March 1st, 3071
Clan Homeworlds
The aftermath of the Watch's revelation that the Diamond Sharks were in fact engaging in covert dealings of ClanTech materiel with Inner Sphere powers sent shockwaves throughout the Homeworlds. A Grand Council was hastily convened, and though accusations and counter-accusations ran wild, after three full days of Council it became clear that a decision was needed. By a slim majority, the Council agreed that they could not - as a body -punish the Sharks for engaging in commerce which had not been expressly forbidden by Grand Council edict. However, by a heavy majority, a censure was put against the Diamond Shark to cease all trade with non-Clan powers by the end of calendar year (allowing time for word to reach the far-flung Diamond Shark merchant fleet).
Meanwhile, encouraged by the Council's lack of action regarding their extra-legal "punishment" of Snow Raven holdings, the triumvirate Snake Alliance of Star Adder, Cloud Cobra, and Steel Viper agreed once more to unleash their fury against lightly-defended Diamond Shark territories, heedless of the Council's ruling. The Grand Council attempts to dictate a halt to Snake Alliance plans, and is rebuffed ue to the strength of the Snake power bloc and their network of favors.
The non-Snake Alliance members of Clan Grand Council are incensed at this challenge to the authority of the august body; the Snake Alliance actions are now consistently highly aggressive and not in keeping with the natures of the Cloud Cobras and Star Adders, and the Watch suspects some outside influence may be at work. On March 1st, 3071, a Clan Watch force set down stealthily on Lum through Snow Raven territory. Their mission is to take and hold a Steel Viper Command and Control center long enough for a Watch operations team to infiltrate the hub, extract a copy of the computer core, and all forces then exfiltrate the area.
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Game SetupThis game is played on six BattleTech mapsheets representing the Lum facility. The northeastern two maps are the fortress 1 and fortress 2 maps. The remainder of the maps are determined randomly (see TW, pg 263), rerolling any Terrain table not included in the following list: Flatlands, Hill, Wetlands, Light Urban, Wooded. Reroll any results of Box Canyon or Heavy Forese #1 or #2. All maps are to be laid out before the bidding process begins. OPFOR will nominate a single distinct structure within the base (not less than 6 hexes from the north map edge) as the HQ.
Map Layouteast [][][]......west
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DeploymentOPFOROPFOR garrison begins the game deployed inside the fort, on level 0 pavement, no closer than 5 hexes from a rampart and no closer than 3 hexes from another Mech.
OPFOR relief force 1 enters from the northwest long edge during their movement on Turn one.
OPFOR relief force 2 enters from the south edge of the central map during their movement on Turn 8.
ClanClan units enter the board along the south edge during their movement on Turn one.
Game Rules1) This is a covert mission. Zellbringen is not in play.
2) OPFOR units are under forced withdrawal (to the eastern map edge). Clan units are not.
3) The Operations Teams (1 & 2) will enter the board from the board edge (to be announced day-of) during the movement phase AFTER the turn in which the Viper HQ is identified.
4) The Operations Teams must land adjacent to the Viper HQ, and must remain there - immobile - for 4 turns.
5) The Operations Teams will then try to exfiltrate off-board from the mapsheet edge they entered.
6) Identifying the HQ requires moving an Active Probe-equipped ground or VTOL unit (outside of an ECM bubble) within 3 hexes of the target building during the movement phase.
7) The game ends when the objectives are met, cannot be met, or Turn 18 is concluded.
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Warchest Rewards and CostsTrack Cost: 100
Objectives1) Military Intelligence: Discover the HQ facility AND exit at least one of the Operations VTOLs from the board. +300
2) No Witnesses: Completely annihilate the Garrison force and cause at least 50% casualties (destroyed or crippled) in each OPFOR relief force. +150
Options (you must achieve at least one Objective to receive Option Warchest Payouts); all rewards are "per Clan player". Using an Option requres a "half+1" vote among the PCs to institute.
+100 Surprise!: The OPFOR player may deploy the garrison force using Hidden Unit rules (TW, pg 259).
+100 Complicated Weather: Roll once on the Weather Table (pg.69, TO) and apply the result to the battlefield.
+100 Intelligence Leak: They knew you were coming and could react accordingly. The OPFOR receives 10, 20-point standard minefields.
Victory Points and Track Exits are not used in this scenario.
Bidding:Each player must discard their heaviest mech star by average mass. If your avatar is in that star he may swap places with an equivalent-category unit (ie, heavy Mech for heavy Mech) in a lighter star, but if there is not an equivalent unit, he may not participate. Players are paired off against each other and must bid from these reduced and lighter forces. Note that this will be another "group" game, because we're running into another Magic tournament.
OPFOR generation to follow on Monday. I will need somebody to generate two (2) record sheets for the P-Stealth Anhur VTOL (found in Experimental Technical Readout: Pirates, p. 8;
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Anhur ). Yes, that includes the Vehicular Stealth Armor.
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Topic: Mission 8: Operations Extraction (Read 2983 times)