B.R.E.A.D. By Sten Hugo Hiller#627184

One of the latest developments from Starleague R&D (Relax and Drink) is the B.R.E.A.D. (Beer Rapidly And Expertly Delivered)

The Idea came up after the latest Clanwar. We spent 24 hours in a stretch in the cockpit with nothing to drink but hatorade. Now Hatorade is a great invention, but after the 5th liter or so it start to burn your throat, and you long for a cold beer.

Delivery from a safe position was deemed a good thing, as a mech involved in battle tend to get really hot. Bouncing from hits and evasion tend to break containers, or at the very least decarbonice the drinks.

What we ended up with was a modified 4 inch gun. Explosive charges was of course out, after a few trials rail guns was deemed to be workable, but we didnt want the metallic containers,
so we went for pneumatic delivery. Glass bottles were deemed to fragile, wooden minicasks tended to be to uneven for the barrel, so we ended up with ceramic jars.

It takes some practice to catch the beer in flight, and some mechs, the Anzu and the four leggers are incapable of catching it because the lack of arms. So even if the aim was true, a lot of the times the beer would strike the mech, and do some minor damage. Once in a while the jar would also splash some foam onto nearby mechs.

Another problem was that due to hidden stresses in the jars they can break in the barrel as they are ejected, dealing some damage to the hydraulic systems. But when it worked, the pilot would catch the beer, spend a few moments getting it into the cockpit, where he could enjoy a cold one.

Being warriors, some people will always try to make everything into a weapon. While the B.R.E.A.D. is intended to give a few moments of comfort to fellow warriors, I must admit that I can see the possibilities. Stats would probably be somewhat like:

Weapon type: Projectile
Speed: 1 (pneumatic weapons are wery slow, and take time to reload)
Damage: 1 (keramic vs ferrite)
Kickback: 2% 100% damage (sometimes it breaks in the gunbarrel)
Precicion: -2 (not aerodynamic so tend to tumble)
Splash: 1% (foam and splints can hit neighboring mechs)
Freeze: 1% (You caught it and spend some time getting it inside)

Submitted by Sten Hugo Hiller#627184.

1S1K Module Review by David McCallum #701548

Its good to be back after our little layoff, but its been a funny old week or so.



I had to take a break mainly due to other work commitments, namely one of the most abysmally executed office moves it has ever been my misfortune to be involved with.


And that includes, I might add, my original move into the GG offices, which involved having to move Patrick's extremely large collection of... ahem... publications for the discerning gentleman of loose standards and morals, a running battle along corridors against Ron's crusty undies and ferriting out Joel's sentient socks from their various hiding places where they lurked in wait for the unwary passerby.


My personal woes aside, we also had a Faction War announced. Always good to sit on the sidelines and imagine the back-room bartering as clans try to work out who is metaphorically jumping into bed with who and how it will effect their own choice of temporary partners.


And then there's the new weapons and gear hitting the market. Love that gear.


Multi-Gamma grade shields! Love a shield! Can't wait for the Big Boy Delta's, but as a middle-weight specialist, I can see some lighter mech loving in the very near future...


But since we are talking about the larger chaps, up at the top end we have a new cockpit unit that I wanted to have a quick look at.


The 1S1K module. It looks like a big green eyeball, but does much more than freak the kids out.


Cost first.... Ferrite and Bioptics are much of a muchness compared to the other offerings, but this is the most expensive cockpit piece out there at 62 Niodes. The question is though, is it worth it?


Precision rating of 7, 9% addition to missile damage output, 6% on lasers and a Fork chance of 3%, and you can only fit it on a 95 or 100 ton chassis.


Well of the 100 ton Chassis, it is 1 of 3 out of the 9 systems on the market that has no penalties, so that is certainly a plus.


95 ton range is a bit different though.... to be honest, unless its a missile boat I was loading this on, I'd probably go crystal as the sensor array is a better piece for its price on a laser mech. And if I really wanted to spend niodes, Haptics or M-Holes give comparable or better precision and that big swing vote towards crit kill that a decent laser system has.


But that little aside... aside... at the very top end, on the understanding we want no penalties, you have the crystal Lingo, which is OK as a cheap stop gap piece on a missile mech. The other choice is the V.I.M. board, and it is the mirror image to the 1S1K, filling in one the rest of the weapon mix that the 1S1K doesn't touch on.


The problem is though, the 1S1K just doesn't... get the juices flowing.


For the tonnage and cost, its just nondescript. You may as well buy a Smilodon and paint it beige...


The problem as I see it, is that the bar has been set really high for the big boys, and the top pilots want a definitive hook they can hang their proverbial hat on. A good freeze, lots of slow.


I mean look at the bar that's been set by the Fext... 9 X damage boost! Top pilots need a decent multiplier to live in that environment, and a 6% damage add just doesn't cut it.


Now don't get me wrong, if I looted one off the battlefield I'd load it on a mech rather than re-sell it for scrap, but by the same token I can't see it ever being on the top of my shopping list either.




Submitted by David McCallum #701548

Regi & Gygax X By Germán Jaramillo ID # 685605

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo ID # 685605

Red Ants Set Up & Workshop By Germán Jaramillo# 685605

1. INTRODUCTION.

Ok galactic folks, Factions Wars are in the horizon, and you want to get ready with one of the most famous specialist formations… the 10 tons max.

What equipment should you use in your tiny red mechs?

While I don't own the absolute truth, I dare share my thoughts, in the knowledge that only yours will be the final decision in your work to improve your red ant force.

First, we want to see what we could equip into our Red Ants… Let’s see:

__________________________________________________________

2. EQUIPMENT SLOTS:

At level 8 to 17 we can equip 1 Cockpit
Level 18 to 27: 2 Cockpits
Levels 28 to 43: 2 Cockpits, 1 Chassis
Levels 44 to 53: 2 Cockpits, 1 Chassis & 1 Shield
Levels 54 to 73: 2 Cockpits, 1 Chassis & 2 Shields.
Levels 74 to 99: 2 Cockpits, 1 Chassis & 3 Shields.
Level 100 and above: 3 Cockpits, 1 Chassis & 3 Shields.

We get that we aren’t going to equip engines in our fast red ants… All right, they don’t need them as long as they are already so fast mechs. Then, what other qualities might we be aiming for?

As red ant has a low armor, our goals are going to be faster than the enemy ants and precise, to achieve a hit and destroy the enemy mech before he destroyed yours, this is almost a Far West duel… and also, we want to be dodgy, to avoid the enemy shoots…

__________________________________________________________

3. MAIN SKILLS FOR RED ANTS:

So we could want what we usually want in any other mech:

Speed
Precision
Dodge

But also we may look to pierce (trample) the enemy lines and fork or splash them to maybe eradicate extra ants in every single shoot.

So:

Trample
Fork
Splash

Any other skill will be a plus, but probably not as decisive as those we commented above.

So let’s see what gear we have available in the galaxy stores:
__________________________________________________________

4. COCKPITS:

We get cockpits slots at levels 8, 18 and 100, so from 1 up to 3 cockpits.

4.1.1. Standard quality Cockpit devices (nor crystal)

Cup Holder: A crystal and cheap (just some ferrite and bioptics) stimulating drink that will boost us by Precision (4) and Crit-kill 1%... So this easy to acquire device, will give us some precious precision and a thin, very thin chance to knock out in one critical shoot the enemy (not really astounding as in a standard shoot we will probably do it as well). So we have the Precision (4).

4.1.2. Niode quality Cokpit devices:

FDF Targeting: Elite device giving Precision (5), 2x Damage 6%, Miss Dmg +10%, Proj. Dmg +4% by the cost of 16 niodes (plus some ferrite and bioptics)… The enemy red ants will be one shoot matter, right? So the 2x Dmg won’t be as amazing as the higher precision… Red Ants uses laser as weapon of choice, so we won’t need that boost for missile nor projectile (unless we decided to load exotic missile or cannons into our Red Ant, hey, a tactic!)… But basically, we have here Precision (5).

Aviator 3.0. Amazing pilot glasses micro-computerized with battle AI allowing: Precision (4), Trample 4%, 2x Dmg 3% & 3x Dmg 3%... Interesting… We have here Precision and Trample as two of our desired skills… Yes, there is also a bump on dmg, but in our one shoot standard kills, we will as mainly for the two mentioned.

Known Hacks. A neat patch to hack the enemy devices, signed by the famous hacker Skeleton not the less! Slow (5), Laser Dmg +4% and Freeze 6%. Ok, it bumps laser damage, but really, do we need to increase the damage on our weapons when Red Ants are almost one shoot down?. No, we don’t… And do we need to slow or freeze the enemy red ants, when all is one shoot matter? Nope, neither.

4.1.3. Best Cockpits?

This leaves us with two winners:

- Cup Holder
&
- Aviator 3.0

Well… One cockpit device is free of Niodes or Crystal: Cup Holder, that is; and the fashion sunglasses while I admit will give to your pilots a pro appearance… This will require 14 Niodes (and some ferrite and bioptics) from you.

__________________________________________________________

5. CHASSIS:
We can only equip a single chassis, because as all we know, the Red Ants are the tiniest of the mechs… So, the battle suit might get enforced with:


5.1.1. Standard quality Chassis (non niodes nor crystal):

- Alloy Tendons. (standard): Dodge (8), Shield (4)
- Reinforced Joints. (standard): Dodge (10)

Well… From both standard chassis, between Alloy tendons and Reinforced Joints, the call is easy: Reinforced Joints are our non-elite winner here, as they provide a higher dodge, and as the extra shielding from alloy tendons is going to be useless most of times (while this may be arguable), so low that our ant won’t get the difference yet.

5.1.2. Elite quality Chassis (Niode Chassis):

- Boxing Gloves. (elite): Dodge (11), trample Shield 30%, Shield (3)
- Hip Actuator. (elite): Dodge (12).
- Improvised Jump Jet. (elite): Dodge (16), 3x Dmg 5%, Kickback 5% odds 40% dmg returned.

Among the elite gear, we have interesting options with the boxing gloves dodge (11), that also might save some of you red ants from enemy trampling damage (30% trample dmg reduction), or Hip Actuators (dodge 12)… About the improvised jump jet, yes, it is tempting (dodge 16) but in a bad RNG draw, you are going to kill yourself. Overall, I may say the boxing gloves are the best elite chassis for your red ants…

5.1.3. Best Chassis?

PRACTICE (not Rich) pilots:
Reinforced Joints (up to 1): Zero Crystal, Zero Niodes. 203 ferrite & 120 Bioptics e/a.

ELITISTS (and rich) pilots:
Boxing Gloves (up to 1): 14 Niodes, 168 ferrite & 242 bioptics e/a.

__________________________________________________________

6. SHIELDS

We acquire Shield slots at levels 44, 54 and 74.

Let’s face it, as most of the enemy red ant squads will keep advantage of the impressive laser boost… They will load lasers and no one can blame them. You should too!

So, to protect your own red ant squad from the enemy laserization, you may want to equip as many Viridel Alpha/ Shields as possible (from 1 in level 44, to 3 in level 74 and above).

Oh yes, there is vulnerability for missile weapons, but if your enemy is going to load missiles, he will sacrifice in a great amount the speed factor (since most of missile have crappy speed rates, in opposition with the usually fast lasers).

If you want to be ready for any contingence and you were not short on resources, then you might want to keep different shields against every different enemy weaponry types. So if in the battle logs, you detected your enemy using different weapons than lasers, in a big amount, then you could just switch shields, loading those that could better protect your red ants from the opposite barrages.

Note that the % damage reduction is not arithmetically accumulative (two shields providing the same % protection of 10 won’t provide together 20% but but will escalate improving percentages as following.

6.1. Standard Shielding: Viridel Shield (34% laser damage reduction, Vulnerabilities: 12% missile damage & 10% fire damage)

1 Shield: 34% laser dmg reduction.
2 Shields: 56% laser dmg reduction.
3 Shields: 71% laser dmg reduction.

6.2. Elite Shielding (yes… Niodes): Viridel Alpha provides a really higher protection: 44 laser damage reduction, Missile Vulnerability 12% and Shield (6)

1 Alpha: 44%
2 Alphas: 69%
3 Alphas: 83%

Definitively, if you could invest in shields, those will really mean a true difference in your Red Ants duel.

__________________________________________________________

7. THE CHOSEN GEAR. TOTAL BONUSSES.

7.1. If you want to economize as Niodes are not infinite and neither grow from the friend’s farms…

COCKPIT: 3x Cup Holders
CHASSIS: 1x Dodge Joint
SHIELDS: 3x Viridel Shield

TOTAL BONUS (at his maxed gear):
Precision +12
Crit-Kill: +3%
Dodge: +10
Laser shield: 71%

Vulnerabilities:
36% missile damage
30% fire damage

7.2. If you are looking for the best possible for your Ants, my suggestion here (and keep in mind you might have a different goal in mind) may be:

COCKPIT: 3x Aviator 3.0
CHASSIS: 1x Boxing Gloves
SHIELDS: 3x Viridel Alpha

TOTAL BONUS (at his maxed gear):
Precision +12
Trample: 12%
2x Damage: 9%
3x Damage: 9%
Dodge: +11
Laser shield: 83%
Shield: 21
Trample Shield: 30%

Vulnerabilities:
36% missile damage

__________________________________________________________

8. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The main niode piece that makes the bigger difference here may be the shields. Even one or a couple of frontal lines properly protected against the weapons chosen by your opponent might move the edge of victory towards your field.

But then, even the cockpits and chassis; make a slight advantage that in the long term of the RNG (Random Number Generator) might also favors your odds with the precious Win Point.

As always, yours is the election. Be wise, be victorious!

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo Pulido#685605

Here Be Dragons By Carlos Hicks# 905078

Sector 4240: Meiji Shogunate

Planet: Camelot

Captain Carlos Hicks sat in his mech couch and chewed on his last MRE protein package. It had been one weird month. The Prince of Iron had had the audaciousness to dictate Clan members to attack members of the RND and other Dragon Clans that had joined the Prince of Flowers. When asked what this had to do with putting down the mad General, all his eminence had to say was that Ronin needed to know their place and not ask the “whys”, only to follow orders and succeed. To illustrate his point, he loosed an Iron drop ship down into the middle of Gold Clan to make a lesson for the rest. It had been a crazy fight to start, but once the Thong Brothers and Ken Freon had awoken and got into their mechs, the fight turned into a turkey shoot. Iron units tried to encircle the left flank, but were not ready for the speed with which the Gold members responded. Streaking out of the skies on jump jets, several 90 tonners landed behind Iron lines and ripped into them with retooled lasers and freeze gear. This caused whole units to get caught in a cross fire, unable to respond, then turned to slag as the Gold Clan ground pounders came into play, laying down sheets of fire power. Within minutes, all Shogunate mechs had been torn apart and blistered for their efforts.

“Well, it looks like we got our answer as to how to proceed. Search and scrap anything usefull off these Shogunate units, load up anything extra onto this wonderful ship they decided to give us, and let’s go rendezvous with the Clans at the predetermined coordinates. Hicks! Take your wing into the drop ship and make sure the Captain knows his new chain of command!”

Major Freon was about five five, hawk-like face, and vibrating with energy. He had decided there was no way in drek that he was going to fire on clan members or members of RND for the sake of this pompous jackanapes to solidify some sort of hold on his own government. That’s not what he or the Dragon Clans had signed on for. There were way too many good men and women who threw their lot in with the Prince of Flowers to be getting into all that. Mad General with an Army bent on universal domination? Sure thing. Give me cords and we’ll shoot. Need help with your personal electoral process within your own district? Ehhhhh, no. Nope. Not even. Go rig your own election. Now you’re going to throw a drop ship of mechs at us and see if that’ll get us to change our minds? Prince of Iron, you have a funny way of trying to get on someone’s good side.

Dropship Graille:
Commander Watanabe was nervous. He had received orders to take a Battalion of mechs to go deal with the Gold Dragon Clan, a group of hired Ronin. Unable to procure one of the Enlightened Batalions from the main Army, he had to take a Battalion of Reservists from Planet Odi. While excellent fishermen, the Odi soldiers were still learning the ways of war. Their Colonel had insisted on radio silence to begin the raid and now he wasn’t responding. On top of it, Watanabe now had more than 2 score of target locks from ground units on his ship.

<clang, clang, clang>

Blast doors to the deck opened up. All activity stopped as crew men turned to see who had opened the hatch. Standing before them was a mech pilot wearing Captains bars, red rimmed eyes, and a lopsided grin. It looked like he had a huge sunburn on one side of his face, and had a couple burnt patches on his flight suit.

“I would like to inform the honorable Commander of this hear ship that he now reports to Major Freon and the Gold Dragon Clan. Any questions and or points of resistance can be directed to my men outside of your drop bay window yonder.”

Watanabe turned and saw a row of Regis and Boreas mechas all standing in his drop bay with heavy guns all aimed at the Bridge. “May I be the first to welcome Major Freon and the Gold Clan on board. Who might I have the pleasure of addressing?”

“Carlos. Captain Carlos. Glad to hear you’re on board with the program! Now point me to the Cantina, it’s been a long morning.”

That had been twenty days ago. Since then, all Dragon Clans supporting the Prince of Iron had pulled their members and retreated to this corner world of Camelot on the edge of the Meiji Shogunate. They had listened to the power struggle, and were happy when it was announced that The Prince of Flowers had consolidated his power finally. Now things were getting a bit tense again. Members of the RND clans have been showing up in orbit of Camelot. Word had it that rumors were being spread as this being a Bastion of the last holdouts of The Prince of Iron’s forces and Kiyomasa didn’t want to take a chance in that. What he doesn’t seem to realize though, is that his Ronin’s were all familiar with each other through multitudes of Clan Wars, Mechalympix’s, and alien threats. This isn’t an “unknown threat”, these are their brothers in arms, who purposely withdrew from civil war as opposed to being forced to attack their family and friends for someone else’s purposes.

“Romeo, November, Delta, this is Delta Uniform. Please send cords for a sit down, over…”
The Meiji Shogunate was about to realize that keeping a Dragon as a pet was a good thing for a little bit, but that the Dragon would quickly realize there was a leash around it’s neck and who was attempting to hold it.

Submitted by Carlos Hicks# 905078

Red Ant Empire XXIII. By Germán Jaramillo# 685605

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo# 685605

Revenge on Red Ants By Cher Lee#875837

Submitted by Cher Lee#875837

Maxing Out 90T Mecha By Cher Lee#875837

Ever since the 90T equipment came out the BFM can arguably the Best mecha currently exist. Anyone who is able to possess the BFM can be a threat or a weapon, but it's not a matter of if you have it. It's a matter of how you can fully maximize your weapon. How can you make this 90 Tonnage BFM mecha to it's true strength. So how exactly can you build the perfect mecha?

There is two ways of building this weapon but one build will triumph over the other and here is the build.




First Class

Cockpit: M-hole/Haptic Interface (For high change of Crit)
Chassis: Torsion Helix (For great chance to dodge hits)
Engine: R.A.C.E. (Better chance to fire first and bonus auto repair)
Shield: 3-4 Thiokol Delta (Missile), 1 Arctic Delta (Ice), 1 Caudata Delta or Faraday Delta.

The other build that people like to favor is this build,

Second Class

Cockpit: Haptic Interface/M-Hole
Chassis: Groundpounders (For Trample and Fork + Freeze 15%)
Engine: R.A.C.E.
Shield: 1 of each or any of your choice

The biggest debate would be Torsion Helix and Groundpounders! High Dodge with a chance of high Vulnerability or High Tample, Fork, and Freeze percent? How can we choose? Which one should we invest in? Coming from me I can give you my opinion and experience, but I have something even better than that! I have raw data and have tested with both build and I can tell you that the Torsion Helix has a great advantage. If you don't believe try it your self.

From the data that I have collected 5/6 times the mecha with the Torsion Helix beats and out class the Groundpounders.

At this point you still might not be convicted as Torsion Helix have Vulnerability and Groundpounders does not. If you follow the build of the first class than all the Vulnerable should be completely gone or very little and it wouldn't even affect much.

There is a few ways to look at this. You have high Dodge and better chance of not getting hit or you can go with a chance of hitting multiple mecha but a higher chance of being destroy.

Now that the information has been release it is up to you to use this weapon of destruction. So what's it going to be? Your Choice!

Submitted by  Cher Lee#875837

Regi & Gygax 9 By Germán Jaramillo # 685605

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo # 685605

Regi & Gygax 8 By Germán Jaramillo # 685605

Submitted by Germán Jaramillo # 685605

We're Back By Pat Willis#224534

Submitted by Pat Willis#224534