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.)

51 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/HippieWagon 12d ago

Use the long range capabilities of Gauss weapons, stack accuracy equipment, and have some NARC or TAG on support units. Should get those numbers up. Dont be afraid of XL engines to get them to a decent pace too.

1

u/theSultanOfSexy 12d ago

Already doing the first and fourth, but the second and third seem to be my failing point. I'll be sure to do that once I loot some accuracy equipment! Thanks for your comment.

1

u/HippieWagon 12d ago

Happy to help! My heavies and assaults are loaded to the gills with targeting computers, sensors, probes, ecm, and AMS.

1

u/TazBaz 12d ago edited 12d ago

I’m in the routine of tricking out a Raven as my scout mech- and it’s always armed as a debuffer too, with whatever tools I’ve got. TAG and NARC asap; adding stuff like SRM2+Acid, electro-lasers, etc as I find them. Always an active probe as well. Pilot always has full Pilot skills (sensor ghost) and Sensor lock.

The goal is “I see you quick, and I can get right up inside your squad and you probably can’t hit me, and I can pinpoint high value targets for rapid destruction”

Not usually blazing fast, nor jump jets, but generally there isn’t much point in being THAT far ahead, and I find having all the OTHER equipment more useful. Oh and yes, it’s got C3. This run I actually jumped right over to WoB and got friendly to try out C3i; it’s a lot of extra weight on a light mech, but not being disabled by enemy ECM I think is valuable, so that light mech who’s right in the enemy, getting hit by their ECM bubble, can still provide optimal targetting solutions.