2019 in Review

... or, BattleTech and not much anything else

 This blog has been rather inactive in 2019, and I have no hopes it is goint to get dramatically better in this year. Not much time, not enough players (not much time to solo either) etc etc. 

Enough whining, let's look at what I was up to in 2019:

Melee

I have backed the SJG kickstarter for The Fantasy Trip for both small game boxes. I didn't have much hope of playing it, but I felt it would have been (correct tense?) nice to really own the game that I discovered quite soon after beginning my quest.

Still sitting unplayed on the shelf, though.

AoS: Warcry, Warhammer Underworlds

I suckered myself into buying these (Warcry starter box, WHU Shadespire and Beastgrave), it's all my fault. The minis, the terrains, all the possible games... I'm slowly painting through the Shadespire starter, but it's rather an excercise in perseverance than anything else. All these (Warcry in particular) would hardly classify as kids friendly, so no hopes in getting them to the table soon. I really have to stop buying fantasy minis, no matter how tempted - oh, did I mention that I also purchased 16 Warriors of Chaos to make them into Tablut pieces (along with some elves from Blood Island set)? 

Kill Team

Well I do have one game of this under my belt, but it was a solo test game. Turns out that space marines vs chaos space marines make for a rather uninteresting match, and with all these rolls and rerolls before a single hit... I don't know. I like the 30k and 40k lore, I like the miniatures, but the rules are rather meh. Still I hope to play a game of KT using Rogue Planet rules (not being the first to do it) - or maybe Harder than Steel? 

And finally...

BattleTech

The only miniatures game I really played in 2019. I have backed the KS Campaign (late pledge still available!) without any regrets, because plastic 'mechs are exactly what this game needs. BTech indeed goes from strength to strength, even the tiny community in my country grew significantly after the release of the new boxes - from the two tournaments in 2018, where the number of players oscillated between six and eight we went to two tournaments with ten and twelve players - and there are at least four planned as a part of a league for this year!

I took part in two tournaments: One set in the Clan Invasion Era, where I used the plastic CityTech clan minis of  Dire Wolf and Timber Wolf, adding a metal Locust IIc to get my ass kicked. Actually, I won one of the three games (against another clanner), but lost to a SW era reinforced lance (Shame!) and Arrow IV firing squad. Even with general free upgrade to 3/5 warriors, 6K BV2 is quite hard on Clans in mech-only games.

Clan on clan, baby!

The second tournament had a SW Era and max 4 mech restriction, so I decided to put to use the remaining CityTech minis - apart from the Javelin they are rather horrible, but boy do they inspire conversions and mods...

17th Skye Rangers

However, the lance is pretty weak in Succession Wars era - won some, lost some, scored only a single hit with the damn Victor in all three games!!! and ended up in the middle. I had fun though, and I plan to use this lance with appropriate versions in later eras.

The next tournament has the Civil War, mech only restriction, so it is high time to put together the metal RFL-8D and (sigh) the Bushwacker.

All in all, I hope to enjoy pushing little plastic dudes in 2020 and wish you the same!

[BattleTech] Battle for Dubnica

In my last post I wrote about training for a tournament - so here are the results!

I won. Than would usually be a good news, however, thanks to my ignorance (and TO's benevolence) the victory was rather undeserved.* Not having TechManual at hand I wasn't aware of BV2 increase on each mech in C3 network (and noone told me), so I entered the competition with approximately 1k BV2 advantage. Well, I had fun, and I hope my opponents had some too (with challenge included).

The tournament consisted of three games with different scenario in a swiss system.

My Lance:

• AS-7CM - an anchor of the whole lance, due to its armor the best place for a C3 master. Also, slow as a glacier. About as tough too.
• TDR-9r - trooper, workhorse. ECM (I had thought there would be more c3 lances) an active probe were a nice bonus (and a ticket to the frontline).
• SDH-9D - light mech hunter (AC5 with precision ammo), striker (2xMML worth of SRM? Yes, please!) and support with semi-guided LRMs.
• OW-1C - about the best Owens one can get, with target acquisition gear, active probe and all lasers.

Game 1 - Battle lines

Each player had to place two objectives, one in the middle of the battlefield, one in his rear. Points were scored for destroying/crippling enemy mechs and holding objectives (or having an uncontested home one) at the end of sixth round.

My opponent had Thor Prime, WVR-9M, JM-7D, COM-2D. My lance sallied forth, having taken both center objectives with SDH and TDR. While titans exchabged greetings on my left, right wing hosted much more fierce battle of lesser mechs: TDR fought JM while being flanked by COM, chased by SDH. OW did not contribude much and was put to better use by taking opp's home objective.

Thor decided to chip in on the right too (by that time the JM was on the ground and TDR just refused to die). I had remarked that it would be hilarious if the Owench charged Thor's rear, and this idea was immediately supported by nearby players and my opponent as well. Hilarious indeed: Owens charged the Thor, dodged the incoming fire and hit it hard - part of the damage went to the head. After that Thor fell, scoring more dmg to head and killing its warrrior. Wiped the rest of enemy forces in round five.

Game 2 - Recon in force

5 recon objectives on each side of the board, points awarded for every examined objective on opponent's half and destroyed/crippled mechs.

This time I had met a force better tailored against C3: Vulture IIIA,  RFL-3N2, PHX-3PL and Arctuc Wolf equipped with ARAD missiles. As dreadful as it seemed, Arctic Wolf bit the dust due to ammo explosion in round 1 or two, becoming just a target of opportunity in the rest of the game. This shocked the opponent enough to keep out of my half of the board. As usual, big boys played with each other, failing to reach any conclusion, while the lesser mechs fought like hell. I have managed to destroy PHX and finish off the wounded Wolf, while my Thunderbolt acting as a bullet magnet remained standing.

Game 3 - Scoured land

Two buildings of CF40 are placed on each half of the map, you get points for keeping your together, destroying opponent's and destroyed/crippled mechs.

This time I was facing a striker lance of 6th Lyran Guards: GLT-10B, BHKU-0, NG-4S, WFL-2; all on a lovely 3d board with a river flowing between my and oppt's home edges. That striker lance was like a pack of velociraptors, any pair of them able to outflank and core my Atlas from behind. I put AS on my right back, guarding the buildings and the bridge while sending SDH on the left flank to watch a pass and OW with TDR on the right to pillage and burn. My opponent erred in the deployment, sending three mechs on my left (they jammed a bit in the pass) which left only a BHKU on my right.

BHKU ran anound TDR and OW (giving some, but getting twice as much) to join with GLT in order to shut down c3 network, preferably along with the Atlas. I had to send TDR back, so after a while AS and shot up TDR were against GLT and WFL  that were eager to avenge their comrade, while SDH lured NGS away from my rear. Again, TDR just would not die. Missing one arm, ecm, probe and most of armor it retreated in the last round, much to the chagrin of my opponent. In a rage his mechs destroyed both my buildings and Nightsky tripped an Owens, but the final score was my two buildings vs one of his, his Black Hawk and a crippled Wolfhound.

Summary: I had seven hours of great time (that is, until I learned about the c3 bv2 thing), and adding to that countless hours of putting together a lance and testing it against my local bt player I can say I regret nothing. What's next, aside from waiting for the new boxes to arrive? There should be a 3039 tournament in the autumn, and until then I mean to try sort-of-linked games in 3039 period, inspired by the warchest system.

*) A trial of grievance is scheduled for the next 3050+ tournament.

Let's face it

Long time no blog, right? Well, my quest for the grail of a perfect skirmish game has come to ... a pause. An indefinite pause - it may a mere fortnight before I play a skirmish again, or it may take a year or more. The quest will have to wait till the stars are right.

However, on a more positive tune: Battletech! The thing is still frail as there is only one other person to play with now, but we got some games in and it is good. Me and my BT pal are also going to another tournament in a few weeks, so here are some pics from the sweating part (bleeding part comes later).

It was a good and tense game, in which my early grave mistake was balanced by sound tactics and incredible luck in later stages. Yes, I gave that Battlemaster a headshot with heavy PPC  :-)

Also, this is my first blog written entirely on my phone, so please excuse the brevity and style.
And try to get used to it, as it -sadly- won't get better anytime soon.

[BattleTech] My First Tournament!

or, Not bad, after five games...

I got lucky. There's a wargaming club beyond the borders that is still relatively close, and some of its members are fond enough of BattleTech to organize a tournament. I got even more lucky and could schedule a whole day for the event, so there was no hesitation as to whether to go or not. The journey there was not too adventurous, but still gave me enough time for sight seeing.

Trencin Castle. Definitely  L4-5 fortified terrain.

It was nice to meet other players from all at least three distinct regions. The atmosphere was friendly, as was the tournament itself - it was a fair competition without any waac attitudes. Unfortunately, the games started little later than expected, so only two of three rounds were played, but at least it allowed me to get home before midnight.

Having unpacked my mercenary lance "Ronin's Tonnes" I felt satisfaction for all the evenings spent painting and those nerve wracking decisions on paint scheme. Even composing the lance was a tremendous fun in itself: I could field any 3-5 mechs totalling 5000 BV2, and although proxying and borrowing were options, I used mostly what minis I had available:

• Archer ARC-5W (70t, 1337 bv2): heavy missile boat with reasonable speed and armour
• Charger CGR-3K (80t, 1656 bv2): typed as skirmisher, this was my all-purpose heavy mech.
• Wolverine WVR-7K (55t, 1331 bv2): medium brawler, fast, well armoured and deadly at close range
• Owens OW-1D (35t, 655 bv2): scout, whose purpose was to tag enemy targets for indirect fire and grab distant objectives. I had to proxy it by a plastic Jenner.

 

Archer, Charger, Wolverine, Jenner

Game 1

I knew this game was going to be tough. My opponent was more experienced and well equipped, having a nice mix of mechs from a slow 100t beast of Fafnir to a small and nimble Snow Fox. Fafnir was extremely intimidating, fielding weapons that could rip a heavy mech apart in just one round. Avoiding it would be a good strategy, however, the scenario awarded points for controlling objectives on each starting line and most importantly in the middle.

Round 1-2: Glorious synchronized advance

Round 2-3: Deploying to position, Owens running from the beast.

In the first few turns, everything went according to the plan: Archer was in cover, raining death on those tagged/spotted by Owens, Charger and Wolverine intercepted enemy light mechs on the flank. The same mechs then dashed past them and threatened to occupy or neutralize my home objective.

Round 3-4: Enemy lights attempt abreak through, Owens tagging Rifleman.

I did not want that to happen, so both Charger and Wolverine chased them, managing to down a Raptor. The Snow Fox was too cunning and quick to suffer any serious damage, and I had to reinforce the center, so I sent Wolverine to chase it away, and Charger back to front. I belive this was the first serious mistake I made - I should have done it vice versa, as the Fox easily escaped the cc oriented Wolverine.

Round 4-5: Raptor's a toast, WVR securing the rear, CGR returning to the fray.

In the middle all went from ok to horror as Fafnir came to range. I managed to rough opponent's Rifleman, but my Owens had an arm shot off and scurried beyond the hills. My Archer got between Fafnir and Rifleman, falling under the weight of fire. It managed to stand up and advance, only to get shot in the back by the Fox. With reactor shielding breached, Archer was out of action.

Round 5 ends: Archer shot to pieces by Fafnir and SnowFox.

As a last ditch I ran my Charger to the top of the hill, hoping to kick the head off the Fafnir - never got the chance as it was shot to pieces.

Round 5-6: WVR and Owens securing objectives, Charger goes banzai (and boom).

Having lost two mechs and both center objectives I could only console myself with my and enemy rear objectives and a single light mech destroyed. Even then, it was a great, exhausting game.

Game 2

This game's scenario was nearly identical, only differing by a single middle objective. My opponent for this game (son of my previous opponent :) brought two heavy missile boats supported by two light mechs acting as spotters. This time, I believed I had a stood a reasonable chance.

Round 1-2: Both sides advance in good order.

I did not expect my opponent to go for the objective with his heavier mechs, so I rushed in as fast as possible. Fortunately, my JennOwens got to the objective first, and I didn't mean to abandon it. Enemy Raven hid in the forest, while Gambit rushed to meet Owens. Both spotted, tagged and shot each other, and following semi-guided indirect fire obliterated them both. Fine, no more lapses in calling Owens a Jenner! And also, hooray for an exchange of 600pts for 700+ pts and limiting enemy options!

Round 2-3: Owens and Gambit playing a game of TAG. They both lose in the end.

The only active mech my opponent had after the first blood was the Raven. Though it was not as sneaky and fast as the Snow Fox, I held back my Wolverine in case of a breakthrough attempt and sent Charger to flank. This time, the decision was right, because Wolverine had more armour that Charger, and I was sure it would be needed to hold the central objective, which was now secured by Archer.

Round 3-4: Charger flanks, Archer holds, WVR deters Raven.

Raven wasted its time running around the hill tagging my mechs, while the Charger got his sights on opponents Yeoman. Wolverine and Archer stood on the hill like Old Guard, getting shot by 60+ missiles each turn.

Round 4-5: Archer quite beaten up, WVR joins the hill party.

Much better picture of the hill party.

Meanwhile, the flanking succeeds.

Fortunately, my opponent was enjoying himself too much with Raven acting as spotter, and suddenly he found out that the game is coming to an end and his Raven can't reach my home objective. Too bad. Furthermore, he kept pouring everything into those poor bastards on the hill, almost completely ignoring 80 tons of hurt coming for his Yeoman.

Round 5-6: RVN too slow to capture my base objective, ARC fails to stand up.

You're one dead missile boat.

In the end, the Yeoman was destroyed, but so was the Archer, and Wolverine had very little armor left. I guess that this time I won due to luck (few crits to the Wolverine and I might loose the objective in the last round) and the all-rounded composition of my lance and general utility of its mechs (as opposed to rather specialised list the opponent had).

End: RVN puts ARC out of misery, WVR stands fast, CGR kills Yeoman.

Summary: It was GREAT! Although I ended up on the fourth place, I had lot of fun, with fine people. It is rather fascinating how deep the game experience can be with only eight mechs on board. True, my inexperience meant lot of table searching and few rules questions, but even then I love the game just the way it is. Streamlining it and scaling down the complexity makes it into a completely different game, one that has problems to stand out among today's multitude. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Alpha Strike.

Battletech!

Or the obligatory "I'm not dead!" post.

2016 was a good year in general, but regarding the hobby it was rather disastrous, and this year is only marginally better. There is too little spare time - and so many rulesets to try yet! Also, my main gaming buddy switched to multiplayer boardgames, so there you have it. From my little spare time I spent some on boardgames, some on painting (see my orc warband below!) and most on browsing the rulesets and acquiring new ones.

Blurry and Furious!

I have recieved my preordered Rogue Stars, only to decide it would be a pain to teach someone tired enough after day's work, but I still like the idea of really small SF groups thriving through a shady bussiness. Perhaps I may try Void Pirates, or wait for Harder Than Steel? Or man up and finally try the Savage Worlds (Showdown)?

Finally, Battletech happened.

You know Battletech, don't you? I mean, who doesn't? For more than 30 years players pick or design their huge, armoured and weapons-bristling mechs (piloted robots) and send them against each other. While I don't think that huge bipedal weapon platforms can ever reign the battlefield, I like the setting, the feeling and the detail as the bolts start flying, the armour of your mech falls off (or evaporates outright) and the systems fail (or evaporate too). I also like the turn structure, and I just have respect for a game that has changed very little in over thirty years and still gets played! Actually, I think Classic Battletech is like a T-Rex: It's ancient, it's cumbersome, but you simply have to respect it.

That's 100 tons of massive respect on the left,
55 tons of respect in the center,
and 20 tons of "okay" respect on the right.
(Image taken from a wallpaper to HBS computer game )

However, my road to Battletech wasn't as straight. At first I found the rules for Adeptus Titanicus, with the pre-plotted orders, different body parts etc. While I was charmed, there was no reasonable way to play it with something more than self-made paper chits. Then came Imperial Knight: Renegade (itself just an upgrade of Godbreaker Clash, a WD minigame), which I still hadn't purchased, but liked the rules, and gravitated more and more to big stompy robots. What I did was to purchase some EM4 Steel Warriors and Samurai Robots Battle Royale from Ganesha games - not a bad game, and close to my favourite Song of Blades and Heroes, but  ultimately not what I wanted.

Then, finally, Battletech happened for me. On a whim I acquired some second hand plastech minis (Made of evil plastic. Really, not bad - Evil. Because whenever you try to remove the awful moldlines, it just won't let go - and you can forget about using a file...), intro rulebook, maps and record sheets for almost nothing, and talked my friend into trying it.

Phoenix Hawk vs Shadow Hawk

We had started a duel of Hawks  that is yet to be concluded, if ever. (Fortunately, in Battletech, SaveGame is incredibly easy. You just write your mech's position and facing to its recordsheet and you're done.) However fragmented and incomplete, the game impressed me enough to try harder and finally discover another BT player in my area. We had some pair vs pair games, and that's where I got to the slippery slope and just had to have more.

More!

Not only I have purchased more maps and mechs - I wanted a more intense experience. So we went 3:3, and finding out about a tournament nearby I pledged to take part, making it the first ever tabletop tournament in my life. The tournament is still to come, but I'm already having tremendous fun building the list (traditionally, mechs fight in four-member formations called lance) and running simulations. It also means that I'll have to paint some more miniatures, yay!

And more!

To sum up: Classic Battletech is a wonderfull game. It may be a bit oldschool with all its character record sheets, bubbles to cross out, tables, modifiers and time requirements, but in return you get a cinematic experience, coupled with an excercise in tactics. The game has been here for thirty-some years and offers a rich universe to explore, enjoy and smash to pieces with your huge robots. You can start with as little as a free pnp download, you can wait for starter box sets coming the next year, put one together from available map sets, lance packs and paid downloads, or you can scour the bazzars for a good catch. Either way, it is worth a try.