[Scourge of Ages]

Mother of sheep...

I knew the Clans fought hard, but these guys were supposed to be GREEN troops! I guess their definition of green is different from ours. ****.

My worst fears happened. The clan mechs shredded us at range, and closed in quick to finish what they started. We were barely able to get any shots off, and they dodged most of what we did throw at them.
The Manticore (so young and shiny [sadface]), the Goblin, the Bulldog, our main battle tanks were all taken out, only the Schreck is left. Fortunately, all of the crews were able to escape our vehicles without getting captured or killed.

Not so fortunate was 4th Lance... They lost three mechs and mechwarriors. I never knew Aneesa or Robert very well, but Dragon and his Atlas had become a major fixture among the Marines. They will all be missed. On the bright side, when the CO contacted Dragon's family, it seemed like one of them had some qualifications and might be coming in to fill the big Dragon-y void here.

As for my crews, we're all itching for revenge, but we don't have tanks for now... I'm gonna hit the simulators, and see if I could qualify for a mechwarrior slot, or maybe even as an aerotech pilot. Wish my luck.

(OOC: can a vehicle driver transfer to being a mech or aero pilot within the rules? Otherwise, if I take one of the unnamed pilot slots, would that be weird?)

[IronBeer]

(OOC: can a vehicle driver transfer to being a mech or aero pilot within the rules? Otherwise, if I take one of the unnamed pilot slots, would that be weird?)

I posed this question after losing my Hetzer in Scotty's LP. The answer is "not directly", but I bet Patriot wouldn't mind finding your "twin brother" who also happens to be a mechwarrior.  We'll see, though- Patriot might have some other ideas.

[Patriot]

As i said in my previous post, you can have a named guy in each category of unit.

And there were only like, 7 mechs, of which 2 were IS designs(a Cicada and a Panther). The C Quality rating is helping in that regard. Shame the RATs i'm using doesn't have Clan vehicles for some reason :S

Another week, another battle.

1st went up against 2 Stars of clan units, 1 Mixed Assault Star and 1 Light Vehicle Star.

We managed to blow the turret off of a Svantovit Hover IFV. Also did that to an Ares Medium Tank, but in the same volley, the LRM ammo got cooked off and went out the back, destroying it outright.

Only 2 mechs in this battle, a Summoner Prime and a Rifleman(3N). Both mechs were dicking around in some water, so i hardly bothered with em, focused on killing tanks instead.

Deathfun's MechWarrior "Reaper" got knocked down, the AWS-8Q taking too much damage and succumbing to an engine destruction. Auto-eject failed but no death occurred. We did not lose any other unit apart from our FRR ally in his GRF-1N, who got ammo racked..

Night's lance had the opportunity to reinforce 1st Lance, and he did so to great effect, Night himself bagged one of the Assault tanks and a scout tank. Hobbie killed the Ares tank.

[Scourge of Ages]

As i said in my previous post, you can have a named guy in each category of unit.

Scourge's Log:

Well, I'm reminded why I'm a tank driver now: I'm pants at shootin' stuff. I'm not entirely sure how mechwarriors can manage to stomp around, and shoot stuff, and manage all those systems without falling over (though it explains some things). I'm really glad I have dedicated gunners now.

And don't even get me started on aerospace! Lets just say it was so bad, the simulator pod crashed. So, I'm out of a job until we rustle up some more functional tanks (1st lance scored a Svantovit Hover IFV, but I wouldn't touch that with a 10m pilot stick).

On the plus side! I was hanging out with some of the mechwarriors, and we were all discussing our tattoos. Turns out, Maiya "Devourer" Gilles rocks the same house crest as I do; we're 2nd cousins! So weird, but nice to have family here. She drives a Phoenix, which is a certified antique, but sill packs a punch.

(OOC: did I do that right? I'll take Sgt Gilles for RPing.)

[pecenipicek]

woo, whm-6r, always one alpha from blowing itself up


( i'll toss in a custom config once i iron it out, but i think its gonna be losing the SL's and MG's for added 1 ton of armor and 1 heatsink. )

[Polpolion]

Man, this **** is brutal. Might be worth it if I live long enough to drive some clan salvage.

[Scotty]

So.  Patriot, just so you know.

Clan vehicles deploy in points of two vehicles each.  That means a Star is ten.  Not five.

For future reference.

[Wanderer]

Mother of sheep...

I knew the Clans fought hard, but these guys were supposed to be GREEN troops! I guess their definition of green is different from ours. ****.

That depends really - as a rule of a thumb clan 'Mech pilots are 1 level above the standard (so clan green is actually at regular level) while vehicle crews are one below the standard.


Still it seems your foray against the clans went better than i expected. And better than what my initial experiences were. My first ever match against clans pitted my favorite 'Mech (always going with 3025 tech) - the Enforcer against some clan light omni (Uller/Kit Fox). Fight lasted for whopping 1 turn as it sucker punched me from over 20 hexes away - GR to the head. Second was with Locust (3V) against some elementals - whom i tried to hose with MGs (as was suggested in this thread), didn't work out too well. The storm of SRMs and SLs made one of the legs to give away after which the little suckers pretty much roflstomped me. Granted that terrain favored the elementals (no open areas) but still...

[Scotty]

Hosing Elementals with MGs is a good way to commit suicide.  Don't do it.

[TrashMan]

Would deckign the me4ch with as much long-ragne weaponry as possible be viable agaisnt clans? I'm talking LR missles, AC2 & 5 guns gauss cannons and such.


Also, I wonder who desigend the game to make the clans so much better (despite the constant war and contact and availabiltiy of clan tech for reverse engineering)

[Hobbie]

Yes, more kills. That first place position will be mine!

I'm hoping to work my way up to a big missile boat mech. A Mad Dog Prime or A would be lovely.

EDIT: I also appear to have the Iron Man feat. What's that do?

[Wanderer]

Would deckign the me4ch with as much long-ragne weaponry as possible be viable agaisnt clans? I'm talking LR missles, AC2 & 5 guns gauss cannons and such.

Well.... Given that clan pilots tend to have better gunnery skill and that their weapons - where applicable - have better range brackets than the IS equivalents it would seem to be smarter to get up close (but not too close if there are elementals around). That has always worked for me. Especially if played with clan honor rules as the clanners then tend to avoid physical attacks. Other examples of 'getting even' can also involve some C3 trickery.

Specific examples: The clan LRM launcher weights half of the IS LRM launcher. In other words medium clan missile boat can easily outperform dedicated IS missile boats like Catapult - as an added bonus clan version has no minimum range either so they don't even need secondary weapons. Gauss rifle IIRC have identical performance clan version just weights 20% less - so instead of requiring the use of dedicated hodge-podge Hollanders to haul GRs clanners just use normal light mechs. Clan ACs have similar disparity, while being lighter they have longer range than IS equivalents - as a rough estimate clan level 10 ACs have same range as IS level 5 and clan level 5 have same ranges as IS level 2. Even clan XL engine rocks compared to IS version, especially if equipped with CASE: IS version takes ammo explosion to side torso -> dead mech due to 3 engine criticals; Clan version suffers 'only' 2 engine criticals, it may be crippled but it can still fight.

[TrashMan]

Well, there's got to be SOMETHING you can do.
If they carry a wide array of different weaponry, go for ALL range and focus fire. Even if their weapons are better, you're bound to have more of them (since all fo your weapons ar LR and only some of theirs are).

Or the opposite - grab the most powerfull CC weapons you can - like those shotgn-like cannons and plasma, gt jumps jets and close the distance as fast as possible.

Granted, it's been a long time since I played the fist MW, and atm I'm playing MW4: Mercs (in which he IS and clan difference is mostly weight, and not a lot), so I'm probably talking bs.

That said...am I still bed ridden?

[NGTM-1R]

Generally accepted practice is to fight them at AC/20 range if at all possible to negate ranged advantage. That said, in large unit actions I've had some success with fighting them at long range; when you have three 'Mechs to their one, crushing them under the weight of your fire becomes much more viable.

[Patriot]

Clan vehicles deploy in points of two vehicles each.  That means a Star is ten.  Not five.

You just had to ruin my day, didn't you..
Good thing the RAT doesn't have that many units to pick from then, would be a lot more realistic if said point was two of the same vehicle.
And if they get to do it, why not us?! I'll tell you why, cause our tanks rock, that's why!


In other news, a new week arrives, and our Svantovit looks a little.. well let's say the only undamaged side is the left side, all other locations lack armor. Also it lacks it's second Streak SRM2, which we're gonna have to salvage off of something..
We do, however, have a Clan ER Large Laser, torn from the corpse of the Ares Tank. Might pop that onto one of our mechs, like a Wolfhound for instance.

This week marks our third week and we recruit another Aero Pilot, this time it's a Green pilot who brought his own Sabre(SB-27). That's the only version of it i could find that didn't have LosTech on it
Added him to our Air Wing, so that makes for 2 Aero fighters, and the only rule i was interested in from Scotty was the kill off 1 unit from enemy lance/star. Not sure if it was intended to have multiple Aero jockeys do that for a single engagement or on a per friendly lance deployed basis. Nice moment for Scotty to BRIGHTEN UP my day

Also, Pecenipicek, way ahead of ya on the customization front, dat Whammy has been a thorn in my eye for a while(and not because it's a whammy) so i decided to DO something about it.

Hobbie: Iron Man lets your guy only take 1 pilot hit for an ammo explosion, unless of course the autoeject fails, i don't think it helps then(usually you die from that).

5th Lance is up for combat this week, while the rest got lucky and rolled no battle. Lucky because most lances at the moment either have a refit underway or need repairs, like Night and Hobbie need new right legs. And IronBeer is awaiting the arrival of a DHS replacement.

The battletype is a Chase, as Defender of course. This is actually pretty nice, as we get to salvage the field regardless of win or lose(enemy wins after 50%+ has retreated to the north edge of the map) so we can strip some things off the enemy! Also they get twice as many units(well, roughly, i roll twice for enemy lance weights)

After rolling enemy tanks and mechs and adjusting for skill level(i can't seem to find the option for what the default is), the enemy Locust is terminated by our ASF pilot that isn't new. The only two IS designs they're sporting now are a Battlemaster and an Enforcer.

Let's see what i can make of this

P.S. Trashman, 5th's your Lance, so this ought to answer your question

[Wanderer]

Well, there's got to be SOMETHING you can do.
If they carry a wide array of different weaponry, go for ALL range and focus fire. Even if their weapons are better, you're bound to have more of them (since all fo your weapons ar LR and only some of theirs are).

Except pretty much all clan weapons are long range weapons - with some medium range weapons like small lasers, SSRMs, LBX20 & UAC20 - when considered from the Inner Sphere standard. Which is kinda the problem. In addition to MGs only the very latest of the clantech like heavy small lasers and micro (ER or pulse) lasers are what IS would consider to be true short range weapons.

Or the opposite - grab the most powerfull CC weapons you can - like those shotgn-like cannons and plasma, gt jumps jets and close the distance as fast as possible.

As said ranges below 10 are imo best for engaging clanners, long range tricks work best if you have a functional C3 network in play in which case it is the clanners that will suffer, big time.

MW4 has 'balanced' the BT rules quite a bit so it is not really that good for comparing the differences in normal gameplay.

[Patriot]

Well, that didn't go so well..

These bastards were just too damn fast to keep up with. BUT there is some good news.
We salvaged a Fire Moth Prime, which only has some burnt out MASC but needs some legs replaced(which we simply can't).
We also salvaged a Man o' War C and a Kit Fox B.
The Kit Fox is scrap, so we're nicking what's left of it and sell the husk off to the Houses.
The Fire Moth is, reasonably speaking, scrap. Lots of intact components, but i can't replace two legs of a Clan unit.
The Man O' War however, is prime repair material! Granted, it needs a NEW gyro to replace the one Trashman effectively nuked with his dual UAC5s and it's awesome TAC abilities(seriously, Round 2, 4 shots from these things, all TACs). According to MekHQ, Gyros aren't restricted to either IS or Clan(regular Gyros that is) and i'm just going to shell out the 1.2M to replace it, i reckon that sum of cash justifies the oddity of just stuffing an IS built Gyro into a Clan unit, yay interchangeability!

Bad news is that Trashman got ammo racked and we lost the Rifleman.
The other three mechs were severely damaged once i noticed a rough 60% of the enemy force had escaped.
So, there's not a single Lance right now that's combat capable xD

I did find out, however, that locations and actuators are also IS/Clan interchangeable. Take advantage of this or no? I don't think Endo-Steel bits and Ferro Fibrous armor plates count though, as they're markedly different for IS and Clan in terms of crit spaces

[NGTM-1R]

I'd say you're right there, but when it comes to stuff like actuators and the like...

They're Omnis. They're literally designed to pick up any old part and stuff it on. REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN STRIP THE WEAPONS OFF DISABLED AND OTHERWISE USELESS OMNIS LIKE THAT KIT FOX AND THEY WILL FIT ON ANY OTHER OMNIMECH. Building up a stash of spare Clan weapons is important if you want to keep using Clantech 'Mechs at top form.

[Patriot]

Well, it's my understanding that the weapons are installed in pods, then the pods are installed onto omnimechs and omnivehicles. Thus we can freely cram the weapons into our own mechs and tanks! Seeing as custom fabbing mechs takes more time anyhow, i don't see much of a problem(Mixed tech probably requires EVEN more time)

So far the result is some streak launchers, LRM launchers combined with Artemis FCS, some ER Lasers of various sizes and enough armor to fix the Svantovit and Man O' War up. Only items we really need are the Stream SRM2 for the Svanto and some UAC20 ammo for the Man O' War(only 2 shots needed, so i doubt it's an issue.)

Since Trashman got his mech killed, he gets that Thunderbolt i bought prior to the contract start

[StarSlayer]

Considering my last outing involved getting blown out of my HBK and spending time a guest of pirates I'll call it a win.