New Aberdeen, 3023
Wolf's Dragoons, under Kurita contract, have been engaged in a series of skirmishes on planet with elements of the Eridani Light Horse. After months of constant skirmishing that was more damaging to nerves than man and equipment, the Black Widow company manages to draw a full company of ELH mech forces into an ambush.
The Eridani company is going to try extricating themselves from the battlefield, with 10 points being assigned for each mech that escapes and 5 points for each Widow mech destroyed; 50 extra points are given if they are able to drop Kerensky's Warhammer and still have units escape the board.
The Widows get 10 points for each ELH unit destroyed and 10 points for each one of their operational machines at the end of the game.
Highest point value wins, the game ends when all ELH units are destroyed or exited off the opposite end of the map they started on.
First off, props to HeavyGun for his Widows paint job! My cell phone camera does it no justice, but they looked great on the board!
Round One - The Widows spring their trap and the Eridani company, caught with their pants down, spend the first turn watching the oncoming forces of the Black Widow and not doing much else...
Uh-Oh...
Round Two - The ELH commander issues the order to retreat, he knows they're outgunned and as badly as he wants to stay and fight, the Widows have his force significantly outmatched. That isn't to say a little bloody nose or two on the way by isn't in order though. All units begin evasive maneuvers.
Round Three- The Black Widow herself draws first blood this round, connecting with an unlucky wasp and denuding it of armor protection completely
Round Four- Some of the heavier Eridani mechs cease evasive maneuvers once they get into range, ostensibly to focus attention on them instead of the lighter mechs still attempting to make their getaway. In reality, Company Commander Stedman really, really wants to bloody up the Widows. A Shadow Hawk connects with a Widows Crusader, burning some armor plating but not doing any appreciable damage. In response, the Crusader gave back better than he received. On the other side of the field, a ELH Phoenix Hawk attempted to pummel a Widows Stinger but missed. The earlier Wasp who Natasha K herself had hit, now found itself targeted by nearly a quarter of the Widows force. While lady luck might have ducked out on him earlier, she was riding in the cockpit with him this round, as all of them missed their shots.
Round Five - The Black Widows open fire in earnest, but miss the majority of their shots. One ELH Phoenix Hawk takes minor damage, but the mech stays at 100% operational status. An ELH Stinger manages to get a back shot on a Widow's Wasp, coring through its armor and ruining its main weapon system.
Round Six - More fire is sent downrange by the Widows, most of the Eridani force continues to use evasive maneuvers; preventing their ability to return fire. An ELH Stinger and both Phoenix Hawks are hit by ambushing fire, putting one of the Phoenix Hawks in a very precarious position with no armor
Round Seven -Multiple ELH forces, now abreast of the Widow forces, drop their evasive maneuvering and prepare to fight! Natasha herself has a solid hit landed on her by an ELH Griffin, a Widows Crusader gets more armor scoured off and a Widows Marauder gets savaged by dual back shots from a ELH Stinger and Wasp. The Marauder stays operational, but its armor is in tatters. One of the ELH Stingers receives a devastating salvo from a Widow's Archer and the light machine crumples into a burning heap. Another ELH Wasp is savaged by the second Widow's Archer, burning through armor but not hitting any critical systems. Several ELH mechs leave the board this round, missing their armor, but still operational.
Round Eight - Thoughts of retreat briefly put aside, more attempts to down Kerenky's big Warhammer are attempted by ELH forces. They missed their mark, but in the words of Commander Stedman later: "Oh we made her dance though, we may not have dropped her, but we made her dance..." An ELH Stinger connects with a Widow's Wasp, but can't penetrate internally with its salvo. The Widow's Marauder isn't as lucky, now joined by a third light ELH machine all three open fire on the bird legged mech. Two manage to hit, coring into the engine with one shot and gaming a leg with the other. The venerable design isn't down, but it's certainly seen much better days. A Widow's Archer reached out to one of its earlier targets and created a smoking crater where once stood an Eridani Wasp, while the second Archer picked out a previously undamaged Stinger and helped it out of its armor plating.
Round Nine - The Marauder makes a forced retreat off the board, scoring points for the ELH. More attempts are made to Kerensky's mech, but all the ELH forces manage to do this round is blast off more armor plate from a Phoenix Hawk. The Widow's however, were much more productive with their time. A Griffin and Archer both gang up on the EHL Griffin, punching through armor and dropping the medium design with their combined fire. Another ELH Wasp has its armor winnowed down by a Widow Stinger but stays standing.
Round Ten - One of the Stingers attempts a Death From Above on Natasha Kerensky's Warhammer. We're not sure what the pilot was thinking, we was unable to eject when it became apparent that his maneuver wasn't going to work and he and his Stinger were turned into a burning pile of scrap at the big black Warhammer's feet. Other ELH units attempted to hit "Big K" as they had taken to calling her, but all missed. The ELH forces still on the board got savaged, with the Shadow Hawk taking multiple shots with critical damage to its weapon alignment system. One ELH Wasp fell to combined fire, the other had multiple leg actuators damaged, slowing it down considerably.
Round Eleven - Last turn, the remaining ELH forces make a run for it, their attempt to down the Black Widow herself having gone horrendously wrong. The last ELH unit on the board at this turn is a Shadow Hawk, and the Archer facing off against it drops it unceremoniously.
Overview: We weren't sure how this was going to play out. We certainly (Blackjack and I were running the ELH forces) could have just run off the end of the board with potentially all of our units intact, but we still would have lost the game from point values. Dropping Natasha was a huge point gain to be made if we could have pulled it off. Perhaps we should have used different tactics? One thing that certainly helped us out was HeavyGun's dice rolls. He was getting pretty bummed out midway through the game at the pure amount of misses, and we're not talking missing by rolling a two when you needed an 11; he was missing by rolling a 8 or 9 when he needed a 9 or 10 to hit. Most of his rolls were great, and if we hadn't been evading for a good chunk of the game he would have eaten us alive with his rolls. All in all it was a fun game, we're planning on doing a city battle next month and will probably be kicking off some sort of campaign at that time. We're thinking of starting it in the late succession war era and moving up through the timeline from there. For those who couldn't make it this time around, we'll get another game scheduled, probably for mid-late January (weather permitting). Thanks again to Blackjack for supplying most of the ELH force, to HeavyGun for his meticulously painted and played Black Widow company and to Gamer's Haven for providing a venue for our little brawl! Once again, I had a lot of fun and it feels good to get back into playing Battletech after so many years "in the desert"(literally and figuratively)
