I don't see your point.
So I've gathered, yes. That point is simply that BattleTech is
already a game of chance and that any amount of playing skill can only try to manage the randomness as best possible, but not eliminate or control it. As such, there's only so much
point in trying to "play it safe" (which on a battlefield of all places is kind of an inherently silly notion to begin with).
What's the point in carrying 5 ton weapon that'll only be used if the other 5 ton weapon is destroyed? Especially when you already have reserve weapons in the form of 2 medium lasers? You'd be better off trading it for more heat sinks and ammo. At least then you could fire constantly while on the move. You could even upgrade the LL to a PPC and still be better off.
Would've, could've, should've doesn't win games (or battles, for that matter). If I'm handed a stock
Rifleman to go into a scenario with, you'd better believe that that second LL
will see use in conjunction with the first -- and that if I judge the time right I'll fully opt for an all-out alpha strike and damn the shutdown roll, too. There may well be players out there so risk-averse that they decry things like MASC or ultra autocannons as useless right from the word go because they're too afraid of rolling a 2 at the wrong moment...but I don't particularly count myself among them, and gambling on the heat scale if I think it might just pay off is just another part of that.
There's a difference between riding the heat curve and falling off of it. Losing 25-50% of your speed and receiving a targeting modifier the first time you fire all your primary weapons is falling off the curve.
In your opinion. Other people's mileage may vary.
I'm certainly not blind to the
Rifleman's flaws (frankly, even with no other post-intro tech available I think it'd be a great candidate for a TSM refit just so the heat it's going to build up anyway can do some good, too), but I'm not going to let them in turn blind me to what few
strengths the design actually does have, either.