Space Command - home of wargaming & strategy simulation

BATTLETECH

SALVAGE - By Commander Toby R.

or "Crushed by the wheels of Industry"

The idea was for a mech on mech skirmish game with a few twists.

A vast underground factory complex is one of a number of targets hit by orbital bombardment as the Clan fight to gain important footholds in Inner Sphere systems. The Inner Sphere forces entrenched on the planet are running very low supplies and resources - including Mechs. The regional commander inspects the intel he has and discovers that deep in the bowels of the factory complex is a Mech manufacturing plant. Desperate for any Mechs or equipment that can be salvaged he sends a fast recon lance with spare pilots into the ruins of the complex and crosses his fingers.

Unfortunately a Clan Star has tracked the Lance to the factory and has decided to investigate. The race is on to Salvage as many Mechs as possible before the Clan find them and destroy them.

The Factory Complex

The Forces

We used 4 light/medium mechs for the InnerSphere scout force including a Raven and Panther -

The Clan had 5 medium to heavies including an Uller, a Battle Cobra and a Huntsman

The InnerSphere Mechs in the complex waiting to be found were mainly heavies and included a Catapult and an Atlas.

Green marks the spot..well the concealed mech anyway

In addition, due to the array of reactive materials - dropped from orbit and industrial - visual LOS is the only way to ID a specific Mech. Markers are used to represent unidentified targets. The Salvage Mechs are placed in various bays throughout the complex and have to be discovered by either side.

A Clan Uller finds the access way a little crowded

Terrain

We used the reversable AT-43 gaming tiles from Rackham for our game which worked great and provided lots of Mech bay type areas and some easily identifiable line of sight features for cover.

Rackham AT-43 tiles Obviously the tiles are 2D but still visually impressive.

Due to the tiles we obviously used the hexless inch measurement rules.