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.
Random Thought: I like your counter on the side of your blog that keeps track of games played and models painted. Fun idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It helps me keep track of what I've been painting and playing, and it's nice to see the numbers go up as the year progresses.
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