Author Topic: The Scions of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3072)  (Read 17608 times)

Azakael

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The Scions of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3072)
« on: 23 October 2012, 16:37:43 »
CO: Gabriel D'Vries Age 25.
Brief Snippet - Gabriel recently took command of the Irregulars after his father was killed by Katrina loyalists during the Federated Commonwealth civil war. Much of the command was wiped out by a surprise attack, leaving Gabriel with his Griffin as well as a few connections and a base of operations on Outreach at age 22. After three years of recruiting and small combat action, he ended up with a lance of Battlemechs supporting a short company of combat vehicles and some infantry. Then the Word attacked Outreach...

TO&E
Battlemech Company:
CO: Gabriel D'Vries (3/4) - Griffin GRF-3M (Difficult Maintenance)
Melvinia "Mel" Richter (3/4) - Gallowglas GAL-1GLS
Ryan "Outback" Levkoff (3/4) - Bushwacker BSW-S2
Christel Kästner (3/4) - Awesome AWS-9Q

Vendel Dávid (3/4) - Phoenix Hawk PHX-3PL
Justin Caldwell (3/4) - Lightray LGH-4Y
Nicolas Pelletier (3/4) - Watchman WTC-4M

XO: Irena "The Wolf" Lupei (3/3) - MON-66+ Mongoose "Surprise"
Tess Forrest (3/4) - Wraith TR1
Käthe Oberst (3/4) - Cicada CDA-3G
Witold Tkachenko (3/4) - Locust LCT-1E

Ibrahim Moizoos (3/4) - Avatar AV1-OPRX "Hellborn"
Asphodel Calamity (3/4) - Avatar AV1-OPRX "Hellborn"
"The Big Sting" (4/2) - Ostsol OST-6D
Yami Takahashi (3/4) - Firestarter FS9-OSO "Scions"

Aerospace Wing:
Renee Gagnier (3/4) - Stingray F-90

Vehicle Pool:
(4/5) - Drillson
(4/6) - Drillson
(3/4) - Drillson
(3/5) - Drillson (SRM)

(3/5) - J. Edgar Hover
(3/4) - Pegasus Light Scout Hover
(4/5) - Pegasus Light Scout Hover (SRM)

(3/4) - Bandit "Brotherhood"
(4/5) - Bandit F

(4/4) - Patton Tank
(4/5) - Myrmidon Medium Tank
(4/5) - Myrmidon Medium Tank

Infantry Pool:
Foot Platoon (Rifle) (4/-): (Averaged from one (3/-), two (4/-) and one (5/-) squads.)
Jump Platoon (Rifle) (3/-)
Motorized Platoon (Rifle) (5/-)
Motorized Platoon (MG) (4/-)
Motorized Platoon (Rifle) (4/-)
IS Standard Battle Armor (Laser) (4/5)
IS Standard Battle Armor (Laser) (4/5)
IS Standard Battle Armor (LRR) (4/5)
IS Standard Battle Armor (LRR) (4/5)
IS Standard Battle Armor (MG) (4/5)
IS Standard Battle Armor (MG) (4/5)

Spare Units:

Spare Crew:

KIA:
Keith Phelan
Russ Carrasco
First Bandit G Crew
First Von Luckner Crew
Second Von Luckner Crew
First Schrek PPC Crew
Second Schrek PPC Crew
First Pegasus (SRM) Crew
Untold Infantry

MIA, presumed dead:
Lawrence "Piggy" Hamm (4/5)
Wiktoria Wojewoda (4/5)
Pegasus Crew (3/4)
Lennox Payne (3/4)
Samiya Dunne (3/4)

The command, aside from the 'Mech lance is not set up into formal lances, instead most organization is committed on an ad-hoc basis depending on the needs of the mission and circumstances. In many cases the 'Mechs are split off to lead lances of Vees. Update: With a full company of 'Mechs now available to the command, they are organized by semi-formal lances, though in most cases, forces are still sent out ad-hoc. (That is, we aren't using the bonuses for having specific lance types in play.)

The force recently had itself renamed, due to their name being far too similar to the "Chaos Irregulars" of canon fame. Given that everyone in the force escaped Outreach, they took the name Brotherhood of Outreach. When hiring new personnel, the intention is to only hire others who had survived that ordeal as well.

(Information is currently sparse, I will fill things out as I go.)

Path Through Chaos:
Another Day, Another C-Bill (Played 10/21/12)
The Skye is Falling! (Played 10/24/14)
Running From the Devil (Played 10/27/14)
Game On! (Played 10/23/15)
Final Curtain? (Played 5/20-5/24/16)
Mission: Supply (Played 10/23/16)
Resisting Arrest (Played 10/25/16)
Brew-Ha-Ha (Played 5/6/17)
Liberation (Played 5/9/17)
Stirring the Anthill (Played 10/22/17)
Click, Click, Boom! (Played 10/23/17)
Mission: Pushback (Played 5/19/18)
Mission: Strike (Played 5/21/18)
Mission: Recon (Played 10/20/18)
Mission: Assault (Played 10/22/18)
Mission: Retreat (Played 5/18/19)
Mission: Recon-in-Force (Played 5/20/19)
Mission: Supply (Played 10/19/19)
Savage Silence (Raid) (Played 10/17/20)
Free-Fire-Zone (Played 10/19/20)
Nacht Blitz (Played 5/29/21)
Reaching the Limits (Played 5/31/21)
Spark (Played 10/30/21)
Burning Bridges ("Played" 11/1/21)
Shift Change (Played 5/28/22)
Mission: Supply (Played 5/30/22)
Acid Rain (Played 10/29/22)
Heat Lightning (Played 10/31/22)
Iron Giants (Played 5/27/23)
Comes the Reaper (Played 5/29/23)
Run Them Down (Played 10/28/23)
Infestation ("Played" 10/30/23)
Mission: Supply (Played 10/30/23)
« Last Edit: 02 November 2023, 17:05:12 by Azakael »

markhall

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #1 on: 24 October 2012, 14:45:48 »
Ah I see what you mean about your troop selection.
It's an interesting Mech lance.

I have mad love for the Watchman. If you get a chance to slap some Double heatsink onto it. Do so.

I look forward to more Reports as you work your way through Total Chaos.

Demon55

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #2 on: 24 October 2012, 17:30:29 »
Looks like a good hover tank company with supporting assets. 

Azakael

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #3 on: 25 October 2012, 16:02:25 »
Ah I see what you mean about your troop selection.
It's an interesting Mech lance.

I have mad love for the Watchman. If you get a chance to slap some Double heatsink onto it. Do so.

I look forward to more Reports as you work your way through Total Chaos.

Interesting because it was entirely random. :-D
I will say, I like that Locust variant. For a 3025 it's a great design. Doesn't need DHS. The only drawback is that the entirety of its armaments are in the arms.

As for customs, I'm talking to my buddy about it and seeing if he's up for the ability to convert SP to C-Bills, and with Techs in hand, using the rules from Strat Ops to allow customs. I also added the suggestion of adding Negative Quirks too offset the TN penalty. (To a minimum of zero. Not going to make it *easier* than normal maintenance...) Because, "Well, we were able to replace all your weapons with the lasers you asked for, but in order to do so we had to move some things around in your cockpit to fit the extra wiring and controls needed. It might be a little crowded in there. Plus the coolant system in that 'Mech wasn't designed for fifteen lasers, even with the added heat-sinks, you still might have some issues with the heating."

It's going to be slow going on reports as we have his force running as well. And we are going to focus on his as the main force. Mine's more of a side experiment. Plus we don't get to play very often.

Looks like a good hover tank company with supporting assets. 

Yeah, FM:M,R really seems to like the hover vees. Especially at the lower end of the weight scale.

As I expand the unit out (*hopefully*) I'll try to keep the current ratio of 1 Mech: 3 Vees. (Which I need to buy more infantry...) The other thing that will be changed is that the infantry is going to get expanded out to three company's worth at some point. That way I have a ratio of 1:3:9 which is the ratio that Combat Ops gives for an overall ratio. (Though I think that's meant for the IS as a whole and not a single command.) Of course, that 9 infantry platoons will also include Battle Armor.
I also intend to continue the ad-hoc organization, rather than formal lances. I think I like that better. Maybe talk to my friend about taking the initiative penalty for several missions to give them an eventual bonus when operating in mixed lances as I am wont to do.

markhall

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #4 on: 25 October 2012, 16:50:12 »

As for customs, I'm talking to my buddy about it and seeing if he's up for the ability to convert SP to C-Bills, and with Techs in hand, using the rules from Strat Ops to allow customs. I also added the suggestion of adding Negative Quirks too offset the TN penalty. (To a minimum of zero. Not going to make it *easier* than normal maintenance...)

Quicks are great.
We like to spread them across a lance rather than giving a mech both positive and negative Quirks.

Demon55

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #5 on: 26 October 2012, 11:27:21 »
What are you planning to use as infantry transports?

Azakael

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #6 on: 26 October 2012, 11:40:05 »
What are you planning to use as infantry transports?

The existing foot platoon will be able to hop on the Bandit for now.

The rest likely won't be used until they are full platoons - fielding individual squads is a recipe for uh... something. When I get the platoons upgraded, I should be able to snag some Maxims for transport. (After all, I think I have a half-dozen of the models... I think... at work, not at home so can't look.)

That's assuming I don't give the motorized platoons field guns. (If we agree to use them. Which I don't see why not. It's kinda' silly not to allow field guns since they've been in militaries for a long time now.)

Azakael

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #7 on: 18 January 2014, 20:43:29 »
Sadly, I haven't had a chance to play these guys since their first trip out. My last BTech gathering with my friend saw several games run with his command and we were burnt out before we had a chance to run a game with mine.

That said, I've decided on renaming the command, "The Brotherhood of Outreach" as their original name, "The Chaos March Irregulars" ended up being too close to another command's "The Chaos Irregulars" The in-universe logic being that the command survived the initial attack on Outreach, and further recruiting will come from others that will have survived the same ordeal.

One thing not mentioned in the original write-up is that the force does have an attached Triumph and Leopard, but I chose not to include them for the purposes of the campaign. One point being that they are attached and not actually owned by the command, so they wouldn't likely be involved in ground combat, when possible. Two, without other Aero assets, there isn't much reason to run the Aerospace missions.
« Last Edit: 18 January 2014, 20:50:52 by Azakael »

Azakael

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Re: The Chaos March Irregulars - Reasonable Expectations (3067)
« Reply #8 on: 25 October 2014, 19:01:17 »
Well, after two years of inactivity with this force, we finally ran mine again. (In the meantime, my friend's force is currently in Mid-3071, with the Nacht Blitz track.)

A much more successful trip this time around. I find that vehicles, even with Battlemech support and the Tac Ops rule that removes one critical and one motive damage from the chart, are still fairly fragile. While it made up some WP for me, replacing lost vehicles cost me more than I could convert. Though I need to have a discussion with him about costs because I think we changed costs on healing and left hiring the same originally. At least we did for his force.

Still, doing a little better now. Off to Dieron for the next match, and I think I may take some of the generic tracks too.

Nav_Alpha

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067)
« Reply #9 on: 26 October 2014, 18:15:24 »
Good to see these guys are still going.
I'm currently running a similar make up merc unit in the early 3080s - mech lance supported by a mixed company of tanks, BA and infantry


"Hold your position, conserve ammo... and wait for the Dragoons to go Feral"
- last words of unknown merc, Harlech, 3067

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067)
« Reply #10 on: 28 October 2014, 03:25:23 »
Yeah, it took a while. But we decided to mix it up between our commands this trip out. Managed to get two games in with them as well.
I'll admit, it's rough to use primarily vees. Especially in games where my opponent has a number of 'Mechs versus my mostly vees.
But it is kinda fun too.

Nav_Alpha

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067)
« Reply #11 on: 28 October 2014, 05:49:09 »
You could try and balance it out with some special abilities for the vees?


"Hold your position, conserve ammo... and wait for the Dragoons to go Feral"
- last words of unknown merc, Harlech, 3067

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #12 on: 24 October 2015, 07:18:01 »
Well, another year, another update.
I don't have an AAR for Game On! as I really didn't keep track of the turn by turns. The quick and dirty of it. Being out classed and slightly outgunned was a scary prospect. Which is why I asked for advice in the Ground Combat. Apparently I didn't need it.
Ended up bringing the Gallowglas, Bushwacker, the 3/4 Drillson, the SRM Drillson (Originally a 4/6), both Pegasus, the Von Luckner, and the Patton (Originally a 5/5). The Von Luckner and Patton both had precision ammo.
Between getting bogged down in the sand, and some really bad rolls on his part, the OpFor slowly crumbled. His two vees were mission-killed in the first three or four turns (Immobilized both.) His Red Shift caught my Bushwacker off-guard in his hiding place (Durn Active Probes...) but was crippled for his efforts. The Jackal never made it more than five hexes from where he walked on the board. Sand got in his feet. Over. And over. And over. His Trebuchet was killed in two turns, due to the Gallowglas and Von Luckner. The Wraith and Wyvern took the most effort, with the Shootist being next.

I thought I was hosed when in the first two turns, my Bushwacker was caught as a hidden unit, and thus didn't get to move in my movement phase and my Drillson (SRM) was immobilized. The crew was able to weather three turns of shooting before they decided to spike the vehicle and hide. The Bushwacker lasted longer than I expected, but did eventually get destroyed. The pilot barely surviving with 5 hits. The only other casualty was my Von Luckner's crew being killed by a lucky through-armor critical.

Still, despite the losses, the win and the salvage was enough to allow me to upgrade three Mechwarriors/ Vehicle Crews, replace the Von Luckner's crew, repair and hire a Mechwarrior for the Wraith, bring all four Infantry Platoons up to max (For the three platoons that started out as just squads, we just took the sp cost of an infantry platoon of the appropriate type, divided by the number of troops in the platoon, multiplied that by the numbers I needed to fill the platoons out, and called it good.), and finally purchase two squads of IS Battle Armor.

At this point, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable about this command. Especially after several points of thinking that the game was lost, and thus leaving me with scraps and 50 WP.

Looking at it, I'd still like to add some additional Aerospace assets, possibly moving the Triumph and Leopard into active duty instead of a shadowy in the background, "I have them..." I also need additional transports for my infantry. I'm thinking another Bandit for the foot and Jump Infantry, as it can also carry the Battle Armor.
Not sure what to transport the Motorized Platoons in.

We'll see how things go after facing the One-Eyed Jacks.

snakespinner

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #13 on: 24 October 2015, 17:39:22 »
Good to see your unit trouncing the opfor.
For an unusual mix of units that was an excellent victory.
Tell your opponent not to blame the dice rolls, it was your brilliance that got you the win. :))
I wish I could get a good grip on reality, then I would choke it.
Growing old is inevitable,
Growing up is optional.
Watching TrueToaster create evil genius, priceless...everything else is just sub-par.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #14 on: 24 October 2015, 19:29:19 »
Good to see your unit trouncing the opfor.
For an unusual mix of units that was an excellent victory.
Tell your opponent not to blame the dice rolls, it was your brilliance that got you the win. :))

I wish it were my brilliance. Heh.

Well, the plan was:
Drillsons and Pegasi were to run behind his units and distract and/or get rear shots.
Von Luckner and Bushwacker were to deploy hidden and pop out with some nasty close-range firepower once he moved past them to get some nice rear murdervating going.
The Patton and Gallowglas were there to be victi... err... the anvil upon which the Drillson/ Pegasus hammer would strike. It didn't *quite* work out that way, but close enough.

And I actually had a moment of miniature snobbery. I could have salvaged the Shootist, which is a fairly solid looking mech, but so... so hideous.

snakespinner

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #15 on: 24 October 2015, 23:45:52 »
The Shootist is a decent command mech.
The ac 20 does wonderful things.
But it is nice to pick and choose. O0
I wish I could get a good grip on reality, then I would choke it.
Growing old is inevitable,
Growing up is optional.
Watching TrueToaster create evil genius, priceless...everything else is just sub-par.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #16 on: 20 April 2016, 18:24:39 »
So it's been a few months. Looks like we're gearing up for a gaming weekend next May. My friend's command is about to drop in "Spark", meanwhile it's "Final Curtain?" for my command. Looking at my current assets, the three missions I am selecting for this Track are, in order: Recon, Pursuit, then Withdrawal. I figured it would make a nice logical progression, and given that my force is setup with several fast moving strikers, it would benefit my force.

Hopefully, Pursuit and Withdrawal will keep me as the aggressor, rather than the ones being pursued...

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3068)
« Reply #17 on: 25 May 2016, 01:09:36 »
Well, played. Final Curtain? Hurt. A lot. Sadly, this track cost me much more than I earned. Salvage was minimal, with just a Goblin and a Locust 5M. I lost two Drillsons, including one full crew. My Wraith is still damaged. After selling the salvage (didn't want them), converting Warchest Points to Support Points and repairs, my Support Points supply is down 200, and my Warchest Points are down 750. I am right back to where the campaign began at 1000 WP. (Actually I'm 5 up. I converted my c-bill debt from rolling up the command into a WP loss, so only started with 995 WP.)

My next thought is to take a time-out to run a quick Supply mission, to see if I can get some spare WP and some extra SP before running my next track, which is slated to be "Resisting Arrest"
I'm looking forward to playing in a Solaris VII arena. Have never done so before.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #18 on: 11 May 2017, 12:41:40 »
Wow. It's hard to believe I started this four-and-a-half years ago. The command has been doing alright. Still above where it started for Warchest points, but not really excelling. It has expanded quite a bit from the outset, most in the 'Mech and Infantry departments. What started as a small company of Infantry has ballooned to a battalion (Counting the Battle Armor). Mostly because I felt the need for it for Liberation. The 'Mech forces have expanded from a lance to just shy of a company. Still not quite enough to start organizing things into formal lances, so the force will continue to carry its current ad-hoc organization pattern.

I still need to pick a 'Mech for "Piggy" and Wiktoria. That's a different thread entirely. At some point, I'll post the Perseus build for linkage.

I'd still like to add Aerospace assets to the force, and I will need more APCs. I'm thinking of grabbing one more Bandit for the Battle Armor. The Infantry might just settle with some Heavy APC carriers. Debating between Wheeled and Tracked on that.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #19 on: 26 October 2017, 10:41:45 »
For anyone still following...

So, we just finished another round of Total Chaos, and things are looking grim.

"Stirring the Anthill" ended with the Brotherhood looking pretty good. Was able to add an Aerojock to my forces, finally fulfilling something I've been wanting to add for a while. I did have to hire a new squad of battle armor, having one butchered by the Nova Cats. I wasn't able to do much beyond capturing the Ocelot and getting the Kage it's one hit, as the Kage died before I could get my forces near enough to him to make it trigger the reinforcements.

"Click, Click, Boom!" on the other hand, really set me back. A lot. I was not able to fulfill a single objective. I lost two 'Mechs and the pilots. It didn't help that the terrain was not in my favor. Nor the dice. Nor the fact that I goofed and spotted my friend 235 BV by using the BV for the wrong tank. Or rather, using the BV for the right tank, but taking the wrong one.  #P Plus he had an extra 628 BV due to me taking 4 tons of Thunder-Augment mines, which accomplished very little. I could have done about the same with one or two tons of T-A. Or smoke. Smoke might have been the best choice. It would have protected my tank better than the mines did. And still control how my opponent moved. Needless to say, I could not afford to replace my lost Mechs (and Mechwarriors...), and I am now at less than 500 WP. Not enough to move on to the Grim Death track, as originally planned. So I'll be taking a few of the generic Missions instead, to try and bolster my forces with salvage and more WP. And hopefully set myself up for a successful Solaris VII mini-campaign.
« Last Edit: 26 October 2017, 10:44:33 by Azakael »

Lamont-Cranston

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #20 on: 28 October 2017, 07:29:48 »
Dedication to still be going.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #21 on: 29 October 2017, 14:31:13 »
Oh, after last game it was almost a table flip. Almost.

Demon55

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #22 on: 23 February 2018, 15:15:02 »
Oh, after last game it was almost a table flip. Almost.

Then your victory was in not flipping the table good sir!

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #23 on: 26 March 2018, 01:08:22 »
Then your victory was in not flipping the table good sir!

That it was.
We're coming up on our next gathering for the campaign. I'm *hoping* to recover some of my losses. I have to run some of the generic missions in order to afford the next major campaign track. But the missions will also help go towards the Solaris VII mini campaign, which might get me the shot in the arm of WP I need to feel comfortable that my command will make it through.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #24 on: 20 May 2018, 02:43:15 »
Well, the first mission of this weekend for my command has been played and things went... okay. Could have been better. Could have been a lot worse.
My biggest mistake was getting greedy and trying to take a shot I didn't need to take, generating more heat than I really needed to. Which caused me to shut down. And suffer aimed shots to the CT. Fuzzbuckets.

Update - second and final mission of Mecha De Mayo finished. This was RNG hell. I think I had Hellbie dice. Missing easy target numbers aside; my Bushwacker pilot blacked out on the first head hit, the second half of my forces weren't slated to arrive for seven turns, I lost initiative in all but the first two, and the final turn - especially when it counted, the Wraith took a head hit from a Clan ER PPC from a prone opponent. My dispossessed Mechwarrior took over the mech that lost its pilot, while I went ahead and said, "Sure, I'll repair the Word of Blake mech and give it a pilot." Every pilot I had that was "On Solaris VII" was injured, so I needed an extra hand. But I went ahead and spent an extra month downtime to get most people healed up. I'm ahead in WP, but a little down in SP, because I lost a 75 ton standard tech mech, which would run me about 1500 sp to replace with something in the same weight class.

Still a bit twerked about losing the Perseus. I went ahead and bought the figure, and started to kitbash it into the variant I used. Now I'm not sure what I'll do with the mini. Probably do a second FWL company. Or revise the existing one with the inclusion of the Perseus - I wasn't that far along on the kitbash. Can't buy a new one for the command, because it isn't available for mercenary forces, and we've been pretty strict on buying new units.
« Last Edit: 21 May 2018, 23:50:42 by Azakael »

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3070)
« Reply #25 on: 24 October 2018, 00:43:33 »
(Bah, this is my thread warning. I can necropost if I want to.)

So yet another weekend of Battletech is over, and I have uh... well. My WP are starting to get back to a comfortable place. I still need more SP so I can acquire more 'Mechs for the upcoming "Grim Death" scenario. I am about to run into a small hiccup. I need to run a "Probe" mission, but "Probe" doesn't exist in the book. I've got one of two thoughts. One is to use starter book Sword and Dragon and Campaign Operations to hammer together a compatible version of the Probe mission. Or I'll just post an errata suggestion to remove it as a required mission for all mini campaigns.

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3071)
« Reply #26 on: 23 October 2019, 19:54:36 »
So, I kinda' neglected this thread after our Mecha-de-Mayo gathering this year. I did post the first of the two missions I ran. Didn't bother posting the second. It was... not good. I bumped up just a smidge in warchest points, but I had to ignore repairing my units, which I could risk since the next missions used a different set of units from those that were in the Recon-In-Force mission.

After the Supply Run this month, I knew I had to finally run "Grim Death." If I failed the mission, I might as well have written the command off, as I would have been negative in Warchest points, with a bunch of damaged units. So with that in mind, I took my entire supply of Support Points, plus the points I got from my Supply Run and picked up an AWS-8Q Awesome and an HBK-4P Hunchback. A pair of solid retro-tech (which is what I'm calling it at this point in the Jihad...) units.

Success in "Grim Death" allowed me to repair everything, and replace vehicle crew. It also gives me a much better cushion of Warchest points for a while. Hopefully I can continue to go positive again.

One self-imposed restriction I've had, which has made things harder on me, is that I've been leaving the units that were involved with the Solaris VII mini-campaign "on Solaris" and therefore unable to participate in missions, "Not on Solaris." Once I finish that campaign, I'm pretty done with that idea. But I also think it's the last mini-campaign that takes place over multiple years.

A few things I would consider if I were running this over again:
- Convert SP to C-Bills for unit purchasing. Some units are not worth the Tonnage x 20 cost for being Standard Tech because of how little Standard tech they contain.
- Allow Strat Ops rules for customizing units.
- When setting up a mission, purchase everything on base BV and then add skills.
« Last Edit: 23 October 2019, 20:02:59 by Azakael »

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3071)
« Reply #27 on: 14 March 2021, 14:25:44 »
So, there was no Mecha-de-Mayo last year. (Neither of us want to play the campaign via Megamek.) We did meet for Mechtoberfest.

I didn't bother recording any after action reports.
Arrogance in Savage Silence cost me. The command has bad luck with new pilots bringing SW era gear. I brought the Awesome and the Hunchback in. Thought that facing green pilots in crappy weather would be a cakewalk. Nope. I should have brought fast moving units instead of these slow boaters. There was a cool moment when the OpFor had a Hunchback that fell over next to the Awesome, Awesome the gave him a boot to the head. Unfortunately, mud and bad positioning kept me from getting mobile. Which allowed him to play Turret Warrior with the Catapult with HPPCs. Both 'Mechs were destroyed. So far, other than vehicle crews, only new hires have died. The old guard seems to be keeping alive and kicking.

I don't recall how Free-Fire-Zone went. I just know that I won the mission.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep track of the next matches when we get together again. Of course, at the rate we've been playing, we'll be finishing my command's run through in... oh... eight more years. Assuming we don't start focusing entirely on mine after his finishes up. (I think we're two years away from that at this rate.)

Azakael

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Re: The Brotherhood of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3071)
« Reply #28 on: 01 June 2021, 01:14:16 »
So, just finished up this year's Mecha-de-Mayo. The Brotherhood survived Solaris VII and got paid for their contract. The extra influx of cash puts them in a much more comfortable position now, and allowed me to pick up a couple of new 'Mechs - since I couldn't seem to salvage anything worthwhile this time around. So we have a Phoenix Hawk PHX-3PL with a veteran pilot, and an Ostsol OST-6D also with a veteran pilot.

Sadly, it'll have to wait until Mechtoberfest to see if they were worth the investment.
« Last Edit: 01 June 2021, 01:28:52 by Azakael »

Azakael

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Re: The Scions of Outreach - Trial Through Fire (3067-3072)
« Reply #29 on: 02 November 2021, 00:10:30 »
'Mechtoberfest '21 aftermath:

Spark - The P.Hawk and Ostsol were indeed a good investment. The Ostsol was the better choice. I ended up not punching stuff in the head like I had hoped. However, he was responsible for taking a Marauder completely out of action. It was a rough use, because the mission ended up reducing all walking speeds by two. Which slowed him down quite a bit. The P.Hawk was nice, but I need to not move him ahead of the rest of the force. All in all it ended up being a near milk run because I could jump with 3 out of 4 units and he could jump with 1 out of 4, and again, walking speeds were reduced. (Even with the reduced walking speed, the freaking Mongoose was fast as heck, generating to-hit modifiers that I still found hard to reach for most of the game.)

Burning Bridges - Okay. I knew this was going to be a bit much when I took it. I remember what happened to my friend *coughfiveyearagocough* when he ran it.
It did not go well for my forces either. I brought the Watchman, four squads of infantry, two Pegasi, and the J.Edgar.
His initial drop ended up being just shy of 10K BV, because the Word forces got the lion's share of his BV because of how they rolled. (Three heavies, and a medium.)
Then I noticed that *his* mercs show up turn 4 (The remaining 4K worth), when *my* merc support shows up turn 5 (5k-ish). And then at the end of the next turn, they may not be *my* merc support anymore. The final straw was realizing that his elite 70-ton Deva had ER PPCs and a targeting computer on it. With a 2/3 pilot. There was nothing I would be able to do against that. I could have dragged the game out and forced him to chase my hover tanks around for 15 turns. Possibly doing some damage with the 'Merc mechs until they finally turn on me or retreat. Or I could do what I inevitably did, which is walk my forces off the battlefield so that the majority of my losses would be the WC point cost for taking the track.
The final result was a loss of the two Jump Platoon Infantry (Energy) and 2500 WP.
Looking at the costs to replace the Jump infantry, I decided that I would instead snag two Myrmidon Medium Tanks and re-acquire infantry later, when I'm more financially solvent.

As a side note. *If* you are writing tracks for public consumption, I strongly suggest that any mission where a side has a mix of factions or units offer a percentage breakdown for how much of the force belongs to that group. Especially if the side has mixed experience, tech ratings, or if the mission has special rules related to a specific part of that side. Breaking Bridges would have worked better if the Attacker set up said, "The Attacker's force should be 150% of the Defender's total force, 25% of which is the Eleventh Division, 25% the Forty-seventh Shadow Division, and the remaining 50% split equally amongst the mercenary forces." - Or whatever mix of forces the author originally intended.
« Last Edit: 02 November 2021, 00:28:55 by Azakael »