23-25 Sviftmont - A Blackish Day

 The days of trudging through the hills wore on and proximity to the swamps meant biting insects still found the young hero, which left him fed up. He realised that he was nearing where he had met the Rakshasa and had a relatively relaxing night in the hills, but to see if they were there would be a detour now, so he carried on. As he did so, he ruminated on how the heroic tales he had grown up with never mentioned biting insects, dirt or the smells. Speaking of smells, it had been a long time since Broneslav had bathed properly. He must be particularly ripe now, he mused. Then he thought of the hot baths back in Specularum and became a little homesick.

It was in this frame of mind on the third day since encountering the last lot of rock baboons that he stumbled over the crest of a hill and slap bang into a large black dragon. Well, not quite slap bang into it, but it was only thirty yards away, a distance that could be covered in seconds. His jaw dropped. Fortunately for Broneslav, the dragon's jaw dropped. Not in the bitey, swallowing young Broneslavs kind of way, but more in the total surprise kind of way.

"Um, hello," Broneslav said wittily. He knew that black dragons were creatures of Chaos, but it seemed that it might be wise to try to avoid a fight here. "So, you look like a very fine dragon and I don't really want to disturb you, so would it be alright if I just carry on along my way."

The dragon replied in Common, "Hello to you, puny human. I think I would like to keep you. I have not seen such as you all clad in shining metal before."

A slight desire to obey the dragon washed over the young hero, but the Charm spell had no effect. He shook it off, realising that the dragon was going to play with him and/or eat him rather than let him go without a fight.

Leaping forward, he drew his sword and swung hard. Acidic blood spouted as his sword carved a gash in the monster's side. It burned his face where it landed, and then he was dodging for all he was worth as the dragon spat a torrent of acid over him. He was lucky and avoided the worst of it, coming out of the dodge roll right under the dragon's neck. His next blow took its head off! And then he was dodging again to avoid the spouting acidic blood spraying from its neck.

Broneslav was lucky. The dragon had barely touched him, and his blows had landed hard and fast on it. He was also lucky that it was a relatively young and inexperienced dragon. He skinned it as he had the other dragon and went off to find a safe place to sleep. He was struggling under his burden now despite his great strength, and he knew that it would make travelling slower. On the other hand, he was close to his destination, so he should be ok.

Incautious howling woke the young man that night. He quickly prepared himself and was ready only just in time as a small pack of wolves the size of small horses charged into his camp. He cut the first down with a single stroke of his sword and wounded the second into his camp. Dodging or blocking the blows of the rest, he suddenly felt a pain in his shoulder as a dire wolf he had not seen attacked him from behind. The wolves were wary now. They darted in to strike as Broneslav sought to circle around and prevent them getting him from behind again. He leapt forward and struck one of them a glancing blow. They took turns in darting in and nipping at him, but none of their bites landed.

Snake-fast Broneslav lashed out. Once... twice... and a third time. Two wolves died and a third was wounded. Three remained and undaunted at that. Snapping and snarling at him, he dodged and blocked and struck out once more. Both sides were careful now and their blows failed to land because of that. Suddenly, the heroic adventurer saw an opportunity. He was like lightning as his sword wove a pattern of death that cut two more wolves down. This was too much for the last wolf which fled yapping in fear.

Broneslav only had minor cuts after this encounter, but he decided to shoulder his burden and move his camp for the rest of the night. It was the wisest course in case more wolves came sniffing around.

August 3025: Galtorian Nights (Battletech: Alpha Strike)

4th August 3025, Outskirts of New Wuhan City 

The exhausted Lemmings watched the rest of their allies boarding the dropships in the fields outside New Wuhan City as darkness fell. They would have boarded too, but orders had reached them to rally to the south. Elements of Alpha Regiment, 12th Vegan Rangers were going to rescue the remains of the 33rd Avalon Hussars. Jennie hit the general comms channel to the rest of her company from her hospital bed; she was still recovering from the wounds sustained in the battle at Wuhan Pass.

"New Wuhan City has fallen, Lemmings, and we need to make the best of it. With the 3rd, 11th and 17th Benjamin Regulars managing to link up at the city, we are outnumbered, but there is an opportunity to rescue elements of the 33rd Avalon Hussars. I hope you have all eaten your carrots, because we're going in tonight. We're short on supplies here, so be ready to accept the surrender of anyone that is willing and we can salvage what we need for the next stage of the battle from them. Be ready to move out on my orders. Anyone that needs a piss, do so now. We won't be stopping for a while."

The Scenario

The 17th Benjamin Regulars have two lances that are trying to break through in the Lemmings' sector. The Lemmings start with one lance and will receive reinforcements on Turn 10 when a lance of the 33rd New Avalon Hussars reaches them.

Night rules are in effect.

Forced Withdrawal/Surrender is in effect. Crippled mechs may surrender and the Lemmings will score bonus points for each one that does so.

The Kuritan force has a Movement Objective on the Lemming's starting edge. Their goal is to break through the Lemmings' lines. The Lemmings will lose points for each hostile mech that exits their starting edge in this way before Turn 10.

The scenario ends when one side has lost more than 50% of their force or there are no more Kuritans on the table, either exited or rendered hors de combat.

The Opposing Forces

Full Throttle Lemmings Bravo Lance:

1. Paige Turner - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (Named Pilot)
2. Mike Hunt - Wolverine WVR-6R (Named Pilot)
3. Theresa Green - Griffin GRF-1S
4. Theresa Crowd - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1

Remnants of 33rd Avalon Hussars:

1. Blackjack BJ-1
2. Centurion CN-9A
3. Commando COM-2D
4. Shadow Hawk SHD-2D

Elements of 17th Benjamin Regulars:

Battle Lance

1. Dragon DRG-1N
2. Dragon DRG-1N
3. Wolverine WVR-6R
4. Panther PNT-9R

Recon Lance

1. Charger CGR-1A1
2. Griffin GRF-1N
3. Shadow Hawk SHD-2H
4. Jenner JR7-D

The Battlefield

The battlefield consists of low rises and copses of trees. There is a stream on the Kuritan's left flank.

The Battle

The Kuritans deployed on a broad front with a view to flanking the Lemmings. Paige moved her lance into cover on the right flank and hoped that the 33rd Avalon Regulars would arrive in time. As the two forces moved closer to each other, the pilots let rip with volleys of LRMs that were more noise than effect, firing on vectors based on scanner blips in the dark.

A shot in the dark

As the mechs closed the distance, the Kuritans focused their fire on Paige's Thunderbolt. She cursed as her armour turned to slag.

"Come on, Lemmings, more shots on target," she encouraged her lance, "Focus on that lead Dragon."

"SWARM THEM!"

Paige led by example and Mike and Theresa C. followed. A lucky shot from Paige hit the Dragon's ammo and it exploded like a fireworks factory. However, Paige's Thunderbolt had all its armour stripped off it by the focused fire of the DCMS mechs by now.

Meanwhile, Theresa G. had done enough damage to the enemy Panther that its pilot powered down and signalled surrender.

"Pull back to the lake," she ordered the others as the remaining Kuritan's advanced steadily on the beleaguered Lemmings.

"Punching out!"

As the Kuritans continued to advance, they still focused their fire on Paige. Her last act before punching out was to hammer the Kuritan Jenner with everything she had, which was enough for its pilot to power down and signal surrender.

As Paige did this, Mike and the two Theresas focused their fire on the remaining Dragon. With its fire control trashed and no functioning weapons, the Dragon's pilot surrendered.

"Fall back!"

The Kuritan commander took stock of the situation. A lance of the 33rd Avalon Hussars was visible advancing on the battlefield and would join the fray imminently. With half the Kuritan force lost, there was no choice but to retreat.

Conclusion

I had my concerns going into this scenario. I was not sure how well a single lance could hold up two enemy lances for ten turns. It seemed like a lot to ask. As it turned out, the Kuritan focus on trashing the Thunderbolt benefited the Lemmings, who were able to whittle away at the enemy. It helped that for the first game ever, I got a significant number of critical hits, including an ammo hit on the Dragon.

Deploying forward and then making a fighting withdrawal worked. It allowed the Lemmings to use the lake as cover, restricting which Kuritans could see them and, therefore, the number of shots the Lemmings suffered, while focusing their fire on one mech after another.

Overall, I am impressed with the Aces system still. I am not sure that I shall bother with using hex maps for Alpha Strike after this campaign though. On the one hand, the hexes make movement easy and precise, but on the other counting hexes for range got old really quickly. We shall see.

As you can see in the photos, I have continued to pimp my battlefield with terrain printed from stl files that I bought from Thunderhead Studio. The terrain is specifically designed to match the Battletech maps. I printed the hills in sandstone filament to reduce the amount of painting I needed to do. They are pinker than I am completely happy with, but a swift drybrush with Vallejo pale sand, and flock on their top surfaces makes the convenience of them outweigh any doubts I have. Clearly, all my battles shall be fought in areas where pink sandstone is common now. I still prefer it to the standard wargames grey for stone. I might add new hills in different colours later though, and possibly even in grey!

21-22 Sviftmont - A Rude Awakening

 Broneslav woke up surrounded by humanoids with thick brow ridges and broad faces. How they had sneaked up on him was hard to fathom, but perhaps he was just too exhausted from fighting the cyclops. Despite being armed, they did not appear hostile, just careful. Their obsidian-tipped spears did look sharp though. One of their number spoke to him in heavily accented Common.

"Who are you and why are you sleeping outside our home?"

Broneslav looked around. He had not noticed any houses last night. Then he twigged that they meant the cave on the hill above him. He had not noticed that either, but then there were so many caves here that any single one was largely unremarkable.

"I did not see your home when I camped. Sorry. I shall pack my things and go on my way. I have been exploring the island and must go home now."

The concept of exploring seemed to escape the Neanderthal people. They just looked puzzled. Broneslav did not try to explain further. He was worried that they might turn hostile.

The Neanderthals watched him depart warily, but made no move to stop the young man, who marched on through the hills for the rest of the day and then continued marching on the following day, when he suddenly found himself being pelted with sticks and stones.

"A person could get fed up of you rock baboons," he announced to the screeching horde as he moved away from and around their territory. Fortunately, he was able to find a place to camp for the night that was not denied him by the aggressive apes.

July 3025: Revenge of the 3rd (Battletech: Alpha Strike)

 18th July 3025, Wuhan Pass

"Listen up, Lemmings, the 3rd Benjamin Regulars are massing for a counterattack. We're going to stop them. Any questions?"

There were no questions. This was the sort of simple operation that the Lemmings favoured, and they already knew how they would approach it: Fire!

The Scenario

The 3rd Benjamin Regulars are counterattacking to try to retake Wuhan Pass. If they can smash the defences in the pass, then they will have a free run at New Wuhan City. They will score victory points for destroyed or crippled Lemming mechs, and for exiting the map from the Lemmings' base edge. The Lemmings will score points for destroyed, crippled or retreating Kuritans.

The Opposing Forces

Full Throttle Lemmings (145 points):

Alpha (Command) Lance:

1. Commander Jennie Raytor - Battlemaster BLR-1G (Named Pilot)
2. Paige Turner - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (Named Pilot)
3. Ivor Biggun - Archer ARC-2R
4. Ophelia Paine - Catapult CPLT-C1

Elements of 3rd Benjamin Regulars (147 points):

1. Stalker STK-3F (Skill 3)
2. Grand Dragon DRG-1G
3. Dragon DRG-1N
4. Dragon DRG-1N

The Battle

It was tough getting into position in time. The Kuritan charge had been swift. They had moved up under cover of night and advanced quickly, ready to enter the pass at dawn. For whatever reason, intelligence had not spotted them until quite late. Nevertheless, Jennie had her lance in position just in time.

The Kuritans raced towards the hill the Lemmings were defending from. As they did so, every Kuritan mech fired at Jennie's Battlemaster. It's armour was blasted off its frame, while the Lemming's fire focused on the Grand Dragon coming in on their right flank.

As the Kuritans swarmed the hill, Paige jumped her Thunderbolt in behind the Kuritan commander's Stalker and blasted it in the rear. She could almost hear the Kuritan commander sneering at the effect her mech had on the Stalker.

Jennie's Battlemaster was now in dire straits as critical systems were blasted from it. She began to manoeuvre away from the fight, hoping to snipe from the sidelines.

A Dragon took this opportunity to try to close on Jennie's rear, but she sidestepped her mech quickly and was able to shoot it in the rear instead. The Dragon seemed to have better armour than her though, because her shots went wide and had little effect.

Meanwhile, Ivor was cursing, even though he and Ophelia had taken out the Grand Dragon. The Stalker had closed quickly on him and cut loose an alpha strike that disintegrated every panel of armour on his Archer.

The Dragons raced past the Lemmings and turned to shoot. Jennie faced down a Dragon but the Kuritan mech's fire tore through the Battlemaster. With no functioning weapons or leg actuators and her fire control system shot to bits, Jennie punched out.

Ophelia and Ivor focused their fire on the enemy commander with greater intensity and the Stalker fell too, but Ivor's Archer was slowly losing firepower as the enemy Dragons focused on it.

Seeing a chance, Paige moved quickly to face the Dragon that had taken Jennie out. Firing for all she was worth, she ripped apart the last of its armour and structure. The pilot ejected and the mech would be salvageable.

With only a single Dragon remaining, Ophelia and Paige turned their fire on it. By this point, Ivor's Archer had no weaponry left and he was just left manoeuvring to try to avoid being hit and escape as best he could.

The combined fire of the Catapult and the Thunderbolt was enough. Unable to move their Dragon any more, the pilot punched out and the battlefield became quiet once more.

That was a bit of a tough one for my personal morale as the Kuritans fired everything they had at the Battlemaster first, before focusing on the Archer. Weirdly, they never even shot at the Thunderbolt or Catapult. On top of that, they consistently scored through-armour crits on the Lemmings, while the Lemmings slowly wore down the enemy and eventually defeated them by sheer attrition. In one single turn in the middle of the game, the Kuritans scored six through-armour crits. That seems highly improbable to me, so I shall be throwing those dice in the fjord later.

The Aces solo bot continues to impress. It was a bit difficult reconciling the movement objective with some of the directions on the cards, but I think I did ok with that.

In other news, I have been pimping my Battletech with 3d printed terrain. It really helps me visualise lines of sight for the Alpha Strike games and I like it, even if the trees are a bit cartoony. All the 3d terrain is from Thunderhead Studio.

19-20 Sviftmont - Eye, eye!

 Fortified by a good night's rest and with his minor wounds from the fight with the troll healing fast, Broneslav set out once more and soon found himself in hilly ground. The going was easier here, and he decided to skirt the jungle that he had originally traversed. The hills offered fewer biting insects for starters!

On the second day of travelling through the hills, he marvelled at the sight of a herd of giant sheep. Each was the size of a pony. Suddenly, a large rock slammed into him. The impact was accompanied by a roaring yell. Broneslav had been so completely absorbed in the sight of the sheep that he had not realised that a giant, aggressive shepherd was guarding them. The shepherd was nearly 20 feet tall and not much further than that away. How Broneslav had missed seeing the one-eyed giant was a question for another day. As Broneslav took in the appearance of the cyclops, the shepherd picked up a huge club and advanced on the young warrior.

Broneslav did not hesitate. He drew his sword and charged. Unfortunately for him, the shock of the sudden attack had put him off his stride and he only managed a minor wound to the giant, whose club slammed into his side breaking several ribs. Broneslav gritted his teeth and sliced a huge cut into its leg only to be knocked flat by another heavy blow that sent him flying.

The young hero was not a quitter, so he picked himself up and charged again. His blow landed true and the cyclops howled in pain as blood gouted from another huge cut. Broneslav ducked under the cyclops' next blow and struck again, causing another wound but was too slow to dodge again and found himself flat on his back once more due to yet another painful blow from the creature's club.

Picking himself up yet again, he ducked around the cyclops and slashed its achilles tendon, causing it to fall with an earthshaking thud, and then he plunged his sword into its now reachable heart.

"Shit! That hurt! And I wasn't even doing anything I shouldn't have. Damn chaos creatures!"

Broneslav cursed as he bandaged his wounds and searched the nearby cave where the cyclops had its home. For an uncivilised chaos creature, the cyclops had gathered a respectable amount of treasure, although the young warrior did wonder how it had done so and where it would use that treasure. Or maybe it was just that the gold and gems were shiny, so the creature gathered them for that reason.

That done, he carried on. There was still daylight and he did not want to rest where another cyclops might come by. That single one had been a painful enough encounter on its own so he camped as far from its cave as he could that night.

June 3025: The Battle for Wuhan Pass (Battletech: Alpha Strike)

11th June 3025, Wuhan Pass

"Right, Lemmings, our job is to hold Wuhan Pass. We'll be working with Johnston's Battalion of the 12th Vegan Rangers and will take our turn on patrol. I expect you to show them that we are much better than they are! Mike and Dirk will be leading a combat patrol today. Your job is to break through the enemy defences and wreak havoc in the rear area, and then get your arses back home safely."

The Scenario

This is a Breakthrough scenario with the Lemmings attacking. The Lemmings must exit 50% of their force off the enemy's base edge to win.

The Opposing Forces

Full Throttle Lemmings two lances (134 points):

1. Mike Hunt - Wolverine WVR-6R (Named Pilot)
2. Dirk Savage - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (Named Pilot)
3. Barbara Dwyer - Awesome AWS-8Q
4. Ivor Biggun - Archer ARC-2R

Elements of 3rd Benjamin Regulars (108 points):        

1. Banshee BNC-3E
2. Dragon DRG-1N
3. Panther PNT-9R
4. Panther PNT-9R

The Battle

As the Lemmings advanced through the pass, their scanners showed the hostile mechs arrayed in a loose screen across it, using hills and woods as cover. Moving in pairs, Mike and Dirk took the left flank, while Barb and Ivor took the right. It was not long before they came under fire.

Barb cursed, "Mike, shoot those blasted techs if I don't make it back to do it myself, will you? They've not closed up the armour panels properly again. Just took a hit to the engine. It's getting hot in here."

"Focus on cover and giving us support, Barb. We'll do the rest."

Barb did as instructed. She and Ivor turned the armour on the nearest Panther to slag and its pilot quickly retreated.

Mike in his Wolverine and Dirk in the Phoenix Hawk headed out on the left flank against the Dragon and the other Panther. Both mechs plastered Dirk's mech so that red lights showed on much of his display.

"Panther Alpha is retreating. Focus your fire on Panther Bravo."

Lasers and autocannons blazed, leaving the Panther looking like a Swiss cheese. The pilot punched out as his mech collapsed to the floor. As he drifted down again, he could see his lance-mate retreating through the woods towards camp. He spat.

With only the Banshee and the Dragon remaining, the Lemmings turned on the Dragon. With its fire control systems trashed and missing an arm, the Dragon started retreating but did not get far. With both legs blown off, it collapsed to the floor and its pilot signalled surrender by powering down.

The Banshee was so far barely damaged and it backed up towards the hills lining the pass. It did so under a hail of neon fire but dished out damage in turn. Barb's Awesome had barely any armour left by this point and was struggling to move, but she kept baiting the Banshee pilot.

Eventually, it succumbed and moved out to engage the heavily damaged Awesome. As it did so, Mike moved his Wolverine in behind it. Missiles streamed from the Wolverine's SRM-6 and slammed into the back of the Banshee. The Banshee seemed to suddenly shrink into itself before exploding thunderously right in front of Mike.

"Right in the poop chute!" he crowed as he manoeuvred his mech away, "Right, folks, the way is clear. Let's move out and finish the mission."

Afterthoughts

Focusing my fire on individual mechs to reduce the number of shots being taken at the Lemmings worked well. It resulted in the first Panther taking enough damage to be forced to withdraw. The second Panther suffered a "Mech destroyed" critical hit and the Dragon was just worn down by fire. The most satisfying part of it all was scoring a through-armour critical hit on the Banshee that resulted in an ammo explosion. I believe this is the first time ever I have achieved an ammo explosion on a hostile mech. Nice.

Keeping these scenarios to one lance on each side is working well to keep the games moving at a good pace. Playing this scenario on a four mapsheet playing area with the whole company involved would be interesting though, because it could offer more opportunities for manoeuvre and a chance to win by running off the board.

The Aces system is working really well for these scenarios so far. It is clearly well thought-out and not specific to particular times and places in the Battletech universe. I look forward to the next game.

13-18 Sviftmont - Troll Trouble

 After a good meal and a good night's sleep, Broneslav spent the day with the villagers. They begged him to tell the story of the fight with the dragon, which he did with a will, and they feted him in return. It was a relaxing day, and he felt almost said that he had to depart on the morrow. However, he needed to return to his enterprises. So, when the next day dawned, he wished the villagers of Mantru farewell and set out back towards Tanaroa.

For several days, he followed the same path he had taken to get there, dodging the pteranodons round the bridge from the plateau to the mountains and circling around the areas where the rock baboons had raised an outcry at his intrusion on their territory. The journey went well until he reached the mountains south of the plateau. At that point, he stumbled upon a troll looking for a quick snack. The fight was over almost before it began and he escaped with only minor wounds.

Knowing that the troll would regenerate if left long enough, Broneslav built a fire and put the corpse on it. He hoped that would be enough to destroy the evil creature. Then he carried on south, making camp that night in the best shelter he could find. He was well into the mountains now but knew that he would reach hills soon and then the jungles beyond.