Training Day 2 (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 I got so engrossed in playing the second training scenario that I forgot to take photos!

The scenario involves two lances of Inner Sphere mechs scouting and destroying supply caches (the counters with dice on them in the pics below). Three clan mechs are on the field, guarding the depot. Two more clan mechs are waiting in the wings to arrive about mid-game. This scenario uses the contents of the Alpha Strike boxed set to introduce you to various new elements of the Aces rules, such as Edge abilities and tokens. As it happened, the Edge abilities never came into play, and I got too excited about pushing my toys around that I forget to use the Edge tokens those pilots had.

Two Draconis Combine lances close quickly with Rasalhague Dominion mechs

 The Draconis Combine force mustered in a relatively tight group with the faster mechs pushing forward to scout the waypoints. The first couple were not the caches they were looking for, although one did push the arrival of the extra Rasalhague Dominion mechs back a turn. Unfortunately for the Locust, it ran too far forward and got completely annihilated by a Nova, although it did manage to identify a cache just before that happened.

Unknown Locust pilot: "Who knew that Novas could carry so much firepower? Aargh!"

 The Wraith and the Wasp also raced forward and identified a couple of caches. They made good use of their jump jets and speed to stay out of the line of fire of the Warhawk and the Timber Wolf, which could have trashed them in seconds if they could only get a shot in.

What's the point of having jump jets if you cannot get a rooftop view?

 The rest of the Draconis Combine mechs focused their fire on the Dominion Timber Wolf and slowly cut it to pieces while the Warhawk moved up, wary of the two mechs on the roof near it. About this point, the Dominion reinforcements arrived. A Fire Moth and a Pouncer moved to support their star mates but it was too little too late. Even with the astounding speed of the Fire Moth allowing it to run rings round the Wraith and take out all its armour and much of the underlying structure, the Wraith and Wasp escaped to fight another day as the heavier mechs lay down a fearsome hail of fire that destroyed the Warhawk. With only two enemy mechs on the field and three of four caches destroyed, the Draconis Combine force withdrew.

Conclusion

The dice in this game were more even than last time around, but I forgot some key rules at various points. I also forgot to use my Edge points, and I found that the opportunity to use the Edge abilities never arose. Despite these mistakes, I scored 9 out of a possible 10 victory points and got a solid victory.

This time around, the automa made more sense, or I just got it wrong but was not bothered (!), but I think it will take a bit more use to really start using it properly. The moves it made mostly made sense, and using the automa did not make my brain ache, so that was really positive. Time to read the rulebook again to try to fix all the rules in my head and then on with the campaign.