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:
- Commander Jennie Raytor - Battlemaster BLR-1G (Named Pilot)
- Paige Turner - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (Named Pilot)
- Ivor Biggun - Archer ARC-2R
- Ophelia Paine - Catapult CPLT-C1
Elements of 3rd Benjamin Regulars (147 points):
- Stalker STK-3F (Skill 3)
- Grand Dragon DRG-1G
- Dragon DRG-1N
- 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.
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