Battletech: Lionheart's Counterattack

The version cover I submitted to the guys working on the fanmade TRO: 3063 project headed up by the beleaguered ~Centurion13. This is what I had gotten done before I sent the cover off to *Shimmering-Sword to gussy up for the cover proper.

I did some fudging on 'Mechs and that needed to be fixed. Hoho. Also you can tell my actual technique with photoshop leaves a lot to be desired, and I still have yet to figure out how to make custom brushes really work for me. The fire also looks absolute pants.

It's still a bit embarrassing to upload this up next to the finished version, but I suppose it deserves to be seen in case anybody's curious.

The idea behind the painting is the deployment of two experimental units facing off during the Capellan-St. Ives war. On the one hand, the 2nd McCarron's Armored Cavalry (it's hard to see the regimental emblem on the back of the tank, but it's there) made use of the new 100-ton Xuan Wu tank to great effect as a fire support platform. On the other, a small but suspiciously well-funded Mercenary corps numbering two full battalions of 'Mechs with heavy combined arms support, Lionheart's Lancers, made heavy use of new designs sold through FedSun brokers and other sources not readily available on the MRBC's MercNet.

During the siege of St. Loris, the 2nd Big MAC had pinned down elements of the 2nd St. Ives Lancers and Khordakov's Cossacks in the planetary capital. Using comprehensive stealth tactics pioneered by none other than the Capellans themselves (namely ECM, passive radar, and infantry-level spotters and navigational support combined with a healthy degree of visual cover), Lionheart's Lancers managed to plow their way through the Capellan perimeter and threatened to disrupt the entire siege.

One brave Xuan Wu tank crew held the line against the Lionheart 1st Company's assault lance while the siege was broken, buying time for the rest of the 2nd Big MAC to regroup and recover from the sudden breakthrough. While the Capellans suffered a heavy setback in their conquest of the St. Ives Compact that day, the heroic actions of this single tank helped prevent this loss from turning into a complete rout.

Lionheart's Lancers, for what it's worth, earned a healthy bit of hazard pay, the respect of their more established peers, and a brand new Xuan Wu for their trouble. Though when St. Ives fell, they weren't exactly sanguine about the prospect of becoming pressed into Capellan service and used the Compact's surrender as grounds for a renegotiation of their contract.

(As you've probably surmised, they're a non-canon unit made specifically for this painting. Their colors are taken from the St. Ives Compact emblem to reflect their origins.)