It has finally begun! After all the deliberation, trials and preparation, the children of Kerensky have returned to restore the Star League to its rightful place at the center of civilization! First though, some stravag pirate scum need to be taught what a clan warrior is truly capable of!
The clan has landed on a periphery world and encountered multiple pirate bands. While most fell easily before your might, some have survived and regrouped. You are now facing a unified force of pirates, desperate to get off planet and away from the assault. As you have neutralized their drop ships, they have nowhere to go but through you now.
A trinary moves through the area based on recon reports and makes contact with a reinforced company of pirate mechs. Zellbrigen is an afterthought, these pirate scum must be destroyed! The fight is engaged!
The pirates line up and prepare themselves
The clans move out, ready to test themselves in battle! 
Round 1: Some firing and damage actually occurs, a pirate Griffin is engaged by a Vulture and a Thor, with the Thor scoring a solid hit.
Round 2:More fire is exchanged, this time at a Crusader (partially hidden by the measuring tape) who has decided to taunt this new foe. The Griffin wisely exercises the "Brave Sir Robin" maneuver and finds some terrain to hide his advance. The Crusader returns fire, hitting a Loki who was leading the charge into the pirate's line.
Round 3: Enter the charnel houseCombat truly begins this round, with 75% of the forces on board opening fire on each other. An Ostol and Zeus both light into the previously damaged Loki and drop it - first blood goes to the pirates! This is not our first casualty of the night however, Blackjack's Shadow Hawk mini got wrapped up in my tape measure and took a little tumble off the table. A little time back in the mech bay and he'll be right as rain! :D
Six pirate units open up on a prototype unit (Mad Cat MK IV) with a Thunderbolt, Wolverine, Vindicator and Griffin all scoring solid hits. The Crusader steps up and delivers the coup de grace, dropping the big clan machine where it stood. Return fire from the MK IV finds and
ends the Griffin with authority.
Several clan machines open up on the Zeus, the big pirate assault unit calling a lot of attention to itself by being in the vanguard. A Mad Cat, Vulture and Loki all pull off hits and eviscerate the appropriated Lyran mech. In the back field, three vultures target the Atlas who is slowly plodding his way towards the field of battle, but their shots go wide and miss. The Shadow Hawk near the front is pummeled by a Black Hawk. Four more pirate mechs target a Mad Cat on the clan line, with an Archer and Banshee both scoring hits on the clanner.
Turn 4: Nuke it from Orbit, it's the only way to be sureAnother significant round of combat, and the clan forces at this time are beginning to realize that pirate or not, their foes are putting up resistance worthy of the attention of a clan warrior. The idea of calling in an orbital strike is mentioned and then quickly quashed.
The Atlas in the backfield is still recognized as a significant hazard, and a full star focuses their attention on stopping him from getting into optimal firing range. Two Black Hawks manage to connect; inflicting significant damage to the iconic machine. In response, a Wolverine, Shadow Hawk and Ostol all target the previously damaged Mad Cat and destroy it.
Other pirate mechs engage a nearby Black Hawk with a Crusader, Marauder and Thunderbolt all scoring hits and ultimately wrecking the clan medium.
The Mad Cat manages some return fire, connecting with the previously undamaged Crusader, and another Loki applied fatal amounts of damage to a pirate Shadow Hawk. Six more pirate machines all target another Black Hawk, with the Banshee being the only one to connect. A Thor landed some punishing damage on the Wolverine working in the center field, out of four warriors who targeted that machine.
Last but not least, the Daishi brought his guns to bear on the Atlas. For a moment, the entire field of battle went silent as these two behemoths faced off against each other, the tension palpable in the air. Then the Daishi missed...
Turn 5: Dawn of the CritsThe pirate forces decide they just don't like the way that Loki over there is looking at them, and decide to take care of the issue. The Crusader, Ostol, Thunderbolt and Marauder all land hits, peeling off armor and damaging the clan machine's fire control computer in the opening salvos of this round. The Wolverine manages to get in behind a Thor that has just moved into the center field and scores a respectable back shot, enraging the clan pilot. A Loki and two Black Hawks target the Ostol, all finding their mark; the first Black Hawk scored significant damage to the Ostol's motive systems, the second Black Hawk's shot gutted the pirate machine.
The Crusader, having held the center field of battle for a significant amount of time, is ended by a salvo from one of the Vultures. Two more Vultures target the Wolverine, one lands a solid hit and damages one of its weapon systems, limiting the machine's offensive capabilities.
Back from the carnage in the center, a pirate Marauder targets a previously damaged Black Hawk, landing a hit and putting the clanner down. The Loki is targeted by three pirates, with the Archer landing the only hit; unfortunately for the Loki, previous damage taken ensured that the last hit from the Archer was all it took to end the fight.
Seven more units exchanged fire, with the local flora and fauna paying a heavier price than any one unit. A hail mary shot from one of the Clan Black Hawks dropped the curtains on the Ostol, adding to the quickly expanding scrapyard in the center of the map.
Turn 6: Anyone get the number of that dropship that landed on me?The trio of Vultures in the backfield started this round off with a volley directed at the Archer in the back, with one scoring a hit on the heavy LRM boat. A Marauder and Thunderbolt replied with hits on one of the Vultures, but not enough to drop it, leaving the killing blow on the Vulture to return fire from the Archer. The Daishi's opinion on that came in the form of a strike that left a smoking crater where the Archer had once stood.
A Marauder took advantage of previous damage to another Vulture, scoring serious damage to its motive systems. The Atlas landed a long range hit on another Vulture and that Vulture landed his fire onto one of the advancing Marauders.
Round 7: A bad time to have a bird-legged mech Vultures and both Marauders trade fire, one Marauder drops and so does one of the Vultures in that engagement. The Thunderbolt adds in his two cents, gouging more armor off one of the remaining Vultures.
Three pirate mechs target one of the Black Hawks, the Banshee lands the killing (and only) blow.
Another Black Hawk, capitalizing on previous damage done to the Atlas, penetrates the assault mech's armor and lands an engine hit. The Banshee also soaks up a devastating salvo from a Black Hawk and Thor, but stays operational.
Turn 8: Endgame, or how I learned to deal with the loss of my assault mechs. The Whitworth, vaguely remembering his time in a house military, tries to pull off a flanking maneuver with a Jenner. He gets into range and actually manages to land a long range shot on one of the Vultures, drawing attention he probably didn't' want.
Afterwards, the Cyclops, Crusader, Banshee and Atlas all reach out to the surviving Vultures; two are destroyed and one survives with significant motive system damage. The surviving Marauder and Vulture both exchange fire again, but both miss.
The Daishi steps up to the plate again, for Daishi vs. Atlas v 2.0 and delivers this time around, utterly destroying the big assault.
The Thor followed up with a solid hit on the Banshee, penetrating its armor and scoring a lucky engine critical that sent the second pirate assault mech up in a fireball.
This was the end of the game for us, it was getting late and we still had a few more rounds to go to see the end of the match. In the end, the clan units would have won out by physically destroying the pirate mechs. They won by Point Value at the end of this round, 94 to 93, but it was much closer than we had assumed it was going to be.
Point wise we were quite close at the start, but the 3025 machines just seemed to be more durable and our lower points per unit allowed us to upgrade our pilots easier. We ended up giving the Clan players skill 3 at no cost, and you can see how close the game was with that addendum.
Now dice rolls also played a part, HeavyGun and I had some truly horrendous rolls throughout the night, and JC.Night got thrown a few stinkers right near the end too. Even with those, the game still felt like the I.S. side had the advantage. We're looking at ways we could offset this when we play a similar game again. We didn't see disparity like that when we've used similar era mechs regardless of I.S or Clan base.
