How 2 Hatchetman?

[Ciaran Zagami]

Fewer hardpoints than most lights.

And melee sucks. If I swing, there's a pretty good chance I'll just hit an arm or ST and my enemy will just flank me and ♥♥♥♥ my butt in response.

[HurtfulPlayer97]

The Hatchetman is garbage.

[pete]

Well, f you stick a huge gun and a stupid lump of metal in one arm on a 45 tion mech....

[kensw]

Swap the AC10 for an AC5 (preferably an advanced one) use the tonnage to Max Armour.
Use it as a Sniper jump from cover to cover let the enemy come to you do NOT charge out into the open. If you do it's flashpoint first in career and get one early it is quite fun. Not much use mid to late game

[revenantsknight]

Also, the stock models tend to die by CT ammo explosions if they take hits that don't fully blow through the iffy armor and structure outright. Having one in my lance during Joint Venture was just awful.

I think kensw's advice is pretty good, though probably only very early since there are better mediums for sniping. If you wanted to lean into the actual melee bit you might be able to make that work in the early game as a specialist 'Mech for very hot biomes.

[pete]

Originally posted by kensw:

Swap the AC10 for an AC5 (preferably an advanced one) use the tonnage to Max Armour.
Use it as a Sniper jump from cover to cover let the enemy come to you do NOT charge out into the open. If you do it's flashpoint first in career and get one early it is quite fun. Not much use mid to late game

Or swap the whole Hassan chop for a real mech?

[Ciaran Zagami]

Originally posted by kensw:

Swap the AC10 for an AC5 (preferably an advanced one) use the tonnage to Max Armour.
Use it as a Sniper jump from cover to cover let the enemy come to you do NOT charge out into the open. If you do it's flashpoint first in career and get one early it is quite fun. Not much use mid to late game

Don't use the hatchman for close combat, the only thing it was designed for.

I'm not trying to mock you here, it's just baffling how badly designed this mech is within the context of this game. It's all about long range alpha strikes, a mech with three hardpoints and low free tonnage is just bad.

[wendigo211]

In tabletop, the only use for a hatchet was on a 30+ ton mech with TSM or a 60+ ton mech since hatchet=1/6 chance for an instakill headshot with a melee attack. Even then, you're better off with a 60+ ton mech with TSM that can make two punch attacks a round that each have a 1/6 chance to kill.

That said the rules have been changed so that melee attacks don't use the classic d6 hit location table anymore, so they're completely pointless. Giving up 1 ton+critical per 15 tons of mech, for a weapon that lets you make one attack for double damage instead of two normal attacks for normal damage, is a bad design decision. Even worse than the AC2 in classic Battletech.

[kensw]

Originally posted by Ciaran Zagami:

Originally posted by kensw:

Swap the AC10 for an AC5 (preferably an advanced one) use the tonnage to Max Armour.
Use it as a Sniper jump from cover to cover let the enemy come to you do NOT charge out into the open. If you do it's flashpoint first in career and get one early it is quite fun. Not much use mid to late game

Don't use the hatchman for close combat, the only thing it was designed for.

I'm not trying to mock you here, it's just baffling how badly designed this mech is within the context of this game. It's all about long range alpha strikes, a mech with three hardpoints and low free tonnage is just bad.

You forgot about part of my post - let them come to you - anything that is not a pure lrm mech WILL come to you, then club it ( actually even lrm mechs will sometimes come to you )
Running a 45 tonner around in the open is a bad idea - arm mods also help

[Azure]

Collect and sell, like many other mechs its the only use for them.

[matson]

Do you have any arm mods? With some min-maxing, you can get about 240 points of choppity-chop, which can one-hit most light mechs, and is almost certain to chop off or expose something on anything else. That being said, it's not suited for high-tonnage engagements; it works fairly well on ones where you are up against--or restricted to--mostly light and medium mechs, and you know how to maneuver.

[HurtfulPlayer97]

I love it when I see them as part of enemy lances. I think, 'Oh good, an easy kill which presents almost zero threat.'
OtoH, when I see a Firestarter in an enemy lance I think, 'Oh crap, kill that b**** as fast as possible before it gets anywhere near me.'

[Bob of Mage]

The HCT-3X is much better in my view, and can easily be turned into something quite deadly. The added support hardpoints allow it to do much better in melee. If you get the right leg mods you can hit 0 self damage from DFA attacks too.

[Hark]

FWIW... in mods where chance to hit is much lower, especially for young newbie Pilots, Melee has more of a utility in early game.

The rub there is that the Hatcheman is usually not acquired til a lance is already transitioning out of Lights that can melee.

The general problem with melee is that it is inherently risky to close range so much; someone can get backstabbed or headcapped that close.

[Ciaran Zagami]

Originally posted by adizmal:

FWIW... in mods where chance to hit is much lower, especially for young newbie Pilots, Melee has more of a utility in early game.

The rub there is that the Hatcheman is usually not acquired til a lance is already transitioning out of Lights that can melee.

The general problem with melee is that it is inherently risky to close range so much; someone can get backstabbed or headcapped that close.

I said it already tbh, I melee. The attack doesn't one shot. The enemy flanks me and blows my CT open.

Or I take two steps back, and use a called alpha strike to blow them back to terra.

[Torpex]

Originally posted by Bob of Mage:

The HCT-3X is much better in my view,

Still problematic. Needs to be much faster to accumulate evasion bars (at least like Assassin). I tried it with any possible mods for damage and gyro for hit defence. It still gets wrecked.

Firestarter is viable into the endgame. Reserve, jump in, wreck the back, another attack and jump away. Can kill mediums reliably and heavies with luck. Melee attacks with it are still risky.