Tips, Tactics and Lance composition to put the hurt on the Directorate!

[Warlawk]

I've seen some comments around here about the game being too hard and unforgiving. There are times when it feels that way for sure. The biggest issue is that it does not explain itself well and is not intuitive. I wrote this up for a different thread and figured I would put it out here on its own to help anyone that finds it useful. It's not the end all be all, just my approach on my first play through (not finished yet!) Some missions are tougher than others, but this general approach has treated me well through week 96 Mission Dead Drop - Guldra.

For my lance loadout I have had the most success as follows.

1 Scout/Spotter: Early game this will be your light mech. Train this pilot in the tactics line ASAP to get sensor lock. Try to keep this person in a forward or flanking position where they can use terrain to block LOS from enemies and stay safe. Abuse Reserve, Line of Sight, Cover and Sense Lock. The key point for this mech is to stay safe. Jump Jets are very useful here. You can arm this mech with whatever you like/have available at that time. The weapons are the least important part of this role. Early/mid game a Shadowhawk or Griffin can excel here and gives you the options to run either LRMs for when you don't need the lock, or SRMs for countering enemies that close with you. Personally I have had the most luck with SRMs and Med Las on this role.

1 Artillery Support. LURMBOAT! We all know what this is. In the early game you can fill the roll with a Autocannon sniper that has more range than vision, but this is more dangerous because you need a direct line to them. Very self explanatory role. Speed is not a big concern here because of the huge range and general reliance on your spotter and other mechs to provide line of sight. You want tactics here for the min range decrease and increased accuracy with indirect attacks. You can go either piloting or Guts here depending if you want to keep mobile or more stationary. I've tried both and I prefer Guts with a big fatty of a mech toting lots of LRMS. The enemy has lots of ways to remove/counter evasions tacks, and sometimes the terrain will just restrict your movement a bit so the Piloting skill route feels glassier.

1 Midrange Brawler. This is a very flexible role that you can load out with whatever you feel most comfortable with. You want something that can function well at mid ranges. ACs10+, medium lasers, LRMs, SRMs, whatever blows your hair back but try not to be too limited on your ranges. I found AC2, AC5 to have a long enough min range that I do not like them in this role.

1 Flex Position. This can be filled out however you like and will likely be strongly influenced by where you are in the campaign and what you have managed to salvage. If you have a particularly beefy Midrange you can get a second LRM boat or sniper, if you find yourself getting pushed too hard it might be a better option to go with a second Midrange Brawler.

A few tips:
Combo your brawler or SRM spotter with your LRMs to push for a knockdown
SRMs/LRMs with +Damage on them are VERY powerful, keep an eye out for them in stores and salvage.
Be sure to check every store and salvage list to the bottom, there is often neat Equipment in the section with Heat sinks/Jump Jets that can be easy to miss. Examples include Rangefinders (+sight range, 0 tons 1 slot - Head only), Reinforced Cockpits (absorb some injury for your pilots! 0 tons 1 slot - Head Only) and Gyros (provide you with bonus defense against attacks, 0 tons, 3 slots CT Only.)
Reserve is powerful, it can force enemies to close on your position instead of you moving out of position, it can gain lots of tactical advantages as well.

{Lazy cut and past example of how to get some mileage out of the Reserve Feature}
To give an example
Your spider will go first and has sensor lock from the tactics skill.
The enemy Locust will go second, currently has 4 evasion stacks and will move and attack.
Your Assault Mech goes third.

Looking at the default order of things, you could sensor lock the Locust and remove 2 evasion stacks. The Locust will then move, regaining the evasion stacks to 4 and lowering your assault mech's chance to hit him.

Using Reserve: Spider uses reserve, locust acts and then spider uses sensor lock, removing 2 stacks of evasion and leaving the locust much more open to punishment from your assault or slower acting mechs.

As a side note, when you use reserve you maintain your own stacks of evasion as well as guarded/entrenched. You can use this if you know you are going to take a big hit. Use reserve so that you do not act until after taking the hit so you have your full evasion and defenses in place, then act on the next turn counter to hit back or move to a safer location.

[Bryo]

I've found that when you have wittled down the enemy and your mechs are beat up, By camping atop hills or cliff faces you force enemies to come towards you. Then you simply beat the crap out of them with melee and knock them down. Trying to engage normally can sometimes be very dangerous, especially if you mechs are beat up and only a lucky shot away from death.