Completed The Next Codex battle of the Giant Robots. Your chance to pilot a mech against other Codexians.

[good little toastboy]

We did the same thing to the Griffin's pilot. Apparently we are cruel sons of bitches.

 

[Azira]

Not cool. I'd have wanted them to sit down and have a beer with Norfleet, rashiakas and yourself. Ohwell, war is cruel and whatnot.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Round 16 FIRE (Yes, the Trebuchet is still standing)

Well the Treb stood and unloaded both barrels at the Cronus, while the Cronus fired back with that and threw a SRM 4 into the mix as well. Meanwhile the Warhammer continued to calmly smash the target with its PPCs.

The Warhammer fired first, hitting the left torso with both PPCs. Who needs an AC-20 when you can cluster like that . Only one critical hit, but this one was on............wait for it...........the ammo. *Gasp* I hear you say, but since the Trebuchet has been out of ammo for a while, the crit actually had no effect. Kinda weird, if the Trebuchet had ammo left, that critical hit would have probably killed the mech, but on the other hand, if it had ammo it probably would not be standing stationary in knife range. Nevertheless, the left torso now has a whopping one internal left. The next sneeze will drop the left torso.

One one hand, both of the Trebs medium lasers hit. On the other hand, the Cronus's center torso and right leg both have enough armor to take two more hits each before the armor even gives way, and I don't think the Trebuchet has that much time left.

Here is your map (hint, it looks the same)

and here are your numbers.

Weapons fire for Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A)
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 11 : hits CT
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) takes 5 damage to CT. 13 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 12 : hits RL
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) takes 5 damage to RL. 10 Armor remaining.

Weapons fire for Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B)
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 9 : hits (using Partial cover table) LT
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to LT. Armor destroyed, 11 Internal Structure remaining
Critical hit on LT. Roll is 9; 1 location.
<<<CRITICAL HIT>>> on LRM 15 Ammo (0).
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 7 : hits (using Partial cover table) LT
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to LT. 1 Internal Structure remaining
Critical hit on LT. Roll is 2; no effect.

Weapons fire for Cronus CRS-3M (Team B)
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 11 : hits LL
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 5 damage to LL. 10 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 3 : misses.
SRM 4 at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 7 : misses.

Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) must make 1 piloting skill roll(s) (20+ damage).
The base target is 5 [5 (Base piloting skill)].
Roll #1, (5 (Base piloting skill) + 1 (20+ damage)); needs 6, rolls 7 : succeeds.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Heat Phase
-------------------
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) gains 6 heat, sinks 6 heat and is now at 0 heat.
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) gains 9 heat, sinks 14 heat and is now at 5 heat.
Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B) gains 20 heat, sinks 20 heat and is now at 2 heat.
Cronus is now down to only a -1 to movement.

 

[Azira]

Interesting! Who will bite it first, the cronus or the trebuchet?

By the way, I wouldn't mind piloting a mech should you do another LP after this one's concluded.

 

[rashiakas]

Yeah, I volunteer as well, love this game

 

[Country_Gravy]

Sorry dudes. I already asked to be in on the next one 10 pages ago. Get in line. Can't we have a giant mech battle with 8 vs 8? Is that too much work for CGR? Do you even want to do another one? What about three lances of 4 so that we can have a Codexian 3 way battle royale!

 

[laclongquan]

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE!

 

[good little toastboy]

You can never have enough mechs. We have doubled the number of players last time, let's do it again.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

I figure I'll do a two week sign up period and see how many responses I get. I'll base the resulting battle off of that.

 

[Azira]

Wow.

In other news, team blue posted their movement and firing orders for the next turn. Figured we might as well pool and post them in one go, as there's, let's face it, not many targets left to choose between.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Movement and fire orders for both teams in. I'll process the turn this evening.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'd like to play, too. I must make my death and destruction quota.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Round 17 FIRE (Watch mechs act like Napoleonic armies)

Having found a good range, both teams planted their feet and commenced firing. This round Team blue decided to up the pressure (and heat buildup). The last Team gold member's medium lasers both hit...the right and left arm of the Cronus respectively. One more hit to the left arm and the Cronus will lose it.

Speaking of losing arms, some of the incoming fire found its way to the left side of the Trebuchet, dropping the torso. The rest of the fire chewed away at the center torso, leaving only 5 armor left. The right leg and the arm are not doing well either.

Here is your map (yep the same)

and here are your numbers.

Weapons fire for Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A)
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 9 : hits RA
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) takes 5 damage to RA. 7 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 9 : hits LA
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) takes 5 damage to LA. Armor destroyed, 5 Internal Structure remaining
Critical hit on LA. Roll is 7; no effect.

Weapons fire for Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B)
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 5 : misses.
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 7 : hits (using Partial cover table) CT
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to CT. 12 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 7 : misses.

Weapons fire for Cronus CRS-3M (Team B)
Large Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 7, rolls 7 : hits LA
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 8 damage to LA.
8 damage transfers to LT.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 8 damage to LT. <<<SECTION DESTROYED>>>,
7 damage transfers to CT.
Critical hit on LT. Roll is 6; no effect.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 7 damage to CT. 5 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 7, rolls 9 : hits RL
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 5 damage to RL. 10 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 7, rolls 9 : hits RA
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 5 damage to RA. 5 Armor remaining.
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 7, rolls 4 : misses.
SRM 4 at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 7, rolls 6 : misses.

Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) must make 1 piloting skill roll(s) (20+ damage).
The base target is 5 [5 (Base piloting skill)].
Roll #1, (5 (Base piloting skill) + 1 (20+ damage)); needs 6, rolls 9 : succeeds.


Heat Phase
-------------------
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) gains 6 heat, sinks 6 heat and is now at 0 heat.
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) gains 20 heat, sinks 14 heat and is now at 11 heat.
Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B) gains 23 heat, sinks 20 heat and is now at 5 heat.

Cronus is -2 movement +1 fire and the Warhammer is -1 movement

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Unless one of the teams says otherwise here or in PM I will automatically advance this battle to its bloody conclusion, posting all the gory details, tomorrow evening.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Round 18 FIRE (The bitter end)

No movement phase, since all mechs decided to take this to the end. The warhammer fired both PPCs, but the Cronus only fired one medium laser and one SRM-4 to try to reduce its heat. The Trebuchet fired both its remaining medium lasers, but it did not matter since it managed to miss with both while only needing a 6+ to hit.

Just like against the Dragon, the Warhammer's PPCs hit center torso and left arm (which transferred to center torso). The twenty points of damage shredded the center torso, not quite killing the mech, but leaving only one more internal structure. It also added an engine crit for insult. The Cronus missed with its laser, but the SRM volley hit with all four missiles. The first two missiles took the remainder of the right arm's armor, but the third missile hit the center torso; doing the final bit of damage needed to down the Trebuchet.

Thus the Trebuchet went out, not with a twenty point bang, but with a two point whimper.

Here is your map

and here are the numbers.


Weapons fire for Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B)
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 6 : hits (using Partial cover table) CT
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to CT. Armor destroyed, 11 Internal Structure remaining
Critical hit on CT. Roll is 7; no effect.
Particle Cannon at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 6, rolls 7 : hits (using Partial cover table) LA
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to LA.
10 damage transfers to LT.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to LT.
10 damage transfers to CT.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 10 damage to CT. 1 Internal Structure remaining
Critical hit on CT. Roll is 8; 1 location.
<<<CRITICAL HIT>>> on Engine.

Weapons fire for Cronus CRS-3M (Team B)
Medium Laser at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 6 : misses.
SRM 4 at Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A); needs 8, rolls 8 : 4 missile(s) hit.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to RA. 3 Armor remaining.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to RA. 1 Armor remaining.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to LT.
2 damage transfers to CT.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to CT. <<<SECTION DESTROYED>>>,
*** Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) DESTROYED by damage! ***
Critical hit on CT. Roll is 9; 1 location.
<<<CRITICAL HIT>>> on Standard Gyro.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to LT.
2 damage transfers to CT.
Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A) takes 2 damage to CT.

Weapons fire for Trebuchet TBT-5N (Team A)
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 4 : misses.
Medium Laser at Cronus CRS-3M (Team B); needs 6, rolls 4 : misses


Heat Phase
-------------------
Cronus CRS-3M (Team B) gains 6 heat, sinks 14 heat and is now at 3 heat.
Warhammer WHM-6D (Team B) gains 20 heat, sinks 20 heat and is now at 5 heat.

And at the end, heat is reasonable.

End Phase
-------------------
MechWarrior Rashiakas (Team B) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!
MechWarrior Norfleet (Team A) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!
MechWarrior good little toastboy (Team B) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!
MechWarrior Rashiakas (Team B) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!
MechWarrior good little toastboy (Team B) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!
MechWarrior Norfleet (Team A) sits down with his colleagues and cracks open a beer!

That's a lot of beer.

 

[Azira]

Mhmm... Beer.

Good going everyone! Too bad that our lance leader got banned, but we pulled through thanks to good little toastboy. He made a good commissioned lance leader, even if I did post the orders most of the time, it was not before he'd had his say.

I just sit here, feeling pretty about those jump jets and getting the paper-cut killing shot in on the last two mechs.

I predict that in the next match, if I get to play in that, I go as one of the first mechs. If not, then Karma's my bitch.

 

[laclongquan]

God damn it! Bad rolls to the end! Bah~

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Thoughts on the game:

Team gold started stronger and if they could have kept up as they started, they would probably have taken the match, but I think the turning point was the three turns when Team gold did the Superbowl shuffle in front of the river. If three of the four mechs (i.e. everyone but the slower Panther, who coincidentally had jump jets) had done a real break to the north then the Panther could have gotten a good flanking maneuver to the south. Its PPC had both the range and the punch to not let it into your rear arc. Although the Cronus and/or Javelin could have followed the Panther, when two mechs are jumping around it is really hard for them to hit each other. With a bit of good movement, the poor hunchback could have spend most of the game running around pointlessly (as opposed to only the first half of the game). I think luck was reasonably balanced (perhaps slightly in team blue's favor). Team gold did manage to chalk up a mass of pointless arm hits, but they also took out the Javelin in one round due to a pretty unbelievable series of events.

8 rounds is too little for LRM ammo, but plenty for short (i.e. <10 hex) range weapons like SRMs and AC-20s.

What do the players and lurkers think?

 

[Azira]

Yes, the amount of ammo for long range missiles when compared to short range missiles seem odd. But that also means you cannot just sit back the whole match with a trebuchet, which, being on the receiving team, found was nice..
The amount of ammo I had for the SRM in the cronus seemed superfluous.

 

[laclongquan]

Illogical load out for Trebuchet is what. When you load ammo for a long range attacker, the main point is enough rounds to do the job. Prolly should replace a laser with more LRM ammo loads. OR arrange a stealth ammo trucks.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

This was the only LP I followed for the month.

 

[good little toastboy]

When I first saw the whole team on the other side of the river, I thought we would get kited to death. Luckily that didn't happen. In general I think this simultaneous turns format favours long range mechs, especially if they are faster than the short ranged ones. Team gold could back up five hexes while the Hunchback for example could only run 6. Or they can just run one round in another direction. Also it gets really hard to get a light mech at good angles or even behind another mech to melee him. Then again, there's nothing to be done about that, if you don't want the match to take a year.
That Trebuchet sure seemed expensive, I guess because of the engine(?). Then again, those 16 shots have the potential to do 240 damage, even with average rolls on the cluster hits it will probably be around 200, which is not bad at all for long ranged weapons considering you can dish that out in 8 rounds while the Hunchback needs 10 probably having a harder time to get good odds to hit.
Almost forgot: I would gladly play another game at the side of my team blue bros.

 

[Azira]

I figure I'll do a two week sign up period and see how many responses I get. I'll base the resulting battle off of that.

So, have the two weeks begun, or will you make a seperate thread for signing up, and if yes, then when? You've brought us two lovely battles already. I'm just hankering for the next fix. M:

 

[laclongquan]

Potential Shpotential! Skills wont beat a bad luck roll.