Date: 3000
Location: Holloway V
Title: End Run
Author: Alan Tucker
Type: Scenario (TCI Set #2 - Griffin and Locust)
Synopsis: On the small water-rich Draconis Combine world of Holloway V, the Combine has discovered three intact supply depots. Reacting to the news, the Combine pulled together a scratch militia to defend the world while they dispatched a stronger BattleMech garrison force. Unfortunately for the Combine, the 7th Crucis Lancers, returning from a deep raid, got there first. They swatted aside the militia forces and forced the Planetary Defense Force's two AeroSpace fighters to retreat. The surviving militia troops withdrew into the depots, where their techs had used the parts found inside to construct turrets, weapons emplacements, and remote detonated explosives.
With the permanent garrison only days away, the 7th Lancers have to neutralize the command centers for the fixed defenses quickly, so they can loot the storehouses before DCMS reinforcements arrive. The main body of the Lancers regiment launches a feint against the northern sector, but dispatches its scout lances on a seek and destroy mission.
Having scattered her 'Mech company to search for hidden enemy command posts, Captain Tsurami enters a small valley where her scanners detect fusion plants. She spots a bunker hidden in some trees, guarded by a camouflaged Locust. As she moves to engage the Locust, pop-up turrets emerge and open fire. Nonetheless, Tsurami's Griffin punches through the defenses and steps on the bunker, crushing it like an egg. However, the turrets continue firing, and are clearly not drawing their power from the ruined bunker.
The scenario pits a pristine GRF-1N Griffin atainst a LCT-1V Locust and three pop-up medium laser turrets (10 armor each, can only change facing one hex-side per turn), which may be placed anywhere as hidden units on two map sheets laid end to end. To win, the Griffin needs to enter on the south side, reach the command bunker on the far end of the north side, spend one MP there, then exit off the south side again.
Historically, the Lancers successfully destroyed the command posts and gutted the depots before the DCMS garrison landed.
Notes: Holloway V does not appear on any official maps. I have arbitrarily dated the scenario 3000, which allows for the world to have been damaged enough to be taken off the maps by 3025 (but, of course, would not explain its absence from the maps dating back to the Star League.) The world may have been used as an SLDF outpost, but not formally settled (as a mining and farming colony) until the Third Succession War. I can see the utility of the SLDF having supply depots on habitable but uninhabited worlds within the Combine's borders, since they faced by far the most hostility from the Combine (with a constant low-level conflict of unsanctioned 'ronin' duels directed at SLDF garrisons in what was referred to as "The First Hidden War.") There are canon records of SLDF staging grounds and supply depots located on uninhabited worlds in the Draconis Rift (the irregular circle inside the Combine's borders that contains very few inhabited systems).
The assertion that espionage efforts led to the discovery of the three depots becoming common knowledge among all the Successor States before the DCMS could get a garrison there suggests either 1) every world, no matter how backwater, has active cells of Great House spies, and that the ISF team assigned to maintaining secrecy about the find on Holloway V was exceptionally incompetent; or 2) The ISF team on Holloway V reported the find up the chain, and ComStar ROM passed the intel surreptitiously to all the other states, since the last thing ComStar wanted was more tech falling into the hands of the Combine. (Perhaps they hoped it would be destroyed in the fighting, since I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted it to fall into Davion hands either.)
#1 is possible. We see in The Price of Glory that there are intelligence officers (the ambassadors) from each Great House on Helm, which is as backwater as they come circa 3028, given the low population and nuclear devastation. However, I find #2 more likely.
The "bunker" predates any rules for buildings, so in this scenario, the Griffin just has to spend 1 MP to destroy it entirely. Under modern rules, it would be classified as a Light or Medium building, with 54 or less CF, so that the Griffin could collapse the building by stepping on top of it. The slow traverse of the turrets is an interesting game mechanic, and consistent with the description that these were kit-bashed out of centuries-old parts in a hurry, so their traverse mechanisms aren't as robust as the ones on a tank or a well-designed gun turret on an emplacement.
The scenario definitely favors the Griffin. With the LRM-10 and PPC, the Griffin will get surprised by the turrets only the turn they emerge, and can quickly jump back out of range and pick the turrets off with long range fire. The Locust doesn't have enough firepower to engage the Griffin head on, and doesn't have the armor to take much in the way of punishment. The PPC will penetrate anywhere it hits except the Center Torso.
For the Griffin, I would recommend a cautious approach (the scenario doesn't set a time limit). When a turret pops up, weather the hit, then jump either out of range or, if that's not possible, jump to a facing towards which it cannot traverse in one turn. Then pop it from the relative safety of its blind spot or from outside its effective range. If there are no turrets currently up, take harassing shots at the Locust (though be mindful of your heat - this variant of the Griffin can run hot if you jump and fire continually). Once the defenders are neutralized, move in and crush the bunker.
For the Locust, I would recommend placing the three turrets to cover the bunker - ideally on the ridge overlooking the bunker. The Griffin will have to approach very close to that ridge to reach the bunker, and has to actually enter the space to eliminate the bunker. (Due to scenario rules, for some reason, the Griffin can't just unload PPC blasts into it until it melts - stomping is mandatory.) Then, when the Griffin enters the bunker space, have the turrets pop up en-masse and unload on the Griffin at point blank range. Its ability to shoot back will be hampered by its minimum range modifiers. Have the Locust dog the Griffin as it moves down the map, always using cover and speed to avoid incoming fire, and taking harassing shots when it can get close enough - definitely use any chance you get to take back shots when you win initiative. If the dice roll your way, you may have thinned the armor enough that the massed laser fire can take it down at the bunker site.
While it would be possible to have the turrets pop up in a cluster to engage the Griffin further away from the target bunker, it's just too easy for the Griffin to get out of their way and destroy them safely from distance, so a last-minute ambush is, in my eyes, optimal.
At an industry trade show, while promoting the prototype BattleDroids game, FASA staff saw Twentieth Century Imports selling giant robot toy models (assembled from sprues) from the Dougram, Macross, and Crusher Joe and the Hunters series. They signed a deal to buy a huge supply of TCI's stock. Each BattleDroids box would contain two sprues for 'Mechs, and additional sets would include more sprues with additional 'Mechs. These were cheap enough that, when doing demonstration games at conventions, they would break, burn, and melt the miniatures to reflect the damage being done to them - a real crowd-pleaser at the time. The models are articulated at the joints, so they can be posed in several positions.
Each of the twelve TCI model sets came with assembly instructions, 'Mech stats, and a scenario pitting the two 'Mechs against each other. TCI claimed 1986 copyright on the contents and packaging, while FASA claimed 1985 copyright on the BattleTech and Concepts. Nitto corporation did the molding, and Tatsunoko Productions and Nippan Sunrise were credited with the intellectual property for the originating shows.
No author is credited in this scenario booklet, but later ones in the series give writing credit to Alan Tucker, so I assume he did all of them. It's unclear whether Alan Tucker was a FASA staffer writing the scenario, or if someone from TCI wrote the scenario. Interestingly, the spelling conventions used are British ("defence" instead of "defense").