Sorry to say this but skills do affect BV, a 4/5 has a BV multiplier of 1, a 3/4 has a BV multiplier of 1.3 (Techmanual - BV skill multiplier table page 314). this helps balance out the better TN,s of a higher skilled mechwarrior.
It's actually 1.38 for a 3/4 [1.2 * 1.15]. And it's much too high for what you get.
Armor is severely undervalued in BV2, so without controls on the number of opponents, the higher skilled unit will always get kicked to death by a flood of lighter units. Especially on a wooded, city or hilly map with limited LOS.
People usually state that the Clans have some overwhelming advantage in firepower and speed, but that is not always the case. The most heavily-armored of the Clan units (
Dire Wolf, Warhawk, Blood Asp, etc.) are all 4/6 or slower. Pretty easy to catch up to if you're a 5/8 or better.
As for firepower, the Clans only have an advantage when comparing unit-to-unit. If you compare purely by Battle Value, they have a severe disadvantage.
CLAN
Name: Timber Wolf A
Speed: 5/8
Pilot: 3/4
Armor: 230
Damage: 68/63/30
BV: 2939
INNER SPHERE
Name: Rifleman RFL-6X
Speed: 5/8
Pilot: 4/5
Armor: 184
Damage: 40/30/20
BV: 1464
Name: Rifleman RFL-6X
Speed: 5/8
Pilot: 4/5
Armor: 184
Damage: 40/30/20
BV: 1464
TOTAL INNER SPHERE
Armor: 368
Damage: 80/60/40
BV: 2928
As you can see, the armor total is around 160% of the Clan 'Mech and the damage total is about 30% more for the Inner Sphere army, on average. While there are mitigating circumstances, such as the shorter range of the IS unit, this depends
entirely upon the terrain and map size.
In a wooded or city map, the
Timber Wolf is not going to have the 23-to-18 range advantage; its firepower won't come to bear until the IS unit(s) are well in range. If the map is smaller than 2x2 map sheets, the
Timber Wolf will also be unlikely to use its speed advantage to create a range gap. It will benefit from a better To-Hit, but that, again, is very small:
3 (Gunnery) + 2 (Attacker Ran) + 2 (Medium) + 2 (Defender Ran 5 hexes) = 9
4 (Gunnery) + 2 (Attacker Ran) + 2 (Medium) + 2 (Defender Ran 5 hexes) = 10
The advantage to hit only comes out to 8.33% at Medium range and 13.89% at Short. If we extrapolate that into average damage, the Inner Sphere will do roughly the same (68) as the
Timber Wolf at Short. But since the Inner Sphere has 60% more armor, it's also going to be able to absorb that damage a lot better.
In this way, armor is being undervalued currently and provides the larger army with a significant bonus against a smaller, more skilled force. Were the 3/4 pilot brought down to a more manageable percent increase (say 30% vs. today's 38%), we'd see more parity and less "whining" about swarms.