Anti-Air 'Mechs

[Weirdo]

Nope, it's very specifically something very different. The AA Mk 1 is shoulder-launched.

[Don Lunardi]

The Quickdraw is also referenced as being intended as a Rifleman replacement in its TRO listing, though there's not much about it that would seem to make it terribly capable in the AA category

[stancellor]

I know this is an old post, but i'm hoping to help someone else with what i learned this weekend.   
 
Catapult version C2:

 2 LB-2x and 2 LRM 15s  with a 0,1,or 2 gunnery skill.

I park it behind cover, or the rest of my unit, and with the low Gunnery, it's able to donate SERIOUS LRM fire support to the battle.  AND, when the VTOLs come in, the LB-2s with a -7 (-3 Cluster and -4 for 0/4 skill) that knocks them down every time.

In the past, I've had a problem with donating valuable BV just to shoot down low BV VTOL targets.  THIS unit allows me build a unit that can really contribute offensively to my own battlefield agenda (2LRM15s) and contribute defensively to incoming VTOL (2LB-2xs).

In addition, if we play double blind on megamek, then I can BLIND the other team while keeping my VTOLs in the air for gathering movement information.

[Col Toda]

For my LZ 4 O-Bakemonos with 2 tons of ADA Arrow IV ammo each . For Attacking formations 3 Anvil 8 M s with 1 Ton of ADA Arrow IV ammo each . My experience the incoming takes fire the round before it gets over the combat map the round of being over the combat map and the round after tends to dicourage a return strike .

[Wotan]

Any reason why the Rifleman IIC family is missing? And why only the Galahad 3 is listed, but not 1 and 2?

[mbear]

Or the original Mauler: 4x AC/2 backed by 2x LRM-15 and 2x ER Large Lasers.

[Kharim]

Men Shen B has 2xLBX-2 AC and a beagle active probe. It was intended as a sniper but it could always snipe some aircraft :)

[R.Tempest]

 I realize that it's not a Mech but what about the Pike? Especially a lance of them. They have deep ammo bins so specialty munitions are certainly viable.

[truetanker]

And why would I place a miserable Pike on the board when I could have these lovelies instead?

http://www.masterunitlist.info/Tools/CustomCard/5588

PV8 ( AC ) vs. PV18 ( Pike )

Yeah I know the TMM is 2, 3 on the Pike...

Only thing the Pike has going is the Turret special.

TT

[Sabelkatten]

The Pike does a little extra armor...

[truetanker]

Yeah that too...

TT

[Jellico]

Pike Cs do horrid things to other tanks. And the stupidly lone medium ranged makes the UACs effectively overcome the Clan crew penalty.

[RunandFindOut]

I only deploy Pikes by the lance, a Pike? not very useful.  A lance of Pikes can be very useful especially when you have them concentrate fire.  A company of pikes?  Now you're talking, and with AC2 ranges and proper formations that entire company of Pikes can all bring supporting fire to bear on a single target.

[Elmoth]

Company of pikes, around 7700 BV2.

[RunandFindOut]

Company of pikes, around 7700 BV2.

Not all battles are using BV for balancing.  A lot are "lance vs lance" or "company vs company."  In which case that company of Pikes on one side all concentrating fire and moving in formation can do ugly things to significantly more expensive battlemech companies.  36 AC2 will make anyone's day bad.

[truetanker]

3 AC/2 Carrier
1 Demolisher / Ontos

Very effective in any era!

TT

[Redlord320]

Which much is the best  at AA?

[Weirdo]

No such thing as best. The ones that are good at it follow the 100 rules of AA. The rules are as follows:
1 Range
2: RANGE
3: RANGE
(Rules 4 through 98 are simply "Range" over and over again, getting louder each time in hopes that the listener gets the point. By the time you reach 80 or so, a Marine Drill Sergeant is getting surgically implanted just inside your skull. At 90, we give that Sgt a bullhorn.)
99: To-hit modifiers are a nice, but optional.
100: Large damage chunks to cause threshold crits are nice, but optional.

[truetanker]

No such thing as best. The ones that are good at it follow the 100 rules of AA. The rules are as follows:
1 Range
2: RANGE
3: RANGE
(Rules 4 through 98 are simply "Range" over and over again, getting louder each time in hopes that the listener gets the point. By the time you reach 80 or so, a Marine Drill Sergeant is getting surgically implanted just inside your skull. At 90, we give that Sgt a bullhorn.)
99: To-hit modifiers are a nice, but optional.
100: Large damage chunks to cause threshold crits are nice, but optional.Replaced Drill Sargent with

TT

[Tai Dai Cultist]

To be fair, To-hit bonuses are a good bit more important in certain AA contexts than others.  That is: You don't need them so much vs Aerospace units (ASFs, Dropships) but you'll really want them versus aerial targets that get a TMM (VTOLs, WiGEs)

[Weirdo]

True. People talk about AA and I assume we're talking about killing aeros, but VTOLs are a whole nother ball game.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

No such thing as best. The ones that are good at it follow the 100 rules of AA. The rules are as follows:
1 Range
2: RANGE
3: RANGE
(Rules 4 through 98 are simply "Range" over and over again, getting louder each time in hopes that the listener gets the point. By the time you reach 80 or so, a Marine Drill Sergeant is getting surgically implanted just inside your skull. At 90, we give that Sgt a bullhorn.)
99: To-hit modifiers are a nice, but optional.
100: Large damage chunks to cause threshold crits are nice, but optional.

So if I'm reading this right, the answer is always Arrow IV SAM rounds?

[Weirdo]

Honestly, in most cases they're not that much better than most AC-2 models that don't end in -X. The ability to cover the entire battlefield is very nice, but targeting adjacent air hexes and such isn't as helpful as it sounds. A plane that's trying to affect the battlefield, yet moving so slow that it spends the turn before and/or after the attack run within one or two hexes of the ground maps is so arrogant that it deserves every Arrow you can feed it.

Okay, there's also the possibilities that it's a bomb truck too heavily loaded to actually fly any faster(in which case KILL IT NOW), or a fellow Arrow-toter(in which case you can feel free to hoist it by its own petard).

The point I was failing to make is that range isn't everything, otherwise rules 99 and 100 wouldn't be included.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Even from on-board artillery mechs?

[Weirdo]

Wouldn't they always be on-board? If it's decently off-board, wouldn't it be too far away to provide any AA cover to the main fight?

(Genuinely don't know. My group plays that if it's not on the map, it's not in the game. For us, ALL arty is on-board. As a result, I don't know how far away folks keep their far guns.)

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I have no idea.  My group doesn't really use artillery or aircraft beyond the occasional helicopter, so I really don't have a lot of experience with either.

[Wotan]

If you don't hit the ASF, your range doesn't matter. So to-hit modifiers are always nice. Depending on what rules you play it can be very hard to hit an attacking ASF (read Strategic Operations for it).
And when you hit, you should cause piloting rolls or roll for criticals by treshold. So your damage output is also important.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

ASFs are comparatively easy to hit (they don't get TMMs or terrain bonuses).  And usually, ASFs die in ground attack missions due to failing their Lawn Dart checks rather than the raw damage from ground fire.  I mainly play AS anymore so I'm not 100% on CBT/Boardgame BattleTech, but IIRC you get to force a Lawn Dart check simply on any hit, even one that doesn't threshold the location.

Wierdo's 100 rules of AAA fire are pretty much right when it comes to ASFs and DropShips.  Range is really all that matters... a 1 point plink from a LB-2X is sufficient to kill a 16,000 ton Taihou dropship flying overhead to commit a warcrime of a strike.

[Wotan]

ASFs are comparatively easy to hit (they don't get TMMs or terrain bonuses).  And usually, ASFs die in ground attack missions due to failing their Lawn Dart checks rather than the raw damage from ground fire.  I mainly play AS anymore so I'm not 100% on CBT/Boardgame BattleTech, but IIRC you get to force a Lawn Dart check simply on any hit, even one that doesn't threshold the location.

Wierdo's 100 rules of AAA fire are pretty much right when it comes to ASFs and DropShips.  Range is really all that matters... a 1 point plink from a LB-2X is sufficient to kill a 16,000 ton Taihou dropship flying overhead to commit a warcrime of a strike.

That why i refer to the used rule set. If you look for the advanced rules in SO, they aren't that easy to kill.
But if you go for the TW standard, you just need enough weapons, so that at least one of them hit.

[Jellico]

Off topic but who wins the war crime game. A Taihou or a Gorgon with a cargo bay of bombs?