BattleTech: What I Learned About Partial Cover from a Defeat | Classic BT Strategy & Tactics
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- A lesson I learned about partial cover and drawing fire, which I learned painfully from a recent loss to Pirate44 (of the Coolant Pod podcast - podcasters.spo... ).
MegaMek online BT game used for demonstration: megamek.org/
Music by Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio
Check out The Excaliburs Saga, my narrative single-player campaign for BattleTech/MegaMek: sites.google.c...
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
First mistake, picking a fight with a Kingfisher.
Laying down when you have partial cover is a commonly overlooked strategy.
Those partial cover foxholes are no joke. A 'light woods' that potentially costs no extra movement to enter and gives you a 1/6 chance to discard successful hits is no joke, especially when it's at the 'cost' of encouraging your enemy to move to certain, predictable hexes to counter it
Trailblazer - really appreciate these type of videos talking about in-game tactics that can make a huge difference. If you were able to knock the Warhammer down, or it goes prone, behind partial cover while it might not count as destroyed for victory point purposes - it's no longer impacting the battle and just as good as destroyed until he stands it back up. One thing you could have done was put a Thunder LRM minefield in that hex (or any other hex with good protection and firing arcs for your opponent). It's a great way to discourage him entering that hex, especially if he already has heavy leg damage.
I don't remember - if you hit the legs while the target is under partial cover, is the hit nullified, or re-rolled?
@@jefffreese947 Nullified
@@jefffreese947 Didn't have any thunders with me, but also I didn't have a spotter who could see the ground in that hex
It's worth noting that mines (including thunder LRMs) are optional rules that need to be discussed with your opponents ahead of games unless there's a standing agreement for use in place that everyone knows about.
I'm Pirate and I approve of this message
Of course you do. 😂
A warhammer and partial cover is a match made in heaven. If artillery and/or smoke is available its a lot of fun to prefire them with HE shells, or block LOS from the cover with smoke to make whatever is in the partial cover need to move to get a clean shot. Once something is out of cover its often not worth it to have to maneuver around to get back into cover.
My old gaming group was me (Inner Sphere player) vs two of my best friends (Clan players).
What Partial Cover taught me from way back in the 90's was that, if they had partial cover, I would roll all misses for the round. If I had partial cover, they would shoot my head off 😢😅
It was double edged sword in the old "punch table" days for sure.
Also that hill seems like the perfect spot for him to take a knee next turn. It's like "hull down" for mechs, letting him have an additional +2 buff to evasion.
I don't think we were playing with that rule on, but good advice for those who do!
>he had a force designed around clan pulse lasers
You could end the video there, pulses are broken while ERPPCS are overcosted
Yeah we both knew his list had me outgunned going in.
Something else worth noting is that the Warhammer had already taken damage on one of the legs. This means that by moving it into that partial cover situation all that damage is effectively wasted, as the damage only really 'counts' once the location is cit/destroyed.
Trailblazer video? Hell yes. Trailblazer covering real game battletech tactical insights? I could not be any happier!
Whenever I make a video that I feel especially happy with, you're the one who's always on the same wavelength!
Great video on some important considerations re: partial cover. It’s not entirely clear what was actually going on in the game mission-wise so I’m not sure if this would’ve been entirely feasible, but getting up onto the hill north of the Warhammer (with partial and woods cover of your own!) would have negated the Warhammer’s partial cover, likely forcing it to reconsider its position. And if it’d have gone prone, well, that’s one mech less to worry about for a turn.
I was mainly worried about getting stuck up there and giving the Kingfisher a chance to close, but it might have been worth it!
You're talking about a hull down position here, and there's a reason it's the preferred defensive position for anything mobile that has guns higher than its vulnerable bits. Pirate's position looks like it's missing an escape route, since the Warhammer would need to retreat exposed up the hill or down into the water if you had had enough mass to assault it, but I guess you work with what you've got and a win's a win. Otherwise though, rare to see such a clear example of real world tactics on the table, very nice!
Yeah it felt like real warfare, always awesome when BT turns out like that.
I feel like he kinda got lucky. If it was me, both of those legs would have been gone. Why is it that you couldnt destroy his weak legs, but always destroy my legs?! Lol.
sew floral wire into your stockings
@@toumanihon641 would that count as hardened armor?! :p
Definitely there's a nearby world where I got the legs on his way in!
I enjoy all of Trailblazer videos 🎉🎉😅
Like he *did* play well, but IMO the thing that enabled his strategy was the Clan pulse giving him extreme ability to focus fire against any enemy within 20 hexes of his rearmost mech, which is just a huge threat aoe.
Also, do you already have a video on the concept of offering your opponent difficult targeting choices to take damage on armor in preference to internal/crit damage? I think your opponent did that very well here.
The list he was playing is very min-maxed, I wanted to play against it for the extra challenge. I should make a video about armor sharing for sure, I think Many Voices has one from a while back?
There is a reason why during a shooting you want to take cover.
There are 3 things a mech can do. Run, hide or attack. Partial cover allows 2 of 3.
Partial cover is waaaaay too often overlooked. My table judged it to be such a powerful position, we had to nerf it down to just ignoring leg hits.
Let me tell you about the last World event CGL made for Classic Battletech. I was playing one of the named clan units and decided to attack, funny enough, a Warhammer up on a hill. Every...single... Large Laser shot went into the dirt. All 2-3 rounds until they destroyed my unit.
Isn't there a physical attack option that allows you to displace an opponent's unit? Push, charge, or DFA.
How does indirect fire interact with partial cover? Maybe there was a way to land cluster damage on that leg....
@@jonbezeau3124 Pushing does move you but it happens after the shooting phase. I didn't have any LRM mechs that game sadly
@@jonbezeau3124 But indirect fire would have worked to hit the legs
@@TrailblazerBT I'm always at a loss either to see an opportunity, or for equipment to capitalize on it
Partial cover no longer works if your LOS level is higher than his. So just getting on a level 1 terrain will negate his partial cover completely.
I've always headed straight to partial cover , especially with my gunline . I thought this was 101
Yes but in this case he was running way ahead of the gunline with this one mech, much closer to my guys than would have been ideal otherwise.
@@TrailblazerBT yeh I understand , just stating partial cover is so strong you should be heading towards it
This is a chess move. If you go for the Warhammer, assault mechs snipe you.
I would have tried some indirect fire on the assault mechs outside of LOS for the Warhammer. Catapult has the LRMs. Would it work?
Trailblazer I love your videos going into tactics and strategy and reviewing mechs. However one constant complaint I have about the quality of the videos is the Audio levels. I have to turn up my system sound to hear you clearly and you're often very low. Please keep making the great content!
Thanks for mentioning this, the sound levels are something that I've worked on but it seems there's more to do to improve them still. An issue I've had in the past is balancing the music so it isn't too loud compared with my voice, was that a problem in this vid for you?
What I've been doing lately is listening to them with a couple different devices of my own before they go up. It's surprising how much of a difference that can make to whether they're easy to hear. But the goal is for them to sound good on all devices.
I learned not to get over confident using cover.
Lotta headless mechs lying in good defensive positions.
@jonbezeau3124 so true
A 6 on 1d6 roll is a lot easierthen two 6's on 2d6 roll....so go ahead and take partial cover
@@robkitchen5344 it sounds like you're referring to the old punch table rule, they got rid of that