Mordel's Bar & Grill
Combined Arms
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Vagabond
Mercenary
Mr. Referee
Mr. Referee


Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
PostPosted: 16-Oct-2010 17:08    Post subject: Combined Arms Reply to topic Reply with quote

I've been playing a lot of Megamek lately with a focus on combined arms engagements and was wondering what everyone's opinion on the various units and how they interact on the board.

I'll start by giving my opinion of artillery. I still do not like the present artillery ruleset. They are better than before but i still think the target numbers to-hit are 1 to 2 points to high. Artillery is hardly accurate in BT because the base to-hit is often 10 or 11. However, I have often heard it said that artillery is way to powerful for its cost so maybe I just have not experienced the pain. To me, it seems that as long as you keep moving then arty is a guessing game; More likely to hurt you then them. On board is decent do to its same turn effect, but still way to hard to aim.

Next lets discuss Vehicles, I love them but only if using TacOps Effective Vehicle rule and TacOps Vehicle Firing Arcs. They're easy enough to immobilize without extra critical hits. I understand the game is about giant robots but common, vehicles don't need to be stupid easy to kill. My biggest grip with Vees are not the rules behind them but rather the stupidly idiotic cannon designs. Who puts an LRM/20 in the ass of an assault tank? Cannon designers evidently.

Side note on VTOLs. They got crazy powerful in TW. They are very hard to hit if used correctly and can be very annoying as spotters. My 2 biggest grips with them are: 1) the new new rotor hit rules are stupid; the 1pt of damage per hit just removes all of the thrill from rolling a 12 on the hit location table; more than once i wished i had hit the nose with my PPC or LL rather then the rotor because i could kill the VTOL with that hit; i mean seriously, 5 rolls of 12 to bring a VTOL out the air is just stupid. 2) why oh why did they decide to make it easier for ground units to hit a VTOL over an aerofighter or convention fighter? Can someone please explain that to me! An air unit has a worse time shooting down a flying unit then a ground unit. Bad choice there imho.

And now to transfer onto Aerofighters. I love them. My new favorite unit type. Don't get me wrong Mechs will always have a place in my heart but aerofighters are just that much more enjoyable for me. I use the aerofighters on the map option and boy is it fun and challenging. It is one of the best ways i can think of to break up a campers position. How do you like the firepower of a Madcat Prime coming up your ass because you felt like camping? Didn't think you would. It is also the single best artillery spotter in the game. However, it does have some major balancing issues at times. The biggest one are the aerofighter on map return fire rules. A well piloted aero can do a fly over at high speed at 5 altitude and end up in the enemy units blind side without much difficulty, resulting in impossible shots for other enemy units due to range and an impossible shot for the target do to fire arc limits. I think it is a absolute must to use the optional rule in StratOps that allows a firing unit to determine range and firing arc based on the point of closest approach; however, as suggested under that rule that aero needs the advanced control roll rules in compensation. Yes an aero could still be impossible to hit under this rule, but its a bit better.

as an addition, i do not like that dive bomb attack do not count as an attack for return fire effects. So i can dive bomb a group with a butt load of cluster bombs and not a single unit that effected gets a good shot at me, and as long as i come in fast and hard i can make it impossible. heavily exploitable imho.

So that's my opinion. I'm gonna leave out infantry for them moment. but before in finish i wanna say that one of the greatest defects in game is how initiative can be exploited by using a mass of small units. I have yet to see an effective means to balance the benefit against potential costs.

my 2 c-bills.
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JadeDragon
Draconis Combine
Heishi
Heishi


Joined: 18-Jul-2010 16:30
Posts: 11
Location: United States
PostPosted: 29-Apr-2011 23:31    Post subject: Combined Arms Reply to topic Reply with quote

MegaMek has an option for independant init or something like that, basically each unit gets an init roll and then moves in that order. Something I would recommend in any Clan game with from Clan ROE or in a match with a swarmer.
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