Battletech AAR..Ambush at Valantino

 

Greg & I had a very good, and very close, game of Battletech last night. We played the “Ambush” scenario where one side (the ambushee?) sets up his 4 Mechs along or beside the road leading from Valantino city in the Northwest that then cuts diagonally southeast while the ambusher set up 2 Mechs anywhere he liked in cover 7 hexes away with his remaining 2 Mechs coming on turns 2 and 3. The exact Mechs were rolled for.

   Greg chose to be the “Ambushee” and the force consisting of 2 Griffins (a 1N & a 1S), a Crusader 3K and Javelin 10F. This left me to play the Ambusher with a force of a Warhammer -6L, Javelin 10F, Shadow Hawk-2K,  and the Hunchback-4G(my favourite Mech).

TURN 1 THE AMBUSH:  Greg set up his Mechs along the light woods/scrub near the road in the south-east. I deployed my Javelin and Warhammer 7 hexes due north in some woods. The trap was sprung! Raw firepower poured forth from the Warhammer as it blazed at its victim, a Griffin. Well, that’s what was supposed to have happened. Actually the Warhammer did nothing but give away its position, expend a lot of ammo, and drive up its heat.! The Javelin scored the only hit with a medium laser. Not a good start.

TURN 2: The Warhammer and Griffin 1 traded shots ineffectually. My Shadow Hawk enters the board from the central south, targets Griffin 2, and in a series of unfortunate events, gets a critical hit touching off the Griffins missile ammo. The explosion was spectacular.

   As usual, my Javelin is doing more damage than the Warhammer. The Crusader takes revenge for its team mate and whacks the Shadow Hawk hard. Greg’s Javelin then rushes into the face of my Warhammer. A wise move as my 2 PPC’s are useless at this range.

TURN 3:  I won the initiative, and elected to have my Hunchback enter the fray. In he strode, and punched 20 points of damage into the Crusader. Sadly, he was to do this 4 times during the game with no noticeable effect! Greg’s Javelin hits the Warhammer for 20 points, including a head shot. Greg got in at least 5 headshots during the game compared to none for my guys. He must do more gunnery practice!  The Shadow Hawk misses with its PPC at the Crusader, but the Crusader takes out the Shadow Hawks PPC. Greg’s Javelin & Griffin shoot up my Javelin, blowing away its right arm and torso.

TURN 4:  The Javelin keeps getting good hits on my Warhammer. My Shadow Hawk, with only a LRM-5 remaining, decides to put some distance between itself & the Crusader. Hunchback hits ineffectually. My Javelin explodes from precision fire from Griffin 1. The Warhammer gets 1 PPC hit on the Griffin but misses his punch attempt on the Javelin.

TURN 5: The Hunchback & Crusader exchange hits, but nothing effective. The Griffin shoots at the Warhammer and gets 2 engine critical hits. Lots of other fire. The Shadowhawk moves into the woods and forward to make a back shot on the Griffin.

TURN 6: Warhammer misses. If he hadn’t died later in the battle I’d have fired him! Griffin gets some solid hits on the Warhammer. As the Crusader is in range, the Shadow Hawk takes a chance and shoots off short range missiles. Surely the Crusader can’t take much more with the Hunchback scoring hit after hit on it! Sadly, he misses. The Crusader turns around and now scores the second engine hit on the battered Shadow Hawk.

TURN 7:  The Griffin & the Javelin finally take the Warhammer down! 2 Gyro hits and it tumbles helplessly into a wood. The Hunchback scores an engine hit on the Crusader, but ignoring this, the Crusader finishes off the too brave Shadow Hawk, blowing off its head! The Hunchback decides this is as good a time to leave as any, and heads west to his extraction point. The ambush a failure.

Victory to Greg’s Patrol Lance!

May the dice roll high

Greg

UNCHARTED SEAS & FSA AND SOME TERRAIN

 

Fist up a couple of new ships for uncharted seas, one is the Iron Dwarves Guardian Class Floating Citadel and the other is the Thanaris Elves Thunderbird Class Storm Cruiser.

 

The next lot is for FSA and comes in the form of Terran Apollo Mk II Class Battleship & Terran Hermes Mk II Class Cruiser. The Directorate are not left behind either with Directorate Executioner Mk II Class Cruiser.

The last is terrain i order from proxie models(http://proxiemodels.com/). They are cheap and look good, i just need to get the roofs right. In the pictures below is the 15mm gothic building(one with the arch windows), this building is more a 10mm or smaller sizes. It works great with the epic scale figures. The other pieces are 15mm, i would say a true 15mm.

Any ways may the dice roll high for you.

Greg

Massacre at Galena, EA battle

Been a while but final manage to have a game. Any way Britt did the report and i took the pictures
The Crusade had been going well. Three Squat cities had already fallen, and while resistance was increasing, it had to be admitted that the Space Marine Command was suffering from arrogance when it considered the taking of Galena. The huge sprawling city was protected by numerous War Machines while the Titans the Marines did have were in use elsewhere. All that courage and determination could do was done. It wasn’t enough.” Cmdr. Falkenberg
   That was the backdrop for last nights 4000 points/side Epic Armageddon Battle. Greg GM’d the game while Dean’s Squats fought it out with my Space Marines. The centre of the board was dominated by the burnt out city of Galena, while both flanks were rolling hilly terrain. (Beautifully done: See pics at Greg’s Blog site). Dean’s Squat Forces consisted of (I believe) a Leviathan and a Colossus War Machines,  2 Megacannon, Bikes, AA Guns, Warriors, Thudd Guns,  Berserkers,  & Hearth guard. I operated  a Strike Cruiser with 3 drop pod Tactical Marine units, 2 other Tacticals, 2 Whirlwinds, 2 Devastators, a Terminator, 2 Predators, & 2 Scout units. The Space Marines would ideally blast and then take the central objective with drop pods. Meanwhile the scouts, reinforced with the armor & artillery, would hold my side of the board and maybe even slip over to take one of the other objectives. Dean was mainly worried about having to ‘march all the way across the board to kill the enemy’. His analysis proved much closer to reality than mine!
TURN 1: SM’s won the toss and moved first. The Strike Cruiser bombarded the central objective, killing a Thunderfire AA gun. Three Marine Tacticals landed by Drop Pod, one narrowly missing the table edge. In the ensuing shooting they kill off a few Mole Mortars & Thunderers.  Squat response was quick & deadly.  A nearby Leviathan filled with Berserkers attacks 2 of the dropped Marines and destroys them since they were unable to retreat.
  A Whirlwind kills a Thudd gun, but in response, the Megacannon kills 2 Predators and disrupts 2 units. On the south flank Devastators move up to aid their Marine colleagues while on the north A Tac Marine moves up toward his Drop Pod fellow Marines. A Colossus destroys the remains of a Predator Tank unit. Other Marine units are moving up through the city to get to their stranded fellows, but its obvious help will come too late, Whirlwinds repeatedly bombard the Hearth guard with no effect.
TURN 2: The SM’s again move first, reinforcing a Scout unit now being attacked by Bikes in the south. The Megacannon destroys 1 Whirlwind and puts 3 blast Markers on the unit. The Leviathan badly damages another Tac unit, killing 2 stands while the Colossus kills 2 more Predators.
   A Tac in the centre attacks a large unit of Thunderers supported by Mole Mortars near the “Blitzkrieg’ objective. Outnumbered over 2 to one, they ALMOST pull it off. The sole surviving stand retreats. Most of the other Marine activations are Marshall, just trying to remove blast markers.
   Squat Berserkers move up on the North flank to secure one of their objectives. More ineffective Whirlwind attacks on the Hearth Guard. Devastators launch one last attack against Warriors to their front near the central objective. It routs the Warriors, but little is left of the Dev’s.
   Seeing that the Squats can now move forward at will, the Marine commander sounds recall, and the survivors retreat to Landing Zone ‘Gamma”. The Battle for Galena is over. SQUAT VICTORY.
   Excellent game Dean. Let me know whenever you’d like a rematch. I MIGHT want to change my force composition the next time though! J Thanks also to Greg for GMing, setting up the terrain, and finding the ‘little rules’ that mean so much when you’re trying out new forces and techniques (like Drop Pods). Defeated or not, I had a wonderful night playing Epic Armageddon and I hope to have many more.
Table Layout

First Turn
 
Second Turn

Hope your dice roll high.
Greg