Battletech: 4 vs 4 - Scout Lance takes on Clan Kurita HQ (with Special Effects)

Hi everyone,

First some set-up explanation....

Yesterday we played a smaller scale battle of 4 mechs vs. 4 mechs.  At first we were thinking to use our Scout Lance (the blue good guys) vs. the lighter mechs of the red team.  But, we worked out the tonnage and found that we were 175 tons vs. 190 tons - 15 ton underdogs.

So, we pulled the Cicada out, and used that mech to start the battle.  We replaced it with the Jagermech.  Turned out to work pretty well.  And, taught us some good lessons in terrain tactics (assuming we figured the rules out properly).

We're still not playing with piloting skill rolls (maybe next match), but adding in the cover effects from woods made for a very interesting game - and was key to us even having a chance in taking out the Kurita guys :)

One more item about the set-up.  We had decided that the HQ building at 20 armor on each side (our big green D6) - and that if a Clan Kurita mech was not guarding a side, it was fair game for a blue team mech to shoot at it and do damage.

Regarding the Special Effects....

We thought it would be fun if we could make it look like our mechs were really shooting in our Bat Rep.  So, here's what we came up with....

- First we tried using Power Point - and drew some laser shots onto the battlefield.  It looked sort of cool - but not totally convincing.

- Then we remembered that there were lots of nice mobile device apps for this.  So, we tested a few.

- We ended up using the App "Eye Candy" almost exclusively.  Used the following messy procedure:

1) Cropped photos (used Power Point) - so that you couldn't see the pizza we were eating.  (Sorry about this if you did want to see the pizza.)  Saved them out of Power Point as JPG files (though lower in resolution after this :(

2) Added Special Effects with Eye Candy.
- We used smoke plus pink sparks thingys for autocannons
- Green laser effects were (you guessed it) lasers
- Yellow streaks effects for waves of LRMs
- White glow plus lightning for PPC
- We also added some explosions and fire and other things for damaged mechs

3) Then, we used Picasa to crop again.  (We had to sort-of unzoom the photos in Eye Candy to be able to place our effects without having the mechs be blocked by the command buttons of Eye Candy).

[Anyway - please let us know what you think ??]

Here's the Bat Rep:

Turn Zero:

[Blue Team, Cicada] "Found Kurita HQ, under heavy fire, right leg damage.  Bugging out.  Scout Lance - They're all yours!"

Turn One:

In turn one, the Scout Lance landed and advanced on the Clan Kurita mechs.

• Kurita Catapult and Scout Lance Trebuchet exchanged fire with minimal damage
• Scout Lance Jagermech got a lucky head-shot on the Kurita Enforcer - but the pilot made his consciousness save
• Kurita Enforcer shots toward the Jagermech went wide, both AC10 and Large Laser missing
• Scout Lance Jenner and Hunchback were covered by hills, and spent the turn moving into position.

Turn 2:



In Turn 2 the Hunchback and Jenner emerged from cover.  The Jagermech moved into Heavy Woods (to obtain the +2 advantage - and use its long range capabilities).  The Trebuchet moved behind the hill to move into a hex with Heavy Woods as well.

• Scout Lance Jenner fired on Kurita Panther and did first damage
• Scout Lance Jagermech connected with all two AC2's on the Kurita Enforcer
• All other mechs exchanging fire miss - too much movement, too much range and cover

Turn 3:

In turn 3 the Jenner moves to work behind the Kurita HQ and the Hunchback advances to put the AC20 into range.  Both the Jagermech and the Trebuchet fire from Heavy woods.

• Scout Lance Hunchback fire on the Catapult hits the center torso.  Trebuchet damage does as well.  Two engine hits result.  [We tried to show the heat and flames with effects.]  By the end of the round, the Catapult is at 19 heat - but avoids shutdown and ammo explosion.
• Kurita Enforcer connects with AC10 and puts the Scout Lance Jagermech right arm AC2 out of commission

Turn 4:

In turn 4 the Jenner has gotten behind the HQ and the Hunchback has moved to short range with the Kurita Hermes

• Scout Lance Jenner does serious damage to the left side of the Kurita Panther
• Scout Lance Hunchback punishes the left arm of the Hermes
• The Kurita Catapult limits weapons fire to get heat back under control
• The Jagermech (with left arm functional) and Enforcer exchange fire without major result

Turn 5:

In Turn 5 the Kurita team uses their initiave to put the Panther into a better position.  This allows the Jenner to scoot around the back of the HQ and "block" for the Hunchback.  The Hunchback worked left around the blocking Jenner -- and, the result is a clear shot for the Hunchback and its AC20.  We might have overdone it on the explosion effects :)