Boom Goes the Ammo - Battletech AAR

As we rapidly approach the start of a new year, Steffanie and I decided to go retro and played a game of Battlech during the past weekend. 

Since it was about my third or fourth game of Battletech ever, and Steff's first game in the current millenium, we opted for a small, 100 ton game. So Steff took a Dragon and an Assassin to fight against my Enforcer and Trebuchet. 

We used one of the starter maps included in the Battletech Introductory Set. It was a fairly simply map with only light and heavy cover to worry about.

Stef's mechs deployed on one side with mine on the other.

The Assassin and Enforcer advanced while the Dragon and Trebuchet held back for a long-range engagement.

Stef showed off the Assassin's maneuverability, moving in and out of cover and past the firing lanes of my mechs. My slower, plodding mechs had to try and keep up.

For the most part, the Dragon and Assassin focused their fire on the Trebuchet, stripping off layers of armor. I tried keeping the mech in cover to offer some protection. My return fire was more sporadic, although when the Trebuchet managed to land direct hits with both LRM 15s, it hurt.

Of course, that didn't detour the Assassin, who moved into the woods with the Trebuchet. It was around this point that Stef got a critical hit on the Trebuchet, bypasssing the armor with a hit on 2. This resulted in a point of damage to the Trebuchet's engine, which gave me a heat headache for the rest of the game.

I did manage to return the favor, stripping the Assassin's center torso armor and striking a critical hit on its engine. It continued to harass my Trebuchet, while the Dragon advanced from its corner of the map.

Now the Dragon was in the thick of the fight. But the Enforcer used it jump jets to get behind it. The Assassin kept beating on the Trebuchet, as we discovered and began using the melee combat rules.

I tried having the Enforcer try and go after the Assassin, but the slippery medium mech played keep-away and stuck to the retreating Trebuchet.

I did managed to break the Trebuchet out of the scrum, although it was left out in the open, taking a salvo of fire from the Dragon and Assassin. The Enforcer jumped behind the two enemy mechs and started swinging with both arms, managing to give the Assassin a forceful knock to the back of the head.

The fight split up again, the Assassin heading after the Trebuchet, who was hiding in cover again, while the Enforcer stuck to the Dragon. The Dragon managed to make use of its rear medium laser, and although it missed, it gave the Enforcer pilot a scare.

The mechs managed to gather up on the opposite side of the map, with the Trebuchet suffering under the combined blows from the Assassin and Dragon. All of the hits, however, kept landing on armor, or failed to cause critical hits. 

With the Trebuchet suffering from heat overload, it was reduced to kicking the Dragon, who shook off the attacks. The Enforcer tried keeping the Assassin corralled, which was difficult to do with the enemy mech's high speed.

The end of the game came with a surprise, however. The Dragon managed to kick and destroy one of the Trebuchet's legs, sending the mech to the ground. The Enforcer responded in kind, but the Assassin's fall resulted in a critical hit that saw the mech's SRM ammo to explode, destroying the mech. The Enforcer then turn its guns on the Dragon, scoring another critical hit and setting the mech's LRM ammo alight.

It was a fun game, and I'm hoping to get some more Battletech games in the future - maybe I should work towards a Grinder for the end of next year?