Great game of BattleTech (GarageTech) with Neil yesterday on my Thunderhead Studio table!
4th Succession Wars campaign, using full Campaign Operations (and MekHQ) for record-keeping and repairs.
November 11, 3028. The Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces have dispatched the 10th Donegal Guard and the hired mercenaries, the Morning Star Security Consulting Group (MSSCG) to The Edge in a second wave of invasions as part of Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG (NAIS Military Atlas Vol 2).
While the 10th Donegal Guards secure the planetary capital on Bono, the MSSCG are dispatched to the industrial center of Tornetrask. The Draconis Combine Governor Jinjiro Ichi, a once former DCMS Major, has withdrawn the city militia to inside the city limits and fortified the area around the former SLDF “Trinity Tower” administrative building. Civilians have been informed that if any try to flee the militia will fire on them. Governor Ichi added to his war crimes by the use of booby-trapped bombs in civilian cars, and in flatbed trucks (also loaded with SRM ammo).
The LIC (Lyran Intelligence Corps) assessment of Governor Ichi, is he is an unhinged disgraced DCMS major who has been given the last honor of living out his days in obscurity as a city governor. While he will fight fanatically, he may also flee when the tide turns against him.
Picking up the game in Turn 13! The Battle is turning hot. The MSSCP Black Knight is down, and the pilot KO (snake eyes) after taking 80 LRMs of indirect fire. The Trebuchet is fleeing after a booby truck bomb drove into him and detonated. The DCMS Militia Major’s Manticore Tank has thrown a track and become immobilized on the first hit (double six!), his other manticores rally to protect him! DCMS Long Tom rounds keep falling in the advancing mercenary column and missed shots even hit civilian buildings (war crimes).
Key moments from turns 13-17:
-The MSSCG Rifleman, after crossing the river, ran into two Manticores, and alpha striked, running his heat to 14+ and shutting down on a 4+ roll! The next turn, one Manticore, casually took aim with its PPC and blew his head off with an aimed shot (-4 Immobile, +7 aimed shot to the head). Neil’s opinion of the Rifleman BattleMech has not improved.
-The MSSCG Dervish and one of the Hunchbacks (4P – Disco ball variant), rallied to protect the Black Knight and hold off an advance of 2 Manticores and 4 Goblin Tanks! Both manticores were crippled.
-As LRM’s rain down from 2 LRM carriers and a quad LRM15 Partisan Tank hull down (in a fortified position), the MSSCP Leopard Aerodyne DropShip took drastic action and did a strike mission, blowing the turret off the Partisan. As it flew over the city it combat dropped from altitude 4, the MSSCG’s light lance (Cicada, Wolfhound, Javelin, and Locust) to the NE of the Trinity Tower.
-After initial success in taking out 3 DCMS Warrior H7-A VTOLs, the MSSCG’s two Strike Falcons circled the city pursued by the last Warrior. As they moved around, two DCMS J. Edgars shadowed them. One Strike Falcon managed to make a run on the Long Tom, immobilizing it on the first pass and crippling it on the second, while taking fire from the J. Edgars. The other Strike Falcon flies in low, taking hits from the Warriors AC/5 on the Rotors and rear, but manages to drop its Jump Platoon (Rifle) and hits one LRM carrier with the infantry finishing it off. As the Warrior moves in for the kill, the other Strike Falcon hits it from the side with two SRM4s and destroys its engine, sending it spinning to the ground.
-The MSSCP Commander, Major Hoan, killed an immobile Bulldog while moving around the south of the city. Running into some Foot Infantry, he flips to Inferno SRM’s and BBQ’s the whole platoon….
-The other MSSCP Disco Hunchback does 40 damage in a turn to a civilian building where infantry fire is coming from. The building collapses killing both platoons (52 soldiers) under 5 stories of falling civilian apartments. Ruled a legitimate kill and not a War Crime as they fired first.
-The MSSCP Thunderbolt (sand-blasted by LRM fire), Grasshopper, and Griffin (missing its CT armor) managed to surround the last DCMS defender, a Behemoth Assault Tank (Hull down in an improved position). The Thunderbolt lost an arm, but Major Hoan’s Stalker joined the fight just in time to pop the turret.
-The last defenders a Manticore and LRM carrier, retreat through the tunnels under Trinity Tower and take a shot of opportunity against the Grasshopper who is standing at the entrance to one tunnel, taking off its right leg with weapons fire.
-As the MSSCG’s Union Class DropShip lands in a city intersection (burning up the surrounding civilian buildings with 36 points of fusion drive plume), the DCMS forces begin to flee. Governor Ich and his personal guard make it to the roof of the Trinity Toward just in time to see their Karnov VTOL blown apart by one of the MSSCG’s Strike Falcons. The governor heads to the basement, and gets in his limo, but is intercepted by the MSSCG’s Light Lance and detained for crimes against humanity.
Final Butchers Bill:
DCMS forces destroyed:
1 Manticore, 1 Bulldog, 1 Behemoth, 6 platoons of foot infantry (4 Rifle, 2 SRM), 1 Partisan (4 x LRMs), 1 Partisan 4 AC/5s, 1 Warrior VTOLs, 6 Boobytrapped cars, 4 boobytrapped flatbed trucks.
DCMS forces that survived and fled:
2 Manticores (1 crippled), 4 Goblins, 1 Bulldog (crippled), 2 Maxims (each with a Foot Rifle Anti-’Mech Platoon), 4 Flatbed tracks (3 Foot Platoons) 2 J. Edgar Hover Tanks.
Salvage
1 Manticore (Immobilized, crippled, and abandoned)
1 LRM Carrier (Immpobalized, crippled, and abandoned)
3 Warrior H7-A (Crippled, landed, and abandoned)
Mobile Long Tom (Immobilized, crippled and abandoned) with Ammo Carriage (Immobilized) and Support Carriage
1 Karnov (Transport)
MSSCG Butchers Bill:
Rifleman (decapitated, MechWarrior killed, inoperable), Black Knight (lost leg), Grasshopper (lost leg), Trebuchet (Crippled)
ComStar 