After several years out of the country, I've returned stateside and been lucky enough to find a gaming group where several of the members were hardcore MechWarrior Online players who were enthusiastic about learning the tabletop version. I've decided to run them through the "Total Chaos" campaign. I'll post the progress in this thread.
Unit: Storm Riders
Starting Assets: Black Knight (2750), Warhammer-6R, Hunchback-5G, Firestarter-9H.
The players picked 'Mechs with which they were familiar from MWO. They also heeded my advice that, since we're using BV as the balancing factor, stronger 'Mechs = stronger OpFor, and selected mostly 3025-era equipment.
Mission 1: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Attacker: Warhammer, Black Knight, Firestarter, Hunchback
Defender: Challenger X MBT, 2 Behemoth Super Heavy Tanks, 2 Demolisher Heavy Tanks, 2 Zhukhov Heavy Tanks, four SRM jump infantry platoons
Keid Interplanetary DropPort
Keid, Word of Blake Protectorate
29 September, 3067
A mercenary BattleTech lance, the Storm Riders attacked Kallon Industries warehouses at the Keid Interplanetary DropPort in the middle of a thundersnow squall. Kallon Security dispatched a force of heavy tanks to crush the raiders, but the high winds, driving snow, and heavily ionized atmospheric conditions left them wallowing in the deepening snowdrifts, unable to destroy any of the attackers.
While the Storm Riders' Black Knight suffered severe damage in a battle with a Challenger X Main Battle Tank and two Zhukov heavy tanks, its lancemates, a Warhammer and a Hunchback, suffered only minimal damage in the process of neutralizing the forward armor lance, which also included a Demolisher. Several of the armor crews were killed in the fighting, and the rest bailed out of their tanks and surrendered after their vehicles were crippled.
The fourth member of the Storm Riders, a light and highly maneuverable Firestarter, lived up to its designation, bounding freely through the snow on its jump jets and sending warehouse after warehouse up in flames, while two huge Behemoth-class assault tanks and another Demolisher tried vainly to close to weapons range. Nearly 100 security personnel died in the wreckage of the warehouses.
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The main surprise for the players accustomed to MechWarrior Online was the heat system. They quickly (and correctly) concluded that Flamers are not really optimized as a weapon system, after nearly cooking off the Firestarter's ammo. The tanks maneuvered menacingly for the first five rounds, but then (per the Blizzard rules) the snow got deep enough to affect movement, and the Behemoths effectively became turrets. With the Firestarter jumping for a +4 modifier, green crews in the tanks, and the other weather and range related modifiers, the tanks and infantry couldn't hit the Firestarter as it destroyed warehouse after warehouse.
The Zhukovs and Challenger X MBT were more accurate as the battle with the heavy units turned into a more-or-less stationary slugfest, but the lack of ammo or an XL engine in the Black Knight meant there was no chance of a quick critical-hit kill, and the tanks succumbed to disabling damage faster.
All in all, a completely successful first outing for the mercs.
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Mission 2: The Skye is Falling
Attacker: Storm Riders: Black Knight, Hunchback; Skye Rangers: Uziel, Barghest, Rakshasa, Falconer
Defender: Scorpion, Cicada, Spider, Hammer, Anvil, Perseus, Initiate, Toyama, Slayer, MechBuster, Shilone, Stingray, Stingray, Corsair.
Vector 9B, en route to Sirian Marker-4
Bugbottom Swamp
Skye, Lyran Alliance
5 February 3068
BATTLE REPORT
The Storm Riders dispatched two BattleMechs into the Bugbottom Swamp alongside a heavy lance of Skye Rangers ‘Mechs. They surprised the mercenaries operating out of the airbase, and caught the fighters un-crewed and on the tarmac, though the defending mercenaries did have a medium-weight perimeter patrol on duty. Obscured by stands of trees and clouds of steam from active geysers, the airstrip defenders were able to swiftly close with the attacking forces, swarming around and putting down a 75-ton Rakshasa (the Lyrans’ heaviest unit) in the first exchange of fire. At the airbase, pilots scrambled for their vehicles, and the Shilone and Stingray fighters on “ready five” standby launched into combat, while an Initiate-class ‘Mech powered up and lumbered into the fray.
Things looked grim for the attackers, until crack shooting by the Storm Riders turned the tide. A well placed Gauss rifle shot from the Riders’ modified Hunchback sent a 40-ton Cicada crashing to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and a laser barrage from the Riders’ Black Knight detonated the missile stores in a 30-ton Hammer, while the 70-ton Barghest used its massive autocannon to blow the leg off its accompanying 60-ton Anvil. A lucky cockpit hit knocked out the pilot of the 75-ton Perseus, allowing the Storm Riders to destroy its engine housing with precision fire. As a Slayer-class fighter taxied down the runway, the 50-ton Uziel jumped onto the tarmac ahead of it, preventing it and the Corsair behind it from taking off. Heavy fire from the attackers left two more fighters, a Stingray and a ‘MechBuster, in flames next to their hangars.
At this point in the engagement, three defending ‘Mechs (a Scorpion, a Spider, and a heavily damaged Initiate) and four fighters (two in the air and two on the ground) remained operable, facing the Storm Riders' Hunchback and Black Knight, and the Skye Rangers' Falconer, Uziel, and Barghest. The defenders’ strongest ‘Mech, a 75-ton Toyama, had not yet powered up, and had already suffered heavy damage from the Uziel.
The Storm Riders mercenaries and the Skye Rangers tore through the Sirian Lancers forces guarding the air base in the Bugbottom Swamp. A desperate assault by a taxiing Slayer-class aerospace fighter pushed the Black Knight back far enough to give a Sirian Corsair-class fighter just barely enough room to take off, putting three of the Lancers aerospace fighters in the skies. A heavily damaged Initiate and Anvil attempted to withdraw, but were mercilessly gunned down by the Skye Rangers, as was a Toyama whose pilot had failed to respond to the general alert. (Sources suspect the AWOL MechWarrior had found a cache of high grade recreational pharmaceuticals in the abandoned airbase and was reaching new heights of oneness with the spirit of the Blessed Blake.)
The Sirian Spider and Scorpion gamely kept up their attacks on the Lyran and mercenary forces, but expert shooting soon left the four-legged Scorpion without its forward legs, and left the Spider without a head. The Sirian fighters swooped in for a strafing run against the massed Lyran forces, but they’d wisely sought cover in heavy woods and weathered the strike, bringing the attacking fighters down with their return fire.
The Storm Riders had secured generous salvage rights with this contract, and will take possession of seven BattleMechs and three aerospace fighters, potentially allowing them to expand from Lance to Company size.
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Lucky shots were the order of the day in this engagement. The "bug squad" got into the Rakshasa's rear arc and the Scorpion managed to put a PPC and three SRMs into the rear center torso, tearing open the armor and detonating the gyro in a single volley against the otherwise lightly damaged 'Mech. The players retaliated by knocking out the pilot of the almost pristine 75-ton Perseus (snake eyes on the consciousness roll) and then targeting its XL-engine-containing torso. The Toyama never made the roll to activate, so they were able to do the same to it. With two of their three heavy hitters out of action without much of a fight, the remaining lights were slaughtered, though they did do significant damage to the Barghest and the Uziel.
When rolling for the "Lyran gift" unit at the end of the scenario, the players rolled a snake eyes for unit type, and ended up with a squad of Fenrir battle armor instead of the assault 'Mech they were hoping for.
Next mission: Falcon Ptomaine