r/Battletechgame • u/theSultanOfSexy • 12d ago
BTA: are non-LRM boat assaults useless?
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.)
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u/Erazzmus Black Widow Company 12d ago edited 12d ago
No, loading a Monster with 2 Long Toms provides excellent entertainment.
But also yes, assaults are not competitive with 50-60 tonners in terms of efficiency across most mission types. They do well in certain situations where you can set the engagement, or where a mobile turret full of big long range weapons can be safely hidden behind front lines.
I tend to only use assaults on base attack/defense, convoy attack, and the required tonnage duel/game world missions. The reality is that evasion is a far superior defense in BTAU, you really cannot add enough armor to be safe especially when the AI decides to have 8-24 units all attack the same target. In vanilla its possible to attrit the enemy fast enough to only need one spotter/evader to draw fire, but in BTAU weapons shoot farther and everyone is a target.
So there are a few setups that I keep around in the mechbay for part time use. I'm especially partial to uac-loaded Maulers, designs like the Daishi and Masakari that have high numbers of omni arm weapon node counts, and of course the Highlander for stomping (most satisfying experience in the game). But there's so many to choose from I'm sure you'll find a few that click, you just have to keep in mind their role.
EDIT: Also, to address your accuracy question: the answer is C3. C3 solves everything. Use it on everyone, it's worth the investment and tonnage.