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[Kanil]

Yeah I reserve that long too for playing - but only because finding an opponent might take a while and to look through the formed armies one more time. Better have more time than needed than not enough...

I dont think I've ever played a game longer than 2,5 hours, except those 4 vs. 4 MMNet/Mekwars games. 

A 2.5 hour game for a lance on lance? How does that even happen?

[Erkki]

Yeah I reserve that long too for playing - but only because finding an opponent might take a while and to look through the formed armies one more time. Better have more time than needed than not enough...

I dont think I've ever played a game longer than 2,5 hours, except those 4 vs. 4 MMNet/Mekwars games. 

A 2.5 hour game for a lance on lance? How does that even happen?

People thinking every single move for minutes...

[EuchreJack]

Yeah I reserve that long too for playing - but only because finding an opponent might take a while and to look through the formed armies one more time. Better have more time than needed than not enough...

I dont think I've ever played a game longer than 2,5 hours, except those 4 vs. 4 MMNet/Mekwars games. 

A 2.5 hour game for a lance on lance? How does that even happen?

People thinking every single move for minutes...

Unfortunately, that is so me.  Alternating fire as default doesn't help.

[Anvilfolk]

People thinking every single move for minutes...

Unfortunately, that is so me.  Alternating fire as default doesn't help.

You ruin boardgames, man! Hahahah, we have a bunch of people who are very into AP (analysis paralysis, it's an actual term) in my boardgame group, to the point where I am very, very careful about the games I allow myself to get. We've had a Game of Thrones game take 8 hours... These days you see a lot of games allowing a large amount of simultaneous play, which helps a bit.

What do you think about during alternate fire though? I just do some quick heuristics, and concentrate fire on one unit - possibly with one or two side units if the to-hit chance is too low for some of my meks, and there are better alternatives.

[EuchreJack]

Don't think of anything when it's not my turn to fire, hence why I prefer simultaneous fire.

Alternating is just so...slow

[Erkki]

I just played my first game of BT for 7 months. I think it went pretty well. 

This was supposed to be a "junk army" with some of the worst/least cost effective units that I happened to have piled in but not meaninglessly - I still wanted to make the combination work as a formation...


Warhammer WHM-8M (light gauss, twin erppc, overheats like hell)
Crusader CRD-2R
Wolverine WVR-11M (supercharger --> 5/10/5, dual SNPPC(!), great but of very high cost)
Shadow Hawk SHD-7M (light gauss, lrm15, 1 weapon of each type... would be great but has ammo for just 8 turns and if it wernt vulnerable)
Quickdraw QKD-5M (everyone knows this mek! Its so horrible!  MWL has improved it a lot but it still retains the 2 rear-facing medium lasers)
Hunchback HBK-6N
Hover APC + IS Standard BA
(total 9600 BV)

When I saw the map and the foe I threw away all hope: volcanic plains with large but flat hills providing excellent cover for low vehicles and prone meks... or for the Word of Blake C3i army. A Toyama with a 3/4 pilot was the shooter, while the leader of the formation, a Grand Crusader, spotted for it. Lightray was his flanker, Marauder MAD-9M general purpose guy, tiny Stinger harasser and a heavy attack helicopter carried battle armor. I didnt have a single anti-aircraft weapon with me.

I decided the best course of action would be to rush the enemy ASAP into a melee, leaving Warhammer to snipe. This failed spectacularly: the helicopter dropped battle armor right next to my "snipers", my Hunchback lost its HD and died away to the Toyama's LRM fire only without the enemy even bothering to concentrate his fire on it, and his TSM-equipped Grand Crusader was closing in.

I began falling back, rotating damage as well as I could... And I managed to take out the Lightray with concentrated effort by Crusader, Shadow Hawk, Warhammer and the Hover APC. The following 10 turns were very difficult: I had to walk backwards to attempt to keep most of the enemy out of effective range or at least make the C3-Sniper-hero-mechwarrior-Toyama move to hinder his aim, while I concentrated my own fire as well as I could.

The main battle phase was as good as I could get: a grand melee on an open field with the Toyama out of range for a turn and Marauder out of effective range for 2 turns. My Crusader was crippled by ammunition explosion(and was finished off only 10 turns later), APC was immobilized quickly and my HQ-Warhammer was mauled badly. The enemy Grabd Crusader kicked my Quickdraw in half... In the end I managed to prolong the Warhammer's fate by 2 turns by keeping it prone and not even attempting to stand him up. This bought time for the Shadow Hawk - Wolverine strike pair to finally remove the Grand Crusader's side torso (it overheated and shut down) and then finish it off by shooting off the other too. The Shadowhawk had earlier shot down the helicopter with a lucky missile burst. Stinger was destroyed immediately when it assaulted straight towards my line. Enemy BA was tough to hit thanks to its mimetic armor, but the Quickdraw reduced the squad which was finally eliminated by my own Battle Armor and the Shadow Hawk.

The final showdown was between the survivors: my Shadow Hawk and Wolverine (both damaged and SHD very low on ammo) versus enemy Toyama(low on gauss and lrm ammo) and his Marauder, both intact. Only thing I could do was to run around the enemy meks at a distance, abuse the Wolverine's SNPPCs' short range of 9 and spread the damage out as well as possible and harass with battle armor(the enemy refused to shoot at them for some reason). After about 8 turns the enemy realized what I was up to and moved his meks together, as his Marauder's ERLLs outranged me badly.

At this point I charged, and let the SHD take the beating first, which it did. The Wolverine jumped next to the Marauder(to hit its damaged right side torso), mauled it badly... The Marauder fell, and KO'd itself while attempting to get up(pilot was already wounded from an SRM hit). My Wolverine jumped back to fire at 9 hex while the helpless Toyama chased the fleeing, damaged and mostly ammoless Shadow Hawk. Out of Gauss Rifle and LRM20 ammunition, the Toyama just didnt have enough firepower or reach left to kill my 2 meks quick enough with just 2 medium-VSP-lasers.

When an SNPPC hit removed the Marauder's side torso and destroyed it, the enemy gave up. And I expected to lose the battle within 10 turns! 

[Knave]

Good ARR as always, Erkki!

Gratz on the come from behind win!

[Anvilfolk]

Aw, nice come back! Glad to hear the first fight after all this time was a win!

Myself... I lost two matches today! In the first one, a really early lucky hit took out my Cicada's hip actuator, meaning he was down for the entire rest of the fight. Since the weapons are in the torso and he couldn't get up, with no arms, that meant no shooting. In a low BV fight, those 2xMedium Lasers and mobility were really important. Oh well!

The second fight was in a mountain village. 2xMaxim Heavy Rovers, 1xHetzer and a Bulldog. I learnt a ton - mainly that a + symbol next to a weapon name does not mean it has been destroyed... It means it's been used. Destroyed is *. Quite different!

Anyways, it was a really, really close call, since I kept getting somewhat unlucky with my shots but kept getting initiative. Eventually I took a Commando's leg off, immobilising him, and had the enemy's two other mechs' armour worn down, plus a hit on gyro. Unfortunately, I got a ton of critical hits that immobilised most of my vehicles on that turn too, and that was enough to toggle the lose conditions.

Is anyone interested in an LP of these things to see how the game actually plays?

[EuchreJack]

Biggest problem with 3025 campaign is lack of easy-to-access basic information.   

It's just a bunch of little things that add up.

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah, the campaign itself is pretty undocumented... the good thing is that unless you're good at BT, you'll be doing Mek Raids and Vehicles Raids for a while, which are really simple: raiding simply stops some enemy production at the attacked planet for a little bit. You shouldn't become a frontline commander, which implies taking and losing actual territory, and thus more advanced missions, until you can win some fights.

I've been thinking of putting together a tiny guide for some basic guidelines at the actual BT level. This is mostly stuff that people have been telling me as they watch my games or that I've slowly figured out by myself, and that I've read around.

There's an active effort to start making the wiki work better. You can join in on that process, as you learn more about how the campaign plays. People have taught me some basics on how to do repairs, so I might write an article on that, for example. Join in and help document stuff, it's a community project!



We might be livestreaming some BT games tomorrow, so if you want to see how it plays, learn, and join in, it might be a good time!

We will post more information about when things are happening. As usual, a good meeting place will probably be the Bay12 Battletech group!

I really think Battletech has a TON of potential for B12 gamers, so if you have any tips on how we can engage more people, let us know

[Anvilfolk]

And bumping again! We'll be livestreaming within the next hour hopefully! It'll be a great opportunity to get to know the game and its basics in case you don't already!

We should totally do a massive free-for-all afterwards! Spill not only blood but also motor oil, for the glory of Armok

[Anvilfolk]

Streaming now: http://www.twitch.tv/anvilfolk !

[Anvilfolk]

*bump*

Added a few highlights of our games yesterday to the OP! It's a good way to see what kind of thing goes on in a Battletech game through MegaMek

• DEATH FROM ABOVE: Xeron's typical tactics at work - the problem being that they DO work, somehow!
• Atlas vs Jenner and Javelin: this was a shorter video supposed to demonstrate that a bigger mek could be tackled by two smaller meks. Guess what?
• Bay12 Battletech: two teams, each with a very large mek, and two lighter meks! We fight, we feint, we duck behind hills, hurt ourselves getting up and then alpha strike someone, overheat, etc (XEROOOOOOOON!!!! )

[Addzable]

Hey there. This looks interesting.. I'm too lazy to read the whole thread, but I've read the first and last page. Going to go join MekWars 3025, see if I like it. If it can hold my interest for a day or two, I'll come back here and post. Want to wait and see if I enjoy it first because I'm extremely prone to disappearing after joining something, which makes me feel guilty afterwards.

[Anvilfolk]

That's the cool thing about this entire thing. No need to feel guilty about anything. You have your account - when you want to play, you login and find an opponent. When you don't... you just don't

Hopefully the livestreams will give you an initial idea of how the game and MegaMek interface works. Playing against the bot is a great way to start, to get a feel for movement, the attack modifiers, and so on.

Feel free to ask any questions, and if you want to try it out online with someone before the campaign, using voicechat to make it easier, or whatever, just post here or join the Steam group or something