Much to tell, and Much to Write About! Lots of New Fan Ideas!

First off, I reran "The Sack of Misby Flats" at the Casa De Panzerfaust. The Combine still lost, but this time, the VPs were closer, 15-9 and the Tribe lost a fairly intact Warhammer! This will of course, inspire a follow on scenario, say ComStar deciding the Combine should not have such nice toys!

A battle report I wrote shorthand on my new Rocketbook reads as follows:

Turns 1-2: Tribe & Combine closed, Stalker and Exterminator died early. Fighting concentrated around woods.

Turns 3-4: Combine charges woods w/ Heavy lance, knife fight in woods, after Tribe Counter-charged. Combine Warhammer took heavy damage. Combine Dragon died. Tribe Stinger died after he tried to flank the Combine advance. Tribe falls back deeper in woods. Combine turns flank of Tribe, Game tuns into a barfight in the woods. Archer mugs Grasshopper, what is this neighborhood coming to? Jenner dies on Tribe flank.

Turns 5-6: Combine continues charge. Tribe is on defensive. All fights merge around the woods. Combine flanking attempt ends badly, Clint & Panther forced to withdraw. Tribe Firestarter in bad shape. Tribe Marauder is left w/o armor. Combine troops "Surrounded" (in target rich environment).

Turns 7-8: Fight has turned into graceless brawl. Tribe counterattacks, Combine Thunderbolt badly damaged.

Turn 8-9: Combine begins to pull back. Tribe player weighs options, as he only has 4 turns to withdraw to satisfy victory conditions. Tribe takes pot shots at building. Tribe Warhammer very badly damaged, it's mobility impaired. Combine Banshee and T-Bolt go down. Combine Marauder goes down to freak hit from Tribe Warhammer. Building destroyed by Tribe. Tribe Warhammer captured.

Ending VP totals: 15 for Tribe, 9 for Combine, Tribe win but some interesting effects on IS history, And ideas for a follow- on scenario!

The Combine's luck hasn't been great in these two scenarios. To be honest, it's a rough fight for them, as it should be historically, but I did make things tougher on the Tribe, limiting things to 12 turns instead of 15, and forcing them to go after the town, as they did historically. Now that said, they do get points for killing Combine units, and I wonder if that's a bit of a mistake? Something to ponder. All in all, I really do like this scenario. And, with the map I altered a bit, I got units into action Turn 1! This will make for a really exciting game if done right.

And, here are some more pics! 

Hopefully these pictures are crowdpleasers!

I think I will finalize the scenario, and then put it in the bank to be run at future events, say Historicon or Guns of August? After that, I intend to work up some 4th War stuff and see if we can't do something 4th War on the Steiner front? That might be a whole lot of fun. Time to do some research! 

Meanwhile, while I was stooging around the Classic Battletech forums, I found out about this project!

Link to Combat Manual Lite series.

I like what I have seen thus far, and they'd be fun to add some graphics to, but I will let the initial author handle that. I am just glad to see that the series is continuing on in some format. I do find it interesting there is no Davion manual. Does this mean a full Davion manual may eventually see the light of day?

Next, let's discuss the upcoming Commander's Edition of the Rules:

Taken from the CGL Website

It appears for the most part, it's going to be an amalgam of the basic rules, and the compendium that were released separately, with the errata added in. This is a good thing, and it will be nice to have it all in one place. But, there are some other rumors of coming changes to the point value system, as well as the cards themselves. With the MUL being something of a volunteer effort, this is a bit of a interesting development, and makes one go, "hmm". It also makes one ask, are the new AS cards in the boxed set obsolete already?

Speaking of the boxed sets, may I say..WORTH THE WAIT!

 

Both are taken from the CGL Website

The components are high quality (I didn't have an issue with any of the plastic miniatures!), the cards beautiful, and the rules well laid out and easy to read. I like the new pilot cards, and already, someone's come up with a template to make your own! And someone else is doing cards for the 'Ol Black Widow and friends herself!

Speaking of neat player aids out there, I found two more I really like:

The first is some Gear cards! All the relevant rules at your fingertips, and graphically pleasing too! I intend to make use of these.

An example of one of the Gear Cards, taken from the CBT forums.

Yep, lots of new stuff out there to make use of for our heavy metal mayhem! And oh, by the way. Battletech is 35 this year! It's nice to see one of our favorite games still going strong!