The last few years of game time have been a pretty profitable time for Bengy's Blobs. With a full drop quota of 8 Mechs and 2 vehicles, our little mercenary company has been parked on a middling difficulty (1 and half stars) planet near the Kurita and Lyran Commonwealth border near Solaris. The planet has some old Star League installations and ComStar also makes a showing here, so there is the occasional piece of advanced Tech that is far beyond the manufacturing capabilities of the Inner Sphere Houses. However, it is very rare for a Clan strike force to venture this far into Inner Sphere territory, so the likelihood of salvaged highly advanced Clan Tech is very low.
That said, sometimes other merc or House companies have already salvaged some Clan Tech... which I can then relive them of!
Over the coming years, Bengy's Blobs should have the financial depth and salvage pieces to slowly upgrade from a a light Hit-and-Run style of survival to a slightly heavier average drop weight. This means that heavier and more potent Mechs will start to see service in the Blob lineup, if I can keep scrounging the CBills to repair and refit the salvaged Mechs from the battlefield.
The most valuable salvage for a Light Mech company are the Void and Chameleon type armours. This introduces a nice ECM bonus and makes the Mechs that mount these armours incredibly difficult to detect and hit. Of course, these advantages can be disabled by active detections or sensors... so running fast and flitting in and out of cover is also a huge part of staying alive! However, getting the enemy to give them up is quite difficult... they are hard to hit! Plus, the Mechs that tend to field them are rare and tend to be fragile... so smashing them with PPCs tends to leave very little except for slagged metal.
If these components drop, they are top of the list for salvage claims... in fact, I will even dispute and challenge any Great House contract reinterpretation if they try to lay claim to them!
Next up on the Salvage shopping lists are always additional survival insurance in the form of AMS (Anti-Missile Systems) systems. I have a preference for the higher tech Laser based ones that don't require ammo, but output more heat... but beggars can't be choosers, I will even take externally mounted bolt-on systems! Anything to mitigate incoming damage!
Interestingly enough, in this particular salvage haul was a Clan Tech HA (Hyper Assault) Gauss Rifle. Gauss Rifles are especially feared as they fire a hard hitting slug of metal quite accurately over a long distance... trust me, when you hear one fire from the enemy lines, it is a moment of terror! A single hit from these weapons will slag one of my Light Mechs quite easily... if they could hit me.
The Hyper Assault modification is a new Clan innovation, where instead of firing a single heavy slug... the magnetic rail fires 20 smaller slugs! Ouch! So, more like a long range shotgun with more accuracy! This is going to be fun to mount on the appropriate Mech!
This was the Assassination mission where I was able to scrounge the Chameleon Armour. Mechs equipped with this armour are next to impossible to hit... they move fast, and you are severely disadvantaged as your targeting sensors can't easily track them. However, if you set them on fire (well, the whole forest on fire...).. they overheat and SHUTDOWN! Then they are sitting ducks...
Targeting the legs to cause as little damage as possible whilst disabling the valuable Mech is the way to go... either that or roasting the Mechwarrior with flamers.
This base defence mission was a particularly hairy mission. Tasked with defending a research base, the Blobs quickly dispatched the initial vanguard forces and restored the base defences. However, a second wave dropped... consisting of two lances, each with a single Assault class Mech attacking from two seperate directions!
Eeep... the safe bet would be to sit it out and run the defence timer down and hope that they didn't destroy the base before then. However, the lure of two Assault class Mechs as salvage was just too much... after all, the rest of the attacking lances were only light Mechs and tanks. However, it meant that I would have to split my forces if I was going to be greedy and aim to take both the big ones down...
One went down quite easily, swarmed by my elite Firestarter and Light Skirmisher Mechs.... these guys were already Void and Chameleon enhanced, so they got in close and danced around the hulk and roasted the pilot.
The other side turned into a slugging battle with my slightly heavier Mechs and snipers... it was much less elegant and I did take quite a bit of damage that needed to be repaired from the fees earnt. However, the base defences ended up contributing the crippling blows... saving me from have exploding Mechs.
So, the Blobs now have 4 Medium-Heavy class Mechs that are ready to have engines fitted and then properly equipped for battle. At the moment, the limiting factor is C-Bills. To install the Fusion engine takes roughly 1-2 months of income (not profit, income....) and then to repair and outfit takes another few months. Sure, I could probably cut corners with the outfitting, but it would likely cost more if they blew up in battle....
So, if things go well on the profit front... I should have a new Mech online and ready to fight every six months or so. Thus, the slow transition away from a Light-centric company to a more of a Medium-Heavy force begins. I'm looking forward to fielding more firepower and armour... this will allow me to take on more difficult contracts, whilst having some reserve Light Mechs in case of disaster.
This Lineholder (55 tons) is a nice Skirmisher Mech... it appears that it would me nicely outfitted with missile racks and lasers that would suit a close in slugging match. If you get close enough to unleash a full missile salvo, you can really do some serious damage. It is a pretty average Mech otherwise... cheap to run and repair.
The Wolverine (55 tons) is one of the most common Mechs in the Inner Sphere, and it plays a similar role to the Lineholder. However, the main difference is that it packs an Autocannon as it's main armament... but is otherwise very limited in terms of weapon hardpoints. The main feature of this Mech is the higher speed and jump capability which makes it a nice Ambusher.
The Centurion (50 tons) is also another incredibly common Inner Sphere Mech. This variant is heavily focussed upon Autocannons and Missiles with no Laser hardpoints. Not sure that this would be my first choice to bring online... I will hold it in reserve, in case I don't salvage anything better.
The Hunchback (50 tons) is feared throughout the galaxy... a distinctive shape, it is basically a Mech built solely to carry a single HARD HITTING weapon, the AC20. A hit from this weapon is enough to make Assault class Mechs stumble, let alone anything smaller. So, these guys are always the first targets to be prioritised before they get into firing range... thankfully they are slow!
However, this one is a very very strange variant... it fields an experimental Gauss Rifle and has it's sensors and targeting optimised for that weapon. This could be a very interesting prize Mech to field!
It was a tough choice as to whether o field the Hunchback or the Wolverine first.. in either case, I wanted to showcase the Hyper Assault Gauss Gun... and the Hunchback seemed to have it's own weapon still repairable. So, it was the Wolverine that was pushed out the repair bay first.
Configured as a long-range fire support Mech, it features the absolute best of my component wardrobe. Main weapons being the Clan Tech Hyper Assault Gauss Rifle and another Clan Tech LRM20 with an assortment of specialised munitions. This is more than enough to cause problems for an OpFor at extreme range, providing cover whilst Skirmishers close in. There is also an advanced X-pulse laser for the case of running out of ammunition, and a Laser AMS for survivability.
Clan Tech is everywhere on this Mech... basically exhausting my inventory of advanced weapons and components. Ferro Armour, Endo-Steel internals, Double Heat Sinks and Clan XL Engines... No expense was spared to get this machine up to speed. It took a little over half a year to slowly piece it together bit by bit from the little profits that existed after monthly running costs.
Pride... and hopefully, power!
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