It is the height of the FedCom Civil War. Kampfgruppe Panzerfaust, a Lyran unit loyal to Katrina Steiner, has been ordered north to secure River City, its spaceport and its HPG station. The 3rd Crucis Lancers, loyal to Victor Steiner-Davion, are moving south to stop them.
The 3rd Crucis Lancers are played by Phell from these boards and include a Vulture Prime, a Catapult C1, a Great Wyrm, and a Uziel. All are standard 4/5 MechWarriors. BV is 6270.
Kampfgruppe Panzerfaust is played by me and includes three Archer 5Ws and a Scimitar TAG varient.
My Archers have great gunners with 2/5 MechWarriors. This has increased each Archer BV from 1337 to 1872 but I am hoping that the increase in gunnery will make up for the reduction from four Archers to just three. Each Archer also has one ton of TAG-compatible semi-guided munitions. BV is 6267.
The 3rd Crucis Lancers move in from the north while my Lyran lance moves up from the south.
The Davion lance has excellent long-range firepower but I plan to use indirect bombardment as much as possible. My Archers advance trying to use the city as cover, much as they did against Clan Jade Falcon only a week earlier. My hope is for the Scimitar to attach NARC homing beacons and paint targets with TAG lasers.
The 3rd Crucis Lancers continue to advance in good order, covering one another, and not separating.
My Scimitar prepares to take the lead. His will be the most dangerous job. "Yeah, you guys all go safely hide behind hills and buildings and I'll go toe-to-toe with the enemy and hope they don't mind being painted as targets."
"Scimitar to Archers, you guys have my back, right?" "Um, sure...yeah...rriiiggghhhttttt."
The Scimitar spots for the Archer behind the building but the other two Archers fire directly. All Archers fire at the Vulture, which easily weathers the storm despite a head hit. The Great Wyrm hits the Scimitar with motive damage and reduces its speed by 1. One of the Archer loses some armour. This first exchange of fire is mostly won by the Davions.
The Scimitar closes in and TAGs the Catapult as well as planting a NARC homing beacon on the Catapult's center torso. The Archers fire indirectly at the Catapult using the TAG, savaging it. The Uziel spots for the Catapult and Vulture who also respond indirectly, but are not nearly as effective. The Scimitar receives some damage and its movement is further reduced, making it go 6/9 rather than 8/12, but it miraculously survives a withering hail of firepower directed at it!
The Uziel jumps to outflank the Archers who all move to put a building in between themselves and the Davion Uziel. The 3rd Crucis Lancers have had enough indirect foolishness and move to engage directly. The Catapult leaps to the top of a medium (CP 40, Lvl 2) building and the Great Wyrm and Vulture take the hill to rain fire on the Archers below. This exchange will now be direct fire.
This is where the Phantom 'Mech incident begins. Despite unloading incredibly firepower onto the Archers, the 3rd Crucis Lancers can't seem to hit! The Davion Vulture especially unloads and raises its heat to boiling temperatures but just can't hit! The Great Wyrm and Catapult suffer the same experience! Phell tries different dice to no effect. He can't hit! The Archers and Scimitar damage the Vulture some more and the virtually untouched Great Wyrm is hit by a SRM in the center torso critical, which I roll two crits for, both gyro hits, so the poor Davion Great Wyrm pilot screams in frustration as his fully-functioning 'Mech simply topples to the ground, gyro-less and out of the fight!
Now, the story only gets
WEIRDER! The Uziel attempts to save the day by engaging the Archers toe-to-toe while the Vulture and Catapult continue to blaze away at the Archers. Excellent plan. The Davion Uziel alpha-strikes at point-blank range and virtually does NO DAMAGE! The Vulture and Catapult likewise just can't seem to lock on! They are running hot and so have some heat modifiers, but still! Phell has lots of dice but changing them doesn't seem to help! Meanwhile the Archers blow the Vulture off its feet. The Scimitar is still zooming around having a field day despite the Catapult constantly shooting lasers at it. The Uziel can't even land a kick on the 70-ton BattleMech right in front of him!
The Uziel spends a
SECOND round toe-to-toe with the Archers and
AGAIN just can't hit! The 3rd Crucis Lancer MechWarriors are now screaming over their comms, "I CAN'T LOCK ON! I CAN'T LOCK ON!" Missiles from an Archer blast into the Uziel's autocannon ammo bin, tearing the CASEless 'Mech apart and sending its pilot for a ride on his ejection seat. The Vulture also goes down finally, its center torso being blasted apart by so many Lyran LRMs, its confused pilot dies not understanding why he can't hit the Archers standing right in front of him.
Phell and I were so stunned by these two rounds that I forgot to take a picture at this point. A friend of mine at the FLGS, Mike, who used to play BT long ago, also watched in fascination and just shook his head.
The lone Catapult pilot decides he's seen enough. He jumps down from the building and prepares to make a run for home, but the Archers give him no respite and the homing beacon on the Catapult continues to guide the Lyran LRMs onto him. The Scimitar crew temporarily pull themselves out of combat to catch their breath and thank the Almighty God that they are still alive!
The Archers continue to chase the Catapult and land tons of missiles onto its back. The sole Davion survivor may not make it.
The Scimitar zooms up to the Catapult to try to stop its escape as the Archers pursue when the Catapult does an amazing thing - it declares a death-from-above on the Scimitar! The Davion MechWarrior knows that he cannot escape with all the damage he has suffered and leaps his 'Mech into the air to bring it crashing down onto the Lyran hovercraft. The Archers blast the Davion Catapult to absolute pieces. It falls to the ground missing a leg and explodes on impact, leaving the Scimitar alive but surrounded by fiery debris.
This was an astounding battle! It would make one rethink the whole Morgan Kell Phantom 'Mech incident because we witnessed it many times in this battle! Even at point-blank range and changing dice, the 3rd Crucis Lancers just could not hit my Lyran Archers! Meanwhile, with my Archers having a gunnery of 2, they were easily able to inflict damage.
Phell did nothing wrong. He didn't divide his forces or make any other tactical errors. He did run his 'Mechs hot but the pay-off in dealing out damage for it should have paid off better. He did not let me use indirect bombardment very much and he easily gained the high ground and used cover bonuses while my Archers at the bottom of the hill had none.
All my units survived. One Archer was untouched, one took very minor armor damage, and the third did take some significant armor loss, and the Scimitar survived with some motive and armor damage. All enemies were eliminated and the salvaged Great Wyrm just needs a new gyro, some armor, and a paint job. The Davion prisoners would be treated well and ransomed or exchanged for Lyran POWs. It was an odd and almost eerie battle. I was very impressed with the improved gunnery and may continue to use 2/5 MechWarriors for my Archers.
Anyhoo, an interesting battle.
