Welcome back! It’s been a bit since the first track, but we’re finally back! When we last left The Azure Phoenix/Buzzard Boys, they had fought off a small portion of a pirate raid on Alyina. We scored some cash, and a Marauder 5M! We do need to fix it and the Puma, so it looks like we’re buying a new mech and/or hiring a temp, or so I thought…
Solahma means what?!
So, when we hired Olivia at the start of the contract, I forgot what the clan word Solahma meant. I thought it was one of the words for a younger unproven warrior, when it’s the opposite. Solahma are clan warriors that are old or dying and usually assigned garrison duty, so that they can die on their own terms, gaining glory, instead of dying sick in a bed. Ooopps!
What we have here now is a big mistake on my part. Olivia wouldn’t have been cool with sitting out the first track, she is the lone survivor of a pirate raid, she’s been denied her glory. She’s sort of looking to die, but by fighting someone actually stronger than her. She’s not the character I was imagining, and now I have to adjust this last track so that our story makes more sense. Luckily I worked that out, but doing so is part of the reason for the delay of this episode. I feel that I landed on something good, and that will work with Olivia’s small backstory. As a slight spoiler, the goal is to end this track with her being a sort of mentor to Sven and Miriam, passing on her experience to a new generation, and hoping that they might be able to change clan culture a bit. She’s not expecting to be around forever, but now feels she understands why she survived when her fellow Ghost Bears did not.
Track 2, but bigger!
With the screw up in story, I needed to change up the second track. Why? Well, we needed Olivia to be in the fight, but I also wanted her to be fighting alongside both Sven and Miriam. That way her new role as a mentor actually works, she’ll be able to see them both in a fight, and see their potential. The only way I could do that, would be to bump up to scale 2, which we technically can’t do, since we took the contract at scale 1, so I just retconed it and said we did scale 2, bam. Next, I had to change the actual events after track 1 a bit, so that we could justify a few changes. So, instead of the pirates having to fall back and do an objective raid track, I made it so that Lynxheart had screwed up and gone to the wrong place, but found a couple other pirates in training. They all then assumed they were ditched, and got really mad. Lynxheart declared herself captain of the new Lynxheart Pirates, and their first act was to raid the out of the way warehouse they were at. Turns out it was a Clan Sea Fox stock house, that the AML maintains for them. So Lynxheart and her new crew steal three mechs from it and try and bail out and steal a drop ship from the port. The AML contact The Azure Phoenix and explain the situation, saying they can do a rush job to fix the marauder to usable shape, and since we’re still a little short handed, they’re covering the pay for a temp they had on hand to help us out. We’d also be paid the salvage rate for the 3 stollen mechs, as long as they’re just crippled, we have normal salvage on the pirates own stuff, the Wolverine from last track, and a Galleon 100 tank that they other pirates brought with them. We’d also get a bonus free mech if we could get all 3 stollen mechs back in one piece.
So quick run down of the track:
- The new track is a Pursuit track, with The Azure Phoenix as the attacker. It is also played at scale 2, so 6000 BV and 64 BSP’s.
- The track is played using the rules from Draconis Reach, with the added goals for the attackers being, we must cripple half their stollen force, so succeed. We get penalized for truly destroying a stolen mech, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
- The Maraudere 5M is patched up so that it is usable, but it missing about 15 to 20% of it’s total armor, split evenly amount it’s locations.
- We have a temp with us, but they are free and can’t be hired permenantly.
- We will be paid the salvage value of each stollen mech we crippled and recover, so we need to win the track to get this bonus.
- The contract normally awards a free mech, but they’ll give us one more if we can recover all 3 stollen mechs!
Sounds like a damn good deal to me! Let’s go and meet our teams and see how this track played out!
Forces
The Azure Phoenix: For this track we have Sven piloting the Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 that we bought, Miriam is in her usual Archer 4M2, and Olivia is piloting the quick fixed Marauder 5M. The temp hire list in the book has a pilot using a trebuchet, which I don’t own. Now I did say I would prroxy when needed, but before making that rule, I replaced the mech with a Shadow Hawk 7H I believe. Well turns out I had one mostly ready for another merc unit of mine, so she made a cameo here. Meet Katana Jones, member of Elblanco’s Elite Fighting Force! A weird group of mechwarriors that do weird poses a lot, and all dress in singular bright colors. Unusual lady, but she was in the area and the AML covered her fee, and we need the help.
The Lynxheart Pirates: Lynxheart has declared The Night Owls a bunch of losers, and that she is now captain of The Lynxheart Pirates! Her crew is made up of her 2 fellow pirates from track one, along with a couple other no name pirates in training that also got lost during the raid on the AML factory complex. They have their wolverine from last track, as well as a galleon 100 that the other new pirates had. They also stole themselves a Locust 7v, a Griffin IIC, and for the new captain herself, a Phoenix Hawk IIC 10! The pirate made fast assault mech is going to be a handful.
Now on to the battlefield!
Let’s catch us some pirates!
So part of why this article took a while to write was because I was 3d printing the terrain for my neoprene map! Here we have turn one, Lynxheart and crew have entered play, we had to slow down the locust as per the rules for the track, no unit can have more than 8 mp max, so it took a couple leg crits to slow it down. Turn one for pursuit has just the defenders entering play with the attackers, The Azure Phoenix, enter on turn 2. Nothing too exciting yet, so on to turn 2!
Oh right, the tank, the pirates galleon is a Battlefield Support Asset. We also took some assets, 2 pegasi and a heavy strike. Ok now on to turn 2!
Turn 2! The Azurer Phoenix comes out jumping! My notes just say, Lots of jumping. Which you can see with all the red jumping movement markers on the field. Olivia and Sven decided to go north to persue Lynxheart as the P-hawk IIC is the pricey target we want to take down. Miriam and Katana Jones went south, looking to try and take down the lighter units, with the locust behind the purple mesa there. The pirates mostly jumped around as well, looking to keep their backs away from the pursuing Phoenixes…Phoeni? Fire birdss, icy looking fire birds. We also had a conga line going with Katana Jones, with the galleon behind her, and a Pegasus, on loan from the AML, behind them.
As for combat, The Azure Phoenix went hard and used their Heavy Air Strike on the Phoenix Hawk IIC, nailing it hard. This drops 4 groups of 5 damage onto Lynxheart’s shiny new mech, 5 damage hits the left leg and the other 15 damage all hits her center torso! What a way to open the game. Miriam takes a small bit from the locust she was chasing, Olivia hits Lynxheart for 9 damage to the left leg. Katana hits the Griffin IIC in the center torso with her autocannon. Miriam dumps 2 LRM 20s into the locust and misses, and the wolverine nails Sven with both shots from his Ultra AC 10. Sven makes his PSR, Lynxheart doesn’t though and falls, taking more damage, but makes her seatbelt check to prevent meat damage. Wild opening turn.
Turn 3
Both sides are looking for a fight, and the Azure Phoenix wins initiative! A but lesss jumping, as we’d like to hit some bigger shots this turn. Most of the pirates turn to fight, but Lynxheart, after getting up, decides to run into a ditch for some cover, and didn’t have the MP to turn around we well. The Locust in turn, booked it after managing to dodge 40 missiles!
For combat, Lynheart, as well as the other 2 mechs with shots on her, fire at Miriam, dealing about 22 damage to her, with the Galleon hitting her in the head for 5. Miriam has taken head hits in every draft of this campaign! Every test/learning game I played had her taking at least one head hit, one time being a charge that took her head off entirely! So she’s getting a nick name, “Headshot”. Anyway, the blue birds each had a grudge to settle. Miriam shot at the wolverine, only getting some missile hits for 10. Sven got a 9 damage hit on the Griffin and went internal, failing to crit though. Olivia kept on Lynxheart, hitting everything and also went internal on the rear center torso, but also didn’t crit, which is good since that would cost us money! It looks like I may have forgotten to have Katana Jones shoot anyone, oops. At the end of turn, the pirate galleon took enough damage to take a destroy check, which it passed. Miriam and Lynxheart both made their PSR’s as well. Yeah, this is going to be a rough game.
Turn 4! The Locust kept on running, he wants nothing to do with these big ól mechs! Looks like the rest of the pirates keep moving but are prioritizing fighting The Phoenix. So the Azure Phoenix comes to play. Still some jumping, but I really wanted some smaller target numbers, so tried to keep from jumping too many units. Both sides also score their orders here, which only really matters for the Azure Phoenix, and we now qualify for combat pay, yay money! Also a peak at my notes haha.
As for combat, This time everyone kind of pairs off, with Sven and the Wolverine exchange fire, with Sven taking no damage and the Wolverine taking 14 damage over it’s center and right torsos. Mirriam and the Griffin shoot each other, Miriam takes only 3 damage while dealing 5 damage back to the Griffin. Lynxheart fires at Sven and nails him in the left arm, and does internal! Sven gets lucky, and it doesn’t crit. Olivia fires at Lynxheart, and hits with her autocannon and a large pulse laser, but uses an edge to hit with the AC, and deals 19 damage to Lynxheart’s left arm. Katana seems to wake up and shoots the Wolverine, and deals 10 damage to, somewhere, I seem to have forgotten to write the location…One of the Pegasi hits the Griffin, forcing a PSR! The Griffin and Lynxheart take PSR’s and pass, while one of the pegasi, and the galleon both take and fail destroy checks, which means they live, I gotta write my notes a bit more clearly.
Oh no! A kaiju has shown up! Take Cover!
This is one of our cats, Stella Luna, or just Luna. She was born feral, and we befriended her after moving into our home last year. We scooped her up when things got super cold last winter, and she’s gotten quite comfy as you can see here. I guess she was just wanting to assert her dominance since I took up her food space. Anyway, I finally got her to move along and fixed the destruction, so lets get back to the fight!
I think the Azure Phoenix has won initiative every turn so far, outside maybe turn one, and here is no different, turn 5 gets rough. The Locust got an ear full from his new captain and decided to turn back and take a few shots, to cover his shipmates. Lynxheart and crew are close to making it out, and are willing to give up their fights, to live to fight another day. Olivia keeps on Lynxheart and takes 15 more damage off the PH IIC, goes internal on the right arm but fails to crit. Lynxheart misses her return shots. The Wolverine fires at Katana, and misses, and in turn takes fire from KJ and Sven, taking 10 to the left arm from Katana. He also takes a bunch of rear shots from all of Sven’s guns. The rear left torso in particular goes internal and gets our first crit this game! His U/AC10 ammo EXPLODES, and I get to review the new ammo explosion rules in the core rulebook. The Wolverine takes 10 damage to his LT arrmor and 10 more to the structure, which is enough to blow off the entire left side of the mech, crippling it. The pilot also takes meat damage from the explosion, but remains awake. The Griffin takes shots at Katana, dealing 10 to her CT, sending sparks flying as she jumps over the camera. Yea, that’s what my notes say, weird. The Locust takes his totally willing shots at a pegasus and nails it with all three guns. Unfortunately, as he starts to celebrate, the sky grows dark, blotted out by 40 missiles from Miriam’s Archer. She nails him all over, including 5 damage to the head, though he stays awake. She also fires her ER medium lasers at the galleon, and nails it for 5. The tanks exchange somee fire, the pegasi both miss with the galleon hitting one of them. Onto the end phase, the galleon and one pegasus pass their destroy checks, which means they die, that makes sense right? The Wolverine passes its own PSR, while the poor Locust fails his PSR, fails his seatbelt check, and finally, fails the conciousness check, passing out. Poor guy, wanted to leave, tried to help, and paid for it.
Turn 6! It all ends here. Sorry for spoilers, but this seems to be my last picture, oops. It was like 11:30 at night! Give me a break! So the pirates win initiative, and make a break for the edge, though they are aiming to cover the Locust on their way out. Unfortunately, Sven takes the first shot and takes out Lynxheart’s left leg, meaning she falls at the end of the shooting phases. Before falling, Lynxheart twists right and shoots at Katana, I think she was also trying to protect damaged parts from the Phoenixes, knowing she was able to break off from Olivia’s fire. Katana takes a hit to her left leg, but is fine. She fires back, and oops, she’s the one that got the leg crit, rolling box cars to blow off the leg! The Griffin tries to cover her captain, but misses. Olivia, having been told to break off from the PH IIC so that she can actually have some shots on something, fires at the Griffin. She drills both large pulse lasers into it’s CT, which of course, cores it out! Mech down, but now we have to pay for it! Great job Olivia. The Wolverine takes aim at Sven, and goes internal on his RT, then hits the RT again! No crits luckily for Sven. Miriam takes shots at the Wolverine, and gets some internal damage with no crits. Finally, the last remaining pegasus shoots the Locust, and…takes it’s head off! Pirate dead. Poor guy.
Terms of Surrender
So, with the end of turn 6, I look at the board, and try and work out how the Wolverine could make it out. I said he could recover Lynxheart and the Griffin pilot. He was crippled, and slowed down, so couldn’t quite make it off the board. I rolled for initiative, and the pirates won, so Sven was able to jump in the way, and physically block the pirates escape. So I just had the pirates see the writing on the wall and surrender. Lynxheart and her survivng crew, RIP Mr. Locust, are taken into AML custody. So we won, now to count our money, right? well yes, it’s easy to count, being so low that is.
So, we took down the pirates, but we screwed up and cored out that Griffin IIC. After counting up all the salvage, we had good chunk of change, just enough to buy us a shiny new Griffin IIC, oh right. Yeah, we made just enough on salvage to cover the Griffin IIC, and then some! We made a cool 65 SP on this bonus I added to the track. Yeah, that tracks.
With this, we can take our combat pay. I messed up with pay at first, forgetting that this was scale 2. So we made 1500 more SP, and spent 200 to give some to Sven and Miriam, since Olivia isn’t a full timer yet. Both pilots took edge abilities, Sven getting Jumping Jack, and Miriam, upset at being out run by her allies, took Speed Demon. We also hire Olivia full time, though she can’t get SP for this track as well. I also just converted her SPA into edge tokens, since it’s the same thing here. I also found her card in the Hinterlands update PDF, and yeah, that’s what CGL did too. We also gained 1 reputation, now being at 2. Oh yeah! We also get a free mech from the AML! I don’t have the mechs on the list, since most of them are metal models from Iron Wind Metals, so I just used Mekbay to find what mechs I own that would make sense that the AML would make on Alyina. I ended up getting a Baboon/Howler 6. A nice little light monkey mech with a bunch of missiles, a good scout and cheap enough for us to easily field 3 units at scale 1.
What’s next?
With this contract done, The Azure Phoenix needs to find another job. I’ve flip flopped on what to do next though, as well as wanting to learn more about the game and setting. So I’m making a few changes to this campaign. I know, I know, we’re one contract in, but I want to add vehicles and battle armor to this campaign, and that calls for a new baseline. So, after this will be 2 more articles before the next track. The first will lay out my baseline for this campaign. Campaign Rules so to speak. So that I can lay out how things will be a bit different, as well as what the AP is gaining, and spending that now 4200 SP they’re sitting on. I’ll also lay out what tense I’ll try and write these articles in, so that I write this consistently, as well as stop calling them The Buzzard Boys, even though I liked the bit. The other article will be a new regular addition to this campaign, Time Between Tracks. I feel like this will help with managing the company, while having somewhere readers can reference the state of The Azure Phoenix. We’ll cover repairs and purchases, and starting new contracts as well as negotiating terms. This should help keep each article nice and clean and easy sort.
I’ll have those up tomorrow probably, so we’ll get to the next contract ASAP. Stay Tuned!
