This is the AAR following the exploits of the Mech Mercanary company, Bengy's Blobs in RogueTech (the complete overhaul mod of BattleTech). Earlier AARs can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
The Blobs are starting to be better known in the small part of the Inner Sphere where they are operational. They have camped out in a relatively low threat planet whilst building up from a single Light Mech lance to their current two Medium/Heavy lances and a small motor pool. The costs have been quite high, lots of C-Bills and salvage are required to get these heavier Mechs up and running!
The Blobs have had a steady trickle of the Heavy and Assault class Mechs dropping as salvage, however it hasn't been enough to date to form up a proper skeleton to start equipping for battle. Most of the problem has that the company hasn't really encountered too many Assault Mechs on the battlefield, which is a good thing... but it means that the Assault-class Mechs that are taken down tend to be of vastly different and incompatible varieties.
However, quite a few of the more advanced Stealth systems have been picked up. Even with the heavier Mech classes being fielded by the Blobs, there is nothing wrong with dropping some armour/weapons in favour of a Stealth system which hopefully keeps some of the incoming fire at bay. That said, a skilled enemy Mechwarrior or some of the more precise weaponry will pretty much ignore that stealthiness... and then you will be wishing for more armour or firepower!
I now have two Mechs armed with some LRM indirect fire batteries. In addition to their regular missiles, one has a bin of Thumper minelaying missiles whilst the other has a bin of Hydra inferno missiles. This allows me to lead into an encounter with minefields to trap and destabilise the enemy formation and follow up with the Hydras to make them fight in intense heat that degrades their accuracy and ability to sustain the battle with large amounts of firepower.
Tag acquisition battles were new foray for the Blobs in these recent years. These missions task you with laying down artillery spotting beacons onto a designated target whilst fending off the light defence. There is a C-Bill bonus for doing it quick time...
... however, at the end, after the artillery barrage wipe out the target, you have a few short turns to make haste to your extraction point before a kill-team consisting of four Assault-class Mechs comes to spread you all over the remains of your target.
Now, I've mentioned before that a single Assault-class Mech is a bit of a handful for the Blobs. However, with a bit of trickery and skill... it is manageable. Four of them... is not likely to end well!
I had a slow Mech that was a touch slow getting to the extraction point... so the rest of the company had to wait in the open whilst they got there. The enemy kill team got a couple of clear shots at my Mechs with their incredibly powerful weapons. No serious damage was sustained.. but it stung like nothing else! A couple more shots like that and I would have been dragging empty Mech shells away from the battlefield!
Still... escaping without taking on the kill-team was still quite profitable in terms of salvage. A good haul of Clan Tech weaponry and equipment that is light-years ahead of anything that is available in the Inner Sphere. These rare components are impossible to purchase and they only trickle back to the Inner Sphere via Mechwarriors who have survived a lethal contact with the Clans.
A battle against ComStar found the Blobs having their own tactics used against them. Enemy vehicles started laying down minefields at the same time that I started laying them back... and then we both started dropping infernos on each other. This completely bogged down the Mechs of the Blobs and at least two of the company got completely stuck in the minefields with damaged and destroyed leg actuators. It turned into a long range battle of attrition as the no-mans land in between was too choked with mines to allow for the flankers and skirmishers to easily cross.
A second similar style of battle against the local Pirate faction fared much better. The Myrmidon tank in my Motor pool acted as a mine clearance vehicle by targeting the ground with it's PPC. The EMP field from the PPC would deactivate the minefields leaving it clear for the brawlers to cross slowly under fire. Meanwhile, the skirmishers and flankers could take the scenic route... or jump!
Meanwhile, Stealth systems were dropping much faster than I had Mechs to mount them on... leading me to choose high powered Fusion engine cores to sell for large amounts of C-Bills. C-Bills that I desperately needed to restore Mech shells to fighting capacity.
So, with another critical enemy installation crumbling under artillery fire, the Blobs made the fateful decision to try and take down the Assault kill-team that was expected to land immediately afterwards. Right on cue, the four Assault class Mechs were hot-dropped into our vicinity...
.. and the full force of Bengy's Blobs, 8 Light-Medium Mechs and three vehicles, was brought to bear against the enemy lance. Sadly, it was like a dog chasing a car... and nipping away at it. The Blobs did manage to drop minefields and infernos around the kill-team, and by keeping things moving around the powerful leviathans, the Blob were mostly able to avoid being hit. However, the occasional hit did land... and it would floor the poor Mech that did get hit.
Eventually, the kill team was dispatched. The Blobs picked up a nice haul of Assault class Mech salvage... but unfortunately not enough for a full shell reassembly. Still, there would be a good haul to hopefully be completed the next time we encountered Assault Mechs!
So, the damage to the Blobs. Not quite so much in C-Bills... at least for the armour repair! The component and internal damage repair would total much much more! More critically, it made for nearly a whole month of repair time. A whole month would mean that there would be no salvage and C-Bills from contracts to help cover costs! Thankfully, the Blobs had a little buffer built up for the purpose of refitting Mech shells... sadly, that would have to go towards expenses to avoid bankruptcy!
Some of the Mechs that took hits were not even worth repairing. The costs of repair far outweighed the original costs of the Mechs. Better to scrap and start trying to bring some of the newer shells online.
Of course, when you survive such a terrible experience that nearly guts your company... you tempt fate again! This time, there was a much better result... with only one Mech that was crippled beyond repair after the battle.
More critically, there were some highly advanced Stealth systems that were available as part of the salvage in addition to the Assault-class shells! Time to go dark!
The Griffin (55 tons) has been the mainstay of the Blob company since inception. It has now been upgraded with Clan Tech and features the LRM20, with Thunder missiles that allow for the rapid ranged deployment of minefields on top of enemy formations. One of the few Mechs in the company that isn't fielding a Stealth system. At the moment, it is hard to figure out how to rejig the weapons/armour loadout to accommodate the added weight from the removal of the Ferro-Fibrous armour.
The Wolverine (55 tons) was second of the heavier Mechs to join the company ranks. It is most notable for featuring the Clan Tech Gauss Assault Rifle, a modded version of the dreaded Gauss Rifle to turn a single slug into a rain of high speed shards. Unfortunately, the fact that it is Clan Tech also means that if it is damaged or destroyed... there is no replacement! That would require an overhaul of the loadout if that happened... likely resulting in a severe downgrade in offensive capacity.
It is also fielding a Clan Tech LRM20, equipped with Hydra missiles. It is the flaming companion to the Thunder missiles fielded by the Griffin. Minefields and raining fire! Lethal combination at long-range.
The Lineholder (55 tons) is the close in slugger of the company. It is equipped with the devastating AC20 Kali Yama, a weapon that will completely total most Light and Medium Mechs, even giving Assault Mechs a second thought. The only catch is that it prone to jamming and has an incredibly short effective range. So, the Lineholder is equipped with a Stealth system to allow it to get in nice and close... what is more scary than a sudden AC20 slug appearing out of nowhere?
The Hunchback (50 tons) is a Mech that is more commonly associated with the AC20 that the Linebacker is packing. However, this variant is an experimental version that features an experimental Gauss Prototype. The entire Mech chassis is built around this fearsome long range weapon, giving the pilot an additional bonus to targeting with Gauss Rifles.
After a kill-team wiped out my missile boat Toro, the Dervish (55 tons) was pressed into service as the company's principal direct fire missile boat. It packs much more MRM missile bays than the lighter Toro that it replaced... at the cost of agility and jump ability.
The Chameleon (50 tones) is another long-term mainstay of the Blobs. Configured as a laser boat, it is now the fastest Mech in the company. A complete salvo of laser fire from this Mech will do some serious damage, but a second blast will overheat the Mech completely. So, it is definitely best suited for situations where it can dash in and kill with a single full salvo before escaping. Sustained combat is not really a good option for this BattleMech.
Another long-term mainstay of the company, the Firestarter (35 tons) is now the lightest Mech that he Blobs field as a principal combatant. It has now been equipped fully as a Flamer based build with the only objective being to close in fast through sprinting and jumping before attempting to shut down the enemy with overheating.
Finally, the Centurion (50 tons) is a bit of a loose end. It doesn't really specialise at much with a range of weaponry that spans different range brackets. It features a shotgun-like LBX2 which has long range and can double as an anti-aircraft battery. It is highly likely that this will be the first Mech to be replaced if an Assault-class shell is revived from salvage.
An often overlooked part of a Merc company is it's motor pool. Vehicles are less versatile and a bit squishier than their Mech counterparts... but they can perform some highly valuable specialised roles.
The Myrmidon was the first vehicle in my Motor Pool. It's a Medium weight tank that has some staying power with a decent amount of armour. However, it is generally used for mine clearance, with the equipped PPC being better suited to that role, allowing the Mechs to come in hard on the enemy positions without being bogged down by leg damage.
The AWACS is the perfect VTOL for spotting for the fire support Mechs, and draws away a good deal of fire away from the front-liners as well. Constantly on the move and equipped with a stealth system, it is a bastard to hit! Laser Tagging paints enemies for easy aiming from the big guys and there is also the ability to call in off-map artillery for that little bit of extra punch!
Finally, the Cloud Buster is an Anti-Aircraft tank equipped with dual AC-10s. VTOLs are a complete nuisance on the battle field, they are fragile and fast and hard to hit... and sometimes, they pack a single shot hard-hitting weapon that can make life very unhappy for the Mechs. So, like glass cannons. The Cloud Buster is the hammer that counters that particular threat with Flak ammo making for easy critical hits on the little flies!
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