Jennie was in the control trailer cursing the damage her Battlemaster had taken in the last engagement. She should have been with her people. Beside her, Eileen Dover was in a similarly frustrated funk. However, there was not time to repair their mechs. The Lemmings needed to drive through the gap that Alpha Team had made. Morale among the other Lemmings was high because the Kurita Atlas and their commander had been taken out in the last engagement. Scuttlebutt said that Kurita morale was commensurately low.
"Lemmings," announced Jennie, "You are going to take the fight to the enemy. Blow their base and we should be rid of those Kurita goons once and for all. That is why you are going in as an ad hoc battlegroup. Your mechs are all we have until we can get the parts we need for the ones destroyed or damaged in the diversionary action. You have been briefed. You know your mission. Identify the key structures and demolish them. We are throwing everything we have at them. Make it count because we might not get a second chance!"
Barb Dwyer led the ad hoc lances out. Her Awesome was the heaviest mech here and would be relied on to be the door opener. Beside her were the rest of Bravo Team plus Theresa Green in her Griffin from Alpha Team. Gamma Team had lost Mike Hunt's Wolverine, but Tim Burr's Blackjack had come through the last action unscathed, so Tim would be fighting alongside the rest of Gamma Team. It was not clear what Kurita had salvaged from their own lances to throw straight back into the fray, but at least they knew the Atlas would not be part of that.
The Mission
The Lemmings have the objective Find the Target. They place three objective markers. To find the target they must have a mech within 6" of the objective marker and must roll 7+ on 2d6 to successfully scan it. Once scanned, the target can be attacked in future combat phases. Destroying 2 identified targets is an automatic victory for the Lemmings, assuming the Kurita forces have not achieved their victory goal.
The 8th Sword of Light have the objective Hold the Fort. They have two objective markers and score victory points from Turn 3 onwards by having uncontested control of them. If they score 10 VPs before the Lemmings achieve their objective, then they win.
The Forced Withdrawal rules are in play, because neither side is totally suicidal.
Both sides start off table as they rally to the operations zone from their previous deployments.
Both sides have 250 PV of mechs.
Forward to Death
True to their name, the Lemmings raced forward with their throttles wide open. The earth shook as seven medium and heavy mechs thundered over the plains and fields at full speed.
"Lemmings, this is Lemming 4," Barb announced, "Confirm comms."
The Lemmings squawked their comms to confirm that all was in order.
"Lemming 4 to all teams. Don't forget the plan. Bravo Team, swing left. Gamma Team, swing right. Both teams must find and destroy their objective before converging on the central objective. Last one to the central objective will buy everyone beer for the rest of the month."
Both Lemmings teams confirmed that they understood. As they reached the ops zone, they swung apart towards their primary objectives.
"Kurita goons in force on left flank!"
"Roger that. Right flank is weakened. Gamma Team moving in."
The Sword of Light mechs were gathered around the objective on the left flank, using the buildings as cover. Bravo Team knew it was in for a fight now. Gamma Team was facing fewer mechs and all medium or light. This meant that their job would be more straightforward. Well, they hoped, anyway.
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| The view from the Kurita lines. Blue objectives are the Lemmings' targets. Brown objectives are the points that Kurita must defend. |
As the Lemmings raced forward, the Kurita mechs held their ground and aimed to keep their ground crew safe. Barb could see the Kurita ground crew streaming out of the target points and mounting up in whatever vehicles they could find. As they did this, the Lemmings poured fire at the Kurita mechs. The Kurita mechs fired back. As crimson fire blasted across the fields and missiles rained down around the objectives, fewer ground crew emerged and more hunkered down inside.
"Take that ya muddy funster!" yelled Paige as she hit a Phoenix Hawk. Huge chunks blasted off the lighter mech. Theresa Crowd and Tim Burr joined in. The Phoenix Hawk's armour melted off its frame. it was an almost naked Phoenix Hawk that quickly fled the field after that.
On the left flank, Theresa Green's Griffin had taken an absolute hammering, so she jumped behind the Kurita mechs to scan the targets and lock them down. The left flank building was confirmed as a target so Ophelia opened up with her LRMs. Huge clouds of concrete dust billowed around the structure as missile after missile tore chunks out of it.
Meanwhile, Theresa had spotted an Archer fleeing the field. Even with half her weapons destroyed and an arm hanging off her mech, she still had enough firepower to cut the Archer down.
"You'll not be back to bother us," she snarled as she headed toward the central objective. Her Griffin was a mess, but her scanners were still working.
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| The Lemmings push aggressively forward into the town, and a bit more carefully over the open ground on the right flank. Meanwhile, Barb is giving the Kurita Wolverine a kicking in the woods on the left. |
With the fight moving into the city, a Wolverine suddenly raced out to attack from the woods. Barb immediately charged it, smashing its leg actuators and ripping its right arm off. The Wolverine raced past Barb's Awesome and got behind Ophelia's Catapult, letting rip a horrendous blast of fire into the missile mech. Ophelia's head rang and blood dripped from her face as she spun her mech around the Wolverine and gave it a massive kick in the jump jets. The weight of her mech crushed the Wolverine and its auto-eject sent its pilot skywards.
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| "I'll teach you to sneak up behind me and scratch my paintwork!" growled Ophelia as she kicked the Wolverine to the ground and stomped all over it. |
"Come on, scumbag, I got a present for you!" Barb advanced towards the town and the Battlemaster that was carving chunks off every Lemming it could see. She pounded her firing button as fast as her weapons recharged and reloaded. Armour melted off the Battlemaster, but it returned the favour and her own panel started lighting up with warning lights all over.
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| The dance of death. The enemy Battlemaster is surrounded and outnumbered. |
Meanwhile, Andy Peacock had jumped his Wolverine over the objective and was sneaking around behind the Battlemaster. A couple of shots in its back soon killed its ardour and it started manoeuvring to cover. But it was surrounded and there was really nowhere to go. It pulled back to try to get away.
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| Another dance of death as the two Shadow Hawks take turns to run rings round each other after the Kurita Stinger was smashed up by Theresa Crowd. |
"I'm red lights all over," yelled Tim, "Gotta skedaddle! My engine and fire control are trashed. Pulling back now."
On the right flank, Tim's Blackjack had taken the worst of the hammering from the Warhammer, Shadow Hawk and Stinger that were holding the objective and giving their people time to flee with critical gear.
Gamma Team pushed in hard and blasted the Warhammer which soon fled. In doing so they locked down the objective and prevented more critical materiel from being removed. However, the Shadow Hawk and Stinger were holding on still. Theresa's Shadow Hawk charged in and crushed the Stinger as it tried to dodge within the woods. The Kurita Shadow Hawk dived into the melee and both mechs circled each other for a while until Theresa got behind the Kurita goon and hammered it with her mech's fists. She ripped critical panels off the enemy mech and tore into its innards.
Suddenly the Kurita pilot turned and sprinted away at full speed. The right flank objective was now in Lemming hands.
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| Ophelia got cocky and jumped into the ruins of the building she had just destroyed, not realising that the Kurita Battlemaster was ready for her. Both mechs fired simultaneously and both mechs fell. |
Over on the left flank, Theresa Green had identified the central objective and was pouring as much fire as her damaged mech could into it. The left flank objective had been destroyed. Barb pushed her Awesome through the buildings after the retreating Battlemaster.
"I got it," called Ophelia through comms to her commander. She fired up her jump jets and landed amid the wreckage of the objective with a clear shot at the Battlemaster. Hitting the firing stud, the last of her LRMs flew from the pods and the area around the Battlemaster erupted in showers of dirt and stone and dust. The Battlemaster disappeared from view in the firestorm.
Unfortunately, as Ophelia did this, the Battlemaster's pilot opened up on her Catapult with everything it had, redlining the entire fire control system. Laser fire poured from the assault mech and smashed into the Catapult. The auto-eject powered Ophelia into the air. As she drifted down, she saw the Battlemaster exploding into a thousand plasteel shards as her missiles hit its engine and detonated the fusion turbine that powered it.
Epilogue
"Congratulations, Lemmings. We took this sector. Kurita has pulled back and another company will be cycled into this sector, so it's R&R time for us. Better yet, the ticket has hit our bank accounts, so you will all be paid as soon as Anna has reconciled the accounts."
Jennie was pleased. Although their mechs were battered, the salvage and the paid invoice would cover it all and quite a bit more too. As she looked around at her team, she thought back to the early days and was proud of what she and Anna had achieved with this team. They were all misfits, but that was why they all fitted in here. Yes, they might be battered and bruised, and that bandage on Ophelia's head looked ridiculous, but they had done a good job and worked well together.
"Ok, you lot, you have a week's leave, then I need you all back here. We've a new ticket starting next month and we need to make the jump ship in good time. Anyone not here before departure will find themselves stranded on Galtor without their mech!"
The Lemmings cheered. They knew it was an empty threat, but they would pretend to believe her.
"Oh, and the drinks are on Ophelia. She lost her mech, so she has to pay the forfeit."
The Lemmings cheered twice as hard and raced to the bar.
Conclusions
Campaign over and no permanent losses is not bad. It was fun trying out all the different rules with this mini-campaign.
I like Alpha Strike and am keen to introduce the additional rules from the Commander's Edition book, so that is a plan for another time. It would also be fun to introduce the battlefield support rules. I did not use them this time around, but feel like they will introduce a new dimension to my games. Love the idea of air strikes on mechs!
Battle Suit Alpha worked really well, but I also feel like it will work better with an opponent than solo.
5150: Mecha Combat is fun and works really well solo, but it lacked a bit of crunch for me, and light mechs felt way too fragile. That said, the campaign system in it is brilliant and easy to combine with whichever rules I choose to use.
All three rules sets are good in their own way, so each is likely to see my table every so often, according to my mood and whims. Now, what should I play next?
The Full Throttle Lemmings
Alpha Team:
- Commander Jennie Raytor (Rep 5) - Battlemaster (Class 1)
- Eileen Dover (Rep 5) - Marauder (Class 2)
- Theresa Green (Rep 5) - Griffin (Class 3)
Bravo Team:
- Barbara Dwyer (Rep 5) - Awesome (Class 2)
- Andrew Peacock (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
- Ophelia Paine (Rep 4) - Catapult (Class 3)
Gamma Team:
- Mike Hunt (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
- Paige Turner (Rep 4) - Thunderbolt (Class 3)
- Theresa Crowd (Rep 3) - Shadow Hawk (Class 3)
Delta Team:
- Timothy Burr (Rep 5) - Blackjack (Class 4)
- Joseph King (Rep 5) - Commando (Class 5)
- Paul Bearer (Rep 4) - Locust (Class 5)
House Kurita
Campaign Morale: 0 (1 at start)
The Kurita mechs are not organised into teams for this campaign. I have made a deck of stat cards and draw the appropriate number of cards as needed when they are encountered. The mechs available are:
- Atlas (Class 1)
- Battlemaster (Class 1)
- Archer (Class 2)
- Orion (Class 2)
- Warhammer (Class 2)
- Shadowhawk (Class 3)
- Griffin (Class 3)
- Wolverine (Class 3)
- Phoenix Hawk (Class 4)
- Valkyrie (Class 5)
- Wasp (Class 5)
- Stinger (Class 5)
All mechs on both sides are Battletech figures, so I have listed them with the names they have in Battletech.
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