Once you reach about 3 1/2 skulls of difficulty in campaign, I've noticed that a lot of enemy heavy and assault mech pilots have such high gunnery skill that even 5 pips of evasion counts for next to nothing. Because of this, you'll need a heavy medium like the Shadow Hawk with jump jets to fill the scouting role as your scout will inevitably be taking full alpha strikes from heavies and assaults which would instantly cripple any light mech. At 4 skulls and beyond, since assault mechs become frequent contenders, it might be better to just abandon the scout role altogether and roll with all heavies and assaults, some equipped with rangefinders.
Sensor Lock is extremely useful in the early game but gets increasingly less useful in the late game. I have it on most of the pilots that I regularly use but only use it once or twice per battle now because with 8-9 gunnery on all pilots and accuracy mods, I'm getting 65-80% hit chances against 4 evasion pips, and because all of my units carry missiles, just firing with two units usually causes a knockdown. I only use sensor lock when none of my units have a visual yet.
Lighter units still good for that initiative though- part of my beef with assault mechs is often they are heavily damaged before you even get a chance to use them! I like to keep the difficulty and flavour up by having one of each class in my lance- there still is benefit to having something with truely fast movement to react to actions on the battlefield especially with some of the later piloting skills
Late game a fast heavy can fulfill the scout role perfectly well, Dragons and Quickdraws can mount just over a ton more armour than a Shadowhawk and move as fast.. The important thing is to move first so if you are facing assaults and heavy vehicles you will still keep the initiative. Once you have one a grasshopper makes a good scout for late game.
A note to all of those talking about how one "must use 4 assaults in the end game" or "just get 4 assaults and the game is over". I have played the campaign a couple of times, and I always use the Shadow Hawk as my Scout/Sniper right up to the end. There are plenty of opportunities for the Firestarter to come in and wreck someone's day. A heavier scout in the late game can be a good thing. Grasshoppers do quite well. I rarely take more than 2 assaults. A Highlander and a Stalker will roll over most forces, if their lighter buddies flank and scout. Oh, I only take 1 Sensor Lock pilot. ALL of my pilots are there to shoot. I highly recommend HBS's "Eck's-Calibur Challenge" for anyone who needs to develop an appreciation for the lighter mechs. You know Eck's favorite mechs are the Lights, right?
my campaigns always had the use for a Centurion medium mech all the time up to end game last combats, with a special build for that... and said Centurion really had no shame to feel against Heavies or Assaults. Also some heavies are sort of "replacements" for medium or light mechs, such as Orion is the Shadow Hawk upgrade and GrassHopper is the Firestarter upgrade :)
@@zyttoire9410 Old comment I know, but how do you tend to use the Cent? I was gonna try for an LRM carrier because I don't have a -2D shadowhawk, but my other option was an AC/20 carrier since it's one of the few that can lug that gun in an arm with little issue.
Good video again but viewers, keep in mind that there had been severe overhaul/changes in stability damage, pilot skills like bullwark, and huge raise in missile damage (x2 raise) since this video was published... So you may need to adapt some of the concepts discussed here accordingly
Andrew Adams yeah. I bought an AC20 and set it up on my Blackjack, with just enough space for 2 magazines of AC20 ammo and 2 SLASERs. This thing is a literal derp gun and an excellent flanker.
I'd like to add a TDR-5SE Thunderbolt to your list of Strikers. It's slower, with a turn order of only 2, and slightly slower move speed, but I've found the bite it brings to the battlefield more than makes up for it. I've replaced my 2x SRM6, 2x SLaser, 1xMLaser GRF-1S Grifin with this guy. The Thunderbolt I run now carries an Impressive back-stripping arsenal of 2x SRM6, 4xMLaser, 3xMG, 7x HeatSinks, 4x HJumpJets, and near maxed out Armor of 1080. While only bringing one SRM Ammo (100) sometimes leaves it slightly dry, in a longer mission, the Lasers and MGs never run dry, and I've had it strip away the backs of many a heavy mech. The MGs also help it go in for a quick melee hit in the back to stave off some heat for a turn. Load up all the +CRIT weapons you can find and you're In business. Would recommend.
The highlander is an incredible skirmisher I find. Probably my favorite mech so far. Such a mobility, fire power and heat sinking in the same mech is insane. I tend late game to use the Kintaro as my scout. It gives such a punch for a medium, scaring even bigger mechs. Of course, the pilot gets the +1 initiative and the ability to move after shooting. A must have for a punchy scout.
Unless I'm missing something, highlanders have the same mobility as King Crabs and Atlases who have been given jumpjets. And by stock game there is only one highlander variant that beats them in firepower/heat/armor category because of certain equipment advantages it comes with.
So i not got this game yet. Learning if i will or not. This def helped me a lot since i didnt know the types of mechs in the game. Didnt realize there were so many dif ones and all the different offensive weapons available
I keep something with a "Tank" role in my squad. He has medium to long range weaponry with depending on the mech I have is a mix of ballistics, energy, and missiles. His role is to stay in front of everyone and take damage. He "covers" for everyone providing the optimal target and uses Bulwark and Vigilance to absorb fire. The brawler trades places with him in the front when enemy mechs get close, or if he's taken too much damage. The sniper moves behind him getting potshots. He always has a hardened cockpit and a Stability Damage Reduction Gyro. He has more armor than firepower and jump jets to jump in front of other mechs when needed. I've used an Orion for this during my heavy phase and a Highlander when I got my assaults. (For some strange reason, Highlanders kept spawning on me, I have three aside from one you get for free. I was once tempted to change my company name to the Immortals. And I actually have 6 Orions!). The rest of the roles I use are in exactly the same manner as you described.
Ive used rotating since tabletop. Just get the arcs and modifiers right and keep your oppoment firing at a fresh mech. Ive been working in such lots lately so im just hitting the heavy phase. I over reached trying a harder mission for a black knight and lost all my beta mechwarriors in the attempt. (Cut costs lol).
I used Shadow Hawk 2D with a master strategist that has high morale. The 2D is not very tanky, but with increased initiative, the pilot can hit the front and control initiative on grid.
The Grasshopper also makes for an insanely powerful Heavy-tier Brawler / Cavalry, with a high melee score, plenty of defense to muscle through incoming damage, x6 Support Weapon hardpoints and x7 Laser hardpoints when you'd be better suited to Called Shot'ing the enemy's back.
The Grasshopper is the one 'Mech I'll keep in the stable from the moment I get it until I'm done with a playthrough. I'll slowly upgrade it with Black Market/LosTech equipment, but its job is to rush in and either nuke a light by sheer volume of fire (evasion means little when you have 13 guns and only need one or two to hit), or to jump behind a heavier 'Mech and core it from the rear. Many of my most satisfying kills have come from my brave "little" Grasshopper.
The roles seem to be less important as the game progresses because you just need the tonnage pure and simple to defeat bigger enemy lances. For the Skirmisher role however, which I am still using, is to give its long range weapon a large laser as it can still fire pretty well at close range if the biome allows. If not going laser the ideal is NO larger than an LRM5 because even at short range and heavy accuracy penalty you can still fire them and score a few damages and not worry about running out of ammo. The scout role basically ends up being whoever has the bonus evasion secondary skill and the 'mech with the most jump jets. My standard lance has 2 brawler/skirmisher hybrids, 1 scout/skirmisher, and 1 sniper. Using all of the stability damages from the brawlers and snipers is amazing as I can kill from 1-2 'mechs per turn if done properly. I doubt this will work as effectively once I start fighting more heavies though. All 'mechs I have fought so far fall back down so I square up dump all of the stability damage into them maybe with some precision shots to the CT and then when they fall, swoop in and rain down CT called shots from point blank range. When I do this fast enough and focus fire each one down I can intercept the enemy lance and keep them from bunching and causing virtually any non-autorepairable damageand then picking up another job immediately. Wonderful game!
I agree - he's doing a pretty damn good job doing the explanation :) Always some good details for the puzzle and good inspiration to get, in short a periode of time. The 10-15 minutes videos are the sweet spot.
One of the guys on MechSpecs (primarily a MWO site) was recommending Bulwark for snipers, as they pretty much stand still, but not for brawlers as they may need to re position quite often to avoid getting shot in the back.
The Shadowhawk 2H is a great all-around mech, from early to mid-game. But it requires some customization. Strip the SRM launcher (leave the ammo), the LRM launcher and its ammo bin, as well as the two extra heat sinks. Drop in 3xSRM4. Yes, the ammo is little tight in longer engagements, and it can run hot. But it hits hard for its tonnage, can harass with the AC5, and still has the laser and physical attacks if the ammo runs dry. Combined with good speed and adequate jets, this thing can ruin the day of even high end heavies.
This all sounds great but being in the mid-late game now I find the game could've done with a bit more strategic or tactical depth to enable these kinds of plays or give them more value. 4 assault mechs rolling in and blowing away the entire opposition in 3 rounds works better than overthinking it and trying to create plays, which makes the game boring for me.
While some of the strategies are applicable for the campaign(like having some form of spotter and some form of fire support), I think this video will have the biggest impact in skirmish/pvp games where you have a points total and HAVE to pick something other than 4 Assault mechs. Anyway, the devs have mentioned that they are looking for ways to make lights/mediums more attractive in the later stages of the campaign, probably by adding missions/goals where they excel.
Have you ever had four Assault mechs roll in, only to find themselves between a lance of heavy vehicles and a lance of heavy strikers? Unless you are the type that saves the game before every fight and simply reloads when it doesn't go your way, you'll find that tactic works most of the time... Until it doesn't. Then you've lost a lance of Assault mechs, and probably most of your ace pilots.
MatJan86 - The Steiner Scout Lance is what is called a joke in the Battletech universe. It is said because Steiner is actually rich enough and egotistical enough that they can afford to throw away mechs like that. Not because it's an actual effective strategy.
My favorite striker-type mech (that often doubles as the scout) is a Yen Lo Wang, I.E a Centurion that has had its LRMs and AC/10 removed for an AC/20. Now, you are likely thinking "but that's just a Hunchback," and the truth is, yes... A Hunchback that is faster, more accurate with the A.C. (since it is arm-mounted) and will still have some spare tonnage for jump jets. I've been using it w/ a Expert Pilot to cap knees and blow out heavy mechs from behind well into the 3-4 skull missions, reserving behind a hill until the last phase, jumping out to fire, firing again first chance next turn (idealing using precicse strike to hit the same spot again) and then jumping out of sight before any of the heavier mechs can do anything.
So far one of my best things I've done was a centurion missile boat. Three srms 6 and a 2 with two ammo, and a M laser and a S laser, then just max out the armor from there, and the things nearly untouchable and can destroy most things in one alpha salvo. Also have a jump jet to help get around the enemy or do a DFA. There's one down side, it's rear is lightly armor, you'll be having to be aware of what you're fighting, the build I went for was a short range mid range shot gun build essentially but it's definitely a glass cannon, from the front I've rarely had armor get stripped off unless an AC 20 hit, but from the rear a locus would be cause of concern for me. That's why I keep another mech near it back it up, and it's not as likely to over heat as you think since I got three heat sinks on it. So long as your back is covered by something you're hardly going have to worry if you play smart with it.
The Jump jet is for when I get the mech up close so I can jump behind the target and missile barrage into his entire back side, also it's to allow him to get to higher advantage points, since it takes some time for it to catch up to the enemy into short range or melee fighting I normally always have a tactician in it, so that way if it's more advantageous for me to move up a head and sensor lock the dang locust that had moved first or any light mech I can take it out with my other mechs easier. The single one I also find is helpful with mitigating heat since this particular build, builds up so much heat quickly if you're not paying attention, it's really all about timing. But I'd definetly say try to have one at least on a mech if you can just so you can reach that guy on top of a cliff that's been bombarding you but you're to low to get a good shot. Or you know DFA cause that Russian roulette is always fun. Personally I rarely do it just as a principal. Now if the mech I'm using is out of weapons or lost them all, then I will. I'm more wishing I could keep a light mech but I don't really know ones that can be considered good, simply because I like their mobility, what's your opinion on the Jeener or do you know any good ones for me to keep an eye out for?
I really enjoyed my midgame LRM centurion 2 LRM 15s and an LRM 20 left it with almost no armor and pretty bad thermal efficiency, but the missile spam was absurd for that point in the game.
Did similar with 2x LRM15 and an LRM5, so a bit more armor, heat efficiency, and jump jets for maneuverability. Obviously nowhere near as much damage, but works well too. Feels like Centurion is the best medium-sized LRM mech in the game.
Yeah my first LRM boat was a centurion. 40 LRMs a volley (2 15s and a 10) with enough ammo and heatsyncs to fire and fire and not stop firing. Amazed by how many youtubers have overlooked the missile potential on that chassis.
One of the best Skirmishers, which later in the game becomes a Striker, I have found is a Kintaro with 5 jump jets, near-maxed armor, 3 tons of SRM ammo, and 4x4SRM+1x2SRM, and a heat sink. This setup puts out 144 potential damage per alpha strike, but it is pretty easy early on to get enough +2 damage SRM's to bring this up to 180 damage. With the upgraded SRMs you can use the Ace Pilot/Reserve trick to dump 342 damage (on average, assuming 95% hit chance) into one side of a mech with complete safety if there is terrain to hide behind nearby. This is a kill on all Light, 95% of Medium, many Heavies. It is often a torso loss on Heavies regardless, and (I am not there yet) I am guessing sometimes even Assaults will often lose their torso from this kind of strike, especially in the later game if you have some +4 damage SRM's to up the damage further.
one strategy I have found recently, on missions where you are 'hunting' for targets involves map reading. Look for what avenues there are to get there. And ask the question, is this to obvious? If it is you may be setting yourself up for hurt... in some cases though, by not reacting (like in escort missions), you set yourself up to lose. But a lot of my best victories came when I decided I'm going to move in this direction... I know its not directly where it says I'll find the enemy, but I just have a gut feeling I need to use the terrain better. Bam... better earlier position leads to earlier mech disability for the opposition, and then it becomes an attrition game.
(Early-Mid game) I'm quite happy with my artillery centurion. Since the stock role is more on the front-line side, I wasn't sure that this would be a good idea, but the chassis turned out to be really good for a long range build with it's 3 missile hardpoints in the torso along with the rather low speed. And compared to standard artillery mechs, this one can still be quite tanky and pack a decent (literal) punch if some skirmishers break through to it.
Know it has been a while but you forgot one role, the tank/target (used mainly for bait and switch or defensive lines) This is a mechwarrior that has the bulwark and the highest armored unit you can have, using jump jets for your move-ability as it will let you have the ability to reline your defense as I have found having at least 2 of these on your team for any defense missions lead you to have the ability to decimate rushers to the battle. I use one of these as the spear of the mechs as it can be a handy way to keep yourself in your defense line, I then can have one Sniper/Indirect mech with multi target behind the line, after that I also love to pick up 1 scout (mainly light to med mech) with both my mid ranged weapons as well as a nice melee assortment in order to both flank to kill their LRM carriers as well as help disorient light mechs that try to rush my lines. Lastly the scout has the role of hunter (a type of mech class that is mostly used in companies not lances) as it's task is to go after any runners or movers that can out flank/run the lance/company Usually hunters are in the assault lance, as lances are split into pairs and company For my mech setups I like to have this 1 indirect (with 2-3 med lasers for picking off scouts that get past) I use LRM 10s not 20's as I also pick up multi target for my range letting me spreed my missles a little more if need be, as I tend to use this to both destroy almost dead mechs (1-2 slavos) to poking mechs to assist in the loss of evade and helping the loss of stability leading to toppleing 2 Tanks (or 1 tank 1 skirmisher) this is the line that will defend the range as the range will have next to no armor while these have as much armor as possible, with the benefit you have with two tanks is that both your scout and Long ranger will be able to stay back and almost never get attacked, scout can jump in and out with move after shoot and get two attacks off larger mechs in one push, and if you are having a prolonged or heavy fight you can swap out tanks or try to split the damage from them with positioning making your tanks last longer. As for my loadouts scout should have sensor lock as well as a good pilot for shoot and move, then you should get both a good punch with good mobility like a Jenner or if you go melee you could go locust. then use them for both picking off targets and taking down the back lines (normally they have low armor or no-slim short range weapons. (if I remember right you can have 2 LRM 5s on the Jenner with your 4 lasers, those LRMs are used for targeting mechs while it is moving to position for hit and run. course this does lower the armor by a lot, but light mechs are lightly armored anyways and it's main role is to shoot and move anyways. Range should have the LRM 10s or AC 5/2s as it will be your puncher and with multi target you can hit the easy kills with punching for lowering the evade counts on others tanks/skirmishers should be your mechs that have the continuous fire, lots of energy weapons with SRMs for missle slots (used for light/med mechs advancements) make sure you place them in a way (mainly using forests) that will add to bulwark defense by letting you have some when you move to and from positions (best to use jump jets here as you can max move with still reline to a new angle. However using Large Laser or LRM 5s for long range as they give a nice punch with lower ton requirements med laser and AC 10's for mid range (for your best damage ranges) and SRMs/Med lasers for short range. I always go for the clostest targets with these mechs as it prevents overtaking and allows for your range mech to throw damage to the farther targets. With the addon of 'Flashpoint' you now should have a whole company in your mechbay, Letting you have the best flexability for flashpoint missions Personally I think having two mechwarriors per role helps with the keeping up with missons while others heal. in 'Flashpoint' I add to this as I have two extra mechwarriors per lance (6 per role) then I will have enough to make sure I have everything I need (since I only make 3 types of roles anyways it helps)
I usually have what I call a Saboteur/flame fighter, a mech with jump jets and covered with flamers and 2 med lasers for a more impersonal combat experience, I usually choose either a Grasshopper or a Centurion, if you can think of better mechs for this role that would be cool. edit: oh this is an ooooooooooold video
I tend to mix the scout role with either the skirmisher or a light sniper role, depending on the map. If it's a hot map, I keep a Firestarter around and let him spot targets for the team until something overextends or gets left behind--then he torches it. If it's too cold for an FS to be particularly helpful, I'll pull out a PPC Cicada and let him do the scout thing and, if nothing needs sensors, let him do some sniping.
As the missions get on light recon mechs need abit more armour and usability- a firestarter can be maxed out in armour and using a high piloting warrior can use sensor lock at long ranges and sl/mg/flamers along with physical attacks to finish mechs as well as opportunity strikes/vehicle kills.
My favorite scout is a Panther with LRMs and PPC+. I call it the Little Rifleman. I can manoeuvre him to forest cover in the back of the lance and concentrate fire where I need it.
Lance Bilding 101 (see @partyelite next video for more in-depth): basically, play the main portion of your lance how you feel most comfortable. If you like a scout with lots of support, do it. On the flip side if you're like me and prefer a closer range engagement overall you can use a Med or fast Heavy as a scout and keep the rest of the lance up with it. Just don't run all slow or super heavy Mechs or you'll be hurting for distance covered as well as turn order.
Atlas/Annihilator sniper variants. Atl: dual Gauss with medium las for mid to long. Ann: classic sniper full AC/5 suite with a few medium lasers to close to long range.
Lights basically have one of two jobs depending on lance layout. spotter: should have high movement and probably some jumpjets to get eyes on target for your Gaussers, LRMboats, and PPC slingers. their sole goal is to stay alive so other units can rain hell on the opposition, it may be a good idea to throw on a TAG and/or NARC system to get the most out of them. harasser/backstabber: these are going to be loaded down with the most heat and weight efficient weapons you can get, will likely be piloted by mechwarriors with Ace Pilot to abuse the sin out of the reserve mechanic, and WILL devastate back lines that can't deal with them quickly. If the main mechs of your lance are a hammer, this will be the scalpel that tears apart what's left. harassment focused lights will usually rely on multi hit crit seekers like MGs and LRMs, backstabbers will use ER and Pulse lasers, with movement and evasion modifiers, they'll need to be primaried to hit them more often than not. the Locust actually fills most of these roles with moderate ability (a properly fitted Locust can rip the ass out of an Atlas if not watched)
I used a katano with 5 SRM 6s and I think a Griffen with 3 LRM 10s hidden with a couple of other Medium mechs as mid range attackers. This seemed to work very well until the Katono went in to deep and got blown up. I only had the one but it wad pretty impressive...to me anyways.
I generally use my jenners to finish off enemies that other mechs weaken, they die to a stiff breeze, but they are the fastest way to deliver 4 medium lasers, they either leg an enemy late and finish it the next turn, or use precision strike to murder an enemy that's been cored
HBS can change the 4 assault boring end game scenario by putting restrictions on lance compositions. Its only a lance so... limit of 1 assault, 1 heavy, 2 mediums or 4 lights maximum in a lance. But the problem is, every time someone makes a suggestion like this on their forum, it gets bombarded with downvotes and comments by the casual crowd.
They are going to add second wave type options, granular difficulty settings, some kind of tick box to turn this on might be a good way to please everyone, even those filthy casualz.
Only if the AI does similar rules... but you know what is really lethal... 4 solid light pilots can eviserate your 4 medium mech lance quickly. had it happen to me once. was glad my pilots were on game cause one misstep and I'd have lost that mission.
I remember in the old Mechwarrior games the missions had a tonage limit. If under it, you got a bonus. If over it, there were penalties. They could easily implement something like that.
My best try at now for a mech out of the box. Firestarter with 2 armmods +++ (+120 melee dmg,) alljumppacks, full out the support weapons with mg's and s lasers, or er-s lasers and at least, max out Armor. And youer super long move glasscanon is ready to go. Light mechs are 1 hit kills. Medium mechs you destroy mostly 1 complet side with 1 hit.
I had a few ideas, using the old 3025 rules. I haven't been able to make the computer game work on my PC. I need to upgrade. Anyway, one such idea. Welshman:100 ton 'mech2 movement points base (200 Point engine, 8.5 tons)(no jump)19 tons of armor. Same array as the Atlas, maybe a little more forward than rear. 2 LRM/20, LRM/15 (RT/LT, RA/LA)7 tons ammo (4 LRM/20, 3 LRM/15)22 heat sinks 4 medium lasers, 1 small laser (sl in head, ml 2 each right and left arm) (maybe trade off one or two ML for additional heat sinks for movement). What you get here is an assault mech able to strip an atlas naked before said atlas can get into range. With backwalking, it can be unassailable. It's probably not all that good moving forward, however, and without support it is (of course) vulnerable from the rear. A lance of these, though, means 280 missiles a round for 12 rounds...What do you think? Have you been able to try it or something like it using this game?
Right now my main Lance consists of two Atlas-Ds one with a Gauss instead of an AC20 and the other dropped down to a UAC 10++ to make room for ECM 😏. I have two Highlanders, the Star League one and the contemporary ballisitic one with a Gauss instead of AC 10. I have a cockpit masher Marauder on standby for when salvage is generous or the opposition isn't so fierce. I have a Catapult on standby for fire support but I rarely use it. I have a reworked Grasshopper with many medium & small lasers for deadly skirmishing prowess. I have a 'fast Lance' consisting of two Dragons, a Quickdraw and a Griffin (Jenner alternate on stanby) for those low tonnage affairs.
I've been looking at pilot attributes and other than the flavor looking ones like "Nobility" there are also useful seeming ones. Some examples are "Lucky - has uncanny luck", "Dependable - is known to be reliable", and "Technician - skilled with the repair and maintenance of technology". Probably not but I was wondering whether those add anything to the actual character, like higher critical chance for lucky, accuracy for dependable, or reduced mech bay times for technician etc. It feels like that could make hirelings more unique and add further tactical elements to each.
When I was in transit on my way to another system I had an event pop up. An issue had come up aboard the ship, and I had a few options on how to deal with it. One of those options was locked behind Technician. So I don't know what all it affects, but I know it affects how events can turn out, at the very least.
What I'm not sure about is if the characters in the event have to have the prerequisite skill, or will it work if anyone on the crew has it? Anyone know?
Interesting Brawler I was able to make, A Grasshopper with 6 flamers, 4 med lasers, 4 Jump jets , 2 leg and 2 arm mods, and armor out the wazoo. It kills things after cooking them. Because of the range of the rest of my lance though, it doesn't get to punch too often, but has a lot of DFA and flamer time.
I prefer 2 LRM boats, 1 SRM boat/tank that blows up anything that gets nosey (usually light mechs that think they're rambo), and 1 scout also loaded with SRMs that pulls double duty has a skirmisher when sensor lock isn't needed.
By the time you hit late game, a good scout 'Mech is one that has lots of armor, jump jets, and an AC/20. The Cataphract, Victor, and King Crab are all good heavy scouts.
Heh, i've been running a highlander sniper/brawler. WIth aimed shot it can core even heavy mechs. A highlander scout with AC-20. it tends to stay hidden and sensor lock targets. and 2 Stalkers rigged with 2 medium lasers, 4 LRM 15's, 3 jumpjets and heatsinks. Gives me ok heat disipation, jumping ability so it can get up/around hills.
Assassin role with 3-4 Large Laser (with 50 damage each) and 10-12 SRMs (12 damage each). Precision strikes against head. It does require a lot of specialized gear, but it is worth it.
Max out (to the nearest 1/2 ton) the armor on your mechs. You get a lot of value for it by protecting your pilots & components, especially heavy & assault mechs that won't have a lot of evasion pips to protect them. Many missions will have you outnumbered or have reinforcements intercede while you're already engaged. Sometimes these reinforcements are perfectly suited & positioned to ruin your day. Extra armor can buy you more rounds to turn things around. With medium & light mechs it's a bit tougher to cut weapons from an already meager tonnage. It's a little easier later with better trained mechwarriors and rare equipment to make up the difference. Any mech can be a scout. The faster and jumpier the better but I can get by with a jumpjet equipped Marauder which brings me to my next tip... Get a Marauder with three ballistic hardpoints and a mechwarrior with maxed out tactics. Arm it with 3x AC 5 and spend your inspiration on called shots to the enemy cockpit. You'll be surprised how effective it is. Even when you get only a partial success it just means that the following round you only need a partial success to finish destroying the cockpit. Other times, it won't matter what tonnage they're running, you will one shot mechs for easy salvage by killing the pilot. When you get better gear (UAC 5++) you can upgrade.
I got recommended this video just now. While I don't see anything terribly wrong here, some important roles aren't mentioned. Technical Readout 3039 calls Enforcer a "trooper". That could have been mentioned here. Another 'Mech role is that equivalent of main battle tank. If we take Manticore as the gold standard of main battle tank (why wouldn't we?), then its 'Mech equivalents are Orion and Thunderbolt. Calling their role "main BattleMech" is very fitting. Other than that, Panther and Griffin GRF-1N both count as snipers, though it can be argued Panther is also a light trooper.
My Lance consists of a sniper with AC 2 , one sniper with PPC, one striker with SRMs , and one LRM mech who can also sensor lock. An attack on a fast mech with 4 evasion goes like this. 1. Sensor lock , 2. AC 2 fire, 3. PPC fire. By this time, evasion is down to zero. Now I give my striker vigilance. He jumps in and hopefully finishes the mech off with an alpha strike. Thanks to vigilance, he is guarded. Thanks to ace pilot. He can alphastrike again before jumping out of range. By this time, medium mechs are normally also toast. Combine that with jump jets ( max on all mechs) and max. armor, and you can keep damage to your mechs to a minimum.
Sven Ruecker I don't like to put sensor lock on my LRM dudes. Their strength is massive range and indirect fire, and you can't shoot and do sensor lock so it kind of wastes his chance to be able to fire at the enemy hiding in the fow
My method is Scout Sensor Lock, LRM salvo to unsteady Sniper shoots an AC5 to drop him The Striker jumps in and eviscerates the CT with a called shot. Works every time even against Heavies. I have not fought an assault yet.
While I agree with the vast majority of the roles you have assigned, I have to ask; wheres the love for the Highlander? jump jets, armour, long range gauss rifle + LRM's , short range SRM's + 3 Med lasers, and of course, a radius of death for anything weighing less than 100 tons. For anything like that, the only thing left is a Highlander Burial.....
Got a Highlander, fill it with medium-long range,one or two large lasers, and some jets... and boom, you got an executor that can one shot most mechs. It takes time, yes, but if you go for the headshot everytime you can do it and, with a decent pilot, it can give you enough loot to live out of it, selling repaired mechs you beheaded two days ago
I've learned the hard way that an all heavy/assault lance is asking for trouble. They're so low in the turn order that the opponent has time to unsteady and knock them down before I had the opportunity to brace.
I like to use an assault with a pilot who has initiative bonuses to make them move like med mechs and then have them move around and attract the enemy while a bunch of strikes to flank around and do lots and lots of damage.
I'm a fan of a centurion missile boat for early play 2 lrm 15 and a 10, 4 tons of ammo and the rest into armor, decent support until you can get something bigger
I use LRM20, LRM15, 4 tons of ammo, 2xMedium laser, and move armor from the arms to the torso. The lasers are generally not used, as they cause too much heat.
Adrian, skulls are not the true scaling in this game. If you take on missions with 5 skulls but have no reputation to speak of, you will end up with missions that mostly include 1 lance of enemies. Once you improve your relations with the various factions your missions will significantly improve in difficulty by adding more numbers and therefore more and better salvage. E.g right after beating the story I was feeling lucky to meet a 100ton mech in one out of ten assasination orders where the description said 'a heavily armed and armored mech', now most of my encounters start with 2 lances where at least 1 mech per lance is 100t. My heaviest encounter so far did field 2 King Crabs, 4 Banshees one Highlander and a Dragon (2x100t+4x95t+90t+60t) including 4 80t vehicles of the convoy, so 1050t in total. But even then the various missiontypes and the randomized encounters are extremely flucuating in difficulty even though the skulls stay the same. Cold environments for example helps you out more than the enemy. Or reinforcments spawning a couple of turns later/farther away instead of instantly poping up at the start of the match right next to you or your targets. Even the type of mech the enemy fields is more or less challenging, a Banshee has laughable armament compared to a Highlander or Victor even though it weighs several tons more. If you encounter one on less than 5 skulls, it will compensate it's heavy weight with another smaller mech so you have it even easier. Basicaly skulls only determine the total weight each opposing lance can field and so does the size of the armament they carry that you then can salvage.
2x Annihilator Brawler 1x Awesome Support 1x Banshee Skirmisher Annihilators can double as Snipers too if the need arises due to 4 AC/10s. As can the Banshee.
Due to engine size Centurions have the largest available tonnage of the medium category. So you have some flexibility in the role it fills. It is not great for getting into melee by movement, but... It can be used as a skirmisher/flanker quite effectively because you have the space for 4x jumpjets, 3xsrm6s + med and small laser and 6 heatsinks. If I'm consistently jumping to keep evasion up, then land travel speed is less important, anyway. I tried to upgrade the setup with a kintaro but the 6 heatsinks I could fit on the centurion just let me bounce around more and you can't fit that on any other medium mech without giving up too much armor. It ended up being my protagonists mech way later than I expected. Eventually moving to a JM-A with its 4 missile hardpoints. I also heard people like the centurion for lrm boating since it mitigates the slow engine but exploits the extra usable tonnage. In my post campaign assault lance, I still use one heavy, an orion, as my scout. Partly because I want the initiative advantage. But it does a decent job getting into sight with 4x jumpjets it mounts. My current config for my orion is 4x jumpsets, an ac10 and lrm15 to mainly help topple over unsteady mechs, and a rangefinder to get vision for everyone while staying out of sight range of the enemy field. I also realized while playing around the the victor is an inferior version of the orion in basically everyway. I was going to use a Victor, but it has the same tonnage space and actually mounts less armor if sporting the same weapon-equipment configuration when using any jumpjets at all. AND it comes later in turn order because of being an assault.
Best heavy striker / scout for high skull rated missions: grasshopper, 6 MLas, 6 flamers (or 6 SLas for cold maps), max jumpjets, max armor, rest all heatsinks. Watch and laugh as u 1 shot alpha medium and some heavies in the back as u jump around. Or burn assaults to death as they overheat. Lawls
1 Atlas as Medium range sensor lock Assault Scout 350 points damage / Tank, 3 King Crabs with pure LRM's + targeting computer (missiles) 300 points damage.. can kill up to 3 enemy assault lances total, average 1-2 enemy heavies OR 1 assault per round, take out fixed emplacement turrets with little damage done to your own lance...
Light mechs are better if you get behind enemy mechs. Attack with medium/heavy mechs and send the light mech to go around and poke from behind in a hit and run move. If the enemy turns to attack the light mech, the enemy exposes to your bigger mechs. Running fast increases your evasion capabilities and also makes aiming a bit harder.
unless i'm missing something its sounds like strikers and skirmishers are just two variants (with optimal ranges being the difference between the two) of the same idea.
Hey I’ve been having a bit of trouble while taking on a Lance of full mediums (yeah, I know I’m pretty bad), mainly due to my lack of survivability. Particularly my scout (a Jenner with the SRM replaced with armor). Could you recommend any medium mechs that could take the place of it? (The rest of my team consists of the standard Blackjack with a couple of lasers replaced with armor, a standard Shadow Hawk, and a Centurion acting as my LRM boat/sniper).
I prefer LRM5, PPC, medium laser, AMS for heavies, jump jets and heatsinks. Few standard items for all mechs so you never run out of spares and ammo. These items have a proper balance between cost, volume, tonnage and firepower. I do not have roles. Everyone walk together. Fire from distance to soften them. Get close to finish. If you separate mechs, you are splitting battle value. I prefer naval strategy, formation and focus fire. Attack first those with long range weapons.
Weapon ranges are not important due to small maps. The game is pretty much a World of SRMs at the moment. How to MechLab: Strip Equipment ->Max Armor->downgrade all rear armor to 5->full JumpJets->fill all missile slots with SRMs->1-2 tons of ammo. PROFIT.
That's a campaign build but still. CN9-A with A/C10++ SRM6++ 1000 armor piloted by a Lancer with well developed tactics for indirect fire and called shot bonuses was a slayer that's been MVP for my lance right up to the moment when I've got myself a Star League mech that replaced this one immediately. Though in theory this build should work well in skirmish as well it's just going to be balanced out with stock weapons and less powerful mechwarrior I think.
You totally helped me. I´taking a beating. Does it´s possible to have this info on a written doc so i can follow these guidelines on my second screen? Thanks a lot for this now i´m gonna rearrange my whole lance
The reality is (though I really like the game) - you dont need any roles - get the heaviest mechs you have available and put SRMs, AC20s and ML on them, get bullwark for your pilots (so they get guarded when standing still) and wreck the enemy. The game really doesnt have much tactical depth, you are not forced by the game to actually take advantage of any of the roles or weight-classes.
So interesting twist on the scounting role. Was doing some missions to fill time while a few repairs took place as well as healing time. This resulted in my scout pilot needing a ride and the only mech available was a ML/SRM built Quickdraw that was designed for pure tanking. The mech ended up being a suprisingly good scout. Were normally you have a scout that avoids a fight, with the Quickdraw I sintead went looking for one. The mech walked slowly toward the enemy, grabbing radar con tact and long range locks. He tanked the damaged while the long range mechs pelted the enemy. When the opfor got into range he switched to attack mode and maulked enemy mechs and his support was now close enough to not need his locks.
I've just started getting into this game and I'm struggling a bit to get a balance. I went into a 2-skull difficulty campaign level with two Lights and two Mediums thinking I'd be alright. I was fighting *two* Lances that included a Heavy, an Assault, about 3 Mediums and all the Lights. I. Got. Smashed. To. Pieces. If that's 2-skulls what the hell is 3 or 4? How in all the 9 Hells do I counter a level like that?
Also Shadow Hawk is possibly the best chassis in the game. Small weight for JJ - good base speed - Great armour capability - same as a stock ZEUS!!! and excellent mix of hardpoints. Max armour/JJs/SRMs (for knockdown damage) and tank to the front line drawing fire from your other units. Even makes for a handy heavy recon mech even!
Shadowhawk have retired from their previous role as my main firing line and replaced the lights as my scout and harasser once the enemies are basically made of assault and heavy mechs where the light mechs just can't withstand stray fires that come their way. But overall yeah, shadowhawk served basically from start to end of my playthrough in some capacity...
A stripped down Shadow Hawk can also make an incredibly powerful early game LRM boat, with x2 LRM20s and a spare LRM5 on the head, with more ammo than you know what to do with.
Quickdraw seems like the 60 ton successor to the Shadow Hawk on paper... anything preventing me from using it as a scout now my Hawks are a bit glassy for the missions I'm running?
I find a lot of this becomes redundant when you're fighting 12 + heavy/assault mechs as closing in for the kill just means getting sensor locked and taken out by every LRM equipped vehicle on the map.
Ever try 4 King Crabs, with 2x AC/2, 4x SRM6, and a 2x-4x Medium lasers for good measure? (Depending on desire for higher Alpha strike capability, vs typical dmg and extra heat sink/s.) I see almost no benefit to spreading a lance out and leaving weak mechs (sub 55 ton) to get critted and lose a good pilot, plus their mech for the mission. I cannot understand the benefit to the strategy.
Bit of an off topic question but how important is reputation? When starting mech salvage helps you get stronger mechs and C -bills to keep the banks happy.
Not super terribly. It gives you discounts (max 10%) for allied shops and some missions will be blocked without sufficient reputation. But it is so rare that after finishing the campaign I've been barred from maybe taking 3 side missions total? You earn rep from doing the mission regardless of the bonus rep you would sacrifice cbills/savage for. If you're hurting for salvage or cash in anyway, I'd never do it.
In my experience most of the times I've been locked from a mission, it was because I Just needed to take another mission that was available, and they unlocked soon after.
Seems you combined the Brawler and Juggernaut roles into one. www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech_Combat_Categories The key difference between the two is that Brawlers fight at range while Juggernauts close the distance, much in the same vein as Skirmishers and Strikers only with greater focus on armor rather than mobility. Whereas the key difference between Brawlers and Snipers is mobility, with Brawlers having greater mobility than Snipers. For example, a Hunchback is without a doubt a Juggernaut, while a Centurion would be a Brawler, and a Griffin would be a Skirmisher, while an Awesome would either be a Sniper or LRM boat depending on variant, and a Kintaro would be a Striker.
You are talking about the Orion ON1-K or the ON1-V? You can mount 3 LRM20 on the ON1-V. For it's tier it is quite good, but it lacks the tonnage to support heatmanagement like the stalker or the highlander can. The latter is the best LRM boat capable of mounting 4 LRMs (yes the King Crab can't) and has 60,5 tons of payload, more armor (if you choose so), more health. Only the Orion is slightly faster.
Question PartyElite, with this suggestion could you do 4 or 5 skull missions without heavy/assault mechs? Because I might not be the best but that seems impossible, could you show me you doing a mission with nothing but med/light?
Sensor Lock lasts till the end of the round, whether or not the enemy mech moves. It does not last into the following round, even if the enemy mech hasn't yet moved. Is there any advantage to having lower tonnage scout mechs if you have equally fast moving heavy ones? Is a Quickdraw any worse as a scout mech than a Shadow Hawk or even a Jenner? I'm not sure how the accuracy is calculated.
The Quickdraw is a good Mech as a striker/scout, but may not shine as much when compared to 55T or 70T chassis. The 55T chassis benefits from lighter jump jets (.5T compared to 1T each), which frees up a lot of tonnage. 70T Mechs, like the Grasshopper, lose a bit of mobility, but also gain more spare tonnage due to the lighter engine, which translates to more armour and weapons (the bountiful weapon hardpoints and melee damage on the Grasshopper is amazing). In short, by attempting to accomplish the agility of a medium with the brawliness of a heavy, the Quickdraw excels at neither. The rest comes down to your playstyle. A H has a later initiative phase than M/L, which can make controlling the battle more difficult when fighting more H/M/L Mechs, but easier when tackling A. Also, since L Mechs are smaller, they get a bonus that makes them harder to hit, which is more useful early in the game, but not so much lategame, as most enemy pilots have a higher gunnery level. As mot people have mentioned, as the game has progressed they've had to raise the tonnage of the scouts/strikers for better protection and firepower to cope with the threat of larger Mechs.
I prefer the tried and true Steiner scout lance....
Atlas-D Scout
Atlas-D backup Scout
Atlas-D Support
Atlas-D Brawler
Good one!
...Lyrans.
Ha, had forgotten that old joke.
LOL! there's no other way to roll...;-)
Scouting report reads as follows: Everything dead, nothing to report.
Once you reach about 3 1/2 skulls of difficulty in campaign, I've noticed that a lot of enemy heavy and assault mech pilots have such high gunnery skill that even 5 pips of evasion counts for next to nothing. Because of this, you'll need a heavy medium like the Shadow Hawk with jump jets to fill the scouting role as your scout will inevitably be taking full alpha strikes from heavies and assaults which would instantly cripple any light mech. At 4 skulls and beyond, since assault mechs become frequent contenders, it might be better to just abandon the scout role altogether and roll with all heavies and assaults, some equipped with rangefinders.
Target Lock is more useful than Rangefinders from my experience.
While I don't think evasion is that bad late game getting heavier scouts is a very good idea. Shadow hawks then on to Grasshoppers.
Sensor Lock is extremely useful in the early game but gets increasingly less useful in the late game. I have it on most of the pilots that I regularly use but only use it once or twice per battle now because with 8-9 gunnery on all pilots and accuracy mods, I'm getting 65-80% hit chances against 4 evasion pips, and because all of my units carry missiles, just firing with two units usually causes a knockdown. I only use sensor lock when none of my units have a visual yet.
Lighter units still good for that initiative though- part of my beef with assault mechs is often they are heavily damaged before you even get a chance to use them!
I like to keep the difficulty and flavour up by having one of each class in my lance- there still is benefit to having something with truely fast movement to react to actions on the battlefield especially with some of the later piloting skills
Late game a fast heavy can fulfill the scout role perfectly well, Dragons and Quickdraws can mount just over a ton more armour than a Shadowhawk and move as fast.. The important thing is to move first so if you are facing assaults and heavy vehicles you will still keep the initiative.
Once you have one a grasshopper makes a good scout for late game.
A note to all of those talking about how one "must use 4 assaults in the end game" or "just get 4 assaults and the game is over".
I have played the campaign a couple of times, and I always use the Shadow Hawk as my Scout/Sniper right up to the end. There are plenty of opportunities for the Firestarter to come in and wreck someone's day. A heavier scout in the late game can be a good thing. Grasshoppers do quite well. I rarely take more than 2 assaults. A Highlander and a Stalker will roll over most forces, if their lighter buddies flank and scout. Oh, I only take 1 Sensor Lock pilot. ALL of my pilots are there to shoot.
I highly recommend HBS's "Eck's-Calibur Challenge" for anyone who needs to develop an appreciation for the lighter mechs. You know Eck's favorite mechs are the Lights, right?
my campaigns always had the use for a Centurion medium mech all the time up to end game last combats, with a special build for that... and said Centurion really had no shame to feel against Heavies or Assaults. Also some heavies are sort of "replacements" for medium or light mechs, such as Orion is the Shadow Hawk upgrade and GrassHopper is the Firestarter upgrade :)
@@zyttoire9410 Old comment I know, but how do you tend to use the Cent? I was gonna try for an LRM carrier because I don't have a -2D shadowhawk, but my other option was an AC/20 carrier since it's one of the few that can lug that gun in an arm with little issue.
Good video again but viewers, keep in mind that there had been severe overhaul/changes in stability damage, pilot skills like bullwark, and huge raise in missile damage (x2 raise) since this video was published... So you may need to adapt some of the concepts discussed here accordingly
Mount AC20s on everything and pew pew pew
Just remember to make those shots count.
Andrew Adams yeah. I bought an AC20 and set it up on my Blackjack, with just enough space for 2 magazines of AC20 ammo and 2 SLASERs. This thing is a literal derp gun and an excellent flanker.
Bet it's naked though.
Yeah, watch how fast that ammo blows up your own mech when they punch through your thin armor...
This is me in MWO
There's been a dearth of Battletech content on the channel lately, we need more!
Scout: 0:43
Striker: 2:51
Cavalry/Skirmisher: 4:48
Brawler: 6:43
Fire Support/Sniper/Artillery: 8:19
Vids are great. Please consider expanding more on this guide section.
I'd like to add a TDR-5SE Thunderbolt to your list of Strikers. It's slower, with a turn order of only 2, and slightly slower move speed, but I've found the bite it brings to the battlefield more than makes up for it. I've replaced my 2x SRM6, 2x SLaser, 1xMLaser GRF-1S Grifin with this guy.
The Thunderbolt I run now carries an Impressive back-stripping arsenal of 2x SRM6, 4xMLaser, 3xMG, 7x HeatSinks, 4x HJumpJets, and near maxed out Armor of 1080. While only bringing one SRM Ammo (100) sometimes leaves it slightly dry, in a longer mission, the Lasers and MGs never run dry, and I've had it strip away the backs of many a heavy mech. The MGs also help it go in for a quick melee hit in the back to stave off some heat for a turn.
Load up all the +CRIT weapons you can find and you're In business. Would recommend.
yes t bolt are awsome mechs
I give all mechs jump jets. Jumping give more evasion and lets you turn mech to any direction.
The highlander is an incredible skirmisher I find. Probably my favorite mech so far. Such a mobility, fire power and heat sinking in the same mech is insane. I tend late game to use the Kintaro as my scout. It gives such a punch for a medium, scaring even bigger mechs. Of course, the pilot gets the +1 initiative and the ability to move after shooting. A must have for a punchy scout.
Unless I'm missing something, highlanders have the same mobility as King Crabs and Atlases who have been given jumpjets. And by stock game there is only one highlander variant that beats them in firepower/heat/armor category because of certain equipment advantages it comes with.
So i not got this game yet. Learning if i will or not. This def helped me a lot since i didnt know the types of mechs in the game. Didnt realize there were so many dif ones and all the different offensive weapons available
I keep something with a "Tank" role in my squad. He has medium to long range weaponry with depending on the mech I have is a mix of ballistics, energy, and missiles. His role is to stay in front of everyone and take damage. He "covers" for everyone providing the optimal target and uses Bulwark and Vigilance to absorb fire. The brawler trades places with him in the front when enemy mechs get close, or if he's taken too much damage. The sniper moves behind him getting potshots. He always has a hardened cockpit and a Stability Damage Reduction Gyro. He has more armor than firepower and jump jets to jump in front of other mechs when needed. I've used an Orion for this during my heavy phase and a Highlander when I got my assaults.
(For some strange reason, Highlanders kept spawning on me, I have three aside from one you get for free. I was once tempted to change my company name to the Immortals. And I actually have 6 Orions!). The rest of the roles I use are in exactly the same manner as you described.
Ive used rotating since tabletop. Just get the arcs and modifiers right and keep your oppoment firing at a fresh mech.
Ive been working in such lots lately so im just hitting the heavy phase. I over reached trying a harder mission for a black knight and lost all my beta mechwarriors in the attempt. (Cut costs lol).
Just jumped back into this from the top of my pile of shame. Unsurprisingly you have a guide thanks man!!!
I used Shadow Hawk 2D with a master strategist that has high morale. The 2D is not very tanky, but with increased initiative, the pilot can hit the front and control initiative on grid.
The Grasshopper also makes for an insanely powerful Heavy-tier Brawler / Cavalry, with a high melee score, plenty of defense to muscle through incoming damage, x6 Support Weapon hardpoints and x7 Laser hardpoints when you'd be better suited to Called Shot'ing the enemy's back.
The Grasshopper is the one 'Mech I'll keep in the stable from the moment I get it until I'm done with a playthrough. I'll slowly upgrade it with Black Market/LosTech equipment, but its job is to rush in and either nuke a light by sheer volume of fire (evasion means little when you have 13 guns and only need one or two to hit), or to jump behind a heavier 'Mech and core it from the rear.
Many of my most satisfying kills have come from my brave "little" Grasshopper.
The roles seem to be less important as the game progresses because you just need the tonnage pure and simple to defeat bigger enemy lances. For the Skirmisher role however, which I am still using, is to give its long range weapon a large laser as it can still fire pretty well at close range if the biome allows. If not going laser the ideal is NO larger than an LRM5 because even at short range and heavy accuracy penalty you can still fire them and score a few damages and not worry about running out of ammo. The scout role basically ends up being whoever has the bonus evasion secondary skill and the 'mech with the most jump jets. My standard lance has 2 brawler/skirmisher hybrids, 1 scout/skirmisher, and 1 sniper. Using all of the stability damages from the brawlers and snipers is amazing as I can kill from 1-2 'mechs per turn if done properly. I doubt this will work as effectively once I start fighting more heavies though. All 'mechs I have fought so far fall back down so I square up dump all of the stability damage into them maybe with some precision shots to the CT and then when they fall, swoop in and rain down CT called shots from point blank range. When I do this fast enough and focus fire each one down I can intercept the enemy lance and keep them from bunching and causing virtually any non-autorepairable damageand then picking up another job immediately. Wonderful game!
man you are one of my favourite content creators. your voice is awesome.
Nice guide, it is very useful. Now i understand how to build a team. I thought scout are useless but now i know how scout works. Thanks
Freaking awesome. Thanks for the vid/explanation. Can't wait to see where this goes.
I agree - he's doing a pretty damn good job doing the explanation :) Always some good details for the puzzle and good inspiration to get, in short a periode of time. The 10-15 minutes videos are the sweet spot.
One of the guys on MechSpecs (primarily a MWO site) was recommending Bulwark for snipers, as they pretty much stand still, but not for brawlers as they may need to re position quite often to avoid getting shot in the back.
The Shadowhawk 2H is a great all-around mech, from early to mid-game. But it requires some customization. Strip the SRM launcher (leave the ammo), the LRM launcher and its ammo bin, as well as the two extra heat sinks. Drop in 3xSRM4. Yes, the ammo is little tight in longer engagements, and it can run hot. But it hits hard for its tonnage, can harass with the AC5, and still has the laser and physical attacks if the ammo runs dry. Combined with good speed and adequate jets, this thing can ruin the day of even high end heavies.
This all sounds great but being in the mid-late game now I find the game could've done with a bit more strategic or tactical depth to enable these kinds of plays or give them more value. 4 assault mechs rolling in and blowing away the entire opposition in 3 rounds works better than overthinking it and trying to create plays, which makes the game boring for me.
While some of the strategies are applicable for the campaign(like having some form of spotter and some form of fire support), I think this video will have the biggest impact in skirmish/pvp games where you have a points total and HAVE to pick something other than 4 Assault mechs.
Anyway, the devs have mentioned that they are looking for ways to make lights/mediums more attractive in the later stages of the campaign, probably by adding missions/goals where they excel.
fendelphi Good to hear that from devs. I'm looking forward to new content going forward (hopefully the hidden mechs!) - will gladly pay
Have you ever had four Assault mechs roll in, only to find themselves between a lance of heavy vehicles and a lance of heavy strikers? Unless you are the type that saves the game before every fight and simply reloads when it doesn't go your way, you'll find that tactic works most of the time... Until it doesn't. Then you've lost a lance of Assault mechs, and probably most of your ace pilots.
acca ever heard of a Steiner Scout Lance?
MatJan86 - The Steiner Scout Lance is what is called a joke in the Battletech universe. It is said because Steiner is actually rich enough and egotistical enough that they can afford to throw away mechs like that. Not because it's an actual effective strategy.
My favorite striker-type mech (that often doubles as the scout) is a Yen Lo Wang, I.E a Centurion that has had its LRMs and AC/10 removed for an AC/20.
Now, you are likely thinking "but that's just a Hunchback," and the truth is, yes... A Hunchback that is faster, more accurate with the A.C. (since it is arm-mounted) and will still have some spare tonnage for jump jets. I've been using it w/ a Expert Pilot to cap knees and blow out heavy mechs from behind well into the 3-4 skull missions, reserving behind a hill until the last phase, jumping out to fire, firing again first chance next turn (idealing using precicse strike to hit the same spot again) and then jumping out of sight before any of the heavier mechs can do anything.
So far one of my best things I've done was a centurion missile boat. Three srms 6 and a 2 with two ammo, and a M laser and a S laser, then just max out the armor from there, and the things nearly untouchable and can destroy most things in one alpha salvo. Also have a jump jet to help get around the enemy or do a DFA. There's one down side, it's rear is lightly armor, you'll be having to be aware of what you're fighting, the build I went for was a short range mid range shot gun build essentially but it's definitely a glass cannon, from the front I've rarely had armor get stripped off unless an AC 20 hit, but from the rear a locus would be cause of concern for me. That's why I keep another mech near it back it up, and it's not as likely to over heat as you think since I got three heat sinks on it. So long as your back is covered by something you're hardly going have to worry if you play smart with it.
Crowwolf 123 How does the single JJ work out for you. I've been thinking of adding single ones to a few mechs just to get optimum firing arcs.
The Jump jet is for when I get the mech up close so I can jump behind the target and missile barrage into his entire back side, also it's to allow him to get to higher advantage points, since it takes some time for it to catch up to the enemy into short range or melee fighting I normally always have a tactician in it, so that way if it's more advantageous for me to move up a head and sensor lock the dang locust that had moved first or any light mech I can take it out with my other mechs easier. The single one I also find is helpful with mitigating heat since this particular build, builds up so much heat quickly if you're not paying attention, it's really all about timing.
But I'd definetly say try to have one at least on a mech if you can just so you can reach that guy on top of a cliff that's been bombarding you but you're to low to get a good shot. Or you know DFA cause that Russian roulette is always fun. Personally I rarely do it just as a principal. Now if the mech I'm using is out of weapons or lost them all, then I will.
I'm more wishing I could keep a light mech but I don't really know ones that can be considered good, simply because I like their mobility, what's your opinion on the Jeener or do you know any good ones for me to keep an eye out for?
I really enjoyed my midgame LRM centurion 2 LRM 15s and an LRM 20 left it with almost no armor and pretty bad thermal efficiency, but the missile spam was absurd for that point in the game.
Did similar with 2x LRM15 and an LRM5, so a bit more armor, heat efficiency, and jump jets for maneuverability. Obviously nowhere near as much damage, but works well too. Feels like Centurion is the best medium-sized LRM mech in the game.
Yeah my first LRM boat was a centurion. 40 LRMs a volley (2 15s and a 10) with enough ammo and heatsyncs to fire and fire and not stop firing. Amazed by how many youtubers have overlooked the missile potential on that chassis.
One of the best Skirmishers, which later in the game becomes a Striker, I have found is a Kintaro with 5 jump jets, near-maxed armor, 3 tons of SRM ammo, and 4x4SRM+1x2SRM, and a heat sink. This setup puts out 144 potential damage per alpha strike, but it is pretty easy early on to get enough +2 damage SRM's to bring this up to 180 damage. With the upgraded SRMs you can use the Ace Pilot/Reserve trick to dump 342 damage (on average, assuming 95% hit chance) into one side of a mech with complete safety if there is terrain to hide behind nearby. This is a kill on all Light, 95% of Medium, many Heavies. It is often a torso loss on Heavies regardless, and (I am not there yet) I am guessing sometimes even Assaults will often lose their torso from this kind of strike, especially in the later game if you have some +4 damage SRM's to up the damage further.
one strategy I have found recently, on missions where you are 'hunting' for targets involves map reading. Look for what avenues there are to get there. And ask the question, is this to obvious? If it is you may be setting yourself up for hurt... in some cases though, by not reacting (like in escort missions), you set yourself up to lose.
But a lot of my best victories came when I decided I'm going to move in this direction... I know its not directly where it says I'll find the enemy, but I just have a gut feeling I need to use the terrain better. Bam... better earlier position leads to earlier mech disability for the opposition, and then it becomes an attrition game.
(Early-Mid game) I'm quite happy with my artillery centurion. Since the stock role is more on the front-line side, I wasn't sure that this would be a good idea, but the chassis turned out to be really good for a long range build with it's 3 missile hardpoints in the torso along with the rather low speed. And compared to standard artillery mechs, this one can still be quite tanky and pack a decent (literal) punch if some skirmishers break through to it.
Know it has been a while but you forgot one role, the tank/target (used mainly for bait and switch or defensive lines)
This is a mechwarrior that has the bulwark and the highest armored unit you can have, using jump jets for your move-ability as it will let you have the ability to reline your defense as I have found having at least 2 of these on your team for any defense missions lead you to have the ability to decimate rushers to the battle.
I use one of these as the spear of the mechs as it can be a handy way to keep yourself in your defense line, I then can have one Sniper/Indirect mech with multi target behind the line, after that I also love to pick up 1 scout (mainly light to med mech) with both my mid ranged weapons as well as a nice melee assortment in order to both flank to kill their LRM carriers as well as help disorient light mechs that try to rush my lines. Lastly the scout has the role of hunter (a type of mech class that is mostly used in companies not lances) as it's task is to go after any runners or movers that can out flank/run the lance/company Usually hunters are in the assault lance, as lances are split into pairs and company
For my mech setups I like to have this
1 indirect (with 2-3 med lasers for picking off scouts that get past) I use LRM 10s not 20's as I also pick up multi target for my range letting me spreed my missles a little more if need be, as I tend to use this to both destroy almost dead mechs (1-2 slavos) to poking mechs to assist in the loss of evade and helping the loss of stability leading to toppleing
2 Tanks (or 1 tank 1 skirmisher) this is the line that will defend the range as the range will have next to no armor while these have as much armor as possible, with the benefit you have with two tanks is that both your scout and Long ranger will be able to stay back and almost never get attacked, scout can jump in and out with move after shoot and get two attacks off larger mechs in one push, and if you are having a prolonged or heavy fight you can swap out tanks or try to split the damage from them with positioning making your tanks last longer.
As for my loadouts
scout should have sensor lock as well as a good pilot for shoot and move, then you should get both a good punch with good mobility like a Jenner or if you go melee you could go locust. then use them for both picking off targets and taking down the back lines (normally they have low armor or no-slim short range weapons. (if I remember right you can have 2 LRM 5s on the Jenner with your 4 lasers, those LRMs are used for targeting mechs while it is moving to position for hit and run. course this does lower the armor by a lot, but light mechs are lightly armored anyways and it's main role is to shoot and move anyways.
Range should have the LRM 10s or AC 5/2s as it will be your puncher and with multi target you can hit the easy kills with punching for lowering the evade counts on others
tanks/skirmishers should be your mechs that have the continuous fire, lots of energy weapons with SRMs for missle slots (used for light/med mechs advancements) make sure you place them in a way (mainly using forests) that will add to bulwark defense by letting you have some when you move to and from positions (best to use jump jets here as you can max move with still reline to a new angle. However using Large Laser or LRM 5s for long range as they give a nice punch with lower ton requirements med laser and AC 10's for mid range (for your best damage ranges) and SRMs/Med lasers for short range. I always go for the clostest targets with these mechs as it prevents overtaking and allows for your range mech to throw damage to the farther targets.
With the addon of 'Flashpoint' you now should have a whole company in your mechbay, Letting you have the best flexability for flashpoint missions Personally I think having two mechwarriors per role helps with the keeping up with missons while others heal. in 'Flashpoint' I add to this as I have two extra mechwarriors per lance (6 per role) then I will have enough to make sure I have everything I need (since I only make 3 types of roles anyways it helps)
I usually have what I call a Saboteur/flame fighter, a mech with jump jets and covered with flamers and 2 med lasers for a more impersonal combat experience, I usually choose either a Grasshopper or a Centurion, if you can think of better mechs for this role that would be cool.
edit: oh this is an ooooooooooold video
I tend to mix the scout role with either the skirmisher or a light sniper role, depending on the map. If it's a hot map, I keep a Firestarter around and let him spot targets for the team until something overextends or gets left behind--then he torches it. If it's too cold for an FS to be particularly helpful, I'll pull out a PPC Cicada and let him do the scout thing and, if nothing needs sensors, let him do some sniping.
As the missions get on light recon mechs need abit more armour and usability- a firestarter can be maxed out in armour and using a high piloting warrior can use sensor lock at long ranges and sl/mg/flamers along with physical attacks to finish mechs as well as opportunity strikes/vehicle kills.
My favorite scout is a Panther with LRMs and PPC+. I call it the Little Rifleman. I can manoeuvre him to forest cover in the back of the lance and concentrate fire where I need it.
Lance Bilding 101 (see @partyelite next video for more in-depth): basically, play the main portion of your lance how you feel most comfortable. If you like a scout with lots of support, do it. On the flip side if you're like me and prefer a closer range engagement overall you can use a Med or fast Heavy as a scout and keep the rest of the lance up with it. Just don't run all slow or super heavy Mechs or you'll be hurting for distance covered as well as turn order.
Atlas/Annihilator sniper variants.
Atl: dual Gauss with medium las for mid to long.
Ann: classic sniper full AC/5 suite with a few medium lasers to close to long range.
Lights basically have one of two jobs depending on lance layout.
spotter: should have high movement and probably some jumpjets to get eyes on target for your Gaussers, LRMboats, and PPC slingers. their sole goal is to stay alive so other units can rain hell on the opposition, it may be a good idea to throw on a TAG and/or NARC system to get the most out of them.
harasser/backstabber: these are going to be loaded down with the most heat and weight efficient weapons you can get, will likely be piloted by mechwarriors with Ace Pilot to abuse the sin out of the reserve mechanic, and WILL devastate back lines that can't deal with them quickly. If the main mechs of your lance are a hammer, this will be the scalpel that tears apart what's left.
harassment focused lights will usually rely on multi hit crit seekers like MGs and LRMs, backstabbers will use ER and Pulse lasers, with movement and evasion modifiers, they'll need to be primaried to hit them more often than not.
the Locust actually fills most of these roles with moderate ability (a properly fitted Locust can rip the ass out of an Atlas if not watched)
I used a katano with 5 SRM 6s and I think a Griffen with 3 LRM 10s hidden with a couple of other Medium mechs as mid range attackers. This seemed to work very well until the Katono went in to deep and got blown up. I only had the one but it wad pretty impressive...to me anyways.
I generally use my jenners to finish off enemies that other mechs weaken, they die to a stiff breeze, but they are the fastest way to deliver 4 medium lasers, they either leg an enemy late and finish it the next turn, or use precision strike to murder an enemy that's been cored
HBS can change the 4 assault boring end game scenario by putting restrictions on lance compositions. Its only a lance so... limit of 1 assault, 1 heavy, 2 mediums or 4 lights maximum in a lance. But the problem is, every time someone makes a suggestion like this on their forum, it gets bombarded with downvotes and comments by the casual crowd.
They are going to add second wave type options, granular difficulty settings, some kind of tick box to turn this on might be a good way to please everyone, even those filthy casualz.
Only if the AI does similar rules... but you know what is really lethal... 4 solid light pilots can eviserate your 4 medium mech lance quickly. had it happen to me once. was glad my pilots were on game cause one misstep and I'd have lost that mission.
I remember in the old Mechwarrior games the missions had a tonage limit. If under it, you got a bonus. If over it, there were penalties. They could easily implement something like that.
My best try at now for a mech out of the box. Firestarter with 2 armmods +++ (+120 melee dmg,) alljumppacks, full out the support weapons with mg's and s lasers, or er-s lasers and at least, max out Armor. And youer super long move glasscanon is ready to go. Light mechs are 1 hit kills. Medium mechs you destroy mostly 1 complet side with 1 hit.
I had a few ideas, using the old 3025 rules.
I haven't been able to make the computer game work on my PC. I need to upgrade. Anyway, one such idea. Welshman:100 ton 'mech2 movement points base (200 Point engine, 8.5 tons)(no jump)19 tons of armor. Same array as the Atlas, maybe a little more forward than rear. 2 LRM/20, LRM/15 (RT/LT, RA/LA)7 tons ammo (4 LRM/20, 3 LRM/15)22 heat sinks 4 medium lasers, 1 small laser (sl in head, ml 2 each right and left arm) (maybe trade off one or two ML for additional heat sinks for movement). What you get here is an assault mech able to strip an atlas naked before said atlas can get into range. With backwalking, it can be unassailable. It's probably not all that good moving forward, however, and without support it is (of course) vulnerable from the rear. A lance of these, though, means 280 missiles a round for 12 rounds...What do you think? Have you been able to try it or something like it using this game?
Right now my main Lance consists of two Atlas-Ds one with a Gauss instead of an AC20 and the other dropped down to a UAC 10++ to make room for ECM 😏. I have two Highlanders, the Star League one and the contemporary ballisitic one with a Gauss instead of AC 10.
I have a cockpit masher Marauder on standby for when salvage is generous or the opposition isn't so fierce.
I have a Catapult on standby for fire support but I rarely use it.
I have a reworked Grasshopper with many medium & small lasers for deadly skirmishing prowess.
I have a 'fast Lance' consisting of two Dragons, a Quickdraw and a Griffin (Jenner alternate on stanby) for those low tonnage affairs.
I've been looking at pilot attributes and other than the flavor looking ones like "Nobility" there are also useful seeming ones. Some examples are "Lucky - has uncanny luck", "Dependable - is known to be reliable", and "Technician - skilled with the repair and maintenance of technology".
Probably not but I was wondering whether those add anything to the actual character, like higher critical chance for lucky, accuracy for dependable, or reduced mech bay times for technician etc.
It feels like that could make hirelings more unique and add further tactical elements to each.
When I was in transit on my way to another system I had an event pop up. An issue had come up aboard the ship, and I had a few options on how to deal with it. One of those options was locked behind Technician. So I don't know what all it affects, but I know it affects how events can turn out, at the very least.
Saw this too. Glitch gets this event very early, I think.
What I'm not sure about is if the characters in the event have to have the prerequisite skill, or will it work if anyone on the crew has it? Anyone know?
Interesting Brawler I was able to make, A Grasshopper with 6 flamers, 4 med lasers, 4 Jump jets , 2 leg and 2 arm mods, and armor out the wazoo. It kills things after cooking them. Because of the range of the rest of my lance though, it doesn't get to punch too often, but has a lot of DFA and flamer time.
There are other roles other than LRM launchers?
I prefer 2 LRM boats, 1 SRM boat/tank that blows up anything that gets nosey (usually light mechs that think they're rambo), and 1 scout also loaded with SRMs that pulls double duty has a skirmisher when sensor lock isn't needed.
Yeah the LRM+sensor lock
By the time you hit late game, a good scout 'Mech is one that has lots of armor, jump jets, and an AC/20. The Cataphract, Victor, and King Crab are all good heavy scouts.
Heh, i've been running a highlander sniper/brawler. WIth aimed shot it can core even heavy mechs. A highlander scout with AC-20. it tends to stay hidden and sensor lock targets. and 2 Stalkers rigged with 2 medium lasers, 4 LRM 15's, 3 jumpjets and heatsinks. Gives me ok heat disipation, jumping ability so it can get up/around hills.
Assassin role with 3-4 Large Laser (with 50 damage each) and 10-12 SRMs (12 damage each). Precision strikes against head. It does require a lot of specialized gear, but it is worth it.
Max out (to the nearest 1/2 ton) the armor on your mechs. You get a lot of value for it by protecting your pilots & components, especially heavy & assault mechs that won't have a lot of evasion pips to protect them.
Many missions will have you outnumbered or have reinforcements intercede while you're already engaged. Sometimes these reinforcements are perfectly suited & positioned to ruin your day. Extra armor can buy you more rounds to turn things around.
With medium & light mechs it's a bit tougher to cut weapons from an already meager tonnage. It's a little easier later with better trained mechwarriors and rare equipment to make up the difference.
Any mech can be a scout. The faster and jumpier the better but I can get by with a jumpjet equipped Marauder which brings me to my next tip...
Get a Marauder with three ballistic hardpoints and a mechwarrior with maxed out tactics. Arm it with 3x AC 5 and spend your inspiration on called shots to the enemy cockpit. You'll be surprised how effective it is. Even when you get only a partial success it just means that the following round you only need a partial success to finish destroying the cockpit. Other times, it won't matter what tonnage they're running, you will one shot mechs for easy salvage by killing the pilot. When you get better gear (UAC 5++) you can upgrade.
I got recommended this video just now. While I don't see anything terribly wrong here, some important roles aren't mentioned. Technical Readout 3039 calls Enforcer a "trooper". That could have been mentioned here. Another 'Mech role is that equivalent of main battle tank. If we take Manticore as the gold standard of main battle tank (why wouldn't we?), then its 'Mech equivalents are Orion and Thunderbolt. Calling their role "main BattleMech" is very fitting. Other than that, Panther and Griffin GRF-1N both count as snipers, though it can be argued Panther is also a light trooper.
My Lance consists of a sniper with AC 2 , one sniper with PPC, one striker with SRMs , and one LRM mech who can also sensor lock. An attack on a fast mech with 4 evasion goes like this. 1. Sensor lock , 2. AC 2 fire, 3. PPC fire. By this time, evasion is down to zero. Now I give my striker vigilance. He jumps in and hopefully finishes the mech off with an alpha strike. Thanks to vigilance, he is guarded. Thanks to ace pilot. He can alphastrike again before jumping out of range. By this time, medium mechs are normally also toast. Combine that with jump jets ( max on all mechs) and max. armor, and you can keep damage to your mechs to a minimum.
Sven Ruecker I don't like to put sensor lock on my LRM dudes. Their strength is massive range and indirect fire, and you can't shoot and do sensor lock so it kind of wastes his chance to be able to fire at the enemy hiding in the fow
My method is Scout Sensor Lock,
LRM salvo to unsteady
Sniper shoots an AC5 to drop him
The Striker jumps in and eviscerates the CT with a called shot.
Works every time even against Heavies.
I have not fought an assault yet.
While I agree with the vast majority of the roles you have assigned, I have to ask; wheres the love for the Highlander? jump jets, armour, long range gauss rifle + LRM's , short range SRM's + 3 Med lasers, and of course, a radius of death for anything weighing less than 100 tons. For anything like that, the only thing left is a Highlander Burial.....
One thing missing from the game is jump sniping. I know it is only a thing in LA games, but would be cool.
Got a Highlander, fill it with medium-long range,one or two large lasers, and some jets... and boom, you got an executor that can one shot most mechs. It takes time, yes, but if you go for the headshot everytime you can do it and, with a decent pilot, it can give you enough loot to live out of it, selling repaired mechs you beheaded two days ago
your guides are very well done thanks
I've learned the hard way that an all heavy/assault lance is asking for trouble. They're so low in the turn order that the opponent has time to unsteady and knock them down before I had the opportunity to brace.
I like to use an assault with a pilot who has initiative bonuses to make them move like med mechs and then have them move around and attract the enemy while a bunch of strikes to flank around and do lots and lots of damage.
I'm a fan of a centurion missile boat for early play 2 lrm 15 and a 10, 4 tons of ammo and the rest into armor, decent support until you can get something bigger
I use LRM20, LRM15, 4 tons of ammo, 2xMedium laser, and move armor from the arms to the torso. The lasers are generally not used, as they cause too much heat.
PartyElite, would you be able to make a guide on pilot management and the skull-mission scaling, please? Thanks.
Adrian, skulls are not the true scaling in this game. If you take on missions with 5 skulls but have no reputation to speak of, you will end up with missions that mostly include 1 lance of enemies. Once you improve your relations with the various factions your missions will significantly improve in difficulty by adding more numbers and therefore more and better salvage.
E.g right after beating the story I was feeling lucky to meet a 100ton mech in one out of ten assasination orders where the description said 'a heavily armed and armored mech', now most of my encounters start with 2 lances where at least 1 mech per lance is 100t. My heaviest encounter so far did field 2 King Crabs, 4 Banshees one Highlander and a Dragon (2x100t+4x95t+90t+60t) including 4 80t vehicles of the convoy, so 1050t in total.
But even then the various missiontypes and the randomized encounters are extremely flucuating in difficulty even though the skulls stay the same. Cold environments for example helps you out more than the enemy. Or reinforcments spawning a couple of turns later/farther away instead of instantly poping up at the start of the match right next to you or your targets. Even the type of mech the enemy fields is more or less challenging, a Banshee has laughable armament compared to a Highlander or Victor even though it weighs several tons more. If you encounter one on less than 5 skulls, it will compensate it's heavy weight with another smaller mech so you have it even easier. Basicaly skulls only determine the total weight each opposing lance can field and so does the size of the armament they carry that you then can salvage.
2x Annihilator Brawler
1x Awesome Support
1x Banshee Skirmisher
Annihilators can double as Snipers too if the need arises due to 4 AC/10s. As can the Banshee.
Due to engine size Centurions have the largest available tonnage of the medium category. So you have some flexibility in the role it fills. It is not great for getting into melee by movement, but... It can be used as a skirmisher/flanker quite effectively because you have the space for 4x jumpjets, 3xsrm6s + med and small laser and 6 heatsinks. If I'm consistently jumping to keep evasion up, then land travel speed is less important, anyway.
I tried to upgrade the setup with a kintaro but the 6 heatsinks I could fit on the centurion just let me bounce around more and you can't fit that on any other medium mech without giving up too much armor. It ended up being my protagonists mech way later than I expected. Eventually moving to a JM-A with its 4 missile hardpoints.
I also heard people like the centurion for lrm boating since it mitigates the slow engine but exploits the extra usable tonnage.
In my post campaign assault lance, I still use one heavy, an orion, as my scout. Partly because I want the initiative advantage. But it does a decent job getting into sight with 4x jumpjets it mounts. My current config for my orion is 4x jumpsets, an ac10 and lrm15 to mainly help topple over unsteady mechs, and a rangefinder to get vision for everyone while staying out of sight range of the enemy field.
I also realized while playing around the the victor is an inferior version of the orion in basically everyway. I was going to use a Victor, but it has the same tonnage space and actually mounts less armor if sporting the same weapon-equipment configuration when using any jumpjets at all. AND it comes later in turn order because of being an assault.
80 tons was never a great place to be in battletech for mechs. The 75 ton mechs and the 85 ton mechs however tend to shine.
Best heavy striker / scout for high skull rated missions: grasshopper, 6 MLas, 6 flamers (or 6 SLas for cold maps), max jumpjets, max armor, rest all heatsinks. Watch and laugh as u 1 shot alpha medium and some heavies in the back as u jump around. Or burn assaults to death as they overheat. Lawls
1 Atlas as Medium range sensor lock Assault Scout 350 points damage / Tank, 3 King Crabs with pure LRM's + targeting computer (missiles) 300 points damage.. can kill up to 3 enemy assault lances total, average 1-2 enemy heavies OR 1 assault per round, take out fixed emplacement turrets with little damage done to your own lance...
Light mechs are better if you get behind enemy mechs. Attack with medium/heavy mechs and send the light mech to go around and poke from behind in a hit and run move. If the enemy turns to attack the light mech, the enemy exposes to your bigger mechs. Running fast increases your evasion capabilities and also makes aiming a bit harder.
Immensely helpful!
More Battletech videos :)
Banshee loaded up with max armor and the melee lasers. So fun.
Ive tried using a repurposed dragon as my scout and flanker as it can take so alot of damage and pair it with high evasion
unless i'm missing something its sounds like strikers and skirmishers are just two variants (with optimal ranges being the difference between the two) of the same idea.
Hey I’ve been having a bit of trouble while taking on a Lance of full mediums (yeah, I know I’m pretty bad), mainly due to my lack of survivability. Particularly my scout (a Jenner with the SRM replaced with armor). Could you recommend any medium mechs that could take the place of it? (The rest of my team consists of the standard Blackjack with a couple of lasers replaced with armor, a standard Shadow Hawk, and a Centurion acting as my LRM boat/sniper).
I prefer LRM5, PPC, medium laser, AMS for heavies, jump jets and heatsinks. Few standard items for all mechs so you never run out of spares and ammo. These items have a proper balance between cost, volume, tonnage and firepower.
I do not have roles. Everyone walk together. Fire from distance to soften them. Get close to finish. If you separate mechs, you are splitting battle value. I prefer naval strategy, formation and focus fire. Attack first those with long range weapons.
Weapon ranges are not important due to small maps. The game is pretty much a World of SRMs at the moment.
How to MechLab: Strip Equipment ->Max Armor->downgrade all rear armor to 5->full JumpJets->fill all missile slots with SRMs->1-2 tons of ammo. PROFIT.
exactly , max out armor and medium range dps and win , no need for a lame scout
I love my blacknight maxed on jump and armor as a scout and tank makes it a valid job even late game
That's a campaign build but still. CN9-A with A/C10++ SRM6++ 1000 armor piloted by a Lancer with well developed tactics for indirect fire and called shot bonuses was a slayer that's been MVP for my lance right up to the moment when I've got myself a Star League mech that replaced this one immediately. Though in theory this build should work well in skirmish as well it's just going to be balanced out with stock weapons and less powerful mechwarrior I think.
You totally helped me. I´taking a beating. Does it´s possible to have this info on a written doc so i can follow these guidelines on my second screen? Thanks a lot for this now i´m gonna rearrange my whole lance
The reality is (though I really like the game) - you dont need any roles - get the heaviest mechs you have available and put SRMs, AC20s and ML on them, get bullwark for your pilots (so they get guarded when standing still) and wreck the enemy. The game really doesnt have much tactical depth, you are not forced by the game to actually take advantage of any of the roles or weight-classes.
Try multiplayer then where you are not playing against a stupid AI and are on an equal level in terms of numbers.
PartisanGamer but you can take advantage of those roles if you wish. Many ways to play.
So interesting twist on the scounting role. Was doing some missions to fill time while a few repairs took place as well as healing time. This resulted in my scout pilot needing a ride and the only mech available was a ML/SRM built Quickdraw that was designed for pure tanking. The mech ended up being a suprisingly good scout. Were normally you have a scout that avoids a fight, with the Quickdraw I sintead went looking for one. The mech walked slowly toward the enemy, grabbing radar con tact and long range locks. He tanked the damaged while the long range mechs pelted the enemy. When the opfor got into range he switched to attack mode and maulked enemy mechs and his support was now close enough to not need his locks.
My shockingly deadly shadowhawk brawler squad with backup LRM boat and marauder sniper remains my playstyle of choice.
I mounted an arm mod and AC/20 on a dragon. That thing absolutely devastates light/medium mechs.
Any idea when the next guide video is coming out? Coming on 3 weeks now
Not trying to be pushy, just genuinely curious
I've just started getting into this game and I'm struggling a bit to get a balance. I went into a 2-skull difficulty campaign level with two Lights and two Mediums thinking I'd be alright. I was fighting *two* Lances that included a Heavy, an Assault, about 3 Mediums and all the Lights. I. Got. Smashed. To. Pieces. If that's 2-skulls what the hell is 3 or 4? How in all the 9 Hells do I counter a level like that?
Also Shadow Hawk is possibly the best chassis in the game. Small weight for JJ - good base speed - Great armour capability - same as a stock ZEUS!!! and excellent mix of hardpoints. Max armour/JJs/SRMs (for knockdown damage) and tank to the front line drawing fire from your other units. Even makes for a handy heavy recon mech even!
Shadowhawk have retired from their previous role as my main firing line and replaced the lights as my scout and harasser once the enemies are basically made of assault and heavy mechs where the light mechs just can't withstand stray fires that come their way.
But overall yeah, shadowhawk served basically from start to end of my playthrough in some capacity...
A stripped down Shadow Hawk can also make an incredibly powerful early game LRM boat, with x2 LRM20s and a spare LRM5 on the head, with more ammo than you know what to do with.
Kintaro is the undisputed king of the 55t.
You *start* with a Shadow Hawk. A Kintaro can take some time to show up.
Quickdraw seems like the 60 ton successor to the Shadow Hawk on paper... anything preventing me from using it as a scout now my Hawks are a bit glassy for the missions I'm running?
I find a lot of this becomes redundant when you're fighting 12 + heavy/assault mechs as closing in for the kill just means getting sensor locked and taken out by every LRM equipped vehicle on the map.
My Scout is a BNC with ALL the arm mods! Yes, ALL.....
Also, I'm very sad CHR-1A1 isn't in the game. It would actually have use in my lance.
KyzarKon I have only 1 arm mod in my BNC. Yours must be glorious!
actually the only loadout you can get on the BNC - that thing has no slots and tonnage whatsoever (for an assault) :D
CAnDa7D2 Yeah it punches for 300!
I just run around with a bunch of heavy mechs with light lasers and machine guns bullying people.
haha there should be a "stop hitting yourself" easter egg in close combat if there's a big enough size difference.
4 Brawler method works.
Ever try 4 King Crabs, with 2x AC/2, 4x SRM6, and a 2x-4x Medium lasers for good measure? (Depending on desire for higher Alpha strike capability, vs typical dmg and extra heat sink/s.)
I see almost no benefit to spreading a lance out and leaving weak mechs (sub 55 ton) to get critted and lose a good pilot, plus their mech for the mission. I cannot understand the benefit to the strategy.
Bit of an off topic question but how important is reputation? When starting mech salvage helps you get stronger mechs and C -bills to keep the banks happy.
Not super terribly. It gives you discounts (max 10%) for allied shops and some missions will be blocked without sufficient reputation. But it is so rare that after finishing the campaign I've been barred from maybe taking 3 side missions total? You earn rep from doing the mission regardless of the bonus rep you would sacrifice cbills/savage for. If you're hurting for salvage or cash in anyway, I'd never do it.
In my experience most of the times I've been locked from a mission, it was because I Just needed to take another mission that was available, and they unlocked soon after.
Great Video!
The Bull Shark is good for long distance if you give it 4 LRM 10’s.
I stuck with two highlander for fire support or mid range assault while two altas as brawlers
Seems you combined the Brawler and Juggernaut roles into one.
www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech_Combat_Categories
The key difference between the two is that Brawlers fight at range while Juggernauts close the distance, much in the same vein as Skirmishers and Strikers only with greater focus on armor rather than mobility. Whereas the key difference between Brawlers and Snipers is mobility, with Brawlers having greater mobility than Snipers.
For example, a Hunchback is without a doubt a Juggernaut, while a Centurion would be a Brawler, and a Griffin would be a Skirmisher, while an Awesome would either be a Sniper or LRM boat depending on variant, and a Kintaro would be a Striker.
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Scorpian mech is a multiroll design. Most people overlook this and other simular mechs.
The Irion with 2 LRM20 ++ is also a pretty good missile boat.
You are talking about the Orion ON1-K or the ON1-V? You can mount 3 LRM20 on the ON1-V.
For it's tier it is quite good, but it lacks the tonnage to support heatmanagement like the stalker or the highlander can. The latter is the best LRM boat capable of mounting 4 LRMs (yes the King Crab can't) and has 60,5 tons of payload, more armor (if you choose so), more health. Only the Orion is slightly faster.
great, very helpful video
Nice work
AH. Now I know what Sensor lock is actually for. I didn't realise it made things visible that were actually outside visible range even for that unit.
Sensor lock is the LRM' s best friend.
Multi purpose weapon platforms do not need to be as heat efficient. Only shoot the appropriate bracket. This goes well with many stalkers.
Question PartyElite, with this suggestion could you do 4 or 5 skull missions without heavy/assault mechs? Because I might not be the best but that seems impossible, could you show me you doing a mission with nothing but med/light?
King crab with twin AC20 4 tons ammo, TTS +2 ballistics, max armor pilot full tactics and bulwark.
This was good but seeing a grasshopper with no support weapons on it was a sin
Sensor Lock lasts till the end of the round, whether or not the enemy mech moves. It does not last into the following round, even if the enemy mech hasn't yet moved.
Is there any advantage to having lower tonnage scout mechs if you have equally fast moving heavy ones? Is a Quickdraw any worse as a scout mech than a Shadow Hawk or even a Jenner? I'm not sure how the accuracy is calculated.
no
The Quickdraw is a good Mech as a striker/scout, but may not shine as much when compared to 55T or 70T chassis. The 55T chassis benefits from lighter jump jets (.5T compared to 1T each), which frees up a lot of tonnage. 70T Mechs, like the Grasshopper, lose a bit of mobility, but also gain more spare tonnage due to the lighter engine, which translates to more armour and weapons (the bountiful weapon hardpoints and melee damage on the Grasshopper is amazing). In short, by attempting to accomplish the agility of a medium with the brawliness of a heavy, the Quickdraw excels at neither.
The rest comes down to your playstyle. A H has a later initiative phase than M/L, which can make controlling the battle more difficult when fighting more H/M/L Mechs, but easier when tackling A. Also, since L Mechs are smaller, they get a bonus that makes them harder to hit, which is more useful early in the game, but not so much lategame, as most enemy pilots have a higher gunnery level.
As mot people have mentioned, as the game has progressed they've had to raise the tonnage of the scouts/strikers for better protection and firepower to cope with the threat of larger Mechs.
grasshopper is pretty good , can deal with most mechs easily 2-3 turns and even the assalts bend if you attack them from behind