80 replies to this topic

[Sarlic]

Ghost Badger, on 24 April 2014 - 10:41 AM, said:

Because you are afraid to touch the sun!

My heart weeps at seeing the majority of posts here turned into an argument on the definition of 'tactic' vs. 'strategy.' If you Google them as one person suggested, you'll see them listed as synonyms, both with similar and dissimilar definitions depending on where you look. LIKE IT MATTERS.

Koniving illustrated a how-to for you and gave it a name. How about we discuss the success of using said tactic/strategy in game?

For one, I like it, and have found that having a Stalker or two be the tip of the spear is incredibly effective as long as no one stops moving. Those frontal hitboxes are FANTASTIC. If the 3rd or 4th mech behind said Stalker has ECM then it's even more effective...it's a tactic my 4-mans use a lot, and we try to get the PuG's to fall in line when we do so.

I need you on that list too my friend!

[Garegaupa]

Great post as usual, Koniving! I tip my hat to you! It's great that someone is willing to spend as much time on these forums as you do to help new and old players alike!

(And it's an added bonus that you really know what you're talking about as well! )

[Koniving]

Spoiler

Thunder Child, on 24 April 2014 - 02:11 AM, said:

What I would like to know, Mister Koniving, is where I can find that game that a lot of your older videos show. I know it's closed Beta.... but what happened between there and here. CB looks like it had so much potential. The popcorn and rocking of ammo explosions, the sound fx, the knockdowns, the fact that an Atlas actually was HARD to KILL.... what happened?

I miss that game too.

I'll note a few things that happened. But lets avoid a discussion on it; I'm always happy to talk about it but given the nature of this thread reminiscing on the past isn't gonna help players with their strategies. Feel free to message and ask about stuff or catch me on another thread about it instead.

So here's what significantly changed between then and now, roughly in order.
Removal of Delayed Movement and Firing.

Spoiler

To me this felt like a feature, but later turned out to be an issue with lag. If you pressed forward, about half a second to a second later the mech reacted. If you pulled the trigger, half a second later it'd fire. Meanwhile torso twist and arm aiming was instantly reactive. This felt great, it felt right.

But it was lag, you'd say "go forward." The client would ask, "Can I go forward?" The server would say "What? Oh sure, go ahead, now quit bothering me." The client would then say, "I'm going forward now."


(Being too close made hitting the enemy dead center impossible; as it is impossible convergence!)

Combined with the earliest closed beta animations from when PPCs went 1200 meters per second (currently 1500, though at the worst point they went 2000m/s), the delay combined with the PPC's complete animation, formed a ball that formed, then "stretched out" and grew in length as it flew through the sky. It looked wild! Though it had flaws if you saw it in the corner of your eye instead of directly from the barrel.

This delay meant you never fired exactly when you wanted. The start of the HSR began to change this. Movement permission anticipation first, laser HSR, ballistic HSR, missile HSR. HSR is at the same time of Delayed Convergence but movement is fixed before any of the below changes.

Addition of physics defying Streaks.

Spoiler

This "OP" center only hitting streak system...
Short example.
Full match.

Became this "under powered streak."
Short example.
Full match. (Skip to 7 mins in).

Please note the first "OP" system is incredibly weak and underpowered compared to the new "underpowered" which is blatantly overpowered but considered "acceptable."

Removal of Repair and Rearm.

Spoiler

Repair and rearm is a system in tabletop and partly inspired by WoT (which is why it was so damn screwed in MWO). This governed the use of mechs. There were fantastic rewards to be made for playing to a role [my record during the first LuRMaggeddon was nearly 3 million cbills for spotting in a LRM Commando; I got a spot bonus of 2,500 for every time a player launched a missile at my target, for every launcher fired, regardless of if they hit or not. This included my own launchers).

However it was a risk versus reward system, where you could run Endo Steel and an XL engine, boat a crap load of ammunition for the most OP thing you can possibly make. But chances are even if you won epically you drowned in so much debt that you made nothing. This helped to prevent some of the meta rigs you see today. However, people complained...and complained...and complained. So they gave you 25% free repairs, 80% free ammo... So the more ammo you brought; the more you exploited the system, the more you earned and the more free crap you got.

The system in general needed / needs a rework. Especially if there's any plan of reinstating it. It can't give you free stuff and if it does, it cannot be in percentages; percentages create unfair imbalances and exploits.

With this, "Surrendering" disappeared too.

Removal of Heat Penalties.

Spoiler

At 80% heat, your ammunition and heatsinks began taking damage. It's uncertain but believed that weapons took damage too. So far as I could tell or guess it was one item per 'tick' of punishment, at random. Losing heatsinks had instant effects (these seem to be gone now as I can't notice a difference after losing a LOT of heatsinks in a single blow). When the player reached 101% heat, the punishment was much more severe in the form of instant destruction of a random item. Typically ammunition. This resulted in instant death.)

This was removed because "nobody understood what was going on."
This was removed between July and October 2012.

This is a fight after the change, but not yet adapted to not getting punished.

Computer voice version.

The heat system itself was changed between December 2012 and January 2013, and marked the second stage of the problems leading to the creation of 'ghost heat'.

This is a fight after the second change. Just hitting shutdown while firing the killing laser beam would have self-destructed me before the change. There was no override.

The randomly off shot is an example of the following subject.

Addition of Armlock.

Spoiler

Pinpoint aiming was nearly impossible with any weapons except the arm weapons.
Example of what was required for long range pinpoint aim that could track fast moving targets.

Now you shift-lock the armlock and incredible pinpoint with perfect aim!
This was done to simplify aiming.
...It simplified aiming too well.

Removal of Delayed Convergence.

Spoiler

This system was for rapid adjustments in aim. If I was aiming 1,000 meters away, and then quickly put my reticule on a target 300 meters away, I'd need 1 full second for all my weapons to adjust to hit that target. Poptarting was nearly impossible to do with precision, but generic shooting was possible. The problem is this made lights going more than 97 kph nearly impossible to hit if you couldn't keep your reticule perfectly on them due to rapidly changing convergence ranges. Also a target approaching you directly kept screwing with your convergence, removing ALL pinpoint from your shots if it had enough speed. Thus the reigning age of brawling.



This was removed because if you were not in the US or Canada, that 1 second was more like 2 to 3 seconds, making it impossible for you to play. Not to mention the frequent complaints associated with being converged on the wrong targets.

The alternative is a "hackable" client-side control. PGI was not comfortable doing this. It got wiped out when HSR first began.

Removal of Missile Flight Patterns.

Spoiler

This one really irked me. Supposedly there was not an actual technical reason for this. It was done because "players could not tell the difference in tighter groupings between Artemis-enhanced and non-Artemis-enhanced LRMs."
For this, no Artemis effect is the wild missiles. Artemis effect is the DNA spiral.

Lots of Active Artemis use here.


Randoms.

And a number of other things. Knockdowns are supposed to come back after CW is put in. R&R is a "maybe." Working monitors is a "after knockdowns." No word on convergence efforts. Delayed movement and weapons fire reactions are likely never to return since they were never intended. So the answer is "after community warfare" or soon™ to get something close to it. But PGI moved away from the simulator direction, it'll never go back that way again. It makes me sad.

Now as Ghost Badger said, it'd be great if the discussions are about successes (and failures) of said strategies. Bring some experience in! (Psst., no need to like this post as it makes it unclear if the like is for what is said here or in the off topic spoiler).

(Clearly that didn't work. )

Edited by Koniving, 24 April 2014 - 01:59 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

Removal of Missile Flight Patterns.

They seem to be at least part-way back in, playing the other day and they were kinda helix-ing in on me.

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

But PGI moved away from the simulator direction, it'll never go back that way again. It makes me sad.
(Clearly that didn't work. )

The simulator may come back, but it is very low odds, as those games are not overly cost-effective.


psst - I liked it because I read all of it and really liked it.

[Solis Obscuri]

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

Spoiler

I miss that game too.

I'll note a few things that happened. I'll answer this but lets avoid a discussion on it. Feel free to message and ask about stuff.

Removal of Delayed Movement and Firing.

Spoiler

To me this felt like a feature, but later turned out to be an issue with lag. If you pressed forward, about half a second to a second later the mech reacted. If you pulled the trigger, half a second later it'd fire. Meanwhile torso twist and arm aiming was instantly reactive. This felt great, it felt right.

But it was lag, you'd say "go forward." The client would ask, "Can I go forward?" The server would say "What? Oh sure, go ahead, now quit bothering me." The client would then say, "I'm going forward now."

Combined with the earliest closed beta animations from when PPCs went 1200, the delay combined with the PPC's complete animation, formed a ball that formed, then "stretched out" and grew in length as it flew through the sky. It looked wild! Though it had flaws if you saw it in the corner of your eye instead of directly from the barrel.

This delay meant you never fired exactly when you wanted. The start of the HSR began to change this. Movement permission anticipation first, laser HSR, ballistic HSR, missile HSR.

Removal of Heat Penalties.

Spoiler

At 80% heat, your ammunition and heatsinks began taking damage. It's uncertain but believed that weapons took damage too. So far as I could tell or guess it was one item per 'tick' of punishment, at random. Losing heatsinks had instant effects (these seem to be gone now as I can't notice a difference after losing a LOT of heatsinks in a single blow). When the player reached 101% heat, the punishment was much more severe in the form of instant destruction of a random item. Typically ammunition. This resulted in instant death.)

Removal of Repair and Rearm.

Spoiler

Repair and rearm is a system in tabletop and partly inspired by WoT (which is why it was so damn screwed in MWO). This governed the use of mechs. There were fantastic rewards to be made for playing to a role [my record during the first LuRMaggeddon was nearly 3 million cbills for spotting in a LRM Commando; I got a spot bonus of 2,500 for every time a player launched a missile at my target, for every launcher fired, regardless of if they hit or not. This included my own launchers).

However it was a risk versus reward system, where you could run Endo Steel and an XL engine, boat a crap load of ammunition for the most OP thing you can possibly make. But chances are even if you won epically you drowned in so much debt that you made nothing. This helped to prevent some of the meta rigs you see today. However, people complained...and complained...and complained. So they gave you 25% free repairs, 80% free ammo... So the more ammo you brought; the more you exploited the system, the more you earned and the more free crap you got.

The system in general needed / needs a rework. Especially if there's any plan of reinstating it. It can't give you free stuff and if it does, it cannot be in percentages; percentages create unfair imbalances and exploits.

With this, "Surrendering" disappeared too.

Removal of Delayed Convergence.

Spoiler

This system was for rapid adjustments in aim. If I was aiming 1,000 meters away, and then quickly put my reticule on a target 300 meters away, I'd need 1 full second for all my weapons to adjust to hit that target. Poptarting was nearly impossible to do with precision, but generic shooting was possible. The problem is this made lights going more than 97 kph nearly impossible to hit if you couldn't keep your reticule perfectly on them due to rapidly changing convergence ranges. Also a target approaching you directly kept screwing with your convergence, removing ALL pinpoint from your shots if it had enough speed. Thus the reigning age of brawling.

This was removed because if you were not in the US or Canada, that 1 second was more like 2 to 3 seconds, making it impossible for you to play.

The alternative is a "hackable" client-side control. PGI was not comfortable doing this.

Removal of Missile Flight Patterns.

Spoiler

This one really irked me. Supposedly there was not an actual technical reason for this. It was done because "players could not tell the difference in tighter groupings between Artemis-enhanced and non-Artemis-enhanced LRMs."
For this, no Artemis effect is the wild missiles. Artemis effect is the DNA spiral.

Lots of Active Artemis use here.


Randoms.

And a number of other things. Knockdowns are supposed to come back after CW is put in. R&R is a "maybe." Working monitors is a "after knockdowns." No word on convergence efforts. Delayed movement and weapons fire reactions are likely never to return since they were never intended. So the answer is "after community warfare" or soon™ to get something close to it. But PGI moved away from the simulator direction, it'll never go back that way again. It makes me sad.

Now as Ghost Badger said, it'd be great if the discussions are about successes (and failures) of said strategies. Bring some experience in! (Psst., no need to like this post as it makes it unclear if the like is for what is said here or in the off topic spoiler).

(Clearly that didn't work. )

God... those are some painful things to be reminded of... I do miss R&R and the non-instant convergence, the ammo blow-outs from overheating.

[DDDs]

Tip 1 is good but too many players are timid. At the first sight of snipers and LRMs, they back up instead of pushing. I run a "poptart" but I'm usually the tip of that push to find that only my lancemate pushed with me. Hindsight is 20/20 but I often feel if the rest of the team had followed, we could have run the other team over.

[AlmightyAeng]

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

(Clearly that didn't work. )

Pure spite

[Koniving]

DDDs, on 24 April 2014 - 11:37 AM, said:

Tip 1 is good but too many players are timid. At the first sight of snipers and LRMs, they back up instead of pushing. I run a "poptart" but I'm usually the tip of that push to find that only my lancemate pushed with me. Hindsight is 20/20 but I often feel if the rest of the team had followed, we could have run the other team over.

Hence why this is here. The sooner players learn it the better. It is also why I presented the issues of it as well, and in the defense against it as the main target of it, buying time is the only chance you have. (A 'Lightning War' rush as we used the term wouldn't target you first if you could easily avoid it; they targeted you because you're too slow or easy to hit or because your weapons are too dangerous).

That last part is why certain meta mechs die very quickly. Allowing them to live isn't an option and the sooner they die the better the chances of winning.

Edited by Koniving, 24 April 2014 - 12:13 PM.

[DDDs]

Yeah, just posting my experiences with Tip 1.

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 12:05 PM, said:

That last part is why certain meta mechs die very quickly. Allowing them to live isn't an option and the sooner they die the better the chances of winning.

Which is why I go after them first since most carry XLs. Unfortunately when it's only 2 people pushing against a coordinated lance of them, I always go down in a blazing explosion.

[Koniving]

The Third Tip: A Light Plight.

"When you're being pursued by multiple vehicles you are at a disadvantage. They can outmaneuver you, flank you, or box you in. It helps if you have a team of your own. With all their attention on you, your team can easily wipe them out."

If you feel you don't have a team, you're playing the wrong game.

That said when you're chasing a light mech that is drawing a lot of attention to it, chances are it has a team ready to do you in. It is smarter to let the light go than to compromise your front line.

The situation takes a whole new turn when it's light versus light combat. It becomes closer compared to dogfighting in helicopters than tanks on the field. As with any dogfight, your goal is to remain behind your enemy for as long as possible. Remember that their goal is exactly the same as yours with the roles reversed. Keep them off your back, stay hot on their tail, line your shots carefully and disable their means of propulsion (mainly legs).

It is important to always be ready to break off and resume at a moment's notice. A moment's notice in this case being the sight of an Atlas becoming a 29 meter tall roadblock with streaks and your name on its warheads.

Light combat; chasing a superior enemy light for 6 minutes on and off; (pre-HSR / lag compensation).

Edited by Koniving, 24 April 2014 - 11:33 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Koniving, on 24 April 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

(Clearly that didn't work. )

Welcome to MW:O forums XD.

Sadly I have no video examples as I do not record videos on my machine (remember the potato I told you about? System just crashed so hard I can't even run safe mode, and am using Ubuntu until my copy of Windows arrives, since no one ships laptops with backup DVDs anymore )

However, I will share my experience with lance deployments (I'm usually the nutter in the COM-2D)

Spoiler

Alpine peaks, our team spawned on the far left side of the map our lance spawned at G4, my lance had a COM2D with 1ML 3SSRM2s, and a Jenner-7F. Main enemy formation managed to take the high ground on I9, and advanced forward meeting our main force on the open terrain, and also forcing our entire team to pour into that open field where LRMs and sniper fire kill everything.

Our two other lancemates were a JM6S (dual Gauss) and a Catapult A1 (6xLRM 10s), the Jagermech was in command of the drop. Once the bloody fight started myself and the jenner were ordered to circle around into I10 through K7-K10 into J10-J11. In order to hit the enemy team's rear line of 5 long range mechs (2 LRM boats, a couple of PPC and/or LL mechs and 1 Quad AC2 Jager) By the time the furball was in full swing we were already in the J9 area. Climbed up top and started opening fire on the rear line. It was only two of us but we were fast and annoying, and we got lucky, all 5 of them turned their focus onto us. We were going to retreat and try a rinse-repeat performance, but were ordered to "keep dancing"

That match ended with both of our lights destroyed after dealing about ~300 damage each, and the total result was about 12-6, if we hadn't caused 5 of them to turn attention towards us, our team would've been smoldering ruins.

[AlmightyAeng]

IraqiWalker, on 24 April 2014 - 11:40 PM, said:

Welcome to MW:O forums XD.

Sadly I have no video examples as I do not record videos on my machine (remember the potato I told you about? System just crashed so hard I can't even run safe mode, and am using Ubuntu until my copy of Windows arrives, since no one ships laptops with backup DVDs anymore )

However, I will share my experience with lance deployments (I'm usually the nutter in the COM-2D)

Spoiler

Alpine peaks, our team spawned on the far left side of the map our lance spawned at G4, my lance had a COM2D with 1ML 3SSRM2s, and a Jenner-7F. Main enemy formation managed to take the high ground on I9, and advanced forward meeting our main force on the open terrain, and also forcing our entire team to pour into that open field where LRMs and sniper fire kill everything.

Our two other lancemates were a JM6S (dual Gauss) and a Catapult A1 (6xLRM 10s), the Jagermech was in command of the drop. Once the bloody fight started myself and the jenner were ordered to circle around into I10 through K7-K10 into J10-J11. In order to hit the enemy team's rear line of 5 long range mechs (2 LRM boats, a couple of PPC and/or LL mechs and 1 Quad AC2 Jager) By the time the furball was in full swing we were already in the J9 area. Climbed up top and started opening fire on the rear line. It was only two of us but we were fast and annoying, and we got lucky, all 5 of them turned their focus onto us. We were going to retreat and try a rinse-repeat performance, but were ordered to "keep dancing"

That match ended with both of our lights destroyed after dealing about ~300 damage each, and the total result was about 12-6, if we hadn't caused 5 of them to turn attention towards us, our team would've been smoldering ruins.

I'll have to troll through the videos...I capture most with Nvidia Shadowplay, but my upload connection is so poor out in the backwoods that I rarely put any up online. I'll see if I can find a couple gems to relate this these tips, though.

[WayBadMojo]

Great post, Kon..

You've long been a great supporter of the MWO community and your willingness to help out new players (just don't share your wacky mech designs with them! ) is a great example of how a gaming community should work.

-WayBad

[Wayreth]

From the Art of War

• After that, comes tactical maneuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult. The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.
  
• Thus, to take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of DEVIATION.
  
• Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

If you stop moving chances are you are dead already and you don't know it yet

Edited by Wayreth, 25 April 2014 - 08:33 PM.

[Satan n stuff]

Koniving, on 23 April 2014 - 06:11 PM, said:

OP

Wow, someone else actually uses the LRM + AC/2 combo? I thought I was the only one. Snipers hate fighting those builds, plugging them with that AC makes it hard for them to shoot accurately while your own accuracy is mostly unaffected by what they can throw back at you. The AC/2 is also decent for defense, and it's downright humiliating to the enemy if you manage to win a brawl with one AC/2 and nothing else.

Edited by Satan n stuff, 26 April 2014 - 01:22 AM.

[Koniving]

Satan n stuff, on 26 April 2014 - 01:20 AM, said:

Wow, someone else actually uses the LRM + AC/2 combo?

I use it pretty often. I originally created it to combat the 6 PPC Stalkers. The devastating halo of LRMs combined with the AC/2 makes them virtually blind. Three vids just for you. 1. 2. 3 (begins with a tactical retreat toward enemy territory).

[mithril coyote]

Choke Points:
"And from there, we will funnel them into the mountain pass we call the Hot Gates. Now, in that narrow corridor, their numbers will count for nothing." - Leonidas, 300.

choke points are locations on a map where an enemy will pass, but which is too narrow for more than a fraction of their numbers to engage effectively. Choke points abound on the MWO maps. the entryways to the Caldera on Terra Therma. the saddle pass and tunnel in Crimson Strait. the Cave and narrow passages of Forest Colony. every map has several major choke points that restrict the ability of a force to employ their numbers effectively. i have lost track of how many times i have seen even highly skilled players get bottled up in the Saddle or stuck in the doors of the Caldera, where most of one side can focus their fire, but the other side is stuck uselessly behind one or two mechs in the front. it is a recipe for disaster.. especially if those that are in the choke point get fixated on fighting there. choke points let a much smaller force stop a large force. they become 'conga lines of death' because the forces at the front in the choke point take damage from the concentrated fire far faster than they can dish it out. and then the ones behind them take their place. they can be real meat grinders.


by now, you should be asking. "so what can i do the avoid this problem?" Sun Tzu, in his Art of War, called choke point's "hemmed in ground." and his advice still holds today. "On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem." that is, if you have to pass thru a choke point, be smart about it and try to exploit the situation in ways beyond just marching thru and getting stuck. the simplest stratagem for them is to employ what the modern military calls a thunder run.. just put the pedal to the metal and rush on thru until you are out of the choke point and have more room to maneuver. while this is likely to result in a fair amount of damage to your forward units, and will put you in the midst of the enemy, it will be far less damage than if you get bottled up in the choke point trying to clear the enemy away first. another useful stratagem is flanking. leave a few of your own to keep the enemy focused on the choke point, then send most of the rest around another route to hit the enemy somewhere unexpected. that said, be wary of the enemy, because often they are doing something similar. and never be afraid to turn the table on the enemy. often if you employ a stratagem of pulling back out of the choke point, an enemy will try to follow you, and then you can catch them in the choke point and pound them with concentrated fire.

the main thing to remember is not to get stuck. if there are people in front of you and no room of either side, don't just mill around behind them looking for a clear shot, pull back and look for another route. and if your in the front, keep in mind where you are and how many of your side are there and how many you are facing. don't let yourself be caught in the choke point just because you got in a fight.

Edited by mithril coyote, 28 April 2014 - 09:58 AM.

[Koniving]

On Mithril's chokepoints, I have a perfect little video for that too. River City Night Garage Battle. Funneling enemies in. Butchering them.

[Koniving]

The Fourth Tip: Uniforms; paint is a weapon.

"There is a reason armies wear uniforms even though they make them easier to spot. Sometimes that's what you want. Uniforms suggest organization, power, and numbers. These, in turn, inspire fear. And as any good operative knows, there is no more effective weapon than fear."

People say that painting your mech is a good way to draw attention. It is known that at some point a pilot's confidence in his mech will be high enough to start giving it some colorful love. It is a declaration, "I am not new. I know what I am doing," or at least that is what they want you to believe. After listening to this, you may catch yourself being more cautious around an enemy with paint just as you always have been. If that same enemy was basic green you wouldn't have even hesitated. Be honest. Now imagine this pause of caution times two, times four...or even times twelve. By then without your own numbers, your mech's legs will be painted brown. Except that's not paint.




There's a quirk in Battletech called Distracting. It's a psychological effect and it does work even in Mechwarrior Online. A group of enemies with the same faction tag alone will make some nervous pilots abandon their mechs; even if those faction members have nothing to do with each other.

A group of battlemechs with the same paint scheme who act with precision will cause panic and confusion in everything they face. This is what they want. The sooner you begin to think you will lose, the sooner you seal your fate.

The greatest way to match an organized force is to organize your own forces. You may not have the visual flash to instil fear, but sometimes the surprise of an unruly bunch of pugs being united in greater numbers can overwhelm even the most disciplined of soldiers.

------------

Share your experiences. What have you done when you see an enemy with paint? What have you done when you see several enemies with the same paint?
Do you think you'd do anything differently now?

Edited by Koniving, 28 April 2014 - 08:47 AM.

[Koniving]

The Fifth Tip: Who do I shoot?
"Target selection is one of the least glamorous but most important elements in any strategy. You want to take out the people your opponent depends on, the ones his organization can’t function without."

In conquest, that would be the light mechs. In any other fight, that is NOT the light mechs. Don't chase them, don't let them break the front line. Just shoot them when it is opportune and do not let them bait you.

Instead for Assault and Skirmish Focus on the real threats; you'd be surprised that they are usually not the enemies on the front line but that team of 2 to 4 heavies and mediums coming in from the corner of your eye.

Of course, this is unless your enemy isn't much brighter than the common ant. In that case, take out the ones that shoot the most. If it has PPCs and ACs or LRMs it has to die someway or another. And kick the enemy when they are down to quickly dispatch those enemies who would otherwise shoot you in the back the moment you spare them. The sooner they drop, the better your chances for victory.



(Two matches last night I really wish I was recording epic conclusions with 3 lights and 1 medium up against a lot of foes.)

Spoiler

At one point we had a total of 9 enemies in our vincinity. If only you could have heard our target selection. Taking the enemies we had and churning out priorities, gauging who was the bigger threat and where to hit the target. There was a mech that literally died from a leg shot (due to ammunition explosion).
Stalaggtke might even be able to share his side of the story.


Here, we frequently made hit and runs against heavier units whenever we thought we could get away with it in between partial base captures.