Advice needed-Joint Venture

[Marc_Hicks]

Hey guys, need the help of the "Hive Mind".

So I've not got long until the Joint Venture Flash-point expires, but I have a few questions I'd like to ask:

1. Will this Flash-point ever reappear after the initial expiry? If yes, then I might wait until I have a more formidable lance.

2. My current lance consists of a Shadow-hawk, a Wolverine, a Vindicator & a Panther. Do you think I'll be able to manage a 2.5 skull mission with that lance?

3. If yes, any tips for how I might be best able to survive the upcoming engagements?

Thanks in advance, guys .

 

[Ken-Sw]

#1 the flashpoint will reappear if it expires or is failed ( can take awhile ) only fully completed flashpoints do not come back.
#2 It depends - I play in a very cautious style so I probably would not try it yet but other more aggressive players would and could beat it

 

[Icewraith]

Should be doable. If you are worried about being outnumbered on the last mission, let the attackers take out a building or two. You get like... seven to defend, and they’re pretty beefy for buildings. Also you can sacrifice the Hatchetman- if you have mech destruction on and it still has the hatchet arm attached when the CT goes up you can even salvage the hatchet!

(I thought they fixed this bug, and I don’t think I even looked for the hatchet in the salvage list, but the random picker gave it to me anyways. I was very surprised when I went to add heat sinks to something and saw the hatchet in the equipment list.)

Personally I always fight the unknown lance in the first mission and hope for an assault mech to score some early salvage off of. I vaguely recall a ramshackle Awesome that was easy to cripple but I couldn’t get the extra head hit I needed before coring it out completely.

IIRC completing Joint Venture allows up to five active flashpoints. Until you beat it you’ll only ever see three at once.

It does have a pretty heavy weight to spawn, so it is likely, but not guaranteed, to pop up again quickly. It’s worth doing now if you want to see more flashpoints. It’s supposed to be manageable with the starting lance.

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

It depends on the opfor you draw on the bv are defense missions on how doable it is for you. Played it twice last week and in one I drew alot tougher enemy with a fair bit of lrms.

If you can't kill the enemy with line of sight the buildings might not last long.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well, thanks for the advice guys, it really did help, as I decided to hold off a bit longer. I think I've sorted it though, now. Picked up 2 fresh Griffins in my last 2 contracts....so now feel like I have a Lance worthy of the Flash-point. Darius once again failed to give a decent estimate on a contract's difficulty though. A retrieval mission that was meant to be 2 skull only......yet I was faced off against a fully armoured Locust, a Catapult, 2 Griffins & 2 Black-jacks. Was forced to eject the Panther at one point.....which made my task even more difficult!

 

[Icewraith]

Well, thanks for the advice guys, it really did help, as I decided to hold off a bit longer. I think I've sorted it though, now. Picked up 2 fresh Griffins in my last 2 contracts....so now feel like I have a Lance worthy of the Flash-point. Darius once again failed to give a decent estimate on a contract's difficulty though. A retrieval mission that was meant to be 2 skull only......yet I was faced off against a fully armoured Locust, a Catapult, 2 Griffins & 2 Black-jacks. Was forced to eject the Panther at one point.....which made my task even more difficult!

Was it a single retrieval or one with a secondary objective (get the painter AND the painting for a bonus sort of thing)? You can expect two sets of guards if there’s two sets of objectives.

Technically at 2 skulls you can run into two full lances of mediums, so one lance, a Catapult, and a Locust isn’t too bad.

 

[stjobe]

a fully armoured Locust

The horror! The horror!

(sorry, I misread the sentence - put a full stop instead of the comma - and was giggling a bit at my inner picture of you terrified of THE POWER OF THIS FULLY OPERATIONAL LOCUST! )

 

[Marc_Hicks]

For anyone that is interested, I pulled off the Joint Venture Flash-point with almost no difficulties whatsoever (though the Trebuchets in that second Lance had me on tenterhooks for a bit). Sadly, the Hatchetman came through the second mission a little bit worse for wear......as did its pilot......though both survived the ordeal .

Sadly for me, my success made me cocky, so I rushed off to take on the Succession Flash-point. That went very badly indeed. Was forced to Withdraw from the first mission......though it was a Good Faith withdrawal.

 

[ronhatch]

Sadly, the Hatchetman came through the second mission a little bit worse for wear......as did its pilot......though both survived the ordeal .

That's better than I've done. Both times I've done this flashpoint, the Hatchetman has gone up in an ammo explosion almost immediately... though I do mod the AI crit chance to equal the player's crit chance. I guess I get so used to playing with heavily up-armored mechs that I don't know what to do with 'em when I get something stock. Particularly when it needs to get in close to use its best weapon.

(Though in both cases I was able to finish the mission with my three mechs. Definitely didn't get the bonus for saving all the buildings.)

 

[BunglingLummox]

That's better than I've done. Both times I've done this flashpoint, the Hatchetman has gone up in an ammo explosion almost immediately... though I do mod the AI crit chance to equal the player's crit chance.

I do this too, but I still find ammo explosions to be kind of rare, so I suspect we're using the Hatchetman differently. I play stock (or near-stock) a lot so I'm more used to using my armour sparingly. There's no real pressure to deploy the hatchet early, especially on the map that you're given - the height advantage and jump jets mean that you can do very well by just keeping it moving and using the guns.

Really, the trick to doing this flashpoint with the mechs OP described is to bring any three of them through the first encounter intact (by which I mean no lost limbs as a minimum and preferably very little internal damage). From there it's really just a case of keeping the evasion high with jump jets and making sure to rotate targets to keep the AI's attention once the base is visible to the enemy.

 

[ronhatch]

I do this too, but I still find ammo explosions to be kind of rare, so I suspect we're using the Hatchetman differently. I play stock (or near-stock) a lot so I'm more used to using my armour sparingly. There's no real pressure to deploy the hatchet early, especially on the map that you're given - the height advantage and jump jets mean that you can do very well by just keeping it moving and using the guns.

Really, the trick to doing this flashpoint with the mechs OP described is to bring any three of them through the first encounter intact (by which I mean no lost limbs as a minimum and preferably very little internal damage). From there it's really just a case of keeping the evasion high with jump jets and making sure to rotate targets to keep the AI's attention once the base is visible to the enemy.

I suspect I was also extremely unlucky. I mean... last time I did this flashpoint, I'm pretty sure the Hatchetman was completely pristine before the attack that triggered the ammo explosion. I definitely remember being very disgusted with the incident.

I think I had a Centurion, Shadow Hawk, and Wolverine (maybe a Griffin?) for my contribution to the lance, and I didn't find the mission particularly difficult even with just the three mechs... though there were times when I was annoyed at how much LRM fire the buildings were taking.

 

[BunglingLummox]

I suspect I was also extremely unlucky. I mean... last time I did this flashpoint, I'm pretty sure the Hatchetman was completely pristine before the attack that triggered the ammo explosion. I definitely remember being very disgusted with the incident.

I think I had a Centurion, Shadow Hawk, and Wolverine (maybe a Griffin?) for my contribution to the lance, and I didn't find the mission particularly difficult even with just the three mechs... though there were times when I was annoyed at how much LRM fire the buildings were taking.

Yeah, LRMs can be a pain and cost you the "protect all structures" objective, but it's otherwise quite doable with a couple mediums and a 30-35 ton light (I'm not including the Cicada or Spider respectively. We're mercenaries, not magicians).

 

[Technophobe]

When I do this mission I sprint the Hatchetman down the right side while my three mechs move to engage the enemy coming in from the left. When the reinforcements arrive from the right I use the Hatchetman to get their attention with melee or AC shots to the back. Targeting vehicles first. Once the first wave of attackers from the left is dealt with the rest of my mechs move up to help the Hatchetman. I occasionally lose the Hatchetman but I find this strategy works quite well.