Post by cavalier1864 on Nov 24, 2011 12:13:24 GMT -5
Game: Battletech
Era: 3025 (4th Succession War)
Deployed Tonnage: 215T
Scenario: Objective Defense
Terrain: Woodlands area with small lake and Water Treatment Plant (objective)
Defender: Josh Gordon
Defending Units: Unit name unknown
Mercenary Faction/Federated Suns
Valkyrie VLK-QA (30T Light Mech)
Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D (45T Medium Mech)
Rifleman RFL-3C (60T Heavy Mech)
Awesome AWS-8Q (80T Assault Mech)
Attacker: Todd Ehrenfels
Attacking Units: Cullen's Cavaliers
Mercenary Faction/Capellan Confederation
Clint CLNT-2-4T (40T Medium Mech) "Dead Giveaway"
Hatchetman HCT-3F (45T Medium Mech) "Axe Around"
Ostroc OSR-2C (60T Heavy Mech) "Old Fateful"
Warhammer WHM-6D (70T Heavy Mech) "Sunset Stripped"
Report Follows:
From the Journal of Captain Erich Yosterman of Strike Lance Gamma, Cullen's Cavaliers on the planet Chesterton
...I knew I should have kept my mouth shut at mess, but somehow I suspect that old man Cullen would have sent me on this stupid errand regardless. A few days ago we received word that these worthless Liao troops had given up a water treatment plant on the edge of Chisholm, the capital of this sheep infested spitball of a planet. The Liaos wanted the plant back so they could try to force the invading Davions out of Chisholm (fat chance of that), but they did not want to risk any of their own units on the attack, so their natural response was to send in the Mercs. There just are not enough C-Bills for this sort of stupid operation. Going toe-to-toe with a Davion Heavy Lance is just asking for trouble, and here I am trying to break in a completely new lance myself. It could have been worse, though I am at a loss to see how.
I briefed my Lance on the upcoming op as best I could. Thankfully, I had one old hand with me, Jurgen van Britten, whose Clint, Dead Giveaway, would be a great asset in the field. The other two, Olivia Wooten and Harcourt Quist, were really green. Olivia's Ostroc, Old Fateful, was in great repair, but the venerable OSR-2C was a Mech which really needed a more experienced pilot. Harcourt's Hatchetman, Axe Around, was almost new, and I have a sneaking suspicion stolen from the Davions on Chesterton, and he was obviously getting used to the controls of the Mech himself. My own Warhammer, Sunset Stripped, was in excellent repair, and while not as flashy as some of the newer variants still a great machine.
We moved on the Water Treatment Plant from the Southwest, using a large, heavy forest to cover our advance. Unfortunately, the Davions must have seen us coming because they were deployed for the defense. Strangely enough, though, they were spread out pretty evenly and this made executing my plan a bit easier. Unsurprisingly they had an Awesome in their center line, and those three PPCs were definitely a worry, especially as it advanced up to go sit in the shallow water near the Plant. The Valkyrie jumped up and over the building to cover the Awesome's advance, while the Rifleman kept to the cover of a smaller forest and the Phoenix Hawk ran up to engage us directly. Using the original plan, I had Jurgen move Dead Giveaway up the far Western flank to harass the Davion units while I sat in cover to provide long range fire and Olivia supported my flank. Harcourt changed tacks almost immediately jumping forward to get close to the advancing Phoenix Hawk.
It was then that training really told out: Olivia opened fire with everything in the Ostroc's arsenal, alpha-striking with all her might to try to smash the Awesome. This was a stupid move on her part. Ostrocs are hard on heat management to start with and she redlined half her instruments with that volley. Luckily, though, Old Fateful did manage a lucky Head strike with one of the Large Lasers which would be the key to our winning the engagement. Jurgen focused his fire on the Rifleman, and Harcourt shot ineffectually at the Phoenix Hawk, and in return Old Fateful took a blistering salvo of PPC hits, remaining standing under a barrage that should have cooked Olivia alive in the cockpit.
High on heat and desperate to cool down quickly, Olivia stood her ground, hunkering down in the trees and vowing to use only her SRM Launcher. Jurgen continued to move onthe Western flank and be completely ignored in favor of the scarier Hatchetman as the Awesome sat in the water using it to help cool those monster PPCs. Surprisingly the Rifleman stayed put while the Valkyrie moved to support both the advancing Phoenix Hawk and the now stationary Awesome.
Olivia made her SRMs count as Old Fateful struck the Awesome again. This time, though, my PPCs did a number on the Awesome as well, smashing into one of the arms and scorching the other pretty badly. Jurgen continued to plink his peashooters at the Rifleman and Harcourt jumped over and struck hard at the Phoenix Hawk. In return, though, very little damage was done to Old Fateful or Sunset Stripped in spite of the barrage of weapons fires at them. The forest was no so lucky, though.
Cooled down to a respectable level, Olivia went back on the offensive, but this time she kept a firm eye on her heat, desperate to avoid a repeat of the prior near disastrous overheat. I continued to snipe from the heavy woods while Jurgen moved around to continue making a nuisance of himself with his Clint. Harcourt was desperately attempting to duel with the Phoenix Hawk pilot, who was likely laughing himself silly at the green pilot's actions. Unfortunately for the Davions, that laughter would be short lived.
A lucky shot from my PPC showed exactly why training with iron sights was a good idea: I saw the crater left by Olivia's earlier Large Laser headshot and sent a ball of superheated plasma from my PPC right there, blowing the poor Awesome pilot into the next life. The Awesome did manage to smack me with all three of its PPC shots as parting blow, but I shrugged off the hits as the massive Awesome crashed to the ground on the lake shore. Old Fateful took a couple of more hits from the Valkyrie and the Rifleman, the armor on that poor Mech beginning to resemble Emmenthaler more than anything else as LRMs and AC/10s pummeled the poor thing in spite of the cover of the forest. Jurgen got a couple of lucky shots on the back of the Rifleman, and Harcourt missed yet again with everything.
With the tide of battle turned in our favor, we pressed the advantage, with me continuing to pour long range PPC shots into the Valkyrie and Harcourt continually trying to make thePhoenix Hawk take him seriously. Olivia and Jurgen teamed up on the Rifleman, but the Rifleman was more interested in murdering Old Fateful, and doing a bang up job of it as fire poured into the battered old Mech. Olivia gave as good as she got, though, and while a lucky Center hit damaged her Fusion Reactor, causing her heat to spike, she inflicted a massive amount of destruction on the Rifleman.
Our luck was not to last too long, though, as Old Fateful took two AC/10 hits to the Left Leg, knocking it completely over on its side, where it would flail around for the majority of the rest of the battle. Unfortunately, though, the Rifleman's time was almost up, and the blistering salvo caused its own damaged fusion reactor to pour on the heat, which in turn detonated a tonne of AC ammo, taking it out of the fight in one great ball of flame. The Phoenix Hawk and Valkyrie were largely untouched, and started to concentrate their fire on me. Fortunately, Jurgen had now gotten in close to the Valkyrie and was a definite threat, while Harcourt had finally figured out the way to make that Hatchetman dance, and within a few minutes the other two Mechs were out of the fight.
All in all, we fought well, and in spite of the crippling damage to Olivia's Old Fateful and my own Sunset Stripped, we got off with no Mechs destroyed and four potential salvages. Cullen should be pretty happy with that, and with the C-Bills for retaking the Water Treatment Plant maybe we can hire some Mechwarriors who are not total glory hounds.
Result: Attacker Crushing Victory
Lessons Learned: Hey stupid, watch your heat and do not fire everything with the Ostroc without checking range to make sure that the low-range stuff is out of range FIRST. I have been using Ostrocs for a long time, and this is the first time in a long time that I have made that particular mistake. Also, while you CAN use the Jumpjets and all weapons and still run cold on the Hatchetman, you really should not bother as you are really unlikely to hit anything. Using the Warhammer as a stationary bunker is great, but the problem is you tend to get punched in the back of the head by annoying Phoenix Hawk pilots. Clints are great for harassment, but bollocks on the actual attack, though they can punch pretty hard.
Standout unit of the game: the ultra-accurate Clint, which managed to hit with nearly 90% of all its shooting through the course of thirteen game turns.
Era: 3025 (4th Succession War)
Deployed Tonnage: 215T
Scenario: Objective Defense
Terrain: Woodlands area with small lake and Water Treatment Plant (objective)
Defender: Josh Gordon
Defending Units: Unit name unknown
Mercenary Faction/Federated Suns
Valkyrie VLK-QA (30T Light Mech)
Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D (45T Medium Mech)
Rifleman RFL-3C (60T Heavy Mech)
Awesome AWS-8Q (80T Assault Mech)
Attacker: Todd Ehrenfels
Attacking Units: Cullen's Cavaliers
Mercenary Faction/Capellan Confederation
Clint CLNT-2-4T (40T Medium Mech) "Dead Giveaway"
Hatchetman HCT-3F (45T Medium Mech) "Axe Around"
Ostroc OSR-2C (60T Heavy Mech) "Old Fateful"
Warhammer WHM-6D (70T Heavy Mech) "Sunset Stripped"
Report Follows:
From the Journal of Captain Erich Yosterman of Strike Lance Gamma, Cullen's Cavaliers on the planet Chesterton
...I knew I should have kept my mouth shut at mess, but somehow I suspect that old man Cullen would have sent me on this stupid errand regardless. A few days ago we received word that these worthless Liao troops had given up a water treatment plant on the edge of Chisholm, the capital of this sheep infested spitball of a planet. The Liaos wanted the plant back so they could try to force the invading Davions out of Chisholm (fat chance of that), but they did not want to risk any of their own units on the attack, so their natural response was to send in the Mercs. There just are not enough C-Bills for this sort of stupid operation. Going toe-to-toe with a Davion Heavy Lance is just asking for trouble, and here I am trying to break in a completely new lance myself. It could have been worse, though I am at a loss to see how.
I briefed my Lance on the upcoming op as best I could. Thankfully, I had one old hand with me, Jurgen van Britten, whose Clint, Dead Giveaway, would be a great asset in the field. The other two, Olivia Wooten and Harcourt Quist, were really green. Olivia's Ostroc, Old Fateful, was in great repair, but the venerable OSR-2C was a Mech which really needed a more experienced pilot. Harcourt's Hatchetman, Axe Around, was almost new, and I have a sneaking suspicion stolen from the Davions on Chesterton, and he was obviously getting used to the controls of the Mech himself. My own Warhammer, Sunset Stripped, was in excellent repair, and while not as flashy as some of the newer variants still a great machine.
We moved on the Water Treatment Plant from the Southwest, using a large, heavy forest to cover our advance. Unfortunately, the Davions must have seen us coming because they were deployed for the defense. Strangely enough, though, they were spread out pretty evenly and this made executing my plan a bit easier. Unsurprisingly they had an Awesome in their center line, and those three PPCs were definitely a worry, especially as it advanced up to go sit in the shallow water near the Plant. The Valkyrie jumped up and over the building to cover the Awesome's advance, while the Rifleman kept to the cover of a smaller forest and the Phoenix Hawk ran up to engage us directly. Using the original plan, I had Jurgen move Dead Giveaway up the far Western flank to harass the Davion units while I sat in cover to provide long range fire and Olivia supported my flank. Harcourt changed tacks almost immediately jumping forward to get close to the advancing Phoenix Hawk.
It was then that training really told out: Olivia opened fire with everything in the Ostroc's arsenal, alpha-striking with all her might to try to smash the Awesome. This was a stupid move on her part. Ostrocs are hard on heat management to start with and she redlined half her instruments with that volley. Luckily, though, Old Fateful did manage a lucky Head strike with one of the Large Lasers which would be the key to our winning the engagement. Jurgen focused his fire on the Rifleman, and Harcourt shot ineffectually at the Phoenix Hawk, and in return Old Fateful took a blistering salvo of PPC hits, remaining standing under a barrage that should have cooked Olivia alive in the cockpit.
High on heat and desperate to cool down quickly, Olivia stood her ground, hunkering down in the trees and vowing to use only her SRM Launcher. Jurgen continued to move onthe Western flank and be completely ignored in favor of the scarier Hatchetman as the Awesome sat in the water using it to help cool those monster PPCs. Surprisingly the Rifleman stayed put while the Valkyrie moved to support both the advancing Phoenix Hawk and the now stationary Awesome.
Olivia made her SRMs count as Old Fateful struck the Awesome again. This time, though, my PPCs did a number on the Awesome as well, smashing into one of the arms and scorching the other pretty badly. Jurgen continued to plink his peashooters at the Rifleman and Harcourt jumped over and struck hard at the Phoenix Hawk. In return, though, very little damage was done to Old Fateful or Sunset Stripped in spite of the barrage of weapons fires at them. The forest was no so lucky, though.
Cooled down to a respectable level, Olivia went back on the offensive, but this time she kept a firm eye on her heat, desperate to avoid a repeat of the prior near disastrous overheat. I continued to snipe from the heavy woods while Jurgen moved around to continue making a nuisance of himself with his Clint. Harcourt was desperately attempting to duel with the Phoenix Hawk pilot, who was likely laughing himself silly at the green pilot's actions. Unfortunately for the Davions, that laughter would be short lived.
A lucky shot from my PPC showed exactly why training with iron sights was a good idea: I saw the crater left by Olivia's earlier Large Laser headshot and sent a ball of superheated plasma from my PPC right there, blowing the poor Awesome pilot into the next life. The Awesome did manage to smack me with all three of its PPC shots as parting blow, but I shrugged off the hits as the massive Awesome crashed to the ground on the lake shore. Old Fateful took a couple of more hits from the Valkyrie and the Rifleman, the armor on that poor Mech beginning to resemble Emmenthaler more than anything else as LRMs and AC/10s pummeled the poor thing in spite of the cover of the forest. Jurgen got a couple of lucky shots on the back of the Rifleman, and Harcourt missed yet again with everything.
With the tide of battle turned in our favor, we pressed the advantage, with me continuing to pour long range PPC shots into the Valkyrie and Harcourt continually trying to make thePhoenix Hawk take him seriously. Olivia and Jurgen teamed up on the Rifleman, but the Rifleman was more interested in murdering Old Fateful, and doing a bang up job of it as fire poured into the battered old Mech. Olivia gave as good as she got, though, and while a lucky Center hit damaged her Fusion Reactor, causing her heat to spike, she inflicted a massive amount of destruction on the Rifleman.
Our luck was not to last too long, though, as Old Fateful took two AC/10 hits to the Left Leg, knocking it completely over on its side, where it would flail around for the majority of the rest of the battle. Unfortunately, though, the Rifleman's time was almost up, and the blistering salvo caused its own damaged fusion reactor to pour on the heat, which in turn detonated a tonne of AC ammo, taking it out of the fight in one great ball of flame. The Phoenix Hawk and Valkyrie were largely untouched, and started to concentrate their fire on me. Fortunately, Jurgen had now gotten in close to the Valkyrie and was a definite threat, while Harcourt had finally figured out the way to make that Hatchetman dance, and within a few minutes the other two Mechs were out of the fight.
All in all, we fought well, and in spite of the crippling damage to Olivia's Old Fateful and my own Sunset Stripped, we got off with no Mechs destroyed and four potential salvages. Cullen should be pretty happy with that, and with the C-Bills for retaking the Water Treatment Plant maybe we can hire some Mechwarriors who are not total glory hounds.
Result: Attacker Crushing Victory
Lessons Learned: Hey stupid, watch your heat and do not fire everything with the Ostroc without checking range to make sure that the low-range stuff is out of range FIRST. I have been using Ostrocs for a long time, and this is the first time in a long time that I have made that particular mistake. Also, while you CAN use the Jumpjets and all weapons and still run cold on the Hatchetman, you really should not bother as you are really unlikely to hit anything. Using the Warhammer as a stationary bunker is great, but the problem is you tend to get punched in the back of the head by annoying Phoenix Hawk pilots. Clints are great for harassment, but bollocks on the actual attack, though they can punch pretty hard.
Standout unit of the game: the ultra-accurate Clint, which managed to hit with nearly 90% of all its shooting through the course of thirteen game turns.