Mechwarrior 3 Campaign - Operation 3 Mission 1(part 1)

This is the campaign mode in the game Mechwarrior 3 developed by Zipper Interactive and published by Microprose. It is based off of the FASA battletech universe and was released in 1999. (That's right, this game is almost 10 years old.)

Here is the campaign's storyline as summarized by Wikipedia: The story opens with a briefing of the Inner Sphere commanders daring plan to eliminate the most hostile and vicious clan in the Inner Sphere: Clan Smoke Jaguar. The mission, codenamed Damocles, is to attack key Smoke Jaguar installations on the planet Tranquil, including a 'Mech Factory, a starport and a geothermal power plant, and to eliminate Smoke Jaguar forces and leadership on planet.

Two dropships are deployed to release the multi-lance BattleMech force to destroy these installations. However, while in orbit above Tranquil, a dropship is attacked by massive naval laser fire. The Blackhammer is shot down and the remaining dropship, The Eclipse, retreats to safety. The player (referred to only as lance leader) had already been deployed from the Blackhammer slightly off target before it was shot down. The Mobile Field Bases (MFB) that had been deployed with the player land on target, and the player meets up with them quickly.

It is quickly apparent that the original plan is no longer viable- less than half of the 'Mechs are deployed, with the rest either shot down during the drop or still on-board the Eclipse. Despite this setback, the player must continue with his objectives, and hope to link up with those forces that survived, and eventually, secure a landing zone so the dropship can return to evacuate them.

So that's how it is. A cool thing about the campaign is that you star off with only your stock (unmodified) Bushwacker and must destroy enemies to get salvage to customize your mech. Even the way you kill your enemy determines what salvage you get. (This is why you'll see me legging [shooting off legs] enemy mechs.) For example, if your enemy has an Autocannon 20 in his right arm, if you shoot off his right arm, the weapon is destroyed and you can't salvage it. =( Another thing is that you can only carry around so much salvage. Your 3 faithful MFBs (Mobile Field Bases) can carry 300 tons of salvage each, including 2 mech chassi. This may sound like alot, but when you consider that mostly everything weighs more than a ton, you can get pressed to figure out what you want to bring with you can what you want to leave behind. (This is done by allocating items, which you will see me do as time goes on) And if you lose a Field Base to combat, you can carry even less salvage. (There is a mission where you get them back though?) Anyways, enjoy! I plan on going through the whole campaign so please feel free to comment constructively and rate!---------------------Yay for the mechlab!

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• mechwarrior
• mw
• campaign
• microprose
• mech
• game
• battletech
• FASA
• Zipper
• Interactive
• dropship
• storyline
• Damocles
• Black
• Hammer
• Eclipse
• customize
• salvage
• crash
• mission
• briefing
• Annihilator
• Avatar
• Blackhawk
• Bushwacker
• Cauldron
• Born
• Champion
• Daishi
• Firefly
• Madcat
• Orion
• Owens
• Puma
• Shadow
• Cat
• Strider
• Sunder
• Supernova
• Thor
• Vulture
• Elemental

[OperationEndGame]

I think my weapons load on the Annihilator throughout the campaign was like this: four LB-10X AC, four med lasers, 2 artemis FCS, one 10LRM's, one 15 LRM, one AMS... I had at least eight double heat sinks.. All clan inventory. I kept a standard engine.

[Griuqs]

Sounds pretty close to the original, except with those LRMs added in.

[OperationEndGame]

This is my favorite part of the game... customizing your weaponry.. Gotta have all clan inventory here. It doesn't use too much space... One thing for certain, you gotta be careful where you put your ammo. First time I customized my load, it blew up my Annihilator.. I stacked my ammo (without the case) next to my lasers (LOL)..

[Griuqs]

Wow, that's amazing, I don't think I ever had my ammo explode on me. I have to purposefully overheat using large lasers to get an ammoboom.

[cmgTFfan1084]

Thank goodness for the mechlab. This is where strategy comes in handy.

[Griuqs]

And a good knowledge of the original Battletech mech customization process.

[killerbeel1]

you take even longer than me to custumize man wat the french toast 9:00

[Korraganitar]

also, yeah, nothing quite like the clan nova config for the blackhawk!

[Korraganitar]

the only downside to the annihilator for me was that for some reason doing a refit at the mfbs wouldnt refill my autocannon ammo, leaving me much weaker as a mission dragged on.

[metroidsax1]

@Griuqs i always manage to blow the supernova up doing a hero stand of the alpha strike, now that is impressive.

[c182SkylaneRG]

Eh. I like missiles and Clan ER Large Lasers. It wasn't until MW4 that I realized just how powerful the rest of it is because it's so hard to aim it right.

Probably my favorite lancemate mech: an Annihilator with 6 ER Large lasers, 4 AMS and loaded up with Double Heat sinks. I also love AMS and put two or three on each Mech. Saves a lot against missile mechs. :) (Sucks in MW4 you only get one...) Even with 23 Double Heat sinks, firing 6 ER Large lasers at once'll total your mech. :)

[LotsOMovies]

You got a Puma salvaged? That's awesome! I always have such a hard time legging those suckers, and I'm usually in too much of a hurry putting those PPCs out of commission to be able to line up a solid leg shot. After the Blackhawk, the Puma is my favorite 'mech.

[ghostbirdofprey]

That happened to me once. I fired off an alpha under full jumpjets, apparently the mech cannot shutdown while in the air, so the next time I fired my guns my mech exploded.

[raider0020]

Personally I wish mech warrior 4 had this kinda mech lab cause alot of it was customizable then, though I did like the limited types of weapons it allowed you, cause in this you could just load them up, lol I remember loading up a Sunder with ER PPC's and actually blew a crater into the ground and cause two mech to get trapped in it.

[Aggedor1959]

I like to load up on pulse lasers with at least one Large ER Laser for sniping.

My Lancies usually get stuff like ER PPCs and missiles.  Occasionally I'll add in ACs, too. Nice when I can call in some honkin' backup.