Alright, returning back from the city of Spanac through the Hoth Forest, on my way to Luk.
We played a Pushback mission, roughly fluffed as my unit working as a Vanguard that was ambushed. 6 turns before my reinforcements spoiled the party. Was 300PV, I think I was right on the nose and Comstar might have been one or two under
The Forces:
Comstar had a Highlander (skill 3?), Awesome (2), Rifleman (4), Archer (2), Marauder (3?), Thunderbolt(3?) and a Behemoth (4 BSP)
all my mechs are one skill better than their card indicates due to the campaign rules
Set-up:
I deployed first and then Comstar came onto the adjacent edges, half of his forces on each side. My Viper and Executioner held down the right flank, my Star Captain in the Kingfisher was in the middle, mostly to keep him away from a turn one ambush. The Mad Dog, Nova, and Adder held down the middle-left, hoping to use the forest to their advantage.
Turn 1: I Lost Initiative, and after the last couple games I've had initiative wise, I figured I would just kiss initiative goodbye for good. BSP stuff moves first regardless of initiative, so I only had that to go off of. I made the nearly fatal mistake of moving my Executioner up into the partial cover provided by the hill, and for some reason I decided to jump. The Marauder and the Thunderbolt (just on the edge of the SE woods out of frame) appeared behind the Executioner. The Viper ran behind the tank, getting into the rear arc to avoid some of its nasty firepower, but left it open from the Archer that would appear past the woods. The left flank went a little more my way, the heaviest of the Comstar Level II opted to fight from range, which their slow speed would hinder them later. My Mad Dog and Nova went into the forest to take some testing shots at them, while the Puma pivoted with the Kingfisher to try and salvage the right flank. Another set of poor positioning hurt my Kingfisher.
Shooting did not go well for me. The Viper stomped on the tank from the rear, and the Executioner added some fire as well, overheating 1. It wasn't quite enough, and as it was so slow and didn't count for anything I left it alone with the rest. The Kingfisher had ok shots on the Marauder and did a bit on it. The Nova fired at the Rifleman, hoping to take it down early as it has weak armor, that didnt happen but it got a little bit of damage. The Mad Dog and Puma added on the Marauder going internal but no crits.
Comstar's shooting was spectacular. The left flank fired onto the Nova, stripping it. The Marauder, Archer Thunderbolt combined for a Fire-Control hit on the Executioner with minor internal damage. I think they missed 1 out of 12 shots. The Behemoth hammered the Kingfisher as well.
Turn 2: I lost initiative again, so I had to cede my left flank, sending the Puma to try and put the Rifleman into forced withdrawal or fish for a good crit. The Mad Dog and Nova went back out of the forest and broke line of sight from the Comstar assaults, who stood still. The Thunderbolt and Marauder basically traded places and I held my Executioner until last to get him into base to base with the Thunderbolt. Kingfisher moved up to get partial cover, and the Viper tracked the Behemoth. Comstar didn't do any big maneuvers, just pulling the Rifleman back into some forest and moving the Archer up on the hill.
My Executioner already had a fire control hit and was overheating so shots would be awful. He figured no one would see so he punched the Thunderbolt in the back. The Kingfisher opened up on the Thunderbolt and allowed the Mad Dog to finish it off for a kill. The Viper shot and killed the off-screen Marauder, and the Nova put the Behemoth into forced withdrawal. The Puma had half decent shots on the Rifleman, but only put one damage on it to strip the armor.
Comstar didn't repeat its great shooting but had some good luck. The Marauder did a few to the Executioner, but no crit. The Thunderbolt and Behemoth hit the Kingfisher, doing some internal and getting a weapon crit. The Rifleman couldn't match the Adders skill so missed, but the Highlander and Awesome did not miss, and put the Adder down.
Both my Kingfisher and Executioner were very close to forced withdrawal, and the Nova was stripped so I was not feeling good, even if I nearly cleared the way for along the right flank.
Turn 3: I finally won initiative on a turn that mattered! The Behemoth went back to its turn 1 position to try and fulfill forced withdrawal requirements, and the Viper tracked it, but staying in the rear left it open to shots from the Archer. In hindsight, base-to-base is enough to not allow it to shoot back, so I didnt need to be behind it. Comstar moved the forces on my left more to the middle, the Rifleman took up a position in the back of the map, hidden by the hill. The Awesome sprinted to try and counter the faster moving clan mechs, and the Highlander just walked. The Archer moved up to get shots on the Viper. The Mad Dog and Nova just slowly advanced, and the Executioner hugged cover, the Kingfisher held back and hid in the forest to not expose itself to anything bad coming its way.
The Behemoth put a fire control hit on the Kingfisher and put it into forced withdrawal. The Viper took fire from the Archer, with a weapon crit and forced withdrawal damage. The Highlander doesn't have a shot due to overheat.
The Viper stomps out the Behemoth tank and the Nova puts one point of damage on the Highlander. No other shots from me, due to hiding.
Turn 4: I don't have initiative notes here, but I'm pretty sure I lost. Viper jumped away as fast as possible for a higher TMM and to try and escape with forced withdrawal. My Nova moved up, sheltered from his assaults next to a hill. Mad Dog moved up minimize fire, Kingfisher skirted the small hill and the Executioner moved up as well. Comstar's assaults continued to lumber forward, the Rifleman went up onto the hillside, and the Acher fell back behind cover.
Now keep in mind both my Assaults have Fire-Control hits...
The Nova hits on the Archer, stripping away some armor. Mad Dog puts the Rifleman into forced withdrawal but can't force a crit. The Executioner misses out on killing the Rifleman completely, doing nothing. The Kingfisher follows up with a miss on the Highlander.
The Highlander puts more damage and a crit (a second Fire-Control) on the Kingfisher. The Rifleman spots for the Archer, who puts the Executioner into forced withdrawal. Now I am rather annoyed none of my crits stick, but every crit he rolls is fire control.
Turn 5: I win initiative again, I must be dreaming. Nova stands still, feeling safe in his pocket beneath the hill. I finally remember my Mad Dog is not the prime (I almost spotted while firing earlier for it) and that it has jump jets, so he moved over the forest to get shots on the Archer. My assaults moved last, hiding in the forest (Exe) and behind some low hills (KF). My Viper escaped off of my board edge (which I should have said earlier was the far edge). The Archer fell back to gain some cover, the Rifeman started to flee, and the Comstar assaults took the high ground.
The Comstar Archer blew the Nova away, and the Highlander and Awesome could do little more than scratch the paint on the Mad Dog S.
The Nova's parting shots put some more damage on the Archer, but it was still going to be a hard ask to kill it. The Mad Dog needed 10s or 11s to hit, due to jumping and partial cover. On 4+1OV damage I roll 3 misses, a TAC, and a hit on structure. First crit was 11 for an engine, second was a 12 for a headshot. Finally, a crit worth rolling! None of the assaults have a shot, not that they could hit anyway...
Turn 6: Last turn I needed before the game ended. I won initiative again and kind of knew that was it. The Rifleman continued off board, I think sprinting off. I moved my Mad Dog into some cover. After seeing the Archer disintegrate the assaults thought better and backed down. My cripped KF and Executioner moved up slowly and no shots were had. The Ghost Bears survived the ambush, but barely.
Final Thoughts: Some positional misplays with the KF and Executioner cost me big early, basically neutering them with the crits. LoS against vees is harder than I thought. I recovered when I had initiative and was able to force the mechs on the left flank to spend two turns doing nothing by pivoting. The Viper could have been saved from forced withdrawal as well, at least for another turn, had I remembered the Base-To-Base rules correctly. The Executioner and Kingfisher both had 2/3 crits each and one structure left. I only lost two mechs, which is good, as I've just been scraping by in terms of Warchest Points. I was no doubt also helped by the fact we got the last turn warning from the store right as turn 5 was finishing up.
