[0rph3u5]

I am currently stuck at the Liberation of Smithon ... The drop location is really disadvantagous and leaving my scouting mech (a Jenner) onboard the Argo for more guns (and punching), doesn't do much to mitigate the numerical advantage of Directorate Mechs...

Any tips? (Except of course saying goodbye to my payday and let the secondary goals slide)

[Spoon]

Which mission was that again?


Man, these destroy pirate supply convoy missions are starting to get a bit absurd. These convoys are consisting of multiple demolishers, lrm carriers and ppc carriers. Plus lances of mechs escorting and reinforcing. The amount of damage your start taking from these missions is not compensated by the money you receive. I mean, a single LRM carrier volley can do up to 5 full stability bars worth of damage. My **** keeps getting knocked down.
Not to mention this armless grasshopper somehow did a melee attack on my Orion, that blew the head clean off. Someone explain to me how.
Thankfully it was a mech with my main character so no mechwarriors were killed. It just means he's again spending months inside the medbay... Fun.

[0rph3u5]

The Liberation of Smithon is

Spoiler:

you are tasked of raiding a munitions depot. There are 8 high explosive caches on the map (6 or 3 must survive as a secondary); begining turn 3 convoys leave along a road to the north-west.

You start in south-east.

Opposition consist of 2 LRM turrets in mid SE, 2 AC turrets in the NW, 1 laser/srm combi turret in the S, as well as two lances of Mechs (1 Draco(?), 1 Griffin, 1 Cicada, 1 Jenner, 1 Panther, 1 Firestarter, 1 Locust, 1 Spider)

Atm, I have a Thunderbold, a Centurion, a Shadow Hawk, a Blackjack, a Vindicator, and 2 Jenners at the ready

[Spoon]

Holy **** yes, that mission is a complete pain in the ass. I managed to get all the objectives but at the end I had only one mech in fighting shape, the rest were crippled in various forms.
And I had an Orion, Dragon, Jager and a Centurion for that mission, which is a few ton more than what you have available.

Spoiler:

I send all my mechs to the left, and had one medium dedicated to the interception of the mobile hq's that spawn and leave. There will be only two of them, but they can take a pretty hefty beating. There's also a sniper turret to the far left, which I never managed to spot but it kept shooting my ****.
Imo chasing the convoy is probably not worth it, its only a 10-15% is increase in pay, but it makes everything significantly harder.
It's all a matter of getting the best value out of the two ammo crate explosions, that you're allowed to do before it'll cost you. If you can get 3 mechs caught in one, it'll eliminate the lesser armored ones outright and blow a significant amount of armor from the dragon and griffin, though it won't do any internal damage to them if they have full armor. The firestarter is going to be a massive pain if it gets close, might want to melee it once it gets in range, since the light mechs in this mission are all suprisingly good at absorbing damage.
Definitely leave the jenners at home, this is no place for lights.

Probably not terribly useful advice I know.

[The E]

Further notes, now that I am farther in:

-The Kintaro is an absolute beast. It runs hot as hell, but has enough damage output to punch far above its weight class; plus, since all its punch is in its SRMs, it deals a bunch of very useful stability damage
-This game really loooooves long missions. I've had some run for an hour.

[0rph3u5]

And I had an Orion, Dragon, Jager and a Centurion for that mission, which is a few ton more than what you have available.

Tonnage is not my problem ... yes, I am 2/3 on several heavier mechs but so far I actually felt that controlling the engagement with regards to cover and room to maneuver that I could hold my own elsewhere - this map has neither of those

On regards of the secondaries:

Spoiler:

I actually found that using the Shadow Hawk to meele the Ammo Carriers works well - like all vehicles a meele hit from the Shadow Hawk goes right rought their armour and than the double damage modifier does the numbers; for a medium the Shadow Hawk as very good mobility and 2 turns sprinting interrupted by a turn of meele'ing the Spider that patrols between the Drop Zone and the Ammo Carriers' first waypoint are enought to have in range to deal with those.

Downside is that it leaves it exposed to both AC and LRM turrets, meaning even with a good pilot you are going to see real Stability damage as soon as your Evasive-charges are up.

[Mikes]

Oh boy ... stuff gets really wild later on. 

Spoiler:

Enemy Recon Lance Commander (something along those lines, didn't write down the exact words): "Stand down and ....... oh crap, are they piloting Star Leage era Mechs?!? Command, we need Reinforcements oh crap we need reinforcements!"  ........  /Pulse Laser and Gauss Rifle fire ensues, didn't think they had that in the game, which made that mission/story twist all that much more satisfying! Dayumm!

Good Stuff Harebrained schemes, good stuff! I'm hands down more impressed than I ever was with a Battletech game and I'm not saying that because I didn't like any of the earlier games

[Mikes]

Holy **** yes, that mission is a complete pain in the ass. I managed to get all the objectives but at the end I had only one mech in fighting shape, the rest were crippled in various forms.
And I had an Orion, Dragon, Jager and a Centurion for that mission, which is a few ton more than what you have available.

Spoiler:

I send all my mechs to the left, and had one medium dedicated to the interception of the mobile hq's that spawn and leave. There will be only two of them, but they can take a pretty hefty beating. There's also a sniper turret to the far left, which I never managed to spot but it kept shooting my ****.
Imo chasing the convoy is probably not worth it, its only a 10-15% is increase in pay, but it makes everything significantly harder.
It's all a matter of getting the best value out of the two ammo crate explosions, that you're allowed to do before it'll cost you. If you can get 3 mechs caught in one, it'll eliminate the lesser armored ones outright and blow a significant amount of armor from the dragon and griffin, though it won't do any internal damage to them if they have full armor. The firestarter is going to be a massive pain if it gets close, might want to melee it once it gets in range, since the light mechs in this mission are all suprisingly good at absorbing damage.
Definitely leave the jenners at home, this is no place for lights.

Probably not terribly useful advice I know.

Yeah that mission was tricky. I was running Orion, Jager, Catapult and Blackknight (lucked out on that one pretty early on, is an absolute beast if you run it as a combined energy/melee/DFA platform) at that point so firepower was not an issue. I admit, it felt a little like overkill, as either Blackknight or Orion can handily tank the damage from the whole map for several rounds if set up well in cover.

What I wasn't prepared for however is how fast those mobile HQs are. Really need to take them down as asap or they run for the hills and are never seen again.



What made me really sweat was actually one of the random missions with the usual heavy lance of mechs to take down .... there was another full lance of mixed heavies (so i thought) coming from the right, which I expected, no problem, one of the mechs was hanging back and i still had only the sensor blip 3 rounds into the engagement, but was too busy to worry about that .... and well ...

...... what I did't expect was "SURPRISE King Crab" with dual AC20s suddenly coming around the hill rattatatatatatata owtch! 

[Spoon]

Oh boy ... stuff gets really wild later on. 

Spoiler:

Enemy Recon Lance Commander (something along those lines, didn't write down the exact words): "Stand down and ....... oh crap, are they piloting Star Leage era Mechs?!? Command, we need Reinforcements oh crap we need reinforcements!"  ........  /Pulse Laser and Gauss Rifle fire ensues, didn't think they had that in the game, which made that mission/story twist all that much more satisfying! Dayumm!

Good Stuff Harebrained schemes, good stuff! I'm hands down more impressed than I ever was with a Battletech game and I'm not saying that because I didn't like any of the earlier games

Ah yiss, I got to that part too today. Good stuff indeed.

Spoiler:

And the highlander that is gifted after is a treat too. Double heatsinks and a gauss rifle? yes sir, please.

...... what I did't expect was "SURPRISE King Crab" with dual AC20s suddenly coming around the hill rattatatatatatata owtch! 

The only King crab ive seen so far has been a partial salvage in a store somewhere. I'd love to have one

And I had an Orion, Dragon, Jager and a Centurion for that mission, which is a few ton more than what you have available.

Tonnage is not my problem ... yes, I am 2/3 on several heavier mechs but so far I actually felt that controlling the engagement with regards to cover and room to maneuver that I could hold my own elsewhere - this map has neither of those

On regards of the secondaries:

Spoiler:

I actually found that using the Shadow Hawk to meele the Ammo Carriers works well - like all vehicles a meele hit from the Shadow Hawk goes right rought their armour and than the double damage modifier does the numbers; for a medium the Shadow Hawk as very good mobility and 2 turns sprinting interrupted by a turn of meele'ing the Spider that patrols between the Drop Zone and the Ammo Carriers' first waypoint are enought to have in range to deal with those.

Downside is that it leaves it exposed to both AC and LRM turrets, meaning even with a good pilot you are going to see real Stability damage as soon as your Evasive-charges are up.

I had not really considered stomping the convoy in melee. One one hand yes, that kills em dead quick, but on the other hand, it leaves the stomper really deep in ****creek.

[The E]

Oh boy ... stuff gets really wild later on. 

Spoiler:

Enemy Recon Lance Commander (something along those lines, didn't write down the exact words): "Stand down and ....... oh crap, are they piloting Star Leage era Mechs?!? Command, we need Reinforcements oh crap we need reinforcements!"  ........  /Pulse Laser and Gauss Rifle fire ensues, didn't think they had that in the game, which made that mission/story twist all that much more satisfying! Dayumm!

Good Stuff Harebrained schemes, good stuff! I'm hands down more impressed than I ever was with a Battletech game and I'm not saying that because I didn't like any of the earlier games

Ah yiss, I got to that part too today. Good stuff indeed.

My favourite bit about that mission was Elias Toufexis as the Taurian CO.

Spoiler:

The power trip of running a heavy lance of SLDF mechs was fine too I guess.

[0rph3u5]

Finally liberated Smithon after getting a good night's rest...

Spoiler:

- Spend my first crate to take out the LRM turrets

- Got lucky and the Panther and the Cicada stood near a HE crate, took them out with one shot;
- It cost me my Centurion though, including a pilot death for Glitch

- The Griffin performed a Drop Attack on my Thunderbolt to little result, but I was able to exploit that, knocking it down and shooting off its legs

- Between my Shadow Hawk and my Blackjack I had enough Stability damage to kick-over the remaining lights and the Dragon
- But the Dragon's pilot died to a stray shot

So Glitch is dead, my Centurion is out of action (being refitted with almost everything)...

... on the flip side, I got salvage to finish work on a Dragon, a Panther and a Firestarter

Hurray?

[Spoon]

My Glitch is still alive and kicking, but RNG just decided that it was time for Behemoth to go. First round of combat, PPC to the cockpit, then a random medium laser a round after sealed the deal. Good times.

[crizza]

I'm not as far into the story as you are but I think I get the hang on it. LRMs with AC5s work just fine, but boy, my blackjack is a joy. 1 large laser and three mediums, enough heatsinks and armor...
Dunno which mission it was, but I think it was a priate assasination... the enemy target absorbed shots like a damage sponge.
Granted, I tried to disable it, but still...

Need to sort out my priorities: Do I want cbills or salvage rights?

[The E]

That depends entirely on what you need at the moment that you make the contract. If you're building out your forces, go for salvage; if you need to pay the bills, go for the c-notes. Personally, I usually go for more loot unless I'm getting below 2 or 3 times the monthly bill.

[Spoon]

It also kind of depends on the contract, and it can be tricky to guess what you'll be facing.
Sometimes you get these contracts that has you face a lance full of mechs that you'd like to add to your collection. At which point you wish you had negotiated more salvage rights. Selling redundant mechs is a pretty good source of income too for that matter, so getting some salvage is good either way. Then again there are some contracts that just pay significantly more than others, and if that contract also happens to include secondary objectives, then negotiating that extra pay might be very lucrative.

In hindsight, I feel just negotiating pure money for the very first bunch of missions would have been best, since you'll be facing ****ty light mechs and vehicles for most of those, not all that much worth salvaging there. But once you start facing mediums more regularly, skewing towards salvage starts paying off.

[0rph3u5]

Need to sort out my priorities: Do I want cbills or salvage rights?

I work in the same vein as The_E, however vs. Pirate Contracts usually have Mechs with less armor so you might want to increase your Salvage Rights just to get more pieces while vs. Directorate Contracts mean stiff opposition and therefor repair bills


Thanks to a defense mission, Tugboat can now go PEW-PEW with her laser-Hunchback and Shark finally got a Trebuchet for LRM support; means I can pass the Dragon down to Medusa for punching things harder (also the Dragon has Flamers now that it is no longer a support plattform)

[Buckshee Rounds]

Finally liberated Smithon after getting a good night's rest...

Spoiler:

- Spend my first crate to take out the LRM turrets

- Got lucky and the Panther and the Cicada stood near a HE crate, took them out with one shot;
- It cost me my Centurion though, including a pilot death for Glitch

- The Griffin performed a Drop Attack on my Thunderbolt to little result, but I was able to exploit that, knocking it down and shooting off its legs

- Between my Shadow Hawk and my Blackjack I had enough Stability damage to kick-over the remaining lights and the Dragon
- But the Dragon's pilot died to a stray shot

So Glitch is dead, my Centurion is out of action (being refitted with almost everything)...

... on the flip side, I got salvage to finish work on a Dragon, a Panther and a Firestarter

Hurray?

Congrats, that mission is such a pain.

Spoiler:

It's the first one I've savescummed on, not because I lost any mechs, but because those ****ing carriers are gone quick and I get completion seizures. Really wish the briefing had given just a little hint like oh by the way a light mech couldn't hurt or something with jump jets. The briefing for this one is frustratingly ambiguous imho.

I started with a Cataphract, Hunchback, Shadowhawk brawler and Treb. Treb can one shot the turrets easily enough and cripple most of the lights. Next time I think I'll just remove the Treb for a spotter Jenner or Panther and LRM Shadowhawk.

My Dekker is still alive and is one of my best pilots. Put him in a Jenner with high Pilot and he can get 5 evasive charges from sprinting or better yet jump-jets and an attack to boot.

Worst mission so far I lost 3 mechs, 2 dead pilots and 1 dismissed because to hell with waiting 3+ months for them to recover. Why are these guys signing up with my outfit, it's a constant bloodletting.

That feel when you negotiate for full money and have all 3 orion parts in potential salvage. D':

[0rph3u5]

Well, Shark just took an AC/20 to the face ... but then I got the final salvage on a Jagermech, a Kintaro, and gun-variant of the Hunchback (yeah, there is some wierd rule of 3 in play with my company). So, I know how it is for the company to bleed as much as it gains.

Other than that I am in good spot ATM; running a PPC Thunderbolt from Tactics/Gunnery avatar, I've Medusa (Guts/Piloting) running that SRM/Laser Dragon with full armor, Tugboat (Gunnery/Piloting) is running laser-Hunchback, and now its Timeslice with Piloting/Gunnery running Trebuchet with dual LRM 15s.

And at long last I am building that first simulator pod.

EDIT: Just finished the missions of Artru, walked away with the 3/3 salvage for the Battlemaster

[Aesaar]

Got myself a pair of Orions within 2 missions of each other.  Despite this, the munitions dump mission was still hella hard.  The one after that, not so much.

Current lance is
Orion w/ AC/20, LRM-15, 2 ML
Orion w/ 2 AC/5, LRM-10, 2 ML, 3 JJ
Thunderbolt w/ PPC, LRM-15, 4 JJ
Dragon w/ AC/10, SRM-4, 2 SL

LRMs and big autocannons go so well together once you bump tactics up to mostly eliminate minimum range on the lurms.

[Grizzly]

Got myself a pair of Orions within 2 missions of each other.  Despite this, the munitions dump mission was still hella hard.  The one after that, not so much.

I had the opposite experience: I didn't find the munitions dump mission to be all that difficult - I didn't try to keep at least 6 ammo crates alive though, I can imagine it becomes much, much harder if you do that. However, the mission afterwards to me was rather hard, becuase I was simply outclassed on that one.