Author Topic: Lyran Archer vs LAMs  (Read 3682 times)

Lyran Archer

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 884
  • pre-3050: ARC-2R / post-3050: ARC-5W
Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« on: 01 April 2011, 07:25:18 »
This was a game between my brother and I. He hadn't played in over a decade and wanted to try out a small game under 1500 points. He wouldn't tell me what I was facing. So I set up this scenario.

It was a quiet day on a quiet Lyran planet near the House Kurita and the Clan occupation zone in the late 3060's. A single ARC-5W Archer and two squads of Nighthawk battle armor lazily stroll through a town south of a spaceport. An incoming freighter dropship has been deemed suspicious but it's probably nothing. Show up, check it out.





Unbeknownst to the Lyran defenders the freighter is carrying a company of Kuritan renegades who send three Wasp Mk I LAMs to destroy the spaceport defenders and allow their dropship to land. These Drac renegades are the Shadow's Fury. Little is known about them. They do follow their own code of honor but seem more like Ronin, masterless warriors roaming the stars seizing the supplies they need to survive from those they deem as enemies of the Draconis Combine. The three Wasp LAMs fly in AeroSpace Fighter mode on the low altitude map toward the spaceport and city (marked with counters) ready to drop bombs on any defenders. This is a linked pic because one of the LAMs is unpainted which is a no-no for the Unseen.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p21/Star_Destroyer/004-1.jpg

The Lyran defenders are shocked as the spaceport tower controllers warn them of incoming fighters! The two battle armor squads run for buildings. One squad ducks into a nearby research station while the other gets into the power station (dice on top specifies where they hid). The battle armor can literally do nothing against aircraft. Archer pilot says, "Oh crap." There is nowhere for him to go.



All three LAMs drop their bombloads at the same time. They fly in at different elevations on the low altitude map and all target the Archer. The rules don't say anything against this so my Archer looks to the sky as three Wasp LAMs simutanously divebomb him. Two bombloads hit doing 100 points of damage to the Archer. Mercifully, one bombload misses. We assumed the damage was to the front of the Archer because we couldn't find out otherwise. My Archer's left arm was blown off but it survived. One LAM was shot up but it survived. With the bombs dropped my infantry headed for hardened buildings for better protection.



My brother kept the LAMs in ASF mode and now began air strikes using his lasers and one-shot SRMs. He once again manuevered so all three LAMs fly in at the same time at different elevations and attacked the same target. He wanted to know if he could target the rear armor of my Archer but we couldn't find how that worked for targeting purposes. We know that LOS and range is drawn from hex 0909 on the ground map but does the facing of the ASF in low altitude affect what facing it hits on the ground target? Anyhoo, the LAMs attacked a battlearmor squad but did no damage. The Archer was still functioning and the LAMs were getting nervous about that so flew back to their freighter dropship, which was still approaching orbit.

This battle required a lot of flipping through sourcebooks trying to answer many questions. I didn't find air-to-ground and ground-to-air attacks easy to understand. Many of the rules for it are inferred to but not implicitly laid out or the rules seem to be embedded in the examples but not mentioned anywhere else that we could find. No one was killed but I was very happy to play this game because I will be much better prepared for a future air attack now knowing the importance of ranging myself to hex 0909 on the ground map (and, of course, added two to the range for each level of elevation). Wasp Mk I LAMs are deadly just for the 5 ton internal bomb bays!


LCAF German Expeditionary Militia Kampfgruppe Panzerfaust: 1 Overlord class DropShip, 1 Fortress class DropShip, 2 AeroSpace Fighters, 4 BattleMech Companies, 1 Vehicle Company, 1 Infantry Battalion
Motto: STAND (behind a hill) AND DELIVER (indirectly via spotter)!

Fallen_Raven

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 3719
Re: Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« Reply #1 on: 01 April 2011, 18:03:22 »
Sounds like an interesting game. Did you manage to get off any shots at the LAMs?
Subtlety is for those who lack a bigger gun.

The Battletech Forums: The best friends you'll ever fire high-powered weaponry at.-JadeHellbringer


Lyran Archer

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 884
  • pre-3050: ARC-2R / post-3050: ARC-5W
Re: Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« Reply #2 on: 03 April 2011, 11:46:05 »
Sounds like an interesting game. Did you manage to get off any shots at the LAMs?

Yeah, I got a few shots off, but next time I'll position my Archers better now that I know the importance of hex 0909, which is where all LOS and range is drawn from when ground-to-air fire is used.
LCAF German Expeditionary Militia Kampfgruppe Panzerfaust: 1 Overlord class DropShip, 1 Fortress class DropShip, 2 AeroSpace Fighters, 4 BattleMech Companies, 1 Vehicle Company, 1 Infantry Battalion
Motto: STAND (behind a hill) AND DELIVER (indirectly via spotter)!

markhall

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 1435
  • "The Button's Stuck!"
Re: Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« Reply #3 on: 03 April 2011, 12:30:12 »
I was under the impression that you targeted the aerospace units form the hex they are striking or the center hex on their Straffing run.

I didn't think Ground Targets could hit anything on an aerospace map unless they where attempting a ground attack.

Col.Hengist

  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 9189
  • Konrad ' Hengist " Littman Highlander 732b
Re: Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« Reply #4 on: 03 April 2011, 13:14:50 »
If i remember correctly and i'm sure that there are others much better at this than me, but your ASF can target the back if doing a divebombing run coming from that angle.
Lyran Commonwealth,6th Donegal Guards-Nightstar
Marian Hegemony, II Legio-Cataphract
Clan Hell's Horses, Gamma Galaxy-Summoner
Clan Grinch goat- gamma goat.

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 25565
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
Re: Lyran Archer vs LAMs
« Reply #5 on: 03 April 2011, 20:04:11 »
This is a linked pic because one of the LAMs is unpainted which is a no-no for the Unseen.

Just as a note for the future - you're welcome to openly post pics of any LAM minis you own, whether painted or bare metal, or even whether RP/IWM minis or gashapon of some kind, provided they're not illegal copies or reproduction minis.

Worktroll, Moderator
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

 

Register