The Final Showdown (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

The Lemmings were assembled for the briefing.

"Recon shows the chickens moving en masse towards the city of Rhodes. We have a chance to deal with them once and for all. Better yet, we can catch them in the open outside the city. The Apolakkians have several tubes of artillery set up, so we shall have support for this one, but we must expect a heavy fight. They are desperate. The battle plan is simple. Turi will lead the right flank. I shall lead the left flank. There are canyons on both flanks that we can conceal ourselves in. Work with your lance-mates to clear that sector and then move to help the rest of us. Clear?"

The Lemmings nodded.

"Right then, mount up and head out. Your assignments and courses have been broadcast to your guidance systems. Stick together, take them down and, hey, let's be careful out there!"

As they lined up on the edge of the operations zone, Tom was nervous. The Falcons would be desperate now. They would probably try everything and anything to destroy the Lemmings.

As the first of the Jade Falcon remnants appeared ahead, Tom saw that Star Captain Conrad Sender himself was leading the charge. A Bane and a Marauder IIC quickly followed by a Rifleman IIC, a Summoner, a Howler and a Locust IIC. The Bane was the scariest mech there because of its massive array of LRMs, enough to darken the sky and hide the sun.

"Nothing for it," he thought to himself, "time to ruck in there and cut out this cancer. At least we'll get to fight in the shade while that Bane stands"

"Nowhere left to run to now, Sender. Time to put you in the ground," Tom growled over comms to the Star Captain. He flipped the speakers on. The music helped him focus in battle,

Then, on the Lemmings broadcast channel, "Lemmings ho!"

The Lemmings moved out like a smoothly oiled machine. It would not last, but at least it looked impressive at the start.

The Lemmings deployed into the canyons as planned, using them as cover for the mechs and hiding the tanks until those could move into a good position to shoot.

Tom opened comms to his lance, "Alpha Lance, concentrate your fire on that Thunderbolt. Bring it down."

He led by example and the others followed. Lasers, PPCs and autocannons growled, and the whine of LRMs filled the air as his entire lance focused their fire on Sender's Thunderbolt. It's armour melted off its frame and a leg was blown off, before Tom's own Devastator landed a hit to the cockpit. The Thunderbolt crashed to the ground. Sender did not punch out.

Turi led her reinforced lance against the Bane and directed the Apolakkian artillery to drop smoke on it as wells as to concentrate their artillery fire in that area. Meanwhile, Juggler commanding her J. Edgar hover tank and Cherry in the Spider had got behind the Marauder and were shooting it in the back for all they were worth. Dodger and Accountant in the Pattons had emerged from the canyons. They blew the Howler to pieces in a very short time and turned on the Marauder.

The Falcons, for their part, focused primarily on the Battlemaster. Turi could feel the armour melting to slag around her but kept fighting despite having lost a leg from her mech and the other one having suffered massive damage. The ancient assault mech was slow enough to start with, but now it was all she could do to move it at all.

The death of their leader seemed to infuriate the other Falcons and they attacked all the harder. On Tom's flank, a Locust and a Summoner piled in against his lance. The Locust lasted just long enough to take out all the armour on Farmer's Centurion leaving it open for the Summoner to take it out. Tom watched with relief as Farmer punched out.

On Turi's flank, the Apolakkians were dropping smoke in front of the Bane as fast as they could, while the Marauder kept advancing to get the best shots it could.

As the Lemmings crippled the remaining Falcon mechs, a pair of Fulcrum tanks entered the field.

"Shite, where did those come from?" Turi cursed.

The Lemmings ducked and dived and dodged for all they were worth while picking apart the Bane and the Marauder, which were the last Falcon mechs standing.

With the left flank cleared, Alpha Lance raced to aid Turi. The Bane was suddenly rocked by a massive explosion as an autocannon round hit something critical. Parts of Bane rained down in a massive area around where it had previously stood. The Marauder did not last much longer, although it was not nearly as spectacular when it just crumpled to the ground.

The Fulcrums were making a nuisance of themselves. They had got in among the Lemmings' formation and were firing as fast as they could while skidding around at full speed. Parts flew off Lemming mechs at a rapid rate as the tanks switched between targets. By now Turi's Battlemaster was mostly holes and she was edging it away from the hostile tanks. A Fulcrum got behind her and punched several rounds through the back of her mech.

"This is Ironwood. I'm hurt and my mech is down. Punching out."

She sailed up into the air and enjoyed the view of the battlefield as she saw a Fulcrum blast Cherry's Spider. He did not eject. Seconds later, the Fulcrum itself was blasted to pieces. A single enemy tank remained.

The Lemmings converged on the last tank. The sheer weight of fire was unavoidable in the end and the Fulcrum just stopped moving. The Lemmings had won.

Back at base, the Apolakkians were jubilant and the Lemmings were the flavour of the day. No Lemming had to buy their own drinks that night.

Tom called for quiet, "A toast, people of Apolakkia, to the fallen. They died for your freedom and we salute them. Today, it was Dendros Tree. Before that, it was Finn Feil, Ingun Peiling and Alf Dusin. Remember their names."

The entire tavern roared out their names and drained their glasses. New drinks were bought and drained.

Tom raised his glass to Turi, who was bravely draining glass after glass from a wheelchair. She would be well enough to pilot a mech again, but she would not be dancing on the tables this night.

Tom was satisfied with the contract's conclusion. He still had all his mechs, and the teams had managed to salvage Sender's Thunderbolt IIC. It made for a nice bonus on top of their pay. He was seriously considering selling the Spider though. It had already acquired the nickname "The Widowmaker" because pilots seemed to die in it. He would discuss all this with his boss Jai when they next spoke. He thought she would be happy with the good relations he had established with the Alyina Mercantile League. This would be good for business.

At the end of the last scenario, I decided to buy some heavier mechs for the Lemmings. I knew this would be the last scenario and that it would be a big battle, so I wanted something heavier. The company had earned enough for that, so I looked at the list of mechs available on Apolakkia and picked out a Battlemaster BLR-1G and a Griffin IIC to add to the Lemmings' roster. This was largely because these were the only mechs I had models for. The Battlemaster is one of the original mechs in the company, while the Griffin IIC was sitting unpainted in a box waiting for me to decide which force to add it to. So, one superquick paintjob later and it was ready to take to the field. Of course, Lemmings CO Jai Raytor will almost certainly give Tom an earbashing for spending CBills that the company needed to pay off its bar tab, but he is used to that.

This was a great scenario with very little tactical finesse. It was so exciting that I forgot to take many pictures, which means there are a lot of turns between the first and second photos. Other things I forgot were the penalty that the Jade Falcons should have had on their initiative for losing their commander, and the need to roll for motive hits on vehicles when they are hit. The former could have made manoeuvring around the enemy easier. The latter could have made the Fulcrums easier to hit.

One thing that surprised me was how the enemy tended to focus their fire on a single mech at a time. The Battlemaster was the focus of so many shots that it is no surprise it ended the game looking like a Swiss cheese. About half my mechs also suffered through-armour criticals. I could not believe the number of double 6s the Jade Falcons rolled, while I continued to mostly roll "No critical hit" results when I scored structural damage on the Falcon mechs. Still, it ended well, apart from losing Cherry when I rolled to see who survived.

Now what should I do?

Reprisals (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 "We think that Sender is going to try to hurt the locals. Intelligence reports a build-up near critical infrastructure. We're going in to sort the issue out. Maybe this time we'll catch that slippery shiteweasel Sender and send him to the afterlife he so craves."

Tom's voice was hard. Sender had shown himself to be an adherent of the worst of the Jade Falcon's doctrines that saw anyone but their own as not really human. No Full Throttle Lemming would ever do that.

Later, he sat in the cockpit of his Devastator and waited. Scanners showed the approach of a force of mechs and infantry.

"Right, Lemmings, here they come. Remember to take out the infantry first and protect the water plant. Once the saboteur units are down, we'll take those mechs apart and grab that sweet, sweet salvage."

He flipped the speakers on his mech to external and music blared out.

"This one's for you, Sender."

With the Jade Falcon force coming at the plant from the Lemmings' left flank, Tom could see that it would be a race to intercept them. It was also clear that the Lemmings would struggle to stay focused on the infantry with mech targets available.

"Brickyard, Goldfish, you're with me. We're going after the chicken mechas. Ironwood, you're moving in on the right flank. Call if you need fire support, but I hope you don't. We're going to have our work cut out for us here. The rest of you are with Ironwood. Take out the infantry now. Bonus beers are on me if they fail to sabotage anything."

There was a cheer from the others at the thought of free beer. Then they got stuck in. Combat vehicle turbines were cranked up to the max to get to the plant first. Tom really hoped that they would survive long enough against the infantry to prevent the planned sabotage as he watched the hover vehicles kick up rooster sprays crossing the river.

"Alf, Howler, Cherry, follow me in. We're going down the middle. Juggler, Goose, Migraine, swing round the right and cut in from there. I got two hotspots on your route in. Both teams, aim to meet up at the far end of the plant," Turi "Ironwood" Skogen had a clear plan for clearing the plant.

Suddenly there was an explosion.

"Dammit, Ironwood, the area's boobytrapped. I've got leg actuator damage," Alf cursed.

Meanwhile, Headcase, Goldfish and Brickyard were moving into position to take on the oncoming Jade Falcon mechas and coming under fire.

"Shit, bastard's blown my leg out," Tom swore. A lucky shot had trashed the Devastator's right leg and now it was limping along at half speed.

The other two were having better luck as missiles rained down on the oncoming Baboon and Locust IIC, but it was getting hot for all of them.

Ironwood's troop were making quick work of the enemy infantry, although Migraine's Savannah Master had holes in its armour by the time they were down. The saboteurs had boobytrapped the plant in advance of their work and she had tripped one of the traps.

Despite this, and despite Howler's Wolfhound having its armour slagged, they worked together quickly and systematically to identify the enemy infantry and neutralise them.

Tom's troop neutralised the enemy light mechs and turned their attention to the remaining Summoner and Marauder IIC.

Seeing the plight of his infantry, the enemy commander detailed a Rifleman IIC to head into the plant and deal with Ironwood's troop. Its autocannons chattered at high speed and Alf's Wasp was crushed under the weight of the fire. Alf did not punch out of his mecha.

With almost all the saboteurs found and dispatched, Ironwood detailed her troop to surround the Rifleman.

"Kill that muddy funster! Revenge for Alf!"

The combined fire of all the vehicles and mechs left the hostile mecha a smoking wreck and they moved on to take out the last of the saboteur crews. As Migraine's Savannah Master moved into position with the two J. Edgar Light Hovertanks, the saboteurs opened up on her vehicle and the engine blew out even as the fire from Ironwood's troop cut down every last saboteur.

"Aaargh, if I only had one more ..." Migraine's last words left the others wondering.

On the other flank, the Summoner and the Marauder IIC were concentrating their fire on Tom's Devastator. It was a massive machine of mayhem but its armour could still only withstand so much.

"Headcase, punching out."

Next second, Tom felt a massive g-force that nearly caused him to pass out. As he rose into the air, he saw his Devastator crumple to the floor. And as he floated back down, he got a view of the Lemmings working as a team to bring down one hostile after the other. Despite the pain of the ejection, he felt like a proud father.

With Tom's Devastator down, Goldfish and Brickyard were left to finish off the enemy commander's Summoner, while the Marauder IIC sought to get behind them. They tag-teamed it in a deadly dance that saw each pilot hopping behind the other until the Marauder pilot sought cover behind cliffs, only for all the remaining Lemmings to mass near it. With his machine crippled, the Falcon pilot punched out.

"A toast to our fallen," Tom's eyes were blackened and he ached, but he was grateful to be alive, "Alf and Migraine will be missed. Remember their names and that of Finn when we chase down the last of these scumsucking chickens. Tonight we celebrate saving the whole plant, but tomorrow we find out where the rest of the psycho chickens are and we cut their heads off"

The assembled Lemmings drank deeply.

This scenario was characterised by the hostile force rolling way more double 6s than is acceptable. The number of non-penetrating critical hits was utterly ridiculous. It also saw me burning edge tokens like they grew on trees. The only reason Tom survived the destruction of his Devastator was because I used an edge token to reroll a critical hit that would otherwise have seen bits of Tom Skalle all over the battlefield and the Devastator an unrecoverable wreck.

Regrettably, neither Alf nor Migraine had that luxury and they died in the cockpits of their machines. It was an expensive scenario in terms of maintenance costs because of all the critical hits.

Also, I forgot to take photos, because I was too busy having fun. Sorry.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us! (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 "We believe Sender will head for his main base," Tom informed the assembled Lemmings, "so we are going after him and the base. Scouts tell us there is artillery there and have identified one artillery position, but there might be more. The Apolakkians have come up trumps too. They will be manning a couple of guns from the convoy. We'll be following a route in that should see us turning up on their doorstep unannounced. Once there, we are going to split into two groups. Ironwood will take one group right, while I lead the other group left. Take out the emplacements first, and then engage the Falcons. Juggler will be going in with the J. Edgar to scout and snipe from the margins. Cherry, work with her. Any questions?"

The assembled Lemmings indicated that they had no questions and were ready.

"This is it, Lemmings. Good luck."

Tom turned up the volume on the player in his Devastator DVS-2 and grinned as a mellow tune kicked in.

"Oh yeah, we're gonna ace this base and make this a happy planet soon."

The Falcons caught napping in their base

The Devastator moved forward with Goldfish's Timber Wolf into the nearby woods and both laid down fire on the nearest emplacement. Autocannon fire pinged off his armour as he and Goldfish turned the emplacement to rubble. On the other flank, the Centurion, Archer and Wolfhound did the same to the emplacement nearest them, while Ironwood took the Phoenix in close to the base, ready to hop over the walls and Cherry circled round behind.

Juggler raced the J Edgar into the base to scout it, finding only pain, but also getting off a good volley into the back of the enemy Summoner.

"Dodger, watch out, they've got your range!" Tom was frantic as he saw the massed Falcons focus on the Patton tank commanded by Dodger.

The warning came too late. Hatches popped on the Patton and the crew raced to get out. They were carrying their commander.

"Medevac, we got crew down. Get in here ASAP!"

Tom would have to wait to see if they had lost anyone. He focused back on the main fight. The Lemmings had the base encircled and were moving in. The enemy were being picked apart one mech at a time and the Lemmings' advance seemed inexorable.

"Mop it up, Lemmings!"

"Roger that, Headcase."

The chorus of voices over comms was unanimous. Cherry and Ironwood had taken out the last of the artillery. The Locust had fled, the Marauder and Summoner were down and all that remained was a lone Rifleman. But not for long. The massed fire of the Full Throttle Lemmings turned its armour to slag and cored it.

"Ha! All your base are belong to us, Sender."

Focused fire and a willingness to take a few hits ensured that the Lemmings destroyed each threat quickly and took commensurately less fire as they advanced.

Also, recon paid off. It's always worth spending points on recon if you can afford it. It identified one of the artillery units, while the other was removed because of the earlier assaults on supply dumps and convoys. The one artillery unit that did manage to get shots off missed and the shot drifted onto their Marauder, which amused me immensely, even as it pained me to mark damage on my own troops that were also in the area of effect. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Now to see what that git Sender gets up to next.

Negotiations (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Following the loss of his supply convoy, the Jade Falcon commander Star Captain Conrad Sender sent a communication in clear. He was willing to meet and to negotiate. In his own words, the Full Throttle Lemmings had made themselves "unignorable".

The local merchants showed themselves to be brave as they strapped into the APCs to head for the meet. The Lemmings respected that and were determined to see that the merchants returned home safely at the end of the negotiations.

Tom was listening to some cheerful music in his Devastator, as he and the rest of the Lemmings stood guard over the merchants of Apolakkia. He and the rest of the Lemmings had developed a lot of respect for the citizens they had met and a lot of sympathy for their plight. They had been mercilessly abused by the Jade Falcon commander. Agapito, the mayor they had met on their first day on planet, had lost his grandfather and his surname to the Jade Falcon occupiers. His father had suffered losses that had broken him. Other citizens had similar stories to tell. Their contact with the locals had made this personal for Tom. Like all of the Full Throttle Lemmings, all the way back to their founders Jennifer Raytor and Anna Daptor, they hated injustice and supported the underdog. He mused on what an underdog actually looked like as he observed the proceedings and listened in to the negotiations. Presumably, it was some sort of old Terran creature that was low on the food chain, but he had never seen a picture of one.

Tom's attention returned sharply to the negotiations as voices were raised and the Falcon Star Captain started getting angrier. This did not bode well. It was with both horror and a sense of the inevitable that he watched explosives detonate under the APCs as the merchants sought to broker a deal.

"Bastards!" yelled Tom, "Lemmings, take that shithead out, and help our clients get out of the combat zone."

He slammed the power on in his Devastator.

"You dezgra surat," Tom broadcast to Conrad Sender's Thunderbolt IIC as he sighted and fired, "I'll fry you and eat your wings!"

"Lemmings, roast that freebirth scum!"

Red and green beams of light blasted out and washed over Sender's Thunderbolt. Autocannon and missile fire exploded against it. Its armour melted like slag as the APCs with the Apolakkians in raced for shelter behind a nearby bluff, where the Lemmings' medium mechas had gathered to protect them.

Shrapnel showered down on Tom's Devastator as a full volley from the Bane crashed into the canopy over his head. Only a few missiles actually struck the massive mecha to damage the armour plating.

The new guy, Dendros "Cherry" Tree, took his Spider and jumped in behind the Bane, landing a crashing volley into its rear.

Sender ran for home, pausing only briefly in the tree line to fire a wild volley at the Lemmings. His mech was limping badly and trailing smoke as he fled.

A Baboon pilot briefly joined the fray, but quickly decided to demonstrate the better part of valour after seeing the Lemmings fire take down the Thunderbolt in a single volley. He took his mech in behind a cliff and did not come out again. A Locust did join the battle but soon regretted it as "Ironwood" Skogen's Archer focused fire on it and Cherry quickly brought his Spider in behind the Locust. The Summoner stepped out from behind the cliffs and got a warm welcome, while the Bane found itself outmanoeuvred by the lighter Lemmings mechs and the J. Edgar hovertank. Their efforts were not enough.

"That cowardly shitweasel Sender has run off," Tom was irked, "and we have these others here guarding his tail for him. I'm ordering a fighting withdrawal. Let's get the Apolakkians home safely and then we can take the fight to the psycho chickens."

That went a lot more quickly than expected. Sender's Thunderbolt went from whole to zero in a single turn as almost every single Lemming fired at and hit it. Shame he could not be killed right there, but there was plot armour to let him get away for a final showdown later.

The Bane was a nasty shock too; 7 points of indirect fire is a lot! As it turned out, Tom's Devastator was the main target for all the Falcon attacks, so I got lucky because it can take a lot of hurt before it starts breaking and they simply did not have enough time to do any real damage.

Ambushing a Convoy (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Tom was pleased they had found a new pilot for the repaired Spider. He would have been happier if Finn had survived the mission. It was not the way of the Lemmings to howl and moan when one of their number bit the bullet, but they all grieved just the same and the pilots detailed for the mission were all determined that the Falcon's would pay for Finn with their own blood.

The noob was Giorgios Tree, a LoaderMech pilot from the town and an enthusiastic hunter. It turned out that he had a yen to hunt Jade Falcons now. Like almost everyone in town, he had good reason after the Falcon occupation. He was pleased to be coming along on this mission.

1. Devastator DVS-2 (Tom "Headcase" Skalle)
2. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
3. Archer ARC-5R (Turi "Ironwood" Skogen)
4. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)

"The mission is as simple as we make it. Goldfish and Brickyard chase them into the waiting arms of Ironwood and me. Don't take chances, but stop those transports. We'll need to focus on the escorts first, so do that, unless the transports fall right into your laps. Then stop the transports escaping. Everyone clear?"

Nods all round.

"Mount up!"

Headcase and Ironwood were waiting with their mechs powered down to prevent the enemy convoy from spotting them. Goldfish and Brickyard were steaming in behind the convoy but the Falcons did not seem too bothered. They had not detailed anyone to address the pursuing mechs. Perhaps the Falcon commander suspected an ambush and was going to try to fight through.

Tom clicked his tongue impatiently. He really hated the waiting part. His hands hovered over the control board waiting... waiting... waiting

"OK, LIGHT 'EM UP, LEMMINGS!" he roared over comms. Matching actions to words, he fired up his Devastator and slapped play on the tannoy system. Old Earth music blared out.

"Let's take this convoy down!" he called to the other Lemmings as he sighted on the oncoming Jade Falcons and let loose with everything he had.

Ironwood's Archer and Headcase's Devastator moved out of concealment and fired volleys at the oncoming Marauder. Brickyard's Phoenix used its superior agility to bounce around and fire into the backs of the enemy, while Goldfish rained missiles from her Timber Wolf onto the hostiles. The psycho chickens fired back but their fire had less effect because it was scattered between the Lemming mechs, while the Lemmings focused their fire and quickly had smoke pouring from the enemy.

Brickyard took his Phoenix Hawk over the top of the enemy and was able to slam a massive volley into the rear of the Summoner. Meanwhile the Howler felt the full effect of Goldfish's ire, and Ironwood managed to catch an APC out on its own. Unfortunately, it was transporting an artillery crew, which dismounted from the burning APC and began their own attempt at retribution.

It did not take long before the escorts were dead, dying or nearly so, and the Lemmings were able to focus their fire on the transports, which suffered as a result. With all its armour gone, one of the Fulcrum Hovertanks ditched its load and ran. The others were not so lucky.

Surrounded by Lemmings, the Jade Falcons fought and scored solid hits, but the Lemmings were tireless in their assault and soon all the enemy mechs had been destroyed with the remaining transport units following quickly after. The Lemmings held the field and the supplies. The Jade Falcons would be hurting now.

Afterthoughts

This scenario took me a couple of goes to win. The first attempt with a slightly different force make-up so three of my mechs destroyed on the first turn, thanks to a series of ridiculously lucky dice rolls on the part of the Jade Falcons. I swear that my Jade Falcon-themed dice almost never roll less than a 7, while my merc dice almost never roll over a 7. The second attempt went much better, although I kept forgetting to roll for motive unit hits on the APCs and hovertanks, so perhaps it could have gone better still and I might have stopped all of them from escaping. Next time, eh.

Going on a Raid (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 "Right, Lemmings, we're going on a raid. I'll be leading this one with Goldfish as my 2IC. Together with Ironwood and Dodger, we'll be the door openers. Random, Alf and Brickyard, your job is to secure or destroy the supplies. The scouts report a couple of points of Toads, a Rifleman and a Summoner as the defending force, together with some emplacements. Leave the fighting to the door openers and scoot with the loot. I don't want the lights mixing it up with those guys, and I would prefer you to secure the supplies and skedaddle quickly if you can. They will come in handy later. Scouts have identified a route in that should get us close enough without the chickens seeing, and they have also marked a couple of the caches. I have pinged the approach routes and battle plan to your noteputers and synched with your mech's onboard systems. Note that the supplies are inside a mountain cave system, so DO NOT trigger your jump jets in there if you have them! Mount up and let's move out."

1. Devastator DVS-2 (Tom "Headcase" Skalle)
2. Archer ARC-2R (Turi "Ironwood" Skogen)
3. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
4. Spider SDR-8K (Finn "Random" Feil)
5. Wasp WSP-5A (Alf "Alf" Dusin)
6. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)
7. Patton Tank (Lene "Dodger" Stolen)

The Lemmings had successfully negotiated a series of canyons that led close to the opening of the cave complex where the supplies were cached. By approaching from this direction, they only faced a single emplacement, although signatures from a Summoner could be detected a little further into the cave.

They advanced out of the canyon and the Summoner came to meet them. Moving as a group, the Lemmings divided their fire between the Summoner and the emplacement. The latter was reduced to rubble. The Summoner kept coming despite smoke pouring from various holes in its armour. Standing in the middle of his force, Headcase found himself the target for both the advancing Elementals and the Summoner. His armour melted like slag under a hail of fire that would have annihilated any of his other lance mates.

"You're welcome," he muttered to no one in particular as he thumbed the firing stud as fast as his weapons would recycle and reload.

"Withdraw and make them come to us. Be ready!" Tom hoped to draw the enemy out and then deal with the emplacements within the cave, which had managed to get a bead on Random in his Spider and now Random was no more; a hail of autocannon fire had shredded his cockpit.

The plan worked and the Summoner died in a hail of fire, followed shortly by the Elementals, their battle armour cut to ribbons. That left only the Rifleman that had been further into the cave. The remaining Lemmings advanced.

"Alf and Brickyard, grab those supplies. We'll deal with this Rifleman."

The two pilots did as ordered and soon had two crates of the cached supplies. The others focused their fire on the Rifleman and reduced it to a broken husk. The pilot never even considered surrendering. Meanwhile, Goldfish and Ironwood had got behind the two interior emplacements and reduced them to rubble with a hail of concentrated fire.

As they did so, new signatures appeared on the Lemmings' displays.

"Reinforcements incoming," Tom called to his team, "Deploy near the cave entrances and use them as cover. He and Dodger did just that and waited.

The reinforcements turned out to be a Locust and a Baboon, but they were too little and too late. That did not stop them trying though. Tom's Devastator took a further pasting, but both mechs were on the receiving end of more firepower than they liked. They ran, trailing smoke and fluids.

The Lemmings had the supplies and had destroyed the supply garrison. They left nothing standing within the caves. Back at base, they reviewed their BattleROMs.

"So, it looks like there is another exit to these caves." Mari Nert was the company's intelligence officer on this mission. "It's not big enough to get mechs through, but you'd easily get trucks in and out as needed. We've checked the supplies and intel you recovered and everything points to another supply convoy incoming. We've also been able to identify a chicken recon post."

"Great job, Mari. We'll aim for the supply convoy first. They won't fight as hard with empty bellies and running out of ammo. How's the salvage gone, Vegard?"

Vegard Beider was the unit's head tech, "We got the Spider up and running again, and managed to sluice Random out of the cockpit before giving him a decent burial. The company is going to raise a glass to him later. We all intend to be there. He may not have been with us long, but he was still one of our own."

With that, Tom closed the meeting and went to toast his fallen company member.

Conclusion

Scouring Sands is set up as a branching campaign. At the end of a sortie, you get given options for the next sortie. It is in the Lemmings' nature to seek the fight rather than to wait for it to come to them, so I chose the raid mission over the defensive mission option. It just seemed natural.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake in not including more mechs with hands, although the higher firepower mechs did come in handy (pun intended). I should have included the Wolfhound, but I wanted to have all my Named Pilots along, and Dodger is a combat vehicle pilot, so there is that.

In the end, it turned out to be an expensive mission. The Lemmings earned a lot, but they also had to spend a lot on rearming and repairing their mechs. Finn "Random" Feil turned out to be dead after the explosion of his mech, so he also needed to be replaced. That said, my Named Pilots are growing in experience and we have a full roster for the next mission too. We're going chicken hunting.

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.

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)