We see requests for how to play, design forces etc. in these and other forums frequently. I get lots of questions when I play with less experienced players. I see basic mistakes made by players I know are experienced but never seem to progress past “familiar with the game” proficiency.
This is Nastyogre’s Battletech University. My thoughts, suggestions and observations from playing quite literally hundreds of games. Perhaps in excess of 1000. (My guess is I average 100-200 games per year for the last six years. Mekwars is a wonderful place) I am not the best player, but I’m no easy mark and I’ve taught dozens of players the basics of the game in the last six years.
Experienced, strong players may decry some of this advice as overly simplistic. Flanking, encirclement and managing heat spikes may be important features to bring to your play, but for a player that routinely sandblasts their opponents but destroys nothing, watches each game while their units are separated and destroyed or sets up for an all or nothing Alpha strike or kick and fails only to blame the RNG, playing a simpler, tighter game is the way to learn.
I've tried to keep the advice tactical in nature. That's the biggest challenge I see for newer or developing players. Strategic discussions should be separate courses.
Battletech 101: These are the first concepts and skills you need to develop. They come from studying the Total Warfare book. (or the older rulebooks in my case, I had the old boxed set with the cardstock mechs). Great resources are the quick reference guides at the back of the Total Warfare book. Additionally, any other rules (say from Tac ops) that you are using in your campaign or play environment. Other place to gain this knowledge? Playing. Play the game. Play 1 on 1, 2 on 2 or lance based games. Play by yourself. Play using Megamek. Play in your head while you fall asleep at night. Best of all, get a starter set and play against other people in your basement, rec room or FLGS.
1. Know the Basics (Ranges, effects, damage, etc.)
Either learn or print one of the many different pages with basic weapon information on it. Know that a PPC’s med range is 12. Know that med range gives your opponent a +2 to hit above their base Gunnery skill number. So that Warhammer is going to shoot at you on a 6 plus your move mod and their move mod if you end up from 12-7 hexes away. If all you have is Large Laser, stopping at 12 hexes is probably a bad idea. Move to 10 so you get a medium range shot or stay out at 13 so you both have long range shots. Know your heat scale. Can you afford to heat to 12? 14? 19? (Usually no, but what if you have little choice?) You should know the effect.
A list of Basic ideas you should know or have handy when playing.
Weapons: Ranges, Heat, Damage and how that damage is distributed.
Movement: Mods for Walking, Running and Jumping. Mods for distance traveled.
PSRs: When they happen, what modifies them.
Weapons fire and physical attack rolls: What modifies these rolls? (movement, cover)Line of sight.
2. Move correctly
Keep your movement modifiers neutral or positive whenever possible. Walking gives you a +1 modifier to your roll (positives are bad in to hit numbers) So always Walk for at least 3 hexes movement. (Remember Hexes count for mod, not just movement points spent) you will give your opponent a +1 for walking 3-4 hexes. So you are movement neutral. You neither benefitted from movement (in terms of hit mod) nor were at a disadvantage due to movement.
The best of course is to put yourself at an advantage when you move. Walk for 5. You give yourself only +1 but you give your opponent +2. You have an advantage as long as your opponent can’t do the same back to you.
I see newer and developing players move that Warhammer to Run three hexes forward turn and move one more for a four hex move for a +1. Most of the time, you might as well walk, that extra hex doesn’t mean anything unless you have used it to get to partial cover or woods or something.
That is Battletech 101. Before you learn anything else, you must know these and be able to use that knowledge in a game.
Battletech 201: Once you don’t do really silly things like running for +1 with that Jenner or shoot from range 7 when you could have closed to range 6 with that Awesome. It’s time to learn the next rules/concepts. These start to build your tactical sense and provide you guidance on how to achieve victory rather than just not embarrass yourself.
3. Keep it Tight (KIT)
Keeping it tight is making sure your units are mutually supporting. In general, units should move no more than 1-2 turns away from their fellows.
Ex1: Hatcheman, Whitworth, Spider, Phoenix Hawk.
The HCT and WHT should really stat together within 4-6 hexes, probably closer. The Spider should be no more than 12 hexes away the Phoenix Hawk 9. You need to be careful with this. A Spider 12 hexes away from the HCT and the WHT is 2-3 turns worth of movement away from help. If the Spider goes down with a leg hit, you are looking at a long time before his friends can get there to help him.
Ex 2.
Victor, Victor, Banshee 3C, Awesome
The Awesome is slower than the other three units for whom it is providing covering fire. If the AWS lags too far behind while its long range weapons might be able to reach targets, they will very high to-hit numbers and will not be an effective threat. The Victors and Banshee should be advancing at a speed of 5 to keep that Awesome close. They shouldn’t get more than 6 ahead of the AWS. Even then, they could be taking fire at an opponents short range while the AWS is shooting back at medium. Not a good example of “Keeping it Tight.”
Keeping it tight allows you to do a few things.
1. Cover your backsides. Those flankers and backstabbers face the guns of not one but all four of your units. This alone can defeat players who rely upon flanking shots and physical attacks.
2. Simplifies movement. Even if the best move option isn’t available, you don’t need to agonize over each unit’s movement. You are covered. As long as you don’t make mistakes (Running for a +1 when didn’t need to) you should be ok.
3. Ease of target selection. A tight group can more easily focus on the biggest threat or most damaged enemy unit. Crippling or destroying a unit is a critical advantage in Battletech. Doing a bunch of damage to the armor of every enemy unit may look impressive, but it doesn’t win you any games.
4. Allows you to move and attack without initiative. A tight force is covered. Ok the enemy may be able to try and target a unit of yours, but they are dealing with all or most of your force., so if you are trying to push the enemy out of a position, or to drive along a particular path, the enemy will be hard pressed to stop you unless they can concentrate their forces as well.
KIT is most easily achieved by fielding forces of similar speeds. It is when you use 2 Centy’s a Spider and a PHX that you end up spread out, isolated and defeated in detail. If you find yourself repeatedly experiencing this, simplify your army construction and bring units of similar speeds. It is not that you cannot have any difference at all, just keep it within a single speed bracket.
5. Gang Up on your Targets (Or Focus your fire/attacks)
Focus your fire and physicals on 1 or 2 enemy units. Stay on them until they are dead or rendered ineffective. Many times it is better to shoot at a damaged unit on a number one higher than the easiest shot. If that unit is taken out of the game your damage is now going to go at the remainder of your enemy while he still has to deal with your whole force.
Remember live units, even crippled ones, still have BV (if you are playing a BV based game) and can still act as an initiative sink or add some fire to the game. Kill them dead and those points go away.
A note on initiative sinking. What is it? Moving a unit that cannot or will not be effective during that round first. If you have lost initiative, it will force your opponent to move a combat unit before you will move a unit that will impact the game that turn. If you have won initiative and you have a unit that is crippled, Knocked out (Pilot KO say) or just far out of position, then you could make your opponent move 2 units before you have to move one.
6. Stay Frosty
Watch your heat. Rarely is it a good idea to overheat more than 4. Even then you need to make sure you aren’t in danger of not being able to shoot to your potential the next turn. Overheating is best for fire support that is in no danger and designed to “over fire” and over heat some turns and “underfire” to cool at some point there after. This is where “fire cycles.” Come into play. Archers throwing 2-1-2 with their LRM 20’s are a good example. Shooting 2-2-1 or even 2-2-2-0 is an example of using fire cycles. Consider that you may be able to maintain your volume of fire if your Archer lays down the trigger for 2 or 3 turns while your other units get into position. The Archer cools and your shorter range units that are now in a flanking or strong defensive position can open up a corner of hell on your opponent that has hopefully eaten several salvos of LRMS. Don’t overheat on poor to hit numbers. If that Archer is shooting on 9’s and 10’s no point in using anything more than a 2-1-2 fire cycle.
Overheating effects your movement greatly. That PHX that Jumps 6 in to a backside shot, and fires every weapon just overheated to 10. If that PHX missed a kick and fell or took enough damage to fall during the fire phase, your 6/9/6 is now a 4/6 that has to spend 2 MP just to stand. That PHX isn’t likely to escape without significant damage. Even if the PHX doesn’t fall, any reasonable movement is relegated to the 6 jump which isn’t that far depending upon the situation. The PHX might not be an easy target, but it may still be under threat from every enemy unit in the area.
Thus endeth Battletech 201. If you consistently apply the first 6 rules, you will win roughly half of your games, depending upon your opponent’s skill level. Start to apply 301 and you will begin to win more than you lose.
These next three are what I call Battletech 301. You can’t really do these until you learn 101 and 301 gets awfully hard if you don’t do 201.
Battletech 301: Advanced Tactical concepts
I’m honestly not sure I’m qualified to write this. I’m just not that good. Perhaps I can put out a few ideas and our better players can lend some insight.
7. Always consider what your opponent’s response will be.
You have walked your Wharmammer to range 12 walking behind a L1 hill. Great! That Centurion is toast right? Well he ran for 5 hexes and a +2 mod. Sure you have a reasonable shot at him on 9’s. You are in a good position. Did you consider what the other three members of the enemy lance are going to do?
The enemy Trebuchet that had hung back walks 5 forward, keeping its angle and stops 13 hexes away from you. The angle avoids your hill so you don’t get the cover. He is going to shoot on 8’s at you. If you shoot at him, its on 11’s. Hmm.
Your opponent’s Crab moves only 3 hexes up on an L1 hill with light woods on it, 10 hexes from your Whammy. Man he just made a mistake. Ran only 3 hexes… wait, cover gives him another 1 so his mod is +2 total to you. Hmm. The L1 hill means he ignores your cover. Double Hmm.
Your opponents Quickdraw comes sailing out of the woods where you couldn’t see him due to LOS (playing double blind) and lands on the hill in front of your Warhammer. HA! The rest of my units can shoot him down. Wait… Everybody is 8-10 hexes away and all ran. Let’s see the long range weapons will shoot on 6, +3 for the 5 hex jump of the QKD, +2 for the run…11. Looks like the Whammy is on its own.
This example is extreme, but it is hardly unique or rare to a developing player. You must consider not only what you can do to your opponent but what they will do back to you. You don’t walk for +1 and stop 7 hexes away from an Archer at heat zero. IT WILL unload on you, probably all the way up to a significant overheat if it can reasonably do so.
Coming in for a kick, or backshot or closing to short range has to be done when you have the advantage or when doing so prevents your opponent from using an advantage they have. In the case of the latter, an opponent that is LRM heavy should be engaged up close, most of the time. You aren’t going to win the range war vs 120 LRM’s from three Archers when you have three Grasshoppers.
A second example expanding on one I used in the the “Stay Frosty” section. Consider the PHX-1 that jumped in, fired everything, overheated to 10 and kicked on a 9 to hit.
Considering your opponent’s responses applies to being over eager for physical combat as well. I see many players rush in for a kick at a relatively high number and then fail it. (9 and up is a high number)They point to the failed kick as the reason for their loss. They don’t realize it wasn’t that missed kick on a 6 or 7 that lost them the game, it was pushing the game to the point where their only chance for victory was a single roll. Don’t forget if you fail a kick you have to make a PSR. Physical attacks with green pilots that have a 6 Piloting skill aren’t likely to succeed. Kicks with them are setting up a nearly 1 in 4 chance or better than your mech ends up down. Can you say, bad?
Keep calm, be patient, and go for a physical attack when you can cover the attacking unit(s) and the opponents force cannot reasonably stop you or catch you if you fail to cripple or destroy your target. Physical attacks are best used as finishers, not the blow that puts your opponent’s unit on the ropes. Not unless you can bull rush him and are willing to hand over one of your units to him to chew on. The exchange game works, you just have to make sure you are trading something worth relatively less than your opponent. So feed your opponent a Shadow Hawk while you smash a Warhammer or Marauder’s weak legs? Great! Try the bull rush tactic on a Thunderbolt? Honey that T-bolt has 20% more armor. That 11 point kick isn’t anything to sniff at but it’s probably not going down. Angry Thunderbolts do bad things.
8. Make your opponent play your game
Make a force with a plan, even if that plan is being flexible and exploiting your opponent’s weakness. Then play according to your plan. Only deviate, if it is clear that your plan isn’t working and only then after you really have tried to get it to work. If you are set for a long range duel, don’t rush to close. If you have to close with a set of brawlers, use cover and terrain to limit your incoming damage. If you are faster, force your opponent to split his force to deal with attacks from the flanks and rear. Don’t be drawn into just closing in and slugging it out every game. While it may blow up some giant stompy robots, you aren’t going to win.
If a particular position on the board is advantageous, take it and make your opponent move to you. If your strategy is to employ 2 fast flanking hammers and 2 dead hard anvils, wait until your hammers are in place, then squish your opponent. If it is an ambush you are planning, don’t expose your sacrificial lamb until your wolves are ready to pounce. Play your game, don’t play your opponents game. Simply by executing your own plan, you probably foil your opponents.
9. Play the Numbers & be patient
This isn’t a suggestion to simply play a group of Griffins and jump at medium range into woods. While you may win the shoot on 10’s and 11’s vs 11’s and 12’s or 13’s game, you are being disrespectful of your opponent, his/her time and basically being a jerk. You might win, but your opponent won’t want to play you again and in competitive play environments, this could be construed as intentional delay or refusal to engage.
Playing the numbers, is the combination of moving correctly, using cover, focusing your fire and every other modification to the die rolls. Firing 8 PPC’s at a single enemy mech from your “All Mad n’ Whammy Lance” is a fearsome prospect. Firing 8 PPC’s at 9’s and 10’s isn’t so scary. You have a reasonable chance to hit two or three times perhaps. 20 or 30 points of damage is significant, but if you are shooting a big assault mech like a Stalker, it probably won’t care too much. If your opponent responds with only 2 Archers firing back at you, but they shoot on 8’s. You are probably taking more damage than your opponent. This might be fine, except perhaps you just overheated every mech in the lance. Your opponent is cool with two units that didn’t bother to fire and the Archers still can throw a single salvo each down range at you next turn and keep a good move mod.
If you engage in this and then blame the dice, you may be right, the dice beat you, because you let them. You left it only to chance whether or not you won the game or even competed. Playing the numbers is trying to get the numbers to be skewed in your favor. Whether by movement, use of cover or just focusing your fire and relying upon the sheer volume of hits to bring down your opponents, playing the numbers is the key to victory in Battletech.
10. Look for Weaknesses
This isn’t easy to do. It means a couple of things. It means stop and take a good look at the enemy units as you see them. Look at the Unit, variant, pilot, BV. Make quick notes on a piece of scratch paper. Crusader-R’s have no crit padding for their torso LRM ammo. Get a crit there and BOOM! PHX-K’s have no crits at all in either side torso. Seems like an advantage. Wrong, if a section has no crits these transfer inward. So get crits on the PHX-K side torsos and you are getting CT crits… engine, gyro that kind of stuff? So examine each unit. Make sure you know the pilot skill levels and any other skills they have. That AWS-Q might look scary to your Warhammer-R but he’s Gunnery 5. If you can keep him back and keep yourself moving, he’s going to have a hard time hitting you.
Looking for weaknesses is also looking at the deployment, map and how the game develops. That force may look scary. You might be facing 2 Highlanders, a Grasshopper and a Catapult with a Crusader, Warhammer, Marauder and a Hunchback-SP. Looks bad. They are much heavier and brawl. The terrain is bad for you. It’s cluttered, you don’t have good lines of fire. Highlanders are slow though. Your opponent presents one at a low mod and almost all of your pilots are hotshot gunners? BLAST IT! Everything you can reasonably throw without overheating like crazy. Knocked it down? It’s going to be nearly stationary when it gets up next turn. BLAST IT AGAIN! Few mechs will be very in-tact after 2 full rounds of fire from most of a comparable lance. So you saw the opportunity and took it. So units that become separated, units that overheat, if the opponent has little ranged fire power or very limited ammunition. Figure out their weakness, and exploit them.
Any other players want to add a rule/class/concept? I'd like to build this out a bit more. Perhaps build something worthy of a permanent place on the forums as a tactical guide.
