BattleTech help

[FTJoshua]

I am getting back into BattleTech with my Hero-playing friends after a long hiatus. Okay, I was never great at the game. I am conversant with BT, but never really excelled at it. Here are two questions I would appreciate help on if any of you would care to assist.

But first, an overview of the scenario:
~ Clan tech, 3rd level rules
~ assault mechs only (for the most part)
~ Clan can make physical attacks (not my call!)
~ Using Maximum Tech and the current master rulebook
~ We always build our own mechs.
~ Almost never play with weather effects, but always with terrain

1. How do you build a mech well? Not knowing what the terrain will bring or what Mech your opponent is bringing on the board, what would you build? What have been some of your most effective combinations of armor and weapons or other equipment?

2. Apart from playing the game over and over (which I'll be doing), what are some rules of thumb about tactics? Especially movement. In short, how do you win the game -- or what have you seen that tends to win consistantly?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't expect to own the battlefield any time soon, but I'd like to challenge my friends more than usual.
Thanks!
~ T

[Cosmic Man]

Mech design:

Step 1: Maximum Armor (or within 5% of max)
Step 2: Mobility = Victory (try to have a move of 4/6/4 or better)
Step 3: Keep the mech cool. You should, even with an alpha strike, never go more than 12 points up the heat scale, and your primary weapons shouldn't heat you up.
Step 4: Ammo, keep enough for at least 12 rounds of combat if you go for ammo based weapons.

Tactics:
Try to keep their target numbers up with movement and by moving into cover. Remember, firing out of cover doesn't penalize you but does penalize them firing in.

If your opponents are not jump capable, try to maneuver them into areas where they either have to turn a lot or have to move through speed reduction hazards. (Water, rough terrain, etc)

Using clan mechs, go for ER PPC's and/or AC/20-ultra's, since they can decapitate a mech in a single hit. Targeting computers help too.

Personally, I like the program "HEAVY METAL", which is a mech design program. Also, try to keep the game balanced via battle value, that makes for better games in my opinion.

[Victim]

Hmm. I'm not familar with Max tech, but I hear that proto-mechs are pretty nasty.

Pulse Laser (or some variation there of) combined with a targeting computer allows you to hit often at range, and pick damaged/weak locations when close. Clan pulse lasers have better range and damage.

Tandem charge SRMs do internal each hit.

[JohnathanChance]

Not to slam BT, I used to play excessively, but i just can't stand the game since they came out with clan tech. It was just too overpowered compared to anything else. Currently my only BT fix that I have is an old Amiga game I have running on an emulator, the game was called mechforce.

[FTJoshua]

Originally posted by Victim
Tandem charge SRMs do internal each hit.

Say...what book is that in, any idea?

Also re: not liking Clantech, I tend to agree, but it ain't my game. BT is a fun time-passer, but I'll take good Hero RP any day. Actually, so will the other BT players; they are playing as an interim game on nights the entire group can't play Champions.

[Cosmic Man]

Tandem Charge SRM's were in a module, the same one with Direct Neural Interface. Don't remember the name off the top of my head. Have it at home, it's like the only suppliment to be banned at the gaming table I play at.

Also, I regularly beat clan-tech using mechs that mount level 3 equipment and inner sphere only. Just make sure battlevalues are (roughly) even. Of course, it's even easier if the clan players hold by the clan rules of engagement until given a reason not to.

Yes, clan-tech is horribly lethal, but it can be defeated by good tactics.

1: Negate range advantage by fighting in close quarters
2: Gang up on targets
3: Indirect fire is your friend
4: c3 networks are your friend too
5: Triple strenth myomer on a 100-ton mech = OW!

[JohnathanChance]

I had that module, but they should also be in the max tech book

[TheEmerged]

Speaking for myself, I always paid close attention to how much damage the mech could do without Heat Bleed (the point at which your heat-per-round equals the amount of heat your heat sinks can eliminate).

One good trick if you can arrange it is to put an ammunition weapon and the ammunition in the same arm with CASE (I seem to recall even Inner Sphere mechs can do this under Maximum Tech, been a while since I did this). This way an ammunition explosion just costs you the arm...

Jump Jets are a mixed bag. When you need them they come in *awfully* handy; the rest of the time they're wasted weight/critical slots. I've always argued the ability to remove Jump Jets was one of the main advantages of the OmniMech.

Personally, I never played "straight" battletech again after the Solaris module came out.

[Armitage]

Originally posted by JohnathanChance
I had that module, but they should also be in the max tech book

"Unbound"
A lot of the items in the adventure never made it past the prototype stage at the New Avalon Institute of Science, so they never made it into any other Level 3 sourcebooks.

[Cosmic Man]

Personally, about 90% of my mech designs have jump capability. Why? I hate being restricted by terrain.

FYI, here's an icky design.
Codename: Tigger

Tons: 100
Move: 1/1/10
Triple Strength Myomer
50 tons mechanical jump boosters (for jump 10)
37.5 tons of Hardened Armor
1 flamer in the head
It has a 100 rating engine, 10 standard heat sinks that are typically turned off
Endo steel and XL gyro round out the construction.
You can keep going until the center torso is blasted out (since you have a standard fusion engine).

Basically, it absorbs tremendous punishment until you win the initiative and can jump into melee range. By then, you are at 9 on the heat scale and can shut off your heat sinks to stay there.

A jump of 10 means it's a penalty of 5 to hit you while you only have a penalty of 3 on physical attacks (which do double damage when at 9 on the heat scale).

I don't bring this mech to gaming anymore, it's just WRONG.
(but it's only base BV of 2,188, and you can put a crappy gunner in there to lower it, since physical attacks go off piloting skill, not gunnery)

[FTJoshua]

THAT is funny! Also, I would be punched if I tried it. But thank you for sharing!

[Cosmic Man]

Don't underestimate onboard artillery and TAG either.

You can mount an arrow 4 unit on mechs as small as 25 tons...
(I called them micro-pults, since they had the same movement and main armament as catapults)

A couple good pilots with TAG can do TREMENDOUS damage backed up by a couple lances of those.

***************************

Here was an ICKY unit I used as well:
1 star Salamander Elementals
1 star consisting of omnimechs mounting a LOT of flamers

Run up and just use the flamers to add heat to your target.
(After dropping the salamanders to play mop-up and insult-to-injry)

Ran one mech to 127 on the heat scale. *BOOM*

****************************

Don't underestimate vehicles either. Did you know a Savannah master can carry a full platoon of battle armor and only lose half it's speed?

When deploying infantry, velocity = victory.

****************************

Lastly, blackhawks (clan mechs) mounting 7 medium pulse lasers and targeting computer. Not my design but a good solid unit.

[Thirdbase]

Originally posted by JohnathanChance
Not to slam BT, I used to play excessively, but i just can't stand the game since they came out with clan tech. It was just too overpowered compared to anything else. Currently my only BT fix that I have is an old Amiga game I have running on an emulator, the game was called mechforce.

I kind of gave up on BT after a guy I knew was going off on powerful the 'Mechs were. As it was just after Op. Desert Storm I offered to do a mythical battle taking current US Army units on a one US Brigade = BT Regiment type match. He allowed that all "Anti tank" weapons would do 2 pt of damage and we would use real world ranges for US vehicles and BT ranges for his. He surrendered when I hit his landing zone with a Battalion of MLRS rockets slaughtering all of his exposed troops and shredding most everything else. And I was looking forward to watching his reaction to a Battalion of M1s taking aimed head shots at 2 to 3 kilometers or 4 to 6 times the range of any of his weapons while crossing the desert at 40+ kph.

[Dr.Unpossible]

http://www.classicbattletech.com

Just a side note. You may already know this link, but, It has a ton o great pre-MageKnight BattleTech info.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Well, on design:

1) Max armor, as someone else has said. Use Ferro-Fibrous if you can afford the critical spaces. On anything over 55 tons, you probably need to stick to regular armor.

2) Ditto Endosteel -- use it if you got the space, but don't sacrifice something else for it.

3) Jump Jets. Nearly every mech I've designed has Jump Jets. I'm not wild about them on the 60+ tonners because of the weight (and that goes double for the 90+ tonners) but I love the mobility.

4) If you can stand the cries of "CHEESE!" the LAM conversion gives you so much bang for the buck it's not funny. And if you think Clanners won't use LAM tech because it crosses the lines between Mechwarrior & Aerospace pilot, you're wrong -- Jade Falcon used some (but got them totally wasted because it had been so long since any were fielded they didn't know what they were doing).

5) Watch your design parameters! I can't stress this one hard enough. Take as an example the TR-1 Wraith. It's a grossly overtonnage mech. If you reduced the frame size by 15 tons, you need a much smaller (and hence lighter) engine, and can still mount *EXACTLY* the same armor & equipment. In other words, make *SURE* you don't fall into the trap of the Wraith -- including a bigger, heavier engine (and the bigger gyro & frame that go with it) just for the sake of moving the extra tonnage of the bigger engine.

6) Related to #5, there are certain "peaks" of design efficiancy. For example, 75 tons is a *nice* mix of bang for your buck, but there are others. Likewise there are a number of "troughs" of efficiency where you wonder just where all your money & tonnage have gone, and for what effect (60 tons is notorious for this).

7) Double Heat Sinks. If you can, stick with just the ones that will fit into the engine -- but this will probably necessitate some close looks at the heat load from your weapons.

8) XL Engine. If you've got max armor, this is generally a good gamble, and the tonnage savings can be incredible. Take note, though, it DOES make it much easier to disable the mech. Further, if you can't use the tonnage you save because of running out of critical spaces, put it back as a standard engine -- the survivability may just surprise you.

9) Machine guns are critseekers. They are extremely short range, of couse, but Clan MGs are only .25 tons each, and a number of MGs can feed off one ammo bin for a loooong time before going dry. Each successful hit with an MG is a chance at a 2 or a 12 on the Location Hit chart. MGs generate no heat, and you can cram an incredible number of them into a frame for very little weight. 10 MGs is 10 chances to hit, and each hit is a chance for a Critical!

10) Some special equipment costs spaces but not tonnage, some costs tonnage but not space. If you have either tonnage or space left over, fill in the blanks with some of these "freebies."

11) If you're going to use a hand-to-hand weapon, keep two things in mind: (1) use Triple-Strength Myomer and (2) use a Mace not a Hatchet. A Mace does 2 points for every 5 tons of the host mech. A heated-up 100 tonner with a mace does *80* points of damage to a single location! There's no mech I know of that can withstand even *one* hit from that kind of punishment!

[Armitage]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly
5) Watch your design parameters! I can't stress this one hard enough. Take as an example the TR-1 Wraith. It's a grossly overtonnage mech. If you reduced the frame size by 15 tons, you need a much smaller (and hence lighter) engine, and can still mount *EXACTLY* the same armor & equipment. In other words, make *SURE* you don't fall into the trap of the Wraith -- including a bigger, heavier engine (and the bigger gyro & frame that go with it) just for the sake of moving the extra tonnage of the bigger engine.

Just a small correction. If you reduce the Wraith design to 40 tons, the reduced internal structure limits it to a maximum of 137 points of armor. The standard Wraith has 161 points. Don't forget maximum armor is Internal Structure x 2.
There's 1.5 tons left unused in the 40 ton conversion, but that still doesn't let you add more armor.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Hmmm...maybe it was a reduction to 50 tons, then (IDHTBIFOM) but I recall doing the math when it first came out and thinking, "WTF? Oh...I guess they're simulating 'real life' and the way misdesigned things do get to the battlefield."

[FTJoshua]

Cool advice, y'all! Thank you. Keep it coming if anyone remembers anything else.
Thanks!
~T

[Shadowpup]

It's been a LOOONNNGG time for me but if things haven't changed much, then the magic numbers are 20,25,50,55,75 and 80 for tonnage. All the others are less efficient even 100.

If you can spare 25 tons make 5 ton hover craft that go blazing fast. they don't even have to have a gun. All they have to do is Ram.

If using the hiding rules, place your C3 units about various areas of the table. As long as they don't shoot, they are safe and put a deep cut into any Clan tech range advantages.

Use the Arrow IV suggestion listed earlier. They are the greatest. You don't need line of sight. In addition, they hit from the direction of the designator - place a few TAG lasers on fast hovers then move them to the rear of a target mech.

SRMs with Inferno rounds. You can set fire to clear grassy hexes with inferno rounds automatically. Fire is bad even for Clan mechs.

Always always always take double heat sinks. The 10 you get for free don't take up any extra space and clear 20 heat.

Never mount weapons in the arms. Mount them in the chest, head, or legs. Arms are for punching. You can punch and fire a chest mounted weapon in the same turn.

Use lots of LRM5s loaded with Thunder rounds. Turn the table into a minefield.

Use Gauss Rifles. One of the most efficient weapons in the game. Place the ammo all across your mech in all of the empty crit spaces - even if it's a single shot. That way there is no reroll for crit, you just lose a shot of ammo. Yeah yeah cheesy but if your friends want to play Clan tech they're already being cheesy.