fait accompli. Duke Hasek moved the powerful 12th Vegan Rangers to check it on Genoa, and the unit was blasted in two weeks, had two of its DropShips taken by the Rangers, lost all of its tanks and infantry, and then blasted for Arboris to bring in a easier-defended planet and use it as a rally point for more Cap forces. Hasek’s forces followed, devastated the unit in one week, and dropped it to 7 lances, killed the Commander in doing so, and captured its DropShips. The unit stole a pair of DropShips from the Rangers troops and launched, returning to Capellan Space where they were stripped of their contract, given an F Dragoons rating, and removed as a unit. Meanwhile, the Rangers had captured enough salvage from the operation to field two new battalions of mechs.

It seems easy enough to fit the initial attack into our campaign, for slightly different reasons, and we may observe some different results, but you get the idea. This is something that can add another defensive campaign to our ongoing battle for legitimacy.

[Abe Sargent]

October 5, 3066 – A large flotilla of DropShips and rented JumpShips have arrived in the Genoa system. Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade has arrived. They launched from the nearby world they garrison, Pleione.


The Brigade:

120 mechs, averaging heavy, veteran, questionable

Wing of fighters, average medium, veteran questionable (Wing is three groups of six, and a command of two, for 20 fighters)

Regiment of armor, veteran, questionable

5 companies of infantry, regular, questionable

They do not own enough JumpShips for this mission, they just have four, so they are using some rented ones. But they will be launching (Not all yet though)

3 Leopard CVs
2 Overlords
3 Unions
4 Leopards
2 Gazelle
1 Seeker
1 Intruder
1 Mule

Rating: B Unit does not fight well together, but instead in small units. 50% of mechs are upgraded tech, and 25% of tanks are, and nothing else is.


Who do we have on planet?


1st Genoan Chargers – Battalion of mechs, ten tanks,5 squads of infantry, 2 Warrior VTOLs.

The Blackhearts – Retainer on Genoa until Aug 1, 3068. Rating B, regiment of mechs, and another tanks, plus fighters and infantry. We rotated them to Genoa to help in defense there, from Epsilon Indi. They are also helping to train the local forces. Veteran.


That’s right, none of our forces are on the planet when the Panzer Brigade strikes.

[Abe Sargent]

Little Richard’s unit has been clamoring for battle for a while, after moving from the periphery border on a garrison deal to a planet near the Sarna Supremacy, they were hoping to get a lot of action, but they didn’t. So they slipped their leash a bit.

They looked at the map and at their history and found that the highly valuable world of Genoa was not as well defended as might be expected, and not a single Kilts and Commandoes unit was on planet. Just the local Chargers and the Blackhearts mercenary group.

With a quick strike to take them out, the Brigade believes they can hit hard enough to win the world before a large force arrives, and again, return it to the Confederation before retribution can happen.


The Blackhearts are a major mercenary command though, and they’ve been around since the Star League. They were once an anti-terrorist group for the Terran Hegemony that went mercenary after the hegemony folded back in the 2800s. Since then they’ve been a part of the 4th Succession War, War of3039, and Operation: Guerrero signed for Marik, and then loaned to the Caps. Then they signed with us after that contract ended.

The Blackhearts are one of five units we have on retainer deals, in case we want to use them in anon-garrison capacity – the others are the 48th, Lindon’s Battalion, Legion of the Rising Sun, and Smithson’s Chinese Bandits.

The Blackhearts –

Regiment of veteran, reliable mechs. 90% upgraded.
Regiment of veteran reliable tanks. 25% upgraded
Wing of veteran reliable fighters, 45% upgraded – this is a bigger wing than most, they still use SLDF rankings, rather than modern day one (wing in modern day is three squadrons, each squadron is three flights, each flight is two fighters. However, in the Star League era, their units ran things differently. So the Blackhearts have 54 fighters in 9 squadrons, and they still call it a wing.)

The Blackhearts have full DropShips, including a pair of upgraded Triumphes, 3 Overlords, 2 Fortresses, a Vengeance, and 2 Seekers.


On paper, the Panzer Brigade ha 12 more mechs, has infantry, has a few more vehicles, and such, but the fighters are grossly overmatched, and the Blackhearts don’t look like a pushover at all. They have been on Genoa for a while, and are no weak duckling.


Anyway, a call goes out to the Coalition for assistance and reinforcements, just in case they are needed.

[Abe Sargent]

October 6, 3066 – Another flotilla arrives at a pirate point one day away and unfurls more DropShips. They will all converge on planet tomorrow.

The Blackhearts get ready, and are preparing defenses in a variety of places. The local Chargers are doing defensive holding work. There are just too many DropPorts and potential landing sites to cover them all with a strong force. What the Blackhearts want to do is use their fighters to force the Brigade into landing at a few sites that they are defending heavily. The Blackhearts push one battalion of tanks and mechs each at three mostly-equidistant DropPorts around the planet. Then the Chargers are garrisoning large population centers.


October 7 - The DropShips begin to arrive, escorted by 20 fighters from the Brigade. They are looking to land in a variety of places around the world, and to secure a variety of industrial, commercial, and population centers. This makes sense as they can operate independently of each other.

But there are two major issues with their plan of attack. Firstly it forces them to split up their aerospace cover. They don’t have a full 20 fighters protecting a large fleet of DropShip assets. The result is a split set of fighters on each of six different landing attempts. Some have 2 and some have four fighters.

The second issue is that they are severely outnumbered in the fighter department. The Blackhearts have 48 fighters converging (a squadron held in reserve) and assigns a full squadron of 6 fighters for each of their attack vectors around the planet. They also send 10 fighters against the attack ships that have 4 fighters on them, so they are countering with an additional 2 flights or 3 per force.

That numerical superiority helps them push aside most of the attacks and force them into fewer vectors. In fact, they had originally wanted three landing zones, but they are able to force five of the six attackers into one landing zone. The last one, a flight of fighters and a Union and Gazelle, broke free of the attackers and has a separate landing zone.

They converge their fighters, and send the reserve of fighters to assist and cover holes.

The one that broke out is landing at a nearby factory complex in the hills that is not heavily defended. Soon they will be unloading roughly a company each of mechs and tanks.

Meanwhile, the full attack force comes into a huge hornet’s nest of fighters as it descends, too late to pull out. In the space of a few minutes, almost every Panzer fighter is destroyed, and the Blackhearts have made them pay, massively, for arriving. The Blackhearts break off the fighters when they have destroyed the Panzer’s aerospace capacity. They don’t want to push too hard against the DropShips to lose a bunch of fighters on the way.

They instead send two squadrons of healthy fighters to buzz the LZ in the mountains where the one group just broke out. They arrive, destroy the two fighters here, and begin to force the unloading tanks and mechs back and away from the nearby mines and such. The 4 fighters that survived the mission join them, and the Brigade is unable to unload peacefully, and only has about half of its unit out, with destroyed tanks and savaged mechs on the ground. They load back into the DropShip and use it as cover. More fighters arrive and over the next half hour, the two ships here are attacked and taken out by the local fighters, and then disabled. The local forces will grab them and take them.

The Blackhearts lost 19 fighters today, took out one company of mechs, one company of tanks, two DropShips, and every fighter the Brigade has. They will need to spend some time licking their wounds, and healing a bunch of their unit, but it was a huge victory.


And the battle has just begun.

[Abe Sargent]

The place their foes landed is just outside of a small lake, with a large central transportation hub a few miles away, and a DropPort that is relatively isolated. This is one of the three spots that the Blackhearts chose to amp up with their own unit. It’s ready and overwhelmed by numbers. They had a strong defensive set up, but it’ll take the Bridge a while to change their organization – they were not expecting to work with this many people together, so securing the LZ, unloading their stuff, having different logistical needs, and so forth, they won’t be able to do any sort of a quick strike, especially not against heavy air cover.

None follow, and the Blackhearts load up their units on nearby DropShips and jump them over to their new location and unload. Many supplies and such will come in a more conventional way, via a train of Burro II trucks.


October 8, 3066 – After spending the day getting themselves ready, the Panzer Brigade sends out a few feelers and tries to get a sense of the Blackhearts.

Over the next week, the campaign will take place. Since this is not with our units, I’m just going to do some quick campaign results until reinforcements arrive.


Reinforcements will arrive on October 18 in system, and land 2 days later.

That’s basically two weeks from now. So here is what we have.

Advantages for the Blackhearts:


- Air Superiority. In fact, they have such strong superiority that I am giving them a double advantage for this.
- They are on the defense
- They know the terrain
- They have the cooperation of the local forces
- They have forced the Brigade to fight with their weakness: together
- They are reliable to the Brigade’s questionable
- The Blackhearts have more upgraded technology

Advantages for the Brigade:

- They have no supply or logistical issues, they are all in one place; the Blackhearts have supply lines that can be attacked and cut
- The Brigade has the infantry


Neutral –

- Both are veteran
- Both have the same number of mechs and tanks


So the Brigade has supply and infantry, and the Blackhearts have every other advantage.


So, by the 18th…


The Blackhearts have lost 10% of their forces across tanks and mechs

The Brigade has lost 25% of their forces across both as well

[Abe Sargent]

October 18, 3066 – Kerensky’s Blues arrives, escorting some DropShips and JumpShips from Nanking. The Blues is a Fredasa-class WarShip, and we sent it here to help out. We didn’t want to de-nude Nanking’s defenses entirely, in order to defend against a trap or an attack of opportunity by Duke Hasek or someone else. Based on ongoing reports, the Fredasa was deemed sufficient. Their four JumpShips are still at the pirate point, and we arrive at the Zenith, just to make sure things are clear. Our DropShips head to the world (2 days to the planet from the jump-points, and it takes longer to charge your sails than it does to land on the planet – one of the few places in the inhabited systems of the IS where that is the case).

The Fredasa moves out to start hunting. It’s a fast, long-ranging WarShip who is faster than a lot of assault and transport vessels. It’s the fastest WarShip out there. So we move it to the Pirate Point while our DropShips move to Genoa, with fighters and mechs.

The Brigade is still near the DropPort, and now they see the writing on the wall clearly. They can get to their Pirate Point faster than the Fredasa can get to them, so they immediately begin to get ready to launch.

The Blackhearts bring a huge attack on their position, so keep them from leaving, led by a lot of mechs and tanks, and their fighters are loading up.

What the Blackhearts want to do is:

1). Force the Brigade to take as many losses as possible before it leaves
2). Delay the Brigade so that it can’t reach the Pirate Point before the WarShip does
3). If possible, delay them until our reinforcements arrive.
4). Grab as much of that sweet sweet salvage as possible, right?


Let’s grab some dice for the Brigade/Hearts battle.

The Brigade just saw us arrive. They have one day to retreat to their Ships, load up, and leave. That’s an operation that will take around 10-12 hours to do, even if they were not contested.

As the Blackhearts move in to engage and stop them, they break off a company of mechs and a battalion of tanks to keep the Blackhearts at bay long enough to get up and out.

And it works. The delaying action results in the loss of that entire battalion of tanks, and the mechs as well, but they get to their landing zone, and begin to load up. Fighters blaze the defending tanks and infantry in the area, and most are destroyed, but their mechs fire them off and they load up.

20 hours later, their flotilla launches into space.

The Blackhearts:

Salvaged two DropShips – Union and Gazelle. They also gained around 36 mechs in salvage, 8 fighters and 40 tanks in salvage. They get full salvage rights, with a clause that we get the right to match any offer they gt for theirs salvaged goods if they don’t want them. Basically, if they don’t want it, they can sell it to us at cost, or if we aren’t interested, then on market. They can replace their losses easily enough, save for their lost fighters – they salvaged their own and the Brigades but are still 6 down. They can easily sell assets to match though.

[Abe Sargent]

Our WarShip burns at the highest G. They only have a 4 hour window to get to the pirate JumpPoint, load up their stuff, make sure everything is secure and then jump out. We have a chance to get there and stop them, and we are faster than a lot of people expect.

We’ve done DropShip math, and they don’t have enough JumpShips for their DropShips, so why did they launch them all?


Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade gets to the site as expected, and then begins to load up….but they getting nervous or somesuch, and not doing it as quickly possible. They load up one JumpShip, an Invader, with their most valuable stuff first – 2 Overlords and an Intruder, and they jump out.

Another Invader takes the 2 remaining Unions and a Seeker, and jumps out. Two Leopard CVs and a leopard jump. Then their Mule, Leopard, and Gazelle jump. They just barely got them all out, they but left behind a Leopard CV. Huh. I would have expected them to abandoned that Gazelle. We destroyed all of their tanks on planet. They took tank carriers Seeker and Invader, probably because of their cost. Why leave behind the CV? Sure, they are out of fighters too I suppose, but the CV is a better combatant, so I would have used it to help keep away other bandits and such. Maybe it’s because the Gazelle is worth 15 million more?

Anyway, it surrenders to us, and we captured it.


We gained, and rechristen it:

Rules of War, Leopard CV DropShip – Available on November 1, 3066


The Blackhearts made out, and we have ended the attack on Genoa.


End of the Third Genoa Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

Beginning of the Second Arboris Campaign

October 19, 3066 - After fleeing the Genoa System, Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade arrives in the Arboris System. They are bruised and battered with no infantry, tanks, or fighters. But they still have 71 mechs ready to smash, and that’s a strong unit.

We don’t have as many forces on planet. Once again, we contact the Coalition asking for reinforcements.

They didn’t want to risk a pirate point here, leaving under duress like they were, so they arrived at the Zenith point, where we have an Olympus class recharge station. Their DropShips release, and they begin the process of charging up, so they can leave quickly in case of a WarShip surprise. That’s also an important reason to arrive at the JumpPoint.

It’ll take their DropShips five days to land.


Who is on Arboris?

Star Battalion from Alpha Regiment:

Defender Company
Cinq Company
Brawler Company

First Tank Battalion

Arboris Avengers – 2 companies each of tanks, artillery and mechs, one squadron of aerofighters. One battalion of infantry. Green, fanatical.


As you can see, our units here are smaller and divided. This makes Arboris a decent fall back position for the Brigade, if they can take it. Green Avengers? They really aren’t a threat to a veteran unit with the Brigade. The tank battalion is regular. And those aren’t our best companies we have.

Brawler? 1 upgraded mech, 11 old ones, 6 elite, 2 green, 3 regular, 1 veteran
Cinq has 2 upgraded mechs (10 old ones) and 6 elite pilots, 3 vets, 2 regular, and 1 green
Defender? 12 mechs, all elite, 1 clan mechs, 1 upgraded mech, 10 lostech mechs.


I’m sure that Battalion of mechs looks weak on paper. They are misreading the situation, just like they misread the Wing of Fighters under the command of the Blackhearts as a traditional 20 fighter wing.

We have 71 mechs coming against one battalion of regular tanks, 2 companies of green tanks, 2 companies of green mechs, a squadron of green fighters, and a battalion of, average, veteran mechs with just 5 mechs that are anything other than old tech designs.

[Abe Sargent]

October 24, 3066 - Their flotilla arrives, and because they don’t have any fighters left, and we have six, they land as one unit, so their DropShips can help each other secure their landing zone. We don’t have a DropPort large enough to land, defend, and unload, so they are scrambling their forces into a huge area of grapes and taking a few hills in the light wooded and hilled area.

DropShips arrive and then unload their things – including support facilities, ammo, and such. Our six fighters are buzzing around, just outside of weapons range from their DropShips, and they don’t want to emerge too much and they are basically turtling at this point.

October 25, 3066 – Our battalions have arrived around their LZ to keep them from moving too far out. We have the local Arboris Avengers sitting tightly outside, in cities and such, other than their fighters, which are helping us out a bit. We have our Tank Battalion doing likewise.

Their forces begin to move out, and they are pushing towards the area Cinq Company is holding. They are pushing four of their companies at Cinq, and another one each at Defender and Brawler. They probably think Cinq is the weak link.

Cinq pulls back and flees from the oncoming onslaught. Meanwhile, the two companies coming after our other two pull out and retreat back towards the four companies moving out, and will be a rear guard for them, and now all six are coming Cinq’s way.

The Panzer Brigade breaks out faster mechs to come after Cinq. Cinq’s slowest unit is the 3/5 Awesome. So we can’t go too fast. They break off 25 mechs that are 5/8 or better to chase us down. We are forced to leave behind our slower units in order to match speed.

We leave these five units behind to slow down the attack.


Awesome (vet)
BattleMaster (elite)
Axman (regular)
Zeus (Elite)
Archer (veteran)



We have 8 rounds to try and delay our foes. If we do, Cinq gets away. If we don’t, Cinq is overwhelmed.

[Abe Sargent]

We are on some hills but no trees, very gentle here.


Turn 1 – We win init and set up on one of the few hills here to force our foe to climb to face us. Many of their mechs buzz over to us. In addition to slew of light mechs, we also spy some heavier folks, and a bunch of mediums as well. We concentrate fire on two of their light mechs that we can pick off. We need to lower these odds right now.

Our Awesome launches PPCs at their Wolfhound and nails its RT and CT once each
Our BattleMaster misses mostly, but an SRM hits a nearby unit.
Our Axman does little
Our Zeus’s AC5 and LRm15 crack into a Jenner and break it open in a couple of places
Our Archer’s missiles tear into their Wolfhound and destroy its CT and LA.

Tons of their mechs hit ours for a little damage here and there, and their main target is our Awesome, on top. It took 60+ damage and falls.

Turn 2 – We lose init. I rise the Awesome, and there’s not a lot of places to run to that are better than here. They bring a few forces in close, and a Spider and 2 Locusts base the Awesome.

Our Awesome sends PPC energy racing into the damaged Jenner and hits its SRM ammo and it explodes. Dead mech.
Our BattleMaster uses close range weapons to carve their nearby Cicada into little pieces, and it loses a LA and LL.
Our Axman and Zeus do little
Our Archer nails an unwounded Valkyrie at range, and goes internal, and hits a foot actuator.

Meanwhile they just blast the zero movement Awesome. They hit it for 160+ damage destroy two PPCs in the arms and LT, but little else was done seriously, and no limbs are destroyed or anything like a gyro hit. It still falls though (as does their Cicada)

They kick the downed Awesome, hit twice, and destroys its RT. Our Axman tears off the RA of a Javelin.


Turn 3 – We lose init. Can’t really do much with the Awesome, and we leave it as a distraction for them. More than 10 of their mechs are now basing ours. It’s nasty.

We savage a Stinger, and destroy its LA and LT with our Axman’s large pulse laser (Damage from one carried to the other and took it down too).
Our Archer can’t hit much

They mostly target our BattleMaster, and get a critical on its machine gun ammo and its explodes. Dead mech.

We smash their wounded Javelin with the Axman’s and it tears off the H of the mech, and it falls, silently, to the ground, dead. They kick our Archer to the ground, and more kicks on the Awesome in a few places destroy its Ct and its down too. Meanwhile, Our Archer kicks and drops a Spider, hitting two actuators.

It’s not looking good. We have a dead Awesome and BattleMaster, plus a grounded Archer. We haven’t scratched hem much. And we are just three turns in. I am going to try and change one tactic.

Turn 4 – We lose init. I needed to win that one for my tactic. Ah well. We stand the Archer after it falls once, and then we move the Zeus to block the Axman, then we hop out Axman out of trouble, and off the hill, to the right side of their damaged Valkyrie. They press forward onto the hill, but they have some folks respond to our Axman’s jump (because we lose init) and a Wolverine, Nightsky and Phoenix Hawk base it.

Our Zeus peppers the wounded Valkyrie and finishes it off with an LRm15. Might as well Alpha Strike, right? We hit the Valkyrie’s LRM10 ammo and its up.

Their forces just blast the unmoving Archer and drop it. No ammo explosions, just the destruction of four parts, including the CT.

Our Axman turned and chopped the Wolverine, and smashes the H again. Well, that’s lucky I suppose. Dead mech. Their PXH tries to kick our Axman and misses and falls. Our Zeus kicks a Locust, and destroys its LL. A few kicks hit the Zeus, and it falls too and hits its large laser. Ouch.

Turn 5 – We win init. Whoop de doo. We rise the Zeus, and can’t go anywhere (fully surrounded). Our Axman leaps away, and four folks can still base it.

The Zeus does little, and they just blast the Zeus back. They hit the gyro once, and the engine 4 times and destroy both arms. Dead mech.
Our Axman doesn’t do much either.

Then it tries and carves a axe for a third time on a H, but it misses the adjacent Shadow Hawk. They kick me twice, miss twice, and lose a Phoenix Hawk to the ground again, and it goes internal, but no critical. But their Quckdraw’s kick on the Axman goes internal, gets a limb blown off and it’s RL is on the ground and the Axman follows.

They leave behind a lance of mechs to secure the downed Axman and Zeus and move on down.

They have won this battle.

[Abe Sargent]

Theirs?

Wolfhound RT, LT, H, LL, RL
Jenner RA, H

Valkyrie LA, LL, RL, H
Javelin missing RA, H
Wolverine missing H



Cicada missing LA, LL


Stinger missing LA, LT


Locust missing Ll


Ours:


Awesome LT, H, LL, RL, RA, LA

BattleMaster LA, LL

Archer RT, LL, RA, H

Zeus, enginex4, gyro, missing RA, LA

Axman, reattach LL


Kill – Archer, Awesome, Axmanx2, Zeus

We only got five kills. I expected better of this unit. Dang.

The Zeus and Axman are salvaged by our foes.

Now, we did hurt three more of their mechs enough to keep them from the fighting, but that was not a good swap.

Over the next hour, Cinq Company is completely over run, and destroyed as a unit. None survive. We took out another…6 mechs of their and wounded 5 more.

We lost two pilots, killed in action.

They salvaged our Buccaneer and Spider. Spider was a H shot and the Buccaneer an XL shut down.

[Abe Sargent]

The Brigade spends the day consolidating their victory, fixing up salvage, repairing, and such.

We retreat under cover of night and fade into the countryside. We make a few changes with the tank battalion, we’re going to need their help after it looks.


October 27, 3066 – After they have finished doing repairs and refits and such, and head out, looking for our units, and trying to finish this now, while they have momentum. They use their mechs to scan ahead, looking for assistance.

They don’t have lighter scouting tanks like a Beagle or Savannah Master, and they don’t have fighters to scan the skies, so they are doing this the old fashioned way – with mechs, and a few Beagle Probes, such as a pair of Ravens they have.


They aren’t close to one, but they are getting close to another, Brawler Company, so we order our first surprise for them…

As they enter a copse of woods, a pair of Brutus Assault Tanks opens up on a scout mech from behind cover. And smashes it. It loses more than a ton of armor but the Dart keeps standing. It moves back and informs others and we splash up on their Friend or Foe assessment now.

The Brutus is a nasty tank made by Kressly, it’s battle-forged, and a good, strong close or long range unit. As their Dart flees, its partner, an Assassin, doesn’t take us seriously and is still hanging around. One round of fire later and the Assassin in the ground, missing a RL.

It’s pilot ejects and we move the Brutus to the Assassin’s downed body and prepare for our foes return. They do so in about ten minutes with a lance of medium and heavy mechs that are faster than our Brutus, to keep us from running away – Quickdraw, Phoenix Hawk, Shadow Hawk, and Nightsky.


Our Brutus and them open fire into each other, and one of our tanks is immobilized, while the other is untouched. Our weapons tear into them and a Nightsky is hit for 60+ damage and falls to the ground, hitting its hip in doing so. They take out the other Brutus, and it takes out the RA of their Nightsky.


The ambush of our duo of Brutus Assault Tanks forces them to pull back and spend some time consolidating their wounded, as well as making sure they aren’t opening themselves to attacks. They have to go slower.

[Abe Sargent]

October 29, 3066 – Two days later, they have pushed our two companies of mechs out of the hills and woods, and into a giant savannah, that’s relatively flat. It goes on for miles and miles and miles, but we can get caught and found relatively quickly. It’ll take a few days of sniping, minor skirmishes, and fall backs, but they can keep us here and force us to fight them soon enough. Meanwhile, we have a company of tanks in the center of the area, by a small farming complex. They are in barns and such that we evacuated a few days ago. That’s our fallback point.

We have allowed them to get us into the large meadow so we can spring a surprise trap on them, and catch them here. We have some mines and another major surprise squirreled away for a rainy day.

[Abe Sargent]

October 30, 3066 – At a pirate point two days away, one of three naval forces of ours arrives. We also jump into both jump points:

Nadir Jump Point – Kerensky’s Blues, Fredasa with its escort and a small flotilla of assets secures this place, just in case our Intel was wrong. It wasn;t.

Pirate Point – Swift Justice Aegis WarShip with a full flotilla of military DropShips arrives, and begins o move to the planet, where it will arrive in two days time.

Zenith Jump Point – Brest, Fox WarShip with its escort

We were informed that the enemy was waiting at the Zenith spot with JumpShips ready to go, and charged, and no one else was there. We jumped in hot and ready to go. Can we hit them before they see us and Jump out? They aren’t going to surrender, they’ll just jump out of the system and abandon the unit on Arboris.

The reason we are launching the Fox here is because it has the best combination of speed and weapons for JumpShips. It has a lot of non-capital weaponry to use against an Invader’s weak hull. JumpShips have capital armor, but the invader doesn’t have much. Naval class weaponry is going to tear through it like butter. Because we have a standing order to capture as many DropShips, JumpShips and WarShips as possible, taking the JumpShip is deemed more important than losing it to battle damage.

The Fox leaps in, and it is around 3 minutes from the closest of the four JumpShip, so it moves its engines at it. While unleashing it’s escorts at the others…

One minute….

Two…

It jumps out. It is the first to do so.

Three minutes….

Four…- another one, the furthest away, jumps out….


Five….

Our Fox reaches the second JumpShip (by distance), and the second to last one here. We attack it with our large pulse lasers and carve off its armor. It fires two large lasers at us. Okay.

The next two turns, we slash it again, and go internal on the front, and then more. We are too close now for it to jump, it would die. So it signals its surrender.

We have captured their JumpShip.

Meanwhile, the other JumpShip leaped away as well.

We now have the…

Field of Duty, Invader JumpShip – Available 1 December, 3066

[Abe Sargent]

Now that they see that they have a two day window before forces arrive on planet, the Panzer Brigade begins to shift their idea. Do they want to kill us quickly in the meadow and then face the landing forces? Their JumpShips just left or were captured. They have no easy way off. Do they want to retreat and set up defenses?

They decide to push heavily. It’s what we suspected they would do…

All though the day and night they push harder. We have our fighters do a couple of bombing runs, and one is destroyed leaving us 5 fighters. They hit some mines we set up, and some ambushes we have laying for them, all designed to slow their advance.

Meanwhile, a company of green mechs from the Avengers has arrived on the west flank into the large Savannah. They are trying to flank our foe, and they have to break away and deal with the militia. A few minor weapons exchanges are held. Nothing elsewhere.

[Abe Sargent]

October 31, 3066, Near the end of the day, they have pushed our troops near the center, where our tanks are as well. They have our salvaged Spider against us.

Our forces will arrive in 15 hours. They are about an hour away from our center of the area. It’s time to pull out the final surprise.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The rifle of artillery from an area to their rear cracks into them. They were pushing so quickly the last 36 hours that they passed by many of our traps. They also went right past the quartet of mobile Long Tom artillery we had. They are miles away, and the artillery, to their rear, is something they can have. They are forced to pull back, and we damaged a lot of mechs and carved off armor while pulling that trick. Our Long Tom is guarded by a few squadrons of local infantry, with SRMs, as well as four nasty close range tanks from our personal stash – Demolisher, Ontos, Brutus, and SRM Carrier. It will be tough for them to take it out, with the SRM Carrier hidden and reach to launch its surprise. This forces them to pull back somewhat.

[Abe Sargent]

With our flanking company of mechs, two companies of mechs in the middle the rear, they are forced to break up their formation. They send one companies of mechs to the rear to secure that. One company’s after the green locals, and the other mechs come after us.

Quick mech math:

They began with…71 mechs

They salvaged and are using our Spider – 72 mechs

We defeated 11 of their mechs with Cinq company – 61 mechs

They salvaged four, and of those, one is fully repaired – 62 mechs

We legged and damaged mechs with the Brutus tanks, with Cinq Company, with the bombing runs, and more. They were unable to refit five mechs. The rest are all back to normal – 57 mechs

They send a company after the Avengers – 45 mechs

They second a company to their rear – 33 mechs



They are bringing 33 mechs against our 24. That’s good match for them, but they don’t realize we have a full tank company here, that puts us at 36 units to their 33. Plus that buzzing I hear overhead shows that the local fighters have arrived ,and we help to keep their 24 mechs from rejoining their forces. We order them to support the south flank.

We consider what would happen if we showed them our tanks now, in order to slow them down. Or if we want the surprise on the field tricks. We decide to pull a few tanks out to slow them down. Our long range stuff, like the Hunter Support Tank and a Partisan pull out to help us. I prefer to not let the get ahead, and then pull out the tank surprise, because we might lose early on.

8 of our 12 tanks pull put, and we only keep our hidden – Saladin, Maxim Hovertank, 2 Strikers (which are pretty weak tanks) so might as well keep them for a surprise. They have an SRM6 and sx SRM4s in the turret.

Our nastiest tank is the PPC Carrier, but we have better mechs for them to focus on for now.


As expected, about 15 -20 minute away they slow down and do some odds again, and recalculate their battle plan.


Our fighters have joined the battle to the south flank, and they are losing it. The SRM Carrier just broke a mech before being taken down. The infantry and nasty tanks savaged them, and the fighter support has arisen to knocked down some mechs. They are surrounded and desperate. They manage to destroy a Long Tom but the company is forced to flee with the aerospace support smashing them. Five of their mechs are dead, and two more are missing arms.

It won’t take long before the artillery is coming in again. And now, with a larger force in front than they expected, they are hesitating.


That always will cause you to lose in the battlefield. The daughter of the leader begins ordering the force, as their leader pauses again and again. They are tired form chasing us alkl night and haven’t sloet for two days. She has them mobilize and retreat. Our forces are just a few hours from the planet this battle is too close now, and they can’t get destroyed today, so she ordered a fighting retreat before battle is joined. Their force with the green mechs pulls out too.

We spent so much time digging in and that we don’t have a lot to chase them down with. We send out Brawler company, but our pursuit is obviously more of a token resistance tot keep them honest than anything else

[Abe Sargent]

November 1, 3066 – A few hours later, our forces land. We didn’t bring a lot of DropShips, so our foes probably thought we didn’t have a lot to bring. But out of the Excalibur, Overlord, and Colossus come a battalion of tanks, and almost a regiment of mechs.

We also have our WarShip now in orbit, preventing anyone from coming out. The Fredasa is three days out. The Aegis Swift Justice is extremely slow, so it’s easier to flee from it. But Kerensky’s Justice is here and it will keep them from fleeing overly much.

We have sent out 36 fighters from our various forces to hit our foes. We give the local fighters a break.

Our three DropShips landed in a triangle around their temporary base camp, that they are just making it to, right now, and we unload just 20 miles away from them on each flank. We are secure in our LZs, because we have 36 fighters above, and they can’t force themselves into weapons range of something like an Excalibur DropShip in order to attack out mechs as they unload. They moved their DropShips to the local camp, which gives them some power to prevent an attack. If we just attacked their camp with our fighters, we’d win, but lose about half. We want to coordinate attacks.

[Abe Sargent]

November 2, 3066 – Our forces have unloaded, we have joined the local battalion of tanks. We have Epsilon Regiment here on the ground from Nanking, arguably our best Regiment, loaded with clan and upgraded meches. We have a group of 6 squads of infantry from Nanking, and 6 more locals. We also have Brawler and Defender Companies ready to hit them. 41 fighters are ready to smash, we have 2 battalions of our tanks, including 3rd battalion from Nanking.

We also have a WarShip in the sky to prevent any attempts to escape, and another two days away. And they have nowhere to escape to.


They have fixed two more mechs, and have 59 mechs defending. They also have their 12 DropShips, many of which have weapons on them. They also have mined the area heavily as well.

Against that?

132 mechs
41 fighters
12 squads of infantry
63 tanks


I think we’ll win.

At this point, this poorly off, they radio their surrender, if we’ll let them walk away, they’ll let us take some of their ‘mechs. We tell them we’ll let them walk, no question. But we get all of their mechs and DropShips. Then we will personally return them to Pleione, or anywhere else they want to go within reason, and release them there. We’ve done that before with other groups we faced, and you can see that we don’t lie about that.

They talk it over for five minutes….

They make some counter-offers, but we refuse.

“You invaded us. Twice. You don’t get off with a warning and a wrist slap. Today, November 2, 3066, history will show that Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade was destroyed. The only question is whether or not you will survive it.”

They decide to take their chances. They face off.


(Considering the huge numerical advantage we have from every angle, I don’t want to bother wasting my personal time on this battle. So let’s just toss some dice)

[Abe Sargent]

We keep our infantry back for taking their DropShips later on. We use fighters to strafe the minefields and clear them out. A few mines survive here and there, but not enough to really cause us any problems. Long range tanks, like Hunters and Shrek PPCs and this odd AC2 Carrier we have set up firing lanes and we move our mechs in, under the cover of fighters.

As their mechs focus on our mechs, their DropShips do to. We wait two turns of their combined fire, and then use our fighters to pull out and launch attacks at their two Leopard CVs ,which are among the more powerful arrays of weapons faced against us. Our fighters do some overkill and destroy both Leopard CV entirely, but not before we lose a trio of fighters.

Seeing the dangers, they begin to use DropShips on the fighters, and we get those weapons off our local mech forces. On the three attacking flanks we are pushing forward quickly, and regularly ejecting mechs that start to get close to no return, in order to prevent too many losses. We already lost Cinq company to these dorks, and I don’t want to push too much more.

Our foes are losing, we disable the Seeker DropShip. Mechs disable the Intruder.

Our Fighters are carving into more and more armor on a pair of Leopards.

They are getting pushed hard. They have just 30 mechs left. Now 24. Now 20. Their leader orders a scorched earth response, and they spin and start attacking creates of ammo and salvage and such. We go overheat to lay into them as quickly as possible. They actually destroy one of their own Leopards. Annoying. We accidentally destroy a Gazelle DropShip, but we shut down two wounded Leopard.

Meanwhile we have dropped them to 12 mechs, the 10. Their mechs are finished, and we have taken care of an Overlord.

We order their remaining DropShips to surrender. After a few minutes, they do, except for a Union, which chose to explode, killing three nearby mechs.

They end the battle.


We lose 27 mechs and 11 fighters and 13 tanks. (That number does not include mechs that ejected).

[Abe Sargent]

Now, we can salvage many of our mechs. It looks like 16 are fixable – most are XL engine shut downs (it’s nice to live in the area of that being a benefit) We lost 5 pilots, all five to head shots that are replaceable. We can salvage 4 fighters and 5 tanks.

We also captured their own salvage in their Mule DropShip and among their battlefield so we have retaken their salvaged Buccaneer, Axman and Zeus from Cinq company (we destroyed the salvaged Spider though).

Of their dead 59 mechs, we salvaged 26. Then add in the 8 mechs we took down of theirs, that they recovered and were missing limbs and such.

So we walk away with 34 mechs. Now we need to replace 9 mechs in Cinq Company, plus our 11 from today. 18 replacements for the 34 captured, and we’ll use those salvaged mechs exclusively and keep the other 16 mechs for our garrison normally, but we swap 16 to the Avengers, just to make things earlier on the math.

Now we also got a ton of limbs and such. Killing mechs with ammo explosions (with no CASE) and destroying CTs are pretty much the only way you can kill a mech without salvage. So the 9 mechs we lost from Cinq company, plus the 11 we lost there, plus the 23 we killed is 43 parts out there. Explosions don’t usually leave a lot, but a dead DCT could.

Now add in all of the armor laying around and more. The salvage here from this battle will take months to collect and such. Over the next year we will spend 818 million to restore nine random mechs that we have all of the parts for, save for the CT (In these cases, I only need to place the engine, gyro, any other weapons/equipment there and internal structure and armor.) To make things easy, we’ll add those 9 mechs to the Avengers, and sell the parts, armor, and weapons.

We pay for all of this lost armor, ammo, weapons, and tech costs with the Coalition (who pays for our costs in cases like this, but not to replace fallen units).

[Abe Sargent]

Our sales will repair for the next set of assets we took:

DropShips:

We took these ships:

2 Overlords
2 Unions
3 Leopards
1 Seeker
1 Intruder
1 Mule

The others were destroyed too much to do anything.

We sell the Leopards to make some cash for 425 million CBills.

We use the sales to fix the damaged DropShips that didn’t surrender. They’ll be ready January 31, 3067

A Seeker, the obsolete version, carries 48 vees and 4 mechs or 64 vehicles. It also carries 4 platoons of infantry. Because it just carries tanks and infantry usually, it’s not really a major upgrade for our touman. Now it is designed as a fast reconnaissance craft, and its’ pacey, 5/8 movement, I’ll grant it that. It has slightly less armor than a Leopard or LCV and a lot less than a Union. It also features a handful of weapons. But again, it doesn’t really meet many of our needs.

Now the Intruder? It’s a raiding, recon, assault-y sort of DropShip. It’s got solid armor, strong weapons, and can carry a flight of fighter (s) and 4 squads of infantry. We like it. We have an upgraded one in our T&OE already, and this is weaker, but still has some value to us.

But the Seeker? We’re not sure that what we need is yet another tank carrier. Perhaps we could swap it in for a Gazelle? Although, to be fair, we have been adding more tanks to our roster, so let’s not get too hasty. We’ll keep it.

[Abe Sargent]

November 6, 3066 – Our naval forces jump back to Nanking,

November 8, 3066 – We receive a communiqué from the Capellan Confederation letting us know that the unit that attacked us was acting on its own, and their holdings on Pleione have been seized and taken. They apologize to us for any complications that arose from the incident. A sufficiently worded generic apology. I don’t think the CC used this as a secret way to attack us. Genoa and Arboris are both pleased with our rule, pro-Lioan sentiment has died down massively, and the Coordinator himself promised he would back off Genoa for us. (Back in Chapter 7) Why bother us now? Moreover, why push our alliance? I just don’t see it.

November 10, 3066 – We turn the captured warriors over to Arboris and Genoa for trial. They didn’t commit war crimes – they didn’t attack civil stuff or anything, so they aren’t in major trouble, but we don’t want to run and free them so they can get revenge or form a unit that just attacked us twice. We’ll likely incarcerate them on military prisons, but we leave that up to the local governments, Those captured on Genoa go there, and the others on Arboris will head there,

November 26, 3066 – We have finished the basic stuff on Arboris, and Epsilon Regiment heads out, along with our second vehicle battalion to re-garrison Nanking.


End of the Second Arboris Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

The Civil War in 3066 –



Victor captures Tikonov and begins to march to New Avalon to unseat Katrina.

In later 3066, While Freedom is captured by the Free Skye movement, Hesperus II is not, which really ends the rebellion. They had to take the industrial world of Hesperus II.


As 3066 ends, there are two major thrusts left in the Civil War. In the Lyran Alliance, Morgan Kell is leading a huge alliance force against Regent Nondi Steiner, and driving to the capital of Tharkad. Meanwhile, Victor is doing the same against New Avalon in the Federated Commonwealth.

[Abe Sargent]

December 31, 3066 -

Essex Training Academy


We have 24 MW graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 27 enrollees for next year. All are staying in the Coalition. We also have 10 graduates of vehicle crews, all regular. We hand them vehicles and move them to our garrison or out to local Coalition worlds. 9 enroll for next year, and 11 infantry squads are now being trained as well. 10 infantry squads are completed, the Aerotech wing has its grads – 7 total. 7 more enroll for the 1st year.

We create an Academy Battalion for the senior class, and its 26 folks.


Year 4 - 26
Year 3 – 28
Year 2 - 29
Year 1 – 28

Armor – 9

Aerospace, Year 2 - 9
Aerospace, Year 1 - 7

Infantry, Year 2 - 9
Infantry, Year 1 - 11

We pay 17.5 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

[Abe Sargent]

3067


January 2, 3067 – As the Civil War winds down, the large number of pirates and raiders in FedCom space that were taking advantage of their weaknesses and lack of attention are now moving to other targets, and we have news of one such raid next door in Ruchbah. We split off the Fredesa WarShip and the Essex-class Dark Claw to create two roving, quick response units that jump from system to system, just checking to make sure everything is okay, with special attention on border worlds and ones with large amounts of targets, such as Acamar, or vulnerable ones, like Asmodeus.





January 3, 3067 – After three years of investigation, our team on Carver IV’s moon, has found that the old shipyards here are salvageable. It will require about 10 billion CBills, 8 years at least, but we could salvage and build a new set of shipyards there that would be suitable to building DropShips and JumpShips, and give us a full blown repair facility.

That would be a huge boon to the Coalition, but we are not sure about the money outlay. We just don’t have that kind of money, and Blake’s not immediately interested. We would need to borrow or find another way to finance it.

So instead, what we do is send that information out every major or minor military company in the Inner Sphere and ask for bids. What we’d like to do is discuss plans to co-build or co-own and develop the facility, and share costs in it.

[Abe Sargent]

January 16, 3067 - We get back multiple bids. We narrow it down to companies that already operate a shipyards and build DropShips and/or JumpShips already, and from there, go to our top three bids:

1. Kallon Industries. They have two Shipyards in the Free Worlds League and Federated Suns where they make the Vengeance DropShip fighter carrier for both, and the Kuan Ti DropShip for Marik as well. They submitted a bid to make this their 3rd shipyard.
2. Earthwerks Inc. This is one of the biggest military factories in the Inner Sphere, with huge numbers of companies in the Confederation, League, and Tikonov. The only place they have a large Shipyard is in Ares, where they make Kuan Ti, Overlord, Overlord A3, Union all for the Capellan Confederation. They’d love to open up and expand their DropShip making capabilities
3. O’Neil ShipYards. This company just makes DropShips in the Terra system, and they make Achilles assault DropShip, and two designs that Word of Blake created. They also make a JumpShip. So they have both experiences


Each has something nice going for it:

Kallon – We have a good working relationship with Kallon on Nanking, so we know we have a good connection already. They also have two facilities already, but they just make two DropShip types, so that’s not a lot of versatility in their network already.

O’Neil – They make JumpShips and DropShips, which is nice if we want a company with both sets of experience. They have never had a factory off Terra.

Earthwerks – They have just one Shipyards, but you have a lot of high quality ships in the TOE. We can’t get the Kuani Ti, which is a Marik/Liao specialty, but Overlord, Union, Overlord A3 – those would all be good choices for us.

We also get different details in the offers…



We decide to go with Earthworks Incorporated, founded on Tikonov, and then spread out to the Confederation and Marik. They are a huge multinational company, and have that experience. They have had factories in House Marik, Liao, Steiner and Davion. They get the dance. Earthwerks proposes to cut the cost 50/50.

We meet with them and hash out the final details.

The Liberty Shipyards and Factory should open up in 3075.

[Abe Sargent]

February 3, 3067 – As various naval assets come available, we will split our navy and send half to Errai to garrison it.


February 17, 3067 – A group of raiders hit Hall. They don’t get much, and the Kerensky’s Blues arrives shortly after, but they were able to escape ahead of it with about a 10 hour window before it reached their pirate point. Hopefully the close call will keep other pirates from hitting us. Due to our small state, we can respond quickly, and from one side to the other is just two jumps.


March 3, 3067 – Tikonov is captured by Capellan forces left behind and declared a protectorate of the Capellan Confederation. Duke Hasek sends in a huge navy to begin to blockade Tikonov.

[Abe Sargent]

March 19, 3067 – Reports show that HartfordCo is salvageable. We begun those operations, and the company has ceased to exist more than a century ago, so we are turning this company over to Kressly. The company made Cicada mechs and Von Luckner tanks. We expect the salvage to take around 6 months, and then another 7-8 months to get everything ready, and then we should add Cicada’s and Von Luckners to our industrial might.

James Roderick Essex is heading to Bryant. He will be taking over the new Kressly Warworks company here in the old HartfordCo Industries. The Von Luckner tank was only made here, and they have not been made since it was destroyed. Meanwhile, the Cicada is made lots of places, but we can certainly add it to Kressly’s roster. Adding the Von Luckner and Cicada here on another planet will be a huge boon.

[Abe Sargent]

March 22, 3067 - There's another large terrorist bombing on Nanking. This time around 33 people are killed when a bus is targeted.

[Abe Sargent]

March 25, 3067 – We get news that the first Defender Medium Strike Fighters should be rolling off the lines of Kressly factory in the Goushen Highlands March 15, 3068. We will be making around 50 a year, so we can churn them out quickly and cheaply. A quick little Defender will cost just 297,394 C Bills. We can spit them out, and then send 12 to each planet to help bolster local defenses. That’ll run around 3.5 mill cbills, or roughly the same price as one Ironsides aerospace fighter (which clocks in at 3.687 million Cbills)

[Abe Sargent]

April 2, 3067 – General Nondi Steiner is killed in combat

April 5, 3067 – Fighting has ended on Tharkad

April 20, 3067 – Archon Katrina surrenders to Victor on New Avalon.

Victor appoints his sister, Yvonne, to be Regent of the Federated Commonwealth again and his other brother, Peter, as Archon of the Lyran Alliance.

The Free Sky Rebellion is ended quickly.

[Abe Sargent]

May 1, 3067 – It took a little longer to get them ready that we expected, but the first Rievers are rolling off the line for Brooks, Inc over at Libery. This gives us that needed third line to help fill those fighter slots in our ranks.

[Abe Sargent]

May 13, 3067 - We extended contracts for the 48th, the Furies, Lindon's Battalion, Kraken Unleashed, and Narhal’s Raiders.

We rotated Larsen's Company to Arboris to replace the destroyed Cinq Company.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, let's get ready to call this thang!

[Abe Sargent]

Begin Abe’s Light Jihad Rant


Ah yes. The Jihad.

No matter what I may feel, the Jihad is a part of the universe. I can’t just pitch it.

In fact, we know that it is. The people in charge of the universe, book authors, video games, sourcebooks, and more got together biannually and planned the major plots for the next part of the battletech universe. After they did the split between ComStar and Word of Blake, they knew there would be a battle between them later on

That was planned. What that looked like was not planed in the beginning. (According to forum posts, intros to books, etc).

They began to work, years ahead of schedule, on the beginning of what the jihad would look like, and it was large. Both ComStar and Blake were building, and ready to smash into each other across a variety of fronts. The Civil War beginning and then….it happened.

FASA shut down. The company that made this stuff was done. A few months before, the founder of FASA and co-creator of the BattleTech line, Jordan Weissman has founded WizKids Games. He goes ahead and purchases various licenses from FASA, including BattleTech. He uses this to create a spin-off of his hugely successful Mage Knight game using the same clix mechanics, called Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

In order to reboot the franchise a bit, he sets it in the 3130 era, and in a Dark Age that is subsequent to a massive Inner Sphere cleansing event called the Jihad. He created a new storyline, and that involved certain groups that survived the Jihad, included a new, never-before-heard-of-state called the Republic of the Sphere.

I can’t fault Weissman. He took an IP he helped to create, and kept it alive by marrying it to the collectible miniature market. Then another company came in and wanted to keep making BattleTech books – FanPro in Germany (BattleTech had always been hugely popular in Germany, there were German-only novels, magazines, and sourcebooks).

Less than two years after the shutdown of FASA’s Battletech line, the next books were rolling off the presses while multiple MechWarrior: DA sets had been released, and they had published a history of the Republic of the Sphere, the jihad and the Dark Age. I read it. It was crazy detailed, and seeing what happened to the universe. Nasty stuff. It didn’t feel right.

Then FanPro began working on the first Jihad sourcebook (Dawn of the Jihad). In many ways, their hands were tied. Even though the people in charge had been in charge at FASA, they felt that the highly detailed universe in 3130 required that they make changes to the Jihad story they wanted to tell. Unable to use novels, and requiring way too much fact-checking (both forward to WizKids and backward to FASA), the book took forever to finish, and was even submitted to WizKids for approval, just to make sure it didn’t conflict with any anticipated story lines they were preparing.

Without any novels, and without the ability to fully explore the story as anticipated, they instead decided to create a different way to write the sourcebook. It’s just a collection of documents, news articles, press releases, and such. They even pointed out that most people in their campaigns would deviate from the storyline anyway, so they provided a variety of detail that was, in some places, intentionally contradictory. That is what they wanted. You could take whatever facts were happening, and hang your hat on them, and flesh them out however you wanted.


In fact, they did this with a ton of sourcebooks that introduced conspiracies that would make the illuminati look like a birthday party and convoluted plotlines that would inspire a year of stories on General Hospital. And again, you don‘t have to use any of it if you don’t want to.

So, the result is a muddied set of sourcebooks, with a bunch of ideas of what might have happened, and none of it really matching the sort of things that were previously envisioned. Feh.

And thus, the Jihad has never felt right to me. There are a few reasons for this to me:

1). I still remember reading that long history to catch people up on the WizKids website, and the more I read, the more it just felt like they went, way, too far.
2). People begin to act like caricatures of themselves (especially the clans) right around this time, and do it with the Wars of Reaving in some places as well.
3). The level of devastation for the Inner Sphere discussed in general, summative terms, doesn’t match what happened in the sourcebooks.

A. Perfect example, use of biological weapons to destroy planets. Want to know how many are mentioned as destroyed by the Word of Blake in the7 sourcebooks? FIVE. That’s not that big of a deal in a universe with more than 2000 planets. Odessa, Alarion, Talon/Menke, etc. Not a lot here folks.
B. In fact, many of the diseases that broke out during the jihad were nowhere near Blake control (Galedon). Orbital Bombardment is used again as a weapon by most states, and almost all of them use it tactically (like we did) to focus fire on a certain, hugely defended position or strategic targets. Only a handful of cases (almost always done by the clans) were exceptions to this.
C. Nukes were a part of the problem right? Except, they are used, by far, in two ways – tactical nukes against defenses that requires something to unplug them and against WarShips in space, where fallout won’t be an issue. That’s it. They aren’t used on battlefields. Again, nothing we haven’t seen, done, and justified ourselves.
D. By the end of the jihad, very few worlds have reach the point of no return due to the quadfecta of WMDs: Orbital bombardment, chemical weapons, biological weapons, and nuclear weapons. Very few planets are off the map post-jihad. In fact, all of the worlds that are destroyed by Clan Raven, Blake, or Inner Sphere are…

Radstadt – Ghost Bear
Vantaa – Wolf
Alarion – Lyran Alliance
Galedon – Draconis Combine
An Ting – Draconis Combine
Galax – Federated Suns
Aea - Taurian Concordat
Circinus – Circinus Federation
Necromo – Capellan Confederation
Buenos Aires – Capellan Confederation
Lopez – Duchy of Andurien (Former Free Worlds League)
Gibson – Former Free Worlds League
Poulsbo - Former Free Worlds League
Diamantina - Former Free Worlds League
Paradise - Former Free Worlds League

And there’s your sphere-raising changes. 5 of those were by the Principality of Regulus hunting down Blake, and one by Clan Snow Raven. Aea was destroyed by pirates not related to Word of Blake. The clans themselves depopulated Vantaa in battle. So Word of Blake was responsible for Galax, Necromo, Lopez, Aires, and An Ting, and trying to destroy Odessa (cures were later found). They intentionally targeted systems that supported shipyards and could repair or build WarShips.

E. In fact, many places are never invaded by Word of Blake. Quick guess looking at the map? Around two-thirds are in areas never really under the attack of Blake. At its height, the Blake held 146 worlds. By comparison, the Federated Suns is more than 500 worlds. It’s still roughly 100 fewer than the Capellan Confederation has. Most of the battles that were fought were by pirates, clans, internal forces, or external aggression, and despite all of that, roughly half seems to be never bothered by any of that.

That’s not much of a Sphere cleansing event, now is it?

Not a fan of the jihad.

[Abe Sargent]

Which Ending Do You Want to See to This Dynasty?

I think there are 6 legitimate endings to this dynasty that make sense for what has happened, and take care of that Jihad thing as well. You can choose your own, in order to fit the story you like the best.

1). The planned ending. Braham Essex, in the 4th Whitting Conference of the Star League, keeps it from disbanding, and then is elected the next Star Lord of the League for 3 years, and uses that time to begin an area of peace for the Star League II. A Golden Age descends on the Inner Sphere, and war, becoming increasingly less common, begins to step aside. I have written this up, and will be writing it soon.


2). The Nightmare and the Dream. On the way to the 4th, Duke Essex is assassinated by unknown parties, and Duke Abraham, of Epsilon Indi, second in command of the CC, votes as Essex wanted, but is not enough of a personality to keep things from falling apart. As the Jihad begins, the Word of Blake begins to step into the power gap, as no one in the Coalition has the charisma to keep things together, and soon, some planets fall away – Nanking and Errai back to the FedCom, Zurich to Capella, and most to Blake’s warm, and secure and welcoming grip, in a newly formed Blake Protectorate. After two years, the Coalition is down to just four worlds – Epsilon Eridani, Indi, Capolla, and Terra Firma, and soon thereafter, will cease to exist by the end of 3070. Meanwhile, CO Matthew Humphries takes 4 regiments of the K&C mercs, including some tanks and many naval assets on a contract with the Duchy of Andurien. There’s no need to protect the CC and EE anymore, as those worlds are falling. They arrive in the disintegrating League, and become a force of peace. They are a key component in the expansion, often peacefully, of nearby worlds under the Andurien envelope, and Humphries becomes a key player in the anti-Blake movement. After two failed assassination attempts, and the loss of EE to Blake in 3070, K&C makes Andurien its new and permanent home. After a few more years of fighting against Blake in the FWL, Humphries is chosen by Devlin Stone to lead the Free Worlds campaign against the Word of Blake, and his attacks are quick and strong, taking multiple worlds from the Protectorate with his pan-Sphere coalition that includes clanners, spheres, and more. He takes more worlds more quickly than any other front, save for the Davion one. He leads the battle to and into Terra, and is one of the major generals on Terra’s liberation, and then returns to the FWL as one of the true heroes of the day, and helps the Principality of Regulus cleanse the Blake stain from existence, as they kill the Master and Precentor Apollyon on Gibson.


3). An aborted Jihad. After trying, and failing, to get the Star League to survive, the League ends at the 4th, and the Word of Blake begins its nasty Jihad across known space. Meanwhile, Duke Essex connects Admiral Randal Lewis with Precentor Martial Victor of ComStar, and convinces him to delay the Case White assault against Terra pending a lot more information and WarShips. He introduces Victor to Admiral Lewis, who is named Precentor Naval of Comstar, and plans the battle. Although the battle is delayed for months by uniting the various powers to create a naval flotilla unheard of since the Amaris days, the naval action is massively successful, and Precentor Naval Lewis wins the attack on Terra about a 11 months into the Jihad, and the Jihad ends quickly afterwards. The remaining forces in the League are easily taken care of.


4). A new invasion. After trying, and failing, to get the Star League to survive, the League ends at the 4th, and the Word of Blake begins its nasty Jihad across known space. Meanwhile the clans find out, and newly elected ilKhan Brett Andrews, of Steel Viper, officially has the Great Refusal overturned, and uses a new invasion as a way to unite the quickly splintering clans. After the nuclear bomb attack on Clan Wolf’s capital of Tamar, and destroying much of their Blood Legacy, the Invasion corridors are assigned across the Inner Sphere, with Fire Mandrill and Goliath Scorpion attacking the Confederation, Steel Viper and Star Adder the Free Worlds League, Cloud Cobra, Ice Hellion and Blood Spirit the Federated Suns, and so forth. This invasion is precipitated by Word Of Blake, and the ending of the Star League II. The Clan Invasion ends the Jihad because Word of Blake forces in the far and near periphery are annihilated, and the new Invasion specifically names Blake as the target of a Trial of Annihilation. Now seen as the liberators of the Inner sphere, relations between clan and sphere because very muddled…


5). Blood from the Stone. After trying, and failing, to get the Star League to survive, the League ends at the 4th, and the Word of Blake begins its nasty Jihad across known space. Having created and built a powerful relationship with the Celestial Coalition at their own door, the Word of Blake initiates Operation: Starfall. This planned operation immediately assassinates Chief Ingrid Foster of the Apollo Office, and Admiral Randal Lewis. The Coalition is immediately placed in a new Word of Blake Protectorate as numerous worlds and militaries are suborned. Having already sent their people to wait, Blake agents capture all of their WarShips. Word of Blake forces at the HPG stations emerge and take the worlds quickly and easily. Within 6 weeks, the Celestial Coalition has fallen. Braham Essex is arrested, and sent to Kittery, at a re-education camp. He will be at that camp for a few years, until, in early 3071, having changed his name to Devlin Stone, he leads an insurrection at Kittery, and things
progress from there…


6). Blake and Essex, friends to the end. After trying, and failing, to get the Star League to survive, the League ends at the 4th.,Refusing to give in, the Celestial Coalition and Word of Blake officially meld together to create the New Terra Hegemony. Newly crowned Director-General Essex announces, “If the Star League can’t live again, then the Hegemony at least will!” They coordinate strikes against former worlds in the Federated Suns, Lyran Alliance and Draconis Combine, and begin a lesser, tamer, Jihad, to reclaim that glory. Moving the capital to Terra, Director-General Essex and the former Word of Blake militia strike hard at local worlds to bring in planets like Hesperus II, Fomalhaut, Quentin, and more. Still allied with the CC and FWL, the Terran Hegemony continues the trend began by its forebears and by Blake – to trade advanced technology, including military, for political gain. After forming a new Hegemony and succeeding in the “Jihad”, and becoming a modern-day Cameron in the eyes of many, will a 3rd, and permanent Star League arrive?

[Abe Sargent]

FOURTH WHITTING CONFERENCE - 3067


Welcome to Tharkad


A few months ago, supporters of Victor and Katrina were at each other’s necks, until their nations were severely damaged. Here on Tharkad, the battle was extremely tough as Morgan Kell led a coalition against General and Regent Nondi Steiner.

On the agenda for this Whitting Conference is the election of three new members – The Taurian Concordat, Magistracy of Canopus, and Word of Blake.

The earliest feel in the air is a bit salty with a bit of a bite from the various attendees across the Inner Sphere. Isis Liao-Marik is here representing her husband.


First Lord Christian Mansdottir calls the league to order, and the three new potential states give various presentations, and are voted into the Star League which requires just a minimum.

After that forced old business, the floor is open for new business. Isis speaks up and says that the Capellan Confederation wants to pull out of the Star League – it is a sham that has outlived its usefulness.

After speaking, both Yvonne and Peter Steiner-Davion mention that the resource investment in the Star League is no longer worth the effort in their rebuilding programs. Plus, the Star League was designed to end the Clan Invasion. Since it did that, it’s time has gone.


Frustrated, First Lord Christian Mansdottir calls for a vote of no confidence. If it fails to pass, the Star League is disassembled and those three states are free. Otherwise they remain in the League.

Duke Essex rises to speak.

“I would like to postpone this vote pending a recess for some research and conversation.”

It just needs a 50% vote and it passes easily.

Essex grabs Connor Ward for a quick conversation to discuss clans in detail. He then hits up some research with Clan Wolf-in-Exile and Nova Cat representatives in the area.

Then he heads to a room where the supporters of the Star League are gathered planning their strategy. It’s an odd group. ComStar and Word of Blake, Rasalhague and the Combine, Marik and the Concordat. Where’s the Magistracy? They have been convinced by Su n-Tzu to pull out just after being added in? He must have offered them something special.

Duke Essex presents his points and convinces the room of the correctness of continuing the Star League.

Based on this info, it seems like the Lyrans are the ones most likely to be savaged by the loss of the Star League. Essex asks, “Can I convince Peter to change his mind? How much does he fear and respect the clans?”

Without Peter switching his vote, we don’t have the requires 2/3rds vote.

Braham tells the pro-side that he’ll grab Peter and talk it over.

Braham grabs Peter Steiner-Davion.

“I understand why you want to pull out. I understand why you want the Star League to end, so you can focus on rebuilding. But here’s the thing.

When a clan has won a Trial, if the clan has been destroyed or annihilated, the Trial is no longer in effect. If we destroy the Star League here today, then Trial of Refusal won on Strana Mechty is no longer in effect, and the Clan Invasion is no longer bound by it. Instead, they are just bound by the parameters of the Tukkayid Truce, not to invade for 15 years after that battle. That truce ended a few months ago. The clans can come back to the Inner Sphere, in full force, driving through your area again, in months.

Peter, your state had rarely been lower. You were devastated by the Civil War. You were savaged by a renewed Jade Falcon incursion that you barely held off. Can you survive a full-fledged invasion by the clans again? When clans who have not lost badly to the Inner Sphere rotate in and attack, can you hold off Cloud Cobra? Can you hold off Ice Hellion? Star Adder? Steel Viper? “

“I hear you, but even if you were right, and the clans could reattack, we don’t know if they want to. If they can. If they would do so in the next few months or year. If they would attack along the same lines as the previous group. And if they did, we have learned a lot and advanced a lot. We could hold the line.”


“Peter, Sun-Tzu, Yvonne, and Emma aren’t risking much on this. You are risking everything. Can you be so sure to place your vote here? Are you willing to risk planets and people on that?”

“I am.”

“Very well then.”

[Abe Sargent]

Duke Essex returns to the room. The vote on Peter was not going to happen. He begins to thumb through the constitution a bit.

Let’s do some math:

Likely Votes against the Star League:

Emma
Isis
Peter
Yvonne


Likely Votes in Favor:

Blake
Comstar
Essex
Marik
Kurita
Taurian
Rasalhague

You need a 2/3rds vote to pass.

7/11 is not it. You need 8/11 or 8/12.


Hmmm….


“Did you know that while it requires a 3/4s vote to suspend the Constitution for a vote, it only requires a 50% to suspend the League Council Rules?”


Some of the people ask what Essex is thinking.

“Well, do we have a local ambassador on Tharkad from the Outworlds Alliance?”


“We can vote to add the Outworlds Alliance into the Star League. That’s a normal vote that requires a majority vote. However, remember that I was the first state to get into the Star League after the original formation, and that was not anticipated in the initial Constitution, so we added a rule that required everyone to wait three years until the next Conference to make it in. We can simply suspend that rule with a 50% vote, instead of the required 3/4’s.

Here’s what we do. Table the No-Confidence vote. Vote to add in the Alliance. We just need a majority to do so. Then we vote to suspend the rules and bring the Alliance into the League right now, today. We need a majority for that too. Then we vote, and we win the no-confidence vote 8/12, assuming the Alliance votes yes.

That way, we win the No-Confidence vote by adding the Alliance. If you weren’t interested in the Alliance, we could go with Clan Ghost Bear or something. But the Alliance seems the logical step after bringing in the other two major Periphery realms."



After a quick check with legal teams that verified everything, the Ambassador was called in and arrived a few hours later.

It took just 30 minutes to convince her of the need to add her realm and she was in, even though she would be unable to contact her ruler. He had asked that she present at the Conference and ask to be added to the Star League. Avellar will love this!


So we have found a parliamentary trick to get around the other folks.

[Abe Sargent]

We head back out to the Star League at the end of the second day, and we resume our deliberations. We begin as expected, Theodore Kurita votes to table the vote, and Thomas Marik seconds. Our side votes and we table the vote for now.

The Taurian Concordat votes to add in the Outworlds Alliance, and I second.

Then the ambassador for the OA is brought into the room and takes her seat. Word of Blake votes to suspend the rules that require us to wait until the next conference. Then I second. The First Lord, overseeing this all, agrees that this is legal. The Alliance is immediately added to the Council.

There are protests from some of the other nations. Their lawyers quickly agree that what we did was perfectly legal according to the Constitution of the Second Star League.

Then the Alliance’s ambassador votes to un-table the no-confidence vote. Marik seconds. The No Confidence vote is brought back. It’s clear that the nos are going to be outvoted by one. As the roll call vote begins and calls out each nation or organization and their vote, there is massive nervousness by both sides. But the resolution achieves the needed votes and passes 8-4. The 2/3rds majority is achieved.


Whew!

That was close. The Star League penalizes nations for withdrawing. They can, but doing so without giving a lot of forward notice will result in considerable economic and trade sanctions. None of the nations choose to suffer them, and frazzled by what just occurred, they withdraw their desire to leave the League for now. After all, they always can later.


The First Lord finishes with the presentation that Duke Essex provides, and shows many times in the past when Clans have won a Trial, then upon the loss of the Clan, that Trial no longer holds the Clan to its agreement. This has happened recently too. For example, Clan Hell’s Horses lost a Trial against the Jaguars long ago to prevent them from using or researching certain vehicles. After the Jaguars were destroyed, the Horses began their research immediately. There are multiple examples of that happening in the last few years as well.

The dissolution of the Star League would likely lead to another invasion. It’s purpose has not finished.



After that bit of business, there is a quick resolution.

[Abe Sargent]

On the Second to the Last day, Word of Blake takes the stage.

They mention that more than 100 years ago, a prophecy was made by ComStar about how it would regain it’s power, and usher in peace into the Inner Sphere. It discussed three transfers of power. Word of Blake has been divided by a variety of branches ever since it formed, but in the 3040s, a leader in ComStar received visions that interpreted this prophecy as three transfers of power. All three were listed in detail. The first two happened in the 3050s. But the final transfer seemed highly unlikely, and few believed this Master.


The final transfer of power was the reformation of the Star League, and the introduction of all of ComStar into it.

After the Word of Blake splintered from ComStar, how could all of it be integrated in a fictional Star League that could never be?



And then it was. And the third transfer of power was within reach!

And now the visions have completed, and the Word of Blake has rejoined the Star League, along with the original ComStar.

The third transfer has happened.

As an introduction into the new era of peace and prosperity, the Word of Blake has gifts for every member of the Star League council (Except for the Outworlds Alliance, they’ll get something for them). In every case it is something appropriate for them.

For example:

Free Worlds League – “To a nation forever proud of its freedoms, and independence from technology, we give you even greater medicine to naturally heal.” Gained lost medical technology that makes it even less likely that replacement limbs or other artificial parts will be needed for people who have been injured or sick.

Lyran Alliance – “To a nation forever proud of its industry and defiance, we give you a piece of your past, and one of the greatest WarShips ever created!” A lost Tharkad WarShip, once a banner WarShip of the might and majesty of the Lyran state from the StarLeague era is found, repaired, and brought back to the Lyran state.

Celestial Coalition – “To a nation forever searching and questing for more, we give you one of our own planets, one of the Hidden Five.” A hidden, industrialized world of Taussen, hidden in our borders, once called Versailles, was thought destroyed in the Amaris Wars (but wasn’t really) and has an operational BMech factory that has supplied ComStar and the Word for centuries. We have now gained it.

And so on and so forth, each gift reflecting the unique nature of the people it is for.

[Abe Sargent]

After that, the second to last day is done.


On the final day, voting occurs for the Star League First Lord. After finding ways to save it, Duke Essex is voted in as the new Star Lord.


As normal, he gives a final speech and chooses the home-planet used by the Star League for the 5th Whitting Conference.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are some excerpts from that speech:


“And so the only logical place for our next Conference in Terra.”


“All we have to do is look out of these windows and see the damage that we have done. Months later, Tharkad is smoldering. Two of our states have been devastated by an inner family conflict that boiled over. Where do we go from there?”


“Consider the worst we have been to ourselves. The Amaris Wars brought numerous nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons to bear. We didn’t learn our lesson and the First Succession War brought us down as we continued to do the same. Then the Second brought us even further down, and we entered a Dark Age of our time.

The Third War. The Fourth War. The Duchy of Andurien and its Fall. The Ronin wars that saw Rasalhague freed. The War of 3039. The Clan invasion. The invasion by Marik/Liao forces in 3057. The recapture of the St. Ives Compact. Operation Bulldog and Taskforce Serpent. And now the Civil War.

And we haven’t learned. Once again, we loosed the worst of ourselves in nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. I’m a warrior too. I fought in the Fall of Andurien. I fought in the Ronin Wars to secure freedom for Rasalhague. My unit was on the front lines against the Clan Invasion, was in Operation Bulldog, and fought at Huntress. Then we crafted a realm from the Chaos March often from the barrel of a gun. I get war. I understand war. Sometimes, there is a place for war.

But there is never a place for this (Essex points to the local devastation of Tharkad). There is never a place for the loss of civilian lives, cities, and more.”

“The Star League worked because it invested in its people and its infrastructure. We are doing the same with places like Bryant and Asmodeus, but we need to continue. The Star League should be about more than fighting wars with the clans. It should be about restoring peace and prosperity to everyone across the universe, whether clan, periphery, or Inner Sphere.“


“That’s why I am instituting a Aleisha Liao program to begin to push for lawful battles, beyond just the Ares Convention she fought for. Previously, First Lords have used ComStar troops to better their own realms by capturing nearby planets. Now those troops will be deployed to stop the horrors of war. To be guardians of what the league really should stand for, and the Ares convention we have so often set aside when it has become inconvenient.”


“We will also be rebuilding multiple infrastructures and creating a grant program to help rebuild. Because people like Yvonne and Peter are not wrong. There’s been too much destruction.“



“What the Civil War should demonstrate is not that we should not unite ever stronger than before. But instead give us a road map how. We’ll emphasize regional loyalties instead of pushing them aside. You can be proud to be from Skye, from Rasalhague, from Oriente, from Sarna, or from Andurien. That’s okay! We need to find ways to allow folks to wear their colors proudly!”




“For hundreds of years, we have been in an era of war. We have seen the worst of ourselves. It’s time for something else. The people are clamoring for it. Their distrust of the great houses is at an all-time high. They have seen their homes trampled and destroyed for too long. Their children killed too often. It’s time for a new age.”

[Abe Sargent]

And he did not lie. Over the next three years, the Star league grew in strength and influence considerably. War and battle was reduced. More and more nations and units flew the Star League flag, but alongside their own. Nations and people dismissed by the Great Houses embraced the new star League.

Meanwhile, programs such as increased sports competitions, like the Pan-Galactic Olympics, and many more began as a way to celebrate your home. The Star League uniform was modified to add in a bunch of medals, sashes, belts, and epaulets that represented your home planet or district. Meanwhile there are other various changes made as well.

There were set backs too. Multiple times, Star league troops had to intervene to stop nasty conflicts. There was an attempted genocide on Pesht that was particularly nasty. Some places embraced the new Star League faster than others.


As Thomas Marik took over the First Lord from Essex, the expectations were set, and Marik embraced them completely. He pushed the concepts of dignity, the Ares Convention, and infrastructure investment. There was a minor rebellion in the Isle of Skye that was put down. But the Star League became more and more of a real thing.

Meanwhile, the Ghost Bear Dominion was added into the Star league, and Clan Nova Cat were officially given a seat on the Council.

Marik died of old age in the third year of his First Lord-dom and was celebrated as a great leader across the Inner Sphere. Essex was brought back for a few months to finish his term.

Then Yvonne took the seat, and she had come into her own as Regent of the Federated Suns. Distancing herself from the shadow of her many siblings, she had forged a nicer, kinder, but also stronger person, much like her mother, Melissa.

Yvonne also pushed the Star League in greater ways. From exploration missions to continued investment in restoring the economies of worlds devastated in the Amaris Wars or Succession Wars. Word of Blake was a huge ally in this, since the entire Word had embraced the Master’s view of organization, and after his visions all came true, and gone was its factionalism, replaced by a fanatical devotion to the Star League.

In 3074, the Word of Blake and ComStar were officially brought back together, and placed back into the official Star League administrative offices of various types. There would still be bad blood and the occasional incident between them for years, but it would slow down, and end as people were born in a time of relative peace.

[Abe Sargent]

The greatest test to the new Star League was in 3083 when a large nuclear explosion occurred virtually simultaneously across number worlds in the Combine. After investigation, it was found that Duke Sandoval, Tancred’s son, has been behind the bombings, in an attempt to reboot war with the Combine and restart that conflict. The Star League forced the Combine to the sidelines, and invaded Robinson, removed Sandoval from office, stripped his family of its holdings, and moved the capital of the March to another planet far away, selling the Robinson holdings to help fund the campaign to fix and restore the planets struck by the weapons.

The heavy hand the League used in quelling this was extremely useful in keeping other’s quelled, and yet it was a hugely popular response everywhere.

After receiving a request, the League agreed to allow Diamond Shark to enter the Star League. Ghost Bears, Nova Cat, Diamond Shark, Snow Raven/Outworlds Alliance and Wolf-in-Exile spent the last few years ousting Wolf and Jade Falcon from the inner sphere.

Wolf-in-Exile takes much of the former territory and reestablishes itself as Clan Wolf. They make no more name change, and it is hard to figure out who is who (both Clan Wolves consider themselves the proper Clan Wolf). The new Wolf is also given a spot on the Star League Council.

Many Periphery territories have chosen to be annexed into local states, instead of joining the Star League outright. Places like the Circinus Federation and Marian Hegemony are now parts of Free Worlds League.


But the biggest chance was in 3094. Having reached the age of 22, Mikkael Quan Steiner-Davion-Kurita-Liao-Marik is elected First Lord, despite not leading any nation. The only child of Kitsune, the eldest son of Victor and Omi and Rachel, the only daughter and child of Sun-Tzu and Isis, Mikkael has been raised from birth to be the new Star Lord. He has toured the Star League incessantly to see the different people, exploration, construction, rebirth, and to connect with the people.

By having a First Lord who is from all five houses, you connect them dynastically. You connect them in a way the House of Cameron, the rulers of the first Star League and the Terran Hegemony, never could.

Mikkael is smart, competent, and capable, having been born to this new age.

The position is made permanent, and will be handed to his child. He is engaged to the daughter of Duke Michael Hasek and his wife, Thoma Marie Essex. Continuing to increase this dynastic connection is vital to the success of the Star League.


Peace, such as it is, has been achieved. And the beginning of the Second Star League’s era of peace, while things aren’t perfect yet, they have improved across space, from one corner of the League to the other.

Long May the Star League Reign! Long May Peace Reign! The Second Golden Age has Begun! Long May Our Lives be Golden!

[Abe Sargent]

Now, that's my way of ending this thing.

(One of the major issues that I have with the fictional aspect of BattleTech is that it constantly wants battle. After all, this is a war-game. If here’s no war, then there’s no game. So we have to continue to have war. War after war after war. No peace. Just rests between wars! This is a major conceit of the universe. So I made one tiny change. I put the right person the Inner Sphere into the right place in the 4th Whitting Conference, in order to keep the Star league from being destroyed, and leading into the Jihad. Everything I did for the dynasty was about getting here. Capturing planets? I did that in order to make Essex attractive enough to put him in the room. )

He was there! And everything else worked. Whew!



But what if I were to continue with a Chapter 9? What would it look like?

[Abe Sargent]

Now, if I were to extrapolate what would happen in the next chapter, the Jihad chapter, if we had one, what do I think would be the natural changes that would follow from what we did?

Well we have a few major changes – an allied small nation in the ex-Chaos March that has allied, strongly, with Word of Blake. How would that change things?

Ummm…

I think one of the best places to find out information about the Jihad and Word of Blake is in the Jihad Secrets: Blake Documents book. In virtually every Jihad book, the Jihad is told from the various real world documents that reflect biases – from letters written to speeches to press conferences and news articles to recorded conversations. It’s very hard to figure out exactly what was happening. But of much of the Secrets book, that sort of writing has been set aside (it’ll pick it up again in later chapters, don’t worry). It gives the non-biased, rational account of what happened, and doesn’t pin the blame fully on Blake.

Word of Blake expected the 4th Whitting Conference to be the 3rd and Final Transfer of Power. They were becoming full members, and expected to nominate Thomas Marik as the new First Lord. They were going to give gifts to the Lyran Alliance and Federated Suns as ways to help them rebuild. They arrived at Tharkad in the Invincible and with some other WarShips. They found and salvaged the Invincible, a Tharkad class WarShip and once the pride of the Lyran navy, from the Ruins of Gabriel. They painted it in Star League parade colors, and brought it to Tharkad. Most of the envoys arrived in WarShips, including Victor Steiner-Davion, who has just led a campaign that savaged the Alliance and Tharkad. And here he is, showing up in a ComStar Warship – many did, so Blake having the Invincible, and some of their own, was totally normal. They also had a naval flotilla in New Avalon, and both were full of supplies, including a lot of military supplies, to help get those two realms back on their feet.

Meanwhile, Word of Blake’s massive armament campaign was geared towards building a large enough military to invade, and take out the clan homeworlds. They created the Manei Domini, a group of elite, cybernetically enhanced warriors, as a way to counter the clan advantage. They added nukes to their arsenal to counter the numerical advantage the clans had, they added massive numbers of mechs and WarShips to give them a chance at taking out the home clans, under the aegis of the Star League, after the 3rd transfer of power.


When the Star League collapsed, and the Word of Blake was left, hanging, and all of their prophecies were lost, they were just floored. Their immediate reaction was to launch warning shots in Tharkad, and later New Avalon, and try to force the League back together. That didn’t work.

So the jihad began. But it was not this planned, thought out, attack against the Inner Sphere. It was a visceral reaction from a body that was still divided, and not sure of itself. There are atrocities where planets are given biological diseases and such, and killed, by the Word of Blake. There are lots of nuclear attacks by Blake. But it is important to understand that this is the fear of a group that has just lost it’s mission, and it won’t be for a long time before Blake begins to fight with a plan and a purpose.

Even then, Blake is full of true believers, who are pushing for the right. For example, take Precentor Apollyon, leader of the Manei Domini, and one of the most powerful, and nasty, enemies you’ll face. Even he is described as without vice, totally honorable, dedicated, and not a thug or somesuch. In fact, there is a conversation recorded between him and one of his followers in the Hot Spots 3076 book where he is asked why he isn’t destroying a world of resistance and he responds that there are 5 billion on that world who never made the wrong decision, only their leaders did, so their leaders are just punished.


So, with this understanding of the Word of Blake’s actions, character, and desires, how would they have reacted to the Coalition? How does its existence play into things?

[Abe Sargent]

There are a few changes in the storyline that had to be accommodated, but at first, I think the Coalition wouldn’t be that impacted at all. Note that it’s not for around a year until the Word of Blake really pushes the CC into their Jihad, because Capellan Confederation is going it solo and taking the Magistracy of Canopus with them. Meanwhile, allied nations, like the Free Worlds League, and Taurian Concordat are not really attacked. It’s not until the fake Thomas Marik is moving against him that they burn him, in late 3068. That leads to a lot of realms succeeding from the Free Worlds League, some side with Blake, many do not, and that leads to the dissolution of the Free Worlds League, and removes it from being a full-on ally.

So really, the Word of Blake wouldn’t really go after the Coalition. Duke Essex and his team he assembled would likely be left alone at first. Blake is badly distracted, and would have focused on what to do now, and the various fronts it erected. In fact, I’d say that the buddy time we had with Blake would drop considerably.

So my initial view on what would happen is that Blake’s relations would cool a bit, but the planets on the Coalition would not be attacked or blasted. Remember that we make mechs for Blake on Epsilon Eridani, Errai, and Nanking (two of those three are not happening in the standard plot line). We gave Blake mechs from our own garrison. Why burn your bridges? So we are a pseudo-Word of Blake Protectorate.

Now, I do think that, soon enough, Blake will begin it’s Protectorate (which had not existed in this storyline as we did it ourselves.) It’ll begin taking nearby planets as well as important targets like Hesperus II, just as it did before. We just won’t be taken or attacked.


We might get attacked though. For example, one of the first things that happen in the Inner Sphere is that as soon as the jihad begins, numerous independently minded idiots begin to attack neighbors Duke Hasek, almost immediately, launches an attack on the Capellan Confederation that will hammer them heavily. People in the Lyran Alliance will attack the Free Worlds League, the Black Dragon Society attacks Luthien and other places in the combine, and later on, we’ll see the Draconis March hitting some worlds, and the Outworlds Alliance led by clan Snow Raven will launch some attacks, and Jade Falcon and Wolf are going to gobble up many worlds, and Ghost Bear will absorb the remaining worlds of the Free Rasalhague Republic, smaller nations in the Free Worlds League will attack each other, the Taurian Concordat will punch deeply into Suns territory, and so forth. With all of these nearby attacks, I can’t deny that an attack on Nanking by the Capellan March, Errai by the Draconis March, won’t make a bunch of sense. And those attacks would likely continue (Caph and Small World, as an example, were actually part of the Draconis March before 3057. So you might see attacks to bring them back into the fold. )

[Abe Sargent]

Here is what I would do, Year One, of the Jihad:

1). Full on campaign by the Draconis March, featuring a lot of units, to retake Errai, Small World, Caph, and then expand their holdings from there.
2). One of our Warships which was repaired by Blake, is absconded by them in order to help their own battles elsewhere. (This happened, a lot, for Free Worlds League WarShips as well. This cannot be the three they never touched (The Aegis, Black Lion or Fox) but one of those they repaired for us in Terra).
3). While defending against the Draconis March attack, a huge naval flotilla and army arrive in Nanking, to finally force us out, from the Capellan March.
4). We lose Nanking. The force pushes south to hit the Capellan Confederation as part of Duke Hasek’s Operation Sovereign Justice. He doesn’t care as much about Arboris, Zurich, etc. Not right now, while he has a major campaign underway.
5). After defending against the Draconis March attack, we push and take one or two more worlds from them. Then we are pushed back on a third planet, Ruchbah, and instead we abandon it and secure our holdings.
6). We will launch an attack and annex Quentin permanently.
7). As the Free Worlds League begins to fall apart late in the year, we begin operations, and laying intel, to attack and take nearby Worlds planets that were recaptured in Operation Guerrero, and very close to us. Worlds like Castor, Sirius, Procyon, and Talitha.

Over the course of the next few years, we are unable to get Nanking back and have lost it permanently. We defend two assaults on Quentin by the Dragon, we bring in about 6-7 worlds in the former Free Worlds League, and we strengthen our alliance with the Confederation by sending in troops to help them in their battles against Operation: Duke Hasek is Stupid

Meanwhile, eventually Blake comes to us with a variety of increasingly problematic expectations and demands. They have blocked Northwind with a naval group, in our territory and ask us to take it over, and then they want us to take out Outreach for them. Eventually, they agree to hire a bunch of mercenaries on Outreach to attack the Wolf’s, and then, after Jaime Wolf dies, and then the Dragoons attack Terra, lose, and clears a path, we will land and assault the remnants, take Outreach for the Coalition in 3070.

[Abe Sargent]

Blake’s demands to build re-education camps and their use of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction is forcing us to make a decision we don’t want to…

Currently, we are one of the best off areas in the Inner Sphere. Are we willing to sacrifice our morals to continue to push ourselves over Blake‘s umbrella? Or, are we going to fight back, knowing that we will likely get trounced?

And frankly, you might not like the decision we agree to…

But in 3071, four years into the Jihad, we have agreed to many of Blake’s demanding-ish requests. We say no to the worst stuff (putting defensive chemical and biological weapons on our worlds), but we do have some re-education camps, Blake forces on our worlds, increased military sales to them, and a lot more.

By 3073 – Some commentators mention that you cannot even tell the difference anymore between Word of Blake’s protectorate and our state.

By 3075 – As the year opens, various alliances have formed and are beginning to win various battles. Seeing the writing on the wall, Duke Essex slowly begins to distance his world from the Word of Blake, just a little here and there

In 76, as the battles are turning and multiple fronts are falling, Blake voluntarily withdraws their forces to focus on defensive actions in the center of the Free Worlds League, Gibson, and in their Protectorate. Their worlds are falling. We begin, slowly, quietly, to begin to remove the tactical nuclear weapons Blake gave us, and shut down a few of the camps.

By 3077, as Blake is losing world after world, we lunch a major attack while no one is expecting them anymore, focused as they are on Blake, and retake Nanking.

As the Jihad begins to wind down, and we have removed ourselves from Blake’s umbrella, we continue to aid our allies in the Confederation and Magistracy, rather than elsewhere. Devlin Stone officially asks for our aid in attacking Blake, but we don’t want to risk it. We know we have Blake’s intelligence agency ROM all up in our Apollo Office, and all down in our administration and infrastructure. We still have Blake in our HPG stations. We cannot embrace the anti-Blake campaign right now, because if we do, who knows what will happen. As of right now, we still have a large public sentiment in favor of Word of Blake.

In 3078, former Blake fighters, losing in battles nearby, are flocking to our banner, and we are gaining large amounts of materiel, tanks, power armor, mechs, fighters, and tons of dispossessed folks joining our forces. Within one year, we will gain regiments worth of folks. Operation SCOUR by the allied campaign is getting closer and closer to us, and Stone really hasn’t decided yet if they are going to capture our planets or not. They’ve just been focused on recapturing Protectorate worlds. And if they do, which planets do they take? Quentin? Nanking? Talitha? Just planets we took in the Jihad or elsewhere? In fact, other than a couple of Combine worlds (Fomalhaut, Quentin) that switch hands regularly, and a pair of Draconis March worlds (similar situation) we only took from the Free Worlds League planets that were in the Sarna March, captured form the Free Worlds League in the 4th Succession war, and retaken in the 3057 invasion. Now we took them later on. We took no other worlds – so if you are juts using former Chaos March an Sarna March worlds as the border of our nation, just Errai, Quentin, and Fomalhaut, and the two from the D. March wouldn’t be in our casus belli.

And all of this just confuses things.

So to help out, Duke Essex orders the Gray Death Regiment to aid Stone’s Coalition, and personally hires several mercenary units to help out as well as loanin some on our payroll, secretly, without telling anyone in the Celestial Coalition, and hoping that Blake won’t find out. We also send a pair of WarShips to help out, and they jump out quietly.

[Abe Sargent]

In 3079 begins, The Jihad is winding down, extremely quickly. There are just a few worlds left in the Protectorate, and the worlds in the FWL are shrinking quickly. The Campaign for Terra has begun. They jump in and take the Titan Shipyards in a battle that was harder than expected. Ghost Bear lost their Leviathan WarShip, and almost 50% of the fleet was destroyed. The battle for Terra begins soon enough. One of our ships is used in the Titan Attack and it is destroyed, but salvageable.

Later they will attack and take Mars and Terra, and it will fall. Blake’s retreat is in the Free Worlds League, and they flee there, but orbital bombardment on worlds they hold by the Free Worlds league will kill Apollyon and the Manei Domini and the Master as well in 3081 and the Jihad officially ends.

With the destruction of the Word of Blake coming soon, Duke Essex understands that he needs to make nice, and do so quickly, so he sends out tons of JumpShips and DropShips, with medicine, food, and other supplies for locals all around the Celestial Coalition. This begins a few years before the end of the Jihad, and won’t end until post-War against the Stone.


Many politicians will exclaim Duke Essex and the Celestial Coalition as the only area that won the Jihad. Although that’s not completely true, places like the Filtvelt Coalition and Duchy of Andurien made out nicely as well.

The major issue for the Celestial Coalition is Devlin Stone. After the Jihad is over in 3081, Devlin Stone announces the creation of the Republic of the Sphere, from the home-base of Terra. He wants to create a new, democratic, republic, and a new way of administering the world that have been heavily fought over the centuries. It’ll be a new buffer state that will help to keep the Inner Sphere powers from each other’s throats as well,

The remains of the Protectorate are basically ceded to Stone by the major houses. The problem is two fold. Many worlds didn’t go back though – the Lyrans needed to keep Hesperus II and Solaris VII, and the Fed Suns, for example, got back Kittery and the nearby worlds.

He wants every planet within 150 light years of Terra. Federated Suns agree to do so. As do the remnants of the Free Worlds League, Lyrans and the Dragon.

Every great house, save for Liao, signs a Republic Formation Treaty.

Now, he wants every single world we took – all of them. But here’s the thing – We have done many of the things he wants to do in his “great experiment.” We have democracy, and a Coalition, and elected leadership. We have invested, heavily, in reclaiming the infrastructure of these worlds, and we are doing quite a bit to help. Worlds like Fletcher, Epsilon Indi, Caph, Zurich, and Bryant have fallen in love with us. We have protected Small World and Arboris, and retaken, and defended Quentin.

We are not the normal uncaring House Lord, that Devlin’s plan is designed to fix, and we point that out. He knows, and we helped to inspire him that there could be a different way. So, he offers to do something unusual. He will annex the Celestial Coalition completely, and it will simply be a member state of the Republic of the Sphere as is, virtually no changes at all.

After taking the offer to the Celestial Coalition Ruling Council, they agree, and on January 2, 3082, we accept annexation into the Republic of the Sphere.



That’s what I think would actually happen if I were to run the Jihad campaign.

[Abe Sargent]

How did Braham Essex really push the Celestial Coalition? What did he learn?


He was at the Fall of Andurien, and the rise and fall of Rasalhague. He fought for the St. Ives Compact. He saw what worked and didn’t work. The biggest issue with the Duchy is that their war against the Confederation waited too long. After the 4th Succession War, the Duchy/Magistracy alliance and assault into the Confederation took too long to organize and attack. They needed to spring with the hot iron, and their failure to do that immediately resulted in its failure, which led to the Duchy not having enough strength to survive the Marik-Andurien conflict.

He learned to strike quickly.

However, one major difference was how the Coalition was formed. Most other small states have been formed due to a rebellion or civil war or something. That causes bad feelings. We carved our own state out of the Chaos March. Every free planet in the March is now ours (save for Northwind and Outreach) with three extra worlds to boot (Nanking, Errai, Zurich).

The major shift in power was when we won the Manassas from Smoke Jaguars in a Trial of Possession deep in their territory in the 3050s. Then we traded it to ComStar for the Swift Victory and a bunch of other stuff. One Aegis traded for another. That mission got us an Okinawa DropShip captured by raiders we captured, and traded back to the Combine for a Vengeance DropShip (that gave us 40 fighters). Then we got a WarShip, the Elephant DropShip, a bunch of Star League era fighters for our stuff, some other DropShips and such, more than 30 clan mechs, and it was the best mission we ever did. That set up everything else.

We bought a WarShip, captured one, captured another, traded it for four junks; one of which we sold for the other three to get fixed . Now we have 6 WarShips, and it all began with that module that gave us one.

Using the naval forces, we were able to push the Chaos March around and help bring in pirates and recalcitrant foes equally.

That WarShip gave us a flotilla that brought us a lot of DropShips from battles, such as Nanking, Sirius and Procyon, Arboris and others. Meanwhile we were able to win planets like Caph and Nanking and Acamar and other world with it.

Now add in a desire to strike when the iron is hot with worlds like Keid and New Home, Genoa and Nanking, Errai and the raid of Quentin.

[Abe Sargent]

Kilts and Commandos Roster:


Battlemechs –

Alpha Regiment: Col. Matthew Humphries, of Star Battalion

Myth Battalion: Capt Foster Keynes, of Typhon Company

Heliades Company –Caph
Styx Company - Caph
Tethys Company – Caph
Typhon Company – Caph


Star Battalion: Col. Matthew Humphries, of Defender Company

Defender Company – Arboris
Cinq Company – DESTROYED, KIA
Brawler Company – Arboris


Heater Battalion: Capt. Jason Thomas, Trinity of Company

Delta Company – On Sheratan
Trinity Company- On Sheratan
Butler Company – On Sheratan




Beta Regiment: Col. Martin Fitzgerald, of Ganges Battalion

Ganges Battalion: Col. Martin Fitzgerald, of Phaeton Company

Phaeton Company – Ingress
Boxer Company – Ingress
Rebel Company – Ingress

Rheims Battalion: Capt. Aurelia Jenson, of Aleph Company

Aleph Company – Acamar
Laser Company – Acamar
Sabre Company – Acamar


Amazon Battalion: Col. Gabriel Williams, of Mustang Company

Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company –



Gamma Regiment: Col. Gilda Atwater, of Breaker Battalion


Breaker Battalion: Col. Gilda Atwater, of Fallout Company

Trident Company –
Miner Company –
Fallout Company -

Scimitar Battalion: Capt. Mika Sanders, of Vegas Company

Vegas Company – Acamar
Guile Company - Acamar
Tango Company - Acamar

Mesopotamia Battalion: Capt. Kyla Jeffries, of Nineveh Company

Jericho Company – Small World
Babylon Company – Small World
Nineveh Company – Small World





Delta Regiment: Col. Conner Ward

Bandit Battalion: Capt. Andrey Vihorev

Bandit Company – Errai
Iron Company - Errai
Kevlar Company – Errai


Flame Battalion: Capt. Johan Kreidler, of Blaze Company

Pyre Company – Errai
Blaze Company – Errai
Ember Company – Errai


Armor Battalion: Capt. Jassa Ramgarhia, of Aegis Company

Aegis Company - Errai
Shield Company – Errai
Chainmail Company - Errai



Epsilon Regiment: Col. Dwayne Tarabaev, Water Battalion

Mountain Battalion: Capt. Stacy Weston of Weston Company

Weston Company - Nanking
Buckhannon Company - Nanking
Elkins Company - Nanking


Metal Battalion: Capt. Roderick Goldbeg, Gold Company

Gold Company – Nanking
Bronze Company - Nanking
Titanium Company - Nanking


Water Battalion: Capt. Dwayne Tarabaev, Oasis Company

Oasis Company – Nanking
River Company – Nanking
Lake Company - Nanking





Shadow Battalion:

Bruiser Company – On Genoa
Shadow Company – On Genoa
Sealion Company – On Genoa

Shadow Battalion is our elite, well equipped, strike battalion. It is not connected to any Regiment. This is where the action is!


Nordic Weapon Battalion:

Gungnir Company – Nanking
Mjolnir Company – Nanking
Gram Company - Nanking

This is a second Battalion, recently assembled using new tech, which we hope to use in a Shadow-esque manner.


Utopia Company – On Asmodeus



Liberty Battalion: 36 mechs and pilots from Liberty Campaign. – CO Capt. Magnus, XO Brandi "Dagger" Jackson.


Command Company - Available June 15, 3066
2nd Company - Available June 15, 3066
3rd Company - Available June 15, 3066
Infantry Elementals - Available June 15, 3066


Larsen Company – Moved to replace Cinq Company , destroyed, in Alpha Regiment – Arboris.


Grey Death Regiment: CO Alexander Carlisle, XO Thoma Marie Essex, 1 regiment of mechs, 2 battalions of tanks, 1 wing of fighters, 1 regiment of infantry. Currently on Terra Firma

[Abe Sargent]

Vehicles:

Tank First Battalion – Arboris
Tank Second Battalion - Errai
Tank Third Battalion – Nanking
Tank Fourth Battalion - EE


Garrison and Infantry – EE Garrison.


Fighters: Col. Larry Rowe, of Arrow Company

Arrow Company – Small World
Bolt Company – On Acamar
Catapult Company – Nanking
Dart Company –On Ingress
Javelin Company – Nanking
Spear Binary - Errai

Our companies have a full 12 fighters, which is unusual for the Inner Sphere (they normally have 6 in a company called a squadron and 18 in a battalion called a wing). This does not include our Naval Assets, which have full Fighters and Small Craft.

[Abe Sargent]

Naval Assets:

Warships –

Swift Justice, Aegis WarShip – Nanking
Brest, Fox WarShip – Nanking
Kerensky’s Blues, Fredasa WarShip – Nanking, Available July 1, 3066
Merchant’s Death, Fredasa WarShip, Errai, Available Nov 1, 3067
Dark Claw, Essex WarShip – Errai, Available December 1, 3066
Lioness, York WarShip – Errai, Available March 1, 3067
Red Eyrie, Black Lion WarShip – Available December 3067


JumpShips –

Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip – Nanking
Johnny Appleseed, Invader JumpShip - – Nanking
Maxim of Glory, Invader JumpShip – Nanking
River of Fate, Merchant JumpShip – M.I.A.
Celestial Vagrant, Tramp JumpShip – Nanking
Majestic Hobo, Tramp JumpShip - Nanking
Merchant of Venice, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Endless Revival, Odyssey JumpShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066


Military Transport DropShips –

Robin Hood, Union DropShip – Small World
Megan’s Fury, Union DropShip - Small World
Dirty Dozen, Union DropShip – Small World
Charon’s Message, Union DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Star River, Union DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip –Clan Campaign, Available August 5, 3065
Lights of Volga, Union DropShip, Upgraded – Traded to Blue Star
Galahad’s Gauntlet, Union DropShip - Available January 31, 3067
Postal Nightmare, Union DropShip - Available January 31, 3067
Victory Assured, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Serial Advantage, Overlord DropShip - Nanking
Defiance, Overlord DropShip – Nanking
Daily Menace, Overlord DropShip, Upgraded – Traded to Blue Star
Daily Deliverance, Overlord DropShip - Available January 31, 3067
Rage Unfurled, Overlord DropShip, Available January 31, 3067
Faith’s Bulwark, Fortress DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking
King Arthur, Excalibur DropShip – Nanking
Captivation of Silence, Excalibur, Upgraded, DropShip – Errai
Peacemaker – Gazelle DropShip -
Turret Diplomacy, Gazelle DropShip -
Profit of Guns, Gazelle DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
DropZilla, Seeker DropShip - Available January 31, 3067
Honored Living, Colossus DropShip – Nanking
El Dorado, Conquistador, DropShip – Errai
Sufferance of Fools, Triumph, Upgraded, DropShip – Errai
Lucky James, Nagumo Dropship – Errai
Green Goblet, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark
Roost of War, Broadsword DropShip – Clan Campaign, Traded to Diamond Shark


Aerospace Fighter Transport DropShips -

Fury Unbound, Vengeance DropShip – Nanking
Stellar Phantom, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Fang of the Lion, Leopard CV DropShip - Nanking
Galvanic Arc II, Leopard CV DropShip – Errai
Pride of the East, Leopard CV DropShip - Errai
Clawhammer, Carrier DropShip – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Rules of War, Leopard CV DropShip – Available on November 1, 3066
Sword’s Savagery, Okinawa DropShip – Errai


Assault DropShips –

Bannick’s Burn, Claymore DropShip – Nanking,
Firebird, Avenger DropShip – Nanking
Hawkeye, Avenger DropShip – Nanking
Ninja Dog, Assault Triumph DropShip – Errai, ready in March 1, 3066
Nightly Devastation, Assault Triumph DropShip - Errai, ready in March 1, 3066
Arrow of Fate, Achilles DropShip, Upgraded – Nanking
Stalwart Destruction, Model 96 Elephant DropShip – Nanking
Her Majesty’s Interference, Hamilcar DropShip – Nanking
Paris West, Intruder DropShip, Upgraded - Nanking,
Repo Rewards, Model 97 Octopus – Errai

Blaze of Glory, Overlord-A3 - Nanking,
Distant Reprisal, Nekohono’o – Errai, ready January 1, 3067


Cargo DropShips -

Camel’s Luck, Jumbo DropShip -
Jakob’s Ladder, Buccaneer DropShip (Cargo Vessel) – Clan Campaign, Available June 15, 3066
Donkey’s Wrath, Mule DropShip –
Errand of Duty, Mule DropShip -
Red Convoy, Mule DropShip - Available January 31, 3067

[Abe Sargent]

Celestial Coalition Forces:

We regularly rotate K&C forces in and out of the various planets of the CC.

Mercs:

The 48th – Battalion of veteran, former Combine, troops, quite honorable, fanatical, light and medium mechs, fast, with a handful of faster heavies. Own a clan Overlord. On contract through April 1,3072. Dragons rating B, but not registered with MRBC. Currently on New Home.

Always Faithful, for 5 years, until January 1, 3071, for garrison work. We won’t place them on Caph, for obvious reasons. Rating B-, 1 regiment of heavier mechs, regular, reliable, 35% upgraded, with some battle wounds from the Caph Campaign back in 3062. On Errai.

The Blackhearts – Garrisoning Genoa until Aug 1, 3068.Rating B, regiment of mechs, and another tanks, plus fighters and infantry. We rotated them to Genoa to help in defense there, from Epsilon Indi. They are also helping to train the local forces. Veteran.

The Bouncers – Regiment of mercs, on Capolla until May 3, 3071, Rating B, 40% level 2 tech, 10% clan tech, 1 battalion mechs, 1 battalion infantry, several wings fighters, 1 battalion tanks , veteran.

The Furies – Regiment of tanks on Ingress until December 31, 3070. A rating. Regular, reliable, 1/3 of tanks are upgraded. Higher quality tanks – such as LRM Carrier, Shrek, Zhukov, Rommel, Patton, etc.

Kraken Unleashed – Regular, garrison and cadre, Keid, D rating, infantry, sea and hover vees, regular fighters, and BattleMechs all trained in water tactics together. Garrison and cadre until April 15, 3070.

Legion of the Rising Sun – Regiment of mechs, veteran and reliable, on Caph until the end of 3069, with B+ rating, lots of Combine mechs and clan tech. On a retainer contract.

Lindon’s Battalion – Retainer on Acamar. A+ rating. Veteran, reliable battalion of mechs, elite, reliable, wing of fighters, green, questionable, battalion of infantry, through April 1, 3071.

Narhal’s Raiders – Garrison on Fletcher, until November 30, 3070, a regiment of mechs, C+ rating, many upgraded mechs, regular.

Smithson’s Chinese Bandits – A regiment of mostly level 2 mechs. Rating A-, veteran, Retainer contract on Terra Firma until September 1, 3071. We expect to keep them around for a while.

Swann’s Cavaliers – 1 regiment of mechs, veteran and reliable; 1 of vehicles, regular and reliable; wing of fighters, regular and reliable; reinforced regiment of infantry, veteran and reliable. Dragoons rating B. We extend their deal through January 1, 3068, and we bring them in for garrison work on Nanking.

TekTeam Technical Services - Contract until May 1, 3068; salvage and repair experts ,and doing some cadre work as well. Veteran, reliable.

Vandelay’s Valkyries – Garrison until February 1, 3069. One battalion of mechs (Regular, listed as questionable due to reports from Concordat), one mixed battalion (Same), 2 companies of infantry, regular reliable. They have an Overlord DropShip, a Seeker DropShip, and an Invader JumpShip. Rating C. 20% updated tech. Garrison on Asmodeus right now.


Local Units:

1st Liberty Legion – One regiment each of upgraded mechs and tanks, along with infantry support. Regular, fanatical.

Arboris Avengers – 2 companies of tanks and artillery, 4 of mechs, one squadron of aerofighters. One battalion of infantry. Green, fanatical.

1st Capolla Lancers – Two Battalions of mechs. Considered green, reliable, but the ‘Mechs were upgraded ones and quite strong.

1st Bryant Regulars – Battalion of tanks, 75 Mechs. Multiple infantry squads. Regular, reliable. We are still building this unit up. We’d like to get the ‘Mechs up to a regiment.

1st Genoan Chargers – Battalion of mechs, ten tanks,5 squads of infantry, 2 Warrior VTOLs.

1st Hsien Regulars – Regiment of tanks, 2 companies of mechs, infantry, 2 fighters. Green, reliable.

1st New Home Hussars – 24 mechs, 17 tanks.

1st Caph Cavalry – 24 vees, 36 Mech. Green, reliable.

1st Hall Regulars – 1 regiment of mechs, with a battalion of tanks, numerous infantry. Regular, reliable.

1st Small World Militia – 5 VTOLs, 11 squads of infantry, 24 mechs that surrendered or ejected are used to rebuild the garrison, 104 tanks. Green.

1st Errai Militia – 50 tanks, 1 regiment of infantry, 20 mechs we captured, mechs are green, other units are regular.

Eridani Guards – Regular, Fanatical. 1 regiment of mechs, 1 regiment of vehicles, 3 regiments of infantry, a few wings of aerospace fighters, numerous conventional fighters and VTOLs, and some infantry too.

Epsilon Indi Regulars – 1 mixed regiment of infantry, fighters and tanks, fanatical, regular. 2 battalions of mechs. .

Hsien Hotheads – Garrisoning Hsien and Elgin. A BattleMech regiment with JumpShips, DropShips, veteran, reliable.

Zurich Planetary Defense –The Zurich defense force. Led by General Trent Hasseldorf, they have 83 mechs and growing, and there’s around a regiment of infantry and a battalion of tanks for defending stuff. Regular, Reliable.

Infantry – We have 8 squads of regular infantry on Capolla, Ingress, Asmodeus, Elgin, Terra Firma, Acamar, Sheratan, Keid, New Home, Errai, and Ingress. None on Indi, Bryant, Hsien, Arboris, Eridani or Fletcher, which have their own defense forces.

[Abe Sargent]

A Quick assessment of Kilts and Commandoes, and the Coalition:

The Celestial Coalition, right now, has:


8 regiments of merc mechs
7 regiments of K&C Mechs
10 regiments of local troop mechs

24 mechs

We have these planets, in the order they joined:

Epsilon Eridani
Terra Firma
Capolla
Acamar
Epsilon Indi
Fletcher
Ingress
Elgin
Bryant
Genoa
Hsien
Sheratan
Caph
Zurich
Arboris
Liberty
New Home
Nanking
Keid
Small World
Hall
Errai

Colony - Asmodeus


So basically we average one mech regiment per system. That’s a lot denser than most systems.

Other armies? Just as an example, the Capellan Confederation, right now in 3067 has…..42 home regiments and….4 mercenary. So 46 regiments for an entire state. Now the Confederation is obviously the smallest of those. ComStar’ ComGuards have 50 regiments. Combine? 62 home regiments plus 7 mercs. 69 total. So if one of the major houses wanted to take us, they would lose a ton of units, and have to deal with a naval flotilla of 6 WarShips.

[Abe Sargent]

Our current Military Industrial Complex:



Liberty:

Liberty Belle - Legion Tanks - 100 tons, two gausses, two MLs, 1 SRM2streak.


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/f/fa/Legion_%28MC2%29.png?timestamp=20140116015316


Brooks Inc - Ironsides Fighter


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/75/Ironsides_ASF_TRO3050U.png?timestamp=20220319221149



Defiance OmniFighter


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/4/45/Defiance_OmniFighter_3067.png?timestamp=20141115012423


Riever Fighter


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/0/09/Riever_3025.jpg?timestamp=20141114212131

[Abe Sargent]

Keid:

Bigoti Seacraft – A variety of blue water navy products, including submarines. Once key sub is the White Tip that serves as a Mobile HQ on the waters.

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/79/3026_Neptune.jpg?timestamp=20210429224018


Fletcher:

FlameTech – Makes Flamers for Mechs and Vees.

[Abe Sargent]

Terra Firma:

Bander BattleMechs – They make the Bandersnatch at roughly 8 a year now. They are handmade to order, and each one is different based on the person placing the order. Their base in 3052 is the 01A, but there are others they make.


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/d/dd/3055u_Bandersnatch.jpg?timestamp=20110119174732



Gray Death Technologies – They make two suits of power armor right now with another on the way:


Grey Death Scout, not as stealthy as the Kage we traded for from ComStar, half as much armor as IS Standard, much better jumping, better sensors, no integrated weapons so you have to hold them:



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/6/62/Gray_Death_Scout_BA_LTMEG.png?timestamp=20180902130831


Grey Death Standard, 1 modular weapon mount, 1 modular anti-personnel weapon mount, no jump jets, better weapons, better sensors than IS Standard, faster than IS Standard:


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/d/d8/Gray_Death_Standard_BA_LTMEG.png?timestamp=20180902134434



This year (3067) the vehicle support-PCC is used in power armor which will lead to the Grey Death Heavy in 3069:


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/0/02/GrayDeathHeavy.jpg?timestamp=20110326082313


It features two shots of an SRM-4 and the support PPC dealing 2 damage.

[Abe Sargent]

Bryant:


Lantren Corporation – Makes mechs


Quickdraw

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/4/4a/3025_Quickdraw1.jpg?timestamp=20130421084200

Grasshopper

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/13/Grasshopper_RGilClan_v01.png?timestamp=20210516002506
BattleMaster


http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/216/9/d/battlemaster_by_tabnir-d45gz77.jpg


Kressly Warworks – Will make ...


Cicada mech and


https://atlashunters.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/cicada-1strobinsonrangers1_by-ironhawk.jpg


Von Luckner tank

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/c/c7/Von_Luckner.jpg?timestamp=20130421073351

[Abe Sargent]

Errai:



Maltex Corp. – Makes two old school mechs for us and Blake, including...



Wyvern



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e8/Wyvern.jpg?timestamp=20170304215200



Thug


http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/303/5/c/5c7f1e27c590b09e84f690068653f9d2-d6semn0.jpg


They also make Industrial Mechs

[Abe Sargent]

Nanking:

Kallon Industries – Makes a lot of stuff for us, and the Exterminator for Blake.


For us?


Wolverine,


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/79/Wolverine_WVR-6R_FSW.jpg?timestamp=20210820031925


Shadow Hawk,


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/ba/Shadow_Hawk_SHD-2H_FSW.jpg?timestamp=20190310225019



Falcon Hawk


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/4/41/FalconHawk.jpg?timestamp=20210118215107


Ontos Tank


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/3/34/Ontos.jpg?timestamp=20100415172533


Partisan Tank


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/d/d5/Partisan.jpg?timestamp=20100415172141

[Abe Sargent]

Epsilon Eridani:


Kressly Warworks, Inc –


Makes a lot of mechs, tanks, and fighters. They also make non-military vees, such as the Dillinger Police hover vehicle. They also make the Storm Inhibiter Satellites which are going to places like Bryant and Telos IV in the Combine.

Some of their mechs are unique designs we assisted with - Bumblebee, Attila, Buckshot, Greyhound, Alexander as well as the Ostroc 5W for Word of Blake exclusively. They also make...


Chimera



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/b4/Chimera.gif?timestamp=20150201194308



Lineholder


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/ec/Lineholder.jpg?timestamp=20210118220026


Four tanks:


Blizzard


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/1/1c/Blizzard.jpg?timestamp=20191013162931


Brutus


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/5/50/Brutus.JPG?timestamp=20191014010453


Lightning


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e4/Lightning.jpg?timestamp=20170305190728


Beagle



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e3/Beagle.jpg?timestamp=20170305190355


At the Former LAM Factory we restored:

Defender Medium Strike Fighter.


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/87/MediumStrikeFighter.jpg?timestamp=20100322165628

As well as to be named Aerospace fighters.

[Abe Sargent]

Caph:

Lang Corporation –

Makes Shadow Hawks


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/b/ba/Shadow_Hawk_SHD-2H_FSW.jpg?timestamp=20190310225019



Martinson Armaments – Makes two older Star league era mechs for us:

Kyudo


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/9/93/Kyudo.jpg?timestamp=20101222165300


Spartan



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/7/74/Spartan.jpg?timestamp=20210118225908



Browning-Corning Lmtd- Makes support vees, including

Mobile HQ and


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/8/8f/MobileHQ.JPG?timestamp=20100108012529



Oppenheimer Hazardous Material Recovery Vehicle



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/2/23/Oppie.jpg?timestamp=20190321004833


Skobel Mechworks – Makes two older school mechs as well -


Mercury and


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/4/4e/Mercury_RGilClan_v19.png?timestamp=20211216015325



Excalibur



https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/a/a7/Excalibur.jpg?timestamp=20210118225705


Iveco Corporation – Non-combat vehicle company which makes the Burro and Burro II armored cargo trucks.


https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e9/Iveco_Burro_II_Super_Heavy_Cargo_Truck.png?timestamp=20170708154321

[Abe Sargent]

That is a huge upgrade from where we were before. There is everything there – lots of mechs, tanks, fighters, and we even have things like support vehicles, power armor, and blue water naval assets.

You can’t ignore that – that’s a lot of quality there. And we can refit the Liberty shipyards on Carver IV’s moon as well for DropShips or JumpShips later on.

Here are the mechs we get for our nation:

Small? Bumblebee, Mercury, Falcon Hawk
Medium? Wyvern, Shadow Hawk, Shadow Hawk (two different types) , Wolverine, Kyudo, Lineholder, Chimera, Alexander, Cicada
Heavy? Grasshopper, Quickdraw, Greyhound, Excalibur, Bandersnatch, Buckshot
Assault? BattleMaster, Thug, Attila, Spartan


Now, we can add in more lines if we want. Want another light mech? Kallon will refit a Hornet line for us tomorrow. Kallon could give us a Crusader or Rifleman upgraded as well. Lang could expand their lines any time.

We could also license more fighters, or design our own. We could probably get Kressly to do an Ostroc variant for us or Kallon an Exterminator one, using the chassis and same basic equipment being used for Blake right now.

The BattleMechs the Celestial Coalition has for our TOE are very flexible. From an omnimech design we can do a lot with (Alexander) to a fast and pacey heavy quad (Greyhound) to great long range light/medium options (Falcon Hawk, Kyudo) to speedy scout mechs (Bumblebee, Mercury, Cicada) to nasty, get in your face mechs (BattleMaster, Attila, Thug). We have flexible mechs with a lot of versatility (Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Buckshot) and those with specific roles (city and tight terrain? Wyvern! Light mech hunter? Grasshopper!) We also gave fun stuff like the long-range Excalibur mech.

So it’s a strong TOE for a nation our size. Good stuff!

Now we could use some work on our tanks…

We have some lighter style stuff (The Beagle is a strong scout tank, and we have fast stuff like the Lightning and Blizzard) and then we have a ton of early heavy, slow, ponderous tanks (Legion, Brutus, Ontos, Partisan, Von Luckner) but not a lot of stuff in the middle. The Blizzard is our only infantry transport, for example. I feel like we could use a few more tank lines, mainly those in the middle, with different roles. For example our tank line doesn't have any missile boats like LRM Carriers or Hunters, which are very valuable in a tank which can hide behind a level 1 hill and then indirect fire over with spotters). We also could use some mobile artillery.

But that’s about as good as we can do with the area we have. We have pushed this as far as it can go right now.

[Abe Sargent]

This uber-dynasty began six and a half years ago. And now it's all done! Thanks for reading even just one post!




This is the end of the dynasty!

[Abe Sargent]

I just went back and finished rereading this epic over the last few weeks and it was a lot of fun! I edited out some inconsistencies and bad grammar in a few places. Most of the images of the things we owned no longer worked, so I redid a few here and there. I also updated the Grey Death suits that we have with info about the two they are making at this time after their death in Hesperus and reboot inour unit, which also happened in real life with the techs making armor but not with the updated unit in our TOE.

[Abe Sargent]

My biggest regrets in this dynasty that I would have done differently -

In order:

1. Fought and annexed Sirius and Procyon from the Sirian Holds - Because they were deep into their anti-intellectual status when I engaged them, I didn't want to commit to ground game after winning the naval ones. I should have because due to their war crimes a Marik unit from Sirius took them off the board in 3058. They were the first planets in the Chaos Reach to wind back up in a major house. Procyon has a major military factory run by Earthwerks and both are positive economic contributions. On Procyon, Brigadier used to have a mech factory that was taken over by Earthwerks.

2. Grabbing Ruchbuh. - This border on CC world makes an epic ton of VTOLS from Michaelson Heavy Industries the biggest maker of VTOLs in the inner Sphere. For example, it has the Yellow Jacket, a Gauss rifle bearing VTOL. We don't have any VTOL makers in our industrial military complex. The 3rd Davion Guards were on the D, they were an RCT (1 regiment of mechs, 2 of tanks 5 of infantry) that were so damaged in Operation Bulldog that they were almost ruined as a unit and weren't a priority during the Civil War and they suffered many losses over three strait years of fighting, so assume they half around 40-50% battle strength in 3065 or 66 or 67 now and that's around 55 Mechs, 100 tanks, and some infantry. One of our elite regiments with a backup battalion like Lindon's as reserve and as garrison fodder along with Legion of the would have won it for us pretty easily. I also could have added a VOTL training section to the Essex Training Academy. Adding in Earthworks and Michaelson would have been huge adds.

3. Not Annexing the Saiph Triumvirate - It wouldn't have been hard, and they weren't off the board until the Jihad absorbs them into the Blake Protectorate in 3068. Tao Mechworks has a branch on Tall Trees (Tao Optics) but we don't know what it makes. On Saiph is Sitwell Corporation. They had just a company or two per world, so just one battalion of troops all at the same time would have brought them in.

4. Colony - Also, there was a great colony for people that we never went back to and after the success of Asmodeus, that would have made sense. Also I said in the comments, this is perfect, we'll get back to it, but it was in my first explorations and much time and deep diving into assaults and defenses continued and I forgot.

[Abe Sargent]

Also a recent "Turning Points: Episilon Eridani" pdf supplement was published a few years later and I missed adding it in - https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Turning_Points:_Epsilon_Eridani#:~:text=Turning%20Points%3A%20Epsilon%20Eridani%20uses,PDF%20exclusive%20includes%20a%20detailed

[Abe Sargent]

Looks like there is a Touring the Stars for Hall that came out after the end of the dynasty I would have included Touring the Stars: Hall - BattleTechWiki (https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Touring_the_Stars:_Hall)

There is also an Star League era planet called Brownsville that was helped with the same tech that Kressly is making to restore Bryant, Telos IV and others and it was believed no one lives there anymore we could check out and see what happens, and there was a Touring the Stars for it. Touring the Stars: Brownsville - BattleTechWiki (https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Touring_the_Stars:_Brownsville)

It's in our borders, and I would have brought Brownsville back into the Inner Sphere and done a campaign there.

Here is it's location in 3067 -

https://i.postimg.cc/8Pbq8yt4/Brownsville.png

See how it's right next to EE, Capolla, Terra Firma, and Liberty?

Also, see where Ruchbah is right next door to us in Ingress and Fletcher?

See the abandoned worlds of Bex, New Stephens, Mandal and Hechnar in our borders? They were also Star League era worlds that disappeared, I might have added expeditions to them as well after the Brownsville one. We don't know anything about them.

[Abe Sargent]

I found out something when doing some research into Sarna.com on the article, "Shipyards"

https://i.ibb.co/7bMjXwS/Shipyards.png

As you can see, according to the "Historical Liberation of Terra" there was operational shipyards in Small World, which is not on mentioned in other sources, so we don't know the company, what they made, whether or not they survived the Succession Wars, and if not if they could be rebuilt like the Liberty/Carver IV ones but unlike the Keid ones we got. You can also see that there were shipyards in Procyon in the same source book and place that survived the Amaris Wars intact at least. In the First Succession War source book which talks about the shipyards at Keid being destroyed, nether Procyon nor Small World are mentioned.