Author Topic: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar  (Read 2847 times)

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 26126
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
The Battle of Tukayyid went badly for the Smoke Jaguars. They sacrificed too much strength in trade for being first to land, and badly handled their attacks on their two targets. Beta Galaxy mired itself in the marshes of the Racice River Delta, and lost the saKhan as well as many 'Mechs. Meanwhile Alpha Galaxy allowed itself to be ambushed in the Dinju Pass, with hilarious results (Com Guard Acolyte Trevis Gray appeared to kill Khan Osis by shooting a laser into Loremaster Hoyt's cockpit, killing him and sending his 'Mech crashing to the ground on top of Khan Osis' Elemental armor. Note: he got better.)

The losses experienced by the Smoke Jaguars forced ilKhan Kerensky to terminate the Jaguar campaign. While the demoralized Beta Galaxy dutifully obeyed the order and withdrew from outside Port Racice, those in Alpha Galaxy were enraged by what they felt was a Wolf Clan snub to their sacrifices and vowed to fight to the death. Unable to fight their way back through the pass to save the Dragoons as the numerical superiority of the 299th and 323rd ground them to dust, the Jaguar Grenadiers launched a desperate assault against the Eighty second and 322nd Divisions outside Dinju Heights, aiming to create an opening to withdraw to their DropShips. This is the story of that battle.



So the scenario details can be found here, but basically an encounter battle between Clan Direct Fire Star and Striker Star, and two Heavy Battle Level IIs of Comstar, across a valley divided by a heavily forested river.

Specific forces: heavy metal indeed, with PVs of 540 for ComStar, 544 for Smoke Jaguars.

Level II Mech (Heavy Battle) "Blue Oysters" (player: The Great One)
   King Crab   KGC-001
   Highlander   HGN-732
   Thug   THG-11E
   Crockett   CRK-5003-1
   Flashman   FLS-8K
   Guillotine   GLT-3N

Level II Armor (Heavy Battle) "Heavy Metal" (player: your humble battle correspondant)      
   Crockett   CRK-5004-1
   Grand Crusader   GRN-D-03
   Viking   VKG-3W
   Longbow   LBG-7V
   Exterminator   EXT-5E
   Excalibur   EXC-D1
      
Direct Fire (Player: SchwerpunktPrinzip, or "Schwer" for brevity)
   Dire Wolf Prime   
   Warhawk Prime   
   Warhawk Prime   
   Nova Cat Prime   
   Nova Cat Prime   
      
Heavy Striker (player: The Lad
   Hellbringer Prime   
   Ebon Jaguar Prime   
   Ebon Jaguar Prime   
   Huntsman Prime   
   Huntsman Prime   


We did play with a few variations:

- Due to misunderstandings, we've been playing that more than 2" of forest blocks LOS. Halfway through, we found the rules that it's 6". Oops! Changing that halfway would have ruined the premise of a contested river crossing, so we decided they were Heavy Woods that blocked LOS with 2".

- Instead of usual initiative, we used four aces from the Initiative Deck, and shuffled each turn. We'd done this in the four-way city battle, and it worked remarkably well when playing sides. We'd had some games with massively one-sided initiative rolling - like first 13 turns won by one side, which had taken some gloss off; this way, it felt very fluid, and having the third ace turned up and realising you were last to move happened to all of us at some point, and felt really good. Something which wouldn't work with Command lances or other SPAs affecting initiative.

- You'll notice little paper tags on each 'Mech, which had the names. With one player not familiar with the BT universe, one partially familiar, and two obsessives, this helped keep things moving quickly, and was a great help when the MUL card showed new art, and the minis were old metal.

- Yup, there's a couple of ahistorical minis in there, but I needed two BIG Level IIs to meet the Clanner PV. Note that any C3I equipment on the listed versions was replaced with inert packing, for the game.

- We use Litko markers for visual effect - small flames for damage, bigger explosions for kills, and the biggest explosion goes to first kill. No gameplay effect, but sure looks good!

- We also started with a piece of wood used for checking LOS; we soon ended up marking ranges on it, which also was a great help despite an abundance of measuring tapes.

Anyway, to the battle!





End of turn 1. The river and (LOS blocking) trees divide the map in two. There's a couple of logical, easier-to-cross areas - one at the north of the map where the two streaks come together, and at the south edge. The Great one took his Level II to the north, and I moved to the south crossing. Our strategy was based on IS 'Mechs taking more damage than Clan ones (not always true, but true enough of our assault-weight units). The Lad took his Strikers on an intercept course, while Schwer moved to control the centre of his side of the river.



End of turn 2. I moved my fast Excalibur and Executioner to the edge of the river, while the assaults slogged onwards. The Great One's fast movers - Flashman, Thug, and Guillotine - scored hits on the Dire Wolf, which appeared to be drifting north to help the Strikers, while taking hits to the Guillotine in return. Meanwhile, the Direct Fire star sniped my fast movers, damaging the Excalibur.



First kills! Of us, alas. The Ecxcalibur couldn't take the sniping from four large Clan 'mechs, and died (glass hammer ...). While the Flashman got criticalled, and the Great One said "Watch me roll a 12 ..."  and did. Boom! Still, at least my dead Exy got the "first kill boom" marker. Some damage on the Dire Wolf, but not a lot. The lines of site across the deep pool got a lot of attention in this area of the battle.



Turn 4. The Strikers move up to take maximum cover from the sparse (but LOS-blocking) woods, while the Direct Fire lance moves away from their central redoubt to support them. The Great One's Clanbuster King Crab soaks a lot of fire, with the enemy Dire Wolf being their main target. Solid assaults take a lot to wear down when you're doing 3s and 4s damage. The Exterminator at least spots for Indirect Fire, which I have some of, and a damaged Huntsman goes down!



Turn 5. Much mayhem! The doughty King Crab gives up the ghost, helped by the Dire Wolf overheating. The Great One's Highlander and Crockett hold the line, while the Guillotine and Thug take fire trying to open the flank around the south of the deep pool. To the south, my guys finally reach the edge of the trees, and score some hits on the Direct Fire line.



Turn 6. From recollection, both Clan players had to move before both ComStar. They decided to fall back to self-reinforcing positions around the north-east hill. The Great One moved forward, losing the damaged Thug and Guillotine to the two Ebon Jaguars  still holding firm. I meanwhile rained fire on the damaged Nova Cat and damaged Warhawk, which was reduced to 1 point of IS. But that is not dead that can still return fire ...



This is the turn it all swung on. My conga line had four 9s to hit, and I hit with all four. This took out the damaged Warhawk and Nova Cat, and the lightly damaged Nova Cat. Feel the Wrath of Blake, baby! The Great One kept moving up, trying to concentrate on the Hellbringer and Huntsman on the northern edge, while even the Ebon Jags pulled back. But the Clanners weren't finished. Knowing his Warhawk was on 1 IS, Schwer overheated four points ... 10 points if he hit. He needed an eight, rolled a seven ... Direct Fire! Do half damage if you miss by one! So the Crockett took a 5-point slap. Ouch!



Turn 8: cleanup. The Clanners didn't surrender, but lost an Ebon Jag as they tried to regroup. They took out the Crockett, while the conga line went to line abreast. Had 4 rolls at 9s again, hit with 3 of them.  It's looking bad for the Jaguars ... Schwer overheated his remaining Warhawk by 3, whacking the Highlander badly. But the conga line closed ...



Turn 9. The Highlander goes down, but whacking the Hellbringer, which I manage to finish off, as well as the last Ebon Jaguar. One Warhawk left, carrying 3 heat, but hurting my Grand Crusader.



Endgame. He takes my Grand Crusader with him, but the Warhawk goes down.



So my very great thanks to The Great One, The Lad, Schwer, and Schwer's son the Imperial Child, who at 4 1/2 months is the youngest player I've had at the Alpha Strike table. The Imperial Child joined us for an hour or two, and was impeccably behaved, and probably the turn of luck affecting the Clanners in the second half of the game can be ascribed to his departure with The Imperial Mum.  We all had a great time, I'm delighted to say!

Also thanks to Schwer for the impeccably painted Smoke Jaguars. A delight to have them on the table!




* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 26126
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #1 on: 15 November 2022, 04:11:20 »
BTW, proof of my assertations on the players:

* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

MarauderD

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 4285
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #2 on: 15 November 2022, 12:21:07 »
Love the AAR, thanks for posting!

Schwerpunkt Prinzip

  • Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 175
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #3 on: 17 November 2022, 17:21:48 »
Great fun and great write-up, WT! My snipers ran out of game table to maintain long range and, only then, found their jaguar spots.
Quote from: worktroll
He's named after a Roman Emperor, and appears to be Elemental phenotype. Levitation's a cinch! :D

Hellraiser

  • Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 14495
  • Cry Havoc and Unleash the Gods of Fiat.
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #4 on: 17 November 2022, 18:35:42 »
Game looks awesome!

Question though:
Why so many units that were not actually available for Tukayyid?  (I see lots of C3i & TRO:3060 designs)

OMG that baby can levitate!!
3041: General Lance Hawkins: The Equalizers
3053: Star Colonel Rexor Kerensky: The Silver Wolves

"I don't shoot Urbanmechs, I walk up, stomp on their foot, wait for the head to pop open & drop in a hand grenade (or Elemental)" - Joel47
Against mechs, infantry have two options: Run screaming from Godzilla, or giggle under your breath as the arrogant fools blunder into your trap. - Weirdo

nckestrel

  • Scientia Bellator
  • Freelance Writer
  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 11216
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #5 on: 17 November 2022, 19:57:32 »
Question though:
Why so many units that were not actually available for Tukayyid?  (I see lots of C3i & TRO:3060 designs)

Quote
- Yup, there's a couple of ahistorical minis in there, but I needed two BIG Level IIs to meet the Clanner PV. Note that any C3I equipment on the listed versions was replaced with inert packing, for the game.
Alpha Strike Introduction resources
Left of Center blog - Tukayyid Expanded Random Unit Tables, Nashira Campaign for A Game of Armored Combat, TP 3039 Vega Supplemental Record Sheets

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 26126
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #6 on: 18 November 2022, 15:31:58 »
Game looks awesome!

Question though:
Why so many units that were not actually available for Tukayyid?  (I see lots of C3i & TRO:3060 designs)

OMG that baby can levitate!!

1) Game was awesome!
2) Nckestrel picked it.
3) He's named after a Roman Emperor, and appears to be Elemental phenotype. Levitation's a cinch! :D
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

nckestrel

  • Scientia Bellator
  • Freelance Writer
  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 11216
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #7 on: 18 November 2022, 16:46:04 »
I would totally pick a Viking.
Alpha Strike Introduction resources
Left of Center blog - Tukayyid Expanded Random Unit Tables, Nashira Campaign for A Game of Armored Combat, TP 3039 Vega Supplemental Record Sheets

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 26126
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #8 on: 18 November 2022, 17:24:36 »
At some point Schwer and I will be doing a Society vs WoB grudge match, all the trimmings. Until then, it was nice to get the Viking 3W out for a spin.

Something I forgot to mention - Indirect Fire played a strong part in this game. Only IF2s, and the Clanners did have AMS which took a point off, but the trick with IF seems to be not having 1 unit with IF4, but having two with IF2 - better still, four with IF2. (Don't know how practical four with IF4 would be.) ANd the Exterminator was a great spotter - only 2/2/0 attack, but 16" move meant it could jockey for position. Again, we didn't use C3I in this game, but the potential was clearly demonstrated.

Now I want to do a game with an assault on fortifications, with bunches of LRM carriers and Cargo Trucks with LRM-10s behind, and Locusts and the like in front.
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

Schwerpunkt Prinzip

  • Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 175
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #9 on: 21 November 2022, 18:54:12 »
He's named after a Roman Emperor, and appears to be Elemental phenotype. Levitation's a cinch! :D

Can I quote you in my signature?!
Quote from: worktroll
He's named after a Roman Emperor, and appears to be Elemental phenotype. Levitation's a cinch! :D

worktroll

  • Ombudsman
  • Lieutenant General
  • *
  • Posts: 26126
  • 504th "Gateway" Division
    • There are Monsters in my Sky!
Re: AAR - Battle of Dinju Heights, Tukayyid - Smoke Jaguars vs ComStar
« Reply #10 on: 21 November 2022, 18:58:03 »
Of course!
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"