Battletech

Year: 3020 Location: New Antioch, Duchy of Andurien, near the Capellan front

Briefing:

The mercenary company Fired Bolt has been garrisoned here now for several weeks, under contract with the Duchy of Andurien out of convenience for both - the mercenaries were there, and the Duchy had apparent suspicions the nearby Capellan Confederation could make a play for the world soon. The world is largely a cultural trophy, not a military installation, but is considered valuable to the Duchy and the Free Worlds League all the same.

Those suspicions were confirmed as Capellan-aligned mercenaries jumped into system while the regent was meeting with a ComStar delegation earlier today. Their dropship was just sighted several kilometers east of the major city in which the meeting took place.

Stop the invaders and buy time for the VIPs to reach safer ground.

Formations: From left to right

Von Belcher Mobile Front: (Southern edge)

• Louise, Locust
• Commander: Bob, Battlemaster
• Linda, Catapult
• Tina, Chameleon (TRC-4B because it's super cheap lol)

Fired Bolt: (Northern edge)

• Commander: Ripley, Ostsol
• Hicks, Hunchback
• Bishop, Flea
• Vasquez, Locust

You'll note VBMC is fielding much more BV and tonnage. We gave ourselves a starting budget of 3640 BV1 to create our Companies, and enough MechWarriors to pilot them all. He skewed much lighter, not included in this formation are an extra Panther and Locust. I missed the line that said there's supposed to be a 3000 BV cap per mission, so I probably should've had to leave Tina at home, technically. That said, he had the option to deploy all six Mechs he owns, but opted to just deploy a Lance and keep two Mechs in reserve. Hard to say if it was the right choice - he left quite a few points on the table, and once one Mech went down he suffered from activation disadvantage pretty hard for an army that's really intended to dominate that front. This mission ended up costing him, but his reserves may keep him afloat through the next mission.

Turn 1:

Vasquez pushes Tina, looking for some early crits. Gets lit up for her trouble. Little else happens beyond positioning.

Turn 2:

Vasquez retreats but is chased down by Tina. The Locust's center torso is completely destroyed, forcing the pilot to eject - the Mech is beyond repair. Firefight breaks out on the Western flank.

Turn 3:

Nothing of note tbh, nearly every shot seems to miss.

Turn 4:

Ripley makes a play to push Linda over. Tina sweeps in 1 hex behind her - and misses with nearly every shot, then overheats, shuts down, and falls over. She groaned the whole time. Ripley knocks Linda to the ground as Bob blows Bishop's leg clean off, effectively neutralizing the Flea for the rest of the battle. Had we paid closer attention to the rules, at this point Fired Bolt had 50% of their force remaining and I'm pretty sure technically lost already. But we played one more Turn.

Turn 5:

Some more shooting but nothing particularly consequential. Fired Bolt surrenders and is allowed to retreat.

Final Result:

Decisive victory for VBMF. The VIPs managed to escape, but the damage done to Fired Bolt was considerable. The VBMF readies its next push on New Antioch in good shape, while Fired Bolt has to go into debt to cover its costs and has completely lost one of its two Locusts. For added insult to injury, Bob improved his Gunnery by a point.

The game was a ton of fun and we both are getting much more comfortable with it I think. We looked up a couple rules neither of us had encountered yet like physical attacks and "can a Mech with no arms stand up after losing a leg?" I gotta say, though, unless I misread the rules, losing your first battle is BRUTAL and can seemingly completely fuck your Company if you're not careful. So for any other new Commanders playing a Chaos Campaign, I highly suggest you try to minimize your losses if a track doesn't go your way in the first couple turns - a 50% payout for a loss is going to really hurt so don't risk more than you have to.

Thanks for reading! Our next battle probably won't be for two weeks unfortunately but I'll be sure to post when we have it :)