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3030s - 4th Succesion Wars, basic technology only, Star League 'Mechs are rare, Clans aren't a thing yet

1 (12.5%)

3040s - Renaissance era, basic technology, but advanced designs begin appearing. The dawn of the Clans

4 (50%)

3050s - Clan Invasion, Clan tech is rare but possible, while advanced IS design and tech starts appearing

3 (37.5%)

3060s - FedCom Civil War, widespread advanced tech in the Inner Sphere, Clan tech is slightly less rare

0 (0%)

3070s - Jihad era, Clan tech is uncommon, while everyone in the IS is running advanced technology.

0 (0%)

3140 - Dark Ages. Tech is... weird. You might have militarized agro-Mechs charging cutting edge Clan designs sold to IS troops.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 8

[Knave]

Another good start to a campaign!

Nice find on the Ironsides. Don't make em like they used to that's for sure.

[Hanzoku]

I agree the Partisan isn’t a great replacement, but there were no other assault tanks and the heavies were lackluster. The RNG gods that keep dropping Royal fighters on us haven’t seen fit to provide an Alacorn yet.

[Rince Wind]

Well, we already have a Manticore, which is one of the best heavy tanks imo.
I have so many mothballed Alacorns, I could send you one. 

[Hanzoku]

I'd reequip the Hailstorm with four if I could. Nothing like sitting at maximum range and pumping 45 points of damage downrange each and every turn without a care in the world for return fire unless the enemy also has gauss rifles.

[Rince Wind]

And then you get a 10x20 map.

[Hanzoku]

That's the advantage of assault vehicles, most enemies can't just kill them in one round, and you're still doing 45 damage per vehicle, which is a lot more then most light and medium 'Mechs can handle for very long. And since they only count for half their weight when determining enemy composition, they'll tend to face lights and mediums.

[EuchreJack]

I'm rather fond of mixed lances, with some garbage light-medium mechs paired off with a couple heavy-assault vehicles.  Maybe not best for the swarms that Against the Bot likes to cook up, but its cost effective.

[Hanzoku]

Operation Eclipse – Week 3

After the last week of respite, the unit was called into action. Kobayashi’s Crows performed numerous ground strikes to support the Raiders, supported by the Sparrows as air support. On their last run, the Sparrows were engaged by multiple squadrons of conventional fighters, and while they managed to escape the battle, all three fighters took damage, with the Sabre taking a penetrating hit to the left wing. Despite that, they all managed to make it home.

On Wednesday, Kaine’s Kings were called on to defend a grounded Leopard CV that was being used as a forward airbase. The Capellan PDF had managed to discover its location and had dispatched a light company to attempt to take it out to hamper the invader’s air support.

Spoiler: Stand Up (Defender) (click to show/hide)

The Liao company moves forward hesitantly. Despite their superior numbers, none of the light ‘Mech pilots are eager to close with the heavy ‘Mechs of the Brotherhood under the watchful guns of the Leopard CV.

Matt Fischer didn’t have any such qualms, and jumped ahead of the rest of the Brotherhood, laying into the light ‘Mechs with abandon. Initially, his berserker rush is effective, destroying three Stingers in short order. However, he gets too far ahead of the rest of his lance and supporting fire from the lance of Capellan vehicles helps bring down his Guillotine. He struggles to his feet and downs a Jenner before losing a leg and going down for the rest of the fight.

His stand does buy the rest of the lance time to advance, and they take out another pair of ‘Mechs to finish breaking the Liao unit’s morale, causing them to fall back.

The Guillotine is crippled after the fight, needing a leg replaced, and Matt is moderately injured.

Two of the militia are captured and two are confirmed as KIA.

Two days later, on Friday, Nova takes her Knights into battle to push back the militia, engaging a mixed company of light and medium vehicles and ‘Mechs supported by infantry.

Spoiler: Stand Up (Attacker) (click to show/hide)

The infantry units can be ignored; they were destroyed on the first turn due to the temperature being too cold. I’ll ignore that they were assigned to the battle.



The two units moved to engage each other, the assault machines of the Brotherhood sprinting to close the distance faster.


As the two units came into contract, the PDF’s air cover made a pass against EJ’s Stalker.




The bombs were revealed to be Thunder bombs, and the Stalker loses a ton of armor from each leg wading free of the minefield. The difference was, the Stalker can afford to do so, but the Phoenix Hawk that charged in after it was taking comparatively worse damage from taking the same hits.

Meanwhile, Glaive and Ragu were engaging the PDF in the west, trusting their heavy tonnage against superior numbers.




EJ downs the Phoenix Hawk, and it loses its leg trying to stand. However, he is now stymied by having to ford the river, as the crossing is now heavily mined. Nova solved the issue by jumping across to the west, but has a Firestarter trying to slip behind her.

To the west, Ragu has slipped behind the medium ‘Mechs facing her, and Glaive is chasing down one of the tanks harassing them.




The Firestarter flees west, but Starburst is in hot pursuit. The PDF’s fighters make a new pass against EJ, but he maneuvers out of their path and sets up for anti-air combat.

To the west, Ragu downed the Clint and Glaive killed the Maxim, and they each take on new targets.




EJ once again attempts to ford the river, while Starburst has closed to melee range with the unfortunate Firestarter that harassed her. To the west, Glaive chases another Firestarter that he’s tagged once with his autocannons, and Ragu spars with a Vindicator.



Glaive and Starburst down their Firestarters and move forward to engage new targets while the others move to engage.


The King Crab’s weakness is showing as Glaive expends the last of its limited autocannon ammo, hoping to make another kill with his shots.  Ragu closes on a Hunchback, and Starburst is busy battering on a Cicada and Hunchback that can’t close with her Pillager properly.



Ragu continues to show her surprising agility on an Assault ‘Mech, slipping behind the Hunchback she is dueling. Starburst’s target stands his ground, stubbornly fighting the Pillager’s weapon array with his lighter LRMs, AC/5 and medium lasers. It isn’t going well for him.

The Vindicator takes both AC/20 hits from the King Crab and survives, but then chooses to jump across to face it at melee range. Glaive doesn’t question his good fortune, but merely prepares to punch the Vindicator to death.



The fighting is a testament to the endurance of Vindicators and Hunchbacks, but the designs are reaching their limit under the steady pounding of assault weight ‘Mechs.



The PDF focuses on the Zeus as the most likely to fall, their air support making a pass while a helicopter moves to support the Hunchback she is fighting.



Starburst’s Hunchback explodes, and she moves to support Ragu, who is still dueling her Hunchback, the damaged Cicada moving up to fight her as well.



The fighting shifts, but the Liao forces are beginning to fall back as the Pillager and King Crab move up to support the Zeus.



Another round of Thunder bombs are dropped on the Stalker, but EJ manages to clear the minefield without setting any off.

EJ and Ragu’s fire drop the last Hunchback, and her kick detonates its ammo, turning the ‘Mech into confetti.

AAR:
The King Crab suffered moderate armor damage, and the Zeus had light damage.  No noteworthy salvage was taken, and 16 militia were captured while 3 were killed.

Susanna claimed a Hunchback and a Firestarter.
James claimed the Maxim, the Vindicator and the other Firestarter.
Svetlana claimed the other Hunchback and the Clint.
Jack claimed the Phoenix Hawk.

I reverted the Pillager back to its stock configuration and completed it with GM fiat. It turns out that if Albus is there, he takes over ‘command’ of the unit, and his special abilities (or lack thereof) take over. Susanna is far more effective in combat, and that’s the way things should be, so the command console experiment is over – it’s good for story purposes, but bad for actual gameplay. Maybe it’d be useful where you have an elite pilot with a lot of specials who takes crippling injuries and you don’t want to retire them.


Operation Eclipse – Week 4

Once again, a frantic week is followed by a week of recovery, and the unit uses it to get the Guillotine back in fighting trim.

[NickAragua]

I kind of like the Clint, actually, but it doesn't really cut the mustard against an 80-ton assault mech.

[Hanzoku]

The Clint is a good cavalry design for a 40t medium 'Mech. It has almost the same damage profile as the Wolfhound, but is more heat efficient due to its autocannon, and more mobile due to its jump jets.

They just don't do well when a Zeus runs around behind it and shoots it in the autocannon ammo with its own autocannon, large and medium lasers.

[Knave]

They just don't do well when a Zeus runs around behind it and shoots it in the autocannon ammo with its own autocannon, large and medium lasers.

Ha ha ha, probably not many mechs do well against a back shot to the ammo storage
It'll be a sad day when the enemy starts fielding more CASE protected ammo bins

[NickAragua]

It'll be a sad day when the enemy starts fielding more CASE protected ammo bins

One of the best scenarios is an enemy mech with CASE in one of the side torsos + XL Engine. Then, when the ammo goes boom, the mech is still out of the game with an engine kill, but can be recovered after the battle and put back together with "minimal" effort.

[Hanzoku]

Yeah, I'm sort of looking forward to that. Not so much to those Clan pukes who will lose their side torso and run back off the board, taking that delicious Clan salvage with them.

Stupid Clan-tech superiority.

[Hanzoku]

Operation Eclipse – Week 5

The PDF launched an offensive against the invaders, and as part of that offensive, they needed to remove the Raider’s heaviest assets. A full battalion moved to engage and destroy Nova’s Knights, with some of the militia’s heaviest ‘Mechs holding the line to prevent them from breaking out.

However, Kincaide had a trap of his own to spring, and the militia’s assault lance faced not only the Knights, but also the Kings and Crows. Meanwhile, the Lancers and the Hailstorm were hitting the militia forces alongside the FedCom Raiders, preventing the militia from closing the jaws of their trap on the Knights in time.

Victory was simple enough – the Knights simply had to break through. But total victory would be sweeter, with two Awesomes on the field.

Spoiler: Breakthrough (click to show/hide)

The Brotherhood advanced down the shores of a mountain lake, facing militia forces that were spread out piecemeal and unable to concentrate their attacks.




The Warhammer bravely fought back but was taking a pounding from the lance of assault ‘Mechs moving up.



The Victor was moving up to deal with the Enforcer attached to the Knights, and the Warhammer was still trying to keep its guns on the King Crab but couldn’t maintain a lock through the pounding he was taking.



Both arms gone, the Warhammer moves up to use its lighter guns, despite its armor being entirely in tatters at this point.



In a final glorious charge, he moved into range of the Pillager, who promptly kicked the Warhammer to death.  Glaive scored his kill just ahead of Starburst, destroying a Hetzer at distance with his LRMs and Large Laser.



The militia’s air support arrived, but that meant that the Brotherhood’s reinforcements were close behind.



The Crows and Kings arrived precisely on time, with Ichiro leading the charge by dumping 17 HE bombs on top of one of the Awesomes, while the other assault ‘Mechs scrambled out of the line of fire.



The Rapier’s bombs blow out the engine of the Awesome, scoring their first assault ‘Mech kill of the battle. Tengu flies off the battlefield, but his wing mates stay, turning with their heavy bomb loads, eager to drop their bombs on their own targets. Lyle even pulls off a tricky Split-S turn with her bomb-heavy Shilone but doesn’t quite manage to make her pass against the Victor.



The other Awesome rewards Lyle’s daring with a PPC to the engine, but she manages to bring her damaged fighter around and lighten its load by dumping all her bombs on top of the Awesome in retaliation.

While her bombs don’t get the kill, she surely deserves partial credit for it. Two bombs strip all the armor from the Awesome’s head, allowing Ragu’s Autocannon to convert the head into a shower of shrapnel.



Starburst jumps into melee range with the Victor, sealing its fate.

Alone and with the Pillager bearing down on it, the last Hetzer hastily surrendered.

AAR:
The countered ambush was quite successful for the Iron Brotherhood, with the Shilone crippled by engine damage, but otherwise with no real damage.

The Brotherhood claimed the Awesome as salvage, with an eye towards assigning Baira to use it. As a PPC specialist, the Awesome is tailor made for his skills.

The militia had 18 KIA and 6 more captured by the Brotherhood.

Captain Susanna Nova claimed the Warhammer and Victor.
Lieutenant SG Billy Kaine claimed the LSF Angel and MSF Crane as kills.
Commander Ichiro Kobayashi claimed an Awesome.
Sergeant Svetlana Ragozina claimed the other Awesome.
Corporal James Gundersen claimed the Hetzer.


In the aftermath of the battle, Billy Kaine gained his Elite status, picking up the Dodge skill. The Awesome was fixed and Baira was assigned to pilot it, transferring to the Knights. Svetlana Ragozina was transferred with her Zeus to the Kings, complementing their skill as a largely Elite and Veteran lance.

[Rince Wind]

Awesome!