The Hexare Grenadier forces had completed their objectives and were loading up in an Overload dropship. Some of the remaining AFFS forces staged an ambush in the midst of the loading process.
Note: This is first of the more standard looking formats for the after action reports. This was an evolutionary process, more detail over the next couple of missions.
OpFor – Davions:
Axman, Penetrator, Zeus, Highlander, Enforcer, Hunchback, Flashman, Cestus, Nightsky, Lynx, Phoenix Hawk, Stealth, Victor and 4 Corsairs.
Hexare Grenadiers:
Shengli Armed Asset Protection: Daikyu, Argus, Templar, Ostol
Lords of the Night: 2 Shadow Hawks, Caesar, Enforcer
Ken’s Force: Griffin, Marauder, Cerberus, Caesar
Jerry’s Force: Shadow Hawk, Marauder, Archer, Penetrator
My forces: Sha Yu, Hellspawn, 2 Regulator Arrow IV, 2 Bandits with two SSRM 4s, three MLs, TAGs, and 2 units of Fa Shih with Light TAG
The Setup:
The way this mission was setup, the GM randomly rolled for which unit would be present for the scenario. Then, we had to roll a d6 for each unit, 4+ and it was already loaded on the drop ship. Since the dropship has 6 doors, only 6 ‘Mechs could get out each turn. I believe we had about 10 ‘Mechs stuck in the dropship.
Since we started late, we a small battlefield consisting of 4 map sheets. Three urban maps and the city tech map which was the starport. We deployed on the starport map, can were attack from both the north and west. We spread out out to defend against both flanks. I shot my Regulator Arrow IVs right past their lines at full speed and moved to deploy my Fa Shih into the midst of the enemies.
The Action:
Turn 1: The head capping began with a Cerberus gauss rifle shot to the head of Axman. I launched ADA’s from the Regulators and brought down a strafing Corsairs. We exchanged fire, with the Davions taking the worse of the punishment.
Turn 2: allows my Fa Shih to make it into buildings to start TAGing. I raced my refitted Bandits to help Ken’s Caesar take on the Cestus. My ‘Mechs took up fire support positions from some light wooded cover. We finally got all the ‘Mechs out of the dropship as well.
I decided to fire Homing this turn and TAG’ed for Semi-G support from the Hellspawn and Archer. Again, we got the better of the round of fire, severely damaging the Highlander, Nightsky and Cestus, but not bring anything down.
Turn 3: The battle momentum shifts our way. I TAG the Highlander and Flashman (from behind). The 2 homing missiles lock and decimate both ‘Mechs. Then I unleashed 2 more ADA’s taking down another Corsair. We end up bringing down the Nightsky, Stealth, and a few more ‘Mechs.
Analysis:
The scenario ended up going about 5 turns before our concentrated fire took out most of their forces. The sole Davion survivors were the Penetrator, Phoenix Hawk, Victor and 2 of the Corsairs. We pretty much mopped them up after the pivotal 3rd turn. However, on the final turn, the OpFor finally strafed well, took out a Marauder and Archer. In the end, I think the Griffin had its leg shot off, the Templar was head capped, the Archer and Marauder took ammo explosions. A few other ‘Mechs took damage, but nothing critical.
I think the scenario was very interesting, but the random unit selection backfired to an extent. He pulled my recon lance, but the others landed pretty useful brawler lances which matched up favorably against the OpFor forces. Even though I fired ADA every turn except the first, the one turn of Homings finished off the Highlander and outright killed the Flashman with a rear right torso shot.
With that concluding scenario on Gei-Hu. Feel free to comment here or discuss in the discussion thread on our forum at https://ourbattletech.com/forum/mission-reports-analysis-and-discussion/.