Hidden Units Usage

[NickAragua]

I've been doing some thinking about how to best make use of hidden units. Specifically, in situations where the opponent may or may not actually wander by at point blank range, thus forcing me to reveal the hidden units voluntarily (we'll forget about active probes and improved sensors for the time being).

How do people handle their hidden units? When's a good time to reveal them? When's a terrible time to reveal them?

[Colt Ward]

My ideal . . . and I did it once to some speedsters . . . is to have them come within short range before unmasking.

Situtation-
Enemy mixed company of meds & lights is following a medium lance as it retreats back down the road.  My vet mercs were higher tech than the regular locals & oppo mercs- ERLL and LPLs were forcing them to keep a respectful distance & stay to cover especially as the road ran between a river (5-9 hexes to the edge of the map) and some hills on the other side.  On the other side of the hills were some fields and crop land . . . I use double blind on MM as well as some of the more advanced rules, but I quit seeing a pair of Locusts, another 8/12, and something 7/11 trying to get around between hills & river.  Then they popped up as seen from my vet hidden lance- 2 Wolverine 8K, Uziel 2S and Nightsky 4S.  I watched them run across the open spaces trying to get behind my med lance (Men Shen, Wraith, Chameleon & Bloodhound) while staying out of LOS of them.  They crossed the ridge that had the woods hexes my mechs were hiding in, all within 6 hexes, some with their backs to my hidden and the last one to move was actually adjacent to the wooded hex.  The flanking lights came apart under the pounding that turn since they activated on firing . . . I needed 7s or better for 2 ERPPC, 2 PPC and 1 LPL and the smaller guns had good numbers too.  Final insult was a Wolverine and the Uziel were able to stomp on the Locust that had fallen at their feet.

The attacking company instantly went into retreat since they had already taken losses and lost most of a lance that turn.  The other commander was not happy to find the lance that way.

[dgorsman]

Haven't used it enough to get a good handle on it.  Generally, when it affords high kill probability on high value assets e.g. back shots with high damage weapons on an assault Mech that's a high percentage of remaining BV.

But if this is heading where I'm thinking... ohhh yeah.   8)

[Hellraiser]

Honestly, in a BV balanced battle, your hidden units work against you initially.

Say you have 2 lances hidden in a 12 v 12 company battle.

That means the entire enemy company is using focus fire on the 4 visible ones.

I find the best option I've ever done with them was making sure they had LOS to the enemy & using the aimed fire rule where u get a +1 to hit for every turn your tracking.

That helped for when I finally opened up w/ the hidden units & had near guaranteed hits on speedy Donars that had been harassing my other units.

It wasn't point blank shots, but it was just being able to hit them w/ some bonus ++ to hit.

The one point blank shot in that came was a Grendal moving right over the top of an SRM carrier & having a VERY bad day because of it.

[Calimehter]

Shameless plug for my own AAR thread  :D where we did a Hide and Seek battle in Game 3 where an dearth of point-blank opportunities was a known factor going in:

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=68325.0

The Lyran player in that game attempted an early reveal of a weaker "bait" unit in the hopes of luring their opponent to break their search line up and pursue into an ambush by a tougher unit by tempting them with an opportunity.  It kinda-sorta worked in our situation, but we were playing a fairly small game using the old Battleforce 2 rules for that scenario, so YMMV.  We are also still kind of rusty at this point from all our time off.  ;)

The basic principle of a "bait" reveal should work in TW-scale Battletech too.  The real trick IMO is to get your opponent to pursue in the first place, since this ruse can seem pretty obvious to an experienced or naturally cautious opponent.  I would think that you would either have to present an opportunity that was too good to pass up *or* make sure that your reveal was threatening enough (whether by threatening an objective or by revealing something that can move into a very advantageous position later if not dealt with *now*).

One other early reveal strategy I think could work well (but didn't get to see put into practice in that game) would be having multiple units with decent short-range firepower and decent mobility hidden close to each other, with the thought of springing out and quickly swarming and focus-firing a target that would normally never get close to them if it knew they were there.  This is sort of like a normal point blank shot, but more pro-active in that you are jumping or running out to them in a pre-planned fashion rather than hoping they get close enough for a true point blank shot.  A Nova Prime could work, but I think even faster units to threaten more ground (and improve your odds of not being found out by active probes or by having to turn on your ECM before you are ready) and make sure your reveal gets its best opportunity would be even better.  Something more like a pack of Wraiths or even some 8/12 or faster models.

You could even combine this method with the "bait" strategy by jumping out to bushwack someone, then fleeing the counterattack and trying to lure the faster counterattackers ahead of their support and into another ambush (this time by your slower and stronger hidden elements).