ANOTHER Interesting Scenario!!

[asburygrad]

After the last four-player mega battle (described in my last thread), the other players wanted a rematch. Here are the rules:

1050-point armies; 5 orders per turn

Must consist of Clan Points in 5-Point multiples (see earlier thread)

4 players will be paired up randomly at the event into 2 teams

Each player chooses a secret planetary condition other than Perfect Day and plays it


We also have special "venue" squad cards that I made up for the AL State Championship last May. I have never had a chance to use any of them in a game, so their inclusion in this match should be fun.

The main special rule is having 4 planetary condition cards in play, and no chance of Perfect Day cancelling any of them. As I consider which PC I will choose, I consider two things important:

CARDS THAT ARE HARD TO CANCEL: Without Perfect Day, some PCs have no chance of being cancelled. Others are cancelled by only one other card, and so are safe bets. Some of these are fairly weak, but others are quite powerful - Constant Termors or Magnetic Storm can change a game.

CARDS THAT CANCEL MANY OTHER CARDS: Certain PCs are "mega-cancellers", taking out six or more other PC cards and giving your army a safety net against unwanted battlefield conditions. After a quick look through my card folder, Storm and Urban stood out as powerful cancelling choices.

Let me know what you guys think. The match is coming up in only two days, so I may be posting a report before this thread is noticed.

[tjpandv]

Yep, Storm, Urban and Jungle will give you the best chance of cancelling PCCs from your opponent. With so many PCCs to choose from, even these cards don't guarantee anything.

I would go for the terrain that best suits your armies and have 1 card that maintains that terrain in place. You can then use our second card to hurt your opponent (difficult unless you have certain build types that are popular) or maximise your own chances (easier and more effective).

I like to play cards that help me to crack RHDMs, so cards such as Corrosive Atmosphere, Magnetic Storm and Nightfall tend to get used.

I got to the club last night to play a couple of rounds. We used tactics cards made up by one of the BMs. You got to choose 3 offensive and 3 defensive cards. The offensive cards would give you extra army points, help with winning initiative or choosing the DZ once the terrain was placed. The defensive cards countered some of these and once you paired them off, some offensive cards were removed but others got through.

In game 1 it was my 600 points of Falcons against 700 points of Dragons Fury. The Loki and the Huitzy tank were my only real attacking pieces and there were lots of targets. As good as 5 pulse damage is, I often had to cancel it down and split my fire in order to wound the fragile DF pieces. Anyway, a win for me.

The second round was my 800 points against 700 from the Wolf's Dragoons and Spiders. Much trickier. The Thor with its 5 anti pers was a huge threat to my CBA and Trackbikes. That said, I did leave the Trackbikes out as a tempting target which the Thor went for and wiped out in a single shot. The ploy worked as the Mech rolled into heat effects and shut down within AO range of one of my Lokis. The WD Goshawk was brought in to act as a shield but it took 10 points of damage from a Loki pulse. Next turn, I get lucky and the WS Loki misses its shot. That was just about it. The Goshawk is finished off by the CBA, clearing the way for a shot at the Thor which starts to melt. The WS Loki then takes more damage and shuts down. Game over very quickly.

I can definately recommend the A28 pilot from the Wolf's Spiders. He gave my Loki a 13 attack with IT (and a 21DV) and the Huitzy tank dropped nearby with a 13 attack to finish off what was left. All for 30+9 points.

Must keep this up as MW is such a great game.

[asburygrad]

I've been wondering about the impact of the Wolf's Dragoons pilots. I've faced them twice now in these 1050-point team battles, but they fail to impress me. I don't think they are being played in ways that take full advantage of their potential broken-ness.

[asburygrad]

Battle Report:

I decided to take this army into the 1050-point, 4-player team battle rematch:

Headmaster / Fernali / Improved Tracking
Overlord / Pederson / Coolant Pod
Haria / Kelly Bonilla / Double Rate
3 HD Purifier
3 JF Clan
4 ROTS Minigun Cycles
"House Divided" Faction Pride (see below)

I was concerned about the power of the "House Divided" pride card that was created for the Alabama State Championship last year. You are required by the card to pay 10/150 points, so it is equal in cost to a SA or full-price FP card. However, it allows you to choose between ignoring ALL blue special equipment on one opposing unit (Roll Tide!) or ignoring ALL red special equipment on one opposing unit (War Eagle!) each turn. You must choose between Roll Tide or War Eagle at the beginning of the game, but may choose a different opposing unit to affect each turn.

Since everyone had access to this card, I expected to see it in play. I decided to run units that generally did not depend on red or blue SE. However, I was the only person to play it!! Other people either forgot about it, or misread the rules for it.

We rolled for teammates randomly, and I was placed on a team with my previous teammate Travis (GuppyLips on some forums). He ran:

HK/ROTS SA
Kaze / Bounty Hunter / Hyperlaser
Ingwe / preferred pilot
Kuro Ha / Katana Tormark
3 ROTS Po Tanks
Hi Kelswa
various infantry

We decided to mix things up by playing across from our teammate diagonally (instead of from the same DZ). So I faced one opponent and had the other opponent on my left side. The left side player used:

Merc Pride
Poseidon / +2 attack pilot / repair pilot / run pilot
Zahn / DF Schmitt drop
Hi Kelswa
SS Arrow IV
various infantry

The opponent facing me across the table had:

2 Wolf Spider Thors / WD pilots / IT
Hi Kelswa
WH Kelswa
10 Merc Gnome BA

Before deployment, we all played our Planetary Condition cards. I expected to see some of the powerhouse, hard-to-remove PCs - Rocky Terrain, Magnetic Storm, Constant Tremors. But there was a twist: we could not consult with our teammate before choosing PCs. So you did not want to run Constant Tremors, on the chance that he choose a Peacemaker or Hi Kelswa build. In the end, these were the four cards in play: Horrible Day, Nightfall, Grasslands, and Polar Gale.

Because we wound up with an opponent to the side of each player, who was much less than 30 inches away, we decided on a couple of additional rules. You could not infiltrate sideways - only across the field. Second, you could not attack the opponent on your flank until turn 4.

I was impressed with my teammate's army. I had seen it before, and it's pretty clever. Travis uses Horrible Day and the SA card to increase the chances of rolling a crit miss/hit with Bounty Hunter, removing an opposing pilot. We figured that with everything in play, he increased his odds of crit missing from about 2% to between 10 and 15%. Not bad!

As the game started, I realized that I had nothing in my army that was going to hit the Hi Kelswa/Thor formation I was facing across the field. My team's best chance was to go after the Ares and make sure we killed it - but I was required to move against the other army for three turns. I moved up my infantry behind some blocking terrain. My opponent tried indirect fire with the Thors' AntiPersonnel weapons, but either missed his shots or had his Anti-Per cancelled by my House Divided card. He also crit-missed several shots due to Horrible Day. For my part, I tried a Streak missile attack from Haria against a Kelswa, and missed by a mile.

Meanwhile, Travis worked on the Ares side of the field. He got a crit hit with Bounty Hunter pretty early on, removing an Ares pilot from Poseidon. Poseidon smacked Ingwe for 5 damage, sending it back to a repair infantry. Bounty Hunter responded on a later turn with a 9-damage Hyperlaser hit. I think it hurt this opponent to have Merc Pride in the army, but not able to take advantage of it with the Ares (due to the pilot cards).

On turn 4, all three of my Mechs turned and moved in against the Ares opponent. I based the Thor/Kelswa player with my infantry, just to distract and tie him up. It took a couple of turns, but finally my Mechs moved in. They dropped Poseidon into Salvage, then salvaged the Arrow artillery. On the next turn, he dropped the Schmitt to nail Haria . . . but the damage was already done. My teammate got the kill shot on the Ares, I finished the Arrow, and the game ended pretty quietly. The Thor player took out my infantry quickly using their Anti-Per, then went for VC 3, but just didn't have time to make it.


AFTERMATH:
I ran Headmaster and Haria mainly to test the value of having three clicks on the heat dial without heat effect rolls. I found it to be somewhat useful, and it was helped by the extra vent from Polar Gale - but overall, I was disappointed in Haria's performance. And Headmaster did not stand out in any way. Overlord turned out to be a great choice - I regularly cancelled Nightfall on my turn to make my shots easier, then gained the advantage back from it during opponents' turns.

In the end, the Axis of Evil won the team battle rematch, and our record is now a perfect 2-0. Hopefully next game we can switch the teams around. I look forward to the next great challenge, and will post more info here when it happens.