Continuing the Pure Tech theme, I would like to talk about my “perfect” league for playing puretech. Indulge me if you will.
Currently, there are three major leagues out there for our beloved game. MWL, NBT and MCL. I am not sure if ISW is still operational, if so, ISW would make a forth league. I do not know that much about ISW so I wont make comments either way. My understanding is that ISW requires either NetMech IV mod or NBT-HC mod, but again, I am not sure. You can check for yourself by going to their website and poking around. www.iswars.com is the last address I had for them.
MWL is mostly a 3PV mixed tech ladder league. They have ladders for nearly every type play you can think of and if they don’t have it, if you get enough teams to sign up for it, they will create it. For awhile, they even had some FFP puretech ladders. I know at one time they had a planetary league too.
I am an admin for MCL. www.mechcombat.org. This league is also a ladder league but it caters to FFP play only. They have Mixed Tech Ladders and Pure Tech Ladders and are in the process of creating a Mission Play Ladder.
NBT is a planetary league. www.netbattletech.com. This league is probably the most in depth league if you are looking for planetary play. NBT is FFP, pure tech style play, however they use their own mod, NBT Hardcore.
I spent some time in each of these leagues and I am still a member of MCL. Before NBT went to the Hardcore mod, I was a member / co-leader of a team in that league. I have enjoyed each of the leagues that I have been a part of, and each offers some fantastic play for its members. All three are still active and have teams that are looking for players and are even accepting new teams if you have enough pilots to form a roster. If you are looking for competitive play in an organized league, I suggest that you look at each one and find one that fits your style. Join up and be a member, it’s a lot of fun. MCL and MWL both have Solaris type leagues so individual players can play and fight without actually committing to a team.
If I were going to create my idea of a “perfect” league, what would I do? Well, to start with I would take the NBT Planetary Model and change it somewhat. What? Why? The NBT system, throughout my playing time offers the best play as far as really getting in to what your team is about. My understanding is that ISW is/was this way too, and possibly even more in depth for the individual pilot, so maybe I would borrow some for each type of play.
NBT, as I have mentioned is a planetary system with Clans, Inner Sphere Major Houses, IS Minor Houses, IS Periphery Houses, Mercenary Units and even Pirates. All the major units from the BT Universe are or can be represented. They each have a little slice of the universal pie and each one is trying to get more of that pie. The Clans are trying to get to Terra as well as their own battles for supremacy and ranking within the Clan Worlds.
So how does this all fit in with puretech theme? As I said, I would start with the NBT model and take it a bit further. You see, when I played in NBT, you were either a Clan unit or and IS Unit. When you first signed on and started up your new unit, or took over and existing unit, you were given certain assets based on the type of unit you were. If you were an IS unit (this includes ALL units, Houses, Periphery, Mercs or Pirates, except Clan units) the majority of your assets were IS technology including your factories, jump and drop ships and battle mechs. I do not know for certain, but I am assuming it was the same in the Clan Side of things (I was never a part of a Clan Unit). You were given SOME assets that were opposite tech, but that was only a small percentage of your assets.
How would I further that? I would take it back to the BT Books and TROs. If House Marik built certain types of battle mechs, then that is ALL they would have to start with. Another way of putting is like this, if Steiner specialized in building the Thanatos and the Uziel, for example, then that is what they would start off having in their assets as well as having their factories being able to build. If House Davion built the Victor and the Wolfhound, then they would start with those mechs and the ability to build them.
As teams built their forces, and as the factories started to produce mechs and income, then the Houses could take their ‘goods’ to market and sale them to other Houses (either via auction (my personal fav) or public orders). After a House bought a certain number of another Houses goods, say the Steiners bought a 100 WolfHounds, then Steiner could buy the rights to build that model but still have to pay a percentage to the original House as royalties. Of course, if a unit captured or stole a certain number of a chassis, then they could reverse engineer it enough to produce their own. These captured tech could be manufactured and eventually sold, but ONLY on the Black Market. Some chassis would be shared by multiple (or possibly ALL Inner Sphere units). That is to say that ALL IS factories COULD produce an Argus (as an example) with no royalties to be paid to anyone.
IS Houses may also agree to share technologies and designs. This would mean that Steiner and Davion could become partners on battle mechs that were exclusive to them, like in the examples above, the Uziel and the Victor. Sharing would mean that both Houses give up exclusive rights on a design to another House in exchange for exclusive rights of another design. Each would then be the owners of that mech design and would be free to produce and sell the mech as they so desired. The royalties from these mechs would then be shared by both Houses going forward. This pattern could be repeated until all IS units are partners and then the unit becomes open technology among the Inner Sphere (like the Argus in the above examples).
Similar situations could be set up for the Clans. One Clan could have exclusive rights (as deemed by historical info from TROs or as set up by the Clan General Council) to build certain chassis such as the Mad Cat being built by Jade Falcon and the Kodiak being built by Ghost Bears. Now the Clans are so interested in monies or C-Bills like the IS folks are, so you would need to work out something on technology sharing amongst the Clans (even if they are warring among themselves). I suggest an allotment factor for each Clan.
Huh? How would that work? Simple. The General Council is made up of a Kahn from each Clan, major or minor. Among this group of Kahns, they elect a Leader of the GC and three member agreement board. Individual Kahns would submit their requirement ‘bids’ to the Allotment Board. The agreement board looks over the requirements for each Clan for each month and decides what new assets are delivered to what Clan. This would then be submitted to the Leader of the GC for approval. The Leader either agrees or makes adjustments and then each Clan gets what ever was submitted as their allotment for the month.
Also, if a Clan wins a ‘bid’ to attack an IS House, their allotment may be adjusted in increase their supplies as needed depending on their submitted bid, or as the GC sees fit to sustain, increase or decrease the flow of equipment. If a Clan is attacked by an IS house, they may also need more mechs than their allotment or even more than there ‘monthly bid’.
Why would you want to do this? In the beginning of a cycle (or whatever you want to call it), battles would be limited to only the mechs you have access to. How you trade and the agreements you make determine how technology spreads across the Inner Sphere and among the Clans. A team may spend months fighting a rival ‘house’ and never see an Atlas. Then one day they launch a assault on a neighboring planet in hopes of taking that planet for themselves and boom, there is an Atlas, or a few of them or many of them. Imagine capturing a planet from a rival only to discover some chassis being built there that you have not had access to, or only been able to buy through Black Market (extreme) pricing? Now imagine trying to work the logistics of deploying this new piece of technology to all your forces without losing it back, or having it stolen by pirates. Or, if you decided you weren’t happy with this new found toy, imagine the profits of selling through the Black Market o hiring Mercs to trade them off for something else or using ‘privateers’ to dispose of them for you on the Black Market if you don’t want to ‘dirty’ your hands.
Battle Mechs that were built by Houses or Clans that are not ‘filled’ while forming the league, could be bid on by other units. If Clan Ghost Bear did not have team filling that slot at the time of the league start up, or cycle, then any mechs built exclusively by Ghost Bear could be bid on by all the other ‘active’ Clans. Same for the IS. This would still allow for possibly all the chassis currently in the game to be used while the original ‘makers’ are not being used.
NBT has a very good system that allows for jump ship movements and record keeping as to what is in storage, on drop ships and jumps ships and what is on garrison as well as the size and type of factories on each planet. It also allows you to add factories if you have the C-Bills and it calculates income and maintenance fees. There is an overall universal map that can be drilled into down to individual planets. In the K-Cluster, planets may be sub-divided into territories owned by different Clans. It really is an impressive system and one that is fun to operate. Players can simply be pilots and fight using a multitude of chassis in a variety of different battle types, or they can have more assignments such as planetary garrisons or jump ship movements or financial operations or diplomatic relations officers or whatever.
More or less that is what my ‘ideal’ pure tech league would be like, chassis exclusive to certain Houses or Clans, Planetary Universe for warring and lots of diplomacy for agreements. This would make the pure tech aspect even more crucial.
How? As I stated in my previous post, the Clans had (have) an advantage in the 700 to 950 meter range and with lower tonnage weapons. The biggest thing in all the books and stories between the Clans and the IS was that the Clans would ‘bid’ on an attack. That is, the leader, or Kahn, would state tonnage or numbers of mechs or even which specific mechs they would use to capture a certain objective. A rival Clan would try to ‘bid’ lower by using less tonnage or smaller numbers and so on until one side passed and agreed to allow the other the right to be the aggressor for the battle that they were bidding for. This meant that the Clans would have smaller numbers of equipment available to them than there is counter parts, but the weapons technology was superior often weighing less (allowing for more firepower to be packed on) or having better range or both.
It wasn’t until the MekTek additions that things like the mini-gauss or Hyper Auto Cannons actually reduced that Clan advantage by taking away the range. Prior to MekTek MekPaks, the IS only had the Light Gauss Rifle and missiles (yes there were other weapons like the Long Tom and Arrow Missile System, but over all the Clans had an advantage). The IS had to rely more on tactics, stealth and shear numbers to overcome the Clan superiorities. In a video game, you cant very well ask one team to use only 5 or 6 chassis while the other gets to use 6 to 8 because overall it just doesn’t work out. Eventually the numbers game will catch up to the team using the lower numbers of chassis, especially in a planetary environment where it’s a one kill and you are out of the battle type of fight (meaning that there is no respawn, you either live or die in the battle).
In this suggestion of mine, you could recreate the Clan Invasion as well as the struggles between major houses. The Clans would still have their advantage of lighter / longer ranged weapons and the IS would slowly begin to realize that they need each other to survive the Clans (or at least they need some of their other IS chassis). Temporary alliances could be made, secret deals could be made, sales and trades could happen and Clans could fight each other as well as mount that drive on Terra…
Well that is my ‘perfect’ pure tech setting. The fun of facing mechs you don’t have access to or at least not yet. Realizing the strengths and weaknesses of the mechs you do have and the fun of going after what you want.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Pure Tech
Start a war? A debate? Maybe so.
We all know the radical differences between 3rd Person View and 1st Person view. We all know that there are many people on both sides of that razor edged fence. I prefer 1st Person view and that is my choice. I don’t care if you prefer 3rd person view because that is your choice. As long as you play the game, that is what matters.
The debate, the war, the topic for this rendition of Vettie’s Views isn’t about what view you use. No, instead I hope to spark some interest in one of the other oldest debates about this game, pure tech vs mixed tech.
Yes, my view will be slanted to the pure tech side because that is my preferred way of playing. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, its my blog, so I can put whatever I want in it. I do hope that this issue will spark some comments on both sides of this fence.
OK. Wow, where to start with this topic? Oh yeah, for those of you that may have stumbled upon my blog by accident, of for those of you that are new to MechWarrior, let me explain the differences and then I will state my case for pure tech. Pure tech simply means using Clan Technology Weaponry on Clan Technology Chassis and Inner Sphere Technology Weapons on Inner Sphere Chassis. Pretty simple. Mixed Tech is even more simple. Mixed tech means you can use any weapon on any chassis. Any questions? Ok maybe if you are new to the game you don’t know what is what. Simple enough. When you go into the mech lab and select a chassis or create a variant the chassis is there spinning around inside the lab. There is a brief description that tells you some key info like whether the chassis is Clan or Inner Sphere. On the left side is a list of weaponry. If it is Clan Technology, it will have a little “C” in the upper left hand corner of the weapon Icon. If it has and “X”, it can be used by either Clan or Inner Sphere and if it has nothing in the corner, it is an Inner Sphere weapon. If I figure out how, I will try to post pics of the different weapons and a chassis of each technology.
Well, I hope that my explanation was simple enough and I hope that I didn’t confuse anyone. Now on to my favourite, Pure Tech. Let me state this, I have never played the table top version of “Battletech” but I have a pretty good idea of how it works. I am a gamer and I play several table top games. My favourite is ASL or Advanced Squad Leader. Let me also state that I have read a few of the BT novels but not very many, so my dedication and love for this game actually stems from the game itself. I started playing way back in the MW2 days and I even played some online version back then. Vengeance and Mercs really got me interested and I have played for years.
My pure tech roots are not seated in the board game or the novel, its actually seated in the game itself. Vengeance and Mercs are very similar and I consider Mercs to simply be an improved add on to Vengeance even tho they are separate games. Way back in Vengeance (and in Mercs too) when you created a stock mech or a variant of a mech, it came pre-loaded with weapons based on the technology class of the chassis used. That is, if 
I created a Thor, it came with Clan Tech ER Medium Lasers, Clan LRM missiles and Clan Ultra Auto Cannons. If I created an Uziel (Carl’s favourite, “the ‘work horse’ of the Inner Sphere” if you remember the guy that ran the mech lab for Ian) it came with IS PPCs and IS Machine Guns and IS SRM missiles. This carried over into Mercs. I am not talking about the campaign game where salvage in Mercs nets you ‘the empty chassis and the weapons that would normally be installed on a stock mech’, I am simply talking about going directly to the mech lab and creating a mech (variant) for you to (possibly) use on line.
These ‘pre-existing’ stock models or variants have their roots from either the novels or the board game, I believe. I think they are called “TROs”. This is basically a listing of the mech, its variants (if any), the standard armament, the type of armour, the type of engine, the speed range and any electronics installed. Obviously, these “TROs” are more complex than what we get in the video game version, so our armour has been changed to three types, our engines are listed as speed upgrades or downgrades and the various electronics have been compressed into ECM, BAP, LAMs, Jump Jets and IFF and all the weaponry installed is same technology as the chassis.
If you ever read any of the books, then you know that early on the Clan Tech Mechs had a distinct advantage over the Inner Sphere mechs. The Clan Weapons had long ranges and the mechs had dual heat sinks to contain heat better. I also am under the belief that ‘early on’ the Clan Mechs were generally faster. This fact is brought about in the game we play. Inner Sphere Large Lasers are heavier (in tonnage) and have a shorter range than the Clan counter part. The same goes for all weapons that are shared by both technologies, like the PPCs, the standard Gauss Rifles, the Medium Lasers, the Pulse Lasers, the Ultra Auto Cannons and LBX Auto Cannons. All the Clan versions either weigh less (in tonnage) or have a longer effective range or both. For game balance, Microsoft and Mektek made the Clan versions of certain weapons run a bit hotter so it forces the player to either not shoot as much or use more heat sinks.
When I first started playing Mercs on line, I would play in a server called NBT-Thor (I think). Its now called NBT-Sunder, but it was a mission play requiring people to play FFP Pure Tech. I had no idea what all those acronyms were, but they played the same style that I played. I liked it. Before too long, I had joined a team in the NBT League. Here was a whole league that played 1st Person View and Pure Tech Chassis loads. Wow!
It did not take long to learn the ranges of the weapons and when you were in range or out of range depending on the enemy you saw or picked up on radar. This became part of the strategy of how to play the game. You knew your limitations and you exploited your advantages. Clan Tech was nasty at 700 to 900 meter range while IS tech was great inside 600 meters or outside 900. Being an Inner Sphere Pirate team, MOST of our technology was IS but we did manage to have some Clan Tech.
Here’s the thing. If you saw a Gladiator or Mad Cat MKII, you new not to get within the 800 meter mark (or the 900 meter mark for the Glad) or you would get ripped to shreads UNLESS you could avoid being shot and close to the 600 meter mark where your (IS) weapons were as good as theirs. It just doesn’t seem right to see a jumping Glad Bag firing ‘red’ Gauss slugs at 1000 meters. Something is wrong with that picture. I hate to see a MKII firing what looks like regular Gauss slugs, but registering a hit at 1000 to 1100 meters.
You see, playing pure tech gives each chassis its own bit of character. There are many chassis in each weight class that can carry the same weapons load outs. The difference is the chassis itself. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some mechs can not carry some weapons or some combo of weapons because of slot size or weight (of the weapons) without altering some other part of mech (like losing jump jets or speed or armour).
Let me put it another way. Mixed tech allows you to build some uber configs that you could not do in pure tech. I will show you an example using my favourite mech, the Victor. Using a mixed tech config, I can load two Clan Gauss Rifles and three ER Large Lasers with ECM, LAMs and Jump Jets with no adjustments to speed or armour. In a pure tech setting, I can load two standard Gauss Rifles and only one Large Laser and I would have one ton left over to add to the armour or as a heat sink. Now you may not think the twin gauss, triple ER Large Victor is uber, but for a Victor it IS. What it shows is that by allowing any tech on a chassis, you can build some pretty mean configs that you would not see in a pure tech environment or in a TRO or in any of the books.
Another way of looking at it is like this. If you went to buy a new Ford, when you opened the hood you would expect to see a Ford motor, not a GM motor. You would think that not only is there some performance differences between IS and Clan weapons, but you would think that there may actually be some technical differences, like size variations (English vs metric) or connection issues or wiring issues or who knows what. What was the chance that during WWII that if any Allied Unit captured a gun or tank that they could take that and put it own ‘technology’ without some sort of retrofit to make it work? I mean come on, you capture a German Tiger and ‘our’ ammo fits and works flawlessly when the ammo it had runs out? What about modern weapons? Can the U.S. Army take parts of an AK47 and use them on an M16 without modifying something first?
Yes, I do think that scientists and engineers would be able to come up with ‘retrofit kits’ to allow you to use a Clan weapon on an IS Mech, but I also think that such a kit would have to have some tonnage to it that would need to be calculated in addition to the weight of the weapon. I would also think that the reliability of ‘wrong tech’ weaponry would be decreased somewhat, you know, more prone to malfunction.
I just find it very hard to believe that Clan engineers and Inner Sphere engineers came up with the exact same idea at roughly the same time. No, I think more like the Clan came up with these things and the IS captured or recovered (more likely) one of these gigantic monsters and reverse engineered it as closely as they could. Then again, I guess these mechs were already around before Kerensky and his followers headed off to form the Clans, so the basic design may have already been there and the Clans ‘improved’ upon existing technology.
Now a quick bit about mixed tech. Yes I play mixed tech some times. I don’t care for it, but the first few times through the solo campaign I did use mixed tech based on whatever I salvaged. By the way, its much more of a challenge to play the campaign using only pure tech configs.
As I mentioned above, mixed tech allows you to build some killer configs. What it really comes down to using mixed tech is ‘what is your mission objective?’ IF you playing to get the most kills, then mixed tech is great, just pick a tough chassis and load it up with whatever weapon you need to kill a lot of other mechs.
I see that as a down fall. Seems to me, and again, I don’t play mixed tech very often, but it seems to me that mixed tech would put a lot of weapons and especially mechs on the shelf. I mentioned above how there are multiple mechs in every weight class that can carry the same weapons load. For mixed tech, in my opinion, it would seem that you would almost ALWAYS use the toughest chassis mech that would allow the load out needed.
I could be wrong. I would love to hear from the mix tech readers (if any) about your thoughts on this.
Well that’s all for now folks.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Traffic Rant
Well, its been a very long time since I posted anything on Vettie’s Views. Some of the reasons are obvious if you have read my Blog. I lost my sister in a horrible car accident followed by having to take a couple of business trips. I really didn’t get time to grieve and I am still not sure if it has sunk in. I guess on of these days I will just sit down and have a massive cry.
The past three years have been pretty rough on Ol Vettie, I lost my mom to a very unexpected illness. I broke my lower back and had to have a fairly extensive surgery. The damage to my nerve bundle (the sciatic nerve) was bad, so bad that I had to learn to walk again, and even now I have trouble with my legs not always wanting to go where I want them to go. Then I had to have yet another back surgery because one of discs collapsed on top of another and caused the lower one to explode (yes, it really exploded, little pieces of bone fragments went as much as two inches away from the disc). Then my sister’s untimely death, not to mention my teenage daughter totaling a car in a head on collision with a SUV.
Yeah, I have had more fun in my life, but I guess it is all part of life, good times and bad. I am still alive and still kicking (and cursing and being generally a pain in the butt). I would like to say thanx to those of you who took the time to make a post about my sister and to those of you that just thought about me or even prayed for me, even if it was just a brief thought or prayer. Friends and family really help out in times like these and it means a lot, even if we forget to say thanx.
So, before I forget, thanx. Thanx to all of you.
Its been awhile since I had a good rant and now is as good a time as any. My rant is something that has most likely happened to you or you may have even done it yourself. As you can see from what I said above, my nerves are really pushed to the edge and it doesn’t really take a lot to set me off. When I was younger (and could move quicker), I was known to have a short fuse. Now, my fuse is MUCH longer, but once it is lit, well you will see.
Here’s the layout. Recently, my youngest step-daughter is on the colour guard for the high school band. She is a senior this year and she made ‘front line’. Front line, as they call it, is the line of ‘flaggers, or sabers, or rifles’ that is closest to the audience in a half-time show. She is very proud of herself and she works hard at the colour guard routines.
The Colour Guard have been having practices earlier in the mornings before it gets so hot. So typically, they start at 6.00a and practice until about 8.00a, except on Sundays. Sundays, they go from 7.00a until 8.30a, then they are excused for church and start up again about 6.00p.
The car that her mother and I have so graciously provided for her was in the shop having new tires installed and getting a general servicing. We had taken it on Saturday, but the shop said they were having a problem getting the tires and would not be done until Sunday afternoon. No big deal. Except that I forgot she had practice on Sunday morning. That meant that someone would actually have to get up and take her to school and pick her up. Well, you probably have a pretty good idea who ‘someone’ is, right? I didn’t really mind, because I normally get up between 6 and 6.30 anyway so I figured I would be awake.
Sunday rolls around and I wake her up so she can ‘get ready’ to go. I take her and drop her off at the school and I told her to call us when it was time to pick her up.
Its roughly 7.00a on a beautiful Sunday morning and I am awake and hungry. I decide to go to Hardees and pick up some breakfast to take home to the wife. She likes that and scoring some goody points with the wife never hurts, right?
Anyway, I head to the local Hardees. IT is located across a main road artery from where I live and this roadway is under heavy construction. The highway department is building and overpass over this particular intersection. At this east to west intersection, going west there are five lanes. Two lanes are for turning south (left) onto this major highway, two lanes are for going west (straight) into the parking lot of a shopping mall and two lanes are for turning north (right) onto the major highway.
No it is NOT a math error, five lanes, six options. The two northern most lanes (right hand lanes) are set up so that the farthest right lane is a right turn only lane. The lane adjacent to it is for going straight OR turning right.
I am going straight and after the intersection, I will be exiting into the parking lot of the Hardees. I can smell that sausage cooking from across the highway, hmmmm, sausage…
Anyway, as I mentioned, it is only 7.00a on a Sunday morning. I pull up to the intersection and stop because the traffic light is Red. This intersection is pretty busy during the week and the light cycle is roughly 3 minutes.
As I am sitting there, a couple of cars line up behind me and 2 cars enter the right hand turn lane.
I grab my (titanium) cane and get out of the car to see if I could assist this gentleman with whatever problem he is having with his horn. Now, Ol’ Vettie is not huge by any means, but he isn’t a small guy either. Ol’ Vettie is about 6’1” tall and weighs about 240lbs.
Early on Sunday morning, before I have had time grooming, I guess I can have the look of a deranged killer or something like a mad scientist, with lots of hair going in every direction and a pair of grey eyes (my eyes are hazel and they change with my moods) that are non-blinking and staring a burning hole into whatever I am able to focus on. I get out of my SUV with cane in hand and proceed to the vehicle behind me that has now apparently been able to ‘fix’ his horn because it is no longer honking or blaring.
The dude in the mini van proceeded to roll his window up nice and tight. I walked right to the drivers window (he was alone in the mini van) and I began to use my cane to rap on his window requesting that he roll his window down. He obliged and I asked him, in a nice calm voice, what the issue was. The conversation went something like this..
“WTF is your damn problem? Roll that damn window down or I will break the damn thing!”
He rolled the window down.
Again, in nice calm voice I screamed “Is there a freaking problem with your horn? Or did you want something?”
He mumbled something like “I think I made a mistake.”
Once more, in soft, calm demeanor, I spoke, “look dude, this as a go straight OR turn right lane. I am going straight and the light is red for straight. If you need to turn right you can get your light happy mini-van or in the right lane and turn whenever you wish. I suggest you get that horn of yours checked right away because others may not be as calm as me or may have even taken your horning blowing and gesturing as a threat of some kind. I don’t pack a gun, but others do. Also, Dude, if you are in that big of a hurry, why didn’t you leave a few minutes sooner? Nobody wants to hear that crap at 7.00a on a Sunday morning, so knock it off, Clear? One more thing dude, I know that when you turn and you get a ways down the road and I am out of your sight, you are gonna have thoughts about what you should have done. Well, I am here none so I suggest that you do whatever you think you should have done and do it quickly, but I must remind you that not only do I use this cane to walk with, I am pretty good at using for other purposes. I played college baseball (jr. college) and I had a very high batting average. I still play golf and my bat or club speed is still very fast if you care to find out. And just so you know, titanium does not bend when it meets bone. Or at least, it hasn’t yet.”
With that I turned and headed back to my car. I felt a lot better about helping a neighbor with his horn problem. Just as I got my seat belt buckled, the light for my lane turned green. I slowly started out into the intersection, in fact, I went so slow that the light turned yellow before I got past the ‘stop line’. That poor fellow with the malfunctioning horn was again stuck at the intersection. Damn…
My rant is this. People do not need to be so impatient with their fellow humans in traffic. You are driving or riding in a (roughly) 3000+ bullet. Those thing hurt when the hit you, so pay attention to what you are doing, especially when you are behind the wheel and for God’s sake, stay off your damn cell phone while driving.
It wasn’t too long ago, that we didn’t have cell phones. You know what we did back then? We actually spoke to one another face to face or we used a real telephone. We either waited until we got where we were going, or we stopped and used a pay phone. If you need to use the phone so badly, get off the road and so it so you can concentrate on the call and you don’t have to worry about that bullet you are driving.
Also, just a few short years ago, this country under went a terrible attack from terrorist that killed many innocent people. Shortly after that terrible day that we now know as 9-11, everyone (at least in my area) was overly nice to each other, opening doors for one another, waving other cars on even tho the waver had the right of way, people slowed down and appreciated what they had and each other. It seems now that all of that has been put once again on a back burner and its every man for himself, again. Maybe we should step back a little and look at what we have and once again be thankful we are alive and that by the Grace of God (whoever or whatever you God is) you have what you have. Take a minute and be nice to somebody that you don’t know. You might just make their day, and it damn sure wont hurt you.
Before you get in line in traffic and decide to see how well your stupid horn works, remember that there maybe someone in front of you that is a bigger a$$h013 that you. Remember that jerk just might get out of his vehicle and come to your window and see if he can help you with your damn horn. Also remember that if he has a cane that as of yet, not one bone has ever bent that cane and that stupid jerk just might not be afraid to use that cane.
You never know the pressures or pains or incidents that someone else is going through. Just because you are having a bad moment, doesnt mean the guy you are blowing your horn at hasn’t had a worse one. You don’t know what you don’t know. Yeah, I was wrong to get out of may car and go bang on this guys window and give him crap. But I opened his eyes a little and at least before he does that again, he will at least hesitate for a moment and remembers that big ol’ dumb@ss that beat on his window. People, it’s a small world and at least for now, we all have to live in it. Have a little respect for others.
Ok that is my rant. Vettie tells the readers he is an idiot. He tells the folks that early on a Sunday, Vettie does not appreciate the sound of a car horn blaring at him from behind. Vettie also tell the readers that the one finger salute with rapid waving is not something he completely understands at 7.00a on an otherwise quite and peaceful Sunday morning. He also mentions that he might have mistaken those gestures as a call from that driver for help as his horn was obviously stuck in the “BLOW LOUDLY NOW” position. After a brief discussion with his friendly neighbor, Vettie apparently helped the guy fix the horn by rapping on the car window with a walking cane. I don’t know if this works for every vehicle, but it does seem to work well on Dodge Caravans, I am guessing the horn has a direct link to the window up/down button, but I am not a mechanic so I don’t know for sure. You also learn that Vettie is adept a giving directions in the heat of traffic, help the distressed traveler find the correct EMPTY lane for turning and finally, you learn that Vettie offers sound advice in that if you need to get some where in a hurry that maybe you should leave sooner….
http://www.trunkmonkey.com/content/view/28/1/
Sunday, June 15, 2008
My Sister
Hello Mech Fans
Vettie here with a short blog for this week.
I lost my sister to a terrible car accident this week and I have been very busy doing some family things and trying to help with the final arrangements. She lived about an hour south of where I live in a more rural area.
My sister was almost 10 years older than me and lived a very good life. She had had some medical issues in the latter years including a couple of heart attacks. She was NOT a smoker and she was NOT overweight, she just had some issues.
On Tuesday of last week, she had some sort of seizure and was hospitalized because of it. They released her on Wednesday and on her way from the hospital to her work, she apparently suffered another seizure and died while driving. The vehicle she was driving obviously left the road and ran several hundred yards of the side until it struck some trees. After crashing into the trees, the vehicle then ignited and burned completed before fire and rescue teams made it to the scene. My sister was still inside the vehicle when the fire teams managed to extinguish the fire. The state forensic lab did tell us that she did not suffer the fire as she had passed prior to the vehicle igniting.
My sister had brought two wonderful boys into this world. The Oldest son, John, is in the U.S. Air Force, Special Forces stationed in
Its rough news to take in that a family member has just died in such a terrible way, especially a mother or a sister. I am still shaken by the entire event and I guess I am still in the disbelief or bewilderment stage. I mean, I know it happened and I have talked to the funeral directors and even my pastor but I still find it hard to believe.
Let me just throw this out there for those of you that have family members that you no longer live with or maybe had a falling out with or, for whatever reason, you just don’t talk to them much or at all, take a minute and call them. Tell them you don’t want anything, that you don’t need anything, that you’re not mad about anything, and that nothing else really matters, but you just wanted them to know you were thinking about them. Not only should you do that, but do it every so often. I will not get that chance. I sure wish I had that chance, or more so, I wish I had taken that chance because now my sister is gone and I cant remember the last time I spoke to her. All I had to do was pick up the damn phone, dial her number and say hello, you’re my sister and I love you, talk to you later. Don’t let this happen to you. Get in touch and just let whoever it is know you care. Both parties will feel better for it.
I don’t mean to get all mushy and whiny, so please bear with me. The past 3 or 4 years haven’t been overly kind to me, losing my mom, my sister and having many medical issues of my own.
I just needed to get some thoughts out into the air and now I have. Thank you guys for being here and reading this. I’ll get back to meching real soon. Remember what I said and reach out to your family members or close friends and tell them you care. I know life is very busy for every one, but its worth it in the long run.
God Bless you Sis, you are going to be missed. We love you.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Music
Greetings Mech Fans! For those of you who read my blog, you know I write about mechs and every once in a while I go off on a rant about something that bugged me or bugs me. You also know that I put a little of myself into just about every column, whether its my experience playing the game or some real life thing. Most of you also know that Ol’ Vettie is pushing 50 years of age.
I gotta (that’s a Vettie word, by the way) say that in my life time I have seen and done many things. The Good Lord has smiled on me and I have been fortunate for most of my life time. I thank him for that very often (not nearly enough, but he knows that I am thankful).
In my life and career, I have been to many places throughout this world. I guess I knew enough about the job I was doing that the company I worked for in the past felt they could send me to other factories throughout the world and teach people how to do some of the things I do (did). I have been to
Back in November, I wrote a column devoted to my dad (http://vettiesviews.blogspot.com/2007/11/happy-birthday-dad.html)
If you did not read it then please click the link and give it a read. I mention in there that my dad had spent 24 years in the United States Air Force. As you can imagine, we moved around a lot. I was born in
As I said, Ol’ Vettie is pushing 50, I’m not there yet, but only about a ½ a year to go. I was fortunate enough to have grown up during the 60’s and 70’s. I still remember the day JFK was shot. I remember where I was and what I was doing. If you were born around that time, do you remember?
Fortunate to have grown up in the 60’s and 70’s? Yes! I will tell you why in just a little bit, so hang with this old guy as I get my thoughts together. See, I have mentioned that I love playing Mechs and I have even mentioned that I love board games (WWII games mostly). I just don’t remember talking about something I really like maybe even more that meching. What could that be? Liking something more than MechWarrior? Well, its this little thing called music.
Vettie is a huge music fan. I love concerts and I love listening to music and I love playing music. I bought my 1st drum way back when I was I in Jr. High School (6th or 7th grade) to play in the schools band. Before that, my dad had bought (sort of) me a Fender Telecaster and paid for me to take lessons. I say sort of, because actually he had let one of his men borrow some money and they guy couldn’t pay him back so he offered my dad his guitar. I still remember that thing, black body with a natural wood neck and a ‘tube’ type amplifier built into a ‘hard’ wooden case that stood upright.
I played in a few garage bands later in life until I got with a bunch of guys that really ‘gelled’ together. We practiced a lot and even did a few sets for parties. We got good enough to get ourselves booked into a local club. Then we toured the state. Later we played at a festival and got ‘noticed’. I may write a column about that some day, but that is not what this one is about. It is about music, just not ‘our’ music. Remember? I said fortunate enough to have grown up in the 60’s and 70’s? Remember now?
Well think about that. Think about what growing up in the 60’s and 70’s means to a real music fan. Let me give you a little hint. Before we had ‘good’ stations on FM, there was AM radio. And back in the 60’s, AM radio was very ‘time formatted’. The local stations actually had to announce the time they were going to broadcast “Hey Jude” by the Beatles because the song was ‘so long’.
The 60’s and 70’s brought us some of the greatest ‘rock’ and ‘folk’ musicians to have ever graced this earth. Can you remember the 1st time you ever heard “Stairway to Heaven” on the radio? I mean, before you even bought or heard the record, or listened to the (laffs) ‘8-track’ or even the cassette? Did you know you were listening to greatness? What about Cream? Or Hendrix or Duanne Allman, or Leslie West? Did you know you had just heard greatness? Now days this type of music is called “Classic Rock”. I was there when it was fresh, new music.
That Era brought us many of the greatest artists ever. To this day people are listening to stuff that was first released when I was a kid or a young man. Can you imagine an FM station today announcing that “at
When The Beatles played their 1st gig in Shea Stadium, I was about 5 or 6 years old. My sister was either 15 or 16. She won tickets to go see them. We lived in
When I was even younger, and this is probably where it all started, my Dad was stationed at Columbus AFB in
Well, Elvis played about 5 or 6 songs and danced all over the stage. The crowd was screaming and yelling and clapping and I did not have a clue about what was happening. The surprising thing about all of this was that Elvis was NOT the main attraction of that show.
No folks, the next act to take the stage is the one that got me interested in music from that point on. When Elvis left the stage, the announcer came out and told us to hold on to our pants. The next performer is the man we had all been waiting to see. Then the lights went out and a spot light came on the stage. From behind a big black curtain came this huge white piano. A moment later this fellow with bright red hair and a sparkly jacket bounced out from behind the curtain. This voice rang out over the PA system announcing that Jerry Lee Lewis was here!
Jerry Lee only played about 4 songs that night, but the last one he did was ‘Great Balls of Fire’. I had never seen anything like I saw that night. This little fellow with the red hair and shiny jacket played that piano with his hands, his feet, his head, his elbows, his knees and even his face. It was incredible. I will never forget that show.
During my teenage years and later, I was privileged enough to have gone to many concerts. And I do mean many. I have seen Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffet, The Who, Bad Company, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Bread, Chicago, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Deep Purple, Molly Hatchet, Black Oak Arkansas, Journey, Kansas, The Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, The Steve Miller Band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, ELO, Golden Earring, Jethro Tull, Boston, Pearl Jam, Robin Trower, Rod Stewart, Santana, Rare Earth, Uriah Heep, Supertramp, Genesis, Bob Dylan, U2, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, Black Foot, Arlo Guthrie, CSNY, Yes, Foghat, The Doobie Brothers, BTO, The Eagles, Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Heart, Mountain, Humble Pie, Peter Frampton, AC DC, Bob Segar, Kiss. Fleetwood Mac, Spooky Tooth, Guns N Roses, Queen, Seals and Crofts, Styx, Stillwater, The Cars, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Guess Who, Steppenwolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rush, Van Halen, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willie, Sea Level, Little Feet, Sandford Townsend Band, Elton John, Steve Earle, Billy Idol, Leo Sayer and many many more.
I remember seeing Kiss way back in the mid 70’s. The show they put on was amazing. I remember seeing Charlie Daniels, The Outlaws and Marshall Tucker all perform together for an encore. I remember seeing Keith Emerson playing a piano suspended over head and twirling upside down. I remember seeing Eric Clapton break and “E” string on his guitar and still playing thru the song. Yes, an “E” string. I saw Yes in the round. I saw Alice Cooper and his Billion Dollar Babies tour. Oh, I could go on and on about different concerts and shows I have seen.
I remember thinking that if Led Zeppelin ever came close enough that I was going to go see them. About a month later a show was announced for
Well folks there is just too much to write about. I mean think about ANY classic rock station today and the shear number of DIFFERENT artists they play. I grew up with most of them. They weren’t called classic rock(ers) then but they were classics.
I suggest that you go to a concert this year, even if you just go to one. Go see someone you like and just enjoy the music. Im looking forward to the season to start around here. Even if I have to go to
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Urbie Dodgeball
Urbie Dodgeball
MechWarrior is a GAME. Games are supposed to be fun. In fact, Dictionary.com shows the following for a definition.
| 1. | an amusement or pastime. |
| 2. | the material or equipment used in playing certain games |
| 3. | a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators. |
Webster’s says the following
A contest with rules to determine a winner
An amusement or pastime
The game equipment needed to play a game
As you can see, both definitions are very similar and both mention “an amusement or pastime”.
And what is ‘an amusement’?
Amusement
Noun
1. A feeling of delight at being entertained.
2. An activity that entertains.
So again we get back to the entertainment thing. Entertainment should be fun
Define fun? Ok
Fun
Adjective
1. Providing enjoyment; pleasantly entertaining; "an amusing speaker"; "a diverting story"; "a fun thing to do".
Noun
1. Activities that are enjoyable or amusing; "I do it for the fun of it"; "he is fun to have around"
MechWarrior is fun. I have spent countless hours in Sunder playing MechWarrior and trying different things.
Leagues are fun too. They are much more competitive than just playing in open servers like Sunder, but they are still fun. The Blood Pearls belong to MechCombat League and we are having some fun there.
Sometimes you just need a break. Sunder gets pretty competitive and any league will also get very competitive. Our society has always been such that the individual is pushed to be a winner, to have success, to be the best. This carries over in to our pastime, our amusement, our fun. When we get time to play the game, we jump in front of our computers and we build the meanest, toughest battlemech we can and we go online to find the best players around and we do our damn best to destroy them before they destroy us.
That’s all fine and it adds to the enjoyment, the fun for a lot of us most of the time. Every once in a while you just want to play to be playing and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it only matters that you are having fun.
I present to you, Urbie Dodgeball. Just for fun. I gotta say, this stupid rendition of Solaris brings back the reason I love this game as much as I do. Urbie Dodgeball is nothing but pure fun. Sure it is competitive, but it is all in fun. What? What did you say? You never heard of it? Well sit back, get some popcorn, you favourite drink and let me explain Urbie Dodgeball to you.
What do I need to play Urbie Dodgeball and get in on all this fun, you might ask. Simple. You need MechWarrior4 Mercs installed and updated to MP3.02.b. Then you have to have an internet connection (if you are reading this, then chances are you have an internet connection and probably MW4 Mercs too).
Now the next thing you need is something more like something you need to do instead of something you need to have. Start up the game and go to the mech lab. Create a new mech, an Inner Sphere UrbanMech. Name it Dodgeball or something that will be easy or you to remember. Remove all your electronics except jump jets. Yes you will need these even if you are a die hard ground pounder. Go to the weapons sections and remove ALL the weapons. Then go to the Armour section and remove ALL the armour. Yes ALL of it. I SAID ALL of the armour! Go back to the Weapons tab and load your little Urbie with a Long Tom. Now go back to the Electronics tab and add a heat sink and ECM or 2 heat sinks. Your speed should be 52kph and you should have .1 ton left over. You can increase your speed using 1 of the heat sinks for speed upgrades, but DO NOT USE ANY LEFT OVER TONNAGE for ARMOUR!!! NO SIR, DON’T DO IT!
Don’t forget to apply your favourite camouflage, make your Urbie as purty as possible. This is very important.
Urbie Dodgeball, as you can see is played with IS Urban Mechs with Jump Jets, Long Toms and NO ARMOUR. Dodgeball is played in ‘arena’ maps, preferably small ones so that the action is contained to a small area. The Jungle or The Factory are perfect. OF course you have to play 2 or 3 rounds and you must finish by playing the last round in the Coliseum. The Object of the game is to get the most kills using your Long Tom or by using the DFA (Death from Above) Maneuver.
Want to talk about fun? This is hilarious. If you are not a Long Tom user, it takes a bit to get used to flinging Toms shells accurately enough to do damage to any other Urbie running about or shut down from over heating. Long Toms fire in an Arc and they have a lot of heat associated with them when you fire them (that’s why your use 1 or 2 heat sinks).
You look around the battlefield and see nothing but Urbies. That in itself is funny to see, but you see these Urbies running and jumping and firing Long Toms. You also see lots of explosions. It is not uncommon for a pilot to get 20 to 30 kills in a 30 minute bout as well as 20 deaths. One thing you really want to try to do is to get a twofer or a threefer. That would be to kill 2 or 3 at once.
You would also be surprised at how tough a no-armour Urbie is. They will take 3 or 4 Long Tom ‘hits’ before exploding. Except the ‘arm’ that contains the Long Tom, many times it gets blown off on the 1st hit. The cool thing about Long Toms is that you don’t have to ‘hit’ the enemy, you just have to get close. They have a blast radius that affects everything in that radius with damage.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I have blown off my own arm shooting at an enemy only to hit a hill or wall in front of me. Doh! LOL! The IS Urbie has a 360 torso twist and 1 big arm, so it is the perfect mech for this action. You cant make one fast enough to avoid much fire (following the Dodgeball rules that is), so the targeting is relatively easy. That is also why you take jump jets. You cant run away from the blast zone, but you can jump high enough to avoid the damage. Again, it is very funny to see a bunch of jumping Urbies on ANY map.
Duncan Fischer had no idea Solaris could be so much fun. “now let me show you the sky” has a new meaning. “It’s Factory Time” does too. I would love to get George in Comms with us one time and let him ‘Duncan Fisher’ his way through an Urbie Dodgeball Match.
That’s another thing. Comms. Urbie Dodgeball is a lot of fun. It’s a literal blast. Joining in with all your combatants on Comms doubles the fun. Hearing each pilot as they try for kills and lose their weapons or score a twofer or land a perfect DFA, well, it just adds so much to what is going on. Hell, every once in while, I will break out into my best ‘Duncan Fischer’ voice and repeat some of his sayings from the solaris matches in the single player part of the game.
Urbie Dodgeball with 15 other MechWarriors all on comms is just about as much pure fun for fun that can be had. Sure you want to get the most kills and have your name show up on top when the round ends, but even if you don’t, you had a bunch of pure fun. In these days of tight money, rising costs, personal pressures, job stress, family stress and on and on, just having some good old, plain, non pressure playing fun is really hard to beat. It only takes a few shots before you figure out how to use the Long Tom effectively and before you know it, you are placing the perfect round in the gaggle of Urbies 500 meters away that are ramming each other cause they have no weapons and you are trying for that elusive threefer or even a fourfer!!!!
Sit back, relax. Build A Dodgeball Special Urbie. Host your own game or next time the Blood Pearls are playing Dodgeball, join us and get on comms with us. After playing 2 or 3 rounds, whether you won or got killed a lot, you tell me you didn’t have fun. IF you don’t have fun playing Dodgeball, you just don’t know how to have simple fun or you don’t want to.
MechWarrior is a game and games should be for fun and amusement. Urbie Dodgeball is one of the most amusing, fun times that anyone can have with this game. Even ol’ Webster himself would give us a positive nod on this one. Join us next time, wont you?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The Cougar
The Cougar
Vettie’s Views bring you the Cougar. A Clan Light Class Mech with lots of fun included. Weighing in at a mere 35 tons, the Cougar can toss a bit of punch at you and it can be one of the better scout mechs in the game. Lets move in for a closer look.
The Clanners designed and built a rugged scout mech to counter the Ravens and Osiris they had encountered and its looks like they did a decent job of it. They managed to keep the weight down and still give the Cougar more firepower than its counterparts. That was the idea behind the Cougar. Do you think they succeeded? Maybe so.
From the Clan factories, the Cougar has BAP and Jump Jets at a top speed rating of 96kph. Additional electronics are offered such as LAMs, Enhanced Optics and Advanced Gyro. The Cougar has an interesting weapons load also. Each side torso comes with a CLRM10 pre-loaded. The right arm has an ERLL while the left arm has 2 ERML installed from the factory. The Cougar has an Endo-Steel frame loaded with 4.5 tons of ferro fibrous armour.
The speed range of the Cougar is quite varied from 76kph on the low end all the way up to 131kph on the upper end of the scale. The slots are also interesting. Each side torso has a 2 slot missile rack. The arms have a 2 slot omni rack and a 1 slot beam rack. This allows for some variations in the load out of the mech.
As a scout mech, you can install 4 ATM6Es in the mech and still have BAP and Jump Jets. Using BAP, Jump Jets, LAMs and AG, you can install 4 LRM10s. For close encounters, 4 or 5 CStrk4s are nice. IF you have to go into a brawl you can always trim the wings and load in 2 LBX10s or 5 ERMLs and 3 or 4 CStrk4s (add heat sinks to your liking). Either of these are very nice in close and not always expected from such a small mech.
For longer ranges other than missiles, an ERLPL in each arm is nasty. IF you prefer, you can add more speed, less heat sinks and replace the Pulse Lasers with an ERLL in each arm. Still need more range? Drop the ERLL and replace them with a Lt. PPC in each arm. I don’t really suggest trying to load the Cougar with ballistics in a puretech setting because it can only hold a couple of CUAC2s (for long range) and 2 just doesn’t seem to be enough. I recommend keeping the Cougar as a missile mech or an energy platform, at least for long range use.
During our time in NBT, the Blood Pearls rarely used a Cougar. Our main light mech was the Wolfhound. OF course, we were Inner Sphere Pirates so Wolfies were available to us, a lot more so than Cougars were. However, I remember using one on a drop on RoyalGuard Pro. I don’t exactly remember the team we were facing but I do remember I was the one driving the Cougar.
Our team had decided to go looking for the enemy team (we may have been facing the Hanseactic Rangers). We started back behind the palace and they started in the eastern city. The basic plan was to circle around the palace and head for the front gate. I was to head east and stay inside the wall and see if I could pick them up on radar using BAP or get a visual on them and report back to the team. I wasn’t much of a scout and other than Wolfhounds, I didn’t care much for light mechs, but it was a team effort and I knew I would do my best. I loaded the Cougar with reflective armour and 2 ERLLs along with BAP and Jumpies and off I went.
I made it to the east gate and did a jump to have a look. There they were, the whole damn team heading right for me. I let the jumpies re-charge and jumped again. The leader was in Raven and he was probably about 900 meters in front of the rest of his team, but they were all headed the same direction. I announced contact on comms and gave the general info. Of course the rest of the Pearls were as far away from the bad guys as possible at that moment. I jumped back up and turned slightly to the left and fired both ERLLs directly at the Raven. Before I shot, I was not sure if the Raven had seen me yet as I was passive and still some 700 to 750 meters from him. When I fired I made a direct hit. I did not see the damage I did until the next jump I made and went radar active to draw him and the rest of the Rangers my way so the Pearls could circle behind them and take them down by surprise.
I hit the jet gas and as I rose I flicked on my radar and saw the Raven now some 500 meters away and just standing there, not moving. I fired again and locked my radar on him to see that my 1st shot had hudded him. He did return fire using a Large X-Pulse Laser but I am not sure if he hit me or not, as I mentioned I had reflective armour, because I showed no damage on my bars. I figured now was a good time to go passive and start running some because I did not see any of the other Rangers while I had my radar on.
I decided to jump again and fire before running to a new location and I did, this time breaching the armour of the Raven on his left torso. I took a gauss slug to my rear armour as I turned mid jump and it nearly took all my armour out on the rear. I ran up the east ramp of the palace and got behind the 2nd wall announcing to my team that I was doing so and that I knew the Rangers were heading for the east gate and that at least 1 of them was only about 100 to 200 meters from the gate. I eased my little Cougar to the corner of the wall and waited for one of the bad guys to come around the corner of the gate.
Patience paid off and the Raven stuck his mech just around the corner of the gate and I opened fire with both ERLLs nailing him right in the busted torso. Boom! His Raven exploded with enough splash to shut down a Hunchback that had made the run with him. My weapons recharged and I fired at the Hunchie as it was coming out of the heat arrest. I hit him searing off an arm but he found me and popped me with a heavy gauss. That damn thing knocked my mech over and took out my right torso. As I was trying to get up, the Hunchie ran up the ramp to get a secondary shot on me. Luckily for me, he ran right in front of my fallen mech and I was able to fire while trying to right my mech. The dual ERs were enough to blow out his heavy gauss rifle. He did fire some medium lasers at me but they had little or no effect.
I got my Cougar to its feet and started to run. I decided to turn and fire. I don’t know why. I thought I had the Hunchie damaged enough where I could take him out and I did, but I had not planned on the Marauder and the Loki that were now topping the ramp where the Hunchback was standing and smoking away. I turned and jumped heading right at the Hunchback and as my lasers recharged I let them loose on the poor Hunchback.
Now let me say that a Cougar is relatively tough and sometimes can be hard to hit because of its speed and small size. However, if you present the front of the Cougar, with a blown out torso, and you are airborn, the combined firepower of a fresh Loki and Marauder are more than enough to send your escape pod all the way back to the drop ship.
You know how playing on line sometimes when you kill a mech and another mech kills you at the same time, the one that killed you gets credit for killing its team mate, even tho you did it? Well, that’s what happened here. My shot was enough to kill the Hunchback, but the Loki must have fired his lasers and gauss rifles at the same time because he got credit for killing me and the (team mate) Hunchback. I will say that the site of a cougar blowing up in flight is pretty cool to look at…
Anyway, The rest of the Pearls managed to close on the Rangers and take them down without losing any more mechs. I ‘registered’ one kill in the Cougar although I know I got two. Most important? I had fun.
That’s what this is supposed to be about, having fun. The Cougar was fun to drive and I enjoyed it. Today’s Cougar is not much different. Its fun to drive, it has speed, it can carry decent weaponry to the fight and it can take a lick or two before going boom!
It climbs, it jumps, it makes milkshakes and margaritas and it hits big mech from a long way away. Its easy to drive and it gets great mileage on a tank of nuclear fuel. In fact, the fuel mech will probably be blown up long before you have to refuel the reactor.
Why not pile in one today? Rate the Cougar at 2 to 2 ½ minutes. Not too bad for a light mech. The arms get blown off too easily and that’s where the big guns are unless you use missiles. It gets knocked down too easily too. Other than that, or if you use AG, it’s a decent light class mech. Run Passive and use your BAP. Tell your team mates where the bad guys are and then run from them!
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