The BattleTech Dynasty - Chapter 8, Brother Against Sister - 3062-3067 - COMPLETE!!!! - Page 7

Abe Sargent · 01-02-2015, 05:08 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:16 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:22 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:29 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:44 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:47 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 05:51 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 06:02 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 06:24 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 06:42 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 06:46 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 09:26 PM

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 · 01-02-2015, 10:33 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 01:32 AM

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 · 01-03-2015, 12:22 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 07:32 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 08:02 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 08:59 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 09:25 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 09:40 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 10:13 PM

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 · 01-03-2015, 11:22 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 12:46 AM

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 · 01-04-2015, 03:21 AM

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 · 01-04-2015, 10:47 AM

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 · 01-04-2015, 11:22 AM

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 · 01-04-2015, 11:51 AM

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 · 01-04-2015, 12:21 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 01:15 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 02:14 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 02:24 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 02:50 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 03:19 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 03:36 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 04:19 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 04:53 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 05:08 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 05:37 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 06:07 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 06:26 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 07:10 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 08:30 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 09:46 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 10:22 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 10:39 PM

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 · 01-04-2015, 11:09 PM

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 · 01-05-2015, 09:43 AM

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 · 01-06-2015, 06:51 PM

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 · 01-06-2015, 08:13 PM

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 · 01-06-2015, 08:33 PM

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.

01-02-2015, 05:08 PM	#301
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 05:16 PM	#302
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 01-02-2015 at 05:22 PM.

01-02-2015, 05:22 PM	#303
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 01-02-2015 at 05:24 PM.

01-02-2015, 05:29 PM	#304
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 05:44 PM	#305
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 05:47 PM	#306
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 05:51 PM	#307
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 01-03-2015 at 03:33 AM.

01-02-2015, 06:02 PM	#308
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	*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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 06:24 PM	#309
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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…. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 06:42 PM	#310
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 06:46 PM	#311
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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! __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 09:26 PM	#312
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-02-2015, 10:33 PM	#313
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 01:32 AM	#314
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 12:22 PM	#315
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. - __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 07:32 PM	#316
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 08:02 PM	#317
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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! __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 08:59 PM	#318
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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* __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 09:25 PM	#319
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 09:40 PM	#320
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-03-2015, 10:13 PM	#321
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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.” __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 01-03-2015 at 10:34 PM.

01-03-2015, 11:22 PM	#322
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 12:46 AM	#323
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 03:21 AM	#324
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 10:47 AM	#325
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 11:22 AM	#326
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 11:51 AM	#327
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 12:21 PM	#328
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 01:15 PM	#329
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	*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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 02:14 PM	#330
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 02:24 PM	#331
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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… __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 02:50 PM	#332
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 03:19 PM	#333
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 03:36 PM	#334
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

01-04-2015, 04:19 PM	#335
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	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. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent