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[Fishbreath]

Cockpit repair and limb reattachment are 7+ or 8+ tasks for elite technicians in transport bays, and they take most of a day's work—probably not something we'll have time for, with limited labor and working conditions that add another +2 penalty to the target number.

[Fishbreath]

On the basis of above discussions, a proposed cargo load:

4 tons of leg actuators
6 tons of LB10X solid shot (60 shots)
1 ton of LB10X cluster shot (10 shots; cluster is a specialty munition)
8 tons of LRM ammo (960 missiles; the Archer needs a lot to be combat-useful)
5 tons of ferro-fibrous armor (much higher than the proportion of ferro-fibrous in the raiding force, but harder to salvage)
16 tons of standard armor

[Mephansteras]

Seems reasonable to me.

[EuchreJack]

You could probably go with slightly less standard armor. We can peel it off enemy mechs fairly easily.
Maybe an extra 2 tons of LB10X cluster shot? We'll want it vs Aerofighters.

[Fishbreath]

Fair point! (I forgot that Princess can handle aerospace units on ground maps.) Given that an airbase is on the list of targets, it's sensible to assume we might have to deal with some enemy air support. I'll amend the list (1->3 tons LB10X cluster, 16->14 tons standard armor) so we can keep Linebuster firing at will with both kinds of ammo.

In other news, 75% of the late 3051/early 3052 Bastards are now physically embodied:

Spoiler: Extremely large photograph (click to show/hide)

Each of the four lances from back then is missing one unit, and funnily enough, all four missing mechs come in one box of official plastic: the second Guillotine, the second Lancelot, the Crab, and the Flashman all come in the six-unit ComStar Battle Level II box (alongside a Mongoose light mech, and a Crockett assault—the latter we might even see on the upcoming contract, since it was a Star League standard, and the Fifteenth Dracon has deep Star League roots). Unlike some other miniatures games out there (*coughwarhammercough*), first-party miniatures are probably cheaper than 3D prints when you count prep time and cleanup, so a 4 of 6 hit rate is enough for me to justify a box.

The two years in-game years since the roster I chose have seen the unit grow significantly. Maybe if I have a lot more spare time than I'm anticipating this year, I can get the whole battalion-size, 3054-ish roster done.

[Knave]

Ahhh very cool seeing the bastards come together in physical form! What paint job are you going to apply on them?

I really do enjoy the CGL boxes, and the Comstar boxes are pretty great value overall. (I may have ordered too many of the upcoming mercenaries/vehicles sets due to come out later this year. )

[Mephansteras]

Nice!

[Fishbreath]

What paint job are you going to apply on them?

Jungle camouflage, I think—I brought it up in the Return of the Let's Play post, and Mephansteras remarked that we probably aren't a parade colors kind of outfit. Our starting world Piedmont is heavy on the forest and jungle, so it seemed like a natural next step.

Also, camouflage is relatively easy to paint, and doesn't demand a lot of work with shading and highlighting. A little bit to bring out the most obvious depths and edges is nice, but the whole point of camouflage is to break up outlines and reduce contrast. My usual basecoat-wash-highlight process works a lot less well on models with lots of flat surfaces (such as mechs), I'm finding.

e: I only very recently started to engage with BattleTech beyond PC games—I had a $20 Target gift card around Christmas, which I used on the Essentials box, then I bought the Alpha Strike rulebook with the coupon inside. I like that Catalyst is getting into vehicles too. Much harder to find 3D models of those.

[Fishbreath]

Tsingtao: December 12
Mechs line up on the tarmac at Tsing City's central airfield. Three lances of the Bastards file into Leopard DropShips, along with a pair of armored repair vehicles and two of our technicians: Orel Pestunov, who seems positively eager to get stuck in, and Chika Heri, who is a bit less gung-ho but proud to be part of the advance team.

Drake shakes hands with Double Dog before mounting up: Captain Dare will be commanding Assault Company until both halves of the unit link back up on Ares.

Ares: December 21
From jump arrival to Ares proper was two and a half days of mounting tension: ahead, FedCom aerospace fighters and combat DropShips tussle with system defenders, knock out surveillance satellites, and prepare the way. On the Leopards carrying the Bastards, meanwhile, there's nothing to do but follow the fighting on the holo-screens, and check and re-check mech systems before the drop.

Finally, we're in close, descending past low orbit. The mechwarriors board their machines and ready themselves, the Leopards switch from bottom-mounted transit drives to aft-mounted in-atmosphere drives, and the approach begins. In mech cockpits, heartbeats quicken as systems come up and computers call out status: "Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal."

The mech bay doors open to reveal the landscape thundering by, only a couple hundred meters below. The dropships bump and jostle, banking slightly as they line up on drop zones. The clamps kick free, the mechs fall clear of the bays, and the drop is on.

Round 1


Things are already a bit hairy—the enemy seems to have gotten its reinforcements early. (I set most of these units to arrive after 3 or 6 rounds, but here they are already. I must have set something up wrong, or maybe neglected to set it up the last time through. It took a few tries to get everything figured out.)

Drake's lance will land just past the DropShip's first maneuver. The Bruisers will land a touch north of that and jump into the base for demolition work. The Outriders will land a hair north of that, and hold onto a spot where the Bruisers can jump back out of the base.

Like so.



It's a good thing the Leopards are able to stick around for a turn or two of air-to-ground fire. Two of them focus on the enemy Guillotine, and the strafing run takes out its left leg. The pilot bails out. The enemy Crusader also takes some damage.

In return, the units on the ground fire on our mechs, doing light damage to them as they fall. Tracers and missiles flash up from the units on the eastern side of the field, striking the third Leopard. Its pilot struggles to regain control after the impacts.

Round 2
The third Leopard skims the treetops, still wrestling with his controls. The first two are on the way out, up north, and will fire on any targets of opportunity for us as they leave.

Jump jets (or disposable jump packs) fire as our mechs drop to ground level. But for Wojtek, the company lands safely. Wojtek misses his footing on a slope, and drops prone with light damage.



The Fifteenth Dracon is here on the west of the battlefield with us. Drake takes a characteristically long shot, cutting deep into his target's armor. Milspec and the Outriders are much closer to the Champion and Cataphract on the north end of the map, and will do their best to reduce those threats this turn, while they still benefit from the fact that they fell from the sky: a tricky situation for a mech's targeting systems to deal with.

Round 3
The enemy SRM carrier gets a good volley off on one of the Leopards overhead, and...



Drake is on the radio as soon as the Leopard goes down. The flight crew reports injuries but no deaths. They're bogged down in the snow and unable to even attempt a vertical takeoff, or turn for a rolling takeoff (if the roughness of the terrain would even permit that). Looks like another task for us.

To evac the flight crew, we'll need to stop a mech next to the Leopard, and have it remain stationary for a full movement phase. Wojtek is going to take that assignment. The Leopard crew will hang onto the mech's legs—Wojtek will walk them off the field, then have our support element pick them up. He'll do his best to catch up to the rest of the company while we're running for the airbase.

Turns out (as I maneuver mechs to cover Wojtek) that it's an Outriders assignment: Milspec and Forakis follow Wojtek, while Blinky splits to the west to flank the Cataphract and Champion.

Teddy looks like he's going to be the first Bastard on the board for this raid: he knocks the pilot of the Fifteenth Dracon Crusader unconscious, and has the mech at his mercy for the upcoming turn. Linebuster, Wizard, and Hanzoku work on the objective buildings.

On its way out, the final airborne Dropship gifts us some critical hits into the center torso of an enemy Vindicator, toppling it and forcing its pilot to bail out.

Round 4
The Outriders (minus Blinky) are nearly to the downed DropShip. In the meantime, Wizard and Hanzoku should be able to knock out the comms dishes this turn, and Linebuster is going to get a good crack at the headquarters building. We'll probably shoot at the fuel tanks a bit as we retreat, but given the intensity of combat and the other things we have to do today, I'm not inclined to stick around and fight deep into the base proper.



The downed Leopard continues to spray fire at the enemy vehicles in its firing arcs, knocking out a Bulldog tank and damaging the Fifteenth Dracon Champion behind it.



Both comm dishes fall, one each to Wizard and Hanzoku, and Linebuster makes a good start on the headquarters building. Drake ties Teddy for first kills of the day: both are headshots, but Drake's is 20+ hexes with an ER PPC, and Teddy's is a machine gun on a prone mech in the adjacent hex.

Round 5
Wojtek moves into position to evacuate the Leopard crew. The Bruisers are in place to finish the primary objective.



Wizard and Hanzoku take out the headquarters building with PPCs and large lasers, while Linebuster blows the nearest fuel tank.



Which blows up some more fuel tanks.



Oh. Oh my.



It goes on for pages and pages like this.



And it turns out that Trebuchet was standing a little close for comfort.



Lesson: when we get to the airbase, don't stand near the fuel tanks. Linebuster scores himself a kill in the middle of all of that collateral damage.

The Leopard crew, firing their weapons one last time before abandoning ship, knocks out the Fifteenth Dracon Champion's leg, forcing the pilot to bail out. Wizard takes some substantial hits from the Trebuchet before it goes down, but stays on her feet.

Round 6


The Leopard crew scrambles out of the wreckage as LRMs impact around them, and clamber onto the legs of Wojtek's Phoenix Hawk. They're not out of the woods yet—Wojtek needs to walk (not run) them off of the field, and those Condor hovertanks to the east are closing in.

The two surviving Fifteenth Dracon pilots are calling in LRM fire from the heavy missile tank inside the walls on our mechs, which makes them combatants. We'll lay down some suppressing fire at them next turn, and if they die, they die.

Round 7


In the north, Wojtek gets on the move with his passengers in tow, while Milspec, Blinky, and Forakis cover him. In the south, the rest of the unit moves for the south edge of the board, preparing for our run to the airbase.

Round 8


The Outriders are where the action is; three of them line up on one of the Condors. Hopefully that's enough to bring it down.

Drake, Woad, and Euchre are hanging around near the southwest exit to the facility to provide long-range support fire, if the Condors come further west. Since he's not needed just yet, Drake pops one of the remaining fuel tanks. Sadly, there is no massive chain reaction this time.

A few large lasers crackle past Wojtek from the Capellan vehicles, but none hit, and he and his passengers escape unharmed.

The Capellan defenders are falling back now, and so are we.

Results, Damage, Injuries
Except for Wojtek, who will do his best to catch up to us for the airfield assault, the Bastards all escaped successfully.



'Undamaged' isn't technically true for most of the places it occurs, but we're far from battered. Wizard's Guillotine needs about two tons of armor, and the Emperor took a solid hit or two while it was falling to the ground, but otherwise, we're only missing a point or two of armor here and there. Wizard and Teddy are both dinged up from hits to their mechs' heads: a bruised foot and a cut on the forehead, respectively.

No salvage on this mission: we're not sticking around to strip armor.

Kill Boards
Drake is still chasing Rook down. For all that he spends his time driving one of the the lightest medium mechs you can buy, Teddy Bear remains a good ways up the kill board.

Last Mission


Granted that it doesn't pay for having one shot down, but those dropships did some serious work on our behalf. The Guillotine and Vindicator were all on the flyboys (so also the tank), and the Champion and Crusader were team efforts.

All Time

• "Rook" Ishikawa (31, 10 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Drake" Halit (18, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Carcer" Ngo (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Woad" Kohler (14, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
• "Teddy Bear" Jamil (12, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Linebuster" Atkinson (10, 4 mechs)
• "Wizard" Que (8, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
• "Severe" Payne (8, 6 mechs)
• "Hanzoku" Yuksel (6, 4 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
• "Ker-Ker" Ec (6, 3 mechs)
• "Euchre" Kojic (6, 2 mechs)
• Simona (6, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• "Double Dog" Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
• "Blinky" Stirzacre (5, 1 mech)
• "Milspec" Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• "Pepper" Popalzi (3, 1 mech)
• "Faceplan" Farooqi (3, 1 mech)
• "Wojtek" Frajtov (2, 2 mechs)
• "Kicks" Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• Pvt. Erine Forakis (1, 1 mech)
• Sgt. Philippa Khadjikyriakos (1, 1 mech)

Status
Advance Company is running at 50 kilometers per hour toward the airbase. Needless to say, this phase of the raid will not be happening in real time. Maybe next Sunday—these fixed scenarios are tons of fun, but also not easy to put together.

Cargo
4 tons of leg actuators 60 rounds of LB10X solid shot (10 per ton) 30 rounds of LB10X cluster shot (10 per ton) 960 LRMs (120 per ton) 90 points of ferro-fibrous armor (17.9 points per ton) 224 points of standard armor (16 points per ton) 1 ton of rescued Leopard crew

Supply vehicle capacity: 41/70 tons

We haven't used any of our supplies yet, because we're still engaged in combat.

TO&E, MechWarrior Claims, and Mech Assignments
Units lacking a bolded callsign are free to be claimed.

Sgt. Khadjikyriakos' callsign is temporary, because her surname is a lot to type. Feel free to pick another one.

Advance Company (currently deployed on the raid) is Drake's Destroyers, Bear's Bruisers, and Ortega's Outriders.

The remaining three lances are temporarily organized as Assault Company.

• 1st Company
  
  • Drake's Destroyers
    
    • Major Huri "Drake" Halit (Mephansteras) - Awesome AWS-DRAKE
    • Cpl. Ferdinand "Woad" Kohler (A Thing) - Grasshopper GHR-5KOB
    • Pvt. Jan "Euchre" Kojic (EuchreJack) - Lancelot LNC25-0B
    • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz "Pepper" Popalzi (mrkilla22) - Archer ARC-2K
  • Rook's Raiders
    
    • Captain Mariamu "Rook" Ishikawa (Culise) - Stalker STK-3Fb
    • Cpl. Damayanti "Carcer" Ngo (Dorsidwarf) - Flashman FLS-7K
    • Pvt. Elroy "Faceplant" Farooqi (NickAragua) - Dragon DRG-5N
    • Pvt. E-Shei "Ker-Ker" Ec (Kanil) - Lancelot LNC25-0B
  • Bear's Bruisers
    
    • Lt. SG George "Linebuster" Atkinson (Hasek10) - Emperor EMP-6A
    • Lt. JG Tedros "Teddy Bear" Jamil (Knave) - Vulcan VL-5T
    • Pvt. Ed "Hanzoku" Yuksel (Hanzoku) - Guillotine GLT-4L
    • Pvt. Xue-Min "Wizard" Que (Rince Wind) - Guillotine GLT-4P
• 2nd Company
  
  • Fourth Lance
    
    • Captain Sung-min "Double Dog" Dare (a1s) - Warhammer WHM-6R
    • Pvt. Catherine "Severe" Payne (Burnt Pies) - Koshi/Mist Lynx
    • Pvt. Gwenael "Kicks" Hernandez (Sheyra) - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1Kk
    • Recruit Simona - Ryoken/Stormcrow
  • Ortega's Outriders
    
    • Lt. JG Jose "Milspec" Ortega (milspec) - Crab CRB-30-UK
    • Pvt. Kevin "Blinky" Stirzacre (moghopper) - Ostroc OSR-2D
    • Pvt. Erine Forakis - Phoenix Hawk PXH-3K
    • Pvt. Ik-jun "Wojtek" Frajtov (Blaze) - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1
  • Sixth Lance
    
    • Sgt. Philippa "Khad" Khadjikyriakos - Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
    • Cpl. Margita bin Ala' al din - Trebuchet TBT-5N
    • Pvt. Mats Johansen - Trebuchet TBT-5S
    • Pvt. Lise Selvåg - Raven RVN-2X

Other Remarks
People like to hate on the Inner Sphere ER Large Laser (it makes a ton of heat and doesn't do a ton of damage) and the Medium Pulse Laser (the range is very short), but the extra range and the to-hit bonus respectively are really obvious, compared to 3025 tech like Hanzoku's Guillotine or Teddy's Vulcan.

They may not be the totally optimal choices, but they do work well for us.

[Mephansteras]

The Leopard going down is unfortunate, but at least we got the crew out. Otherwise, that went about as well as can be expected!

Looking forward to the next update.

[Knave]

Yeah - that fight could have gone very differently without the leopard support!

Too bad about the dropship, hopefully the FC bosses aren't tooo upset by the loss. Who knows maybe we'll get it back.

So I guess we're heading straight into the next mission sans repairs right? Tedros & Drake will have to be careful about errant headshots now that the armour is already dinged

[Fishbreath]

Too bad about the dropship, hopefully the FC bosses aren't tooo upset by the loss. Who knows maybe we'll get it back.

So I guess we're heading straight into the next mission sans repairs right? Tedros & Drake will have to be careful about errant headshots now that the armour is already dinged

Not terribly upset, I wouldn't think. Combat drops on objectives are inherently risky, intelligence failed a bit in that the drop zone was a lot hotter than expected, and FedCom signed off on the aggressive "drop almost on top of the objective" plan. I think it's a wash in contract score terms: we dramatically overachieved on objectives, which would usually be worth +1 score beyond mission completion, but losing a dropship is probably a minor breach worth -1 score.

We are indeed rolling straight into the next mission. We'll just have to keep the more heavily-damaged mechs moving fast, for that sweet sweet TMM.

I seem to have run across a bug in MekHQ/MegaMek when setting up custom scenarios—although you can save games in the MegaMek lobby, MekHQ is not great at resuming those games until the game actually starts. (That was the cause of needing two or three times through setup before I actually started the game.)

[Fishbreath]

Of limited interest compared to a full update, perhaps, but the ComStar box is here! Guillotines and Lancelots, CGL and 3D-printed:



Some major style differences for sure, but recognizably the same mechs. The scale differences are interesting—the mechs are the same heights, roughly, but the cockpits are much bigger on the official models. Still a good bit of prep work before painting is in the cards, but it's cool to have the whole gang (as of a few in-game years ago).

[Mephansteras]

Very cool!

[Fishbreath]

December 21, 3053: Airfield Raid
Mechs are not comfortable rides at a full run. Two hours at a full run does not yield a comfortable day. But, of course, that's why FedCom pays the Bastards the big bucks. In this case, it seems to have paid dividends beyond our expected financial rewards: we arrive at the pair to find it relatively lightly defended, occupied by two lances of vehicles and a flight of aerospace fighters just about to take off. It seems we've stolen a march on the Capellans: no mechs are here to oppose us.



Round 1


On the northwest of the airfields, fast and mobile mechs are going to strike the tank farm before falling back to join up with the main body. On the northeast side of the field, most of the Destroyers are going to target the nearest comms dish (it has a lot of health, at 70), while Drake takes a shot at a Hetzer poking its nose out. Carrying AC/20s as they do, Hetzers are good to knock out early.

As it turns out, Drake only needs two of his three PPCs to score the kill. The rest of the Destroyers have nearly brought the first comms dish down. On the west side of the field, the defenders exchange ineffectual fire with our fast force.

Round 2


The Capellan defenders seem to be focusing on our lighter force to the west, which suits me—they'll be running soon anyway.

Teddy Bear knocks out the engine on the Pike support tank opposing him, while the spray responding of SRMs and AC/2 shells ripping trees to splinters around him fails to connect. Milspec whiffs on the fuel tanks. Hanzoku wounds the driver of the Brutus assault tank on the hill.

In the east, the Bastards get the better of the enemy forces opposing them, but do no serious damage. Linebuster polishes off the first comm dish.

Round 3


The first of the Capellan aerospace fighters lines up on the runway centerline and rockets airborne. It'll be able to cause us trouble soon.

Blinky and Milspec are going to be on fuel tank duty, while Hanzoku will join Teddy in hopefully drawing the Capellan forces north.

The Falcon that cheekily motored out in front of Drake discovers why that's a bad idea, eating a pair of PPC shots from the Awesome and carving a path through the dirt as its hover systems . (It does deliver a few SRM-6s to the Awesome, in response, but damage is light.)

On the west, Milspec takes a few hits to the left side, which cut nearly through his left arm armor. He gets the last shot in on the fuel tanks, and...



It's worse than at the C3 facility. These must have been more nearly full. The pair of Manticores on the hill take damage from the explosions, in fact—our two southernmost mechs just barely escaped the blast.

Round 4


The Bastards should make short work of the Manticores, Pike, and Brutus: they're either damaged, immobilized, or both. The bigger threat now is the aerospace flight: the Thunderbird is moments from taking off, and is a nasty air-to-ground striker, and the Lightning is already airborne and preparing to make an attack run.

Milspec and Blinky try to get within laser range of it before it takes off. They do, but do only minor damage to it before it starts rolling down the runway.

Pepper finishes off the Pike with a volley of LRMs.

Round 5


Forakis gets in position to finish off the central fuel tank, which (if history is any guide) should complete our last objective too. It does, but my distance judgement is a bit off: Euchre takes light damage from the blast, while Pepper gets hammered by shrapnel and barely keeps his mech on its feet. Forakis gets credit for the second Hetzer.

On the other side of the map, Blinky and Milspec immobilize the Condor that has been harrassing them, and none too soon. Milspec's left arm is hanging on by a thread. Teddy Bear gets another engine hit on a vehicle, immobilizing the last Manticore. He and Hanzoku will vacate the area, while the longer-ranged mechs destroy the remaining vehicles.

The bigger concern, of course, are the circling aircraft. They'll really ruin our day if they score solid hits, as the AC/20-sized crater a few meters left of Teddy's Vulcan suggests.

Round 6


Blinky knocks out the Condor, Euchre gets a Manticore, and Hanzoku finally pierces the Brutus' side armor, while the rest of the Bastards fire away at the aircraft. The Thunderbird puts heavy fire into Wizard's Guillotine, but she keeps the mech on its feet. As it roars past, Drake puts a PPC shot into its left wing, and Linebuster follows it up with some LB10X cluster ammo and a large laser. Smoke pours from gashes in the armor, and the aerospace fighter spins out of control and plunges to the earth, sending up a huge explosion as it impacts.

Reviewing the battle footage, Linebuster gets credit.

Round 7
Drake gets the final Manticore with a three-PPC volley. On the south side of the map, the Capellan Lightning dives on Forakis' Phoenix Hawk, lines up its shot carefully, and finally scores with the AC/20. The shell rips through the Phoenix Hawk's leg armor, lodging amid the internal structure, but fortunately doesn't do any further damage to actuators.

With that parting shot, the Lightning makes a run for it. Between the Emperor and Euchre's Lancelot (which has anti-air targeting and long-range weapons), its pilot doesn't seem interested in sticking around to fight to the death.

Final status:



Damage, Injuries, Salvage


The Archer, Crab, and 3K Phoenix Hawk are all either down on armor across several limbs, or in need of some internal repairs. The GLT-4P is listed as 'light damage', but it's critically low on armor on the front torso, so it's not combat-ready until we have a bit of time to repair it.

Using mechs to drag destroyed Capellan vehicles, we're able to bring a fair bit of salvage off of the field, and hide it out of the way. Staying in one place for too long may let the Capellans get the jump on us, but we probably have a day or two to repair and refit before that gets too hairy.

In the blast from the exploding fuel tank, Pepper got a little dinged up, joining Teddy and Wizard on the list of wounded-but-effective mechwarriors. None of them needs a doctor, which is good, because we didn't bring one.

Possible salvage includes ammunition for our LRM and SRM launchers, on top of as much standard armor as we can carry. (Check status and action items for more on how we ought to spend our time.) We receive another 3.885 million C-bills in kill bonuses.

Kill Boards
Drake makes it to quadruple ace. Linebuster gets 'mech kill' credit for the aerospace fighter.

Last Mission


All Time

• "Rook" Ishikawa (31, 10 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Drake" Halit (21, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Carcer" Ngo (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Woad" Kohler (14, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
• "Teddy Bear" Jamil (12, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Linebuster" Atkinson (11, 5 mechs)
• "Wizard" Que (8, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
• "Severe" Payne (8, 6 mechs)
• "Hanzoku" Yuksel (7, 4 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
• "Ker-Ker" Ec (6, 3 mechs)
• "Euchre" Kojic (6, 2 mechs)
• Simona (6, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• "Blinky" Stirzacre (6, 1 mech)
• "Double Dog" Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
• "Milspec" Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• "Pepper" Popalzi (4, 1 mech)
• "Faceplan" Farooqi (3, 1 mech)
• "Wojtek" Frajtov (2, 2 mechs)
• Pvt. Erine Forakis (2, 1 mech)
• "Kicks" Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
• Sgt. Philippa Khadjikyriakos (1, 1 mech)

Status
It is still December 21, 3053.

Cargo
4 tons of leg actuators 60 rounds of LB10X solid shot (10 per ton) 30 rounds of LB10X cluster shot (10 per ton) 960 LRMs (120 per ton) 90 points of ferro-fibrous armor (17.9 points per ton) 224 points of standard armor (16 points per ton) 1 ton of rescued Leopard crew

Supply vehicle capacity: 41/70 tons

Repairs
The following units are damaged.

• Pepper's Archer
  
  • Time: 380 minutes
  • Supplies: 70 points of armor, 165 LRMs (has head damage)
• Wizard's Guillotine
  
  • Time: 300 minutes
  • Supplies: 60 points of armor (has head damage)
• Milspec's Crab
  
  • Time: 270 minutes (135 for armor replacement, 135 for arm repair)
  • Supplies: 27 points of ferro-fibrous armor
• Pvt. Forakis' Phoenix Hawk (3K variant)
  
  • Time: 230 minutes (140 for armor replacement, 90 for leg repair)
  • Supplies: 28 points of ferro-fibrous armor
• Euchre's Lancelot
  
  • Time: 115 minutes
  • Supplies: 20 points of armor, 30 LRMs
• Linebuster's Emperor
  
  • Time: 90 minutes
  • Supplies: 12 points of armor, 2 shots of LB10X cluster, 7 shots of LB10X solid
• Drake's Awesome
  
  • Time: 90 minutes
  • Supplies: 18 points of armor
• Hanzoku's Guillotine
  
  • Time: 80 minutes
  • Supplies: 16 points of armor
• Blinky's Ostroc
  
  • Time: 80 minutes
  • Supplies: 16 points of armor
• Wojtek's Phoenix Hawk (dash-1 variant)
  
  • Time: 50 minutes
  • Supplies: 10 points of armor
• Teddy Bear's Vulcan
  
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Supplies: 6 points of armor (has head damage)

We have three techs: Orel Pestunov (Elite), Chika Heri (Veteran), and Euchre (Regular). The first two can work 480 minutes each at normal skill, plus 240 minutes of overtime at a penalty. Euchre can only work 480 minutes, since he's also on call for combat.

That's 1440 minutes of labor total, plus 480 at overtime penalties (+2, I think, and higher difficulties carry a higher risk of parts used up on failed repair rolls), against a total of 1715 minutes of work, assuming we hit every repair roll on the first try. (Pestunov will get it right about 9 in 10 times. Heri can do about 4 in 5. Euchre is good for about 3 in 4.) We also have a bunch of units to salvage, which is likely a time-limited proposition, given the constraints this operation poses. Armor and ammo are relatively easy to strip. Any more substantial parts will likely need to be done slowly and carefully.

We've taken 228 points of armor damage against 224 points in stock, a large part of which is due to my Pepper's positioning error when the second fuel tank went up. We've also used about half of our ferro-fibrous armor: Milspec and Forakis will have to be very careful going forward. Other than armor (which makes sense, on what is probably going to be our most intense combat day of the raid before D-day), our stocks are in good shape. In particular, we were fortunate to take no critical damage on either the Crab or the PXH-3K, both of which had the armor fully stripped from one limb.

Action Items
How should we use our limited repair time?

Fix up the most damaged mechs to get them back in the field, and leave the lighter damage for later?

Fix the least-damaged mechs so we have two lances in tip-top shape, even if we're down 1-3 combat effectives?

Focus on salvage today to build our supply stocks, leave the stripped husks of the vehicles behind so we can move faster, and delay repairs until tomorrow?

Spoiler: Painting stuff (click to show/hide)

I picked out four paints at the hobby store, and they seem to go together pretty well for a woodland camo pattern. (I'll do a better job on the miniatures, obviously; just getting the colors down to see how they mesh.)



The plan for the final paint job, I think, is to basecoat brown, draw some thick interconnected vertical lines with the dark green, and break up outlines with the tan, light green, and black. We'll add in some kind of gray or gunmetal for exposed actuators and gun barrels, and do cockpits and lenses in blue for across-the-color-wheel-from-brown reasons. The CGL miniatures have much larger cockpits than the printed ones, so I'll probably try some more advanced cockpit jeweling techniques on those, when I get to them.

Three of these paints are new brands for me: the tan and light green are AK acrylics, and the brown is Vallejo Game Color. (I have some Vallejo metallic paints I think are great too.) So far so good: they all seemed to mix well, they don't need a ton of thinning, and they cover decently enough. The brown glazes nicely when thinned, too.