First Blood...
"Jumping in 5...4...3...2...jumping...now!"Space ripped open, and the Jumpship IronDen leapt between the stars. In a fraction of a second, she traveled nearly twenty-five light-years. In galactic terms, this jump was insignificant, but a line had been crossed. On the third planet in the system that IronDen had just entered, alarms screamed and sirens wailed, even as the blazing meteor of a Dropship reentry seared its way across the evening sky.As the iron egg settled into a fresh crater in the black dirt, a massive hatch yawned wide. Out from within strode a towering figure of hardened steel and woven iron. As it paused at the foot of the ramp, the setting sun gleamed off the behemoth's left shoulder. A snarling bear's head, surrounded by six outstretched claws, roared its fury to the world.
The Clans had returned...
The information they get on their target (a FedCom outpost) is as follows:
Terrain: rolling hills and sparse woods, hostile military base and small town.
Primary Objective: Capture OR Destroy the base.
Secondary Objetive: Locate any data or information storage facilities, and capture them.
Tertiary Objective: Destroy all enemy 'Mechs.
Expected Opposition: 1 mixed Star of 'Mechs and Vehicles
(they don't know anything about the Inner Sphere, so assume Clan unit organizations.
1 Binary or Trinary of Foot Infantry
The Cutdown is placed at 1 OmniMech Star, and they win the bidding against the other Ghost Bear Star Commanders with: 3 'Mechs (none Omnis), 1 point of Elementals, and 1 Star of solahma Foot Infantry (part of the garrison trinary brought with the force.)
Now to the fun part:
Ghost Bear force: Stalking Spider, Solitaire, Soliatire, Gnome-Upgrade, 5 Points of Solahma Foot Laser Infantry
We fought the battle on 2x2 mapsheets, with the northern two being the military base sheets.
Turns 1 and 2
Nero Ghost Bear, in a Solitaire with the lighter lasers swapped out for an active probe and ECM, moves first and goes hey-diddle-diddle straight up the middle, running up and blowing away the Medium Laser turrets I put in for defense. The rest of the Ghost Bears move up, and the FedCom troops realize they are under attack and scramble for weapons. Two troopers headed for the armory are killed when a fuel truck skids and runs them over, and the turrets die hard under the Ghost Bear guns.
Turns 3, 4, and 5
The Ghost Bear 'Mechs break into the base, and are engaged by a Panther and a couple of Ballistic Rifle and SRM Platoons, while the Ghost Bear infantry keep trotting up. More troopers are killed before they can reach the armory.
Turn 6
The pair of Solitaires blow the Panther's leg and PPC arm off, leaving it flopped on the pavement, while the Stalking Spider plays hopscotch on the builiding hexes. Just then, another enemy powers up, a Centurion in the central 'Mech hangar. While technicians and support staff scatter, the Centurion engages all three Clanners simultaneously.
Turn 7
A Ferret Scout VTOL comes on the north map edge, dropping a squad of infantry on the helipad I put in one of the military base maps. They are promptly wiped out by the Spider's SSRMs. The Centurion holds his own, blowing the right torso off Nero Ghost Bear's Solitaire, and almost blowing up the fuel tanks Star Commander Castello's Stalking Spider had been standing on top of (there was much outcry amongst the players at this point when Castello looked up to see liquid petrol spilling out of the hole the AC/10 round had made above his 'Mech.)
Turn 8
The Centurion finally goes down to massed Clan lasers, and the Ferret VTOL dies as well. The base staff has mostly escaped, but one group runs right into the solahma troops who are finally arriving. Frustrated by his lack of action, Star Commander Nikolai opens up and wipes out several platoon's worth of technicians and clerks. (Good cluster hit rolls against infantry in open terrain does a scary amount of damage!)
Turn 9
The players think they've got it made in the shade, and so, cruel Game Master that I am I power up another enemy 'Mech. (last one, I promise!) A 75-ton Orion!
Amidst much wailing of unfairness and "I'm gonna die"s from the player whose Solitaire happened to walk right next to this guy as he started up, the rest of the supply trucks and staff escape the base. The Orion's attacks all miss, and the Clan 'Mechs frantically converge.
Turn 10 & 11
As the vaunted clan Mechwarriors scatter in the face of my might Orion (mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha), the Gnomes and solahma finally catch up. weapons fire gets deep into the Orion's right torso internal, but I am keeping enemy stats hidden from them and roll the critical hits secretly, so they continue to wail of doom.
The Orion's lasers keep missing, and Nero Ghost Bear finally gets close enough to use his last remaining weapon...that's right his ACTIVE PROBE! He finds out that the Orion's ammo bins haven't been loaded yet, and so all it's been firing are a pair of medium lasers.
It's too late though. By the time the Clan 'Mechs can come out of hiding to engage him with four- or five-times his own firepower, he's already escaped off the map with the last of the base personnel.
Debrief
Primary Objective: Capture or Destroy the Base
Status: Completed
Secondary Objective: Capture data storage facilities
Status: Completed
Tertiary Objective: Destroy all enemy 'Mechs
Status: Failed
As a bonus, they find out from interrogating prisoners that the squad that disembarked from the chopper was the Base Commander, and that the Orion was actually his. (That's why the other pilot had so little luck with shooting, his neurohelmet wasn't synched.)
However, the total lack of any attempt at zellbrigen, or any other form of Clan Honor on the battlefield, was noticeably absent. I have to think of some way to make players actually want to use Clan Honor.
Feel free to post comments, criticism, advice, etc. I'll try to get pictures next time.
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