I managed to get a game in of JUGS- The Game of Big, Stompy Robots. If you want to give the game a try, you can find the free rules available here: https://app.box.com/s/0b5nnx4677j09lpjpqho

If you play a game feel free to post up a Batrep in this thread.

JUGS- Patrol Mission

Polanski’s Lancers were contracted by Lacstar Industries to harass the assets of the VolSaab Corporation on the colony world of Mundos. The 14th Uhlans were assigned the task by their CEO and covertly deployed to Mundos for the operation.

Of course, VolSaab’s facilities and territory on the forest world were not undefended. They had contracted site protection out to the mercenary company known as Thor’s Hammers. A Line Unit known as the Strong Hammers were currently on rotation at Mundos.

The Uhlans are primarily a light Line and Skirmisher force. Under the cover of darkness and strong ECM, the Uhlans began to infiltrate into VolSaab territory in an attempt to draw the defenders away from the main Corporate compound. The Strong Hammers did not take the bait, and instead only sent a patrol of Line and Light Line Jugs to investigate their perimeter as the strong use of ECM tipped off their Officers to potential enemy activity.

Forces
We didn‘t bother pricing out the units using the build system. Instead, I tried to make a somewhat balanced force with the Strong Hammers being the heavier units. We looked over the lists, made any tweaks, and I took the lighter units.



14th Uhlans (Green Jugs)
3- Light Line (From front to back Enforcer, Trebuchet, Quickdraw)
1-Skirmisher (Assassin)

Strong Hammers (Blue Jugs)
1-Heavy Line (Front, Dragon)
1-Line (Second from front, Hunchback)
2-Light Line (Whitworth, Dervish)

Mission
This is the standard Patrol mission from the rulebook. Therefore, the Strong Hammers are in the center within 6 inches of each other. The Uhlans are deployed anywhere on the board, in cover and at least 12 inches away. Uhlans will be the active unit.

Turn 1
The Uhlans elect to move first. I am careful to recall that an opposing unit may not react if the opponent remains out-of-LOS. They can not react until they are shot at.

My Quickdraw stays in cover and uses an ECCM Burst to make sure he is Fully Obscured. He passes the test. He is ready to react once the shooting starts.

The Assassin attempts to lock onto the trailing Whitworth. He fails his pilot check. However, the Skirmisher decides to open fire on the enemy Jug anyway. Since his weapons ignore cover, he can fire through the trees with no firepower reduction. He just blasts through it with weight of fire. The Whitworth attempt to react, but the Assassin wins the roll and opens fire. The shots ping harmlessly off the Jugs armor and shields.

The Trebuchet steps confidently out of the treeline and locks-on to the Hunchback. He opens fire with his missiles and cannons. The Hunchback fails to React as the trebuchet’s missiles and cannon blast into his side armor. The Cannon shells fail to find a weak point, but the missile strikes home and causes warning lights to flash in the cockpit. 5 hits left on the Hunchback.

The Enforcer moves to keep the squad out of LOS so he can target the lead Dragon one-on-one. He manages to Lock-on, and then opens fire. However, before he can, the Dragon reacts! The Strong Hammer turns to face his lighter opponent head-on. The close range barrage is too much and easily overwhelms the lighter JUGS armor. Point Defense failed to stop any rockets, and the Beam cut through the Enforcers armor reducing him to 2DP and crippling him in a single deadly salvo! The crippled JUGs return fire is pitiful and pings harmlessly off the heavy Dragon’s armor.



The Hunchback turned and clomped towards the Trebuchet that had injured it. He closed the distance quickly and powered up his cannon. The trebuchet still had movement left and reacted to his opponents move. He quickly backpedaled into the treeline for some cover, but couldn’t get far enough away to avoid getting shot at. He was starting to wish he had Braced instead of Locked-on. The Hunchback plants its feet firmly and Braces. Then, he fires. The treeline reduces the firepower by two, but it is still enough to potentially hit the Trebuchet twice. However, the armor saves one fothe cannon shells reducing the Trebuchet to 5 hits.

The Strong Hammer’s Dervish moves to back-up the larger Hunchback, but opts not to fire his missiles for reduced firepower. Instead, he goes on Brace as well.

The Whitworth moves forward and gets a bead on the heavily damaged Enforcer with its Beam. The weapon cuts through the Jugs armor like butter and reduces it down to 1 DP.

Turn 2
The Strong Hammers win the activation roll. This could be bad for the Enforcer.

The Dragon opts to fire on the Crippled Jug. He tries to Lock-on and fails. AS he moves to fire, the Enforcers pilot manages to react. He turns and runs into the nearby treeline, then tries to do an ECCM burst to protect himself, but fails. The Dragon slowly turns and smashes through the trees after his prey. The Dragon’s rockets saturate the area, but the Enforcers Point Defense swats it aside, however, the Heavy Jugs Beam manages to catch the Enforcer and cut him down along with several trees. The Enforcer is Disabled.

The Hunchback holds his ground and successfully Braces again. He goes to fire on the Trebuchet with his forward cannon. However, the Trebuchet reacts first. He bursts through the treeline and begins to approach the enemy Jugs. However, the Dervish reacts successfully.

The Dervish manages to Lock-on and opens fire. Even with the re-rolls for Lock-on nothing finds the moving Trebuchet. The Dervish then turns and moves away at a 90 degree angle. With nothing left to do, play reverts back to the Trebuchet to finish his Reaction. He moves ahead past the Hunchback, and fires on the Whitworth. The Whitworth fails to react. The cannon shells bounce harmlessly off its armor, but two missiles detonate in the Jugs back, reducing it to 4 Hits. Now in the open, the Trebuchet tries to Brace, but fails.

Play now reverts back to the Hunchback. The pilot Braced, so can not move unless he drops Bracing. He has no targets unless he moves, but can not try to use a Pilot skill again this turn. He decides to turn and move towards the Assassin Skirmisher. He fires his cannon and the Assassin fails to react. The shell strikes home and reduces the Assassin to only 3 Hits.

The Whitworth turns back towards the Trebuchet and returns fire. The trebuchet has used all his movement, firepower, and pilot skills so can not attempt to react. The Whitworth’s Beam reduces the Trebuchet to 4 hits.

The Assassin turns and moves quickly across the treeline, covering his movements with an ECCM Burst making him tougher to target. However, his weapon load-out does not allow for a left facing shot.

The Quickdraw burst from his cover and moves out to support the Trebuchet. The Whitworth attempts to react but fails, all though he only has movement left. He opens fire with his Cannon on the Whitworth, but misses. Then, his rockets and Beam attack the rear of the Dervish. The rockets are taken out by Point Defense, while the beam cuts the Dervish down to 5 hits. The Quickdraw finishes by Bracing.

Turn 3
The Strong Hammer win activation.

The Hunchback is in a position behind the Uhlan lines, so no one can react to his movement. He truddles around and faces the back of the Trebuchet. Instead of Bracing, he decides to Lock-on and opens fire. The Trebuchets weapons lock warnings ring out and the pilot attempts to react, but it is too late. The Heavy shells blast into the Trebuchets back, and cripple the Jug (2 Hits left).




Things look bad for the Uhlans.

The Dragon is satisfied that the Enforcer is out of the fight, and moves to get behind the Quickdraw. He can only bring his Beam to bear, but opts not to shoot due to the firepower reduction caused by the treeline. He wants to conserve his ammo. He holds his Pilot skill and Firepower to potentially react.

The Dervish begins to turn and the Quickdraw tries to react, which he successfully does. He opens fire with his full weapon compliment on the Dervish. The rockets miss and the cannons fail to find a weak spot. However, the beam cuts through the Dervish and reduces it to 4 Hits. He then tries to turn and move but the Whitworth tries to react, but fails. The Dragon also tries to React as the Quickdraw moves away, but fails. The Quickdraw moves behind the Hunchback, and Braces.

Play returns to the Dervish. He moves to try and get a clean shot at the Quickdraw, but can only get and Obscured shot which would reduce his firepower to very small chance at success. He decides to hold onto his firepower, and also Braces.

The Whitworth moves towards the Trebuchet, who tries to React, which he does successfully. This time the Jug Pilot Braces. He then tries to fire his reduced Firepower at his approaching adversary. The Whitworth’s Point Defenses take down the approaching missiles. The Whitworth returns fire and the Trebuchet easily absorbs it.

The Assassin moves and tries to take a sniper shot at the Dervish from the treeline. The Dervish tries to react, but fails. The Gatling and Rockets fail to make a dent in the Dervish.

Turn 4
Uhlans win activation.

The Trebuchet passes a Pilot Check to make a run order. When he tries to move the Whitworth reacts successfully. The Whitworth decides to finish the job, locks-on and disables the Trebuchet with a burst of rocket and cannon fire.



With that, the Uhlan’s have decided that discretion is the better part of valor. The Assassin activates and falls back off the board.

The Quickdraw makes a Pilot Check to run and passes. However, when he tries to move the Dervish attempts to activate, which he does successfully. A barrage of missiles home in on the fleeing JUG and cripples the Quickdraw.



The Dervish fails to perform an ECCM burst to cover himself. The Quickdraw completes his turn and can just barely get to the board edge and away.

Conclusion

Strong Hammers hand the Uhlan’s a decisive defeat. So much for disrupting the VolSaab Corporations interests on Mundos. Two disabled and 1 crippled Jug out of 4 is not a good ratio, and in exchange they only lightly damaged the Strong Hammers. I guess they lived up to their names.

Here is what I learned about the game system itself.

1.Winning Activation is not inherently good.
2.Choose when to use your Pilot Skills carefully, and pick the one you will need. This turned out to be a big part of the game.
3.Getting to the sides and behind opponents limited their return firepower and forced them to make decisions about movement that impacted their abilities to use certain Pilot Skills.
4.Making opponents move allowed you to react to them and potentially get the drop on them.
5.The Action/Reaction system was pretty fun, and reacting to reactions wasn’t as hard as I had feared.
6.Having a reference card to keep track of what each Jugs had available for firepower, Hits, and what Pilot Skill they had on was really useful.
7.Terrain and Ranges reduction of Firepower still made taking cover and gaming ranges important. I wasn’t sure how this would play out in the field. Also, reacting and moving out of fire arcs was a good tactic.
8.Missiles are really good, but can be nullified by PD. Beams rule as they can only be saved while bracing.
9.Concentration of firepower is critical, do not spread it out!
10.The game maneuvered and played like I imagined big, stompy robots would

Overall, I would call this a success!

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JUGS- Asset Depreciation

After the failed raid by the 14th Uhlans of Polanski’s Lancers, The Strong Hammers took the rival JUG pilots into custody. The Uhlans waited the contractual agreed amount of time before revealing that their employers were Lacstar Industries. With this information, VolSaab authorized the String Hammers to attack Lacstar Industries installations on Mundos.

However, Lacstar Industries main security contract was not with Polanski’s Lancers, but with a Mercenary Company known as the Rose Guard. On duty on Mundos was a Line unit known as the Thorn Watch. Die to security precautions, they had not been advised of the Uhlan’s involvement on Mundos until their attack on the Strong Hammers failed.

As a result, the Thorn Watch scrambled to set-up an extended wartime defensive perimeter. However, the String Hammers struck too quickly, and the Thorn Watch were left to repel a close assault by the enemy JUGS.

Forces
Once again we didn’t bother with using the Unit Builder, we just ball parked it.



Strong Hammers (Blue Jugs)
1 Heavy Line (Front, Dragon)
1 Line (Hunchback)
2 Light Line (Whitworth, Dervish)

Thorn Watch (Pink Jugs)
1 Heavy Line (Front, Cyclops)
1 Line (Vindicator)
1 Light Line (Panther)
1 Picket (Commando)

Mission
Today we are playing the Asset Depreciation mission in the JUGS rulebook. There are two Key Targets of the attack. They are placed within 6 inches of any board edge and each Key Target has 5 hits. Today we have some shipping Containers that have vital equipment stored inside for the Lacstar Industries timber-mills to continue processing tree pulp.

The Thorn Watch JUGS are set-up within 6 inches of any Key Targets. The Strong Hammers are set-up on the opposite board edge.



Turn 1
The Strong Hammers get to Activate first.

The Dervish activates first. He manages to stay out of LOS of any enemy JUGS and moves towards a copse of tress at the edge of the river.

The Whitworth strides straight forward, and moves into LOS of the Commando, who does not opt to React. The pilot passes a Pilot Check and does an ECM Burst to cover his approach.

The Dragon tries to RUN, but fails its Pilot check. Instead, it lumbers through the woods towards the Lacstar Industries site. The Hunchback manages to break the treeline near the Dragon. In its exposed position it decides to Brace.

The Thorn Watch had been patiently waiting to see how the attack develops. However, now it can wait no longer as it is time for them to activate. The Cyclops lumbers out from behind the factory and towards one of the Key Targets. The Strong Hammers do not have the range to react and attack so just watch the Jug move into position to block their shots.

The Vindicator moves into firing position, and unloads with her right arm Gatling cannon, which ignores the ECM Burst. However, the shots ping harmlessly off the Whitworth’s armor. The Vindicator then does an ECM Burst of its own.

The Panther steps out and just has the range on the bold Whitworth. The Panther’s beam manages to blast a searing hole in the Whitworth’s armor and reducing it 1 Hit.

The small Picket Commando races ahead into the cover of the woods by the forest and getting there before the Dervish can reach them.

Turn 2

Thorn Watch gets to Activate first.

The Cyclops begins to lumber, but the Whitworth reacts to it. The Strong Hammer attempts to press forward to try to get a shot at the unprotected key targets, however, the Vindicator beats it to the punch and activates in response to the move. The Vindicator again let’s loose with a hail of plasma packets, but the Whitworth’s armor easily absorbs them. The Vindicator then does an ECM Burst moving it from Obscured to Fully Obscured.

The Whitworth finished stepping forward. As he does so, the Panther tries to react but fails. The Strong Hammer has an obscured shot at one of the Key Targets with his cannons and rockets. The barrage destroys two of the containers.

The Cyclops finally gets to finish its move and settles in right in front of the Key Targets, and blocks them from further attack. However, it fails to Brace.

The Panther moves into cover by the trees near the river. The Dervish tries to react, but fails. The Panther then Locks-on to the Whitworth with his weapon array. The Whitworth pays for its daring and aggressive move forward, and not Bracing. The Panther’s rockets and Beam slash into the JUG and reduce it 3 Hits, down to 2 and crippling it.


The Commando stays out of sight and performs and ECM Burst to go from Obscured to Fully Obscured.

The Dervish sees the other Key Targets, and aggressively moves in to attack despite what happened to the Whitworth. The Commando is the only one who can react, and does so once the Dervish finished its move forward. It moves out of the trees and behind the Dervish to eliminate return fire. Its rockets and light cannon reach out at the Dervish but its armor and shields swat away the blows.

The Dervish finishes its attack run and unloads on the Key Targets. Its missiles all fail to find the mark, and the cannon takes out one container. Disappointed, the pilot decides to Brace.

The Hunchback strides forward eager to get its powerful main gun into the action, however, the distance is still too great. The pilot fails to Brace.

This time, the Dragon passes its Run check and stomps forward eager for battle. However, it can not Brace and is taking a risk to try and get into range.

Turn 3
Strong Hammers can activate first.

With the Key Target still in sight, the Dervish tries to Lock-on to the Key Targets. He does successfully. He opens fire again. This time he is more successful as his Missiles blast away three more containers.

The crippled Whitworth stumbles forward to get closer to the target area. The Thorn Guard has to think about if they want to react to this crippled JUG or wait for one of the Heavier units. The Vindicator successfully reacts. A fusillade of firepower slams into the Whitworth, and this time its armor buckles and the JUGS systems shutdown.

The Whitworth is completely out of the fight. It then moves to cover the last Key Target from the Dervishes attacks.

The Dragon fails to perform an ECM Burst. It then moves towards the Cyclops to do battle. The Cyclops fails to react, which means the Cyclops is not braced! However, the Panther does react. He locks onto the Dragon and fires, happy he had moved forward to try and set-up this crossfire to begin with. The Rockets are knocked from the sky by the Dragon’s PD, but the Beam mercilessly reduces the Dragon by 3 Hits! It is amazing no Critical Damage is inflicted.

The Panther’s attacks must have thrown off the Dragon’s firing solutions as almost nothing finds its way to the Cyclops. The Thorn Watch heavy slaps away the rockets with PD and absorbs the cannon shells.

Now the Hunchback walks up and locks-on with his Cannon. This time, the Cyclops manages to react and immediately Braces for impact. Then, it fires its own weapons at the Dragon. It is a punishing barrage! The Dragon’s armor absorbs the cannons, but the Beam tears through it, reducing it from 7 Hits to 4 and crippling the Dragon! Plus, the Point Defense and Rockets were damaged in the attack.



The Strong Hammers are starting to have second thoughts about their strategy! The Hunchbacks cannon roared to life and managed to reduce the Cyclops by 1 despite bracing! In addition, the cannon on its right arm mount was damaged.

The Commando was the last JUG to activate, and it did so now. It scampered behind the Dervish and shot it again for no effect.

Turn 3
Thorn Guard win activation.

The Vindicator goes first to try and screen the last Key Target on that side of the board from the Dervish. However, the Dervish Reacts to the movement and fires first! He fails to lock-on and opens fire. It only takes one missile, and it hits and destroys the Key target. There are only three left, and it is behind the Cyclops. The Commando tries to React as the Dervish goes to move, but fails.



The Vindicator completes its move. With no Key Targets to protect anymore, it moves tot eh edge of the factory complex and targets the crippled Dragon. However, before it can fire, the Dragon reacts.

The Dragon fails to Brace. However, it does open fire on the Cyclops with its remaining weapons power. Nothing sticks and the Cyclops’ shields knock the shells harmlessly aside.

Now the Vindicator Locks-on and fires at the crippled Dragon. Locking-on pays off as there are 5 hits and only two are saved! The Dragon is reduced to 1 Hit left.

The Cyclops activates and immediately tries to Brace again, and does so successfully. He takes aim at the Hunchback this time and the Strong Hammer tries to react but fails. The weight of fire is noticeably lessoned due to the critical damage on the Cyclops right arm and the Hunchbacks armor absorbs all the hits.



The Panther activates and moves to get an obscured shot at the Hunchback. The Hunchback reacts! He turns and moves to try and get an Obscured shot at the Key Targets. He locks-on and fires. His shooting is dead-on and the last three Key Targets are obliterated by his cannon!

In frustration, the Panther locks-on to the Dragon and destroys him with a precise Beam attack. The Commando also fires a parting shot at the Dervish, but the armor absorbs the rocket attack.

With that, the Thorn Watch radios a formal withdrawal request to the Strong Hammers. The Strong Hammers agree and terms are met per the Mercenary Accords and Guidelines.

Conclusion

The Strong Hammers pulled it off, but only with some serious losses. A Heavy and a Light Line JUG were both taken out in the Raid. However, VolSaab will be suitably impressed by their efforts to bonus them on their contract. Meanwhile, the Thorn Watch failed to protect the equipment and Lacstar Industries production on Mundos has been seriously hampered. Heads will roll at the Corporate Headquarters for the botched efforts.

Some final thoughts on the gameplay:

1. The activation and reactions can take a bit of getting used to. You need to think before you just start doing stuff as you might get interrupted.
2. Again, the action/reaction follows much easier than I expected. You simply complete the reactions, then go back to the previous units, and so forth.
3. Ammo is a consideration as both of us decided not to take low opportunity, long range/obscured shots unless it mattered. We wanted to save it for better chances.
4. Bracing is key, and Beams rule!

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Hi!

Very cool reports, thanks!

Primarch

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Primarch


The Primarchload
Magnetized Titans Tutorial
Net Epic Gold
Heresy Rules

Thanks!

Polanski's Lancers got trashed badly last game, so I decided to bulk them out with a few more JUGS. Maybe that will help even the odds a bit, even if they are still mostly light JUGS.



These all came from the 25th Anniversary Boxset from Catalyst. These guys can pull double-duty in Battletech too!

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I love all these various systems you remark and test and report on!

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