Hey, @Commander Error, @Dakkaface, @Night_stalker, @Faceless Goon, I wouldn't usually do this, but you guys voted for the first iteration of my proposal and I know sometimes people don't check a Quest thread after they've voted until the QM makes a story post. After some discussion, my proposal has been altered to ditch a PPC and get another 30 DHS, since because we're on the Drac border and they use the most PPCs out of anyone, we've been salvaging a lot of them, while 30 more DHS might be more useful to us than a single PPC. I just thought I'd ping you so you can decide if you want to stay with the 60 DHS or go to the updated 90 DHS vote.
Sure, why not. Our techs strip every freezer off of the captured dropship Daisuki Aisukuriimu.
[X] Dropship Capture Reward (1,500,000 C-Bills): 1 AC/20 (300k), 2 PPCs (400k), 90 DHS (675k), whatever ammo we seem to be using a lot of for the rest.
[X] Dropship Capture Reward (1,500,000 C-Bills): 1 AC/20 (300k), 2 PPCs (400k), 90 DHS (675k), whatever ammo we seem to be using a lot of for the rest.
Damn, if a 285 Fusion Engine was lower than 1.5M C-Bills I would have suggested that so a reasonable refit of the Banshee could be done, sadly one of those costs ~1.75M.
Seriously, Delta lance absolutely crushed the civilian militia in 4 turns and drove the Dracs away. Only 2 mechs were even damaged (with that damage limited purely to armour), and the only injury was KnightDisciple bruising his chest by falling into a lake. I think I'll skip doing a write-up for this one and just move on to a update proper.
Edit:
Also, I'm thinking of holding a mini art competition for y'all to design a new logo for SV Company. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Don't worry, he said 'any more' - you joined us after the battle before this one, and I joined earlier than that, so he's counting us both as smart, right Ghost?
He was literally sent here to fight you, like I was. We're not spies, we're former opponents who joined you and, speaking personally, I was never comfortable in the Combine to begin with No-one from my homeworld is, we were conquered recently. I much prefer it here.
"The Snakes are pulling back! Hah, take that you slimy bastards!"
Comfortably enclosed in the armoured hull of his Warhammer, the long-suffering MechWarrior breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the battered DCMS mechs retreat. "Good work, Delta," replied corporal Ivan.
Wielding two PPCs and a handful of medium and small lasers, the Warhammer was not a mech one would describe as 'heat-efficient'. Indeed, the stifling heat of Ivan's cockpit was almost at the point of overwhelming his cooling jacket; the shrill beeping of alarms and the wildly wavering dials of his instruments telling him just how close he'd come to shutting down.
For a training lance, he thought to himself as the sauna-like air around him slowly began to cool; we did pretty well. No deaths, minor damage, and the VIP made it out, too.
As Ivan shook his head at the thought of the VIP's lucky escape, a crackle of static burst forth from his radio and he felt his stomach flush cold as if iced coolant had flowed into his veins.
"They're retreating?" Asked the dispossessed noblewoman incredulously, "hell, they just got here!"
Letting out a long-suffering sigh, Ivan realised that he and his lance would be on babysitting duty for a long while yet.
=========================
As you can see, what little damage we have is spread across one Warhammer and Delta's sole Shadowhawk. While the Shadowhawk took the brunt of the fire from the Draconis forces, it managed to avoid damaging its internals. KnightDisciple's Warhammer, meanwhile, took most of its damage from slipping and falling into a lake.
Regarding losses, we, unfortunately, lost the Clint to an overwhelming barrage of fire in the opening few rounds of battle as its noblewoman pilot was less than sensible about things. Luckily, however, the noblewoman herself managed to eject in time and avoided capture by the rampaging Draconis MechWarrirors long enough for Delta lance to drive them off.
KnightDisciple badly bruised his chest after falling in the lake. GG, mate. That's the 5 in his 2/5 making itself known.
Taking advantage of the salvage clause in our contract, I grab the Clint, the APC, and the Harasser. It's not a very good haul this time around, but we were outnumbered 3 to 1 and spent minimal ammunition so I can't complain.
We captured every civilian militia member, plus the crew of the destroyed Harasser. The other Dracs were able to pull back before we could engage them, but we've given them a beating they won't soon forget. Trying to be sneaky and inflame tensions by assisting extremists in assassinating local leaders? That's our job! (Well, it will be if someone pays us to do that).
Knight scored the final kills on two units thanks to his brilliant PPC fire. He is proving to be a tremendous support. Now if only he could stop tripping over his mech's feet.
First things first, we take a look at the prizes we took from the dropship, and wow, we scored big. Not only did we manage to pull an AC/20 from the haul, but we also received two additional PPCs and —through fortune or providence— a full ninety of double heat sinks and an assortment of ammo*. While frontline House units might expect to field DHS equipped mechs thanks to the distribution of the Helm Memory Core's knowledge, mercenary groups such as ourselves would have to beg, borrow, or steal to get their hands on examples. Granted we did steal them from the DCMS, but that's beside the point!
In any case, we now have a surplus of DHS and a lot of mechs. I guess it's time to start making refit plans, huh?
*Including but not limited to SRM inferno warheads, heat-seeking LRM and SRM missiles, tandem-charge warheads, NARC-capable missiles, and HE, cluster, and inferno bombs.
Once the loot from the dropship is sorted out, we then move on to less exciting issues.
Our severely injured prisoners and our lightly injured MechWarrior are sent to receive medical treatment. Unlike the DCMS warriors we've captured in the past, the captured militia members seem grateful for the treatment and very eager to cooperate. Probably they fear what the baron will do if we give them to him. Even a kind man has limits, and most nobles don't take too kindly to the attempted murder of their peers.
Speaking of prisoners, two prisoners currently seem amenable to recruitment while the Baron's offer of ransom stands open for the rest.
Tenshin Karani is proving a tougher nut to crack than the previous DCMS MechWarriors, but we can keep him back from any exchange with the Baron if we don't wish to give up a potential asset for a handful of C-bills. That said, eventually, he'll crack. No mere mortal can resist the twin temptations of free health care and relatively sensible commanders.
The repairs are honestly so simple that there's not much to write home about. Aside from the Shadowhawk needing an extra day in the bay, everything goes smoothly. As we've established a pattern of stripping salvaged vehicles of their parts, I'll continue that here as well. The Clint, however, will come down to a vote.
November 10th:
We sell the recently stripped harasser and APC for a total of…. 30k C-bills. Well, at least they had some armour, SRMs and machine guns. Those can always come in handy or be sold.
November 11th:
Ostrich gets better at piloting!
...Oh dear. Welp, it looks like we'll have some severe problems in less than a week. First up, Operation Lost Pyre:
The baron of Polis has somehow managed to embed a spy inside the smuggling operation bringing supplies onto David. Whatever this spy has found must be valuable, as he's refusing to broadcast the information over encrypted channels and so will have to break cover and flee the nest of vipers. If everything goes to plan, the spy will be out before the DCMS notices. However, when do things ever go according to plan?
Accordingly, we've been tasked with receiving the spy and preventing the Dracs from capturing him should things go south. We'll be operating our lances in the icy Summerval region of Geronomis and should get ready for a shit-show; though if we can take out a good third of the enemy forces, they should back off.
Meanwhile, we're planning an operation of our own against the Dracs...
For all the pretentiousness of its name, operation Stone Moon —to give it its official name— is a standard counter-recon manoeuvre designed to upset DCMS intelligence gathering in the Willowdale region of Andropo. For the past few weeks, inhabitants of the continent have reported seeing Draconis forces scouting out locations in the deep woods of the continent —likely in an attempt to secure hidden landing sites for their dropships— and we really can't hand that.
To deal with this, two lances will be deployed with the goal of destroying at least half of the reported mechs operating in the region. If we can manage that, then we can continue to throttle the Dracs flow of supplies.
========================= Vote:
Refit Plans:
(List each refit you want me to do as a separate item.)
E.G:
[] Refit Ivan's Warhammer to have…
Recruit Prisoners:
(List the prisoners you want to recruit in a single line. E.G [] Lucy, Charles, Steph. List the prisoners you want to ransom to the Baron in a single line. E.G [] Dave, Tim, Jane).
[] We'll recruit...
[] We'll ransom…
What will we do with the Clint?
[] Repair and keep it.
[] Strip and sell it.
Which lances will be taking part in Operation Lost Pyre:
(Pick 1 lance to assist Charlie lance)
[] Alpha
[] Bravo
[] Delta
Which lances will be taking part in Operation Stone Moon:
(Pick 1 lance to assist Bravo lance)
[] Alpha
[] Charlie
[] Delta
Saracens: like Vedettes, but they float. Be thankful they're not Saladins.
Since so far enemy air assets have been limited to VTOLs and I don't usually spend multiple turns building up heat through continuous fire I'm going to say "no upgrade plans for the Lightning pls".
Looking at the weapon layout...probably not? It's a low-heat design.
Looking at setups...Coranthum's Atlas actually isn't a good candidate as even though you can stuff 14 of them in there and get nearly half again as much heat dissipation as you had before it's hard to find a way to use the six tons that would be free up. The 'Mech is just crowded.
IofTheBunny's AS7-D could actually be refitted profitably with sixteen of them and then slap on some extra medium lasers for a set of four forward and four rear-firing ones or something. You end up with four spare tons and since the Atlas is already max efficient armor you're not using it that way.
Ostrich's MAD-3R is straight up trolling me to look at. MADs are nice clean designs. Convert to MAD-3D, strip 20 singles for eighteen doubles, and two tons of armor, boom! Heat-neutral firing two PPCs, an LL, and two MLs until doomsday. Even a standard MAD-3R converted to doubles you can afford to strip a heatsink for additional armor and be heat-neutral.
Our 6K Warhammers are also trolling me. Converting them to DHS you can actually strip three heatsinks, be heat-neutral, and add three tons of armor bringing them up to 95.85% of theoretical coverage.
The ON1-M already has DHS.
Sophia's Jenner JR7-F would actually do pretty well with DHS since most of them are internal to the engine, so they're not going to get blown out even on a small 'Mech. Infinite max jump and full weapons and never overheat.
We could actually stand to take DHS off the HBK-5M already unless my version of the design saved to Solaris Skunk Works is screwed up. It already overcools. Strip a couple for extra AC/20 ammo and maybe a medium laser?
The PHX-3M already has DHS. Not enough, but it does.
Most of our other stuff doesn't benefit from the change hugely.
Our Talos is a modified design. You can see it in the 'Meeting the Crew' post, under Jack's profile. It sports 2x ML, 1x ML, 2x LRM5, and 20 SHS. Switching to DHS and keeping the same cooling - which makes it heat-neutral - frees up ten tons. On a fifty-ton mech. It's definitely worth it. Any weapons added would need additional heat sinks to stay heat-neutral, but you can start with a full fit of JJs.
I largely agree, although I differ in details on some of them. For the WHMs, instead of stripping three heat sinks, strip five plus the SLs, add two MLs, a ton of SRM ammo of the pilot's choice, and those three tons of armour you wanted. For the MAD, strip another two heat sinks over what you suggested, replace it with two MLs. Bracket fighting!
I agree on the Atlas-7D as well as the Jenner.
For the Hunchback, I'd ditch all non-engine Doubles, and replace with AC/20 ammo. Five shots is not enough.
For the PXH, would ripping out the MG+Ammo as well as the useless (with XLFE) CASE in favour of another two DHS work?
For our Trebuchet, I'd like to swap Singles for Doubles, but one less in total. For weapons, ditch the AC/5 & SRM2 along with their ammo and replace them with a second PPC and SRM4 with 2 tons of ammo. Add the remaining weight in armour.
And finally, if we have time, I'd like to do a fairly major refit to my SHD. Turn it into this:
Code:
Shadow Hawk SHD-2B DHS Refit
Base Tech Level: Standard (IS)
Level Era
-------------------
Experimental -
Advanced -
Standard 3025+
Tech Rating: D/X-E-D-X
Weight: 55 tons
BV: 1,388
Cost: 5,044,682 C-bills
Movement: 5/8/5
Engine: 275
Heat Sinks: 10
Gyro: Standard Gyro
Internal: 91
Armor: 184/185
Internal Armor
----------------------------------------
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 27
Center Torso (rear) 8
Right Torso 13 20
Right Torso (rear) 6
Left Torso 13 20
Left Torso (rear) 6
Right Arm 9 18
Left Arm 9 18
Right Leg 13 26
Left Leg 13 26
Weapons Loc Heat
-------------------------
Medium Laser RA 3
Medium Laser RA 3
PPC LT 10
SRM 6 RT 4
Ammo Loc Shots
--------------------------------
SRM 6 Ammo RT 15
SRM 6 Inferno Ammo RT 15
I'll post a proper vote later, once I figure out the non-refit portions of it.
As you can see, what little damage we have is spread across one Warhammer and Delta's sole Shadowhawk. While the Shadowhawk took the brunt of the fire from the Draconis forces, it managed to avoid damaging its internals. KnightDisciple's Warhammer, meanwhile, took most of its damage from slipping and falling into a lake.
======================================================================
KnightDisciple badly bruised his chest after falling in the lake. GG, mate. That's the 5 in his 2/5 making itself known.
=======================================
Knight scored the final kills on two units thanks to his brilliant PPC fire. He is proving to be a tremendous support. Now if only he could stop tripping over his mech's feet.
CASE ain't useless there; you may down the 'Mech, but at least it will be salvagable, whereas if an ammo explosion kills the engine it's not. And besides it's a factory-level refit to remove it.
Mostly I'm pointing out what you can do minimum. Unless you're already focused to one range bracket you should probably aim to have slightly over heat neutrality so you can throw a few alpha strikes safely but you're not as tied into dead weight as you might with a couple of PPCs fully sinked at punching range.
[MANIACAL LAUGHTER]
They're not the old "one armor damage and one internal", but they're still pretty damn good.
[X] Refit Ivan's Warhammer to have 11 DHS, 3 more tons armor, SLs to MLs, a second SRM-6, and 3 tons tandem-charge SRMs.
Probably once the contract is over because it'll take two months-ish (or more, depending on how the tech rolls) according to MekHQ.
Clint:
[X] Repair and keep it.
The Clint -2-3U just entered production, and we can refit it to that or something close (-2-3U pulls the AC5 for ERPPC, adds DHS, MLs for MPLs, so maybe regular PPC, DHS, and more armor?)
LOST PYRE
[X] Delta
STONE MOON
[X] Alpha
Also, that 1/3 LTV-4 is freaking me out, because that's a 1 gunnery PPC that can outrun most of our force.
Warhammer WHM-6K Ivan Base Tech Level: Experimental (IS)
Looking at setups...Coranthum's Atlas actually isn't a good candidate as even though you can stuff 14 of them in there and get nearly half again as much heat dissipation as you had before it's hard to find a way to use the six tons that would be free up. The 'Mech is just crowded.
What will we do with the Clint?
[X] Repair and keep it
Which lances will be taking part in Operation Lost Pyre:
[X] Delta
Which lances will be taking part in Operation Stone Moon:
[X] Alpha
Clint isn't my favorite mech, but it's decently fast and has an OK punch. I'm somewhat leery of having lances overlap between operations, just in case someone loses a limb or takes a good shot to the dome, then you're one or more mechs short on the next mission.
A 4/5 tank driver isn't really worthwhile to recruit.
