For a light mech, the firestarter with 6 small lasers and full armor jump jets does crazy damage and 1 shots a lot of light/medium mechs. Especially when meleeing
I can't believe this game is still around. my brother, cousins and I used to play the battletech board game back in the early to mid 90s. mechwarrior 4 for the pc was my favorite online game. miss those days. awesome that this game is still around and looks like it's going strong. might have to get back into it. thanks for the video
Odd to not see a grasshopper here. It's got a silly amount of utility hard-points meaning it's capable of running truly ridiculous builds. On that list is the "how many ppc's," "the bbq pit", the "you can't hit the large lasers, they're on the other side of the map," "captain laser vomit," and "comrade machine-gun face" builds
Nope, I got that one covered in "Captain laser vomit" :D all the lasers... FOREVEERRR. Especially if you can outfit it with all of the +10 damage Magna lasers. It'll bore a hole through an atlas without sneezing.
Love the hopper. My favourite mech in the game. Keep Evasion up with a good pilot, jump from cover to cover, get behind enemy mechs: 1-shot from behind.
Honorable Mentions: Firestarter (Flamer or Light Laser loadouts are excellent) Dragon (Fast for it's size. Easy to load with close range weapons that put a lot of hurt on then get to that range while having good armor.) Awesome (It's name is a fitting self descriptor. Excellent loadout, armor and good battlefield endurance)
I know your post is 3yr old but really? The dragon? It by coincidence the first heavy mech i got and it was so useless. I ran 2x ac5 2xm laser. No issues with heat but it just doesn't have enough tonnage. It has the armour of medium mech, but not the mobility. Ended up scrapping it and grabbing a 2cnd centurion until i had access to other heavy mechs. Was i using it wrong?
Grasshopper is possibly one of the best mechs period. Only a heavy acting an initiative phase earlier, capable of mounting 6 small lasers and 5 mediums (comfortably). You then realise that with medium +++ you can get +10 dmg making your mediums hit for 35, all your small lasers hit for 25 (with + variants) and congrats you have 325 points of damage. You pinpoint that baby with master called shot and congrats, every mec in the game dies one hit. What’s better? The grasshopper is mobile af, so you just jump behind your enemy, aim ct, use a third of your weapons and voila.
7Stormwalker With all the +++, its a very expensive glass cannon. I agree, its probably worth it as long as your opponent doesnt expect it, but still you are flipping a coin there, win or lose...
that is just a waste, GH is a glass cannon, you'll lose those weapons easily because enemy likes to focus on this guy regularly. Instead just use flamers and melee mods. It can shut down any mech in 1-2 turns. Then upgrade to Banshee when you get the chance, same hardpoints, but tanks harder and hits harder.
The Grasshopper isn't a glass cannon at all, though. You have no ammo that can explode, and when your TOTAL weapon tonnage is around 8 tons on a 70 ton mech, you can nearly max out your armor. Plus you are jumping every turn, and in the campaign, getting 5-6 evasive pips every turn with a Gyro that gives the enemy a +3 penalty to hit you. The Banshee, by contrast, does nearly the exact same thing but without the initiative to outmaneuver enemy assault mechs without Master Tactician.
@@Paerigos Ja, ve are sending zeh properly equipped 400 ton scout lance to reconnoiter zeh city. Remember mein friends: if zere is no one left to report our lance's presence, stealth has been successfully achieved!
Firestarter and painter for light, firestarter is a jump rare armour core machine, panther is a the only light mech that can rock 2 large Lazer Medium, cinturean with 1 ml srm12 and jumpjets. And vulkan small Lazer and jumpjets rare core machin. Heavy, orian, better centurion, and grasshopper, 6 machine guns 6 medium lazers and jumpjets, call shot core or heads and say goo 6:45 dbye. Assault, highlander, srm 20, lbx10 and jumpjets, siderech destroyer. Bull shark, 2 uac2, 2uac5 2large lazers. Or a perm 70-80 on the other one. Both can core assaults in one turn
Don't knock the standard Highlander: if you pay attention in the game, it rarely overheats with all weapons and has decent speed for its tonnage. The King Crab and Atlas are just too damn slow.
I got a Star League Highlander 732B version with the Gauss Rifle and the double heat sinks. Add a PPC and LRMs to give it extra long-range attack capability and some arm mods for brawling and it easily survives as a lone wolf against many different mech types. It's great to use against turrets and vehicles as well.
The enforcer is quite good, has a good selection of hard points. I usually put a ac 10 on it. What else I put on it is subject to change. Also the difference between crab and atlas is atlas has a little better melee and the crab has slightly better hard points. That's really about it.
After witnessing an Urbie walk up behind an Atlas an rip into it and have the Atlas turn around and start shooting the teammate in the distance. Since he thought he was the one attacking him, then seeing the Urbie get the kill. I knew not to mess with them.
Maybe I'm in the wrong place since I've only played Campaign up to now, but I find the Firestarter to be an excellent light 'mech. Perfect for either softening up or dealing the killing blow to mechs up to heavy class, while still being very fast and carrying armor on par with many medium 'mechs. My current campaign build carries 2 Small Lasers++, 2 Small Lasers, 2 Medium Lasers and 2 MGs for crits - with around 600 points of armor. Fast enough to get from cover into close range quite easily, where it can dish out up to 170 points of damage. Let him get into your back, even with a heavy, and you're in for some serious pain. Even more so with a precision strike, O.O
Urbies can actually be pretty nasty in close quarters. That AC20 hurts just as bad from a trash can as it does a Victor or Direwolf. Mind you, the trash can is a lot easier to shoot at 32kph base. ;)
"NO CURB THE URBIE!!!" I always liked the ArrowIV UrbanMech for hilarious surprise amounts of indirect fire artillery shots in the board game... crap for ammo, but one heck of a surprise when something gets TAGged and 4 ArrowIVs land on it.
@@ShadrachVS1 "They called me trashcan. I call them fertilizer." I like my own personal custom Urbie for the board game which I call the "UM-R60E" which mounts a 90-rated engine (3/5 MP) and 3 jump jets (got a bit inspired by the Urbanmech IIC), 6.5 tons of armor, 13 standard heat sinks, a PPC in place of the AC/10, and 2 medium lasers in place of the small laser. The idea when making this variant is to retain damage output at all ranges (only fire med. lasers when in PPC minimum range and never alpha strike), increase speed & maneuverability, allow it to survive the technological degradation of the Succession Wars, and keep it somewhat cheap for all the garrisons and militias that have to battle on a budget. I achieved that last one as this faster (and arguably deadlier) Urbie is only 210,275 C-bills higher than the standard -R60, though the lack of ammo means it will eventually be cheaper at a higher entry fee.
It is always good to use the 'jack of all trades' mech in your fire team. As I can see they are (from light to assault) jenner, shadowhawk, thunderbolt, and highlander. These are the best for all-around battles. If someone wants to get into specifics on what is the best support or brawlers that is a separate list. It has also been adjusted since the hatchetman came out. FYI, hatchetman with the arm mod and melee gyro can take down a heavy mech in one hit. Also, before you respond saying my list is off due to your favorite mechs (I have some I wanted to list as well) remember that I made that list off of well rounded mechs. So it had to be decent in all categories like speed, durability, heat, weapon load out along with weapon range effectiveness. I also only looked at stock mechs. The atlas is a beast, but it is meant for brawling and being a bullet sponge.
in the campaign i used my Kintaro as a close range missile boat with 2 m lasers and 5 SRM4. SRM4 and not 6 because they are WAY more heat efficient so i wont overheat too much. the punch was great with good dmg and stability dmg, with good mobility to hit from any angle. JJ included.
I made a 100-ton King Crab load-out with 2 Gauss Rifles and 1 PPC for long-range punching damage while approaching from a distance. Then I put 4 Flamers and some arm mods to deal a massive melee-range, knockout+shutdown punch against any heavy mech that allows it to get close or that tries to brawl with the King Crab. The remaining slots are for heat sinks/heat banks/heat exchangers to keep it shooting the PPC every round against mechs that want to stay away. I like to pair this build as a bodyguard mech for a 70-ton Cataphract CTF-0X ECM Stealth build that has an Ultra Autocannon UAC-20 and medium lasers. The ECM umbrella forces enemy mechs to waste their turns using sensor locks or to get in close to penetrate the ECM shield and thus expose themselves to UAC-20 fire or massive melee punches. My favorite medium-mech design is a 45-ton Hatchetman with extra arm mods to deal additional melee damage aside from the hatchet, 2 SRM6 launchers, 4 machine guns, and leg mods that reduce Death-From-Above damage to the legs. If there is extra unused tonnage left, I'd increase its armor. This mech is designed to run or jump around the battlefield hoping to deliver critical hits or final kills against damaged or crippled mechs. Another medium mech I'd use is a 55-ton Shadow Hawk with an Ultra AC20 and extra ammo, added armor, and heat sinks/heat exchangers to keep it shooting a long time. It's function is to scout targets for the LRM missile boats (I'd give it a Rangefinder cockpit add-on), deal a few massive shots with its big gun, and then jump away from approaching threats. Both medium mech designs are amazing hunter-killers of mechs in any tonnage class.
I had a bushwhacker build I used to rock. LRM 10, large laser, lbx ac10. Did a surprising amount of damage at range and could hold it's own rather well up close for its weight. Also had a black knight build centered around a gauss rifle replacement for the PPC. Ahhhhhh. Good times.
Firestarter has more free tonnage than Jenner and assuming Pilot or JJ's is just as Evasive, though it doesn't have Missiles but instead has Ballistics. Panther has the exact same free tonnage as Urbanmech, but can walk faster and carry Missiles, though it doesn't have Ballistics so no AC20. Hunchback has the exact same speed as a Centurion. As much as I like the Thunderbolts and Catapults, the Orions have more free tonnage and roughly the same hard points, so are in just about every way better. Kingcrab is not the only mech that can mount 2 AC20s, though it is the best for doing so given it's armor and hardpoints. The Hunchback 4G can but sacrifices all it's armor, the Jagermechs and Catapult K2 can but sacrifice half their armor, while the Orion V, Zeus, Victors, and Battlemaster can but sacrifice a third of their armor. While of course the Atlas can, but it has both AC20s in the same spot. An Atlas and King Crab can be just as durable, it just depends on the loadout.
Disagree with your disparaging of the highlander. The improvements compaired with the stalker are 10 more tons to work with and jumpjets so a MUCH more mobile mech.
Hey bro so I just started to play this game about 3 days ago and have been in career mode, haven’t played multiplayer yet but I wanted to give my insight on a build for the Jenner that has been super effective for me. I noticed the Jenner standing out very early on but I have a completely different way of using it than what u mentioned. I’ll run it; 2x LRM10’s 2x LRM Ammo But reduced armour to only 120 making it very vulnerable to attack but is a outstanding long range fire support mech with great speed and maneuverability. Works best with a skirmisher frontline that work well when supporting one another
I haven't done MP, but as far as single player my best assaults are highlanders with gauss. Mix of armor, damage and jump jet mobility makes it very dangerous. Also using coil lasers on your fast lights and mediums to zip behind and one shot heavy targets
The Orion 1-V can comfortably mount 3 LRM 15(++) and also has a ton of other hardpoints as well as far more armor than the standard Jagermechs and Catapults. The Orion 1-K has even more armor to go along with a lot of hardpoints for all types of weaponry (two missile hardpoints, ballistic hardpoint, energy hardpoints). That makes the Orion more useful and versatile than the Catapult, Jagermech and Thunderbolt. Don't get me wrong, they're also good mechs, especially the Jager when used simply as a long-range damage dealer. But - the Orion is definitely the king of all heavy mechs. That armor-weaponry combo is amazing. Among assault mechs, the Atlas, King Crab, Highlander and Awesome 8T can all be turned into supreme builds. Along with the Stalker, which I prefer in a 4 LRM 15 (++; additional damage) and energy weapons (just in case) build. The Banshee can be turned into a great brawler since it has quite a lot of speed but it's not worth it, because it will be in the thick of it and it simply can neither deal nor withstand the damage that the King Crab can dole out / endure.
I also use an Orion 1-V as my support with 2 LRM 15 and 1 LRM 20 with a few Jumpjet/heatsink and low armor. I also like the Black Knigth for a medium laser blaster with Jump jet and Heatsink, he can move around the battlefield quite fast and blast everything that the Orion knock over and take a beating without exploding.
There is a Firestarter build that I use to absolutely wreck people. Take a firestarter and strip out all the flamers etc and replace with small lasers that will trigger in a melee attack. keep one or two med lasers for ranged engagement but max out armor as much as possible. with so many small lasers that fire on a melee attack if you attack from a side arch you have over 100 damage spread out over only 3 section which almost guarantees that an arm or leg or both are going to be coming off that mech. if you hit from behind you can one or two shot a light or medium mech. plus due to the low weight of the small lasers the firestarter can pack on tons of armor. you can do the same thing with the Blackknight I think and each of them just wrecks mechs of their weight and punches a bit above their weight class.
The other light mech standout, IMO, is the Firestarter. Not in it's stock configuration so much, since that's only _powerful_ if you're very good at predicting and positioning to hit an enemy mech while it's hot enough to push over the edge into shutdown (or just prevent it from using any of it's weapons for a turn, but that takes yet another dose of forethought and timing). Instead, equip the Firestarter with either 5 machine guns and 3 medium lasers, or 6 mgs and 2mls. And then go wipe out almost any light mech in one salvo. Or run up to bigger mechs with little armor left and fill them with bullets to knock out systems, or better yet, pilots. Watch your critical hit count climb! I also carries a respectable amount of armor and is very fast.
Early midgame, dragons are bread/butter, esp since the story gives you steady access to them. Weapon options are limited, but the durability is what is gonna pay off.
Marauder 3R with dual UAC2s and some medium lasers makes a VISCOUS head hunter with a high skill pilot and called shots. Chance with max skills should be around 35% per attack... and with 4 attacks at least, one is likely to hit.
One thing I do in single player (not sure if this is worth in in MP) is if I have an arm that isn't carrying anything for me and I'm running low on armor elsewhere (like as in your Kintaro Missile Boat), I absolutely strip the armor off that arm, sometimes even that shoulder - and for missile boats and snipers especially, stripping all of the rear armor off. This has proven workable for me to keep decent armor protection over the critical parts of the mech, given that even though I lose the arm or something like that, it's not really too expensive to replace.
never had anything devastate like an annihilator. get 5x UAC 5++ with minus tonnage. LBX ++ can substitute. then add 1x snub PPC++ (+10 damage) . fairly heat stable and the alpha is catastrophic. it will kill a 55 ton mech as if it was a locust in a single strike.
In the vanilla game I used dual AC/20 Jagermechs... Those things were quite low on armor, but after using a heavy armor mech to reduce evasion of off the enemy mechs, the Jager was a superb way to destroy/cripple enemy mechs.
Interesting analysis of the stock-ish non-Star League 'mech chassis for skirmish and MP. FWIW, the Catapult C4 has 4 missile hardpoints and can be modified to run 2 LRM15s and 2 LRM5s so you can still have 40 LRMs per alpha, but immediately save 2 tons for more armor or heat management. You can also run 2 AC20 on the AS7-D, at least on paper, but I wouldn't recommend it - 2 AC10 is way more heat-, weight-, range- and ammo-efficient. Put 2 LLAS, 2 AC10 and maybe a few LRMs on a jumpy AS7-D (150 jump vs 120 move) with a good Rangefinder and have a good time.
I have a kintaro i use to get in close and precision strike right and left torsos to disarm mechs. It has 2 srm6 and srm 4 jumpjets heatsinks and extra armor. It is a harasser that weakems enemies and attracts attention . Works pretty well
The JaegerMech-A variant can actually mount more missiles (4) than a Catapult-C1 (2). It can also mount 2 energy and 2 ballistic weapons. For that reason I think it is a little more versatile.
in the campaign im building one with an AC5, 4 SRM4 and lasers. it should be decent up close. i can consider removing the AC and switching to SRM6 instead...but those are less heat efficient and i need it to be able to shoot non stop...though its only backup as i got 2 highlanders as well as some others like banshee, stalker, awesome.
ED GONE JOHN Now i got an atlas ans king crab, each with ac20, srms and mlasers. Also using a stalker with 2 ppcs and 2 lrm20. Considering a 4 lrm20 stalker instead
i swapped to 4 LRM20 stalker and im very impressed. much better heat management without caring about LOS. also im using 5 tons of ammo and i keep it with limited armor behind my force, bulwark included (as they like to focus it down). i do 320 dmg per alpha, now 360 with a new LRM20 with +2 dmg (6 per missile instead of 4)
So far as I've noticed, the tonnage values for weapons and equipment haven't changed from regular TableTop, so 2 LRM 10's is the same weight (2x5) as one LRM 20 (1x10). The only tonnage bonus comes with using LRM 5's, which are 2 tons, instead of the 2.5 they would need to be to maintain their ratio with the rest of the LRM launchers. Thus 4 LRM 5 launchers (20 tubes) weighs 8 tons, instead of an LRM 20's 10 tons. Also occupies 4 critical slots, to an LRM 20's 5, on normal TT. The slots were reduced slightly for Battletech.
One thing ive used to great sucess is a SRM'd - short distance tuned Griffin. Greatest mech I've found for jumping behind a mech and stripping it of its armor and vitals from the rear. Have to pick your targets wisely, but the maxed out armor ive been running coupled with great heat efficiency and 5> evasion worth of mobility... whats not to like?
Not a fan of the AC/20 stuff. Prefer the Gauss Rifle builds. A bit less damage but MUCH better range and no recoil penalty on followups. Also less tonnage used which means more armor and other weapons.
Its not always useful, especialy on polar maps but it can hard counter some very hot mech, even incapacitating using heat as opposed to knockdown. I wil have to try out the surgeon general though. What mechwarrior traits do you recomend for her?
it seems great for melle as it has decent melle attack and lots of support weapons...so good dmg/heat dmg. MGs can be considered too with their high crit/headshot chances
It's going to depend on the map, but yeah I've used a single firestarter with 5/6 flamethrowers and lots of jumpjets to make it impossible for a bigger mech to do anything without shutting down. Problem is melee costs no heat so they can kill the firestarter quickly with punching and kicking... haven't figured out a fix for that yet...
Favorite light mech: Commando I named ancle biter All SRM and machine guns. Medium Mech: I built an Enforcer with an AC20 and 4 medium lasers. It's alpha strike was one shotting nearly anything it went up against. What it didn't one shot the rest of the lance made short work of. The downside until I got some double heatsinks on it it was really spicy. Getting at most 2 alpha strikes in before having to drop back and cool off for a round. Made for great hit and fade attacks. I named it Headhunter because that AC20 loved popping heads. Heavy Mech: Dakadaka Yeagernech with 6 AC2's and 4 machine guns Assault: The Beast King Crab with 4 SRM 6, 4 medium lasers and 6 machine guns. Very spicy but when it got in melee range let's just say if the clamps didn't kill it the machine guns did. At this point of the game I was using the ++++ equipment so it was laughably over powered. Runner up The Zapper 12 medium laser 4 small laser Battlemaster. Over heated after 1 alpha strike but a hell of a brawler.
It's called an Urbanmech for a reason. In city engagements with minimal room to move it can be quite dangerous. Put that thing at the end of a street where it can't get outflanked and us essentially have a cheap, entrenched anti-tank gun (or anti mech in this case). Or at least, likely cheaper than whatever it's firing at. AC 5s, 10s, and 20s have to be respected even by heavy mechs, and while they aren't a huge deal against most assault mechs they can't afford to ignore them like one might a Locust or Spider. Technically speaking, a Hunchback has all the capacity of an urbanmech with more armor, more manueverability and at bit more firepower. But you can get two urbies for every hunchback, with another million C-bills spare. In short, they are budget defensive firepower.
I managed to pick up a warhammer early on, before I even got the quickdraw storyline fight. Comes with a 20% bonus to energy weapons module. I give it to someone who has high gunnery or has the bonus to called shot from tactical, and two ppcs. Its my new fav... I guess I was just lucky to find it early on though.
The Warhammer 6R Is my number one mech. Weighing in at a very respectable 70 tons and striding into battle at 64 kph, armed with twin PPC’s, medium and small lasers, machine guns and an Srm 6 rack, it’s pilot can engage almost whatever the heck they want. "a mobile 'Mech with enough firepower to destroy or severely damage any 'Mech of the same weight class or lower." and in the hands of a skilled pilot, can even punch way above its weight.
I have been very happy with the Blackjack-1DB, aka the Davion Special. 2 LLs and 2 MLs makes for a good punch, and the jumpjets and 6 extra heat sinks help keep it nice and mobile.
The venerable Phoenix Hawk has my respect as a must have Mech in a Lance or as a Lone Wolf. It's speed and Jump capabilities puts it in the top third of Mechs in mobility terms. Lighter and faster mechs stay away from it because there are slower mechs to target. This gives the Phoenix Hawk the luxury of choosing which target to go after. Commanders like having choices. It has enough firepower, speed & mobility to hunt light mechs...and combined with decent 7.0 to 8.5 tons of armor, it can survive hits long enough to allow it to get into position to deliver surgical back damage against heavier tonnage. I like the set up of 1 Large Laser, 2-3 Medium Lasers & 4-6 Flamethrowers. So basically it is a nastier Firestarter with better Weaponry to attack at short, medium & long ranges, and better Armor to improve Survivability. It also becomes a better Scout depending on which era is used. In this variant I call it a FIRESTORM...Brutal!
No love for Rifleman? My best mech is a Rifleman with 4 LBX-2s, full jumpjets. Near paper thin armor sure, but even with full jumpjets no heatsink is necessary, just jump away all the time to avoid being attacked while building evasion pips. Rifleman also comes with extra-range sights, so you can play ultimate keep-away game, peppering enemies beyond their sight range, shaving off enemy armor and then critical-hit them once they are naked. Flakka Rifleman is a thing of beauty. I even field 2 in my best lance. You may not kill enemies as fast, but revel and gloat on the fact that they absolutely cannot touch you. All they can do is just get frustrated and then die.
I prefer Firestarters over Jenners with Lasers, they have melee damage with either MGs or SLs and still something to poke with at medium range while having twice the armor and 5 JJs
Kintaro missile boat is ok, but Trebuchet is a bit better in fire support at that class. Energy Wolverine can be quite tanky as well (4x mlas, 1x srm4/6, with enough heat sinks AND jump jets). Grasshopper is just disgusting. The ultimate heavy mech in the game (all class even). Can be fitted into a variety of roles. Sniper? sure. Brawler? Sure. Melee? 6x support slots man, heck yeah. It can be tanky too, if you want.
Only category I completely agreed with was the assaults. The grasshopper has hands down been my most effective heavy with a master tactician/evasive pilot 7 med lasers, 6 flamers and 4 JJs, it wreaks anythings turns with ease. For mediums the Griffin was my favorite missile support, followed by the Kintaro. For lights agreed on the Jenner but the Firestarter was a much better harasser, flamers are OP in this game.
yea, thats definately the most effective heavy build in the game, until you get lostech it stays relevant. Then you kinda want to upgrade that build into that Melee Banshee variant. Less tonnage but far more armor, and with melee mod its a monster.
My favorite mech right now is the grasshopper. I mounted 7 medium lasers and 4 small lasers, with jump jets. It gets hot pretty quick, but since it's a heavy mech, it can also punch for quite a bit of damage while it coolsdown. :)
You can put 2*AC/20 on Jagermech, specificallay JM6-S, with replacing AC5s and AC2s on arms. This would give you 28 tons needed for the AC20s and you would get 2 Med Lasers for when you run out of dakka.
Mike Clarke Sure. But still, you can do it. And in the game armor is a bit on the heavy side (40 per ton), while in MWO it is 24 per ton, which is more than tha damage of AC/20.
that why he is not getting IN. atlas and a second heavy as tank/spotter and the support 1 sprint distance behind. with called shot mastery it can even core out a heavy with a pricision shot. and if ont it just need a butterfly landing on the mech to knock it down :D
Andrew Bosko, careful with your numbers: the AC/20 in Battletech doesn't do 20 damage, it does something like 50 damage per shot. For everyone who ever memorized the damage and armor values of the different weapon systems, Battletech has thrown a monkey wrench at us all by changing all of those numerical values. LRM launchers do 4 damage per missile (instead of 1 per missile). SRM launchers do 8 damage per missile (so at least it's still double LRMs), and armor has been increased correspondingly.
On paper the Orion looks very good but at least in the board game it is a disater waiting to happen. It is loaded with a lot of ammo and and does heat issues in melee. This makes it quite easy to blow this Mech up despite the heavy armor. Any penetrating hit to the torso is likely to take out this Mech. If I face an Orion there are two options: 1. Focus fire and kill it as quickly as possible or 2. Dodge it and wait until it runs out of ammo. I prefer the Thunderbolt. Thunderbolts are surprisingly hard to bring down.
ac2s ac5s allow more armor. what you sacrifice in firepower you can make up for with jump jets for evasion and positioning. either way I usually keep one in rotation when I need constant harass firepower.
I personally like using the banshee with a high piloting skill pilot and flamers because I think it’s funny. I will also use firestarter with Max flamers as one of my light mechs. Annihilator with 4 ac 20s is fantastic too.
The urbanmechs aren't meant for mercenaries, they're meant for militias to arm soldiers with ac10 on the cheapest platform possible. I don't know why it would get more than an honorable mention.
I took off all of the med lasers and LRM off of the kintaro and just made it an SRM carrier with heat sinks. HOLY. SHIT. That thing absolutely RIPSSSSS as soon as it gets in range of WHATEVER. OK speed, ok armor. Whatever you point it at is either dead, or missing a torso after you fire. If it gets hot, just run away until you can run back in.
I gave my Centurions AC20s, an SRM launcher, a medium laser and jump jets. They were agile enough to dance in and out of combat and could rip any mech a new one as long as you didn't just wander out randomly into open low ground.
i love PPC in table top, but my minimum line of usablility is for the old inner sphere, at least half the damage of the weight, so the Awesome is under gunned. Or would need a forth PPC
@@oxmcginnes6253: The AWS-9Q mounts 4 PPCs but with level II technology. The standard AWS-8Q is one of the best assult class fire support Mechs in table top. Nothing wrecks heavy and assault Mechs from a distance like an Awesome.
Having all your weapons on one side isn't necessarily a disadvantage. You can point the empty side at the enemy and they will be unable to even hit the side with weapons. Attacks from the side are also more likely to hit the side torso than the arm so you can cut some weight from that arm without losing durability. This can get you in trouble in close range where the enemy can get behind you and shoot your soft rear armor, but if an LRM boat is that close it's probably screwed anyways.
Ive found that 3 atlas armed with a gaus, LRM 30, two ER Llasers++ (adds -1 ton each) 2 M pulse lases, 2 ER medium lasers and one Highlander mech armed with an LRM 80 in one lance makes everything else obsolete
My newest toy is an SLDF Atlas with six snub ppc +10 damage, max armor, a few exchangers and heatsinks. Damage rating of 20. Then use a pilot with multi target.
i dont know why people keep putting ammo into CT.... one crit and you are gone. So many other locations that are more forgiving. Also, i am surprized Wolverine did not get some love. Its rudiculus mech, fast, powerful weapon options, can mount 2 flamers, some gyro and arm add-ons. Uload lasers as you come close, then go melee and overheat enemy. Its absloutely phenominal against larger mechs. I use it as scout/brawler once light mechs become too squishy.
Light-mech-wise i prefer the Javelin. Yeah, the Jenner is pretty sturdy but it runs hot as hell and the Urbie... well, you gotta be a fan of slow walking turrets - which i'm not. The Raven is more to my taste. The Kintaro is indeed a good missile-boat (even though i prefer srm), and Centurions as well as Hunchbacks are classics for a reason (seriously, you can do no wrong with either of them). Thunderbolt are always reliable but build-wise not that interesting to me (mostly laser+missiles.... just standard). Catapults would be more usefule if the maps of the game were bigger so indirect-artillery-support fire would be more efficient. Would've been interesting if they'd added the crusador. Heavy-mech-wise, there's nothing better than a Marauder. Always packs a punch and takes a punch. Orion is ok but tends to overheat fast and the Black Knight as well... and don't get me started about the Cataphract (such a cool name for such a disappointing design). Stalker is good for fire-support, but it's slow. The Highlander has better mobility. And the Atlas... well it's an Atlas. Designed for the be all end all in terms ao asskicking... and that's what it does (even though its slow and likes to overheat).
So in single player I've done best with assault and heavys. 2-3 assaults and 1 or 2 heavys. Light is completely useless to me. Am I just bad at the game?
Yes you are. But you probably found that out yourself by now xd. A fast light/medium mech is amazing for jumpjetting, backstabbing and running away. All you need is evasion stacks. Try to keep 5 or 6 and nobody hits you.
Why would you ever pick a Jenner over a Firestarter? The Firestarter can mount more jumps *and* is faster even without them, and the fact that it relies on energy and support weapons exclusively means you have a lot more free tonnage to up-armor and add more heat sinks, making it more durable than the Jenner as well. That's not even mentioning the fact that the damage to tonnage and heat ratio of support weapons trump all other slots, and the Firestarter has 6 support slots while the Jenner has none.
Hello OA. Huh, you don't like the Awesome?? Did you know in HBS Battle Tech that it CAN mount FOUR PPC's? AND enough heat sinks to keep it cool? All while maintaining some quite thick armor?
Stalker 4x SRM 6's 2 LL and 2x ML with jump jets thing hits like a tank and no one expects it. ThunderboltSE is my current favoirite 1xL Laser 2 ML lasers and 2 SRM 4's jets it bounces it shots and can take a leg /torso off most Mech's in one round makes a great brawler. Have found Orians to be a great versatile Mech as well allows a good mix of ranged firepower and good armour. On the slow side though unfortunately.
I think the Thunderbolt is Better than an Orion.... Most of the time my Orion felt to... underarmored!? dunno but my THB could take way more DMG than the Orion.
You should mount nothing but SRM6's in that kintaro can kill assault mechs with out sacrificing all that armor provided you got a pilot with good gunnery skills. Blowing off the legs of an atlas is just funny!
I know I was so stunned when he dint bring up srms. In the campaign I had a stalker wit full +++med lasers and full +++ srm 6 and he could core anything in a single turn. If it survived 3 turns that's 2 mech for the price of one
Lol first time I met an urbie was a blind jump from my pheonix hawk, ignored it because there were a couple of mediums near by. Next round, bye bye RT on my pheonix hawk and half of its jump jets. Never again.
Your light mech picks are fine for beginners but Firestarter is absolutely the best light mech, no question. (IS mechanical only of course, though I'd take on a kit fox with a Firestarter any day) your medium mechanical I agree for the most part. Kintaro woth srm 6s is brutal. Heavy I kinda agree but you need to include black knight and Orion. Assault I think you are pretty much all good. Decent guide. Thanks for making it.
I have had my ass handed to me in the campaign by black knights. One nasty build had 2 ppc's. Tore up my medium lance. Was facing med and light mechs during a base assault and was doing pretty well. Then the black knight and a crab came out as the last two defenders. They tore me up.
Stalker with full 4x lrm setting and sniper pilot in it = kills even atlas with 1 salvo to head, i dare you to say it aint op with knockdown system being op
Can somebody explain me, what is the sense to mount a single jump jet (catapult walker here for example) ? It`s useless to jump for 2 paces. In campaign in few battles it helps in pre battle maneuvering, but not in skirmish, I think. May be there are hints on some maps for it ?
I could have swore that there was a missile variant of the Hunchback either the 4J or the 4sp cuz I seem to remember mounting lrms on. Personally I like the SP better than the all missile it medium laser one because up close it actually does more damage when it finds criticals
For a light mech, the firestarter with 6 small lasers and full armor jump jets does crazy damage and 1 shots a lot of light/medium mechs. Especially when meleeing
Honourable mention for the Firestarter! It can melt almost any heavy mech.
I can't believe this game is still around. my brother, cousins and I used to play the battletech board game back in the early to mid 90s. mechwarrior 4 for the pc was my favorite online game. miss those days. awesome that this game is still around and looks like it's going strong. might have to get back into it. thanks for the video
Odd to not see a grasshopper here. It's got a silly amount of utility hard-points meaning it's capable of running truly ridiculous builds. On that list is the "how many ppc's," "the bbq pit", the "you can't hit the large lasers, they're on the other side of the map," "captain laser vomit," and "comrade machine-gun face" builds
You can even use them like a giant Firestarter.
Yep! The BBQ pit!
Nope, I got that one covered in "Captain laser vomit" :D all the lasers... FOREVEERRR. Especially if you can outfit it with all of the +10 damage Magna
lasers. It'll bore a hole through an atlas without sneezing.
The grasshopper is always MY pilots mech.
Love the hopper. My favourite mech in the game. Keep Evasion up with a good pilot, jump from cover to cover, get behind enemy mechs: 1-shot from behind.
An Atlas can also comfortably mount 2x AC 20s ,2x srm 6s and 4 medium lasers.
I'm pretty sure thats far too hot
@@dandini0698 Double heat sinks and a heat bank actually saved me a shit ton of weight and cooled the AS7D really well.
Honorable Mentions:
Firestarter (Flamer or Light Laser loadouts are excellent)
Dragon (Fast for it's size. Easy to load with close range weapons that put a lot of hurt on then get to that range while having good armor.)
Awesome (It's name is a fitting self descriptor. Excellent loadout, armor and good battlefield endurance)
I know your post is 3yr old but really? The dragon? It by coincidence the first heavy mech i got and it was so useless. I ran 2x ac5 2xm laser. No issues with heat but it just doesn't have enough tonnage. It has the armour of medium mech, but not the mobility. Ended up scrapping it and grabbing a 2cnd centurion until i had access to other heavy mechs. Was i using it wrong?
Grasshopper is possibly one of the best mechs period. Only a heavy acting an initiative phase earlier, capable of mounting 6 small lasers and 5 mediums (comfortably). You then realise that with medium +++ you can get +10 dmg making your mediums hit for 35, all your small lasers hit for 25 (with + variants) and congrats you have 325 points of damage. You pinpoint that baby with master called shot and congrats, every mec in the game dies one hit. What’s better? The grasshopper is mobile af, so you just jump behind your enemy, aim ct, use a third of your weapons and voila.
I am liking it with 7 medium lasers and 6 MGs.
7Stormwalker With all the +++, its a very expensive glass cannon. I agree, its probably worth it as long as your opponent doesnt expect it, but still you are flipping a coin there, win or lose...
you can also mount 6 flamers on it :)
that is just a waste, GH is a glass cannon, you'll lose those weapons easily because enemy likes to focus on this guy regularly. Instead just use flamers and melee mods. It can shut down any mech in 1-2 turns. Then upgrade to Banshee when you get the chance, same hardpoints, but tanks harder and hits harder.
The Grasshopper isn't a glass cannon at all, though. You have no ammo that can explode, and when your TOTAL weapon tonnage is around 8 tons on a 70 ton mech, you can nearly max out your armor. Plus you are jumping every turn, and in the campaign, getting 5-6 evasive pips every turn with a Gyro that gives the enemy a +3 penalty to hit you.
The Banshee, by contrast, does nearly the exact same thing but without the initiative to outmaneuver enemy assault mechs without Master Tactician.
The best assault is the urbanmech
Best scouting light mech is an Atlas II. Lyran Alliance sends their compliments.
Urbanmech is only slightly better than a Mackie
@@dracoswhitewolf Sure if you have an urbie that's got no armor.
@@Paerigos Ja, ve are sending zeh properly equipped 400 ton scout lance to reconnoiter zeh city. Remember mein friends: if zere is no one left to report our lance's presence, stealth has been successfully achieved!
No curb the Urbie!
Firestarter and painter for light, firestarter is a jump rare armour core machine, panther is a the only light mech that can rock 2 large Lazer
Medium, cinturean with 1 ml srm12 and jumpjets. And vulkan small Lazer and jumpjets rare core machin.
Heavy, orian, better centurion, and grasshopper, 6 machine guns 6 medium lazers and jumpjets, call shot core or heads and say goo 6:45 dbye.
Assault, highlander, srm 20, lbx10 and jumpjets, siderech destroyer.
Bull shark, 2 uac2, 2uac5 2large lazers. Or a perm 70-80 on the other one. Both can core assaults in one turn
How can you have no love for Orion when majority of the players say that it's the best heavy mech?
napoleonic sp007rz got to agree with you, the Orion is a great heavy :)
In my eyes the Thunderbolt is better than the Orion. My Orion always got killed faster than the Thunderbolt... (both Maxed out armor)
Don't knock the standard Highlander: if you pay attention in the game, it rarely overheats with all weapons and has decent speed for its tonnage. The King Crab and Atlas are just too damn slow.
This is my fav of all the mechs.
The highlander is one of the best assault mechs in my opinion.
Highlander drop, rules on any map tgat kets you have easy jumps
I got a Star League Highlander 732B version with the Gauss Rifle and the double heat sinks. Add a PPC and LRMs to give it extra long-range attack capability and some arm mods for brawling and it easily survives as a lone wolf against many different mech types. It's great to use against turrets and vehicles as well.
The enforcer is quite good, has a good selection of hard points. I usually put a ac 10 on it. What else I put on it is subject to change.
Also the difference between crab and atlas is atlas has a little better melee and the crab has slightly better hard points. That's really about it.
After witnessing an Urbie walk up behind an Atlas an rip into it and have the Atlas turn around and start shooting the teammate in the distance. Since he thought he was the one attacking him, then seeing the Urbie get the kill. I knew not to mess with them.
Maybe I'm in the wrong place since I've only played Campaign up to now, but I find the Firestarter to be an excellent light 'mech. Perfect for either softening up or dealing the killing blow to mechs up to heavy class, while still being very fast and carrying armor on par with many medium 'mechs. My current campaign build carries 2 Small Lasers++, 2 Small Lasers, 2 Medium Lasers and 2 MGs for crits - with around 600 points of armor. Fast enough to get from cover into close range quite easily, where it can dish out up to 170 points of damage. Let him get into your back, even with a heavy, and you're in for some serious pain. Even more so with a precision strike, O.O
Anytime a 'best of list' starts with an Urbanmech, I have to instantly start doubting the information I am getting...
Urbies rule!
Urbies can actually be pretty nasty in close quarters. That AC20 hurts just as bad from a trash can as it does a Victor or Direwolf. Mind you, the trash can is a lot easier to shoot at 32kph base. ;)
"NO CURB THE URBIE!!!" I always liked the ArrowIV UrbanMech for hilarious surprise amounts of indirect fire artillery shots in the board game... crap for ammo, but one heck of a surprise when something gets TAGged and 4 ArrowIVs land on it.
@@ShadrachVS1 "They called me trashcan. I call them fertilizer." I like my own personal custom Urbie for the board game which I call the "UM-R60E" which mounts a 90-rated engine (3/5 MP) and 3 jump jets (got a bit inspired by the Urbanmech IIC), 6.5 tons of armor, 13 standard heat sinks, a PPC in place of the AC/10, and 2 medium lasers in place of the small laser. The idea when making this variant is to retain damage output at all ranges (only fire med. lasers when in PPC minimum range and never alpha strike), increase speed & maneuverability, allow it to survive the technological degradation of the Succession Wars, and keep it somewhat cheap for all the garrisons and militias that have to battle on a budget. I achieved that last one as this faster (and arguably deadlier) Urbie is only 210,275 C-bills higher than the standard -R60, though the lack of ammo means it will eventually be cheaper at a higher entry fee.
The Urby has to be there purely based on the meme factor.
It is always good to use the 'jack of all trades' mech in your fire team. As I can see they are (from light to assault) jenner, shadowhawk, thunderbolt, and highlander. These are the best for all-around battles. If someone wants to get into specifics on what is the best support or brawlers that is a separate list. It has also been adjusted since the hatchetman came out. FYI, hatchetman with the arm mod and melee gyro can take down a heavy mech in one hit. Also, before you respond saying my list is off due to your favorite mechs (I have some I wanted to list as well) remember that I made that list off of well rounded mechs. So it had to be decent in all categories like speed, durability, heat, weapon load out along with weapon range effectiveness. I also only looked at stock mechs. The atlas is a beast, but it is meant for brawling and being a bullet sponge.
in the campaign i used my Kintaro as a close range missile boat with 2 m lasers and 5 SRM4. SRM4 and not 6 because they are WAY more heat efficient so i wont overheat too much. the punch was great with good dmg and stability dmg, with good mobility to hit from any angle. JJ included.
Srm6 - 12 heat for 6 missles
Srm4 - 8 heat for 4 missiles
The ratio is the same.
Only reason to use srm4 is space restrictions.
@@MrDanielWP The ratios were different at release, they patched them to the values you listed.
@@julianpopham3312 - ok.
I made a 100-ton King Crab load-out with 2 Gauss Rifles and 1 PPC for long-range punching damage while approaching from a distance. Then I put 4 Flamers and some arm mods to deal a massive melee-range, knockout+shutdown punch against any heavy mech that allows it to get close or that tries to brawl with the King Crab. The remaining slots are for heat sinks/heat banks/heat exchangers to keep it shooting the PPC every round against mechs that want to stay away. I like to pair this build as a bodyguard mech for a 70-ton Cataphract CTF-0X ECM Stealth build that has an Ultra Autocannon UAC-20 and medium lasers. The ECM umbrella forces enemy mechs to waste their turns using sensor locks or to get in close to penetrate the ECM shield and thus expose themselves to UAC-20 fire or massive melee punches.
My favorite medium-mech design is a 45-ton Hatchetman with extra arm mods to deal additional melee damage aside from the hatchet, 2 SRM6 launchers, 4 machine guns, and leg mods that reduce Death-From-Above damage to the legs. If there is extra unused tonnage left, I'd increase its armor. This mech is designed to run or jump around the battlefield hoping to deliver critical hits or final kills against damaged or crippled mechs. Another medium mech I'd use is a 55-ton Shadow Hawk with an Ultra AC20 and extra ammo, added armor, and heat sinks/heat exchangers to keep it shooting a long time. It's function is to scout targets for the LRM missile boats (I'd give it a Rangefinder cockpit add-on), deal a few massive shots with its big gun, and then jump away from approaching threats. Both medium mech designs are amazing hunter-killers of mechs in any tonnage class.
I had a bushwhacker build I used to rock. LRM 10, large laser, lbx ac10. Did a surprising amount of damage at range and could hold it's own rather well up close for its weight. Also had a black knight build centered around a gauss rifle replacement for the PPC. Ahhhhhh. Good times.
Firestarter has more free tonnage than Jenner and assuming Pilot or JJ's is just as Evasive, though it doesn't have Missiles but instead has Ballistics.
Panther has the exact same free tonnage as Urbanmech, but can walk faster and carry Missiles, though it doesn't have Ballistics so no AC20.
Hunchback has the exact same speed as a Centurion.
As much as I like the Thunderbolts and Catapults, the Orions have more free tonnage and roughly the same hard points, so are in just about every way better.
Kingcrab is not the only mech that can mount 2 AC20s, though it is the best for doing so given it's armor and hardpoints. The Hunchback 4G can but sacrifices all it's armor, the Jagermechs and Catapult K2 can but sacrifice half their armor, while the Orion V, Zeus, Victors, and Battlemaster can but sacrifice a third of their armor. While of course the Atlas can, but it has both AC20s in the same spot.
An Atlas and King Crab can be just as durable, it just depends on the loadout.
Yep when he did not talk about the Firestarter I started to get a little concerned. Easily the best light out of the list mechs.
Disagree with your disparaging of the highlander. The improvements compaired with the stalker are 10 more tons to work with and jumpjets so a MUCH more mobile mech.
Hey bro so I just started to play this game about 3 days ago and have been in career mode, haven’t played multiplayer yet but I wanted to give my insight on a build for the Jenner that has been super effective for me. I noticed the Jenner standing out very early on but I have a completely different way of using it than what u mentioned. I’ll run it;
2x LRM10’s
2x LRM Ammo
But reduced armour to only 120 making it very vulnerable to attack but is a outstanding long range fire support mech with great speed and maneuverability. Works best with a skirmisher frontline that work well when supporting one another
I find the Griffin-1N to be a good all around work horse once you hit mid game.
I haven't done MP, but as far as single player my best assaults are highlanders with gauss. Mix of armor, damage and jump jet mobility makes it very dangerous. Also using coil lasers on your fast lights and mediums to zip behind and one shot heavy targets
The Orion 1-V can comfortably mount 3 LRM 15(++) and also has a ton of other hardpoints as well as far more armor than the standard Jagermechs and Catapults. The Orion 1-K has even more armor to go along with a lot of hardpoints for all types of weaponry (two missile hardpoints, ballistic hardpoint, energy hardpoints). That makes the Orion more useful and versatile than the Catapult, Jagermech and Thunderbolt. Don't get me wrong, they're also good mechs, especially the Jager when used simply as a long-range damage dealer. But - the Orion is definitely the king of all heavy mechs. That armor-weaponry combo is amazing. Among assault mechs, the Atlas, King Crab, Highlander and Awesome 8T can all be turned into supreme builds. Along with the Stalker, which I prefer in a 4 LRM 15 (++; additional damage) and energy weapons (just in case) build. The Banshee can be turned into a great brawler since it has quite a lot of speed but it's not worth it, because it will be in the thick of it and it simply can neither deal nor withstand the damage that the King Crab can dole out / endure.
I also use an Orion 1-V as my support with 2 LRM 15 and 1 LRM 20 with a few Jumpjet/heatsink and low armor. I also like the Black Knigth for a medium laser blaster with Jump jet and Heatsink, he can move around the battlefield quite fast and blast everything that the Orion knock over and take a beating without exploding.
There is a Firestarter build that I use to absolutely wreck people. Take a firestarter and strip out all the flamers etc and replace with small lasers that will trigger in a melee attack. keep one or two med lasers for ranged engagement but max out armor as much as possible.
with so many small lasers that fire on a melee attack if you attack from a side arch you have over 100 damage spread out over only 3 section which almost guarantees that an arm or leg or both are going to be coming off that mech. if you hit from behind you can one or two shot a light or medium mech. plus due to the low weight of the small lasers the firestarter can pack on tons of armor.
you can do the same thing with the Blackknight I think and each of them just wrecks mechs of their weight and punches a bit above their weight class.
The other light mech standout, IMO, is the Firestarter.
Not in it's stock configuration so much, since that's only _powerful_ if you're very good at predicting and positioning to hit an enemy mech while it's hot enough to push over the edge into shutdown (or just prevent it from using any of it's weapons for a turn, but that takes yet another dose of forethought and timing). Instead, equip the Firestarter with either 5 machine guns and 3 medium lasers, or 6 mgs and 2mls.
And then go wipe out almost any light mech in one salvo. Or run up to bigger mechs with little armor left and fill them with bullets to knock out systems, or better yet, pilots. Watch your critical hit count climb!
I also carries a respectable amount of armor and is very fast.
I really like a Dragob as an entry level heavy mech.
Just strip the extra ammo and switch the LRM10 with a 15
Early midgame, dragons are bread/butter, esp since the story gives you steady access to them. Weapon options are limited, but the durability is what is gonna pay off.
Marauder 3R with dual UAC2s and some medium lasers makes a VISCOUS head hunter with a high skill pilot and called shots.
Chance with max skills should be around 35% per attack... and with 4 attacks at least, one is likely to hit.
One thing I do in single player (not sure if this is worth in in MP) is if I have an arm that isn't carrying anything for me and I'm running low on armor elsewhere (like as in your Kintaro Missile Boat), I absolutely strip the armor off that arm, sometimes even that shoulder - and for missile boats and snipers especially, stripping all of the rear armor off. This has proven workable for me to keep decent armor protection over the critical parts of the mech, given that even though I lose the arm or something like that, it's not really too expensive to replace.
never had anything devastate like an annihilator. get 5x UAC 5++ with minus tonnage. LBX ++ can substitute. then add 1x snub PPC++ (+10 damage) . fairly heat stable and the alpha is catastrophic. it will kill a 55 ton mech as if it was a locust in a single strike.
Annihilator is a great mech when you don’t have to get anywhere fast.
In the vanilla game I used dual AC/20 Jagermechs... Those things were quite low on armor, but after using a heavy armor mech to reduce evasion of off the enemy mechs, the Jager was a superb way to destroy/cripple enemy mechs.
Ah the Boomjaeger. It's a niche build in MWO.
Interesting analysis of the stock-ish non-Star League 'mech chassis for skirmish and MP. FWIW, the Catapult C4 has 4 missile hardpoints and can be modified to run 2 LRM15s and 2 LRM5s so you can still have 40 LRMs per alpha, but immediately save 2 tons for more armor or heat management. You can also run 2 AC20 on the AS7-D, at least on paper, but I wouldn't recommend it - 2 AC10 is way more heat-, weight-, range- and ammo-efficient.
Put 2 LLAS, 2 AC10 and maybe a few LRMs on a jumpy AS7-D (150 jump vs 120 move) with a good Rangefinder and have a good time.
I have a kintaro i use to get in close and precision strike right and left torsos to disarm mechs. It has 2 srm6 and srm 4 jumpjets heatsinks and extra armor. It is a harasser that weakems enemies and attracts attention . Works pretty well
The JaegerMech-A variant can actually mount more missiles (4) than a Catapult-C1 (2). It can also mount 2 energy and 2 ballistic weapons. For that reason I think it is a little more versatile.
in the campaign im building one with an AC5, 4 SRM4 and lasers. it should be decent up close.
i can consider removing the AC and switching to SRM6 instead...but those are less heat efficient and i need it to be able to shoot non stop...though its only backup as i got 2 highlanders as well as some others like banshee, stalker, awesome.
2*LRM 20. Fire support FTW. Although I could have put 4*LRM 10, since this would probably be lighter.
ED GONE JOHN
Now i got an atlas ans king crab, each with ac20, srms and mlasers. Also using a stalker with 2 ppcs and 2 lrm20. Considering a 4 lrm20 stalker instead
i swapped to 4 LRM20 stalker and im very impressed. much better heat management without caring about LOS. also im using 5 tons of ammo and i keep it with limited armor behind my force, bulwark included (as they like to focus it down).
i do 320 dmg per alpha, now 360 with a new LRM20 with +2 dmg (6 per missile instead of 4)
So far as I've noticed, the tonnage values for weapons and equipment haven't changed from regular TableTop, so 2 LRM 10's is the same weight (2x5) as one LRM 20 (1x10). The only tonnage bonus comes with using LRM 5's, which are 2 tons, instead of the 2.5 they would need to be to maintain their ratio with the rest of the LRM launchers. Thus 4 LRM 5 launchers (20 tubes) weighs 8 tons, instead of an LRM 20's 10 tons. Also occupies 4 critical slots, to an LRM 20's 5, on normal TT. The slots were reduced slightly for Battletech.
My favorite mech is the wolverine
1000+ max armor while still having a ton of room for srms and decent melee and movement
One thing ive used to great sucess is a SRM'd - short distance tuned Griffin. Greatest mech I've found for jumping behind a mech and stripping it of its armor and vitals from the rear. Have to pick your targets wisely, but the maxed out armor ive been running coupled with great heat efficiency and 5> evasion worth of mobility... whats not to like?
Not a fan of the AC/20 stuff.
Prefer the Gauss Rifle builds.
A bit less damage but MUCH better range and no recoil penalty on followups.
Also less tonnage used which means more armor and other weapons.
And here I thought marauder with gauss++ , ac10++(acc), ppc++(acc), with tts(aac) headshot done.
Great video, thanks. You should try a firestarter with 6 small lasers and 6 jumps. It's like a surgeon on the battlefield.
I like it with flamethrowers, Very good at using heat to shut some builds down.
Antony Mash Thanks, I will have to try that.
Its not always useful, especialy on polar maps but it can hard counter some very hot mech, even incapacitating using heat as opposed to knockdown.
I wil have to try out the surgeon general though. What mechwarrior traits do you recomend for her?
it seems great for melle as it has decent melle attack and lots of support weapons...so good dmg/heat dmg.
MGs can be considered too with their high crit/headshot chances
It's going to depend on the map, but yeah I've used a single firestarter with 5/6 flamethrowers and lots of jumpjets to make it impossible for a bigger mech to do anything without shutting down. Problem is melee costs no heat so they can kill the firestarter quickly with punching and kicking... haven't figured out a fix for that yet...
Favorite light mech:
Commando I named ancle biter
All SRM and machine guns.
Medium Mech:
I built an Enforcer with an AC20 and 4 medium lasers. It's alpha strike was one shotting nearly anything it went up against. What it didn't one shot the rest of the lance made short work of. The downside until I got some double heatsinks on it it was really spicy. Getting at most 2 alpha strikes in before having to drop back and cool off for a round. Made for great hit and fade attacks. I named it Headhunter because that AC20 loved popping heads.
Heavy Mech:
Dakadaka
Yeagernech with 6 AC2's and 4 machine guns
Assault:
The Beast
King Crab with 4 SRM 6, 4 medium lasers and 6 machine guns. Very spicy but when it got in melee range let's just say if the clamps didn't kill it the machine guns did. At this point of the game I was using the ++++ equipment so it was laughably over powered.
Runner up
The Zapper
12 medium laser 4 small laser Battlemaster. Over heated after 1 alpha strike but a hell of a brawler.
Urbanmech feels more like a ... heavy support. Sort of like an escort mech that is designed to stick with specific long-range heavies.
It's called an Urbanmech for a reason. In city engagements with minimal room to move it can be quite dangerous. Put that thing at the end of a street where it can't get outflanked and us essentially have a cheap, entrenched anti-tank gun (or anti mech in this case). Or at least, likely cheaper than whatever it's firing at. AC 5s, 10s, and 20s have to be respected even by heavy mechs, and while they aren't a huge deal against most assault mechs they can't afford to ignore them like one might a Locust or Spider.
Technically speaking, a Hunchback has all the capacity of an urbanmech with more armor, more manueverability and at bit more firepower. But you can get two urbies for every hunchback, with another million C-bills spare.
In short, they are budget defensive firepower.
yay. Kintaro lrm boat can be a thing and im not crazy. you got a subscriber bro
I managed to pick up a warhammer early on, before I even got the quickdraw storyline fight. Comes with a 20% bonus to energy weapons module.
I give it to someone who has high gunnery or has the bonus to called shot from tactical, and two ppcs. Its my new fav... I guess I was just lucky to find it early on though.
The Warhammer 6R Is my number one mech. Weighing in at a very respectable 70 tons and striding into battle at 64 kph, armed with twin PPC’s, medium and small lasers, machine guns and an Srm 6 rack, it’s pilot can engage almost whatever the heck they want. "a mobile 'Mech with enough firepower to destroy or severely damage any 'Mech of the same weight class or lower." and in the hands of a skilled pilot, can even punch way above its weight.
I have been very happy with the Blackjack-1DB, aka the Davion Special. 2 LLs and 2 MLs makes for a good punch, and the jumpjets and 6 extra heat sinks help keep it nice and mobile.
The venerable Phoenix Hawk has my respect as a must have Mech in a Lance or as a Lone Wolf. It's speed and Jump capabilities puts it in the top third of Mechs in mobility terms. Lighter and faster mechs stay away from it because there are slower mechs to target. This gives the Phoenix Hawk the luxury of choosing which target to go after. Commanders like having choices. It has enough firepower, speed & mobility to hunt light mechs...and combined with decent 7.0 to 8.5 tons of armor, it can survive hits long enough to allow it to get into position to deliver surgical back damage against heavier tonnage. I like the set up of 1 Large Laser, 2-3 Medium Lasers & 4-6 Flamethrowers. So basically it is a nastier Firestarter with better Weaponry to attack at short, medium & long ranges, and better Armor to improve Survivability. It also becomes a better Scout depending on which era is used. In this variant I call it a FIRESTORM...Brutal!
Use it to jump and scout with a tactician....but stay away from melee range because even at maxed armor it has a glass jaw.
No love for Rifleman? My best mech is a Rifleman with 4 LBX-2s, full jumpjets. Near paper thin armor sure, but even with full jumpjets no heatsink is necessary, just jump away all the time to avoid being attacked while building evasion pips. Rifleman also comes with extra-range sights, so you can play ultimate keep-away game, peppering enemies beyond their sight range, shaving off enemy armor and then critical-hit them once they are naked. Flakka Rifleman is a thing of beauty. I even field 2 in my best lance. You may not kill enemies as fast, but revel and gloat on the fact that they absolutely cannot touch you. All they can do is just get frustrated and then die.
I prefer Firestarters over Jenners with Lasers, they have melee damage with either MGs or SLs and still something to poke with at medium range while having twice the armor and 5 JJs
Also 2 of those with 6 flamers can knock out any mech in the game.
Kintaro missile boat is ok, but Trebuchet is a bit better in fire support at that class. Energy Wolverine can be quite tanky as well (4x mlas, 1x srm4/6, with enough heat sinks AND jump jets).
Grasshopper is just disgusting. The ultimate heavy mech in the game (all class even). Can be fitted into a variety of roles. Sniper? sure. Brawler? Sure. Melee? 6x support slots man, heck yeah. It can be tanky too, if you want.
Only category I completely agreed with was the assaults. The grasshopper has hands down been my most effective heavy with a master tactician/evasive pilot 7 med lasers, 6 flamers and 4 JJs, it wreaks anythings turns with ease.
For mediums the Griffin was my favorite missile support, followed by the Kintaro.
For lights agreed on the Jenner but the Firestarter was a much better harasser, flamers are OP in this game.
yea, thats definately the most effective heavy build in the game, until you get lostech it stays relevant. Then you kinda want to upgrade that build into that Melee Banshee variant. Less tonnage but far more armor, and with melee mod its a monster.
Plot twist: it's just the Atlas... but 4 of them. House Steiner strikes again!
Grasshopper bar none. Best close/mid range heavy in the game and its fast and heavily armored even when kitted out.
My favorite mech right now is the grasshopper.
I mounted 7 medium lasers and 4 small lasers, with jump jets. It gets hot pretty quick, but since it's a heavy mech, it can also punch for quite a bit of damage while it coolsdown.
:)
I put all small lasers on every possible hard point and maxed the armor on mine -- it is now a devastating brawler
You can put 2*AC/20 on Jagermech, specificallay JM6-S, with replacing AC5s and AC2s on arms. This would give you 28 tons needed for the AC20s and you would get 2 Med Lasers for when you run out of dakka.
jager-a could strip armor and go nuts with 4 LRM20
Jager seems lightly armoured to be getting in with ac20s imo
Mike Clarke Sure. But still, you can do it. And in the game armor is a bit on the heavy side (40 per ton), while in MWO it is 24 per ton, which is more than tha damage of AC/20.
that why he is not getting IN. atlas and a second heavy as tank/spotter and the support 1 sprint distance behind. with called shot mastery it can even core out a heavy with a pricision shot. and if ont it just need a butterfly landing on the mech to knock it down :D
Andrew Bosko, careful with your numbers: the AC/20 in Battletech doesn't do 20 damage, it does something like 50 damage per shot. For everyone who ever memorized the damage and armor values of the different weapon systems, Battletech has thrown a monkey wrench at us all by changing all of those numerical values. LRM launchers do 4 damage per missile (instead of 1 per missile). SRM launchers do 8 damage per missile (so at least it's still double LRMs), and armor has been increased correspondingly.
Mostly agree with your choices but I would have added the Orion to the list, like the Centurion its a great all rounder.
Orions Rule
On paper the Orion looks very good but at least in the board game it is a disater waiting to happen.
It is loaded with a lot of ammo and and does heat issues in melee. This makes it quite easy to blow this Mech up despite the heavy armor.
Any penetrating hit to the torso is likely to take out this Mech. If I face an Orion there are two options:
1. Focus fire and kill it as quickly as possible or 2. Dodge it and wait until it runs out of ammo.
I prefer the Thunderbolt. Thunderbolts are surprisingly hard to bring down.
Jagermech-A's are amazing mechs too. Dual AC10 or AC5 + LRMS
ac2s ac5s allow more armor. what you sacrifice in firepower you can make up for with jump jets for evasion and positioning. either way I usually keep one in rotation when I need constant harass firepower.
For heavies don't forget melee dragon when mounting arm mods, it does giga damage!
My favorite is the classic Atlas a monster that sends light mechs running.
I personally like using the banshee with a high piloting skill pilot and flamers because I think it’s funny.
I will also use firestarter with Max flamers as one of my light mechs.
Annihilator with 4 ac 20s is fantastic too.
The urbanmechs aren't meant for mercenaries, they're meant for militias to arm soldiers with ac10 on the cheapest platform possible. I don't know why it would get more than an honorable mention.
I took off all of the med lasers and LRM off of the kintaro and just made it an SRM carrier with heat sinks.
HOLY. SHIT. That thing absolutely RIPSSSSS as soon as it gets in range of WHATEVER. OK speed, ok armor. Whatever you point it at is either dead, or missing a torso after you fire. If it gets hot, just run away until you can run back in.
I build my only Centurion as missile boat lite in campaign for some time.
It was worth it. Win me several heavies by knock them out to death.
I gave my Centurions AC20s, an SRM launcher, a medium laser and jump jets. They were agile enough to dance in and out of combat and could rip any mech a new one as long as you didn't just wander out randomly into open low ground.
the Awesome counts in on mmy top 10's, 3 PPC'S rock
i love PPC in table top, but my minimum line of usablility is for the old inner sphere, at least half the damage of the weight, so the Awesome is under gunned. Or would need a forth PPC
@@oxmcginnes6253: The AWS-9Q mounts 4 PPCs but with level II technology. The standard AWS-8Q is one of the best assult class fire support Mechs in table top.
Nothing wrecks heavy and assault Mechs from a distance like an Awesome.
Having all your weapons on one side isn't necessarily a disadvantage. You can point the empty side at the enemy and they will be unable to even hit the side with weapons. Attacks from the side are also more likely to hit the side torso than the arm so you can cut some weight from that arm without losing durability. This can get you in trouble in close range where the enemy can get behind you and shoot your soft rear armor, but if an LRM boat is that close it's probably screwed anyways.
Ive found that 3 atlas armed with a gaus, LRM 30, two ER Llasers++ (adds -1 ton each) 2 M pulse lases, 2 ER medium lasers and one Highlander mech armed with an LRM 80 in one lance makes everything else obsolete
The Gauss ++ also adds - 1 ton
My newest toy is an SLDF Atlas with six snub ppc +10 damage, max armor, a few exchangers and heatsinks. Damage rating of 20. Then use a pilot with multi target.
OMG! I know peeps want to make money but this has more commercials than Forensic Files!
I run my Jenners w/o jump jets, strip off the srm4 and boost the armor up to 800 plus have a ton left over for a heat sink.
You can also f around with the kcrab and mount 4 srm6 and ac20 for more stab damage and more dmg overall
The problem about the Stalker is that it's sort of slow I am not surprised if it doesn't have much move distance in the game
i dont know why people keep putting ammo into CT.... one crit and you are gone. So many other locations that are more forgiving. Also, i am surprized Wolverine did not get some love. Its rudiculus mech, fast, powerful weapon options, can mount 2 flamers, some gyro and arm add-ons. Uload lasers as you come close, then go melee and overheat enemy. Its absloutely phenominal against larger mechs. I use it as scout/brawler once light mechs become too squishy.
I have a highlander that has 2 ac20s mounted.. Alot of different info in this video but maybe the game changed significantly since it was published.
Personally, Vindicator, Orion, Catapult, Centurion, Banshee and Atlas
Light-mech-wise i prefer the Javelin. Yeah, the Jenner is pretty sturdy but it runs hot as hell and the Urbie... well, you gotta be a fan of slow walking turrets - which i'm not. The Raven is more to my taste.
The Kintaro is indeed a good missile-boat (even though i prefer srm), and Centurions as well as Hunchbacks are classics for a reason (seriously, you can do no wrong with either of them).
Thunderbolt are always reliable but build-wise not that interesting to me (mostly laser+missiles.... just standard). Catapults would be more usefule if the maps of the game were bigger so indirect-artillery-support fire would be more efficient. Would've been interesting if they'd added the crusador.
Heavy-mech-wise, there's nothing better than a Marauder. Always packs a punch and takes a punch. Orion is ok but tends to overheat fast and the Black Knight as well... and don't get me started about the Cataphract (such a cool name for such a disappointing design).
Stalker is good for fire-support, but it's slow. The Highlander has better mobility. And the Atlas... well it's an Atlas. Designed for the be all end all in terms ao asskicking... and that's what it does (even though its slow and likes to overheat).
No shadowhawk in there??? Scandalous!!
Yea this video isnt that good.
I grew up in the 90's and I remember Crescent Hawk Inception!
So in single player I've done best with assault and heavys. 2-3 assaults and 1 or 2 heavys. Light is completely useless to me. Am I just bad at the game?
Yes you are. But you probably found that out yourself by now xd. A fast light/medium mech is amazing for jumpjetting, backstabbing and running away. All you need is evasion stacks. Try to keep 5 or 6 and nobody hits you.
Why would you ever pick a Jenner over a Firestarter? The Firestarter can mount more jumps *and* is faster even without them, and the fact that it relies on energy and support weapons exclusively means you have a lot more free tonnage to up-armor and add more heat sinks, making it more durable than the Jenner as well. That's not even mentioning the fact that the damage to tonnage and heat ratio of support weapons trump all other slots, and the Firestarter has 6 support slots while the Jenner has none.
I'm working on a conversion of the urbanmech to d&d5e.
A good place to start might be the cannon Golem from pathfinder
Hello OA.
Huh, you don't like the Awesome?? Did you know in HBS Battle Tech that it CAN mount FOUR PPC's? AND enough heat sinks to keep it cool? All while maintaining some quite thick armor?
Stalker 4x SRM 6's 2 LL and 2x ML with jump jets thing hits like a tank and no one expects it.
ThunderboltSE is my current favoirite 1xL Laser 2 ML lasers and 2 SRM 4's jets it bounces it shots and can take a leg /torso off most Mech's in one round makes a great brawler. Have found Orians to be a great versatile Mech as well allows a good mix of ranged firepower and good armour. On the slow side though unfortunately.
I think the Thunderbolt is Better than an Orion.... Most of the time my Orion felt to... underarmored!? dunno but my THB could take way more DMG than the Orion.
Stalker is really really really OP.
You should mount nothing but SRM6's in that kintaro can kill assault mechs with out sacrificing all that armor provided you got a pilot with good gunnery skills. Blowing off the legs of an atlas is just funny!
I know I was so stunned when he dint bring up srms. In the campaign I had a stalker wit full +++med lasers and full +++ srm 6 and he could core anything in a single turn. If it survived 3 turns that's 2 mech for the price of one
The Ultimate Mech game today would be Vox Machinae. VR immersive, custom load outs, different mechs/grinders, intense battles.
King Crab has enough missile hard points to make it a variable long range striker. 2 LRM 20s and an LRM 10 then replace the AC20's with AC2's
Lol first time I met an urbie was a blind jump from my pheonix hawk, ignored it because there were a couple of mediums near by. Next round, bye bye RT on my pheonix hawk and half of its jump jets. Never again.
It was an AC20 btw haha
Man wish this was on x box love mechs since I was a kid
It's available on both PC and Mac. My 2015 MacBook Pro is able to run it, so whatever you have can probably handle it.
Your light mech picks are fine for beginners but Firestarter is absolutely the best light mech, no question. (IS mechanical only of course, though I'd take on a kit fox with a Firestarter any day) your medium mechanical I agree for the most part. Kintaro woth srm 6s is brutal. Heavy I kinda agree but you need to include black knight and Orion. Assault I think you are pretty much all good. Decent guide. Thanks for making it.
I have had my ass handed to me in the campaign by black knights. One nasty build had 2 ppc's. Tore up my medium lance. Was facing med and light mechs during a base assault and was doing pretty well. Then the black knight and a crab came out as the last two defenders. They tore me up.
Armor stripped Kintaro with as many SRM6++ as you can fit and jets. Jump behind anything and oneshot it in the rear CT.
Stalker with full 4x lrm setting and sniper pilot in it = kills even atlas with 1 salvo to head, i dare you to say it aint op with knockdown system being op
If you can find the 4x LRM15++ that do +2 damage it is like having 4 LRM20s. It is lightly armored, but Jesus the missile salvos!!
I run this with my marauder, I might change to four ac10 for internal damage.
i use the Annihilator and have it stocked with two AC/20’s, one AC/10, couple large lasers and 4 medium lasers...thing tears stuff up
Search "Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. Quemando mechs de los clanes con un Urbanmech" and you will see a video of Urban mechs against clans.
I met assault he had 1400 points of armour with only 4 mechs I run heavy
Supposed to 8 with dlc but haven't seen yet
Can somebody explain me, what is the sense to mount a single jump jet (catapult walker here for example) ? It`s useless to jump for 2 paces. In campaign in few battles it helps in pre battle maneuvering, but not in skirmish, I think. May be there are hints on some maps for it ?
Alexander de Danaan A short hop up or down can save you walking around a cliff
I could have swore that there was a missile variant of the Hunchback either the 4J or the 4sp cuz I seem to remember mounting lrms on. Personally I like the SP better than the all missile it medium laser one because up close it actually does more damage when it finds criticals
There is one. It has to medium missile slots in the chest. It's definitely better than the AC variation.
Are any of the Mechwarrior Online paint jobs available in this game? I was wondering since they reused the mech sprites from that game in Battletech.
2:41 maybe let's improve our choice of descriptors, hey?
Title: list of best, first line: list of favourites. These are not mutual inclusive
I run double archers in my lance with a highlander and a battle master. Nothing I cant walk through like the plague .