Highlighting the November 3331 King of the Mountain (unlimited)
After a mostly unsuccessful stint on K2 (one Bronze from four invitations) I was released back to K3 again. This time it was the traditional sudden death unlimited on the program, and my odds seemed long.
The ceiling for piloting licences were 161, 19 higher than mine. In addition my formation were small, so I was severely weight-challenged.
But I joined up, and promptly left for Meta after telling my crew to hold and take notes.
For once they complied, and when I returned at t-20 minutes they were still among the lower foothills.
The situation were not what you could call encouraging. Above me on the foothills were Collectors, Dragons and Sorcerers. Top foothill were held by the chief collector, Goetz sr. My licence was 7 higher, but he had 610 tons on me, so I felt very much the underdog when I started probing.
The third try saw him displaced, 4 of my Mechs in various grades of disrepair stood left.
My crew and friends gathered around me. The crew to congratulate me and ask for orders, the friends to tell me their stint was up and they were leaving.
Drat, and drat again. On the slopes above me there were Wach and Alligood from BSLR, Beagle of Brethren and Painter from Sorcerers. All of them top fighters who could handle me easily most of the time. And on the very top was KiloTone of the Northwind Dragons.
I have beaten him in the past, but the record is heavily in his favor. Here he had licence, numbers and tonnage on me, in addition he had a HG while I didn't.
I tried him a few dozen times, but to no avail. When the light finally flashed the tops were held by:
- Div 1 216+ (31 Commanders): Bernard Johnson, Warlock (8s)
- Div 2 -215 (15 Commanders): Bing Paculan, The Isle of Misfit Toys (1h,11m)
- Div 3 -161 (31 Commanders): KiloToneRecoil, Northwind Dragons (52m,18s)
- Div 4 -120 (31 Commanders): Craig Vannes, Black Star Lycan Rangers (1h,6m)
- Div 5 -100 (27 Commanders): Chrisbob63, Clan Wars (1h,3m)
- Div 6 -81 (34 Commanders): David Sifford, Steampunk Dragons (1d,1h)
- Div 7 -64 (34 Commanders): Billybob Leory, M&L Blood Angels (16m,57s)
- Div 8 -47 (27 Commanders): Jason Kerschner, HF 110th C.C. 1. A.R. (6h,50m)
- Div 9 -33 (10 Commanders): David Dubkin (13h,18m)
- Div 10 -25 (18 Commanders): Arthur Shea, M&L The Emperor`s Own (1h,2m)
- Div 11 -17 (9 Commanders): Seven_of_9, Borg (13h,15m)
- Div 12 -10 (16 Commanders): SpeedBuggy, Pathetic Loser Clan (12h,21m)
Total Contestants: 283, Total Medals: 169 (of 180 possible)
This event seemed to be more what Commanders wanted. Compared to the Axe Attack we got an influx of 106 additional Commanders. The spread wasn't to bad either, except for on K9 and K11 there were enough Commanders to claim all the medals, and "only" 11 Bronzes went unclaimed and were sent for resmelting this time.
Another thing was how much, or should I say how little, fighting were actually done. Looking at the Golds, only two changed hands during the scramble, one of them so close it would have given the winner a "better lucky than good" medal in Meta. Five Golds were held for more than two hours, one of them for more than a day.
Speaking of Meta. I wonder if that was were almost everyone were during the scramble, the (successful) fighting on the mountaintops were in general far between as seen below.
Number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....1 of 4.........9 of 10
Div 2 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 3 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 4 ....4 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 5 ....2 of 4.........5 of 10
Div 6 ....4 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 7 ....0 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 8 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 9 ....4 of 4.........5 of 5
Div 10 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 11 ..4 of 4.........4 of 4
Div 12 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
There were 8 mountains where not a single successful attack was launched during the scramble, and not one top where not at least half the medals were held for the whole scramble. The fighting for Gold was pretty intense on Mount Olympus (K1), but the most volatile mountains this time were K5 and K7 where only 8 medals were held for the whole scramble on each.
We had an unaligned winner; David Dubkin claimed his 5th Gold total, on K9 this time. Clan leaders looking for reinforcements and strenghtening their fighting forces could do far worse than signing him up.
No single clan secured more than one Gold, and there were no repeat winners this time either.
Upcoming event: 35 Alive
Here we have a max tonnage event. Only Mechs of tonnage 35 and below will be allowed to fight. (You might have heavier Mechs in the formation if you desire, but they will exist as a hole in the formation only)
Recommended Mechs to use are:
- Novum
- Zadoc
- Commissar, Banshee, Trooper
- Keradon, Orcus, Holmes, iMech, Nerio
- any other Mech below 35 tons.
Equipment and weapons work as normal
Event ends February 3 between 2300 and 2330 New York Time.
(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)
