Author Topic: 750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June  (Read 2674 times)

Tai Dai Cultist

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750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June
« on: 10 June 2018, 20:12:36 »
So over on the Alpha Strike Facebook group they're promoting the upcoming global event.  Only I didn't notice it was for July, so oh well. It's July somewhere in the world, right?  That's how hemispheres work, right?

The Battle for Holy Terra, 3162:  Kurita vs Mercs (fighting for Steiner)

Kurita list:
Heavy Close Assault Lance: Shiro (Zweihander SPA), Hatamoto-Ku (Gain MEL thru the Lance, Zweihander SPA), Hitotsume-kozo, Avatar (C3S)
Light Close Assault Lance: Rokurokubi (Swordsman SPA), Rokurokubi (Swordsman SPA), Owens (C3S), Raptor
Fire Lance: Akuma (C3S), O-Bakemono, Cauldron-Born, Naginata (C3M)
Sweep Lance: 4 Scimitar MKIIs
Anti-Mech Lance: 3 Bearhunter Oni BA
Recon Lance: 3 Void BA
Recon Lance: 4 Recon Infantry (hoverbike riders)

Merc List:
Fire Lance: Masakari, Cerberus, Mad Cat MkII, Deimos
Recon Lance: Wulfen, Shadow Cat, Commando, Razorback
Battle Lance: 2x Enyo Tank, 2x Rommel Tank
Cavalry Lance: 2x Harasser, 2x Heavy Hover APC
Infantry Lance: 4x FedCom Flamer Infantry
Infantry Lance: 4x Mechanized Tracked Platoon
Artillery Lance: 2x Howizter Rommel, and honestly I forgot what other tanks rounded that out as spotters.  Too many tanks.

The deployment is in the attached pic.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June
« Reply #1 on: 10 June 2018, 20:14:07 »
Thoughts on construction:

The new PV really took us both out of our comfort zones, despite cranking the PV budget up by 50% from what we normally play..  My opponent ended up playing with mostly skill 4s, while I had to make do with only one lance of zippy annoying gits.   Neither of us managed the full on battalion I figured we could swing with 750 points.

The Close Combat lances from CM:Kurita is something I've never used, despite having a fairly good collection of melee-armed mechs.  So I thought I'd try to suprrise my opponent by using this lance.  I already love (and he already hates) Rokurokubis... getting free critical hit rolls even w/o piercing armor sounds too good to not add on top of them.


Deployment:

The battlefield had a nice giant LOS blocking hill at the center, with some juicy watering holes on the flanks to fight over.  We both pretty well delpoyed strong in the center.  The mercs did stronger anchors on his flanks: A Cerberus and Mad Cat Mk II dug in in cover on one flank, and a Masakari in the other.  Yeah, I'd get cut apart trying to even get something into a watering hole without a heavy commitment, so I decided I'd forfeit the left flank and push on the right.  I'd rather face 1 assault mech's firepower than 2.
« Last Edit: 10 June 2018, 20:20:22 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June
« Reply #2 on: 10 June 2018, 20:14:18 »
Batrep:

The battle unfolded without a whole lot of fanfare.  I wheeled my left flank into the center, my center up the hill, and my right flank also towards the center to try to gain some early cover before bolting across the open.

The mercs kept those assaults dug in to deny me unpunished access to the no-cover flanks, and was happy to generally cede me the hill to just shoot me as I come into view.  Where my opponent has what may be seen as a bizarre fixation based on the fear of what Rokurokubis do, I seem to have one of the Battle Lances made up of tanks he always brings.  So add Enyos to my list of "KILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE DO IT NOW".  Yeah I killed 'em off but man did I obsess on making sure they did.

Midgame's highlight was twofold: the Mercenary harassment forces swooping in on my abandoned left flank, led by the Wulfen and its ECM in hopes of severing my C3 network.  But my Scims did their job admirably... they drew a ton of fire, even did some admirable damage, AND kept the Wulfen from jamming my net.  Besides his getting his own minxy forces in to clusterfrag my backfield, my push over the hill was a disaster.  I didn't have the speed I'm normally accustomed to and just couldn't get up and over a two level hill with the tempo I had imagined I would have.  And what's worse, I couldn't do it all at once and unwisely left the Hatamoto hanging before realizing noone else could get up there at least for another round.  The merc firing line was waiting for me to come over the ridgeline, and I did it in the worst way possible.. giving him a single target to focus on.  Of course it didn't survive that turn.

My center was in complete disarray.. and threatening to get pushed back on the right flank by the rumbling wall of tracked steel.  And my mechs couldn't focus fire in one direction as his harassers were too many to ignore, forcing me to give either the zippy or the rumbly tanks backshots.  I was already considering conceding the game as my predicament got me completely off my game... after needlessly throwing away my Hatamoto I made several more mental mistakes: providing too-juicy to ignore clusters of units for artillery to punish, and then even costing my Akuma any shot at all as I turned him a funny direction out unjustified fear of giving the minxies a backshot on it.



« Last Edit: 10 June 2018, 20:33:55 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June
« Reply #3 on: 10 June 2018, 20:34:27 »
Batrep Continued, and Postgame:

Instead of tossing in the towel, I vowed to play on at least one more turn.

My Scimitars ended up doing me proud.  While the Mercs were wreaking havoc in my backfield, so were my Scims in his.  I had lost two of them, and couldn't afford to keep one in my own backfield any more for ECCM purposes so I sent it in to join its Artillery hunting friend.  An opportunity opened up for me though, as the Deimos had moved up into short range on my artillery hunter but then decided in the firing phase to vent heat rather than try again to murder my hover.  He also focus fired down my Cauldron-Born that same phase, so I knew I could take full advantage of that mech's OVL in my own oncoming phase.  Instead of doing the murdering, the Deimos got murdered.  With his Mad Cat MkII already in forced withdrawal, that changed the merc's position.  He could no longer afford to maintain his only 2 hard hitters out on the fringes of the battle, and brought the Masakari out of its cover to reinforce his middle.  And he quickly thought better as it found itself out in the open catching fire.  He got it back into cover before I could bring the full hammer down, but I was forcing him to react to me now and I felt much better about playing on.

I still felt behind the might I had remaining on the table, however.  I decided on a gambit to ignore his artillery (the thing that's been dealingme the most damage, btw) to press the advantage on his collapsing flank.  His Enyos are dead, and his Rommels are in forced withdrawal.  All he's got to contest anything but the flank I abandoned is some infantry and the Shadow Cat.  I feel it's fine to gamble with my Owens' life and trust in the God of TMMs and let it dash out in the open towards the Masakari.  Doesn't matter for C3 if it gets close now; the Wulfen has free reign to ECM my Naginata now.  I get close so I can TAG the Masakari.. and I get lucky.  And the O-Bakemono makes short work of what's left of the Clan Assault.  His Cerberus abandons its cushy hidey cover to reinforce his collapsed center, and gets close enough to be caught by my Void BA.  It's not fast enough to escape the Voids, and will be taking AM attacks in its rear for the rest of the game until he can scrape something up to delouse his sole remaining heavy hitter.

Despite bringing down my Akuma the Merc player had a lot of bad luck on dice rolls, leaving me almost otherwise completely unscathed as the game turned solidly away from being in his favor.  He offers to concede, and at that point I share with him that I still think it's pretty tight.  His Cerberus only has a round or two of relevance left, but so does my Shiro.  He's still got his two very deadly artillery tubes (and spotters, since I couldn't spare the distraction of shooting at his infantry) as well as the Shadow Cat even after the Cerberus either goes down or suffers the inevitable crippling critical hit (what with Void swarming it now).  He points out that my Hovers and Owens are running rampant, and I too have 2 artillery tubes AND the still unscathed Naginata.  We agree to call it a draw.

It was an intense game.  Took us about 5 hours to play out a game this size, which left us both kinda rubbery-brained.  I was making mistakes well before the endgame.  Still, rather fun and very much felt like an epic clash of armies where both sides decided they both had had enough and agreed to try again to clobber each other to death some other day rather than today.

My opponent asked me what I felt his MVPs were.  Clearly the artillery.  He didn't pay for many skill upgrades, but he didn't skimp on them.  He was pummeling me with needing 6s or at worst 7s to place POIs on target all day.  Even under the recent artillery nerfs, artillery is still the king of battle I'd have to say.

OTOH my own MVP I'd say were my Scimitars.  Which is something I find comforting... the new PV system didn't kill their relevance.. just keeps me from using SO many of them as I'm used to... and well that's pretty much exactly what the PV-reeval aimed for.    With their 3 Damage at short range with 20" means 4 damage in your back arc... and 4 TMM still means you gotta shoot at it a LOT to just kill one of them.  And having 4 ECM tanks made protecting my (unboosted) C3 network child's play.  It never got jammed until I didn't care if it got jammed.
« Last Edit: 10 June 2018, 21:02:38 by Tai Dai Cultist »

wolfspider

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Re: 750 PV Alpha Strike: July Global Event in June
« Reply #4 on: 13 June 2018, 13:35:40 »
Awesome Man!  :D
I may have a low amount of posts but I have a PHD in Battletech and mechs older then most people on this board!

 

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