Author Topic: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)  (Read 164903 times)

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #900 on: 14 January 2020, 13:46:33 »
I tried starting a new game last night.

The first mission after you become a mercenary, everything focused on attacking my commander.  Badly crippled my Blackjack and caused multiple head hits on my character.

Think I'm just going to scrap it and start over.
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Colt Ward

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #901 on: 14 January 2020, 14:49:26 »
Lol, must have done something in the story-building part to invite some headhunters . . .
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #902 on: 14 January 2020, 14:57:13 »
I guess.  My character's out of commission for two months.

Oh, I know what it was.

I hit "random callsign" and it came up Wombat.
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Sharpnel

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #903 on: 14 January 2020, 23:03:33 »
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Firesprocket

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #904 on: 14 January 2020, 23:17:07 »
OK, been trying out the Rifleman with an UAC5++ and so far... its underwhelming.
2 Ultra-5s are decent enough weapons, but really I can find no better combination for the mech than running multiple Ultra-2s and or LB-2 combos

Even with its increased rangefinder, you still need to get somewhat close in order to get a proper LOS for your weapons. A mech with LRMs and spotters to sensor lock is still more effective....

My next experiment is a Marauder with a gauss rifle and two LL for a heavy mech that can headcap.
You still have to worry about damage spread.  Lasers and standard/ultra ACs don't spread shot and you simply shred opposing armor with aimed shots far better.  LRMs IDF just means you won't be taking to many shots back.  The Marauder is at this point the MVP of the game and its not even close.  The aim shot bonus and stacking with a TTS and height advantages make shooting off heads a breeze.  Right before I ended by most recent career run I was managing a combination of 2 Marauders with 3 Ultra-2s with the other 2 mechs being swaps between a Banshee 3M/Catapult and Griffin/Vulcan for spotting.  I could take 5 star missions and clean house with maybe one mech taking internal damage.




Triptych

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #905 on: 15 January 2020, 12:29:33 »
ERPPCs with sufficient pluses would be better, I would think?
I tried a Warhammer with dual PPC++ and TTS++ but as Cache said, if the enemy has cover plus bulwark, so you cant headcap them with one hit even with the 20% bonus, so it didnt turn out very well.

2 Ultra-5s are decent enough weapons, but really I can find no better combination for the mech than running multiple Ultra-2s and or LB-2 combos
You still have to worry about damage spread.  Lasers and standard/ultra ACs don't spread shot and you simply shred opposing armor with aimed shots far better.  LRMs IDF just means you won't be taking to many shots back.  The Marauder is at this point the MVP of the game and its not even close.  The aim shot bonus and stacking with a TTS and height advantages make shooting off heads a breeze.  Right before I ended by most recent career run I was managing a combination of 2 Marauders with 3 Ultra-2s with the other 2 mechs being swaps between a Banshee 3M/Catapult and Griffin/Vulcan for spotting.  I could take 5 star missions and clean house with maybe one mech taking internal damage.

My Archer (dual LRM20++) and Catapult (dual LRM15++) can core an enemy mech's CT with consecutive called shots using a sensor spotter mech. I'm gonna try with a Marauder now.

Aargh, I tried to put on 4 UAC/10s on my brand new Annihilator, and I had to choose between running out of ammo or overheating due to not enough heatsinks. I like to maximize armor on all my mechs, so this is not feasible. I guess I'll have to strip my Rifleman in order to put 6 UAC/5s on it.  ???

Daryk

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #906 on: 15 January 2020, 16:58:44 »
The really nice trick is to knock them down first... then anyone can do free called shots to the CT.

DarkSpade

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #907 on: 15 January 2020, 18:39:30 »
If I want to kill a mech quick, the last thing I aim for is the head.   I'd rather most of my guns hit the center torso than just hoping enough hit the head.  Not as good for trying to get salvage, but a quick end means less repair bills.
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Daryk

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #908 on: 15 January 2020, 18:52:48 »
Knock down + CT called shots would routinely kill assault mechs in one round for me...

Cache

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #909 on: 15 January 2020, 19:35:53 »
I guess I'll have to strip my Rifleman in order to put 6 UAC/5s on it.  ???
Stick with UAC2's. The damage vs heat and weight is skewed towards it. In tabletop the AC2 does 1/10 the damage of an AC20. In this game it does 1/3 the damage, IIRC.

Apocal

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #910 on: 16 January 2020, 09:56:49 »
Stick with UAC2's. The damage vs heat and weight is skewed towards it. In tabletop the AC2 does 1/10 the damage of an AC20. In this game it does 1/3 the damage, IIRC.

Quint UAC/2s augmented by a secondary battery of ++dmg MLas only gets you around 455 damage. Quint UAC/5s alone manage 450.

Jim1701

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #911 on: 16 January 2020, 11:06:42 »
If I want to kill a mech quick, the last thing I aim for is the head.   I'd rather most of my guns hit the center torso than just hoping enough hit the head.  Not as good for trying to get salvage, but a quick end means less repair bills.

I have a Grasshopper build with 6 ML's and 6 SL's which is remarkably effective at head shots.  The quality of quantity.   :D

It's also quite good at coring Assaults with called shots to CT(R).

MarauderD

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #912 on: 16 January 2020, 12:28:49 »
Gents,

If you haven't tried a Marauder with 3 UAC2's and two to 4 medium lasers, you haven't seen the most broken head shot machine ever invented.

There is no comparison, trust me.  Honestly, it is way OP and needs to be toned down. If you thought the 6 ML/6 SL Grasshopper was a headshot machine, try doing it from across the map.  It's downright silly.

I think they need to hotfix something there so the Marauder gets a bonus with big weapons like a Gauss or AC/10, but with that weapon only.  Because the current bonus system gets a bit daft in its current iteration.


NickAragua

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #913 on: 16 January 2020, 12:46:38 »
I've been doing a career run-through with the Battletech Extended 3025-57 (commander edition) mod, plus a couple of others: Mission Control, Bigger Drops, and a pair of user-made flashpoints.

Doing ok, but now I'm pretty pumped up to try out a Marauder - I powered through "The Periphery is a Harsh Mistress" user-made flashpoint last night. There was a fairly amusing scenario on a lunar map where you had to face off against a lance of four Marauders (followed up by four mediums). The allied lance is pretty helpful but they focus their fire when they should spread it out (it'll become obvious why when you play that mission).

It's a pretty tough flashpoint overall (three missions with no break in between), so I'd recommend having a full lance of mediums, plus a few spares. Over the course of those three missions, two of my mechwarriors were injured, and I had to start cycling in Firestarters once my Phoenix Hawk and Shadow Hawk "became inoperable due to extensive damage" (aka the arms and legs started coming off). Which was just as well, I don't think the Shadow Hawk would have been able to keep up in the last mission of that flashpoint.

Anyway, long story short, I wound up being able to salvage a Marauder (playing with 5-part mechs and I wound up getting exactly 5 parts), which will be my first heavy this career run. My "random crate" at the start of the game featured a pair of UAC/2s, so maybe I'll give those a shot, since I don't have the spare PPCs at the moment anyway.

Cache

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #914 on: 16 January 2020, 17:36:08 »
Quint UAC/2s augmented by a secondary battery of ++dmg MLas only gets you around 455 damage. Quint UAC/5s alone manage 450.
That'd be an Annihilator. For that I use the weight savings of UAC/2s for jump jets, max armor, and enough ammo and heat sinks to fire constantly. Backup weapons really aren't necessary, nor is 450 damage per alpha. Called shots with 350 damage work just fine to keep the bad guys out of ML range.

DarkSpade

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #915 on: 16 January 2020, 18:15:25 »
Got my mortar last night.  No clue what I'm going to put it on.
Space Marines are guys who look at a chainsaw and think, “That should be balanced for parrying.”

Luciora

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #916 on: 16 January 2020, 18:41:20 »
I put it on an Archer, using LRM15s to free up the needed mass.  Wish it was more than one shot though.

Got my mortar last night.  No clue what I'm going to put it on.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #917 on: 16 January 2020, 19:41:56 »
I fought an Archer today.  Went back to my original game and had one spawn on the mission- the 2S variant.  Man, that thing was painful to fight (the heaviest mech I have is a Thunderbolt).
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DarkSpade

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #918 on: 16 January 2020, 20:55:49 »
I love both of mine.  One mounts 2 LRM20s, a TTS, and 2 Medium lasers.  The other mounts 4 SRM6s, 2 medium lasers, and whatever 0 weight arm mods I have at the time.  The arm mods rarely last more than one mission.  I'm trying to get +stb damage SRMs, but I keep finding +4 damage.  Not that that's a bad thing.

Went ahead and down graded my catapult to LRM15s and took out a slot of ammo and it made just enough room for the mortar.  First shot I got with it was only able to hit 1 mech(I had forgotten I had it the whole fight), but it was worth it.  that mech was a raven and I took out it's ECM with one mortar shot!
Space Marines are guys who look at a chainsaw and think, “That should be balanced for parrying.”

Apocal

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #919 on: 16 January 2020, 23:56:25 »
That'd be an Annihilator. For that I use the weight savings of UAC/2s for jump jets, max armor, and enough ammo and heat sinks to fire constantly. Backup weapons really aren't necessary, nor is 450 damage per alpha. Called shots with 350 damage work just fine to keep the bad guys out of ML range.

350 dmg probably won't punch through something like an Annihilator in cover (20% DR + whatever damage goes away the head/CT), that's why I push higher (400+) builds for endgame, because stock Annihilators are the headcap menaces that keep killing my pilots.

Cache

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #920 on: 17 January 2020, 08:13:02 »
I just don't let them get in range. I park 2 snipers and a missile boat in the first good cover I find then use a spotter to find and draw in targets. The spotter stays out of visual range and my firing line is out of sensor range. Can't remember the last time an Annihilator got off a shot.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #921 on: 18 January 2020, 02:38:48 »
Back to playing my original game.  From when the game was released (yeah, I never finished- got distracted about the time Flashpoint was released).

Took a contract to take out two big Taurian mechs.  Dropped in, discovered they were also being hunted by a Davion lance.

The Taurian mechs turned out to be a C4 Catapult and an Atlas.  Given that my heaviest mechs were a heavily modified Jagermech and a Thunderbolt, this was a bit alarming.  Ended up killing the Cat fairly quickly (got lucky and took out the pilot, so the mech was left intact), then fell back to let the Davions soften the Atlas up for me.  The Davions hit it with a Locust, Kintaro, and C1 Cat.  I took out the Locust once the Kintaro got LOS to the Atlas to keep it from spotting against me, then the Cat charged me so I ended up focusing on it.  By that time, the Atlas had killed the Kintaro.

Got my Shadow Hawk and Jenner around behind the Atlas and kept shooting it in the butt- didn't pay much attention while it was focused on my Jager (which seems to be the computer's favorite target).  It took out the Right Arm on the Jager, annoyingly costing me the AC 10 ++ I had installed in it- thankfully I had a backup.  Finally killed the Atlas- I was hoping to kill the pilot and recover the whole mech but no such luck.

Ended up getting the final piece needed to put up a Kintaro, took the one piece of the Atlas, and salvaged 2/3rds of each Catapult.  Think I'm getting close to boosting my force's average mass.
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DarkSpade

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #922 on: 18 January 2020, 09:55:54 »
Last night I finally got my first Annihilator out of the shop last night.  Put in an AC10, UAC10, LBX10, and an AC5.  First shot it gets, I head cap a hunchback.  Second shot I take is an aimed shot at the center torso of a thunderbolt. Head capped it too!


Kind of disappointed to find it in a store though.  Seems like all my upgrades come out of the store in spite of having salvage set to generous and cash set to stingy.  Warhammer, Annihilator, Atlas II, Marauder, and Archer all came from the store. The first 3 were before I ever saw one on the battlefield.

I am starting to wonder if my settings got reversed somehow. Salvage rewards don't seem much more than normal and I'm getting oddly high payouts.  Any way to verify it?
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #923 on: 19 January 2020, 00:51:51 »
I've fought P-Hawks twice now.

Those things are mean.
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Firesprocket

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #924 on: 19 January 2020, 03:06:42 »
Quint UAC/2s augmented by a secondary battery of ++dmg MLas only gets you around 455 damage. Quint UAC/5s alone manage 450.
Gents,

If you haven't tried a Marauder with 3 UAC2's and two to 4 medium lasers, you haven't seen the most broken head shot machine ever invented.
Honestly I don't bother with Medium lasers on the Annhilator or the Marauder.  There really is no need.  My back up is a pair of Small Lasers on the Marauder and none for the Annhilator.  You just usually eat away the armor or shoot off the head before anything becomes a threat to get in medium range with 3-5 Ultra-2s.  I just jack up the Annhilator's front armor, put enough on the back to take a couple medium lasers.  It is all AC/2, a massive amount of ammo, a mortar, and a couple jump jets for that extra maneuverability.  The Marauder is just 3 Ultras and several tons of ammo with jets.  Marauders are pretty much all you need when you have high gunnery and tactics skill.

Knock down + CT called shots would routinely kill assault mechs in one round for me...
You can still do it, but it overall has less of a chance of happening in one volley from one mech when compared to ACs.  Environmental conditions in lunar or volcanic drastically reduce the effectiveness of your heat sinks and ACs and Gauss come out ahead in those environments because there is little, if any, environments to duck into cover.  Missile weapons are more likely to cause collateral damage which I want to avoid in order to create more salvage.

Got my mortar last night.  No clue what I'm going to put it on.
Anything you can. fit it on and have a few medium lasers in reserve.  I had a Griffin that had 3 Medium lasers and a Mortar.  It would spot and wait for the AI bunch up and then launch the mortar.  Usually that would create holes in their rear armor and would flatten light mechs to the point all that remained was mop up duty.
I fought an Archer today.  Went back to my original game and had one spawn on the mission- the 2S variant.  Man, that thing was painful to fight (the heaviest mech I have is a Thunderbolt).
Archer's are quite a bit more painful than LRM Jagers or Thunderbolts.  If I find one, I go out of my way to kill it as quickly as possible.

Last night I finally got my first Annihilator out of the shop last night.  Put in an AC10, UAC10, LBX10, and an AC5.  First shot it gets, I head cap a hunchback.  Second shot I take is an aimed shot at the center torso of a thunderbolt. Head capped it too!

Kind of disappointed to find it in a store though.  Seems like all my upgrades come out of the store in spite of having salvage set to generous and cash set to stingy.  Warhammer, Annihilator, Atlas II, Marauder, and Archer all came from the store. The first 3 were before I ever saw one on the battlefield.

I am starting to wonder if my settings got reversed somehow. Salvage rewards don't seem much more than normal and I'm getting oddly high payouts.  Any way to verify it?
The majority of good stuff in the game is going to be store bought now.  There is not that much reason, if any at all,  to salvage anymore unless you are going for goals in career mode or certain chassis.  On the current careers mode I am in I took cash payouts over salvage.  You will still get other mechs slowly and I got a single gifted mech, an Assassin in the most current career mode.  I wasn't able to obtain that many COIL weapons in the last play through.  I have a a few of them this go around and the Assassin is the MVP with a single mounted Large COIL.  If I don't vaporize a light mech or leg a medium in open terrain it is a shock.

I've fought P-Hawks twice now.

Those things are mean.
The AI seems to use them fairly effectively.  2 of them served me well for a bit on my last play through.  I haven't obtained one in this play through.  Once I do though I'm going to see how dastardly a couple of coil weapons on one mech can be. 

Apocal

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #925 on: 19 January 2020, 04:21:39 »
I just don't let them get in range. I park 2 snipers and a missile boat in the first good cover I find then use a spotter to find and draw in targets. The spotter stays out of visual range and my firing line is out of sensor range. Can't remember the last time an Annihilator got off a shot.

I always move one initiative phase before them, so they never get a shot off on me either. Other units, I'll just tank but four headcappers is about four too many to avoid the Eye of Sauron from all my autocannons.




mechnut450

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #926 on: 19 January 2020, 20:39:36 »
oh man watch out I have a caper in my lance, I now done several head-shots with this guass rifle ( instant death with it for every head hit)  I taken a a cyclopes out with a single shot to the head and made enough extra ( one of hold out x rounds for win) so right before the final round  I finally got enough of the light guys taken care of with ammo explosions  in 3 of them. that i start to aim at cyclopes and figure I pop off with a called shot and a single weapon  and boom dropped him with a head shot.  now I need to refit it into a good mech to support my atlas 7d, 2 highlanders and the banshee ( might drop the last for the cyclopes )

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #927 on: 19 January 2020, 23:22:47 »
Is there a strategy for beating the "assist our noobs" missions? I always end up fighting a Dragon or Wolverine that instagibs the sucky little mechs I'm supposed to be taking care of.
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Triptych

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #928 on: 20 January 2020, 00:10:39 »
What do y'all think of snub PPCs? Worth it or just stick with the normal ones?

Right now my King Crab has got 2 LRM20++ and 2 LL (+10dmg, +3 accuracy) with DHS, but I'm thinking of switching the lasers to the snub PPC- more heat, but hopefully a more powerful alpha strike.

Luciora

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #929 on: 20 January 2020, 00:41:26 »
What mech are you leading with?  I usually keep them behind my Marauder, reserve them let them mob a single isolated target while the Maruader tanks everything else.

Is there a strategy for beating the "assist our noobs" missions? I always end up fighting a Dragon or Wolverine that instagibs the sucky little mechs I'm supposed to be taking care of.

 

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