AAR, July 24th
Midnight and attached liaison were deployed to scout south of a town that already had been the site of previous battles. By luck or given the importance of what lay south of the town, a reinforced company of mechs were in the northern section the city and sensors picked up a mixed lance of mechs and tanks heading north just outside the target zone. Sgt. Milos used her Shadow Hawk's searchlight early as the Rangers started their push south, but quickly turned it off after the League forces swarmed forward doing significant damage to both her Shadow Hawk and Sgt. Cochrane's Wolfhound. The Wolfhound and liaison's Valkyrie attempted to skirt along the eastern edge of the city, but League forces fell back keeping contact with the Rangers lead element. Having barely made it into the city (Turn 4), Cochrane was suddenly dealing with excessive heat as a skilled or lucky shot (double snake eyes TACed CT with 2 engine hits) from a Wasp put his operational status in doubt. Colonel Atayde pulled the other Ranger units west drawing the majority of the forces with them, breaking the larger battle into smaller fights and gets there attention by cleaving off the left torso of the Champion, destroying its engine and rendering it combat ineffective. At roughly the same time Sgt. von Hoff kicked the leg off the Hermes, limiting but not eliminating its threat.
As the Wolfhound and Valkyrie reach the southern side of the town they were met by a Crab and 3 Saracen Hover Tanks who blocked their progress as stepping out of the cover of the town would have meant being caught in the open between 2 lances and so pushed the pair west. A lucky shot from Cochrane's Wolfhound cooked off AMS ammo in the torso, destroying the torso, but not the Mech. Atayde takes off the leg of a Firestarter in the NW corner of the suburbs, but while down, isn't out. Not long after the Ostwar finished off the Firestarter. The fire of the Rangers finally starts paying more dividends as Milos kills the Hermes and Atayde cleaves off the Phoenix Hawk 3S' right torso, shutting it down. (Turn 8 )
The battle has collapsed to the west side of the town as the reinforcements reach just outside the SW corner of the town. Milos destroys a Locust and von Hoff takes the leg off a Stinger. Attempting to push towards their objective, Atayde exits the town pushing south into the teeth of the reinforcement lance. While the point blank range nullified the tanks LRMs, they were well positioned for their SRMs. He does significant damage to the Crab and hits a tank with his sword, but just cleaves off armor, with no other appreciable effect. The Valkyrie had moved to the woods to the SW of the town as the Wolfhound took more engine damage from the Hermes II, disabling it and taking a gyro hit bringing it to the ground. At the same time Milos leaped atop a building and kicked the head off one of the Phoenix Hawk while von Hoff killed one of the Stingers. (Turn 10)
At Atayde's request, the liaison went back and picked up Cochrane as he was closest and none of the rest of the Rangers would have been able to get there quickly. Atayde maneuvers to keep the fire on the Crab as the heaviest unit on the board. The League forces adjust south to keep a couple of lances worth of forces between the Rangers and their clear goal, making a breakthrough dangerous at best, deadly at worst. The Valk is able to push south, keeping pace with the League forces, but not able to get past them. The FedCom Valkyrie ignored given the greater threats of the Ranger units. Realizing that the mechs they have been legging which expanded to include a Wasp on top of a building and a Phoenix Hawk continue to be a threat, they push south to avoid that additional fire. As Milos gets her Shadow Hawk to the southern edge of the town, its gyro is destroyed and engine shielding severely damaged in the fall (2 engine hits). Fortunately von Hoff in her Ostwar is able to pick up Milos, delaying their move south a bit. Fortunately both Atayde on the eastern side and the liaison on the west had pushed most of the League forces further south as they executed a fighting retreat to keep the Rangers from their ultimate goal.
Given the significantly weakened Ranger forces, the League forces felt comfortable enough to start firing at the Valkyrie. They were forced to split their forces to deal with both the Black Knight and the Valkyrie as they watched the trailing Ostwar. Atayde's Black Knight finally took down the Crab, blowing off its head with a gauss rifle at roughly the same time that von Hoff's Ostwar blew the head off a Wasp. While not targeting the head and while effective at dropping the opponents, it became clear that no quarter would be given to the Ranger pilots should they find themselves destroyed. The Black Knight fought south with a Stinger, Firestarter and Locust maintaining contact with the Tanks and Hermes II in pursuit of the Valkyrie. The Ostwar is able to destroy the Spider with the last of the SRM ammo and leg a Wasp, giving clear space to run and help support the Black Knight, given the superior range the Clan ER LLs provided. The Black Knight is able to severely damage the Locust including legging it, with the Ostwar finishing it off as it passed it, limping along with multiple actuators destroyed in its right leg. It is a testament to von Hoff's skill that she was able to keep it upright.
The Valkyrie manages to move into the target zone, though takes a severe punishment when doing so. Atayde had swung west to support the liaison's exit and blows the head off the Hermes II with another gauss rifle shot. The Ostwar takes out the remaining Stinger leaving the Firestarter and three tanks facing off against the 2 badly damaged Ranger mechs with only one of the tanks having taken any significant damage. Atayde had shifted west to give von Hoff as open a run down the east as possible, and it nearly cost him. Charging into the tank formation he takes a pounding from the SRMs, his hip and upper leg actuator of his right leg destroyed. Fighting through the loss he manages to keep upright only to fall after jumping to the very southern edge of the operational area. From the ground he manages to get off a parting shot from his gauss rifle, destroying one of the tanks before crawling south.
The Firestarter meanwhile has been harrying the Ostwar, destroying the last two actuators in the right leg and savaging it. The Ostwar manages to stay upright jumping into the woods on the SE edge of the operational zone and sustains withering fire from the two remaining tanks and the Firestarter who continues to kick the Ostwar. Just before the end von Hoff maneuvers to present her left leg to the Firestarter which still had vestiges of armor. Despite more fire and getting kicked in the left leg, she is able to keep the mech upright and moves out of the active operational area.
Mission Status: Success
OpFor units destroyed: 14
Ranger mechs destroyed (recoverable): Wolfhound, Shadow Hawk, Black Knight crippled, 11 points of armor left on the front in total and only 7 in the head.
Injuries: Col Atayde - 1 hit, Sgt Milos - 1 hit
Total turns: 26
Additional Notes: Ryan did an excellent job of adjusting tactics to deal with things as they went. typically each of my units was threatened by at least 3 to 4 mechs and he varied from swarm tactics early to fighting retreat later, keeping me pinned in and not giving me a break away with any of my mechs including the Valkyrie which wasn't a valid target until turn 15 after the Shad was dropped in turn 14. I really had to manage my GR shots. While 16 sounds like it's a lot, it's not as the total turns here showed and I ended up with just 2 rounds left (14 expended) throughout. My Ostwar ran out of SRM ammo half way through as it was 15 shots for 2 launchers, again something that I needed to manage carefully. As noted in my previous note, success or failure came down to a PSR on round 26. Had the Ostwar fallen it's possible I could have won, but it would have had to survive the fall plus another round of full fire from the Firestarter who was kicking plus the two remaining tank. Maybe I still got away, maybe not. Certainly the closest game I can recall playing.