Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MrRoboto75]

I used to run an Awesome over in MWO, with quad snub nose PPCs.  Sadly the AWS series is really fat, and usually doesn't live all that long in the comp games.  Fun to shoot lightning everywhere.

Light mechs (stinger and wasp) die fast if they get hit, but should also be able to consistently get a +3 or 4 to hit them by running around a lot and finding woods. The griffin is sort of a long distance mech, trying to stay just outside of what the enemy can hit and slowly chewing away at them, occasionally jumping over a hill to avoid getting shot too much. The wolverine is a nice close-range mech. Try to stay on your side with the griffin and wasp to make the enemy come to you, or rush at them with the other set. See if that helps.

For those times when you want to hit (the other option is moving for positioning), don't jump if you can get there running, and don't run if you can get there walking. Less heat, and your to-hit modifier is lower. Light mechs usually run, because it gets them another +1 to hit vs walking, but can get the enemy another +2 to hit. Not moving at all is reasonable if the enemy can't get close enough to hit you (like when you have an Awesome).


Also, there is an option somewhere to make infantry move last, so they're less effective at initiative padding. It speeds the game up slightly.

My third attempt was a bit better.  The Stinger died first, and quickly.  The Wasp got a few backstabs in while basically drawing aggro, until it got disarmed (literally?) and ended up falling down and couldn't get up.  I ended up ejecting from it.

The Griff was more-or-less parked near my board edge on a forested hill.  Standing still so the IS gunnery skill might actually hit something.

Once the wasp died it was still a game of grab-ass if you lose initiative, as you share both movement and jump speeds.  I was able to get far enough away and trade halfway favorable blows.

[Iduno]

I used to run an Awesome over in MWO, with quad snub nose PPCs.  Sadly the AWS series is really fat, and usually doesn't live all that long in the comp games.  Fun to shoot lightning everywhere.

Yeah, the awesome is fat and slow. It's a good turret, but is pretty much useless if your opponent stays out of range. Park it on a hill to watch the fight, and try to get them close enough you can shoot. The last match I played with it, I was able to run 1-2 hexes at a time.

My third attempt was a bit better.  The Stinger died first, and quickly.  The Wasp got a few backstabs in while basically drawing aggro, until it got disarmed (literally?) and ended up falling down and couldn't get up.  I ended up ejecting from it.

The Griff was more-or-less parked near my board edge on a forested hill.  Standing still so the IS gunnery skill might actually hit something.

Once the wasp died it was still a game of grab-ass if you lose initiative, as you share both movement and jump speeds.  I was able to get far enough away and trade halfway favorable blows.

Nice. It is a fairly even fight. Have you tried it with the other team? Try to keep your light behind your wolverine until you're close enough to shoot, then get your full movement modifier. And get too close for the griffin to shoot effectively (I think it's 3 away gives +1 to hit, 2 away is +2, and melee is +3). If you're a real jerk, stay on the side of the griffin that has weapons while you're closing, to blow off that arm or torso. In melee, you can stay on the opposite rear corner so they can't shoot you even with a torso twist.

What final modifiers to-hit are you looking at? As long as you've got better numbers, you're doing well (the lesson you can learn from the Griffin is where your weapons are more likely to hit than theirs - check out what the range increments of their medium lasers and SRM are compared to your weapons), but sometimes it's worth not shooting.

You'll notice in the table below that the difference between a 4 and a 5 is less than 1 hit in 10 shots, and 5 to 6 is just over 1 in 10. Above that is much harsher until you look at 10 to 11 or 11 to 12, but those are still huge percentage (you're half as likely to hit an 11 as a 10, and ~1/4 as likely to hit 12 as 11). Not moving at all is great, if (and only if) you know they can't shoot at you effectively.

Target Result or more
2    100%
3    97.22%
4    91.66%
5    83.33%
6    72.22%
7    58.33%
8    41.66%
9    27.77%
10  16.66%
11   8.33%
12   2.77%

[Cthulhu]

Frustrated with the video game version, switched to Roguetech but it's so sluggish on 8GB it persuaded me to finally upgrade.  So until my 16gb comes in I decided to try the campaign functionality in MekHQ, see how bad I can flub it without the books to back it up.  Almost got through the Falcon and Wolf setup in the tutorial then my power went out.

Guess I'm gonna get a lot of practice in.  Is there like a brief description of the different eras?  3025 seems like most of the mechs I'm familiar with, and I'm assuming it doesn't have clan stuff, what's so bad about the later ones, aside from the Blake Jihad thing.

[Hanzoku]

Sarna.net has a description of the different ages and a lot of fluff and lore to read if you want a better sense of what's going on.

Coming from the BattleTech video game, 3025 is the right era for you to start in, and its also a good introduction to the tabletop as there isn't too much extra equipment to worry about.

There isn't anything 'bad' about most of the later eras per se, but basically as time went on and new eras were released, the developers felt compelled to introduce all sort of new technology along the way, while also trying to balance it against the existing technology rather then declaring some things obsolete to the setting. This leads to a lot more that you need to manage - take Autocannons for example. There are one type in 3025 (3 if you count the 2 LosTech models, the Ultra AC/5 and the LB-10X). By 3087, there are regular, light, ultra (full range), LB/X (full range), rotary assault cannons (Ultra++), caseless, hypervelocity, and rifles (proto-autocannons). Lasers, gauss weapons and missiles are equally a mess.

The one exception is the Dark Ages (3130+), but that's more due to WizKids fucking up the setting.

For a brief and somewhat biased history...

Around 2001, FASA, the original owners and creators of BattleTech content folded, and the BattleTech IP was bought by WizKids. They split it into BattleTech classic and Dark Ages. The setting had just wrapped up the FedCom Civil War era, and Dark Ages jumped a 100 years into the future.

Dark Ages was a shitshow, mostly because they decided that in a game about big, stompy robots fighting each other, what you needed a lot less of was big, stompy robots. The lore was equally stunningly stupid, where the mystical Devlin Stone managed to convince every faction, everywhere to dismantle their BattleMechs and founded the Republic of the Sphere. But now that Jesus Devlin has disappeared, chaos has descended and everyone has started fighting each other again. Only the best they can manage for 'Mechs are jury-rigged industrial 'Mechs with weapons crudely strapped on.

This went about as well as you could expect. Personally, I left the fandom in disgust and didn't come back until a few years ago.

Anyway, in 2007, the split licenses were both acquired by InMediaRes, which merged them back together and started backfilling what happened between the end of the FedCom Civil War and the Dark Ages. They fixed a lot of the derp of the Dark Ages 'lore' and fleshed out what was vaguely referred to as a Jihad that led to the Dark Ages.

[Kanil]

I'd give both 3025 and something 3050 or beyond a shot. The later eras tend to be faster paced, which may or may not appeal to you.

[Cthulhu]

Getting the hang of MekHQ, at least navigating it to set up contracts and such.  I got a contract against the draconic combine, veteran vs green so I figure this should be pretty eas--



Allied forces were a single griffin.  It was in a tornado so I thought the lack of ballistics might help.  It did not.

[Iduno]

Getting the hang of MekHQ, at least navigating it to set up contracts and such.  I got a contract against the draconic combine, veteran vs green so I figure this should be pretty eas--



Allied forces were a single griffin.  It was in a tornado so I thought the lack of ballistics might help.  It did not.

Depends on what you were running. If you take down the charger early, out of the range of the other mechs, you'd get the advantage of numbers. The turn or 2 getting to the Awesomes would be painful, but you should have the advantage once you get them below minimum range. The Atlas has close range stuff, so you might be able to pick that off early? I'm not sure I like your odds (again, depending on what you have), but it's a plan.

[Hanzoku]

It’s a very winnable fight, but it turns on luck. You need to focus the Charger, Atlas and -8R Awesome and knock them down. With that crap piloting, they’ll likely knock themselves unconscious trying to get up again.

[Iduno]

Yeah, the 8Q is the issue there. 4 is good enough to sometimes hit with PPCs in melee range, and a 3 means they will hit you in melee if you let them. Plus, there isn't even one hex the 8Q can't torso twist to shoot at (badly) because of the arm gun.

I guess everyone else can just be kicked over. 2 good kicks in one round should even force a PSR for damage on top of the "was kicked" PSRs, which they'll struggle with. Or push/charge them into water.


Unrelated (but on-topic), does MekHQ still double the number of vehicles even if you have that option unchecked?

[Rince Wind]

I never had trouble with that option turned off, so for me it doesn't double enemy vees.
You can of course still get matched against 2 lances.

And that assault lance is cute ... my medium lances have a higher battle value. Even my training lance (I admit I use the option that vees only count for half their weight, otherwise the training lance wouldn't match it). The joy of modern equipment! (and veteran pilots)

Seriously though, in a tornado getting up again is hard, but kicking is a high risk here as well. The 8R should be mostly useless with its missiles, the Atlas has a bit of everything, but half its lasers point in the wrong direction. I've never been a big fan.

[Kanil]

If you don't want to risk a kick, you can always go with a push.

I definitely would look at that and think "oooh, free salvage" but if you're a bit inexperienced, being that heavily out tonnaged would be a challenge.

[Iduno]

Seriously though, in a tornado getting up again is hard, but kicking is a high risk here as well. The 8R should be mostly useless with its missiles, the Atlas has a bit of everything, but half its lasers point in the wrong direction. I've never been a big fan.

I don't know how they made the most famous 100-ton mech garbage. I mean, it is a better version of the AC/20 Hunchback, but it's terrible for what it could be. The Battlemaster is at least a competent slow all-arounder.

[Hanzoku]

At the 3025 level, its a solid brawler that's designed to get into melee range through sheer armor and beat people down. That said, I do agree that the design isn't all that amazing, as the Highlander does pretty much the exact same thing, while having Jump Jets to allow for that delicious 'jump behind someone and chew through their back armor' option.

[Robsoie]

I don't have much experience with how MekHQ works for the enemy lance generation but is that normal that a faction assign Atlas and Awesome to their "green" pilots ?

[Rince Wind]

MekHQ doesn't care about that. Your enemies have an equipment rating and an experience rating, and based on those mechs/vees and pilots are generated. You are probably fighting an inexperiences unit in this case, maybe it is just rebuilding, maybe they are training.

You could also argue that assaults with long range weapons are the safest place to be for a young mechwarrior you want to survive. Give those mechs that need actual skill in piloting to your veterans.

(My best pilot is in a 35t Venom and she is a terror on the battlefield that lands almost every shot.)


Edit: And depending on the timeframe a lot of mechs are actually privatly owned.