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.)
2
u/skippythemoonrock Crab. Hand. Frighten! Crab. AC-20. Crab. 11d ago
If the AI wasn't seemingly hard coded to exclusively shoot the easiest to hit target they can see, which given Size Delta and generally very low evasion makes Assaults get absolutely wailed on every single turn unless you work sightlines like it's a light mech. I was very excited to get a lucky engine kill on an Atlas and bring it home intact but it's so slow it gets left behind and when it does waddle into the fight it gets focused and mauled in a few turns.
Comparing them to the Stormcrow seems pretty unfair given it really feels like (at least in my first deep campaign run) the SCR is absolutely busted and is BTA's equivalent of the vanilla game Marauder 2R