But if you are interested in creating an opfor that would be great. Right now I am thinking of 17,500 points Jade Falcons.
You forces can be Word of Blake, MD, or mercenaries.
Planet Skye
To: “TASK FORCE SENTRY”
Fm: Precentor Stilwell
“Task Force Sentry is assigned to the Paulson Plateau. You will establish a position that will allow you to see the surrounding area. We are expecting the Jade Falcons to attack our left flank in support of the Coalition’s general offensive. My plan is to have “Loyal Thought III” and III “Heavy Devotion III” contain this thrust. But I need to know where to place my troops. Once the Clans have been contained, I will authorize your Task Force Sentry to attack the Hamlet of “Iron Ridge”.
The Word of Blake has artillery support.
(Copperhead and high explosive shells)
So that was his briefing. (My Falcon Watch failed me since intel was available)
At the game I thought I told him the importance of the level 4 hill and how a mech on that hill was able to see into a valley where a Jade Falcon cluster was moving through. If the Cluster was to change direction, he was to inform HQ.
It has been probably five or six years since I used a Dire Wolf or Executioner so I thought this might be a nice game to use these mechs. Reaching out 17 or more hexes to a target on hill might be good. The addition of ATM's reaching out to 27?? would be even better.
My initial deployment plan was a nova but since I didn't bring any elementals i decided to improve the gunnery skills for 2000 BV rather than use tokens to represent the elementals.
Since my mission was more destroy mechs and the primary targets would be any jump capable mechs and the mechs confined to a flat hill I figured five mechs against twelve was survivable.
His deployment of two mechs and four helicopters wasn't a big concern. (I don't like vtols because I think their rotors should be more fragile but oh well.) If I destroy the vtols my chance of winning is almost guaranteed.
Well, the battle didn't go as expected and yes I got destroyed and we can agree as to several reasons why but for simplicity sake I will simply state what I truly liked or disliked about the mission.
His deployment of smoke was a nice surprise and was definitely worth the experience and should be considered for future games and events.
As discussed earlier, I am expecting to face two Level II's maybe three LvL II's. But I was expecting to be facing more mechs. The Dire Wolf adnd Hellbringer had pulse lasers and or LBx's so the Vtols could have been handled better. I gambled on my deployment and he gambled on his. In this case he won. But now, I am tempted for any convention to create at least two forces for each side and let the players decide what force to use. (I use BV and I truly believe that BV is pretty good at creating a reasonable fair fight for three to four hours game.)
I was unable to determine if a two turn delay was suitable for artillery use. A three turn delay against a mobile force is almost worthless. We tried that several times and in most cases, the rounds landed fifteen or more hexes away from any combat unit. So the next event will have Cluster and HE shells. (For cheap fiction purposes, the shells are rocket assisted radio controlled so now I can have the artillery pieces 15 kilometers away for cheap fiction purposes.
I should have done more to stress the importance of the observation. Point. At the start of the game, with a Mech on the hill - You observe a cluster 30 mechs 50 KPH traveling south. Turn two if the mech is still on the hill. 30 mechs 50 KPH traveling south. etc. If he left the hill I would have remained silent. Had I done this update at the beginning of the turn he might have asked "what is the cluster doing" and I would have responded "I don't know. You left your observation point."
As the Clan Player I was to say "Katana, Katana, Katana" to tell the Cluster commander to break further east. But I was only to say those words when I was certain the Word of Blake would not notice their change in direction and speed. So I would say Turkina, Turkina, Turkina at the beginning of my turn and that brought some chuckles from the other side.
I don't know if creating a nova consisting of 20000 BV would be good or bad. Sometimes; always hitting a target isn't fun either.
My home rules are 2's are automatic misses and 12's are automatic hits. I like that rule and will continue to use it.
I have a cheat sheet or a binder where I have printed off several sheets of paper thinking it will be quicker then grabbing a rule book So I added some more sheets to my current binder so that will be helpful.
Had I inflicted some more damage it might have been more exciting/challenging for the WOB players.
I can reuse this scenario as a blueprint for a future scenario or change the mission to rescue the troops on the observation point, etc.
I was going to award the Word of Blake bonus points if he used the artillery against the cluster in the valley. He might not have hit anything, but incoming artillery fire would have disrupted the Clan formation.
Overall, a good learning experience and I think everyone had fun.
