AStott's Raiders (Titans of Steel: WS dynasty)

[Blade6119]

lets go boys...saddle up!

[Godzilla Blitz]

Humm...

13th mission. Blade 6119 is with us.

The omens are not good.

[Blade6119]

well...that wasnt quite the pep talk i was expecting, but i guess godzilla did have that whole aliens kicking his ass thing...

[AStott]

Yeah, um... pep talk. About that...

[Bee]

I think I'm 3rd or 4th in line to take over....guess I'll start warming up.

[Blade6119]

oh god...i just got in a few missions ago!....dang it...

[AStott]

Ok, ok. I'll admit it. Something bad happened to Blade6119. I'll fill in the details tonight.

Of course, some fairly bad things happened to two other people too... Not as bad as with Blade6119 though...

[AStott]

6:20 - We've been doing our best to avoid the Fist in close combat, but despite this, Blade6119 is in close range for a brief moment. He hits with his chainsaw, and fortunately, the Fist misses with both of his chainsaws. Unfortunately, the tesla bolts hits Blade6119 squarely in the center of the chest, causing a rack of short range missiles to explode. This destroys the center torso and engine, taking him out of the fight. About this time, we spot another 100 ton titan headed in towards us from the southeast.

7:00 - While Godzilla Blitz and race for the Starport, the Fang moves into reach of SirFozzie, using its chainsaws to completely mangle his right torso, sending SirFozzie helplessly to the ground. A follow up shot from the tesla bolt takes off his left leg.

7:01 - Moments later, sachmo71 succumbs to repeated poundings from the missile racks of the Illuminator. His back center torso leaking flames and smoke, he topples face first to the ground, a mere 50 yards from the safety of the Spaceport bunkers.

7:10 - Fortunately, Godzilla Blitz is able to move in and take control of the Starport center. Seeing that we are in control of the main facilities, the enemy backs off, leaving us to pick up the pieces of our shattered titans.

***

Salvage: $0
Bounty: $0
Payment: $125,000
Upkeep: -$50,924
New Total: $667,315 (+74,076)

Godzilla Blitz - Status: Alive - Health: 117/117 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 14% - Titan: Ready
sachmo71 - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 76% - Titan: Disabled
SirFozzie - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 46% - Titan: Disabled
Blade6119 - Status: Alive - Health: 108/108 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 50% - Titan: Destroyed

Kirth Gollub contacts Godzilla Blitz a short time later, as the local security forces move in to secure the facilities.

"Congratulations on liberating the Starport. As an extra payment, we have also signed exclusive use of the Offworld Mercenaries Excursion Wodge (a factory capable Starship with all amenities)."

"We will allow you the use of the Wodge to fulfill privateer contracts in the Core Worlds. Factory charges still apply, but we will not charge for shipping. We only require a share of the profits as well as any new technology you may discover."

Right, I suppose that's nice and all, and might help pay the bills, but... ouchy!

sachmo71's Thor requires the most work for repairs, but that really only because Blade6119 had to leave his titan out on the junk heap. We'll have to buy him a new one. The total repair bill comes to a painful $98,774. Tack on the cost for another new titan, and we're going to be hurting here...

***

Roster Summary:

Godzilla Blitz
Race: Male Human
Rank: Novice
Experience: 14760 of 21600 (+429)
Hit Points: 117
Upkeep: $11,554 (+218)
Battles: 13 (13W/0L)
Hit Ratio: 47% (-1)
Kills: 5
Titans Lost: 0
Awards: Most kills in one battle (2)

Attributes:
Intelligence: 12
Neural Sense: 12
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 14

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 63
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 33
Jump: 63
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 63
Guided Missile: 36
Cannon: 66
Energy Weapon: 66
Electronic Warfare: 60
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 20
Leadership: 66
Business: 41
Survival: 22

Unfortunately, he's still just barely short of what he needs to get his attribute increase. Next battle should do it.

***

sachmo71
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 14198 of 24000 (+769)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $9,396 (+174)
Battles: 13 (13W/0L)
Hit Ratio: 43% (+1)
Kills: 7/3*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Battle Star

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 11
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 65 (+3)
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 34 (+1)
Jump: 61
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 59
Cannon: 60
Energy Weapon: 67 (+1)
Electronic Warfare: 59
Scanner: 63
Damage Control: 37
Business: 63
Survival: 43

***

SirFozzie
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 14052 of 24000 (+638)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $12,978 (+151)
Battles: 13 (13W/0L)
Hit Ratio: 56%
Kills: 2
Titans Lost: 0
Awards: None

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66 (+1)
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 20 (+3)
Assault Piloting: 22
Jump: 61 (+1)
Scouting: 63
Close Combat: 62 (+1)
Cannon: 68
Energy Weapon: 42
Electronic Warfare: 43
Scanner: 59
Damage Control: 66
Business: 24 (+1)
Survival: 36

***

Blade6119
Race: Male Human
Rank: Rookie
Experience: 4407 of 3800 (+1242)
Hit Points: 108
Upkeep: $3,960 (+240)
Battles: 4 (4W/0L)
Hit Ratio: 49%
Kills: 0
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: None

Attributes:
Intelligence: 11
Neural Sense: 9
Reaction: 11
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 11

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 58
Jump: 22 (+1)
Scouting: 51 (+1)
Close Combat: 57 (+3)
Unguided Missile: 58
Cannon: 23
Energy Weapon: 23
Electronic Warfare: 56 (+8)
Scanner: 51
Business: 30
Survival: 40

***

Team Stats:
Battles: 13 (13W/0L)
Leader: Godzilla Blitz
Manager: sachmo71
Mechanic: SirFozzie
Most Kills: sachmo71 with 7
Most Destructions: sachmo71 with 3
Budget: $568,541 (-24698)
Upkeep: $50,821 / month (-1453)
Jocks: 4 of 7
Titans: 3 of 10
Deaths: 1

[AStott]

Yes, technically a win, but a rather costly one. We're down $25,000, and we haven't yet purchased a replacement titan for Blade6119... Yikes!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the listed experience points and rank for Blade6119 is not a mistake. Apparently you can't get a rank promotion from a mission when you retreat or have your titan destroyed. That means that Blade6119 will have to wait another battle to get his awaited promotion. Of course on the plus side, it's technically possible to get an early promotion before your experience warrants it. This has a chance of happening if your pilot gets at least three kills in a single mission.

So, the "bad stuff" didn't turn out to be quite as bad as you'd feared. Oh well. I'll try harder next time.

[Blade6119]

let me say this...i hate you....its hard enough knowing one dynasty runner hates me(*whistles like looking around and at godzilla*), but wondering if two are out to get me...glad to know tat was it, but that kinda sucks for a overconfident bee...

[Godzilla Blitz]

That could have been a lot worse. I thought Blade6119 was a goner, but his luck pulled him through again!

Only five more missions until Sachmo goes on #19! Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself.

[Bee]

So...umm...how many titans does Blade have to destroy before you fire him?

[AStott]

Blade6119: Me? Hate you? Naw... you're just low man on the totem pole, and therefore have been stuck in the lightest titan. Seniority has its priveledges after all. I have been seriously considering (despite the cost) upgrading you to a light this time. I really liked the road rash, but it just can't do so well against enemy light titans that weigh nearly twice as much as itself. Perhaps I can put together an equivalent light titan...

Godzilla Blitz: Yes, it really could have been worse. The scary thing about tesla bolts is that they do enough damage that a lucky shot to the head against recon and possibly light titans will rip it right off. That means a lucky hit can immediately kill your pilot. I need to get some more cash and experience so I can start upgrading peoples skills and titans to mediums. That will help avoid some of this problem.

Bee: Heh... So far he's only lost one, just like sachmo71. I think for now his position is safe. This had better not be the start of a trend though...

[Bee]

Well you should at least put him on "probation"...

[Blade6119]

does anybody like you bee?
i think you should just stop making bad suggestions

[Bee]

Originally posted by Blade6119
does anybody like you bee?

I don't think so, but I haven't met everyone yet.

[AStott]

I've designed a replacement for Blade6119's Road Rash. The Wipeout is designed around a similar concept. It has a base cost of $138,068, and a maintenance cost of $4,183. It has a walking speed of 60 kph, and jump jets which can carry it at a speed of 80 kph for 53 seconds. It carries a pair of class 8 short range missile launchers, a class 4 missile laucnher, and a pair of chain saws. It uses a CyberSys M (class 2) scanner and a CyberSys (class 2) battle computer. The Wipeout has the following ratings:
Firepower: 9
Close Range: 18
Short Range: 8
Medium Range: 0
Long Range: 0
Speed: 15
Jump: 6
Armor: 18
Defense: 4
Recon: 8
Heat Management: 18
Power Managerment: 16
Overall Rating: 12
Classification: Close Combat Light Titan

After buying the new titan, we are left with the following financial stats:
Budget: $420,809 (-147732)
Upkeep: $55,004 / month (+4183)

[AStott]

We'll see how well this titan works out. It's reasonably fast for a light titan, has jump jets for maneuverability and potential death-from-above attacks. It's armor is essentially maxed out. It should be pretty scary at close range. Time will tell...

Getting ready to start the next battle in this campaign...

[Blade6119]

kick ass...ill just float around them and shoot them all...im the first member of the Astott Air Force!!

[AStott]

With our new Starship, I decide to try out an arena battle in a truely different setting. This will give Blade6119 the chance to get his promotion before continuing on in the campaign.

This battle takes place in a blazing hot, literally inferno of a world. As we were coming in for a landing, we could actually see some literal rivers of lava flowing across the planet's surface. This particular arena however seems to mostly be just dry, hot, and hilly. We can't see much yet, so we'll send someone with jump jets to the top of a hill.

0:33 - Blade6119 comes out of a valley, and spots an enemy light titan far off in the other corner of the arena. At least we know their general direction. I think we'll try and head somewhat north in order to stay in among more hills, since we're much more of a close range team. Out in the valley, we can spot one lava pool, but I doubt it'll come into play at all.

1:20 - Wow, from up in the air, Blade6119 is able to get a good view of the entire map. That includes all four of the enemy titans. No idea yet of what types they might be. I think we'll head almost straight north, trying to stay out of their line of sight. With some luck, we might be able to isolate one or two of them for a couple minutes. That would certainly help.

There they are...

3:40 - Well, this is interesting. I've just discovered that Godzilla Blitz is slowly warming up just from running around. Looks like when it comes to battle, he won't be good for much more than a couple shots... I think when it comes to fighting we'll want to get as good a scan as possible before firing, and hold off on any shots except high probability ones (unless we're running pretty cool).

9:14 - Well, we swept up to the northeast corner, but now we're headed back into the center where it's more open, as we want as long a range as possible to give us a good time to get scans and let the enemy fire on us at range (and thus heat up). We've been shot at a couple times by a plasma gun, but we still haven't spotted the sniper. I suspect he's in some woods at the top of some hills to the west, so we'll try to set those on fire.

10:12 - Well, looks like our sniper has come out to meet us. It's a Ghost. I don't see any of his buddies, so perhaps we'll have the chance to grind him to powder before the others show up...

10:54 - Godzilla Blitz closes to within 1 km of the Ghost and, having acquired a yellow scan, prepares to open fire.

10:55 - Right behind him, SirFozzie does likewise.

11:03 - Almost everyone opens fire. Godzilla Blitz hits with both of his cold light guns. SirFozzie hits with two of his class 7 auto cannons. Blade6119 hits with one of his class 8 missile launchers.

11:18 - sachmo71 opens up with his plasma gun, hitting the Ghost in the leg and knocking it to the ground.

11:33 - Blade6119 moves into close combat with the Ghost and lets loose with two chainssaws and the smaller of his missiles launchers ...everything hits. Yeah!

11:35 - Godzilla Blitz charges into close combat, hoping to knock the Ghost back down to the ground. The charge is successful, disabling the left torso and knocking the enemy to the ground. Godzilla Blitz goes to the ground too. Horrified, he checks his damage readouts, and realizes that the collision caused damage to his engine. This will cause an increase in heat output... The last thing he could have wanted in this arena. He may have to eject.

11:40 - Having waited motionless for 5 seconds, Godzilla Blitz determines that his heat levels are still dropping, but only at about 1.3 degrees every 5 seconds. That's not very fast at all... At least he won't need to eject. Better yet, he does have a damage control system, so he'll make an attempt to repair the engine.

11:43 - Blade6119 goes back to work on the Ghost with his chainsaws. With a scream of tortured metal, he shatters the right leg beyond repair. A followup kick to the downed opponent disables the right torso. Um... to bad that's where he keeps his engine. And too bad fusion engines aren't made to be ripped up by gigantic chainsaws. With a roar, the engine explodes. Oh man... we are so hosed...

[Godzilla Blitz]

Blade6119, if you kill me with your half-brained kick, I swear, I'm signing the next three Blade6119's up in X-COM and sending all three of them into the British Sectoid base armed only with water pistols.

[AStott]

11:44 - Godzilla Blitz takes 67 (!!!) points of damage, knocking him flying to the southwest, damaging one of his cold light guns, and literally knocking him unconscious. SirFozzie takes 45 points of damage, knocking him to the ground and wounding him. Blade6119 also takes 67 points of damage (serves him right, rookie). He also is knocked flying off to the southwest, and is stunned. Moments later, Godzilla Blitz, SirFozzie, and Blade6119 all find their titans overheating and shutting down. This is really bad news for the last two, as I'll bet you their ammo is going to start cooking off. This is only going to make things worse... We are so screwed. sachmo71, far enough away to avoid damage, begins heading south, preparing to retreat if the fireworks start.

11:57 - Oh shoot, it can get worse. Here comes another enemy titan. It's just over a kilometer away to the north. We are so dead... Too bad you can't eject when your titan is shut down.

12:02 - sachmo71, igniting his jump jets to escape over the hills to the south, spots the other two enemies right next to the other.

12:10 - There goes SirFozzie's ammo... The damage disables the right torso, and pushes his heat level even higher. Moments later, Blade6119's missiles start cooking off too, causing massive damage and sending his heat waaaay up.

12:34 - SirFozzie's titan restarts. Get out of there!!!

13:04 - Godzilla Blitz's titan restarts. Flee! He's sitting right on top of Blade6119, who is getting pounded by all of the enemies. He's going to blow, I just know it...

13:50 - It's no good. Godzilla Blitz can't move without overheating, and there's no way he can get his engine repaired to reduce his heat. In addition, everyone has switched their focus to him. He's ejecting before it's too late.

13:58 - sachmo71 manages to escape the battle.

14:03 - Godzilla Blitz ejects. He takes a good bit of damage on the landing, but manages to come through allright.

14:29 - SirFozzie escapes the arena. Moments later, Blade6119 restarts his titan, just in time for the battle to be over.

***

Salvage: $0
Bounty: $0
Payment: $0
Upkeep: -$54,377
New Total: $366,432 (-54377)

Godzilla Blitz - Status: Ejected - Health: 78/117 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 100% - Titan: Ready
sachmo71 - Status: Deserted - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 50% - Titan: Ready
SirFozzie - Status: Deserted - Health: 63/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 60% - Titan: Ready
Blade6119 - Status: Alive - Health: 108/108 - Kills: 1* - Hits: 78% - Titan: Disabled

And that, rookie, is why you don't go flailing around wildly with that chainsaw of yours, particularly in a setting like this where heat is such a concern!

To make things worse, it appears that the other team claimed salvage on Godzilla Blitz's titan, so it's no longer ours. We'll have to buy him a new one. I guess on the plus side we won't have to repair it.

sachmo71 managed to escape without any damage at all (our one bright spot). The repair bill for the other two comes to $110,751!!! With about 80% of that being required for Blade6119's Wipeout. Umm...

***

Roster Summary:

Godzilla Blitz
Race: Male Human
Rank: Novice
Experience: 16005 of 21600 (+1245)
Hit Points: 117
Upkeep: $11,772 (+218)
Battles: 14 (13W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 47%
Kills: 5
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Most kills in one battle (2)

Attributes:
Intelligence: 12
Neural Sense: 12
Reaction: 15 (+1)
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 14

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 65 (+2)
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 33
Jump: 65 (+2)
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 64 (+1)
Guided Missile: 36
Cannon: 68 (+2)
Energy Weapon: 68 (+2)
Electronic Warfare: 60
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 23 (+3)
Leadership: 66
Business: 41
Survival: 22

Finally got that attribute gain... Time to start saving for the next one.

***

sachmo71
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 14539 of 24000 (+341)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $9,570 (+174)
Battles: 14 (13W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 43%
Kills: 7/3*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Battle Star

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 11
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 65
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 34
Jump: 61
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 59
Cannon: 60
Energy Weapon: 67
Electronic Warfare: 61 (+2)
Scanner: 63
Damage Control: 37
Business: 63
Survival: 43

***

SirFozzie
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 14372 of 24000 (+320)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $13,230 (+252)
Battles: 14 (13W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 56%
Kills: 2
Titans Lost: 0
Awards: None

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 20
Assault Piloting: 22
Jump: 61
Scouting: 63
Close Combat: 62
Cannon: 68
Energy Weapon: 42
Electronic Warfare: 44 (+1)
Scanner: 60 (+1)
Damage Control: 66
Business: 24
Survival: 36

***

Blade6119
Race: Male Human
Rank: Green (+1)
Experience: 4892 of 11600 (+485)
Hit Points: 108
Upkeep: $7,137 (+3177)
Battles: 5 (4W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 51% (+2)
Kills: 1/1*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Bonehead

Attributes:
Intelligence: 11
Neural Sense: 9
Reaction: 11
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 11

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 60 (+2)
Jump: 25 (+3)
Scouting: 51
Close Combat: 58 (+1)
Unguided Missile: 60 (+2)
Cannon: 23
Energy Weapon: 23
Electronic Warfare: 56
Scanner: 51
Business: 33 (+3)
Survival: 40

Does anyone else see the irony in Blade6119 getting promoted from this mission?

***

Team Stats:
Battles: 14 (13W/1L)
Leader: Godzilla Blitz
Manager: sachmo71
Mechanic: SirFozzie
Most Kills: sachmo71 with 7
Most Destructions: sachmo71 with 3
Budget: $255,681 (-165128)
Upkeep: $54,194 / month (-810)
Jocks: 4 of 7
Titans: 3 of 10
Deaths: 1

[AStott]

There you go folks. We've had our first loss. And that's the way it goes in this game. When you lose, it's bad... really bad. Check out our bank account there... We're going to need to put a few wins under our belt to get that up again.

Frankly, we're incredibly lucky to not have had everyone but sachmo71 die. I was fully expecting the guys with exploding ammo to overheat and explode, or at least take enough damage to take out their engines and explode.

Blade6119 gets a serious reprimand from me on this one. Ironic how the chainsaws were ok, but it was the one puny kick that put everything over the edge. I had actually already written up the results of the kick having disabled the torso, and had written that we were going to stop firing so that the engine wouldn't get taken out. I'd planned to back off and take him out from a safe distance. Then when I tabbed back to the game, I see the engine explodes message... Ouch!

I'm thinking that I might have to stick Godzilla Blitz back in a recon titan. I'm not sure I want to try and afford a light at this point. We'll see. Of course, it should be Blade6119 that gets demoted to the recon, but no one else really has the weapon skills to use it, and I'd hate to just sell it off after having put so much repair work into it... Regardless, I'll probably put Godzilla Blitz in a titan with both energy weapons and cannons, since he's got both of those skills pumped up pretty high.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Ouch. That one hurt. I admit, though, it sounds like we are lucky to still be alive.

That must have cost us a ton of money.

Shake it off, Blade6119. Get 'em next time.

*giggles*

The Bonehead Award. That's funny.

*giggles*

I'd laugh harder but all my ribs are probably broken.

[Blade6119]

Hey...i got the only kill that mission...all i saw you do was run like a little girl godzilla...im sry im trying to win us a few missions

At least i promoted, so im now only prone to two fatal errors a mission.

[sachmo71]

I'm...dead? But I'm a replicant! Can't they stick me in a vat or something? *WAHHHHHHH*

[AStott]

Who said you're dead, sachmo71? You're just fine. In fact, you got out of the last battle without any damage at all...

[Qwikshot]

I know there's a line, but I'd like to be in it...great dynasty.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally posted by Blade6119
...all i saw you do was run like a little girl godzilla...

*checks waiting list for Blade6119 IV in X-COM dynasty*

Only three more to go.

*evil smile*

[Blade6119]

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
*checks waiting list for Blade6119 IV in X-COM dynasty*

Only three more to go.

*evil smile*

I see your still trying to overcompensate for your small...titan, yes ats it....titan...your small titan

[AStott]

Originally posted by Blade6119 int the XCom thread
It wasnt a stupid kick...i guess i just dont know my own strength. Though it was funny as hell watching you get blasted back like 20 ft because of what i did...then i landed on top of you...god i love it!

Actually... it's even better than that. Each hex is supposed to be 1/3 krm across. That means the two of you went flying around 300 yards! Dang! Of course, to put it in perspective, these engine explosions do damage to people up to a full kilometer away!

Can't say I necessarily agree with the "realism" of all that, but it does make for pretty good game play.

Qwikshot: Right. You're on the list. That's the one sad thing about this game. You really don't tend to use lots of jocks (like you do in XCom).

[Blade6119]

bump

[AStott]

Aww... Thanks Blade6119. Someone loves me.

Actually, I'm starting another mission tonight. Just need to buy Godzilla Blitz a new titan. Let's see...

[The Afoci]

Finally, you killed some guys to clear room for the savior. Or human shield. Either way I am happy. Don't let me die by being raped by a titan. That would suck bad.

[AStott]

Ok, I'm going to gamble a little and get Godzilla Blitz a light titan. We'll need to go out and win some arena battles to get our cash back up, but I just can't find it in me to give our team leader the smallest titan on the team, and I can't stand to take anyone's titan away from them (although Blade6119 tempts me)...

So, I select the Guruni as Godzilla Blitz's new ride. It has a base cost of $101,312, and a maintenance cost of $4,371. It has a walking speed of 54 kph. It carries a class 7 auto cannon, and the widely feared tesla bolt. Time for us to rain down terrible doom upon our enemies for a change! It uses a CyberSys M (class 2) scanner and a powerful Krios K5 (class 5) battle computer. It also has a class 1 flare launcher, and a potentially useful class 3 shield (very nice against energy weapons). The Guruni has the following ratings:
Firepower: 9
Close Range: 17
Short Range: 16
Medium Range: 7
Long Range: 0
Speed: 13
Jump: 0
Armor: 18
Defense: 5
Recon: 5
Heat Management: 14
Power Managerment: 12
Overall Rating: 9
Classification: Short Range Light Titan

Can you tell I'm a fan of the close range fighting style?

After buying the new titan, we are left with the following financial stats:
Budget: $101,312 (-154369)
Upkeep: $58,565 / month (4371)

We're going to need to get out there and win some fights, and bring any some cash. Another loss at this point, and we'll probably have to lay off some of the team. Guess who will probably be the first to go...

***

We're going to go for another interesting setting for our next fight. This arena is set in the middle of a biochemical wasteland. We'll want to watch out for acid pools, but fortunately temperature shouldn't be such a problem.

We start out in the southeast corner of the arena. The terrain is made up of a number of mounds and gulleys which break up line of sight pretty well. We send sachmo71 up to the top of a hill, and with his jump jets, he is able to get a pretty good look at the surrounding land. He also spots a single enemy. Not sure where the others are at though.

The lay of the land...

I think we'll head straight west, staying behind the cover of the hills in between us and the enemy. By the time we clear those, we should be close enough to bring into play our theoretically superior close range firepower.

1:29 - As sachmo71 comes down for a landing, he spots two other enemy titans headed our way. Looks like they won't stay and ambush us. That being the case, I think we'll take cover in some of the strange mutated plants that pass for trees on this side of those hills, and take them as they come our way.

3:30 - No sign of them yet. They must have changed their minds. We'll move in closer.

4:39 - Blade6119 is the first one over the ridge (with the others very close behind him). He spots a single enemy waiting for us up ahead. It's an Inferno. I believe it makes heavy use of napalm missiles.

4:55 - As the others come over the ridge, the remaining three enemies reveal their presence by opening fire on Blade6119. sachmo71 begins attempting to get some of them moving by setting their cover on fire.

5:23 - Everyone but sachmo71 (who is better set up for longer range attacks) moves into close range with the Inferno. That's when we recall that it also bears a pair of flamethrowers. Yikes! No problem. With three of us there, we should take him out quickly...

5:29 - In order to prevent further attacks from the Inferno, Blade6119 charges into it. The impressive damage rips off its left arm, and knocks it to the ground. Blade6119's follow up attack with chainsaws does little in the way of impressive damage. Still, nice to knock him down, because everyone else is coming right in!

5:35 - Just seconds later, Blade6119 gets his large missile racks reloaded, and he lets loose, disabling the right torso of the Inferno. Nice!

5:36 - Apparently inspired, SirFozzie lets loose with some of his auto cannons and disables the left torso as well. That should minimize the danger. I think we'll leave it here for sachmo71 to finish off from a distance and move in on some of the other titans.

5:39 - Once again, Blade6119 can't resist one more attack with his chainsaws. This time though it pays off nicely, as he takes out the left leg of the Inferno. That will leave it trapped on the ground with little in the way of weapons. Good enough. Everyone will retarget on another titan.

5:58 - The pilot of the Inferno ejects, just as suspected. Excellent. Only three left.

6:10 - Blade6119 moves into close combat with the enemy Wolverine which has just stepped out of cover. It appears to have a number of meson guns.

6:13 - Godzilla Blitz charges at the Wolverine, knocking both titans to the ground.

6:27 - There we go! SirFozzie makes good use of his highly accurate auto cannons and blows off the right leg of the Wolverine. I think for now we'll leave it and move on to the long range titan that's been picking away at us from up on a hill nearby.

6:47 - The Wolverine ejects. Two down.

6:58 - The Exhuminator foolishly moves into close combat with all three of our in close guys. Bad move, he's going down quickly...

8:01 - After a good bit of running around, during which the fourth enemy titan can't seem to get us in line of sight (heh!), and during which the Exhuminator proves to be rather nimble with its jump jets, Blade6119 lets loose with a flight of missiles which knocks it to the ground. Blade6119 certainly seems to be trying hard to redeem himself...

8:13 - Ironically enough, the Exhuminator had fallen right on top of the motionless Inferno. Blade6119 shows that his prior de-legging was not an accident, tearing off the right leg of the Exhuminator with his chain saw. That will keep him down... Everyone else will go hunting for the last titan.

8:24 - There he is, a Whip.

8:45 - Blade6119 fires off a massive volley. His missiles disable the Exhuminator's left torso. His chain saw takes out the lower torso.

8:52 - This apparently scares the pilot enough that he ejects. Only one left now.

8:55 - Godzilla Blitz tries to charge into the Whip. Unfortunately, the attempt failed. At least he is able to keep his feet though, and he opens fire, unfortunately missing with the tesla bolt.

9:00 - A lucky shot from sachmo71's auto cannon manages to send the Whip toppling to the ground.

9:12 - Taking advantage of the easy shot, SirFozzie takes out the right leg of the Whip with his auto cannon. This will be over soon...

9:20 - Unfortunately, despite our pounding, we aren't able to pull out a kill, as the pilot of the Whip manages to eject.

***

We're offered the salvage of the Whip, but I think at the point the cash will be better. We're able to get $55,672 for it.

Salvage: $146,297
Bounty: $14,000
Payment: $138,636
Upkeep: -$59,443
New Total: $340,802 (+239490)

Godzilla Blitz - Status: Alive - Health: 117/117 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 52 - Titan: Ready
sachmo71 - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 42% - Titan: Ready
SirFozzie - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 55% - Titan: Ready
Blade6119 - Status: Alive - Health: 108/108 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 72% - Titan: Ready

Blade6119 has the highest repair bill this time, but in actuallity, the costs are very evenly split among everyone. The total bill comes to $56,209. Not too bad I think.

***

Roster Summary:

Godzilla Blitz
Race: Male Human
Rank: Novice
Experience: 16927 of 21600 (+922)
Hit Points: 117
Upkeep: $11,990 (+218)
Battles: 15 (14W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 48% (+1)
Kills: 5
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Most kills in one battle (2)

Attributes:
Intelligence: 12
Neural Sense: 12
Reaction: 15
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 14

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 65
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 41 (+8)
Jump: 65
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 64
Guided Missile: 36
Cannon: 68
Energy Weapon: 69 (+1)
Electronic Warfare: 60
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 23
Leadership: 66
Business: 41
Survival: 22

***

sachmo71
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 15111 of 24000 (+572)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $9,744 (+174)
Battles: 15 (14W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 43%
Kills: 7/3*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Battle Star

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 11
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66 (+1)
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 35 (+1)
Jump: 61
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 60 (+1)
Cannon: 60
Energy Weapon: 68 (+1)
Electronic Warfare: 61
Scanner: 63
Damage Control: 37
Business: 63
Survival: 43

***

SirFozzie
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 15357 of 24000 (+985)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $13,482 (+252)
Battles: 15 (14W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 56%
Kills: 2
Titans Lost: 0
Awards: None

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 30 (+10)
Assault Piloting: 22
Jump: 61
Scouting: 63
Close Combat: 63 (+1)
Cannon: 68
Energy Weapon: 47 (+5)
Electronic Warfare: 44
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 66
Business: 24
Survival: 36

***

Blade6119
Race: Male Human
Rank: Green
Experience: 6054 of 11600 (+1162)
Hit Points: 108
Upkeep: $7,371 (+234)
Battles: 6 (5W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 54% (+3)
Kills: 1/1*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Bonehead

Attributes:
Intelligence: 11
Neural Sense: 9
Reaction: 11
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 11

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 61 (+1)
Jump: 34 (+9)
Scouting: 51
Close Combat: 58
Unguided Missile: 61 (+1)
Cannon: 23
Energy Weapon: 23
Electronic Warfare: 56
Scanner: 51
Business: 33
Survival: 40

***

Team Stats:
Battles: 15 (14W/1L)
Leader: Godzilla Blitz
Manager: sachmo71
Mechanic: SirFozzie
Most Kills: sachmo71 with 7
Most Destructions: sachmo71 with 3
Budget: $284,593 (+183281)
Upkeep: $59,443 / month (+878)
Jocks: 4 of 7
Titans: 4 of 10
Deaths: 1

[AStott]

Excellent! A wonderful mission. I'd say that at least for now, Blade6119 has redeemed himself. All the same, when he moves in, I'm being careful to keep our other guys away.

I think this went well because other than right when we first spotted the enemy, we were able to keep them isolated and take them on one at a time. Fortunately, the ground between them and us when we came over the hill was pretty uneven, so we were able to break their line of sight.

Lots of money made on this one, but I think I'll go for one more arena battle, just to get the cash up a little higher before we continue the campaign. Maybe another lava map...

[Blade6119]

I just wanted to state for the the record that i can't carry this team for ever...im going to need some help...i mean, i may have the talent of 10 men and the strength of 30, but i might need some back-up every once in awhile...come on guys!

Just thought i would unleash my inner Terrell Owens on you guys. Great mission, and lets go get some more!

[Bee]

I must say I'm really disappointed at the lack of deaths in this dynasty. Maybe you're not playing the game right or something?

[AStott]

After what seems like a terribly long time since the last battle, we decide it's time to jump back in the cockpit. While taking a look around to decide what will come next, we receive the following message.

Commander,

As Captain of the Core Worlds Starship Marauder, I am interested in testing the abilities of the Savanesse Titan-AT squads. We have received holovid data disks of your world championships as well as your weekly challenges, and feel that quite possibly the best jocks in this sector are to be obtained here.

We do require that you test against our onboard Cosmarine Titan-AT squad. Any successful squad will receive military contracts offworld.

I will make some funds available for you to repair your Titans after the test, whatever the result.

Captain Lord Fanton

Well, trying a little ego stroking, eh? They must have missed the tape of the battle before last... Regardless, this looks like a nice opportunity, and we'll give it a shot.

[AStott]

Our sensors come online, and we take a look around in utter shock. Unlike most fighting area we're used to, this one takes place in a single vast, completely open, flat-floored chamber. There is no cover at all. None. Everyone is at long range. This isn't such a good thing, considering that we tend to specialize on the close range fights... A quick check reveals that we're up against two recon titans and two medium titans. Could be scary...

There they are!!!

The battle plan will be to charge forward as fast as possible, making sure to have our lead guy dodging to help reduce the chance of being nailed by the enemy. We'll target the recons first to take them out quick, and then focus on those mediums. Oh yeah, and try and get some decent scans...

0:54 - Interestingly enough, only a single medium has fired at us so far, and that was just a single type 4 auto cannon. That implies that the enemies are also set up for an up close fight. This could get nasty... We'll do our best to stay out of hand to hand range as much as possible until we assess the threat better. On the plus side, sachmo71 gets off to a nice start, using his plasma gun to nail one of the recons (a Fire Fly), knocking it to the ground. Nice!

1:07 - Shortly after the Fire Fly gets to its feet, SirFozzie knocks it back down again with a single shot from his class 4 auto cannon. What a wimp!

1:27 - Well, we now know that one of the mediums has a pair of long range missile launchers, a pair of short range missile launchers, and a medium laser. It's a titan called a Crossbow hopefully we'll be able to get in close on it to negate the use of its long range missiles. For now though, we continue working to cripple the Fire Fly.

1:53 - Godzilla Blitz has switched targets to the closer recon, a Duellist. Now, he charges the enemy, knocking both of them to the ground.

2:00 - Godzilla Blitz beats the Duellist to his feet, and fires everything, ripping off the enemies right arm with his tesla bolt.

2:06 - Blade6119 has found himself somewhat on his own. He was headed towards the downed Fire Fly to finish it off. But, everyone else went after the Duellist instead. Now, he finds himself at close range to one of the mediums, a Purgatory. He swings both chainsaws (hitting with both), misses with a huge flight of missiles, and then ignites his jump jets to avoid further attacks. Nicely enough, one of the chainsaws hit the head. Another similar hit could take it right off...

2:15 - The Duellist managed to get to its feet, and swings its chainsaw at Godzilla Blitz, hitting. In retaliation, our fearless leader fires back with his tesla bolt, taking out the left arm. Yeah, put a stop to all that nonsense. We'll switch over to the other medium now, and let sachmo71 finish it off with long range fire.

2:15 - The Fire Fly, who still hasn't managed to get up after numerous tries (he must have damaged something) manages to mangle and disable his own right leg in the process of trying to get up.

2:28 - Ack! The Purgatory got turned around after Blade6119 passed him, and manages to knock him down out of the sky with a couple shots from its laser. Blade6119 lands flat on the ground near the Fire Fly.

2:35 - sachmo71 lands a shot with his medium laser on the Duellist, and disables its left torso and knocking it to the ground. Nice shooting.

2:39 - Blade6119 gets to his feet, under fire from both the Fire Fly and the Purgatory. He fires a barrage of missiles, disabling the Fire Fly's left torso and left leg. He follows this up with a kick, which disables the right torso. That should prevent any further weapons fire from him, effectively taking him out of the battle. Rather than risk an engine explosion (in an effort to pick up a kill) though, Blade6119 reluctantly refrains from using his chainsaws, and instead retargets on the Purgatory.

2:51 - sachmo71 lands another laser shot on the Duellist, ripping off its left leg. He immediately retargets on the Purgatory, which has knocked Blade6119 to the ground.

3:05 - SirFozzie charges into the Crossbow, knocking both titans to the ground. This should make it easier for Godzilla Blitz to make use of his tesla bolt.

3:30 - SirFozzie sends the Crossbow crashing to the ground by neatly removing its right leg. He begins retargeting on the Purgatory while Godzilla Blitz begins acquiring a scan for a surgical finishing blow.

3:50 - Frustrated at failing his scan, Godzilla Blitz fires, ripping off the right arm of the Crossbow. Satisfied, he tries scanning again.

3:57 - Before he can complete the scan though, the pilot of the Crossbow ejects. Ah well.

3:58 - Blade6119 goes ahead and charges into the Purgatory, sending them both to the ground.

4:06 - Yes!!! Blade6119 gets to his feet before the Purgatory. He fires with everything. All the missiles hit. The first chainsaw misses, but the second?... Nails the enemy right in the neck, sending the head tumbling across the arena floor. Sweet kill!

***

Salvage: $125,253
Bounty: $16,000
Payment: $100,000
Upkeep: -$60,438
New Total: $465,408 (+180815)

Godzilla Blitz - Status: Alive - Health: 117/117 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 69 - Titan: Ready
sachmo71 - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 54% - Titan: Ready
SirFozzie - Status: Alive - Health: 99/99 - Kills: 0 - Hits: 67% - Titan: Ready
Blade6119 - Status: Alive - Health: 108/108 - Kills: 1 - Hits: 55% - Titan: Ready

We are met after the battle by Captain Lord Fanton.

"Congratulations. We will add your information into our computer database. This will allow you to access military, mercenary, and other official privateer contracts through the Core Worlds Military."

Nice. We'll see what that leads to.

Blade6119 has the highest repair bill this time. Not surprising. He took a good bit of pounding from the Purgatory. He certainly got revenge though. SirFozzie and Godzilla Blitz pretty much split the remaining half of the bill between them. The total bill comes to $63,563. Easily paid for by the payment from Captain Lord Fanton.

***

Roster Summary:

Godzilla Blitz
Race: Male Human
Rank: Novice
Experience: 17693 of 21600 (+766)
Hit Points: 117
Upkeep: $12,208 (+218)
Battles: 16 (15W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 49% (+1)
Kills: 5
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Most kills in one battle (2)

Attributes:
Intelligence: 12
Neural Sense: 12
Reaction: 15
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 14

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 65
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 45 (+4)
Jump: 65
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 65 (+1)
Guided Missile: 36
Cannon: 69 (+1)
Energy Weapon: 69
Electronic Warfare: 60
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 30 (+7)
Leadership: 66
Business: 41
Survival: 22

***

sachmo71
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 15906 of 24000 (+795)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $9,918 (+174)
Battles: 16 (15W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 44% (+1)
Kills: 7/3*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Battle Star

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 11
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 38 (+3)
Jump: 61
Scouting: 60
Close Combat: 60
Cannon: 61 (+1)
Energy Weapon: 68
Electronic Warfare: 63 (+2)
Scanner: 63
Damage Control: 40 (+3)
Business: 63
Survival: 43

***

SirFozzie
Race: Male Replicant I
Rank: Novice
Experience: 16198 of 24000 (+841)
Hit Points: 99
Upkeep: $13,734 (+252)
Battles: 16 (15W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 56%
Kills: 2
Titans Lost: 0
Awards: None

Attributes:
Intelligence: 14
Neural Sense: 10
Reaction: 14
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 11
Charisma: 10

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 66
Medium/Heavy Piloting: 32 (+2)
Assault Piloting: 22
Jump: 62 (+1)
Scouting: 63
Close Combat: 63
Cannon: 68
Energy Weapon: 50 (+3)
Electronic Warfare: 44
Scanner: 60
Damage Control: 68 (+2)
Business: 24
Survival: 36

***

Blade6119
Race: Male Human
Rank: Green
Experience: 7293 of 11600 (+1239)
Hit Points: 108
Upkeep: $7,722 (+351)
Battles: 7 (6W/1L)
Hit Ratio: 54%
Kills: 2/1*
Titans Lost: 1
Awards: Bonehead

Attributes:
Intelligence: 11
Neural Sense: 9
Reaction: 11
Instinct: 12
Dexterity: 13
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 11

Skills of Note:
Recon/Light Piloting: 61
Jump: 44 (+10)
Scouting: 52 (+1)
Close Combat: 58
Unguided Missile: 61
Cannon: 23
Energy Weapon: 23
Electronic Warfare: 56
Scanner: 51
Defensive: 24 (+10)
Business: 33
Survival: 40

***

Team Stats:
Battles: 16 (15W/1L)
Leader: Godzilla Blitz
Manager: sachmo71
Mechanic: SirFozzie
Most Kills: sachmo71 with 7
Most Destructions: sachmo71 with 3
Budget: $401,845 (+117252)
Upkeep: $60,438 / month (+995)
Jocks: 4 of 7
Titans: 4 of 10
Deaths: 1

[AStott]

Wow! That was a much better battle then I expected. I thought I was in trouble there. I think what saved me is that the enemy (despite having longer ranged weapons than me) didn't hang back and try to pick me apart.

Blade6119 is definitely redeeming himself lately, although I found it interesting that lately everyone seems content to let him wander off on his own. I guess they all figure it's safer over here instead.

[Blade6119]

well...i get hot and then this dies...i don't like how you guys are abandoning me, but it allows me to shine

[Blade6119]

...um....asott still around...havent seen him in awhile, but if he is heres a bump

[AStott]

Ok, after somewhat of a hiatus, I'm back again (although perhaps on a somewhat inconsistent basis). I'll see if I can find some time to play and post some more battles.

[sachmo71]

bump

[Bee]

Originally Posted by AStott

Ok, after somewhat of a hiatus, I'm back again

Must be a helluva update coming...more than 8 months of typing!

[AStott]

Return to your lives citizens. Nothing to see here. Move along.

*cough* *cough*

Uh... writer's block? Yeah, that's it.

[AStott]

This dynasty has been continued in another thread .