The same strategy I use for my spirit cats. My annihilator ANH-5W, 2 timber wolves, 2 kit foxes. Send two kit foxes with a timber wolf, and keep a timber wolf with the annihilator. Mess with the annihilator while the timber wolf eats you. Or mess with the Timber wolf while the annihilator eats you. Same for the kit foxes and timber wolf.
Great vid. thanks! This is where Formations start to screw with me. Do you always try to satisfy formation requirements? They have great bonus abilities, but do they get in the way of other good ideas?
My video may not have been entirely clear, I generally don’t play with formations and the one tournament I play in also doesn’t use them. I think they can be fun for campaign stuff but for balance it brings up a lot of issues the same way SPAs do. I try to keep a balance of weight classes represented usually.
Another place you can save points is IF units, get them to medium range and then park them behind a hill or building so they can't be seen. Remaining still means a skill 5 unit goes back to effective skill 4. Have a cheap conventional infantry unit on elevated terrain to spot for them
The major benefit I find with lights is also leveraging their TMM to try to impact what my opponent does or does not shoot at. IF can be good but make a choice for you opponent and makes other units a higher target chance. Things to consider :)
@@Thearmedpainter Yeah, the high TMM is a good way to try and ensure your enemy has a bunch of bad choices to make. I tend to use fast hovercraft instead of light mechs, but stuff like the Pegasus X-pulse is more expensive in terms of PV. My group tends to play larger, non-competitive games of Alpha Strike and use the themed lance rules, so a lance of LRM Carriers where three of them have the Oblique Artilleryman SPA, and a lance of fast hovers with Blood Tracker backing up a lance or two of 'mechs is a formidable force.
in the current BTAS I think the multi attack optional rule is you get an extra shot at the back. i sort of hated this rule but then a friend was saying its a little like some of the PSA skills where maybe its a way to represent the pilots skill to hold the laser steady on that weak back armor and hit a thin spot. the back armor is not perfectly even all over for weakness.
The way we play, and the way it’s done at Southern Assault, is +1 damage if you connect rather than plus one pair of dice. That may not be how others play it but that’s how we do. The mathematics behind doing this way makes it more fair. The extra pair of dice gives a larger benefit to units with a poor skill which we felt wasn’t the intent of the rear shot bonus. But! It’s ok for different groups to run things different ways. I mention the differences in how we play during most of my battle report videos so people know :)
There are two light mechs. The Locust and the Dasher. The Urbie is an honorary light mech. The Locust and Dasher are what all the other light mechs aspire to be. Also....they are hella hilarious to run in Alpha Strike, and annoy the ever-loving crap out of my opponent.
I didn't get a chance to get familiar with infantry and vehicles, it could really make sense if you use them as vehicles. But you only get a few points by cutting off the skill of cheap units. Of course, if you are limited in the number of experienced pilots, this can also work poorly. But if not - you can get a pilot with 1-2 skill for only 8-10 points over, and if his TMM is 3-4, and maybe he has jamp jats. No one will be able to hit this guy and he will deal a steady 2-3 damage in the back.
I personally stopped using TMM 4 units because they can be a NPE if your opponent isn't fielding Skill 3/2 units. But that is just my opinion. Lowering the pilot cost to 6/7 also feels really gamey, but I understand the reason for it.
I don’t have many tmm 4 units to pull from and usually it only takes one hit to take them out typically anyway. I think the Fire Moth may be one of the only ones I have that I use consistently that has a 4 tmm. It usually gets killed pretty fast as is. At medium range it’s still a solid roll but a skill 4 unit needs 10s to hit. Toss a unit or two at them and usually they are down. As for having a high skill on them that’s also why SA, and myself, limit the number of skill 2s and skill 7s that can be fielded.
@@Thearmedpainter 10s to hit is 16,67% chance and if you play the alternative rules with one dice pair per damage. A 4 damage attack means 66,68% to do 1 damage. That's not so bad.
Its not BT, but I made "flank shots" in my lego shooter game, a +1 to accuracy instead of bonus damage. Thats how id do it in this game to, though id likely add the +1 damage just to make the stakes a little higher for the one being flanked. I was also thinking of expanding the rear arc to be more inline with Clix, being the back 90 degree arc, or in this game 1 full hex facing and then half on either side, just to make flanking a little easier. Though ill have to play the game to really see how easy it is to get in the rear. And hot dog, ive not looked at AS battle armor or infantry stats, but 3 and 4 damage out of infantry? Thats......thats positively horrifying. I know in Clix my brother was a beast with his death squad of infantry.
There are some absolute monsters in the infantry and battle armor categories for sure! Once you get the hang of AS the rear arc stuff makes a little more sense :) The bonus to damage in AS on the rear I think helps reinforce the notion that the rear armor is thinner than the front since you can't really represent this the same way you do in classic.
The overall strategy would still be the same though, just would have to shift points in other ways to make lists work but the concept is still sound with why you'd skew your lights into having poor skill levels. This is also not the end-all-be-all answer to how to use lights, just one approach or consideration.
1) Point cost of battlearmour is updated 2) when you shout to rear arc you also should roll for that +1 damage, it is not autohit with first hit 3) try play with lances rules - sniper lance and battle lance is nice on long range
We play where you have to hit to get the damage bonus rather than giving an extra pair of dice. It’s also how Southern Assault does it for their tournaments and as it’s the local (and biggest BTAS event) that’s how I play :) perfectly fine for different folks to play different ways. I usually bring this up during my gameplay videos so people know when they watch it’s slightly different.
Loved this video. Pretty great at explaining the value of lighter mechs to friends and how the tabletop is different from the video games. The concept is somewhat transferrable to cbt too!
7:50 sorry what is this useless un battletechy tip.... first i am pretty sure your mounted mech being destroyed is basically dooming the armour either to rounds or to premature deployment to save the asset dubbleing the point loss, secondly the amrour is not considered to be stationary so you get no bounce to fire. lastly your bringing whats clearly horrendously undercosted fire power to a game, are you trying to make these new players kicked from their local meta? like this is the game where most mechs are garbage because it ain't meant to be this spikey...and your tip is to play at the earliest clan invasion or beyond to get access to 3 damage undercosted spam.... like i fail to see how this would help new players unless they are knowingly entering a meta of players who play a old school wargame for wins...rather than fun. you could just run a basically skill 12 fire-mouth and deploy the same combo.... because this ain't a competitive war game. il give them a better tip... battletech was designed as a fairer old school war game, so it ain't meant to be balanced, it ain't meant to be fair, its meant to be fun... bring this combo if you want but bare in mind your opponent likely will bring either some other type of unbalanced thing or run some fluffy garrsion list your magical army of super merchs that evidently can afford the shittest pilots in the inner sphere driving assets worth lots of cbills into fire fights to drop off the expensive and rear armour.....and he have like 4 urbies and some random inner sphere succession war stuff because he came to have fun.
I’m going to assume you don’t/haven’t watched any of my other videos or follow what I try to do with the community? Clearly presenting strategies players can toss into their tool chest allows them to determine what to employ and for what type of game. Not every game has to be hyper competitive but understanding how to use BA with a deployment system isn’t inherently bad. Also when you sit down to play a pickup game with someone usually a conversation is had along the lines of “what era do you wanna play, are we practicing for a tournament? What’s our min and max pilot skills?” That type of thing. That’s also the same thing I do for my events, which just finished off at NOVA open with zero issues. Rules packet has a list of building restrictions and requirements and sets a threshold on min and max skills.
Please do more of these strategies 4 alpha strike also please do a lot more alpha strike unit choices for light medium and heavy Lance's thank you
The same strategy I use for my spirit cats. My annihilator ANH-5W, 2 timber wolves, 2 kit foxes. Send two kit foxes with a timber wolf, and keep a timber wolf with the annihilator. Mess with the annihilator while the timber wolf eats you. Or mess with the Timber wolf while the annihilator eats you. Same for the kit foxes and timber wolf.
Great vid. thanks! This is where Formations start to screw with me. Do you always try to satisfy formation requirements? They have great bonus abilities, but do they get in the way of other good ideas?
My video may not have been entirely clear, I generally don’t play with formations and the one tournament I play in also doesn’t use them. I think they can be fun for campaign stuff but for balance it brings up a lot of issues the same way SPAs do. I try to keep a balance of weight classes represented usually.
@@Thearmedpainter Okay that makes since. Thanks!
Another place you can save points is IF units, get them to medium range and then park them behind a hill or building so they can't be seen. Remaining still means a skill 5 unit goes back to effective skill 4. Have a cheap conventional infantry unit on elevated terrain to spot for them
The major benefit I find with lights is also leveraging their TMM to try to impact what my opponent does or does not shoot at. IF can be good but make a choice for you opponent and makes other units a higher target chance. Things to consider :)
@@Thearmedpainter Yeah, the high TMM is a good way to try and ensure your enemy has a bunch of bad choices to make. I tend to use fast hovercraft instead of light mechs, but stuff like the Pegasus X-pulse is more expensive in terms of PV. My group tends to play larger, non-competitive games of Alpha Strike and use the themed lance rules, so a lance of LRM Carriers where three of them have the Oblique Artilleryman SPA, and a lance of fast hovers with Blood Tracker backing up a lance or two of 'mechs is a formidable force.
in the current BTAS I think the multi attack optional rule is you get an extra shot at the back. i sort of hated this rule but then a friend was saying its a little like some of the PSA skills where maybe its a way to represent the pilots skill to hold the laser steady on that weak back armor and hit a thin spot. the back armor is not perfectly even all over for weakness.
The way we play, and the way it’s done at Southern Assault, is +1 damage if you connect rather than plus one pair of dice. That may not be how others play it but that’s how we do. The mathematics behind doing this way makes it more fair. The extra pair of dice gives a larger benefit to units with a poor skill which we felt wasn’t the intent of the rear shot bonus.
But! It’s ok for different groups to run things different ways. I mention the differences in how we play during most of my battle report videos so people know :)
by the way the MUL 're-priced' a bunch of Inf and BA... that Marauder BA is now 19 points...
Yeah the points change happened after I filmed the video unfortunately.
There are two light mechs. The Locust and the Dasher. The Urbie is an honorary light mech. The Locust and Dasher are what all the other light mechs aspire to be. Also....they are hella hilarious to run in Alpha Strike, and annoy the ever-loving crap out of my opponent.
Great break down!
Great Show!
I didn't get a chance to get familiar with infantry and vehicles, it could really make sense if you use them as vehicles. But you only get a few points by cutting off the skill of cheap units. Of course, if you are limited in the number of experienced pilots, this can also work poorly. But if not - you can get a pilot with 1-2 skill for only 8-10 points over, and if his TMM is 3-4, and maybe he has jamp jats. No one will be able to hit this guy and he will deal a steady 2-3 damage in the back.
Some things I haven't considered here, appreciate the video. Also...is that a Swordsworn LCT?
Maaaayyybbbeew ;) I’m a big Dark Age fan.
I personally stopped using TMM 4 units because they can be a NPE if your opponent isn't fielding Skill 3/2 units. But that is just my opinion. Lowering the pilot cost to 6/7 also feels really gamey, but I understand the reason for it.
I don’t have many tmm 4 units to pull from and usually it only takes one hit to take them out typically anyway.
I think the Fire Moth may be one of the only ones I have that I use consistently that has a 4 tmm. It usually gets killed pretty fast as is. At medium range it’s still a solid roll but a skill 4 unit needs 10s to hit. Toss a unit or two at them and usually they are down.
As for having a high skill on them that’s also why SA, and myself, limit the number of skill 2s and skill 7s that can be fielded.
@@Thearmedpainter 10s to hit is 16,67% chance and if you play the alternative rules with one dice pair per damage. A 4 damage attack means 66,68% to do 1 damage. That's not so bad.
Its not BT, but I made "flank shots" in my lego shooter game, a +1 to accuracy instead of bonus damage. Thats how id do it in this game to, though id likely add the +1 damage just to make the stakes a little higher for the one being flanked. I was also thinking of expanding the rear arc to be more inline with Clix, being the back 90 degree arc, or in this game 1 full hex facing and then half on either side, just to make flanking a little easier. Though ill have to play the game to really see how easy it is to get in the rear.
And hot dog, ive not looked at AS battle armor or infantry stats, but 3 and 4 damage out of infantry? Thats......thats positively horrifying. I know in Clix my brother was a beast with his death squad of infantry.
There are some absolute monsters in the infantry and battle armor categories for sure! Once you get the hang of AS the rear arc stuff makes a little more sense :) The bonus to damage in AS on the rear I think helps reinforce the notion that the rear armor is thinner than the front since you can't really represent this the same way you do in classic.
Ah yes the crèchetech strategy, where house militaries sent preschoolers to war...
Skill past 5 shouldn't even exist in battletech
The overall strategy would still be the same though, just would have to shift points in other ways to make lists work but the concept is still sound with why you'd skew your lights into having poor skill levels. This is also not the end-all-be-all answer to how to use lights, just one approach or consideration.
1) Point cost of battlearmour is updated 2) when you shout to rear arc you also should roll for that +1 damage, it is not autohit with first hit 3) try play with lances rules - sniper lance and battle lance is nice on long range
We play where you have to hit to get the damage bonus rather than giving an extra pair of dice. It’s also how Southern Assault does it for their tournaments and as it’s the local (and biggest BTAS event) that’s how I play :) perfectly fine for different folks to play different ways. I usually bring this up during my gameplay videos so people know when they watch it’s slightly different.
Loved this video. Pretty great at explaining the value of lighter mechs to friends and how the tabletop is different from the video games. The concept is somewhat transferrable to cbt too!
7:50 sorry what is this useless un battletechy tip.... first i am pretty sure your mounted mech being destroyed is basically dooming the armour either to rounds or to premature deployment to save the asset dubbleing the point loss, secondly the amrour is not considered to be stationary so you get no bounce to fire. lastly your bringing whats clearly horrendously undercosted fire power to a game, are you trying to make these new players kicked from their local meta? like this is the game where most mechs are garbage because it ain't meant to be this spikey...and your tip is to play at the earliest clan invasion or beyond to get access to 3 damage undercosted spam.... like i fail to see how this would help new players unless they are knowingly entering a meta of players who play a old school wargame for wins...rather than fun.
you could just run a basically skill 12 fire-mouth and deploy the same combo.... because this ain't a competitive war game.
il give them a better tip... battletech was designed as a fairer old school war game, so it ain't meant to be balanced, it ain't meant to be fair, its meant to be fun... bring this combo if you want but bare in mind your opponent likely will bring either some other type of unbalanced thing or run some fluffy garrsion list your magical army of super merchs that evidently can afford the shittest pilots in the inner sphere driving assets worth lots of cbills into fire fights to drop off the expensive and rear armour.....and he have like 4 urbies and some random inner sphere succession war stuff because he came to have fun.
I’m going to assume you don’t/haven’t watched any of my other videos or follow what I try to do with the community?
Clearly presenting strategies players can toss into their tool chest allows them to determine what to employ and for what type of game. Not every game has to be hyper competitive but understanding how to use BA with a deployment system isn’t inherently bad. Also when you sit down to play a pickup game with someone usually a conversation is had along the lines of “what era do you wanna play, are we practicing for a tournament? What’s our min and max pilot skills?” That type of thing. That’s also the same thing I do for my events, which just finished off at NOVA open with zero issues. Rules packet has a list of building restrictions and requirements and sets a threshold on min and max skills.
Is your teenager experimenting with light mechs?
No kiddos for me lol.
Step 1) Leave it on the store shelf where it belongs lol.