3068 - Operation Thunderstrike: Halloran V (PIC HEAVY)

[StuartYee]

I wrote a scenario below in similar format to the old FASA scenarios. It is "quasi-canon" as there's no indication that the Red Lancers would have participated in such an action.

I used the MUL to try to balance the forces in terms of BV.

A co-worker and I managed to get through 2 turns (we set up games during our lunch break), so an "after-action" summary follows as well.

Here it go:

October 3068

Halloran V

Background: The Jihad rages on in the Inner Sphere and Federated Suns troops have invaded the Capellan Confederation under Duke Hasek's Operation Sovereign Justice. Believing Chancellor Sun Tzu to have died in an apparent Davion orbital strike over Sian, Strategic Military Director Talon Zahn declares himself regent and launches a Capellan counter-attack under the Operational name Thunderstrike.

The Third Prong in Operation Thunderstrike targeted several worlds including Halloran V where the 1st Federated Suns Armored Cavalry had previously fallen back to.

ATTACKER
Capellan Confederation
Elements of the Red Lancers

YU HUANG Y-H9G
Sang-Wei Harald Lau (1/3)

TI TS'ANG TSG-9J
Sao-Wei Dmitri Petrov (2/2)

SHADOW HAWK SHD-2K
Sao-Wei Cheung Jiao-Ting (3/4)

STINGER STG-3G
Si-Ben-Bing Vicente Kuwalski (2/2)

Deployment: Two units designated as the "scout force" may deploy on the Eastern half of the Lake Area map (behind the fold line). The remaining two units may enter during any subsequent turn from the Eastern edge, or on the North or South edges East of the fold line. Players alternate placing their first units on the board.

DEFENDER
Federated Suns
Elements of the 1st Federated Suns Armored Cavalry

EXTERMINATOR EXT-4D
Captain David Caldecott (1/2)

VULTURE (MAD DOG) PRIME
Leftenant George Creighton (2/4)

MONGOOSE MON-66
Leftenant Nigel Rogers (2/1)

GRIFFIN GRF-1DS
Lance Sergeant Zeb Hobson (2/4)

Deployment: Two units designated as the "scout force" may deploy on the Western half of the River Delta/Drainage Basin #2 map (behind the fold line). The remaining two units may enter during any subsequent turn from the Western edge, or on the North or South edges West of the fold line.

Special Rules: When deploying their first two units, players should roll dice. Player with lowest total deploys one unit first, and then deployment alternates until both players deploy their scout force.

Victory Conditions:
This is a stand up fight, last man standing wins.

Optional Rules:
*Scout force may be deployed hidden
*Forced Withdrawl rules may be used, in which BV of units will be used to calculate which side wins.
*See Field Manuals for unit specific special rules.



Yellow are represents Davion deployment zone, green represents Liao deployment zone.

"After Action" report:


From the Capellan view point


DEPLOYMENT: The Davion player places his Mongoose and Griffin on the board first, challenged by a Liao Shadow Hawk and Stinger.

TURN 1: Davion forces walk forward, Capellans respond likewise. The Capellan Yu Huang enters the fray after the Stinger jumps.

Davion Griffin fires an LRM 10 barrage at the Yu Hang and misses. Yu Huang returns fire and scores a hit with its ER PPC to the chest. Capellan Shadow Hawk fires its PPC and misses. Stinger and Mongoose do not fire.


TURN 2: Capellan and Davion forces advance to meet one another, and the Davion player brings his Exterminator into play. The Capellan Stinger (out of frame) "bravely" jumps out the Davion's LOS. Davion Griffin targets the Capellan Shadow Hawk with its LRM 10 as the Capellan Yu Huang takes another shot with its ER PPC at the Griffin and.....


...knocks the Griffin down with a devestating hit to the center torso!


The hit location die roll was 1 and 1- center torso with possible critical hit. The critical hit roll was double sixes for three crits! The poor griffin took two engine hits and a gyro hit resulting in the fall.

To the Griffin pilot's consolation, 6 missiles from his LRM 20 (from a result of 2 on the Cluster hits) hit the Shadow Hawk. Amazingly enough, the Davion player rolled double 1's as well for hit location, but unfortunately did not end up yielding a critical hit.


A smug Yu Huang pilot surveys the battlefield as a Ti Ts'Ang lurks ominously off the board waiting to be deployed. However, the Davions still have a captured Vulture up their sleeve!

To be continued...

[StuartYee]

The Capellan attack on Halloran V continues!


Turn 3:
Both sides commit the last of their reserves, the Capellans bringing out the Ti Ts'ang, and the Fed Suns bringing out their Vulture (not pictured).

With a damaged gyro, the Fed Suns Griffin makes two attempts to stand, failing both, and resolves simply to change facing.



The Capellan Yu Huang fires its ER PPC and LRM10 at the badly crippled Griffin, scoring hits to the now unprotected center torso. A critical hit to the engine results in the Griffin's destruction!

Just before its demise, the Griffin manages to connect an LRM 20 salvo on the Yu Huang inflicting superficial damage.

Other units from both sides trade shots inconclusively.

Now I as the Capellan player am new to usage of TSM tech, so I entered the Ti Ts'ang with heat sinks shut off. At the end of the heat phase after walking and firing the ER Large Laser, I found I was up 14 heat points! I also forgot that I was allowed to turn my heat sinks on during the End Phase of that turn, so I was building up heat through Turn 4 as well!


Elements of the 1st Federated Suns Armored Cavalry regroup after losing a lancemate.


TURN 4: Davion units regroup as the Capellans converge to concentrate their assault. Still coping with overheating, the Ti Ts'ang lags behind while the Vulture races to regroup with the battered Davion force.


The Capellan's Yu Huang must be stopped....


In this turn, the Capellan Shadow Hawk fires upon the Mongoose, as the Yu Huang fires against the Vulture. Both attacks fail to inflict damage.



With supporting firepower from the Davion Exterminator, the Mongoose returns fire against the Shadow Hawk but misses.

The Vulture executes an Alpha Strike against the Yu Huang! With the exception of the Medium Pulse Lasers which are out of range, the barrage hits the Yu Huang causing signifigant armor damage.

However, the attack takes its toll as the Vulture narrowly avoids a shutdown due to heat. The Ti Ts'ang likewise with its heatsinks shut off must also avoid a shut down.

With the loss of one of their 'mechs, the addition of the Davion Vulture may turn the tide of the skirmish yet!

To be continued....

[StuartYee]

Turn 5:


Davion forces win initiative this round.

The Capellans make use of jump jets to close the gap, but Davion forces secure the tactical advantage placing several units in the rear arc in three of the Capellan 'mechs.

*NOTE* Apparently we couldn't count today as I realized in compiling this report that the Ti Ts'ang jumped 7 hexes and the Exterminator made one more facing change than it would have been allowed. Moral of the story, we need to get a GM!


Out of retribution, an angry Yu Huang pilot stalks his overheating prey...


The Yu Huang pilot breaks from the main group and goes after the Vulture which has been cut off from the rest of the Davion force. Creatively, the Davion Mongoose pilot splits his fire among the backs of the Stinger and Shadow Hawk, but yields little results. The Exterminator pilot also splits his fire which also fails to deliver impressive results due to poor luck on the dice. The Shadow Hawk however manages a super close range PPC shot as the Ti Ts'ang twists his torso to the right without firing....

Mobbed together up close and personal, it's about to get ugly...


The fighting quickly degenerates into dirty brawling with kicks, punches and a hatchet attack. Torso twisted to the right, the Exterminator is just within striking arch of the Ti Ts'ang which delivers a Triple Strength Myomer enhanced blow to the Exterminator's right torso! The attack strips the armor in that section and obliterates the Exterminator's AMS.


Raise your hand if you like Battletech!



To be continued....

[kharnifex]

 Ti Ts'ang is such a beast, thanks for the batt reps!

[StuartYee]

Ti Ts'ang is such a beast, thanks for the batt reps!

Just wait until you see what happens next...  ;) I'll be posting turns 6 and 7 soon.

Thanks for the comment!  [rockon]

[StuartYee]

TURN 6:


Federated Suns win initiative. The Yu Huang continues its duel with the Vulture. The Capellans try to disengage, but the Davions pursue, moving the mob to a hill on the Lake Area map.


The duel continues, but the Capellan player taunts his Davion foe, "You are out-gunned and out-classed." The next few die rolls will see....


The Yu Huang and Vulture trade shots. The Capellan was hoping for better from the Yu Huang, but it gave better than it got. The melee among the other 'mechs continues with more armor and paint being burned away.


It's a heavy metal mosh pit....


Still getting the hang of monitoring heat on the Ti Ts'ang, it ended up cooling down thus deactivating the TSM. Still, its hatchet strips the armor off the  Mongoose's right leg standing one level above the Ti Ts'ang.

The Shadow Hawk misses in its attempt to kick the Exterminator, nearly falling in the process. Usage of arm weapons and strategic placement at elevation prevented further physical attacks from all other units.

The Ti Ts'ang's heat reaches 5, and TSM is activated again for the next turn.

During the end phase, the Exterminator pilot decides to dump his AMS ammunition.

TURN 7:


The Capellans win initiative, and the Davions disengage from the mass melee. Dumping its ammunition, the Exterminator can neither run nor jump, and ends its movement precariously with its back to the Capellans as the Mongoose runs for cover. The TSM active Ti Ts'ang takes advantage of this and jumps right behind the Exterminator.

The Yu Huang closes with the much more mobile and now cooled off Vulture.


Never turn your back to 60 tons of hatchet wielding, triple strength myomer awesomeness.


"This planet isn't big enough for the two of us."


Trading fire at close range, the Yu Huang gets the better of the Vulture by ripping away the left arm's armor and large pulse laser with the LB 20-X Autocannon.

Meanwhile, the other three Capellan 'mechs concentrate their fire upon the Exterminator, hoping to ignite the dumping ammunition with a rear torso hit....


The smallest of the Ti Ts'ang's lasers score a rear torso hit that ignites the Exterminator's AMS ammo. Exploding in an already ravaged right torso, the damage takes out the Exterminator's XL engine removing it from the game!

The fire phase of Turn 7 shifts the game to ensure a Capellan victory. But outnumbered two to one, the Davion player vows to take at least one Capellan 'mech with him.

Concluded in the next installment!