So I just lost Medusa to a Panther Headbutt...

[KeenCritter]

NOTE: THERE IS A NON-CENSORED VERSION ON REDDIT HERE:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/c3t0hq/so_i_lost_medusa_to_a_panther_headbutt/

I just felt like sharing what happened about 30 minutes ago, because I feel like it'll make people laugh.
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I've put a lot of time into BattleTech. Perhaps not as much as some of the more veteran Mech Commanders here, but I've played my fair share. I'm reaching nearly 180 hours now, and though I know I haven't seen EVERYTHING, but I HAVE seen plenty. I was also a part of the Beta, during which I put another 50 or so hours in. So I've been playing this game for a little over 200 hours.

That being said, I don't think even in my wildest imagination I could have imagined this, and only with a lot of time and thought could I have made this up.

So, my B-and-a-half team were out on a pretty routine mission. I myself was in the medbay, as I often am, since I seem to be immortal and can afford to get in punching matches with enemy mechs if I feel like there's time and I'm feeling cheeky that day. I had Glitch, my sharpshooter, in a dual-PPC Trebuchet. There was Nibbler, my constantly drunk, but ever reliable, front-liner in a Centurion. I had someone else, I forget who, in a Shadow Hawk or something... and then there was Medusa, my stalwart, soft-spoken, gravel-voice homeboy in another Centurion. My -personal- Centurion. Never had it failed me. Only had I ever failed it.

I forget what planet we were on. Fjaldir or something. Snowy. Lots of pine trees. Pretty in a desolate kind of way. The mission was simple: Secure a Star-League era complex of some kind for the Aurigan Restoration. That was the only thing interesting about it. We'd secured all sorts of facilities many times before, but none of them were 'Universe-Tested, Star League Approved.'

The first wave of combatants was easy. Locusts. A Javelin or two. I think there was a Shadow Hawk in there that damaged one of my guys pretty badly. I had him punch out just in case. Honestly, that was my fault, I'd let myself relax a little too much and gotten sloppy. That happens now and again.

But that wasn't what killed Medusa, because as ridiculous as the title sounds, it's more uncanny than that.

We'd wiped out a mixed lance. There was a Griffin. A couple of panthers. I think there was a Jenner. The JR7 went down first, sniped to death by Glitch. The first panther went down after that, rended into scrap by more SRM's than there probably were people on the whole planet. Obviously not really, but it was a lot of SRM's.

That left only the Griffin, which I was more worried about than the remaining Panther, and the second Panther itself. This specific Griffin had an LRM-10 and a PPC. I wanted to take it out, but the guy was a coward. Spent more time jumping and missing shots and failing to use that LRM rack than he did doing anything else.

Now, because of that, the Panther was an easier target. He was a tenacious pilot that did everything he could to lay down fire, but in the end, he got too close. We'd already shot his shield arm off, which meant that he only had so many places to tank damage, and none of them were going to be wasted if I had Medusa step on his tiny 35-ton Panther nuts with his big, 50-ton Centurion clodhoppers.

So that's what I had Medusa do. He went in with a stomp so powerful that it sheered half the Panther's body off. PPC, right torso, and leg, all in one, fell swoop. He was the last 'Mech in my lineup for that cycle, and so the turn ended with a knocked-down Panther that, for some reason, hadn't gone yet.

So the Panther gets up at the end of the cycle, and futilely rams his chest into Medusa's stocky, rippling Centurion physique. Medusa chuckles and flexes on him, because it did basically nothing but scratch his beautiful, ice-coated, glistening green paintjob.

Medusa's like, "Panther, dude, it's over. You've got no arms."

"Yes I have."

"No you don't, they're both over there, fifty meters away."

"No they're not!"

Medusa's already heard this joke, and so he raises his fist to slap the crap out of this meme-touting Panther pilot, when out of no where, the little, one-legged bastard has a stroke, and falls on his jump-jet button, and HEADBUTTS Medusa...

... right through an untouched cockpit, killing him instantly in what has to be the biggest upset in MMA history.

Let me say this: I know why it happened. I know that I accidentally basically gave the Panther two turns to melee. I have done this before, but the Panther barely comes up to the shoulders on a Centurion. It had no arms. One leg. The only explanation is that he just fell on his jump jets while ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ himself, and accidentally rammed that Panther through m'boi's head like a V2 through a British Hawker Hurricane in the luckiest, or unluckiest melee roll I've ever seen.

Needless to say, I had Nibbler break that Panther in half over his knee afterwards.

The Griffin was so stunned by the clutch play of that Panther, that it didn't even move, got pounded by two PPC's, and died.

And that's how Medusa died. It even says on his epitaph in the barracks of the Argo:

Mohammed Benitez, Callsign Medusa. Outrider. Served from days 0 to 739. 25 Deployments. 24 BattleMech kills. 7 Vehicle Kills. 12 Injuries. 0 Ejections.

"Hit in the head by an enemy Panther."

♥♥♥♥ing understatement of the year. Should have increased that ejection count to "1".

[steelcoresoviet]

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog...er, panther.

I enjoyed the story.

[Wantoomany]

There is no such thing as a disarmed or harmless mech.

[Langkard]

Good one! Too bad about Medusa, but he was sacrificed for a greater good... a laugh.

[Big mean bunny]

Death from below attack!

[Cutlass Jack]

Well its fangs make its head look like a kitty themed bottle opener.

My housecat nearly murdered me a few times despite the height and lack of opposable thumbs. :P

[Seminole Wolf]

OMG, what an awesome story. Classic!
But, "Stocky, rippling Centurion Physique?" I might use that to describe a Black Knight, or better yet, an Atlas, but a Centurion? :|

Oh, and I truly hate the Steam emoticons here. Yuck. I'm sticking to text only. :(

[JC]

lol....


ALWAYS stay out of melee range! At least i do...


that said.. nothing like pulling a called shot on a PPC on a 5 chev locust and a kill.




that said.. I'll tell you a quick story as much as i can remember.. It was i think the final mission of the campaign.

I dropped with Firestarter 2 +4SL+2 flamers, Crab, 2 LL+2 ML, Grasshopper loaded up with ML+SL and highlander with gauss and i forget what else,, i think ML's and SRM?


anyway.. the first wave hits i take them down with out much issue as i have the vehicle back up. My stalker and firestarter make it to the cap point and the second wave comes in... This kinda wrecks me up a bit, but i'm fairly well off over all.. But i'm getting low on ammo.. My mechs are sorta in the middle of the map when all of a sudden a jenner and a med drop along with 2 assaults!. I say to my self this is going to go bad... But i was almost at full moral, so i drop back a bit and get out of line of site and hammer down on the banshee with the few LRM's my stalker had left, and then popped a PPC on him

I moved my Highlander back a bit to keep out of ML range and said.. You know what screw it.. I'm calling a headshot on the other assault. It had just jumped and had 3 chevs and gaurded.. But i reserved my highlander to the final move which had my main charcter and breach shot.. and decided called head shot. In fact it was the first time i had ever called a headshot ever in the game.. and BLAST!!!! dropped it.. talk about the best timing ever.. because i only had one shot left.. my stalker was out of ammo and my crab was beat the hell.

Next turn my advanced tactics grasshopper jumped in and legged the other assault,. while my other 2 mechs dropped the jenner... and by the next move my grasshopper jumped to cover and cored out the medium with a rear torso shot.. and while close to the other assault, he had no shot.


basically in the end i have no clue how i pulled out the win with the shape i was in after the 3 waves... outside of the crack headshot, from my Main character "Scarlet" Was such a sweet way to end the campaign.

[terrycpa1972]

Unless you had destroyed the turrets you had a lot of extra firepower hitting the enemy. When I play that mission I don't kill any turrets at all.

[Bad Brad]

+1 Good on you for playing Ironman and not reloading a save!