Bossing Around Mad Cats for Fun and Profit: Let's Play MechCommander 2!

[The_JJ]

I think you should add the pilots (and thier stats?) to the cast page. Post. Spoilerthingy. Whatever.

[Rustic Dude]

Great Let's Play! Now I wish the exams were over to enjoy some mechanized action.

BTW, when you finish beating the poor campaign you should continue with the user-made campaigns. Most are superb and much more challenging than the original, with a crapload more of mechs. A bit painful sometimes.

[Artanis]

I actually tried to install one of the fan-made campaigns. I wound up having to reinstall the entire program. Twice.

[Artanis]

==LIAO CONTRACT, MISSION 4b==


==MISSION BRIEFING==

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TYPE: Secure Hostile Area

LOCATION: Base Hermes, Colddain Province - Davion Territory





TEAM:
--DAGGER, Zeus
--CLAYMORE, Zeus
--FLASH, Thor
--LONGSHOT, Vulture
--PALERIDER, Uller

==MISSION LOG==

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With the Steiner orbital guns destroyed, Liao could finally bring the wrath of their aerospace assets to bear on Steiner and Davion. Seizing the opportunity, Captain Cho ordered a massive blitzkrieg along the entire border.

I was part of a strike against House Davion with the objective of securing Cho's flank. In particular, I was sent to take Base Hermes in the strategically-vital Colddain Province before Kelly could reinforce it, and then turn around and destroy those reinforcements.

Even with its walls shattered by orbital bombardment, I was still going to be dealing with Gauss turrets and Clan mechs. That meant Lightning lance. Flash kept the Thor, while Dagger would pilot a Zeus into battle. Palerider, as usual, was in his Uller. Longshot was still irritated, but seemed pleased enough with the Vulture's LRM racks. Finally, Claymore was sent along in a second Zeus, which left Steel available to pilot any Clan mechs we might salvage along the way.


The area was littered with resource bunkers and the remains of small firebases. I sent Palerider towards the nearest bunker, which was to the east of the LZ, while the rest of the team went north towards the largest surviving firebase. They met minimal resistance as they captured a sensor control building and strode into the firebase, capturing its resource warehouse and repair bay.

I decided to let Longshot blow up a couple turrets, but had to order her to stop when Dagger decided to join in the fun.





Palerider continued to wander around the area grabbing resources and capturing turrets. The turrets wouldn't do much, but I figured I might as well since they might kill a vehicle or two. The main force grabbed a batch of AC turrets on the way to the main base and then prepared for their assault.


Intel hadn't been kidding when they said the main base's defenses were (literally) shot to hell.






By this time, the reinforcements convoy was already entering the area, so there wasn't any time to lose.



I ordered the assault. Even with the walls destroyed and turrets no doubt in poor shape, the Davion defenders were tenacious bastards. The defense was led by Vultures, which packed enough firepower to be a threat even when outmatched as badly as they were.

Stubborn and potent though they may have been though, the defenders were still scattered, outweighed, and exhausted. They were unable to stop the team's advance.








With the base captured, I set to fortifying my new possession. The first order of business was to grab some popcorn while padding my wallet complete several absolutely vital mission objectives that I totally wouldn't have done anyways, such as capturing all the turrets.




I salvaged and patched up a Vulture for Steel to pilot, then went about preparing to show Davion what I had once shown Liao: how much it sucked to try to get through my minefields.

(Note: I laid down lots of mines, but forgot to take pictures of most of them until after they'd been set off )

A light mech and a couple non-combat vehicles were small enough to go through the mines without problems. My pilots used them for target practice.



As for the rest of the mission, even Clan mechs are no match for having their legs blown out from under them.








And that, as they say, was that. Go in, call the minelayers, then sit back and watch an entire Davion army throw itself straight into Cash's waiting arms.

Now, Captain Jason Cho had every advantage a commander could hope for. Initiative. Air superiority. Home-field advantage. Unbreachable flanks. And the services of the best mech company in the entire system.

I bet Diaz ten c-bills that he'd get himself killed when he botched it.

==MISSION COMPLETE==

[Eldariel]

Heya boys, a friggin' Mad Cat! Now things really get good.

[Foryn Gilnith]

You convinced me to crack open my old copy and play. I am very glad about that.

[Rustic Dude]

Congratulations on your Mad Cat. Good stuff. (A shame you won't load it with 4 PPCs )

Also, I've got a question. I've tried re-installing the game in my two computers, one with Vista, one with 7, and I've got terrible slowdowns. Are you playing in a XP computer?

[BooNL]

I'm a bit annoyed with this game. I'm up to the last Liao mission, but for some reason the Quick Save/Load function is a bit wonky.

I was at the very end of the mission when Steel's Highlander blew up (damn Lao Hu's!), but when I reloaded the mission immediately ended in a "Mission Failed" and my 'mechs were nowhere to be seen on the field.

[Demented]

I had a bad slowdown problem in the menus (and only in the menus, bizarrely) when disabling UAC or running as administrator on Vista... I think I fixed it by not running it in any compatibility mode, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Artanis]

Also, I've got a question. I've tried re-installing the game in my two computers, one with Vista, one with 7, and I've got terrible slowdowns. Are you playing in a XP computer?

I'm using XP.

I'm a bit annoyed with this game. I'm up to the last Liao mission, but for some reason the Quick Save/Load function is a bit wonky.

I was at the very end of the mission when Steel's Highlander blew up (damn Lao Hu's!), but when I reloaded the mission immediately ended in a "Mission Failed" and my 'mechs were nowhere to be seen on the field.

Yeah, that's a known bug. It isn't a very long mission, so there's nothing you can do besides getting through it in one go.

Unlike MC1, as long as your pilot doesn't die and the reactor doesn't go up, there's no long-term consequences for his mech popping.

[Artanis]

==LIAO CONTRACT, MISSION 5==


==MISSION BRIEFING==

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TYPE: Escort

LOCATION: Liao/Steiner Border




TEAM:
--DAGGER, Zeus
--FLASH, Zeus
--LONGSHOT, Mad Cat
--STEEL, Thor
--PALERIDER, Uller

==MISSION LOG==

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I owed Diaz ten c-bills.

Somehow, Captain Cho had survived the meat grinder that he and Renard had personally turned the Steiner/Liao front into...a meat grinder that had left neither house with enough firepower to take on Davion. The only option left to the Mandrissa was to send her son to sit in a corner while she negotiated an alliance with Renard.

The two leaders decided that the alliance would be finalized by a personal meeting between Renard and Jason. With Liao's forces scrambling just to hold back the Davion tide, mine was the only unit available to form an honor guard for Cho.

I had Cash slap on a fresh coat of paint, and sent out my best pilots in my best mechs. Palerider was in his Uller. Steel piloted the Thor. Dagger and Flash were assigned to the two Zeuses that had distinguished themselves against all three houses. And leading them was Longshot in the almighty Mad Cat.




After we arrived, I tuned out the conversation between Cho and Renard, which mostly sounded like a diplomat-ese argument over who had the larger penis. I think Renard won that one, since he was the one that ultimately demanded payment for the alliance.

I started paying attention real quick when his price was my head on a pike.

Cho agreed. And then he laughed and said he was planning to kill us anyways.



I immediately ordered the team to book it as Diaz looked for somewhere to run to. Within seconds, she had identified a nearby Steiner base that had been abandoned in the face of Liao's recent offensive. My mechs couldn't outrun both Steiner and Liao forever, so I sent them to hole up there until we could get a dropship through to pick them up.

I got lucky. Steiner's typical incompetence had left it wide open to jumpers, but the turret placement was pretty good for repelling a landbound assault.






Steiner was the first to arrive. Two Zeuses came into range and punched through the outer wall, then brought their ridiculous firepower to bear on the first of the base's two turret control. Even under the weight of an entire Lance's firepower, their legendary Steiner armor still held up long enough to take down the turret control and move to engage the team.







A Highlander and a Bushwacker arrived late. Had those two shown up with the Zeuses, I almost certainly would've lost at least one mech, and probably had another crippled. Thankfully, they were too slow to provide any meaningful support, and were defeated in detail.






After a wave of Hollanders and Razorbacks failed to make a dent, Cho told Renard to save his men. Liao backup had arrived, and so he would deal with us. Personally.



My orders consisted of four simple words:

"Aim"



"For"



"The"



"Head."




Captain Jason Cho's death-scream had barely ended before the Mandrissa contacted me. As Jason's backup troops died, the Mandrissa told me that with her son dead, her line was ended, and thus her kingdom would soon have to go to another of House Liao's noble families. She barely held her anger in check as she warned me, "prepare for my response".




The first thing I saw was not Liao mechs, but Baxter's face opening up a communications channel. He was telling me that his forces were on the way to help.



THEN I saw the Mandrissa's response.




They came at the base from two sides, trying to swarm through my defenses. And by "trying to" I mean "succeeding at."

I immediately fell back to the second of the base's turret umbrellas as Anubises and Sha Yus jumped the walls into the base.





The scout mechs were little threat on their own, of course. What they did do, however, was provide LoS for the Catapults behind them. Lightning Lance fired desperately at the only targets they could lock on to.

And then came the missiles.







I couldn't get to the catapults. There was too much in the way. The walls that had served me so well in the previous waves were giving the damn things cover from my own guns. I was forced farther and farther back as Longshot and Dagger had their mechs start to come apart under the barrage. In desperation, I blew an ammo dump.



It worked. It didn't scratch the Catapults, but it blew away the scouts and blasted a massive hole in the base's western wall. The Catapults had no choice but to move to where they could get LoS themselves.

Longshot led the charge, her mighty Mad Cat barely withstanding literal rain of fire as it stormed forward with lasers blazing.





With no more obstacles to keep them safe from 335 tons of raw fury, it was a fight the Catapults could not win.






Longshot and Dagger limped to the repair bays to patch up what was left of their mechs as Baxter called with good news: his forces had arrived. The bad news was that they couldn't reach my position in time to help repel the next Liao wave, and I would have to retreat to join up with him.



With my team exhausted and bloodied and their stronghold reduced to ruins, I had no choice but to order the retreat. For the first time on Carver V, an enemy had beaten me in a pounding match.

But they had done so only at a terrible cost. As the remains of my five mechs staggered out of the base, they left behind a graveyard littered with Steiner and Liao corpses.




When the team reached Baxter's forces, I had to admire the rebels' courage. Even after the massive firepower I'd already faced, they were willing to throw themselves into the fray with little more than LRM Carriers and hovertanks. Several even drove fuel trucks, placing mobile bombs to the battlefield despite the risk that a stray shot would kill them all before they had a chance to get out of and away from the volatile vehicles.




The last Liao wave wasn't as powerful as the previous one, but it was more than enough to have overwhelmed the team had I decided to stay and fight. Ravens and Starslayers appeared first, followed closely by Lao Hus. Longshot again stood on point, letting her tough Clan armor take most of the beating as I slowly fell back, retreating as each rebel line was wiped out.








Thanks to the rebels, the last Liao wave was beaten, buying enough breathing room for a dropship to extract the team. Steiner and Liao had thrown massive amounts of firepower at my team, yet somehow, Lightning Lance survived.

Liao had betrayed me, and Steiner was already after my hide. They had declared war on a mere company of mercenaries.

Well, if they wanted a war, I would give them a war.

==MISSION COMPLETE==


Yeesh, that's a lot more screenshots than I originally thought I'd end up with. Almost 50% more than average!

At any rate, that does it for Liao. Next up, I get to start killing both flimsy Liao mechs AND incompetently-built Steiner bases!

[SparkMandriller]

I've always wondered why you can't win that mission by sending out one Urbanmech and then ejecting as soon as the level starts.

Just another of those little mysteries, I guess.

[Eldariel]

I've always wondered why you can't win that mission by sending out one Urbanmech and then ejecting as soon as the level starts.

Just another of those little mysteries, I guess.

There's no victory without kicking ass.

[SparkMandriller]

Soundin' kinda Smoke Jaguar there, bro.

[Artanis]

Soundin' kinda Smoke Jaguar there, bro.

Nah, with Smoke Jaguar it was mostly just "there is no victory". Or at least it was from right around Wolcott onwards.

[SparkMandriller]

Well, they still had a good two and a half centuries of being hyper aggressive and smashing things. Lots of smashing things.

[Raroy]

I've always wondered why you can't win that mission by sending out one Urbanmech and then ejecting as soon as the level starts.

Just another of those little mysteries, I guess.

It would be impossible to safely eject when you are surrounded by hostiles.

It would also be metagamming.

Is it me, or is the first mission of campaign three strikingly difficult?

[The Glyphstone]

Is that Gulag? If you take all the shortcuts, you can get there in plenty of time.

[Demented]

Ejecting as soon as the level starts wouldn't get you a 'win', but... It does bring up the issue of why so many RTS games won't allow you to finish a mission with a loss. ("We've lost nearly everything and barely pulled out of the hotzone with the skin of our teeth, but [bleep] it, the tac screen says mission successful!")

You'd lose the urbanmech, and presumably the pilot (somebody would still have to exfiltrate him; those pods don't go into outer space on their own, do they?), but otherwise the outcome would be largely the same... Oh, and a few bits of the storyline around Jason Cho being dead would need some tweaking.

[Artanis]

Is that Gulag? If you take all the shortcuts, you can get there in plenty of time.

That's the first Liao mission. The first Davion mission is to clear and defend a city that's something like 800,000 square miles.

[Artanis]

==INTERLUDE: OLD ADAGES==


They say that a mercenary has no loyalty, that he is willing to betray anybody for a buck.

That perception is far from the truth. When we sign a contract, our loyalty is absolute for as long as that contract lasts. Those who don't operate that way soon find themselves unemployed and starving.

But a mercenary expects his employer to be loyal to him as well. Captain Jason Cho had not been loyal. Instead of abiding by the old code of not shooting at your employees, he and Renard had tried to take the lives of me and mine for their own personal gain.

And so we had a new employer: Baxter. House Davion was unopposed to an independent Carver V, so Major Kelly had teamed up with the resistence to fight the Steiner-Liao alliance. They didn't have the funds to buy the firepower they needed to fight on two fronts, but for the first time in my career, I didn't care about the money. None of us did. Diaz worked out a contract where Baxter and Kelly would pay us in logistical support and whatever cash they could spare, and in return, we would fight their war. I eagerly signed that contract, pledging my loyalty to Baxter and Kelly.


They also say that revenge is a dish best served cold.

I never agreed with that sentiment. The only cold I care about is cold, hard cash. No, my revenge would be the white-hot fury of lasers and missiles as they brought blazing ruin upon those who had betrayed me and my people.

I would make Mandrissa Anita Cho and Colonel David Renard watch as Baxter and I took them apart piece by strategically-vital piece. I would make them watch as their soldiers died and their schemes crumbled and their kingdoms burned. I would make them watch as their dreams of conquest vanished in the fires of a war that they had started.

In short, I swore that I would inflict the greatest revenge that the likes of those two tyrants could suffer: I would free Carver V, or I would die trying.

[Foryn Gilnith]

That last Liao mission killed Meat and Twitch (two of my elites). I'm sad.

[Artanis]

==DAVION CONTRACT, MISSION 1==


==MISSION BRIEFING==

Spoiler

Show

TYPE: Secure Friendly Area

LOCATION: Bannikburg - Rebel Territory





TEAM:
--CLAYMORE, Zeus
--STEEL, Mad Cat
--DAGGER, Thor
--TWITCH, Vulture
--PALERIDER, Uller

==MISSION LOG==

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To fight a war, you need beans, bullets, and bandages, as the old saying goes. Without those, you lose, plain and simple. That's why it was a Very Bad Thing when the Resistance detected lots of Steiner and Liao forces heading for Bannikburg, a vital supply depot and logistics hub. Without Bannikburg, the entire region could be lost. So, my task was simple: save Bannikburg.

"Lots of enemy forces" meant that I'd have plenty of chances for in-mission salvage, so I sent in Thunder lance, holding Lightning in reserve. Claymore took a Zeus, Steel drove the Mad Cat, and Twitch was in a Vulture. Worm stayed home in favor of Palerider, which left Dagger in the fifth mech, a Thor.

(Note: In retrospect, I should've put Worm in one of the starting mechs and held Dagger back with Longshot and Flash, but hindsight is 20-20 and all that.)


When the team arrived, I found out that by "heading for", Resistance intel actually meant "had already occupied", and Bannikburg had fallen to enemy forces.



One way or the other though, our objective was for Bannikburg to be in our hands by the end of the mission. The first step along this road was to recapture the (formerly) Davion HQ building near our LZ. Enemy forces obviously weren't expecting an attack from my direction, and I made them pay for it.






With the HQ secured, I looked over the tac map. Bannikburg was a big city, but not a particularly dense one. It was, in fact, mostly open space, with just a handful of built-up areas around the various warehouses. That meant that while there was liable to be a lot of enemy forces, they were just as likely to be scattered.

I decided to head for the local Sensor Control. It was as good a direction as any to begin my sweep, and the sensors would come in handy trying to cover such a large area. There was also a repair bay and makeshift firebase along the way, which would make for a good base of operations.


The first resistance I ran into was a Shootist hanging out amid some larger buildings. It went down almost immediately, leaving me plenty of time to regroup before intercepting two Hollanders coming from the firebase to assist.



We met the two light mechs near the repair bay, and while the Hollanders got off a few shots, they didn't last terribly long. Within moments, the repair bay and firebase were in my hands.








The team made its way towards the Sensor Control, grabbing a ton of RPs along the way. There was very little resistance. A couple vehicles here and there, and that's about it. The only event really worth mentioning was when an Aerospotter had to be taken out all sneaky-like.




The capture of the Sensor Control confirmed my suspicions about the enemy defenses in the city: plenty of them, but scattered. It was rare to see more than three sensor blips in any one spot.

I continued my clockwise sweep: there was a small bit of city-ness with a couple warehouses to the east of the Sensor Control, and due south of that was a causeway that led to turret-fortified high ground that would make a good place to make a stand against enemy reinforcements.


The warehouses had no sensor contacts around them. Liao showed, however, that there being no contacts rarely meant much with them around, and I ran into four mechs: two Men Shens and two Ravens. All four of them locked onto Dagger's Thor, managing to wound her and inflict some decent damage on the mech before being taken down.








With the north clear, it was time to move to the south. Fortunately, that side of the river held almost no credible resistance, and all that stood between me and my objectives of securing the generator and clearing the rest of the city was a quick beat-down or two.






As I completed the sweep and cleared the last enemy troops from the city, another problem cropped up: enemy forces were inbound, and included a lot of heavy mechs.

Now that the city was in my hands, I had to defend the damn thing. The river made an obvious border, so I had three points to defend: the causeway in the east, a bridge in the middle, and my little firebase in the west.

The first attack came in the center as the enemy crossed the bridge before I could destroy it. That was probably for the best though, since now I had turret support and high ground. It was a tough group, and included a couple Shootists, but by this point, we had been in this situation so many times that we knew what was going to happen before the shooting even started. Predictably, the enemy didn't know what would happen, and tried it anyways.








As the fight raged on, I deployed minelayers to rig the causeway in the east. They finished not a moment too soon, as the sensor grid picked up an enemy squad just as the center attack was being beaten and the Shootists salvaged for Longshot and Flash to use.

Not much made it through the mines, and what did make it through got blown up by Palerider, a few turrets, and even more mines.






That left my base in the west. The sensor grid picked up the last enemy group, and it was a sizable one. I scrambled to repair and get into position to meet what was likely to be a bigger group than any I'd seen to that point.

The final attack was not Steiner mechs, and it was not Liao mechs...it was both. An Atlas led the charge, backed up by both Hollanders and Catapults. The mighty 100-tonner bore the brunt of all my firepower, keeping me off of its long-range allies.





Unfortunately for him, "the brunt of all my firepower" was much, much more than even an Atlas could handle.



Steel's Mad Cat had taken enough damage for me to order him to retreat, but the rest of the team had a free run at the enemy snipers.




With that group down, the immediate threat to Bannikburg was neutralized. That was a good thing. However, what was bad was how thoroughly Steiner and Liao were working together. Inner Sphere forces could work together reasonably well when they wanted to - something that Clan Smoke Jaguar found out the hard way - but as part of the very same lance?

A 2v1 can be won by dividing the two and defeating them separately. On Carver V, it seemed, we'd have to go after both at once.

==MISSION COMPLETE==


I wish I had a good excuse for being slow with this one, but I don't. All I can do is hope that I'll be able to get the next one done faster .

Speaking of which, I have three choices of missions to do next, so it's time for audience participation! The choices are:

2a) Night Ops: Scorpio
--There is a Steiner base. It needs to explode. The problem? A tiny drop window means the attack will be on a strict time limit. Expect lots of stealth, mercenary-style.

2b) Combat Recovery: Dropship
--Steiner shot down a Davion dropship that got too close to a battery of orbital guns. I'm to go take out the orbital guns and rescue the dropship's crew and passengers. Also, I wind up with a worthless benchwarmer renowned and highly-valued veteran of Operation Bulldog.

2c) Mobile Assault: Mt. Cho
--The enemy has a major command base on top of a mountain, and I need to go whittle down the forces stationed there. Translation: blow up everything that moves and most of what doesn't.

[Timberwolf]

Just out of pure curiosity Artanis, why don't you use a Cyclops as your sensor mech ? It's fast enough to keep up with a Heavy / Assault force and can take way more punishment than an Uller. Plus it has way more guns and the biggest and best sensor suite in the game. It's pure personal taste, here, but once I get access to them, unless there's a militant and annoying weight limit then it's the one mech that is absolutely guaranteed to be in my drop.

I assume the benchwarmer is Rooster. (the horror, the horror). I say go Recovery. It's fun and the sooner he's rescued, the sooner you never have to hear him again.

[SparkMandriller]

Well, if he doesn't have a Cyclops, he's not gettin' one now.

[Eldariel]

Go Night Ops. Your stealth is already legendary. Needs moar of it. I hope there are lots of fuel cells around?

[Timberwolf]

Well, if he doesn't have a Cyclops, he's not gettin' one now.

There is a chance later, assuming he doesn't accidently blow it up. Still, if he does have one it is well, well worth using (I always felt that the Clans would have something a bit tougher as a sensor mech).

[Rustic Dude]

I vote for a good ration of Rooster, and keeping him in the main lance

And what's your Mad Cat loadout, Artanis? I admit I'm curious about a laser-based MCat

[The Glyphstone]

Mobile Assault: Mt. Cho. Because playing tag with Long Tom turrets is a barrel of fun.

[SparkMandriller]

There is a chance later, assuming he doesn't accidently blow it up.

Really? Huh. Coulda sworn there was only one.

There's only one Summoner, though, right?