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Horror stories - Pyrrhic victories?

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Chaon

Chaon

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Feb 23, 2018
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Well I am running a campaign of the Poltergeist's Marauders as a fanfic and I just had my first battle where I lost 3/4 of my lance and won the battle in a pyrrhic victory.

Dropped into a urban map (Looks fantastic still) with Centurion, Vindicator and 2 x Blackjacks against a couple of heavily armed pirates. Very heavily armed.

As I found out, some missions are not giving you full information and the surprise can be deadly. Turns out the 2 Skull mission had a couple heavy mechs that turned out to be an Atlas and a Cataphract. WTF?

And then I had a Canopian lance made up of a Cataphract, Commando and Blackjack turn up who were hostile to me straight off the bat.

I watched my lance mates dropping like flies as I tried to kill the Atlas, Cataphracts and the rest of them.

It got into a melee furball of a fight and I was the last one standing.

It left me with being able to salvage a complete Atlas and parts of the Cataphracts but I lost two pilots KIA and one pilot in the med bay for 94 days.

So what's your favourite horror story where you walked away with a victory?
 
It was a couple months ago, so exact details have become fuzzy, but I probably will never forget this one mission.

It was a battle in a desert biome; 3 skulls I think. I dropped down 2 Thunderbolts, a K2 Catapult (first one I've ever gotten) and a Griffin. I can't remember the enemy lance exactly, but reinforcements show up really early, so there were 8 enemy mechs, mostly mediums, maybe 2 heavies. All of my mechs had jump jets, so closing the distance, they all jump + braced. The reinforcements come on screen. First a Centurion fires his AC/10 + LRM 10 at one of my thunderbolts in the open, but 6 evasion pips, so should be fine. Nope. AC/10 hits the head! Next enemy mech to go was a Trebuchet. Fires all those LRMs at the thunderbolt, and of course, even with 5 Evasion Pips, numerous head hits, and pilot dead.

Despite the uphill battle, I still managed to destroy the enemy (kind of have to avenge the lost Mechwarrior!), but I had to eject another Mechwarrior for fear of having 2 dead in one mission. All of my mechs were severely damaged (except that first Thunderbolt with no head), and all of the surviving mechwarriors took multiple injuries...

At the time, I was pissed about the rotten luck, but considering how many hours I've put into the game, I think you have to expect to get crazy stuff like that once in a while...
 
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Ouch.
 
The first battle of the AC/2 campaign.

3 mechs down, all of them crippled. It was a very harsh start to what would be a hard campaign...
 
Well mine was pretty recent. Building up my force and think to myself a nice easy 2 Skull mission to up the cash reserves. Wanted to do an Assassination for the heavy mech salvage but was offered a Pirate battle where a heavy mech has been sighted. Sounds like fun, my mediums are power and my warriors are tough so should be a cake walk.

Land and its ice with a lovely valley, perfect to ambush.

Incoming contacts, 2 mechs and 2 tanks.....getting essier and easier. Wolverine and Vindicator come to play. Jump out my suped up Vindicator to do battle and well one of the tanks is an LRM carrier. Short and brutal fight later, both enemy mechs down and LRM carrier stomped. Other tank still too far away to identify. However Dekker had to punch out his Vindicator. Even though I can't see the tank missles keep coming and not from the tank.

Lots of fancy jumping and sprinting but my remaining 3 mechs stomp said tank and now are above the engagement area. In walks 2 Centurion A's a Crab and a Blackknight. My Enforcer had to hop around but managed to remove the AC10's from the Cenurions while my other 2 mechs take on the Blackknight. After what seemed like hours later 2 mechs down and my final mech is weaponless. They only have a damaged Crab left. Physical attack to the rear of the crab and I carry the day. 1 KIA warrior and 3 out for between 60 and 90 days. Repair costs way way exceed the payout and I am sitting on my butt for a month fixing mechs.
 
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My worse mission was my first Set the Beacon mission with the super tight time limit. The Phoenix Hawk sprinted to the objective on the right. I hoped a few of the OP4 would try and catch it, but it was completely ignored. My other three mechs sprinted to the second objective on the left. A Black Jack, Vindicator and a Vulcan. They ran into a wall of 8 mechs and tanks comprised of a few Locusts but mostly Vindicators Centurions and other high range mediums. I couldn't hit a thing. Ultimately, three mechs destroyed and two Mechwarriors dead.
My latest disaster was a Attack and Defend in which I was backed up by a substantial Davion Lance. At this time, all of my Mechwarriors are straight 10 across the Board, and all have the Precise Shot Mastery. We were fighting Two Crabs, a Banshee, three Thunderbolts, a Black Knight and a Highlander. No one dead but my mechs were hurting. I figure a fired at least 10 precise shots at the enemies heads. I bagged one Thunderbolt that way. Even the Marauder could not zero in. I have never lost that much prime salvage in a battle.
 
Had one of these the other night. It was the Ambush Convoy mission for the Prototype Flashpoint. The vehicles in this mission can be a real danger. In a past playthrough I lost a Blackjack on this very mission, so I normally play pretty cautious.

This last playthrough I dropped with a Centurion A, Vindicator, Panther, and my sweet Assassin with a L-Coil.

I made the mistake of overextending with my Assassin. I thought since it was very evasive, it would be fine. I was wrong.

A Striker NARC attacked and NARC'd me. Then an SRM Carrier came into view and lit me up proceeded by an LRM Carrier. The poor Assassin didn't stand a chance. It just disolved under fire more thoroughly than any mech in the past in my employ. It was so awe inspiring I wasn't even that mad to lose an Assassin, the pilot, and that nice L-Coil. I just sat there dumbfounded.

I won the mission and proceeded to complete the Flashpoint (gifting the Pirates a nice little treat). I need that Black market to make up for this victory lol.
 
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Defend a base, thought everything was going on as usual. Too close. Some victor blasted one of my elite mechs in the face. First casualty. Didn't bother reloading.

One time I had to mark a base for bombardment. My hero got trapped by 4 vehicles, can't remember what they fielded but I underestimated it. I'm sure it was a headshot, whatever it was, I think it was 90 days before my hero piece got out.
 
Kharille said:
Defend a base, thought everything was going on as usual. Too close. Some victor blasted one of my elite mechs in the face. First casualty. Didn't bother reloading.

One time I had to mark a base for bombardment. My hero got trapped by 4 vehicles, can't remember what they fielded but I underestimated it. I'm sure it was a headshot, whatever it was, I think it was 90 days before my hero piece got out.
Click to expand...

Honestly, AC/20s to the dome are terrifying at any point in the game. Sure they're unlikely, but you roll the dice often enough and it'll come up sooner or later.

Opposing pilots with breaching shot and AC/20s are always the very first thing I kill, because there's just no way I ever want them to have a chance to return fire inside their range :(
 
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foamyesque said:
Honestly, AC/20s to the dome are terrifying at any point in the game. Sure they're unlikely, but you roll the dice often enough and it'll come up sooner or later.

Opposing pilots with breaching shot and AC/20s are always the very first thing I kill, because there's just no way I ever want them to have a chance to return fire inside their range :(
Click to expand...

Agreed. I prioritize destroying the A/C 20 weilding mech (or at least the A/C 20 or ammo location) as soon as I can. Nothing ruins your day like one of those to the brain bucket.
 
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Did a 2.5 star mission with a name like "Hostile landing" or such, to take out a heavy lance before it gets set up for whatever has been planned. I'd done several 3 and 3.5 star missions already, so no big deal, right? I took a MAD-2R (salvaged on a campaign mission), TDR-5S, QKD, and JR (all moderately modified) to do the run. I immediately run up against a HBK-4G and a Demolisher, with a VND and Bulldog delivering fire support against me, on turn 1.

Second turn starts, my JR moves, and then I've suddenly got LRM fire coming in from my left, followed by an announcement about tracking enemy reinforcements....gee, thanks for the advance notice. That's followed by PPC fire from the same direction, then more LRMs, and more weapons fire. The flanking force consisted of a CTF, GRF, VND, and GHR, which is a lot of long-range weaponry, with the HBK and Demolisher from the original group closing in from the front to use their AC/20s. I decided to try to avoid the original group for the moment and close with the ranged flankers, rather than eat all of that PPC and LRM fire while taking on the brawlers. My JR served as a distraction for the short-ranged units, to draw them off on a wild goose-chase while my other 3 killed the second group. Still good.

EVERY long-range weapon concentrated on my heavily teched-up QKD, despite a decent movement modifier, and after a couple of turns of that it lost both torso sides and a leg, plus took a couple of head hits, pilot incapacitated. I couldn't seem to hit anything for a couple of turns. The TDR then lost its right arm with an excellent LL+++ but suffered virtually no other damage, and then the MAD-2R lost an arm with an ERPPC and a torso side packed with DHS that I can't easily replace (game option set so no equipment comes with rebuilt 'Mechs), yet virtually no damage to the opposite side, but I finished off the flanking lance. Meanwhile, the modified JR took fire from the first VND's PPC and the Bulldog tank, losing its arm with two ML++ (not the side with the stock MLs), before my other two remaining 'Mechs (minus a few pieces) came back and finished the mission fairly easily. I couldn't seem to miss anything for a couple of turns. The dice giveth and the dice taketh away.

The battle wiped out more than half of my advanced tech items, including several of the best pieces. The pilot of the QKD survived, but would be out of action for months. I could easily field replacement units and another fairly decent pilot (7 gunnery instead of 8) on relatively short notice, and no 'Mechs were completely lost, but without all of those high-tech goodies (primarily those elusive DHS), it was going to be a much more painful campaign. Reload time.
 
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