Second Battletech Game in San Angelo

Hey everyone,

This is an AAR of the second Battletech game I had with my friend DWEB here in San Angelo.  You will remember that the last game eneded with my Battlemechs admitting defeat after his Hunchback came to bear and destroyed my Cicada with one shot!  This time the scenartio was designed for my kind of force, as the objective was recon as opposed to straight up fighting.  One of my 'Mechs needed to remain in BTB contact with the large, central building of the city from the start of a turn to the end, hacking into the building's computer ans stealing valuable intel.

The game started with my fast recon force ("The Ghost Company" closing fast to the city.  DWEB brought a very light and fast Commando, and the Hunchback, with that terrible Autocannon 20, showed up as well.  Choosing to have fewer, heavier "Mechs, he also brought an 80-ton Zeus, who was armed with both close firing and long range weapons.  This forced me to close to the safety of the buildings quickly, and once there my Assassin made a break for the building.

DWEB was ready for this, however, and my calculations were off by a lot.  All three of the enemy battlemechs closed on the Assassin's position, so that he came under heavy fire even before starting to hack into the building's mainframe.

The Assassin went down with a leg blown off, but my Spider was able to get in behind the Commando and cause some damage even as the Assassin was falling under a hail of missiles and laser fire.

On the left flank, the Cicada, hungry for revenge against the Hunchback from the last game, circled quickly while the Hunchback was busy blowing off the lef of the Assassin.  The Civada missed with its small laser, then missed with its first medium laser.  The second hit, however, and scored a laser burn deep into the armor of the cockpit.  Much to everyone's surprise, the pilot passed out briefly from the shock (DWEB needed to roll anything but snake eyes to avoid this.  His roll?  Snake eyes).

This led to one round of total immobilization for the Hunchback, and so of course my smaller and faster 'Mechs swarmed his position, firing everything they had to destroy him.  Alas, his armor was so heavy that, however close they came, the Hunchback was still operational and the pilot awoke the next turn.

In fact, he lumbered forward, and drew aim at my Clint, which was firing from cover at the Commando, which had taken more damage.  DWEB rolled a hit with the big AC/20, which would have all but destroyed the Clint.  His hit location, however, was the left arm -- the one location that the Clint had cover for (you can kind of see this from the image above -- imagine you are lower and right next to the Hunchback).  The shot impacted the building, and the Clint escaped on a prayer.

The Zeus, in the meantime, was patrolling in the backfield and the road, trying to protect the building with its long range weaponry.  DWEB's use of the Zeus was so effective that I couldn't ever leave a 'Mech next to the building -- he was really holding me off!  The one this I did was start trailing him with the Cicada, firing at his rear armor until it was almost detroyed.  The Zeus has a rear-mounted laser, and so he was returning fire, but the Cicada was bringing the fight to him, and his rear armor was starting to suffer.

On the other flank, the Assassin managed to destroy the Commando, and the Hunchback managed to destory the Assassin, which had managed to make it to its foot after having downloaded the intel.  In repayment for destroying their leader, the Spider and the Clint managed to destroy the injured Hunchback.  This left the Clint, Spider, and Cicada on my side, and the Zeus alone, with no back armor, on DWEB's.  Here the Clint engages the Zeus in close quarters fighting, while the Spider completes the mission objective elsewhere.  The Zeus kicks the Clink in return, almost tearing the lef of the smaller 'Mech off, but at length the Clint jumped away and behind a building, and on the other side of the board the Spoder left the table with the Intel.  Arrangements were then made to allow for salvage and the safe return of down pilots, and the Ghost company returned after its first successful mission.

All in all another really fun game.  Esp. with the fast and light 'Mechs, this is such a tactical game that we were both exhausted afterwards.  Nevertheless, it is nice to play a game so focused, and to know that we both played really well.  All in all, I think I did a fine job, but the real game winner for me was the snake eyes for the Hunchback to stay awake after that one head shot.