How to (best) use Vigilance (and other Manual type questions)

[Kevo & The Krew]

I thought there was a PDF manual at one point, but I'm not finding it now. At any rate, the 'Called Shot' morale ability is pretty straightforward (and pretty awesome!), but I'm having some trouble truly understanding the Vigilance ability - how does it work, why would I spend my morale points on it, etc.?

Another question along those lines, is the morale a shared pool or does each mechwarrior have their own pool? Does calling a shot with a smaller mech block a larger mech from doing the same by eating the pool?

Let me know and thanks!

Kevo

 

[BunglingLummox]

Use Vigilance when you want to move, but don't want to give up Bulwark. You *can* move and brace, which has its place, but if you need to sprint or fire, Vigilance is your friend. It can also be used to manipulate the turn order.

The pool is shared.

 

[Kevo & The Krew]

Interesting, thanks. That helps. I've been running & gunning so far, but I think more subtlety will be required in later missions..

 

[TheWackyWombat]

Moral is shared between all your pilots, and you can increase the starting amount through events on your dropship.

Cost of using abilities is the same most of the time, but mechwarriors can get High Spirits and Low Spirits (represented by blue up or red down arrow on their portraits) that increase or decrease the amount of moral abilities require.

Vigilance gives you guarded and braced, like the standard ability, but without giving up your shooting. Guarded gives you 50% less damage taken, braced lowers the amount of stability damage you take. It's good to use when you first encounter enemy forces, you can move your tankiest mech up to attract file, without losing your attack or taking a ton of damage in the first round.

 

[mjbroekman]

Vigilence also has the added benefit of pushing you UP the initiative order (2 -> 3, 3 -> 4, etc). So, you can move, shoot, and then go earlier in the round next round.

 

[mork77]

I have two uses for it.

a) if a mech is unsteady, but i still want to move the mech this turn, i use vigilance. Voila, the yellow bar vanishes.

b) I use jump jets a lot. I have a SRM brawler in my Lance. If he is supposed to attack, I use vigilance, then I jump into range and fire. The mech now has at least 3 evasion and is guarded, meaning less damage should he get attacked. And next turn, you get +1Initiative, meaning you can jump back without giving the enemy a chance to fire on you. Combine that with the second pilot upgrade, and you can fire 2 times without giving the enemy a chance to react.

I actually use it more often than the one giving you a called shot.