Battletech is back!!!

[CptHowdy]

All you need to know for starters is:

1. Keep your Lance together.
2. Mass firepower on one target at time, whenever possible.
3. Always alpha strike, heat and weapon parameters permitting.
4. Hit them from the flanks or the rear.
5. Use scouts to take high ground and serve as spotters for indirect weapons.
6. Attack from covered and concealed positions when available
7. Stay mobile in the open. A moving target is a harder target to hit.

I found that even with stock mechs, sticking to the above tactics usually works, keeping damage and injuries to a minimum. I've made it through the tutorial missions and 4 contract missions without any significant losses. As I get more comfortable with the game and UI, I am starting to experiment with different mech refits. However, early on, this doesn't seem critical.

Most important of all...its a game. Play it and enjoy.

If I may add...use your pilot skills effectively. Some have "bulwark", which provides a defensive bonus when stationary. Others can sensor lock a mech, reducing their movement buffs. Others still have an increased chance to hit, through the gunnery skill. My personal favorite is the ability to split your attacks to more than one mech. Not useful on a light mech that has one weapon, but with a big mech, you might fire the close range stuff at a mech close range, and all other medium and longer range weapons at a mech farther away.

To take this one little step further, you NEED to marry your pilots' skills to the available mechs. Having bulwark is useless on a light mech that is in constant motion, for example.

one more thing to add. use those morale based skills. precision strike is a battle changer and all your pilots have access to those skills!!

[Gusington]

The reviewer over at RPS is continuing to post an 'evolving' review, for those who care...he can now enjoy the game despite its timing flaws, as opposed to not really enjoying it a few days ago. He is 20 hours in.

[SirAndrewD]

Move those Light Mechs.  Evasion is your friend.  Salvage a Jenner ASAP, it's speed, weapons and jump jets rock.

Put your Mechs in reserve and bring the enemy to a killing box. 

Jump jets are awesome.  They add evasion and can get you to good firing arcs.  Use them often.

Pick good salvage, and sell mechs that you don't need quickly.  A contract that has low payout and high salvage can mean you can assemble several stored mechs and instantly sell them for hundreds of thousands of C-Bills. 

Watch the salvage list for Lostech.  I randomly got an ER Large Laser.  Can't fit it effectively right now, but Lostech is there.

[SirAndrewD]

The reviewer over at RPS is continuing to post an 'evolving' review, for those who care...he can now enjoy the game despite its timing flaws, as opposed to not really enjoying it a few days ago. He is 20 hours in.

Yeah, I saw that. 

Translation.  He was too harsh and wanted to post a bad review because bad reviews are popular.  He found, after actually putting time into it, that it was good.

Oh no, his knee jerk to slam the game and get hits might not work out.  What to do.  Actually play it?  Goodness!  It's a good game.  Now his view is...EVOLVED.

[Gusington]

^He explicitly said that his 'evolution' is not due to the community pushback towards his initial impressions.

TEEHEE

[SirAndrewD]

^He explicitly said that his 'evolution' is not due to the community pushback towards his initial impressions.

TEEHEE

Of course not!   

I mean, I hated it...I guess...for a bit...not really.

It got better!   Like the guy going in the cart in Holy Grail!


But seriously, the RPS review was total BS and they're reversing course because they didn't get the response they wanted. 

The game is actually good, very good.  The narrative of a Kickstarted failure doesn't apply here. 

It's what the fans wanted and it works.  No salacious news, no controversy, it's all what we hoped for and expected. 

[Gusington]

From what I've been reading game is anything but a failure.

[SirAndrewD]

From what I've been reading game is anything but a failure.

From what I'm playing, it's anything but a failure. 

It's fun, smart, engaging, and has a good tactical flare for people that love turn based combat. 

It can be simple, but it can also be smart. 

It reminds me of the days when my friends and I learned this game in 1988 sitting in a bookstore and shooting at each other with cardboard chits that represented Mechs. 

It's what I spent more than $200 to kickstart.  I know the price is, well, tough, but I believed in the project and I think the result is what I hoped for. 

I get a nice hat, keychain, patch, banner, ect to celebrate that.

[DennisS]

From what I've been reading game is anything but a failure.

I followed the steam reviews very closely. The first four hundred had a 41% approval rating. Metacritic was the same. These were individuals with half a dozen or less hours in the game.

Over time, this has evolved to 71% positive rating of 1739 voters.

Doing the math...47% of all bad ratings were given in the first six hours or so after release. Since then, more than 80% of all reviews have been positive.

I think Steam shouldn't allow ANYONE to review a game if they have less than ten hours played.

[DennisS]

From what I've been reading game is anything but a failure.

From what I'm playing, it's anything but a failure. 

It's fun, smart, engaging, and has a good tactical flare for people that love turn based combat. 

It can be simple, but it can also be smart. 

It reminds me of the days when my friends and I learned this game in 1988 sitting in a bookstore and shooting at each other with cardboard chits that represented Mechs. 

It's what I spent more than $200 to kickstart.  I know the price is, well, tough, but I believed in the project and I think the result is what I hoped for. 

I get a nice hat, keychain, patch, banner, ect to celebrate that.

I would love to get me a nice t-shirt, to go with my Diablo III one.

[SirAndrewD]

I would love to get me a nice t-shirt, to go with my Diablo III one.

I do actually have a T-shirt. 

Won it at GenCon in 2002.  I fought in a Battletch Battle Pod.

Took a Clan Ghost Bear Kodiak with an Clan uAC-20 and wrecked face.   Got top Mechwarrior and got the T-shirt. 

A strong salvage! 

[sandman2575]

Question for those of you getting along in the campaign:  are you bothering to recruit / train new Mechwarriors?  About 20 hrs in, I still only have my original 4. I fired Medusa early on because money was so tight.

I feel like this is a familiar problem from XCOM (probably even worse in XCOM2) - with the early missions, there's really no margin for error - you can't afford to lose a team member / mech, and by the time you have a more experience and a little more financial leeway, the missions have progressed in difficulty to the point that you can't bring a rookie along to train because they're too much of a liability.

Am I setting myself up for failure, just relying on my original 4 Mechwarriors?

[Jarhead0331]

How far in to the campaign are you? How many side contracts have you ran? I had to hire at least one additional pilot to account for injuries, which are fairly common. I don't want an injury to hold up operations for weeks at a time. No fatalities so far, but I can't imagine making it very far with just 4 pilots.

[SirAndrewD]

Question for those of you getting along in the campaign:  are you bothering to recruit / train new Mechwarriors?  About 20 hrs in, I still only have my original 4. I fired Medusa early on because money was so tight.

I feel like this is a familiar problem from XCOM (probably even worse in XCOM2) - with the early missions, there's really no margin for error - you can't afford to lose a team member / mech, and by the time you have a more experience and a little more financial leeway, the missions have progressed in difficulty to the point that you can't bring a rookie along to train because they're too much of a liability.

Am I setting myself up for failure, just relying on my original 4 Mechwarriors?

You're playing a bit of a dangerous game, if one gets killed or more likely wounded, you'll be SOL. 

However, as your reputation grows, you'll have access to hiring legendary Mechwarriors.  You just have to have a sufficient rating with the Mercenary Review Board.  So, I wouldn't go on a hiring spree, extra Mechwarriors that don't fight often are just eating your resources, but I might suggest getting a spare pilot, especially if you see one with a specialty already unlocked.

[DennisS]

Question for those of you getting along in the campaign:  are you bothering to recruit / train new Mechwarriors?  About 20 hrs in, I still only have my original 4. I fired Medusa early on because money was so tight.

I feel like this is a familiar problem from XCOM (probably even worse in XCOM2) - with the early missions, there's really no margin for error - you can't afford to lose a team member / mech, and by the time you have a more experience and a little more financial leeway, the missions have progressed in difficulty to the point that you can't bring a rookie along to train because they're too much of a liability.

Am I setting myself up for failure, just relying on my original 4 Mechwarriors?

You're playing a bit of a dangerous game, if one gets killed or more likely wounded, you'll be SOL. 

However, as your reputation grows, you'll have access to hiring legendary Mechwarriors.  You just have to have a sufficient rating with the Mercenary Review Board.  So, I wouldn't go on a hiring spree, extra Mechwarriors that don't fight often are just eating your resources, but I might suggest getting a spare pilot, especially if you see one with a specialty already unlocked.

A spare pilot, and a couple of spare mechs will allow you to take the field more often. Makes sense, even economically, to have the spare.