Arrival on Apolakkia (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

The jumpship popped into existence in the Apolakkia system. Two weeks later, it had approached the main world in the system and a battered, white Union-class dropship with an SHB Dropship Hire logo on it detached from the jumpship, which turned and headed out of the system again.

You are here

"Ok, folks," the voice from the dropship's tannoy system was Tom Skalle's, "We're heading down to the planet now. Pilots, buckle up in your mechs and AFVs. Be ready in case of a hot landing. I don't want to lose the deposit on this dropship! Everyone else, tie your shit and yourselves down. We're going to put down near an urban centre that will make for a good base of operations but there may be Jade Falcon forces in the area, so be ready."

Following his own instructions, Tom settled into the cockpit of his Devastator DVS-2 and did a full systems check as the dropship bucketed down through the atmosphere, jolting everyone inside it. The landing was a bit bumpy but they got down without being blasted from the sky. The Full Throttle Lemmings deployed quickly and efficiently, forming a defensive formation around the dropship.

They relaxed as nothing lit up their scopes. The only sign of immediate activity was a single off-roader approaching from the town. It stopped a short distance from the deployed mercs. The driver got out and raised his arms to show that he carried no weapons. He walked forward towards the Lemmings and Tom moved his Devastator out from the ring to meet the man halfway.

It was an unequal match, but the man managed to carry himself bravely in the face of the massive assault mech. Tom's sensors picked up the man's words clearly and there was barely a tremor in his voice.

"I am Mayor Agapito Galanis. I lead this town. State your intentions here."

"I am Tom Skalle of the Full Throttle Lemmings."

The man winced clearly on hearing this. The company's reputation preceded it. It was said that any place protected by the Lemmings would run dry of alcohol and have a full drunk tank for the duration of that protection and possibly for quite some time afterwards, and that the damage bill for wrecked pubs was always high.

Tom continued, "The Alyina Mercantile League has hired us to clear out a small infestation of psycho chickens that you appear to have. We are going to set up camp, then we can talk details."

The First Sortie

The Lemmings had barely got themselves installed in the nearest bar before they were called to duty by their comms units sounding the stand-to alarm. A star of hostiles was approaching. As they strapped into their mechs, Tom quickly briefed them.

"We're sending out a reinforced lance to meet them. Anne will go with the scouting force to see who and what we are facing. The rest of you will defend the town under my direction."

Anne Rikke, callsign Goldfish, acknowledged this responsibility. As 2IC of this detachment of Lemmings, it was expected that she and Tom would not operate together in the field. Tom sounded off the names of those that would accompany her.

Anne took control, "Those that are with me will form up on my mech. We are going to scan the hostiles and fall back. If we can easily pick any of them off, then that is fine, but I do not want you taking unnecessary risks at this stage in the campaign. Our budget will not stretch to the usual damage levels you vandals seem to think are acceptable."

She pinged the lance's briefing and deployment instructions to their onboard computers and ordered them to move out. The force under her command comprised:

1. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
2. Spider SDR-8K (Finn "Random" Feil)
3. Wasp WSP-5A (Alf "Alf" Dusin)
4. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)
5. J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Lene "Dodger" Stolen)
6. J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Synne "Juggler" Stenalt)
7. Savannah Master (Reflective) (Ingun "Migraine" Peiling)

The enemy was advancing in three groups, while the Lemmings were deployed in a central position in the town. They would need to get out of the town and engage the enemy where the battle would do less damage to the local infrastructure.

Anne flicked open the comms channel, "Random, Juggler and Migraine, sweep left. The rest of us will head down the middle. Scan and destroy like we did in the simulations. This looks like a probe and we don't want any survivors reporting back to the chickens about us. You know how fast these damned clan mechs are, so watch each others' sixes and don't give them openings to exploit. Remember, shoot and scoot. Lemmings HO!"

She flicked a switch on her control panel and the strains of an old Terran classic rang out from the speakers on her Timber Wolf to boost the Lemmings' combat spirit. The reinforced lance moved out.

Key:

1 - Two Fulcrum Heavy Hover tanks

2 - Baboon and Locust

3 - Rifleman

4 - The Full Throttle Lemmings

As the Lemmings moved forward, the Jade Falcon lance also advanced. The Rifleman moved into cover behind a low hill, while the Baboon took up a position behind a low building.. Anne advanced her Timber Wolf into the open, ready to soak up the fire from the hostiles. She knew that her light mechs were very vulnerable here and she did not want them getting taken out.

A confusing diagram of the initial moves

In the opening moves, it quickly became a swirl of dodging and racing mechs, as the Jade Falcons used their superior mobility to cut in behind the Lemming's mechs, but the Lemmings worked as a team. As one psycho chicken mech was sucked in behind a Lemming mech, another Lemming unit cut in behind it in turn.

A blurry shot of the action taken from a surveillance drone

Very quickly, the Lemmings had scanned the hostiles, for a small cost in damaged armour. A couple of the mechs suffered weapons malfunctions and mobility hits though. It seemed that transit maintenance had not been up to snuff. Anne would have words with the techs when she got back to base.

No sooner were the enemy mechs scanned than they skedaddled. The action was over almost before it had begun. The Lemmings returned to base crowing about their easy victory.

Later back at base.

"It was weird, Tom. They could probably have done a shit tonne more damage to us, but they withdrew almost immediately we had scanned them. I worry that they were scanning us at the same time."

"Seems right, Anne. Damned psycho chickens can't be trusted and we can expect them to attack sooner rather than later."

"We appreciate you coming in to help us," Agapito broke in, "but I worry that there will be reprisals against my people."

The mayor looked scared, even though he was trying to put a brave face on it.

"The Jade Falcons, and especially their leader Star Captain Conrad Sender, have been brutal with my people, and with my own family. My grandfather died for talking back to them. I worry that they will start bombing my town."

Tom gave the man an appraising look, "Yes, that is our experience of them too. It seems to me that the only thing they understand is violence and brutality. It seems to me that we have two choices here. We can either form a defensive perimeter and see if we can negotiate with the chickens, or we could take the fight to them. Now, you mentioned that they have a supply dump nearby. I think that would make a good objective. We need more supplies and we don't want them to have those supplies. We also know that the chickens are unlikely to negotiate until they see that we have the upper hand. So, here's my plan. We'll raid the supply dump and cause chaos. With any luck, they will then focus on us and forget to harass and murder your people. Do you have anyone that really knows that area? We could do with a bit of intel before we go in."

Conclusion

This scenario lasted one turn! Well, technically two, but the second turn consisted of the Jade Falcon force withdrawing off the table. My force scanned all of the enemy on turn 1, which triggered the Jade Falcons adopting a Forced Withdrawal status. Even with movement hits on one of their mechs, they had enough movement to get off table on Turn 2.

As planned, the Timber Wolf soaked up most of the hits from the mechs, with only a small number of hits on one of the J. Edgars and the Wasp. The worst damage my mechs took was from scanning the enemy mechs, where this triggered a movement critical on one mech and a weapons critical on another.

With this, the primary objective was achieved but the secondary objective of knocking out at least three enemy units was not. It took me three goes to win this scenario, because my first two attempts were too cautious. Each lasted to Turn 4 with one enemy unit remaining unscanned and then their Forced Withdrawal was triggered and they all ran. Scouring Sands treats each scenario like a video game mission where you have to win to progress to the next one, so I replayed until I realised that I really should play this scenario more aggressively.

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.

Training Day 1 (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Now that I have finished the Forgotten Ruin campaign, it is time to play Battletech Aces. The first training scenario involves four Inner Sphere mechs fighting two Clan mechs. These are all mechs found in the Alpha Strike boxed set.

Set-up. The 8th Sword of Light face off against a pair of Rasalhague Dominion mechs

To help you get to grips with using the Aces automa for the hostile force, the scenario is set up as fully programmed with all the dice rolls done for you. It tells you where to move your figures and walks you through reading the Aces cards to determine what the hostile force does. I did this once to get my head round it, then I played the scenario out properly.

The forces comprise, on the Draconis Combine side, an Archer, a Warhammer, a Phoenix Hawk and a Locust. Facing them are a Rasalhague Dominion Timber Wolf and Pouncer. In theory, the advantage lies with the Inner Sphere mechs, because they are worth more points.

The Timber Wolf moved into cover of the building ahead of it, dodging around to get a good shot at the Archer, which had moved into the woods in front of it, supported by the Warhammer. Meanwhile, the Pouncer had also moved into the woods ahead of it as the Locust and Phoenix Hawk raced forward, using buildings as cover. Before it knew it, the Pouncer had a Locust standing right behind it hammering it. Unphased, the Pouncer pilot let rip a carefully aimed shot at the Phoenix Hawk, scoring a freak critical that damaged its engine. The Timber Wolf was busily hammering the Archer from range at this point. Despite its best efforts, the Pouncer could not shake the Locust, whose persistence was rewarded. The Pouncer was pounded into the ground, leaving the Timber Wolf on its own.

"We have you now, cursed clanner!"

The four Inner Sphere mechs closed in on the lone enemy mech, surrounding it. However, the Timber Wolf pilot was canny and spotted an opportunity. He moved to close with the Locust and blew it apart, while keeping his mech far enough away that the Inner Sphere weapons all missed him.

"Oh no you don't, spheroid scum!"

Then he gunned his engine and raced in behind the Archer, firing everything he had at it, causing the heat in his cockpit to jump massively.The Archer slumped to the floor, a pile of slag. The rest of the lance retreated.

Conclusions

As far as this game went, the clanners had the dice on their side. They won the initiative every single turn of this five-turn scenario. They also scored a through-armour critical against the Phoenix Hawk, and trashed the poor Locust and Archer with an unfeasibly high number of normal hits that took out the structure of both mechs in no time at all. Meanwhile, the spheroids missed a lot of the time, and the two times they scored a chance of a critical hit, the result was 'no critical hit'. It reminded me of playing my brother and my friend, both of whom score lots of crits while I always seem to roll the 'no critical hit' result. It was lucky for me that the Locust was able to dance around the Pouncer and pound it in the back or I might not have taken out even one of the enemy mechs.

The automa worked well, giving me a few surprises and leading to a fun game. It took a bit of getting used to. There area a bunch of icons on the cards that you need to get familiar with. Fortunately, there is a cheat sheet on the back of the rulebook, which helps a lot. Working through the priorities lists that you are given and remembering to stop when you meet the conditions of one of them is also a mental hurdle. However, that will come with more practice. The play by play walkthrough really helped both with remembering where to stop and just apply the conditions and with making the conditions for choosing actions make sense. Movement is the more complex part of this, with a good chance of you having several possible end points for the move, but it did not make my brain ache too much. I should note at this point that the rules include a note to just relax and not fret if you get something wrong. Important and good advice. My solo gaming became way more enjoyable once I achieved that realisation.

Now I need to read the rules again to trying to fix them in my brain before playing the second training scenario. That one features all the mechs from the Alpha Strike boxed set, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to play out.

1 Sviftmont 1000 AC - In Search of a Dragon

 Broneslav awoke early and packed his gear. He thought about what was happening back in Karameikos. It would be autumn there, but here it still felt warmer than high summer. He also worried about his ship. Would the captain return for him? He knew that he had stayed out in the jungle longer than planned, but he had also given the captain instructions on what to do. If he was lucky, the captain had been canny enough to trade on his behalf and earn him a good bit of silver into the bargain. It was really too late to worry about that now though.

Bidding goodbye to the villagers, he set out on his next adventure. It would involve a circuitous route round the plateau, unless he got lucky and found a way down the huge cliffs on the north-east side. He had rope and climbing gear with him, so it would be possible to do so. He mused on the problem as he followed the guide from the village using a much easier route out than the one he had climbed to get in.

Saying farewell to his guide, Broneslav set out across the plateau, glad of the relatively easy going for now. Ahead he could see mountains and he knew that the going would be slower and tougher in a day or so.

Cresting a low rise, he stopped suddenly and ducked back. A huge lizard was grazing on scrubby bushes about 100 metres ahead of him. The beast was about half the size of the ship he had sailed here in and stood twice as high as Broneslav himself. It had three massive horns on its head and a huge bony frill protecting the back of its head. It was intent on its meal and did not appear to have noticed him. He skirted the area warily in case it spotted him, but the triceratops was too intent on its food.

By the end of the day, the young warrior had reached the edge of the plateau. He found shelter and made camp in a concealed spot. Tomorrow would involve climbing and he intended to be well-rested for that.

Cartaventura Vinland: The Queen of VInland

 Following on from my last adventure, Freydis Eiriksdottir chose to do what her wimpy, Christian brother did not. Despite Freydis refusing to accept prima signatio, her mother Thjodhild gave Freydis her blessing and told her to be careful and to change her underwear regularly while she was travelling. It would not do to be killed by monstrous sea beasts while wearing dirty underwear.

Freydis gathered a crew including the carpenter Helgi, whose brother she had saved from a slavering Jotun, and set out for Vinland. She also added Thorbjorg the seer to her retinue and saved her younger brother's life from some type of pestilence thanks to an elixir she gained from the light elves.

The journey was largely uneventful, if only because the crew steered clear of the large sea serpent they saw on the way. Every time Freydis sought to close with it and attack it, the ship seemed to get pushed away by the waves. How ever did that happen?

Landing in Vinland, Freydis and her crew gathered supplies, only for one of their number to be eaten by a uniped. Freydis drove the beast off by yelling and pounding her naked breast with her sword. Then she singlehandedly drove off a Kraken that sought to drag her ship under. And finally, Freydis and her crew landed in Vinland, where they set up serious wine production, only for Freydis to get a rotten taste in her mouth when Thorfinn karlsefni turned up with his simpering, Christian bride Gudrid. As a strong, viking woman with no liking for the white Christ, Freydis drove them off.

Unfortunately, the livestock started getting stolen at this point. Freydis did not have enough men to take on the locals who were enjoying this food, so she was forced to return to Brattahlid in Greenland, where she told me this tale that I have relayed in her own words with no embellishment or adornment.

Skål for Queen Freydis of Vinland!

Our story will return to Leif next time I pick up this game.

N.B. Freydis does not come off well in the Vinland sagas. She is murderous and inclined to do nasty things to people she does not like. Most people remember her driving off indigenous people by baring her breast and beating on it with a sword she had picked up, and admire her for that bravery. However, the treachery towards Helgi and Finnbogi and the instigation of their murder is often forgotten. Fortunately, in this game she did not have them killed yet. Maybe next time?

Jessing the Falcon (Alpha Strike)

 The Alyina Mercantile League had put out the call for help and the Full Throttle Lemmings had responded. The terms of the contract were generous because the Hinterlands were full of opportunity for those that sought it, so companies were always busy. A remnant of Clan Jade Falcon was standing in the way of the AML's newest business opportunities and the AML had declared that this aggression should not stand. The meeting with the factor had been interesting and had given Jai the opportunity to practise her sales spiel, even though it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Lemmings would get this contract.

 "You see," Jai Rator, CEO of the Full Throttle Lemmings, explained to the factor, "The lemming of ancient Terra was a ferocious creature. Despite its small size, it could bring done prey much larger than itself. A swarm of lemmings could fall on a fully grown heffalump and reduce it to just bones in less than a minute. Lemmings were so ferocious and committed to the hunt that they would even throw themselves off cliffs en masse to land on the prey below. They originated the death-from-above attack, you know. That is why we have adopted them as our nomme de guerre and company name. We may not be the largest mercenary company around, but our commitment to ferocity and teamwork has ensured that the company has lasted for over one hundred years."

The factor looked sceptical about this biology lesson. They had never heard of lemmings before though, so perhaps it was true. There were many strange creatures out there in the universe.

"Now," continued Jai, "let me show you our current roster of mechs and vehicles. You will notice that we tend to keep them in the livery of their original owners, apart from painting the head and shoulders in our Lemming colours. We want our foes to know that we do not fear them and find it enrages or unnerves them, so they make mistakes that we can take advantage of."

She stood up and led the recruiter out into the mech bay, where the company was being serviced before the next contract.

(L to R) Wasp, Archer, Phoenix Hawk, Devastator, Wolfhound, Centurion, Spider, Mad Cat (Timber Wolf)

Jai was pleased with the newly signed contract and with the fact that she could continue the family tradition of drinking and fighting in this way. It had not always been easy to keep the Full Throttle Lemmings going while she had been CO of the company, but she had managed it, and she was sure her great-great-grandmother Jennie would be proud of what she had done with them. Now, of course, Jai had to get the company through this next campaign without going bankrupt, which would mean trying to get her pilots to care about damaging their mechs. She reviewed the resources available to her for this contract and assigned two lances and support units to it. The units assigned were the best fit she could manage based on budget and utility. They would have to do. At least she knew she could mostly rely on the ground commander Tom Skalle, who had been with the company for a while now, to try to nurse them through this campaign. For her own part, she was stuck with doing the company accounts again. The Mercenaries Review Board was demanding a full audit. Honestly, she would rather face a Dire Wolf in a Locust than wade through all these numbers with her accountants.

(L to R) Patton, Savannah Master, Patton, J. Edgar, Savannah Master, J. Edgar

The force listed below, and pictured here, will be my assigned unit for my first run through Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands. I have no idea how effective it will be. It was designed around using mainly unpainted figures from my collection, so that I was pushed to paint them. The mechs I assign to the Full Throttle Lemmings are always those that are left over after I have allocated mechs to regular forces, which I feel is as good a way as any of simulating salvage and the vagaries of the market for an irregular force.

The force is heavy on lights and mediums, with a couple of heavies and an assault mech in support. The Savannah Masters are present for fast scouting and scanning of objectives. The tanks are there as additional cheap and relatively quick support. The Lemmings prefer highly mobile tactics and I have designed with that in mind, even though I know that light mechs tend to go up in smoke with just one hit in Alpha Strike. Wish me luck!

In terms of content, I am going with the recommended 4 named pilots. These are the heroes with the potential to improve and earn special abilities. I have also saved 2 points to convert to Support Points so that I have a small warchest available for paying the named pilots and hopefully enough to cover repairs if things go completely sideways in an early mission.

Roster

Named Pilots

• Tom 'Headcase' Skalle (Mech Pilot)
• Anne 'Goldfish' Rikke (Mech Pilot)
• Turi 'Ironwood' Skogen (Mech Pilot)
• Lene 'Dodger' Stolen (Combat Vehicle Pilot)

Units (399 PV + 40 SP)

• Archer ARC-5R
• Centurion CN-10D
• Devastator DVS-2
• Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B
• Phoenix Hawk PXH-9
• Spider SDR-8K
• Wasp WSP-5A
• Wolfhound WLF-2
• J. Edgar Light Hover Tank
• J. Edgar Light Hover Tank
• Patton Tank
• Patton Tank
• Savannah Master (Reflective)
• Savannah Master (Reflective)

1st Falcon Sentinels (Battletech)

 The local games shop got a stock of Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands, so I took the opportunity to buy it. I cannot remember being this excited about a game in a long while. Aces is a solo engine for Alpha Strike and is designed to be used with the Alpha Strike boxed set, although you could easily get into it with Alpha Strike Commander's Edition rules plus some mechs of your own.

The boxed set includes the Aces rules and cards, two training scenarios that use the mechs from the Alpha Strike boxed set, and a campaign together with seven mechs and two vehicles that constitute the opposing force for the included campaign. There are also the counters needed to play and some card terrain. If you have Aces and the Alpha Strike boxed set, then you can get started immediately because you have all the mechs and terrain needed. Obviously, having a wider selection of mechs for your mercenary scum is always an advantage, but it is not essential.

The miniatures from the boxed set

Now that I have the set, it is clear that game play is not limited to what comes in the box, but that you can use the solo engine for any Alpha Strike game. It comes with activation cards for all the core mech roles, so you are not limited to what comes in the box. My own plans will be to use this with various of the supplements, such as the Historical Turning Points: Galtor pack set in 3025, the Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion or Hot Spots: Hinterlands among others. There are almost too many possibilities, and no doubt my ambitions are greater than my ability to achieve all of them!

Bane 3

Marauder IIC 10

Thunderbolt IIC

As I mentioned, I was really excited for this boxed set, so much so that the first thing I did on getting it was to sit down and paint the figures that came with it. No waiting to let the figures mature in the pile of unpainted lead/plastic here. Nope, straight down to the painting and a week later they are all coloured in. They won't win any painting competition prizes but I am happy.

Summoner H

Rifleman C 2

I no longer remember why I chose them, but I decided a while back that my Clan Jade Falcon force would be the 1st Falcon Sentinels, so that is who this mob belongs to. I'll post my thoughts on the rules as I get into the campaign, whenever that is, but these are the first members of my dirty clanner unit that will also provide an opfor in Clan Invasion and Hinterlands campaigns at some point.

Howler 6

Locust IIC 4

These mechs will be supplemented with those I need for the Hinterlands campaign based on the opposing forces in that book to fill out a larger force and provide some variety of baddies for the Full Throttle Lemmings to fight.

Fulcrum hover tanks

The Scouring Sands campaign includes support units such as emplacements, foot infantry, Elementals in power armour and so forth. It provides the figures for the Fulcrum hover tanks above and counters for other support units so you can get started right away. However, I had a box of Elementals lying around, so I quickly painted them up too. After all, it is a miniatures game, so miniatures are better than counters in this context.

Clan Elementals

Hopefully, I can replace the other provided counters with miniatures at some point, but for now the goal has to be playing the campaign with what I already have, because my other goal is not to buy more new miniatures until I have painted much more of what I already have.

With the OpFor ready, I now need to design my own campaign force to face off against them. That force will include some unpainted mechs to push me to paint more of the Pile of Shame/Opportunity. But first, I need to return to the Forgotten Ruin campaign and finish that.