Battletech....

Having played the game to death I'd not been back to it in a while. Over a week ago I'd noticed a friend had started playing. He's been on a bit of a Mech buzz the last while (mainly Mechwarrior Online). So when I saw all the Steam achievements he was getting I naturally checked and compared his to my own. He's been getting achi's fast; Ones I'd already gotten and while I do have some rare ones, there are still a few I'd like to get. One's I've wanted and have planned to get...at some stage; This has been the kick to do so. A little competition never hurt....much.

So this last week has seen me start the process. Getting the achi's from one campaign run. All going well and being lucky, crossing all the lasers and jump jets. It should be doable in a short enough, lucky enough campaign.

This run will include:

- Ironman campaign(I did it as a career run, I have faith I can do well enough).

- Keeping Dekker alive and finishing the campaign with him in the roster. Also doable, even at the cost of other early roster pilots, while keeping him in cotton wool and bubble wrap, locked in the cargo hold.

- Melee is not a strong point for me in this game so I intend this run to be more of a melee based mech campaign which in turn will complete the achi's of 5 and 20 Death From Above kills.....

- As well as those for 50 mech melee kills and 50 vehicles melee kills... Vehicle kill should be far easier to get than the other. The majority of these kills will be done as final death blows. No need to do death from above on a healthy target .... Only blow the legs out and be down a mech! Gonna get messy.

- And for shiz and giggles add in the achi to 'overheat and destroy' one of my own mechs. Which is probably an alpha strike from a medium mech followed by an override alpha strike which then destroys the mech. Surprised I don't have this one already.... 

Will see how it works out....Trial and many errors. This run is going to be a massive mess one way or another. Not pretty and not perfect and certainly a gaming of the systems. Like being able to start by choosing some non 'hard' options to ease Ironman's passing. 

In saying I'm gaming the systems that's not really true. Ironman as a difficulty is not 'just' a single save on game exit. In reality it's a tougher, more brutal, unforgiving, smoking pile of mechs and pilots. Gotta live with the mistakes. 

For the true diehards; I can hear the Ironman Battletech purists howling that it's Ironman and should have all the settings on the max difficult.... Like climbing mount Everest with no equipment or clothes on. My view is that it is Ironman mode, just by choosing it... Anyway I've played the game, I've nothing to prove... I'm here for the achievements(never thought I'd say that in this context). By the end I may not have all the achi's but I'll have given it a good stab(melee pun!!!).