25 Fyrmont 1000 AC - What Lies Beyond the Wall?

 "Captain, ensure that the trade goes smoothly, please and see to it that the ship is ready to depart as soon as I return. I shall endeavour to return within two weeks. If I have not returned by then, sail to Specularum and sell the cargo. Our factor will help with that and will also help to source a new cargo that you should return with. He will also arrange yours and the crew's pay."

Captain Decentius nodded. It seemed strange to him that the young man would willingly wander off into danger, but he certainly looked ready for it, clad as he was in shining plate armour and weighed down with weapons and supplies. He also moved as if his load weighed nothing. Clearly Broneslav was much stronger than he appeared to be.

Broneslav waved to those watching and marched off up the trail and through the gates. Warriors atop the towers on either side watched him go. Some appeared to be making bets on whether the beardless warrior would return at all and he guessed that most were betting against him.

He settled his pack on his back once more and set off. He had been told that there was a trail all the way to some tar pits that were about a day's travel from The Wall. That would be his first stop. Then he would head into the trackless interior.

As he walked, Broneslav took note of the terrain around him and scanned for danger. He was not expecting much this close to the village, but you never knew. The thin jungle around him for the first half of the day would easily have provided cover for bandits, were they looking for a fight. The track led through hills and then between swampy areas. It was hot, so he hung his helmet from his belt. He spent a large part of the afternoon slapping mosquitoes that had decided he was their next meal. It was late when he reached the tar pits. The only disturbances through the day had been the alarmed calls of birds that he had disturbed and the rustling of small animals in the undergrowth.

It had been an easy day, but the next would be harder, because there was no track from hereon in. From the tar pits, he had the choice of wading around the edge of the swamp to the hills to the east or to the mountains he could see in the distance in the west. As he prepared his evening meal, Broneslav considered his options, before settling down for the night.

The map's a bit rough, so I need to fettle it a wee bit, but that is partly because the areas around the edges have not been filled in yet. I'll update it as Broneslav progresses and hopefully it will start to look good before too long.

Full Throttle Lemmings: The Early Daze (5150: Mecha Combat)

 It's time to use the mechs I painted. I got the Battlech: Mercenaries set recently. It includes a mercs mini-campaign in the Chaos Campaign format, which I have used as the inspiration for this game. The mini-campaign consists of a single mercenary ticket where the mercs are guarding or attacking a mining facility. Given that 5150: Mecha Combat is eminently suited to solo play, I have decided to start there.

Galtor in 3025

Jennie Raytor was annoyed by the amount of paperwork she had to do as leader of the Full Throttle Lemmings. It almost felt like she did more replying to enquiries than she did actual fighting these days. She sighed. This was typical of any job, she supposed. You did the thing you liked and were good at until you got promoted past it to something you did not enjoy. In her case, she had only herself to blame. After all, she had founded the mercenary company Full Throttle Lemmings, so she had to take responsibility for keeping it going. It had all been so much easier back when she first set up in business. Her mind drifted back to those early days..

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey flashback cut

Zhongsha in 3014

The camera focuses on Jennifer "The Lemming" Raytor. Her face is enthusiastic as she explains her plan to her close friends Anna Dapter and Mike Hunt.

"So, you see, we take our mechs and set up on our own. That way we don't have to take orders from any of those stuffed shirts at high command. You've seen how they are with their spit and polish and saluting on every corner. We could be our own bosses and decide where we go and what we do ourselves."

Anna and Mike look doubtful. They know that Jennie has always had issues with authority. She has a tendency to charge into the unknown without thinking, hence her nickname "The Lemming". They both know that this plan will go one of two ways. It will either crash and burn in the most horrible fashion, or it will succeed beyond even anything that Jennie can imagine.

"Ah, what the heck! Let's do it." Anna gave up, "Me and my besties against the universe. At least we get to work together and the brass won't split us up."

"Stuff it," declared Mike, "Why not?"

Jennie hugged them and told Mike that the drinks were on him.

Zhongsha in 3015

Jennie squealed!

"Guys, we got a contract! A worker's collective is being harrassed by some Kurita-connected mining company. They want us to take our mechs and help fend off the Kurita goons. We're going to be eating something other than ramen noodles from now on."

Anna looked tired. The past six months since leaving military school had been hard with little work and little money. She perked up a little at the news. This sounded like the start of something big. Mike was barely paying attention until Anna whooped, but he refused to get his hopes up. Still, a bit of action and some better food would not go amiss.

A few days later, the three of them were on site and setting out on patrol. Their liaison officer, Michael Stand, had briefed them and they had studied the lie of the land. Now it was time to put all that to the test.

A Short Patrol

TwoHourWargame rules generally scale well, so I am starting with a mercenary team of three mechs to keep things simple. One mech will go on patrol while the other two can potentially arrive as reinforcements. This is smaller than the standard game which can feature up to about a company of mechs, so I shall scale down the reinforcement rolls to match my starting scale, assuming any are generated.

Jennie had decided that she would run the first patrol in her Thunderbolt. It was the heaviest mech they had and would be able to hold its own, while Anna's Locust and Mike's Wolverine remained in reserve, ready to join her if needed. As they needed to maintain a constant patrol schedule, it was better that each of them had some downtime unless they were absolutely needed on the battlefield.

She settled into the Thunderbolt's cockpit and fired up the turbine. It's whine was reassuring as she flipped through the checks. All lights green. Coolant gurgled through her chillsuit, designed to keep her from frying as heat built up from the engines and weapons. The neuralink helmet with her Lemming call-sign on it was giving solid feedback. She was ready.

"Lemming 1 moving out!"

"Roger that, Lemming 1. We've got you green on the scanner. No unknowns in the immediate vicinity. You are good to go. Proceed along the route. We'll monitor from here."

The legs of the Thunderbolt rose and fell as she guided it out of the compound. Puffs of dust rose up around it as Jennie guided it along the patrol route. It had been a dry summer, and the earth was dusty and torn up by heavy plant from the mine. The roads were really just dirt tracks, which did not help either. As dust rose around her mech's feet, Jennie directed it towards the small town of Serendipitous Longing, or Dorm 427 to give it the company name. It was here that the workers mainly lived. To her left was a wood. On the east side of the town, there were low hills, but all seemed quiet.

"Lemming 1, we see you approaching Dorm 427 from the south. Take care. Three possible bogeys north of you. We're tagging them on your display."

"Roger that, Control. Moving to intercept Bogey 1."

"Hold up, Lemming 1. We count two more bogeys in the middle of Dorm 427."

Jennie cursed and paused a moment as she looked at her display. The hesitation was enough for the first bogey to round the outskirts of the town.

"Control, this is Lemming 1. Contact! I repeat contact!"

Her hands moved as fast as they could to the firing stud. Luckily, the pilot of the approaching Phoenix Hawk seemed as surprised as her. She cursed as the display showed locking on but it seemed an eternity before she got tone. She hammered the firing stud to give the enemy mech everything she had.

She muttered as her light lasers melted armour on the enemy's chest and gut but did little more than cosmetic damage. Her real focus was on her PPG. Crimson fire streamed from her mech's right arm as she directed it at her opponent's head. She grunted with satisfaction as the mech's head exploded and the Phoenix Hawk collapsed backwards.

"Eat that, ya muddy funster!"

She breathed a short-lived sigh of relief, as another bogey approached through the town.

The Kurita Shadowhawk appeared from behind a building in the town centre, its pilot intent on revenge. Jennie swung her mech round as fast as she could, it's myalomar steel frame groaning in protest. The noise was heightened by the sound of her rocket launcher cycling through its reload sequence. Her heart hammered as she waited to get tone again. The enemy mech was sighting on her as she cut loose with everything once more. The heat rose in her cockpit and she was quickly drenched in sweat. The fast shot saw lasers and missiles impact the building around the Shadowhawk, throwing up clouds of concrete, but the PPG blazed crimson energy and punched a hole straight through the Shadowhawk's chest. The last she saw of it was the Kurita pilot ejecting as she pushed her trusty Thunderbolt on into Dorm 247. As she did so, one of the bogeys suddenly disappeared from her screen. She was not sure what it had been, but it was definitely not a mech.

"Control, this is Lemming 1. Scratch two bogeys. The third was nothing but I got a bad feeling about all this. Too many Kurita goons patrolling round Dorm 247."

Jennie's course through the town lead her from cover to cover towards the next bogey. She had paused for a quick breather, glad that the cockpit had cooled down a bit, when the bogey emerged from around the corner of another building.

"Control, contact. I repeat, contact."

Jennie was jumpy but still got her shot off before the Stinger could do anything. Chunks of concrete rained down around it as her missiles took out part of someone's living room. Again, her trusty PPG rained crimson hell on the Kurita goon and the Stinger exploded into a thousand pieces taking its pilot with it. 

"Scratch one more hostile, Control. Continuing the patrol."

Jennie followed the patrol route, finding that the last bogey was actually a herd of the local cattle.

As Jennie reached the end of her patrol, Anna's Locust hurried up to the start point of the patrol route.

"Am I too late?"

"What do you think? Come on, lets get back to the bay and down a couple of brews. Mike can take the next patrol, while the Collective recovers that Shadowhawk. We earned some salvage today and that is worth celebrating."

The Campaign

I wasn't going to turn this into a full campaign, because I'm just getting used to this iteration of the THW rules, but it is fun to work through all parts of them in these training games, and the campaign system is really simple. So...

Full Throttle Lemmings: campaign morale starts at 3 and neither increased nor went down.

Kurita Goons: campaign morale also starts at 3 (these are not their first line troops) but goes down to 2 because they lost the campaign morale roll.

That's really all there is to it. Winning battles gives you chance of improving your morale. Losing them gives you a chance of losing morale. If either side drops to morale 0, they give up and go home in disgrace.

There is also an experience roll to see if your pilot improves after a battle. Jennie is Rep 5 so she needs to roll a 6 on 1d6 to become better. She did not learn anything she did not already know in this fight.

Because they did a Patrol Mission and won, the next mission for the Lemmings will be an Assault mission on the Kurita forces.

There are rules for recovering mechs and injured pilots. Those are not relevant for the Lemmings this time around and I am assuming that there is a horde of anonymous Kurita goons to be encountered, so I shall not be tracking them. However, in a future campaign I shall give each side access to all the mechs I have painted for them and shall keep track of mechs and pilots for both sides, including making my own encounter table based around those mechs. I like that type of campaign management!

Final Thoughts

I spent a lot of time flipping through the rulebook, but that was to be expected. I need to print out the charts and keep them separate, which will make things easier.

Jennie got lucky with the In Sight tests and got to fire first each time. That was crucial to her taking out all the enemy mechs without taking any damage. Also, the PPG is nasty. Most mechs will lose body parts if it hits them and smaller mechs are just toast even if it is just a glancing shot. I am a little concerned that my light mechs will be far too vulnerable in these games, but I do have ideas about how to use them as scouts, so we shall see how that goes.

There are a couple of things in the rules I was not too sure about and I suspect I played them wrong to my own disadvantage, but the game went smoothly enough and was quick, so I am not too bothered.

It should not be too much hassle scaling the forces up up to a team of three mechs as a starting force or even to a squad of six. But first, I have to see if Jennie, Anna and Mike can survive long enough for this to be the actual origin story of the Full Throttle Lemmings.

24 Fyrmont 1000 AC - Getting to Know You

 The auntie did not seem in a great hurry to begin trading, but Broneslav had grown up around merchants, so he knew to bide his time. It still made him impatient though. He wanted to see where his treasure map would lead him, not spend time socialising. Reining in his impatience, he followed the auntie to one of the nearby huts. It was a long wooden hut on stilts with palm leaves for a roof, and a roofed veranda all around. There were windows along its length. Under some of the huts, he could see people cooking over open fires. There was no glass in them but there were shutters on the outside. All the other huts in the village were almost exactly the same.

Inside, the windows were wide open and a fresh breeze blew through, cooling the warm air. One end of the hut was curtained off, but the rest was open with wide benches on either side. Bedrolls were packed against the wall. It looked like whole extended families lived in these huts with no separate rooms and no privacy.

A typical Thanegiothian hut based on descriptions given by the great explorer, Broneslav Torenescu.

The auntie headed for the only chair in the whole place and sat in it, The chair was towards the curtained off end of the hut facing down it, like a throne compared to the rest of the fittings here.

"Broneslav, come and sit here near me on my left side."

She waved him to a place on the bench near her. He sat as indicated with Captain Decentius beside him. Four men took up places on the benches to her right and a gaggle of children gawped through the windows at the strangers from the north. They giggled and pointed.

"Bring food and drink!"

The auntie clapped her hands and several younger people ran off to do her bidding. Before long, the hut was filled with the smell of baked fish. Broneslav was passed a wooden cup of coconut milk.

"To a profitable trade for both of us!" the auntie announced, "Let me introduce myself formally now that we are about to begin. I am Chieftain Tiaru. To my right, you see the clan elders."

She pointed at each in turn, "This is Ruan, then Gak, then Yavi and finally Tomia. They are my advisors. Together we form the council that rules Tanaroa."

Broneslav made the formal introduction required of himself and Captain Decentius, even though he had informally introduced himself before. He was then encouraged to eat and drink. Watching how Tiaru and the elders did this, he did his best to copy them, hoping not to offend anyone. It appeared that he succeeded, because he soon found himself discussing trade with an open and welcoming Tiaru. After giving her and the elders small gifts from the cargo, the dickering began in earnest.

A couple of hours later, he gave the order to unload all the cargo. The villagers had agreed to pay almost double its value in gold and goods! Moreover, they were eager for him to bring more goods here. In return for hard to find iron and steel goods, they would harvest the local pearls and provide other goods that were only available here. A bargain was struck that Broneslav would ship in goods at regular intervals and Captain Decentius left with the elders to order and oversee the unloading and distribution of the cargo, while Broneslav and Tiaru relaxed in the hut and talked.

Wow, those were some good reaction rolls!

After a little idle small-talk, Broneslav was finally able to turn the conversation to what most interested him.

"One thing that I would like to know is about the city at the centre of the island. I came into possession of a map and description of this city that made me curious."

Tiaru looked at Broneslav thoughtfully.

"Do you mean the City of the Gods? There was a ship that arrived her not so long ago. The crew were not traders though and showed great interest in it."

"Yes, that's the one. The ship returned to Karameikos and I encountered the last survivor from that crew. He had been set upon by thugs and died of his injuries, but gifted me with a map and a description of his voyage here."

Tiaru told the tale then of how the Gods had built a great city at the centre of the island and furnished it with all a god could want. However, the island itself was inhabited by many dangerous creatures, which is why the Gods built a wall for the villagers, so that they could live safely in their home. When the Gods departed, the hostile creatures repopulated the whole island. Any journey to the city would be fraught with danger.

She looked doubtfully at the young warrior, "I fear for you if you insist on journeying to the City of the Gods. It is probable that you will not return."

"I would just like to investigate a bit. It will take my crew and your people a week to unload the cargo and load the goods from here. If it will not offend you, I shall head towards the city and see what I can find. It was my main purpose in coming here. My captain can deal with the essentials here while I am gone."

Tiaru acquiesced reluctantly.

"Great. I shall set off tomorrow and shall aim to return as quickly as I can."

House Kurita: 8th Sword of Light (Battletech)

 I usually collect both sides for any game I play because it is the most reliable way to ensure that I am able to get a game in. More often than not, those in my immediate area do not share my interests and are unwilling to buy into something outside their main focus. The estimable Steve is a major exception here. He and I have inspired each other with fads for years. However, he lives a thousand miles away, so I need to provide my own enemies. With that in mind, I needed some villains for my Battletech/mech warfare games, and who better than the Draconis Combine?

House Kurita, and especially the Sword of Light, just seem made to be the villains in my stories. They seem to represent a type of regimented order that the Full Throttle Lemmings (or even any of my Thrappled Lemming warbands) have. There are few groups that are likely to be more diametrically oppsed to my group whose motto ought to be "If I don't even know what I am going to do next, how can my enemy predict it?"

I opted for the 8th Sword of Light "The Jade Dragon" because I like the green background to their insignia. It helps that the paint scheme is simple, so I could paint them quickly and have a whole company ready very quickly. Looking at the photos, I really do need to work on how I highlight reds. They look fine on the table, but the camera seems to wash out the shading and makes me think that I should do more extreme highlighting. After all, the same light that I photograph under is the one I play under, so it might improve the look even more. Time enough for that another day. In the end, what matters is that they are ready to be fielded against the Full Throttle Lemmings.

I feel that this company could really do with at least one Dragon and/or Grand Dragon and probably a Jenner and/or a Panther to feel properly Kurita, but they were not in stock when I bought what I have. Adding some iconic Kurita mechs can be a project for another day.

On to the roll call. All figures are the Catalyst Game Labs versions found in the various boxed sets and lance packs. They have unit insignia decals from Defiance Industries Wargaming just to make them look a bit more swish. The decals were not cheap but they were definitely worth it. Each mech has the Jade Dragon insignia on its left shoulder, the Sword of Light insignia on its left leg and back, and a kanji number on its right leg.

(left to right) Atlas, Battlemaster, Warhammer, Orion

(left to right) Wolverine, Archer, Shadow Hawk, Valkyrie

(left to right) Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Wasp, Stinger

24 Fyrmont 1000 AC - Landfall

 By midmorning, Broneslav's ship had manoeuvred into position near Tanaroa. There was no deepwater harbour there, so they moored away from land. Some curious villagers paddled their canoes out to see the newcomers and shouted greetings in strangely accented Common Tongue. They were not hostile. Instead they seemed pleased to have the opportunity to hear the news from further afield.

Broneslav was on the first boat off the ship to meet the locals. The land wobbled unfamiliarly under him as he stepped from the ship's boat onto the beach near the village. He wondered at the strange trees and unfamiliar vegetation, but tried not to look overawed by the novelty of this place.

His first impression was of an alien place. The long houses on stilts were like nothing he had ever seen before. The layout of the village with four areas of housing each surrounding a cemetery with a statue in the middle was new. The huge stone wall with the 70 feet high towers on it was new. Even the tar pits that formed a secondary line of defence behind the wall were things he had not encountered before in his short life. There was clearly something that the villagers needed to keep out, but the rest of the village was not in keeping with the 50 feet high wall. He knew that he needed to be on the other side of that wall. The letter and map he had received told him that. Well, he would try.

As his gaze swept across the village in its jungle clearing, he realised that the only familiar thing here was the pyramid in the centre of the fields. He had seen bigger and more impressive pyramids in Ylaruam, but none of those had a giant brass gong on top of them. Something was threatening this village and it came from the direction he intended to travel. Well, that meant he had a mission. But first he needed to speak to the headman of the village.

"Oh" he thought, "The village headwoman. Right. I guess they do things differently here."

Broneslav shook himself mentally and pulled himself together. The woman, who greeted him, reminded him of his aunt Grushenka, a woman with whom you did not mess if you did not wish to fall foul of the illumin-aunties. This informal group of woman were the power behind many thrones and could make a young person's life miserable if that young person were not careful. Broneslav himself had endured many probing questions about when he was going to make something of himself. Since his Shearing, they had largely left him alone, but he knew it would not be long before questions about suitable marriages and children were being asked.

He smiled in what he hoped was an endearing fashion and weathered the inevitable question.

"You're a bit young to be leading an expedition like this, aren't you, young man?"

The auntie was clearly taking no prisoners. Mind you, you did not get to be chief, even of a village, by being a wallflower.

"A young man has to try to make something of himself," he replied disarmingly, "I am accounted an adult in my country now, so I must act like one."

The auntie appraised him in a way that made him feel like a cut of meat at the butchers. Her eyes surveyed his broad shoulders and the well-used sword at his side. Even unarmoured, he carried himself more like a warrior than a merchant despite not being above average height and barely able to grow the moustache he aspired to. She also noted his youth. He could almost see the calculations going on behind her eyes.

Then she smiled.

"Very well. Let us see what you can do. Why are you here? And what do you have to trade? If you have anything worthwhile, we might be interested."

"My crew will bring samples ashore for you to view. I do not doubt that there will be much of interest, and I am sure that you will have much that I might be interested in. I hear that there are good sources of black pearls here."

The auntie's eyes narrowed. Perhaps it occurred to her that he was not entirely unprepared. Then she smiled broadly.

"Welcome to our village. Come! Let us get to know each other better. Trading always goes more smoothly once you know your partners."

Broneslav gave orders for a selection of goods to be offloaded and the crew jumped to.

The auntie led the way to a hut group where people were watching the newcomers. Broneslav and Captain Decentius followed her. Broneslav did not see it, but Theophilus Decentius stared appraisingly at Broneslav's back. Perhaps he was reassessing this green ship-owner's abilities in light of this interaction. Was the young man more than a spoilt rich kid with the money to buy his own ship after all? Time would tell.