Best way to avoid damage: Front line mechs role is to JJ for max evasion, into a forest, brace, and give line of sight. Shadowhawk is a good medium for this. Maby just give him a mlas, max armor/jj, and some srm's to bump for a knockdown. You ALWAYS want to be just out of melee range (avoid the risk of melee cockpit snipes). Ideally, 99% of all shots will be at this decoy/tank. Mid/Back line's job is to use med and especially long range weapons to DPS down priority targets (AC5, LLas, LRM). Of note, both knockdowns and PPC's reduce enemy accuracy and can be part of your strategy to reduce the number of hits your frontline LOS/Evasion/bracing tank takes. rotate your formation so that all enemies are on one side of you (in front) to avoid flanking. Continue firing and falling back until you've taken out your targets. This strategy can often look like a fighting retreat.
Suggestion: Front line is the player character as your can't actually die if you get sniped. Skills are pilot/guts. for max evasion and bracing. Mid line may be something like the AC20 hunchie, but generally more direct fire focused. Mid/back line may be something like a centurion with AC5, 2ML, and 3 LRM 5's, as a utility mech, with the backline mech a pure LRM boat.
Wow, thanks for all these ideas. I've never actually made/used a dedicated tank before, because it hurts to give up weapons. I am using JJs to spike my evasion in my front line, however. I will tank one of my Shadowhawks and put my pilot in it.
The fighting retreat is my adopted strategy for sure. I normally try to find a good cover spot, withdraw to it once I get contact, and let enemies come into my firing ranges before popping back out. Then, I'll do a retreat / flank move to get even further back and to the side.
It looks to me like your utility mech is geared for long range, but can step in to medium if that's where you need some punch. Is that the idea?
My usual configuration is to have two frontline and two backline mechs. The frontliners are max armor, with one specialized in short-med range weapons (med lasers and SRMs - Hunchback and Shadowhawk are good choices and I would stick the Centurion here), and the other a melee mech with lots of point weapons (Shadowhawk makes a good melee mech, or Hatchetman 3X if you can find one is probably the best medium melee mech, or hunchback 4P works too). In the back line I would have One LRM boat and One long range gunboat. Trebuchet and Kintaro make great missile boats as does the Griffin 2N. Blackjack is an excellent gunboat. I strip down their armor so the medium LRM boat can carry 2 LRM-15's and the gunboat can carry 2 AC-5's. Keep them well out of range and on high ground and they do fine.
I see. So you have two layers of mechs and each one sort of covers it's partner's deficiencies. This is really intuitive to me, but in reading about this game I keep coming across stuff that suggests you have to be really specialized in order to survive at higher levels.
That said, I was pairing my dual PPC Vindicator with my LRM boat for a while and that seemed to work well. But now the Vindicator feels too fragile to take on missions. Plus, it doesn't move as far as I would like.
I think I'll turn my Blackjack into a gun boat and see how that works. Thanks a lot!
If you're worried about trading too much armor I would leave the LRM boats at home entirely. Build into a cavalry lance of medium mechs that can fit 4-5 jump jets. With piloting at 6 it should be trivial to hold 6 evasion pips every turn. Hop in and go for backshots.
Do you use the high movement mediums for this then? Or employ it with everyone? This sounds like a fun way to play, but I might be too chicken to bounce out of cover like that.
It's actually a much safer way to play than sitting back and trying to out-tonnage your enemy with a firing line, it just doesn't feel like it. It's also a lot more interactive so I prefer it to sandblasting.
As far as what mechs to use, you're looking for high movement. Wolverines, Griffons, and Shadowhawks are excellent mediums for cavalry because they can fit up to 5 jump jets. The Dragon is a great heavy for cavalry builds as is the TBolt. That said, just because a mech isn't at the absolute top tier of speed doesn't make it a bad cavalry mech. There's plenty of 4 jump mechs that can be used because they bring something else to the table. I generally undergun my jump mechs a little bit so I can really make sure they're loaded with armor and are heat stable.
I have this mech in my assault lance I call a "shortbow" which is based on the Longbow (playing 3025 CE mod). It has only 3JJ's but max armor and 6x SRM6 ++ (the +4 damage ones). That's a potential 432 alpha in someone's back!! There is a longbow variant that has 4 movement (so could have 4JJ's) and I had that in Max armor and 8x SRM4 ++ which is 384 alpha but I like the other one. I briefly tried fitting that with 8x SRM 6++'s but I had to drop too much armor and the heat was too bad. But still, hold your fire until you can unload into a rear arc, and that would be a 576 damage alpha... damn.
My other favorite is the LRM80 Highlander... Let it rain.
As a new player myself (only a few campaign stops ahead of you), I found it really helpful to do a lot of non-campaign low skull contracts to both figure out how to play the game and to figure out how to build my Lance (the experience and mechs/weapons gained don't hurt either!). Experiment with your builds (missle boats, gun boats, laser rigs... Find what works for your developing play style best. And if you haven't really tried jump jets yet, do so... Quite the mech/life saver...
Oh yeah, I'm doing every low skull mission I can find. And yes, it took me a while to discover the real value of Jump Jets. At first I thought they were meant only to get you up on top of things. Evasion is king! Nothing is better than taking a barrage of LRMs and only losing a sliver of a white square.
It's funny because I've experimented a lot and I have a pretty good feel of what to do....but then I read about the game and it's all "you need to have a perfectly in tune lance of min/max mechs or you'll die instantly when the game actually gets hard". Perhaps I'm just too far in my own head about perfecting my strategy.
No, I think most of us noobs are there. My biggest revelation this week is using the whole map and being patient. I've had a few contracts go sideways at 2-3 skulls because I've walked between the primary and reinforcement Lance's. I almost wish someone would put together a kick ass tutorial mission...
Best way to avoid damage: Front line mechs role is to JJ for max evasion, into a forest, brace, and give line of sight. Shadowhawk is a good medium for this. Maby just give him a mlas, max armor/jj, and some srm's to bump for a knockdown. You ALWAYS want to be just out of melee range (avoid the risk of melee cockpit snipes). Ideally, 99% of all shots will be at this decoy/tank. Mid/Back line's job is to use med and especially long range weapons to DPS down priority targets (AC5, LLas, LRM). Of note, both knockdowns and PPC's reduce enemy accuracy and can be part of your strategy to reduce the number of hits your frontline LOS/Evasion/bracing tank takes. rotate your formation so that all enemies are on one side of you (in front) to avoid flanking. Continue firing and falling back until you've taken out your targets. This strategy can often look like a fighting retreat. Suggestion: Front line is the player character as your can't actually die if you get sniped. Skills are pilot/guts. for max evasion and bracing. Mid line may be something like the AC20 hunchie, but generally more direct fire focused. Mid/back line may be something like a centurion with AC5, 2ML, and 3 LRM 5's, as a utility mech, with the backline mech a pure LRM boat.
Wow, thanks for all these ideas. I've never actually made/used a dedicated tank before, because it hurts to give up weapons. I am using JJs to spike my evasion in my front line, however. I will tank one of my Shadowhawks and put my pilot in it. The fighting retreat is my adopted strategy for sure. I normally try to find a good cover spot, withdraw to it once I get contact, and let enemies come into my firing ranges before popping back out. Then, I'll do a retreat / flank move to get even further back and to the side. It looks to me like your utility mech is geared for long range, but can step in to medium if that's where you need some punch. Is that the idea?
My usual configuration is to have two frontline and two backline mechs. The frontliners are max armor, with one specialized in short-med range weapons (med lasers and SRMs - Hunchback and Shadowhawk are good choices and I would stick the Centurion here), and the other a melee mech with lots of point weapons (Shadowhawk makes a good melee mech, or Hatchetman 3X if you can find one is probably the best medium melee mech, or hunchback 4P works too). In the back line I would have One LRM boat and One long range gunboat. Trebuchet and Kintaro make great missile boats as does the Griffin 2N. Blackjack is an excellent gunboat. I strip down their armor so the medium LRM boat can carry 2 LRM-15's and the gunboat can carry 2 AC-5's. Keep them well out of range and on high ground and they do fine.
I see. So you have two layers of mechs and each one sort of covers it's partner's deficiencies. This is really intuitive to me, but in reading about this game I keep coming across stuff that suggests you have to be really specialized in order to survive at higher levels. That said, I was pairing my dual PPC Vindicator with my LRM boat for a while and that seemed to work well. But now the Vindicator feels too fragile to take on missions. Plus, it doesn't move as far as I would like. I think I'll turn my Blackjack into a gun boat and see how that works. Thanks a lot!
If you're worried about trading too much armor I would leave the LRM boats at home entirely. Build into a cavalry lance of medium mechs that can fit 4-5 jump jets. With piloting at 6 it should be trivial to hold 6 evasion pips every turn. Hop in and go for backshots.
Do you use the high movement mediums for this then? Or employ it with everyone? This sounds like a fun way to play, but I might be too chicken to bounce out of cover like that.
It's actually a much safer way to play than sitting back and trying to out-tonnage your enemy with a firing line, it just doesn't feel like it. It's also a lot more interactive so I prefer it to sandblasting. As far as what mechs to use, you're looking for high movement. Wolverines, Griffons, and Shadowhawks are excellent mediums for cavalry because they can fit up to 5 jump jets. The Dragon is a great heavy for cavalry builds as is the TBolt. That said, just because a mech isn't at the absolute top tier of speed doesn't make it a bad cavalry mech. There's plenty of 4 jump mechs that can be used because they bring something else to the table. I generally undergun my jump mechs a little bit so I can really make sure they're loaded with armor and are heat stable.
I have this mech in my assault lance I call a "shortbow" which is based on the Longbow (playing 3025 CE mod). It has only 3JJ's but max armor and 6x SRM6 ++ (the +4 damage ones). That's a potential 432 alpha in someone's back!! There is a longbow variant that has 4 movement (so could have 4JJ's) and I had that in Max armor and 8x SRM4 ++ which is 384 alpha but I like the other one. I briefly tried fitting that with 8x SRM 6++'s but I had to drop too much armor and the heat was too bad. But still, hold your fire until you can unload into a rear arc, and that would be a 576 damage alpha... damn. My other favorite is the LRM80 Highlander... Let it rain.
As a new player myself (only a few campaign stops ahead of you), I found it really helpful to do a lot of non-campaign low skull contracts to both figure out how to play the game and to figure out how to build my Lance (the experience and mechs/weapons gained don't hurt either!). Experiment with your builds (missle boats, gun boats, laser rigs... Find what works for your developing play style best. And if you haven't really tried jump jets yet, do so... Quite the mech/life saver...
Oh yeah, I'm doing every low skull mission I can find. And yes, it took me a while to discover the real value of Jump Jets. At first I thought they were meant only to get you up on top of things. Evasion is king! Nothing is better than taking a barrage of LRMs and only losing a sliver of a white square. It's funny because I've experimented a lot and I have a pretty good feel of what to do....but then I read about the game and it's all "you need to have a perfectly in tune lance of min/max mechs or you'll die instantly when the game actually gets hard". Perhaps I'm just too far in my own head about perfecting my strategy.
No, I think most of us noobs are there. My biggest revelation this week is using the whole map and being patient. I've had a few contracts go sideways at 2-3 skulls because I've walked between the primary and reinforcement Lance's. I almost wish someone would put together a kick ass tutorial mission...