This is a bit of a linked scenario, linked to my Lyran Archer's battle against the Drac LAMs, player by my brother. Those LAMs flew back to an inbound freighter dropship after having failed to destroy the defending force of a spaceport on a Lyran planet near the border of Kurita space and the Clan occupation zone. It is the late 3060's. The Kurita freighter holds a company of the Shadow's Fury, well-equipped renegade Kuritan Ronin who raid enemies of the Draconis Combine.
A stand-off now occurs. The Kuritan dropship is a freighter and not equipped to drop 'Mechs from orbit. The Lyran spaceports are defended. The Kuritans are low on fuel and supplies. If they land outside a spaceport they will not have access to the spaceport's fuel supplies and may become trapped on the Lyran planet. If they land they will be attacked by the Lyrans and their dropship is a freighter, not equipped to withstand much punishment.
Luckily for the Kuritans, a Jade Falcon dropship is detected moving inbound and the Lyrans offer to resupply the Kuritans and give them whatever salvage is taken from the Jade Falcon attackers if they help fight off the Clan raiders.
The inbound Clan dropship is a brand new Mercer-class spheroid carrying two stars of OmniMechs and elementals. Its firepower is incredible but it has no ASF assets. The two star commanders bid for the honor of being dropped from orbit and taking a spaceport so their dropship can land safely and refuel. The first star commander bids her star but with no elemental support. The second star commander also bids no elementals but, as well, to leave his biggest OmniMech, a Timberwolf, behind. The fist star commander concedes the bid. The second star commander drops his four Omnis down to the Lyran planet and begins advancing on the spaceport. His mission is to destroy all spaceport defenders.
The Clan Jade Falcon invaders are played by Bren from these boards and include two Hellbringer Primes (two Orions are used for the Hellbringers), an Uller Prime, and an Uller A. These are young Trueborn pilots with 3/4 skills. This force is over 10 400 BV!
The defenders include four Lyran ARC-5W Archers, played by myself, and the Shadow's Fury played by my brother. His force includes a Marauder 5R, a Crusader 5M, a Rifleman 8D, and two squads of Void battle armor. This force is also over 10 400BV.
The Inner Sphere defenders are patroling south of the city when they become aware of the four Clan Omnis approaching from the north.
The Kuritans and Lyrans stick together and try to close with the Jade Falcons using the city for cover. The two Ullers move to the north of the city while the two Hellbringers move towards the spaceport.
The Clanners quickly take the spaceport but their dropship won't land until the defenders are cleared out.
yes, that Marauder is on a half-hex, but we agreed that half-hexes could be used and no one had a problem with that.
The lead Archers and Marauder duke it out with the Ullers while the Hellbringers snipe at long range on the IS flank from the spaceport.
EACH Hellbringer has
TWO Clan ER PPCs with a targeting computer and a Trueborn pilot. It is at this point that Bren's Jade Falcons should have been tearing us to pieces but we joked that a terrible electical storm must have been going on because he just couldn't hit even with the relatively low numbers he needed. To the north, one Archer lands 32 LRMs on an Uller ripping a shoulder and arm actuator on the arm with the ER large laser, making aiming that weapon extremely hard.
The heavily damaged Uller runs away leaving the other Uller to face four Archers and a Marauder all by itself! Incredibly, in this exchange of fire, the lone Uller comes out on top! This 30 tonner took on a total of 355 tons on IS BattleMechs and won the exchange! Two PPCs from the Marauder and almost all 160 LRMs and 16 SRMs from the Archers miss while it hits an Archer with its Gauss Rifle and another weapon! The Clan Trueborn pilot swells with pride and confidence while the poor IS surats are dumbfounded that they lost that exchange of fire. Meanwhile, the two Hellbringers, frustrated with missing their shots and anxious to claim some kills, close range with ER PPCs blazing. One squad of Void BattleArmor tries a leg attack on a Hellbringer but fails. The Voids jump 4 hexes which may have surprised the Clan MechWarrior. The Rifleman pours out the lead and does 50 damage out of a possible 60 with its two rotary cannons! One Hellbringer has overheated but only needs a 4 to avoid shutdown. Bren rolls a 3 and the northern most Hellbringer shuts down!
The Marauder and two Archers try to outflank the remaining Uller who does a shocking thing - he bases the Marauder and declares he will attempt to push the Marauder. The Marauder MechWarrior realizes now that he is on the edge of a steep cliff and is endanger of being destroyed with a single push! All five IS BattleMechs previously missed the Uller with unbelievable firepower and the Clan Trueborn is hoping his luck holds out long enough for him to instantly eliminate the Marauder! The Marauder declares an alphastrike and screams to his allies "KILL THIS CLAN SCUM NOW!" Fortunately for the Kuritan Marauder pilot, most of his weapons hit and he guts the Uller. Missiles from the two Lyran Archers merely slam into burning wreckage.
To the south, the Rifleman blazes away at the shutdown Hellbringer but is is finished off by the two assisting Lyran Archers. One of the Rifleman's rotary cannons has jammed. Two Clan Omnis now destroyed and one badly damged. The surviving Hellbringer exchanged fire with the Crusader. The Crusader gets hit by an ER PPC, but the Hellbringer can't keep firing both because just firing both while running is building up a lot of heat. That Hellbringer is also being chased by IS Void battlearmor. The damaged Uller is sniping with its AC 5 using solid shot.
Blazing wreckage marks the destroyed Hellbringer and Uller.
The Lyran Archers and Drac Marauder head south to join the battle which has now moved south. The last Hellbringer moves behind a building and blows the Crusader off its feet with two Clan ER PPC blasts. The two Void BA squads try to box the Hellbringer in and one squad spots for the Archers which fire indirectly but to little effect. The fast-moving Uller continues to snipe with its AC 5 at the Rifleman, which has no chance of hitting the fast Clanner and doesn't bother trying to hit the light 'Mech.
The Hellbringer remains behind the building trying to finish the Crusader while the rest of the IS BattleMechs try to close in. Fear of skidding on pavement and the hills in the city slow their advance. The Crusader stands and spots for the Archers indirect fire but the Archers just can't hit. The Void BA squads both get into positions to do leg attacks but both miss! The Clan Trueborns seem to laugh at the Inner Sphere surats' mockery of Elemental tactics.
The mindnumbingly slow advance of the northernmost IS BattleMechs is excruciating but the Void BA squads are forcing the Clanners to keep moving. Heat is becoming a serious problem for the remaining Hellbringer, which unloads on an approching Archer. The remaining Uller runs to the south of the city chased by a BA squad and tracked by the Rifleman's remaining rotary cannon shells. The Rifleman's cannon blows the Uller's leg off. The Uller falls and the damage from its fall finishes it off! Only one Hellbringer now faces the entire IS force. It is running very hot in its desperation to kill something! The IS force has lost nothing but armor. The Rifleman's jammed cannon is its only reduction so far in firepower.
The remaining Hellbringer is piloted by the Star Commander. His unit has been wiped out. Unbelievably, the entire Inner Sphere force of weakling surats is still intact and bearing down on him. He will not take the spaceport and with such a force defending it the Clan dropship will not land and will have to leave. The invasion is a failure. Rather than live with such disgrace, despite the incredible heat slowing his 'Mech and interfering with his targeting, he decides to unload his firepower regardless of the automatic shutdown it will cause. He absolutely must kill something! He targets the Rifleman but causes nothing but armor loss. The 8D is a heavily armored Rifeman!
The last Clan 'Mech is shutdown. The Inner Sphere force unloads on it. The Hellbringer is virtually untouched. The first unit to fire is the Void BA at its feet. A single tiny, infantry support PPC does only two damage to the untouched centre torso armor but does a crit on the AMS ammo, gutting and destroying the Hellbringer! With all the missiles and everything else fired at this thing, it was finally destroyed by 2 points to its CT!
Four piles of burning wreckage mark the graves of the Clanners. The Clan dropship cannot risk a landing now and leaves Lyran space. The Lyrans allow the Dracs to collect what Clan salvage they can and resupply the Kuritans. Buying off an invader is no shame to a Lyran and the Dracs' help in fighting off a Clan invasion was essential. The Shadow's Fury leaves resupplied and with their honor fully satisfied.
This battle was often a comedy of errors with all the bad rolling. Even with Trueborn 3/4 MechWarriors and targeting computers, the twin PPCs of both Hellbringers rarely hit and only damaged armor when they did. We joked that an electrical storm must have been going on because even the Kuritan Marauder initially had trouble hitting with its PPCs! Later, it was the Archers many salvoes of LRMs hitting nothing. Imagine 160 LRMs constantly being poured out and hitting nothing!
The heat problems of the Hellbringers was a huge factor in their demise. The Hellbringers had to keep running to not be hit by all the long range firepower of the Inner Sphere BattleMechs, but just running and firing both ER PPCs builds up a lot of heat. It causes one Hellbringer to shut down and slowed another down enough for IS slow heavies to catch it.
The Ullers had a nice combo of speed and long range firepower but they are still just light 'Mechs and even a few lucky hits can stop them cold.
Bren had an excellent strategy but incredibly bad dice rolling and poor heat factors caused his downfall. The Inner Sphere forces only lost armor and were lucky that the Clan ER PPCs that did hit were spread out on different 'Mechs. Anyhoo, it was a fun battle.
