IMHO, S7 is a different game and cannot be measured to Combined Arms. The hex system alone would prove that, plus the introduction of REP pionts has a different stratigy altogether. you can win a match withiut even taking a shot at an opponent mech. for tommorows widowmaker event I will prove it, i will not take a single shot at any opponent and win all my matches. if you ask me, REp pionts are stupid but S7 is GREAT!!!!!!

While it's possible to win all your individual matches on pog-killing Rep points, you're still likely to lose the overall competition. Even if you manage to take out all the pogs in your match, the max you're going to get is 60 Rep points; if a participant in another match manages to take out his opponent's 'Mech, he's going to get a minimum of 70 Rep points. For your scheme to work, you have to hope that nobody gets any kills in any of the other matches -- pretty unlikely.

I remember reading somewhere that if you (and/or your opponent) have eliminated all 6 tokens, both players write down their token reps. and then toss everything back in to the draw pile. Lather, rinse and reuse. True, true. The rep. tokens are sort of funny ... but it mixes well with the idea of fighting in a publicly viewed arena. I always try to target both my opponents 'mech and the token. Winner take all.

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All in all, I find S7 very entertaining. (Not as a replacement for AoD, but as a well designed supplement.) Its fast and fun for the newbies ... but there is lots of depth and possibilities for the old-guard player
• The maps are just fine (especially if laminated for longevity) and I am looking forward to seeing more official maps in the future. Sure, the one in a millionth player who builds custom terrain to the official tourney specs makes the open battlefield look totally awesome, but the lame paper cut outs look awful next to the 3D rendered and painted units of MechWarrior. (Elevated terrain and range to ground level in S7 needs to be re-worked though.)
• The simultaneous damage & heat application is totally awesome in S7 and something I hope they transfer over to MW:3.0 for the 'mechs. But then the tanks and infantry will have to be beefed-up to compensate ... so maybe they won't do this. Who knows. It adds more options and allows for taking more chances with your 'mechs.
• There are still some fun tactics to be had in S7 with all the SEs (and some rather goofy ones too ... see elevated above and the shutdown 'mech options are to great), but just wait until you first 2 vs 2 event ... its totally about lance tactics, placement and your turn/initiative order.
• This MW supplement is much easier for newbies to get into and win a few games ... plus the curb appeal is much higher for anybody walking by the game. 8 out of 10 will at least stop and watch for a few minutes ... and that could cover an entire game in S7. Hopefully drawing in the "giant robot" fan base.

What I love about Soalris is.....That I won! (J/K).:)

I had a chance to play the Widowmaker tournamnet,which was also the very first time I learned to play and had a chance to play along with 2 other players there (a father and son ) I forgot their names ,but they where great gamers all the same.(hope to see them again). I want to throw out an extra thanks to Vonfafnir who I know reads these threads ,but never responds.:) He's is a good instructor and I know he's trying to get his BM status so he can officially score the games. Anyway the matches where suprsingly short learnig the game,but I noticed you can get quite a few turns in once you have the turns down. No one used any of the Dodge,Dig-in,or Pin moves,but I belive most of us weren't familiar with the moves yet,or we where juts on a hunt and wanted the shots withought the heat modifiers. We had some fun with amazing super tokens (no of us seemed to be able to hit some of them :)),but overall the game is pretty wild. It takes some time learning the map marks,but not that bad. The hexes don't interfere with movement,it's like ol' CBT and I like the fact you fire farther than you move. It sucked we didn't have the prize support,but it was just cool to play. I do agree an assault mech match is almost impossible to get to each other in such short rounds ,unless you have the weapons,speed ,and reach. Vonfafnir an myself had very similar builds (we both had Veteran Novacats with Refined pulse, we just had different pilots). out opponets played Hammerfall and the Shrike.The matches the father and son had agaiist each other with the 2 assaults was down to pog hunts,which could have been do to the junkyard map also with all the blocking terrain. As far as 2 novacats against each other it came down to us getting pogs in the first match .He was underdog to me by 2 points so he won the 1st match on that even after I toasted his mech pretty good ,but didn't kill it, second he got a few points in tokens. 2nd round 1st match I took on Hammerfall and destroyed him , second match I out tokend him. Then came our third round was me and Vonfanir again. is match on final round I out tokend him ,got lucky with our supertoken avoiding shots again (how many times in a game can you miss trying to hit a 7 !?!:)) So I was able to get hits on the tokens and won that first match,second match was us slugging it out and I was able to hit him more often.:) Anyway with all the shutdown and and cascading heat rolls wa just a laugh. A look at a real Solaris match would have looked like two mechs blasting each other ,shuting down ,coming online ,taking another shot then shuting down again. rinse repeat.

Over all I had the win with 4 wins and 2 total destroyed opponents and Vonfafnir had 5 more rep points than me ,but it was very close. The game is fun and I wonder what it will be like to try light or medium matches. Can't wait to get back and play somemore area matches soon.

This is one of my favorite aspects of S7. Give Ranged Combat more emphasis!

huh? I don't follow that point. Hasn't that always been the case?
or at least wouldn't it depend on the weapon?

Look at some mechs that can walk 12 inches or run twice that the nhave weapins ranges of 4-6 inches .It's all there.:)

good point. we also got a lot of funky mechs armed with giant can-openers (but I'm a fan of some of them.lol). mechs move soo fast these days, it makes you just wanna crash em into each other coz they can like run 2x faster than most can shoot.


for example:

CW Thor, a mighty 16 inch range mech tries to shoot at a BR Solitaire (with Abasi Sadat, a +3mov pilot). BR Solitaire sticks out its tongue at the Thor :p and then walks 17 inches away. great. now my big big mech has to do an assault order at that thing that's pretty hard to hit. I gain heat and lose a notch of accuracy.

not so fun :-)



flaming ninja pwnge...

my friend of mine thought of arming Inferno Flamers on Seraph w/ Dougal as its pilot. It reminded me of that bad guy in samurai-x that can make his sword flame up and then slash at a significant distance. Kuro-Ha is another stellar mech w/ a can-opener the size of a schoolbus. She can blur out and move across the field ninja-like and then slash at ya in a heartbeat.

but is this the height of 32nd century technology?




I do have a soft spot for some...

Buford is an old favorite (perhaps because its pilot seems like he hails from my country. yeah!), its a cool basher&masher. I also dig the old hatchetman, but it needs a resculpt :-)






moving forward, it would be cool to bring ranged combat into becoming the primary means of fragging each other. shooty combat gives the game a more military feel. hack&slash combat reminds me of them uber-anime flying kung fu mecha. one way to do this is to make the run order only 1.5 the speed of your walk rounded down or do something similar to what is done for Solaris 7. that should help.



my two cents.

I'm all in favor of Ranged over Close, but the comment that I questioned made it sound like the SVII rules have somehow improved upon the ranged combat situation...
faster mechs are still going to be moving out of range, where does SVII fix that?

I finally got my chance to play s7 the other day. I was trying to keep a good outlook because I was not impressed after reading over the rules.

My players (only 3 now) don't like the rules, nor do I. I don't think s7 should be 1 on 1, but rather the blood bath that I have always known it to be. We played an old school solaris game after the tournament and most of the other players were watching and commented on how it looked like it looked like a lot of fun.
I enjoy throwing my mech on the map with a dozen or so others and duking it out, making quike alliances and breaking them.

I also don't like the fact that the games effect your contructed score, because I like the rankings system and I think if it is going to be ranked it shouldn't be off the same line as combined arms.

I love combined arms, but I thought MW needed something else, but this isn't it IMHO. And when I have to drive 50+ miles and pay $20 in gas, I have no desire to play s7, nor do my players. At this point I may try and get my venue back up and play unsanctioned events when it would be s7.

I will continue to play MW as long as they keep combined arms. Our battlemaster quit after s7 come out, and he has been with s7 since the start.
Maybe it will get better with time as all the errors and holes are addressed and fixed.

And there is my rant.

Sorry to hear that you feel this way - I LOVE the game.

In fact, I'd already have played it much more if my wife (who I LOVE dearly
but could also sometimes STRANGLE! - :mad: ) would LET me without always
hanging a guilt trip on me!