9/14/2018
Victory for Ranger force.
Elsa: x3 kills
Captured: Hitomi Tanaka
Salvaged: DRG-5K Grand Dragon
Battle Report:
OPFOR deployed in a rough triangle around Elsa, instead of concentrating on the border of the front/side arc and screening the searchlight-equipped Stalker with the other two Mechs. This allowed Elsa to move to defeat the enemy in detail.
Full Battle Area. Blue is Elsa. Red to the top is the Grand Dragon. Red to the Upper Right is the Kintaro. Red to the bottom left is the Stalker.
Elsa used terrain to screen her movement toward the Stalker. Even though she was illuminated, the combination of her movement, the heavy woods, and the long range of the enemy mechs kept her mostly safe from harm.
Elsa closed on the Stalker. At this point, its searchlight had been destroyed by weapons fire, and a lucky juke (edge on Initiative) has ensured the Stalker would have to put itself in a vulnerable position, so she could get around and isolate one side of the machine.
Staying on the Stalker's damaged side. Else was taking 2-3 medium laser hits a round from the Stalker, but it was mostly spread out while she was concentrating damage into the left side and left leg of the enemy Mech.
The Stalker abandoned its position and would end up falling, ending with this facing. The Dragon and Kintaro have closed to the point where they are able to put reasonably accurate fire (hitting on ~8s and 9s even with darkness) on Elsa, which means she had to finish the fight quickly. The LRM ammo in the Stalker's right arm was touched off and the Mech was destroyed, the pilot ejecting and landing in the light woods behind the Mech.
Elsa took the chance of recovering the Stalker pilot.
Elsa begins to bring offensive action against the remaining enemy Mechs. She concentrates medium laser fire into the arms and left leg of the nearby Grand Dragon (closest to her unit) and deals a hip actuator critical hit, causing the Dragon to fall.
The Dragon stands, but must commit to its placement before Elsa moves. Elsa chooses not to risk a lucky kick from either enemy Mech and attacks the Dragon's right leg with her physical attacks instead, concentrating weapons fire against the Kintaro. The weapons fire spreads out everywhere; the Kintaro takes a single laser hit in every forward-facing location but the head, and falls. The Dragon torso twists and hits Elsa's center torso with both aft-firing medium lasers; the protection there is now critically thin. In return, Elsa's kicks take the Dragon's right leg off completely.
Elsa jumps behind the now-standing Kintaro and fires all weapons into its rear, destroying the Mech's gyro and disabling it. The Dragon stands on a single leg but is unable to hit Elsa's weakened locations with its aft weapons. The following turn (not pictured), Elsa leaps back to the Grand Dragon and kicks out its remaining leg, disabling it and ending the scenario.
Conclusion: This is a near-textbook example of both how to use darkness to your advantage when outnumbered, and how to take advantage of enemy dispersion to defeat the enemy in detail. Had the Stalker located itself further away and become essentially a mobile spotlight, the other two Draconis Mechs could have concentrated their weapons fire against Elsa to far better effect. Additionally, had they deployed in a more concentrated fashion, Elsa would have had to run the gauntlet of those screening Mechs to approach and disable the enemy spotlight system. Once the spotlight was destroyed, and the other two Mechs were isolated at medium range and beyond, there was little the Stalker could do to avoid being destroyed, barring extreme initiative luck.
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Topic: Solo Mission - Ambush (Freya) - 12/7/3046 (Read 418 times)