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[Cthulhu]

Still running that second game, we going big boys now.  The blackjack has proven itself, the mortars are great, lots of ammo options and built-in AMS has been huge.  Firestarter did its job fine, and the brigand was an absolute beast at hunting vehicles and light mechs, but it got hit hard a few missions back and lost two of its special lasers so I've sidelined it until I've got the salvage to get it back to its old power.  Meanwhile I got a PPC panther which has been good, and a lucky mission recently got me enough parts to put together a Stormcrow.  Most of the clan equipment was intact, but it lost the DHS kit which made its old loadout (Hyper-gauss, four ER m-lasers) too hot without excessive heat sinks.  Considering it's got an XL engine I don't want to compromise on survivability, so I've given it a regular gauss cannon and an ER large laser.  I also just managed to get a shadow hawk, which by comparison isn't very fancy, but it looks serviceable, loaded it up on missiles and rockets.  Really need to find a replacement for the primitive engine though.

[Il Palazzo]

Got this recently and went straight to the Advanced mod, because why not. Also, I don't know what I'm doing, apart from whatever I remember having played the tabletop twenty years ago. Any tips would be appreciated.

Like, what's with those difficulty ratings? All the missions so far (first couple or three planets) are 2.5-3 skulls, but in practice they can end up being anything between two mechs, and 12. Is it supposed to be like that? I.e. is it meant to be a gamble, with regular withdrawals whenever you find out you're over your head?

[Iduno]

When I played last, it was anywhere from 0.5 skulls up to 5, but mostly around 1 near the beginning. It also warned you if you were trying to drop with a force that wasn't strong enough for the battle. Could be whatever mod you used, though.

[Dostoevsky]

I haven't played Advanced, but if it's not vastly different from Vanilla you'll want to stick to very low skull-ratings until you've got better mechs, pilots, etc.

There can be variety in the opposition force - intel can be off - and number v. quality of mechs can make a big difference. E.g. one elite pilot in a Comstar/lostech heavy v. a posse of scrappy pirate lights. Mission type can also make a difference.

If Advanced is like Roguetech with respect to intel and risk, withdrawal is indeed meant to be an actually-used feature. Ideally though you'll want to be playing it safe until you've got a lance you're pretty comfortable with.


Speaking of which I'd plug Roguetech as the best HBS Battletech experience (also probably the closest to tabletop, for good and/or ill), but the latest version has been deep in 'very beta' beta for a while now and the last stable is from before the last expansion (i.e. fairly old now). I'm looking forward to when they get it ship-shape.

[Mephansteras]

I don't know, I kind of like the Commander's Edition better than Roguetech. Roguetech has a 'throw everything at it' feel to it, which gets strange and messy and is horribly unbalanced.
Like, enemy mech with massive melee damage that can dash across the map and one-shot your mechs in a single turn unbalanced.

I like a lot of it, but it's also frustrating and super wonky at times.

CE is a bit more leveled out of an experience. Doesn't have the crazy customization, but still has enough good stuff and various timelines to let you get a better career mode than vanilla.

[Iduno]

I don't know, I kind of like the Commander's Edition better than Roguetech. Roguetech has a 'throw everything at it' feel to it, which gets strange and messy and is horribly unbalanced.
Like, enemy mech with massive melee damage that can dash across the map and one-shot your mechs in a single turn unbalanced.

I like a lot of it, but it's also frustrating and super wonky at times.

CE is a bit more leveled out of an experience. Doesn't have the crazy customization, but still has enough good stuff and various timelines to let you get a better career mode than vanilla.

Yeah, I preferred 3062. A lot less kitchen sink. I'll have to look at Commander's Edition.

[Il Palazzo]

Oh, man. This game feels super game-y. Like, you position your artillery mechs, or make a wide flanking action, and then the mission script says enemy reinforcements will magically spawn just in the spot where your mechs are. So I guess you better memorise how each mission unfolds during previous playthroughs, or you're fucked. Or savescum, I guess.

Then there are those bullshit moments where, on a 1.5 skull mission, each enemy turn some artillery bomb thing comes from outside your sensor range and one-shots one of your mechs.

This is more of an rng-masochism than Darkest Dungeons. I shudder to think how bad the Roguetech mod is, since Advanced is supposedly a middle-ground between that and vanilla.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, I like a lot of stuff in the game and it's overall a lot of fun. But the mission scripting stuff often sucks, with enemy mechs basically just appearing out of nowhere.
I find that some of the new missions that show up in CE are pretty cool, though. And generally less 'woo, magic game stuff happens'.

[Dostoevsky]

Roguetech nerfed the more ridiculous melee power options. And the install was modular enough to keep away its worst imbalances (e.g. nukes). It also was focused more around 2-lance play as opposed to one lance, while giving you AI reinforcements for lower-skull missions where you're assumed to not have a full 2 lances yet.

Magic enemy reinforcements are still at thing. That said, the larger map size, informational warfare system, and initiative system (individual initiative instead of the vanilla system) all help alleviate surprise situations quite a bit. Those three features all really work together to improve the gameplay, in my opinion -- scouts matter more, focus-firing is less easy on both sides, and one can't easily see vulnerable spots on enemy mechs.

To be honest, I found Roguetech actually feel less BS than vanilla when it came to bad luck. Partly because the vast array of tech salvage meant that you could focus on shoring up vulnerabilities. Individual faction rosters and a greater wealth of low-tech options (in addition to the higher tech) also help keep variety fresh.

All that said, I haven't tried the other conversion so it may be that Advanced/Commander's include some/all of those features as well.

[Iduno]

Oh, man. This game feels super game-y. Like, you position your artillery mechs, or make a wide flanking action, and then the mission script says enemy reinforcements will magically spawn just in the spot where your mechs are. So I guess you better memorise how each mission unfolds during previous playthroughs, or you're fucked. Or savescum, I guess.

Then there are those bullshit moments where, on a 1.5 skull mission, each enemy turn some artillery bomb thing comes from outside your sensor range and one-shots one of your mechs.

This is more of an rng-masochism than Darkest Dungeons. I shudder to think how bad the Roguetech mod is, since Advanced is supposedly a middle-ground between that and vanilla.

One of the main issues Roguetech created was allowing newly-spawned units to immediately act. Vanilla recognized it was a problem, and made enemies just stand there for 1 round so you could react to them suddenly showing up.

[Dostoevsky]

If I recall correctly (might be a big if on this one, though) the infotech system made it so that newly-spawned enemies had no target intel for their first turn. Meant that you/they could move and attack, but would get basically single-digit percentages to hit with anything.

[LoSboccacc]

roguetech has some very bad opinions about combat but the relevant files are all text and reasonably fixable

[Rince Wind]

I am having a lot of fun with roguetech right now, haven't tried the other big mods yet.
Newly dropped enemies can only move during their first turn I think, so you have a chance to hit them before they do anything if you reserve and wait for them to come out of spawn protection.

Artillery, especially Longtoms and thermobaric thunderbolts are hard, but they never dropped a mech in a single turn for me. I really like that you have a lot more tactical options with the different ammo types, equipment and bigger maps.
I am currently running 7 mechs, 4 heavies, one of which is a 3/5 artillery Warhammer with a sniper and a clan Arrow 4, and 3 mediums, one of which is a Screamer LAM that just backstabs stuff to death. Favourive in my lineup is a Bushwacker-S7 with a heavy RISC RAC/5, MML10 and an ER medium, chameleon stealth armor and arm mods to increase to hit and decrease recoil.
I have the parts for 2 assaults, but I really like the cavalry lance thingy I have going on. Only the Warhammer and a sniper Avatar are slower than 5/8. Especially with the bigger maps. The Warhammer is showing me how slow assaults are.

[anewaname]

Got this recently and went straight to the Advanced mod, because why not. Also, I don't know what I'm doing, apart from whatever I remember having played the tabletop twenty years ago. Any tips would be appreciated.

Like, what's with those difficulty ratings? All the missions so far (first couple or three planets) are 2.5-3 skulls, but in practice they can end up being anything between two mechs, and 12. Is it supposed to be like that? I.e. is it meant to be a gamble, with regular withdrawals whenever you find out you're over your head?

If you find yourself using withdrawals often, consider bringing a 0.5 or 1 star heavier army than the mission estimate until you feel more comfortable with your estimates.

The mission stars are an estimate based on the expected tonnage of the enemy, and the random rolls decides what units you will actually face. Some operations have a chance for reinforcements. Some mods cause higher tech units to appear instead of older tech units. If you put those variables together, it is easy to face a much stronger or weaker opponent than expected.

Consider finding the online chat group for whatever mod you are using.

[Rince Wind]

At least in RT you can also change the difficulty variation in the mod options. If you set it to 0 a 1 Skull battle will always be a 1 skull battle.

I also think that RT overvalues clan mechs. I could consistently take missions about one skull above my rating (being careful about the mission type), but I am now rated 5 skulls and 5 skull missions are still out of reach.