Highlighting the April 3333 Red Ant Blitz
Another contest was coming up. Not very surprisingly it was featuring the Red Ant. As that was the specialty all clans had to have in the upcoming war, most Commanders should have them prepared.
Mine were prepared, but in my mind, extremely inadequate. When you have gotten the Ants fully upgraded, the sole criteria that decides battles seem to be how many of them you can bring to the party.
Admittedly, weapons and equipment play a role as well, but unless you fumbled there, or don't have decent weapons at all, it normally comes to who have the most Mechs.
That is unless one side have improved the Mechs significantly more than the other. In that case the additional armor, and the additional weapons, will tend to tilt the balance. But generally toward the one who had the bigger formation in the first place.
I was facing bigger formations, and since the regular entrants had a licence a minimum 45 higher than mine, their Mechs had at least 20% more armor and 25% more weapons than mine.
I had joined up anyway, but was exceedingly busy in the camp. The few tries I made on the mountain were failures. I generally came up short somewhere in the third or fourth lines.
As the scramble started I was called back to the camp for some more firefighting, and when I returned it was over, and the winners were:
- Div 1 256+ (24 Commanders): Sal Vezzosi Jr, Warlock (1m,2s)
- Div 2 -255 (20 Commanders): Larry Vandervort, Northwind Dragons (3m,25s)
- Div 3 -188 (12 Commanders): Eric Bell, Omegas Legacy (2s)
- Div 4 -143 (23 Commanders): Richard Kangas, B.S.L.R. (4m,5s)
- Div 5 -118 (38 Commanders): Bob Goetz, Death`s Brethren (<1s)
- Div 6 -93 (32 Commanders): Joey Goldez, Black Star Bandits (3m,51s)
- Div 7 -76 (30 Commanders): Monte Wehr, Death`s Curse (<1s)
- Div 8 -55 (23 Commanders): Mortem Orbisque, Emerald Dragons (22s)
- Div 9 -41 (15 Commanders): Tanfoglio, JC`s Rowdy Bunch (1d,4h)
- Div 10 -30 (22 Commanders): Canis, ButthurtMonkeyHunters (1m,2s)
- Div 11 -21 (15 Commanders): BigJohnStewart, Punishers Guild (4m,53s)
- Div 12 -16 (34 Commanders): Scott Tenge, Punishers Guild (1m,26s)
4+3+7(1S)+1+0+0+0+1+6+4+4+4= One Silver and thirty-three Bronzes went to Commanders who had overweight formations
Total Contestants: 288, Total medals claimed: 177 (of 180 possible)
Compared to the recent Double Rainbow the number of Commanders who showed up for the Climb was reduced by nine. But the spread was more even this time and only 3 Bronzes (from K3) were sent for resmelting after the medal ceremony.
Fighting for the Golds were pretty hard on most mountains. Eleven Golds got new owners at least once during the scramble, three of them the last couple of seconds. The last Gold, on K9, was held for more than a day.
The fighting was pretty hard all over, although some mountains had harder fighting, and on the aforementioned K9 there was no single successful attacks.
For a fuller view, here is a list of the number of lesser medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....1 of 4.........2 of 10
Div 2 ....1 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 3 ....3 of 4.........7 of 7
Div 4 ....0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 5 ....0 of 4.........2 of 10
Div 6 ....1 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 7 ....1 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 8 ....1 of 4.........6 of 10
Div 9 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 10 ..0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 11 ..0 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 12 ..2 of 4.........8 of 10
On most of the mountains more than half the medals was in play, and the most active top this time was K5 where only two Bronzes were held for the whole scramble.
The only Clan to bring home multiple Gold this time was the Punishers Guild who took home top prizes on K11 and K 12. There were no unaligned winners and no repeat winners either.
Upcoming event: Fire and Ice
This is a weapon types event. You might bring whatever of the Mechs you have that can fit into the formation, (Caution is advised if you don't have the skill to operate them) in whatever numbers. But in this event Flamers and Icers are 80% more effective than normal. Adjusting the shields to take this into consideration is highly recommended.
Equipment and the other weapons work as normal.
Event ends March 16 between 2200 and 2230 New York Time
Any fresh winners can try to get in touch to tell their story, the first to grab hold of me before the report is finished might get a few Niodes for sharing their thoughts.
(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)
