Highlighting the May 3332 King of the Mountain
A new event was in the making. I was, at least grade wise, in the middle of the herd on my mountain (K3). Tonnage vise, I was the absolute junior. None had less than 230 tons on me, and some contestants had more than a 900 ton advantage.
That makes the challenge harder, but also makes the rewards sweeter.
I joined up early, and told my crew to manage as best they could.
They did so, but the opponents fared better, and frantic calls from my crew for me to return and direct counterattacks started flowing in.
I was busy elsewhere, but made a few appearances. This was enough to get back on the lower slopes, but as soon as I left, the crew tended to be chased back to the plains.
This state of affairs lasted until about t-8 hours. After some reorganization we managed to claim a spot in the middle foothills.
When I made my final return at t-5 minutes the crew was still at the middle foothills. I wondered if we should get into larger mode or try for the top.
An influx of supers from friends made the advance option feasible, so I took some time and studied the notes my crew had taken.
I wont say they are defeatists, but the number of "Very strong", "Don't even try" and "Stay away from" was higher than normal.
Tossing the notes behind me I instead checked who held the top foothill. It was the canny AFF general, Goetz Sr. himself.
While we have danced many a time over the decades, he generally comes out on top, especially when he have a serious tonnage advantage. This time he had more than 600 tons on me. But the only way to find out what you can do is to try.
It took eight tries before two shambling wrecks of mine kicked the last scrap of his force away. A couple minutes were spent changing crew who were to injured to continue the fight, then we were ready to assault the very top.
It was held by George Warren of the Brotherhood BlackWatch. He is good, really good. But while he had 230 tons on me, I hoped my licence who was 37 higher than his actually meant something, at least my Mechs would have more weapons than his.
A last check before the assault was launched and....
The task had just gone from hard to really hard. The Collector leader, Roman Himmelhan, had just claimed the top. He had more than 550 tons on me, and held the same licence number. The one silver lining was he was light on Heavy Guard drones.
But each time he repulsed my probes, new friends flocked to his banner. My results went from almost successes, via not quite there, to forget it. 32 tries later I was out of energy and sat waiting for my second wind. That was when the light flashed and it was over.
Those who stood unbeatable on the tops this time were:
- Div 1 229+ (32 Commanders): Jaime Beltram, Leviathan (3h,21m)
- Div 2 -228 (19 Commanders): John T Mainer, Spirit of Bunnies (1d,4h)
- Div 3 -164 (33 Commanders): Roman Himmelhan, Death`s Collectors (13m,1s)
- Div 4 -119 (38 Commanders): Craig Vannes, B.S.L.R. (1d,20h)
- Div 5 -98 (32 Commanders): Duncan Cecil Goetz, Death`s D.A. (1d,12h)
- Div 6 -81 (39 Commanders): Richard Ward, Black Star Bandits (1d,21h)
- Div 7 -61 (40 Commanders): Neil Roberts, Dinochrome Brigade (50m,11s)
- Div 8 -43 (19 Commanders): Bob Becker, UNDERWORLD (11m,48s)
- Div 9 -33 (26 Commanders): Map Chap, UNDERWORLD (8h,32m)
- Div 10 -21 (18 Commanders): Paul Kitchen, Arkham Asylum (1m,16s)
- Div 11 -15 (13 Commanders): Steeven Petit, Arkham Asylum (5m,29s)
- Div 12 -9 (13 Commanders): Bat Girl, Arkham Asylum (1d,38m)
Total Contestants: 322, Total medals claimed: 176 (of 180 possible)
This event proved more popular than the preceding Namtar event.
63 additional Commanders clocked in, so we had the same number we had in the fire mountain. Still, the spread is somewhat uneven, and a total of four bronzes, two from each of the two lowest divisions, were sent for resmelting.
I don't know if it was the end time that made Commanders stay away from the scramble, or if it was plenty of failed attacks all around.
There was some trade in Gold Medals, four of them changed hands the last half hour. But seven Golds were held for more than two hours, five of them for more than a day.
When it came to the fight for the lesser medals, it seemed to be even less action than for the golds.The number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 2 ....4 of 4.........9 of 10
Div 3 ....3 of 4.........7 of 10
Div 4 ....3 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 5 ....4 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 6 ....2 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 7 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 8 ....3 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 9 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 10 ..2 of 4.........9 of 10
Div 11 ..2 of 4.........8 of 8
Div 12 ..4 of 4.........8 of 8
That gives four mountains where no successful attacks were launched the last half-hour, and Mount Olympus was one of them!!!!
A total of 9 Silvers and 13 Bronzes got new holders, that gives a 85% holding rate for the Medals the last half-hour for this event.
There were no unaligned winners this time. There were two clans who secured multiple Golds. UNDERWORLD claimed K8 and K9, but the best clan was Arkham Asylum, they claimed top spot on the three lowest Mountains.
Arkham Asylum also had the single repeat winner: Paul Kitchen continued his winning streak, and got his THIRD Gold in a row. Impressive indeed, especially when one consider he started on K12.
Upcoming event: Cruiserweight (65 ton max)
Yet again we have an event where only Mechs below a certain tonnage are allowed to fight, in this case 65 tons and lower.
As a Commander you are of course free to bring heavier Mechs along, but they will only exist as empty spots in the formation.
Equipment and weapons work as normal.
Event ends February 18 between 2100 and 2130 New York Time.
(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)
