Mechwarrior Campaign Hordes of the Mechs.

What do you do on a rainy Saturday morning when you wanted to work in the bonsai garden and it is just too wet?

Launch a galaxy wide assault across the Robinson RCZ into the Draconis Combine on the planet of Wapakoneta.

Testing out my new battle board cardboard 3x3 foot battlefields.  The 21st Centauri Lancers land on Wapakoneta and confront the defending Wolf's Dragoons.

The Dragoons defend the base on Wapakoneta.

Left flank Lancers advance through the dry desert terrain.

Not so fast boys!  Mechs pushing heat and fighting toe to toe.

Aerial view of the 3 foot square battlefield.

Wolf left flank would hold.

Alley of death.

Tanks versus Gevs.

Final points tip in favor of the Dragoons.  This Lancer mech was pushing heat and battledamage recoils as seen in the chits on his stand.  When he fired on the Dragoon mech he overheated (failed his combat roll) and exploded!!!!

Wolf's Dragoons hold their homeworld Wapakoneta!!

Next phase will be maneuver for trun 1.

Thank God for Sunday.

HotT Mechs Debased Rebased Mechwarrior Hordes of the Things

On the Draconis Combine - Federated Suns border, in the Robinson Area of Operations, two mechwarrior forces clashed on the world of Scone.  Using new rules of engagement cobbled by Ken Van Pelt, the Lion's Den Wargamers are going to engage in a 7 army campaign set in the world of Battletech.  The forces used will be HotT armies created from Mechwarrior Clix that have been rebased on hex card stock.

 Federated Suns Mech lance supported by power armored marines engage Dragon mechs pushing into the urban terrain border of the city of Null.  Air support from the Dragon attack choppers can be detected at the top of the photo.

Top down view from the dropship Clavey.  Suns entered from stage left and pushed into and held the town of Null.  The Kuritan commander was killed near the city reservoir in a cross fire mech duel.  Draconis forces pushed to the city limits from stage right but couldn't get a toe hold on the urban terrain.  At the loss of command and control the battle was quit and the Kuritans pulled back for extrication.  The planet Scone would become Federated property.

 Sun heavy armor supported by artillery slug it out on the North side of Metropolitan Void.  Ranges and exchange fire was adjudicated and discussed on this playtest of the HotT version of Battletech.

Southside once again we see the right flank armor  push into the scrubland and forested terrain near the Scone hinterland.

 Gotta love the PBI.  These foot sloggers entrenched into Null proper and kept the town out of the Dragon clutches.

Dragon Power armor troops in the Scone forest.  These troops did themselves credit and held off an armor assault pretty well.

From the west side of the table looking at the Dragon assault from behind Sun's battlelines. Troop cards in the foreground.

 Battletech.

Thanks for looking in on the AAR.  Stay tuned to this Com-Star Station for more Mechwarrior campaigning.

And now a coded message to all of our Federated Suns forces and RCT.
"Do you know the muffin man?  REPEAT, Do you know the muffin man."

Thank you and good night.

Proserpina

........begin transmission.................

The Kuritan commander smiled thinly to himself. Those Separatist bastards were doomed.

When the report came through that a recon patrol had uncovered a base on the fringe of the Dead Zone, he thought it was too good to be true. Still, he had questions.

Video feeds from the patrol showed clusters of buildings and definite organization, but what were they up to? The patrol reported encountering a small force of one light and one medium Mech...hardly a sizable defense force. The fact that they kept the patrol from seeing anything of import by rushing to the attack said that they were hiding something. Surely there was more to this tale. Where were the people? The infantry and tanks? No, something didn't add up.

He sighed. It wouldn't matter much longer. Kuritan High Command, upon hearing of the base, had ordered a tactical strike of the area via orbital bombardment. Whatever the Separatists had built would be slag and ash come dawn.

..........Proserpina, Kuritan controlled Amerigo 3057....

Kurita Command Report From Proserpina Leads the Evening News from PRSPNN

Guest article written from the desktop of the Kurita commander, Ted Conn.

we rejoin our broadcast already in progress...

Intro: It has been almost a year since we started the Proserpina campaign. For info on the first installment of this campaign, go to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/522394/the-battle-for-proserpina-part-1.

I will refresh some information originally relayed in ‘part 1’, as it has been a while! The variant rules we use in this campaign are here on BGG. Info on the variant, called Call To Honor, can be found here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/271685/mechwarrior-call-to-honorSetting:Proserpina is a world ravaged by war. Nuclear fallout, scorched earth policy and various highly contested engagements on the world have led to the creation of several continental 'Dead Zones'. Fast forward several years. The Draconis Combine (House Kurita) rules with an iron fist. Dirt poor people scratch out meager existences by foraging in the 'Dead Zones' and finding lost tech or anything else of value. The populace rails silently against the oppressive Draconis regime. The Highlanders, a collection of mercenaries (terrorists?), aim to throw off Kurita’s yoke and return Proserpina to its original ‘glory’...for some unknown entity.Situation:Kurita’s iron grip on Proserpina was challenged. Pride Town had been attacked in a most devious, yet disconcerting manner. Draconis High Command, while commending the actions of the planet side commander for his role in maintaining order during the attack, issued a military lock down. All civilian traffic was considered hostile while the situation was further assessed.

Within a day after the battle ended, recon ‘mechs to the NW of Pride Town reported a large column of civilian vehicles heading toward the ‘Dead Zone’. A majority of these vehicles appeared to contain supplies that a settlement would require: Foodstuffs, housing fabrications, etc. As this information was relayed, a sizable force of armor and infantry appeared from the ‘Zone’ in question and assumed a defensive position along the vehicles’ route. Oddly, their IFF signatures didn’t signify ‘foe’, even though the recon ‘mechs could clearly see they weren’t Draconis forces. The planetary commander didn’t waste any time dispatching three lances of ‘mechs, air cavalry and power armored troops to the location. The order was clear: There are no civilians in this conflict. Kill anything in sight.

Map:The map featured a road that ran from the SE to the NW. There was another road that intersected and ran straight north about 1/3 of the way into the map. The terrain was mainly comprised of rock formations and was considered ‘rough’ terrain for wheeled vehicles. There were two built-up areas on the map: A small resupply station in the SE corner and a heretofore unknown collection of buildings along the road, in the NW area of the ‘Dead Lands’. The insurgents were formed in a defensive position along the length of the western edge of the board. The Kuritan forces entered from the east, with the ‘mechs entering along the road in the SE corner of the board. Game:The objectives for both sides were clear. The insurgents had to get their ‘civilian’ vehicles off the western edge of the map. Kuritan forces had to inflict as much damage to the insurgents as they could.The game started with Kuritan forces, the 9th Benjamin Regulars (Ted and Carl), coming in ‘hot and heavy’ from the east. The ‘mechs pushed their heat sinks as they hurried to catch up to the fleeing ‘civilian’ vehicles. With insurgent military forces looming on the horizon, but still out of effective range, the ‘mechs fired on the convoy, knocking out a couple of vehicles and damaging a couple more. They then blended into the resupply station’s buildings and waited of the enemy to close the distance. Meanwhile, the air units and armor moved to engage the enemies’ defensive perimeter. They started giving and taking fire almost immediately. Even under this storm of tightly-knit energy beams and hot flying metal, the transport VTOLs continued to head due west, directly into the heart of the enemy’s formations.

The Highlanders (Bill and Ken) reacted immediately and aggressively. The SW mass of ‘mechs and armor moved toward the resupply station and the Draconis forces. They opened fire on anything within their HUDs, inflicting light damage to a couple of units. The center (west) Highlander forces didn’t have to move to engage their enemies, as the Draconis VTOLS and air support helicopters had not only moved in and started deploying power armored infantry, but had split into two formations near the Highlander rear. These aerial units took a great deal of damage, with two VTOLs knocked out of the sky.

The second Kuritan turn included a lot of action. A large ‘mech battle along the southern flank raged without any Highlander or Kuritan losses. The battle’s center was littered with dead forced from both sides (mainly infantry), but the insurgents’ IFF scramblers were discovered. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to destroy them. The northern flank was stalemated by rough terrain and poor shooting, but both sides were closing to get into short range.

Unfortunately, the evening ended before a firm resolution on any part of the front could be established. We sat around the table and discussed what most likely would have happened, which brings us to…
Ending:The outcome of the battle wasn’t clear, as the conflict wasn’t carried to the end. Five convoy vehicles had been destroyed or rerouted to the north. However, some key points in the campaign were established.

Draconis-
The insurgents established a base of operations in the ‘Dead Zone’, which was believed to be uninhabitable. The exact location of this base is unknown. It is also known that the insurgents have the capability of masking their IFF signatures. This was evidenced in the initial Pride Town attack and was also observed during the attack on the convoy. This reinforced the need for martial law and the ‘shoot first, ask later’ mentality Kuritan troops had adopted. Some supplies did make it into the ‘Dead Zone’, indicating that the rebels’ continued viability in the area should be considered a fact. Incursions into the ‘Dead Zone’ to locate and destroy the insurgents’ base of operations are highly recommended.

Highlanders-
Things went according to plan, more or less. The damned Kuritans caught wind of our convoy and destroyed valuable supplies, but we did get quite a lot of supplies, ammunition and people to further our cause. We didn’t figure they’d open fire on the convoy, but evidently they are taking us seriously. Good. They should, because we’re in this for the long haul. With the old man’s information, we can pursue our goals to rid Proserpina of House Kurita and the Draconis Combine. They did discover our IFF jamming stations, which is a shame, but the information cost them dearly.

Operation Bulldog Part II After Action Report

The military activity on Proserpina has accelerated after a fortune in mercenary money was donated to the cause. One of the first targets the insurgents attacked was the Bulldog Tank works on Proserpina.

Bulldog Enterprise is located in a northern sector of Pridetown and is heavily guarded by the 9th Benjamin Regulars. The Highlander Mercenary Unit that attacked them was paid for using a sizable donation from a retired mechwarrior named Thomas Clearwater.

This view of downtown Pridetown includes portions of the Bulldog campus. 9th Benjamin Regulars can be seen moving into responsive positions to intercept Highlander mechs.

An aerial view taken from the Highlander command vtol.

An urgent looking Goshawk from 2nd Batt. 1st Co. 9th Benjamin crashes through the lush palms on the Bulldog industrial campus to try and halt an encroaching Atlas.

The Highlander force has a toehold in the wasteland and has landed on planet additional forces that have still to be encountered or accounted for...
This attack signals a new and reinforced threat to Kurita control over Proserpina.

Bulldog Red building is being looted by the Highlander infantry. Part of the objective was to secure mech specifications and technical data from the industrial complex.

From top of image to bottom: Blue, Yellow and Green buildings are in view. Each of these buildings was targeted by the rebel army in an attempt to gain valuable technical data for use in the wastelands to refit mechs needed for further success in the fight to free Proserpina.

Combat footage courtesy of PRSPNN

The first and greatest success occurred because of a united Highlander front crashing into the south border of the Bulldog complex. Red Building was ransacked during hot fighting that included gutted mechs just within 200 yards.

Operation Bulldog : Long Lost Connections

the soft tapping of a keypad on an invader class jump-ship at the nadir point below Kathil was the only sound in the room.

The investment broker leaned forward to pick up the small note-card containing the last digits of the account number.
"this is the correct account?" he asked.
"That is the number we received from our contact on Proserpina," the woman in the room with him responded.

The omnipotent hum of the jump-ship filled the vacant space between the verbal exchange. Strong light raked the room from the distant Kathilian sun. Down below on Kathil a computer responded to the keypad input.
If dust could collect on digital data, this account would be buried in two inches of the powder of decades, hell, centuries.
Thomas Clearwater, account active, access code 790393T1987.000
Occupation: mechwarrior
Affiliation: mercenary
Last Data Access: E 1993 Kathilian Standard
Cr:345,000,000.00 K

tap,tap, withdrawal, tap, tap,

Cr:0

Routing number: Proserpina 04282011

The silence after the last data entry was prolonged.

The broker leaned back from the data pad and looked at the woman.

"I think we have a deal"
"Your information looks legit."


The silence once more fell over the room as the woman looked out the view window at the arcing light along the length of the jump-ship hull.

12 parsecs away at the nadir point below Proserpina, a cluster of three overlord class drop-ships began the descent process and detached from the shepherding jump-ship and rotated for their descent toward Proserpina. The woman had no way of seeing this but as she stared into the vacuum of space the quiet was remarkably the same.

Un-couplers popped and securing lines were cast off and into the quiet the behemoths of metal floated freely as the gravitational pull of Proserpina began to exert her influence...

The Highway of Death Proserpina 3057

Critical connections have been made in Pridetown. The exodus of the faithful has begun in earnest. The Dragon has been caught sleeping. Here on Proserpina eons of suffering will be erased by the desert winds.

Mass vehicular traffic clogs route B out of Pridetown. All through the night civilian vehicles have created a dust cloud of anticipation into freedom and a new life across the desert.

Known as the "exodus" our rebel brothers and sisters have formed a caravan of innocent civilian vehicles loaded with the essentials for a new life in a reclaimed land.

.....every flight to freedom has it's pillar of fire and it was no different in this event. The Dragon awoke to send angels of death on our peaceful exit.

Jump troop infantry fall from the sky as VTOL traffic buzzes like an un-holy wind above our people.

David faces his own goliath as our soldiers in their newly born suits of holy armor face the wind of chaos from the Dragon lair.

I remember the noise of the VTOLS mostly...and the screams of our innocent. We escaped that night into the desert and created a new land of promise some of our band paid the price of this freedom and some of the Dragon lost a few teeth.

They preyed like vultures on our innocent caravan.

Pouring out of the Dragon lair and into our chance of freedom. We fought that night and half into the next day to secure a place far from the Kurita yoke.

to be continued.......

Call to Honor Mechwarrior Rules,

Mechwarrior Clix

and a new lease on an old game system.

Proserpina Game III Mechwarrior Clix Call To Honor Rules System

Secondhand Lions gaming on Proserpina 3057.

Aerial view of Downtown Pridetown.


Mixed civilian and military traffic. Insurgents make a bold push at the combine military base.


Actual news footage from PRSP NN.


Clicking images will make you jealous.

And now citizens of the Combine we bring you an after action report by

Kublai Conn

Police Chief of Pridetown Precinct

Draconis Combine Military Constabulary

Intro:
One of my gaming buddies, Kenny, found an alternate set of rules for MechWarrior here on BGG. Info on the variant, called Call To Honor, can be found here: [thread= http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/271685/mechwarrior-call-...][/thread]

Kenny has toyed with this variant for the better part of a year or more and has run a couple of games on the world of Proserpina. This time around, however, he had something more in mind...

Setting:
Proserpina is a world ravaged by war. Nuclear fallout, scorched earth policy and various highly contested engagements on the world have led to the creation of several continental 'Dead Zones'.

Fast forward several years. The Draconis Combine rules with an iron fist. Dirt poor people scratch out meager existences by foraging in the 'Dead Zones' and finding lost tech or anything else of value. The populace rails silently against the oppressive Draconis regime. The Highlanders, a collection of like-minded guerillas (terrorists?), aim to throw off the Combine’s yoke and return Proserpina to its original ‘glory’.

Situation:
Draconis
I, the Commander of the local constabulary, have been hearing rumors that there is severe Highlander infiltration in the city. I have a police task force (headed by Carl, a fellow player) consisting of two light wheeled recon, two grav recon vehicles and various powered armor squads. One squad has jump capability. My task, as outlined by Central Command (a la the GM) is to first and foremost keep the peace on the planet and uncover any Highlander cells. My informant tells me that the traffic on the streets is intermixed with Highlander partisans, so my police force is needed to form a blockade and ferret out the malcontents. If I can handle the insurgents with only this task force, then that’s a feather in my cap. If I can’t, then I have more power to bring to the fray. The military base has four medium mechs at my disposal. If the need is deemed warranted, I will not be reprimanded for their use. If a major furball ensues, I can call down a lance of heavy and assault mechs from an orbiting battleship. To do so would imply that I’ve lost control of the planet, which would mean the end of my career and life, most likely.

Highlanders
There’s an old-timer in a nursing home that used to be a tech during the war days. He’s got insight into the stuff our people are hauling back from the Dead Zones. Our mission is to glean as much information from him as possible, download the data and then escape. His life is expendable after we retrieve the information. We will use this information to identify and utilize the materials we’ve salvaged to eradicate the Combine from Proserpina. To make this a viable sortie, we’ve infiltrated the city with several partisan groups in civilian vehicles as well as placed a mech in a city lake with IFF jamming equipment. The civvies will block police advancement and the mech will mask our intentions until it’s too late for the Draconis scum to react. Secondary goals? Kill as many of them as possible, but get as many of our troops out unscathed as we can. Note - The Highlanders were ran by Kenny, Terry and Nick.

Map:
The map was built in four quadrants. The NE, SE, SW quadrants featured buildings, trees and multiple ponds/lakes. The NW quadrant housed the police building, which was located at the corner of the local Draconis military complex and the crossroad of two major avenues.

Game:
Carl and I were informed by Kenny of our objectives and that we’d have to place a cordon somewhere in the city to try to find the Highlander cell(s). During this time, Terry and Nick were placing their units on the table. When Carl and I came back to the table, there were definitely military forces on the board! Due to time constraints, the pace of the game had to be accelerated. We lost the ‘search & find’ RPGish portion of the game, but we were setting up for a great war game!

Nick and Terry had set their initial forces to head directly south along the avenue, heading for the military base. They were using as much cover as possible for their infantry, but also had some light recon vehicles, a VTOL and a converted mining mech. In response, Carl and I set the task force around them. The recon vehicles went on the flanks, while the jump jet troops positioned themselves on top of buildings, flanking the street. The rest of the troops spread themselves around the rebel scum. I sent in the call to the base and the mechs were prepped for the next turn.

Turn 1
The action was hot and furious the first round. We won the initiative (the game’s ‘you go, I go’) and were able to take out the VTOL. We didn’t discover until later that the VTOL was the Highlander commander’s vehicle and we’d scored a victory in bringing it down quickly. Several of the smaller units on both sides jockeyed for firing positions. The converted mech started taking fire immediately, but continued to plug along. Note - The civvie traffic was controlled by the Highlanders, making it nigh impossible to distinguish partisans from innocents.

Turn 2
Casualties began to mount in the smaller units. We lost a recon vehicle and a power armored unit, but our jump-capable troops were proving elusive. The Highlanders continued to slowly advance into the intersection. They, coupled with the civilian vehicles in the area, were slowly closing off cross fire points from the Combine forces. In addition, four heavy tanks and four light mechs could be seen coming down the avenue heading east, yet the IFF scanner remained strangely quiet. I, hunkered in the bunker basement of the police building, began to wonder why I didn’t see this coming. The thought was accentuated when one of the newly arrived Highlander units put a very large laser blast through the building, creating an awful mess of steel, glass and debris. The Draconis mechs, now on top of or around buildings, began raining fire on their enemies. The mining mech took heaps of damage, but refused to fall.

Turn 3
An enemy is exposed! The jamming mech reared its ugly head from the lake and attacked the adjacent recon vehicles! Suddenly my IFF register went haywire. There were Highlanders everywhere! I was sorely tempted to call in the orbital lance, but stayed the command. Our medium mechs were relatively unscathed and should be more than able to handle the threats against them. In the meantime, the recon force continued to bleed units, but their diligence was paying off. Highlander units were dying as well. The mining mech took another volley from various sources, but refused to die. The heavy tanks were injured, but began linking fire on the Draconis mechs. It was getting hot and ugly in the city! Unbeknownst to the Combine players, the guerillas were executing their plan to perfection. The high level of ‘civilian’ vehicles on the street ran an effective screen for the true purpose of the attack. The Highlanders were able to locate their target, gain the intel they needed and eliminated the witnesses. It almost seemed too easy.

Turn 4
A sudden withdrawal by the rebels was the first clue to me that something larger was afoot. Sure, the guerillas had taken losses, but not so severe that it would warrant a retreat. My forces manage to disable or destroy two heavy tanks and several smaller units, but a large majority of the Highlanders were still deadly. As they slunk behind buildings and through the trees, I pondered whether I should pursue. I decided against doing so (it was late in the evening). The remainders of the Highlanders were able to get off the map.

Ending:
Each side was victorious for achieving their goals. The Combine only had one civilian casualty and ‘saved face’ by truly needing the medium mechs. They also uncovered that there was a large Highlander rebellion in process. They were also able to kill the rebel leader. It wasn’t clear why there was an attack until a report was logged that the insurgents had killed an old technician soldier after some sort of interrogation. An inkling as to why they wanted said information tickled the back of the commander’s mind.

The Highlanders had a successful mission as well. They got their intel. They lost the sortie’s leader, but leaders can be replaced. They lost some light vehicles and soldiers, but deaths for the Cause against superior forces are expected. Their plan for using civilian vehicles as blockers was very effective. Soon they will be ready to take the fight to the oppressors en masse.

We discussed the nuances of the game afterwards. I wished there was more time to unfold the plot, but there wasn’t. I told Kenny that Draconis policy would be a total martial law lockdown. Any civvies ‘hanging out’ would be shot on sight, thus eliminating the possibility of innocent casualties. Who knows where the story will go, but it’ll be fun getting there!

ED: Ted,

Thank you very much for the text of the story. Your energy and fun in the game comes through and your contribution to the Penny Whistle is very highly regarded.

Ken