A lot of what is being said makes sense to me, but I just hate having my guard down for a turn. My mindset is to advance, stay mobile, and keep pushing forward. I'm in no way trying to brag, but I just got out of the USMC infantry and that is where that mindset comes from. Against one regular opponent I tend to make contact and push him back or force him to bring his forces together and take cover behind a mountain/cover. Another opponent I play who has far more experience than I tends to end up being a wall of mechs slamming into a wall of mechs until one side collapses.
Thinking I may be sacrificing mobility or accuracy for a turn or even having to fall back after dealing heavy damage just seems like giving up ground and giving the other side a chance to breathe. For example I threw some improved jump jets on a karhu, brought it up to 8 jumping MP for 4 heat with a retractable blade. Sure it gave me a high to hit defense mod but people scattered before engaging in close combat. So I had to reduce it to regular jump jets was able to put a TC, two large lasers, two mediums, and keep the blade all while breaking even heat wise.
My custom Battlemaster has a Gauss, LBX 10, 4 medium lasers, SRMs, and a small laser, so the range bands are all covered, and while the max damage only gets up to just under 60 points, he can keep moving and shooting aggressively.
I'm just trying to give you guys a good understand of my train of thought to give you a better understanding of the type of stuff I am looking for.
Do you guys have any suggestions for stock mechs that keep in this even heat exchange range? I have been going through my collected mech models and their stock variants on solaris skunk werks but havent seen all the intro box set variants yet. I have intro mechs, Victor, Blackjack, Marauder IIC, Grizzly, Bruin, Karhu, Kodiak, Warhammer IIC, Hellbringer, Fire Moth, and Valiant. Any suggestions for stock variants to check out would be more than welcome!