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, Part 4, Part 5.
The new Steiner (Lyran Commonwealth) system of Vindemiatrix has been a decent stomping grounds for the Blobs. More dangerous missions, but a much better selection of salvage... in including some very nice Clan Tech, Assault class Mech shells and OmniMech shells. However, by the end of this tour, the Blobs had managed to convert the Steiner stronghold to Marik (Free Worlds) hands. An unintended side effect of pursuing more Marik contracts at the expense of the Steiner house. Personally, I prefer the ideals of the Lyran Commonwealth over the Free Worlds, but a mercenary needs to place more practical outcomes (salvage and payment) over principles and ideals!
The Blobs are starting to slowly integrate the salvage and shells from the battles, upgrading from a fast reconnaissance and skirmish unit into one that is hard hitting and better armoured. However, it does mean that there is a bit of discrepancy between the two parts of the company, one of the lances is composed of fast and lighter Mechs whilst the other is slower and heavier. This can lead to some separation of the force as the light Mechs close in fast whilst the slower Mechs can't get clear shots.
So, until the migration to the heavier units is complete, some care needs to be taken with tactics to ensure that the lighter Mechs don't stray too far from the covering umbrella of the heavier Mechs.
Clan Tech Mechs are starting to show up with some frequency in the opposition. Never as part of a proper Clan Star or Cluster, but more often as the stolen spoils of a very well equipped Inner Sphere unit. In this stand up and fight battle, the opposition force consisted of a number of stolen Clan Mechs which were also fielding some Clan weaponry onboard. This made for a pretty tough battle, as the enemy Mechs were harder hitting... however, some choice dropping of Infernos and heat-based weaponry managed to shut down some of their Mechs temporarily, allowing the Blobs to pick off the enemy in more manageable numbers.
One of the prized shells was this Heavy Clan Hellbringer. This Mech would be in the heavier class of Mechs being fielded by the Blobs already... but the fact that it was an OmniMech and being able to field quite a wide variety of weapon profiles was just the icing on the cake! Sadly, not quite enough parts from this battle alone to restore a full shell... but only one piece of salvage short!
The Clan Osprey OmniMech was another of the prized spoils from this battle... although it would have been nice to pick up the salvage for this shell, it was better to focus on the Hellbringer shells and a large fusion core to power the Hellbringer instead. No point having lots of salvage, better o have a functioning and field-worthy Mech instead!
It turned out that there was another variant of the Hellbringer that I had already salvaged from a previous battle that was also compatible with this Hellbringer variant. This meant that I could combine the salvage to form a Hellbringer shell. As you can see, there are still quite a few bits missing from the shell, and it would take a fair bit of repair time and C-Bills to bring it to a point where it was able to take part in combat... but, this would be one of the priority repairs and should be ready to take to the field within a few months... C-Bills allowing...
Some of the Assassination missions were also proving to be quite fruitful as well. Often the Assassination targets would be piloting some prized Mech that would be worth salvaging and incorporating into my line-up. Case in point, this insurgent leader who was piloting an Assault Class Sunder.
Unfortunately, he was also supported and guarded by a few lances of Assault and Heavy class Mechs AND Tanks! So, in the end, I had to do a hit and run... take out the leader, and run for the extraction point instead of standing and fighting to collect more salvage and spoils.
As it was, it was a pretty hairy battle... I lost a couple of my vehicles, and a few of Mechs sustained some internal damage... thankfully, no Mechs were downed, and no valuable weapons platforms were destroyed either! If the extraction point had appeared further away, I would have been in a world of pain as I had slow and crippled Mechs that wouldn't have made it. Thankfully, the extraction appeared right near where I took out the insurgent leader, so I was able to crawl to the Dropship under the cover of the Mechs that were able to fight!
A breakdown of the salvage revealed that I was up against some of the heaviest Assault class tanks... which would explain how difficult it was to take them down, and the amount of damage that they were dishing out!
Also, some of the stolen Clan Tech OmniMechs were also present... along with their weapon systems that were chewing up the Blobs.
.... along with the main prize! The Assault Class Sunder, which turned out to be an Clan OmniMech as well! Interestingly enough, as this leader Mech was the focus of the Blobs... it actually put up the least trouble for my company. It went down quickly under focussed fire...
It also turned out to be a specialised Command and Control Mech, with some VERY NICE Control and Communications equipment on board!
The Heavy-class Avatar (70 tons) was the first of the new OmniMechs coming online. As an OmniMech design, it is free to mount any weapons profile without being restricted by specific weapons hardpoints. It ended up replacing the artillery support Mech Heliopolis, which proved to be too slow to be effective in combat.
This Avatar has been outfitted to be a nasty short to medium range combatant. It features a Heavy Gauss Rifle as it's main armament, a scaling up of the already fearsome Gauss Rifle to project a much larger and heavier slug... albeit at a shorter range. A single hit from this is enough to cause anything short of an Assault class Mech a very big headache! Most Medium or Light Mechs will be crippled by this single shot. Needless to say, all the electronics and targeting systems have been optimised to increase the probability of a hit....
Rounding out the rest of the design were a pair of incredibly rare Clan Heavy Improved lasers, the heat headroom was possible due to the very low heat generation of the Gauss technology. No more weaponry was added, as there needed to be large ammunition reservoirs housed in the feet to be able to supply the Heavy Gauss.
An Advanced AMS system would provide an anti-missile umbrella for all nearby lancemates.
Unfortunately, there were a few unremovable components, including a couple of lasers and more disappointingly, the internal structure which could not be upgraded to a lighter Endo Steel composite.
The Heavy-class Hellbringer (65 tons) was brought online much sooner than expected as I sold off the Heliopolis and a couple of the reserve Light Mechs. This brought in more than enough C-Bills to start the renovation and equipping of the newly salvaged OmniMechs.
Part of the problem with the OmniMech design is it's strength in the flexibility of hardware. With no limitations on the platform mounting, it is all too easy to get lost in the huge array of options that are possible... of course, limited only by what you happen to have in the salvage stores!
This OmniMech already came equipped with the much more efficient Clan Double Heat sinks along with extra engine mounted sinks. This meant that I didn't need to deplete my stock of incredibly rare Clan heat sinks. It also meant that it would be best to put that heat sinking efficiency to good use and mount a laser based weapon as the main weapon.
In this case, the Large ER Pulse laser was the main weapon mount in the arm... a hard hitting laser that combined the benefits of the ER and Pulse lines of laser technology in a single HOT package. On the other hand, a Medium variant of the same dual technology was mounted for less extreme ranges. Rounding out the weaponry were two Clan Tech Streak SRM arrays.... guided missile lock-on for ammo conservation and some really nasty short range damage potential!
Finally, the top of the shelf targeting and piloting from the stores... all Clan Tech. This is by far and away the most advanced weapons platform that the Blobs are currently fielding!
The last of the new Mechs to be fielded was this OmniMech variant of the Inner Sphere classic, Centurion (50 tons). In the end, this was fielded as a direct replacement for the Centurion that the Blobs were already fielding. The old Inner Sphere variant was too slow and not very capable in terms of damage.... it was already being considered as the first Mech to be benched.
This Centurion was equipped as a missile support Mech. Two Clan Tech LRM15 arrays were mounted in the shoulders to provide fire-support. Artemis IV was equipped in the Fire Control systems to allow for the use of missiles with active guidance, with a quartet of lighter laser weaponry providing some close in defence capacity.
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