Chaos March
The Chaos March (abbreviated to CM) is a weekly event organized by members of the MWLL community for the MWLL community that occurs at 20:00 UTC/GMT every Saturday and Sunday. It is a tournament with league-style elements that uses a persistent strategic campaign layer encompassing many of the Chaos March worlds from Battletech canon. The current iteration of the Chaos March features six factions vying for control of 31 planets. Each planet in the campaign produces resources that are used for various things, such as creating assets. Assets include Mechs, tanks, VTOLs and aerospace fighters which can be used in combat.
Overall, it is very similar to the old league-style organizations for previous iterations of MechWarrior games, such as the NBT4 and NBT-Mercs leagues for MechWarrior 4 and Mercenaries except on a much smaller scale. A key difference between Chaos March and most league systems is that there are no fixed factions: anyone can play any side as needed. This is a result of having insufficient players to maintain several fixed factions over the course of the campaign, so each player represents a mercenary pilot and thus can join in as many battles as they choose.
The Chaos March is open to any and all MWLL players, regardless of skill level or clan/unit affiliations; the only requirement is that players follow the instructions provided to them.
Contents
History
Chaos March has been around for several years, being originally established by Duelist as an outlet for veterans to engage in high-level organized play, often utilizing advanced tactics & strategies. It has been the one consistent draw for a number of MWLL players since 2013, helping sustain the game until the 0.8.0 Community Edition was released in late 2016.
Overview of a Standard Battle
A typical battle, usually referred to as a drop will progress as follows:
- Players join the Ready Room channel on the MWLL TeamSpeak server and are assigned to a team by the battle supervisor via moving players to the correct team voice channel.
- Once assigned to a team, players then connect to the Chaos March server and join the side associated with the team they were assigned; the attackers in a drop are always Clan, while the defenders are always Inner Sphere.
- The drop commander for each team chooses what assets they wish to deploy and assigns them to each player. This includes which variant, choice of camo and ammo loadout.
- While players get their assets purchased with the correct camo, the drop commander will go over the general strategy and any particular tactics he/she wants to employ with the team.
- When one team is ready, that team's commander will often announce a time over in-game public chat, such as '8400'. This means that the battle begins once the in-game timer reaches 84:00.
- As soon as the agreed on time is reached, both teams leave their main base and engage in combat. The battle continues until one side has no more combat-capable assets.
- After the battle is over, the drop commanders tally the lost assets and note them. Shortly after that, the server will reset and preparations for the next drop begin.
Depending on how long the setup and battle are, a drop can take between 30 to 45 minutes to complete.
Drop Etiquette
- Listen to and follow the instructions given to you by your drop commander, or by the battle supervisor.
- Keep comms clear during the battle so your drop commander can issue orders without interference.
- If you are unsure about what asset, camo choice or ammo you are assigned, it is best to ask using teamchat in-game.
- Do not teamkill during the setup, even if you are bored.
- Once you have been destroyed, stay quiet. You are not allowed to respawn unless instructed to - this almost always applies only to players that are assigned as a Battle Armor or an APC driver.
How do I join?
Joining the Chaos March is quite easy! Here's a few different ways to get involved:
- connect to the MWLL TeamSpeak server at mwll.mekmaster.com and double-click on the 'Ready Room' channel under the Chaos March tab. It is highly recommended to join TeamSpeak anyways, even if you do not have a microphone so you can receive instructions more easily.
- join the Chaos March Discord by using the code 3GUvAHC and inquire in #chaos_march
- ask in the #mwll_general channel of the main MWLL Discord about how to get involved
Once you're in touch with a drop commander or battle supervisor, ask for the password to the Chaos March Atlanta server and you will receive it. After that, simply connect to the server and join the side you've been assigned unless you are told otherwise or until any ongoing drops are completed.
What if I want to be a drop commander?
Unlike participating as a mercenary MechWarrior, playing Chaos March as a drop commander is a far more complicated matter. It is highly recommended that you play in Chaos March events until you become familiar with the basics before trying to tackle a commander role.
This is because the commanders must not only organize their team and play in the match, but also select the assets for the battle(s) they are involved in using the drop calculator. The drop calculator determines what can and cannot be put into play using a series of values embedded within an Excel spreadsheet. For a copy of the drop calculator, hop onto Discord and message Star_Wraith about it.
Canon
The Chaos March refers to an area comprising a number of worlds to the galactic south and southeast of Terra. These worlds were originally taken from the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League by the Federated Commonwealth after the fourth Succession War, which were then re-organized into a region called the Sarna March. This arrangement did not last long, however: when the Lyran Alliance chose to secede from the Federated Suns in 3058, the Lyran troops left the Sarna March, opening the door for Capellan guerillas and agitators to destabilize numerous planetary governments, sowing chaos and terror across the region. Despite this, the Capellans lacked the raw military strength to retake this space, causing it to become a no-man's-land until the Word of Blake jihad in 3067. By 3069, the Blakists had absorbed the entirety of the Chaos March until they were defeated by Devlin Stone's Republic of the Sphere in 3081, after which all of the former Chaos March worlds became a part of this new coalition. [1]
