Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:57 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:46 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:39 pm
xwraith wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:16 pm [] Send air support - including the Stuka
[x] Send air support - no Stuka
[] Hold air support

Unless the Stuka can be kept clear unless absolutely critical, i’d keep it safe and sound.
Agreed as well.
Can we have it make just 1 pass and drop the cluster bombs then bug out? If not, I guess this will have to do.
We could. It just seems super risky with armor in the red to subject it to potential fire from an LRM carrier.
I agree, but if we don't stop smash these guys, aside from Hawk's mission being a failure, is there a risk to our dropship we sent along as his ride? Losing the Stuka would suck but not nearly as much as losing or even just suffering severe damage to our dropship.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:23 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:57 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:46 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:39 pm
xwraith wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:16 pm [] Send air support - including the Stuka
[x] Send air support - no Stuka
[] Hold air support

Unless the Stuka can be kept clear unless absolutely critical, i’d keep it safe and sound.
Agreed as well.
Can we have it make just 1 pass and drop the cluster bombs then bug out? If not, I guess this will have to do.
We could. It just seems super risky with armor in the red to subject it to potential fire from an LRM carrier.
I agree, but if we don't stop smash these guys, aside from Hawk's mission being a failure, is there a risk to our dropship we sent along as his ride? Losing the Stuka would suck but not nearly as much as losing or even just suffering severe damage to our dropship.
The force accosting Hawk and his lance isn't nearly enough to take on a dropship, especially since they'll probably take damage during this upcoming battle.
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Hyena
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:55 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:23 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:57 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:46 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:39 pm
xwraith wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:16 pm [] Send air support - including the Stuka
[x] Send air support - no Stuka
[] Hold air support

Unless the Stuka can be kept clear unless absolutely critical, i’d keep it safe and sound.
Agreed as well.
Can we have it make just 1 pass and drop the cluster bombs then bug out? If not, I guess this will have to do.
We could. It just seems super risky with armor in the red to subject it to potential fire from an LRM carrier.
I agree, but if we don't stop smash these guys, aside from Hawk's mission being a failure, is there a risk to our dropship we sent along as his ride? Losing the Stuka would suck but not nearly as much as losing or even just suffering severe damage to our dropship.
The force accosting Hawk and his lance isn't nearly enough to take on a dropship, especially since they'll probably take damage during this upcoming battle.
Still, better safe than sorry. Support, no Stuka.

And dibs on a Black Knight? The argument for it would be we could keep Gamma-One a heavy, nearly assault lance.

The argument against it would be I'd probably blow it up in the first mission.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Hyena wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:05 am
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:55 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:23 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:57 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:46 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:39 pm
xwraith wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:16 pm [] Send air support - including the Stuka
[x] Send air support - no Stuka
[] Hold air support

Unless the Stuka can be kept clear unless absolutely critical, i’d keep it safe and sound.
Agreed as well.
Can we have it make just 1 pass and drop the cluster bombs then bug out? If not, I guess this will have to do.
We could. It just seems super risky with armor in the red to subject it to potential fire from an LRM carrier.
I agree, but if we don't stop smash these guys, aside from Hawk's mission being a failure, is there a risk to our dropship we sent along as his ride? Losing the Stuka would suck but not nearly as much as losing or even just suffering severe damage to our dropship.
The force accosting Hawk and his lance isn't nearly enough to take on a dropship, especially since they'll probably take damage during this upcoming battle.
Still, better safe than sorry. Support, no Stuka.

And dibs on a Black Knight? The argument for it would be we could keep Gamma-One a heavy, nearly assault lance.

The argument against it would be I'd probably blow it up in the first mission.
Enlarge Image

You'll do fine. The Black Knight always triumphs!
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Hyena
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:28 am
Hyena wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:05 am
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:55 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:23 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:57 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:46 pm
gbasden wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:39 pm
xwraith wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 3:16 pm [] Send air support - including the Stuka
[x] Send air support - no Stuka
[] Hold air support

Unless the Stuka can be kept clear unless absolutely critical, i’d keep it safe and sound.
Agreed as well.
Can we have it make just 1 pass and drop the cluster bombs then bug out? If not, I guess this will have to do.
We could. It just seems super risky with armor in the red to subject it to potential fire from an LRM carrier.
I agree, but if we don't stop smash these guys, aside from Hawk's mission being a failure, is there a risk to our dropship we sent along as his ride? Losing the Stuka would suck but not nearly as much as losing or even just suffering severe damage to our dropship.
The force accosting Hawk and his lance isn't nearly enough to take on a dropship, especially since they'll probably take damage during this upcoming battle.
Still, better safe than sorry. Support, no Stuka.

And dibs on a Black Knight? The argument for it would be we could keep Gamma-One a heavy, nearly assault lance.

The argument against it would be I'd probably blow it up in the first mission.
Enlarge Image

You'll do fine. The Black Knight always triumphs!
I can't even see the image here at work, but I'm going to go out on a "limb" and say at least the torso and head survived, right?

"I move..."
*head turn*
"...for no man."
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

"'Tis just a scratch!"
"What? Your arm's off!"

Look on the bright side, you're not the only one good at getting his mech blown up.

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Air support - No Stuka
"Strike-Two, Strike-Three, get moving. I'm not going to be much help over there - my fighter looks like a colander. Watch out for those Stingrays, too."

Hawk's lance is an Orion, an Archer, an Enforcer and his repaired Daboku. They're facing off against a lance of heavy tanks backed up by two lances of lighter units.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
By the time our fighters get there, Hawk's lance is in serious trouble. The Enforcer's had its head blown off and been generally disassembled, while the rest of the mechs are getting beat up. They've managed to disable a single Pegasus.

Additionally, the three Stingrays that ran off from the previous battle have arrived and are strafing our allies, although two of them look to be in trouble - one wobbles around as it climbs up while the other loses altitude rapidly after taking an LRM salvo from the Orion.

Our Lucifer picks off the LRM Carrier as it hangs out away from the battle, pelting our allies with missiles. It won't be doing that any more with a destroyed engine and multiple holes in the right side. The Lightning makes a strafing run on an LRM-equipped Hetzer, blowing away most of its rear armor with the AC/20, but failing to disable the vehicle.

Round 2:
[camera feed lost]
The Orion looks pretty beat up, a nice big hole where its LRM/15 launcher used to be. It manages to fire an autocannon burst at a passing Stingray, nailing it in the tailpipe with short-range weapons, which causes the engine to sputter out briefly.

Our Lucifer makes a bombing run on a pair of hovercraft, disabling a Condor with its remaining cluster bombs.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
At this point, we're down to making strafing runs, although our Lucifer winds up dogfighting with a Stingray briefly. The Lyran Archer gets taken out by swarming anklebiters, so it's not looking good for Hawk's guys.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Hawk begins pulling back, disabling a pursuing Manticore. He forgets about a Vedette which gets in the back of his mech and pumps a couple of SRMs into it. Our Lucifer pilot's eyes go wide as he sees the tell-tale signs of an ammo explosion in the right torso, but the Daboku actually has CASE ("Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment"), which vents the blast out through blow-out panels in the front and back, preventing the mech from blowing up completely. Upon hitting the ground, another ammo explosion rocks the beleaguered 90-ton machine, from the other side torso, leaving it basically just a fusion engine with legs and a head attached. On the ground. With an unconscious or dead mechwarrior inside.

The Orion gets headcapped by an AC/10 round from the Zhukov, which accounts for the entirety of Hawk's lance.

"Strike-Three, pull back. Nothing more we can do here." our Lucifer pilot calls out.

"Should have brought a blimp." Strike-Three says, shaking his head as our fighters pour on the thrust to clear the area and return to the Sparrow to rearm, repair and refuel.

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

While that disaster unfolds, Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger have moved to assault the parts depot. The plan is to have Beta-Assault make noise and draw out as much of the garrison as possible, then Delta-Ranger will come in and clean up. We are facing two tank companies and a medium mech lance, so we could use Delta-Sweep's firepower for backup as well.

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
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gbasden
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:53 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
The only caveat on that is that if we come across convincing evidence that he's dead, then we should call things off. I don't think that we should get anyone killed for his body.
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gbasden
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:57 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:53 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
The only caveat on that is that if we come across convincing evidence that he's dead, then we should call things off. I don't think that we should get anyone killed for his body.
Agreed.
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Hyena
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:19 pm
El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:57 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:53 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
The only caveat on that is that if we come across convincing evidence that he's dead, then we should call things off. I don't think that we should get anyone killed for his body.
Agreed.
Agreed to this agreed.
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Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Hyena wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:29 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:19 pm
El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:57 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:53 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
The only caveat on that is that if we come across convincing evidence that he's dead, then we should call things off. I don't think that we should get anyone killed for his body.
Agreed.
Agreed to this agreed.
Agree the 3rd.
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El Guapo
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:41 pm
Hyena wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:29 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:19 pm
El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:57 pm
gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:53 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm

However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[X] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Hawk's been pretty good to us, and it's not good business to hang your employer out to dry.
The only caveat on that is that if we come across convincing evidence that he's dead, then we should call things off. I don't think that we should get anyone killed for his body.
Agreed.
Agreed to this agreed.
Agree the 3rd.
Agreed with the agreeing with me.
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AWS260
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 1:07 pm However, given that Hawk has gone and got himself killed or captured, the next Lyran in the chain of command "suggests" that we mount a search and rescue operation. We'll use Delta-Recon and their fast-moving mechs to carry out a rapid search pattern, but having Delta-Sweep on hand will make the search go faster.

[X] Send Delta-Sweep to back up Beta-Assault and Delta-Ranger in their attack on the supply depot
[] Send Delta-Sweep to help Delta-Recon search for Hawk (or his body)
Priorities, people. It's not like we're abandoning him, and we should focus our forces where the threat is greatest.
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NickAragua
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Delta Sweep helps search for Hawk - many
Delta Sweep helps supply depot assault - 1
July 7, 3042
10km outside Kong parts transfer depot
Connaught, Free Worlds League

Beta-Assault begins their attack in broad daylight, ambushing a patrol as it trundles nearby a small cluster of sensors and short-range turrets. The patrol consists of a core of four heavies - two SRM Carriers, a Von Luckner and a Demolisher. The Von Luckner VNL-K65N is a pretty weird design. It's kind of a short-range ambusher, its turret packing an AC/20 main gun and sixteen SRM tubes along with a co-axial machine gun and a front-mounted flamer for clearing out infantry. It also, for some reason, has a ten-tube LRM launcher sticking out the back. The heavies are screened by a couple of lances of hovercraft and light tanks.

Beta-Assault is, as usual, two Awesomes, a Victor and a jump-capable Thunderbolt. We approach from the south of a fairly wide river which is unlikely to play an actual role in the fighting.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
There is a nice little pond where our Awesomes can camp out and cool off from piling on their PPC fire. Zenn7 takes a couple of LRMs from an approaching hovercraft, but we focus our fire on the Demolisher, taking nearly all the armor off the front, while Moley's LRMs blow off tread chunks.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud turns the Awesom to the left slightly, putting two PPC shots from the torso into a Harasser trying to swing around the left flank. One would have been enough, the little hovercraft disintegrates. Another one tries to make a run around our Awesome cluster as well, but is zapped by one of the lasers from Moley's Thunderbolt, crashing into the ground and spilling a couple of crew out. Moley's LRMs breach the armor on the Demolisher, and the assault tank's driver throws it into reverse, pulling out.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A trio of hovercraft try to get around our Awesomes' right side, but are intercepted by Moley and LordMortis. Moley disables a Condor with the Thunderbolt's lasers, but the other two get some good licks in, breaching Zenn7's left torso armor. No doubt helped by a "long range" salvo from an SRM Carrier as it manages to close the range - most of the warheads miss, but the Awesome still gets rattled.

Our Awesomes focus fire on the approaching Von Luckner, blowing it away with six PPC shots.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Zarathud's eyes go wide as an SRM Carrier lets rip with another salvo, but it doesn't hit with enough to do damage. Our mechwarrior replies with three PPC shots, blowing the vehicle away. That's a relief.

LordMortis runs in, firing the AC/20 and all other weapons (lasers, SRMs) at a Drillson hovertank that's pecking away at Zenn7's Awesome, removing most of its hover skirt and left fans, disabling it.

Zenn7 still takes a beating, losing both torso PPCs and getting knocked down to a knee, but managing to keep his mech's armor breaches above water.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
LordMortis continues picking off hovercraft, blowing away a Saracen with a burst from the AC/20, followed up by some SRMs. Moley takes down an LTV-4 hovercraft as it speeds in to fire its PPC, while Zarathud breaches a Vedette's armor with the Awesome's PPCs (even the one in the damaged right arm). Before being destroyed, the LTV-4 manages to knock out one of Zenn7's arms with a PPC while the Saracen blows out the other with an SRM salvo.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
We eliminate two more hovercraft - LordMortis rips into a Maxim with the AC/20, while Moley disables a Drillson as it circles around.

At this point, there are only two combat effective units left on the field from the Marik militia forces, a Scorpion tank and an SRM Carrier. Moley chases them down in short order, leaving us in control of the battlefield.

Zenn7's mech might generously be called "combat ineffective" - all three of its PPCs have been knocked out, both arms are hanging by a thread, and there's basically no armor on the torso. The rest of Beta-Assault's mechs are in the green and will be proceeding to reinforce Delta-Ranger as they attack the supply depot.

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

Delta-Sweep and Delta-Recon hitch a ride on the Sparrow, which drops them off well clear of the last time it landed in that area, successfully avoiding any interception. The two lances proceed to where Hawk's lance got ambushed and begin their search. The downed Lyran mechs have since been hauled away, but Cujo is surprised when her Wolverine picks up a mech squawking a friendly transponder signal. It's Hawk. On video comms, he looks like somebody worked him over with a brick - not to mention his uniform is covered with dried blood. His eye twitches occasionally as he grits his teeth.

"What the hell happened to you?" our mechwarrior asks.

"Not much. Just a little neural feedback from a couple of ammo explosions. You know that Daboku has four freaking tons of ammo, two in each torso?" Hawk says, almost conversationally.

"Right, but..."

"So I woke up before their salvage crew got there and got out before they hauled my mech away. No way I was going to let some militia yokels take my mech, so I followed them. Got the coordinates, right here." he sends over some data. "Snuck in, waited until one of their guys got into their mech and turned in on, then knocked his ass out. Had to knock out a couple of their techs, too."

"Aren't they going to..."

"Sure, probably. Listen. They've got the rest of my lance in there and their mechs. The Enforcer's totaled, but we can probably haul the rest out if we capture the place. We need to do that. Near as I can tell, they've got a lance ov heavy tanks, couple of lances of hovercraft and light crap, medium mech lance, light mech lance. You're going to want to bring in some heavy duty backup. And no aircraft, they've got some big-ass lasers pointing skyward at that base."

"Uh..."

"And while you're here, there's another Kong factory about a hundred kilometers west that we can take out. We do that and our job here's done and we can leave early."

"Look, I'd love to do all that, but we just brought the two recon lances and our heavies are busy at the supply depot or getting repaired. We're going to need to regroup before we launch any more attacks." Cujo finally manages to get in a word. "Plus, you're looking a little peaked."

"Yeah." Hawk replies, gritting his teeth. "Didn't have time to re-calibrate this guy's neurohelmet, so I've got a headache the size of a Drac's honor gland."

Cujo can't help but chuckle. Our search and rescue teams retreat to the dropship and head back to base to await the results of the supply depot assault. Our options regarding Hawk's targets are going to depend quite a bit on Delta-Ranger and (the rest of) Beta Assault's performance at the parts depot.

However, as our techs are working on repairs for Beta-Hunter and Beta-Fire lance, they inform the officers in charge that we're running critically short on armor plating. They'll be able to patch up Beta-Hunter and Beta-Fire, but anyone else that comes back with damage is going to come up short. Combined with Delta-Sweep and Delta-Recon, that's four lances - it should be enough.

The main question is how we handle the place where Hawk's lance is being held. We can either do what Hawk suggests - rescue his mechwarriors, get their mechs back and take down the air defense artillery, or we can do a quicker raid, just getting out the mechwarriors and temporarily disabling the air defense (which we'll probably need to do anyway if we want to get off world without getting shot at).

[] Quick extraction raid: just get the mechwarriors out and perform minor sabotaget against the air defense artillery. Lighter units are good enough for the job.
[] Take and hold: seize the ADA facility long enough to recover Hawk's mechs as well. Need heavier units.

One of our aero jocks (Lt. Tarquini, "flying" the Stuka) suggests that, since our Lightning and Stuka won't be flying anywhere for a while anyway (as neither has operational landing gear at the moment), we can strip armor plating off our grounded aerospace fighters and put it on our mechs. That's likely to be enough to get one of the lances returning from the supply depot patched up (Zenn7's Awesome notwithstanding). He also suggests that we coalesce the remaining fighters (a Lucifer heavy and two lights) into an ad-hoc flight and use them for air support against the Kong facility. All good ideas, although the timing is a little tight - we need to get Hawk's guys back quick if we don't want them getting interrogated and giving up the goods.

[] Strip grounded aircraft and attempt to fix up at least one of the returning lances. Have "mild" air support going forward.
[] Strip all aircraft and attempt to fix up both the returning lances for maximum ground firepower but no air support.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 3:11 pm The main question is how we handle the place where Hawk's lance is being held. We can either do what Hawk suggests - rescue his mechwarriors, get their mechs back and take down the air defense artillery, or we can do a quicker raid, just getting out the mechwarriors and temporarily disabling the air defense (which we'll probably need to do anyway if we want to get off world without getting shot at).

[] Quick extraction raid: just get the mechwarriors out and perform minor sabotaget against the air defense artillery. Lighter units are good enough for the job.
[x] Take and hold: seize the ADA facility long enough to recover Hawk's mechs as well. Need heavier units.

One of our aero jocks (Lt. Tarquini, "flying" the Stuka) suggests that, since our Lightning and Stuka won't be flying anywhere for a while anyway (as neither has operational landing gear at the moment), we can strip armor plating off our grounded aerospace fighters and put it on our mechs. That's likely to be enough to get one of the lances returning from the supply depot patched up (Zenn7's Awesome notwithstanding). He also suggests that we coalesce the remaining fighters (a Lucifer heavy and two lights) into an ad-hoc flight and use them for air support against the Kong facility. All good ideas, although the timing is a little tight - we need to get Hawk's guys back quick if we don't want them getting interrogated and giving up the goods.

[x] Strip grounded aircraft and attempt to fix up at least one of the returning lances. Have "mild" air support going forward.
[] Strip all aircraft and attempt to fix up both the returning lances for maximum ground firepower but no air support.
Go for broke taking this place down and out so we can get outta here while there's still something left of us to get out! Lets keep some air support though, might end up needing it for something.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 3:11 pm [X] Quick extraction raid: just get the mechwarriors out and perform minor sabotaget against the air defense artillery. Lighter units are good enough for the job.
[] Take and hold: seize the ADA facility long enough to recover Hawk's mechs as well. Need heavier units.
NickAragua wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 3:11 pm [X] Strip grounded aircraft and attempt to fix up at least one of the returning lances. Have "mild" air support going forward.
[] Strip all aircraft and attempt to fix up both the returning lances for maximum ground firepower but no air support.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Quick raid: 2
Take and hold: 3

Strip grounded aircraft: 3
Strip all aircraft: 2
July 8, 3042
Kong Parts Depot
Connaught, Free Worlds League

"... so yeah, it's got these tall guys with pointy ears, and they have jumpships with big engines that don't have to stay at a jump point." Paingod regales Freyland.

"Isn't that just a warship?"

"Right, like I said, it's a fantasy book." Paingod responds. "And they do all kinds of acrobatics and fight with solid laser cutters, and wave their hands and chuck fireballs around. Sounds pretty dumb when I say it out loud, but it's a fun story. I'll give you a copy off my datapad when we get back, give you something to do other than read technical manuals for tanks."

"I ... read other stuff too." Freyland says, in a tone of mock hurt. "... the other day, I was reading about the history of the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun, it's actually quite fascinating."

"My point exactly." Paingod sighs.

"As much as I enjoy hearing about you ladies' reading habits, we've got some militia guys waiting for us. Let's get to it." Madmarcus interrupts. "Time for a proper WAAAAAAGH!" There's a pause. "What, I read fantasy books too."

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
It's dawn the next day by the time we start the assault on the parts depot. It's defended, as reported, by a light-medium lance (the most dangerous opponent being a standard Hunchback with its AC/20) and an assortment of tanks and hovercraft. There's also an artillery turret that won't be too effective against Delta-Ranger's units since they're pretty mobile.

Paingod and Mamdarcus approach from the north, Madmarcus engaging a Wasp with the Wolverine's lasers. The large goes wide as the bug mech touches down, but the two mediums connect, wrecking armor on the left arm and center torso. Paingod targets the sniper turret as it barks a couple of shells out towards us.

Freyland and Archinerd move in from the west, Freyland frying a Harasser missile platform with everything the Quickdraw has (except the Streak SRMs which don't fire).

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Freyland runs the Quickdraw around the south side of the base, firing at a Locust that's slightly out of position. The thing about the Locust is that it doesn't really have the torso twist capability of its jump-capable bug mech cousins, so it can only swing a single MG around to the left, while Freyland's Quickdraw nails the poor thing with four lasers and a pair of streak SRMs, stripping armor and knocking it over.

The Wasp that got pummeled by Madmarcus disengages from the Wolverine, moving after Paingod instead, hoping to take advantage of the Griffin's lack of short-range firepower. Unfortunately, after a pair of SRMs and a kick to the left shin, the bug mech attracts Paingod's attention in the form of two punches which disable its left torso and rip off the left arm.

Madmarcus, meanwhile, jumps into the base, disabling a Maxim hover transport with lasers and a kick, although the infantry manages to scramble to the safety of a nearby building.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The torsoed Wasp limps off to the north, leaving Paingod free to work on the Sniper artillery piece.

Madmarcus disables a Vedette as it peppers the Wolverine with light autocannon fire, and also takes some laser fire from the infantry.

Freyland gets a little mobbed, but manages to keep the Quickdraw from taking too much damage - however, this does prevent any meaningful attacks against the surrounding units.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Hermes tries to get clear of Freyland's laser barrage but doesn't quite manage it, taking another laser from Archinerd's Dervish as well. Despite having two leg actuators snap after Freyland's kick, the 40-tonner manages to trip Archinerd up and remain upright. Pretty good piloting.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd gets up, avoiding the Hunchback's main gun, and continues firing at the Hermes. The Dervish receives another laser, burning away more armor, but the Hermes takes the worst of it, a couple of lasers causing the autocannon to jam.

Freyland also maneuvers around the Hunchback, taking a moment to disable the nearby Saladin with laser fire. And by disable, I mean detonate three tons of AC/20 ammo with a couple of streak SRMs, scattering bits of hovercraft and burning embers all over the battlefield.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The Hunchback breaks south, pursued by Freyland, who burns a lot of armor off the lighter, slower mech.

Madmarcus destroys a Scorpion light tank while jumping to the west. We're a bit reluctant to just blow up the turrets, since a lot of these buildings have ammunition inside and we don't want to eliminate the parts we're looting. The problem, of course, is that we're getting a little more shot up as a result.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
As the Hermes runs south, Madmarcus jumps over the rapidly moving 40-tonner and blows the left arm off, disabling the adjacent torso section with lasers as well. The medium-weight mech slips away into an alley, but our mechwarrior has better things to do than chase down a crippled mech missing half its torso. Freyland gets a little bit enthusiastic, avoiding the Hunchback to blow up a Vedette that's made its way to the south of the base. Pretty much everything that could blow up on that tank blows up, including MG ammo, AC/5 ammo and the fuel tank.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd dodges a burst from the Hunchback's AC/20. The enemy mechwarrior's focus on our Dervish costs him, as Freyland jumps into its rear arc and focuses lasers on the left torso, where an AC/20 ammo bin is located. It goes off, destroying the normally solidly built mech completely.

Madmarcus moves to pursue a pair of hovercraft, and gets intercepted by the Locust that Freyland previously knocked down. This time, the bug mech loses one of its MG mounts as it underestimates the turning ability of the Wolverine.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
With the arrival of Beta-Assault, the remaining militia units are quickly exterminated: Moley's Thunderbolt blows the turret off a Scimitar, a Maxim gets around the back of LordMortis' mech to deliver a few SRMs but eats an AC/20 burst through side anyway, while Madmarcus takes the leg off the annoying little Locust.

Round 10:
[camera feed lost]
Zarathud is on the wrong side of the base when a lance of militia heavies arrive, screening the Maxim as it careens off the south. Some tough customers - a Zhukov (dual AC/10s), a Manticore, a Thunderbolt and a Thug. Instead, our Awesome's mechwarrior concentrates on taking the turrets off the buildings in the south, starting with a small laser turret.

The Thug is a... design. Kind of a crappy Awesome with less heat sinks and more SRMs. Might be kind of cool to salvage, but the new arrivals are unlikely to stick around, especially after LordMortis disables the Zhukov with an SRM salvo.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Well, we might get our chance, the Thug advances to back up the Manticore and Thunderbolt, allowing Moley and LordMortis to jump in behind it. It is actually a pretty tough mech, absorbing an AC/20, multiple lasers and a few SRMs, and even taking a pair of kicks, all while remaining upright and not taking any armor breaches.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
Madmarcus, Freyland and Paingod join the brawl, Madmarcus disabling the Manticore.

Round 13:
Spoiler:
Image
The Thug winds up walking over and then collapsing a bunker (with help from two of our mechs), falling into a pile of rubble and stripping a lot of armor off. As the mech struggles up, Madmarcus broadcasts on the open frequency:

"So, do you want to walk off the field peacefully, or should we take your mech apart some more?"

The militia mechwarrior choses the former, taking his Thunderbolt pal with him. It's a shame we couldn't salvage ourselves a Thug, but, honestly, being slow with no torso-twist capability isn't that great.

The good part is that we completely schooled the defending forces while taking relatively little damage. Combined with the extra armor we stripped off our grounded aircraft, we've got more than enough to patch up our forces before going into battle. Our coalesced "light air support" flight is also available. The only thing we don't have is time.

If we shuffle around one of Beta-Assault's mechs to Beta-Hunter, we'll have five lances available for the next set of sorties, plus air support. Beta-Assault is just too beat-up, between LordMortis limping around and wincing every time he sees a bright light, Zenn7's Awesome needing at least several weeks in the repair bay, Zarathud's Awesome and Moley's Thunderbolt still needing another day or two as well, they're just not combat-ready.

Note that, for the below choices, we have the option to go with a night-time attack or attempting to wait until daybreak. Night-time pretty much limits us to using the jump-capable lances and aircraft, reducing our overall firepower.

Factory Raid:
[] Night time
[] Attempt to wait

Rescue + air defense:
[] Night time
[] Attempt to wait

Which forces hit the Kong Industries factory? The expected opposition consists of five heavy tanks, a pair of Crusaders and a Hermes. Let's pick up to 2.
[] Beta-Hunter (Assault, borrows an Awesome, Thunderbolt or Victor, depending on which gets fixed first)
[] Beta-Fire (medium/heavy)
[] Delta-Sweep (medium, jump-capable)
[] Delta-Ranger (medium, jump-capable)
[] Delta-Recon (light, jump-capable)
[] Mixed air support (light/medium)

Which forces bail out Hawk's lance and sabotage the air defense artillery? Expected opposition is, as Hawk reports, a heavy tank lance, a couple of light/medium lances, a light mech lance and a medium mech lance. Let's pick up to 4 lances (not including the ones picked for the factory assault).
[] Beta-Hunter (would have to leave immediately, so they get Moley's Thunderbolt with a short LRM load)
[] Beta-Fire
[] Delta-Sweep
[] Delta-Ranger
[] Delta-Recon
[] Mixed air support naval lasers lol
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:38 pm Note that, for the below choices, we have the option to go with a night-time attack or attempting to wait until daybreak. Night-time pretty much limits us to using the jump-capable lances and aircraft, reducing our overall firepower.

Factory Raid:
[x] Night time
[] Attempt to wait

Rescue + air defense:
[] Night time
[x] Attempt to wait

Which forces hit the Kong Industries factory? The expected opposition consists of five heavy tanks, a pair of Crusaders and a Hermes. Let's pick up to 2.
[] Beta-Hunter (Assault, borrows an Awesome, Thunderbolt or Victor, depending on which gets fixed first)
[] Beta-Fire (medium/heavy)
[x] Delta-Sweep (medium, jump-capable)
[] Delta-Ranger (medium, jump-capable)
[] Delta-Recon (light, jump-capable)
[x] Mixed air support (light/medium)

Which forces bail out Hawk's lance and sabotage the air defense artillery? Expected opposition is, as Hawk reports, a heavy tank lance, a couple of light/medium lances, a light mech lance and a medium mech lance. Let's pick up to 4 lances (not including the ones picked for the factory assault).
[x] Beta-Hunter (would have to leave immediately, so they get Moley's Thunderbolt with a short LRM load)
[x] Beta-Fire
[] Delta-Sweep
[x] Delta-Ranger
[x] Delta-Recon
[] Mixed air support naval lasers lol
Delta-Sweep (or Ranger, whichever seems more suitable) w/ air support for night time attack on the factory. Heavy tanks might be at a disadvantage, Crusaders can't jump - and can't send air to the other option so might as well do what we can with it.

Every one else bail out Hawk's lance.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

July 14, 3042
Kong Industries factory
Connaught, Free Worlds League

"Rock, paper, scissors shoot!". Madmarcus and Cujo both come up "rock", a tie.

"Rock, paper, scissors shoot!". Cujo picks "paper", beating Madmarcus' "rock".

"Dammit. Ok, you can pick your target, we'll take the other one." Madmarcus tells Cujo. Delta-Ranger and Delta-Sweep both have similar capabilities - four jump-capable mechs in the 45-65 ton range. Sweep lance is a little lighter, featuring a Phoenix Hawk while Ranger lance has a Quickdraw.

"Right. We'll take the factory. Don't like big battles." Cujo replies.

It takes a couple of trips with the dropship to get all our forces to the area. Delta-Sweep is supported by a Lucifer and two light fighters, loaded up with cluster and HE bombs respectively. Facing off a reinforced lance of heavy tanks and a trio of ground-bound mechs in the dark should be pretty easy, but you never know. We'll take those out, take out strategic pieces of equipment and hopefully grab some salvage while we're there.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We get in pretty close before the garrison spots us. A few of them send LRMs at us at an oblique angle, and there's a Sniper artillery piece thumping away, but all enemy fire misses as we make our approach. This is going to be a knife fight.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Cujo and our Cronus tease the Pike support vehicle out of its hidey-hole, scoring multiple hits on it. Ideally, we'll take it out before our aircraft get here so it can't turn those AC/2s skyward. Our Phoenix Hawk and the Crusader up north exchange MG fire, with a disappointing number of missed laser shot. The Pixie attempts to trip the heavier mech up but without much luck.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The Cronus hangs out in a decorative patch of trees, taking a couple of SRMs but blasting through the Pike's right side armor with lasers, taking it out.

Cujo jumps in behind the second Crusader, plastering its rear armor with laser fire, although a last-minute juke to avoid the enemy mech's return fire causes the Wolverine's SRM salvo to miss entirely. Our mechwarrior delivers a solid kick, but the Crusader's pretty heavily armored, so it'll take some work.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Cronus, encouraged by success against the Pike, jumps into the melee and takes a faceful of lasers from a laser carrier. He's fine, but it's a reminder to pay attention. While it's distracted, our Griffin jumps in as well and cuts into the 60-ton vehicle with its lasers, blowing the fuel tank.

Cujo continues engaging the Crusader, taking a few SRMs from a nearby Bulldog, which throws her aim off. The Crusader is also undeterred by a second kick, putting a couple of lasers into the Wolverine's armor.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
"Air support, eta ten seconds. Coming in hot, with bombs. Stand clear of designated targets." our Lucifer warns.

Cujo jumps south to give her armor a break, letting the Cronus take her place pounding on the Crusader. The Cronus' attacks break through the heavier mech's leg armor and crack the left leg in half, sending it to the ground. That's one down.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Cujo and the Cronus react correctly, leaving the melee in the center of the factory. The Griffin and Phoenix Hawk apparently didn't get the memo, the Phoenix Hawk taking a direct hit from a scattered HE bomb while the Griffin gets dinged by the outer edge of a cluster bomb blast while it busily carves armor off the nearby Hermes. Our mech delivers a kick to the lighter Marik design, then the mechwarrior's bell gets rung as it backhands our mech.

The Manticore and Bulldog take heavy, but non-crippling damage from the Lucifer's bombing run. Our fighter shudders as autocannon fire from one of the factory turrets rips into the bottom of the craft.

"This is Strike One: mayday, mayday, mayday. Avionics out, controls not responding. I'm going down!"

Our aerospace fighter "lands" to the northwest of the factory. The thing about the Lucifer LCF-R20 is that, unlike most other aerospace fighters, it can survive a crash landing like that. That's why we call it a flying brick.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The confusion among the heavy tanks in the center gives Cujo an opportunity to get at the Manticore's weakened side. She watches, with some amusement and/or disappointment, as the Crusader that got legged earlier attempts to get up anyway, but falls over. There's an internal explosion, but, unlike most ammo explosions, the mech doesn't disintegrate. That bin must have been almost empty. She turns her attention back to the Manticore, blasting its left-side treads with SRMs, then stepping on them for good measure, immobilizing the heavy tank. Across the plaza, our Cronus stomps on the Bulldog, crushing it.

Our Griffin staggers around a little as multiple LRMs continue coming in from the other Crusader and the LRM turrets, but still manages to put a laser blast through the back of the Hermes, taking out one of its two large lasers (it's technically a "Hermes III", as opposed to the smaller one with the autocannon, laser and flamer). While the enemy mechwarrior is disoriented, the mech's leg gets kicked out from under it as well.

"Sweep-Four, this is Sweep-One. Hang on, we're coming." Cujo calls out, aware that our Phoenix Hawk has been engaging a Vedette and a Crusader by himself (doing pretty well actually).

"Take your time, Lieutenant, I don't have anywhere to be." the mechwarrior responds.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Our weapons fire is pretty disappointing, the Vedette and Crusader managing to avoid most of it, although they don't inflict any damage on us.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The second Crusader is somewhat distracted by the arrival of three additional mechs and doesn't notice as our Phoenix Hawk jets in behind it and lays open its rear armor with a couple of laser blasts. One of the beams "brushes" the SRM ammo stored in the center torso, and that Crusader is gone.

The Vedette doesn't last very long after that, either. Our Phoenix Hawk takes one last round of shrapnel to the back from an artillery shell, blowing out a pair of jump jets, but the factory turrets power down shortly after that.

It takes some time for the militia to scramble reinforcements, by which point our salvage and demo crews are able to haul some equipment away, as well as carry out some "directed" sabotage. If we didn't have time, we could always just blow the buildings down, but we do, so we're able to let the workers get out and our demo guys can sabotage expensive, replaceable pieces of equipment. What was the main piece of equipment we hauled away?

[] Manticore tank - it's got a PPC, which will be great because we can mount it on the Sparrow to replace the damaged one. 2.2M value.
[] Crusader - it's missing a leg and half its left torso, but will still sell for ~4.7M on the open market.

On the plus side, Pvt Tom Chagares in the Griffin doesn't try to beat up the aero jock in the Lucifer. Maybe it was something personal against the other guy. The mechwarrior in the Phoenix Hawk who took a direct bomb hit eventually gives the aero jock in the Cheetah an aerospace fighter sensor operations manual, with the word "remedial" written in red marker above the title.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

[x] Manticore tank - it's got a PPC, which will be great because we can mount it on the Sparrow to replace the damaged one. 2.2M value.
[] Crusader - it's missing a leg and half its left torso, but will still sell for ~4.7M on the open market.
Assuming this can be done during the present campaign. I'd rather have a better armed Sparrow now, than a little extra cash later.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:38 pm
[x] Manticore tank - it's got a PPC, which will be great because we can mount it on the Sparrow to replace the damaged one. 2.2M value.
[] Crusader - it's missing a leg and half its left torso, but will still sell for ~4.7M on the open market.
Assuming this can be done during the present campaign. I'd rather have a better armed Sparrow now, than a little extra cash later.
Agreed. You keep these sound decisions up, we just might be able to promote you from command of the blimp brigade!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
We'll take the Manticore
July 15, 3042
Orbital Defense Facility
Connaught, Free Worlds League

"See that Vedette they're loading up?" Hawk points, lying down on an overlook that allows us a good view of the facility where his mechwarriors are being held. "That's one of my guys." He looks at Madmarcus. "Think you can detach some of your mechs for pursuit?"

Madmarcus nods, crawls backwards out of line of sight, then walks over to the Wolverine. Delta-Ranger tracks the Vedette and its escorts. Once they're well enough away from the base, our lance moves in to attack, with Delta-Recon moving in to surround and prevent escape.

Nothing serious in the escort, a lance of hovercraft/light tanks and a light mech lance. Plus the Vedette, which we *absolutely* need to not blow up.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
The heavy fog makes our attack a little bit easier - our mechs can jump through it just fine, but the tankers and ground-bound mechs have trouble navigating it.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
"Target acquired." Freyland reports, sending a "test" LRM salvo at it while attempting to laser a Spider that jumps forward to engage, both unsuccessfully.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Paingod takes up a pretty good position - dense trees all around and a nice big rock behind which the Griffin can duck. The enemy Spider sees what's going on and jumps in behind, zapping Freyland's mech with its two lasers as the Quickdraw moves to cover the Griffin. The retaliation is more painful, four lasers and an SRM salvo, which blast away the pretty thin armor on the Spider and knock it to the ground. A follow-up curb stomp doesn't quite destroy the light mech, but after it you can see the engine and gyro through the giant hole in the center torso.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd puts a few LRMs into the Vedette's treads from the south, slowing it down.

A Jenner moves in to help its Spider buddy out, exchanging fire with Freyland and Delta-Recon's Firestarter. It does a little better, managing to avoid most of our outgoing attacks and staying upright. Freyland has a height advantage, however, and is able to use the Quickdraw's leg to remove the Jenner's right-side weapons mount.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
The Spider manages to get up and immediately fires up its jump jets, retreating, its Jenner buddy probably thinking of joining it, but Freyland hops down and pours laser fire into the 35-tonner's right side, melting through the armor and detonating the SRM ammo bin. Paingod's aim is thrown off briefly as chunks of mech spang off the Griffin's rear armor, but our mechwarrior still manages to blow through the right-side armor on a Scorpion tank in the distance. The light tank reverses and bugs out.

Madmarcus moves in towards the Vedette, watching with some satisfaction as the Hermes to the north and the target tank blast the intervening hill with their AC/5s instead of the Wolverine. The Hermes' autocannon starts smoking afterwards, indicating some kind of internal malfunction.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Our lighter units move to surround the militia formation. We've been intentionally only plinking away at the Vedette with "low-yield" weapons, hoping to disable rather than destroy it. The tank blasts our Firestarter with its AC/5, preventing the light mech's large laser from hitting it.

Freyland moves up with the Spider and Madmarcus and engages the Hermes, slicing off a substantial amount of armor, while Archinerd and Paingod provide long-range fire support. No critical breaches, but a good amount of armor damage.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
Madmarcus jumps into the party as well, disabling the nearby Drillson - the hovertank had already been slowed down from last round's salvo, and the loss of another fan stops it altogether. The Wolverine manages to avoid an AC/20 burst from the Saladin, but the Drillson's last SRM salvo pockmarks the mech's armor. No big deal, just annoying.

Freyland hops west, destroying the Saladin, probably the main threat on the battlefield at this point.

The Vedette takes some fire but remains active, although its treads are starting to flap around a little. Then the guy in the Firestarter stomps on the front of the tank a little too hard and it cracks open. The mechwarrior cringes a little, hoping that the passengers aren't too dead. At least none of the ammo cooked off.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The remaining enemy units try to break east, with limited success. The Hermes takes some leg actuator damage from Paingod's PPC and LRM salvo, ensuring it's going nowhere fast (especially once Madmarcus breaks the damaged leg with a kick), an SRM Scorpion is blown away by Freyland's lasers and streak SRMs. The only unit with any degree of success in escaping is a Locust to the east, which evades our Ostscout's attacks.

But then gets bogged down in the woods, where our jump-capable mechs catch up to it and leg it.

A pretty easy fight, although our Delta-Recon's Firestarter's right leg has basically no armor left and the diagnostics are showing structure damage. Nothing to worry about, though. Miraculously, the mechwarrior we were trying to rescue survived, being in the back of the Vedette. A pair of the tank's crew were crushed, while another suffered a broken rib, but the guy in the back got away unscathed. Physically, anyway. He's looking a little green after witnessing the kind of stuff that happens when a mech stomps by up close.

We remain behind long enough to secure the area for our APCs and salvage equipment to arrive, then move to join the attack on the orbital defense facility. The poor guy in the Firestarter gets the side-eye from everyone else, and is very likely to get a lecture about "appropriate use of force against capture targets". What can I say, we're terrible at taking things intact.

En route, Delta-Recon detects some anomalous sensor readings heading the same way and moves in to investigate. It turns out to be an artillery battery, heading towards the orbital defense base. It's defended by mechanized infantry. Chances are, they'll attempt to shell our units as we make our approach. On the one hand, they're as likely to hit friendlies as they are one of our mechs, but, on the other hand, that runs the risk of an artillery shell hitting one of Hawk's mechwarriors (or his irrationally beloved Daboku). Any lance we dispatch to deal with it is unlikely to make it to the orbital defense facility in time to participate, but we already have nine mechs (mediums, heavies and assaults) on the case vs a heavy tank lance, a light tank lance and a medium mech lance. How do we want to handle this?

[] Leave them, what's a few Thumper shells between friends
[] Send Delta-Recon to take them down. Delta-Recon doesn't participate in rescue op/orbital defense takedown.
[] Send both Delta-Recon and Delta-Ranger. It's suspicious that four artillery pieces are going as lightly guarded as they appear to be.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:17 pm En route, Delta-Recon detects some anomalous sensor readings heading the same way and moves in to investigate. It turns out to be an artillery battery, heading towards the orbital defense base. It's defended by mechanized infantry. Chances are, they'll attempt to shell our units as we make our approach. On the one hand, they're as likely to hit friendlies as they are one of our mechs, but, on the other hand, that runs the risk of an artillery shell hitting one of Hawk's mechwarriors (or his irrationally beloved Daboku). Any lance we dispatch to deal with it is unlikely to make it to the orbital defense facility in time to participate, but we already have nine mechs (mediums, heavies and assaults) on the case vs a heavy tank lance, a light tank lance and a medium mech lance. How do we want to handle this?

[] Leave them, what's a few Thumper shells between friends
[X] Send Delta-Recon to take them down. Delta-Recon doesn't participate in rescue op/orbital defense takedown.
[] Send both Delta-Recon and Delta-Ranger. It's suspicious that four artillery pieces are going as lightly guarded as they appear to be.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:17 pm En route, Delta-Recon detects some anomalous sensor readings heading the same way and moves in to investigate. It turns out to be an artillery battery, heading towards the orbital defense base. It's defended by mechanized infantry. Chances are, they'll attempt to shell our units as we make our approach. On the one hand, they're as likely to hit friendlies as they are one of our mechs, but, on the other hand, that runs the risk of an artillery shell hitting one of Hawk's mechwarriors (or his irrationally beloved Daboku). Any lance we dispatch to deal with it is unlikely to make it to the orbital defense facility in time to participate, but we already have nine mechs (mediums, heavies and assaults) on the case vs a heavy tank lance, a light tank lance and a medium mech lance. How do we want to handle this?

[] Leave them, what's a few Thumper shells between friends
[] Send Delta-Recon to take them down. Delta-Recon doesn't participate in rescue op/orbital defense takedown.
[X] Send both Delta-Recon and Delta-Ranger. It's suspicious that four artillery pieces are going as lightly guarded as they appear to be.
I find it suspicious. I would send Delta-Ranger there and send Delta-Recon off to circle the main objective looking for other surprises, but that was not an option listed.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:17 pm
En route, Delta-Recon detects some anomalous sensor readings heading the same way and moves in to investigate. It turns out to be an artillery battery, heading towards the orbital defense base. It's defended by mechanized infantry. Chances are, they'll attempt to shell our units as we make our approach. On the one hand, they're as likely to hit friendlies as they are one of our mechs, but, on the other hand, that runs the risk of an artillery shell hitting one of Hawk's mechwarriors (or his irrationally beloved Daboku). Any lance we dispatch to deal with it is unlikely to make it to the orbital defense facility in time to participate, but we already have nine mechs (mediums, heavies and assaults) on the case vs a heavy tank lance, a light tank lance and a medium mech lance. How do we want to handle this?

[] Leave them, what's a few Thumper shells between friends
[X] Send Delta-Recon to take them down. Delta-Recon doesn't participate in rescue op/orbital defense takedown.
[] Send both Delta-Recon and Delta-Ranger. It's suspicious that four artillery pieces are going as lightly guarded as they appear to be.
I'd love to send both, but that's a sizable chunk of our forces. Lets hope that Delta-Recon can at least delay them long enough to keep them out of the battle as well.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

gbasden wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 1:41 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:17 pm
En route, Delta-Recon detects some anomalous sensor readings heading the same way and moves in to investigate. It turns out to be an artillery battery, heading towards the orbital defense base. It's defended by mechanized infantry. Chances are, they'll attempt to shell our units as we make our approach. On the one hand, they're as likely to hit friendlies as they are one of our mechs, but, on the other hand, that runs the risk of an artillery shell hitting one of Hawk's mechwarriors (or his irrationally beloved Daboku). Any lance we dispatch to deal with it is unlikely to make it to the orbital defense facility in time to participate, but we already have nine mechs (mediums, heavies and assaults) on the case vs a heavy tank lance, a light tank lance and a medium mech lance. How do we want to handle this?

[] Leave them, what's a few Thumper shells between friends
[X] Send Delta-Recon to take them down. Delta-Recon doesn't participate in rescue op/orbital defense takedown.
[] Send both Delta-Recon and Delta-Ranger. It's suspicious that four artillery pieces are going as lightly guarded as they appear to be.
I'd love to send both, but that's a sizable chunk of our forces. Lets hope that Delta-Recon can at least delay them long enough to keep them out of the battle as well.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with this. Send Delta-Recon but: (1) tell them to be careful and alert for any ambushes, and to escape at any signs of trouble; and (2) to make clear that their core objective is less to destroy the artillery (but to definitely do that if possible), but more to keep the artillery out of the battle.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Send both lances to deal with artillery: 4
Send one lance to deal with artillery: 3
"Recon lance, move in. Ranger lance will provide overwatch."

Madmarcus' intuition proves correct, as Recon lance gets bushwhacked by SRM-equipped hovercraft when they move in. However, once Ranger lance comes in for backup, the militia hovercraft see that they stand no chance and retreat, leaving their artillery buddies and mechanized infantry at our mercy. The mechanized infantry break and rout as well. That leaves us in charge of four Thumper artillery pieces.

July 16, 3042
Orbital Defense Facility
Connaught, Free Worlds League

The attack on the orbital defense facility has already started, so it's unlikely that anyone from Delta will get there in time to help (although Delta-Ranger proceeds at maximum speed anyway, leaving Delta-Recon to disable the artillery and supervise salvage operations). We've got an Atlas, a Stalker, a Crusader and Moley in the Thunderbolt, as well as Beta-Fire lance with a Guillotine, a Marauder, a Trebuchet and a Vindicator. Hawk joins us in his "borrowed" Griffin.

Stationary defenses are pretty light for the most part, although we'll have to watch out for the SRM turrets. The main defender firepower comes from a pair of Manticore tanks and a pair of SRM Carriers, plus three medium mechs. Our goal is to eliminate said defenders (or, if we have trouble, to slag the designated structures, bail out the captured mechwarriors and bug out).

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Beta-Hunter begins the assault, catching an SRM Carrier out in the open. A pair of PPCs from the Atlas melt the vehicle's scant armor, then LRMs from the Crusader finish it off. It gets a load of SRMs off at the Atlas, but it's a hastily aimed salvo and goes entirely wide. Despite being in an Atlas, the mechwarrior breathes a sigh of relief.

The Crusader does take a laser from an Assassin that jumps up on the nearby rooftop but the armor shrugs it off.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
The Atlas and Crusader get harassed by a couple of hovercraft and the Assassin. Somehow, the little dinky Harasser manages to avoid the Atlas' AC/20 burst, joining the Scimitar in lightly peppering the assault mech's armor, while the Assassin lands behind our mech and dings it in the head with a medium laser while delivering a kick to the back of the leg. A backhand causes the lighter mech to stagger back, leaving it wide open for a boot from the Crusader, snapping a pair of leg actuators. The 40-tonner goes down, which is going to be pretty rough.

Hawk loops around to the north, engaging a Manticore and a Skulker, landing some LRMs on the heavy tank to damage its treads, while Moley and the Stalker somehow manage to fail to destroy a single Vedette.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The Assassin manages to get up and break out through an alley to the southwest, which is impressive but disappointing. The hovercraft keep picking at the Atlas, but this time an AC/20 burst lands on the Scimitar, blasting through the right side armor. Somehow, the hovertank manages to avoid all of the Crusader's fire, but the driver has had about enough and revs the engine to get clear.

Moley blasts the nearby Vedette with the Thunderbolt's laser array, finishing it off, as the Stalker engages the Griffin at point blank range. The enemy machine squeezes off a PPC shot at the Atlas, but then its attention is attracted by a head-shot from one of the Stalker's large lasers, and it turns to kick our mech in the left leg.

Hawk takes a beating up north, losing a lot of center torso armor to PPC shots from the Manticores, while being unable to effectively engage the other units up there.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The Harasser, finding itself alone, zips away from the Atlas and past the Stalker, getting its attention with a laser blast. Unfortunate, as the retaliatory laser strike takes the little hovercraft out.

The Atlas, meanwhile, engages the militia Griffin, nearly blowing through its right torso with the autocannon - a jump jet shorts out just as the 55-ton mech lands, which causes it to become unbalanced and land hard, falling over on its right side. The right arm is severed and falls to the ground below, while the torso section is completely disabled.

Round 5:
[camera feed damaged]
"Anybody need help?" Madmarcus asks, having pushed Delta-Ranger pretty hard.

"Southern flank is pretty secure." Moley replies.

"Could use some help up north." Hawk states, dancing between a pair of Manticore tanks and doing his best to avoid their weapons fire.

A second SRM Carrier comes out to open fire on our Stalker as it breaks north - not very effectively, only a couple of stray SRMs hit. The newly-arrived Paingod takes a shot with the PPC at extreme range, blowing the vehicle away.

The Assassin comes back out, but Moley spots it and moves in, working it over with the Thunderbolt's lasers - an arm and a leg later, the 40-ton machine is on the ground.

"Goddammit!" Hawk calls out as his Griffin takes a hit to the gyro and drops to the ground in a cul-de-sac.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
"Air-watch alert - two aircraft burning in, heavies." Freyland reports form the north. "Warbook says Rievers."

A Riever is a 100-ton monstrosity packing an incredible amount of short-range firepower - a whopping twenty-four SRM tubes back up an AC/20. As an afterthought, the designers added an LRM/10 launcher to the nose. Not exactly built for combat endurance, but it can deliver a punch if needed. And right now, the militia guys need it.

Most of our mechs take the time to turn their guns skyward and open fire as the Rievers come in for their strafing runs. Moley's Thunderbolt eats an AC/20 round and a bunch of SRMs, stripping armor from the left arm, although the retaliation takes a bunch of armor off the aircraft as well. As our mechwarrior turns to follow the aerospace fighter, she notices motion - the "disabled" Griffin from earlier has jumped down and is moving to kick our mech in the back. The kick does land on a leg, but the Thunderbolt pivots and places the back of its fist through the Griffin's cockpit. "And stay down this time." our mechwarrior comments.

The Atlas fires upwards as well, blasting its target several times, but the enemy aero jock hits just the right spot, severing our 100-tonner's leg. As it falls, it crunches a PPC, rattling the mechwarrior around as well. The aircraft doesn't survive to see its victory though, as concentrated fire from the rest of our mechs brings it down. That's a pretty big relief.

Hawk catches a break, kind of. He manages to get the Griffin up, using a nearby Scorpion tank's main gun as leverage (bending it out of shape in the process), but a burst from its coaxial machine gun cracks the Griffin's engine shielding.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The arrival of Beta-Fire lance is pretty superflous at this point, but any extra firepower is welcome.

We engage the last two Manticores and their support units, both sides taking significant damage, although we've got a lot more firepower and more individual units, so the militia come out behind. The Hermes-Mercury variant takes the worst of it, losing all of its right leg armor to weapons fire and kicks from Madmarcus.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Archinerd jumps northeast, combining efforts with Freyland to disable one of the remaining Manticores. Suddenly, his cockpit lights up with multiple warning lights - "gyro - damaged. engine - damaged. lrm ammo bin - damaged." Luckily that last one was already empty. It appears that the Hermes followed him and planted two lasers in the back - the subsequent gyro damage causes the Dervish to fall over.

The Hermes' triumph doesn't last long, as Madmarcus climbs up a bunch of buildings behind it and rips the damaged right leg off.

That's about it for the mobile units here. Our non-crippled mechs quickly secure the rest of the area and power down the stationary turrets, then our salvage teams get a crack at everything. We grab the beheaded Griffin, as well as the wreckage of the Riever and a trio of tanks.

We also recover the rest of Hawk's people and mechs, and disable the orbital defenses. It takes us about five days to pack everything up and burn for orbit, but we depart unchallenged, catching a ride back to Outreach on a merchant jumpship.

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

"... so then he says, that's not a Banshee, that's my wife!" Hawk finishes, the command staff of Beta and Delta companies relaxing on the merchant jumpship's grav deck while waiting for the jump drive to charge.

Cujo rolls her eyes. "Think I've heard that one before. Was the guy even married?"

Hawk shakes his head. "Hell no. When your best pick up line is 'does this smell like chloroform'... " he chuckles. "Still, I'll miss that poor bastard. Getting your face punched in by a Dragon is no way to go."

"That reminds me, I wanted to thank you guys for bailing my lance and their mechs out. And uh, I guess for doing your jobs, but you're getting paid for that." He looks around at the collected crew, then starts counting out. "You really stuck it to those Marik guys - blew up three dropships, bunch of mechs, Weisman knows how many tanks, but those don't count." A series of knowing nods from everyone in the room. Although it's more posturing than anything else, we've lost just as many mechs to hovercraft swarms and big fat tanks as we have to fellow mechs. "Too bad we didn't get any of the Black Knights, but that was just me getting greedy. Their factories are so shot up, they won't be up and running for at least a couple of years now."

"I've authorized the full release of your contract payment, so check your bank account." Hawk continues. "I'm also uh, thinking about putting the Daboku through a refit... since the techs are gonna have to basically put it back together from scratch anyway." He says, rubbing his goatee thoughtfully. "Thinking I'm gonna take those AC/2s out and put in some LBX/10s. Maybe upgrade to double heat sinks. I might... ", he puts his hands up, making scare quotes "order a few spares, then they might get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. What do you guys think, should I order an extra LBX/10 autocannon or six extra double heat sinks?"

[] LBX/10 autocannon
[] 6x double heat sinks

----------------------
Spoiler:
Image
After we get back to Outreach, which will happen in late August, this contract will have added about 100M C-Bills to our coffers, bringing us up to ~1.9B C-Bills after we sell all the salvage off. We're keeping a Longbow, though. It's... well, it's not really our speed, being a dedicated long-range fire support mech with almost zero close combat capability, but it's still 85 tons.
Spoiler:
Image
This is the current state of the inner sphere. After some discussion via HPG transmissions, we come to the conclusion that our planetary (re)-survey operations will go faster if we hire people to do them for us. Hiring a jumpship and a survey dropship is ~450k per jump. We study some old-school jump charts and propose a couple of areas that may be worth surveying:

Free Worlds League, southeast corner:
+ Relatively friendly nation
+/- May have to cut some kind of allegiance deal with Free Worlds League (aka be unable to take contracts vs them)
- Might get raided by Capellans, so we'd have to keep a substantial garrison on-world

Federated Commonwealth (south-central region, basically middle of Federated Suns)
+ Friendly nation
+ Close to CapCon, St. Ives Compact and Taurian Concordat, so likely to have steady work: the Capellans and Taurians hate the St. Ives and FedCom guys respectively
+ Easier to get supplies in
+/- Likely to have to cut a pretty restrictive allegiance deal with FedCom
- Might get raided by Capellans

Federated Commonwealth (north-north-east region)
+ Friendly nation
+/- borders several bandit kingdoms, leading to a constant source of work
+/- HPG connectivity is a little spotty out there

There are actually quite a few abandoned colonies within the Capellan Confederation, but the Capellans hate our guts so it's probably inadvisable to try to build a base of operations there.

Regardless of where we decide to locate our permanent base of operations, we'll still keep an office on Outreach - gotta stay plugged in. Let's pick one or more areas to focus our hired surveys on:

[] Free Worlds League, southeast corner. ~20M C-Bill survey cost.
[] FedCom, south-central. ~30M C-Bill survey cost (due to high number of potential systems)
[] FedCom, north-north-east. ~45M C-Bill survey cost (due to distance)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm
[] LBX/10 autocannon
[x] 6x double heat sinks
The autocannons are great, but we can't get enough double-heat sinks. They're universally useful, insofar as they help us fire all our weapons more often.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] Free Worlds League, southeast corner. ~20M C-Bill survey cost.
[x] FedCom, south-central. ~30M C-Bill survey cost (due to high number of potential systems)
[x] FedCom, north-north-east. ~45M C-Bill survey cost (due to distance)
I am inclined mainly towards the south-central option, but either seems tenable. Not that I don't like the Marik folks, but I don't want us to have to worry about raids from a major house (even if it's just the Capellans).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] LBX/10 autocannon
[X] 6x double heat sinks
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] Free Worlds League, southeast corner. ~20M C-Bill survey cost.
[X] FedCom, south-central. ~30M C-Bill survey cost (due to high number of potential systems)
[] FedCom, north-north-east. ~45M C-Bill survey cost (due to distance)
A high number of potential systems seems like a good thing.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 4:08 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm
[] LBX/10 autocannon
[x] 6x double heat sinks
The autocannons are great, but we can't get enough double-heat sinks. They're universally useful, insofar as they help us fire all our weapons more often.
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] Free Worlds League, southeast corner. ~20M C-Bill survey cost.
[x] FedCom, south-central. ~30M C-Bill survey cost (due to high number of potential systems)
[x] FedCom, north-north-east. ~45M C-Bill survey cost (due to distance)
I am inclined mainly towards the south-central option, but either seems tenable. Not that I don't like the Marik folks, but I don't want us to have to worry about raids from a major house (even if it's just the Capellans).
Agreed on both counts.

Not to mention, if we should get bad things happening while we are away, more likely to get sympathy/support from FedCom than Marik (not counting on much, but even a little help in expediting things or whatever could be huge if our home gets smacked hard while we're out.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

AWS260 wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 5:34 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] LBX/10 autocannon
[X] 6x double heat sinks
NickAragua wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:50 pm [] Free Worlds League, southeast corner. ~20M C-Bill survey cost.
[X] FedCom, south-central. ~30M C-Bill survey cost (due to high number of potential systems)
[] FedCom, north-north-east. ~45M C-Bill survey cost (due to distance)
A high number of potential systems seems like a good thing.
Agreed!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
LBX/10 Autocannon: 4
Double Heat Sinks: 4
Coin flip goes to LBX/10.

FedCom, NNE: 5
FWL, SE: 1
FedCom, SC: 4
After some discussion, we decide to hire two survey teams: one to check out the worlds in the north-north-east of the Lyran half of Federated Commonwealth, the other the south-central section of the Federated Suns. The north-north-east survey will take approximately one and a half years, as will the south-central survey when you count having to get the dropship to the potential colony planet, poke around for a bit, then burn back. Refueling the dropships is also a time sink. In any case, we put the 75M C-Bills in escrow, partially as retainer, partially to be disbursed upon contract completion and partially upon the occasional mid-point checkin via HPG transmission. We'll continue our own surveys near our places of work as time and employment contracts allow. We expect to hear results at around the start of 3044.

July 11, 3042
Atmospheric descent
Asuncion, Free Worlds League

Gamma's two month vacation on Asuncion is briefly interrupted. Force Commander Adnan calls up Scrub and tells her that her air defense guys are tracking a pair of Leopard class dropships that are going to fly over our patrol zone. It seems that the militia have already engaged said Leopards and shot one down, along with a few fighters, but the militia aerospace units have been driven off.

"So, you guys think you can take this thing down? I've got a Thunderbird still in the air that can help out and all they've got left is a bunch of light fighters. Well, maybe a pair of heavies too."

Scrub raises an eyebrow, but before she can say anything, FC Adnan continues with "first crack at salvage and combat bonus!"

Scrub smirks. "Now, you're talking. I think we can do that."

So, we send Gamma-Strike up, which, after repairs and replacement aircraft, is a Stingray and a pair of Lightning fighters.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We'll stay in formation until we're in range of the Leopard, at which point we'll need to plow past its substantial forward firepower and get into its "blind spots", or at least on its tail where it just has a couple of laser turrets.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
"Here it comes." Lt. Leslie Leshtchenko, flying one of the Lightnings, calls out. "Let's try and avoid having it crash on these buildings, I'm pretty sure they belong to our employer."

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
Lighter screening aircraft engage us to keep us away from the dropship. One of our Lightnings drops back a little, opening up on a Sabre with the nose-mounted AC/20, tearing chunks off the bottom of the light craft as it tries to bank out of the way.

The Marik Thunderbird zaps an approaching Seydlitz with its large lasers, scoring hits on the right wing to damage the landing gear housing and a laser.

Both damaged aircraft stay in the air, though.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
The allied Thunderbird and our Stingray make an initial pass at the Leopard, hitting with lasers, while the Thunderbird's LRMs go wide. The damaged Seydlitz tries to get on the Thunderbird's tail but is blown away by an AC/20 burst from the Lightning. Said Lightning gets pounded by a trailing Stuka, with our aircraft's sensors getting knocked out by a laser to the nose. Which is great if that particular aero jock likes "eyeballing it" anyway. But that's the least of his concerns, as his aircraft takes a nose dive.

The Leopard's gunners don't sit idle, either, blasting the Stingray with PPC and laser fire, blowing out our aerospace fighter's fire control system. Again, "just eyeball it, dude."

The Lieutenant's Lightning blasts a Cheetah, sending it into a tail spin and out of the fight temporarily.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Thunderbird and Stingray continue engaging the Leopard, getting into its blind spot and flaying armor from the left side with lasers.

The Lieutenant targets the Stuka, gouging out a huge chunk with the AC/20.

Our other Lightning levels out well before hitting the ground, as does the Cheetah.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
The Stingray and Thunderbird continue beating on the Leopard, inflicting some damage to the aft section. Our Stingray takes a major beating however, including a laser and LRM salvo from the Stuka, which takes out a large chunk of nose equipment and briefly torches the aero jock.

Our recovering Lightning pulls up and blasts the hostile Lucifer in the tailpipe, sending it to a less-than-controlled descent, while the Lieutenant's Lightning continues working on the Stuka.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
As our Stingray drops out of the fight and the allied Thunderbird continues its nose dive towards the ground, our Lightnings get a brief break to pick on the tail of some hostile fighters with their AC/20s. The Lieutenant destroys a Sabre, autocannon rounds and lasers ripping the smaller craft apart in mid-air, while the other Lightning has a little less luck against the Stuka, but still manages to force the other aircraft to drop altitude.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
That damn Leopard is getting away, though. Our Lightnings go to town on its starboard side, blasting holes through armor to damage the engine and control thrusters.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
The Marik Thunderbird is unable to regain altitude and makes a "forced landing" on a street. Somehow, the aero jock is able to keep his aerospace fighter from turning into a complete wreck, though.

The Leopard pulls up at the last second, leaving our Lightnings in a bit of a lurch with nothing to fire at.

Round 10:
Spoiler:
Image
Our fighters make up for it though, following the Leopard up. The Lieutenant blasts through the right-side transport bay with the AC/20, sending a pair of mechs spilling out to the ground below.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Our Lightnings are forced to disengage due to the pursuing fighters - the Leopard gets away. Kind of.

With a damaged engine and control thrusters, plus half its mechs missing, whatever those guys were planning isn't likely to pan out, especially after we shoot down their Stuka.

The Marik forces wind up having to hunt down the Leopard, the two remaining mechs and fighters, which they do with ground forces. FC Adnan thanks us for the help, "although that Thunderbird pilot isn't too happy about getting shot down. Well, maybe next time he can learn how to keep the damn aircraft above the ground."

Our Stingray winds up taking the better part of a month to fix up as the internal structure is pretty beat up. We're able to source replacement medium lasers for our fighters from the Kallon factory next door and taking the downtime to stock up on replacement armor.

-------

Our jumpship repairs are, with things having subsided on Asuncion, proceeding on schedule (no, not the original schedule, they're about half a year behind with that).

Our current budget, after selling off our salvage, and including the funds allocated to operations on Asuncion, is ~2B C-Bills. So once our hired survey crews finish their work

Alpha gets to Outreach first, on July 21st, and begins shopping. Our FedCom-supplied advanced goodies will be arriving in mid-august - a 240 XL engine and an ER PPC for an Awesome refit, a total of twenty five double heat sinks and an LBX/10 autocannon with plenty of ammunition. We also begin buying up Gauss rifles and ammo as they come up on the market.

We also see a pretty rare aerospace fighter come up for sale: a Samurai SL-25. At 3M C-Bills, it's quite a markup on its "star league blue book" value. It's an exclusively short-range fighter with relatively weak armor (rated at 152 as opposed to a Corsair's 216), but it's pretty damn fast, and if it can get into range, it will deliver five medium laser shots and three small laser shots to its target. Pretty solid. That and it's a historical museum piece, they don't really make those any more. With its speed, we'd put it into Delta's recon flight.

[] Buy the Samurai, replacing the Centurion
[] Skip it, we've got plenty of aircraft already.

Shortly after landing, LordMortis Mk II walks into Zenn7's office and tells Zenn7 that he's considering joining the original LordMortis' Solaris VII stable. Apparently, it's doing pretty well, but they've been looking around for recruits (something about having more mechs than mechwarriors, as AC/20s have a tendency to hole out cockpits), and LordMortis is pretty picky about new hires (something about most of the dispossessed mechwarriors on Solaris VII being either Capellan spies or couldn't tell their ass from their elbow).

[] Offer our Victor pilot a 900k retention bonus
[] Shake his hand, wish him good luck, go to LordMortis Mk III

Finally, between all the battlefield salvage and shopping opportunites, we've got enough spare mechs that we can probably start fielding a fifth company. This means that we'll need a recruiting drive. We've got about half a year before our jumpship is fixed up and can get back to where we are, plus we've got quite a few mech refits going on, so, a) are we going to field another company and b) how picky are we going to be about our recruits?

[] Best of the best - we might not be able to fill the slots we need
[] Veterans - balanced approach
[] Rookies and Journeymen - we'll find recruits quickly, but they're likely to be awful
[] We don't really need the hassle of a fifth company
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2019 4:56 pm
We also see a pretty rare aerospace fighter come up for sale: a Samurai SL-25. At 3M C-Bills, it's quite a markup on its "star league blue book" value. It's an exclusively short-range fighter with relatively weak armor (rated at 152 as opposed to a Corsair's 216), but it's pretty damn fast, and if it can get into range, it will deliver five medium laser shots and three small laser shots to its target. Pretty solid. That and it's a historical museum piece, they don't really make those any more. With its speed, we'd put it into Delta's recon flight.

[X] Buy the Samurai, replacing the Centurion
[] Skip it, we've got plenty of aircraft already.

Shortly after landing, LordMortis Mk II walks into Zenn7's office and tells Zenn7 that he's considering joining the original LordMortis' Solaris VII stable. Apparently, it's doing pretty well, but they've been looking around for recruits (something about having more mechs than mechwarriors, as AC/20s have a tendency to hole out cockpits), and LordMortis is pretty picky about new hires (something about most of the dispossessed mechwarriors on Solaris VII being either Capellan spies or couldn't tell their ass from their elbow).

[X] Offer our Victor pilot a 900k retention bonus
[] Shake his hand, wish him good luck, go to LordMortis Mk III

Finally, between all the battlefield salvage and shopping opportunites, we've got enough spare mechs that we can probably start fielding a fifth company. This means that we'll need a recruiting drive. We've got about half a year before our jumpship is fixed up and can get back to where we are, plus we've got quite a few mech refits going on, so, a) are we going to field another company and b) how picky are we going to be about our recruits?

[] Best of the best - we might not be able to fill the slots we need
[X] Veterans - balanced approach
[] Rookies and Journeymen - we'll find recruits quickly, but they're likely to be awful
[] We don't really need the hassle of a fifth company
I vote to keep our experienced pilots. And we definitely don't need a bunch of new scrubs.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

gbasden wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:57 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2019 4:56 pm
We also see a pretty rare aerospace fighter come up for sale: a Samurai SL-25. At 3M C-Bills, it's quite a markup on its "star league blue book" value. It's an exclusively short-range fighter with relatively weak armor (rated at 152 as opposed to a Corsair's 216), but it's pretty damn fast, and if it can get into range, it will deliver five medium laser shots and three small laser shots to its target. Pretty solid. That and it's a historical museum piece, they don't really make those any more. With its speed, we'd put it into Delta's recon flight.

[X] Buy the Samurai, replacing the Centurion
[] Skip it, we've got plenty of aircraft already.

Shortly after landing, LordMortis Mk II walks into Zenn7's office and tells Zenn7 that he's considering joining the original LordMortis' Solaris VII stable. Apparently, it's doing pretty well, but they've been looking around for recruits (something about having more mechs than mechwarriors, as AC/20s have a tendency to hole out cockpits), and LordMortis is pretty picky about new hires (something about most of the dispossessed mechwarriors on Solaris VII being either Capellan spies or couldn't tell their ass from their elbow).

[X] Offer our Victor pilot a 900k retention bonus
[] Shake his hand, wish him good luck, go to LordMortis Mk III

Finally, between all the battlefield salvage and shopping opportunites, we've got enough spare mechs that we can probably start fielding a fifth company. This means that we'll need a recruiting drive. We've got about half a year before our jumpship is fixed up and can get back to where we are, plus we've got quite a few mech refits going on, so, a) are we going to field another company and b) how picky are we going to be about our recruits?

[] Best of the best - we might not be able to fill the slots we need
[X] Veterans - balanced approach
[] Rookies and Journeymen - we'll find recruits quickly, but they're likely to be awful
[] We don't really need the hassle of a fifth company
I vote to keep our experienced pilots. And we definitely don't need a bunch of new scrubs.
Good with these options as well.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Cylus Maxii »

[X] Skip it, we've got plenty of aircraft already.

[X] Shake his hand, wish him good luck, go to LordMortis Mk III

[X] We don't really need the hassle of a fifth company
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Samurai 6
No Samurai 2

Keep LM2 - 5
Let LM2 go - 3

5th company veterans - 5
no 5th company - 3
August 23, 3042
Ferrell National Park
Asuncion, Free Worlds League

Today, Gamma-Battle lance takes a break from sitting around the base bitching about their much better mechs that got blown away. We're working with the Marik militia guys again. One of their Phoenix Hawks has tracked down a kidnapped Earthwerks executive who's being moved aboard a Plainsman hovertank. They've just met up with a couple of tank lances (including one lance of heavies) and a mech lance of unknown origin, but Gamma-Battle lance has caught up.

Our mechs are a Thunderbolt (Xwraith), a Crusader (Scrub), a Phoenix Hawk (Cylus) and a Wolverine 6R (Hyena). Scrub sighs and rolls her eyes. "Let's see if we can disable that hovertank *without* blowing it to smithereens." A little bit of light rain patters against her Crusader's windshield, but soon it won't even be a minor consideration as the two forces move to engage each other.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
We move up, trying to get a shot at the Plainsman before it gets the idea to get away. Scrub fires LRMs from the Crusader, landing several hits on a distant Vedette and causing severe tread damage.

Hyena lands an AC/5 round on the front of the Manticore, but it more or less just pings off the armor.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our mechs intercept the Plainsman as it meets up with a Drillson and both groups open fire. Hyena takes a bunch of SRMs from the launchers on the Plainsman's turret as well as the Drillson, but manages to stay on target. Along with Scrub, the two of them pepper the hovercraft with SRMs, which destroy external drive fans to immobilize the vehicle. The hovercraft is a little bit inside the effective range on the Wolverine's autocannon, so that continues burping up shells at the Manticore, exploiting the breach opened up by the previous burst and taking out the heavy tank's engine.

Cylus, meanwhile, moves north, engaging a pair of bug mechs. The Stinger takes a couple of lasers to the left side, exposing the structure in the left arm.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
"Target immobilized. Do not fire upon the Plainsman." Scrub reminds everyone. "Let's clear the rest of these punks out, then we can get our paycheck back."

She takes a moment to blast the annoying Drillson as it peppers her with SRMs, immobilizing it with an SRM salvo of her own while breaching armor with lasers and MG rounds.

"Ahem, I mean, rescue this fine, upstanding individual."

Hyena smirks as he jumps the Wolverine over the scene, landing at the edge of a cluster of trees to surprise a Striker light tank with the Wolverine's laser and a six-pack of SRMs from the launcher. The tank fires back simultaneously. Hyena gets the better of it, the Striker's left-side treads slip and the tank gets stuck. The Wolverine just rattles a little.

Our two Phoenix Hawks punch through the enemy formation, forcing the bug mechs to pull back and engage them. Not really the intended result. The Marik Phoenix Hawk blasts the Vedette that Scrub damaged previously with a medium laser, finishing off its treads, then rakes a short burst from its MGs across a Scorpion tank, doing little damage. It takes some lasers and MGs from the surrounding bug mechs, though. Cylus focuses on the greater threat, the SRM Carrier, taking armor off with lasers, then basically walking over it and crushing wheels on both sides. The crew can't wait to scramble out.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
"Watch out, that Rommel's got an AC/20!" Xwraith calls out, running into a patch of woods in an effort to make the tank's shot more difficult. The Thunderbolt's lasers disable the aforementioned tank's treads while our mechwarrior puts the Thunderbolt's multi-trac targeting system to good use by firing the ER laser at a distant Scorpion tank, breaching its armor.

The warning doesn't come in time to help Hyena, as his mech's left arm is disabled from the impact of the massive shells. Frustrated, our mechwarrior stomps a Savannah master flat as it makes a quick attack run against his mech as well.

Cylus breaks through the armor on the nearby Condor with lasers and a kick, while the Marik Phoenix Hawk engages a Wasp to the north, blowing off its right leg with lasers and a kick.

The remaining hostile units that haven't been immobilized retreat - a Scorpion tank, a Vulcan, a Wasp and the Condor. We claim the Manticore for salvage - we could use the armor and LRM reloads.

Luckily, Hyena's Wolverine is repairable with the spare parts we've got on hand - it takes the better part of two days, but our techs are able to pull the necessary actuators and structural elements from the down-checked Cronus. We *could* have fixed the Cronus instead, but Hyena's a much better shot with autocannons than with lasers.

It's a couple of months before anything new happens on Asuncion. In late October, as AWS and lancemates (including one who most recently earned a callsign, Clinton "Drazzil" Mavroudis, currently driving a Phoenix Hawk) hang out at a local restaurant drinking coffee, they're approached by a guy straight out of a Davion mystery serial. Brown trenchcoat, black hat pulled down way too low, etc.

"You guys are with that merc outfit guarding the Earthwerks plants, right? You want some good firepower? I got a line on a Drillson."

Drazzil raises an eyebrow. "That's just a stupid hovertank, what would we want one of those for?"

"It's got an extended-range laser instead of the regular one, that's why! Only three million C-Bills, it's a steal I tell ya!"

Drazzil looks at AWS for non-verbal confirmation. On the one hand, it's a chance to get a hold of an ER large laser, which aren't exactly common. On the other hand, it's being offered by a guy who looks like a cross between a cartoon spy and a drug dealer. Realistically speaking, we'd take the laser off the tank, then sell the chassis back on the market to avoid taking a complete bath on it, since 3M for a single laser is pretty excessive (a standard large laser runs a couple hundred thousand c-bills), even if it is advanced tech.

[] Sure, we could go for another ER large laser
[] Better pass, looks suspicious

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

After giving it some thought, LordMortis Mk II opts to stay with the company. Solaris VII is nice and all but the budget is substantially larger here, and there's not as much skullduggery.

We'll begin putting together Epsilon company shortly. Although pickings are still pretty slim for contracts right now, this is the Inner Sphere. Somebody's going to start shooting at somebody for real eventually. And we'll be there to collect the money.

Once the parts all get there in mid-august, we begin our refits. Gbasden's Awesome will get upgraded with an XL engine so it can have an ER PPC installed in the right arm, along with an additional five heat sinks. As a little bonus, we will install a salvaged small pulse laser in the head instead of the standard small laser.

Additionally, we take a look at LordMortis Mk 2's Victor. The AC/20 is a good candidate for being replaced with a Gauss rifle - the reduced heat load and lesser required ammo tonnage will allow us to drop a heat sink and add another ton of armor. The Gauss rifle does do about 25% less damage than an AC/20, but its range is substantially greater (almost as long as an AC/2). Our main restriction on putting Gauss rifles on everything is the limited supply of replacement parts and ammo.

[] Upgrade the Victor with a Gauss rifle
[] Keep it as is

That leaves us with a bunch of double heat sinks and an LBX autocannon. We've got a couple of options regarding what to do with those.

Archinerd's Dervish is a solid 55-ton fire support mech with good firepower. However, it does heat up quite a bit -between the LRMs, SRMs, lasers and jump jets, it can put out more than twice the heat that its heat sinks are capable of dealing with. Upgrading the heat sinks to doubles will still lead to overheating if it constantly fires every gun, but will definitely let it jump and fire. This one's kind of a no-brainer and we actually have two Dervishes so we could just upgrade both of those and call it a day.

Another option is to take a Warhammer and replace its heat sinks with doubles, then bring the heat sink count down to fifteen instead of eighteen. That allows us to load it up with nearly maxed-out armor, and the mechwarrior can use the weapons a lot more liberally. When she gets back, Scrub will really appreciate that.

A third option is to upgrade an Orion with double heat sinks. It's pretty straightforward, no armor adjustments or anything, just the ability to alpha strike every turn.

A fourth option is to upgrade one of our many Phoenix Hawks, again simply granting it the ability to alpha strike every turn.

For the LBX autocannon, we also have a few options. Cujo and Madmarcus both drive Wolverines. We could theoretically refit one of those to the Davion variant with an AC/10 in the left arm, then swap the AC/10 for the LBX. That frees up a ton, which we can use to bring the armor up to the max the chassis can handle. Neither of the two mechwarriors have expressed any preference for ballistic weapons, however.

We can take an Orion and replace the AC/10 with an LBX. This frees up an extra ton, which we can use to install another standard heat sink in the engine. Hyena would probably appreciate this modification.

We also have a Centurion sitting in a warehouse. Similar to the Orion, replace the AC/10 with an LBX and add another heat sink. Or a ton of armor, the Centurion could use it.

Finally, we have an AC/10 Swayback sitting in the same warehouse which can undergo an upgrade identical to the Centurion. The idea of a Hunchback without an AC/20 is somewhat silly, but people use them.

25 double heat sinks available, pick 2 (we'll have 5 left over):
[] Dervish
[] 2nd Dervish
[] Warhammer
[] Orion
[] Phoenix Hawk

LBX autocannon
[] Wolverine (mechwarriors don't like the idea)
[] Orion
[] Centurion
[] Hunchback
Last edited by NickAragua on Wed Oct 23, 2019 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:23 pm
[] Sure, we could go for another ER large laser
[x] Better pass, looks suspicious


[x] Upgrade the Victor with a Gauss rifle
[] Keep it as is


25 double heat sinks available, pick 2 (we'll have 5 left over):
[x] Dervish
[] 2nd Dervish
[x] Warhammer
[] Orion

LBX autocannon
[] Wolverine (mechwarriors don't like the idea)
[x] Orion
[] Centurion
[] Hunchback
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:23 pm Drazzil looks at AWS for non-verbal confirmation. On the one hand, it's a chance to get a hold of an ER large laser, which aren't exactly common. On the other hand, it's being offered by a guy who looks like a cross between a cartoon spy and a drug dealer. Realistically speaking, we'd take the laser off the tank, then sell the chassis back on the market to avoid taking a complete bath on it, since 3M for a single laser is pretty excessive (a standard large laser runs a couple hundred thousand c-bills), even if it is advanced tech.

[] Sure, we could go for another ER large laser
[X] Better pass, looks suspicious
I don't mind suspicious, but 3M for a laser that run ridiculously hot is not my idea of a bargain.
Additionally, we take a look at LordMortis Mk 2's Victor.

[X] Upgrade the Victor with a Gauss rifle
[] Keep it as is

That leaves us with a bunch of double heat sinks and an LBX autocannon.

25 double heat sinks available, pick 2 (we'll have 5 left over):
[] Dervish
[] 2nd Dervish
[] Warhammer
[] Orion
[X] PHOENIX HAWK YOU FORGOT TO LIST PHOENIX HAWK IN THE OPTIONS SO PHOENIX HAWK AUTOMATICALLY WINS
[X] ALSO HOW ABOUT JUST UPGRADING A SECOND PHOENIX HAWK


LBX autocannon
[] Wolverine (mechwarriors don't like the idea)
[X] Orion
[] Centurion
[] Hunchback
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