Situation June, 3070. Solaris VII
"With a majority of my Mechwarriors on planet finally clearing out of the infirmary, the SHDL called on our extended contract with other mission. They needed us to recon out a city way out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently they seem to think there might be a cache of supplies that could be used against the Blakists. I sent my scouting elements out, and they happened to hit a freak ice storm. Weather reports didn't indicate anything of the sort. This left my vehicles incapable of effective scouting. My forces were expecting to just ambush and scan a few militia 'Mechs, bust them up a little, and then get back to our lines. When they returned heavily bloodied and missing a vehicle, I needed answers. Apparently, this militia recruited some top Solaris champions. In reviewing the BattleROM, I've never seen militia forces this accurate, or cunning. I'm beginning to question the intel I continue to receive from the SHDL. I'm thinking 'breach of contract' needs to come up in conversation soon." - Gabriel D'Vries.
Optional Rules:
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 Options:
Complicated Weather - Ice Storm. (Seriously, -60 degrees C? Does it *really* need to be that cold for an ice storm?)
Forces:
Attacker
Local "Militia" (Seriously. Elites!)
(2/3) - Champion CHP-2N
(2/3) - Hermes II HER-5SA
Defender
Brotherhood of Outreach
Tess Forrest (4/5) - Wraith TR1
Justin Caldwell (3/4) - Lightray LGH-4Y
(3/4) - Pegasus Light Scout Hover
(3/4) - Pegasus Light Scout Hover
Map Set-up
North
[Heavy Woods #1][Inverse Desert Mountain #2]
Attacker Edge North
Defender Edge South
Pegasus 2 set up in hiding on the edge of the woods. Lightray and Pegasus 1 deploy in the valley on the Desert Mountains. Wraith deploys in the woods.
Turn 1 - Initiative OpFor
Sinking initiative with the Pegasus, moving him towards my own board edge, (He would spend the entirety of the game hiding from the OpFor. 5/8 Hovercraft (Thanks weather!) is a death sentence.) Opponent would bring the Hermes into the forest (which was a saving grace for me.) The Wraith hopped over him into some heavy woods, but with his back to the opponent's board edge. The Lightray started into the forest. The Champion would take up position right behind the Wraith. Despite the high skills, the Chapion would only hit with a single SRM 6 with three missiles. However, his kick would cause the Wraith to fall over and crit itself through the rear left torso. Double engine and a jump jet. Whee.
Turn 2 - Initiative Brotherhood
Pegasus 2 continued to idle in hiding, and Pegasus 1 took this time to make his way to his hidey-hole.
The Wraith would be able to stand and put enough distance between himself and the Champion, that it would not be able to get an effective shot off. The Lightray and the Hermes would exchange a single Large Pulse Laser and Medium Laser each.
Turn 3 thru 8 - Initiative OpFor, OpFor, OpFor, Brotherhood, Brotherhood, OpFor
These turns would simply be some bouncing around trying to not get killed and try to cripple the Hermes II. The only "success" would be an LPL hit on the Hermes.
Turn 9 - Initiative Brotherhood
Pegasus 1 would escape, while the second Pegasus would get greedy and attempt to get a shot off on the Champion. The *untouched* Champion. Needless to say, the return fire got an immobilization on it and the crew would shut down and button up afterwards.
Turn 10 thru 13 - Initiative Brotherhood, OpFor (12 versus an 11!), OpFor, Brotherhood.
The Wraith would try to dance around and see if he could get a safe shot on the Hermes II, while the Lightray escapes. (Breached torso with uncased SRM 2 ammo.) Nothing doing.
Turn 14 - Wraith escapes.
Post-battle thoughts:
Ugh. Weather. The Ice Storm was more of a hindrance to me than it was to me. Between the maps and the weather, about half my firepower was nigh-useless. I could have kept the second Pegasus hidden longer, as a point blank shot on the Champion might have hit with more. Who knows.
Over-aggression. Twice I was far too aggressive. Instead of jumping my full 7 hexes, I could have positioned the Wraith better where I still would have been able to scan the Hermes and not taken a shot from the Champion. The damage from the fall kept me on the defensive with the Wraith, as well as negated her ability to fire effectively. The attempt to shoot the Champion with the Pegasus was, for lack of a better word, stupid. If the Champion had been severely wounded, that would have been one thing, but it was not.
Needless to say, while I succeeded at my objective, Pyrrhus would have been proud of my actions.