[AS] Battle for Hoth - Sword and Dragon [Image Heavy]

[Cambo]

The Sword and the Dragon
(The Battle for Hoth)

It should have been the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity for humanity. Technologies thought lost had been rediscovered and the great houses of the Inner Sphere had re- united under the banner of the Star League to halt the Clan Invasion. However old animosities and mistrust, ingrained through centuries of warfare, simmered just below the surface. The Inner Sphere was volatile.

In December 3062 Arthur Steiner-Davion was assassinated. Duke James Sandoval became convinced his traditional enemy, the Draconis Combine, was behind this plot and launched a series of strikes into combine territory. This is the story of one of those battles.

Weather:
Having responded immediately against the perceived Combine threat, little thought was put into the timing of operations. Forces loyal to Duke Sandoval find themselves assaulting the city of Hoth while it is in the grip of an icy winter. At a bone chilling -28°C it is too cold for conventional infantry operations. Both soldiers and civilians seek shelter while battlemechs and vehicles stalk each other through the city streets. Wind driven snow reduces visibility, so when combat occurs it is a deadly close-in slugfest.



A special scenario rule applies to movement. This being that the usual movement bonus for pavement movement does not apply due to the reduced visibility and icy conditions. Other than this standard Alpha Strike rules for the weather conditions apply. These being that that it is not quite cold enough for 'mechs to receive a cooling bonus, there is a +1 to-hit modifier for falling snow, & visual spotting range is reduced to 14”.

Radar Blips:

Due to the reduced visibility radar blips (see above) will be used in this scenario. The rules
for radar blips are found on pages 87 – 89 of the Alpha Strike rule book

Notes:
1. ECM may negate the extended detection ranges granted by specials
2. Sensor spotting is not a substitute for visual spotting for weapon fire. A visual LOS must exist for direct or indirect fire to occur. (IF spotter needs LOS.)
The following scenario rules will also apply to the use of radar blips:
a. Movement dice will be used, however while a unit is still a radar blip a “6” will be used to denote a unit that has moved less than 1” and a “1” will be used to denote a unit that has moved more than 1”.
b. The Alpha Strike rules for Concealing Record Sheets (p. 89) will not be used. Instead the following will apply. Until such time as all units in a player's force are revealed players may conceal their record sheets. However once a unit has been spotted players must truthfully answer any questions about the unit with the exception of the following, PV (which may remain a secret), skill level (which must be revealed to explain a lower then expected to-hit calculation).



Forces:
Fedcom:
Heavy Lance
HBK-4P SKILL4 PV31
STK-5M SKILL4 PV49
SD1-0 SKILL4 PV46
AS7-S SKILL3 PV62

Scout Lance
LCT-5M SKILL3 PV31
LCT-5M SKILL3 PV31
JVN-11A SKILL3 PV36
SPR-5F SKILL3 PV40

Cav Lance
PXH-3PL SKILL4 PV34
BHKU-0 SKILL4 PV46
TDR-9NAIS SKILL4 PV47
MDG-2A SKILL4 PV47

Kuritan Force:
Arty Lance
OBK-M10 SKILL2 PV71
CPLT-C3 SKILL2 PV54
CP-12-K SKILL3 PV52
HTM-27T SKILL4 PV39

Vehicle lance
J. EDGAR LIGHT HOVER TANK (TAG) SKILL4 PV30
J. EDGAR LIGHT HOVER TANK (TAG) SKILL4 PV30
TOKUGAWA HEAVY TANK (MRM) SKILL4 PV37
TOKUGAWA HEAVY TANK (MRM) SKILL4 PV37

Cav Lance
JR7-F SKILL4 PV32
PXH-3K SKILL4 PV32
WVR-7K SKILL3 PV44
DRG-7N SKILL3 PV42

(cont.)

[Cambo]

Turn 1.
Fed suns loose init first round... but too far for visibility in the blizzard let alone firing


Turn 2.
Fed suns win init but range is too big still


Turn 3.
Fed suns loose init, out of the blizzard a drac Jenner appears and spots a fed sun Javelin, Spector, and Locust.  The locust as he goes by spots the drac Phawk and a J Edgar Hover tank creeping into visual range in the blizzard


Oohhh 2 arrow IVs come arcing out of the snow... hitting the locust for 4pts or damage

...Turns out tags work in the snow....
(cont.)

[Cambo]

Turn 4.
Dracs win init.  Battle at the northern end heats up.   Hatamotochi focus fires and kills the Blackhawk ku, and a well placed arty blast damages 3 units.  The hatamotochi gets taken down to 1 struct in return.  The lights race back to the rear Kuritan arty detachment and half the movement of a tank, but looses a locust in the process, and what had been a hot spot in the south disperses and whiffs all shots.


















All the Kuritans are revealed, but a lance of fed suns still remains blips
(cont.)

[Cambo]

Turn 5.
And the feds loose init and are 2 units down.  The cluster in the north dispersed, and the phawk and thud kill the hatamotochi, while on the south the hidden fed assault lance is forced to move defensively...  the dragon survives the assaults targeting him.  The fed rakshasa dances away from 3 units after him.  The lights continue harassing the arty who call in a danger close call and wipe out the lights.









The tanks call in an arty on the grouped sunder (proxied with a banshee mini) and a hunchback...

the arty distracted arty crews who are busy killing lights miss, and the round drifts onto the friendly dragon, stripping it down to 1 pt of struct.


Turn 6.
Feds loose init again.  Hunchback gets into a draw with the dragon, only the dragon dies and the hunchie is reduced to 1 struct.  The javalin kills a tank at long range after the proxied sunderer missed.  The atlas’s missed everything. And spotting tank hits the phawk.







Turn 7.
Feds win init.


Arty at atlas misses drifts and kills a feds phawk.  And Jenner kills the limping hunchie.  The phawk fiers back at the kuritan phawk doing 4 points of damage



the rakshasa is also down... in return we damage the cyclops but not kill it and engine hit the Jenner


Javalin is now playing hopscotch on buildings
Trying to pressure the arty lance that’s been causing havock (off camera)
The Stalker hurts the Cyclops but doesn’t kill it and the cyclops in return hits the fire control of the stalker




Turn 8.
Feds loose init, when they really need it, they’re down 7 units, kuritans have 9

Heavies start a fire lane in the building

and start wiping each other out... the dice favouring the kuritans


The atlas gets out manouvered due to the init, and gets pounded




While the javalin continues to pressure the Arty... but goes after the better shots on the kuritan jenner


and pays the price for not watching the big guns



But one arty shot doesn't go as planned... landing way short... on the launcher short.


Turn 9.
Feds win init.

Javalin chases the Jenner into the arty nest to try and kill it, but gets destroyed for it, spotter calls in arty to kill the atlas, Wolverine hits  and crits the thud.







Game called as Fed Suns have 6 points of Internals left on 2 mechs.... while the Kuritans have 2 lances left (one of which is damaged) and an unmolested Arty lance ready to finish the job.

Fed Suns

 
Kuritans

[Cambo]

Many thanks to Son of Kerenski and SC_Dave for letting me tag along to their game.   It had been nearly a year since I last got to play AS, and the new rule book seemed like a great chance to test new rules (even if we didn't endup using many of the new rules in this game)

Takeaways:
Upgrading assaults (in this case the atlas) doesn't make sense with how slow it is..
Concentrated Arty is evil.
Hidden unit rules while cool, were negated by the weather rules . (both did the same thing, masking units until medium range)
Spotting arty 1" infront of a target while out of LOS of the target itself is very evil
the dice gods continue to hate me.

[Son of Kerenski]

Great write up Cam! Didn't realize you took that many photos.  :o

I should point out I played this scenario with the same force against another opponent and also got beaten... though he was rolling a lot of 10s and 11s....