The Battletech Dynasty, Chapter 1 - 3030-38
 

Hello all and welcome to my newest dynasty. A while ago, I played through over a decade as a mercenary commander building his own company using various rulesbooks in the Classic BattleTech universe and several programs.

It began when I encountered a program called MegaMek, a freeware way of playing BattleTech, typically online with a human, but you can add Bots to the game. What I do I use a variety of guidebooks and rulebooks, roll some dice, make some choices, then select a contract for my mercenaries to take. After taking that contract, I fight the battle against a Bot, and then I tally the results, including our pay, losses, and salvage.

Now, obviously it’s a lot more complex than that, but for a practiced hand like myself, its pretty good.

Interested?

Here’s is the detail:


I will create my own character using the rules of BattleTech. I will then create a story, faction allegiance, and so forth for the character. After doing that, I get certain advantages and disadvantages based on the Mercenary Handbook, and other rule books. Using these advantages and disadvantages, I’ll make some rolls, and recruit my initial unit with various BattleMechs, techs, pilots, and so forth.

Then I will use rolls to determine the contracts that people are willing to drop on my newly minted mercenary unit, which will be bad contracts at first. As my unit gets better, bigger, and more skilled, our mercenary rating will rise, which should net us better contracts.

Every pilot in my command will have gunnery and piloting skills, and as they get kills, their skills will increase. There are also some skills that pilots of mechs and vehicles can get, and it is possible that my pilots will get those.

When I play MegaMek, I will need to determine a list of options to use. Over the years, BattleTech had numerous optional rules sets released, and some are better than others, and most are available on MegaMek.

I will then go and fight the contract (in those that have a combat component), then I will relate the battle, highlights, and losses. I may lose pilots or mechs/vehicles or materiel to battle.

Then I come back, and make repairs, purchase new equipment, and so forth, before heading out again.

I will keep track of the campaign in actual time to travel to the planet, fulfill the contract, and then return.

Well, that’s the campaign. I’ll also inform when major events occur that will change the rules of the game. (Examples include the “Death to all Mercenaries” decree by the Draconis Combine, the War of 3039, Grey Death Legion’s discovery of the Lostech Core, The Clan Invasion, Operation: Scorpion, Xin Sheng, and so forth.)

I love the Inner Sphere and the history of the Battletech universe, and I enjoy the interesting sci-fi setting, which is fully fleshed out and highly realistic. However, I hate the way WizKids ended decades of development with the Jihad and Devlin Stone, so I want to ultimately build an empire that can survive the Jihad and become the salvation of the Inner Sphere, but that would require a long play, through decades of time and ever increasing complexity, and I have no illusions that we would get that far.

Allow me to introduce you to BattleTech’s world, and what I am inserting myself into.



Due to combined military efforts against rogue states, a coalition of western democracies and eastern power states resigns from the ineffective UN to form a new alliance. While retaining their independence, the power of the Alliance Parliament grew as it gained increasing power. Over time, more states joined the AP, and among other things, the AP fostered significant scientific research. By 2024, the AP had replaced the UN fully.

This era of significant research led to the several major discoveries over the next century. Myomers, a plastic that could react like muscle tissue was created, and two scientists at Stanford released a paper to the chagrin of their colleagues that destroyed many accepted ideas of physics. The most important discovery is the invention of the fusion nuclear engine.

Around 2100, the ideas of Kearny and Fushida have come to be accepted as true. The century saw the colonization of several planets in the solar system, as well as the commercialization of the asteroid belt, as companies moved asteroids to sub-orbital platforms around Earth and carved them up for minerals.

In 2102, scientists announced the greatest scientific breakthrough of the era, as a faster-than-light drive is believed to be true. The drive works by accelerating through K-F space, named after the scientists whose ideas were the foundation of the science.

From 2102 until 2313 the era of the Exodus took place. K-F Drives began to fuel ships to the stars. By 2116 the first colony was established outside of the Terran solar system in Tau Ceti IV. By 2172, more than 100 human settlements were spread across a sphere 80 light years in diameter, with Terra in the center. By 2235 that number rose to 600.

As humanity advances towards the stars, they note the lack of alien life. However, that will not translate into a lack of peace.

In 2235, a coalition of fringe worlds broke off from the Terran Alliance, which was surprised to discover that they could not easily retake the worlds. After 18 months of war, the Outer Reaches Rebellion took place, and after no decision had been reached, the ruling Expansionist Party was ousted from office and the Liberal party took over. They declared the war over, and gave the rebels their land, and also released many other colonies that were outside of a 30 light year sphere around Terra, whether they wanted it or not, leaving the other worlds to find for themselves.

By 2313, Expansionist and Liberal parties kept changing hands, continuing to change the policies of the previous administrations, and locking the Terran Alliance in gridlock decade after decade.

In September of 2314, Fleet Admiral James McKenna intervened after actual war broke out between the Expansionist and Liberal parties, ending the short war, and declaring himself the ruler of a new state, the Terran Hegemony. Using military, political and economic tools at his command, he slowly began to expand the Hegemony back into the territory the Terran Alliance had bequeathed.

By 2339, the year of McKenna’s death, over 100 systems had been added back to the Hegemony. Michael Cameron succeeds his uncle and begins the Cameron dynasty, the most important dynastic family in human history.

In 2398,the Free Worlds League and the Cappellan Confederation begin a bloody war, both states laying outside the confines of the Terran Hegemony. In 2412, a particular bloody battle in the war results in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians which leads to the signing of the Ares Conventions by all major states, rules to conflict that are more honorable.

The Ares Convention confined war, but it also perpetuated it. During the 25h century, the Inner Sphere is constantly embroiled in warfare, but an honorable one. Disputes turn into combat and strife.

The Terran Hegemony developed the first BattleMech, the Mackie, in 2439, and quickly moved to using them as the backbone of their military forces. Eventually, mechs would be moved to industrial and agricultural and terraforming roles.

In 2551, Ian Cameron, 13th Cameron in the line, negotiates peace between the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League, and wins the gratitude of their leaders. They also sign secret three way mutual defense pacts, open trade, and more.

By 2571, Ian used his diplomacy skills to bring the Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine with the same treaties. Calling the new state the Star League, Ian waged war against the periphery states which ended in 2596 with the capitulation of the final periphery state.

The Golden Age of the Star League began. For 150 years, until 2750, technology increased, trade expanded, and a new wave of colonization began. The greatest invention of this era was the Hyper-Pulse Generators, which could send signals through K-F space, decreasing communication time to a few months from one side of the Inner Sphere to another.

In early 2751, Simon Cameron died in an accident, and his young son was the heir. The Council declared young Richard Cameron as his heir and Alexandr Kerensky, the admiral, his Regent and Protector. However, the council (formed of the heads of the five previous states), began to pass decries allowing for larger private armies and such.

In 2762, Richard Cameron turned 18 and began to rescind the council’s previous orders, and went even further, ordering the complete disbanding of all house armies. This began a long conflict, in which Alexandr Kerensky was ordered to take all Star League forces out into the war.

One of Richard Cameron’s true allies, Stefan Amaris, transferred his personal units as Cameron’s bodyguard on Terra, until he saw his opportunity and killed Cameron, and declaring himself the new Lord.

Seeing this, Kerensky immediately declared a ceasefire with the houses and began the long journey back to Terra. Over years the battle raged, until 2779 when Kerensky killed Amaris and again declared himself Regent of the Star League. At this, the house lords rebelled, and issued an edict declaring Kerensky a traitor. Tired of the war and the mess made of the Star League, Kerensky choose to leave with over 80% of the Star league forces, taking them with him into the deep periphery beyond the unknown.



And that is the end of the Star League and the dream. For what happened next, see the next post.

With the absence of the Star League Defense Force, the individual houses reform their original states and move to war. Thus began the Succession Wars.

The First Succession War ran from 2787 to 2821. The war was devastating, with the Ares Convention disregarded. Weapons nuclear and chemical were unleashed. The destruction of infrastructure was a key wartime goal, so factories and drydocks were destroyed en masse.

The Second Succession War ran from 2830 to 2864 and was just as bloody and deadly. Planets were torn apart, and many colonies were abandoned because of the cataclysmic hit that trade took during this time. Colonies that had evolved specialized economies took especial hits, and infrastructures on colonies were often destroyed, requiring evacuation.

By the end of the Second Succession War, it was no longer easy to build advanced computers, large fusion plants, and parts were cannibalized to keep fighting machines in repair. With resources dedicated to keeping machines fit, instead of research and development, technology began a slow downward spiral.

During the Third Succession War, began just two years later in 2866 until around 2925 and saw a different kind of war. With production of jumpships down to a trickle, aerospace assets were respected, and not attacked. The few factories left were not destroyed, but fought over with the loser retreating and hoping to recapture it later. A gentlemanly form of war emerged, often allowed techs onto battle on each side to recover tech.

With slashes in infrastructure and colonies, and the downward spiral of a dark age, feudalism rose again on various planets, although many would still cling to democracy, meritocracy, and so forth. Periphery states emerged hosting pirates, dispossessed and refugee alike.

For a century, this depressed state lasted, with occasional flare ups. Seeing the increased poverty of her people, in 3020, Archon Katrina Steiner, of the Lyran Commonwealth issued peace decrees to the other House leaders, but only Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns responded.

After negotiations, they came to peace, forged an alliance, and signed a pact for Hanse Davion to marry Katrina’s daughter, Melissa Steiner, which would unite two of the successor states for the first time. Uniting the strongest military (Fed Suns) with the strongest economy (Lyrans) was a smart match.

In 3022, the other three successor states signed a hasty set of alliances and peace accords as well, to match the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth.

In early 3028, the Grey Death Legion, while on Helm, discovers a the Helm Memory Core, a computer bank with technical information from the Star League era. They distribute this to all of the successor states but it will take a while before Lostech will trickle out.

On 20 August, 3028, after reaching 18 years of age, Melissa Steiner and Hanse Davion were united in marriage. With all of the successor lords present, Hanse Davion pledges to his new bride a great gift. The Capellan Confederation.

With that decree, the Fourth Succession War began.

By the end of the day, nine Cappellan worlds were attacked by Fed Suns’ forces. The main weight of the Fed Suns attack came against the Cappellan Confederation, and within months, it was cut in half by the Fed Suns, while 18 worlds would split off and declare independence as the St. Ives Compact. Part of the Caps declared independence as the Tikonov Free Republic, and a year later, would vote to join the Fed Suns.

Lyrans attack the Draconis Combine, with the Dracs losing 53 systems, but they would strike back, hurting the Lyrans for around 15 systems themselves.

Having achieved their victories, Katrina Steiner and her stepson Hanse Davion declare peace with the other successor states. ComStar (which will be discussed later) had intervened by interdicting the Fed Suns, until they capitulated and declared peace.

One of the colonies in the Tikonov Free Republic is Outreach. Outreach is granted by Hanse Davion to Wolf’s Dragoons, the preeminent mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere. Wolf’s Dragoons begins to turn Outreach into the central processing headquarters of mercenary units across the Inner Sphere.

Emboldened by the successes, the Duchy of Andurien, a large chunk of the Free Worlds League, has declared independence in September of 3030.

It is January 1, 3031. The Fourth Succession War has ended, the Free Tikonov Republic has joined the Fed Suns, Outreach is becoming the central area for mercenaries, and I arrive with my unit and mechs.

History awaits.

awesome. I should re-download MegaMek sometime :)

Great idea for a dynasty, will be following.

I looooved Battletech, from the Succession Wars all the way till the Clan stuff. Dark Ages though I never bothered with.

A quick overview of the political entities of the Inner Sphere:


Draconis Combine - Led by House Kurita, the Draconis Combine is currently engaging in war with all mercenaries, so no contracts will come from the House itself, but some could come from minor Drac barons, industries, and so forth. With a samurai culture and Japanese society, the Draconis Combine is a nouveau Japan.

Federated Suns - Led by Hanse Davion, the Fed Suns are a British based society, regularly at war with the Capellans and the Dracs. It has the strongest military and just gained massive numbers of planets from the Capellans.

Lyran Commonwealth - Led by House Steiner, the Lyrans have a German based society, including the usage of terms like leftenant. It has the strongest economy and gained about a dozen worlds from the Free Worlds League and about 40 worlds from the Dracs.

Free Worlds League - A loose alliance led by House Marik with an Arabian and Mediterranean feel to it. There are always issues with the various states that are a part of the FWL. It has the strongest industrial base.

Capellan Confederation - Led by the insane Maximillian Liao, this was always the fifth strongest of the houses, but after the abject devastation of the Fourth Succession War, it is now seen by many as barely stronger than a periphery state. It has a Chinese influence.

The Periphery - Several minor states have formed out here, with varying levels of power and economy. The top three states are the Outworlds Alliance, Taurian Concordat, and Magistacy of Canopus. A place for bandits, dispossessed, religious fanatics, refugees, and the impoverished.

ComStar - Taking over the HPG stations after the fall of the Star League, ComStar is a quasi-religious order that controls communication between the stars and has taken covert missions to keep the Inner Sphere in a balanced state.

St. Ives Compact - This small state consisting of former Capellan worlds is rich but small, and will need help from allies to survive against the Cappellan Confederation.

Duchy of Andurien - The newest state of the lot is the newly independent Duchy of Andurien, near the edge of Free Worlds League space. They are now moving on the battered and beaten Cappellan Confederation, with the hope of annexing enough worlds to solidfy themselves as a major power.

Glad to see a couple already interested!

Is there something online like this for Battlesystem?

You can play MegaMek online, there are several leagues - top one is MMnet and the Mekwars engine.

http://www.mekwars.org/

But there is no Battlesystem, AeroTech, MechWarrior, ClanTroops or any of the other smaller systems.

Okay, thanks. :)

I do have an idea for a new dynasty using Battlesystems though... looks like I'll have to do it by hand, but it should be fun.

On the Nature of Transit

I love the slowness of the universe.

The K-F Drive is not some deus ex machina like in many scifi stories, like warp speed or hyperspace. Going through K-F space requires a massive amount of energy, and the vast size of the engines required to use this energy prevents a JumpShip from entering atmospheres.

A JumpShip jumps into a system, then unfurls giant solar cell chargers, paper thin made of metal. It can take between 8 and 14 days to recharge the batteries enough for another jump. You can only jump around 30 light years with one charge, so you have to jump, charge, then jump again, making travel very long. It can take a year to get from one side of the Inner Sphere to the other, which is around 1000 light years across.

JumpShips have to arrive in the Nadir or Zenith points in the system, where gravity is nullified by the various laws of magnetics. Then, DropShips detach from the JumpShip to land on the local planets, while other DropShips are dispatch to attach to the JumpShip.

Using mathematical models, it is possible to discover temporary eddies in the gravitational fields in a system, and jump into these eddies, called Pirate Points. It’s dangerous. Get one calculation wrong, and the Pirate Point could be a lot farther away, and jump accidents are known to happen. These can cut days off the time to get from a JumpShip to a planet by DropShips, so it is sometimes used in assaults.

As a mercenary, I am expected to purchase my own transit to the place of choice, and then back to Outreach.

Mechs and Combat

In order to relate to you the battles, changes and so forth that I will be doing, I need to explain how BattleMechs are designed.

Mechs are assigned a tonnage between 20 and 100. 3 tons goes to the cockpit automatically. 10% of the weight goes to the internal structure automatically. Then a mech is given an engine. To determine the speed of the mech, you divide the engine rating by the tonnage of the mech. A 30 ton mech with a 240 engine walks at a speed of 8, whereas a 40 ton mech with the same engine walks 6, and a 60 ton mech walks just 4. You then have to give your mech a gyro, which can be between 1 and 4 tons depending on engine size.

Engines have significantly increased weight as they go up in rating, and thus there is a give and take involved. After assigning weight for engine, gyro, internal structure and cockpit, the remaining weight can be divided between weapons and equipment on one side, and armor on the other. The maximum amount of armor a mech can have is 20% of the weight of the mech, double the internal structure.

Weapons and equipment take up internal space in a mech, and there is only so much space. Each component of a mech (left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, left torso, right torso, center torso and head) has differencing amounts of space, with some slots already taken with things like the engine, sensors, actuators, cockpit, gyro, and so forth.

When a mech is targeted by weapons fire, and a hit is determined, 2d6 are rolled to determine the hit location (usually). You’ll hit the head only on a 12, and you’ll go straight to internal structure on a 2. Otherwise, damage is dealt to various components based on the dice roll. There are also various charts for firing at the side, rear, top or bottom of a mech.

If you roll a 2 for location (which is an auto critical), or you strip away all of the external armor off a location and it goes internal, then you have a chance for a critical, and roll some dice to see if you get criticals, and how many. You might hit any equipment in the area.

Weapons generate heat, and some use ammo. Ammo, if hit, will cause a massive explosion that will likely result in the destruction of the mech. Better hope your pilot ejects first! That makes ammo weapons dangerous, but they generate less heat. Your engine comes with 10 heat sinks already, and you can add more. Each additional heat sink disperses one heat, takes up one critical and weighs one ton.

Laser weapons are light, deal a solid amount of damage, and generate a bunch of heat. Particle Projection Cannons are the most destructive weapons in the era in which I am fighting, dealing ten damage to one location, with a great range, but making a bunch of heat (10). An AC-20 will deal massive amounts of damage, 20, to one location, but are massively heavy, take up a ton of critical space, only get five shots to the ton, and have a shorter range. Other weapons include machine guns, flamers, short-range missiles, autocannons, and long range missiles. For most of these, there are various types, such as small laser, medium laser, and large laser, AC-2, AC-5, AC-10, and AC-20. The are SRM2, SRM4 and SRM6. Missiles may not all hit, you have to roll to see how many hit, and then their damage is splashed around the mech, making them good at hitting exposed areas, but bad at punching through. Well designed bigger mechs have punch weapons (like PPCs or AC10s) and then missiles. There are also hand to hand weapons that can be given to a mech, but right now, only the Hatchetman really uses them

Balancing heat, weight, critical space, tonnage for armor, and more is very intricate, and that means there is no perfect mech design. There are occasional Lostech weapons and equipment that emerge from the long lost Star League era tech, like gauss rifles, double heat sinks, ultra ac-5, and so forth. If you have played Mechwarrior games, you might be familiar with what is called Level 2 tech, Star League era tech which will be rediscovered soon. However, as of right now, we are still in the era of Level 1 tech after the completion of the Fourth Succession War.

Hope that helps!

On Warfare

There are several types of units can be found on the battlefield.

Mechs - These are the kings of the battlefield. They are the best armored, most powerful, and most deadly piloted vehicles out there.

Vehicles - This generally refers to tracked, wheeled and hover vehicles of various types. These can be anything from traditional tanks to support vehicles to artillery pieces that fire from afar. These can be very deadly, but vehicles are inherently more fragile than mechs.

VTOLs - These are rotary flight vehicles that can be used for quick transport, harassing, and are hard to hit, but are the most fragile unit on the field.

Infantry - There can be jump, foot, and motorized infantry, with different movements. Infantry can be equipped with a variety of weapons, but the best have SRM missile packs which can do some damage to mechs. Infantry are fragile, but they have a lot of people in them, so it can take a few attacks to take them out. Even jump infantry are slow compared to other units, but are faster than other infantry and harder to hit.

Ships - Sea vessels include anything from transports to traditional naval assets. It is rare that you come across gunboats, because there are better options to build for defense, such as hover assets or mechs.

Fighters - The second most powerful unit on the battlefield, fighters can change the tide of battle, but fall under the AeroTech rules, which are not covered by the MegaMek game engine. This means that, unfortunately, I will not be focusing on fighter assets. Ah well.

Fixed Assets - There are things like gun emplacements and such. I might occasionally go up against them, but it will be uncommon.

My Character


Braham Essex, 27, is a MechWarrior that hailed from the Epsilon Eridani system. Braham was a recruit for the Northwind Highlanders, a house mercenary unit for the Capellan Confederation. During the Second Succession War, the Federated Suns captured the planet of Northwind, and House Liao used the atrocities committed by House Davion to cement the loyalty of the Highlanders, and pledged to them full independence should Liao recapture Northwind. Over the centuries, Capella failed again and again to capture Northwind, and the Highlanders continued to be among the elite units serving House Liao. Then, in 3028, Hanse Davion secretly contacted the Highlanders prior to launching the Fourth Succession War. He offered to give them Northwind in return to fealty to him. After discussing it for a long time, the Highlanders decided to leave their many years of service to Capella and pledged loyalty as a house unit of the Federated Suns (not even a mercenary unit any more). In return, Davion gave them an amount of freedom. A small minority of Highlanders chose to defect from the unit, believing that their contract with Capella should be honored. Among those defectors was Braham Essex. He defected and was assigned by the Capellan Confederation to fight with the veteran Blackwind Lancers.

The Fourth Succession War had begun. When Candace Liao falls in love with a Davion spy, she decides to use the war to declare the St. Ives Commonality is now independent of the Capellan Confederation. This succession brings many military units from the CCAF with her, including the Blackwind Lancers.

Once again faced with choosing to defect from his unit or defect from his state, Braham Essex chooses to leave the Lancers. By now, the Tikonov Free Republic has been created, with one of the highest and most trusted military leaders, Pavel Ridzik, choosing to also vacate the realm he had served all of his life in order to create a new state. The planet of Epsilon Eridani joined the Tikonov Free Republic. In the wake of these dissidents, and two elite units Braham was serving leaving to join others, he realized that the Confederation was falling apart. With his own homeworld no longer a part of the Confederation, he felt his loyalty waning. Braham also felt no love for the St. Ives Compact, Tikonov Free Republic, or Federated Suns. Choosing instead to form his own mercenary company, the Kilts and Commandos, he left for Outreach, making some contacts with other disaffected MechWarriors from the Northwind Highlanders and the Blackwind Lancers.

At the age of 16, Braham Essex was assigned to the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov. While there, he distinguished himself enough to warrant placement with the Highlanders. Essex has won the Liao Sunburst of Gallantry during battle with the Highlanders for the destruction of several enemy Battlemechs after his lance mates all fell, and completing the objective by himself. It is the most minor of Liao decorations and regularly given out.

After graduating from the Tikonov Academy, Essex served a full tour of duty with the Highlanders and had begun his second term with them when they left. He then served with the Lancers for most of his remaining term before they too defected. He has taken his own Battlemech and gathered other disaffected to create his mercenary cadre.

This next section is for those who know the game. If you are just interested in the story, you might want to skip it:


The Options

These will be the options I will be using for MegaMek.

Flamers can deal heat instead of damage

Fires may be set accidentally or intentionally

Indirect Fire for LRMs is allowed

Minefields may be used

Double Blind is in effect, and I can only see units that are in LOS of at least one of my units.

TACs Float. When you roll a Through Armor Critical (result of 2 on a placement chart after hitting) you used to automatically TAC the Center Torso. Now you roll again to determine location. Deadly and realistic.

Engine Explosions, although very rare, are now possible.

While prone, a mech missing an arm may still use the other arm’s weapons.

Smoke has light and heavy varieties, and moves and dissipates.

PPC Inhibitors may be turned off to remove the minimum range of the weapon, but firing in this state can damage the weapon.

Glancing Blows are on. If you roll exactly the number needed to hit, you do half damage.

Quad mechs may mulekick.

How to deal with Partial Cover. This is one of the greatest issues in BattleTech. Under the original rules, a mech with Partial Cover received +3 to attack it, but if you hit, you got to roll on the punch chart, which gave you a 1 in 6 chance of hitting the head. Later rules gave an option to change it to just a +1 to hit the mech and roll on the normal chart, counting all hits that are determined to hit legs as misses. It’s a good rule, but it really changes the partial cover dynamic. No other option means as much as this. Take the Spider mech. If it jumps 8 hexes, then you need a +4 to hit it already. Then add partial cover, and even at short range, you’d need a +7 to hit it behind partial cover, and a regular pilot would need to roll an 11 to hit it with short range weapons. Change the rules, and they only need a 9 to hit it, but the occasional hit will actually miss. As you can see, Partial Cover under the first rule is much more powerful than it is under the second. The tough part is that both views make sense realistically. One views the half sized mech as a much smaller target, so it is harder to hit. The other views it as a little harder to hit, but not much more, but the shots that would have hit it before the cover now miss. I am choosing the +3 and a miss. All other cover uses the same idea. Fire at a target through heavy woods, and they get +2, not +1 and roll to see if any shots glance off the trees. So, I will not be using the option to make it +1 and leg misses.

Allow level 3 targeting systems on level 1 or 2 mechs. There are some old Star League era mechs (like the Executioner) that have rare targeting systems, and they are allowed if discovered.

Quad mechs and prone bipedal mechs now have a new hit chart.

Quad mechs and vehicles may “hull down” behind partial cover for additional protection.

Instead of auto-dying by being on fire as in the original rules, vehicles have the new rules for catching fire.

Infantry may now Dig In in clear hexes to give them cover but reduce their firing arc,

New physical attacks are allowed.

Infantry take reduced damage from single shot weapons.

You can hot load LRMs with significant disadvantages, but it is an option.

Vehicles are not considered immobile by engine hits.

Vehicles can be abandoned

Woods have a chance to burn down.

Vehicles may not be the target of an inferno SRM attack (which is otherwise virtual auto-death for them)

You may dump ammo prior to beginning a fight. Useful for broken or damaged or missing weapons with ammo.

Only canon units are shown as eligible for selection.

Clear hexes cannot be targeted for fire

Alright, there we go.





Books Referenced:

The following B-Tech books are being used in the dynasty thus far. Others will be added as time calls for them.


Technical Readout 3025
Technical Readout 3026
The Rules of Warfare
House of Liao Sourcebook (the original one)
Chaos March
BattleTech Field Manual: Mercenaries
Maximum Tech

Braham Essex
State Academy, State University, Two terms of service.

Piloting Skill - 4
Gunnery Skill - 3
Influence - 3
Member Modifiers - -2 family, +3 friends, +6 unit

Age: 27
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry

Skills:

Edge: 2
Tactical Genius



I am considered to have a veteran level of ability in the mech (as opposed to green, regular or elite). The edge skill allows me to reroll any 1d6 roll I make once for each point I put into edge, and I put two points into it, allowing me to reroll a critical piloting skill roll or other game roll. The Tactical Genius ability allows me to reroll initiative at the beginning of each turn if I want.

These are the numbers generated from my background. Now I have to determine my unit.

Kilts and Commandos:

I get to roll for the founding members of Kilts and Commandos. You can get units initially from family contacts, friends, and your old unit. My modifiers for my background and skills are cumulative and listed above. As you can see, I have a disadvantage when recruiting from my family, a bonus to friends, and a large bonus to recruit from my former unit.

Now I roll 1d6 for each area and add my modifier. Will I get any founding members from that area? Time will see.

Family:

I rolled a 4. Subtract 2 and I get a result of 2, which means I get no recruits here.


Friends:

I rolled a 5. Add 3 and I get an 8. Four friends will be joining my escapade.


Unit:

This is my best chance to get some recruits. I rolled a 3, plus 6 gives me a 9. I get eleven people from my old units to join me (an 11 would have given me 23, and a 12 would have given me 35 new people. Ah well)

That means there will be 15 founding members of the Kilts and Commandos other than me. I used the disaffection that fellow former Highlanders and Lancers felt to have them join my unit.

Now I have three influence points to spend. I am going to recruit two additional MechWarriors. The first will be a highly capable MechWarrior from my past. This MW will be so capable that he will be able to recruit on their own, and given special abilities. I will also spend my last influence point to recruit a character who can recruit on their own, but has no special abilities.


Special Recruit #1

Ted Izumo

Piloting - 4
Gunnery - 3
Influence - 2
Member Modifiers - -3 family/+3 friends/+3 unit

Age: 52

Skills:

Edge: 3

Although initially an academy dropout, Ted’s three tours of duty as a MechWarrior gave him some influence and experience. He was later offered a job as an academy trainer, despite never graduating himself, allowing his experience to be a teacher. As a trainer, he met Braham Essex and became one of his closest mentors. When his planet of Tikonov declared independence from Liao, the academy fired many of its trainers, including Ted. When he got a call from Braham Essex, he gladly chose to join the fledgling Kilts and Commandos as Braham’s main advisor.

Taking Ted takes away one friend founding member, but he recruit for me later.



Special Recruit #2

Adele Thompson

Piloting - 5
Gunnery - 4
Influence - 1
Member Modifiers - +2 family/+2 friends/+2 unit

Age: 31


Adele Thompson was born of a minor noble on Epsilon Eridani. She was family-trained and then sent off to a private academy on Sarna. As a child, she met Braham Essex and the two were boyfriend and girlfriend for seven months while he was 12 and she was 15. Even then, she saw a mature and intelligent person behind the boyish exterior. After graduation, she was assigned to a garrison unit on Acamar, but met action when the Federated Suns attacked and decimated her unit. Her Crusader mech was destroyed and only her personal money prevented her from being one of the dispossessed. With her unit destroyed and her homeworld no longer Capellan, she drifted to Outreach to find a new life as a mercenary before a chance meeting brought her and Braham Essex together again, this time as one of his new recruits to the Kilts and Commandos mercenary unit.

Like Ted, I lose one of my first units by grabbing Adele, but she can recruit for me later, using her contacts.

Total number of initial units in Kilts and Commandos:

Braham Essex
Adele Thompson
Ted Izumo
13 Others

Now we need to see what each unit is.


After rolling, the other 13 units consist of three infantry squads, five ground vehicles, and five mechs. That was bad rolling since I had a 50/50 chance of getting mechs, and just a one in six chance at infantry. I then roll for skill level, and we get some green, some vets, and many regular units.

Now its time to roll up some mechs and vehicles.

A few notes. My veteran ground vehicle rolled the second heaviest tank at the time, the Ontos Heavy Tank, which has a ton of medium lasers, but needs to close to be effective. It is very slow. My green MechWarrior rolled a fairly rare Spider, an extra speedy scout mech that is hard to hit but deals little damage and has light armor. It’s a pretty good mech, but bad in the hands of a poor pilot.

I then rolled a second assault tank, the Demolisher, which is devastating at close range, featuring two AC20s, but it needs to close to be any good, and it too is very slow. Later I rolled a second Ontos and two Urbanmech, which support the close range nature of my unit. Urbies are very slow, lightly armored, and ready for close range fighting – not a good combination, and you have to use them right.

My vet MW recruit got a Griffin, well suited for long range support. It’s a good roll for him since it should keep him out of the first line of fire while also having solid armor and good mobility.

I rolled the Maxim troop transport which can carry one of my infantry squads to combat quickly, so I have a little combined arms there.

Now it is time to roll the mechs for my two special recruits, and then, myself.

Ted Izumo grabbed the most common assault mech – a Stalker. Assault mechs are the heaviest class of vehicles, and the Stalker is a low machine of death, with long range, medium range, and close range weapons all combined. Good armor too.

Adele Thompson looks like the only mech she could afford was a light one. A Firestarter is a specialized mech that can use Flamers to add to the heat of a targeted mech to spike its heat index. Remember that mechs have to balance heat, so it is a pretty good mech against certain targets.

Finally, I roll my mech. I rolled a medium mech for me (between 40 and 55 tons). I rolled a Dervish. The DV-6M is a 55 ton mech equipped with jump jets, allowing it to walk 5 hexes a turn, run up to 8, or jump 5. It features a pair of LRM-10s, which gives it decent long range capability, plus two medium lasers and two SRM-2s for closer fighting. It features just 7.5 tons of armor for its size, 3.5 less than the most you could put on a 55 ton chassis. It’s weak in the armor and meant for fire support. It is not a bad mech at all, you just have to use it right. It does have paper thin rear armor, so I need to make sure that I don’t expose my back to the enemy

Your armour lance coupled with the 2 Urbanmechs and Firestarter would be really effective in city missions I think. Nice to see that you have 3 mechs to form a decent command/support lance.

I don't even like Urbies in cities. They need to be faster. 2/3/2 is not a legit speed for a light mech.

Recruiting:

Now it’s time to recruit for my unit. I only have a few mechs, so I want to try and bring in more of those. They rule the battlefield.

I get +1 to my target number for recruiting until an event occurs to remove it.

I can make recruiting rolls for me and my two special NPCs – Adele and Ted.

In order to recruit, I roll 2d6 and try to hit a target number based on what I am looking for. After rolling for me, Adele and Ted, I got the following:

Regular Light Mech
Regular Medium Ground Vehicle
Green Motorized Infantry

That’s nothing special.


Now that I have my recruiting out of the way, I need to obtain equipment.

I also get a one time chance to get a dropship. I aim for a Union and I need a 12. I roll an 8. No dice.

I hire 10 Astechs, 5 Green techs, 4 regular techs, 2 vets and one elite tech. This allows me to cover 100% of my maintenance for these vehicles, mechs, weapons, and so forth.

I also hire a regular medic, two green administrators to handle the paperwork and a veteran negotiator to handle our negotiations.

Even though we are a brand new unit, the size of our unit, average experience, and full medical, administrative and technical staff give us a Dragoon rating of D, which is the lowest rating, but we are one point away from being classed as a C.

Now it is time to dial up our first contract.

January 1, 3031

After an initial recruitment effort on Outreach, we try to find someone willing to offer us a contract. I roll some dice and we get two offers.

Now I need to find out who the two offers are from. I again roll some dice.

One offer is from the Federated Suns while the other is from the Draconis Combine.

Now I roll to determine what each one is offering.

Both are offering Objective Raids.

An Objective Raid is a mission to a particular planet held by an enemy. You are to destroy a specific target, and then pull out. Because these missions are dangerous and have little chance of reinforcement, they usually offer good pay and rights.

Now it is time to negotiate the contract. I decide to begin with the Federated Suns. The Drac contract would be offered by a baron or duke, since the Coordinator has deemed the DCMS to kill mercenaries (The Death to All Mercenaries decree is currently in effect). They might not pay as well.

Time to negotiate, which is an interesting process.

The following things are eligible for negotiating – Length of Contract, Payment, Command Rights, Salvage Rights, Remuneration, Support Rights and Transport. I can emphasize the areas of the contract that I want, but by doing so, I give the other person more negotiating points to use against us.

We have a vet negotiator. I roll to see what the negotiator of the Feds is. I rolled a regular negotiator. That gives us an advantage, so we begin with 49.5 bargaining points.

We get to select any of the seven areas of the contract for the negotiation first. The most important areas to me are salvage, length and transport, in that order. I go with Salvage Rights first.

The Fed Suns have to make the first offer. Since I know that an Objective Raid is usually given high rights, I have then offer Shared Rights. I do not like Shared Rights, I wanted Full Rights, but it would cost me 50 points to counter offer, and I do not have that much money. Shared Rights are acceptable for now.

They put the next item on the agenda, and I deem that they care a lot about Support Rights. It can get dicey to pay for a lot of support if we lose a few battles for our employer if they get the wrong sort of support.

They offer Straight Support. This means they will pay 50% of the support costs of our unit. This includes medic and tech salaries. I am going to use my odd numbers to raise this. I am spending four points to raise it to 70% of our costs, giving me 45 points left.

Now we can choose an item to put on the table. I kept my points for this, so let’s get it out of the way. We want to negotiate the length of the contract and I roll a dice to see how long they offer. They offer six months on the Raid, which I know to be silly. I spend fifteen points to cut it to three months, and the negotiator from the Suns agrees. We have 30 points left.

They put Payment up next. They want to buy down our remaining points, so they offer 2.7x the payroll of our military troops. This wipes our points. I choose not to buy any points down.

I choose to add some points, so I select the minor right of Remuneration. I choose that we will not receive Remuneration rights, so we get 10 points back.

They have to choose transport or command rights. I roll up Command Rights and the Fed Suns choose Command Rights and offer a Liaison from the Fed Suns to accompany us on our mission. This does not change the numbers in any way.

Finally, I select the final right, Transport. They offer 40% reimbursement for transport, and this gives us 15 bonus points. We use the 25 points we have left to drive that up to 52% reinbursement.

The final point gives us a small bonus for signing the contract. We get 1300 C-Bills.

The target is a Draconis Combine held plant three jumps from Outreach, which will cost us 300,000 CBills there and another 300k back. We have to pay 144000 each way, but we only have 11,300. I take out a loan for 400000 CBills, which will require 500000 to repay and we head out to the Drac planet.

Transit Time (rolled): 5 weeks.

February 8, 3031 – We arrive in system and it took us a few days to take our DropShip down to the local planet. The defensive forces on the continent we arrived at are a company of mechs. We have to get in and out quickly, or else the forces on the rest of the planet will arrive and fore us off.

Our goal is to destroy a Draconis Combine armory on Cylene. If we win the battle, we automatically destroy the Armory. We cannot get to the Armory without going through the continent’s defenders. I look up Cylene in an online database to discover its climate, and then I will randomly generate a map using MegaMek and the climate of Cylene.

We will be facing twelve Battlemechs and we have just nine of our own, and almost all of those are light. Although we have nineteen units to their twelve, we have no heavy battlemechs and just one assault, whereas we have four infantry platoons which is not great. I believe my route to victory will be to close with my three big tanks and the Stalker, and try to blast through my opponent’s line with their firepower. That’s my hope.

Here are a few charts of my own creation to determine what units I face:

1 – Patchwork
2 – Conventional Arms
3, 4 – Mixed Arms
5, 6 – BattleMech Arms

Each Unit:

1, 2 – Light
3, 4 – Medium
5 – Heavy
6 – Assault

Expertise:

1, 2 – Green
3, 4 – Regular
5 – Veteran
6 – Elite

I then use these to determine the forces I will be facing.

Good luck on the first mission!

Good luck. I'm unfamiliar with the game but am fascinated and may have to try it out.

Thanks all!

The First Campaign

8 February, 3031 – We arrive on the southern continent of Cylene and a company of mechs moves to intercept my men. Time to move out and engage.

Cylene is a harsh wintery planet that is beginning a new ice age. Even the Equator experiences freezing winters, but the ore here is valuable and the planet is on the border so it requires a garrison. At this time of year, the southern continent is cold and dry, with remnant of snow and ice from the winter.

Our enemy has one assault mech, the mighty Victor. They also have a large assortment of lights and mediums, and two heavies, a Rifleman and a Grasshopper. We got lucky. If the garrison company here were heavier, we could have had no shot at winning. As it is, we may still take many losses in victory. Several of their mechs are not particularly good, like the Vulcan, Grasshopper, and Clint.

At the end of the first turn my Bulldog Tank is badly bruised, and we hurt one of the opposing light mechs a bit. The first few turns are more maneuvering than fighting.

On the second turn, one of my Ontos Tanks destroys a Kurita Vulcan. They take out my Goblin Medium Tank with a TAC (Through Armor Critical) which knocked out my power plant. We savaged their Rifleman and one of their Javelins (a light mech). The Javelin fell down and both mechs are missing arms.

At the end of the third turn, the same Ontos destroys an opposing Phoenix hawk’s gyro, and it falls, unable to move. One of the Javelin pilots my opponent has completely blacked out from damage.

At the end of the fourth turn, their Grasshopper missed a kick and fell, their Rifleman took a beating and is internal everywhere and on the ground.

After the fifth turn, the Grasshopper fell again after more injuries, and there was an ammo explosion after its exposed internal structure took damage in the fall. Boom! No more Grasshopper.

The following turn sees Ted Izumo blow up the opposing Whitworth after savaging it with his weapons. The Whitworth, a 40 ton medium mech, is actually one I like a lot, and I am sad to see it get destroyed instead of us recovering it. We also pick up the Grasshopper pilot for later.

The next turn sees the opposing Victor blow off my Spider’s arm and torso. The Ontos Heavy Tank once again blasts a mech, this time blowing up the ammo on an opposing Clint and taking it down. My Spider captures the Clint pilot.

I need to get my severely damaged Spider out of there next turn. I also want to focus my energy on a good mech, like the Victor, which if I can get, would be a nice capture for my team. I will likely be getting a Javelin (pilot blacked out, and needs a 10 on 2d6 to wake up each round) and a Phoenix Hawk (destroyed gyro, can’t move, but can still fire still on the field).

The seventh turn sees me destroy the left arm of the Victor.

On the eighth turn, my Stalkers Left Arm is blasted by the opposing Victor. Then my Stalker returns fire, criticaling the Victor’s main weapon – his AC20. Without that, he’s dead in the water. Then the physical attacks occur. My Wasp is one level above the Victor, and tries to kick. The kick works, and he hits the ammo, the Victor explodes. A 20 ton mech just killed an 85 ton mech. My Stalker kicks out the leg from under a 35 ton Panther and knocks it over. Unfortunately, the Javelin pilot finally wakes up and I won’t be getting that mech right now.

On the 9th turn, the pilot once again blacked out when he failed to stand. He also hit the gyro a second time, which takes the mech out of commission. Harder to repair now. No major changes just attrition of armor during the weapons fire phase, but my Wasp kicks the opposing Spider and knocks it down, and it is damaged.

The tenth turns rolls around and their Spider and Panther both fail to stand up. That leaves most of their mechs on the ground for the weapons phase. I suspect this will be ending soon. We blow some more limbs off their remaining mechs, capture the Victor pilot (a vet) and then win the game due to getting 70% of their team destroyed.

Congrats on your victory.

Grats on the win

Thanks all!

THis next post is a bit technical. I can understand if you decide to skip it.




Damage Report:

Captured Mechs:

One Phoenix Hawk, 45 medium Mech. Hit twice in Gyro and once in Engine. Needs four tons of external armor. Kurita variant of mech.

One normal Javelin, a 35 ton scout mech. Hit twice in Gyro, once in Engine. Missing about three tons of armor.

One normal Rifleman, a 65 ton heavy mech. Missing left leg, damaged Large Laser. Hit on gyro and engine. Destroyed Left Torso medium Laser. Missing about four tons of external armor.

Need To Fix – Jav Gyro, Rifle Gyro, 11 tons of armor, Large Laser, Rifleman LL, Medium Laser



Items I need:

2 tons of LRM5 ammo
2 tons of AC10 ammo
Spider LT, LA, 4 Jump Jets
4 tons LRM10 ammo
1 ton of SRM6 ammo
22 tons of armor for my mechs


Damaged Items

Medium Laser – Stalker, LA *
Heat Sink, Stalker, LT *
Power Plant – Goblin Tank *
Movement – both Ontos’s,0/*/0 Devastator

* - I rolled for these items and those with a * are not reparable, and must be replaced.

Items I Salvaged:

Vulcan LA
Grasshopper RA w/o ML
Whitworth LA
Spider LA
Victor LL
Javelin LA


Captured Four Pilots – Green Javelin pilot, vet Victor, Regular Whitworth and Grasshopper

Now I roll to see if any pilots will join my cause. House pilots are tougher to recruit then mercs, so I need an 11 or 12 to recruit them. Otherwise, I will return them. None join our cause.

The Goblin Tank is a complete write off. Nothing to salvage there.

I pull the ML out of the Grasshopper arm and put it in the Stalker (I have to make rolls for each). I fixed the Devastator, but failed to fix the Ontos who was knocked to 2/3 movement. (I only needed a 4 to fix it, and I rolled a 3). I’ll have my Elite Tech try to fix it next week.

After failing to fix the Javelin and Rifleman Gyros, I will need to order Gyros for each mech. I fixed all other gyro and engine damage.

Replacement cost of Items I cannot Fix:

Heat Sink – 2000
LRM Ammo – 180000
AC Ammo – 12000
Jump Jets – 24000
SRM Ammo – 27000
Ontos Propulsion System – 176666
Armor – 220000
Spider RT – 298454

Total Cost to Repair and Replace My Wounds: 938320

To Replace and Repair Salvaged Mechs:

Armor – 110000
Jav Gyro – 600000
Rifleman Gyro – 600000
Rifleman LL – 243000
Large Laser – 100000
Medium Laser – 40000

Total Cost: 1630000

Now, here is the problem with not having full salvage. With full salvage, we would have notched these three mechs, and could have sold a crappy mech to get these three new ones and buy all needed supplies. However, we don’t have full salvage. We have Shared Salvage for this contract.

Total Value of Salvaged Rifleman: 3837000
Total Value of Salvaged Javelin: 1778000
Total Value of Salvaged Phoenix Hawk: 3588552
Total Value of Salvaged Items: Approx: 500000

Total Value of Salvage: 9703552/2 = 4851776

We can take up to 4851776 worth of goods, and then we will get that much from the Fed Suns in compensation for the other materiel.

As such, I can only get one of the mechs, not all three. I take the Phoenix Hawk and other salvaged items, and we get 4851776 in CBills for the rest (so the Fed Suns made out on that).

40000 to fix Phoenix Hawk armor.

Total Expenses:

978320 (inc loan and interest) for items and to repay loan
209319 Operating Expenses
500000 Loan Repay

Total – 1687639

Total Cash:

178634 – Contract
42000 – War Chest
4852776 – Reimbursement of Materiel

Total – 5073410

Total Money Left After Contract:

3,385,771


The Goblin Medium Tank crew died in the blast. We do not need to pay them.

I'll be following this. Nice start so far, look forward to more.

Tell

Swapping a Goblin tank for a Phoenix Hawk overall seems like a good thing.

Interesting to see that your Urbies did just about nothing during the fight based on your report :D

What's your updated roster now?

Evaluation of Battle:

The two rifle infantry didn’t even get off a shot. They are too slow and too limited in ability. The SRM infantry did well after being dropped off by the Maxim. They hit numerous times and did some damage. The Laser Anti-Mech Infantry were respectable as well.

The Wasp did more than I thought it would. It harassed an opposing Javelin for several turns, got a kill on the Victor, and wounded the opposing Spider. I am going to move the pilot to the Phoenix Hawk. The P. Hawk has the same movement as a Stinger, but is 25 tons heavier, has better weapons and better armor.

The tanks didn’t do much except for the one Ontos. The other Ontos was damaged early, the Bulldog had to run away after getting hit, the Demolisher was damaged early and like the Ontos, was mired in its spot. The maxim was good at getting infantry in battle, and then ran.

The Stalker was the foundation of our mechs’s weapons. We had a lot of power in that mech. I focused my efforts on taking out the weaker mechs like the Vulcan, Clint, Rifleman, and Grasshopper.

EVENT – March, 3031 – The Capellan Confederation is being attacked by combined forces from both the Duchy of Andurien and the Magistracy of Canopus, a periphery realm power. Each wants the power a weakened House Liao can provide.

The Duchy of Andurien desires terminal independence, and views the weakened Successor State as a place to get holdings, power and a stronger economy so that it can stand on its own permanently, and hold off any attacks from the Free Worlds League who want to bring back their wayward Duchy.

The Magistracy of Canopus wants to get over the psychological, technological and political hump of being a periphery power, and sees the Caps as an opportunity to become a full fledged power in the Inner Sphere instead of an afterthought.

Bruised and battered by defections and losing almost half of their planets in the past two years, can the Capellan Confederation hold on?

June 24, 3031 – We arrive back on Outreach, and can begin another recruiting effort. This time, I have a vacant mech, the Wasp available for a member of the Dispossessed, MechWarriors without a mech hoping for a break. Recruiting them is easy. We are now rated C in the mercenary ratings.

Ted Izumo is able to find us an elite MechWarrior who is dispossessed. Rafael Gomez is our first elite level pilot. To determine a recruit’s name and gender, I roll two dice

Place of Origin:

1 – Europe
2 – Asia
3 – Africa
4 – Oceania
5 – North America
6 – South America

1-3 – Male
4-6 – Female

I rolled Rafael as a North American Male. Then I rolled again to see if he was from Canada, US, or Latin American heritage. He was Latin American, so I created a suitable name.

I am unable to find any other suitable recruits despite three rolls (I have an influence of three). Adele similarly struck out.

Well, it’s time to seek out a new contract. We get three offers this time:

Lyran Commonwealth, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Objective Raid

Capellan Confederation, Security



Security contracts are geared to protect or secure a person, place or object from attack. It is a specialized form of Garrison duty that only requires a short amount of time for a specific need. I believe this would be offered by the Caps right now to help protect an area that is currently open, with them moving garrison troops to the front lines of the new war, they need temporary help.

Let me see who the Objective Raids are against. Lyran wants us to attack the Periphery. That’s easy to do, their militaries are typically substandard, but transport time is tough. Caps want us to attack the Duchy of Andurien, which is currently attacking them.

Ipswich, five jumps away, is a minor planet in the Duchy of Andurien, but it is on the border, and as such, has been outfitted with a system listening post. Our goal is to infiltrate the system, destroy the listening post, and then make away.

Time to negotiate, but this time we have fifty points. The Negotiator is a regular, so we gain an extra five points for our negotiator.

This time, I choose to put remuneration first. A minor right, but I choose not to give us any, so we gain ten points, putting us at sixty-five.

The Liao diplomat puts Command Rights next, and offers us Independent Rights, allowing us to do whatever we want. They probably trust me since I was once one of them. That takes ten points and drops us to 55.

Next up I want to take care of Transport Rights. They offer us 40% of transport costs. That gives us 15 bargaining points, putting us at 70. I decide not to negotiate that, I’m happy with it.

Capella puts Payment up next. Like the previous negotiator, they will offer us 2.9 times our military expenses, which drops our points to 45. I drop it to 2.6 and bring our points to 51.

I put salvage up. They offer us Exchange Rights. That gives us five points at 56. I pay 15 points to counter with Shared Rights. 41 points.

They hit support rights next. They offer straight support at 50% of our costs. I don’t move it.

Now I put length of contract up. They offer four months. I drop it to two and spend ten more points. That leaves us with 31 points. I can either half the amount and add that as a signing bonus to the salary of the contract, or I can half it and reopen one area of negotiation. I opt for a signing bonus.

Yeah, I'll take that easy. I really need to mech up my troops. Vehicles are too fragile, even with a lot of armor, they get treads blown out, power plant hit, turret locked or crew killed way too easily.

Another event happened while we were gone:


EVENT January 11, 3031 - Thomas Marik arrives back from his tour of duty with ComStar and has been declared Regent while Janos Marik suffers from his third stroke.

August 26, 3031 – We have arrived in Ipswich and are making our way to the planet now. Capellan Intelligence tells us that the opponent has Mixed Arms. That means we can expect to see vehicles, mechs, and infantry all working together. The planet currently has two companies (24) units defending the Listening Post. We will launch in to the planet and land near the Listening Post. Then we will see how many defenders are nearby to challenge us.

It looks like there is just one company coming against us. However, it looks very powerful. This is a heavy company. There’s no infantry, just mechs and vehicles. There are a lot of assault and heavy mechs. Some of the strongest mechs are against us, including the 75 ton Orion, the 85 ton BattleMaster and the strong 85 ton Stormfleur Assault Tank featuring two LRM20s. Although numbers favor us, with 19 units, we have too many light mechs and vehicles and infantry. We need to hit hard. I’ll use the speed of mechs like the Phoenix Hawk, Spider, Wasp and Firestarter to my advantage, and I should win.


Other mechs and vehicles they have – Shadow Hawk, Spider, Rifleman, Von Luckner, Condor x2, Partisan, Heavy Hover APC, Goblin SRM.


We arrive, and this time it will take us longer to engage (longer map). This is bad for our close up units.

The first two turns is just maneuvering, although I do manage to damage the movement system of a Condor twice on the second turn. By the third turn, some tanks are taking damage, losing movement, and such on both sides.

Turn four sees my Ontos #2, the one that did so well in the last game go up in smoke. They got the first kill.

Turn five makes things start to look bad as my other Ontos is destroyed. My Dervish kills the Partisan Assault tank (80 tons) so at last we are on the board, and I notch my first kill as Lieutanent and Commander of the Kilts and Commandos.

The next turn I lose my Bulldog Tank as well. Tanks are falling on my side everywhere.

The following turn I lose the Demolisher. Tanks are disappointing me today. Ted Izumo killed the Van Luckner tank. My Wolverine TACs the Rifleman’s gyro and it falls. I lost an arm off my Wasp.

On turn eight, their Rifleman fails to stand up and falls back down, going critical on its left leg. We just exchange fire, nothing major this round except I hit the Orion in the head again with a punch. He’s losing armor there quickly. My SRM Infantry took serious damage.

Turn 9 sees me flee with the damaged Wasp. The Rifleman stood up, and then the pilot blacked out. We destroyed a Condor Tank by my Griffin.

Turn 10 sees one of my Urbies take leg damage and fall. My SRM infantry kill the Sturmfeur’s Crew, allowing me to recoup that vehicle if the game ends in our favor. It was not internal anywhere. Now we have taken out both of their assault tanks and immobilized the Rifleman plus the Condor and the 75 ton heavy Von Luckner kill. That leaves them with 7 functional mechs and vehicles. My foot SRM platoon is down to just 6 infantry after some more damage though so I’ll hide it for the rest of the game.

The following turn my Spider is savaged good and gets a Lower Arm actuator hit. I hit the gyro and engine on their Spider. My Spider falls, theirs does not.

I choose to eject out of the Spider, it is savaged, but still fine, and with just a green pilot at the helm, I don’t trust standing up, so I’ll eject and fight another day. More exchange of fire, but no deaths

On round thirteen, more fire is exchanged but we manage to knock the BattleMaster down from damage. Our Firestarter punches and destroys the opposing Spider’s left arm.

While jumping the following round, their Spider fell down and went boom. I move my infantry over by it, I want to take it out if possible. Another round, another sloughing of armor.

I’m outta LRM ammo on my Dervish so I am closing and hopin to use my close range weapons. Their Spider is destroyed when it tries to stand up and falls down, destroying it’s center torso. Ted Izumo’s Stalker takes out the BattleMaster’s main weapon, his PPC.

Round sixteen sees my Phoenix Hawk destroy the BattleMaster’s right arm. During the physical combat phase, my Stalker kicked and destroyed the Heavy Hover APC. It was just a 20 ton vehicle, not much there. The Wolverine had jumped behind their Orion, and I have been savaging its rear with jumping mechs for a while, exposing its weaker armor. He exploited it with a punch and took out its LRM15. Their Shadow Hawk and my Dervish fell from kicks. (when you are kicked or miss a kick you have to make a piloting skill roll to remain standing). Bad news, the Rifleman pilot finally rolls an 11, and is awake again. That’s terrible.

I stand my Dervish back up and move him into woods. The Battlemaster tears open Izumo’s Stalker’s arm and hits a lower arm actuator. Both the Right and Left arms are open, with no armor left but internal structure. The Rifleman hits my Stalker’s engine. I lose the Left Arm of one of my Urbies. The Rifleman falls down after we hit a leg actuator, and the pilot dies. Best news is this – the Wolverine jumped behind Partial Cover and hit a 10 with his AC5 when attacking the Orion. It hit the head, and knocked the Orion pilot out for now. Although my team was savaged, they lost their Rifleman (again) and Orion temporarily in one turn. That’s a big blow.

And it means we have won. They retreat and we claim victory. It was a bloody match, but we end up with three new vehicles for now.

Ouch, tough fight that. Hopefully you get some good salvage out of this and some mechs to replace those tanks.

Just tough.

Tell

Grats on another win. It looked bad at the start, glad you pulled it out. Seems like your team took a lot of damage though, hopefully the salvage gets you some decent replacements (Rifleman, Orion or the Sturmfeur tank).

Yeah, it was tough at first. I thought we were going to lose after the first few turns. Well, here is an account of the battle.


Salvaged

Rifleman – Gyro Hit, ML destroyed, Lower Leg and Hip Actuators hit, needs about three tons of armor, 1 ton AC5 ammo

Sturmfuer Tank – Needs five tons of armor, fixed turret, fixed mobility, 2 tons of LRM20 ammo

Orion – LRM15 hit, Heat Sink destroyed. Needs 6 tons of armor, one ton LRM15 ammo, AC10 ammo


Damage:


UrbanMech – Damaged Foot actuator. 2 tons of armor. 1 ton AC10 ammo

Wasp – Missing left arm, 2 tons of armor

SRM6 Infantry – 6 people, need many more

Spider – Lower Arm Actuator, three tons of armor

UrbanMech – Left Arm destroyed. 3 tons of armor, 1 ton of AC10 ammo.

Stalker – Engine, Upper Arm Actuator, 8 tons of armor, 2 tons of LRM10 ammo, 1 ton of SRM6 ammo

Phoenix Hawk – Hand Actuator, 2 tons of armor

Dervish – 2 tons of armor, 2 tons of LRM10 ammom, 1 ton of SRM2 ammo.

Maxim Hover – 1 tons of LRM5 ammo.

Wolverine – 1 ton of SRM6 ammo, 1 ton of armor

Firestarter – 1 ton Machine Gun ammo, 2 tons of armor

Griffin – 1 ton of LRM10 ammo, 1 ton of armor

Salvaged Items:

AC20 from our destroyed Demolisher
SRM4 from destroyed Von Luckner
SRM4 from Heavy Hover APC
Medium Laser and AC5 from Condor
Spider Head, Left Leg, Right Arm

Their destroyed Spider Pilot will choose to join us. He was regular.

Our Bulldog crew escaped death. The others all died when their vehicles died.

Repairs:

Our Stuff

Stalker engine, Actuator
Phoenix Hawk Actuator
Urbie Actuator
Spider Actuator

Salvaged Stuff

Rifleman Hip and Leg Actuator, Gyro
Orion LRM 15
Sturmfeur fixed turret, mobility



All reparable things fixed this time. I was able to splice the Spider Left Arm we salvaged in our first mission on the UrbanMech to replace its missing arm.


We again have Shared Salvage Rights.


Value of Orion: Normally: 6774250. To Repair: 98000. Current Value: 6676250

Value of Rifleman: Normally: 4860000. To Repair: 74500. Current Value: 4785500

Value of Sturmfeur: Normally: 2395288. To Repair: 110000. Current Value: 2285288

Value of Salvaged Items: AC20 – 300k, SRM4s, 120k, AC5, 125k, ML, 40k, Spider parts, around 750k.

Total Value of all Salvaged Items: 15082038.

We get 7541019 C Bills in compensation for salvage, and can take up to that amount.

I want the Orion, no question. It is a great mech. I also decide to keep the Spider parts and Medium Laser. Or, I could take the Sturmfeur and the Rifleman. The Orion is a great mech, 75 tons with an LRM15, AC10, 2 Medium Laser an SRM4, plus good armor. It was Aleksandr Kerensky’s favorite mech. And it will be mine.

I am taking the Orion for myself. I give my Dervish to the elite Wasp pilot, and the Wasp to our new recruit, Samir Azif

Grats on the Orion! Never a huge fan of it myself (I liked PPCs and Medium lasers on my mechs and really liked Awesomes and Mauraders) but it's a huge upgrade for your unit.

Total Finances:

Expenses:

98000 to repair Orion
525000 for armor and ammo
82236 for Wasp replacement Arm
375000 for travel to Ipswich
375000 for travel back
207650 for expenses for five months


Total Expenses: 1662886

Income:

7541019 for Salvage
300000 for transport reimbursement
122675 actual value of contract
16640 for support reimbursement


Total Income: 7980334


Net Gain: 6317448

War Chest: 97033219 C Bills

Not bad.

December 24, 3031 – We arrive back on Outreach. Time for more recruiting. Adele finds replacement infantry for our platoons. Ted strikes out in recruiting. I get a regular medium mech and a regular light mech. My recruits have a Commando, a 25 ton scout mech, and a Centurion, a 50 ton ranged mech with good weapons, adequate armor and slower speed.

I now have enough mechs to have a traditional organizational structure.

A lance is four mechs. A company is three lances. A Battalion is three companies. A Regiment is three Battalions. Now I can organize a full company.


Kilts and Commandos, Company

Leader - Lieutanent James Essex, Orion


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Adjunct Units:

Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Transport
Motorized Rifle Platoon
Anti-Mech Jump Laser Platoon
Foot SRM Platoon
Foot Rifle Platoon

My names for the lances. Thunder strikes quickly, and scouts terrain looking for bad guys. Then they retreat and attack from strategic positions. Good Thunder mechs are quick and expendable. Anvil drives through the center of the enemy, blasting anything. Good Anvil mechs have strong weapons and high armor. Hammer mechs rain damage from far. Hammer mechs specialize in long range weaponry and smash enemies against the Anvil. Those are my names for the lances. My Orion might also supplement Anvil where needed.


Time for a new contract.

I get two offers.

The Fed Suns want us to do an Objective Raid. The Lyran Commonwealth want us for a Cadre assignment.

A Cadre assignment is for us to train local militia or corporate security, while also nominally being a garrison unit. These contracts last between six and twelve months, and likely won’t see action. I want action. As you have seen, if you can win in battle, and the battle does well, you can do well in getting some nice money in salvage. Salvage one mech, and you can get millions of C Bills.

Thus I want the Fed Suns Objective Raid. I roll to see who the target is (possibilities are Dracs, Caps or Periphery). I roll an Objective Raid against my old nation, the Capellan Confederation. This is the first time I have taken an contract against my old liege.

It’s six jumps to Bandora, a minor planet near the border with the Fed Suns and believed to be the home of Amar Ridzik, one of the Ridzik family that had been so esteemed in the past. Our goal is to land on Bandora, find Amar Ridzik, who has an impressively large Atlas, the largest mech ever created at 100 tons. We are to destroy his Atlas and kill or capture him. He is the leader of a company of full mechs.

I agree to take the contract. Time to negotiate it.

We start with 55 points, and our difference in negotiator skill gives us an extra 11 points putting us at 66.

I start and put length of service on the first one. They offer a simple two months, and I can’t get that smaller (two months is the minimum for this sort of contract).

They put remuneration next and offer it to us, pulling ten points out of the pool. 56 points left.

I want to negotiate salvage rights while I still have 50+ points (so I can buy from Shared to Full salvage in case they offer Shared). They offer Exchange, so I counter with Shared and pull another 15 points to put us at 41.

They want command next, and offer us independent command, pulling out another 10 points. (31).

I want transport next. They offer us 40% reimbursement. That gives us 15. (46). I choose not to dicker it.

They go for support and offer us 50% straight support. I pull 10 points out of the pool and force them to give us Battle Loss Compensation. I then pull 21 points and force them to pay for 42% of armor, ammo, and other losses. We now have 15 points left.

I put up salary. They pay down the final 15 points and give us 2.6 modifier to our military salary.

EVENT January 1, 3032 - The Dragoons complete the construction of a Hiring Hall on Outreach. The +1 modifier for recruiting on Outreach is now gone.

March 19, 3032 - We arrive at Bandora. Since our enemy is not at any given position, we have to find them. I send my Thunder Lance out for a recon, when they encounter the scout lance of the enemy. This will be a short enounter. I have five turns to inflict damage, and if possible, destroy a mech. Any mechs destroyed in this encounter will not be available later. Any mechs damaged seriously will remain seriously damaged if used later, such as blown off legs, arms and such. However, armor can be replaced and ammo restocked between these battles. Due to the nature of this scenario, any salvage will wait until after the campaign, and is not available after the battle. I have just five turns.


Their Scout Lance:

Locust
Locust
Assassin
Stinger



They outspeed my lance, but many of their mechs are lightly armored. Locusts, for example, are fast 20 ton mechs that move 8/12. The Assassin is a 7/11/7 (the last number is jump) with 40 tons of weapons and armor. The Stinger is very similar to our Wasp, 6/9/6 20 ton mech with two weapons.

At the end of the first round, My Wasp hit’s the Stingers leg and crits both the hip and lower leg actuator. It falls hard.

It falls down on the second turn before getting back up and moving. My Commando blasts one of the Locust’s legs, hit’s an actuator and it falls this turn. Then my Spider kicks the left leg completely off the Stinger.

On the third turn, the Left Arm of my Firestarter is opened up seriously, about to be knocked off. My Spider kicks the other leg off the Stinger after it hobbled up. Also falling to the ground are a Locust with a damaged actuator and the Assassin who missed a kick.

The fourth turn sees me blow the leg off a Locust. The Commando blows the right arm and right torso off the other Locust. My Spider kicks the arm off the downed Locust (which is now missing two arms and a leg) while my Commando misses a kick that might have blown the leg off the other Locust. One turn left.

The final turn sees the one legged Locust make a ten and stand up. We exchange fire but the other Locust does not go down during the weapons phase. My final chance sees me kick the Locust missing a torso and la twice, once each with the Commando and Spider. One kick, placed properly, can blow the leg off it. I miss both attacks, and despite that Locust having just one point of armor left internal, it manages to get away. We took out a Locust and a Stinger from their normal mechs.

While my scout lance is out, I catch a blip on our dropship’s radar. Their mechs are within a hundred klicks. If I have any speedy mechs left, I can send out a party to hit their Heavy lance. I do not have to engage. I can send out anything that is 5/8 or faster, which is:

Griffin
Wolverine
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim Hover Transport which can take one Infantry unit


Our radar identifies their heavy (what I call my Anvil lance) as the following mechs:

Atlas
UrbanMech
Orion
Hunchback


I choose not to send out my mechs. All are slow, but it would be too hard to isolate and kill one in five turns. I might kill an Urbie in my best case scenario, but I’d be taking a lot of firepower against me to do it.

Time for the final battle then. Our scout teams gets back, and damage is repaired. They choose not to send out the Locust with a missing arm and torso. With most of its weapons gone, even fully repaired it has no real combat value.

Their four remaining mechs:

Whitworth
Trebuchet
Catapult
Cicada

The Cicada is a fast mech to keep the slower fire support mechs from getting flanked. The other three are missile boats. They are slow, and feature a lot of LRMs. The Catapult is the best of the lot at 65 tons with two LRM15s and four medium lasers for cloer range fighting plus ten tons of armor. It even sports jump jets to get it out of danger. They are a House Liao speciality.


Due to a lack of pre-battle scouting, we stumble into each other on the field, and so we are on a smaller map inside the ranges of most of our long range weapons. We are fighting around a mountain lake. There is not a single tree in the area. I feel naked.

On the first turn, my Wolverine takes a little damage to the head, and my pilot blacks on (stays awake on a 3 or better after taking one damage, and I rolled a two). Bad news for the mercs early. It tumbles to the ground.

The next turn my Firestarter loses its left arm. Just some armor trading other than that.

The Maxim blows off the LT and LA of a Cicada. I hit the Orion’s head with my Orion, and that’s the second hit this turn there, so I go internal. I roll a critical on the cockpit and kill the pilot. Boom! One mech down, and it’s a great one! Very recoverable too. The head wasn;t even destroyed, just the cockpit. That was a big swing. Then my Spider gets kicked byt eh Cicada, which goes internal on the leg, and it falls. My pilot blacks out (needed a 5 to not do so). Luck gives and luck takes away. The Wolverine pilot wakes up.

My Spider lost a left leg and a right arm from the beatings. If I gain consciousness, I can eject and leave it on the field. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Whitworth, hits for 20+ damage, and then forces it off the map. No more Whitworth.

My Spider is missing both arms and a LL. I eject. Ted Izumo takes out the Trebuchet’s engine with the third hit, after my Orion got two hits. The Motorized Rifle Platoon and Maxim team up to each hit a Cicada gyro. It falls and cannot move.

The next turn we just exchange weapons. Nothing major happened.

The following turn I run up to the Atlas with my Orion and Stalker and blast each other at close range. My Stalker and the Atlas both fall under the assault. My Phoenix Hawk charges the Catapult, hits it, and knocks it from the field as well. It then falls down. My Griffin’s LA was blown off.

I stand up both of my prone mechs. I move the Phoenix Hawk out of the way of fire. It did what it needed this game, knocking two mechs off the board.

One of my Urbies had its RT blown off and its RA is on the floor. The Atlas was battered by a variety of missiles, and the head was hit three times. That means the pilot has to make three consciousness checks, and he fails the third, blacking out. The mech falls to the ground.

The following turn we exchange fire. No major things.

Turn 10 sees Ted Izumo clean up the trash by devastating the opposing Urbie with a nice ammo explosion.

And with that, we have won the Scenario. Our target is unconscious and thus captured by us. We also capture the Atlas.

I had no idea when I drew up the Atlas for the lead guy we had to kill that we would actually be able to capture the Atlas, much less get one in virtually pristine condition.

Wow very nice win. Grats on the Orion and Atlas, hopefully you can get both!

Salvaged Mechs:

Cicada - No LT, LA, 2x damaged gyro, ML in RT hit.

Orion - Head cockpit hit. Needs two tons of armor, one ton of lrm ammo.

Atlas - No internal damages. Just needs ammo for AC20 and LRM and armor.


Things we salvaged:

Urbie RA from my own mech
Locust LA


Things we need for my mechs:

Griffin - LA, 2 tons of armor, LRM ammo

Firestarter, RA, 2 tons of armor

Urbie - RT, RA, 3 tons of armor, 1 ton AC10 ammo

Maxim - 2 tons of armor, 1 ton LRM ammo

Wolverine - 3 tons armor, 1 ton AC5 ammo, 1 ton SRM6 ammo

Stalker - 1 ton lrm ammo, 1 ton srm ammo, 4 tons armor

Orion - 1 ton armor, AC10 ammo, LRM ammo

2 tons LRM ammo, 1 ton AC10 ammo on other mechs.

Not Bad fellas, not bad.


Value of Salvaged Mechs:

Atlas - AS7-D Normal Value: 9,626,000 Cost to Fix: 105,000 Current Value: 9,521,000

Orion - ON1-K Normal Value: 6,674,500 Cost to Fix: 50,000 Current Value: 6,624,500

Cicada - CDA-2A Normal Value: 3,705,200 Cost to Fix: 1,850,000 Current Value: 1,855,000

We fixed the cockpit on the Orion. We have to replace the gyro on the Cicada which costs 1.2 mill alone.


Locust Left Arm is worth about 150k, plus weapons.


Total value salvaged: 18,180,500 giving us 9,090,250 in CBills as compensation.

We cannot take the Atlas. Get this, if we had managed to fix the gyro, we would have added 1.2 million to the salvage value of the Cicada, which would give us enough compensation to get the Atlas. Ah well.

I take the Orion, Cicada and Locust Left Arm.

To fix Orion and Cicada:

1,900,000

To fix our mechs:

995,000



Total Costs:

1,900,000
995,000
425,000 for jump there
425,000 for jump back to Outreach
264,120 for maintenance and salaries


Total Costs: 4,109,120


Total Compensation:

9,090,250 for salvage compensation
417,900 for 42% battle compensation

380,000 for 40% travel reimbursement
133,998 for actual contract
6,700 for remuneration



Total Compensation: 10,028,848


Net Gain: 5,919,728


Total War Chest: 15,622,947

July 2, 3032 - We arrive back at Outreach. Time for another recruit drive. I need pilots for the Cicada and Orion. Ted notched an elite dispossessed warrior for the Orion. Adele strikes out. I have three tries. I get another elite dispossessed MW and that’s it.

Martin Fitzgerald, elite, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, elite, Cicada

I also hire a few more techs.

The Cicada is super fast, with an 8/12 speed on a 40 ton mech but it has the armor and weaponry of a 20 ton mech, nothing special at all. What it is amazing at is charging and hitting people. A 40 ton mech that runs 10 spaces to hit you can knock you out. A 20 ton mech that runs 8 spaces, won’t do anywhere near as much damage, so the Cicada is like a charge special. I’ll try to set up for that, and with an elite pilot behind the figurative wheel, it may be time for some dirty damage dealing.

I purchase a Hunter Light Support Tank for my extra crew. It is a cheap, 35 ton tank that sports an LRM20 and has light armor. Just leave it in the back and bring the missles. Then run away if people get close. You can even park it behind an evelvation change and launch LRMs indirectly using a spotter.


Time for some contracts.

We get three offers. They are from:

Lyran Commonwealth for a Garrison contract. Garrison contracts can run for years.

Duchy of Andurien for a Planet Assault!

Magistracy of Canopus for Pirate Hunting

Pirate Hunting is easy, Pirates are usually poor team players, have poor equipment, and simply need to be caught. Garrison contracts are milk work, but you get no real combat action. No one trusts mercenaries with border world garrison contracts.

The Duchy of Andurien is attacking the Capellan Confederation, and that means one thing. Their Planetary Assault contract must be against a Liao world! Interesting.


I am pasuing the dynasty for one reason. There is a sourcebook that has the Duchy of Andurien/Magistracy of Canopus - Cappellan war in it, and I do not have it. As it appears that I am about to be a participant in that war, I will order the book, read it, and then use it for this contract.

I'll still be round when you get back to it, no worries there. This is fascinating stuff to me. Rather wish I had the stuff to get into it myself.

Tell

Glad ta hear it, thanks.

I'm reading along too. I used to play this a while back with friends. It was a blast. Nice dynasty write-up by the way.

Thanks mrkilla22!

This is for the non B-Tech peops out there.

While waiting, let’s go over a few things.

How do you know if you hit a mech when you fire? Well, you roll 2d6 and check the result of the total against your target number. Start with your gunnery skill. Thus a lower gunnery skill is a good thing.

Add the range of your weapon. For example, a Medium Laser has a 3/6/9 range. Within three hexes is close range, and there is no bonus. At medium range add two, and at long range add four. Some weapons have a minimum range and firing inside the minimum range is tough.

Add your movement. Add one if you walked, two if you ran, three if you jumped, and nothing if you did not move.

Add your opponent’s movement, which is based on the number of hexes they moved. 0-2 hexes moved is no change, 3-4 is one, 5-6 is two, 7-9 is three and 10+ is four. That means super fast mechs are harder to hit. Also, if the target jumped, add and additional one.

Add terrain. Add one for every light woods and two for every heavy woods between you and the target. Add three for partial cover.

Result is your target number. Let me give you some examples. All examples assume a gunnery of 4 (which is average for a regular unit).

You are six spaces away from a Hunchback in your Panther. You have a PPC and an SRM4. You jumped this turn, and the Hunchback moved three spaces. To hit with your PPC, which is at close range, you need an eight. To hit with the SRM4, which is at medium range, you need a ten. Roll for each weapon.

Hope that helps.

Be reading your sourcebook faster! :)

Nice dynasty so far.

The book that I was waiting for has arrived. Brush Wars. It was published in 2006 as a series of historical sourcebooks fleshing out older conflicts that never had a sourcebook. This book covers three major conflicts:

The Ronin Wars - An internal struggle in the Draconis Combine that may not involve us as mercs.

The Andurien Conflict - The attacks by the Duchy and Magistracy on House Liao.

The Marik Civil War - This was back in 3014 and 3015, so there is no chance of involvement by Kilts and Commandos.

Now I am off to go read it. Catch ya all later!

Read fast!

Tell

Okay, I've digested the book.


We are contracted to join the Andurien assault on the key Capellan system of Betelgeuse. A strong industrial center, Betelgeuse has been in battle for over a year with each side contributing troops to the conflict. Every couple of months, each side tosses in more troops into the crucible of Betelgeuse.


Time to negotiate the contract.

We begin with 77 points.

I put up salvage rights first. They offer us Exchange rights, and I choose to pull 50 points out of the pool to buy Full Salvage Rights. This is our first contract with full rights.

They put up command rights next. They offer Integrated command which gives us 15 points, but I but it to house command for twenty, putting us at 22 points left.

I then toss up remuneration just to give me a buffer of 10 points. We will not be receiving any. 32 points.

They put up salary next, pulling out 25 points to give us a 3.4 modifier. That leaves us with 7 points.

I toss up transport, and they offer us the normal 40% reimbursement,which gives us 15 points and I do not protest. 22 points.

They have support and length of service left, and choose support, offering 50% on straight support. I agree. 22 points left.

I put length last. They offer a six month contract. I pull ten points and drop it to four.

We have 12 points left which will give us a 6% bonus to our salary.


We will be landing in Andurien before meeting our fellow troops and jumping to Betelgeuse.

This is eight jumps away. Andurien will be using command circuits to help us out as we get close to their Duchy. Command circuits are JumpShips already charged and ready to go, waiting on your arrival. They cut transport time down significantly, but you still have to transfer from one JumpShip to the next.

Mm, this one sounds interesting. Hopefully the loot is good in this one and you don't end up becoming more fodder for the grinder.

Tell

October 9, 3032 - We arrive in Andurien and are informed that Betelgeuse has fallen. Five regiments of the mercenary unit McCarron’s Armored Cavalry arrived and changed the nature of the war. We are being reassigned to Palladaine. With no planetary assaults left for Andurien to send us, we are being sent to shore up defenses on the Cappellan world they captured quickly and easily in the first month of the war. We’ve basically turned into a four month security contract. There is a JumpShip waiting to take us there now,

October 13, 3032 - We have landed on Palladaine. It’s a fairly peaceful world, considering the war that was raged here earlier. It only took ten days for the Third Defenders of Andurien to capture it. They left a battalion of their forces (three companies) here for peacekeeping, but it has been very quiet here. As such, they will be jumping out in a little over a week to join other campaigns and leaving us as the sole garrison forces on the world.

October 15, 3032 - The Free Worlds League Sixth Marik Militia have arrived in system to raid Palladaine. They are a veteran regiment sized force. Luckily, the Third Defenders of Andurien’s one battalion are still here to help us. We have half the troops that this veteran Marik force has. The one thing we have going for us is that the Marik troops have not arrived with the intention of taking the planent, since it is a Capellan planet. They want to raid, destroy or take some supplies, which hurts our war effort, and then leave.


Time for a campaign.

We came expecting battle with Liao, and instead Marik is attacking.

Troops are most vulnerable when they are landing or taking off. They are bunched up, some assets are in transport DropShips, some assets are scattered or non-functional during a landing or take-off, since pilots aren’t going to be in the seats of their mechs.

The Marik Commander isn’t dumb. He has several options. He can land all of his forces at the same place, knowing that we will be there to challenge his arrival. It’s arriving in force. If we are to overcome 2:1 odds, that would be the place to do it, plus even if he wins, he’ll take major losses. This isn’t about him taking the world, he wants to get supplies.

Another option is to hot drop mechs. You enclose mechs in giant ceramic shells and drop them out of DropShips flying at low altitude. Forces will be spread out, harder hit, but easier to overcome when we do. Again, it comes with some problems. Mechs are known to take damage from the drop, and its used for suberterfuge, and long campaigns to set you up where you need to be without risking a full blown drop and the open area it requires.

A third option is to split into three battalions and land in three different places. Force the defenders to decide where to go and how. The disadvantage is that one group might be defeated if we concentate on it, but the other two groups will be free to hit the supplies. Even if we split up and hit two of the three drops, there is still one free group. If we split into three groups, then we may not have enough mechs at each landing site to overcome the 2:1 ratio. In other words, it is easier for 50 mechs to defeat a 100 than it is for 10 to beat 20 (those are hypothetical numbers).

One subtle advantage that the Marik troops have, in addition to numbers, is in experience. The Andurien Defenders are regular troops, the Mariks are vets.


What strategy are the Marik forces employing? All at once, split into three or hot drop?

There are nine DropShips making for Palladaine. As they arrive close to the planet, they split off in different directions. Not three different directions, with a battalion heading each way, but nine different directions. The Marik Commander is splitting his regiment into companies. That all but guarantees that troops will get through and get the supplies and get out.

What will our commander do?


There are a lot of options If we defended the supply base, with our attackers just landing in one or even three directions, we could defend the base. However, we are in the center of a nine pointed circle. Defending the base would be suicide against so many. We have better odds on the ground.

The problem our side faces is this: Inner Sphere units are operated in lances, companies, battalions and regiments, and they fight thusly. It is not easy to dispatch five or six or seven mechs to take on a target.

Our commander, whom we answer to, has a decision to make. Even were he to split our forces into nine units, he’d be sure that a number of them would fail, and then there would be no real defense for the base. We also can’t sit back and just protect, we are surrounded and would easily fall.

Without much of a choice, he decides to split forces. We have four and a half companies of toops against nine companies. He orders our infantry to stay at the base guarding the defenses against any attackers.

He orders our Anvil and Thunder lances against one enemy, and our other forces against another. He divides all of his companies in half to attack six drops, leaving one drop untouched. It’s just a company of mechs, and he has dispatched a few conventional fighters to harass and delay them until we are done fighting.

Thunder Lance

Sergeant Adele Thompson, Thunder Lance Leader. Firestarter
Samir Azif, Wasp
Liu Chen, Spider
Melissa Darrow, Commando


Anvil Lance

Sergeant Ted Izumo, Anvil Lance Leader. Stalker
Salia James, Wolverine
Bryant McKinnon, UrbanMech
Raquel Sanchez, UrbanMech

Under the command of Ted Izumo. I now have random rolling charts from the Brush Wars books to accurately represent the Marik mechs. Here we go.


SPECIAL DROP RULES:

It is dusk. Therefore all to hits are at +1 difficutly, which will favor the Marik forces even more.

Ted’s battle will be at a Lake Area



Marik Forces at Ted’s Drop

Locust
Stinger x2
Firestarter x2
Archer
Stalker x2
Spider
Vulcan
Javelin
Griffin

So we have one Stalker, they have two. The Archer is a heavy mech missle boat with two LRM20 raining long range missles on you. it’s a very good mech, arguably the best heavy mech of its day. That’s their power, and the rest are light and medium mechs.

Roll 1d6 for each mech. That is the round on which it deploys to the map.

Ready for combat:

I roll for each mech. The good news is that none of the big three (Stalker, Stalker, Archer) begin on the map, so I can take my time blasting their mechs. The bad news is that they all appear on the map on the same turn the 5th. My hope is that I can take the advantage strong enough in the first few turns that I can keep the momentum even after the big guys come out.

My eight mechs looks like this: Assault, Medium, six lights.

Theirs: 2 Assaults, 1 Heavy, 2 Mediums, 7 Lights


Okay, here we go.


There are five lights on the map for the first round. Hopefully I can damage one or two severely this turn. Bad news. Their Locust tears off my Commandos right torso, goes critical, hits the ammo and boom! First turn kill. On my mech. I;m critical on my Wasp’s RA. I did not hit with a single weapon.

A Vulcan is deployed this turn. I unleash on my opponent’s Javelin, but it survives, although it loses an arm. We have to get killing soon, or this engagement will be a loss. During the physical attack step, my Wasp loses its wounded arm, and then falls down from being kicked after rolling a 2 on 2d6 to see if it stands. Argh.

On turn three, no new mechs are deployed by my opponent, but I have to savage them now, this turn. I fail to get up with my Wasp (I needed a five) and took damage. I stood up with it again. Adele Thompson blows off the LT of the Locust, taking its Left Arm with it. She also hits its gyro. Our Wolverine blasts through the rear armor of the Vulcan and tacks its engine and gyro. The Vulcan falls. I was hoping to kill either the Locust or the Javelin, but neither happened. We barely even hi the Javelin this round.

Another light mech joins their squad this round. Next round the three baddies join, so I have to deal maximum damage this round. If there are not multiple light mechs with a Marik symbol destroyed at the end of this round, then I’ll have to consider retreat. With one mech destroyed and another without its arm and weapon, I am lacking strength here. My Wolverine hit’s the Locust, destroys its LL and then destroys its Center Torso, destroying it. That’s it. Sure, I attacked their Stinger well and the Javelin well, but can I destroy them? Nope. They are like annoying gnats. My Spider punches the Stinger in the leg (it was one elevation up) and rolls a 12 when it goes crit. A 12 is Limb Blows Off, so the ll is gone, and the Stinger falls. Heavy machinery comes out of the woods.

The Archer takes out my RT and LA on the Wasp. One of their Firestarters falls after missing a kick. I still can’t kill the Javelin or Stinger. I was hoping to clean them up this week. The final mechs join my opponent’s forces.

My Stalker has taken damage in the first few turns, and has wounded armor. My Wasp is on its way to dying. My Commando is gone. The Marik Company Commander could keep coming our way, but he does not want to kill and destroy us, and he doesn’t want to lose a bunch of mechs doing it. Right now, his only loss is the Locust, and ours a Commando.

I signal my troops to withdraw and test the Marik’s resolve. As expected, he just moves past us towards the base. Instead of a fighting withdraw, I let him past, and now the field is ours.


We lost, yet we get salvage

Salvaged:

Stinger LL
Commando Head
Locust Head, LA, LT


Damages: Wasp LA, RA, RT all destroyed.

We probably have about 10 tons of armor needed. Our pilot survived the destruction of the Commando.

The Other Drop Site

We have the following troops available here:


Hammer Lance

Sergeant Anakago Intade, Hammer Lance Leader. Griffin.
Rafael Gomez, Dervish
Michael Adkins, Centurion
Justine Dempsey, Phoenix Hawk


Lieutanent Braham Essex, Orion
Martin Fitzgerald, Orion
Anna Cafincelli, Cicada
Erik Jannarsson, Hunter Light Support Tank
Helga Snyder, Maxim Heavy Hover Transport

So this group has just seven mechs, instead of eight, but there are no light mechs here. Perhaps heavy metal will rule the day.

Also, this side will benefit from my tactical genius skill.

This is very interesting, how long is it taking you know to get through an average mission?

Depends on the number of turns it goes. A five turn mission might take an hour or so, some of the longer grinding missions take three or four hours. I play and watch tv at the same time. Right now I am watching the season finale of Workout, for example.

Here are the forces arrayed against us.

Stinger
Hunchback
Rifleman
Stalker
Hermes II
Javelin
Whitworth
Grasshopper
Firestarter x2
Wasp
Archer


The mechs to fear are the Archer, Stalker combo once again. The Grasshopper is big but not scary. I’ve handled Riflemen before, they are strong in weapons but weak in armor. The Hunchback features a powerful AC20 but has little mobility and can be taken out before it becomes a threat.

Their breakdown

Assault Mechs: 2
Heavy Mechs: 2
Medium Mechs: 3
Light Mechs: 5

That’s actually pretty evenly stretched. If one Light were moved to medium, it would be a perfect distribution.



My opponent only starts with an Archer and Stinger, and the Stalker doesn’t come down until turn 6, giving us a strong chance to deal some damage. I rolled well for my team. We’ll see if that matters.

We are fighting over a river.



On the first turn, the Orion not piloted by me TACs the Archer’s shoulder actuator, which is good.

The second turn brings out their Rifleman and a few lights like a Firestarter. I’m choosing to concentrate my fire on the good mech, the Archer, over the Rifleman, in the hopes that not only will I kill their second best mech, but also have a chance at getting it for myself. I sandblast off some armor from the Archer, but nothing critical.

One of their medium mechs, the fast Hermes II is deployed this round. Their Archer destroys my Maxim Hover Transport after blowing up its power plant. One of their light mechs, a Stinger, got too close to the other Orion and he blew out its right leg and it falls. We continue to target the Archer with most of our mechs. Not even internal yet. That thing is awesome.

Their Stinger stands up getting the 10 they need to do so. Even more sloughing of armor off the Archer, and my Centurion took out the LA of the Stinger. It falls down from the damage.

Their Whitworth and Grasshopper and Javelin and second Firestarter have joined the fray. Their Stinger falls down while moving. We exchange more fire and no more decision. Then my Orion kicks the downed Stinger in front of him and destroys it by kicking its RA, which transfers to the RT which trasnfers to the CT which kills the mech when it is destroyed.

Their Stalker and Hunchback join the weenie roast. I make a ballsy move and charge an opposing Stinger next to the river. I need an 8 to hit during the physical phase, and I can’t attack with weapons, but if I hit, not only will I do 24 to him for 4 to myself, but I also knock him into the river. My second Orion blows off the Archer’s LT and his LA goes with it. My Phoenix Hawk falls after taking damage. The Cicada misses and then his LA is blown off with a 12 critical, and lays on the ground ready to be brought back.

My Phoenix Hawk is destroyed by engine destruction. I personally screw up the Archer bad - two engine hits and a gyro hit. The other allied Orion TACs the Stalker’s CT and hits a heat sink and the engine. The Archer falls.

I flee with the Cicada the next turn. It was internal everywhere. The Archer tried to stand and failed, falling back down again. After some exchange of fire, both Hunchback and the other Orion fall.

I keep up the pressure. We are losing the battle, but just a bit. I suspect the Marik forces will pull out soon. They don’t want too many losses. Another round, another exchange of fire.

Another round passes. More fire is exchanged. Then the Archer overheats, and shutdown. When an engine critical is gotten, the mech makes a lot more heat, and it had two hits, plus it was still moving and shooting. It overheated and shut down.

Marik begins to retreat to their DropShip. They are too damaged to go to the base, and they do not want to stay around and keep getting beat up. This was more of a ceasefire, than a win.

Ouch on the loss in the first fight. Having said that, your force seemed awfully out-classed from the outset so it's good you didn't lose any really valuable mechs.

Yeah, but them's the breaks. Gotta do what the commander orders.

We lost a Phoenix Hawk and Maxim. Let’s see what else happened:


The Phoenix Hawk pilot survived.
Everything on the Maxim was a total loss
The Cicada lost a LA, but it was left on the battlefield and will be easy to fix




We recovered:

Archer LA
Stinger LL
Phoenix Head, LL, RL

Archer - Engine hit twice, gyro hit once, no LT, no LA, lower leg actuator hit. Could be very expensive to replace this stuff if we don’t get it fixed.

It will take about 20 tons of armor to fix us up.

Well, we stopped one out of two of our targets from advancing, but we had to let the others by. Let’s see how the rest of the Andurien troops fared.

They stopped three advances, so they averaged 50% too. That leaves five companies making it to the supply depot. I head back there with my quickest mechs.


By the time we reach the supply depot, the mechs have come and gone, lifting out from the base. Our infanty is damaged and brusied, but not badly shaken.


Total Losses:

Commando
Phoenix Hawk
Maxim


Gain:

Archer


Just my luck, I have total salvage and I lose more than I bring in.


Archer ARC-2R Value: 6,384,974. Damage: 1,196,244. Current Value: 5,188,730

I was able to fix the engine, gyro and actuator. Still, replacing an arm, a torso section, and the LRM20 has some expense to it.

I use the Locust LA to fix the Wasp’s broken and missing arm.

Cost to fix my current stuff:

300000 for armor
750000 Wasp RT, RA
475000 for ammo

1196244 to fix Archer
427648 8 month cost of running the mercs
525000 transport there
525000 back

Total Costs: 4,198,892


Revenue:


407,420 salary
420,000 transit reimbursement
24,446 bonus
38,400 support

Total Revenue: 890,266


Total War Chest After Losses: 11,179,186

When you go for full salvage, you can go from making massive amounts of money to losing money like that. The contract is not over, but I wanted to go ahead and fix the finances so it would be taken care of. I assign the elite pilot Rafael Gomez to the Archer. I was actually considering it for myself, but ultimately decided to keep the Orion for me. I move dispossessed Melissa Darrow to the Dervish.

The Archer and Wasp will not be fixed immediately. It will take a while to get the parts shipped here, so for two months, if we are in combat here, we will not be able to use the Wasp or the Archer.

Okay, let’s see if any other action comes our way.


December 15, 3032 - We receive word from Andurien intel that the Capellan forces are consolidating their hold on their recaptured worlds, and we are being reassigned. We are to raid Scarborough, a nearby world, one jump away in Marik space. It is being used as a base for the Sixth Marik Militia, our previous enemies. Intel says that most of them are currently raiding again. We’ll have limited defenses as a result.

December 23, 3032 - Our arrival on Scarborough is discovered by the remnants of the Sixth Marik Militia still on planet. Instead of dropping hot, or having a drop that involves combat, I choose to drop into swamps several hundred klicks away from one of their supply depots, in a small town. Not trusted the unstable land of a swamp, the Sixth Marik Militia sends out a scout force to engage us as we leave the swamp.


For this battle, we will be fighting against a company of scout mechs. Their goal is to harass and damage us, and hopefully take out one or two of our mechs, then fade away. It is a typical hit and fade tactic, being used against us.

Our Opponents:

Stinger x2
Hermes II x2
Hermes
Javelin
Griffin
Scorpion
Spider
Locust 1M
Shadow Hawk
Flea


The Hermes IIs, Griffin, Scorpion and Shadow Hawk are all medium mechs. The Scorpion is a rare quad mech, with four legs instead of the normal two legged upright mech. It’s harder to pilot a quad than a normal mech, because the neurohelmet taps into a person;s own sense of balance to pilot a mech, and a quad is just…off.

We do not have the Archer or Wasp on this journey.

We’ll be playing on two maps. One the end of a swamp which we start on, and the other relatively clear terrain on the Marik side.

We begin to move out on the first turn, no one hits anybody else.

The second tuirn sees us skirmish a bit with weapons fore and continue to maneuver into various positions.

Another turn and some more flirting, but no screwing yet. Too much footsie going on. I’m moving in next turn.

The opposing Griffin hit’s the head of one of my Orions with a PPC and goes internal, but luckily doesn’t hit a critical, I could have lost an Orion from that if a crit had been rolled. Ted Izumo takes out the Flea’s right arm. Then the Centurion hits the Flea’s head with its AC10 and destroys it. That’s one mech that’s fixable. I kick the Shadow Hawk down onto the ground.

The next turn the Shadow Hawk arises, and then we barrage it from all corners. It falls to the ground under the onslaught.

Another turn and another savaging of their Shadow Hawks. It falls down again. My Wolvie falls too after taking a little beating.

And just like that, the Marik troops fade out. I order some support vehicles to grab the Flea while we spend a few hours fixing armor and reloading ammo bays, before moving on.

Archer for a Phoenix Hawk and a Commando? Not a bad trade though your force appears to be coming heavier and heavier over time (not necessarily a bad thing).

Yeah, I love Archers.


Salvage:


Flea

Missing Head, Left Arm, two damaged Small Lasers

Probably about 8 tons of armor needed.
About 100k in ammo needed.

A Flea is a 20 ton mech with 3 tons of armor, a 6/9 movement, it has two medium lasers, two small lasers facing the rear, a flamer and two machine guns. You can make it good by stripping off the machine guuns and ammo for a fourth ton of armor and two more small lasers, and then move the rear facing ones to the front, giving it six lasers: four small and two medium. That’d be a solid mech. I may just sell the remains of the Flea instead of paying to rebuild it. We’ll see.

A few hours after we are field refitted, I make a decision. Satellite data is telling us that they have moved their defenders (two companies of mechs) around the supply depot. I order all of our quick mechs to move out to the nearby supply depot under the command of Adele Thompson. Then I have all of my other units into our DropShip, and order it to another depot on another continent with light defenses. The mechs moving to the nearby base will force his troops to stay there while my main forces smash and grab.

After an hour, we get more telemetry on their forces. They left a company of mechs at the nearby depot where our light and medium fast mechs are heading. They launched a DropShip to chase us down, but we have a head start. My guess is we’ll have about a half hour to fight through the meager defenses, and then grab what we can before we load back up and get out. Then we’ll have to meet up with our fast forces and launch back to Palladaine.

As soon as our fast mechs get within 50 klicks of the supply depot, I order them back. They have been the diversion I needed, and they retreat back. I suspect the enemy company garrisoning the depot will advance on our troops after they realise what happened.

In the meantime, our heavy and slower forces have landed just outside of the opposing depot on another continent. Taking care of these defenses should be a piece of cake.

Our forces array in this battle:

All four infantry squads
Urbies x2
Orions x2
Stalker
Wolverine
Centurion

Yep, just seven mechs. The infantry are charged with grabbing what we can and then planting bombs on the depot to blow it up as we leave.

The forces we are against

Two industrial flatbed trucks with SRMs attached to the bed.
Two Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
A Swift Wind Scout Car (no weapons but it moves 10/15 and can ram well or scout well)
Calvary Attack Helicopter
Warrior Attack Helicopter
6 squads of infantry
A Griffin and Phoenix Hawk that were escorting the troops here

Marik also has 15 mines around the place.


We are fighting on a warehouse map with several buildings.

We need our mechs to clear out the stuff so our infantry can get in and get out. If we completely destroy the defense, or they retreat, our mechs each have mesh bags with them we can fill, to increase what we can take with us.

Our Centurion runs over a mine on the first time and takes some damage. Their Warrior Attack Copter tries to thread through two buildings and sideslips into a building and is destroyed. We didn’t even need to hit it. I take out one SRM truck. My third kill as a merc commander. A Skulker is taken out by the other Orion. We hit and do damage elsewhere. Then I kick and destroy the other Skulker and take out two vehicles in one turn.

The second turn sees one of my Urbies hit a mine. Infantry take out the other coptor. Another platoon takes out an SRM truck. An Urbie wants to take out an opposing infantry but they are hiding in a building, so he takes down the building and kills the infantry platoon. I’m not going to count that as a kill officially in the book. We’re going after the mechs this turn. I ran one Orion up to a Phoenix Hawk and the Stalker up to the Griffin. Their Phoenix Hawk falls down from the damage.

Our anti-mech laser troops take out the scout car. No points for a weaponless scout. Our Centurion destroys the RA of the Phoenix Hawk. It falls again. I kick out the left leg of the Griffin it falls. The pilot blacks out. Yay Orion.

I get radioed by the Phoenix Hawk. We’ve taken out their vehicles, some infantry, the Griffin and savaged the Phoenix Hawk. They agree to retreat. I order two mechs to grab the Griffin between them and carry it back to the DropShip.

Infantry and scouring the warehouses for items, placing bombs, and grabbing items. We fill up some of the mesh bags with ammo, boxes of armor, spare weapons, and so forth. Then we load up the DropShip and take off with five minutes to spare before the other DropShip arrives. As we fly away, the warehouses blow up behind us.

Our take:


50 tons of armor
Millions in ammo and weapons
Griffin with no LL.

We arrive at a predetermined spot in the swamps of the other continent and our light forces load up. As I thought, their mechs were dispatched from the other storage depot, but it will take them a while to arrive, and we’ll be well gone before they arrive.


We got away!


We send a message to Andurien forces. They will dispatch transports to gather the items, and they generously allow us to use the items to fix our mechs first, before taking the rest for themselves.


Flea. Normal Value 1,520,000. To fix: 525,000. Current Value: 995,000

I’m not sure I want to fix it.

December 29, 3032 - After our arrival back at Palladaine, I order us a Griffin left leg. The Archer and Wasp parts arrived and were fixed. I assign a dispossessed mechwarrior, Justine Dempsey, to the Griffin and the part should again arrive in two months.

We’re back up to sixteen mechs with the captured Griffin and Flea.


February 9, 3033 - Our contract officially ends. Dame Catherine Humphreys, Duchess of Andurien called me to inform me that she was invoking the Emergency Powers Clause of our contract, and extending our tour of duty by an additional month. I remind her that our initial contract was for a Planetary Assault, not for garrision duty or raids. If she extends our contract, then is has to be for the initial purpose of the contract. She relents, and then offers us a new contract on the spot.

I am attracted to the proposal. During the war, Andurien has only had three mercenaries at their call, since most mercs are leery of the Duchy. As such, they are a bit desperate. They will certainly give me good terms. On the other hand, I’d like to go back to Outreach for more recruiting, and I’d like to sell and buy some mechs. It would also give me a chance to see what else is going on in the Inner Sphere and perhaps take a tasty contract elsewhere. Travel time back to Outreach is about two and a half months, and I’d hate to make the trip only to find us not getting a good contract better than the one we had with the Duchy of Andurien.

I suspect that I’ll see plenty of combat fighting for Andurien, but I want a chance to grow my unit, and recruiting is one way to do that. I only have 15 MechWarriors, so you can understand why I am choosing to return to Outreach.

ADVANCEMENT -

Both myself and Ted Izumo have crossed the four kill threshold and can now increase our stats. I can decrease my gunnery, piloting, or take a special ability. I decrease my gunnery. Ted drops his too.

April 17, 3033 - We arrive back in Outreach. Time for recruiting!

Ted brings in a regular light Mech with his contacts.

Adele rolls a 12 and recruit’s a regular Assault mech with her one contact!

I get a regular medium mech with my three rolls, and a veteran dispossessed MW that we will pay and take with us until we can find him a mech.


Our recruits:

Umbria Mutunde, LCT-1V Locust, regular

Su Yuan, Goliath, regular (The Goliath is an 80 ton assault mech with a PPC and two LRMs, making it good for long range fighting. It is also the only other quad mech design commonly used, along with the 55 ton Scorpion.)

Samia Oudghiri, PHX-1D Phoenix Hawk, regular. It’s ironic that we got a new Phoenix Hawk after losing one recently. Note this is a variant of the main Phoenix Hawk that strips off the machines guns and adds two heat sinks, making it a better mech because heat problems are regular in P. Hawks.

Roger Stephens, vet, dispossessed.

I want to do something about these useless Urbies just sitting around taking up space, sucking.

UrbanMech - 1,471,925

The Urbie is the cheapest light mech in the known universe, which is why it’s so attractive for a company like ours. I also can’t just sell them. They came with their MechWarrior which makes them those MW’s property. I have to replace them with something good.

I roll to see if the two mechs I want are available on the market. The first one is.

Say hello to the PNT-9R, the Panther. It is superior to the Urbie in every way except price. Designed to do basically the same thing, it has a half ton more armor, a PPC and an SRM4 for weapons, and three heat sinks to allow it to jump and fire the PPC in the same turn. The PPC removes any need for ammo. 4/6/4 movement allows you to move in such a way as to get a +2 to hit, whereas the Urbie could never get more than a +1, and that was with jumping which gave you a +3 to hit yourself - bad math.


I roll to check and the second mech is available. Say hello to my favorite light mech of the 3025 era. The JVN-10F. This variant of the normal Javelin features more armor, two extra heat sinks, and a barrage of four medium lasers. Jump behind the back of a foe and unleash flame, and you have solid armor. Best thing is all of the lasers are in the torsos, allowing you to survive the loss of an arm or to fire yoru weapons and punch with both hands.

I sell both of my Urbies at a 10% loss and move the pilots to better mechs in both cases.


I hire a few more techs for my unit.

Time to look for a contract.

We get three offers.

The Outworlds Alliance, a periphery state, wants us to Garrison a world. No thanks

The Magistracy of Canopus, a periphery state that just got hammered against the Caps, also wants us to Garrison a world, probably in wake of losses of their troops. No thanks

The Free Worlds League, non-plussed at fighting against us just now, wants to contract us for Pirate Hunting in the Periphery. Easy battles. I’d prefer to stay close to home.

So I have a choice. Stay here and wait a month and see what comes down the pike. Or take the Marik Pirate Hunting Contract.

Let me look at a timetable.

We arer fifteen jumps away from the part of the periphery Marik wants us to explore. As they move troops from their border with the periphery to answer the threat of the Duchy of Andurien, some pirates in the Periphery have learned boldness and begun striking at the worlds on the edge of Marik space. Instead of disrupting war plans against Andurien, Marik would rather just pay a mercenary cadre to hunt down the pirates.

There are two groups of pirates we are charged with taking out. The first is a company of well-supplied mechs, down a mech after one was destroyed, but well armed and armored and well kept. Still, we outnumber them 18 to 11 and should have little trouble dispatching them.

The second are a group of vehicles and VTOLs that do snatch and grab missions, hitting and fading away with speed.

Our job would be to find each of these pirate groups, take them out, and then our mission is complete.


I’ll skip the normally drawn out negotiation for this one let you know what’s what:

Marik is transporting us themselves, so no costs there.
Full salvage rights.
No remuneration
No support whatsoever
Independent command
Normal 2.4 multipler to salary
2 month contract or as long as it takes, in case it takes us more than two months to destroy both pirate bands. They operate close together, so two months is very doable.

I’ll take the contract. I could use a milk run after the intense battles in the Andurien Wars.

Sounds like a relatively easy contract to get more mech salvage, good luck on that.

Thanks!

August 15, 3033 - We arrive in the outermost Marik system of Dalcour. We contact the local planet. They were attacked by the company of mechs just one month prior. Some of their supplies were hidden with tracers, showing the system they currently are in. The local government gives us the information on the pirates, and then we jump to the system that we believe has the mechs.

August 23, 3033 - It is an unknown system that we arrive in. We know we hit pay dirt when we see another JumpShip here. I dispatch two DropShips to the planet carrying our troops.

August 24, 3033 - We land in the arctic region of the small planet. Our DropShips are showing bogeys coming towards us. They bear an unusual logo, which I send through the computer. It comes up as Vinson’s Victorious, a mercenary group on contract to House Steiner when they went rogue for some reason, stole supplies from Steiner, commandeered a JumpShip and fled to the periphery, where they apparently became pirates.

The first mech is coming over the hill, and it’s battle time in the ice and snow,