ScrapYard Armory

Clan Invasion was played at TotalCon 2015 in Mansfield Massachusetts.  Thanks go to James Kirtley for providing the miniatures and terrain as well as running the game.

SITUATION

The Clan invasion has begun and an Inner Sphere company is caught in the crossfire.  The Clans have their sights on control of a hydro electric dam and the Inner Sphere defenders have rallied to its defense.  Can overwhelming numbers sway the battle in favor of the Inner Sphere for will the superior technology rule the day?

FORCES

All pilots for this battle have gunnery and piloting of 3/4.

The Inner Sphere

• CN9-D Centurion
• ENF-5D Enforcer
• WLF-2 Wolfhound
• WHM-7S Warhammer
• DV-7D Dervish
• VTR-9K Victor
• PXH-3D Phoenix Hawk
• AS7-S Atlas
• LCT-3S Locust
• VLK-QD Valkyrie
• HCT-5S Hatchetman
• AWS-9M Awesome

The Clans

• Daishi Prime
• Madcat Prime
• Loki Prime
• Vulture Prime
• Warhawk Prime
• Elemental Battle Armor x 5

The Battle Field and Deployment

The battle takes place at the site of a hydro-electric dam defended by the Inner Sphere.  The Clans deploy at the southern edge of the map and are the attackers in this scenario.

Dark green hexes are light woods.  Brown hexes are sand.

Turn 1 – Inner Sphere Wins Initiative

The Clan units advance slowly keeping a relatively loose formation.

The Inner Sphere units inch up into better firing positions while keeping several of the lighter units back in reserve.

Long range weapons fire concentrates pot shots on the Atlas and Loki with minimal damage to each side.  Nothing but a few paint scratches.

Turn 2 – Inner Sphere Wins Initiative

The Clans form up on a line around a batch of woods while the Inner Sphere continues to hang back.

The Inner Sphere forces take long range shots on the MadCat and manage to scratch some armor but little else.

Return fire from the Clans concentrates on the Atlas.  An ERPPC obliterates the Atlas’ cockpit.  First blood to the Clans.

Turn 3 – Clans Win Initiative

The Loki and MadCat rush forward while everyone else drop most of the elemental units off.  The Daishi parks in the woods it is currently occupying and settles in for the battle.

The Inner Sphere, shocked at the sudden loss of their Atlas, start to look a bit flustered.  The light units begin to form up, possibly lining up a rush into the fray.  The remaining heavier units continue to park themselves for now, content to trade long range fire with the Clans.

The Inner Sphere concentrates fire on the MadCat.  Most shots miss but a few PPCs scatter damage around the torso.

The Clans line up shots on the Awesome and slag a few tons of armor away.  A lone shot hits internal on the left torso and manages two criticals; a heat sink and an engine.

Turn 4 – Clans Win Initiative

The Clans begin using their now deployed battle armor to sink initiative.  All remaining elementals are dropped this turn.  The Loki and Madcat move backwards after shedding their infantry.

The Inner Sphere begins to look frazzled and they lurch forward in a disjointed attack.

The Inner Sphere splits fire against Battle Armor and the Madcat while the Clans concentrate on the Victor.

One elemental bites the dust after a PPC and some LBX cluster shot.  Two PPCs land on the MadCat who shakes off the damage.

The Victor is brutalized by a hail of ERPPCs, ERLL, and UAC5 shots.  The left leg in particular is crushed by the barrage resulting in foot critical hit.  Against the odds, the Victor keeps his balance and remains standing.

Meanwhile the MadCat fails his own pilot check and falls down (rolled snake eyes!).

Turn 5 – Inner Sphere Wins Initiative

The Inner Sphere light units begin to rush forward while the Elementals jump to meet them on the banks of the river.  Assaults and heavies creep forward beginning to be seem desperate to close the range and bring more weapons to bear.

The Madcat rolls snake eyes again and falls again.  The second try brings the Mech to its feet.

The Vulture and Loki fade back, seemingly content to dance back and forth keeping their long range weapons in range with a decent movement modifier.

The Inner Sphere concentrates fire on the MadCat with some secondary targets chasing Elemental units.  The Clans begin to argue about target selection and end up spreading shots around.  Elementals go after targets of opportunity.

Early shots on the MadCat miss needing mostly 10s.  A few long range weapons hit home and manage to concentrate damage on the left leg and right torso.  Damage goes internal but fails to hit anything important.  A lucky PPC hits the head and also fails to score a crit.

Secondary fire from the Inner Sphere obliterates two elementals and scatters damage on others.

The Clans return fire in dramatic fashion.  After taking some light damage from UAC5s the Phoenix Hawk is summarily head capped by a Large Pulse Laser from the Warhawk.  The Phoenix Hawk is notably one of the few designs that NEVER fields full head armor.

“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

The MadCat brutalizes the Victor after the Vulture and Loki mostly miss.  The left arm is shredded and lots of internal damage is dealt out but amazingly no critical hits.  Two squads of elementals fill in the holes with SRM fire and manage to find a box of ammo.  CASE saves what little remains of the battered ‘Mech.

The Victor and MadCat both fail their piloting checks and hit the dirt.  The Victor is left with no arms, no side torsos, and one remaining leg hanging on by a single point of internal structure.

Turn 6 – Clans Win Initiative

The Clan Loki and MadCat continue to dance back and forth.  The other Clan units are content to snipe from wooded positions and offer little movement.

The Inner Sphere Locust makes a long run, swinging wide of the main battle and is appearing to be trying to flank the Clan position.  The remaining Inner Sphere units bunch up along the waterline with some attempting to ford the river.  Elementals jump at the Inner Sphere units as they are slowed up by the terrain and begin making attacks on the Centurion and others.

The Inner Sphere opens up fire on the MadCat desperate to score a kill to get the ball rolling on their end.  Some shots are designated on the Loki and Vulture as well as numerous secondary targets on elementals.

The Clans continue to spread the love around and target the Awesome, Warhammer, Wolfhound, and Valkyrie.

Finally some decent hits start to come for the Inner Sphere who are able to slag a few tons of armor off of the MadCat.  The left torso is ripped open and the left leg is blown clear off sending the ‘Mech to the ground once more.  Unfortunately most of the big weapons fail to find the target and the MadCat is left alive able to prop and shoot next turn.  The Loki and Vulture come away mostly unscathed.

The Clans core out the Warhammer’s left torso and destroy a leg as well.  The first set of shots on the Awesome scratch the armor but do little to worry the massive assault ‘Mech.  As weapons fire finishes up, one last last ERPPC from the Loki hits the Awesome’s head, crushing the cockpit and silencing the great machine.

Elementals launch swarm and leg attacks on the Centurion but only succeed with the swarm attack.  The Centurion pilot begins to worry as the clatter of battle claws can be heard scurrying up his ‘Mech.

Turn 7 – Inner Sphere Wins Initiative

The Locust finally wades into the river well behind the Clan forces.  Another turn and the ‘Mech will be able to sprint into the Clan flank.  The Wolfhound, Centurion, and Enforcer rush forward to close the distance with the Vulture.

The Clan Loki and Vulture continue to dance back and forth satisfied with their progress so far in the battle.

Targeting for both sides devolves into targets of opportunity.  No focus firing or concentration is evident.

Weapons fire for the Inner Sphere is stunningly ineffective.  Scattered shots slag armor from multiple Clan units but no significant damage, internals, or criticals are reported.  A single PPC scores on the head of the Loki but no criticals result.

The IS Wolfhound is crushed under several withering volleys of ERPPCs and more.  The whole right side of the ‘Mech is destroyed.  The Victor gets a leg blown off by elementals.  Further damage results in no less than 6 center torso criticals.  The Valkyrie has its left torso and center torso cored out by a hail of fire from the Daishi and Warhawk.

The swarming elementals on the Centurion tear into the center torso resulting in two critical hits.  The engine and gyro are both hit once.

After a few players glance around the table it is agreed that it is safe to call the game at this point in favor of the Clans.

The End

To say the least, it was a rough game for the Inner Sphere.

Perhaps the addition of Clan honor rules may have allowed the Inner Sphere to pick their battles more effectively or at least been able to buy them time to cross the river and have a chance.  The early loss of the Atlas also stung quite a bit and a few players lamented how a point or two of Edge may have been useful to iron out the randomness of head hits from Clan ERPPCs.

All the players I had a chance to talk to still had a good time and enjoyed slinging dice even when the odds seemed out of whack.  I was impressed with the setup and the miniatures provided. Looking forward to next year!