EC Thread

[brinxter]

Well, here's my report then

Saturday began really badly, since i had a little car accident on the way over to the playing hall (i was so busy with myself, i did not notice someone stopping suddenly infront of me)
Luckily this happened quite early, and i managed to get into the playing hall with 30 minuted to spare. (slow police etc, took me almost 2 hours)

For sealed i pulled in total:

Mechs:
CJF Raven
HS Osiris
CNC Gambit
WH Seka's Pride

Pilots:
WH A. Kerensky (the pilot i brought with me)
Liao Light pilot
RoTS Light pilot
Generic 2/0/1 pilot
Rob Jeurgens

Gear:
SU Alpha Strike (L)
Supercharger (L)
Agility (L)
Hyperlaser (H)

Vehicles:
WH Tokugawa
RD Padilla
Liao Skanda

Infantry:
HD GDSBA
HD Monocycle
HD LRM
HK Thunderbird Battle Armor
HK Laser Team
CJF Clan Battle Armor

Random Cards:
Lightning Storm
Some SA card
Some Merc contract

I ended up going with:

Seka
- Jeurgens
- Hyperlaser
CJF Raven
- A. Kerensky
CNC Gambit
- 2/0/1 pilot
WH Tokugawa
HD GDSCBA
HD Monocycle
Lightning Storm

I really _really_ hated having to take the CNC Gambit as it is 101 points of dead weight, but since i wouldnt have anything even remotely resembling order efficiency i opted to take it along.
My one saving grace was pulling Seka's Pride, wich came out of my last booster. (imagine my relief)
In total 3 other Seka's where pulled btw.

My first match was against an italian who played:

CNC Griffin
- Kerensky
CJF Thor
- CJF Star Commander (2/2/0)
Liao Anubis
- Pilot
- Repair
CJF CBA
HD GDSBA
600 points

So, i was outranged and outgunned and i had no actual gameplan for this one.
Then i remembered a battle report from Trevor where he was playing with Flavio, where he used him as mobile blocking terrain.
Thinking i was totally outgunned anyway i might as well try something.

My opponent split up his two mechs, and i put my WH Tokugawa so that if he attacked any of my mechs, he would come in range of it.
Because even if he did attack the tank alone he would only do two damage, and help me prime it.
I hid Seka behind the Gambit and offered my opponent the first shot.
He took the bait, hitting the Gambit.
Then he assaulted my Tank, but since this was with a token he cascaded into an ammo explosion and went shutdown (full shutdown).
The Tokugawa fired 3 into it, and i based the Griffin with the Gambit.
I also ran Seka and the Raven into water and into normal firing range of it (but sadly for him, outside of its arc)

In his turn he vented the Thor, wich thankfully does not have enough vent to get to green in one turn.
He hit the Gambit for another 4 salvaging it, and moved his infantry.
I broke away with the Gambit, running it into his DZ.
Then i shot his Thor for another 3 with the Tokugawa, hit his Griffin for 3 with the Raven and for another 5 by Seka.
He repaired the Griffin with his Anubis (wich shut down) and vented with the Griffin.
The Thor restarted.

The Anubis got shot for 5, the Griffin for 3.
He attempted to attack the Tokugawa with his Thor, but missed. The Griffin killed my gambit, the Anubis restarted.
The Thor got shot for 3 by the Tokugawa, the Griffin was killed by my Raven and i assaulted the Thor with Hyperlaser and killed that one to.

I won that game with 3 VC's



Second Match:

I played another Italian who had:

Preacher
- Cornelius
- R.I.S.C. Advanced Point Defense
RoTS Gambit
- Yulri Wolf
- Decoy
3x RD Infantry
HK Skadi
HD Gossamer
HK MHI transport
- HD TGR
600 points

This would be a tough fight :/


We played behind blocking for a while with his preacher in Hindering.
Since i had the better defense and attack (with Seka's rising attack and two homing beacons) he ran his Gambit into my DZ.
It got charged by my Gambit (knowing mine was considerably cheaper)
He tried really hard to kill it, and save his own gambit.
Preacher got hit by my Raven and Tokugawa when he left his hindering.
My Gambit died and his ran behind blocking shutting down there.
I charged Preacher with my Raven (bad mistake) and CCOA'd his Gambit with Seka, wich then died.
My Raven got captured (bah) and he ran his Preacher as far away as he could (time was about to be called)
Sadly for him he got a critical ammo explosion, wich put him into salvage. (i would have lost otherwise)

I won this game with 2 VC's


Third game was against a German playing:

Sunfire
- Dressari
WH Anubis
- Kerensky
BR Manteuffel
GDSBA
Ionized Atmosphere
600 points


His Ionized Atmosphere i could play the hiding behind blocking game even more effectively!
With my 2x 24 decoy and 28 normal defense i was perfectly safe from his attacks. (my Gambit hid waaaay out of anyone's ranges)
He put his atlas into a water puddle, and i made sure he didnt get anything better then an assault at my Tokugawa or Raven with his Atlas.
We exchanged a few shots, and he realised that this would not end up in his favour.
He made the mistake of putting his GDSBA into range of Seka, my Raven and the Tokugawa.
He thought that since HB didnt work his decoy would keep him safe
I missed one shot, but hit the other two.
It died the next turn.

Then i decided i wanted to be brave, and retreated all my units to my DZ (near an H blocking infront of it)

He realised he had to come to me, or lose the game.
After 2 or 3 turns we where back in the same situation.
He put his Anubis to close, and i made a CCAO against it with the Raven (hitting) (i ran my Gambit into his DZ for VC3)
He retreated it behind his Atlas.
I made a lucky shot with Seka, indirect critting his Sunfire for 3.
He then charged Seka with Sunfire, and hit me!! (he did shut down thankfully)
He did another charge with his Anubis, and hit again...

I passed the break with Seka, killed his Anubis with my Raven and was allowed to base Sunfire with my GDSBA. (i put the Tokugawa in his rear)
He restarted.
I ran my Gambit into his rear.
He vented.
I missed the rear arc Alpha Strike, but time was called.

Another win with 3 VC's




After this morning i was feeling exhausted, 3 hard fought victories and a car accident was taking its toll.


Luckily i had absolute faith in my constructed army:

Seka
- Aiko
- Decoy
Magister
- Kelly
- R.I.S.C. Advanced Pulse Module
2x HS Sylph
4x CNC ATV
True Grit


I came up against Ian (NL) who played:

Jack
- LE Julz
2x WH R10
- 2x WH Kelswa
RoTS Bishop
- 2x WH TGR
- 1x Liao TGR
3 or 4 ATVs


Since i won initiative he placed a long blocking infront of his DZ so i couldnt take a formation shot at any of his units.

In the small corridor between that blocking and in his DZ the entire battle would take place

I made sure he couldnt get any formation shot by blocking all the room he needed with my ATVs and by grappling his R10's
Then he threw a crit with one of his lone Kelswa's wich hit Magister (who was about to fry something)
Magister was pulled back, and i put Seka within 12"of the Kelswa ( he couldnt formation fire, to crowded there )
He killed a Sylph + an ATV, so i moved the remaining ones around in such a way i was safe for another round.
I hit his Kelswa, he put Jack in between it and Seka.
Jack was hit for 5.
Then time was called...

He did forget to unload his Bishop, but since i didnt kill anything, and he did kill all of my infantry i lost because of my true Grit :/

I did however get VC3 and VC4 because of Split up.


5th round against Wolfpriest who played:

Fell
- Pilot
- IT
Jack
- LE Julz
- BAP
RoTS Bishop
- HS Carnivore
Infantry?


To make a long story short, my first APM shot with magister, for a rear-arc on Fell i rolled:
A 1 for the APM, and for the shot itself a 4 (wich would have put him into heat-effects)
Seka rolled an 8, and missed to.
My ATV rolled a 17 and scored two damage, he passed his heat.

He Hit Magister with the Carnivore.
I had Based fell with a Sylph so he couldnt CCAO me, and the sylph had 4 clicks of life left.
Jack made a crit on his CC on the sylph, freeing Fell who then hit Seka. (who would have had a rear on fell the next turn)
It went down hill from there.
I failed all my heat sinks, he passed all his.
My ATVs did the most damage, because they could not seem to miss _any_ shots


Game 6 was against PVoskamp (NL) who played:

Slayer
- Stark?
- IT
Kuro Ha
- Tormark (Into the breach)
- M-Pods
?
?
?

After game number 5, and everything else that day i drew a total blank.
Made stupid mistakes, and again missed my important shots.

I did however get VC3 :/



Day 2 i played:

CNC Vet. NC
- Dejesus
- Hyperlaser
CNC Vet. NC
- Stark
- Hyperlaser
2x CNC ATV
HK ATV
HK Thunderbird Battle armor



Since i could still get into the top16 if i won both games i was eager to get started.

My first opponent played:


CJF Loki
- Lizzie
- IT
CJF Phoenix Hawk
- Kelly
- R.I.S.C. Viral Decoy Jammer
CJF MHI Transport
CJF TTL
3-4x CJF Clan Battle Armors
595 points?

Faction pure, no FP and not even 600 points?
Ok weird enough.

I played Barrens to his Dust Storm.

This game was wrong in so many ways i cant even begin to describe it all.
After 15 minutes i called a BM because he was taking way to long for his turns, who then sat besides us. (He got a warining not long after that.)
He dropped his TTL so that it could just reach one of my mechs (wich stood like 5" outside my own DZ), and missed the shot.
then the next turn he fired he measured and placed the pogs INTO my DZ...
I pointed out that either the whole playing mat and everything on it had to have moved, because surely his TTL was still in the same place as it was dropped, the BM made him move it back like 6-7 inches.
He forgot modifiers, and did a number of things wich where questionable in my eyes.
Then when time was about to be called i CCAO'd a CBA, who died.
Then time was called, if i t had lasted 5 seconds longer the now freed Novacat (still 100%) would have CCAO'd another CBA and i would have won with with 7 or 8 points to spare.

But since i lost 2 ATVs my TBA and one of my hyperlasers his 3 dead CBA's where cheaper.

I lost with 3 VC's.


The last game was against another German who played:

Duke
- Consuela
Kuro Ha
- Tormark (Into the Breach)
- Coolant Pod
HK MHI
- 2x RoTS Centaur
2x HK ATV
Rots - HK SA

I played Craters to his Polar Gale (wtf?)


In Short:

I captured his CCOA'ing Kuro Ha (lol)
I missed like 4 or 5 direct shots at Duke (my horse for IT, although the rolls where so crappy even that wouldnt have saved me)
He couldnt miss, and he freed his Kuro Ha.
It also didnt help that i again based Duke with an ATV that had 3 life left, only to have my plan foiled (Yet again!!) by a unit rolling a crit hit and thus killing the ATV.

wow, that must have been a looong read so congratulations if you made it this far!
This is the end now, so move along...

[asburygrad]

Man, it really sucks to hear how you got cheated in that first round on Day 2. Sorry to hear that, man.

I still really like the SAD/Magister build, though. Can it live without IT? THAT is the question!

[elite130]

Been queit, which surprises me a bit.

The EC has shown that Hammerfell is king, Slayer a prince and SAD can be defeated.

Also an Ares with a 14 year old went undefeated.

The German Nationals shown an 3 light mech army to be king and Slayer to be a prince again.

I would say it should be optimistic to most players as there is no dominance of either Jack armies of SAD armies.

Just some thoughts.
Elite130

[brinxter]

Ah finally, i have internet again! (some screw up at my ISP)

Does anyone have a spare Slayer? i am still looking for one

And i am not finished playing SAD yet, sadly it was my fault that it didnt live up to (my own) expectations.
So i am still tinkering

[tjpandv]

Hammerfall was King - but is that is only because he can repair? To do this, he either needs BR FP or a repair mech.

The first can be cancelled by TG (as used by all SAD armies).

The second costs points (very much like Jack does to help out its shooter Mech).

The Hammerfall Army was being played by Milamber and he is one of the World's best. Did any other builds make it through to the last 16 in the hands of "lesser" players?

If this does become a favoured build, then it will need to look out for Constant Tremors in virtually every round.

So, powerful and very difficult to beat in the hands of a skilled player.

However, I think that you need to spend points on a repair mech and without that, you have a potential to loose a lot of VC1 points.

As for light mech swarms - they do suffer in the fact that 60-75% of them are likely to die during the game. You have to accept that you are entering into a blood bath and your game plan HAS to take out that Heavy or Assault mech to balance out the points. This does not necessarliy lead to a considered or well thought out strategy and your winning margin can depend upon that 1 remaining light that is both fragile and vulnerable to capture.

That said, I think the German winners CNC Vixen/PH1 army was excellent in that it had range, damage and decent AVs. However, on paper, it should have fallen to the Warwolf/BR Soli combo.

All in all, the EC event has restored my faith in the game. No one build type dominated and there was plenty of variety to be seen.
I'm now trying to fit RISC overchargers to all my CJF Mechs ready for the Faction War!! Tom is looking at Thug and a couple of Vixens.

Brinxter - check your PMs. I have that Card for Liam and just need an address. Thanks.

[asburygrad]

tjpandv said:

The second costs points (very much like Jack does to help out its shooter Mech).

Good insight.