The BattleTech Dynasty: Chapt 2, 3039 - Page 3

Abe Sargent · 10-06-2009, 09:23 PM

They have way more battle value than us. Alright, here we go. Major foes are the 2x AC20 Demolisher, Behemoth, Sturmfeur, and more, but I’ll take targets of opportunity with this group, we have to drop their numbers fast. One last time, we charge forward, with absolutely no cover. I concentrate a lot of attacks on their Demolisher. Will it pay off? Not this turn, we don’t kill any tanks.

Second turn, let’s kill some tanks. Our Awesome destroys the Demolisher’s front side. Our Hunchy destroys the left side of their AC2 carrier. Our Archer destroys a Scorpion Light Tank. All three are salvageable. Our Awesome falls under a lot of damage. Our Locust misses a kick and falls.

I stand up our Locust and run it in order to get away from the nearby tanks. They exposed the LT of our Awesome, so I get it up and run to expose its right side. That makes it less likely to see a LT, LL, or LA hit. They open up our Awesome;s RL leg and hit a hip actuator. The Awesome falls. Our Archer kicks and destroys a Scorpion Light Tank’s side. Their Zhukov is immobile and the crew is stunned, so hopefully we can take them down this turn.

I stand up the Awesome despite the damage it has taken. The BattleMaster destroys the Zhukov in a ball of fame as its ammo ignites. Despite taking a ton of damage and a damaged hip actuator, our Awesome manages to stay standing.

The next turn arrives. After consideration, our pilot ejects from the Awesome. There is just one point of damage left internally in the left torso and the right arm internally is almost gone. Time to cut our losses. ‘s ok, I think we were able to use it as a target for long enough to give ourselves momentum. The Zeus and BattleMaster have some damage, but they are still ticking. Our BAttleMaster destroys a Goblin Medium Tank. A Medium laser on our Zeus is hit. It cannot be repaired but it can be replaced in a day from other company’s stock. Our Wolverine destroys the Marsden II Battle Tank. It cannot be recovered since its fuel tank ruptured. An engine on the Zeus is hit. We can repair that in two days.

Okay, let’s keep pushing. Their Behemoth Assault Tank opens up the LA of our Crusader and hits its LRM15 twice. Our Lt.’s BattleMaster once again kills a vehcile as the LRM ammo on their Sabaku Kaze Hover Tank is ignited and goes up.

Their Pike Support Vehicle hits our BattleMaster’s lower arm actuator on its LA. We can fix that in less than a day. Our Crusader destroys a Hunter Light Support Tank’s LS. It cannot be salvaged. They have an immobile tank in their Striker Light Tank, and with that out, they have less than half of their original tanks.

We have destroyed 58% of their starting force, so they surrender, and we win!

Salvage:

Demolisher
AC2 Carrier
Scorpion Light Tank x2
Goblin Medium Tank
Striker Light Tank
1 LRM20

All told, for all four scenarios, we need about 92 tons of armor to replace that which is gone, plus about 115 tons to get the tanks up and running.

End of Mission 4

Abe Sargent · 10-06-2009, 09:47 PM

Abe Sargent · 10-06-2009, 11:05 PM

With only a few mechs destroyed, we have taken down a whole regiment of vehicles with just four companies of mechs. Field Marshal Sandoval congratulates us. We are allowed to hole up here in Fort Ea for a few days, mending our mechs as best we can, while his troops finish cleaning New Pontiac.

May 19, 3039 - Our Vehicle Company, along with a variety of other units, are extracted by other units, and return to us.

May 22, 3039 - New Pontiac has been quelled, and the remaining Marduk units defending have fled into the Tillerbee Jungle. We are leaving behind our infantry platoons and vehicle company because neither would really work in the Tillerbee Jungle. Back here is Victory Industries, and we are going in with our mechs.

May 23, 3039 - Hex Company is attacked by a large number of VTOLs. This is Ted Izumo’s personal company, and he is not about to let some VTOLs raid us.

Here is Ted’s Stalker, one of the most common Assault Mechs in the Inner Sphere. It has two LRM10s, 2 large lasers, and a smattering of assorted short range weapons. It also has, stupidly, ammo in the arms. That’s a real design flaw, to my mind.

Abe Sargent · 10-07-2009, 05:44 PM

There are a really large number of VTOLs. Ted suspects that they polled all of their surviving VTOLs into a harassment force. On the move, through the jungle, there will be no chance for repairs, the most we can do is staple on new armor and reload, and that’s it. Although Ted is battle tested, this unit is not, and we’ll have to see what they can do.

This is a hit and run, here we go. Ted understands the power of the VTOL, or lack thereof, and its weakness. He orders all units to stand completely still and aim for the super fast machines, rather than try to jump or run and chase them. Only those units which have to move for defense, like the Spider, are ordered to move.

In fact, the VTOLs are going to be here for just one round. This is, literally, a hit and run. Can we take out any? Will they blast any limbs or such away?

Ted Izumo destroys one and it falls to the ground in pieces. Our Vindicator destroys one. The Kintaro’s many SRMs blow up another. The Banshee’s AC5 tears into a 4th VTOL and it is even recoverable after being destroyed. Our Whitworth killed a 5th. Finally, our Orion destroys a 6th one when its fuel tank ruptures. No other kills, and no major damage. The Kintaro, up on a hill, manages to punch and immobilize an Cavalry Attack Helicopter, and we get it as salvage too.

Salvage:

Warrior Attack Helicopter
Peregrine Attack VTOL
Cavalry Attack Helicopter.

End of Mission 5

Abe Sargent · 10-07-2009, 06:05 PM

As we continue, a lance of heavy assault mechs can suddenly pop out at close range by Trinity Company.

For Trinity Company, Sgt Jason Thomas, in the Ostsol, has been field promoted to Lieutenant, after the death of their company’s CO.

The Kurita Mechs are:

Stalker
Longbow
BattleMaster
Charger 1A1 (the sucky one)

Unlike the normal units we face, these are regular pilots.

I haven’t seen a Longbow in a while. It’s a fun mech.

It is obvious we are out gunning them, but I think their hope is to destroy one or two of my mechs before they have to retreat.

We are fighting in some seriously heavy jungle.

Here is Lt. Jason Thomas’s Ostsol, a rare 2750 era mech that has lost its factory hundreds of years ago, and remains alive today. It has no weapons in the arms, and then puts minimum armor on them too, in order to concentrate on the good stuff. It has lasers ats its only weapons, which allows for prolonged combat behind enemy lines.

Abe Sargent · 10-07-2009, 09:02 PM

This area is so thick with the heaviest vegetation that we are having serious trouble moving. It takes an extra movement point to move through it than normal, so my heavier mechs are moving very slowly. I have no idea why they would attack with assault mechs here. Perhaps they are the vanguard of a full company about to attack? Our Hatchetman jumps next to their Longbow. I would love to salvage another Longbow, after our first went down in a pile of smoke. I can’t even locate their BattleMaster right now, so I send my scout mechs jumping around looking for it. Ah, my Ostscout found it to our north, when it decided to charge right next to it after it jumped in. I hop our Spider next to it, on higher ground so it can try and punt the head. I also hop our P Hawk to its rear. Many of our mechs cannot even fire at each other.

Our Hatchetman fires its AC10 and hits their Longbow in its head, and it goes internal. No critical, but there is a chance we can head kill it anytime, with any weapon. Their Longbow unfortunately falls and takes damage under the onslaught of our Hatchet man (unfortunate, because now we can’t try and hatchet it). Our Hatchetman deals out 11 damage to their Longbow, and we kick the BattleMaster twice with small mechs, and it falls down.

Well, after turn one, two of them are already on the ground, despite only being able to fire with 4 of my mechs at the enemy. Let’s push hard. I want that Longbow, but I’ll take the death of any of them. Their Longbow stands up and moves. I run our Ostsol right in front of it and jump the Hatchetman behind it. They stand up their BattleMaster. Our Thunderbolt is close enough to their Charger to start firing at it. After taking more damage, once again, their Longbow falls. The Hatchetman kicks and doles some damage to its CT.

I jump my three scout mechs back to their BattleMaster in a hope of more physical damage being dealt. Their Longbow gets up. Our Hatchetman hit’s the Longbow in the CT and hits an engine. I was really hoping for a gyro. Its pilot has taken 3 damage already and very close to blacking out. Our Thunderbolt kicks and damages two leg actuators on their Charger. Our Hatchetman was on a lower elevation this turn, hatchets a leg, and hit’s a leg actuator. Their BattleMaster takes a kick in the head from our Phoenix Hawk and blacks out. Their Charger falls and hits its hip actuator, and blacks out. Their Longbow, however, still standing. Suck.

With two mechs blacked out, they begin to very slowly retreat, we begin to chase, when two mechs have armor blown off their legs from a minefield they must have placed. We let them go, take the salvage, and live to fight again.

Salvage:

Charger, 1A1, which sucks, with three actuators damaged
BattleMaster - with no internal damage anywhere

The Charger can be fix in 6 days. The BM, literally, can be up and running in a few hours, once armor is stapled on, ammo is loaded, and our techs get past the fail safe devices installed, but there aren’t that many if it is already running. However, because of the nature of this jungle campaign, the salvage is sent back instead of getting fixed immediately.

My guess, 10 tons to fix us, and the same amount for our friends.

End of Mission 6

law90026 · 10-07-2009, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

Their BattleMaster takes a kick in the head from our Phoenix Hawk and blacks out.

Heh sorry, this bit just really struck me as funny.

Abe Sargent · 10-07-2009, 09:41 PM

Heheh

Abe Sargent · 10-07-2009, 10:20 PM

Although other FedCom units see action today, we don’t see any more ourselves.

May 24, 3039 - Field Marshal James Sandoval is not a dick, just demanding, despite rumors to the contrary. He seems to like us alright now, after Fort Ea. He has ordered his fighters to strafe and bomb the jungle ahead of us, to clear it out. We near Victory, but they have heavy installations and bases. Sandoval is moving slowly in order to reduce the chance of ambush and its effectiveness.

While the scout lance for Delta Company is out, it is ambushed by an entire company of vehicles moving through openings in the Jungle the defenders know well. They can either fight their way out, or run away.

They choose to fight. In order to escape, all we have to do is make it to the north edge of this 30x30 grid from the south, and then at the beginning of a turn, choose to escape.

Here are our mehcs : Spider, Hermes II, Wasp, Javelin. The Jav is a good anti tank mech, so we may have something there, plus the pilots are good.

Here is Maria Santos’s Javelin:

This light mehc features strong movement and jumping ability, plus a bunch of short range missles that spread when you hit with them, dealing a wide range of damage, and peppering a target, great for fighting vehicles in getting a missile into its crannies. It is good at exploiting holes someone else made, but bad at making its own.

Abe Sargent · 10-08-2009, 04:35 PM

We wait in the first turn, and move nothing, just seeing if they give us an opening to exploit with our fast Thunder Lance. One of their tanks skids off the area, but it was one of their weakest. I try to ignite forests near them with the AC5 on our Hermes II - success. Fire has begun.

There is a copse of trees I am going to try and run behind. I move out, under cover of burgeoning smoke and range and trees and speed. They spy what we are doing, so I audible everyone to move to the other side of the map and go up the east side.

The 3rd turn arrives and we keep moving. Our Hermes II hit’s the turret critical with its AC5 of a Drillson, but no critical results.

We finally win initiative in the 4th round. Smoke is spreading. The Spider jumps over one set of heavy woods into another, our Hermes II runs into the first, but our Javelin and Wasp are lagging. They both jump next to the Drillson in order to hit it, because they are unable to make the trees this turn. Our Javelin destroys the engine of their Drillson and it is immobile.

Smoke and fire continue to build in the center of the map. The Hermes II is running through a forest. The Jav and Wasp jump away. Our Javelin launches missles from 7 spaces away and through woods, but still manages to hit the immobile Drillson twice for 6 missles and 5 missles, hitting for 22 damage, spread throughout the left side. It is destroyed, kill for us. Our Spider starts another fir eto give cover for those coming after.

Our Spider jumps next to the north edge, but the edge is all open, so longer range tanks can hit it this turn. Our Hermes II runs out of the forest and along the ground. Our other two mechs jump They have moved three vehicle sinto the forest with close range weaponry. Here was a fun shot. Our Wasp takes a shot on a 12 with a Medium Laser on their Hunter Support Vehicle. They hit the 12, which is just a 1 in 36 chance. Its also glancing blow, so it only doe shalf damage, however it goes internal and destroys its engine. Good shot.

The Spider has fled. They are moving fast hover tanks over to outflank us on the east. Our Jav hits their Hunter, and that’s he only damage exchanged this turn.

The Hermes II runs next to the north edge. The Wasp joins it. Our Javelins hit the SRM ammo on their Maxim Hovertank and it explodes The Jav is overheat and needs to stop firing now. The hermes II and Wasp flee, leaving just the Jav. It does not fire, but kicks the Scimitar.

The Jav jumps next to the north edge. Many people fire at it and deal some damage It misses a kick but manages to stay standing.

10th turn, the Jav runs.

Only about 3 tons of armor are needed.

Maria Santos is now a veteran.

End of Mission 7

Abe Sargent · 10-08-2009, 05:20 PM

May 25, 3039 - More forces have landed and Field Marshal Sandoval decides to end this. He orders an all out assault on Victory Industries. We hold position until more troops join us.

May 27, 3039 - After some quiet days, those troops arrive.

May 28, 3039 - Sandoval orders the assault of Victory Industries.

They are going to throw everything they can at us. Mines, turrets, tanks, VTOLs, infantry, mechs, AeroSpace fighters, and more if they can find it. Between the natural defenses of Victory Industries and the Kurita forces that fled here from New Pontiac and the forces already in the area now here, it should be quite a battle.

We are attacking Victory Industries, which makes, among other things, Griffin and Wolverine mechs, plus a lot of components.

Although Sandoval’s units are at the head of the attack, we are expecting some serious action, and oh look, we get it.

Phaeton Company is walking into a major area of defense.

The defenders will get a bonus on their initiative rolls.

Their mechs:

Panther
Dragon
Hunchback
Crusader 3K variant
Rifleman
Wasp

Their vehicles:

Partisan
Ontos
Patton
Hetzer x2
Maxim
Vedette
Condor
Striker x2
Harasser
Galleon

Their VTOLs: None here

Infantry:

Four platoons

Abe Sargent · 10-08-2009, 11:57 PM

Alright, here we go.

Our Awesome takes 20 to its legs from a vibrabomb. Oh, btw, the Galleon on top of a Rifleman, the combined picture looks almost exactly like a Masakari. We take targets of opportunity. After taking some damage, their Crusader and Rifleman both fall.

The are moving down the west side in concentration, but I set up our forces on the other. I’ll have to adjust for that. Our Awesome destroys a Harasser Missile Platform. Recovered. We continue to hammer their Crusader with long range fire, and it tumbles again.

On the third turn, their Crusader fails to stand, and I run our Warhammer right next to it. I unload our ‘Hammer and Thunderbolt into it, and move my other mechs to fire at their Panther. Our Awesome destroys both legs of their Wasp, which makes it salvage and it falls. Our Warhammer destroys the Crusader’s LA. Our Crusaders ignites the Crusader’s Machine Gun ammo and it goes up. Boom! Our Hermes II hits their Panther’s gyro with its AC5. It is the mech falling this turn. Our Awesome destroys the Panther’s RA with a kick. Our Jav misses a kick on a tank but remains standing.

Our Thunderbolt hit’s a mine while moving. Their Panther fails to stand. I think I’m going to want to modify this Falcon sometime. It’s not that great, but its rare, so it might be worth making better. Rear facing weapons on a light mech with 6/9/6 movement? And they are Machine Guns? Yuck. Our Awesome kicks in the CT of their Panther and it goes up. The engine explodes and hit’s the Awesome for some damage, and our Warhammer for some damage, their Panther MechWarrior is caught in the blast and dies before he can get free. Sorry dude.

We hit their Rifleman a lot but it stands. Not much this turn, just weapons fire and a rearranging of the firing arcs of my support mechs.

Everything is working beautifully. I have Thunder Lance hopping in and out, Anvil Lance nearby, and Hammer Lance raining fire from afar. Our Griffin destroys the Ontos Heavy Tank.

7th turn is here and we are doing well, but its slower than I’d want. Safe, but slow. Inexorable, really. Our Awesome’s angle is gone in the smoke, so he wades in. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the CT of their Rifleman. It is unrecoverable.

Two of their tanks, Hezter and Striker, are immobile. Our Warhammer hit’s a mine. We savage their Hunchy and it falls. The Awesome destroys the Striker that is not immobile with a kick. With the immobile tanks and destroyed Striker, they begin to retreat, and our objective is secure, and we begin to mark found mines on the map and bring in vehicles to find the others.

Lt. Martin Fitzgerald gets Edge

Salvage:

Harasser Missile Platform
Striker Light Tank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Ontos Heavy Tank
Wasp without RL and LL
Crusader parts: RL, LL, RT, RA
Rifleman: H, RT, LT, RA, LA, LL, RL

We need only about 20 tons for this mission. We never put any unit in danger.

End of Mission 8

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 03:58 PM

May 29, 3039 - There are not large swaths of land here, and as such, the front is rather small. The defenders are able to keep Field Marshal Sandoval from using all of his troops to widen the front and pound. Artillery from Victory Industries rains down intermittently into the Davion forces. Because his front is relatively small, he is rotating in and out units. He orders our Thunder Lances to scout around us for possible traps, ambushes, mines, etc. While they are out, a strong counterattack by a small united group of militia forces Sandoval to order us in. Trinity and Cinq companies are closest, so their Hammer and Anvil lances are sent in to relieve the counterattack, and a small number of the 93rd run behind us to escape while the enemy closes around. That’s 15 mechs from us against, well, who knows?

Here is what is charging us:

Mechs:

Grasshopper
Shadow Hawk
Jenner
Firestarter
Scorpion
Vulcan
Victor
Griffin
Javelin
Hunchback
Dragon
Thunderbolt

Vehicles:

Hetzer
Schrek
J Edgar x2
Pegasus
Maxim
Scorpion Light Tank
Partisan Heavy Tank
Von Luckner Heavy Tank
Brutus Assault Tank
Condor Heavy Hovertank
Scimitar Medium Hovertank
VTOLs:

Peregrine Attack Helicopter x2

Infantry, Mines, Turrets? None

We have a company of mechs, a company of tanks, and 2 VTOLs heading our way. That’s 26 foes. Alright, here we go….

This is Janice Flanders’ Goliath. It is a large assault mech, and one of only a few designs that uses the quad design instead of the more traditional upright one. Since neurohelmets that are used to pilot a mech use the driver’s sense of balance fed into the mech, the quad mech is simply really ungainly, and something you have to train yourself for very heavily, beyond the normal upright mech. There are some rules for quads too, but suffice it to say that they are not looked upon highly. This Assault mech packs two LRM10s, 1 PPC, and two machine guns, which is a lighter load for an 80 ton mech.

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 07:08 PM

Because of the speed of their counter-attack and the lack o us establishing a defensive position, we are fighting in a more confined space. We begin already in range of all long range weapons. This will likely be a slug fest.

Our Ostsol hits and destroys their Pegasus Scout Tank. It’s fuel tank blows up, boom-boom-BOOM. They set the woods my Trebuchet on fire, which sucks because I am using the area nearby for sniping with many fire support mechs and now I have to move them.

Round two is here and we continue to move forward. Our Awesome destroys the Maxim Heavy Hover Transport. Our Trebuchet rapes a Peregrine and destroys three sides of its armor and it falls four elevations and is completely destroyed. We also injure their Shrek’s movement system badly. Our Hatchetman hatchets the rear of their Jenner and goes internal on the Left Torso rear and hit’s a jump jet.

Here is the next round: Our Hunchback destroys their Jenner’s RA. Our Wolverine destroys its LT. Zeus from Trinity Company destroys a Scimitar Medium Tank. Our Trebuchet destroys the Jenners RT, and then CT. It is unrecoverable. Our Goliath destroys their Shrek PPC Carrier. Our Archer kicks and destroys a J Edger Hovertank. The other Zeus from Cinq Company kicks and destroys the other J Edgar. Our Hatchetman hachets their Vulcan;s leg, and how? I though hatchets did damage on the punch table. That must have been a change in the newest edition. That makes them a lot worse. That was a good turn, we killed a mech and a bunch of tanks.

Their Dragon pilot is unconscious after skidding and falling, so I run a Zeus up to it. Perhaps I can take off its head. Our Hatchetman hops behind their Grasshopper. Our Ostsol destroys the RA off their Firestarter, Cinq’s Zeus’s Large Laser decapitates their Dragon. Our Hunchy hits their Vulcan badly, getting a gyro, jump jet and lower arm actuator. Their Vulcan falls, hits its CT, and is destroyed. Not recoverable. Our Wolverine punches and hits an SRM6 on their Javelin. Their Hetzer is knocked immobile.

I lead with several mechs wading up the middle of the map. A Zeus and Battlemaster lead the way. Their Grasshopper’s large laser hit’s the sensors on our Hunchy. It will take 5 days to repair. Our Griffin destroys their Brutus Assault Tank. Our Thunderbolt destroys their Condor Heavy Hovertank. Our Ostsol blow the LL and RT of their Firestarter, and then this its gyro twice. Dead mech. It falls and destroys its own CT, and is no longer recoverable. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the hip actuator of their Griffin. No fall though.

At that, they elect to retreat, and we have salvage to recover, including an immobile Hetzer, so we allow them.

We need about 25 tons of armor for our mechs

Salvage:

Scimitar Medium Hovertank
J Edgar Light Hovertank
Brutus Assault Tank
Condor Heavy Hovertank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Shrek PPC Carrier
Dragon minus H
Jenner LA, LL, RL, H
Vulcan LA, RT, RA, LT, H, LL, RL
Firestarter H, RL, LT, LA
3 LRM5

Hunchback needs 5 days to fix sensors.

End of Mission 9

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 07:51 PM

After an initial push forward, the assault gets bogged down by terrain, mines, turrets and artillery.

We lose about 10 tons of armor due to peppering by artillery.

May 30, 3039 - The Deneb troops send a battalion out and get a wedge into the defenders. They use it as a fulcrum to swing other allied units at the defense.

We are asked to move forward, all five companies together, and get a chance to crack their defense. We lose a leg on Hex Company’s Commando, some actuators hit on an exposed arm on Trinity company’s Ostscout and a destroyed arm on Cinq’s Locust - all to artillery.

Replacement costs: 600,000 and 1 day to fix the Ostscout.

As we continue to advance, we see a large number of their units move out to us, well over a regiment, mostly mechs. We are recalled as Field Marshal Sandoval wants to take this opportunity to send his best troops against the massive counter-strike that looks like all of their remaining units. The rest of the Deneb and other units advance, and we are asked to skirmish the edges and keep them contained and getting defeated. Due to our presence on the edges, the defenders cannot not try to outflank or get cute. After losing over half of their units during a 12 hour battle, the Drac units retreat. We lost communication with Sandoval temporarily. Despite no orders that tell us this, Ted realizes that he has o cut off the Drac retreat back into the factory, and plunges all units forward, to cut off the beaten and bruised Dracs. Despite mines and artillery, we get the front area and clear out defending infantry. Caught between us and the regular Davion troops, the battered and beaten Drac militia surrender.

Due to us running a gauntlet of artillery and mines, we have lost a variety of armor and limbs, and it will take about 2.2 million to replace the missing parts.

May 31, 3039 - After capturing Victory Industries, Field Marshal Sandoval captures what materiel it had, and also takes various mechs they had made, and starts making more. He intends to use these Griffins and Wolverines to supplement the lost units from his forces.

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 09:16 PM

June 5, 3039 - Most of the repairs have been done. There were plenty of body parts and armor here to fix our mechs.

June 7, 3039 - Field Marshal Sandoval orders a mech battalion from the Tenth Deneb and the 93rd Mechanized behind to guard and garrison Victory Industries. We have not seen any sign of the Benjamin Regulars, the unit defending this planet. The Robinson Rangers, Tenth Deneb, and us begin to scour the planet for signs of the Regulars.

June 11, 3039 - A scout company of Deneb mechs in the central fields of eh southern continent goes missing.

June 12, 3039 - All units have converged on the southern continent.

Field Marshal Sandoval orders all of his forces to spread out in a thin line across the continent and move, slowly, giving no place to hide, and trying to flush out the Regulars.

June 13, 3039 - All is quiet, and we keep moving.

June 14, 3039 - The entire Regulars unit pops up on radar by James Sandoval and viciously attacks him and his command. The Rangers in the area form up on Sandoval and fiercely defend him despite heavy losses until the Tenth and us arrive from our positions.

June 15, 3039 - In the early morning, we arrive, and all of the forces left on Marduk, Us, the Tenth, the Rangers, and the Regulars, are about to engage in a battle that will turn the Manschemman Dune Field into a salvage yard.

We arrive at the flank of the Regulars. Knowing us to be mercenaries, and facing to RCTs from the FedCom, the Regulars just send a few troops to deal with us. Ted sends Phaeton and Trinity companies to help out the beleaguered Sandoval while the remaining battalion of Hex, Cinq and Delta companies hit’s the units detached by the Regulars to “deal” with us.

Delta Company is first, they move to the left to try and flank our foes, and they pull off a company of Regular mechs. This is straight up company of mechs vs. company of mechs. They will fight to the death as they are cornered and know it.

Cristina Fernandez, whose Trebuchet was destroyed, is running the new BattleMaster we acquired and fixed up and Adrick Lee, who was in the Atlas is now in the crappy 1A1 Charger with its small lasers, but its a mech at least.

law90026 · 10-09-2009, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Adrick Lee, who was in the Atlas is now in the crappy 1A1 Charger with its small lasers, but its a mech at least

LOL

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 10:40 PM

We are fighting in very open terrain with some rolling dunes and only a handful of trees.

Here are our foes:

Griffin
Phoenix Hawk x2
Dragon
Wasp 1K - a variant with no SRM2 but more armor and machine gun
Warhammer
Scorpion
Atlas
Archer
Ostroc
Jenner
Javelin

Here is the Scorpion we are facing, another quad mech that isn’t that great. It’s a medium mech at 55 tons and has a PPC and SRM6. Quad mechs have special rules, and some of them really help. There are negatives, however. Unlike a upright mech who can lose an arm and still be fine, losing any limb is a lost leg and it hurts.

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by law90026

LOL

Can you imagine a bigger downgrade while staying within your weight class than Atlas to 1A1 Charger?

law90026 · 10-09-2009, 10:45 PM

Seriously, I will never understand why the original Charger was invented. If I were Adrick, I would resign :P

Abe Sargent · 10-09-2009, 10:55 PM

I think it was originally created with an XL engine during Star League times, and then as the technology was lost, it was repclaed witha regular engine, which no longer made the mech work.

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 01:22 PM

Okay, here we go. We concentrate all of our fire on their Archer. It takes a lot of damage, and then falls.

The next round arrives. We are crashing into each other in the center of the map. With 8 heavy or assault mechs on our squad, and four lights, the strategy here is just to drive and smash. I order the Charger to charge a Phoenix Hawk. Here goes the fire. Their Warhammer gets a through armor critical on our Charger and hit’s a hip actuator. Our Black Knight destroys the Archer’s RA. Our Spider hits two leg actuators on their Jenner’s LL. Our Javelin gets an LRM ammo explosion on their Archer and it explodes big! Boom! Our Charger falls, this ends the charge. Their Jenner falls and destroys its RA.

I stand up the Charger and order it into some heavy woods. Their Jenner tries to rise, fails, and the pilot is knocked unconscious. I send some weapons their Atlas’s way when I can. Both their Atlas and their Griffin fall. Our Banshee kicks their Warhammer, hit’s a hip actuator, and it falls. Taking down to the ground three mechs, an assault, medium and heavy, is a very good thing.

Their Jenner does not wake up. I run the Charger out of the middle combat area of the map. I run our Jav behind the Atlas’s back after it rises. Their Griffin gets up too. Their Warhammer fails and stays on the ground. Our Banshee hits their Griffin’s gyro. Our Catapult buries the Atlas in missiles, and their head is hit twice, dealing two damage to the MechWarrior and opening up the head for further damage. The Black Knight destroys the Griffin’s ammo and it explodes. Their Atlas falls again.

The Jenner pilot wakes up. Their jenner tries to stand up, fails, hits its engine, and the pilot again blacks out. Their Warhammer is still down. Their Atlas actually ries. Our Warhammer hit’s the ammo in the Dragon and it explodes. Our Cat hit’s the engine once on their Atlas. Our Banshee kicks and destroys the LL of their Javelin. Our battle master kicks and destroys their LT of their Warhammer. Their Jav falls, hits its ammo, and explodes. Since it fell from one kick, the kill is given to that kick.

The Javelin’s engine ruptures and explodes! It hit’s the Banshee, Black Knight, battleMaster, their Warhammer, their Scorpion, their Jenner, their Wasp. It destroys the LA of their Wasp, RA of their Warhammer.

They began with 12 mechs. They have a unconscious Jenner, a savaged Atlas, a savaged Warhammer, Javelin, Scorpion and untouched two Phoenix Hawks and Ostroc. They choose to keep pushing, and I will make them regret that. We manage to run our Awesome behind the back of their Ostroc. They manage to stand their Warhammer. I don’t even fire a weapon at it, I’ll just kick it back down. Our banshee hits two foot actuators on the Scorpion. The LA of their Ostroc is destroyed by Maggie’s Black Knight. LT of their Wasp taken down by our BattleMaster. Their Ostroc falls and their pilot blacks out. Their Warhammers loses its RL and RT from the kick by our Banshee. Is it now unable to move (lost both arms and one leg) and it salvageable. It hits its engine on the fall once.

Their Jenner stays unconscious. They choose to keep pushing, and I don’t know why. They are not doing anything to us. I run our Spider up to their Ostroc in order to behead it. Their Atlas hits an Upper Arm actuator on our ‘Hammer. Our Crusaders destroys a leg on the Scorpion. RA on the Ostroc is destroyed. Their Wasp’s CT is destroyed by the Black Knight. Our BattleMaster destroys the Scorpions RT. The Scorpion falls and hits its gyro and engine. With both legs off on one side, it is immobile.

They choose to leave at this point, their Atlas, Phoenix Hawk and Phoenix Hawk the only mechs retreating.

Salvage:

Archer LA
Dragon LA, H, RA
Warhammer LA
Wasp LL, RL, H
Scorpion RFL
Scorpion missing RRL, RFL, RT
Warhammer with just LL, CT, H, and a engine hit
Jenner with engine hit and missing RA
Ostroc missing RA, LA

To fix Warhammer: 1 day

Need 25 tons of armor

End of Mission 10.

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 02:12 PM

Delta Company did a great job. Next up is Cinq Company.

Their unit is:

Awesome
Phoenix Hawk
Chameleon
Stinger
Atlas
Jenner
Wolverine
Griffin
Orion 1K variant
Whitworth
Striker
Quickdraw

This is a heavier and better unit. Three assaults - Atlas, Awesome and Striker. Orion is a great heavy. The Quickdraw is a heavy but acts like a medium mech. The Chameleon, Wolverine, Griffin and Whitworth are all solid medium mechs. The Phoenix Hawk is okay. Just two light meches, the Stinger and Jenner. This is a powerful company.

The Chameleon is a mech regularly used for training, with solid weapons. The Striker is an assault mech often found in garrisons, and this unit was garrisoning, so it makes sense to find here. I actually like both for this era. The Orion is a great variant with max armor and some superfluous weapons gone.

Here is the Chameleon. This 50 ton mech moves 6/9/6, making it quite fast, and sports a large laser, 2 medium lasers, 3 small lasers and 2 machine guns. It has just 7 tons of armor, and I’d like to see more, and it has just 10 heat sinks, low for a jumping mech.

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 03:13 PM

Oh, for those interested in seeing the entire Inner Sphere in massive huge glory, here is a map to show you what's what. Zoom out to see the states well, and then you can zoom in and find the places we talk about and hit up.

http://home.ifi.uio.no/~oysteint/btech/3050.pdf

You can find Epsilon Eridani, our home planet, in the narrow band of yellow between the purple and red. The big giant star in that area is Terra, aka Earth. From there, head southwest about five planets and you hit us.

You can also tell from this map that Epsilon Eridani is the capital of this small region of space that makes up the smallest line, and planets like Bryant, Carver V, Fletcher, Small World, New Home, Keid, Procyon, etc. This region is part of the Sarna March of the Federated Suns.

We are currently assaulting Marduk. Want to know where that is? Go right along the Red/yellow border and try and find a system with a circle around it called Robinson. It it just north of the big line that separates two Marches in the Federated Suns. That is the capital of the Draconis March in the Federated Suns. Once you find it, go up until your hit the Draconis Combine border, and you will find Marduk, just across it. You can also find Breed, which was our launching point to hit Marduk.

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 06:53 PM

Let’s begin. There are a few more trees here, so I order my fire support mechs by it in order to set up sniping positions. We just exchange fire.

More fire exchanged. Their Striker falls and hits its PPC. Our Wasp and Griffin both fall after being kicked.

Our Griffin arises. The Wasp gets up and runs too. Their Striker tries to get up, falls, destroys its RT, then gets up. Our Wolverine gets a critical on their damaged Striker and hits its gyro. The Archer hit’s the Strikers engine twice. It manages to stay standing. He needed a 10 twice, and made the save each time. Our Zeus hit’s the hip and lower leg actuator on their Chameleon with a kick. Our Locust misses a kick and falls. Their Chameleon falls and hit’s a third actuator. Their P Hawk misses a kick and falls.

We stand up our Locust and run it away. Our BattleMaster hit’s the LRM20 of their Atlas on a through armor critical. The Chameleon’s LA is destroyed by the Zeus’s weapons. The Zeus kicks the undamaged Stinger, blows off its RL, destroys its RT, and then goes internal and hits its gyro in the CT. That’s a good kick. It falls to the ground. Their Striker is massively overheat from two engine hits and it keeps firing.

Their Striker tries walking through trees with a gyro hit and falls down. Our Crusader hits and destroys the Awesome’s head with missiles. They set the forests on fire with missed attacks where we are. Our Wasp kicks and destroys their Stinger’s CT

Our Zeus is singlehandedly fighting four mechs - Quickshot, P Hawk, Stinger and Chameleon. One is now dead, the other is down and severely damaged. Our Zeus destroys their P hawk’s RA. Their Atlas falls under an onslaught of weaponry.

Their Chameleon manages to stand, so I hop over the Spider for a rarely used physical attack. I run the BattleMaster into the heavy woods in front of their Atlas. Their Striker remains on the ground, overheating each turn with its two engine hits. it’s in woods, so let’s see if we can’t set those woods on fire. Our Griffins ignites the hex! Our BattleMaster hits their Atlas’s AC20. Our Zeus destroys the LA of their P Hawk. Our Vulcan destroys the LA on their Jenner. Their Atlas falls. Our Spider tries to trip their Chameleon. Success, and their Chameleon falls over again, and needs a 10 to stay awake, and gets it. Our Zeus hits an actuator on the P Hawk’s leg, an it falls. Their Jenner is kicked by our Vulcan, and it hit’s the SRM4 ammo. Dead Jenner. Their Chamelon tries to stand up, fails, destroys its CT, and its engine explodes, dealing a bunch of damage to our Spider, Griffin, Crusader and Zeus. Our Spider loses both arms and our Wasp one. Our Griffin is savaged. It also hit their Quickdraw and Phoenix Hawk. Their atlas tries to arise, fails, and destroys its RT. Their Striker pilot blacks out. Their P Hawk and Q Draw fall from the damage they received. Zeus destroys their P Hawks RT. Our Hunchback has hit their Atlas with its AC20 five times and that bastard is still alive. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the P hawks LT.

I don’t even know why they are still coming, but they are. We order the Spider to flee. Their Atlas fails to stand. Their Striker pilot is still blacked out. Our Battlemaster hit’s the AC10 on their Orion. Our Zeus destroys the RA of their Quickdraw. Our Griffin destroys the Orions RT. Their Qdraw falls again. Our Zeus kicks and destroys their P Hawk’s LL. Now it is salvageable.

Striker is still unconscious. Our Wasp flees. Their Atlas tries to stand, fails, injures the MechWarrior and they black out. Our Wolverine ignites their Quickdraw’s ammo and it goes boom.

And with that, they lease off. Their Griffin, Whitworth, savaged Orion and Wolverine are the only elements able to leave.

We need about 40 tons of armor to fix our peops.

Salvage:

Awesome missing H
Striker RA
Atlas RA
Jenner LA
Orion RA
Quickdraw LA
Stinger RA, H, LA, LT, LL
Phoenix Hawk with just RL, CT and H.
Striker missing RT, RA, with hits on enginex2 and gyro x1.
Atlas without LA, RT, RA and LRM20 hit, foot actuator

Spider missing two arms.
Wasp is missing RA

End of Mission 11

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 08:04 PM

Okay, time for Hex Company.

Our foes:

Warhammer
Ostroc
Hunchback
Merlin
Panther
Whitworth
BattleMaster
Goliath
Rifleman
Wasp
Javelin
Mongoose

The Mongoose is a rare 2750 era mech but lost its technology over time. That would be a nice grab. The Merlin was introduced in 3010, and was the first new mech made in a long time. It hasn’t proliferated like other medium mechs, but its not too bad as a lighter heavy mech.

Two assaults and 4 heavies.

This is Hex Company’s Grand Dragon. It is a solid heavy mech weighing at 60 tons. The Dragon, a similar mech, was built for the Combine for age,s but they decided to retool the company and make a new mech, very similar, called the Grand Dragon. It has a PPC, LRM10 and three medium lasers, one of which faces the rear. I like this pic, by the way.

Abe Sargent · 10-10-2009, 11:08 PM

Let’s see what Ted Izumo’s Stalker can do against the Dracs. We concentrate a lot of fire on their BattleMaster.

The next turn arrives. We continue to assault the Battlemaster, and also do some damage to their Merlin, which falls.

Their Merlin stands back up. Their Warhammer shears off our Orion’s head with its PPC. Elite pilot Sam Martez has died. Their Merlin falls after the Orion hits its foot actuator. Our banshee destroys their Wasp’s Rl with a major kick. Our Enforcer destroys its LL with a major kick, leaving it legless and fully salvageable without ever attacking it with a weapon.

I try to set some woods on fire near their beginning area where several of their mechs are still hiding. It fails. Ted’s Stalker hits two actuators on their Battlemaster. Our Banshee destroys the LA of their Mongoose. Our Enforcer destroys its RL. Their BattleMaster falls under another barrage of missiles, lasers, ppcs and auto cannons.

Their Merlin fails to stand. Their battleMaster falls uner a fourth round of attacking, hits its SRM ammo and explodes. Their Hunchback also falls. Our Banshee kicks the Hunchback in its Head, and it dies. Their Javelin falls after being kicked by our Enforcer.

This turn, the Merlin stands. Our Banshee destroys the Merlins RL and it goes right back down. Their Warhammer falls too.

Currnetly four of their mechs - Mongoose, Merlin, Warhammer and Wasp, are on the ground. Only one of those cannot get back up. Our Kintaro hit’s the Warhammer’s ammo and it explodes. Our P Hawk hits their Mongoose’s Gyro.

We begin to move in all mechs, in order to end this quickly. The only mech they have left I am considered about is their Goliath. Our Grand Dragon charges it. It will do a bunch of damage if it hits. I jump an Enforcer behind their Jav’s back. Our Spider gets behind their Rifleman. Out Stalker destroys the LT of their Mongoose and hits its gyro a second time. Another kill for Ted Izumo. Our Enforcer’s AC10 blows through the LT rear armor of the Jav, blows it off.

Their Rifleman kicks and destroys the LL of our Grand Dragon. The Grand Dragon charges their Goliaht and doles out 36 damage, which hits, among other things, its head and goes internal and hits Life Support. Our Grand Dragon falls because it was legged. Their Goliaht falls as well, plus their Ostroc falls after being kicked by our Phoenix Hawk.

They keep pushing, so I will as well. Grand Dragon ejects. Their Ostroc and Goliath stand. Their Rifleman hit’s a hip on our Commando. We hit an LRM10 on their Goliath. Their Goliaht destroys its RL. Our Enforcer destroys their Jav’s LL. Their Merlin’s RA is destroyed by a Kintaro kick. The Phoenix Hawk hit’s a actuator on the Rifleman, and it managed to fall well. Our Commando falls, and the MW blacks outs.

They continue to push. Alright then. Our fire support mechs arrive in this little scrum we have going. They probably want to kill my Commando before leaving. Their Rifleman fails to stand. Alright, time to stop playing footsie with these mechs intending to get salvage. Let’s just kill them. Our Phoenix Hawk ignites he Rifleman’s AC ammo and it explodes. The Enforcer destroys the Javelin’s CT and the engine explodes. It peppers a lot of nearby mechs. Our Banshee destroys the Merlin’s LT. Their Goliaht takes out the Commando’s RA. Their Merlin’s MW baclsk out.

And with that, they try and leave. All that is left is their Whitworth, a savaged Goliath and a savaged Ostroc.

About 50 tons of armor are needed on this one.

Salvage:

Wasp, missing two legs
Hunchback without H
Mongoose ,without LT, LA, RL and with two gyro hits, 1 engine hit.
Merlin without LT, LA, RA

Pieces:

Battlemaster RA, H
Rifleman RA
Warhammer RA, H, LA
Merlin LA
Javelin LA

Our own Orion sans H

Repair:

Grand Dragon LL
Commando RL, RA

End of Mission 12

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 02:07 AM

Before Phaeton and Trinity companies arrive to support the Field Marshal, the battle has begun to die down. The out numbered and out experienced Regulars are falling quite easily before all of us. Are there losses? Of course there are, especially among the Rangers who suffered the initial attack. However, by the end of the day, there are three regiments of Regular mechs scattered throughout the plains, and organized resistance on Marduk has ended.

June 24, 3039 - After several days of salvage operations, fixing things, and so forth, we are basically back to as full strength as we are going to get. Sandoval gives us a Griffin and Wolverine from Victory Industries as additional thanks beyond our contract for our assistance. Having been impressed with us, he decides not to waste us as garrison forces, and sends us back to Breed, one jump away, to rest and then join an invasion force that will arrive there in a month or so, and begin Wave Two.

June 26, 3039 - We lift off from Marduk

June 30, 3039 - We arrived at a JumpShip already charged. A few hours later, we arrive in the Breed system.

End the first campaign in the War of 3039. We are about the begin the second campaign. Our contract is up at the end of contract, not now, so we cannot get salvage, although we can use it, as long as we pay for its repair.

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 12:00 PM

July 3, 3039 - We land at Breed and begin to stretch our muscles.

On Breed are:

Us
Three various Davion RCTs
Second Robinson Rangers - a battlemech regiment
First NAIS Cadre
Various local militia

The 2nd Rangers are regular troops, not vets or elite. The First NAIS Cadre are training mechwarriors at the New Avalon Institute of Science War College, one of the best training academies in the Inner Sphere. They are green, but quite eager.

The RCTs are invasion forces staging here until the Wave Two is ordered.

July 6, 3039 - The RCTs leave to head out to staging areas to be in the first attacks of Wave Two. That leaves just Us, the NAIS, the Rangers, and various militia on planet.

July 11, 3039 - A large number of unknown JumpShips arrive in system. They bear no symbols and their DropShips move towards Breed at high speed. We have to assume they are hostile. They refuse to answer hails.

On July 15, 3039 - The first counter-attack by the Draconis Combine would hit the staging world of Breed after the invasion troops had mostly left. The units landing on Breed are unknown and unregistered, the 3rd and 4th Ghost Regiments.

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 12:37 PM

In order to get you up to speed on the events that are about to occur, we need to stop, pause, and talk about what is happening in the Inner Sphere.

First of all, you might recall that the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine is Takashi Kurita. About 70 years ago or so, the Combine underwent a Japanese renaissance. Japanese culture became a part of the people, the country, and the society. Part of this was a revelation in the military. The old code of Bushido was studied and adopted, and a focus on single combat and personal honor, instead of Draconis honor, because the operational way. Current aged coordinator Takashi Kurita is a strong adherent of the old order.

However, his son, Theodore Kurita, was a nouveau sort of general. He wanted to renovate the DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) into a more modern form of combat that put glory on the state, not on the person.

The old DCMS was filled with old school Bushido style generals and warriors. When Theodore Kurita was promoted to Gunji no-kanrei by his father (because his father had too, not because he wanted too), they began a battle of wits with the DCMS as the prize. Theodore tried to place new and forward thinking people in positions of authority while Takashi wanted older school.

Knowing that his realm could not survive a full fledged war against both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, Theodore entered into an agreement with ComStar. He would allow the Free Rasalhague Movement to form, and in return, ComStar would give him mechs. For years, Theodore did not use his forces to silence rumbling in Rasalhague, and when it seceded in 3034, he endorsed it. One fifth of the DCMS would not allow it, however, the old school people, and Theodore declared them Ronin, and thus began the Ronin Wars which we fought on behalf of Rasalhague.

At the end of it, the DCMS had lost about a fifith of their military, and Rasalhague had taken many of their systems and planets. However, Theodore was ableto purage the DCMS of most of its old school people. He created units, the Ghost regiment, with materiel gleaned from Comstar, and in order to fill it, he recruited yakuza mechwarriors to pilots the mechs.

As a result, he had a large private army that no one knew about fielding mechs no one knew still existed from the old star league era. He also provided some tricks like changing the Charger to a good mech and putting it in his forces so that Davion troops would be surprised by the mech. Between new mech designs like the Hatamoto Chi and the Daboku, and modifications to mechs like the Dragon and Charger, he was able to completely surprise Davion in the War of 3039.

One more thing Theodore gave ComStar as part of the deal. The Draconis Combine had a secret POW that only a few knew about from the Fourth Succession War. Someone they captured, but who everybody believed was dead. Someone they could not use as a tool because he was persona non grata back where he came from, but someone ComStar wanted quite badly. Someone who would change the history of ComStar and the Inner Sphere forever - Frederick Steiner. ComStar got him as part of the exchange.

As predicted, in the War, Davion and Steiner were able to juggernaut the Draconis Combine. Within a month, FedCom forces were on 34 Draconis planets. Takashi Kurita issued an order to hold the line at all costs, a foolish order that would be suicide against the well coordinated juggernaut.

So Theodore rescinded it quietly, and ordered his best troops to counterattack. The Ryoken and Ghost regiments, reporting directly to him and with LosTech and various new mechs in them, he struck at Davion with all of his might, hitting a large number of planets. Theodore was outgunned, outplanned and outflanked, so he did the one thing he could do. He gambled. His gamble was that if he counter punched hard enough, with units and mechs that did not exist, he would stun Hanse Davion and stall the war effort long enough to give his people the time they needed to organize the defense and recapture of Combine systems.

We have two Ghost Regiments bearing down on us with a lot of speed. Of course, we don’t know all of that, we just know that these two unnamed and unknown regiment sized ships are burning to Breed form the Zenith Jump Point in the system.

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 02:15 PM

Now, let’s talk bout LosTech, and before we do that, we have to back up a bit.

The only weapons still left to man are few, because many Star League era technology is gone. However, with the rediscovery of the Star League memory core on the planet Helm in 3028, it was circulated and many places have tried to remake it. By the War of 3039, the first two mechs built with LosTech: Hatamato-Chi and Daboku have been built by the Draconis Combine and issued to key regiments like the Ghost and Ryoken regiments. Some prototype LosTech can be found on mechs in all five houses, and we are about to fight Ghosts, so we need to talk about what LosTech is, isn’t and what else is running around.

Here are the weapons we currently have with 3025 technology:

Long Range Missiles
Short Range Missiles
Lasers
Machine Guns
Flamers
Particle Projection Cannons
Autocannons

And that is it. Weapons have various sizes. For example, Autocannons have tiny, small, medium and large sized bore, but they cannot go as far. These are referred to as AC2, AC5, AC10 and AC20 based on how much damage they do to another mech. The smaller the bore size, the farther it can be fired but the less damage it can deal.

Long and Short range missiles have racks. Short-Range missiles come in racks of 2, 4 or 6. They deal two damage each, and when you hit, you roll to see how many missiles hit, and then each missile hit’s a different area. Long Range Missiles come in 5, 10, 15 or 20 racks, and you roll to see how many of those hit, and then group them in 5 missile lots. Each missile does one damage, and you roll to see where th damage is dealt.

Lasers come in three sizes, small medium and large The bigger the are, the farther they can go, and the more damage they deal, but also they more they weigh, the more heat they make and the more space they take up.

Machine Guns make no heat, deal little damage, and have short range, but are useful in anti-personnel roles where they deal double damage. They will become more valuable later, but for now, infantry are jokes, and machine guns are not good.

Flamers can be used to either add heat to a target, or deal two damage. They have the same damage and range as a machine gun but make as much heat to fire as a medium laser, and they generally just are not good.

PPCs go far, deal as much damage as an AC10, have better range, and give a bunch of heat. They give you 10 heat, by far the most in the era.

Machine Guns, ACs and missiles require ammunition to fire them, and that ammo can explode dangerously. They can also run out of ammo. Energy weapons (lasers, flamer, PPC) do not require ammo, but they make more heat, which requires more heat sinks to compensate.

There are some variable payloads. SRMs can be equipped with Inferno ammo instead of normal ammo, and it will deal 2 more heat per missile to the target for three turns. That’s pretty nifty. You just saw the brand new Listen-Kill missiles for LRM and SRM launchers for this War.

You can also equip a hatchet, which is a close range weapon that allows you to do kick damage. It used to only do it on the punch table, which gave you a 1 in 6 chance of hitting the head, but I see that is no longeer the case, which makes them much less useful. Only the Hatchetman uses these.

Mechs have heat sinks. The engine holds 10 heat sinks automatically, and you have to add more if you want them. Each one dissipates one point of heat. Standing in fire makes heat. Jumping makes one heat per hex jumped. Walking makes one, running two. Firing weapons is your main source of heat on a non-jumping mech.

You can equip a mech with jump jets, and each one gives it one jumping move. As mechs get heavier, so too do jump jets. On a 20 ton mech, they are only half ton each, but on a 100 ton mech, they are 2 tons each.

And that it in 3025 world.

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 02:28 PM

However, we are about to encounter Star League era LosTech. Let’s look at what we are going to run into:

Pulse Lasers - Small, Medium and Large lasers can also come in pulse varieties that fires lasers in small bursts instead of in one blast. This makes a bit more heat, and cuts down the range, but it increases damage a bit in many cases, and it also makes the weapon more accurate. They are the most accurate weapon in LosTech world.

ER Large Laser - Only the Large Laser has had ER technology perfected. This Extended Range weapon makes a bunch more heat for no additional damage, but the range is much farther.

ER PPC - The Extended Range PPC makes a heavy 15 heat, and does no more damage, but it can hit from much farther away.

SRM-2 Streak - This missile system uses a small guiding laser to lock onto opposing foes. Once it does, it launches, and all of the SRMs fire and follow the lock. This means all of the missiles hit the same location. They do not fire, if you do not get a lock. So you do not waste ammo or make heat unless you are going to hit, and this makes them very nice. Only SRM2s have streak technology. Alternate payloads are not compatible with the SRM2 Streak.

Gauss Rifle - Meet the new king of the hill as far as weapons go. 15 damage at a very long range for virtually no heat at all, and its ammunition doesn’t even explode. This rifle uses magnetic acceleration to fire a ferrous-nickel slug as a foe at high velocity. The rifle itself is quite heavy and if it is hit, you take 20 damage, but you can often survive that, you are not surviving an ammo explosion. (see CASE below for exception)

AC5 Ultra - This tries to fire twice the number of shells as a normal AC5, but it sometimes jams, and its burns through ammo twice as fast. When you hit with it, you roll to see if you hit once or twice, and you will deal 5 damage or one spot, or 5 damage rolled twice. Only the AC5 is available in Ultra form.

LB10-X Autocannon - Another classic. This is just like an AC10 and you can use normal AC10 ammo and it will fire like an AC10. You can also take and fire cluster rounds. These rounds are like shotgun fire, and when you hit, you roll to see how many of them hit, up to 10. You won’t normally hit with that many. However, each hit goes to a separate location. The LB 10 X is not available in other sizes. It is a bit easier to hit with cluster rounds. The LBX technology is the only technology around that combines a weapon that punches holes, like a Gauss, PPC, Large Laser, AC20 or 10: with a weapon that can find holes, like a SRM or LRM. This gives you a lot of versatility.

There are new payloads. Thunder LRM ammo creates a minefield where it hits, and cannot be fired at mechs. Swarm LRM ammo will fire all missiles that missed one target at adjacent targets, and so forth, until all adjacent targets have been hit, or you run out of missiles.

There is also a lot of equipment that was lost, and now comes back:

Artemis IV FCS - This Fire Control System is linked to one SRM or LRM launcher and increases the number of missiles that hit when you hit. It’s great for bigger missile systems like LRM 15 or 20. It weighs a ton. You have to have one for each missile system. Streaks do not work with it.

CASE - This weighs half a ton and is assigned to either the right or left torso (or both). An ammo explosion that is in that section will blows out instead of in, keeping the mech alive. It will still get shutdown with an XL engine though, but even then, no destruction. It is an essential in every mech with ammo, in my opinion, from here on out.

Beagle Active Probe: This probe actively scans for anything within four hexes. It can find hidden units, and it is great in think jungles or urban fighting.

Guardian ECM - This is one of my favorites. It shuts down anything that passes within six hexes of it, such as Artemis, Beagles, Narcs, Streaks, Listen-Kill missiles and TAG. As more and more complex things are introduced, remember that the ECM shuts them all down.

Narc Missile Beacon - This fires a beacon that attaches to the target mech and acts like Artemis IV for all mechs firing at it with Narc equipped missiles on your side. It requires ammunition and takes up a lot of space between itself and the ammo. It does not work with Artemis IV, Streak, Swarm or Thunder missiles.

TAG - This guidance system paints a target and then keeps it there in order to guide artillery to the target. When used in conjunction with artillery, it can bring a lot of hurt.

Anti-Missile System - Basically a point-blank machine gun that uses complex circuitry to shoot down missiles before thy hit you. If you want to use it, do so, roll to use up ammo, roll to see how many missiles are knocked down, and then they roll to attack you with fewer missiles. You can only use it once per turn, it uses ammo like a pig in heat, and you can only use it on one flight of missiles before the to-hit roll is made, so you don’t even know if they are going to hit or not. As such, this is not a piece of equipment you will ever see me liking.

It also reintroduced a few new ways to build mechs:

Double Heat Sinks - Taking up three criticals each and dealing with double the heat, these freezers are a godsend to 3025’s biggest problem - heat.

Ferro-Fibrous Armor - This takes up 14 criticals in the torso but allows you to get about 12% more armor. You can’t have anymore armor than normal, but the amount of weight you need to maximize your armor reduces.

Endo Steel - This reduces, by half, the weight of your internal structure but takes away 14 crits.

XL Engine - This is the other big one, besides 2x HS. These engines weigh half as much, allowing you to have some fast mechs, or a lot of weapons space in mechs that go 3025 speed. However, three critical spaces are taken up in each of the Left and Right torso. Remember that three engine hits forces a mech to shut down, so if an RT or LT is destroyed, a mech with an XL engine will shut down. This makes XL mechs much less survivable once they start taking hits, but they can massively increase speed, armor and/or weapons and equipment.

MASC - Myomer Acceleration Signal Circuitry allows a mech to walk at double their normal walking movement. So a mech that might normally move at 5/8 can now move 5(10)/8 if it has MASC. However, the more you use it, the more likely it is to freeze and your legs will stop working. The first time, it only fails on a 2. Then each subsequent turn it is used that number increase to 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. This has weight based on the mech. Obviously, the faster your speed, the more you get from MASC. A mech that is 3/5 doesn’t nearly as much from MASC as a mech that is 6/9.

And there we are. That is all LosTech. As we begin to fight mechs with pulse lasers, ER PPCs, ECM suites and more, I want you to know what it is and what it does, and I may even take some of it for myself and add it to our mechs to make them LosTech equipped.

Abe Sargent · 10-11-2009, 06:41 PM

Okay, here we go.

July 16, 3039 - The two Ghost regiments make landing far away on Breed and the DropShips, unusually, head immediately back up and move to the JumpShip, stranding the Ghosts here. Odd.

July 17, 3039 - We are under the command of General Conroy Baden-Powell. A descendent of the guy who founded the Boy Scouts? No clue. The Ghosts strike a small city and fade before anyone can answer.

July 18, 3039 - They do another hit and fade to a minor military base and deal some damage to the militia stationed there. Later that day, another regiment hits a small factory and absconds with some materiel.

July 19, 3039 - Their DropShips arrive back to the JumpShips, and do not appear to be leaving the system. No attacks today.

July 20, 3039 - Their DropShips are burning back towards Breed, even faster than before. A raid on a city by the Ghosts. General Conroy Baden-Powell is done with this. He convenes a meeting of Ted Izumo, himself, and the CO and XO of both the NAIS Cadre and the 2nd Rangers. He orders an offensive campaign against the Ghosts. By now, the large number of older mechs, some that haven’t been made in centuries, has been noticed. The guess is that the Dragon found one or more Brian Caches from the Star League and added recovered mechs to their registry. We split up our forces to a variety of areas across Breed in order to be able to respond to calls immediately.

July 22, 3039 - The 2nd Rangers sends a battalion at the Ghosts immediately after they are declared attacking a small industry on top of a plateau. The battalion is able to respond and holds them until more forces arrive. Two of our companies, Delta and Cinq, are nearby, and arrive after battle has been enjoined. Also a regiment of troops and tanks form the militia was close too, so they also arrive.

Battle begins, as our two companies approach from virtually opposite ends.

Abe Sargent · 10-12-2009, 11:30 AM

We get near a company and they turn to meet us.

Delta Company vs. the Ghosts

Their mechs:

Lancelot
Champion
Guillotine 4L
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Hermes
Wasp 1K
Awesome 8T
Thorn
Sentinel 3M
Griffin
Battle Master 2C *********
Stinger 3G

Shit! I rolled, and I am not kidding, a super super super super rare mech in the opposing company. When I roll a BattleMaster for a Ghost or Rykoen company, I roll a 1d6, and on a 6, it is a uber-BattleMaster, and I got one in the first company. A handful of Star League BattleMasters held a second cockpit, which could be used by the battle commander to direct his forces while someone else pilots the mech, and can switch back in if needed.

It’s super rare. Only a handful of these were accidentally given to the Kurita forces. It also has super rare sensors from the Star League era. This is a treasure. If I can take it out and retrieve it will be party time for the Kilts and Commandoes. The only major areas are in the head (second cockpit and sensors). I have to get its head. Because of how rare it is, I can only assume that the pilot is elite because a CO of a battalion is in it. Luckily, Delta Company is the heavy metal company, still fielding a Charger and extra BattleMaster after their mechs were destroyed.

The Lancelot is a 60 ton mech with 2 large lasers, a PPC, double heat sinks and an XL engine. This is the original Champion, not the one we already have. It has Ferro-Fib armor, an LB10X, SRM6 with Artemis IV, two medium and two small lasers. The Hermes is also rare, with Ferro-Fib armor, Endo Steel, a ton of speed at 9/14, two medium lasers and a flamer. The Thorn is a 20 ton 2750 era mech with Endo and CASE, LRM5, two medium lasers. This Sentinel has an Ultra AC5, SRM2, medium laser, and is not largely armored.

Okay, the Guillotine is normally a 2750 heavy mech, but this is a downtick version with out LosTech on it, just 22 heat sinks, a ton of armor and large laser, srm6, and 4 medium lasers.

The Wasp variant has a MG instead of SRM2 and adds more armor. The 8T Awesome drops the PPCs for two large lasers and 2 LRM15s. I like it better, actually. The P Hawk 1K has more heat sinks and no ammo Mgs, just large laser, 2 mediums and a small. The Stinger variant drops the two machine guns for a second medium laser and much more armor. I like it too.

The result is 6 LosTech mechs, and many solid variants of mechs - a good Stinger, good Awesome, good Phoenix Hawk, meh Wasp, and the always solid Griffin plus a Guillotine. This is two assaults, three heavies, three lights and four mediums.

Alright, here we go.

This is the Lancelot we are facing. It’s a solid, fast, high weapon mech. However, the XL engine is a severe weakness.

Abe Sargent · 10-12-2009, 07:35 PM

Due to their BattleMaster, they get +2 to their initiative roll each round.

Okay, here we go.

We being to position ourselves and then fire. Our Listen-Kill missiles appear to not be working against the Ghosts. We concentrate our long range fire on the 2C BattleMaster. It uses it’s Anti-Missile system on our Crusader’s missiles. It looks like it engaged after it was hit, so perhaps the new rules make the AMS better. Their BattleMaster does not fall.

More fire in the second round on their 2C. He uses the Anti-Missile System again against an LRM 15 from our Crusader after it hit, so I think the rule on that was changed for sure. It stays standing.

Round 3 is here. I continue to advance our heavier mechs up the middle of the area to pressure the Dracs. Our Black Knight hits their Battlemaster’s ER PPC. It still stays standing. Our BattleMaster also took some damage and remains upright.

I hop our Spider up to their Guillotine. I charge the Charger right up next to their 2C. Our Crusader destroys the 2C’s Right Arm, destroying the ER PPC. Then the Catapult hits and destroys its LA, gets a critical on the LT, and hit’s the Anti-Missle System. The Pilot automatically ejects from the ammo explosion, but the ammo only deals 20 damage because most of the ammo was used. The LT takes most of it, but it is not even destroyed. Result, a dead 2C without either LA or RA. Our Javelin hits their Lancelot’s foot actuator. Their P Hawk destroys the LA of our Spider. Their Lancelot falls.

Round 5 is here, and we have taken out their 2C with their best mech, pilot, leader and are ready to keep rocking this. The injured Spider hops away. Our Charger runs behind the back of the injured Lancelot. Our Cat hits two more leg actuators on their Lancelot. Our Charger hit’s a large laser and a fourth leg actuator. It falls and hit’s a hip actuator. Their Awesome falls under some damage. I am going to kick with my Charger, but this could be very bad. We destroyed its LL. Good, I was hoping for a leg kill, or some serious damage to the CT, and not something worse.

Round 6 and we win initiative for the first time. Get this, I just looked at the Lancelot and this is rare. I’ve never even seen it before. One leg is destroyed and the other has all four actuators hit, meaning it can’t move, and it is salvageable. I’ve never gotten a salvage of that before. They lit on fire the forest our Awesome was standing on, so time to move it. Also, our Charger is down on armor. Their Awesome arises. Our Warhammer shears into their Awesome’s head with a PPC but does not get a critical. It falls down again.

The Awesome again stands. Their Champion falls. That’s it.

Their Awesome falls after trying to move backwards over an elevation change. Our Crusader destroys the RT of their Champion. Our Wasp destroys its LA. Our BattleMaster hits their Awesome’s head and it is destroyed, after hitting an LRM15 twice. Their Hermes hit’s a hip actuator on our Charger with a kick and yet we manage to stay standing

The next round arrives again. Our banshee hits two engines on their Champion. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Sentinel. Another actuaotr hit on our Charger. Our Warhammer destroys the Champion’s CT. Our BattleMaster hit’s the AC ammo in the sentinel and it lights up. Our BM falls and hit’s a hand actuator.

And at that, our foes begin to fade away. They have left a Thorn, Guillotine, Wasp, Stinger, Hermes and Griffin and Phoenix Hawk. They lost a Lancelot, Awesome, battle master, Sentinel and Champion. That’s two assaults, two heavies and a medium. We took out the strength of their company and thus away they go.

We’ll need about 50 tons of armor for this one.

Salvage:

BattleMaster 2C minus LT, RT
Lancelot without LL and with Large Laser and 4 leg actuators hit
Awesome 8T, without head, 2 LRM15 hits, engine hit
Champion RA, H, RL, LL, LT
Sentinel RA, RT, H

Repair:

Spider missing LA
Charger, hip and foot actuator.
Battle Master - hand actuator

Cristina Fernandez, BattleMaster pilot, is now elite.
Clyde Naller, Warhammer pilot, gains Gunnery: laser

End of Mission 1

law90026 · 10-12-2009, 09:29 PM

Cool campaign.

This was actually one of my favourite eras in Btech (the other being when the IS finally took the fight back to the Clans).

Abe Sargent · 10-12-2009, 09:37 PM

Yeha, I was so happy to see LosTech especialy since I just scored a BattleMaster 2C. I already have a plan for it.

Abe Sargent · 10-13-2009, 12:11 AM

Cinq Company meets stiffer resistance, and runs into 16 mechs, a reinforced company. Here are their foes.

Lancelot
Crab 20
Guillotine 4L
Hatamato-Mizo
Phoenix Hawk 1k x2
Jenner
Stalker 4N
Shadow Hawk 2K
Locust 3V
Kintaro 18
Wolverine 6K
Jenner 7F
Wolverine 6R
Grand Dragon
Thug 10E

This is such a 3039 Kurita unit, it’s like I rolled almost perfectly. A Hatamato, two Jenners, a Grand Dragon, several older mechs with low tech in the Thug, Guillotine, Crab and Thug, and thn the old school Lancelot, plus your normal P Hawks, S Hawk, Stalker, Locust, two Wolverines. Man, if I had rolled a Panther, this would be perfect.

Oh, I will be creating my own unit sheet for the Ghost and Ryoken units, because this one is too old and has problems. For example, no Daboku, no Shootist, etc. There are missing mechs and after this, I will create my own roll sheet, and let you know what it is.

Abe Sargent · 10-13-2009, 05:50 PM

Hell, let’s just do it now:

Light Mechs:

Thorn
Hussar
Mercury
Hermes
Mongoose

These are the only five light mechs in the 3039 sourcebook you can roll

Medium Mechs:

Crab 20 *
Kintaro 20
Sentinel 3M
Sentinel 3K *
Wyvern

Since two of these mechs are the same, this is a really small category too. * represent old tech mechs that had new tech stripped off. They are also found on the regular mech rolling chart. You can geta Crab 20 with a 2 on medium mechs, for example.

Heavy:

Flashman
Guillotine 3N
Guillotine 4L *
Exterminator
Dragon 5N
Lancelot
Champion
Black Knight

7 mechs, with two low tech in here.

Assault:

Hatamato Hi, Chi, Kaze, Ku, Mizo
Mauler
King Crab
Highlander
Charger 1A9 *
Katana
Thug

7 mechs here. The Mauler did not exist at this time, instead the Daboku was the mech that the Mauler was later based on when the Daboku had some design problems unveiled in the War of 3039. It was a lot more common than a roll of 12 too. There are seven mechs here, including one low-tech variant. The Charger 1A9 should be in the normal chart, not here, it’s just a variant of an existing mech, not LosTech.

Abe Sargent · 10-13-2009, 10:54 PM

Okay, here are the additions needed:

Light:

Add Jackrabbit, Firebee, Talon, Toro

Medium:

Replace low tech Crab 20 with high tech, which simply has ferro-fib armor. Nothing says that the Com Guards stripped the old armor off the chassis and replaced it with new ones, a highly expensive switch.
Add Kyudo, Gladiator, Icarus II, Phoenix

Heavy:

Add Bombardier, which is a severe oversight since it’s in the 2750 TRO and not on the list.
Add Cestus, Excalibur, Shootist, Galahad, Hammerhands, Koschei, Crossbow
Pull the low-tech Guillotine

Assaults:

Pull Charger and Mauler.

Add Doboku, Xanthos, Ymir

These older Star League era mechs were produced in huge numbers, and suggest that ComStar has them in its caches, which in turn, would likely have fallen into Kurita hands. We are still missing a lot. Do you know that all of the Star League era mechs that are in 3025/3050 era we have no schematics for from the Star League? We still have never seen what the original Ostroc looked like. The original Crusader. The original Stinger, we just know everything from 3025 on in. Would it not make sense for some of these mechs to be in the ComStar caches and given away? Which would you rather give away, an original Griffin where there are a ton of Griffins in the Inner Sphere, or an original Lancelet when there are virtually no Lancelots in the Inner Sphere? I would love to see a Star League TRO that just has the original schematics for many of these mechs, like the Chameleon, Striker, Shadow Hawk, Scorpion, and more.

Some of them may have the same payload. The comments made about a couple of them in other areas make it seem like some were the earliest designs, before LosTech happened, but how about seeing the original changes based on new technology in the Star League? That would be cool.

One of the problems with he 3039 sourcebook is that, although it was written just a few years ago, they didn’t use it as an opportunity to streamline history. Over the years, they continue to flesh out the past, and in doing so, add more info that could have been used in the present. Take the Talon. This SLDF light mech was introduced in the 3058 TRO long ago, and in it is said that the Star League use to have hundreds of these. It would make scout lances of three Talons and one Mongoose. There were three Talons to every Mongoose. Mongoose are in the list of mechs in 3039 that ComStar gave Kurita, so why not Talons. Which existed in greater number? Because the Mongoose was in the 2750 TRO and was mentioned, but not the Talons.

They say that the Mauler 1R, with the 2 ER Large Lasers, 4 AC2s, and 2 LRM15s, XL engine and ferro fib armor, was in the thing according to the War of 3039 sourcebook, but in the 3039 TRO itself, it says that the Daboku was in the War. The Daboku had 2 large lasers, 4 AC2, regular engine, 2 LRM10s, and CASE. In fact, the Mauler description says that it was first seen in 3050, not the War of 3039, so why would the recently printed 3039 sourcebook have them on the list? Seems silly.

So I will make my own list.

Abe Sargent · 10-14-2009, 08:20 PM

Back to the game. Here are the mechs we are fighting again:

Lancelot
Crab 20
Guillotine 4L
Hatamato-Mizo
Phoenix Hawk 1k x2
Jenner
Stalker 4N
Shadow Hawk 2K
Locust 3V
Kintaro 18
Wolverine 6K
Jenner 7F
Wolverine 6R
Grand Dragon
Thug 10E

As you can see, the well-equipped Kuritans typically have the best variants of regular mechs, and we are encountering them in large numbers. Just three lights in 16 mechs. Ugh.

The Hatamato-Mizo is one of several variants of the Hatamato-Chi. The Mizo has two PPCs and one ER Large Laser. That’s it. It has max armor for a 80 ton mech, endo steel chassis, and just 22 heat sinks, which means it can’t even come close to dissipating the heat it makes from firing all three of its weapons simultaneously. They are all long range too, which means it’s just a poorly designed mech. They should have given it 19/38 double heat sinks, and then added 3 medium lasers for up close defense.

Here is the Hatamato mech design for all variants. I like this pic, by the way.

Abe Sargent · 10-14-2009, 11:07 PM

Let’s get to playing. I move my mechs out slowly. I fire our long range energy weapons at their Grand Dragon. Our Awesome falls and hits its head under some damage.

Our Awesome stands up. I try to set some of the hexes they are hiding behind on fire. We catch two on fire.

I slice into their Dragon and Wolverine, they moistly miss us.

Our Awesome falls down twice, once when trying got walk up a hill backwards and once when trying to get up from that. Stupid mech. I manage to set another set of woods on fire. Our Awesome is hammered and our Zeus unloads into their G Dragon.

We fail twice more to stand up the Awesome. That’s four failures when all that was needed was a fricking 5 on 2d6. Damn it. I move our BattleMaster towards their Grand Dargon but behind a screen of trees from everyone else. We take targets of opportunity and they retreat with their G Dragon.

Wow, I actually stand up the Awesome and run with it away. More trgets of opportunity.

Our Awesome finally makes it to heavy woods and will snipe from here after losing a bunch of external armor. This has become a long range battle, where they move mechs in and out, and we are not charging their good defensive position, and vice versa. We set another fire.

Round 8 is here, and this is really slow. Our BAttleMaster’s PPC HIt’s the Grand Dragon in the head and it is down for the count. Our Vulvan kicks a Locust, hit’s a hip actuator, and knocks it down.

Great, we are on the 9th turn and still practically nothing has been done. They stood their Locust back up. Our Awesome destroys their Locusts LT and LA. The Vulcan destroys its CT and it dies. Well, we are picking it up now.

We run our BattleMaster behind one of their Wolverines. The BattleMaster lasers the Wolvie’s head once, and goes critical in a few places, but no results.

Welcome to round f’in 11. They get a through armor critical on our Zeus and hit the LRM ammo, but there were only two shots left My Mechwarrior ejects, and the LT is destroyed, but the CT is wounded but stable, so I lost ht emech for this battle, but it is still around, as is my MechWarrior.

Rnd 12 is here. They expose a few light mechs so I run my Hunchback out of seclusion and hope to take advantage. Our battleMaster kicks and destroys the LL of their JR7-F Jenner.

They brought their Guillotine out. I run our Hunchy next to one of their wounded Wolvies. Our Awesome destroys the LT of their Wolvie 6K. Our Griffin destroys its RT. Their Jenner and Wolvie fall, as does our Crusader.

Here comes Round 14. Our Crusader tries to stand, fails, and then finally gets up. Our Awesome hits and destroys their Lancelot in the head. That’s got to piss them off. Their Guillotine falls after taking damage. Our BattleMaster kicks and destroys the LT of their Jenner 7F. It falls again.

Here comes round 15. Their Guillotine stands. Our Hunchback hits their regular Jenner in the CT with its AC20 and destroys it. Dead mech. We rolled an 11 and that section is recoverable, so now let me rool for the gyro and engine. Both are repairbale. It’ll take a while. One of their Wolvies hit’s the PPC on our BattleMaster. Our Hunchy kicks and destroys the RL of their JR7-F variant, taking out its second leg and making it immobile, and the pilot blacks out too.

Round 16 is here, and we are starting to get the momentum. They withdraw, and frankly, we let them. We took out two Jenners, a 2750 with LosTech Lancelot, a Grand Dragon, and a Locust, and many of their mechs were savaged like both Wolvies, Guillotine, and more, so they leave.

Salvage:

Grand Dragon missing H
Lancelot missing H.
Locust H, RT, RA, LL, RL
Wolverine 6k LA, RA
Jenner normal variant will take a month to repair
Jenner 7F missing RL, LL, LT, LA
Jenner LA

Repair:

Zeus missing LT, engine hit once
BattleMaster two hits on PPC.

We will need about 50 tons of armor for our peops.

That one took forever. I have some pilots who leveled.

Lt. Mika Motone now has Edge:1
Sgt. Ian Hall now has Edge: 1

End of Mission 2

Abe Sargent · 10-14-2009, 11:31 PM

The battle is a draw as both side retreat. There were some that were losses, some that there wins, and many that were like our last mission, where just a bit of long-range fire was exchanged, and then both groups retreated. So both sides withdraw and the first battle between the forces of Breed and the Ghosts was a draw.

July 24, 3039 - After a small amount of downtime, another regiment of Ghosts hit’s an industrial town. While our units nearby are engaged there, more DropShips land outside of an area that was guarded by another Ghost regiment, and take off again in a few hours, once again burning for the JumpShips.

Only one of our companies is near the Ghosts this time. A regiment of conventional arms are in the city and they delay the Ghosts until we and the NAIS arrive. Who will be fighting? Hex Company.

Hex Company arrives as a battalion of NAIS Training Cadre plus the conventional regiment have joined forces and are currently in a stalemate. It is hoped that our 12 mechs hitting them in their rear will pull away enough of their defenses that the tide will turn in our favor. They understand this too, and only split off 7 mechs to fight us, keeping the majority of their forces trained on their far more important foes. But wait until you see these mechs:

Here is who Hex Company is fighting. Using new rolling charts.

Thug
Koschei
Charger 1A9
Grand Dragon
Orion ON1-K
Panther
Marauder

That’s a very heavy group of foes.

It case you are not familiar with it, here is the 4L Koschei:

65 tons, 5/8 movement, 12 tons of armor, Endo chassis, 2x Heat sinks, LRM15, Large Pulse Laser, Medium Pulse Laser, Artemis for the LRM15. That is a very respectable mech for the era. Debuting in 2504, the Koschei was one of the key mechs for the Capellan Confederation for a century, but as technology imporves, and mech design got better, it lagged behind, and after a century, this updated 4L was introduced and put the Koschei back of the map.

Abe Sargent · 10-15-2009, 01:33 AM

Will they be able to stand up against Ted’s Hex Company. I guess we’ll find out. They are arrogant to just sent out 7 foes, even if two have LosTech and two assaults and four heavies among them. However, Hex Company has just two assaults and one is a sucky Banshee, and two heavies. This might be the one company of ours this is a good strategy against.

As a reminder, here is our company: Stalker, Banshee, Grand Dragon, Orion 1-K, Phoenix Hawk, Kintaro 18, Vindicator, Whitworth, Enforcer, Commando, low tech Thorn, Spider. The interesting thing about this company is that almost every mech has a long range weapon, except for Commando and Spider.

Just a bunch of misses and setting up in the first round.

We pepper their LosTech Thug and it falls. We are advancing their position rapidly, because I think we have the weapons to end this quickly.

The 3rd turn is here. Their Thug stands up. We hammer their Thug badly, going internal in two places, and it falls again. We got a Limb Bowl Off critical on its RL and it is off and on the ground. It has just three internal structure left in its LT. That’s how close we came to savaging it more.

Their Thug faisl to stand so I run our Orion up to it. I hop our Spider behind their Orion. We concentrate our fire on their Marauder and it falls. Our Enforcer misses a kick and falls, and their Orion is kicked by our Spider, and falls.

Our Enforcer gets up and runs into woods. Just an exchange to fire this turn.

I get the Phoenix Hawk behind their Koschei. In trying to stand, their Thug destroys its LT when it falls back down. Our Grand Dragon destroys their Marauders LA. Two edge are used when critical rolls hit SRM ammo on Ted’s mech, but he has two edge left still. His SRM6 is hit instead. I rarely choose to punch over a kick, but I decide to pu nch the Marauder with my Grand Dragon because I;m behind it, and if I hit the RTR, iI go internal, and any critical is guaranteed to hit the AC% ammo, and I’ve taken all oarmor of its CTR, so I can also hit that, so I punch. I hit its head, go internal, get one criticla, hit the cockpit, and the Marauder falls ot the ground, with H still there, but a dead pilot. Our P Hawk falls after missing a kick.

Their Thug tries standing, falls down, and the pilot blacks out. Our P Hawk getsup and runs away. Our Stalker hits their Orion’s gyro. Our Kintaro hits its engine. Our Banshee destroys the Koschei’s RA and our Whitworth it’s RT> Our Commando takes out its LA, and then hits ammo and it explodes. Both our Grand Dragon and their Orion tumble.

And with the dead Koschei, they begin to fade back into their unit. Missiles from their long range mechs keep us away from pushing in.

We win need 30 tons of armor

Salvage:

Thug RL, LA
Marauder without LA and with cockpit hit on H.
Koschei LL

Repair:

Stalker’s SRM6

End of Mission 3

Abe Sargent · 10-15-2009, 04:21 PM

Once again, this battle is a stalemate, with both sides withdrawing after more fire exchange.

July 27, 3039 - The General is quite upset that we haven’t had a victory yet, and he orders units at three high profile targets sneaking in and hiding, in case they try and strike at any of them. Intel says that there are now three regiments on planet.

July 28, 3039 - The Hebroun Military Complex, one of the three priority targets, is being attacked by the Ghosts, in order to get some materiel. Our forces have some conventional forces there, and the entire 2nd Rangers are in the area, and can pop out at any time. Instead, we are ordered to surround the Complex with a big distance, and form a giant ring in order to trap the Ghosts inside.

Ted sends a message after getting these orders. “Wait a second, despite overwhelming numbers in our favor, you want us to split our forces up, and then thin them, so they can strike with strength wherever they want?” General Baden-Powell’s attachee affirms this, and points out that many of Breeds conventional forces will be joining us in the ring.

So we do what we are told, and our six companies are all right by each other. Normally, you might expect the Ghosts to attack us, because we are mercenaries after all, but we are also the one that have been beating them in three engagements, so they pick on the green NAIS Cadre. Just as Ted Izumo predicted, their entire regiment of forces hit’s the spread out NAIS Cadre, and the conventional forces are not enough, they are slaughtering them. All of our troops are ordered in to hit them from the sides and rear, like a trap, but Ted has concerns that the Ghosts can break through long before we get there.

In fact, that does not happen. The Ghosts choose to stay after bruising the NAIS, and we are approaching, along with conventional forces and the Rangers. However, from our rear, another Ghost regiment pops up and dashes towards our forces. In other words, they have us caught, when we were supposed to catch them. Now, the first Ghost Regiment is not trying to leave, they are the anvil that the second Ghost Regiment intends to smash our allies and us against. Quick thinking is needed here.

Ted orders two companies to hold our position, and the other four to charge the anvil - the first Ghost regiment here. We need to break out of the trap, and the new regiment has not been in battle, and thus has not been damaged, low on ammo, etc. Hex, Vehicle, Delta and Cinq companies charge, which Trinity and Phaeton hold the line, along with other forces turning to face the new threat.

With a battalion of mechs and a company of vehicles bearing down on their anvil, they are forced to send many of their troops against us. We need to smash them in the mouth. However they make an odd choice. Realizing that we are the best troops on Breed on our side, instead of dispatching a Battalion to deal with us, they leave a Battalion back against the NAIS and conventional forces, and move the remnants of two battalions against us. Now, it looks like they have suffered some losses. A quick guess is we have about 50 to 55 mechs bearing down on us, when two battalions is normally 72 mechs.

Ted orders our units to split up, and sees how they respond. He combines the vehicle and Hex company in the middle, while Cinq and Delta split off one to each side. How will they respond?

They Ghosts send two companies each way. Due to damage dealt, this is around 17-20 mechs each prong. Alright, here we go. We will begin with Delta Company.

Abe Sargent · 10-15-2009, 05:44 PM

Of our companies, Delta is the one most likely to trounce Dracs with a heavy roster. As a reminder, here are Delta’s mechs. Charger 1A1, BattleMaster, Awesome, Banshee, Warhammer, Catapult, Crusader, Black Knight, Spider, Javelin, Hermes II, Wasp.

Here are our foes.

Guillotine 3N
Dragon 5N
Hermes
Excalibur
Mongoose
Bombardier
Griffin
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Trebuchet 7K
Jenner 7F
Shadow Hawk 2K
Jenner 7D x2
Wolverine 6K
Panther
Atlas
Archer 2K
Spider 5k
Thug 10E

The biggest threats are the low tech Thug, Atlas, Archer, Bombardier and high tech Guillotine.

The Excalibur is a rare mech with a Gauss Rifle, LRM 20, Artemis, 5/8 movement on a 70 ton mech, XL engine, Anti-Missile system, 11 heat sinks, CASE for both torsos, and just 120 points of armor (7.5 tons), super light for a 70 ton mech. That is its weakness.

Abe Sargent · 10-15-2009, 11:37 PM

We fixed the actuator damage to our mechs. Phaeton Company had the arm to fix our Spider and it was reattached and it is also ready to go.

Let’s destroy some mechs.

Just maneuvering and long range firing.

We manage to base their Mongoose with our Charger. They get a through armor critical on our Hermes II and hit the AC5. Their Bombardier falls under some serious damage.

Another turn, more movement. I back my forces up this turn, because I like being at medium range for this company. Their Bombardier arises and they run with their Mongoose. Our Wasp loses its RA.

After another turn, their Bombardier is back on the ground, their Shadow hawk’s PPC has been hit making into longer function.

Little bastards outflanked me with their Hermes and got it behind my fire support mechs. Wow, that normally doesn’t happen/. He exposes the Excalibur for the first time and I can get three mechs on it - Warhammer, BattleMaster and Black Knight. They stand that Bombardier again. Their Thug destroys our Hermes II RA. Our Battlemaster gets a limb blown off critical on their Excalibur’s RA. That means this Guass Rifle is just sitting on the ground in the RA waiting for us to win today. Our Wasp and their Wolvie both miss kicks and fall down.

We stand up the Wasp and run it into some woods. Our Banshee hit’s the Excalibur’s RT and hits its Engine three times. Shut down Excalibur. Our Crusader destroys the RT of their Grand Dragon 5N, One of their jenners destroys the RA of our Jav. Their Panther hit’s the gyro and engine of our Jav. Our injured Wasp manages to hit two leg actuators on their Mongoose. A gyro hit on our Hermes II. Our Jav stay standing, the Hermes II and their Mongoose fall. Our gyro hit Jav kicks and destroys the LL of one of their Jenner 7Ds. Our Spider and Jav fall after getting kicked.

Round 7. We stand the gyro hit and injured Hermes II and walk it behind some light trees. Our Spider arises and runs into some smoke. I walk our javelin briskly away after getting it up. Their Mongoose destroys its RL while trying to stand and failing. They expose their Phoenix Hawk and I intend to take advantage of that. Our Battlemaster hits an engine on their P Hawk. It fals and hits its engine a second time. Our Charger’s kick destroys the RT of their wounded Jenner.

Next turn is here. Our BM hit’s a leg actuator on their Shadow Hawk. Their Wolvie destroys our Wasp’s RT and hits an engine. Our Awesome destroys the RT of their P Hawk then hits its engine, and it shus down. Kill by Awesome. The mech is savaged more by the Warhamme rthough, and a bunch more parts are destroyed, ruining our salvage. Our Wasp misses a kick and falls. Our BattleMaster misses a four needed to kick, but stays standing.

Round 9. Their savaged Jenner tries to stand up, falls, and the pilot blacks out. Their Hermes gets stuck in a swamp and I move the Catapult over to it. They have been rotating opponents, and have many savaged ones, Shadow Hawk, Jenner, Grand Dragon, Bombardier, Mongoose. It’s juts hard to take them down. I eject the savaged Wasp. Our Crusader destroys the Dragon’s CT, and it is dead. Our BM’s machine gun hits their Mongoose’s head, and the pilot blacks out. Our Cat kicks and destroys their Hermes LL. Our Charger kicks and destroys the CT of the blacked out normal Jenner and it is done. Their Hermes destroys its RT when it falls.

The next rounds arrives. The previous round was good. Two kills, and we added their Hermes to the list of savaged mechs, plus a blacked out Mongoose pilot is terrific. Their Wolverine pilot blakcs out after an SRM missle from our Crusader hits him in the head. Our Catapult hits their Hermes gyro twice, and that’s a kill. Our Charger’s small laser gets a through armor critical against a barely touched Griffin and hits its LRM ammo and it explodes. Dead mech. It’s engine explodes. The Charger takes 27, Battlemaster 13, Their Mongoose 13, destroys Mongoose LL which kills it, since it now has no legs, another kill for the Charger. Their Wolvie falls. Their Mongoose pilot wakes up.

We hit an SRM6 on their Wolvie, and SRM4 on their Thug. Our BM gets a limb blown off critical for their S Hawks LL and destroys its RA. Our Charger kicks and destroys the RL of their Spider. Their Wolvie pilot awakens.

Round 12 is here. We are out of LRM ammo for the Cat and start to move it up. Their Shadow Hawk tried to rise, fell, and the pilot blacked out. Our ‘HAmmer’s PPC takes out the LA of a Jenner. 7D. Our B Knight takes out the RA. Our BM hit’s the ammo on their Wolvie and it ignites. Our Banshee punches the head right off their Jenner 7D. Our Charger kicks and destroys the RA, RT, and one gyron hit after a kick on their Spider.

And with that, they fade. I was hoping for a Bombardier or Thug, but them’s the brakes. We’ll take it

This will take about 60 tons of armor, all o my big guys were in the yellow armor wise severely except my Crusader.

Salvage:

Excalibur missing RA, 3 engine hits
Excalibur RA
Grand Dragon 5N H, LL, RL, RA, LA, LT
Jenner RA
P Hawk RA, LA
Phoenix Hawk missing RA, RT, LL, LT
Jenner H, LT, LL
2750 Hermes RA
2750 Hermes missing RT, RA, LL with 2 gyro hits
Griffin RA, H, RL
Mongoose w/o LL, RL
Shadow Hawk LL
Wolverine RA
Jenner w.o RA, LA, H
Shadow hawk missing RA, LL

Repair:

Hermes II AC5, RA, gyro
Wasp RA, RT, engine
Javelin RA, gyro and engine hit.

I have a few promotions.

Estelle Galverson, in Crusader, gets Edge: 1
Adrick Lee, in Charger, gets Melee Specialist
Lt Miguel Juarez, Edge: 1

End of Mission 4

Abe Sargent · 10-16-2009, 12:05 AM

The Ghosts nearing Cinq company suddenly turn and head back quickly. With that sort of speed, we are unable to catch up. That leaves only the thrust at both Hex Company and Vehicle Company.

This will be the first time, ever, that Vehicle Company will be in combat. They will fight alongside Hex Company.

As a reminder, here is Vehicle Company:

Schrek PPC Carrier - Lt Sun Xiang
Vedette Medium Tank
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
Scorpion Light Tank
Striker Light Tank
Hunter Light Support Tank x2
Partisan Heavy Tank
Bulldog Medium Tank
Galleon Light Tank
Goblin Medium Tank
Pike Support Vehicle

The experience ranges from Green to Elite.

Here is Lt Sun Xiang’s Schrek. This assault tank carries a powerful barrage of three PPCs, the same deadly force an Awesome has.

Abe Sargent · 10-16-2009, 12:17 AM

Ghosts:

2750 Thorn
2750 Highlander
Katana
2750 Exterminator
Talon

Spider 5K
Charger 1A9
Stinger
Phoenix Hawk 1K
Wasp 1K
Marauder
Archer 2K
Hunchback
Jenner
Cyclops
Wolverine
Warhammer 6K
Longbow 7Q
Locust 3V
Wasp

That’s 20 mechs barreling down on our position. The 7Q variant has more armor and less speed.

Now let’s talk for a second. If the Battlemaster 2C was rare, the Exterminator is uber-massively-massive-rare. It is something completely out there. Exterminator’s were built to kill opposing CO’s. They were designed to hunt them down, and destroy them. They were very effective, and so they were killed very quickly. They had the best stealth system the Star League could make, and they were still killed. They have not been seen on a battlefield in over a hundred years. However, it is a fact that ComStar kept a lot of Star League mechs hidden away, and not being used. They had Exterminators, and they had enough to give a few to the Draconis Combine, and we are facing one now.

This is a super rare mech. This 65 ton Heavy Mech sports 6/9/6 movement with an XL Engine, 10.5 tons of armor, 2x heat sinks, 4 medium lasers, an LRM10, a small laser, an ant-missile system, and special stealth armor called a Null Signature System. It also has a Chameleon Light Polarization Field.

Here is the Exterminator:

Abe Sargent · 10-16-2009, 09:15 AM

The Following Posts have Absolutely no bearing on this dynasty, and are just a fun little project I did in my office for those who know the BTech universe.

10-06-2009, 09:23 PM	#101
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	They have way more battle value than us. Alright, here we go. Major foes are the 2x AC20 Demolisher, Behemoth, Sturmfeur, and more, but I’ll take targets of opportunity with this group, we have to drop their numbers fast. One last time, we charge forward, with absolutely no cover. I concentrate a lot of attacks on their Demolisher. Will it pay off? Not this turn, we don’t kill any tanks. Second turn, let’s kill some tanks. Our Awesome destroys the Demolisher’s front side. Our Hunchy destroys the left side of their AC2 carrier. Our Archer destroys a Scorpion Light Tank. All three are salvageable. Our Awesome falls under a lot of damage. Our Locust misses a kick and falls. I stand up our Locust and run it in order to get away from the nearby tanks. They exposed the LT of our Awesome, so I get it up and run to expose its right side. That makes it less likely to see a LT, LL, or LA hit. They open up our Awesome;s RL leg and hit a hip actuator. The Awesome falls. Our Archer kicks and destroys a Scorpion Light Tank’s side. Their Zhukov is immobile and the crew is stunned, so hopefully we can take them down this turn. I stand up the Awesome despite the damage it has taken. The BattleMaster destroys the Zhukov in a ball of fame as its ammo ignites. Despite taking a ton of damage and a damaged hip actuator, our Awesome manages to stay standing. The next turn arrives. After consideration, our pilot ejects from the Awesome. There is just one point of damage left internally in the left torso and the right arm internally is almost gone. Time to cut our losses. ‘s ok, I think we were able to use it as a target for long enough to give ourselves momentum. The Zeus and BattleMaster have some damage, but they are still ticking. Our BAttleMaster destroys a Goblin Medium Tank. A Medium laser on our Zeus is hit. It cannot be repaired but it can be replaced in a day from other company’s stock. Our Wolverine destroys the Marsden II Battle Tank. It cannot be recovered since its fuel tank ruptured. An engine on the Zeus is hit. We can repair that in two days. Okay, let’s keep pushing. Their Behemoth Assault Tank opens up the LA of our Crusader and hits its LRM15 twice. Our Lt.’s BattleMaster once again kills a vehcile as the LRM ammo on their Sabaku Kaze Hover Tank is ignited and goes up. Their Pike Support Vehicle hits our BattleMaster’s lower arm actuator on its LA. We can fix that in less than a day. Our Crusader destroys a Hunter Light Support Tank’s LS. It cannot be salvaged. They have an immobile tank in their Striker Light Tank, and with that out, they have less than half of their original tanks. We have destroyed 58% of their starting force, so they surrender, and we win! Salvage: Demolisher AC2 Carrier Scorpion Light Tank x2 Goblin Medium Tank Striker Light Tank 1 LRM20 All told, for all four scenarios, we need about 92 tons of armor to replace that which is gone, plus about 115 tons to get the tanks up and running. End of Mission 4 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-06-2009, 09:47 PM	#102
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	__________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-06-2009, 11:05 PM	#103
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	With only a few mechs destroyed, we have taken down a whole regiment of vehicles with just four companies of mechs. Field Marshal Sandoval congratulates us. We are allowed to hole up here in Fort Ea for a few days, mending our mechs as best we can, while his troops finish cleaning New Pontiac. May 19, 3039 - Our Vehicle Company, along with a variety of other units, are extracted by other units, and return to us. May 22, 3039 - New Pontiac has been quelled, and the remaining Marduk units defending have fled into the Tillerbee Jungle. We are leaving behind our infantry platoons and vehicle company because neither would really work in the Tillerbee Jungle. Back here is Victory Industries, and we are going in with our mechs. May 23, 3039 - Hex Company is attacked by a large number of VTOLs. This is Ted Izumo’s personal company, and he is not about to let some VTOLs raid us. Here is Ted’s Stalker, one of the most common Assault Mechs in the Inner Sphere. It has two LRM10s, 2 large lasers, and a smattering of assorted short range weapons. It also has, stupidly, ammo in the arms. That’s a real design flaw, to my mind. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-07-2009, 05:44 PM	#104
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	There are a really large number of VTOLs. Ted suspects that they polled all of their surviving VTOLs into a harassment force. On the move, through the jungle, there will be no chance for repairs, the most we can do is staple on new armor and reload, and that’s it. Although Ted is battle tested, this unit is not, and we’ll have to see what they can do. This is a hit and run, here we go. Ted understands the power of the VTOL, or lack thereof, and its weakness. He orders all units to stand completely still and aim for the super fast machines, rather than try to jump or run and chase them. Only those units which have to move for defense, like the Spider, are ordered to move. In fact, the VTOLs are going to be here for just one round. This is, literally, a hit and run. Can we take out any? Will they blast any limbs or such away? Ted Izumo destroys one and it falls to the ground in pieces. Our Vindicator destroys one. The Kintaro’s many SRMs blow up another. The Banshee’s AC5 tears into a 4th VTOL and it is even recoverable after being destroyed. Our Whitworth killed a 5th. Finally, our Orion destroys a 6th one when its fuel tank ruptures. No other kills, and no major damage. The Kintaro, up on a hill, manages to punch and immobilize an Cavalry Attack Helicopter, and we get it as salvage too. Salvage: Warrior Attack Helicopter Peregrine Attack VTOL Cavalry Attack Helicopter. End of Mission 5 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-07-2009, 06:05 PM	#105
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	As we continue, a lance of heavy assault mechs can suddenly pop out at close range by Trinity Company. For Trinity Company, Sgt Jason Thomas, in the Ostsol, has been field promoted to Lieutenant, after the death of their company’s CO. The Kurita Mechs are: Stalker Longbow BattleMaster Charger 1A1 (the sucky one) Unlike the normal units we face, these are regular pilots. I haven’t seen a Longbow in a while. It’s a fun mech. It is obvious we are out gunning them, but I think their hope is to destroy one or two of my mechs before they have to retreat. We are fighting in some seriously heavy jungle. Here is Lt. Jason Thomas’s Ostsol, a rare 2750 era mech that has lost its factory hundreds of years ago, and remains alive today. It has no weapons in the arms, and then puts minimum armor on them too, in order to concentrate on the good stuff. It has lasers ats its only weapons, which allows for prolonged combat behind enemy lines. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-07-2009, 09:02 PM	#106
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	This area is so thick with the heaviest vegetation that we are having serious trouble moving. It takes an extra movement point to move through it than normal, so my heavier mechs are moving very slowly. I have no idea why they would attack with assault mechs here. Perhaps they are the vanguard of a full company about to attack? Our Hatchetman jumps next to their Longbow. I would love to salvage another Longbow, after our first went down in a pile of smoke. I can’t even locate their BattleMaster right now, so I send my scout mechs jumping around looking for it. Ah, my Ostscout found it to our north, when it decided to charge right next to it after it jumped in. I hop our Spider next to it, on higher ground so it can try and punt the head. I also hop our P Hawk to its rear. Many of our mechs cannot even fire at each other. Our Hatchetman fires its AC10 and hits their Longbow in its head, and it goes internal. No critical, but there is a chance we can head kill it anytime, with any weapon. Their Longbow unfortunately falls and takes damage under the onslaught of our Hatchet man (unfortunate, because now we can’t try and hatchet it). Our Hatchetman deals out 11 damage to their Longbow, and we kick the BattleMaster twice with small mechs, and it falls down. Well, after turn one, two of them are already on the ground, despite only being able to fire with 4 of my mechs at the enemy. Let’s push hard. I want that Longbow, but I’ll take the death of any of them. Their Longbow stands up and moves. I run our Ostsol right in front of it and jump the Hatchetman behind it. They stand up their BattleMaster. Our Thunderbolt is close enough to their Charger to start firing at it. After taking more damage, once again, their Longbow falls. The Hatchetman kicks and doles some damage to its CT. I jump my three scout mechs back to their BattleMaster in a hope of more physical damage being dealt. Their Longbow gets up. Our Hatchetman hit’s the Longbow in the CT and hits an engine. I was really hoping for a gyro. Its pilot has taken 3 damage already and very close to blacking out. Our Thunderbolt kicks and damages two leg actuators on their Charger. Our Hatchetman was on a lower elevation this turn, hatchets a leg, and hit’s a leg actuator. Their BattleMaster takes a kick in the head from our Phoenix Hawk and blacks out. Their Charger falls and hits its hip actuator, and blacks out. Their Longbow, however, still standing. Suck. With two mechs blacked out, they begin to very slowly retreat, we begin to chase, when two mechs have armor blown off their legs from a minefield they must have placed. We let them go, take the salvage, and live to fight again. Salvage: Charger, 1A1, which sucks, with three actuators damaged BattleMaster - with no internal damage anywhere The Charger can be fix in 6 days. The BM, literally, can be up and running in a few hours, once armor is stapled on, ammo is loaded, and our techs get past the fail safe devices installed, but there aren’t that many if it is already running. However, because of the nature of this jungle campaign, the salvage is sent back instead of getting fixed immediately. My guess, 10 tons to fix us, and the same amount for our friends. End of Mission 6 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-07-2009, 09:41 PM	#108
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Heheh __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-07-2009, 10:20 PM	#109
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Although other FedCom units see action today, we don’t see any more ourselves. May 24, 3039 - Field Marshal James Sandoval is not a dick, just demanding, despite rumors to the contrary. He seems to like us alright now, after Fort Ea. He has ordered his fighters to strafe and bomb the jungle ahead of us, to clear it out. We near Victory, but they have heavy installations and bases. Sandoval is moving slowly in order to reduce the chance of ambush and its effectiveness. While the scout lance for Delta Company is out, it is ambushed by an entire company of vehicles moving through openings in the Jungle the defenders know well. They can either fight their way out, or run away. They choose to fight. In order to escape, all we have to do is make it to the north edge of this 30x30 grid from the south, and then at the beginning of a turn, choose to escape. Here are our mehcs : Spider, Hermes II, Wasp, Javelin. The Jav is a good anti tank mech, so we may have something there, plus the pilots are good. Here is Maria Santos’s Javelin: This light mehc features strong movement and jumping ability, plus a bunch of short range missles that spread when you hit with them, dealing a wide range of damage, and peppering a target, great for fighting vehicles in getting a missile into its crannies. It is good at exploiting holes someone else made, but bad at making its own. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-08-2009, 04:35 PM	#110
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We wait in the first turn, and move nothing, just seeing if they give us an opening to exploit with our fast Thunder Lance. One of their tanks skids off the area, but it was one of their weakest. I try to ignite forests near them with the AC5 on our Hermes II - success. Fire has begun. There is a copse of trees I am going to try and run behind. I move out, under cover of burgeoning smoke and range and trees and speed. They spy what we are doing, so I audible everyone to move to the other side of the map and go up the east side. The 3rd turn arrives and we keep moving. Our Hermes II hit’s the turret critical with its AC5 of a Drillson, but no critical results. We finally win initiative in the 4th round. Smoke is spreading. The Spider jumps over one set of heavy woods into another, our Hermes II runs into the first, but our Javelin and Wasp are lagging. They both jump next to the Drillson in order to hit it, because they are unable to make the trees this turn. Our Javelin destroys the engine of their Drillson and it is immobile. Smoke and fire continue to build in the center of the map. The Hermes II is running through a forest. The Jav and Wasp jump away. Our Javelin launches missles from 7 spaces away and through woods, but still manages to hit the immobile Drillson twice for 6 missles and 5 missles, hitting for 22 damage, spread throughout the left side. It is destroyed, kill for us. Our Spider starts another fir eto give cover for those coming after. Our Spider jumps next to the north edge, but the edge is all open, so longer range tanks can hit it this turn. Our Hermes II runs out of the forest and along the ground. Our other two mechs jump They have moved three vehicle sinto the forest with close range weaponry. Here was a fun shot. Our Wasp takes a shot on a 12 with a Medium Laser on their Hunter Support Vehicle. They hit the 12, which is just a 1 in 36 chance. Its also glancing blow, so it only doe shalf damage, however it goes internal and destroys its engine. Good shot. The Spider has fled. They are moving fast hover tanks over to outflank us on the east. Our Jav hits their Hunter, and that’s he only damage exchanged this turn. The Hermes II runs next to the north edge. The Wasp joins it. Our Javelins hit the SRM ammo on their Maxim Hovertank and it explodes The Jav is overheat and needs to stop firing now. The hermes II and Wasp flee, leaving just the Jav. It does not fire, but kicks the Scimitar. The Jav jumps next to the north edge. Many people fire at it and deal some damage It misses a kick but manages to stay standing. 10th turn, the Jav runs. Only about 3 tons of armor are needed. Maria Santos is now a veteran. End of Mission 7 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-08-2009, 05:20 PM	#111
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	May 25, 3039 - More forces have landed and Field Marshal Sandoval decides to end this. He orders an all out assault on Victory Industries. We hold position until more troops join us. May 27, 3039 - After some quiet days, those troops arrive. May 28, 3039 - Sandoval orders the assault of Victory Industries. They are going to throw everything they can at us. Mines, turrets, tanks, VTOLs, infantry, mechs, AeroSpace fighters, and more if they can find it. Between the natural defenses of Victory Industries and the Kurita forces that fled here from New Pontiac and the forces already in the area now here, it should be quite a battle. We are attacking Victory Industries, which makes, among other things, Griffin and Wolverine mechs, plus a lot of components. Although Sandoval’s units are at the head of the attack, we are expecting some serious action, and oh look, we get it. Phaeton Company is walking into a major area of defense. The defenders will get a bonus on their initiative rolls. Their mechs: Panther Dragon Hunchback Crusader 3K variant Rifleman Wasp Their vehicles: Partisan Ontos Patton Hetzer x2 Maxim Vedette Condor Striker x2 Harasser Galleon Their VTOLs: None here Infantry: Four platoons __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-08-2009, 11:57 PM	#112
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Alright, here we go. Our Awesome takes 20 to its legs from a vibrabomb. Oh, btw, the Galleon on top of a Rifleman, the combined picture looks almost exactly like a Masakari. We take targets of opportunity. After taking some damage, their Crusader and Rifleman both fall. The are moving down the west side in concentration, but I set up our forces on the other. I’ll have to adjust for that. Our Awesome destroys a Harasser Missile Platform. Recovered. We continue to hammer their Crusader with long range fire, and it tumbles again. On the third turn, their Crusader fails to stand, and I run our Warhammer right next to it. I unload our ‘Hammer and Thunderbolt into it, and move my other mechs to fire at their Panther. Our Awesome destroys both legs of their Wasp, which makes it salvage and it falls. Our Warhammer destroys the Crusader’s LA. Our Crusaders ignites the Crusader’s Machine Gun ammo and it goes up. Boom! Our Hermes II hits their Panther’s gyro with its AC5. It is the mech falling this turn. Our Awesome destroys the Panther’s RA with a kick. Our Jav misses a kick on a tank but remains standing. Our Thunderbolt hit’s a mine while moving. Their Panther fails to stand. I think I’m going to want to modify this Falcon sometime. It’s not that great, but its rare, so it might be worth making better. Rear facing weapons on a light mech with 6/9/6 movement? And they are Machine Guns? Yuck. Our Awesome kicks in the CT of their Panther and it goes up. The engine explodes and hit’s the Awesome for some damage, and our Warhammer for some damage, their Panther MechWarrior is caught in the blast and dies before he can get free. Sorry dude. We hit their Rifleman a lot but it stands. Not much this turn, just weapons fire and a rearranging of the firing arcs of my support mechs. Everything is working beautifully. I have Thunder Lance hopping in and out, Anvil Lance nearby, and Hammer Lance raining fire from afar. Our Griffin destroys the Ontos Heavy Tank. 7th turn is here and we are doing well, but its slower than I’d want. Safe, but slow. Inexorable, really. Our Awesome’s angle is gone in the smoke, so he wades in. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the CT of their Rifleman. It is unrecoverable. Two of their tanks, Hezter and Striker, are immobile. Our Warhammer hit’s a mine. We savage their Hunchy and it falls. The Awesome destroys the Striker that is not immobile with a kick. With the immobile tanks and destroyed Striker, they begin to retreat, and our objective is secure, and we begin to mark found mines on the map and bring in vehicles to find the others. Lt. Martin Fitzgerald gets Edge Salvage: Harasser Missile Platform Striker Light Tank Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun Ontos Heavy Tank Wasp without RL and LL Crusader parts: RL, LL, RT, RA Rifleman: H, RT, LT, RA, LA, LL, RL We need only about 20 tons for this mission. We never put any unit in danger. End of Mission 8 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 03:58 PM	#113
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	May 29, 3039 - There are not large swaths of land here, and as such, the front is rather small. The defenders are able to keep Field Marshal Sandoval from using all of his troops to widen the front and pound. Artillery from Victory Industries rains down intermittently into the Davion forces. Because his front is relatively small, he is rotating in and out units. He orders our Thunder Lances to scout around us for possible traps, ambushes, mines, etc. While they are out, a strong counterattack by a small united group of militia forces Sandoval to order us in. Trinity and Cinq companies are closest, so their Hammer and Anvil lances are sent in to relieve the counterattack, and a small number of the 93rd run behind us to escape while the enemy closes around. That’s 15 mechs from us against, well, who knows? Here is what is charging us: Mechs: Grasshopper Shadow Hawk Jenner Firestarter Scorpion Vulcan Victor Griffin Javelin Hunchback Dragon Thunderbolt Vehicles: Hetzer Schrek J Edgar x2 Pegasus Maxim Scorpion Light Tank Partisan Heavy Tank Von Luckner Heavy Tank Brutus Assault Tank Condor Heavy Hovertank Scimitar Medium Hovertank VTOLs: Peregrine Attack Helicopter x2 Infantry, Mines, Turrets? None We have a company of mechs, a company of tanks, and 2 VTOLs heading our way. That’s 26 foes. Alright, here we go…. This is Janice Flanders’ Goliath. It is a large assault mech, and one of only a few designs that uses the quad design instead of the more traditional upright one. Since neurohelmets that are used to pilot a mech use the driver’s sense of balance fed into the mech, the quad mech is simply really ungainly, and something you have to train yourself for very heavily, beyond the normal upright mech. There are some rules for quads too, but suffice it to say that they are not looked upon highly. This Assault mech packs two LRM10s, 1 PPC, and two machine guns, which is a lighter load for an 80 ton mech. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 07:08 PM	#114
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Because of the speed of their counter-attack and the lack o us establishing a defensive position, we are fighting in a more confined space. We begin already in range of all long range weapons. This will likely be a slug fest. Our Ostsol hits and destroys their Pegasus Scout Tank. It’s fuel tank blows up, boom-boom-BOOM. They set the woods my Trebuchet on fire, which sucks because I am using the area nearby for sniping with many fire support mechs and now I have to move them. Round two is here and we continue to move forward. Our Awesome destroys the Maxim Heavy Hover Transport. Our Trebuchet rapes a Peregrine and destroys three sides of its armor and it falls four elevations and is completely destroyed. We also injure their Shrek’s movement system badly. Our Hatchetman hatchets the rear of their Jenner and goes internal on the Left Torso rear and hit’s a jump jet. Here is the next round: Our Hunchback destroys their Jenner’s RA. Our Wolverine destroys its LT. Zeus from Trinity Company destroys a Scimitar Medium Tank. Our Trebuchet destroys the Jenners RT, and then CT. It is unrecoverable. Our Goliath destroys their Shrek PPC Carrier. Our Archer kicks and destroys a J Edger Hovertank. The other Zeus from Cinq Company kicks and destroys the other J Edgar. Our Hatchetman hachets their Vulcan;s leg, and how? I though hatchets did damage on the punch table. That must have been a change in the newest edition. That makes them a lot worse. That was a good turn, we killed a mech and a bunch of tanks. Their Dragon pilot is unconscious after skidding and falling, so I run a Zeus up to it. Perhaps I can take off its head. Our Hatchetman hops behind their Grasshopper. Our Ostsol destroys the RA off their Firestarter, Cinq’s Zeus’s Large Laser decapitates their Dragon. Our Hunchy hits their Vulcan badly, getting a gyro, jump jet and lower arm actuator. Their Vulcan falls, hits its CT, and is destroyed. Not recoverable. Our Wolverine punches and hits an SRM6 on their Javelin. Their Hetzer is knocked immobile. I lead with several mechs wading up the middle of the map. A Zeus and Battlemaster lead the way. Their Grasshopper’s large laser hit’s the sensors on our Hunchy. It will take 5 days to repair. Our Griffin destroys their Brutus Assault Tank. Our Thunderbolt destroys their Condor Heavy Hovertank. Our Ostsol blow the LL and RT of their Firestarter, and then this its gyro twice. Dead mech. It falls and destroys its own CT, and is no longer recoverable. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the hip actuator of their Griffin. No fall though. At that, they elect to retreat, and we have salvage to recover, including an immobile Hetzer, so we allow them. We need about 25 tons of armor for our mechs Salvage: Scimitar Medium Hovertank J Edgar Light Hovertank Brutus Assault Tank Condor Heavy Hovertank Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun Shrek PPC Carrier Dragon minus H Jenner LA, LL, RL, H Vulcan LA, RT, RA, LT, H, LL, RL Firestarter H, RL, LT, LA 3 LRM5 Hunchback needs 5 days to fix sensors. End of Mission 9 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 07:51 PM	#115
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	After an initial push forward, the assault gets bogged down by terrain, mines, turrets and artillery. We lose about 10 tons of armor due to peppering by artillery. May 30, 3039 - The Deneb troops send a battalion out and get a wedge into the defenders. They use it as a fulcrum to swing other allied units at the defense. We are asked to move forward, all five companies together, and get a chance to crack their defense. We lose a leg on Hex Company’s Commando, some actuators hit on an exposed arm on Trinity company’s Ostscout and a destroyed arm on Cinq’s Locust - all to artillery. Replacement costs: 600,000 and 1 day to fix the Ostscout. As we continue to advance, we see a large number of their units move out to us, well over a regiment, mostly mechs. We are recalled as Field Marshal Sandoval wants to take this opportunity to send his best troops against the massive counter-strike that looks like all of their remaining units. The rest of the Deneb and other units advance, and we are asked to skirmish the edges and keep them contained and getting defeated. Due to our presence on the edges, the defenders cannot not try to outflank or get cute. After losing over half of their units during a 12 hour battle, the Drac units retreat. We lost communication with Sandoval temporarily. Despite no orders that tell us this, Ted realizes that he has o cut off the Drac retreat back into the factory, and plunges all units forward, to cut off the beaten and bruised Dracs. Despite mines and artillery, we get the front area and clear out defending infantry. Caught between us and the regular Davion troops, the battered and beaten Drac militia surrender. Due to us running a gauntlet of artillery and mines, we have lost a variety of armor and limbs, and it will take about 2.2 million to replace the missing parts. May 31, 3039 - After capturing Victory Industries, Field Marshal Sandoval captures what materiel it had, and also takes various mechs they had made, and starts making more. He intends to use these Griffins and Wolverines to supplement the lost units from his forces. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 09:16 PM	#116
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	June 5, 3039 - Most of the repairs have been done. There were plenty of body parts and armor here to fix our mechs. June 7, 3039 - Field Marshal Sandoval orders a mech battalion from the Tenth Deneb and the 93rd Mechanized behind to guard and garrison Victory Industries. We have not seen any sign of the Benjamin Regulars, the unit defending this planet. The Robinson Rangers, Tenth Deneb, and us begin to scour the planet for signs of the Regulars. June 11, 3039 - A scout company of Deneb mechs in the central fields of eh southern continent goes missing. June 12, 3039 - All units have converged on the southern continent. Field Marshal Sandoval orders all of his forces to spread out in a thin line across the continent and move, slowly, giving no place to hide, and trying to flush out the Regulars. June 13, 3039 - All is quiet, and we keep moving. June 14, 3039 - The entire Regulars unit pops up on radar by James Sandoval and viciously attacks him and his command. The Rangers in the area form up on Sandoval and fiercely defend him despite heavy losses until the Tenth and us arrive from our positions. June 15, 3039 - In the early morning, we arrive, and all of the forces left on Marduk, Us, the Tenth, the Rangers, and the Regulars, are about to engage in a battle that will turn the Manschemman Dune Field into a salvage yard. We arrive at the flank of the Regulars. Knowing us to be mercenaries, and facing to RCTs from the FedCom, the Regulars just send a few troops to deal with us. Ted sends Phaeton and Trinity companies to help out the beleaguered Sandoval while the remaining battalion of Hex, Cinq and Delta companies hit’s the units detached by the Regulars to “deal” with us. Delta Company is first, they move to the left to try and flank our foes, and they pull off a company of Regular mechs. This is straight up company of mechs vs. company of mechs. They will fight to the death as they are cornered and know it. Cristina Fernandez, whose Trebuchet was destroyed, is running the new BattleMaster we acquired and fixed up and Adrick Lee, who was in the Atlas is now in the crappy 1A1 Charger with its small lasers, but its a mech at least. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 10:40 PM	#118
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We are fighting in very open terrain with some rolling dunes and only a handful of trees. Here are our foes: Griffin Phoenix Hawk x2 Dragon Wasp 1K - a variant with no SRM2 but more armor and machine gun Warhammer Scorpion Atlas Archer Ostroc Jenner Javelin Here is the Scorpion we are facing, another quad mech that isn’t that great. It’s a medium mech at 55 tons and has a PPC and SRM6. Quad mechs have special rules, and some of them really help. There are negatives, however. Unlike a upright mech who can lose an arm and still be fine, losing any limb is a lost leg and it hurts. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-09-2009, 10:45 PM	#120
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Seriously, I will never understand why the original Charger was invented. If I were Adrick, I would resign :P

10-09-2009, 10:55 PM	#121
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	I think it was originally created with an XL engine during Star League times, and then as the technology was lost, it was repclaed witha regular engine, which no longer made the mech work. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-10-2009, 01:22 PM	#122
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Okay, here we go. We concentrate all of our fire on their Archer. It takes a lot of damage, and then falls. The next round arrives. We are crashing into each other in the center of the map. With 8 heavy or assault mechs on our squad, and four lights, the strategy here is just to drive and smash. I order the Charger to charge a Phoenix Hawk. Here goes the fire. Their Warhammer gets a through armor critical on our Charger and hit’s a hip actuator. Our Black Knight destroys the Archer’s RA. Our Spider hits two leg actuators on their Jenner’s LL. Our Javelin gets an LRM ammo explosion on their Archer and it explodes big! Boom! Our Charger falls, this ends the charge. Their Jenner falls and destroys its RA. I stand up the Charger and order it into some heavy woods. Their Jenner tries to rise, fails, and the pilot is knocked unconscious. I send some weapons their Atlas’s way when I can. Both their Atlas and their Griffin fall. Our Banshee kicks their Warhammer, hit’s a hip actuator, and it falls. Taking down to the ground three mechs, an assault, medium and heavy, is a very good thing. Their Jenner does not wake up. I run the Charger out of the middle combat area of the map. I run our Jav behind the Atlas’s back after it rises. Their Griffin gets up too. Their Warhammer fails and stays on the ground. Our Banshee hits their Griffin’s gyro. Our Catapult buries the Atlas in missiles, and their head is hit twice, dealing two damage to the MechWarrior and opening up the head for further damage. The Black Knight destroys the Griffin’s ammo and it explodes. Their Atlas falls again. The Jenner pilot wakes up. Their jenner tries to stand up, fails, hits its engine, and the pilot again blacks out. Their Warhammer is still down. Their Atlas actually ries. Our Warhammer hit’s the ammo in the Dragon and it explodes. Our Cat hit’s the engine once on their Atlas. Our Banshee kicks and destroys the LL of their Javelin. Our battle master kicks and destroys their LT of their Warhammer. Their Jav falls, hits its ammo, and explodes. Since it fell from one kick, the kill is given to that kick. The Javelin’s engine ruptures and explodes! It hit’s the Banshee, Black Knight, battleMaster, their Warhammer, their Scorpion, their Jenner, their Wasp. It destroys the LA of their Wasp, RA of their Warhammer. They began with 12 mechs. They have a unconscious Jenner, a savaged Atlas, a savaged Warhammer, Javelin, Scorpion and untouched two Phoenix Hawks and Ostroc. They choose to keep pushing, and I will make them regret that. We manage to run our Awesome behind the back of their Ostroc. They manage to stand their Warhammer. I don’t even fire a weapon at it, I’ll just kick it back down. Our banshee hits two foot actuators on the Scorpion. The LA of their Ostroc is destroyed by Maggie’s Black Knight. LT of their Wasp taken down by our BattleMaster. Their Ostroc falls and their pilot blacks out. Their Warhammers loses its RL and RT from the kick by our Banshee. Is it now unable to move (lost both arms and one leg) and it salvageable. It hits its engine on the fall once. Their Jenner stays unconscious. They choose to keep pushing, and I don’t know why. They are not doing anything to us. I run our Spider up to their Ostroc in order to behead it. Their Atlas hits an Upper Arm actuator on our ‘Hammer. Our Crusaders destroys a leg on the Scorpion. RA on the Ostroc is destroyed. Their Wasp’s CT is destroyed by the Black Knight. Our BattleMaster destroys the Scorpions RT. The Scorpion falls and hits its gyro and engine. With both legs off on one side, it is immobile. They choose to leave at this point, their Atlas, Phoenix Hawk and Phoenix Hawk the only mechs retreating. Salvage: Archer LA Dragon LA, H, RA Warhammer LA Wasp LL, RL, H Scorpion RFL Scorpion missing RRL, RFL, RT Warhammer with just LL, CT, H, and a engine hit Jenner with engine hit and missing RA Ostroc missing RA, LA To fix Warhammer: 1 day Need 25 tons of armor End of Mission 10. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-10-2009, 02:12 PM	#123
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Delta Company did a great job. Next up is Cinq Company. Their unit is: Awesome Phoenix Hawk Chameleon Stinger Atlas Jenner Wolverine Griffin Orion 1K variant Whitworth Striker Quickdraw This is a heavier and better unit. Three assaults - Atlas, Awesome and Striker. Orion is a great heavy. The Quickdraw is a heavy but acts like a medium mech. The Chameleon, Wolverine, Griffin and Whitworth are all solid medium mechs. The Phoenix Hawk is okay. Just two light meches, the Stinger and Jenner. This is a powerful company. The Chameleon is a mech regularly used for training, with solid weapons. The Striker is an assault mech often found in garrisons, and this unit was garrisoning, so it makes sense to find here. I actually like both for this era. The Orion is a great variant with max armor and some superfluous weapons gone. Here is the Chameleon. This 50 ton mech moves 6/9/6, making it quite fast, and sports a large laser, 2 medium lasers, 3 small lasers and 2 machine guns. It has just 7 tons of armor, and I’d like to see more, and it has just 10 heat sinks, low for a jumping mech. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-10-2009 at 02:13 PM.

10-10-2009, 03:13 PM	#124
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Oh, for those interested in seeing the entire Inner Sphere in massive huge glory, here is a map to show you what's what. Zoom out to see the states well, and then you can zoom in and find the places we talk about and hit up. http://home.ifi.uio.no/~oysteint/btech/3050.pdf You can find Epsilon Eridani, our home planet, in the narrow band of yellow between the purple and red. The big giant star in that area is Terra, aka Earth. From there, head southwest about five planets and you hit us. You can also tell from this map that Epsilon Eridani is the capital of this small region of space that makes up the smallest line, and planets like Bryant, Carver V, Fletcher, Small World, New Home, Keid, Procyon, etc. This region is part of the Sarna March of the Federated Suns. We are currently assaulting Marduk. Want to know where that is? Go right along the Red/yellow border and try and find a system with a circle around it called Robinson. It it just north of the big line that separates two Marches in the Federated Suns. That is the capital of the Draconis March in the Federated Suns. Once you find it, go up until your hit the Draconis Combine border, and you will find Marduk, just across it. You can also find Breed, which was our launching point to hit Marduk. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-10-2009 at 03:23 PM.

10-10-2009, 06:53 PM	#125
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Let’s begin. There are a few more trees here, so I order my fire support mechs by it in order to set up sniping positions. We just exchange fire. More fire exchanged. Their Striker falls and hits its PPC. Our Wasp and Griffin both fall after being kicked. Our Griffin arises. The Wasp gets up and runs too. Their Striker tries to get up, falls, destroys its RT, then gets up. Our Wolverine gets a critical on their damaged Striker and hits its gyro. The Archer hit’s the Strikers engine twice. It manages to stay standing. He needed a 10 twice, and made the save each time. Our Zeus hit’s the hip and lower leg actuator on their Chameleon with a kick. Our Locust misses a kick and falls. Their Chameleon falls and hit’s a third actuator. Their P Hawk misses a kick and falls. We stand up our Locust and run it away. Our BattleMaster hit’s the LRM20 of their Atlas on a through armor critical. The Chameleon’s LA is destroyed by the Zeus’s weapons. The Zeus kicks the undamaged Stinger, blows off its RL, destroys its RT, and then goes internal and hits its gyro in the CT. That’s a good kick. It falls to the ground. Their Striker is massively overheat from two engine hits and it keeps firing. Their Striker tries walking through trees with a gyro hit and falls down. Our Crusader hits and destroys the Awesome’s head with missiles. They set the forests on fire with missed attacks where we are. Our Wasp kicks and destroys their Stinger’s CT Our Zeus is singlehandedly fighting four mechs - Quickshot, P Hawk, Stinger and Chameleon. One is now dead, the other is down and severely damaged. Our Zeus destroys their P hawk’s RA. Their Atlas falls under an onslaught of weaponry. Their Chameleon manages to stand, so I hop over the Spider for a rarely used physical attack. I run the BattleMaster into the heavy woods in front of their Atlas. Their Striker remains on the ground, overheating each turn with its two engine hits. it’s in woods, so let’s see if we can’t set those woods on fire. Our Griffins ignites the hex! Our BattleMaster hits their Atlas’s AC20. Our Zeus destroys the LA of their P Hawk. Our Vulcan destroys the LA on their Jenner. Their Atlas falls. Our Spider tries to trip their Chameleon. Success, and their Chameleon falls over again, and needs a 10 to stay awake, and gets it. Our Zeus hits an actuator on the P Hawk’s leg, an it falls. Their Jenner is kicked by our Vulcan, and it hit’s the SRM4 ammo. Dead Jenner. Their Chamelon tries to stand up, fails, destroys its CT, and its engine explodes, dealing a bunch of damage to our Spider, Griffin, Crusader and Zeus. Our Spider loses both arms and our Wasp one. Our Griffin is savaged. It also hit their Quickdraw and Phoenix Hawk. Their atlas tries to arise, fails, and destroys its RT. Their Striker pilot blacks out. Their P Hawk and Q Draw fall from the damage they received. Zeus destroys their P Hawks RT. Our Hunchback has hit their Atlas with its AC20 five times and that bastard is still alive. Our Zeus kicks and destroys the P hawks LT. I don’t even know why they are still coming, but they are. We order the Spider to flee. Their Atlas fails to stand. Their Striker pilot is still blacked out. Our Battlemaster hit’s the AC10 on their Orion. Our Zeus destroys the RA of their Quickdraw. Our Griffin destroys the Orions RT. Their Qdraw falls again. Our Zeus kicks and destroys their P Hawk’s LL. Now it is salvageable. Striker is still unconscious. Our Wasp flees. Their Atlas tries to stand, fails, injures the MechWarrior and they black out. Our Wolverine ignites their Quickdraw’s ammo and it goes boom. And with that, they lease off. Their Griffin, Whitworth, savaged Orion and Wolverine are the only elements able to leave. We need about 40 tons of armor to fix our peops. Salvage: Awesome missing H Striker RA Atlas RA Jenner LA Orion RA Quickdraw LA Stinger RA, H, LA, LT, LL Phoenix Hawk with just RL, CT and H. Striker missing RT, RA, with hits on enginex2 and gyro x1. Atlas without LA, RT, RA and LRM20 hit, foot actuator Spider missing two arms. Wasp is missing RA End of Mission 11 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-10-2009, 08:04 PM	#126
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Okay, time for Hex Company. Our foes: Warhammer Ostroc Hunchback Merlin Panther Whitworth BattleMaster Goliath Rifleman Wasp Javelin Mongoose The Mongoose is a rare 2750 era mech but lost its technology over time. That would be a nice grab. The Merlin was introduced in 3010, and was the first new mech made in a long time. It hasn’t proliferated like other medium mechs, but its not too bad as a lighter heavy mech. Two assaults and 4 heavies. This is Hex Company’s Grand Dragon. It is a solid heavy mech weighing at 60 tons. The Dragon, a similar mech, was built for the Combine for age,s but they decided to retool the company and make a new mech, very similar, called the Grand Dragon. It has a PPC, LRM10 and three medium lasers, one of which faces the rear. I like this pic, by the way. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-10-2009 at 08:42 PM.

10-10-2009, 11:08 PM	#127
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Let’s see what Ted Izumo’s Stalker can do against the Dracs. We concentrate a lot of fire on their BattleMaster. The next turn arrives. We continue to assault the Battlemaster, and also do some damage to their Merlin, which falls. Their Merlin stands back up. Their Warhammer shears off our Orion’s head with its PPC. Elite pilot Sam Martez has died. Their Merlin falls after the Orion hits its foot actuator. Our banshee destroys their Wasp’s Rl with a major kick. Our Enforcer destroys its LL with a major kick, leaving it legless and fully salvageable without ever attacking it with a weapon. I try to set some woods on fire near their beginning area where several of their mechs are still hiding. It fails. Ted’s Stalker hits two actuators on their Battlemaster. Our Banshee destroys the LA of their Mongoose. Our Enforcer destroys its RL. Their BattleMaster falls under another barrage of missiles, lasers, ppcs and auto cannons. Their Merlin fails to stand. Their battleMaster falls uner a fourth round of attacking, hits its SRM ammo and explodes. Their Hunchback also falls. Our Banshee kicks the Hunchback in its Head, and it dies. Their Javelin falls after being kicked by our Enforcer. This turn, the Merlin stands. Our Banshee destroys the Merlins RL and it goes right back down. Their Warhammer falls too. Currnetly four of their mechs - Mongoose, Merlin, Warhammer and Wasp, are on the ground. Only one of those cannot get back up. Our Kintaro hit’s the Warhammer’s ammo and it explodes. Our P Hawk hits their Mongoose’s Gyro. We begin to move in all mechs, in order to end this quickly. The only mech they have left I am considered about is their Goliath. Our Grand Dragon charges it. It will do a bunch of damage if it hits. I jump an Enforcer behind their Jav’s back. Our Spider gets behind their Rifleman. Out Stalker destroys the LT of their Mongoose and hits its gyro a second time. Another kill for Ted Izumo. Our Enforcer’s AC10 blows through the LT rear armor of the Jav, blows it off. Their Rifleman kicks and destroys the LL of our Grand Dragon. The Grand Dragon charges their Goliaht and doles out 36 damage, which hits, among other things, its head and goes internal and hits Life Support. Our Grand Dragon falls because it was legged. Their Goliaht falls as well, plus their Ostroc falls after being kicked by our Phoenix Hawk. They keep pushing, so I will as well. Grand Dragon ejects. Their Ostroc and Goliath stand. Their Rifleman hit’s a hip on our Commando. We hit an LRM10 on their Goliath. Their Goliaht destroys its RL. Our Enforcer destroys their Jav’s LL. Their Merlin’s RA is destroyed by a Kintaro kick. The Phoenix Hawk hit’s a actuator on the Rifleman, and it managed to fall well. Our Commando falls, and the MW blacks outs. They continue to push. Alright then. Our fire support mechs arrive in this little scrum we have going. They probably want to kill my Commando before leaving. Their Rifleman fails to stand. Alright, time to stop playing footsie with these mechs intending to get salvage. Let’s just kill them. Our Phoenix Hawk ignites he Rifleman’s AC ammo and it explodes. The Enforcer destroys the Javelin’s CT and the engine explodes. It peppers a lot of nearby mechs. Our Banshee destroys the Merlin’s LT. Their Goliaht takes out the Commando’s RA. Their Merlin’s MW baclsk out. And with that, they try and leave. All that is left is their Whitworth, a savaged Goliath and a savaged Ostroc. About 50 tons of armor are needed on this one. Salvage: Wasp, missing two legs Hunchback without H Mongoose ,without LT, LA, RL and with two gyro hits, 1 engine hit. Merlin without LT, LA, RA Pieces: Battlemaster RA, H Rifleman RA Warhammer RA, H, LA Merlin LA Javelin LA Our own Orion sans H Repair: Grand Dragon LL Commando RL, RA End of Mission 12 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-11-2009, 02:07 AM	#128
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Before Phaeton and Trinity companies arrive to support the Field Marshal, the battle has begun to die down. The out numbered and out experienced Regulars are falling quite easily before all of us. Are there losses? Of course there are, especially among the Rangers who suffered the initial attack. However, by the end of the day, there are three regiments of Regular mechs scattered throughout the plains, and organized resistance on Marduk has ended. June 24, 3039 - After several days of salvage operations, fixing things, and so forth, we are basically back to as full strength as we are going to get. Sandoval gives us a Griffin and Wolverine from Victory Industries as additional thanks beyond our contract for our assistance. Having been impressed with us, he decides not to waste us as garrison forces, and sends us back to Breed, one jump away, to rest and then join an invasion force that will arrive there in a month or so, and begin Wave Two. June 26, 3039 - We lift off from Marduk June 30, 3039 - We arrived at a JumpShip already charged. A few hours later, we arrive in the Breed system. End the first campaign in the War of 3039. We are about the begin the second campaign. Our contract is up at the end of contract, not now, so we cannot get salvage, although we can use it, as long as we pay for its repair. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-11-2009, 12:00 PM	#129
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	July 3, 3039 - We land at Breed and begin to stretch our muscles. On Breed are: Us Three various Davion RCTs Second Robinson Rangers - a battlemech regiment First NAIS Cadre Various local militia The 2nd Rangers are regular troops, not vets or elite. The First NAIS Cadre are training mechwarriors at the New Avalon Institute of Science War College, one of the best training academies in the Inner Sphere. They are green, but quite eager. The RCTs are invasion forces staging here until the Wave Two is ordered. July 6, 3039 - The RCTs leave to head out to staging areas to be in the first attacks of Wave Two. That leaves just Us, the NAIS, the Rangers, and various militia on planet. July 11, 3039 - A large number of unknown JumpShips arrive in system. They bear no symbols and their DropShips move towards Breed at high speed. We have to assume they are hostile. They refuse to answer hails. On July 15, 3039 - The first counter-attack by the Draconis Combine would hit the staging world of Breed after the invasion troops had mostly left. The units landing on Breed are unknown and unregistered, the 3rd and 4th Ghost Regiments. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-11-2009, 12:37 PM	#130
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	In order to get you up to speed on the events that are about to occur, we need to stop, pause, and talk about what is happening in the Inner Sphere. First of all, you might recall that the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine is Takashi Kurita. About 70 years ago or so, the Combine underwent a Japanese renaissance. Japanese culture became a part of the people, the country, and the society. Part of this was a revelation in the military. The old code of Bushido was studied and adopted, and a focus on single combat and personal honor, instead of Draconis honor, because the operational way. Current aged coordinator Takashi Kurita is a strong adherent of the old order. However, his son, Theodore Kurita, was a nouveau sort of general. He wanted to renovate the DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) into a more modern form of combat that put glory on the state, not on the person. The old DCMS was filled with old school Bushido style generals and warriors. When Theodore Kurita was promoted to Gunji no-kanrei by his father (because his father had too, not because he wanted too), they began a battle of wits with the DCMS as the prize. Theodore tried to place new and forward thinking people in positions of authority while Takashi wanted older school. Knowing that his realm could not survive a full fledged war against both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, Theodore entered into an agreement with ComStar. He would allow the Free Rasalhague Movement to form, and in return, ComStar would give him mechs. For years, Theodore did not use his forces to silence rumbling in Rasalhague, and when it seceded in 3034, he endorsed it. One fifth of the DCMS would not allow it, however, the old school people, and Theodore declared them Ronin, and thus began the Ronin Wars which we fought on behalf of Rasalhague. At the end of it, the DCMS had lost about a fifith of their military, and Rasalhague had taken many of their systems and planets. However, Theodore was ableto purage the DCMS of most of its old school people. He created units, the Ghost regiment, with materiel gleaned from Comstar, and in order to fill it, he recruited yakuza mechwarriors to pilots the mechs. As a result, he had a large private army that no one knew about fielding mechs no one knew still existed from the old star league era. He also provided some tricks like changing the Charger to a good mech and putting it in his forces so that Davion troops would be surprised by the mech. Between new mech designs like the Hatamoto Chi and the Daboku, and modifications to mechs like the Dragon and Charger, he was able to completely surprise Davion in the War of 3039. One more thing Theodore gave ComStar as part of the deal. The Draconis Combine had a secret POW that only a few knew about from the Fourth Succession War. Someone they captured, but who everybody believed was dead. Someone they could not use as a tool because he was persona non grata back where he came from, but someone ComStar wanted quite badly. Someone who would change the history of ComStar and the Inner Sphere forever - Frederick Steiner. ComStar got him as part of the exchange. As predicted, in the War, Davion and Steiner were able to juggernaut the Draconis Combine. Within a month, FedCom forces were on 34 Draconis planets. Takashi Kurita issued an order to hold the line at all costs, a foolish order that would be suicide against the well coordinated juggernaut. So Theodore rescinded it quietly, and ordered his best troops to counterattack. The Ryoken and Ghost regiments, reporting directly to him and with LosTech and various new mechs in them, he struck at Davion with all of his might, hitting a large number of planets. Theodore was outgunned, outplanned and outflanked, so he did the one thing he could do. He gambled. His gamble was that if he counter punched hard enough, with units and mechs that did not exist, he would stun Hanse Davion and stall the war effort long enough to give his people the time they needed to organize the defense and recapture of Combine systems. We have two Ghost Regiments bearing down on us with a lot of speed. Of course, we don’t know all of that, we just know that these two unnamed and unknown regiment sized ships are burning to Breed form the Zenith Jump Point in the system. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-11-2009 at 01:02 PM.

10-11-2009, 02:15 PM	#131
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Now, let’s talk bout LosTech, and before we do that, we have to back up a bit. The only weapons still left to man are few, because many Star League era technology is gone. However, with the rediscovery of the Star League memory core on the planet Helm in 3028, it was circulated and many places have tried to remake it. By the War of 3039, the first two mechs built with LosTech: Hatamato-Chi and Daboku have been built by the Draconis Combine and issued to key regiments like the Ghost and Ryoken regiments. Some prototype LosTech can be found on mechs in all five houses, and we are about to fight Ghosts, so we need to talk about what LosTech is, isn’t and what else is running around. Here are the weapons we currently have with 3025 technology: Long Range Missiles Short Range Missiles Lasers Machine Guns Flamers Particle Projection Cannons Autocannons And that is it. Weapons have various sizes. For example, Autocannons have tiny, small, medium and large sized bore, but they cannot go as far. These are referred to as AC2, AC5, AC10 and AC20 based on how much damage they do to another mech. The smaller the bore size, the farther it can be fired but the less damage it can deal. Long and Short range missiles have racks. Short-Range missiles come in racks of 2, 4 or 6. They deal two damage each, and when you hit, you roll to see how many missiles hit, and then each missile hit’s a different area. Long Range Missiles come in 5, 10, 15 or 20 racks, and you roll to see how many of those hit, and then group them in 5 missile lots. Each missile does one damage, and you roll to see where th damage is dealt. Lasers come in three sizes, small medium and large The bigger the are, the farther they can go, and the more damage they deal, but also they more they weigh, the more heat they make and the more space they take up. Machine Guns make no heat, deal little damage, and have short range, but are useful in anti-personnel roles where they deal double damage. They will become more valuable later, but for now, infantry are jokes, and machine guns are not good. Flamers can be used to either add heat to a target, or deal two damage. They have the same damage and range as a machine gun but make as much heat to fire as a medium laser, and they generally just are not good. PPCs go far, deal as much damage as an AC10, have better range, and give a bunch of heat. They give you 10 heat, by far the most in the era. Machine Guns, ACs and missiles require ammunition to fire them, and that ammo can explode dangerously. They can also run out of ammo. Energy weapons (lasers, flamer, PPC) do not require ammo, but they make more heat, which requires more heat sinks to compensate. There are some variable payloads. SRMs can be equipped with Inferno ammo instead of normal ammo, and it will deal 2 more heat per missile to the target for three turns. That’s pretty nifty. You just saw the brand new Listen-Kill missiles for LRM and SRM launchers for this War. You can also equip a hatchet, which is a close range weapon that allows you to do kick damage. It used to only do it on the punch table, which gave you a 1 in 6 chance of hitting the head, but I see that is no longeer the case, which makes them much less useful. Only the Hatchetman uses these. Mechs have heat sinks. The engine holds 10 heat sinks automatically, and you have to add more if you want them. Each one dissipates one point of heat. Standing in fire makes heat. Jumping makes one heat per hex jumped. Walking makes one, running two. Firing weapons is your main source of heat on a non-jumping mech. You can equip a mech with jump jets, and each one gives it one jumping move. As mechs get heavier, so too do jump jets. On a 20 ton mech, they are only half ton each, but on a 100 ton mech, they are 2 tons each. And that it in 3025 world. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-11-2009 at 02:18 PM.

10-11-2009, 02:28 PM	#132
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	However, we are about to encounter Star League era LosTech. Let’s look at what we are going to run into: Pulse Lasers - Small, Medium and Large lasers can also come in pulse varieties that fires lasers in small bursts instead of in one blast. This makes a bit more heat, and cuts down the range, but it increases damage a bit in many cases, and it also makes the weapon more accurate. They are the most accurate weapon in LosTech world. ER Large Laser - Only the Large Laser has had ER technology perfected. This Extended Range weapon makes a bunch more heat for no additional damage, but the range is much farther. ER PPC - The Extended Range PPC makes a heavy 15 heat, and does no more damage, but it can hit from much farther away. SRM-2 Streak - This missile system uses a small guiding laser to lock onto opposing foes. Once it does, it launches, and all of the SRMs fire and follow the lock. This means all of the missiles hit the same location. They do not fire, if you do not get a lock. So you do not waste ammo or make heat unless you are going to hit, and this makes them very nice. Only SRM2s have streak technology. Alternate payloads are not compatible with the SRM2 Streak. Gauss Rifle - Meet the new king of the hill as far as weapons go. 15 damage at a very long range for virtually no heat at all, and its ammunition doesn’t even explode. This rifle uses magnetic acceleration to fire a ferrous-nickel slug as a foe at high velocity. The rifle itself is quite heavy and if it is hit, you take 20 damage, but you can often survive that, you are not surviving an ammo explosion. (see CASE below for exception) AC5 Ultra - This tries to fire twice the number of shells as a normal AC5, but it sometimes jams, and its burns through ammo twice as fast. When you hit with it, you roll to see if you hit once or twice, and you will deal 5 damage or one spot, or 5 damage rolled twice. Only the AC5 is available in Ultra form. LB10-X Autocannon - Another classic. This is just like an AC10 and you can use normal AC10 ammo and it will fire like an AC10. You can also take and fire cluster rounds. These rounds are like shotgun fire, and when you hit, you roll to see how many of them hit, up to 10. You won’t normally hit with that many. However, each hit goes to a separate location. The LB 10 X is not available in other sizes. It is a bit easier to hit with cluster rounds. The LBX technology is the only technology around that combines a weapon that punches holes, like a Gauss, PPC, Large Laser, AC20 or 10: with a weapon that can find holes, like a SRM or LRM. This gives you a lot of versatility. There are new payloads. Thunder LRM ammo creates a minefield where it hits, and cannot be fired at mechs. Swarm LRM ammo will fire all missiles that missed one target at adjacent targets, and so forth, until all adjacent targets have been hit, or you run out of missiles. There is also a lot of equipment that was lost, and now comes back: Artemis IV FCS - This Fire Control System is linked to one SRM or LRM launcher and increases the number of missiles that hit when you hit. It’s great for bigger missile systems like LRM 15 or 20. It weighs a ton. You have to have one for each missile system. Streaks do not work with it. CASE - This weighs half a ton and is assigned to either the right or left torso (or both). An ammo explosion that is in that section will blows out instead of in, keeping the mech alive. It will still get shutdown with an XL engine though, but even then, no destruction. It is an essential in every mech with ammo, in my opinion, from here on out. Beagle Active Probe: This probe actively scans for anything within four hexes. It can find hidden units, and it is great in think jungles or urban fighting. Guardian ECM - This is one of my favorites. It shuts down anything that passes within six hexes of it, such as Artemis, Beagles, Narcs, Streaks, Listen-Kill missiles and TAG. As more and more complex things are introduced, remember that the ECM shuts them all down. Narc Missile Beacon - This fires a beacon that attaches to the target mech and acts like Artemis IV for all mechs firing at it with Narc equipped missiles on your side. It requires ammunition and takes up a lot of space between itself and the ammo. It does not work with Artemis IV, Streak, Swarm or Thunder missiles. TAG - This guidance system paints a target and then keeps it there in order to guide artillery to the target. When used in conjunction with artillery, it can bring a lot of hurt. Anti-Missile System - Basically a point-blank machine gun that uses complex circuitry to shoot down missiles before thy hit you. If you want to use it, do so, roll to use up ammo, roll to see how many missiles are knocked down, and then they roll to attack you with fewer missiles. You can only use it once per turn, it uses ammo like a pig in heat, and you can only use it on one flight of missiles before the to-hit roll is made, so you don’t even know if they are going to hit or not. As such, this is not a piece of equipment you will ever see me liking. It also reintroduced a few new ways to build mechs: Double Heat Sinks - Taking up three criticals each and dealing with double the heat, these freezers are a godsend to 3025’s biggest problem - heat. Ferro-Fibrous Armor - This takes up 14 criticals in the torso but allows you to get about 12% more armor. You can’t have anymore armor than normal, but the amount of weight you need to maximize your armor reduces. Endo Steel - This reduces, by half, the weight of your internal structure but takes away 14 crits. XL Engine - This is the other big one, besides 2x HS. These engines weigh half as much, allowing you to have some fast mechs, or a lot of weapons space in mechs that go 3025 speed. However, three critical spaces are taken up in each of the Left and Right torso. Remember that three engine hits forces a mech to shut down, so if an RT or LT is destroyed, a mech with an XL engine will shut down. This makes XL mechs much less survivable once they start taking hits, but they can massively increase speed, armor and/or weapons and equipment. MASC - Myomer Acceleration Signal Circuitry allows a mech to walk at double their normal walking movement. So a mech that might normally move at 5/8 can now move 5(10)/8 if it has MASC. However, the more you use it, the more likely it is to freeze and your legs will stop working. The first time, it only fails on a 2. Then each subsequent turn it is used that number increase to 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. This has weight based on the mech. Obviously, the faster your speed, the more you get from MASC. A mech that is 3/5 doesn’t nearly as much from MASC as a mech that is 6/9. And there we are. That is all LosTech. As we begin to fight mechs with pulse lasers, ER PPCs, ECM suites and more, I want you to know what it is and what it does, and I may even take some of it for myself and add it to our mechs to make them LosTech equipped. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-11-2009, 06:41 PM	#133
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Okay, here we go. July 16, 3039 - The two Ghost regiments make landing far away on Breed and the DropShips, unusually, head immediately back up and move to the JumpShip, stranding the Ghosts here. Odd. July 17, 3039 - We are under the command of General Conroy Baden-Powell. A descendent of the guy who founded the Boy Scouts? No clue. The Ghosts strike a small city and fade before anyone can answer. July 18, 3039 - They do another hit and fade to a minor military base and deal some damage to the militia stationed there. Later that day, another regiment hits a small factory and absconds with some materiel. July 19, 3039 - Their DropShips arrive back to the JumpShips, and do not appear to be leaving the system. No attacks today. July 20, 3039 - Their DropShips are burning back towards Breed, even faster than before. A raid on a city by the Ghosts. General Conroy Baden-Powell is done with this. He convenes a meeting of Ted Izumo, himself, and the CO and XO of both the NAIS Cadre and the 2nd Rangers. He orders an offensive campaign against the Ghosts. By now, the large number of older mechs, some that haven’t been made in centuries, has been noticed. The guess is that the Dragon found one or more Brian Caches from the Star League and added recovered mechs to their registry. We split up our forces to a variety of areas across Breed in order to be able to respond to calls immediately. July 22, 3039 - The 2nd Rangers sends a battalion at the Ghosts immediately after they are declared attacking a small industry on top of a plateau. The battalion is able to respond and holds them until more forces arrive. Two of our companies, Delta and Cinq, are nearby, and arrive after battle has been enjoined. Also a regiment of troops and tanks form the militia was close too, so they also arrive. Battle begins, as our two companies approach from virtually opposite ends. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-12-2009, 11:30 AM	#134
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	We get near a company and they turn to meet us. Delta Company vs. the Ghosts Their mechs: Lancelot Champion Guillotine 4L Phoenix Hawk 1K Hermes Wasp 1K Awesome 8T Thorn Sentinel 3M Griffin Battle Master 2C ********* Stinger 3G Shit! I rolled, and I am not kidding, a super super super super rare mech in the opposing company. When I roll a BattleMaster for a Ghost or Rykoen company, I roll a 1d6, and on a 6, it is a uber-BattleMaster, and I got one in the first company. A handful of Star League BattleMasters held a second cockpit, which could be used by the battle commander to direct his forces while someone else pilots the mech, and can switch back in if needed. It’s super rare. Only a handful of these were accidentally given to the Kurita forces. It also has super rare sensors from the Star League era. This is a treasure. If I can take it out and retrieve it will be party time for the Kilts and Commandoes. The only major areas are in the head (second cockpit and sensors). I have to get its head. Because of how rare it is, I can only assume that the pilot is elite because a CO of a battalion is in it. Luckily, Delta Company is the heavy metal company, still fielding a Charger and extra BattleMaster after their mechs were destroyed. The Lancelot is a 60 ton mech with 2 large lasers, a PPC, double heat sinks and an XL engine. This is the original Champion, not the one we already have. It has Ferro-Fib armor, an LB10X, SRM6 with Artemis IV, two medium and two small lasers. The Hermes is also rare, with Ferro-Fib armor, Endo Steel, a ton of speed at 9/14, two medium lasers and a flamer. The Thorn is a 20 ton 2750 era mech with Endo and CASE, LRM5, two medium lasers. This Sentinel has an Ultra AC5, SRM2, medium laser, and is not largely armored. Okay, the Guillotine is normally a 2750 heavy mech, but this is a downtick version with out LosTech on it, just 22 heat sinks, a ton of armor and large laser, srm6, and 4 medium lasers. The Wasp variant has a MG instead of SRM2 and adds more armor. The 8T Awesome drops the PPCs for two large lasers and 2 LRM15s. I like it better, actually. The P Hawk 1K has more heat sinks and no ammo Mgs, just large laser, 2 mediums and a small. The Stinger variant drops the two machine guns for a second medium laser and much more armor. I like it too. The result is 6 LosTech mechs, and many solid variants of mechs - a good Stinger, good Awesome, good Phoenix Hawk, meh Wasp, and the always solid Griffin plus a Guillotine. This is two assaults, three heavies, three lights and four mediums. Alright, here we go. This is the Lancelot we are facing. It’s a solid, fast, high weapon mech. However, the XL engine is a severe weakness. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-12-2009, 07:35 PM	#135
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Due to their BattleMaster, they get +2 to their initiative roll each round. Okay, here we go. We being to position ourselves and then fire. Our Listen-Kill missiles appear to not be working against the Ghosts. We concentrate our long range fire on the 2C BattleMaster. It uses it’s Anti-Missile system on our Crusader’s missiles. It looks like it engaged after it was hit, so perhaps the new rules make the AMS better. Their BattleMaster does not fall. More fire in the second round on their 2C. He uses the Anti-Missile System again against an LRM 15 from our Crusader after it hit, so I think the rule on that was changed for sure. It stays standing. Round 3 is here. I continue to advance our heavier mechs up the middle of the area to pressure the Dracs. Our Black Knight hits their Battlemaster’s ER PPC. It still stays standing. Our BattleMaster also took some damage and remains upright. I hop our Spider up to their Guillotine. I charge the Charger right up next to their 2C. Our Crusader destroys the 2C’s Right Arm, destroying the ER PPC. Then the Catapult hits and destroys its LA, gets a critical on the LT, and hit’s the Anti-Missle System. The Pilot automatically ejects from the ammo explosion, but the ammo only deals 20 damage because most of the ammo was used. The LT takes most of it, but it is not even destroyed. Result, a dead 2C without either LA or RA. Our Javelin hits their Lancelot’s foot actuator. Their P Hawk destroys the LA of our Spider. Their Lancelot falls. Round 5 is here, and we have taken out their 2C with their best mech, pilot, leader and are ready to keep rocking this. The injured Spider hops away. Our Charger runs behind the back of the injured Lancelot. Our Cat hits two more leg actuators on their Lancelot. Our Charger hit’s a large laser and a fourth leg actuator. It falls and hit’s a hip actuator. Their Awesome falls under some damage. I am going to kick with my Charger, but this could be very bad. We destroyed its LL. Good, I was hoping for a leg kill, or some serious damage to the CT, and not something worse. Round 6 and we win initiative for the first time. Get this, I just looked at the Lancelot and this is rare. I’ve never even seen it before. One leg is destroyed and the other has all four actuators hit, meaning it can’t move, and it is salvageable. I’ve never gotten a salvage of that before. They lit on fire the forest our Awesome was standing on, so time to move it. Also, our Charger is down on armor. Their Awesome arises. Our Warhammer shears into their Awesome’s head with a PPC but does not get a critical. It falls down again. The Awesome again stands. Their Champion falls. That’s it. Their Awesome falls after trying to move backwards over an elevation change. Our Crusader destroys the RT of their Champion. Our Wasp destroys its LA. Our BattleMaster hits their Awesome’s head and it is destroyed, after hitting an LRM15 twice. Their Hermes hit’s a hip actuator on our Charger with a kick and yet we manage to stay standing The next round arrives again. Our banshee hits two engines on their Champion. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Sentinel. Another actuaotr hit on our Charger. Our Warhammer destroys the Champion’s CT. Our BattleMaster hit’s the AC ammo in the sentinel and it lights up. Our BM falls and hit’s a hand actuator. And at that, our foes begin to fade away. They have left a Thorn, Guillotine, Wasp, Stinger, Hermes and Griffin and Phoenix Hawk. They lost a Lancelot, Awesome, battle master, Sentinel and Champion. That’s two assaults, two heavies and a medium. We took out the strength of their company and thus away they go. We’ll need about 50 tons of armor for this one. Salvage: BattleMaster 2C minus LT, RT Lancelot without LL and with Large Laser and 4 leg actuators hit Awesome 8T, without head, 2 LRM15 hits, engine hit Champion RA, H, RL, LL, LT Sentinel RA, RT, H Repair: Spider missing LA Charger, hip and foot actuator. Battle Master - hand actuator Cristina Fernandez, BattleMaster pilot, is now elite. Clyde Naller, Warhammer pilot, gains Gunnery: laser End of Mission 1 __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent

10-12-2009, 09:29 PM	#136
law90026 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2006	Cool campaign. This was actually one of my favourite eras in Btech (the other being when the IS finally took the fight back to the Clans).

10-12-2009, 09:37 PM	#137
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Yeha, I was so happy to see LosTech especialy since I just scored a BattleMaster 2C. I already have a plan for it. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-12-2009 at 09:38 PM.

10-13-2009, 12:11 AM	#138
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Cinq Company meets stiffer resistance, and runs into 16 mechs, a reinforced company. Here are their foes. Lancelot Crab 20 Guillotine 4L Hatamato-Mizo Phoenix Hawk 1k x2 Jenner Stalker 4N Shadow Hawk 2K Locust 3V Kintaro 18 Wolverine 6K Jenner 7F Wolverine 6R Grand Dragon Thug 10E This is such a 3039 Kurita unit, it’s like I rolled almost perfectly. A Hatamato, two Jenners, a Grand Dragon, several older mechs with low tech in the Thug, Guillotine, Crab and Thug, and thn the old school Lancelot, plus your normal P Hawks, S Hawk, Stalker, Locust, two Wolverines. Man, if I had rolled a Panther, this would be perfect. Oh, I will be creating my own unit sheet for the Ghost and Ryoken units, because this one is too old and has problems. For example, no Daboku, no Shootist, etc. There are missing mechs and after this, I will create my own roll sheet, and let you know what it is. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent