The Ongoing Iron-man Adventures of Trojan's Cavaliers

[Marc_Hicks]

Hi guys,

So after the sad demise of Viking's mercenary company, I decided to have another shot at the Iron-man Career Mode-with Mech Destruction & empty salvaged mechs included. So far, this career is going much better.

I plan to provide a more detailed synopsis of Trojan's career to date, but suffice to say that her Company has 6 months worth of C-Bills, 2 spare mechs outside of her Lance.....& has just recently acquired a Trebuchet, in what was her toughest mission to date (2 Trebuchets & a Hunchback, but luckily no casualties on her side).

Here is a pic of Trojan:

A former member of a Noble House in Kurita Space. Her family were killed under mysterious circumstances, & so she fled Kurita space & went to work for the Aurigan Coalition, before the rise of the Directorate. With the recent return of Lady Arano, she has now returned to the Reach to look for Mercenary work.

In a wonderful twist of fate, one of her pilots sounds *exactly* like Glitch!!!!

After some slow going, including at least one mission where one of her pilots was forced to eject, she was able to finally acquire a second Panther, that she outfitted her own special way!

She also acquired a spare Locust, Commando & Spider-all of which she sold for extra cash!


She then accepted a 1.5 Skull "Stubborn Surrender" mission &-as can be seen below-it was the second closest to destruction that many of her Mechs had ever come!

In particular, two of my Mech Warriors decided to push their Mechs to the extreme, by taking on excess heat. However, it was worth it to disable the Hunchback they were facing down. In the end, it was the Trebuchets that proved the greatest threat, but luckily our Lance took them all out, & soon I will have a Trebuchet to add to my Lance!

More thrilling adventures still to come!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

So tonight was much more of a mixed bag, though I still ended my play-through pretty much ahead. My first mission was a fairly "By the Numbers" base capture mission.....though the arrival of a Blackjack got me a little nervous. Fortunately, a lucky shot triggered an ammo explosion that incapacitated the pilot .

Got quite a nice salvage haul from this mission, as well as a decent cash pay-out.....that I used to do another minor upgrade on my Argo.

Then I decided to seek greener pastures, metaphorically speaking, feeling more confident about taking slightly harder missions-so decided to head over to Smithon. Once there, I took a 2 skull mission to assassinate the leader of a group of Insurgents belonging to the deposed Aurigan Directorate.

Well, lets just say that this mission proved to be a great deal harder than its 2-skull rating suggested. I found myself faced off against a total of 9 mechs, including a Wolverine, a Kintaro, an Enforcer & a Jaegermech. I had initially hoped to rush in, kill off the mission target, then bug out......but sadly things turned against me pretty quickly, & I instead chose to withdraw, even if it meant sacrificing my carefully cultivated reputation with Lady Arano.

My 3rd mission for the night, another base capture, went reasonably well, though the Martian conditions made heat management a chore......

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well, its true what they say.....you're only ever one failed mission away from near disaster. My night started well enough, with a somewhat tough mission mostly hampered by a pesky reinforcement lance of Jenners & Locusts-coupled with a Martian Biome & a Firestarter in the OpFor.

Still, I came away from that mission pretty much intact, but decided it was high time to find a cooler climate. So I popped over to Weldry & found a mission to "Settle a Grudge"......a 2 skull mission.

At first, it didn't look too bad-with only a Locust & Spider in the OpFor. Then a fully armoured Enforcer showed up, & I got a little nervous, but still felt confident of completing the mission. Then it all went to hell. A warning about reinforcements, the appearance of 2 fully armoured Shadowhawks, a Hunchback 4P & a Firestarter.

Didn't take long after that for one of my Mech-warriors to have to eject-both to save his life & his mech from destruction. Lets just say it barely improved from there. Managed to take down 75% of the primary force, but realised I needed to bug out without completing the mission. Sadly, before I could hit the withdraw button, I lost my Vindicator to a stray Locust attack from behind. Luckily my Commander's plot armour saved her life!

Ever since that mission, it has proven near impossible to keep my head above water, financially. Been trying to maximize the C-Bills for my most recent missions.....to hell with the salvage! Sadly this has been a bit "hit & miss". Missions like the one below were a breeze, whereas some other missions proved to be so tough that I was again forced to withdraw.

I ended the night with barely a month's worth of cash to my name!!!

 

[Nakkivene]

Also takes just one lucky break. Some missions have like a locust and another thing and pay handsomely for whatever reason.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well, talk about a fantastic turn-around. Decided that the Aurigan Reach just wasn't working out for me, so headed out to Cappellan Space to take on a travel contract. It paid well, was relatively easy (a simple base defense mission) &, by sacrificing the bulk of my salvage rights, put me in a slightly more secure position-with a 4 months buffer between me & bankruptcy.

As the planetary government of Hericlitus had proven so generous, I decided to take another job with them-this time to *destroy* a base.

It gave one of my new Mech-Warriors a chance to shine, whilst the Commander was holed up in Med-Bay.

"Who's the black private dick, that's a sex machine to all the chicks? (Shaft)......You're damn right"

I then decided it was time to head across to Lyreton, where I could be guaranteed of some "easy money"

Not only did this journey allow time for my two injured Mechwarriors to fully heal, it also gave us a chance to kick back & listen to the Solaris Championship

Upon arrival, I took a mission to take out some nosy neighbours! My first mission with Trojan back in a Mech!

Luckily, this battle was a "by the numbers" 4v4 battle, & one I won with relative ease!

So I ended the night like this:

and I managed to get it up to 7 months, after I sold off one of my newly completed Commandos....up from just one flashing orange bar at the start of the night. Pretty big turn-around, eh?

Now the question is this-I have a 2 skull Destroy Base Mission I can do, that is worth a fair bit in cash & salvage......which I think I need to get myself off this current treadmill. However, the last 2 skull mission I took left me in the dire state I ended up in last night. So, do I push on with 0.5 to 1.5 skull missions for a bit longer, or do I take a risk & take on this base? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

You have a big enough buffer and your real barrier right now is that you're short on mediums. Doing higher skull missions is the only way you're going to break through that though, so it's worth the punt, especially as Destroy Base missions tend to be a little easier because of the turret padding. As long as you have a Sensor Lock pilot you should be able to peel the garrison off, deal with them, then pick off the turrets with your PPCs.

Only caveat is that I had a Destroy Base mission go incredibly sour when I moved too close to the base before clearing out the garrison and ended up swamped by the reinforcements. Try and keep back to avoid triggering any that might show up and you should be fine.

 

[Nakkivene]

Some Destroy Base missions are very easy. In others you're deployed in the corridor of death and you scramble to find a good angle while simultaneously attempting to stay out of sight or at least in cover. Then the reinforcements hit with like catapults an LRM carriers while the turrets sensorlock you

 

[Marc_Hicks]

OK, so based on the advice I got from you guys, I decided to take a chance on the 2 skull mission. Luckily, it went mostly to plan.....with the exception of the Panther that lost an arm .

Farewell Hatchetman .

Farewell Blackjack#1

The two most wonderful words I'd heard tonight!!!!

Some pretty nice salvage from that mission, too.....

....and just a pretty pic of the location of that mission!

It was the next mission, however, that proved to be one of my greatest challenges in this career......

 

[ntw]

Nice - got a complete BJ-1 now?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

With a complete Blackjack in my Mechbay, I decided I wanted to outfit it ASAP. Sadly, however, Tincalunas was an abandoned world.....meaning there was no store to speak of.

So I decided to fly back to Arano Space, to find the parts I need *and* to see if I could find some more decent work! The mission below seemed to fit that bill!

Assassination missions are usually relatively easy ways to pick up heavier Mech parts, so I decided to take my chances on a 1.5 skull mission. I mean, how hard can it be?

Well, easy enough at first. Primary Lance was comprised of mostly Light Mechs, the remnants of which you can see scattered around my triumphant Mech-warrior

Sadly, the reinforcement Lance was a bit more sturdy, consisting of 2 Jenners, a Panther & an Enforcer (lightly armoured, thankfully). They packed a pretty hefty punch, & left Trojan's Mech dangerously low on Armour, especially around the CT.

Then the Assassination target showed their face.......a fully armoured Thunderbolt!!!!!

The fight was extremely tough, & Grond (the commander's Trebuchet) came dangerously close to being cored, but in the end we were able to take our opponent down by a straight up incapacitation (i.e. multiple pilot damage), leaving me with multiple Thunderbolt parts.....

Now, a serious question for the group mind. After her most recent brush with nearly being incapacitated, the Commander is seriously beginning to wonder if she should trade in her Jump Jets for heavier armour

Please let me know what you think guys!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Nice - got a complete BJ-1 now?

Yes indeed!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

My 3rd and final mission for the night. Undeterred by my previous experience, I decided to take a second 1.5 Skull Assassination mission. This time with just a single Lance with the target.

2 Spiders & 2 Firestarters......well the pics will tell you what became of them .

The assassination target turned out to be a fully armoured Wolverine. Fortunately, it ended up meeting the same fate as its escorts .

Again, the haul from this mission was pretty good!

....and, so it took a fair while, but I now finally have all the parts I need to recreate a stock Blackjack. Do you reckon I should use it to replace one of my Panthers?

 

[ntw]

Yes indeed!

lol - ninja post
and yes - replace a PNT with your BJ IMHO

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

On your Treb, I'd probably pull a Mlas and downgrade one of the SRMs to a 4 (or even just downgrade the SRM) before I pulled the JJs. That'll give you a bit more combat endurance and max front armour. Admittedly I'm running +dam versions, but my SHD-2D is doing fine duty with that loadout (plus a couple of Slas).

Also, by all that's holy get that ammo out of your CT! One in the leg and one in the left torso will stop some catastrophes.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well, let me start this latest chapter by saying "boy is my face red".

I saw @ThatGuyMontag 's excellent advice, re: placement of SRM ammo, right before I headed to bed for the night......& had determined that I'd take care of that matter as my first priority-BEFORE undertaking more missions.

Well, in the 12 hours that passed between play sessions, I confess that I'd completely forgotten about that matter. Care to wager how that turned out for me?

Now, the story continues....

I had decided, last night, that I wanted to take this mission to capture a Manufacturing Facility held by Directorate Insurgents.

This was also an excellent chance to put Pontoon through it's paces

Stage one of the mission went off without a hitch. The garrison was mostly lighter mechs, that we disposed of with relative ease. However, we had incoming reinforcements arrive before we could even finish dispatching the garrison! The vanguard of the reinforcements was a Firestarter!!!

It didn't take too much effort to take out the Firestarter, but my joy was short-lived when I saw a Hunchback 4P come over the hill!!!

A pitch battle ensued between my Lance & the Hunchback, Manticore & Striker left in the OpFor. Sadly, they seemed to want to focus poor Trojan, in spite of her best efforts to evade them. This is where my forgetfulness cost me dearly, as my CT got breached before I had time to eject Trojan......& precisely when the SRM ammo exploded & cored the Trebuchet. Farewell, Grond, we barely knew you.

Though I didn't capture the moment of heart-rending destruction, I did get a picture of the aftermath .

Fortunately, the remaining 3 mechs were able to take down the remnants of the OpFor, allowing the mission to be completed.....albeit with some awful battle damage!

Did get some decent salvage out of it, though!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

With the whole team feeling a bit shell-shocked after the previous mission, it was decided to do a quick milk-run to earn some quick cash for very little risk. This was also a great opportunity for one of the "2nd tier" pilots to get some extra experience of working in a mech.

With that out of the way, the team decided to take on a somewhat tougher mission.....namely a repossession on behalf of the Capellans.

The convoy itself proved to be fairly light work, but the escort was a little bit tougher (a Shadowhawk, a Griffin & a Wolverine).

Fortunately, I was able to take out the Wolverine's pilot *without* destroying the Mech......meaning I got all 3 parts available at salvage time!

....and this was the wash-up!

.....and this has led me to being able to construct a worthy replacement for Grond!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

My next mission involved the wanton destruction of a captured base, & definitely felt up to the task!

As with my earlier base capture mission, taking out the garrison was surprisingly easy!

It was the reinforcements that proved to be the greatest difficulty-in spite of their smaller size-in no small part due to the fact that they decided to focus all their efforts on Prancer....the Interim Commander.

They managed to whittle down her armour & internal structure, whilst completely ignoring the rest of my Lance. It was an extremely tense moment when the Trebuchet got knocked down, & I wondered if I'd be able to stand it up & eject Prancer in time!!! Fortunately, luck was on my side.....& I decided that discretion is the better part of valour!

Fortunately, the enemy learned to rue their mistake, as the rest of my nearly pristine Lance tore the OpFor a new one!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

.....and the saga continues.

I finally decided it was time to put the new Wolverine through its paces, so I sent it in a Lance to deal with some remnants of the former Directorate that were hassling the locals.

It was a fairly tough fight because, even though the units were fairly ramshackle, a Vindicator, Griffin & 2 Wolverines are not a Lance to take lightly-especially when some of your best Mech Warriors are holed up in the Med Bay!

To make matters worse, the Mech Techs clearly thought it'd be a laugh to put a target somewhere on my Wolverine......as that was the Mech the OpFor chose to focus on, to the exclusion of almost the rest of my Lance. Also, for some reason, Grumpy forgot for a while that the Wolverine had Jump Jets installed.

In spite of all of my best efforts, my beloved Wolverine got knocked down & cored before Grumpy had a chance to eject. Which also means that Grumpy became the first true casualty in my current career .

Fortunately, the remaining members of the Lance were determined to get revenge for the death of their Lance leader.......& were able to wipe out all 4 enemy Mechs in fairly quick succession!

Although the salvage from the mission was good, I sadly didn't get enough Wolverine parts to replace Logan . Oh well, time to push on!

 

[Havamal]

Keep 'em coming!

 

[Amechwarrior]

Are you out reserving your opponents? Also, I've found this video from @Edmon to be great at showcasing how not to take any damage at all in a contract. Keeping your units alive long enough to salvage something heavier is going to be the only thing that lets you move up and secure an impervious nest egg with higher contract payouts.

But keep them coming! I want to see how you do to the end.