Bob’s Battletech

One of things noticeable about the games is a lack of painted models, So far only 3 forces have been of painted my Ghost Bear Star, Kevin’s Comstar and a newbie to group Kains Northwind Highlanders.

Though games with unpainted minis is pretty much the norm at Asgard I can’t do it myself ( though don’t mind apponent having them.

Not long ago, I managed to pick up the Wolf’s Dragoons Star at Questing Knight at Wellington,  and wanted to play them  for a game at a little board game club in Blackheath Birmingham, as us my want above they have to be painted so did a very quick paint job for the Dragoons Alpa Regiment.

All Contrast or Speed Paints  , took me only a couple of hours. Finished off with some Wolf Dragoons Xfers off Ebay   Some dry lettering I found and some old GW white numbers from Imperial Knights.

As it happened,  the event was called off at last minute. But as Gerry said I had at least been productive.

For a quick paintjob I’m pleased with how they came out,  and as the Dragoons can field both Inner Sphere and Clan mechs , think the Dragoons will be how I paint the Alpha Strike Starter Box.

Wasn’t expecting to do an update but events (literally) have moved at a pace. We have done a couple of BT Alpha strike nights and one full Saturday at Asgard.

I remembered that sitting in a box Kevin and myself had the Urban Matts, which included the ruined city that were produced for Dropfleet commander many moons ago, which go well with the now numerous Alpa Strike Starter boxes.

So the last few game sessions have resolved around playing in urban environments.  The cardboard buildings aiding in set up of the various scenarios in the Commanders edition rule book.

( We have found there are 6 printings of this, and the edition you get may depend on where in Catalyst’s supply chain, we realised Kevin had edition 1 and I had 4… there is a master errata sheet which is downloadabke on their site which gives all the changes from each edition)

Well we managed it, and we layer out one table fir Alpha Strike and one for Classic, the former took most of our attention with 4 games played straight out of beginner box .

We played the 1st scenario 3 times which does appear slanted to the Clan Forces, with 3 clear Clan victories.

The 2nd Scenario was played which use virtually all the contents of the starter box ( Unfortunately I thought I took a photo but isn’t showing on phone .

This was more balanced with the Inner Sphere clearly the Winner.

Apologies to players for a couple of rules errors, but with Alpha Strike I’m as big a newbie as they were.

Been  abit since done any updates on this, but things have been bubbling in the background on the gaming front, with a certain amount of interest developing in playing both Classic and Alph strike Battletech . There will be a weekend event at Asgard games, but initially we will try an evening , on the 9th March 23 .

Home

I shall endeavour to photograph and do a report

Well having got you in the mood , having painted up Grayson Carlyle,  I thought looked a  it lonesome,  so decided why not paint up a Company of Grey Death Legion, I’d already done Clays Rifleman, so why not the rest of the Company from the Helm Campaign as related in the novel ,’ The Price of Glory’ the last novel of the original Trilogy  and the books that got me really interested in the Univese.

As Carlyle’s Marauder had been the base scheme idea I pinched for my own Forlorn Hope Battalion of Knights Mercian.

Biggest problem was getting the mechs , as the Lance boxes were becoming few and far between  even on fleabay, but I dropped lucky when buying some Salvage Boxes from Waylands Forge in Brum  getting , Crusader, Archer, Stinger and Warhammer and another Rifleman.  I picked up another Stinger, Phoenix Hawk  and  Shadow Hawk off ebay, and re-purposed a Griffin from my attempt at Wolf’s Dragoons a year ago. I then brought another starte box (of course I did) for anything left.

So as it stands

Command Lance

Marauder (Carlyle)

Rifleman (McCall)

Shadow Hawk (Kalmar)

Wolverine (Clay)

Fire Lance

Warhammer (Khaled)

Archer (Koga)

Crusader (Bear)

Shadow Hawk ( Sharryl)

Recon Lance

Griffin (De Villier)

Phoenix Hawk (Kent)

Stinger (Blake)

Stinger (Shapely)

So having painted all above thought might be nice to try out Some Alpha Strike using the scenarios from the Battletech Source book.

‘Turning Points Helm.’

This was the campaign were the famous Helm Data Core was found which enabled the Inner Sphere to rediscover some of the lost tech lost during the 3  previous succession wars.

This weeks update isn’t so much about model painting,  but resulted from waking up at 6am on Tuesday morning and thinking(as yo do) that it might be an idea to put all my BT collection, specially the new plastics in one place.

So I cleared my small board game collection out of a cupboard my father built me many years ago for my separates hi-fi (stolen many years back) and had a major sort of Games room to find all the BT stuff brought over the 40 odd years I’ve been collecting it.

All the Rules and background material has been moved to a set of shelves that were actually built for my mother’s shoe collection.

It’s not quite all, there is still a large metal Tool box which is still upstairs with all the vehicles and my original collection of mechs, most of which are older than Justin and John, and Warren would have been about 3.

Small update, initially I thought this might be a quick project that I might  finish but given Catalyst Games update from last night, and my shall we say historical predilection for this game… I may be painting Battlemechs as I die…. not a bad way of going!

Restocks of Core Products; Major Update of Coming Releases

Sigh!

Finally the Forlorn Hope Battalion Knights, currently short 6 mechs, though that will be rectified in near future, plus ther will be more additions to the Grey Death Legion.

Adding to my BT 6mm terrain selection,  got round to building some Blotz Towers.

Also I finished the last mech I had from the Kickstarter,  the Redoubtable Urban mech, here done in an Urban Cammo Scheme of various GW contrast Greys .

The Urbanmech the mech of choice for any inspiring City  Mechwarrior, people give up their seatss on the bus for an Urbanmech Pilot!

The Urban mech Just the Machine for a Ben about Town.

And now those Cuddly Wuddly Ghost Bears, a faction that wants to make a bandstand of Justin so they can hug him, pet him, and call him George!

For those who want close ups of Elementals . One group eas done in a base Mccragg Blue,and the the other Gryp Charger Grey GW contrast.

Slightly delayed,  but upcoming is the Gerry Shot of the Ghost Bears, but 1st as I was putting them ready to be put back away, How about a shot of just the AFV’s

Well until yesterday, apart from some bits of terrain, have virtually finished, but yesterday brought 5 Random Salvage boxes, and dropped lucky with the right mechs to do 2 out of the 3 Grey Death Legion from Helm , to go with Carlyle’s Marauder and Lay’s Rifleman.

Anyway Today I thought I’d do a shoot of the 101st Knights Mercian RCT , now as we call back shots the Lloydy shot, Gerry on Sundancers Unofficial Hobby Hangout loved the shot of the whole of my 7th Fedcom so whole army photos should be dubbed the Gerry shots.

Today as I said 101st RCT, tomorrow Clan Ghost Bear followed by Knight Mercian Forlorn Hope.

I may have been dragging it out , but they are Ghost Bears so they tried to fight on , though their initiative rolls let them down . The Summoner began to move to make a stand I  in the building complex  joined by the Light Horned Owl

The Stormcrow stood up , and moved to make sure it had partial from both his tormentors, the Vapour Eagle managed to stand, but with damage was limited on movement and Stayed put. The Conjurer tried bravery to stand on one leg as he was unable to prop himself up on one arm, failed and lay in a heap.

The Knights tasting blood closed for the Kill, the Black Night, closing with his opposite no in the Buildings.

The usual Lightshow followed, the King Crab and Horned missed everything for their respective sides, the Storm Crow and Lancelot swapped shots burning off more armour but both survived the required piloting rolls. The Summoner and desperate Vapour Eagle both blasted the Crockett, burning off lots of armour  but the pilot laughed at the Piloting Roll. The Highlander put more punishment into the broken Conjurer,  finishing off all its Right Side.

The Black Night  chewed most of the upper Torso Armour of the Summoner,

With no other Easy Targets the Crockett and Nightstar pointed the unfortunate Vapour Eagle.. for some 80 points of damage leaving an ejecting pilot and a pair of legs as the Center Torso collapsed.

Star Captain Ima , realised the Game was up  , two mechs down, both his Omnis were unlikely to survive another round of incoming fire. He felt that his surviving effectives were unlikely to cause sufficient. damage to effect the outcome. Discretion being the Better Part of Valour ordered his survivors to withdraw , all had sufficient movement to leave the field, and there would be other Battles.

Ivanho moved into the Weapons Cache, with his techs escorted in by the deadly Grey Riders Hover Unit, and quickly the base was ransacked, withdrawing off planet with Technical readouts and dropship bays filled with various Omni mechs for the Tech boys on Mercia to drool over.

Yup it was a bit weighted to the Knights,  but it was a narrative scenario,  I did think the Clanners would do more damage, but their lousy die rolls let them down, I perhaps should have made them all full clan skills. But it wax an uphill battle with the Amount of Armour the Knights Assault mechs had, it was debatable if they needed the two heavies.

But I have pushed my narrative forward and have the excuse for some Clam Mechs in my Mercenary Regiment.

Most of all I had fun , filled in some gaps in my rules knowledge,  particularly damage!!!!

Useful for bootcamps/Hobby weekends Warren/Lloydy/Justin/John.

And found some nice mechs for use in future games

The Ghost Bears won most of Initiative and acted aggressively in attempt to stave of defeat at the hands of the Barbarians of the Inner Sphere, the two Omnimechs moving to contain the new arrivals and the Conjurer attempting a desperate rear attack on the Highlander. The Vapor Eagle managed to stand but was unable to get away from all its tormentors especially the Nightstar.

The Light Show was much more effective, the Omnimechs were able to combine fire and force a piloting roll for damage on the Lancelot, unfortunately the Conjurers Rear attack only managed to pepper legs and arms on the Highlander.

The return fire was shall we say more effective.

The Conjurer survived being hit by the arm weapons of both the Highlander and Crockett, but it couldn’t the Gauss Rifle and ErLarge laser hits from the King Crab  which ripped of what was left of the Right Leg. The Vapour Eagle also took a ERPPC Large laser and Gauss, losing its hip Actuater in the fall. Finally the Stormcrow fell from numerous upper Torso from the Black Knight and Lancelot.

Initiative was rolled, the Conjurer stood up, half the Knights stayed Put. The Clan Omnis moved forward to support their Star mates and the Crockett charged forward for point blank!

Well again a spectacular light show, with The Inner Sphere only hitting with one Large Laser on an untouched left arm, , although the two Omni mechs were unable to target anything,  the 3 others all manage hits scoring light Damage on the King  Crab, and forcing a piloting roll on the Crockett, who easily handled the loss of armour.

Both the Goshawk  and the Crockett attempted to kick,, with the latter succeeding to do 17 pts of damage to the left leg, and the subsequent piloting rolls left the Vapour Hawk to head butt the ground.

It is at this point our two flanking mechs enter the fray.

I initially deployed the Clan mechs and then thought, err might be an idea to look at the mech sheets. Based on that the initial Clan Deployment had the 2 Omni Mechs with the better pilots and Clan ER  and better gunners sit back on the hills behind the Lake, and the 2nd Line mechs further forward.

The Knights two Jump capable mechs came on the map on the Right hiding behind the woods  the King Crab the only one not Jump capable, was in the center again by behind the wood and the Nightstar hugged the left flank wood.

Initiative cards were dealt, and the Inner sphere Crockett moved 1st, walking towards the hill in the center, unfortunately it left itself in the open. How unfortunate and for who would be revealed later.

As the initiative played out the 3 Clan 2nd liners moved forward to take advantage of the Crocketts misfortune and the lumbering Inner Sphere Heavies move to support their exposed Lance mate.

Been a while since I have played so a bit rusty, I forgot to move the Clan Ryoken  so it got no shots, the Conjurer was left exposed, on the hill with only one light wood to its front as I forgot that on level 3 it was above most of the main woods and I’d accidentally picked a Nightstar equipped with Clan Weapons (Handwavium , I’d paid the BPV so it was acquired by Knights just before op and pressed into service)

Well there was then a lovely light show of Lasers , PPC, Lightning bolts, missiles long and Short range  with the whoosh of Guass Rifles, and it looked like it was going to be a total non event till the King Crab and Nightstar opened fire, The Crab got a lucky hit on 10’s (for me) and the Nightstar with its gunnery skill 2 and Clan weapons hit with an ERPPC and Large Pulse on the exposed Conjurer,  the result being internal damage and critical to Right leg, internal damage to Right  arm, a leg actuater out  and a wounded pilot, causing it to fall over.

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

Finally of the my God they are awesome mechs , The Marauder 11C ‘Black Prince’ whats not to like about a mech with 3x Clan ER PPC’s and Medium Pulse lasers !

When I showed the Balck Widow I said I would put the other standard mechs with them for comparison, the other 3 were not variants as far as I can tell but bascially reposed mechs (mainly change the leg stance)

There isnt a huge amount of difference, I got my Legends with the Kickstarter but they are rare to find otherwise and might be quite expensive on Fleabay which apart from Natash Kerensky are just reposes not variants so really on the whole you would be getting them for the character cards and the Alpha Strike cards. Which I;m not sure the details may not be in the upcoming Legends book.

Some of the previous pictures are a bit grainy on close up , so here are some mechs from Forlorn Hope in detail

All above and in next update painted using the method already described for Grayson Carlyles , using GW Basilisum Grey  ~Contrast followed by light Grey Dry Brush

No thats not my chances of Golden Button !

A couple of updated ago on the painting of Grayson Carlyle I commented I liked the cammo scheme and painted  up the Nightstar for my own Mercanary unit.

Hadn’t figured on how it was going to fit in with the T&O of my already Olive Green painted units, but as I was painting them up, remembered that way in the day as part of Background for The Knights Mercian , we had come with Knight Intelligence ‘Nightwatch’ (we had it before Babylon 5 Gerry). and for the Elite Special forces the Forlorn Hope, (originally with a Saxon Cross as their sbu unit emblem,) who also provided Elite Mech pilots and mechs, so this new all Grey Unit has grey Cammo mechs -sorted

Tending to be predominantly equipped with assault mechs and captured Clan (see later battle report)mechs.

This had the additional benefit of giving me two distinct plastic mech forces for demo games and boot camps, one in Allied Olive and one in sort of Axis Grey.

I show these now as they will provide one side in my upcoming Battle Report using the game board I have been working on.