Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Six

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Six:

Shorter one again, though because quite a lot of time was spent outside of missions!

So. Where next? There was a 4.5-skull Davion flashpoint at Kern (apparently the alliance flashpoint) and a 4-skull one further into Capellan space... Lynessa considered, and decided no, they would go Bromhead first, deal with that (and the faction shop) and then head on to the Davion faction flashpoint.

Maintenance. The Archer would replace a +++LRM 20 with a +2 damage one and the Ballista would then use that LRM 20 and a couple more of the ++ ones to replaces its standard versions. The Annihilator would replace two of the AC/10s with +10 damage AC/10s, meaning all three were now potential headcappers. (Lynessa considered swapping in the ++Ultra AC 10, but that would have given the Annihilator heat issues.)

There did not, unfortunately, seem to be any use at all for the now three regular medium pulse lasers. The damage was 20% less than two regular medium lasers (40 instead of 2*25) for only a 17% reduction in heat generation (20 vrs 24) and only a +1 accuracy - not really worth it, sadly.

The lance had a few +++ SRM 6s now (three) and one ++SRM 6 - so maybe it was about time to retire the Catapult Hammer and dig out the other Archer. The Archers would fulfil the role of missile support at the same weight category, and the Stalker Barrage and Ballista had the top-end covered anyway.

Lynessa threw Pseekie a birthday party, upon learning that it was her birthday and Pseekie was ecstatic.

(Usual few tries on the reloads, but I got one with five Davion missions of 4-5 skulls; three battles, an assassinate and defend base (which I might not bother with...)

Three days out from Bromhead, and it was time to load the Arch...

...

"Yang. WHEN THE HEAVENS DID WE GET FOUR DOUBLE HEAT SINKS?!"

"I... Don't know...?"

"Well, don't just stand there, man, put two of them on the Annihilator right now!"

(Seriously, game, thanks for hiding that from me entirely at the end of that last flashpoint. It didn't tell me about those at all, just quietly dumped in the inventory. I was just about to start adding heat sinks to the Archer and did a double-take.)

That was all that could be done before they reached Bromhead, but it meant that, as a start, the Annihilator could now run completely cool under normal environments (at 46/48 heat), and wouldn't be building up that much in other environments. Lynessa noted, should she wish to do a lot of juggling around, it would be theoretically possible to put all four on the Annihilator, put the Ultra AC/10 on it, and have an extra ton of ammo plus a heatsink to make it run neutral heat-wise. (But with the relatively low armour, that was a bit dubious, plus would mean moving the ammo to the arms and would mean removing one head-capped for two nearly=headcappers, but it was a possibility...)

With only a day left until arrival (and payday), Lynessa had Yang put the Catapult Hammer back into storage but didn't start work on the Archer. There were quite a few battles ahead, and Lynessa wanted the decks clear for potential repairs.

Payday:

They arrived at Bromhead. First off, a trip to the shops to sell all the loot and supplies. That left the lance with 20 million to spend at the store and the faction shop!

In the regular shop there was a standard cockpit mod, a ++ Heat exchanger and a heat bank. That was a start...

In the faction store was... An unlimited number of +++ACs and ++ultra ACs, all 2 through 20. And one part of an Assassin 101 (that they had three parts for and didn't have in the collection), which Lynessa bought because sod it.

Lynessa shrugged and bought two Ultra AC/20s. It was only a bit over a million, and she was curious to see if they could fit both on the King Crab... And then she realised the Bull Shark only had +AC ultra 5s, so she bought two of those and a couple of ultra 10s as well. That was for a bit of experimentation later...!

That was everything there, though. Okay, they were a couple of +++TTS (a ballistic one of which might be worth picking up for the Bull Shark or Annihilator) but Lynessa decided to hold off and that and start in the contracts.

Full-skull desert battle against the Taurians first.

Lynessa thought the previous team could handle it, so Llana set out in the Decapitator, Luximai in the Fair Marauder, Zuranna in the Bull Shark and Natasha taking the now-cooler-running and slightly more deadly Annihilator.

As it happened, that was also the first mech of the enemy lance they ran into, supported by a 65 and 70 tonner.

The 5-tonner was a JagerMech, which Natasha ignored as she lined up on the Annihilator.

(Oh, crap, I'd forgotten the Annihilator had +20% ballistic damage, 84 damage for the ++AC/10s, woah!)

The 70-tonner was a 1X Cataphract. They needed one of those!

Llana and Zuranna held fire and just moved, hoping that the lance could take more headshot next round.

That might have proven to be a half-mistake, and the forth enemy mech approaching was a hundred tonner too. Whoops...

It further took both Zuranna and Natasha to headshot the Annihilator, and it likely wouldn't have stood many more attempts in any case...

The second mech proved to ALSO be an Annihilator.

(Okay, so I get double heat sinks and the OpFor DELIBERATELY starts shooting the one mech that has them in the legs - it destroyed one regular heat sink. I'm sorry, WHAT.

And again, I miss all the head shot and the JagerMech blows the Annihilator’s arm off two?

Okay, NO RNG, reload.)

With the grace of Azurella, Luximai headcapped the JagerMech.

(WOW, yeah, the AI as going for the Annihilator specifically, to the point of overheating. And again, FUNNY how it was down it IS on three locations and no damage anywhere else.

I'd accuse the AI of making called shots to the legs, but it always says when it's making all called shot, plus the drop in initiative, so this is purely RNG.

Bearing in mind for this game one of the recommended options was to put ammo in the legs (I don't, I tend to pout heatsinks there if I can), because they were less likely to get hit.)

The Annihilator refused to die, but eventually, Zuranna blew it apart. Natasha skittered her Annihilator back out of line-of-fire, and the overheating Cataphract did the same. The lance let it - more time to get resolve. It lumbered out again, took a shot at Zuranna, Luximai merely dented it with her precise shot but -

-Llana got her first proper headshot; and with the Decapitator's pulse laser too, finally.

And this was why the deck was cleared for repairs...

Two pieces of Annihilator and one of the Cataphract to complete it.

(It did demonstrate what a bad idea it would be to load all the valuable gear on the Annhilator, though - it was a little bit too fragile a chassis - even being a 100-ton mech) to have all the eggs in one basket.)

Zuranna raised her gunnery to 8. Natasha completed her training by maxing her piloting. Llana raised her gunnery by two points to 6.

Three days to fix the Annihilator. Wonderful. Well, they DID have other mechs, lots of them.

Next mission was a 4-skull joint attack with the Davions against Capellan forces in the badlands.

Zuranna traded into the Atlas, which hadn't been out since its upgrade. Pseekie, being in such high spirits, stepped in in the Bull Shark. (At the level this was Anja was not a good choice, and pretty soon they were going to be using the vets anyway, since there was only four of girls left to max out.)

Well, the Davion guys were nice and polite, unlike on the previous missions like this. They had a couple of JagerMechs, a Quickdraw and an Archer.

The enemy lance that first showed up was a Quickdraw, Thunderbolt and 70 and 80-tonners.

Luximai started off much better, taking the Quickdraw down with one shot.

The other pair were a Zeus and a Warhammer. As the lances moved up, showering the Thunderbolt with fire, a second Capellan lance would be entering the fray shortly.

Luximai was on form, as was the Fair Marauder, one-shotting the Zeus. Pseekie followed up with doing the same to the Warhammer.

And the Davion's JagerMechs destroyed the Thunderbolt.

One lance down, one to go!

This lance was a Cicada, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, and a 10HQ Cyclops, which Pseekie wasn't sure they'd seen before. It certainly wasn't carrying a lot of weapons...

The Cicada, which of course had rushed forward, was strangely enough not up to taking fire from eight heavy and assault mechs and died - surprisingly to ammo explosion from the Davion Archer.

Luximai was on FIRE this mission.

The Phoenix Hawk took a shot in the back from Llana and Pseekie finished it with the Thumper. The Rifleman, out-number eight-to-one didn't stand much of a chance.

Three parts Cyclops HQ, a ++Rangefinder (nice!) a +++SRM 6 (neat, that made four for the Archer!) and random allowed them to complete 3C Rifleman to boot.

Luximai and Llana raised their gunnery, to 9 and 7 respectively.

That will do for today.