Dublin Battletech League

[Freak]

So last November after a nice result at Gaelcon I suggested to the group a small League in Dublin thinking that we would get it done by Christmas, wow was I wrong on that. Because of various scheduling problems it took almost 4 months to get to the point were we had a clear winner. However before we get to that, let me explain the set-up we went for.

Each player who wanted in had to chose a Faction, if they choice a standard IS faction they HAD to field a full Lance of 4 units, though the units themselves could be any Total Warfare legal units. Players who wanted Clans had to field a full Star of 5 and for any weirdos who wanted Comstar/WoB they had to put 6 units on the board. In all cases the era was set as 3085 and only Total Warfare kit was allowed.

In order to give players options, everyone had a max BV of 8,000 points but could adjust pilots as they wished. The units they chose had to be available to their faction per the MUL and RAT tables (No Davion players with Daishi Prometheus please). Then to make it more attractive, anyone with an Omni could field any Configuration they wished as long as they didn't exceed the original BV limit or change ANY of their pilots. (essentially this meant for maximum flexibility you had to pay for the most expensive version of an Omni even if you didn't always field it.

Lastly, duplicate units were allowed, I've never understood or liked, the idea of "You can only have one!" The exception being unique units.

After a bit of to-and-fro we got eight players with the following options.

Brian F. Kenny- Free Worlds League

Warhammer -7M (x4)

Brian Carter- Clan Jade Falcon

Kraken
Hunchback IIC
Hellhound
Vixen
Baboon

Keith O'Sullivan- Capellan Confederation

Striker-2C
Stalker-5M
Vindicator-3L
Catapult-C1b

Lorcan Nagle- Draconis Combine

Skulker- C3M
Hatamoto-Chi-28T
Warhammer- 8K
Wolverine- 8C

Mark Hall- Federated Suns

Awesome-9Q
Falconer-9R
Penetrator-4D
Watchman-4M

Michelle Haward - Draconis Combine

Dragon Fire -3F
No-Dachi -2KO
Venom-9KA
Panther-13K

Peter Crowley - Clan Hells Horses

Mad Cat
Ryoken
Gnome LRM (x3)

Troy Donohue - Mercenary

Awesome-9Q (x4)

So that was the forces, the matches themselves were a straight up knock-down-drag-out face off but we decided on a little something when it came to terrain. The maps were randomly rolled from the tables in TW but instead of one person rolling two dice, we had each player roll one dice and added the results, this way no one player could argue that they had been shafted by the terrain roll, both players were equally responsible. If both players objected to the terrain they could re-roll once but the second roll was binding. So how did it all go?

Overall it went great, a few things became obvious early on, firstly I wasn't going to win a damn thing as in my first 4 matches I got hammered by bad dice while my Warhammers legs seemed to be magnetic as every one of my opponents seemed to exploit the weak leg armour there or found the ammo bin. I rapidly realised that while a homogenous lance can work, the Warhammer-7M variant doesn't. After a particularly bad match I conceded my remaining rounds and focused on refereeing.

The Mercenary force of 4 Awesomes looked tough to beat but had displayed some weakness that would be exploited later on by the Davions and others but the surprising force proved to be the Hells Horses. I don't know what sick minded individual came up with the Gnome LRM but all I can say is "What were you thinking??? That thing is insane" While the Madcat and Ryoken were a solid combo and did their share the massed LRM fire from the Gnomes devastated all before them.

The use of a standard Kraken by the Falcons was surprising at first but proved a real pest, particularly as the cannons refused to jam until game 4, meanwhile Lorcan's use of a cheap C3M vehicle to offset the cost of the C3 network proved very effective. Time and again he would hide the Skulker at the back of the field while the mechs advanced and only once was it actually engaged.

In the end, with the bulk of the games fought it was obvious who was coming up on top and with Real World commitments messing up matches I called a halt once the top positions were decided, so without further ado, the results.

First Place

Peter Crowley - Clan Hells Horses

Second Place

Troy Donohue - Mercenary

Third Place

This one was jointly taken by,
Lorcan Nagle - Draconis Combine
Mark Hall - Federated Suns

Fourth Place

Brian Carter - Clan Jade Falcon

Fifth Place

Michelle Haward - Draconis Combine

Sixth Place

Keith O'Sullivan - Capellan Confederation

Seventh Place

Brian F. Kenny - Free Worlds League

Hopefully later on in the year I will use these rankings for another competition, either a Solaris 7 or Trial of Bloodright depending on what the players would prefer.

Some of the highlights.

[Ouchies]

NICE!  O0

I like how you integrated some fluff into the game with the omnis and org structure.  Do you think it affected the outcome?

[Freak]

Yes and no. Choosing to play FWL definitely made it harder to find a force that worked for me, hence the 4 Warhammers. The use of Omnis gave the players using them, especially Peter, a way to counter a bad map roll somewhat but invariably that meant he was sacrificing BV, in one instance I think he ended up 700-800 points short because he swapped configs.

Overall the impact on the result was minor but the flavour it added was enormous.

[markhall]

Fun League.  Some great forces.
The  forces where an interesting mix of Fluffy, Good  and Just damn dangerous.

Petes Horses where just plain mean.
Lorcans Dracs a little easier to deal but murderous to get there.
Keiths force a little too fluffy.
Carters an interesting Mix. But didn't really support each other well. I do think he was my favorite force to go up against.
Michelle did well for her first few solo games.
Troys Awesome where just a heck of a rock to try smash. But I think I did myself proud.  My little Watchman showed his dudes the meaning of Fear. Taking them all down single handily. *









*may not have been actual events. But it's what he told all his buddies when he got back to base.

[BARNESGN]

how did you figure gunnery/piloting skills ? Did they stay the same each event.

[Vlads Fangs]

 O0

[markhall]

how did you figure gunnery/piloting skills ? Did they stay the same each event.

They where calculated using BV. So the regular variants remained the same throughout the game.
But those with Omnis could change the Skills if they had the BV spare.

[Freak]

how did you figure gunnery/piloting skills ? Did they stay the same each event.

The Players were allowed adjust Gunnery and Piloting under BV 2 before the League started. Once they had decided their pilots the numbers were 'Locked' . Anyone with Omni units could change Configurations before a fight after maps were rolled as long as they had the BV to spare without changing the pilots skills

[markhall]

Glad I didn't have omnis now cause I would have messed that up.

[Lorcan Nagle]

Michelle and I never got our game in.  Winning that would have put me joint second :(

My force was predicated on having two really good hammers tied into a C3 network, and I hit on the horribly munchy idea of using the Skulker C3M for the master to have more BV for the rest of the force.  I ended up with a 3/5 Warhammer and Hatamoto, and a 2/4 Wolverine.  It worked out pretty well against all forces except Troy's 4 Awesomes (and I could have won that if not for some amazing grouping by Troy taking out the Warhammer a turn or two before it should, and some amazing bad luck leading to a hip hit on the Wolverine), and Pete's 2 Clan mechs and 3 squads of BA force, which was just too hard to fight effectively.  Having 3 points of BA as a point sink sadly meant that he had two fantastic Clan 'mechs with good pilots on the table.

If we do this again, I don't know if I'd go for the same tactic.  I only beat Mark through a lucky headcap early on and some amazing rolling afterwards.  But I'll probably do something gimmicky.  Maybe a Shadow lance.

[markhall]

The head hits won the game for you.
But I still think even without that it was going to be yours.

Much like Troys force it was just a mean unit.


I honestly thought I was in with a chance against Pete as well. But I just couldn't hit his mechs. He used them very very efficiently.

Plus I think I've shown just how much fun a Penetrator is.  Also Always dump the ammo on the Watchman As it tends to  go boom.

[Lorcan Nagle]

I spent a fair amount of time testing my force against Troy's and Pete's in Megamek.  I could beat Troy's 50% of the time, but I couldn't beat Pete's at all :(