The Ongoing Iron-man Adventures of Trojan's Cavaliers

[Marc_Hicks]

The Mercenary life continues to have its Ups & Downs.

In brief, I picked up my first contract on a Lunar Biome

Then got to properly mourn the passing of "Grumpy" whilst en route

Needless to say, though, the Lunar environment is very challenging indeed!

All I will say is that a lot of Melee combat ensued......

I next got to do my first "Target Acquisition" mission......but sadly failed by a measly one turn .

Next I took on a "Last Mech Standing" mission, against some Directorate Insurgents......& picked up some nice Kintaro & Hunchback salvage pieces. I now find myself with somewhere around half a dozen medium Mechs were I have 2/3rds of what I require. It's kinda frustrating!

I then took on a 2 skull assassination mission, wherein I managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The mission didn't look too hard at first-with some ramshackle Light Mechs, but then a Hatchetman & Vindicator showed up to make things a bit more interesting. Even then I'd have done pretty well, except that the mission target turned out to be a fully armoured Catapult K2!!!!

Not long after the arrival of the Catapult, Trojan was forced to eject-to prevent the loss of yet another Trebuchet, though fortunately the Hatchetman came down not long after.

Sadly, another ejection was forced by some very lucky shots by the Catapult against my Black-jack!

So there we were-2 of my lightest Mechs, both already somewhat damaged, vs 3 OpFor Mechs. I was almost ready to withdraw, but couldn't be certain if it would be considered Good or Bad Faith. So I decided to at least stick it out until I brought down the supporting forces. Which I managed with greater ease than I expected!

Buoyed by the turn-around in my fortunes, I ordered the two remaining Mech Warriors to try & take down the assassination target too!

At which they succeeded. Boy, was I relieved at that!

Sadly, though, although I won the day, the cost of fixing all my Mechs actually ate up the bulk of my payout!

Though that Hatchetman piece was a nice reward!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

OK, so I need advice from the Group Mind.

I will soon have the following Mechs in my Lance-a Wolverine, a Black-jack, a Vindicator & a Trebuchet (so an all Medium Lance).

Do you think I am now placed reasonably well to take on a Flashpoint?

 

[Amechwarrior]

OK, so I need advice from the Group Mind.

I will soon have the following Mechs in my Lance-a Wolverine, a Black-jack, a Vindicator & a Trebuchet (so an all Medium Lance).

Do you think I am now placed reasonably well to take on a Flashpoint?

The lowest difficulty FP is Joint Venture at 2.5 skulls. I've seen a lot of posters saying the 2nd part is a bit harder than par if you get the wrong kind of OPFOR spawned. I don't want to go in to spoiler details, but the mission types in that FP are not the easiest. Given you are getting 50% losses on 2 skulls I'd say hold off on that until you either have a single solid 75t heavy or a full lance of optimal mediums with all 50 and 55t weights. I'd shot for a CN9-A setup for LRMs, a HBK of any kind and two SHD/GRF/KTO setup for SRMs and Jump Jets.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Sigh. Sadly I was forced to withdraw from another mission. Fortunately it was a Good Faith withdrawal.

It was a 1.5 Skull Assassination Mission, so thought nothing of using some of my 2nd tier Mech Warriors to help them gain some much needed experience!

Little did I expect to be up against 9 Mechs in total. True, a few of them were Spiders & Locusts, but they're not to be underestimated-in numbers-when they can so easily get into your rear arc. I didn't lose any mechs, but a couple were getting dangerously close to destruction!

Fortunately, my next mission allowed me to regain a lot of my wounded pride !

 

[Marc_Hicks]

OK, so onward and......upwards, I guess......

Seeking to regain my pride after that previous mission, I decided to take out a surveillance base belonging to the pirates.

My initial enemies were light mechs, with a particularly annoying Firestarter making life difficult for us again. Still, got to throw a few punches in this mission, which was enormous fun!

Of course, it's never that simple, & we got reinforcements that came to take us out. Luckily they proved no more effective at holding us back than the original garrison .

Fortunately I now seem to be falling into a bit more of a groove, which makes me think that it might be about time to take on 2.5 skull missions. What does the group mind think? I have a nice Wolverine, Trebuchet, Vindicator & Blackjack, with a handful of spare Mechs in my Mech Bay & in storage (like my newly reconstructed Hatchet-man). Do you think it's time to start upping the risks?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Took on two particularly difficult missions next-even though both were only 2 skull missions.

The first was an assassination mission. The escorts consisted of a Locust, a Trebuchet & a Griffin. The escorts weren't too difficult to take out, though I gained a great deal of pleasure from decapitating one of the Mechs .

With the escorts out of the way, I went hunting for the actual target. Given how late they appeared to be moving in each round, I strongly suspected we were up against a tough opponent. Turns out I was right-as the target was in an Orion!!!

Luckily, due to some excellent team work, & good use of our Resolve, we were able to take the target down without too much effort!

Needless to say I made sure to pick that Orion piece up as salvage .

The next mission, though, pushed me to the very brink......

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Seemed simple enough, do some scouting in pirate-held territory, on behalf of the Restoration.

However, things quickly got complicated by the arrival of not one, but two, enemy Lances. They weren't particularly easy Lances either-with a mixture of Lights & Mediums. Most notably a Hatchetman, a Crab, a Griffin & a Blackjack.....backed up by a Spider, Locust & Firestarter.

I really thought that the Mediums would be my main concern, but those light mechs proved difficult too, thanks to their ability to outmaneuver my heavier mechs. More than once my mouse drifted towards the Withdraw button.....but I decided to push on & try to win outright! Here are the highlights .

The Crab died first......


Then the Griffin bought it.....I think (sorry, I fought this battle a few days ago)

The others fell in reasonably rapid succession.....though that FIrestarter remained a thorn in my side for far too long!

Justicar II really laid into the enemy, in spite of the Mech's relatively small size, & the loss of its primary weapons!

Oh, & there goes the enemy Blackjack, taken out by a rear attack, if I am not mistaken!

Got a fair amount of salvage to pick from in that mission.....but I decided to finally take the opportunity to complete my Hatchetman! I also needed the large laser to replace the one I lost when that Firestarter took out the right arm of my Vindicator!

The more of these missions I succeed at, the more I feel it's time to start taking some extra risks!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

For what its worth, this is my current situation:

Less than 400 days remain until my score is calculated, & its far from fantastic!

I won't deny, I am being far, far too conservative. It really is time to start taking a few chances. I have enough spare mechs to field two full lances, & enough cash to last me 7 months.....definitely time to kick things up a notch!

 

[Amechwarrior]

I miss the AAR screens showing your Lance's damage. I want to know how well you come out of those missions and see how it compares to previous ones.

 

[ntw]

...it's been nice knowing you

seriously though - good luck!

 

[TripleStrengthMisnomer]

Great screens and commentary @Marc_Hicks . Sounds like you are having fun and that's the most important thing.
Kick things up a notch? For sure...I think it's time for a 5 skull. Be confident! You will move before them and be so much faster. What could go wrong?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I miss the AAR screens showing your Lance's damage. I want to know how well you come out of those missions and see how it compares to previous ones.

I will make sure to start including them again from here on out .

 

[Marc_Hicks]

OK, so finally decided to take a chance on my first 2.5 Skull Mission, a Hot Landing on Behalf of the Capellan Federation!

I am doing OK for money, so decided to up the salvage just a little bit instead. The Desert Biome listing had me a little bit worried, though, as my Mechs are all around 4-5 on the Heat Efficiency rating.

Being a 2.5, I decided to be a bit more cautious, & so proceeded relatively slowly towards the area I was told the enemy was located at! Our first contacts, though, turned out to be 2 vehicles! Which made me worried that the salvage would be light on Mech Parts

Oh, but what do I spy on the Horizon. A mech......& it appears to be a big one.

.....a GRASSHOPPER. Lucky its a bit light on armour!

Fortunately my 4 Mechs were able to gang up on the Grasshopper & trigger a convenient ammo explosion.....though not before the Mech had done some serious damage to my poor Trebuchet!

It was then an easy to task to simply mop up the remaining two vehicles!

Well that mission was eas.......wait a sec, I still have those blasted reinforcements to take care of!!!

Luckily that Cicada went down like a pack of wet cement!

The Crab took a bit longer to take down, & before that Prancer had to eject from the Trebuchet, due to excessive damage.

Thankfully, I was able to use some tactics to make my task easier. Lots of rear attacks on both the Wolverine & the Orion allowed me to take them down quicker than would otherwise have been the case!

In spite of my relative success, my Lance certainly suffered some nasty damage. Man O War was barely intact, Pontoon lost one whole side, due to a lucky shot by the Orion, & Logan lost an arm due to deliberately going over the heat limit in order to Alpha the Orion from the rear. It was still nice to win the day with all my Mechs in salvageable condition!

Justicar was barely scratched, funnily enough! The swag was pretty good too, but it appears I forgot to screenshot that!

Anyway, decided to head back to Restoration territory for the time being......& got the opportunity to schedule some Holovid nights en route!

I wonder what I will find over at Weldry?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

So upon arriving at Weldry, I decided to risk another 2.5 skull mission on behalf of Lady Arano. This merely involved clearing a path for an incoming logistical convoy

As with the previous mission, I was very cautious on approach.....taking full advantage of the cover afforded me by the terrain!

Still, even with that caution, it didn't take long for the enemy to show its face. Luckily it was just a 3 Mech Lance-consisting of a Cicada, a Huncback-4G & a Thunderbolt.

The Cicada was fairly easy to take down-but yet again Prancer & her Trebuchet were getting the lions share of the attacks from the enemy!

As dangerous as the Thunderbolt was, I felt certain that I needed to take down the Huncback first, especially after it managed to pound Man O War with one of the AC20 rounds....for 100 damage (ouch!!!!)

Luckily, Justicar II was able to take out the Hunchback's most potent weapon, leaving our Lance pretty much free to take down the Thunderbolt!

As payback for the enemy Lance constantly targeting her Mech, Prancer pulled a neat trick of getting in behind the Thunderbolt, doing a quick heat vent, then unleashing a nasty alpha strike on its rear (6 Medium Lasers & 2 SRM6's worth, if I'm not mistaken). Not surprisingly, this nice little back-stab maneuver triggered an explosion in the Thunderbolt's SRM Ammo, which definitely did for that Mech .

With the Thunderbolt out of the way, it just required a nice, solid punch from Logan to dispatch the Hunchback once & for all!

Sadly, I forgot to get a pic of the battle damage, but suffice to say that only Man O War was showing any damage-to Right & Left Torsos.

Still, the salvage made it *all* worth while!

.....and now I have this baby in my possession. Say hello to Mjolnir

Now I am feeling much more confident about taking on 2.5 to 3 skull missions. Quick question for the Group Mind, though. Should I retain this load out, or do you think I should replace some of the modules? I have considered swapping out the flamers for an extra Medium Laser, but then I'd also need an extra ton of heat sinks to retain Heat Efficiency. I could also swap out the PPC for a Large Laser/Medium Laser Combo......but I do so like the Sensor Impairment ability of the PPC. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

 

[Amechwarrior]

You're doing a lot better now than you were just a bit ago. Great job on the salvage!

I'd probably just kit the TDR out with ML/SRMs and JJ with max front armor. You can trim some of those back torso locations down to save some weight too. The Flamers are a bit heavy, I'd ditch them for jets but if you want the melee support I'd put SLs in instead.

Alternately, you could go dual LL and a ton of MLs without jets and add in a lot of HS for a laser sniper that might run well with your Vent pilot. Heck with Vent, you might be able to cram jets in there and still save the big alpha for a called shot on a side arc.

 

[scJazz]

Whatever you do... 2 tons of SRM ammo is one ton too many. That is 30 turns of firing. One ton is plenty. If you then swap the Flamers for SLs you can tack on 2 more heat sinks. Which it appears would be useful.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well, it only took around 700-800 days, but I do increasingly feel like our struggling Merc Company has turned a corner (touch wood, or whatever people touch for luck in the BattleTech universe ).

So whilst I'm waiting patiently for Mjolnir & Quasimodo to get outfitted, I decided to head off back to Capellan Space in search of more challenging systems (farewell for now, Lady Arano, I shall return).

Once I arrived in Cavalor I found a nice, well-paid bit of Garrison Duty to do.....though I suspected it would be tougher than they made it sound .

(Side note, might have to take fewer jobs with Marik as the enemy......don't want to antagonize them too much ).

Dealing with the Vanguard was fairly simple, especially as the Mechs were more interested in taking down the buildings. My new Hatchetman also got a chance to use its Melee attack, which was awesome to watch!

Prancer also got to make use of her Coolant Vent ability-which is one I really love, even if I still feel it should have been a Morale Ability .

Then came the Marik reinforcements......PLURAL. Two separate Lances dropped at opposite ends of the map. At first I thought I was only up against one, so I moved my Lance in to deal with them. Another pesky Firestarter learned the hard way about getting too close to one of my Mechs-even when overheated .

Then I noticed all the missiles coming in towards the buildings I was protecting-from the other side of the map. So moved my two jump capable Mechs over to deal with that threat!

I came dangerously close to failing this mission, due to the enemy catching me out of position. Fortunately I managed to draw their attention back to my Mechs in the last 2 turns before our Reinforcements showed up. Just one more buildings lost, though, & the mission would have been forfeit.

A classic example of how Mission difficulty doesn't always need to relate directly to OpFor tonnage!

A very decent pay-day, though.

....and not much Mech Damage to show for it!

Nearly all my internal damage came from the Firestarter overheating my Mechs!!!!

Fairly decent salvage too!

Its fair to say that my Company is very well off, financially. With a solid 8 months of cash in the kitty, as well as a fair number of Mechs in storage that I could afford to sell in a pinch!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

So I'm still waiting for Mjolnir to be finished, but sitting around waiting for Mechs to be rebuilt doesn't pay the bills. So I decided to take a Travel Contract to Kimi to rescue a Capellan Artist kidnapped by pirates!!

The initial OpFor didn't look too daunting, a few Mechs & a vehicle. Though if I'd known the vehicle was an SRM Carrier, I'd have killed it with fire in the very first round .

The initial Shadow-Hawk & Griffin didn't last too long, thanks to their ramshackle armour.......but that SRM Carrier almost did for Man O War, in just a single volley. Fortunately, one volley was all that vehicle got before Man O War consigned it to HELL!!!!!

I was starting to think that the 2.5 skull rating was over-stated, & then the reinforcements arrived......2 Hunchback 4P's, another Shadow-Hawk & a Spider!

Fortunately, a chance destruction of a leg on one of the Hunchbacks gave the Commander an opening to try a move she tries very, very rarely......a DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!!

That went well, I thought......though the damage to Logan's legs cost Trojan fairly dearly just 1 round later, when that pesky Spider got in my rear arc & knocked out one of Logan's damaged legs & toppled the Mech!

Not that the Spider had very long to gloat over its success .

The second Hunchback was taken out not long after that.....though not nearly as spectacularly as the first one .

The last remaining Shadow-Hawk was initially de-clawed, then destroyed .

Collecting the painter was then a walk in the park......though I did forget to grab their masterpiece. Oops!!!

A bit more damage done to my Mechs this time around.....though the worst of it was self-inflicted . Might have to look into investing in Leg Mods down the track .

The consolation, though, was picking up enough parts to rebuild both a Griffin & a Shadow-hawk! Now my Mercenary Company is *really* in business!!!!

I am now in a position where it makes sense to build a second Mech Bay, as I have enough Medium & Heavy Mechs to put together two full Lances. Everything's coming up Trojan! For now.....

 

[Amechwarrior]

Once everything is online you should be set for a FP. Not sure how many pilots you got, but about 6-7 should be enough and 8 would be your worst scenario.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Once everything is online you should be set for a FP. Not sure how many pilots you got, but about 6-7 should be enough and 8 would be your worst scenario.

I have 7 pilots overall, though 2 of them are a bit under promoted. Will hire another one whilst waiting for the Shadow-hawk & Griffin to come online. Then I will take on my first Flashpoint.