Bob's Battletech

As I said the new map board was too nice to not test it and play a game on.

Using a selection of mechs from my Clan Ghost Bears and Knights Mercian Forlorn Hope.

All my mech sheets were obtained from the Mech Factory App on Google Play which I’ve had for years. It has various data bases for mechs,  vehicles  , battle armour  warships and Aerospace, plus equipment. For most you can then produce unit Rosters , which I did for this game.

The game is asymmetrical  with the Inner Sphere force both outpointing the Clan in both Battle Values and Tonnage  the Clann force wiil have to rely on superior Technology, particularly Pulse Lasers, the Spherers relying on their Gauss Rifles to even the odds.

The Clans will be deployed on table at start of game. In and around the central building compound.

The Forlorn Hope will be deploying the 4 heaviest of the mechs from this edge

The Two lighter Heavy Mechs will not arrive till move 2 from this Table edge as part of a flanking Force

I shall be using the Battletech Initiative deck as opposed to standard Initiative,  though a normal pack of cards would do.

To allow for better pilot Initiative,  better pilots will draw an extra card  for each 2 levels of skill lower than standard so :

Pilot level 5 (standard) 1 card

3-4                    2

1-2                    3

0                     4

With the better skilled picking the card they want for Initiative .

The Historical Background 

The Clan Invasion had been as much a suprise to Mercia as it had to the Inner Sphere. Although they had not regressed technologically and stiil access to much of the Star League era technology,  their advancements since had been more focused on Stealth Technology for their small fleet of Warships   particularly their Bug Eye Scout Jumpships. 

It was in fact one of these that had found the Ghost Bears forward Supply base on Justin’s Eye , a sparsely populated planet on the periphery edge  easily conquered in the Clans initial push into known Space. Once established the Khan of the Ghost Bears  built  a forwar underground supply cache  in case of heavy loses. As the Invasion progressed it became a bit of a backwater   much of the equipment being moved further forward  but still had a reasonable cache of mechs and materials,  plus a extensive data base on Clan Weapon technology. 

This was the very Information that ‘Nighwatch’ the Mercian Intelligence Service wanted  to plug the weapons technology gap. plus if a few mechs could be captured for reverse Engineering all the better.

Therefore a force of  a Forlorn Hope Overlord Dropship escorted by the Essex Class Destroyer ‘Hotspur’. Using their Stealth abilities  secretly jumped into the System.

The previous Scouting mission had determined that only a few stars of a Smoke Bears Garrison Cluster defended the planet, a cache site that was the most isolated was picked at ‘Warrens Port’ as the raid target and a reinforced company was deployed. The Two smaller Standard Scout Lances moving to cover the approachs and warn of Reinforcements, whilst the heavier Assault Lance would Assault the base led by the Mercians Legendary Pilot known only as ‘Ivanho’

The Clan defenders consist  mainly of 2nd line mechs, a Star of  119th Garrison Cluster led by an old  Star Captain Ima Target in his Summoner Omnimech