February 27, 3072 - Further analysis of Mobile HQ black box
Recording dated January 23, 3072 2137 hours
Operative identified as Hilda Geld - "That was close."
"Close? We lost Janelle, Mike, and Tracy and their Zephyr. Yuri's Lancelot looks like Swiss cheese and Jacob's Raijin's armor needs to be replaced. The Falcons lost a Stormcrow, a Hellbringer, and seven elementals. You take away the artillery support and air strike we would have been destroyed and the Falcons would have lost only a Stormcrow."
(The Falcons, so determined to destroy the HQ did not wait for the rest of their star/nova to join in. Mechwarrior Quint in his Stormcrow entered the town of Bitterburg and immediately engaged a Lancelot, Raijin, and Zephyr. Artillery strikes passed landed to his right out of range and on the second turn of battle he deployed his elementals. The elementals survived this first round of fire with just armor damage and on the next turn were able to turn the Zephyr into a pillbox because Quint continued moving right through the Word of Blake's line. The Lancelot and Zephyr positioned themselves for back shots into the Stormcrow and in the process made the Zephyr an easy target for the elementals' SRM's that all hit the hovercraft with one hit giving critical motive damage eliminating all movement for the Zephyr.)
The Word of Blake player was given eight tokens, eight dice, and two record sheets for his artillery. On the record sheet was a box for the player to enter his initiative roll to help tell us what round/turn we were on. A box to identify when the round would arrive. A box to select the type of artillery round (High Explosive, Tag, Smoke, or Fascam) even though his only choices were HE or Tag for this game. Finally, a box to indicate direction and a box to write down distances in inches.
The player would place the token/(target reference point on the board and indicate where the artillery round should actually arrive based on the direction ("1" front/north, "2" northeast or one hexside right, etc and then the distance in inches as to where the target actually is. The Tokens represent incoming fire but it technically doesn't require the token to represent the actual target hex/point. the token play represent that actual target hex if he/she wants of course.)
The artillery target reference points needed to be put on the board three turns before their arrival. The Word of Blake was given eight tokens (four Scorpions and four Badgers) and eight dice. The game started with six tokens on the board. A dice was placed on the token with a number of 1, 2 or 3. (A "1" was placed on one Badger and One Scorpion as each token represented artillery support from one gun and the dice number would indicate when the round would arrive.)
So, on turn 1, six tokens are placed to signify six artillery rounds in the air. Initiative is rolled, the next artillery rounds placement is identified and the tokens are placed. (Eight tokens are now on the board numbered 1-4 for each badger and scorpion.) Movement occurs and the Stormcrow with attached elementals enters the battlefield. The first artillery rounds arrive doing no damage. Each surviving artillery round token dice number is now reduced by 1. Two becomes a one, the four (most recently placed round now becomes a three), etc.
At some point the Stormcrow is destroyed and a Hellbringer arrives. The next turn the Hellbringer drops off its elementals. An airstrike arrives and successfully dive bombs the Hellbringer and elementals inflicting 60 points of damage to the Hellbringer and eliminating the elementals.
I liked the battle, the game, and I think once the Word of Blake player got used to identifying the target and placing the tokens the game went faster. For the future I plan on having the artillery closer. (Maybe, I will create "Radio guided shells" where the launchers are far enough away that having the opfor leave the battlefield to destroy the guns is not a solution. But, by using radio guided shells I only need to place a token on the game board one or two turns prior to their arrival. The artillery is more reactive to the battlefield.)
I don't like the idea of having an artillery round inflicting all of this damage on each elemental in the point. So, I compromised. The artillery round's damage is doubled but is now allocated against the point of elementals as a five point hit. I like that idea and for every game that I play, that is planned policy for artillery and elementals.
On a side note, the original point of elementals (three survivors) ran away from a Zephyr because once the Zephyr was a pillbox, the elementals could not kill it unless the elementals got a lucky critical hit. Thee elementals doing nine points a turn against a pill box with plenty of armor with some of the hits going against the turret. Time to withdrawal and fight again. But still embarrassing that elementals ran away from a stationary target.
The mobile HQ decided now was the time to run and successfully escaped the town of Bitterburg but the mobile hq would probably be corned eventually as the airstrike used against the Hellbringer would bring in Jade Falcon Aerospace assets into the search as well.
The Falcons reinforcements arrived one at a time when I the gamemaster thought now would be a good time for another unit to arrive. Without the airstrike, I think the Hellbringer would have probably finished off both Word of Blake mechs. After our final turn, a Maddog Primary would have arrived and probably would have finished off all three Word of Blake defenders.
