BattleTech Alpha Strike AAR - Easter Egg Hunt - Black Jack's Campaign

My gaming buddies got together to play another game of Alpha Strike.  We had 5 players in the game.  Three of us (Randy, Bill, and I) have played a few games and 2 of us (Sam and Nate) were new to these rules.  

I stole the scenario idea for this game from my last game that was put together by Cody and Forrest.  (The game I blogged about yesterday.)  We tweaked the rules a little and used 3025 era mechs.  Each side had 3 lances, you can see the lance lists below.  

The terrain was primarily buildings from Dropzone Commander and some old Epic buildings.  I threw in a few clumps of trees and some other terrain to mix things up a bit.

The scenario:

12 March 3029
                 After a successful mission by the Black Jacks Mercenary Company holding a drop zone and preventing the extraction of key personnel of House Kurita from planet Gauntlet, they have once again been engaged for a mission.
                 This will be a reconnaissance mission in an area near the last engagement area.  It is believed that there are buildings in the area that house Kurita secret intelligence services.  The Black Jacks must hack the computer networks of the target buildings and download the data from any buildings whose systems fit the description.
                 Kurita forces will be in the area and will be attempting to wipe the data from the buildings as well.
 Scenario Type:  Reconnaissance - Easter Egg Hunt Variant
 Rules
                Attacker and Defender will move onto the battlefield on turn 1 within their deployment zone.  There will be 12 target buildings placed on the map that contain the potential target data.  These buildings will be placed within 12 inches of the center line and not closer than 2 inches of any other building.  Both sides will choose 6 buildings secretly to be the objectives for the other team.  Forced withdrawal rules are in effect.
                 Objectvies are revealed either by a successful scan by a unit.  To successfully scan a building, a unit must end its movement phase in contact with the building and spend the combat phase scanning (in which case the unit cannot make any weapon or physical attacks of its own).  Once a building is successfully scanned, the opponent must reveal if it has a hidden objective within.
 Scoring
·         Every objective that is successfully found by a team is worth 50 vp
·         Points value scoring is in effect for units.  For instance if a 35 point Battlemech is destroyed the opponent will score 35 vp.  Units that successfulyy exit the board due to forced withdrawal do not count toward the vp count.
·         Play will continue for one full turn after a side has successfully located all 6 of their objectives.

Forces:

Black Jack's Mercenary Company

- Lance War Pigs - 

GHR-5H Grasshopper 

GRF-1S Griffin 

HBK-4P Hunchback 

RFL-3C Riflemen

- Lance La Cosa Nostra - 

BNC-3M Banshee 

ZEU-6T Zeus 

CPLT-C1 Catapult 

QKD-4H Quickdraw

- The Gun Slingers -

VTR-9A Victor 

PNT-8Z Panther 

ON1-K Orion 

ENF-4R Enforcer

2nd Sword of Light of the Draconis Combine
Assault Lance
AS7-D Atlas
AWS-8Q Awesome
BNC-3M Banshee
GHR-5H Grasshopper

Support Lance
DRG-1C Dragon
HBK-4P Hunchback
DV-6M Dervish
WTH-1 Whitworth

Recon Lance
JVN-10N Javelin
PNT-8Z Panther
VND-1R Vindicator
TBT-5N Trebuchet

Two Kurita Mechs prepare to blast away at a mercenary mech taking cover around a building corner.

The Javelin is scanning the building hoping to avoid fire from the opposing mechs.

A brutal fight took place in the city streets.

Two Kurita Mechs try to kill the Griffin, but expose themselves in the process.

A newbie pilot has attempted a death from above on the enemy Rifleman.  Not the safest move, but even though he missed, he didn't die from the attack.

The mercenary forces used cover as much as possible to protect themselves from incoming fire.

The mercenaries advance, basically ignoring the lone Kurita mech.

The Mercenary Hunchback takes a honor-less shot on the rear armor of a Panther.

All the pilots had a skill of 4 for this game and kills came much slower this time around.  At the end of the game the Kurita forces had 6 objectives to the Mercenaries 5.  After adding in a few kills we ended up being only about 5 points different, so we called it a draw.

As always it was a fun game and it was fun playing the the group.  I look forward to the next engagement and hope the Kurita forces can make a better showing of themselves.

Again, Bill has graciously provided a debriefing report on the battle from the perspective of Frank "Stiletto" Gatti.

The Black Jacks Mercenary Company- Operation Hijack 

Client-Code Black

Company Commander: Ben “Black Jack” Johnson-Black Knight

- Lance War Pigs - 

Lance Captain: Randy “War Boss” Seybert- Grasshopper 

“Ching Ching” Charlie Donovan- Griffin 

Will Parker- Hunchback 

Chuck Connors- Riflemen

- Lance La Cosa Nostra - 

Lance Captain: Frank “Stiletto” Gatti- Banshee 

“Machine Gun” Joe Paterbo- Zeus 

Nick DePaulo- Catapult 

“Big” Jimmy Avalon- Quickdraw

- The Gun Slingers -

Lance Captain:  “Thunder” Jake Johnson- Victor 

Blue Anderson- Panther 

Jack “Buck” Rogers- Orion 

“Dirty” Dan Jensen- Enforcer

Frank “Stiletto” Gatti’s Mission Debriefing 

Our client’s spies had determined there was some sensitive information they needed on planet Gauntlet. Our mission was to retrieve that information from several buildings where that information was stored. We were provided with the equipment needed to hijack the files and were dropped on the city’s edge. We knew which block contained the files but weren’t sure which buildings had what we wanted. Once again our target was the Draconis Combine.  They saw us coming and had three lances set up to meet us.

The plan was to concentrate two lances on the South end of town and have another lance block the center of town and stop their advance. The two lances on the South end were to plug into the buildings and take down the Kurita forces there. Most of the action happened on the South end. 

War Boss’s lance got into a serious fire fight immediately and managed to beat up several Kurita mechs. The Kurita pilots must have been newbies because they were stupid and lucky. They managed to survive several traps and last ditch maneuvers.  They also had several mechs that ran straight at our guns to get at those files. They must love honor more than their own lives because it was near suicide.

In the center of town our blocking force met up with an assault lance led by an Atlas. Machine Gun Joe and Thunder took a beating but stayed in the fight. We weren't able to make it to the North end of town but still managed to get all but one file. I’m pretty sure the Combine managed to get them all but they took a beating doing it.

On the south end Warboss trapped an enemy Panther and took it down. The new guy in the Hunchback got the last shot in. Conners got way too far ahead of his lance and got his Riflemen shot out from under him. Ching picked him up. My lance shot up a Dragon. I don’t know what was left holding him together but he managed to limp off. Their Whitworth wasn’t so lucky it went up in a big ball of flame. He shouldn’t have turned his back on me, but I guess he was too focused on Ching’s Griffin.  As we retreated West, Warboss finished off a Trebuchet that had retreated into the woods. We ended up losing one mech and taking three down and retrieved five of the six files. Not a bad for the Black Jacks.

Kills & Casualties

La Cosa Nostra- 1 Kill, no casualties

Gun Slingers- 0 Kills, no casualties

War Pigs- 2 Kills, 3 mechs lost, 3 casualties