Help with "Liberate Smithon"

[Toddy-J]

Can someone help me out with this level? I am stuck.

I have about a 200 Ton Lance and I'm starting to get a basic understand that when dealing with 8 mech plus turrets, keeping a low profile is essential to survivial. But then add on the need to keep destroying ammo trucks --- it feels overwelming.

I've found a few walkthroughs but I'm still not getting it. It seems that in order to not get overwelmed you need to be able to do instant kills on the light mechs by call center torso shots?

So here is my big question, how ready do you need to be when talking on this level? Do I need assult mechs to even have a chance? What about basic skill levels? I have experinced mech warriors, but do I need to go back and understand the skill optimizations better?

Thank you for any help,
(Even if its just, "Dude go back and put the game on easy," advice)

[Mistfox]

The explosives can help you AOE the enemy heavy mechs. Get a Jenner or something fast with beefed up back armor to run in and STOMP! (yes, stomp) on the rear of the trucks, they go up real nice with phy atks. The garrison will move to kill your stomper so arrange to shoot them in the back.

Don't get too greedy with mech farming. Kill them, don't collect them.

[wesnef]

It can be done with mediums. I did it with a mix of mediums & heavies my first time.

Two things to remember:

1)you don't NEED to catch those ammo trucks, they're just an optional goal. A bit of extra cash.

2) You only need to save six of the ammo crates for full bonus there. Blowing up a couple crates that have 2+ mechs near them can be a big bonus. (First time I did the mission, I ended up with damaged mechs against the final two full-armor Cicada and Dragon. But they were next to a crate, blowing it up practically crippled them.)

[Peanutch]

I bypassed doing the trucks. I went to the right side, between the hill and map barrier, to get out of line of sight. First I used my lrm boat to take out any missle turrets. Then I let the mechs funnel in one or two at a time and took them out. When the mechs were gone, I cleaned up rest of the turrets.

I didn't get much mech salvage out of it, but I barely took any damage.

[pascal.difolco]

Stomp trucks with a fast Light or Med mech on the left (after 1st gameplay you know where they spawn), make a med-long range battle in the starting area, you can kill from afar 2 ammo dumps to reduce opposition, beware of the turrets (that's why you should not advance head on), then finish the enemy mechs. Did it with 4 meds I think, around 190-200 tons.

[SonicsLV]

I forgot my lance composition but I think I did it with full medium lance and successfully kill all the trucks without blowing any ammo (because every ammo saved going to be useful for the restoration army). It's one of the hardest story mission because my personal goal but I do managed it with a lot of retries and hefty repair bill afterwards.

My lance composition is just very heavy armored mech with 1 PPC and LRM20 or AC10.

1st round: Send 2 mech to the left via a small way behind the big hill. Another mech full sprint forward, ending in mineral field in front of the big hill to the left. The purpose is to have a view on the 2 missile turret in the center of the main area. Last mech move slightly forward to the left, but don't go too far ahead. It's important for the most forward mech to run full sprint and end in the mineral field because it will be the target of enemies salvo. Those evasion pips and mineral terrain effect can help mitigate some of it.

2nd round: The mech in the left should keep going left and destroy a turret there. The mech that slightly forward should destroy one of the missile tower and retreat downward to regroup with the left group, the most forward one should kill the 2nd missile tower and regroup with other. Give it vigilance since it will be the obvious target for the enemies. The last mech can start fighting the lone enemy mech that come from further left of the map. It's important to kill those 3 turrets, especially the missile ones because it will wear down your mech fast.

3rd round: I think the first ammo truck appeared. Don't go to the edge of the hill to shoot it, you'll just become giant target to the rest of the enemies. Just focus killing the single mech there and lob LRM to the ammo truck. The left most meh should still keep going left and a bit up, but don't go too far since there's another turret in far upper left area. Regroup the rest of your lance in the lower part of the map, safe from most enemies in the main area.

4th round: the first ammo truck should start moving. Your leftmost mech should be in position near enough to have LOS to shoot it from behind. Don't go farther than necessary, remember the turret. If that mech can't kill the truck alone, other mech can help lob some LRM. Otherwise just keep fighting the enemies that start coming to your position.

5th round: You can kill the second truck in same position as 1st truck now. I think there's only 2 truck (the mission objectives will be cleared after 2nd truck destruction). Regroup the leftmost mech with the other to finish the rest of the enemies.

Important thing to note:
- it is very important to destroy the missile turrets in the center of the area.
- Be careful of the Firestarter. Being in the desert, you don't want to get any unnecessary heat. It will be one of the first mech that can reach your position so focus fire on him whenever you can. Thankfully there's only 1 Firestarter in enemy rank.
- Have a sensor lock pilot. You won't have a good time hitting enemies with 4 pips right after they sprinting to your position. Shooting just remove 1 pip and add heat to your mech. Sensor lock is a must. 2 pip however has pretty good chance to hit. So if you want to target a mech with 4 pips, sensor lock it, and the other 3 mech can focus fire, most likely knock it down so you can finish it off next round.
- Some AC2 turrets may still hit you. In that case try to reposition to where you can't be hit by turrets.
- If you knock someone over, see if you can core them out before they get up. If you can't, try to target a torso that almost destroyed or have bigger weapon threat. So when it gets up, it's threat factor lowered significantly.
- Remember you can afford to destroy few crates or skipping destroying the ammo trucks.

I think this is one of the most challenging story mission because we haven't got access to the heavier mech yet. So have fun and good luck.

[Teralitha]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ekjIEmMXls&t=556s

[Galahad of Doomsite 13]

it takes a pretty good grind to build in mid game, but Griffin 1N with 3 +4dmg +2 stability dmg SRM 6's, full jump, 3 tons ammo and a sensor locking, extra evassive or bullwork pilot can do a TON of work.
I'm also a big fan of the Centurian Yen-Lo Wang (ac 20, 2 md laser, etc)
1-2 missile boats will help, too.

Have the Griff sprint left and alpha that turret. Remeber the turrets can't shoot without a spotter. one of the crates has a pair of turrets in it's blast radius, you could use that.

I usually run my griffin around the hill to the south east of the truck spawns and lay in.
I try to use sensor lock as much as possible to attack enemies outside of their detection range. Free dmg!

[Galahad of Doomsite 13]

oh, and with higher tac skill you can ID mech/tank weight well before visual.
Lock EVERY 60 ton vehicle.
The LRM carriers are dangerous, but the SRM carriers are death. Just be glad they're glass cannons.
50 tons is a sweet spot for mechs, the early game bosses. Trebuchet, Hunchback and Centurian. all pretty strong even stock.

[Uncle_Bulgaria]

I did it by ignoring the ammo trucks. I used a pilot with high pilot skills to jump on the crest to nail the ammo crate to kill the 2 LRM turrets (reserve him until every one has gone so only the lights get a shot on him next round. I jumped jetted him up there so he had 5 pips of evasion so a lot of the fire next round missed).

I took my two brawler mechs left through the tight channel and nailed the turret and Spider there. After that I moved everyone into the patch of trees to the left and waited for the enemy to come over the hill where they were immediately focus-fired on and cored out. I used a shadowhawk with an arm mod for melee on the lights if they charged up with high evasion.

Your biggest issue is breaking LOS with the enemy, some of the lights have sensor lock which if there is a direct LOS even though you're out of visual range the PPC equipped enemies at the back can still hit you - you need to break this. The few that have LRMs aren't really an issue, you can tank those out easily - especially in the trees and if you have bulwark.

I did it with 2 heavies and 2 mediums, I reckon with tactics nailed down I could do it with a medium lance now. Personally I thought this mission was harder than the the following one (Served Cold)

[WC?]

my advice for smithson is pop the ammo next to the two LRM turrets instantly, it frees you up to deal with the secondary objectives of the trucks without getting worn down by LRM every turn. Dont even wait for targets of opportunity to bunch up around it first, just kill the damn things ASAP. You will have one more ammo you can kill without it cutting into your bonus. This one you will optimaly pop on the heavy they send, or just if you see two or more other mechs. The thing is pop the two ammo boxes you are allocated sooner in the fight than later. The sooner you do it the more it tips the battle in your favor.

[Vuud]

I am sick to death of this mission, I have been stuck on it for months. Is there a cheat to just skip missions? I just want to get on with the campaign.

[wesnef]

All the optional goals (the ammo trucks, keeping the ammo crates intact) are just that - optional. You just lose some cash if you 'fail' them.

So go nuts, blow up ammo crates, mangling the enemy mechs that are near them. Ignore the ammo trucks.

edit: what's your lance look like? If you've been playing for months, you should have a full set of heavies by now, right?

[Uncle_Bulgaria]

I had trouble with this initially. My plan is similar to lots of other but this is what i did:

Take one pilot who can move after shooting with a JJ equipped mech - no heavier than a medium (i forget the perk). I used my starter Shadowhawk for this as it's got a very good melee attack which is useful for light mechs later on if they sprint up over the ridge and gain high evasion. At the start move everyone else towards the canyon on the left but not so you trigger the enemies. Move your high piloting guy to a full jump range of the ridge.

Next turn save all your moves until the enemy has finished. Jump your high pilot skill guy to the ridge and nail the LRM turrets. You can use the ammo crate and your LRM boat to see it off. It's important to do this after saving all your turns so he's not sitting there getting pummelled by LRMs and PPCs. On the AI turn he'll get attacked by the light mechs but the high evasion he'll be ok to tank out what hits. He can have one more shot before moving into cover on your turn. Your other 3 guys should go through the canyon to take out the Spider and turret.

After that position your guys in the woods/cover further left and wait for the AI to advance on you. There's not a great amount of salvage to get here so just core everything out that comes over the hill - winning without losing a mech/pilot is the priority on this mission

This method ignores the ammo trucks but you should be able to win the mission without too much bother from here, you just need to keep out of LOS so the PPC equipped mediums and heavy AI mechs that hang back don't kill you by a 1000 cuts.

In general for pilot builds I don't target the tactics perks but level up heavily in it, it makes a huge difference with called shots success rate.

[Wantoomany]

Dont under estimate the power of those mineral fields either. On a map with little natural cover, they can be a life saver. They provide a signifcant defense bonus and can make incomming missile spam tolorable. Conversely if the enemy is standing in them, prioritize another target.

[Vuud]

Ahhh, nope I found the best solution. I found out how to enable the debug console and just skipped the mission. Now I can move on finally.