Trial of Possession follow-up. (I set the stage in my last post, above.)
As the attacker, Clan Sea Fox issued duel challenges. He challenged my Arcas with his Karhu B and my Bruin with his Warhammer IIC 4. He then bid a 3v1 challenge of his Tiburon, Koshi (Standard), and Black Hawk (Standard) against my Kodiak 2. I heartily accepted his terms, and the battle proceeded.
The Arcas kept the Karhu at range for more than half the game, mitigating the effectiveness of the OmniMech's big autocannon. The Bruin and Warhammer IIC slugged it out the entire game with both `Mechs taking massive damage until the final two rounds when the Bruin deprived the Warhammer IIC of key weapon systems and won the upper hand. The Kodiak had a grand time, leading his three opponents into a narrow part of the canyon map where their maneuverability and speed counted for nothing, and they got chewed up one at a time despite their attempts to concentrate their firepower.
At the end of Round 7, Clan Sea Fox requested hegira. The Tiburon and Warhammer IIC were both out of the fight, with the Koshi one good whisper from toppling over. The Karhu had armor breaches all over its right side, and the Black Hawk was the best looking Sea Fox `Mech with nary a scratch. All three of the Ghost Bear `Mechs were operational, with the Bruin and Arcas looking beat up but still functional.
My opponent judged that the rest of the battle would not go his way, thus the request to withdraw. Clan Ghost Bear granted Clan Sea Fox's request, and Clan Ghost Bear was declared the victor.
Afterwards, we had an after action strategy session where we discussed the moves made by each player and how the strategies could have been improved. Basically, it came down to Clan Sea Fox picking the wrong targets. It was decided that a better set of match-ups would have been as follows: Karhu vs Bruin, Warhammer IIC vs Kodiak, and the remaining three would have taken turns harassing and weakening the Arcas, perhaps even bidding a 2v1 from the beginning and leaving one `Mech in reserve of the rest of the units.
The Karhu would have been able to use its speed to get into kill range with the Bruin, utilizing maneuverability that the Warhammer IIC just did not have. The Warhammer IIC would have been able to punish the Kodiak at range, engaging outside of the Kodiak's kill radius. While the Kodiak would no doubt have eventually closed on the Warhammer IIC, it would have suffered much greater damage doing so than it did against the trio of lighter `Mechs.
Of course, there are no guarantees, but that was how we saw the battle when looking back. The Sea Fox player could have picked much better fights. As it was, I got exactly the match-ups I wanted and used the terrain to my advantage (Without breaking LOS, of course! No dezgra points for this Ghost Bear!).
We both had a lot of fun with the battle, though, and he promises that the next Trial will not be so easy for me to win. ::)
