BattleTech coming back via Kickstarter

[LordMortis]

The main trick to encountering forces beyond your capability is to recognize that they're beyond your capability and whack the "withdraw" button real hard. The one time I ran into an "extra" assault lance (seriously, 4x 80+ ton mechs), I quickly finished up the first set of lighter enemy targets (luckily, three of them were tanks), then ran away. Kamea bitched at me a little bit, but better a little bitching than getting chewed up.

I kind of wish the main storyline had a branching campaign, so you could lose a mission or two - some of those story line missions are real bears.

I'm not far enough in the story to know if I'll be itching for me but more importantly, I haven't learned when to eject or cut bait when the contract isn't what I expected. My gaming nature isn't programmed that way. I think that leads to my desire to Monty Haul.

[Sepiche]

I've found the maximum payment is a better indicator of mission difficulty. It seems pretty consistent to me that the higher the payout, the more enemies the more tonnage/experience you'll be facing.

Or that''s my experience. Again, I've been slowly learning (or convincing myself I've been learning) to tweak my expectations by examining what is being offered to me as an indicator of what I am about to get in to. High payouts mean I'm going to be facing a lot of enemy, one way or another. If it reads like it's concentrated or like their is a big guy somewhere, I'm damned sure to ask for three salvage choices. If it reads like ambush/extended engagement then I better prepare to take on hoards and take the cash.

My experience is pretty consistent... rating = size of enemies, payout = number of enemies. Next time you see a highly rated mission with a low payout, try it for yourself and you'll likely see a handful of stronger units and that's it.

[Max Peck]

I finished off the campaign last night. Jumping into the last pair of battles with a full lance of assault mechs put me in the satisfying position of outgunning the opposition for a change. It was a good feeling to see the other side as the desperate underdog.

[NickAragua]

Of course, now, every random dipshit in the periphery has a bunch of heavy and assault mechs.

Or, maybe, potential employers see a regiment of assaults and heavies and don't bother offering them contracts against a handful of Locusts any more.

[Archinerd]

I finished off the campaign last night. Jumping into the last pair of battles with a full lance of assault mechs put me in the satisfying position of outgunning the opposition for a change. It was a good feeling to see the other side as the desperate underdog.

I got to the final 2-parter before calling it a night.
My lance current "best" mechs are in the spoiler below.
Can I do this mission or do I need to keep building?

Spoiler:

All mechs are stock with the exception of the Battlemaster. I removed the MG & Ammo and added 2 small lasers.
Highlander
Atlas-D
Thunderbolt-5SE
Battlemaster-1G OR Orion-K as the 4th. Haven't decided yet.

I suspect I can do it.

[NickAragua]

You've definitely got the firepower for it.

Spoiler:

Highlander and Thunderbolt give you reasonable mobility, and you're going to be facing enough bad guys that the Atlas and Battlemaster / Orion will help tank. In the first part, try your best to preserve the APCs and turrets. It's pretty doable if you charge in and engage the initial enemy mechs.

For the very last mission, you're only able to bring three mechs in, anyway.

[Max Peck]

I got to the final 2-parter before calling it a night.
My lance current "best" mechs are in the spoiler below.
Can I do this mission or do I need to keep building?

Spoiler:

All mechs are stock with the exception of the Battlemaster. I removed the MG & Ammo and added 2 small lasers.
Highlander
Atlas-D
Thunderbolt-5SE
Battlemaster-1G OR Orion-K as the 4th. Haven't decided yet.

I suspect I can do it.

I'd say you're good to go.

[Rip]

I'm up to it as well. Still wish I had something to do with the $30M c-bills in my bank account.

Highlander, Battlemaster, Thunderbolt, and a Shadowhawk Recon/SRM bomber. I threw a couple double heatsinks in the SH so he can jump two ++ SRM6s and a +10 damage medium laser every turn. Lot of fun and durable if you can spam vigilance on him.

[NickAragua]

There's a couple of people on the paradox forums working on mods to add more mech variants and vehicles to the campaign, and tweak the balance. I'm going to wait until the vehicle variant mod is finished, then probably do another run through of the campaign. It'll be more challenging, since more mech variants = harder to put together salvaged mechs.

Some house rules I'm considering:

1 - My mechs that get destroyed by CT destruction or ammo explosion don't get to come back (headshots, pilot kills, leg kills are fine though).
2 - Putting a mech together from salvaged parts isn't instantaneous.
3 - Apparently, there are constants that re-enable all range mods for weapons and movement penalties. Think I'm going to use them to bring it a bit closer to tabletop.
4 - Expanded vision and sensor range to make long-range combat more viable.

[Paingod]

There's a couple of people on the paradox forums working on mods to add more mech variants and vehicles to the campaign, and tweak the balance. I'm going to wait until the vehicle variant mod is finished, then probably do another run through of the campaign. It'll be more challenging, since more mech variants = harder to put together salvaged mechs.

I like the concept of more Mech variants, but it won't add challenge - just duration through grinding. I'm okay with that. I'd still like more variants with more/different hard points. I'm planning to play in the starting Leopard for some time before moving along the story the next time I play, giving me a longer "Light" game. Having trundled around in Assaults now for mission after mission, I miss being fleet of foot and still feeling effective.

I wanted to toss in that I found someone selling three segments of an Urbanmech, and I had to snap them up. That little guy is too cute in the Mech Bay.

[Archinerd]

No Guts No Galaxy Mod looks interesting (it incorporates JK's additional Variants). I'm keeping my eye on it and may give it a go sometime in the future.

After my current play though I'm going to set this game aside for awhile, there's not enough meat on the bone to hold my attention after the story missions dry up, even though I don't really like the story all that much.

[Paingod]

No Guts No Galaxy Mod

Spoiler:

No Guts No Galaxy- Changelog:
Abilities:
- Juggernaut is now 5 point skill
- Bulwark is now 8 point skill
- Gunnery skill accuracy decreased from 2.5% to 2%
- Piloting skill melee hit decreased from 2.5% to 2%
Chassis:
- Medium mechs +20% stability hp
- Heavy mechs +40% stability hp
- Assault mechs +60% stability hp
- JK Mech variants mod (All mech variants?) + increased stability HP
- Included JK variants to campaign
Weapons:
- SRM6 heat decreased 1 point
- Large Laser heat set to 24
- Large ER Laser heat set to 36
- Large Pulse Later heat set to 30
- Medium ER Laser heat set to 15
- Medium Pulse Laser heat set to 12
- Medium Laser Heat set to 9
- PPC ER heat set to 45
- PPC heat set to 30
- AC2 heat from 5 to 3
- AC5 heat from 10 to 3
- AC10 heat from 15 to 9
- AC20 heat from 25 to 21
Financial:
- Jump Ship cost doubled
- Mech and Mech Warrior costs decreased -25%
- Contracts per system from 3 to 5
- Contract renewal per week from 0.5 to 0.2
- 50% more specials in shops
- Shops sell new variants
- Argo Base Maintenance Cost from 80k to 240k
- Rebalanced ship upgrade prices to counter other financial changes
Salvage:
- Destroyed mechs recovery change set to 50%
Mech and Med:
- Starting Mech Tech skill 3 to 2
- Starting Med Tech skill from 6 to 2
- Mech Bay 2 cheaper operation and purchase cost
- Mech Bay 3 cheaper operation cost
- Repairing mech tech requirements x4
- Med Tech Skill upgrades set to 1, except automation 1 has still 2
- Tech Skill per Mech Bay set to 1
- Mech Tech Skill upgrades set to 1
- Component installations 20% faster
Combat:
- Base hit change from 75 to 65
- Called shot bonus from 2x to 1.5x
- Called Shot Bonus from 2.4x to 1.8x
- Called Shot Master from 3.75 to 2.2x
- AI can be inspired
- Slightly decreased accuracy when first moving and then shooting
- Precision shot cost increased from 20 to 30 points of morale
- Low Moral Precision shot cost increased from 30 to 40
- High moral Precision shot cost increased from 10 to 20
- Added 30% melee(?) penalty when leg non functional
- Melee hit change from 90% to 80%
- Tactics base % from 65% to 60%
New Variants:
Atlast-AS7-RS
Awesome-AWS-8R, Awesome-AWS-8V
Banshee-BNC-3Q, Banshee-BNC-3S
Battlemaster-BLR-1D, Battlemaster-BLR-1S
Blackjack-BJ-1DB, Blackjack-BJ-1DC, Blackjack-BJ-1X
Blackknight-BL-7-KNT, Blackknight-BL-KNT-L
Cataphract-CTF-2X
Catapult-CPLT-A1, Catapult-CPLT-C4
Centurion-CN9-AH
Cicada-CDA-2B
Commando-COM-1C, Commando-COM-1D, Commando-COM-3A
Dragon-DRG-1C, Dragon-DRG-1G
Firestarter-FS9-K, Firestarter -FS9-M
Griffin-GRF-2N
Highlander-HGN-733C
Hunchback-HBK-4H, Hunchback-HBK-4J, Hunchback-HBK-4N
Jagermech-JM6-B
Jenner-JR7-F
Locust-LCT-1E, Locust-LCT-3V
Orion-ON1-VA
Quickdraw-QKD-4H
Shadowhawk-SHD-2K
Spider-SDR-5D, Spider-SDR-5K
Stalker-STK-3H, Stalker-STK-4N, Stalker-STK-4P
Trebuchet-TBT-5J, Trebuchet-TBT-5S, Trebuchet-TBT-7K
Urbanmech-UM-R60L
Victor-VTR-9A, Victor-VTR-9A1
Vindicator-VND-1AA, Vindicator-VND-1X
Wolverine-WVR-6M
Zeus-ZEU-6T

That's an interesting list, and I like some of the balance changes. In particular the stability changes for heavier Mechs. It's too easy to knock over and incapacitate an Assault pilot while leaving the Mech intact. Sometimes I do it without even breaching the armor.

[Archinerd]

I got to the final 2-parter before calling it a night.
My lance current "best" mechs are in the spoiler below.
Can I do this mission or do I need to keep building?

Spoiler:

All mechs are stock with the exception of the Battlemaster. I removed the MG & Ammo and added 2 small lasers.
Highlander
Atlas-D
Thunderbolt-5SE
Battlemaster-1G OR Orion-K as the 4th. Haven't decided yet.

I suspect I can do it.

I'd say you're good to go.

Finished, much easier than I expected. I could have probably still beaten it using only mediums if I had wanted to. As it was, I had the Opfor way outgunned.

Spoiler:

My lance ended up being a Highlander, Atlas D, Thudnerbolt 5SE adn the Orion K. Most of the enemy mechs went down within 2 turns of being spotted. I managed to secure all of the turrets so those soaked up enemy fire and I was able to take out both waves of reinforcements with time to spare. The last 2 turns of the mission my mechs just stood around cooling off. The Arena match went even faster. I stripped both the Cataphract and the Jaegermech of most of their weapons, all but removing them from the fight. As the King Crab and other mech (Battlemaster?) advanced around the column I was able to slag each of them with relative ease from the combined firepower of my full lance. My mechs were barely scratched, having only been hit by a few salvos of lrms and my atlas took a single AC20 to the right torso.

All of my original crew survived the campaign. Glitch did get killed by a headshot on one mission but a game crash forced me to restart from an earlier save.
Other than that I only lost one other mechwarrior who took a PPC to the face of his Wolverine.

All in all a fun experience but it really just leaves me wanting more. The game it most reminds me of is Battle Brothers, but that is a better game (or at least more fleshed out) I think. Unlike Battle Brothers though, Battletech has the ability to be modded. That combined with Paradox's record of continuously adding content I'm optimistic about where this game could go.

Time to go finish off some other games in my backlog while I wait.

[Hyena]

I just got done with the escape from the

Spoiler:

Star League base using the found mechs. First time around I tried to just sprint past the defenders, but all that did was aggro all ten or so of the mechs and vehicles. Went back and focused fire on one mech at a time and mowed past the first five or six, walked around the corner (with the Griffin taking the brunt of the damage, even though he had good evasion), took out the Centurion and vehicles, then after the drop ship exploded I came back the other way. Griffin and Grasshopper (I think?) limping quite a bit, Atlas and Highlander untouched, they dropped a heavy lance on me right as I was about to hit the evac zone. Pissed me off because those scrub pilots weren't nearly as good as my characters, and I wasn't even allowed to attempt headshots on those bastards! Ended up losing the Griffin, I think, everyone else limped into the evaz zone. Only got one piece each of the heavy lance because I couldn't accurately snipe off legs or heads, so they all were CT'd and scattered all over the mountainside.

Fun mission, not sure how much longer I got in the storyline. Don't really want to know, I'm just enjoying the story for what it is. Love going out and doing missions to build up my mech army, and pimping out my Argo with all the trimmings.

[Archinerd]

I just got done with the escape from the

Spoiler:

Star League base using the found mechs. First time around I tried to just sprint past the defenders, but all that did was aggro all ten or so of the mechs and vehicles. Went back and focused fire on one mech at a time and mowed past the first five or six, walked around the corner (with the Griffin taking the brunt of the damage, even though he had good evasion), took out the Centurion and vehicles, then after the drop ship exploded I came back the other way. Griffin and Grasshopper (I think?) limping quite a bit, Atlas and Highlander untouched, they dropped a heavy lance on me right as I was about to hit the evac zone. Pissed me off because those scrub pilots weren't nearly as good as my characters, and I wasn't even allowed to attempt headshots on those bastards! Ended up losing the Griffin, I think, everyone else limped into the evaz zone. Only got one piece each of the heavy lance because I couldn't accurately snipe off legs or heads, so they all were CT'd and scattered all over the mountainside.

Fun mission, not sure how much longer I got in the storyline. Don't really want to know, I'm just enjoying the story for what it is. Love going out and doing missions to build up my mech army, and pimping out my Argo with all the trimmings.

Oh yeah, I lost a guy on that mission too.

Spoiler:

My Griffin also took the a bunch of damage against the first lance that comes around the mountain from the Leopard that starts on the ground. He survived the encounter but his Griffin he was KIA when the reinforcements showed up behind us guarding the relocated LZ.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, that was a fun mission.

Spoiler:

By the end of it, the Kraplas was down to internal structure, the Highlander was out of ammo and half the mechwarriors were down to one or two health pips. I would have gotten out sooner, but the Kraplas is incredibly slow, in addition to its heat issues.

[coopasonic]

Based on what you guys are saying about the final missions I am pretty much ready for that. I just need to get through all the missions in between. I've already gotten my money's worth in gameplay and I don't really care about the story, but I feel like I should finish it. I have enough money to pay the bills for ~20 months, let's just get it over with!

[Archinerd]

Based on what you guys are saying about the final missions I am pretty much ready for that. I just need to get through all the missions in between. I've already gotten my money's worth in gameplay and I don't really care about the story, but I feel like I should finish it. I have enough money to pay the bills for ~20 months, let's just get it over with!

Yeah, towards the end I was just passing time in the Low-G pool, eating Triple-F burgers and watching holovids while I waited for the next story mission. I didn't want to risk getting any of my best Mechwarriors killed and didn't need the money or equipment. You might have to do at least one mission between some of the story missions to get them to trigger though. I sat in orbit doing nothing for 2 months for one stretch before deciding to do an easy 3 skull mission. Immediately on my return from that I got notice for the next story mission.

[Paingod]

I had a max 3/12-salvage, 1.2M payout, 4-skull mission last night that came equipped with 1 Atlas-D, 1 King Crab-000, 1 Banshee, 2 OINK's (Orion K's - I just keep seeing "oink" when I see their model), 1 Black Knight, 2 Demolishers, and 1 Quickdraw.

I went in assuming I'd be facing off against Assault mechs given the payout and difficulty, so I picked 3 salvage and crap pay. It was an interesting fight, keeping the 100t behemoths out of visual range and with hard cover between them and me until everything else was dealt with. I polished off the Atlas with two lucky headshots and a couple knockdowns. The King Crab got ripped apart for it's meat. The others were all dispatched with prejudice and focused fire on CT - often to such good effect that they were otherwise perfectly intact.

At the end I got to pick up all three of the Atlas components, and my employer tossed in the only Crab part left on the table as a bonus - which rounded me up from 2/3 to 3/3. I walked off with two functional 100t Assault Mechs!

Given their mobility issues, I stuffed 6 tons of Jump Jets in each (3). This helps them keep up in moving on the field. Their upper bodies are maxed on armor, and their legs are at something like 140 each, with only 40 on each back segment since I rarely - if ever - get flanked. The Atlas ended up with an AC10, 2xML, 1xLRM20, and 1xSRM6. The Crab got 2xAC10, 2xSRM6.

Both, in practice, are beasts. The Atlas out-performs the Orion it replaced by 2 medium lasers and a mountain of armor - but threatens to overheat after two Alpha's and a jump. I may scale back the armor a little to include more heat sinks. The Crab overheats just as readily, but lacks indirect fire - so I'm probably going to re-outfit it as an LRM platform with PPC's - and even more heat sinks, maybe.

"Alpha Lance" is now the Atlas, Crab, Highlander, and Catapult-K2.

I took them for a spin on the storyline mission where we had to...

Spoiler:

...liberate the mineral silos before they were destroyed. It was a very sad beatdown. Each silo had a couple lights and mediums guarding it. I started each fight safely behind ridges and had everyone leap into view and unload, wiping out half the defenders on turn one for each silo.

The 100t Mechs don't do too bad in a sprint compared to the Highlander, and the Jump Jets keep them mobile. That was a hot mission, though - so maybe my perception of their heat dissipation is skewed.

[wonderpug]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

[Paingod]

This mission was a bitch. A lot of people, except RIP, had issues with it. I pushed to achieve -all- of the objectives and had to run it three times to get it - and at the end of the third run I thought one of my pilots was dead and I was willing to accept that - but she spent 94 days recovering instead.

Some folks simply write off the escaping convoys and 8/8 bonus pay and settle for 6/8 or 7/8 salvaged crates. This seems to simplify things as you can use them to detonate the area around the crate that you see highlighted and seriously mess up any Mech in the explosion zone. When I did this, the Heavies would sit for a turn or two in that explosion zone before moving up. You'd need to take advantage of that unless you had to fight them directly for the 8/8 bonus.

I went in with two Orion-V's (Guts/Gunner 1x+++AC20, 2x++SRM6's and Pilot/Gunner 2x++AC10, 2xML), a Thunderbolt SE (Tactics/Gunner 2x++LRM20), and a Wolverine (Pilot/Tactics AC5, LRM5, ML). Completing all objectives was punishing. If my team was lighter, like three Mediums and a Heavy, I wouldn't have wanted to even try for all objectives and would have been happy with 6/8 or 7/8 saved.

If you push hard to the left without going over the hills, you can stay behind hard cover and avoid a lot of direct fire and take down the garrisoned units as they come over the hill to get you. When you first push that way, there's a Spider waiting. Sometimes you'll get lucky and wipe him out. Me, he was one of the last things I killed because I missed him over and over. I had really bad luck whiffing against the Light Mechs that were moving and ending up with four or five bars of Evasion.

There's some woodlands over on that side that can help mitigate incoming damage (reducing it by 1/3, I think). I used a lot of Jump Jet leaps to generate Evasion, and Precision Shots to elimiante CT's. The scouts that come up will spot you for other Mechs and create openings that allow them to shoot from off-screen to soften you up. There are a few spots behind the hills where they can't see over to shoot easily... try swinging the camera around to get a feel for what perspective they'll have on you.

Having a Scout with Sensor Lock was essential to completing -ALL- objectives as any Mech I sent out to destroy the convoys was summarily hammered from all sides and wiped out. Instead I relied on the Lock and LRM fire to destroy them - 2 LRM20's with good luck hitting can kill the convoy trucks in one salvo. On another attempt, it took 3 LRM20 volleys to take them down (2 left them barely alive).

[Max Peck]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

The only specific tactic I recall from that one is that I had to break one mech off from my main group to sprint off to the west in order to kill the convoy vehicles before they escaped. In terms of mechs, I just used my usual mix: 2 x skirmishers (med lasers + LRM), 1 x heavy scout (med lasers + sensor lock) and 1 x LRM platform (all LRM + lots of ammo).

One thing to keep in mind is that, IIRC, you're chasing after bonus payments in this mission rather than avoiding hard fail states. If the convoy vehicles escape or the ammo caches are destroyed you lose the bonuses but don't fail the mission outright, and there are no strategic consequences in the campaign as far as I know.

[LordMortis]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

Can't remember what I had the first time before my more reset. The second time I had a 75 ton BlackKnight, 60 Ton Quickdraw, 60 Ton Dragon, 55 Ton Shadowhawk.

Spoiler?

Spoiler:

All my mech have max jump jets except the Dragon has none. The shadowhawk is LRMs, the quicdraw is LRMs, the Black knight is large lasers and HTH, the Dracon is horrible mix of medium range weapons but it's the best damage synch I had (and still have, because I'm not much further than I was))

I made it through blowing up zero crates. There is no hidden extra bonus for blowing up zero crates, so I suggest using the two(?) you get.

The most important thing is to get the first convey as quick as possible. I think it exits on turn 3 or 4 and the turn jumps, the moment you see a hostile the turn advances and you don't get to finish your move. This means you want to flank forward to left as best you can either with your fastest mech first of with all mechs praying you trigger siting only after your fastest mech has moved because now the exit happens that much faster.

I never used ammo cache as weapon but blowing up the first convoy would be prudent use. Otherwise you have an unknown amount firepower turns pursing it or have to catch it to stomp on it. I got lucky and it only took two volleys from my shadowhawk. But that was total luck. I was counting on it taking two turns of volleys and then actually catching the convoy to stomp in on the third turn aka turn 4 before it exited. My shadowhawk also took a beating chasing it down.

You should have no problem positioning yourself turn by turn when attacking to casually stomp on the second convoy. It's not a priority but it's a manuevering you should constantly have in you plan until it's convenient. "Hey look my Dragon can either do a little more damage to the griffin, cripple an already cippled jenner or <BOOM> bye bye convoy" and I get heat reduction to boot.

My second priority is the turrets unless other things are more convenient. All things being equal the a turret in range (I do not try to put myself in range of turrets) is my first target. There armor to firepower ratio is too high to ignore.

Next I look for HTH targets I think I can either kill or knockdown. Me memory are there two heavier (to me at this point in the game) mechs and a gaggle of light ones. The black knight can punch a light mech out from that scenario with a CT (or head technically) blow in one hit and will knock a leg off it hits there. Basically if it connects with light mech whatever it connect with is no longer there.

After that, it's my shots and moves targets of opportunity. Best chance at kill or most crippling shot available. I quickly find myself in a way where I am alternating backing off to take shots (hopefully aimed ones at knocked down foes) and running forward to go HTH to reduce my heat (hopefully with vigilance so I'm not taking a beating)

Finally, use your inspired morale abilities wisely. Know when to reserve for them to come closer and preserve your evasions and blocks from last round and when to jump in to the fray early in a round and go vigilent (as I often do after HTH moves or HTH sitting stills). I think 50 to 100% inspired gets you plus on to hit, so I always keep my moral at 50%+, however there is no benefit to stacking over 100% so I always look for the best use of my inspiration when it hits or approaches 100%. With a light mech target rich enviornment, you can sometimes use two inspiration moves in a round knocking down or destroying mechs and still maintain a constant 50% plus inspiration.

Finally, finally, try and have the right mechs for the right pilots. My Bulwark pilot is in my HTH blackknight. And I need to remind myself of that. Before I go in to battle I need to remind myself that my mulitarget pilot goes in the LRM quickdraw and that sometimes it's better for her target three different mechs to remove chevrons than it is weaken a bunch of external armor on one mech. My bonus initiative mech goes into an initiative three mech so he can go toe to toe with light mech and treat that light mech like petulant child.

[LordMortis]

Some folks simply write off the escaping convoys and 8/8 bonus pay and settle for 6/8 or 7/8 salvaged crates.

My memory may be wrong but I don't think it is. I went through the mission twice, and one time was just two nights ago. My memory is there are 8 crates. You get a big bonus for saving 6/8 and a little bonus for saving 3/8 and there is not hidden maximum bonus for saving 8/8 (as in other scenarios, I have found exceeding expectations can lead to hidden bonuses)

[AWS260]

I finished the campaign last night. I really enjoyed it overall -- it's a reasonable compelling, coherent story with strong voice acting. I'm especially impressed by how well they integrated the story progression with the more sand-boxy mercenary life.

Final mission spoilers:

Spoiler:

Part 1 was tough. Not the toughest I've ever faced, but the arrival of that final enemy lance was a bit of an "oh shit" moment. Thankfully I had captured half of the turrets, which kept the pressure off while I finished off what was left of the previous lance. My force was a Grasshopper and Banshee specced for close-in fighting, a Stalker loaded with LRM20s, and the Highlander that you get from Kamea (minus its gauss rifle, which was destroyed in an earlier mission). We lost a couple of limbs and took a lot of structural damage, but came home mostly intact.

Part 2 was easy-peasy, in part because I was able to field a Battlemaster with the salvage from Part 1. I'm not sure how my engineer managed to assemble an entire Mech in the time between Part 1 and Part 2, but kudos to him. The rest of the force was Kamea's Atlas, an Orion, and a King Crab with dual AC20s. The close-in arena setting was basically perfect for the King Crab, and we picked apart the enemy force with little trouble.

Overall, I found that the most fun missions were the hardest -- the ones where I took permanent losses and had to struggle to keep my guys alive. The best was probably a mercenary mission in which I encountered my first (and second, and third) Victor and my first (and second) King Crab. Oof, that was rough.

[Paingod]

Some folks simply write off the escaping convoys and 8/8 bonus pay and settle for 6/8 or 7/8 salvaged crates.

My memory may be wrong but I don't think it is. I went through the mission twice, and one time was just two nights ago. My memory is there are 8 crates. You get a big bonus for saving 6/8 and a little bonus for saving 3/8 and there is not hidden maximum bonus for saving 8/8 (as in other scenarios, I have found exceeding expectations can lead to hidden bonuses)

It's possible I misunderstood or misread the objectives and made the mission pointlessly harder for myself. I do that a lot.

[Archinerd]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

One of the hardest missions in the game I think.
I didn't achieve all objectives, but I did it with a Shadowhawk 2H, Hunchback 4G, Thunderbolt 5SE, and JagerMech JM6-A.
Very Spoilery tips

Spoiler:

My plan was to take out the convoy with the Shadowhawk and I got a good hit on the first one but not enough to destroy it. They were too fast and I would have exposed myself to too much fire chasing them. So I decided to just let them go.

Generally I just hung out behind the starting hill took pot shots at anyone I could see until they advanced. As they came up the hill from the lake I flanked around the mountain to the left with all but one mech and used my Jaeger to snipe at their backs with AC2s (was out of lrms at that point). All my pilots survived but just barely - My Hunchback was stripped of armor in all but two locations (head and 1 shoulder) and I just got lucky rolls on the last hit he took.

You can also blow up crates and still meet required objectives. I only saved 5 I think so didn't get the full bonus. The most important one to blow up is on the right between two turrets. Taking that down will take out the turrets.

I blew up a few more to damage the enemy mechs standing in them when the opportunity presented itself, which helped a little.

[NickAragua]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

I only played it through the one time so far. I came in with an AC/20 Centurion, the Blackjack, Vindicator and Shadow Hawk (?). The main annoyances are the LRM turrets in the back. There's an ammo crate that you can take out in the middle of the building cluster past the lake that takes down two turrets, so you definitely want to blow that one up. I actually wound up failing to take out the transports, because you basically get one turn to nail them before they zip out of range. And my Centurion got knocked down and ct-killed by indirect-fire LRMs, so I was way too busy blowing up enemy mechs.

Main thing to keep in mind is that you get two "free" crates that you can blow up before you lose that bonus (need to keep 6 out of 8 intact). Blowing up turrets is a quick and cost-effective way to get rid of a considerable amount of enemy firepower. The lake might help you cool off, but it's also a deathtrap, since you'll be in range of just about everything on the map. So, I'd suggest swinging around the left side with at least some units.

[LordMortis]

I'm backwards. So far, the common wisdom seems to be use crates to blow up turrets. My thought is turrets are a low cost high reward target to take out by mech firepower. Ally'all are probably right but I feel like my way is better.

OtOH, a crate to take out that first convoy truck, that would otherwise take several shots and cause (it sounds like just about everyone using the same mech) a shadowhak to get that far out of position and become that vulnerable. If you are struggling, that's a great way change the board early and potentially have no effect on your bonus structure.

[wonderpug]

Thanks for all the tips. From the various mech recs you guys posted, I think I might be hitting this mission too early. My only heavies so far are a Jagermech, which I kind of hate, and a Dragon. I'll gear up a bit more before I try it again.

[LordMortis]

Thanks for all the tips. From the various mech recs you guys posted, I think I might be hitting this mission too early. My only heavies so far are a Jagermech, which I kind of hate, and a Dragon. I'll gear up a bit more before I try it again.

I chose hitting later for my second go around. My first time around, I was in your boat. I want to say it was a Dragon, a Quickdraw, a Shadowhawk, and a Blackjack. I got through but I didn't make it too much further after that before retiring my entire game. I found that I was pacing the game too quickly, taking too much salvage (but not getting better mechs as a reward for my salvage), and for intents and purposes being forced to move the story along every the very moment it came up to maintain enough income to keep from losing the game due to bankruptcy. So winning with your squad is doable, depending on what secondary objectives you are willing to sacrifice, but if you were in my shoes, advancing the game without advancing your ability to generate CBills outside of the storyline will eventually lead you to a bad place... unless you are a way better TBSer than I am, which I am sure many are, so the odds aren't bad there.... But Those four mechs plus I want to say a Spider and a Vindicator and the state of my Argo were not enough to always have healthy pilots and mechs in good repair, ready to field, so I could make enough CBills to keep my game going after that storyline event. They weren't strong enough to make money and they weren't strong enough to get me in a situation for salvage for a better mech either. Not with my ability/playstyle anyway.

[Sepiche]

Halp with ammo crate mission please. I could use some general tips on what kind of mechs to field, and general strategy for how best to approach the mission.

Yeah that mission derailed me into just running random missions for a week or so just trying to gear up. I ended up completing it with a medium lance with my heaviest only being a Dragon.

My strategy was to immediately move all my units through the gap on your left that you start next to. That takes you up to where the first ammo carrier will be and away from the huge number of mechs that spawn in the base. So I cut left, take out the mech and turret that are right there, and then blow the first crate to take out the first ammo carrier. The second ammo carrier I was able to take out since all my mechs were in that area by that point and I could focus fire on it. I then used one more crate later on to weaken some of the garrison mechs once they bunched up a bit... that helped weaken the armor of 3 of the heavier mechs they had.

The main advantage of moving hard to the left at the beginning, besides being in position to take out the transports, was that I had a little distance between me and where the enemy mechs spawn and I was able to some extent to focus fire on them as they trickled toward me from the right. Toward the end of the mission they all started getting close and things got a little dicey, but I was able to manage it with only 1 mech lost.

Watch out for their Firestarter too... next to the Dragon he's probably one of the main threats since the planet is already pretty warm and his flamethrowers at just the wrong time are a major pain.

[Hyena]

I went a little different on the strategies, as was able to actually save all the crates *and* destroy the trucks. If you look even more to the left past the turrets, there's a little forest area. I sprinted my entire crew past the turret (after taking it and the Panther (?) by it out), then I had an LRM boat in the form of my Jaeger. I had two LRM15's and an LRM20 on that guy, and one salvo of all three took the trucks out in a single shot. I then just waited for each of the mechs to come around the corner of that last hill, where I waited in ambush with two of the three of my other medium mechs and I melee'd them into submission. In between sprinting back and forth between the forest area to up my Evasion, then sprinting out to hit them, two hits will knock down just about any mech, and with my sniper mech sitting off to the side picking off the downed mechs with CT shots, it actually went kinda smoothly. Granted, it took me three tries, and after the first one I went back out and did missions to upgrade my mechs (I had two Shadowhawks, a Jaeger, and my Blackjack).

[Sepiche]

FYI, unless something changed with the mission, you can destroy 2 crates and still get all the mission goals.

[Zarathud]

After the first utter failure realizing I had misread the mission, I moved one mech up, while moving the rest to the left. The fastest unit on the left's priority was to hit the convoy, while the rest were to hit the turrets or knock down an enemy mech. A CT alpha strike took down the first mech on the right. Two enemies on the right clustered around a crate, so I blew it up and saved the exposed mech from a lot of pain. Indirect fire finished most of that crew as the 3 units on the left moved on their objectives. A cluster of reinforcements came up to pin down the unit on the right, but it was no longer taking turret fire. A second crate later, and cleanup was all that was left. Mechs blown up by crates fall really fast. My mechs were 50-55 tons, including a LRM20+LRM10 mech.

[Paingod]

So I get a story mission to protect a command structure from APC's.

Spoiler:

I must have come in here massively overpowered. Atlas, Crab, Highlander, Black Knight. Turn 1, the Knight moves towards the barracks and wipes out a vehicle. The Atlas, Crab, and Highlander all take up point positions around the command center, laying down impressive firepower in comparison with the inbound enemies.

On turn 2, the Black Knight bypasses an inbound Mech to Sprint up the hill. Each turn, hostiles simply melt - sometimes two or three per turn. Precision Shots core out the Medium and Light Mechs trying to rush me. APC's last a extra half turn if I got unlucky with how damage is splashed around on their armor.

On turn 3, the Black Knight leaps over a wall and gets a precision shot against the APC heading for the Barracks - all 8 Medium Lasers hit and the vehicle explodes. The other Assault Mechs are still swatting flies away easily, barely scratched.

Turn 4, the Knight leaps back and cores out a Medium from behind. More enemy deaths.

By turn 6 or 7, we had killed the last enemy - and thus the turrets come online to help us! Hooray! Help us with what, I don't know.
Everything on the field is a smoldering ruin.

Most of the random missions I run are twice as hard as this.

One big thing from last night, the Black Night has surpassed my Hunchback 4P and Catapult K2 as my go-to 'Scout' with it's 8 lasers and 4 JJ's. He's got the tonnage to stay somewhat cool, and the weapons array to get pretty reliable headshots somewhere in the mix of a Precision shot. With some good rolls, he does a withering 280 damage if all the lasers hit (I fed him all my 25+10 damage ML's). I've had him reduce opposing Assaults to near-death in one massive CT precision strike.

[AWS260]

That was the mission where I lost Behemoth. PPC headshot from an enemy Panther.

[LordMortis]

Heh, your black night is your scout, my black knight is my slow ass mop up HTH and close combat heavy hitting beast.

I guess that means you are bit further along than I am.

[NickAragua]

I remember that mission.

Spoiler:

It was kind of a cakewalk - I went in with the Highlander, Battlemaster and Thunderbolt, and a Shadow Hawk or Wolverine (I can't remember which) to chase down the stray APC going for the barracks. Since the opposition was mostly light and medium mechs in addition to the APCs, it was basically a turkey shoot.

[Paingod]

Heh, your black night is your scout, my black knight is my slow ass mop up HTH and close combat heavy hitting beast.

I guess that means you are bit further along than I am.

I feel like I'm maybe 7 or 8 story missions in?

I've spent an inordinate amount of time hunting random missions and collecting Mech parts. I'm on something like week 205.