Earl Bassett: Is this a job for an intelligent man?
Valentine McKee: Well, show me one and I'll ask him.
BRIEFINGWelcome to the planet of Perfection, Mech Commnader.
We have a mission that needs your deft touch. A local, high ranking noble named Lord Gummer has found himself stranded in the middle of the desert and we need you to go out and rescue him. Time is of the essence because the enemy has sent their own mech forces out to retrieve him. Lord Gummer is the key to controlling the planet, so extracting him alive is and keeping him out of enemy hands is paramount.
Environmental conditions are... bad. It's very hot out in that desert, enough so to impair the efficiency of our heat sinks. Worse, the fine grit of the desert sands tends to gum up exposed mechanical systems, so no supporting combat vehicles are available and even your jump jets will quickly be disabled if you try to use them.
What's more, the objective has been stranded for some time and is delirious from the heat such that he is unable to recognize friend from foe. Expect him to fire on any mechs that approach him. Luckily, he's only armed with a rifle.
And finally, you're new here. So keep be careful with the local wildlife. They apparently find mech armor tasty.
MAPSThis scenario is intended for lance to company sized mech forces. Although larger or smaller forces are possible, they're not really recommended.
The size of the battlefield is dependent on the size of the forces involved. For a lance on lance scenario, the battlefield is 3x3 standard maps in size. For company size combat, use 4x4 map size battlefield.
All the maps are largely sandy terrain and pretty much flat. There are some rocky outcroppings and islands in this sandy sea. Treat them as clusters of 1 to 3 pavement hexes that are randomly 0 to 3 elevations in height.
FACTIONS & DEPLOYMENTLord Gummer is on a rock island on the northernmost center map. He's armed with a rifle that has a range of 1/2/3 and will do 1 point of damage per round. He will use that rifle on any mech that gets into range and seems to have a seemingly inexhaustable supply of ammo. He will give fire priority to whatever seems immediately threatening to him, with the highest priority going to a mech carrying him from the field. If a mech drops him, he will immediately run for the nearest rock island, because...
The desert is lousy with a local lifeform known as "graboids". Graboids are large, vehicle sized worms that can tunnel through the desert sand as if it were water. Their hunting method is to attack prey from below, and locate their prey via sound. And they apparently think mechs are very tasty. There are a number of graboids wandering around the immediate area of operations equal to the number of mechs on one side.
Finally, you are in control of one of the two mech forces sent to retrieve Lord Gummer. One mech force starts in the southwest corner of the battlefield, while the other starts in the southeast corner. Mechs are randomly rolled from a desired faction's MUL, although you can specify broad categories (Light, Medium, etc etc) for each specific mech being rolled. Both mech forces have near equal BV and tech level.
SPECIAL RULESIt's hot out. All mechs present incur an automatic +2 to heat each turn.
The sand interferes with use of jump jets. Therefore, no mechs can jump even if they are equipped with jump jets.
To "rescue" Lord Gummer, a mech needs to stop and pick him up a functioning hand actuator per standard rules. If the arm holding Gummer suffers a critical damage to an actuator, Gummer will be dropped to the ground.
However, if Lord Gummer is picked up by a mech, he will proceed to exclusively attack the mech rescuing him, dealing 1 point attacks per turn.
If your initial force selection does not include a mech with hand actuators, feel free to reroll a single mech until you have one that does.
As mentioned, Graboids tunnel underneath the desert sands. They cannot however tunnel through the rock islands nor do the travel above ground. They only appear above ground to attack prey. Treat the Graboids as a 50 ton "submarine" with 4/6 movement when moving underground. While underground, Graboids cannot be hit by weapons fire, althought they can be "tracked" by the distinctive hump of sand on the surface when they're tunneling.
When Graboids attack, they must during the movement phase initially position themselves in the same hex as the unit they wish to attack at -1 elevation (ie, just under the surface). If they manage that, then during the physical attack phase, the Graboid will burst out of the ground and make a Claw attack to latch onto the target mech. If successful, they inflict 7 damage to whatever section they latched onto and effectively immobilize the target mech during the following round.
In subsequent turns, the Graboid is vulnerable to attack while latched onto the target mech. It takes 40 damage from weapons fire to kill a Graboid, but only 5 damage needs to be done to get the Graboid to let go. If forced to let go, the Graboid if it survived the damage resolution phase will go back underground and look for a different target to attack. If on the other hand the Graboid remains attached when the physical attack phase starts, they will continue to gnaw at their victim and inflict another 7 damage to the section they are latched onto.
If the section they are latched onto is destroyed, the graboid will retreat deep underground and go inert to digest their meal. They will do no further hunting for the rest of the battle. Essentially, a successful Graboid will disappear from the battlefield.
Graboids WILL attack Lord Gummer, but by default, they will go after a mech first if they can. However, a graboid will not share a hex with another graboid, so no two graboids will go after the same target at the same time.
If at the end of turn 25 no victor has been declared, a monster Graboid some 100 tons in weight will enter the battlefield from a random direction, drawn by the ruckus. This Graboid takes 90 damage to kill, a 15 damage bite, and a tunneling speed of 5/8. Every 5 rounds after that, another such monster will appear.
VICTORY CONDITIONSA mech force is declared victorious when one of their mechs manages to pickup Lord Gummer and successfully exit the battlefield at their respective start area.
A mech force loses if Lord Gummer dies, or their entire force is destroyed or retreats from the battlefield.
....
So Mech COmmander, do you think you can rescue Lord Gummer?
