Another victory for the Invasion Wolves!
Finally trotted out my actual tournament force- Timber Wolf C (3/5), Mist Lynx C (4/4) and Elemental L (4/4)- which gives me quite a bit of range but nearly 1/3 of the BV is quite fragile. I did load Swarm ammo in one of the LRM bins for the Timberwolf since I was expecting to face grouped IS opponents. Opponents were randomly assigned and I ended up facing another experienced player who was representing the Free Worlds League with a Awesome 8Q (3/5), Hercules 9001 (3/5), and 2 Spider 8M (4/5) who was supposed to be experienced.
A bit of sniping at range for a single hit occurred with a ERLL to the AWS CT, but the third turn caused a problem when he managed to connect with the right arm of the Mist Lynx with a 10 point hit . . . which was enough to melt it down. This put the Mist Lynx into forced with draw, though the Timberwolf started giving back the damage- everything that connected on the AWS except a 3 point LRM hit and the ERML hit the Awesome's CT. I started to lose initiative for a series, which having the smaller number of units on the battlefield was rough. My Elementals were moving up while the Timber Wolf was backing to use terrain to block LOS to at least one of the two larger opponents. The Timber Wolf ended up having to turn and twist to keep the Awesome at bay behind some woods while his Hercules, which had taken minor damage, backed up behind some L1 hill. My fresh Elementals ended up above him on the L2 . . . The ERPPC and LB-10X missed though a SSRM2 and MPL hit me. AMS took the SSRM2 down by 1, unfortunately not able to reduce the attack to nothing. The Timber Wolf hit with a ERLL, LRM15, UAC/5 and ERML, missing with the other LRM15. Nothing in the attack went into the dirt. Then the Elementals opened fire and hit with 2 Small Lasers and 6 missiles . . . one Small Laser burst hit the head, and a missile managed to do the final damage to get internal on the arm that had the MPL. He was awake from the hit, but when I rolled for the crit on the arm I got a 12- Limb Blown Off! And then the Herc pilot fell . . . The Elementals had taken 3 PPC blasts from the Awesome however, all 9s or better- but no troopers were lost.
He got up the next turn and went into retreat around the curve of the woods, the Awesome came forward, the Elementals landed 2 hexes away from the Awesome and my Timber Wolf ran forward 7 hexes and turned to face the Awesome which was 7 hexes away. Needed a 6 for everything but the ERML which was a 8 . . . missed on a LRM rack again but everything else hit. Failed the attempt on a double-tap but no jam at least, more damage spread on the torso with the PPC arm getting some attention . . . and a 5 point LRM hit to the head. The Elementals opened up, hit with three Small Lasers and another six SRMs . . . one of which was Snake Eyes! too bad it was the LT . . . or not, since the crit roll failed.
The Awesome ran into some light woods, the Elementals dropped out of the sky into the heavy woods right in front of them, the Herc ran around to the other side of the light woods while my Timberwolf ran forward to be 2 hexes from the Awesome with the Spiders 3 & 4 hexes away. Fire away! Both LRMs fired Swarm ammo, this was the reason I brought it! ERLL, UAC/5, ERML and both LRM15 hit from that range, but only 11 of the 30 missiles hit the Awesome . . . 14 (8 & 6) hit one of the Spiders, and the last (1 & 4) hit the Hercules. The Awesome weathered the pounding with nothing getting past armor . . . but it was enough to knock it down. The Spider had armor blown off but the Herc . . . the single LRM that hit it got a LT TAC . . . and crit the engine, so the Herc was going to run hotter.
Winning initiative again definitely helped, the Awesome tried to get up . . . fell the first time and took a pilot hit- unfortunately staying awake. It just stayed standing in the woods after running. The Elementals leaped for the light woods on the other side of the Herc . . . which then back up to a L1 hill and was 3 hexes away. The Timber Wolf ran forward to close on the Herc, placing a single hex of the hill between them. The Spiders decided to jump off to catch the Mist Lynx and knock it out of the fight instead of letting it make the slow retreat to the edge of the battlefield. More fire cost the Herc its LBX arm along with stripping the armor on that side torso . . . and it fell.
The time ran out on the battle as the Timber Wolf had chased the Herc as it engaged in its forced withdraw, blowing through a rear side and removing all rear center armor . . . the Herc fell again, straight back onto its rear CT . . . 1 crit . . . rolled up to crit the gyro. Meanwhile the Timberwolf had taken some armor damage and 1 PPC hit to the rear side torso had gone internal but no crits.
End tally was a crippled Hercules in exchange for a crippled Mist Lynx & crippled Elemental point (1 dead, 2 w/o armor, 2 completely intact) for a 3-2 victory for the Wolves. So 8 or so turns in roughly 2 hours of play. Next opponent will be another random selection and then the next match I think will be power matched (example, 3-0 will play 3-0 all the way down so 1-2 will play 1-2). The next stage will add another 5k, which will be plenty of fun.
