Bossing Around Mad Cats for Fun and Profit: Let's Play MechCommander 2!

[Timberwolf]

Audience participation is good.

I normally bring along the Shootist to that mission. Horses for courses though as it removes the option for the second Bushwacker (replaced with a Razorback as you don't pick up anything in the 40 ton range until later). It is nice being able to pack 4 PPCs and a shedload of other weapons onto a mech.

[Artanis]

==STEINER CONTRACT, MISSION 4==


==MISSION BRIEFING==

Spoiler

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TYPE: Search and Destroy

LOCATION: Little Yangze River - Liao/Steiner Border





TEAM:
--FLASH, Shootist
--DAGGER, Starslayer
--LONGSHOT, Hunchback
--PALERIDER, Razorback

==MISSION LOG==

Spoiler

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Things were starting to get tense on Carver V. More bandits had been spotted, and not a dinky little convoy this time, either. This was a big supply train with a good amount of firepower behind it. We, of course, had the job of taking it out, but there was one teensy, tiny problem: they were dangerously close to Liao territory. The convoy's last known location, in fact, was within view of the river that marked the border between Steiner and Liao. If the bandits were working with Liao - and it looked more and more like they did - this mission could get real interesting real quick.

And by "interesting", I mean "bloody."

Anticipating a possible fight against Liao regulars, I managed to pry a 70-ton Shootist away from Steiner for Cash to cram Large Pulse Lasers into. For that matter, he was also busy sticking pulse laser weapons on everything we had, with the only exception being the already-maxed-out little Razorback.

Even with an impending bloodbath looming over us, I had to look at the long term success of the company. As such, I put Flash, my worst shot, in the Shootist, while putting Longshot, my worst driver (but best shot) in the jump-capable Hunchback. Nothing helps a pilot learn not to fall over like having to jump around a lot. Palerider stayed with his Razorback, of course. That only left 50 tons of drop capacity, so Dagger was in a Starslayer. It was the first time since arriving on Carver V that the good ol' Bushwackers had been left behind.


The trip to the convoy was largely unremarkable. A force of tanks and a Fire Ant quickly fell before so much firepower, and it wasn't long before we had reached a ridge overlooking what had to be the convoy in question. That's when Palerider gave us the bad news:



Not only was the bandit camp right on the walls of a Liao outpost, but seven vehicles and two mechs were in the nearest one-half of it. If there were LRM carriers and Starslayers among those pings, we could be in for a hell of a fight...and even if we weren't, we were liable to piss off Liao and have a Great House on us.

Regardless of the situation, we were here for a reason, and I gave the order to charge. Luckily, the nearest vehicle was a fuel truck, and the fight started with a bang.



Just as luckily, the vehicles all turned out to be unarmed cargo-haulers, and the mechs were Fire Ants. As feared though, the initial resistance wasn't all the bandits had in store, and the team's advance ground to a halt in the face of combat vehicles and Urbanmechs while the cargo trucks fled straight for the Liao outpost.





When the base was clear, Liao called us up and said that they didn't see any more bandits and that our mission was complete. Palerider then told me that not only had three bandit trucks escaped to the Liao outpost, but that a Sha Yu bearing Liao colors had crossed the river and was inbound. Even as the Sha Yu opened fire, Renard gave the order to attack.

(Note: That's Renard in the upper-right)



Of course, you realize, this means war.

I made a point of calling in the salvage plane to fix up the Sha Yu before attacking Liao territory. It was shredded, half its limbs were blown off, and its only remaining weapon was a Medium Autocannon, but by God, I wanted that thing to shove in Liao's face.

When the last bandit truck had been destroyed, Renard called again. He sounded...I guess "unhinged" would be a good word for it as he told us that Liao must pay, and we'd be extracting payment. I was not pleased with this until he told me exactly what payment he had in mind: a weapons facility to the northwest of the Liao border fort, and a supply base along the coast.

Obviously, I expected a little supply base to have less resistance. I figured I'd take it out, use the RPs there to repair and maybe salvage something that could be used in the attack on the weapons facility, and then hit the main target. I found out the hard way that Liao wasn't screwing around, even with its RP warehouses.



I ran into Anubises. They're 30-tonners, but they weren't like the Fire Ants and Urbanmechs I'd been up against thus far. No, these were solid (for their size) combat mechs, they had credible stock loadouts, and were faster than anything on Carver V. Even Ullers can't keep up with these things. The south attack netted me the RPs I wanted, but most of those went to repairs and there was little to salvage. I was back to square one.

All that was left was the weapons facility. Liao may not be as good as Steiner or Davion when going toe-to-toe, but they sure had the high ground with this place.



The turrets were trivial and would do nothing for either side...



...as I stormed up the hill. More Anubises, more Sha Yus, and more of those damned LRM carriers awaited me.



The facility held Gauss weapons. Good weapons, but not really my thing.



With Diaz telling me that reinforcements were inbound, it was time to leave. Meat's new Sha Yu came in handy as its speed let me call the salvage plane that much more quickly, and the team reached the extraction point on a hill to the west just in time to avoid another real fight.

We had won, we were 60 grand wealthier, and we had a new batch of weapons for Cash to play with that may help in future action on behalf of our employer. Best of all though, we had probably just started a war. After all, for mercenaries, war is a business...and business was about to become a whole lot better here on Carver V.

==MISSION COMPLETE==

[Timberwolf]

Good result that. IIRC aside from the S Cat, there's no other mech in the 40 ton range so the Sha Yu definately fills a hole in the grand scheme of things.

Plus I believe it has a better sensor than the Razorback.

[Raroy]

Viewer participation is always good. What I want is a pilot who specializes in small arms to pilot a fire ant all the way through the whole game. I assume this is reasonable, of course.

[BooNL]

Viewer participation is, as mentioned, good. If we're making requests here, I request adding a Raven to the standard roster as soon as they come available. Man, I love those little mechs.

[Artanis]

As an experiment, I played this mission as part of a fresh run-through. It went so much better than trying to use the old stuff that I've decided to go ahead and just do the whole run-through again. That means that there's now room for some audience participation, and that hopefully the quality will increase a bit. Since the first bit of audience participation starts after this mission, I'll discuss it a bit more at the bottom of the post.


==STEINER CONTRACT, MISSION 5==


==MISSION BRIEFING==

Spoiler

Show

TYPE: Rescue

LOCATION: Darian Sector - Liao Territory





TEAM:
--FLASH, Zeus
--DAGGER, Bushwacker
--LONGSHOT, Starslayer
--PALERIDER, Razorback

==MISSION LOG==

Spoiler

Show

When Renard called us up to give us the next mission, he was standing next to Ambassador Yee, House Steiner's local "Political Representative". They had clearly been arguing over the recent action in Liao territory, with Renard just as clearly not caring one bit about Yee's objections. Either way, it didn't matter much as Renard got straight to business: one of his spies had been captured by Liao, and he wanted him busted out of prison and brought back. He also made the "offhand observation" that there was a fuel depot nearby and that, should it just so happen to explode, it would no doubt distract the local Liao forces.

Yee started yelling again as the transmission cut out.

I shrugged it off and called up Cash to see if the new mech was ready for action. After the last mission, Steiner had decided to let us buy a Zeus, an 80-ton Assault-class mech with such stupidly high heat capacity that it can handle SEVEN large pulse lasers with room to spare. Once Cash got through with it, Flash wouldn't even have to aim.

Dagger was put into a Bushwacker with a brand new pulse-oriented loadout, and Palerider kept his Razorback, its armor winning out over the new Anubis's speed. Longshot got the Starslayer because it was better than the Hunchback in pretty much every possible way.


The mission was a night operation, because we all know that stealth and massive fuel explosions go hand-in-hand. Well, blowing stuff up I could do.



In what I'm sure would shock Steiner's mission planners, this alerted the nearby Liao forces...who were the exact same forces defending the weapons facility. This actually turned out to my benefit though, as I was able to hammer my way up a line of them, rather than fighting them all at once.








The weapon facility held ER laser weapons. Finally, FINALLY I had some long-range energy weaponry that wouldn't ruin all my beautiful salvage. As usual, unbridled joy was etched on Cash's face. I don't know why people keep calling him "dour" and "hard-bitten" when it's so easy to make him light up like a kid with a new Lego set. A Lego set with giant death machines and city-razing kill-beams, but I digress.




Next up was the resource trucks. While they were a secondary target, I was still being offered money in exchange for being given free stuff, and no mercenary would turn down an offer like that. A check of the map also showed more stealth enhancers (i.e. fuel tanks) near them, so it was win-win.

The fuel depot and its precious resource trucks were surprisingly heavily guarded, with two Sha Yus and several vehicles in and around the complex. The attack was short and brutal: one Sha Yu made the mistake of investigating the team's sensor pings by himself...



...and a volley of weapons fire into the fuel tanks reduced the rest of the garrison to a single crippled Sha Yu while plunging the area into nice, stealthy darkness.



(Note: I actually regretted blowing up the tanks because that darkness made further screenshots of the place suck. Granted, there wasn't much more to take pictures of, but still.)


As usual, Palerider's little Razorback had wound up outrunning the rest of the team and getting torn up. Luckily, all that guarded the next objective, a Mech Repair Bay, was an Anubis and a couple vehicles. Palerider got first dibs on repairs.




With the rest of the area clear, it was finally time to go after the prison itself. After securing an outer ring of LRM turrets, I was given a choice: fight my way through more turrets to go in the front door of the prison complex, or sneak in the unprotected back door. I chose the sneaky option...and then found out that it involved fuel tanks. AGAIN.



Seriously, it's like Liao wanted me to blow up their stuff or something.


Just like at the weapons complex, the explosion attracted the local guards, and just like at the weapons complex, 215 tons of Pulse Laser-armed Battlemechs plowed its way up strung-out line of enemies.








Upon capturing the prison, I was in for a bit of a surprise: the Steiner spy was an old Mechwarrior, Steel. He said he was tired of working for Steiner, and wanted to join up with us. I can't blame him, really, what with the winding up imprisoned in such an explosion-happy area and all. Diaz said she'd look into it and, if he checked out, she'd add him to the roster.

(Note: That's Diaz in the upper-right. I am totally going to have to add a cast list to the OP.)




With the prison captured and all the real objectives complete, it was time to wrap it up and head for the extraction point. Thanks to the resource trucks I'd captured along the way, I had enough RPs to salvage a Sha Yu before extraction, saving me a good 40 grand or so in salvage fees. I was probably just going to sell it to Steiner anyways because I had more than enough for my purposes, but c-bills are c-bills.

I still wasn't sure how, exactly, things had turned out well, but they had. There were enough fuel explosions to attract every Liao with a gun for a hundred miles in every direction, but we still managed to get in and out without Liao command realizing that we were there. Maybe it was all part of an insurance scam. If so, I now had another 79,000 c-bills to use on blowing up more of their stuff.

==MISSION COMPLETE==


I get to choose the order of the next three missions, so I'm going to let you guys vote on which one I do next. You can vote for the whole order if you want, but I only really need the next one.

The three choices for the next few missions are:

6a) Combat Rescue: Claymore
--A Steiner force was nearly wiped out trying to destroy a bandit airfield, and I have to go rescue the only survivor, Claymore, and his Atlas.

6b) Sector Occupation: Garrison
--Liao has a base and a chemical plant near the Liao/Steiner border, and I'm to go destroy them. Killing everything that moves is a secondary objective.

6c) Defensive Counter: Base Aries
--A Liao attack is inbound to a Steiner base, and I have to protect it. If you want to see minelayers in action, this is the time.


I'm also going to go ahead and ask if you want me to start spoilering the pictures and/or posts to help load times. And, as always, further commentary and advice is always welcome.

[chiasaur11]

Rescue.

Can't go leaving men behind willy-nilly!

Looks bad on the record.

[Celesyne]

Especially if there is even a slight chance they may survive and are in an Atlas... and might be more than a little peeved about being left behind.

[The Glyphstone]

Plus, he's British. Can't go wrong there.

[Artanis]

So far, that seems to be 3 votes for rescuing Claymore. Any other voters out there?


Also, any opinions on whether or not to put the posts in spoiler tags from now on?

[Johnny Blade]

Also, any opinions on whether or not to put the posts in spoiler tags from now on?

Yeah...I'd favor that.


Also voting to rescue Claymore. He could be useful.
Afterwards, I say attack the chemical plant. Fuel the fire, make sure Steiner needs mercenaries even more next week.

[Timberwolf]

Get Claymore, if only for the Fatlas

[Breltar]

Just a bit of FYI, the Mechcommander series is not free, they only released the engine for free and all the mechs and the storyline is still copy written.

In 2006 Microsoft released a modified version of the source code along with most game assets (i.e. everything needed to compile the game without networking support and without all the art) under a Shared Source licence in order to demonstrate its XNA Build system.

From wiki.

Basically MS released the code but not the art and networking files. It isn't 'free' it just is almost abandonware.

[Rama]

I'd say a rescue is definitely called for. Can't have too many favors to call in later.

[Artanis]

Just a bit of FYI, the Mechcommander series is not free, they only released the engine for free and all the mechs and the storyline is still copy written.




From wiki.

Basically MS released the code but not the art and networking files. It isn't 'free' it just is almost abandonware.

Without all the art, but that implies that there's still enough art to run the game. I'm pretty sure the copy I'm using was compiled from what Microsoft has up for grabs, but I'll go double-check just to confirm, and take down the link to where I got it just to be safe.



Edit: Upon double-checking, I found a connection going from microsoft.com to where I got my copy of MC2, so I'm sure it's legit. I'm going to leave the link removed though.


In LP-related news, it looks like rescuing Claymore wins the vote, so that's the next one I'll be doing. I'm also going to go back and put this page's posts in spoilers to see how that works out, so let me know what you guys think.

[Artanis]

==STEINER CONTRACT, MISSION 6a==



==MISSION BRIEFING==

Spoiler

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TYPE: Rescue

LOCATION: Hart Airfield, Hart Sector - Bandit Territory





TEAM:
--FLASH, Zeus
--LONGSHOT, Starslayer
--PALERIDER, Razorback

==MISSION LOG==

Spoiler

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So Steiner sent a "Heavy and Assault" Lance in to destroy a bandit airfield. Said lance got its butt kicked and its Atlas was hiding in a corner waiting for us to bail him out. Sounds good, right? There was one catch though: the inital force was an absolute minimum of 310 tons, and we only got 160 tons of drop weight. 160 tons to storm an area that had already beaten twice that.

I could only hope that the Steiner lance had taken a whole lot of bandits with them.

I needed a jumper that wouldn't get blown apart by turrets, and that meant Longshot in the Starslayer. I needed firepower, and my deadliest mech was the Zeus, which I gave to Flash. Finally, I needed sensors, and having 30 tons left meant that yet again, Palerider would be in the Razorback.


After dropping in, it didn't take long to meet resistance. It seemed that the team was already doomed to be overwhelmed by the bandits' almighty...



...two 30-tonners and some tanks?

There's no way crappy tanks and light mechs could take down four heavy and assault mechs. I pushed on to a strongpoint on a ridge up ahead. Surely it held some clue as to how a major force was beaten.

I was wrong. It held Fire Ants, light vehicles, and no way to keep Palerider from hopping up and capturing their turret control. It fell in under a minute




The terrain got rougher, a series of hills cut by ravines. It was good terrain for a defensive stand. In fact, a quick look around the map showed that it was some of the best such terrain in the entire engagement area. And stand the bandits did.







It was a long, drawn-out battle. I hit the bandits hard enough and fast enough that they couldn't bring their entire might to bear all at once, but they just. Kept. Coming. Try as they might though, the light vehicles, Fire Ants, and Urbanmechs they fielded simply didn't have enough potency to keep me from grinding my way towards a nearby supply depot. About all they could do was slow me down and force me to slug it out for a while before proceeding to the airstrip.

And that's when it hit me.



Steiner had been wrong: the first attack group hadn't been beaten into oblivion, they'd been bombed to death. The bandits had thrown themselves in front of a vastly superior force, using their lives to buy time for the bombers to pound the Steiner mechs. Even 80+ ton mechs would fall under enough airstrikes, and it seemed that that had to be what had happened.


Originally, I had planned to go find Claymore's Atlas first, then send him and the team for a leisurely stroll through the airfield to turn it into burning rubble at a nice, relaxing pace. Now, I didn't know if Claymore was even really hidden, as opposed to inadvertantly serving as bait. The strike on the airstrip took on new urgency, and I sent Flash's slow Zeus straight there while performing brief repairs on the faster Longshot and Palerider. The three reunited just outside the airstrip, and immediately launched their assault.

Luckily, it seemed the bandits had already used up all their forces trying to keep me from getting to the bomber that even at that very moment was being fueled and prepped for launch. All that was left was a Starslayer and a few light vehicles.






It didn't take long for the hard-hitting attack group to make its way to the air control tower, depriving the bandits of their ability to coordinate their air assets. All that was left was to salvage a half-dead Starslayer, find Claymore, and go home.






Or so I thought. I was really, really starting to hate the bandits when, upon rescuing Claymore, I was informed that there were two airstrips. I told Claymore to get his Atlas's fat ass in gear and point it towards the second airstrip.

There was a large base standing between us and the bridge to the second airstrip. I decided that being hit from behind would probably slow me down more than fighting my way through that base's defenders, so I sent the team - reinforced by Claymore and the new Starslayer, piloted by Dagger - to sieze the high ground and hammer their way in. Unfortunately, the sedated turtle's Atlas's slow speed caught up to us, and by the time we got there, the bandits had prepared a defense. A very, very numerous defense.







More 30-tonners and more vehicles already held the high ground, and the team wound up badly outnumbered as the top of the hill turned into a brawl. Palerider was sent around to grab a turret control in the hopes of slowing down the stream of reinforcements, and found himself going 1-on-1 with a Raven.



Despite trading control of the turrets several times as the two scouts danced around each other, the gambit worked. The SRM turrets slowed down the inbound vehicles enough for the team's size to overwhelm the bandits' numbers, and the three-and-a-half bigger mechs punched through to take the base.




There wasn't much left that was even remotely combat-worthy, so I didn't bother with the salvage plane just yet. I instead merely called in another repair truck to speed up refits on the five mechs already standing. As before, I sent the slowest first and let the faster ones catch up.

Thankfully, the second airstrip was just as drained as the first. Its defenders had made their stand on the hill, and once again all that was left was a Starslayer and a couple of hovertanks. The turret grid - such as it was - was captured before it could fire two shots, and the few defenders simply melted under the team's massed fire.






Now it was time to head home. I didn't wait to hear whether or not there was a third airstrip, my job was done and I was getting my people the hell out of there.

Even with the airstrips down, Renard was not going to be pleased. If anybody still needed confirmation that these were no ordinary bandits, we officially had it. No mere bandits would fight that tenaciously and that suicidally, and there's no way in hell mere bandits could get their hands on that kind of air power. No, these were front-line Liao regulars, and I could already practically hear Renard's sanity breaking as the last shreds of hope for peace disappeared.

Carver V was at war.

==MISSION COMPLETE==


Claymore is rescued, and now I have an Atlas to play with. I don't know how much I'll use it due to it being so slow, but that much firepower could come in real handy if I find a situation for it.

With this mission complete, it's time for more audience participation, voting on which mission to do next: attacking the Liao base and its chemical plant, or defending the Steiner base from assault. Let your voices be heard!

Additionally, with the missions getting longer and more action-packed, there's bound to be more and more pictures with each post. This one had 20, if you count the map, team, and completion screens. As such, I'm going to spoiler them from now on. I'd like to know if anybody has any objections to me doing so, and welcome any comments and/or advice as to the layout of it.

[Breltar]

Defend the base IMO. If you want to use the atlas, kit it out with long range and hard hitting weapons or all short range close in, don't split the difference as it excels in sticking to one role.

You should be able to adjust the camera angle and if you can then take some shots at lower plane of view like almost mech height. The age of the game will show but its a neat vantage point.

[BooNL]

Attack the chemical plant!

Fun write up by the way, love reading these.

I've just finished mission 4 myself, had first contact with house Liao and am 2 Sha Yu's and an Anubis richer. I'm thinking of picking up a Hollander and training one of my warriors to be a sniper, though I've never done that and I'm not sure of the effectiveness of a mech carrying only 1 weapon. The image looks really cool though. What do you guys think?
Hollander, yay or nay?

[king.com]

Hollanders are just not worth it, 1 shot to seriously harm a mech or it is entirely useless. If you want a sniper, just hold out for some clan tech and hop in a Catapult, very powerful ranged mech and swap in some swarm lrms and you are a walking killing machine. Snipping doesnt really work in this game until the clan gauss rifles which are needed on assaults or clan heavys to be really helped.

[BooNL]

I know it's not the most optimal route and Catapults are definately better ranged support. I just want to know if its viable.
I've played the game a couple of times and I like to try new tactics. I think I run multiple light mechs as well this game, mostly relying on Liao mechs to get me through the missions.

Really, the image of a small mech with a single armor shattering gun is just awesome. In Mechwarrior 4: Mercs, my favourite mech was an Uller for the exact same reasons (light mech with 2 clan ppcs, yummy!).

[Rama]

I say defend the base. Any time we can get paid to let a couple of miles worth of thickly laced mines do the job for us is a good day in my book.

[Artanis]

Fun write up by the way, love reading these.

Thank you, I appreciate it

I'm thinking of picking up a Hollander and training one of my warriors to be a sniper, though I've never done that and I'm not sure of the effectiveness of a mech carrying only 1 weapon. The image looks really cool though. What do you guys think?
Hollander, yay or nay?

It isn't really a problem of carrying only one weapon so much as it is that that one weapon doesn't use everything that the mech has to offer. The Gauss Rifle is a good weapon in and of itself (unlike other ballistics), but a stock Hollander uses only 1 of its 22 available heat points. You can make it better at its job of delivering big, long-range hits by filling it with LRMs instead

[Istari]

I vote chemical plant
MC2 rocks! It's like my favorite game ever

[Johnny Blade]

I also (still) vote for the chemical plant.

[Artanis]

So far it's 3 for chemical plant and 2 for defending the base. Any more votes?

[Guancyto]

Well, the chemical plant lets you nab a couple of Men Shen.

So let's do that. But base defense afterward.

[Artanis]

Since it doesn't look likely that defending the base is going to pick up another three votes anytime soon, it appears we have a winner. Up next, the chemical plant!

[Artanis]

==STEINER CONTRACT, MISSION 6b==



==MISSION BRIEFING==

Spoiler

Show

TYPE: Search and Destroy

LOCATION: Base Leo, Garrison Sector - Liao Territory




TEAM:
--FLASH, Shootist
--LONGSHOT, Starslayer
--DAGGER, Starslayer
--PALERIDER, Razorback

==MISSION LOG==

Spoiler

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It was official: Renard had snapped. The info from the airfield mission had broken his sanity like an Elemental breaks foot soldiers' spines: instantly and brutally. When he called us on VidCom, he declared that Liao was trying to "destabilize his command," and that "I will respond," namely in the form of open war against Liao. When Ambassador Yee tried to reason with him, he basically accused her of working for Liao, which shut her up quick.

Renard had ordered a series of strikes against Liao targets, and we were assigned to hit a base near the border. It had a chemical plant nearby, and he suspected that it could be producing chemical weapons to use on him. Somehow, I managed to restrain the various snarky remarks that came to mind as I graciously accepted the mission.

I was tempted to give Palerider our new Raven, but once again gave him the Razorback instead: it was every bit as good as a Raven in a fight, and you never know when those 5 tons might come in handy. And by "never know" I mean "when looking at this mission's drop weight." I couldn't fit my beloved Zeus in with any credible support, so I pulled out the Shootist for Flash while giving Starslayers to Longshot and Dagger.


The drop zone was well south of the intended targets, and I immediately had an interesting choice: go for the base, or go for the chemical plant. The choice became an easy one, however, when I saw that the base had a repair bay. Hitting it first meant that I would be fresh against both targets, as opposed to being damaged and depleted when I hit the other.

Resistance was light at first, but gradually ramped up as the team fought their way to the base. First it was just a vehicle or two...



...then a group of vehicles and a Men Shen...



...then a LOT of vehicles and a second Men Shen.




Fortunately, Men Shens are basically Ravens on steroids: good scouts, but they can't fight as well as their weight would suggest. On top of that, the LRM carriers that made up the bulk of their support were surprisingly little help, as the fragile vehicles went down quickly. Palerider got beat up as usual, but otherwise it wasn't a terribly threatening fight. It wasn't long before the Men Shens tried to flee, only to be cut down by laser fire.




With the base's defenders cleared, it was a simple matter to capture the base's HQ and the repair bay out front.




The first objective was complete, and it was time to move to the second: the chemical plant. Everybody got their turn in the repair bay, then went off to make the trek between the two. Halfway there, however, I found another reason to be glad I had taken the repair bay first: a minefield.



It was also another reason to be happy I had brought a Razorback instead of a Raven: mines only detonate when stepped on by something heavier than 30 tons. This meant that unlike a Raven, Palerider's Razorback didn't have to worry about them one bit.

The minelayers were quickly destroyed by very long-range fire, which drew the defenders out of a small outpost behind the minefield.





Of the defenders, one was a Fire Ant that, being 30 tons, walked through the minefield unharmed, only to be blown apart by the team's combined firepower. The other two were medium vehicles, which fell victim to their own mines.



That left an open shortcut for Palerider to take, snagging a resource building along the way, as the others took the long way around.


I refrained from saying as much, but things had been too easy. This place was too close to the border to be so lightly guarded, so I suspected that the chemical plant had to hold the majority of Liao's firepower in the area. I was still skeptical as the only thing on Palerider's scope guarding a resource building was an LRM Carrier.

I sent him for a closer look. Whatever was in there, if I was going to get swarmed, I wanted it to be on somebody who could get out of there and to friendlier ground. It didn't take long for Palerider to run into the LRM Carrier's 65-ton, 10 LRM-rack-carrying friend, a Liao Catapult.




Remember how I mentioned the two vehicles that were destroyed by their own mines? Well, when the Catapult showed up, I immediately wondered whether or not its pilot would fall for the same thing. Keeping the big mechs well out of the way, I had Palerider lead the Catapult to the minefield, staying just out of LRM range the whole way.

He fell for it. The Catapult charged into the minefield...



..and chased Palerider all the way to the outpost as the little scout took potshots at him. Even after the mech was crippled, its pilot kept trying, only ejecting when a missile to the cockpit convinced him to reevaluate the situation.






I asked Diaz to look up if we had any medals to award for successfully pulling off one of my suicidal hare-brained schemes brilliant and cunning plans as the team made its way towards the south of the chemical plant's complex. They grabbed a resource building there as Palerider gathered sensor data on the base's nearby defenders. The initial layer consisted of just a couple of vehicles sitting between two fuel tanks.

The vehicles turned out to be fuel trucks, which was good because it meant the team's attack would be silent and stealthy, like ninjas!



Diaz then hit me with a rolled-up magazine when I said as much.


Stealth - or lack thereof - turned out not to matter too terribly much as the remaining defenses consisted of a Catapult, a PPC-carrying Storm tank, and some turrets that couldn't cover their turret control. Unlike its buddy, this Catapult fell to the more conventional tactic of running up to point blank and laughing as it tried to get back to LRM range. The things are so ineffective at that range, in fact, that I was able to ignore while I destroyed the Storm when it showed up.








After that, all that was left was to blow up the chemical plant, mop up some infantry, call in the salvage plane, and go home. We wanted to get out quick, too, because with Liao, there's no telling what tricks they were setting up for us at that very moment. Luckily, right across the border was a Steiner base where we could drop the new mechs for refits.

==MISSION COMPLETE==

[Demented]

This has convinced me to play through MechCommander 2 again!


35-ton mechs actually can go through minefields. Don't tell Palerider. Though, for being lighter, the razorback is better armed and has jumpjets. All the raven gets is ECM and enhanced sensors.

Regarding hollanders: An urbanmech can carry a full gauss cannon for 5 tons less. It is fairly slow, but it has jumpjets...

[Errant_Polearm]

Spoiler

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It wasn't long before the Men Shens tried to flee, only to be cut down by laser fire.

Getting their target to run and shooting them in the back, huh?
It does seem like the enemy should retreat sometimes, though, and I've used the tactic too, so I won't complain.