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ArchSight’s MechWarrior BattleMech Tactics and Strategy Guide
This Guide is for new and returning mech pilots to remind themselves how a fully equipped battle mech fights on the field of war in game or real life. The guide can take information from past MechWarrior games, MechWarrior Online, existing technology and theories. I will read my PM’s about this guide so you can talk to me and even suggest putting something in. I’ll update this guide when needed or it will be forgotten.
Contents: Introduction, General Tactics, Advanced Tactics, Lone Wolfing, Team Tactics, Off Topic Food for thought.
Future Content When MWO Comes Out: Role Tactics, Pilot Builds, Mech Efficiency Builds, Mech Breaking, Disruption/Spoofing, etc.
Introduction
Hi, I’m ArchSight, in the past I piloted all sorts of mechs most notably the SCAT for my crazy kamikaze DFA’s. I was the leader of the Creature MechWarriors in MW4. I’ve played a little bit of MW2, 3, and tesla pod with my friend. I have not played MWO yet but will when it comes out. Throughout my MechWarrior gaming history I barely relied on my team. I stretched the bounds of how much a single mech can take on alone. Sense I’m older, I see the error’s of my ways back then but also know that sometimes you can’t rely on your team for every moment of the game. You have to add to its success.
General Tactics
Look Out = is constantly making yourself aware of enemy and friendly activity by looking outside of the mech cockpit, listening, looking at the radar, and checking the battle grid. Doing this keeps you on guard and in the know.
Assess Enemy Vulnerability = this is when you see the enemy and decide on what to do. How many are there? What mechs are they using? Have they been damaged? How much armor do they have in each section of their mech? What positions are they in? What kind of environment is nearby? Do they see me? Do I have enough help? Should I run, fight, watch, or hide?
Heat Management = is when a mech pilot manages the amount of heat build up the mech is taking from firing its weapons. To effectively manage heat buildup use group firing to fire weapons at different times. Split up energy and missile/artillery weapons because they produce the most heat when fired. Piloting a mech into an ocean, lake, or river is an effective way of cooling down a mech.
Move Out of Targeting = Don’t stop moving because that will make the mech an easier target to shoot. Enemy mech pilots have to compensate constantly in order to hit a moving target. Avoid attacking straight on, attempt to circle the enemy to their rear armor, and always pivot to fire.
Take Cover = use the environment of the map to prevent taking damage by going behind buildings, trees, hills, mountains and other mechs, etc.
Alpha Strike = the Alpha strike is when a mech fires all of its weapons at the same time. This is the fastest way to do damage to an enemy mech but also the most risky way. It’s risky because a mech can suddenly explode from the heat buildup of shooting so many weapons or just over heat into a shut down. Also, the mech could miss the target. Only use Alpha strikes when there’s time to wait for the heat to go away and the weapons to fire again.
Melee = clank, boom, sorry.
Ramming = Ramming is crashing the mech into another mech. A mech pilot would want to do this if they are not doing enough damage and going to die. Ramming does damage to both mechs.
Eject/Self-Destruct = Ejecting or self-destructing is for when the mech is stripped of all weapons and crippled. The mech explosion could catch the enemy and do a good amount of damage.
Advanced Tactics (More difficult to perform)
Death From Above (DFA) = A DFA is when a mech jumps on top of another mech with the use of jump jets. It’s hard to get the timing just right but it’s just like ramming. It does damage to the enemy mech’s torso and damages the mech legs of the DFA’er. Also knocks down both of you. To make doing a DFA easier, jump off a cliff, a building, or a hill near the enemy and make sure they don’t expect that they are going to be suffering the effects of a DFA.
Ambushing = is a surprise attack that can be performed by shutting down a mech in a hidden area nearby the path that other mechs will take to pass by. Doing this is difficult because they might change direction or find the hidden mech. It’s successful when they pass by the mech and you initiate the attack from behind them.
Armor Shaving = this is an old mech tactic that not many will mention to you. It will effectively keep you and your mech alive longer. You use all of your mechs armor to stay alive by spreading out the damage during a fight. To do this you have to pay attention to what your enemy is shooting at and what parts of your mech is facing them. You will force your enemy to shoot at the undamaged parts of your mech instead of letting them concentrate on finishing your mech off. You will notice that when you run your mech around your enemy in a clock wise circle the right side of your mech gets hit the most. When you run it counter clock wise the left side of your mech gets hit most. When you break free the arm reticule to look to the sides you can use that to force your enemy to shoot your arms. When you jump jet into the air you can force them to shoot your leg armor. When you go behind a hill your legs are covered which forces them to shoot your torso. By doing this at the right time you can save your mech from being destroyed too quickly. Mechs that have center torsos that sticks out have a tougher time doing this.
Shot Disruption = is when you mess up a mech pilots aim right before they are going to fire there shot off. Missing their first shot is really bad if they don’t hit you at all, especially, if it was an Alpha strike. With a hard hitting weapon like an AC 20 you can mess up their aim. You can figure out the timing when they are about to fire their weapons. It’s right when they get into range and when they first see you. After that, you will need to start counting down their weapons recycle times to keep it up or chain fire (fire one after another) your hard hitting weapons.
Lone Wolfing (Acting Alone)
In match made games you may be matched up with a team but that doesn’t mean team work is going to happen. People are not always going to cooperate with you and invite you to a voice chat server. For that situation I’m going to talk about how to act alone on the team and carefully devise us loners a strategy to use. It will be a specific way to force some team work out of them.
Priority Teaming = is figuring out what your teammate’s roles are and what mech they have chosen. Than from there you are going to number them by priority to help out in a fight. Lowest will be light mech, scouts, than medium mechs, defensive role, than heavy mechs, offensive role and then the most important, assault mechs, commander role. You’ll fight with the ones that are the most important and not fight that much with the ones that are the least important to the team’s success in a battle. This should help you keep your team’s battle strength high throughout the match. If your teammates are out numbered (even when you are there) stay far away enough for you to escape when the battle goes bad so you can regroup with other surviving teammates.
Guerilla Warfare = this is what you will be doing while your teammates have not engaged in battle yet. When fighting alone the best way to do it is hit and run tactics from guerilla warfare. You will need to know the maps of the area to find the spots where large forces become useless. Usually these areas on the map are chokepoints and are a tight fitting environment like a forest or city. You will lead your enemy or run to these locations so you can force them into a 1 on 1 fight instead of dealing with 2-3 mechs out in the open. Sense your only one mech; only engage in a 1 on 1 fight so you don’t take too much damage. You can use ambushes and peck at them with long range weapons fire. Adding speed to your mech will help. Good luck lone wolf.
Team Tactics
Circle of Death = this is where you and your team circles the enemy to blockade their escape from battle. This isn’t just an offensive maneuver anymore. MWO has added a new mechanic to take advantage of, called weapon convergence. Weapon convergence is where all of your weapons converge onto your crosshairs with a certain amount of time to get there. Knowing this, you can force your enemy’s weapons to converge to close range shooting. If you see the enemy firing at one of your teammates farther out in the circle; pass by the enemy mechs crosshairs and watch the enemy mech miss his first few shots at your teammate.
Formations = is way for your team to concentrate their firepower and Armor. For example, if you have your team stand side by side with their mechs; your armor will be protected on the side your teammates are standing on and teammates will be able to fire on your target without you being in their line of sight.
Off Topic Food For Thought
The reason for a battle mech to exist on the battlefield is that it empowers a single individual to fight more than they can on foot by extending on how much they can take and dish out. This can lower the cost of human life needed for war or empower smaller militaries to become more of a threat. The reason why it doesn’t exist today is because it costs too many resources to build, the technology to carry the mech does not exist, and the fear of having that much power in one person’s hands. The battle mech surrounds that single individual with a control interface in the cockpit. It’s hooked up to various kinds of weapons to be used in all sorts of situations. The battle mech is incased in thicker armor than a tank to take the bombardment of weapons fire from the many enemies it will fight. All that weight of the battle mech will be held up by machine legs that won’t slip while carrying it over steep hills. The height of the battle mech will increase the range it will fight from, the radar range, and how far the communications from the mech can go. It would truly be the all purpose fighting war machine.
Edited by ArchSight, 26 June 2012 - 02:54 AM.
