Just about all of us are here at least in part because we like big stompy robots that go pew pew. The people who write BattleTech fiction know this, and so just about every BattleTech novel, and even a substantial portion of the shorter-form pieces that have appeared in BattleCorps or Shrapnel, appease this fetish with at least one token 'Mech combat scene.
My question is: who, in your opinion, writes 'Mech combat scenes the best? Who was most successful at making these scenes exciting and immersive?
For example, Michael Stackpole (who, I believe, claimed that he used to actually roll dice under tabletop rules for his battle scenes, while obviously fudging/re-rolling narratively undesirable outcomes) has been criticized for writing battle scenes that feel like a "tennis match." And I can certainly understand where that comes from; he has a tendency to write as if all combatants are politely waiting their turn to shoot, to describe the result of each individual weapon shot, and he doesn't go to much effort to convey any maneuvering going on at all even with fast light 'Mechs. On the other hand, although it may just because he was the author of so much of the seminal early fiction, many later authors have imitated this style (heck it's a habit I have to try to break myself writing FanFic or Shrapnel submissions), so presumably a lot of people must find it serviceable.
