Guide to Smithon

[Albireo]

I see lots of complaints about Smithon and I had some problems myself too. Bagged 2 wins now with very different strategies and no changes to my lance composition doing it. First try with each strat.

1. As most poeple note my first win was hiding in the starting zone and blowing away anything that peeked over that ridge, I did get the trucks though as I sent my missle boat around the corner to take out the trucks with a volley each. The trick to this one is really just to blitz down the 3 turrets in the starting zone and then hold out, missles plus a sensor can take the trucks down as well if you wanna be safe.

2. Here is where I went off script on my second game. I noted the map was a LOT bigger than the starting zone strait north into the buildings and the 2 enemy lances there. That was only half of the map with the other half having just 1 turret in it. I turned left and never looked back, It became a running battle down the road, the trucks were in the way and stopmed easy peasy, still had to snipe the turrets at the start but it was a lot more fun than the first method.

Again I never changed by usual lance comp of a medium jumper, 2 heavy brawlers (srm or laser carriars), and one LRM boat of a medium or heavy.

[Sam Look]

Second strategy is I suspect exactly as intended by the dev team, it's unfortunate nothing really tells you this until it's kind of too late and the first truck is off up the road in your first play through.

[Terminus]

I had a hell of a time with this but I adopted a third strategy. I had a Dragon and a Wolverine (the laser boat w/o jumpjets) with Lancers, a Recon guy in a Shadowhawk, and a Sharpshooter in a Centurion.

As soon as it starts I send everyone sprinting through the mountains to the left. They aggro the Spider and the battle starts. I keep sprinting the Shadowhawk towards the road, and I start working the rest of my mechs back and up into that valley immediately to the left of the starting position. There's a little hollow with tree cover that keeps them out of visual range of anything that isn't at the top of the bowl, and it breaks LOS from some of the PPC-shooting mechs in the compound. It also minimizes their exposure to turrets.

So, they're moving down into cover, turning to take shots as they get them, and drawing back into defensive positions while the Shadowhawk is sprinting and jumping like crazy to generate evasion when he isn't stomping on the vehicles. As soon as the second vehicle goes down, I sprint him back around the far side of the left-most mountain of that hollow where my guys are tucked in. From then on, it's a slow, defensive fight where I'm pretty much just letting the enemy come to me, focusing fire on specific threats (and de-prioritizing mechs that can't do much, like armless Firestarters), and being really, really careful.

It was a slog, but I killed both trucks, didn't lose any ammo, and didn't lose a mech.

[Nathyria]

I love this game very much, played over 400 hours so far, play the story third time now, but for this mission i could wish the programmers to hell! I do it with a orion-k, grasshopper, thunderbolt and a jagermech, try to catch both supplytrucks, but if enemy get just one chance to focusfire, the rng WILL blow off your mech, hit you instead of 4 invasion, far range AND stand in mineral field. But you need to put every little piece of armor from these f**king trucks (2 times L-Laser, 4 M-Laser and SRM4 and one LRM-10 but still escaped). No Idea to survive with all four mechs AND get both trucks without 3 assault and one fast Mech. But i will try it this (third) time. And after all this game is still one of the best i´ve ever played ... sure .. ITS BATTLETECH! :-)

(sry for crappy engilsch, i´m really not best in it)
*add escaped truck

[Pherdnut]

I always had to get those 2 turrets over the ridge after the light mech horde thinned out. Any attempt at hopping over the ridge would get my mechs nickled and dimed to death.

[Kernest]

I just blew up the ammo dump that destroys the two annoying turrets when two enemy light mechs were also in the danger zone...

Rest wasn't all that hard.

[Nathyria]

Update:
I did it! :) I didnt realise that just 6 ammo crate´s need to survive, so just a tipp for other players, hit the ammo crate by the 2 turrets, best if enemy mechs are still there. I do the biggest fail in war you can do .. i split my force, but in this mission it works great. 2 mechs go on left side to intercept the 2 trucks, 2 mechs go on the right. Im very happy now, so yes, this mission is very hard, but you can do it.

[Edmon]

I did this mission using only the AC/2... it is pretty easy if you know what you are doing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HnWFygntpY

I hope this helps anyone struggling.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by mugwamp:

AHHH Why didn't I save. I took out 6 of 8 mechs all the turrets and the Dragon just popped me, as in the commander.

If you still won the scenario, who gives a flying F, the commander can't die, you just take a long rest in the infirmary.

Secondly, the game has a billion autosaves.

[Alpharius]

Originally posted by Albireo:

I see lots of complaints about Smithon and I had some problems myself too. Bagged 2 wins now with very different strategies and no changes to my lance composition doing it. First try with each strat.

1. As most poeple note my first win was hiding in the starting zone and blowing away anything that peeked over that ridge, I did get the trucks though as I sent my missle boat around the corner to take out the trucks with a volley each. The trick to this one is really just to blitz down the 3 turrets in the starting zone and then hold out, missles plus a sensor can take the trucks down as well if you wanna be safe.

2. Here is where I went off script on my second game. I noted the map was a LOT bigger than the starting zone strait north into the buildings and the 2 enemy lances there. That was only half of the map with the other half having just 1 turret in it. I turned left and never looked back, It became a running battle down the road, the trucks were in the way and stopmed easy peasy, still had to snipe the turrets at the start but it was a lot more fun than the first method.

Again I never changed by usual lance comp of a medium jumper, 2 heavy brawlers (srm or laser carriars), and one LRM boat of a medium or heavy.

I'M ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ANGRY...
So did this mission with a hawk 2x cent and a archer. I didnt need to kill one explosive didnt lose one mech but as i got to the end It said 7/8 mechs killed... WHERE THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HELL IS THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 8TH?

[DiceWrangler]

Originally posted by panza3399:

. . . but as i got to the end It said 7/8 mechs killed... WHERE THE FRICKING HELL IS THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 8TH?

Sometimes enemy units get stuck in narrow ravines where they cannot find a path out. Just keep searching and look for them in rugged terrain, usually near the map edges.

[Alpharius]

Originally posted by DiceWrangler:

Originally posted by panza3399:

. . . but as i got to the end It said 7/8 mechs killed... WHERE THE FRICKING HELL IS THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 8TH?

Thanks for the advice but sadly after 1:30 i gave up i looked everywhere, i've also retryd the whole thing 5 times... what a waste of 40pounds.

[JoshuaColossus]

Hey, I also just managed to clear it. Heres the loadout: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197980183622/screenshot/775112599280953995
Stupid me covered the last 'Mechs box, it was sporting 2 MLasers + PPC

After trying a tactic as mentioned here, which failed due to the turrets showering me with rockets (didn't take them out first). I went with this:

The Spider ran around on the road to the left and stomping the both transports once they spawn. Important here is that he keeps moving, to get the evasive pips. Had to run ahead of a transport even though I could've stomped it, but it would've only given me 1-2 pips. The Spider neatly distracted a lot of rockets.

Rest of the team hid in the starting area, after taking out the two central LRM turrets with 2 'Mechs, and the road side Laser turret with one (Sprint in, unload, run/jump back out).
Then went on to killing enemies that entered, nothing special here (i.e. always build up some e. pips and watch your heat, spam Precision Shot to take out the most dangerous stuff. Don't forget about DFA if you have to).
Key to winning this was cleary the Arm upgrade on my Spider: +60 to melee damage :). It did a looot of work, both on the transports, as well as cleaning up 'Mechs.

Good Luck with this everyone!

[Named]

It is an annoying mission. Interesting to see so many people struggling even with heavy lance. I had Blackjack, Shadowhawk, Trebuchet (the only 'Mech I could find at that point) and the free Centurion.

I always had one 'Mech move forward, far right of the buildings. His job was to pick the two most devastating ammo crates to blow up turrets and damage enemy lances. Otherwise he hung back there as a distraction.

Rest of the lance moved left to destroy turret, intercept trucks and intercept the light 'Mechs that wander over.

All bonus objectives are doable with a medium lance.

[tone1701]

Honestly, I've tried using cover, going left, right, jumping into trees, splitting their defense, singling the smaller ones out then the bigger ones - after their numbers become more manageable, all while dealing with turrets (making sure those go down in a single shot), and aiming at their individual weapons "disarming" them - literally...

The only thing I found that worked, is just to blitz up the middle heading directly into the base, guns blazing. They don't actively avoid ending their turn next to a big box of "Boom-Boom". My last playthrough, the game positioned 3 medium to heavy mechs right next to a crate and I was able to insta-kill two and blow both arms off the panther in the same explosion.....

Hope that helps a little.

Happy hunting.

[andrewww]

I managed to beat it just now with a firestarter (4sl, 2mg), 2 jennas (2ml, srm6) and a panther (2 LL). Got all trucks and no crates, nearly gave up at the start when I lost my firestarter, all my guys had lost a bit of armour and hand't killed any mechs at that point and only gotten two turrets.

Ended up on the top left side of the map running back and forth just wearing them down, with my sniper picking off the damaged mechs.