Classic Battletech Alt Format Ideas...

I've been toying around with various formats to add a bit of variety to my Classic Battletech games.  We've all got our favorite mechs, our favorite formations, and things could get a little stale if we're constantly doing the same 4 vs 4.  Below are what I've come up with to force a bit of variety.  We have really only been playing mech vs mechs, so these formats will take that into account...

This Geek's Week...

This guy LOVES his cannon!

- Had my 1,000th game in MWO (since open beta started keeping stats) over the weekend.  My KDR at that time was 2.25, not too bad considering I think of myself as an average player at best.  Also bear in mind, that there are only 8 people per team, and no respawns.  So, I'm getting an average of over 2 kills per game.  Also, up until about 2 months ago, I piloted a Commando 2-D exclusively until I started doing 8-mans.  The Commando is the weakest of the mechs imo, so my KDR  was in terrible shape at the time, but I was still helping my team through scouting, calling targets, and capping/defending bases.

- Picked up A Game of Thrones Season 2, so the Wife and I have been re-watching Season 1 before we move on to the next season.

- I've got 30 pages left in my BT novel, "Falcon Guard".  I've picked up my next BT novel, "Wolf Pack", a Wolf's Dragoons novel in honor the unit I'm in in MWO, The Devil Dogs.

- My Battletech bases and Raven 3-L arrived for my tabletop Devil Dogs army.  I started painting them up, and made a bit of progress on them.

Favorite Inner Sphere Mechs...

I'm listing out my top Inner Sphere mechs by weight class.  This is for the Classic Battletech Tabletop game, although I have not used all of these mechs within the game, they are still my favorites for various reason that I'll get into in this post.  I'll start with the lights, and work my way up to the assault class.  Anyway, on with the show!

This Geek's Week...

I've been a bit "under the weather" this week...

- Had some great runs in this week's "Run Hot or Die" MWO league, going 3-0 vs the 10th Solaris Rangers.  In one game I ran a Centurion 9-AL, and in the rest I ran in my Raven 3-L.  I managed to get top score on my Centurion match, and managed at least 1 kill in my other games.  I also built an SRM cat, which I mainly use in PUGS as it is just disgusting what it can do.  Top score in almost every match, damage around 1,000, and with multiple kills in almost every match.  It usually makes up for the extremely poor performance from other puggers.

**Note: I'm not saying I'm awesome or anything, in fact I'm probably average at best.  Merely stating that the general pugger/pug group is really just THAT BAD.  If it weren't for my "SplatCat" (and my Cataphract 1-X to an extent) I would absolutely HATE playing MWO solo and probably not play at all without at least a 4 man group on Comms.  (yes, it's that bad!)

- Played a bit of Elder Scrolls.

- Picked up a Zeus mech for a new Wolf's Dragoons force for Battletech, inspired by  the unit I'm in in MWO, the Devil Dogs.  (A Galaxy of the Wolf's Dragoons)  As the force will be MWO inspired, I plan to paint them up in a Devil Dogs paint scheme, and with a few exceptions for my favorite mechs (i.e. Zeus, Axemen, ect) I plan to only use mechs that I pilot in MWO, with MWO specific configurations. 

- Also ordered some bases for Battletech and a Raven 3-L to match the one I pilot in MWO.

L5R Decklist: Law of Darkness Dojo - My WIP Version

This is my Scorpion Dishonor deck that I've been constantly tweaking and reworking.  I keep referring to it as my "Magistrates" deck, but after typing it all out, I realize there are very few Magistrates in it, and in fact, I rely more on my Courtiers than anything!  Guess I should come up with a new name for it...  Just like before, when it was primarily a Magistrate deck, the goal is to cause as much honor loss in battle as possible.  Throughout the deck's progress, I've started to add more and more "honor loss timers" to the deck in order to force wary opponents into attacking in order to "seal the deal" and get them to -20 honor.  The deck is not perfect, and is still WIP, but it seems to perform pretty well in my local meta.

L5R Deck: Scorpion Paragons - My WIP Version.

I will preface this by saying this is by no means a PERFECTED deck of any sorts, merely it is the WIP deck I've been playing lately.  I'm sure there are better card choices out there,  and I do plan to continue to tweak this along the way as I get ahold of new cards.  That said, so far it seems to be working pretty well thus far in my local meta.  One of the things that I like best about this deck is that it is not an "auto win" deck, which creates more of a dynamic, and fun game for both players.

This Geek's Week...

- Been playing a ton of MWO again this week.  Both 8-man and 4-man groups.  In the 8-man groups I played in my Raven 3-L exclusively.  I think I may be the Devil Dog's dedicated light pilot.  In the 4-mans, I played my Cataphract, and I think my Cataphract 1-X with 5 Large Lasers is my favorite of the Cataphracts.  I think I may build an SRM or AC20 Catapult next.

- Got to play 3 games of L5R. 2 using my Scorpion Paragons, and 1 using my Magistrates.  1st up was Spider military.  I got things rolling pretty early on, got him down to 2 provences pretty quickly.  He attacks, swinging for 2 provences that i let go so I can play the perfect moment to snag 1 provence.  Next turn, I swing in masse for his final provence.  Next I played him with my Magistrates deck.  In that game he Attacks turn 2 or turn 3, I manage to get him down to -16 honor after just that battle, and due to Shibata's +1 provence strength for having a dishonored peep, he bounces from the provence.  I had a couple of "honorloss timers" in play, so there wasn't much he could do to keep from hitting -20 in the next turn.  He attacks and gets 2 provences as a "parting gift" before losing via dishonor.  My final game was my Paragons vs Crane.  He got up to 20 honor pretty quickly, but it all went downhill as I melee attacked some of his peeps early on, and he started to losing provences too quickly.  He lost his final provence just after hitting 30 honor.

This Geek's Week...

- Played some Skyrim.  I'm really liking my Wood Elf, and am debating playing Aldmeri in ESO when it comes out!

- Played a bunch of MWO.  Got my Cataphracts to master level.  Built a Cicada 3-M, hated it, so swapped it out for a Raven 3-L which is much better.  I also dropped in an 8-man for the 1st time since the patch that introduced ECM and the 8-man changes.  We rocked several teams, including the "GOON squad" and another team that the group I dropped with hadn't managed to beat before.  Joined up as a "Bondsmen" (trial/trainee) with the "Devil Dogs", a Wolf's Dragoons unit in MWO.

- Finished painting my Hellbringer mech for Battletech.  I'm happy with the scheme, so I think I'll push forward with it in the future.  Also finished up painting my Eldar Support Weapon.