Painting Update - Battletech

I've been dealing with a lack of playing or painting recently so I wanted to do something that was fairly simple and would be quick to finish. I decided to paint up the battlemechs that came with the Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat starter set.

Since the eight mechs in the starter fit pretty easily into Alpha Strike lances, I decided to paint the mechs as a combined mercenary company - the 12th Vollone Dragoons.

The Shadow Hawk and Wolverine are decent Mediums with some maneuverability thanks to their jump-jets, and the Commando can punch above its weight-class with some careful placement. The Locust is a good old speedboat that cruises past enemy mechs, potentially spotting for long rang fire. Together they make up a Recon lance that can hold its own against enemies of equal tonnage, but be able to escape in the face of superior firepower.

The other mechs in the box make up a Heavy Battle Lance. The Catapult and Awesome are long range mechs capable of pounding the enemies with waves of missiles or staggered PPC fire, respectively. The Thunderbolt and Battlemaster are brawlers whose firepower increases the closer they get.

They're a good start to a mercenary company, and I'll be adding on to them with another lance pack from the Clan Invasion kickstarter releases in the future. They'll be up against whichever Clan I decide to paint the other mechs as, likely Smoke Jaguar or Jade Falcon. In the meantime these Battlemechs will hopefully be hitting the table either in games of Classic Battletech or Alpha Strike.

The Battle of Charleroi - Contemptible Little Armies AAR

This past weekend was the SJGA's monthly meeting, and the featured game was Contemptible Little Armies being run by John. 

The scenario was based on the Battle of Charleroi. After a supposedly "devastating" artillery barrage, the French were to advance in force against a depleted German defensive position. While outnumbered, the Germans were in good cover and started in concealment. The French would have to advance across the open ground before being able to assault the Germans and take hold of the buildings.  

Most of the French force consisted of regular infantry, with a couple units of marines to prop up the assault. Also included in the attackers were a unit of cavalry, an heavy machine gun, and a 75mm field gun.

For the first few turns, the French moved unopposed towards the town.

It wasn't until the French had entered into small arms range that the Germans revealed themselves, firing into the closest opposing infantry squad and causing casualties.

Still, the solid wave of red-pantsed Frenchmen continued onwards.

The rest of the German defenders revealed themselves as the French approached the road. A defending HMG opened fire and another German squad moved forward to the edge of the woods they occupied.

However, the press of Frenchmen was enough to put the Germans on the back foot. The HMG was assaulted and defeated, and the German squad in the woods tried to retreat to a building, only to be left out in the open.

The French continued the assault into the ruined town. The squad of Germans on the right tried to fall back into the building to their rear, but the random roll for movement left them just short of reaching cover. This left they vulnerable to an assault from the French marines. The squad on the right was forced to assault the building that had been taken by the French, and were rebuffed.

However, since the French had finally occupied a building, German reinforcements began to show up. The first units to arrive were two squads of infantry and a small squad of cavalry that assaulted a dawdling French infantry squad.

With most of the German defenders out of the way, the French began to occupy the defenses with the anticipation of having to hold on to the territory they had taken.

The next set of German reinforcements to arrive were two more infantry squads and an HMG, to the unfortunate surprise of the French infantrymen that were holding the walled garden on the edge of town.

With the enemy reinforcements approaching, the French began to move their mauled units back towards their support units, which had been left vulnerable during the attack.

The French commander watched on as his men prepared to defend the town from the encircling German units. 

Unfortunately the game had to end at that point as we had run out of time! But the French would likely have been able to hold the town long enough to ensure a strategic victory had we continued. 

While we got some very important rules wrong (like not needing to roll to activate units, and the choice of either moving or shooting) the group enjoyed the game. John's considering a rematch with the actual rules in use, and I may get a copy of the rules for myself if I can find them at a convention. I've never been a big fan of WW1 rules, but I do find the early part of the war where engagements were more about fire and maneuver to make for great games. 

TeleCom Civil War - Battletech AAR

This past weekend I drove up to Barnegat to meet up with the South Jersey Battletech Hegemony for some mech bashing action. Apparently the group's been steadily growing in size as Battletech players emerge from the woods to roll dice and count hexes. 

The scenario was a straight up brawl between opposing ComStar and Word of Blake forces lengthwise across three battlemaps. Both sides had brought a number of assault and heavy mechs, with some jump-jet equipped mediums to round things out.

Having mostly played in Succession Wars/Introductory Rules games, I got to experience some of the newer Jihad/Clan era tech - iC3 computers, Artemis LRMs, ER and Pulse Lasers, LB-X Autocannons, Guardian ECM systems, MML launchers, and XL Engines!

The Word of Blake forces had managed to sneak an Omega onto the field, somehow disguised as a Locust. I was in command of an Albatross, an Orion, a Shadow Hawk, a Griffin, and a Wolverine.

The ComStar Level IIs opposite us were an equal mix of heavies, assaults and mediums. The scariest part of the opposition were a team consisting of a Marauder and two Marauder IICs!

The first few turns were spent with both sides marching towards each other at full speed, looking to get their LRMs, various kinds of PPCs, and Gauss Rifles into range.

The ComStar force advanced on an even front, hammering the Blakists with hard munitions and bolts of energized light. I moved my half of the Blakist mechs up to engage the oncoming Marauders and the jump Mediums. Pete was using his Seraph as a spotter with its Improved C3 Computer.

However, the battle started to go against the Word of Blake around Turns 4 and 5. The Seraph was taken out with a head shot, which meant Pete had to then shift his mechs over to help my faltering lines. My mediums were getting hammered now that the Marauders had gotten close enough to start adding their weight of fire.

Suddenly my Albatross and Orion were being fired on from two sides, and the Griffin was stuck as well. Two of the Comstar mechs were in pursuit of my fleeing Shadow Hawk, but that let Pete hammer the chasing Phoenix Hawk until its engine was wrecked.

But the focused fire from the ComStar mechs was too much. My mechs were being knocked down from the constant attacks, and then taken out as they tried to get back up. The Griffin was the victim of another head shot, while the Albatross had its LRM 15 ammo take a hit, which then went straight into its XL Engine. The mechwarrior piloting the heavy managed to eject just before the entire mech went up in flames.

At that point, we decided to put a halt to the game, and the group would convene in a few weeks to keep fighting it. The Word of Blake might be able to turn the tide against their enemy, but the ComStar Mechs were in a good position to regroup and try to take out a few more Blakist mechs before having to deal with the Omega.

All in all it was a fun game! It was good to meet the SJBH guys and hopefully I can make the trip a regular outing to play more Battletech.