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HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Extinction - Round 4: PROLOGUE!!

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Reaver War Update! wrote:

WarPorn Industries and the RDD proudly present
The Campaign for Cybertron
SEASON 2: Extinction!
HMW BITES BACK!

Round 4: PROLOGUE!!

Once more unto the breach, once more!!


So we're basically just ripping off Henry V? Oooohh kaaay...

It's been a rollercoaster of warfare here on Cybertron for the last few months.

The Reavers, ancient monsters once-Cybertronian in origin sealed away for eternity as punishment for betraying our planet and race, remain hidden within their pocket of the Dead Space. Our attempts to reforge the shattered Throne of Vir and seal them back still incomplete, leaving us no way to stop their invisible attacks.

On Cybertron herself, the Reaver Brood Virus has torn through our unprepared chemical warfare defences turning those who were ones our allies into a mindless drone 'Brood' army. This zombie-like force led by Starscream and Prowl, now unwilling puppets of the Reavers (although the jury is still out on Starscreams case) have created a devastating swarm of carnage across the planet's face using their knowledge of both of our factions.

Whilst the transformers can claim some small victories over the Brood, the cost has been incredibly high. Vast regions of the southern hemisphere are now uninhabitable, and the remainder is a combat-zone the likes of which has not been seen since the genesis of the Great War itself. This war is bringing Cybertron to its knees, moreso than our great war ever could.

Uraya has been decimated.
Vos and Tarn are naught but twin smoking craters.
Tagon Heights have been levelled.
Hydrax Plateau is dark and stagnant.
Polyhex is shattered wreckage.

One by one the rest of our cities fall beneath the
overwhelming numbers of the Reavers mindless hoard.

The indomitable fortress of Kaon is a near wasteland after the recent conflict. Iacon’s legendary defences that held the decepticons at bay for millennia now lay shattered and useless at the bottom of the Sonic Canyons, ‘commandeered’ by an infected Prowl earlier in the war, so even the Autobots beacon city may fall within days.

But hope comes from within the Dead Space itself. A duo of ancient primative Cybertronians, trapped within the twisted dimension whilst fighting the Reavers and believed lost have escaped and have passed valuable information to us, information that may help turn the tide of this war...

Amongst the ruins of Tyrest an urgent war council is being overseen by the Senate. Ultra Magnus and Shockwave, their differences put aside in this time of crisis, have drawn an inevitable conclusion:

We take our new weapons and we go on the offensive.

Ultra Magnus and Shockwave wrote: Inaction in this situation carries 0.0% chance of survival. It is the logical choice to unify our forces with Ultra Magnus. The new weapon advantages will mean nothing if we do not go on the offensive, so you will be required to breach the Dark Space dimension. Ultra Magnus will extrapolate further.

Our scientists have examined the rift by the Throne of Vir and it appears that entering it is much easier than we had expected. The information we received from the escaped primatives indicates the Reavers have another shard, and more importantly that shard that can help rebuild the Throne, reseal the rift and finally stop this menace. I have gone over with Shockwave and we have worked out the best teams to do just this.

Your strike teams will consist of five individuals, each with an essential part in this assault. Your mission is to locate and recover the primatives, download and transmit the schematics to this infamous Bite they have as we will need it to cure our own primatives, and of supreme importance transport back the shard.

I don’t think I need to tell you what this bite has done to us, this infection is running wild. Sparkstalker and Grotesque have been fitted with upgraded dragon altmodes, and now Shockwave has cleared them as free of infection they will lead this as a joint mission. We just have to hope that this works!
Crisis command, over and out!

OK, have you got all of that?

The Strike Teams must consist of 5 members from your team, to be chosen in advance and prepared for battle.

Each strike team must consist of:
A Splicer. This can be any warrior or scientist that has Repair as a tactic. The splicer will be responsible for keeping your teams alive in battle, and taking data and infection details from any Brood they face.

• Your Splicers will recover the schematics for Bite, which will allow us to cleanse and upgrade many of the remaining animal alt classes here, ensuring an attack like this can never be repeated. Repair 50 times.

A Scout. A lightning-quick soldier who can get in, pinpoint your target and Avoid damage long enough to get out again, so you can direct your heavies effectively.

• Your Scouts will locate and extract the primitives trapped within the Dead Space dimension. Avoid 50 times in missions where you survive at the end.

An Assault Trooper. Your heaviest and strongest Ramming soldier is needed here. They will need to be able to punch a hole in the Reavers defences allowing you to get inside and do some damage.

• Your Assault troopers will find the remaining pieces of the Throne of Vir by destroying the Reavers citadel until they uncover it. Make 50 kills with Ram.

An Artillery Unit. Heavy weaponry and the ability to Strafe here is essential, these will be needed to give covering fire to the Splicer and allow them to complete their task safely.

• Your Artillery will keep the Brood hoard at bay, and cover your teams actions. Make 50 kills with Strafe.

A Vanguard. These troops will cover your retreat. They need to be animalistic, relentless and devastating, and must have a Bite-capable altmode as they will be undercover as Brood until it is time to pull out.

• Your Vanguard will break cover to get you out alive and stop you being followed home. Make 50 kills with Bite.

You have 1 week to format your forces, finalise your tactics and find a setup you are happy with, as it cannot be changed once you enter the breach.

Lastly, due to the nature of this task, any selected strike team members who need to reset from existing rare or legacy altmodes can take a snapshot of their old form before they reformat and it will be returned to them when, or if, they return.
(Please check with the Senate this is possible first.)

You have seven days, use them wisely.

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Round 3 Weapons Update!

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You put the lime in the coconut, then grab your empty and smelt him up...

Weapons Manufacturing Has Begun!!

15 brave Cybertronians entered the battle of Kaon and collected the resources required to create the ‘Reaver-X’ weapon class. These are now being smelted down and cast into arms that will finally turn their threat to our advantage.

Before we can go into detail, the Senate has given me these 3 warnings to pass on:

• Regardless of how many you individually won, the Reaver-X weapons will go on general release for everybody in the usual shop. This is due to how the shop works and not because we want to maximise our profit, no matter how much more likely that sounds.
• ...can't remember number 2, probably wasn't important anyway, eh?
• These weapons are TEMPORARY and will only be useful against the Reaver threat. Once they are defeated, their specialised payload will be useless. [See * note below]

These tailored weapons, produced from empties by our specialists at WarPorn Industries (under licence from the Senate, thankfully with very little supervison) are almost ready for release and so you known what to expect, here is a run down of what we are able to create with what you all handed in...

(Number- Reaver-X Weapon Type - FRP/SKL - Damage)
51 Orbital Weapons Platforms: 10/10 - Incredible
38 Reaver-Wrecking Railguns: 10/6 - Incredible
61 Reaver-Annihilation Assault Rifles: 7/5 - Devastating to Incredible
53 Reaver-Slaughter Shotguns: 5/2 - Very Heavy to Devastating
18 Reaver-Rending Rifles: 3/0 - Very Heavy
2 Reaver-Killer Pistols: 0/0 - Moderate to Heavy

That is over 200 new weapons created, and the brave warriors of both factions who secured the materials are:

(Player - Average Level - Score)
Sprockits – 11 – 30
S.o.L. - 5 – 24
Bun-Bun – 7 – 23
HC - 7 - 22
AZ - 10 – 21
Potentate – 9 – 21
Killjoy - 4 – 19
Phasewing - 7 – 14
Sumo - 3 - 11
Sounders - 8 – 11
Spidey - 5 – 10
Bumblevivisector - 9 – 7
ZeroWolf - 3 – 7
Xenos Prime - 7 – 2
LG – 1 – 2

Weapons will be repeased a few at a time due to manufacturing and timezone schedules, so keep watching the weapons shop get them quick before the Brood army can turn them upon you!!

Those of you who earned the cure from the special challenges; Steve2275, High Command and Absolute Zero sit tight. The Doctor will explain what it does for you soon...

* Reaver-X weapon damages will be set to 0 after CfC Season 2 is complete. Any weapon depowering outside of game tweaking will be announced in the FCBs and on the Forum at least 24 hours beforehand. The value of the weapon will not change so they can be sold back at any time. (Reason:This is because we have bigger plans for overhailing ALL weapons to come!)
Remember: all Reaver-X weapons will give an advantage in the last 2 rounds.

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Extinction - Round 3: Spoils of War

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All's fair in love and war, but both at the same time is so much more fun!

Right, let's skip all the preamble and pleasantries: The Reavers have begun their attack and just because their first target is Kaon doesn't mean that the Autobots are safe either. You think once they have Kaon, they won't use it as a staging ground to take the rest of Cybertron?

Here is the deal; we have the schematics for a new type of weapon. The Reavers have been stuck in a dimensional anomaly between our world and the Dead Universe for millennia and our new allies trapped with them say that the radiation from the conflicting dimensions has corrupted their sparks, and their ‘virus’ is a weaponised version of this. We have created an energy source that can strip them of this corruption, removing their control and taking back our people.

This energy source is expensive however and with this war stripping Cybertron of many of her resources, we need to go out and find them ourselves. The Senate, including it's new members from the Autobots, Phasewing and Bun-Bun, have compiled a list of equipment needed and cleared it with Soundwave. Your job is to get out there, find what we need and get constructing so maybe - just maybe - we stand a decent chance at driving these mind-invading lunatics back to whatever hell they came from.

Here is the list of resources and how to collect them. There is no time limit, but the game ends as soon as the first person has finished and their final mission log is published. After that you will have 48 hours to update your logs with any mission completed before the winning log number.

Scavenger hunt for weapons

30 challenges, 3 categories of 10.
Each challenge is worth 1 point. First to collect all 30 wins.

Section 1
Materials - collecting intel and resources (target hunting challenges)
1. Get “shut out” as in a big fat 0 for XP, and energon
2. Tactic Round-Up - Stasis lock a single-tactic Ram alt, a single-tactic Strafe alt, a single-tactic Avoid alt and a Repair-capable alt, as well as Bite alt. (doesn't have to be in the same mission)
3. Stasis lock a 'traitor' alt mode (eg - Decepticon with Autobot alt or vice versa).
4. Take part in a mission with any tank alt.
5. Get Repaired
6. Win resources for your faction in the special armour missions.
7. Kill 3 bite alts (can be separate missions)
8. Kill 3 weapon alts (can be separate missions)
9. Kill 3 alts with repair (can be separate missions)
10. Take part in a mission with any member of the Senate (Burn, Psychout, -Soundwave-, Phasewing or Bun-Bun.)


Section 2
Research - develop the weapons tech (in-mission challenges)
11. Escape a mission without a scratch
12. Stasis lock a TF at least one level higher than you
13. Take part in a Train wreck (see below)
14 Be the first one to hit a target
15. Make Two moves in succession i.e. strafe then melee without someone else doing something in between.
16. Avoid three times in one mission.
17. Stasis lock a TF at least 2 levels higher than you.
18. Stasis lock 3 ground alts in a single mission.
19. Stasis lock the same character 3 times
20. Stasis lock 3 flying alts in one mission

Section 3
Testing- weapon payload tests (result challenges)
21. Take top spot in a mission. Win or lose doesn’t matter
22. Stasis lock 3 or more opponents in a single mission.
23. Stasis lock a canon named character
24. Take part in a mission where a shield was used. I.e. 2 bots were killed, but the other two survived no damage taken. Minimum 2 bots with at least 1 at 100% and 1 at 0%, none in between.
25. Win a mission where the top 3 spots are your winning side
26. Stasis lock a TF with a strafe attack
27. Take top spot in a mission, with double the score of the next place bot/con, at least 3 on 3.
28. Make the winning move in a cross level mission assuring the Victory.
29. Be outnumbered and still manage to pull off a Victory
30. Be on the winning side of the special mission, but stasis locked.


Bonus challenge: LOOT THE BODIES!!
Battlefield precision (automatic completion, but not required to win)
31. Survive a Trainwreck.
Complete this and you will have all the materials you will need to automatically complete the hunt and gain the full weapons cache, but if you want to try and win the personal weapon you will still need to complete the rest of the hunt.

Soundwave wrote:Scoring for this event:

Rules.
1. Each task must be a new mission; you may not claim two tasks in one mission. So claim the harder task first if you've met the requirements for two.
2. *Definition of Train Wreck at least 4 vs. 4 in a mission with 1 TF left standing.
3. Each task can be claimed once per pair. So any doubles, accident or not will not be counted.
4. Time stamp, if it is a specific task done by a move copy the time stamp so it’s easy to find. You can be creative, but it must have the time stamp.
5. Once you have claimed a task it will be counted and recorded, no switching of missions to fit a task.
6. When the winner posts their final mission the game ends. You will then have up to 48 hours to post any completed challenges that must be in missions no later than the highest mission the winner posts.
e.g. if the winner posts mission #123456, then no missions numbered after that will count.

Due to the nature of the RNG there will be one freebie, once you have claimed that freebie you cannot switch it to a different task.

This is the Claims thread. Reserve your spot. I highly suggest copy pasting the list so you can mark them out as you go.

First person to complete wins 30 weapons for the armoury and a personal weapon for themselves. Runners up win 1 weapon per completed challenge.

Winners of the special challenges will be given their rewards by PM.

Weapons will be drip-fed into the armoury as they are manufactured so keep an eye on thsi thread the announcement.

Lastly, a warning about the 'Special' Cure Challenges:
THIS IS WAR! the circumstances of which are likely to change in an instant, so make sure you regularly check WPNN for further broadcasts, as who knows what extra challenges this hunt may bring?

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Extinction - Round 3 [Prologue]

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I find a nice Chardonnay goes best with wholesale slaughter.

Its a new year!! Have you all sobered up yet? Pretty sure I haven't, but with the festivities of the holidays over it's time to get back to what we all do best - bringing you the best in quality violence!

Today WPNN are live at the Sonic Canyons, Gates of The Inferno, and bringing you an update on the battle against the Reavers, those extra-planar wankers assaulting Cybertron by turning Prowl into an even bigger asshat than he was previously.

We don't know much about these guys, but as a reminder we've put together a rundown of what has happened so far in this war.

• The Reavers came from a dimension they refer to as the 'Dead Space', and using biting alt modes, began to infect Cybertronians with a mind - altering virus.
• The virus, called The Brood Virus, invades the mind of whoever it infects, turning them into a drone soldier in their army, known only as 'The Brood'.
• We have a lead to a cure but no ability to vaccinate ourselves from it, yet.
• There were 12 'gifted' Cybertronians out there that likely hold the key to eradicating this virus, but many are currently MIA.
• We know nothing about the ‘Dead Space’, or if it has any connection to the Dead Universe, only that an artefact called 'Throne of Vir' once held them there, until it was destroyed in an unknown event by unknown people.
• These ‘Brood’ forces, currently comprised mostly of infected NAILs but also a growing number of infected Autobots and Decepticons, were massing at the edge of the Sonic Canyons but have begun to mobilise. Appearing to have no obvious leader, reports state that they are swarming towards the Decepticon-held region of Kaon and it's Darkmount fortress, currently under the command of Starscream.
• Our combined forces in the Sonic Canyons are led by a uneasy truce between Ultra Magnus and Soundwave, with Ironhide and Sixshot leading the Cybertronian armies in the field with some success, until now.
• Nothing has been heard from the self-titled 'True Reavers' since Apostate's recent ultimatum.
• Lastly, the Autobots chief tactical officer Prowl has been confirmed as 'compromised' and is to be considered an enemy, but has not yet been spotted on the battlefield.

There is some good news though!
Down at the front lines of the battle, we've caught up with the Autobot interrogations specialist's who have been speaking to one of the creatures that escaped from the Dead Space, and we have their report here; over to you Autobots!

That scheming rabbit over at Traitors-R-us wrote:"Ah, yes, uh, thanks Zombi. My name is Abyssal. I am assistant Autobot Parole Officer assigned to Bun-Bun (and company's) 'rehabilitation' and as such I will be relaying the information his group has learned."

"And I'm Killerpunch, Bx2's Intelligence Officer and sometimes Zombi Cheerleader Digital cosplayer ('Sup babe) here to help this no-charisma, nerdy, mouth-piece for "The Man" with color commentary."

What? That isn't what I was told. Bun told me you'd just be standing by if we had 'techincal issues'"

"Well your typical-Bot complete-lack-of-personality is technically an issue for us."

*sigh*
"Yes, whatever, anyways...
The 'creature', well, uh, first of all, does not like being referred to as 'creature' as some of my colleges could tell you..."

"... if they weren't still in CR. Darn thing has a taste for ex-Cons it seems."

"As best as we've been able to translate, with the surprising help of the team's resident, uhm...

"...Abomination, Sin-Against-Nature,..."

"...erm, "Recycled Cybertronian", Kludge, with whom it seems to feel some kinship, it refers to itself as a Drnarbyt, perhaps a time-corrupted form of Dinobot, and seems to belong to one of two tribes."

" Yeah, 'Ugly' & 'Uglier' "

"stop it."
"When asked why it came here it communicated "Trapped was. Not now. Fly some, easy leave. Not some."

"When asked why it talked like an idiot it bit my hand off. Sensitive little varmit."

*sigh*
"Asked it's intentions toward the Autobots & Decepticons it seemed confused and did not answer, though the ongoing CR situation seems to point to it disliking the former Decpticons in our group more than the Autobots. It seems it has some sense after all."

" What exactly do you mean by that poindexter?"

"Nothing!"
"Moving on...
We then presented it with a recording of the Reavers last transmission, the being became highly agitated & attempted escape. Though the injuries were extensive we were able to subdue the creature... "

"Kludge sat on it"

"...but have learned little since."

"Except that it's flatter & smells funny now."

"WILL YOU GET OUT OF HERE!
*kicks KP offscreen*
"sorry about that"
"Ahem...From this limited interogation & general observation we can posit the following:

Abyssal's actual report wrote:- They seem to have the ability to transform. Some obviously can fly but there are others that cannot. All of them seem to have a terrible bite weapon. Perhaps an adaption to their harsh environment.

- These creatures seem to have been trapped in the Dead Universe for a very long time and may be ancient cybertronians or at least their descendants.

- This one at least seems at somewhat predispossed to Autobots, but this may not be the case for all of the escaping beings.

- The now-destroyed Throne of Vir had up until this point prevented these creatures, and who knows what else, from returning to Cybertron.

"You know what I think, this is all an elaborate coverup for genetic & pathogen experiments run by Prowl & Ultra Magnus at the behest of their Primalist Masters"

"... really"

"Yup, they made up this whole Reavers thing just so they could use us as guinea pigs and gain more control with 'Emergency Powers'. Otherwise they'da just built a big ol' forcefield around the place to keep them Ill Reaver/Drnarbyts out and make Cybertron grea..."

"THAT'S IT! REPORT OVER"
*Cue 'Yakkety Sax' as Abyssal chases Killerpunch around the studio trying to hit him with the mic stand*

<>

Uh... Meanwhile, our own energon-drinking ‘interrogation’ agent has been let loose on the Autobot escapee’s counterpart believed a member of an ancient primitive tribe called the T'rra'cons. We have a copy of her report here.

Parasite's Interrogation Report wrote:Subject 'CT1' was reluctant to speak upon capture. Having demonstrated its offensive capabilities by biting Hazard in half and flying away, it was soon brought down by a combination of us concealing Zombi's Sharkticon 'pet' and tying Nemesis Wheelie up as bait.

Interrogation began with the standard questions, but revealing little. The language used by the subject is an old Cybertronian dialect, and a dermal plating sample placed it as originating from the Prototronic era, meaning that its imprisonment within the Dead Space happened before the Heavy Metal War era began and modern armour alloys were created. Still refusing to answer any questions, I invaded its mind to extract the data forcefully using my specialist fluid-extraction fangs (which are not, as Zombi likes to call them, 'Emo Twilight Teeth'), and this is where we had our first breakthrough. Having spent unknown milennia exposed to radiation and viral-nanotech simply by being in the vicinity of the Reavers, Subject CT1 ‘supplied’ us with a complete CNA-snapshot of the virus nanites. Being a neural-control specialist myself, I was able to identify and isolate a pristine sample of the virus. We now know creating a cure is possible and how, the details of which have been passed to the Senate. Establishing any weaknesses within the Reaver's was far easier. Having realised that he was unable to lie once I had infected him with nanobots of my own, and he quickly revealed that the negative radiation from the Dead Universe has been seeping into these True Reaper’s sparks and slowly poisoning them, the driving force behind their assault on our universe. If the correct radiation technology can be applied and weaponised, we will have an effective weapon against the both Reavers and Brood that shouldn’t do any permanent damage to any infected Cybertronian. Again, extensive research and testing is required and the details have again been passed to the senate. Subject CT1 interrogation completed, his altmode schematics have been uploaded to the master database along with those of his Autobot-captured counterpart, and he is now back in the cells until his mind and energon fluid levels have recovered so Chompy can finish eating him... Are you even listening Zombi?? Ugh. She's taken her head off and replaced with a lamp!? I hate Headmasters. I can't work under these conditions! I QUIT!!

Finally! ...and for those of you who also fell asleep during that, Vlad the Interrogator there just discovered 3 things:

- There is a cure, the composition of which is being checked by the Senate.
- We have discovered a weapon type that may be able to defeat the Reaver control allowing us to capture and cure any infected Cybertronians, however more field research is required.
- We are running out of time. The Brood armies are already on the move towards Kaon, and we have no idea who we can and cannot trust.

Arm yourselves and prepare for the hunt, the cure and a way to take down the Brood and develop a way to stop the brood have been given to us on a plate, but we have to pick our moment.

Stay tuned to WarPorn News Network for updates!!

Future information about Round 4 and 5 wrote:Round 4 is a secret round, the details of which will be released later.

Round 5 is an Elimination round.
- You will be fighting for your lives against the Brood.
- There will be special missions for this round, and only scores and results in these missions count.
- Everyone not signed up is considered part of the ‘Brood’.
- When your character is killed by someone in the Brood, it is infected.
- Infected characters count as Brood until killed by a special weapon (when it is eliminated) or cured (returns to the game).
- There will be other ‘complications’ to be announced closer to the time.
- Last faction with surviving players wins.

Detailed rules will be released closer to the time, this is just so you know what the weapons and cure do.

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Extinction - Round 2: War of Violence!

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...I don't care what the warranty says, that is definitely NOT a silent setting!

Greetings, peasants!
We have our airwaves back again! These interruptions are really damaging my ratings! What exactly does Soundwave actually do around here? May as well just employ Blaster and go back to voicing over hip-hop YouTube virals…

What? The Reavers? Ugh. OK, whatever.

So, like, our specialists over at The Senate headed up by Mal Practice, Starsurge and that barrel of laughs called Perceptor have released an in-depth analysis of the Infection. They have determined it is a modified strain of the Hate Plague that befell Cybertron many centuries ago, and in light of these recent annoying broadcasts by those Reaver basics, they have imaginatively named it the ‘Brood Virus’.
Seriously? That's the best they could come up with? Even Hard Wired could do better than that and he is literally a shambling corpse!

Anyway, it consists of nantes of non-Cybertronian origin that have been cybernetically engineered to adhere to our CNA, the chemical strain within our sparks that give us life and free will, and simply reprogram us to serve these Reaver douchebags like a badly-rooted iPhone.

The nerds are still working on a detection method and are using the samples taken from the twelve identified as 'resistant' to formulate a cure, but they claim these tests need time. Personally I'm pretty sure if they all stopped arguing like a pair of Predacons in heat for more than a breem we'd have the cure already...

The one thing they have said that is actually of use however, is that the resistant twelve have a far better chance of bringing a team back from inside the Inferno than the rest of us, so to try and concentrate exploration around these individuals:

Kludge
Behemoth,
Orobus,
Colossus Prime,
Shunt,
Rioghan,
Mendem,
Pandaemonium,
Suspiria,
Tarantulas,
Nosferatu,
It is however worth nmentioning that the original 12th member, Emergency, may have been 'accidentally' stabbed with a contaminated scalpel when Mal Practice found out she was defecting to the Autobots with the Warhawks, so can no longer be considered 'resistant'. In her place we've dumped Nemesis Wheelie into the mix as he is so annoying that no one actually cares whether he is controlled or not.


Meanwhile, in related news, both factions have sent recon teams to monitor the mouth of the Inferno in the almost-certainly-futile hope that they can head off any Reaver Brood that strike out in an effort to begin the invasion of our home early. Reports from the front vary, with our spies contacts in Iacon claiming that there is little to no reported activity as yet, whilst the rumour mill in Kaon says that NAIL’s, that's Non-Aligned Indigenous Life-forms to everyone else, are beginning to arrive in increasing numbers and are even attempting to enter the Inferno itself.

All we can do for now is hold our ground until either the Geek Squad stop dicking about and actually do some work, or the Reavers begin their offensive and hope the 'undiseaseable dozen' can tip the balance. Either way, I'm going to put my little rampant rabbit paws up on the Toaster and enjoy the show!!

Til next time! Zombi out.

Oh, and that buzzing you might have heard is obviously Hazard...

Official Transformers TCG Metroplex Theme Deck Card Reveals

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#Sideways# wrote:So here he is, the star of the show: Metroplex's city form. It shows us how everything works in terms of deploying his three small dudes, and it shows us the first 25 star character in the game. In this case, you have to transform him from his robot mode to vehicle form to deploy one of three characters: Slammer, Scamper and Six-Gun. You can go from one character, to four characters in a game -- tall, to wide.

You'll notice two things about Metroplex straight off in terms of his stats: He has abysmal attack, moderate defense and an unbelievably high HP of 35. This makes him the absolute thickest transformer in the game, having 14 more HP than the previous record holder of Cosmos, with 21. But just being hard to kill isn't the name of the game; if that was the case, Insecticons wouldn't be the best deck in format, now wouldn't it? More on that later.

In short, this is the most unique character we've ever seen, and it's not just because his card a nearly a foot tall. Metroplex is the first "deployer" character we've seen, and it makes him very good at doing one thing: Showing how Soundwave or Blaster might work in the future.

Now, you might think that Metroplex is really good, that you'll get out a ton of small dudes and rush down your opponent. The problem with that theory is that you can only transform once in a turn, meaning you have to have a Rapid Conversion or Roll Out in your hand every single turn of the game or you'll fall behind. Trust me when I say, this is not a feasible thing.

This mode is the bread and butter of Metroplex, contrary to what you might think given his robot form.

#Sideways# wrote:Here's the big man himself in his robot form, and his stats only slightly improve. His defense drops, sadly, and his attack is boosted to an average six, but the biggest thing one might notice about him is his ability: Flip two of each pip and your opponent's characters are all force tapped, dealing one damage to each of them in the process.

That sounds powerful.

It sounds powerful.

When you have all three of your small characters out, it is, for sure, but that will seldom happen in a game. But here's the thing: Tapping all of your opponent's characters compared to tapping just one (ala Skrapnel) is bad. When you have all characters on a single side tapped, then the side with characters still untapped have to attack -- in this case, you. All of your characters will then attack at once, leaving your opponent to attack with a character of their choice next turn.

This helps your opponent more than it hurts them. In a deck that plays heavily damaging characters and support characters alongside them, for instance Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend with two support cars, you want to attack with the heavily damaging character the most. By tapping all of your opponent's characters, you're allowing them to untap all their characters at the beginning of their turn including their highly damaging characters.

If it simply tapped one or two characters, then you would be denying them an attack with that high damaging character while simultaneously leaving it open to attack -- tapping all characters means they still get to attack with their damaging character over and over again.

But that wouldn't be a problem if you had a higher attack stat. With such a low attack (and defense), you won't be able to take too much ground despite your high HP and ever-increasing numbers. Now, why is that? Let me explain by showing you the rest of what comes in the Metroplex set to support him.

#Sideways# wrote:Come on and SLAM! And welcome to the JAM!

Ahem.

First up we have another super unique card, and that's Slammer. Slammer isn't a Transformer, especially since he doesn't have a robot form, but he is useful. Slammer spreads one damage when you deploy him from beneath Metroplex, but more importantly, gives Metroplex Bold 1 passively.

But that's not all about him that makes him interesting: With Slammer, you might notice four things: One, he has the lowest HP in the game, but he also has some of the upper echelon of defense in the game as well -- but neither of those are the most important. The most important things about Slammer is that he is a Tank, and that he is four stars. This means that you can play him, Demolisher and Megatron -- Living Weapon all in the same deck and capitalize on Tank synergy.

Slammer's most use might just come from Megatron, instead of the city from which he came.

#Sideways# wrote:There isn't too much to write home about with Scamper's vehicle mode, but there are two things that I really like about this. One, he gives Metroplex Bold 1 -- which is almost never a bad thing -- and two, he is a four star Car. This makes him an easy fill-in for wide Car lists, allowing you to play four Cars and to take advantage of Turbo Boosters as well as Start Your Engines. Of course, in a Metroplex deck I wouldn't advise over-emphasizing Scamper's Car status, but in a Car list, he's an easy fit despite his abilities only activating if you have Metroplex.

#Sideways# wrote:His robot form is also something that only activates with Metroplex, but the effects he has are very, very good. Scrapping a weapon or armor is an excellent ability to have in your pocket, especially with how important Force Field is to swinging entire games. Scrapping weapons isn't as important (especially seeing as Grenade Launcher scraps itself after use), but I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

His stats are, again, nothing to write home about, but you wouldn't expect him to carry games, anyway.

#Sideways# wrote:"No one dared to make a slip..."

So Six-Gun is probably my favorite character out of this whole thing, simply because he has the most useful abilities out of all three of his comrades. Moreover, he has the best stats out of all his comrades.

His gun mode has the ever-useful ability of indirect damage, he has four stars, and the highest HP out of all his friends. But this really isn't the business end of this guy. Even though his indirect damage is useful, his robot mode is actually slightly better.

#Sideways# wrote:"... The ranger there among them had a big iron on his hip."

With four damage as his base attack, he's the highest damaging character of Metroplex's three small deployers. Sure, he has zero defense, but if there's one thing I've figured out, nine times out of ten, all three of them are going to get fragged in one hit anyway. One of the best parts about him, though, is that he can be the exception to that rule through the use of Force Field. He is the only one that has five HP, meaning that Force Field will be able to activate and save him from certain demise.

Of course, don't expect his four attack to save the game for you -- it's just useful to have a guy who won't instantly detonate as soon as your opponent gets a good look at him.

But one of the more interesting abilities on this card is his Bold ability, giving Metroplex Bold 2 when you transform Six Gun. Of course, you might notice some themes here -- stacking Bold to improve on Metroplex's damage potential and to pop his ability. This is even more more apparent with Height Advantage, the next card we're going to look at.

#Sideways# wrote:It's over Anakin -- I have the high ground!

Height Advantage is essentially Supercharge but for Titans, with a blue pip instead of the more useful Orange pip. This card is essentially a middle ground between Dino Chomp and Supercharge, and it definitely belongs in your list if you're playing a Titan

#Sideways# wrote:"I've got a lot of plans to do tonight, and dying isn't one of them!"

This card is strictly okay. It's essentially a Heroism with more moving parts, which makes me dislike it, but if you're playing a list with plenty of orange, you can't really go wrong. Plus, redundant cards in lists isn't actually a bad thing, especially with low draw power. I prefer playing Heroism on Metroplex instead of multiple of Protected By Metroplex on my smaller characters, but the end result is similar enough that it doesn't really matter.

#Sideways# wrote:"Alla till mig!"

Rally The City is one of my favorite cards to come out of this set. When you have this card in your hand at any time, you can use it to replace itself at worst. At best, you can use it to draw four(!) cards. This is a powerful, powerful card when you have enough time to set it up, and the premiere draw support with Metroplex.

#Sideways# wrote:So, all in all, I would say that Metroplex is niche. It seems super powerful, but the problem is the set up time. It doesn't send everyone out at once when you transform Metroplex, it just sends one at a time. This makes it very easy for your opponent to punish your slow play by dominating each one of your small characters as soon as you put them on the battlefield.

Another problem Metroplex has is that 35 HP isn't actually all that much when your opponent can attack you several times more than you can, especially early game when Metroplex is alone.

What it has going for it is the Dinobot levels of damage that you can potentially pull off when you have all of that stacking Bold. But then, wouldn't playing Dinobots just be easier? Stacking Bold, dealing a lot of damage, tanking a lot of damage, that all sounds familiar, doesn't it?

There are such things as redundant cards in the game, but when it comes to redundant decks, I often find that the most consistent one takes the cake -- or the one that can do more damage more consistently, and that would be Dinobots.

I mean, you even play a card that is essentially Dino Chomp in Height Advantage. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems like Dinobots with more moving parts and less consistent draw.

Playing an all blue deck doesn't make it any better, either, since all of that Bold is doing absolutely nothing. You'd live forever, but you're trying to kill your opponent with the firepower of a low-battery flashlight. But all of that is my opinion, anyway, what's yours? Let me know in the comments below!

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron Season 2- Extinction. Round 1: INFECTION starts in 24 hours!

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Like, you didn't see this coming... wrote:

I like big teeth and I cannot lie, you other bunnies can't deny...

AWWWW YEAHHH!! ITS TIME TO GET YO BITE ON BABY!!

We've all been here. You've read the book, seen the movie and bought the limited-edition skinny hipster-cut t-shirt (especially Bun-Bun).

Alt Hunts are nothing new to you guys so I'll spare you the details, but I before we start I have gotta tell you about the fun little twist his Royal Shortarseness has added to make this one even more exciting...

We now take you over to his secret lair of metagaming nonsense for another long-winded announcement that could have been said in 8 words...

ಠ_ಠ
I hate that rabbit.

Minions of HMW:GD!
'tis I, the best cassette ever, Psychout, here to announce the next stupid shi- bonus task for you all during this Alt Hunt!

Here's the deal: A few micro-cycles ago, a weird glitch made its way into our CR Chambers, causing feedback that went on to wreak havoc with their ability to actually do anything useful.

Since that began, weird phenomenon has gripped Cybertron. Firstly, all the Autobots died. Then, the Sharkticon, previously thought tamed during the Hydrax war, smashed through the (4th) wall of the Inferno, spitting baby sharks (do do do do do do) all over the place. They were closely followed by this... abomination, and then irrefutable proof that Zombi really is the most basic of bitches bunnies by supplying her favourite coffee bar with spice for the rest of the millennia.

It was clear that this had opened up a tsunami of creatures previous unwantedknown.

We in the Senate (and by 'we' I mean Burn) scrambled to try and control these new fanged menace menasi menaceses threats, but a final challenger appeared so we just said **** it, clearly life, uh, finds a way.

Anyway, here's your Alt Hunt bonus:

Quoteception! wrote:If you have any alt that can bite on your team and are entered into the Alt Hunt, you can score an extra point FOR EVERY BITE THEY LAND!

There is a condition: you must list the name of the victim of every bite you want to claim for and make it simple for us to read, as the Senate is lazy.

Think you can follow that?

So there you go, Senator afthole has spoken. Get chomping!

We'll put the rules below for those too lazy to read all that noise.

The round starts early Wednesday 7th and runs til Sunday(ish), nerds. The boss will post the opening mission number... when he feels like it.

That's all from me, now go and do the thing!!

• Kill as many Predators, Hunters, Raptors, Sharkticons, Smashing Pumpkins and Annoying Land Animals as you can in 1 week. The list of legal alts is in the next post.
• To be able to enter you must format a valid target alt onto at least one member of your team.
• ALL of your teams kills on target alts count.
• If you have a bite-capable altmode on your team, you may also list every bite it lands and the targets name to gain an extra point.
• Watch your mission logs.
• When you get a kill on a target alt or want to claim a bite, edit the link into your original post making sure to list the victims name and time of kill.

HMW: Campaign for Cybertron, Season 2: Extinction! PROLOGUE

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Don't worry, I wont bite... unless you ask really nicely.

Hey there Losers and Ladies, I'm Zombi Cheerleader and we're back! Did you miss me?

Tonight on WPNN - The WarPorn News Network - it's the news you have all been waiting for! Our inbox has been literally exploding with your demands for it's return, most of which we can't read publicly, but we here at WarPorn have gone through them all, and have answered your prayers! Kinda.

The Campaign for Cybertron is RETURNING!!!

But before we can get to the actual game, I'm being forced to hand you over to our 'glorious leader' and creator of the Campaign so he can update you all on how it all works, how to join in and most of all - what he has changed from last time...

His most glorious midgetness, Senator Psychout wrote:Peons of Cybertron,
WarPorn Industries brings you C4C Season 2: Extinction! An ongoing battle for Cybertron, fought over a series of rounds for control of our planet using the Heavy Metal War missions.

Before we can begin though, I have to say a few words...

Over the last solar cycle, together as a race of magic space robots, we have achieved many great things. So many great things. None of the things achieved before in history have ever been this great. And we achieved them all. Great things. So many.

We tamed the mighty Sharkticon!
We battled an invasion from a galaxy far far away!
We hunted and scavenged for new technologies and built mighty new weapons!
But we failed to have a great war.

The rest of the Senate accepts responsibility for that and, in our infinite wisdom, we have taken the feedback you gave us and deliberated on their mistakes.

Therefore, to correct this and keep the energon rolling in to maintain our impartiality as your Senate, we are hereby enacting a new ordinance:

The Seibertronian Accord

This Accord is in 2 parts:

1) Awards:
No faction will gain an advantage over the other in terms of armaments, altmodes or tactics for more than 2 weeks. So, no matter which faction is the eventual victor, the opposition will still get their participation trophy.

2) Balancing:
When Commanders sign up for any challenges set by the Senate, the faction with the least commanders entered will be given the option to select 'Drone' back up.
i) This backup can be chosen from any commander within their own faction, and is to be announced in any relevant mission threads.
ii) The Drone commander chosen does not have to be a regular visitor to HMW: General Discussion.
iii) The Commander announcing the Drone is responsible for posting any scores/results the Drone achieves, however they can be privately collected as a group, if the choosing faction so wishes.
iv) The smaller faction may choose as many Drone commanders as they wish, but their total team number must not exceed that of their opponents.
Credit goes to Steve2275 for the balancing suggestion.

This Accord will be enforced by the Senate, and compliance is mandatory.

To join the campaign is simple; watch for the Campaign announcements, read the WPNN broadcast, follow the instructions and get stuck in. Everyone who plays Heavy Metal War is welcome to join, but you must be willing to post on the General Discussion forum to register your team.

Rounds will run approximately every 2-3 weeks and will last between 2-7 days.

See you on the battlefield!
Till all are rich.

Psychout,
CEO WarPorn Industries,
Senator of Cybertron.

Short and to the point as always... ◔_◔

So, picture the scene... Cybertron, our near desolate planet.
Millennia of the Heavy Metal Wars stripping it of its resources, surviving numerous shutdowns, invasions and evolution's, yet she still functioned.

That is, until now.

Just over a month ago, an Autobot by the name ThunderThruster identified a new peril. A freak accident during one of Cybertron's own regeneration cycles shut down our CR chamber array, and somehow they became corrupted.

Action was quick to prevent any lasting damage, or so we thought...

Here to bring you more information is Senator Wingz, who is with a team of our greatest scientists analysing the long term effects of the CR-Corruption.

Senator Wingz wrote:Starsurge, get in focus! And...

MAL PRACTICE!! You KNOW the carving knife is meant for...

Wait, is this thing on? *clears throat*

Citizens of Cybertron!

Behind me, you’ll notice an array of broken down machinery that has previously been a danger to all factions, indiscriminately! Not to be confused with the scientists standing around them, I assure you.

Through our analysis of the contaminated CR chambers, we’ve managed to deduct that there is still residual material cultivating inside. Further analysis reveals that, while most have escaped their undead fate, there are four alt modes that may still be potentially dangerous! In order to continue our research, we will need to dissect interrogate as many Smashing Pumpkins, Sharkticons, Predators, and Hunters are you can find and stasis lock!

Be assured, you’ll be...properly taken care of should you become contaminated in your quest!
Back to you, Zombi!

There ya have it, it appears the eggheads have finally made a decision - it's an ALT HUNT!

You all know the drill. You have 1 week to ensure you have either a Predator, Hunter, Sharkticon* or Pumpkin character on your team, and as special bonus any Sharks* or Pumpkins will gain an extra point for every bite they land (not just kill with, every successful bite attack) during the tourney so think about that as well.

* NOTE: All Sharkticons will count as targets, even those that do not have the bite tactic.


The full rules will be announced by little old me in a few days time.
Until then leave us your messages, requests and abuse below and we might even bother to read it!

That's all I have time for, as thanks to Burn they've finally been able to re-stock the pumpkin spice in the energon-espresso machine so this is Zombi Cheerleader, signing off!

#totesamaze

HMW: Something wicked this way comes ...

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HMW Campaign for Cybertron: Shard of Resilience

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Like you could ever get sick of seeing little old me...

Ladles and jellyspoons, the war is in full swing and it appears that the Autobots may even have the upper hand. Cooperation and coordination is starting to seep in and those plucky little reds are really starting to stand on their own feet/treads/paws/wheels/whatever.

To this end I bring you some good news... and some bad.

The bad news is that as of mission #38500 the Shard of Courage is no more, and from this mission the Autobots wont get its advantage.

The GOOD news is that we have found the second shard! Hang on, it appears to have a message attached, lets see what this says...

The Shard of Resillience wrote:

The Vir430 Era - HMW Genesis.

“It was the year 2003, and Cybertron was a dark and desolate planet. The great shutdown millennia before had put her on stand-by, allowing her to heal from centuries of war, but she knew that without some kind of order her time was short. Scanning her glimmering metal-strewn surface she found her first champion, named Vir430, and charged him with the greatest of challenges - bring order to the chaos. To help her create structure and certainty, even if that certainty was more war, and guide her into a new era.

The Era of Genesis.”

Very little is known of this great historical era of Cybertrons rebirth but under a shroud of secrecy, it is known that Vir accepted the Matrix and began his work. On the date the Earthlings record as June 24th 2003, Cybertron was reactivated; the Heavy Metal Wars began, but they were very different to the war we fight today…


Vir. (Probably.)

The Cybertronians were slow to come back online and the technology wasn’t as advanced as we are used to. The central mission computer was yet to be activated so the war was held exclusively in the arena to begin with, allowing scores to only be settled one on one. Squad size was also smaller, whilst a team was still comprised of 12 only 4 warriors could fight for a team at any one time, and arms and armaments were limited until the more advanced weapons could be rediscovered.
It is also believed that there was only a few altmodes available to the first commanders, but that initial list is lost to the ages now.

HMW: 15 years and we STILL have Prime clones.

This new awakening of Cybertron soon brought the more warlike Transformers-in-exile back to their old home, and with those came the knowledge of tactics and advanced Transformations. The newly-awakened combatants, reset to level 0 after the great shutdown, had fought their way through many challenges and using their battle experience had learned how to use their altmodes to Avoid their enemies attacks, Ram their opponent into submission, or Strafe whole battlelines of enemies, and with the Central Mission Computer coming back online a few megacycles after the war began anew, these tactics began to make the difference in the missions, but it was many cycles later, with the discovery of Repair in its most simple form, that truly began to turn the tide of the battles, but the results of a loss remained devastating for many, with the stasis-locked losers often left behind until their commanders could return to recover them to place them in Cryogenic regeneration, or CR, Chambers.

Wheeljack! Stay back whilst I science!

What was never expected when the war began though, was the meeting of minds that it facilitated. Cybertron was not entirely about war and conflict, many of the planets more peaceful natives had been meeting for mega cycles beforehand, hoping for a chance at peace, but the two factions began to talk. Much of the discussion was to taunt their opponents, but a united spirit also prevailed. Dubbing themselves the HMWarriors, the commanders began to group together in clans and units to share tactical information and coordinate. Among the first topics known to be discussed was Courage, widely considered to be the strongest upgrade stat of its time, and a third faction that had also joined the war - a secret and shadowy force that would interrupt a mission, destroying both sides, The Unknowns.

'Unknowns' still sounds better than NAILs.

And then, one day, it was time for Vir to pass the mantle of Praetorian and make his own way in the universe. The logs have no record of when this was, and many of his other great deeds in his bringing of order to the chaos of war are lost to the ages, but it is known that Vir’s work is still very much the framework of the war we fight today - Cybertrons first guardian after she was reborn laid a foundation for transformers civilisation that was destined to endure.

And now my watch has ended...

And so Cybertron entered a period of renewal as her people continued to return from the stars. The number of activated warriors was increased from four to six, and with the advent of newer technology and advancement of her commanders, more missions became available, but as the era known as Gensis drew to a close, Cybertron soon realised that a new guardian would be needed and she reached out to a small, talented young Autobot to step forward and realise his destiny…

Wait, what?

To be continued...

Disclaimer: Much of this happened a very long time ago, and most of this was pieced together from old forums and the using internet archive. If you have a memory of when the game first started or correction to what the shard above says, please post it below!

Woah, there ya go! A little history lesson for you all there...

Our smart-arse analysts have inspected the shard and reported an engraving on it, which they have managed to translate from its ancient Cybertronian machine code. It reads

Code: Select all

Cybertron supports those who never give up so *any* valid (0 or 5) mission where the defeated side has 3 or more combatants still counts as a war victory

There ya go, Shard 2: Resilience is in the game, and benefits both sides. Remember: the bonus only counts if you are the outnumbered team and you win the mission.

Good luck out there!