Because basically i never said anything different to begin with. You started the whole discussion because i showed a use for Dual AC20+++ i never stated that they are the best tool for coring a mech. They have their advantages but there is better, but you don't need to optimize every last bit to beat this game. So AC20's are still viable but not the best tool.
Try to look over the edge of the plate sometimes, you don't need the best tools to complete something. A decent tool often is enough.
Fair enough. You're right and I apologize for misinterpreting your words.
For example what you completly ignore with your arguments, in most cases you will have a max. of 2 Precision Shots per round. Often you willl only have one, how good is your Stalker build with coring without Precision Shot? AC20's have the same problem, but they have much higher use when you are out of Morale because you can deliver a lot of dmg in a reliable way via Breaching shot. With the Stalker without precise Shot, i will just sandpaper a enemy mech in a lot of cases.
No, I don't ignore that. The first turns you build up morale while you fire LRMs and use your brawlers to spot and find a good position from where to jump. After than you can have two most of the time if you just kill one mech each turn, a -8 net resolve per turn using four pilots and one Comms++. And when not (usually because I used three PS last turn) you just don't fire (with the main damage dealers), so you hide while you're not firing (with the main damage dealers), avoiding combat until you have two PS again. Hiding or bracing, sensor locking, moving to another position, ... With my main damage dealers, when using these kind of lance, I never ever fire regular salvos against mechs. The thing is trying to minimize exposure, a bit like hit & run, but more like hit & kill or hit + hit & kill with first strike and overwhelming focused damage. And the rest of the lance used as backup and trash clearing (vehicles & lights). So for example you can go for the Head, if fail then go again for the head with a second similar mech; if first salvo succeeded then (if there are more targets in reach) going for the CT instead for the next one, so you can follow up with regular salvo +2 dmg 70-75 tube LRMs.
Breaching+multi with 2xAC20 is not reliable because if you miss then you do no damage at all, an on top of that the damage you do is at random locations. The result is very hard to predict, too much variation. With PS massed multi hit setups is the opposite. You may succeed or not, but if you fail your first salvo you can be pretty sure the target will have the aimed location damaged.
And how good is the non multi-breacher Stalker without PS? I'd say pretty damn good. My Stalker can sensor lock an out of LoS Demolisher so it's killed for sure with my LRM boat, for example. Once in a while I may not even fire once (with the Stalker) for the whole mission (perhaps at some turrets after killing all other targets, to save LRM ammo), doing only Sensor Lock jobs if the terrain favors indirect fire, and no mech in the whole lance being shot even once for the whole mission. That's the beauty: the same Skill which grants yout -1 init to your assault also gives you Sensor Lock. And although exclusive role as spotter is uncommon, using a mech as mixed killer/spotter is a very good combo and I do it all the time.
And i don't know how you do it, but i personally use the Brace Skill much more often then the Precise Shot skill. Because in the end it's often better to kill slower when you can tone down the dmg received enough to do the next mission without repairs.
Yeah, I also make good use of bracing, in addition to PS. What I don't use is regular salvos with my direct damage brawlers. I don't see how you do minimize damage returned when you are doing random damage at multiple foes at the same time. Slow attrition paystyle imo works very well when you cannot be returned fire (indirect fire), but in your case you're dealing the damage at ML/SRM range at multiple targets at the same time with unfocused damage. My approach is completely different, trying always to have numerical advantage and delaying combat if neccessary for that.
Your part with the Stab dmg isn't different when you use a SRM,. But the AC20 with Breaching Shot will hit somewere in most cases and will deal 100dmg + stab dmg to the target, thats difficult with 4x ML and 4x SRM6. Sure 2x SRM6+++ can deliver as much stab dmg (and more dmg) to a braced target with Evasion pips as a single AC20+++ hit will do. But you need to hit with a minimum of 12 SRM for this, so when you want to deliver 60 Stab dmg to a target you need 2x SRM6+++ to deliver it (when all missles hit) or one AC20+++ shot that will hit most times with breaching shot.
As said before I just won't fire a regular salvo against a mech, and much less if it's bulwarked+cover+braced. That way of multi+breaching works well against very soft targets, not much against hard ones. The AC20 will hit somewhere and deal 120 dmg, but unless lucky, a well maintained assault can take many of those kind of hits if they are without PS. And for the stab damage you remember the hit and forget the misses. With SRMs it is much harder to deal full stab damage (which btw I don't care much about it) but also it is much harder to do no stab damage at all, it is way more predictable. While if you miss your single AC20 you do no damage at all. And also I'm not firing 2xSRM6+++ vs your single AC20 but
4xSRM6+++ 6xML++, remember I'm not splitting damage and it's guaranteed it will do at the very least some
significant damage because there are a lot of potential hits, and the sooner you remove a mech (and with better init against most other assaults and some heavies) the sooner you recover more morale, you minimize potential damage returned and you get more tactical choices because you have more space and less threats.
You also didn't account for the small fact that you have a max. of 1 Precise Shot in the first round of combat, maybe 2 when you didn't start the engagment asap. So you could have Sandpapered 3 extra Mechs with your 3 other mechs, maybe you shaved enough armor from the CT that 240 DMG to it will core even a Atlas. The game is a morphing RNG based environment that can't be calculated completly before a engagment, so don't try to do it. Fun Fact: I never manage to do more then 2 Brace or Precise Shot per round every single round, 2 is sometimes doable when you kill fast enough.
Are you ignoring I can sandblast too?. In your scenario of (let's say) only 235 armor+struct left in the CT, you have 0.20x0.20 = 4% of CT core with two regular salvos from two dual AC20 mechs using multi+breaching. Of course there are more combinations (like transferring damage from a ghost side torso and so on), but that also require very high damage being dealt before and luck, and if you dealt that damage before with your AC20s it means most likely you could be have being returned fire as well. While the rounds I don't fire I can easily be sensor locking while out of LoS and pounding with LRMs and only jump into LoS to fire when you do expect an almost certain kill. The mech can be actively useful when not firing. And when I go for the kill (one or two consecutive salvos) it is almost for certain I'll kill the mech without response from him. And if happens I did sandblast the mech like you (which I can do as well with LRMs) I may have more than 85% to single salvo kill him at 20% DR, only 6% @ 40% DR tough. But then with two salvos (same as your two dual multi AC20 firing) that 6% becomes 92% (instead 4%). Yep, when you have lots of hits, additional salvos increase the chances way more than when you have fewer hits.
And yes, you cannot completely calculate what will happen the whole engagement beforehand, but you can have a good estimation for local up to 4v4 scenarios if you have reliable-predictable setups (meaning LOTs of hits so the actual damage gets much closer to the average damage).
So please when you throw around the numbers, try to keep all factors in play.
Your way is good, and will work perfect. But other ways are also enough to beat the game, even when they aren't backed by min/max math.
I never said other ways are not good enough to beat the game, minmaxed or not, and I think the opposite: if you can complete the game using only light mechs or only AC2s then pretty much almost anything can work.
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