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Author Topic: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)  (Read 43135 times)

Robsoie

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #165 on: December 02, 2013, 03:11:08 pm »

It's plenty of fun in single player already, so i doubt the devs see their work as a MP-only game as they wouldn't even have bothered with including Princess.
The only thing that bot is really lacking is as mentionned the calculation time for larger armies if you don't want to use the unofficial individual initiative rule of course (as if you do use it, it's very playable)

After that for the specific tricks of special vehicles, it's not a problem if the bot can't really figure them out on its own, there's so much bazillons of regular mechs and tanks in Megamek that it can use to kick your troops into the ground that you do not have to worry about that ;)


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Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #166 on: December 03, 2013, 06:50:48 am »

How do you people like this fellow for a 55 tonner? I wanted to include c3i and ECM or at least c3 slave and ECM but it just wouldnt have much in the way of weaponry left then, even if an extra light engine was used instead of the LFE. And it couldnt decide if it was a shooter or a spotting slave if it were a part of a c3 network - I think it'd need a similarly mobile skirmishing partner.

You can download the sheet here.

Spoiler: In TRO format (click to show/hide)
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Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #167 on: December 09, 2013, 11:15:39 am »

Rhubarbselleven's Mek viewer: http://rhubarbselleven.github.io/mmmech-viewer/#


Lets you view unit details quicker and at least imho better assorted than the mekwars client's unit viewer.  :)
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RedKing

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #168 on: December 11, 2013, 11:11:31 am »

How do you people like this fellow for a 55 tonner? I wanted to include c3i and ECM or at least c3 slave and ECM but it just wouldnt have much in the way of weaponry left then, even if an extra light engine was used instead of the LFE. And it couldnt decide if it was a shooter or a spotting slave if it were a part of a c3 network - I think it'd need a similarly mobile skirmishing partner.

You can download the sheet here.

Spoiler: In TRO format (click to show/hide)
I've never been a big fan of a lot of the Level 3 gear, especially the XL engines (ok, XL's are L2 but you get my drift). You gain a weight savings, but dramatically increase your chance of getting an engine crit.

I'm pretty much a 3025 old-schooler, though I can deal with 3050 tech. The stuff they started adding later (especially post-FASA) broke the game IMHO.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2013, 11:15:02 am by RedKing »
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Anvilfolk

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #169 on: December 11, 2013, 11:13:17 am »

Neato application there :)

I've been meaning to get in some more games, but haven't managed in a while. Seems like all my nights are occupied with something!

I am tempted to start doing some skirmish missions though - which allow for small landgrabs... although I really should make sure I am able to win occasionally first :D

Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #170 on: December 12, 2013, 07:40:43 am »

Myself Im a great fan of the lvl 2 and 3 tech... It really diversifies the game and is mostöy pretty well balanced, certainly better than lvl 1 tech imho...But could not care less about the superhero test tube born fascist bushido Clanners or their completely out of balance tech!  :P

Btw it has a light engine, not extra light that extends 3 engine crits in bith side torsos.

I've got 14 campaign games under the belt now, of which Ive won 9. The Gods of the holy virtual dice will probably change their side soon!  :) Ill keep lurking in the b12 bt group chat. :)


edit: Above of course IMHO only. Level 1 thanks to medium laser and PPC, clantech because its just "we do everything better than u" and because the higher number of guns, higher damage and longer ranges without armor increases just, again imho, increase the randomness of the game, instead of diversifying - giving new options or possibilities that are not in every way better than the alternatives.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2013, 08:59:48 am by Erkki »
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Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #171 on: December 12, 2013, 09:46:45 am »

Heres the combat log of one of my recent games. I'm playing as the FWLM 7th Free World Legionnaires, my opponent was the Capellan Warrior House Ma-Tsu Kai.

log here

Sorry, no screenshots or anything so you only get the roll and hit logs... But the battle had Capellans approaching from NE from the midst of towering magma tubes onto the plains where my army waited. I had a squad of battle armor, the Blackjack and Wraith screening ahead of the army, covering behind the last couple of the mini-volcanoes, harassing the enemy.

Enemy vehicles flanked wide from the West and got behind my left flank units but I mostly ignored them until I could get easy shots in. For some reason the enemy Catapult felt contempt providing fire support at LRM's long and medium range... It would have been a deadly infighter!

I made the mistake of moving my HQ mek Longbow way too front... It should have been at least 2, preferably 3, hex further back. It was also between some elevations in a stupid, stupid place to be, so it could not generate the +1 movement modifier for 2 turns when it walked backwards away from the enemy.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2013, 09:52:49 am by Erkki »
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Anvilfolk

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #172 on: December 12, 2013, 10:25:29 am »

Oh, wow, talk about crappy heat management! That guy you were fighting fired 6xML on a 12... and got 10 heat in the next turn! What?

Then your Longbow was really pummelled. For that round, it seemed like he got better to-hit numbers than you did. I only read a few more rounds, since the log report is huge with those many units, but it seemed to me that until round 8 or so he was getting slightly better to-hit numbers than you, but maybe that was because he had weaker longer-range weapons like whatever those MMLs are? They seem to do at most 3 damage?

Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #173 on: December 12, 2013, 11:13:34 am »

Oh, wow, talk about crappy heat management! That guy you were fighting fired 6xML on a 12... and got 10 heat in the next turn! What?

Then your Longbow was really pummelled. For that round, it seemed like he got better to-hit numbers than you did. I only read a few more rounds, since the log report is huge with those many units, but it seemed to me that until round 8 or so he was getting slightly better to-hit numbers than you, but maybe that was because he had weaker longer-range weapons like whatever those MMLs are? They seem to do at most 3 damage?

He got better to-hit numbers only because he shot at the Longbow which I failed with... MML is multi-missile launcher than can fire all SRM and LRM munitions. OTOH they come in rather small sizes of 3, 5, 7 and 9 and have higher heat per fired missile than LRM or SRM. In effective long range firepower I had a serious advantage in all damage, max range and accuracy(light gauss rifles have medium range of 17...), which is why he rushed into the brawl...

Had the LGB managed to get up it'd have been (relatively) safe. Alas, such is luck that it failed 2 5s in a streak, and my opponent got superb groupings on the LT.

edit: I think he fired all Yu Huang's guns because he expected it to die that turn.  :P Catapracht ran high on the heat scale too but it had TSM(which it didnt get to use in melee) so I guess its OK. I think that particular mek is rather poorly designed in that it cant stay at exactly 9 heat...
« Last Edit: December 12, 2013, 11:15:30 am by Erkki »
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Anvilfolk

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #174 on: December 12, 2013, 11:15:31 am »

That explains it! It's really hard to get an idea for what is really happening just from weapons damage :)

Why are AARs so hard to do? There has to be an easy solution, dammit :\

Anvilfolk

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #175 on: December 15, 2013, 04:27:06 pm »

Finally played another match yesterday - haven't had a properly free evening in weeks. I'm glad to report it was a win, though one that hinged a fair amount on luck.

It was a really open map, littered with rough terrain but nary a hill in sight. I had a pretty nice, fast, relatively low BV army:
- Ostscout, 1xML
- Cicada, 2xML, 1xSL
- Mongoose 3/4, 3xML, 1xSL (my favourite unit so far!)
- Falcon, 1xML, 2xSL, 2xMG(R)
- Scorpion light tank, 2xLRM6, 1xMG
- Mortar Infantry

The enemy had a single light mech, a Prowler, one AC/20 Hetzer, another vehicle that carried one ER Large Laser and was pretty fast, and a few more light units.


The enemy's fast ER Large Laser unit could tear me apart from a distance if I let him, so I had to close in and charge. Of course, that Hetzer was deadly in close range: if he ever got a shot in to any of my rear torsos, my mech would instantly explode.

I quickly found the most open piece of terrain I could so that I could capitalise on fast movement. I doubt that I did more than a handful of moves the entire match that didn't give me +3 to-hit, even though I didn't really always get the optimal firing choices for this. He always moved his ERLL last, so I couldn't really flank that.

However, in a couple of turns I managed to close and get behind the Hetzer and Prowler. He never did get less than a 9+ to hit my mechs using his AC/20, so he missed all of those shots, and I was safe! Focusing my fire on enemy vehicles that I had flanked, the insane amounts of potential crits came to bear. I almost immobilised the Prowler (was 1/2 movement), and stunned the Hetzer within the firs turns. Subsequent flanking moves blew up its engines.

Amidst all the kicking that I was inflicting on the enemy's units, my Falcon missed, stumbled, and fell. He was in trouble! The Hetzer had him in his sights at medium range, and the entire skirmish was going on within a few hexes of him. The first thing I did that turn was get him up and run as far as possible. Didn't even turn! Unfortunately, that still left him within sight of the Hetzer, and the enemy moved his ERLL vee to stand right beside the Falcon.

I had left a couple of units behind the Hetzer to try to finish it off, and as my last move I got my Mongoose to run right next to the ERLL vee. I had run for at least 5 hexes (for a +2 to-hit), but the Hezter had a side shot on my Mongoose... Fortunately, that missed, and that turn, even though the configuration didn't seem to indicate it, I managed to get a lot of shots at short or medium distance to the ERLL vee. It didn't seem like that because a lot of my units were flanking the Prowler or the Hetzer... whatever the case, the barrage of fire that I did manage to get in, plus my Mongoose's kick crippled the ERLL by immobilising it and its turret. That meant the enemy's two most powerful weapons were now absolutely static, and I could move around them at will.

I moved all of my mechs behind the Hetzer, which was also out of the line of fire of the now static ERLL turret. The infantry still hadn't gotten near the fight, and the Scorpion had taken a beating and was moving around helplessly trying not to get shot at.

The enemy decided to rush its light mech onto the Hetzer's hex, which meant it was adjacent to 3 of my mechs, poised to kick, at point blank range. Since the Hetzer couldn't do anything, I focused most of my fire on the enemy's mech, though some went to the Hetzer too. The Hetzer, already damaged, exploded couldn't take the fire and explided, so that I could focus all of my kicks on the mech... which promptly went down when it lost one of its legs with all sorts of actuators hit, including its hips. He knocked himself out too when he fell.

The enemy then ejected his Prowler (to try to salvage it rather than be destroyed), and his other smaller, loose units managed to crit my Scorpion and destroy it. By then the battle had been decided. The Falcon was somewhat damaged, but all my other mechs were still 100% operational, many undamaged at all. The mop up operations were swift, with a kick to the static ERLL vee taking it out (without me really intending to do so).

With the mech KOd and missing several limbs, the Prowler ejected, the Hetzer and the ERLL vee destroyed, the victory conditions were achieved.

So, while I kept my mechs running around all the time to avoid getting hit, I was extremely lucky in the specific crits that I got. Don't get me wrong, I worked to get those crits, but the fact that they reduced the Prowler to 1/2, then entirely immobilised the Hetzer and the ERLL vee, PLUS its turret, was pretty lucky. That effectively allowed me to entirely ignore his heavy weapons while I took care of removing his units one by one.

Why the enemy decided to move the ERLL unit to point-blank range on my damaged Falcon is, however, beyond me. It's an extended range weapon, and it could be pretty much anywhere and still manage short and medium shots. He also did that move when I had the initiative, meaning I was able to react to it and get a kick in.

Anyway, it was still a victory, and I got the Prowler as salvage, for very minimum repair costs. I have quite a few RPs and C-bills that I will be able to use for more mech bays and heavy mechs. Might be fielding that heavy mech lance I've been wanting to field before long :)

Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #176 on: December 16, 2013, 05:46:26 am »

Nice! Yeah, attacking a defending enemy in a situation like that is very difficult, but on the other hand if you do it right(sounds like you did!), every unit of yours poses some kind of a threat to the enemy, which really allows you to "rotate" the enemy attention and thus received damage from unit to another. Instead of concentrating fire and getting immediately better to-hit odds than your enemy with greater volume of fire can be less important than just keeping your units alive, for now, and looking for opportunities to break the OODA loop.

Slow vehicles with fixed forward-facing weapons such as the Hetzer can be far less powerful than just looking at their weaponry and armor would imply, simply because in a melee they have to turn for a shot(hurting their to-hit odds) and because even the first hit might crit their motive systems. I personally dont like the AC/20 much, too many eggs put in one basket... That thing is more about the potential damage it may inflict, forcing the enemy to take it into account, than the damage it actually does inflict, being a 0/3/6/9 weapon, usually mounted on a slowish chassis that has to run/flank a lot... Psychological warfare and all that.   8)

Which vehicle was it that mounted the ERLL? Its not a 3025 or introtech weapon... Must be a very rare thing in that campaign. Perhaps a prize of some kind.



I played one of the most frustrating BT games ever yesterday. It lasted just a few minutes short of 4 hours, and despite winning the battle, I lost the game... Thanks to a set victory condition of losing more than 93% of BV. The last enemy mek, a Stalker(that was also his HQ unit) was KO'd, armless, with 2 gyro and 2 engine hits and thus unable to do ANYTHING but perhaps explode on my face. I had a fully functional, albeit armless, Warhammer 8D. I had received over 10 HD hits that battle and 4 fully operational, as in all limbs still connected and intact components, meks were lost to them. 4 hours of bullshit where my opponent could just sit with his ridiculous, completely out of balance units he had put all in the same army. I emptied my light gauss rifle ammo bins and charged him. He played poorly and even with the ridiculous luck with the head hits I won, but thanks to the victory conditions I still lost. At least that shitbag, who broke the "face punch rule" of dont bring anything to the battle you wouldnt ok to face yourself, lost all his units. Nightstar 9J with 3/4 pilot(whopping 2800 BV!), Stalker 7D, Avatar OB, Enforcer III NAIS, Karnov VTOL with 2 ERML, 3 squads of battle armor including Grenadiers. I lost some of my very best units too, and good, experienced pilots, but none of them were really as powerful, useful or irreplaceable as any of his losses. Though, as a Fed Suns player, he'll probably just get more of that same stuff for free... At least that WHM-8D of mine survived the battle, the unit that mattered to me the most, and that loss did not cost the Free Worlds League any land.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2013, 05:51:57 am by Erkki »
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Anvilfolk

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #177 on: December 16, 2013, 09:50:55 am »

Yeah, I was really excited with my original UrbanMechs with AC/20 and my Hetzers, but they are really hard to use effectively. They are really slow and need to be at close range. If they ever are at close range, it's probably in the middle of a melee and they are going to get critted...

Was looking at some vehicle stats, and found out the name of what I was facing. It was a Chevalier Light Tank. Too bad it was destroyed... but perhaps it wasn't so bad, since he might've gotten it back for salvage ;)



Oh, wow... 10 HD hits? I assume there were lots of rounds, but still, that's 10 rolls on a 12... that is really, really terrible :\ I've had games where I had less to lose, less bad luck, and I still needed a little break after that :\ I guess there's some comfort in that he lost all his units though!

Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #178 on: December 16, 2013, 11:27:12 am »

I started a topic on arranged games in the Steam group!


A Chevalier Light Tank? Hmm. That thing looks pretty brutal for its tiny BV in a 3025 environment. As a wheeled vehicle it'll take motive crits easier than tracked ones(I believe, at least if the "vehicle efficiency" TacOps rule is in effect I guess). ERLL on well armored, cheap mobile platform sounds nasty in an environment where most weapons dont reach further than 18/12 or 21 hex. At least its toasted easily in urban environment and everywhere with high elevation changes.
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Erkki

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Re: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« Reply #179 on: December 17, 2013, 12:36:57 pm »

Another wicked game behind.... This time I faced the Federated Suns again, JokerACE and his 6200+ BV Clantech premiere Assault mech, Dire Wolf configuration D, piloted by an great 3/4 ace. Ouchie! I think it can fire over 100 dmg each turn up to 12 hex and 80 damage to 24 hex. Pretty darn brutal. It was accompanied by a puny Wyvern, a Bandersnatch heavy and a squad of battle armor.

My force consisted of the commanding Awesome AWS-9M sniper assault, a Longbow LGB-7V missile fire support/close range pulse laser spam assault, Rifleman RFL-7M sniper/fire support heavy, Perseus P1 heavy omni all-purpose configuration, Cronus screener/harasser/flanker all-range medium and the one-trick-pony pulse-laser backstabber 7-hex-jump Wraith TR1.



I had some luck in deploying with a small town and some woods between him and me, while the Cronus on my left flank scouted his positions. Looking good. His Wyvern jumped on a rooftop within mostly medium range of me, and it got mauled badly - with a couple of more hits it could have died right away, but I mostly missed despite the good odds. While advancing, the slow Dire Wolf was kept at medium range and given line of sight to just 1 or 2 meks at a time, through woods, limiting the damage it could inflict. Despite of this, my Rifleman was unlucky enough to receive HD hit from the Wyvern's pulse laser and then some more from Dire Wolf's dual HAG40, killing it. Ugghhh...

I presented the Perseus to his Dire Wolf without blocking woods in an attempt to rotate the damage I would receive any way somewhat, while dealing as much as possible on his meks. AWS and Wraith had taken some hits. It took 2 turns to kill the Wyvern(shred to pieces by crossfire in the middle of my force) and the Bandersnatch, which lost its side torso under AWS's PPC, Cronus' PPC, ERML and SRM, and Longbow's pulse fire at point blank range, and had thus its engine destroyed.

At this point I simply rushed down the Dire Wolf. 2 turns after the death of its 2 companions, I could already deliver more damage to it than it could to me, but the Wraith was still lost it - he chose to fire at my least replaceable mek instead of the bigger or easier to hit ones. With its armor soon worn out, engine and feet hit, the enemy gave up. I accepted the surrender in hopes of salvaging the mighty Dire Wolf, but that didnt happen. Victory still!
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