Netmech IV

Leagues using Netmech.

Empire League

Empire is a turn-based league for mechanized warfare on a galactic level. Teams take turns commanding their forces and building relations with their neighbors. Detailed tactical command is coupled with a simple economic model to create a challenging environment. Orders are issued through a web based interface. Your military force, built of recon, skirmish, patrol and attack units and shuttled by a variety of transport vessels, carries your message to the masses. Full automation permits limited knowledge of the enemy; if you want to know where he is, you had better deploy your scouts effectively.

Empire was built for teams, not individuals. User information includes only the number of battles fought and the number of battles won, not individual kill counts. The focus is participation, not personal prowess. Teams built around the efforts of one leader may not be able to stand against one with a solid structure with intermediate levels sharing the operation of their empire

Empire was created by House Steiner member BlackMill, who currently maintains the server and database administration for the League. We are currently in our Fourth Cycle of play. Empire is entirely team driven and does not try to emulate or copy BattleTech history...as such, each team can come in and make their own mark and identity. Since play is turn-based it allows members the leeway to more or less schedule battle appointments as they have availability (that said, there are rules in place to assure the constant flow of battle). There are 46 planets with 402 cities to battle over (17 new planets are being added with our cycle reset, with appreciable number of cities). The planetary maps are set up in hexagonal grid style and units are limited as to the number of hexes they can move per turn.

Team economies are driven by income from cities and planets, costs for construction of factories and building mech lances, upkeep and transport fees, etc, so there is financial management to consider. There is also crucial lance movement for scouting and engagement that needs to be handled on the administrative side of things. Again, this all occurs on a turn basis.

Combat is currently resolved using MW4: Mercenaries with the MekPak 3 update by MekTek, on dozens of maps selected by the database in accordance with the terrain. We are constantly looking for ways to refine and improve gameplay, and we have some new irons in the fire that are currently being discussed. One of which is adopting the NetMech IV mod. Since we are turn based and not real time, we plan to use total league salvage values to advance through the NetMech IV timelines as a representation of the advancement of technology through the cycle. Once total League salvage reaches a certain goal, everyone advances to the next timeline.

Our community has been small and a bit off the radar...the league began as a hobby of BlackMill and some other team members during the waning days of the War!Online Mercenaries League, but has grown a bit from where he started it. The main goal never changed, though....we all just want to have fun. We encourage anyone interested in joining us to let us know! The new Cycle should begin in December, and we plan on making the best of it!