ScrapYard Armory

BattleTech Dossiers make their debut as PDF only products with the release of Lamenkov’s Liability and Salazar Tsakalotos.  Both these items are set in the Dark Age era alongside the man of legend, Delvin Stone.  You and your gaming group can jump into the adventure for the low price of $3.95 and $1.95 respectively.

Paul Sjardijn is at the helm for both these products.  What new adventures await players in this short tome?  Is it worth the combined $5.90?  Let’s delve in to see.

Introspective Enemy

An opening battle filled with missiles, lasers, and concentrated firepower open up this dossier.  This lance has some issues.  The tension evident between the members of the Liability is palpable.  Add to that the sudden realization that a trap has been set and we have the makings of a proper adventure with ample opportunities for twists and turns along the way.

The fiction sets the stage and its now time to meet the actors.

Unit Profile

Each member of the Lamenkov’s Liability is detailed in a profile which is a bit of short fiction that answers a few of the most basic questions surrounding their past.  How did they get started as a MechWarrior?  How did they rise up through the ranks?  How did they end up with Lamenkov’s Liability?

While brief, the bios were entertaining and help to paint a colorful picture of each character’s personality.

Alongside each bio is a brief spot on each member’s BattleMech including a picture of a painted miniature courtesy of CamoSpecs.  All of the ‘Mechs have Strategic Operations Quirks assigned to them.  Some are obvious, like Difficult Ejection, others not so much, like Sensor Ghosts.

Missions

The missions section is a combined Total Warfare and A Time of War adventure pack featuring the Liability and their mission on Schedar within the Republic of the Sphere.  The opening mission, Warm Welcome, picks up where Introspective Enemy left off with a frantic chase.  Both Total Warfare missions use the Chaos Campaign track system.

I was very impressed with this first mission.  The objectives were not a simple kill everything variation and the optional bonuses are actually interesting.  Well done Mr. Sjardijn!  Here we have the first tie in to the sister dossier.  As an optional bonus, Salazar Tsakalotos is included in the pursuing force.

That Could Have Gone Better is an RPG mission with open ended objectives and ample opportunity for anywhere from one to four additional Total Warfare encounters.  I’ve never been a fan of RPGs so this is certainly not my cup of tea.  The two page mission description equips a GM with a patchwork of information from which the overall adventure is constructed.  The quality of your experience is ultimately in the hands of the GM.

The last mission, Nowhere to Run is a final stand where the Liability have their chance to prove their worth.  In this case, I don’t mind the less than imaginative objectives since the fiction dictates that this was a fight to the finish.  I see no other way this mission could have been written.  The tie in to the earlier missions is enough of a hook to keep my interest and the interest of your gaming group.

Record Sheets

Each member of the lance has a complete Time of War record sheet describing their every detail.  Each ‘Mech in turn has a record sheet.

The record sheets look great, no repeat of the Death to Mercenaries issues.  My only complaint is the fact that the Time of War damage monitors are not optimally displayed.  Currently, the health and fatigue circles are grouped in fives.  What would have made more sense, is to have the health grouped in quarters and fatigue grouped in halves.  That way it becomes easier during a game to, at a glance, recognize what the injury and fatigue modifiers are.  Not a huge deal but something I think can be improved in future releases.

Salazar Tsakalotos

Salazar is the chief (albeit unnecessarily optional) antagonist in the Liability story and is available separately for $1.95.  The dossier includes elements exactly the same as the Unit Profile and Record Sheets described above.  There is no opening fiction or missions included.

This independent but intertwined dossier is available separately but should not have been.  I feel that the addition of Salazar as the primary antagonist in this story requires he be included in the Liability PDF.  There is little the community can do with him separately outside the context provided by the story told in the main PDF.

If you plan on buying the Lamenkov’s Liability PDF pick up Salazar as well.  They go together and should not be digested separately if you intend on having the full experience.

Product Tie Ins Galore

The Liability PDF is a shining example of how the multiple volumes of BattleTech rules and lore can be combined and mixed with great success.  Within it’s pages we have recommended/optional injections from no less than the following products:

• Total Warfare
• A Time of War
• Hexpacks
• TRO: Vehicle Annex
• Iron Wind Metals 3085 Lance Pack (the Liability use all of these ‘Mechs)
• Strategic Operations

It’s wonderful to see all of these products mixed together.  The gaming experience is better for it.  We have all of these books full of rules and fiction.  It is refreshing to have official product make ample use of all that there is to offer.  Older players with access to most if not all of these tomes will be glad to take advantage of their stock of information.  New players will feel the pull to buy in deeper into the BattleTech world to see what all the fuss is about.

Overview

The story told in these two products is excellent and well worth the $5.90 combined price.  My only concern is the fact that the full campaign may not fill a long enough session to make it worth the entry fee.  A typical Turning Point PDF contains anywhere from five to seven missions.  The Liability adventure may possibly have up to six missions in them before the campaign comes to an end.  But, if the RPG section is skipped then it becomes only two.  For the level of detail that went into describing this unit I would have liked to see more.

The quality of the product is excellent but the quantity is left up to the GM and and the players.  Under certain conditions there should be ample opportunities to string together multiple battles. However, under certain courses of action the end of the campaign may sneak up unexpectedly.

Still, to put it all into perspective, for less than the price to go to a movie you have yourself several hours over at least two (probably more) gaming sessions to fill your time.  The price of admission is low so give it a shot if your gaming group feels like taking an excursion into the Dark Age.  It may be a short detour but the views are worth it.

This scenario is based on the short story by Blaine Lee Pardoe.  Heart of Dixie was featured in the latest BattleCorps compilation, First Strike.  You can also read this excellent fiction and many more like it on BattleCorps.  Current members may already have read the story and will be familiar with the battle for Dixie within the Lyran Commonwealth.

Heart of Dixie stuck out in my mind as one of the best battle descriptions I have ever read.  The best part is the fact that the story covers the full military event from dropship burn in to the final climactic end.  I really enjoyed the story and hope you have the chance to play this scenario.  Play testing was always fun with significant ups and downs during the battles.

SITUATION

The sleepy world of Dixie is suddenly plunged into conflict when a Castle Brian is discovered buried in the countryside.  Undercover agents have leaked the report to the Free Worlds League who sent a detachment from the Fusiliers of the Orient to capture the prize before the Lyrans could respond.  The only thing in their way is the Dixie Militia.

The Militia seize the advantage when they notice that the Fusiliers do not know the exact location of the Castle Brian.  A diversion is prepared in the Southern Continent to draw them away.  It is up to a short company of Militia to hold off the attackers for as long as they can while a proper welcome is prepared at the real Castle Brian site.

GAME SETUP

Arrange maps as shown below.  The three maps used are:

• Standard BattleTech
• Woodland
• Open Terrain #2

The west map edge is the Dixie Militia home edge.  The east map edge is the Fusilier home edge.

DEFENDER

Dixie Militia – Rainbow Actual Company

Command Lance

• CN9-A Centurion, Lieutenant Hollister (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• HBK-4G Hunchback, Mechwarrior Gengler (Gunnery 4, Piloting 4)
• CPLT-C1 Catapult, Mechwarrior Brooks (Gunnery 4, Piloting 3)
• CLNT-2-3T Clint, Mechwarrior Nero (Gunnery 4, Piloting 4)

Sweep Lance

• Pegasus Scout Hovertank, (Gunnery 4, Piloting 3)
• LRPV PKR-T5 Packrat, (Gunnery 4, Piloting 5)
• Savannah Master Hovercraft, (Gunnery 4, Piloting 4)
• Galleon Light Tank, (Gunnery 4, Piloting 4)

Deployment

The Dixie Militia may begin the scenario deployed anywhere on the battlefield.  Up to two units may begin the game hidden.  No units may be hidden within 6 hexes of the Fusilier’s home edge.

ATTACKER

Fusiliers of the Oriente, Fourth Brigade

Command Lance

• AS7-D Atlas, Colonel Hansi (Gunnery 2, Piloting 3)
• AWS-8Q Awesome, Mechwarrior Reive (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• BJ-1 Blackjack, Mechwarrior Thompson (Gunnery 4, Piloting 3)
• TDR-5S Thunderbolt, Mechwarrior Dundas (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)

Fire Lance

• ARC-2R Archer, Sergeant Bloch (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• QKD-4G Quickdraw, Mechwarrior Olsen (Gunnery 3, Piloting 4)
• ON1-V Orion, Mechwarrior Qadir (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• WTH-1 Whitworth, Mechwarrior Dales (Gunnery 4, Piloting 2)

Sweep Lance

• VND-1R Vindicator, Sergeant Sharp (Gunnery 3, Piloting 2)
• STG-3G Stinger, Mechwarrior Harval (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• LCT-1E Locust, Mechwarrior Nita (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)
• WSP-1A Wasp, Mechwarrior Clark (Gunnery 3, Piloting 3)

Deployment

The Fusiliers are in the process of disembarking from their dropship and have a staggered deployment.  One lance enters the game  on turn 1.  A second lance may enter on turn 3.  The last lance enters on turn 5.  The Fusilier player may select what lance deploys each turn.

SPECIAL RULES

The following special rules are in effect for this scenario.

Fire for Effect

The Dixie Militia have a Long Tom Artillery vehicle waiting for the Fusiliers to land.  However, since the Militia do not have air superiority, it cannot fire for long without being detected by Aerospace fighters.

The Militia may fire 1 Long Tom Artillery round in turns 1 through 5.  The flight time is one turn.  The artillery crew has a skill of 4.   See Tactical Operations page 179.

Watch Your Step

The Militia have laid a trap and may deploy up to three 15-point conventional mine fields in each map.  No mines may be placed within 6 hexes of the Fusilier’s home edge.  Keep in mind that conventional mine fields affect friendly and foe alike!  See Tactical Operations page 207.

Forced Withdrawal

The Dixie Militia can not afford to lose personnel on a diversionary attack.  Militia units will operate under Forced Withdrawal once they suffer crippling damage.

Bad Weather on the Horizon

The southern continent of Dixie is known for it’s Spring storms.  After turn 12, Heavy Rain will move into the area which will turn the majority of the fake dig site into mud.  For the purposes of this scenario, the game will end after turn 12 is complete.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Secure the Perimeter

Control of the area is paramount to the Fusiliers’ plans.  The Militia aim to delay them for as long as possible.

During the end phase of each turn, each player will receive 1 Victory Point for every map they control.  Control of each map is determined by counting the number of active units per map (not shutdown and MechWarrior is conscious).  The side with the most units wins control of the map for that turn.  If there is a tie, no side gets the Victory Point.  If a unit is on the hex row between maps, it will count for control of the last map it was in.  Hidden units do not count for control of maps.

Seek and Destroy

The Fusiliers receive 1 Victory Point for every Militia unit destroyed.

The Militia receive 1 Victory Point for every Fusilier unit crippled and 2 Victory Points for every Fusilier unit destroyed.

Fight Another Day

The Dixie Militia player receives 1 Victory point for every unit retreated off their home map edge on or before turn 12.

Pressure

The opening fiction to OTP: Death to Mercenaries follows a lone Dragoons lance and their struggle against impossible odds.  What appears like a resounding victory soon fades back to reality.  Reality for the Dragoons after Misery is bleak and unforgiving.  The stage is set for this Turning Point sequel and by all accounts, we can expect a tragedy to evolve.  The writing is excellent and action packed.  I would love to have read more about this particular sub-unit of the Dragoons in future fiction but I know in all likelihood, they would not have survived the next few hours.

Atlas

The events of this OTP take place on no less than four planets within the Federated Commonwealth.  Each has a short biography and a small (1D6) terrain table with suggested Tactical Operations upgrades.  Most if not all of the information supplied in the atlas section is superfluous in nature but should not be overlooked.  While crafting my own tracks and one-off scenarios, I relish access to this type of information to add flavor that will make the mission stand out and feel less generic.  Most gamers I expect will gloss over this information on their way to the good stuff.  Never-the-less, it is presented in earnest for the curious or motivated to carve out a little piece of the sandbox for their own.

Random Assignment Tables

The provided RAT tables are near copy-paste from the earlier released Historical Turning Points: Misery.  There are a few modifications here and there but nothing drastic.  Most will never know the difference.  The biggest change I saw was the addition of the WLF-1 Wolfhound to the Dragoons medium 7 slot.

Death to Mercenaries

This two page section gives a brief overview of the conflict between the Dragoons and the singular minded Draconis Combine.  It is an excellent primer for the rest of the Turning Point and brings together the end of Misery to a new beginning within these pages. Descriptions of events and battles are short and to the point.

A full page map describes force movements between 3028 and 3029.

Commanders

One leader from each side is detailed with a short bio with picture with RPG special abilities.  The RPG stats are not a total description but a list of suggested traits and abilities to be used to guide a player’s own incarnation of these legends.  With Jaime Wolf already covered in HTP:Misery, Natasha Kerensky takes center stage for the Dragoons.  Tai-sho Li Dok To is the commander of the Galedon Regulars.

The character bios add flavor to the campaign but I find their special abilities to be less than useful for most BattleTech enthusiasts that will pick up this PDF.  Along with the nebulous Administrative, Leadership, and Tactics skill bonuses I think it would have been prudent to include a gunnery and piloting skill as well.  I also don’t believe that the developers need to be straitjacketed by the RPG rules to flesh out famous unit leaders.  There are any number of unique and original special abilities that can be cooked up to fit any personality or history.  These famous characters should not be expected to fit any manner of mold even in a world where the motto is “Yeah, we’ve got a rule for that.”  Writers should feel free to be original rather than looking up a special ability that fits close enough.

Combatants

All of the Dragoon regiments have been described in Misery.  Luckily for us, each unit has a notes section with a post Misery update.  Unit abilities are either updated or changed completely.  I loved Epsilon Regiment’s ability.  Best of the Dragoons if you ask me.

The Combine forces are likewise deliciously described with accompanying special abilities that are as worthwhile as they are varied.  The Twenty-Firth Galedon Regulars are back for more but have suffered heavily in the experience category since Misery. The only thing I can say that seems out of place is the Fifth and Sixteenth Galedon Regulars vehicle specific special abilities when there are no vehicle RATs provided.  It is an easy fix for the energized gamer, but it seems like there was more than enough room to include an extra column in the RAT table provided earlier.

How to Use the Campaign (and something more)

This section is a cookie cutter of OTP:The Red Corsair, tailored for the Dragoons and the Draconis Combine.  It lays out the framework for the campaign ahead.  But then there is more.  New to this PDF is the inclusion of a sidebar called, How It All Goes Together.  This simple sidebar gives a plainly spoken description of how a gaming group (much like your own) could use the generic tracks alongside Touchpoints to stretch the campaign over many many gaming sessions without becoming old and stale.  I feel like the writers and developers are pulling the reader aside for a moment and calmly suggesting, “Hey, in case you are having a hard time getting it, this is what we all had in mind with this crazy Chaos Campaign system.  It’s easier than you think!”

I don’t know if there was a piece of feedback or customer interaction that prompted this inclusion but I’m happy to see it.  I enjoy the Chaos Campaign system and love to see it so vigorously supported by Catalyst.

Tracks

For generic tracks, known as Missions, we have Scout, Flank, Assault, and Defend.  These can be easily combined with missions from OTP: The Red Corsair to add additional variety.  The Red Corsair has Strike, Defend, Assault, and Interdict.  The Assault missions are the same but the Defend mission are quite different from each other.

The generic missions are for the most part bland and leave much to the imagination of the GM or the player group.  But for generic missions, they fit their purpose.

The Touchpoints unfortunately followed the lead set by the generic missions.  Optional bonuses are a mix of optional terrain and Tac Ops rules.  Objectives with few exceptions are variations of “kill the other guy”.  Not all that inspiring.  By comparison Misery did a better job reliving the story behind the battles.

Record Sheets

Each side of the conflict has one custom ‘Mech detailed.  The Dragoons have a custom Annihilator which is an energy weapons monster.  It’s a scary assault ‘Mech with well more firepower than the best Awesome chassis and enough heatsinks to be very dangerous, especially in 3028.

Li Dok To’s personal ride is an odd Victor variant packing a swarm of medium lasers and a lone LRM15.  With only 19 heat sinks it is not as scary as the Annihilator.  Indeed this Victor will be forced to close the distance if it expects to bring the bulk of it’s arsenal to bear.

Something is very off with these record sheets.  Previous iterations of the Turning Points series have had crisp readable record sheets but this time Catalyst tried something different.  The background of the record sheet is obviously a raster based graphic with overlayed vector based stats and armor circles.  The sheet looks awful.  Much of the content is blurry.  The armor dots are uniform in size and just look wrong.

The powers that be have already weighed in on the manner.

My apologies for the RS quality, but it’s an issue we’re dealing with on the back end. RS issues are a big reason for the XTRO hiccups and I chose to bypass our normal (severely overworked) route for a lesser quality so that the TPs don’t hiccup. When things get better on the RS front, we’ll update the PDF.

-GhostBear, BattleTech Assistant Line Developer

Wrapping it All Up

Death to Mercenaries is a worthy successor to the Misery Turning Point PDF despite it’s shortcomings.  Any fan of the the Dragoons is going to want to pick this up.  Combined with Misery, Death to Mercenaries easily contains months worth of gaming sessions.

All together, Death to Mercenaries is well worth the slightly higher price point and a great addition to any fans PDF collection.

This lance is another addition to a long project for a friend.  They came together rather easily in a few days and I’m happy with the outcome even if it seems a bit bland.  It needs something to help it I think.  Maybe some time spent panel painting would do some good, but for now I am happy to seal these up and call them done.

Red always seems to work really well.  The only other thing I can say was lacking was an opportunity to jewel the cockpit on the Sunder and Hatamoto-Chi.  The Chi is just too small which is excusable.  The Sunder is simply not there.  I can see why this particular ‘Mech has a re-sculpt.  The new version is a definite improvement on this blocky statically posed mess.

Colors used were a Scarlet Red base coat followed by a dark wash.  Gory Red and Bloody Red dry brushes finished the highlights.  There are only a few GunMetal highlights here and there.

The cockpit jewels that are present on the Komodo and Jenner are a standard Stormy Blue, Magic Blue, Electric Blue combo.  Decals from Fighting Pirannha Graphics provide the finishing touch.

Are We Missing Something?

I know!  I was on a roll when I was painting this lance that I didn’t even notice until late that I was all out of hex bases.  So the Hatamoto-Chi is hex-less until I can order up some more.  It also appears from these photos that another coat or two of DullCote is in order.  There is still some shine showing.