Ironman+Career Mode=World of PAIN!

[Marc_Hicks]

So last night I decided to try out the new Career Mode.....coupled with my first ever Ironman run through. Lets just say that it has already been an extremely arduous adventure, & I am only 3 missions in. Let me briefly tell you my "tale of woe".

I started my career in Taurian Space, & decided to use it as an opportunity to test the new Rep System, by building my rep with the Taurians (my true loyalty is to House Kurita, but that's another story).

First two missions were a doddle, taking out a pirate lance then eliminating a group of Davion backed weapons smugglers (though I did encounter my first Hatchetman in the latter mission). This must have lulled me into a false sense of security, though, as my 3rd mission quickly went pear shaped on me.

It seemed easy enough on the surface, clear out a lance of rogue mercenaries.....but then it turned out that there was more than 1 lance on the planet (the dangers of incomplete intelligence). Suddenly my Light Lance was facing down 8 Mechs-coming from different directions......& one of these was another Hatchetman.

I prevailed in the end, but not without the death of a Mechwarrior, the loss of a Mech & injured pilots/damaged mechs almost across the board.

At present, I only have 1 undamaged mech (Jenner) & pilot, & over 1 month of waiting before the rest are operational again.

To make matters worse, even after selling off all my salvage, I am less than 1 month away from bankruptcy. Lets hope this latest Base Defense mission can drag me out of the hole!!!

 

[Havamal]

Are you enjoying the gritty world of pain?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Are you enjoying the gritty world of pain?

I'm still playing, aren't I?

That should tell you all you need to know. I definitely need to refine my tactics though!

 

[Havamal]

I'm still playing, aren't I?

That should tell you all you need to know. I definitely need to refine my tactics though!

Rock on!

 

[samz812]

"... forty percent of all new mercenary commands are destroyed or dissolved within the first six months of their forming; sixty percent of those who make it past this point will suffer the same fate within their first year." - Battletech Wiki

Welcome to the 40% my friend

 

[Masoz]

That's a funny way to pronounce BATTLETECH.

You have to pick your battles carefully more than ever this time around.

One time I didn't, and I ended up in a mission where some Steiner scumbag wanted to pay me 50k take an objective. 1 skull Darius says. I only took it for free travel and the high salvage rights. Keep in mind I'm still using the career mode starter 'Mechs.

Turns out the enemy blocking force was 4 PRISTINE mediums, with reinforcements likely on the way. No way I was going to take out that kind of OpFor, so I had no choice but to only go for the objective. But for only 50k? Yeah, kiss my ass. I took that bad faith withdrawal with pride.

 

[SQW]

You can't just go into every mission aiming to kill all oppositions. Play the objectives and get out with minimal damage is how you do it when all the boxes are ticked on hard.

For example, my 3rd mission was to destroy a convoy. Due to good positioning, I took out the 4 vehicles (they had a manitcore!) early. The guard and reinforcements consisted of Commando, Jenner, Locust and two sensor contacts down the ravine. Thinking they were all bunch of lights, I set up for a fight but one of the contact turned out to be a SHD. Would I have won if I stuck around? Yes. But I'd probably have only one or two mech left standing in the end. So I changed direction and bee-lined to the extraction point with only 30k worth of repair bill.

Also, look at the contract money before the skulls. A 1 skull paying 350k is a lot more dangerous than a 1.5 skull paying only 200k.

Finally, a rant: NO RANDOM STARTING MECH?!!! What is this, May 2018?

 

[samz812]

Also dont forget, you have only 1 medium mech in career mode, you had 3 in the main campaign when you started.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Well yes, everyone, I am quickly learning that both Career Mode & Iron-man mode are like a completely different language. The first two missions made me very cocky, but that 3rd mission beating I took has made me completely re-examine my strategy. More free use of the Eject Button & a willingness to abandon missions that are beyond me.....those are the key to my longevity. I must remember that I can't save scum when I mess up, & that there is no Campaign based windfall coming my way......

That said, I probably could have won the day in that 3rd mission *if* I'd focused my initial attack on the primary target Lance, & made the reinforcement lance come to me instead. I probably could have downed 2 or even 3 of the primary mechs before the reinforcements could reach me!

Still, it was funny watching one of my Mech-Warriors, in her Panther, doing her best "Black Knight" impressions.......armlessly head-butting & kicking enemy Mechs. Damn, wish I'd recorded that now .

 

[SQW]

I've always tried to keep one enemy lance between the other and myself. JJ is king in my view. A 4v8 is always more manageable when 4 of theirs can't get to me.

The downside is the long missions on even simple contracts as you tried to keep the damage to a minimum. I wonder how long before the sense of grind rear its head - usually by mid campaign back in vanilla.

 

[Jade_Rook]

If I am fighting 4 v 8, I have done something wrong. Fighting 4 v 4 then another 4 is much better.

 

[Eelectrica]

Reading this thread makes me think of all the times I hit the 'restart mission' button. I'm so screwed when I give this a try. Lol.

 

[SQW]

If I am fighting 4 v 8, I have done something wrong. Fighting 4 v 4 then another 4 is much better.

Majority of the time, yes. Every once in a while you get a small map and the 2nd enemy lances spawns within a turn or two of you. Had one mission where two lances spawned close to my starting location at the corner of the map and the only kiting route took me into the 3rd.

 

[tobias.mb]

My biggest problem at the start of career mode was that the shops sell hardly anything. So you're forced to play quite a few missions with stock mechs.
Which is fine, if you like that; but for me the best part of the game is tinkering with my mechs to get the most out of them. And with some refitting the starting mechs can hit a lot harder.
I had even prepared designs before starting a career:

Spoiler

Summary:
Jenner: Armor no longer made of paper and better heat management (only 12 heat on Alpha-Strike).
Vindicator: Big Alpha-Strike (172 dmg) at only 20 Heat. That's pretty much 2x stock mech dmg.
Panther: Similar; respectable Alpha-Strike (138dmg - 15 heat). It's good enough to replace a damaged medium, if I still have a lower skull mission in the system.
Spider: A lot more Armor and almost 2x stock dmg (90 dmg).
Commando: Also a decent dmg (122dmg) buff by removing the LL. Who needs a long range weapon on a mech that fast anyway?

Most of all I missed the SLs on my fast light mechs. Against other light mechs and with low gunnery pilots, they're absolutely the best weapon, since they ignore evasion. And on fast mechs their only downside (super-small range) is not much of a problem. I also love, that melee + SL strips 2 evasion pips, so they're also super-good for stripping evasion before my Vindicator comes in.
Unfortunately they're also kind of rare and you need some luck to come across enemies using them (so you can salvage them after the mission)
Luckily the shop on my second planet had an SL, so I could get "my" Lance together.

On the third planet I got lucky (again) and the shop had 2 Wolverine parts and I could build one. (I'm playing with 5 parts to complete a mech.)

Spoiler

I'm now doing 2 skull missions with my Lance: Vindicator, Wolverine, Spider, Commando.
Mostly I'm going in with the lights and their SLs to strip evasion and then pummel them with the mediums. Though honestly 90 & 122 Alpha-Strike dmg from the lights is also decent already and not something medium mechs can simply ignore. I'm probably going to use the Jenner again, once I'm fighting mostly mediums and my pilots have better gunnery, since then having SLs isn't as important anymore.

 

[mmurray821]

So far Ironman hasn't been as bad as I feared. Had only one 'Mech and pilot die, but he was drawing the attention of a heavy vehicle lance in a Commando during a flashpoint so they stopped shelling the base I was defending. It was a very heroic and honorable death.

 

[Amechwarrior]

Doing a 8 part salvage, CT Dest, slow XP, unequipped Ironman. Help...

First two planets doing good. Hit up some 1 and 1.5 skulls and did alright. Nowhere near getting a new 'Mech, much less a useful one.

 

[Zythen1975]

Well yes, everyone, I am quickly learning that both Career Mode & Iron-man mode are like a completely different language. The first two missions made me very cocky, but that 3rd mission beating I took has made me completely re-examine my strategy. More free use of the Eject Button & a willingness to abandon missions that are beyond me.....those are the key to my longevity. I must remember that I can't save scum when I mess up, & that there is no Campaign based windfall coming my way......

That said, I probably could have won the day in that 3rd mission *if* I'd focused my initial attack on the primary target Lance, & made the reinforcement lance come to me instead. I probably could have downed 2 or even 3 of the primary mechs before the reinforcements could reach me!

Still, it was funny watching one of my Mech-Warriors, in her Panther, doing her best "Black Knight" impressions.......armlessly head-butting & kicking enemy Mechs. Damn, wish I'd recorded that now .

Ironman 100% makes you a better player as you have to care more and not just go hey I wonder if this will work.

 

[D-Day]

Finding it tough, but enjoyable. Definitely keeps you honest with the tactics you use (or don't). About all I've gotten annoyed with so far is taking an internal (especially late-mission) which puts the mech out of action for a few days. And the abysmal gunnery skills of my pilots lol.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

The Career Mode is a whole new ball game compared to the Campaign Mode we had been playing.

For reference: I am playing Ironman with 5 pieces of salvage, no equipped mechs, and slow MechWarrior progression.

Money is tight and when things go sideways in a mission, it is really costly at this point. Even things like Medium Lasers are a bit hard to come by and I sometimes find myself having to adjust loadouts differently to work with what I have more than what I want.

There is another interesting dynamic (at least early game) where I have to decide when to gamble on higher difficulty missions and when not to. Higher difficulty missions are dangerous, but with 5 pieces of salvage as a requirement, they are about the only way I can grow my Merc force within a reasonable amount of time. The missions more suited to my lance are more comfortable, but I end up playing against lights frequently when I need medium chassis. So now I need to take harder missions, but those can go bad quickly and be costly, and that puts a strain on my already tight budget.

This is something that just isn't present in the Campaign game and something that I feel was much needed for a mode like this. It adds a ton of new strategy to growing a company and a lot more planning.

I am having a blast with this new change!

 

[IceTitan]

Get used to withdrawing and using terrain alot more.

Had a battle mission on my 4th drop.
Vindy un modded
Panthet unmodded
Jenner had removed srm,ammo and jj's and added 2 heat sinks and the basic large laser commando.

My Vindy and panther took the higher ground on the west side of the valley while the Jenner and Commando sort of mingled in the middle to east side of the valley.

They engaged two locusts and a scorpion while my vindy and panther got surprised by two jenners a panther and a striker.

Vindy and Panther struggled to hit the jenners and kill them, RNG was being a total hater. While the jenner and commando was playing tagg with the locusts while trying to avoid fire from the scorpion above.

Panther had to withdraw down the cliff after a few rounds due to total loss of armor to the two jenners and panther and Vindy tanked for a bit. Vindy killed off the striker since jenners kept have bad hit rng even with 1 pip.

Once locusts where cleared Jenner rushed to help while commando went to kill the scorpion sniping.

Vindy had to wothdraw due to heat using the cliff as a wall and cooled down for two rounds, while my jenner killed the first jenner and tangled with the panther and second jenner.

Commando caught up as Jenner was struggling the RNG shielded jenner and panther. But had to wait a turn due to sprinting while my Panther sat pretty down the cliff too exposed to risk taking fire.

Vindy pops back up and fires at the panther... making me wonder how its still alive.... while jenner and commando finished off the second enemy jenner.

Enemy Panther vaporised the next round.
I'm finding the RNG shield is really bad so far, so much so its making some missio s needlessly harder... :/

Luckily I had 2 spiders and another jenner on stand by from previous salvages to keep going for a few more missions while two pilots where out for the month... requiring I fire one pilot and hired 2 more with better skills.

So far the RNG made me wanna throw my mouse several times at it.... Its challenging.... but feels like the computer always gives you bad rolls.