Heir to the Dragon -- Turtle Bay

[dec]

How the hell can you finish this mission on expert?
I finally got all the way to where one side of the drop ship was clear of weapons, battled the enemy mechs down and I was on my last 2 very damaged mechs.
I get the order to scan the dropship reactor and charge in to do that and wham 2 more dropships land with mechs and kill me half way to do the scan.
You cannot finish this mission IMO. Its not expert but nightmare difficulty. Please have a look at the tuning as my AI star members are not great and the other allied star of mechs dies pretty much immediately. Maybe i could have triggered the scan by clearing the other side of the drop ship earlier but there is to many mechs to fight all at once in the open.

Any one have any luck with this?
I was running 3 Maddogs and 2 Hellbringers.

[panzerd18]

I only just finished it on normal. It was brutal.

[omnicognate]

It doesn't help that ai pilots don't know how to target the dropship turrets properly. if you tell them to attack specific turrets they have a tendency to just walk around the wrong side or underneath the turrets and then can't actually hit them. i've found if you corral them somewhat using the "defend this location" command they hit the turrets more often

[Zaltark]

This mission is frustrating me. What happened to all that 'theyre on thier last legs' crap. We took airbases, hangerbays, multiples fortresses and all we get to fight with on OUR side is your squad plus what 3 more mechs? And they get like 20 along with a dropship that has turrets on every angle?

[Dan]

Just finished it on expert. I got to the end part with all mechs at 100%. Ran 3 maddogs, stormcrow and a hellbringer. Focus fire everything. Get your dudes to shoot things from range as much as you can using the guard area order instead of attack. Attack order is stupid because AI just walk up and get every module / part blown off them.

Try to help the friendly mech squads as well on the initial push to the drop ship. stay behind them and focus fire everything starting from biggest to smallest. I kept a bit of distance from the drop ship so my star could actually shoot the turrets, basically near the waters edge. ( you can stand in the water to help with cooling so you can spam lasers without worrying about overheating if you want)

Kill the enemy mechs around the drop ship to keep allied mechs up longer then just walk around the drop ship and your dudes should auto attack the turrets. I only gave a few attack orders to take them out.

Only hairy part was the scanning of the drop ship. I ignored the reinforcements and let them duke it out with what was left of my squad. Scan away while walking around the ship to avoid enemy and then the mission will end after a few moments.

[Bret Halford]

Originally posted by Dan:

Just finished it on expert. I got to the end part with all mechs at 100%. Ran 3 maddogs, stormcrow and a hellbringer. Focus fire everything. Get your dudes to shoot things from range as much as you can using the guard area order instead of attack. Attack order is stupid because AI just walk up and get every module / part blown off them.

Try to help the friendly mech squads as well on the initial push to the drop ship. stay behind them and focus fire everything starting from biggest to smallest. I kept a bit of distance from the drop ship to my star could actually shoot the turrets, basically near the waters edge. ( you can stand in the water to help with cooling so you can spam lasers without worrying about overheating if you want)

Kill the enemy mechs around the drop ship to keep allied mechs up longer then just walk around the drop ship and your dudes should auto attack the turrets. I only gave a few attack orders to take them out.

Only hairy part was the scanning of the drop ship. I ignored the reinforcements and let them duke it out with what was left of my squad. Scan away while walking around the ship to avoid enemy and then the mission will end after a few moments.

Your advice made the mission a cake walk, thanks

[OKOK]

Seem like late game this type of battle is common.

[glenncain009]

this run is almost impossible, i had to drop to normal mode, and still cheese the run by pull my star back and having the enemy walk up to us for me to target attack each one, and for the last wave before the scan, we approached up so that i can make it close to the ship just as the countdown starts after the last mech of the last wave drops, thats ignoring the turrets entirely and the final impossible hell wave

[Daege]

With how this bs mission is, I would have bombarded the damn city too lol.

[Rusharn]

I did it on the first try on expert. Two Hell Bringers, Two Mad Dog's and a Nova. One Mad Dog was a LRM boat with near 3000 rounds of ammo, the other had as many Pulse Lasers and Armor pods I could put into it. Both Hell Bringers were loaded up with as many ER med lasers as I could with enough double heat sinks to manage the heat and then Armor pods. The Nova I shaved off 4 lasers and added as many Armored Pods I could fit. This arrangement cut through everything up to the drop ship with little damage. I lucked out with all the repair bays and ammo bins so I could just let the LRMs fly as fast as they could cycle. At the drop ship encounter I had the star focused fire the IS mechs going from heaviest to lightest, then laid into the drop ship turrets. The LRM Mad Dog went down first, switched to the Nova, it was taken down. Then switched to the Pulse laser Mad Dog and because of all the extra armor pods added, it was in good shape when I had to do the scan. I had the two hell bringers break off, assigning one to attack each of the arriving lances while I did the scan. With all the extra armor I poured into the Mad Dog I was able to tank the incoming fire while I completed the scan. I think I lucked out on my mech arrangement as I was trying to configure the mechs to maximize my Star mate's skill bonus, and a super tanky Mad Dog fit into that. I also had everyone's evasion up to 30% or 45% which I think helped as well.

[Happy_Spike]

I got up to the final drop ship battle with near 100% and then just got Royally f'd by the s't AI. So annoying.

[starshadow2010]

Did it on normal with one mech lost, rushing to scan the dropship, before the star is trashed.
Why are we alive after this mission - well, that eludes me.

[ElementZero_S7L]

Yeah, same thing here. I've done pretty well in nearly every fight I've come across, only dying a few times up till now, but this one? No, this is beyond brutal. I get to the drop ship, even take care of the first few waves, but then the last 2 get dropped when you have to go scan and I can't even get to the damn ship without getting blown up. Even having my Star fighting them. I may have to drop the difficulty down if I want to continue. I've already spent 4 hours trying to come up with a config that would work and running the damn mission. It sucks you can't save right before the fight. It's actually a PITA having to work your way all the way back to the dropship part only to get your ass handed to you.

I will say this: the last run I did, I took 3 Mad Dogs setup as missile boats and 2 Hellbringers setup with Art LRM 15's, 5 MLA, 1 ER PPC, ECM and one of them had AMS on it, which, I think the AMS was a waste because it was already depleted before I even got through the first "city."

IDK. It feels like the difficulty ramp on this mission, while I know it's supposed to be hard, is a bit too much. IMHO.

[Monte Plays Games]

This is the mission that had me put down the game. Such a long haul to get to the drop ship part of the mission. Needs a checkpoint at least. Such as restart after the fuel depots are blown up. Those dang turrets just do not go down and to much firepower even with support. Fun to this point.

[Dagg]

Love the game but the biggest issue as others have said is the missions need checkpoints badly. Challenging sections are good and I welcome that and I do not mind failing them learning from it and trying again, but to have to replay the whole mission every time is a bit brutal.

[Zamza]

The difficulty spikes for this game is all over the place. Like it throws lances of heavies and assaults at you for no reason. I think I finished this mission with one mech left and it was close to dying.