Mech loadout for a four skulls mission?

[Senió Koopa]

hi I'm facing some issues here. How many heavy mechs would you say a four skulls mission requires? because I had a mission where there was 8 mechs with 6 being heavy assault.... and with my setup being 2 assaults and two medium mechs.. seems totally impossible to beat. I think I'm past mid game... Lady arano just gifted me a Highlander and got an Awesome heavy mech as well.
I don't know this mission was weird because supposedly there was two factions that should attack each other making my job easier, pirates vs other faction... but that never happened mechs were always attacking me.

[wesnef]

With the right gear & skill, anything is possible - there are people who've cleared 5-skull missions with a single (incredibly good) medium mech. (I don't try that, it's not my thing.)

That said, I wouldn't be bringing Mediums into a 4+ mission unless they were top end and well geared. Like, the only Medium I still use in late game is a lostech Griffin 2N with 4x SRM6 + 2 Med Lasers, all of them ++ or better.

So, yeah - a lot of it depends on the quality of the mechs and their equipment. I'm usually using Assaults & Heavies at 4 skulls. Decent ones.

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I also have a tendency to run lots of side missions, I'm in no rush. My current Campaign playthrough, I went into Liberate Smithon - the ammo box mission - with a lostech Marauder, an Orion, a lostech Phoenix Hawk, and a 70 ton Gladiator. (I'm running a mod that adds a lot more mechs)
(pilots were 7-10 skill, two Master Tacticians, one Breaching Shot, one Ace Pilot)


How are your mechs equipped? The same mechs can vary in effectiveness a great deal just based on their gear.

[Senió Koopa]

Originally posted by wesnef:

With the right gear & skill, anything is possible - I went into Liberate Smithon - the ammo box mission - with a lostech Marauder, an Orion, a lostech Phoenix Hawk, and a 70 ton Gladiator. (I'm running a mod that adds a lot more mechs)
(pilots were 7-10 skill, two Master Tacticians, one Breaching Shot, one Ace Pilot)


How are your mechs equipped? The same mechs can vary in effectiveness a great deal just based on their gear.

I'm massively underpowered compared to you lol I liberated smithon with 4 mediums ...
Gladiator, ShadowHawk, Trebuchet and other I can't remember.
but yeah I had to resort into aiming for leaving four ammo boxes alive lol... also I didn't destroyed the trucks.
What I'm rolling right now is an Awesome with lasers (sniper) a Highlander, a ShadowHawk and other I can't remember now lol.... but I try to use medium mechs that have good armour.

[kensw]

In missions where the 2 sides can fight each other you need to hang back. If you are the better target they will concentrate on you. If you pull back they will fight each other.

[Senió Koopa]

Originally posted by kensw:

In missions where the 2 sides can fight each other you need to hang back. If you are the better target they will concentrate on you. If you pull back they will fight each other.

yep I pulled back but maybe it was too late, but there was no time to reconsider... basically I went within range of the mechs and inmediately got severely bombered.... and after that my ShadowHawk health was so low... that it was impossible for them to not consider me as an easy target... but I tried I sprinted ... but it didn't work.

[revenantsknight]

Hard to say without knowing the full specs of your lance, but this sounds beatable with the 'Mech chassis you have, so long as you let the two parties shoot it out first.

More generally, I'd probably aim for 3.5 skulls at most with your lance, because when you start getting above that the game will expect you to be able to kill/mostly disarm one enemy per turn, at least, and I don't know if your lance has the boom for that, even with the LosTech Highlander. I'd be actively looking for a Marauder in the shops at your stage if you don't have black market access, and if you do, I'd save up and then drop like 10 million C-Bills or more on LosTech.

[Senió Koopa]

Originally posted by revenantsknight:

Hard to say without knowing the full specs of your lance, but this sounds beatable with the 'Mech chassis you have, so long as you let the two parties shoot it out first.

More generally, I'd probably aim for 3.5 skulls at most with your lance, because when you start getting above that the game will expect you to be able to kill/mostly disarm one enemy per turn, at least, and I don't know if your lance has the boom for that, even with the LosTech Highlander. I'd be actively looking for a Marauder in the shops at your stage if you don't have black market access, and if you do, I'd save up and then drop like 10 million C-Bills or more on LosTech.

definitely not... the highlander can almost kill a medium mech with 1 hit at good range tho. I can easily kill 2 medium mechs fast but when there is two or three assaults I have troubles. I definitely cannot kill a heavy in one turn.
Time to search for a Marauder then I do have access to the Black Market.

[revenantsknight]

Originally posted by Koopacabras:

definitely not... the highlander can almost kill a medium mech with 1 hit at good range tho. I can easily kill 2 medium mechs fast but when there is two or three heavies I have troubles. I definitely cannot kill a heavy in one turn.
Time to search for a Marauder then I do have access to the Black Market.

I should add that a Marauder also requires a pilot with Called Shot Mastery to get the most out of it, so if you don't have that yet there's another goal for you.

[Senió Koopa]

yeah even 3.5 skulls are really tough but seems doable with a little effort I'm not used to this type of combat where you have to be juggling around pulling back and forth. I'm more used to XCOM Hard West, etc type of combat... different tactics in those games is more about pushing foward more than anything else.
In those games dunnoh it's like: when in doubt push foward, in this game, it's the opposite: when in doubt pull back. It's more conservative in that aspect.
also the mechanics of line of sight is radically different in this game.
but whatever it's not frustrating for me I'm used to play tactical games, seems a solid tactical game overall, but yeah quite challenging.
but I must say it's more complex than those games, I played all the ShadowRun series (awesome games) and the first one that I played I didn't understand all the mechanics completely only on my 2nd game I started to really understand how the game worked... this is probably the same happening again.

[revenantsknight]

Originally posted by Koopacabras:

yeah even 3.5 skulls are really tough but seems doable with a little effort I'm not used to this type of combat where you have to be juggling around pulling back and forth. I'm more used to XCOM Hard West, etc type of combat... different tactics in those games is more about pushing foward more than anything else.
In those games dunnoh it's like: when in doubt push foward, in this game, it's the opposite: when in doubt pull back. It's more conservative in that aspect.
also the mechanics of line of sight is radically different in this game.
but whatever it's not frustrating for me I'm used to play tactical games, seems a solid tactical game overall, but yeah quite challenging.
but I must say it's more complex than those games, I played all the ShadowRun series (awesome games) and the first one that I played I didn't understand all the mechanics completely only on my 2nd game I started to really understand how the game worked... this is probably the same happening again.

Tactically, some contracts are definitely easier if you're fast about it, while others are like the one you played and can punish an all in approach a bit. There are some clues in the contract descriptions, but you can build viable lances for aggressive or cautious attacks.

Strategically, one of the biggest differences between the Battletech campaign and the games you mentioned is that there are no penalties for not advancing the story and just grinding out some more contracts, while there is a penalty for advancing the story too quickly - you might have noticed that all contracts get harder after you complete a story contract. In that sense, yes, the campaign rewards more conservative play.

[maerchen]

Regarding the frequency you posted here the last day, I'd assume you rushed/speedran the campaign.
If you are not familiar with the game, you are now outgunned, undertonned/-armored and your pilots do not have the skills you need to win against heavier and better skilled AI opponents.
That is a sad situation.

I recommend reading a bit about the game here https://battletech.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Battletech_campaign and taking it slow from here on.

[Senió Koopa]

Originally posted by maerchen:

Regarding the frequency you posted here the last day, I'd assume you rushed/speedran the campaign.
If you are not familiar with the game, you are now outgunned, undertonned/-armored and your pilots do not have the skills you need to win against heavier and better skilled AI opponents.
That is a sad situation.

I recommend reading a bit about the game here https://battletech.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Battletech_campaign and taking it slow from here on.

yep seems quite accurate... I need to grind a little more I'm past mid game, approaching where 5 skulls missions unlock. Need to get better mechs and train my mechwarriors a little more. But I've done quite a number of side missions but probably not enough.
I just finished a 3.5 skulls mission and it was quite brutal for my medium mechs... good thing is that now I won some scraps and have another heavy... so I have 1 heavy, two assaults and 1 medium in my lance.
But anyway I have a decent 30 hours on the game, I played a lot this Friday :) so I don't know if frequency of posts means a lot, because I made a gaming marathon today and yesterday :)
but yeah I think I speedran because I skipped heavy mechs, I started incorporating assault mechs before heavies.

[maerchen]

Once a pilot hits tactics 9, put him in a Marauder of your choice and go headhunting with a 38+ % head hit chance, preferrably with a weapon that does 61+ damage for clean decapitations, like Gauss, ER PPC++ etc.

Or you can go FST crazy and farm kills with a light Mech and a pilot with Ace Pilot skill.

[no154370]

go and do plenty of missions for "pirate organization" and until it is "friendly and higher".

once you unlock the black market, you can go and buy some good weapons.

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kindly switch out your SRMs to long range weapons instead.

M lasers, L lasers, a few PPC and Gauss Rifles with LRM will help you out even if you only have 4 heavy mechs.

Highlander which you got from artru campaign mission is the most powerful mech currently due to double heat sinks and jump jets.

i also recommend learning "bulwark and master tactician" for campaign.

high gunnery and high tactics come first, then Guts. Pilot skills should be max out last.

do not reduce mechs' armor just to put in jump jets, more weapons........etc.

get cockpit mods for your mechs as well.

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for me, when i do 4 skulls missions, i always have 4 heavy mechs or 2 heavy mechs and 2 assault mechs.

i even use call shots with my pilots having call shot bonus with extremely high gunnery skills just to hit and aim the enemy mech central torso.

or you can just aim the mech legs with call shots.

[maerchen]

Originally posted by no154370:

Good advice..

i also recommend learning "bulwark and master tactician" for campaign.

high gunnery and high tactics come first, then Guts. Pilot skills should be max out last.

do not reduce mechs' armor just to put in jump jets, more weapons........etc.

get cockpit mods for your mechs as well.

It really depends on your playstyle, I do not like master tactician at all and I level gunnery only to 4-5 and raise tactician to 9, then max out piloting and like ace pilot. Piloting 10 gives you 3 defense and 6 vs melee...

Always max out front armor, all my Mechs have JJs and I have a strict no-LRM policy, neither me nor the enemy, that's why I buy ECM.

[wesnef]

I usually bring my pilots up to 6 Pilot/Guts/Tactics for the buffs (after 5 for the two skills I want, of course), then work on raising whichever stat I'm going to the tier 2 ability in. And 7 Piloting for the 20% sprint bonus. Then Tac 9 for aimed shot bonus.
Gunnery always ends up being maxed out last. . . /shrug


(general use lance setup in mid/late game is two Med/Long range shooters, an LRM support, and a fast scout/assassin. Which is usually the only mech with jets. Never figured out how to use ECM right :D )