Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH Part One · 1:12am Jun 9th, 2020
Well, I'm finally about to start only my second game of BATTLETECH. I last played pre-flashpoint (August 2018 Steam tells me). I then basically just waited until all the expansions were out (might as well maximise the amount of new stuff, I do this A LOT). And then it's been sitting there as "something to look forward to playing."
(I tend to play most games through generally only the once, or more than once years apart. If it gets more than once, it's done very well! (See C&C series, MechCommander 2, X-com 1/2 (new versions)....)
I WAS going to leave it until closer to the end of the year (or next year?) when all the Catalyst kickstarter stuff comes through. But I just got done with my second X-Com 2 run, and I am still in the mood for something X-Com-y (especially with regard to the character generation - it still astounds me, but playing dress-up and taking the propaganda poster photos is a good, like, third-to-half of the fun). A look around and there wasn't anything that looked like it could scratch that itch (Phoenix Point maybe, but only when it comes to Steam and possibly Phantom Doctrine?) And basically all the places I looked for similar things said "BATTLETECH!!"
So here I am. After consideration, I'm not going to go straight to my post-campaign save, but start a career (something I didn't think I'd do). But that gives me a) more chance to generate characters[1] , b) gives me a better idea of how the skills revision changed before I commit to it on my post-campaign save and c) might actually give me a better chance of seeing how the lighter mechs (c.f. Raven, Hatchetman) play without dumping them straight into a primarily assault environment.
(And later in the year, if I feel BT-y again, I can go to the main save, or I can try RogueTech or something...)
[1]it's a shame we don't seem to have got a wealth of extra vouice packs like X-Com 2 does;, heck, one of the X-Com 2 characters was a Glitch voice mod...!
And then I figured, frack it, might as well make this a full Bleakbane Plays...!
Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part One:
So, this will be going up at Giant in the Playground forums, on my FimFic blog and on the Paradox forums, so as to fully spread the idiocy around for all.
(So for them as on the PDX BT forum, forgive the screencaps of stuff you already will know, the rest of the audience in other places won't!)
For those of just joining this insanity (which is and has priorly located on just the Giant in the Playground forums and my FimFiction blog), expect a lot of Fighting With The RNG and a lot of character-ful insanity, but less the sort of ironman, hard-core challenge that most people do with this sort of thing, because I'm exactly the opposite sort of gamer. (I played basically one game on Hard, and that was TIE Fighter (one of my top three favourite games of all time) the time I did that for a Bleakbane Plays and FRAXK that was something I wouldn't do again...!) And I am also shamelessly self-indulgent.
We will be joined by various members of the recurring stable of hapless idiots that get trotted out for this sort of thing, level of character customisation depending, forcibly lore-splinteringly injected into the proceedings.
(For those of your who have followed previous idiocy, it is rather unlikely we shall see the Liches - including me, Bleakbane in game form due to lack of character customisation options - and Illyphase the Erinyes paladin and Alluria the succubus paladin are part of the crew of the main save; but there may be some familiar faces, and a load of ones which will be new (to you, anyway; most of them just finished X-Com 2 for the second time...).)
So, we shall start with the difficulty settings:
I umm'd and ah'd about the mech salvage number. Me and RNG have enough problems normally... But for the sake of pushing me a little bit out of my comfort zone, on four, I have to run across a mech at least twice. We will see how quickly I come to regret that decision.
Mech destruction enabled, though I don't expect it will matter unless it affects enemies, advanced pilots set to rare, since I'm doing this to make my own.
And this time, the company will be led by Lynessa Fair, taking a break from teaching the magical paladins of Azurella to lead a mercenary company as bit of a rest. (She heard that the much lauded hero of the United Concorde of Divine Realms, General Hayalyn Haelariel did a year or two ago, so...!)
So, the UCDR is from another dimension, so that must count as Deep Periphery, right? And her family is all alive since she joined the magical paladins, so she technically struck out on her own and mercenary is kind of like a paladin if you squint really hard...
Lynessa will be using the call-sign "Serene", since that is basically what she is; quietly confident, competent and level-headed to the point of serenity (though not without an understated sense of humour...)
From here on forward, my comments will be in italicised parentheses - this is down to Lynessa now!
Lynessa arrived on the Argo to tour around her new mercenary company. The first thing, of course, was to give it a suitable name. Lynessa decided that "Azurella's Paladins" seemed logically descriptive.
Time to pick a colour scheme!
(I don't remember this before, so I suspect this is new. Neat!)
The next job was to have a look over her new pilots and make a quick trip to the hiring hall.
After that was done, Lynessa reviewed her troops.
First off was one of her students, Mylassta Spiritweave. She was the "leader" of a little group, a five-man (well, girl) band who’d joined the paladins as a group from academy since being friends since magical school. Headstrong and occasionally a bit bossy (and full of herself), in almost any other situation than the ones she typically found herself in, she would have been The Protagonist. (It had become a running joke at this point.) Mylassta, then, had decided that even though she wasn't, she was damn well going to call herself "Protagonist," and maybe one day the universe would listen.
Second was Alarhan Tyanar, arguably the most stable of Mylassta's little group; studious, cool, calm and collected. Alarhan could always be relied on to be professional and provided some caution to the others.
Then there was Poppy Blossom, the third member of Mylassta's group. Poppy was The Quiet One. Lynessa saw in her a younger version of herself; Poppy was a little shy, but had pure steel underneath. Poppy could calmly beat you to a pulp with her staff if she felt you deserved it, apologising politely between each strike. She was also cautious by nature.
Then there was Scarlet Kaxatari. Scarlet was horrendously self-conscious about the fact that she was basically a demon (by birth) and permanently kept herself shapeshifted into a human form. She was shyer than Poppy when in unfamiliar company - which in this instance (surrounded by humans who didn't even know Demons Were A Thing) she was self-conscious to the point of being clumsy.
The last of Mylassta's little magical girl paladin band was Summer Glow. Her magical talent tending towards super-speed, Summer was the most cheerful and outgoing of the five. (She could be perhaps unkindly and inaccurately described as being the "boy-crazy" one, but Summer's proclivities were both broader than that and more to compensate for her more introverted and shy friends).
Finally, there was their new classmate, Pseekie Rala. Pseekie was a bit of a tech junkie (though that did not translate to any particular skills with this more primitive technology). She was currently seething, because she'd gotten a parking ticket from an overly officious bureaucrat was thus was technically a criminal.
Of the five, only Pseekie (because of her interest) and Scarlet had actually put any simulator hours in and had more than a vague idea of what they were doing.
Right, down to the mech bay to see what Lynessa had to work with...
(It was at this point, on the FIRST try, I realised I REALLY should have checked I was happy with the random mechs before I did the characters. Which was a BJ-1 a CN-9A a PNT-9R an FS9-H and a SDR-5V; too good, I felt, especially the Centurion which I had previously found to be arguably the best 50-tonner in its class.
Five or six restarts later, I had the line-up i was happy with. It required re-doing the pilots again, but this time, they were all females (first pass would have included Comedy Terrotist Jarmin Culd and his mate Ra-Ra Rama, so all to the good, really...), so I could trot out all of Mylassta's little group; though this time, a couple of them were starting off better, as opposed to the 3/2/2/2 mix all four pilots had the first time. Worse mechs, better pilots. *eh* So I hired a couple of the bottom level pilots as they were available, so I have plenty of newbs and conveniently Lasti's entire little clique, plus one, as described above.)
Lynessa blinked, it was like the universe had changed under her, but the mechs resolved into:
A BJ-1 Blackjack, an ENF-4R Enforcer, a JR7-D Jenner, an FS9-H Firestarter and a LCT-1S Locust.
That would do nicely.
(Sweet! That new "view mech" option is fantastic!)
Then it was down to the Argo's engineering, so see what needed to be done and whether there was any upgrades.
After a quick assess, Lynessa told Dr Farah Murad, the chief engineer, to start work on repairing the power conduits (as improving the mech bay's active storage was high on Lynessa's list.)
Lynessa had a quick look at the local store, but elected not to purchase anything at the moment, though there was a few nice bits.
Time to have a look at the map. Lynessa joined Sumire Meyer in the comms room and appreciate Comstar's new 1.7 map, now with store, biome and difficulty filters! Neat!
The Argo was currently at Independence.
Not a bad place to start.
Lynessa checked her companies' reputation with the major powers: -10 to all of them, except the local Taurian Concordat and the Ministry of Canopus (-5) and -15 with the pirates.
So, enough pre-amble! Time to check for contracts in the local system with Darius Oliveira!
Lynessa skimmed down the list of missions.
(A LOT more than I was expecting, last time I played, you only got, like, three or four choices!)
She selected Hold The Line, a mission to defend a planetary government base against Taurian attack - Lynessa was most attracted to it the large salvage possibilities, and it was only rated half a skull... However, on negotiating to get that 4 salvage, she'd only get 25k cbills (or 3 salvage for 88k).
So it looked like Contested Will, which would give her 3 salvage, but also nearly double the cbills to take an "ancestral fortress" for planetary government from the Ministry of Canopus would be where they would start. (But it was a one-skull mission...)
Lynessa took the Enforcer, and put Mylassta in the Blackjack, with Alarhan in the Jenner and Summer in the Locust. Time to head out!
Off to a good start...
The base was unoccupied, but that was when the enemy reinforcements showed up. Alarhan went up to have a look and spotted four contacts, and drew first blood on the only one she could see, a Javelin. the OpFor consisted of a Javelin, a Locust 1M, a Galleon, and a Striker with a NARC beacon. The group took them out with much trouble, sustaining only light damage to the Jenner.
For salvage, Lynessa considered taking the whole locust, but decided that (since it didn't come with any gear), getting some weapons in to start customisation first, and selected an LRM-10 and SRM-6 and some LRM ammo. She got part of the Locust and Javelin anyway.
(And I should have got the Locust whole because I forgot it's select 3 out of 12, the rest at random! Nevermind.
Also, I'm going to start toning the graphics down, it seemed very jerky, which it didn't last time, see if that helps.)
Both Mylassta and Alarhan increased their gunnery to 3, but to held off improving anything else yet. Summer elected to improve her piloting to 4; Lynessa improved her gunnery to 3 and her tactics to 5, granting Sensor Lock.
As it happened, there was still nothing Lynessa could really fit into the current mechs (at least not while the Jenner was under repair), so she elected to take a second contract...
She decided to take the Hold the Line contract, with maximum salvage.
Alarhan took the Firestarter this time, with the Jenner undergoing repairs for three days.
(Oh, yeah, that's better. Turned the trees, shadows and terrain down to medium and that was much improved.)
The base was initially approached by a lone Javelin. The OpFor contained a pair, plus a Locust and a couple of vehicles. Summer's Locust took a heavy hit, which took off the right arm, and put her out of commission for 23 days. (Ouch.)
The OpFor was destroyed for only minimal damage, however, and that granted Lynessa a little more cash as all the buildings had survived.
For salvage, she took two parts of the 10A Javelin and one for the LCT-1E and an AC 5.
The Locust would out of action for another few days, and worse, the SRM 2 in the right arm was a write-off, and currently there was nothing to replace it with.
Lynessa, Alarhan and Mylassta all increased their gunnery to 4.
As Lynessa was not willing to deploy with only three mechs, it meant a halt to operations until the Jenner was repaired.
As soon as they started to pass the time, though:
Well, Lynessa wasn't going to turn down free stuff!
WOW, what a haul! An ASN-21 Assassin mech, plus an LB-X 10 AC, plus a Coil-M weapon!
Oooh, it has an intercept system the better for taking out those fast-moving evasive mechs. Lynessa was delighted.
Lynessa could go straight out on another mission!
A supply Lines mission was worth a lot of cash; working for the Taurian Concordat taking out a Canopian lance. Lynessa opted to go for the maximum amount of cash (the supply was nothing special), since adding +50% to the current funds wasn't something to be sneezed at this stage.
So Poppy got to take the Assassin out for its first mission.
Uh-oh... This time the opposition was a full lance of mechs. Three Javelins and a Flea!
The first Javelin went down easy enough...
But the Assassin took a few hits before Alarhan jumped behind the second to take it out.
The Flea ran into the Enforcer and made a futile attempt to physically attack, so Lynessa just started punching it (she missed the first time) while Mylassta shot it once in the back and turned her attention to the other Javelin, which had been showering her with missiles.
Still, the job was done without TOO much damage.
There DEFINITELY need to be repair downtime now, though!
(Oh, that's right, armour doesn't take any time or cash to repair, so only the Assassin was down.)
Still, that one mission more than covered the month's current outgoings, so that was a start!
Two days later (Day 3/1200), the Jenner was back in operation.
Lynessa examined the Jenner to see if there was anything useful they could do with it; not really. It didn't seem worth putting the Coil-M on such a vulnerable platform at the moment. The same went for the LB-X 10; it would fit in the enforcer, but for the moment, the Enforcer's AC 10 was one of the few punching hits the lance had, so it would stay for the moment.
She did pop by the local shop to buy another ton of LB X 10 ammo though (while it was available, and she didn't know how readily it would be elsewhere) and a half-ton MG ammo, so at least the locust could be fitted with an MG when it was repaired...
The contract, then, would be a straight fight with the Taurians for the planetary government. There would be the minimal cash reward, but maximum salvage.
The opposition was a Flea (FLE-4) and a Commando (COM-2D) - they didn't take much killing.
Apart from one piece of the wreckage each, however, they there only a solitary SRM ammo left.
Still, no damage meant that they paladins could go straight out again; working for the Canopians to destroy a pirate lance.
But first, Mylassta and Alarhan increased their gunnery to 5 and thus gained Multishot. (Allowing them, fairly self-explanatorily, to be able to shoot at more than one target at the same time.)Lynessa choose to increase her piloting to 4 and Poppy likewise (in her case from 2 to 4).
A single enemy mech... That went in Phase two. That wasn't a good sig-
Ohhhh. SNAP!
K2 Catapult! Bad happen! Bad happen!
Even with most of its armour missing, the PPCs could ruin everyone's day!
Fortunately, having reserved, the lance got in two salvoes before it could fire, taking out one PPC. Despite reinforcements coming, they focussed on it and it missed its one PPC shot on Mylassta's Blackjack. Due to a lucky hit shot, it went down without CT (centre torso) destruction, so hopefully, there might be some nice salvage.
The rest of the opposition went down fairly easily - save that the Scorpion Mk 2 tank put a couple of shells into the Jenner's arm, so back to the repair shop it would go!
Lynessa picked a piece of an enemy Locust and the one part of the K2 Catapult. Luck was with her, as the one PPC was part of the salvage!
So, a four day respite, while the Locust was repaired - but back into the queue for three days after that to fit an MG and a half-ton of ammo to replace the lost SRM...
Another day's work, though, and the Assassin would be back out and ready for the next mission.
One Man's Art; a half-skull recovered mission for a Canopian philanthropist to rescue a painter (and his art) from religious zealots. It's a living...
The mission went smoothly, with only a couple of Locusts and a javelin plus some light vehicles. Though Alarhan got a little bit excited and Accidently A Death From Above, which damaged the Firestarter’s legs. Whoops! Still, aside from the both art and artists were rescued. The artist was apparently some sort of Ancient French person and kept babbling on about "the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies." Alarhan just sighed...
Due to head hits and knock-downs, there was a nice haul of parts - three each from the 1N Javelin and 1-E Locust. Lynessa took all three of the latter, since that meant she now had four parts for a function 1E Locust! Yay?
Of course, now the big problem was that it had to go straight to storage!
Lynessa raised her gunnery to 5 and also took Multishot, and raised her guts to 3 (which had no immediate benefit).
Mylassta, Poppy and Alarhan increased their tactics (to 4,4 and 3 respectively).
A day later, the Jenner was ready to go (which Alarhan would be piloting); last contract in the system! A hit job for the government to kill a "war-criminal."
The enemy screening forces were between the lance and the target: two vehicles and two Spiders. The first salvo was devastatingly effective: Lynessa and Alarhan took out both vehicles a shot a piece and Mylassta manged a beautiful one-shot of the one spiders, causing an ammo explosion. Which let Poppy, who had only just hit her target, feel quite insignificant...
The last spider went down, and the group closed on the enemy target. Which turned out to be a fully intact Kintaro KTO-18! Alarhan was again lucky scoring a critical hit and triggering and ammo explosion that took out one arm. And as the squad manoeuvred around, whittling away the Kintaro's solid armour, she landed a second salvo, which took out the other arm and FINALLY, after another fusillade of fire, it went down.
One piece of KTO-18 and one SDR-5K was salvaged, plus some various bits.
Alarhan choose to up her Guts from 2 to 4, but everyone else held off.
The Jenner went back into repairs (again - the Kintaro caught it a glancing blow with a laser).
The only contracts left at this point where in the neighbouring system of Mantharaka... One very lucrative one working for the local pirates against the government seemed the place to start. That was 12 days away, time enough to get some repairs underway, perhaps even some upgrades.
A day into the trip, the power conduits were repaired, so Farah started on the Mech bay; faster repairs and another six mech space would be great! That ate quite a lot of the funds, however!
The Locust 1S was refitted, and then Lynessa had it put into storage, so they could have a proper look at the 1E Locust, which had lots of energy weapon hardpoints, making it a little better than a not-quite-complete 1S (if perhaps not better than a complete one).
With so little to work with - and unwilling to risk something like the coil-gun on such a fragile target - Lynessa had it outfitted with the stock two medium and two small lasers.
On day 19, two days out from Mantharaka, Sumire reported there was a Flashpoint mission. That was 23 days away though, so Lynessa thought she had better deal with a couple of contracts first.
As they arrived at Mantharaka though, events were afoot! Farah suggested the crew watch a meteor shower to raise morale.
There was simply no way of avoiding Pseekie's pleading eyes...
... And she did an excellent job.
But now, dealing with contract was at hand. As Pseekie had done such a good job, Lynessa assigned her the Assassin, letting Poppy take a break. the lance was otherwise as the previous mission: Enforcer, Blackjack, Jenner, Assassin.
Oh, this was going to suuuuck. The enemy was a Panther (a light mech with a PPC), a Jenner, two vehicles (all at full armour) and a couple more reinforcements coming in as soon as the fight started.
No, as it turned out THREE reinforcements, all mechs with LRMs.
The battle was very bad. Lynessa and the lance fought a retreat to the west, near a lake (as their mech has a heavy reliance on energy weapons). Lynessa took out both the vehicles early, as the easiest kills.
She got a lucky hit on the Panther -
- but it was another round before they could take it out, though fortunately, it's PPCs had kept missing.
The reinforcements proved to be two Locust 1M and a Javelin 10A - and that proved to be nearly more than they could handle.
(As the RNG made sure every hit on the Enforcer was the right torso and every hit I did was scattered around.)
It took the right torso of the Enforcer out completely, before the combined fire was FINALLY able to put it down.
Ouch.
Well, there would be no more missions for a bit, clearly. Lynessa was leading from the sick bed, and all four mechs had suffered internal damage (Mylassta's self-inflicted by overheat in a desperate attempt to kill the Javelin before it shot Lynessa's crippled mech again.)
The 5/23 salvage had better be worth it...!
Well, 2 parts Locust 1M (yay, another locust!)
(Look, Love locusts on the tabletop, where I have like more than any other individual mech, but they work better as a roving lance...!)
That said, the 1M at least had missile hard points and could be fitted with LRMs, as so - as this battle proved - could be a long-range annoyance.
A piece each of the Panther, Jenner and Javelin 10A; and a load of salvage.
Well, the first thing Lynessa was going to do was hit the stores, since they had no AC 10 to replace on her Enforcer (well, they did have the LB-X, but that battle just proved it was in a rather vulnerable mount there...)
Fortunately, they did; and some ammo two. so that was the first purchase. But, by the time everything was repaired and refitted, the enforcer would be back in service about the same time as Lynessa... Maybe they would leave for that flashpoint!
Crushingly, the store had both a rare heat bank and thermal exchanger, but all that had cost a lot of cash. That said, there were a lot of half-skull contracts. So in a week, when there were four functional mechs again, Mylassta could lead the lance out for some money.
In the meantime, from her bed, Lynessa worked on her aim, raising her tactics to 6. Pseekie increased her own to 4 (aiming to be substitute support soon). After some thought, Alarhan decided to increase her piloting to 4, rather than get guts 5 (for Bulwark), electing that she would leave that to Mylassta, and opt for gunnery/piloting herself; Mylassta concentrated on improved her aim, and pushed her gunnery to 6.
They bought the Heat Exchanger - this would bring them dangerously close to bankruptcy, but they mechs would get done JUST in time to scrape by, if they took a lucrative contract and hopefully didn't take too much damage...
One day before the pay was all due, Mylassta set out to help the planetary government fight the Taurian Concordat, for the maximum money possibly, which should cover the 80k they were short of when payday hit.
Well. As it turned out, Mylassta would be leading a trio of government newbs, so at least only one of their mechs was at risk...!
Oh deary deary.
"Say," said Burger Time, "does anyone else hear that odd sound? Y'know, like someone banging their helmet again the console or something?"
"NO. IT'S FINE," Mylassta ground out. "LET'S. GO."
Fortunately the mission was tame even by milk-run standards - a single enemy Commando COM-2D, clapped out and damaged.
Well, Mylassta, thought, it might not be the most glamourous first solo mission, but it was an easy 300k, plus a few bits of SRM4 and one piece of the COM-2D, so...
And there was a second Training Day mission. Mylassta shrugged. Easy money again, with a bit of luck...
Flapjacks annouced that it was no problem, they were "going to lick their asses."
(Apparently didn't screencap that one.)
"Hey, there's that noise again," commented Stubble...
(Credit, HBS, I was expecting the same dialogue again. Mow watch this be deliberate, this be a full 2 skull lance or something...)
The enemy this time was a single Panther, slightly damaged but then...
Figures...
Fortunately, the enemy lance was a single 1M Locust, and easily dealt with.
So, that got Mylassta a +25% bonus, a 1M piece, and 9R Panther piece and a PPC. Not too shabby...!
(Also, hey, got to use some Urbanmechs for the first and probably only time...!)
That was nicely enough to cover the cost of the thermal exchanger, and have plenty left for payday.
Mylassta elected to take a half-skull interdiction mission, again for max money. (While max salvage was generally preferable, at this point, raw cash was more useful in the short term.) She had Alarhan pilot the Assassin, the newly-recovered Summer the Jenner and Pseekie take the Firestarter.
The mission had two Javelin escorting a convoy of four vehicles, all fully armoured.
The Jenner took internal damage AGAIN. And the 10A Javelin manged to land a hit on Mylassta's head. Because of course it did.
So, the second-in-command now joined the commander in the sick-bed.
"So, You're in charge now, Alarhan!"
Mylassta took the time to toughen up, raising her Guts from 3 to 4, so hopefully she'd be more resistant to this kind of thing...
Alarhan weighed her options, and decided that no, taking the team out on a half-0sckull mission with the Jenner down seemed like it was likely to make matters worse if it went south. So they waited.
That brought the new Mechbay online (hurrah!) and brought the end of the month report.
Alarhan was mildly annoyed to see there were no medical upgrades, so she elected to have Farah start work on restoring the mech scaffolds, which ought to make engineer Yang's job a bit easier, at least...
But the projections were back in the red again. It seemed unwise to make the nearly-month long trip to the flashpoint (as if it was a hard battle, the might not be missions easy enough to recoup the costs), so it looked like the paladins would have to wait a week or so until they had the Enforcer back to take on some one-skull missions for cash.
But we will leave that for the next instalment!
So. Boy am I glad I took that crate for th assassin. Should have stuck with the "that's too good!" mechs, shouldn't I? (Well, I did really want to have to use a Locust at some point...)
I'm also fairly sure the OpFor has got a lot smarter, I don't recall it running up and clobbering me with physical assaults so often...
That said, I haven't had to Does Any Reloading, which makes for a nice change of pace, though we'll see how long THAT lasts...!
I realize the demonic-world overtone is all internal headcanon, but it does beg the question as to why we don't have a real mech suit v. Dark Forces thing. Doom Robotech. It seems all our mechs do is fight (a) kaiju and (b) more mechs. Why not massive undead and stuff?
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How hard could it be to reanimate the dead kaiju for round 2?
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The closest have seen was a few chapters of an unfinished Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fanfiction. (Disappointingly, since the author was one of the better Nanoha fanfic writers, but as is often the way, just lost interest over time after a few good stories.)