Commander Blitz looked up from his display screen after reviewing the replay of the battle for the city. He remembered his misgivings about the combat drop from the dropship Leviathan and realised that the battle had been fought with minimum damage and maximum salvage. t all started with the Recon Lance being dropped to the South West of the city, the combat drop offered a few worries as the troops had been travelling and despite gunnery practice had little piloting practice. The recon lance contained a Commando, Firestarter, Dervish and Warhammer, a strange combination for reconnaissance (but it worked well!). All mechs landed safely and took up a defensive position whilst waiting for the medium Lance. He was to land following the medium Lance with the heavy lance being landed with the Leviathan .The medium lance is made up of a Centurion, Orion, Vindicator and Crab. Things went astray right from the start the Vindicator veered off course, hit some trees and landed on his face. The mech took a lot of armour damage but fortunately it was spread around, not weakening a particular location. It did not get better! The Crab also lost control (probably due to it’s ungainly shape) and crashed to the ground smashing the armour on its legs and left side. A heavy mech hitting the ground like that is not a pretty sight. Fortunately the Centurion took the advance guard on the South West side and landed without mishap. The Orion and my Zeus arrived next without incident!! (An assault mech landing poorly is even worse).
We were down and it was time to take the city. He was aware that the Black Horse mercenaries had a Lance in occupation, yet did not know their composition or location but knew it would not be easy. The Night Owls had met the Black Horse before!
The crab had obviously damaged itself as it struggled to stand falling three times before standing upright. The Vindicator on the other hand got up and sprinted into cover. Firestarter jumped straight onto a strengthened building on the edge of the city. The commando ran forward to support it whilst the Dervish and Warhammer stood surveying the City edge. The Orion strode purposefully towards the centre of the city but was surprised when an Ostsol appeared very close on his left flank. The Centurion had a similar surprise as a Hunchback medium mech appeared before him, fortunately out of range.
A Catapult Heavy mech also appeared on the scanners at the back of the city. As the Ostsol appeared he drove his machine towards it firing both PPC and LRM 15, at least 12 missiles hit somehow finding a chink in the armour damaging both the Gyro and engine. He was also pleased to see that despite being unable to stand the Crab still managed to remove some armour from the advancing Ostsol. The Orion also fired its LRM 15 peppering it whilst the Warhammer fired both PPC’s turning most of the remaining armour to slag.
The Ostsol then proceeded to limp off towards the North, due to the city blocks he was soon out of sight. Damn! Good salvage wasted. The lances then proceeded with caution towards the centre, with the Dervish and Firestarter jumping from block to block. The Centurion had an extremely nasty surprise as a Vindicator jumped over his head landing behind him and opening up with every thing that could bear, It missed! With a surprise like that the Centurion pilot was a bag of nerves, the Vindicator disappeared from sight and appeared to be heading towards my Zeus and the Orion. What bravery or stupidity! Meanwhile the Centurion and my Vindicator chased off the Hunchback.
The Hunchback pilot had obviously got some fight still in him he reversed direction and took a shot at the Centurion sheltering behind a city block. I must give it to him what a marvellous shot whilst running he hit the Centurion with the AC20 in the centre torso. With no armour and a massive shock to the pilot he slipped and fell to the floor fortunately the Hunchback then proceeded to leave the city. The Commando then faced off against the heavy Catapult fortunately his speed and close range upset the aim of the Catapult who unleashed a salvo of 40 missiles and then raced off North out of the city. That only left the Vindicator! He was playing a game of cat and mouse and could not catch it. Despite offering surrender terms it refused and turned to fight the Zeus, Orion and Warhammer, massively outgunned with nowhere to run. Eventually following the removal of it’s PPC arm it surrendered. He had fought long enough to enable his comrades to disappear.
Looking at the damage records we had managed to cripple the Ostsol, capture the Vindicator (despite it’s damage) and barely scratched the catapult or Hunchback. Only the Centurion encountered bad battle damage, although the Vindicator and Crab both sustained damage after falling.
We now need to repair what we can before we set off in pursuit, the Black Horse proved once again that they are a worthy adversary.
Game Points
Neil and I have set up this trial campaign for the invasion of Orkney, a periphery planet using the mercenary rules. Random Mechs and pilots were derived for each company with the choice of a heavier mech for the commander. I did very well on the Gunnery skills (awesome really) but poorly with the piloting skills whilst Neil had poorer status pilots but with average stats.
The combat drop was represented by each pilot having to make a skill roll. Damage being determined by how badly the roll failed. Both the Crab and Vindicator took 3x weight damage.
The Hunchback shot was outrageous, it hit on a 10 and then fortunately rolled a 3 for the hit location, thank goodness it was not a 6 (head).
We now have 23 hours to fix up the mechs prior to the next scenario, extraction.