The New England Federation

by on December 14, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The history of what exactly the New England Federation did during The War has been carefully suppressed. They certainly do not teach it in their schools. AIs are bad after all, and their official position is that they do not avail themselves of the services of Rogue AIs. And only a Rogue AI would enjoy the kind of destruction they were sent to visit upon the Shang. The Federation government has also never admitted to sending the AI drones out in the first place. They have roundly rejected the suggestion in fact. In this case, they are actually telling the truth. The Federation government did not send Rogue AIs to devastate the Shang homeworlds. The Great Families did. And the more you understand the difference between those two, the more understanding of how the Federation works you will get.

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Pearl Harbor

by on December 13, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We remembered Pearl Harbor last week. Not as many remembered it this year as previous years if the lack of coverage on the news channels is any indication, but those of us who study history certainly remember it.

It was the day a first world nation and military power with the best planes and the best ships decided to start a war with another first world nation. They were confident the other nation would not have the drive and stubbornness to fight them back. They were wrong. They were so very wrong.

Their wrongness resulted in many of their biggest cities being firebombed into oblivion, and when they fought on through that, the nuclear bombardment of two of their cities. The devastation was horrendous. Cities destroyed. Families wiped out. Millions of people dead.

That is the risk any nation takes when they swagger up and hit the big red button of war.

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WNRP 350 Tournament

by on December 12, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I have to hand it to WNRP for putting on a good tournament. The basic rules set makes games generally equal and fast. 80-minute games with time to setup between them allows us to easily get 4 games in an 8-hour period with time to eat and relax. Note that since we had 18 players in 1v1 matches, that made 9 games at once, or 36 unique games in that 8-hour time period. Do not underestimate just how impressive an achievement that is.

The army building rules are good, with many provisions aimed at rules lawyers. Even people like me who like to use the maths to tweak out every point and parcel are held to a hard limit, especially when certain tactics are shown to be TOO effective. WNRP are not afraid to plug holes in the rules. This keeps things fun for people who show up with the unit they put together because they liked the looks of the minis. I heartily approve of this idea, as I like seeing new players.

The terrain sets Andrew put together can easily support the 18 people we had playing, while each battlefield looks visually different and unique. I will note that the pictures of my battles show four entirely different fields of battle, with terrain types that feature different special rules for each. Bringing in the setup rules where the players take turns placing the terrain however they want, it helps to make each battle feel like a new experience.

We also had a good home at the old Fantasy Flight Games center. They are close to food, have food there, and have plenty of tables we could spread around on. Other than the one game of Warhammer that setup in the middle of the zone Andrew reserved for us, we had an entire side of the gaming area we could run back and forth over. The organizers could easily point us to the exact table and map the tournament software selected for us, which allowed us to quickly move to our next fight and place our armies without confusion. It made for a fun, fast, and organized event that I was happy to attend.

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WNRP 350 Stand up Fight

by on December 11, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

In the final game of the day, I sent my main Battle Lance into a stand up fight, and my opponent used one of the tactics I love to use. Battle Armor carried by fast units to get behind the battle lines and harass the enemy. Me.

The first round saw us engaging in ranged fire that killed my Uziel and critically wounded the enemy Mad Cat. I finished it off in the second round, but the enemy moved a Dasher and its BattleArmor behind my lines. My Marauder BattleArmor killed the Dasher in a volley of short range firepower, but I lost my Javelin and the BattleArmor.

I managed to kill the BattleArmor and the enemy tank in the rounds that followed, but lost my Warhammer and Shadow Hawk IIC in the fighting. That left my Warhammer IIC facing the Man of War and his BattleArmor alone. I killed the BattleArmor and wounded the Man of War, but my Warhammer IIC was no match for both capable opponents.

That is how I lost the last battle of the day to the winner of the whole tournament. It was a good game, and he played it well. We both had our bouts with cold dice, but I knew it would be an uphill battle the moment I saw his force. It was a good force, with a tactic I’ve not seen used before. Oversized BattleArmor units to increase both armor and firepower, combined with skill level 2 abilities so they could take cover and still have excellent attack numbers. It was a good strategy that my Battle Lance had no effective counter to.

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WNRP 350 King of the Hill

by on December 10, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The third battle of the day was King of the Hill, and I elected to bring all of my BattleMechs and a Marauder BattleArmor unit to the ball. It was time to stand up with all my big guns and make the enemy cry.

The crying started on turn one when the enemy moved VTOLs and BattleArmor in for a swift turn one capture of the hill. My advancing BattleMechs and BattleArmor destroyed one VTOL and both enemy BattleArmor in a pitched firefight that cost me my BattleArmor. His last remaining VTOL managed to earn the enemy one point though.

My BattleMechs advanced into the hill on turn two, while my Uziel jumped behind the enemy Mad Cat to shoot it in the back. The surviving enemy VTOL and fast heavy physical BattleMech attacked me in the hill while the enemy Kodiak and Mad Cat harassed me from medium range. There was a lot of missing weapons fire and no losses on either side, though I had the most tonnage in the hill and got the point.

Turn three saw the enemy Kodiak charge into the hill and face down my Warhammer IIC. Weapons fire converged from all angles and both BattleMechs died on the hill, along with the sole surviving VTOL. Once again, I had tonnage and got the point.

The enemy Mad Cat moved into the hill on turn four and his two BattleMechs faced down my four for an epic final battle of supremacy. I focused fire on the Mad Cat, while they spread their fire across my Javelin and Shadow Hawk IIC. The Mad Cat died, as did my two lighter BattleMechs, but the Warhammer and Uziel had the tonnage advantage over his last remaining BattleMech. I got a third point.

The game ended on turn five with his last BattleMech getting in close to engage my Uziel. I don’t think either BattleMech died, even with my Warhammer firing on the enemy, but I did get the point and brought the game to an end in my favor. It was the only game of the night where I destroyed more of the enemy force than what I lost.

Turn one is where I won the game in this case. He got a point, but I slaughtered his BattleArmor and VTOLs. They were never a major force again after that, and in a BattleMech on BattleMech duel, my forces had the definite advantage.

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