Highlighting the July 3333 iMountain
After a fairly long and checkered career, I have had a fair share of pilots and others under my command. Many are still on active duty, but quite a few have perished. Then there are all those who have retired, either after long service, or due to wounds and weariness.
Some of these personnel seem to be under the impression that I actually know what I am supposed to do when it comes to commanding my forces, and have faith in my ability to do well. I try not to disappoint them, and by leaning heavily on subordinates who actually know what they are doing, I have over the years managed some modest successes.
Which brings me to the current event.
When the iMech event were announced, a great many of the personnel started placing bets on me as one of the Gold winners. They reasoned that if I had won the three preceding iMech events (on K3 in Nov `32, on K2 in Jun `29 and the Chrono on K4 in Jan `28) The odds were I would win this one as well.
This belief and trust in me were touching, but the amounts they had riding on me were frightening. If I failed, it would reduce many to paupers. I tried to talk them out of it, just take the 10% loss of cancelling the bets, but they were just cheering and smiling.
Facing such belief, I simply had to do my best.
After signing up on K3 it was time to get back to the raid. Scipio's forces were still at large. most of the alotted time was up, and less than a third of them had been destroyed. In a perfect world (for us) we would have swept in, crushed them and taken plenty of loot. Unfortunately, they had another agenda, and we were struggling hard to contain them, let alone finish them.
After one of my usual brainstorms, the result was a multi pronged, multi layered assault from six axis. This pulled the Scipio's to the front lines to practice target shooting on our columns. As more and more of our Mechs fell and the lesser Machines were brought up to replace them, the firing from Scipio's henchmen rose to a crescendo.
This covered the fact that the seventh column had used the tunnels to sneak in, and now it burst out in their middle.
Massive salvos from carefully selected weapons hammered into the backsides of the Mechs lining up to blow Star Leagues Machines to pieces. The combination of the Wide Forks, Splashes and Tramples into unprotected Machines were awe-inspiring, and they generally fell apart without any other noticing in time to do anything about it. When they finally woke up to the fact of us being in their midst and turned to crush us, the missile salvos from the partially repaired Mechs ringing them took a fearful toll.The surrounded Mechs now dove back into the tunnels, and those of the opponents who followed us were led like lambs to the slaughter.
At this point the opponents forces were reduced to a few hundred Machines, and we pulled back to let them contemplate the demand for surrender.
I returned to the Mountain where my forces had been pushed to the slopes. A couple attacks later I was on the top again. The only three opponents who had legal Mechs seemed to be Leeboy Wegenast of Black Star Lycan Rangers, Leopold Hackenbush of Death`s Collectors and Mark Cassese of HF: Highlanders. Others might get into formation later as well, but as I had serious tonnage on the three who were in formation, (about 1/6 more) I was not chewing nails yet.
There was some maneuvering on the mountain after that, but none managed to dethrone me. I spent much of the time looking at the other tops, and it seemed most of them were pretty static as well. When the light flashed those who held the tops were:
- Div 1 251+ (23 Commanders): Shawn Wretham, Warlock (41s)
- Div 2 -250 (7 Commanders): Bob Schlomer, Spirit of Bunny (23m,51s)
- Div 3 -185 (13 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star league (46m,20s)
- Div 4 -136 (18 Commanders): Richard Kangas, B.S.L.R. (31m,30s)
- Div 5 -110 (20 Commanders): Brian Vaughan, Steampunk Dragons (2h,57m)
- Div 6 -90 (16 Commanders): Sebastien Roussel-Konan, S. Dragons (10h,47m)
- Div 7 -75 (16 Commanders): Patrick T Kennon, M&L Rogue Angels (8h,8m)
- Div 8 -55 (14 Commanders): Cora Soco Hiller, today and tomorrow (1m,10s)
- Div 9 -43 (11 Commanders): Stug Hill, Behemoth (10h,10m)
- Div 10 -29 (8 Commanders): Canis, ButthurtMonkeyHunters (7h,18m)
- Div 11 -26 (19 Commanders): saskpendragon, ButthurtMonkeyHunters (7h,5m)
- Div 12 -19 (12 Commanders): Van Rudolph, ButthurtMonkeyHunters (2h,11m)
Total Contestants: 177, Total medals claimed: 155 (of 180 possible)
2+2(1S)+9(3S)+7+10(1S)+12(2S)+10(1S)+7+7(1S)+6(3S)+4+1= 12 of 48 Silvers (25%) and 65 of 95 Bronzes (68%) went to Commanders who had overweight formations.
Compared to the previous (Daemon Deadline Chrono) event, participation continued to plumett. 55 fewer Commanders could clear their calendars to join up and hammer each other.
Whether it was the Mechs, the end time or the raid on Scipio`s forces that contributed most to this decision is unclear, but all reasons were probably weighing in.
It might be that most of the winners had superior formations compared to the rest of the crowd on the mountains. Only three Golds changed hands during the last 30 minutes, one in the last minute. Seven Golds were held for more than two hours. Further down on the mountains the number of lesser medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event was:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....3 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 2 ....1 of 4.........0 of 2
Div 3 ....4 of 4.........8 of 8
Div 4 ....2 of 4.........3 of 10
Div 5 ....1 of 4.........4 of 10
Div 6 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 7 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 8 ....1 of 4.........6 of 9
Div 9 ....4 of 4.........6 of 6
Div 10 ..4 of 4.........3 of 3
Div 11 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 12 ..4 of 4.........7 of 7
The most fluid situation was on K2, where only one (of 7) medals had the same holder the whole scramble. K4 and K5 also had more than half the medals change hands, while seven tops (K3, K6, K7, K9, K10, K11 and K12) had no successful attacks launched.
Steampunk Dragons did a splendid job and captured the Gold on both K5 and K6. Normally this would have given them the honor of being best clan, but ButthurtMonkeyHunters managed to secure THREE Golds (on K10, K11 and K12) and get the honors this time. There were no unaligned winners, but Shawn Wretham repeated his Gold performance from the Daemon event.
Upcoming event: King of the Mountain (unlimited)
Here we are back to the classic "bring what you have, sudden death" format.
The only limits to what can be brought to the mountains are what Mechs you have and how many of them you can fit into the formation.
Still, having the skill to control the Mechs and having upgraded them fully is highly recommended.
The medals are decided by the placement when the light flashes at the end of the scramble.
Equipment and weapons work as normal.
Event ends March 26 between 1500 and 1530 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)
