SPOILERS - - Of Unknown Origin, the 411 on the HM Mini-Campaign - - SPOILERS

[Prussian Havoc]

Possibly, although the Canon arrival of an Outbound Light jumpship in the Huntress system in 3044(45?) was the actual trigger.

There's also the possibility of a "law, not spirit" response. Log transmissions, figure out what's going on, then submit a formal backdated report to the tomb-ship in orbit over Strana Mechty, designed to be auto-filed and archived without setting off any flags or notifications.

I went back through my Clan Sourcebooks and assorted other holdings... while the Outbound Light is widely known as the catalyst the Crusaders seized upon to make their plans for IS Invasion a reality, BattleTech fiction is famous for going back and writing in some awesome fiction in-between the lines of its earlier fiction.

My two favorite works of BattleTech fiction are Forever Faithful and Betrayal of Ideals [both by Blain Lee Pardoe btw! : ) ] do just that - take famous points in Clan History and write-in the literary equivalent of “The Rest of the Story.” Damn, what a fine technique and so very skillfully accomplished here! :bow:


My initial search had taken me through the immediate Trial of Refusal and in turn CGL’s Turning Point - Revival Trials and its coverage of the Grand Kurultai.

As much as I wanted to find even the barest hint of a Clan Leader with pre-knowledge of the IS, I just couldn’t find a proverbial smoking gun.

Though the more I considered Khan Cassius N’Buta’s position the more I wanted to find that thread of pre-knowledge...

“Cassius sat back and observed the planning of Operation REVIVAL. In lieu of participating in the invasion, he would have to make other plans, form political alliances the Star Adders had never formed before.
While all of you are off forsaking the Unity in the Inner Sphere, he thought, we shall remain here to watch you fall. And fall you shall. We will make certain of that.”

Oh well. : )

 

[NGV]

So completed the last mission last night.

I had my company commander in her Warhammer, and an Atlas 2, Annihilator and Bullshark-M3

Moved forwards to a small woods ahead of the start location and made contact. The Assaults mainly stayed in cover in the woods, my Warhammer did the Ace pilot hit and fade thing in and out of LOS

Stayed in contact with both enemy lances most of the time except for one turn where I lost LOS and happily took the chance to shed heat. Without thinking about it before hand I'd taken a fairly long ranged lance so I was mainly far enough away Natasha and the Bounty hunter were directing most of their fire on the other. As far as possible I took one mech down from one side then one from the other to keep things even.

Natasha went down to precision shots from my Annihilator and Bullshark, my company commander took out the Bounty Hunter with a Snub-PPC round to the chest.

Epic and slightly stressing (that enemy Annihilator is scary, and someone possibly the Bounty Hunter has the Gauss's ability to shot through armour) but at the end of the day a long way from the hardest Battletech mission I've played. I suspect if I'd have walked in with a short range bunch of brawlers it would have been a lot harder

Minor structural damage to the three assualts (I think all from the Bounty Hunters special attack) but none required more than a day in Yang's hands. The warhammer walked out unscathed, I'd like to think with a green trophy of battle in tow.

The loot was underwhelming I suppose but in the end we did it for the fame and the free drinks!

 

[hongooi]

The mini-campaign has stalled on me. I've reported it here, but in the meantime, is there any way to get it to reappear? Editing the json or fiddling with debug mode, perhaps?

 

[Prussian Havoc]

The mini-campaign has stalled on me. I've reported it here, but in the meantime, is there any way to get it to reappear? Editing the json or fiddling with debug mode, perhaps?

There is no JSON editing or Debug Mode Command that I’ve heard of that will restart such a bugged campaign.

But since it is a bug, I suggest you report it and perhaps you can find resolution there. :bow:

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

Thec2nd one is on planet independence as I recall. Have you clicked on that star system to see if the flashpoint is available?

 

[Fractalsponge]

I am having the exact same issue as hongooi. Visited Independence after a delay after the event saying the flashpoint was available, and the marker and the flashpoint are gone and not respawning.

Is there no way to trigger flashpoints manually?

 

[Jack Frost]

I finally finished this...and I'm wondering

Spoiler: about these things...

Is the mech loot from the final flashpoint limited to the Marauder parts from the OpFor? I've replayed it several times and these are the only mech parts that show up in the loot.

Secondly, and I could go look in the bug reports, did anyone else notice OpFor mech parts showing up as the glowing purple/pink model parts due to missing skins?

 

[Prussian Havoc]

I finally finished this...and I'm wondering

Spoiler: about these things...

Is the mech loot from the final flashpoint limited to the Marauder parts from the OpFor? I've replayed it several times and these are the only mech parts that show up in the loot.

Secondly, and I could go look in the bug reports, did anyone else notice OpFor mech parts showing up as the glowing purple/pink model parts due to missing skins?

Spoiler: about those things...

I never noticed that.

Lately we've had reporting of various items and Mechs missing from the Store due to misspellings in the code. I wonder if it is something similar here?

 

[Jack Frost]

Spoiler: about those things...

I never noticed that.

Lately we've had reporting of various items and Mechs missing from the Store due to misspellings in the code. I wonder if it is something similar here?

Spoiler

Yes, I recently read about the mis-spellings in another thread. I suppose that could be it.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I just finished the HM mini campaign Flashpoint, and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it and matching witt with The Bounty Hunter and Natasha Kerensky was very cool.

From what I was reading, I really lucked out the last mission. I took almost no damage. I decided to flank left up on the ridge to get forest cover and the high ground (instead of running straight in). In doing so, the Black Widow company and the Bounty Hunter's lance were the only thing each other could see. They spent most of their effort killing each other. All I saw was red "paper dolls" slugging it out . I killed one straggling Archer from the ridge, and the moved in and cleaned up what was left.

I love that Bullshark. I did replace the two LBX10s with UA/C5. Quad UA/C5s is fun . Then again, when isn't Dakka fun.

Overall I loved the FP. I hope we have more like this in the future!.

P.S. I loved that the final map was unique to the FP. I did not expect to see the Doberev lying in the ground.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

...P.S. I loved that the final map was unique to the FP. I did not expect to see the Doberev lying in the ground.

I missed that on the final map!

Ahhhhhhh!

I am just now in the early stages of an Ironman Campaign Run. I’ll pay closer attention this third time around! : )

 

[hongooi]

The mini-campaign is still broken in my career mode game, but I went back to my old campaign game and eventually finished it. What I REALLY liked about the final flashpoint was that it ended with the opportunity to kick Kerensky's and BH's butts, rather than expecting us to worship them as designer-substitute Mary Sues.

 

[Brother Diogenes]

It just dawned on me I haven't been posting much lately, but that's just because the last few weeks I've been playing so much Heavy Metal I have less time to talk about it.

So I just wrapped this up in what I now consider my "definitive" career mode playthrough, and there's really nothing I can add to the appreciation that's already been demonstrated, except for one thing: one of the reasons I've come to like the BT universe so much is that it's big enough for stories like this to happen on the sidelines, with the Inner Sphere none the wiser. Ever since Kerensky's Exodus in the earliest materials, the timeline's been full of anachronisms, unknown actors, and strange gaps in information to serve as plot hooks for stories just like this, and this flashpoint campaign makes fine use of that opportunity.

If there was any part that let me down, it's that there's apparently no achievement for getting an AC/20 headshot on a certain someone in the final mission.

Yeah, I'm still sore about what happened to Beta.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

...If there was any part that let me down, it's that there's apparently no achievement for getting an AC/20 headshot on a certain someone in the final mission.

Yeah, I'm still sore about what happened to Beta.

#StillTooSoon

#GoneBeforeHisTime

@HBS_Oushi, you are remembered... :bow:


[*Lightning in a Bottle, DFA really was part of the Golden Age of HBS Kickstarters. : ) ]

 

[Jade_Rook]

On the other hand, there is an achievement for getting an AC/20 headshot on an Orion.

#RIPBeta

 

[Eelectrica]

Finally finished using my 1.8 Campaign Ironman game, I'm too chicken to do it yet in my career game. Awesome final fight. I went in with brawlers and yeah, Some of my mechs got smashed to pieces. I wasn't ready for some of those special abilities the OPFOR has.

My Squad:
King Crab. Got torn to shreds and cored no kills. Company commander piloting.
Bullshark with the thumper canon, also got killed, two kills. Decker piloting. Nuff said really, didn't die though.
Grasshopper. Lost a leg, 4 kills, it really was hopping around at the end. Hit and run tactics worked beautifully. It was only at the end when they got a lucky shot on it when trying to get in position against that damned Atlas.
Highlander, mostly untouched, got two kills.

Given the hardware I lost, I hope they buff the gear drops for winning that battle in the next update, was kind of hoping for something cool. It did occur to me that letting them tear each other up was probably a better strategy, but I wanted to get in the pit and thrash out with them though.
Really fun mini campaign.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

@Eelectrica, great showing and kudos for tearing into the Enemy for all your Mechs and MechWarriors were worth. Well done, Good @Eelectrica, well done! :bow:

 

[Eelectrica]

From reading this thread, I'd say I made the right call engaging in battle. Whilst I lost a truck load of gear, it was more fun engaging in battle from the start. A lot of hold the breath and scary moments. And that's what it's all about.

Gear can be replaced after all which leads to new builds to try out.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

I agree. Wading into Combat against one Enemy Lance and its Special Abilities, only to have a second Enemy Lance drop into Weapons Range while I am still hotly engaged with the first Enemy... and then to find out that the Second Enemy has Special Abilities of its very own!

Yes, very heady and fluid combat dynamic especially with so many unique and powerfully armed AI BattleMechs in the mix.

A great BATTLETECH challenge. : )

 

[starscream]

the mini campaign is great only thing i wish for is that the black widow and bounty hunter mechs were available as salvage

The one thing i have noticed is when you take out either a black widow mech ot bounty hunter mech they seem to lose their textures