Hello again, and welcome back to the dark ages! It’s time for another Battletech battle report!
This time around, we're not playing solo - I've roped my brother into leading his own half-lance against me over Skype for his first game. Time to get some attention against another human being and see how that changes up gameplay.
He generated his own characters, and I rolled up a very average pilot for my Panther while using the same stats as last time for myself. Unfortunately, I don't have them written down here, so I can't tell you exactly what they were.
As for ‘Mechs, we went with 1 assault and 1 light, to let me use my current favourite, the Cyclops, while he got to pilot his own favourite ‘Mech from our days playing the computer games, the Atlas! Besides that, his Light was a Jenner, a fairly solid choice as far as I know, and I picked the Panther, who turned out to be MVP for the skirmish! You'll see why soon enough, haha.
The game begins with our 2 ‘Mech lances squaring off across basically a single line of woods. While I don't want to close up and brawl with his Atlas, I also don't want to be in its front arcs any longer than I need to, so I push out my Lance to try flanking right around.
My brother's Jenner does a decent job of getting in the way with its frankly remarkable speed, and we start firing while all clustered together. In the first volley, the highlights are the Panther unleashing a bolt from his PPC straight into the Atlas’ head and taking a volley of LRMS to the torso in return. What a shot! The armour is fully stripped from the Atlas’ head now, its weakest part. Good thing for them that that was one in a million...
The little clusterf**k continues, as I keep trying to turn the Atlas’ flank. Relatively little damage is done, but with all the Alpha strikes being tossed at close range, we're getting a rude introduction to the heat management rules!
In an unfortunate turn of events, the left arm is blown clean off my Cyclops. However, it had done it's job - the Atlas was turned, and the Panther took its chance to fire again. H-h-headshot! The Atlas, basically undamaged except for the two (!) PPC bolts to the head, collapses into a heap! What a show by the Panther! But it doesn't end there. In the same turn, the Jenner charged the Panther to get some melee in and maybe knock it down. Little did he know that the pilot of the plucky blue ‘Mech was able to both snipe an assault and dodge the charge simultaneously!
In a desperate attempt to regain control of the situation, the Jenner attempts to kick the Panther. This is a success, but it's pilot keeps it upright, and the return fire from both my ‘Mechs knocks off one arm and one leg. The Jenner’s pilot then makes the probably smart decision to eject after hitting the ground.
Wow! Well let it never be said that Lights can't do some good work if you let them! Of course, the Panther is something of an exception with the big old PPC… of course, if he hadn't hit his targets with such aplomb, I'm sure I would have been lamenting bringing along such a one-trick-pony. That being said, if it weren't for those shots, I'm not sure how I would've taken the hulking Atlas down.
Of course, we both still need more practice, but I'm sure there'll be plenty more opportunities to get some in the future. Fingers crossed, if I just pick up a paintbrush again before then, I may even get to pilot my favourite ‘Mech from the fluff! I've read it's not the best choice in tabletop, but I've never been one for the meta of any game - it's a game for fun, after all. And besides, in the end, I'd rather be the prettiest corpse on the battlefield!
Thanks for reading, and see you all next time!
