The Battletech Dynasty, Chapter 1 - 3030-38

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

Interested?

[Abe Sargent]

Here’s is the detail:


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With that decree, the Fourth Succession War began.

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

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

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

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

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

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

History awaits.

[SirFozzie]

awesome. I should re-download MegaMek sometime

[law90026]

Great idea for a dynasty, will be following.

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

[Abe Sargent]

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Glad to see a couple already interested!

[Izulde]

Is there something online like this for Battlesystem?

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Is there something online like this for Battlesystem?

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

http://www.mekwars.org/

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

[Izulde]

Okay, thanks.

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

[Abe Sargent]

On the Nature of Transit

I love the slowness of the universe.

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Mechs and Combat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope that helps!

[Abe Sargent]

On Warfare

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

My Character


Braham Essex, 27, is a MechWarrior that hailed from the Epsilon Eridani system. Braham was a recruit for the Northwind Highlanders, a house mercenary unit for the Capellan Confederation. During the Second Succession War, the Federated Suns captured the planet of Northwind, and House Liao used the atrocities committed by House Davion to cement the loyalty of the Highlanders, and pledged to them full independence should Liao recapture Northwind. Over the centuries, Capella failed again and again to capture Northwind, and the Highlanders continued to be among the elite units serving House Liao. Then, in 3028, Hanse Davion secretly contacted the Highlanders prior to launching the Fourth Succession War. He offered to give them Northwind in return to fealty to him. After discussing it for a long time, the Highlanders decided to leave their many years of service to Capella and pledged loyalty as a house unit of the Federated Suns (not even a mercenary unit any more). In return, Davion gave them an amount of freedom. A small minority of Highlanders chose to defect from the unit, believing that their contract with Capella should be honored. Among those defectors was Braham Essex. He defected and was assigned by the Capellan Confederation to fight with the veteran Blackwind Lancers.

The Fourth Succession War had begun. When Candace Liao falls in love with a Davion spy, she decides to use the war to declare the St. Ives Commonality is now independent of the Capellan Confederation. This succession brings many military units from the CCAF with her, including the Blackwind Lancers.

Once again faced with choosing to defect from his unit or defect from his state, Braham Essex chooses to leave the Lancers. By now, the Tikonov Free Republic has been created, with one of the highest and most trusted military leaders, Pavel Ridzik, choosing to also vacate the realm he had served all of his life in order to create a new state. The planet of Epsilon Eridani joined the Tikonov Free Republic. In the wake of these dissidents, and two elite units Braham was serving leaving to join others, he realized that the Confederation was falling apart. With his own homeworld no longer a part of the Confederation, he felt his loyalty waning. Braham also felt no love for the St. Ives Compact, Tikonov Free Republic, or Federated Suns. Choosing instead to form his own mercenary company, the Kilts and Commandos, he left for Outreach, making some contacts with other disaffected MechWarriors from the Northwind Highlanders and the Blackwind Lancers.

At the age of 16, Braham Essex was assigned to the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov. While there, he distinguished himself enough to warrant placement with the Highlanders. Essex has won the Liao Sunburst of Gallantry during battle with the Highlanders for the destruction of several enemy Battlemechs after his lance mates all fell, and completing the objective by himself. It is the most minor of Liao decorations and regularly given out.

After graduating from the Tikonov Academy, Essex served a full tour of duty with the Highlanders and had begun his second term with them when they left. He then served with the Lancers for most of his remaining term before they too defected. He has taken his own Battlemech and gathered other disaffected to create his mercenary cadre.

[Abe Sargent]

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


The Options

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

Flamers can deal heat instead of damage

Fires may be set accidentally or intentionally

Indirect Fire for LRMs is allowed

Minefields may be used

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

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

Engine Explosions, although very rare, are now possible.

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

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

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

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

Quad mechs may mulekick.

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

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

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

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

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

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

New physical attacks are allowed.

Infantry take reduced damage from single shot weapons.

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

Vehicles are not considered immobile by engine hits.

Vehicles can be abandoned

Woods have a chance to burn down.

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

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

Only canon units are shown as eligible for selection.

Clear hexes cannot be targeted for fire

Alright, there we go.





Books Referenced:

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


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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

Age: 27
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry

Skills:

Edge: 2
Tactical Genius



I am considered to have a veteran level of ability in the mech (as opposed to green, regular or elite). The edge skill allows me to reroll any 1d6 roll I make once for each point I put into edge, and I put two points into it, allowing me to reroll a critical piloting skill roll or other game roll. The Tactical Genius ability allows me to reroll initiative at the beginning of each turn if I want.

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

[Abe Sargent]

Kilts and Commandos:

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

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

Family:

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


Friends:

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


Unit:

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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


Special Recruit #1

Ted Izumo

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

Age: 52

Skills:

Edge: 3

Although initially an academy dropout, Ted’s three tours of duty as a MechWarrior gave him some influence and experience. He was later offered a job as an academy trainer, despite never graduating himself, allowing his experience to be a teacher. As a trainer, he met Braham Essex and became one of his closest mentors. When his planet of Tikonov declared independence from Liao, the academy fired many of its trainers, including Ted. When he got a call from Braham Essex, he gladly chose to join the fledgling Kilts and Commandos as Braham’s main advisor.

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



Special Recruit #2

Adele Thompson

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

Age: 31


Adele Thompson was born of a minor noble on Epsilon Eridani. She was family-trained and then sent off to a private academy on Sarna. As a child, she met Braham Essex and the two were boyfriend and girlfriend for seven months while he was 12 and she was 15. Even then, she saw a mature and intelligent person behind the boyish exterior. After graduation, she was assigned to a garrison unit on Acamar, but met action when the Federated Suns attacked and decimated her unit. Her Crusader mech was destroyed and only her personal money prevented her from being one of the dispossessed. With her unit destroyed and her homeworld no longer Capellan, she drifted to Outreach to find a new life as a mercenary before a chance meeting brought her and Braham Essex together again, this time as one of his new recruits to the Kilts and Commandos mercenary unit.

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

Total number of initial units in Kilts and Commandos:

Braham Essex
Adele Thompson
Ted Izumo
13 Others

[Abe Sargent]

Now we need to see what each unit is.


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

Now its time to roll up some mechs and vehicles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[law90026]

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

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by law90026

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Recruiting:

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

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

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

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

Regular Light Mech
Regular Medium Ground Vehicle
Green Motorized Infantry

That’s nothing special.


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

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

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

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

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

Now it is time to dial up our first contract.

[Abe Sargent]

January 1, 3031

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

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

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

Now I roll to determine what each one is offering.

Both are offering Objective Raids.

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

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

Time to negotiate, which is an interesting process.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transit Time (rolled): 5 weeks.

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

Each Unit:

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

Expertise:

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

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

[law90026]

Good luck on the first mission!

[PurdueBrad]

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

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all!

[Abe Sargent]

The First Campaign

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Qwikshot]

Congrats on your victory.

[law90026]

Grats on the win

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks all!

[Abe Sargent]

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




Damage Report:

Captured Mechs:

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

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

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

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



Items I need:

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


Damaged Items

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

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

Items I Salvaged:

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


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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Replacement cost of Items I cannot Fix:

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

Total Cost to Repair and Replace My Wounds: 938320

[Abe Sargent]

To Replace and Repair Salvaged Mechs:

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

Total Cost: 1630000

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

Total Value of Salvage: 9703552/2 = 4851776

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

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

40000 to fix Phoenix Hawk armor.

Total Expenses:

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

Total – 1687639

Total Cash:

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

Total – 5073410

Total Money Left After Contract:

3,385,771


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

[Tellistto]

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

Tell

[law90026]

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

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

What's your updated roster now?

[Abe Sargent]

Evaluation of Battle:

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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

Place of Origin:

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

1-3 – Male
4-6 – Female

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

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

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

Lyran Commonwealth, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Security



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by law90026

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

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

What's your updated roster now?

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

[Abe Sargent]

Another event happened while we were gone:


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

[Abe Sargent]

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Tellistto]

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

Just tough.

Tell

[law90026]

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

[Abe Sargent]

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


Salvaged

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

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

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


Damage:


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

Wasp – Missing left arm, 2 tons of armor

SRM6 Infantry – 6 people, need many more

Spider – Lower Arm Actuator, three tons of armor

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

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

Phoenix Hawk – Hand Actuator, 2 tons of armor

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

Maxim Hover – 1 tons of LRM5 ammo.

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

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

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

Salvaged Items:

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

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

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

[Abe Sargent]

Repairs:

Our Stuff

Stalker engine, Actuator
Phoenix Hawk Actuator
Urbie Actuator
Spider Actuator

Salvaged Stuff

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



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


We again have Shared Salvage Rights.


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

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

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

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

Total Value of all Salvaged Items: 15082038.

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

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

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

[law90026]

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

[Abe Sargent]

Total Finances:

Expenses:

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


Total Expenses: 1662886

Income:

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


Total Income: 7980334


Net Gain: 6317448

War Chest: 97033219 C Bills

Not bad.