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Welcome to Paanjang's website , where a typical SMK Seafield student brings his school to the world through his own means for honor , glory and driven by the urge to be ahead. Currently studying in Adelaide Australia, where catching up with the demands of university life and letting lose through Mechwarrior is a daily affair. Also looking forward to the day he meet the girl he loves. Saturday , 16th April 2005
I was not able to update my blog for a good half a year because: 1)I was too busy with my practical training which lasted from December to end of February 2)This year I am doing my Final year of my 4 year degree course and somehow the workload is wayyy beyond what I could have imagined 3)Have not played much MW:AoD although there were so many things have changed to MW:AoD 4) I forgot to mention, my previous semester was a real hectic one as I overloaded to finish up all the 3rd and 2nd year subjects so that I will not have to be bog down by puny compulsory little subjects. This is also makes my life slightly easier now since I can take less subjects than required to graduate (I suffered enough last year).
As you can see, trying to keep a blog up to date is not an easy task when you have so many things to do. So many things have happened that if I wanted to type every single thing down I think it would take the whole page lol (and bore the heck out of those who are reading).
Where should I start first? I think I would start by saying that I will no longer collect MW:AoD figures anymore. I just realized that computer (and video games for that matter) seem to give more bang for the buck that plastic figures which will somehow cost about the same. For the amount of money I spent previous year on boosters, uniques, LE figures etc, I could have bought myself one Xbox and a whole lot of computer and Xbox games (second hand Xbox games, since there are 50% cheaper than a new game).
As you can see from the previous paragraph, I am planning to get a Xbox! The price of one is very cheap actually. For only RM 450 I can get a second hand one, with guarantees that it will work. The games are still on the steep side, but then I can rent games here cheaply (or for the price of a pirate PC game) for a week. Since some games are short, completing them should be no problem... I think. Games like Halo 2 which is short (ppl complained about its sucky ending) might make a good rental, while games like GTA is better to buy the game since you would spend hours and hours.....
Then there is Xbox live to play online. After reading about it on the internet, you actually have to PAY to play online. Computer games like Counter Strike Source are free and the only thing you pay is Half-Life 2, and it cost less than Halo 2!!!!!! So I think Xbox Live is only a gimmick really. Nothing beats playing an RTS online for free. Still, I want to try out Xbox live to see what the hype is all about. It is rumoured that Halo 2 story sucks because the developers spend a little too much... correction, the whole development time on the multi-player component of Halo 2 that they forgotten about the single player... and they still charged Halo 2 RM 300 (compared to Half-Life 2, RM 270).
I originally wanted to buy a PSP, but since I am in the Southern Hemisphere, I dunno when the PSP will come. Then there is the choice of games to play, the price of the PSP itself (twice the price of an Xbox I might add) and the fact it is a super gameboy.... rather take the Xbox. My bro wants the Xbox more than anything.
So is there any hope for MW:AoD? I would say I would still play it. Might buy some singles when FirePower comes out. Other than that, will concentrate more on getting an Xbox.
That's all for now. Too much things to talk.....
Tuesday , 21st September 2004
Finally I have time to update this blog. The past few weeks has been very hectic with all the assignments and projects to do. Now that the mid semester break has started (since last Friday) I now can relax and most importantly update this blog. Seems like I have lost interest in this blog but the truth is that there are many more things that needs to be done , Mechwarrior included.
This semester I am taking more subjects compared to last time. Could have been worse actually. Originally I was planning to do 15 units compared to 11 units last semester. But since I have already done machine dynamics when I was back in INTI, I managed to transfer 1.5 units from INTI and was awarded that units. So now I am doing 13.5 instead. The workload is slightly less, but it is still a lot considering the usual load per semester is 12 units. Boy I must work hard this time.
And play hard too. Right now my venue has tourneys every Sunday and the players usually meet up for a friendly game on Wednesday. Three weeks ago I used my Merc Cygnus and won the tourney. Well, that was because the good player was not around and everyone I fought against don't know how to take down an assault mech with insane speed; having a big mech can really lower your opponent's morale :) After that victory my dice rolls began to fail me and I was slaughtered. Maybe it was the mechs, or my army built, but I think it was most probably the dice. I can't remember how many times I rolled a critical miss when I shouldn't!
Anyway, there has been a lot going on with the MWDA for the past weeks. Wiztopps announced that they will released a new base set in January 05! With it, comes new rules and new game mechanics to improve the game and to make mechs stronger. The only bad thing is that they will also implement set retirement , making my pre-Liao figures useless for play except unrestricted. Oh well, at least I won't have to face cheese anymore.
Then there is also the Star Wars minitures D&D game. I thought of getting into the game, but no one seems to try it out. I'll wait to see if any of my MWDA players might give it a go and see for myself how good the game is. A lot of MWDA players are saying that this SW minis game will make Wiztopps kick the bucket. Well I think it will most likely happen since Wiztopps' game has lots of problems. So will I fall for the dark side?... Mostly likely no. I prefer giant robots shooting each other to death than infantry warrior with small human like plastic figures. Besides, I rather stick to Wiztopps than switching from one greedy evil corporation to an even greedier evil corporation. At least Wiztopps is listening to its players and the game designers know and admit there is a problem with the game.
Now that it has been a month since the released of Falcon's prey, I have now amassed quite an army. Among the Clan Jade Falcon units I have is the Shrike, Eyrie, Gyrfalcon, ocelots, panther, koshi, skanda, kelswa, long tom, repair mech, sniper teams, track bike, gun nest and cardinal transport. Still have not gotten any JF sylphs, elementals and gnomes. This is what I hate about collectable gaming, you can never get what you want!
I now have the majority of the FP unique sculpts already. Few weeks ago I managed to get the SH Vulture and the SF Tiburon. Bought the Liao thor-B from a kid you who really lucky this expansion (and still is, pulled the storm-raider recently, now have to get him to pull a kodiak and lure him to part with it with my SSw Ryoken 2). Bought the shrike from the shop assistant. The 18 inch Gyrfalcon from the shop and the eyrie online. The only thing left to collect is the cyclops (still thinking if I want to get it since it is FAT), the templar and the Uziel. There is a case share later when I return home so getting this uniques now will only make me end up with doubles later. Add to the fact that the new base set is coming, I am going to reduce the number of boosters and singles significantly until next year or until I return home.
That's all for now!Bye!
Saturday , 14th August 2004
Sorry for the long delay in updating this blog. I arrived here with my mind still at home. Also, I am now getting my regular routine back online and getting up to steam with all the work which is pilling up as I type.
Today is the Falcon's Prey Pre-release tournament at my regular venue. The attendance at the venue today was fantastic. More than 20 players turned up for the sealed event. Some of them are VERY VERY new to the game and do not utilize the usual tactics that are employed by experts players by me. Others NEVER use terrain at all and play with a barren landscape with no trees or whatever.
Anyway, a sealed format is here each player buys 3 boosters (in this case the FP boosters) and make an army out of it. Sealed requires the combination of luck and skill to win. You might pull a kodiak but without the skill , you may not win.
Today my luck when it comes to pulls were BAD. Ok, if I was comparing the guy next to me who pulled a Merc Templar , M.D Thompkins and a JF stinger. I would say my pull were mediocre. No I did not pull a Shrike or Eyrie or Gryfalcon, but at least I pull something playable........... in a normal game. So what did I pull in my first 3 booster sealed event?
I pulled: HL shadow Hawk IIC SH repair mech Flavio Rodriguez (the Liao Koshi with 0/2 range. Oh the joy!) HL MHI Amphibious APC SC Long tom SSw Cardinal Transport (the best of the lot, cool sculpt too) JF sniper team Merc sniper team JF Gun Nest (it can move on its own!! OMG these guys are strong! We no need a transport! We can carry it ourselves!!!!) DF trackbike and to my greatest surprise ; 2 SH Sylph BA , both in the same booster!!
I pulled all this while at the same time I can see people pulling the templar, the tiburon, the uziel , the vulture and many more. I wanna shrike , but nooooo this stupid liao koshi must come to me. Whatever, I think this is a sign FP is going to be very bad. Suddenly I felt that my pulls will be like in FFE.
The unique and LE distribution among all the players is almost 1 per player. Some did not pull a unique at all, but most have a unique to boast about. There must be a hell of a lot of uniques now that people are buying singles rather than boosters. But after my super pull I decided to buy singles, as are people all over the world after looking at the stats of every single unit.
So how did my game went? I must save that I was simply outgunned. If I was against an expert player with superior units I would be eaten alive. In all 4 matches I faced new players who have nor grasp the game fully. Also, my dice rolls suck :(
My army for today is made out of the HL shadow Hawk, the liao koshi (he is better and more viable than the salvage mech) , SC long tom, JF sniper team, merc sniper team, the 2 sylphs and the trackbike. The total was 436, 14 points short.
My first match was against the store assistant who also plays MWDA. He was fielding a SC panther, a JF griffin, a ROTS skanda and some infantry. Both of us used blocking terrain and made a city map. My Sylphs were using the blocking terrain to move into position while my mechs slowly advanced. His mech meanwhile also advanced cautiously up to the center of the battlefield with his infantry ahead. I used my long tom to make his units move around.
The call came when he moved in his skanda to the center. I then moved liao koshi to base it on the side, but away from his arc. Next turn he successfully broke his skanda, pulse my koshi and moved his griffin closer. During that time my arty managed to damaged his panther and my shadow hawk was busy killing the skanda.
The then proceeds to DFA my koshi and kills it. On my next turn I pop-shot-dive his griffin with my sylphs . It is like those jumpers in MW4, but this time it is infantry doing it! His panther, now damaged and have a low attack, moved to base my shadow hawk. I proceeded to break my shadow hawk and base the griffin. None of the mechs can hit me due to their low attacks. In the end I managed to kill his griffin and his skanda. I only lost my koshi and some infantry. I won this match by a small margin. Not bad for my first match. The koshi proved a good bait.
My next battle was tougher. I was facing Dock Steward (HL Warhammer IIC), 2 DF Sylphs, 2 JF tanks and some infantry. The only thing that kept me from being obliterated is the fact that the other player is also a newbie and does not use terrain at all. I used a few blocking terrain to hide behind.
The first few turns I was shooting shells at his mech and the JF tanks. The critical moment came when my long tom shell "home in" on his warhammer, bringing his attack down to 9. I just keep my entire force behind the buildings to stay away from his energy attacks. His entire force slowly advanced towards my forces on my side of the map.
As he advanced, 1 of my sylphs moved 18 inches and went behind his warhammer. He had some tanks as support, but I kept at NOE and used his mech as blocking terrain. Another Sylph was sent to base a JF tank at the rear. Next turn he ordered one of his tank to base the hiding sylph and moved his mech. Both my sylphs close combat the JF tanks, damaging both of them, but none returned alive.
Meanwhile, he sent his 2 DF sylphs into my deployment zone to try to shoot my arty to death. I moved my shadow hawk to shoot those BA down while the koshi ran and based the JF tank at the side. Unfortunately for me there was not enough time for me to destroy the JF tank with flavio. If so , I might win by destroying his 60+ point tanks while I only suffered two 28 point casualties.
My third battle was against a real powerhouse. No arty on the other end, but I was facing M.D Thomkins himself , a JF stinger and some infantry. He was too a new player (in fact all of them are new players), and never used any terrain. I laid out the similar terrain I used earlier. I want to use the pop and shoot and dive tactic many times over. Again I stood inside my fortress and lob shells towards the incoming enemy. I had no choice really. I was facing a super dooper mech that can do 6 damage ballistic with $%$# units.
My sylphs took up position behind the buildings waiting for the mech to come close. My shadow hawk hide between 2 buildings as cover , waiting for the right moment to come out. His first unit to come near me was his stinger. To my great surprise the JF stinger has 17 defence with evade, so a ranged defence of 19. I used the bike to hold down the stinger while my arty rained shells on them. For some unknown reason, all my units suffered a critical missed of some sort. One of my sylphs critical miss, my shadow hawk critical miss, both against the stinger. I managed to take down the stinger while the tundra wolf when on and killed infantry with a single shot. The tundra wolf never got a chance to aim at the shadow hawk or the sylphs because I hid behind blocking. It did however, moved pass everything and shot flavio in the face. 6 damage !! whoopee, one useless koshi. Well, atleast he was good as bait. My shadow hawk proceeded to take apart the stinger while my sylphs have rear arc shots at the tundra wolf.
The battle result : I won. I only lost 2 of my sniper teams and a bike while I took down a stinger and an infantry. Those people on Realms was right, the stinger is simply giving points. Also, those sniper teams are fantastic. No one expect a small 20 point unit to do 2 damage at 0/12 range! Most of the time it was these guys who cracked open big targets.
My final match was pain. I mean REALLY pain. He had 2 long toms , one Liao one and the other a JF one. Both have 2 pogs, both can do 2 damage per pog and the liao one has HARDENED ARMOR. Warpog once again. I laid the terrain as usual, with my opponent using no terrain. The only difference was that there was a puddle of water in the center of my fortress for my mechs. After I moved my units in my first turn, it rained heavily. Two 3 inch pogs rain down upon my mech (just realized that my mech has reactive armor, no need to run) and my arty, while another two 2 inch pogs rain down upon one of my sylphs and my arty. Four damage to my long tom coming up. GREAT. Thank goodness he was not firing continuously. My next turned I moved my mech and my slyph pushed ahead near his JF arty. There was nothing that could shoot the sylph down besides a SH ocelot, so I took a chance. Flavio ran ahead to move to base the Liao arty next turn. His arty was not shielded (mine too), since in sealed rarely you can get peasants to protect your arty.
He on the other hand moved his JF shadow hawk up towards my mechs. My shadow hawk and the other sylphs are all waiting behind blocking terrain, waiting for the target to move it. He had some infantry guarding both his arty, but it would take him a few turns to do that and by that time I would have taken his mech down. Flavio shot his only chance to shoot when he successfully hit the liao long tom.
When his mech was near my sylphs , I did a pop-shoot-and dive maneuver. JF mechs have low defence, and my sylphs could easily hit. He then moved his mech to base my sylph. Next turn I roll for break away. It failed, but since the infantry is a VTOL I just rose to cruising, allowing my shadow hawk to shoot at the JF mech. But the HL mech failed to hit. Thankfully a JF sniper team was nearby to deal 2 clicks to the JF mech. His JF shadow hawk returned the favor with an energy attack to my HL mech. He also killed my slyph basing the JF long tom.
Before I can perform a DFA on his JF mech , (his defence was low at that time) , I ran out of time. In the end I lost because I just was not able to kill anything and I lost a Sylph. Amazingly, the other Sylph was in salvage .
So there you have it, my battle report for today's tourney. Two wins, 2 losses. In the end the winner was the one who had good pulls and was extremely skilled. All the participants got something. I opted to get a FP booster as the participation prize. Inside the booster it contained:
JF Panther (not bad really, just keep VTOLS off of him) JF Kelswa Assault tank (24 defence baby!!!) JF Gray Death Scout armor and one more infantry I forgotten what it was. Not a bad pull at all :)
Also, I managed to acquire some other units as well. Danny was willing to sell some of his pulls to me. Too bad I cannot get the elite JF gold fish.
Among the units I bought: 2 Elite HL griffin Green Kell Hounds Paladin Defence tank 2 Wolf Dragoons Gnomes DF Sylph SH Sylph (too bad I cannot formation, now I got 3 of these) Elite JF Skanda light tank Elite HL Kleswa Assault tank (24 defence with Single-Use-PDS) Elite JF Ocelot Veteren Liao sniper team Green HL Flamer team Elite ROTS flamer team Green JF sniper team
All for AUD 50. A deal to me, since the Kelswa and skanda is absolutely well detailed. The DF Sylph will caused problems as it is a 30 point infantry with speed VTOL that moves 22 inches!!! I took the paladin defence tank because I liked the sculp. The JF ocelot because it is JF :P
Thursday , 1st July 2004
It's July already! And on the 6th of July I'll be heading back home on a Malaysian Airlines Jumpship bound for the capitol. Can't wait to get home !! (and I know some who can't wait for me to return :)
Monday's paper was Heat Transfer. It as held in the morning at 9.20 pm in a large exhibition hall named Wayvile (sp?) Pavilion. Turns out the uni rented the entire exhibition floor of the hall to conduct several exams at once from all the schools and departments in the uni. Last Wednesday's paper , Solid Mechanics, was the same time as a paper for one dentistry subjects I saw. The Heat Transfer paper was ok to say the lease. I could do all the questions, albeit not sure if the answers I wrote is right or wrong. The answer has flow, and is logical, but might not be the appropriate answer. Oh well, exams of past has been like this all the time. Since it is in the morning, I went there when it is just sunrise and very cold. My hands were frozen when I wanted to answer the first question. After an hour, there was enough heat in my hand that TSM kicked in and now I can write like normal. My friend said that in the morning of winter (this is the southern hemisphere) it can get very cold and he prefer afternoon papers.
My final paper is Engineering and the Environment. Its about noise , vibrations, pollution, cyclone filter, LCA, sustainability etc. The paper was a solid 3 hour paper. Eight questions do ALL. Two of them are very time-consuming. Fortunately I was able to do all the questions with enough answers in them to considered "complete" . All my friends were like struggling to finish the paper due to lack of time. Some even complete it very early and stayed relaxed throughout the entire paper , according to me friend. I just answered the question according to my instincts.
All the exams were open book. Open book does not meant it was easy though. The thing about open book is that they throw you a question which require some very deep thinking and study , hence the book to help you, or they alpha strike multiple questions at once and expect us to answer them all in a short time. E&E was like the latter, 8 big questions (actually 2 big, 4 small, 2 medium) and do all in under 3 hours. They do however allow you 10 minutes reading time before the 3 hours to plan your attack, which was very useful ; you won't much time to stop and think once the answering phase has started. For me the exam was ok. It is not impossible, just that time is very much needed. Some subjects require that it be an open book exam (like heat transfer) because there are simply tooooo many equations to remember. I don't think the lecturer is sane enough to remember it by heart. You'll go insane trying to remember all the formulas , like in the convection chapter, there are easily 20+ formulas to remember, all very long and complex , and that is only in the convection section! There's conduction, convection, radiation, heat exchanger etc. Of course, you do need to study before hand before you enter the exam to know where the information is located in the book or the notes so that when you answer the question, you know exactly where to go for the answer.
So now till the 6th I am just lazing around and thinking of what to pack. I bought myself a tub of ice-cream to try out. The ice-cream is very creamy and easy to scoop out compared to our Malaysian ice-cream which are hard as rock when you take them out of the freezer. Since it was made with milk and with no palm oil (I know it is one of our country's most important commodity, but certain things are not supposed to have palm oil) it tastes better too!
Yesterday I went to town to lepak. My parents want me to see if the university sell souvenir items like bumper car sticker, cloth bag, pencils , mug, eraser, t-shirts etc. My parent's university, University Malaya sells items like that, so it comes to no surprise that they ask me to see if my uni has anything like theirs. Unfortunately, the only souvenir items that they have are winter jackets , caps and traveling bags. No items that have a use like pencils , erasers like UM. Ohh well, I think they don't sell them to keep things simple or that the university students just don't buy them. Keep things simple it seems.
After that I went over to my venue to see if there are any MWDA players there. Wednesday is usually the day where MWDA players meet up at the venue. I don't play during that time, but just to take a look previously because I got lectures from 2-3 pm. That day Danny, his pal and the local HL player was there, playing with the dropship. The HL player made up a 2000 point assault force while his opponent was playing the dropship with 2 assaults and a few vehicles. Danny was not playing.
For the first time ever I saw how powerful the dropship was. Sure there were 2000 points of the best assaults and arty, but the HL player only managed to take down one turret and damaged the rest when his entire force lost the gryfalcon (he went to the Aussie nationals, and they gave him one) , the SH Atlas, Cylde, Yuri Mas.. (sp?) , some Balacs while the rest of his army can't do anything since the dropship is immune to 2 damage AP arty. No Liao arrow IV tank was played , otherwise it will be a waiting game. The mechs did not stood a chance. Trovic was pulsed , missed his only chance to alpha strike and died the next turn. The SH Atlas never stood a chance against a turret with 12 attack, 5 AP .Eribee was blown to salvage by the same turret. Clyde and Stefani with the help of SSw Balacs successfully destroyed a turret , but in the process Cylde shut down in the range of 2 still active turrets. Stefani managed to run away to safety, but not Clyde. All while the dropship's support (Erin, Colin Yukinov, SH Aesir, SW MHI) slept peacefully under the dropship's bay doors, immune to arty, immune to the assault. In my mind one of the tactics that could be done is to open the doors, fire the arty inside, next turn close the doors to prevent the opponents arty from hitting on the second turn. All of us were commenting that if points were spend on more assaults , there might be a chance. He took with him 2 longtoms, 2 SSw arrow IVs, a waste of points since the dropship is immune to AP and has hardened armor. The reason the dropship is immune to AP? Well, If I got arty I'll stay here outside the range of those turrets and fire away. No need to slug it out. Boring will it not?
After the battle, cut-short by the fact that the store was already closing and there was no way a damaged Eribee and Stefani can take out the remaining 4 turrets, I asked around to see of anyone is letting go any , unique units or battlemechs. I was in luck just like last Saturday. The HL went to the Aussie Nationals to play and he pulled quite a number of uniques during the sealed event. No he did not pull any kodiak :( , but he did pulled a Yu Huang, Dean Lanos, the 2 BR uniques and some other uniques from other expansions. Just so happen he was willing to let go the Yu Huang for a mere AUD 30 and a SW Rifleman for AUD 5. I also bought Katsu Moriyama, Hitoshi Sato and another SW rifleman from the guy who sold me the thor , black knight and black hawk on Saturday for AUD 25 , AUD 20 and AUD 5 respectively. So all together I spend AUD 85 yesterday , about RM 255 :~ . I knew I overspend this time, but I know someone who wants a SW rifleman and asked me if there was anyone with a Yu Huang. The second SW rifleman was for myself. Besides, it may sound a lot but in the long run is cheaper than buying boosters and won't end up with junk! If I do want to spend on boosters, it would be for Falcon's Prey or when I am back in Malaysia.
I tried Jaclyn Bell today. Very glass jawed. Sure it can run 24 inches, but after only 3 AP clicks it loses its Jump jets and its mobility and is now a decent 8 speed. From a 271 point assault to a 200 something mech in 3 clicks. Katsu proved a good brawler, but not a good shooter (got negatives on his energy weapons). His command is good , his hardened armor (something very rare on a light mech) protect him against small arms and his mobility allowed him to go where I asked him to go.
Now I am in the process of deciding on what to pack. I know I am going to bring all but Kriya, Derek, Peterson, Mavis back home. Kriya and Derek I already have their sculpt. Peterson and Mavis.... they served no useful purpose in battle (Peterson is a good one-shot-never-comes-back charger though). The problem I encountered is how to transport the figures without breaking them. I was originally thinking of putting them in the big bag, but since it will rattle around and the way they handle bags, I was worried that my unique plastic figures, each costing AUD 20 on average will break! Already my Tora's Unruly mob one peasant has left its base! (The one I will trade is still in its LE box). So I was thinking of placing them together with my laptop in my backpack. There are still enough space for some essential items I might bring with me. The rest of the units will have to go with the big bag. The sculpts are quite strong (I did dropped them sometimes) and it will be unlikely a broken non-unique mech (unless it's trade fodder) will matter.
Other items are the usual stuff; clothes , laptop, handphone charger, etc. I will travel light this time. No books to bring home compared to when I was in Inti where every time I leave for holidays I will take with me my desk top computer, my laundry , my pillow, my bed sheet and my books. It filled my entire car boot and back seat . This time my laptop can enter my back pack together with my uniques. The big bag contains the rest of my force with my clothes. No Aussie souvenirs this time. My family had enough of kangaroo/koala bear/wombat/ostrich magnets/t-shirts/mugs .. you get the idea.
So I am looking forward to deploy all my new weapons of war (arrow 4s, ATVS, Mjolnirs, Raiders, Arnis, Donar, Garrot) when I come home :) My opponents will surely be very jealous of me :P
Saturday , 26th June 2004
Sixteen days (correction, 13 days) I never update coz I got exams going on. In fact today is my third exam of this semester. So happen that today there is a tourney at my MWDA venue, but because got exam I cannot go :( And in July all the tourneys are held when I am back in Malaysia. By the time I come back got no more tourneys for the rest of July :] My exam today is the Robotics M exam (kinda ironic , coincidence whatever , that the subject that has a bit to do with MECHs clash with the MWDA tourney.. hmmm) and it is a 2 hour paper held in the afternoon. After the exam I went over to my venue to see if the Battlemaster or anyone has any unique or LE units to offer. I prefer to buy singles now. In the long run it is actually CHEAPER to spend about RM 60 per mech than bid RM 45 to test my luck with boosters. Also, you get what you see, and can take it home instantly. Better than E-bay though, no need to use credit card and I don't know how to use other methods of payment. (Though I got to admit, when Falcon's Prey comes out, I really got to see if I can keep my own words)
When I arrive there, the tourney has already finish and everyone is preparing to go home ; the perfect time to see if anyone has something to offer. The number of participants this time is good , 6-8 maybe, some of them newbies with the BM giving away free Colin Yukinovs and Nikol Brahes . Apparently from what I heard, someone ordered 1000 of those mechs for the Aussie nationals last month. So there is a super glut of those mechs (Hopefully I can get a free Colin Yukinov in the future, the Shieldturion and Colin Tolek really need their commander).
I did a check with what the BM has to offer, but unfortunately he has already unloaded a lot of stuff during the nationals. But the mechs last time I checked with him are either too costly or he simply does not have it. Oh well, maybe my Unique buying spree is over I thought.
Just so happen that Danny was there too. He still plays apparently, even though he unloaded a lot of stuff. He asked me how I was doing with his lot and told me that one of his friends which bought some of his unique units now wants to sell some from his lot. So happen that I was at the right place at the right time , his friend wanted to get rid of a whole lot of unique units and he brought them all with him!
Also, now I was a bit careful with my spending. I don't want to drop like AUD 100+ just like that. I knew that usually each unique will go for about AUD 20 = RM 60 ; a reasonable price considering how rare and how much a booster cost. This time however, it was my wallet who controlled my spending. I only have AUD 70 with me. Nowadays I carry very little, to curb excessive spending.
I bought from the guy **** Drumrool**** Antonia Chin, Yuri Mashnovska and Yulri Wolf for only AUD 65. Which brings to about AUD 21.70 = RM 65.10 each. Both the Thor and the Black Knight I was looking for it for ages! and now I finally have it. Buhahaahaha *** evil laugh **** . The Black Hawk I better take coz I want to have some 16 inch range mech when I come home . It might suck in comparison to Sadia (Arnis will eat it alive lol) , but the sculpt looks cool and the stats is something different from the rest (that is why it is a LE).
I take this 3 mechs as my birthday present for this year. Last year I got myself Angus, this year I got myself Antonia , Yuri and Yuri!... opps and YULRI! .. with the extra L. (what a coincidence, 2 Yuris). Next year I'll get myself a Kodiak! .. and a Turkina! and a .... the lists goes on. I checked my Battleplanner, I now have all the uniques from FFE 091 (Angus) to FFE 096 (Colin Tolek). I have a preference for heavy and assault mechs , and the ones from FFE 085 to FFE 090 are all light and medium.
I still have Heat Transfer on Monday morning (arrrgghhh, the subject is killer but on a MONDAY MORNING?!!!?) and Engineering and Environment on Tuesday evening. Too lazy to study now. Must rest a bit after the Robotics exam (and a bit excited about my new "toy" ). Now my unique and LE count is 40. Last week it was 37. When I return home I expect it to be 37 again when I hand over Ken Roos, Vincent Altman and C.Schiller to my friend. Hopefully a good trade can done :) But Mr. Ken, Vincent , extra Joel Brane , extra SW infantry pack and extra LE V1 ranger is confirmed going. C.Schiller if only the deal is good though. Well see....
Sunday , 13th June 2004
Two exams down, more to go! The next paper is on the 23rd of June, so there is plenty of time left to study and rest. After that it will be very hectic as its paper after paper after paper. I hope by that time my brain is enough info to score.
This weekend I did not do any studying. After the Structural Design (SAD) paper I was too tired and too worked out to study for the next one . It did not help that the SAD paper is computer based objective questions and it is 1 and a half hours long. You see, like all objective questions, you have to choose options A-F. The SAD questions are mostly calculation questions and there are 27 of them. With only 90 minutes to solve 27 questions (that's 3.333 minutes each question) and some of them require very long calculations , add the fact that it is objective , and you have one very tough paper... errr, computer exam. This is my first time I did an exam on a computer. The 'paper' did not go so well though. The answers I go does not match with the answers provided. Some of the questions requires so many variables to be taken into consideration that it is impossible to come up with a suitable answer that matches the answer provided in a short time span. Some of the questions are downright stupid and bizarre. If it is a paper exam, I would get marks for the working. Not this one. No answer, no marks.. nada ..... after this "exam" I prefer the good old fashion paper made out of wood.
The SAD exam should not have been a computer exam (more accurately not 1 and a half hours to do 2 lotsa calculation questions). It really should not have been in our course even. We Mechanical students do Mechanical to build cars, tanks, VTOLs, Battle armor and mechs!! not to build buildings! arrghhhh .. who is the freebirth who thought of this idea!?!?!?
Ok, enough of that already. Once it is over it is over. I don't care if I fail or not. Like William Hung said " I did my best! and I have no regrets about it! ". Not that I am a fan of Hung, it is just that the stupid thing is savarashi over.
After the exam I went over to my venue to see if my prize have arrived. Nope , it has not arrived. I did bought boosters though. The first booster I bought was a CS booster. The pull was OK again. No unique , no junk. The pull was:
SC Sun Cobra (now I have 2 of these babies! Fear the 16 incher brothers!) Liao Arrow IV tank (must play warpog.. must play warpog...) HL IS BA (Look ma! We have streaks and a cool paint job!) ELH Purifier BA (my second merc purifier)
Wow, the last 4 boosters I bought all contained artillery. First I got the SW mortar squad , followed by the Liao Arrow IV, SW Arrow IV and now a Liao Arrow IV. I wonder if my pulls will consistently give me artillery.... now that I got arrow 4s, I want uniques!
As I was checking the contents of my latest pull, another co-worker of the store, a different guy, not the one who pulled the BH for me, was thinking of getting a booster too. He was thinking of getting a booster of DFA and took the whole bunch of them to the counter to pick which one have a good unique inside. I too held the boosters in my hand to pick any one which might contain a unique. Cherry picking I would say, but nowadays it is getting really hard to cherry pick a unique.
There was this DFA booster which felt like there is a dossier inside. The contents did not rattle like the rest of the boosters do and from the looks of it it seem liked there is a unique inside. Well, sadly :( there was no unique inside. They must have several VTOL rules paper inside because the plastic bag containing the rules is thick as hell. There was no fake dossier even. Not that it mattered though, since I pulled the following:
HL Couger (gosh, another "I traded this away and it came back to me" unit) ROTS Lamprey (woopeee! finally I have a Lamprey! ROTS too! It can backup my HLs!) HL Kanazuchi (Ditch the targeting computer, I want more flamers!) SC TAC (the shock troopers are better)
The VTOL stole the show for this booster. I always wanted a Lamprey to add to my collection. Wish I could get the HL version, but this version is enough even though its defense is 1 point less than the HL version. oh well.
What did the co-worker pull? He pulled a ROTS cougar, ROTS Achileus , DF Trike and a BR Mobile HQ. He plays DF, so he was happy to get the trike . Reminds me of what the former DF player back home pulled in his DFA booster. He pulled some crappy stuff, and the unit that made him happy was the DF Trike. Sure it is a stupid little infantry, but it can really cause a lot of pain and suffering and it is one of those pieces killing MWDA right now. Noticed that the highlight of the pulls was the Arrow IV , the Lamprey and the DF Trike, but not the mech? Sad but true, the only competitive mech (that's right, only 1) is Arnis Drummond. Others will be pog to death, charged to death, captured alive and so on. BR lego comes a close second, but with Arnis around, he is like any other mech.
I tried to stop buying anymore boosters, but I simply can't stop. The addiction is too great! Must try to carry less money to town in the future, like I always do when I go to CC and play.
Oh yeah, last week when playing a friendly battle at my venue, my opponent did some VERY grievous errors when it comes to the rules. At first I was surprised and thought that is how it should be played. After posting on MWRealms did I know that what he did was simply not the way it was supposed to play. The result of the battle didn't matter anyway, since the prized have been decided, but I was annoyed by the fact that they played the rules wrongly. At the start of the battle , (he started first, stupid ATV-warrior) he moved his ATV to based by vehicle in the rear . My army was not designed to counter ATVs, so I didn't care if he based me or not. He based his ATV with the base outside the battlefield . I said he can't do that since the unit's base must be on the battlefield. He said it is possible since the center dot is in the battlefield. Since I was not sure on the rules, I just let it be (also, he would be basing in the rear anyway) .Then during the battle, he says that I cannot free spin my mech (not shutdown) when based because his ATV is in my rear arc. Even the Battlemaster agreed with him. He even said " yaaaa it sucks , but that's the rules are.." . From what I heard even he got the concept wrong. Ok, fine, 1 stupid ATV basing me in the rear in a losing battle is nothing worth fighting about. Gosh, from now onwards must I bring the whole FAQ to prove my point? Thanks goodness it was only a friendly battle, not a cut-throat-an-LE-is-at-stake battle.
Enough of MWDA , now for something else. I was surprised when I reloaded my internet prepaid a few days ago. Instead of adding 70 more hours to my account, the reload added 140 more hours to my account! No joke! I checked again a few days later and it really did add 140 hours. Must be some sort of loyalty reward for using the expensive pre-paid which is AUD 54.90 for 70 hours. Now with the 140 hours I am only spending RM 1.18 per hour! That's why nowadays I spent more time online than usual coz got more time to burn.
To everyone, my Birthday is only 1 week away! Yippie! Now, should I get the Tian-Zong on sale for myself?
Wednesday , 9th June 2004
This morning I presented my ESL Conference speech. This week I am quite busy because I have to hand in my ESL research paper (800-1000 words long) and on this Friday got my SAD (short for Structural Analysis and Design) exam in CATS. I have already handed in my research paper done my conference speech , with only the SAD exam to go! All my assignments and projects have been been handed in ! Yeah!!!!
So when will be my exam? Well , except for the one on the 11th of June, the rest are in the weeks after my birthday. I got 2 weeks before the proper paper exam . The first paper is on the 23rd, followed by the 26th, 28th and 29th. After that, I am home free. If only going to the exam hall is simple. The venue for the exams are located outside the city down south. It is not very far from the city, just that I haven't tried getting there by myself yet. This few days have to try to go there to see the place so that on the day of the exam I won't be lost. According to my course mate, it is a very very large hall, that the university rents to have the exams. He also said that previous years the exam week is 2 weeks, but now 1 and a half weeks because the uni wants to save money on rent .... great , even in the middle of no where also got inflation.
I have not bought any CS booster today. After overspending last week, I think I should stop buying.. errr going to the venue to buy boosters for the time being. It is less than a month before I am going home , so better save up and buy boosters in M'sia because the boosters back home is wayyyy cheaper. I can get 3 for only RM 100 where-else I have to pay RM 46 for 1 here! Ahhh can't wait to board the jumpship back home.
This week the stats for 2 Jade Falcon units were released. One is a Jade Falcon Panther and the other a Jade Falcon MBT (yes, a Main Battle Tank). The stats reflect the Jade Falcons badly. The JF panther has a secondary attack with 4 damage with pulse. Not sure about the range. The primary is 2 damage ballistic 0/4 range. The defence? 18 defence . All this for the 1 point more and less life than a BR Lego. My first impression of this mech is simply : CCCCCHHHHHHHHAAAAARRRRRGGGGGEEEEEEE!!! Really, this guy is going to get charged to death by his BR Lego cousin and get CHARGED again when after the BR Lego runs back and gets repaired. How will the JFs fare in the MWDA universe with game mechanic such as the one above is anyone guess. Chances are no matter how high tech or how much the JFs have learn after the defeat at Tukkayid, they simply wouldn't win because the BR Lego will charge it to death. Go figure. A great insult to one of the most famous Clans and its loyal supporters in the Battletech universe. The HL Longbow, the first to be called the ultimate charge bait, must be laughing so hard its attack is now at a low 6. Ok, that was assuming that its faction abilities won't save it. If its faction ability prevent it from being charged to death it might have a chance.
Even then the Jade Falcons getting a MBT? the Clans (except Hells Horses) never use MBTs. They use nothing but mechs and elementals. The MBT has decent stats but it cost a whopping 60 points , deals only a measly 2 damage (the HL Regulator will eat this guy, and cost cheaper too) and with a 180 arc, it just screams "ATVS! BASE ME IN THE REAR !! ARTY !! POG ME!! ". Haih, what has the MWDA universe turn up to.... The Shrike , the JF's icon/totem mech in the next expansion better not have a low defence . Other wise Eleziel Crow (the ROTS Blade which cost a whopping 290 points, at least this guy got chance against infantry) will be laughing so hard that ... that , I don't know.....
The Gryfalcon's defense is so low that even: the green agro mech, costing 61 points, has a chance to kill it. the 8 attack HL mechs, like the chargemonkey-wannabe Ghost , HL Lego, HL Crimson Hawk and the HL Uller... nah the Uller still sucks ... has a decent chance to kill it. the HL Longbow has a chance to go up against it and win. a company (3 infantry) of peasant companies can capture it. a DF Kanazuchi can pulse it to death. a Laser team can pulse it to death. a dumpster can dump it to the scrape yard a crow scout VTOL can kill it (not joking, a crow once took out a Jeni Wolf. Big joke on that day) Cesar Spano can kill it! an ATV can kill it! a MASH/Mobile HQ vehicle can ram it to death! a Shandra scout car can ram it to death.... in fact, I realized I could fill my entire army with fast hover/wheeled/tracked vehicles and still win! Ramming speed!!!! ahhh the good old days.
Take note I have not even considered artillery yet.
Saturday, 5th June 2004
Today I went to my venue again to play Mechwarrior! Well, after so long never play got to go and play to relieve some boredom and stress from studying. Today's tourney was again a Liao versus somebody scenario, this time Liao versus BR. In the novels BR has somehow allied themselves to Liao because the leader of BR somehow wants to extend his power. Dunno what happen that in the end BR and Liao started killing each other.
This scenario is the first type of scenario where the rules bar the cheesiest units at the moment, the ATVs. Only battle armors are allowed in the scenario and this means no need for prepare for super infiltrating ATVs that can infiltrate 28 inches! I created an army that heavily relies on that special rule. My army was:
Joel Brane DF Black Hawk 3 Liao Infiltrators Mk1 1 DF Purifier 1 SH AA Aesir 1 Liao Arrow 4 Tank
Brought 2 agility mechs because from my experience most people will charge with their mechs than shoot. Also in the special rules , unit defense against ranged combat are plus 2 or plus 3, which means if the kodiak has 24 defence (it will be amazing to see how the kodiak will fare) , it will have 27 defence :P Also, I wanted to test Joel to see how good he is. If you notice the Aesir, it is the most sought after AA vehicle :)
So how did the tourney went? I can say I was actually surprised by the attendance. No, not because there are so many people, it is because there were only 2 of us who showed up. An extremely good player and myself. Good thing the warpogger did not come, otherwise it wouldn't come to a surprise as to how will win this one. Hmmm, maybe because he can't use ATVs and cheap meat shields that he didn't come? I dunno, maybe because this time it starts at 1.30 instead of 11 am.
Anyway, since there are only 2 of us who actually turn up, the Battlemaster decided that both of us can flip a coin and see who is the winner or we pick which prize we want. Ok, that was way too much, but he did tell us what the prizes were and since there are 2 prizes for the tourney, both of us will walk away with a prize anyway. The prize for this particular event? The main prize is the Liao Marauder II, while the fellowship is the BR Aesir. Both of them are not competition material though. The Aesir can't hit anything with its 8 attack but sure can run away with its 10 speed with evade. The Laio MadII is a slow fatty with no minimum range and cost a bomb. Both the Aesir and the MadII are not with the BM at that time , but he did bring some other Counterassault LEs from previous events (must be that no one came).
So who ended up with what? Well, I am on the assumption that what I heard is correct, my opponent was willing to take another LE as his prize, which is the LE Cavalry and since he does not play Liao and does not want to wait for the MadII (if you ever play against him, you'll face fast hovercrafts and fast mechs, not big fatties) , that means I will be getting the MadII. The MadII is not here yet, so I may have to wait for it to really brag about it. I rather brag like a spoilt child when I have the very thing in my bare hands :)
After the prizes was decided, both of us decided to have a friendly game with each other. No point going to the venue and not play right?
I still use my Joel Brane army which I wanted to test out. He used an army with a BR lego, lots of purifiers, 2 SS Balac , 1 Liao ATV and 1 BR ATV; the kind of army you really hate going up against. I knew my army will be annihilated by him, but I just wanted to see how devastating those ATVs are. Believe me, the results aren't pretty.
It was also unfortunate that he STARTED FIRST. If I started first I would have blown one of the ATVs, the BR one, to dust. The Liao one has 5 clicks of life so it would take more than several actions to kill it. Come to think of it I can take both of his ATVs if I had started first. Gosh , has MWDA gone this far down?
To cut it short, imagine what would happen when several trikes/atvs based your arty, AA vehicle while his entire army casually walked upward. And I lost because of only 2 ATVs! Arrghh.. any ATVs I pull I better not sell/trade or I'll make my life harder.
This week has been kinda weird I would say. On Monday I bought a booster that contained the Liao Arrow 4 tank. On Friday, (tried not to buy any, but could not resist) , the booster I bought contained a SW arrow 4. Both the booster have the same box design, with a Liao arrow 4 pictured on its side. So in one week I managed to get 2 very competitive artillery pieces and 2 mediocre mechs. The infantry? Both pulls contained a SC gray death BA. If only I pulled uniques in a similar fashion.
Wednesday , 2nd June 2004
Yaa! It is June already! My birthday is only 18 days away from today! But the week after that Sunday (my birthday is on a Sunday) got exams for some of my subjects . Oh well, I will be well prepared by that time.
Nothing much has happened so far. No love problem since there isn't any time and (unfortunately) no new girls to preview or look at now. The ones I tried to get earlier now I just look at them like normal. Need to concentrate on more important matters first hand. Haih, why do all the good guys all single and lonely wan .....
Last week was really really hectic because I need to complete the FEA project till very very late in he morning the day after. This week also got another project, but this one is less hectic than the first because it is comparatively easier than the FEA project. The Robotic project need us to program something into the computer, but it is far easier to use and less time consuming than the FEA project (ANSYS sucks when you make a mistake, no undo key). For Robotics, the first part was to derive the formula and you program into the computer what you have derived. For FEA , well, we need to feed the computer data , analyze what is on the screen and then do the report, which is harder since there are just so many things you can input into the computer. Robotics however, is more straight-forward. It is a 4th year subject and the work that was given is less because 4th year students are already very very busy with other work. I on the other hand is still 3rd year, but since I got extra units left, I decided to do this course (unsurprisingly) .
Speaking about work, in my Robotic projects team , I am the only 3rd year, got 1 4th year and another doing his masters. I thought my workload was heavy enough, but both my teammates' workload is waaayyyy more heavier than mine. It is like me in the heavy circuit but these guys are in the assault circuit. The one doing masters must be in the championship class. Wow, I thought 4th year is supposed to be easy. My perception of 4th year was changed when I got to know these guys. Must get ready to work even harder than what I am doing now. Great.
Let's bring up the list of the things I need to do: 1)Robotic 2 DOF Project (due 4/6/2004) 2)ESL some very long report (final one for ESL , due 7/6/2004) 3)Structural Design Tutorial 5 (final one for SAD , due 8/6/2k4) 4)ESL Conference speech (postponed to 9/6/204)
Yes! only 4 more assignments left. Once all are done can concentrate on the exams and can look forward to going home in July with lots of souvenirs. Need to practice my MWDA with some cheese units I pulled before I go back :)
I bought another MWDA Counterassault booster last Monday. Bought it on Monday because I could not wait till Wednesday. The usual venue I got was not opened on Monday so I went to another shop which sold MWDA also. The boosters are of the same price. The pull? Nothing shocking, nothing surprising, no dossier. It is the case where the best unit in the pull is not the mech, again.
The pull was : SW Forestry Mod-B (A true-breed SW and chargemonkey. It even has a prime spot on its heat dial!) Liao Arrow 4 tank (Must get second Arrow 4,must play Warpog...) SC Gray Death BA (I don't care how heavy this flamer is, I am still going to carry it!) Liao Purifier BA (Comparing this unit to the HL Purifier, something tells me Wizkids forgot something. It is OVERPRICED!)
So there you have it, my first CA pull that resulted me in ending up with the DREADED CURSED ICE MECH. Ok, this mech is actually the best of the floristries mod-bs. For only 80 something points it can rival the Mjolnirs and come back alive from battle. Comparing it with the merc one (sucks sucks sucks) , the SS one (ok stats , with AnP, but with a 9 attack) and the HL one (I rather field a Mjolnir than this slow ice mech) , this mech is the best of the bunch. It can charge to its prime click, both the dial and the heat dial, and proceed to do 5 damage with a 10 attack the next turn. Sure it blows up for 3 damage, but once you deal 5 to the enemy from your 80 point something mech, it does not matter.
I have said to myself that I will only stop buying boosters when I get an ICE mech. Looks like this booster marks the end of by booster buying spree. Must start saving for Falcon's Prey.
Entries from the beginning of this website to 28th May 2004
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