Part 405: Ultimatum - Turn 31

Ultimatum: Tactical Update 31

Mechwarrior Adrian McKenna breathed a silent sigh of relief as one of the Rim World machines drove a six-meter armored spike through the Sea Fox Galaxy Commander’s center torso, silencing his furious ranting. At the same time another enemy machine, a forgettable little Crab, drove its cloven hoof into the back of the Atlas’s knee, snapping the Clan machine’s leg off cleanly.

Her hand hovered over the eject button as she brought her limping, crippled Dire Wolf to a halt to await her own machine’s execution. The enemy made no move to oblige her, instead they simply assembled in good order. Those with hands stopped to gather any Clan equipment small enough to cart away, but aside from the big, beetle-shaped assault `Mech that wrenched the right weapons-pod off one of the Clan’s rare Timberwolves none of the enemy machines seemed too focused on looting. From McKenna’s position it didn’t seem like recovering Clan equipment was a priority. It looked more as if the Rim Worlders were taking things simply because the Clans would expect them to.

It was disconcerting, as though they were simply the smaller and weaker crèche brats playing the part of barbarians in a game of Warriors and Bandits. Except for once, the bandits had won.



Combat Phase
Dire Wolf H
- No orders received!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 40!

Atlas IIC
- Fires Hyper-Assault Gauss Rifle 40 at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 minimum range + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 6): rolled 10, 3 projectiles hit Right Arm (7/32 armor remains), Right Leg (25/37 armor remains), Left Torso (19/31 armor remains)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 7, hit Left Arm (18/32 armor remains)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 7, hit Right Leg (18/37 armor remains)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 8, hit Right Leg (11/37 armor remains)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 6, hit Center Torso (31/45 armor remains)!
- Fires Streak SRM-6 at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 6, 4 missiles hit Head (7/9 armor remains (Pilot Hit!)), Left Arm (16/32 armor remains), Left Torso (17/31 armor remains), Right Torso (9/31 armor remains)!
- Fires Streak SRM-6 at Hogzilla (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 2 Void Signature System - 1 Short Range HAG = 4): rolled 7, 4 missiles hit Left Arm (14/32 armor remains), Center Torso (29/45 armor remains), Center Torso (27/45 armor remains), Left Arm (12/32 armor remains)!
- Gains 37 heat, sinks 36!

Crab (ACE)
- Fires ER Large Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat = 4): rolled 6, hit Rear Left Torso (2/10 armor remains)!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat - 2 Pulse Laser = 2): rolled 7, automatically hit Right Leg (0/42 armor remains)!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat - 2 Pulse Laser = 2): rolled 12, automatically hit Left Leg (26/42 armor remains)!
- Gains 33 heat sinks 34! Overheating! ACE!

Hogzilla (ACE)
- Charges PPC Capacitor
- Charges PPC Capacitor
- Fires ER Micro Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System = 5): rolled 9, hit Left Arm (21/33 armor remains)!
- Fires ER Micro Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System = 5): rolled 6, hit Right Leg (18/21 structure remains)! Crit!
- Gains 42 heat, sinks 32! Overheating! ACE!

Hogzilla (ACE)
- Fires LB-10X Autocannon (Cluster) at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System - 1 cluster = 5): rolled 3, miss!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System - 2 Pulse Laser = 4): rolled 5, hit Right Arm (2/33 armor remains)! TAC!
- Gains 15 heat, sinks 26!

Hogzilla
- Fires LB-10X Autocannon (Cluster) at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System - 1 cluster = 5): rolled 4, miss!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Atlas IIC (2 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heat + 1 Void Signature System - 2 Pulse Laser = 4): rolled 9, hit Center Torso (20/46 armor remains)!
- Gains 15 heat, sinks 26!

Longbow
- Holds fire!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 26!

Longbow
- Holds fire!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 26!

Longbow
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 26!

Thug
- Holds fire!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 26!

Black Knight
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 36!

Black Knight
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 36!

Excalibur
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 22!

Excalibur
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 22!

Coyote
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 28!

Coyote
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 28!

Coyote
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 28!

Coyote
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 28!

Coyote
- Holds fire!
- Gains 12 heat, sinks 28!

Phoenix
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 30!

Bobcat
- Holds fire!
- Gains 10 heat, sinks 24!

Locust
- Holds fire!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 28!



End Phase:
Hogzilla
- Must pass a 3+ consciousness test: rolled 10, succeeds!

Atlas IIC
- Through-armor critical chance in Right Arm! No critical hit sustained!
- Critical chance in Right Leg! No critical hit sustained!



Physical Combat Phase:
Hogzilla (ACE)
- Punches Atlas IIC with both arms (2 base + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement = 3): rolled 7, both punches hit Left Torso (4/32 armor remains), Center Torso (0/46 armor remains)!

Hogzilla (ACE)
- Attacks Atlas IIC with Lance (2 base + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement = 4): rolled 10, hit Center Torso (0/31 structure remains)! `Mech destroyed!

Crab
- Kicks Atlas IIC (2 base + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement - 2 kick = 1): automatically hit Right Leg (0/21 structure remains)! Leg destroyed!









Player Status:


Glorious Deaths




Primary Objective:
- Defend Clan HQ Vehicles (0/3 remaining)

Secondary Objective
- Defeat as many enemy `Mechs as possible (17/39 defeated)
- Defend Clan Personnel (11 tents remain)
- Defend Clan Equipment (11/36 units remaining)



After-Action Report:
Well, that wasn’t the ending I was hoping for but it was hard-fought and I had to commit way more force than I was expecting for every player machine I took out. Not counting the machines killed by That .

In hindsight, if I had to do something like this again I’d have built the map with a ‘safe’ entry zone for Goonstar. I went with a more dynamic entry system because I didn’t want anyone to feel forced to committing to a certain objective. In hindsight, not giving the players clear enough objectives was a mistake and I should’ve known that they’d take more pride in accomplishing a ‘defeat enemy `Mechs’ objective over every other option, and that setting it as anything other than a secondary objective would make the players prioritize it to the exclusion of everything else. That was a major fuck-up on my part, and it took me way too long to realize it. I know better, and for that I apologize.

On the other hand, when I told the players when the mission started that this was about triage, I was kinda expecting them to pick an objective to defend. The top half was designed to be the more easily defended location, especially once the Locusts were deployed to give the players guarding the plateau a little cover from incoming fire; while the bottom half was always intended to be much harder (due to the arrival of the Coyote lance and their targeting priorities) but doable if the players committed to it. Unfortunately (but, in retrospect, not unexpectedly) it seems like the players never really committed to defending any objective. That was probably my fault for not emphasizing which objectives were the most important, but this mission was supposed to be about a confused response against a completely unknown and unexpected force. It felt cheap to give away too much information in hard objectives when I could reveal it in the fluff.

Does anyone remember that both the Snow Raven saKhan and Loremaster were still in one of the northern Mobile Command Centers? Just me? Alright then, no sense crying over dead Clanners when I can convert them directly into Plot.



Plot and more importantly MVPs* await!

_{*Any vote for something other than That will also count as a vote for That . So feel free to vote for whatever you want!}