Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 pm
Vote Results:
After a brief consultation with our legal department, we put the pirate "on the books" as a new recruit. The Kintaro will take a couple of weeks to get back up and running, between the completely busted leg and having to re-attach the left arm, but we'll get it working.
Delta-Ranger gets to try out their new toys, as some pirates, not necessarily from the "Queen of Butte Hold" group, buzz one of our checkpoints. Alongside a Star Guards Phoenix Hawk, we've got Madmarcus in the trusty Wolverine, Freyland in the Cronus, Archinerd in the upgraded Dervish DV-7D(A) and a new recruit in the Griffin GRF-1DS. We haven't had a chance to downsize the double heat sinks yet in that one, but it'll still be interesting to give it a try.
Our checkpoint consists of four random-ass turrets we scrounged from the scrap heap, but we've got a triple-barrel Thumper to help soften up any bad guys as they approach.
We've also got a lance from Beta company approaching from the east, so we just need to engage these guys until our overwhelming force gets into position.
Round 1:
Delta-Ranger lance moves up, pushing their mechs to maximum speed to close in with the hostiles faster. Still about a kilometer out from maximum LRM range, but a pair of our turrets are getting beat-up on already. Our Thumper turret starts blasting out artillery rounds at the hostile tanks.
Round 2:
One of the Thumper rounds lands and lightly grazes the back of a Galleon tank, slightly damaging its treads, while an MG turret pops up as an LRM Carrier is driving by and really works that tank's treads over.
Round 3:
More of our artillery rounds land, this time blasting bits off an SRM Carrier, which ought to prevent the tank from getting into or out of the fight in time to make any sort of difference.
Round 4:
Our lance engages the hostile light mechs, about two lances' worth. The plan is to string their light units to the east while our artillery blasts the slower units. Not too much in the way of damage gets inflicted, although our Griffin's first shot with its pulse laser strikes true, blowing out a jump jet on an approaching Kurita-model Spider, along with all the armor on its left torso.
Round 5:
A lot of weapons fire is exchanged but basically nothing hits, except for our Star Guard buddy, who continues blasting teh approaching Spider, methodically removing three out its four remaining jump jets with the Phoenix Hawk's right-arm large laser and bursts from the MG.
Round 6:
"Ok, fall back to nav beta." Madmarcus informs everyone. "No need to get swamped by anklebiters."
The poor SRM Carrier in the back gets its motive systems completely blasted by our artillery piece.
Our lance jumps back by the numbers.
Round 7:
Our lance uses its slight range advantage (large lasers, LRMs) to keep the anklebiters back while falling back towards Beta Company's position, scoring some armor damage on a couple of bug mechs, although the slippery little bastards make it hard to keep lasers on them for any significant period of time.
Round 8:
"Goddammit, Ranger-Two, get your ass back in formation." Madmarcus calls out, exasperated, as Archinerd halts the orderly retreat and jumps west, getting in behind a Locust. Most of the Dervish's weapons fire misses, although a couple of streak SRMs manage to lock on to the bug mech and blast most of its rear torso armor plating off. Our mechwarrior's attempted kick doesn't really work out, either.
Round 9:
"Sorry, boss." Our chastised mechwarrior returns, jumping back towards our formation, the Dervish firing a salvo of LRMs as it jumps - the missiles land on target, immobilizing a Scimitar hovertank.
One of our artillery shells lands right on top of an LRM Carrier way in the back, blowing it to smithereens.
Unfortunately, some of the light hostile units are in weapons range of our artillery battery, so that turret is going to go away shortly.
Round 10:
As our lance hunkers down behind a solid rock hill, a Locust makes a brave move, coming around the hill to blast armor off our Griffin with its lasers. Unfortunately, this doesn't pay off. The mechwarrior jukes away from Freyland's lasers, but then eats multiple shots from Madmarcus and the Griffin, which results in its right weapons pod being fried and multiple center torso armor breaches - as it falls over, the right torso section is crushed as well.
As Beta Company comes into sensor range, the hostiles suddenly lose their desire for a fight and rapidly disengage.
"That's one way to de-escalate." Freyland comments.
And indeed, that was a remarkably low-casualty engagement - one completely destroyed LRM carrier, two other disabled tanks, and two beat-up light mechs on the pirate side, minor armor damage on ours. And, even better, the Thumper stayed intact!
---
Having given the Griffin 1DS a shakedown, we've got some hard data and suggestions from the mechwarrior driving it. The conclusion is that it's got three more heat sinks than it needs (generating a maximum of 21 heat, but sinking 28), so if we take some of those off, we can add extra equipment.
Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Ton of armor
[] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)
Spoiler:
Delta-Ranger gets to try out their new toys, as some pirates, not necessarily from the "Queen of Butte Hold" group, buzz one of our checkpoints. Alongside a Star Guards Phoenix Hawk, we've got Madmarcus in the trusty Wolverine, Freyland in the Cronus, Archinerd in the upgraded Dervish DV-7D(A) and a new recruit in the Griffin GRF-1DS. We haven't had a chance to downsize the double heat sinks yet in that one, but it'll still be interesting to give it a try.
Our checkpoint consists of four random-ass turrets we scrounged from the scrap heap, but we've got a triple-barrel Thumper to help soften up any bad guys as they approach.
We've also got a lance from Beta company approaching from the east, so we just need to engage these guys until our overwhelming force gets into position.
Round 1:
Spoiler:
Round 2:
Spoiler:
Round 3:
Spoiler:
Round 4:
Spoiler:
Round 5:
Spoiler:
Round 6:
Spoiler:
The poor SRM Carrier in the back gets its motive systems completely blasted by our artillery piece.
Our lance jumps back by the numbers.
Round 7:
Spoiler:
Round 8:
Spoiler:
Round 9:
Spoiler:
One of our artillery shells lands right on top of an LRM Carrier way in the back, blowing it to smithereens.
Unfortunately, some of the light hostile units are in weapons range of our artillery battery, so that turret is going to go away shortly.
Round 10:
As our lance hunkers down behind a solid rock hill, a Locust makes a brave move, coming around the hill to blast armor off our Griffin with its lasers. Unfortunately, this doesn't pay off. The mechwarrior jukes away from Freyland's lasers, but then eats multiple shots from Madmarcus and the Griffin, which results in its right weapons pod being fried and multiple center torso armor breaches - as it falls over, the right torso section is crushed as well.
As Beta Company comes into sensor range, the hostiles suddenly lose their desire for a fight and rapidly disengage.
"That's one way to de-escalate." Freyland comments.
And indeed, that was a remarkably low-casualty engagement - one completely destroyed LRM carrier, two other disabled tanks, and two beat-up light mechs on the pirate side, minor armor damage on ours. And, even better, the Thumper stayed intact!
---
Having given the Griffin 1DS a shakedown, we've got some hard data and suggestions from the mechwarrior driving it. The conclusion is that it's got three more heat sinks than it needs (generating a maximum of 21 heat, but sinking 28), so if we take some of those off, we can add extra equipment.
Here's a list of equipment we can put in to replace the extra heat sinks (pick up to four, each pick subtracts 2 heat sinking capacity from an initial of 28). For example, adding Artemis IV, Guardian ECM and Beagle Probe will result in heat sink capacity of 22 while the mech generates 21 heat; Ton of armor, Artemis IV and 1x Medium Laser will drop heat sinking to 22 while the mech generates 24 heat, which isn't too bad as long as you hold the LRM/20 launcher once in a while. Minimum number of heat sinks is 10.
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Medium Laser (+3 heat)
[] Ton of armor
[] Artemis IV (for the LRM/20 launcher, considerably better clustering on missile hits)
[] Guardian ECM (blocks active probes, messes up hostile streak/Artemis targeting, can generate 'ghost targets' which makes the unit harder to hit)
[] Beagle Probe (cuts through ECM, improved targeting vs units in woods, detects hidden units, improved performance when needing to scan targets)