Scenario BackgroundOperation MAGNUS
Sarna, Capellan Confederation
October 15, 3112 (Capellan Crusades)
In August 3112, the Republic of the Sphere launched Operation MAGNUS, a counterattack into Capellan space aimed at seizing Sarna and five other worlds. All four regiments of Stone’s Brigade began landing on Sarna in force in October 3112, leaving Daoshen insufficient time to evacuate his base. Within days it was obvious that Sarna would fall to the invaders, Daoshen attempted to consolidate his forces and retreat offworld from Tengo Aerospace’s factory complex. House Lu Sann fought a holding action against Stone’s Lament and Stone’s Liberators, in an attempt to allow Daoshen to escape to the complex. Stone’s Brigade managed to smash through the Lu Sann troops and partially surround Daoshen, whose Yu Huang was armless and limping at this point. Warrior House Imarra, sent by Sun Tzu, performed a dramatic combat drop around Daoshens location and formed a line in front of him.
Play out the final moments of this pivotal battle as the invading Republic troops attempting to capture Daoshen Liao.
Republic ForcesAll Republic mechs started with 20% armor damage (randomly determined with 5 point clusters) & down 30% ammo
LamentAtlas II H2- 3/4
Black Knight 6RR- 2/3
Grand Titan 10M- 2/3
Victor 11D- 2/3
LiberatorsMad Cat III 3- 2/3
Nyx 100- 3/4
Blade 7R- 2/3
Raptor II 3X- 3/4
Capellan ForcesDaoshen started in a custom Yu Huang (similar to Y-H9G but with a great deal of clantech)- 50% armor loss most on arms/legs, left leg foot actuator destroyed, right arm gone, left arm internal, only armor elsewhere. Clan ERPPC in right arm, clan med lasers in torso. Down 75% ammo also.
Red Lancers started with 30% armor damage (randomly determined with 5 point clusters) & down 50 % ammo
Avatar J- 2/3
Eyleuka 45A- 2/3
Yao Lien 4C- 3/3
Raven 4Lr- 3/4
House Imarra started fresh with full armor and ammo
Yu Haung 9G- 2/3
Lao Hu 2B- 2/3
Ti Ts'ang 9C- 3/2
Vindicator 5L- 3/4
Republic ObjectivesSeek and Destroy (Primary-500)- Capture Daoshen before he can escape offworld. Cripple Daoshens mech (destruction of three limbs, destroy engine), and then have one unit occupy that hex for three consecutive turns (including the turn in which it arrives) to capture him. We do not want to kill Daoshen however, so any actions resulting in his death reduce victory points to 200.
Fast Recon (Secondary-200)- We need to know what other forces the Capellans have mustered in the Aerospace complex. Send one of your units off the Capellan home edge during the movement phase, and have them return two turns later in the movement phase.
Bring the Pain (25 per unit crippled/destroyed)- Destroy or cripple as many additional units as possible. A unit is considered crippled if it has three limbs, engine, or gyro destroyed.
Capellan Objectives
Run the Gauntlet (Primary-500)- Sun Tzu has ordered that we get Daoshen off-world no matter the cost. Ensure that Daoshen exits our home map edge, using any and all means available to you.
Distraction (Secondary-250)- We must attempt to draw focus away from Daoshen, hit the enemy where they are most vulnerable to grab their attention. Conduct successful attacks on a minimum of three enemy units while in their rear firing arc.
Extreme Prejudice (25 per unit crippled/destroyed)- Destroy or cripple as many additional units as possible. A unit is considered crippled if it has three limbs, engine, or gyro destroyed.
Starting
Turn 1- no photo- Nyx sprints across the board and then rips the rear torso of the Avatar apart, but fails to do any internal damage... in return Nyx takes a bunch of HAG damage including a single head hit, fails consciousness, falls asleep and falls to the ground
- Mad Cat III did some damage to one of the Red Lancers too
- Imarra drop onto board, some scatter but pretty close to desired locations
Turn 2
- Evolves into two battles (a) Red Lancers vs. Liberators
- Raven goes down after receiving a full barrage of 2 LRM20's and an ER PPC, resulting in three engine hits
- Eyleuka jumps in to occupy the Mad Cat III and Blade, nothing other than armor damage, Avatar provides support fire
- Yao Lien stays glued to Daoshen screening him fire
- Raptor II runs of the opposite teams edge to complete a scouting secondary mission
(b) Imarra vs. Lament
- Ti Ts'ang takes a severe beating from three assault mechs, loses about 75% of armor, some internal, but no criticals and manages to stay standing. Black Knight circles around the outside of the board trying to get a line on Daoshen
- Imarra manages to do some light damage in return on the Atlas II, and the Lao Hu blows of the Grand Titans head with LB20
Turn 3
- (a) Mad Cat III and Blade regroup and go and support newly conscious Nyx. The Mad Cat III chooses to fire on the Lao Hu on the hill and scores a blistering attack including a freak hit to the head, the pilot fails their consciousness roll and falls asleep standing up.
- The Yao Lien continues to try and occupy the Liberators while the rest of the Red Lancers stay with Daoshen. The Yao Lien fires on the already damaged Nyx and cores through the internal CT structure to put the Nyx out of the fight. The Yao Lien takes light damage in return but fails the piloting skill and falls over
(b) Ti Ts'ang jumps away from the Lament charge, only to be finished off by the Black Knight when it loses all its internal structure in its right torso. The Yu Huang jumps into the path of the Lament in order to slow them down, it takes a lot of damage but was still in good shape until he was hit in the head by a medium pulse laser and also goes unconscious, automatically falls to the ground.
Turn 4
(a) Mad Cat III down to his last salvo of LRM20s closes half the distance to Daoshen while cooling off, the Yao Lien gets up to chase him with the Blade in tow... again only armor damage
- The Raptor II returns from its scouting mission and catches Daoshen offguard managing to attack the rear, but missed with all weapons. The Eyleuka and Avatar return fire hoping to dissaude the Raptor II, minimal damage
(b) Atlas II and Victor unload a tonne of fire into the Yu Huang and finish him off by destroying the RT and the XL engine within. And then the Victor from one level higher manages to crush the Lao Hu with a kick to the head.
- The Vindicator and Black Knight start a running firefight as the Black Knight continues to close on Daoshen, armor damage only
Turn 5
The two separate battles condense back into one larger battle.
- Daoshen acts first and decides that rather than moving towards the home map edge, to first spend a turn moving away from the oncoming Republic forces.
- The Victor and the Atlas II close in on Daoshen which put them only 9 hexes away but without line of sight, setting up for potential the next turn
- The Vindicator and Black Knight continue there running firefight in the general direction of Daoshen, with the Vindicator managing to slow down the much larger Black Knight
- The Raptor II engages MASC to attempt to get into Daoshens rear arc again but fails the MASC role, resulting in a critical to a foot and a hip, and a crash to the floor. Daoshen snaps off a shoot with the ER PPC and head caps the poor Raptor II. The majority of fire from the Red Lancers also pile into the dead Raptor II
- 3 Liberator mechs lay into the Eyleuka resulting in mass damage and a failed piloting skill roll.
Turn 6 (no picture)
- Daoshen makes it the side map edge, and only 6 hexes from safety and accomplishing the primary objective. The Atlas II and Black Knight send some medium range fire over at Daoshen resulting in mostly armor damage, BUT causes Daoshen to fall after a failed piloting skill roll.
- The Mad Cat III, after dealing out mass damage during the game, decided to lie down in cover after losing its last weapon and taking hip damage to prevent kicks in the previous turn.
- The other remaining mechs on both sides manage to land hits on each other, but nothing of note.
Turn 7
- Daoshen manages to stand and runs as far as he can exposing his back to any Republic forces that can close, while the Yao Lien manages to provide some cover using the optional Shielding rule. The Blade charges in and manages to hit with multiple weapons in the rear arc. The Blade causes a great deal of damage to the rear armor of the Yu Huang but fails on the torso critical rolls. In return Daoshen turns and shears off the the Blades leg (or was it head?-don't have that record sheet at work...) with that ever dangerous clan-tech ER PPC.
- The Atlas II, Black Knight, and Victor manage to cause mass damame and kill both the Avatar and Eyleuka from the Red Lancers. The Vindicator chases behind causing additional damage to the Black Knight.
Turn 8- Daoshen manages to jump of the board after taking serious damage, accomplishing the primary objective for the Capellans and denying the Republic their primary objective.
After tabulating points for each objective that was accomplished, the Capellans win with a marginal victory. Players made this a great game that was close until the end, and truthfully it played out completely different than anything we had expected, including a disproportionate amount of failed consciousness and piloting rolls and successful head hits. Each player controlled mechs, and a demo agent controlled Daoshen. Thanks to all for a great game. Between Sagittaire and I, all of the mechs we fielded were painted by Psycho. You can't really see it with the photos, but it added a real WOW factor to the game, thanks for your great work over the years Psycho!
Love to hear any input you have, thanks for reading.
