Author Topic: The most epic battles.  (Read 4040 times)

Madcow9000

  • Private
  • *
  • Posts: 43
The most epic battles.
« on: 22 January 2012, 02:47:59 »
I first posted this on the Megamek forums. This was a match in Megamek with me playing my mercenary command and my friend playing the Opfor on a computer about a thousand miles away. This was the most epic match I have had in years, and since the guys on the Megamek forum seem to like my stuff I thought I'd see what you guys think of it. I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this so mods, feel free to move this somewhere else. Also, if you have an awesome account of your own match post it here. This will be a bit long so tldr: Awesome battle was awesome. Without further adieu.

The year that I'm playing my campaign in is 3048. We are the Grim Rangers. Formerly known as Death's Grim Rangers, but after losing half of our numbers our current commander decided that a the previous title was offensive to the survivors. We're a regular unit mostly made up of lights and mediums. We have a single field modified Ac20 toting Goliath that is the pride of the command.
We just spent a year building up our numbers after the thrashing we took on Shiloh, and our most frequent employer has been House Steiner for whom we have completed several covert missions for.
They contacted us again for an extraction mission on New Kyoto. The Daimyo of that planet is a Free Skye sympathizer and has come into the possession of a Black Box that the Lyrans want back. We are not told what this box is, but we are told to destroy it if extraction isn't possible. We're told that New Kyoto is a heavily industrialized world that is defended by green planetary militia, but the capital city of Hirihito is garrisoned by a regiment sized mercenary command known as the Hsien Hotheads.
Like any good commander, Diogo researches the Hotheads and discovers that they have a favorite tactic of leaving the majority of their mechs in orbit with dropships to perform assault drops on attackers below. Knowing this Diogo forms a plan.
After arriving on the planet the Rangers target and destroy the satellite uplink stations outside of Hirihito to blind the dropships before attacking the pagoda fortress itself.
This is all peripheral information to give context to the epic battle that came next. This may very well have been one of the most intense games of Battletech I have ever played.

This was a 3 by 3 heavy urban map with a custom Pagoda Fortress in the far northeast. The Rangers will be approaching from the south using Double Blind rules. As part of the scenario some of the Rangers have gotten lost within the city and begin the game coming in from the south after turn 4. The Pagoda fortress is defended by a medium company of the Hsien Hotheads backed up by regular company of laser rifle armed foot infantry to represent the household guard. The objective here was the Rangers must get their jump equipped infantry into the fortress, up to the 4th floor and hold it for three turns to represent the acquisition of the Black Box. The Rangers Overlord dropship, Begger's Gambit, will arrive on turn 8 to land in the government courtyard in the middle of the map for exfiltration and support fire. The Rangers are company strength with a platoon of infantry and a pair of Ferret VTOLS to act as spotters in the heavy urban terrain. On turn 6 two lances of Stingers and Wasps will be assault dropped from orbital dropships to simulate the Hotheads blind dropping into the city from orbit as a defensive measure when the satellites went down. If the battle is not over by Turn 20 two aerospace squadrons will approach from the north and engage the Rangers forces.

As the battle begins the Rangers make their way through the city streets on their way to the Fortress. The lost lance arrives from the south before contact with the enemy is reached. They wander northward for several turns before the main body of the Rangers come under LRM attack from an Archer perched on a hillside next to the fortress itself. The Ferret VTOLS get closer and spot a lance of medium mechs hidden behind a ridge in thick cover. Armed with this knowledge, the Rangers send their light lance to the northeast to swing around behind the ambushers while the mediums make their way down the middle with the Goliath leading the charge.
The Rangers flanking maneuver is foiled however when a Hothead lance made up of a Blackjack, a Shadow Hawk, a Vulcan, and a Wolverine tear into the Rangers Locusts, crippling two of them before they are able to break line of sight and escape. In an attempt to salvage the situation, the Rangers change direction and send their heavier mechs down a side street and hit the Hothead's ambushers from behind. The Goliath tears the leg off of the Blackjack while the rest of the Rangers gang up on the Shadow Hawk and bring it down. From their position, a skyscraper blocks line of sight from the Archer, and the Rangers are given a momentary breather after the Hothead's remaining ambushers retreat.

Meanwhile the lost lance has managed to outrun their Hunchback, who has lagged behind by a couple blocks. This lance, minus the Hunchback, manage to catch the Archer with it's back turned and tear into it, crippling it's arm in a couple of salvos. Unfortunately around this time, the Hothead's assault dropped forces hit the field. Even worse for the Hunchback, almost all of them touchdown around him. This proves to be even worse for the Wasps and Stingers, as the Hunchback has the highest gunnery rating among the Rangers. Within 4 turns the Hunchback has killed an entire lance of Stingers and crippled two Wasps. The last Wasp proves to be a decent pilot and uses his Mech's superior maneuverability to stay behind the Hunchback. After several turns of barely scratching each other the Hunchback breaks line of sight and loses the Wasp among the city's elevation 4 and 5 skyscrapers. What ensues for the next ten turns is a hit and run game of cat and mouse with the two Mechwarriors skinning every last ounce of armor off of each other. One will be spotted and hit with light weapons fire before turning a corner and vanishing, or jumping out of sight only to surprise the opponent yet again for minimal damage.

As the ambush game goes on in the south, the Rangers in the north have managed to cripple half of the defending Hotheads near the fortress at the cost of most of their light mechs. As the Rangers jump infantry make their way to the fortress courtyard, the household guard open fire on them, luckily they all miss and the Rangers infantry take no damage. In order to open up an avenue of attack the Ferrets begin doing strafing runs against the household guard. Unfortunately one of the Ferrets gets too close to the Archer who blows it out of the sky. While all of this is going on, the majority of the fighting has consolidated between three of the Rangers mechs ( a Wolverine, a Griffin, and a Wasp,) and a full but damaged lance of Hotheads (Another wolverine, 2 Vulcans, and a Vindicator.) The Rangers keep attempting to outflank the Hotheads but keep finding themselves out maneuvered and facing a united front at every attempt. Eventually the Wasp manages to jump jet over the wall of the fortress and draws the Vindicator away from it's buddies long enough for the Wolverine to rush in and charge one of the Vulcans, knocking it into the other Wolverine which then falls backwards onto it's head into the fortress moat three elevations below. Unfortunately this drawsthe Archer's attention away from swatting VTOLs and strips a few tons of armor off of the Wolverine, and nearly headcaps the Griffin. What the Hotheads have lost track of is the Goliath that has been spending the last several turns coming in behind the Archer. When it rounds the corner, the Archer is running hot and can't escape. One AC20 round detonates the LRM ammo which damages the reactor. Containment systems fail and the Mech goes up in a fireball that does considerable damage to the nearby civilian buildings, dropping a Skyscraper and peeling some armor off of the Goliath.
To make matters worse, adding to the devestation is the Begger's Gambit. The Rangers underestimated the damage that a Dropship's thrusters can do upon landing. Upon touchdown the Gambit destroys the entire west wing of the capital building while dropping four civilian elevation 5 skyscrapers across the street. I can't help but think this is a 9-11 scale disaster for the people of New Kyoto. The only saving grace is that the battle is taking place at midnight in the business district. For a moment I thank God that we're periphery mercs that aside from our employers, no one has ever heard of before. The perks of being unaffiliated with a hiring hall.
With the Hotheads Mech forces finally crushed the remaining Ranger Mechs fight their way into the courtyard, sending the household guard scurrying for the cover of the fortress itself. During this lull in the fighting the Ranger's jump infantry manage to infiltrate the rear of the building and make their way to the target. Once inside they come under fire by the guards within and a running firefight up to the 4th floor ensues. The Mechs outside can do little to assist without risking the objective and quickly surround the building with the exception of the Goliath which turns south to look for the missing Huncback.

By this time the hit and run fighting has stripped the Hunchback of most of it's armor, and the wasp is missing it's right arm and most of the armor off of it's legs and chest, but is otherwise holding it's own. The Hunchback switches tactics and stands still for a turn once breaking line of sight and switches over to seismic sensors. The gamble works, as the Wasp sails overhead and lands on a building about a street over without spotting him. Without breaking cover, the Hunchback stalks the Wasp for several turns as the Wasp jumps from rooftop to rooftop searching for it's quarry. During this time however, the Wasp jumps out of range of the sensors and vanishes. Perplexed, the Hunchback wanders the streets in pursuit. After several turns of fruitless searching the Goliath crests a hill to the northwest and reveals the Wasp on top of the elevation 4 building right behind the Hunchback. The Goliath cannot hit it the Wasp at that range and can do nothing but watch as the Wasp lays open the Hunchback's rear armor and damages it's gyro. The Hunchback manages to turn as it falls and lands on it's rear, damaging the reactor. Overheating and unable to risk standing, the Hunchback begins a last desperate defense against the Wasp as it jumps from building to building. The Hunchback fires everything it has turn after turn after turn. Eventually the heat is too much and the Mech shuts down. The Wasp lands and closes in for the kill, but before it can land the fatal blow the Goliath manages to succeed at a 12+ roll with it's PPC and blasts the Wasp clean in two through the rear center torso. Two turns later the Hunchback is back on it's feet and making it's slow crawl back to the Gambit two blocks away. The Goliath falls in alongside it in case of any more light mechs that may have survived the blind assault drop.

At this stage the battle is almost over. The Rangers have managed to rescue the crew of the downed Ferret and have begun escorting the Infantry and their precious cargo back to the Gambit. When they are nearly two blocks away from the dropship two squadrons of aerospace fighters made up of Stukas and Corsairs appear from the north. What ensues is something out of a Michael Bay movie. The squadrons streak through the city streets, firing lasers and missiles at the retreating Mechs and infantry. The Mechs form up and provide a defensive wall for the infantry and fire back as the fighters pass over them and even manage to shoot a couple down. One of the downed fighters crashes into the side of a skyscraper, collapsing it. Another crashes into a row of fuel tanks near the harbor causing an enormous explosion and setting fire to the nearby structures. The downtown area looks like a disaster zone at this point with buildings destroyed here and there throughout and now we have managed to set fire to it.
Several Mechs go down under the fire but are picked up by their comrades or follow along with the Infantry. The fighters shy away from the dropship after a few brave souls get their wings shot out from under them. The Huncback and Goliath make it back to the dropship on the same turn that the infantry board. One turn later everyone is mounted up and the Begger's Gambit performs a vertical lift. Once again the dropship's thrusters damage the surrounding buildings. The rest of the capital building collapses in on itself, two more damaged civilian buildings crumble and the Gambit is airborn with the package.

Thus ends the most epic battletech experience I have had in years.
« Last Edit: 22 January 2012, 02:59:24 by Madcow9000 »
For nearly a day and a half we were an island of resistance in a sea of Falcon Green.

Madcow9000

  • Private
  • *
  • Posts: 43
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #1 on: 22 January 2012, 14:02:51 »
How do you guys think the aftermath of this battle will go? I'm expecting some serious fallout for the massive collateral damage to the civilian sector. It may have been unintentional but it still happened. I'm somewhat worried that the Lyrans will sell me out to the Isle of Skye over it but I don't think that would happen as they would have to explain how they knew it was us and run the risk of us telling truth. Then again they might just try to kill us and get it over with. They can't let Skye know that they hired us or they might have another separatist revolt on their hands.
Any ideas?
For nearly a day and a half we were an island of resistance in a sea of Falcon Green.

Sir Chaos

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 3086
  • Artillery Fanboy
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #2 on: 22 January 2012, 15:12:58 »
How do you guys think the aftermath of this battle will go? I'm expecting some serious fallout for the massive collateral damage to the civilian sector. It may have been unintentional but it still happened. I'm somewhat worried that the Lyrans will sell me out to the Isle of Skye over it but I don't think that would happen as they would have to explain how they knew it was us and run the risk of us telling truth. Then again they might just try to kill us and get it over with. They can't let Skye know that they hired us or they might have another separatist revolt on their hands.
Any ideas?

Do you happen to know of any job openings in the Far Periphery?  ^-^
"Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl."
-Frederick the Great

"Ultima Ratio Regis" ("The Last Resort of the King")
- Inscription on cannon barrel, 18th century

Madcow9000

  • Private
  • *
  • Posts: 43
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #3 on: 22 January 2012, 16:10:48 »
lol. Our current base of operations is stationed on Herotitus. ;D
For nearly a day and a half we were an island of resistance in a sea of Falcon Green.

Lyran Archer

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 884
  • pre-3050: ARC-2R / post-3050: ARC-5W
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #4 on: 22 January 2012, 16:47:46 »
The most epic battle I've ever fought was a company vs company battle not using Quick Strike rules. It took a whole Saturday to play. There was 40 000 BV on the table. I had eleven Archers, a Rifleman, and two helicopters. There's a video report of it here:

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,6181.0.html

I'm hoping to play a Quick Strike battle someday fielding my entire Lyran regiment or my Clan Wolf Hussars.
LCAF German Expeditionary Militia Kampfgruppe Panzerfaust: 1 Overlord class DropShip, 1 Fortress class DropShip, 2 AeroSpace Fighters, 4 BattleMech Companies, 1 Vehicle Company, 1 Infantry Battalion
Motto: STAND (behind a hill) AND DELIVER (indirectly via spotter)!

Ruger

  • BattleTech Volunteer
  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 5561
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #5 on: 22 January 2012, 16:51:16 »
IIRC, the most epic, as in scale, battle I've ever played in was about 4 or 5 lances on my team's side versus a full battalion on the GM's...played over the course of a few hours one night, with our side winning...it was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory...but a victory never-the-less...

Ruger
"If someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill 'em right back." - Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly

"Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand is where I fall...Stand with me." - The Doctor, The Doctor Falls, Doctor Who

Jaim Magnus

  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • *
  • Posts: 7814
  • Assisting you and your enemies equally.
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #6 on: 22 January 2012, 20:49:42 »
Most epic battle I've ever played was in my AU Clan invasion campaign.  Wolves invaded Sian... and there were no holds barred by either side.  Pit traps, rockets fired by infantry from buildings... collapsing said buildings to block the Wolves path.  Suicide truck runs on grounded dropships.  Massed artillery strikes.  Zellbrigen thrown to the wind. Com Guards being cut loose to help defend.  Destruction of the HPG on planet.  Brutal, brutal fight, and took several days of actual game play, but man was it fun  >:D
BattleCorps - Righteous Fury, Sorrow of Eden, Lady of Steel, I Was Lost, Forsaken : Legacy - The Forgotten Places : Shrapnel - Scavenger's Blood : ELH Chronicles - View from the Ground : Shrapnel - It Ends in Fire, Picking the Bones

GreyWolfActual

  • CDT Global Events Developer
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 1167
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #7 on: 22 January 2012, 20:50:55 »
I ran a free-for-all with 19 players running a total of 83 mechs.  In the eight hours we played we managed to kill 62  of those mechs.
"My name is Saul Tigh. I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be."
-Saul Tigh

The Hawk

  • Warrant Officer
  • *
  • Posts: 473
  • Have talons, will travel.
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #8 on: 23 January 2012, 01:02:56 »
In terms of sheer scale, the most epic battle I ran involved five battalions; two of the Dragoons' Delta Regiment, two of the White Witches, and my players' unit of roughly a battalion in size.  It was set around Port Gailfry on Quentin as detailed in Wolves on the Border.  Of course, this was in MegaMek and was done in turns, and took me about an hour and a half to do a movement or fire phase.  Yet we still managed to do 16 turns in about six weeks... not too shabby.

markhall

  • Lieutenant
  • *
  • Posts: 1435
  • "The Button's Stuck!"
Re: The most epic battles.
« Reply #9 on: 23 January 2012, 02:59:56 »
Be Yabbers!

Put the Grim Rangers on the list of Non Defense Merc Contracts.
Some Awful collateral damage there. At least it was to the enemy world.


I've played a lot of fairly epic battles over the years. But don't tend to stray above Battlion games for BTech.
Unless we got a who weekend to play.


I ran a free-for-all with 19 players running a total of 83 mechs.  In the eight hours we played we managed to kill 62  of those mechs. If a free for all don't have a high body count The Gm has done someting wrong.

 

Register