Tom's Mercs Journal

A journal for Tom Bombadil's Mercenaries experiences, rather than his more lighthearted fanfiction on the same subject.

Day 10 v. Shambles
Things just haven't been going well recently, and it's pretty much wholly my fault. It started with a tough loss on Day 9 that I was expecting to win, and things went downhill from that. In results, I attempted to distribute EXP, and managed to put it on the wrong person. Mental note: Coffee, THEN Mercs. I perhaps could have raised a stink or deleted the post or something, but that's really not my style, and I wanted to set a good example for all the newbies who haven't quite grasped the whole "bold is law" concept yet.

Things got worse in Peacetime, although the one bright spot also happened then. I bought Dracula's Castle, and immediately regretted it. I saw "Vertical movement is needed" and thought "Playground for Kirby," but after I bought it, I realized that putting a melee-heavy team in a difficult to traverse terrain would be counter-productive more often than not.

On the upside, I picked up Robo! There were lots of Mercs out that I wanted, but so did everybody else. I held no delusions that I would actually pick up Terra, but I tried anyway. I knew I desparately needed range, so Alyx and especially Lara were attractive to me, but all the other leaders outmuscled on Terra also were going after them. I put in a bid on each just to make sure I would be in the locked phase, and when I was outbid instantly, did the same with Robo. Robo was very much a backup plan- I expect him to be a strong fighter, but he has no passives, isn't a primarily ranged fighter, and his ability I don't expect to use much at all, ever. He doesn't really fit my team's current needs that well, but he's strong. And...he went for really cheap. My "might as well get my finger in the pot" bid went completely unopposed- the only other person to go after him was VicPez, who put in an opening bid through the admins and never showed up to contest. So, I wound up with somebody I didn't want THAT much, but I'm inclined to think he was still somewhat of a steal. I expect him to get more respect than Ralf or Kirby, and we desperately need an upper-tier fighter. I had been going for somewhat of a weenie rush approach in the opening stages, but now everybody else is getting numbers, and most have more capable fighters. Hopefully, Robo can give my fighters a shot in the arm before my infra goes negative, otherwise I'm going to be one of the first ones eliminated. I've got to do something quick here.

Oddity challenged me to a headache of a match. Oddity was the last leader to pick up a win, making him the only leader with a worse record than me! I figured he would be a tough fight, as he had both Ashley and Crono, so I decided I needed an edge, and that's where things hit the fan. I'd misread Atoli's ability, so I tried to use it on Dedede. I knew I needed a Galactica Phantom, but I also knew that Dedede's Timer Badge would be an obvious and natural counter. Atoli's ability works on abilities "used on her team." I had interpreted this as "used in a match with her team," which in retrospect was kinda dumb of me. In my defense, I think at one point I had read it as "used against," which lends itself to my interpretation slightly better. >_> At any rate, Oddity immediately jumped on this, and once I managed to get an admin, they ruled in his favor. That made sense, but on top of that, they ruled that I couldn't retract the ability, meaning that I just used a 2 day recharge to specifically do nothing. I really don't think that's fair, but I've said my piece and the ruling is final. I'm not the type to stir up drama, even if I am pissed. I'm annoyed that it goes on recharge when I obviously wouldn't have used it if I understood it, but at least I get a step for her upgrade.

As a side note, Oddity tried to contact me on IRC to set up a no-ability match, but I didn't see it until after I'd used Atoli. Stupid IRC- I never notice when people message me. Wonder how that would've gone....?

I decided to go ahead and PHANTOM, badge or no. I wanted to go for a thirty-second KO before the badge could activate, but wasn't sure where to go with it. I asked the chat what they thought about Ashley tanking the PHANTOM, and the consensus seemed to be that it would be a bad idea on my part. I really should've known better than to listen to Kan, but I really didn't want to blow PHANTOM and then not have it matter at all. I didn't trust Ralf to beat Crono either for some reason, so I PAWNCHED Dedede, whom I knew I could flatten. Oddity gave the badge to Ashley, surprisingly.

Ashley, [Shaman, Sorceror, Timer Badge] Crono, Dedede [PHANTOM] attack Ralf, Kirby, [Crono, Cutter, Fire Sword] Atoli

I knew the match would be tough...not tough enough to forfeit, but I figured the odds would be against me, and sure enough, I'm currently getting blown out with only one vote to my favor. To be fair, there seems to be a lot of Crono and Ashley fanboyism, but I underestimated the extent of Ashley's abilities, and once again, I'm my own team's biggest supporter. Kirby's versatility didn't get any respect at all, and when I argued him against Crono, people immediately put it in terms of a pure swordfight, which of course Crono would win. The Fire was ignored, as was all of Kirby's stuff that wasn't "inferior copy of Crono." Atoli's healing continued to be largely ignored- other people don't see it as the edge I do, and I continue to find out just how crappy she is. I really wish I had more info available- it's a booger to find anything relevant to Mercs on her. The big surprise was the ASHLEYFEAR, although it came mostly from Kan. Apparently, he has ridiculously good buffs and magic, as well as damage reflecting hax. Nobody bought that I could take out Crono and Dedede before he got done buffing and closing, but even if they had, I'm not sure they wouldn't have argued for Ashley to solo my whole team. The badge also got way more respect than I anticipated- even though damaging Ashley in the first thirty seconds was never a big part of my argument, people hailed it almost like he had a second life. So, it wound up not even being a competitive match....I expected to lose, but really, I think my team gets undersold a lot. Oddity didn't even need to argue to pick up the win here.

So, I'm in a bad way. My net income is rapidly approaching 0. (I think it might be 1 after Robo and today's loss >_>) At this rate, I will fail my mission to not be the first one eliminated. I really hope I can stick around...after all the waiting and all the hype, and after finally getting Kirby, I will be really upset if I die off this early. I'm pretty much out of the running to win already, and maybe even out of the endgame, but I'm not ready to lose yet...