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BattleTech Player Boards => Challenges and Gatherings => After Action Reports => Topic started by: Azakael on 25 May 2016, 01:04:21

Title: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: Azakael on 25 May 2016, 01:04:21
Situation September, 3068. Galatea
"I should have known better than to take this contract. I felt dirty taking a contract against the Lyran Alliance. Sure, if Victor's sister was still in charge, I might not have been so bothered by it. The problem was compounded by the fact that my crew had to deal with the arrogant Knights of the Inner Sphere. If honor and loyalty, and all the other crap that they claim to stand for means you have to be an ******, I'll keep my dirty 'Merc life. The employer asked me for recon assets, so  I sent in Irena, Keith, and the Drillsons. That seemed sufficient for what I could do. What I get back, however, are half of my Drillsons, two beat-to-hell-and-back 'Mechs, a hefty bill for repair parts, and an impolitely worded threat for breach of contract. I sent back my own impolitely worded argument pointing out the success of the mission, the fact that assets we were told would be assisting left in the middle of the damn battle, and the fact that some of *my* men died for their gain. Of course, the response was expected, an 'apology' with thinly veiled derision and a meager payment. Another 'successful' contract like this one, and I'll go broke."

Optional Rules for all missions this track:
Floating Criticals
Careful Stand
Ground Vehicle Hit Location Chart removes the Critical on an 8 and the possible motive Damage on a 9.
VTOL and Hover Lateral Slip

Mission One:
- Recon

Setup:
Left to right, Long edges touching.
Archipelago #2, City: Downtown, Woodland (Attacker's Edge)

Forces:
Attackers
The Brotherhood of Outreach (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=24079.0)
XO: Irena "The Wolf" Lupei (3/3) - Locust LCT-1E
Keith Phelan (4/5) - Wraith TR1 (Mangled, and left out of the next mission.)
(3/4) - Drillson
(4/4) - Drillson (Destroyed)
(4/6) - Drillson
(3/5) - Drillson (SRM)

Defenders:
The One-Eyed Jacks
(3/4) - Heavy LRM Carrier
(3/4) - Cavalry Attack Helicopter
(3/4) - Goblin Infantry Support Vehicle
(3/4) - Dart DRT-3S
(3/4) - Lineholder KW1-LH3

I can't remember much of this battle, aside from the Drillsons pushing in to the center of town quickly, to threaten his LRM carrier before it could rain too many LRM 20's on me. Despite a lot of high to-hit numbers, the Drillsons took quite a bit of punishment for their insolence. The 4/4 Drillson would pay for it with his life. A lucky shot with a Large Laser took the last bit of structure away from the front of the tank. Same turn, a lucky LRM hit disabled the SRM Drillson, so they abandoned their tank in order to survive. The Wraith took a heavy pounding from the Lineholder who seemed keen on taking out the left leg. Almost all shots seemed to center themselves there. Despite heavy damage, the Wraith did enough to the Lineholder to cripple him, and force a withdrawal. While I didn't actually get one of the objectives for Recon (scanning enemy 'Mechs), the overall mission objective of Final Curtain is to cripple/ destroy assets. Conversely, I did get the objective for half of my forces exiting the table after turn eight, and for destroying/ crippling 25% of my opponent's force. So far 5/5 One-Eyed Jack units crippled or destroyed. Looking good so far.

The three surviving Drillsons, and the Locust were repaired for the next mission.

Mission Two:
- Pursuit

Setup:
Left to right, Long edges touching.
(Attacker's Home) Woodland, Desert Hills (Defender's Home)

Forces:
Attackers
XO: Irena "The Wolf" Lupei (3/3) - Locust LCT-1E
(3/4) - Drillson (Should have been destroyed, but crew recovered.)
(4/6) - Drillson
(3/5) - Drillson (SRM)

Defenders
(3/4) - Cicada CDA-2A
(3/4) - Clint CLNT-2-3T
(3/4) - JagerMech JM6-DD

Battlefield Conditions:
Moderate Snowfall
Sinkholes

I knew this one would be trouble since the defender gets two full turns of movement before my forces even arrive. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that the Cicada could, if the OpFor player chose to, run off the map in four turns, before I could even get a chance to engage. As it stands, he kept it escorting the slower moving JagerMech. The sinkholes accomplished *nothing* this match. Not a single 10+ was rolled on any 'Mech run.

The quick and dirty of this match, turn numbers are based on when I arrived.

Turn 1: Drillsons move up on to a hill to take some shots at the JagerMech. The Cicada moves into their hex to prevent them from shooting at him instead. Other Drillson cruises into position exactly seven hexes from the Cicada. Locust runs to position himself directly behind the JagerMech (a few hexes away.) Shooting was fairly lackluster, though the Cicada stomped the SRM Drillson into immobility.

Turn 2: Jagermech tries to flee further, but the Locust was able to move into position behind him. This gave the Cicada and Clint prime opportunity to move in behind the Locust. Shooting was again, fairly lackluster for the Brotherhood. The armor was stripped on the Cicada's legs, but nothing could go in. The Locust on the other hand, took a lot of heavy fire, and was nearly crippled herself.

Turn 3: The Cicada makes a run for it. This is my last chance to achieve any objectives for this mission. If he escapes, I could not prevent 75% from exiting because he's 33% of the force. And I certainly couldn't cripple or destroy 100%. Meanwhile, the Locust ran away in order to *not* be a casualty. It was up to the two mobile Drillsons. All of their weapons needed 10's or 11's to hit... The Cicada survived. And to add insult to injury, the Drillson had his turret jammed by a lucky through-crit AC/2 shot, and his engine destroyed, Abandoned the vehicle, because I didn't want to lose a crew. Still, I kept playing because the JagerMech and Clint still needed to get off the table. And while I lost this mission, I still could pull out a coup for the overall track.

Turn 4: JagerMech and Clint both just make for the edge of the board. My final Drillson and the Locust make one last attempt to kill or cripple one of them. Yeah, nothing doing.

Turn 5: So much for pulling out any kind of success here. 0/3 units crippled or destroyed. And yet more repairs to my Drillsons and the Locust. Hindsight hitting, the abandoned vehicle should have been lost, rather than just repaired. Having achieved no actual mission objective, I could not claim any salvage in this mission. Thus, the poor vehicle would have been left.

At this point, the narrative goes like this: The Brotherhood were given orders to stand, but seeing an opportunity to wipe out some stragglers, decide to disregard the orders for an attempt at glory. Turns out it was actually a feint, and the Jacks were pulling the Brotherhood out of position. Oops.

The Drillsons and Locust were repaired. Again, one of the Drillsons should have been lost, but we both overlooked that. Oh well. I struck it from the TO&E after getting home and realizing my mistake.

Mission Three:
(Forced) Withdrawal

Setup:
Left to right, Long edges touching.
(Attacker's Home) Wide River, City: Residential (Defender's Home)

Forces:
Attackers
XO: Irena "The Wolf" Lupei (3/3) - Locust LCT-1E
(3/4) - Drillson
(4/6) - Drillson
(3/5) - Drillson (SRM)

Defenders
(3/4) - Locust LCT-5M
(3/4) - Spider SDR-5V
(3/4) - Vulcan VT-5M
(3/4) - Hatchetman HCT-3F

Battlefield Condition:
Sand

Turn 1 - 2: Movement of my forces to get out of the city. Since the OpFor deployed the single Hatchetman as his 25% of his force, he chose not to attempt to engage.
Turn 3: Spider leaps into heavy Woods. Two Drillsons move to take shots at it. 5M Locust moves into the river to take a shot at the Drillsons. 1E Locust moves into the water to make a crossing. Hatchetman jumps over to another hill to take a shot on the left side of the Locust. SRM Drillson moves to shoot all the missiles into the Hatchetman. Vulcan is way out of position. Spider shooting is meaningless. Locust gets a lucky shot on the lead Drillson, Immobilizing it. (Due to Forced Withdrawal, the crew would be required to abandon this vehicle.) Return fire on the Spider is lackluster at best. Shots fired on 1E Locust breach the left torso armor, but no criticals are rolled. Finally, the SRM Drillson does not put nearly enough shots into the Hatchetman to cripple it. But at least he fell.

Turn 4: Locust 1E makes a mad dash out of the Water to try and put some distance between her and the Hatchetman. The Spider jumps right into her face, and the Locust 5M runs up to her as well. The remaining Drillsons use this opportunity to try and cripple one or both of the 'Mechs. The Vulcan jumps up onto a hill for a chance to shoot at a Drillson, and the Hatchetman moves forward to do the same. Locust 1E weathers the fire from both opposing light 'Mechs but takes a critical hit to the foot. Between her and the standard Drillson, the Locust 5M had to make a PSR *and* took two engine critical hits. The SRM Drillson did not do nearly enough damage to the Spider to do anything. After the fact, I realized that my to-hit numbers should have been lower. Despite the Spider's speed, he jumped into a clear hex, which in this scenario, was sand. He should have suffered the penalty for being bogged down, and thus been at -2 to be hit. Crap. Locust 1E kicks the Spider. Spider fails to kick the Locust. Makes both PSRs.

Turn 5: With one enemy 'Mech destroyed, that will get me at least 6/12 crippled or destroyed over the course of the track, so I decided now is the time to move the Locust and damaged Drillson off the map. That gets me the Gauntlet objective, so I get salvage and I get the bonus WP for Sand. The SRM Drillson moves to engage his Vulcan that did not move much. Keeping it short, fire phase accomplished nothing of importance, and the Drillson took some motive damage.

Turn 6: Having lost initiative, and being outnumbered 3:1, the Drillson decides that discretion is the better part and leaves the map. End of the track. 6/12 units crippled/ destroyed. Just enough for Bing!
Title: Re: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: Nav_Alpha on 25 May 2016, 01:27:56
That's a bloody campaign there!
Title: Re: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: Azakael on 25 May 2016, 03:56:48
That's a bloody campaign there!

Bloody is what happened to my friend's command in Burning Bridges. He lost completely. If we hadn't realized we screwed up the mission deployment, he would have lost four 'Mechs. Since we borked it up, I let him keep the two last 'Mechs he was trying to retreat with - it felt the most fair. So 2500 WP down the drain, plus two 'Mechs lost. One of the 'Mechs killed was an otherwise untouched Avatar that got headshot by a Gauss Rifle on turn 3. After the loss, he ended up running a mission rather than another track because he couldn't afford the next track he wanted to take.
Mecha De Mayo did not go well for either of our commands.

That said, I did like the tighter narrative of the track setup. Taking a logical progression of missions feels more like a campaign than a series of set-piece battles.
Title: Re: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: Nav_Alpha on 25 May 2016, 07:27:17
Yeah, I know what you mean about the mission series. It's often better to use a series of small engagements rather than the one big one.

Shame to hear about both units getting clobbered.
What's next?
Title: Re: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: primalucem on 25 May 2016, 09:14:03
Good stuff, although your "Brotherhood of Outreach" link appears to be broken.
Title: Re: Total Chaos: Final Curtain? - The Brotherhood of Outreach
Post by: Azakael on 25 May 2016, 13:51:30
Good stuff, although your "Brotherhood of Outreach" link appears to be broken.

Thank you. Fixed.