Hints for playing Battletech!

[Tnarien]

Halves? Dang. That...is a very good incentive to brace, yes!

It can be countered though. Fire from the rear arc is not affected by Brace. Additionally, if you can make a mech unstable (usually by a melee strike, but repeated missile hits are good for it as well) it'll lose its braced state.

There's also a pilot ability that allows a single weapon to punch through damage reduction. Good for "single main gun" units like the Panther or Hunchback, or combined with multishot on something like an Awesome to spread the pain.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

We don't have a ton of MechWarrior abilities, but they do synergize well. For instance, Multi-Target and Breaching Shot (ignores damage reduction if only one weapon is fired at the target) work in tandem - so a pilot with those abilities in an Awesome that shoots 3 targets with 1 PPC each will do full damage regardless of their DR buffs.

Pay attention to the abilities of your pilots comparative to the machinery you put them in - it can make a *huge* difference.

One of the biggest "tells" in the Beta was if an opposing MechWarrior had Breaching Shot, she won't also have Brace (Apex was the only MechWarrior with Breaching Shot.)
I can't wait to be able and mix that up in the Solo-Campaign, guiding select of my MechWarriors to have both Breaching Shot and Brace while pairing that MechWarrior with a Medium Mech sporting an AC20 or LRM20. : )

 

[Col. Klink]

Heat is a killer in this game. In the beta you could shut down a Jenner just from jumping max distance for 4 consecutive turns, without firing once. IIRC they turned down heat a little since then but since this is decades before double heatsinks become a thing heat will be an important factor.

* Try to keep the enemy away from rivers and lakes to deny them the heatsink bonus from standing in water. Occupy those points of the map for as long as you can hold them.
* Don't ignore enemy Firestarters just because they have no big guns. Not only are they highly mobile scouts/spotters, their flamers can shut down one of your mechs at the worst possible times.
* Always watch your heat gauge and don't stay in the red for too long. Overheat causes internal damage and can lead to your mech shutting down, thus becoming a sitting duck.
* Consider the heat spike you get from jumping before taking your huge leap to alpha-strike an enemy in the back. You will likely need to cool down in the following round so plan ahead.
* Following up on that keep in mind sprinting increases heat! Not by much but it can be a fatal mistake. I once destroyed my own mech this way when I had it sprint into cover to cool down.

 

[TDR-5S]

Focus your fire. Stability is king, a down mech is a dead mech. The quickest way to put them down is to shoot one of theirs with all of yours.

Watch your Facings. Rear armour shots kill fast, but overreaching to get in the rear arc gets you killed. So make them overreach.

Share Armour. Isolated mechs get focus fired and get dead . So control the engagement to make the enemy fire on fresh units.

Keep Moving. Moving makes you harder to hit and lets you line up better shots. If you can't or won't move then Brace.

Heat is your friend. Running closest to the red line for the longest wins the firefight. As long as you don't shutdown it's all good. When Shutdown becomes a risk charge to melee and sink your heat right into their face.