Rhaythe, on 12 June 2014 - 09:44 AM, said:
There have been a couple people who have started new accounts and played their 25 Cadet games giving them over 9 million CBills to buy relatively cheap stock mechs (depending on preference between weight classes). The main downside is trying to earn XPs for pilots skills, while running stock mechs.
Mediums seem to be the most popular choice (probably because lights all run about 50% armor, and heavies and assaults can be hard to fit into the weight restrictions, especially if it is your only mech).
Look at the master list to make sure you selection is allowed (DHS are a no-no, and some stock nights are teir 1 only, excluding XL, Narc, ECM, etc, even if the mech has single heat sinks).
Hunchback is a good choice because all the variants are viable builds in stock matches (HBK-4G, HBK-4SP, HBK-4H, HBK-4P, HBK-4J) and they will only set you back around 3.5 million a piece, which would allow you to buy 3 of them with your cadet bonus, which means you will be able to upgrade their piloting skills.