What do you think is a game breaking build?

[RoundTop]

Well, Supernova 4 is definitely balance-breaking.

The 4 large pulse lasers and targeting computers is certainly cheesy. But it is slow. Artillery and indirect lrms would do good. Infantry as well, since only 3 troops killed per laser.

So a pair of lrm carriers and a pair of infantry would give it a hard time in broken terrain.

[NeonKnight]

I think my Best friend has the most game breaking build. He is a around 6'4" and 200 pounds and tends to leans on the end of my game table and nearly flipping it.

[Sartris]

A much more common menace and people that roll dice through the area of play

[Kit deSummersville]

I think my Best friend has the most game breaking build. He is a around 6'4" and 200 pounds and tends to leans on the end of my game table and nearly flipping it.

We could counter that with Hellbie.

[massey]

I think my Best friend has the most game breaking build. He is a around 6'4" and 200 pounds and tends to leans on the end of my game table and nearly flipping it.

Tell that skinny bastard to quit leaning on your table.

[grimlock1]

The 4 large pulse lasers and targeting computers is certainly cheesy. But it is slow. Artillery and indirect lrms would do good. Infantry as well, since only 3 troops killed per laser.

So a pair of lrm carriers and a pair of infantry would give it a hard time in broken terrain.

Reflective armor and gauss, ER PPC, cER large and you can dictate the range while you whittle the beast down to a more manageable size.  Doesn't help much if you are playing with hidden units and you trip over this fellow, giving them a free point blank shot...

[chaosticket]

Reflective armor and gauss, ER PPC, cER large and you can dictate the range while you whittle the beast down to a more manageable size.  Doesn't help much if you are playing with hidden units and you trip over this fellow, giving them a free point blank shot...

Okay so then I can have special half-damage armor too, and I make my mech faster than yours so you cannot escape me, and I have a Bloodhound Active Probe so you cannot hide!

Anyone else realize these kind of responses are childish oneupsmanship? Its not like you can change your armor as soon at the battle starts, and by making a specialist you make them weaker to everything else. Laser Reflective armor doesnt even exist until 3058.

Knowing how to counter something is different than having the counter exactly when you need it.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The Supernova 4 has the same fundamental weakness as the Hellstar: it's not actually throwing that much damage out.  It's great at picking off fast-movers, but against something of equal size it's likely to get overwhelmed because its accuracy becomes less and less of an advantage.

[Sartris]

if you're the kind of person who just fields the most optimized designs, prepping a force to counter isn't really that particularly difficult. or fun.

[Mendrugo]

The original unbalanced build:  In a match based on tonnage, meeting your opponent's 200-ton 'Mech lance with 40 Savannah Masters.

[RoundTop]

The original unbalanced build:  In a match based on tonnage, meeting your opponent's 200-ton 'Mech lance with 40 Savannah Masters.

Swarm-LRMs, LBX, and SRM infernos. :)

[Kit deSummersville]

Swarm-LRMs, LBX, and SRM infernos. :)

Bah. HAG.

[Daryk]

Or artillery cannons...  >:D

[Kit deSummersville]

Ewwwww

[Daryk]

A Long Tom might just be able to get all of them at once...  ^-^

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Or artillery cannons...  >:D

In heavy woods, with surrounding woods.

[Mendrugo]

In heavy woods, with surrounding woods.

Savannah Master swarm commander:

I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you...FIRE!

[JadeHellbringer]

"I am the God of Pulse Lasers, and I bring you... ah... well, pulse lasers. It sounded more impressive when you said it, honestly."

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

If you've got double heatsinks, being on fire really isn't as scary as it sounds.

[Mendrugo]

If you've got double heatsinks, being on fire really isn't as scary as it sounds.

Right, but the artillery cannon emplacement sitting in the heavy woods...ain't gots no heatsinks 'tall...

[iamfanboy]

Game breaking build?

Fill your entire roster out with foot rifle infantry, broken into squads, in a BV2 game.

Why?

Because if they have four 'Mechs, you have at least forty units, if not MORE. Resolving your turn might take an hour, if you're lucky, and you'll be there for multiple days as you try to see if the 'Mechs slip on the bloody corpses all around them or if the rifle infantry plink enough damage and TACs to kill them all.

THAT breaks the game.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Simply reenact Hazen dropping the Emerald Talon by getting someone to swerve their car into the gaming table at 40mph.  That's game breaking!

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Right, but the artillery cannon emplacement sitting in the heavy woods...ain't gots no heatsinks 'tall...

That depends on what the artillery cannon is mounted on.

A Pillager Anvil, for example...

[JadeHellbringer]

Game breaking build?

Fill your entire roster out with foot rifle infantry, broken into squads, in a BV2 game.

Why?

Because if they have four 'Mechs, you have at least forty units, if not MORE. Resolving your turn might take an hour, if you're lucky, and you'll be there for multiple days as you try to see if the 'Mechs slip on the bloody corpses all around them or if the rifle infantry plink enough damage and TACs to kill them all.

THAT breaks the game.

But see, back to my earlier point, this likely will win games... once. After that, will you be invited to join future games?

There's 'win at all costs', and then there's 'don't be a dick to your gaming group'. Antics like this fall squarely into the latter category- I know I'd stay home rather than deal with someone like this. (Or more accurately, not give them a notice about the next game I'm running)

[Alsadius]

Game breaking build?

Fill your entire roster out with foot rifle infantry, broken into squads, in a BV2 game.

Why?

Because if they have four 'Mechs, you have at least forty units, if not MORE. Resolving your turn might take an hour, if you're lucky, and you'll be there for multiple days as you try to see if the 'Mechs slip on the bloody corpses all around them or if the rifle infantry plink enough damage and TACs to kill them all.

THAT breaks the game.

Wouldn't the force size modifier just result in you having like a tenth of the raw BV that they do? As long as they have some patience, and maybe the odd flamer, they should curb-stomp you.

[RoundTop]

Wouldn't the force size modifier just result in you having like a tenth of the raw BV that they do? As long as they have some patience, and maybe the odd flamer, they should curb-stomp you.

FSM was removed in the errata. It became too broken very quickly.

[iamfanboy]

But see, back to my earlier point, this likely will win games... once. After that, will you be invited to join future games?

There's 'win at all costs', and then there's 'don't be a dick to your gaming group'. Antics like this fall squarely into the latter category- I know I'd stay home rather than deal with someone like this. (Or more accurately, not give them a notice about the next game I'm running)

Oh, I'd never do it - aside from the one time I hunted down someone who lurved his Hellstar in hilly terrain with a full Star of power armor - but my thought when I see "Game breaking build" isn't strongest or weakest, but what makes the game bend all out of proportion to what its designers intended.

[Kit deSummersville]

Game breaking build?

Fill your entire roster out with foot rifle infantry, broken into squads, in a BV2 game.

Why?

Because if they have four 'Mechs, you have at least forty units, if not MORE. Resolving your turn might take an hour, if you're lucky, and you'll be there for multiple days as you try to see if the 'Mechs slip on the bloody corpses all around them or if the rifle infantry plink enough damage and TACs to kill them all.

THAT breaks the game.

Until he brings a Sentry.

[massey]

Game breaking build?

Fill your entire roster out with foot rifle infantry, broken into squads, in a BV2 game.

Why?

Because if they have four 'Mechs, you have at least forty units, if not MORE. Resolving your turn might take an hour, if you're lucky, and you'll be there for multiple days as you try to see if the 'Mechs slip on the bloody corpses all around them or if the rifle infantry plink enough damage and TACs to kill them all.

THAT breaks the game.

Wouldn't be fun to play against, at all.

For countering that tactic, this is why mechs like the Vulcan exist.  Load up that AC-2 with flechette ammo and just chew through them.  4 damage per hit, doubled if they're in the open.  You can kill a squad per round at 20+ hexes if they don't seek cover.  And if you can get in close and start some fires with that flamer, cover becomes death.

In-universe, that's why people don't take the "horde of infantry" army.  A properly equipped attacker will have something to counter it, and unlike your gaming buddies, they don't have to leave to take the kids to baseball practice by 4:00.

[grimlock1]

FSM was removed in the errata. It became too broken very quickly.

Maybe I'm totally missing the point of the FSM.  Wasn't it a (failed) attempt to counter zerg rushes and Savannah Master Swarms?