Purgatory 3074

[Precentor Scorpio]

Gencon August 8, 2011
Three Level II's of ComGuards vs Four Level II's from the Word of Blake's 8th Special Operations Group fighting in the city of Brest on the planet Alkaid as both sides began preparing for the eventual invasion of Hesperus in November of 3074.

The ComGuard's mission was to use their battlearmor to rip open a Pegasus hovercraft disabled earlier in the fighting and retreive any documents from the hovercraft.  The Word of Blake's mission was to retrieve and if that was not possible to eliminate Portia Young.  An administrator from the planet Alkaid's government council.

Lets see if I can post any pictures.

[Precentor Scorpio]

Here is photo of a civilian truck that I added to the city.  Just to add some more character.

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Here are some additional photos.

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More photos.

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Still more photos

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Still some more photos.  Sorry

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Last group of photos.

[Precentor Scorpio]

The battle should have been bloodier for the ComGuards.  The modified hovercraft used by the Word of Blake were crammed full of rocket launchers.  Maybe, 20% of the rocket launchers hit a target.  The number was probably closer to 15% if that.

My Word of Blake battlearmor did not inflict any significant damage on the ComGuards.  Needing a five  I rolled a four. Etc. 

My modified Drillsons with their standard PPC did hit and twice I popped the ComGuard Highlander in the back.  Unfortunately, the first PPC hit the rear left torso and on the next turn, the PPC hit the rear right torso.

One of the ComGuards Flashman blew up because of the AMS ammo exploded destroying the internal structure in the right torso as well as the XL engine.

The five Zephyr hovercraft were destroyed or immobilized as well as three of the Word of Blake's Drillson hovercraft. 

The Administrator Portia Young had just run outside of the building to board a hovercraft when the hovercraft was destroyed.  (I was wondering if the ComGuards were going to kill her instead of the hovercraft.)

One of the ComGuard Mercury's right torso was blown through, destroyed, but since there was no XL engine it stayed in the game.

Victory was awarded to the ComGuards.  While they did not "approach" the Pegasus they were getting closer, and the Word of Blake made no attempt to destroy any of the vehicles that were ambushed.  With the losses incurred by the Word of Blake's vehicle forces, the Word of Blake would have a hard time defeating the ComGuards.

[Precentor Scorpio]

Thank you to Buster and Dan for playing the game.  I trust that you did have fun. 
I received several compliments regarding the building and the modular city so that was good.
The tables at GenCon were wonderful in size and there was plenty of spacing to walk in between the tables.
If I return to GenCon, the battles will be smaller, probably binary vs 3 Level II's or a Inner Sphere mech company.

[Precentor Scorpio]

At the beginning of the game, I had some dice and a mash hovercraft on the table just to see if anyone would shoot at the civilians and/or the Mash hovercraft.

[Precentor Scorpio]

OH Yes, the first damage inflicted on a Mercury was the Mercury attempting to kick a Zephyr, missing the kick and then failing the piloting roll.

It is always a challenge choosing piloting skills at a convention.  Usually, you are limited to a certain time limit and if you make the pilots too good, everything hits and if you make the pilots average, then you might not inflict any damage.

I thought the ComGuards had a nice selection of piloting and gunnery skills.  I know Buster appreciated the 2/3 pilots he had.  I had two 2/3 gunners, and several 3/4 gunners.  My battlearmor had a base of 3 so I cannot complain about the Word of Blake. 

I had some unlucky dice rolls. 

[kharnifex]

very nice, thanks for sharing, love the terrain!

[kbeaudo]

Great Job Ed,

I wish I could have been there.

take care

[Lorcan Nagle]

How long did the game take to play?  I'd be interested to see it rerun using Quickstrike and see if the lethality changed...

[Precentor Scorpio]

Since this was at GenCon, the game was 'designed" to be played in four hours which approximates 8 turns. 

In the same 4 hour time frame, the Quickstrike lethality would be much greater.  With the way the Word of Blake was rolling, the ComGuards would have won.  But, the ComGuards would have probably suffered 40-50% casualties. 

This game should have been more punishing to the ComGuards.  I could honestly care less about the Word of Blake's battlearmor missing their targets, it was the low number of rockets fired from the Zephyrs that actually hit a ComGuard target that denied the Word of Blake any chance of victory.

If this game was played where there is no time limit, I would have waited until the Word of Blake battlemechs were in firing position before I charged with my hovercraft.  However, since there is a time limit involved, I decided to rush the hovercraft forward knowing that my hovercraft would get destroyed.  But, again, I was hoping for successful rocket fire to weaken the ComGuard mechs allowing the Word of Blake mechs to kill off three to five of the ComGuard mechs before the game would be called.