Outpost Intercepted Transmission It is believed that the unknown bandit group used the designations of "Blackbeard" for their heavy 'Mechs, "Bluebeard" for their medium 'Mechs, and "Crow's Nest" for their light 'Mechs. Blackbeard One, this is Crow's Nest Leader. Receiving strange blips on all sensors. Apparent LAMs, coming this way. Over. Blackbeard One to Crow's Nest, what is the range and approximate time of arrival of incoming LAMs? Over Crow's Nest Leader to Blackbeard One, Range: 10 kilometers. Seem to be Phoenix Hawks. Over. Blackbeard One to Crow's Nest, what is estimated time of arrival and number of harrassing forces? Over Crow's Nest Leader to All Units, harrassing forces ar 4 LAMs; approximate time of arrival 3 minutes. Shouldn't be much of a problem with the forces at hand. - - Elapsed Time - -- 2 minutes, 30 seconds -- Crow's Nest Leader to All Units, revise previous assumption. They aren't Phoenix Hawks. They are a sort of LAM I've never seen before. Could use assistance here as quickly as possible. Have lost Crow's Nest Two and Three to heavy laser fire. (Ragged breathing into mike) Over. Blackbeard One to Bluebeard Unit, move up to assist Crow's Nest. Prepare for LongRange Missile fire. Over. Bluebeard Leader to Blackbeard One, affirmative. Over. - Crow's Nest Leader to All Units, the new LAM appears to be built on a Phoenix Hawk frame, but has a full complement of laser weapons. And they seem not to know the meaning of the word "fear". Am last one left of unit.. (Transmission from Crow's Nest Leader breaks off. Sounds of laser fire.) Bluebeard Leader to Blackbeard One, Have set up to receive approaching LAMs with appropriate missile fire. (Sounds in background of missiles being launched). Have launched full complement of missiles; the swarm seems to be working well. They seem to have retreated for a short time. Have eliminated one of the units. Over. Blackbeard One to Bluebeard Lance, good work! Continue your fire until the other three units are destroyed and we should have an easy time at the base. Blackbeard Three, take up a rearguard positi no and alert us of any forces that may be coming. Over. Bluebeard Four to remaining units, LAMs apparently gone out of visual range. Look alive! Blackbeard Three to All Units, Aerospace fighters coming down! OH MY G.. (Sounds of several explosions. Transmission ends.) "The Munins were used with great effectiveness on the border world of Outpost where a group of unknown Periphery bandits attacked a Tyr base in 3033. A company of Medium and Heavy 'Mechs landed about sixty kilometers from the Tyr's base of operations. Four Munin LAMs were sent out to engage the bandits. The LAM lance met the attackers forty kilometers outside the base and harrassed the company for the next thirty-five kilometers. Of the four L- AMs, only one made it back in a shape that could be considered operable. The Bandits lost seven of their 'Mechs and retreated toward their DropShip. They never made it. The remaining Munin LAM kept the Tyr forces informed of the bandits' location and located their DropShip, so the Tyr captured that as well. --Mechwarrior Dana Lorenson Dana's Munin LAM, known as the Spiral, was the only LAM survivor from the raid on outpost. As both aerospace pilot and mechwarrior, she is one of the best in the Tyr, now the Kungsarmee. Mechwarrior Lorenson is now teaching new LAM pilots how to use their machines to maximum effect." --Thorkinsson's Unusual BattleMechs, Saso University Press, 3034 edition Situation: An unknown bandit group landed on the border world of Outpost to attack a Tyr secret base. They landed 60 kilometers away from the base, and began a forced march towards the base. The Tyr sent Out a lance of their Munin LAMs to harrass these bandits. Game Set-up: Set up two BattleTech boards end to end lengthwise. Consider the board to be a "floating board" in which after the 'Mechs leave the edge of the map, place another board to match up with the board exited, and continue with the battle. All terrain is desert-like, which means rough terrain. Since the entire battle took place at night, there is a -2 to all heat levels, because of the coolness of the night desert. These color gradations represent differing types of rough terrain; If desired, consider each change as one level down to simulate difficulties such as adobe mud (something like an oil slick). Attacker Set-up: The Recon Lance sets up first on the first board. The bandits continue heading south until their victory conditions are met. After the third turn, roll 1 D6: on a roll of 5 or 6, one of the'Mechs from the Medium or Heavy Lances will appear on the far end of the board. Heavy Lance: Shadow Hawk: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 2 Phoenix Hawk: Piloting: 4, Gunnery: 4 Panther: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 2 Griffin: Piloting: 5, Gunnery: 3 Medium Lance Catapult: Piloting: 2, Gunnery: 3 Trebuchet: Piloting: 4, Gunnery: 5 Spider: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 3 Dervish: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 3 Recon Lance Stinger: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 2 Javelin: Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 5 Cicada: Piloting: 4, Gunnery: 4 Locust: Piloting: 4, Gunnery: 3 Defender Set-up: The Munin LAMs are coming from the southern end of the board. They must continue fighting until one oranotherof thevictory conditions are met. Lt Haakon Halverson, Munin LAM Piloting: 2, Gunnery: 2 MechWarrior Dana Lorenson, Munin LAM Piloting: 2, Gunnery: 3 MechWarrior Soral Lundgren, Munin LAM Piloting: 3, Gunnery: 3 MechWarrior Daniel Akramov, Munin LAM Piloting: 3, Gunnery 2 Victory Conditions: The Attackers win if they eliminate all of the Defenders. The Defenders win if they are able to destroy or disable 7 of the bandit Mechs; this forces the bandits to retreat back to their DropShip. Back to BattleTechnology 10 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com