The Battletech Dynasty, Chapter 1 - 3030-38

[Abe Sargent]

December 24, 3031 – We arrive back on Outreach. Time for more recruiting. Adele finds replacement infantry for our platoons. Ted strikes out in recruiting. I get a regular medium mech and a regular light mech. My recruits have a Commando, a 25 ton scout mech, and a Centurion, a 50 ton ranged mech with good weapons, adequate armor and slower speed.

I now have enough mechs to have a traditional organizational structure.

A lance is four mechs. A company is three lances. A Battalion is three companies. A Regiment is three Battalions. Now I can organize a full company.


Kilts and Commandos, Company

Leader - Lieutanent James Essex, Orion


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Adjunct Units:

Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Transport
Motorized Rifle Platoon
Anti-Mech Jump Laser Platoon
Foot SRM Platoon
Foot Rifle Platoon

My names for the lances. Thunder strikes quickly, and scouts terrain looking for bad guys. Then they retreat and attack from strategic positions. Good Thunder mechs are quick and expendable. Anvil drives through the center of the enemy, blasting anything. Good Anvil mechs have strong weapons and high armor. Hammer mechs rain damage from far. Hammer mechs specialize in long range weaponry and smash enemies against the Anvil. Those are my names for the lances. My Orion might also supplement Anvil where needed.


Time for a new contract.

[Abe Sargent]

I get two offers.

The Fed Suns want us to do an Objective Raid. The Lyran Commonwealth want us for a Cadre assignment.

A Cadre assignment is for us to train local militia or corporate security, while also nominally being a garrison unit. These contracts last between six and twelve months, and likely won’t see action. I want action. As you have seen, if you can win in battle, and the battle does well, you can do well in getting some nice money in salvage. Salvage one mech, and you can get millions of C Bills.

Thus I want the Fed Suns Objective Raid. I roll to see who the target is (possibilities are Dracs, Caps or Periphery). I roll an Objective Raid against my old nation, the Capellan Confederation. This is the first time I have taken an contract against my old liege.

It’s six jumps to Bandora, a minor planet near the border with the Fed Suns and believed to be the home of Amar Ridzik, one of the Ridzik family that had been so esteemed in the past. Our goal is to land on Bandora, find Amar Ridzik, who has an impressively large Atlas, the largest mech ever created at 100 tons. We are to destroy his Atlas and kill or capture him. He is the leader of a company of full mechs.

I agree to take the contract. Time to negotiate it.

We start with 55 points, and our difference in negotiator skill gives us an extra 11 points putting us at 66.

I start and put length of service on the first one. They offer a simple two months, and I can’t get that smaller (two months is the minimum for this sort of contract).

They put remuneration next and offer it to us, pulling ten points out of the pool. 56 points left.

I want to negotiate salvage rights while I still have 50+ points (so I can buy from Shared to Full salvage in case they offer Shared). They offer Exchange, so I counter with Shared and pull another 15 points to put us at 41.

They want command next, and offer us independent command, pulling out another 10 points. (31).

I want transport next. They offer us 40% reimbursement. That gives us 15. (46). I choose not to dicker it.

They go for support and offer us 50% straight support. I pull 10 points out of the pool and force them to give us Battle Loss Compensation. I then pull 21 points and force them to pay for 42% of armor, ammo, and other losses. We now have 15 points left.

I put up salary. They pay down the final 15 points and give us 2.6 modifier to our military salary.

[Abe Sargent]

EVENT January 1, 3032 - The Dragoons complete the construction of a Hiring Hall on Outreach. The +1 modifier for recruiting on Outreach is now gone.

[Abe Sargent]

March 19, 3032 - We arrive at Bandora. Since our enemy is not at any given position, we have to find them. I send my Thunder Lance out for a recon, when they encounter the scout lance of the enemy. This will be a short enounter. I have five turns to inflict damage, and if possible, destroy a mech. Any mechs destroyed in this encounter will not be available later. Any mechs damaged seriously will remain seriously damaged if used later, such as blown off legs, arms and such. However, armor can be replaced and ammo restocked between these battles. Due to the nature of this scenario, any salvage will wait until after the campaign, and is not available after the battle. I have just five turns.


Their Scout Lance:

Locust
Locust
Assassin
Stinger



They outspeed my lance, but many of their mechs are lightly armored. Locusts, for example, are fast 20 ton mechs that move 8/12. The Assassin is a 7/11/7 (the last number is jump) with 40 tons of weapons and armor. The Stinger is very similar to our Wasp, 6/9/6 20 ton mech with two weapons.

[Abe Sargent]

At the end of the first round, My Wasp hit’s the Stingers leg and crits both the hip and lower leg actuator. It falls hard.

It falls down on the second turn before getting back up and moving. My Commando blasts one of the Locust’s legs, hit’s an actuator and it falls this turn. Then my Spider kicks the left leg completely off the Stinger.

On the third turn, the Left Arm of my Firestarter is opened up seriously, about to be knocked off. My Spider kicks the other leg off the Stinger after it hobbled up. Also falling to the ground are a Locust with a damaged actuator and the Assassin who missed a kick.

The fourth turn sees me blow the leg off a Locust. The Commando blows the right arm and right torso off the other Locust. My Spider kicks the arm off the downed Locust (which is now missing two arms and a leg) while my Commando misses a kick that might have blown the leg off the other Locust. One turn left.

The final turn sees the one legged Locust make a ten and stand up. We exchange fire but the other Locust does not go down during the weapons phase. My final chance sees me kick the Locust missing a torso and la twice, once each with the Commando and Spider. One kick, placed properly, can blow the leg off it. I miss both attacks, and despite that Locust having just one point of armor left internal, it manages to get away. We took out a Locust and a Stinger from their normal mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

While my scout lance is out, I catch a blip on our dropship’s radar. Their mechs are within a hundred klicks. If I have any speedy mechs left, I can send out a party to hit their Heavy lance. I do not have to engage. I can send out anything that is 5/8 or faster, which is:

Griffin
Wolverine
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim Hover Transport which can take one Infantry unit


Our radar identifies their heavy (what I call my Anvil lance) as the following mechs:

Atlas
UrbanMech
Orion
Hunchback


I choose not to send out my mechs. All are slow, but it would be too hard to isolate and kill one in five turns. I might kill an Urbie in my best case scenario, but I’d be taking a lot of firepower against me to do it.

[Abe Sargent]

Time for the final battle then. Our scout teams gets back, and damage is repaired. They choose not to send out the Locust with a missing arm and torso. With most of its weapons gone, even fully repaired it has no real combat value.

Their four remaining mechs:

Whitworth
Trebuchet
Catapult
Cicada

The Cicada is a fast mech to keep the slower fire support mechs from getting flanked. The other three are missile boats. They are slow, and feature a lot of LRMs. The Catapult is the best of the lot at 65 tons with two LRM15s and four medium lasers for cloer range fighting plus ten tons of armor. It even sports jump jets to get it out of danger. They are a House Liao speciality.


Due to a lack of pre-battle scouting, we stumble into each other on the field, and so we are on a smaller map inside the ranges of most of our long range weapons. We are fighting around a mountain lake. There is not a single tree in the area. I feel naked.

On the first turn, my Wolverine takes a little damage to the head, and my pilot blacks on (stays awake on a 3 or better after taking one damage, and I rolled a two). Bad news for the mercs early. It tumbles to the ground.

The next turn my Firestarter loses its left arm. Just some armor trading other than that.

The Maxim blows off the LT and LA of a Cicada. I hit the Orion’s head with my Orion, and that’s the second hit this turn there, so I go internal. I roll a critical on the cockpit and kill the pilot. Boom! One mech down, and it’s a great one! Very recoverable too. The head wasn;t even destroyed, just the cockpit. That was a big swing. Then my Spider gets kicked byt eh Cicada, which goes internal on the leg, and it falls. My pilot blacks out (needed a 5 to not do so). Luck gives and luck takes away. The Wolverine pilot wakes up.

My Spider lost a left leg and a right arm from the beatings. If I gain consciousness, I can eject and leave it on the field. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Whitworth, hits for 20+ damage, and then forces it off the map. No more Whitworth.

My Spider is missing both arms and a LL. I eject. Ted Izumo takes out the Trebuchet’s engine with the third hit, after my Orion got two hits. The Motorized Rifle Platoon and Maxim team up to each hit a Cicada gyro. It falls and cannot move.

The next turn we just exchange weapons. Nothing major happened.

The following turn I run up to the Atlas with my Orion and Stalker and blast each other at close range. My Stalker and the Atlas both fall under the assault. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Catapult, hits it, and knocks it from the field as well. It then falls down. My Griffin’s LA was blown off.

I stand up both of my prone mechs. I move the Phoenix Hawk out of the way of fire. It did what it needed this game, knocking two mechs off the board.

One of my Urbies had its RT blown off and its RA is on the floor. The Atlas was battered by a variety of missiles, and the head was hit three times. That means the pilot has to make three consciousness checks, and he fails the third, blacking out. The mech falls to the ground.

The following turn we exchange fire. No major things.

Turn 10 sees Ted Izumo clean up the trash by devastating the opposing Urbie with a nice ammo explosion.

And with that, we have won the Scenario. Our target is unconscious and thus captured by us. We also capture the Atlas.

I had no idea when I drew up the Atlas for the lead guy we had to kill that we would actually be able to capture the Atlas, much less get one in virtually pristine condition.

[law90026]

Wow very nice win. Grats on the Orion and Atlas, hopefully you can get both!

[Abe Sargent]

Salvaged Mechs:

Cicada - No LT, LA, 2x damaged gyro, ML in RT hit.

Orion - Head cockpit hit. Needs two tons of armor, one ton of lrm ammo.

Atlas - No internal damages. Just needs ammo for AC20 and LRM and armor.


Things we salvaged:

Urbie RA from my own mech
Locust LA


Things we need for my mechs:

Griffin - LA, 2 tons of armor, LRM ammo

Firestarter, RA, 2 tons of armor

Urbie - RT, RA, 3 tons of armor, 1 ton AC10 ammo

Maxim - 2 tons of armor, 1 ton LRM ammo

Wolverine - 3 tons armor, 1 ton AC5 ammo, 1 ton SRM6 ammo

Stalker - 1 ton lrm ammo, 1 ton srm ammo, 4 tons armor

Orion - 1 ton armor, AC10 ammo, LRM ammo

2 tons LRM ammo, 1 ton AC10 ammo on other mechs.

Not Bad fellas, not bad.


Value of Salvaged Mechs:

Atlas - AS7-D Normal Value: 9,626,000 Cost to Fix: 105,000 Current Value: 9,521,000

Orion - ON1-K Normal Value: 6,674,500 Cost to Fix: 50,000 Current Value: 6,624,500

Cicada - CDA-2A Normal Value: 3,705,200 Cost to Fix: 1,850,000 Current Value: 1,855,000

We fixed the cockpit on the Orion. We have to replace the gyro on the Cicada which costs 1.2 mill alone.


Locust Left Arm is worth about 150k, plus weapons.


Total value salvaged: 18,180,500 giving us 9,090,250 in CBills as compensation.

We cannot take the Atlas. Get this, if we had managed to fix the gyro, we would have added 1.2 million to the salvage value of the Cicada, which would give us enough compensation to get the Atlas. Ah well.

I take the Orion, Cicada and Locust Left Arm.

To fix Orion and Cicada:

1,900,000

To fix our mechs:

995,000



Total Costs:

1,900,000
995,000
425,000 for jump there
425,000 for jump back to Outreach
264,120 for maintenance and salaries


Total Costs: 4,109,120


Total Compensation:

9,090,250 for salvage compensation
417,900 for 42% battle compensation

380,000 for 40% travel reimbursement
133,998 for actual contract
6,700 for remuneration



Total Compensation: 10,028,848


Net Gain: 5,919,728


Total War Chest: 15,622,947

[Abe Sargent]

July 2, 3032 - We arrive back at Outreach. Time for another recruit drive. I need pilots for the Cicada and Orion. Ted notched an elite dispossessed warrior for the Orion. Adele strikes out. I have three tries. I get another elite dispossessed MW and that’s it.

Martin Fitzgerald, elite, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, elite, Cicada

I also hire a few more techs.

The Cicada is super fast, with an 8/12 speed on a 40 ton mech but it has the armor and weaponry of a 20 ton mech, nothing special at all. What it is amazing at is charging and hitting people. A 40 ton mech that runs 10 spaces to hit you can knock you out. A 20 ton mech that runs 8 spaces, won’t do anywhere near as much damage, so the Cicada is like a charge special. I’ll try to set up for that, and with an elite pilot behind the figurative wheel, it may be time for some dirty damage dealing.

I purchase a Hunter Light Support Tank for my extra crew. It is a cheap, 35 ton tank that sports an LRM20 and has light armor. Just leave it in the back and bring the missles. Then run away if people get close. You can even park it behind an evelvation change and launch LRMs indirectly using a spotter.


Time for some contracts.

We get three offers. They are from:

Lyran Commonwealth for a Garrison contract. Garrison contracts can run for years.

Duchy of Andurien for a Planet Assault!

Magistracy of Canopus for Pirate Hunting

Pirate Hunting is easy, Pirates are usually poor team players, have poor equipment, and simply need to be caught. Garrison contracts are milk work, but you get no real combat action. No one trusts mercenaries with border world garrison contracts.

The Duchy of Andurien is attacking the Capellan Confederation, and that means one thing. Their Planetary Assault contract must be against a Liao world! Interesting.


I am pasuing the dynasty for one reason. There is a sourcebook that has the Duchy of Andurien/Magistracy of Canopus - Cappellan war in it, and I do not have it. As it appears that I am about to be a participant in that war, I will order the book, read it, and then use it for this contract.

[Tellistto]

I'll still be round when you get back to it, no worries there. This is fascinating stuff to me. Rather wish I had the stuff to get into it myself.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Glad ta hear it, thanks.

[mrkilla22]

I'm reading along too. I used to play this a while back with friends. It was a blast. Nice dynasty write-up by the way.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks mrkilla22!

This is for the non B-Tech peops out there.

While waiting, let’s go over a few things.

How do you know if you hit a mech when you fire? Well, you roll 2d6 and check the result of the total against your target number. Start with your gunnery skill. Thus a lower gunnery skill is a good thing.

Add the range of your weapon. For example, a Medium Laser has a 3/6/9 range. Within three hexes is close range, and there is no bonus. At medium range add two, and at long range add four. Some weapons have a minimum range and firing inside the minimum range is tough.

Add your movement. Add one if you walked, two if you ran, three if you jumped, and nothing if you did not move.

Add your opponent’s movement, which is based on the number of hexes they moved. 0-2 hexes moved is no change, 3-4 is one, 5-6 is two, 7-9 is three and 10+ is four. That means super fast mechs are harder to hit. Also, if the target jumped, add and additional one.

Add terrain. Add one for every light woods and two for every heavy woods between you and the target. Add three for partial cover.

Result is your target number. Let me give you some examples. All examples assume a gunnery of 4 (which is average for a regular unit).

You are six spaces away from a Hunchback in your Panther. You have a PPC and an SRM4. You jumped this turn, and the Hunchback moved three spaces. To hit with your PPC, which is at close range, you need an eight. To hit with the SRM4, which is at medium range, you need a ten. Roll for each weapon.

Hope that helps.

[law90026]

Be reading your sourcebook faster!

Nice dynasty so far.

[Abe Sargent]

The book that I was waiting for has arrived. Brush Wars. It was published in 2006 as a series of historical sourcebooks fleshing out older conflicts that never had a sourcebook. This book covers three major conflicts:

The Ronin Wars - An internal struggle in the Draconis Combine that may not involve us as mercs.

The Andurien Conflict - The attacks by the Duchy and Magistracy on House Liao.

The Marik Civil War - This was back in 3014 and 3015, so there is no chance of involvement by Kilts and Commandos.

Now I am off to go read it. Catch ya all later!

[Tellistto]

Read fast!

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, I've digested the book.


We are contracted to join the Andurien assault on the key Capellan system of Betelgeuse. A strong industrial center, Betelgeuse has been in battle for over a year with each side contributing troops to the conflict. Every couple of months, each side tosses in more troops into the crucible of Betelgeuse.


Time to negotiate the contract.

We begin with 77 points.

I put up salvage rights first. They offer us Exchange rights, and I choose to pull 50 points out of the pool to buy Full Salvage Rights. This is our first contract with full rights.

They put up command rights next. They offer Integrated command which gives us 15 points, but I but it to house command for twenty, putting us at 22 points left.

I then toss up remuneration just to give me a buffer of 10 points. We will not be receiving any. 32 points.

They put up salary next, pulling out 25 points to give us a 3.4 modifier. That leaves us with 7 points.

I toss up transport, and they offer us the normal 40% reimbursement,which gives us 15 points and I do not protest. 22 points.

They have support and length of service left, and choose support, offering 50% on straight support. I agree. 22 points left.

I put length last. They offer a six month contract. I pull ten points and drop it to four.

We have 12 points left which will give us a 6% bonus to our salary.


We will be landing in Andurien before meeting our fellow troops and jumping to Betelgeuse.

This is eight jumps away. Andurien will be using command circuits to help us out as we get close to their Duchy. Command circuits are JumpShips already charged and ready to go, waiting on your arrival. They cut transport time down significantly, but you still have to transfer from one JumpShip to the next.

[Tellistto]

Mm, this one sounds interesting. Hopefully the loot is good in this one and you don't end up becoming more fodder for the grinder.

Tell

[Abe Sargent]

October 9, 3032 - We arrive in Andurien and are informed that Betelgeuse has fallen. Five regiments of the mercenary unit McCarron’s Armored Cavalry arrived and changed the nature of the war. We are being reassigned to Palladaine. With no planetary assaults left for Andurien to send us, we are being sent to shore up defenses on the Cappellan world they captured quickly and easily in the first month of the war. We’ve basically turned into a four month security contract. There is a JumpShip waiting to take us there now,

October 13, 3032 - We have landed on Palladaine. It’s a fairly peaceful world, considering the war that was raged here earlier. It only took ten days for the Third Defenders of Andurien to capture it. They left a battalion of their forces (three companies) here for peacekeeping, but it has been very quiet here. As such, they will be jumping out in a little over a week to join other campaigns and leaving us as the sole garrison forces on the world.

October 15, 3032 - The Free Worlds League Sixth Marik Militia have arrived in system to raid Palladaine. They are a veteran regiment sized force. Luckily, the Third Defenders of Andurien’s one battalion are still here to help us. We have half the troops that this veteran Marik force has. The one thing we have going for us is that the Marik troops have not arrived with the intention of taking the planent, since it is a Capellan planet. They want to raid, destroy or take some supplies, which hurts our war effort, and then leave.


Time for a campaign.

[Abe Sargent]

We came expecting battle with Liao, and instead Marik is attacking.

Troops are most vulnerable when they are landing or taking off. They are bunched up, some assets are in transport DropShips, some assets are scattered or non-functional during a landing or take-off, since pilots aren’t going to be in the seats of their mechs.

The Marik Commander isn’t dumb. He has several options. He can land all of his forces at the same place, knowing that we will be there to challenge his arrival. It’s arriving in force. If we are to overcome 2:1 odds, that would be the place to do it, plus even if he wins, he’ll take major losses. This isn’t about him taking the world, he wants to get supplies.

Another option is to hot drop mechs. You enclose mechs in giant ceramic shells and drop them out of DropShips flying at low altitude. Forces will be spread out, harder hit, but easier to overcome when we do. Again, it comes with some problems. Mechs are known to take damage from the drop, and its used for suberterfuge, and long campaigns to set you up where you need to be without risking a full blown drop and the open area it requires.

A third option is to split into three battalions and land in three different places. Force the defenders to decide where to go and how. The disadvantage is that one group might be defeated if we concentate on it, but the other two groups will be free to hit the supplies. Even if we split up and hit two of the three drops, there is still one free group. If we split into three groups, then we may not have enough mechs at each landing site to overcome the 2:1 ratio. In other words, it is easier for 50 mechs to defeat a 100 than it is for 10 to beat 20 (those are hypothetical numbers).

One subtle advantage that the Marik troops have, in addition to numbers, is in experience. The Andurien Defenders are regular troops, the Mariks are vets.


What strategy are the Marik forces employing? All at once, split into three or hot drop?

There are nine DropShips making for Palladaine. As they arrive close to the planet, they split off in different directions. Not three different directions, with a battalion heading each way, but nine different directions. The Marik Commander is splitting his regiment into companies. That all but guarantees that troops will get through and get the supplies and get out.

What will our commander do?


There are a lot of options If we defended the supply base, with our attackers just landing in one or even three directions, we could defend the base. However, we are in the center of a nine pointed circle. Defending the base would be suicide against so many. We have better odds on the ground.

The problem our side faces is this: Inner Sphere units are operated in lances, companies, battalions and regiments, and they fight thusly. It is not easy to dispatch five or six or seven mechs to take on a target.

Our commander, whom we answer to, has a decision to make. Even were he to split our forces into nine units, he’d be sure that a number of them would fail, and then there would be no real defense for the base. We also can’t sit back and just protect, we are surrounded and would easily fall.

Without much of a choice, he decides to split forces. We have four and a half companies of toops against nine companies. He orders our infantry to stay at the base guarding the defenses against any attackers.

He orders our Anvil and Thunder lances against one enemy, and our other forces against another. He divides all of his companies in half to attack six drops, leaving one drop untouched. It’s just a company of mechs, and he has dispatched a few conventional fighters to harass and delay them until we are done fighting.

[Abe Sargent]

Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech

Under the command of Ted Izumo. I now have random rolling charts from the Brush Wars books to accurately represent the Marik mechs. Here we go.


SPECIAL DROP RULES:

It is dusk. Therefore all to hits are at +1 difficutly, which will favor the Marik forces even more.

Ted’s battle will be at a Lake Area



Marik Forces at Ted’s Drop

Locust
Stinger x2
Firestarter x2
Archer
Stalker x2
Spider
Vulcan
Javelin
Griffin

So we have one Stalker, they have two. The Archer is a heavy mech missle boat with two LRM20 raining long range missles on you. it’s a very good mech, arguably the best heavy mech of its day. That’s their power, and the rest are light and medium mechs.

Roll 1d6 for each mech. That is the round on which it deploys to the map.

[Abe Sargent]

Ready for combat:

I roll for each mech. The good news is that none of the big three (Stalker, Stalker, Archer) begin on the map, so I can take my time blasting their mechs. The bad news is that they all appear on the map on the same turn the 5th. My hope is that I can take the advantage strong enough in the first few turns that I can keep the momentum even after the big guys come out.

My eight mechs looks like this: Assault, Medium, six lights.

Theirs: 2 Assaults, 1 Heavy, 2 Mediums, 7 Lights


Okay, here we go.


There are five lights on the map for the first round. Hopefully I can damage one or two severely this turn. Bad news. Their Locust tears off my Commandos right torso, goes critical, hits the ammo and boom! First turn kill. On my mech. I;m critical on my Wasp’s RA. I did not hit with a single weapon.

A Vulcan is deployed this turn. I unleash on my opponent’s Javelin, but it survives, although it loses an arm. We have to get killing soon, or this engagement will be a loss. During the physical attack step, my Wasp loses its wounded arm, and then falls down from being kicked after rolling a 2 on 2d6 to see if it stands. Argh.

On turn three, no new mechs are deployed by my opponent, but I have to savage them now, this turn. I fail to get up with my Wasp (I needed a five) and took damage. I stood up with it again. Adele Thompson blows off the LT of the Locust, taking its Left Arm with it. She also hits its gyro. Our Wolverine blasts through the rear armor of the Vulcan and tacks its engine and gyro. The Vulcan falls. I was hoping to kill either the Locust or the Javelin, but neither happened. We barely even hi the Javelin this round.

Another light mech joins their squad this round. Next round the three baddies join, so I have to deal maximum damage this round. If there are not multiple light mechs with a Marik symbol destroyed at the end of this round, then I’ll have to consider retreat. With one mech destroyed and another without its arm and weapon, I am lacking strength here. My Wolverine hit’s the Locust, destroys its LL and then destroys its Center Torso, destroying it. That’s it. Sure, I attacked their Stinger well and the Javelin well, but can I destroy them? Nope. They are like annoying gnats. My Spider punches the Stinger in the leg (it was one elevation up) and rolls a 12 when it goes crit. A 12 is Limb Blows Off, so the ll is gone, and the Stinger falls. Heavy machinery comes out of the woods.

The Archer takes out my RT and LA on the Wasp. One of their Firestarters falls after missing a kick. I still can’t kill the Javelin or Stinger. I was hoping to clean them up this week. The final mechs join my opponent’s forces.

My Stalker has taken damage in the first few turns, and has wounded armor. My Wasp is on its way to dying. My Commando is gone. The Marik Company Commander could keep coming our way, but he does not want to kill and destroy us, and he doesn’t want to lose a bunch of mechs doing it. Right now, his only loss is the Locust, and ours a Commando.

I signal my troops to withdraw and test the Marik’s resolve. As expected, he just moves past us towards the base. Instead of a fighting withdraw, I let him past, and now the field is ours.


We lost, yet we get salvage

[Abe Sargent]

Salvaged:

Stinger LL
Commando Head
Locust Head, LA, LT


Damages: Wasp LA, RA, RT all destroyed.

We probably have about 10 tons of armor needed. Our pilot survived the destruction of the Commando.

[Abe Sargent]

The Other Drop Site

We have the following troops available here:


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Lieutanent Braham Essex, Orion
Martin Fitzgerald, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, Cicada
Erik Jannarsson, Hunter Light Support Tank
Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Hover Transport

So this group has just seven mechs, instead of eight, but there are no light mechs here. Perhaps heavy metal will rule the day.

Also, this side will benefit from my tactical genius skill.

[BYU 14]

This is very interesting, how long is it taking you know to get through an average mission?

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

This is very interesting, how long is it taking you know to get through an average mission?

Depends on the number of turns it goes. A five turn mission might take an hour or so, some of the longer grinding missions take three or four hours. I play and watch tv at the same time. Right now I am watching the season finale of Workout, for example.

[Abe Sargent]

Here are the forces arrayed against us.

Stinger
Hunchback
Rifleman
Stalker
Hermes II
Javelin
Whitworth
Grasshopper
Firestarter x2
Wasp
Archer


The mechs to fear are the Archer, Stalker combo once again. The Grasshopper is big but not scary. I’ve handled Riflemen before, they are strong in weapons but weak in armor. The Hunchback features a powerful AC20 but has little mobility and can be taken out before it becomes a threat.

Their breakdown

Assault Mechs: 2
Heavy Mechs: 2
Medium Mechs: 3
Light Mechs: 5

That’s actually pretty evenly stretched. If one Light were moved to medium, it would be a perfect distribution.



My opponent only starts with an Archer and Stinger, and the Stalker doesn’t come down until turn 6, giving us a strong chance to deal some damage. I rolled well for my team. We’ll see if that matters.

[Abe Sargent]

We are fighting over a river.



On the first turn, the Orion not piloted by me TACs the Archer’s shoulder actuator, which is good.

The second turn brings out their Rifleman and a few lights like a Firestarter. I’m choosing to concentrate my fire on the good mech, the Archer, over the Rifleman, in the hopes that not only will I kill their second best mech, but also have a chance at getting it for myself. I sandblast off some armor from the Archer, but nothing critical.

One of their medium mechs, the fast Hermes II is deployed this round. Their Archer destroys my Maxim Hover Transport after blowing up its power plant. One of their light mechs, a Stinger, got too close to the other Orion and he blew out its right leg and it falls. We continue to target the Archer with most of our mechs. Not even internal yet. That thing is awesome.

Their Stinger stands up getting the 10 they need to do so. Even more sloughing of armor off the Archer, and my Centurion took out the LA of the Stinger. It falls down from the damage.

Their Whitworth and Grasshopper and Javelin and second Firestarter have joined the fray. Their Stinger falls down while moving. We exchange more fire and no more decision. Then my Orion kicks the downed Stinger in front of him and destroys it by kicking its RA, which transfers to the RT which trasnfers to the CT which kills the mech when it is destroyed.

Their Stalker and Hunchback join the weenie roast. I make a ballsy move and charge an opposing Stinger next to the river. I need an 8 to hit during the physical phase, and I can’t attack with weapons, but if I hit, not only will I do 24 to him for 4 to myself, but I also knock him into the river. My second Orion blows off the Archer’s LT and his LA goes with it. My Phoenix Hawk falls after taking damage. The Cicada misses and then his LA is blown off with a 12 critical, and lays on the ground ready to be brought back.

My Phoenix Hawk is destroyed by engine destruction. I personally screw up the Archer bad - two engine hits and a gyro hit. The other allied Orion TACs the Stalker’s CT and hits a heat sink and the engine. The Archer falls.

I flee with the Cicada the next turn. It was internal everywhere. The Archer tried to stand and failed, falling back down again. After some exchange of fire, both Hunchback and the other Orion fall.

I keep up the pressure. We are losing the battle, but just a bit. I suspect the Marik forces will pull out soon. They don’t want too many losses. Another round, another exchange of fire.

Another round passes. More fire is exchanged. Then the Archer overheats, and shutdown. When an engine critical is gotten, the mech makes a lot more heat, and it had two hits, plus it was still moving and shooting. It overheated and shut down.

Marik begins to retreat to their DropShip. They are too damaged to go to the base, and they do not want to stay around and keep getting beat up. This was more of a ceasefire, than a win.

[law90026]

Ouch on the loss in the first fight. Having said that, your force seemed awfully out-classed from the outset so it's good you didn't lose any really valuable mechs.

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, but them's the breaks. Gotta do what the commander orders.

[Abe Sargent]

We lost a Phoenix Hawk and Maxim. Let’s see what else happened:


The Phoenix Hawk pilot survived.
Everything on the Maxim was a total loss
The Cicada lost a LA, but it was left on the battlefield and will be easy to fix




We recovered:

Archer LA
Stinger LL
Phoenix Head, LL, RL

Archer - Engine hit twice, gyro hit once, no LT, no LA, lower leg actuator hit. Could be very expensive to replace this stuff if we don’t get it fixed.

It will take about 20 tons of armor to fix us up.

[Abe Sargent]

Well, we stopped one out of two of our targets from advancing, but we had to let the others by. Let’s see how the rest of the Andurien troops fared.

They stopped three advances, so they averaged 50% too. That leaves five companies making it to the supply depot. I head back there with my quickest mechs.


By the time we reach the supply depot, the mechs have come and gone, lifting out from the base. Our infanty is damaged and brusied, but not badly shaken.


Total Losses:

Commando
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim


Gain:

Archer


Just my luck, I have total salvage and I lose more than I bring in.


Archer ARC-2R Value: 6,384,974. Damage: 1,196,244. Current Value: 5,188,730

I was able to fix the engine, gyro and actuator. Still, replacing an arm, a torso section, and the LRM20 has some expense to it.

I use the Locust LA to fix the Wasp’s broken and missing arm.

[Abe Sargent]

Cost to fix my current stuff:

300000 for armor
750000 Wasp RT, RA
475000 for ammo

1196244 to fix Archer
427648 8 month cost of running the mercs
525000 transport there
525000 back

Total Costs: 4,198,892


Revenue:


407,420 salary
420,000 transit reimbursement
24,446 bonus
38,400 support

Total Revenue: 890,266


Total War Chest After Losses: 11,179,186

When you go for full salvage, you can go from making massive amounts of money to losing money like that. The contract is not over, but I wanted to go ahead and fix the finances so it would be taken care of. I assign the elite pilot Rafael Gomez to the Archer. I was actually considering it for myself, but ultimately decided to keep the Orion for me. I move dispossessed Melissa Darrow to the Dervish.

The Archer and Wasp will not be fixed immediately. It will take a while to get the parts shipped here, so for two months, if we are in combat here, we will not be able to use the Wasp or the Archer.

[Abe Sargent]

Okay, let’s see if any other action comes our way.


December 15, 3032 - We receive word from Andurien intel that the Capellan forces are consolidating their hold on their recaptured worlds, and we are being reassigned. We are to raid Scarborough, a nearby world, one jump away in Marik space. It is being used as a base for the Sixth Marik Militia, our previous enemies. Intel says that most of them are currently raiding again. We’ll have limited defenses as a result.

December 23, 3032 - Our arrival on Scarborough is discovered by the remnants of the Sixth Marik Militia still on planet. Instead of dropping hot, or having a drop that involves combat, I choose to drop into swamps several hundred klicks away from one of their supply depots, in a small town. Not trusted the unstable land of a swamp, the Sixth Marik Militia sends out a scout force to engage us as we leave the swamp.


For this battle, we will be fighting against a company of scout mechs. Their goal is to harass and damage us, and hopefully take out one or two of our mechs, then fade away. It is a typical hit and fade tactic, being used against us.

[Abe Sargent]

Our Opponents:

Stinger x2
Hermes II x2
Hermes
Javelin
Griffin
Scorpion
Spider
Locust 1M
Shadow Hawk
Flea


The Hermes IIs, Griffin, Scorpion and Shadow Hawk are all medium mechs. The Scorpion is a rare quad mech, with four legs instead of the normal two legged upright mech. It’s harder to pilot a quad than a normal mech, because the neurohelmet taps into a person;s own sense of balance to pilot a mech, and a quad is just…off.

We do not have the Archer or Wasp on this journey.

We’ll be playing on two maps. One the end of a swamp which we start on, and the other relatively clear terrain on the Marik side.

[Abe Sargent]

We begin to move out on the first turn, no one hits anybody else.

The second tuirn sees us skirmish a bit with weapons fore and continue to maneuver into various positions.

Another turn and some more flirting, but no screwing yet. Too much footsie going on. I’m moving in next turn.

The opposing Griffin hit’s the head of one of my Orions with a PPC and goes internal, but luckily doesn’t hit a critical, I could have lost an Orion from that if a crit had been rolled. Ted Izumo takes out the Flea’s right arm. Then the Centurion hits the Flea’s head with its AC10 and destroys it. That’s one mech that’s fixable. I kick the Shadow Hawk down onto the ground.

The next turn the Shadow Hawk arises, and then we barrage it from all corners. It falls to the ground under the onslaught.

Another turn and another savaging of their Shadow Hawks. It falls down again. My Wolvie falls too after taking a little beating.

And just like that, the Marik troops fade out. I order some support vehicles to grab the Flea while we spend a few hours fixing armor and reloading ammo bays, before moving on.

[law90026]

Archer for a Phoenix Hawk and a Commando? Not a bad trade though your force appears to be coming heavier and heavier over time (not necessarily a bad thing).

[Abe Sargent]

Yeah, I love Archers.


Salvage:


Flea

Missing Head, Left Arm, two damaged Small Lasers

Probably about 8 tons of armor needed.
About 100k in ammo needed.

A Flea is a 20 ton mech with 3 tons of armor, a 6/9 movement, it has two medium lasers, two small lasers facing the rear, a flamer and two machine guns. You can make it good by stripping off the machine guuns and ammo for a fourth ton of armor and two more small lasers, and then move the rear facing ones to the front, giving it six lasers: four small and two medium. That’d be a solid mech. I may just sell the remains of the Flea instead of paying to rebuild it. We’ll see.

[Abe Sargent]

A few hours after we are field refitted, I make a decision. Satellite data is telling us that they have moved their defenders (two companies of mechs) around the supply depot. I order all of our quick mechs to move out to the nearby supply depot under the command of Adele Thompson. Then I have all of my other units into our DropShip, and order it to another depot on another continent with light defenses. The mechs moving to the nearby base will force his troops to stay there while my main forces smash and grab.

After an hour, we get more telemetry on their forces. They left a company of mechs at the nearby depot where our light and medium fast mechs are heading. They launched a DropShip to chase us down, but we have a head start. My guess is we’ll have about a half hour to fight through the meager defenses, and then grab what we can before we load back up and get out. Then we’ll have to meet up with our fast forces and launch back to Palladaine.

As soon as our fast mechs get within 50 klicks of the supply depot, I order them back. They have been the diversion I needed, and they retreat back. I suspect the enemy company garrisoning the depot will advance on our troops after they realise what happened.

In the meantime, our heavy and slower forces have landed just outside of the opposing depot on another continent. Taking care of these defenses should be a piece of cake.

Our forces array in this battle:

All four infantry squads
Urbies x2
Orions x2
Stalker
Wolverine
Centurion

Yep, just seven mechs. The infantry are charged with grabbing what we can and then planting bombs on the depot to blow it up as we leave.

The forces we are against

Two industrial flatbed trucks with SRMs attached to the bed.
Two Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
A Swift Wind Scout Car (no weapons but it moves 10/15 and can ram well or scout well)
Calvary Attack Helicopter
Warrior Attack Helicopter
6 squads of infantry
A Griffin and Phoenix Hawk that were escorting the troops here

Marik also has 15 mines around the place.


We are fighting on a warehouse map with several buildings.

[Abe Sargent]

We need our mechs to clear out the stuff so our infantry can get in and get out. If we completely destroy the defense, or they retreat, our mechs each have mesh bags with them we can fill, to increase what we can take with us.

Our Centurion runs over a mine on the first time and takes some damage. Their Warrior Attack Copter tries to thread through two buildings and sideslips into a building and is destroyed. We didn’t even need to hit it. I take out one SRM truck. My third kill as a merc commander. A Skulker is taken out by the other Orion. We hit and do damage elsewhere. Then I kick and destroy the other Skulker and take out two vehicles in one turn.

The second turn sees one of my Urbies hit a mine. Infantry take out the other coptor. Another platoon takes out an SRM truck. An Urbie wants to take out an opposing infantry but they are hiding in a building, so he takes down the building and kills the infantry platoon. I’m not going to count that as a kill officially in the book. We’re going after the mechs this turn. I ran one Orion up to a Phoenix Hawk and the Stalker up to the Griffin. Their Phoenix Hawk falls down from the damage.

Our anti-mech laser troops take out the scout car. No points for a weaponless scout. Our Centurion destroys the RA of the Phoenix Hawk. It falls again. I kick out the left leg of the Griffin it falls. The pilot blacks out. Yay Orion.

I get radioed by the Phoenix Hawk. We’ve taken out their vehicles, some infantry, the Griffin and savaged the Phoenix Hawk. They agree to retreat. I order two mechs to grab the Griffin between them and carry it back to the DropShip.

Infantry and scouring the warehouses for items, placing bombs, and grabbing items. We fill up some of the mesh bags with ammo, boxes of armor, spare weapons, and so forth. Then we load up the DropShip and take off with five minutes to spare before the other DropShip arrives. As we fly away, the warehouses blow up behind us.

[Abe Sargent]

Our take:


50 tons of armor
Millions in ammo and weapons
Griffin with no LL.

We arrive at a predetermined spot in the swamps of the other continent and our light forces load up. As I thought, their mechs were dispatched from the other storage depot, but it will take them a while to arrive, and we’ll be well gone before they arrive.


We got away!


We send a message to Andurien forces. They will dispatch transports to gather the items, and they generously allow us to use the items to fix our mechs first, before taking the rest for themselves.


Flea. Normal Value 1,520,000. To fix: 525,000. Current Value: 995,000

I’m not sure I want to fix it.

[Abe Sargent]

December 29, 3032 - After our arrival back at Palladaine, I order us a Griffin left leg. The Archer and Wasp parts arrived and were fixed. I assign a dispossessed mechwarrior, Justine Dempsey, to the Griffin and the part should again arrive in two months.

We’re back up to sixteen mechs with the captured Griffin and Flea.


February 9, 3033 - Our contract officially ends. Dame Catherine Humphreys, Duchess of Andurien called me to inform me that she was invoking the Emergency Powers Clause of our contract, and extending our tour of duty by an additional month. I remind her that our initial contract was for a Planetary Assault, not for garrision duty or raids. If she extends our contract, then is has to be for the initial purpose of the contract. She relents, and then offers us a new contract on the spot.

I am attracted to the proposal. During the war, Andurien has only had three mercenaries at their call, since most mercs are leery of the Duchy. As such, they are a bit desperate. They will certainly give me good terms. On the other hand, I’d like to go back to Outreach for more recruiting, and I’d like to sell and buy some mechs. It would also give me a chance to see what else is going on in the Inner Sphere and perhaps take a tasty contract elsewhere. Travel time back to Outreach is about two and a half months, and I’d hate to make the trip only to find us not getting a good contract better than the one we had with the Duchy of Andurien.

I suspect that I’ll see plenty of combat fighting for Andurien, but I want a chance to grow my unit, and recruiting is one way to do that. I only have 15 MechWarriors, so you can understand why I am choosing to return to Outreach.

[Abe Sargent]

ADVANCEMENT -

Both myself and Ted Izumo have crossed the four kill threshold and can now increase our stats. I can decrease my gunnery, piloting, or take a special ability. I decrease my gunnery. Ted drops his too.

[Abe Sargent]

April 17, 3033 - We arrive back in Outreach. Time for recruiting!

Ted brings in a regular light Mech with his contacts.

Adele rolls a 12 and recruit’s a regular Assault mech with her one contact!

I get a regular medium mech with my three rolls, and a veteran dispossessed MW that we will pay and take with us until we can find him a mech.


Our recruits:

Umbria Mutunde, LCT-1V Locust, regular

Su Yuan, Goliath, regular (The Goliath is an 80 ton assault mech with a PPC and two LRMs, making it good for long range fighting. It is also the only other quad mech design commonly used, along with the 55 ton Scorpion.)

Samia Oudghiri, PHX-1D Phoenix Hawk, regular. It’s ironic that we got a new Phoenix Hawk after losing one recently. Note this is a variant of the main Phoenix Hawk that strips off the machines guns and adds two heat sinks, making it a better mech because heat problems are regular in P. Hawks.

Roger Stephens, vet, dispossessed.

[Abe Sargent]

I want to do something about these useless Urbies just sitting around taking up space, sucking.

UrbanMech - 1,471,925

The Urbie is the cheapest light mech in the known universe, which is why it’s so attractive for a company like ours. I also can’t just sell them. They came with their MechWarrior which makes them those MW’s property. I have to replace them with something good.

I roll to see if the two mechs I want are available on the market. The first one is.

Say hello to the PNT-9R, the Panther. It is superior to the Urbie in every way except price. Designed to do basically the same thing, it has a half ton more armor, a PPC and an SRM4 for weapons, and three heat sinks to allow it to jump and fire the PPC in the same turn. The PPC removes any need for ammo. 4/6/4 movement allows you to move in such a way as to get a +2 to hit, whereas the Urbie could never get more than a +1, and that was with jumping which gave you a +3 to hit yourself - bad math.


I roll to check and the second mech is available. Say hello to my favorite light mech of the 3025 era. The JVN-10F. This variant of the normal Javelin features more armor, two extra heat sinks, and a barrage of four medium lasers. Jump behind the back of a foe and unleash flame, and you have solid armor. Best thing is all of the lasers are in the torsos, allowing you to survive the loss of an arm or to fire yoru weapons and punch with both hands.

I sell both of my Urbies at a 10% loss and move the pilots to better mechs in both cases.


I hire a few more techs for my unit.

[Abe Sargent]

Time to look for a contract.

We get three offers.

The Outworlds Alliance, a periphery state, wants us to Garrison a world. No thanks

The Magistracy of Canopus, a periphery state that just got hammered against the Caps, also wants us to Garrison a world, probably in wake of losses of their troops. No thanks

The Free Worlds League, non-plussed at fighting against us just now, wants to contract us for Pirate Hunting in the Periphery. Easy battles. I’d prefer to stay close to home.

So I have a choice. Stay here and wait a month and see what comes down the pike. Or take the Marik Pirate Hunting Contract.

Let me look at a timetable.

We arer fifteen jumps away from the part of the periphery Marik wants us to explore. As they move troops from their border with the periphery to answer the threat of the Duchy of Andurien, some pirates in the Periphery have learned boldness and begun striking at the worlds on the edge of Marik space. Instead of disrupting war plans against Andurien, Marik would rather just pay a mercenary cadre to hunt down the pirates.

There are two groups of pirates we are charged with taking out. The first is a company of well-supplied mechs, down a mech after one was destroyed, but well armed and armored and well kept. Still, we outnumber them 18 to 11 and should have little trouble dispatching them.

The second are a group of vehicles and VTOLs that do snatch and grab missions, hitting and fading away with speed.

Our job would be to find each of these pirate groups, take them out, and then our mission is complete.


I’ll skip the normally drawn out negotiation for this one let you know what’s what:

Marik is transporting us themselves, so no costs there.
Full salvage rights.
No remuneration
No support whatsoever
Independent command
Normal 2.4 multipler to salary
2 month contract or as long as it takes, in case it takes us more than two months to destroy both pirate bands. They operate close together, so two months is very doable.

I’ll take the contract. I could use a milk run after the intense battles in the Andurien Wars.

[law90026]

Sounds like a relatively easy contract to get more mech salvage, good luck on that.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks!

[Abe Sargent]

August 15, 3033 - We arrive in the outermost Marik system of Dalcour. We contact the local planet. They were attacked by the company of mechs just one month prior. Some of their supplies were hidden with tracers, showing the system they currently are in. The local government gives us the information on the pirates, and then we jump to the system that we believe has the mechs.

August 23, 3033 - It is an unknown system that we arrive in. We know we hit pay dirt when we see another JumpShip here. I dispatch two DropShips to the planet carrying our troops.

August 24, 3033 - We land in the arctic region of the small planet. Our DropShips are showing bogeys coming towards us. They bear an unusual logo, which I send through the computer. It comes up as Vinson’s Victorious, a mercenary group on contract to House Steiner when they went rogue for some reason, stole supplies from Steiner, commandeered a JumpShip and fled to the periphery, where they apparently became pirates.

The first mech is coming over the hill, and it’s battle time in the ice and snow,