Author Topic: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade  (Read 3077 times)

Weirdo

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Sevengates and I played an interesting scenario, a city fight pitting a large number of Urbanmechs against a single Colossal tripod. He was given 6,000 BV to build a large force of Urbanmechs (any canon variants), padding any spare points with infantry, while I got 4,000 points to build a force consisting of one superheavy tripod, again padding the rest of the points with infantry. It would be a city battle, with my force deploying hidden.

Deployed forces were:

Me:
Ares Hera x1
Kopis (Anti-infantry) squad x1
Simian (HMG) squad x2

Sevengates:
UM-R60 Urbanmech x2
UM-R60L Urbanmech x10
Jump Laser Platoon x1
Foot SRM Platoon x1
Foot Rifle Platoon x2


The charge of the light beer brigade...


First turn, they stumble upon my forward-hidden assault suit squad...and utterly obliterate them in one salvo. I guess this is my fault, both for the poor deployment and for doing so many horrible things in the past that people have learned to pay my infantry proper respect.


Couple turns later, lead elements stumble upon my hidden minefield...which fails to detonate. But this is when the Ares revealed itself, and in one salvo reduced Dances with Landmines into drifting shrapnel.


This began my pattern of sidestepping around corners to keep the number of enemies able to shoot me at any one time to a minimum. Tripod maneuverability was an utter godsend throughout this game.


There were exceptions to the pattern. I took plenty of hits, but this turn saw three Urbies killed or crippled in a single salvo.


More sidestepping. Only took fire from one enemy this turn, and carved off his heavy cannon in return.


Returned to the main road, mostly to avoid getting kicked in the face by a roofhopper. Blew the leg off that Urbanmech to the left. At this point, my main concern is that attrition has stripped my center torso of armor.


New pattern: turn my back to the most dangerous foe to protect my front, then twist around to shoot them.


More of the same. By the way, that Simian squad on the right proved to be little more than a distraction and accomplished almost nothing, but the one in the back left was a big help, reducing an infantry platoon to mush and forcing a few Urbies to move defensively for fear of leg attacks or back shots.


This is the point where we called it for time. My center has been reduced to 19 internal structure, my Heavy Gauss arm has been hanging on by only one point for a while now, and my other arm has no armor. On the other hand, he's down to only one big-gun Urbie that still has both legs, and two fresh ones of the base model. I'm happy with my force's performance, but we both agreed that if we continued, it could go either way.

Two interesting bits: The tripod ability to turn to any direction for only 1 MP combined with 360 twisting saved my butt countless times. It gave me the near-perfect ability to sidestep around a corner, and twist to bring my guns to bear against all the targets I wished, and later on to present my toughest armor to the more dangerous does.

Second, we played with quirks, and while winning initiative 90% of the time was very nice for me, his Low Profile saved him a LOT of damage, especially when it forced my iHGR into glancing blows. I'm kinda sad we didn't get a chance to see an Urbanmech survive a Heavy Gauss to the face.
My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
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Natasha Kerensky

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #1 on: 13 January 2020, 10:43:09 »

Thanks for sharing.  Interesting how critical tripod movement and torso twisting was to keeping the Ares in the game.  UM-R80s and -AIVs would have negated that advantage (but also would have been a munchy force from your opponent).
"Ah, yes.  The belle dame sans merci.  The sweet young thing who will blast your nuts off.  The kitten with a whip.  That mystique?"
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Weirdo

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #2 on: 13 January 2020, 11:45:44 »
Not sure how munchy. He was allowed to use any variant he chose, and I actually expected at least a couple Scout Cans and UrbieNukes - my original plan was to draw the rest of his force forward, then use the mobility of the Simians to work their way around and neutralize his artillery assets.

Another thing about superheavies - don't be shy about getting very aggressive when you can catch a solo target. EVERY time I got the chance to get into melee range, that was a crippled enemy right there, on top of the damage my guns were doing to other targets. 27-point kicks HURT.
My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
"We are the tribal elders. Weirdo is the mushroom specialist." - Worktroll

sevengates

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #3 on: 14 January 2020, 03:18:54 »
I have no complaints about the game; it was quite entertaining.  :thumbsup:; maybe we'll try it again sometime.

in regards to next Sunday's game options, I would like to add Alpha Strike; haven't run that in a while.
Don't let the vengence of heaven be you---Gary Numan

truetanker

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #4 on: 14 January 2020, 20:48:49 »
Wonder how Captain Zippy of the UrbanMech Calvaty would have fought, sans air support from the droppers?

Should be fun... Wobbles and all!

TT
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Weirdo

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #5 on: 15 January 2020, 00:34:25 »
Wonder how Captain Zippy of the UrbanMech Calvaty would have fought, sans air support from the droppers?

Should be fun... Wobbles and all!

TT

My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
"We are the tribal elders. Weirdo is the mushroom specialist." - Worktroll

Valkerie

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #6 on: 20 January 2020, 01:15:44 »
Very intriguing game.  Thank you for the write up and the photos. 8)
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truetanker

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #7 on: 20 January 2020, 13:38:37 »


I see smoke.... whatcha thinkin' Weirdo?

TT
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
That is, if true tanker doesn't beat me to it. He makes truly evil units.Col.Hengist on 31 May 2013
TT, we know you are the master of nasty  O0 ~ Fletch on 22 June 2013
If I'm attacking you, conventional wisom says to bring 3x your force.  I want extra insurance, so I'll bring 4 for every 1 of what you have :D ~ Tai Dai Cultist on 21 April 2016
Me: Would you rather fight my Epithymía Thanátou from the Whispers of Blake?
Nav_Alpha: That THING... that is horrid
~ Nav_Alpha on 10 October 2016

Weirdo

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #8 on: 20 January 2020, 16:07:08 »
Still trying to figure out what on/off Earth your post was trying to say...
My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
"We are the tribal elders. Weirdo is the mushroom specialist." - Worktroll

truetanker

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Re: A game of Kick the Can, or the Charge of the Light Beer Brigade
« Reply #9 on: 20 January 2020, 20:39:36 »
Search for Captain Zippy on this forum...

Unit is a non-Canon one by StCptMara.

TT
« Last Edit: 20 January 2020, 20:42:04 by truetanker »
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
That is, if true tanker doesn't beat me to it. He makes truly evil units.Col.Hengist on 31 May 2013
TT, we know you are the master of nasty  O0 ~ Fletch on 22 June 2013
If I'm attacking you, conventional wisom says to bring 3x your force.  I want extra insurance, so I'll bring 4 for every 1 of what you have :D ~ Tai Dai Cultist on 21 April 2016
Me: Would you rather fight my Epithymía Thanátou from the Whispers of Blake?
Nav_Alpha: That THING... that is horrid
~ Nav_Alpha on 10 October 2016

 

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