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Contract 1, FedCom Extraction Raid

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Total Members Voted: 4

[Neonivek]

At least MegaMek doesn't go quite as far as the RPG does in some respects.

In the proper RPG you actually had individual piloting skills that were for each kind of mech (Quads, two legged)...

Still won't lie... It is probably one of the best RPGs out there... but playing actual rounds takes forever!

[Rince Wind]

What is the scrounge skill used for?

[Neonivek]

What is the scrounge skill used for?

It allows you to take parts from inoperable mechs.

They are made to be genuinely difficult to scavenge.

[Rince Wind]

Ah ok, so it is a skill for techs. I wasn't sure, could have been for Admin/logistics for finding stuff. Thanks.

[Hanzoku]

Cool thing, Anvilfolk!


Hanzoku: Would you mind giving my Mech a custom camo with one of the playing card variants?

Sure thing, will do!

[Knave]

"Does it always rain so much on this bloody planet?" Brenner wondered to himself with a sigh as he pushed his mech forward with the rest of Battle lance and the FC advisor. It had been pouring non-stop for days, and the field he was moving through had turned into little more than a mucky soup that would make even the most basic piloting difficult. Ahead of them lay a small town claimed by the pirates ever since the militia had packed up and moved to the safety of the bigger cities. Squinting past the Crab's small cockpit visor he did his best to pick out objects in front of him; the quiet swish of the windshield wipers not able to keep up with the downpour outside. The simple  truth was with how much rain was coming down, any forces they met would be right on top of them before he could spot them visually, James and his lance would be stuck with sensors for the most part.

As each leg moved forward, the mud sucked at it and slowed the advance. In the distance, shapes of buildings began to take shape "We're almost here team. Lucky and I will pull up from the South, the rest of you drop in from the North and we'll all meet in the middle for beers." He paused before adding, "As long as the bar hasn't been washed away."

His screen flashed with a blaze of colours as his sensors picked up a new contact emerging from the hazy city in front of him, "Looks like a... Blackjack." Another contact burst on to his screen, "And his Pegasus buddy."
On the north side of town the rest of the lance was reporting multiple contacts, mostly small vehicles and light mechs thankfully.

Knave keyed on his comms once more. "These guys shouldn't give us too much trouble. Weapons free, but be mindful of your targets, the rain isn't going to make this easy and we'll want to avoid any damage to the civilian infrastructure if possible." With that, he flicked the safeties on his guns, and let loose at the blackjack with a downpour of his own. Pumpinghis largest lasers towards the pirate. frowning as he realized that nothing had connected he pushed forward.

Suddenly Brenner's crab lurched as a laser connected hard with his leg. He looked down with surprise as he heard a snap and red alarms began to go off. "Warning: Critical gyro failure." The calm voice of the computer stated a little too matter-of-factly.
As the leg went to return to the ground, it lurched to the side unable to compute it's own center of gravity accurately any more. "no, no, no, no, NO!" as the mech lurched, it began slipping on the mud, and despite the veteran pilots best efforts fell over. Clenching his jaw, he was rattled around like a load of laundry in a spin cycle. Smashing his head he could quickly feel the warm, wetness of blood on his brow. With one lucky hit, his crab was down in a pool of mud with little chance of getting up without assistance. Launching into a string of German expletives he made sure to keep the channel off before stating a more calm "My mech is down for the count, this is going to be much harder than anticipated, team."

Sensing the weakness he noted that the Pegasus and Blackjack were beginning to circle, he fired off a few of his lasers dragging his crab through the mud, but they darted about, seemingly untouchable. With a pilot who most likely hadn't seen real combat outside of the Solaris holovids, he hoped that his combat lessons had taught him something, or the torrential downpour would be the least of his worries

[Hanzoku]

Episode 5 – Desperate Defense

Spoiler: Leadup to the Big Day (click to show/hide)

As mentioned in the last episode, we drew one battle this week, but it’s a doozy.






In addition to the Command Lance, we have two reinforced lances from the FC, one mech lance of 5 and one vehicle lance of 5, in addition to 6 turrets. Together, we’re forced to fend off a pirate attack from nearly two companies of pirate mechs and vehicles. That would be hard already, but we also have to keep 10 civilian mechs and vehicles as safe as possible.

We have three conditions we have to meet to win this fight.
1 – We have to destroy 10 of the 20 pirate mechs and vehicles
2 – We must keep at least 3 of the 16 civilian mechs + turrets operational
3 – We must keep 15 of the 30 allied units operational.

We’re going to be adjusting two things for this battle:
1 – At deployment, I’m going to take control of the turrets from the bot. It tends to have a lot of trouble deploying them effectively.
2 – We’re going to adjust the civilian AI so it does its best to stay alive instead of playing like it wants to fight. To do so, right-click on the Civilian Folder and click on ‘Configure Bot’



By default, those were all on 5. I’ve adjusted them so that the Civilian units will play more defensively.

Since it’s Monday, we check the personnel market, and as I mentioned earlier, we have an Elite Mech Tech available, who I snatch up immediately.

I also check on our pilots – Alexander Roberts and Arnaud Faye both have 5 XP after their missions and training runs, which means they can spend those and improve their skills. Alexander improves his Gunnery and his skill increases from Green to Regular. Arnaud does the same, but because his piloting skills lag behind, he remains Green.

Due to increasing his skill, I also promote Alexander, and he receives a promotion to Corporal. After this, I save and close the campaign and update MekHQ to 0.3.21

There doesn’t look to be too many changes. One nice bug fix is it is once again possible to repair items in the Warehouse, which one of our Regular techs does, fixing two damaged 20t lower leg actuators.

Tuesday, the head arrives for the Phoenix Hawk hulk. We have it, so I go ahead and order the techs to install it.

Finally, it’s Wednesday. I go ahead and reroll the Light factor and receive Daylight, making it slightly easier on the firing rolls.

Spoiler: Setup and Turn 1 (click to show/hide)

Unlike previous battles, I’m not going to provide a summary of shots, hits and damage. With a total of 50 active units in this mission, there’s simply too much to wade through. Edit from the future: With the script that Anvilfolk provided, that might not be an issue in future base defense missions!

I’ll be honest – I hate this mission type. They’re way too big and take forever to complete. You saw with the last mission that a regular mission can be done in as few as five or six rounds, and don’t take that long to complete each turn because there’s only 15 units max on the map.

At setup, one of the Civilian vehicles was rejected, since apparently a Coolant Truck (Hover) isn’t allowed. Who knew? *shrug* This changes the survival parameters slightly, since we have to keep 3 of 15 civilian vehicles + turrets alive, and 15 of 29 allied units.

The first thing I do is assign the turrets to my control. They’ll at least be safely assigned to different buildings and not placed behind one, unable to fire for example.

I also adjust the Pirate reinforcements. They should deploy before Turn 8, but for some reason are set to deploy immediately. Nothing in the rules says that they should be there straight away, so we at least don’t start off with a lance of medium Mechs in our face.




Our base is built into a crater, with mountains rising sharply to the north, east and south. The enemy is coming from the east, and the civilian mechs and vehicles will be to the west. The FC units and our own lance will be deployed in the center.





Here’s our situation after deployment and the first round of movement. The FC is moving to engage headon, and some of the pirate mechs are coming to meet them. Their vehicles are staying in a cluster behind them. In the north, a Griffin that deployed all the way up there is heading down.

We’re behind the lines near the turrets, shifting as a Lance towards the east. Hopefully we’ll be able to come in behind the lines and start pounding on the vehicles for some quick kills.

The blue spots on the minimap to the west are the civilians – they’re moving towards the fighting, but hopefully the AI stays sane and doesn’t try to get into it with APCs and lightly armed civilian mechs.

Anvil fires on the pirate LRM carrier with his LRM-5, and Rebel takes a shot at an AC-2 equipped Vedette.

The turrets focus on a Locust, with an AC/2 turret shooting at the LRM carrier and one of the AC/5s targeting a Hermes.

In the combat phase, the LRM carrier shows why they’re so deadly by immobilizing the FC condor and stunning the crew in one round of firing. None of the rest of the shots amount for much, a few minor hits between a FC Valkyrie and a Pirate Wasp, but the rest miss, including all of our attacks.

Victory Condition: 0 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 0 / 15

Spoiler: Round 2 (click to show/hide)

The FC continues their frontal assault, and we move closer on the right flank. The pirate SRM and LRM carriers are all faced away this round, so we shouldn’t suffer too much from missile salvos.

Anvil engages the LRM carrier with his AC/5 and LRM-5 this time, and Neonivek and Rebel join in with their PPCs. Fatima-Luisa gets in range and fires on a Pegasus with her Large Laser.

The turrets focus on a Locust and a Firestarter, except for the AC/2, which still has range on the LRM carrier, and the LRM-5 turret, which helps Fatima-Luisa on her Pegasus.

During the firing phase, a FC Dervish stuns and damages one of the Pegasus, and Rebel tags the LRM carrier but good, rendering it immobile with its missiles pointed away… at least from us. A FC Enforcer takes 18 of 60 missiles to the face and body, but remains standing.

Victory Condition: 0 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 0 / 15

Spoiler: Round 3 (click to show/hide)

I admire the bloodthirstiness of the FC pilot who’s charging the pirate formation in a Valkyrie, even though a light fire support mech isn’t the most suitable for that tactic.

We’re steadily moving up, and almost in range for medium range weapons.

Anvil switches his focus to an SRM carrier, and Rebel fires one PPC at the crippled LRM carrier to cool off. For similar reasons, Neonivek doesn’t fire this round, while Fatima-Luisa continues on the Pegasus.

The pirates have mostly gotten out of the range of our turrets, with the exception of the AC/2 firing on the SRM carrier, and the LRM-5 turret firing on the Pegasus.

In the firing round, the berserker Valkyrie manages to heavily damage the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun, slowing an already slow vehicle further. It pays for it though, as the pirates focus on the closest threat and shower it with SRMs and lasers, eventually touching off its missiles and blowing it to bits.

Rebel deftly puts his PPC shot through the rear of the crippled LRM carrier and destroys it, marking our first kill of the battle, with the second following close behind as an FC Phoenix focuses on the same Pegasus we were and blows its turret off.

Victory Condition: 2 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 1 / 15

Spoiler: Round 4 (click to show/hide)

While the FC forms a firing line with the pirates, a Locust and the Hermes come down to play with us at melee range, focusing their attention on Anvil.

Anvil attempts to split his fire, shooting at the Locust in his face with medium laser and SRM-2, and using his AC/5 and LRM-5 on the SRM carrier. Fatima-Luisa alpha-strikes on the Locust with a Large Laser, four Medium Lasers and an SRM-6, while Neonivek ignores the Hermes in front of him to fire his PPC at the SRM carrier. Rebel makes up for that, firing almost everything - a PPC, two medium lasers, two small lasers, and an SRM-6 at the Hermes.

The turrets focus their attention on two pirate Locusts and the SRM carrier.

A FC Dervish immobilizes another Pegasus, while Anvil takes a hit after his mech’s head is rattled by machinegun fire from the Locust. Rebel also takes a hit, a medium laser from the Hermes burning off half of his cockpit armor, and he puts a PPC straight through the center torso in retaliation, inflicting an engine hit.

Anvil falls from the concentrated fire directed his way, but avoids more damage to himself. The Locust and Hermes take turns kicking Anvil’s Shadow Hawk, and Neonivek misses his kick but stays upright.

Victory Condition: 2 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 1 / 15

Spoiler: Round 5 (click to show/hide)

A Wasp comes down to help his buddies, putting us at melee and short range up against a Wasp, Locust and the Hermes now. Anvil managed to get to his feet and back between the heavy mechs of Fatima-Luisa and Rebel, and Neonivek ‘cheats’ a little and puts his back to the map edge.

As with last round, Anvil fires his short range weapons at the Locust, and long range at the SRM carrier. Fatima-Luisa cuts loose with her short-range weapons on the daring Wasp that wants to go nose to nose. Neonivek holds his fire to cool off, not managing to get a SRM lock on anything. Rebel continues pounding on the Hermes, somewhat annoyed by the cockpit shot.

The turrets split their attention between a Wasp, the immobile Pegasus and a still-active one.

In the weapons phase, Fatima-Luisa gets a gyro and engine hit on the Wasp, and Anvil is knocked around some more as SRM goes off near the cockpit, then loses the AC/5 as the pirates keep focusing most of their attention on his mech. He goes down again from a combination of damage and a destroyed leg actuator, but avoids personal damage again. The wasp also falls as its gyro shorts out, presenting a nice target for Fatima-Luisa. Sadly, she whiffs the kick and falls herself.

Victory Condition: 2 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 1 / 15

Spoiler: Round 6 (click to show/hide)

In the movement phase, Anvil tries to get up and fails, this time taking a hit from the fall and blacking out. This is really bad, as his fall also pointed his back to the enemies. Hopefully being immobile on the ground will help him avoid a lot of damage from the enemies further away, or they focus on another target.

Fatima-Luisa gets up and turns to face the lance of enemy mechs charging our position, and Neonivek stays planted to draw a good shot. Rebel steps forward to confront a Pirate Firestarter and ask it if it’s really feeling lucky, punk?

In the firing phase, Fatima-Luisa focuses on the damaged Wasp, Rebel uses all his short range weapons on the Firestarter and fires a PPC as an afterthought at the crippled Pegasus, and Neonivek gives a Locust his full attention with PPC and SRM-6 pack. The turrets add their firepower on the Firestarter, though they have poor odds of hitting.

Results are bad though – Zhou’s Shadow Hawk is destroyed by a chain ammo explosion as the pirates show no sign of letting up, though he survives ejecting by the skin of his teeth. Fatima-Luisa gets revenge by destroying the Wasp, and Rebel rages and kicks the Firestarter’s leg clean off.

Victory Condition: 3 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 2 / 15

Spoiler: Round 7 (click to show/hide)

The damaged Hermes runs for it, and the Locusts also move away, replaced by the last mobile Pegasus hovercraft.

Fatima focuses her ire on the Pegasus, Neonivek takes a shot at the back of a fleeing Locust, and Rebel continues flaying the immobile Firestarter and Pegasus. The turrets focus on the Locust and the crippled Pegasus.

In the firing round, Neonivek blows the Locust to kingdom come, coring out its center torso with a precise PPC blast, and Rebel shreds the Firestarter at his feet, though he suffers a lot of incoming fire as the pirates methodically turn their attention to him next.

Victory Condition: 5 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 2 / 15

We’re halfway there, but the pirates get a reinforcing medium mech lance next round.

Spoiler: Round 8 (click to show/hide)

We get lucky, and the reinforcements deploy to the north, meaning we get about a round before they’re right in our faces. Still, we need to get this over with soon, the damage is creeping up and the AI tendency to focus at least half their shots at our units is causing problems. Rebel’s Warhammer is going to start taking internal damage soon, and losing another Mech is going to be a major problem.

We’re running a bit hot on all Mechs, so Fatima-Luisa fires a carefully measured salvo at the mobile Pegasus, Rebel joins in with his short and medium range weapons, and Neonivek fires on the crippled Pegasus, but he’ll have to skip firing next round to get his heat down.

The turrets also focus on the Pegasus. Fatima-Luisa cripples the last mobile one with her shots, but it drops Rebel’s Warhammer with engine and gyro damage. He gets his revenge before going down by destroying the Pegasus.

Rebel takes another hit as he goes down, unable to make three successive balance checks for damage taken, gyro hit and a leg actuator being destroyed.

Victory Condition: 6 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 2 / 15

Spoiler: Round 9 (click to show/hide)

Rebel drags his Warhammer around and stays on the ground – with both gyro and leg damage, he doesn’t have much chance of getting up anymore. Scorpion stays put and Fatima-Luisa, in our only undamaged mech moves forward to hopefully attract some attention away from Rebel.

In the firing round, she lights up a damaged Vedette, Han fires at the damaged Hetzer Wheeled Assault Cannon from one arm, using the other to prop himself up, and Neonivak keeps on the last immobile Pegasus.  The two turrets that can also focus on the Pegasus.

Resolving the round, results are looking up – a FedCom Enforcer whacks the Pegasus, and Fatima-Luisa gets the Vedette. Rebel is nearly knocked unconscious from an AC/2 round to the head, and Fatima-Luisa manages to both attract attention and stay upright.

Victory Condition: 8 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 2 / 15

Spoiler: Round 10 (click to show/hide)

Endgame. We need two more kills to get this over with. Fatima-Luisa keeps moving to present a harder target, and Neonivek moves forward but won’t be firing this round to get his heat down.

Fatima-Luisa foces on a Pirate Wasp from the reinforcements with her short-ranged weapons, Rebel tries for the Hetzer again from where he’s lying. The two turrets focus on a Vedette whose crew was stunned the previous turn.

A FedCom Phoenix Hawk gets the Hetzer kill, but not before Fatima-Luisa’s Guillotine is pounded to scrap by the SRM carriers, and the Hetzer gets one shot off before dying… blowing away Neonivek’s entire armament in one hit. His Scorpion is knocked down, but since it’s a quad design, getting up next round is a cinch.

Victory Condition: 9 / 10
Loss Condition #1: 0 / 12
Loss Condition #2: 2 / 15

Fatima-Luisa is passed out and her Mech is a writeoff, Rebel’s mech is trashed but he can at least fight, and Neonivek was knocked down and his only action is going to be to run for it. We’re one kill away from a pyretic ‘victory’.

Spoiler: Round 11 (click to show/hide)

Fatima-Luisa is as good as dead, and Rebel might be as well. We have to hope the FedCom manage to kill something or Neonivek’s Scorpion might be the only survivor of the Command Lance.

Han fires desperately at a Locust preparing to kill Fatima-Luisa, and the turrets fire at what they can.

A pirate Griffin destroys the Guillotine’s cockpit, killing Fatima-Luisa. A FedCom Shadow Hawk destroys a Vedette, at least getting us the win, for what it’s worth. One of the SRM carriers pounds Rebel’s Warhammer, and he takes yet another hit, bringing him to 4 out of 5 wounds.

We declare victory, and I find out if you do so in the records phase, it finishes on that round. Just as well, as they would have killed the Warhammer as well.

Spoiler: Aftermath (click to show/hide)

We pick up the LRM Carrier, Wasp, Locust and Firestarter as salvage. None of them are even capable of being repaired. Fatima-Luisa’s Guillotine is also a total loss, only fit for salvage. We only capture two pirates from all of the destroyed enemies. The salvage sells for 1,356,908 C-Bills.

Fatima-Luisa is removed from the unit, and takes what’s left of the Guillotine with her. As a minor ‘benefit’ to losing a pilot, you get a random chance that you gain dependents, who start as astechs but can gain XP, allowing them to be tracked into other professions. In our case, we gain four, which I’ll roleplay as Fatima-Luisa’s handpicked team choosing to stay with the unit.

The Command Lance is pretty banged up with only two functioning Mechs left, and we now have two Dispossessed pilots. We’ll probably end up reorganizing in three short lances of three with one floater.



Han Zoku’s Warhammer has seen better days, and will be down for a while as we need to get replacement joints for its right leg.



Kevin Collider’s Scorpion is also down for a few days – we had a PPC on hand to replace the wrecked one, but we need a new SRM-6 as well.

I let the doctors and techs get to work on fixing things, and within the day the Scorpion is fixed except for the SRM-6, which should be delivered the next day.

The Gyro in the Warhammer proves unfixable and has to be scrapped out. A new one costs 900,000 C-bills, wiping out our profits from the salvage.

The company is reorganized – Martin and Xidonious are reassigned to the Command Lance, which will focus on training for the next week – Han can provide critique from the sidelines as needed. Battle and Scout lances will run as 3 Mech short lances for a while, reducing their weight classes to Medium and Light respectively.

Thursday, the Scorpion is fixed entirely, and Zhou pulls out of critical condition, now at 4/5 wounds.

Friday, maintenance occurs, and I adjust the modifier back to -3, as I want regular techs to roll against 6-7 mostly, and with -2 it’s against 7-8 right now. There’s some minor damage to the Jenner which is fixed. A leg for the Stinger arrives, along with a new gyro for the Warhammer. That’s duly installed, and now we’re just waiting for two more actuators for its leg before it’s in fighting trim.

The leg for the Stinger once again proves a problem, and we order another one. I’m mostly just glad that Stinger legs are cheap, as we’d have sold a mostly intact mech long ago if they were more expensive. However, the next leg will need almost two weeks to arrive, so it’ll have to remain in the bay for a while.

Saturday marks the end of our first month of campaigning. The following occurs:

- Enemy morale drops to Low – This adjusts the sort of missions we should receive. Specifically, we shouldn’t have to deal with another base attack (defense) mission, and could even roll a base attack (attacker) mission.
- We have a special event and gain 6 dependents (they act as astechs until they gain enough XP to do something more useful)
- Alexander Roberts and Jack Eustance gain 1 XP from the random roll
- Kevin Collider gets out of the infirmary, and Han Zoku is now at 2/5 hits and Zhou Smythe is 3/5.

Sunday, Han and Zhou continue to recover.
Monday, the last parts for Han’s Warhammer are delivered, and its one again functional. This week there’s no combat missions rolled, and we hired another administrator. Xidonius and Martin gain experience from their training, allowed Xidonius to train his Gunnery skill. He increases from Ultra-Green to Green, and is promoted to Private as a result.

Wednesday, Han and Zhou are finally released from the hospital, Zhou sporting plenty of new scars to impress the ladies after his ejection through the shattered head armor of his mech, only to land in a tree.

The next week rolls around, and we roll up a Hold the Line (Attacker) for Scout lance, facing a light mech lance with a light/medium mixed vehicle and mech lance of reinforcements. They’ll be fighting on Sunday, meaning I’ll be pulling them out of rotation for the next week of assignments. We hire a new Mechwarrior – Ernesto Araujo, an Elite MechWarrior with a preference for melee combat. I’ll give him a Hatchetman if we see one on the market. I didn’t see it before hiring him, but he comes with his own Mech, a LCT-3V Locust.

Command Lance’s training pays off, and Kevin and Martin both improve their Gunnery skill. Like Xidonius, Martin is no longer considered Ultra-Green, and is promoted to Private.

Finally, a new leg arrives for the Stinger (where have I written that before…), but this time they actually manage to connect it, allowing the techs to finish doing repairs.

We now have an empty but functional mech –a STG-3G Stinger.

As an aside, the two special traits Ernesto has, in a different era, would make him the perfect pilot for a mech with triple-strength myomer technology and a melee weapon.
Melee Specialist - +1 damage with physical attacks, -1 to the roll needed to hit.
Some Like It Hot - Ignore the initial +1 to hit penalty from heat

So you take a mech like the Axman, run its heat up to 10 to activate the TSM, which then allows it to move faster and hit twice as hard - something that these traits make even easier as there's no to-hit penalty and in fact a bonus on hitting people with the axe.

Now the question for AnvilFolk – Do you want the STG-3G Stinger to command a second light lance? If not, what is your request? It can be general (light/medium/heavy/assault), or specific (‘I want a Dragon, and only a Dragon’). I’ll do my best to arrange it, but we’re dependent on the market and getting lucky with salvage.

If AnvilFolk does want the Stinger, the new lance will be himself, the new Locust pilot, and Xidonius in his Phoenix Hawk.

[Rince Wind]

I am pretty sure you are allowed to bring up to 12 Mechs for base defence. They can all be deployed in a single force, meaning you won't have to wait for them to arrive as reinforcements. Of course, now I can't find it in the rules anymore...But I am pretty sure I deployed ten Mechs with a combined weight over 390t and it let me do that, usually it wouldn't consider such a force viable.

Too bad we lost more than we gained on that mission.

[Neonivek]

Too bad we lost more than we gained on that mission.

As long as it is a small loss. There are far worse outcomes that could have made the entire campaign completely pointless.

[Hanzoku]

I went through the battle section of the excel sheet, and I don't see anything about being able to bring more lances from the start. I think if we had unassigned lances we could have called them in as reinforcements, but the other two lances were busy that week.

Overall, it was a tough mission but I'm pleased we won it, despite the FC AI being damned useless. It was a shame to lose two mechs and a pilot, but at least it was an NPC that bit the dust. I'm hoping that we get some easier missions and less trouble with critical hits to the center torso - if we get a few missions where we can collect and sell viable salvage, we should be able to build up enough cash to have a buffer to buy mechs.

[Rince Wind]

Yes, those CT crits. First turn, an AC 2 carrier hits my Ostsol in the CT, rolls 12, gyro and 2 engine hits.Thank you RNG.

And yes, maybe I confused that with the big battles where you can bring 8 mechs.


Edit: Yes, that Ostsol is just scrap now. And I only just realized I cannot even order armor while on a raid contract. That is ... unfortunate...

[Anvilfolk]

Yeaaaaah, not a lot of luck there. So many headshots! And missed kicks. Ugh!

A couple of things: if we had lost that battle, it would've been the end of the contract!!! And yes, you can bring reinforcements, but only so long as you've gotten a Fight (roll a 6 on 1d6) or Scout lance (roll 5 or 6 on 1d6) that hasn't gotten a mission this week. They arrive within 12 - smallest walking speed of mech in the reinforcing lance. So while you can reinforce, it's actually pretty hard... it's in the Reinforcements section of the Battle sheet on the spreadsheet.

Another thing: I've recently started modifying my repair rolls by having techs work longer. For instance, that gyro hit could've gotten a -3 modifier if you had people working 4x as long! So, that repair would take 240x4 = 960 minutes, or two full days of work from a tech that isn't doing maintenance... but on the other hand, a -3 bonus is huge, especially when you apply it to a Green, Regular, Veteran and finally Elite tech repair. It's definitely the kind of thing that can save you 900.000 C-bills sometimes I've started doing this, and gosh darn, it has made starting out with a new company so much easier!


Zhou stared incredulously at Han. Leaning back in the hospital bed, red blots on bandages around his forehead, arms and torso and dark, heavy bags under his eyes, he definitely isn't looking his best. "Lead another lance?", he croaks out while failing to subdue the twitches spasming in his left hand. Gripping it tightly with his right hand, he visibly struggles to retain some control. It appears that the last battle and Fatima-Luisa's death has hit him particularly hard. His recent past at the hands of House Liao is probably to blame for that.

A deep breath brings back some semblance of calm. "Lances are usually four units. If we form three three-mech lances, each individual lance is likely to be outclassed in every engagement, and will give enemies increased initiative and mobility around our mechs. Wouldn't it be better to stick to four-unit lances?" A pause and an attempt to work through the knot in his throat. "I don't think I'm ready to lead anything or anyone... but I'll leave it up to you."

[Hanzoku]

Yeah, I'll be keeping that in mind for future repairs, especially for parts like the gyro where a new one really hurts. On the headshots, I'm mostly just glad they didn't hit us with anything heavier then they did, since we took so many hits.


Han coughed violently, leaning on a crutch, the bandages around his torso concealing the terrible bruising and cracked and broken ribs he had suffered, one eye still closed by the black eye he had suffered.

"I know it feels like its too early to get back in the saddle, but we don't have the same luxury as mercenaries as we once had to take time to recover fully. You have the leadership skills, and our unit is skewing towrds lighter units and fast strike tactics. We'll still have a lance in the field each time with our FedCom advisor."

Han coughs, face paleing as his ribs are ground by the spasms. Finally they die down, and he gasps out "Sorry about that... but I know you can do it. A Stinger isn't anything like your Shadow Hawk, and I'm sorry for that, but we have a new crackerjack pilot with his own Locust, and Xidonius is coming along. He's green but he's getting better every week. The three of you together will be a great fast attack lance, and if the FedCom works along with you, you'll be great. Think about it... we both have a while in the hospital before the doctor is ready to let us go. I know you say its my decision, and it is in the end, but if you're not up for it, I'd rather give you more time then thrust you into a situation where more people will end up hurt."

[EuchreJack]

Placing the Fire Base at the bottom of a Crater: Another brilliant idea from the FedComs!

Where am I?  Last I understood my mech was wrecked.

[Hanzoku]

It was wrecked, and then the techs worked their magic on it and fixed it up again. You've been leading training and combat patrols without incident, until the next update.