"w/o upgrades ultras aree 4-ton sacks of shit"
-Bob_The_Newt
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| A Mechwarrior 3 BR . . . until I fix my modem I'll have to wait to post my SC br | | | Author: | | | IP: | webcacheXXXX | | Date: | 07/24/01 12:07 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |   |
Hey, what's up.
Well, here's a Mechwarrior br, the first one I've ever done. After reading some of Sling's old MW reports and a very gosu pic br by that guy whose name started with a K, I decided to buy the game. Unfortunately, my comp, with its 333 Mghtz and apalling RAM ( I gotta get that upgraded - gah ), wasn't up to the blazing, "better than a wombat" graphics of MW 4. So, comforting myself with the thought that MW 3 got exactly 0.1 points higher on the rating scale than MW 4 in pc.ign.com, I went out and grabbed a copy of number three.
Cool. I opened the pack, started playing, kept playing, continued playing, job hunted, broke some stuff at McDonald's, went to a few parties, made a roadsign for a girl I like, did some work, and, well, kept playing.
Oh, and I read quite a few big books, especially on politics, but since that'd make me look a little nerdy I didn't add it in the above paragraph. Yah, um, substitute the "little" with a "very."
So, you wanna just skip the rest of my planned borrrrrring intro and get right to the game? Alright. It's worth noting that this match took place about a month ago, in the brief spasm of time in which my modem worked, before breaking down. Bleh.
The Pregame That Never Was
I got on the internet, found a game, and joined. The map was Grasslands, a HUGE map ( and I mean BIG ) which has all kinds of cities and bridges and refineries and tunnels scattered about it. The main battles often take place by an old, battered up kind of fortress. Hills surround the place, especially to the east. Although the highland is larger and more extended to the west, it's also further away. Snipers can snipe quite well from both hills, but then the Fortress offers pretty good protection too.
I SO wish I had a pic of the map here. MW 3 doesn't let you tke screens for some reason, which is pretty infuriating. For some reason the screen capture feature got deleted at the last minute - it says so in a little footnote in the readme file. Grrr - the only flaw in a near perfect game. So, well, we'll take it step by step. This battle would stretch across half the map . . . hang in there.
There were two teams - we'll call them Team Wombat and Team Lemur. I was a Wombat - or Wombateer, I guess. The Lemurs were a pack of experienced vets, and we were a bunch of relative newcomers, with only one vet among us. Each team had four Lancers ( pilots ), and we immediately set to work customizing.
I immediately chose the Cauldron-Born, a Heavy mech of about 65 tons with a mean look and a serious additude. This is everything I like in a mech - good speed, tough armour, and a great weapons capacity. I customized with 3 ER PPCs ( a lightning-like beam device that can shoot from 920 m and does tremendous damage - my favourite weapon due to its speed and lack of ammunition ) and an LRM 20 ( Big, long range missiles capable of inflicting extreme pain at any distance. I'm talking like some kind of motorcycle enthusiast, but, hey, get used to it. )
I changed the chassis to endo steel, ( takes up more space for your weapons but reduces the tonnage - my weapons didn't take up too much space, but weighed alot, so it was a logical move ) and moved the PPCs to one group, the missiles to the other. I also included an AMS ( anti-missile machine gun ), which I've come to view as being very handy. Loading on two jump jets, I was good to go.
My team mates - Dan_60, Maulernum and the wisened, grizzled old war vet known only as . . . FEARTHEFLEA ( cough ) chose an interesting array of vehicles. Dan went with an Avatar - a good, solid heavy mech of 70 tons. Maulernum went with a 60-ton Vulture - the coolest looking mech from the front, and the worst from the back ( they never show the back in cutscenes though ). I expected a long-range sniper - that's its primary configuration. Flea loaded himself with a SuperNova - the third biggest mech in the game, and one of my favourites. Generally, don't mess around with a Nova. It doesn't hurt that this 90-ton behemoth looks totally gosuly either.
We launched.
Smile! After that, this report can only get better
Our greenish, camoflauged 'mechs gathered around the back edge of the Western cliff, just out of sight from our enemies, who had dropped down near that fortress. Beneath the clear blue, lightly clouded sky we quickly settled on a plan. We needed snipers and runners. Anyone who had a good snipe 'Mech could jump jet up to higher ground, and cover the runners. Flea barely made it up ( 90 ton mechs are a pain to fly ), but nobody else followed him. Though my mech was a good sniper ( good at everything, really ) I prefer the adreneline of the charge to picking off my foes at maximum range. A couple seconds later, Flea was in range. We turned about with an arduos creak - then ran like the wombats we were.
My mech leapt into action with a heart-thumping roar as I pounded from the safety of the cliff. The Lemurs had taken a defensive approach - we'd have to flush em out. The first shot from the enemy told me this was not going to be easy. The characteristic sizzle of a guass cannon swiped just by my left, and I maneouvered heavily to avoid a second blast - losing the momentum of my charge. Mauler charged past me in his Avatar - only to be hit square in the chest with an autocannon round. I zoomed in with my handy reticle - only to see an Annihilator ( a 100 ton Assault mech - second most powerful mech in the game, and tied for heaviest, but with serious heat problems ) and a Sunder ( 90-ton Assault Mech - almost as powerful as a supernova, nasty looking thing ) ducking behind the fort's leading wall. Their legs were hidden, and they'd crouch everytime we'd fire missiles.
No way we could storm this. And who knew what else he had in there.
Flea was taking pot shots, but return fire from a MadCat ( really gosu, 75 ton Mech - big weapons capacity, good speed and nice armour ) and a Champion ( a speedy mech with good firepower but lousy armour - at 60 tons, almost a medium Mech ) forced him to back off. With a scream I ordered a full retreat - we veered away, heavily maneouvering, and managed to evade the Gauss rifles, and most of the autocannons - but not the missiles, of course. LRM 15s hurt, and I got nailed in the back by my share of them. Thank goodness for AMS though!
Dude, where's my arm?
We reached the safety of the back end of the cliff, more or less intact. Dan's Vulture was missing an arm ( hence the title of this section ), but that was okay since most of his weapons were mounted in his chest anyway. His layout surprised me - heavy ERs mixed with Pulse Lasers. A good inventory, but I prefer my PPCs =). We couldn't stay there for long - Flea reported the enemy was already moving out from the Fortress. It was only a matter of time before they ferreted us out from our hiding spot. With a serious disadvantage in firepower, we'd have to be fast and innovative to survive this one.
The cliff. How many of us had jump jets? Besides myself and Flea, Dan was the only one who'd thought about it. Tough break for Mauler in his trusty old Avatar - he'd be lucky to survive. Dan and I jumped up - I barely made it with my double jets, 65 tons is quite a load. Mauler streaked off along the cliff's edge, and just made it out of view as the big bad enemy lance thundered into battle - only to find just another patch of empty space. We shut down our 'Mechs, so as to escape radar detection. The Avatar, only a few hundred meters away, was in greatest danger. The Lemurs searched about, firing now and then with reckless abandon. Where could we be?
Flea realized we couldn't stay safe for long. There was no way they didn't have jump jets - on a hilly map like this, those were even more important than usual. They'd figure it out soon enough.
But not yet. I heard the enemy stomp off for a brief check of another curve in the hill. Without a word, I powered up my mech, whirred about, and dashed for a pool of water near the westernmost cliff of the higher ground. The water drained into a waterfall, which tumbled down beside a small village. This would be a good place to meet our Avatar later on.
My Lancemates got the message and ran behind me. Soon, all three of us were in the water. The enemy Mechs knew where we were now - they could see us in their radar. As the prepared to jump atop the highground I wondered if we should stay in the water and shoot it out, or submerge ourselves completely in the deeper parts and shut down, hiding from detection once again.
What's the advantage of being in water? Well, water cools you down much faster, and the edge of a pool, lake or river often makes it difficult for the enemy to score a good shot on you. We chose the first alternative.
The first Mech up was the Sunder, and it landed guns blazing, already making its run, while looking for cover. No newb could do that. Then came Madcat, equally vicious, blasting us down into the water. I hit back hard, pounding the Sunder with devastating voleys of PPC ownage. Flea's Nova lit up the plateau, and he nearly blew away the Sunder's leg before it could find relative cover. Then came the Annihilator. We were now officially outgunnned ( do we get a prize? ) yet our superior position allowed us to send our enemies scattering in a hail of blistering firepower.
It had to end sometime. When the champion landed, we were toast. Flea whirred about and took off for the waterfall, Dan's Vult followed, and I took up the rearguard, moving backward, firing all the way till I tipped down the rolling gush of water and landed in the lower pool. I had taken some serious damage to my torso, and Nova was in pretty bad shape. All in all, though, we'd done pretty well.
Mauler came striding over the horizon. Once again, we needed to be fast - or as fast as we could be in four heavy Mechs.
Now - let's see if I can describe this - there's this bridge, a long, winding, stoney bridge, which overhangs the dry lakebed the waterfall flows into. The bridge stops at a small city towering above the landscape - almost a fort, really - and continues to two towns, finally cutting into a blocked tunnel about 1.5 km Northwest from where we stood. The bridge also starts in a tunnel to the Southeast, a tunnel which cuts into upperground and curves away from our start location.
Got that? Hang in there. At the sides of the bridge there are mines, seemingly tossed about for good measure. Blow up a mine, you take down a part of the bridge. You can also just knock off a foundation segment, but that takes more time. We ran for the bridge at top speed. In hindsight, I'm not sure how good that decision was. It would get, um, pretty ugly.
I haven't puked in 13 years.
A full lance of gargauntuan heavy mechs thundered slowly to the cliff horizon overlooking the dry lakebed. We weren't very well camaflauged against the dark brown terrain, and our speed wasn't exactly phenomenal ( thank Flea for choosing an assault Mech ).
As I was running, I noticed the little beeper signifying a missile launch go off and chime wildly. A calm voice reported "missile launch detected." I had expected this. Let's see if we could make it to the "city" before being torn up in a hail of missiles, projectiles and the green beam stuff that comes out of Gauss Rifles.
The first few missiles slammed me hard in the back. Then all hell broke loose. Blazing green bolts blasted all about me as I maneouvered hard to avoid them. I thought I was taking it hard, and then I nudged my torso to the side to look at the Avatar.
Mauler's big Mech was taking an catastrophic beating, of the likes I've rarely before seen. He must've added some serious armour to his Mech - it should've been dead by now. Both its arms had been blown to oblivion, as it frantically attempted to maneouver out of the storm. Desperately swerving from side to side, the Avatar hurtled straight into a crippling blast of quadruple Gauss fire, and it was with a deafening roar, and that all too familiar cankerous creak, that the once noble form of the Avatar was ground down to a twisted mass of ripped metal smouldering on the cracked ground.
There were no respawns. Mauler was gone for good.
We made it to the bridge. Somehow there were no mines, but, with the Avatar gone, that didn't matter now anyway. We revved up our jet packs and flew up onto the bridge, then hurtled at maximum speed down its far too narrow causeway ( this was pretty risky - it's tough enough to maneouver at half throttle, and falling off the bridge could be catastrophic ).
The Lemurs were pros though - and they knew just where to hit us now. One by one, the foundation collapsed beneath us. We fell into the abyss once, but our jump jets saved the day once again, and we made it to the temporary safety of the city.
Flea made us back up. Targeting the twin towers of this place, he knocked them both down with an ear-splitting roar and a good dose of laggg. Now we'd be safe for a while. If we'd stayed beneath the towers, the enemy could have made them collapse down on top of us. We took some good defensive positions, crouched down - and waited.
I smiled. Now it was the enemy's turn to cross the dry lakebed from a position of weakness.
I continued to wait. Nothing happened - except for an odd little thing on my radar screen. The Lemurs weren't coming any closer - instead they were curving around to the South . . . as if walking on highground or something . . . um, wait a minute . . . didn't the bridge start with a tunnel to the South?!
As I said, they were vets.
Flea noticed it the same time I did. Being the tallest mech, he got up - and realized they were already at the tunnel. We swerved about, readied our guns ( I usually have mine on joint fire mode ), and still couldn't see anything, except the little red triangles of our respective targets moving closer. They were under the bridge!! There was no way we could collapse the bridge on top of them from above ( you can only do that by hitting the foundations or mines below the actual bridge ), so they moved in complete and total safety.
They inched closer, continuing their methodical advance . . . until they reached the blown out section a few hundred meters from our position. My smile was more lasting this time. They paused, moved out, and we ripped into em with an awesome barrage of high-powered weapons and devastating missiles.
I tore off the Sunder's arm, and blasted the deadly Madcat. Lance Lemur made the charge, jumping high up into the sky and crashing down upon the pavement beside us with a resounding smash. Close quarters fighting in a little raised island of ruined buildings is . . . an experience. Unable to execute a full torso twist with my cauldron-born I was at a serious disadvantage.
Although the Nova and Vulture were still covered by the fallen rubble, I'd been ferreted out by the madcat like a cornered and seemingly helpless mouse. Yet through the streaking missiles, pummeling autocannon shells and defeaning lasers I leapt up with my own jumpjets, landing right beside the bigger mech and blasting him in the leg with a full volley of PPCs. With an earsplitting explosion the appendage splintered from the Mech, which crumpled defeated down into the ground in a fizzling ball of fire.
I was sure to get away from the blast, and with my arm in the red I desperately tried to find a new hiding place. No use. Resigned, I turned about - only to see the lemurs were so concentrated on killing my lancemates - especially the big Nova - that they had their backs turned towards me. Big, big mistake. Rear armour is far weaker than frontal armour, even for hundred ton Annihilators.
Again I aimed for the legs, again I launched the same deadly salvo. My mech decided it'd had enough and shutdown from an overdose of heat, leaving me with a gauling moment of vulnerability. Luckily our lance leader Flea got the message and, getting up, blew the slowly turning Annihilator's leg some 70 metres away. The enormous Mech erupted in a titanic explosion, which, combined with a last volley from its missile racks, blasted Flea's own Nova in the already massivly damaged Central torso. As what left of the enormous Annihilator tumbled slowly to the ground our Nova blew itself to complete oblivion, with Dan's vulture rocketing up and away from the explosion with milliseconds to spare.
There was a brief pause. We were all pretty shell-shocked ( and lag-shocked ) by the carnage for a couple seconds. Then I ran, at full throttle, with the vulture just behind me. We had both been knocked from the city, and thundered at top speed towards the blocked tunnel opening. Our battered foes, still outgunning us, shot at our backs with a blistering array of gauss and missile fire. Suddenly, with a shriek, mt right arm tore away from my side, leaving behind only a tangled mass of wires. Gulping, I forced my way on, the bridge virtually exploding all around us, until we reached the tunnel.
I guess Lemurs are stronger than Wombats . . . but remember, only wombats know how to gnaw . . . .
When we got to the tunnel, I briefly considered blowing through the obstructing rubble, then jetting up onto the high ground above and seizing a much better tactical position. But then, such plans are usually only enacted in the mind and thourhg the words of random newbs. In a real battle situation, oftentimes there's just no time for such things, and you gotta settle for second best.
This was one of those times. The Sunder and the Champion were racing towards our position, only a few hundred meters away. We were still taking it hard, even as we crouched and turned about, yet most of the shots missed. We stayed to the sides of the tunnel, and Dan faced me, rotating his torso towards the enemy to make his Mech harder to hit.
There they came.
I opened fire with a roar, although with one less PPC, pummeling the Sunder hard in the arm ( I didn't bother to hit his legs - I couldn't afford to miss a shot ). For some reason, Dan concentrated on the champion - while the Sunder focused on him. The outcome with inevitable. I blew off the Sunder's last arm with a brilliant explosion, yet it still retained two gauss cannons in its battered torso. One more shot, and my lancemate was blown to complete oblivion. The Champion had turned and was heading for the upper ground above the tunnel with the Sunder - apparently trying to gain the maximum advantage over me. Not so fast.
Just before the Sunder left the tunnel I locked onto him with my LRM 20s and launched a devastating salvo at his rear. The missiles hurtled through the tunnel and smashed into the doomed mech, blasting through its armour and knocking him down to the ground with a resounding crash.
There was silence. All was still now. Apparently the last remaining lemur - the champion - was waiting up atop the cliff for me to come out through the South entrance and expose myself. I smiled slightly as I turned my badly hurt Mech to the side, and blew away the rubble blocking the tunnel with a single blast of my ER PPCs. Slowly I stomped out the north, supposed obstructed entrance. I looked up, and, with a sigh, activated my jump jets.
The lemur must have jumped out of his seat in shock as he heard the tell-tale crash of a Mech landing behind him. I locked my missiles, launched a salvo, and, with a final, gritty "die mofo," blasted his turno torso to a million bits and pieces with my bolts of lightning blue.
Game Over.
Hope you liked it. That's $10 reading fee.
I was thinking of having a lessons learned here. Then I thought, nah, you find your own lessons =). Sorry about the lack of screenshots, but you can blame microprose and my comp ( for not being good enough for MW 4 ) for that.
Remind me to up my RAM sometime - the lag, even in MW3, gets, well, quite laggy sometimes.
Cheers,
-|]agomar
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