Battletech: Sword and Dragon: Touchpoint Valentina

[ravehnhuhrxt]

July 16th @ 7 PM

Touchpoint: Valentina

   We’d been probing deeper and deeper into Combine territory chasing down information for the spooks back on New Avalon for months. With skill (and not a little luck) we were still in pretty good shape, but our spirits were lagging some. Months of nothing but field rations and one-thousand-and-one varieties of Soya coming out of the galley, combined with the only tantalizing fragments of information our operations had gleaned, were all having an impact.

   So the Captain decided it was time to make
a pit stop and raid the Snake’s larder to bring
some festive spirit to the Galloping Ghost. Only
problem was, the Ryuken BattleMechs that were lurking behind
the butter dish.

   Christmas was coming and it looked like our goose was well and
truly cooked.
—From the journals of Daniel Waylen (3048)

SITUATION
Quarry Fourteen
Valentina, Draconis Combine
24 December 3048


   Behind the Combine lines and running low on supplies once more, Captain McKinnon thought to hit the modest world of Valentina to grab some fresh foodstuffs for a holiday feast. Military intetlligence didn’t have any solid intel on the disposition of troops on Valentina, so the unit decided to take the risk. Besides, fresh meat beat canned spam any day of the millennium.

GAME SET-UP
   The Defender sets up two maps in any legal arrangement. The Attacker then selects two sides that are considered impassable due to the massive cliff walls of the quarry. The Defender then declares one of the remaining edges as the objective edge.

Attacker
   The Attacker consists of two lances of the Ryuken-san that happen to be on maneuvers. The Ryuken are a House force and must use the Kurita section of the Random ’Mech Assignment Table: Opposing Force. To determine the Ryuken’s force
composition, roll on the table at the top of the next column.
   The Attacker enters from the designated objective edge. The Attacker’s forces should be determined after the Defender has selected his forces.

1D6 Force Composition
1 2 Light, 4 Medium, 2 Heavy
2 1 Light, 6 Medium, 1 Assault
3 5 Medium, 3 Heavy
4 2 Medium, 4 Heavy, 2 Assault
5 1 Medium, 5 Heavy, 3 Assault
6 4 Heavy, 4 Assault

Defender
   The Defender consists of any two lances of Fox’s Teeth. The defending player secretly selects three of the Raider ‘Mechs that are carrying the holiday foodstuffs crammed in their cockpit. The Defender begins with each lance placed within two hexes of a quarry wall.

WARCHEST
   Track Cost: 400 WP, completion of Touchpoint: Thestria
   Optional Bonuses (points are gained if at least one Objective is completed with following optional rules, all bonuses cumulative):
   +100 Night Combat: A lack of ambient light degrades the ability of BattleMechs to target and hit an opposing unit. Apply a +2 to-hit modifier to all weapon attacks.
   +100 Elite Attackers: Assign half of the Attacker forces with skills of Piloting 3 and Gunnery 2.

OBJECTIVES
   1. Secret cargo. At least two of the designated Defender ’Mechs should exit the declared objective edge without losing their cargo (any critical hit to the Head location will ruin the foodstuffs). (Reward: 500)
   2. Hammer. Cripple / destroy at least half of the Attacker’s forces. (Reward: 400)

SPECIAL RULES
   The following rules are in effect for this track:

Forced Withdrawal
   The Ryuken-san is operating under the Forced Withdrawal rules (see p. 60).

Commander
   One of the units on the Ryuken’s force is a field commander. The Attacker selects one unit of his force and assigns it a Gunnery skill of 2 and Piloting skill of 2. If the unit containing the commander is destroyed, the Attacker must apply a –2 modifier to all subsequent Initiative rolls.

AFTERMATH
   What should have been a simple operation of acquiring a few essentials with which to celebrate Christmas proved far more exciting (and dangerous) than Ian McKinnon could ever have anticipated. The unexpected presence of front-line troops turned an otherwise textbook snap raid into a hard-fought withdrawal.

   Only after a lucky hit disabled the Kuritan force commander’s ’Mech was the Fox’s Teeth able to disengage and withdraw to enjoy a well-earned Christmas party.

NEXT TRACKS
   Fighting Withdrawal, Recon, Defend

[ravehnhuhrxt]

After Action Report

I had 3 players attend, 2 played the Fox's Teeth and the third joined me to play the OpFor.

OpFor consisted of 4 heavies and 4 assault mechs fro Ryuken-san.

2 Chargers, a Cyclops, a Banshee, a Jagermech, a Grasshopper and 2 Dragons

For the Fox's Teeth, the players selected:

Black Knight (Ian McKinnon), Cataphract (George Lytton),  Enforcer (Daniel Waylen), Jagermech ("Tiny" Hill), Dervish (Hiro Chippende), Grasshopper, Hunchback,and the Centurion (Paul Danton)

The players opted to not use either of the optional special rules.

The battlefield was set up with the impassible walls on the "left" and "right" of the quarry, making a long canyon. They kept their 8 mechs together in a group and were trying to punch straight through to the objective edge. The Dragons, Cyclops and grasshopper moved to cut them off and prevent their escape while the remainder of the Ryuken mechs flanked to try and get behind the Raiders.

The Foxes concentrated fire on one of the Dragons the first round while the Ryuken spread their fire between the Enforcer and the Jagermech.

One of the Dragons was destroyed on the 3rd round, but the Fox's Jagermech took a beating and lost a leg. More brutal fighting ensued as the Ryuken stopped the Teeth from fleeing too quickly.

In the end the Foxes obtained both objectives getting 2 of the food carrying to the objective edge and then crippling or outright destroying 5 of the Ryuken-san, but they paid for their victory.

Paul Danton's Centurion was destroyed with an ammo explosion, Paul survived.

Tiny Hill's Jagermech lost a leg

Ian McKinnon's Black Knight lost an arm and took a gyro hit

The Hunchback lost a leg

George Lytton was killed by a punch to the cockpit from the Ryuken's Banshee

And there was heavy damage done to the Enforcer, Grasshopper and Dervish.

With both objectives they earned 900 WP, but the track cost, repairs, ammo and a new pilot to replace George means they actually lost 5 WP.

A well fought battle and everyone had a good time.

Next mission is  Fighting Withdrawl.