Codex Battletech AARs

[Destroid]

(reposted from original thread in strategy forum)

Oscar and I had a very fun game, forces were as follows:

Steiner (Oscar):

Kurita (Destroid):

These were thematic forces, set in the fourth succession war ~3030. The Steiner force is heavier and tougher, while the Kurita force is more mobile. It was an interesting game with plenty of learning for both of us, some notable moments were when the Jenner suffered an ammunition explosion in its missile magazine and erupted into a ball of fire. Later the hunchback had it's head shot off by the Dragon's autocannon, while the Wolverine managed to boot the legs off two mechs over the course of the battle (melee combat turned out to be much more effective than either of us expect). We called the game when Oscar had a single remaining mobile mech (the Grasshopper), while I had only lost the Jenner, though the Wolverine was severely damaged. We played around 10 turns for a play time of perhaps two and a half hours, quite fast by tabletop gaming standards and we will be considerably faster in future games. I had a lot of fun and will definately look to play more games, which I will document properly in future. Megamek is sufficiently mature that it basically feels like playing a computer turn based strategy, instead of a computerised tabletop game.

Final positions (Oscar in yellow, Destroid in blue):

Unfortunately I did not screengrab each turn but I will be doing so in any future games. Hit me up if you'd like to play, it's a lot of fun and very easy with the level of automation in megamek.

 

[Destroid]

For our second battle we played with (relatively) advanced technology - the year 3052. This allowed us access to double heat sinks, ultra autocannons, LB-X autocannons, pulse lasers, ER PPCs and XL engines. Mostly it gives a significant boost to offensive capability.

The forces:

House Liao (Oscar):

House Marik (Destroid):

The Liao line up had a modest edge in long ranged combat - every unit has at least one long range weapon, although none are long range specialists. The Cicada, Clint and Cataphract are modern designs, while the Bulldog and Vulcan use older tech. The Marik forces fielded two advanced heavies - the long range specialist Rifleman and mid range brawler in the Marauder. All other designs are somewhat archaic.

We deployed in rough lines at each end of the field, which positioned a river on one side of the field with a large mountain and canyon pass in the middle.

Turn 1:

Determined to bring the firepower of the biggest mech on the field to bear, I pushed forward with the bulk of my forces, hoping to engage at mid range where my heavier armour and firewpower would give me the edge. Oscar obliged me and moved forward to take up positions on the top of the mountain. Shooting was rather uneventul this turn, with the only effectual shooting being moderate damage to the Hermes.


Turn 2:

In this turn I found myself being pressured quite hard by Oscar, who flanked my Hermes II, and pressed forward with all units. I generally pulled back, the Marauders jump jets proving a blessing. Shooting was more effective this turn, with Oscar's Clint taking a gyro hit, knocking it to the ground. The Hermes II and Cataphract also took significant damage.


Turn 3:

A fairly uneventful turn, I attempt to pin the Bulldog on the right with my Hetzer and Hermes, landing an Autocannon 20 shell to it's rear, completely stripping the armour. The Marauder managed to kick the Cicadas leg off, while the Rifleman headed for cover under the firepower of the Cataphract.

Turn 4:

The battle to the north degenerates into a general melee, The shooting sending several mechs to the ground, including the Marauder who got a taste of it's own medicine when it fell over after a kick from the Cataphract. I moved my Hetzer through the pass to support the main battle, hoping the Hermes will be able to finish the damaged Bulldog with a kick through it's exposed rear section.


Turn 5:

This turn was the turning point of the game - I was able to bring the guns of my remaining four units to bear on the Cataphract and it paid off - it took an AC20 to the head from the Hetzer (destroying it instantly), and also suffered an ammunition explosion, taking enough hits to destroy it several times over. The Hermes pursued the Bulldog, but wasn't able to close the deal, while it's own armour was getting dangerously thin under a laser and shot range missile assault from the tank.


Turn 6:

Now in the mop up stages of the battle, the Hermes finally lands the kick and destroys the Bulldog, but is itself kicked to the floor by the Vulcan. The next turn the Vulcan fled the battle.


This was a decisive victory for the Marik forces, destroying the bulk the Liao force while only losing the lighter elements of their own. I think it was probably Oscars eagerness to take the centre of the field that was the main contributing factor, which allowed me to encircle his forces despite having the slower units. He would also probably have benefited by using his Cicada's great speed to harass my Rifleman, which was able to mostly fire with impunity.

3050 is pretty different from 3030 - the units bring a LOT more firepower to the table, and we closed this game in fewer turns than our first game. Vehicles bring an interesting change from mechs - they have strong rear armour (turning your back in a mech is almost a death sentence), but once any armour section is breached they are destroyed very quickly, while a mech can battle on missing half it's torso and a leg. We will probably try out a Clan vs IS match next, which will turn everything we have learned so far on it's head, due to the highly asymmetrical match up (a single Mad Cat costing nearly as much as the entire armies we fielded in the first battle).

 

[oscar]

You well and truly kicked my ass in this battle.

 

[Destroid]

0.35.29. I don't think it has voice built in.

 

[Destroid]

Played a quick game with Andrzejski, forces as follows (no theme this time):


Andrzejski:

Destroid:

Another TL1 battle, Andrze's forces generally pack a little more punch at range (especially the dual PPCs on the Warhammer) while my forces are mostly close range brawlers with a lot of autocannons. Tonnage was almost identical, although I concentrated my weight in the heavy a little more.



Turn 1:

We played on a larger, randomly generated map this time, I believe it was 23x23 (instead of 19x17) which gave us a little more manuevering room at the start. Could be good for higher tech games with longer ranged weapons, but I don't see any reason not to use the smaller stock maps for small T1 battles, they concentrate the action. In this first turn we both moved towards each other, none of our weapons being effective at these ranges through the dense forest cover.


Turn 2:

Turn two was more of the same, Andrze advanced in a loose line while I headed the bulk of my forces down the west flank, with the Hunchbank to head of the Centurion on the east. As none of my mechs had any long range firepower of any kind I stuck to the trees. The Assassin took a little fire this turn, but nothing major.


Turn 3:

In turn three the engagement begins in earnest. I continued to push forward, now within a good firing range for my heavy autocannons. Fire was focused on the Assassin in an attempt to remove the only truly mobile elements from Andrze's forces, while the Hunchback managed to land an AC/20 shell on the Centurion, dealing severe damage. The rest of the fire was ineffectual.


Turn 4:

In turn four the melee combats started. Andrze had the initiative this turn and used it to good effect to take strong positions on several of my mechs. No severe damage from the shooting but the Assassin knocked my Charger to the ground with a kick.


Turn 5:

The Centurion fell to ground this turn (I believe it had suffered damage to either a gyro or a hip actuator), so I left it to it's own devices and engaged the still mobile mechs. The Hatchetman swung his axe, but was not able to land a hit on the Assassin.


Turn 6:

Noting that the Chameleon was badly overheating this turn, I decided to launch an all out assault on the Warhammer, engaging it from multiple sides with my Largest mechs. This strategy paid off, as multiple AC/20 shells landed from the Charger and Hunchback, tearing it's centre torso apart and destroying the mech. Simultaneously the Assassin was floored by SRM fire from the Charger, destroying one of its legs. I redeployed the Spider to finish off the Centurion, which had been firing it's AC/10 from the ground.


Turn 7:

In our last turn I closed the bulk of my forces on Andrze's one remaining mobile mech, the Chameleon. Unable to endure the fire and melee attacks from four mechs at once, it went down, while the Charger stomped the last life out of the Assassin. At the end of this turn we called the game.


I believe the reason the victory was so decisive mostly came down to the my mechs having bigger, shorter ranged guns and Andrze being willing to engage at ranges I could operate at. The terrain was also a factor with cover being very dense allowing me to get close without taking significant damage.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

What program do you use for tracking the battles; do you have link?

 

[Destroid]

What program do you use for tracking the battles; do you have link?

Megamek, it's discussed in more detail over at the other thread.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Wow, Megamek seems to have improved quite a bit since I last looked at it, thanks for posting this.

 

[Father Walker]

The game was pretty fun. Looking forward to another one.

And yeah, those AC/20 are pretty scary. Didn't expect them to tear my Warhammer to pieces in just one round. Apart from that, double PPC on Warhammer performed pretty poorly. I don't know if I managed to land a single hit with them. Being a Mechwarrior fag I was expecting this gun to wreak some havoc, which didn't happen unfortunately.

In the end, Destroid's experience and sensible choice of force won the game.

 

[Destroid]

Another solid battle with Oscar, this one was our most fun yet (at least for me)! This time we pitted the forces of the Clans against the Inner Sphere in the year 3052, the very midst of the Clan invasion.

House Davion (Oscar):

​

​

Clan Smoke Jaguar (Destroid):

For this battle we selected our own forces, although from thematic lists available for the faction and year. The first thing you will notice is that the IS has far more mechs than the Clans - under the battle value system of costing, Clan mechs can easily cost two times or more than similar IS mechs. In this case I chose to field significant numbers of elementals to attempt to bridge the gap in numbers. The IS also had two platoons of infantry, which are not shown here.

Of the IS mechs, the Crusader, Warhammer and Centurion-D are the most advanced technologically, with strong armor, speed and weapons. The Victor is dangerous in light of it's AC/20 and simple weight of weapons carried. The other mechs are various older designs, the Whitworth's notable for their long range missile racks. For the Jaguars, the Ryoken and Puma are similar mechs, mounting a mixed autocannon and pulse laser armament, for strong mid range firepower. The Dragonfly highly agile, and mounts a single long ranged ER PPC. The elementals are armed with short range lasers and a two short mid range missile launcher. They are slow, but have jump jets to ignore terrain.



Turn 1:

We deploy. I place the bulk of my mechs on the hill in the north east, while Oscar deploys most of his mechs to the west of the river. He advances rapidly up the field, while I shuffly my elementals forward in a ragged line, keeping my longer ranged mechs back. I'll have to have a three to one mech exchange rate to win this battle, and the only way I can accomplish that is to stay away from the shorter ranged and less accurate IS guns. The opnening shots are exchanged, and a Centurion is knocked to the ground by a critical hit. Luck is smiling on me.


Turn 2:

Once more the IS advance. The elementals continue to skirmish, firing off their SRMs as soon as possible to inflict maximum damage in the shortest time possible. Despite being under Oscar's guns the elementals are proving to be exceedingly resilient. I move the Ryoken into river, it has no chance to survive against the six mechs on it's side and will be better served with the other mechs arrayed on the north east hill. In the firing phase concentrated mech fire destroys a Whitworth by ammunition explosion, the first casualty of the match. Fire from the elementals further damages the fallen Centurion, immobilising it. The IS fire this turn is largely ineffectual.


Turn 3:

Once more IS forces advance. The Ryoken escapes from the river and heads into the mountains. I skirmish forward with the Dragonfly, adopting a divide and conquer tactic now that Oscar's forces are split by the river, while all of mine bar a single point of elementals are on the one side. The shooting sees the Commando relieved of a leg, but nothing else of note.


Turn 4:

The IS forces sweep east over the mountain to trade fire with the Clan forces. I continue with the same tactic. Concentrated fire knocks the Warhammer to the ground, reeling from the weight of fire. The elementals are beginning to take casualties.


Turn 5:

Oscar's forces now at the riverbanks, I engaged with multiple points of elementals to discourage an easy crossing. Concentrated fire completely destroys the Warhammer, while return fire sees the Victor nail an AC/20 round to my Ryoken, knocking it to the ground. It's completely lost its centre torso armor now, making it very vulnerable to future damage. Both the Stingers are sent to the ground this turn, daring to get too close to the superior Clan mechs.


Turn 6:

The Ryoken is able to scrabble to it's feet, but it's mobility is gone now, at best it will be a gun platform for the remainder of the battle. I advance two points of elementals towards the Victor to discourage it from taking any more pot shots, while a third brings the Crusador to the ground. The elemental forces are overall at about half strength now.



Imgur is screwing up on me now, so you will have to wait for the thrilling conclusion.

So far I'd say the elementals far exceeded expectations. They are extremely tough, have good firepower (at very close range) and with no fire arcs I can be comfortable hurling them into the melee, which is quite a relief considering how badly outnumbered I am and how dearly I have to watch every point of armor on my mechs. The assymetry of the battle is also very interesting, at this time point (3052) the IS have no equivalent to the elemental. It's a game of finesse, I have to dance around and keep the IS mechs on the very end of my guns, while the IS want to close in for a dirty brawl and bully me at close range.

Do people like the movement lines I put in?

 

[GarfunkeL]

Indeed. Very nice.

 

[Father Walker]

So, I'm after another game. This time against Winter, who decided to show me why the Clanners are so fucking annoying.

My mechs:
Cerberus
Axeman
Uziel
Ghost
Spider

Winter's mechs:
Mad Cat

My mechs advance towards the lonely Mad Cat.

Spider flanks the Mad Cat. Uziel also joins the fight, but he's pretty useless with his long range PPC's and machine guns.

Short exchanges of fire leave two Inner Sphere mechs burning. Remaining mechs try to hurt the Clanner.

Fight intensifies, with Axeman exploding and Cerberus falling down to the ground and it's pilot blacking out. Mad Cat pilot decides to fight with honor and engages Uziel (which lacks one arm already). Soon after, Uziel is reduced to a burning rubble, while the Cerberus' pilot wakes up and pulls his mech back on its feet. He manages to strike the Clanner from flank with his gauss rifles and lasers, which turn the Mad Cat into a ball of fire.

The game was fun and Winter pretty much let me win by not exploiting various mistakes I've made (and not finishing the crippled Cerberus). Even though it was almost a tutorial game, it was kewl to shoot stuff with big robots (and getting shot a lot).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to next battles.

 

[Destroid]

Continued from above.


Turn 7:

Oscar aggressively advances onto my mountain position with his Victor and Whitworth. I move up behind them with the Dragonfly, although I am persued by a Stinger. In the firing one Stinger is destroyed, while the other Stinger and Whitworth are knocked down from leg damage, a satisfying round of firing for the clans. The elementals continue to do battle with the Crusader and Centurion remaining on the west side of the river.


Turn 8:

I abandon my position on the hill, considering it over run by IS mechs now. Unfortunately I must leave the Ryoken behind, he will go down guns blazing. I move elementals into position to cover the Ryoken as best they can, leaving a single point to distract the two mechs over the river. This turn the Centurion-D also managed to recover it's footing much to me consternation, while in the shooting the Victor, Oscar's largest mech, is completely destroyed by ammunition explosion after concentrated fire from several omnimechs. The Ryoken is knocked from it's feet again, this time for good, as it has no chance to recover it's footing with it's internal damage and missing an arm, it's out of the game now.


Turn 9:

I withdraw my Puma to the south while Oscar moves his newly recovered Centurion-D up towards the north. The Centurion is destroyed by combined Puma and Dragonfly fire, while the Whitworth finishes off the Ryoken. Elementals continue to skirmish (some swarming the Crusader, an attack where they climb onto the mech and fire their lasers point blank), and things are looking good for the Clans here with two powerful mechs still mobile, while IS forces are mostly immobile or severely damaged.

Turn 10,11,12:

Neither of us have a great deal of firepower left at this point, and turns 9 and 10 are fairly uneventful. In turn 12, the Whitworth lands a solid missile hit on the Puma, destroying it by engine hits in it's centre torso. The only remaining mobile forces now are the Dragonfly, a few elementals and some infantry.


Turns 13-20:

I play it safe with my remaining forces and mop up, Oscar surrenders on turn 20 with the death of his Whitworth.



Overall this was a very entertaining and close game. I believe the river saved me (unless you have jump jets you have to stop in the river for a turn to cross it), as it allowed me to effectively split Oscar's forces in two, eliminating much of the impact of his greater numbers. The elementals too were remarkably tough, and their SRM attacks early on were very powerful, I think both Oscar and I underestimated how strong they would be in this game.

Early on I think it was quite even, but once the Victor was destroyed I was pretty confident of victory. I think the only real mistake in my unit composition was mounting my longest range weapon (ERPPC) on my most mobile mech (Dragonfly). I would have been better served fielding it on something similar to the Puma, while the Dragonfly could have used stronger close range weapons like medium lasers. Another thing I missed was more jump capable mechs, I think I could have done a better job keeping my mechs alive if more than one had jump jets.

Victory - Clan Smoke Jaguar.

 

[oscar]

- My 100 BV of infantry actually ended up useful and managed to take out a few elemental suits, although they were annihilated in pretty much a single turn by flamer fire from the Dragonfly. Still 30 soldiers for 3 or 4 elementals is a good trade in game terms

- Elementals are a major pain in the ass. While the actual damage they do is quite modest they force you to waste time and have your mechs fight in pairs to get rid of them (each mech firing at the elementals attacking the other). Their armour can also suck up a pretty respectable amount of fire, though they started dropping like flies in the later turns as their armour began to run out with even my shitty un-motorised infantry getting a few kills. Perhaps faster moving infantry is a decent and affordable counter?

- Being prone sucks but being immobilised with your pilot unconscious from failing the Get Up roll sucks worse. Hard to say whether it's better to attempt to regain your mobility or accept that your now an expensive turret that can't rotate very far.

- I don't know why the Clan fire was so deadly. Clan equipment, higher Clan gunnery rating, sensible focusing of fire or just lucky rolls by Destroid meant my advance on the right side of the map failed pretty pathetically and the Commando and Stinger spent 80% of the game immobilised and taking the odd potshot at elemental suits. Seems that manoeuvring in groups through LOS-blocking cover until things are at short range and you can bring your inevitably heavier weight of mech and gun to bare seems the best tactic. Melee is even better.

- to the one Whitworth that managed to take out a Ryoken and a Puma while the rest of my force was either crippled, annihilated by focus fire or skirmishing with elementals

 

[Father Walker]

Btw, sorry for stealing your thread

 

[Destroid]

- My 100 BV of infantry actually ended up useful and managed to take out a few elemental suits, although they were annihilated in pretty much a single turn by flamer fire from the Dragonfly. Still 30 soldiers for 3 or 4 elementals is a good trade in game terms

- Elementals are a major pain in the ass. While the actual damage they do is quite modest they force you to waste time and have your mechs fight in pairs to get rid of them (each mech firing at the elementals attacking the other). Their armour can also suck up a pretty respectable amount of fire, though they started dropping like flies in the later turns as their armour began to run out with even my shitty un-motorised infantry getting a few kills. Perhaps faster moving infantry is a decent and affordable counter?

- Being prone sucks but being immobilised with your pilot unconscious from failing the Get Up roll sucks worse. Hard to say whether it's better to attempt to regain your mobility or accept that your now an expensive turret that can't rotate very far.

- I don't know why the Clan fire was so deadly. Clan equipment, higher Clan gunnery rating, sensible focusing of fire or just lucky rolls by Destroid meant my advance on the right side of the map failed pretty pathetically and the Commando and Stinger spent 80% of the game immobilised and taking the odd potshot at elemental suits. Seems that manoeuvring in groups through LOS-blocking cover until things are at short range and you can bring your inevitably heavier weight of mech and gun to bare seems the best tactic. Melee is even better.

- to the one Whitworth that managed to take out a Ryoken and a Puma while the rest of my force was either crippled, annihilated by focus fire or skirmishing with elementals

At least a few occasions were the combination of hard hitting large lasers and LB-X autocannons (both my Ryoken and Puma had one of each). The large lasers punch holes in armor (especially the lights, even medium lasers are up to the task) while LB-X autocannons spread their hits in 1pt blocks, making them exceedingly dangerous for any mech with exposed internals. Also clan weapons are just crazy, the ERPPC mounted on the Dragonfly deals 15 damage, 50% more than an IS PPC.



You are welcome to post your AARs here andrzej, that's what this thread is for.

 

[Destroid]

Had a game against a non-codexian today, we played 15,000BV, 3075 clan vs clan of Nova size forces (5 omni-mechs, 5 battle armor). Good game, but I got beat pretty bad, losing 4 of my mechs and a point of BA before I yeilded, while only taking out a couple of BA and one mech.

 

[Winter]

So, I'm after another game. This time against Winter, who decided to show me why the Clanners are so fucking annoying.

The game was fun and Winter pretty much let me win by not exploiting various mistakes I've made (and not finishing the crippled Cerberus). Even though it was almost a tutorial game, it was kewl to shoot stuff with big robots (and getting shot a lot).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to next battles.

Thanks for the game, andrzej.
I've played a *lot* of battletech, so if anyone has questions, etc. I'd be more than happy to answer them. Can't guarantee timely replies on the 'dex, but I'm always idling in the chatroom.

By the way, if you thought the way I was using that Timber Wolf was annoying, wait until you fight someone who fields an Incubus

 

[Winter]

- My 100 BV of infantry actually ended up useful and managed to take out a few elemental suits, although they were annihilated in pretty much a single turn by flamer fire from the Dragonfly. Still 30 soldiers for 3 or 4 elementals is a good trade in game terms

- Elementals are a major pain in the ass. While the actual damage they do is quite modest they force you to waste time and have your mechs fight in pairs to get rid of them (each mech firing at the elementals attacking the other). Their armour can also suck up a pretty respectable amount of fire, though they started dropping like flies in the later turns as their armour began to run out with even my shitty un-motorised infantry getting a few kills. Perhaps faster moving infantry is a decent and affordable counter?

- Being prone sucks but being immobilised with your pilot unconscious from failing the Get Up roll sucks worse. Hard to say whether it's better to attempt to regain your mobility or accept that your now an expensive turret that can't rotate very far.

- I don't know why the Clan fire was so deadly. Clan equipment, higher Clan gunnery rating, sensible focusing of fire or just lucky rolls by Destroid meant my advance on the right side of the map failed pretty pathetically and the Commando and Stinger spent 80% of the game immobilised and taking the odd potshot at elemental suits. Seems that manoeuvring in groups through LOS-blocking cover until things are at short range and you can bring your inevitably heavier weight of mech and gun to bare seems the best tactic. Melee is even better.

- to the one Whitworth that managed to take out a Ryoken and a Puma while the rest of my force was either crippled, annihilated by focus fire or skirmishing with elementals

Clan equipment and pilots are why they are so deadly. When you're in medium range with your guns, he's in short range. That's a difference of 3 on the dice roll. The Clan units are also faster and better armed one-for-one, so it's important to gang up on them.

Tips from a Clan player:
1. Ignore Battle Armour - They're only good so long as you're wasting your shots on them and not the enemy mechs. The addendum to this is to never get within jump range of the BA, because they'll land in your hex and leg attack you, which can be very, very bad.
2. Keep your units close together and isolate/pin down one Clan mech at a time. The Adder would have been the best choice in your game, it's light on armour and on a hill, has little maneuver room.
3. Stay away from terrain - Don't climb onto hills/mountains, don't fight at a river crossing, stay away from a town, don't enter a forested area without superior forces. Clans only survive off the terrain. If it's flat and featureless, you can easily surround them and turn their mechs to slag.