Hiatus By Pat Willis#224534

This site is going to be dark for roughly the next week or so, you see David and myself are taking a week off to decide if we A) wish to keep playing the game, and B) want to keep the site up and running. I've always leveled with you guys and  I'll be doing so now with our reasons why.

As you may know as members of the editorial staff here at G.G. we are privy to a few things that aren't yet common knowledge to the player base in general yet, new concepts, lore, game direction etc. Well for my part I'm having an issue with a few things. First off I have been playing this game for about two years now, and in those couple of years it has been pretty much the same thing over and over again. Get more mechas, outfit with more equip and weapons, do kotm, and missions in between monthly CW and raids rinse and repeat. Not much by way of new material aside from the odd raid villain here and there.

Also the direction of the game is headed in isn't really our thing, we were told, " We do have the alien-ish mecha but we're probably going to downplay that aspect in the rewrite in favor of playing up the mechanical elements of the mecha. We feel strongly that those mecha technical manual descriptions need to talk primarily about the mechanical aspects of the mechs, how they work, etc."

Seems the "theme" is going more towards the politics and factions both minor and major powers. That's not really my thing to be honest sounds more like Galactic Risk to me, who can hold what section of the galaxy the longest from whom. Not saying its bad just saying not my interest area.

If it were more aliens, tech, robots, etc and less who is who in which faction fighting for control and the basic build up of whichever tech then I'd be more for it and less apprehensive about the direction. But downplaying the alien type mechas/Forerunners etc in favor of more technical and science based approach to the game honestly sounds overly boring to me and not much fun.

David feels, "Due to me living in an unfortunate timezone, KotMs aren't an option. Missions are now out due to their increased difficulty unless I power level stupidly. All that leaves me with is the joy of crystal farming... I'm just not that masochistic.

And then onto the Galaxy Gathering site itself. Thanks mostly to you guys, our contributors, we publish a wide variety of high quality material in an extremely slick format, day in, day out. That in itself is an accomplishment, but despite this quality, the A.N.N. get the scoops and because of their relationship with the dev team, appear to have cart-blanche to drop spoilers that have yet to appear in game.

Its hard to come to terms with the fact that you are always going to be playing second fiddle, regardless of the quality of your work. That's the question I'm going to be pondering over the next week."

So for the above reasons we're taking roughly a week off to see how we feel about such things and if we wish to continue playing the game much less work on the site itself. If we decide to throw in the towel we then have to decide what to do with the site itself, and if it will continue on. I've heard arguments both for why the site should be essentially "Willed" away so it can continue, and  against it citing how the site and honestly the majority of the work are my own, and why should others just get what I made and worked hard to get off the ground.

So there is much to consider, much to think over and eventually we will have to come to a decision on both our involvement and the future if any of the site. So I thought I would level with everyone and let you know what is going on. I'm sure A.N.N. will be over joyed to get the influx of submissions while we are out figuring all this out, so please direct all submissions there for the time being.

Thanks for reading, submitting, and working with us, without you guys and gals this never would have been possible in the first place, we have much to think on.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Trading Crystal For Ferrite And Bioptics By Germán Jaramillo Pulido # 685605

A small lesson of micro economy in Mecha Galaxy.

For some time now, it has caught my attention the fact that although many players know the little trick to get ferrite and bioptics from crystal, few know which the best weapon for the exchange is.

"Wait... a trick for what?" You may say... Ok, let me recapitulate:

Sometimes, we become exhausted on resources and in need to get more, but we might want to avoid acquiring experience, maybe because we wanted to wait for that pretty dodge boost you get when leveling... Or because you were just camping, why not, or because you want to have a smart slow leveling... So, you have tons of crystal, but you became short on ferrite!

What to do then?

You can go to your nearest weaponry shop and using the bulk option, acquire lots of five weapons that will only require some of your crystal...

Double Mordem were said to be the best one, but in fact, Fury lasers are, for low levels, the best one to attempt this exchange.

Once you acquired a large enough amount of fury lasers, you run into the black market and get rid of them, getting in return a decent amount of ferrite and bioptics, and even some of your crystal back!

But here my surprise... What not many knew, is that once you were level 41 or above, you could buy envelopers to save big time in the operation (your hands will be grateful with you). But, attention: Fury Lasers are the star, regarding profit.

But hey, you will save a BIG TIME! Saving your hand from carpal tunnel syndrome!

The maths talk:

Resources Ratio (1 crystal = X Ferrite & = Bioptics)
[Without the consideration of the crystal return, see below]

Envelopers: .... 1 crystal = 34.70 ferrite & 26.78 bioptics. (Save time)
Fury Laser: … 1 crystal = 34.37 ferrite & 27.50 bioptics. (Best ratio - See below)
Double Mordem: 1 crystal = 30.00 ferrite & 22.50 bioptics. (Worse than Fury)

*** But if you were concerned about the CRYSTAL too, then we have to calculate the ratios considering the crystal returned.

For Envelopers:
From 84 crystal you will recover 35 in the trade. 41% crystal returned.

(34.70 & 26.78) + 41% ; (1 crystal = 48.93 ferrite & 37.76 bioptics)

For Fury Laser:
From 8 crystal, you recover 5 in the trade!!! 62.5% returned.

(34.37 & 27.50) + 62.5%; (1 crystal = 55.85 ferrite & 44.69 bioptics)

Then you should consider the FURY LASER as the best option (that carpal tunnel is coming...) because the crystal ratio returned from be selling the weapons will be greater, so in fact, the ratio will increase!

CONCLUSIONS:

Time wise, and if you were not worried about the crystal, get envelopers and you will need 10 less times to get the same amount of resources than what you would require with Fury Lasers.

If you were interested in a major profit, saving as much crystal as possible then goes with Fury Lasers all the way.

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo Pulido # 685605

Top 5 Mecha By Cher Lee#875837

I've asked 37 participating pilots all at different range of level on how they would rank the best mecha that is in service. I have ask for the top 5 mecha they believe is the strongest either base on experience or rumors and this is what I have.

Boreas being the most favor as 1st place or the strongest
Regis being the 2nd favor or ranked as the 2nd strongest.
Fext surprisingly came up as a overall 3rd strongest.
Ingis however cam close to 3rd place but fell short but a hair.
Torrent is a consistent mecha and getting overall vote.
Aspis was voted as top 5 as it does perform quite well.

Bonus Mecha

Anubis has came up as a really good mecha, but wasn't voted as much as the other mecha.

Data on Votes

Boreas
1st x 15 vote, 2nd x 11 vote, 3rd x 1 vote, 4th x 2 vote, 5th x 2 vote.
Total vote: 32
Regis
1st x 6 vote, 2nd x 14 vote, 3rd x 6 vote, 4th x 4 vote, 5th x 3 vote
Total vote: 31
Fext
1st x 6 vote, 2nd x 1 vote, 3rd x 7 vote, 4th x 3 vote, 5th x 4 vote
Total vote: 21
Ingis
1st x 0 vote, 2nd x 3 vote, 3rd x 6 vote, 4th x 5 vote, 5th x 5 vote
Total vote: 19
Torrent
1st x 3 vote, 2nd x 2 vote, 3rd x 3 vote, 4th x 5 vote, 5th x 3 vote
Total vote: 17
Aspis
1st x 0 vote, 2nd x 0 vote, 3rd x 8 vote, 4th x 6 vote, 5th x 2 vote
Total vote: 16

Bonus Mecha
Anubis
1st x 0 vote, 2nd x 3 vote, 3rd x 3 vote, 4th x 4 vote, 5th x 5 vote
Total vote: 14

Submitted by Cher Lee#875837

Gateway 357 By Carlos Hicks#905078

Saitama system, Kawaguchi, gateway 357.

Captain Carlos sat on the edge of a rack, watching as techs loaded up what was left of his wing of mecha. It had been a tough clan war, fighting with Bacon in the final round and losing out by a single strike point. New Severs were making their way into the ranks joining with the big purple cats (Smilodons) and the purple Dilos that had filled out many ranks from past clan wars. The third battle still left a bad taste in his mouth. Now he has found himself leaving the Emerald Clan, transferring to one of the others. He didn’t know which, only that he had jump cords to hand to the Gate techs to shoot him and his company off to.

With the three way civil war going on in the Meiji Shogunate, Gateway 357 was a bustling spot. Mech companies sporting Iron Fists and Flowers painted onto their Hulls next to their traditional Unit crests were all over the place. Supposedly headquarters had made some official announcement that all Dragon Clans were joining the Iron Prince in his fight against this mad General, but he knew for a fact that it was much more interspersed than that. Carlos had seen a couple of the Emissaries come into camp to talk with Major Daniel Radier the day before that third battle with the Bacon Addicts. Not knowing what was said, Carlos had managed to hear raised voices, the emissaries then leaving hurriedly, watching their skiff take off to the Southwest, the area of the Bacon camp. Things just didn’t sit well with that memory, so he was kind of glad to be flying a flower next to his Emerald Dragon on his fuselage.

Looking across the way, he spotted Edmond Dantes of the B.A. looking board, waiting for his turn to load up and jump. “Hey Ed! Good fight! I didn’t see you around after the matches or I woulda bought you a brew!” Edmond looked up, saw Carlos and grinned. “Hey Carlos, how ya doin? Yeah, after the fight, we had to load up in a hurry. Command had us regearing with these new lasers and they wanted everything mounted and tested before making our way to the front.”

Edmond noticed that Carlos’s Smilo was wearing the Lotus flower. “I thought all you Dragons were going Iron for this thing, what’s with that?” “No idea. Only that something broke down in the way the Prince of Iron talked with some of the Clan Leaders didn’t sit right.” “I know what you mean. I heard RND was having issues getting all the intel they were promised from Kiyomasa’s men as well. All the brass seem slightly on edge.” “Ah jeez, don’t tell me that dreck! It makes it sound like we went from the frying pan into the fire!” Carlos did not need to hear misgivings about his new employer.
“Ha ha ha ha! No worries man, you’d just end up barrel rolling out of it and wiping out the fire with your tail guns anyway!”

Carlos was getting a little rep for finding himself in ridiculous circumstances yet still being able to live. “Yeah, yeah. Hey, you guys better look out next CW, we’ll be coming for you.” Edmond’s face turned grim. “I look forward to it as long as we get there. This civil war is getting twisted in a hurry. Not sure where any of us will end up. Well hey, I gotta go. They just called our load numbers, and I gotta get these guys hoppin’.” “Take care Ed, keep your sights clean and your barrels cleaner.” Yeah… if half of what Edmond had said was true, it was going to be a long conflict. Carlos sat back down, opened up a ration, and waited to see what card fate would deal for him.

Submitted by Carlos Hicks#905078

Of Gremlins And Kaiju By Pat Willis#224534

To: His Imperial Majesty Who Shall Reign In Eternity Emperor Eiji Kiyomizu

From: Dr. Tennako, Chief Imperial Science Advisor

Re: The Kaiju and Gremlin project.

It is with great honor that I write this message to His most Imperial Majesty. We have done it! Both projects are now complete, stabilized, and ready to be deployed. As per our last discussion, Your Imperial Presence requested biological weapons to use against our enemies’ biggest and best mecha squads. We have succeeded twice over, and I am pleased to announce we have two varieties to choose from. The larger imposing mecha fighting capable version we call Kaiju, and the small destructive machine meddling Gremlin. The Former is perfect for large territories which need to be patrolled and protected, whereas the latter is excellent for infiltration and sabotage.

The Kaiju as we call them (so named for the many stories of such beasts from our ancestor’s days on old Earth) typically are land based, although we can create some for sea mobility and combat as well. The biggest is about as tall from head to toe as a Apatotron, roughly resembles a silver back gorilla in form, and body style, is covered in ultra-thick crocodilian type hide, has talons that can cut through the thickest of Ferrite armored mechas, and jaws that can crush a smaller mecha in one bite, or maul a much larger one. They can fight at close range utilizing their awesome strength and agility, or from a medium distance with their highly corrosive saliva. They launch this much like a spitting cobra, upon hitting the target the acidic fluids start to eat through and damage whatever they land on in seconds.

We made them by cycling out the mechanical components to the Gigus, Nakshi, and Skraig mecha. We then synthesized a genetic template using nano D.N.A. computers, this allowed us to program the traits we wished into the genetic sequence. The massive weight of these beasts had to be accounted for, least they be crushed under their own weight. So a system was designed using the corrosive acids of the creature to break down opposing mecha and gain nutrients to feed itself from there. The digestive system sifts through the consumed ferrite to extract their bonding molecules, which it then puts within its own skeletal structure to create nano tubes of reinforced modified calcium deposits harder than any ferrite construction made thus far.

On the opposite end of the size spectrum we have the Gremlin (so named after the mythical beasts of our homeland who loved to destroy machinery) these creatures resemble a ring tailed lemur in size, and basic looks but again are covered in much the same skin as their Kaiju brethren. They are made in much the same fashion with D.N.A. computers and Beast mecha genetic templates, but we stop the growth hormone and dial it back to provide us with such small creatures.

They also consume machinery of any kind, except with them the molecules go to their armored hide making them impervious to most forms of hand held weapons. They use their corrosive fluids to cut through enemy walls, gain access to the base, and wreak havoc once inside.

Both are outfitted with a micro-transceivers, encoded with official Imperial Shogunate Identify Friend Foe (I.F.F.) systems so that they cannot turn on those we set them to serve, and must obey. We also can ship them freely as embryos, in a small briefcase on board any mecha, to be set free at the time and place of Your choosing across the galaxy.

It is my most sincere hope His Great and Honorable Majesty approves this project so the might of the Shogunate Empire may stretch throughout the galaxy, and live forever.

Your most humble servant,
Dr. Tennako

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Prologue To RND And The Dragons By Sean Wadey # 356597

3307-April-15-2003Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, industrial district 654

The service tunnel was poorly lit, but that made it easier not to notice the variety of things that scurried out to the way of the three sanitation technicians walking its length. Team Charlie Plus had been on Kawaguchi for months on orders from Commander Wadey to find anything they could on General Fujiwara and the political situation within the Shogunate. They finally had what they had been looking for and once they transmitted the data they had every intention of disappearing.

"Got to love worlds where they take the caste system seriously." Cobol rumbled.

"Why's that?" Klone quipped, "They seem even more oppressive than the other Shogunate worlds and a lot more restrictive. The penalties for getting caught are a lot worse also."

Cobol almost laughed, "Oh they are, but there is always an invisible caste, one so low on the totem pole even its own members don't pay themselves much attention. If you know how to dress, the right accent to speak with and the proper forms of groveling, you're practically invisible in plain sight."

"Shh, we're coming to the end of the tunnel" Fortran reprimanded the other two.

"Ma'am," was the only sound the other two made.

The access hatch opened into a dark alley, rain drizzled down pipes and cross supports from an unseen sky a hundred stories above. Three sanitation technicians helped pull their gear from the tunnel settled it onto their back packs. Once that was done they sealed the hatch, locked it and began to trudge towards home, shoulders slumped and eyes down caste.

They were approaching the drab concrete dormitories next to the Gaijin compound that was part of the gateway district, when three well dressed individuals stepped in front of them. The team immediately stopped and huddled against the wall to clear as much of the narrow walk way as possible. With all eyes down and head bowed low, one quietly mumbled apologies for taking up too much space.

"Oh well done." One of the well dressed men clapped, "Your performance is quite good, I'd believe you if it wasn't for the tech you've hidden amongst your gear. Hand over the data you've stolen and things will go much better for you." His eyes sparkled and glowed as he spoke, and the woman and larger man with him stepped towards the three sanitation technicians

"Damn borgs," Cobol said, and turned to Klone "I guess we better give it to them."

"Whatever you say boss," Klone pulled a tube from his back pack and sprayed the well dressed three with sewage while he pulled a needle pistol from a cargo pocket with his other hand.

The team backed up and spread out to make it harder for all of them to be hit at once. Cobol was already firing at the large man and realized the quite needlers were not going to do the job. The ferrite darts didn't seem to faze the brute at all as he pulled a short barreled flechette gun from beneath his coat.

Fortran ducked behind a dumpster, pulled a pair of wires from a pouch and plugged them into sockets behind each of her ears. She recorded the fight as she encrypted the data, packaged it and prepped it to be transmitted as a data burst. She hated not backing up her team but the mission was priority.

Klone fired his needler into the well dressed woman's face, only to watch the ferrite dart slice through her pseudo flesh cheek and ricochet off of something other than bone and into the alley wall. He had wondered why the woman had brought a sword to a gun fight, now he knew. The vibroblade she drew and swung took Klones head off in one smooth motion as she began to move toward Cobol.

The brute fired a volley of flechettes which hit Cobal in the belly and tossed him to the ground a bloodied mess. Cobol coughed blood as he raised a pocket plasma pistol off hand and blew a hole through the torso of the brute. The sword woman then cut his hand off with the spent plasma pistol in it. Before she could redirect the sword to his other had he shot himself in the temple with his needler.

"For the sake of the Emperor keep at least one of them alive." Said the spokesman as he tried to wipe himself clean.

Fortran heard this, she had already transmitted all the data and wiped the external drive there was only one thing left to do. She felt herself being grabbed and pulled to her feet. Fortran made sure to look at everything, saw the sword woman holding her, her dead team lying in the alley along with the holed cyborg and the man that seemed to be in charge.

"Was that all really necessary?" The spokesman looked at Fortran and shook his head, "Now will you give me the stolen data or will we have to do this the hard way?"

Fortran only smiled as she said, "Format Cee." and her head exploded.

3307-April-15-2047Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, Gateway District 357, Gaijin compound

The rented motel was designed for visiting Ronin units as such the décor was an unusual mix of cultures and it looked like it had been added to and detracted from by prior renters. But the lounge had plenty of background noise as well as the music and the techs were pretty sure it was not bugged. Captain Mora was enjoying a meal when he saw the lieutenant coming with a data pad and business face on. The Captain hoped he would be able to finish his meal after he heard what was to come.

"Sir, the technicians recorded an encrypted burst transmission on the emergency frequency." Lieutenant Ouragos frowned has he looked at the data pad, "Followed by the clear text 'team wet drives all clean', does this mean anything to you?"

Captain Mora sighed, "It means team Charlie plus completed their mission but will not be returning with us. It also means that we are done with R&R and need to head back to the battalion."

"I'll recall all the pilots immediately." Ouragos saluted.

Mora stopped him, "No, just let the section leaders know in the morning. I don't want to be the first mercenary unit through the gateway after what probably just happened. Let everyone know we're going to Yomi Reefs and then Rizpah on our way back so the mecha can be properly prepped."

"Very well sir," Ouragos left.

About an hour later Captain Mora wandered into the hanger bay and approached the senior technician standing next to his mecha. "McEth, what do you have?"

Senior tech McEth linked her pad up to the Neiro's computer, "Well sir there was two layers of encryption the outer most revealed a video file here I'll show you."

Mora nodded after watching the fight in the alley. "Glad you showed me that here rather than letting me find out when I was linked into my mecha."

McEth nodded, "Thought you might feel that way, that was bad, any idea who the suits are?"

"Two ideas, if we're lucky they are local Yakuza," Mora replied and then paused.

"And if we're not lucky?" McEth asked.

Mora sighed, "If we're not lucky they are Himitsukei. What about the second layer of encryption?"

McEth, shook her head, "it's level S4, which means we don't have the computer power to open it here and now. To be really honest I'm not sure I want to anyway. So we either take it back to Commander Wadey at Battalion HQ, or RND Corps Command, or all the way back to Caissa and let the Intelligence Corps have it. What's the Himitsukei? I've never heard of them."

"Not a surprise they are not known outside of the Shogunate and most here either don't believe they exist or are afraid to talk about them." Captain Mora explained, "They are the Imperial Secret Police, as far as we can tell they report to themselves and the Emperor, neither the Shogun nor any of the Daimyos have any control over them, the royal family might not even know about them. The Intelligence Corps figured out their existence a while back but details are sketchy, they aren't warrior caste or Yakuza through they will manipulate and use both, so they have no social restriction on how they do things. They also have access to the best technology within the Shogunate, hopefully we won't have to deal with any of them."

3307-April-16-1543Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, gateway 357

A group of 24 Hoplites and a single Neiro stood in formation waiting to step onto the gateway, with a cluster of technicians hover trucks just behind them. On one shoulder they all bore the crest of the RND Corps, on the other shoulder the 111th Baconators emblem was painted over prior regimental markings on the oldest Hoplites this included the 99th, the 82nd and the 64th unit logos. On the back of each Hoplite was a greek letter Alpha through Omega.

Captain Mora was brought back from his thoughts as his radio spoke up with an accent less female voice, "Gateway Control to Captain Mora, you and your unit are cleared to access the gateway. Please state destination and if you need a niode guide?"

"Thank you Gateway control, destination Yomi Reefs, negative on the guide we have addressed niodes." Captain Mora acknowledged and began moving his Niero towards the gateway, the company of Hoplites and tech trucks followed him. With the formalities out of the way captain Mora decided to probe a little. "Thank you for letting us stay, you have a very nice world here, with good R&R facilities. Too bad we can only afford to rent them for so long before we have to get back to work. Do you mind telling me why we had to wait all afternoon before we could use the gateway?"

The controller seemed a bit guarded, "First tell me why a company of RND mecha was on R&R here instead of fighting for glory and honor in the Clan Wars?"

"Wish we were there actually," Mora laughed casually, "but we aren't needed, due to the rules of engagement this Clan War they didn't need a company with a 25 ton Max specialty."

"Oh," The controller paused for a moment and then almost whispered as if afraid what she was about to say might be a secret. "The gateway was temporarily closed by Imperial order. They did not tell us why but a special police unit needed to use the gateway for a couple of hours for a emergency response drill."

"I'm glad it was just a drill, may the Emperor live forever." Captain Mora replied as all of his unit found there places on the gateway. As the gateway powered up to take them to Yomi Reefs he felt a twinge of guilt and hoped the other mercenaries that had left before him kept the Imperial Secret Police busy for a good long time. Hopefully by staying casual and following a normal mercenary route out of the Shogunate they wouldn't draw any attention to themselves. He really didn't want to have to fight Himitsukei stealth mecha before he made it back to the Battalion and the rest of the 111th Baconators regiment.

 Submitted by Sean Wadey # 356597

Projectile Or Laser By Cher Lee#875837

Over the past years people had many debate on whether Projectiles or Laser has a better bonus. The Projectile is known for high speed and bonus damage. High speed has an advantage as to frequently fire and with a bonus damage for example 2x Damage 100% this would mean that every times it fires it'll do the normal damage plus 2x damage.

If your opponent's mecha has an armor of 100 and you fire 50 damage plus 2x that would equal 100 damage total destroy the mecha who took damage. In some cases you'll see projectile having Trample as a bonus. Trample is tempting to have as it does damage to the mecha behind the mecha that took the damage.

The Laser has very rare bonus. Laser is much slower than projectile but it is not a slow way. Crit-Damage is destroying a mecha who took the hit. Crit-Damage however has much lower percentage compare to other bonuses. Crit-Damage does not come every time and has to do a lot with RNG. The up side to Lasers are they have a lot of bonuses and the only weapon to have crit-damage.

Personally I'm a critical type of person.
 
Submitted By Cher Lee#875837

Dragons United Pick A Side By Kennith Hicks#846092

Dragons United and all affiliated Clans accept a Shogunate Contract:

After being approached by emissaries of both Kiyomasa, Prince of Flowers and his brother, the Prince of Iron, we of the Dragon Clans have decided to work with the Prince of Iron.
General Fujiwara has already proved to be a palpable threat to the Illyran Hegemony, the Society of Cogwerk Planets, and the thousands of worlds they protect.

For that reason alone, all of the Dragon Clans will unite under the Meiji Shogunate Banner of the Prince of Iron as a way of dealing with this threat to mankind, and all it’s territories.
In the past, we have rallied with the great mass of gaming clans to battle, Forerunners, rogue AIs, and any other threat, that thought mankind was destined to be ruled by a despot and put into slavery. Only this time, we’ve decided to put our mechas into service for political systems as it seems to be the quickest way to deal with the threat.

Let the army of Fujiwara tremble as our drop-ships make for their fortifications to send them back into the waiting arms of the Meiji Shogunate so that peace may prevail.

*End Transmission.........

Submitted by Kennith Hicks#846092

A Mech Tactical Treatise By Germán Jaramillo # 685605

- - - - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - -
The mech clans are articulated into mobile battle units, with a great destructive warfare as projection forces and substitute of the old conventional armies.

The effectiveness of a clan mech can vary between nine (9) to nineteen (19) squads, considering any larger battle group as one that will lose maneuvering and operational status

Sometimes, a congregation of clans can become as true armies led under a single Flag. These forces are known as Factions.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I. SIZE CLASSIFICATION: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

According to their effectiveness, the clans can be classified in:

A. ARMY DIVISION:

Large tactical units composed of 14 to 16 squads.

B. BATTALION:

Medium tactical units composed of 9 to 13 squads.

C. COMPANY:

Small units (unable to join the Senate tournaments) typically composed of 2 to 8 squads.

D. SQUAD:

Is the smaller projection unit that constitutes the basis of any other Force. A squad can make a tiny clan, but this is not the standard. It is composed of two mechs as the smaller one and as much as 36 mechs for the larger elite Squads. Typical squads go around fifteen to twenty mechs.

From these groups, the most efficient and skilled constitute the army division and battalion, capable to summon a high enough number of squads like to join the Senate Tournaments in preparation to fight the waves of the scourge menacing the Galaxy by training and polishing their skills and tactics for combat during the maneuvers known as Clan Wars.

Some consider that the Senate made the competitions not just to keep them ready to fight possible enemies, but also to keep them entertained and away from any attempt of a coup against the own Senate and their allies.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - II. STRENGH CLASSIFICATION: - - - - - - - - - - - -

When using as reference their strength or projection power, the clans can be classified as:

1. ELITE / MIGHTY: every member is a tank that will rush with the enemy, no matter who.

2. VETERAN: every member is very good skilled and geared as to give a harsh battle.

3. BALANCED: There is a reasonable balance between the strong and weaker components.

4. HOLLOW: While the clan may have strong components, it keeps also important vulnerabilities.

5. ROOKIE: A new trainee clan that still below the standard clans.


- - - - - - - - - III. TACTICS/FORMATIONS CLASSIFICATION: - - - - - - - -

Each clan, well an Army Division or a Battalion, uses different tactics and formations in which they train and polish their ways to march towards the battle, always looking for the highest possible success.

Some of those techniques can be summarized in the following groups:

1. BATTLEGROUP (aka BLOCK)
2. PHALANX (aka FRONTASSAULT)
3. LINE (aka FRONTLINE, WALL)
4. WEDGE (aka VIC, VEE, FLYING V, ARROW)
5. SPEAR (aka LANCE, SWORD)
6. HAMMER (aka VANGUARD)
7. ECHELON (aka OUTFLANK)
8. ANTIPODE (aka SMOKESCREEN)
9. CLOUD (aka SWARM, MOB)

We will see how works each formation. Some samples will be show with random numbers just to show the placement of the different squad levels.

_________________________________________________________
1. THE BATTLEGROUP (AKA BLOCK)

A Battlegroup or block deploys the force into a compact square or circle, what includes all the force mass.

It contains a balanced amount of squads for each level bracket in a regular spread and ordered with a homogeneous pattern.

A bad performed Battlegroup becomes called Cloud, Swarm or Mob (see the last formation)

Frontward

150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . .
120 . . . 120 . . . 120 . . . 120
100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . .
70 . . . . 70 . . . . . 70 . . . . 70

Backward

_________________________________________________________
2. THE PHALANX:

A phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation that include the total number of fight units in a single formation, usually composed entirely of heavy armored units

History and etymology: Originated in the Ancient Greek Warfare, the Phalanx (whose name comes from the word phalangos=finger) was constituted by armored infantry formations, that could deploy in some columns or lines during the battle to offer a long battlefront.

This battle formation relay in the strength of balance, keeping to eradicate any vulnerability or hole, by opposing to the enemy a regular line or rectangle of equally skilled mech squads.

Deploy in the ground:

Frontward

150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150 . . . 150
100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100

Backward

Phalanx is a dangerous formation; typically adopted by Stalker Clans (aka Campers), Clans that keep polishing their skills and loading more strength rather than invest in upgrades.

But Phalanx can be equally deadly, if not more, when deployed by the top elite Clans.


PROS:

- This formation is balanced, making hardest to the enemy Intel to detect the vulnerable points without a deeper analysis.

- When the strength was high and equal for all the components of a Phalanx,

CONS:

- Vulnerable to piercing formations as Wedge or Antipode Phalanx.

- The Division assigned will be always rigged for them, as they won’t have flexibility to choose their “own field” to battle.

_________________________________________________________
3. LINE (aka FRONTLINE , WALL):

The line formation is a standard tactical formation used in early modern warfare. It is an evolution of the Phalanx formation or shield wall, in use since the older antiquity.

The line formation can provided the best frontage for volley fire, while sacrificing maneuverability and defense against fast pierce units, or when there is a need to protect a wide area to offer a long battlefront.

Frontward

100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100 . . . 100

Backward

PROS:
- This formation is balanced, making hardest to the enemy Intel to detect the vulnerable points without a deeper analysis.
- When the strength was high and equal for all the components of a Phalanx, any piercing enemy formation not well built will face serious troubles.

CONS:
- Vulnerable to piercing (and leveled balanced) formations.
- The Division assigned will be always rigged for them, as they won’t have flexibility to choose their “own field” to battle.

_________________________________________________________
4. WEDGE (AKA FLYING WEDGE, ARROW, VIC, VEE OR V).

This formation deploys the squads in an inverted “V” or triangle to trample and smash through the enemy lines. The V could be a right one, using two piercing points instead one.

The vertex of the V groups the stronger squads, and the wings of the “V” groups the remnant squads, in order of strength. In a right V formation, the vertex will be the weaker squad, placed backward.

Levels Sample: 80, 80, 100, 100, 150, 150, 180, 180, and 200

Deploy in the ground of a standard inverted Vic:

>> Frontward
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 . . . 180 . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 150 . . . . . . . 150 . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80. .
>> Backward

PROS:

- If the clan managed to get most of the arrow vertex piercing the opponent force, the success will be good.
- The weaker squads will get, on success, good prizes to boost them.

CONS:
- The stronger components will usually get underrated prizes.
- The weaker wing components will need to be less than the strong or the Vic formation will collapse, giving more victory points to the enemy.

_________________________________________________________
5. SPEAR OR LANCE:

The Spear Formation has his squads escalated by levels, including a gradated evolution, from the weaker squad in the backward to the stronger in vanguard, and deployed in lance or spear formation, whose goal is to pierce the enemy forces with a fast penetration through their front lines.

By its shape and tactical goals, is like the Wedge or Vic and the opposite of a line or wall, and relies in its deep piercing power of their top half.

>> Frontward

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

>> Backward

PROS:
- High piercing power when the levels were properly set. (As with the Vic, if the clan managed to get most of the line components piercing the opponent force, the success will be granted)

- The weaker squads will get, on success, good prizes to boost them.

CONS:
- The stronger components might get underrated prizes.
- The weaker spear squads shall be less than the stronger or the formation will be unsuccessful.

_________________________________________________________
6. ECHELON:

An echelon formation is a usually military formation in which its units are arranged diagonally. Each unit is stationed behind and to the right (a "right echelon"), or behind and to the left ("left echelon"), of the unit ahead, with flanking intentions.

As a possible variant of the Vic formation, the main difference will be that echelon has not a vertex squad from where deploy two wings…

History and etymology: The name of the formation comes from the French word “échelon”, meaning a rung of a ladder, which describes the shape that this formation has when viewed from above or below.

>> Frontward
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 . . .200. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180. . . .180 . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 . . 150. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 . .100. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . .80. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>> Backward

_________________________________________________________
7. HAMMER OR VANGUARD:

The hammer is a fusion of the Phalanx and the spear, that strives in a strong head or vanguard group to crush the enemy battle front and a weaker column behind to pursuit the enemy in flee.

The shape
>> Front

. . . . . . 200 . . . 200 . . . 200 . . . 200 . . . . .
. . . . . . 180 . . . 180 . . . 180 . . . 180. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

>> Back

_________________________________________________________
8. ANTIPODE (AKA SMOKESCREEN)

This trickery but effective formation when used for a strong front force can be quite deadly and will usually give a hell of battle with a high success against standard, casual and MIA enemies.

To a given number of high leveled squads, a lesser amount of sandbags (clone, animatronics or rookie squads usually level 1) is added to deceive the Senate Rule to assign the divisions, making their own average drastically drop into a lower division where their real hitters will usually stomp the lower level enemy.

While the use of this formation can be seen as unsportsmanlike, there are opposed opinions… Or let’s say Antipodes opinions: Many strategists consider the War not as a Game but as a need to achieve victory, and in war, as in love, all is available for them. This view of war is in direct opposition with the Knightly and Gently style of old school honor keepers, but for those who all strive in success, the honor might be seen as an overrated and anachronism valor.

History:
During the Clan Wars of the year 3303, the Clan ITC used this formation reaching a sudden and unexpected success that gave them the Gold in the division 16, breaking bets for many and opening the Pandora Box as more Clans started to use this tactic looking for more success.

Previously to the year 3306 Clan Wars, the College of Judges and Arbiters of the Senate Tournaments changed the rules to calculate the average level, turning out from the average level calculation not one but the two lower level squads from the average level calculation to assign the divisions to the participating clans, making this formation hardest to balance but not disabling it yet.

Etymology:
Antipodes is the diametric opposed spot for a point in the surface of a sphere or planet.

Smokescreen is another descriptive name given as this formation uses a wall of sandbags to cover behind the true fighting strong squads.

Sample:

. . . . . . 200 . . . 200 . . . 200 . . . 200 . .200 . . .
. . . . . . .1 . . . 1. . . 1 . . . . 1 . . . .1 . . . . . . . . . . .

REQUIREMENTS:

- The amount of sandbag squads can’t equal or over number the amount of the true squads or any success will automatically fail. Usual patterns are 5/4; 6/4; 6/5; 7/5; 7/6… The more sandbags were added, the more the clan will drop in lower divisions but also the higher risk for the success if the core fighters kept any hollow squad.

- The first two sandbags won’t count into the average level calculation made by the Senate arbiters, so the lesser the sandbags were; the higher the squad will drop, allowing a fight with a greater disadvantage for their enemies.

- The real squads should be unstoppable or strong for a better success, as if they were only standard or even worse: hollow or weak, the higher level will not be enough against lower leveled but stronger forces.

PROS:

- Can give a great advantage, forcing the enemy to battle higher leveled squads, creating an atmosphere of bullying or overwhelming.
- Allows a great ground control of the divisions positioning.
- The sandbags will get extraordinary overrated prizes for their level when the division where they joined was high enough.

CONS:

- The stronger components might get underrated prizes.
- The balance between the strong squads and the sandbags must be carefully built… Too many sandbags will collapse the formation during the battle.
- Your high units must be 100% active during the battle: Since your weak sandbags will automatically be taken as victories for your enemy, if your high squads went MIA your Clan will suffer a sure defeat.
- If the division drop was so big, there will be a risk to be nerfing the prizes. Caution.

_________________________________________________________
9. CLOUD (SWARM OR MOB).

The common of the formations or non-formations is the Cloud that can be a swarm or a mob according the quality of its units.
It resembles a chaotic pattern of squads not caring on formation built, but just deployed as a cloud of squads marching from all directions against the enemy.

SWARM: I call it Swarm when the Clan is an Elite, Veteran os Balanced one.

MOB: When the clan using the formation is a Hollow or Weak one.

Usually there is no purpose behind this formation but allow anyway in.
Typically, there will be random amount of high, medium and low squads, mixed without apparent pattern.

PROS:

- The freedom speech.
- You won't waste time in plannification.
- Good for casual players.

- Good ground control positioning the chosen division if there were not troubles transferring or dropping out the squads.

CONS:

- Low performance on Clan and Faction Wars (unless some architecture build was used to seat properly the levels).
- For the leader, may be harder to balance the power of its squads due the great instability and level unbalance (unless he doesn't care about squads transfers).













Submitted by Germán Jaramillo # 685605

Chessmen Accept Shogunate Contract By Richard Millich#291875

For the first time in recorded history, one of the large "gaming clans" has signed a contract with one of the major empires of humanity. The Chessmen of the RND gaming clan have chosen to join Kiyomasa, the Prince of Flowers, in his efforts to defeat separatist General Fujiwara and put down the unrest enveloping the Meiji Shogunate.

Normally, between the monthly sports tournaments that draw trillions of fans galaxywide, these gaming clans have been defending the Galaxy from external threats in real life and death combat, ranging from maddened armies from the periphery to the rogue computer intelligence Artificial Mind to the mysterious Forerunner threat and his League of Ages. This is the first time that these thousand Mecha armies have decided to involve themselves in major human politics.

There are no formal details yet from these secretive negotiations, but representatives from every Chessman clan, with or without the formal RND association, were reported to be seen in a series of meetings with high diplomats of Prince Kiyomasa earlier today.

Submitted by Richard Millich#291875

Steampunk Dragon Clan Logo By Kenneth Hicks #846092

Submitted By Kenneth Hicks #846092

Regi & Gygax Chapter VII By Germán Jaramillo ID # 685605

Submitted By Germán Jaramillo ID # 685605

Quick and Dirty Stealth Mech by David McCallum #701548

I make absolutely no excuses.


Due to the particular date and its relevance to myself, I was seriously in need of some distraction.


Unfortunately Clan War just wasn't enough... my attack run had been completed and I was bored. So bored I went grocery shopping.


And it was there, in the midst of the supermarket that I spotted what can only be described as a target of opportunity. Sometimes, it takes a little leap of the imagination to be able to discern one form, or part thereof, from another.


What I had actually spied was the stand of Matchbox cars, and in amongst them was a little replica from a certain superhero franchise. You may know it as "The Bat"; I however know it as 'Stealth Mech Torso no.1'...


Rushing home, I searched through my own toy box (the one the kids are banned from...) and found not only some likely weaponry, but a Transformers 'Optimus Prime' key-chain, which we will now refer to as 'hip and leg donor'.


Now I'll stop at this point. Yes, this is going to be a very fast and dirty chop job. So sue me... I wanted a quick project.


The other thing is that a lot of you will be thinking that 'The Bat' is going to be unfeasibly large to fit on those legs.


Sorry, but you are incorrect. You see, as a 'Gentleman of a Certain Age' playing this game, there is a good chance that I came to mecha through another game, perhaps a tabletop one.


That is correct, however you would probably get the game wrong. You see, almost 30 years ago I was a Titan Princeps in command of a Warlord class Battle Titan, courtesy of Games Workshop's 'Adeptus Titanicus'. And as such, the concept of a bipedal mech having a large turtle-shell carapace is nothing new.

And so ensues the fastest mech construction/kitbash I've ever done. The hips are hacked through to leave a pair of legs that are glued to their base and the base is textured. Note that I've set it well forward on the base as the model is going to end up quite back heavy.

A quick base-coat of matte black is applied, and while that is drying the gun barrels have been removed from their donor pieces and glued to the main chassis, turning jet intakes into full blown gun pods.

All that is left is to glue the two halves together (epoxy was needed otherwise the join would be too fragile) and give the model a very quick drybrush of light grey for the base, dark grey as a highlight for the body and gunmetal for the weapons and mesh grills.




And now all that's needed is to get some pics of it in a nice terrain setting!

I hope these articles inspire or prompt you to have a stab at your own creations, and we'd certainly love to see some pictures of your own work.


Submitted by David McCallum #701548

Sapphire Dragon Clan Logo By Kenneth Hicks #846092

Submitted by Kenneth Hicks #846092

Clan Wars Are In full Swing By Pat Willis#224534

Hello all, how is every one doing this time out in CW? Good I hope, it seems this CW is going to have a couple of protagonists for the raid. Neat concept and something different to be sure, how ever wouldn't it have been more desirable to know the politics behind each side before making an informed decision?

Things like that kind of get to me, you get a new story or change sprung on you last minute, you only get a little background and some snippets of what is going on from in game text during missions. Then when CW raids roll around you get to picking either team A, or Team B depending on your personal stance. No real rhyme or reason to the fight just hey a raid is on, pick a side, and go fight for these guys.

Granted by choosing sides you could wind up with uneven numbers supporting one side over the other, but if that happens then it is simple to make it into the game story that whichever side came to battle drastically unprepared and got their ass handed to them. Quick, easy, and more satisfying I think than..."Here go fight for those guys." Heck any choices we can get beyond equip, and weapons per mecha would be a welcome one and add a certain depth to the game.

But as of now we fight every month for CW, get a raid and then rinse and repeat for the next month, no real choices aside from fight or not. No real options to it and no real say in much beyond your own personal squad and load out. This has been my staple game to play for a couple years now, but it seems to be less and less compelling due to so much of it being the same thing over and over again. Maybe it's just me but all the revamps, rule changes,and general fuxing about with the game seem to be turning people off and away rather than making them want to log in and play. Well at least that is the sense from the game board discussions anyways.

So I ask you my readers what makes you want to play? What changes do you like, and what ones do you not? I'd ask what you want to see in game but that was what the game ideas category was for. Seems the devs get enough ideas they can't keep track of them all, and that category no longer pays out in niodes. So if so many ideas are coming in and so much is suggested, then why do we have this same basic set up, CWs, raids etc and no real change aside from types and formats to KOTM?

If you leave a comment leave your player ID# at least we can still get you paid a niode or two for that.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Mission File By Kenneth Hicks#846092

Location: Moon Delta of the Rizpah System, Meiji Shogunate Territories

Day one of the Wars had reached a conclusion. Cpt. Hicks had been one of the initial spearheads against the [HF] Mobile Infantry. The Infantry had used the cover of several creek beds to sneak their light scouts in who wreaked havoc on our less experienced units. They had found out though that they had over committed themselves, cut off from they're main units as my Company stormed in behind them, taking advantage of their weapons cool down period. The rest fo the day had proceeded as planned, our coming out in two pinchers, cutting into their support with our heavy units, while setting feints and harassing through the middle to keep their attention divided. At the pitch of battle, there was a force vibration and several alarms went off throughout our units.

As we collectively looked up, we could see multiple Dropships, flying the Red Fire Bird and Lightning Bolt of the Pheonix {BHG} landing on Moon Oscar, whose orbit was very close to our own at this rotation. "Hey Josh, you there?", Hicks had keyed his mic trying to reach Major Josh Bourne, Bravo Wing of the Rubies. "Yeah, I'm here. Did you just see that sheck?" Josh's voice had a note of incredulity in it. "umm, yes. Yes I did. Hey, Rain Man, you wanna tell me who has Oscar fortified?" "Yeah, last I knew that was where Merlino was holed up." "Oh man, life's about to get real nasty for those poor bastards."

Ken didn't have any niodes down on either, so it didn't bother him overly. Damn impressive though, landing that many Dships in that tight of a zone, that just turned into a very bad day for someone. Doesn't matter anyways for him. He heard over the feed how the 123rd [RND} and Dragon Training II had both been caught with their pants down, so his bets were out the window. Crazy though, how Pheonix had dropped levels to come compete in a division that was already so hotly contested. That just bodes as trouble for the rest of us. Ah well, back to blasting mechs, and pillaging booty.

*End Journal

Submitted by Kenneth Hicks#846092

What You Can Do By Pat Willis#224534

Just a simple reminder of what all we have going on around here. First off is the comic strip - We're looking for folks to write out a 3-8 panel script for the comics section. You send in the script, we send it to the Devs, they have final call on it and if it is good, and goes to print, Molly pays you Niodes for it. (See today's AM posting for further details on this)

Clan Logos - No I won't give up on this!!! Original artwork to be displayed proudly representing your clan here in our pages, it also pays Niodes. Again ORIGINAL art only, no Armored Core, Battle Tech, Gundam , Zoids etc etc... based art as we do have to watch the whole copy write thing.

Clan Liaison Officer - Still looking to fill these slots. You get voted on by your clan to be the officially recognized "voice" of your clan. You do the interviews for the wars, give us updates on the non war weeks, and generally deal with us editors. It beats giving all the Niodes to us or those guys over at A.N.N. We get paid per interview, so do you yes but we do all the interviewing. Do the math. Want in? Contact myself  or Artemis Molly via facebook and let us know!

So come on Galaxy we know you guys and gals are active and creative, show us what you have.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Taking Comic Script Ideas By Pat Willis#224534

Hello all, do folks enjoy the comics we run here both player generated, and official MG made? Got an idea and want in on the action of making a script that may see the light of day on our pages? Here's what you do to get one made...

1. Send a submission detailing how you want your comic to go,between 3-8 panels please.

2. Include your player ID# with the submission to receive proper credit for your idea.

3. We take the idea, talk among ourselves, and pass it along to Molly with recommendations on if it works or not, or how to make it work if necessary.

4. Molly has final say on what is approved or not. But if it does make it she will mark you down on her list for the idea submission, and it is passed along to the artist or artists (We still don't know who makes those great strips)

5. Once it gets to the artist it's approved all you have to do is sit and wait for it to come out. Once it sees daylight, Molly would then pay out, and we get the finished product to put in our pages here.

So there you have it folks five simple steps to comic strip stardom! Best part is we're always accepting scripts, so there is no real expiration date on this offer. Still here reading this? Get on outta here and go think up a comic script.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

Jungle Monsters By Merlin Salisbury#314012

Jungle Moon Rizpah

11:16 Local Time

Deep in the Equatorial Jungle

It was hot. The air seethed with the sound of trillions of insects all competing to be noticed, a background roar that crashed like the waves of an ocean, yet still seemed muted in the oppressive humidity. Already dark clouds built up in the sky, threatening a storm that would drown out even the most vocal insects. Ranuk lay prone, sweat trickling down his face. Beneath him, his specially modified Smilodon, purple and grey to blend in with the leaves and trunks of the native trees, lay on it’s belly, dormant, powered down. In his hands, a stripped down Cornerian Ion, modified for a hair trigger mechanism and a near-instant charge cycle.

He was hunting.

A call had gone out, as it did every year, for experienced hunters to cull the Snavurm swarms. Ranuk had signed up, same as every year. And same as every year, a batch of loud mouth pilots had arrived, boasting of how many snavurm they’d kill, declaring that their Oggun or Krampus would trample through the reptiles nests, driving them before their mechas with bursts of flame, or smashing apart whole packs with the splash from their missiles.

Amateurs.

Ranuk knew that most of them would be lucky to return home. Snavurm weren’t pack animals, they were solitary, and wasting an expensive missile on a single snavurm was a good way to be out of pocket by the end of the hunt. Using flame on them worked pretty good, out in the open. Once in the jungle though, well, at best the humidity or torrential rain would make the weapon pretty ineffectual, at worst, it’d set the surrounding jungle on fire and cook the fool pilot alive in his mecha. As for trampling them? Well, any experienced pilot that had spent time in the jungles knew that Snavurm are only ever thinking of one thing; Looking for a mate. And a big heat source, meant a big, healthy mate. A big, stomping mecha makes a lot of heat, and by the time a snavurm can tell the difference, they’re usually wound around your leg actuators tight enough to crush the synth-muscle.

No, Ranuk knew how to hunt Snavurm. Patience was key. So he waited, no hot running mecha to attract an amorous advance, no expensive missiles or suicidal flamethrowers, just a single low powered laser rifle and senses attuned to the surrounding jungle. He scanned the trees ahead of him, watching for the tell-tale darts of scales around the trunks and branches, listening for the creak of wood taking on the extra weight of a reptilian body, and keeping half an eye on the flocks of porcine Hambirds. His mind wandered, a few years ago he’d been hired to escort some egghead, a scientist from the Hegemony who’d come to study the impact of the Hambird on the local ecology.

Apparently, he believed the strange critter to be a product of genetic engineering, some mad scientists idea of a joke gone rogue and now infesting the jungles like a disease. Ranuk didn’t care too much, you could get some pretty good bacon off a Hambird. Behind him, draped from a branch hung 9 snavurm skins, cleaned and pristine, only the slight scorch marks around where the heads were missing betraying their execution. Ranuk was hoping to get his tenth before the storm broke, no amount of patience would help him see through the downpour.

A couple of Hambirds suddenly shot out of the treeline, their shrill squeals piercing to the ears after hours of insect drone. Ranuk shifted the barrel of his rifle towards the tree the Hambirds had flown from, confident that they’d been spooked by his next kill. He soon spotted what he was looking for, the mottled green torso of a snavurm, wedged between the trunk and a branch, slowly moving downwards with the grace and control only a segmented spine could achieve.

It looked like a big one, maybe one of the breeding females. Ranuk moved the rifle to follow the body, down to where he judged the head to be, waiting for the perfect shot. Such a low powered rifle would likely only wound the beast if he hit anything but a head shot, and a charging berserk snavurm would cover the distance between them faster that either Ranuk could make it into the cockpit of his mecha, or the rifle would recharge for another shot. He didn’t fancy being eaten alive by a giant reptile. As he watched, the Snavurm tensed, its massive muscles bunched as it sensed something. Ranuk held his breath, ready to throw the rifle to one side and at least attempt to reach the safety of his cockpit. Suddenly, the giant reptile bolted, around the trunk and out of sight.

Ranuk cursed softly, maybe the creature had smelt him. He did his best to stay downwind, and attempted to mask his own scent with that of local plant-life, but Snavurm were notoriously sensitive. He sighed as he heard the first crack of thunder, seems he wasn’t going to get his tenth today after all. A second thunderous crack made him pause, then a third. They were strange, almost too.... regular. He turned to look at the clouds, and saw no lightning. Instead he saw something terrifying.

Something massive was making its way through the jungle, bending the trees in its path. As he watched, a massive tree, easily 30 feet across, snapped with a sound like an Ursa Strike being fired. Ranuk was frozen in place, in the years he’d hunted these jungles he’d never even heard anything so large, and here it was coming straight towards him. Closer and closer it crashed, Ranuks heart thundering in panic, until suddenly a massive clawed foot slams down no more than a few metres from his mecha. Gleaming red and orange in the afternoon sun, it’s big enough to have turned Ranuk into paste had it landed on him.

Craning His neck up, He sees something that terrifies him more than any monster. A terrible lizard, red skin glinting and eyes glowing. No flesh and blood monster this, its skin an unknown alloy, its eyes the sensors and lenses that allow it to see its prey through all spectrum's of light. An Ignis. As it moves past, Ranuk spots an emblem on its flank; A piper, on a blue and yellow dag. It lets out an earth shaking roar as it ploughs its way through the trees, it’s back plates glowing fiercely with heat as it prepares for battle. Ranuk bolts for the safety of his cockpit, powering up to flee without even thinking of the skins he’s left behind. Hunting Snavurm can be done any day, for now he just needed to survive. The clans were mobilizing. War was coming again.

Submitted by Merlin Salisbury#314012

The “Mancers” Of The Brotherhood By Pat Willis#224534

Within the Brotherhood clan family there is a special class of pilot referred to as a Mancer. This is short for Pyromancer and Cryomancer or those who can control the very forces of nature within their fire and ice mechas. Both types of pilots have exceptional control over their mecha and its abilities to either burn or freeze up a target.

Pilots of either class often learn and take up a secondary specialization in the other. Ultimately making a pilot who is in total control of their fire/ice weapons, as well as governing which weapon effects will apply on which shot that is fired.

The Pyromancers are arguably the most feared of the two classes. Their progression up the fire chain of mechas is a long and expensive one. Commonly starting with the Cindron mecha, to the Inferno, to the dreaded Gigus, going to the fearsome Ignis, and culminating thus far in mastery of the Yallan mecha. Other mechas may have a bit of extra damage here and there to flame based weapons or even have splash or burn attached to them. However the above listed mechas are pure specialization in the fire weapons, and chosen by their pilots for that very reason.

The Cryomancers may not be as feared as their hot headed brethren, but they are every bit as dangerous. Again like the Pyromancers the Cryomancer focuses specifically on mechas outfitted by build stats to cope with the freezing technology and ordinance that accompanies it. They commonly start with the Nifthel mecha, then move to the Warg, then the Freon, followed by the Sever, on to the mighty Frigis, leading to Jottun, and finally coming to a head with the Boreas mecha.

Each pilot totally masters the mechas in their class until they can perform astounding feats of damage and show total control over the weapon effects utilized by them. The Pyromancers tools of trade are Burn, and Splash. The Cryomancers utilize Freeze, and Slow. Both combinations are devastating if used properly, and can reduce an enemy formation to either cinders, or frozen ice sculptures in moments.

Brotherhood Mancer pilots of note.

KiloToneRecoil and his Ignis Mecha.

Pat Willis and his Frigis mecha.

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534

MG Kitteh By David McCallum#701548

Submitted by David McCallum#701548

Clan War News Shared From The MG Page

The Heartbreaker Weapon Review by Germán Jaramillo #685605

1. INTRODUCTION/HISTORY:

Released in November of 3306, as one of the fastest missile racks ever developed, during the preparations for the new tournament that keeps our elite squads ready to defend the galaxy against the many menaces.

In old terra, the day in which this formidable weapon has been released, was known as Saint Valentine, the day of the Lovers, and as a retro joke, the engineers decided to name this killing tool as “Heart Breaker”, but you will be disappointed as this ballistic weapon will not only break your opponent’s heart, but also every other of his mech structure… Not cool when you were in the though you could recover some niode equipment instead pure “crap to scrap”.

The death from above will never cease using this weapon.

What the numbers speak…
. . .

2. TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Manufacturer: Valentine’s Factories.

Quality: High Niode Missile Tech.

Damage: 77. While for the level when you can acquire this formidable weapon will be a top one, it will continue as a factor even among the elite pilots.

Speed: 104 (Quite above the average, and superb for missile weapons, used to be slow as tortoises)

Abilities:
- Fork 55%
- Crit-Kill 3%
With these skills your mech will become an avatar of niode-incarnated Death.

There is a limit of 20 units that can be sold to the factories; better hope new units may be released in a future.

Min Level required: 40. (Really? Better get a bunch of them)

Cost: Ferrite: 808; Bioptics: 654; Niodes: 42

Best purchase: Bulk (5 units) for 168 Niodes.
. . .

3. OPERATIVE LIFE:

Unlimited.
You might want to use this weapon even in non specific missile mechs, as Torrents.
. . .

4. DESCRIPTION:

The death will drop from the skies in the shape of a rain of lethal ballistic heads deploying a myriad of small deep penetration and high detonation missiles, all of them projected from a seemingly heart like structure specially designed to allocate tactical missiles and equipped with four independent tracking and guiding sensors that will lead the missiles all the way towards the enemy mech reactors, with a high chance to spread targets into two of your opponents instead just a single one.
. . .

5. EVALUATION:

Superior.
Tier IX.

Score: 8/10 (Amazing niode weapon that you should try to acquire to spread the true love in this lovely day. Period)

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo #685605

Ruby Dragons Clan Logo By Kenneth Hicks #846092

Submitted by Kenneth Hicks #846092

Clan Profile: Northwind Highlanders with Deborah Roaché-Hudak #289133

There's been some pretty big clan shake-ups in the past few months as people are vying to become more competitive and shake up things to break some long running deadlocks...

But the flip side is that there are other clans who have endured these changes and still remain strong.

Checking back through the Clan War archives, clans have come and clans have gone, a lot just due to natural attrition. But there is one that stands out from the very start, present even at the very first Beta Clan war.

I'm talking of course about the Northwind Highlanders, and I have the privilege of speaking to Deborah Roaché-Hudak, long standing member and recently retired clan leader.


GG: NWHL have been around so long they are pretty much just part of the landscape. How have you guys managed to stay together for all this time?


DRH: I was not around for the first CWs but did see the tail end of the Beta play. Our founding Commander, Richard McKenna, had given over leadership to Thodoris Liolios already when I joined The Brotherhood. There was always a good core group of daily players, still is. That makes it easier to stick around for any game, when you're lucky enough to find good players you end up calling friends and brothers.


GG: So you did actually fight in the Beta wars?


DRH: I remember the Beta being in the MG logo when I began, I wasn't in the first few CWs because I hadn't joined any clan at that point, I assume it was still Beta when I was in my first Wars but to be honest I'm not positive. So many wars ago, I knew so little when I first started...


GG: So can you recall which was your first one?


DRH: I joined 1st Kearney Highlanders but was there only a few weeks and moved up to be in my first Wars with Black Watch. Tracy Wilson was the Clan Leader and we took Silver. It was the 4th CWs. for MG and my first.

I started about 6 months later than those who joined when it first began


GG: I saw that on your medal list but didn't want to take it as gospel... I'd heard that medals weren't always there, especially for the early ones.

Most of us are used to you being the highest ranking player in the game, but can you recall back then what level you were fighting at?


DRH: I believe I was around level 45 for my first Clan Wars. The top level players were in their 60s and 70s.


GG: Yeah, that's a bit of a step change from nowadays..

What sort of mech lineup did you have?


DRH: It would be called a rainbow nowadays.


GG: Can you recall what your biggest mech was?


DRH: Not really sure but I do recall being told to buy enough Ogguns to field a fleet of them. We didn't have equipment back then.


GG: OK, that bit about the equipment leads on nicely to the next question..

So what was your first war like? Obviously there weren't any specialists, but were there any other differences, either in the format or the way people played?


DRH: Yes there were but as I mentioned, I didn't know much when I first started. Things like bringing in level 1s to lower a clans average was common but I didn't pay much attention to how the other clans were formed since I wasn't a leader at the time, just a player trying to not disgrace my clan.

The number of crew needed has slowly grown over the years, plus we now have the Super Wars, Faction Wars - forcing clans to join together in groups of similar levels preferably. We also had an unlimited honor guard back then. All the really high levels had a major advantage with additional dodge and damage added to their battles which was limited to 50 after much debate and polling on the MG Player's Page.


GG: So you must have faced a whole heap of individual clans over the years. Can you  name a few of the notables and why they stand out in your mind?


DRH: The first clan I joined no longer exists, given the name, Nova in a Can, it would be expected to not last I suspect. I could have been with them for CW3 but refused to accept the invite until after wars ended. I had other aspirations and moved before the next wars started.I knew my name would be on the leader board, I was a daily player. Wanted a clan name to recognize

I shot up like a nova so it was appropriate.


GG: Yeah, I recall you being up there daily... I got recognised by the Heroes on the one day I got you off top spot... only time ever.


DRH: Congratulations! Sorry it's so late.


GG: Only 1 year, 11 months and 23 days, but whose counting...


DRH: Not you obviously, but as I was saying...

I was approached by a few clans when I was climbing. spoke with a half dozen different clan leaders before settling on NiaC. Although I might have accepted the invite to MurderBots (the original ones, not the current AFF affiliates), when I was turned down for the same reason (being too small level) it struck me wrong the way I was challenged regarding my level

Al Smith was maybe three times my level, if not more. Probably was around Level 25ish myself and he may have been 80 or more.

He asked me if I had any plans to level up fast and be where he was any time soon. I had plans bigger than that but choose to not speak with anyone regarding them, actions speak truth and those who could see would, any who wouldn't listen probably couldn't see so it all panned out in the end.


GG: Um, with hindsight that's got to go down as one of the worst judgement calls we've had in game.


DRH: Al already knows what I just said, told him before he quit. He laughed and told me I should have just said something. He would have taken me in if he knew I was gonna fly as I have. I doubt he'd mind me telling you that.


GG: Fair enough. We have however got a bit sidetracked. Notable clans and why they stand out?


DRH: I was too little to join Northwind Higlanders so I choose a Clan Leader I was comfortable speaking with. MurderBots and CyberStorm were the top in D1 when I started. Dark Angels kept trying to recruit me so they stand out.  Black Watch was the first Brotherhood clan so they come to mind of course. The 'other' Highlanders are still around, despite Ted trying for over a year to get our name exclusive, it was not to be. The Isle of Misfit Toys were D3 back then, they still are. That stands out in my mind. Probably could name a dozen more clans but those popped into my mind first.


GG: So how long did it take you to work your way into the NWHL, and at what stage did you take over as leader?


DRH: I spent less than a month in NiaC, then about the same amount of time in 1KH before moving up to BW for the first CWs. Maybe another month or two and I was in NWHLs. After about 6 months of play I was asked to join the Triumvirate. Our leadership always relied on three people for major decision making. I also began recruiting from an alt made specifically to be  leader of our new clan for those new players joining.

I was playing for maybe a year before I first was given leadership of NWHLs, Ted was going on holiday for a few weeks and asked me to hold down the fort. We had just finished a war I believe, so he expected things to be quiet.


GG: Can you recall if any of the original memebers are still with you?


DRH: Yes. Thane Dawson plays and was one who helped from BW. Dennis Long was already a member when I joined, not sure if he's an original founding member-same for David Campbell- but many of them have retired, he's still playing. Norman Hyslop has played as long as I can remember, still with us. Darth Zed was quitting as I joined but has returned to game and very active for months now. Lonnie Slayton has been around a long time. Andy Conover and Arthur Bruce were more active when I joined perhaps but they still help out for CWs. Hope I haven't forgotten any.

There are others who have played for years, some may have been with the original crew but are in other clans now, not really sure.


GG: I'm sure they'll forgive you if you missed any

OK, last question..

I guess since one of the things we are brushing on is clan longevity, any words of wisdom for leaders or players in order to keep things together?


DRH: Most of us need a reason to keep playing, the player base is what holds together any game, along with financial support, in my opinion. If you want to have your crew survive, bonds need to be made. I have talked about much more than the game with my crew, they are friends I turn to. There is no way I would have stayed this long without them. It's been hard watching some leave but it's the ones who've stayed that have made the difference.

If you want longevity, you must be willing to offer it yourself, first. Then you look for people with like minded goals.
When you have a solid core group of friends working together, you can pull through the toughest of times. Probably good advice for real life as well.


GG: Certainly sounds good

Hey, thanks for your time Debs...


DRH: You're welcome and thank you for taking the time to document some history. It's been bittersweet to walk down memory lane. I won't be in the upcoming CWs, I've gone into CW retirement although I'll be around for battles, KotMs and some Circuits. The three thousand pieces of equipment and weapons to outfit 35 mechas times a couple dozen specialists fields has become daunting and I'm tired. I hope all the player base continues to enjoy MG for years to come.

Submitted by David McCallum #701548