Highlighting the November 3332 iMountain
Another event were coming up. This one seemed to be one where I had a decent chance for a medal.
I was back on K3, and the brackets had changed so I was in the upper third when it came to licences. My formation was still smaller than the top guns, but it was an iMech event, and my 30 tonners who mostly consist of iMechs haven't done to badly lately.
So I joined up, and then was recalled to the camp for various duties.
I managed to return to the mountain from time to time, and since most of the opponents were active in the raid I managed to stay among the top five.
My confidence grew, but at t-4 hours my friends wanted out, and I had to hustle to get a new set of guard drones.
I managed to get up to about 50% of full set before the scramble started. Some friends were kind enough to send me supers, so I had the capacity for a prolonged fight.
At t-12 minutes I was ready, and went over to have a look at the opposition. The majority was still in their main formations. A couple others were slightly overweight, the Zadocs they had on point were five tons over allowed maximum tonnage, but a double handful was in what seemed strong, legal formations.
From the Bunnies (Avengers and Defenders) were Christian Newburn and Mick Coxon. The Death`s Collectors had a strong team consisting of Roman Himmelhan and Robert Goetz Sr, The heroes were represented by Chong Chin and Colin Toenjes. Omegas Legacy was represented by Stroker Spot and Black Star Lycan Rangers had sent Richard Kangas and Donald Anthony Alligood.
All of them strong contenders, and most of them had 60 to 300 tons on me.
As the scramble neared I probed the top, currently held by Christian Newburn.
Like me he had brought a couple Novum scouts along, and it took three hard fought tries before I could claim the top.
There are at least two schools of thoughts on how to win a climb. One is more fame intensive and consists of hammering your way to the top, and reclaim it immediately if lost. Fueled by a full complement of supers and other hatorades, a Commander should be able to launch in excess of 70 attacks during the scramble. Provided the formation is competitive, this can secure a win unless there are to many competitors and you run dry.
Another is to sit back and wait for the others to exhaust themselves, and then swoop in during the last 5-10 minutes of the scramble. The flip side is that the event might well end before you make the move.
I decided to, at least initially, follow the first strategy. If I started getting too low on hatorades I would have to consider whether I should switch strategy.
The opposition was active, and I was dethroned numerous times. Each time I gathered my troops around me, more and more battered after each defeat. Then it was desperate derring-do and counterattacks.
I did by no means win all of those, sometimes it took 3-6 tries before a particularly strong opponent could be driven off. Then I sat on the top for a short time before I was dethroned again.
I lost track of who I fought. I am pretty sure Alligood, Newburn, Chin and Toenjes held the top for various lenghts of time, but others could have been there and been displaced in the time it took me to find and drink some hatorades.
As the timer passed the (theoretical) halfway mark, Himmelhan started rising. He was the one of the heaviest formation, and I cringed when I thought of what all that additional tonnage meant for staying power.
But there were more immediate concerns. Alligood had less than 2/3 of my tonnage, but he displaced me again, and it took me five tries to get back to the top this time. Then Newburn started swapping places with me, and the hatorade situation was getting serious.
Himmelhan had however stopped, so I blasted at full power. If I ran dry I ran dry, but until then I would stay on the top as much as I could.
After I yet again had replaced Newburn on the top and dived into the hatorade compartment for another super, I sensed the flash. It was finally over, and my formation hadn't been blown off the last seconds.
Those who were unbeatable, or just grabbed the tops last this time were:
- Div 1 217+ (24 Commanders): Shawn Wretham, Warlock (53s)
- Div 2 -216 (9 Commanders): Bob Schlomer, Mecha Pirates (3h,31m)
- Div 3 -157 (27 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star League (9s)
- Div 4 -118 (23 Commanders): Brian Vaughan, S. Dragons (5m,39s)
- Div 5 -95 (18 Commanders): Sebastien Roussel-Konan, S. Dragons(32m,26s)
- Div 6 -78 (19 Commanders): Ironhawk79, Knights of Chaos (9h,34m)
- Div 7 -60 (21 Commanders): Cora Soco Hiller, today and tomorrow (4h,12m)
- Div 8 -43 (10 Commanders): Jesse Launda, M.P.A. "Elite" (16h,50m)
- Div 9 -33 (12 Commanders): Arikel, JC`s Rowdy Bunch (11h,2m)
- Div 10 -22 (15 Commanders): Curt Bukey, ButthurtMonkeyHunters (14h,36m)
- Div 11 -18 (10 Commanders): BatManBW, Punishers Guild (8h,24m)
- Div 12 -13 (12 Commanders): Scoobie_Doo, Zato`s Shaolin Scouts (23h,12m)
Total Contestants: 200, Total medals claimed: 158 (of 180 possible)
4+6(2S)+5+3+6+4+7(1S)+7(3S)+7(1S)+5+3(1S)+1= Eight Silvers and fifty Bronzes went to Commanders who had one or more overweight Mechs
Compared to the previous (Point Mech) contest we lost more than a third of the contestants. Whether that was due to the format, or the raid being underway is hard to say, but 106 fewer showed up. This caused a serious lack of contestants on some mountains, and a total of 22 Bronzes from five different tops were sent for resmelting.
My timepiece had the end in the 23rd minute, so it wasn't the shortest climb lately. There was quite a struggle for at least some of the Gold Medals, and during the last half-hour three of them changed hands at least once, two of them the last minute. The other Golds were held longer, seven of them for more than two hours. Otherwise, the number of lesser medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event was:
.............Silvers......Bronzes
Div 1 ....0 of 4.........3 of 10
Div 2 ....1 of 4.........3 of 4
Div 3 ....0 of 4.........3 of 10
Div 4 ....1 of 4.........7 of 10
Div 5 ....2 of 4.........7 of 10
Div 6 ....4 of 4.........8 of 10
Div 7 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 8 ....4 of 4.........5 of 5
Div 9 ....2 of 4.........5 of 7
Div 10 ..4 of 4.......10 of 10
Div 11 ..1 of 4.........3 of 5
Div 12 ..4 of 4.........7 of 7
The two most active mountains, and the only ones where all but three of the medals changed holders, was Mount Olympus (K1) and K3.
On the other end of the scale was K7, K8, K10 and K12 where no successful attacks was launched.
The last six mountains had varying degrees of action. A total of 13 of the 24 Silvers and 13 of the 46 Bronzes got new holders the last half-hour.
The only clan to grab multiple Golds in this climb was the Steampunk Dragons. Their efforts netted them the top prizes on both K4 and K5. There were no unaligned winners this time, but we had THREE repeat winners: BatManBW of Punishers Guild, Arikel from JC`s Rowdy Bunch and Brian Vaughan from Steampunk Dragons all managed to defend their Point Mech Golds.
Upcoming event: Axe Attack Chrono
This is again a split event. It is a max tonnage, 20ton, so all Mechs of 25 ton or heavier will be disregarded when it comes to fighting (no Novums allowed)
For those who fight on other mountains than K12, there is an additional restriction. No more than two non-Axe Bot Mechs are allowed. My personal recommendation is to use Commissars if you have them, otherwise Shocklites is a decent choice.
In addition it is a Chrono, so joining early to get points is highly recommended. Remember; in a chrono it is not where you are at the end time that decides the Medals, but the scores you have gotten during the whole climb.
Event ends March 4 between 2200 and 2230 New York Time.
(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)
