6_27_2015.php

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      <h2>Battle of Vega - Defense of Abu Tig</h2>
      <p>Opponents: (CungrVanck as Draconis Combine - Defender) vs. (Farmer as Fed Commonwealth - Attacker)</p>
      <p>Forces: 12 Battlemechs and 6 aerospace fighters per side chosen by random roll</p>
      <p>Ruleset: Alpha Strike</p>
      <p>Scenario: Hide & Seek with hidden units, Lance Skills (Lucky, Sniper, Speed Demon) & Forced Withdrawal in effect under normal weather conditions</p>
      <hr>
      <p>After deployment and the first few rounds of movement, here is how the battle began.</p>
      <p>The Combine had a Lance of mechs hidden within the city across the middle of the board with a supporting
        Lance of LRM equipped mechs in the back half of the city behind buildings to act as artillery. Their third Lance of
        fast moving mechs was moving on the left flank behind cover to get behind the enemy while 4 of their fighters were
        coming in from the right. The last pair of fighters (in an error on my part) where coming straight up the middle.</p>
        <br>
      <p>Farmer, not knowing where my hidden units were, came up with his mechs and fighters in a center-right position as a
        group to support one another.  The first action was Farmer sending his LOCUST mech into the city to locate my hidden
        units.  This revealed two of them and they had to redeploy to the left to avoid getting hammered by the incoming
        mechs. For the most part, my mechs either stayed still or continued their march on the left. Farmer moved one
        Lance into the city in the center and the other two into the city on the right. Meanwhile, in the air, Farmer
        used his fighters to attack the two hidden mechs he discovered while I used my fighters to intercept. However,
        as my machines were either behind cover or had not yet reached the field, Farmer was able to focus all of his
        firepower to bring down my two light fighters while I only returned minimal damage.</p>
        <br>
      <p>The next round, Farmer sent his LOCUST in again to recon the rest of the city and found my other two hidden
        units. However, when I again moved my units to avoid being pummeled, Farmer followed up by moving an entire
        lance to attack my fleeing PHOENIX HAWK. While on the left, Farmer moved his left most Lance further into
        the city. This made his forces strung out and unable to fully support one another. Thus I was able to take
        my HUNCHBACK and left flank RIFLEMAN out from cover and engage his closest Lance. A lucky die roll allowed
        me to take out one of his THUNDERBOLTs while my LRM Lance started bombarding the remaining CENTURION and
        two HATCHETMAN machines. Meanwhile, I used my ORION and RIFLEMAN in my center and right to engage
        his second Lance while my left flank Lance was one turn away from turning the flank. While my PHOENIX HAWK
        miraculously dodged the entire fire of one Lance, my right flank RIFLEMAN was heavily hit and put into
        forced withdrawal. However, due to two motive hits, he could only move two inches a turn. At the same
        time, I was able to hit the LOCUST and place it into forced withdrawal as well.</p>
        <br>
      <p>Farmer quickly realized his error and started to retreat on the left while repositioning on the
        right. I pursued in the center with my HUNCHBACK and RIFLEMAN while continuing the bombardment of LRMs
        while turning the flank on the left. On the right, my other RIFLEMAN when down to combined fire.  Here is
        where I mention dice rolls. For the most part, the dice rolls had been average on both sides. We had
        some lucky shots, but then we missed some freaking simple ones. I mention them here, as after all the
        fire was done on the left, I had lost my HUNCHBACK and second RIFLEMAN while only taking out a HATCHETMAN
        and damaging a CENTURION in return. I think I should have done better. Other action this turn was two
        of Farmer’s fighters swinging around and attacking my LRM Lance with significant damage to my WHITWORTH.
        But, the big occurrence was on the right!</p>
        <br>
      <p>This is the second game I have played with Aerospace fighter and I now see how freaking useful they can
        be. At the beginning of the game, I had sent my heavy and medium fighters on a far right path thinking
        I would maybe catch a mech in withdrawal or mech by itself a few rounds into the game. They now arrived
        in game, and due to Farmer redeploying/falling back in tight groups, I could hit five mechs in a strafing
        run for each of my fighters. By overheating my fighters to add to the potential damage, I could put attacks
        worth 18 points of damage against each target in one round. So with a WARHAMMER, GRASSHOPPER, CENTURION,
        SHADOW HAWK and that limping LOCUST in my sights, I opened up.</p>
        <br>
      <p>So of course, I missed every shot but one. Most of the misses were by one point.  Grrr!</p>
        <br>
      <p>However, there are two points here I must bring up. Force wise, Farmer’s units were all Level 3 while
        most of mine where Level 4 in skill (lower being better). Also, the units I attacked had the Speed Demon
        skill which made them harder to hit. So had my fighters been more skilled or Farmer’s mechs slightly slower
        or I had used bombs (we didn’t have any in this scenario – but they are easier to hit with than a strafe
        attack), I would have put the hurt on 33% of his force in one round. Ouch. I believe I will invest in
        some anti-aircraft specialized mechs in the future.</p>
        <br>
      <p>At this point, we called the game as Farmer yielded the field. On the ground, I wanted to continue as
        I think I could have finished off that CENTURION and HATCHETMAN with little loss, but in the air...well,
        after that awesome display of firepower my fighters needed a turn to cool off….but if Farmer’s fighters
        caught up with them while doing so...dead fighters.</p>
        <br>
      <p>So yeah, I took my pyrrhic victory by halting the enemy advance, but Farmer was smiling as he did a lot
        of damage that will affect game play in the campaign later. It’s very expensive to replace machines
        in this campaign and we only have some many points for resupply, repair and purchase. The first side that
         out of points loses.</p>
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