Been there, done that. It just feels wrong, doesn’t it? The rest of the armor on this behemoth is barely grey. But I have to hide now.
It’s the enemy who sets the conditions of the battle. If they want to harass one far-off mech instead of focusing on a more immediate threat it’s not your fault if you exploit their behavior…
Give him a LRM 20+++. Or more.
Yeah, that’s why I want to find another one I could do that with, I’ve got this one situated for closer in stuff and have a LRM boat already. I’d make one out of a highlander but it’s the heaviest thing I’ve got right now so I find it more useful for soaking stuff up and stomping on it.
I got to admit, I can’t for the life of me figure out how ACs are supposed to work. Every time I try to use them I just come away convinced they weigh too much for what I get from them. The AC20 just makes me laugh, even the AC10 I find comically over weight for what the punch it provides. I’m clearly missing something about them that others have discovered.
Oh, and since the patch, I am finding it harder to knock mechs down on stability which is making SRM/LRM’ing them a longer process to knock them down.
Not really, they are indeed very heavy for the amount of damage you get. The main advantage of the AC/20 is that it’s a bunch of damage all in one place. A regular (non-called-shot) attack with an equivalent tonnage of medium lasers or SRMs will do more damage but it will be spread out and might not penetrate armor. But yeah, 2 and 5 are pretty marginal.
Right now I’m running with the Highlander and three Orion Ks or sometimes two Orions and a Battlemaster. They all have a long range weapon (AC or Gauss), MLs and LRMs. The Battlemaster also has a SRM6. I have two Sensor Lock mechs, for long range bombardment.
Sometimes I switch out the Battlemaster for an Orion V with ACs and SRMs. Core city.
yeah, the orion is probably my 2nd favorite of the group I’m running currently, but also like using thunderbolts, i armor most everything up so it takes me some time to take stuff down
funny thing, i found a jaggermech i have as the LRM boat, it has two LRM20+++ and one LRM5+++ on it w/ like 400 ammo and I sit behind hills and use it as mobile arty and destabalize stuff that i then disable or core with the other three
I got to say, of the games I’ve played this year that are full release, this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most.
I’d call it 50/50 this and XCOM2. If I could only play 2 games for the rest of my life, that’s them.
You know if at some point they make a DLC or in the 2nd one if they make it where you can field more than 4 mechs I’d feel like I could branch out, but with only 4 I’ve got to really be hyper selective about what goes on a mission. Just for my own personal tastes I’d really like to see them adopt in a future expansion a similiar ability like we’ve seen in xcom where the team you deploy is initially 4 but eventually through research or skill or money you can field 5 and then 6.
At that point I could use a light or medium as a scout and I could have a sniper dedicated using an AC20 or something.
It’s not like they can’t design missions that scale to numbers fielded from the human side and honestly sometimes it feels like I needed more than four just to deal with the missions they hand me when I run up against 12 enemies and there’s only four of me.
Did Xcom 2 WOTC release this year? Because that would be my other choice as well if it did.
August 29, 2017.
Ok, good, thought I was just being absent minded in my old age. So yeah, so far this would be my full release best game I’ve played so far this year.
Among the rare games I’ve played that were in EA, both rimworld and factorio were also really engaging for me.
Well you’re right, it has to have the WOTC expansion to go on the island with me and Battletech. Good point.
Keep in mind, even the every trustworthy medium laser weighs 5 tons, after you take into account the number of heatsinks necessary.
The AC 5, weighs 12 tons, after heatsinks and ammo are taken into account, and deal almost twice the damage and gave twice the range. Truly, the AC 5 is the very best weapon in the game.
Except it’s usually a waste to bring enough heatsinks to fully cancel out the heat buildup every turn, so comparisons based on that are going to be skewed. Often there are lulls in the battle when you are repositioning, or some weapons are out of range on a given turn, or you can take advantage of water to cool down faster. My general rule of thumb was that most mechs should be able to alpha strike three straight turns without taking damage.
And you’re also forgetting to account for accuracy, with the ML getting a bonus and the AC/5 getting a penalty from recoil. And if you include ++ variants, the ML gets a 35-damage version, further widening the gulf. The AC/5 does have a solid niche with its mix of range, stability, and respectable damage, but I find that most engagements are within ML range.
Yes to @legowarrior and @Thraeg. I don’t max out heat sinks, just add enough to give me a few alphas. Then when I get heat warnings I improvise. Like I said upthread, I now have three heat exchangers. It’s funny the way it shows worse heat when you install them. But it does help.
In fact my Highlander is heat neutral with its double heat sinks. It also has 1400 armor. So I could switch one or two out and give them to other mechs. I’ll have to run the numbers.
OTOH I have a pretty good system going. We’ll see.
Heat neutral isn’t necessary, but the opportunity cost is practically the same, whether you go full heat reduction or not because you can only go over your heat threshold by a single absolute amount.
Also, stability damage and range make the AC 5 just the best weapon overall. With the AC 5, I don’t have down time between mechs, because it’s always in range of some one and I usually can keep pumping out shots every turn with pretty good accuracy, and now at only 8 heat a shot, it’s even better.
Cross post from the bargain thread!
DEAL RED ALERTS
Battletech Digital Deluxe $10.39
And its DEAD.
When you start to get AC5+++ that are +20 stab damage. Well. You know. Rock two of them with a either a SRM+++ stab or a LRM 15 or 20 +++ stab. Watch any mech fall with two attacks.
Well, not Assaults. Stability is much tougher these days.