Bit off way more than I could chew

[Marc_Hicks]

What's that saying....."pride cometh before the fall"? Well I just get re-taught the meaning of that phrase tonight.

I confess that I was riding high after my successful completion of the "Siege-Breaker" Flash-point, so decided to fly off in search of more challenging missions.....well, the one below sounded challenging, without being suicidal.

However, the minute I saw *this* in the OpFor, I probably should have done a runner!

The arrival of Planetary Government Bounty Hunters added an extra layer of difficulty I was not ready to handle!

Hilariously, the King Crab I'd so feared turned out to be much less of a danger than I'd first thought. My Hunchback took it out with an extremely lucky shot to the head with an AC20+ (quite the irony, given the loadout of the King Crab ).

Sadly, the Bounty Hunters seemed more interested in taking out my Lance than in doing the job they were there to do......so it forced me to try & take them out, too, ASAP.

With a modest, if largely unwilling, assist from the Bounty Hunters, I was able to take out the second terrorist

Sadly, though, with one of my Mechs Cored, & another Mech close to losing all weapons, I decided that Discretion is the Better Part of Valour, & bugged out of there.

Its pretty clear that I made the correct decision-though I wish I'd gotten Piranha to punch out of his Mech when I had the chance. Lost a great tactitian, & a quite rare Thunderbolt variant to boot.

The only silver lining is that I still managed to get some good salvage.....though I was given no choice due to my withdrawal.....and I also believe that at least some of that salvage came from my wrecked Thunderbolt .

Vale, Piranha, you'll be sorely missed.....but what an epic, fantasy RPG way to go-slain by a *dragon*!!!!

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

You need to fade back if you want the bounty hunters to go after the other group. Best approach is probably sensor lock and a few at far range attacks.

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

Good to see you getting back into the swing of things. My main computer is down for the foreseeable so my only Battletech thrills at the moment are entirely vicarious.

 

[commuterzombie]

That's rough. It must have hurt to go from being excited about 3 KGC parts to having to withdraw.

I had a similarly rough outing early on in my career. What I thought would be a routine 4 vs 4 turned into a 4 vs 8 when an entirely separate lance of bad guys started out allied to the lance I was meant to destroy. I was very confused! The mission starts 36 minutes in here:

I didn't withdraw but I probably should have, repairs were expensive!

 

[Shark7]

You need to fade back if you want the bounty hunters to go after the other group. Best approach is probably sensor lock and a few at far range attacks.

This is the tactic I use on this particular mission type. Go find some terrain to hide behind where the AI can't get line of sight, then once they engage each other, do some back-stabs and pick off weakened mechs.

I've done this mission with 4 light mechs and succeeded. Actually it works better for me since the lights can take a 'double turn' by reserving till the end, jump in, shoot in the back, shoot again and jump back out (with ace piloting) or jump back out (without ace piloting) and repeat the process as needed.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Yes, in hindsight, I perhaps should have used a bit more discretion at the very start.....but I *really* wanted to take that King Crab out of the fight ASAP.