Commander’s Journal

6/5/3025, Cavalor

This one is entirely my fault. Following our first battle, I pulled our Heavy Mech Lance back to the the dropship for repairs. That left us under-manned on the front. Intel revealed we had an opportunity to take the town of Neokong and seize a pirate cache, but the only units that could get there in time were our mechanized infantry, and they were no match for the light mech lance and vehicles the pirates were using to evacuate. We scrubbed the mission. Our employers were disappointed, and we’ve learned a lesson.

Campaign Notes

This was dumb of me. This mission requires me to keep three forces in the field at all times, so when I brought my Heavy Mech Lance back I was forced to put my infantry into the field. Their combined BV is 130 – they can’t handle anything. So when this mission came up I just had to decline and take the reputation hit.

Since I had never actually deployed infantry before, I did play a couple turns for practice and wow, they are bad. This whole section needs to be overhauled.

All three squads need to be increased to platoons. A squad is just useless. The flamer squad has a range of 0, which makes it very difficult to use without unacceptable exposure. For some reason one of the Jump Squads can move up to 2 hexes (because they have an SRM heavy weapon?), while the other can do 3. That one hex makes a world of difference for leaping between cover and getting attacks. The SRM was actually quite nice, but I think I’d prefer the mobility. And none have useable Anti-Mech skills, so that’s on the list.

I really would like to be able to use infantry, but they’ll need a major overhaul. But first I need to get the mech training lance up, and then the infantry next.

Commander’s Journal

6/3/3025, Cavalor

The pirates on Cavalor are not going to give up the planet without a fight, and are pushing back on our positions. Scout Lance reported contact with a small force outside of the habcity of Tsentien and over comms the two sides agreed to an open engagement – no reinforcements, no air support, just a stand-up battle.

(Campaign Notes: I used my one Strategy reroll to change the terrain from Flatland. I got Coastal / Sandy River. Not sure that’s better – I wanted some LOS blocking. We’ll see!)

+++BLUEFOR+++

+++OPFOR+++

Both forces concentrated on the southern stretch. The Hermes II (Pvt. Sander) and Quickdraw (Cpl. Duka) were first on the scene, followed by the Crab (Pvt. Varvaressos). The Centurion (Sgt. Provost) was the last to enter the field.

The goal was to neutralize the Saladin first and take the AC/20 out of play, and Duka promptly immobilized it and then finished it off with volleys of SRMs. The rest of the team focused on high speed maneuvering with targets of opportunity – we were going to win this battle, it was just a matter of doing it with the least repairs required.

The two forces slashed straight through each other, like knights at a joust. Then they spun around, smoldering armor glinting in the sun, and ran at each other again. And again. And again. But on each pass, the enemy vehicles not only got shot up, but stomped on.

At the end of the day, we wiped out the OPFOR in a sudden flurry. The Warrior Attack Helicopter was the most troublesome, refusing to flee the battlefield and relentlessly pursuing our most vulnerable mech, until it made a low attack run and was finally slapped out of the sky.

And though the Centurion lost *a lot* of armor (in no small part to the Warrior VTOL), we were able to get the lance back into fully operational mode quickly in the field. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Sgt. Pruvost – Dr. Ch’oe said she suffered a severe concussion and she may never fully recover from the TBI. We’ll have to keep a close eye on her.

(Campaign Notes: Sgt. Pruvost has a permanent concussion from a cockpit hit – +1 penalty to Piloting tests, effectively a 4/6 pilot now. Still better than two of my other pilots. In other news, Pvt. Varvasessos was able to get training in Gunnery and is a 5/7.)

We passed on most of the salvage – the planetary garrison can make better use of the vehicles than we can, though we did claim the VTOL wreckage – we might be able to use some of those parts.

Last post, I settled on this contract:

With a month of travel time, we bang out a ton of repairs, randoms more prisoners, and stock up on a lot of armor.

Incredibly, the Shadow Hawk’s legs are finally repaired! So of course I promptly catastrophically fail a leg repair on the Phoenix Hawk and need to order another leg. I’d end up ordering 4 total. And 2 Wolverine heads. One Veteran MechTech isn’t enough – I will jump on another Veteran or Elite tech.

From the prisoners we recruit mechwarrior Paula Vedati (4/4), vehicle gunner Aaron Alexandre (4, and +3 tactics), and vehicle pilot Dianne Pietramellana (4, missing a right arm but that only hurts Gunnery!). This is all part of the slow plan to build up another Mech lance, and maybe add a vehicle or two to reinforce our assets in case they get into trouble.

Commander’s Journal

5/11/3025, Cavalor

A few hops inward from Tyrlon, the Cavalor system is a young system in the Victoria Commonality in the outer fringes of the Capellan Confederation territory. Its distance from the Inner Sphere core has kept the region comparatively comfortable and intact, though not completely immune to insurrections and attacks. What’s odd, however, is that the Capellan Confederation is turning to mercs to solve such an issue instead of regulars, but for reasons I’m not sure, the Successor State’s military seems completely preoccupied with other affairs (like, say, a major plot against the looming Steiner-Davion alliance). Of course there is the planetary government, but our forces will be operating with a good deal of autonomy.

Our arrival caught the invading pirate forces off guard. Our Overlord dropship’s sudden landing in the hotzone, containing a potential threat of up to 36 mechs caused an immediate withdrawal of enemy forces from the theater, and our Heavy Mech Lance leaped out in hot pursuit.

We timed our appearance in the deep of night under a cloudy, snowy sky. All the enemy saw was their radars going off, a huge flash of dropship jets bursting through the clouds, and PPCs blasting away at the landing zone, when they were put to flight,

(Campaign Note – a Heavy Mech Lance is terrible at Chase scenarios, unless the battlefield is really stacked in their favor. Daylight + Moderate Snowfall in Woods isn’t going to do a whole lot to keep most of enemies from getting away. So I used all my Strategy rerolls to get Moonless Night, which was perfect. Between darkness, snow, and woods, the enemy wood be moving at a crawl and failing piloting checks, which hopefully would give me time to pick off half.)

+++BLUEFOR+++

+++OPFOR+++

Much of the enemy took off before our heavies could disembark and set off in pursuit, and the pirate mobilized a lance of light armor to slow our pursuit.

My Grasshopper is the first of our mechs to reach the enemy lines, and I’m swarmed 11:1. I leap away from the main cluster to evade all those guns and as I land I swat a VTOL out of the air, King Kong-style. It goes down, and sets the woods afire.

The rest of my lance comes up behind me when an enemy Centurion looms from the darkness. An autocannon shot rings out and absolutely wrecks the Left Torso of Cpl. Coblah’s Warhammer. Wait, what? OH, SHIT. That’s not a CN9-A, that’s a CN9-AH, and that extra letter makes a big difference. It’s a variant I’d never seen before, one that mounts an AC/20.

Well, Coplah barely manages to keep the Warhammer on its feet. The Centurion isn’t so lucky. The entire lance lights up on it at point blank range, and it goes crashing down and then gets curbstomped by three mechs. It doesn’t get back up.

An SRM Carrier races through the darkness, straight at our line, while more AC/20 shells rain down from the west. The Warhammer loses a lot of armor and has to play it safe for the rest of the battle.

I jump on top of the SRM Carrier, smashing one of the treads with my mech’s feet. Its weapons still work, but it’s at the bottom of a defile and the rest of the team are now clear of its LOS. So I leave the SRM Carrier there for now, we’ll come back for it.

In rapid succession, we cut down the two Saladins. And then, as we hoped, the snowfall had built up enough that vehicles started getting stuck. And in the darkness, trapped by snow, surrounded by looming trees, I rampaged among them. The snow, darkness, and woods meant nothing to the Grasshopper’s jump jets, stomping and blasting with impunity.

A fair number of vehicles had fled, but many others were left burning in dark, enough to certainly call this a victory.

The one target I really wanted to get wast a Whitworth, but the mech had fallen in a lake, and then the ice froze over above him. I couldn’t shoot him, and I didn’t want to go in after him for fear of falling through the ice myself and damaging my mech. Very clever, that pilot!

As our recovery vehicles rolled back in to the Overlord, it was clear we had netted ourselves $1-2MM in salvage profit. I personally logged 10 kills. This was going to be a good mission.

Campaign Notes

I really felt like I was cheating a bit. I know that between Moonless Night and Snow, the AI locks up, but for some reason Jump Jets suffer no penalty and I can just launch the Grasshopper around to scoop up easy kills. Or maybe I’m just brilliant, and that’s a legitimate strategy for destroying vehicle columns (I did use all my Strategy rerolls, after all!). So let’s call it a reward my tactical brilliance in including a jump jet-capable mech in my heavy lance.

I had to pull the Heavy Mech Lance from the field because the Warhammer needed a lot of work. Unfortunately, that left only one other lance that I could put in the field – the Guard Asset, which is just a collection of infantry.

Over the next several days, we stripped all the mechs and vehicles for weapons that I need, and sold the rest. About $1.75MM. I didn’t keep the Centurion ‘H’ – I’m prioritizing mechs with jump jets, and those without big ammo loads. 3025 is pre-CASE

I don’t think I want the AH – I don’t want anymore mechs without JJs and with big ammo loads in their torsos. 3025 is pre-CASE and I’ve witnessed far too many enemies just getting blown up by random ammo crits. In the long run I think I’d like to switch to mostly energy loadouts.

As for training: Sgt Claude Kim got +1 to Piloting, now a 3/3. I got my Logistics, Command, and Transport administrator personnel all Rank 1 in Negotiation, which will help in my next contract. My Major has more that 20XP, and I’m not sure how to use it. I can keep saving it and get a Piloting buff (2/2!), or I can add Leadership (deter retirements from the company), or add a special ability like Hopping Jack (reduce the penalty for jumping and shooting) or Melee Specialist (bonus to hit).

Decisions, decisions…

Campaign Notes

Following the amazingly epic three-hour nailbiter that was the final mission in this contract, I ran out the clock for the rest of March doing loads of repairs, ransoming prisoners, and recruiting a new mechwarrior. Very important, but no super-exciting so I’ll just fast-forward.

Most repairs are going fine, except the Shadow Hawk. It’s cursed! The leg repairs failed *again*. I think I’ve now ordered 6 legs?

There’s a last little bit of housekeeping before I begin my next contract – I need to reduce the number of units in my company. For a couple reasons:

1. I’m sticking within my (customized) dropship transport limits: 16 mechs, 16 vehicles, 10 infantry, 0 aerospace. I’m currently at 19 / 13 / 6 / 0.
2. We’re a ‘C’ rated company, which means we suffer contract penalties for more than 36 units (because factions don’t like large armies of dubious loyalties running around). I should have fixed that before the 1st of the month when contracts are computed.

So I’m going to sell:

• Locust LCT-1V – no torso twist, cramped cockpit, and no arms? Goodbye.
  • Sgt. Koike is moving to the Phoenix Hawk.
• Toro TR-A-1 – primitive tech requires a whole different infrastructure
• Phoenix PX-1R – ditto
• Scorpion SCP-1N – don’t like the PPC + SRM loadout
• Pegasus Scout Hover Tank – no role for it
• Saracen Medium Hover Tank – no role for it

That brings my unit count down to 32 and bank account up to $10.0MM. Not bad from a starting piggy bank of $5.8MM!

Lastly, in terms of selecting my next contract, I’m going to manually generate 5 extra contracts via GM Mode this time. For narrative reasons (despite winning the war, we scored a -1 in the contract overall, which is Not Good), I don’t think my company would be welcomed back to the Inner Sphere yet for some House v House warfare, so I’ll stick to Periphery missions only, but I don’t want to go bankrupt just waiting around. As the campaign goes on that’ll change