Author Topic: When it all goes to hell... (Read 6910 times)

Bosefius · « **Reply #30 on:** 18 July 2019, 14:52:32 »

I have two

1) I'm running the "White Ghost, Black Death" WWE (that saw the OV get their heads kicked in by Loren Jaffrey and his ragtag band. Jaffrey's side had already cleared half the board, the only real threat left is a Viking on the OV side. Slade and Mindar (forum handles) are in partial cover, pounding on the Viking, Slade with an Akuma, Mindar in a Rifleman. The Viking let's rip on the Akuma, ends up doing light damage everywhere but, importantly, it does 8 to the head. Last LRM fires, 8 missiles hit. First 5 LL, which hits the hill because partial cover. Mindar looks at Slade and says "You're fine unless he hits your head". Next roll, 3 points to head. Roll for crits, 12. Akuma falls over unhurt but headless. Mindar is no longer allowed to tell us what we "don't need to happen".

2) We are running a city fight, part of the fighting between Liao and Davion during the FedCom Civil War. My FedCom Axeman has two kills, one a decapitation with the axe and the other AC20 through the CT of a light mech. On the next street over a Liao Jinggau has stopped, perfectly lined up for be to jump behind. So over the building I go, landing three hexes behind the Jinggau. I fire everything, AC20 hits untouched leg, everything else spreads out, no internal damage. But I'm fine, he can, at most, hit me with one arm. Until he asks for clarification, "As long as I don't have hand or lower arm actuators I can arm flip, right". Me, "Right, why do you... Crap". Jinggau arm flips and proceeds too put a Gauss through the head of the Axeman, along with the rest of his weapons ripping the arm off.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #31 on:** 18 July 2019, 14:59:12 »

Ooh, I remember White Ghost, Black Death.

I was on the Highlander side and we'd adopted a defensive position around the mouth of a canyon the Blakists had to come through, when suddenly the guy running our assault lance decided to go Leroy Jenkins and charge all four of his mechs out into the open where they could be seen by the entire Blakist force while the rest of our company couldn't see anything.

We lost the Highlander and Black Watch in the first round, then the other two mechs (can't remember what they were anymore) followed shortly thereafter.

Of course, things weren't helped by the GM letting the other team use BMR rules for Targeting Computers.

truetanker · « **Reply #32 on:** 18 July 2019, 16:32:26 »

Have you ever DFA an Atlas while using a Hover APC that loses PSR control while cruising on the Mountain map?

I have...

Tried to make the curve and failed, ran off the cliff right smack into an Atlas' head. Took it on the right side...

I've also used a sprayer fueled by oil to slick a Hussar into a side of a building to cause it to collapse on itself.

TT

Daryk · « **Reply #33 on:** 18 July 2019, 16:43:30 »

That's... pretty much the exact opposite of something going to hell... I mean, that's simply MADE OF PURE AWESOME! :D

truetanker · « **Reply #34 on:** 18 July 2019, 16:48:27 »

It was MY Atlas and my APC...

I DFA'd my own force...

TT

Daryk · « **Reply #35 on:** 18 July 2019, 16:51:04 »

Ohhhh… OK, that DEFINITELY counts! :thumbsup:

ANS Kamas P81 · « **Reply #36 on:** 18 July 2019, 21:08:18 »

Quote from: truetanker on 18 July 2019, 16:48:27

It was MY Atlas and my APC...

I DFA'd my own force...

Yet it made a very fetching hat, don't you think?

CrossfirePilot · « **Reply #37 on:** 18 July 2019, 23:54:46 »

Very Dapper!

Iceweb · « **Reply #38 on:** 19 July 2019, 00:24:46 »

Quote from: Kovax on 18 July 2019, 10:09:42

First game, round 1, his GHR and my TDR are at 21 hexes, and we both need 12's to hit.

Second game, his Spider against my Javelin, we both run to close the range, and both end up with 12s to hit

12s to hit at long range being obnoxious (and too often coming with crits) are why I can't live without the glancing blows optional rule. Saves way too many rage quits.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #39 on:** 19 July 2019, 01:06:39 »

There was a Clan star-v-star fight I played in. Honor rules level 1 were in effect, as were forced withdrawl. I end up with a Daishi H vs a Turkina D.

First round, at 27 hexes it hits me with one ATM 12, gets snake eyes on the location, and puts two crits into my Gyro.

Of course, he wasn't laughing so hard several rounds later when my Ryoken E got right up next to him, Alpha Striked, and proceeded to hit with everything and put it all into his right torso. Ripped him clean in half in one round.

H.B.M.C. · « **Reply #40 on:** 19 July 2019, 01:13:39 »

Playing a Solaris Free-For-All with about 5-6 players. Everyone either has big beefy close combat 'Mechs, or custom 'Mechs. It's going to be an absolute bloodbath, and my Berserker is just itching to get in there!

First turn, I'm mid-initiative, and decide I'm going for it. MASC engage... double 1.

:-[

Well that didn't last long... :bang:

BYE

Mohammed As`Zaman Bey · « **Reply #41 on:** 19 July 2019, 11:14:55 »

Okay, I'm the GM in this campaign most of the players are veterans and don't even require cheat sheets for rolling Mods or Locations. They also have a habit of using the Easy button as often as possible.

They easily capture a base once held by rebels and find out there's a company-sized infantry force in the rump town you'd find just outside any military base. The rebels are scrambling and look like they are getting ready to run.

The genius in charge, who just had a regiment curbstomp the defending rebel battalion decides to reach for the Easy button and has a dropship lift off, fly over, and incinerate the fleeing enemy before the left the center of town. After I asked "Are you sure?" three times, he kept mashing that button until I shrugged... I described to him what happens when a DS lands. The infantry company and its lorries were easily vaporized, as was most of the town. The crater was three levels deep and by some mysterious coincidence, all the utilities, like power, communication lines, gas and water, were routed under the town that happened to be just outside the main gate. The town's population was about 10,000...was...and over the next few days, people outside the town were posting videos of their friends and relatives in their homes and even underground bunkers, being vaporized.

Needless to say, the players' unit was the best recruiting campaign the rebels could ever hope for, because these players went out of their way to keep stepping on it...they managed to turn a minor, regional grievance into a full-fledged planetary uprising, from an insignificant riot detail to total war:

Captain Tai: Let's break their morale by publicly torturing and executing prisoners!
Captain Dong: Sorry, didn't hear that, I'm going to lunch.
Walking away when the sociopaths are breaking laws does not absolve you of involvement...

JadeHellbringer · « **Reply #42 on:** 19 July 2019, 11:39:14 »

Free-for-all game, every player could bring a custom Mech up to a certain BV limit (which I admit I've forgotten). Hellbie showed up in a rather fetching Atlas packing Streak missiles, ER medium lasers, and a trio of LGRs- it worked better than it sounds like, at least in Megamek tests.

...but not today.

Atlas spots an enemy in the urban jungle map we're on, and lumbers towards a traffic circle with a fountain in the middle of it- the plan is to take control of the intersection, fling Gauss slugs down the street at anything that moves, and light up anything that manages to get close with enough lasers and SRMs to make me very happy.

Atlas, however, apparently didn't have good tread on the bottom of its feet, and slipped on the pavement. Well, okay, a couple of five-point hits and a pilot hit, that's embarassing, but I can salvage th-

-wait, it skidded too? Oh. Well, that's even more annoying, but-

-into the fountain's Lv.1 water? Okaaay, but the head took damage from skidding into the hex so I have to do a breach check-

-...yeah, my mint-condition assault Mech slipped, fell into waist-high water- a single hex of it- and drowned there. Children are pinging coins off my pilot's corpse to make a wish.

MarauderD · « **Reply #43 on:** 19 July 2019, 16:24:21 »

That is some amazing luck. Ouch!

winters_night · « **Reply #44 on:** 20 July 2019, 00:26:09 »

Was teaching a friend how to play Battletech after playing Mechwarrior Online. He took a Shadow Cat and a Stormcrow, I plopped down a Dire Wolf, turn 1 the Shadow Cat pops the head off the Dire Wolf with his gauss rifle.

WHELP! That's Battletech in a way! I told him, so we reset up, I dropped the Dire Wolf and took a Summoner and a Night Gyr, he took the PPC Timber Wolf and something I can't remember. Turn 1 Timber headcaps my Summoner.

He liked learning Battletech

wundergoat · « **Reply #45 on:** 21 July 2019, 23:38:28 »

We just won an engagement with a Clan star and their last unit, a Ice Ferret Prime, was withdrawing in haste. I figured screw it, I'll stand still and take pot shots at it as it runs.

It torso twists to take a shot back at me, and drills me in the cockpit.

That's what I get for being greedy.

Alexander Knight · « **Reply #46 on:** 22 July 2019, 01:23:32 »

Pristine BLR-1G stomping through a rubble hex that used to be a building.

Fails piloting roll.

Damages left arm, TAC.

MG ammo crit.

We scrounged up a mushroom cloud of cotton for that hex and joked that a cinder block had a kill marker on it now.

Lynx · « **Reply #47 on:** 22 July 2019, 02:08:22 »

This was a number of years and a number of systems ago. Was playing Solaris rules IIRC, in Ishiyama. Boy that mountain earned its nickname.

Can't remember what mech I was using -- think was a Beemer. First step, mine. Second, Mine. Third, Pit. Fourth, Pit WITH Mine.

There wasn't a fifth. At that point it was clear I wasn't fighting a duel, I was fighting the MOUNTAIN.

Church14 · « **Reply #48 on:** 22 July 2019, 07:45:39 »

I played a double blind 3025 megamek game where I brought a Jenner and three hunchbacks. I get lucky and draw a city map. I spend 3 turns carefully spotting with the Jenner and hiding my hunchbacks. I get to a point where I know I can run around the last building and stop 1 hex short of letting his four harchetmen get melee in.

Hunchback 1 fails PSR and skids into a building. It took a pilot hit(s?) and passed out. Hunchback 2 and 3 navigate the corner and only need 5s to hit. We had the optional rapid fire rule in effect so I double tapped the AC20s. One rolled a 2 and exploded, taking the whole torso off. The other rolled a 3.

He had targeted the building the Jenner was on and hit it with all 4 ac10s. The building collapsed.

That’s the first game of battletech where one turn went so badly that it took the wind out of my sails and I just offered to concede and start over.

JadeHellbringer · « **Reply #49 on:** 22 July 2019, 13:55:00 »

Dover, Delaware. My merry band of players has requested the GM (Bosefius) to allow us to use semi-guided LRMs in our forces, and he's grudgingly agreed. Hellbie suggests setting the LRM Mechs up behind a large hill as a result. Hellbie's advice is ignored- instead the LRM boats are on a Lv.3 plateau with only one ramp leading up or down. Hellbie is displeased. Hellbie is then told he's in charge of a couple of the LRM boats that just got offered as sacrifices to the gaming gods. Hellbie, by now thoroughly enjoying talking about himself in the third person, sees where this is going. Just... not quite the way it got there.

See, among the Mechs in his command is a Yeoman.

And among the Mechs charging up the ramp to beat his Mechs to a pulp is a Berserker. The TSM one. THAT thing.

Ever see a walking waffle get sliced in half by a 40-point hatchet strike to the CT? There was nothing to be done about it, the setup was almost custom-designed to be self-groin-punchingly bad, but I was ready to eat my fellow players with farva beans and a nice chianti by the time that turn ended.

Tangoforone · « **Reply #50 on:** 22 July 2019, 15:38:57 »

I lost a Toyama in the first round of combat to a headshot from a heavy PPC. After it had done nothing but run up the map. There went my heaviest mech. Lost to the nether. The rest of the fight went downhill from there.

Lorcan Nagle · « **Reply #51 on:** 22 July 2019, 16:06:00 »

Did I ever tell you all of the time I used orbital bombardment in a regular game of BT? We did the missions from Jihad Turning Points: Luthien as a loose narrative campaign, and for the one where there's a fight with the DCMS, Nova Cats and WoB, I decided to use a warship. Paid for with points so it all balanced out. And it was a glorious mess. We had 4 urban mapsheets and 2 of relatively open terrain, with the Nova Cats coming in on the open terrain, WoB in the middle, and the DCMS on the far side or the urban section. The best/worst moment was when a squad of Djinn TAGged a Combine Mech, but the orbiral shot still missed. It scattered, and still took out the mech I was aiming for. And two other DCMS mechs. And the Djinn squad. And an undamged Seraph...

Daryk · « **Reply #52 on:** 22 July 2019, 16:10:41 »

Hellbie: wait, wait, wait... they gave you "control" of a unit, but not its deployment?? WTF??? ???

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #53 on:** 22 July 2019, 16:25:56 »

Quote from: JadeHellbringer on 22 July 2019, 13:55:00

Dover, Delaware. My merry band of players has requested the GM (Bosefius) to allow us to use semi-guided LRMs in our forces, and he's grudgingly agreed. Hellbie suggests setting the LRM Mechs up behind a large hill as a result. Hellbie's advice is ignored- instead the LRM boats are on a Lv.3 plateau with only one ramp leading up or down.

What the heck was the point in taking semi-guided LRMs if they were just going to stick the missile boats there?

JadeHellbringer · « **Reply #54 on:** 23 July 2019, 07:43:11 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 22 July 2019, 16:25:56

What the heck was the point in taking semi-guided LRMs if they were just going to stick the missile boats there?

That was my question too. The original plan was to use indirect fire, so I spent several minutes arguing a case for those semi-guided rounds- we had several TAG units, after all, we were a WoB force so we'd have access to the fun toys, etc.- and when I finally got that call made, everything got moved forward 'so we'd have better numbers early-on'.

Years of hockey have given me a pretty vivid vocabulary. I exhausted most of it by the time that Berserker even approached the ramp.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #55 on:** 23 July 2019, 10:27:19 »

Mike Tyson once said that everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face, but some people insist on leading with their chin.

E. Icaza · « **Reply #56 on:** 23 July 2019, 10:54:29 »

A friend and I were playing a Clan vs. Inner Sphere game and we were using the engine explosion rules from one of the earlier supplements and rules for falls from higher elevations. He had a Star and I had an IS company. After Turn 1 initiative was over, he fired first, his Warhawk struck my QKD-4G Quickdraw with both ER PPCs, one in the RT and the other in the LT. Both locations have only 14 pts of armor, so he rolled crits and got ammo hits in both locations.

The ammo explosion triggered an engine explosion and the BJ-1 Blackjack standing right next to the Quickdraw took the brunt of it. Including taking the head off of the BJ-1 Blackjack. To make matters worse, under the falling rules we were using, the Blackjack fell into a neighboring hex and fell on top of my Battlemaster.

Rolling hit locations, the Battlemaster took minimal damage, but did take a shot to the head and the Battlemaster pilot failed a Consciousness check and when rolling for hit locations it fell...on its head, breaching the armor and rolling a cockpit crit and killed the pilot.

Once we caught our breaths from laughing so hard, I told him that my side surrendered. I mean, look at it from their point of view...We were playing early in the Clan Invasion and this unknown 'Mech literally just walked onto the board and fired twice, but KILLED THREE 'MECHS. Of course, I would surrender!

To this day, almost 25 years later, I can say, "Hey, how may points of Right/Left Torso armor does a 3025 Quickdraw have?" to my best friend and still get a smile.

Daryk · « **Reply #57 on:** 23 July 2019, 15:57:23 »

Designed in an era prior to 15 point weapons... ::)

Colt Ward · « **Reply #58 on:** 23 July 2019, 15:58:28 »

Designed in a era of 20 point weapons?

Daryk · « **Reply #59 on:** 23 July 2019, 16:10:31 »

In an era of ONE 20-point weapon, that weighed 14 tons, and only had 5 shots per ton of ammo...