So, I tried a couple games in MegaMek, which didn't seem entirely happy with Drones, using several -05-X's. A couple of observations after messing around:
The 'Bad':
- Getting more than about 30 hexes of forward movement on the ground is hard! There are always trees, hills, roads, etc. messing things up and eating your movement up.
- Since a mech can only be the target of a single Charge per turn, swarms aren't quite as amazing as they could be. There were several times where I really, really wanted to be able to dog-pile on to a single mech (pun intended) but couldn't. Stupid rules!
- These little guys pretty reliably survived a single charge, but the second one had a high chance of things getting broke in the process.
- Even with all the crazy movement mods, these things are STILL vulnerable to getting blasted to pieces before the charge lands. It only really takes one hit from just about anything, and they have a good chance of dropping to the ground before the charge is complete.
- If you aren't charging, go prone in some heavy woods. You do NOT want to even have the possibility of someone hitting you because, again, one hit is all it takes.
- Charges aren't all that easy to land without a good piloting skill. All the little mods that tend to add up in a charge make it tough to get them hitting reliably without a good base piloting skill. Combined with the only-one-charge-per-mech rule, it was difficult to focus and put down any given mech when I used average pilot skills of 5. spending the BV to up the pilot skill to 3 or 4 is absolutely worth it.
The 'Good':
- When they hit, these things hit like a bombing run. Landing 40 points is usually possible, and even in 5-point groups is poweful. However, it isn't usually a one-shot kill. I was finding three of four solid hits is what it took to put most mechs out of action. Some lights could be blasted in one or two, but generally the bigger, slower mechs were easier to hit.
- Vehicles...(EDIT: I don't know what I did, but I swear MegaMek was letting me charge vehicles. It isn't supposed to, but it did! I just updated to the latest release, and can't get it to happen anymore. Drones be crazy, yo. So, ignore this part!)
- If you can find a mech with Reflective Armor, smash it like a piece of fine china! I didn't even really think about it, but dropped a Wendigo in as one of the opfor mechs in one game. When I landed a charge against it, the poor thing shed virtually all of the armor on one side of the mech. The next charge blew a side torso and a leg off, and took away most of the remaining torso armor. When the poor thing finally managed to stand back up (with one leg), I blasted it again and blew the off the head AND blew out the CT. It was glorious.
So, it was cheesy for sure, but not world-ending.