How do you Megamek?

[Ogra_Chief]

Yes, I know however you would like. Looking to steal some ideas.

Currently running MekHQ Snapshot 0.45.4, AtB, and have my own way of playing, but was wondering how others play? What style? What tricks and shortcuts do you have hidden away, that may help others?

-Normally I claim only armor as salvage and strip them for parts, e.g. ammo, weapons, armor, etc.; as oppose to buying such equipment.

-Conversely, I’ll claim only certain armor units, e.g. Vedette’s, that I customize and turnaround to sell back to my employer at markup. Helps logistically and to train techs up.

-Additionally, any mechs claimed as salvage I sell back to my employer with a 15%-50% mark-up depending upon my dragoon rating at the end of each contract. Helps with clutter.

I usually play mid-to-late 3rd Succession War as I am more familiar with that era. Using a light regiment or reinforced merc battalion, depending on your point of view. So how do you do it?

[Shin Ji]

I always fix anything fixable that I salvage before I sell it. Selling things with the basic sell option in MekHQ is kinda a waste of time, but selling full mechs on the rolled tables is quite lucrative. Plus, it gives the techs something to do.

[Dr. Banzai]

Building Team Banzai from 3015 and rewriting history going into the Clan Invasion and FedCom Civil War. Got a bit slowed down right now as I'm adding factions to 5000+ active personnel with release 45.4.

[Rince Wind]

I always fix anything fixable that I salvage before I sell it. Selling things with the basic sell option in MekHQ is kinda a waste of time, but selling full mechs on the rolled tables is quite lucrative. Plus, it gives the techs something to do.

Is there an option to use the markets or do I have to calculate myself and give me the money on top of what I get from the regular sell option?

[MoleMan]

I only buy mechs outside of contracts, when I'm refitting and repairing back on outreach or something. I also never run 2of the same mech. I'm currently training up a proficient battle armour and artillery Lance from scratch which is fun, the first action my new BA point undertook they blew the leg clean off a pristine Griffin, they each got a hefty xp bonus for that

[Ogra_Chief]

Is there an option to use the markets or do I have to calculate myself and give me the money on top of what I get from the regular sell option?

I just do the calculations separate and use, GM Mode -> Add Funds, to add the funds.


I'm currently trying to head cannon how much a landhold would cost and to maintain. The idea being to send any excess equipment to the landhold for maintenance and sale; thus removing the equipment from my TO&E.

[Daryk]

No need to head canon... the AToW Companion (pages 246-251) has the rules.

[Ironboot]

For MekHQ.. from time to time I start my campaign like the Kell Hounds.  A Mechwarrior inherits millions of CBills and starts recruiting Mechwarriors, Techs, Admins for 1 year and start the campaign that way.

[Ragnaphael]

I always start with a backstory and always a small campaign, at most a lance and the bare minimum to get started (doc, 2 admins, tech/mechanic and some supplies). From there I start of and set myself limitations for the campaign.

For example my most recent one, where I made three mechwarriors, ex-gladiators who are behind their prime and/or injured due to the many fights and who strike out for themselves as mercs. Because they were always part of the elite, they only recruit people veteran or elite.

[MoleMan]

For MekHQ.. from time to time I start my campaign like the Kell Hounds.  A Mechwarrior inherits millions of CBills and starts recruiting Mechwarriors, Techs, Admins for 1 year and start the campaign that way.

This is a great way to start, the most fun part for me is always the struggle in the early days, I tend to start with one guy with an inherited light with $10m, and hire everything from there. This campaign we started the first contract with 2 lights and 3 tanks, and a hefty loan. It's great fun to always be scrabbling for money, every salvaged mech is precious (I don't buy from the market when on contract, and never buy parts in multiples), and you sometimes have to take out a second loan. I had to default on one of the contracts after getting hosed on a mission and only having 2 combat capable vehicles, which ruined my Merc rating, making it even more of a struggle. I find it much more engaging than an easy waltz to advanced tech mechs.

That campaign has started to become a bit easy now, half my mechs are IS2, $200m in the bank, I might go and pick a fight with some clanners to knock the company back down a peg or two.

[Stormforge]

Varies with each new AtB Campaign. Lately I have been messing with the AtB Noble Rules and customizing the scenarios to work on set land-hold maps.

I add +40 to each map's hex size in all other AtB campaigns. Chase Scenarios are on 58x110 maps.

Added on-board Artillery lately, and getting used to using it.

I tend to keep a flight of aircraft for CAS, or CAP if the enemy is deploying fighters. Fan of using a lance of Warrior H-7C for CAS too. Spot for indirect and park them behind a hill or trees. Hot-load a single ton of LRM Ammo for use with the SRM-4. Another unit to TAG and Semi-Guided works well with them too. I limit them to one battle reinforcement a week.

I use my support personnel in Base Defense Scenarios. This consists of infantry squads (Rifle Foot Infantry works, 4-man squad for admins, 5 for medical team, then 7-man squads of 1 tech and 6 soldier/astechs) and support vehicles such as cargo vehicles, coolant trucks, salvage vehicles, etc.

Noble rules I swapped the civilian units for light tanks, most of the same rules apply including limited lance size by terrain type. These and their personnel are tracked by the unit in MekHQ. They can be replaced with heavier units, but overall lance weight cannot exceed the land-hold battle weight. i.e. Light lance for no facilities, Medium with facilities or an urban map, Heavy if it has both.

Toying with the idea of setting the difficulty to Elite and then using a combined-arms company per scenario. Basically a Battalion overall. Only one lance per company is set for a scenario type Defend/Fight/Recon/Training. The other 2 lances are the reinforcements. One lance of mechs, one of vehicles or infantry, and a support lance of artillery, transports, etc. None of the lances can exceed the weight of the lance assigned the role type. Start with only a single combined-arms company.

Finding I like the FM Mercs Personnel Market better for Noble AtB. Never off-contract to search for certain personnel. Only rolls once a month, but you get a bit of a choice of who is available. Not always good choices. Lost a couple aero pilots after they lawn darted. Was months and moths to get anyone regular or above in the market.

Planetary Availability Market is working great for Noble AtB. Noticed things like Clan tech is a lot harder to come by even in 3070 Federated Suns. Was too easy to come by before. Just because you find a deal on a Clan mech on the unit market doesn't mean you will be able to find parts in a timely manner if at all.

[Kovax]

Current campaign started really small: 5 Million C-Bills, one Veteran MechWarrior/Admin(command)/Leader, plus a Regular MechWarrior, Vehicle Driver, Mech Tech, and Mechanic.  Everything else had to be obtained within the starting budget, and only Green recruits were allowed unless I got a free hire bonus on a monthly event roll during a contract, in which case I could hire a Regular.  Bought a Firestarter and a couple of light vehicles on the open market, and took a garrison contract with a house liason officer who added his 'Mech to the force on missions during that first contract.  Salvaged a couple of vehicles, then a Locust, and then a PXH, and pretty soon it was up to an understrength Company.

I normally take one repairable unit after a battle, and the rest of my allowed claims from units reduced to salvage.  That way, I've got an ample supply of parts, and one unit ('Mech or vehicle) to fix up and either sell or improve the force.  If I take too much salvage at once, I don't have the techs or astechs to repair or dismantle everything, because too many hours are spent just maintaining everything I've got.

As long as I've got one Veteran in a lance, I can train up Green recruits over the course of a contract.

[Schugger]

I play a 2950 campaign and about seven or 8 years into it. As do I do a lot of stuff manually, repairs etc., train techs as well as MWs quite a lot of time goes into between battle sequence. I actually really enjoy doing it this way, but I will be about 117 in real life when the Clans invade ;)
My mercenary consists of about 3 BattleMech Lances, 1 Vehicle Lance, 1 Mixed Lance, 1 ASF Lance and an infantry Company, about the Limit of what you can do with leadership Options on. Recently aquired a medium Dropship to burn some Money but I do feel it's overpowered in battles, so I rarely use it. You really get to know your MechWarriors and each loss really hurts. Mechs are about 90 to 95% stock or have been refitted to other "canon" variants, which also adds a bit to the feel of a campaign in the lostech era.

Usually I do take large breaks in between campaigning (for several month) but I always return to the campaign. Good stuff and it keeps getting better thanks to the effords the guys put into the game :)

[Easy]

cleanup