The BattleTech Dynasty, Chapt 7,Consolidation and Preparations – 3059-3062 - Complete

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. We are on a map with some trees, but no hills yet a bit of rubble. Their Saladin bases our Rifleman. Our Spider and Excalibur eventually base it. Our Rifleman immobilizes their Saladin. An LRM 10 form our Dragon destroys the front side of their AC2 Carrier. Our Kintaro kills the crew on their Maxim. Our Spider kicks and destroys their Saladin’s side.


Turn 2 – We win init. We move in and base several of their tanks with our guys. Our Kintaro destroys a goblin’s right side. Our Vindicator does the same to their LRM Carrier. Our Wolfhound destroys a Striker Light tank with a kick. They flee and we will box them in with fighters later.

[Abe Sargent]

Striker.
LRM Carrier.
Goblin.
Saladin.
Maxim.
AC2 Carrier.

[Abe Sargent]

Mustang Company

CTF-3L Cataphract
STC-2S Striker
AWS-8Q Awesome
CP-11-A Cyclops

WHM-6K Warhammer
STK-3F Stalker
MAD-Marauder
RFL-5M Rifleman

FS9-M Firestarter
JR7-F Jenner
CMT Comet
COM-2D Commando




This company of theirs has heavier assets, and it might take us longer to break through them .

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. A PPC from our Awesome destroys their Laser Carrier. Our Commando stuns their Hunter’s crew for a few turns. Our Cataphract destroys their Harasser’s front. Our Cyclops falls from 40 damage.


Turn 2 – We lose init. Our Cyclops rises. Our Jenner rushes their Zhukov while most of my mechs stay in a lone of trees in the middle of the map. Our Comet runs by their Shreck PPC Carrier. Our Commando runs after their Hunter and our Cataphract runs next to their Shreck. Our Commando blows up their Hunter’s front. Our Comet immobilizes their Shreck. Their Von Luckner destroys our Comet’s RA. Our Stalker is upset and destroys the Schreck’s right side. Our Cat kicks in the right side of their Von Lockner. Our FS and Jenner both kick the wounded Zhukov and destroys its left side.


Zhukov.
Hunter.
Harasser.
Laser Carrier.
Schreck.
Von Luckner


They surrender as well.


Comet missing RA

[Abe Sargent]

Our final engagement


Raven Company

ATA-2 Attila
HBK-4G Hunchback
BLR-1D BattleMaster
DRG-5N Dragon

ARC-2R Archer
MAD-3L Marauder
CRD-3E Crusader
WHM-6L Warhammer

JVN-10F Javelin
CMT Comet
PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk
WLF-2 Wolfhound


We are 5 vets, 4 elites, 3 regular


Let’s fight the final battle of this very quickly ending front of the invasion.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 - We win init – some woods, pond, slight hills. Our Comet runs behind their Myrmidon. Our Dragon runs up to their Saracen. I park the Archer and Crusader in woods. Our Pixie runs up to the Saracen too. Our Comet halves the movement of their Myrmidon. Our Archer destroiys the front of their Plainsman. Our Warhammer kicks in the front of their Maxim.


Turn 2 – We lose init. Again, I keep our Crusader and Archer in the woods. Our Warhammer runs up to their Brutus. We targeted it with some damage last turn. Our Dragon joins the Warhammer. Comet by their Drillson. Our PXH bases their Patton. I alpha strike with some mechs. Our Attila destroys their Condor. Our Jav destroys their Brutus. Missiles from our Crusader destroy their Saracen. Their Patton is immobilized over having a hole opened up by our Hunchback. Our Comet immobilizes their Drillson.

Condor.
Maxim.
Plainsman.
Brutus.
Saracen.



They concede and we bring them in too.

[Abe Sargent]

And just like that we have cut the strength of the forces here by a third and had just one mech damaged at all from the engagement.


We order our fighters to start shooting down the estates of the nobles who run the province.

Two hours later we get a page from the leader of the Dendeez province. They have graciously agreed to our terms from before, and would like to return to the government. As part of their agreement, they must turn their military over as well, and since it was part of the military forces five years ago before the Chaos March began, they agree.


Mar 22 – The government agrees to rescind their offices and hold new elections, this time with everyone voting, including those in the Dendeez province and Baron Montong’s lands.


April 1 – We organize the 1st Hsien Regulars. They are a regiment of tanks supplemented by two companies of mechs supplemented from the government’s forces and those that t surrendered . Several mercs and Baron’s troops decide to stay with their mechs. We do interviews ot make sure that all vehicles crews, pilots,, and MechWarriors that are part of the unit will mesh well together. They have two fighters we salvaged and handed over.



Apr 23 – The have elected a new government with several consensus candidates. They elected some Montong’s people, some Dendeez and many returns of old government officials. They apparently want to really try to embrace coalition building.



Apr 28 – Hsien has officially entered the Celestial Coalition

We leave behind Rheims Battalion on the planet, and return the rest to EE>


The WOB helped us secure that more quickly than we would otherwise have done.



End of Hsien Campaign

[Abe Sargent]

We captured these mechs:

Raven, Cestus, Pillager and Hatchetman – plus 5 random mechs – all level one tech. Hold on they are….Locust, Dervish, Scorpion, Orion, and Clint.


Rewind



EVENT – March 15, 3061 - Victorious, Victor Ian Steiner-Davion has officially returned from clan space and announces that Smoke Jaguar is no more and the invasion has been repudiated.

[Abe Sargent]

Mar 23 – The Word of Blake has sent us information about our targeted world that we want their assistance to bring it into our fold. We are not ready for it yet, and won’t be for a while. We have agreed on a plan of attack though, and begin laying the foundation.



EVENT – April 1, 3061 – Seeing an opportunity to expand, Clan Steel Viper launches a major offensive against Jade Falcon to take some of their worlds.

[Abe Sargent]

May 1 – The first Grasshoppers are rolling off the Bryant line. Grasshoppers are made elsewhere, so Bryant is competing with a product are on the market. In order to help them compete, they are making and selling this unit:


GHR-6B Grasshopper

70 tons

4/6(8)/4
15/30 heat
2x ER Large Lasers
4x ER Medium Lasers
Endo Steel
Hatchet in right arm
12.5 tons of regular armor – 200 points.

Battle Value 1887, the highest of any level 2 Grasshopper variant

Sticker Price – 8.89 mill each


Two lines of Grasshoppers are made in the Draconis Combine and Lyran Alliance. This is better than both according to battle reports. It features MASC to speed it up and close with the faster mechs of this era it was originally designed to hunt. That will also help it close to smash someone’s face with the hatchet. It has enough heat dissipation to fire both ER Large Lasers and jump – that puts it at 28 heat. Or, it can jump beside a foe, blast it with lasers from its chests and H, and chew at a foe with the lasers form its head and chests. It can fire all four mediums, and one larger and just go two overheat, plus whatever movement the mech made that turn, plus a smash with a hatchet for no heat at all if adjacent. The lack of an XL engine and ammo weapons give it long range durability on the field that better enable it to complete its light mech hunting function.


The Celestial Coalition has an exclusive contract with Lantren Corporation for the first year of Grasshoppers, 3 a month, so 36 after the first year, with an option for more. Then anyone can buy them. Kilts and Commandoes gets 3 from the first year of the CC contract. We also gift the next three to the Free Rasalhague Republic, and then we get 30 for our various units across the territory, for an outlay of roughly 260 million CBills by the CA.

They can afford it. They don’t have a lot of the lower value planets a lot of realms have, just Bryant is a drain on the resources, but we have a long term plan to help them with the tech research on the WOB tech we received. We also put some money into the mining efforts on Asmodeus III, some into the military, and so forth. But many of the things are paid for by the K&C coffers, such as the military garrisoning the planets, the ships protecting their skies, and so on. We have cash flush worlds like Acamar, Genoa, and EE joined with wealthy worlds such as Ingress, Capolla, and Terra Firma joining solid worlds like Elgin and Hsien. Fletcher doesn’t drain much or give much. Bryant is a bit of a drain, but its small population helps us to restore the place.


As of now, the Celestial Alliance sits at Epsilon Eridani, Epsilon Indi, Terra Firma, Capolla, Fletcher, Ingress, Acamar, Genoa, Hsien, Elgin, Bryant and Asmodeus III. We are now at 12 systems.

[Abe Sargent]

May 18 – Chief Ingrid Foster enters Duke Essex’s office. We have a problem. Via our relationship with Word of Blake for intel, she has personally uncovered a plot to assassinate Trent Arian with a bomb in a few days. Do we intervene? Do we tell the WOB we know, and ask for something for our silence? Do we ignore it?


Blake has several factions that comprise it. Trent Arian is the Precentor Martial of the Word, and he has tried to keep himself out of politics. He planned and executed Operation Odysseus that wrested Terra from ComStar. He is one of the good guys in the Inner Sphere. He always tries to minimize civilian losses, keeps battles away from any population or infrastructure when possible and more. He was a major player in the victory for ComStar on Tukkayid before the schism. He led the assault on Diamond Shark, and won it despite major losses to his unit, his own mech, and to himself personally – old wounds he still has, and he willed his unit to victory and won the Precentor’s Sword for those actions. He personally brought more than 30 warriors and mechs with him to Word of Blake when he left ComStar ,because they were disloyal in assassinating Primus Myndo Waterly. However he is much less extreme than many of the other factions, and the more extreme ones want their own Precentor Martial. He was then given Terra as the governor, and updated a lot of factories, pulling some out of mothballs and overseeing huge changes made there.

He is one of the good guys and brilliant minds of our day. The Celestial Coalition could do a lot with such a mind and man on their side. Only Chief Ingrid Foster and Duke Essex know about this. Do we take action? Are we willing to upset an ally to help ourselves?

They intend to bomb and destroy his passenger ship while going to the funeral service of Myndo Waterly. She was killed on the 6th of June. We do not have a lot of time if we want to act. But how?

They discuss several options. We could fake his death and bring him out. That would be rough by themselves. They could disarm the bomb and save him and let him go on his way. They could negotiate with Word of Blake for him to leave them and join him, faking his own death and taking on a new persona, like Anastasious Focht did. The real issue they have with him in that he won’t ally with their cause, not his capabilities. He’s not likely to be a threat elsewhere.

In the end, we feel that the implications for our nascent realm are too great to intervene.




EVENT – June 1 – Precentor Martial Trent Arian is killed when his ship blows up.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT – July 4, 3061 - Not only has the counter-offensive by the Jade Falcon clan recaptured worlds taken by Steel Viper, but it continued until today the Steel Vipers have been driven from the Inner Sphere and lost all 12 of their worlds to Jade Falcon.

[Abe Sargent]

We go ahead and run the Expedition Fleets for 3061 and 3062. Despite widening our scope a bit, we find nothing else of significance. The 75 light years from Terra is the most well known, best travelled space in the galaxy. After having visited roughly 100 stars off the charts within one or two jumps from EE, we have really pushed the envelope, and the remainder just isn’t there worth continued funding. Therefore, at the end of 3062, we close down our Expeditions.


Aug 1 – Our troops from Operation Bulldog have returned and refitted and are ready to head out. Welcome back Delta Regiment!


We do some rotations. After years on Ingress, Ganges Battalion is back while after fighting, Bandit Battalion of Delta Regiment moves out for some longer shore duty. It was a long trips in Drop and Jump Ships. Time to get some furlough garrison duty. Breaker Battalion moves off Acamar, and Armor Battalion from Delta replaces them. We also pull off Rheims Battalion from Hsien for Flame Battalion from Delta. This frees up Beta Regiment to be used to assault and such.



Weston and Utopia Companies are split off from Delta Regiment. There were just extra companies we had and stuck them there. We are going to do some reorganizing soon with the influx of Jaguars techs, pilots, and mechs. This is our early preparation for that. We need ot get our bondsmen trained in the way of our unit and our techs into the technology part. We add some clan techs to the research at Kressly on the storm inhibitors.

[Abe Sargent]

Aug 13 – We get news that a small rebellion broke out on Sheratan, owned by the Duchy of Small, but was severely put down.



Sept 1 – We are invited to the 2nd Whitting Conference of the Star League.


Sept 9 – A raid lands on Epsilon Indi, and destroyed by the Blackhearts, our local mech garrison force there.


EVENT - Oct 1 – By now, several worlds in the ST. Ives Compact have been captured by the Capellan Confederation.

[Abe Sargent]

Oct 15 – Many of the players begin to arrive at Tharkad for the next Conference of the Star League.


Oct 24 – The first meetings are held, and are early level stuff – reports at the SLDF campaigns against the Jaguars, on Huntress, subsequent news about the Star League embassy with the clans on Strana Mechty, and more.


Oct 28 – The major meetings commence. They are run by ComStar and the First Lord, currently Sun-Tzu Liao.

The order of business today is the accusation by the St. Ives Compact of unfair use of the authority of the office by Sun-Tzu and his forces. A recess is called, and then later, votes are cast. This war has been referred to by both sides as a civil war. Therefore, it is an internal Capellan matter, and the Star League will not get involved. Any remaining SLDF forces in the area are recalled. No house will support the Compact. Victor is no longer in charge of the Federated Commonwealth after Katrina took over both halves of the state and she is not interested in propping up the small state.


Oct 29 – New business is the order of the day. Several minor votes occur. Then Christian Mansdottir takes the floor, and moves that the Celestial Coalition be joined in as a member of the Star League. After all, we are twice as big as Rasalhague, and bigger than the Compact now that they have lost systems. We need a second. After a pause, Thomas Marik seconds (we were expected Sun-Tzu to second it). They have not ironed out a procedure to vote on these issues. They discuss how to do so, and they decide to postpone the vote until the next Whitting Conference, during which time we will create a presentation.


Oct 30 – Today and tomorrow are taken up with a huge event. Today we witness the marriage of Sun-Tzu Liao and Isis Marik. Long fiancées for political reasons, this further cements the alliance between Marik and Liao.


November 1 – The final matter of business is ready. It is time to choose a new First Lord. There are two sets of nominations. One has nominated Katherine “Katrina” Steiner-Davion. The other has nominated Theodore Kurita. The votes are cast – 3 for Katrina –(Marik,Liao, Katrina) and 3 for Theodore (FRR, St Ives, Kurita). In a tie, ComStar casts the deciding vote. All eyes look to Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht. He sighs and sits down. He has never wanted to play politics again, and swore against it. He is tired. It is time for him to leave the politics game. He is 89 years old, and past retirement.

He resigns from the position of Precentor Martial. His appointed successor is none other than Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. After taking over officially, he votes for Theodore Kurita, and the die is cast. Theodore will be the Star Lord for the next three years.

[Abe Sargent]

Nov 10 – After the successful launch of the Grasshopper line and the new money coming in, another investment of capital and grants have resulted in the Lantren Corporation in making another line of mechs. Like before, they have chosen to take an existing chassis and mech and make a new version of it, rather than design their own That design can take longer, so they want to use a reliable design. They have licensed the Quickdraw from Technicron manufacturing, which makes Quickdraws and Awesomes.




QKD-5B Quickdraw
60 tons
11 tons of ferro-fib armor
Endo Steel
5/8/5 movement
10/20 double heat sinks
1 Large Pulse Laser, 3 Medium Lasers, 1 SRM6 Streak with 1 ton of ammo and CASE>
Cost 6.18 mill C-Bills, Battle Value 1606


This fixes a lot of the problems with a Quickdraw. It has real armor – in fact ferro fib brings it to virtually max protection. It does not suffer a weak XL engine on a mech that wants to close. The Large pulse laser works well when jumping due to the targeting bonus. The SRM6 streak is a nice upgrade to existing SRMs out there. So if you fire all of the weapons, without jumping, the heat is 23. The SRM6 only fires if it locks on, so if you miss, it makes no heat. I would have liked to have slid an extra heat sink or two in here, but I didn’t want to take it away from the armor or the weapons.


Lantren expects these to take roughly a year to set up and get the first ones off the line. They are initially making only two a month, because this is a new line for them, and they did not want to over-saturate the market. It has a much better BV than other Quickdraws.

[Abe Sargent]

November 25, 3061 – Under the guise of corporate maneuvers, Operation Stiletto is launched and targets two worlds. These campaigns will broil across Acamar and Genoa.



Beginning of the Operation Stiletto Campaign



We will be using the following scenario book for this campaign. This is the final military campaign of Chapter 7, and we will conclude with our new units and such at the end of 3061.

[Abe Sargent]

After capturing Acamar and Genoa, the trades from these places tended to favor the Celestial Coalition. For example, Kressly Warworks and now Lantren Corporation benefit from having close, high-quality mining goods without tariffs for crossing into other nations. These worlds fed the Federated Commonwealth recently, and the Federated Suns in particular for decades. Several companies relied on ores from these two worlds.

The capture of Acamar was a huge blow, but some trade from Genoa continued for the years it was struggling. However, ever since its capture by the CC, its exports have altered, and that has negatively impacted several companies that made things, especially military-grade things.


In particular, two companies have lost out. One is Johnston Industries, which has an axe to grind after we stopped their ham-fisted attempt to mine a huge titanium deposit discovered on Acamar. Now that they have lost Genoa as well, they are fighting mad. The other major company is General Motors. Both are huge companies in the military-industrial complex of the Federated Commonwealth/Suns.


Johnston Industries (JI) devised a plan to regain their stake in Genoa and Acamar. Kept from attacking other nations by contract, the fact that the Celestial Coalition is not formally recognized by the Federated Commonwealth gives them the belief that they can safely attack the worlds without legal reprisal from their state. They have contacted GM and begun to hire mercenaries and security forces.

They are launching two simultaneous strikes against Acamar and Genoa. The goal is to force the Celestial Coalition off the worlds, install, pro-Davion governments that will return the supply of ore to their companies, and then set up shop with some garrisons to keep them away from us.

[Abe Sargent]

(Operation Stiletto will be run differently than in real life. In the mainstream story Operation Backstab came years later, and I moved it ahead and gave it the impetus of this attack. Also, these were assaults on planets captured by pirate bands and rebels, and they wanted to restore central authority to get the goods moving again. I have altered their intent so that it can fit in my campaign. I have only changed a few things outside of the K&C in the mainstream timeline. For example, I had Isis and Sun-Tzu get married, and that did not happen in the mainstream. Anyway, many details are charged in O:S form how it operated in the mainstream)


Now, this sourcebook has a few issues. First of all, it only details the campaign against Acamar, the one against Genoa is not related at all. Secondly ,it is told from the perspective of the attacker, and we are the defender. Finally, it has to have a some alterations made to it to fit our storyline For example, the mini-campaign in the middle against a pirate band in the asteroids of the Acamar system is not needed.




These rules are designed to favor the attacker, which would normally be the players. In this case, they will be used against us. For example, the Acamar campaign has the taskforce launch with 24 extra mechs made by General Motors to be used as needed. That’s 24 free mechs. I will assume that Johnston Industries similarly amps up their assault wave too. They are ready to party.

[Abe Sargent]

The assaults:


Genoan Attack Wave:

1 Regiment of BattleMechs
1 Battalion of BattleMechs
2 companies of fighters
2 Battalion of Tanks

Plus 24 extra mechs from this list: HCT-5S Hatchetman, AXM-1N Axman, CES-3R Caesar, Garm



The Acamarian Attack Wave:



1 Regiment of BattleMechs
1 Battalion of BattleMechs
2 companies of fighters
1 Battalion of Tanks

Plus 24 extra mechs from this list: Cestus, Maelstrom, Nightstar, MAD-5D Marauder


They are coming in heavy with the mechs, fighters, tanks, and extra mechs to back up their assault. So they have an extra battalion of tanks to counter ours on Genoa.



We will begin with the Genoan Campaign, since it takes place outside of the sourcebook. I’ll still use it for force tables (what forces our foes are using)

[Abe Sargent]

On Genoa, we have the following forces:




1st Genoan Chargers – 20 mechs, a few tanks, infantry and two Warrior VTOLs. (Includes 2 Grasshopper 6Bs)


Shadow Battalion:

Bruiser Company – On Genoa
Shadow Company – On Genoa
Sealion Company – On Genoa


Metal Battalion:

Gold Company – On Genoa
Bronze Company - On Genoa
Titanium Company - On Genoa


Oasis Company – On Genoa

Tank First Battalion – On Genoa



That is 7 companies of mechs and 3 of tanks, versus their 12 companies of mechs, 6 of tanks, and 2 spare companies of mechs to use as replacements. But we have 20 mechs and a few other things from the group we are building here.


This will not be easy.

[Abe Sargent]

December 1 – Early warning sensors detect a large number of JumpShips arriving in system. Since the jump point here is only one day away, we do not have a lot of time to prepare. This is clearly an assault. We get a message off the Epsilon Eridani, asking for aid.


We order the 1st to stay in the major cities and we will move out. Any invasion will be more concerned with us than with others.

We form two major groups. One is Shadow Battalion and the other is Metal Battalion. They are about 150 klicks apart and move to the hills. Meanwhile, we squirrel away Oasis Company inside of a mine that has large amounts of metals to distract sensors and keep them for a rainy day.


The hardest part of this assault on Genoa might appear like it is coming from the large number of mechs and tanks, but in reality, it’s the loss of air superiority. That’s a huge blow.


We keep both of our battalions in the open, with retreat lanes that will converge on each other later. We expect them to come in hot.

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 2 – Their force arrives at the planet. However, instead of coming after us, their mechs and fighters land at a mining complex and they unload a lot of stuff.


Dec 4 – They have spent three days unloading their supplies, support staff, and more, and establishing camp. Attacking them would be suicide. The only good news is that Oasis Company is undetected about 15 klicks away.


Our plan is to wait for attack, and then if we need to, flee into each others arms and reinforce each of our forces.

Our foes for this campaign will be veteran or regular. Our advantages are small

1 - We have fought together for a while, they are a variety of merc units all fighting together for the first time
2 - We know the land better
3 – We have more capable and skilled MechWarriors.
4 – We have some clan mechs

That’s it. They have significantly more units, support staff, and fighters. That’s a lot more. Can we pull it off and defend Genoa?

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 5 – While later than expected, they move out and assault us. Since we have a battalion of mechs in each of two locations, they launch two battalions each against us, leaving the battalion of tanks behind to act as a guard for their camp. Half of their fighters are escorting each unit down, but then leaving to scout around and make sure we aren’t surprising them with units elsewhere. Smart.


We have 3 companies arrayed against their 6. We split our forces into three companies, and they array two companies each to assault our position.

Each of our companies in Shadow Battalion will be facing a force of 24 mechs.


We begin with Sealion Company



Mad Cat Prime
Masakari Prime
Grizzly
GHR-5J Grasshopper

Marauder Iic
ARC-2R Archer
CRD-4K Crusader
Galahad

Shadow Hawk Iic
Griffin Iic
Dragonfly A
LCT-1E Locust


I expect these companies with a large number of clan mechs, such as this one, to account well for themselves. We have 8 clan mechs here. I will not eject a pilot unless it looks like we will keep the field, and I doubt that will win this whole engagement.


Special rules for this scenario, due ot the large number of forces they have, plus their fighters, if they win just ONE battle, they push us from the field, and we lose salvage.

[Abe Sargent]

Our foes:


Hollander
Hornet
Valkyrie
Commando
Locustx2
Javelin
Enforcer III
Stealth
Centurion
Wolverine
Lynx
Phoenix Hawk
Rakshasa
Cataphract
Marauder
Rifleman
Penetrator
Cestus
Banshee
Berserker
Zeus
Nightstar
Salamander


We are on a randomized map of 25x25 nature, with low hills and low trees requested.

We’ll skip the usual and just head to the elongated battle waiting for us. Our hope is that we can stun them with a major victory here with our elite pilots in clan tech.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. A couple of their fast light mechs are up first, and their Berserker is behind some trees. So we focus some fire on their Javelin and Hollander. Our Marauder destroys their Javs LA but our Masakari its CT. Dead Jav.


Turn 2 – We lose init again. They annoyingly set the forest our Griffin IIc was standing in on fire – it was the only heavy woods hex here and my Archer was going to move there this turn. Sigh. They pull their Hollander back. I hop our Dragonfly 7 spaces into heavy woods to entice their Berserker to expose itself to base it. IT does not take the bait and pulls back. Their Stealth bases our Grasshopper. We focus some fire on their ENF III, but a lot more on their Berserker. Our Mad IIc blasts their Enforcer’s RT and it shuts down. Our Griffin Iic nails the engine once on their Berserker. Our Masakari gets a 2nd hit. Our Grizzly destroys the Berserker’s LA and gets that third hit and it is down.


Turn 3 – We win init. Our Archer’s hex is now full of heavy smoke, perfect. Our Locust runs next to theirs and bases it, from above. W e have moved along their southern flank and we have destroyed much of it, and we push further near the southern edge, away from the guns of their northern flank. Our Griffin IIc runs behind the back of their Zeus. Our D Fly hops by their Zeus too. The ‘Hopper/Stealth battle continues. Our S Hawk IIc runs down after their Hollander . I want to finish it off this turn. It misses a lot, but stall manages to damages it more. Our Grizzly’s gauss hits their Zeus’s H and it dies. They go internal in the Grasshopper. Our Archer hits a leg actuator in their Commando. 7 mechs on both sides too at least 20 damage, but none fell. Our Grasshopper kicks and destroys the LL of their Stealth. Their pilot blacks out. Meanwhile, it punched our ‘Hopper’s H.


Turn 4 – We win init. For running on its injured leg, their Commando pilot forces the mech to fall. Our Shadow Hawk IIc leaps ot base their Hollander. Lynx hops by our Grasshopper. I back op the Hopper ot keep it adjacent ot the Lynx and downed Stealth, but out of kick range. Our D Fly leaps ot base their Hornet and Phoenix Hawk. I concentrate some fire on their Salamander. Our Grasshoppre takes careful aim and slices the H off their Stealth. Missile fire arcs in and destroys their Commando’s CT and RT and RA from the Archer. After taking 100+ damage, their Salamander tumbles. Our S Hawk IIc kicks and legs their Hollander. They kick our Dragonfly, it falls and our pilot blacks out.


Turn 5 – We win init. I leap our Grif by their downed Hollander. It still has a gauss, even downed. Their Valkyrie bases our D Fly. Their Salamander rises and bases our D Fly. Uh Oh. I focus some fire on their Banshee this time. Our Galahad smashes two actuators on the Banshee’s RL. Our Mad Cat blows the RA off their Banshee. Our Shadow hawk IIc destroys the RA of their Salamander. They destroy the Dragonfly’s RT, CT, LL, LT. Their Banshee tumbles – 80+ damage plus the damaged limbs and actuators. Our Griffinc IIc kicks and hits the gauss on their Hollander, it explodes destroys the torso and CT. Dead mech.


Turn 6 – We lose init. Our opponents have lost this battle, but they have not realized it yet. They have focused so much attention on our Grasshopper and Locust and Dragonfly that our big mechs have had relatively little damage done to them, while we have carved their side. I suicide run my Locust up and give them a +4 to hit it. Grif leaps behind their Pixie. Their Banshee fails to rise. Our Mad Cat bases their PXH from the front. Our Shadow Hawk IIc destroys the banshee’s RT and its down. Our G Hopper destroys the RA on one of their Locusts. Their Rifleman takes 60+ damage and keeps standing.


Turn 7 – We win init. They did not destroy my Locust like I thought they would. I bring my assault force on the west side up against them, trying to blast into their concentrated mass on mechs in the north west corner. Our Locust runs into the rear of their Nightstar. Their Centurion runs on up on my Grasshopper. We concentrate a lot of fire on their Cestus. Their Penetrator destroys our Locusts’ RT and RA. Our Locust lances energy into their Salamander’s RT and it is destroyed and shuts down. Their Lynx destroys both arms in our Grasshopper. Their Cestus took 100 and fell and our Hopper is still standing.


Turn 8 – We lose init. I am so confident that we will win, I eject both the Locust and the Grasshopper. They have taken out 3 of our mechs, and we have savaged theirs. I am shocked they are still fighting us, but its’ probably surprise at our ownership of this battle despite the odds. They manage to rise and run with the Cestus. Our Grizzly leads the charge up the western flank. Their Wolverine’s MASC failed. Our Archer destroys their Rifleman’s RT and its down. Our S Hawk Iic destroys the RA of their Cestus. The Griff destroys its RL. Our Mad Cat destroys the Nightstar’s RT. They smash the gyro and engine of our Grizzly and it falls and hits its engine. Their Cestus falls.


And with that, they choose to flee.

[Abe Sargent]

Nightstar missing RT
Cestus missing RA, RL
Rifleman missing RT
Salamander missing RT
Locust missing RA
Hollander H,LL, LT, LA, RA
Banshee reattached RA, missing RT
Commando, LT, LA, LL, RL, H
Stealth missing LL, H
Javelin RT, LT< LA< RL, LL, H
Enforcer III missing RT
Berserker missing LA, enginex3
Zeus missing H
Hollander missing RL



Dragonfly H, LA, RA, RL
Locust missing RT, RA
Grasshopper missing RA, LA



We managed to keep them back on the first front, but this one had clan mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Flank #2

Bruiser Company

AS7-K Atlas
Highlander Iic
Gladiator A
Warhammer Iic

Rifleman Iic
Vulture C
Marauder Iic
ARC-4M Archer

Dragonfly B
Peregrine
Dasher D
PXH-3K Phoenix Hawk


All elite. Like Sealion, Bruiser is very clan – 9 clan mechs in fact.


Here are our many foes.


Garm
Battle Hawk
Scarabus
Wasp
Wolfhound
Stinger
Blackjack
Hatchetman
Enfield
Griffin
Nightsky
Dervish
JagerMech
Falconer
Caesar
War Dog
Tempest
Thunderbolt
Victor
Gunslinger
Emperor
Longbow
BattleMaster
Devastator


We begin on the north and they on the south

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. I go prone with the Dasher and will bring it back up when I see an opportunity. It’s hiding behind a hill. Our Atlas destroys their Wolfhounds LA. Our Archer destroys their Stinger’s LL. Then our Warhammer IIc shoots a ER PPC through its chest and it is gone. Their Enfield took 60.


Turn 2 – We lose init. I backup my assault team. I camp my Vulture in heavy woods. This is the variant that looks like a Galahad – two gausses nothing else. I put 80 on the Devastator and 40 on the Tempest, and 20 on their Gunslinger which falls. they are playing rotational targets via the woods and hills.


Turn 3 – We win init. I run my archer all the way on the farthest west most hex into the rear arc of their Victor, but long range. Their Gunslinger fails to stand. Our Archer misses both 7s. Sad day. Our Highlander IIc blows the LL off their Scarabus. Their Devastator took 80 more and tumbled.


Turn 4 – I start backing up my mechs again. We;’re at a good range. We have not taken 20+ damage on one of my mechs thus far. We lose init. Their ‘Slinger stands. I leap our D Fly next to and above their damaged Wolfhound. Their Devastator stands and runs behind the trees. Our D Fly desotrys the Wolfys RT. An ER PPC from our ’Hammer Iic sheers off the H of their Gunslinger. Their Tempest took 40 and tumbled.


Turn 5 – We win init I back up some of my units again. Their Tempest stands . Our D Fly hits the gyro and engine on their Wolfy once each. After sinking wo gauss slugs into it from our Vulture, their Tempest again falls. Their BM takes 60 but stays firm.


Turn 6 – We lose init. We are getting close to worrying about ammo. We run forward this turn. Our Peregrines jumps to base their Wolfhound. Their Tempest again rises. Our Dragonfly jumps above and adjacent to their Caesar. Our Rifleman IIc gets a limb blown off RA on their Falconer. Our Peregrine nails three leg actuators and the engine on their Wolfy. Our Archer destroys the LA of their Garm. Their War Dog and BattleMaster concentrate fire on our Peregrine and it is destroyed dead CT. Our Warhammer nails the hip actuator on their BM. Our Gladiator follows by destroying its RT and it shuts down. Their Wolfhound falls.


Turn 7 – We win init. A fire and smoke has been set in the forest to the east and it is beginning to obscure weapons fire from place such as my Vulture C. I back up my guys. An ER PPC from their Falconer nails the H of our Archer and smashes the sensors and life support. Our Archer destroys the Garms LL.


Turn 8 – We win init. I begin backing up my Archer. We run forward again this turn. Onece again, I leap the D Fly above and next to their Caesar. Gauss from the Vulture hits the H of their Falconer. Dead mech. Their Caesar took 60 and fell. For the first time, one of my mechs took more than 20 – our Rifleman IIc.


Turn 9 – We lose init. We back up this turn. Due to the smoke, I rush our Vulture forward into it from the heavy woods. Our Archer hits their Garm’s H with a medium laser and blacks the pilot out. Our Vulture destroys their Enfield’s LL. Our Warhammer its LA. Our Highlander its CT. Dead Enfield . 3 of our mechs took 20 damage -Rifleman, Archer, Highlander.


Turn 10 – We lose init. I back up again. Our Warhammer destroys the RT of their Longbow and it shuts down. It will also lose its LL later this turn. Our Gladiator smashes their Blackjack’s H with a large pulse laser and he dies.


Turn 11 – We lose init. We run forward, rar! I hop or D Fly by their savaged Tempest. It destroys the Tempests RT and LA it shuts down. Our Pixie destroys the LA of their Devastator. Our Warhammer II destroys the Caesar’s LA and then LT. Dead mech. Our highlander was moved and ran up to their devastator and goes overheat alpha strikeing it and destroys its LL and LT.


They concede the battle to us. We have now won two of the flanks ,but thethird does not have accompany of 8 or 9 clan mechs what will happen when Shadow Company goes up against two opposing forces?

[Abe Sargent]

Caesar missing LA ,LT
Tempest missing LA, RT
Blackjack missing H
Longbow missing RT, LL
Enfield H, Rt, LT, RA, Rl, LL
BattleMaster missing RT
Garm missing LA, LL
Falconer reattach RA, missing H
Gunslinger missing H
Scarabus reattach LL
Stinger RL, LT, LA, RT, RA, H
Wolfhound missing LA, RT
Devastator missing LA, LL, LT


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

[Abe Sargent]

Shadow has no Elementals with it today, because it was expecting to flee quickly, they are safely found elsewhere.


ON1-AbeC Orion
HGN-732 Highlander
ST-8A Shootist
FLS-8K Flashman

Zeu-9S Zeus
GAL-1GLS Gallowglas
APL-1M Apollo
GRN-D-01 Grand Crusader

LNX-9Q Lynx
PXH-1b Phoenix Hawk
STY-2C Starslayer
TLN-5W Talon


As you can see, Shadow has a lot of older Star League era mechs. All of the scout mechs, the Shootist, Highlander and Flashman were all vintage Star League era mechs. Today, some of those may die! TO be fair, some of these mechs are being made again. On e of the major trends of the 3050s was to take ol Star League era mechs and their blueprints and again make them. As a reminder, CO Matthew Humphries is in Duke Essex’s old Orion in this company. Many mechs we have been facing , or face in the future (Starslayer, Lynx, Cestus, Nightstar, Maelstrom, Talon, Excalibur) are from this lines restarted, so we could replace many dead mechs with modern day versions.


Our many foes:

Jenner
Locust
Fireball
Dart
Battle Hawk
Javelin
Cobra
Phoenix Hawk
Enforcer
Bushwacker
Sentry
Shadow Hawk
Warhammer
Crusader
Barghest
Gallowglas
Bandersnatch
Grand Dragon
Atlas
Goliath
Cerberus
O-Bakemono
Zeus
Charger





Once again we are on a 25x25 map generated randomly. We begin on the west and they on the east on this flank.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We win init. So hey, we got that at least. Their Barghest took 40 damage and that was it for battle – long range for our mechs and not with clan tech are we running.


Turn 2 – We lose init. I parked the Apollo and Grand Crusader in heavy woods. I’m also keeping my talon in the same, parked in heavy behind another heavy and just firing with its ER PPC until/if they get close, like a Panther. IU back up my major mechs, trying to find the right distance for smashing. They have light woods hiding many of their mechs in the southern corner of the eastern side of the map. The upper corner has good elevation. Our Grand Crusader hits the engine and gyro once each on their Jenner, destroying its RA. It falls, as does their Barghest after taking 80. Our Orion took 20.


Turn 3 – We win init. I move my guys forward to see what we can do. Both their Jenner and Barghest stand and they pull the Barghest back. Our Orion destroys the RL of their Enforcer. Our Grand Crusader destroys the LL of their Locust. Our Highlander took 80+ damage and we cannot keep doing that sort of an exchange. That is how we will lose. Their Locust pilot blacks out when it falls. I back up my lads.

Turn 4 – We win init. I walk back. Their turn we focus on their Bandersnatch. Out Talon blows off its RA. Our Grand Crusader nails three foot actuators in it and it falls under that and 140+ damage. RAR! Their Locust pilot wakes up.


Turn 5 – We lose init. Our Pixie leaps next to their downed Enforcer. I hop our damaged Highlander to a heavy woods and we’ll camp here for a bit. I back up again with most of my folkses. Their Bandersnatch rises without too much of a problem. I was hoping it would fall a few times with its damaged legs. Our Pixie destroys their Enforcers TR and its down for the count. Their Bandersnatch hits the Phoenix hawk’s head with an LB 10 X shell, it gets an internal role for a through armor critical, smashes the cockpit and the mech is down with a dead pilot. Their Gallowglas took 60_ and our Flashman took 20+/


Turn 6 – We win init. We run forward his turn. Our Highlander destroys their Bandersnatch LA and LT and it shuts down. Our Shootist smashes a hip o their Cobra. Before it went, their Bandersnatch destroyed our Orion’s LT. Our Apollo destroys the RA and LL of their Cobra – ironic, since the Cobra was made to be a n Apollo for the Lyran Alliance. Our Zeus nails an engine once on it. Our Grand crusader destroys its other leg and it is down. Our Lynx smashes the Jenner’s foot and upper leg actuators on its RL and it falls.



Turn 7 – We lose init. Our Orion still has the Gauss and ER PPC so we back it up to turn it into a long range mech. The Jenner fails to rise and its pilot blacks out. Our lynx hits their Cerberus’s life support and engine with two different shots. Our Apollo nails their Goliath’s RT, hits the gauss three, it explodes and destroys the section – dead mech. Our Gallowglas hits the Cerberus’s H with a glancing shot, but it already taken damage from the Lynx, so I t is destroyed. Our lynx fell after taking 20 damage and our Flashman took 20 too. That was a good turn for us. We took out two major threats.


Turn 8 – We win init. They set the Highlanders square on fire but I am NOT moving the wounded mech right now. Our Lynx stands easily. We move some of my mechs forward a bit here and there. I run our Talon out of the heavy woods and into lights that use its full movement 7 hexes away. They exposed their wounded Gallowglas and I want to see if I can finish it off this turn. Our Apollo smashes the Gallowglas’s H. It has taken some actuator damage and hit a weapon and such, but nothing major. Our Grand Crusader hits the gyro and engine on their Javelin, it falls and destroys its CT. Their Jenner pilot awakens


Turn 9 – We lose init. The smoke has thickened around the Highlander, obscuring its chances of shooting bad guys. Their Fireball ran up and based our Zeus. Their Jenner destroys its LA trying to stand. Their Dart bases our Gallowglas and Highlander in the smoke . Our Highlander destroys the Dart’s CT. Our Flashman destroys their Fireball’s RA. Our Shootist hits an engine on it once. Meanwhile, our Orion hits their Crusader and blows off its LA. Although they each took 40+ their Fireball and Crusader remain firmly planted on their feet.

Turn 10 – We win init. Our Orion finally moves to heavy woods. Their Atlas comes forward. After serious peppering of each other’s mechs, we hit the H of their Atlas twice, and then our Grand Crusader’s missile racks hit it a 3rd time and it is down.

[Abe Sargent]

They concede and pull from the field, and we have managed to win on the 3rd and final flank!


Atlas missing H
Fireball missing RA
Dart RT, RA, H, LT, LA, LL, RL
Bandersnatch, reattach RA, missing LA, LT
Enforcer missing RL, RT
Jenner missing RA, LA
Locust missing LL
Cobra missing RA, LL, RL
Goliath missing RT
Cerberus missing H
Gallowglas missing H
Javelin RT, LT, H, LA, RA, LL, RL


Phoenix Hawk hit cockpit – Dead pilot.
Orion missing LT


We have emerged victoreause!


They retreat and we let them go. We have no fighter support to call on and we need to save our strength.

[Abe Sargent]

But that’s just the first attack on one battalion. What about the other?



On the second front, we have


Metal Battalion:

Gold Company – On Genoa
Bronze Company - On Genoa
Titanium Company - On Genoa



Our foes use the same attack strategy – double companies on each of ours. However, unlike the previous companies, we do not have two companies rife with clan mechs. A few litter the places here and there, but nothing major. These companies also are not an elite group of pilots.

[Abe Sargent]

Here is Gold Company


AKU-1X Akuma
HBK-5M Hunchback
TDR-7M Thunderbolt
PTR-6M Penetrator

TDK-7Y Thunder Hawk
SHD-5m Shadow Hawk
GOL-3M Goliath
RFL-5M Rifleman

JR7-K Jenner
CLNT-2-3U Clint
VL-5T Vulcan
PXH-3D Phoenix Hawk


There are no clan mechs in this company. This a bad battle for the Shadow Hawk, it has a low amount of ammunition for the LRM 20. I’ll have to budget that well. Plus, Gold is weaker in the expertise range. We have 5 regular, 1 green, 1 elite in the Akuma, and 5 vet. This is our weakest company. If anyone will lose, its Gold. Both Bronze and Titanium have 7 vet, 5 elite and 2 clan mechs. Gold is the weakest link. We cannot break.



After doing three of these lonnnnnnngggg battles, I’m going to skip the list of mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We lose init. I set up the Rifleman in the only heavy woods hex on my side of the field. I am moving the bulk of my forces down the south edge – I want to crush their smaller force here. Nothing major happens, we just exchange long range, weak fire.


Turn 2 – We lose init. I keep charging with my bottom units, but the central thrust led by scout mechs and the Akuma is reversing course. I also have our Rifleman alone to the north in the heavy woods, keeping people back. They charge several mechs from the north to the middle of the map. Our Akuma takes a lot of damage from their Centurion and falls. We dropped their Pillager with 40+ damage to it.


Turn 3 – We lose init. I stand the damaged Akuma. I charge again. We have to blast them quickly. I don’t have the mechs for a long range game – too little ammo, or mechs like the Jenner and Hunchback that don’t have a long game. I run some of my mechs near their mechs at the base – Berserker, Pillager, Victor, Axman and Valkyrie. I have to blow through these guys and take their position. Their Scarabus bases our Akuma. Their Pillager rises. I leap the PXH to base the Scarabus. They hit the Akuma’s ammo and it explodes (Does it not have CASE?)) and is destroyed. (How does a 90 ton mech not have room for CASE?). Their Valkyrie and Pillager fall under attacks.


Turn 4 – We win init. I hop my PXH out of there. Their Valkyrie stands and I leap our Jenner next to it. Their Pillager manages to rise. Our Thunderbolt runs above and next to their Axman. They run their Berserker next to our Jenner. Our Penetrator destroys their Pillagers RT. Dead mech. Our Shadow hawk destroys the LA of their Berserker. Taking just 20 damage, our Penetrator still managed to fall. Their Berserker took 100 and is still standing. That’s not good. Yup, hatchet to the Jenner and hits its ammo, boom goes the mech. CASE juts the damage out the side and it has no XL engine, but it is down on the ground.


Turn 5 – We lose init. Our Penetrator fails once to stand but then does. Our Hunchy runs into some woods next to their Victor. They jump their Axman away from our TBolt which follows in the Axman’s rear. Clint jumps to their Victors’ rear. Okay – hope – take out or down either Victor or Axman on lucky shots, finish off Berserker, and don’t lose either damaged Penetrator or Hunchback and we could still put this one off. That’s a lot of hope! Alright – results: Their Rakshasa destroys the LA of my Jenner. Their bBnshee destroys its CT. Our Penetrator destroys the RA and RT of their Valkyrie. Our Goliath destroys the Berserker’s RA. We missed their Berserker a lot and it took just 20+ damage.

There’s no chance we are going to pull this out. We are 10 mechs against 23. That’s bad math. We pull out and call it.

[Abe Sargent]

Valkyrie missing RA, RT
Berserker missing LA, RA
Pillager missing RT


Jenner RA, LT, H, LL, RL
Akuma LA, LL




Now that we have lost one flank, we may play differently for the others. Why push?

[Abe Sargent]

Here is Bronze Company



AKU-1X Akuma
GLT-5M Guillotine
Hellhound
Gal-1GLS Gallowglas

TDK-7Y Thunder Hawk
HUR-WO-R4L Huron Warrior
GRF-3M Griffin
ZEU-9S Zeus

Fenris B
BUM-1 Bumblebee
DMO-1K Daimyo
WTC-4M Watchman

The Fenris and Hellhound are clan tech. Nothing big or major here. In fact, this will also be a weaker company for a long range game (although not as bad as the other) with its lighter mechs. For example, just three assault mechs here, and I don’t want to expose the Thunder Hawk (XL) or Akuma (No CASE apparently). The Huron Warrior rocks an XL< the Bumblebee is a light mech with….well, you get the picture. The one good thing here is that we have just one light mech,


Again, I’ll skip the long list and such


We are fighting on the east and they on the west.

[Abe Sargent]

Turn 1 – We win init. I set up some sniping positions for lighter mechs with just one big weapon, such as the Daimyo with its ER PPC and the Watchman with its large laser. There is no elevation on this section of the field, so we just have to work with the trees. Our Huron Warrior is in a sniping position in heavy woods. After softening it up, our Guillotine destroys their BattleMaster’s RA and our Zeus hits its hip and foot actuators. It took 100+ damage and fall hard. That’s what I need. Blast their mech, take not much back.


Turn 2 – We lose init. Instead of moving my mechs back I move them south. Their BM fails to stand. A Garm runs in toward us. We hit its LB 5 X and it falls and loses its RA. We stabbed their Dragon Fire with a little bit of damage. We dealt some damage to the BM as well.


Turn 3 – We lose init. Their Scarabus gets awfully close to our watchman. I charge again down the south edge. Their BM fails to stand. But their Garm does. Our Grif destroys the RL of their BM. Our Thunder Hawk smashes the RAof their Dragon Fire, hit the gauss, it destroys that section and the RT and the mech shuts down. Our Akuma destroys the RT of their Garm and hits a gyro. Their Goliath hits a leg actuator on the Gallowglas. Our Hellhound nails an engine once on their Stinger. Our Akuma fell under 20 damage. Dang gone it, we have to stoop it with these cheap falls.


Turn 4 – We lose init. Our Akuma can’t get the 3 to stand up and run behind some heavy woods for the turn so he just stands. Blast it! I back up some mechs. Their Stealth gets in close with our Fenris. I run our Bumblebee into the back of their Wolfhound. Our Fenris nails the Scarabus’s engine and gyro once each. Then their Shadow hawk nails our Fenris’s H and destroys the mech and kills the pilot. Our Watchman destroys the RT on their Scarabus. Dead mech. Their Goliath hits the engine once on our Thunder Hawk. Our Zeus destroys its H with an ER PPC. Dead mech. Our Akuma took 40, as did their Wolfhound and our T Hawk. The WLF fell.


Turn 5 - We lose init. I need to get the T Hawk into some woods. UI start rearranging my mechs to get the T Hawk into heavy woods. It’ll take two turns to get it in there. Again I crash my mechs down the south line. Their Wolfe stands and runs. Bumblebee runs to the rear of their BM which managed to stand missing a leg. Somebody wants to kick that thing down! Our Akuma gets an engine hit by their Cyclops. Our T Hawk took 20+ damage and fell and that’s the battle right there – the falls of it and the Akuma. Their Warhammer took 60, their S Hawk 40 and fell. Their Cestus fell too. We punch the BM and their pilot blacks out after we punch the head.


Turn 6 – We lose init. The extra engine hit overheated my Akuma and now I can only move 2/3 this turn – also a game changer. I need to take the heavy woods in th south east corner of the map. So I use the dying Akuma and T Hawk as bait while we move other mechs to that corner. Our Thunder Hawk fails to stand, fell and hits its engine twice more. I needed, I kid you not, a THREE to stand. That’s twice I failed that. I start moving my sniper mechs to southerly positions as the north is getting charged. Their S Hawk stands. Their Cestus makes it up. Many of my mechs are getting to the edge of the woods, and our Griffin ran past it and is now behind our enemies in that corner. Their ‘Hammer rises. Our Bumblebee jumps into a heavy woods, behind their Guillotine. They destroy the Akuma’s LT, LA, and RL. Our Hellhound destroys their Warhammer’s LA. Our Guillotine took, I kid you not, 20 damage and FELL. Their Cestus took 60 and fell. When our Akuma falls it destroys its Ct – dead mech. They set the hex with the Bumblebee in it on fire. Their BM pilot rolls that 10 to wake up.



Turn 7 – We lose init. Their Cestus tries to rise, fails, and the pilot blacks out. Our Guillotine rises and gets behind the shield of woods to the north of this corner. I’m not able to get everyone back here yet. My goal is to get a camp set up ere and then shoot people as they come through the now burning woods or around it. Gotta clear out the mess in here first though. We hop the wounded Gallowglas behind their BM and it does not fall. I hop an overheated Bumblebee out of the fire and back in the the protection of the corner. The mechs in here I have to deal with – BattleMaster, Cestus, Hatchetman, Guillotine, and a few lights. Our Griffin bases their Cestus. Our Watchman tries to run across the south edge and loses an arm. Our Zeus destroys their Stingers LA, LT and CT. Their Wolfhound this a foot actuator on our Guillotine. Our Bumblebee destroys the RA of their Hatchetman. Basically turning it into a Man. Cause….it…doesn’t have a hatchet. Get it? Our Watchman almost made it. The last mech, a Gunslinger, smashes its CT with both gauss slugs and it dies, their Hatchetman falls, but not us. No wak-y on the Cestus.


Turn 8 – We lose init. Again. The smoke spreads. Our Hellhound bases their BM. I need to finish some mechs off. I left my Huron Warrior in a great sniping position and their Stealth came over to base me. The Man rises. Their Guillotine destroys the LA of ours. Our Hellhound destroys their Wolfhounds CT, and then it explodes and destroys the BM and Hatchetman. Our Griffin launches missiles at their damged Warhammer and destroys its RT and CT. Dead mech. Their Wasp destroys the LT of our Griffin and it shuts down -= XL engine.


We pull out. We destroyed 8 of their mechs but lost 5 of our own. Bad dice rolls.

[Abe Sargent]

Hatchetman missing RA, H
Warhammer LT, H, LL, RL, RA
Goliath missing H
Scarabus missing RT
Garm missing RA, RT
BattleMaster missing RA, RL, RT
Dragon Fire missing RA, RT
Stinger, RT, RA, H, LL, RL
Wolfhound RT, H


Fenris missing H dead MW.
Thunder Hawk enginex3
Akuma RT, RA, H, LL,
Watchman RT, LT, LA, H, LL, RL
Guillotine missing LA
Griffin missing LT

[Abe Sargent]

The third flank begins, and like the other two, this battle begins last. Seeing the other two flanks crumble, we move to protect them as they hobble off. We leave the salvage behind. We move our forces to the first battlefield, and they to the second from the first.


We have lost 7 mechs from this battalion, most of which can be salvaged. Overall today, we destroyed a lot more of their mechs than they did of ours.

We lost in both battlefronts 13 mechs and can salvage some from the first campaign,

They lost 46, many of which we can salvage.


A few hours later, we are both licking our wounds.


We took out about 4x as many as we lost. Not bad for a first day. We can salvage 4 of 6 from the first wave. So of the 13 we lost, 34 are salvageable. Of the 46 they lost, 6 of their own they can bring back, plus they can salvage 3 of ours. Even if they replace MechWarriors with the 24 extra mechs, they are down to 122 and can salvage 9 more from the first battle. They began the campaign with 144 mechs and men and reserve of 24 mechs, so they are still a major threat. Meanwhile, we don’t have spare mechs save what we can salvage and fix up.

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 7 – After two days, the battlefield is relatively clean. We have moved salvage to one of the population centers out of harm’s way. This night, we move out. It’s time to push our luck when the fighters are less helpful to assist.

We spend two hours moving towards their base camp, and they see us coming from a long distance off. They move out their mechs, in order to fight away from camp.

As we thought, they have brought in all 24 spare mechs. They want to smash us hard. This time, they know our power, and will be quicker to retreat once things start to slide. They are coming in with 122 mechs vs our 59. We still are around half their force, but we are good. They are not.

About 3 am local time, our forces begin to meet each other. Again, we split into two battalions, but we rearranged our battalions so each one gets a clan heavy company We are not moving further into companies which they expected, and they pull back a bit for a few minutes to figure out our plan.

Meanwhile, having gotten confident about our forces, we split Oasis Company out of the local mine and move towards their now empty camp, save for 36 tanks spread across several miles of camp, plus their defenses like pickets and such.

Oasis moves in quickly, running at top speed. Their fighters sense us and move in, but they lack accuracy and we don’t. We hit their base and the defenders are not in company formations yet. Their fighters warned them, and they are grouping. We smash a lance of tanks on our way in.

As we enter, we begin to attack their camp. Infantry and support staff with guns fire aimlessly at us. More tanks move in, and the fighters strafe down, but they don’t want to hurt their stuff. We destroy a few buildings, running all the time. Meanwhile, we chew on a few more tanks with our heavier assets, such as the Kingfisher OmniMech. As we blast more tanks, our Whitworth is caught in a large fuel explosion and loses a leg. It stays and moves around to blow up more tanks, jeeps, tents, and people. We leave it behind and smash more stuff on the way out, moving towards the battle that is about to start.

Once Oasis sends out the word, we stop, re-gather as one group instead of two battalions. They get the word that we have savaged much of their camp and they pull back, not wanting to risk a confrontation between two of our forces. Oasis joins the group and we remove ourselves to one of our fallback locations just outside of a mine.

[Abe Sargent]

December 9 -Our foes are blasting off from Genoa. We destroyed so many of their things that they are unable to continue to press the war without the support staff and such. We trade prisoners of war, which is fair, since we have a lot more of theirs than they do of ours. Everybody keeps the other salvages.


We have won the Genoa Arm of Operation Stiletto



But this was not really a win.

[Abe Sargent]

Begin Operation Stiletto on Acamar


For this one, we will be following campaigns in the book.



December 2 – The taskforce arrives at the Acamar jump point. They came in at pirate points, since the regular ones are 9 days away and give us just three days notice. We contact EE with information.

We have the following forces defending Acamar



Scimitar Battalion: Capt. Mika Sanders, of Vegas Company

Vegas Company –
Guile Company -
Tango Company -



Armor Battalion: Capt. Jassa Ramgarhia, of Aegis Company

Aegis Company –
Shield Company –
Chainmail Company -



Bolt Company –


So we have an aerospace company and six companies of mechs. We also have 6 platoons of infantry but we’ll use them for policing and such while we are engaging in defense work.

[Abe Sargent]

December 4 – We have established several supply caches in various hidden locations throughout Acamar for when the campaign begins.


December 5 – They appear to be coming in hot, so we spread out our six companies to cover six likely locations we think they may hit.


One of them is right.

[Abe Sargent]

Track 1 – The Assault
Scenario 1 – Hot Drop
Osz Forest, Acamar


While trying to hot land some mechs in the area, the Stiletto task force accidentally encountered a full company of hostile mechs. Two lances were hot dropped to the area to secure it for further landings. Those are Shrike and Flare lances - After seeing them have problems with the local forces, Operation Stiletto drops two companies of heavier mechs onto the location and pushes back the defenders.

Rules for this campaign.

Our foes begin with eight mechs – 4 light and 4 medium. After turn 5, they land 4 heavies and assaults a turn, until they have all arrived. (In the scenario, all 8 mechs were destroyed). Then we may battle until our heart’s content. The attackers will not chase the defenders, they need to secure the LX for the DropShips. So if we blow them all up with little effort, we might be able to pick off an assault or heavy or two. But unless we beat an awful lot of bad guys, we will not hold the battlefield after the battle, so we get no salvage. They get salvage from us though.

[Abe Sargent]

We roll randomly to determine which Company is involved.




Shield Company


AS7-S Atlas
WHM-6D Warhammer
Man o War H
Kraken-3

APL-1M Apollo
Rifleman Iic
Vulture Prime
BJ-2 Blackjack

STY-3C Starslayer
Locust Iic
ASN-40 Assassin
Shadow Hawk Iic



The Man o War, Kraken, Rifleman, Vulture, Locust and S.Hawk IIc are clan mechs. So I guess it might be possible after seeing my random roll, that we might blast their whole unit and keep the field We’ll see I guess. The Kraken 3 is one of the best fire support mechs of all time. Because it has 8, count them, EIGHT LRM 15 launchers. It also has virtually max armor for a 100 ton mech. It has 16 tons of ammo, which means 16 shots if it fires them all, This is a devastating mech.


Our unit has 9 elite, and 3 vet.



Alright, our first 8 foes are:


Fireball
Battle Hawk
Valkyrie
Locust
Enforcer
Stealth
Wolverine
Watchman


And then we will have 24 heavy and assaults arriving in a spate of 4 a turn starting after turn 5 – so on turn 6 and on. I won’t bother to list them all. How I will quick sim this, is I will have them each controlled by a separate bot, but on the same team. So the first 8 are one bot. Then I will give each of the 4 assault mech lances a different bot to control them.

We are playing on a normal sized map 16x17. This will keep me from hiding in a corner and poaching everything. I have to get in there and do stuff!


Each lance will have two heavies and two assaults to keep things even.

[Abe Sargent]

All of their pilots are a mix of vet and regular.

Turn 1 – We set up around some trees. This map has some rough terrain, but no elevation. I have 5 heavy woods, and I place the Kraken, Apollo, Warhammer, Atlas and Vulture in them. I almost based them with a Starslayer, but that’s not needed so I stopped myself. I do base a few mechs with our Man O War and they run up on my Atlas and ‘Hammer. Our Vulture destroys the RL of their Battle Hawk. Our Warhammer destroys the LL of their Fireball. Our Starslayer IIc destroys the CT of their Watchman. It’s engine explodes and it destroys the Fireball’s Rt and it shuts down. Their Wolverine joins them on the ground.



Turn 2 – We win init. Their Battle Hawk failed to stand, and on the way back down the pilot was knocked out. Their Valkyrie bases our Man O War. Eventually their Wolverine rose and moved away, but it fell once before doing so. I hope the Shadow hawk IIc by their Locust. Our Shadow Hawk ends up destroying their Locusts’ LL. Our Rifleman IIc nails the engine once on their Enforcer while our Starslayer does the same to their Valkyrie. Our Vulture takes careful aim and destroys the H of their Battle hawk with pulse lasers. A PPC from our Warhammer crushes the Enforcers LA. Their Locust, Valkyrie, Wolverine and Enforcer all tumble. I used my Locust IIc to set some fires in the woods they fled too. I want it burning when the next mechs arrive. It will give them more cover but really hot cover. Our man O War kicks the Valkyrie and destroys its entire right side and nails its gyro and engine once each. Our Shadow hawk’s kick hits the engine twice on their Locust after destroying its LT.


Turn 3 – We lose init. Their Wolverine stands. Their Valkyrie tries to stand, fails, and falls down and knocks the pilot out. Their Enforcer does not get up. Our Warhammer destroys the LA of their Stealth. Our Apollo the RA of their Enforcer. Our Assassin destroys the RT of their Wolverine and it shuts down – XL engine. Our Shadow Hawk II smashes their Enforcer’s RT. Te Kraken finishes off the Enfrocer’s CT. Our Man O War took 20 and fell, their Wolverine falls too.


Turn 4 – We win init. Our Man O War fails to get that 4 and I have to spend more movement points on him. Their Stealth fails to stand to. I base some light mechs. Our Starslayer destroys the Stealth’s H. Our Assassin destroys their Locusts’ CT. Their Valkyrie pilot awakens. We set woods to the north on fire.


Turn 5 – We lose init. I move my scout mechs back. Fires have spread very nicely . The Valkyrie destroys its CT trying to rise and failing. All 8 of those mechs have been killed. Time for the arrival of the heavy metal.


Turn 6 – We win init. We can see a Rakshasa and Atlas in our vision. Two more are hidden. Their Atlas walks into the inferno forest. A Zeus emerges from the back of the fire. A Crusader follows. That’s all four of our enemies. We attack both the Zeus and Rakshasa, since some of my mechs can’t see from one side of the foresty inferno to the other. Our Vulture’s large pulse laser shears off the H of their Rakshasa. Their Zeus took 120 damage, fell, and destroys its LA, hit the ammo in its LT and destroyed the LT and CT and it is dead. Boom! Two mechs down just like that. That’s the way we do it!


Turn 7 – We lose init. They have deployed, but the only mech we see is a Thunder Hawk. Their Atlas moves out of the inferno and is on the last forest, on fire. They move an Excalibur around in the inferno. The other two remain hidden. Their T Hawk takes 60 and falls, their Atlas took 80 and stands. Our Apollo took 20+ and is standing. Well, I needed to take out some more mechs, and this didn’t happen. So now more heavy metal will arrive.


Turn 8 – We lose init. We see none of the new mechs. Their T Hawk rises, spins and charges. Their Atlas runs out of the forest towards us. I begin to hop scout mechs into light woods near the Atlas to help in taking it down. No more mechs emerge. We get another window, luckily. Now you can see why I blazed the woods, it gives us coverage as well. Both the Atlas and T Hawk fall after 80 and 60 damage. Man, I need to finish these guys.


Turn 9 – We lose init. They have deployed, and again we see nothing. It must be a scrum back there! A Victor has entered our vision in the inferno. Their Atlas rises and gets even closer to our grill. We also see a Stalker round the corner. Their T Hawk also gets to its feet. It erred. It moved into line of sight of our Kraken. A Charger came out. Our Atlas’s AC20 nails theirs in the H and it dies. Our Apollo destroys the LL of their THawk. Our Vulture smashes the RA of their Crusader. Their Crusader took 80 and fell and their T Hawk 60 and missing a leg, so it falls too.


Turn 10 – We lose init. They have deployed a new lance of mechs and we can’t see anything still. Our Atlas took some damage last few turns from theirs as it closed. A Banshee joins their posse. A Archer pushes forward into the inferno-woods. Their Crusader rises and moves. A Devastator makes its way around too. Rolling really well, the T Hawk rises. Their Victor jumps forward towards us, leaving the cover of its woods and fire and smoke. LRMs from our Apollo black out their T Hawk pilot and hit the RA gauss, destroying it, the RT and ending the mech. Their Victor took 40 and their Banshee 100 and fall.


Turn 11 – The last lance of 4 mechs joins the party this round. We lose init again. They deploy a Cyclops in our Los but nothing else. A JagerMech moves up, and it’s the good one that pulled out the AC2s for ER Large Lasers. A Gunslinger pulls out. The Banshee stands and moves into smoke. A Maelstrom comes out too. We need to reduce numbers now. They are spreading out and breaking out. Their Victor stands and moves closer. Our Kraken knocks out the Banshee pilot with missiles and it falls and destroys its RA.


Turn 12 – We lose init. Again. A Quickdraw hops out of the woods. I leap our SHD IIc behind their Victor after it moves away. Our Locust IIc runs close to their Crusader. I want to finish some mechs and divert fire away from my big guns if possible. A Penetrator, Thunderbolt and Cataphract come out of the mists this round. Our Locust nails the hip on their Victor. Their Archer hits a pair of lasers on our Locust. Their Crusader destroys its RA. Their Stalker destroys our Apollo’s CT and then the engine explodes and hits a bunch of my mechs. Our Atlas and Assassin fall from the explosion. Their JagerMech fell from 80 damage and destroys its LT< dead mech. Their Victor tumbles too. Our Locust and Shadow Hawk combine to kick and destroy the LL on the Victor. Banshee pilot awakens.


Turn 13 – We win init. Finally. We stand the Atlas. The Assassin gets up and runs behind some trees. A Dragon Fire emerges. Their Victor fails to stand, falls, smashesthe ammo in its LT, CASe blows it out, the pilot blacks out. I leap our Blackjack to the Apollo spot to keep sniping. Their Stalker attempts to flank us. Their Penetrator joins them. Our damaged Locust walks backward behind the trees. Ammo problems will happen soon. Their Maelstrom took 60 and fell.


Turn 14 – We lose init. Their Maelstrom stands and runs back. Dragon fire, Gunslinger are joining the assault on our position. Quickdraw bases our Assassin. An AC20 shell to the LT followed by SRM missiles destroys their Stalker’s section and it shuts down – XL engine. Good job Atlas. Their Penetrator goes overheat and lambasts our Blackjacks CT, and it also goes up and smashes all of the nearby mechs with an engine failure. I’ve taken a ton of damage from engine overloads this game. Our Kraken unloads on their damaged Banshee and destroys both legs, and the RT and it shuts down. Their Gunslinger took 80 and stands, and their Charger 20 and falls. They miss the kick on our Assassin. They set the hex the BJ was in on fire in the blast.


Turn 15 – We win init. A Nightstar pulls out of the flames joined by a Cestus. Their Cataphract and Thunderbolt join the thrust. They are trying to win quickly. After I leap my Assassin away I can’t see some of their mechs on the flank anymore due to smoke that has risen. Their Charger stands easily enough. Their Dragon Fire nails an engine on our Vulture. It took 20 and fell their Nightstar took 60 and stood.

Turn 16 – The fire spreads, the smoke thickens, but we lose init. I pull our Vulture out of its sniping spot and replace it with our Warhammer. Their Quickdraw leaps behind our woods and smoke. Their Penetrator joins them. Our Atlas blows off he Penetrators LA. Our Shadow hawk IIc smashes some sensors on the Penetrator. Our Starslayer destroys the Dragon Fire’s RT and its down. That pilot got a level up in one battle – 4 kills notched. Our Kraken barrages the Nightstar a second turn and destroys its LA and LT. Dead mech. After taking 100+ damage, their Penetrator falls and breaks a leg


Their CO Signals for them to concede the battle to us. We let them leave. Our Atlas is out of ammo, our Kraken has about 3 or 4 more rounds of LRM shots. 9 of our 10 remaining mechs are in the yellow armor wise. Many are internal.

[Abe Sargent]

Nightstar missing LA, LT
Dragon Fire missing RT
Penetrator reattach LA, missing LL
Stalker missing LT
JagerMech missing LT
Banshee missing RA, RL, LL, RT
Crusader missing RA
Thunder Hawk missing LL, RA, RT
Zeus RT, RA, H< LL, RL
Rakshasa missing H
Atlas missing H
Victor missing LL, LT; blacked out pilot.

Battle Hawk missing RL, H
Fireball missing LL, RT
Watchman RT, LA, LT, RA, LL, RL< H
Locust LA, RA, RT, RL, H
Enforcer LT, H, RL
Valkyrie LT, RL, LL, LA, H
Wolverine missing RA, RT
Stealth missing LA, H



Locust IIc missing RA
Apollo RT, RA, LL
Blackjack H, LL


We won an EPIC battle. We were not supposed to win that battle, so met me see how we will adjust the campaign.

We took out 20 of their mechs in this battle alone! We lost an Apollo, Blackjack and had a Locust IIc damaged. That’s a great trade! Of those 20, 15 are recoverable.



That might be my favorite battle of this whole dynasty, inclusive of all chapters!

[Abe Sargent]

Dec 9 – They hit a backup base at the small mining villa of Huss. The brush aside the two lances of tanks that defended a few mining interests here. In a few days, the size of Huss doubles in size as support personnel of various sorts unload from their DropShips. Huss is located on an intersection of three busy thoroughfares, plus the Mahn River. We use this time to get the salvage from the battle, recover a few of their pilots (not all) and fix our forces.

They managed to recover 11 of the pilots and thus 11 of the mechs from their reserve have been assigned.