Missile Spam Lance (PvE)

[Werewolf]

I recently acquired an Archer early in the game and, frankly, sending a cloud of 40 missiles at a target tickles me in ways I never imagined possible.

So, quite naturally. It got me thinking... 40 missiles are excellent. But why not 120?

Would it be a smart(fun) move to build a lance of three Archers coupled with a fast mover light mech for spotting? Right not I have the starter Shadowhawk, Vindicator and a Jenner I cobbled together.

[danko9696]

That being smart would depend on what else you have available. The Archer is good but there are better heavies, and LRMB assaults are better in the late game. On the other side equipping those heavies with top tier equipment is much more expensive than a well equipped Archer.

You could look for more Archers to add to your lance but I think a pure LRM lance is more like something you'd do after you beat the game and want to play sandbox. I've played a 320 LRM lance, for example.

There are more downsides but a straightforward one would be that LRMs are terrible for headcapping. With the Archer that improves but still is very bad, and headcapping is very good for salvaging purposes.

[Der_Scanner]

An AC/UAC-lance are more productive in decapitate.

Snipering the legs are no problem with good pilots.

[Werewolf]

I'm holding off a bit on sniper builds until my pilots are worthwhile, save for Glitch filling a long range linear attack role. But the root of the matter is I enjoy explosions. I'm not too worried about salvage at the moment since I've played through the game before.

I'm just wondering if it's worth the c-bills since I have a reliable source for Archer parts. I'll keep the info in mind, since it'd take me quite a bit of time to even get to an Archer lance if so inclined.

[Amigo]

In some cases this might work. But in some missions you will have to fight 8 or more enemies at once and it is quite possible a few of them will get to your archers and kick your butt. Apart from that Archer has overheating issues so you are not going to be able to spam those missiles every turn non stop.

[MasterBLB]

To make that tactic work you need a mech with at least 5 jump jets and 1-3 slots for missiles, to equip NARC beacons on it. Then in match you need to jump at max distance to make 1st contact with enemy units and generate max possible evasion. After that NARC some targets or sensor lock, and jump back. Then your Archers will obliterate marked targets. And here is how such mechs might look like, LRM boat itself:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2499799344
and spotter:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2499801091

[Neithan]

I you want to go heavy LRM, I would suggest 2 Archers (or other LRM boats), one dedicated spotter (fast, with sure foot & sensor lock) and one dedicated alpha short-midrange brawler. 3 LRM boats with one spotter might work, but imho it is better to have one short/mid brawler to take out anything closing in.

[Útost Alronbem]

Well, maybe it'll help someone eventually.

Originally posted by Katt Trollblod:

Would it be a smart(fun) move to build a lance of three Archers coupled with a fast mover light mech for spotting? Right not I have the starter Shadowhawk, Vindicator and a Jenner I cobbled together.

Been there, done that.

You may need THAT many long-ranged missiles in two and only two cases only.

1. Your Morale is high so you can spam Precision Strike: Head.
Lance composition: 2 (two) fully kitted Archers will suffice - but even one can wreak quite a havoc! 1 Light scout with Sensor Lock + 1 medium-heavy with something for close encounters will serve as a good support.
Guaranteed Pilot injury upon Head hit will destroy enemy's spearhead mech for sure - with even 2% chance to hit Head, about 2 out of 120 missiles are expected to hit! And most enemy pilots tend to have 4 hit points so two barrages are expected to incapaciate ANY mech.

2. You're into mecha wrestling.
Lance composition: 2 Archers, 2 dedicated melee mechs (with jump jets and all related cheese).
Launch your missile barrage with Archer. Then dropkick same enemy with your brawler. Even if it survived such session of bullying, its Stability likely became negative so it ends up on the ground.
Jump jets are crucial because of dropkicks impacting Stability more - and, by extent, because of evasion. We need to hit stuff with our brawlers each turn. We need to have a lot of evasion. We need to change targets often. Jump Jets solve it all.

I'd say that having even 1 dedicated LRM spam boat + 1 dedicated jump jet brawler (literally, only jets, heatsinks and melee/dropkick mods) makes things much more easier because of quite high chance of dropping almost any mech on the ground (so rest of your lance can finish it faster). And those pesky high evasion targets won't be as much of a problem.
Getting those precious 'less feet damage after dropkick' mods is hard though...

[talemore]

DFA, it's called death from above and is a term inside the lore and the game. It is easier to remove a gun than to suppress a gun. Take note that your knockdown is very low on assault mechs. The main reason why LRM work is because there's no connection between dealing damage and creating stability damage. Using a spotter to punch , to create knockdown with a melee brawler with LRM boats is counterproductive when the goal with the LRMs is that it provide the knockdown on its own and once it is downed the next LRM attack will center lock missiles to a single part. The archer is used because it is equipped with lostech who allow it to have better clusters but more importantly increases 75% stability damage from SRM and equipped with a brawler fist. The centurion is better suited for LRM. Odd as it sound , the archer is a brawler fit with LRMs because it was based on swarm tactics from a different kind of war.

[Werecat101]

to use Missile spam is to admit you are weak as a tactician.

[Twelvefield]

I am weak as a tactician, but I make excellent spaghetti sauce. It all evens out.

EDIT: The trick is fennel, and tomatoes that are in season. All of the gangster movies say you add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity of tomatoes. Yes, you can do that, but fennel works much better. Either some root, ground into paste, or in a pinch use the seeds.

[Alwyn]

A missile spam lance sounds like fun. How do you keep the spotter alive - high piloting skill and a hit defence gyro? Or do you avoid having a spotter and give one of the LRM boats a rangefinder instead?

Occasionally I'm tempted to try a horse archer lance - something like four Javelin 10As or four Shadow Hawks with LRMs. (I know, I know - SRMs and medium lasers provide a far better optimised lance, I'm just talking about trying experimental builds for fun, to see if you can make them work). Has anyone tried that?

[danko9696]

Originally posted by Alwyn:

A missile spam lance sounds like fun. How do you keep the spotter alive - high piloting skill and a hit defence gyro? Or do you avoid having a spotter and give one of the LRM boats a rangefinder instead?

For the spotter you take the heaviest mech you can and make sure to have Sensor Lock on it, so when directly attacking with him you're visually spotting, and when out of LoS you use Sensor Lock. That mech can be medium range or long range as well (if you also have a Rangefinder).

If you have a heavy/assault lance something like a Vanguard King Crab can make for a very good spotter for three LRM boats, using Sensor Lock most of the time and sometimes attacking with very high alpha at medium range or moderate alpha at long range (Rangefinder), and full JJs in any case.

Oh, and that's a far better optimized lance than a medium range one imo. At least optimized for not being hit.

[talemore]

There's a bug with sensor lock that it last as long the mechwarrior who did used it has not re-gained their turn. Or it is just that it's active until the round ends when the slowest mechwarrior has taken their turn. Either way, a mechwarrior with sensor lock is unable to sensor lock for classes above its own weight class.

Light scout = worthless.

Light mechs are only useful as shotguns, they can not scout or retreat from hunting light mechs since they're backfired by being equally in speed of another. They can solo an assault in a 1 vs 1 battle by hit and hide. Not much else. Firestarter is an exception but solely because AI do not focus fire or has no lrm carrier strong enough to take it down.

[danko9696]

Originally posted by talemore:

There's a bug with sensor lock that it last as long the mechwarrior who did used it has not re-gained their turn. Or it is just that it's active until the round ends when the slowest mechwarrior has taken their turn. Either way, a mechwarrior with sensor lock is unable to sensor lock for classes above its own weight class.

What are you talking about?. There is no bug and any mech can sensor lock for any heavier mech.

[kensw]

Sensor lock ends when the mech you locked onto moves - so wait for the enemy to move ( reserve your sensor lock pilot) before locking on
Edit: sometimes you just want to identify a mech that is out of visual sight can use lock for that also