Thursday, October 7, 2010

Campaign Scenario Preview - Siege of the Underwater Base

Two weeks ago I tried a scenario preview post and it seemed to go pretty well, so I'm going to continue on that trend. 

So to pick up where we left off, our overarching mission is to destroy a Davion underwater command post on Brighton.  This is to be a multi-stage mission, with the past two scenarios were breakthrough missions (see the after action reports for breakthrough 1 and breakthrough 2).  The third mission is going to be the seige on the underwater base.  And the final mission is a retreat to our operations base. 

We find ourselves at the seige of the base and it looks like I'll be running the OpFor for the scenario.  I don't have a detailed list of my forces for defense yet, but I understand its going to be comprised of 'Mechs and vehicles...including submarines.  The forces that I had during the breakthrough scenario are going to be deployed as a "rear guard" for story purposes, and will not partake in the seige.

-Jerry's Force (JF): Penetrator, Shadow Hawk, Archer , Marauder II
-Warlock Fusiliers (WF): Cudgel CDG-2A, 2 Huron Warriors HUR-W0-R4L, Lao Hu LHU-2B (moderately damaged)
-Bethel Irregulars (BI): Cerberus, Griffin, Caeser,  2 Warrior VTOLs, Atlas AS7-K, Cestus CTS-6Z, Hunchback HBK-5S, Victor VTR-9D
-Lords of the Night (NL): 3 Ti Ts'angs, Wraith TR1, Phoenix Hawk PXH-4L
-Shengli Armed Asset Protection (SLAAP): Crab Custom (damaged), Lancelot, Ti Ts'ang 9J, Ostsol 8M (damaged), Thunder 2L (damaged), Daikyu, Braghest Custom, Templar Custom, 1 Platoon of Grenadiers BA on a Badger, 1 Platoon of Trinity BA w/ Plasma Rifles

Additionally, they willl be supported by two Danais and two Demolisher Arrow IV variants.

So the mercenary coalition forces are going to have about 8 lances worth of stuff deployed for this scenario.  And we are playing it on a 4 mapsheet (2 by 2) battlefield.  So the battlefield is going to get very congested very quickly.  We actually moved our gaming to Saturdays now, so we can start earlier and play later if necessary, which will really help in general, but also specifically for this scenario since I think it's going to take some time. 

Since there will be an underwater component of the battle, we will be using the underwater rules (probably in Tac Ops).  I have not read them, but I understand all missile and ballistic weapons are useless.  Lasers can be used, but have 1/3 their typical range.  Missile launchers can be refit to torpedo launchers, but it's not an easy change, and none of the Merc forces made any swaps. 

As OpFor, my high priority targets are the Ti Ts'angs, since they are laser zombies with TSM, which would wreck the base very quickly.  After those 'Mechs, its really a crap shoot.  I'm torn between just trying to punch holes in every 'Mech so they can't get in the water, or trying to knock them out of commission. 

Looks to be a pretty intense slug fest.  Hopefully we can keep the game moving quick.  Check back on Sunday, I should have a full report up while I watch some football.

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. You should write siege and not seige :P

    So no torpedoes, no ballistic weapons, only lasers and some damaged units, this is not good looking.

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  3. That's going to be a lot of congestion! I take it you don't get to design the Opfor units? I'd hope for a lot of different weapon systems to target as many mechs as possible and hope for hull breaches...

    Kill those Ti T'Sangs as you suggest, and then knock a few holes everywhere and watch 'em drown :) Did any of the damaged units have stripped armour at all? If so, you're already a step up!

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  4. @Ice - Changed the spelling, and yeah, only lasers and physicals.

    @JTP - I think a few of their units are missing armor in spots, so I would imagine about a lance's worth of 'Mechs can't actually go underwater. I don't get to design the OpFor forces, which is unfortunate, but it probably works out better since I have little grasp on canonicity of units by realm. Depending on the size of the force available to me, I feel pretty confident I can successfully defend the base. I think I will look to breach and leave the 'Mech alone after that.

    As an aside, I think one of the four map sheets will be water, the rest will be land. So I'll have a variety of land and underwater forces.

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  5. Ahh, if there's that much land then it's not a sucker bet them bringing the damaged units on... and they're probably all tight enough on planning that they'll use them to clear a path and shepherd the unbreached units to the waters edge!

    Unless the OpFor units are grossly outmatched I think you're in with a really good chance to give your own side a pummelling :)

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