The Wanderers - Rookie AAR

[Peter Why]

Trying again: I'm pre-choosing three titans, rather than randomising, and training my jocks to match. First battle in Terran arena to get settled in, then Random. Two battles so far:

[Peter Why]

Jock: ELYSEE MANE aka LISA
Rank: ROOKIE [1]
Battles: 00 [Wins/Losses: 00/00]
Leader: Recruit rookie mod 40%
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Attributes:
INTELLIGENCE: 10
NEURAL SENSE: 12
REACTION: 10
INSTINCT: 14
DEXTERITY: 12
CONSTITUTION: 09 HP: 81
CHARISMA: 12
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Skills:
RECON/LIGHT: 056 % [056]
MEDIUM/HEAVY: 005 % [060] ---
ASSAULT: 034 % [060]
JUMP: 012 % [056] --
SCOUTING: 029 % [063] -

CLOSE COMBAT: 005 % [063] ---
GUIDED MSL.: 023 % [056] -
UNGUIDED MSL.: 055 % [056]
CANNON: 025 % [053] -
ENERGY WEAPON: 024 % [053] -
INDIRECT FIRE: 022 % [063] -

EL. WARFARE: 010 % [056] --
SCANNER: 031 % [053]
DEFENSIVE: 001 % [056] ---
DMG. CONTROL: 019 % [053] --
LEADERSHIP: 056 % [056]
BUSINESS: 007 % [053] ---
SURVIVAL: 045 % [061]
MEDICAL: 014 % [053] --
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Jock: KALINA STELL aka KALLY
Race: REPLICANT D [FEMALE]
Rank: ROOKIE [1]
Battles: 00 [Wins/Losses: 00/00]
Manager: Purchase markup 09%
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Attributes:
INTELLIGENCE: 13
NEURAL SENSE: 10
REACTION: 10
INSTINCT: 12
DEXTERITY: 14
CONSTITUTION: 12 HP: 108
CHARISMA: 11
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Skills:
RECON/LIGHT: 055 % [063]
MEDIUM/HEAVY: 007 % [056] ---
ASSAULT: 023 % [056] -
JUMP: 009 % [063] ---
SCOUTING: 024 % [061] -

CLOSE COMBAT: 023 % [056] -
GUIDED MSL.: 016 % [063] --
UNGUIDED MSL.: 017 % [063] --
CANNON: 056 % [056]
ENERGY WEAPON: 022 % [056] -
INDIRECT FIRE: 002 % [061] ---

EL. WARFARE: 014 % [063] --
SCANNER: 037 % [060]
DEFENSIVE: 021 % [068] -
DMG. CONTROL: 008 % [066] ---
LEADERSHIP: 002 % [058] ---
BUSINESS: 061 % [061]
SURVIVAL: 022 % [060] -
MEDICAL: 009 % [066] ---
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Jock: MORAG SPLINE aka MORAG
Race: CYBORG [FEMALE]
Rank: ROOKIE [1]
Battles: 00 [Wins/Losses: 00/00]
Mechanic: Repair markup 17%
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Attributes:
INTELLIGENCE: 10
NEURAL SENSE: 10
REACTION: 10
INSTINCT: 13
DEXTERITY: 13
CONSTITUTION: 11 HP: 99
CHARISMA: 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Skills:
RECON/LIGHT: 049 % [060]
MEDIUM/HEAVY: 017 % [055] --
ASSAULT: 004 % [055] ---
JUMP: 017 % [060] --
SCOUTING: 008 % [060] ---

CLOSE COMBAT: 042 % [060]
GUIDED MSL.: 032 % [055]
UNGUIDED MSL.: 015 % [060] --
CANNON: 028 % [055] -
ENERGY WEAPON: 038 % [055]
INDIRECT FIRE: 016 % [060] --

EL. WARFARE: 003 % [055] ---
SCANNER: 026 % [050] -
DEFENSIVE: 020 % [060] -
DMG. CONTROL: 053 % [055]
LEADERSHIP: 009 % [050] ---
BUSINESS: 026 % [050] -
SURVIVAL: 026 % [061] -
MEDICAL: 020 % [055] -
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The Wanderers

Leader: Lisa, on a Porcupine

Businessman: Kally, on a Lancer

Engineer: Morag, on a Duellist

Battle 1: Small Terran Arena

The team started in the middle of the east side, near the southern edge of a patch of plain that took up over a fifth of the arena. They heard the enemy moving almost immediately, but didn't spot them. There was a patch of woods at the west end of the clearing (roughly in the middle of the arena); they decided to head along the hills towards the woods. They headed along the south border of the plain, then, with no sight of the enemy, turned north-west through the woods to the foothills of a much higher, less passable range of hills, figuring that it would protect their backs if they come under attack.

All three spotted a Unicorn coming over the the west end of the hills that they were heading for; the team moved into the woods for cover. The Unicorn dropped out of sight behind a hill, but its partner, a Hunchback, came through the same pass.
The Unicorn popped up in the undergrowth right next to Lisa and Kally, while Morag was being targeted by the Hunchback ... it hadn't managed to hit her yet because of heavy cover. Morag was trying for a scan on the Hunchback but after the scan, was going to attack the Unicorn, which was only a couple of hexes away.
Lisa had already been running into the Unicorn's hex when it appeared. Her enemy fired first when she entered his hex, but she put a lot of her SRMs into him. Unfortunately, the Hunchback was overlooking their battle and hit Lisa's centre torso with its Auto 20 and then hit her head with its laser (she lost 33 hit points!). Lisa ran out of the hex to break the Hunchback's LoS; she was going to try for an active scan on the Unicorn, which was by then exchanging damage with Kally. Luckily the Hunchback, which had retargetted on Kally, missed with its Auto 20, but he did hit her a couple of times with his laser.

Morag was running into the Unicorn's hex to attack with her CC weapons. Just as Kally disabled the Unicorn with a machine gun shot to the lower torso, the Hunchback came into the hex. Kally decided to run out of the hex, to avoid being attacked by the disabled Unicorn while she fought the Hunchback. Morag, who was running into the hex, decided to run straight through it after a quick attack on the downed Unicorn (there wasn't enough time to retarget on the Hunchback).
While Kally was running, her right torso was disabled by the Hunchback's Auto 20, but she didn't fall; however, her scanner was now disabled.
Because of the heavy cover, Lisa now had only a 21% chance to hit the Hunchback with her SRMs, so she waited to fire until Kally was out of the target hex. When she did fire, two out of six rounds hit the downed Unicorn, one hit the Hunchback, and the others missed. Lisa turned and ran into cover, hoping to draw the Hunchback into a small clearing where both she and Kally could attack it from cover.
The Hunchback did run forward into the clearing, where it had Lisa on one side and Kally on another. Morag was still running through the woods to join them. Lisa and Kally both hit the Hunchback.

Lisa realised that the Hunchback was running towards her, so she started to run out of her hex. She left it the moment after he arrived. After they both turned towards each other; the Hunchback hit Lisa in the lower torso with its laser, but she didn't fall. Again the Hunchback ran into Lisa's hex, and she ran out of it. Morag (the Duellist) now started to run into the Hunchback's hex; Kally was still hammering away with her Auto 7 and machine gun. Morag missed with her first Chain Saw attack. The Hunchback's Auto 20 caught her in the leg and she fell. The other two decided to move into the hex where the fight was going on, to increase their chances of hitting the Hunchback while it was distracted with Morag. Morag managed to stand for a (what she thought would be a final) attack on the Hunchback (she managed a 22/24 chance to stand up!). She missed again, but hit with both Chain saws on her next attempt. Lisa and Kally now joined Morag, and they were all hammering away. At last, Kally's Auto 7 caught their enemy in the groin and down he went! Lisa's SRMs were now hitting at 75%, so she added to the damage (hitting Morag in the process, of course).
The Hunchback did manage to stand, but they continued their attack until the enemy jock ejected. As all three retargeted on the downed Unicorn, its jock ejected too.

A hard-fought success.

Salvage $59,893 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $17527 = Balance $167,366
Repairs: $64,142 (Total $249,353)

**********************

Battle 2: small Core arena.

The team started in the middle of the west side in a very small clearing with little of the rest of the arena visible.

Morag (on the Duellist) was going to have to walk everywhere; her heat was halfway up the green just running up a 30 m hill. Kally, on the Lancer, had similar problems, but Lisa (on the Porcupine) was better off.

Kally spotted a Quantum just over ten hexes away .. much of the intervening ground couldn't be seen. As Morag climbed to the top of a 77 m hill, she spotted the Quantum too, and had a clear view across a gently undulating arena .. they had started in one of the few clusters of high hills.

As Lisa and Kally moved into the slight cover along the east side of their hills, their lock on the Quantum was intermittent, so neither got a successful active scan. Kally settled into cover about 5 hexes from the Quantum but wasn't able to get better than a 25% chance to hit. The Quantum dropped out of sight, so the two friends started to move forward to where they expected it to emerge. The Quantum arrived and fired but missed; it then fell to one of Lisa's SRMs in the leg.

Kally, arriving in Lisa's hex, knocked the Quantum down again with an Auto 7 hit in the leg. This was followed by another knock-down from Lisa's SRMs! (Morag, meanwhile was WALKING towards the fight, as she had overheated running through two hexes across the hills.)

As soon as the Quantum was able to stand, it started to run into Lisa and Kally's hex. They decided to run forward and past their attacker ... but the Quantum charged Lisa down; they each took 24 damage. The Quantum fell and Lisa stayed on her feet.
As Kally ran away from the Quantum, she saw the other enemy titan approaching. It was a Spear, only two hexes away. She targeted on it, as did Lisa, as she, too, ran forward.
Unfortunately, Lisa was overheating, so could only let off a couple of rounds of SRMs before she had to stop to cool down. Kally and the Spear were exchanging Auto and machine gun hits. The Spear backed away, coming into Morag's LoS; she had been walking around a hill to the north ... so she started to scan it as she approached.

Kally moved into the hex next to the Spear and hit it again with her Auto 7, but her heat was approaching red, so she stopped firing to cool off. Lisa, putting a full load of SRMs into the Spear, went into the red herself. They both decided to try for a scan while they were cooling down. Meanwhile Morag was walking into the Spear's hex.
(In the distance, the team could hear the damaged Quantum repeatedly falling down .. presumably it had fallen and was trying to get up.) Morag missed the Spear with her Chain Saws and went into the red, overheating. The Spear backed away into the next hex and the others strolled carefully after.
Morag arrived in the Spear's hex and started to do some real damage with her Chain Saws. None of the three had managed even a yellow scan yet, and the Spear hadn't fallen, so they had little idea of the damage they were causing.
However, after more hits from both sides, Kally managed a yellow scan: the Spear had red damage to Centre, Left and Right Torsos. After a few more hits, the Spear's jock ejected, and the team turned to finish off the Quantum, out of sight behind a hill, before its jock ejected. When they came near, Kally got a yellow scan and saw that the titan had shut down. They moved back to three hexes away, in case of an explosion. With a green scan, they realised that the Quantum is badly overheating. Lisa and Kally had to wait for Morag on her overheating Duellist to walk to safety before they attacked. One shot from Kally's autocannon and the Quantum was disabled .. oh well, no bounty this time.

The Wanderers were awarded the Spear.

Salvage $13,998 + Payment $125,000 + Upkeep $22,994 = Balance $116,004
Repair $86581 (Total $302,487)

Morag gained very few points, but the other two improved their Scouting (Piloting was at its maximum) and Scanning, while Lisa improved her Indirect Fire (for her UGMs) and Kally her Close Combat.

The Duellist and Porcupine are not good titans for the Core environment; we can hope to pick up more useful titans for Morag and Lisa to ride.
*************************

[Thorgrim]

Recons are hardly suited for Core. Very few can run without overheating. So take your time to deploy, walk. With the Duellist, instead of running, jump. Jumping in Core is more heat efficient than running, 2.0C/sec vs 2.3C/sec (no environment heat when airborne).
Starting on the IF skill seems a little premature to me, at this level it's hardly useful IMO.

[Peter Why]

I'd always assumed (without checking) that the jump-jets would generate more heat than running would.
I put points into indirect fire rather than close combat because of a note in the manual that said it improved UGM use, although more useful for GMs.

[Thorgrim]

They do, 2.0 vs 1.3, but environment heat is not factored when not on ground level.
IF doesn't improve UGM/GM use, it lowers the penalty for firing them without direct LoS. That penalty is generally high, and the skill needs to be somewhat high to make a difference. It works better for GMs.

[Peter Why]

Thanks, Iceman; I hadn't realised either of those points.

[Peter Why]

Battle 3: (Random) small Terran arena

About a fifth of the arena in the north east was fairly open plain. They moved directly west from there to hilly cover in the centre of the north side. Kally climbed along the spine of a short line of hills, Lisa ran parallel to the hills on the plain to her north, Morag to the south. Morag, moving through cover, spotted a Wasp seven hexes directly to her east. She stayed in cover to carry out a scan, while Kally came down from the hills to join her.
Lisa continued west along the base of the hills past a high hill, aiming to cross the lower hills beyond it and catch the Wasp from behind. Doing this, she spotted a Viper some six hexes to the west of the Wasp; she started to scan it.
The Wasp ran past Lisa into Morag's hex, where Morag hit it with both Chain Saws and a kick, knocking it to the ground. Lisa attacked him from the next hex and Morag cut off his left arm; he got to his feet again.
Meanwhile Kally was hit once by the Viper's heavy meson gun, but was going to join the fight against the Wasp after completing her scan attempt on the Viper. She failed the scan just as the Wasp jock ejected. All three titans retargeted on the Viper and moved into cover as it approached. Lisa managed a yellow scan and put three out of six batches of SRMs into it from about five hexes away. Lisa and Kally continued to fire at the stationary Viper, while Morag sat under the trees with them, trying to get a good scan and waiting until her Chain Saws are needed.
Lisa now had a green scan, but at that distance, it still meant she was only at 47% to hit. She thought that she might run out of SRMs before doing any major damage to the Viper. Their enemy was still, not even firing at them, so they continued to use their missiles and cannon at a distance. (Eventually, when they ran out of ammunition, Morag was going to have to run in and try to finish him off.) After a lot more missiles and cannon shots, the Viper was showing a lot of damage and Morag, bored with getting red scans, decided to move in. She dropped out of his LoS as she ran, so turned away a little so she come upon him suddenly from behind.The enemy titan was now red in all areas except the CBT; Kally's next cannon shot chopped his left arm off and he fell .. which meant that Lisa's chance of success with her SRMs dropped to 2%. She decided to stay put in case he stood up again.
Morag started running into the Viper's hex just as he managed to stand up. When she arrived, her opponent hit her twice with his Heavy Meson Guns, damaging a knee actuator; but she returned with two Chain Saws, disabling his left torso and, with a later attack, his right torso. She decided to move away in case she caused an explosion, and the other two started to move closer to finish the Viper off from a distance .. but the Viper's jock ejected before they could start moving.

A surprisingly easy victory (more due to a quirk of the AI that controlled the enemy attacks than to any skill of the team.)

Salvage $42,423 + payment $125,000 - Upkeep $21,346 = Balance $146,077
Repair $4,195 (Total $444,369)

Their primary skills, piloting, primary combat and leadership/business/DCS are all at maximum now, so any future points can accumulate for an eventual increase in Attribute.

******************

Battle 4: (Random) small Biochem arena.

They started in the north-west corner, with a clear area stretching about half way across the arena in front of them. Acid pools restricted them a little, so they decided to head for the hills in the middle of the arena. As they were all clambering around in a cluster of pits, Kally spotted a Guru in the hills, perhaps ten hexes away. She lost sight of it almost immediately, but the squad moved into position ready for its arrival; this meant backing away into heavy cover, as the nearby hills were bare. Unfortunately, a light Tantrum started to come over the hills close to Morag first, so they all moved directly to the attack. The Guru appeared in the Tantrum's hex .. trouble was building.
Luckily, Lisa, climbing a hill, found that what had seemed to be a river of acid near them actually had a gap in it. They decided to run for the gap and try to split their opponents up as they followed. A Rogue now appeared, running to the battle; it had taken a short-cut through the hills and was only three hexes from the path through the acid. Lisa and Kally would try to attack it nearly simultaneously, and Morag waited to charge in if it fell.

All three waited in the only cover available on that side of the acid stream, two hexes from the way through. The Rogue missed with its Black Ray Gun, but Lisa and Kally both hit it, causing yellow damage to Centre, Left and Right Torsos and Left Arm. Lisa's second battery of missiles actually brought the Rogue down, so Morag rose to her feet ready to run to the attack. By the time Morag was running into the Rogue's hex, it had taken more damage from cannon and SRMs, but had been joined by the Guru. The Rogue's BRG had hit Morag's Duellist once; it now started to run towards her hex. Morag missed with both chain saws and started to turn round to follow the Rogue into the hex she had just left. The Guru got a few minor hits on her while she was in its hex, but missed its first attempt with its Tesla (but a second attempt hit her leg, damaging the heat regulator).
Lisa decided to fire her next batch of missiles at the damaged Rogue, even though Morag was in the same hex (she only hit with 1/6 batches at 40%).
The hammering from Lisa and Kally at last disabled the Rogue's lower torso, so they retargeted on the Guru; they would let Morag finish off the Rogue .. but the jock ejected before she could get there. Rather than abort her run, she decided to finish it, then return to attack the Guru. However, while she was turning, the Guru tore her right arm off with a Tesla shot. She decided to move futher away until it had been softened up a little (if she moved away but stayed in its LoS, she might be able to cut down her chances of being damaged, but still distract it from hitting her friends). She was also now coming under SRM and machine gun attack from the Tantrum, which had now moved into the Guru's hex. Her move away took her momentarily out of sight of her enemies, but the Tantrum moved forward and Morag locked on and turned to attack it with her remaining Chain Saw.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Kally had still been firing at the Guru, which at last fell to a SRM round ... though it soon got up again.

The Tantrum now moved into Lisa and Kally's hex and started to attack Kally; Kally and Lisa stood up. Morag ran into their hex to continue her attack on the Tantrum. All three were now attacking the Tantrum in the same hex. Morag, after a miss with the Chain Saw, was frustrated enough to try a kick, and fell to the ground.
The Guru, a couple of hexes away, now started to run closer.

Although Lisa did hit the Tantrum with her SRMs, she also hit Morag, so she decided to retarget on the Guru, now in the adjacent hex.

Kally took a couple of missile hits to the head and lost 10 hit points.

The Guru now joined them. All three of our team targeted the Guru, fearing its Tesla more than the Tantrum's SRMs.
Morag's left leg was ripped off by a lucky shot from the Guru's machine gun; she started the eject sequence, wishing that she had put more effort into learning how to use the system. She ejected successfully, taking a little damage in the process.
Lisa's SRMs at last got through to the Guru, and it lost its leg; she retargeted to the Tantrum, as did Kally. One of Lisa's missiles did some key damage to the Tantrum's lower torso and it fell. Both Lisa and Kally moved out of the hex to encourage the enemy jocks to eject rather than continue fighting. They ejected before the two friends could even start to run.

Kally was raised to Green.

A tight battle, made difficult by dealing with the threat from the Black Light Gun and, especially, from the Tesla.

Salvage $52,006 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $24,283 = Balance $152, 723
Repairs: $62,026 (Total: $535,066)

Kally increased Reaction (for her Cannon and Piloting) and Charisma for the Business skill (there weren't enough points left to increase Intelligence).

Lisa (Rookie): Pilot 56%, Scout 36%; UGM 56%, Indirect Fire 34%, CC 38%; Leadership 56%, Scan 44%, Survival 45%
Kally (Green): Pilot 64%, Scout 30%; Cannon 60%, CC 46%; Business 63%, Scan 55%, Survival 33%
Morag (Rookie): Pilot 56%, Jump 20%; CC 49%; Damage Control 55%, Survival 30%, Scan 26%.


*********************

Battle 5: (Random) small Savannah arena. Rookie opponents.

They started in the north-east corner. It seemed unusually hilly for savannah, but they could see across about a third of the arena from their little group of hills.
There were more hills and better cover to the south, so they headed that way; as she came over a hill, Kally could see along a wide strip reaching almost to the south-west corner, but there was no sign of the enemy. Shortly after, they heard jump-jets operating, but still didn't see anything. Lisa climbed a hill in the middle of the east side .. still no sign of the enemy. Since he's obviously active, they decided to settle into the best positions they could find and wait for him.
As she approached their chosen hills, Kally spotted a Zealot flying over the hills in the distance (about 12 hexes away). The other two saw it, too.
Lisa and Morag momentarily spotted a light titan in the middle of the northern edge of the arena .. the team hoped they could deal with the Zealot before the heavier machine arrived. They moved westwards as fast as they could, to draw the Zealot away from its partner, into the shadow of the hills in the middle of the arena.

The Tempest approached faster than they expected; it had flatter ground to cover than they did. It targeted Morag, who was running towards the recon Zealot, but missed (Black Ray Gun) .. she broke its lock by running behind a hill.

Kally and Lisa approached the Zealot (they both hit it with missiles and cannon fire from about 3 hexes away), then stopped in a shallow gully to continue their attack. The Tempest was still heading towards where it last saw Morag. She now came in sight of the Zealot and started to run towards it. The Tempest pursued her and was only two hexes away as Morag started her run to attack the Zealot.

The Zealot was now red in left leg, left arm, left torso; Lisa knocked it to the ground with a cluster of missiles. After firing the rest of her SRM batteries, she targeted the Tempest (to avoid hitting Morag when she and her Chain Saws went to work on the Quantum ... but Morag's attack was aborted as the Tempest hits her titan's right leg with its BRG and she fell to the ground .. Lisa targeted the fallen Zealot again). Lisa locked on as the Zealot stood up, and she shot off its left arm with her missiles. It fell again; she left it to Morag (who has just stood up) and targeted the Tempest again. After shooting the fallen Zealot's left leg off, Kally, too, targeted the Tempest. The Zealot's jock ejected.

The Tempest now had Lisa on one side, Kally on another, and Morag two hexes away, running to bring her Chain Saws into action (she did get hit by the Black Ray Gun again as she approached). Lisa fell to a BRG attack.

Morag was now in the Tempest hex and had delivered three successful attacks (one to the head), but had been hit in the leg by the BRG; she managed to stay on her feet, but if she fell again, wasn't likely to be able to stand again. Sure enough, she's punched to the ground and has her right leg shot off. It's Eject time again ... Morag loses 76 hit points in the eject, but survived.

Lisa ran into the Tempest's hex to improve her chance of hitting with her missiles; however, when she arrived, she found that the Tempest was already running to attack Kally. Lisa fired her missiles anyway and turned to follow.
The Tempest charged Kally (in her Porcupine). Kally took 14 hits, but stayed on her feet; the Tempest took 6 hits and fell. With another couple of shots from Kally, the Tempest jock ejected.

Lisa was raised to Green.

Salvage $63,763 + Payment $143,749 - Upkeep $28,448 = Balance $179,064
Repairs: $45,441 (Total: $668,689)

Lisa increased her Dexterity.

Lisa (Green): Pilot 58%, Scout 37%; UGM 60%, CC 39%; Leadership 56%, Scanner 49%
Kally (Green): Pilot 65%, Scout 34%; Cannon 60%, CC 50%; Business 63%, Scanner 55%, Survival 35%.
Morag (Rookie): Pilot 60%, Jump 25%; CC 50%; Damage Control 55%, Scanner 27%, Survival 33%.

****************

Battle 6: (Random) small Terran arena. Green opponents.

Kally and Lisa started tucked away behind a cluster of hills in the south-west corner; Morag was in a small clear patch to the north of those hills. She was standing just south of a river running up to the middle of the north side, cutting off the north-western quadrant.

Kally spotted a Fireball about ten hexes to the east, beyond a few clusters of wooded hills.
Lisa and Morag headed that way, Morag from the north end, Lisa from the south ....
Lisa moved towards some wooded hills on the south border of the arena; Morag ran to join her. Kally climbed over a medium hill at the west side of the valley ... and saw a Poltergeist ten hexes away .. about five hexes from the hills Lisa and Morag were headed for. There was a narrow pass in the hills between them and their enemy, so they decided on an ambush. The Fireball appeared next to the Poltergeist.

After a lot of scrabbling around in tree-covered hills, Morag was off to one side, scanning until the enemy titans stopped their running around; Lisa and Kally were on a low wooded hill firing at the Poltergeist. The Polstergeist and the Fireball came into their hex almost simultaneously. The Fireball charged Lisa first .. Lisa stayed standing, the Fireball didn't .. then the Poltergeist landed on Lisa! She took 35 hits damage and both she in her Porcupine and the attacking Poltergeist fell to the ground. Morag started running to join the fight.
The fallen titans all manage to stand. Lisa and Kally continued to attack the Poltergeist, but the Fireball's Napalm missiles were causing Lisa to overheat, so they all decided to retarget on the Fireball. Lisa lost a leg before she could bring her missiles to bear and decided to eject. Kally and Morag started to run away .. Lisa's Porcupine was getting *very* hot. Sadly, Lisa died in the eject. The Fireball's attack had shifted to Kally and she was swiftly brought down .. the battle was going horribly wrong. As Kally stood, Lisa's Porcupine exploded (in the same hex).
Kally lost a leg, and Morag, two hexes away took 12 damage from the explosion. The enemy Poltergeist took 35 damage and fell; the Fireball, a hex away, took 25 damage. Kally decided to eject.

Morag tried for a scan on the fallen Poltergeist to see if it would be worth finishing off (she couldn't see the Fireball, which was on the other side of the hills). Kally, fallen in the burning hex, had a 2% chance to eject successfully .. and got a 1!!. Some luck coming their way, at last, perhaps.
The Poltergeist's missiles were exploding with the heat; Morag's yellow scan showed that it had shut down. Morag started to move away in case of another explosion. Just then, the Fireball approached through the hex with the hot Poltergeist in .. but itl got through ok. Morag, hit by a couple of Napalm missiles, and overheating, crossed a small lake, but had her leg shot off. Submerged, she was resigned to trying to stand (2% chance of success) and then ejecting, or damaging her Duellist enough in the process to disable it. The Fireball couldn't hit her and was walking around the lake .. and the Poltergeist, restarted, was approaching. This was not her day.
Unfortunately, she did enough damage to herself that she couldn't move, but wasn't disabled. [Game saved for Larkin]

[Thorgrim]

In 1.2 immersed titans without one leg will be counted as disabled for victory/defeat conditions.

Also, if Morag keeps ejecting, she'll never be promoted [;)] (her CC skill is kinda low for a Duellist jock).

[Peter Why]

Yes, I know Morag's underskilled, but. as the Duellist was the only titan left when she was recruited, I had to make do. I'm just hoping she survives to increase her skill by simple brute force.

I figured that Disabled would be the best way to describe the situation. I've sent my save to Larkin, hoping he can recover the game for me; otherwise I'll have to lose a couple of battles and go back to an earlier saved team. (The autosave isn't from far back enough to avoid the disabled/submerged trap.)

[Sleeping_Dragon]

In battle #3, you mentioned the Viper wasn't firing much... was it using it's PLs occassionally and possibly overheating? It had some heat problems when my squad used it. may have to give it a good looking at.


As for your last battle, I ran into the same situation a while back with another squad (non-hard core) and had to retrieve them [:(] but the next patch should fix this.

[Peter Why]

Sleeping Dragon: no, the Viper was stationary and didn't fire at all for a very long time. I think it was caught in the same loop that another titan was caught by in my earlier AAR ... I sent Larkin some saves that I'd done, but he recognised the problem. I may have a save of this one. If I have, I'll PM it to you.

[aquietfrog]

hopefully, these loops are restricted to lower ranked AI jocks. I haven't noticed high ranked AI doing this. Think of it as replication of Noob Player mistakes setting both attack and move to wait on key that's not happening (like new enemy when all enemies are in scanner view).

[LarkinVB]

Seems to be the same problem I already fixed with v1.2. AI break attack in move to lock hex to light it but than decides to lock titan instead. Rinse and repeat.

[Peter Why]

Thanks; I'd saved my team before the battle, so I have a resurrection chance. (Sorry about the delay in replying, I've been away for a week.)

[Peter Why]

So .. previous Battle 6 abandonned, as I couldn't close it properly ..

Battle 6: (Random) Small Terran, green opponents.

The team started in the wooded and hilly north-east corner. Kally climbed a hill and found hills and woods in patches across the arena, with a fairly clear area to their south-west. As they had heard a few sounds from the enemy, they decided to settle in for a while, with Kally on the hill and the other two crouching under cover.
They soon saw a Prowler (a recon) run out of the hills about 10 hexes to the south-west. As Kally left her hill-top she got a yellow scan on the Prowler: two CC weapons and an energy weapon. She retargetted on the light Savage which had just appeared behind the Prowler. With the Prowler only two hexes away, Lisa (SRMs) and Morag (CC) stood up.

Kally got a yellow scan on the light: big energy weapon, missile launcher and CC. She moved to attack the closer recon, as her two friends were doing. They managed to bring down the Prowler with cannon and missile .. its CT was quickly red .. and knocked it down a few times as it started to rise. By this time the Savage was in the Prowler's hex; Lisa shifted targets, to soften it with her SRMs. The Savage had a BRG, but had missed twice earlier, with the team in heavy cover. As it approached closer, the other two retargetted to it as well. Luckily the Prowler seemed to have taken gyro or activator damage, as it was having trouble getting up.
The Savage had now entered their hex, so they all started to attack. It settled on Lisa (Porcupine - SRMs) to attack; she had light engine damage from a punch to the CT and her arm was hit by the BRG. Morag, frustrated by her failure to hit the Savage with her Chain Saws, tried to kick it ..and only just managed to stay on her feet. Luckily, Kally managed to bring it down with a well-aimed machine gun hit .. so she put a couple of punches and a kick into the enemy titan, too. Morag at last managed to do some chain saw damage, too; it looks as if she's going to have to wait for her enemies to fall down before she can hit them.

Two hexes away, the Prowler had managed to stand up. Lisa retargeted to put a volley of SRMs into it. The Savage stood up at the right moment to take advantage of this and hit her with BRG and Chain Saw, but she didn't fall. Morag brought the Savage down with a couple of well-place chain saw hits. As her friends were keeping the Savage out of action, Lisa continued to put SRMs into the Prowler two hexes away, but had to stop after a while to cool down. The light Savage was soon disabled and all three went after the Prowler, hoping for a kill. With a couple of chain saw hits, the Prowler jock ejected .. and they won!

They were awarded the Prowler.

Salvage $26,846 + Payment $111,111 - Upkeep $30,562 = Balance $107,395
Repairs: Prowler $49,967 + $19,958
In the bank: $706,159

Kally decided to shift from her Lancer to the light Spear (Auto 4, Auto 7, Gauss Cannon and Machine Gun)

***********************

Battle 7: (Random) Small polar arena; Green opponents.

They started in the mid-west, scattered along a line stretching about 7 hexes. While Kally (Spear - cannons) climbed a medium hill, the other two moved closer to her. Although the hill gave good visibility over the arena, no enemy was visible, so Kally continued along the higher ridge to her east. Lisa (Porcupine - SRMs), on a hill slightly south of Kally, spotted a light Meteor about 8 hexes directly to her east. She crouched to try for a scan .. and was hit in the leg by a shot from a Unicorn hiding among trees only five hexes away. She stayed upright, but started down the hill. Kally started to scan the Unicorn as she started down from the hills to join her friends. A Deimos now joined the more distant Meteor, so the three friends turned towards the closer Unicorn.
As they moved to draw the Unicorn to attack them, Kally was hit three times by the Deimos' neutron blaster, losing 53 hit points .. she dodged towards the cover of a hill, to try to break the enemy's line of sight, hitting the Unicorn with a few shots as she went.
Kally took another couple of NB hits and fell unconscious. Lisa shifted target from the Unicorn, which she had been damaging with her SRMs, to the Deimos to try to protect Kally. However, with more NB shots from the Deimos and the Meteor, Kally succumbed and died. Morag ran through the trees to attack the Deimos in a more personal way than Lisa's missiles. Lisa's SRMs brought the Deimos down, but the enemy got up again just before Morag arrived. Two chain saw hits removed the Deimos left arm, but Morag's enemy stayed on her feet. Lisa retargeted on the Unicorn to avoid hitting Morag. The Unicorn soon had a red left arm and right leg and yellow damage to left leg, right arm and both torsos.
Morag disabled the Deimos with a final CT hit and turned to attack the Unicorn, two hexes away .. but, as she turned, she was hit by the Meteor's NB, taking 23 damage .. she felt dizzy, but thought she would still be able to finish off the damaged Unicorn. After a last volley of SRMs at the Unicorn, Lisa retargeted to the more distant Meteor and moved to a clump of trees closer to it. With two good Chain Saw strikes to the lower torso, Morag disabled the Unicorn and turned for the Meteor. Her Chain Saws weren't ready when she arrived, so she tried a kick, but fell and was soon damaged by the Meteor's NB again (and by its Flame Thrower and cannon). Although she stood, she was soon hit again and lost an arm and the opposite torso was disabled.

The opponents offered a draw, which the team accepted, as Lisa felt that, although she had taken very little damage, she couldn't deliver enough focussed harm to her opponent to be sure of finishing it off.

Payment $145,000 - Upkeep $26,509 = Balance $118,491
Repairs $60,335
In the bank: $764,315

Elysee improved her CC and scanner skills:
Piloting 60%, Scouting 39%; UGM 60%, CC 50%; Leadership 56%, Scan 53%, Survival 47%

Morag improved her flying and survival skills:
Piloting 60%, Jump 35%; CC 53%; DCS 55%, Scan 27%, Survival 46%.

A new Jock was recruited as Businessman and Cannon wielder:
Donald Bray, aka Drongo:

Pilot: 56%, Jump 32%; Cannon 53%, CC 42%; Business 57%, Scan 46%, Survival 32%
(Wanderers are now ranked Rookie again)

********************

Battle 8: (Random) Small Biochem arena; Rookie opponents.

They started in the north-western corner; this quadrant was not very hilly, but had scattered patches of cover. Lisa made for a low hill in the middle of the north side, and the other two headed north to join her.
Lisa and Morag slowed to a walk to allow Drongo on his light Spear to catch up. Lisa spotted an enemy recon titan in the mid-east; Drongo, a little further east, spotted it too, and identified it as a Gauntlet. A (recon) Lancer appeared behind the Gauntlet, but both dropped out of Lisa's LoS as she moved along the hills. Morag picked them up. A light Thor appeared in the hills a few hexes from the other enemy titans.

Broken ground meant that none of the team managed an active scan; they all targeted the Gauntlet, which was now only 3 hexes from Drongo.
Lisa had now come down from her hill into Drongo's hex. The Gauntlet charged into the same hex, knocking Drongo down and falling down himself. When it stood again, it cut into Drongo's Spear, damaging a gyro and and an activator with vibraclaw and heavy meson gun. Lisa managed to hit it with five out of six batches of SRMs. Drongo managed a few successful shots at his attacker, but the Gauntlet hit Drongo's titan in the head with his Power Axe, doing Drongo 30 points of damage and knocking his titan to the ground.
A lucky punch from Lisa exploded some of the Gauntlet's machine gun ammo, and its torso was disabled. Drongo managed to shoot its arm off disable its centre torso. Lisa and Drongo headed for the Lancer, three hexes away, leaving the downed Gauntlet to Morag's Chain Saws; after a couple of strokes, the Gauntlet's jock ejected.

The Lancer was in heavy cover, so even from the adjacent hex Lisa and Drongo didn't have much chance to hit, so all three of the team moved into their enemy's hex. Meanwhile hte other enemy titan, the Thor, which had been moving in and out of sight through cover nearby, appeared two hexes away.

Lisa had been taking a lot of small damage from the Lancer and eventually fell to the ground. Morag's Chain Saws put the Lancer on the ground shortly after ... and a lucky kick to the enemy's lower torso disabled it.

All three targeted the Thor and started to move towards it .. it was backing off to three hexes away. Eventually it was backed up against a hill with Morag in its hex using her chain saws and with Lisa and Drongo in the adjacent hex. The Thor's jock decided to run into Lisa and Drongo's hex. Morag followed; she charged it successfully. Both titans fell, but Lisa and Drongo now had the advantage. Lisa knocked the titan down with SRMs as it was getting up; Morag, too, getting up first, put the Thor down again with her Chain Saws. Lisa knocked off a leg with her SRMs, so they all moved away a couple of hexes, to see if they could kill the jock from a distance. He ejected before they could settle to the job.

Morag was at last raised to green, and the team was awarded the Lancer.
Salvage $10,492 + Bounty $12,000 (the Gauntlet's jock died on ejection) + Payment $108,333 - Upkeep $34,103 = Balance $96,722

Repairs: $84,434 .. using up most of their cash profits. Drongo was told off for hazarding his expensive light titan so casually.

Morag improved her Instinct and Reaction (lifting her maximum Piloting skill and improving her maximum CC skil to 63%)
Drongo picked up enough points to be able to improve his Reaction.

***************************

Battle 9: (Random) Small Terran arena: Green opponents.

The team started in the middle of the west side, in a clear north-south strip of land with hills to the east. When Morag (in the Duellist) climbed the heavily wooded hill in front of her, she saw that the hills were just in a narrow north-south line. A gently hilly plain spread beyond the hills, with a north-south river about six hexes away and two enemy recon titans in the open a couple of hexes beyond. Morag decided to move down-slope into cover until her companions could start attacking the enemy.

Lisa spotted them when Morag lost them; a Stingray and a Porcupine were crossing the river, with a light titan lagging a couple of hexes behind. Lisa suggested that they all target the Porcupine .. as she herself was riding one, she knew its weakness: lots of ammo just waiting to blow up. She soon got a green scan on it and started to damage it .. despite taking a couple of hits from the Stingray (Plasma Gun) and the light Cutthroat (Gauss cannon), which was crossing the river.
When the Porcupine entered Morag's hex, Lisa shifted her SRM attack to the Cutthroat (it was in the same hex as the Stingray, but the Stingray was backing off). Morag soon sawed off a leg from the enemy Porcupine and started to move towards the Cutthroat. One of Lisa's SRM rounds brought the Cutthroat down, but the team weren't able to take advantage before it got up again, as it dropped out of LoS of the SRM's and cannons. Morag knocked the Cutthroat down again with her first Chain Saw strike (to the right leg).

The Stingray had now moved up closer to the other fighting titans, so Lisa retargeted her SRMs on it, leaving the fallen Cutthroat to Morag's Chain Saws and Drongo's cannons. The fallen enemy Porcupine was still putting SRMs into the team members, so Drongo decided to dodge when he moved closer to the Cutthroat ... and fell down (100/69). (He's going to get a bit of abuse about that, if he survives.) Luckily, Morag had been damaging the Cutthroat as it slowly got to its feet, though she hadn't knocked it down again. She soon disabled both its torsos, then cut its legs off. Time to go for the Stingray.

Drongo was getting fed up with the downed enemy Porcupine still hurting the team with its SRMs, so he turned aside for a little tidying up.

The Stingray was backing away through the hills with Lisa and Morag following. Despite her 47% chance, Morag only manages 1/6 successful Chain Saw hits, so she encouraged Lisa to put some SRMs into her opponent, willing to take the chance on being hit herself. Drongo's downed opponent ejected, so he turned towards the Stingray, which he had just spotted backing out of the hills.

Morag had taken quite a lot of superficial damage, but managed to disable her opponent's left torso. Then Lisa and Drongo came into sight again; Lisa knocked off the Stingray's leg with a round of SRMs .. but it stayed on its feet ... foot. The team wins.

Salvage $47,321 + Bounty $12,000 (the Cutthroat's jock died in ejecting) + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $34,823 = Balance $149,498
Repairs $55,431

Elysee had enough points to improve her Reaction.
As the team now has two backup Lancers, they sold one. Seeing how effective Morag has been, they decided to bring in a new recruit to take over the spare CC titan, the Prowler.

New team member:
Salara Mayal, aka Sally, human female.
Pilot 59/60, scouting 21/60; CC 56/60, Energy 29/55; Survival 57/60, Business 25/51

*****************************

Battle 10: (Random) Small Terran arena: Green opponents.

They started in a clear area in the south-west corner and decided to head for the hills north of them in the north-west corner. Unfortunately a Heavy enemy titan appeared in the hills about 25 hexes to the east. It dropped out of sight before anyone could get a scan on it, so they continued to the northern hills. They spotted a (recon) Rogue about ten hexes to the east as they started to move into the hills. The enemy heavy took to the air and turned out to be a Headhunter; it soon dropped out of sight again.

Lisa, coming through some heavy cover, found the enemy Rogue in the next hex. She managed to put a few SRMs into it, but it hit her right leg with its Black Ray Gun. The other team members were running to get the enemy in sight. LIsa saw the enemy running towards her, so ran into cover just after it arrived; it didn't manage an attack. The Wanderer CC titans were just about to arrive. The enemy Rogue continued to run and turned as it came to a high hill, hitting Drongo in the leg with its BRG and knocking him down. Morag ran into the enemy hex and managed a Chain Saw hit, but he was soon running out of the hex again.

Sally had been left in Drongo's hex just in case this happened, but, overexcited, missed the enemy when he arrived. He did a lot more damage to the fallen Drongo before Sally managed to hit hit him .. and then Morag arrived in the hex, too. She quickly disabled his right torso. Lisa, crouched in heavy trees in the next hex, put a lot of SRMs into the Rogue until its centre torso was disabled. Unfortunately, as no-one had a scan, they weren't sure how badly damaged it was. They decided to leave it to Drongo, who was still trying to get up, while they moved under cover towards the approaching heavy titan.

Lisa was quickly downed by the Headhunter when it hit some of her SRM racks with its heavy meson gun. The other team members all turned directly towards the enemy, relying on its being distracted by its attack on Lisa. Lisa's titan was hit in the head and she lost 33 hit points, so she headed for cover to break the LoS and get a chance to heal. The two CC titans entered the enemy hex and started hacking away at it. Morag was taking a lot of damage, and the enemy hadn't fallen. Meanwhile, Drongo was hammering away from the next hex and Lisa had turned and was on a hilltop two hexes away, lobbing SRMs into the enemy titan (and occasionally into friendly ones).

At last, Morag got through with her Chain Saws .. a head shot and one to the Centre Torso .. and triggered an explosion! (She's really not suited to Chain Saws.) Luckily, no one was killed, although their titans took quite a lot of damage.

Salvage $24,376 + Bounty $12,000 + Payment $106250 - Upkeep $38,912 = Balance $103,714
Repairs $107,547 ... so they make a considerable loss because of that explosion.
Total $860,332

Drongo increased his Constitution (which was at 9).

[Peter Why]

Battle 11: (Random) Small Polar arena; Green opponents.

Sally (Prowler - CC) and Lisa (Porcupine - SRMs) started in the south-west corner, surrounded by heavily wooded hills; Morag (Duellist - CC) and Drongo (Spear - Cannons) started in a clearing a kilometer or two to the north. Each pair headed into the hills to their east. Sally spotted a Thorn, Morag a Tripwire and a (light) Witchlight.. the enemy titans were in a hilly area in the middle of the arena with, apparently, little cover. The team decided to move along the south edge to attract the Thorn and Tripwire away from the Witchlight, which had already put a couple of missiles into Drongo, as he ran off his hill-top.
Soon the Thorn appeared in heavy woodland in the hex that Lisa and the two CC titans were heading into. A Lancer joined the Thorn and, when Lisa moved into the enemy hex, she saw the Tripwire two hexes away. This part of the battle was going to be fought in very heavy cover. While Lisa and Sally concentrated on the Thorn, the Lancer and the Thorn were concentrating on Sally, who quickly showed yellow damage in arms and legs. Morag then arrived, cutting into the Thorn, but it stayed on its feet. When Drongo arrived in the next hex, he put a cannon shot into the Thorn's CT, and it fell. Lisa, Drongo and Sally retargeted on the Lancer (in the same hex as Lisa, Sally and the Thorn), leaving the downed enemy to Morag ... which is asking for an explosion if she's judged by her record ... but she quickly disabled it.

Sally's left torso was disabled by the Lancer, and she fell; Drongo's accuracy was suffering too much from the heavy cover, so he moved into close quarters with the Lancer, too.
Sally fell again while getting up; she was also hit by the Lancer again .. her right torso was disabled. Her only hope was to get up and escape combat, exercising her scanner from a distance.

The Tripwire charged into the crowded hex, but fell, and fell again, trying to get up. The Witchlight was now on a hill three hexes away, throwing GMs into the hex.
Morag managed to kick the Lancer to the ground, where Lisa's SRMs took off its left arm. Morag took off its right leg, and everyone targeted the Tripwire. Sally at last stood up (after failing twice with a 90% chance) and started to move out of the hex, and away from Tripwire and Witchlight.
A punch from Lisa disabled the Tripwire's right torso and it fell. Off came its arm, so Lisa and Drongo moved to attack the Witchlight instead ... it had backed out of sight and off its hill ... moving through cover as much as they could, leaving the fallen Tripwire to Morag. Its jock soon ejected, after a couple of Chain Saw attacks.
The Witchlight soon appeared again, coming into the wooded hex that Lisa was running into. When Morag arrived, four solid Chain Saw hits and their enemy fell .. and a couple more popped its head off!

They were awarded a Lancer.

Salvage $70,569 + Bounty $14,000 + Payment $141,666 - Upkeep $41,569 = Balance $184,656
Repairs $97,944
They sold the extra Lancer: Total budget now $990,539

************************************

Battle 12: (Random) Small Core arena; Green opponents.


Starting in the south-west corner; they decided to head into some nearby hills and wait for the enemy to come to them. Morag tested out her jump jets for the first time, to climb a look-out hill and spotted a recon about 13 hexes away across a gently hilly central plain, with little cover. Lisa spotted it too; it was a Tripwire .. she got a green scan on it (Tripwire: Pulse laser, EM Pulser, Vibraclaw).

Drongo, settled in cover, hit the Tripwire with Gauss cannon and both Autocannons as it turned around a hill to approach Lisa. Sally, in her Prowler, was waiting for the Tripwire just behind the same hill.

Gaaah! A Scarab (100t) was airdropping into Morag's hex, and in the next hex to Drongo. Morag started to run out of the hex in case of a DfA attack. The Scarab hit Morag with a Cold Light Gun as it dropped and also after landing, when Morag had moved into Drongo's hex ... she fell to the ground. Luckily, Drongo caught it in the Lower Torso with his Gauss cannon and it fell, giving them a short respite, but they weren't able to take advantage before it got up again, and hit Morag again with its CLG.

Lisa and Sally, running to help their team mates against the Scarab, lost LoS, so targeted the approaching Tripwire instead. As it reached the hex next to where Morag was being damaged, Lisa and Sally stayed on it, hoping to prevent it joining the battle. The Tripwire successfully charged Drongo, knocking him down. Morag, having escaped the Scarab's hex, turned and jumped into the Tripwire's hex, hoping for a DfA. Unfortunately, in her excitement, she started to back away in mid-air and fell to the ground when she tried to correct it.
Sally charged the Tripwire successfully, but fell to the ground; she soon got up and disabled its right torso with her Power Axe.

Now the Scarab came back into the action, charging Drongo, who fell again. Three of the team were overheating from the continual attacks, and paused to cool down. Only Sally was still effective and quickly disabled the Tripwire with a machine gun burst to the lower torso. She retargeted on the Scarab.
Morag, turning to attack the Scarab, realised how much damage she had received to her leg actuators .. she fell, banging the titan's head on the ground and taking 15 Hit Points of damage. She decided to lie still, use her scanners and eject if attacked again.
Sally was putting her Power Axe to work on the Scarab and knocking it down ... it soon got up again.
The Phantasm, which had been approaching from the north, now tried to fly into Lisa's hex for a DfA, but crash-landed. Lisa was already retargeting on it, as she was worried about hitting her friends who were in close quarters with the Scarab. After a couple of rounds of SRMs, and Flame Thrower hits from the Phantasm, Lisa was overheating, so she moved away from her enemy .. who then targeted Morag at his feet ... causing more damage to our jock, who quickly started the ejection sequence. LIsa's SRMs were starting to explode from the heat; her right torso was disabled, and her right arm exploded powerfully enough to knock her to the ground. The team decided to eject; they were taking too much damage (Sally decided to put the ejection off as long as possible .. she thought she had a chance to bring the Scarab down). Lisa's engine shut down before she could operate the ejector.
Morag ejected successfully, with some damage; Drongo died in a really clumsy eject.

The Phantasm was still attacking Lisa's fallen Porcupine, which was overheating dangerously, with frequent ammo explosions, but the engine was disabled before it could blow up. Sally had tried to run away from the Scarab in case of the Porcupine exploding, but was quickly brought down by the Scarab's Cold Light Gun. She ejected, taking a lot of damage, but surviving.

Definitely not a success. The hot environment doesn't suit them at all, even when they walk to attack.

Payment $144,444 - Upkeep $25,578 = Balance $118,866
All titans were lost (only a moth-balled Lancer remained).

The team recruited a new business manager:

Feylin Nine, aka Fay, Replicant I.

Pilot 58/58, Scout 25/60; Cannon 56/56, CC 33/55; Business 55/61, Survival 29/51
She got the Lancer.

They bought new titans:
Morag another Duellist (2 Chain Saws); Lisa a Jackal (2 SRM4s, 2 Power Axes); and Sally a Rogue (2 Power Axes and a Black RAy Gun)
Budget $826,845

The team decided to concentrate on Close Combat for a while.

[Peter Why]

Battle 13: (Random) Small Core; Green opponents.

Blast .. another high temperature arena. They're going to have to walk and wait. Morag's Duellist is definitely under-refrigerated; the temperature is half way up the green just walking.

After almost 500 seconds wandering, they caught a glimpse of a Mirage (light) flying through hills about four hexes away. Lisa and Fay settled into cover (Morag was still walking her Duellist to join them, pausing often to keep her temperature down; Sally had climbed some viewpoint hills earlier and was still catching up ).
Lisa and Fay stood and started to walk through the cover .. and Fay suddenly came on the enemy: a (recon) Mosquito. with a Mirage and a Pike in the next hex. She turned and ran past the Mirage & Pike, scanning the Pike, moving away from the Mosquito, drawing the enemy towards her team mates.

After a lot of dodging through cover, the Tracker ran into the hex where the team's three CC titans were waiting. It fell almost immediately, and its lower torso was disabled as soon as it stood again. Two of them moved off towards the Mirage, leaving Morag to finish off the downed Pike .. she took its head off.

Sally was first to walk into the Mirage's hex and downed it with her first Power Axe to the lower torso. (She couldn't use her Black Ray Gun because of overheating.) Lisa arrived, getting a yellow scan (the Mirage had only yellow lower torso damage) and using her Chain Saws; then Morag, disabled its torso and brought it down again. It soon had both torsos disabled, so all four left it and headed for the Mosquito, which had flown by and was running back.

The Mosquito soon came into close combat and was downed after doing a little damage to Fay. Unfortunately, the Mirage had got to its feet was still attacking, despite disabled torsos, and charged into the hex .. and fell. Morag decided to make sure of the Mosquito .. and it blew up .. damaging all the team machines, and knocking a couple of the jocks silly. The Mirage stood and they started to attack, but the jock soon ejected.

Victory .. marred by Morag's over-enthusiasm.
They were awarded the Mirage, and Lisa was raised to Novice.

Salvage $9510 + Bounty $28,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $44,121 = Balance $118,389
Repairs: $143,190 ... another net loss due to the effects of the explosion. We must restrain Morag and her Chain Saws (perhaps "retrain" rather than "restrain"?)

Lisa improves her Charisma (to improve her Leadership) and Dexterity (piloting and combat)
She is now: Piloting 63/65, 53/63; UGM 61/65, CC 60/65; Leadership 56/60, Scan 53/53, Survival 58/61

Morag: Piloting 61/60, Jump 58/61; CC 61/65, Cannon 30/58 (retraining has started); Damage Control 55/55, Scan 30/50, Survival 54/65.

Sally: Piloting 60/60, Jump 32/60, Scout 21/61; CC 60/60, Energy 33/55; Scan 34/55, Business 25/51, Survival 60/60

Fay: Piloting 58/58, Scout 27/60; Cannon 55/56, CC 37/55; Business 56/61, Survival 30/51

***************************

Battle 14: (Random) small polar arena; green opponents.

Hard fought, messy battle in heavy cover, with two of the jocks badly affected by neutron blaster strikes. The fight was saved by Morag's late arrival.

Salvage $55,182 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $45,066 = Balance $135,116
Repairs $108,633
Budget $828,527
***************************

Battle 15: small Savannah arena; green opponents.

A relatively simple battle; the three CC titans tempted two Lancers and a Stingray in turn into heavy cover, where they quickly demolished them. The only major damage to the team was to Sally's Rogue, which was knocked down in a hex which she had set alight with her own BRG. Despite engine shutdown, there was no explosion; the titan was simply disabled, and Sally survived.
Her three friends soon finished off the remaining Stinger at a safe distance from the potentially explosive Sally.

The team was awarded a Stingray

Salvage $18,255 + Payment $150,000 - Upkeep $47,510 = Balance $120,745
Repairs: $92,909

***************************

Battle 16: small Biochem arena; green opponents (Quantum, Badger, Packhunter and Lancer)
Another simple battle, the enemy attacking one at a time, succumbing to the combination of three CC titans.
Sally was raised to Green.
Salvage $46,792 + Bounty $12,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $51,659 = Balance $132,133
Repairs: $31,973

Sally improved her Reaction by two points (Dex would have been more useful, but she didn't have the points for a Dex improvement)

Lisa decided that they needed a better long distance titan, but didn't trust the minimum range of 4 hexes of the Mirage's GMHs, so they had to recruit someone with Energy weapon skill to use the Stingray (with its Plasma Gun).
They recruited Gedra Five, aka Gerda, Cyborg, Rookie.
Pilot 60/60, Scouting 39/50; Energy 60/60, CC 19/53; Scan 51/51, Damage Control 18/53, Survival 50/50.

The others are now:

Leader - Lisa (Novice): Pilot 63/65, Scout 55/63; UGM 65/65, CC 61/65; Scan 53/53, leader 60/60, Survival 61/61.
Engineer - Morag (Green): Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61; CC 64/65; Scan 35/50, Damage Control 55/55, Survival 54/65.
Sally (Green): Pilot 61/63, Jump 46/63, Scout 21/61; CC 60/63, Energy 42/61; Scan 47/55, Business 25/51, Survival 60/60
Businessman - Fay (Rookie): 58/58, Scout 31/60; Cannon 56/56, CC 46/55; Business 61/61, Survival 32/51

Total Budget $931,523

****************************
Battle 17: small polar arena, green opponents.

They spotted a Frostbite (light) about 8 hexes away. The Stingray and Lancer settled into cover, while the CC titans tried to move closer to the enemy, staying under cover. Gerda got a green scan on the Frostbite (Cold Light Gun, Black Ray Gun) ... they would try to damage this one at a distance.
Sally was under cover when the Frostbite came into the next hex; she brought it down, and it suffered more damage from Sally's team mates, who then started to run to help her. Morag quickly chopped an arm off the Frostbite, and they quickly disabled it.

An enemy Guillotine had moved onto a nearby hill, so three of the team targeted it while Sally and Morag stayed with the Frostbite. Gerda's plasma gun quickly brought it down, but they weren't able to take advantage and it stood up .. in fact it charged Fay successfully, but fell again.
The other enemy titan, a Spider, was approaching, so Gerda started to scan it and backed out of the Guillotine's hex, to give her plasma gun room to work on the Spider.

The others stayed in the Guillotine's hex, working on it with their CC weapons; Fay was targeting the approaching Spider with her cannons. The Spider charged into the hex, knocking Lisa down; but the cluster of CC titans soon disabled it.

Another victory for massed CC weapons!
Salvage $14,536 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $57,778 = Balance $81758
Repair $39,843
Total budget $973, 438

[Peter Why]

Battle 18: small Core arena; green opponents.

They started in the north-east corner and settled on a nearby cluster of medium-sized hills as their base. Gerda (on the Stingray; plasma gun & small laser) spotted an enemy light titan about 12 hexes away. Morag, climbing a hill to the north, saw two recons accompanying the light. All but Sally moved west along the north side of the hills to draw the enemy up and spread them out.

Sally was followed by a Wolfpack, and turned and ran north over the hills to join her team mates.
Gerda, rounding the last hill, met a Tripwire in the next hex; it charged her and they both fell. The Tripwire stood up first and knocked Gerda back down by damaging a hip actuator with its EMP. Gerda soon stood and decided to get up a nearby hill to use her plasma gun. Luckily, the Tripwire's lower torso was soon disabled by Lisa's Chain Saws. Fay and Lisa left the hex as Morag arrived to rip off the Tripwire's head; there was a Sparrowhawk a few hexes to the south for them to work on.

Somewhere out of sight, a Will-o'-Whisp seemed to have fallen in lava, because the team heard its ammo exploding.

Gerda, settled on a small hill, hit the Sparrowhawk a couple of times with her plasma gun. The Sparrowhawk’s jock was determined to get revenge on Morag for killing her team-mate .. but when Morag eventually reached the Sparrowhawk, she ripped its head off, too.

Meanwhile Sally had joined her team mates, closely followed by the Wolfpack .. so she, Gerda and Fay turned to attack it, waiting for Morag and Fay to return from attacking the Sparrowhawk. The Wolfpack jumped Sally and she fell to the ground with 27 damage (centre back torso, one arm, one leg), and the Wolfpack fell with 11 points damage to leg and lower torso. Although the Wolfpack started to cause Sally problems with its Flame Throwers, it was soon knocked down again when Lisa arrived with her Chain Saws. When Morag arrived and brought her Chain Saws into action, too, the enemy jock soon ejected.

They would have to start looking for the Will-o-Whisp, which they had heard shut down some time ago ... but they heard its jock eject a few seconds after they started their search.

This was their first relatively simple Core victory .. but they decided that they would have to deal with any Flame Throwing titans as soon as they identified them.

Salvage $86,825 + Bounty $28,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep 59,186 = Balance $180,639
Repairs $52,563
Total budget: $1,101,514

*****************************

Battle 19: small Core arena; green opponents.

Starting in the west, they headed round the north end of a small range of hills. It turned out to be a north-south strip, with a 6-8 hex wide plain on the far side. Three enemy lights were visible on the far side; one was a Butcher. The team turned back behind their hills, hoping to tempt the enemy to close quarters. On a yellow scan, one of the other titans was seen as a Spider. The third was a Sparrowhawk.

Gerda (on a Stingray - beam weapons) and Fay (on a Lancer - cannons) crouched under cover on a hill a couple of hexes back from their boundary line of hills, while the three CC titans waited at the edge of the boundary hills.
Fay got a green scan on the Butcher (EMP, NB, Vibraclaw, Power Axe). Fay and Gerda hit the Butcher and Spider a couple of times at a distance, but things hotted up when the Butcher came through the hills first and the three CC titans started for him. He was quickly disabled. Morag had been taking damage from the other two enemy titans which had arrived in the next hex, so she ran round the hill to break LoS; the other two CC titans moved away, too, ready to catch whoever was first through (or whoever had received most damage from our two snipers on their hilltop).

The Spider was next through the pass. Turning to face Morag, it jumped .. for a DfA attack? ... but crash landed. Morag aborted a dodge, and attacked it, knocking it down again. However, the fallen Spider was still able to shoot Morag's titan's right arm off and knock her down. Morag was a bit annoyed about this and hit the Spider with her Chain Saw as soon as she got up.. but it, too, was soon on its feet again.

The other enemy titan was now in the next hex, pouring laser fire into Lisa, whose titan soon lost its leg .. Lisa ejected without harm. Morag, too, lost a leg; she ejected, taking 64 damage, but surviving. The two support titans on their hill-top stood, ready to move to closer quarters, to improve their targeting. Sally .. our remaining CC jock .. had her titan's arm chopped off by the persistent laser fire from the Sparrowhawk, but she stayed on her feet. The Spider that she was attacking had its leg cut off by a plasma gun shot from Gerda, coming down from her hill, two hexes away. Then Sally had her titan's leg cut off by the Sparrowhawk's lasers .. and died horribly in a bad eject. Only Gerda and Fay were still active (Gerda on the Stingray, Fay on the Lancer).
Fay ran towards the enemy, hoping to charge him, but was hit by laser fire in the head, fell, and took shock damage. When she stood, her accuracy was too low, so she started to run away, but over heated, and with an ammo explosion, she exploded, too. She damaged Gerda, who had approached to attack the Sparrowhawk too. Gerda's heat reached critical .. and when she started taking laser damage, she ejected (cleanly).

An unpleasantly damaging defeat.

Morag was raised to Novice.

Payment $150,000 - Upkeep $38,115 = Balance $111,885
All titans were lost, only the mothballed Mirage remaining .. they would have to recruit a rookie who could use its GMs.

Morag increased her Instinct (for her CC and Survival) and her Constitution (to improve her survival chances).

Leader - Lisa - Novice - Human: Pilot 65/65,Scout 60/63; UGM 65/65, CC 64/65; Scan 53/53, Leadership 60/60, Survival 61/61.
Manager and Engineer - Morag - Novice - Cyborg: Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61, Scout 41/66; CC 66/68, Cannon 32/58; Scan 36/50, Damage Control 55/55, Business 26/50; Survival 56/70.
Gerda - Rookie - Android: Pilot 60/60, Scout 43/50; Energy 60/60, CC 29/53; Scan 51/51, Damage Control 34/53, Survival 50/50.

The new recruit obviously needs to be a businessman to the team, too ... so, heavy on Intelligence.

They recruit:
Aaron Dexter aka Harry, Male Replicant I:

Pilot 58/58, Scout 33/58; GM 58/61; Business 60/60, Scan 27/56, Survival 35/56

.. and re-equip with light titans: Lisa a Needler (SRMs); Morag an Axeman; Gerda a Sparrowhawk (3 Pulse Lasers)

**************************

Battle 20: small Core arena; green opponents.

The team settled on and around a small group of hills in the west and attacked the enemy as they approached. Harry's GMHs did considerable damage to a Slugger, but it stayed on its feet.
A Rapier started to get too close, so Morag rose out of her crouch in cover and waited .. the enemy successfully charge Morag and both titans fell. Gerda's pulse lasers became effective when the enemy was about 3 hexes away. Morag's Chain saws and Gerda's pulse lasers soon forced the Rapier's jock to eject.

The Slugger, too, successfully charged Morag, and fell to the ground while she stayed on her feet. But Morag had problems with overheating and wasn't able to take much advantage. Gerda did a lot of damage to the downed Slugger with her pulse lasers. Lisa, was attacking the approaching Hammer with her SRMs, and continued attacking it when it joined the Slugger in Morag's hex.
The Slugger lost a leg when Morag next struck with her chain saws. Morag’s team mates shifted focus to the Hammer, which soon lost an arm ... and then Gerda's pulse lasers took off a leg.

The approaching Paladin was attacking Morag, but her shield deflected its neutron blaster three times.

Gerda's Sparrowhawk had been taking a lot of damage from an approaching enemy Sparrowhawk while she attacked Morag's opponents. Lisa (on her Needler) took over the attack on the Sparrowhawk while Gerda ran to break her enemy's LoS. Harry was too close to the Sparrowhawk for his GMHs to be very effective, so he started down from his hill. Gerda's leg was shot off as she ran, and her titan was disabled, so she couldn't eject.
Harry, coming down the hill, was attacked by the Sparrowhawk's pulse lasers and was overheating. His ammo started to explode ... the Sparrowhawk continued to attack him. Lisa and Morag decided to move away from his titan, and moved to close quarters on the Paladin. The eventually removed a leg, but not before Morag had suffered damage from a punch to her titan's head. Lisa turned towards the Sparrowhawk, hoping to stop it killing Harry.
When she was down to her last four SRM clusters, Lisa charged the Sparrowhawk. They both fell. Meanwhile Morag was walking towards them (because of overheating).
After using her last missiles, Lisa left the hex and charged again .. successful again, and both fell. At last Morag arrived and the enemy soon lost another leg.

A long-drawn out and damaging battle against the heat.

The team was awarded a Rapier.

Salvage $43,192 + Bounty $14,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $60,064 = Balance $122,128
Repairs: $273,671 ... eating into their savings!
Total budget 553,901

[Peter Why]

Battle 21: small terran arena; green opponents.
Harry, on a high hill, spotted a Meteor, a Raptor and two Phantasms about 12 hexes away. His team mates, exploring some nearby hills four hexes away, ran back to get into position around the head of the valley that the enemy was coming down.
Harry put as many GMHs into one of the Phantasms as he could, but the enemy soon came within five hexes so he decided to move back.

The valley that the enemy titans was coming along was covered with woods at its near end, with a small plain surrounded by hills at this end of the pass. Harry decided to move into the hills on the far side of the clearing; the others were in cover near the mouth of the pass.

They got involved in an extremely messy battle, where the team members moved between targets as the enemy regrouped to attack single team members. Gerda's damage control in the Sparrowhawk was immensely useful; she repaired a laser and her engine while her partners diverted her attackers. (I had thought that they would lose this battle; the enemy’s massed Flame Throwers were horribly effective.)

The team was awarded a Raptor, and Gerda was raised to Green.

Salvage $73,147 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $67,096 = Balance 131,051
Repairs $294,921

Morag definitely needed some CC assistance, so they recruited a new rookie.

Lisa had enough points to improve her Reaction.

Leader: Lisa - Pilot 66/66, Scout 63/63, Jump 12/66; CC 66/66, UGM 66/66, Indirect Fire 42/63; Leadership 60/60, Scan 53/53, Defensive 32/63; Survival 61/61.

Engineer: Morag - Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61, Scout 52/56; CC 68/68, Cannon 36/58; Damage Control 55/55, Scan 40/50, Survival 70/70, Medical 21/55.

Gerda improved her Reaction and Intelligence.
Gerda - Pilot 61/63, Scout 44/51; Energy 63/66, CC 33/56; Scan 54/55, Damage 45/56, Survival 50/50.

Aaron improved his Charisma (for business skill)
Aaron - Pilot 60/60, Scout 33/58; GM 61/61; Business 60/61, Scan 32/56, Survival 36/56.

New Recruit: Suzy Kayle, Human Female, unfortunately underequipped in skills, was brought in to use the Raptor (Power Axes and GME): Pilot 56/56, Jump 33/56; CC 56/60, with no useful skill in GM; Scan 40/40, Survival 58/58.

************************

Battle 22: medium Polar arena, green opponents.

They started in the north-east corner of a hilly landscape. They soon spotted two enemy lights about 4 hexes apart, 20 hexes distant across the hilly centre of the arena. Enemy titans moved in and out of cover until a Guru appeared about 12 hexes away. Gerda got a green scan on him: Tesla and two machine guns - they would need to disable him at a distance. It was brought down 5 hexes away by a combination of the Mirages GMHs and Lisa's SRM 8s, and its was head removed by Gerda's pulse laser.

They targeted a Wasp, which was running towards them. Morag and Sue were about three hexes away from it; the others at the base of some hills about 6 or 7 hexes away. Sue was soon in CC with it, and brought it down with her Power Axe; Morag was in the next hex with an Imp (having just got up after being knocked over).

Sue disabled her opponent’s centre torso and turned to help Morag, who had both the Imp and now a pharaoh attacking her. The pharaoh ripped one of Morag's titan’s arms off with its Cold Light Gun and she fell again. The Imp removed a leg and she started her eject sequence. She took some damage in the eject but survived.
The pharaoh was chasing Sue, but Lisa brought it down with her SRMs, then removed a leg.

Now for the last two, an Exhuminator and a Guillotine, crouching in the hills six hexes and more away. Gerda had been taking a lot of damage from the Exhuminator's LRMs, as there was little cover in the area where the team was working. The Wanderers moved to the east, hoping to get the enemy moving; it worked and had the bonus of splitting the enemy team, as one came up each side of a small line of hills. It took a while, but the team managed to finish off the two support titans, with only little damage .. that mainly from a last minute charge by the Exhuminator at Lisa.

They were awarded an Imp, and Harry was raised to Green.

Salvage $81,585 + Bounty 14,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep 79,227 = Balance 141,358
Repairs: $226,275
Budget $279,714

Lisa improved her Charisma (to increase Leadership).

(Leader) Lisa: Pilot 66/66, Scout 63/63; UGM 66/66, CC 66/66; Leadership 62/63, Scan 53/53, Survival 61/61,
(Engineer) Morag: Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61, Scout 54/66; CC 68, Cannon 40/58; Damage Control 55/55, Survival 70/70, Scan 37/50.
(Trainee Engineer) Gerda: Recon 61/63, Scout 45/51; Energy 66/66, CC 34/56; Damage Control 51/56, Scan 55/55, Survival 50/50.
(Businessman) Aaron: Pilot 60/60, Scout 33/60, Jump 24/60; GM 65/65; Business 63/65, Scan 32/60, Survival 38/56.
(Trainee Leader) Sue: Pilot 56/56, Jump 38/56; CC 59/60; Leader 37/53; Survival 58/58.

***********************

Battle 23: Small Biochem arena, green opponents.

They started in the north-west corner, soon spotting a couple of lights and a recon in the far north-east. The intervening ground was very hilly. As it looked a little smoother to the south, they headed towards a small cluster of hills down there to take advantage of the Mirage's GMHs. As they moved into position, they saw a Zealot and a Paladin heading their way.

Harry, sitting on a hill, put some GMHs into the Paladin, while the rest of the team ran along the valley to attack it. The Paladin was disabled by Lisa's SRMs before Morag could get to it. The Zealot was on a nearby hill; Morag and Gerda (on a Sparrowhawk) ran up the hill while Harry attacked it with GMHs; Lisa fired her SRMs at an approaching Axeman, while Sue nervously awaited her first major CC fight. She brought the Axeman down with a solid chop at its torso. Despite a good volley of SRMs from Lisa, it soon stood up again and cut Sue down.

Meanwhile, on the hilltop, Morag with her Axes and Harry's GMHs cut off the Zealot's arms .. not completely disabled, but Sue needed help, so Morag turned and jumped down to her. Meanwhile Sue was brought down again by fire from a neaby Raccoon, and the Axeman finished the job, knocking her unconscious. Morag, jumping in, landed on the Axeman, doing 20 damage, but it stayed on its feet, while Morag fell. But Gerda soon arrived in the hex; she and Morag quickly removed a leg from the Axeman. Everyone now targeted the Raccoon which had been shooting at them from nearby cover; Harry had to move to a different hill to improve his LoS for his GMHs.
Gerda's pulse lasers removed the Raccoon's leg, so she and Lisa headed for the Bloodhound that had been shooting at them from a nearby hill, leaving the Raccoon to Morag; Harry retargeted his GMHs to the Bloodhound. The Bloodhound soon fell.

The last enemy was a Will-o'-Whisp, which Harry had caught glimpses of as it approached. It came over the hills in perfect position for Harry to hit, and one hex away from the other three titans. It was soon brought down and disabled by pulse lasers and SRMs.
Success!

Lisa was raised to Regular.

Salvage $112,834 + Bounty $14,000 + Payment 125,000 - Upkeep $83,995 = Balance $167,839
Repairs: $154,001 ... a very small profit on this battle.

Lisa improved Dexterity, Charisma and Constitution.
(Leader) Lisa: Pilot 67/70, Scout 63/63; UGM 69/70, CC 66/66, Indirect Fire 43/63; Leadership 62/66, Scanner 53/53, Survival 61/63.

(Engineer) Morag: Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61, Scout 60/66; CC 68/68, Cannon 44/58; Damage Control 55/55, Survival 70/70.
Gerda: Pilot 63/63, Scout 45/51; Energy 66/66, CC 43/56; Damage Control 54/56, Scan 55/55, Survival 50/50.
(Businessman) Aaron: Pilot 60/60, Scout 33/60, Jump 26/60; GM 65/65, CC 29/56; Business 65/65, Scan 33/60, Survival 38/56.
Sue: Pilot 56/56, Jump 48/56; CC 60/60, Energy 25/53; Leadership 35/53, Survival 58/58, Defensive 23/53.
********************************

[Peter Why]

Battle 24:

Small Biochem arena, green opponents.

As they moved through a small group of hills they caught an enemy Dagger and quickly disabled it. Visibility to the south was limited, so an Inferno got within two hexes before it was seen. They turned on it from their various positions. Luckily, it had its head ripped off before the nearby Fireball could really make its mark .. they turned to the new opponent. It soon caught Lisa at close quarters; she quickly heated up into the red with its Napalm Missiles and had to move out of the hex to cool. Morag's chain saws and Gerda's pulse lasers soon removed the Fireball's head.
Meanwhile, Harry had moved to a new hill and attacked the remaining enemy, still at a distance ... they soon got too close, so he had to move again.

A Bloodhound and Spider were now one hex away, so the team turned to their new targets, settling on the Spider at random as they hadn't yet had any good scans on them. After a period of CC battle, Sue lost a leg to the Spider, then caught three head shots from the Bloodhound before she could even start to eject, each damaging her in her cockpit. As she set up the eject sequence, a final kick from the Bloodhound killed her. The others had brought down the Spider and quickly shifted to the Bloodhound for some revenge. A volley of SRMs from Lisa in the adjacent hex brought it down; she shifted target to their final enemy, a Leopard, a couple of hexes away.
It was in heavy cover, so Gerda and Lisa had to move in close to improve their effectiveness. Gerda was first, and did a lot of damage, but was soon hit in the cockpit, so started to move out, thinking of what had just happened to Sue. A fine bit of Axe work by Morag removed both its legs and they had won another battle.

Salvage $103,596 + Bounty $28,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $81,380 = Balance $175,216
Repairs: $158,649; a small profit.

Lisa decided that they needed another CC jock to ride the Raptor, who could be trained up as a leader, so recruited ..
Zhek Pendrell, aka Penny, human female: Pilot 58/58, Jump 22/58, Scout 20/58; CC 55/58, GM 18/56; Survival 58/58, Leadership 30/58.

**********************************

Battle 25: Medium Biochem arena, green opponents.

Lisa's SRMs and Harry GMHs brought down a Badger before the CC titans can get to it .. but not before it brought Penny (the new recruit on the Raptor) down with its BRG.

A Gremlin was running towards Gerda, who was standing at the base of the hills that Harry had climbed up .. so the three near/close titans ran back to help .. catching some damage from the Poltergeist and Pike who were approaching down the same valley as the Badger had come down. Luckily, Gerda's pulse lasers brought the Gremlin down before it could reach her.

Airdrop! .. A Jackal was coming down only two hexes away from Harry, riding the team’s support GMH titan. Harry was running at the time; as soon as his run ended, he was going to move away as fast as he could .. it was difficult to find a good spot in this hilly country. .... now a Leopard was dropping a couple of hexes further away ... then a Firefly!

Lisa decided that if they could delete the Gremlin quickly, they would all move to a different area of the arena, to try to spread the enemy out a little. Her Needler’s SRMs quickly brought the Gremlin down, removing a leg; she and Gerda moved further into open country to work with Harry, who was still running along the hills, looking for somewhere suitable to fire his GMHs from. Moraga and Penny would finish off the Gremlin before following ... Penny started her career in the Wanderers in fine style by chopping off the Gremlin's head.
The Poltergeist had run up on them while they were attacking the Gremlin, so they turned to attack it .. still trying to bring the fight into range of Harry's GMHs.

Harry moved towards a 50m hill close to the middle of the arena, while the others ran towards the Pike crouching in the west; its missiles had been irritating them. The three titans that had been airdropped in were now following down the hills .. Morag had caught quite a bit of damage from them while she had been fighting; her left torso was now disabled and her scanner useless.
When Harry arrived, the Pike was out of LoS, so he started to put GMHs into the airdropped Firefly.

At the Pike, Gerda and Lisa had done a lot of damage to it with their pulse lasers and SRMs, so they left it to the two CC titans while they turned to help Harry, who was being attacked on his hilltop by the enemy's long distance weapons ... Harry decided to move to another hill, further away. Unfortunately, the hill he was on was too high to run down, so the enemy caught up and started to damage him; the Jackal even got to his hill top before he got off .. but he did get to the valley ok. Behind him the Firefly had been brought down by Lisa. The two light CC titans were pursuing the recon Pike back and forward along the hills.

Lisa and Gerda caught up with the Jackal that had been following Harry, and soon brought it down. When it got up, it took to the air and jumped on Lisa's titan, doing 27 damage, but it lost its own leg in the attack. Lisa and Gerda turned to the Leopard in the distance, as did Morag and Penny, who had at last disabled the Pike. The Leopard tried to charge Gerda, but failed and fell .. Gerda placed a laser shot in his already yellow head, and managed to kick him to the ground again. Although he did get up again, she removed its head with another placed shot .. and they won again! .. but would the repairs cost them their profits?

They were awarded the Badger.

Salvage $70,670 + Bounty $44,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $88,216 = $151,454
Repairs: $204,918 ... again, they win but lose.

Harry had enough points to boost his Charisma (for his business skill).

(Leader) Lisa (Regular): Pilot 70/70, Scout 63/63; UGM 70/70, CC 66/66, Indirect Fire 57/63; Leadership 66/66, Survival 63/63, Scan 53/53, Defensive 32/56, Electronics 30/56.
(2nd Engineer) Morag (Novice): Pilot 61/61, Jump 61/61, Scout 66/66; CC 68, Cannon 53/58; Damage Control 55/55, Scan 50/50, Defensive 39/60, Survival 70/70, Medical 31/55.
(Engineer) Gerda (Green): Pilot 63/63, Scout 51/51; CC 54/56, Energy 66/66; Damage Control 56/56, Scan 55/55, Electronics 39/53, Survival 50/50.
(Businessman) Harry (Green): Pilot 60/60, Jump 30/60, Scout 33/60; GM 65/65, CC 34/56; Business 66, Scan 38/60, Survival 38/56.
(2nd Leader) Penny (Rookie): Pilot 58/58, Jump 33/58; CC 57/58, GM 18/56; Leader 46/58, Scan 41/51, Survival 58/58.

****************************
Battle 26:

Medium Arctic arena, green opponents.

Morag jumped to check the terrain and saw that just beyond the small group of hills that the others were heading for was a large strip of plain. A perfect place for Harry to overlook the battle. A Slugger was on the plain already, and another light was in hills about 10 hexes north.
As Lisa crossed the hills, she was hit by cannon fire from both the enemy titans. As she moved onto the plain, Harry arrived on the hills and fired his first salvo of GMHs at the Slugger (4 volleys at 78%, all missed); there was a chorus of abuse from his team mates. The rest of the team took chances to move the battle field into a better position for Harry's missiles.

As Gerda and the two CC titans closed with the Slugger, the Berserker and a Frostbite moved out of the hills to the north. Lisa and Gerda moved away from the Slugger to draw them into Harry's LoS. Lisa settled in heavy cover, but the Berserker came in close and his cannons knocked her down. As her two CC team mates and Gerda (pulse lasers) were arriving, she ran from the hex. The Berserker was brought down and disabled by massed CC weapons.

By this time, a pharaoh and Mangler were close, and Lisa was being attacked by a Frostbite. The CC team moved to help Lisa. She was brought down by the Frostbite's beam weapons as she ran. (She did manage to get up later and moved to attack the Slugger which had been downed earlier but was still firing at them occasionally.)

Meanwhile Gerda, following the two CC titans, was knocked down by an EMP to her engine, and the pharaoh moved in and cut off her leg with cold light gun and chain saw; she ejected safely. The team’s other two CC titans soon removed a leg from the Frostbite. They turned towards the Pharaoh which had damaged Gerda's machine. Both the Mangler and the Pharaoh charged Penny successfully within the next half minute, but she stayed on her feet .. but a couple of blows from the Mangler cut her titan's head off.

Morag closed on the Mangler; Lisa moved up and was putting SRMs into it, and Harry was popping GMHs at it .. Morag was brought down with a Chain Saw to her lower torso, and a leg removed shortly after. Luckily a GMH round from Harry brought the Mangler down just afterwards. It was still firing its laser at Lisa, but a GMH in the lower torso disabled it.
Success ... of a sort.

Harry had wasted a lot of time moving to a better hill top in this battle, but had been putting GMHs into the pharaoh and Mangler towards the end.

Lisa decided that close combat wasn't a good position to train rookies in; if possible, they would get their experience first from support positions. One of the more experienced jocks would take over the second CC job

The team was awarded the Frostbite. Morag was raised to Regular, Gerda to novice.
(I forgot to note the finances)

Repairs: $293,664
TOTAL BUDGET WAS NOW $55201 .. THEY WOULD HAVE TO SELL SOME TITANS TO KEEP AFLOAT.

Lisa improved her intelligence.
(Leader) Lisa: Pilot 70/70, Scout 64/65, UGM 70, CC 66/66, Indirect Fire 57/65; Leadership 66/68, Scan 53/56, Electronics 30/60, Survival 63/63.

Morag improved intelligence, instinct and reaction.
(Engineer) Morag: Pilot 63/63, Jump 61/63, Scout 66/71; CC 68/73, Cannon 53/61; Damage Control 58/58, Survival 72/73, Scan 50/53, Defensive 39,61, Medical 31/58.

Gerda improved dexterity and reaction.
(2nd Engineer) Gerda: Pilot 65/68, Scout 51/51; Energy 66/71, CC 55/58; Damage Control 58/58, Survival 50/50, Scan 55/55, Electronics 42/53.

(Businessman) Harry: Pilot 60/60, JUmp 34/60; GM 65/65, CC 41/56; Business 66/66, Scan 38/60, Survivval 45/56.


Lisa decided to sell the two recons (Badger and Rapier). Rather than recruit a new jock, she reassigned the titans. The team would concentrate on CC and near fighting for the moment, as Harry hadn't been very effective at long range.

So: Lisa still on the Needler (SRMs); Morag still on the Axeman (Chain Saws and Machine Guns); Gerda on the new Frostbite (Cold Light Gun and Black Ray Gun); Harry on the Raptor (Power Axes and GMEs).
The team was now ranked Novice.

******************************

Battle 27: Small Terran arena, novice opponents.

Starting in the west, they had a wide, open stretch of plain to cross before they got to the wooded hills in the east .. a bit worrying for a CC team. They spotted a Hammer crouching in a small wood, so approached as close as they could under cover of the hills, then ran the last 6 hexes. The Hammer stood and started to run, too. It missed with its first Auto 20, and they got close and attacked it, quickly disabling both torsos .. and causing it to explode.
They all took damage; Lisa's cockpit was hit and she was badly hurt (40% wounded) ... she ducked into the undergrowth to recover a little.

The others headed for an approaching Exhuminator and Unicorn. The following fight was extremely messy, but eventually the Exhuminator was downed, with a disabled centre torso, the Unicorn was down, but Gerda had suffered a lot of damage from the attentions of the nearby Sparrowhawk and was running out of the hex ... but her lower torso was disabled by pulse laser fire and she fell. She ejected safely.

Lisa now came into the hex, badly wounded, so her SRM accuracy was suffering .. even in the same hex, she managed to hit Morag .. but at last the three of them took both arms off the Sparrowhawk and headed for the final Penetrator, which had been sniping at them with its lasers from the nearby hills.

While they were separating at the bottom of the hill, the Sparrowhawk managed to stand up and charged Harry. He fell, but managed to cut off one of his enemy's legs when he got up. He and Lisa headed up the hill to help Morag, who was in trouble with the Penetrator (Morag had jumped up the hill and tried a DfA, but had crashed instead, and the Penetrator had taken advantage). At last they brought it down and won .. but the repair bill will probably bankrupt them.

Salvage $71,271 + Bounty $16,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $89,963 = $122,308
Repair $219,815
Total budget $45,180 .. not quite bankrupt, and they still have three spare titans.

*******************************

Battle 28: Small Core arena; novice opponents.

They caught a glimpse of a Blackguard, a heavy titan in the distance; they continued to move as a tight group around the arena, staying in hills or cover. When they saw the Blackguard down a long valley, they positioned themselves behind hills at its head, and waited for the enemy to come to them.

Gerda on her Frostbite (BRG and CLG) was first to see it when it came past her hill ... she hit its right arm with both weapons. Although its neutron blasters didn't affect her, its BRG hit her lower torso and she fell. It continued to attack her until Harry turned up, then he caught a neutron blaster hit, too. Lisa and Morag soon arrived; Harry's GMEs brought the Blackguard down and Lisa knocked its head off. They switched attack to the heavy Stonewall which had arrived in the hex.
It took a lot of work, but they took surprisingly little damage to bring this machine down, too; Lisa's SRMs, used at close quarters, helped enormously, despite hitting her team-mates too often.

Salvage $86,935 + Bounty $18,000 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $91,055 = $138,880
Repairs: $50,522
Total budget $133,538

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Battle 29: Small Core arena; novice opponents.

They started in the west behind some hills, which seemed ideal, but when Morag jumped to check the terrain, there was a wide plain beyond the hills, with a recon titan in the distance. The southern edge of the arena was quite hilly, with cover, so they decided to head that way.

The enemy Axeman was first to arrive; Harry brought it down with GMEs as Morag ran to see to it. While Morag was using her Axes and Lisa and Harry were putting missiles into the enemy Axeman, an enemy Marshal also entered the hex. Morag started to run out of it back to her friends .. Lisa disabled both the Axeman's torsos with her SRMs.
Lisa then brought the Marshall down with her SRMs; Gerda put it down again with her beamers; and Morag put an Axe into its lower torso, then returned to her friends to await the next enemy attack.

A (recon) Mercury was standing three hexes away, throwing napalm missiles at them, so Harry (GMEs) Lisa (SRMs) and Gerda (CLG and BRG) attacked it. It started to run towards them, but Gerda disabled its centre torso with her beamers and it fell.

Just then a Club arrived behind them, having sneaked around the hills; Gerda targeted an approaching Stingray, while the others turned towards the Club and soon removed a leg.

They shifted their attention to the two Stingrays that had been keeping their distance. Lisa brought one of them down with SRMs. Morag walked towards it (because of overheating), while after Harry exhausted his GMEs he ran towards it to use his Axes. The downed enemy Club's ammunition was starting to explode, so all the team started to move towards the Stingrays, in case of explosion ... and quickly finished them off.

Salvage $59,272 + Payment $125,000 - Upkeep $92,023 = $92249
Repairs: $55,942
Total budget $169,845