Bengy's Blobs are starting to drag themselves off the gutter of the Inner Sphere mercenary review in RogueTech. The previous AAR detailed the initial formation of the mercenary band and can be found here.
Bengy's Blobs now field a decently sized 7 Mech and 2 vehicle drop limit for battlefield contracts. Mostly a light Mech company, the Blobs focus on fast hitting flanking tactics under the cover of a couple of stealth leaders backed up by a couple of longer range snipers. Close in fast, flank around, set things on fire and hit the rear hard! There isn't much staying power to the compnay, but it does hit hard when it gets around the enemy... so, currently speed over weight class!
The Blobs have outgrown their initial hunting grounds and have started to venture into slightly more difficult contracts. Half and single skull contracts are now milk runs for the company... a chance to earn some easy C-Bills to pay the bills for the month, but little in the way of useful salvage. The one and half skull contracts are the current sweet spot, easy enough to not lose a Mech or have too much in the way of repair bills whilst getting the occasional valuable piece of loot. Meanwhile, the two skull contracts are tough battle... with severe damage expected and only undertaken if there is intel about some valuable Mech or technology taking the field on the opposing side.
Most of the month is taken up with targeting low skull milk runs to pay the bills... it is grinding and a bit of drudge work. However, the key to being a successful merc outfit in the Inner Sphere is in NOT DYING! Stay alive, and don't drown in your repair bills! Pick the fights that you can win...
Of course, in some battles... your allies are more of a nuisance than your actual enemies! In this particular battle... my Mechs closed the distance between to the enemy fast as per the usual tactics, but as we were in close combat and flanking around, our erstwhile friends coated the entire area in flames and minefields from their long-range support.
This proved to be one of the least sucessful contracts, with quite a bit of repair bills needing to be met afterwards... damaged legs and overheated shutdown Mechs tend to make for easy targets!
One recent critical contract involved the ambush of a damaged Marik Assault-class Mech... a single salvo from this Mech would drill holes in most of my Mechs. To make matters worse, a Clan Star Adder force was inbound with their own Assault class Mech and support to finish of the Marik company! So, two enemy groups that completely outclassed my little band of plucky fighters...
I let them swing at each other for a little bit whilst sneaking up behind the Marik position... as the two Assault Mechs started unloading on each other, I dropped Infernos and Flamers into their positions and charged up the hill as the two forces continued to slug it out.
As they were fighting in fires, their targeting systems were hampered... and as they continued to fight, some of their Mechs (both Assault Mechs!) overheated and shutdown temporarily! This allowed me to strike in hard at their rear armour and take them down before they could fully power up again. A tense battle... a couple of shots were directed against my company, but obviously they thought that the Blobs were a minimal threat in comparison!
The prized loot from the battle! Parts for a IS Tech Banshee and Clan Tech Sorcerer Assault Mechs... weighing in at 95 tons of pure destruction each they will be devestating additions to the Blobs if I can find enough pieces to reconstruct their shells! Of course, that is only half the "battle"... as the actual reconstruction of the Mechs will cost millions of C-Bills as well as a great deal of Mech Bay repair time. Still... worth it!
Another few piece of another Assault class Mech were salvaged during a base defence mission. This was a nasty fight as the Assault Mech was standing off hammering heavy salvos at the base and my Mechs whilst being shielded by skirmishers... eventually I got my flankers in and around, overheated him and took him down from the back. No losses... except for an unfortunate friendly fire incident where I blasted one of my own vehicles in the back! Lots of repair time needed though...
One of the more recent contracts involved an Assassination mission against a heavily protected target. The target was sitting in a Heavy class Mech (for reference, most of mechs are Light class with a couple of Medium ones...) and was protected by an additional company of Mechs and vehicles. To make things worse, after I dropped in... another enemy lance dropped in as well!
Thankfully, I was supported by several allied Mechs and vehicles which were loaded up with long-range heat and mine weapons. This time... they were deployed successfully against the enemy... blocking off the river fording that seperated us.
I had my stealth scouts running around in the water (after clearing my side of the ford...) and the AWACS stealth VTOL screaming around as well. This meant that much of their heavy firepower was concentrated upon hitting incredibly hard to hit targets... This was wasting their critical heavy AC and missile ammo... and I was able to pick off some of their light Mechs with sniper and LRM fire. Plus, some of them got stuck in minefields and had their legs taken out making them sitting ducks as well....
That said... I did have one of my Stealth scouts take an unlucky heavy hit... and it went down hard. I didn't lose the Mech, but I did lose the Stealth system... which is worth many times it's weight in C-Bills. They are impossible to buy and are next to impossible to find in battlefield salvage... and they are the only thing that can keep the scouts alive for longer than a single salvo! Big loss...
Still... when it was time to ford the river... I came across with full firepower against their diminished inventory of ammunition. More infernos and minefields trapped them and made them easy targets for my flankers. When they turned to chase the flankers... my snipers and ranged support opened up on their already damaged rears! Tight battle with a significant loss of a stealth system... but a successful one!
The 1.0 release of RogueTech brought in the ability to own and pilot vehicles.. something that had long been the province of the opfor only! These vehicles have their own drop pool, so you aren't taking the place of a valuable Mech to drop a vehicle... they are pretty specialised, you can't refit them and you get what you get. So, they are great as supports, but not as your main combat force!
Unfortunately, the current display window for the vehicles is a bit... not good! You can't actually see the vehicle very well behind the list of vehicles!
At the moment I'm only fielding two vehicles out of a drop limit of 5 slots. I've not been able to salvage enough parts to build a new vehicle... well, there was that one hovertank that copped friendly fire in the back.... so, there were three, but now only two!
My first vehicle has been with me from near the beginning of the company. A Myrmidon Medium Tank, it is a pretty ordinary line tank with decent armour which allows it to take a bit of a pounding... more than a Mech usually can, if it is coming from the front and isn't engaged in physical hand to hand combat!
Equipped with a PPC for range and a SRM6 for short ranged attacks, it isn't really a heavy hitter in comparison to a line Mech... but it still stings! Plus, the fact that the weapons are turret mounted means that I can flank whilst continuously firing!
The more interesting of the vehicles is this AWACS VTOL! Equipped with Stealth, it is incredibly hard to hit and fast as all hell. However, if it is hit... well... it will hurt, ALOT! It fields a single mine Bomb cluster which is great against concentrated enemy formations to lock them down and a single Air to Air missile cluster which will floor a single opposing VTOL.
On the weapons front, it only has a single puny LRM5... and the ability to call in artillery strikes every 3 turns! However, the main ability is it's ability to distract and draw enemy fire... and then chaff and blind the enemy sensors... plus laser tagging targets for my Mechs to pummel with greater accuracy!
This Griffin has been the mainstay of the Blob company since it's inception. It is my heaviest Mech, a Medium long-range support weighing at 55 tons. A Delta enhanced LRM10 and a Large Pulse Laser gives it good (but not exceptional) long ranged fire... originally it was equipped with an ERPPC, which I stripped out for the LPL for better accuracy. Hitting hard is nice... but if you can't hit... it doesn't matter!
It's a bit of a pity that it features only the two weapon hard points.... a very brittle Inner Sphere design based on post Star League Tech, which I will hope to replace with OmniMechs when I get the salvage!
This Chameleon (50 tons, medium) is the closest thing that I have to a front line brawler. I have equipped it as a laser boat with a number of Medium Pulse Lasers and a "carried" Laser Rifle, better accuracy whilst running as fast as possible to close the distance!
Unfortunately, it is a Mech that runs terribly hot... and when it is firing full Alpha bursts, it is prone to overheating and slowing down significantly! It is due for an Double Heat Sink upgrade when I am able to salvage enough of the rare heat sinks... I have the DHS kits for the engine... but not the actual sinks! As soon as that is installed, this will become a much more potent machine!
The Firestarter (35 Tons, light) is my main scout... it was the first to be equipped with a rare Stealth system that was lucky enough to salvage from a battlefield and it is decked out with a Double Heat sink system and loaded up with short range Flamers and a couple of lasers.
It is a crazy fast Mech that is hard to hit, which closes the range and flanks and then starts to cook the enemy from behind! Truly a fearsome machine... there have been many enemy Mechs sucumbing to internal ammo explosions or pilots ejecting out of fear of being cooked alive!
This Jenner (35 tons, light) was the second of my Stealth Scouts until the most recent 2 skull battle destroyed it's Stealth system. Fast and heat efficient like the Firestarter, it is equipped with a more conventional Streak SRM and laser array. The Firestarter disables the enemy... this Jenner just tries to punch through the thin rear armour! One way or another, we will bring the big slow guys down!
Until recently, I hadn't really found a decent niche for this Ostscout (35 tons, Light). It had LRM5 missile array for range and a medium X-pulse laser for shorter engagement... however, it meant that it really didn't excel at either range.
I have now refitted it to be a close in brawler with a Stream SRM4 array and a Medium Pulse laser... and capping it off with a 2 Handed Vibro Sword for physical combat. When this guy gets into hand to hand range, it is a fearsome Mech for it's weight class! Vehicles also take additional damage from physical attacks, so it is great for clearing those little critters away as well!
The Panther (35 tons, Light) is my premier sniper Mech. Originally equipped with an LRM array and a ERPPC, it ran too hot for my taste. It would manage only a single salvo before it was overheating, meaning that sustained fire was impossible! I have re-equipped it with a hefty Autocannon (AC10 Myrmidon) which pumps out a nice salvo of heavy hitting ammo every turn with next to no heat difficulties. I have actually managed to build the targeting systems around this Autocannon, further enhancing the effectiveness of this little sniper!
Unfortunately, it is a very slow Mech in comparison to the rest of the company. So, in contracts where I need to move fast to changing battle conditions, it needs lots of time to reposition.
This Toro (35 tons, light) is a new acquisition from battlefield salvage. I have fitted it out as a MRM missle boat... featuring two arrays of MRM10s with a variety of Acid and Improved ammunition, a single salvo will rip through most rear or side armours in an instant... and the Acid will make them more vulnerable to additional damage later! It also fields a token Medium X-Pulse laser in case it runs out of ammunition...
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