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Here we go!
T1 – We win init. Our Ostscout jumps by their Wolf Trap after it falls with trying to land on the building. A T Bolt hits an engine on their Daimyo. Our Goliath destroys its CT and it shuts down, T2 – We lose init. I hope the Spider next to their Venom. Ostsol next to their Locust. The Trebuchet as well. Our Zeus nails and destroys the LA of their Spider. The Venom destroys our Spider’s LA. Our Spider fires back and hits a medium pulse laser and a engine. Our Spider kicks and destroys the LT of their Venom and it is destroyed. Our Zeus punches the Wolf Trap, hits a leg actuator, and it has to make a piloting skill roll it falls and hits its gyro twice. Dead mech. 3 kills in 2 turns. T3 – We win init. I hop the Spider behind their Locust. Our Ostsol blows off the Locusts RT. The Attila destroys their PXh’s RA. Theirs responds by nails the engine of the Attila. After focusing a lot of fire on the Mauler this turn, our Trebuchet hits a foot actuator. We punch the PXH’s head with an Attila. They decide to flee now, before things get too rough. All of my mechs are fine, except the Hunchback and Spider. The Hunchy has taken a lot of external damage, and lost about 60% of his armor. Everybody else is great. Daimyo RT, LT, LA, RA, H, LL, RL Venom missing LT, enginex3 Wolf Trap, x2gyro, LCT-3S Locust RA Spider missing LA |
We finish fighting the 3rd Dieron Regulars, and they move back. We order the Hunchback and Spider to gather salvage and move back into the DropShip.
Meanwhile, our fighter DropShip moved towards the factory and unleashed the fighters. They buzz the factory. We wanted as few casualties as possible, so they strafe the walls first to give warning. Then a few minutes later, they return to buzz the warehouse and it is destroyed. Meanwhile, their vehicles are out and trying to fire at our fighters. They don’t do much, but a few moments later, a sextet of VTOLs move in from nearby to attack our fighters. We manage to down two of the VTOLS and the rest flee, but it takes a few minutes. Meanwhile, infantry at the factory have set up anti-aircraft artillery and begin raking the sky with Autocannons. We need ground support and flee. After driving off the Regulars, we observe the rest of the battle between the Horribles. They manage to fight through the Dieron, and the locals are broken and begin to flee. Meanwhile, some of the Horribles turn to face us again. This time, they charge our position! What are they doing? This is a fight between Hanson’s Horribles and the remaining 10 mechs of Trinity Company Their Mechs: Axman * Victor Hunchback BLR-3M BattleMaster * JVN-10P Javelin * 2x HCT-S Hatchetman * Thunderbolt Commando CN9-D Centurion * WTH-1S Whitworth variant QKD-5A Quickdraw variant This is a very good close in company. It’s clear they must specialize in close range combat. The ones with hatchets and BM are veterans, and the rest are regulars. This is their Axman, a newer mech with an AC20, axe, large pulse laser, 3xmedium pulses, 4/6/4 movement, XL, 10/20 heat and 10 tons of ferro armor.  |
We only have the ten surviving mechs from the previous battle. Our map:
 |
We only have the ten surviving mechs from the previous battle. Our map:
T1 – We win init. We focus a lot of fire on their Axman. The Attila hits its head with a medium laser. T2 – We win again. Rock on. I run a PXH behind their Thunderbolt. Our Attila hits the Head of their Axman with a ER PPC and goes internal and hits the cockpit. Dead mech and pilot. Later on we hit the gyro twice and engine three times. It’s dead three ways! Our Zeus will destroys its LA too. Our Archer crushes their Javelin with 36 missiles from its double LRM20s. Ammo explosion, boom. They kick my Phoenix Hawk and it falls. T3 – We win yay. I stand the PXH and start running with it but it skids and goes off the field. Our Archer attacks the Quickdraw and hits him once in the head, and he is knocked out. Our Trebuchet destroys the Rt of their Commando. Our T Bolt hits the ammo on their Hunchback and another boom. They’ve had enough, and Hanson’s Horrible’s retreat. We send the injured P Hawk to the stables. Everybody else is still cooking with gas. They lost the battle the monet they chose to put some of their forces on one side and some on the other of some buildings. On one side, I hid my Archer in heavy woods, and jumped and moved my light mechs around for the Scout Lance Shield strategy. On the other, I put all of my power guys right in front and moved them max speed each time. And that is how you do that! |
Axman, fix cockpit, gyrox2, enginex3, missing LA
JVN-10P Javelin RA, LL, LT,LA, H Hunchback RL QKD-5A Quickdraw Commando RA With everybody wise to us now, defensive troops are getting a problem. We can’t get to the Factory in time to help out, and our fighters retreated. Our Exterminator arrives 5 minutes later. Two more buildings blow up and our infantry return as well. We have garrisoned around the DropShip, and eventually the other one returns. We load up our salvage and men, and get on board and blast off. We will return on June 28. Money money money. And salvage! 2.610 mill was the contract. We have to pay 3.815 mill to fix everything, salaries, etc. We got parts for the Jav and made it a Javelin 10F. We purchased the CT for Daimyo, engine and gyro – expensive, and fixed it up too. That means we ended up with 7 mechs. Experience: Our Goliath MW, Janice Flanders, got her 8th kill and now has Edge: 1. |
Rewind:
March 15 – After a long period of recruiting Braham Essex announces some changes: Epsilon Company Ontos; Von Luckner; Goblin Medium Tank; Brutus Assault Tank; Ac2 Carrier; Rommel; Hunter; LRM Carrier; Saladin; J Edgar; Saracen; Saladin Zeta Company: Schrek PPC Carrier: Brutus; Zhukov; Bulldog; Schrek PPC Carrier; Harasser; Hunter; LRM Carrier; Saladin; J Edgar; Drillson; Saladin Now we have two full battalions of tanks. We recruited a bunch of vets. The leader of each is elite, and then each one has three or four regular crews as well to make up the numbers. We have another announcement We have purchased four sets of IS Standard Battle Armor and adding four veteran platoons to our garrison. Like our other infantry or central assets, they are available at any time. K&C is also purchasing a lot of equipment. We’ve had a lot of campaigns recently, so we are picking up more equipment for them. They include: 2 more Boomerang Spotter Planes 8 more Ordinance Transports 2 more coolant trucks 2 more engineering vehicles 2 more BattleMech recovery vehicles 7 more Ferret Light Scout VTOL 8 Rock Rovers 6 more Swift Wind Scout Cars 4 Karnov UR Transport VTOL Different mech companies sell mechs in different ways. For example,e there are a large number of companies that just make one mech for one military. The Venoms are made just for the Draconis Combine, for example. On the other hand, many are just generally available to whoever wants to purchase them. Recently, the Free Worlds League mech makers have been selling mechs to the Combine and FedComs to replace lost mechs. Marik hasn’t had any major battles or wars for a while, and thus it doesn’t have a lot of holes on T&A charts. Since many new designs are available to any buyer with the right C-Bills, we have made a few purchases of recently produced mechs: 2 Hollanders – I want to experiment with the 35 ton mech with the Gauss and no XL engine. A lot of Lyrans aren’t fans because it is such an unconventional mech design, but the Panther is a very effective light mech built around one big weapon - the PPC. The Hunchback is built around being a mobile walking AC20. It’s a great mech. 2 Watchman – Designed for our Friend, Duke Sandoval and his people, we really like the Watchman, a cheap, 40 ton mech that has good movement, max armor and good weapons. 2 Apollos – This 55 ton make is being made in giant amounts in the Free Worlds League and sold all over the place. They are 4/6 with 2 LRM15s with Artemis, ad 2 small pulse laser – don’t forget max armor and no XL. It’s one of my favorite mechs from the 3055 TRO. I can’t get many of my others – Huron Warrior, Salamander, Penetrator, Naginata, etc, but I can get these. 2 Gallowglas – From one jump away in Outreach, these are being sold. 70 tons, no XL, 12 tons of armor, 4/6/3, ER PPC, 2x large lasers, 2x medium pulses, small laser, 18/36 heat. A solid energy based design with the ability to be in the field for a while. Braham will remain on Outreach for another few months, for a final few projects, and then return. |
April 1 – Contracts!
Dracs want garrison ComStar would like security FedCom wants security Company would like pirate hunting – in the periphery At first, I didn’t want to do the security contracts, but then I rolled and the FedCom one is on Nusakan – three jumps away and juts five days from the jump point to the planet. That interests me. Let’s send Cinq to go and play nice with the locals: Cinq Security Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: House Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 4 months Transport: Full 15% Bonus We arrive on April 29 The contracts ends on Aug 29 and they come back on Sept 21. Nothing happens during the contract. We made 1.233 mill and we paid 329k for company since last contract. |
May 1 – Contracts
FedCom – Garrison Rasalhague – Recon Raid St. Ives – Pirate Hunting Blake – Riot/Garrison Rasalhague want a recon deep in clan space. Nah We don’t want any of the others. June 1 – Contracts Periphery – O Raid, don’t care who or where Rasalhague – Extraction Raid – target Drac world of Eltanin Free Worlds – Relief Duty Drac – Garrison ComStar – O Raid on Nathan – 2 jumps away Bruiser, with Amalgamated Bliss, Extraction Raid Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.2, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 2 months Transport: 100% Reimbursement 22.5% Bonus Bruiser will arrive on Aug 14. Once there, the task will be to hit a Drac base hard, and free three Rasalhague prisoners. They are supposedly political prisoners who could help FRR rebuild but are in Drac jail for being too openly Anti-Kurita. We are also sending two squads of infantry. We also want to do the Smash of ComStar, on a very close by Blake held world. It’s the same as before. They’ve tried other mercenary groups, but many have failed to be as successful as us, so they want us to smash deep and destroys more Blake units. We’ll send in Defender Company Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 1 months Transport: Full 17.5% Bonus They arrive on June 24. We’ll’ do them first. They are all level 2 tech mechs. KGC-000 King Crab, veteran Zeu-9S Zeus, elite HUR-W0-R4L Huron Warrior, regular GLT-3N Guillotine, elite WSP-3M Wasp, green Apollo, veteran EXC-B2 Excalibur, veteran FLA-17 Flea, elite WVR-7M Wolverine, regular KTO-19 Kintaro, regular CP-11-A Cyclops, green CLNT-2-3U Clint, green This is their King Crab, a 100 ton mech with two AC20s, LRM15, large laser, 15 heat sinks, 16 tons of ferro fib armor, 3/5 movement, CASE and just one ton of ammo for each of its big guns – so 5 shots each. Right now, Blake has old Star League era mechs like ComStar, new refits and versions of old mechs, and Marik exclusive mechs they’ve picked up in the last year.  |
Here we go!
T1 – We win init. The Orion nails a leg actuator on their Clint. It falls. T2 – We win init. They stand up the Clint and move it away. While trying to run and turn on the ferrocrete, their Wolverine skids and falls. Their Cyclops’s MASC freezes and destroys two actuators on its leg. Their King Crab’s AC20 nails the H of our Orion and destroys the mech and kills the MW. Our Whitworth destroys the LT and Rl of their Clint. The Huron Warrior falls. The Clint does too and the pilot blacks out. Our Grif hits the engine on their HW. Their Excalibur destroys the LL on my Jav. Our Jav kicks the Wasp, it’s its ammo, and the LT is gone. It falls into water and its RT is breached. T3 - We lose init. I eject the Jav. Col. Matthews Daishi returns the favor and blows off the King Crab’s H. Meanwhile, our Stalker destroys its RT. Our BM hits the leg actuator on their Huron Warrior. Our Griffin’s LRm10 missiles hit the head of their Apollo and the pilot is knocked out. It falls again. Their Clint pilot is still asleep. T4 – We win. I run the PXH by their Apollo. Their HW stands. Thor runs behind their Zeus. Both our Comet and PXH try to take off the heads of the knocked out people they are near. Our PXH’s large laser slices right into the Apollo and erases its head. Perfect. Our Comet hits the Clint’s head twice, but does not go internal. That’s okay though, because that’s two more damage to the pilot, and now the chance of waking up is much worse, an 11 or 12. Their Guillotine hits my Thor’s H twice once with an SRM missile and once with a medium laser Luckily, no blackouts, but that’s crazy. Our Thor does hit with two Ultra AC20 shots but neither hits a torso. Dang. That would have crippled their Zeus. Our Warhammer gets lucky and blows the H of their Excalibur with a PPC. Our PXH and their Kintaro fall under damage. Our Thor’s kick opens up their Zeus’s LL and hit two actuator and it fell. It hits an ER PPC in the fall. T5 – We win init. Their Kintaro rises. I stand the PXH and run behind some trees. Their Zeus does not successfully stand and instead destroys its own LL. They don’t see the Hunch behind a building and their Cyclops turns and I move my Hunch behind it. Our Hunchback’s AC20 hits the LTR, leaves just three internal left , ignites the LRM 10 ammo and boom! Dead mech. Our BM destroys both torsos of their Kintaro. A PPC from the Warhammer knifes into the left leg of their Huron Warrior and its going to fall again. Our Griffin adds an engine hit to their Kintaro. Col. Humphries destroys the LA, LL, LT and RA of their Flea. That’s a dead mech (missing one leg and two arms means it can’t get up). The Daishi kicks and destroys the HW’s LT which takes it out since its an XL mech. T6 – We lose init. The Kintaro pilot ejects, as he should. Our Thor destroys the Wasp’s CT and RT. The BM hits two leg actuators on their Guillotine. A PPC from the Warhammer nails his head but doesn’t do anything extra. It tumbles and destroys its own RL. We push the Wolverine into the water with a Hermes and it falls, and breaches the CT. T7 – We lose init. We offer them their lives and they can want back to Blake right now if only they leave their legged mechs. These are their elite pilots, and they need them. Otherwise, we take them and turn them over to ComStar. We’ll even let them have the blacked out pilots. They agree and leave. |
Wasp LA, RA, H, LL, RL
Clint missing RT, LL King Crab, missing H, RT Apollo missing H. Excalibur missing H Cyclops LA, H Kintaro missing RT, LT Flea missing LA, RA, LL, LT Huron Warrior, missing LT, LA, LL, enginex3 GLT-3N Guillotine missing LL Zeu-9S Zeus, RL Wolverine breach in CT To fix: Javelin missing LL Orion missing H We call up elite pilot Faith Foster to the Orion. Basically, after everything, we pay 11.024 mill for all of the mechs to work, armor ammo, fixes, and I tossed in our salary too. Experience: Col Humphries is getting Tactical Genius The Thor pilot, Bryson Abasi is getting Edge: 2 They will return on July 28. |
Our other contract was Bruiser to the Dracs.
Aug 14 – As scheduled, we land on Eltanin. Our infantry begins to scout. We need to verify targets. Sept 2 – That took a while. Security is tight here. They camouflaged a prison as a warehouse for meat. It’s took a lot of surveillance to figure that out. Now that we know, we need to get more info. Sept 26 – After more than 20 days of constant round the clock surveillance, we know where everything is. The defenders appear to be a company of mechs plus a minor number of armor. We will move in Bruiser Company and smash the front gates, and attack hard. They will need to send all of their units if they want to beat our high technology mechs. Once start fighting with everyone, our infantry will blow a hole into the wall from two sides. One should be able to penetrate in and kill any guards, and rescue our prisoners. Once out, we can either leave, or finish the battle and take salvage. We expect the second, but you never know. Sept 29 – We begin the mission. We’ve plotted a route that avoids patrols until arriving at the meat warehouse. It works easily, and we are not spotted. Our company of mechs smash on the door with lasers and the defenders start pouring out. Our foes: All level 2 mechs by the Dracs, and all veteran Hatamato Chi Katana STC-2D Striker SDR-7M Spider STG-5M Stinger SCP-10 Scorpion CRB-27 Crab RFL-5M Rifleman CRD-4K Crusader PNT-10K Panther CN9-D Centurion AS7-K Atlas Well, there are some good mechs there. They also have: Partisan Air Defense Tank, level 2 tech, vet Mauler City Tank 2x Zhukov Heavy Tank 2x Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun 2x Medium Goblin Tank 4x Laser Infantry Their BV is 27k even. Ours is 50980 This is their Striker, an old extinct assault Star League design usually put in garrisons and still with a few hundred models in service.  |
HOLY CRAP. I just found out something severely massive about EE that I didn't know when I chose it as my main planet a long time ago. Now I need to figure out if I want to use it or not.
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Do tell!
Tell |
I may incorporate it in Chapter 6.
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T1 – We win init. Our Warhammer IIc nails their Centurion’s engine once and gyro twice. Dead mech. Our Gladiator hits the ammo on their Striker and it explodes. Another dead mech.
T2 – We lose init. Our Archer immobilizes their Mauler City Tank. The Highlander IIc destroys their Goblin’s RS. Our Rifleman IIc immobilizes a Partisan. The Peregrine destroys the RT of their Scorpion, and it falls since it’s right front leg is now gone. A kick from the Atlas destroys the LL of their Hatamato. Our Gladiator destroys the RT. The pilot blacks out from the fall and a Warhammer punch to the head. T3 – We win init. I hope the PXH by their Stinger. Their Scorpion fails to stands and hits its engine and gyro once each. Our Archer immobilizes a Hetzer. Their Crab destroys the RA of our Dasher. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the RL and RT of their Spider. Their Stinger falls after missing a kick. T4 – We lose init. I eject the Dasher. The Stinger stands. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the La and Rt of their Katana. Our PXH destroys the RL, RT and LA of their Stinge,r which is a dead mech walking. The Archer immobilizes a Zhukov. Our Atlas takes an SRM missile and LB 10-X shot to the H. Our Pererine immobilized the other Hetzer. Our Gladiator hits the H of their Atlas with a LPL but nothing more. It also destroys the Atlas’s LA. T5 – We win init. Their Spider fails to stand. Our Atlas’s ER Large Laser destroys the H of theirs. Our Rifleman hits a foot actuators on theirs. Our Rifleman IIc kicks and destroys the CT of their Spider. They retreat away from the complex and our infantry have grabbed the prisoners and left already. We occasionally snipe some long range fire at them, but we take our time and get the salvage nice and good. We flee and head out. |
Stinger missing RL, RT, LA
Katana RA Striker LA, H Centurion, enginex1 ,gyrox2 Scorpion, RFL Hatamato missing RT, RA Spider RA, LT, LA, LL, H Atlas missing H Mauler City Tank, immobile Goblin, RS Partisan Air Defense Tank, immobile Hetzer immobilex2 Zhukov immobile Ours: Dasher RA Experience: Evan, the ex-clanner in the Warhammer IIc got his 4th kill and gains Edge: 1. We replace the RA of our Dasher with one in storage. We have to pay: 6.885 mill for tanks, mechs, armor and ammo. I had to replace the gyro on the Centurion after we couldn’t; repair it. We made: 1.344 mill Total lost – 5.541 mill We will return on December 13 |
Kilts and Commandos Roster:
Alpha Regiment: Heliades Company - Return on June 5, 3055 Styx Company - Return on June 5, 3055 Tethys Company – Return on June 5, 3055 Typhon Company – Return on June 5, 3055 Defender Company – Return on July 28, 3054 Cinq Company – Return on Sept 21, 3054 Brawler Company – Delta Company – Return on August 19, 3054 Trinity Company – return on June 28 Butler Company – Bruiser Company – return on December 13 Shadow Company – Aerospace Company- return on June 28 Tank First Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055. Tank Second Battalion - EE, garrison, Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison, Robin Hood - Star River - return on June 28 Scots Flotilla – return on June 28 Serendipitous Victory - Return on August 19, 3054 Amalgamated Bliss – return on December 13 |
July 1 – The Star River, Scots Flotilla, Aerospace Company and Trinity Company are back.
Contracts: St. Ives wants a Garrison FedCom wants Security Blake wants assault Yuck to one and three, and enhhh to two. Where is it? Way out there in Lyran space. Gatineau. Roughly 5-6 months away. No thanks. We have news: Aerospace Company is having its name changed to Arrow Company We have another company we’ve recruited over the last few months, due to the success of the first: Bolt Company Lt. Edwin Masters, elite, Typhoon Kevin O’Bailey, elite, Slayer Ming Su, veteran, Shilone May Sheahan, veteran, Shilone Sgt. Jacques Renault, elite, Chippewa Giselle Baronne, veteran, Chippewa Julio Cueva, veteran, Lucifer Faith Jones, regular, Sholagar Sgt. Keiko Fukuda, elite, Stuka Laine Chase, veteran, Lightning Svetlana Loboda, veteran, Corsair Molly Mason, regular, Sparrowhawk July 12 -Takashi Kurita has died and passed the throne on to his son, Theodore Kurita. He committed Seppuku when he realized that his challenge of Jaime Wolf in a duel to the death would harm the Combine no matter who won and who lost. The news of his death was a peaceful heart attack in his sleep. |
August 1 – Contracts! Defender came back
FedCom - Defense Free Worlds league – Garrison Company – Objective Raid FedCom – Defense The company wants us to hit Addicks, a major world in the FedCom and just two jumps away. We’ve been told not to take contracts against the FC, but we’ve done a few minor Recon Raids for the Liaos and Mariks. The company that is contracting us is Johnston Industries. They are a major military producer of tanks, fighters and mechs. Their original factory is on Addicks, but it makes mostly Goblin tanks and some other minor materiel. The major factory is on New Syrtis. They have information that Drac forces have landed on Addicks and are about to attack their factory there. They’ve gone to the FedComs, but they don’t believe the intel. The company has a garrison, but they want to hire an experiencing and elite small force to head in, investigate, and destroy the Dracs. That’s different. We won’t get people pissed about that, so we decide to take the contract. We are sending: Arrow Company, Butler Company, Shadow Company, and several spy things. This won’t even negatively impact our recruiting since it’s two jumps and four days from the jump point to Addicks. Arrow, Butler, Shadow, equipment, three squads of jump infantry, Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x3.7. x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 2 months Transport: Full 17% Bonus We will arrive on Aug 19. |
Aug 19 – Butler Company lands right by Johnston Industries. They make a big show of being added to Johnston’s garrison. Meanwhile, Shadow and Aerospace disembark in a DropPort roughly 250 klicks away.
With the elementals and jump infantry, Shadow begins to explore the area. If there are Dracs on the planet looking to attack then this would be the area they should be. It’s hilly and easy to hide in. It does up into the mountains that are above the factory, but those are heavily patrolled. You could hide here in the foothills, and then move in to strike when you needed to later. The hills nearby that are used for wine are so far away from anything important, that it’s not nearly as heavily patrolled. Aug 21 – We unpack all three Boomerangs and begin using them to spot from the sky. Meanwhile, our infantry tries to find our enemy. We leave behind the fighters and mechs for now. They are too big and noisy for this work. Aug 25 – We found them. There is a group of 15 Combine mechs in the hills. They appear to be Combine based on the types of mechs, but they have been painted a neutral color and given FedCom symbols. That might fool a regular person, but when you see a Grand Dragon, a Jenner, a Raptor and a Mauler together, you know it’s the Dragon. We order our fighters to assemble. They are about 20 klicks away. Butler Company has orders and is loading onto a DropShip right now. They will arrive in 45 minutes. Shadow Company is about 20 away. Our plan is to have our Jump Infantry and Elementals guard our back and the pass, while Arrow boxes them in and gives us time to move in and engage. The plan works, and Shadow Company is about 15 minutes ahead of Butler, which was can use as reinforcements if the battle goes poorly. The Dragon: Raptor Prime JR7-K Jenner DRG-5K Grand Dragon Mauler PXH-3K Phoenix Hawk GRF-3M Griffin CGR-3K Charger CHP-1N Champion Venom HBK-5N Hunchback GHR-5J Grasshopper MAD-1R Marauder OSR-2D Ostroc WTH-2 Whitworth WSP-3M Wasp All units have level 2 tech 4 lights, 2 assaults, 5 heavies and 4 mediums Most are veterans, but the Mauler and Raptor are elite and the Griffin regular. This is their Raptor, the first Inner Sphere OmniMech, a 25 ton baby and rolled off the assembly line a couple of years ago. The Prime has 2 medium lasers, 3 LRM5s, 2 small lasers, 2 machine guns, 7/11 movement, an XL engine, 10/20 heat and 3.5 tons of normal armor.  If we could capture it and give it to Kressly, along with a couple of clan omnis, I beat we could have them make an IS OmniMech. Their BV is 23918. Without our Elementals, ours is 35132 |
Here we go!
T1 – There are just hills, not any trees here. We lose init. Our Lancelot destroys the LL of their Raptor. Their Hunchbacks AC20 hits the H of Braham Essex’s Orion, but edge rerolls that. Braham gets him back with a clan ER Small Laser to the exposed left torso’s ammo. Boom! T2 – We win. Their Raptor rises. Our Blackjack blows off the LA of their Raptor and its on the ground. The PXH will destroys the LT and it’s down, Their Charger falls from damage. T3 – With tactical genius, we crush init. Their Charger rises. Our Highlander nails the gyro once on their Charger. The RL of their Jenner disappears in the blast from a Shootist’s AC20. Our Thug hits the ammo in the Jenner and it CASE explodes. Braham Essex notches his 50th kill when he destroys the LT of their Venom – XL Engine shutdown. The Jenner falls and the pilot blacks out. The Charger falls and nails it engine. Their PXH falls too. T4 – We win init. Their Chargers fails to stand, falls, hits its engine, and then tries again and succeeds. I run our Flashman over to it. A gauss from Braham’s Orion blasts the H off their Marauder. Our Flashy blows up the RA of their PXH. Their MAD destroys the RA of our Thug – a medium laser hits the Thug’s head, nails the sensors and knocks out the pilot. Starslayer destroys the Charger’s LA. Their Jenner pilot stays unconscious. T5 – Tac Gen Init. The Highlanders detroys a LA of their Champion. Our Orion blasts the LA of their stroc and the Starslayer hits both the engine and gyro of it. Our Flashman destroys the CT of their Charger. The rest surrender to the planetary militia and we get our salvage. |
Raptor – missing LT
Hunchback – LA, RT, RA Jenner—missing RT, RL Venom missing LT Marauder missing H Charger, RT, LT, RL, LL, H To Fix: Thug RA It costs 6.46 mill to get everything up and running including salvages and such. We give the Raptor and an assault class Man o War Prime and a Loki A. With the ability to look at both versions of omnis, Kressly’s techs feel that in a year they should have figured out the mechanics of designing one, and then we can design an OmniMech and try it out. We return on September 13. |
We have 79 IS mechs in our garrison, and 23 Clan mechs. That includes those non-clan mechs we are getting from Beta Regiment. We also have 22 clan mechs with Beta Regiment right now. That’s 124 mechs we have not being used.
Sept 1 – We have announced that due to our partnership with Kressly Warworks, we have are working on the expansion of the Essex Training Academy to include training for vehicles and infantry. Kressly is donating 4 Brutus to the Academy to help train students. We are donating a Vedette, 2x Maxim and a J. Edgar. We regularly let them use whatever is in our garrison unused, including vintage mechs like a 2750 era Mongoose and a 2750 era Lancelot, as well as older Succession War era mesh like low tech Panther, Locust, Spider and BattleMaster. The Chameleon is designed for use in training academies, but we prefer to use a variety of mechs. Especially the BattleMaster2C. We donated 2 sets of IS Standard battle armor to the school. Training will be done by our elite and veteran infantry we have stationed there. This expansion of the program costs us 13.5 million to build and buy the materials. The cost for our academy will rise to 12.5 mill a year upkeep. Vehicle course is one year with an option for a second, infantry two. Most people already know how to drive when they enroll, so there is a quick one year or a detailed two year course. It will open up next year. Contracts – Periphery Garrison – nope St Ives – garrison – nope Marik – Security Company – O Raid – Want us to hit Bithinia, in the Capellan Confederation. It’s a very wealthy world and mega big tourist spot, with several major industries to boot. It’s extensively industrial and commercial. It is also home to Bithinian Ballistics. They make autocannons and machine guns for House Liao. Bithinia is hard to defend. It’s right on the border with Marik and Davion. Its industry was extensively expanded after the 4th Succession War because the Confederation had to focus on rebuilding what industry it could. Warrior House Ma-Tsu Kai defends the world. Because of the heavy traffic its entertainment, commercial and industry requires, it’s easy to slip things past the ports. The requirement is to land on Bithinia, sneak in mechs, and then go in. Bithinia has a heavy aerospace element in order to enforce landing zones and such, so we will be taking Bolt Company for sure. Once in, we need to hit a local refinery that makes the metal for Bithinian Ballistics’ ACs. Once we’ve taken out the refinery, it will slow their production by a few months. Then we take off. Bolt and Trinity Companies, with Serendipitous Victory Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x3.7. x1.4, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 1 month Transport: Full 22.5% Bonus We will arrive on Bithinia on Dec 16. |
Dec 15 – We are around the planet now. Most of their military units are around the Ballistics sites. There are two battalions of House Ma-Tsu Kai on planet, and they are focused on protecting the major assets of Bithinian Ballistics. Meanwhile, the rest of the planet has some minor mercenaries, armor, infantry and more. We easily land.
Our target is a refinery about 5 klicks from another refinery that is guarded by Ma-Tsu Kai. Ma-Tsu Kai has to guard to facilities because the Ballistics is built right next to a huge refinery. Anyone who took that refinery could do a lot of damage easily to Bithinian’s factory. So Ma-Tsu Kai has to guard both. Our target is 5 klicks away and we expect Ma-Tsu Kai to come in after we cause some rain. There is no DropPort near the target. One way they defend the Ballistics is by shipping completed weapons more than 120 klicks away by rail. We grab our DropShip and head in with Bolt Company screening us. Between our 12 fighters and the long range of the clan weapons on the DropShip, we are able to keep them away from us and we land right by the refinery and everybody in Trinity exits. Our fighters destroy defensive turrets. We easily brush aside minor infantry and blast the refinery. After gathering ourselves, fire is heard from the direction of Ballistics. Fighters dodge from mech fire and let us know that Ma-Tsu Kai is sending in a company of mechs to intercept us. Meanwhile, they’ve scrambled local fighters. While it should be as easy to destroy them as mechs destroying tanks, they still need to concentrate on them. We move out and move in. Because the Warrior Houses get better equipment, and also due to the location and importance of Bithinina, Ma-Tsu Kai has high quality mechs and some of the first ones that have rolled off the presses. House Ma-Tsu Kai VND-3L Vindicator Jackal Snake Hercules CTF-3L Cataphract BLR-3M BattleMaster GOL-3M Goliath WHM-7M Warhammer Wraith RVN-3L Raven CRD-2R Crusader LCT-3M Locust All veteran except the Hercules, BM and Wraith are elite. This is their Hercules, a 70 ton 5/8 (with XL) 12/24 heat dispersing 11 tons of ferro armor carrying mech that wields LB 10X, ER PPC, 1 MPL, 2 SPL, SRM 2 Streak, and an anti-missile system.  |
T1 – We lose init. Badly. Their Locust falls and skids on the pavements. We focus some fire on their Hercules when I can. Our Hunchback hits the 10 he needs for his AC20 and hits the hip on their Herc’s LL. It still stays standing though.
T2 – We win it this time. Their Locust stands. Our Attila destroys the LL of their Hercules. Our Cicada nails its engine once. It falls, destroys its LT, and is shut down. Their Crusader tumbles under our fire. Their Jackal missed a kick on our Spider and fell. T3 – We lose init. I hop the Ostcout above and adjacent to the Locust. They stand their Crusader so I run my Cicada over to it. Our Attila unloads on their Goliath and hits two leg actuators. A Hunchback AC20 destroys the LL of a certain Raven. Their Crusader hits a gyro in our Zeus. Two more leg actuators on the Goliath are destroyed by our Archer. An LRM10 from our Goliath blows off their Crusader’s RA. Our Zeus falls, as do their Goliath and Raven. The Zeus pilot blacks out – grr. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the LT of their Locust. T4 – We win init. My Ostscout follows their Locust. Spider to the rear, and above, their Warhammer. Their Goliath rises. Cicada behind their Wraith. Their Cat hits our Zeus’s ammo and it explodes. Dead mech. Their Crusader’s RA is shelled by our Trebuchet and two more leg actuators are hit on the Goliath by the Attila. Our Goliath gets a limb blown off crit vs their Jackal’s LA. Ma-Tsu Kai’s Snake hits two leg actuators on our PXH. Their Goliath falls and destroys a leg. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the C of their Locust. Their Warhammer tumbles after being kicked by our Spider. Go light mechs go lights mechs go! T5 – We win init. Their Warhammer rises. Our T Bolt takes out the Ra of their Cataphract. Our Trebuchet explodes the MG ammo on their Crusader and CASE prevents it from destroying the mech but the pilot blacks out. Their Cataphract hits the engine twice and gyro once on our Attila. The Ostsol destroys their Cataphract after igniting LB ammo. The engine explodes and destroys the Raven’s LT and shuts it down Their Crusader falls and the pilot dies. Our Attila falls too. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the RL of their Jackal. T6 – We win init. They manage to stand their Goliath. I eject the Attila. Their BM’s ER PPC nails the H of our T Bolt and goes internal, and hits both sensors. The mech is blind and down. Our Goliath destroys the Jackal’s LT which takes it out – XL engine. Our Cicada and PXH combine to kick and take out their Goliath’s RRL and RT. Their handful of mechs retreats. I wanted the Wraith – it’s worth so much money, but it was just too fast usually. I respect them they fought hard and later than most non-clan units would. |
Hercules missing LT, enginex3
Locust LA, RT, RL, RA, LL, H Jackal missing LT< enginex3 Crusader missing LA, LT, RA Raven missing LT, LL Zeus –RA, LL, RL, LT Attila – gyrox1m enginex2 T Bolt – Sensorsx2 Experience - The Ostsol pilot, Ikh Zanabazar, has gained gunnery skill and is now 2/4. I lose about 2 mill on the mission. We traded a Zeus for a Hercules, Jackal, Crusader and Raven. Plus some endo steel locust pieces. I transfer a BattleMaster to replace the Zeus. Bolt Company screens for us and we get the salvage back to the ship. They destroyed many local fighters ,and we manage to salvage a few. Most are not worth anything, but we do fix up two Guardians, solid 20 ton Liao conventional fighters with an SRM6, just a ton of armor, 7/11 that we add to the garrison back home. We will return on March 19. |
Rewind.
October 1 – Contracts: Company wants Cadre/Garrison for 9 months over on Lapida II. Company wants Garrison Comstar wants an Objective Raid, this time waaaay back in the back of the FWL FedCom would like an Extraction Raid. Target? The rack, in the Periphery Marik wants Garrison Sigh – I rolled two good raids, but do I want to send a company 14 months to do one attack for ComStar? Nimakatchi Fusion Products Limited has a factory on Lapida II that makes Spiders. They are one jump away from the Fed Coms, but not right on the line. Therefore, they never had a huge garrison before, just enough to guard the factory and a few other places. But now, with units having been pulled away, Nimakatchi is relying on their own units for protection if a Davion unit comes raiding. They’ve hired some mechs and have some warriors, tanks, and infantry, but they are pretty green. They need serious training. They would like a company of our mechs to supplement theirs for 9 months while we train them up. We can be there on Dec 29. We send… Brawler Company for Garrison/Cadre Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x3.7. x1.4, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Straight Support 75% Command: House Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 12 months Transport: Full We added some months to the contract in negotiations. We roll dice to see what happens. Feb 15, 3055 – A battalion of tanks moves to attack the factory, and our mechs respond in addition to the garrison. Seeing a much more powerful group of defenders than they thought, they break it off and leave before they are committed. Nothing else happens. They return on March 21, 3056. We made 2.1 mill. |
I’m still considering sending Delta or Defender to do the ComStar contract.
I could have a company at Westover on May 28. After doing the contract in a month-ish, I would then get them back on February 12, 3056. A year and four months later. On the other hand, the salvage is really good on these Blast the Blake missions. Is it worth me taking a prime company offline for that long to come back with 6 or 7 mechs? It really is! Let’s go Delta, Saddle Up! Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x4. x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 1 month Transport: Full 42.5% bonus The salary doesn’t even matter. This is about one thing – salvage. May 31 - We arrive uneventfully and move towards the HPG, which is right by the DropPort. We have updated intel from ComStar and…it’s actually good (recently, I’ve been giving ComStar bad intel on a 7 or more instead of an 8 or more – I rolled a 6). Delta blasts in, and out pours 12 Blake mechs – all level 2 mechs WVR-6M Wolverine War Dog Grand Crusader MON-66 Mongoose TBT-7M Trebuchet ST-8A Shootist GLt-3N Guillotine THE-N Thorn SHD-5M Shadow Hawk QKD-5M Quickdraw LNC25-01 Lancelot WSP-3M Wasp Unlike other Blake units, this was has been made later and all of the pilots are vet. This is their Grand Crusader, the first Blake specific mech made to fill their roster a couple of years ago. It is an 80 ton assault mech, 3/5, XL, 10/20 heat, maxed out armor, 2 large pulse lasers, 2 LRM20, 2 medium pulse lasers, anti missile system, Artemis IV for the LRMS, 6 tons of ammo for the LRM – and that is actually a really strong machine of death. I don’t normally like XL engines, but on mech like that, they are okay.  |
We are on this map
 |
Here we go!
That Grand Crusader has to fall early. The War Dog is also a powerful assault. There are a ton of buildings I have to navigate. T1 – We lose init. The water is depth 2, so you don’t want to fall in. I hop my wasp behind their Mongoose. We focus a lot of fire on their Shootist and Wolverine. We have a group to the north of the lake and one to the south. An Awesome PPC nails the head of their Shootist and hits sensors once. Through its silky thin rear armor, our Wasp nails the gyro twice on their Mongoose. First blood baby! Kick by our BattleMaster wounds the Wolves’ RL. T2 – We win init. We cornered their Wolverine and force it to jump away and it falls over due to damaged actuators. Our Black Knight spots for indirect LRMS that fall on their Shootist from our Catapult, Crusader. T3 – We lose init. Just maneuvering mostly. T4 – We win. We force their Shootist out and I move some people in. Their Wolverine skids, falls into the water and breaches its CT. Their Grand Crusader hits the H of our Wasp with missiles. Our Black Knight destroys the LT and our Dragon the CT of their Shootist. Dead mech. Now I can concentrate my forces on the other main group of mechs. T5 – We lose init. We started moving down, and mechs hiding behind buildings start destroying the buildings they are hiding behind. Our fire exposed a couple of their mechs. T6 – We win. Our Crusader destroys the Thorn’s LT. Our Banshee hits the Guillotine’s engine once. Our Dragon opens up the Thorn’s gyro and it falls. T7 - We win init. Their Thorn manages to stand. Our Dragonfly destroys their Wasp’s ammo and it explodes, but CASE keeps it alive. Then it destroys the other arm. They take off a lot of armor off the Warhammer. T8 – We win. Our Dragonfly tears off the H of their Wasp. Their Guillotine hits our BM’s head with a medium laser. Our Crusader’s missiles hit the H of their War Dog twice and knock out the pilot. Our BM destroys the War Dog’s LA. After a lot of kicks and punches, their Guillotine is on the ground. It was kicked twice. T9 – We win. PPC from the Awesome to the H of their Lancelot. Dead mech., Their Trebuchet gets a through armor critical on our Dragonfly, nails the engine twice, it falls into the water and breaches its CT and its out. Dead mech. Our Black Knight has run up to their War Dog and fired and its head since it was immobile. One large laser crumples it. Dead mech. The BattleMaster kicks the RL of their Thorn, destroys it, destroys the RT – dead mech, but it falls and destroys the LL. IT’s literally just a H and CT on the ground. Their Quickdraw was kicked three times and fell. T10 – We lose. I don’t know why, but they ejected from their Guillotine. We set up the perfect push. I run my Banshee behind their Grand Crusader when they move next to the water. No one fires, we push it over and into the water - it’s LT is breached and it is destroyed. Perfect. We radio the Quickdraw, Trebuchet and Shadow Hawk that we want their surrender and they can leave and take the Wobbie pilots with them, including the knocked out one on the Thorn. No answer T11 – We lose. Their Quickdraw spins and runs, skids, falls, destroys the RL. More maneuvering T12 – We lose. Minor weapons fire at the downed QD. T13 – We lose again. Our Warhammer breaches the CT of their Shadow hawk. Our Warhammer is itself breached and out. Our PXH breaches the RT of their Trebuchet, and it has an XL engine. It’s done. Our Catapult destroys the LL of their Quickdraw, and then its RT and RA. It’s done. Our strategy to go to the north and take out the handful of mechs there before moving south and putting our whole force the remainder of theirs worked perfectly. We didn’t even lose a limb, although we lost two mechs when they to go underwater to chase the remnants of theirs unit. They are already back up and running. |
Mongoose, with gyrox2
Wolverine breached CT Shootist, LA, RA, RT, RL, LL, H Thorn missing RL, RT, LT, LL Wasp missing H, RA, LT Lancelot missing H War Dog missing H, LA Guillotine enginex2 Grand Crusader, breached LT Trebuchet breached RT. Shadow hawk breached CT Quickdraw missing RT, RA, LL, RL Dragonfly enginex2, breached CT Warhammer breached CT Experience: Cristina Fernandez, in the BattleMaster is getting Edge: 1 Maris Santos, in the Phoenix Hawk is getting one better gunnery skill. She is now 2/4 That is Delta’s 15th completed mission. Only Phaeton’s 16 and Aleph’s 21 are better. We only pay 620k for armor and ammo after discount. This was worth doing, considering how much salvage we got. 11 of the 12 mechs were salvaged due to fighting near the water causing high salvage. Personally, I would have preferred the Shootist to most of the others, but I don’t make the rules. The breaches stuff is cheap to fix, and we manage to fix all gyros and engines this time. 7.675 and we have 11 new mechs. I am also super happy to have a Grand Crusader, those are real mechs. We return on February 16, 3056. |
October 22 – A large force is moving towards Kressly. The companies have been sent away, so it looks like we have a battalion of mechs moving in. They may be screwed. Shadow Company is currently patrolling Kressly. In addition to having a mech company constantly on patrol, Kressly has a garrison we maintain – its Tank Second Battalion. They start to warm up while Shadow moves into the gap.
Meanwhile, Ted tells Defender Company, patrolling HQ, to head out and help with Cinq and Butler warming up to guard HQ along with our garrison. He also puts out a call to all 3rd and 4th year students to move to their assigned mech. In an emergency, such as a raid, we press our cadets into service. This is done all over the IS, such as Sun Zhang Cadres, NAIS Cadres, and more. We actually rotate our cadets into mechs for patrols and such when we are light on companies on planet but we have four on planet. Arrow Company is warming up for use as well. In a few minutes, we’ll have air support. Shadow Company snipes at the incoming units, but then is forced to back away under the onslaught. They aren’t coming in as lances or companies, but just one big mass of mechs. Shadow is joined by Rank Second Battalion and they set up a defense. As the enemy rolls in, long range weapons fire can be heard. PPCs and ER Large Lasers destroy a few tanks, but they keep their fire away from the elite Shadow Company pilots with their very good mechs. A Shrek PPC Carrier sheers off the head of an Apollo. In a minute, a few vehicles are destroyed or running out of ammo, and they push in. Meanwhile, in comes Arrow Company’s first six fighters ,and they strafe the rear of their unit and hit seven mechs, destroying one and legging another. One of their Griffins ignites and explodes. Shadow’s Elementals have destroyed a Locust, and our Lancelot has lost its LA. Col. Humphries is about another minute away, but by then, they will have pushed too much in and probably broken us. Braham orders a retreat and Arrow covers with fire on the ground. Suddenly, 5 fighters of the enemy dart in and start firing at Arrow Company, and now Arrow has to focus on them. In a split - second , one of Arrow’s Corsairs is destroyed. Meanwhile, a few more tanks have fallen. An SRM Carrier waiting until they closed has destroyed the gyro of an enemy Crusader and it falls. PPC fire engulfs their Scorpion and its RT is destroyed, with a leg on the ground. They keep pushing as one big mass ,and we’ve lost our cover fire for the retreat. Did they keep their fighters in reserve until we retreated? In fly some additional assets Ted sent. 2 Warrior VTOLs and a few Ferrets are flying in and nipping about. A Ferret is taken out. They destroy the LT of our PXH and it shuts down due to its XL Engine. The Talon is legged and loses a left arm. We eject it. They keep coming. Two more of their mechs fall to explosions and we destroy the CT of a Goliath but it’s not enough. Half of our tanks are destroyed, and some, like the LRM Carriers are out of ammo and retreated. As Defender Company arrives, we get an invigoration of energy. Men, mechs, and metal have arrived. We stop falling back. After another minute, we are holding our ground on a ridge. Then Arrow Company has won the air and we have air support and just like that, we move to go on the offensive. Three more tanks are gone, and the Lancelot loses it s other arm and pulls back. It doesn’t matter we have this. Within ten minutes, they turn to flee before more units arrive to support us. The Guardians have arrived, joined by VTOLS, fighters, mechs, infantry and vehicles. Our combined forces wins the day, and they retreat to the radius around a powerful Overlord. Ted makes a decision. That is big enough for 36 mechs and 6 fighters – exactly what we saw. He sends out Cinq and Butler, and ordered the cadets in Mechs and our garrison assembled. He heads out in his Stalker, leaving behind 24 mechs in the garrison plus the cadets in another 16 machines. We want that Overlord. Every single military unit that we can get out there, we do. Savannah Masters come in. Infantry is on transports and heading over. Their remaining mechs are starting to load up, while others are on guard. They clearly don’t expect us to move in under the DropShip’s radius and attack. The combination of the DropShip’s weapons and their own could turn the tide of battle again. In order to get them o slow down their debarkation, Izumo orders Arrow to strafe the opening. We lose two fighters but the rest manage to push them back. Cinq and Butler are almost here. We push in and start exchanging fire with the mechs. Izumo orders everybody to stay in a certain arc, so it can only train some weapons on us. While Shadow and Defender force them to keep mechs out, Cinq and Butler buy the extra time needed to arrive. Meanwhile, our fighters arrive for another pass, and a Guardian plus another fighter are destroyed. The other two companies arrives and push in very fast. He orders everybody to charge in to close combat. The Savannah Masters, VTOLs and infantry transports nip in and shoot and nip back out. The Overlord has to unload the mechs that already loaded in order to have a chance, and it’s just too much. We destroy the right side of the Overlord, and then overwhelm and destroy the battalion of mechs. |
Results:
We lost 27 of the 36 vehicles in Tank Battalion 2of those, 17 are able to be up and running. We spend 11.2 million to repair and purchase new vehicles for the 2nd Tank Battalion. Arrow lost 6 fighters. Of those, just one is recoverable. Additionally, Sparrowhawk pilot Gita Sharma was killed and we’ll replace her with another pilot from Outreach later. To replace those, we’ll need 17.9 million We lost 17 mechs total. Of those, 10 are recoverable. We’ll need 45.8 mill to replace and fix those. Cinq company lost Umbria Mutande, its Locust pilot and the Wasp pilot Cassia Jenkins. We replace them with two elite recruits. We need an additional 18.35 million for ammo and armor and parts here and there. We also need 2.1 million to replace dead support vehicles like VTOLS and Savannah Masters. That’s 95.35 million we’ll need to fix and replace our own stuff. It will take months. We also gained salvage. We manage to find 20 fixable mechs. They drove them hard, and they are in bad condition. We need 44.4 mill to fix and replace parts and rearmor and rearm them. We also have the Overlord. We hire special AeroSpace techs to fix it. It will take 21 mill to fix plus take about 6 months to do that project. We also found lots of salvage - body parts, weapons, chunks of fighters and more. We salvaged around 9.8 mill worth of those. I randomly add kills to some people. That’s 150.95 mill to handle everything, and at the end, we have 20 new mechs and an Overlord. |
An Overlord is worth 335 million C Bills. They aren’t for sale on any market. They deliver 6 fighters and 36 mechs. It is a huge bonus for Kilts and Commandos.
But, we don’t have 150 mill just sitting in the bank, so we have to clear out some stuff. We don’t have 150 mill just sitting around. We have 98 mill sitting around. We have 187 mill coming at the end of Beta Regiment’s contract in late 3056. We have none right now. Options: 1). Sell some mechs. We have a large number of mech designs I don’t like. Level 1 Fleas, level 1 Shadow Hawk, Cyclops, UrbanMech, Assassin, etc. I could sell these off for money. 2). Start work on fixing and repairing our mechs and fighters – 82 mill. Then work on the damaged mech chasses and tanks as money permits. 3). Instead of buying replacement mechs for the 7 lost mechs, replace them with mechs from the garrison and save roughly 25-35 mill. 4). We have 23 vehicles in our garrison, plus scout units. We could move some over to replace dead ones. 5). Borrow money. It is allowed. It costs your some prestige and merc points but you certainly can do it. 6). Sell the 20 mech chassis instead of getting them up and running. That would reduce my costs by 44.4 mill and then remove whatever we make from them from the rest of what we have to pay. |
The reason we have extra mechs, in part, is for replacements. Let’s replace the destroyed mechs. Which ones are gone? Let’s roll dice:
Defender permanently lost: Warhammer 6R Javelin 10N They are replaced with CTF-1X Cataphract and Javelin 10F Shadow permanently lost: Griffin GRF-3M BJ-2 Blackjack LNC25-01 Lancelot Replaced by: Apollo for Blackjack Zeus ZEU-9S for the Lancelot Gallowglas for Griffin We just got a lot better in Shadow Company! Butler lost: Commando Thunderbolt Replaced with: Watchman for Commando GLT-3N Guillotine for Thunderbolt That reduces what we need to spend by a lot. 49.55 mill is needed to get our stuff up and running. We spend it. I want the Overlord up and running as soon as possible so it won’t be just sitting out there and I spend that money. |
I do sell some mechs. We need the cash, and I don’t like them that much. We sell:
Venom Fleax2 Wolf Trap WVR-7M Wolverine RVN-3L Raven We make 33 mill We fix the 20 mechs. What were they? Let’s roll: Apollo CRD-4K Crusader AWS-9M Awesome Anvil Hammer 2x MAD-5M Marauder GHR-5J Grasshopper Tarantula DV-7D Dervish CDA-3M Cicada HER-5S Hermes II Huron Warrior Level 1 mechs: Locust FS9-M Firestarter UrbanMech Phoenix Hawk Hunchback Ostroc Banshee No very many assaults – just two survived. Unlucky. 5 lights – average. 7 mediums and 6 heavies. This is an adequate salvage. There are some non-good mechs – Banshee, Hammer, Grasshopper, Locust, UrbanMech. There are some decent mechs – Dervish, Firestarter, Ostroc, Anvil. Then there are some really good mechs –Awesome, Hunchback, Huron Warrior, Hunchback. It’s a mixed bag. This is a very Marik group of mechs, so we take the prisoners and start interrogating them. They claim they are a mercenary group named Jake’s Toughs, and they were just doing a raid for another company, but they won’t tell us who. A mercenary group no one has ever heard of with updated mechs all coming from the same place and their own Overlord. If you believe that one, I’ve got a new one for you. My guess is we’ve pissed off Blake with all of these contracts for ComStar, and they wanted to hit us with deniability to send a message. So, they got Marik to fund the mechs and loaned or got them an Overlord. It’s just a guess. They were initially raiding Kressly, but 36 mechs, fighters and an Overlord and all you do is raid a plant that makes one mech line and a couple of tanks plus some weapons? It just doesn’t completely fit. It could be, but it seems a bit off. Perhaps we’ll never know We will not be taking contracts with our people for a couple of months, while we fix, repair, salvage, and so forth. Bruiser and ships have returned on Dec 13. They are ready to head back out, but we’ll keep them here until Jan 1. |
Oct 29 – Leftenant General Pierre Benton, Col. Humphries, Elizabeth Walters-Essex and Ted Izumo look over the battle site. There are a large number of salvage crews and ordnance removers working the area. They discuss the impact of the battle, the assault, what it might mean, and more. We turn over the prisoners to Pierre, as the head military Federated Commonwealth representative on the planet.
Dec 31 – This was a big year technologically. The clans have introduced Light TAG, streak LRMs, and the advanced tactical missile system. The IS has introduced Laser AMS and Extended LRMs. These are Fed Com missile systems that add a booster to the LRM that fires it a bit and then the missile kicks in. This increases the range but also massively increases the minimum range and they lose some advanced tracking options like Artemis IV and Narcs. You also can’t use any special warheads because those are the special warheads already. Many new mechs are rolling off factories. In Aerospace, we have several brand new DropShip designs being made for the first time. This includes the Claymore, Hamilcar and Rose. Lots of upgrades, such as upgraded tanks, mechs, DropShips and more are seeing the light of day. Essex Training Academy We have12 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 17 enrollees for next year. Of these 12, 2 choose not to stay with us, and the remaining 10 have 3 vet, 5 regular and 2 elite. Year 4 - 13 Year 3 - 11 Year 2- 15 Year 1 – 17 We pay 12.5 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ. We have just 4.2 mill left. |
Braham Essex has been on Outreach for over a year now, occasionally nipping home to spend a week here and there with his wife and son, and vice versa. After spending all of that time recruiting, we are adding these units to our T&A:
Trident Company Lt. Tyrone Ellis, elite, Atlas Vick Hillers, veteran, Hunchback Veronica Reeds, elite, ST-8A Shootist Belle de Croix, elite, Gallowglas Sgt. Jack Napier, elite, Hatamato-Chi Su Ling, elite, MAD-5M Marauder Moya Brennan, veteran, Apollo Grant Taylor, veteran, Crusader Sgt. Vanessa DiCartelli, elite, Watchman Theodore Moore, veteran, Firestarter Sally Campe, regular, LCT 1E Locust Leonard Kovalchuk, veteran, Spider This whole company was formed from mechs in my garrison. I like most of it, although I’m not a super big fan of that Marauder variant. 6 mechs are level 2 – Shootist, Gallowglas, Apollo, Watchman, H-C and MAD. |
Miner Company
Lt. Burke Miner, elite, BattleMaster Noorel Zia, elite, CTF-3L Cataphract Angela Juarez, veteran, Anvil Helga Mantir, veteran, WVR-6M Wolverine Sgt. Beverly Cramer, elite, AWS-9M Awesome Jillian O’Brien, elite, Archer Jakob Snider, elite, Apollo Elana Mutari, veteran, Goliath Sgt. Hector Jones, elite, Watchman Gavin O’Henry, veteran, Commando Mikhail Samsonov, regular, Phoenix Hawk Jasmin Fatirra, veteran, FS9-M Firestarter Another made from just my garrison mechs. After thinking it up, I’m in love with the name Hector Jones. What a cool sounding name! Hello, I’m Detective Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Doctor Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Professor Hector Jones. Hello, I’m Sir Hector Jones, the third. Awesome! Anyway, good mechs mostly. The assaults are lighter. I’d prefer a simple updated smart Cataphract instead of all of these nonsense uptech ones with XL engines. This company has just 5 level 2 mechs – Cat, Anvil, AWS, Apollo and Watchman. |
Fallout Company
Lt. Gilda Atwater, elite, AS7-K Atlas Maya Saban, elite, AWS-9M Awesome Colbie Callait, elite, BLK-6-KNT Black Knight James Jefferson, veteran, KTO-20 Kintaro Sgt. Ziggy Springfield, elite, Hatamato-Chi Elizabeth Corbett, elite, MAD-3D Marauder Natalia Indushka, elite, Huron Warrior Brent Taznan, veteran, Apollo Sgt. Lance Robbins, elite, QKD-5K Quickdraw Toshiro Sato, elite, Daimyo Palmer Rice, elite, Phoenix Hawk Horace Randall, regular, WSP-1D, Wasp Yeah, it’s a very random Wasp. The rest of this company is very strong. I realized that most of the company was rocking all of these PPCs and such so I tossed in the Kintaro to turn those holes lethal. I like it here a lot. I ran out of good scout mechs here. I have tons of crappy ones, but not that many good ones. Three companies and not one Javelin – sigh. This company has a lot of level 2 mechs. Just the PXH, Wasp, and Marauder aren’t. |
Sealion Company
Lt. Conner Ward, clan elite, 1/1 Edge: 3, Mad Cat Prime Lacey Stowers, elite, Masakari Prime Tarja Tarunun, elite, Grizzly Nafisa Ali, elite, GHR-5J Grasshopper Sgt. Zoltan Boros, elite, Marauder IIc Ernesto Sanchez, elite, ARC-2R Archer Xinlin Ye, elite, Galahad Magnus Knutson, elite, CRD-4K Crusader Sgt. Edwin Hanson, elite, Shadow Hawk IIc Elaine McCrimmon, elite, Griffin IIc Estaban Cruz, elite, Dragonfly A Paul Dean, veteran, LCT-1E Locust A third elite strike company, and Bruiser and Shadow are part of it. It’s called Shadow Battalion, and its elite mechs with clan or level two tech almost exclusively. This uses a few mechs sent over from the Beta Regiment clan mech goldmine they are having. We have two level one mechs – Locust and Archer, and two level twos in here just for fun and rounding things out. The name comes from the SEALs from centuries ago. These four companies add some serious power to our roster, because they are all elite and we chose the mechs. Every one of these mechs we won in battle except for a small number we purchased (like Apollos and Watchmen). For now, the first group will be adventuring under the name Breaker Battalion. We still have a ton of mechs in our garrison, but most of them we don’t like that much. If we had money, we could fund another couple of battalions around the good mechs here and the good ones we need. For example, we need some cheap good scouts, like Javelins. We also need more smash mouth mechs like Thunderbolts and BattleMasters and Orions. I have one good smash mouth mech I have in reserve for a rainy day – the Banshee 3S variant, and then nothing other than the King Crab, which I’m not sure I want to risk or to use. It has five shots for each AC20 and 8 for the LRM 15 and then all it has is a large laser. I have Centurions, a Huron Warrior, the Hollanders, Rifleman, Bombardier, Panther and Crab – those are all good. I just need some heavy metal, and good scouts. I don’t have it. We rechristen the Overlord the Defiance. |
Here is our full group of peoples.
Kilts and Commandos Roster: Alpha Regiment: Heliades Company - Return on June 5, 3055 Styx Company - Return on June 5, 3055 Tethys Company – Return on June 5, 3055 Typhon Company – Return on June 5, 3055 Defender Company – Cinq Company – Brawler Company – return on March 21, 3056 Delta Company – Return on February 16, 3056 Trinity Company – Return on March 19, 3055 Butler Company – Beta Regiment: Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Breaker Battalion: Trident Company – Miner Company – Fallout Company - Shadow Battalion: Bruiser Company – Shadow Company – Sealion Company - Arrow Company- Bolt Company – Return on March 19, 3055 Tank First Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055. Tank Second Battalion - EE, garrison, Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison, Robin Hood, Union DropShip - Star River, Union DropShip - Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip – Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Return on March 19, 3055 Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip – Defiance, Overlord DropShip – Ready on June 1, 3055 I want to get to three mech regiments soon. I can move the 10th one from Alpha to Gamma, and put Bruiser and if I need to Shadow in Gamma Regiment. That’s still just seven, and I’d prefer to leave the heavy stuff to units outside of our traditional Regiments. Braham gets 5 recruit rolls a moth, which technically he can use to recruit a MW with a mech. I need to get a 4 on 2d6 for an elite disposed MW and a 3 is veteran, and 2 is regular. For those with mechs I need am 8 for elite light, 9 for medium, etc. For example, if I roll a 7 and go veteran light, regular medium or green heavy. I have tried to avoid that these last 10-15 years for mechs. It feels a bit odd to just sit there and bring back a bunch of new mechs. It certainly happens, but it also gives you very random companies. I could have a 12 person company with all sorts of experience levels and random mechs that don’t work together or even do the normal roles. Nah, it’s too hard. I did use that for fighters mostly, although occasionally I’d take a very experienced dispossessed pilot and buy them a fighter. |
January 1, 3055 – EVENT – Now that militaries are starting to refill their destroyed forces with the massive amount of mechs rolling off the lines, Houses are switching gears to updating DropShips, Fighters, JumpShips, making WarShips again, upgraded and new tanks, producing new technology and more. Meanwhile, the furnaces of new mechs are still finding their way to mercenaries and houses across the Inner Sphere. While there is still a massive need, it’s much reduced. As such, the recruiting of mercenaries is back to the regular level.
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Contracts:
FedCom – Pirate Hunting Periphery – Obj. Raid Company – Cadre/Garrison Word of Blake – Garrison Hmm. Slim Pickings. Let’s look in more detail at the Periphery contract. The last time I sent a unit way out there, I got 11 mechs, so let’s see what we can see this time. The Taurian Concordat wants us to hit Rollis, a Cap world on their border. The borderline crazy Protector of the Concordat is Thomas Calderon, and he’s very paranoid about Successor House intervention in his world. He wants us to land on Rollis, and destroy the Capellan Survey Headquarters. While they say the survey is for astronomy projects, he believes it’s a spy station. If he’s right, it’s heavily guarded. If he’s wrong, it’s a run for nothing. I’ve got 9 companies of mechs just sitting, we need to send someone to do something. Trident Company Objective Raid, Rollis. Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x2.4 x1.1, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 20% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 2 months Transport: Full We arrive on Rollis on July 29, 3055 Aug 3 – We arrive on Rollis. It took us a bit of time to unload and all of that. Rollis and the nearby Taurian planet of Laconis have been exchanging raids for a while, and there are some secret Taurian Sympathizers on planet who helps us find the spy base. Our company unloads and heads for it, and without surprise out pop a company of Liao mechs to defend it. Looks like the Taurians were right. The Caps, all regular: Catapult Rifleman LCT-1L Locust Blackjack BattleMaster Thunder WSP-1S Wasp UM-R63 UrbanMech Vindicator VTR-9K Victor Stalker Griffin These mechs are level 2 Locust, Thunder, Wasp, Urbie, Victor. This is their Thunder. It’s a 70 ton 5/8 mech (with XL, grr) and 11/22 heat sporting a solid 13.5 tons of armor. It features an AC20, LRM5, and three medium pulse lasers. The ammo is CASEd. Lots of militaries send new designs to the Periphery to fight bandits, pirates and other minor conflicts to see how things are going. The Thunder is one of the latest Liao mech designs.  I would love to get one, just for fun! |
Here we go
T1 – We lose init. My first moves are to jump our Firestarter and Spider into the two heavy hexes in the middle of the map. I can hold them until fire support arrives. We have three AC20s on my squad, and two hit the Rifleman. Our Hunchy’s hits its Hip Actuator on the RL. Our Gallowglas hits a leg actuator on their Blackjack. Both of them fall. T2 – We lose again. I hop our Spider deep into their territory and then jump our Marauder into the heavy woods it left. I jump the Gallowglas into the other heavy vacated by our Firestarter. Their Rifleman cannot stand but their BJ does. Our Crusader knocks out their BJ pilot and destroys its RL. T3 – We win this time. Spider behind the Locust. This time, their Rifleman rises. Three AC20s tear into their Thunder. Our Hunchback destroys its RA. Our Marauder hits the Thunders engine. Our Hatamato tears into their Rifleman, destroying its RL and hitting the gyro and engine once each. Our Gallowglas got a glancing blow hit from an ER PPC to the aimed BJ’s head. The Rifelman pilot blacks out when it falls. Our Marauder and Atlas each kick the Wasp. At the end, we have destroyed its LL, LT and CT. Dead mech. This is Trident’s first kill! No wake for the BJ. It’s pilot now needs a 10 instead of a 7, so the ER PPC hit helped. T4 – We lose again. Out Shootist destroys their Thunder’s CT and there goes the Thunder. The RA of our Hatamato is destroys by their Stalker. Their Griffin shears into the H of our Atlas with its PPC but hits nothing. We pepper the Stalker with damage from a bunch of mechs, it falls and the pilot blacks out. Neither the Rifleman nor BJ pilots awaken – they both need 10s. T5 – We lose init. I hop the Firestarter over to their Stalker but all it does is hit the head once with a machine gun and the sensors. After eating two AC20s and many missiles, our Atlas destroys their BattleMaster’s LA. It falls under an onslaught from our Marauder, Atlas, Gallowglas, Shootist, Crusader, Apollo and the Hatamato. Their Stalker only needs a 7 to wake but rolls a 6. Our Firestarter’s damage to the head prevented it from waking this turn. T6 – We win init. Their BattleMaster rises. I sense this is the last turn. I run a Hunchback behind their Victor. Our Watchman destroys the RL of their Locust and nails the gyro once. Our Apollo destroys the RL and RT of the BattleMaster. With both arms and a leg missing, that is a kill. Before it goes, our Gallowglas opens up its CT and hits the engine twice and gyro once. Their Victor falls under damage. With that, they begin to withdraw and we destroy the spy post and grab our salvage. |
Wasp H, RT, RA, LA, RL
Blackjack missing RL Rifleman missing RL Thunder H, RT, LT, LA, RL, LL BattleMaster, missing LA, RT, RL, enginex2, gyrox1 Hatamato missing RA We pay 1.65 mill for our mechs and then cut that by 20%. We sell the parts to the Thunder and Wasp, both level two mechs. We get enough to cover our losses with the contract and to fix the Blackjack and Rifleman. The BattleMaster we’ll have to take with us and look at later. We return on Mar 24, 3056. |
We also have a Garrison/Cadre contract, let’s look a little closer. A Cap Company wants their people trained over on Boardwalk. We could have a unit there on April 28.
They want 6 months initially, so let’s negotiate: Cinq and Butler Company Cadre/Garrison - Boardwalk. Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x3.7 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Straight Support 75% Command: Integrated Remuneration: No, x1.05 Length: 9 months Transport: Full We manage the negotiations. April 26 – We land and begin Dec 26 – All done, no issues Mar 18 – We arrived back. We made 2.43 mill |
Rewind –
Feb 1 – Contracts: Word of Blake Recon Raid – Against Marian Hegemony Marik Pirate Hunting Rasalhague Retainer I respect that the FRR still wants a retainer with us. We do need the money of a long term contract. Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal. Myth’s contract ends in the FRR on March 21, and they were returning home, but instead, we’ll give the four company battalion to the FRR. Myth Battalion Retainer - Boardwalk. Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x3.7 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: House Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 2 years Transport: Full Begins March 22, 3055, ends March 27, 3057 Let’s go ahead and do the retainer. March 22 – We get news that FRR wants us on Dehgolan for a bit, to help train the folks there for a few months. April 18 – We arrive on Dehgolan Sept 15 – We have finished training and garrisoning Dehgolan. Grumium was raided by Dracs three days ago, so they want us to head out there and garrison all of the vital areas. Oct 12 – We arrive at Grumium and set up. Grumium has a lot of major value to the FRR remnants. It has some industries and a new military academy. It just opened this year. Dec 14 – We are asked to pick a company to raid Altenmarkt, the Wolf Clan held planet. They need some supplies left behind. We are asked to land, raid, extract, and leave. Not very clan like. We sit down and pour over ComStar reports. Altenmarkt is garrisoned by the Delta Trinary of the 13th Wolf Guards Cluster. That’s’…Elementals? They’re garrisoning the whole world with 15 stars of Elementals? That can’t be right, ComStar, is that right? Yes, the intel is recent. Here’s our plan. We initiate a Trial of Possession for Altenmarkt, win, take the planet, and then get whatever we need at our leisure. They will come back hard, Altenmarkt is outside of the Tukkayid line, but it should throw them. Rasalhague approves the plan, and we will be taking Typhon Company. They will send a few merchant vessels with us to take the supplies they need after we take Altenmarkt. Feb 13, 3056 – “We have come to take Altenmarkt. With what will you defend it?” The clans are not required to respond to IS batchalls that abuse the system. We have never, so they take it. They confirm that it is just the Trinary. We will land in a small rocky pit, and fight here with no cover at all. They have 15 stars of elite elementals. |
I expect the first few turns to have major damage taken from their SRMs and then things will lighten up.
T1 – We lose init. They hit our Warhammer three times with SRM missiles and knock her out. T2 – We win init. They don’t even go internal anywhere in the Warhammer but they hit the head once more. T3 – We lose. They hit the head of the Warhammer again and Lt. Amber Reverlon is dead. The LA and LT were also destroyed. Plus the engine was hit 4x right now. Our Ostol finished a point of elementals. T4 – We lose again. Nothing but exchanges of fire and a few troopers killed without finishing off a squad. T5 – We lose. They have reached us physically. Our Grasshopper kills a squad. We kill 6 more troopers in various squads. They are targeting our Grasshopper. T6 – We win init. Time to step back. Our PXH destroys a squad. Our Centurion kills another one. Our Grasshopper takes out a third. Our Hunchback falls under damage. T7 – We win. I stand the Hunchback. They are swarming up our mechs. We freed an Awesome and killed the squad on it. Our Marauder kicks and kills a squad. T8 – We lose init. Elemental Leg Attack on the Hunch hits a hip and lower leg. Our Hunch kills a squad. Our Catapult kills a squad. Leg Attack on the Grasshopper hits an actuator too. Everybody is standing though. We kill four more troopers in the physical attack phase. We offer the wolves hegira and they accept. We have captured Altenmarkt. Warhammer missing LA, LT, exginex4 We fix the engine and pay half of 1.92 mill to fix it. Lt. Amber Reverlon has died. Experience: Bao Yu in the Grasshopper now has Edge: 1 Abdullah Malawi in the Ostsol is the same Sgt Mei Zhen is promoted to Lt and we promote from within. |
Mar 1 – The FRR has finished taking all they want. We know Wolf will coming in force to recapture this planet, so we blast off and return, leaving no forces behind.
Sept 2, 3056 – The Dracs do raid Grummim but on the other side of the planet from where we are stationed. They take some minor ores before leaving. Mar 22 3057 – All done. Nothing else. Money: We made 34.35 mill. |
Rewind
March 1, 3055 – Contracts: FedCom – Guerilla Rasalhague – Guerilla St. Ives – Objective Raid on major Davion outpost, Davion has told us not to attack them and we can’t take this one. All crap April – Company wants Garrison ComStar wants Defense ComStar has approached s for a major contract. They want Shadow Battalion to strike Irian itself. Irian has only been invaded once, and rarely raided, because it’s too well protected. Blake is using that to make a major base in the area. Lots of mechs are made here. The units on planet include 13th Marik Militia, and other units. Our goal is to hit Irian, and instead of going after mech factories and the heavy industrial elements, to hit the Blake-ists. We have several targets. We are successfully paid for each one we take out, and we get a bonus 5 mill for each additional target destroyed. The Word of Blake has a military center that is where they are building up their materiel. Our targets are: 1). Destroy the 3 local warehouses that are believed to contain massive materiel, armor, ammunitions, etc. 2). Destroy the military center itself 3) Destroy at least 50% of the defending Blake Force This is a great contract for us, considering our current shortage of quick cash. Shadow Battalion, Star River, Amalgamated Bliss, Robin Hood, Scots Flotilla, Arrow Company and 4 IS Standard Battle Armor Platoons – Irian Campaign Salvage: Full Salary: x1.6, x4 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 3 months Transport: 100% Reimbursement 37.5% Bonus We will arrive on Irian on March 28. |
Mar 29 – We have arrived at Irian. The planet is one of the most valuable industrial planets in the Free Worlds League. It’s time to get out and scout.
Apr 11 – After scouting heavily, we know where the warehouses are, they are right beside the military center. The area is under constant and heavy guard by Blake forces. There is no chance of a lightning raid. Apr 13 – We have an early idea for a plan. Due to the sensitive nature of industry of the planet, Irian has a lot of forces. It’s also a bit nervous about them too. Let’s explore that further. Apr 21 – Okay, we have painted our mechs the color of the 18th Marik Militia. This is a unit within one jump and it is due to rotate on planet for defense in a few months. Appearing as them on the streets shouldn’t cause a big ruckus early. Meanwhile, our armored troops, including the elementals of Shadow Company, will have rented a lot of trucks. They will get ready near the warehouses. Once we start battle against the center, they are to head in. Two trucks are loaded with explosive sand the rest are ready to load up. If they think they can kill the defending infantry and take the supplies in there, they will. If they can’t, they will cover for the truck bombs and blow it up. Boom! With our three powerful companies pounding onto their military center they’ll need all forces to respond. We will send one company each at one side of the center, in order to distract their troops. They supposedly have a level III force here, which is six sixs, or 36 mechs – the same as our Battalion ,but counted differently. We smash, and then ether dash and grab, whichever works based on the situation. Once we’ve done our part, local forces and Blakes are going to pursue us, and Arrow Company will buy us the time we need to get the stuff and get home Apr 24 – Here we go. The intel is dead on. (I rolled snake eyes) 36 mechs and a small amount of infantry at the warehouses. We are out, and…our trick works and no one finds our colors or mechs suspicious. We split into three companies and surround the base from a distance. Everybody is ready. Shadow Company, under the command of Braham Essex, is taking the right flank of the base and the one closest to our DropShips. He eases the throttle forward on his clan tech Orion. Shadow Company moves in. The other two companies do as well. Seeing mechs, even those painted in Marik colors, moving towards their base, the Blakists call out for help. The 12 mechs on patrol respond. They march to the front and face Shadow Company. As all of us approach, the alarm is raised and they begin to move to a defensive position. We are still a minute away from the base. They pour their mechs out, and then form up at ferrocrete bunkers outside of the military complex. The other two companies are unopposed so far. Shadow slows down a bit and within 20 seconds, out come another six wobbie mechs. What does the Blake commander order? I roll dice, with smart moves high and dumb moves low. A quick assessment shows Shadow Company has the weakest looking mechs – no clan tech. He orders all 18 mechs outside of the building to charge Shadow Company and break them as fast as possible. Meanwhile minor gun turrets try to slow down the other companies. They won’t for long, but here come 18 Blake mechs. Jackal Hammer WSP-3M Wasp Sentinel SHD-5M Shadow Hawk Kintaro MAD-5M Marauder Anvil Champion 2x Grand Crusader Crockett, vet CP-11-A Cyclops, vet Flashman, vet 2x Apollo, vet Mongoose, vet CDA-3M Cicada, vet Everybody else is regular. This is their Anvil, a recent Marik 60 ton heavy mech with 5/8/3 movement, 12/24 heat, no XL, 9.5 tons of armor, 2 large pulse lasers, 2 medium lasers and a Guardian ECM.  They will be charging at me as fast as they can and try to force us to retreat or destroy us. We can retreat Shadow Company any time we want. If we retreat it too soon, then they will be able to commit more forces against our other two companies. They will send some forces to prove we are retreating, but not that many. Our goal is to survive as long as possible without needing to retreat. We also don’t have the cash to lose a bunch of mechs. We need to be careful. If Braham Essex can take long enough, then the other two companies will begin battle against the remaining troops, and will easily overrun them and destroy the center. |
1 – Here we go. We lose init. We set up in a corner behind some rubble, and hope they have difficulty getting to us. Several of their Artemis systems are prevented from working due to our ECMs. Our Zeus destroys their Cyclops RA. Our Gallowglas hits the gauss rifle, causes 20 damage o its RT, and then that is gone, and hits the CT for two gyro hits. Dead mech.
2 – We use Braham’s tactical genius to win init. I hop a Lynx behind their Jackal. Our Thug destroys the LA of their Champion. Braham’s Orion destroys the RL. Our Thug’s leg actuator is hit. Our Apollo destroys the Champion’s H and kills it. Our Highlander tumbles. 3 – Another TG init victory. They base their Sentinel to the Highlander, which I stand. Lynx to the back of it. Our Highlander gets a limb blown off crit on the Jackal’s RA. He also hits a hip actuator on its LL. Our Gallowglas hits the engine, head, and two jump jets on their Marauder. Our Highlander falls again. 4 – We lose init. They stand their Jackal. I will keep my Highlander out for another turn. It’s got a lot of armor on it, and it should act as an armor shield as our foe spends some weapons to ensure they take it out. Our Thug hits three leg actuators a pulse laser and the LB 10 X on their Marauder. Our Apollo destroys the RA. Our Highlander’s LA is destroyed. Our Starslayer takes out an opposing Apollo’s H. Our Zeus destroys a Wasp’s LA. Their Marauder falls and destroys it RT, dead mech. Their Shadow Hawk falls too. 5 – We win init. While moving in to base us, one of their Grand Crusaders skids and falls. I eject the savaged Highlander. They stand the Shadow hawk. 6 of their mechs are now based with ours. Our Flashman hits the AC5 ammo on their sentinel and it lights up. Our Thug nails the engine twice and destroys the RA of their Shadow Hawk. Our Zeus follows up and destroys the RT, dead mech. Our Apollo hits and explodes the ammo on their Wasp, but CASE keeps it alive. Their Flashman hits a leg actuator on Braham’s Orion. Both their Wasp and the other Grand Crusader tumble. Everybody is just unloading all weapons on each other, it’s a major slugfest, but we took out the major threats before they could close like the Cyclops’s AC20 and their Champion’s large weapons array. Our Thug gets a limb blown off crit after kicking their Anvil, which I had never targeted until now and we got lucky. We destroys LLs on their Mongoose and Flashman. Our Orion falls from a kick. Their Flashy destroys its LA in the fall. 6 – We lose. I stand the Orion. Their Jackal tried to move, fell, and destroys its RT and shuts down. Our Shootist hits the ammo on their Kintaro and boom! It’s engine ignites and this a lot of mechs – destroys RA of Wasp and hits gyro and engine each once. Their Flash’s RA goes, and that’s the end of it. . Their Crockett hits our Flashman’s engine twice. Braham destroys both arms of a Grand Crusader. Our Apollo adds an engine, gyro, head hit and a blacked out pilot. Their Apollo destroys our Thug’s CT. Our Gallowglas hits a Hammer’s ammo and it goes up. We kick and destroy the LT on their Mongoose. This was not what the Blake’s expected. They expected to crush me at best and get bogged down at worst, but to get their ass handed to them? They destroyed two of my mechs and I’m going to eject the Flashman next turn. Meanwhile, they’re down to four mechs standing – Crockett, Apollo, Grand Crusader and Cicada. They retreat. Their legged and down mechs, like Anvil, Mongoose, and Wasp are left behind because the lance has to return. We leave behind three damaged mechs to secure them and move in. Grand Crusader missing RA, LA Kintaro LA, RL, RT Anvil reattached LL Shadow Hawk missing RT, RA Sentinel RA Cyclops missing RT, RA, gyrox2 Champion, missing H, RL, LA Jackal missing RT, LL Apollo missing H Marauder missing RT, RA Hammer LA, LL, RL Flashman missing RL, RA, LA Mongoose missing LT, RL Wasp missing RA, LT, LA Highlander missing LA Thug, RT, LT, RL, LL, H, RA, LA |
MEANWHILE…
After hearing a lot of booms and damages, our infantry get the word to move in. They start driving trucks to the warehouses. Regular infantry is in their way but our armored infantry easily culls through them and they flee. They bust open the three warehouses and start loading up trucks with the best looking equipment. We have captured the warehouses. If we get eh word, we can run out hot and blow up everything else, but if we win the battle, we can take everything at leisure. MEANWHILE… 12 of the remaining 18 mechs emerge from the center and the commander orders them to attack Bruiser Company while the other six hold defensive positions over the center. With a losing battle to his east, the CO looks to hole up the other six and try for a win in the 12v12, knowing its along shot. Their mechs: FS9-S Firestarter SDR-7M Spider PXH-3M Phoenix Hawk TBT-7M Trebuchet Wraith WHM-7M Warhammer War Dog,vet Grand Crusader, vet King Crab, vet Bandersnatch, vet CRD-5M Crusader, vet Crab, Vet This is their Bandersnatch, a custom mech made by guys right near Epsilon Eridani. They can only make roughly one every 9-10 months. ComStar still has people defecting to Blake, but they aren’t letting them take their stuff with them. So WOB has been buying up as many mechs as possible, and mechs like the War Dog and Bandersnatch that are new and on the market for the right price are among those added. The Bandersnatch is 75 tons, 4/6 with XL, 10/20 heat, 11 tons of armor, and 3x LRM5, 2x LB 10X, 4x Medium laser facing the front and 2x facing the rear. With CASE.  |
T1 – We win init. Our Vulture C hits and destroys the ammo in the Bandersnatch’s LT and it is destroyed Our Rifleman IIc destroys the LT and ignites the AMS ammo and destroys the Warhammer. . Their Firestarter hits he MASC on our Gladiator. The Highlander IIc falls. We kick and destroy the LL, and LT of their FS.
T2 – We win init again. Our Highlander IIc rises. Our Phoenix Hawk skids and collides with our Dasher and forces it off the field. The Gladiator destroys the RA on their Trebuchet. Our Archer destroys the Rt and it shuts down. The Warhammer IIc eliminates the RL of their Crusader. 3 – We lose. They stand the Firestarter so I move our Vulture C next to it. We stand the Phoenix Hawk and run. We destroy the Wraith’s RT with Peregrine pulse lasers. Gauss slugs from the Vulture destroy the War Dog’s RT. Their Crab destroys the RL of our Phoenix Hawk. We kick and destroy the other leg on the Firestarter – dead mech. 4 – We lose. They can’t retreat. They keep pushing. We destroy the LA, RA, RL and finally RT of their Grand Crusader. Their King Crab knifes AC20s into the Gladiator and hits an engine twice. 5 – We win. A gauss destroys the King Crab’s H from our Atlas. Their Crab has its CT destroyed. Their Crusader’s RL has three leg actuators hit and it spins to the ground. They concede. We have several wounded members gather the downed but working mechs and move on, Phoenix Hawk missing RL Crusader missing RL Crab H, LL, RL, LT, RT, RA, LA King Crab missing H Grand Crusader missing RA, LA, RL, RT War Dog missing RT Firestarter missing RL, LL Wraith missing RT Bandersnatch missing LT. Warhammer H, LL, RL, RT, RA, LA Spider LA Trebuchet missing RT, RA Phoenix Hawk missing RL |
Talk about underestimating in that first fight and subsequent ownage all the way around. Nice stuff! Quite a few new mechs for the buildup as well.
Tell |
MEANWHILE
Sealion Company has closed with the center, but we can’t get in. It’s locked up too tight. We call in our fighters now, and within five minutes they strafe and bomb the center and the remaining mechs stumble out and are chewed to pieces in front of the center. The Center is destroyed. We have completed all three targets, and made out with a ton of mechs, weapons, armor, parts and ammo. Experience: Bruiser Company has three, all gaining Edge: 1. Vulture C pilot Rachel, Rifleman IIc pilot Sevil Aliyeva, Archer pilot Aysel Teymurzadeh. Shadow Company has Rachel Perry, Shootist, Edge: 1. In the Gallowglas, David Morgan gets Edge: 1 as does Robert Perez in the Thug. Speaking of Perez and the Thug, it was destroyed in the battle with Word of Blake. It’s not recoverable. He will be taking a Grand Crusader. Money: 18.5 mill from the contract including both bonuses. We also get 50% Battle loss, which is 1.61 mill (includes parts, Thug, armor and ammo). What was in the warehouses? Let’s roll. We get a lot of level two weapons, armor both regular and ferro fib, and crates and crates and crates of ammo. Unfortunately nothing too valuable. The total price of everything in the three warehouses is 15.5 mill -10% commission so 14 mill. It’s easier on my time if I don’t calculate every item, then figure out what I need to repair and reduce those costs and yadda yadda. Let’s just do the big numbers and move on. To repair everything we salvaged: 23.45 mill include armor and ammo too 2.19 mill for our stuff. Plus roughly 1 mill for payment of our peoples. We ended up making 7.11 mill We will return on May 27. This shows what happens when large scale battles work. The attack on Kressly by a battalion tore into us hard and we lost a ton of materiel and money. Here we dominated and we made money, and although we lost a mech that was easily replaced from salvage, we ended with a ton of mechs heading back to our garrison. Braham will head back to Outreach upon their return. We also now have the cash to fix up that BattleMaster chassis we have in the garrison. |
Quote:
I know, yay!!! |
Rewind: April contracts:
Periphery – Pirate Hunting Dracs – Relief Marik – Defense Nothing here for us. That’s okay, I just took 20 mechs, so we’re good. Plus, I only have four companies of mechs on planet right now, so I don’t want to push it. |
May:
Company – Cadre Marik – Defense Blake – Cadre Wow, crappy contracts back to back months! |
Jun 1 – All of the units we sent to Irian have returned. The Defiance, our Overlord DropShip, is now online and ready.
Tank 2nd Battalion has been signed to an on-planet contract to work alongside Leftenant Pierre Benton, who needs some supporting units to help garrison a new mining complex being built away from the other mining interests in a new part of EE. He doesn’t have the forces himself and the new company doesn’t have the cash or capital to pay for a garrison so he’s renting our Tank Battalion for a year to help out. Tank, 2nd Battalion, Garrison, EE Mining Salvage: Shared Salary: x1, x2.4 x1.2, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Straight Support 80% Command: House Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 1 year Transport: N/A They start on Jun 3, and end June 3, 3056. At that time, no one will have attacked and they will have made 630k. We have 7 mech companies and two fighter companies ready to head out for work. Hopefully, this month we’ll get a good contract. |
Just for fun, how many mercenary units in 3055 have two or more regiments of mechs? Not many. They are, with the number of regiments next to their name:
Kell Hounds – 2 Eridani Light Horse - 3 Wolfs Dragoons – 5+ McCarron’s Armored Cavalry – 5 * (Might not be considered truly a merc by now) Brion’s Legion – 2 Blue Star Irregulars – 1.5 * - Got hit by Falcon and one is down to battalion strength and rebuilding. Khorsakov’s Cossacks – 3 12th Vegan Rangers – 4 Crater Cobras – 2 Illician Lancers – 3 Screaming Eagles – 2 – Now in Periphery Lexington Combat Group – 3 * One of the best organized mercs in the IS, with a regiment of mechs, infantry and armor and wings of fighters for each combat group. Northwind Highlanders – 3 * - Currently a house unit for FedCom again. This will not last long… There are some distinguished units with one regiment of mechs and other stuff – like Grey Death Legion, Little Richard’s Panzer Brigade and the 21st Centauri Lancers. This is it – the full roster of every mercenary unit with at least 2 regiments of mechs. Most of these are on long term (I mean decades and decades long term) for various houses. The MAC has been with Capella forever (and will soon be incorporated as full citizens, granted their own planets, and the leaders made nobles). The LCG has been with the FedSuns for about 100 years. The Kell Hounds have always been with the Lyran Commonwealth and now FedCom generally. Brion’s Legion has been with ComStar for 25-ish years now garrisoning Terra. If you don’t count the Highlanders and Blue Star (which you shouldn’t) then we have 11 other units in the entirety of known space that have two regiments of mechs. When we get to three, and we will, then we will be in a smaller group. However, small states can get big merc units too! The St. Ives Compact employs the Cossacks, the Magistracy of Canopus employs the Screaming Eagles, Capella has several of the best units, and more. This shows just how unusual our size is – which is a good thing. One of the advantages we have in recruiting is our size and cash. It says in several books that it’s hard for smaller merc units to recruit the small number of DropShips and JumpShips that arrive at Outreach looking to join a merc group – because the big units gobble them up. Now we are the big units! |
Contracts for June
Rasalhague – Defense Capellan Confederation – Assault Blake – Garrison Fed Com – O Raid – target Amity Amity is a planet just one jump from Solaris VII that has Imstar Aerospace company. Our goal is to land and hit the company. They make Cheetahs here. A battalion of mechs from the 31st Marik Militia are on guard. Our contract is to land, hit them hard, allow Fed Com spies to sneak in an infiltrate, and then leave before the other two companies can rouse and strike us. We send: Defender Company, Bolt Company, Robin Hood, 4 platoons of jump infantry Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x4 x1.6, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Liaison Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 1 month Transport: Full 30% bonus We can arrive at Amity on July 19 |
July 19 – We land on Amity right on schedule.
July 28 – After scouting the factory, we have a strong understanding of the guards. One mech company is on guard at all times. We jump in, and then while fighting, FC operatives sneak in, and we fade just five minutes later. There is a low chance of salvage, and if our operational requirement removes the chance of salvage, then we get a 10 mill C-Bill bonus from our FC employers. Bolt Company will cover our retreat from the other two companies. (In secret, we are renting four giant 45 ton trucks, each If there is an opportunity, we will order our men in to infiltrate their hangar and see if we can take anything. Our hope is that we’ll find a few cheetahs to take. We move forward and Defender Company slams long range weapons into their Hermes II and destroys a LL. Their full company moves in to attack us. We only have a few minutes to stop them and distract them before the other two companies will be up and ready. We tell our infantry to move in. Their company arrives. We destroy an Apollo and then lose a LA on our Whitworth. A pair of large lasers from our Stalker meet in the CT of their Firestarter and destroy the section and the mech. They begin to maneuver in. A Thunderbolt moves in and leads the charge against us. Missiles fly in and peppers their Thunderbolt but it doesn’t go internal. They focus their fire on our Daishi, but it barely scratches the deep armor. Meanwhile clan weapons ring out from it and a Thor to completely destroy their Rifleman’s right side leg, torso and arm all gone. It falls hard and won’t be getting up any time soon. They shift their fire to our Hunchback and hit a leg actuator. We back it up to prevent more damage. More weapons fire is exchanged and we use the landscape to our advantage. They close, but they are careful, knowing they’ll have backup soon. Every time we have a mech that even gets close to going internal, we back it up. A few minutes of this and it’s time to pack things in. Our Infantry radio that they found two Cheetahs and a few crates of small lasers, and we have them loaded and they are out. We retreat, and that buzzing sound is Bolt Company covering for us. We have all of our mechs, but two missing arms. Everything works smoothly and we are gone the next day from Amity. The contract pays for our units. We sold the crates for a mill and the Cheetahs are just cheap little 25 ton fighters worth 1.6 mill each. We’ll add them to our stockpile at the garrison. We return on August 23 |
Rewind
June 19 – Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion is assassinated live on TV via a bomb. At the age of 25, Victor Ian Steiner-Davion will become the leader of the Federated Commonwealth and the united realms of the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth. While Victor is the sort of guy that is really great, and a good MechWarrior and brilliant tactician, he is not equipped to handle the big realm and the challenges it brings. His father, Hanse Davion was a brilliant and magnificent bastard. He could make the hard decisions and push. Victor responds to the underside of ruling an empire, but he does not have the heart for being proactive. He is not ethically able to rule the realm. |
July 1 –
Company – Extraction Blake – O Raid on ComStar. That’s only fair I suppose St Ives - Cadre/Garrison FedCom – Security on Sarpsborg The Company wants to hit Senftenburg, a highly visible FC place, and we have to turn that down. WoB wants us to nail a ComStar garrison on Hood IV. We tell then thanks but it’s too far away. We’d be happy to reciprocate for them but we just don’t want to go out that far. Security for Trinity, Miner and Fallout Companies on Sarpsborg Salvage: Full Salary: x1.3, x3.7 x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: House Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 6 months Transport: Full 10% bonus We arrive on September 15. We begin a contract for six months to help alleviate against constant Marik raids. While on planet we do encounter them once. Sept 21 – Fallout Company is on guard when a Marik company lands in a hot landing and moves in. they must not have gotten the intel that we were on planet yet, because Fallout is right between them and their target. They have Tarantula LCT-3M Locust GRF-3M Griffin WVR-7M Wolverine ON1-M Orion GHR-5J Grasshopper Grand Titan STK-5M Stalker CGR-3K Charger DV-7D Dervish Her-1S Hermes SPR-5F Spector Their assaults are all vets, and the Orion too. This is their 100 ton Grand Titan, sporting an LRM15, 2x SRM6, 2x large pulse laser, 2x medium pulse lasers, 2x small pulses, Artemis IV for everything, 4/6 movement (with XL), 12/24 heat, a powerful 18 tons of armor. It’s not a strong mech, due to its low heat dissipation and heavy energy reliance. You’ll fire just an LRM15 at range (an IS lpl only goes ten spaces). When you get within the lpl’s range you can use them and the LRm15 but that’s hardly the most devastating barrage from an Assault mech you’ll see. Once you get to within 6, you can connect with the mediums and SRM6s and drop the LRM15 and large pulses, but all you can do is firing two medium pulses lasers and two SRM6s, and again, that’s pretty weak for the class. A lot of mechs with XL engines at least have a crap ton of weapons but this doesn’t – just great armor and adequate weapons.  |
T1 – We lose init. Since they didn’t expect to be fighting us, my guess is that they will leave at the first real sign of contention. I focus the weapon of every single mech I have at the Grand Titan. It’s not my normal strategy, but it’s open. Our Apollo cracks open its head and nails life support and sensors. It falls.
T2 – We lose again. They stand the G Titan. This time their Stalker falls. T3 – We win this time. Our Kintaro lights up their G Titan’s ammo. T4 - We win again. It’s been a weird battle. None of my mechs are even in yellow armor and we’ve only killed one of theirs. Weird. It’s like both sides have missed a lot. Our Daimyo takes out the RA of their Stalker who is still on the ground. Our Hatamato adds a LL and our Apollo adds the RT. Their Griffin nails a hip and LL actuator on our Awesome. It falls. Our Black Knight destroys the RL of their Spector and it falls too. T5 – We lose. I stand the Awesome up Our Hatamato hits the gyro twice on their Stalker. Our Atlas takes out the Spector’s other leg. They retreat and pull off their attack. Spector missing LL, RL G Titan RA, LA Stalker gyrox2, missing RA, LL, RT It costs us 2.5 mill to get everything running, armor, ammo and to get these two mechs ready too. We roll dice and there are no more attacks during the security contract. We made 6.724 mill and 1 mill of that pays for the year for all three units upkeep and salary. We are done on March 15 and return on May 27. |
Rewind –
July 8 – The Lineholder begins production at Kressly. They’ve ramped up their mech line to sell them. July 10 – With the Lineholder now officially done, we have a meeting with Kressly Warworks techs and engineers that they have figured out Omni technology based on the two clans and one IS Omni we donated them. We can design our own OmniMech, and they believe that by the end of the year, they can have the first prototype OmniMech built for everyone to review. In order to make things easier, we will be using a modified Hunchback chassis for the mech. Kressly mentioned that they could license it for cheap. ALX-1 Alexander 55 ton OmniMech 11.5 tons of armor 5/8 – no XL Engine 10/20 heat 16.5 tons of pod space ALX-1p Alexander Prime: 1 Double HS 1 ER PPC 1 SRM 6 4 Medium Lasers 1 ton of ammo w/ CASE Cost – 6.32 mill, BV - 1511 We’ll see what the prototype looks like in a few months |
Here is what we look like at the end of July
Kilts and Commandos Roster: Alpha Regiment: Heliades Company - Return on June 8, 3057 Styx Company - Return on June 8, 3057 Tethys Company – Return on June 8, 3057 Typhon Company – Return on June 8, 3057 Defender Company – return on August 23 Cinq Company – Return on March 18, 3056 Brawler Company – return on March 21, 3056 Delta Company – Return on February 16, 3056 Trinity Company – return on May 27, 3056. Butler Company – Return on March 18, 3056 Beta Regiment: Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056 Breaker Battalion: Trident Company – Return on Mar 24, 3056 Miner Company – return on May 27, 3056 Fallout Company - return on May 27, 3056 Shadow Battalion: Bruiser Company – Shadow Company – Sealion Company - Arrow Company – Bolt Company – return on August 23 Tank First Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055. Tank Second Battalion - EE, mining garrison, complete on June 3, 3056 Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison, Robin Hood, Union DropShip - return on August 23 Star River, Union DropShip - Scots Flotilla, Merchant JumpShip – Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip - Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip – Defiance, Overlord DropShip – |
August, Contracts!
Only Shadow Battalion and Arrow Company are on planet, and we’re not going to send it away without a major contract. We decided a long time ago to always keep a few of our forces on planet. Defender and Bolt return later this month, so I’m comfortable sending in a heavy hitting company, but not much more. Periphery – O Raid St. Ives – Security Company – Security, deep in Marik space Nah Aug 17 – We get a message from Kressly that their engineers have hit a snag in making the prototype of the Alexander. We loan them all 15 clan techs to get them back to speed. In fact ,they’ll likely be ahead of schedule with the clanners. |
August 20 –
Vegas Company Lt. Mika Sanders, elite, BattleMaster Keith Rayburn, veteran, CP-11-A Cyclops Martha Myers, veteran, CN9-D Centurion Shuhei Nakamura, veteran, CRB-27 Crab Sgt. Alison Williams, elite, Grand Crusader Henrik Jorgenson, veteran, Apollo Sarah Olongu, veteran, MAD-5M Marauder Sabrina Carter, veteran, Rifleman Sgt. Bonita Sanchez, elite, HER-5S Hermes II Tazzem Sandhu, veteran, STG-5M Stinger Reed Muelman, veteran, JVN-10F Javelin Thoma Jackson, veteran, FS9-S Firestarter I bought the Jav. Not a bad company at all. Just the Javelin, Rifleman and BM are level 1 mechs. I‘m not a super big fan of the Hermes II or Stinger, but they were among the best I had to work with. Ditto Cyclops, but I wanted to use my two big guns left for being rocks in the next company. I used the better fire support assault here to make up for the weaker Cyclops with its mighty 10 tons of armor. The only other option was a King Crab, and I didn’t want to flip that trigger just yet. The fire assault mechs are a mix mixture of ACs – Marauder and Rifleman, missiles Grand Crusader and Apollo, and laser/ppcs -Marauder and Grand Crusader and Rifleman. The Cyclops has a gauss too. |
Guile Company
Lt. Lisa Xiang, elite, BNC-3S Banshee Raven Skye, veteran, CRK-5003-2 Katana Faith Skye, veteran, Anvil Muhammad Fatil, veteran, CN9-D Centurion Sgt. Ricardo Hernez, elite, STK-5M Stalker Ronan Gascoigne, veteran, MAD-5M Marauder Logan Kale, veteran, Huron Warrior Belina Yevgina, veteran, Catapult Sgt. Lloyd Slaughter, elite, JR7-K Jenner Nikolas Vassiliadis, veteran, SHD-5M Shadow Hawk Aaron Conners, veteran, Javelin Ivory Baxter, veteran, Commando I sold a Jackal and purchased the Catapult, Commando and JVN-10N Javelin. With the Narc Beacon on the Stalker, I wanted an SRM and LRM oriented mechs. All three of those fit. We could only get vets mostly on short notice. Elites are only coming out for the Clan Tech or officers. Speaking of which, |
Tango Company
Lt. Scott Moore, elite, Kodiak Qiang Lei, elite, Grizzly Vern Saunders, veteran, Thunderbolt Meghan Royale, veteran, Hunchback Sgt. Jessica, elite (for clan), Masakari A Marie Thibadeau, elite, Galahad Jason Nunez, veteran, CRD-5M Crusader Vaughn Fields, elite, Black Hawk A Sgt. Petr Cernak, elite, Watchman Roger Ellis, elite, Peregrine Justina McKinley, veteran, JVN-10F Javelin Ruth Goldberg, veteran, LCT-1E Locust We sold the War Dog for 16 mill which we then put into various mechs I was able to find on the market. Our 16 mill budget purchases a Thunderbolt, Hunchback ,Watchman, Locust and Javelin. 5 good low tech mechs for one not that great high tech one. Jessica was an elite Nova Cat MW who was captured on Luthien by the Kell Hounds and was with them for a couple of years before deciding to leave them due to a dream she had. When we told her we were looking for a pilot to get a Masakari, she leapt at the chance. These three are collectively referred to as Scimitar Battalion, and they will make up the third battalion of Gamma Regiment. Gamma now has Shadow Battalion, Scimitar Battalion, and Breaker Battalion. Eventually I’d like to free up Shadow for itself but for now, that gives us three full Regiments of mechs. Now Braham will start recruiting a third Aerospace Fighter company |
September 1 –
Blake – Recon Raid FedCom – O Raid Drac – O Raid ComStar – O Raid That’s a lot of raids. Let’s take a look. Blake wants a military oriented recon of Moultrie. It would take us at least 6-8 months to get there. No thanks The Fedrats want us to nail the Combine world of Waldheim. It’s also very far back there. Estimated time of arrival is 13 jumps away – about 6ish months The Dracs want us for a Very Special Contract ™ ComStar wants us to hit the Cap world of Hexare. Let’s do the Caps first Vegas Company to Hexare Salvage: Shared Salary: x1.3, x3.4 x1.6, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: No, x1.05 Length: 2 months Transport: Full Vegas will arrive on January 3, 3056. |
January 1 3056 – Using ComStar flight paths and such we have arrived on Hexare. The local government has allowed some rebels to take over the HPG station and we have been asked to demonstrate the foolishness of that decision. We are to move in and blast the rebels. The most recent report has tons of infantry, about 8 mechs, and at least 5 armor.
Jan 3 – We have arrived surreptitiously at Hexare’s HPG. Jan 15 – After some studying, we believe the ComStar claim is roughly accurate. We move in to smash. Our foes: STG-3G Stinger Phoenix Hawk Vindicator Rifleman CRD-3L Crusader Victor 2x UrbanMech Saracen 2x Scimitar 2x Goblin 2x Flamer, 1 Laser, 2x Rifle, 3x Machine Gun Foot Infantry |
1 – We win init. We focus a lot of fire on the Phoenix Hawk and it falls.
2 – We win init again. Their PXH stands and runs. Our Marauder immobilizes a Scimitar.Our Jav gets a limb blown off crit on the PXH’s RA. It falls again. 3 – We win again – rar! Their PXH falls again, loses its LA, stands and runs by my Javelin – suicidal much? Our Centurion immobilizes a Goblin. An Urbie destroys the LA of our Stinger. Our BattleMaster hits the head of their Victor three times, medium laser medium laser glancing, and SRM missile. Their pilot blacks out. Our Marauder destroys the CT of an UrbanMech. After being punches and kicked, their PXH falls again. 4 – We lose init. Their crazy PXH stands again. A gauss from our Cyclops destroys the RA of the other UrbanMech. Our Jav destroys the PXH RT. It falls and destroys its LT> Also falling, our BattleMaster, their Urbie and Crusader. Our Firestarter kicks and immobilizes a Saracen. They concede and pull out of the area, and abandon the HPG station. Victor – 8 mill Goblin immobile – 600k Scimitar immobile – 720k Saracen immobile – 800k PXH RA – 425k Urbie RT, LT, RA, LA, H, LL, RL – 1.1mill Replace La of Stinger Money schtuff: This is a perfect example of a bad money contract. We salvage 11.645 mill worth of stuff, but we are on a Shared Contract, so they’ll pay us half and we can take half. The only good thing is the Victor, and it’s too heavy. So, I finish a contract with three minor vehicles, a few parts, and 5.8225 mill in salvage money. Add 609k for our salary. We pay just 550k for armor and ammo, and 250k for the Stinger arm and armor for tanks. Total paid – 800k. We get 400k off. We also pay Vegas Company for 8 months – 391k. Total made – 5.64 mill. We return on Apr 20. |
Rewind back to September.
The Draconis Combine wants to pay a powerful unit (read, Shadow Battalion) to use Wolcott as a base for raids against deep raids vs Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat. They want us for 6 months to head deep into clan space and just tear into them. They just want us to wreak havoc on the clans for 6 months. We are the only unit in the Inner Sphere to defeat 5 clans. This would give us an opportunity to beat the 6th – Nova Cat. This a great offer. The pay is outrageous and we do have the Battalion for it. We’ll have total independence, we can choose the targets using DCMS and ComStar intel and we can fight for whatever we want in Trials, so if we want 10 gauss rifles or a Daishi or another 10 elementals and suits – we can really get a lot if we win. When can we be on Wolcott? Dec 28 – This involves taking the Scots Flotilla and jumping into a few uninhabited systems to cut our travel. Normally, you jump into a habited system from one to another to another, so if your JumpShip misfires or breaks down, you are in a place that can handle it. However, systems aren’t exactly evenly spaced out 30 light years from each other. We’ll cut travel time by a month by reduce the number of jumps by two over the course of the trip. We will take the Scots Flotilla, Defiance and rent a DropShip as well. The Scots Flotilla is a merchant class JumpShip and only has two spots for DropShips. The Overlord Defiance will carry Shadow Battalion. It also has room for 6 fighters. The Scots Flotilla has room for plenty of items – it can carry 657 tons plus two “small craft” where small craft are things between 100-200 tons each, like shuttles. I’ve been using MegaMek prices for DropShips and JumpShips, but now that I’m studying the 3057 TRO that has just aerospace assets in it. It looks like they really differ. For example, I’ve mentioned that an Overlord costs 330-340 mill but 3057 says 430 mill. I’ve said a Union is way too expensive at 222 mill, but 3057 says 160 mill. That’s a big difference. The Merchant price is just 16 mill diff between the sources. From here on out I will be using the official source in Technical Readout: 3057 We will rent a DropShip to carry the rest of our AeroSpace fighters in Arrow Company, and our infantry. We’ll leave most of our holds empty for salvage. Shadow Battalion, Scots Flotilla, Defiance, Arrow Company, 4 squads of power armor infantry, 4 squads of jump infantry, and four empty ATA-2 Attilas. Salvage: Full Salary: x1.4, x4 x1.6, x1.5 if we face the clans Support: Battle Loss 50% Command: Indy Remuneration: Yes, x1.05 Length: 6 months Transport: 100% Reimbursement 50% Bonus For each completed raid against a different world, we get a 5 mill bonus. Our contract will end June 29, 3056 |
Dec 27, 3055 – We arrive at Wolcott planet and are introduced to the extensive military operation here. Tons of sparkling new mechs, fighters, DropShips, even a new IS WarShip are all in the system. There are mechs we’ve never seen before – the latest Combine stuff.
We have agreed to take aboard a Drac advisor who knows the clans and planets better than we do. She is not an official liaison, just an advisor, but she’ll be our communication with the Combine and ComStar. She’ll also send progress reports to the Combine and be their official representative to us. We have our two DropShips ready and our JumpShip is outfitted. Arrow Company has 14 fighters, and that’s a major force. Usually people assign 2 or 4 or 6 fighters to most missions, but we put them in full fledged companies with 12 at a time. When we need fighter support, we usually win by numbers alone. After talking with our contacts, they feel that planets within one jump have been raided a lot from Wolcott, so they expect it. It is recommended that we move farther away. Jan 12, 3056 – We have arrived in Juazeiro at a pirate point given to us by the Dracs not two days from the planet. Jan 14 – We arrive and issue a batchall to Nova Cat. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to decide what to take in a Trial of Possession. At the end of the day, we decide that we need more clan techs for this mission. They are all on EE. So our first Trial is just for 10 more clan techs. Nova Cat is happy to oblige us and this is not something that they consider too high. If we were to demand a JumpShip, then we’d expect a full out campaign. They want Braham Essex as their bondsman if they win. He points out that he is too old to be a warrior for them, but they mention they have an assignment for him f they were to win. They agree to meet us with two stars of Cat mechs and pilots in a large open field, with no barriers or terrain to speak of. Nova Cat: Jenner IIc Shadow Cat Prime Kingfisher A Koshi Prime Hunchback IIc Loki B Rifleman IIc Clint IIc Masakari B Mad Cat Prime All are clan elite (1/2). This is their Kingfisher, a 90 ton OmniMech design. It has 4/6 movement, 17/34 heat and max armor. The A’s weapons payload are an ER PPC, LB10-X, SRM6, ER ML, MPL, and ER SL.  We send down Sealion Company for their first anti-clan battle. |
T1 – We win init. Remember, our only goal is to destroy clan mechs and some elementals. That’s it. We focus every weapon on the Kingfisher. A Galahad gauss slug slams into the Kingfisher’s H and it is destroyed.
T2 – We lose init. I sacrifice play our Mad Cat by running it up to their Jenner IIc. Our Marauder IIc hits the gauss in their Loki’s RA and it explodes the arm. Our Galahad destroys its LA and our Grizzly its RL. The pilot blacks out. They destroy the LA on our Marauder IIc. Dead Loki. T3 - We lose init. I run our Locust over to them. I use the Grizzly this time as our sacrifice play. This time we focus fire on their Masakari. They destroy the LA of my Locust and blowoff the right one. Our Mad Cat destroys the RT of their Clint II, blows up the ammo, hits the CT engine once and it shuts down and pilot blacked out from the ammo. Our Grizzly hits their Masakari’s targeting computer. Our Grasshopper destroys its RT. T4 – We win init. Dragonfly hopped adjacent to their Jenner IIc and Koshi. Our Mad Cat has roughly 20% of its armor left. I back it up and out of the way. Their Shadow Cat destroys the Grizzly’s gauss, and the RA explodes and the pilot blacks out from the feedback. An ER PPC from our Masakari nails the Rifleman IIc in the head. Our Dragonfly blows off the LL of their Koshi. The Grizzly destroys its RT in the fall. Their Massakari and Koshi join it on the ground. We kick and destroy its RA. T5 – We lose init. Their Masakari manages to stand. Our MAD IIc destroys the LL of their Mad Cat. Our Griffin IIc adds a RT destruction. The Shadow Hawk Iic hits the Masakari’s gyro twice, dead mech. Our Mad Cat destroys theirs’ LA. Our Crusader hits its engine once and gyro twice and shuts it down. Their Hunchback IIc destroys the LA of our Griffin IIc. Their Masakari pilot blocked out from the damage, explosions and such. We offer hegira and they accept. Only their Hunchback IIc and Jenner IIc manage to survive. |
Kingfisher A missing H
Loki missing RA, LA, RL Clint II missing RT, enginex3 Masakari B missing RT, gyrox2 Rifleman IIc missing H Koshi LL Mad Cat Prime missing RT, LA, LL, gyrox2, enginex3 Us: Marauder IIc LA gone Locust, missing LA, reattach RA Grizzly, missing RA, RT Griffin IIc missing LA Loki Pilot, Jakob Clint II pilot, Kyle Masakari pilot, Sara # Clan Mechs destroyed or Captured: 6 # of maimed Clan Mechs: 2 We get 10 Clan Techs. |
We stay with Nova Cat for a few hours while they get our techs ready. They help us with our salvage and introduce us to the three unconscious MechWarriors we took as bondsman. They are quite nice. Braham asks what they would have had him do, and they mention that they need a liaison for Nova Cat to their worlds. They’ve been the nicest clan in running their worlds, and they need some assistance with that to prevent more rebellions and needless deaths. They thought a non-clan and non-ComStar voice might help. They are much warmer than the other clans we’ve visited.
We lift off on Jan 16. We are currently unable to repair our clan mechs, but we get the Locust up and running. We’ll look at salvage, what we get up and running later. Feb 7 – We have arrived in the Marshdale system. According to our intel, Smoke Jaguar has no units stationed on the world garrisoning it, but that can’t be right, so we are checking it out by arriving here and issuing a batchall. We get a response from Alpha Galaxy leader, saKhan Brandon Howell. The entire unit is on planet preparing for a Trial of Bloodright. We are not welcome to fight right now. We are invited down to the planet and Essex agrees. Feb 8 – We get to observe the Trial of Bloodright as some of the best in Smoke Jaguar vie for a Bloodname. At most, only 25 people can have the same Bloodname at a time. They are fighting for the Wirth name. It’s not one of the big names like Showers or Osis, but it is a respected MechWarrior bloodname. We have arrived just as the single elimination contest is held. Two battles are fought each day, and we are granted a major honor – to observe the Trial. Since we have fought with honor, we are being granted it. Several observers from other clans are here as well, but none from the Inner Sphere besides us. Connor Ward, who not only was Jade Falcon but won his bloodname there, is our major liaison. Feb 12 – After culling down the warriors, the final battle is held today. David, who was the favorite all along, manages to dominate his foe in a mech competition between two Daishis. David is now David Wirth. We speak with saKhan Brandon Howell, who has often showed some non-clan like thinking. He wants to know, now that the Trial is over, what we want to fight for. The planet? Mechs? “Nothing so mundane,” Braham smiles. “I have brought with us four of a mech we designed, and I would like your techs to update them with a full clan retrofit – endo steel, clan ferro armor, clan weapons, clan heat sinks, a clan engine. Then, you give us the schematics, and you can have a copy for yourself if you want them.” The saKhan accepts “I will send out David Wirth to fight for us. Just against you, one on one. We’ll do it tomorrow, here in the arena pit we used for the Trial. Everybody will still be here and this should prove entertaining. If you lose, you give us the schematics for your mech design.” “So if I win you get the schematics and if I lose you get the schematics?” “Yes.” “Very clever. Well bargained and done.” |
Feb 13 –
Braham Essex in his clan updated Orion. Vs David Wirth is his trusty Mad Cat B, with its powerful gauss rifle, LRM10 and SRM4 with Artemis, a largse pulse and small pulse lasers. It can make holes with the gauss and LPL and then find them with the missiles. With is a 1/2 elite with 2 edge. Unlike normal battles, the winner will not get the salvage of the loser. T1 – We lose. Our gauss hits his RA and his our left. We leach hit with our secondary weapons, our ER PPC and his LPL> T2 – Win. We each hit LLs with gauss. T3 - Win. Braham uses his special side step move he has like a quad mech (Ace Maneuvering) to manipulate himself behind David’s Mad Cat and blasts. It surprises David. A gauss to the RT rear goes internal and hits the engine once. An ER PPC hits David’s H but he uses edge and it hits the CT rear and shears into it. Our SRM6 and ER Small Lasers lance it and nail the engine twice more in the CT and with three engine hits, the Mad Cat shuts down. And just like that, Braham has won. Braham has 52 kills and gains Gunnery: Missile. Several clan MechWarriors congratulate Braham on his skill and defeat of David Wirth. The Jags are pretty arrogant, but Alpha Galaxy was recently blasted at Tukkayid and underwent a building process, and it looks like the saKhan grabbed some warriors for the galaxy that weren’t stereotypically extremely nasty. They are still arrogant to a fault, but there is more substance here. |
Feb 27 – Here is the new Attila
ATA-2C Attila 85 tons Endo Steel 4/6/4 XL (Upgraded engine speed and jump speed) 19/38 heat 2x ER PPC 3x SRM6 Streak 7x ER ML ER SL There are a couple of variants we looked at. One of my favorites was a variant that dropped the ER PPCs and SRM6s for double AC 10 Ultras with 4 tons of ammo and more ER lasers. With the heat distribution it already had, you could fire both Ultra AC10s as well as 5 ER Medium Lasers in one turn. That was foxy. However, we ultimately decided to keep it closer to home with its weapons payload. Each RT and LT has two jump jets, ER PPC, SRM6 Streak, 3x Medium Lasers and one ton of ammo. The CT has SRM6 Streak, the H has an ER ML. We have heat sinks in the legs and arms, and an extra ER Small laser in the left arm. We have max armor, but not ferro, because we couldn’t get both it and endo into the mech. It has a Battle Value of 3107. Only the Masakari Prime has a large BV, the other variants are lower. Warhammer IIc is 2570, the best Man O War is A at 2689, the Marauder IIc is at 2680, the Supernova is 2801, the Kingfisher C is the highest one with 2644, the Gladiator A is basically the same with 3112, the Kodiak is at 2927 and the Daishi A is at 2896, although Hohiro Kurita’s personal version is 3048. In other words, it would behoove Smoke Jaguar to make some. It would be a good mech for them. We are leaving with four made by clan techs renovating ours completely, and then full schematics on how to build it, which we can send Kressly. |
Mar 1 – We blast off from Marshdale.
Mar 21 – We have arrived at Hanover. We issue a batchall to the PGC Jaguar cluster on planet. We demand that they give us a Daishi, fully equipped, plus four OmniFighters of their choice. They agree, but demand that we turn over the four Attilas that were made to them. Maybe they like the design. We agree. Because this is another smaller demand, they will fight us in a grassy field where corn is grown. The harvest was recently, so there is only a road that runs through the area, but nothing else of note, not even trees. The Jaguar Garrison: Cauldron-Born Prime, elite Masakari C, Elite Locust IIc Marauder IIc Peregrine Behemoth Great Wyrm Highlander IIc Fenris Prime Griffin IIc This is their Cauldron-Born OmniMech, a Smoke Jaguar exclusive that weighs 65 tons, moves 5/8, is about 2 tons shy of full armor, and the Prime wields a gauss rifle, LB 5 X, LRM 10, SRM2 and ER Medium laser plus 13/26 heat.  We have sent Bruiser Company to take these guys down. They have four assault mechs – Behemoth, Masakari, Marauder Iic and Highlander IIc. However, the Cauldron-Born is their only heavy. The Peregrine and Locust IIc are lights, and the Griffin IIc, Great Wyrm and Fenris are mediums. Bruiser has a Highlander IIc and Marauder IIc as well, plus a Warhammer IIc, Atlas, and Gladiator, so we have five assaults. Bruiser was created to blast the clans. This could be a severely nasty slugfest. |
1 – We won init. I’m using my Flying Wedge formation. Remind me to tell you my tactics soon. Our Atlas destroys its RT and RA. The Highlander IIc destroys its CT. Before it goes, their Warhammer gets a LL blown off crit against our Marauder IIc.
2 – We win. I don’t want to lose parts to mechs we can’t fix, so I eject the Marauder IIc. While I would like to exploit my 5:3 assault advantage right now, I also don’t want to end up with a MAD that loses three limbs. I get our Dasher around the rear arc of their Koshi. Our Gladiator destroys the RT on their Great Wyrm. Their Highlander IIc destroys the RT of our Atlas and it shuts down. Their Locust falls. 3 – We win. Iur Highlander IIc hits the engine once and gyro twice of their Griffin IIC. Before it goes it destroys the LA of my Archer. Their Great Wyrm nails a hip on my Peregrine. All of these fall -= their Highlander, our Peregrine, their Great Wyrm. It destroys the Wyrm;s RL. Our Phoenix Hawk destroys the CT of their Locust with a well timed kick. 4 – We lose. With no weapons left their Great Wyrm pilot ejects. I stand the Peregrine and run with it. I try to finish off their Highlander IIc this turn. Our Rifleman IIc destroys its RA and our Vulture C its LT. Our PXH hits its engine and gyro once each. Our Archer adds another engine hit. It falls and hits its engine once more and gyro twice more 5 – We win init. We focus weapons on their 100 ton Behemoth. Our Rifleman IIc destroys its LT. Their Peregrine hits an engine on our Gladiator and then it’s RT is destroys by their Masakari. Our Warhammer IIc and Gladiator team up to attack their Fenris and each destroys an arm. The Warhammer IIc kicks and destroys the LL of their Behemoth. 6 – We lose init. We eject the Gladiator. Their Fenris ejects due to no weapons. Despite the fact that their Behemoth is missing its whole left side, it manages to stand. Our Peregrine hits an engine and gyro once each on their Behemoth. Our Dasher hits the gauss in their Cauldron-Born’s RA, it explodes and the pilot blacks out. Our Archer destroys the CT of their Behemoth. Our Warhammer IIc destroys the RA of their Masakari. Our PXH tumbles. 7 – We lose. With just two mechs left – Masakari and Peregrine, they accept hegira. |
Pretty tough battle on that one. They managed to do a bit of damage to you more than usual, it seems. Perhaps it's just perception on my part, though.
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Behemoth LA, H, RL , RT, RA
Great Wyrm missing RT, RL Warhammer IIc LT, LA, H, RL, LL Griffin IIc enginex2, gyrox2 Locust IIc RT, LT< RA, LA, H, Rl, LL Highlander IIc missing RA, LT, enginex3, gyrox3 Cauldron Born missing RA Fenris missing RA, LA Marauder IIc, attach LL Atlas missing RT Archer missing LA Gladiator missing RT We’ll look at salvage later, but we can repair the Atlas and Archer on the way to our next stop. Cauldron Born Pilot – 2/3 veteran # Clan Mechs destroyed or Captured: 14 # of maimed Clan Mechs: 3 We have gained a Daishi Prime and 4 OmniFighters chosen randomly later. |
Quote:
Yeah, "Never underestimate the clans," should be my mantra |
Mar 23 - We lift off from Hanover.
Apr 12 – We have arrived at the Rockland System. In this system is a Smoke Jaguar Invader Jump Ship and some fighters currently engaging in battle with a group of fighters and a pair of assault DropShips. We hail the attackers, but they refuse to respond. Our liaison identifies them as pirates that operate outside of clan space and then nip in to attack and raid. They also stole a vital DropShip from the Dragon ,which we are staring at. We hail the Jaguars, and offer our aid. It looks like they are losing, and our fighters are 20 minutes away. They refuse our aid. Braham asks, “Are you sure you don’t need help against these honorless scum?” The Jaguars still refuse. Braham orders his fighters to assemble and get ready to be deployed. We wait the battle for a bit, and then when the pirate are about to win, we dispatch our fighters. The Jaguar Invader JumpShip has been defeated, and with their attention on it, our 14 fighters get in real close. We have not yet assigned the OmniFighters, so they are in storage. Our fighters come in against their first assault ship, a simple Avenger. The Avenger is one of the cheapest assault DropShips. Assault DropShips are meant to be used in battles like this. They don’t transport goods or military assets, but they just bring the heat. The Avenger doesn’t even carry fighters. It was damaged by the Clan fighters and we move in and begin firing at it. Its weapons nail one of our Sparrowhawks and its engine is damaged. It is out of the fight. Our other thirteen fighters tear into the armor of the Avenger and knock it out. The rest of their unit turns to face us. Our Merchant JumpShip has no weapons, and that’s why we brought Arrow Company along. It has turned so that our DropShips are facing the enemy, leaving weapons up if they come our way, but they are not so far. They only have 4 fighters left after the battle. They clearly outnumbered the clans, but the Jaguars put up a good fight. What they do have is the other DropShip, and that’s something. Say hello to a freshly minted Okinawa, stationed at Wolcott for raiding, purposes our liaison tells us it carries 20 fighters and all new level two tech. This one was stolen, and our advisor informs us that the Dragon would be really grateful for its return. I intend to capture all of the assets here. The Avenger’s aft is destroyed and we can go in and take it out at our leisure. Now we are focusing on the Okinawa and its severe weapons. It takes a while to turn in space, it’s not like atmosphere flying where it’s quite easy to bank and roll. Much of vacuum fighting is about vectors and thrusts. We move in, and the long range ER PPCs, ER Large Lasers and LRM20s of their Okinawa tear into our other Sparrowhawk and destroy it in a ball of fire. Meanwhile, we dice a lot of damage into its left side. Their other four fighters have closed and fire level one tech weapons at our fighters and just scrape a Shilone. We respond with more weapons, but our momentum is now carrying us past the left side of the DropShip. More weapons fire takes out two Corsairs. Both are just severely damaged with massive engine damage and out of the fight. Our remaining ten fighters tear into their squads as we start to turn to refocus on the DropShip and we destroy one of their two remaining Hellcats. It explodes. They continue to focus fire on the Shilone, but only one hits. Now that we’ve turned, our thrust is taking us back to the DropShip. We fire first and dice into its right side. Weapons fire and destroy the Lucifer completely into little pieces. We see the pilot made it out. Their fighters aren’t oriented right and can’t attack. Another slice from the DropShip scares the Transgressor pilot, but does not do more than blast most of the armor away. We continue to hammer at the right side armor and now we pass again. DropShips have weapons in various arcs, we we’ve reentered the left side arc. We did manage to destroy an LRM 20 facing the right side though. Once again we have to concentrate on the fighters and we disable two more, leaving only a Hellcat. The disabled ones were a pair of Lightnings. They tear into our third Corsair and disable it, as well as finally disabling the Shilone as well. Our remaining fighters knife into the weakened left side and crumple the armor, with various weapons going internal. Braham beams a message that we won’t turn them over to the Combine if they surrender now. The Okinawa signals its surrenders and begins to power down. It has down one fighter left vs our seven remaining and two torn up sides and us still with another turn of attacking the internal left side. |
We move out to land on the planet and issue a batchall to the 17th Garrison Cluster of the Smoke Jaguars. We aren’t on a contract to grab stuff in aerospace but to destroy stuff on the planets.
We drop forces on the Invader and capture it. We also have captured the Okinawa and we can easily salvage the Avenger. We want to contact Wolcott and rent a DropShip tug to grab a JumpShip and arrive here in Hanover, so our advisor contacts the DCMS and they will be here with their military JumpShip and tugs for us. We are a few jumps away, so it will be a while. Meanwhile, we start salvaging. We lost: Both Mabel and her Sparrowhawk Lucifer, but pilot survived Corsair – After looking, it was more badly hit than we thought and is just scrap We also captured a ton of salvage, including several fighters on both sides we can salvage: 3 OmniFighters 5 Pirate Fighters I’ll figure it out later. We’ll need about 15 mill to replace and fix everything, plus about 10 mill to get these fighters up and running. Apr 14 – Their JumpShip arrives back in system, expecting them to have won or lost brilliantly. We turn over all of their people back to them. They head back out. |
April 17 – We arrive at Rockland planet and issue a batchall. We might as well do what we came here for. We want them to fix all of our clan mechs, including up to three from the battle if we win. They agree, but they want their Invader JumpShip back if they win. We tell them that an Invader is worth way more than fixing some mechs, so they offer a star of garrison mechs of our choice. We take it.
The Smokes: Nobori-Nin B, elite Mad Cat Prime, elite Grendel Prime Loki A Guillotine IIc Supernova Shadow Hawk IIc Galahad Phoenix Hawk IIc Jenner IIc Since our other squads have damaged mechs, we are sending out Shadow Company, with its 11 inner sphere mechs, an Orion with clan tech weapons, and 2 points of elementals. They choose to fight in a area with hills, trees, a few very small mudholes and a bit of rough patches here and there |
T1 – We lose init. Our forces focus weapons mostly on the Jenner IIc because it exposed itself up on a hill with a +3 to hit modifier. Our Flashman destroys its LA, the Orion its LT, and our Zeus its CT.
T2 – We win this time. I have taken the woods in the center of the map. In a blatant example of a Light Mech Shield, I hope my Phoenix Hawk right by their Galahad. Our Gallowglas hits two engines on their Galahad and our Grand Crusader hits its head with missiles and nails the gyro. It falls, and in the fall, the pilot blacks out. Their Mad Cat nails the gauss ammo on our Orion. T3 – Tac Genius wins us init. Phoenix Hawk by their Nobori-Nin. The Orion;s LT and Rt are both destroyed. Their Galahad’s cockpit is hit by a large laser from our Flashman. Their Mad Cat suffers some serious fire power, falls, lands on its H and destroys it. The Nobori’ Nin’s LA is blown off and on the ground. We punt the head with our PXH but don’t go internal. T4 – We win init. Braham ejects from his Orion. We focus a lot of fire on their Supernova. They hit an engine on our PXH. Our Zeus destroys the Supernova’s RA and hits its engine twice. Their Supernova’s reactor has shut down from too much heat. It falls. T5 – We lose. We don’t have Braham’s tactical genius to reroll anymore. I hop the Lynx by their Supernova and our Starslayer follows. Their Nobori’Nin stands, fans, hits its head and is destroyed. Our Starslayer takes out the H of their Supernova. T6 – We win init. Our Flashman nails a gyro once on their Phoenix Hawk IIc. We focused a lot of fire on their Guillotine IIc. Our Gallowglas took damage and fell. Their PXH IIc fell and the pilot blacked out. T7 – We lose init. Our Gallowglas stands and runs behind some trees. We run our Talon by their downed and blacked out mech. Flashman by their Shadow Hawk IIc an above. An AC20 to the Loki’s CT by our Shootist nails the engine twice. Our Flashman kicks and punts the head of their Shadow Hawk IIc, dead mech. T8 – We lose init. Our Flashman destroys the Guillotine IIc’s RT. Their Loki’s RA and LA are annihilated by my Lynx and Starslayer. My Talon destroys its RL and hits the CT engine and shuts it down. Our Apollo hits the engine x3 and gyro once on their Guillotine IIc. We offer hegira and they accept, with just a Grendel left. |
Phoenix Hawk IIc, gyrox1
Loki A missing RL, RA, LA, enginex3 Guillotine IIc missing RT, enginex3, gyrox1 Shadow Hawk IIc missing H. Supernova missing H, RA, enginex2 Mad Cat missing H Jenner IIc, H, RT, RA, LL, RL Galahad, enginex2, gyrox1, cockpit Nobori Nin B missing H, reattach LA Orion missing RT and LT PXH enginex1 Phoenix Hawk IIc pilot.2/3 We have defeated the Jaguars, and they will fix the mechs we captured, plus three from this battle. I choose the Guillotine IIc, Supernova and Shadow Hawk IIc. Our pilots can fix the Phoenix Hawk IIc and Galahad to get them up and running. We select the following five mechs from their garrison: Warhammer IIc, Goshawk, Behemoth, Man o War A, Rifleman IIc, - The Behemoth and Supernova do not have Endo Steel or Ferro, so we could repair them easily. Experience for all of my peops: Bruiser – Chester, Highlander IIc, gains gunnery – now 1/3 Shadow – Laine Hall, Talon, Edge: 1; Katya Dovich, Starslayer, Edge: 1; Catherine Politska, Zeus, Edge:1; Ricardo Diaz, Flashman, Edge: 2 We captured these bondsmen: Ike, 2/3 Jakob, 1/2 Kyle, 1/2 Sara. 1/2 Greg, 2/3 Erica, 1/2, pilot Jessica, 1/2, pilot |
Apr 23 – The DCMS arrives in large style. We spent the time fixing and repairing and salvaging.
After getting estimates, it will cost us about 10 mill to fix the Avenger. It’s worth 70 mill when up and running, so we do authorize that. The Pirates badly hurt the Invader, but we can fix it with about 80 million worth of work, and 4 months of time in a full blown repair facility. This is not a clan upgrade of an Invader, but s Star League era one the clans use for transport. It’s the transport one for the PGC below. There was a clan DropShip that was destroyed before we arrived that carried their OmniFighters, but it was lost in the battle. We didn’t even know, because it exploded into pieces before we arrived. This is a PPC Invader, in case you care. They have spots for three DropShips and virtually no weapons at all, save for clearing out asteroids and debris. That’s why it was relying so much on the Fighters for defense. The Okinawa is contentious. It is ours by right. We captured it in a place that was not Combine space, from a group that was not the Combine, and not while doing a contract which asked us to do so. We did it on our own. We are not asking for money for this battle, due to battle loss, because it was not part of the contract, but we were asked to hold up by the DCMS until they could arrive on scene. They want the Okinawa back, and that is clear. We would be within our rights to keep it, or go sell it to the Federated Commonwealth to help show DCMS military secrets. They offer to buy it back at 50% of its price. It costs 410 mill, so that would be 205 mill straight up. That is enticing. When will I want a fighter carrying Okinawa? We focus on mechs! We’re not invading star systems. However, I make an alternate offer. We will trade the Okinawa instead. We’ll trade it straight up for an Overlord that they haven’t updated yet. It’s worth 430 mill on the market, that’s a bit in our favor, and more so when you consider the Okinawa is damaged. That’s too much, but they agree to the idea of a trade. Since it’s clear we like the Okinawa, how about an obsolete Vengeance? It’s a better fighter carrier and cheaper too. Perhaps you want it? Now that’s tempting. It’s a DropShip that carries 40 fighters! It can’t even go into atmospheres, but it is its own assault fleet. Add the Avenger and another assault DropShip and some fighters and you could do some serious damage. You could jump into a system, and release your fleet and just take merchant ships all over the place. I don’t want too, I’m not a pirate, but you could always have Aerospace superiority, in every battle. Your fighters would always shuck aside their 2 or 6 or 10 and just devastate battlefields. It’s a powerful DropShip. It would change our unit. Now they are offering one that is not upgraded, and it’s worth 350 million. We tell them we want them to fix the Avenger and Invader and it’s a deal. They offer to do it at cost only, which is about 70% of the original cost. We accept. We have gained: Avenger DropShip Vengeance DropShip Invader JumpShip |
Nice, a Jumpship!
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Apr 24 – After getting things recharged, we enter the Schwartz System. This is an isolated system back in the back of the Combine Area, but it’s an Agricultural world. Our Draconis Combine advisor lets us know that no one have jumped here in a long time. It’s a low priority farming planet. We arrive and find a familiar sight, a Smoke Jaguar WarShip in flight. We hail them and do the normal – we inform them that we are here for a Trial of Possession and would like safcon to the world around us. Safcon or safe conduct, means that when heading to a Trial, you will not be attacked by them. Their CO is on the ground, but they have the power to agree and we head in.
Apr 26 – Two days into our trip to the planet, something happens. We notice that there is a lot of traffic in this system. It looks like the Smoke Jaguar WarShip, the Lioness, is getting resupplied because there is a constant buzz of ships ferry supplies to and from the planet. We can tell as we get closer. Schwartz is probably the Jaguar main food depot, since its way back into their space and it’s a big food producer. |
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If you think that's nice, just wait... |
With abated breath sir! Please don't make me suffocate on it!
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Alright, let’s talk. There are a few BattleTech products that really pissed off fans when published. I can think of four off the top of my head – Unbound, Far Country, Wars of Reaving and Living Legends.
Unbound was an adventure that took place on Solaris VII in 3053 and introduces a ton of new technology to the games, including new missiles, center torso cockpits, and tons of new weapons. This wasn’t what a lot of fans wanted. But the obvious hunger that a lot of people had for this book’s technology forced a lot of later product to include these sorts of things in them. Far Country was a novel where Drac forces crash land on a planet in an unknown place after a jump failure. They find that another Drc force crash landed there in the same circumstances more than 500 years ago, and that the plane had an intelligent bird like species that could talk, communicate, fight and more. The whole point of BattleTech was that this was a universe with no intelligent alien life. There are alien creatures, planets, diseases and more, but not intelligent species. We are our own heroes ad our own villains. Far Country felt off. The Wars of Reaving was released in August of this year and details a severe time in the Clan Homeworlds. It’s a recently released book, so no spoilers – but wow. Because this one book has a severe amount of change all in one source, some feel that it overstepped the bounds of the clans and pushed too much. Perhaps. I think it created a situation of realistic severity and then backed away from the obvious conclusion in order to not have as much overhaul as possible. The final book that I think did not resonate with a lot of fans was Living Legends. It takes place any time between 3052 and 3058 in a remote system in the Draconis Combine called Schwartz. In this, something happens that, while technically possible within the scientific context of the universe, just feels off. It’s Far Country in adventure form. No other source or book has ever referred to the events in here again. It just wasn’t popular with the fans, so no one talked about it. It’s 100% canonical, but has no impact beyond the story itself. I guess we just assume that one of the ending where everything is destroyed and killed is the one that actually happens, but even still, this event should be mentioned everywhere. I have a few adventures in the queue for later chapters in our adventure, but I haven’t run any of the ones in the 3050’s so far. Adventures tend to focus on one of a few things – one unit’s battles and history or a major campaign in one place. I have adventures for Luthien and Tukkayid, but we weren’t at either major battle of the Clan Invasion. I was already doing this contract deep in Jaguar space, and then, 3/4s of the way through, it hit me that this fits here, for us. It makes sense in this run through. So, what happens when we spin Living Legends a bit? But what if you aren’t working for ComStar as a mercenary group, but for the Combine? What if the events that occurred, whenever I wanted to place them, happened to have a third group in Schwartz in addition to ComStar operatives and Jaguars? What would be the result? Say hello to Living Legends…  |
April 28 – Two days more into our burn for the world, something happens. Our JumpShip and their WarShip are both at the Zenith Point. Then, something jumps in. It’s another WarShip! It looks…odd.
The WarShip doesn’t resemble any we’ve read about or seen. Granted, we aren’t experts in naval warfare. But, we see them regularly in clan space. The Captain of our Overlord DropShip, the Defiance, doesn’t know either. No one has seen this before. Our JumpShip is directly in the line of their communication, since they are all at the Zenith point. They send us what the conversation is. It takes a bit to arrive to us, but this is what we hear: “This is the SLDF WarShip Manassas. Unidentified vessel, can you give us an ID? Repeat, this is the WarShip Manassas. Please Identify” Pause for a bit. “This is the WarShip Lioness of the Clan Smoke Jaguar Naval Reserve. You will standby and await further instructions.” Long pause. Perhaps a minute. “Please clarify your ID, Lioness. To what corps is the Clan Smoke Jaguar Naval Reserve attached?” Another pause. “Manassas, the name of your captain is James Cromwell?” “Yes, Lioness.” “You will await the return of our commanding officer Star Colonel Anton Wirth.” Over the next fifteen minutes, the Manassas tries to contact Lioness, but to no avail. The Zenith point is 8 days from the planet. We are just under half of that. It will take the CO at least 8 days to return, and that’s if he gets on board a DropShip right now. What is going on? Our records have no indication of the SLDF Manassas, but the name James Cromwell? That we know. James Cromwell was the hero of Somerset and Terra, two separate major battles for General Kerensky during his battle against the Amaris Coup and takeover of the Star League, less than 300 years ago. Essex decides to have the JumpShip Scots Flotilla try to contact the Manassas on a tight laser beam transmission. It’s clear the Jaguars didn’t care if we heard them, but we don’t want to return that courtesy, at least not yet. It takes five minutes for the signal to be replayed to us and then five minutes so return back to the JumpShip. This is a slow conversation, we identify ourselves as the JumpShip Scots Flotilla and I am Col. Braham Essex. They’d like to know what’s going on, so we introduce ourselves as a mercenary outfit currently working for the Draconis Combine. These are not words they understand, so we give them a cliffs notes version – the Inner Sphere is shattered into smaller groups and no longer united. However, we are currently experiencing an invasion of these clans from outside the Inner Sphere. We offer to meet with them on our JumpShip. We can return in four days, and be at least four days ahead of when the Jaguar co returns, and give them an intel briefing. After a long pause, they agree, but they want us to come aboard their vessel. |
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