Timeline5 April, 3060Solo Mission: Probe (Attacker) - Jazz Lance
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: It was a bright, sunny afternoon on Grumium as Jazz lance headed into the city center near to base to see what may be seen and maybe find some action. As it turned out, action was the word of the day as entering the city from the southwest stirred up a hornets nest of defenders.
Jazz made a stand in and around a small park in the southwest quadrant of downtown as a reinforced combined company converged on the area much faster than Jazz anticipated. Jazz actual piloting a newly acquired Gunslinger and Sgt Luttazi in her trusty Griffin combined long range fire down the main N-S thoroughfare while Sgt’s Reese and Ohani held down the side streets covering their flanks.
Things started looking up for Jazz as the enemy Centipede scout hover missed a turn and slammed into a building. A LAM cruised down an eastern side street and was headed off by the Sgt. Reese’s Nightsky. Unfortunately for Reese, his killing blow was thwarted by the Lyran liaison’s well placed medium laser shot from behind that touched off the LAM’s SRM ammo. The streets were now filled with targets that seemingly couldn’t miss. All Jazz elements took heavy fire as they scrambled to cover each other and downed several mechs, tanks and a VTOL.
The last arrival to the party was a clan Hunchback IIC. It missed it’s first salvo but connected with a vengeance on the second. Sgt Luttazi strayed a little too close and the HB connected with all 4 shots from the UAC20’s, luckily spreading the damage across all 3 torsos and RA.
Running low on ammo and having lost 2/3 of their unit, the Rasalhague group retreated into the city leaving Jazz in control of the battlefield.
6 April, 3060Solo Mission: Hold the Line (Defender) - Norbotton Lance
Result: - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: 6 April, 3060Solo Mission: Hostile Facility (Attacker) - Lancer, Paladin, Fire, Fury
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-action Report: Coming in from the North, with Paladin and Fury pushing the front, began to assault the enemy base. Working on disabling the base turrets, each lance focused separate turrets, taking out the RLs while the launchers failed to connect. During the slog through the trees and hills, Lancer and Fire was slowly making their way towards the Sough. Fire began to take heavy fire from the enemy artillery, including a quad AIV launcher. The fight did not began to get serious until all teams began to meet in the middle. Fire lost both the elemental team and a squad of BA from the artillery that seemed to always find its mark. Kranz ended up falling to a fist fire shot to the head from the Titan.
Artillery fire from the rangers ended up connecting on a line of tanks in the South, causing fair damage to all units, and disabling one in the process. All ASF units had their sorties blocked by enemy units. Lancer met up with the assault mechs that was sitting in the center base, where SGT Kranz went in with a hot Ti Ts'ang, ready to deal fair damage to the Titan. Meyer, in the Cerberus, continued to work on the turrets, finally getting range onto the Arrow IV launcher, and taking it out swiftly. Paladin, along with the allied units, worked on the units that ran up the East flank. The enemy unit held their own really well against Paladin until Ehreschuld showed up shortly behind the rest of the unit.
A Maxim lost control and ended up being tangled in the trees, forcing the Kanazuchi out to deal with the remaining artillery fire. The Blitzkriegs ran through the West line into the center base and began to fire on Meyer, missing the bulk of the shots. During this time, Fury had a pilot killed by a gauss from a demon that survived the previous artillery fire. Paladin CO had head destroyed by fire as well, but was somehow able to survive the onslaught. Enemy reinforcements entered the board, but a lone locust survived in the end. The Rangers won the battle by the skin of our teeth. With not only heavy damage to our mechs, but heavy losses from the dead pilots and (Potentially serious) injured Paladin CO. All told, two Battle Armor squads - those of MSGT Astrid Wiggins and MSGT Walter White - were completely destroyed, and three Ranger MechWarriors were KIA: SGT Sam Kranz (Lancer), SGT Irene Thomas (Fury), and SGT Paulina Trettel (Paladin).
30 April, 3060Solo Mission: Stand Up (Attacker) - Spectre
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: An initial scan of the battlefield showed some scattered mounds and a few larger hills. Noticing the formation of the enemy troops, Spectre decided that the Southwestern hills could provide cover and allow either an unharried advance to close ranks or to wait and ambush the troops that would advance at Spectre. In the end, both happened.
The battle started by gaining cover, though a miscalculation allowed long range fire to build up against the liaison Wolverine, the only mech to not be hidden by the hills. Such a mistake was not repeated. Marauder and Banshee moved along to attempt to flank on the Western side, with the Wolverine, Black Knight, and Penetrator holding back. The Sprint helicopters nearly immediately engaged the rear ranks, but were unsupported due to the hills shielding away fire. The next victim of suicide missions was the Dragon, which closed significantly faster than the trio of other heavy mechs. The Marauder and Banshee, having fully gone around the Western hill by this point, drew fire while the others tore apart the Dragon.
Finally, the light lance finished flanking and the Hankyu dealt a large amount of damage into the backside of the Wolverine, with the continued split of Banshee and Marauder against Guillotine and Hellbringer - and drawing the Orion's fire - while the Wolverine, Black Knight, and Penetrator take down the lights, a trend that would continue until there was almost nothing left to split against. After a short spurt of close range fire and melee attacks, the field splits apart again. This time, the Banshee and Penetrator flanked on either side and the damaged Marauder and Wolverine going up against the tanks and Wasp. The Guillotine falls, having taken heavy fire for several rounds. Around this time the Hankyu falls, the Wasp and one of the Galleon tanks following soon after.
The Penetrator would continue to advance and the Marauder and Wolverine retreat, until the Marauder seeks partial cover, misjudging the speed of the Hellbringer. In a single round of fire, the Hellbringer is on the ground, and the Marauder powers down when a hit against its Gauss Rifle destroys the torso, disabling the XL engine. The Hellbringer stands back up and staggers into nearby light woods, but falls to the Penetrator as the Banshee finishes off the Panther.
With little left, the Banshee finally retreats, having lost most of its Gauss ammo and ERPPC earlier, and is pursued by the remaining Galleon. Simultaneously, the Wolverine retreats to the Southwest. Soon, the Jenner and final Galleon tank falls, and the Black Knight and Penetrator close in on and blow the head off of the Orion.
In summary, a near total success. Minor internal damage to all except the Marauder, with moderate damage to the armor of the Wolverine and Banshee in exchange for a total wipe of the opposing forces. Spectre captured the Hellbringer and Dragon pilots, and took the Orion and Panther as salvage. The star of the battle was the Penetrator, with six total kills, four of which were mechs - a full half of the forces arranged against Spectre.
1 May, 3060
ALL PART AVAILABILITY TNs ARE INCREASED BY +25 May, 3060Solo Mission: Probe (Defender) - Lancer
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: Holding the North, Lancer began to put a foot hold in the hills for the assaults, while the KU and Cronus set up for C3. The Opfor split up forces, putting the heavy armor going through the mountains with a few faster units going through the city. Soon as Mayer spotted a lone Panther, ended up coring it immediately on sight with pot shots for everyone else. While the assaults sat on the hill, they began to slowly push up on the lance, showing to be formidable with a lot of well trained pilots.
Once the units started to get within range, things began to get worse for Lancer. The fight dragged on with massive focused damage on the KU with Mayer in the Sunder taking advantage of C3 dealing as much damage as possible to those he was able to fire at. The Riflemans, Beowulf, and the Trebuchet from the main force was swarming and causing damage to KU, where the pilot fought hard to just take out a bin on the Trebuchet. Ku pilot struggled to take out the nearly destroyed Beowulf and followed it, despite having a gyro hit and losing half its armament, barely surviving in the end (1 IS CT remain.)
Albatross began to work on the Warhammer, while being bombarded by PPCs and LLs from multiple enemies barely holding on. The center of the field changed for a short time when Mayer took out the leg and a gyro hit on the Wham, keeping it from standing so easily. Kim, in Albatross, pushed to finish the Warhammer to make objective, began to get swarmed by the reinforcements that came in. Although he did get the kill (smearing the pilot from ammo hits in the process,) took a bin himself, ejecting safely to the space behind him.
During this time, Holmes, in Cronus, along with Mayer, began to work on the Phawk, Jenner, Javelin, and later the IIC in the East. The pilot in the IIC was missing shots on the Cronus, while being slowly plinked by the faster units. Mayer got some of the fire off after taking off the legs on Javelin. Things got dicey when the Cronus left to finish off the Jenner when the Phawk and IIC got within range of Mayer. Holmes was able to take down the Jenner, securing the win, but Mayer failed to kill Phawk, which was badly damaged, taking 3 weapons from him, and all 4 20s from IIC, which snagged the gauss in the RA. Hurting from the skirmish, Lancer came out of it with all 3 mechs intact (somehow,) and one with a missing torso.
6 May, 3060Mission 2: Extraction (Attacker) - Jazz, Foil, Blitzkrieg, Ereschuld
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-action Report: Intelligence reported that a group of civilians in nearby city required evac. As time was of the essence, Jazz, Foil, Blitzkrieg and Ereschuld lances saddled up in Capt. Harkness’ Dictator dropship while Marigold lance tracked overland to meet them in the city. Due to political considerations with the FRR, Lyran liaison McQuhae, denied Ranger requests for artillery support siting damage to civilian infrastructure and casualties. This even included smoke rounds, which upset Jazz CO Wolf, who wanted to cover the drop and hide the civilians and would not cause any damage.
The target area was a large park flanked east and west by skyscrapers and small military bases that reminded everyone of Terra’s old New York City Central Park. The four lances dropped amidst a group of skyscrapers and a military base just to the west of the park. Opposing forces were spread out through the park and reinforcements were coming in fast from the north and south. Jazz and Ehreschuld dropped in the middle close to 2 heavy lances of opfor while Foil and Blitzkrieg dropped North. Jazz and Ehreschuld immediately moved SE to seal off the heavy forces from the planned Northern escape corridor formed by Foil and Blitzkrieg with Marigold coming in fast from the northwest. Northern opfor was a medium lance with 2 more lighter lances on sensors approaching fast which had other ideas about how this battle would turn out.
A light vehicle lance broke away from the park searching for the civilians who were hiding out in the eastern areas of the city. The defenders held up the Rangers attempts to join up with the civilians. Half of the reinforcements entered the eastern half of the city and found several of the civies. The Griffin wouldn’t make it out as it took 5 head hits and never woke up. Ranger northern group was joined by Marigold but couldn’t break through fast enough to prevent all but 2 civilians [Brunel Dump Truck and MR-8D Marco] from being intercepted and destroyed.
In mid-town, Jazz and Ehreschuld found themselves in a knock down, drag out fight with the 2 opfor heavy lances and the medium reinforcements from the south. Ehreshuld’s Avatar lost its left arm and torso, shutting down and pilot evacuating the mech. Jazz’s Sgt Luttazi rescued him before opfor could close on the undefended Ranger MW. Jazz and Ehreschuld took moderate to heavy damage as opfor concentrated on Jazz CO D.Wolf in her Gunslinger. Maj. Wolf was lucky from her point of view as the Gunslinger remained operational despite armor breaches in 5 different locations and losing only the left arm without the gauss rifle exploding. Sgt Reese continued an unwelcome Jazz tradition by getting hit in the head early in the battle and running the rest of the fight as a “convertible”.
Eventually, weight of Ranger fire took over. Blitzkrieg was able to move south to provide relief to Jazz and Ereschuld. Opfor’s only surviving units, a Yellowjacket VTOL and Warhammer fled the field allowing the Rangers to recover their own and several nice opfor mechs for salvage.
17 May, 3060Solo Mission: Recon Raid (Defender) - Paladin
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: (by acting CO Anita Sin) Despite the CO still being in Hospital, we figured we could handle this without her, or the heavy hitting MAD II. Turned out I was right.
The Opfor strategy was to try and overload the north section by sending all the mechs up that way, and simply sending the Gabriel recon craft to the south without competition. I decided that a fighting retreat would be the best way to ensure the mob of lights never slipped through and to let the Gabriel do its thing. I (LT Anita Sin) used my new Lynx's multi trac capabilities to spread my damage out and brawl in the center of the onslaught of light mechs. Our new pilot Jessica Jordan was able to snipe the sides out of the Scorpion tank pair, as well as crit the AC/20 out of the Hunchback, neutering it for the rest of the encounter. London Ren in the Gallowglas got chased down by the incredibly competent Ostscout pilot and narrowly avoided a PIMP JJ crit as the damn thing kept trying to kick her legs out. Thankfully it couldn't take London's return kicks and eventually lost all of its limbs, letting her capture the pilot from the immobile mech.
Our partner in this mission acted as our last defense of the point, immediately running to the NE corner to hold the point from any scanning units, and was extremely effective in this task! Azmus the liason finished off the hitman's engine when it used masc to slip past the main fighting force, as well as the Vedette when it tried to stationary scan, though they did lose a leg in the final turns of the battle when the griffins caught up with the faster mechs. Our resident KU Jessica Moon was able to knock down the PHawk with a kick and then when they tried to stand back up, fell AGAIN and knocked themselves out on the final turn, resulting in a near pristine mech recovered from the battlefield. Sadly the arctic cheetah was utterly destroyed by London putting her gauss rifles center mass and removing the mech from the field early.
The Gabriel escaped easily but thanks to the efforts of Azmus they never scanned the north corner and gave us plenty of time to clean up all the dangerous and or easy to pick off mechs, reducing their forces too much for them to continue. Overall a terrific success with minimal internal damage. SGTs Anita Sin and London Ren both made Mech Ace during this action, two pilots were captures, and a Hitman and Phoenix Hawk were both taken as salvage.
20 May, 3060Probe (Attacker) - Lancer
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-action Report: Mayer bringing his lance and liaison from the south into 3 lances in the North stationed around hills. While making their way up North, the liaison decided to hide behind the hills where we began. Taking potshots early one with one leading to a jammed turret on one of the Vedettes. Things began to take a slow turn for the worse when one Daimyo sitting in the NW, got a lucky shot off hitting the engine of the Sunder early on, crippling its weapon usage the remainder of the game.
Trying to take cover in the craters to the East and taking advantage of the hill, the faster units, plus 3 of the tanks began to intercept Lancer while the main Daimyo kept taking shots at the lance. Cheyanne Peach in the KU, got on top of 2 Vedettes that hid behind the hill, taking damage all around. The KU got into a tight spot which led to a loss of a jump jet and an exchange that took out a Vedette, tried to retreat while taking out as much armor as possible on enemy mechs, with Mayer in the Sunder, taking out the Harasser once it got greedy. Lancer was able to force the Wolverine and Vulcan to fall, which led to a cooked bin on the Vulcan after trying to stand, killing the pilot in the process.
While falling back to pick up Peach after the KU fell. Mayer screened with the hill to keep away from the Daimyo while one of the Pheonix Hawks kept on its trail, stuck in a position where Mayer got kicked in the head while Maiti in the Grasshopper and Holmes in the Cronus kept fighting forward. Taking out a Kintaro and Phoenix hawk to help prevent capture of the fallen pilot. Each pilot enduring the head hits they were sustaining until the end. Maiti took a ML from one of the phoenix hawks also in the head, then took an SRM and AC2 as well the following turn. Barely surviving the onslaught to have another turn in the end.
The upgraded P-hawk that was harassing Mayer finally fell after a few rounds with the clan tech Sunder focusing one side. Barely winning, Lancer downed 2 mechs with each pilot taking injuries. Bad omens seem to be coming for the Unit CO lance.
23 May, 3060Mission 3: Base Attack (Defender) - Fire, Norbotten, Marigold, Spectre
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-action Report: Ranger forces somewhat rough following the second AO opted for rotation and refit. Requiring many moving parts exposed supplies and it did not go without notice. FRR and Comstar elements still smarting from earlier losses opted for a two bird, one stone approach. Their scouts seeing what appeared as an opening to cripple the Ramgers and refit prompted an immediate raid. Unfortunately for them rotations finalized before forces could get into place and they grossly misread the defensive strength. Delta, support units, and additional lances found themselves hearing alarms following a routine breakfast. Scouts had located a massive incoming force and radioed in stating checkpoint statics are down with an ETA under 10 minutes. They jumped into action.
Fire, Delta assets and Norbotten opting for optimal brawling positions vacated the northern fort, occupied grounds just west of the final perimeter and waited. Spectre would be instructed to hold the southern port to allow Fury time to complete start up. Marigold fresh off the dropship moved to secure its flank. The allies would opt to secure their HQ and utilize the defensive turrets. Most if which were intact, untouched and unmoved.
Opfor would come in with two full reinforced companies using some of the strongest forces they could muster. Utilizing not only upgraded units but also omnis both clan and Inner sphere. Two near full assault lances would play cat and mouse early on in the park and north eastern city. Initial exchanges resulted in heavy damage to Ranger units.This would turn quickly as Fire, Norbotten pushed in brawlers all started playing what those long lost could only recount as hill billy chase music. A quick armor rotation, wide band com simply saying "NOW!!" and brawlers jumped in full force. Norbottens brawlers especially hootin and hollerin in ecstacy. Tanks would join the fray and it simply was a massacre if the northern force. In the first roughly 60 seconds alone in combat FRR would lose a Dire Wolf, Highlander, Wardog, Victor, Battlemaster, and Longbow. Most of which could be near solely tallied up for Fire and Norbotten. Although the Dire fell it made sure to impact the battle by nearly killing Norbotten actual. Severely wounded and mech inoperable he was assumed lost but pulled from the wreckage barely alive. Seeing this the remaining units tried to regroup south.
Remaining northern elements chose to harass and flank but would later be removed by Blitzkrieg with 0 effort. Marigold continued to fight in the center efficiently. Norbotten and Fire would continue to pursue or split north to hammer the additional units coming in. Downing several more in the process securing the northern flank.
The southern city would see a full company pushing through the local park and city proper. A major battle would take place with Spectre outgunned and tonned until reinforcement units could power up. It would take heavy damage but remain intact holding itself fairly well. Fury would join the fight while reinforcements now free on the northeast pushed south. This would roll the FRR lines and result in a perfect firing concave from north to south. Many lances downed two plus mechs and when all was done a handful of FRR mechs left the field total of roughly 30 mechs.
Artillery fire from both sides and ASF attack runs would be frequent throughout the battle. Ranger ASF would perform admirably downing several fighters for no losses. The battle would leave all scratching their heads in dismay or elation and bewilderment. Rangers easily taking the day but taking moderate to heavy damage in the process.
12 June, 3060Solo Mission: Probe (Defender) - Ereschuld
Result:
After-action Report: 15 June, 3060Solo Mission: Hold the Line (Attacker) - Fire
Result:
After-action Report: 16 June, 3060Mission 4: Objective Raid (Attacker) - Jazz, Foil, Paladin, Fury
Result:
After-action Report:
Author
Topic: Operation HAMMER March 3060 - August 3060 (Read 557 times)