Post by asburygrad on May 18, 2008 21:34:44 GMT -5
MechWarrior Age of Destruction
Alabama State Championship 2008 Write-Up
By Dale ¡§AsburyGrad¡¨ Capron
Alabama State Championship 2008 Write-Up
By Dale ¡§AsburyGrad¡¨ Capron
31 players from three states battled through six rounds, three formats, and nearly nine total hours. When the dust settled, Denelic was crowned our 2008 Champion, Viktor/Takar was voted Fellowship Winner 2008, and Travis ¡§GuppyLips¡¨ Schultz won the Second-Chance Championship. (You may recall that Denelic won the Southeast Regional Championship at DragonCon ¡¦07, Takar took 4th place at US Nationals ¡¦06, and GuppyLips won the Featherweight Class - Solaris Worlds at GenCon ¡¦07.)
Let me add a brief personal note: I think I knew more of the players in attendance than anyone else. I¡¦ve played several times at our state¡¦s two larger venues ¡V Kingdom Comics and The Deep ¡V so there were only 4 players or so from those two venues whom I hadn¡¦t met before. Then I met GalenCox81 and Denelic for the first time. So out of 31 players, I had met about 25 of them previously. I had not seen bluewithwhite in four years since moving from his area of the state, and also had not seen Takar or his son JabboBubba since meeting them at Unrestricted Worlds in 2005. It was really amazing to see how a big event like this can draw people together, and to realize just how many people I¡¦ve faced across the 36X36 square in the last six years. My congratulations to everyone who has stuck with MechWarrior since the beginning!
We began the day with three rounds of straightforward 600-point play, no battleforce sanctions and standard hands of 3 planetary condition/mission cards. Before the tournament began, we agreed to have one Battlemaster per round take a bye to judge the tournament. However, we had not planned on the number of people who showed up, and Lead Battlemaster Mike Oakes had to go make some extra playing boards to fit everyone. So he and I took a bye that round, in addition to Rich ¡§Tungz¡¨ O¡¦Connor. Then I also judged the second round, as we had planned earlier, while Rich and Mike faced each other in the dreaded ¡§Coffee Table Match¡¨:
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(The game on the right-hand side was played on four tackleboxes. Mike has his back to the camera; Rich is across from him.)
So finally, about three hours after the tournament had begun, I had my first chance to actually play in Round 3. ļ I faced a young player named Greg, who had won both his earlier matches with Sturmgrief, two Merc Snipers, and six DF Gnome Battle Armor. I placed a WH Mjolnir with Kelly Bonilla, BR Solitaire with Mattia Valenti, two SS Arrow IV Tanks, five Liao ATV Squads, five SH ATV squads, and two HS Sylph Battle Armor. Early in the game, the Mjolnir and the Solitaire both landed ranged combat assault orders on the Cave Lion. The Mjolnir finished Sturmgrief off a few turns later with some artillery help, while the Solitaire destroyed both Snipers. The Mjolnir eventually finished off three of the artillery-weakened Gnome Battle Armor, and we called the match at that point. So although I had three wins (two from byes), I had a total of only three Victory Conditions and around 580 VC 2 points!
Three wins were enough to get me into the Top 8 single-elimination rounds for the Championship, in spite of my low VCs earned and VC 2 totals. The Top 8 format was a lance battle: one Mech each of the light, medium, heavy, and assault weight classes. (No colossal Mechs allowed!) The build total was set at 1050 points.
I chose to play Vengeance with Phelan Ward and Evade, Kuro Ha with ¡§Into the Breach¡¨ Katana Tormark and Brawling, a JF Loki with Deodatus and IT, and Refuge with Marc-Andre Leblanc and Camo (just to fill points). Fester Wan Kenobi faced me with a Nova Cat pure force: Vixen with pilot and IT, Sabertooth with ¡§Fast and Furious¡¨ Matt Lossey and IT, Veteran Nova Cat with pilot and RISC Hyperlaser, and Marauder IIC with pilot and Command Retrofit. His build total was 1047, and mine was 1048. Strangely enough, that one point difference meant that I could play it easy and win the game with VC 2 if no Mechs were salvaged or eliminated.
Fester played very cautiously, trying to move into his impressive assault order ranges without moving into my shorter ranges. He worked his way around blocking, while I fell back and delayed. Finally, after about 8 turns, he finally rolled a 6 to bring Phelan Ward¡¦s Zellbrigen into effect on the Nova Cat. At this point, Kuro Ha ran up and hit the Vixen, which had moved out by itself. Fester moved his Mechs up, but didn¡¦t fire yet. I broke away and moved Kuro Ha back, and then moved Refuge and the Loki up behind it. Over the next few turns, he killed my Loki while I killed the Marauder and the Vixen. The Nova Cat hit Vengeance on a well-timed charge attack, but overheated the Nova Cat ¡V which Vengeance then hit with an energy weapon and shut it down. After that, Kuro Ha and Refuge played with Sabertooth while the Nova Cat restarted and chased Vengeance in vain, until time was called. I had thought that it was really close, especially if he had managed to eliminate Vengeance ¡V but the Marauder was very expensive with Command Retrofit gear, and I would have won with or without the Solitaire. It was a great game against a real sportsman.
The Top 4 round had a very different format: 1050 points, no unique pilots or Mechs, faction-pure, 5 orders per turn, and a limit of two artillery pieces. There were some very interesting builds for this one. I took the Davion/Swordsworn alliance with two Vixens with Pulse gear, two Paladins, two Balacs, two Mobile HQs, a Bishop loaded with a Mars Assault Tank, six Davion Purifier and five ATV Squads. Rich ¡§Tungz¡¨ O¡¦Connor played Clan Wolf and the Steel Wolves against me: three Thors (yes, the ultra-rare ones!) which had two Improved Targeting cards and one Streak Missile card, two J-37s with an Arrow IV Tank and a SW Padilla Artillery Tank, and a Recovery Vehicle.
During playtesting in the months prior to the Championship, I noticed that many players tended to take at least two heavy or assault Mechs in this format. They are very order-efficient, given the shortage of orders for such a large army, and take a lot of damage before yielding points to an opponent. I designed my army to counter this: base two large Mechs with the infiltrators, keep artillery tokens on them every turn with the Paladins, and protect the artillery with the Vixens and the Mars. My plan worked, for the most part. Rich¡¦s Thors tried to wait things out in a water terrain piece near his DZ, but he continued to fail break-away orders even with his Jump Jets special equipment, and took some artillery damage. Then he ran one of the artillery-damaged Thors up, to try to get around blocking terrain that I had placed mid-field. After a turn of movement, I was able to hit that Thor with 6 damage from a Vixen with Pulse and 5 damage from the disembarked Mars, killing it in one turn. The Thor with Streaks finished off one hurt Vixen. After some cooling and more failed break-away rolls, the surviving Vixen charged a Thor and then several Purifiers also landed shots on it, sending it into Salvage. When time was called, Rich had won VC 1 with both Vixens, a Balac, and several infantry against his one Thor ¡V but I had won VC 2 (by only 100 points) on account of the salvaged Thor, and VC 3 from some helpful ATV Squads. Real close game, and I was moving on to the Championship Round!
Final match was another straightforward 600-point round, against Southeast Champion Denelic. His army consisted of the Hammerfall Atlas with One-Eyed Jack and Anti-Personnel, the BR/SW Situational Alliance card, numerous SW minigun cycles, three BR Infiltrator Mk II Battle Armor, and a SW Arrow IV Tank. I had decided on a Gamma Regiment Scourge with the P-A28 Wolf Spider Major and Improved Targeting, a ROTS Bishop with DF DI Schmitt Tank, four Liao ATV Squads, five SH ATV Squads, two HS Sylph Battle Armor, the Bayin¡¦ Killer Clowns, and one WH Minigun Cycle. We both played Perfect Day. ƒº
The early game favored me slightly ¡V both the tankdrop and the Scourge outranged Hammerfall. I moved both the Scourge and the Bishop into position, while Hammerfall eliminated one Liao ATV and other infantry units moved around. Denelic placed his Infiltrator Mk IIs in just the right place to prevent the Scourge from making a ranged combat assault order with its 13 speed, but the tankdrop was in range and had clear line-of-fire. I successfully charged the Scourge into Hammerfall, then followed up the attack with a hit from the dropped DF Schmitt. Hammerfall further damaged the Scourge with a close combat attack ¡V but that brought TSEMP gear onto the Scourge¡¦s dial. After a successful TSEMP shot for three more damage (and several lucky heat rolls for the Scourge along the way!), the HS Sylphs moved in and took advantage of the ¡§Aggressive Stance¡¨ ability to hit several shots on Hammerfall. Despite repair from his Situational Alliance card, Hammerfall was eventually eliminated from all the attacks.
It was on the next turn that Denelic noticed a mistake: I had dropped the Schmitt Tank into water, and it has the Wheeled speed mode. Major mistake! Mike Oakes came over and discussed several solutions with us, and I offered the game to Denelic. It was my mistake, and the damage from the tank was obviously critical in lowering Hammerfall¡¦s defense and helping along the other attacks. Mike ruled that the Schmitt could re-board the Bishop and the Bishop could return to cruising altitude ¡V but Hammerfall received 7 clicks of repair and returned to the battlefield in the same position.
I spent the remaining 10 minutes or so of the game trying to finish off Hammerfall, but to no avail. The Scourge was too beat up and constantly based by Denelic¡¦s infantry (preventing charges and assault orders), and the Sylphs lacked enough attack value by themselves to hit the repaired Atlas without the Aggressive Stance bonus. The Bishop tried to move into range, but was salvaged in mid-air by shots from his SW Minigun Cycles ¡V eliminating the Schmitt Tank. I had won VC 3 ¡V but had not made any kills of my own, since I had focused on Hammerfall the entire game. Once again, a great match against a very good player. Denelic deserved to be named our Champion. And I learned a lesson about future DI Schmitt drops. ƒº
Now, about the prizes . . .
For this tournament, Tom ¡§Valiant One¡¨ Keller had created six custom Mech pieces, based on famous CBT designs: Adder C, Bushwhacker, Stormcrow B, Grizzly, Mauler, and Blood Asp. To say that these things look amazing is an insult ¡V they have to be seen in person to be believed! He put great detail into each one, and everyone seemed excited about these pieces. On the paint jobs, Tom used a basic digitized camo based on current US Army colors, but then added additional color to the left arm of each Mech. Each piece was designed around a particular color of special equipment, and the left arm color matches the color of the SE. So, for example, the green-painted Adder has a combination of Homing Beacon, TSEMP, Camouflage, Repair, and Decoy throughout the dial. Here¡¦s a pic:
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I don¡¦t know for sure which Mechs were picked by which players, but the order of choosing was: Denelic first, as Champion; Takar second, as Fellowship Winner; GuppyLips third, as Second-Chance Winner; Kawthesword fourth, as second place overall for the tournament; Mike Oakes, as randomly-chosen Battlemaster; and Edaw as randomly-chosen player.
I hope that other participants will chime in with their own war-stories after recovering from this weekend¡¦s incredible slug-fest in sweet home Alabama. My thanks to everyone who came and participated, and let us remember once again (as we did last year) ¡V MechWarrior lives in Alabama! SEYLA!!
