Minimizing mech losses ?

[Suveqn]

I run a 2 Dragon 2 Centurion lance and there is not a single contract at this point without at least one of them getting anihillated (usually 2), what can i do to change that ? Different tactical approach ? Different weaponry ? Different mechs ?

[water]

Originally posted by Nitty:

You should definitely have been able to start finding parts for Orions around and before the mission to destroy the Newgrange - I beat Victoria on my first try with one. The group that I brought for that mission was an AC/20 Hunchback, a Trebuchet with 2 LRM15s, a Cent that was really similar to yours, and an Orion with 2 LL, AC/10, and an LRM10.

I didn't even see my first Orion until after the mission after the one where you get the highlander. I was actually starting to think they had made it an assault mech or something.

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by Nitty:

You should definitely have been able to start finding parts for Orions around and before the mission to destroy the Newgrange - I beat Victoria on my first try with one. The group that I brought for that mission was an AC/20 Hunchback, a Trebuchet with 2 LRM15s, a Cent that was really similar to yours, and an Orion with 2 LL, AC/10, and an LRM10.

Victoria herself is really the only scary mech in her killsquad, the Firestarter's a joke and the Cent and Dragon she brings are really easily disarmed. Bringing extra LRMs will help you strip armor and crit heatsinks and stuff - Vicky actually killed herself because the dual PPC Catapult runs hot as ♥♥♥♥ and it's a hot map.

When I took down Victoria my largest mechs were a Dragon and Quickdraw, she was the first 65 tonner I saw. She's a bit of a joke though, it's not a friendly map for heat management so she kept shutting herself down. I don't believe I started seeing Orions until a few missions later, though funnily enough the game basically skipped the 65 and 70 ton mechs for me and started throwing Orions at me first.

[Pherdnut]

I just got OCD and basically wrote a guide but here you go:

Pilots

Evade is good. I only use Bulwark for snipers or LRM boats that won't be seen most of the time but are likely to stand in one place. It helps them out when reinforcements show up wherever they're hiding. Everybody else gets evade. Better to brace when you're vulnerable to focus fire until you can move to a better position to attack from than to just stand in one place while taking hits.

Having one pilot with sensor lock comes in handy, especially against turrets which I think have shorter sensor range than mechs because you can usually lock and kill them with impunity. Master Tactician or the 2nd tier pilot skil bothl combo well with sensor lock and scouting in general. I'd lean Master Tactician. It's nice to have one pilot on the team that can move earlier than the rest to cripple weak targets before they get a chance to make another attack.

Good sniper/LRM-boat build is multishot, breach, and bulwark.

Evade, multishot and whichever tier 2 pick appeals the most is a strong build for a typical front-liner. Breach and multishot can play well together but moving after an attack is also great for attacking from a position and then moving out of range or behind cover.

Melee/support-centric mechs tend to pair well with scout-types in my experience. Scouts should spend about 2/3 of their time braced while spotting or sensor locking. The low-space builds let them also serve as something of a tank with plenty of armor.


Mechs

For starters, Shadowhawk is better than a dragon assuming both have jumpjets, arguably better without jumpjets but the Dragon would have a smidge more free tonnage while being easier to hit and moving in a later initiative phase than a medium. SRMs offer a lot of punch for the weight and relatively low heat and the + versions can get a powerful damage boost. With jump 5, pilots with evasion should be dodging quite a few shots and can close quickly to hit enemies from whatever angle they want. Evasion starts to get weaker in the late game when certain elite pilot types start to show up more regularly. Counter that with defense gyros. +3s are amazing.

Centurions are solid LRM boats but I also like them with an AC/10 and SRMs. I tend to prefer the 55 ton mediums for non-boats though.

The vindicator you start with is a solid stock design. I've yet to come up with one that I thought was a lot better without high end parts in hand.

I don't recommend bracket builds where you've got sets of weapons meant to fire in different circusmstances. It's better to keep weapons within similiar range categories so you can alpha more frequently while still having more space for armor and other goodies than a mech that tries to be a jack-of-all-ranges. I make an exception for L Lasers since they're excellent at close and long range. Lots of stock builds are built bracket-style. Also be careful to not have too many ammo weapons in the mix. Ammo eats space fast.


Armor

I go full arms, legs, side torsos. Then I set rear armor to half, core to whatever the side torso is and compromise/bolster armmor from there. Legs can usually go a smidge lower if needed since the AI doesn't tend to target them very often but watch out for melee to your flanks.

Any mech that regularly gets into melee range should have full armor all around. Long range mechs that don't even need to be in visual range of enemies can lose a lot of armor to pack more weapons on but I try to make it so they can withstand a surpise attack before sprinting for help.

I trim off the core because I tend to lead with my flanks, flipping mechs back and forth as one side takes more hits than the other. Once both sides get pretty dark, I'll try to keep that mech back but also face targets directly to reduce the amount of focus individual parts are likely to get.


Tactics

Always reserve when your mechs are in a strong defensive stance (e.g. braced and at high evade). Let the AI attack you and get closer so you can attack while they're not braced. Reserve also works great from cover on vehicles or before attacking turrets that aren't close enough to sensor lock you.

Try to focus enemies on flanks with weapons you'd like them to stop having. Jumpjets are invaluable for being able to control where you attack from.

Right click enemy mechs and click on their parts to learn where their weapons and ammo are. You can often severely cripple a mech by popping a single side-torso (which also kills the arm extending from it). One nice side effect of flanks-first is that it's more likely to lead to pilot kills since cores have a low chance of being hit from the side. Just go easy when a side torso is close to popping to avoid excess damage transferring to the core.

Called shot odds also dramatically improved for key parts when attacking from a flank.

Some stock mech builds are incredibly stupid and put stuff like ammo in a core and in a side torso. To kill fast with no regard for salvage (destroyed parts are bad), punch through the armor on the torso and then hit it with your best crit weapon. Machine guns or LRM +++es are great for this but lots of + weapons get crit bonuses. This will typically cause an ammo explosion that chain reacts with the ammo in the core, killing the mech outright. A convenient side effect of ammo explosions when there is no ammo in a core is that they remove the part outright with no damage transferring inward and they always do pilot damage (but so does destroying a side torso and you can only cause one injury per attack, not counting knockdowns).

Melee does double damage to vehicles. Never forget this but also be careful with melee. It leaves you vulnerable to counter-attack and without much in the way of evade pips. Might be best to combine melee with vigilance when you can. Melee also knocks mechs out of brace with all the same caveats.

Minimizing Damage

To actually answer your specific concern, so far I've mentioned using reserve well to avoid coutner-attacks, flipping your mech flanks when they've been cooking on one side for too long, and some tips on disabling quickly.

Other tips:

* If you're safe, take time to get into position for a blitz. Like on the argo mission against those turrets. It's tempting to attack with the first mech you can but better to get everybody up along that covering hill and ready to jump and try to smash the generator on the forward hill and that turret to the left in one round. The best way to avoid damage is to kill them before they get a single attack in.

* Don't put up with indirect fire from turrets while fighitng mechs, either kill them fast or move away as you fight the mechs (ideally before the mechs get there if you see them coming).

* If you don't see how you can avoid taking attacks from 3+ units at the same time after a move, brace, don't attack.

* Try to move and use cover to avoid the previously mentioned situation in the first place. Again, Argo mission. There's tons of cover in the second phase of it where you fight the mechs. You can often target one mech while limiting exposure to fire from all or most of the rest by getting a hill or building between you and the rest of them.

* When you don't like your terrain situation, pull back to another one even if means not attacking for a turn or two.

* Don't get sandwiched. If reinforcements show up really fast, kill rapidly or fight a moving battle away from them while you kill the first group.