Sitrep Showdown - Outpost Assault

 

Generated with Interpoint Station's Map Generator

Mission Brief

LL0 - Holdout
Defend the Outpost from a Hostile Incursion

Enemy Composition

3x Assault (Striker) - Underslung Grenade Launcher, High Impact Rounds
The main focus on this battle, as a followup to my NPC review of it. Designed to act as a mid-range artillery that will entrench itself and alternate between Stabilizing and firing a monstrous set of attacks.

2x Berserker (Striker) - Juggernaut
While also strong damage dealers in their own right, these Berserkers will act as pseudo-Controllers by rushing in and making themselves everyone's problem, allowing the other NPCs to get into defended positions.

2x Veteran Bastion (Defender) - Siege Guardian, (V) Legendary, (V) Veterancy Hull
These guys will act as mobile cover as the Assaults move up, and will stick around for a long time due to their inherent bulk, extra Structure, and Legendary trait preventing them from spontaneously combusting.

3x Scout (Support) - Dataveil
These guys can either support the Berserker's charge towards the players with Dataveil or hang around the Assaults to provide them invisibility through its Cloaking Field. The Lock-On is nice as well, all but ensuring the damage sticks.

Initial Deployment

2x Assault
1x Berserker
1x Bastion
1x Scout

Threat 

Moderate

Complexity 

Low

Overview

This is intended to be a introductory mission for players new to Lancer, so we're only expecting to face Everests and their two variants here. These missions will be designed for 4 players, so adjust as necessary for different group compositions. As this is the first in perhaps a series of these premade combats, I will preface this by saying that the best encounters are ones designed with your players in mind. Offer them things they can both take advantage of and be weak to, ideally in the same encounter! If you do use this as is, give it a thought as to how it'll best serve your needs and mix things up. These are intended as a framework for you to build off, or Oneshot material.

As per my Encounter Budget, this is on the low end in terms of overall structure that the party will be facing. It's still a Holdout, and thus has a high chance of never running out of enemies in the first place, but there's a few key decisions that I made you should be aware of. First, this mission's key player is the humble Assault. They should be the primary Striker on the field and the ones doing the most damage. Next, there's only intended to be one Bastion on the map at a time. They're just so tanky and having multiple on the field probably isn't going to feel good for players that want to do some real damage. And finally, you've got 3 Scouts! Don't feel bad about losing them! If you really want you can even have one follow a Berserker along so it can Rebound Scan, giving them nowhere to hide and a need to run from an oncoming Assault Barrage.

Initial deployment is fairly simple. An Assault and Bastion come in together, probably in the SE corner of the map, another Assault comes in from say the North or West, the Berserker comes in nearby the second Assault but at a different angle, and the Scout comes in either close to the Berserker or close to the Bastion, allowing it to focus its support efforts either letting the Berserker approach with Dataveil or plinking people with Lock-On and potentially moving to meet the Bastion for a horrific combo of using its Cloaking Field to give the Bastion, the Assault, and the Scout all Invisibility. Maybe don't use that right off the bat, it's gonna be hard for players to respond to so much stacked defense! That's more of a round 3 move, to me.

Now, while the Assault is the main star and threat of this show, it's important to note that several of these guys play off of each other and that's intentional. The Bastion might be intended to pair up with an Assault initially, but you might decide to move it in to contest the Control Zone (CZ) directly, possibly even giving the Berserker a reprieve from the many sources of damage it's likely facing. The Berserkers, while intended to be disruption tools, could later on decide to hunt down flanking players and prevent their allies from losing their well entrenched positions. The Scouts, as stated before, can assist the Berserkers or Assaults in their respective role, offering bonuses to their offensive or defensive potential as necessary. The Assaults meanwhile are the simplest, really just wanting to blast the hell out of anyone within Barrage range.

As this is a Holdout, keep up continual pressure and maintain around 5-6 NPCS on the map at a time (assuming a party of 4 players, at least!). If an NPC is likely to go down during that round and is barely hanging on, deploy Reinforcements early because it will likely take a turn to arrive where it can perform its role. Try not to stack too many of your Strikers in the same place or hitting the same target, as this is a relatively Striker heavy composition you can run the risk of focusing down a specific player and leaving them without a mech for the rest of the mission. Instead, apply an even pressure and remember to contest the CZ! The NPCs don't necessarily want to kill the players, they want to drive them out and hold the outpost, after all! Near the final half of the Encounter I would more directly assault and contest the CZ with every dirty trick in the book. The Bastion should be in the center by that point, giving the players a difficult choice of targets, especially if those damned Berserkers haven't been dealt with!

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this little combat will give you a bit of fun in the coming days, giving some useful insight into someone who thinks they run some pretty fun combats. Just remember that losing NPCs is part of the battle, especially the Berserkers who are intended to take the heat off of everyone else! Encourage your players to stray outside of the Holdout zone as tactically necessary, after all the CZ only gets checked in the final round, and if they spent the whole combat huddle up defensively they may find themselves swarmed on all sides by problems! And don't let them forget to Scan targets, because knowing how to deal with the Berserker is going to be a major factor.

You don't need to credit me if you use anything here. I only generated the map and I don't own any particular NPC composition or Sitrep situation, after all. Just have fun, and make it yours!