[Combat Ops] Turn 9 - 1910 Dark Nebula

[tassa_kay]

The zenith jump point flared to life as vessels emerged forth, vessels of the purest black, with fiery highlights around engines and gunports.  Vessels which bore the unmistakable flaming-horse-head insignia of Clan Hell's Horses.

"Jade Falcons!  I am Star Colonel Kieran Amirault and I have come to reclaim that which was stolen from us by your fetid talons!  The Dark Nebula will be ours once again!  With what forces do you dare to oppose our claim?"

The following units arrive on Operational Turn 2 on Invasion Orders:

Transport Star "Perseus"
Transport Star "Apollo"
Trinary Bravo, 133rd Gryphon ASF Cluster - SL Medium ASF Trinary
211th Armored Lancers Cluster - Medium Armor Cluster
91st Mechanized Assault Cluster - SL Heavy Mech Cluster

[Daemonknight]

"Star Colonel Amirault, I am Star Captain Jansen of the Omega Solahama Cluster. I have at my disposal a single trinary to bid in defense of this world."

[tassa_kay]

"Star Captain Jansen, if you have but a single Trinary to defend one of Turkina's holdings, then I shall take little pleasure in crushing your solahma warriors beneath the hooves of the Herd.  Bid well and done." 

Clan Hell's Horses Initiative

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 6, 6, total 12[/blockquote]

[Fatebringer]

Jade Falcon Initiative

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 2, 4, total 6[/blockquote]

[Fatebringer]

Hell's Horse win initiative and map selection, or you can post your "Bid" value for simple res.

[tassa_kay]

Option B (simres), if you please.

Trinary Bravo, 133rd Gryphon ASF Cluster - SL Medium ASF Trinary (58 FP, Aerospace Support Orders)
211th Armored Lancers Cluster - Medium Armor Cluster (125 FP, Landing Orders)
91st Mechanized Assault Cluster - SL Heavy Mech Cluster (159 FP, Landing Orders)

Now what do I do?  My first battle, this is.

[Fatebringer]

Page 35 of the Rules illustrates how combat works. Page 37 defines the specific order of events.

In this case, your forces arrived Operation Turn 2 (OP2) The actual "Move Order" used to get to the planet would be "Transit," so your next opportunity to submit orders is on Turn 3.

Initiative is rolled to determines who gets to excecute orders first.

In this case, you won initiative. Post your forces and their intention. Getting your forces to the planet is the logical first step. From the defensive bid, you know they have no ASF to intercept your forces from moving to Atmo, and in anticipation for a "Trial" they grand you Safcon to land instead of trying to oppose you there.

The move from Jump Point to Atmo/Orbit is the Move Order - Advance which uses an Operational Turn. So for OP3, you move forces closer. Then Landing is to move from Atmo/Orbit to Ground using up OP4.

The Trail would start on OP5. Although this would be a fair fight between the units, Initiative still matters because the if the game is played out in Megamek, the winner of Tactical Initiative gets to pick the Map and weather conditions. A big bonus for units that have Night Fighting benefits such as the Falcons. In simple res, this is represented by an added base % of their force just like some of the other Unit Improvements.

For Clan Trials, forces should be declared by the defender before the actual fight so the attacker can bid. With the current rules set, you get a good amount of information about your opponents to work with.

For that reason, you will know the following as it is transmitted to you regarding the Jade Falcon Force.


OP5 Orders - Clan Jade Falcon

Surface: Battle - The "Stalwart Tercel" Trinary, Omega Solhama Cluster (SL Heavy Mech Trinary, EI) - R/R 29FP

(The FP does not include the EI bonus in the declaration - But would add on 3FP in Simple Resolution)

[tassa_kay]

(Okay, I think I'm following this pretty well.  OP2 is the arrival of my forces, OP3 is moving from Jump Point to Atmosphere/Orbit, OP4 is actually Landing, and OP5 is when the fight is taking place.  No defending Aerospace, which really just simplifies things for me.  Thanks, Fate... this is actually MUCH clearer than reading the rulebook like I was trying to do.  The only thing I'm not quite able to figure out is how to commit a smaller force than my entire Cluster.  Can you explain to me how I can commit a smaller portion to simulate a bidding-down, and I will edit my post accordingly.)

OP5 Orders - Clan Hell's Horses

Surface:
211th Armored Lancers Cluster - Medium Armor Cluster (125 FP, R/R, 43 FP on Battle orders, remaining FP on No Orders)
91st Mechanized Assault Cluster - SL Heavy Mech Cluster (159 FP, R/R, No Orders)

Orbit:
Trinary Bravo, 133rd Gryphon ASF Cluster - SL Medium ASF Trinary (58 FP, R/R, Defense Orders)
Transport Star "Perseus" (78 FP, R/R, No Orders)
Transport Star "Apollo" (76 FP, R/R, No Orders)

[Fatebringer]

Your units are based on the Equipment tab. The defensive bid is a Heavy Trinary wich is a "Mid-Level" unit. You could go to page 20 in the rules and see the breakdown of each Cluster, or you can go to the Equipment tab and look at the "Top Level Clan Units" and find what the breakdown is that way. If you go there, you will also know exactly what cells the values are found in for mid-level by finding the corresponding cell numbers in the Cluster Formula

Example.

211th Armored Lancers Cluster is a Medium Tank Cluster. The value is found on the Equiment Tab in Cell DY12 = 2*CU32+CU47. CU32 is a Medium Tank Trinary = 43 FP, so you have two of those and CU47 is a Heavy Tank Trinary = 40 FP. The Epona's make the Medium Trinaries better then the Heavy.

You would find the corresponding unit in the Top Level charts are dependant on your RAT and can be improved with Military Projects.

[tassa_kay]

I'm gonna wait for Parm to weigh in on this, because that just officially lost me.  Sorry.

I did click on the Medium Tank Cluster in the Equipment Tab, which pulled up that "DY12 = 2*CU32+CU47" at the top, and I was able to find those cells to get the number values of 43 and 40 that you got.  That part was easy enough.  And I see how they correlate to Trinaries.  So basically, clicking on the Medium Tank Cluster in my Equipment Tab will take me to a place that will break down that Cluster for me?  Is that right?

[Fatebringer]

A   B   C   2d6
1   0   0   2
0   1   1   3
1   1   1   4
1   1   1   5
2   1   1   6
1   2   1   7
1   1   2   8
1   1   1   9
1   1   1   10
1   0   1   11
0   1   0   12
14   14   14   43

In a Clan Vehiclular Trinary, each Point is 2 units. Therefore the A, B and C are Stars of 10 Vehicles with the number listed defining how many of that particular unit is present for that star. The mid numbers (Slots 6-8) are the most common for your faction, while 2 and 12 are the rarest.

The Top level unit (Vehicle Cluster) only has 3 Trinaries in it due to the extra units. Each Mid-Level Unit (Vehicle Trinary) Is made up of 3 Bottom level units, (Vehicle Star) Each Star in your medium armor trinary is 14 FP just by coincidence, or careful planning? Either way, the defenders are using a mid level unit for the trial, and due to Force Size limitations, you can only respond with 1 Mid-Level unit. If this were not a trial, I would suggest using ASF support. But as it stands one of your Mid Level units is stronger then their mech Trinary.

At any point you can bid down further for the sake of RP or Honor. A bold manuever would be to bid a medium Trinary and then bid away one of your stars leaving you with 14 x 2 = 28 FP. But the counter-bidding is on you.

[tassa_kay]

Well, for the sake of simplicity (and for the sake of not tempting fate, no pun intended), I think I'm just gonna commit 1 Medium Tank Trinary (43 FP) to this fight.  I'll edit my post above accordingly to reflect this.  Also, I'll roll for initiative for this round (OP5, IIRC) as well.

CHH Initiative - OP5

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 3, total 4[/blockquote]

[Fatebringer]

CJF Initiative

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote]

[Fatebringer]

OP 5 - Battle (Trial) Roll

Trials are one round of combat and continue in the case of a tie unless one side ops to request Hegira.

The "Stalwart Tercel" Trinary = 29 + (29 * .1) = 32 FP

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 4, total 5[/blockquote]

[tassa_kay]

OP5 - Battle (Trial) Roll

Trinary Alpha, 211th Armored Lancers Cluster = 43 FP

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 1, total 2[/blockquote]