#and i dont say that a lot about mech units (im not good with mech units thus far :()

[elegyofthemoon]

needed a moment to screech after cyberangel when i decided to go "huh! i wonder which battlesuit is this" only to read "herrscher of reason"

[leaflovingal]

Cawl rant time, plus other admech fan annoyances

TLDR: I'm fine with him as a character, he's just the face of Admech and I think that's stupid, especially considering the already massive lack of Ad Mech characters.

Okay so, I saw on the Ad Mech subreddit that there's a new book with Cawl and Fabius Bile. Dope. Looking forward to it. However, it got me thinkin; why Cawl? Why choose Cawl over any other Admech character? Well, there aren't any. There are no other Ad Mech characters.

While yes, obviously, there are other characters in other books, like Kostov and stuff, there are no other major Ad Mech characters currently alive in the setting as far as I know of. There are, say, Kane and Land, but land is dead and i believe Kane dissapeared. Cawl is the start and end of Ad Mech characters in the setting. And that's really fucking lame obviously.

Now, I do not have a problem with Belisarius Cawl as a character, however he should not be the face of the Adeptus Mechanicus. How many other factions have their main character, their big guy, go entirely against several rules that define their faction? Probably a few, sure, but I can't personally think of any. Does say, cato sicarius go against all the rules of the Ultramarines? I think he uses drop pods aggressively but other than that he's not very standout other than "im special boy".

Cawl made a fucking AI. Straight up. He invented a shit ton of new stuff. He uses xenotech. The vast majority of the Adeptus Mechanicus would flay him given the chance. They hate him. Why is he their poster boy? It makes no sense. I understand that the Adeptus Mechanicus are difficult to make interesting on an individual level, but holy shit do you have to make their main guy shit all over their religion?

Not to mention that he has been a part of all the important shit for the Admech as of late, if not the sole part of them present. Cadia? Check. Biggest upgrade the imperium has gotten in thousands of years? That was him. Nice game for my faction, would be a shame if I just *tricked a fucking c'tan shard AKA part of a literal god* making that previous ordeal seem lame by comparison. Good job fighting through a tomb world, i cheated a literal actual god.

It's just so tiring, especially with how Admech can barely pull a win anywhere else in lore, plus current rules for tabletop. Also, y'know, lion getting to deal with vashtorr. You know, vashtorr the evil machine god dude? The one that would work super well to bring the dark mechanicum back into relevance? The one that could offer a really good reason make a new faction for tabletop and update another? No. Dark angels. Lmao.

Fuck dude. Okay, trying to wrap this up, hopefully GW doesnt shit all over us in the codex. While yes the rules and abilities in 9th were a lot to learn, that idea of making a machine with your cogs is neccessary to give the ad mech an identity on tabletop. Medium to small army of mediocre units that can be buffed to a usable and deadly weapon if you're smart about it is what the ad mech are. They need that.

Hopefully the next none cawl admech book wont be half full of rogue traders, black templars, and eldar. Hopefully the next characters are from somewhere other than mars so i dont have to look at just red all the time. Hopefully the next characters are as good as the mechanicus game. I genuinely found the characters from that game more interesting than cawl, because there's a dynamic between them instead of a smartass who would say "I DONT KNOW, CAAAAAAN YOU?" If a kid asked "can i use the restroom" instead of "may i use the restroom" who then had a layer of pseudo fatherly lover put over him as he talks to a traumatized child soldier to make him seem fucking interesting when he's just being a cunt.

[bensopinionsonvariousthingsblr]

Top 5 favorite games

Alright so here is the second, part I’ve been spending a lot of time working on this whole thing so I hope you enjoy! 

 Number 5:The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap                                                Developer and Release year: Nintendo, 2004 Japan, 2005 NA                            What it can be played on: GBA/ Wii U Virtual Console 

       So I’m not gonna pretend like 4 of my top 5 picks aren’t Zelda games, that being said the Minish Cap is a game I played more recently, around last year, and at first after beating it I sort of just put it in my top 20, I loved it yeah, but I never really thought about it until now that, even though it was short, every thing about this game was solid and fun to me, the shrinking mechanic was challenging but very well done aesthetically, and the story was good, with the relationship between Link and Zelda, them being childhood friends and Link doing whatever it takes to have his friend back, and the villain Vaati was interesting in his relationship with the Minish (The inhabitants of the tiny world) and his final boss fight being very difficult for me, and the story wraps up nicely as usual, all in all it was a Zelda experience that I truly loved, and my favorite 2D Zelda game.

 Favorite part(s): Definitely the Aesthetic and design of the tiny world, and all the charm around the entire game

 Number 4:Sonic Adventure 2                                                                                  Developer and Release year: Sega, 2001                                                              What it can be played on: Dreamcast/Gamecube/PC/PS3/XB360    

 There it is, probably the most controversial pick on this entire list, unless maybe the next one is too i dont know, but I am a Sonic fan, which is something sort of rare these days, unless you like Mania which is pretty awesome but I’m more of a 3D guy, but this game is my favorite Sonic game because, even though the story is confusing I love it, it was dark and i legitimately felt like Dr.Robotnik was actually a major threat. There are 3 types of gameplay, the Classic Sonic/Shadow, The treasure hunting, and the robot/mech levels that make up the game, the best is the Classic gameplay of Sonic and Shadow, that usually isn’t up for debate, the other modes are pretty fun, but I love the game for the Sonic/Shadow levels, and the game to me really picks up on the Space Colony Ark in the Final Act. The *spoilers ahead* part where Shadow (who I forgot to mention is one of my favorite characters and not because I’m an edgy frick) turns to Sonic’s side and fights the Biolizard to buy them time, Shadow’s character arc was amazing in this game, and the final boss was really fun too, not to mention the soundtrack i mean, it’s a sonic game of course there’s a good soundtrack.

 Favorite part(s): Shadow the Hedgehog, his levels, character arc, and general mystery surrounding the black and red anti-hero was amazing to me. 

 Number 3:The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword                                                  Developer and Release year: Nintendo, 2011                                                        What it can be played on: Wii/Wii U virtual console   

 I have defended this game in so many tweets and irl debates it’s incredible, Skyward Sword released to a 10/10 from IGN (that doesn’t matter to me much but it is an accolade) a 93 Metacritic score, which I do care about since it is an overall score and even got some Game of the Year awards in a year where Skyrim, Portal 2, Minecraft, Mario Galaxy 2, and many more were up for contention, but that proves nothing I just wanted to prove that I have argued about it enough that I know what I’m talking about. The main problem everyone has with this game is the motion controls, they say they are not accurate or don’t work, which can sometimes be true but, Scott Falco (he makes the “”with a side of salt series which he has some very good opinions on) says it the best, he said that he didn’t like it sitting down just waggling the wii remote, you’ve gotta stand up and play, then you fell immersed like YOU are the one doing it and not the wii remote, that is what i agree with and stand by anyway. Now past those criticisms I don’t think there are many more, some people don’t like the story, but to me this game has the BEST story in maybe any game I’ve ever played, the Link and Zelda relationship is better than any other game in my opinion and only Breath of the Wild comes close to that relationship in my opinion, now, the rest of the story is intriguing too, the origin of the master sword (I’m not going to comment on Fi, some people got too annoyed with her to focus on her amazing character arc in my opinion) the existence of Skyloft and the very first Link, Zelda, and Ganon in the form of Demise, all of it was done well and was very interesting to me. I liked the gameplay too, I think the new sprinting and stamina system was revolutionary to the series and made movement a lot more improved from previous entries in the franchise. The final act with the boss battle with Ghirahim and eventually Demise were very cinematic and awesome, and with Zelda’s life on the line during the whole thing it made it just that much more intense. 

Favorite part(s): THE STORY, I can not say enough how much I love the story but also I loved the boss battles,  Demise,Ghirahim,The Ancient Automaton, and all of them were fun to me.

 Number 2:The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild                                              Developer and Release year: Nintendo, 2017                                                        What it can be played on: Switch/Wii U   

  This game is a new staple in the Zelda series, the highest selling of all time, a new open world, a Game of the Year winner in almost all the awards shows, and even still people love to pick on this game a little bit, with all the weapon-breaking criticisms, and I know that can get annoying, but it does add a new layer of difficulty to an already difficult game, anyway Breath of the Wild was first known as Zelda for the Wii U, and it was revealed with a trailer at E3 2014 and was slated for release in 2015, of course it got pushed back and with Nintendo now finished with the switch they announced Breath of the Wild as a launch title, March 3rd, 2017 will always be one of my favorite days of all time, as I got my switch and had the first mainline Zelda game release as a fan of the series, and I did NOT stop playing it that night until about 1 AM (thats a rookie number now i mean c’mon I tweeted at 3 AM last night then went ahead and watched a movie) which was super late for me at the time though and I went to bed ecstatic about the game, I had gotten to a part where the story was starting to go forward and I couldn’t wait to finish it, about 6 or 7 days later I did and BOI let me tell ya I loved every second of that week, the gameplay is smooth and fun with combat being re-invented and then the Guardians were really fun because up until the end i didnt know about the shield thing so I would just bash them with all the brute force i had, the final boss fight was incredible (thats a common theme with my favorite Zelda games) and the Dark Beast Ganon fight was really atmospheric and entertaining as well and the ending with the re-uniting of Link and Zelda was so well done and just makes for a perfect ending.

Favorite Part(s): I loved the massive open world and all the secrets and new enemies and shrines to discover, it just made my time playing the game very enjoyable! Plus everything else like the story and the combat.

Number 1:The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker                                                Developer and Release year: Nintendo 2002 JP/2003/ 2013 HD                            What it can be played on: Gamecube/Wii U

  The Wind Waker. My unwavering favorite game for who knows how long now, the first Zelda game I ever finished and my introduction to great single player games as a whole really. The Wind Waker released in December in Japan and followed up the next year World Wide, the art style of the cell-shaded characters had never been seen before in a Zelda game and people were skeptical about whether or not it would go down well. Well it released and the people of December in Japan and of March World wide were very pleased with the game and loved it for its gameplay, story, vast ocean and many islands to explore with many hours of gameplay to be put in discovering everything the game had to offer, as for me i wouldnt get to play it for a while longer considering i was VERY young at the time of its release, so I would get to play it when it re-released for the Wii U in 2013, about ten years after the release of the original, I didnt get it though until Christmas of 2015 (or 2014 Im not honestly sure) but it wasnt even my gift, as I’ve said before it was my brother’s and i just watched him play it for a bit and tried it myself after being intrigued, and I dont know if I stopped very much over the course of the time I played it, I was challenged by the puzzles, and from the very opening at Outset Island I loved the art style and loved the characters in the story, with the new unique take on Zelda as Tetra, having Link sailing instead of walking, heck even having Hyrule not even the setting (for most of the game anyway) was new to the series and as my first 3D Zelda game I was captivated by all of it, everything about my favorite franchise now was fresh and new and thats something I’ll never get to experience again which is probably why I remember and still play the Wind Waker which such a fondness today, because of how new everything was to me and how much I enjoyed all of it, not to mention the final boss fight (here we go again) was and is still my favorite, with the world being submerged around you and you and Zelda enclosed with no way out other than through Ganondorf, the games story as always (I hate how repetitive I am) ended very well and to this day it remains one of my favorite stories ever told, and I don’t know if anything will be able to top this game just because of the time in my life in which I got to experience it and with how solid the game as a whole is.

Favorite Part(s): The Wide-open sea and the islands are all so cool and creative, plus the Final boss fight still stands as my favorite to this day.

Thanks a TON for reading through all of this, I had started work on it some time last year and got super busy doing other things during all this time but it really means a ton to me that people would actually care enough to read what I write, or even just skim it, 

                                                         Thanks -Ben :)

[mechagalaxy]

Red Ants: Interview with Eric Bell

Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat

Brought to you by ANN, A Newschannell for Mecha Combat

Highlighting the July 3321 10 Red Tons

Sten Hugo Hiller interview with Eric Bell # 314456

At K3 in one of the standard specialist formats. Red Ants. As I was at the lower end of the scale I didnt expect to do wery well, but one can always dream. At T-12 hours Michael Coxon claimed top and I had no success of budging him. But I returned at T-6 minutes to find he had been dethroned and Eric Bell of the Omegas sat on the top. Not a bad word about Eric, but his formation was 27 lvl lower and two mechs fewer than Coxons, so I decided to try him out. I got the top but he retook it. As scramble arrived it was just the two of us fighting. My hatorades, large hatorades and my supers ran dry. Each time I took the top he reclaimed it. What was worse was my mechs was tiring out. Where I had used seven tries to get the top five times in the start, now it took twelve. After 28 minutes I was dry. We had swapped control 50 or 60 times, but he was now on top. I made a mental guess at endtime and came up with 48 minutes. At 47 I would use my partially repleted energy and strike for Gold. Unfortunately for me it ended before that and I got a silver. Those who held the tops at that time were:

Div 1 (20 players): Fabio Favaro, Juggernaut (14m,36s) Div 2 (16 players): Dan Ross, Death`s Collector`s (19s) Div 3 (18 players): Eric Bell, Omegas U.N.M. (16m,42s) Div 4 (42 players): Able Hunter, Star League (12m) Div 5 (27 players): Gordon Track (3m,4s) Div 6 (37 players): Robert Palmar, HF: Dragoons (25s) Div 7 (26 players): Leeboy Wegenast, T.B. 1st K. Highlanders (1m,20s) Div 8 (24 players): RonPaulforPrez, Knights of Chaos (13m,14s) Div 9 (34 players): Bob Templin, M.P.A. "A" team (24s) Div 10 (15 players): Tanfoglio, Borg Collective (8m,14s) Div 11 (10 players): clan_holder1, Heroes Heavy Brigade (5h,18m) Div 12 (6 players): Wile_E_Coyote_ (13m,12s)

Total Participants: 275, Total Medals: 166 (of 180 Possible)

Not many participating, of those who did at least 80 were clearly overweight. As usual lots of unclaimed bronzes in div 11 and 12, 14 total this time.

Scramble lasted for about 44 minutes. Exept for in div 11, all Golds changed hands, three of them the last minute. No single Clan, or as I could see even families managed more than one Gold this time. Unaligned Gordon Track (5) and Wile_E_Coyote_ (12) got Golds and will probably recieve invitations to join clans in the near future. None managed to repeat the Gold performance from the Oggunners.

As I sat muttering to myself about the endtime that didnt confirm to my wishes, Eric Bell(#314456) came down to swap parts. It seemed we had exchanged more than fire, most of our mechs had about an equal number of parts from the others formation. While the technicians took care of that, Eric brought out a table, two crystal flutes and a bottle of Cogwerk Cru `84. He had had it with him ever since he started out, to celebrate his first KOTM Gold. And now he wanted to share it with me. Deeply touched by this magnimosity I almost repressed my wish that I was the one sharing my Champagne with him. Still, an intervee was present, so I whipped out my notebook and got a few answers.

Sten Hugo Hiller You have been around for a long while. First mention of you was when you fought in the 15th clan war for Hells Horses back in `84. You stayed with them, joining up with other clans for the FW`s until you changed to Omegas and Hells Horses in `14, then to Omegas U.N.M. in `15. I assume it was a merger and a namechange, but what does U.N.M. stand for?

Eric Bell Well, I dont know, I think its an Omegas branch Randy Jaye Tayor would know, as he is leader. My game has been getting better in Omegas

Sten Hugo Hiller Yes, and you seem to be growing at a frightening rate as a clan. While you have been around for a long time, you havent been a regular contender in the KOTMs until recently. I think your first KOTM medal was in `08 and this was your first Gold?

Eric Bell Yes I was so happy, have spent a lot of time fine tuning my Ants. The last few 10 tons I have been close but work or out of fights missed gold.

Sten Hugo Hiller I know the feeling of being out of fights, happened to me recently.... I must say I was surprised the big guns stayed silent this time, but... What would be your favorite KOTM if you could make up the rules for one?

Eric Bell I know, was kinda nice. I dont know but im thinking about it maybe a non niodes kotm like no weapons ,equipment or mecs that are noides crazy as that sounds

Sten Hugo Hiller Several others have suggested a Crystal event already, so from your lips to the Developers ears. Talking of resorces, you are pretty active in the circuits, how are you doing resorcewise, having huge piles of crystal and ferrite, or a big backlog of mechs to upgrade?

Eric Bell Just a mild backlog, about a year or so ago I sold every thing from lv 25 to 65. I didnt use it much and wasnt active like now so most of the mechs I use are up to lvl, and niode mecs are only 2 lvl behind or full. I do have 8 niode mechs about half way, have 25 niode mechs in all. I do the free upgrade and upgrade sales

Sten Hugo Hiller That is the way I do it myself, .. when I can afford it. It would seem from your KOTM medals that you arent a big fan of the unlimited format?

Eric Bell Im just a grinder, I dont by niodes. Dont get me wrong, I would, but cash is allways short and sometimes I feel a bit salty when I get wrecked by someone at lv 80. But Im ok, I still like the game and wins mean a little more to me when I get them.

Sten Hugo Hiller Dont I know the feeling, some times someone is just unbeatable even if they are sooo junior! Going a bit outside the KOTMs, you have fought in numerous FW/CW. What is your favorite villain, and why?

Eric Bell I did like the clones and Drake, nice mech raid they pulled off.

Sten Hugo Hiller And you got a good haul there I assume?

Eric Bell Yes, but any thing I get is kinda cool. Some times just a look at the medals I have won is cool, well, me and the clan

Sten Hugo Hiller Can be nice remembering the fights you had, and lessons you learned there. What kind of event are you wishing for in the upcoming FW/CW?

Eric Bell Hard to say, Ants only ? maybe something like 50 member units

Sten Hugo Hiller Well, we will see. When it comes to the weightlimited KOTMs, do you prefer max tonnage or mechtype?

Eric Bell Max tons. I sold off alot of types

Sten Hugo Hiller The current event is a chrono, how do you like them?

Eric Bell I hate to say it, but I dont even try. The hrs I work and just life get in the way lol

Sten Hugo Hiller Fair enough. As you have been around for decades, your knowlegde of mechs, weapons and equipment is a treasure for those fresher to the campaign. What are your favorites here?

Eric Bell The Dilophos, a 75 ton mech was the first one that just wrecking ppl for me even with a crystal loadout it rocked and getting a feel for what your mecs can do they might be very fast but aim is so bad you might shot yourself and some of the niode weapons rock. When I sold off all that stuff, the sale was laser weapons and i picked up like 20 cherenkov rays.

Sten Hugo Hiller Thank you for your insights. It seems security is arriving to get you safely away from the mountain. Any final words?

Eric Bell Keep grinding, get cooler stuff. Ty all, kotm was fun.

Security took him and his formation away. I finished the champagne and got my Ants back to the compound. Paulzilla would expect me to get on top of the paperworkmountain waiting for me. Any fresh winners can try to contact me after the

Upcoming Event: Sixty Chrono That is: Any mech you field heavier than 60 tons will leave a hole in your formation, and it is a chrono event. That gives you lots of oppurtunities to be high up the mountainside and get points. The winners will be those with most points, not those at the top at the end.

Event ends April 7 between 1700 and 1800 New York Time