I recently got a classmate to play BattleTech, and yesterday we had another buddy try it for the first time.
Since I had just painted up a fresh lance, I just played with them. They were a combined 215 tons and 4620 BV.
Awesome 8Q (no intro needed)
Catapult C1 (LRM 15's and 4 med lasers)
Panther 8Z (large laser, not PPC)
Jenner D (med lasers and SRM4)
My more experienced buddy, chose their lance at 240 tons and 4716 BV. They would split this lance between themselves to teach our new friend how to play. He wanted our new friend to rock, so he gave him the Atlas.
Atlas D (new buddy)
Clint 3T (new buddy)
GrassHopper 5H (experienced buddy)
Spider 5V (exp buddy)
We set up the maps as follows:
We tossed a quarter and I lost, so my buddies chose the left, and stuck me with roads and canyons lol.
I did the only thing I could do, I placed the Awesome and Catapult on the hill and took pop shots at the Atlas as he approached, while sending my Jenner and Panther chasing after that fast Spider trying to flank right.
I hit with maybe two PPC's in 3 turns on the Atlas' approach, and not a single LRM salvo. Eventually my buddy brought the Spider back into the side of the hill, near the center of the map, so I continued to take shots with my long range boys, while my smaller units dealt with the annoying Spider.
My exp buddy sent the Grasshopper over the mountains to try to 'flank' me. lol - Little did he know that once the Atlas closed within AC20 range, I would use my jumpsets to get over the canyon and completely out of LOS for him. However, I got greedy and left the Jenner to sit behind his Spider to try and take him out. However, I miscalculated. He had moved like 10 hexes, and I had jumped to get position, so my modifiers were extremely high and I didn't even hit, but did get hit from the Clint that chased me down.
While my Catapult, Awesome and Panther sat on the other side of the canyon and engaged the lonely Grasshopper, I made my way over with the Jenner, quickly followed by the Clint and Spider.
After a few turns engaging the hopper while the Clint and Spider took pop shots here and there, I got ideal position on the Grasshopper sitting in sublevel 1. I unloaded with the Awesome, and only hit 1 PPC (I was furious), then the Catapult landed a few med lasers that hit internal structure. - Wait for it... I rolled a 12 on the Center Torso. And wait for it again... I got three consecutive engine hits. Boom!
After that I took my Awesome, Cat and Panther into the sublevel while taking cover from the approaching Atlas by using nearby level 3 mountains. - At this point I said, F it, let's fight, and I positioned the Awesome, Cat and Panther to engage the Atlas when he turned the corner. All the meanwhile the Jenner had been walking behind him for 3 turns popping him with med lasers and SRM's; and overheating badly. At heat level 14 the Clint got a few gyro crits on the Jenner and I could no longer stand up after this turn. So I opened up again and got up to level 23, successfully avoiding everything except shutting down.
After two turns of exchanging fire, and landing a headshot on the Atlas with the Panther's large laser, my Awesome was taking a beating from the Atlas' alpha strikes and not landing a hell of a lot of shots on that freakin' armor tank so I took cover again.
Next turn, the Atlas decided to turn around and alpha strike the downed Jenner. As he did that, I was dealing with a lot of heat on the Cat and Awesome so I couldn't make it out of cover with LOS, but the Panther jumped directly behind the Atlas. The Jenner went boom, for sure. But the Panther landed both SRM's and large laser on the Atlas, but also had one arm left to punch with. So on the physical attack phase I punched the Atlas, and guess what I rolled... 6. Head punch on the already damaged Atlas head. So BOOM! Punched his head right off the shoulders!
The hero of this fight, for sure!
While this was happening the Cat had LOS on the Spider and hit him with all 4 lasers, getting two crits on the Spider's sensors. Since he couldn't shoot, as soon as the Atlas went down, the Spider attempted to DFA my Awesome, and missed. I then turned the Awesome around, with minimums on all three PPC's, and still got my 8 and got a headshot on the Spider. Boom! Spider gone.
All that was left was the quick little Clint, which blocked LOS on the Awesome while setting up just next to my Cat. I jumped on a hill with the Panther, and fired with him first. He managed to get a crit on the right torso, which led to an AC5 ammo explosion that ended the fight!
And here are the victors:
Key Moments:
Panther: 1. headshot on Atlas, followed by head punch on the Atlas for the kill
2. CT crit to Clint for AC5 ammo explosion and kill
Catapult: 1. "12 roll" crit on Grasshopper's CT for 3 consecutive engine shots and the kill.
2. Headshot on Spider's head, for two crits and two consecutive sensor shots.
Awesome: 1. headshot on Spider for the kill (in retaliation for attempted DFA)
2. Laying down enough fire to attract all the attention away from rest of lance and being the awesome mother F'er he is.
Jenner: Harassing the Atlas enough to get it's attention and allow the nimble Panther to set up for the unexpected knockout. ;D
The match took 8 hours, I drank half a bottle of bourbon and a couple of beers, we had pizza, and a great time. Our new buddy liked the game, and definitely wants to play again! So far I've got 2 new people to like BattleTech. I'd say it was a successful Friday night! 8)
