Whew...

[Iskandar]

Okay, slogging through the campaign from the start, again. Pushed past the first 4 missions of the first campaign, but was low on money. So I thought I'd take a break, fight a random mission, maybe salvage a new ride.

It just wasn't meant to be.

It was my four:
Driller (Light, 4 lt Mesons, 2 Vibra Claws) Leader One
Lightning (2 GME's Pulse Laser, Recon) Skorn
Fireball Elf (modified with 4 Flamethrowers instead of three and the napalm missles)
Porcupine Mord Sith


VS:
Blizzard
Imp

on a random Terran map.

It started off bad. Leader One fell over in some water, and trailed way behind, and never got in the fight, at all.

Skorn and Mord Sith got ahead of Elf, and climbed some mountains, only to run smack into the two enemy titans. Completely outclassed they did their best. Well, Skorn did. The Imp landed both Tesla shots to the Porcupine's LoT, disabling it first shot. Skorn was forced to eject shortly after, haven taken 6 Cold Light shots and 2 Teslas's.

In comes Elf, and I'm thinking the game is lost.She, however, proves me wrong. She dodges the fire from both Titans, and unloads a total of 7 flamethrowers into the Blizzard, shutting it down. The 8th shot misses, catching the woods everyone was standing in on fire. Realizing what was about to happen, she abandons the hilltop to the Imp, literally rolling down the hill in her haste to get away from the impending explosion. Leader One, finally ready to go charging up the hill, wisely decides to turn aside, and wait for the Imp to come down.

So, Elf and Leader One are at the bottom of the hill, The Blizzard is shut down in a flaming hex, with the remains of my Lightning and Porcupine. The Imp is 1 hex away trying to figure a safe way down the hill, when all hell breaks loose.

The Blizzard explodes (saw THAT one coming). Then the Lightning explodes (given what was left of it, not suprising), then the Porcupine explodes (given that the only damaged spot was the LoT, this one suprised me). I'm out of line of sight of the Imp at this point, so I have no idea how it is fairing. As it turns out, not so well. It didn't get away from the explosion, having trapped itself with a fire on one side, and unclimbable terrain (well, undescendable w/o falling) on the other 5. So it took the brunt of 3 engine explosions at one hex distance. Looking at the logs later, it overheated to shut down (258 C), as well as losing both arms and a leg.


So, almost no salvage. A bounty. Two Titans of mine vaporized. The other two received minor armor damage (falling in Leader One's case, a couple of punches in Elf's case).

Total payment? about 75k.

Cost to replace and repair? 15k in repairs, and two new Titans, 180k, almost 200k total.

I won, but really can't call this a victory.

[Thorgrim]

ORIGINAL: Iskandar

Total payment? about 75k.

Was that same rank?

[Iskandar]

yes. however, that is payment (payment, salvage, bounty) - upkeep. pay for the mission was about 100k or more. just upkeep being around 40k, and salvage being barely 12k, well

[Thorgrim]

Yeah, but same rank is 125k base. Seemed like a very high upkeep to me. Still looks like way over 40k, more like 60k.

[Iskandar]

hrm. question: I know payment is partially based off your highest Busness skill. What I don't know is whether or not jocks that ejected but survive count in determining who has the highest skill, or if it is just the jocks still in Tians.

Because, the only two survivors were my Leader and my Mechanic....

Because upkeep was 40k (maybe 45) and pay for the mission was around 100 -110k. With bounty and minimal salvage, the payout was really close to 75k to 80k. Add that to the 70k I had started out with and I ended up with just a little over 145k, not enough to purchase two new recon titans.

Which meant I had to go into another random battle to try to earn that money. And failed miserably.

So, now I've started all over, again.

Btw, maybe I'm just evil, but I really like Fireballs, simply because they can cause engine explosions as needed if the target is stupid enough to stand in cover. Shut 'em down, and light the hex on fire. Then, run like the wind.

Sure no salvage, but you will get a bounty. And possible collateral damage. Plus the nice screams as the enemy pilot roasts. [:D]

I've taken out pristine Medium Titans that way. The AI doesn't seem to get the idea of clearing trees.

[Peter Why]

I like the sound of that Fireball Elf; any other mods apart from the weaponry?

[Iskandar]

Elf is the pilot.
and no, just 4 flamethrowers. well, and moved the engine to the CT torso.
Works relatively well, against one opponent. Then the ammo generally runs out before it do anything significant to anyone else. I plan on moving my new squad's mechanic to an upgraded light Titan version with 6 of these with more ammo, as soon as it is convienent.

Had an interesting kill today. Had three flamethrowers hit head on some poor shmuck, at which point he fell over dead. Or at least I assume dead, as he automatically fell over and never stood again.
Has to be a hell of a way to go, being literally roasted to death as heat hot enough to melt your cockpit consumes you.

[Thorgrim]

Payment is 125k for same rank, +-25k per rank difference. Probably with your killed jocks your squad's rank went up by one (possible if you started with 1 green and 3 rookies - average rank 1 - and ended with 1 green and 1 rookie - average rank 2 - for example; and if AI was set to rookie). That'd make payment 100k. Of course, probably rank difference should be determined at the start of battle, not at the end, but I can't think of anything else.

The NMs in the Fireball not only give you some range (when closing, whrn igninting woods), but they allow you to backup just outside an explosion radius, and finish off the target at range.
The light Inferno is also based on NMs and FTs, but more focused on the NMs.

[Iskandar]

True enough Tnorgrim. However, when I created the pilot, I screwed up, and forgot the Unguided skill.

So, the NM had to go.