I had the best game of my sixty-odd drop career last night, and one that taught me a couple of things about using the Trial Spider.
I'd managed to get my double-XP wins for the night on the Trial Centurion and Dragon (though repeated CTD’s meant I only knew of those wins by checking the MechLab after reloading the patcher :(), so I figured I’d try to get my bonus for the Spider. After several variations on being obliterated by running into entire heavy lances in close quarters #P, the drop put me on River City (day), Conquest mission, and my lance was on the checkpoint on the platform with the landed DropShip. The other side had a couple of disconnects during the pre-mission screen (probably the same issues I suffer :(), which improved my survival odds considerably. The first thing I did was zip down to the checkpoint in the water, to cap that for a few seconds, but then I realised that standing still out in the open in a Spider ain’t so bright, so I ducked behind a pillar to hide and snipe at anyone who came along.
A few moments later, a Trial Dragon came bimbling out across the water, headed out from Checkpoint Gamma (presumably his lance start-point) at a right-angle to my starting Resource-Point, and I ducked out to take a shot at him with my ERLL — tagged him across the left shoulder. He didn’t react to that, so I figured I’d try my luck at back-stabbing him. I got up right behind him and let loose with all four MGs and the ERLL, and he didn’t know which way to look — poor schlub must’ve been even greener than me. So began a turning fight between his DRG-5N(C) and my Spider, me trying to circle-strafe him and him trying to squash me, both of us spray-and-praying like crazy — he couldn’t hold me in his sights, and I didn’t dare slow down to settle my crosshairs on him, so I was mostly doing ‘rake fire across target, swing around for another run, repeat as necessary’. We must’ve kept this little dance going for a minute, maybe a minute and a half, and I don’t think either of us made much of a real impression on the other’s armour, but we kept each other so busy that neither of us saw the three friendlies coming up on the fight until his Dragon started taking some solid hits from a Battlemaster and... I think it was an Orion and a T-Bolt.
By the time I saw them all, my dance-partner was blowing up, and with little else to do, I ducked off to Gamma to cap it. When I got there, I found a Shadow Hawk -2D2 and a Battlemaster standing motionless — the two disco’s, probably from the Dragon’s starting lance(!), which would explain why I had a free run up the inlet when the match started — and I promptly lit up both of them. (Killing lame ducks is cheap and unsporting, I know, but I ain’t got the C-Bills, the XP, or the kill-count to be proud about taking them wherever I can get them. :-[)
Lessons learned last night:
— You’re a Spider: think like your eight-legged counterpart. Don’t go up the guts, or even out into the open, if you can avoid it. Hide with pride, then strike.
— Never. Stop. Moving. Not even for a clean sight-picture. (Corollary: Gauss Rifles hurt.)
— They’re not paying you to bring all that MG ammo home: spray and pray is the way to go. At the very least, the repeated nips will keep the other guy distracted and irritated, and give you some kill-assist bonuses; with a little luck, your company-mates will have worn someone down and you’ll be able to crit-seek your way to stealing their kills. :D
— Stand-and-deliver might work for heavier designs, but a Spider should cap resource-points and backstab like a politician. (This one I kind’a knew already, but last night drove it home.)
— If you keep getting disconnected mid-match and becoming a free kill yourself, never pass up the chance to return the favour. :-X
