Anime Let's Play BattleTech/MegaMek: Tales of Knights of The Codex Mercenary Company

[lightbane]

EXTREME! What a massacre. Seeing that you favour kicking melee combat so much, you could employ this stragey: Take a somewhat mobile Mech, fill it up with as many flamers and heat sinks as you can, then make it shoot enemy Mechs with all of its flamethrowers. If done well, enemy units will be too busy overheating to counterattack, leaving themselves exposed to further melee attacks/focused fire. Of course, it is a risky stragegy, but it's fun when it works.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

All in due time. Pilots will have a say in what goes into their mechs.

Also there is a lot of kicks flying around simply because bots often get in range of those. I don't go out of my way to do exchanges like that, especially on something that's most comfortable with sniping at range like Shadow Hawk variant we have. If I can get in one for free then sure. Like when Phoenix jumped behind and crippled first light mech in match or just to kill some tanks faster since they don't kick back.

I used tree just for the extra wow effect though since I was looking to clean up the board already so I might as well goof around a bit and do something fun. Beating someone to death with their own arm is next on the list.

 

[Luka-boy]

The tree was cool and all, but check out all those kicks, many of our team's succeeding the roll and doing heavy damage!

I guess mechanics have to earn their pay too ...

And that's exactly what the tech team will do
(Unless we fail the rolls, in which case we will blame you for not giving us enough time)

 

[JagreenLern]

So, JohnTheRevelator, what year is this you're playing in?

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

3047. It's in first post. Just before Clan invasion. I wanted to give myself couple of years to build up our forces before shit hits the fan.

Anyway let's do a poll. Should I turn up the difficulty? Would you like to see Knights of The Codex finally loose a battle? First contract was supposed to be something manageable to get us started but I realize winning all the time may be getting stale.

 

[Luka-boy]

I'd wait until a few battles into the next contract before considering to ramp up the difficulty too much just in case you're just being lucky or this short contract is simply too easy. But if you really feel it's a breeze you probably should tweak it a little bit, just keep in mind that in just a few years Clans are probably goint to wreck your shit anyway.

How many battles are left until this contract is over?

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Dunno. Depends on RNG. We're about halfway through the contract.
To clarify I can simply add extra units to enemy force if I think what they have just doesn't cut it. I was planning to do something like that anyway if some enemy fighters don't show up on their own. You know to give fly boys something else to do.

 

[Azira]

Whatever you think best, John.

 

[GreyViper]

Nothing against extra challenge, would mean better loot. Thing is we need better hardware, when Clans finally show up. So say Catapult for some LR support and a extra heavy mech?
And I didnt know you could do that to trees, about the flamer mech I recall Firestarter light mech being quite good flamer boat.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

First battle 914 BV vs their 872. That was special event roll for the month - ambush mission. If it wasn't so damn dark and Fatasini would be able to hit with his lasers this would be pretty easy. Even medium lasers will tear to pieces those 20 ton mechs. As it is we got into kicking match and things got bit more complicated.

Second battle 5030 (+518 for Locust) vs 6382. In theory they had advantage except not really. They had a lot easy to kill units like light tanks or those super fragile light mechs. Deploying only with 3 mechs wasn't enough of handicap (even if battles were on same day there was nothing stopping me from quickly patching up Jenner and sending it into another battle).

Salvage:

Out of first fight we get the only thing we could get.

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It's completely trashed. We'll strip the weapons, heat sinks etc. out and whatever little armour it has and sell what's left. Even if it was in better condition I don't think I would be keeping it anyway. It's too fragile.

From second fight we get much more.

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Again it's scrap. Good thing is we already have Hunchback like that. It's going to get disassembled completely for spare parts.

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Again just armour and weapons and sell the rest. We're not gonna bother fixing any of those, our dropship doesn't have dedicated bays for tanks. We could potentially operate them from cargo bay by mothballing but that's something to think about when we run out of space for mechs.

After a week we manage to find and hire mechanic to strip out those vehicles. (Hussein Yasir)

Damage report:

Mechanics fail only 3 rolls and that's without extra time on most things. "Clumsy" even fixes leg on Shadow Hawk on first try (maximum extra time, still 8 on 2d6 needed). Everything is done on next day already. Pretty nice. Now we can work on those Hunchbacks.

Replacement parts finally start arriving. Jenner gets its actuator replaced. Installing cockpit on our new Hunchback proves problematic. After many tries we finally get it and our mech lance grows to 5 units.

Sing ups:

ScubaV:

Spoiler

Waiting list:

Jagreen Lern - mechwarrior

Grimgravy - mechwarrior

Absalom - mechwarrior (if you're still reading this send confirmation through 3rd party, would be a shame to waste mechwarrior spot on someone who left dex foreverTM)


I don't think I mentioned it before. You get to name your machine too. Why pilot mundane Hunchback when you could be riding in style in "Quasimodo"?

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Alright, small update. We're done with our first contact. Free Worlds League didn't start any fights after crushing defeat they suffered. 2 months later we're back to Outreach fixing headless Shadow Hawk. We've got enough money in the bank to do some upgrades. We'll be converting our mechs to double heatsinks which I already ordered. If you've got any special requests say so now or I'll just do what I want. Keep in mind options are limited so don't ask for Gauss Rifles/LB 10-X/ER PPC/XL engines or such cause we don't have quite enough money to buy gucci stuff. I reserve right to veto stuff I don't think will work very well, like I don't know AC/2 boats.

We have AC/20 , 2x LRM 15, Medium Laser in cargo already (salvage) so these are definitely things you'd want to use.

EDIT:

Also Ulminati I've put you on Hunchback but we don't have pilot for Shadow Hawk yet so if you'd rather have that you can make the switch.

 

[lightbane]

Well, I would like to try the "flamer strategy" that I mentioned before, but I don't know if that one is feasible right now, or if I should wait until you get better mechs and/or more weapons. In any case, I believe you're doing fine so far.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

While lulzy I don't think flamers will be all that useful. For starters vehicles don't care about heat and in Inner Sphere that's regular sight. Second they have no range so they are rather situational weapon. If you want flamers we could replace machine guns no problem, maybe medium lasers on your Phoenix. That's 4 flamers top though. I mean it still could work since it's bots we're dealing with. I guess it would require some testing. Still I'm sceptical.

 

[JagreenLern]

I'd be down to pilot the Hunchback or Shadow Hawk, since it look like it might be a bit before you get another heavy.

 

[lightbane]

While lulzy I don't think flamers will be all that useful. For starters vehicles don't care about heat and in Inner Sphere that's regular sight. Second they have no range so they are rather situational weapon. If you want flamers we could replace machine guns no problem, maybe medium lasers on your Phoenix. That's 4 flamers top though. I mean it still could work since it's bots we're dealing with. I guess it would require some testing. Still I'm sceptical.

Then give it a try in an easy mission. Replace only the machine guns if you need more firepower. At worst, the flamers can be used to create cover by starting fires, so they're not completely situational in my opinion. Still, it's your call.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Then give it a try in an easy mission. Replace only the machine guns if you need more firepower. At worst, the flamers can be used to create cover by starting fires, so they're not completely situational in my opinion. Still, it's your call.

Thing is flamer weights 1 ton and generates 3 heat while firing. That's medium laser right there.

Actually why don't you download MegaMekLab and just try to do your own build? If you throw out Large Laser you have a lot of tonnage to play with. You could do 4 mediums with 4 flamers/3 flamers + 1 ton of armour. Would run a little bit hot if using jumpjets but still a lot better than it is right now with standard heatsinks.

 

[eklektyk]

i tried really hard to drop some tools or smth ...

next time ...

 

[ScubaV]

Sing ups:

ScubaV:

Spoiler

Wow, he looks like a rapist.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Initial upgrade plans to Kool Kodex Kustom standard:

Everyone - double heatsink conversion (that's the Kool part)

Cataphract:

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Replace AC/10 with AC/20
3 tons of ammo with CASE
Remove rear mounted lasers
Add 1.5 tons of armour

Shadow Hawk 2K:

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Replace LRM 5 with LRM 15
Add Artemis IV FCS
2 tons of Artemis compatible ammo

Shadow Hawk 2H:

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Replace AC/5 with AC/10
Remove SRM 2 and LRM 5
Add 3 medium lasers

Phoenix Hawk:

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Remove machine guns
Add medium laser

Sorry I don't like flamers on this mech. I could see it working on something bigger. Like heavily armoured Charger with hatchet and maybe AC/20. On Phoenix there just isn't enough space to have enough flamers and heatsinks to completely screw someone over. Unless you take nothing but flamers but that's no damage build. Only upside I can see is low BV.
Seriously though heatsinks alone will be huge upgrade here. Phoenix had by far biggest heat problems.

Jenner:

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Just heatsinks, sorry mate. No tonnage to work with and I don't want to strip armour. It needs XL engine to do proper upgrade and that's way too expensive for now (you could also argue that's way too much money for light mech upgrade period).
I could remove jumpjets to stuff more lasers or some missiles though. We'll see.

Hunchback:

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I'm thinking about turning it into LRM boat using 3 LRM5 and 1 LRM15. It would loose AC/5 but keep its lasers. In this scenario I would also try to squeeze in TAG on Jenner to spot for indirect fire.

Converting to double heatsinks will probably take few months but otherwise should be pretty effective and cheap upgrade plan since we already have most of the pieces. We just need to order some medium lasers, TAG and Artemis FCS with ammo.

You have until tomorrow to log any complaints.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Wow, he looks like a rapist.

You're welcome.

 

[lightbane]

Thing is flamer weights 1 ton and generates 3 heat while firing. That's medium laser right there.

Actually why don't you download MegaMekLab and just try to do your own build? If you throw out Large Laser you have a lot of tonnage to play with. You could do 4 mediums with 4 flamers/3 flamers + 1 ton of armour. Would run a little bit hot if using jumpjets but still a lot better than it is right now with standard heatsinks.

I would love to, but these days I don't have too much free time nor I remember most of the rules. Still, thanks for the recommendation, I remember trying MegaMek some years ago and it was quite fun indeed.

 

[GreyViper]

Good idea about converting to double heatsinks. Honestly it makes sense, yet if I was playing I wouldn't have thought to do it at the beginning. I do find certain amusement in turning Hunchback into LRM boat.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Hunchback already had 2x LRM5. We just added another one and put LRM 15 where gun used to be. It just makes sense since we already have all the pieces, unlike say another AC/10 or Gauss Rifle. Nothing too unusual about LRM's on Hunchback though. 4J variant exists.

 

[JohnTheRevelator]

Upgrading takes us 5 and half months. We barely have any money left which means it's time to sign another contract. We get pretty generous job offer from Draconis Combine.

They want us to hit some select few targets on Radstadt in Free Rasalhague League. We don't know what exactly yet. We'll be again under command of house officers and they will be calling all the shots. On the upside salvage and money is good.

Spoiler

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Radstadt

During its time in the Draconis Combine, Radstadt was infamous for being home to one of the largest prison complexes in the entire Combine. The Lotus Flower Correctional Institute could rival most small cities in size and was located right outside of Munich, the planetary capital. The ‘pinnacle’ of the prison complex was the Black Tower, a large windowless tower of black concrete that was used to house the worst offenders in the Combine.

In the news:

Axman Unveiled
(10-February-3048)
New Avalon [FCNS] - Today the Federated Commonwealth unveiled a brand new design, developed by Team Banzai and the NAIS, the new Axman is the follow up to the iconic Hatchetman BattleMech. The new Axman weighs significantly more than its predecessor but is otherwise very similar. Both 'Mechs wield massive hatchets and are armed with large-bore auto-cannons for destroying other 'Mechs and both designs have a top speed of nearly 65 km/h and jump jets. The biggest difference between the Axman and the Hatchetman, other than their size, is the inclusion of rediscovered Lostech on the Axman.


New updated organization chart:

As you can see all our mechs are upgraded to prestigious "Kool Kodex Kustom" standard. They run so cool that now every cockpit is equipped with small refrigerating unit stocked with refreshing beverages.

Let's look at our machines more closely.

Corsairs are still stock. Something to think about when we're back to our base at Outreach again.

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You wanted flamers but I came up with better solution. I tried to pack in second launcher for maximum cooking but I think we'll wait with that for bigger mechs.

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I removed jump jets. You get 50% more lasers and some extra armour. No TAG for reasons explained further below.

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I initially planned to have half of the ammo in semi-guided variant to use with great effect on tagged targets but then I realized they won't be available for next 10 years (even though MegaMek lets me buy them no problem for some reason).

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Updated personnel list. I marked people not available for sign ups.

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There is new addition you already saw on organization chart.

JagreenLern:

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Waiting list:

Grimgravy - mechwarrior

Absalom - mechwarrior (I'll keep him on the list for now but anyone who sign ups will get priority over him)


Coming up next: combat update.

 

[lightbane]

Inferno ammo for my mech, you say? A good replacement. Plus tons of medium lasers to blow up everything if these fail.