Author Topic: Dealing with Assaults  (Read 7161 times)

jamesbeil

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Dealing with Assaults
« on: 01 April 2020, 05:11:04 »
In the 3025 and 3059 eras, what's the best way to deal with Assaults? I find that no matter how much I concentrate my fire on my opponent's Atlas or KGC-001, I just can't put the bloody thing in the ground while my relatively lighter mechs (mostly Mediums) get ripped to bits. Should I just outright ignore them, and focus on the lighter targets, or is there some trick I'm missing?

A typical force of mine looks like a medium Lance (Centurion, Vindicator, Enforcer, Catapult) with a light lance in support (JNR-07, 2 COM-2Ds, plus a CGR-1A1) against stuff like a King Crab, Behemoth, Goliath, and Crabs.

Frabby

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #1 on: 01 April 2020, 05:25:09 »
The very idea of the assault 'Mech is that they're superior to lighter units in a 1:1 fight.

That said, certain problems tend to pile up as  'Mech mass increases, and as a result assault 'Mechs are typically less efficient ton-for-ton than smaller 'Mechs.

Speed is one aspect. Lighter units can literally run circles around the lumbering assault 'Mechs, which is to say, they can generate higher to-hit numbers (in 3025 the adage was "speed is armor", though that's less true in alter eras when to-hit numbers plummet).
Also, faster (and especially jump-capable) units can use their superior mobility to get behind a larger enemy when they win initiative. As a result, their enemy can only bring either its rear-facing weapons or those from one of its arms (after a torso twist) to bear on the lighter attacker, while the lighter unit in turn can attack the significantly lighter rear armor. Standing directly behind an enemy can also give you a "free" kick, double punch or other physical attack in the sense that the other unit can only respond by twisting torso and puching with one arm, forgoing the chance to use that arm's weapons.

Finally, swarming. A lance of Stingers can put an Atlas in a world of hurt simply by surrounding it and kicking it until it fails a piloting skill roll and drops. Multiple kicks even from light and ultralight units are the bane of heavy and assault units. Mercer Ravannion was right, at least in boardgame terms.


From looking at the 'Mech roster you posted, the main problem in my eyes is that your "medium lance" is actually a wannbe heavy lance. It's 4/6 slow but doesn't have the armor or firepower to stand up to units twice as massive. The Centurion in particular is such a wannabe that combines the worst aspects of two weight classes. Your other 'Mechs are jump capable which should get them at least a slight advantage over their slower opponents.
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Church14

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #2 on: 01 April 2020, 07:26:46 »
He’s still fast enough to keep in the long range band of the assaults for a while. Especially in a clogged map.

The particular assaults mentioned are ammo hogs. Keep at long range with the best TMM, partial cover, woods you can and get your opponent to start burning ammo that matters. Get them to waste as much as possible before they enter a useful range. The king crab is garbage if you get them to run out.

If your opponent is cautious with ammo and won’t fire on bad to hit numbers, then hopefully you can lay in some damage before you get into good combat range for the assaults.

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #3 on: 01 April 2020, 07:28:10 »
A you need mechs that are FASTER than the assaults 4/6 to 3/5 is standard for them. So you need 5/8 to 6/9 speed mechs OR FASTER Your medium mechs  should be no less that 5/8  and should out number the assault mech by 2-1 or better.
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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #4 on: 01 April 2020, 08:17:25 »
Well a bit unorthodox, but have you thought of a squad or two of battle armor for the later time period.

While not as annoying as my beloved infiltrator II, the Achileus light armor can help your lance in two ways.

1) with their improved stealth, they're harder to hit, so they can get closer and make the dreaded leg attack.  Plus if your op for is focusing on your mechs, they might not notice the little guys.

2) If you've beaten him before with BA, he'll spend WAY too much time shooting the little guys, increasing the survivability of the bigger guys.

3) If you knock one of his down, that swarm attack is even more fun.

Bonus, since they jump 3, if you're in any kind of terrain, once they get there, the 3/5 assults will have to deal with them in the same hex.
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Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #5 on: 01 April 2020, 08:34:55 »
 I take it that you are playing lance scale fights with 4/5 pilots. You were using a reinforced lance that only had one mech capable of outflanking the enemy force, but even that can be quelled.  You have probably already learned that mechs like the Enforcer, or Vindicator find themselves simply outclassed in such fights, and rarely succeed at flanking the enemy. When I see your force, I do not see any mechs that can act as anchors for a line. I am experienced with mobile forces, but would strongly recommend you move this to the ground combat forum, where more people will be looking for threads like this..
« Last Edit: 01 April 2020, 08:38:37 by Minemech »

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #6 on: 01 April 2020, 08:39:33 »
A lot of assault mechs in those eras don't mind much in the way of anti-infantry weapons. If you can get one or two jump infantry platoons in close, a 3/5 assault will find them almost impossible to shake, and their damage will be light, but it will add up. Not to mention leg attacks, which can potentially cripple even an Atlas or King Crab in very short order. If your opponent includes an anti-infantry mech like a Firestarter or Stinger as an escort, just keep the inventory back for the time being - that escort mech is probably more expensive than the infantry you brought, so overall, your force should have an advantage in the overall battle.
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wolfspider

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #7 on: 01 April 2020, 08:41:18 »
You need a lance of Savannah Masters! Of course afterwards you will need to find new people to play with!  >:D
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AlphaMirage

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #8 on: 01 April 2020, 08:50:07 »
As mentioned upthread you should bring mechs capable of 5/8 so they can walk against an average assault's run.  Tactically you should try to draw the assault's lighter companions away from it in pursuit of your more nimble mechs, concentrate fire and kill those guys.  Outnumbering an assault by 3-1 is preferred as they have a lot of armor so you need to cycle your own mechs to make the most of their lesser armor especially if they are damaged.

Drawing assaults into complex terrain (forests, cities, swamps, etc...) where they have to use their limited mobility to turn or force their way through rather than gain a TMM works as most assaults don't have jump jets (Highlander and Victor just stay away from their AC/20 and you're good).  A jumper with a decent hole puncher can get behind and try to breach an assault's rear armor for delicious SRM spam and ammo explosions.  If its a long range opponent (ex Awesome, Zeus, Gauss Rifle equipped mechs) on an open map drop smoke rounds to ensure they can't get a good shot.  If its a missile boat like a Longbow just get up close and personal with it and try to stay at long range when dealing with its bodyguards at your mediums.

Another good thing is to stay in their side arc preferably an arc where they have long range weapons that would suffer a targeting penalty to hit you.

Inferno SRMs work as well, at best you can cause an ammo explosion permanently dealing with your problem (I killed a pristine Dire Wolf with Salamander BA this way), at worse the enemy becomes effectively immobile and can only use a percentage of their vast weapon or face a shutdown chance which means your offensive firepower become comparable (Took down a Warhawk this way).  You can also cause fires which will give you concealment.

Sabelkatten

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #9 on: 01 April 2020, 08:55:36 »
Bring a Vulcan or Blackjack, place your force in the best covered positions available, move the AC/2 forwards to range 22-24 such that you only fire when stationary. Plink your opponent and hope that either 1) he charges your position, giving you a defensive advantage, or 2) you get to fire off all the AC/2 ammo and manage to score a painful TAC or head hit.

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #10 on: 01 April 2020, 09:06:31 »
Terrain is your friend. Anything that will slow down that Assault advance only helps you keep one step ahead. Speed advantage is obviouse to most but I find that only plays a big factor on larger battlefields that gives you room to tack advantage of your movement. If you are only playing on a couple of maps, you might as well be stuck in a dark ally with a guerilla.

Next is range, use your LRMs and indirect fire with a fast spotter until hit and run attack with your faster SRM mech can really hurt them. I also would recommend Thunder LRMs for area denial asking as you can spear a ton of ammo.
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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #11 on: 01 April 2020, 09:06:47 »
As pointed out, there are many ways of dealing with an Assault 'Mech, at least if you have a significant speed advantage.  I've put down Assaults with a Locust (1-vs-1) on several occasions, although the Locust loses more often than not.  If you've got several Light 'Mechs against one Assault, speed modifiers, firing angles, and unanswered kicks from behind (or punches, if you weaken the rear torso armor first), give the Lights a significant advantage over the same tonnage of Assault.

MOST assaults have a "weak side", where their arm-mounted weapons are less effective (often due to minimum range modifiers) than the other side, so while one Light parks directly behind, a second Light sits one hex further behind and to the side where only the worse arm can fire at it, but it can still fire into the Assault's rear arc.  Note that a couple of Assaults (Stalker, Goliath) cannot torso-twist, so you can sit in a side angle where only one arm can fire (the Goliath doesn't have arms to do so), while the Stalker could flip its arms backwards and deliver fire from BOTH into its rear arc, but NOT into a side angle.  The Banshee has no weapon in the one arm, so it has a glaring blind spot off to that side and back from its rear facing.

Dealing with TWO or more Assaults is a much bigger problem, since one can protect the other's back and torso-twist to pour its full firepower into anything that tries for a back shot on its teammate.  At that point, you need to go for movement modifiers and sniping at range, preferably with a long-range energy weapon such as a LL or PPC, where the Assaults need 12+ or 13+ to hit you, while your own shots are at 10+ or 11+.  Unfortunately, those matches are no fun to play out, because it can take 20-40 turns for those poor-odds shots to add up enough to take down an Assault.

The other option is SRM spam on a massive scale.  With enough SRMs, the through-armor critical hits and head shots will frequently take out those Assaults even before their armor is breached in any location.  Again, using fast units to keep the movement modifiers up is a big help.  The Javelin is a good 'Mech for the task at 6/9/6 with twin SRM-6 racks, and the SRM version of the Trebuchet will generally suffice, although it's only a 5/8 mover and is a bit light on the armor protection.  An SRM Carrier probably won't survive more than one turn with a line of sight to an Assault 'Mech, but by taking advantage of terrain to get it into short range, it has the potential to destroy or disable any 'Mech in a single round of fire.

Going up against an Assault with a bunch of low-speed Mediums plays to the strengths of the Assault, and about all you can do is try to make sure that any time one of yours has a line of sight to the target, they ALL can fire.  Hiding one or more while the Assault gets to overmatch the others is a good way to lose.
« Last Edit: 01 April 2020, 09:10:08 by Kovax »

Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #12 on: 01 April 2020, 09:16:39 »
 My first recommendation would be to drop the Charger. a 64 damage charge is tolerable to the assault lance, as it is not a consistent wave of damage. The Charger may have low bv, but it is a stunt mech, that could be replaced with a Whitworth, or other mech that can deal more long term damage. The Scorpion would be a big step up, if you know how to use terrain with quads.
« Last Edit: 01 April 2020, 09:20:37 by Minemech »

Getz

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #13 on: 01 April 2020, 09:22:43 »
I going to echo the general point that you medium mechs are too slow.

Trying to take on assault mechs with slow mediums is playing your opponent at his own game, only you're trying to counter his durability with numbers.  That's playing the game on hard mode straight out of the gate and it's probably not working out so well for you because it's easier for him to tear down single mechs and incrementally degrade your firepower than it is for you to have the same effect against his well armoured machines.

But then again fundamentally that's what Assault Mechs are for - tearing apart smaller mechs that can't get out of their way - and right now you are giving him exactly the kind of fight where his equipment gets to shine.

You need to shift towards using faster, more mobile mechs - at least 5/8/5 movers and preferably faster - if you want to beat him with mediums, that way you really can start using mobility to make up for your lesser armour.  Slow mediums have their place, but taking on assaults isn't it - typically they do best matched against mechs of their own weight class which have given up something for more speed.  Seeing as you seem to be playing in the succession wars, I'd recommend that Griffins and Phoenix Hawks should be your go-to machines.
« Last Edit: 01 April 2020, 18:13:11 by Getz »

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Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #14 on: 01 April 2020, 09:40:40 »
From looking at the 'Mech roster you posted, the main problem in my eyes is that your "medium lance" is actually a wannbe heavy lance. It's 4/6 slow but doesn't have the armor or firepower to stand up to units twice as massive. The Centurion in particular is such a wannabe that combines the worst aspects of two weight classes. Your other 'Mechs are jump capable which should get them at least a slight advantage over their slower opponents.
What Frabby said here holds enormous value. The Centurion's weakness is particularly highlighted by the Orion, which actually has the armor to similar main guns in a battle, as well as act as an anchor for a line. The Centurion can try to, but its limitations come out quickly. It is only a medium, and is even under armored for its role as a medium. The HOP-4B at least tries to have the armor to back up the main guns, even if it loses the support weaponry in the process, still being hobbled by mass limitations.

Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #15 on: 01 April 2020, 10:11:18 »
This might help you better understand the Scorpion option that I mentioned (Note: The Scorpion bypasses most weaknesses listed):
As one of those responsible, I thought it might be entertaining to react.
(Probably not entertaining to me... ;) )


Not every design officially made is intended to be good. Some outright suck. Sometimes, that's an accident. Errors happen. And occasionally, rules changes are to blame.
But sometimes, the inefficiencies are intentional.

That's *kind of* the story behind the Ballius.

The intent for the totem Horse 'Mech was to create a quad that resolved or dealt with some of the weaknesses of a quad. The prime weakness of a quad is lack of crit space. That hurts a bit more in high tech designs.
The secondary weakness is lack of torso-twist.
Everything else is just peachy.

Now, from a Clan perspective, dueling-competence is a key design philosophy. Slow, plodding quads don't really work in that regard. The only way to make a quad a good duelist is either turrets (unavailable when created) or speed.
So, speed it was.

Why 6/9 on a 65 tonner? For the same tonnage, I could've used a standard 325, and basically taken the Crossbow route.
Which is exactly why I didn't.
Why not a 5/8 XL? Because there were enough 5/8 XL engined 65 tonners.
And 4/6 was too slow.
Also for a third reason, more on that below.

A second problem was that the massive engine basically tagteamed with the limited crit space, making massive weapons impractical. 325XL would have mitigated the former, and I could've elected to ditch Ferro or even Endo and come out ahead, tonnage-wise. But as indicated, the proliferation of 5/8 65 tonners was a strong reason not to take that course.

A 390 engine does provide one nice feature: internal sinks. However, actually dropping a couple in (nevermind 5) would've cut the already minimal pod tonnage even more. And the desired weapon configs were such that the DHS space needs never really became a problem.

Why not more missiles?
It was pondered. One of the configs would've given it 4 LRM15s with ammo, and a pair of erMLs. But that was a bit too Thunder-Stallion-like for me. It's also possible to make a 6-SRM4 version with erLL and paired erMLs, but I just went ATM instead.

Why the massive rear weaponry?
Partially because a quad kind of needs that, and the Ballius is likely to face enemies that have enough speed to flank it. I don't think that's wasted tonnage from that perspective, and there's another reason, more on that soon. Beyond that, a player can easily make a config with a pure frontal focus.
Plus I wanted to be the first to rear-mount an LPL. ;)


Finally, here's something I think a lot of people don't consider when evaluating this design:

You need to go prone with it. A lot.

Consider that it only costs 1 MP, and provides another +1 at range *without* giving you any penalties. It's like free, portable cover. It also gives you another option when dealing with an opponent that likes to punch.
And getting back up happens automatically while all legs are on, just burn the 2 MP, and take the 1 heat.
Which means that the Prime, with 2 ERLL, at a run, and having gotten up that turn is... at 0 heat.
Which means that the B can elect to run away from you one turn, still generate a +3, and STILL shoot you with the damn LPL.

Here's the other aspect of that:
At 6/9, and needing to invest 1 MP to go prone, you should be able to move at 7 hexes every turn.
At 5/8, not so much.
At 6/9, and needing to invest 2MP to stand up, at which point you can pick any facing, you'll likely still get your 7 hexes, or take 5-6 and another prone.
At 5/8, not so much.

5/8 is a pretty decent speed for a biped. 6/9 is nice. But a quad suffers a bit at 5/8, I would say that the sweet spots bump by 1 base MP.
So, a biped's 7/11 is a quad's 8/12. Etc.

If you're not using prone properly with this guy, you're leaving money on the table.



Now, here's something else:
Dueling. As I indicated, this was a prime concern in its design. Clan commanders spend a good % of their time in it, and have to defend against challenges to their position.
Which means you pick the venue.
Which means that you give yourself ideal terrain against whoever issued the challenge, or at least have the speed to compensate for cruddy terrain if that choice is out of your hands.
Against slower enemies, you use your speed and ranged weapon. Your to-hit differential should be +2 or +3 most every turn. With elite pilots, that means you're playing in the Long range band, and the Ballius is able to push things on the down-slope of the bellcurve most every turn.
Against faster enemies, you take your lumps, and worry less about dictating range. Sooner or later, you'll get the upper hand, and meanwhile, him being swifter also likely means he's significantly more frail than you. You can afford it. Meanwhile, he's either consigned to shooting at your sides, or still getting pelted. The ability to have two arcs that can affect your enemy's movement decisions gives you options, and also means he's much less likely to prevent getting shot if he loses initiative.


Frankly, the only thing it sucks at is moving Battle Armor, but from a Horse Combined Arms aspect, it still gains some points somewhere: Many Clans continue to be prone to ignore tanks in favor of Mechs as their priority target.
Which means a clever Ballius can provoke his enemies, draw hostile fire from friendly vehicles. Which is a job it's not bad at, since it combines a lot of armor and internals, with an ability to generate a +3 or +4 modifier on its motion alone every turn. The only other way to get that reliably done is a 5/8 frame with iJJs.


Could it have been better? Yeah, even given the fact that we couldn't adjust tonnage. But I think we took that ball and ran with it a bit further than some seem to think.

Paul

General308

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #16 on: 01 April 2020, 10:17:07 »
Rule changes also make Assaults harder to deal with.  Back in the day you moved as fast as you could and went for partial cover it was a plus 3 to hit.   Now with it being only a plus one it doesn't benefit lighter mechs as much as it use to.   In fact that rule change did more to help Assaults than any other weight class

Colt Ward

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #17 on: 01 April 2020, 10:35:30 »
What I am really wondering about is the game set up terms . . . is it BV balanced?  Do you try to match/balance the numbers, such as you take the 4 mechs listed and he takes 3, the Atlas & 2 low BV designs with both forces in nearly the same BV?

The other considerations come with terrain . . . are you playing on maps that force you into 9 hexes?  Are you able to keep your THN up?- btw the points about being too slow are exactly right, try it with say Dervish, Griffins, Wolverine 6M, and Cronus 3Ms and the result will be different.

Finally, not knowing the terms again . . . is he using any special munitions on the Atlas?
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Brakiel

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #18 on: 01 April 2020, 10:53:22 »
Note that a couple of Assaults (Stalker, Goliath) cannot torso-twist

?

I thought all ‘mechs can torso twist under TW. You’d have to be playing with quirks to not be able to torso twist, right?

Colt Ward

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #19 on: 01 April 2020, 10:55:59 »
Well, the two examples have different reasons . . . under TW, the Stalker can torso twist . . . the Goliath is a quad, and has no torso to twist.
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Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #20 on: 01 April 2020, 11:11:43 »
 A greater problem may be that you are trying to fix a symptom of the weaknesses of your playstyle, your weakness against the big guys, rather than improve it in general. Sometimes you just have to give other styles a try to learn their strengths and weaknesses. This may highlight such issues with your own style, leading you to field different mechs, nonetheless use the same mechs differently.

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #21 on: 01 April 2020, 20:05:31 »
Ditch the charger to upgrade the commandos to valkyries.

The jenner is marginal. Lore purists are gong to scream at this, but upgrade it to a jr7-f with more armor.

The enforcer and centurion hit hard for their size but can't take or avoid hits. Drop one to upgrade the jest of the lance.

Vindicator -> griffin
enforcer/centurion -> thunderbolt SE/orion


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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #22 on: 01 April 2020, 22:30:15 »
I have lost count of the number of atlas and assault mechs that I have destroyed with just two of my wolfhounds over 35 years of playing Battletech... Speed is usually the best counter to assault mechs.

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #23 on: 01 April 2020, 22:41:25 »
Atlas & King Crab?

Stay 10 hexes away,  rinse & repeat,  never stop running.

Get some PPCs in that force so you don't run out of ammo.

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #24 on: 01 April 2020, 23:26:11 »
Prepared ground and / or combined  arms .  The Assault mechs get slowed  down  by rough terrain  . Hit them with artillery  for a couple turns . Then the lighter units engage.  Most Assault  mechs tend to have  standard fusion engines in the years given so the back shits are less effective than 3058 + when far more Assaults  have XL and light fusion engine .

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #25 on: 02 April 2020, 02:43:55 »
Bring a Vulcan or Blackjack, place your force in the best covered positions available, move the AC/2 forwards to range 22-24 such that you only fire when stationary. Plink your opponent and hope that either 1) he charges your position, giving you a defensive advantage, or 2) you get to fire off all the AC/2 ammo and manage to score a painful TAC or head hit.

Bit of a tangent, but I find Assaults, if they ever go down, go down to head hits or lucky criticals. As a result, in a campaign I find casualty rates among Assault pilots are higher than any other weight class. They're in close combat more, so they get shot at more, they're easier to hit, so they take more hits, and just the laws of probability say they're going to take more head hits. Plinking away with lots of little weapons can be a surprisingly effective strategy.
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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #26 on: 02 April 2020, 03:41:44 »
Bit of a tangent, but I find Assaults, if they ever go down, go down to head hits or lucky criticals. As a result, in a campaign I find casualty rates among Assault pilots are higher than any other weight class. They're in close combat more, so they get shot at more, they're easier to hit, so they take more hits, and just the laws of probability say they're going to take more head hits. Plinking away with lots of little weapons can be a surprisingly effective strategy.
Just don't copy my crit rolls against a certain Marauder IIC... Cored the CT using only LB-X clusters without critting out the engine!!! :flame:

But in general TACs/Head hits are most dangerous to assaults.

Sharkapult

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #27 on: 02 April 2020, 04:53:50 »
Turn the pilots into jelly. Grab two spiders or ostscouts (RS with hands) jump into rear hex of the big nasty and give em a couple of punches. Next round jump out with one and jump back in with the other one and punch two more times. 1 in 6 for a head hit with a punch. Once you land a few head hits start kicking them to knock them down and score a free pilot hit for falling. I had a table-mate that did this ALL the time. Takes some patience but when it works it's spectacular

Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #28 on: 02 April 2020, 09:13:12 »
 When fighting against Clan players, and important variable is their judgement with Zel. Their pilots are already more accurate, and Stone Rhinos add in those Large Pulse Lasers to mitigate attempts at evasion. Depending upon what weapons they are willing to use against what mech, you may stand a better chance. Clan players are not stupid, but you have to play in such a manner to where you can get them to maneuver into a spot where you can smash their mechs quickly.

Minemech

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Re: Dealing with Assaults
« Reply #29 on: 02 April 2020, 09:24:39 »
 In the 3050s, Clan mechs had a frightful edge, which was somewhat tempered by Zel. To put it into perspective, even giving you upgraded mechs where appropriate, I could wipe out your entire force with a single Executioner. There were some common countermeasures. One was to play along, until you had the clan players in a position to where you could have a decisive edge if you broke Zel. Another was to hit hard and fast. A third is to use combined arms well, but realize that so can the clans with Elementals. Part of the backstory was the FedCom became Gauss crazy, because they realized that they were not able to deal decisive damage to Clan mechs without them.  If you force the Clan pilots into terrain whre range advantages will be mitigated, you have a better chance at downing their mechs, but their weapons still hit hard.