Commentary on the Kadoguchi Valley ambush
Tabletop: 54" N to S, 72" E to W
Terrain: Flat, Broken up with medium areas of light and heavy woods about 8"-12" across.
Situation: Fleeing units set up 18" from the South edge, heading North. Ambush elements set up to 18" from the North edge.
Smoke Jaguar units start on South edge.
Fleeing units:
Lance 1: Mongoose, 2 x Hussar, Lightning Hover, Lightning Hover;
Lance 2: Hussar, 2 x Mercury, 2 x Assassin;
Lance 3: Mongoose, (Kevin) 4 x Scimitar, 2 x Saracen, Saladin, Maxim, Gabriel.
Ambush:
Lance 4: 2 x Crab27, 2x Crab20
Lance 5: 2 x Crab27, Dragon
(Kevin) Lance 6: (Other vehicles that I can't recall but did not have much effect on the scenario)
Other: 2 x Maxim, 2 x Jump Inf squads, Guided Missile Team
Smoke Jaguar:
(VaiDom) Command Star: Vulture C, Vulture B?, Stormcrow ?, ? , ? (Mechs/Variants not seen or identified)
(Kalei) Center Star: 2 x Koshi, Dasher, Hankyu, Ryoken?
(Wellington) West Star: 2 x Koshi Prime, Grendal D, Hankyu C, Stormcrow A.
Turn 1: Fleeing units move at full speed, trying to put wood/terrain between them and the enemy with some success. The Command star moves into light woods. The Center star enters heavy woods with a Koshi and Dasher, the others skirt the woods, trying to get shots at the fleeing units. The West star turns and takes a circuitous route, removing the star from combat for 2 turns.
Turn 2: Fleeing units slow to a walk to allow SJ elements to keep up. There is long range fire to no effect.
Turn 3: From the Northeast woods a missile emerges, moving slowly across the clearing, heading to the Koshi at the edge of the woodline. The center star's other Koshi sprints to the center of the map, very much alone. The Crabs and Dragon appear from hiding, ranges are between 12-14". The Koshi falls, managing to nick the Dragon here and there.
The wire-guided missile strikes the other Koshi, ripping its arm off (15 pts damage!).
Turn 4: The center star's Koshi retreats as another missile heads toward it. The Hankyu and Dasher close, stopping near the fallen Koshi. The West star reappears but only one omni has a clear shot. Its PPC bolt misses my Mongoose
.
The Hanyu is damaged in the exchange but stands, The Dasher is dropped.
Turn 5: Using the Arkab's snap-shot ability, the Hanku is dropped.
Turn 6: Game called and adjudicated. The West star runs headlong into a mass of waiting enemy. The remaining Center star elements easily pull away. The Command star emerges from the woods and attempts an extraction.
Quote:
I just played out the fight between the your Lance with the Dragon & two Crab27 plus the two Assassins on the flank, versus the Clan Striker Trinary's 2nd Star consisting of 2x Koshi-Primes, Grendal-D, Hankyu-C, & Stormcrow-A. It is ugly.
Not counting on anyother of your 'Mechs involved it came out like this:
1st Turn:
Both Koshi-Primes down from heavy fire and physicals from both Crab27's. The Arkab hit them from the rear.
The Stormcrow took heavy fire from the Dragon, and was then thrown down from
charge attack in the Physical attack. This fight was head-on and toe-to-toe.
Grendal-D and Hankyu-C took LRM fire from the Assassins in the rear.
All Arkab 'Mechs still up but Dragon has Left torso stripped of armour and heavy loss on the Left arm. All others lost between 10 to 18 points of armour. Assassins untouched.
2nd Turn:
Both Koshi-Primes try to rise and are finished-off by the Crab27's. After the energy weapons do their thing the Koshi's break-up under additional physical attacks. The Crab27's take an additional 12pts. of damage.
The Stormcrow gets up and exchanges fire with the Dragon. The Dragon takes 52pts.of damage, no criticals. The Stormcrows takes heavy damage in Left arm and Center torso. During physicals the Dragon takes off the Stormcrows Left arm with a punch from its left arm battlefist.
The Grendal and Hankyu turn to engage the Assassins. But the Arkab mechs have jumped back into the heavy woods, and out of sight.
3rd Turn:
The Crab27's and the two Assassins now move on to the Grendal and the Hankyu. The Hankyu comes apart under concentrated fire to its center torso from the front and back. The Crab27 takes 42pts. of damage. The Grendal too comes under heavy fire that takes off its Left torso. In the physical attack from the Crab27 causes it serious damage to its internal structure and apparently criticals too. But it is still standing. The Crab27 takes 33pts of damage from the Grendal. The Assassins are untouched.
The Stormcrow damages the Dragon for another 24pts from the Streak SRM packs in the torsos and 6pts from punch from its right arm to the Dragons torso. The Dragon fires and desintegrates the Stormcrows Right Torso and follows up with a punch from its battle fist again to the Stormcrows center torso, taking components with it while pulling the fist out. Smoke is seen to start venting from the various torso locations on the Stormcrow.
4th Turn:
The Grendal jumps away into the Heavy woods and escapes. The Assassins are not in a position to pursue.
In the exchange of fire between the Stormcrow and the Dragon is the end of that drama. The Dragon loses its PPC and takes two criticals on the center torso. Damage is 12pts. But the Stormcrow Left torso detonates from an internal explosion that causes the remaining Clan 'Mech to crash to the ground. The Dragon then kicks it causing additional damage.
On the other flank the Missile team scored hit upon a Vulture and a Stormcrow. Afterwhich the Missile Team retreated through the woods. No casualties here.
My curiousity and idle time caused a rather interesting 30minutes. You may want to use this outcome. Until Later; Best Wishes!!
After Action
The SJ stars never talked to each other during the battle until the last, when it was too late. The Center Star was commanded by the least experienced person. The SJ commanders were briefed to "Pursue and bring to battle" -That would be to pin or slow the fleeing units. I made a point to choose when and where I would fight.
Were these commanders fighting SJ style? Each understood their orders and had their own plan on how to carry them out.
We held an impromptu board of inquiry at a Zippy's restaurant with Zack (Clan Nova Cat) and Fred (Comstar) as neutral commentators...