classic battletech campaign log-picture heavy

[threewolftats]

ok, thats why i couldn't find it in TW...... thanks again!

[mughi3]

The battletech campaign has begun again, this time arond we are going back in time to the classic 3025 era. the battle of galator where the forces of teh dragon House kurita/draconis combine) attempt to wrestle contriol of an old star league depot from the hands of the davions.


The mission was a bit odd, were were really deep underwater. -level 15

The combine forces had to scan 3 different location for an underwater command bunker, once found they call in an assault team via sub insertion.

We were using breaching rules as well so when water gets into a mechs inner workings it shuts down that torso/appendage. breaching ended up being the death of all the mechs but before they defending subs managed to take them all down the combine forces had located the correct base and sent in the assualt team. true to historical accounts the team stormed the base only to have it blown up in the process.

Minor victroy for the combine.

UNfortunately i forgot to take pis as the game progress so i just have the start-

[mughi3]

Our battletech campaign was onhold this weekend as oune of our key members had to work so i ended up fighting some steel vipers in a little one off game.

True to my faction i used a combined arms star for my hells horse force.
.hellstar
.thunderstallion-2
.enyo strike tanks
.demon tick protomechs
. xerxes ASFs



His froce consisted of
.daishi
.warhammer IIc
.goshawk
.madcatII
.battle cobra



The ASFs were mroe of a scare tactic. they only connected 3 times the entire game and only 1 time with the feared UAC 20s

My commanders hellstar was MVP of the game scoring a head cap on the enemies command daishi in the first round of shooting and then scoring a second later in the game.

All told i lost-
.2 protomechs
.2 enyo tanks
.1 ASP(silly me i tried to pull off a manuever and crashed one of them).

He lost
.daishi
.goshawk
.warhammer IIc


He descided to withdraw.

The pics-

[Dakkagor]

must admit, I always thought that the clans disdained the use of armoured vehicles like the enyo and xerxes (please note I don't know too much about battletech, so please don't shoot me)

I've always been intrigued by mechwarrior/battletech, but I've only played it on the hex maps. does using terrain designed for 40k (by the looks of it) make it different to play?

[Ronin_eX]

must admit, I always thought that the clans disdained the use of armoured vehicles like the enyo and xerxes (please note I don't know too much about battletech, so please don't shoot me)

I've always been intrigued by mechwarrior/battletech, but I've only played it on the hex maps. does using terrain designed for 40k (by the looks of it) make it different to play?

It is usually more dependant on the clan in question. Hell's Horses are pretty okay with combined arms. Other clans treat doctrine in fairly different ways and aren't all that homogeneous. It is the same thing with their code of honour, some clans are very flexible when it comes to their rules of engagement, especially when facing down the Inner Sphere.

[mughi3]

Ronin_eX
pretty much hit it spot on.

hells horse were first founded by a khan (fletcher) who started out as an infantry commander in the SLDF who saw the warrior as the ideal not the equipment he operated. as such HH view all warriors with honor and allow those who fail at becoming a mechwarrior to continue to try their hands at other warrior duties such as tank crews. even going so far as to count vehicles in the clan as worthy of zellbrigan.

Most clans view the battlemech as the height of martial power and disdane vehicle in general. the prevelant attitude (even inthe horses) is that vehicles are generally less capable platforms, which is why clan mech points get 2 vehicles to stand in for them instead of 1. it may have something to do with the fact most clan vehicle are more of glass cannons- packing to much firepower and compensating for the wieght with half as much armor as their inner sphere counterparts.

The other noted exception is clan snow raven who favor aerospace assets over conventional mech doctrine embraced in the clans.


When in comes to zellbrigan(clan honor rules) it varies from clan to clan. blood spirits for example will follow it to the letter if they challenge you. even if you break it, where most other clans would just let it degenerate into a free for all. under the same circumstances.


As far as hex VS 3d terrain.

3d terrain is 2 for 1 so the table space you can play on becomes much larger and manuevering becomes mcuh more important. it is also quite a bit more fluid than the rigid hex system when considering movement. we also add some of the advanced rules(tactical operations) as well as use "fire as you go" mechanics to speed up game play.

[mughi3]

It's been a bit but the galtor campaign is still going on.

This was the big turning point in the story and indeed we turned it into a spectacular battle.

In this mission the 12th vegan rangers backed up by the 33rd avalon hussars attacked the 17th benjamin regulars at night in teh forest outside New wuhan city.

The advantage in this fight went to the vegans who had nightfighting training and ignored teh +2 modifier to shooting. initially it was 2 vegan lanced VS 3 benjamin lances. the weight of metal favored the combines forces but again the 17th had to deal with that night time penalty. at first the 17th just charged into the enemy to make their fire more effective.

It seemed to be working up till turn 4 when the stalker overheated and cooked off it's ammo...............

Ah the joy of playing 3025, ammo based mechs were firecrackers waiting to go off since the inner sphere had not yet re-discovered C.A.S.E.


There as much in the way of fireworks as the stalker detonated taking the vegan battlemaster with it, which in turn detonated and started a chain reaction that left 11 mechs of various classes as smoking craters.

In an instant the vegans were reduced to one lance, but the 17th took a crippling blow with only 3 of it's mechs survivng, all of them the command assault mechs from each lance.

wth the hussars still 6 turns away from arriveing there was a chance the 17th could still pull this one out of the fire so to speak. with the honor of the dragon at stake and the perconal code fo bushido the 3 remaining mechs dove into the vegans without so much as a second thought. the vegans were being pressed hard and just as itlooked like they might break the hussars arrived.

nowing the hussars weak resolve the remaining 17th attempted to distroy at least 2 of the arriving light mechs to force them to flee. whent he hussars realised the folly they hid the lighter units and sent only the warhammer into the fray.

The ensuing battle bloodied both sides until none of the 3 remaing mechs of the 17th could even stand. One atlas had lost a leg and ran dangerously low on ammo, only to be destroyed while the second lost it's gyo, only to make one final stand after righting itself. the last of the 3 the awsome, who had been dishing out the most damage was down to a single PPC and small laser when it finally succum to internal damge.

The 3 command pilots finally ejected and survived the battle. the 1th was routed but at cost to the davions. much as the historical account went.

The game started out in epic explosions and went to the bitter end.





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The dead mechs from the chain reaction-


and the markers of their wrecks on the table.



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[Darthvegeta800]

I'm currently running my own campaign. I'm the GM, my brother plays my beloved Fifth Sword of Light.

We're currently have had 3 battles. 2 of an intro campaign to relearn the rules so to speak and now the career of the 'main character' has led his men to a new world and it's combat theater.
Like you i'm aiming for 3 battles on average per campaign, on occassion 4, if truly justified 5.

I'm rather liberal in handing out generic xp. (depending on the difficulty of the secondary objectives) And I use the rpg system's edge in a modified way. (1 EDGE is one reroll per battle)
As time goes on I plan to give his unit a small special ability and some chars will unlock rpgish abilities. Like a specialty or a post battle reroll to see if they heal faster or the likes.

I like the simpleness of the pre and during Clan Invasion Wars hence we're playing in the Successor Wars era when the Draconis Combine still was an intimidating bunch of fanatic mecha Samurai.


However I do have a few questions for you:
- How do you handle player death? I was told ejection seats were highly reliable and automatic. Do you do any rolls for this? What system do you follow? And when don't you allow automatic ejection (as in auto-death)
- Did you notice any distinct difficulties in balancing scenario's? This is what looks hardest to me. One time I made it way too hard and usually it's a bit too easy.
- What is your view on equalizing? Do you prefer Battlevalue? Tonnage? A mix? Or another method?
- Do you use any advanced campaign rules?
- Ammo explosions damage adjacent hexes too? I thought it was just the mech that went 'buhbai'? I'm having trouble seeing how so many could chainreact! In the case of ammo explosions is ejection still possible?
- How does your 'fire as you go' rule work?

[mughi3]

- How do you handle player death? I was told ejection seats were highly reliable and automatic. Do you do any rolls for this? What system do you follow? And when don't you allow automatic ejection (as in auto-death)

Auto eject is any time you do not get a head decapitation, instant pilot kill, via crit or life support failure. and the mech is destroyed you get it on a roll of 8+ on 2d6, or you can chose to manual eject if the mech is to badly damaged to escape without you. We usually leave it on manual so that your pilots are not being ejected every time the mech hits an ammo crit threshold or engine hits.

Right now we are doing pre-set scenerios so there is no player XP however in the past using the point system to increase, gunnery/piloting/maintenance crew and so forth we did occasinally have pilots die. i just make them start out with a basic standard pilot (4/5 for IS) again, it si better than risking a bad roll and having them be 5+ or worse in their stats. the game goes alot better when they can hit things.


- Did you notice any distinct difficulties in balancing scenario's? This is what looks hardest to me. One time I made it way too hard and usually it's a bit too easy.

Currently we are running scenerios out of the historical turning points which are glaringly unbalanced, but war generally is. with battletech there are so many bult in game balancers with the crit system i find arbitrary things like tonnage and battle value to be pointless even in one off games.

Granted after 20 years of play i kind of have a thumb for how it can balance out. the big thing for non book scenerios i suggest is a backup plan. much like a DnD GM you set out a series of challenges for the units to face and if they do incredibly well you have back up units for them to face as the opposition, however if they have a night of bad dice rolling and such you may not want to bring in those reserve forces.

On a couple rare occasions my guys have lost against my scenerios but thats a good thing every now and then because it keeps them on their toes. you also may need to adjust on the fly to fix a situation that has gone bad. for instance in one clan encounter the players were doing so poorly the clan commander withdrew a point of his force mid battle because he felt the opposition was "not worthy" of the honor, basically i made the battle easier because they were having a bad go at it.

To add flavor to the game i suggest you get ahold of the various material like the field manuals that give the special rules for each specific unit


- What is your view on equalizing? Do you prefer Battlevalue? Tonnage? A mix? Or another method?

lance VS lance in general settings, or star vs star or 2 lances to face a clan star. with the basic guys being standard pilots and the lance/star commander having 1 better stats (normal 4/5 for IS with a 3/4 lance commander)
This allows the players the freedom to field mechs they like or that may not be optimal but are fun to see on the table. the key is making them adapt and overcome.

- Do you use any advanced campaign rules?
Occasionally, things like forced withdrawl but not a whole lot since it can bog down the game at times.

- Ammo explosions damage adjacent hexes too? I thought it was just the mech that went 'buhbai'? I'm having trouble seeing how so many could chainreact! In the case of ammo explosions is ejection still possible?

We use the original Revised rules for the ammo explosions-
add up all damage from explosive ammo not fired in the mech. everything within 2"/1hex takes the full damage in 5 point hits, 2-4"/2 hexes away takes 2/3rds of that damage and 4-6"/3 hexes away only takes a 3rd, but when a stalker goes up for 478 points of exposion damage and it is 1" away from a battlemaster who also has ammo, the explosions just start rolling.
Gotta love them level 1 mechs with no CASE


- How does your 'fire as you go' rule work?
We basically ignore the "declare fire phase" and use snap fire.

I.E.-say i want to shoot my clan ERPPC at that madcat and i hit head and kill the pilot., in order to speed up game play(and damage) i can then choose secondary targets(with normal penalties) in the same firing arc for my other weapons to fire at. or i may just go down the list of weapons i am firing at a mech until i feel i am pushing the heat to much or i want to push the heat a little to do a little extra damage and make them possibly fall down(we use the old +1 pilot check for every 20 points of damage per fire phase= 20+1, 40+2, 60+3 and so on). we use that along with other things to sped up game play, especially for large battles.

Hope that helps.

[Darthvegeta800]

Thanks for the info!


How do you use Zelbrigen in your games? Any houserules or preferences?

[mughi3]

Thanks for the info!


How do you use Zelbrigen in your games? Any houserules or preferences?

Well zellbrigen usually makes for a long game however (untill somebody starts a grand melee by violating zell) with the field manuals we tend to base zellbrigen by units

For example the blood spirits will never follow zell if you are attacking them on york, however if they are challenging you they wll follow it to the letter even if you break it. of course it helps that they are all elite pilots. so it is a bit of a trade off.

the hells horse in general will follow zell if it suits them(which ispretty standard for most clans now) but they also expand it to include all non-mech units including combat vehicles, points of battle armor, and protomech teams. which causes a bit of friction as most other clans do not consider non-mech units to be worthy of zell.
The exception being lota galaxy which refuses to follow zell in any form.

[mughi3]

Not wanting to let a good table go to waste-

We had this wonderful terrain board out for a different game and decided to set it up for a little classic Btech

We went for a quick 2 on 2 elite pilot game. each of us taking a single tank and a single mech.

he went with his jaggermech(rakshasa as a proxy) and mantufell

i broke out my thunderbolt 10SE and my typhoon (RAC varaint).

i attempted to flank him but lost the typhoon right out the door to a critical hit. allowing him to gang up on the T-bolt. of course it didn't help he was jamming me with ECM the entire time and i kept failing the roll to negate it. making it almost impossibve to hit him. in the end the T-bolt died a horrible death to engine hit criticals.

[mughi3]

The galtor campaign continues...with a suprise upset.


This missio was a break out for the davion forces. since we had a small player turnout we went with minimal forces.

the davions had a single lance and the combine had 2, one of which was dropping in on turn 10.

The davions had a much heavier force thanks to random mech assignement chart rolls, however they had 2 victors set up for urban combat. lacking greatly in armor and range for an open trable engagement.

At firstr the combine used it's rainge advantage and held the davions back. the davion banchee went up when the combine assasin took an ammo crit while standing next to it. leaving the victors and the maruader.

Just when victory was in their grasp the combine awsome who was holdding back the victors went down to a head decapitation from an AC20. allowing the 2 victors to escape. this was enough for a minor victory for the davions although the marauder was mercilessy hunted down by the newly arrived combine force.

Upset victory for the davions compared to actual historical outcome..total game time 90 minutes

[mughi3]

The galator campaign is still on hold for another week, but i did get some clan on clan action going for this week as a pickup game.


The opponant this time around was the steel vypers alpha galaxy
.daishi
.madcat II
.warhammer IIc
.goshawk
.battle cobra

Special rules for the alpha galaxy-
walking up to half speed they ignroe the movement modifier of the target unit anf are all command (2/3) pilots)

Opposing them i used a much lighter force(oh how i love the in-built balance of CBT) of medium weights from the hells horse lota galaxy.
.stalking spider
.crimson langur
.enyo strike tank(2)
.demon tick protomechs
.minotaur protomechs

lota galaxy special rules-off board movement, hidden deployment, no zellbrigan.

The forces turned otu to be a good matchup as most of my units were capable of a +3 or +4 mod at all times. although the walking made him an easier target it also let him hit me.

Since we run protos as gunnery skill 2 as per fluff with the EI system, the combination of my commander, pulse weapons and targeting computer effectively made most of my force 2 gunners as well.

The vipers went first and with the exception of his flankers i was easily able to pincer his large slower asssault mechs. i effectively ignored the goshawk and the cobra for the entire game focussing first on the warhammer and then the daishi.
he managed a series of good brouping rolls against teh protos and effectively killed 4 of them.
I nailed one enyo with amotive crit ansd stopped it cold, however it was still pointed right at him. at first he was spreading the damage all across the tank so it almost lived an additional turn. before it died to the daishi it struck back and connectied with every weapon it had.

the madcat and cobra fled the ambush, leaving the other assault mechs to get pummeled. the goshawks pulse weapons were dealing some damage but the game had to end due to transportation problems before i could deal with it.

The tally at the end of game was

4 dead protomechs(2 from each point) and a dead enyo. as well as heavy damage on the langur

On the other side the warhammer was on the ground shut down with no arms and internal damage on every facing save the head(although it did have damge there as well. with 3 minotaurs ready to finsih it off.

The daishi faired little better with only a single point of structure in the cockpit and having massive internal damage to all facings save the legs.

The madcat and goshawk had both been "touched".

If the game had gone another round i am pretty sure the hammer and daishi would have been out of the game.

All and all a good match, with much honor gained for the horse taking on assault mechs with mediums and combined arms.







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[mughi3]

Fighting like a dragon-

This was a fast game this week. with a timed mission (8 turns) and a very close outcome.

It was 3:1 odds against the 7th swords of light with the davion bremmen DMM and vegan regulars pressing hard to regain the star league defence force depot.

What the combine player didn't know( and wasn't told because it was supposed to be a suprise) is that the depot has a secret back door the 7th had no time to discover.

The combine forces started a the entrance and marched out to meet the attackers and thanks to bad randome dice rolls they ended up with a very light lance, with a dragon and pheonix hawk being the only things worth mentioning in the lance.

The ostscout with it's single medium laser facing down an heavy and assault lance decided to kamikazi. first raming the centurion and then attempting to ram others.

On turn 4 the command lance comes in through the back of the base so ideally the davions wanted to draw them away, however the vegans made a tactical error and closed to fast forcing the dragon and hawk to fall back to the entrance. putting them in position to counter the backdoor bandits.


The dragon blocked the entrance while the jenner tried to overheat and blow ammo which would have been a catstrrophic affair destroying most of the attackers. he failed a shutdown avoid and was destroyed.

The command lance coming in the back had to get near a set of explosives planted in the center of the facility by the 7ths and remain mostionless and not attack for 2 complete turns while the mechs pilot tried to override the command protocols on the explosives......it almost worked. the hawk managed to get to the little locust doing the disarming and kill it with concetrated fire. Here the command lance made a second error instead of throwing another mech( a victor) into the disarming process to gauruntee a chance of victory the victor decided to open up on the hawk and destroyed it.

A turn later the charge exploded heavily damaging the interior of the depot and destroying most of the stores.

The dragon stood alone at the entrance and died in place defending it against 2 full lances.

[inrepose]

Great work. Such amazing commitment to the campaign. So many of these ideas fire up and fade away. It has made interesting reading. Robin

[Easy E]

Due to this log, I am seriously considering picking up the Battletech starter set.

[mughi3]

Due to this log, I am seriously considering picking up the Battletech starter set.

I actually recommend you get the total warfare main rulebook and the heavy metal pro software to print out your record sheets instead. the starter box is fine for having something to use for op4 units in campaigns however once you get into the fluff and background of the universe you will find that you want to play certain factions and even military units within those factions.

The tactical ops expanded rules can wait till later for more optional rules.


For a list of all units available for each faction i can send an email.
PM me if you want it.

the field manuals are out of print but you can find them on PDF to get even more detail on unit specific special rules.

As an example:
.1st swords fo light-expert at night combat operations, they ignore the additional +2 to hit for fighting at night and additionally gain a +1 initiative bonus under night fight conditions.

.10th lyran guards-if they are the defenders in the scenerio they can have a minefield for each point of their units on the table. IE 4 mech lance=4 minefields.

.2nd deiron regulars-
+1 inititive when fighting in mountains. prefer jump capable mechs

.2nd robinson rangers-
specialise in urban and melee combat
+1 to hit at long range targets, -2 piloting when turning on pavement, -1 to hit with a physical attack.

[mughi3]

We got lots of CBT goodness in this weekend, alythough my participation in the campaign was small and abrupt.


The mission for galtor this time was a combine assault on a davion city. the davions hopelessly outnumbered 5:2 were falling back to the harbor and secretly hidden dropships. the combine sent 3 lances in from the city outskirts with 2 moving into the city center through a sewer line.

The infilitration units started with a full lance in and one mech per turn coming in from the other lance.

The lone wolves mercenary company ran smak into the combine infiltration elements andit was a point blank conflagration. with 3 dragons, an orion and a cyclops facing a battlemaster, rifleman, centurion and wolverine.

the rifleman got hammered but the rest of the lone wolves were otherwise intanct, however the rifleman returned fire and destroyed one dragon. and as 3025 tech would have it set off ammo starting a daisy chain killing the entire combine force, destroying the rifleman and then doing enough crtical damage to the battlemaster to also set off his ammo. thus destroying the entire wolf merc unit.

My involvement in the game lasted all of 1 turn. the rest of the game was the other 3 lances trying to run down the davion lance before it could escape. the davions got savaged and a banshee stayed back to slow the combine advance allowing for a minor davion victory as 3 of the davion mechs managed to board one of the hidden drop ships and escape.







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[mughi3]

After that little conflagration i had enough time to get in a pickup game against the steel vypers. i felt like playing some IS so i broke out my 10th lyran guards.

we went lengthwise down the table giving the clanners a decided range advantage.

I managed to blunt the faster clan mechs attempt to flank me while my slower, heavier units advanced up the road. a few freakiy things happened of course.

the madcatt MKII could not hit to save himself for the first half of the game, allowing the lyran forces to close without coming under his guns. however the clan commander running the goshawk faired wuote a bit better head capping the thunderbolt and coring out the Axeman.

The clanners suffered as well seeing the battle cobra be delimbed and fall back. the daishi got pounded but it is an assault mech and that did little more than armor damage, the 2 hits to the head however finished him off

By the end fo the game most of the lyran force had been wrecked with only the slowest and heaviest units now coming into play. with 2 challenger Xs and a nightstar punishing the remaining 2 clan mechs.

Considering the damage they had sustained the clanned thought better of dragging out the fight and withdrew.

3 clan mechs survivied the battle although heavily damaged. and on the other side only the 2 tanks and the nightstar survivived for the lyran guards.







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