Classic Battletech Is Awesome: the Thread!

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**Charistoph**

One of my favorite stories is when we were escorting a caravan through a canyon map (the Tukayyid one with all the mud holes). Almost every time we got a Floating Crit result, it was to the Arm, and then the Hand. I don't think a single OpFor unit had a Hand left by the end of that mission. We started joking that they guys were just waving "hi" and we were blowing their hands off for it.

In the same scenario, our Commander was on the edge of a cliff, and so the GM Jumps a 'Mech next to him and just Pushes. This was a map with Level 4 and Level 5 high walls. So he falls, and still nails his Seatbelt Check.

In another scenario, a fallen and prone Thunderbolt is the last enemy unit on the field. Our Highlander pilot decides he's going to bury this guy. The T-Bolt pours what fire he can into the Highlander and sets off an Ammo explosion (thankfully covered by CASE). The Highlander pilot stays conscious and nails the Landing, finishing the T-Bolt.

**BrookM**

Nailing a DFA attack is still on the bucketlist, so far the stars aligned twice for one and on both cases I got hit in the head so hard I couldn't do it.

My brother's character, his usual go-to for everything roleplay related, is half-Lyran and half-Kuritan, so I have to deal with both a cow and a snake in my lance, though I reserve those insults for when they really piss me off hehe.

Though funnily enough, the guy playing the Taurian actually submitted a fun background package where he's not actually Taurian, but a scavenger from the fringes of Davion space, who stumbled across said 'mech and a dead pilot, as the guy somehow slipped, hit his neck on a table edge and kicked the bucket. Said dead pilot was some rich guy's son and enrolled to a military academy on New Avalon, which sounds like something that would never happen given this setting, but we just rolled with. Imagine being a nobody from Davion space getting a golden ticket, only for to be on hard mode because you now have to roleplay as a hated neighbour surrounded by self righteous donkey-caves.

It does make for fun future encounter fodder for both players. My brother will at one point have to deal with a Ronin who wants to reclaim the sword she has in her cockpit, while the Taurian will be chased by bounty hunters sent out by the real guy's parents, who want him brought home.

**Crazy Ivan**

I finally managed to complete some more mechs a Warhammer an a Wasp they will be a part of the second mercenary company for my upcoming mercenary campaign. I also built some turrets from part i had laying around.

**BrookM**

Nice, must print some defences as well at some point for future campaign stuff.

Did treat myself to some models from Locust Labs last month and finally had a chance to print a few, three quarts of the plate failed, but I thought I had enough parts to at least build a custom Catapult for my brother, only belatedly noticing that the reason I was having trouble was because I was trying to mate a Marauder torso with Catapult legs and putting the missile pods where the arms are supposed to go, wondering why this particular Catapult torso had another hole up top.

I blame the burnout from all that holiday overtime for this unintentional recreation of that first encounter with the Timber Wolf.

**Da Boss**

Got my infantry! I'm very pleased with them, I got some light battle armour, some standard battle armour, some Kurita infantry and some Davion infantry.

I see the usual way to base them is 3 to a base but I'm wondering if I don't want to do 4 or 5 to a base for the normal infantry because I reckon it'll look cooler. I was gonna put them on 25mm rounds since I have loads of those.

**Charistoph**

It's probably doable.

My Foot Conventional Infantry are on 20mm (3/4") rounds.

Even Battle Armor, but those are a bit bigger.

Some would be pretty much impossible on 25mm, but the few are the size of Marauder Battle Armor.

**Da Boss**

Yeah I counted up my infantry and the website was wrong or I got lucky because rather than 24 infantry I have 84 (in stands of 3, so 28 stands) per pack.

That's loads, and I don't see needing 56 stands total between my two sets, so I'm gonna do 6 to a base for 28 stands total. 14 to a side if I'm hosting games seems like more than enough to me, and if not I'll get some more but they're cheap enough I don't mind and I think the 6 per base will look better.

I'm thinking about my battle armour, the ones I have will probably fit 2 or 3 to a base I think, so I just need to think about what I think will look better.

Cleaned the flash off the infantry and sprayed my first 4 'mechs and 8 tanks today. Planning on using the GW crackle paint to texture the bases.

**Charistoph**

A lot will depend on your stands.

One thing I did to represent the "Mechanized Infantry" Unit type was take some Foot infantry and put them on a base with the very cheap and small IWM APC models.

Then painted the terrain to represent their mobility type. Orange/brown for Tracked, green for Wheeled, and blue for Hover.

**BrookM**

And my brother's half-Kuritan character has received her callsign as well, courtesy of the "Taurian" pilot who she has dubbed B.S..

"Hmmmm, how's about Sidewinder as a nickname for Chisami? Because you know, a sidewinder is a missile. And also a fething snake."

**Da Boss**

I really like the look of the mechanised units done that way. I'll have to see if I will include some in my games - I think my only "transports" so far are some hovercraft.

After thinking about it a lot, I decided not to get any starter set. I realised they don't come with the full rules, and I'd definitely want to buy the full rules anyway, and my local shop gives 20% off if you buy enough stuff which puts the miniatures on a similar price to the boxed sets here. Not to mention most of the boxed sets are priced very high or not available to order online where I am.

So I'm gonna order the rulebooks for Alpha Strike and Classic and just buy the units I want from my local shop (they don't have the rulebooks, annoyingly!) which I prefer anyway.

I was reading around on Sarna about some of the mechs in the packs I'm looking at, and I found it fun that basically every mech gets criticised and has major design flaws mentioned in the background. A very different feel to "This unit is the most deadliest killer in the known galaxy" you get in some other games.

**BrookM**

More campaign prep, one of the players has made a neat mech market generator for us to consult whenever we arrive somewhere we feel is of enough importance or supplied well enough to see the odd 'mech show up for sale. So far, it's been a lot of garbage or low-tier crap, mostly filler like bugs and mediums we'd give a wide berth. I jokingly asked him to generate for us seven entries for the place we're about to hit, seeing as blood is in the air and the local black market importing whatever they could get their hands on. Mate didn't just generate a list, but also a rough short story, which was tidied up and here we go:

Cassian burst through the door of the dropship's bridge, blurting out a "Hot damn cap!" as he tossed a tablet onto the command console, interrupting some no doubt boring meeting concerning the running of the company.

‘Had a look at the trash pile that death dealer was peddling. Not bad stuff, after we add some spit and elbow grease.’ He tapped on the top of the tablet highlighting a Longbow LGB-7Q, a Hunchback HBK-5M and a Stinger STG-5M in perfect condition.

‘Not a scratch on these, almost like they came straight out of the package. Must've been some old cache they “acquired” them from.’ He swiped the tablet to the side, displaying another list of mechs. ‘These though, they are.. ok, missing armour, a limb or weapon system but otherwise in pretty good condition.’

Florence checked the screen and tapped the top mech on the list, a Black Knight BL-7-KNT. ‘Haven't you been looking for one of these?’

Cassian grinned as he jabbed a finger at the next listing, an Archer ARC-2W. ‘That.. that's a lot of missiles. Both LRM and SRM. Not bad at all. There's also a Locust LCT-1M but who needs another bug?’

Florence ignored the friendly barb as she checked the bottom of the list, another Longbow, but in terrible shape. Cassian caught her glance and remarked ‘Yeah, another Longbow LBG-0W but the poor thing's barely holding together. The fusion core is still there but, it was more duct tape then mech from what I saw.’ He sat himself down and shrugged. ‘Not a bad haul, what do you think?’

So, we are now the proud owners of.. an Archer for me, the Black Knight for our Taurian pilot and the Longbow for our Catapult pilot, who simply asked how much of an upgrade it'd be from his usual dual LRM 15s.

And just as I was working on getting everybody custom 'mechs figuring we wouldn't be swapping rides any time soon!

Wolverine is my ride for this campaign, which we've already accepted as a tier 1 contract, so our new rides are kept in the dropship for refit, maintenance and the next job. Also, found a neat STL for missile effects, so had to give the Longbow some of that.

Macross missile massacre FTW!

And with these 'mechs, I feel less bad about sprining three King Crabs on them at some point.

**aphyon**

Did a silly game tonight.

Ran nothing but clan vehicles and battle armor, nothing heavier than mediums-showing some love for my hells horse.

Shamash's, Tyr IFVs with battle armor, enyo strike tanks and Garuda attack helicopters. I basically lost half my force but managed to pull of a victory.

Spoiler:

**Charistoph**

My Clan Vehicle list is a bit short. Aside from a pair of Bandits and Badgers (which can just as easily be used for Mercenaries), I have a Point of Shamash, Hachiman, and Ares each.

Haven't had a chance to take the Ares out for a spin yet.

Want to get some Hephaestus and Eponas for Omni shenanigans, as well as heavier stuff. But that's on hold till I get caught up with plastic.

That doesn't include more generic stuff like APCs, though.

Still, I have 38 bases of Clan Battle Armor across 3 paint schemes. For my Horses, I have a Star of Elementals and Buraqs each, 3 Gnomes and 2 Afreet.

**Miguelsan**

We played last weekend with the Japanese side of the community. Refusal War Clan Wolf, and Kell Hounds vs Jade Falcon. I took a Berserker, and a Fireball with infernos to the scrum. Some clueless clanners forgot that physical attacks are a thing, and paid for it. The Locust IIC was cored in one go, and while the Fireball tried to rear charge the larger mechs the best he could do were puny 4 pts kicks.

M.

**Miguelsan**

It is behind me, quiaff?

M.

**aphyon**

@Charistoph

For battle armor i normally run my Gnomes, i do have some toads as well, but vehicle wise i have some heavier stuff than what was in this battle. a couple xerxes ASFs, a heimdall, mars and a couple hueys.

Shamash's are silly getting a 5+ or 6+ mod but if anything bigger than a medium laser hits them they are screwed. the opponents in this game basically sacrificed the regulators by sitting still just to get the kill shots on them.

**Da Boss**

Miguelsan: From my understanding, that is a bloody big game!

Doing some more research on the game I realised why everyone has mechanised or motorised infantry - I've been so used to games that limit vehicle movement to keep things in range for infantry that I didn't realise how vital transport is for infantry in this game.

I think my solution is going to be a box of LI Rhinos, because it's a straightforward source of cheap-ish APCs for me to mount my infantry in.

And I might move to the other thread because the more I read the more I realise the kind of game I want to play (combined arms) is probably better in Alpha Strike.

**aphyon**

@ Da Boss the big saving grace for most pure infantry forces is they they get hidden deployment and can start anywhere on the table where there is cover-forests, buildings, ruins etc.. so getting them there is not a problem they just lay in wait. and if you don't have a beagle active probe you basically have no clue where they are until they open up on you. had that happen to one of my tanks when it stumbled across an SRM platoon in a forest.

**Miguelsan**

aphyon wrote:
@ Da Boss the big saving grace for most pure infantry forces is they they get hidden deployment and can start anywhere on the table where there is cover-forests, buildings, ruins etc.. so getting them there is not a problem they just lay in wait. and if you don't have a beagle active probe you basically have no clue where they are until they open up on you. had that happen to one of my tanks when it stumbled across an SRM platoon in a forest.

Reminds me of the time I back shootted an Atlas in a city with another SRM armed platoon...

M.

**Charistoph**

aphyon wrote:
Shamash's are silly getting a 5+ or 6+ mod but if anything bigger than a medium laser hits them they are screwed. the opponents in this game basically sacrificed the regulators by sitting still just to get the kill shots on them.

Oh, I know how fragile they are. I took one to Las Vegas' Hot Drop last September for the campaign-in-a-day. Right before we started, everyone on my side had to apply 3x5 Damage to 3 randomly decided units.

One was the Shamash. It was my lightest and cheapest unit (Battle Armor wasn't allowed). I could take a 5 point Hit to 4 locations, but none could take 10. One took 10 and it was gone for the rest of the day. It made list-building after that very difficult.

**Crazy Ivan**

Have finished painting a third mech for my second mercenary company which i decided to name the b.s.t.r.d company.

I also ran a scenario for a friends first battle in his mercenary campaign he had to destroy a factory guarded by a pair of urbanmechs and some gun emplacements and infantry and locate a black box from a downed drone. I might have made the scenario a bit to easy but I didn't want to start the campaign by crippling his mercenary company.

**BrookM**

Finally had a chance to take my Wolverine out for a trio of scenarios yesterday. It went alright, got my first official 'mech kill when I dismantled a Whitmore with my guns and some choice kicks.

Was riding pretty high until I screened my fellow pilot's Blackjack's rear from an Ostsol, only to receive a heavy laser to the head. No internal damage, but losing all of my exterior head armour was a great reminder of my own mortality.

I survived but feth me, that was too close for comfort.

Also, is it just me, or is kicking a bit broken?

**Miguelsan**

Working as intended

Just you wait until hatchets rear their ugly head.

M.

**BrookM**

Ha, funny you mention that one..

We had a Hatchetman with the Fistfire SPA as our fourth member of the lance, he was someone we had to protect and underperformed for most of the three scenarios, until that last turn before he went down, where he managed to land a hit with that hatchet on a Centurion's head. Sadly we opted to fire the arm-mounted medium laser in the shooting phase, so no easy follow-up shot there that would've probably taken out that enemy in one go. Womp-womp.

Our Black Knight pilot has been eyeing a hatchet for his mech though, 17 damage in melee could be fun.

**Charistoph**

You can't use the Hatchet in the Physical Attack Phase after firing a Laser in the same Arm in the Shooting Phase.

Good to remember for next time, and one of the reasons that the Fist Fire SPA exists.

**Charistoph**

The local biweekly campaign group I played in finished our first contract against the Clans, and gained some good salvage. So, I stripped and repainted a few 'Mechs, along with a couple from a second Clan Invasion box acquired from the closing of an LGS.

Coromodir Corsair Clan Salvage, Waves 1-4

Spoiler:

Also did some repaints of my Celestials:

Spoiler:

As well as completing out some side units for a Level II:

Spoiler:

And last picture is 2nd Star League Assault Lance ForcePack:

Spoiler:

**Charistoph**

I completed another batch of Fetid Claws repainting. Along with the Excalibur, which will get a group photo with the 3rd Star League Battle ForcePack, we have some interesting additions.

Also some changes. Instead of yellow markings on top, went with copper, which is a LOT easier to work, and went with light bronze for the leg and knee accents.

Spoiler: