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Beating The Clans On The Tabletop


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#1 Rush Maguin

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Posted 24 December 2016 - 11:15 AM

I know a lot of people hated the Clans when they were first introduced. They certainly had their measure of power. At this point, though, the Clans have been in the game since 1989. That's what, 28 years this summer? Kids who weren't even born for a few years yet grew up, learned to drive, got the right to vote, then drink, possibly got married, and had children of their own in that time. (As a veteran of the original Clan invasion that's staggering to consider now). I have a old war story in my sig below about fighting the Clans when I was 17. That's when I knew the Clans were not invincible.




I still hear people say that the Clans are too hard to fight against. Okay, that's valid. They're a real trick to be sure. I'm a lifelong House Davion type, though, so I learned to fight the Clans on the tabletop as well as I could with the tech of the day. That said, I thought I'd give an overview on anti-Clan tactics and options that have helped me keep my feet on the ground.




From the get go, a lot of Clan players choose a star of Clan assaults that are tricked out with custom load outs and march them against each other. To each their own, but I don't grok the satisfaction in that personally. Still, if your enemy is playing Clan tactics or not, the general strat seems to be to march forward and shoot.




Use that to your advantage. First of all, don't run your 'mechs out in the open if you can help it. Consider action movies where the heroes are running from hall to hall, wall to wall, desperately trying to avoid getting shot. At every opportunity, run behind partial cover. Drop to the ground behind if if you need to. Run behind buildings. Jump into woods. Use cover as extensively as you can.




To this end, I favor smoke munitions. I know they're a ***** to track turn to turn but their tactical use is vital. I once screened the advance of my close-in 'mechs versus a Clan advance by loading out an Archer with LRM-20 smoke rounds and smoking out the middle of the map while the big guns advanced. If you were to combine this tactic with a rolling artillery barrage from backfield, you're really onto something.




I'm not against starting fires in cities or in woods if the smoke will help complicate lines of sight or targeting modifiers. If you can smoke a woods hex you're standing in, you're at least in good shape to fire out of that hex for a turn or two with a beefy modifier to hit you helping along.



ECM is never without its uses, IMHO. I also favor scenarios that deal with Hidden Units, so a Beagle Probe is never a bad thing. While the Clans aren't likely to engage in hiding their units, you never know what the other player may have up his sleeve, especially in eras where clan honor isn't a concern anymore.




Crit seeking weapons have their uses i you can get into a firing arc to use them. You don't want to bet the farm on them, but I've won just enough games from a freak shot to an ammo magazine that scatter weapons against the clans seem like a godsend.



if you can avoid 'mechs with XL engines, do it. This was our biggest Achilles Heelin the early Clan Invasion, IMHO. Our 'mechs popped like balloons. If you're stuck in the 3050s era, use that cover to your best effect, lemme tell ya.




Artillery is good news. I suggest having something backfield if you have the space for it. An O-Bakemono, for example; double Arrow IVs make me happy. TAG is just the icing on the cake.



Ambush tactics are ideal if you can employ them. Again, Hidden Units rules have really helped me the past. I'm likely to use Infiltrator Mk IIs to spot for artillery or indirect LRM fire rather exclusively, and hide Cavaliers around for a nasty surprise on urban maps. I also like Grenadiers hiding out for a sucker punch or omg, the Fafnir. Stick a Fafnir in a building and Grenadiers into another and wait for a clan 'mech to wander in.




Indirect LRM fire is my favorite tactic. I favor missile boat loadouts for a fire lance spotted for by conventional or Puma infantry. Narc is an absolutey godsend here for allowing you to track and fire on an enemy 'mech without a spotter. Use it if you've got it.




Also, until just recently, the clans never used melee weapons. I'm aware the Falcons have some new toys, but we've had them all along. Yet again, ambush tactics. Get them in close enough and they often panic. If you can make the player commit to bad tactical decisions, go for it. Drop the axe for the icing on the cake.




Specialty munitions: I favor thunders for city games. Pop them liberally around the center map to control the direction of the enemy movement. It isn't so much setting them off as area denial you're after, but be clever and put them on the rooftops of buildings too. Some clanners will jump jet over a minefield onto a rooftop to find out that this is where you've laid your highest damage minefields.




As for AC specialty munitions, I favor precision ammunition versus armor piercing, but both get their day in the sun. I only load armor piercing on large bore weapons on hidden units. Otherwise, anythnig that can help the accuracy of a shot versus the Clans is the priority.




Notice that a lot of this is fighting the Clans indirectly. That's the point. Mitigate their range advantage and you have them half beaten, in my experience. After that, it's coming at them sideways that will help win the game. In a lot of toe to toe fights, they'll probably win. Think around them every chance you get and use the special rules and special equipment available in any era. I'm not saying any or all of these promise you a win: This is battletech, ANYTHING can happen, who knows how it will go for you. But I've had the most success fighting the Clans with these tactics. They are not invincible. They never were.

PS - Many players I've met ignore all of these options to meet the Clans in a toe to toe fight with no support at all. The options are there. Find out what you can do and show them no mercy.

#2 Steel Raven

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Posted 24 December 2016 - 06:17 PM

Good write up.

Similar experience fighting. If you have experience on your side (good piloting and gunnery skills) and fight dirty, it evens the playing field significantly.

Also, using Royal IS designs vs some of the 3050 'new toy syndrome' upgrades gives you decent fighting fighting machines without relying heavily on mix tech or capture clan machines.

#3 Rush Maguin

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Posted 01 January 2017 - 10:36 AM

Also, C3 computers. Man, use them. Every chance you can.

#4 Karl Streiger

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Posted 02 January 2017 - 03:26 AM

Only have limited experience in pure mech on mech fights usually I was the attacker.
Even when there was no real objective I charged - the reason is simple - the single most advantage of clan mechs is mobility and range - give them room and you have to pay dearly, corner them at the edge of the map and they take as much as they give.

Another not so obvious advantage might be to use numbers - don't fiddle with "elite" pilots. Its a waste of BV - consider that close range is your goal and at short range a 4 gunnery pilot is almost as good as a 2 gunnery pilot but cost almost half.

Ok the price of a mile - I usually sacrifice units their only goal is to die and to buy my main forces time. If you choose the right "expensive" unit like a Blitzkrieg you have one or two rounds more time to close the gap with your heavy hitters.
The first stage of the battle is to give your foe time to worry about anything but the 4 charging assaults in the open.
Fafnir - with Gauss, Thunderhawk.... or Vanquisher or Galahad's with Light Gauss rifles.

The next thing is synergy - ever have seen what a Hauptmann B as the first Mech to fire and a HGN-732 as the second to fire can do to a cornered Clan Mech?

A great Mech on most terrains fighting Clans is the Falconer. Its as mobile as the Thor but packs a slightly better punch and when you max you defense to hit modificator on this chassis it will create same headache, same goes for the Scarab (I tend to drop the hatchet for a medium pulse laser - if customs are allowed)

The worst thing a clan player can do is to spend all his BV for a single star of custom clan assaults.

Another but not yet fully workable option is the heavy usage of C3 equipment AND extreme range rules. The light gauss on some chassis, the RAC5 on others is a great combination. semi guided LRMs and a "Red Shift" are also good in causing chaos.
However the issue with the WoB fighting style were my limited options and only few hard hitters. Its much simpler to crush clans with the Lyran way of fighting.

However for WoB mobility is the key. Trade the chance to hit with the option to avoid damage - wear them down with ER sniping - your "spotter" don't need to get close - 10 or 12 hex distance is still a very good to hit modificator for your Light Gauss, ERPPC carrier that is 28 or 30 hex away.

However with later publications you can mix the Lyran way with the C3i and a RAC5 with targeting computer that get loose at full range at 15 hex is awesome

Edited by Karl Streiger, 02 January 2017 - 03:27 AM.


#5 Stelio Kontos

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Posted 09 January 2017 - 08:48 AM

Good post.

Interesting side note: I'm a former artillery officer in the American army, and was a cavalry scout prior to that so I'm fairly well versed in real world manuever techniques.

What you just described using coordinated smoke to cover an advance, and conventional HE(High Explosive) artillery to fix an enemy where you want them is textbook combined arms strategy from a real life armored unit. It's impressively effective on those rare combinations that you have both the assets and the competence in one place to make it all happen at once.

Same for the fires. I'm acquainted with one rather interesting gentleman(A german guy old enough to have the birth name of "Adolph) who was one of the most highly decorated and most successful American battlefield commanders in the Vietnam war. He's got a lot of stories where he deliberately set fires to control the battlefield...in one case wiping out an entire battalion with a company of American troops(so 4x outnumbered) by allowing the enemy to advance and then setting fire to the forest behind them, which forced them out of cover and into an area covered by his unit's crew served machine guns.


That's why I love MWO and Battletech in general. It may be giant robot fantasy, but there are a lot of times when it is uncannily accurate to how real battles play out.

#6 Vanguard319

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Posted 26 February 2017 - 02:35 PM

I'd say knowing your strengths and those of your opponent is a good start. In general, the Clans are going to have advantages in range, mobility, harder hitting energy weapons, and slightly better pilots. However, all of that comes at the cost of a larger overall BV per unit. Also, if the clan player agreed to Zellbrigen, they may be restricted in the use of melee attacks or having multiple mechs focus on a single target, usually unable to do so until the IS player does so first

By comparison, IS units can't match the clan's range, their mobility is not as good, and they can't pack as much firepower due to heavier, bulkier weapons. On the other hand, they do have a lower BV per unit, so you can field more of them, I also wouldn't under rate the value of vehicles: They may be likely to suffer motive crits, but they are even cheaper than mechs, and a good tank can take a worse beating than a mech of comparable weight before it is knocked out. Adding a few vehicles to support your lance can give you a pretty sizable numerical advantage if you choose your forces well. Also, you should pick your terrain well at the beginning of the match, preferably terrain that mitigate the clanner's range advantage, and as the OP stated, carrying some smoke munitions can be useful when you do have to run in the open. Finally, if the clanner is playing under Zellbrigen, learn to exploit those rules to your advantage. (i.e. isolating the most dangerous unit under the pretense of a duel, kicking a downed mech, etc.)

#7 Logan812

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Posted 14 May 2017 - 09:58 AM

Very good post! I've just started a MekHQ AgainstTheBot campaign during the Fourth Succession War. It's going to get interesting when the Invasion comes around.

#8 Khobai

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Posted 14 May 2017 - 07:03 PM

clans were easy to beat on tabletop

the battlevalue was so unbalanced and ridiculous that it would often say a clan medium was equal to an IS assault

if IS bought the right mechs they could completely stomp clans

#9 Karl Streiger

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Posted 17 May 2017 - 01:54 PM

True for BV1 not so much for Bv2

Bv1 should be used when playing Invasion era games non upgraded is vs Clan omni Mechs (1st wave-3050)





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