ScrapYard Armory

This is a series of battles played at Cold Wars 2011 held in Lancaster Pa.  The Great Refusal was the culmination of the invasion of the Clan homeworlds under the aegis of the reborn Star League.  Led by Victor Steiner-Davion, the combined armies of the Inner Sphere launched a Trial of Refusal to put an end to the Clan invasion once and for all.

The Great Refusal was a collection of eight battles pitting the best of the Inner Sphere against the might of the Clans.  The side with the most victories would win the Refusal.

At the convention, we had five of our oversized 3D maps for players to battle on.  Players could come and go as they pleased and participate in as many battles as they wanted.  All told, we have five full battles completed, each one was a fast paced battle to the bitter end.  Did the Inner Sphere prevail or were the Clans able to defy history?

Draconis Combine vs Clan Blood Spirit

The Combine started well and managed to gain a slight advantage by delivering damage early.  The No-Dachi faced off against the Blood Kite while the Daishi (DC) took on the Battle Cobra.  As the fight dragged on the Combine continued to push and managed to knock out the Blood Kite’s arms.  Without weapons, the Blood Kite was forced to withdraw in shame.  Meanwhile the Combine Daishi was having a turn for the worse in luck and was waning as the Battle Cobra began making solid hits with it’s ER PPCs.  Once inside the internal structure of the Daishi the Clan player rolled a miraculous string of critical hits.  The Daishi ended the turn with 9 points of internal damage but 5 center torso critical hits, taking out the engine and gyro in one fell swoop.

The Battle Cobra turned to the No-Daichi.  The Battle Cobra was showing the wear of battle.  It had lost it’s entire left side while the No-Daichi damage was more spread around.  First turn into the new duel the Battle Cobra head caps his opponent with it’s one remaining ER PPC.

The Clans claim first blood.

Free Rasalhague Republic vs Clan Hells Horses

The FRR attempted to keep their distance from the potent Gnome Battle Armor and  the close-in specialist Gargoyle C.  This allowed the Clan force to take up superior positions in the middle of the battle, taking advantage of the only available cover.  The Spartan and Flashman fought the good fight and killed two of the gnomes and severely damaged the rest.

Unfortunately it was only a matter of time before the Clans could close in and bring their superior knife fighting weapons to bear.  The Flashman was brutalized before succumbing to side torso destruction.  Now two on one, the Spartan could not last against the heavier Clan weapons.  In the end, a through armor critical hit took out three engine locations spelling the end for the Spartan and the Inner Sphere’s chances in this match.

St. Ives Compact vs Clan Wolf

This was the longest battle of the bunch and went back and forth as the two players fought skillfully and energetically for their side.

The match starts and the St. Ives Ryoken faces off against the Gargoyle while the Pillager takes on the Timber Wolf.  The St.Ives Ryoken piloted by none other than Kai Allard-Liao wastes no time to close the distance to bring his UAC20 into the action.  The Pillager attempts to keep some distance from the Timber Wolf to take advantage of his Gauss Rifle.

Kai Allard-Liao trades point blank shots with the Gargoyle and in a fast sequence of turns finds his opponent legged but suffered the loss of his UAC20 in the process.  The two MechWarriors would not yield to each other and continued to pour weapons fire into each other.  The Gargoyle is forced to prop to fire but finds luck on his side.  A stream of laser and PPC bursts find soft armor and blast through Kai’s center torso destroying the ‘Mech.

Meanwhile, the Pillager and Timber Wolf are stalking each other at medium to long range.  The Pillager had a horrible time hitting anything with it’s Gauss rifle despite decent to-hit numbers.  The Timber Wolf savaged the Pillager’s armor, pot marking it with gaping holes.  A few heat sinks, an arm actuator, and a single engine hit begin to whittle away at the St. Ive assault Mech.

And then the Gauss rifle found home and crushed the Timber Wolf’s cockpit into scrap.

The Pillager is now at long range against the crippled but still dangerous Gargoyle.  Over a series of turns, the two traded long range weapons fire eating away at each others battered and broken frames.  The Pillager has one leg ripped apart and the last few turns are spent with each ‘Mech propping up to shoot.  In the bitter end the last round of weapons fire from the Pillager cored out the Gargoyle giving the win to the Inner Sphere.  The Pillager had only 28 armor points total remaining out of a starting 307.

Draconis Combine vs Clan Blood Spirit (a repeat due to player request!)

This game began much like the first with the Combine coming out strong but fading fast.  The crit seeking ability of the Blood Kite once again proved vital to the Clan force.  The No-Daichi ended up legged and broken on the ground while the Battle Cobra succumbed to arm destruction (no weapons) but not before head capping the Combine Daishi.

The final rounds of the contest involved the battered Blood Kite tearing apart the internal structure of the No-Daichi for the eventual win.

Capellan Confederation vs Clan Fire Mandrill

This match began with the Liao Thunder going up against the Fire Mandrill Warhawk A while the Emperor took on the Gargoyle C.  The Thunder rushed the Warhawk with hopes of bringing it’s AC20 into play.  Despite some early solid hits, the Thunder succumbed quickly to the advanced targeting computer in the Clan Warhawk which gutted the center torso and scored three quick engine hits.

The Emperor put up a better fight against the Gargoyle and managed to trash almost the entire front facing armor.  All three torso locations were open and a few lucky shots got inside and damaged the gyro and engine but not enough for the kill.  The Emperor in turn was decimated by a spread of weapons fire which blew off one arm and critically hit all of it’s own front torso locations.  After an impressive barrage from the Clan Gargoyle, two engine hits in the center torso followed by a single engine hit in a side torso spelled the end of the Inner Sphere ‘Mech.

Battles From the Past

The ScrapYard has fought several of these battles in the past.  You may recognize the terrain and miniatures from older after action reports.  here are some links to previous battles and the results.

• Battle 1, Federated Commonwealth versus Clan Smoke Jaguar (Inner Sphere Wins)
• Battle 2, St. Ives Compact versus Clan Wolf (Clans Win)
• Battle 4, Comstar versus Clan Jade Falcon (Clans Win)
• Battle 5, Free Worlds League versus Clan Star Adder (Inner Sphere Win)

The Final Score

After nine total games, the Inner Sphere was only able to pull out three victories.  In a stark contrast to the canon results, the Clans dominated the warriors of the Inner Sphere.  I had a lot of fun watching so many different people play these games and experience the fast paced action.  These are quick battles on average and there are still a few of the battles that we have yet to try. 

Let me know if you have had any experience with these battles from the Twilight of the Clans sourcebook.  I’d love to add your results to the pile and see if the Inner Sphere could do any better given a larger sample size!