Proud Bull Rising Part 5

2824

With seven colonies now established and growing, construction is started on new production plants to build the Crosscut and Dig King Industrial Mechs in the Sterope and Grossbach Systems. The lines on Sterope are planned go live in 2826 and the lines on Grossbach in 2827. Both plants will continue to expand until each has four production lines of each of the two industrial mechs. In addition to helping growth on Taurian worlds and new colonies, it is planned to have a steady number to be exported to the Outworlds Alliance, the Magistracy of Canopus, and the various independent worlds in the area.

With the agriculture sector booming within Taurian space, a number of inner sphere traders start to appear for runs between Concordate worlds and highly populated Inner Sphere worlds. In return these traders bring manufactured goods and specialist equipment such as electronics to the Concordat in exchange. Davion, Liao, and even Marik traders become a more common sight over time. While these outsiders are viewed with caution and suspicion, the Concordat does not pass up the opportunities this represents.

A number of former engineers from Lycomb-Davion IntroTech's Demeter plant, which had been largely destroyed by Capellan forces in the First Succession War, approach the Taurian Ministry of Trade and Colonization about immigrating and starting up a new company to build various electronic equipment. After a few months of negotiation, approval and government backed loans are given to the new company, Taurian Technologies Limited, to begin construction of manufacturing plants on the world of New Vandenburg.

The Taurian Ministry of Intelligence slips a small team into the Capellan Confederacy using the agent that they had turned. This contact helps provide them with covers and new backgrounds as they travel to Capella System. Here they manage to get hired on at the Rashpur-Owens Incorporated shipyard. The agents do nothing the first several years at the plant other than merely becoming seen as skilled and valuable workers at the shipyard. Two are parts of teams working on the actual assembly of jumpship parts, one works on the line producing the drive systems, while the last works in the main office complex.

2825

A farmer on the Taurian world of Celano, one of the new colonies, discovers the remains of a Star League storehouse which among various equipment, weapons, and vehicles, contains a number of Maultier Hover APC's. These are deemed easiest to reproduce and by 2827 are in production at the Taurus Territorial Systems plant on Sterope. Numerous LosTech infantry laser rifles are found as well which are found to be able to be reproduced. Facilities to produce these are made at the TTI factories on Taurus and the Vandenburg Mechanized Industries (VMI) factories on New Vandenburg.

The Quikcell plant on New Vandenburg begin to build lines for the construction of the Scorpion Light Tank. This vehicle, while fairly new, is proving to be quite popular especially with militias due to its easy of maintainance and its low price compared to other options. By 2829 Quikcell will have five total lines constructing this vehicle. Sales are brisk for runs of the tank with the TDF militia units, mercenaries, the Magistracy of Canopus, and the Outworlds Alliance all being customers.

The Taurian Ministry of Education receives extra funding to begin building up the schools on the new colony worlds and reclaimed worlds. One of the issues found are that many of the refugees from the Inner Sphere worlds who had fled to the Periphery worlds had widely varied education as well as a high percent of under educated youth due to the upheaval of the Succession War. In addition to new schools, programs for adult education opportunities are also pursued which greatly opens the possibilities of these immigrants and further binds them to the Concordat as a whole.

Proud Bull Rising Part 4

2822

The Protector and her representatives works out a deal with Quikcell company using the safe location of a new plant within the Concordat away from the battles between the Inner Sphere major houses as well as the numerous periphery customers as incentives. The Quikcell Company begins construction of a large manufacturing facility in the New Vandenburg System. LRM and SRM Carriers, Hetzers, and Pegasus Scout Hover Tanks each get a pair of production lined in the initial contruction of the facility. Production is planned to begin for all four in 2825. The high level of patriotism and the pride that the average Taurian citizen holds for the military is projected to prevent much of the poor quality control that is associated with most Quikcell plants. Half of all production from the plant is slated for export to the Outworlds Alliance and various mercenary groups.

On the world of Hanseta, one of the engineer/survey forces make a discovery. A crashed Colossus-class dropship from the Reunification War is found down in a valley mostly covered with forest undergrowth. Almost three lances of mechs were able to be recovered including a Mongoose, several Crabs, a few Kintaros, and the two biggest prizes, a Flashman and a Black Knight. Two companies worth of vehicles were also recovered consisting of a few each of Marksman artillery tanks and Alacorn heavy tanks, but most of the vehicles are Galleon light tanks. This material is used to assist in the rebuilding of the units decimated in the war with the Canopians.

Three uncontracted mercenary units are signed to assist in dealing with pirate raids and attacks along the Concordat borders. The Cardinal Sins, a medium weight mech regiment, the Black Band Legion, a heavy weight mech regiment, and the Blackhearts, a medium weight mech regiment. The Blackhearts with their former SLDF Special Forces background make them especially adept at pirate hunting patrols. In addition to garrison and anti-pirate duties, the units are also used to train the local militia forces.

2823

With the drop off in refugees finally being seen, Taurian officials begin to quietly visit Federated Suns Outback worlds located near the Concordat border. These officials are able to take advantage of the fact that these Outback worlds are largely ignored and not invested in by the Davions who are forced to focus more on their industrialized coreward worlds after the destruction of the First Succession War. They are able to recruit disgruntled and struggling, yet hard working, families and individuals from these worlds to immigrate to the new Taurian colonies. With their focus on their interior and border worlds rather than the Outback regions, the Federated Suns do not notice these events for some years.

Using loans backed by the Taurian Ministry of Trade and Colonization, Taurus Majoris Mining begins construction on a new major facility in the Sterope System. The new production complex is expected to be opened by 2825 and producing armor for defense industries by 2826. Much of the product produced by TMM from the asteroid belt will be used on Sterope by the TTI and SDI facilities. The normalization of relations with the Canopians leads to an increase of trade back to levels seen before the Taurian-Canopian War.

The Lazy Eights, a medium weight mercenary battalion, are hired out of Davion service where they had been used for garrison duty throughout the First Succession War. At roughly half strength operationally, the TDF deployed them to Sterope to defend the factory complex there as well as act as a training force for the local militia. As part of their pay for the first several years, the unit is given discounted rates to purchase replacement mechs from the TTI lines they are protecting.

The King's Wild Cards finish rebuilding their 2nd Battalion which is then deployed to the Gangtok System. They renew their contract and continue to receive discounted rates on purchasing replacement mechs from Taurian factories. Their duties continue to include both garrison and militia training. Two lances worth of Cyrano VTOLs are added to the King's Wild Cards' TOE to give them even more flexibility.

That's all for this installment and I'll see you next time!

Still Raising Another Eridani Light Horse Regiment

So after the first two test models from the previous post, I really didn't fully like the outcome I achieved. The Citadel Contrast Creed Camo came out looking like the algae build up in a dirty aquarium filter. This second pair of models I switched out the Creed Camo for Vallejo Russian Green. I also switched the Vallejo Flat Red for the deeper Vallejo Dark Red and the Vallejo Oiled Steel for Vallejo Game Color Metallic. The final change I made was Tamiya Flat Brown for the sides of the base instead of the Vallejo Woodgrain. For all of these paints, I used a new Army Painter Wet Palette instead of the trial homemade ones I used previously. I did the same basing and first layer coats as before. I also tried something new for me in a more intricate layer of detailing by edging the cockpit panels of the mechs.

All in all I am much happier with the results this time around. The following picture is a comparison shot showing from left to right a Zeus from my old ELH regiment, the first trial attempt for new ELH Thunderbolt, and then the new attempt for new ELH Catapult that has received a light Nuln Oil wash after the previous picture above. I can definitely see the improvements from my old ELH massively batch painted to minimum standards and my new results and I definitely like the Catapult's results over the Thunderbolt's though I now need to look into striping down the two Thunderbolts.

All in all I am pleased with how it's looking so far and I think I am happy with the final results of the Catapults. I think this will be the "final" color scheme though I'm open to ideas and suggestions before finally locking it down and starting up on going through the rest of the models I already have for the 151st Light Horse Regiment. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you all next time!

When Ghost Bears Maul

So this past Friday I managed to get back up to the Outpost for another game of classic Battletech with Cheef. I was fielding most of a star of my Clan Ghost Bear while he had some Draconis Combine troops. With the points cap I had 4 mechs to his 4 mechs with my fifth star member being stuck back at the dropship on guard duty. I fielded a Kingfisher (C variant), a Nova Cat (A variant), a Bearcub 2, and a Pirahna. He was fielding a Rifleman, a Dragon, a Cyclops, and a Hunchback.

This was definitely more of a balanced game than our previous outing as my dice were more normal in their rolls while his rolls actually were willing to score some hits this time. Seeing as that set of dice rolls normally when he's been playing with Frankie in Alpha Strike, I am starting to think they only work well when Frankie is there to use them. I tried to keep my deployment to one side of the map, especially since he started looping his Dragon the long way around the central city section we were fighting in. I ended up with the Pirahna looping behind the Dragon and spending several turns wearing it down while my other forces dealt with his other units.

The Bear Cub was the first to die but between its up close SRM and medium laser fire combined with the Nova Cat's ER Large Lasers, and the heavy fire from the Kingfisher, the Cyclops took a lot of damage and was in a rough way fairly early. In exchange for heavy damage to my Kingfisher, the Cyclops and Hunchback were both killed off on the same turn though some of this was I was lucky on a lot of my shots landing repeatedly in the same location.

In the late game my Kingfisher was getting close to dying from cockpit damage as the LBX AC-5s on the Rifleman kept landing at least one point of damage on the cockpit each time it shot. Indeed, the Kingfisher was down to just one point of armor on the cockpit at the end of the game. At this point I had the Pirahna use its speed to disengage from the Dragon and loop back around to harass the Rifleman with the Kingfisher while the Nova Cat dealt with the Dragon.

At this point the pilot of the Rifleman seems to be from the former Rasalhague region of the Draconis Combine because he was turning his mech into a walking sauna. It actually got to the point that the mech shutdown due to overheating which was a first for both of us in a game. Due to the number of heatsinks it was going to be 2 turns minimum before he could restart the Rifleman which was when Cheef called it a game. I'd have been able to finish off the Rifleman between the Kingfisher and the Pirahna while the Nova Cat held off the Dragon or teamed up the Kingfisher and Nova Cat to deal with the Dragon while the Pirahna kicked and machine gunned the downed Rifleman. So all in all it was a good outing for the clans and it was nice to finally get them back on the table after a long long time for them. It was a fun game as always and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Raising A New Eridani Light Horse Regiment

I normally speed paint through battletech units with a primer, base coat, a few highlights and simple basing. This time around I am trying to up my level of painting a bit. With all the new Catalyst plastic models and especially the new Kickstarter ones coming down the road, I decided to do more Eridani Light Horse. With my original ELH unit being a mix of olf metals and plastics from various sources, I decided to do an entire new unit of them, the 151st Light Horse Regiment. This is the results of my first two models in this project sort of as a test bed.

The models were primered white and then based with Army Painter Elf Green. I put GW's Creed Camo Contrast over that layer which was followed by a wash of GW Coelia Greenshade. Weapon mounts were done in Vallejo Old Gold and the maul/fists in Vallejo Gunmetal Grey. For the cockpit and laser barrel insides I used Vallejo Flat Red.

Base was done with a mix of small gravel and a fine grass flock. I then painted the base edge in Vallejo Woodgrain to compliment all the green.

I'll appreciate any feedback or suggestions. I'm still on the fence deciding myself. The Creed shade of green just keeps seeming a bit off somehow and I'm still not sure about it. Anyway, hope you enjoy and I'll see you all next time.

When The Dice Want More Table Time

So this past Saturday, I finally got another Battletech game in with Cheef. He was fielding his Ace Darwin's Whipits while I was fielding a unit of my Caselton Militia with a couple Rabid Foxes attached. In my head I had it as the Foxes on a data gathering mission using the militia forces for cover. This was one of those games where Cheef's dice were fairly unforgiving towards him while on the other hand my own dice were trying to send me the message that they wanted a lot more useage as I was rolling way better than I normally do.

My full deployment was in Civil War era units and consisted of the two Fox agents in PXH-3PL Phoenix Hawks, a militia Marauder MAD-5M, 2 militia WVR-7K Wolverines, and then a pair of SRM variant Hetzers. He had Ace in his pink Panther, two Shadow Hawks, a Grasshopper, an Enforcer, and a Wasp. All his units have their call signs, rides, and a brief backstory on his own blog here. Several of his mechs had slight tweaks from stock variants as well as improved piloting skills while all my pilots were 4/5s. However my mechs all were loaded with pulse lasers to improve their shooting as well as the Phoenix Hawk variant having a targeting computer to go with those pulse lasers.

We both deployed fairly normally and just charged at each other. By turn 3 we were at close range and unloading all we could into the other. His Enforcer was his leading unit and I singled it out first as a target. It took a lot of hits which resulted in major damage all over it including 3 criticals for 2 engine hits and 1 gyro hit. It did manage to stay standing and ended up backing off the table in withdrawal a few turns later. Over the next few turns I managed to kill the Wasp, force one of the Shadowhawks to withdraw, and then at that point with moderate to heavy damage to his remaining units while I had one heavily damaged and the rest moderately to lightly damaged, his force decided that getting paid another day rather than no more paychecks was the better option and called it a day.

While it was nice to get a game in, the dice were definitely not being balanced between us. One of my Hetzers managed 21 out of 30 possible missile hits where 4 of the 5 SRM/6s hit and then I rolled high on the scatter chart as well with only 3 of the 24 missing. I have never in any game managed a missile accuracy like that before and when paired with the pulse lasers bonus offsetting my movement penalties, it definitely became a one sided game around turn 5 or 6. Hopefully we can get another game in soon that is more balanced and fun for all without the dice gods being petty.

So more of an overview than a full up battle report as I didn't take a ton of pictures but I will say it was nice with us both having fully painted and based forces on the table. I know that has been a slight annoyance to Cheef lately as he's dipped his feet into the waters of Alpha Strike and has been facing nothing but bare gray plastic models on the other side of the table for several games now. So that's all for now and with the parting joke that I "Raid"ed his Wasp pilot "Hotshot", I will see you all next time. I need to get the next installment of Red Bull Rising up and will aim to get that up this weekend.

Proud Bull Rising Part 3

Welcome back for part three of my Battletech alternative system.

2820

Having gathered the resources and volunteers needed, Taurus begins the final stages to start colonizing some of the worlds they've been examining. Three of the these worlds, Orkney, Charleston, and Carthage, are within the current Concordat borders with the remaining, Belle Isle, being just beyond them. The continued influx of refugees from the Inner Sphere fleeing the ravages of the First Succession War assist in finding the populations needed to get these colonies going.

All four colonies see a strong growth from the start. The refugees continue to expand the populations allowing them to reach a self sustaining level within a few years. By that point, all are able to begin exporting if not mined minerals and ores, then at least agricultural products to the rest of the Concordat. The desire to see the Concordat as strong as it was in the past drives the support of the average Taurian citizen. They might be unable to reclaim worlds lost long ago to the Davions and Liaos but they can grow outwards and reclaim worlds they had to abandon.

The TDF lures the King's Wild Cards mercenary unit out of Canopian service with favorable terms for anti-piracy and garrison duty. The King's Wild Cards are a light weight regiment that has attritioned down to just over a battalion in strength with no appreciable assistance from the Magistrix armed forces to rebuild or replace their losses. The unit is deployed to New Vandenburg for a year to train with the militia forces while starting to rebuild and then are sent to the Artru System to garrison and train the local militia forces while perfoming patrol sweeps to discourage piracy.

2821

With a handful of new worlds being resettled and several more being explored for their potential, the Taurian economy continues a slow steady growth. Several closed mining complexes are re-examined for the potential of reopening them. Expansion of asteroid mining in several major systems has also in the begining stages of implementation. The newly settled worlds, now with stabile populations and exports increasing, continue to slowly grow as more and more infrastructure is built. Celano, Regis Roost, and Argos are slated as the next worlds to be colonized.

With the official end of the First Succession War, trade with the Inner Sphere realms begins to pick up slowly but significantly as the various Great Houses seek the resources needed to rebuild the many shattered planets and industries across their space as well as their militaries. Exporting minerals and ores begin to give the Taurians the funds needed to further expand their own infrastructure and worlds. Refugees from farther within the Inner Sphere continue to arrive and are directed to the new colonies.

The improving assests of the Ministry of Intelligence leads to a crack down on smugglers and black marketeers. These efforts go a long way to assisting in improving the nation's economy as it eliminates the means for graft and displaced funds. These missions result in the discovery of several agents from other nations who were using the criminal activity as a source of information. One such agent was from the Capellan Confederation who was able to be turned. This new asset gives them insight into Maskirovka agents and missions in the area.

So that is all for this installment and I'll see you all in about a week for part 4.