I have now played 3 games against other players, and I have made a few discoveries.
1) I can't win initiative rolls for shit.
2) If I take a bunch of brawler mechs, the game will dump me on a wide open map with no cover.
3) If I take couple of longer range units, the game will dump me in a city map where you can barely see 3 hexes.
4) I pretty much always need a 12 in order to hit. This particular one I suspect might be my own fault.
1) Yeah, initiative sucks sometimes
2&3) That is probably because you are defending. Attacker chooses the terrain. Defend enough times, and you'll be able to attack, even if you traditionally lose those defenses (it happens). From looking around, it appears that you can run two lances at similar BV, then chose your defending lance. You should try that, if you wish to field specialized lances.
4) Stop moving.
To-hit is a base number, increased by range, spaces moved by the enemy mech (within a range), and the speed of your mech. Unfortunately, light and medium mechs move fast, so base to-hit is high in most patrol matches (what most people fight).
I used to love Mekwars 3025, but the games can literally take forever. I've spend 12 hours on some games. The good news is that experienced/reckless players can play a lot faster, but you never know how slow your opponent will be.
[EDIT: Sadly, I had to delete "my favorite junk lance" because it might not be legal in the current operations rules. They're more confusing than ever...]
By the way, how exactly does Bay 12 plan to reinforce MekWars 3025? Trading with non-faction members is forbidden, so everyone ideally needs to join an existing faction. Ordinarily, a group that wanted to form their own group would join the periphery/pirates, but those factions are for very experienced members of both MekWars itself and the 3025 campaign.
I'd suggest everyone join House Davion/Federated Suns. It's got a reputation for being the newbie faction, and they could use a unified subgroup to help them not lose as badly as usual. Other factions are more tightly knit and more experienced, so fighting the other factions is probably the best way for all of us to learn the game.
Good luck, maybe I'll rejoin the fight for the Inner Sphere as well. Just have to find my "movement charts and penalties-to-hit"...