Battle Tech

BattleTech, MechWarrior, BattleMech, and 'Mech are trademarks of FASA, Inc. No Guts, No Galaxy!

". . . and I'll Beat You with the Wet End!"

Submitted by Steve

My friend, Mark, wasn`t very good. We`ve played Dark Future together before, and I'd blown him off the road more times than I care to remember. I decided it was time to introduce him to BattleTech.

In his second game, 1 of his 'mechs got a little to close to mine, and I blew one of his 'mechs arms off with an AC20. This pissed him off. What happened next meant he'd never play with me again.

My 'mech picked up the now severed arm, and proceeded to beat the former owner with it, killing the mechwarrior on the first hit (critical cockpit hit).

Death From Above

Submitted by Michael S. Webster

While trying to teach my wife the game, I had taken a single modified Griffin against a specially modified Shadow Hawk. I had decided to teach my wife one of the finer points of BattleMech combat: Death From Above!

I had leaped from the brush where I was shooting from and aimed for my wife's 'mech . . . and missed. I fell down, taking all the damage to my already weakened center torso.

A couple turns later, I tried a DFA again; missing again, falling and damaging the center torso, resulting in three engine crits . . .

Needless to say, my wife never misses an opportunity to let others know of my object lesson on how NOT to perform a Death From Above maneuver.

Game Master's Trials

Submitted by Mark F. Anderson

As often as not I have found myself in the position of GM. Most of my friends seem to enjoy this because of my horrendus luck with the dice when it comes to combat.

A prime example of this occured during a MechWarrior campaign some years ago. The players had formed a small company of mechs and gotten a contract to attack a lightly defended world. The contract terms didn't seem too bad so the group wasn't expecting too much trouble.

Well, they landed with their 6 mechs and 2 infantry platoons and advanced on the industrial facility they were to attack. As they passed through the outskirts of the nearby town, a full company of mechs charged out and surrounded them.

The players broke up to scatter and hopefully regroup later but the Thunderbolt in the group got caught by 4 light mechs: 2 Stingers a Wasp, and a Pheonix Hawk. Completely surrounded, the player was ready to punch out but decided to make a last stand.

Having won the initiative I opened up with everything. At a range of one, out of fifteen weapons and tohits of 5 to 7, I hit with two machine guns and a medium laser. Feeling invincible all of a sudden, the player cut down two of the small mechs as he unloaded on them with everything. Then the PH got it in the head by the infantry which had stayed behind to help.

The last two Wasps tried their luck trying to kick down the T-Bolt only to have one miss and the other fall over. The player proceeded to kick in the downed Wasp's torso and the last Wasp tried desperately to flee. Needlessly to say, the players regrouped and swept the field with little damage at that point.

I have since gone to rolling behind my GM screens. It seems to be the only way I have a chance at hurting those pesky players!

"How do you kill one o' them things?"

Submitted by Steve

I was playing against my friend Kevin. We had 8 'mechs each, as usual. Kevin was a DIVA when it came to this game, and it was always a question of WHEN my beatdown would occur, not if.

Anyway, I had a Locust out running around, and as any BT player knows, they`re fast, and as fragile as they come... So anyway, a horde of Kevin`s mechs are descending on my Locust. I realise that the next combat, my Locust is dead and buried, then I hit on a plan.

I was lucky enough to be able to move a Stalker (85 ton mech if I recall. Hard to remember. All my BTech stuff is in England while I'm in Canada) between the advancing horde and my Locust. Kevin let my Stalker have it with everything, and my Stalker was barely left standing afterwards. I returned fire and removed one of the opposings 'mechs heads if I recall... My Stalker died a swift death next round, but my Locust survived.

"Really! It's all I can see!"

Submitted by Jason Coombe

Myself and my friend, Austin were playing a campaign using the 3025 and 2750 era battlemechs. During one battle, Austin and I were set upon by a Shogun and an Exterminator. Al jumps the Exterminator over a hill to set up a shot at our battlemechs when I remember that the Exterminator's gyro had been damaged earlier in the battle and said to Al, "Ya need to make a piloting roll". Al responds with "No problem! This guy has a great piloting skill." He proceeds to roll and . . . Surprise! Surprise! It fails. After rolling the damage a wincing Al says the mech is toast and turns the model on it's side. Austin and I whoop for joy knowing that the two us can take out the rest, no problem.

Austin then says "I can hear the conversation now: 'Shogun to Exterminator, what do you see? Exterminator to Shogun, Dirt."

We laughed for hours after that and whenever anyone fails a piloting roll everyone yells, "Dirt!"

Suicidal Mech Pilot

Submitted by David Burak

I have been playing Battletech for several years and decided to try and teach a few friends the game. This will be known as 'Mistake Number 1'. You see, James is . . . well, crazy. After teaching him, Mike, and Will the rules, I allowed them to choose whatever mech they wanted from the 3025 list and go at it. Mike and Will both took an Atlas like I thought they would, but James took a Wasp. I tried to explain to him that Mike and Will would eat him alive, but he would not give up his little Wasp.

So I set them up on the map. James turned tail and headed for the safety of a nearby mountain. Mike and Will decided James was of no consequence and went at each other full force. When the smoke had cleared, Mike came out the victor, only lightly damaged except in the rear torsos. At this point, James came running around the mountain and fired everything he had at Mike, with Mike doing the same. Mike chewed James down to Internal Structure all over and no weapons systems. James, however, had managed to hit both of Mike's shoulder Actuators, leaving him without the use of his arms.

Now this is where James decided that he could not win head-on with the Atlas, so he ran around Mike and latched on to his torso. He then turned on the auto-destruct in the Wasp's fusion reactor and waited. Without arms, Mike couldn't unlatch James and tried to run James into a wall to shake him loose. Unfortunately, just as he reached the cliff face, the Wasp went off. The explosion tore open the right and left torsos, setting of the left over ammo in each and completely slagging the Atlas. The auto-eject on both cockpits fired and both James and Mike were shot out. However, since Mike was facing the wall, he went straight into the cliff and made a nice stain. James shot backward and climbed out of the cockpit, surveying the carnage.