5 on 4...

 o/

Not so awesome of a view....

I got together with Nick & Sven for a 3-player scrum this past Wednesday. Anthony stopped by the FLGS just to see who was out & about (he lives 2 minutes away) and we tried to dragoon him into playing but he declined the invitation. This time. He wanted forewarning of our next game in which he will likely join. 

6K BV, Lostech era, no scenario beyond a simple free-for-all. Here is how it went down:

The battlefield, everything at ground level was considered pavement, granting the +1 movement and we ignored skidding entirely. All combat vehicles and the Enforcer snuggled up to the Savior repair vehicle are all just terrain. 

Sven's new use for the DFA templates, showing mechs in forested hexes. 

All smiles, unlike the tournament in my prior post. 

Turn two and luckily, the range was distant enough that no mechs were harmed, yet...

One turn later and everything got up close & personal between The Buffet Assault Group & Sven's lance. I honestly forget if it was the Phoenix Hawk or Javelin which rolled a snake eyes for location followed by box cars which ended in 3 engine crits that dropped my Awesome in one volley. My Awesome and Hunchback took apart the Javelin in return, and in its battlefield debut, my Blazing Inferno Commando unloaded into the back of Sven's Wolverine, collectively amassing 3 engine hits and taking it down as well. 

So yes, that escalated quickly. Down 3 mechs between us, I suggested to Sven '5 on 4' (vs. Nick). Nick was not having it at all. This mantra would be repeated every round following and while some pot shots were exchanged between Sven and I, the lion's share of our fire were indeed aimed at Nick's lance. 

At this point, the trees on the DFA templates were renamed the 'hanging gardens', lol.

After bleeding some heat, my Commando tried the same trick on Nick's Stalker. It made a good showing but got the worst of this exchange as would expected. Somewhere in the background my Hunchback took an engine & gyro hit and hit the ground. After flailing a bit, it chose to shoot while prone for a for a few turns. Meanwhile Sven and Nick had a pretty good brawl going on in the hills. 

After beating the hell out of one another, my Stalker and Nick's Challenger take a turn to bleed heat on opposite sides of a building.

Almost a literal blazing inferno at this point, my Commando was sans left arm and torso, and at +stupid heat! Avoiding a shutdown, it chose to not shoot. Surprisingly, it took no damage this turn being either ignored, or else the shimmering heat haze being sufficient to deflect any incoming fire. 

In our last turn, the Commando tried a suicidal charging attack on the back of the Stalker. The Commando was not hit on the way in, but failed to connect with its 85-ton target and disintegrated as it hit the ground (much as it would have had it connected with the Stalker). 

Coming at the mostly weaponless side, my hunchback took a potshot at the challenger which went for my Stalker instead. The Stalker, fell, I failed the seatbelt check, and the pilot took a nap to finish things out. Yay. 

Ultimately, 5 on 4 or not, Nick far and away came out on top in this one. Apologies for not having any pics of their fighting in the hills. That said, given that Sven had a terrible string of missed shots/kicks, and odds are he would prefer there being no visual record of that. 

There will be more games like this to come, and if we can co-opt Anthony in, maybe some 2v2 games as well.