Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Cylus Maxii
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

Blue!


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Hyena
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2019 2:56 pm Green-ish.
Also vote Green-ish. I mean, unless we're on a world speckled with cobalt ore veins dotting the terrain, it's not a very practical camouflage design to have blue. Unless this is for the opposite, so we can spot our crew from space...because that color scheme would definitely do the trick there...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Blue, except for a couple of folks who prefer green or tan.
Individual mechwarriors can pick a different color scheme if they so choose. I might fire up Gimp and see if I can come up with a couple of other different colors. (update: done, there's a red and purple option, or, really any other color).

September 10, 3041
Eom
Target Baker

"Why do we all have to get that blue paint job, anyway? I don't even like blue, and it stands out like a sore thumb." El Guapo comments, carrying on the fine tradition of complaining rolling up the command chain.

Gbasden can't really come up with a good reason. "I'll tell you what, you can get green if you want. You still have to use the octopus pattern, though."

"Roger that." The mechwarrior says, mollified, as the Marauder stomps into position. The storm lets down briefly as our mechs begin their assault, with Alpha-Battle approaching about half a minute behind Alpha-Command. Two lances of hovercraft and light tanks scramble to support the defending mechs, of which there's a whole company - two light lances and a heavy lance. It's still night-time, so shooting will be a little more difficult, but we can handle it.

"Let's try and keep the base intact, please. Concentrate fire on the mobiles." the Major reminds everyone.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We advance towards the base in formation, while most of the Capellans come out of and around the western side. Gbasden blasts a Pegasus hovertank that moves out of cover a little too much and deflates the air cushion. Good start.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Capellans appear reluctant to come out and engage us, so we're going to have to go in there and flush them out. If that's the case, then we'll wait for Alpha-Battle to arrive so we don't get swarmed. A salvo of LRMs comes sailing over a building, missing El Guapo's Marauder. He retaliates by using a PPC to "take a little off the top" of a turret visible in the base.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Command-Three, moving in." Stefan reports, then decides to angle his mech so as to land in cover, as Isgrimnur gets distracted by a Spider whooshing halfway across the battlefield on its jump jets to land behind El Guapo. El Guapo's method for avoiding the Spider's attempt at a physical attack is pretty simple: walk forward, then wait for Isgrimnur to land next to it and crush the right leg with the hatchet. Since that's where the weight was, the Spider winds up flat on its back, crushing a jump jet nozzle as it falls.

Gbasden simply continues stomping forward, turning the Awesome's PPCs on an exposed Scorpion tank. Its pitiful AC/5 shot goes wide as two PPC blasts evaporate its right half.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Not that it looks like we really need them, but Alpha-Battle gets into the fight as well, coming in from the south.

Stefan gets a little impatient and jumps into the middle of the base without waiting for backup - Isgrimnur is still about 180 meters behind. Two Stingers and a turret mounting a pair of small lasers are all that oppose the Catapult, so he *should* be fine. The lighter mechs and turret are surprised and whiff their shots, while the Catapult's lasers carve a substantial amount of armor from all around one of the Stingers, then follows up with a bird-leg kick, which rips the left half of the bug mech off. Some of his leg armor flakes off in the process, but not a big deal.

Gbasden also walks into a hornet's nest, with lasers and SRMs flying in as the Awesome approaches a patch of woods to the southwest of the base. He dings a Firestarter with a PPC shot, and the incoming fire isn't really that effective.

El Guapo exchanges fire with a Crusader, hitting the enemy mech with a PPC while avoiding its LRMs, then hears a light *ding* as an Ostscout jumps in and delivers a kick to the back of one of the Marauder's legs.

The downed Spider makes an effort to prop itself up and fire at some of our mechs, but takes a laser to the gyro for its trouble. No way it's getting up with a dinged gyro and a crushed leg.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Stinger that Stefan kicked bails out (doesn't even have to eject, can just climb out the left side of the cockpit since there's a "free" opening there now). Our mechwarrior fires up the Catapult's jump jets and moves north, firing lasers at the other Stinger, scoring a laser hit on the right arm. The other mech fires a symbolic laser shot in the Catapult's general direction then jumps away.

Gbasden's mech barely vibrates as MG rounds and SRMs pitter-patter against the armor. He has to restrain himself from completely destroying that little building, as we're trying to keep the base intact.

El Guapo moves up, watching with detached interest as a pair of PPC shots from a distant Warhammer (relatively) slowly zap overhead, then fires at a Javelin trying to hide in some woods. As the heat alarms begin wailing, one PPC shot lands center of mass, a second nearly takes off the right leg, while a slug from the Gauss rifle takes off the left arm. A Scimitar lands an AC/5 round against the Marauder's right arm, then is silenced by an AC/10 burst from Isgrimnur as the Hatchetman jumps in. The damned Ostscout avoids the blow from the hatchet though, which is not something that happens very often.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Gbasden and El Guapo focus fire on the Thunderbolt to the north, landing two PPC shots and a gauss slug between the two of them, which removes a significant amount of armor and opens up the right torso. The Awesome rocks as the Capellan Orion and Thunderbolt return fire, hitting with an autocannon burst and a large laser, but the assault mech's armor works just fine. The Awesome delivers a solid boot to an annoying little Fire Javelin (a variant of the standard Javelin with four medium lasers instead of dual SRM/6 launchers), breaking its leg in two places and sending it flopping to the ground. As he's busy doing that, the Orion gets in a solid kick on the left leg, cracking open a heat sink. We'll need to be a little more careful, maybe get away from that machine gun turret.

To the north, Isgrimnur uses the hatchet to smash a Saladin as it tries to navigate the base. The hovertank *poofs* out from under the hatchet as the fuel tank detonates.

To the south, our Ostsol is able to fend off its annoying little Ostscout cousin, with the smaller mech winding up on the ground, at least temporarily.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
As Gbasden pulls back, El Guapo stays in plays to cover him, tracking the Stinger that evaded Stefan, and blasting it with the Gauss rifle. The supersonic slug shatters the bug mech's right arm and torso section, then gets into the MG ammo bin, showering pieces of Stinger all over the battlefield. The Marauder's arms flip back and fire at the approaching Crusader, but only a medium laser hits.

Gbasden slams his fist down on the controls as said Crusader comes in and spoils his shot on the Orion - the three PPCs go wide and the Awesome, having lost a heat sink, is quick to announce heat warnings. The AC/10 blast to the right arm doesn't help, either. Gbasden's luck holds up though, as the Crusader opts to fire its leg-mounted SRM launchers rather than kick, which allows our Awesome to deliver a "leg sweep", knocking armor off both the Crusader's legs and forcing it to the ground.

Stefan, Isgrimnur and the Dervish engage the Warhammer, Thunderbolt and a Packrat to the north, using their superior maneuverability to get in behind the heavier mechs. Stefan's lasers cut armor off the Warhammer's back, but the rest of our weapons fire isn't as impressive. Stefan kicks out with the Catapult's bird leg and is rewarded with sparks flying from the Warhammer's hip joint, although he does get whacked in the left missile launcher by one of the 70-tonner's PPC arms. The swing overbalances the Warhammer, and, combined with the hip damage, brings it to the ground.

Isgrimnur has to content himself with slamming the hatchet through a Packrat, with some incredibly lucky infantry just managing to get out before getting turned into paste.

To the south, our Ostsol is getting swarmed by lighter mechs (although not the Stinger any more), but manages to put a few lasers through a nearby Javelin's center torso armor, melting a little engine shielding. Not too much, but enough. The little guy has had enough and jumps off to the south, the mech glowing on infrared as it leaves.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Gbasden and El Guapo continue beefing with the Crusader and Orion, while Isgrimnur, Stefan and the Dervish work on the Warhammer and Thunderbolt.

Stefan moves to attack the Thunderbolt from behind, giving it a good laser basting, including a brief brush to the head. He takes a PPC shot from the downed Warhammer that's unabled to get up, but armor holds. Isgrimnur is distracted by a Firestarter coming up from behind, managing to avoid the worst of the attack, but missing his shots on the Thunderbolt. Between the weapons fire and kicking, the Thunderbolt drops to a knee. The Dervish works on the Warhammer, blasting the weakened left leg with lasers and SRMs to knock out a heat sink and another actuator.

The armor on Gbasden's left leg flakes off under fire from the Crusader, leaving the Awesome dangerously exposed. Luckily, Alpha-Battle's Merlin has jumped northwest and gets a good couple of shots on the back of the enemy mech, melting a leg actuator with a laser blast, and taking the armor off the left arm with a PPC shot. The damage is enough that the heavy goes down, right in range of the Awesome's still intact foot, which cracks another actuator on the Crusader's left leg as it comes down.

El Guapo is unable to knock the Orion down with weapons fire, which leaves the two mechs kicking at each other, scraping nearly a ton of armor off each other's legs.

To the east, Alpha-Battle's Trebuchet reports disabling a Hetzer. Not that hard for a jump-capable mech to outmaneuver a self-propelled gun in close quarters, but every little bit helps.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
This ought to be the breaking point, as the Capellan formation basically breaks apart.

Stefan jumps in next to the downed Warhammer. The bastard is still squirming around trying to get up, so the four lasers cut through the right torso and detonate an ammo bin. "Whoops." Stefan remarks dryly as the heavy is shredded by exploding SRMs. A couple of infantry firing their small arms at Stefan get caught in the explosion, but most make it away.

Isgrimnur jumps east as well, firing the autocannon at the Thunderbolt as he goes, the burst knocking out the heavy mech's SRM/2 launcher. A Firestarter tries to join him, firing its short-range weapons, but the fire goes wide as the Hatchetman ducks then swings the axe upwards, chopping off the left leg and sinking deep into the torso section before coming out above the shoulder to sever the arm. Ouch.

Gbasden's aim at the Orion is thrown off by an autocannon burst from said Orion, which then moves to backhand El Guapo's mech. The Marauder ducks down then kicks out with a leg, stripping armor and knocking out an actuator on the Orion's counterpart.

To the south, our Ostsol is still having trouble with a couple of light mechs, winding up on a knee after being tripped up by an Ostscout.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
After his left leg snaps, the guy in the Crusader gives it up and bails out.

El Guapo and the Orion continue dancing around each other briefly, but the Orion crashes to the ground after a PPC shot takes out the right leg.

Alpha-Battle's Merlin recieves a rude surprise when the downed Fire Javelin levers itself up and fires lasers at our mech, blasting out a foot actuator. The mechwarrior is unable to maintain balance and falls over. Alpha-Battle's Dervish notes this and delivers a curb stomp, crushing the lighter mech's right torso.

Isgrimnur fires the Hatchetman's jump jets again, avoiding fire from a Scimitar hover tank then smashing through the fuselage into the engine block with the hatchet.

The Ostsol finally clears out the other annoying Javelin that's been bugging it, putting a punch through the center torso and cracking the gyro housing. Balancing with a damaged gyro is a lot harder than with an intact one, and the Capellan mechwarrior can't do it, thumping to the ground, it's leg snapping off as it does so.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
The last two mech standing on the Capellan side are a Thunderbolt and the Ostscout. The Ostscout takes a PPC from El Guapo, while the Thunderbolt is sandwiched between Stefan and Isgrimnur. It turns to face Stefan, then shudders as Isgrimnur's autocannon rips through the rear armor and dings the gyro, sending it to the ground. A couple of whacks with the hatchet ensure the heavy mech stays down.

With the Merlin finally disabling that annoying little Vedette, the Ostscout remains the last combat-effective mech and puts the jump jets onto maximum thrust to clear out of the area.

Gbasden lets go of the PPC trigger and lets out a breath. "Target Baker secured. Tech and salvage teams move in. Uh, once the storm passes."

El Guapo "supervises" the exit of the nearby mechwarrior from the Orion, while Isgrimnur does the same for the Thunderbolt. That was basically a total massacre. We've got a couple of mechs with armor breaches (the Awesome and the Merlin), and a couple with armor in the yellow (Marauder, Ostsol), but the rest of our mechs are in the green. Ammo expenditure was pretty minimal.

The only hostiles that got away were a Javelin with an engine breach and a lightly damaged Ostscout.

While the FWL mercs do their thing, our salvage teams will be hauling back pretty much everything else, minus a bunch of burnt infantry equipment and disabled stationary turrets. The rough estimate is about 26 million C-Bills worth of salvage, which ought to bring our bank accounts above 1.7B C-Bills in total. We'll also be looting some serious spare parts.

Isgrimnur and the guy in the Trebuchet get into an argument over who got the kill on the Spider. Isgrimnur insists it was him, since he's the one who took the leg off. The guy in the Trebuchet insists that just because you take the leg off a mech doesn't mean it counts as a kill, since the stupid thing was still squirming and shooting at him when he went over and put a laser through the gyro housing. "Hell, if we left him alone, he could have probably dragged himself off the field, and then we wouldn't even be able to grab his mech for salvage!"

So, who gets the kill on the Spider?
[] Isgrimnur, driving the Hatchetman, by knocking off the leg.
[] Guy in the Trebuchet, laser shot through the gyro.

Another question that Gbasden ponders is whether to send some backup to target Dog. Realistically, speaking, Beta Company can handle it, but since we crushed these guys so completely, we could probably spare an extra lance or so. Of course, the more mechs we send over there, the less force we leave here, which could potentially leave the place open to a counterattack once the storm clears.

[] Leave the mechs with armor breaches here (Awesome, Merlin), send the remaining six to help out at Dog
[] Leave a lance here (Awesome, Merlin, Ostsol, Trebuchet), send four over to Dog
[] Beta Company can handle Dog, secure the area and rotate patrols, maybe see if can chase down that Ostscout
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:13 pm

So, who gets the kill on the Spider?
[] Isgrimnur, driving the Hatchetman, by knocking off the leg.
[X] Guy in the Trebuchet, laser shot through the gyro.

Another question that Gbasden ponders is whether to send some backup to target Dog. Realistically, speaking, Beta Company can handle it, but since we crushed these guys so completely, we could probably spare an extra lance or so. Of course, the more mechs we send over there, the less force we leave here, which could potentially leave the place open to a counterattack once the storm clears.

[] Leave the mechs with armor breaches here (Awesome, Merlin), send the remaining six to help out at Dog
[X] Leave a lance here (Awesome, Merlin, Ostsol, Trebuchet), send four over to Dog
[] Beta Company can handle Dog, secure the area and rotate patrols, maybe see if can chase down that Ostscout
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 1:53 am
NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:13 pm

So, who gets the kill on the Spider?
[] Isgrimnur, driving the Hatchetman, by knocking off the leg.
[X] Guy in the Trebuchet, laser shot through the gyro.

Another question that Gbasden ponders is whether to send some backup to target Dog. Realistically, speaking, Beta Company can handle it, but since we crushed these guys so completely, we could probably spare an extra lance or so. Of course, the more mechs we send over there, the less force we leave here, which could potentially leave the place open to a counterattack once the storm clears.

[] Leave the mechs with armor breaches here (Awesome, Merlin), send the remaining six to help out at Dog
[X] Leave a lance here (Awesome, Merlin, Ostsol, Trebuchet), send four over to Dog
[] Beta Company can handle Dog, secure the area and rotate patrols, maybe see if can chase down that Ostscout
Sorry Isg...

How quickly/easily could we get reinforcement back here if this base gets counterattacked when the storm clears? If we can, then good with this vote. If not, better leave Beta Company on their own.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:13 pm So, who gets the kill on the Spider?
[] Isgrimnur, driving the Hatchetman, by knocking off the leg.
[X] Guy in the Trebuchet, laser shot through the gyro.

Another question that Gbasden ponders is whether to send some backup to target Dog. Realistically, speaking, Beta Company can handle it, but since we crushed these guys so completely, we could probably spare an extra lance or so. Of course, the more mechs we send over there, the less force we leave here, which could potentially leave the place open to a counterattack once the storm clears.

[] Leave the mechs with armor breaches here (Awesome, Merlin), send the remaining six to help out at Dog
[] Leave a lance here (Awesome, Merlin, Ostsol, Trebuchet), send four over to Dog
[X] Beta Company can handle Dog, secure the area and rotate patrols, maybe see if can chase down that Ostscout
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Zenn7 wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 7:53 am Sorry Isg...
No worries. He still has to be seen driving a Trebuchet, looking like some samurai knock-off with enough holes in his chest to trigger people's trypophobia.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Shouldn't Isgrimnur at least get an assist or a half-kill or something, though?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Sounds like you want to give him a leg up on the killboard.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Hey, I am a wise, fair, and generous leader.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

And he doesn't want me behind him with a hatchet when I'm unhappy.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

"Leg" up. C'mon!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Freyland wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:31 pm "Leg" up. C'mon!
I'll be sure to put your name first on the company open mic night.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Karaoke night AND open mic night? That'd be one multi-talented mechwarrior.

Vote Results
Spoiler:
Trebuchet gets the kill

Send four over to Dog - 1 + 1.5
Beta can handle it - 1 + .5
September 10, 3041
Eom
Target Dog

"We can send some backup over, but only if you really need it."

Zenn7 loooks over the sensor readouts once again. Five "medium" tanks, no problem. Four turrets, no problem. Four blips in the air, annoying, but not a big deal. Heavy mech lance, heavy/assault mech lance, two medium mechs. Including an Awesome and a Battlemaster - and the Awesome we've seen several times already. That could get ugly. Additional wrinkle: can't really risk shooting at the LRM turrets, as an ammo explosion could take out what we're looking for. And those turrets weren't exactly slouches when Beta-Fire lance got clobbered there last time, putting out a large amount of LRMs.

"Yeah, I think we'll need it." Zenn7 answers.

"Understood. One lance on the way, ETA 90 minutes."

By the time 90 minutes pass, the skies around the supply depot brighten up a little, and the sun just starts coming up from the horizon. The storm is still hovering over Able, Baker and Charlie, but here, it's cleared up. Zenn7 gives the order to attack. Once the Capellans commit their forces and hopefully come out of the depot, Beta-Hunter and the ad-hoc elements of Alpha's reinforcements will join in and pound them to scrap.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
"Maintain air watch, it looks like we've got a couple of mosquitoes coming by to buzz us.", Zenn7 reminds the group.

"Thanks." Zarathud grunts while stepping aside from a strafing run by a Stingray. Zenn7 blasts the aerospace fighter with the right arm PPC, but the angle is awkward and he can't bring the rest of the Awesome's weapons to bear. The aircraft buckles a little but remains level.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
"So, mercenary scum, I finally have you where I want you!" comes a taunt over the open frequency. It's not clear which enemy unit is transmitting, although the voice is female and the accent sounds somewhat familiar. "You seem determined to continue mocking me, however."

Our mechwarriors are a little too experienced to be too distracted by it. Zarathud puts a pair of PPC shots into a Trebuchet showing its upper half above a building, blasting armor off each arm. LordMortis runs the Victor up to the main building cluster and lets rip with an AC/20 burst at it as well, but the autocannon rounds chew up the part of the building in front of the enemy mech instead. "Whoops." our mechwarrior says, steadying the Victor as an autocannon burst from a nearby Orion hits center of mass. "Hope there wasn't anything important in there."

Zenn7 takes a substantial number of SRMs from a Harasser as the little hovercraft zips by while he's distracted firing at an Eagle-class fighter. On the plus side, the Eagle eats three PPC shots to the fuselage. It levels off, but the light mist it leaves behind indicates heat sink damage.

Moley moves up with LordMortis and her eyes go wide as a Battlemaster inside the complex squares its legs and fires a PPC shot. Luckily, it misses. Our mechwarrior's reflexes are pretty good and the Battlemaster eats multiple lasers and LRMs, the armor loss unbalancing it and forcing a faceplant.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"First, you take my family. Then, you escape my righteous wrath. And now, again, you come to steal from me what does not belong to you. But this is where your path ends, mercenaries."

Zenn7 has had enough of the ranting. "Who the hell are you again, and what's your problem?" He pauses for a second to steady the Awesome after some armor loss from continued SRM fire from the Harasser and a couple of lasers from a Stingray coming in overhead, then evaporate the Harasser with PPCs. "Other than the fact that we're wrecking your forces."

His statement is punctuated by a massive explosion - the Trebuchet pokes up to fire an LRM salvo at Zarathud, achieving a pretty good hit rate, then takes a couple of PPCs to the left torso, where the LRM ammo is stored. Well, not any more after it blows up.

LordMortis and Moley jump into the base, Moley taking a shot at and missing an Angel class light strike fighter up above, LordMortis sawing the left arm off an Ostsol with the Victor's autocannon.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
"Infuriating." comes the reply. "But not unexpected. A mercenary barely remembers what they were doing ten minutes ago, let alone over a decade ago."

Zenn7 racks his brain, trying to figure it out, but puts it out of his mind for now, instead, choosing to nail an Orion within the base with three PPC shots as Moley circles around the back of the enemy heavy. It fires back, hitting our Awesome with a few LRMs. Moley's Thunderbolt takes some fire from a nearby Vedette and a few SRMs from above, then delivers a kick from behind. The Orion remains standing despite the pounding.

To the south, LordMortis circles around the left side of his target Ostsol, avoiding its lone PPC shot and laying into it with autocannon fire. A follow-up boot cracks the sixty-tonner's left leg and it keels over, effectively out of the fight.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 tracks a Catapult through its jump and plows PPC shots into its right side, blowing out a pair of jump jets. "We'll talk about it after we've crushed you." He comments with a smirk.

Zarathud and the enemy Awesome duel, however our mechwarrior has the advantage and scores two PPC hits compared to the hostile's none.

LordMortis is somewhat distracted by a Maxim hover transport zipping in and misses his shots, while Moley engages the Battlemaster again, jumping in behind it and putting a couple of lasers on its limbs while scraping a large amount of armor off the left leg.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 gets strafed again, the Eagle breaching the Awesome's left arm armor with its lasers. Annoyed, our mechwarrior turns his guns skywards, putting another pair of PPC shots into the aerospace fighter.

Zarathud briefly switches targets to the Orion, scoring three PPC hits to gouge large chunks of armor off the heavily armored mech.

"I have you now!" comes a taunt from the enemy commander as the Capellan Awesome finally scores a hit on Zarathud with a PPC.

Taking advantage of the Orion's weakness, LordMortis lets rip with the "Pontiac 100" autocannon, mangling its left arm. The force of the impact forces the mech to a knee.

Moley jumps north to see if she can pick off a couple of units there, but winds up eating a PPC from a "surprise" Warhammer, causing her Thunderbolt's lasers to go wide.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
"Oh no you don't." LordMortis remarks as the Ostsol struggles up from the ground and points its PPCs at him. The Victor goes up on jump jets and comes down behind the Ostsol, sparing an autocannon burst for the nearby Catapult. There's a lot of missile trails and laser blasts flying everywhere, but pretty much every shot misses. But, LordMortis simply boots the Ostsol in the back after landing, knocking it over again. Maybe it'll stay down this time?

Zenn7, meanwhile, tracks the flight path of the incoming Stingray and gets out of the way, blasting an annoying little Vedette that's been sitting in the base and plinking away at our mechs with its autocannon for a while. The PPC shots breach armor, and the fire ceases.

The enemy Awesome is briefly distracted by Moley jumping around in the back, allowing Zarathud to score three more PPC hits on it. As we know, it's pretty tough to breach an Awesome's armor, though. Moley takes the opportunity to scrape the Battlemaster's damaged leg again, this time ripping out a couple of actuators, which sends the assault mech to a knee.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
"Now, *you're* finished." El Guapo remarks, bringing the reinforcements.

The enemy Eagle picks a really bad time for a strafing run, just as our now company-sized force is gearing up for a push into the base, and takes quite a bit of damage, including a laser blast from Beta-Hunter's Stalker right up the tailpipe as it pulls out.

Zarathud isn't sure whether its the PPC shots that knocked the Hunchback down or just it slipping on the pavement, but the end result is pretty good anyway.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
"Your reinforcements won't save you, I have many more forces available than you do!" the enemy commander says over the open frequency.

"The ones we just destroyed a couple of hours ago?" El Guapo asks with a snicker.

Our counter-taunting doesn't pay off, as Zarathud's right arm takes a PPC blast and a pair of heat sinks blow out, spraying a bluish-green mist across the windshield. Our mechwarrior goes to fire three PPCs at the enemy Awesome anyway, but only two shots come out as LRMs fly by the cockpit from the right - that annoying little Maxim manages to disable the right arm completely. Although that costs it, as Beta-Hunter's Atlas riddles the hovercraft with rounds from the AC/20. It's technically still intact, but the driver guns it out of there.

A Guardian fighter comes over to strafe our units, pinging the Atlas with a laser, but Moley is tracking it from long range, sending a flight of LRMs which impact the little aircraft. Its evasive pattern is disrupted long enough that Beta-Hunter's Orion can bring its autocannon to bear and shred the annoying little thing.

LordMortis fruitlessly runs a hand across his eyes, trying to clear that characteristically awful mixture of blood and sweat way. It's a little more difficult than usual, as his mech takes a few LRMs to the dome and some shrapnel dings our mechwarrior directly. He'll be fine though, just makes it a little harder to shoot.

Still, with Isgrimnur, Stefan and a Dervish flanking around the north, while LordMortis and Moley flank from the south, the enemy force is basically surrounded.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Here we go.

The northern flanking force is engaged by the Hunchback and a Vedette. Isgrimnur's autocannon indicator briefly flashes yellow as it switches ammo bins, having run the first ton dry (understandable, there was no chance to reload from the last fight). Between his attacks and Stefan's lasers, the Hunchback's left leg takes some serious armor breaches and actuators drop out. The Hunchback winds up on the ground, at which point Isgrimnur takes the opportunity to swipe the hatchet right to left, catching an arm actuator and the cockpit and carrying away a bunch of myomer bundles and sensors. Stefan squashes the Vedette trundling around underfoot.

The enemy Orion meets its end, poking out to face Beta-Hunter's Guillotine. He scores a couple of minor hits, but three PPC shots from Zenn7 melt most of the rest of the armor, leaving the internals easy pickings for the Guillotine's lasers and listen-kill SRMs, one of which blows the Orion's SRM ammo bin. The Guillotine takes a random LRM to the right leg, which blows out an actuator, but stays upright.

The Archer takes a pounding, multiple PPCs and lasers, and also a gauss slug from El Guapo's Marauder, plus some autocannon rounds and SRMs from the Orion, and falls over right on the rooftop where it stood.

Moley misjudges a jump and gets briefly surrounded, taking multiple SRMs to the dome, which rattles our mechwarrior a little, but she still manages to step away from the adjacent Catapult's kick, causing the bird-legged mech to nearly flip over and land on its ass.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
The mechwarrior in the Archer panics as El Guapo and Zarathud walk by, pointing their guns at his mech, and tries to get away. Unfortunately, he steps on a "less structurally sound" building and there's a lot of dust and debris as the thing collapses. Stefan jumps in to take a look. Seeing the Archer still up and about, he brackets the center torso with laser beams, cutting off both arms.

Our big mechs on the "main street" wind up having nothing to do, so they take up some anti-aircraft work. The Stalker evaporates the Angel light fighter after it makes its final pass, while the Stingray takes multiple PPC shots and a gauss round, but stays upright.

The Hunchback that Isgrimnur pounded struggles up to a knee, intent on continuing its fight. Alpha company's Dervish removes said knee from consideration by generous application of lasers and SRMs, putting the enemy mech back down, following up with a curb stomp. The mechwarrior inside yanks the ejection lever, but it winds up being inadvisable, as the ejection seat splatters the poor guy against a nearby building.

LordMortis watches with some amusement as the Catapult that failed to hit Moley tries and fails to get up repeatedly, crunching armor and pavement, then frowns as the enemy Awesome blasts his Victor in the right side with a pair of PPC shots. His autocannon fire evaporates an annoying little Vedette nearby, then he brings the foot down on the right side of the struggling Catapult, crushing a laser and the rest of the torso section.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
"Dammit... sonofa... watch it..." Isgrimnur basically spends about twenty seconds dodging fire, first from the Warhammer, then the Battlemaster. But he does ok, only taking a little damage. He then whacks the Crusader in the right leg, knocking it to the ground.

Moley blows the Awesome's left arm off with a laser blast - it's not a PPC arm, but it'll do. Our Orion then rakes fire across its torso, autocannon rounds and a laser stripping armor while SRMs ping the head.

LordMortis absorbs some fire from the Crusader, then delivers a devastating AC/20 burst to the Battlemaster's torso, which tracks down to the right leg, blowing out the hip joint. The venerable 85-tonner creaks and falls over to the right, where its heat readings spike.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
The Capellan Warhammer and Crusader both fall to ammo explosions as our mechs pile in around them, leaving just the Awesome standing.

It gives LordMortis' Victor a solid boot, popping a heat sink, but it's been backed into a corner, currounded by heavy and assault mechs.

"So... time to give it up?" El Guapo asks, pointing the gauss rifle at the enemy mech.

"Negative, mercenary. You will take my battlemech when I am dead. And honestly, not even then. You bastards still don't remember. Grand Base."

------------------

November 7, 3029
Grand Base, Capellan Confederation
Mechwarrior Training Facility

Responding to a call for backup, El Guapo's Hunchback moved down the road, seeking its target, a smoking, downed Orion behind him. To the left, a turret popped up, unleashing a salvo of thirty LRMs. Most failed to arm, but a few plinked off the Hunchback's armor, creating the impression of popcorn. Rotating the mech slightly, the mechwarrior responded with a hail of autocannon rounds. The turret remained intact, but ceased fire, which was good enough for our mechwarrior. He was in a hurry.

Up ahead, a Capellan Striker engaged a Quickdraw and the commander's Wolverine. Its autocannon barked briefly before being silenced by an SRM salvo from the Wolverine's launcher. Seeing an opening, El Guapo opened up again with the autocannon and lasers, targeting the assault mech's legs and setting the heat alerts wailing. Recoil from the autocannon brought it up to the center of mass instead, while the lasers stayed on the legs. Wobbling from the armor loss all around, the Striker fell. El Guapo winced as the head impacted a nearby building.

"Uh... weren't we supposed to capture that guy alive?" He wondered out loud.

-----------------------

Present Day
"... caused permanent brain damage. My husband never recovered." the mechwarrior in the Awesome finishes.

"Ok, so you want revenge, I understand. And I understand that you couldn't attack us directly, so then you tried to hire us to nerve gas civilians over on Chamdo and didn't think we would figure it out for some reason?" Comes the transmission from Zenn7. "How did you get the Chancellor to sign off on that, isn't that taking an awfully high risk of war with FedCom for almost no return?"

The Awesome makes a motion almost like a shrug. "Chancellor Romano Liao has been known to appreciate a good story about seeking out revenge. And the lives of a few million Tikonov residents hold no meaning for her." the mechwarrior says, her voice raspy.

"Ok, how about we just let you and that Archer walk off the field, then." He says, pointing to the armless Archer trying to limp away. "We're not getting paid to kill you."

"Very well. But we'll meet again. And you won't get away next time." Comes the response.

El Guapo smirks. "Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say."

It looks like we've acquired ourselves a nemesis. Or, rather, have become aware of the existence of one. Somebody who hates our guts and wants to see the company (or its reputation) destroyed. We've got her at our mercy, but she's pretty unlikely to climb out of her mech.

[] Open fire. Chances are, one of our mechs gets wrecked too, but she did refuse to surrender and explicitly states that she'll keep coming after us.
[] Let her go. She appears to be really bad at actually getting revenge, so we can look at it as an opportunity for more salvage later on.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Enlarge Image

Is this even a question? Hey, let's let someone who's actively planning to kill us go so that they can have another go of it at some later time when we may or may not be expecting it.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Plus the nerve gas thing is pretty serious.

And I don't need her heckling me on Karaoke Thursdays.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:13 pm It looks like we've acquired ourselves a nemesis. Or, rather, have become aware of the existence of one. Somebody who hates our guts and wants to see the company (or its reputation) destroyed. We've got her at our mercy, but she's pretty unlikely to climb out of her mech.

[] Open fire. Chances are, one of our mechs gets wrecked too, but she did refuse to surrender and explicitly states that she'll keep coming after us.
[X] Let her go. She appears to be really bad at actually getting revenge, so we can look at it as an opportunity for more salvage later on.
Is there some Inner Sphere gossip blog where we can publish an article about her pathetic defeat at our hands?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

:think: Dr Stefan. Double arm amputations a speciality.

Open fire, she may get lucky next time and she may just decide to nerve gas our families next time.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Take her down. We get our own planet and set up base, we might start putting support/family there, we could be vulnerable there...
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Under normal circumstances I'd waste her without a second thought, but didn't we already tell her she can go? Can we shoot her without repercussions? Wouldn't we have to take out the limping, retreating Archer, as well? That poor bastard didn't do anything other than follow orders from a psychopath hell-bent on revenge. And he's trying to retreat (armless, at that).

Still, I say kill 'em.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Guess what. When you get into a battlemech that kind of comes with the risk that you will be killed. He hadn't surrendered and was actively attacking our units. It's pretty fucking stupid to carry that kind of grudge. Since she did explicitly refuse to surrender (we have that on holovid, right?) I say waste her.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

There’s no profit in killing her but a greater risk of loss in letting someone with a vendetta live. Sorry she feels that way, but we’ll oblige by killing her and salvaging the mech.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

I, Arthur Durham Mortis, don't have much pull here but I say



(Which not coincidentally was favorite table top game expression)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote results:
Spoiler:
Open fire - unanimous
September 10, 3041
Eom
Target Dog

"Well, anyway, that doesn't really work for us." El Guapo states, charging up the Marauder's PPCs.

"Me either." The mechwarrior in the Awesome responds.

The Awesome's PPCs scourge a significant amount of armor from the Marauder's torso and an arm. El Guapo opens fire in return, with the rest of our surrounding mechs joining in. The Awesome stumbles backwards into the building behind it, surprising the hell out of Isgrimnur, who barely manages to fire up the jump jets and get the hell off of it before the structure collapses, burying the assault mech and its mechwarrior under what used to be six stories of building.

The "escaping" Archer halts for a second. "Just keep walking." Zenn7 suggests from about 120 meters behind, PPCs aimed at the Capellan mech. It takes the advice.

The salvage crews pronounce the Awesome "good for spare parts". As the FWL mercs carry out their search operations, we do a little bit of looting and salvaging of our own. Between Baker and Dog, we wind up salvaging a heavy lance's worth of mechs, as well as a bunch of tanks and various other crap - weapons from fixed emplacements, spare parts, that sort of thing. The most notable salvage is a Battlemaster, trailed in importance by an Orion, a Thunderbolt, a Crusader and a Catapult. And also a Swayback (aka a Hunchback variant without the AC/20).

The Battlemaster's legs are pretty beat up, with the right leg requiring total replacement while the left leg just needs a few actuators. The Catapult is pretty beat up, its right side is entirely wrecked. The Crusader's left leg is screwed up, while the Thunderbolt is more or less an engine and a gyro attached to a pair of legs. Our techs say they can fix the Catapult and Crusader with spare parts from another salvaged Crusader, more or less scrapping said mech, but the Thunderbolt is unrepairable without some serious factory time. And it's also a standard, ground-bound Thunderbolt. Our mechwarriors will regale anyone who listens with stories of the "Thunderbolt Curse", and most will simply not get into one unless it's been refitted to the Eridani Light Horse specs (in other words, jump jets).

The Orion will need a replacement left arm and right leg, which we can get once we head back to Outreach.

The FWL mercs take a week and a half to comb through the captured facilities, while we conduct salvage and minor repairs. By September 20th, we are all packed up and ready to go. Our rented dropships, and the mercs burn for orbit and then the jump point, unchallenged - it appears that the local Capellan garrison has had enough. The mercs will hitch a ride on our dropship until we reach Marik space, at which point they'll detach and go their own way. Meanwhile, we'll have the opportunity to stop in at several worlds to carry out surveys. After our first jump, we learn from the latest HPG download that Delta company isn't expected to arrive back at Outreach until the end of January, which gives us plenty of time. Gamma is also requesting some backup on their garrison contract, so we'll consider dropping off a mech or three since Asuncion is on the way back to Outreach.

As Stefan points out, having a long transit time from jump point to planet is great if we want early warning of unwanted visitors, but not so great if we want to be able to move things in and out quickly.

Let's pick some worlds to survey along the route to Outreach:
Spoiler:
Image
[] Gorki - former Capellan colony, contact lost during the 2nd Succession War. Currently on a three-way border between CapCom, FedCom and FWL. 6.22 days from jump point.
[] Jilin - another former Capellan colony, contact lost during the 2nd Succession War. Currently nominally in FWL territory. 18.7 days from jump point.
[] Myrvoll - conquered from the Capellan Confederation by the Free Worlds League in the 1st succession war, but abandoned during the 2nd. Pretty deep in FWL territory. 2.57 days from jump point.
[] Belluevue - not to be confused with Bellevue, another former Capellan colony. Right on the border of FedCom and FWL. 3.5 days from jump point.
[] Mandal - yet another former Capellan colony, in FedCom territory. 3.3 days from jump point, has the advantage of being one jump away from Outreach.
[] Write-in from among the other visible unclaimed systems. Will slightly delay arrival at Outreach but not by much.

We don't know the detailed planetary stats for any of these places, so it's basically a question of who we'll have to appease to let us set up shop in their claimed territory.

While Alpha and Beta burn for the jumpship and wait around for the charge-up sequence, let's check in on Gamma.

------------------------
September 24, 3041
Asuncion
15km outside Earthwerks Manufacturing facility

This one's pretty straightforward. Our employer shares some air defense tracking results with us, and shows that a pair of Leopard-class dropships have grounded to the north of one of their factories. We rapidly move Gamma-Probe lance to intercept, with Gamma-Battle standing by for backup. The incoming hostiles are two mech lances, a mix of heavy and medium, and a single assault tank, and appear to be backed up by a pair of aircraft. So, the backup will be necessary as no way that four medium mechs take on three mediums, three heavies and a Brutus assault tank. And a loose Stinger for some reason, we'll have to watch out and prevent it from bypassing us. Even a little piece of crap bug mech can cause a lot of damage to a factory if left unattended, or just run in and grab something valuable.

As a reminder, Probe lance is a Phoenix Hawk, a Vulcan, an Ostroc and AWS in another Phoenix Hawk (the Clint being indisposed due to a missing arm and engine damage). Battle lance is Scrub in a Warhammer, Hyena in a Striker, Xwraith in a Thunderbolt and Cylus in a Grasshopper. The local militia, on short notice, is able to contribute an Ostsol. It's more than we expect, since things are still pretty simmering in terms of local civil unrest.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
There's a little bit of a dust storm impairing visibility and mobility, but we should be ok. The Probe lance engages the raiders as they move north. Most of them are jump-capable (or, in the case of the Champion, relatively fast) and move up, while the Brutus and Warhammer hang back, providing longer range fire support.

AWS takes a pot shot at the Wyvern, melting some armor off the right torso with the large laser, while its return fire goes wide.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
AWS moves after the Wyvern, encouraged by the early success and takes a full salvo from an advancing Griffin - PPC and LRMs to the right side, the damage wobbling the Phoenix Hawk around and causing its attacks to miss. However, the Ostroc uses this opportunity to circle around behind the Wyvern and put a large laser through the damaged right torso, taking out the SRM launcher and a heat sink. For a Wyvern, which already has way more guns generating heat than heat sink capacity, this is a problem.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
That poor Wyvern just isn't having any luck, as our Ostroc and AWS both land laser hits on the damaged right torso. The attached arm goes flying off and the mech sags a little as the mechwarrior ponders what to do.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The guy in the Wyvern decides to peel off and run away, leaving his arm behind. The rest of the faster mechs make it into the woods, where it'll be harder to catch them. Until Gamma Battle lance gets there anyway. There's some weapons fire, but most of it misses due to the difficulty of targeting jumping mechs in heavily wooded terrain. Our Ostroc does get a kick in on the Champion, only taking a single small laser scrape in return.

The allied Ostsol continues scoring hits on the Warhammer as it tries to get a better shot, stripping armor off with lasers here and there.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Here come the enemy air assets.

The allied Ostsol reports that the Warhammer has moved into the woods and engages the Brutus, taking out its engine with a well-placed laser shot. Then there's a series of annoyed curses and crunching sounds as the return fire arrives and it gets strafed, nearly losing the right arm and falling over.

AWS moves to harass the Champion, avoiding its gunfire but failing to hit with anything either. At least the kick takes armor off the right leg.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Gamma Battle lance comes in just in time to intercept the three escaping enemy units - Stinger, Griffin, Quickdraw. First up is the Stinger, which avoids a surprising amount of fire from Scrub's Warhammer, but isn't paying attention to Cylus' Grasshopper, which cores the bug mech out. Hyena is a little distracted by the incoming aircraft and wings one with the LBX autocannon, which doesn't prevent it and its buddy from blasting Cylus quite a bit. Xwraith zaps the nearby Quickdraw with lasers, almost breaching its rear torso armor, while its return fire is completely ineffective.

To the south, the Ostroc engages the Champion, taking some damage from the enemy mech's weapons, but takes advantage of the damage to its right leg and cracks it, sending the raider mech to the ground.
Spoiler:
Round 7:
Image
The guy in the Champion bails, leaving our Ostroc free to help the other Phoenix Hawk with the Warhammer. Which he does, blasting the enemy mech in the left leg with a laser, causing a pair of actuators to blow out and all of its shots to miss as it keels over.

Gamma Battle lance engages the Quickdraw and Wolverine, with Xwraith sparing a boot for the Griffin. It's going to be tough to stop *all* of those mechs. The Quickdraw takes a couple of kicks, losing a leg actuator, but remains standing.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The southern Phoenix Hawk takes out the downed Warhammer's leg, that'll prevent him from doing any more raiding. That and the boot from the Ostroc crushing the enemy mech's head.

Cylus jumps in behind the Quickaw as it tries to get away to the north, putting a large laser through the armor breach in the rear center torso. The mech falls over, wrecked.

The remaining two mechs decide to call it quits and peel off to the east, as do the aircraft. Shortly after, the Leopards lift off. Not the best result for a raid, but good for us, as the salvage is pretty decent.

Since it was one of our employers' mechs that got the kill on the Brutus, they take that. We grab the Champion and Warhammer, since they're actually intact, and let our employer have the wrecked Stinger and Quickdraw. No way we can get either of those working right now, but they'll be good for spare parts if necessary.

As it turns out, that was all a feint. While we were kicking ass, a group of "hostile irregular forces" seized an Earthwerks parts depot and are busy looting it. We'll need to go take it back. "The facility's defensive turrets are intact, but intended mostly for anti-infantry defense and shouldn't pose a threat to you. Further damage to the facility is unacceptable. A Locust-class battlemech escaped the facility's capture, and the mechwarrior has, uh... volunteered to help retake the facility."

Scrub can't quite stop herself from laughing when she sees the opposition. It's a collection of random civilian mechs retrofitted with crap equipment. Granted, there's a lot of of them (sensors show thirty one distinct units, plus the five turrets we're not allowed to destroy), so they'll probably make up for their lack of quality by volume, but still.

Do we call in backup?
[] Yes, Gamma Probe. AWS and buddies could use the exercise.
[] Yes, Gamma-Striker. On second thought, better not, it's just the two rookies and their commander.
[] Yes, Gamma Strike Flight. We'll hold the bombs, though, as we want to preserve the facility and these aren't exactly worthwhile targets.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Gamma Probe, don't let those bums just sit around!

And the aircraft are going to be a lot less useful w/o bombing. And if they do crash, significant risk they inflict damage on the factory, which I somehow doubt our employer will be highly sympathetic about.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

Hey, who are you calling bums?!?

Send us in, Coach.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Send gamma-probe in - unanimous
Survey Gorki, Bellevue, Mandal

September 28, 3041
Asuncion
Earthwerks Parts Depot 23B

The integrated searchlight on Scrub's Warhammer sweeps the area as Gamma Battle lance advances to retake the depot. It sweeps over a "deer-in-headlights" looking mech and yeah, there's definitely looting going on. "Battle-Two, stay behind me. I don't want to light you up by accident." Scrub remarks.

Hyena's Striker defers, as our mechwarrior cycles through his weapons status, checking the LBX autocannons ammo toggle. Xwraith will approach from the southwest while Cylus will approach from the southeast to maximize our ability to intercept escapees. Our little Locust pal buddies up with Xwraith, although we don't really expect him to do too much.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
The "Buster" Haulermech has a little bit of bite to it, firing LRMs at our Warhammer just as Scrub looses the twin PPCs. One nails the offending LRM launcher, the other goes directly through the cockpit. Unfortunately, the LRMs blow out the Warhammer's searclight.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch." Scrub intones slowly.

Hyena also gets a good shot in, sending an LBX slug through the torso of a loggermech that steps out of a warehouse, lighting it up on the infrared sensors.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
With the searchlight knocked out, Scrub and Hyena's progress through the complex slows down, as there's a lot of "crunchy" or "slippery" stuff underfoot. Hyena finishes off the Loggermech as it tries to get away, coring it out with a PPC shot to the already damaged center torso.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A lightly armored scout car (the computer identifies it as a "Stoat Scout Car") briefly lights itself up as it tries to cross the street at Scrub and Hyena's maximum weapons range. A large chunk of the vehicle's front is severed by the Warhammer's PPC. Hyena quickly thumbs the LBX autocannon to cluster ammo and fires a spread as well, popping a couple of tires in the back, leaving it stuck in the middle of the street. A few tiny blips on infrared indicate the crew rapidly making their exit.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
No luck this time, an APC manages to avoid our heavy and assault mechs' fire.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Gamma-Probe arrives, approaching from the same directions as Xwraith and Cylus. There's a little bit of fire exchanged, but, again, nothing hits.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub and Hyena move forward, Hyena conserving ammo on the LBX autocannon as they fire at a shoddy-looking Archer.The enemy mech sends a salvo of LRMs in Scrub's direction, but the poor lighting conditions basically make it impossible to hit anything. Xwraith reports some LRMs impacting around the Thunderbolt as well.

Round 7:
"Probe-four, I've got an active sensor reading 210 meters east of my position. Please investigate." Scrub tells AWS, who fires up the Phoenix Hawk's jump jets to navigate through the rather tall buildings, fiddling around with the night vision dials to increase the contrast a little bit.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Hyena and Scrub continue exchanging fire with the Archer, Hyena scoring a PPC hit on the enemy heavy's right torso.

"Get back here!" Xwraith calls out as a hauler mech zips out of a warehouse, cargo containers loaded up. One cargo container drops to the ground as the carrying hoist is cut by a laser. The hip actuator blows out as well, sending the hapless cargo thief to the ground. As it struggles to get up, Xwraith brings the Thunderbolt's foot down on the left torso, causing a gout of flame to emerge from there as the internal combustion engine finds a different outlet for the energy it generates.

Cylus breaks to the center, letting go with the Grasshopper's laser array, cutting the leg off a DemolitionMech, which causes it to drop to the ground and stall out its engine.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Cylus moves forward up to the downed DemolitionMech, delivering a fatal curb stomp while sending a blast from the Grasshopper's large laser at an ordnance transport trying to clear out of a building. The little truck doesn't make it. Hyena blows away its companion that tries to exit the building right after as our Striker and Warhammer move to the "main action area". Scrub's contribution to the massacre is the spectacular destruction of an engineering truck via fuel tank detonation, although her Warhammer does heat up a little as the vehicle's flamer sprays land on target. Our 70 tonner de-stresses by kicking over an APC as it tries to fire SRMs at her mech. She also idly notes some small arms laser fire coming in from the west.

"Infantry in the buildings one hundred fifty meters west of my coordinates." she calls out.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
"They're a lot closer than that." Hyena grumbles as tracers from small arms fire plink off his Striker's armor. Presumably, they were delivered there by one of the nearby APCs, the number of which gets reduced as Hyena goes to work with the Striker's lasers.

Cylus actually takes some armor damage from the infantry, but they're not going anywhere so we'll de-prioritize them for now. The Grasshopper focuses on the nearby APC, cutting it to ribbons with the Grasshopper's laser array. Having destroyed that target, Cylus "accidentally" swipes the mech's foot through the nearby building, crushing a few of the annoying rifle infantry.

Gamma-Probe's Phoenix Hawk and Vulcan swing around from the west, catching a DemolitionMech out in the open. Weapons fire is pretty ineffective, but the Phoenix Hawk takes the civilian mech's left leg off. Then the right leg snaps off as it falls over, so that guy's out as well.

"Looks like a DemolitionMech." AWS reports as he gets to the coordinates Scrub described earlier. "Doing a little digging."

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Scrub closes the range with the Archer that's been lighting off LRMs at her for a while, as Hyena splits off to deal with a mech his computer identifies as a Swordsman. Calling it that is a bit of a misnomer, as there's not a single sword in sight. It winds up on the ground after a solid kick.

The Archer inexplicably switches targets, firing off a salvo of LRMs in Cylus direction. The Grasshopper takes a solid hit to the right torso, spraying coolant fluid all over the street as a pair of heat sinks are ruptured. It has to go back to paying attention to Scrub though, as short range weapons fire strips armor and the two mechs exchange kicks.

The Vulcan and Phoenix Hawk to the west engage a Shugosha and a Haulermech. The Shugosha's arm comes off when the Phoenix Hawk jumps up on a short building and gives it a solid boot, while the Buster is knocked to the ground.

AWS works on the DemolitionMech to the south, using the Phoenix Hawk's lasers and machine guns to strip armor from multiple locations. Both of those have a single PPC for armament, so being up close like that isn't really their forte.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
Hyena watches a cargo truck try to make a run by Xwraith and isn't having any of it, blasting wheels off with the LBX autocannon. Xwraith notes this and stomps on the nearby APC trying to make a run for it as well, splattering it.

Scrub finishes off her duel with the Archer, blasting it up close with a single PPC and all her short range weapons. The damage isn't even that bad, but the loss of armor prevents the mechwarrior from maintaining balance. The poor guy crunches an ammo bin against the pavement, and the mech detonates.

To the west, the Vulcan and Phoenix Hawk continue pummeling their opponents, easily avoiding their short range PPC fire. The Buster's right leg comes off entirely under machine gun fire from the Vulcan, while the left leg isn't looking much better. The Shugosha fires its PPC, misses, then takes a hit to the adjacent heat sink from weapons fire, before a boot to the chest takes out the PPC. Well, you can't really expect a 20-ton police mech to stand up to a real battlemech anyway. The guy inside actually manages to stay upright though, which is impressive.

AWS is easily able to keep up with the DemolitionMech, punching through the rear armor to hit the engine.

Our liaison buddy in the Locust actually does something useful for once, splattering a pair of laser rifle infantry with a foot. Could have been more useful if he'd used the machine guns instead.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith makes sure the Swordsman stays down by cutting the left leg off with the ER laser, as it displays signs of trying to get up.

At this point, the main concentration of enemy combat units (other than infantry has been broken up, so we're going to break up into twos and threes and hunt the rest down.

Cylus breaks east, going after a Powerman. The civilian mech actually gives our Grasshopper a bit of armor damage as it fires from inside a building, but our mechwarrior is persistent and punches through the building, both literally and figuratively using lasers, damaging the internal combustion engine and the gyro.

A nearby Kyudo goes down as our Ostroc blasts it with lasers then cracks a pair of leg actuators with a boot as it comes out to help the mech being pummeled by Cylus' Grasshopper.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith and Hyena both pick new targets and move towards them, although said targets are a little tougher than expected and our mechs take some damage while not delivering much in return. Gamma-Probe's Phoenix Hawk jumps in to help Hyena out, squashing an APC putting out a steady stream of MG tracers.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith moves to get around the second Archer but underestimates the strength of the building where the Thunderbolt attempts to land, and the whole thing comes tumbling down. The Archer takes the opportunity to drop a foot on the right torso, but armor holds up.

Hyena has some trouble as well, as a Scavenger mech has parked itself nearby and exchanges autocannon fire with him. Until the civilian mech explodes for no discernible reason, with a pretty good secondary explosion as well. Was it the exchange of kicks? Shoddy manufacturing?

The mech that AWS has been picking apart powers down, and the guy inside climbs out, allowing our mechwarrior to move on to another target.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
Cylus and the Ostroc head back east, as does the Warhammer, to mop up the infantry that's still taking pot shots at us.

Xwraith struggles up just in time to block a kick from the Archer with the Thunderbolt's right leg. The enemy mech's actuators burst and while it's distracted, it takes some blows from the Vulcan picking away at its rear section - an internal LRM ammo magazine detonates, and that mech is gone.

Cleanup:
Gamma-Probe's Phoenix Hawk hunts down another sensor reading in a couple of warehouses to the north. The subsequent fight results in a collapsed building and a crushed ConstructionMech.

AWS and the Ostroc manage hunt down another escaping mech.

The allied Locust helps Scrub hunt down the remaining infantry, taking out most of a platoon of the obnoxious laser-equipped buggers, although not before they remove some more armor from Xwraith's Thunderbolt.

We do a "body count" and it looks like four enemy units got away - the Shugosha, a CargoMech, a DemolitionMech and a Wolverine. We make a couple of cargo truck drivers leave their cargo behind and let them go, not being in the business of killing surrendered non-combatants.

The salvage is, for the most part, complete crap. We'll just let our employer have it, build up some credit. Armor is running a little low, so we'll definitely need to salvage something next time out. Scrub's SRM launcher is almost out of Listen-Kill warheads (and because they've basically been rendered obsolete before entering large-scale production, FedCom isn't manufacturing them any more. Not that they'd ship those over to the Free Worlds League anyway). We also used an unbelievable amount of machine gun ammo trying to hose down infantry in pitch black lighting conditions. "You're not kidding, that ammo percentage counter never goes below 95% in a normal fight!" "Yeah, not even with our half-size bins." AWS and Clint (the other Phoenix Hawk pilot) comment on the situation.

While we did cause some damage to the facility (Xwraith still calls bullshit on that building that collapsed under the Thunderbolt), we retook it mostly intact, and prevented the theft of most of the materials. As it turns out, that DemolitionMech that AWS found was planting charges. Earthwerks displays uncharacteristic competence for a large corporation and has its people check the sites where we spotted demo mechs, finding and disarming said explosives. So, sure, a few million C-Bills worth of damage, but better than what could have happened.

On the plus side, we manage to buy up a pretty good number of bombs, enough for a couple of sorties with our aerospace fighters.

Since we're in need of mechs to fill up Gamma Striker lance (the one with the rookies), we put out the word on local information networks that we're looking to staff up. We get a line on two mechwarriors. They're neither of them stellar - we run them through some simulator exercises, and their gunnery is slightly above average, while their piloting is slightly below average. On the plus side, they both come with their own mechs. Owned by corporate security forces. So we'd have to buy them out if we want to hire them.

Gamma-Striker is currently a Cronus (60-ton brawler), a Jenner and a Wolfhound, so either mech would be an ok fit.

Who do we hire:
[] Latrice Adumbe, drives a Javelin JVN-10N - fast, jump-capable, two SRM/6 launchers.
[] Tessfalfe Zaid, drives a Griffin GRF-1N - an ever-present classic.
[] Screw it, we've got the cash. Both!
[] Pass, we can handle it without these semi-scrubs.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

[x] Tessfalfe Zaid, drives a Griffin GRF-1N - an ever-present classic.

Javelin's a little too ammo dependent and too light.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Zenn7 wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2019 8:29 pm [x] Tessfalfe Zaid, drives a Griffin GRF-1N - an ever-present classic.

Javelin's a little too ammo dependent and too light.
+1

Additionally, Tessfalfe is a rocking name.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Hire just the Griffin - 2
Hire both - 2
Scrub looks critically at Ms. Adumbe. "We'll, uh, let you know once we've finished interviewing other candidates. Just be aware that, well, we're not exactly a 'light mech' outfit." she emphasizes with scare quotes. "Kind of situations we get into, you'd probably get blasted to bits."

Pvt. Tessfalfe Zaid though, gets hired with no doubts. The other one, we'll think about.

--------------------

Delta company completes their survey of Kingtribel. There are two potential planets where a colony may have been - a .71G sauna with a lot of carbon dioxide (with a nice 369k average surface temperature) and a .68G iceball with almost no atmosphere to speak of. We do detect two abandoned facilities, one on an outer-system gas giant moon, and one on the planet in the next orbital slot out. They've both been cleaned out for the most part, except for their lone transponder beacons, still responding to automated navigational queries after hundreds of years. Not every centuries-old facility is a cache of advanced mech parts - some are just old terraforming project monitoring stations. So old, in fact, that even the fabled Star League double-strength toilet paper in the bathrooms has worn out and crumbled.

Based on our inexpert analysis and some conjecture, we think that the one or both of the rocky planets were "Star League Specials". Back in the day, the politicians and engineers of the Star League loved making "minor" atmospheric adjustments to make planets more habitable, and one of the favored mechanisms was to build giant machines to "thicken it up" or "thin it out" (the other being to strap engines to ice comets and drop them on "qualifying" planets to "give it a little more water"). If the jackasses had figured out how to manipulate gravity, they'd have probably done that too. And it probably worked great until the Star League collapsed and the tech knowledge to maintain the atmospheric processors was lost, at which point they either ran out of control (as was probably the case on the inner rocky world) or broke down and stopped working (as was probably the case on the further rocky world). We leave the abandoned installations and the ghosts of their operators behind and move on.

--------------------

Alpha and Beta companies complete their survey of Gorki, and it looks great initially. It's the 7th planet out, about 9.64 AU from the system's star, which is a nice and hot yellow, much hotter than Sol. Still, it's pretty far, but it must have some kind of "internal" heating system which keeps the average surface temperature at about the same as Terra - 22C (287K). The gravity is a little low, only .51G, it's smaller and the atmosphere is a little thinner, but still: standard nitrogen-oxygen mix, no crazy atmospheric contaminants that'll turn you inside out, good stuff. We even detect metal concentrations slightly below the surface water, indicating the presence of artificial structures.

Now, at this point, everyone gets really excited and starts chattering, and then we do a full orbit around it... and no land. Literally, 100% water coverage. With depths ranging from tens of meters to several kilometers. A close examination of the more shallow areas shows artificial structures on and below the surface. Some are large enough to land a dropship on, but the hired dropship captain absolutely refuses to do so for some reason. "When you haff your own dropship, you can haff it land on rickety platfform in random planetary ocean."

"First off, we do have a dropship. It's just... in drydock. Second, that's ok, we've got aerospace fighters that can check it out." comes the response.

[] Forget it. Plenty of other planets in the galaxy, no need to visit this "Wasserwelt" as the Steiners and Rasalhague folks amongst us quickly dub this place.
[] Send some aerospace fighters down there with a couple of techs riding shotgun, try to figure out what's down there and what happened to everyone.
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LordMortis
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by LordMortis »

Tesla falafel Said Wot?

(I have no opinion for the question)

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:58 pm [] Forget it. Plenty of other planets in the galaxy, no need to visit this "Wasserwelt" as the Steiners and Rasalhague folks amongst us quickly dub this place.
[X] Send some aerospace fighters down there with a couple of techs riding shotgun, try to figure out what's down there and what happened to everyone.
Sure, why not.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

AWS260 wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 3:56 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:58 pm [] Forget it. Plenty of other planets in the galaxy, no need to visit this "Wasserwelt" as the Steiners and Rasalhague folks amongst us quickly dub this place.
[X] Send some aerospace fighters down there with a couple of techs riding shotgun, try to figure out what's down there and what happened to everyone.
Sure, why not.
Definitely! Again, higher chance of wacky hijinks.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:56 pm
AWS260 wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 3:56 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:58 pm [] Forget it. Plenty of other planets in the galaxy, no need to visit this "Wasserwelt" as the Steiners and Rasalhague folks amongst us quickly dub this place.
[X] Send some aerospace fighters down there with a couple of techs riding shotgun, try to figure out what's down there and what happened to everyone.
Sure, why not.
Definitely! Again, higher chance of wacky hijinks.
Sounds like a plan. If The Guap's there, send him down to lead them. We need some on site leadership. (No mech, don't think that would work so well on these platforms, but I'm sure he's got made skills with a side arm/laser rifle/whatever too).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

El Guapo wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:56 pm
AWS260 wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 3:56 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:58 pm [] Forget it. Plenty of other planets in the galaxy, no need to visit this "Wasserwelt" as the Steiners and Rasalhague folks amongst us quickly dub this place.
[X] Send some aerospace fighters down there with a couple of techs riding shotgun, try to figure out what's down there and what happened to everyone.
Sure, why not.
Definitely! Again, higher chance of wacky hijinks.
Agreed!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Sounds like the perfect place for a dirigible recon.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Soinds like we need a dirigible capable of having a dropship land on it....
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote results:
Spoiler:
Send the aerospace fighters down, unanimous.
While discussing how to handle the orbital scan data from Gorki, our mechwarriors get into a bit of a discussion.

"We should send a dirigible down." Isgrimnur remarks.

"A what?" Moley asks, not being in on the joke.

"A dirigible. A blimp. Light-weight skin filled with light-weight gas. Usually helium." Stefan chimes in.

"Preferably loaded with PPCs. Makes for great air support." El Guapo adds, chuckling.

The younger mechwarrior shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "Sounds like you guys have brain damage from too much heat in the cockpit. Maybe it's time to retire."

"Not until I get to ride a blimp." El Guapo states firmly.

----------------------

"Well, the name's appropriate." One of our aerospace jocks remarks after putting a little bit of the water on his fingers and putting it on his tongue.

"Huh?" the tech next to him asks.

"Well, it means 'bitter' in Russian."

"Ah." the tech shuffles off, eager to be back up to higher platform.

The landing pad we choose is sturdy enough to land a couple of aerospace fighters. It creaks and groans but is perfectly stable. We'll have to do a more thorough engineering evaluation to figure out if it can support something as heavy as a dropship. The bulk of the facility actually turns out to be underwater. The power is off, and a lot of the doors are sealed, with our exploration team reluctant to force them open for the most part. There are no signs of violent conflict, although it's obvious nobody's been there for a long, long time. Some of the signage we see indicate this facility to be part of a mineral extraction and refining operation. One of the more notable things we find is a series of underwater docks, presumably for submarines. Most are unoccuped, except for one, where there's a submarine that's completely rusted out and the only reason it hasn't sunk is because it's clamped in place. We recover a few internal data storage devices from otherwise decayed old computers and bring them back up to the dropship for later analysis, as our aerospace fighters don't necessarily have the horsepower or technical expertise to decode centuries old data.

Looking out to the horizon as they take off, our survey crew notes several other oil-rig like structures within visual distance - landing pads. And now that they know what they're looking for, there are several other areas on the planet with landing pad clusters poking out from the water.

The amount of time we have to explore is limited to a couple of days, as the dropship needs to burn back to the jump point to avoid delaying the jump too much - sure we own the jumpship, but time is money. The guys on board the jumpship have some seriously old computers (circa late 2600 for the particular one we own), so they should be able to hook those data crystals up and see what's on them.

---------------------

October 23, 3041
Asuncion
En route between Earthwerks and Kallon Industries facilities

To give the rookies and the new recruit something to do and to comply with an Earthwerks request for "secure information delivery", Scrub sends them on a run over to a nearby Kallon facility. At least, unlike the last delivery run, Earthwerks sends a Wolverine, which can actually move. So our job is to escort this fellow across rebel-held territory.

Predictably, we get intercepted - by a six-pack of tanks and two heavy mechs, a Warhammer and an Ostroc. Well, maybe intercepted isn't the right word, but we do run into them. Since Striker Lance is a) a bunch of rookies and b) seriously outmassed (the heaviest mech being a 60-ton Cronus), we opt to run through.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Our rookies advance down the west side as a feint - if need be they'll simply peel off. The one in the Wolfhound scores a solid hit on the Warhammer with the large laser while sighing in relief when the enemy heavy's PPCs go flying overhead.

Our forward mechs light some fires up ahead to use as cover as we advance.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our new recruit demonstrates her excellent gunnery by putting a PPC shot into the same leg that the Wolfhound got previously, exposing internal structure. The Jenner to the south takes a few plinks from a Pike firing its AC/2s, but they're just AC/2s. Even a bug mech can take a hit from an AC/2.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A flurry of PPC shots, SRMs and massive autocannon rounds (from the Rommel tanks) target our mechs, but thanks to the "pre-arranged" smoke cover, none of it hits. The only decent gunnery from the opposing force continues to be from that Pike to the southwest, which plinks a few AC/2 rounds off the Wolfhound as the Jenner gets away.

Round 4:
[camera feed damaged]
The trio of our heavier mechs to the east continue exchanging fire with the nearby tanks, stripping a little armor while receiving basically no damage in return.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
We're just about clear, having run past the main threats, those being the AC/20s.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
A few LRMs and AC/2 rounds send us on our way.

The Wolverine delivers its package without further incident. The mechwarrior inside thanks us and sends our lance on our way. Quick and easy.

Upon return, the mechwarrior in the Jenner, Recruit Lilli Seema finally tests out of her recruit state. The training officer judges her gunnery to be "barely adequate". That just leaves us with one rookie to train up. Tessfalfe did pretty well also, pegging her targets with the Griffin's PPC.

The next couple of weeks on Asuncion are pretty quiet, allowing us to secure the purchase of a little bit of spare armor and more bombs of various kinds (including infernos) for our aerospace fighters.

When Alpha and Beta companies jump in to the Asuncion system en route to the next place they're surveying, things take a turn for the worse. As they're waiting to recharge, the captain informs us that the K-F initiator is damaged.

"Uh... "

The jumpship captain rolls his eyes at our command staff in attendance. "It's one of the things that makes the ship go from place to place."

"Without being condescending, can you explain it to us in terms we can understand?" Gbasden asks.

"We're stuck here until the K-F initiator is fixed. At least 40 days to fix, and 8 million C-Bills in spare parts. Pretty sure they've got them here on Asuncion, but you'll need to get someone to tow them over from the refit yards, then we can do the refit at the recharge station here, they've got drydocks."

"Or, 40 million C-Bills for a brand new unit, which we might need, since I don't know if we can fix it even with spare parts. And even if we do fix it, it'll probably keep breaking down unless we replace a bunch of the surrounding parts too."

"Why do spacers use the term 'drydock' anyway? It's always dry in space." our commander muses as he considers his options.

Luckily, we've got the Moonraker planetside to haul replacement parts over, so that'll help cut costs. What do we do about K-F drive repairs on our jumpship?
[] Minimum-cost solution. 40 (or more) days to fix, 8 million C-Bill cost. Possible further issues down the line. Non-zero chance of failing and having to go to the more expensive option.
[] Do it "right". Still ~40 days, more likely to succeed, 40 million C-Bill cost.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

We have the money to do it right, and the length of time is the same. Actually the length of time is technically less, if we assume we someday will have to commit time (and money) to fix it again.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

What's the warranty on a new one?
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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