Looks like its Finally Here

Greetings Mech Fans!

Couple of things to go over today.

Big news on the MechWarrior Front. I am sure most of you know by now, but Microsoft has given MekTek the “OK” to release MW4 Mercenaries for FREE. Yes, I said FREE. That means, to you and me and hopefully many new and old players that the game will mo longer require the original CDs to work AND it is legal.

Our thanx go out to the MekTek Crew for all their hard work and diligent attitude to make this happen. You can read more on the thanx at www.MekTek.net front page.

How is this to be accomplished? Well, if you dont know by now, MekTek released a small program (13megs or so) called MTX. MTX is used as a “bit torrent” type of interface to download AND INSTALL Mercs. As of this morning, the “Free Release” was not yet available, however, the prerequisites ARE available. (I left out the part about all the infrastructure MekTek did insure good download speeds and server availability and the insurance requirement placed on them by Microsoft, but all this can be read at the MekTek web site. Take some time and browse around.

What do I have to do? You might ask? Simple. Download MTX and install it on your gaming rig or whatever machine(s) you wish to have Mercs installed on. After the download and installation, run the program. There are a few tabs, but one of them is “Games Available”. Click that tab and let the software check the servers to see what is out there. It will give you a list, something Like AT1, and Mechwarrior Mercenaries release xxxxx017 (or something similar). If you want Mercs, click on it and it wills tart downloading AND it will install automatically. This is a major download, some 1.7gigs. Yes GIGs. It may take you a while to download, be patient. I also recommend you try AT1 if you are a true Mech Fan.

After it installs release xxxxx017, there will be an update available to you, release xxxxx018. (This is a very small patch) This release puts the Unseen Mechs (The Warhammer, The Rifleman, The Archer, The Marauder (family, i.e. Mar and Mar II) and others) BACK in the game. Whatever the hassle was over the unseens seems to have been greased. Oh yeah, I forgot, the MekTek download INCLUDES the Microsoft Mech Packs, you know the eight mechs (4 Clanners and 4 Inner Sphere) that you need the packs for? Well they are in the download and unlocked for you to use.

Now these 2 downloads get you the ability to run the game with all the MekTek Content to date included plus the 2 Microsoft Mech Packs. It is also REQUIRED for the “Free” (no CD version) release, so go ahead and get the basics installed. Currently, you will need one of the CDs to run the game that will be changing VERY soon. The Beta Testers are finalizing the changes to MTX as well as the “free patch” for the main game.

Yes, we know MekTek said they were ready some time ago, but things change. Here's the deal folks, MekTek went ahead and released MP3.1. They then changed it to include the Unseen mechs, thus giving us the first patch. This allowed them to work out any “bugs' or glitches that MTX may have had or the actual game had, not to mention SOME of the content that was slated for MP4. In finding some of those issues, Mektek has made corrections and is now testing those fixes. See, with code, every time you change something, you have to see what else it affects hopefully BEFORE you give it to the public. Here's the REST of the deal, there is NO WAY a code writer, programmer, whatever the proper wording is (And I mean NO disrespect), that person or group of people can cover ALL situations that may arise. Thats why they have a Beta Team, to get a broader view of the possible issues, but even that view still only covers a part of the spectrum. There are simply too many variants of software installs and hardware to cover every unique issue. MekTek makes a change, they test it, the betas test it and then they release it. That's how it goes. Be patient. IF you DO incur a problem, post the issue at their forums in the correct area, but search for your issue first, it is likely someone else has had a similar problem and it has been resolved or at least noted for the next patch.

In the next few days, the Free release patch will be out. Get yourself ready, get your machine(s) up to date. If you got it, donate to MekTek. Most of all, spread the word and join an online game. That is where the real fun is.

A secondary note – for those of you that enjoyed my ASL post, it is most likely that I may start a NEW blog just for ASL (and mostly for the current campaign game in progress).

Folks enjoy the game!

Red Barricades

Many of you know Ol' Vettie is a huge Mech Warrior fan. Heck I have an entire blog devoted to MW. Well guess what? MechWarrior aint the only game in town for the old guy.

You see, many years ago, I was a big “war game” geek. Yeah I said geek. Not only that, but I had some friends and buddies that were War Gamers too. Huntsville had a “club” that was devoted to playing war games. Once a month they would have a meeting and play games from about 7.00a Saturday morning until sometime Sunday night.

I played many different war games of all varieties, from Civil War battles to World War I games to World War II games to Modern Day warfare and even some futuristic games. Of all those I played, I seemed to like WWII games best and so did the group of guys I hung out with.

Avalon Hill and Victory Games were two of the big publishers back then and between our group, we probably had every WWII title those companies released. Heck, we even went to “Cons” like AvalonCon where the game company sponsored tournaments. We got a couple of rooms and made the 3 day event like it was Woodstock or some political convention.

During that time frame, one of my best buds and I decided to try this game called Squad Leader. It was a tactical level game of WWII where the counters represented single vehicles and squads and even single men (leaders). The game was rated as a 8.5 to 9 (on a scale of complexity) but it had a programmatic scale of rules. That is, you learned a few rules and you played a scenario that used those rules. Then you learned a few more and you played another scenario that had all the first set of rules PLUS the ones you just learned. This went on until you had all the rules learned Then, Avalon Hill released “modules” adding more stuff (nationalities) and more specific rules. The first of these was Cross of Iron adding some serious rules for the Russians and Germans. Next came Crescendo of Doom adding the European forces (Brits mostly) and finally, G.I. Anvil of Victory that included the Americans.

It was about this time that Avalon Hill decided to consolidate ALL the rules from those modules and clarify them into one rule book. In doing so, the game became quite a bit more complex and they even had to redo the counters to account for some of the new rules. The result was a game called Advanced Squad Leader.

Let me clarify a little something here. Advanced Squad Leader is not a game per se', it is only a rule book used for playing ASL Modules. The group that I played with most of the time decided we needed to move in that direction. For it's day, ASL rulebook was very expensive (25$) and the supporting modules were roughly just as expensive. To get started, you needed ASL Rules and a module called Beyond Valor. This gave you a complete set of rules and ALL the historical Russian and German (including Finns) units that were seen in combat in WWII. Let me remind you that ASL did not include Air Forces altho Planes are in the mix, it is mainly a ground combat simulation.

So we bit the bullet and we continued to bite with each release of a new module. The group of guys I played with changed some over the years, but a core group of us STILL play. Yes, I said we still play. The new rulebook is on its 3rd edition (and yes we have kept up) even tho Avalon Hill long ago sold out to Hasbro. A friend of ours, who also shares a love for this game called ASL, bought the rights to publish ASL and anything old and new generated from it from Hasbro. You may know the guy. He was an All-Star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox (as well as many other teams in his past). Curt Schilling is the guy and he formed his own publishing company to keep the game afloat. MultiMan Publishing now is the release point for all things ASL. We thank you Curt.

There is a small group of us now, that continue to play on a weekly basis. In fact, we just embarked on a new (another) Red Barricades campaign. This game was released back in the mid 1980's. The campaign reflects the German attack into Stalingrad during 1942 and more so revolves around the Nazi effort to take over the ordinance factory known as Krasnaya Barricady, or simply The Red Barricades ordinance factory. This is a re-creation of the actual Nazi campaign to push the Russians out of the factory and into the Volga, thus shutting down a major source of supply for gun barrels for tanks and anti-tank guns. The actual campaign lasted 30 days, from Mid October thru November.



Prior to the release of Red Barricades, all the ASL scenarios had been (relatively) small encounters lasting only a few game turns, somewhere between 5 and 12. The numbers of units used would depend on the battle or skirmish being represented, but would generally be a small number of units depending on how long (in game turns) the scenario was. These were “based” on actual battles, but usually represented only a small part of a battle or the prelude to a larger battle.

The group I played with (and I am sure we were not the only ones) sent a letter (no email in those days) to Avalon Hill suggesting some rules changes and, more importantly, suggesting that they do some sort of campaign game. The reason for the request was pretty simple. In a typical ASL scenario you had just a few game turns to meet victory conditions. Additionally, you had just a few units to accomplish victory (or to keep your enemy for doing so). A single mistake, or a bad set of die rolls could cost you the game. Many times it was decided early in the game OR it came down to a mad, unrealistic rush to get the victory condition (whatever it was, capturing a building or multiple buildings, inflicting X number of causalities, or exiting so many units of the game board.) Altho these were quite fun, it had that unrealistic feel to it. In the war, there weren't that many times that a leader would continue to send men (squad after squad) to their death just so some could leave the area, no most were fought with some bit of conservatism to save that tank or that squad for the next days battles. We often did DYO (design your own) scenarios that were “campaign like” so that you could “save” forces from the battle to use in the next one.

Obviously the designers were already on that train of thought. AH released a “Historical Campaign Module” that did all the things we were looking for. Red Barricades recreated and actual battle from day 1 of that battle through the very last day of the battle. Each 'scenario' represented 1 day of fighting. Things that didn't die got to stick around for the next day of fighting and so on. The victory condition was that the German Forces had to take over the entire map in 30 days of fighting and the Russians had to stop them to win.

The game is much more complex than that, but in a nut shell, the Nazis attack the factory and the Ruskies try to keep them out. The map is a 44” by 22” hexagonal grid overlaying a “fly by” picture of the actual battlefield taken from WWII photos, then obviously enhanced some to make things a little more clear for the players. The Order of Battle is taken from historical records of what actually fought in the battle, in other words, if it was there, its in the game. Players make “purchases” from day to day based on “what was there” and what they had previously bought. This means if only 3 Sturm Companies appeared in the entire battle, the German player can never buy more than 3 Sturm companies, but they could buy less. To make it more fun, each players purchases may not be a FULL company. They may be depleted, meaning they only get part of a company but they cost the same and the only control a player has over this is a die roll depending on some modifiers (based on historical events and actual game play events).



Anyway, as I said earlier, we have started a new campaign. Its 2 teams of 2 players each. Representing the German forces will be my old friend Ron who has been playing since the original Squad Leader game days, and my old friend Phil who joined us in playing war games some 18 years ago (maybe?). For the Russians, it will be a new comer to the gaming world, a friend of all of us Hugh and of course, Ol' Vettie. One of our plans is to use this (or maybe a new one) blog to keep up with the day to day (we meet once a week) battles. To list what each team bought for battle and to get their current battle strategy going in to the daily battle, note any changes of strategy and finally to get their point of view once the battle (daily battle) concludes and then repeat this for the next day and so on. Not really a series replay, but more so an overview of thoughts and ideas from both points of view. When we can, we might add some pictures of the battlefield so you readers can see where we are and what it looks like.

Let me know what you think and especially if there are any “gamers” out there, let me know your favourite game. I know Battletech got its beginnings (it still is) a board game.

W00t!

MP3.1 RELEASED

MP3.1 has been released from Mektek

THIS IS NOT THE FREE RELEASE, however, it does include the MS MechPacks.

The Unseens are out for now

YOU STILL NEED YOUR GAME CDs TO RUN THE GAME

MTX is required for download

Check it all out at

WWW.MEKTEK.NET

PLEASE TAKE SOME CASH OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNT AND DONATE TO MEKTEK. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS.
5$ to 500$ give what you can. Give up your coffee or McD's for 1 lousy meal and help MEKTEK.

w00t folks!!!!!


EDIT
The UNSEENS have been released via a patch.
USE MTX to UPDATE your game. Its smooth.
Love me some Marauder!!
edit posted 4-5-2010 by Vettie!!!!!