Outreach (Wolf's Dragoons Sovereign Territory)
After reviewing what's coming at us, we deploy almost a full company of mechs to the indicated pass, backed up by an equal number of support units. The exact lineup is unknown at this time, but we're looking at elements of Beta or Gamma regiment, including a lance of assault mechs, a lance of heavy mechs, a short lance of lighter mechs, plus an assorted mix of medium and heavy armor, totaling approximately two companies.
They will attempt to break through our lines and flank Dragoons Home Guard forces already engaged, which, to put it mildly, would not go well for the Home Guard. While they are hardened veterans, they're not suicidal, so if we take enough of them down, they'll likely pack it in and pull back; possibly to make another attempt later, or down another pass.
But that's a concern for the future. For now, our mechwarriors move into position.
"Right." Leraje calls out. "Remember, we've got a lot of clan tech here, which means we have the range advantage. Use it."
Initial Battlefield State:
Spoiler:
Your overall retreat conditions are up to you; however, your units are subject to "Forced Withdrawal" - when your mech gets real shot up, you must move at least one hex towards the south edge of the map per turn, if at all possible (and is not a completely dumb move). I'll call out if/when that happens. Your retreating units may only retreat off the south edge of the map.
To maintain sanity, a departure from standard battletech rules will be that the players automatically win initiative and get to move after all enemy units have moved, with the exception of a designated ACE.
As usual, the way this works is that I will move all the hostiles, then you guys will nominate your movement and target(s). Then we resolve the round and go around again.
Each mechwarrior gets to pick a single "buddy" - this is one of the available vehicles. Transports come with a "free" infantry platoon. The following "buddy" units are available:
Behemoth Heavy Tank - 100 tons, ultra-slow, massive firepower
4x Chaparral Tank - 50 tons, slow, Arrow IV launcher with 15x shots, homing ammo requires use of TAG
Coolant Truck 135-K - 30 tons, can spray down allied mechs for heat reduction
Demon Tank - 60 tons, slow, Gauss rifle and other minor weapons
3x Drillson Heavy Hover Tank - 50 tons, super-fast, large laser, SRMs, LRMs
4x Falcon Hover Tank - 50 tons, super-fast, medium laser + SRMs
8x Manticore Tank - 60 tons, slow, PPC and short-range weapons
3x Maxim Hover Transport - 50 tons, fast, SRMs/Lasers/LRMs, carries infantry
5x Long Tom Artillery - 100 tons, fixed off board, unguided artillery
Patton Tank - 65 tons, slow, AC/10 and LRM/5
Pegasus - 35 tons, fast, SRMs/lasers
Shreck PPC Carrier - 80 tons, super slow, 3x PPC
5x Scimitar Hover Tank - 35 tons, fast, TAG, Narc, Narc-enabled SRMs
2x Zephyr Hover Tank (Royal) - 40 tons, super-fast, TAG, Narc, ECM
2x Zephyr Hover Tank - 40 tons, super-fast, TAG, SRM, ECM
To save you guys and me some sanity, the "buddy" will generally follow you as best as they can and shoot at your target - you can issue them general orders and they'll do their best to follow them (although if you want to give them specific orders, feel free). If people choose to use Narc-equipped buddies, we do have Narc-equipped warheads which I will load onto mechs and other units that can use them.
So - pick a buddy and a deployment hex + facing, anywhere on row 30 or south.
Stat blocks and rules refresher will follow.
Custom mekhq build if you want to be able to load the saves I post to screw around with possible orders and figure out LOS without waiting for me.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_uD5LS5A9QTMjNVbLOE-Lz-IMNwg--3/view?usp=sharing
