The contract: eliminate a lance of enemy mechs trying to secure a beachhead on the local planet. My mercenary lance advances north towards a hill and makes sensor contact with the primary targets. We engage one of the enemies, a Wolverine (a medium mech suited for close range combat). His buddies are about a turn away still putzing around on top of the hill. Then, a light scout mech comes at us from the west. We take a turn to blow it away completely (some laser and autocannon fire to the center torso puts it out of action for good), but then its buddies show up and use long range missiles (LRMs) to soften us up before closing in to start using their heavy weapons. At this point, I choose to press on up the hill, hoping to wipe out the original targets before their reinforcements close in. We take out the Wolverine, and engage the other three - a Cicada, another Wolverine and a Manticore tank. We use our jump jets to maneuver ourselves up the hill, keeping out of line of sight of the reinforcements while pounding the primary targets. Eventually, we take them down, but our mechs are all shot to hell. The commander's cockpit is a sauna as his weapons have generated an enormous amount of heat, the guy in the Vindicator is about to pass out from injuries sustained during the fight (taking a laser to the dome isn't very healthy), while the Spider left its right arm and most of it right torso section about three hundred meters back at the base of the hill after taking a couple of good PPC shots. At this point, I have a choice: do I engage the reinforcements, or do I withdraw? I choose to call in the dropship and hightail it out of there. Sure, I could stick around, but then I'd start losing mechs and limbs (and probably mechwarriors too). At least this way, we get partial payment for partial contract completion, our withdrawal is ruled as "good-faith", and our mechs only take a couple of days to fix up (except for the Spider).
The contract: eliminate a lance of enemy mechs trying to secure a beachhead on the local planet. My mercenary lance advances north towards a hill and makes sensor contact with the primary targets. We engage one of the enemies, a Wolverine (a medium mech suited for close range combat). His buddies are about a turn away still putzing around on top of the hill. Then, a light scout mech comes at us from the west. We take a turn to blow it away completely (some laser and autocannon fire to the center torso puts it out of action for good), but then its buddies show up and use long range missiles (LRMs) to soften us up before closing in to start using their heavy weapons. At this point, I choose to press on up the hill, hoping to wipe out the original targets before their reinforcements close in. We take out the Wolverine, and engage the other three - a Cicada, another Wolverine and a Manticore tank. We use our jump jets to maneuver ourselves up the hill, keeping out of line of sight of the reinforcements while pounding the primary targets. Eventually, we take them down, but our mechs are all shot to hell. The commander's cockpit is a sauna as his weapons have generated an enormous amount of heat, the guy in the Vindicator is about to pass out from injuries sustained during the fight (taking a laser to the dome isn't very healthy), while the Spider left its right arm and most of it right torso section about three hundred meters back at the base of the hill after taking a couple of good PPC shots. At this point, I have a choice: do I engage the reinforcements, or do I withdraw? I choose to call in the dropship and hightail it out of there. Sure, I could stick around, but then I'd start losing mechs and limbs (and probably mechwarriors too). At least this way, we get partial payment for partial contract completion, our withdrawal is ruled as "good-faith", and our mechs only take a couple of days to fix up (except for the Spider).
