Ah... new format for Tactical Challenges. Let's see how this goes...
Batman: "What took you so long, Batgirl?"
Batgirl: "Rush hour traffic, plus all the lights were against me. And you wouldn't want me to speed, would you?"
Robin: "Your good driving habits almost cost us our lives!"
Batman: "Rules are rules, Robin. But you do have a point."
BRIEFING:Greetings, Mech Commander!
You command a small but well trained and well equipped militia mech force protecting the city of Gotham on the planet of Dick Calligraphy (everyone calls it DC for short). You and your people are known as the "Bat Lance" for the bat motif paintjob your mechs have.
A particularly nasty pirate band commanded by a guy called the "Joker" who seems to be more interested in general mayhem and destruction than actual loot. You need to drive him and his people off before they do too much damage to the city's infrastructure.
Unfortunately, when you engage his forces, you and your people suddenly discovered that their mechs' targeting software has been hacked and sabotaged.
MAPS & DEPLOYMENT: 3x3 city maps. Each map has 40 buildings in it, all of which are 1 to 3 levels tall and have 10 CF for every level they have. The center map consists of buildings 3 to 7 levels tall.
The Bat Lance consists of one heavy mech and 3 mediums of the player's choice. Initial deployment of mechs can be anywhere on the battlefield. The medium pilots are all 2/3 skill pilots, while the heavy pilot is 1/2.
The Joker pirates have an entire company of randomly selected light mechs that are 25 tons and under, plus the Joker himself in a Hunchback (exact variant being up to the side controlling this force); this is 13 mechs total. The pirates are all 4/5 skill pilots while the Joker himself has a skill rating of 3/4. Joker forces can deploy anywhere on the edges of the battlefield.
OVERALL SPECIAL RULES: It's night time of course. All night time modifiers apply.
This scenario is not era specific, but unit selection for both sides should comply with available units and technology of the era chosen to be played in.
ATTACKER SPECIAL RULES:The Joker pirates will NEVER gang up on any single defender. The pirates will at most have 2 of their mechs fight a single defender at any given time. If a Defender decides to engage a third pirate, one of the first two is obligated to stop attacking if the third pirate chooses to respond.
The Joker himself will avoid directly fighting any of the defenders unless there are no mooks available to defend him.
DEFENDER SPECIAL RULES: The Bat Lance is free to use any tactics they please.
However their targeting software has been hacked. Every time weapons fire strikes a pirate mech (whether theirs or not) the hit mech will be obscured by visual sound effect balloons appearing on the Bat Mech's HUD. This produces a stacking -1 targeting penalty for every following shot that round. Example, if a Bat Mech fires four medium lasers it rolls the first hit as normal. The first actual hit has no penalty. But the next follow up TN roll is at a +1 penalty. If that shot misses, the roll after that is still +1; but if the shot hits, it produces a +2 penalty for the next roll, and so on. These penalties apply to ALL Bat Mechs trying to hit that one target.
On the plus side, the obscuring balloons will disappear at the end of the turn, so all TN penalties are reset by the next fire declaration phase.
VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Bat Lance wins if they manage to drive off or destroy the pirates before they can destroy. If a sufficient number of pirate mechs are destroyed, the pirates will panic and flee Gotham at best possible speed. Every time a pirate mech is destroyed, the pirate force must make a 2d6 roll; if the result is equal to or less than the number of pirate mechs destroyed, the pirate force will panic and try to leave the battlefield as fast as they possibly can.
The pirates win if they manage to destroy 25% of the buildings in Gotham. Destruction of the entire Bat Lance results in the pirates being free to destroy buildings unopposed, and is thus a win for the pirates.
