2
so, in the end, I figured I'd just start with Light mechs, and work my way outward from there, hopefully managing to refine the process as I get more experience with it
This short guide is intended primarily to highlight some basic tactics that can be used in Light Mechs (which in some cases might include the Cicada, depending on how you look at it) while flying more or less solo (coincidental team-work notwithstanding)
A - "Role" - While you don't need to listen to people that say "Light's are RECON mechs", Lights ARE in fact quite good at recon, and it is one of the useful roles that you can perform. It's not a very exciting role, and is actually more a team-based role, but you even solo, your teammates will get info from your efforts, and it might improve their overall team performance
Key thing to remember as a RECON
1 - you don't HAVE to shoot at anything if you don't want to. It seems like most people have this driving need to FIRE FIRE FIRE the moment you're in range (sometimes before then) - remember, unless you have a module installed, MECHS CANNOT DETECT ENEMIES BEHIND THEM - *someone* in the enemy group has to have LOS to you, or NONE of them will see you. This means that, if you manage the enemy team mechs well, you can actually walk right up behind them, and tag along for awhile, providing targeting data for your entire team (which also provides xp and cbill bonuses)
That doesn't mean walking up behind them is particularly safe (there is that 360 module after all), but you can actually provide significant info to your entire team by just being able to see enemy mechs - of course, if you start shooting at them, they're quite liable to turn around and blast you, so if you're going to RECON like a pro, consider holding your fire for a bit, and just keeping an eye on them.
B - Hit and Fade
This is a very common tactic for any light mobile force, and almost Mandatory for Lights, as with the recent state-rewind and ballistic/ppc velocity increases, hitting light mechs is easier than it has ever been
Hit and fade obviously relies on two basic tactics - Engage...and DIS-engage (spoiler - the 2nd part is the hard part), but don't get cocky on Engage - there are right ways to engage, and wrong ways to engage
1 - Engage - DO NOT APPROACH YOUR TARGET IN A STRAIGHT LINE...and work hard not to approach them from the front. You may get lucky, you might have a bad shooter or he may just be slow on the uptake, but approaching from the direct front is amateur hour - Light mechs should be very fast, you can afford to take a longer, roundabout approach (preferably past several pieces of covering terrain)
2 - Engage from the sides, using cover - a followup to the above, remember that many mechs have very limited peripheral vision - get outside their front 180 arc, and they probably won't be able to see you at all, giving you plenty of time to approach without taking any shots at all
3 - If you don't have control of your own private battlefield...LEAVE!! - Pick a target, start your approach - but stuff happens, and you wander in on the side, and suddenly discover that this guy has 3 friends with him that you just couldn't see from your original angle...LEAVE!...You're light, you'd better be fast, there is absolutely no need to lock yourself into an engagement that you weren't prepared for
if you need to, start humming this song to yourself...
The first thing you notice about really bad poker players, is that they don't know when to fold.
4 - remember that no 360 thing - lots of mechs don't have that - Most mechs have drastically less armor on their rear torsos - most Light mechs relatively light armament - see where I'm going with this? SHOOT THE REAR ARMOR!!
That part should be obvious - here's the non-obvious part, although it *should* be obvious - whatever you're shooting at, it'll figure it out (although It's stunning sometimes how LONG it takes them to figure it out) - for your own survival, you really need to be prepared for the possibility that after 2 salvos (usually), or even 1 (relatively rare in my experience), your opposition will turn around, and if it's even mildly larger than you, will blast your butt good.
This would be a good time to...what class? that's right...DIS-engage!! Run...screaming like a little girl is optional - but the point is, you've done your hit, there's absolutely no reason to stick around and allow your enemy to return fire - You *should* be much faster than your much larger targets, you should easily be able to evade them, lose LOS, and either strike at other mechs similarly, or come back around to harass the same guy some more...
Now, some of you are quite confident in your ability to duel much larger enemy mechs - that's fine, and well done to you! But, if you're that confident in your ability to take on much larger mechs, you probably don't really need to be reading this guide anyway
5 - If you walk without rythm, you won't attract the worm...
Also known in some circles as "bob-and-weave" or "serpentine", this should be your basic tactic approaching any enemy. Do not make direct approaches to any armed or aware targets, and in general, it's probably best not to take direct paths to really anything - lots of maps have large, open spaces with long lines-of-sight, and tracking/leading small fast targets that are moving in a predictable, constant velocity/direction is relatively easy. If you're in a light mech, SPEED is your biggest weapon, and you should be able to afford to take more circuitous, less easy to predict, paths to your targets. This is *especially* important when approaching armed and aware targets, or dis-engaging.
part A - Zig-Zag movement (left to right, right to left, whatever your preference is) is the most basic go-to. Pick a target location, then start turning left, move a short distance, turn right - zig-zag is relatively predictable, but it's still harder to hit than moving in a straight line - in time, you get good, and you'll start to run your own non-predictive patterns - left, hard left, hard right, straight, right again...
It also helps to pick individual pieces of cover as your turning points - think of it kind of like a slalom course, where you hit one particular piece of terrain, and that's your landmark for making your next turn
Also, while disengaging, it's a good idea to torso twist, if you feel comfortable doing so (it's *always* a good idea to torso twist, but that's a more general tactic) - during a moment, you get a good idea of where you want to go - then, torso twist (so you can no longer see your target) but continue moving your feet (turning) so that you're headed towards that general location, then when you think you're close, turn back, get eyes on the next place you want to head to, head that way, then lost sight of it as you torso twist the other way - this way, you can continue to spread damage across multiple locations of your body while evading fire as you disengage (this tactic works with almost all mechs to a certain degree)
6 - Lastly, and this is a much later, more experienced tactic, in my experience - you'll eventually get a "feel" for the firing cycle of your enemy's weapons. Some enemy will pick you up in their sights, you'll eat a bank of medium lasers - now, there's a 1-2 second period where your enemy CANT fire those weapons - you can actually afford to head straight during those periods, if you're confident that he's fired the weapons that can actually hit you - then, just as his lasers have recycled, you hit another hard right, wait for the lasers to go off, then continue straight to your target while evading/spreading most of his fire
once you get a feel for both how long it takes for any particular set of weapons to fire at you, and how many people are firing at you, you can really maximize your evasive maneuvering while covering the maximum distance possible
See, even this relatively tiny set of advice took up more space than I had hoped - still, I hope it helped even a little bit, and I welcome any additions, clarifications or glaring errors that I may have missed!
