What am I doing wrong?

[Yuber_i]

Hi. I've playing this game for some time now. The missions weren't really though until i reached rep 13. From then on, i almost ALWAYS get at least one mech destroyed per mission (be it a campaign mission or a merc contract). First i tried modifying my mechs with better weapons and equipment, but the result was the same (with the lost of those truly expensive or directly irreplaceable components). The other pilots at one time were level 48-55-58, so i think it wasn't about getting better pilots. I'm quite desperate right now: What am i doing wrong?

[KiM]

you did manual set the weapon grps and you did rework the armor ?

[unskilled-]

Those end-game missions can be tough when facing down a couple atlai ontop of upwards of another two lances in quick succession if your unlucky.

Upgrades are a must. The two armor upgrades (2.5% and 5% additional armor) really make a difference for heavies and assaults. Extra heat dissipation and heat cap help in letting your lancemates as well as yourself keep firing more often.

What sort of mechs do you use primarly?

[Epathos]

Cosair with 2x lbx10 solid slug and 1 ppc.

Cores anything and everything in 1-2 salvos.

[Yuber_i]

I have no upgrades at all. I've read they're a cantina stuff, but i've never seen such a place (could it be because i'm playing the basic game?).

What's a cosair? Last time i played i hit an atlas with two gauss cannons AND an ER LL in the head and i didn't even get internal.

BTW, am I the only one missing more orders for your lancemates? like "shoot at long range" or "withdraw from combat because you're going to explode, you idiot"

[rmp]

Originally posted by Yuber_i:

BTW, am I the only one missing more orders for your lancemates? like "shoot at long range" or "withdraw from combat because you're going to explode, you idiot"

Ah, so many times I wish I could give those exact orders quickly and efficiently. Nope, you aren't missing anything. If a lancemate is a few shots away from dropping dead, I'll look at some distant land in the opposite direction of where ever enemies are coming from and order him to go there, where he can contribute with long range weapons but not draw any attention to himself. Basically you have to baby sit them at that point. Otherwise, I'm always ordering the group to focus on my target. Make sure to focus fire one enemy at a time when possible. Make sure all the mechs you plan to keep long term are upgraded. Maybe stay in 10-12 level rep zones until your pilots are close to 60. Cantina missions are great for getting tier 4+ gear. I'm pretty sure you need the Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC for cantinas. It's a great DLC, I definitely recommend getting it.

[owen8964]

A couple of tactics that might help:

1) Ambush: There are choke points on most maps, where you go through a narrow pass from higher to lower elevations, for example.

Use F1F3 to tell your lance to Go There a bit back from the top of the pass. Hop into the fastest mech and nip down the pass yourself, leaving your lance at the top. Grab the attention of an enemy with a long range shot and scoot back up the pass asap and swap back to your main mech.

If you have attracted the attention of the enemy, they'll come up the pass and your lance will pick their own targets. You can leave them to it mostly, but if you want them to focus fire something down, remember to F1F3 them back into position when their target pops.

2) Warzones: Don't just fight from the middle, where you go to trigger the start of the fight. Look at the map and find a nice place to fight from ( long lines of sight). I favour the edge of the map with a slope up. They show as little sort of coves on the edge of the map, when you hit B, but any big hill is likely to be good :) Place your lance there with F1F3 and run in to trigger the start of the mission. Run back to your lance and wait. The enemy will come to you. I favour mainly long range weapons for this one.

As you may have noticed, these are variations on the same theme.

[Shinobi273]

Definitely reconfigure your mechs for max frontal armor. You can go pretty thin on the backside if you can position well. I'm at 12 sides and 16 core for the backsides of heavy and assault.

Give AI lancemates the best equip you can afford to lose. They are there to aggro enemies and get shot at.

The AI lancemate skill is on the rank, Leiutenant < Captain < Major. Early on and in lower level areas you just have to use what is available.

Check out the light mech tactics guide on this forum. I use Firestarters and go for laser headshots or backstabbing on heavies and assaults. I also prefer the AI to use L laser or PPC rather than LRM spam. Standing and broadsiding assault mechs is probably one of the least efficient tactics.

Sometimes a mission is RNG screwed and you need to skip (especially urban maps).

[Butterside down]

When you hit this wall, go back to Davion space. Go back to 200 ton or 140 ton conflict zones. Bring your big banshees with you. I guarantee you will not lose a component, or limb. Build up your money again, and high experience pilots. Then return to the Pyrrhic high attrition zones to continue the campaign.

[Slap Happy Pappy]

Turn on aim assist, aim for the head.

"Kill the meat, not the metal"

[Hairy Coo]

AI should be piloting some tanky brutish slaggers while you can be more flexible. For my AI mechs I look for most weapons in torso and only weapons I am ok loosing in arms.

They still shouldn't be left alone as they are going to take some licking if pounced by a bunch of enemies at once.

[Grubfist]

Originally posted by Yuber_i:

I have no upgrades at all. I've read they're a cantina stuff, but i've never seen such a place (could it be because i'm playing the basic game?).

What's a cosair? Last time i played i hit an atlas with two gauss cannons AND an ER LL in the head and i didn't even get internal.

BTW, am I the only one missing more orders for your lancemates? like "shoot at long range" or "withdraw from combat because you're going to explode, you idiot"

-Cantinas require Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC. They're very nice but not mandatory.
-Corsair is a 95T hero mech you get from a quest, which is also part of the Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC. Here's a list of all vanilla (non-mod) mech variants: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior_5:_Mercenaries/BattleMechs
-DLCs don't give any additional orders for AI, only mods can give you the kinds of orders you mentioned. But making your lance focus fire on high-damage targets can help a lot.
-Knowledge of individual mechs and their weaknesses will help alot. Like for example, the Griffin's right arm has its main energy slot, so blasting it off makes it do much less damage. An Atlas's cockpit is located in its left eye. An Orion has a huge CT and is much easier to core as a result, etc.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Without knowing what exactly you are using or what the are equipped with can't help with loadouts.
Without knowing what you are dropping into mission wise can't help you with what you are trying.
Without knowing what mods or DLC you are running all we can do is make an educated guess of what is going on.