I have to mirror Corle's sentiments about being excited about the future of the game. Things are lookin' up.

Last year I hung around the top 8 guys to see the armies and watch the games play out; this time I went and played MechHunter, and had an awesome time doing it. This year I had a lot more fun and got to meet a bunch of guys from MWRealms, which was a total bonus.

My dice absolutely murdered me this weekend, else I woulda done a lot better. But, se la vis.

Congrats to everyone who kicked butt at Nats, and especially to Corle. No one better to represent the US at Worlds. Go get 'em!

welcome back Corle
Hey if you come to Thailand you can contact me,I glade to see you back
^_^

Everyone saying that the game is getting better, but Im sorry to say, this is Mechwarrior, not VTOL warrior.

If this is the direction the game is going then this disapoints me. I do hope that mechs get the ability to make them more useful and not expensive capture targets...

Metagame is ruining this game in my eyes...

Yeah, things are looking fairly good. Still some problems, but well... things are looking up. Hopefully Falcon's Prey wont introduce some new lameness.

i posted some stuff in the 'lesson from nats' which probably i should have put here... doh! oh well. :> its a lot about transports... basically.

mechs do need a rule change to be correctly balanced in the game, i can't really deny that. but really not by much, imo.

i think the top mechs in the game are ones that work on being Anti the flavor of the week. so, my order of best mechs:

sw kodiak
br ehli
sc arnis
li targe
li czupek
br lego

each is there for a completely different reason. The kodiak is anti first strike and anti arty...

ehli is one of the very few mechs who has a heat dial built to take the battle to the enemy, while also having a great defense and repair ability.

arnis is now where we drop to the vision of those that aren't, perhaps, top tier players. arnis is powerfully good on the defensive end... but he really can't accomplish much on the offensive end. So, as i say, he's built to 'not lose', he is not 'built to win' games. ditto for the li targe.

czupek is a mix of weirdness, but he is the cheapest mech with full 17clicks of life. he can deal lots of damage, or run like a madman, and has the farthest jump range in the game. being able to be healed by li atvs isn't so bad either... but ultimately the low range (even 14inches is low really) means he has to put himself in danger before he can dish out the pain. between 3 br sprints and 4 sh atvs.. it will take czupek at least 8 turns before he can shoot a donar... and thats without resting or cooling.

br lego cracks transports the good old fashion way... too bad he dies afterwards.

-c

I'd probably throw Bradshaw in there, simply because he forces opponents to play ATVs out of base contact... but he's still too easily killed by Donars.

...So yeah, never mind.

about the "mech list"

I agree with corle, but one thing must be added - the player.

Example: Not many players would go so far as you did using your army.
Not many players play ehli, arnis or bekker correctly. It needs a good player, with good knowledge of the mech's stats to win.

(my example? noeticist who one nats last year without tankdrop, without multi-arty, and faction pure+mercs - because he was USED to the army)

For example, I play arnis quite a bit, and am deadly with it. However, my arnis rarely does any damage. He always ends up giving me the victory.
I've played vs arnis, too. And I've seen him poorly played more than one time.

Bottom line is: you can have the best army there is, but if you don't know it, forget it - you wont win with it.

Don't go with the army that won nats - you'll only lose horribly. Go with the army you know inside out, adapt it a little, and use pieces you know the stats by heart.
Corle doesn't have that problem, as he apparently knows ALL the stats of ALL the units by heart. AND knows how to play. AND has a collection the size of Jupiter. AND is not afraid of inventing the cheese of the week.

Congrats - I'm a bit disappointed Noeticist didn't win, as he became my personal hero last year by winning nats with a faction pure+mercs army, from my faction, using an army quite similar to the one I was fielding at the time...

But you know the saying... "In the end, there can be only one."

Great to have your wisdom of the game back Corle! Sounds like Nats was a blast, pity I couldn't make it (moving). I most likely would have been trounced anyways, but I would have enjoyed it.

As far as MW as a game goes, I'm of a couple minds. One is that an army in a game that relies on points should be just about balanced with another army built on the same # of points. That is, if the point system is working, a 450 point army, if well built and played with a relative amount of skill, actually should be just as competitive as any other army built under the same point constraint. The good players like corle who used VTOLS vs. players who used infantry or Mechs or even tank drops should be good close games. So in this regard, the game is working "properly".

On the flip side, this is Mechwarrior. The only reason I specifically got into this game is -because- of the Mechs. I'm sure many others are of the same mind. In the universe in which this takes place, Mechs supposedly are the "kings of the battlefield". If this is the direction WK's wants to take, then Mechs really need to be improved imo. Mechs should be unbalanced in this case. They should be more powerful than their points would suggest. Therefore, they will be favored and played, and most armies would field them. I'm of the mind that -all- armies should field them, unless you are playing some scenario such as Mechs vs. army without them.

So I can't fault any player for fielding an army that doesn't feature Mechs. The best players, if they really are the best, will use the best units to their best advantage, taking into account what counters what, the metagame (what other players will bring), and so on. That they are just using what Wizkids provides them is not their fault.

Wizkids I hope do tweak Mechs. They have done this of course recently, but these are very minor changes. Charging, perhaps move and shoot, these should be addressed. And most important? I think the next set should add some (more) SEs specifically for Mechs. And please don't use Mageknight or other existing click games for reference. Use your imaginations or ideas from CBT or something else, to make your decisions. When I see a mechanic pulled directly from a fantasy game from the same company and slightly modified and called something else, it drives me nuts.

Congrats to Corle (for winning Nats as well as returning)! I hope Will is allowed back into good graces, although in my opinion, it isn't something he should even ask for. Having his rights revoked as if he were some sort of pariah leper is just insanity, no matter -how- much he argued about it. I hope WKs sees the insanity of banning someone for an honest ADMITTED mistake, that didn't even have an outcome on the game he played. That will only make people reluctant in the future to play fair and be honest with the BMs.

fbf

Congratulations on your win Corle! What is your take on the other Yu Huang, Jacyn Bell? For just a few more points he loses the crappy range and gets a higher primary damage as well. Does he deserve a spot on the list of top mechs?

Good to see you back Corle :)

I think rain did an awesome job. I think I know what BM you're talking about as being biased, because I saw one BM in particular do a few things that appeared to be directed at specific players.

I only took a BM call one one thing. Rain happened to be watching the game, so I asked her to "remove all doubt" on a LOS call. She ruled against me, which is fine. To be completely honest it was too close for me to tell one way or the other :)

I think Rain was completely impartial in her rulings, and did a wonderful job. Since the other BM's are volunteers, some of them have their enemies from the boards. Most of the BM's struck me as completely impartial, but one in particular appeared to have an agenda (what a child)

hey corle, can you tell us about your last match vs. Dan?

The BMs were great (aside from an incorrect artillery ruling against me). If anyone wants to make conspiracy accusations or anonymously call people names...I hate the internet.

Congratulations to Corle. Way to go!

I wanted to echo thunderspirit's sentiments above (I think): how did you beat Ehli with your VTOLs? Maybe I'm too straight forward in my playing style (I really like the Clans of CBT fame), but unless you simply avoid her, I fail to see how even 4 Donars can bring her down easily. Thanks for the insight!

Just out of curiosity, why don't they use lasers to check LOS? Just playing a game at some event once, a guy had a laser like device. You just point it down at the table, and it creates a long laser line, which was perfect for measuring LOS. You would think they would use such a thing to accurately and quickly resolve any LOS issues without causing any grumbling.

fbf

Thanks FleabitFox. :)

I think it's most accurate to say that ...

Because I didn't have the corrected pogs or access to them, I was DQ'ed for missing the announcement.

It could have happened to anyone. Rain had to make the call regardless.