Mission #8: Protect the conv… No, wait! Get back here!
Next mission, this mission, was supposed to be a story one but once I transferred to the correct system, my monthly payments were due, stripping 270k credits from my account. It put me back into my worry zone.
Luckily there was a second mission on the contracts BBS that offered almost half that (if I went with the 2 salvage choices, which I did). I was not sure it would still be there after the story mission so I gave in to my urge to stay above 1M credits as a safety zone of my own imposition.
This mission is a protect the convoy type and I learnt a couple of key knowledge points.
Lance is the same composition as last time. I am choosing one scout and three mediums, bringing the oompf. During the transit to the system, I had my Shadow Hawk outfitted as more of a longer range strike platform. I need to look into outfitting options because I am not sure I am doing it right.
Out of the landing craft and a view down into the convoy mustering area. At the time I thought that I would run into a convoy that needed immediate protection from an advancing blocking force. With that in mind I am pushing my scout out to the right along the ridge looking for early sensor or visual contacts. He is going to blue-move - XCOM reference to moving and being able to shoot after moving, in this case moving and bracing because he is exposed on the ridge line. The rest of the force is going to move down into the valley anticipating immediate contact.
A couple of turns in draws the first sensor contact beyond the mustering point. My scout can, luckily, make it down the ridge on the far side and doesn’t have to loop back and follow my main force.
As I move up, two more contacts resolve themselves as the intial contact destroys a small building. I am confused. At this point I was expecting to run into a convoy in dire straights but instead I can’t find a convoy at the waypoint I expected them at. But, I do have targets and I do love destroying smaller forces than me.
Trying to maximize the damage I can do I take a look at the options that I have with the units that can move/fire in this sub phase. Unfortunately I can not discern which choices have the best percentages. I choose to utilize my multi-target capable pilot again first and let the rest perform cleanup.
Nothing is destroyed this round but next round the damage starts taking its toll on them. A few defensive rolls go my way, keeping my lance in top health.
Get some early melee in on the Jenner and satisfyingly take it out.
My scout gets the last vehicle kill, stomping it into destruction. Unfortunately he went through a friendly building to get there. I’m hoping that the contractee doesn’t notice while also hoping that the building are not housing the convoy (which might be why the first vehicle I encountered destroyed that early building by direct fire).
Bring on the convoy!
No. That’s not… you don’t wanna… get… too… you know what? I’m just gonna try to run and catch up to you.
I mean you have to stop at some point right? I have to send my scout as fast as he can go, to the head of the column and hope I get sensor contacts.
Not getting contacts but if they are sitting in ambush or something, that convoy is going to get whipped and I won’t be able to do anything about it.
I can not get ahead of them. I am sure I saw a message that enemy reinforcements are on the way but either that’s not true, I can’t see them or they are in no position to interfere with this convoy and the idiot that is in the lead vehicle and, I assume, in charge.
As they start hitting the rally point, the enemy makes it’s appearance. I guess luck is on my side because if they had been a turn or to early I would not have been able to affect a defense.
I move my scout up fast. I have no idea how much damage the enemy vehicle can do to one of the convoy vehicles and they all need to make it home alive. My plan is to my the scout up with the intent of pushing something in front of enemy that they might want to shoot first. I don’t see a reason to change that plan because I also do not know if there are any long range weapons that the enemy might bring to bear.
Now I have a choice to make. I can try sprinting Glitch in the Shadow Hawk up a similar blocking position or I can blue-move her and burn Vigilance which will let her move early next turn, with the scout, ahead of the known enemies. I think that this will give me good options at the start of the next round.
All the other mechs do their best to get into position moving as fast as they can. There is no good position along the road and the game doesn’t do opportunity fire.
Next turn is looking good. I start to survey my options with the scout first. I am not sure that I can move up and melee the vehicle if I only have a sensor contact at the start. It looks like I can?
I take a look at what options I have with Glitch and she can get into a position that can fire on that lead vehicle. That gives me the follow-up option to attempt a melee with the scout or, at minumim, get it in place for next turn.
Lets see how the shot goes…
Yes! I figure it was a good plan to move the scout up anyway so I do that. Moving up I reveal an enemy mech. Since Dekker moved instead of sprinted, I can try taking advantage of a sensor lock so that one of my two very slow mechs with LRMs can take a shot. It’s not a high probability shot.
Down to my last mech move of the turn and I can’t figure a way to get him into the fight. I take a look at the jump range, and there is a spot in the water to the left where he can shoot from … if he can jump and shoot in the same turn. I don’t know if that is a thing or of the jump will act as a sprint. I figure I am in a decent position to try it and the enemy mech has LRMs, so if I can make his day very interesting for him, he might make different decisions.
This is the first time that I have jump my mech in anger.
And it works! I have some decent shot percentages with the autocannons. I had hoped I could do a full alpha strike (all weapons) on him but I will take what I can get.
Odd thing. You will notice in the previous screen shot that the task list says: “2/4 unit(s) for 1 Round(s)”. There are 2 convoy units in the rally hex. When I read that I assumed that I needed 4/4 units in the zone for 1 full round (ie: a full round after the fourth unit gets in the ralley zone). Seems straight forward right? No. As soon as the fourth unit entered the zone and the turn ended, they lifted off in their cargo ship. Seems a little cheap that they could be moved into the zone and achieve the time period on the same turn (or part of a turn as the case is).
Moral: Don’t play board/table games with me because I would have had them sit there for a full turn after they arrived.
Anyhoo…
Top of the next turn and Dekker in the scout can … Oh my! He can jump too! Does this mean he can rain death from above or is that an specific skill that need training?
One way to find out!
Yaessssss! Really wish I had zoomed in on this one!
Two enemy vehicles left! Against 4 well positioned friendly forces. It’s over before you ca…
Good payout gets me over half of the monthly financial losses (I mean costs) back.
No significant damage though I am curious how much of a repair build that last jump is going to cost.
I opt for mech salvage. Not sure if I should have gone for one of the autocannons or LRM launchers though.
Fin.