How much armor do you guys run?

[Tessa]

Im finding it hard to balance armor for my mechs.

[Jarcaddy]

For my frontline brawler mechs I try to run max frontal armor and for my fire support mechs I try so add a ton or two over stock.

[kknd]

Are you not fire support? Max that armor son. No, strip that medium laser off, get rid of that SRM launcher and it's ammo. I don't bloody care what you need to do, I am not sending my mech's out there without full armor on the front/arms with weapons/legs. Back armor's more debatable.

One thing I've resolved to NEVER do is strip armor for weight. There's nothing I could fit that will make up for that, not even on a LRM boat. I'm outnumbered way too much for that. Maybe someone better then me can get away with it, but when I'm all Mediums and fighting Medium/Heavy lances who have vehicle/turret support regularly, I need that armor to stay in the black post mission.

[Senlin]

Personally I first add weapons and ammo and worry about armor at the end. The faster you kill them the less damage they will deal. Also, the higher weapon range of the mech, the less armour I give it (especially on the back side). For example I had a Trebuchet with 20LRM, 15LRM, 2 medium lasers and barely any armor. On the other hand, things that get close to enemy got to have some armor.

I tried once a build with maxed frontal armor (can't remember which mech it was though, something around 60 tons), but it simply doesn't work, there is not enough space to get proper firepower.

[Zloth]

Who needs fire when you have a great, big foot??

[Hammer]

I strip all equipment then add max armor and jump jets. Subtract 30% rear armor and start adding weapons. Once set up, subtract small amounts of armor until where I need to be. Usually this puts the ‘mech at about 80% of max armor or so. BTW, yes, JJs on EVERY ‘mech. Mobility and full access to all terrain is king.

[Fokus]

Always max armor. Max armor combined with bulwark gives you more survive-ability than a little extra damage. That extra 20 armor you were able to stack on each component becomes effectively +40 armor because of bulwark.

[Chameleon_Silk]

against AI strip all but 15-25 armor factor from rear, strip as much leg armor as possible i try to keep armor at least 3 quarter of max in legs especailly on front liners with ammo in them. always max torsos from front attacks unless very specific glass cannon builds to pack more lrm or more heatsinks for ppcs or acs.

against humans you may want to reduce alpha strikes for some rear armor to survive a rear flanking attack but not so much you nerf all your firepower just enough to make his alpha fail to kill you so you can return the favor next turn. also on ammo mechs with ammo in legs max leg armor or you are asking to be legged which kills your movement and effectively destroys the weapon that the ammo was used for.

i fundamentally disagree with always max all armor as called shot percision strike can further remove firepower leaving you with a tank that has no oomph.

[max_fallout]

Depends on you Pilots build, if your bulwark you want as much armor as it can handle. i usually go maxxed on arm, left & right torsos. And about 50%-75% on CT & legs if it an assault mech since it seems they take the least amount of damage in my 50 hours of playing assault mech loadout.

[Chameleon_Silk]

not maxing CT is not a good idea at all, how do you survive a strike to CT? the CT is the most vital part of the mech to armor.... if playing a player I would target your CT, and any straight on shots have a good chance of hitting the CT and once you get blow through on arms, LT or RT it will splash into the CT. if anything drop the arm armor and max CT, unless your mech is really heavy on arm weapons...

[Path]

There's little reason not to have strong armour on your brawlers, so they can take a beating. The AI isn't good at choosing its targets, so with Bulwark they're nigh unkillable. If that means a slightly less powerful alpha that's a fair trade off, seeing as your support mechs will do some damage to the CT while knocking them down anyway.

[Nameless Gentleman]

Stock armor configurations usually is more than enough for most missions provided you know to keep your mechs mobile.

[Chameleon_Silk]

Its nice to see various tactics working though, I never melee but people tell me its really good. I never DFA but some people use it quite a bit. I store ammo in legs of DFA is just a bad idea for me.

[Kel'Ithra]

I usually keep the front armor between 80-90% of max. With the few builds I can spare it I max the front. I try to keep the rear armor at least 30-40. A.I. has gotten some back shots on a few occasions.

Haven't lost a mech yet, have lost a side torso once and an arm or two on a few occasions. 1000+ game day in. Though half my barracks has bulwark.

[Chameleon_Silk]

Originally posted by Nameless Gentleman:

Stock armor configurations usually is more than enough for most missions provided you know to keep your mechs mobile.

stock configs are almost never optimal though.

[Path]

Originally posted by Chameleon_Silk:

Its nice to see various tactics working though, I never melee but people tell me its really good. I never DFA but some people use it quite a bit. I store ammo in legs of DFA is just a bad idea for me.

Since you can't aim melee hits they're not terribly practical even if you can get in range. Why risk smashing a leg or arm when you can just unleash an alpha to the CT and core the mech from range instead?

This is true for the campaign, though in skirmish mode the pilots have such poor skills that melee can be an effective alternative. In the campaign there's really no point when you can unleash 300+ damage CT alphas with 90% accuracy.