The Spartans are alive and well and tied for first in the North Texas tournament last week. Malvernis, Ritterlich and Adonese forces all tried and died.
The Spartans ran a Hawk 6, a Mantis and two Cougars all with the accuracy upgrade. Since faction SA's weren't used I didn't feel compelled to run a pure force so I called up the Spartans, my original unit.
All three of my opponents fielded well thought out forces and each was tough. My first matchup was a Riterlich force of a Rhino, a Jaguar and two Sabretooth's. A decent deployment kept him from unloading on me on his first activation and the first chance I got I ganged up on his Rhino and dropped it with some missile and cannon fire. He dropped my Hawk 6 and a Cougar and damaged the other Cougar before I could clean him up.
My second matchup was a Malvernis force. An Assassin, a Spectre and two new one's I hadn't seen before but they had mucho indirect. I screwed up bad on my first activation and my Cougars got pounded hard by IF and my Hawk and Mantis were left out in the open. I figured I was done for and I was so upset with myself. ( Sorry Bruce. ) But things turned around a little when I dropped the Assassin. Again it was the Mantis that swept wide and cleaned up for me. The Hawk 6 seems to draw fire. LOL I was left with two heavily damaged Cougars and a wounded Mantis when that was over.
My last match was agains the Adonese. They brought a Scorpion, a Mantis and two Spiders. The Scorpions lit me up a little on early on but they unmasked to do it and the Hawk 6 and Mantis ate them for lunch with missile and cannon fire. I stumbled out in front of the Scorpion at point blank range with my Hawk and I will never do that again! That cannon barrel looked like a black hole from that close. Luckily the shot went wide and I rolled him up. Once again my Mantis cleaned up by taking out his wounded Mantis with cannon's and missiles. I lost a Cougar to some point blank fire from his Scorpion and Mantis but in pretty good shape otherwise.
What we learned:
1. The Mantis is awesome.
2. Starhawk 6's draw fire.
3. The Cougar, though an outdated design, still holds up.
4. The Assassin is a CAV to be affraid of.
5. Never try and take on a Scorpion at point blank without overwhelming firepower.
6. Merc's can still get it done.
