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I had shown up a little early for the game, and played in the Company sized battle, since it would mean I could slip away and have someone else available to take control of my mechs. the rest of the SLDF team was a gaming group, and one of them slipped away right after turn 1 to check out the MWTBeta key and Dice situation. Turns out, guy #2 bought all the dice, but he brought back the posters for both sides. Seeing it was generic, I tried it out to get the now well known message. I continued my play at the Company Battle table through the second session, but decided to do the grinder for the last few hours rather than the third session. This was a good choice.
Grinder got started and there were 6 of us at 6pm, 4 of us at 8pm. We were playing on the Badlands Highway map, seen here http://bg.battletech...ic,11787.0.html note the high terrain next to the road in the middle. we were mostly fighting to the North of that road. The players have an AS7-K Atlas, Timber Wolf A, Spider and Something else.
At about 9pm Talon Coleman(20) comes over to us, with a Locust that can run 28 hexes with its MASC(Yay advanced construction rules) and a $10 Bounty on the mech. A young lady with a Catalyst Exhibitor badge who had never played Battletech also joined us. Talon's Locust enters the battlefield near my Timber Wolf, and ends his first turn on the board close enough to me that I only needed an 8 to hit him. I only hit him with one Med pulse laser. It would be the only damage he took for the next 3 hours, netting me the $10 bounty.
With Talon running over the hill, through the town and the back North on the far side of the map, the players were mostly ignoring him while shooting each other.
Then, these guys start walking up to our table
https://lh5.googleus...EHw/s925/12+-+1
Please note the tagged names, and that about 3 turns after they came up, Alex Inglesis joined us as well.
At this point, i'm declaring two groups, Players(those of us who were just there to play a random grinder + the Dragon)and the Employees, which was anyone with an Exhibitor badge.
Most of the guys in that picture had bounties on their mechs.
Randall was in a 3025 Rifleman
Brent was in a Wolverine of unknown year
There was a Panther and a Cataphract piloted by one of the kids(not pictured) and the unknown employee. Those 4 came down the far west side of the map(as shown on the Bg.battletech.com forum thread) and two of the others went down the east side.
Me and the Dragon were the only two on the West side. The other Players were all map center or east, at the road. Randall and his lance had brent working strategy for them, and the kids on the east side had noone.
The Employee mechs on the east side were a Hammerhands and a Wolfhound.
The Hammerhands and Wolfhound were targets of the Spider and the unknown Player mech. the Spider pilot did an especially good job of dodging the Hammerhands and getting into its rear arc, eventually all but taking it down. The Atlas got the final shots on it, as it finally made its way into the fight.
On my side, I was pretty much abandoned by the rest of the Players, and the Dragon went off to fight Alex Inglesis when he joined the fight a few turns after the rest of the guys joined. This left me, a pristine Timber Wolf A (2ERPPC 3MPulse SSRM6) vs a Rifleman RFL-3N, a Cataphract CTF-3D, a Wolverine(likely a WVR-6M), and a Panther(PNT-9R). I pushed forward immediately, and Randall stopped just outside of my ERPPC Range(like he knew the range or something...). Next turn, I moved deeper into the hills at map center and the others got a bit closer. My two PPC shots missed. As Randall and other came at me, the Locust was playing with the other players, getting into their rear arcs and doing some damage. turn 3 or 4 after they joined us and i'm near the top of the hill. Not being familiar with this map, I assumed there was a way down on that side. I was wrong. I ended up backed into a corner, and have 4 mechs coming at me. Thankfully, Talon in his Locust saved me by deciding to play with the Panther. This left me with the three larger mechs coming at me, and I knew I could dodge the worst of the fire and get shots on Randall's Rifleman until midnight came around. I dodged fire pretty well, but couldn't hit Randall for ****. I needed between 7 and 9's to hit Randall up until the last turn. Despite this, before the last turn I had missed with enough ERPPC shots to have clearned all the armor off his mech. This is the Bane of a 4/5 pilot. Last turn, I missed with the PPC's and SSRM6, but hit with all 3 medium pulse lasers. This goes internal on the left arm, leg and torso, leaving very little internal structure left, but not destroying him. The Dragon's final turn she climbs the hill and has shots with the PPC and LRM10 on Randall. She hits with the LRM 10 and destroys the leg. The fall does enough damage to destroy the arm and Torso, leaving it as a 'Grinder Kill".
It was a lot of fun playing with Randall, Brent, Talon, and the others. The best part was watching Alex sketch. it was a 10-14 player game, and those can take a while. So during the downtime, Alex pulled out his 11x17 sketch book and picked up a mini and started sketching. Watching Alex work on a battlemaster was a thrill. He then moved to a Battlemaster/Berzerker fight which was just as cool. The worst part of Alex joining was hearing him tell Brent he had some proofs to show him, then watching the two of them step away as Brent carefully opened Alex's portfolio to see whatever Alex had drawn.
Before the end of GenCon's first day, I had already had a great time at GenCon that I knew wouldn't be topped.
Edited by AnejoDave, 20 August 2012 - 02:20 PM.
