[Grizzly]

I'd like to volunteer for the urban renewal box, as Esmail "Scorpion" Oshmani.

[Scotty]

Joshua: Noted!  I'll add you to the first post.

In other news:

3049-05-01

Time for the market.  Rolls show that I get one prospective vehicle from both Open and Employer markets.  Odds are I won't be buying anything, though, because dwindling funds make me want to keep a little bit in the bank, just in case, and for things like repairs.  In any case, the two vehicles are:

95% Bulldog Heavy Tank – 1,072,360
105% SRM Carrier – 2,029,440

Yeah, no to both.  I don't have enough money to buy either without going into debt, and going into debt is bad news.  No vehicles for this month.

3049-05-07

Recruits: Foot Laser platoon seeks employment.  I tend to like to keep my infantry to similar weapons, if not motive systems, and another 28 warm bodies would put a strain on my monthly overhead the likes of which I don't like.  That jump platoon we hired last month already increased the size of the company by almost 50% by its lonesome, and another one would start to really strain Dr. Deathfun's ability to treat them all if anybody gets shot.  Passing for now, though if I had more cash in the bank, or another doctor, I'd take them and put them on Rescue or Defense duty, after retraining them to auto-rifles (or retraining my jump infantry to lasers, whichever I liked better).

3049-05-11

Customization news: Both Wasps have been successfully converted to what has been dubbed the WSP-1M variant sporting three medium lasers and instead of a medium laser and SRM-2 launcher, with no other changes.  That brings our total converted 'Mech count to six.  Not bad at all for a D-rated mercenary company in 3049, even if none of it is more advanced than the generic standard for the last couple hundred years.

3049-05-14

Recruits: Green Mechanic.  Welcome aboard!  Any kinds of techs are always desirable, regardless of the unit's current status, financial or repair.  Everybody give a warm welcome to Private Clarissa Curry, newly inducted to the company.

3049-05-21

Recruits: 6/6 dispossessed MechWarrior seeks employment.  Once again, no.  It's kind of frustrating and kind of awesome at the same time to be able to afford to be picky about this kind of thing.

3049-05-28

Recruits: Regular Aero Tech.  Woo!  Needed one of these after picking up Tophat and his Sparrowhawk, so this is good news.  Welcome aboard, Master Sergeant Steven Kaynetli.  EDIT: Major promotion due to being the only Aero Tech in the company right now, and therefore the leader of his own entire section.

That ends the relevant portions of May.  Next post will be the first week of June and then the first week of our contract.  Planetfall is less than two weeks away.

[Hobbie]

If no one's in the Aerospace pilot slot I'd like to take it. If someone else has claimed him, well, I'll wait for the next Aerospace guy to show up.

[deathfun]

ability to treat them all if anybody gets shot

Ahhh that's alright. I'll make a personal Mech out of their bones

[NGTM-1R]

Well, the question is, how does the ASF interact with the table? Because if they've done that automated that's kind of awesome.

Though I don't fancy a Sparrowhawk's chances against most OmniFighters, being able to bomb anything too offensive could really help us.

[Scotty]

Herra's the aerospace guy for right now, since I only have one of them.  I actually am going to have to come up with what ASFs do in this campaign by myself, since they're apparently available to purchase/hire, but the campaign rules don't actually support them anywhere?  I dunno.

Potential rules I could add:

Similar to infantry, ASFs are assigned to one of several specializations/roles.  Such roles would be stuff like:

Escort - transportation costs would be reduced in the event of a non-100% Transport clause by providing ASF escort for dropships and jumpships. 

High/Low Altitude scouting/surveillance - fewer enemies due to spotting for allied indirect or ASF support.  High altitude would reduce one random enemy lance by the lightest unit, while Low altitude would reduce one enemy lance of my choosing by the lightest unit or one unit of my choosing from a random enemy lance, but result in damage to the friendly ASF on a 1d6 roll of 1 or 2.

Overwatch - Grants higher chance to catch an enemy dropship on the ground during a base attack, and allows the chance of altering the victory conditions one unit in either direction, either allowing me to claim victory earlier, or grab more salvage by pressing my advantage for another unit before they scatter out of range.

Strike - ASF deploys on the field during a mission where I'm attacking, and remains on the field for one strike or strafe.  I know this is technically possible in MegaMek, but I have no idea how to do it, so I'd be making it up as I go along, in all probability.  For a Sparrowhawk, this is a bad idea, but I could get more ASF eventually.

Another possibility is adding the concept of Aerospace battles to the rules as battle types.  Once I get a few more, I could conceivably deploy them as flights and engage other enemy aerospace forces in orbit.  I'm blazing new trails here.

[Hobbie]

Actually, what program are you using to play this? I wanna have a go and see how badly I can stuff up a merc company.

[NGTM-1R]

MegaMek and...whatever.

Actually the hardest part is finding the AtB rules.

[Scotty]

Whoops, I thought I'd linked the rules, too!  My mistake.

You can find the link to download the most recent set of the rules (and the map seeds) here.  I'll add it to the first post, where I know that the links to the programs I'm using to run it are both in the text, MegaMek (for the tactical portions of the game) and MekHQ (for everything else).

[Polpolion]

FYI you need to be a member of that forum and logged in to see the attachment. Took me a while to figure that out.

[Scotty]

Really?  The things I take for granted.  Tell ya guys what, I'll upload it as an attachment on the first post so you guys don't have to do that.

EDIT: to avoid double post.  These are the provisional rules I'm using for Aerospace Fighters until I get some feedback both from the game and here about what works or doesn't work or is too powerful.

Escort - Reduces transport costs by the committed fighter(s)' BV divided by 100, in percent.  For example, I picked up a Sparrowhawk pilot, with a BV of 548.  In the Escort role, I would be saving 5.48% of transport costs (after transport clause considerations) on the way there.  If the bill was 300,000, the escorting Sparrowhawk would save me 16,440 c-bills, enough to pay my unit salaries for a full month or more.  More escort fighters would reduce it still further, though it would take 10,000 BV worth of fighters to 100% reduce transport costs to zero.  ALTERNATE: reduces costs by tonnage divided by 5, rather than BV divided by 100.  In that instance, the savings would be 18,000 c-bills.

High/Low Altitude Surveillance - Reduces the number of enemy combatants by spotting for allied indirect or ASF assets.  High altitude removes the lightest unit from a random lance or star, while low altitude removes either the lightest unit from a lance or star of my choice, or a unit of my choice from a random lance or star.  On a low altitude surveillance mission, an ASF has the potential to receive damage.  On a result of 1 or 2 on 1d6, the fighter returns with superficial armor damage (2) or internal damage (1).  On a result of 1, the ASF is shot down on result of 1 or 2 on a second 1d6 roll.  Additionally, when enemy civilian units are present in the battlespace, instead of removing a combat unit, surveilling fighters may designate a number of those civilian units to be destroyed before the beginning of the mission.  Light ASFs may designate up to two civilian vehicles, Medium ASFs up to three, and Heavy ASFs up to four.  The player may elect to not designate any units before a battle, for no penalty.

Strike Mission - Available whenever the player is the attacker, including Base Attack missions.  Strike missions deploy the ASF on the ground mapsheet to carry out strike or strafe missions until the player decides to have it exit the battlespace.  A fighter need not conduct a strike or strafe attack in order to leave the field.

Overwatch - Grants a higher chance of capturing enemy dropships whenever they appear on the field, improving to a result of dropship captured on any dropship destroyed/disabled in the battlespace, not limited to those destroyed/disabled by infantry.  Overwatch ASFs also allow the player to alter the victory conditions one unit in either direction, either by allowing the player to claim victory after one fewer enemy unit has been destroyed (does not reduce the number of civilian vehicles that must be destroyed if they are present), or to press the advantage and destroy one additional enemy unit before the rest scatter.

For any of the above missions an ASF/wing could undertake, all would have to be declared at the beginning of the week along with lance assignments, and may not be changed mid-week.

[Scotty]

Double post

3049-06-01

Market time!  I'm running pretty short on cash, so I highly doubt anything is going to end up coming out of this, but I roll it up anyway.  Nope, nothing doing.  No results, so nothing to spend my little money left on.

Moving on.

3049-06-04

Recruits: 4/6 dispossessed Vehicle crew.  Pass again.

That gets us to June 7 and planetfall.  Fortunately, no battles on the first week (in fact, -4 of them, helpfully enough).  On a Planetary Assault contract, there is roughly a one-in-three chance of having at least one standard battle in a given week, the same as a Pirate Hunt.  At the same time, there is a one-in-fifteen chance of having a special event battle, so just slightly more than a one-in-three chance of having at least one battle in a given week, with a small but definite chance of having up to three battles per week.

3049-06-11

Enemy morale: Normal

June 11 rolls around, and everybody is assigned to their correct lances.  Our infantry platoon is on standby for search and rescue, while our ASF pilot is scanning the planet at high altitude looking for enemy troop movements. 

Intelligence tells us our enemy this contract is the FRR 1st Hussars.  They're “officially” rated as a regular unit, but they're fanatically committed to Thule, so don't be surprised if they fight like madmen and significantly better than they're rated.  The Hussars boast a full regiment, at least, augmented by several regiments of local militia that is nearly as good thanks to frequent and intensive training operations.  The Hussars are no strangers to raids by our employers.  As much as possible, we're trying to avoid the bulk of the Hussars on planet, and instead leave that to our much better equipped sponsors.

Speaking of which, our allies, the 14th Legion of Vega, made planetfall at nearly the same time as us, and are the reason we didn't have any opposition making life difficult as we disembarked.  From what I heard, the 14th is tangled up skirmishing with the 1st Hussar presence on planet and not doing well.  The Hussars know this place better than the backs of their hands, and they're very good at using the terrain against their enemies.

That is, the Legion was why we were unopposed.  Tophat commed in about twenty minutes ago with reports that we have a Hussar company in the way of our current objective.

For our part, we've landed on Husavik, the northernmost of Thule's continents, and by far the coldest.  There isn't much out here, but what there is happens to be pretty valuable, research stations and the like.  Our current objective is a research station very near the north pole, some unpronounceable nordic sounding name.  Here it is: “Norr Forskning”.  Whatever the hell that means.  We're going in to eliminate the defenders and then secure the area before moving on.

There are two standard battles this week: one Stand-Up Fight, and one Hold the Line, both of them with us as the attacker.  The Stand-Up Fight is exactly what it sounds like, a brawl until one side or the other backs off.  That happens at 50% losses for either side.  The 13th will probably be tackling that fight, since the six units gives me a bit of a buffer if any of the vehicles go down.  Remember that I don't get allied units for this.  While that means I'm not going to lose points for them going down, it means I don't get the extra firepower, either.  Hold the Line fights are a bit... less fair.  The attacker in a HtL fight has to destroy 50% of the enemy, while the defender only has to take out a third.  That said, the enemy is generally less painful on a HtL mission than they otherwise would be.  The 11th Daybreakers are going to be the hammer to smash that particular line, simply because I don't want to risk the more fragile vehicles with a margin for error so small.

In this instance, the HtL is on Friday, and the SU is on Saturday.  Because I'm concerned about the 13th's performance (they're unproven, and a majority are green), I'll be sending the 12th in to reinforce.

Tophat, our eye in the sky, has discovered a set of hastily erected fortifications and defensive positions directly in our path to our objective.  Obviously, we don't want to fight against dug-in opposition.  Unfortunately, we don't exactly have a choice.  The Daybreakers are going in first, as the unit's most experienced attackers, and will knock the defenders out of their positions.  The Hussar units are a mix of vehicles and 'Mechs, and a mix of weights, though they average out at a medium.  The Daybreakers will first maneuver to outflank the established positions, and as soon as the enemy repositions to intercept the lance, will strike, catching the Hussars out of position and on an even playing field, which should favor the heavy firepower and armor of the Daybreakers over the relatively vulnerable Hussar vehicles and 'Mechs.

Once the Hussar 'Mechs and vehicles are in retreat, the 13th Heavy Combat Lance will advance, relieving the Daybreakers from direct combat to rotate back for repairs before they push back out again.  The 13th will make every effort to engage and destroy the Hussar elements before they can set up further defensive positions, aiming to keep the enemy off balance.  For this purpose, the 12th Light Scout Lance will engage in harassment operations to keep the Hussars from digging in until the 13th is upon them, at which point the 12th will engage in direct reinforcement of the 13th until the objective is accomplished.

Using this rapid, aggressive method of attack, the brigade should be able to push the Hussars away from Norr Forskning and enable us to secure our initial objective in a little more than a week – several days ahead of schedule.

Tophat will be providing aerial surveillance and spotting for allied artillery and aerospace assets.  Combine forces haven't yet secured total aerospace superiority, so their efforts won't be the most effective, but they should soften them up a little bit before the battle is fully engaged.

Repair and reloading will be accomplished by our integral tech teams at the end of the engagements.  Salvage and recovery ops by the same.  In the event of pilots downed, 3rd Jump will be scrambled to perform SAROPS.

Allied 'Mech and conventional forces will not, say again not be in the area.  We're on our own for this one.

Tophat is indeed performing high altitude surveillance for this week, so I'll be removing the lightest unit from the SU mission, meaning that, while the 13th will still have to take out four enemy units to claim victory, there will only be seven units on the field, instead of eight.  3rd Jump is on SAR jump-five status, and will be ready to rescue any downed 'Mech pilots and vehicle crew before things get too hairy out there.  For this week, the brigade will be deploying every single available asset for either direct combat or support ops, so this will either go very smoothly, or could end very badly.

For this operation, codename LIGHT HAMMER, command and control will be handled by Captain Roberts, callsign “Strobe”.  Overall technical operations will be handled by Master Sergeant Kahiga, callsign “Red”.  Field command will be delegated to Major Webb, callsign “Easy” for sub-op HAYMAKER, and to Lieutenant Yi, callsign “StarSlayer” for sub-op BRAWL.  Captain Borham, callsign “Polly” will reinforce sub-op BRAWL and provide his lance to Lieutenant Yi's command for the duration of the sub-op.

In the event of the incapacitation of Major Webb, Lieutenant Gibbs, callsign “Duck” will assume field command for sub-op HAYMAKER.  In the event of the incapacitation of Lieutenant Yi, Captain Borham will immediately assume command and complete the objective.

Call for salvage and recovery will be “Sunglare”.  Call for withdrawal will be “Mirror”.  Call for enemy retreating will be “Burnout”.

 

HtL:
3/3 Bulldog Medium Tank
2/3 Bulldog Medium Tank
4/5 Bulldog Medium Tank
4/4 Vedette Medium Tank

2/5 Cicada CDA-2A
4/3 Locust LCT-3V
4/4 Mongoose MON-67
3/5 Hermes HER-1B

Terrain
Dustbowl
Dusk/Dawn
Light Fog
Start W
Enemy start CTR
35x35 map

SU:
2/3 Prowler Multi-Terrain Vehicle
Vedette Medium Tank (Destroyed by allied aero assets)
3/5 Scorpion SCP-1N
3/5 Scorpion SCP-1N

3/3 Hermes III HER-4K
2/4Trebuchet TBT-5N
2/4 Vulcan VL-2T
4/4 Urbanmech UM-R60

Terrain
some-trees
Daylight
Clear
Start W
Enemy start E
30x50 map

I now have a couple battles to go over!  Additionally, I rolled a special event, Betrayal, but luckily the roll came up as false alarm.  I still get a point for it, so good times. 

EDIT: I've added the maps I'm going to be using for this fight, and the enemy forces I'll be fighting to a .zip and attached it.  Just for ****s and giggles.

EDIT II:  Here's the Orbat again, for those who want to know before the OP starts.

Hard Light Brigade

1st Mixed Company
   
   11th Combat Lance "Daybreakers"
      Major Caden "Easy" Webb, 3/5, Awesome AWS-8Q (The_E)
         Lieutenant Andrew "Duck" Gibbs, 3/4, Grasshopper GHR-5N
         Master Sergeant Anders "Rapier" Bullman, 4/5, Awesome AWS-8Q (Dragon)
         Corporal Jean "Werewolf" Vidal, 4/6, Crab CRB-20 (Spardason21)

   12th Scout Lance
      Captain Bowen "Polly" Borham, 2/5, Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D (Polpolion)
         Corporal Dereje "Esarai" bin Hassan, 6/5, Wasp WSP-1M (Esarai)
         Corporal Ian "Patriot" Fatin, 5/6, Wasp WSP-1M (Patriot)
         Corporal Richard "Night" Adeboro, 5/5, Locust LCT-1E (NGTM-1R)

   13th Combat Lance
      Lieutenant Aaron "StarSlayer" Yi, 3/6, Brutus Gunner/Commander (StarSlayer)
            Corporal John "Scourge" Aherne, 3/6, Brutus Gunner (Scourge of Ages)
            Corporal Nancy Ma, 3/6, Brutus Gunner
            Corporal Kevin Huffman, 3/6, Brutus Gunner
            Corporal Cheng-gong Pak, 4/5, Brutus Driver
         Sergeant Allan "Toothless" Moore, 4/5, Vedette Commander/Gunner (Aesaar)
            Corporal Hanlon Turtle, 4/5, Vedette Gunner
            Corporal Monica Nasuton, 4/5, Vedette Gunner
            Corporal Mark "DJ" McMickan, 4/5, Vedette Driver (CommanderDJ)
         Sergeant Cliff "Dire" De, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner/Commander (DireWolf)
            Corporal Corey Lovegrove, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner
            Corporal Donna Lewis, 4/6, Hetzer Driver
         Corporal Esmail "Scorpion" Osmani, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner/Commander (-Joshua-)
            Private Farraj bin Abu Bakr, 4/6, Hetzer Gunner
            Private Christian Pescaru, 4/6, Hetzer Driver
         Corporal Lage "Phantom" Duineveld, 6/5, Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (PhantomHoover)
         Corporal Alan "Mongo" Fisting, 4/6, Vindicator VND-1R (dsockwell)

   2nd Aerospace Wing
      Lieutenant Chris "Tophat" Valsan, 5/6, Sparrowhawk SPR-H5 (HerraTohtori)

   3rd Jump Infantry Company
      Lieutenant Rostislav "Soos" Kalakay, 1, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Cornelia-Antonia Parent, 3, Jump Infantry
               Private Loren Manstein, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Kamilia Gramm, 5, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Anne-Sophie Qosja, 3, Jump Infantry
               Private James Noussen, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Xiao-yan Nao, 5, Jump Infantry
         Master Sergeant Askari Adel, 2, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Maximo Martinez, 3, Jump Infantry
               Private Phillipe Provost, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Tom Ramirez, 6, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Iwan Snel, 4, Jump Infantry
               Private Bommareddy Tyagri, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Samantha Takeuchi, 5, Jump Infantry
         Senior Sergeant Iman Alatas, 2, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Scott Tann, 3, Jump Infantry
               Private Ajaz Stanisic, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Simi Armstrong, 5, Jump Infantry
            Corporal Anne Ryan, 4, Jump Infantry
               Private Ed Williams, 4, Jump Infantry
               Recruit Carla Duret, 5, Jump Infantry

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[NGTM-1R]

Scorps and Trenchbucket could be trouble. Hard hitters with some range.

[SpardaSon21]

As long as Duck and I can screen the lights away from the Awesomes, we can break through their defensive lines.

[Hobbie]

I want that Trebuchet. Sign me up for a Mechwarrior spot if we have the space just so I can drive that thing if we get it (at least until we get a Cataphract or a Clan Loki).

Yeah, I've made up my mind. That lucky Aerospace jock can keep his wings.

[Scotty]

Orbat added to OPORD post for a quick refresher on who's doing what.

[Scourge of Ages]

Corporal John "Scourge" Aherne, planet Thule. Pre-op log, operation LIGHT HAMMER sub-op BRAWL

Here we go... got a new contract, spent a few months jumping around, and we're finally lined up and ready to go. Our objective is a research station called Norr Forskning, I think it's Old-Earth Norwegian for "cold as heck", cause dang it's cold up here.

I've spent much of our transit time practicing in the garage's vehicle simulator, training on the LRMs. They don't have the same kick as my ol' PPC, but should prove pretty effective anyway. I've done all I can, the rest of the tank crews are ready and raring to go, and StarSlayer is actually the guy in command of sub-op BRAWL, and our own 13th Combat Lance.

Not too much to say, the 13th is going to relieve the 11th after they hit the FRR guys first, and the 12th will be with us too. It's gonna be a looooooong bloody fight, but hopefully we won't get shot up too badly this time.

EDIT: Oh yeah! We got a company of grunts along this time. Jump troops, all set to haul our bones out of our smoldering wreck of a tank, if it should come to that. Or I guess they could rescue a mechwarrior too.

[NGTM-1R]

Shouldn't I have a -1E Locust now? (Among other requested changes. -5N Grasshopper, -1M Wasps, -1D Phoenix Hawk etc.)

Going in with the vehicles this time. The Vedette is worth its weight in used toilet paper. Hetzers gonna hetz. SHD and VND to back them up, and a Brutus. Heard good things about the Brutus in my days with the AFFC. Hoping they're for real, we could sorely use the kind of firepower people talked about. Even the SHD doesn't give me a huge amount of confidence, but the VND will be welcome. Maybe we put the 'Mechs out front and the Hetzers get to combat range, good things happen.

Hearing things about SCPs in the opposing force and maybe a TBT. Lot of firepower there. Wish one of the AWS had come with us.

[Scotty]

You are entirely correct, I have not yet adjusted models and variants.  Your Locust is a -1E, both Wasps are done, as are the Phoenix Hawk, Grasshopper, and Shadow Hawk.  Basically everything I even hinted at converting has been converted for quite some time.  I'll fix that sometime tomorrow when I get around to the post.

[Patriot]

Corporal Ian Fatin, Callsign Patriot. Personal Log.

Looks like my yammering on about not having seen action in our last contract is biting me in the ass.
But at least our boss was kind enough to put my request for modification of our Wasps through to the techs, and both mine and Dereje's Mech have been converted from being an explosion hazard to having 3 Lasers, more firepower, less risk of getting blown up outright by a lucky shot to the torso.

Seems like the whole Lance has seen their mechs get refits to keep us from being blown to smithereens by our own ammo cooking off in the bins. Wonder if the boss deemed my note foreboding enough to do this or had lessening our ammo dependency as his first priority. Whatever the reason i'm grateful for having a little more firepower along with not needing ammo anymore. Besides, the 2-pack SRM launcher wasn't much to speak of anyway, and highly inaccurate to boot.

So, to get back at why my whining about not seeing action bit me in the ass.
Our lance is supporting the 13th Combat Lance in Op Light Hammer, our sub-op being Brawl. We are to harass the enemy FRR mechs and vehicles so they can't set up fortified positions until the 13th come in and take them off our hands for a proper curbstomping, luckily our new AeroSpace jock took out a Vedette Medium Tank, that coulda been a pain in the ass. According to him there's plenty of mechs to worry about though, 2 Scorpions and a Trebuchet. Well.. here's to a first sortie and a more or less whole mech to return with.