Let's talkabout 'Mechs bay-bee

A roundup of the first day of The War of 3039 Battletech event at Factorum in conjunction with Crow Industries (shout out to John from Crow for organising & running the event).

Before games began those of us who had opted to be unaffilated Mercenaries placed our forces in the room just off the gaming area and the two players taking overall command of the Draconis Combine & Federated Commonwealth for the weekend went in to bid for our services. I was somewhat surprised to find that The Coordinator had bid a whopping 4,050,000 C-Bills for Kether Troops services, so as painful as it was for a Kell Hound command to work for the Dragon, gotta pay those pills somehow 😉

(and a quick note on C-Bills – all players were given a list of 1-use resources they could draw on throughout the weekend, so long as they had the C-Bills to pay for them…)

Game 1 was vs Mike, a very helpful veteran Battletech player who was exceedingly patient as I got my head around the rules.
As the opening engagement of the Feddies invasion, we both had differing objectives but the same build restrictions on our forces, ie I had to get across the centre line of the board and have a model there for the rest of the game from Turn 3, whilst Mike had to stay within 3 inches of the centre building for 5 rounds then get at least 1 unit off of my table edge. Both of our forces comprised 2 mechs from our Alpha lance – I opted for a Wolfhound & Centurion, whilst Mike deployed a Jenner and an Assassin.

Whilst I probably had more hitting power, Mike had a significant advantage in that his mechs were overall faster than mine, and both had jump jets which i did not so very quickly were able to out-manouver my force (especially when I failed to seize the initiative at all after the first couple of turns, so Mike could always react to my movement).

The game ended in a in for Mike, entirely as he misread his objective so had retreated back to his board edge and I agreed to play on so he could try and pull it back, then got caught up in the bloodlust and moved my Centurion just so that it was across the centre line back into my half of the board >_<

Final Result – Loss

After a short break for lunch (and quite a nice cheese burger) we moved on to Game 2. I remained on Table 7, but was joined by Adam for what turned out to be a mirror match – both of us opted to deploy a Black Knight from our Beta Lances and a Phoenix Hawk from our Alpha Lances, with the same objective to destroy at least 1 opposing mech, then withdraw from the field.

Now this game was a real slugfest, only marred by my utter inability to nail some clutch shots when absolutely needed – to whit, after using a pair of Requisitions to both seize Initiative and to destroy the building between his Black Knight and both my mechs, I had managed to get both mine into point-blank range and cranked the heat on my Black Knight up to MAX with an alpha strike of it’s full loadout, 3 Large Lasers, 4 Medium Lasers and 1 Small Laser. Annoyingly whilst I melted a lot of armour nothing was stripped and no internals, a poor trade given I was left with 17 heat and a pilot beginning to broil….
Thankfully however, Mike decided he didn’t want to risk the next turn of shooting as his Company weren’t getting paid that much, so withdrew from the field. So whilst no casualties were inflicted on either side, as I held the field I gained the victory!

Final Result – Win

(but we managed a mini conga-line of his Black Knight, then the 2 Phoenix Hawks, so really we are both winners here 😉 )

The final game of the day saw me bumped up to Table 2, facing off against Emma and this might have been the most fun game I had, in no small part as I was finally getting a handle on the rules so could run the shooting maths a tad more instinctively, but also as we both determined just to have a laugh.

The mission was a Looting objective with 2 supply crates in the middle of the board that we both had to try and secure then get off our own board edges. The force requirements were for 3000bv drawn from our Beta Lances, with the additional previso that to pick up the supplies the mech had to have hand actuators. Thankfully, by pure happenstance, every mech I had in my force had at least 1 functional hand, so it was jsut working out the bv requirements. Annoyingly the 3000bv limit meant I was limited to either the Highlander on it’s own, or the Black Knight and the Wolverine. Despite the tankiness of the Highlander, I figured the extra numbers and the (comparitive) speed would be more useful. Emma in turn opted to put down a Vulcan and a Banshee, an interesting pairing. Before the game began I forked over 2,000,000 C-Bills to use Advanced Recon from the Requisition sheet to push the Wolverine a heady 16 inches up the board, close enough to start the game by running up to the supply cache and grabbing a crate. The Black Knight plodded up the highway on the other side of the cache and managed to snag the other crate as the Wolverine put the foot down to evac down the board with their crate, but sadly this is where I erred – instead of pushing the Wolverine back down the highway I should have turned it round and combined both mechs firepower. Instead the Black Knight ended up weathering fire from both of Emma’s mechs, backing up and eventually losing all armour over the center torso, taking 2 reactor hits (something even 22 heat sinks struggles to manage) before finally having all internal structure on the CT destroyed, taking the Black Knight out of action. The Wolverine, after turning just before the board edge to provide covering fire for the Black Knight, moved off to secure 1 crate of supplied for The Coordinator, whilst Emma’s force took control of the crate that the Black Knight had been carrying for the FedCom.

Final Result – 1 crate each, Draw  

Final thoughts: Overall I had a great time. Everyone at the event was really lovely and welcoming, and I am determined to try and get down there again at some point.
Unfortunately (as can [probably be guessed from when I am writing this post) I have opted not to attend Day 2. I am disappointed but sadly my health is still not great, and by the time I got home last night (even passing on the Urbiederby event) I was wiped out, this morning feeling rather like I had been trampled on. But I did it! I got out to a wargaming event! And had an aces time! Mentally that is a massive step for me and one I honestly hope to repeat.