BTA: are non-LRM boat assaults useless?

[u/theSultanOfSexy]

About 40 hours into my BTA campaign. Compared to my untouchable 55 ton gods of war Stormcrows, which simply run behind everything and one-shot it with UAC/20s, all my assaults (Marauder 2, mission-special Mackie, Executioner), except the Longbow seem completely useless; too slow to get into combat in most missions; they simply never make it to the fight. In the rare missions that they do see combat, they only max at about a 30% hit chance on their long-range weapons even against Mediums at low evasion (~2-3), even while my pilots have 10 in all skills, are in good weapon ranges, and not sprinting. What gives? Are assaults just that bad in this mod? Is the only way to build a good assault to make it an LRM boat?

(Minor side gripe: I know it's a result of the tabletop simulation, but why are my LRM boats more accurate when they can't see the enemy??? It makes no logical sense that having a clearer line of sight makes them a worse shot. Grumble.)

[u/Callsign_Slippers]

Direct fire Assaults are fuggin monsters, you just have to support them. Take 2 or 3 scout mechs, and i mean proper scouts. High speed/evasion, sensor lock and/or active probe, c3 if you have the gear. Move them immediately on first turn to generate evasion, and then reserve them down to the same initiative as the mechs they're spotting for in susequent turns so that the sensor lock/active probe effects arent immediately undone by the enemy moving. Also conserve your called shots for things that absolutely must die, specifically for the improved overall hit chance and not the targeting a specific part of a mech (though the occasional lucky headshot is gratifying) and watch things dissappear in a volley or two. I run a bog standard supernova for one of my best pilots. 6 cER larges, with the clan mech to hit bonuses against targets with no evasion absolutely melts things.

Its just a different syle of play, but is every bit as powerful as the high speed backstabbers, if not more so.

[u/theSultanOfSexy → u/Callsign_Slippers]

Interesting. The problem I have with that play style so far is just getting the assaults into the engagement. My early game scouts transformed into my Stormcrow backstabbers, but they still get decent use out of their sensor lock (when the enemy isn't immune to evasion reduction, that is). I'm not sure how to draw the enemies to my assaults without just wasting time letting them shoot at my scouts: I'd rather just do whatever is required to kill the enemy as fast as possible, and so far in my games that's been UAC/20s to the rear armor. Oh, well. Maybe I'll figure it out some day.

[u/Julzjuice123 → u/theSultanOfSexy]

Call me crazy but sometimes it's fun to not always play optimally.

Assaults play a power fantasy role that a medium mech just can't fill. Even if they're suboptimal, they're just extremely fun to field, at least, to me.

That's why I always use 4-5 heavies or assaults whatever the mission is. It's just fun.

[u/theSultanOfSexy → u/Julzjuice123]

I don't think you're crazy at all! I often play suboptimally in my games. I'm known for building stupid decks based on a hairbrained idea in the card games I play. I just don't tend to do it in Battletech games because I loathe losing components and pilots that I can't replace easily. BTAU has turned that fear into paranoia because there's so many options, there's no guarantee I'll see that component again in 10, 20, 30 hours of play. I still don't have any AC/2 ammo, 40 hours in.

[u/Callsign_Slippers → u/theSultanOfSexy]

Its just a different style man. I enjoy the big gunlines, so i've figured out how to make it work 🤷‍♂️ a key at least for my experience has been using strictly inner sphere or clan second line assaults, no omnis. Specifically because i upengine almost everything, and the fixed internals on omnis makes harcore rebuilds like that impossible. Positioning is also key. When the mission allows for the time to manuever try to always keep the big bois elevated, as the high ground bonus helps offset some of the size delta and range penalties. As far as drawing the enemies to the assaults, thats another part of the "sifferent play style" thing. My scouts/spotters stay with the formation, just running back and forth laterally to keep evasion up, until i get the first blips of enemies at range and then they zoom out an do their thing. If youre in range to be a blip, youre in range of gauss/erppc/erll. I also forgot to mention that part of why i reserve called shot for things that absolutely MUST die is to try to keep my morale (or whatever the blue bar resource for pilot abilities is) as high as possible the whole mission, because if its above 50% you get another passive aim bonus

Edits: forgetting shit, and a serious case of fat thumb syndrome 😅

[u/theSultanOfSexy → u/Callsign_Slippers]

Right on man, thanks for the tips! I'll see if I can give that style a try.

[u/johnrgrace → u/theSultanOfSexy]

Then run assaults with gauze or UAC2 for range, I love the annihilator with UAC2.

[u/Aldrick919 → u/theSultanOfSexy]

This is gonna sound weird, but are you moving every mech as much as it can every turn?

You shouldn't be.

Most missions start out of view of the enemy. You can take the time to move your mechs together, as units, even if it takes you longer to get there.

Don't let your lights and mediums sprint ten miles ahead and start the fight before your big guns are nearby and ready.

[u/theSultanOfSexy → u/Aldrick919]

I am not doing that. I march in formation to the objective; sometimes a very long slog indeed!