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I'm available for anything, am a 20-year veteran of this game, own almost everything you can own regarding this game and vote for a Rifleman if we get to choose a mech. If we don't get heavies, then Jenners, Wolverines or Stalkers are my choices. Also, no single unit is cooler than Cranston Snord's Irregulars. Who else would cross half the known universe to hunt down some Elvis records?
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Jan 22, 2011 02:33
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WarLocke posted:I don't think PTN wants an assault mech in this medium lance. Stalkers work fine with absolutely everything. We'll run recon in force then. Also, fine touch changing the history of Inner Sphere. While the successors of Stefan Amaris were ultimately successful at slowing down the clans, the grandchildren of Aramis are proactive and prepared to take the fight forward. Sometimes it's the slightest detail that makes all the difference.
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Jan 22, 2011 02:39
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Griffin, Blackjack, Vulcan, Jenner. This is the stereotypical workhorse lance. You have no special equipment for any purpose. Half your mechs aren't the standard builds for their brand which in this case removes their specialist status and puts you firmly in the slugger variety. Good news or bad news first? You can't do anything as well as specialists would. You only have one really fast mech, so expect real scouts to run circles around you. Then again, you can't really expect to go up against heavies either. A single Rifleman carries firepower equivalent to half your lance. Don't even dream about heroically taking on Awesomes or Atlases. But then again, you are adequate at everything. You have long-range firepower, you can provide scouting support to heavies, you can stand up and fight against anything the enemy throws at you. At least for a while. And that's the highest asset you have: you're cheap and durable. There's nothing that would scream "high priority target" about you. So whenever you feel like things are getting too heavy for you (pardon my pun), run away and regroup. Tactically there's a couple ideas on how to run your lance, but I'm loathe to suggest things as so much of 'mech warfare depends on pilot personalities. Try things, see what works for you. Make your own mistakes and learn from them, they're not likely to kill you just yet. Might kill your irreplaceable mech though, so try not to make too many mistakes. Oh, one more note. Griffin doesn't have close range weapons? Sure it does. Try running 55 tons of steel into something at 80 kph and see what happens. Doesn't get much more close than that.
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Jan 22, 2011 23:48
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Depending on what the fourth mech is, you actually have a good chance of knocking out the whole enemy force. J Edgars can be easy to disable or destroy, Jenners cancel each other out and Spider is seriously outgunned. The lone Dragon is roughly equivalent to your Griffin. If the fourth mech is a light, you should have a good chance of winning this. Just don't let the hovercrafts speed away. You have nothing that can keep pace with them. e: never mind, I have a good guess on the fourth mech and while you can still win, you probably shouldn't even attempt to. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 14:51
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ShadowDragon8685 posted:I hate Level 1 play But that's the best part! All the major weapon types are in balance, physical attacks other than kicking are still useful and even light mechs have some sort of life expectancy.
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Jan 23, 2011 19:13
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Part of the charm of BT was the realization that no one was absolutely safe from harm in the fluff. Death would inevitably claim everyone, no matter how skilled or lucky they were. One of my favorite books was The Dying Time, if only because it reads almost exactly opposite to a normal "good guys win with no one important dying" novel. Everyone who had a name and history died. And most of the other people too. I don't know if this was originally an accidental choice when editing the books but goddammit, it makes everything a little more interesting. It also spoiled most other cheap sci-fi war series for me. It's just not the same anymore.
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Jan 24, 2011 00:22
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Arglebargle III posted:2. Why is anyone using mechs anyway? This is an interesting question and one I've thought about entirely too much. When you consider warfare in 3025, the major problem is actually getting troops to fighting distance of each other. As in, on the same planet. You'll have to transport everything you need with you. I'd guess someone decided that maximizing firepower per available warrior was essential for operations to have any kind of hope. On the other hand, once you've gotten troops to target system you have amazing strategic mobility. Way above what anyone in the history has ever had. Want to deploy your whole army on the other side of the world? Sure, no big deal. Takes an hour, less if you don't have to pick anyone up. Deployment can be done via drop pods, meaning you have 100-ton airborne rangers. Most of the known universe is literal backwater with maybe one big city per planet. Often less, because why bother settling a planet that has nothing barring one unobtainium mine? You can be said to effectively control the planet when you control that one city, which means you don't need armies of millions to conquer a planet. A well-placed strike team of four will do just nicely. Most of the planets aren't even that loyal, because who cares what lord or other rules this week? You pay taxes like you always did and keep on living. As intergalactic civilization began to crumble, the mechs became a status symbol. Sort of why tinpot dictators like to build an air force. Whether it was actually the effective route to take is up to debate. Once you dismantle most of the traditional army as either useless or potentially dangerous, you're left with what the Successor States have right now. Of course there is much potential for improving the armies, but that might bring fearsome social ideas forward. Can't have that. Why no guided missiles? While Mechwarriors want to show their courage and valor, they're not stupid. They prefer muskets that are not too accurate, because they know their opponent will have the same sort of weapon. This must be the reason why they have all sorts of strange rituals, warrior codes and habits: they've essentially retreated back into tribal warfare where the point is not so much to kill your enemy as scare him off and show your personal bravery and prowess. Besides, the existing armament industries must love this setting. Perpetual low-intensity war with massive military industrial complexes.
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Jan 24, 2011 17:05
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Kenlon posted:Given Kuritan 'mech preferences, there's a good chance that the unknown light is a Firestarter. I think it's everyones favorite chicken-legged infantry terror that's standing there.
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Jan 24, 2011 21:53
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I'd gun for it. You got off very lucky with the vehicles, there's a more than fair chance of bagging the whole lance on top of that. There's even a decent chance of fairly winning the duel!
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Jan 25, 2011 09:40
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I think you should go for it. There's no harm in taking down the Jenner while simultaneously humoring the honorable Tai-i. Even a couple hits will hurt the Jenner badly. I guess it would be impolite of me to list hexes so I shan't, but there are a couple really tempting spots you could move into. Someone noted the Dragon stands in an excellent sniping spot. This is true, but as things stand closing the distance would play in favor of the Dragon. Unfortunately the reasoning doesn't fit in the margin.
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Jan 25, 2011 20:43
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They're on the platter! You're never ever going to get a better position to kill someone than this! The tension is killing me!
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Jan 26, 2011 05:24
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It's all in the "what might have been" category now, so it doesn't harm anything to point out. Did you notice that if you'd have moved to 1110 and 1209 you'd have been in complete defilade from Jenner? Whether you'd have killed both Hussar and Spider (especially with those rolls) is up to anyones guess. As things stand, you just killed half the effective firepower of enemy lance. Can't argue with results, I guess.
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Jan 27, 2011 08:36
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We once spent two days with my friend to devise the most equal match we could. In the end we had two lances worth of troops. First match: last 15 minutes, when one push causes a chain reaction knocking three mechs down a hillside, knocking one out and leaving the rest easy pickings. Only way to salvage honor is to claim the match is immensely unbalanced. New game, forces switched. Second match: In the final twelve rounds I have one Enforcer with no other weapons except rear-mounted medium laser. My opponent has one Griffin, with head-mounted small laser as his only arsenal. I manage to land one good charge of seven hexes in, stripping most of his center torso armor. Next ten rounds we play "win the initiative" which I finally do, manage to jump on a cliff next to him and cave his center torso in with a kick. My own mech is barely standing, with most of the remaining armor concentrated on the rear torso. We had to conclude that unfortunately the attempt to balance the forces failed. One side was clearly overpowered.
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Jan 27, 2011 21:03
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Pladdicus posted:If I jump can I only move 4? Can I even jump? Jump is unaffected by heat, you can always jump the maximum distance.
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Jan 27, 2011 21:09
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WarLocke posted:Don't those rules take into account the weights of the mechs involved? The Dragon is twice the size of our Vulcan, I imagine that'd give it a bonus to resist or whatever. Nope, push is a push. You could also jump on the appropriate side back hex and try to kick the leg out. But pushing it to rot on the riverbed sounds much more interesting.
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Jan 29, 2011 02:20
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re: books, the best book of them all has to be Wolves on the Border. It's written very nicely for a cheapo sci-fi paperback, the story holds to the end and from the first pages it captures the feel of Battletech perfectly. Anyone contemplating whether to get a few novels should start here.
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Jan 30, 2011 08:15
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I'd really love someone to take the logical brave leap in computer games and give each weapon its individual target reticule. Naturally they all wander around if the mech is moving. That'd separate newbies from legends.
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Jan 31, 2011 05:57
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Zaodai posted:Yeah, MGs in the Mechwarrior games are functionally worthless. Did you ever try them in MW1 or MW2? In MW1 you could fire them as quickly as you could hit the trigger: combined with easy-to-hit heads they were real doomsday weapons. MW2 did the same, but since you could now design your mechs to have 10 of them (or whatever the maximum amount of weapons was) they were instant death at ranges of 90 meters or less. Fortunately you couldn't use a design like this in multiplayer: firing the guns would crash the connection.
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Jan 31, 2011 11:49
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The Hussar will die on 50-50 probability if you land a kick. Weapons increase this chance somewhat, as the leg crumbling effectively kills the mech. You could salvage it partially or completely. But a charge would be so much cooler. You'd have a great chance of destroying it outright if you hit: 40-ton mech charging 7 hexes equals (40/10)*7 damage split in 5-point groupings. Unfortunately landing a hit is not certain here. You're looking at 8 to hit, minimum. I'd also like to extend my congratulations to the luckiest mech lance in the whole world. You're ridiculously untouched considering what the original OPFOR was.
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Feb 1, 2011 11:24
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A, of course. No risk, pure profit. That's the way to go for ol' Fox.
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Feb 2, 2011 03:21
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Defiance Industries posted:Speaking personally, their thing was getting in to huge jams and then Grayson coming up with a sweet plan to save the day. After the second time it should not have been "awesome job sir!" it should have been "Grayson why the gently caress do you keep getting us into these situations?" Guess what happens in the last book where Grayson dies from cancer and other people take over the GDL? Most satisfying book in the whole series in many, many ways.
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Feb 2, 2011 14:51
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Gothsheep posted:I'm curious. If we had gone with the Death Commandos, would we be running this mission from the other side? My money is on "yes", but we'd be running it a few moments earlier when DK were taking the hostages. Can't kill'em all willy-nilly, gotta protect the friendly PBIs. These scenarios are top notch. They should be saved and published as a PDF if quality is this consistent. I've bought less worthwhile official scenario packs. I especially like the objectives and special rules: they have always been a part of BattleTech experience. Simple 4 vs 4 to the death doesn't capture the real excitement. Objectives and complications are where it's at. Anyone wanna make a small bet about the outcome of this? I'm betting there are no hostages alive after the smoke settles. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Feb 3, 2011 |
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Feb 3, 2011 14:37
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Dolash posted:I'll take that bet. In fact, I'll bet an account upgrade that not only will hostages survive, but Gavillan Comancho will be one of them. You're on!
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Feb 3, 2011 15:05
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Cythereal posted:@Hunchbacks: if I remember my MechWarrior right, don't Hunchbacks have tinfoil for armor? No, it's decently armored for its weight class. It just tends to draw a lot of fire for obvious reasons.
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Feb 3, 2011 15:12
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Tempest_56 posted:The Rifleman's one of the Unseen and has been around forever. Originally designed as an AA platform, in game terms it's a somewhat flawed design. It packs pretty decent firepower - out to range 15 it can rattle off 26 damage a turn - but has middling armor and major heat issues. With only 10 heat sinks, you start overheating if you do more than fire one large laser and move. Still, a classic and fairly standard design. Rifleman is one of my all-time favorite designs exactly because at first sight it might appear to be flawed. And yes, there certainly are shortcomings in this classic design. Worst drawback is the limited ammo supply of AC/5 which almost cripples the venerable Rifleman: 20 rounds for 2 guns is not much. Then there are the people who think heat is a problem, others say it is too lightly armored. But consider the upsides. Rifleman is a base of support that outguns many heavier designs at range. It's one of the most heavily armed mechs in existence in 3025: at range it is only outgunned by Awesome. Park it in a nice spot, and up to ten hexes you usually have very decent chances of hitting. The second large laser is for those moments where you can get a good chance to hit. Heat under 20 points is usually non-fatal anyway. Just fire the autocannons or hide behind a rock when you're cooling down. Standing in a lake is obviously a good idea. You must love Rifleman for the bold design choice of not letting "must be able to run and fire everything" dictate the design. Catapult is 5 tons heavier and without practical overheating problems. Yet it does less damage on average (18 vs. 26) and is completely dependent on ammo supplies. While there are people who point out that Catapult would likely prevail in a duel, I say it's irrelevant. Fire support platforms are part of a team. Romantic ideals of knightly duels are something that only children and insane people uphold.
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Feb 3, 2011 15:42
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Do you know the major difference between Large Laser and PPC? Lasers do 8 damage, PPCs do 10. Head location has 9 armor. Last match we didn't see any head hits, and PTN has notoriously freaky rolling luck. Someone will ride the lightning. Mark my words.
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Feb 3, 2011 19:48
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Go Death Commandos!
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Feb 8, 2011 19:23
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Kenlon posted:The MAD-3R is one of the true classics - a heavy mech capable of engaging almost any other machine with a good chance of success. It's not even the amount of armor but the placement of it. For whatever reason the side torso is the weakest spot in a Marauder. That's a disastrous decision that seriously hampers this design and every variation of it. One hit from any big gun and you have to watch for flankers for the rest of the fight.
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Feb 9, 2011 22:05
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Battlemasters, while being relatively inefficient have the best short-range weaponry in all of 3025 going for them. 4 ML and SRM6 is an unequaled battery that remains competitive throughout all the rulesets. It's light at 8 tons, relatively low heat at 16 points, packs a heavy punch with 28 average damage and 8 average hit locations. Of course double heat sinks kind of spoil it since you get to double the package. 8 ML and 2 SRM6 is nothing to scoff at. Too bad the efficiency of energy weapons was never really fixed. They were the best pick since 3025 and every new set of equipment made them better. Thank god for stock designs which had all sorts of bad ideas in them; they made the actual gameplay interesting. Like Shadow Hawk: if you against all odds hit with every weapon and roll max hits on every missile table, you do exactly 19 points of damage. And let's not even go to "proof of concept" mechs like Charger or "Terror of Amaris" which had to be able to take out a company of battlemechs alone. To accomplish this it was fitted with 30 medium lasers and a bunch of PPCs.
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Feb 10, 2011 10:23
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Breetai posted:What about the LB10-X? It's pretty much the perfect ballistic weapon. In which situation would LB10-X outperform energy weapons of equal weight? A light mech would be better served with ER PPC and 6 medium lasers in practically all situations.
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Feb 10, 2011 11:49
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Breetai posted:That's only because you're using the 10 'free' heatsinks that come with the engine. Right, because you always get those (well, you can design an ICE mech but those are real rarities). And since you always get free heat dissipation, the scale is always weighted towards energy weapons which have heat as their main drawback. quote:Put it another way: say you have 20 tons to play with. You could mount 2 standard PPCs and 6 medium lasers. The only thing you lose is crit-seeking ability at long range (which you'll lose after 10 shots anyway): otherwise, you'd match and surpass the average performance of LBX autocannon. No ammo dependency, no worries of a freak crit taking out half your firepower. 2 ERLL and 8 mediums with a couple heat sinks would allow you to outrange the opposition and overwhelm him at close range, if you want to go that route.
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Feb 10, 2011 12:38
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Affi posted:What it really comes down to though is that any mech with ammunition is worthless if you factor in flavour. Battles that last for days? From an game-mechanical perspective, the ammunition weapons would be a lot more competitive if anyone ever used availability and monetary prices. Working AC/5 now is a lot better than PPC ten weeks from today. Some of the weapons (PPC comes to mind) are supposed to be real rarities. This would create interesting dilemmas: would you rather buy a PPC or a 25-ton tank? If you factor in flavour, some of the stock designs become monsters. Shadow Hawk is probably the best example. On tabletop it's undergunned, has a weird movement profile (5/8/3) and has no niche where something else couldn't perform better. But let's consider what it could do as a guerrilla fighter let loose to wreak havoc. It can carry Thunder and Swarm ammo for LRM, meaning no supply convoys or ammo dumps are safe. You can fit Inferno ammunition for the SRM launcher, meaning flash fires in the fields, forests and everywhere else that can catch fire. It has exactly one energy weapon, meaning that as long as the unit still runs it's a threat to unarmed targets. Even the strange movement profile doesn't matter as much since real life doesn't run in 10-second turns. One mech with a dedicated pilot, map with targets and some imagination can cause an ungodly amount of terror and trouble.
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Feb 10, 2011 13:07
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Der Waffle Mous posted:So, uhh. Fire either PPCs or medium lasers. It's a neat 20 heat with PPCs, 18 for mediums which allows for running without heat buildup. Same idea with the second proposition. You only fire everything if you know you're going down anyway.
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Feb 10, 2011 20:45
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PoptartsNinja posted:They must've changed something, then. No, you just remember wrong. One squad weighs a ton, which is a pretty reasonable approximation (100 kg per man, 10 men). 10-ton APCs were pretty useful in BattleTroops where it was beneficial not to dismount everyone in the same spot: in CityTech they're cannon fodder no matter how you slice it.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:50
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PoptartsNinja posted:The Capellans don't have that much infantry to throw around, we're not fighting a Warrior House after all. Come now, you know as well as everyone that every man, woman and child who can walk and carry a rusty spoon can serve as foot soldiers. Those without feet can also serve, but we're not likely to see them here.
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Feb 12, 2011 08:24
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Arglebargle III posted:Can you really always get more firepower for an equal weight of energy weapons+heat sinks than ballistic weapons + ammo? No, but for the most part the cases where ballistics are better are really marginal. As far as I can see, there are three things that make energy weapons + heat sinks a superior combination than ammo weapons in gameplay: 1) gameplay revolves around heat. If an Archer takes early TAC and suffers 2 engine hits (+5 heat per round per hit), it's crippled as it can no longer dissipate heat. Warhammer can still fire one PPC and continue to operate. 2) no ammo to explore or run out. This is especially a problem with the large weapons (6 shots per ton of LRM 20 ammo, 5 shots per ton of AC/20 ammo). Since ammo explosion always causes 2 hits to pilot, even one shot exploding creates a 1/9 chance (5+ to stay conscious) of pilot passing out per turn. Unconscious pilot will get knocked down, causing one additional hit (7+ to stay awake) and by then it's more or less a lost unit. 3) every mech comes with 10 heat sinks mounted initially. This is the big deal that makes energy weapons a little too good. With high heat weapons you want to go with range brackets, and 10 free sinks give you a free PPC or 3 free medium lasers. That's 10 tons worth of equipment. For light mechs it's almost impossible to surpass the sheer damage output (2x SRM6 will average 16 damage but is short range only). The balance becomes even more skewed towards energy weapons once double heat sinks start becoming common. With heavies you want to add some SRMs or LRMs into the mix once you have the tonnage for it. AC/20 is a special case: 20 damage in a single location hurts every mech and stands a good chance of punching through the armor of almost everything under 80 tons on the first hit. But 4 medium lasers can cause the same amount of damage, just spread out. With 3025 equipment (ie. the stuff we've mostly seen) ballistics aren't grossly out of whack. They're slightly behind the curve, but mechs like Centurion or Crusader are not an automatic death sentence. Once double heat sinks are common stuff, their main advantage (low heat output per point of damage) becomes obsolete. Missiles at least get some neat tricks to compensate and create new niches.
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Feb 12, 2011 20:11
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Locust is the best, since it has a clear role and fulfills it wonderfully. And that role is drive-by shootings. If infantrymans Death has a personification in BattleTech, it's a dark Locust. I wonder whether it would carry a scythe.
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Feb 16, 2011 17:59
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Tempest_56 posted:Counterpoint: Using a mech to fight infantry is not a good primary function for them either. All you need for anti-infantry work is a machine gun or two. The Stinger is a 1.6 million C-Bill tool that's nearly irreplacable; using it in a role that could be filled with equal ability by a 70k C-Bill APC is a waste. Counter-counter-point: you can't drop APCs from low orbit. Or you can, but you will experience suboptimal performance afterwards. Mechs are inherently offensive weapons.
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Feb 16, 2011 19:14
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I personally found 3050 IS stuff sans double heat sinks the most fun you could have. Energy weapons aren't completely dominant and you have to make some interesting trade-offs especially when you design assaults (although Gauss rifles are still kinda spoilsports). Even in mediums it's not completely obvious whether a PPC or ER PPC would be better.
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Feb 17, 2011 00:14
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God dammit. Start executing the kids faster!
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Feb 17, 2011 01:41
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