Good luck All

Why thank you, I just remembered I can't participate since it is MOTHERS DAY! I love my momma, but come on. My tournys are held on a sunday anyway.

I'd like some advice guys. I took an enforced break from Mechwarrior last year (our player base disintegrated) and now that I'm getting in some pre-nationals practise I'm finding it incredibly difficult to deal with Poseidon. It seem that no matter which army I use, after my main threat gets hit once, my damage isn't ever high enough to finish the ares off. How do you guys do enough damage to this piece within 50 minutes?

I beat a Poseidon in a 900 pt match this is what I fielded.

Yami + Kenshin 266
Matchstick + Raizo + IT 172
Dragon + OBroin + IT 238
5 x Tbird BA 105
Coolant Truck 38
Partisan AA Vehicle 51

Kurita FP +1 damage 30

I was able to tie up the Ares with the light and medium mechs to put in a little damage but the real killer was Yami behind blocking with a coolant truck stuck on him. In the end I lost the medium, light, and the AA truck but he only had the 2 infantry left when time was called.

It would be hard to decide what support to leave out in a 600 pt match but I would start with Yami + Kensin + IT and build from that.

Sure in 900 points you should be able to bring plenty to bare on the Ares and take it down. I think he was referring to how to do it in a 600 point force. Still entirely possible but it isn't the same ball game either.

In any case, Worlds this year will be Solaris. I don't know what Nationals will be but I kinda doubt you will see many Ares there.

i would be interested in thoughts on using Magister w /Carrott and True Grit as a way to blunt Hammerfall, so long as he is in sight then he loses his +2 to attack and Brute Force abilities. Sure he is still 11 Att and 23 Def however no longer as big a threat. Pair him with the 2 H Hadur PSVs and he will be moving, getting hot and if his support is staying with him then my oppo is wasting orders not getting anywhere if i shepherd him effectively. IMHO True Grit is a necessity if you want to play the metagame and i can no longer be bothered to see my forces screwed up by the 2 overpowering prides (and don't get me started on the SAs!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: ).

Magister/Carrott's ability has a glaring weakness. In order for his ability to work, you must have clear line of fire during your command stage. That means Hammerfall can manuver during his turn to prevent this. There are certain PCs and that will clear LOF for terrain, but then you're relying on something other than the "build" to counter Hammerfall.

About the only thing that can work consistently is the DF/SC Situational Alliance. Even then, putting together a competitive army given Magister's high cost and the SA card cost is difficult.

But I guess this could work in your favor, making HF move at your whim, because he is to scared of this ability, besides you can chase him down with other things.

Correct, I'm referring to 600 points. Also, we live in different countries. Here, nationals is 600 points unrestricted (yep, everything goes).

The best way to take on an Ares is to bring cheap, high attack and damage dealing units. Overwhelm him with targets, and maximize the number of shots you can take w/ your pimary hammers.

In an unrestricted environment, it will be easier because you have access to some of the cheapest and most effective support units. Tank/Formation drops will do well against an Ares. An Ares cannot take out a transport in one turn (unless he brings the pilot that allows you to fire at a target twice). That means you should be able to take that first shot, then return fire w/ whatever you've got loaded.

Get VC3 early. Assuming you haven't lost a unit, or are still ahead on VC2 points, the Ares player will now have to hunt you down, a hard thing to do given it's low move.

Hit and fade tactics will work as well. The damage cap an Ares has b/c of it's one target limitation makes it impossible for it to kill most mechs in one turn. You can bring some Bannons units, hit on one turn, then fade away to repair back up. If you've got a couple teams of mechs/repair units, you can continue this process and wear it down.

Dual HyperLaser Nova Cats will own an Ares. Although you do run the risk of some unlucky dice rolls.

There may be other ways, but these tactics are what I have seen work well.

Another person at my venue took the ares down with tanks that deal energy. It has some nasty heat effects if you can get it into them.

I ran up against a Poseiden in our local SL II, and managed to take it down. My army had Rising Sun, and a CNC enyo dropped out of a SC R10, then 12 CNC atvs, 4 vet clans and the scorchers, then 2 SC long toms, and a Laser team.

He brought along a coolant truck and 2 HS TTLs, don't remember exactly which pilots though. There was the -1 damage on a 5 or 6 pilot in there however

I started it off with first turn strikes against the ares for 2 damage and a heat from the atvs, then his ares didn't get a rest from the long toms, The enyo and Rising sun kept him in the heat dial, limiting options, and just whittled away the dial. It was salvaged about halfway through the game.

The thing about an ares, is that it either dies right away or it wins right away.

a 'jack'-based army should be efficient enough to kill an Ares.

or a long range heavy 'mech geared with I.T. would do it.

I don't understand this... surely an Ares player will have exactly 600 points, and possibly running a mission like "Split Up", guaranteeing him a VC4 point. The Ares player should stay near his deployment zone - if you go for VC3, you'll probably gift him a VC1 lead (and therefore a VC2 lead). Unless you earn the VC3 points just before time is called, how will you win? Or do you mean to take VC3 with a Mech, get shot at and hope you have enough left on your dial to manage to run away for the rest of the game.
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@ acrjester:
Why should a "Jack"-based army be efficient enough? How does shooting through walls give you an advantage in the time it takes to kill the Ares? Remeber, Poseidon does begin with 16" streaks so "Jack"'s advantage seems minimal to me. Which long-ranged Heavy Mechs do you think can survive an early hit from the Ares and still be capable of doing enough damage for the rest of the game?
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So far, the BR repairing armies seem most likely, but I'm worried about the time it takes to do Hit and Fade attacks... I don't expect an Ares player to have his turn at lightning pace... all he has to do is think a bit each turn, and time will run out before I can kill it.

The only time I've managed a win has been using the Twins with Inferno Flamers to get that first shot in, and give it heat problems. But it's not a tactic that works consistently, and is very fragile. (and I doubt it's worth in battles agains non-Ares armies - which brings up the second problem: Your army has to be able to defeat non-Ares players too).

I have found that a 600pt Ares build suffers from some weakness. You won't be able to field any two of the more "powerful" pilot combos. It's almost a necessity to bring a gunner to bump up your attack. You won't be able to bring enough infantry to properly harass your opponent. Even if you do, they're VC1 fodder.

An Ares player can only play "Split up" once per tournament. You can also bring a mission of your own, countering his mission VC.

This is exactly right. A mech will most definitely be able to take a shot from the Ares and be able to run away next turn. Once you have that VC, he has to come to you, something an Ares is not well suited.

The bottom line is that there are three things that are going against the Ares: lack of support, poor mobility, and a per turn damage cap. In a 600pt build, there's no way an Ares player can build to mitigate all 3 or even 2 of them. The Ares also have a lowish AV. If they're not running w/ a gunner, most likely they'll have a hard time hitting those high DV units. When you go up against the Ares, figure out what out of these weaknesses it has and exploit it.