Author Topic: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147  (Read 5016 times)

Tai Dai Cultist

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Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« on: 03 August 2015, 17:31:14 »
Tsamma is not just any world in the Dragon's Tongue; the hot, wet tropical planet is the source of much of the fresh water imports for worlds within 2 jumps on either side of the Kurita-occupied frontier.  Furthermore, its beach resorts are famous across the galaxy and the resort city of Ponce de Leon in particular drew celebrities from across the Inner Sphere. When the 2nd New Samarkand Regulars came to Tsamma, several of these video starlets were caught on-planet before their private dropships could shuttle them safely away.   Tsamma's pleasant beaches are now currently closed to foreign tourism, but the Ponce de Leon resort now features Haris Pilton, Katy Minaj, Half-a-C-Bill, and Lady La La forced to perform K-pop covers for the entertainment of DCMS troopers rotating to Tsamma for R&R.

Tsamma's economic importance, coupled with the military targets presented by the DCMS, led the system to be included in Operation PERCEVAL's raids.

Attacker: Wadi Dogs mercenary batallion (1200 pv)
Defender: 1st Bn, 2nd New Samarkand Regulars (1200 pv)

Track 1: Meeting Engagement!
Kuritan and Mercenary forces first met in combat on the banks of a river outside any urban centers.  A lance of mercenary recon mechs led the way for the rest of a heavier mech company, while a Kuritan C3-capable company mostly consisting of tanks and VTOL spotters received the probing attack.

The mercenaries approached the river in two groups, while the Regulars bunched into three firing groups to bracket the encroaching mercs in Narukami and Mauler long range fire.  After the mercenary lead Locust was torn apart by coordinated C3 fire, the rest of the company took cover in thick jungle foliage, with the Kuritans content to snipe from behind cover.

In the air above, two Lucifer IIs dove from orbiting DCA carrier dropships down on a Shiva heavy bomber and its Sabre escort.  The Sabre was driven off in short order while the Shiva temporarily evaded the Kuritan dogfighters.

The mid-battle situation on the riverbank meeting engagement:


With the mercenaries using the jungles for cover and with no artillery to drive them out into the open, the Kuritan commander got impatient as the Crow spotters were dropping faster than the mechs huddling in the jungles.  The Grand Dragon bravely rushed the mercenary strongpoint on the right.  It would be immediately torn apart, but the move finally broke the stalemate as the mercenaries were forced into the open to do so.  The mercenaries would lose their Marauder to forced withdrawal but ended up seizing tactical control of the board.

They rushed the Mauler, and despite the converging firepower of Narukamis on either side it too would be overwhelmed.  The Kuritan strong point on the left would also be overrun, forcing the rest of the company to retreat and to cede temporary victory to the invading mercenaries.

It didn't go much better for the valiant samurai of House Kurita in the skies.  The Shiva splashed a Lucifer II, and dogfought its wingman to an inconclusive draw before both ASFs withdrew as the battle below resolved itself without meaningful involvement from the air.

Butcher's Bill:
Kurita: Grand Dragon, Mauler, 2 Crow Scout Helicopters, Turhan Urban Combat APC, MRM Demolisher, and a Lucifer II all destroyed.  Two Narukamis and the surviving Lucifer II both lost significant amounts of armor but nothing was crippled (without also being destroyed, at any rate).  All the pilots and crew of the destroyed units, save the Demolisher crew, died like proper samurai rather than let themselves be captured alive.  Damn zipperheads, amirte?

Mercenary: Locust, Koshi, Enforcer, and a Hatchetman destroyed.  Marauder, Axeman, and Sabre crippled/forced withdrawal.  Several other units, including the Shiva, took nearly crippling amounts of damage.

Lessons learned:  Thorvidar and I talked to each other about the game and how it could have gone differently.  His heavy group on my left probably could have won him the game more convincingly if he didn't huddle them in cover as long as they did... my left firebase didn't have good LOS to them due to a hill so they could have gotten close, and my Strider-M coordinating the whole company was over there for the squishing.

OTOH, I should have taken artillery.  I could have sat back and let him pick his Catch-22: stay clustered up in the jungle and eat artillery till he dies, or come out into the open and let me rake him apart from long range.  But since I didn't have artillery, I should have just traded long range fire with him rather than forcing the issue with the Grand Dragon, and in the process give him the center of the board.  Or, a 2nd alternative better than what I did was to just level firepower onto the jungle itself and literally mow it down and deny him the cover by converting the jungle to a different terrain type.

And a last lesson: Make sure you double check the victory conditions in a scenario.  We weren't counting units in withdrawal towards victory when we should have been.  Had we done it correctly, either side might have won faster had we realized all we needed was to score crippling rather than total damage.

Next track: Breakthrough!  The mercenaries have the Kuritans on their heels and are driving towards their goal.  The mechwarriors of the New Samarkand Regulars have become accustomed to the pleasures of the resorts of Tsamma and won't be happy about leaving the beaches to punish some uppity mercenaries from Steiner space. 

"Elsie don't surf!"
« Last Edit: 03 August 2015, 20:33:36 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Thorvidar

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #1 on: 03 August 2015, 19:46:46 »
Just a few things:
 Locust is cursed. 2 games in a row and he gets lucky both times, ok the C3 Helped but...Also the Centurion was an Enforcer.

For the next battle I have no idea what I am going to do... Most of my fast units got slapped around and need repairs, where I have a lot of heavy firepower but they are slow and I would rather use them in the assualt, which I can't use units in the breakthrough mission in the last assualt mission. I seriously do not like the mission set up, as I think it should be more objective based then what is portrayed in the main AS book.

Lessons leared: Kill the C3 masters first and foremost. keep to the trees!



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Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #2 on: 03 August 2015, 20:14:03 »
Just a few things:
 Locust is cursed. 2 games in a row and he gets lucky both times, ok the C3 Helped but...Also the Centurion was an Enforcer.

Eh, those Steinerrific Davionista mechs all look alike to me.

Quote
For the next battle I have no idea what I am going to do... Most of my fast units got slapped around and need repairs, where I have a lot of heavy firepower but they are slow and I would rather use them in the assualt, which I can't use units in the breakthrough mission in the last assualt mission. I seriously do not like the mission set up, as I think it should be more objective based then what is portrayed in the main AS book.

Actually, I think you'll be pleased to realize you have that backwards.  The defender cannot use any forces fielded in Breakthrough in the final Assault.  You not only get to field a bigger percentage of your total force in this next battle, anything I put to the field is guaranteed to not be present in the Assault if you win the Breakthrough.  IMO that makes this coming battle the single most important one.. if it goes to the Assault all I'll have left are the 40% I can't commit to breakthrough... which will probably end up just being the survivors from the meeting engagement in whatever state of repair I can manage, plus whatever reinforcements I can buy by frantically converting Warchest points to SPs.

Quote
Lessons leared: Kill the C3 masters first and foremost. keep to the trees!

Well, you know to bring ECM next time ;) At least you shot down some of my little VTOLs, so I have that much less ECCM to deal with your ECM.  And don't count on the trees helping you next time.  1: I promise I'm bringing artillery this time.  2. I'll blow the trees up with direct fire even if you take out my artillery.  3: Check out the terrain setup rules.  I'm gonna make cover as sparse as possible for you >:D

Louie N

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #3 on: 04 August 2015, 08:59:02 »
Good report

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #4 on: 09 August 2015, 15:07:37 »
Situation: Breakthrough! The mercenaries won the initial meeting engagement and are pressing towards the massive DCMS logistics hub located onworld.  The privileged mechwarriors of the 2nd New Samarkand Regulars reluctantly put down their surfboards and leave the K-pop concerts to take to the field to protect the necessary materiel for successive waves of invasion!

Terrain: (per scenario rules, attacker picks terrain pieces, defender places them).  Mercenaries and Kuritans met next in battle at a corporate campus located far enough from heavily urbanized areas and in pleasant, rolling and wooded terrain.  Its location on the local road network made it an easy massing point for roving DCMS forces.  The Wadi Dogs aimed to drive through the DCMS pickets there as putting the strongpoint of Kuritans there in retreat would collapse the entire perimiter around Ponce de Leon and threaten the stockpiles there of materiel for the invasion of New Avalon!



Per scenario rules, the defender sets up before the attacker comes on-field.  2nd New Samarkand fielded 4 mixed lances of mechs and tanks.  3 lances were linked with each other by C3, a 4th lance had its own seperate C3 network.  LRM Carriers and Schiltron Artillery parked amid the buildings of the corporate campus, and the rest of the forces fanned out around that center, with emphasis on covering the right side.

Enemy units approaching!



The mercenaries proved to outnumber the Kuritans, 6 lances to 4, and had uncontested control of the skies above! The mercs focused heavily on crossing the field behind cover of hills on the right, but saved some small, light, fast forces for the left to keep the Kuritans honest.

Fire For Effect!



The advantage of boosted C3 was overwhelming, especially when coupled with indirect fire from linked LRM carriers as well as having a double Arrow IV'd Schiltron fire support tank.  Initially the mercenaries were able to use the terrain to present rotating targets so that no single unit was hammered two turns in a row, but the damage spread out over the force ended up accumulating.  A decisive moment was when he forced an Angel ECM carrier down the Kuritan throat, catching the Hatamoto-godai in its radius and shutting down the entire company network.  It took much of the Kuritans fire to destroy that Firestarter, and that volume of fire not directed elsewhere allowed for a mass rushing forward across the board.

After the C3 network came back on line, the Kuritans put BC3 Saracen hovertanks amid the surging mercenaries and mowed down most of the lead elements closest to completing the breakout despite the Mercenary's most dangerous unit, a Clan-spec Blood Asp came out of cover and full into view.  Led by the Blood Asp's example, the mercenaries too began to drop Kuritans huddling for cover amid the campus buildings.

But the tide had turned.  Not enough Kuritans had been taken out of the fight, and only a single mercenary Cougar made it across enemy lines.  The remaining mercs were too slow to rapidly cross the killing field without facing sustained C3 guided fire.  Kuritan and Mercenary commanders faced off in an open field duel, with the Blood Asp downing the Hatamoto-godai.  Revenge fire from the Kuritans finished off the Blood Asp, killing the mercenary pilot before she could eject.  Likewise the Saracen hover tanks were turned into pillboxes by motive hits.

Although the mercenaries were making progress across the battleline, the accumulation of damage was taking its toll and most units were stripped of armor and many merc units were within a few points of forced withdrawal.  Despite the loss of the company command unit, 3 seperate lance C3 networks still existed and threatened to cross the point of critical mass and threatened to quickly double the mercenary losses thus far.  The Kuritan 2nd in command offered the mercenaries the opportunity to withdraw before the Kuritans began losing additional units of their own, and the Mercenaries agreed to withdraw, ceding victory and control of the field to the 2nd New Samarkand Regulars.

The Butcher's Bill:
Kurita: Hatamoto-godai destroyed and unsalveagable (idiot pilot survived ejecting tho).  Owens destroyed but salvageable, but pilot killed.  Both Saracen Mark II crews WIA.  Heavy damage to Avatar and MRM Demolisher, and significant damage to No-Dachi and Akuma.  On the plus side, claimed a Firestarter Omni and the impressive Blood Asp as repairable battle salvage!

Mercenary: Blood Asp, Firestarter, Wolfhound, and one other mech I don't recall all destroyed on the field of battle.  Only one mechwarrior survived the destruction of their mechs, and ended up captured by DCMS security teams.  3 squads of Battle Armor also killed serving as ablative armor on their taxi Omnis.  3 or 4 more mechs crippled.  A Cauldron Born and Warhammer both nearly crippled.  Lots and lots of damage to other mechs.  On the upside, his Rommel and Myrmidon tanks as well as all his ASFs came though without a scratch!

My opponent definitely didn't have a good time in this battle.  His thoughts can be seen here.

I'll reiterate here that I think it was a costly mistake for the mercs to not take out the LRM carriers early with their airstrikes.  I think it may have been a mistake on my part to allow the mercs to withdraw without further fighting.. had we kept going I was guaranteed to lose my hovers (the crews of both tanks ended up WIA as it was) and I surely would have lost my Avatar as well had the fight gone another round.  I probably would have lost my Akuma and Naginata and both LRM carriers if it went 2 more rounds.  But, with two more rounds of fighting, I probably would have killed or crippled half his units on the board.  Such savage bloodletting would probably have come out to my advantage in the long term for the campaign, but I cared more about preserving my remaining C3 masters than massacreing the mercenaries.  Plus, had I been on the other side of the table, I wouldn't have had any fun playing out seeing how many of my doomed units manage to escape death.

The valorous samurai of House Kurita have sent the mercenaries reeling, but the upper hand in the campaign won't truly be determined until after our swords clash again in open field battle!  Thorvidar and I used the expanded repair rules in ASC and determined we have 7 days worth of rest and repair before either side manages to force the other into a battle.  We shall see if 7 days is enough time for the mercenaries to make the Kuritan offer turn out to have been a mistake.

Lessons learned:  Take out the artillery/LRM carriers!  Although the mercs could have used their air strikes more effectively, even had they taken out my LRM carriers I'm surprised that ceding complete control of the skies didn't bite me harder than it did.   It's all about game duration.. Interceptors can begin air strikes round 2 and then wheel around every turn thereafter, but they're interceptors.  They're so unthreatening I never even had reason to shoot at them, not with more dangerous things to shoot at on the ground!  And heavier units won't get a strike in until round 3, and then every other round thereafter.  If the game goes as long as 5 rounds, a big scary bomber is still only getting 2 attack runs in.  Game has last 7 rounds before it gets its 3rd attack, and I don't think many AS games will last more than 6 rounds.

Oh and I don't care how "In Character" you begin feeling in the heat of battle.  Never, ever go "Come at me bro!" with your Company C3 master.  It's just never a good idea.

As a separate lesson that may prove later to be learned: I may end up being made to rue the decision to allow so many damaged units to withdraw.  But ensuring I keep enough C3M master units in fighting shape for future battles is what drove that decision.
« Last Edit: 09 August 2015, 15:39:43 by Tai Dai Cultist »

cavingjan

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #5 on: 09 August 2015, 18:56:06 »
Which version of the LRM carrier has boosted C3?

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #6 on: 09 August 2015, 19:07:40 »
Which version of the LRM carrier has boosted C3?

None.  I used two of the regular C3 LRM Carriers linked to a Schiltron as their master, and had a Crow VTOL as the 4th member of their "lance".  But the artillery and LRMs were in turn linked to the rest of the company through the Boosted C3 master unit on the Hatamoto-godai.  Their LRM spotting came through boosted spotters, and the artillery didn't care if the VTOLs' POI designations were inside ECM bubbles.  (no TAG illumination.. just "Fire on the following map coordinates...")

Since the LRM carriers and Schiltrons were just parked at the back of my firing group, ECM never got in the way of their non-boosted C3 links (well, until that turn Angel ECM shut the whole thing down..)
« Last Edit: 09 August 2015, 19:09:43 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #7 on: 22 August 2015, 17:28:14 »
Belated update:

Following the controversial Breakthrough Scenario, Kuritans and Mercs clashed next in Counterattack... an open field battle.  I already set the odds against myself by calling "STOP!" during the terrain placement when the table looked like this:



Guess who lost the roll to pick who gets to pick home edge?  Yep, I ended up on the sucker's side.



We had forces comparable in BV, but where I had C3 he had skill 3s.  Coupled with the terrain advantage, my entire right flank folded under his pressure and I ended up having to cede the field in the second open field battle.

The beginning of the end was when he got some sacrificial ECM into my midst.  I killed the guy but it took most of my combined fire to do so.  He next sent in a sacrificial Hatchetman to "take one for the team".  Only, somehow, despite his being flat out in the open under the guns of nearly my entire force I failed to kill the unit.  And to make matters worse, in the resulting round I inexplicably thought I HAD killed it, and planned my moves under the faulty assumption my network was intact.

The last round of the game began with both of us in striking range of the 50% threshhold, but I let myself get not just stupid but greedy and planned to wipe out a bastion of fresh units with my C3 network (that is still cut by that ECM Hatchetman..) rather than finishing off some mechs within a bubble or two of forced withdrawal.  Once I realized my grievous mistake, I hoped to mow down the hatchetman at least in defeat.  The dice gods favored that pilot however, and he survived another salvo intact.  I think he must be owed beers by every member of his battallion.

I swore last time I'd never again show up in this kind of battle w/o artillery, and yet I did it again here.  And paid again when I couldn't root the enemy out of nice juicy cover.  Where losing the first open battle didn't sting overly much since the campaign rules didn't let the mercs salvage my units, this time he gets to recoup losses out of my wrecks.



Butcher's bill:

Kurita: I lost some expensive mechs, particularly my big bad Akuma because I couldn't decide whether I wanted to retreat that unit or keep it on the field, changing my mind from turn to turn.  By the time it took so much damage forced withdrawal forced my hand, it couldn't make it off the board before being turned into spoils of war for the resurgent mercs. I also lose a Daikyu, Demolisher, and 2 Manticores, one of which was a valuable C3 Master unit.   I also lost some cheap C3 spotters, but their losses are starting to mount.  I'll have to spend points to purchase replacements if I want my C3 networks to remain viable.

Mercs: One thing that went my way was the gamble to forgo contesting the air.  He brought 3 bombers, and lost them all to ground fire or lawn dart checks.  At least those won't be cheaply put back in action!


Lessons Learned:  I played too much TurretTech.  My opponent was starting to learn how to use ECM effectively and I suffered that massive brain fart about forgetting the ECM is still active.  One can't make those kinds of mistakes and still expect to win.  Wasn't very smart of me to play games with terrain setup, either.  On the other side, my opponent swore he's done bringing aircraft to a game with C3.  I don't blame him.  With all his ground units snug like bugs in a rug, I really had nothing good to shoot at but his ASFs, and he didn't get my network cut in time for their arrival on round 3.

Oh yeah, and variable damage:  Making sure something DIES is never a sure thing with variable damage ;)
« Last Edit: 22 August 2015, 17:31:02 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Thorvidar

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #8 on: 22 August 2015, 17:53:03 »
yeah I definately did not bring ASF the last two battles, which we completed but Tai Dai has the pictures, I think the next campaign I am supposed to do the AARs.

As for this battle it was a close one, I think he had only one more to kill to get me at 50% that last round, or was it two more? Anyway it was a close one and I sold those units I got from salvaging his units. I then repaired and refit and camped the rest of the RPs. This allowed me to have a cushion of about 395 wp's after paying 300 for the next track.


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There are many roads leading to Terra, many jump points, let them come." ATLAS3060

"Long story short, if you got a Masakari Prime for IF, you're doing it wrong anyway :)." -Nckestrel

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #9 on: 22 August 2015, 18:00:07 »
Battle 4: Second Breakthrough

Following retreat from my failed Counterattack, I'm forced with fending the raiding Mercs away from the valuable supplies earmarked for the invasion of New Avalon.  I decide to try a gamble: I blow my entire warchest on reinforcements so as to inflate my force's total PV, which in turn inflates the 60% of said total I'm allowed to bring to the Breakthrough scenario.  I'm all in on stopping the enemy cold here.. should they succeed, I'll be forced to fight the Assault scenario with 2 lances against his entire force.  But to help my odds of that not coming to pass, I realized a great weapon to try out as the defender in this scenario: Inferno Arrow missiles!  Good luck crossing the field when I'm socking you with heat, sucker!  I also realize that Tatsu's are a great value under the rules for purchasing new units under the Campaign rules.  I buy a pair of lethal A configuration ground attackers.. After last battle I'm pretty sure he won't show up with any aircraft.  I'm sure I'll be able to use air-to-ground to better effect than he did!

We stick to our previous method of terrain placement: the defender must place at least 25% of the pieces in each quadrant of the board.  My opponent hopes to erode my C3 edge by dumping an entire box of buildings onto the table for me to place.  As I'm sorting the buildings by size and planning on where to put them, he dumps another box.  Yep, there'll be a lot of terrain today.

I do my best to create channeling barriers and open fields of fire on choke points and the battlefield ends up looking like this:



The battle proves to be very, very ugly.  It's ridiculous how often I manage to miss on 6+ with my artillery.  By round 2, I had hit the POI I aimed at twice out of 8 shots!  And my ASFs are a disaster... My Lucifer II suffers a threshhold crit and the roll is boxcars.  A Tatsu fails its first lawn dart check.  The second can only be hit on a 10+ with flak, and it ends up hit for 1 damage.  And I fail that lawn dart check too.  I now share my opponent's disdain for all things air.

Still, despite my remarkably bad dice, I still win convincingly.  We notice later that inferno artillery isn't like inferno bombs or inferno mines or inferno SRMs.. they don't deal heat!  (thanks to Louie N btw for noticing the discrepancy).  Since we had played that inferno arrow IVs were dealing 2 heat to the victims, I offered to mulligan the game and do over... the attacker being extra slow and extra not shooting (when my rockets finally started to hit) surely impacted the outcome.



Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #10 on: 22 August 2015, 18:35:46 »
Battle 4A: The Mulligan!

Following my error in how Arrow IV Infernos work (I still contend it was a very understandable, intuitive mistake) we refight the Breakthrough scenario.  We try out a new terrain placement method: Attacker places 1, then Defender places 3.  Everyone must place at least 1 piece in each of the 4 quadrants.  I think it's an elegant system, but the terrain certainly didn't end up being as in my favor as it was previously.  (perhaps a good thing?)



I find a new way to shoot myself in the foot this game:  Did you notice my deployment?  That's an LRM Carrier and a Schiltron in each corner, far enough away to not support each other.  With a very, very soft middle.  Why did I think this was a good idea?  All I remember was something along the lines of "He'll be channeled into the middle, and I'll blast him from either side!"  Note that the terrain certainly isn't forcing him to do any such thing at all.

The mercenary approach:


There's not a whole lot of play by play here... I expected to do a Battle of Cannae on him as he bunched his forces into the middle.. but he declined to play along.  His two groups just hugged either table edge.  To my opponent's credit, he played me.  His force along the edge near the table was just a feint to keep me from immediately un-stupiding my deployment, and I fell for it.  I kept my left side committed to a stopping a force he didn't care if it got across or not.  Over on the far side, I realized too late there was too little to stop what he had coming.  By the time I got my forces supporting each other, it was too late.  He had 5 units close enough to move across my home edge on their coming turn, and already had enough across that he only needed to get 5 more over the board edge for the win.  Some of those 5 units were light(ish) Myrmidon tanks, but I elected to fire EVERYTHING at the Mad Cat and let the other 4 cross uncontested.  If I can drop the Mad Cat, I have  a hope in stopping EVERYTHING ELSE now that my forces were all brought to bear on his thrust.

Variable damage saves the Mad Cat.  Tatsu strikes him for 8 dice? Take 3 damage.  LRM carrier thumps him with 5IF? Take 1 damage.  I need a 5 to hit? I miss. So on and so on.  That pilot from the last game with the Phantom Mech ability was given the Mad Cat as his replacement ride as his Hatchetman was being repaired, apparently.  At least my fighters killed some stuff this game, and 2 of them even survived the scenario!

Mercs carry the day, and I concede defeat in the Assault scenario without even taking the field because I'll have to go into warchest debt just to show up with my 10 remaining unts.. to face his entire battallion.

Due to my cowardice, not only are the ammo stores destroyed, putting back the timetable for the Invasion of New Avalon.. Haris Pilton, Katy Minaj, Half-a-C-Bill, and Lady La La are all stolen away from being performing K-pop music!  It is a dark day for the DCMS R&R facilities on Tsamma.  But the Dragon is eternal.. the day may have been lost but the war will be won!  Our next campaign is the DCMS's retaliation for PERCEVAL... Operation TSUJIGIRI: The Raid on Remagen!

Lessons learned: Yeah, it was a fatal, stupid mistake to not repeat the deployment recipe that worked to great success in the previous two iterations of Breakthrough.  And I didn't just "not repeat success", I picked an alternative that was pretty stupid in its own right by dividing my outnumbered forces into two groups that can't support each other.

Lessons learned for the campaign:  Battle Lances, Battle Lances, Battle Lances.  My opponent not only built a force that was heavier on skills, he was routinely rerolling 3 to-hits a round.  Every round.  C3 is pretty cool but I don't think I'd take it again instead of what I was facing.

My gamble to spend my whole warchest for the 2nd Breakthrough was probably not worth the odds.  I noticed that in the defenders' analogue scenario "Pursuit", it's worth the attacker's investment in the long game to just concede defeat and fight only to make sure there's no salvage given. That might be a doable option for the defender in Breakthrough, too.  My decision to "offer hegira" in the first breakthrough did indeed prove to haunt me for the rest of the campaign.. I could have used that salvage.
« Last Edit: 22 August 2015, 18:45:38 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Louie N

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Re: Alpha Strike Campaign: Operation PERCEVAL 3147
« Reply #11 on: 23 August 2015, 22:03:50 »
I want a commission from the war chest. :)

Well thanks for the reports guys.


 

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