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.