Liao is best with IDF. Use vehicles to carry the Arrow IVs and have a good number of lights with Tag. A heavy with tag isn't bad either.

>>10724839

The good news: If you're using C3, you've got a faux-TAG system with the master computer, and Kurita high-end models frequently have C3 slaves you can swap TAG in for if you're not using a networked lance.

So, was the artillery on legs, tracks or offboard?

Well, for this game as we always do, we ended up random-rolling our maps up. Initially, the other fellow rolled up a Archipelago map (Water maps are some of the worst to roll up), so as the two of us sort of house-ruled, he was allowed to reroll once. The new reroll got him a Downtown Cityscape map. Myself, my roll got myself a Dropport2 map. I hate concrete maps, but since I came prepared, I made lemonade out of that lemon. The other player had his BV off the bat, and I tried to meet it with some number crunching. Since I had more units than he did, I tried to include FSM, plus I had to deal with things like C3 networks and piloting skill. Usually we take a long time to set up, but even though I was being an indecisive motherfucker, I managed to start the game earlier than I usually do. I opted for an even split between vehicles, with a TAG-heavy force and a C3 net.

He started with his units amidst the thick of the buildings, myself, poised to run into the thick of the urban area while the artillery stayed behind cover. (We'd discussed it earlier, and the opponent seemed much more interested in my keeping the artillery onboard, rather than offboard. I was indifferent)

OMG I USED TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE! IT SHOT MISSLES FROM IT'S SHOULDERS! IT'S HEAD WAS ALSO AN ESCAPE POD! IT SHOT OFF IF YOU PRESSED THE BUTTON ON IT'S CROTCH! THAT TOY WAS THE SHIT!

>>10724839
HOLY FUCKING DOGSHIT ON A PAPER PLATE I HAD THAT TOY.
Carry on.

Well, the buildings on this map are really tall, so it was inevitable that trading shots wouldn't happen on this first turn. However, I'd just like to point out the benefits of vehicles on pavement, here. Notice that the Tokugawa manages to get a +3 mod, and the Pegasus isn't even breaking cruising speed.

On the side of the board, I started marking artillery shots using blue speckled dice, in order to mark when they'll land.

>>10725050
Do tell us what your army lists are.

>>10724839
Holy shit, I think I used to have that toy as a kid. Didn't even know what Battletech was.

On this turn, I lost initiative. I also want to note that it was at this point that I realized that I really should have spent some time reading up on Tacops artillery rules before arriving. Needless to say, there was a bit of back-and-forth trying to figure out how the homing artillery worked, but we went with the following:
---
-Homing ArIV artillery needs to target a hex, but doesn't necessarily land in that hex. It lands where it has been TAG'd
-Homing ArIV artillery rolls to hit immediately after all TAG rolls have been made.
-The player who launched the missile gets to decide which unit it hits, granted that more than 1 target was TAG'd in a turn
-On a successful tagging, the missile hits on a 2D6 Roll of 4 or higher. If it does, 20 damage in a single cluster on the target, 5 damage to other units in the same hex. Less than 4, and 5 damage to all targets in the hex that the Tag'd target was in. Furthermore, (I disagreed with this, as I don't think it's the case), 10 points of damage is dealt to units in each surrounding hex.
---
If any of you can confirm/deny any of these, please do. Better I get my story straight than leave myself hanging.

My Hatamoto started trudging up the map, and the Chaparral acted as a stationary initiative soak. The Battlemaster scooted up a few hexes and came to a stop. I responded in kind with my Tokugawa, parking at the other end of the open street. The Lyran Thunderbolt jumped behind a building, so I tried to run my Owens out to tag it from behind. The Firestarter shifted to be in a better situation the next turn. The Wolverine came out to meet the Owens. Lastly, the Pegasus did some risky rolls, but managed to save on them all, bringing it right up and personal with the Battlemaster. I shrugged off the fact that the Axeman crept up beside me...

(continued)

The tag rolls came, and I botched the shot with the Owens. however, the Pegasus' TAG rang true, bringing a massive Arrow IV artillery missile down on the right arm of the Battlemaster...

The shots came out... All but a medium laser missed from my Owens, a single PPC from the Hatamoto-chi rang against the hull of the Wolverine, and an LBxAC10 shell rapped against the hull of the Battlemaster from the Tokugawa. All the SRMs from the Pegasus, unfortunately, were whiffers.

However, the concentrated fire from the Thunderbolt and Wolverine, though most of the shots missed wide, were able to put some serious dents in the frail armor of the Owens. As for the Pegasus, it's breakneck speed saved it from all of the fire from the Battlemaster.

Unfortunately, I foolishly assumed that the Axeman's pilot was a standard 4/5 pilot. Instead, it was Major Adam Steiner himself (2/2), who pumped most of his lasers into the Pegasus's side flank, and leaving only one point of armor on the ruined side.

>>10725101
At this anon's request, the army lists, as best as I can recall.

My List (1st Genyosha - Draconis Combine)
Asterix denotes C3 Network

*Hatamoto Hi (HTM-CM) (4/5)
*Firestarter (omni) B (4/5)
*Owens E (4/4)
*Tokugawa (C3 Variant) (4/5)
Pegasus 3058 (4/5)
Chaparral (4/5)

Opponent
Adam Steiner's Axeman (2/2)
Battlemaster (Phoenix) (4/5)
Thunderbolt (Phoenix) (4/5)
Wolverine (Phoenix) (4/5)

I can't quite remember exactly who won what initiative on this turn, but to make this easier for me, I'll tell you this:

The Chaparral - It never moves from that one hex. It's always the first to move by not moving at all. It acted as a BV sink.

The Battlemaster, after having taken the sheer amount of damage that it did, backed up just enough to prevent itself from getting shot by the Tokugawa up the street. The Tokugawa responded by trying to block off the closer 'mechs from making it to the clear terrain and the tender, juicy Chaparral behind the warehouses. Seeing the near-stationary Tokugawa, the mechs move in to try to dish out some hurt on the Tokugawa. The Hatamoto hi backed up a bit in case it had to intercept oncoming opponents from attacking the artillery. The Firestarter finally made it up to the area with the Battlemaster and Axeman, making it prime target material. Meanwhile the Owens fled the previous battle zone, and the Pegasus, Badly battered on one side, maneuvered away from Adam Steiner's 'mech, intentionally keeping it's most battered flank out of enemy fire.

While TAGs were fired, all missed wide, the Arrow IV missile exploded harmlessly overhead.

Meanwhile, A firestarter alpha strike was able to scour the armor of Adam Steiner's 'mech, but didn't do any critical damage. A single PPC from the HTM, and a medium pulse from the Tok were able to scour the armor from the wolverine, while the twin SRM6'es of the Pegasus punched holes in it's armor, taking out the PPC. The Wolverine, on the other hand dished out enough hurt against the Tokugawa to take the main axel to town, slowing the TOK to half speed in a single volley.

Shots from the Thunderbolt were split between the Tokugawa and the Hatamoto Chi. The Hatamoto took a good bit of damage as the primary target, but the secondary Tokugawa was only scoured by a single medium laser. The battlemaster was able to punch a gaping hole in the firestarter's right arm with it's Gauss rifle. The Axeman missed most of it's shots, but the one that rang true was able to ruin the arm, and score an engine critical. The Axe, surprisingly, missed wide.

Forgive me if I start mixing up my shit. I'm getting a bit sleepy, and might make some logic errors in the process.

So on this turn, we saw some pretty impressive things happen. Two units get vaped.

The Battlemaster, now threatened with Arrow IV artillery, opted to take refuge inside of a heavy building, taking a little damage in the process. Major Steiner lept off into the distance, putting himself well out of harms' way, and the only way I could land a shot on him was to jump directly beside him. Buildings Buildings everywhere, and not a one that can support 45 tons. The Firestarter wandered into the hedges of an office building for cover and a shot at the Battlemaster. The Owens, without any real targets in the area, opted to pull a "Monkey see - monkey do", plowing through the wall of the concrete building.

There was a little something that I noticed at this point: The rules for buildings are that they can absorb 1/10th of their Construction Factor any time a target inside of it takes damage Being inside of the heavy building of CF 90, that meant none of my weapons, even if I still had my LPL, would do any damage to it. I held off.

Towards the other end of the map, the Hatamoto Chi started moving in order to come up through the road the firestarter took. The Wolverine, now the worst-damaged unit for the lyrans, Tried to jump to safety. The Tokugawa, now with an L-shaped axel, clumsily rumbled over to face the Wolverine with it's full loadout. As for the Thunderbolt, It was pursued into an alleyway by the Pegasus.

(con't)

rolled 1 = 1

>>10724839
HOLY SHIT SON, I HAD THIS TOY AS A KID!

ONE OF THE SHOULDERS SHOT ROCKETS, THE OTHER DIDN'T! AND THAT FUCKING CROTCH-ACTIVATED ESCAPE-POD!

GODS DAMN I WISH I STILL HAD THAT AXE.

Yeah... these turns end up being a bit of a read during the first few turns. A whole lot of shit is going on at once.

The pegasus lashed out with the TAG, but missed by inches. However, the C3 equipped Tokugawa allowed the damaged Firestarter to reach out with it's Tag, scoring a hit on the Wolverine. The massive Arrow IV missile came crashing down on it's arm, ruining it, as well as much of the side torso.

Unfortunately for the pegasus. Although it's front side was untouched, the Thunderbolt's first medium laser scored against the right flank, coring the hovercraft and killing it. Only the medium pulse laser was able to respond in kind. As for the Tokugawa, it was able to end the wrath of the Wolverine with a shot from it's medium pulse laser, which finished off the last of the side torso, piercing the engine, and with a burp, the vacuum of the superheated plasma core was burst and extinguished. Meanwhile, the Firestarter took a couple of errant shots from the Battlemaster, powerless to return fire.

>>10724839

Holy shit I had that toy too.

holy shit I had that toy as a kid

This thread is now about that toy in OP's pic.

>>10726347
>>10726381
>>10726326

HOLY SHIT ME TOO, REMEMBER THE CGI TV SHOW, HOLY SHIT.

>>10724839
>>10725018
>>10725173
>>10726326
>>10726347
>>10726381
>>10726400
>>10726413

SHIT YEAH this toy, while crying my ass off for toy story I was thinking about this bastard and the other red one as my Woody and Buzz. What the hell is it's name?

Now this turn, I had to do a dramatic change in the rules mid-game, and made my case to the other player:

Prior to this point, we'd not been recording building damage. It's pretty tedious to do so, so we just didn't bother. However, I quickly realized as the Battlemaster ducked into the cover of the building that unless we changed the rules, the only gun I had that could do any significant damage to them while they hid inside of a Heavy Building was the Arrow IV. Besides that, my heaviest gun on my 'mechs, the PPCs from my Hatamoto Hi, would still only be able to deal one point of damage. All he'd have to do to win would be to stand inside of the invincible buildings and he would be near-impervious to my attacks. So this turn, we started recording damage.

The BattleMaster, becoming quite comfortable in the ground floor of it's concrete office building, scooted one hex over. The Thunderbolt smashed through the building to meet it to make a massive firing line. Likewise, the Firestarter and Owens barely moved. FS trying to stay out of the reach of the Axeman's weapons array, and the owens just trying to make the most of it's concrete shield. The Hatamoto chi started making it's way to the mouth of the street, and the Tokugawa clumsily reversed, being outsmarted by the Thunderbolt's maneuvers.

The firestarters' TAG rang true, and the massive artillery missile came crashing through the roof into the battlemaster. Much of the damage was absorbed by the building, however. The neighboring Thunderbolt was protected by the thick internal walls of the building.

Surprisingly, the Thunderbolt didn't take any shots. Instead, it acted as a spotter against the Firestarter. Adam Steiner's LRMs fired indirectly, with at least one rack hitting true, further damaging the machine and taking out a couple heat sinks.

This turn spelled the end for the Firestarter, and uselessness for the Tokugawa.

First of all, Major Steiner and the Thunderbolt moved out of the cover of the two buildings, Without any other options, and it already being worse for wear, I moved my Firestarter in an attempt to give both units the worst possible shots. I also moved my Hatamoto Hi into the most open area possible to allow for a good target spread. The Battlemaster, surprisingly, also came out of it's nest with malicious intent, parking right up next to my Firestarter.
The Owens tried to put itself in a position where it could at least TAG Adam Steiner's Mech.

Now comes the Cavalcade of destruction... Both self-inflicted. You might get a laugh out of this.

For my Tokugawa, I knew where the fight was taking place, and that at the current pace, I was not going to get anywhere. In order to get within firing range ASAP, I decided to move at top speed... Well, with that wobbly axel bent near in half, the 60-ton tank pulled a Tokyo Drift at a breakneck 40KPH (For those that aren't canadafags, that's the suburbia speed limit), ripping the axel out from underneath it. My tank had become a turret at the end of a funneling road.

As for the artillery phase, My TAG from the owens missed it's shot against Adam Steiner's mech, so I risked the shot and dropped the crosshairs of the spotting laser over the Battlemaster. The shot was successful, and the massive Arrow IV Missile plowed into the leg of the battlemaster. However, the shockwave from the blast tore through the already weakened armor of the firestarter, and shredded the side torso and XL engine armor, therein, The Firestarter was my first ever friendly fire casualty.

The shots this turn weren't really all that impressive. The Hatamoto Chi took the brunt of it, though. the HTM returned fire towards the Thunderbolt, if I remember correctly, but both PPCs missed wide. I think that the Owens landed one shot with it's medium laser against Major Steiner's 'mech. Major steiner interestingly was only able to score a single large laser hit, which while it came shockingly close to ripping the Owens' leg off, wasn't enough to do so.

So on this turn, I won the initiative.

The two blue Steiner 'mechs moved to try to take cover, while I init-soaked with my Chaparral and now-crippled Tokugawa. Adam Steiner's Axeman moved defensively by ducking into the cover of a large apartment complex.

My HTM sort of hovered around to try to maximize it's shots, but the Owens ran after the fleeing Axeman. Luckily, it managed to score a TAG hit, as well.

However, the Artillery Missile's targetting systems were confused by the cover of the building (Rolled a 3, derp), and blew up against the building itself, only dealing nominal damage against the axeman. The building, however, had now absorbed a fair share of damage. Though Adam Steiner did fire some impressive shots against the Owens (including one that ripped off the MRM launcher), the owens was first able to direct it's fire into the building the Axeman wandered into. Combined with the damage from the artillery rocket, it was enough to collapse the section of the building on top of Adam Steiner's mech, though he came out of it mostly unphased.

here's a great example of how the dice can piss on the best of plans. Some people think that it makes for a bad game, but myself, I love mishaps like these for the WTF moments they bring.

So I won initiative again, The blue Steiners moved only slightly. The tanks weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Major Steiner moved not-all-too-far-away. Now, my Owens has seen better days by this point, so I decide the best course of action is to take cover behind the building hexes, and use C3 to let my Hatamoto Chi dish out the hurt on the Axeman from range...

Well, the Hatamoto goes to run on that concrete... needing only a 4 to succeed. BAM SNAKEEYES. The mech slips on the pavement like a senior citizen in the wintertime, skidding on it's face, coming to a stop without LOS to anything. Without any targets to home in on, the Arrow IV missile exploded harmlessly, overhead.

OP? Did you fall asleep?

Well, this is embarassing.

/tg/ needs more battle reports as a whole. The format of the board is perfect for it after all.

The Dice Gods definitely hosed you down a bit here...but I bet you learned something about urban combat. Buildings do a great job of hosing down your incoming fire.

>>10728104
HAHAHA Oh wow.

No, I didn't fall asleep, but get this...

Look at the "Code/acronym" for the hatamoto Chi. I used it once in >>10726994.

Yeah... 4chan said that I was linking to referral sites and gave me a one day ban

I'm not even fucking kidding. Look at the archive post. That was all I could do.

>>10734012
Reported for ban evasion.

>>10734111
Not really. Woke up this morning, and the ban was removed. Maybe TPTB actually check these things to make sure that errors don't occur. I don't know. I can tell you, though, that my leet hacksor skills have never gone beyond coding HTML.

So what happened in this turn? Well, the Two blue steiner 'mechs sort of shimmied around. I tried to stand my Hatamoto Chi up, but failed, miserably, falling twice before getting to my feet. The Axeman tried to respond in kind by running up to my Hatamoto and ruining it's shit. As for the damaged Owens, it stopped right behind the Axeman, obviously not the target. One TAG marked the Axeman, the other marked the Thunderbolt in the distance. Both landed, but the Arrow IV missile came crashing down on the Thunderbolt, taking out it's LRM launcher and nearly causing the neighboring buildings to collapse from the shockwave.

The Hatamoto Hi, now flustered from the onslaught of the Tattered Axeman, fired a dual burst of pulse laser fire from it's torso. Before the Owens could get a shot off at the Axeman, it's back suddenly erupted in a burst of flames. The LRM Ammo had been hit, and though the CASE protected the 'mech from absolute destruction, it shredded the armor off the fusion core like so much rind off of an orange, causing the head to eject from the body of the 'mech as it slumped over.

Well, this turn wasn't really altogether enthralling.

Having lost initiative, I tried to move my 'mechs in a more defensive pattern, but it turned out that the other two units decided to simply park behind the cover of the office building campus. The Arrow IV missile that came onto the board this turn had no targets to land on, and thus exploded harmlessly in mid-air.

In an anticlimactic twist, I'd thought that my 'mechs were hearing the Death's knell. With my damaged Hatamoto Chi, crippled Tokugawa, and my badly battered Owens, I was sure that this was going to be the turning point and sign of my defeat.

However, the opponent instead opted to run off the board with both of his two 'mechs once the two immobile tanks had moved.

...And that was all she wrote.