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?

Painting Update - Horizon Wars, Wrath of Kings

I've had a deficit of AARs this month, but I've made up for it by keeping a steady stream of models passing through the painting lines. 

Complementing the infantry from my last post, these blower tanks are from the Patton Enforcement Company, another PMC under the United Mercantile Consortium's employ.

I've finally managed to get the Children in the Shael Han faction finished for Wrath of Kings. This includes the two Big Sister leaders and the Warchild character leader.

Painting Update - Horizon Wars

Hey, look at this! I managed to sit down and finish some more miniatures. 

I've been trying to get back into the painting grove, and the relative ease of painting 6mm skirmishing scifi minis for Horizon Wars has been fun. 

I've added more mechs to the Kressidian forces. Like the Gators and Caimans, these Heavy Gear mechs are used as Crocs, another mech fielded by the Army of the Reach (one of the factions in my Horizon Wars setting). Crocs are a step above standard Gators, easier to hit but with heavier armor.

With the Kressidians finished for now, I've moved on to working on their opponents, the United Mercantile Consortium. This is a collection of various PMCs and security forces hired by the UMC to retake Kressidia after a failed first attempt.

The above Light/Heavy Infantry and Special Forces belong to Yntrinsic Defence, a Mar-based PMC known for recruiting from the gangs that rule the lowest levels of the Martian megacities and for their distinctive red armor.

Bad Moon Rising - Empire of the Dead AAR, Part 2

We continue in part two...

Death and its spirits clear the streets and go searching for more victims.

The Field of Screams continue to search for more victims to drag back to the cornfields.

The vampires continue to spread out, preceded by their swarms of bats.

Seeing the oncoming werewolves, the tank hits the breaks and begins to reverse as policemen try to move civilians out of the way.

Of course, the tank's gun jam and the chaplain's exorcism fails to do any damage. The pack looks to split between the police and the poltergeists.

A tenuous truce was struck between the werewolves and the pumpkin monsters, for the moment.

Van Helsing's gang make their way past the town's hall, looking for vampires.

And do they find some! The vampires have been busy draining and converting civilians, turning them into new thralls.

A pair of packmasters hit the edges of the police lines, attacking the tank and a hapless constable that got mixed up by accident.

The town begins to descend into chaos as the civilians are caught in a three way fight between the vampires, industrialists and the vampire hunters.

Small sections of the spirits and werewolves also get in on the action.

The Field of Screams invades the town's graveyard, not wishing to share real-estate with non-pumpkin based spirits.

The two packmasters kill the men crewing the tank, who stayed behind to cover the others' retreat. The flower lady managed to hold out against two wolves with nothing but a bouquet, but was finally dragged down.

The streets were filled with screams of terror, the roar of guns, and the hissing of vampires.

The vampire hunters were caught between spirits, werewolves, and vampires. Van Helsing was killed by a packmaster, never getting a chance to lay eyes on Dracula.

The Industrialists were hard pressed by the supernatural threats, trapped near the docks.

The Field of Screams crew completed its Occupy Death rally, forcing their way into the graveyard.

The group decided to call the game after three and a half hours of play. The vampires had secured victory, turning at least a dozen civilians into thralls and spreading throughout the town.

Despite some hiccups in the game, the group had fun. Gary did a great job of setting up the game and helping players unfamiliar with the rules. His next project looks to be a massive underwater GASLIGHT game, which sounds interesting!

Bad Moon Rising - Empire of the Dead AAR, Part 1

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the holiday, I've got the first of a two part after action report of a massive, Halloween-themed participation game of Empire of the Dead, run by Gary. There were seven gangs on the table, each with their own objectives and grievances with one another. 

Like his Assault on Castle Klankk game, Gary went all in on the terrain, creating a sizable town with docks, fields, an industrial section, and even a graveyard.

And, of course, there were plenty of innocent (and not-so-innocent) civilians populating the streets and alleys.

With that, let's take a look at the factions than ran amok through the town.

Dracula and his brood arrived via an unmanned ship, looking to drain as many civilians as possible and convert them into vampires.

A pack of werewolves also arrived with a bone to pick with the vampires. Though they weren't opposed to picking up a few snacks along the way.

The Industrialists, having realized that a number of valuable Clickers had gone rogue, geared up and set out to reclaim them.

Members of the Supernatural Branch, following a tip they had received earlier, desperately worked to save some civilians from the impending slaughter.

Also looking for Dracula was Van Helsing and company.

Lurching out of the corn fields, the pumpkin-headed Field of Screams looked to secure some valuable, and fresh, fertilizer.

And feeling as though he'd been under quota for the year, Death itself stalked the street with an assortment of banshees, poltergeists, and other spirits.

The Supernatural Branch fanned out, somewhat concerned by all the howls coming from the park.

Death and his spirits began to float through the streets, wailing and shaking ephemeral chains.

With a steam-powered Mech and a Penny Farthing bicycle, the Industrialists began to move through their section of the town.

The vampires fanned out, looking for unprotected necks from which they could feed.

The Field of Screams found an unwilling volunteer to head back into the cornrows.

And the werewolves snacked on a nanny and her charge, while the rest moved towards the town's center.

Another two victims fell to the werewolves - a hapless gravedigger and a flower lady - but a burst from the Supernatural Branch tank's Gatling gun killed a wolf.

Come back on Wednesday for Part 2!