Ironman+Career Mode=World of PAIN!

[MeiSooHaityu]

Flashpoint and 1.3 Career Mode has treated me well...and been a cruel mistress as well. As of late though, things are going well.

I finally was able to get a Centurion A. I ran it fairly stock for a bit (A/C10, LRM10, 2 Medium Lasers), however as soon as I saw that amazing A/C20 with a +20 Stability Bonus, I knew it was time for the Yen-Lo-Wang build to return! It is currently my Lance Command mech. I am running that with 2 Vindicators and a Black Jack. I have a Shadow Hawk currently waiting to make an exit from the Mech Bay.

I want to beef up my Medium lance a little bit more before going after some Heavy mechs since the Vindicators and Black Jack are a bit fragile. I have 4/5 of a Kintaro that I am just itching to get that last piece of. I also would love a Hunchback 4P (2/5 pieces) or a Hatchetman (1/5 pieces), but unfortunately I am rather far off from them. I saw a Crab a couple times (already hate going up against those), but only currently have 1 piece.

I do have 3/5 pieces of a Jagermech (LRM variant) so hopefully I will get my first heavy going soon. I had an amazing Assassination missions with a Hatchetman, Grasshopper, Jagermech and a Thunderbolt, however when the Jager (target) started to run, it was literally a few dots from extraction . I lost all that beautiful salvage .

Also, I had some good luck with early Target Acquisition missions (running lights), but once I tried one with a Medium Lance, I couldn't get to the Extraction Point in time and lost that one. Bummed me out.

I have had some money issues, some good luck and salvage, and overall some pretty wicked fights. I had a Convoy Ambush mission go completely sideways and had to withdraw.

It has been a fun ride so far. I think I am going to try the Flashpoint 'Joint Venture' soon. I have been itching to take the Hatchetman for a spin. Also, as a DFA fan, I see that Flashpoint pop up about Mason's Marauders being an OpFor and I am excited to see what that is about. I don't have a good enough of a Lance yet, but when I do, I want to see what the Lord Commander has in store for me .

In anycase, onward and keep earning!

 

[Marc_Hicks]

If anyone is having trouble and you don't mind watching me play, I have a "furypoint" hardest possible flashpoint career going...

A lot of what makes things easier at the start is changing loadouts for a lot more armour.

Yes, I have found this very useful in my current play-through. I upped the armour on my Spider & Jenner.......which has helped them to survive a lot of punishment.

 

[Shake Appeal]

We need to check his difficulty levels @Marc_Hicks

When you are on 5 pieces for a full mech that is really not possible.

I started playing with five pieces and difficulty tuned up, because I prefer that, but it really hurts you in scoring, which I care about, so I restarted.

I am playing Ironman/3-Salvage/Empty Mechs/CT Destruction/Lethality. Rest is standard.

Yes, I have found this very useful in my current play-through. I upped the armour on my Spider & Jenner.......which has helped them to survive a lot of punishment.

My advice for the starting mechs:

Vindicator: Replace the PPC with a LL, replace the LRM5 with an LRM10, put more armor on it.
Jenner: 4ML, max JJs, as much armor as you can manage while having it run cool-ish
Spider: 2SL (use double turns to get away with using them), max JJs, as much armor as you can manage, and use it as a SLock spotter.

It feels wrong to take the PPC off the Panther, so I can't remember what I did there. I think the Commando was 3ML, some SRMs, more armor.

 

[AussieGiant]

@Shake Appeal

Thanks for sharing your settings. Only differences we have is 5-salvage/No lethality. Pilots still die just not everytime a cockpit is hit.

I'm about to do my first FlashPoint. A Steiner one at 2.5 skulls. I'm wondering if a Giffin 1S, a Griffen 1N, Vindi and a Firestarter will be enough. Nearly max armour on all.

Let's see what happens.

 

[AussieGiant]

Gosh. Do you get resupplied for ammo between Flashpoints?

 

[D-Day]

Gosh. Do you get resupplied for ammo between Flashpoints?

On Joint Venture last night, I got armour and ammo at least. I didn't take any internal damage on the first combat drop.

 

[AussieGiant]

@D-Day Ok do an LRM boat nearly out of ammo in the first drop will at least get resupplied ammo? This is huge and left completely out of the briefing **gosh**

 

[Shake Appeal]

@D-Day Ok do an LRM boat nearly out of ammo in the first drop will at least get resupplied ammo? This is huge and left completely out of the briefing **gosh**

Yeah, your ammo is topped up and I'm pretty sure you get all armor back. It's just structural damage that carries over.

I failed the mission you're about to try on my first attempt, so advice if you want it:

Spoiler

you're going to be heavily outnumbered, and they're going to pound the base from all directions, including from the right flank. Firing upon any OpFor unit will distract it for a turn or two (you don't even need to hit, just ping a single LRM5 or MLaser at them), which I only learned after complaining about the mission on the forum. Your lance strength will simply not be able to wipe out the enemy, so you just have to last the 10 rounds.

 

[AussieGiant]

@Shake Appeal thanks mate. I feel like I'm calling in old Merc commander friends on the Comstar chap screaming down the mic asking for intel on this nutty drop I'm on!!

 

[D-Day]

Yeah, your ammo is topped up and I'm pretty sure you get all armor back. It's just structural damage that carries over.

I failed the mission you're about to try on my first attempt, so advice if you want it:

Spoiler

you're going to be heavily outnumbered, and they're going to pound the base from all directions, including from the right flank. Firing upon any OpFor unit will distract it for a turn or two (you don't even need to hit, just ping a single LRM5 or MLaser at them), which I only learned after complaining about the mission on the forum. Your lance strength will simply not be able to wipe out the enemy, so you just have to last the 10 rounds.

The employer's help was a downgrade for me too lol. Also:

Spoiler

There are lots of buildings. I only had 2 crippled OpFor reinforcements left at the end and at least 4 buildings.

 

[Shake Appeal]

The employer's help was a downgrade for me too lol. Also:

Spoiler

There are lots of buildings. I only had 2 crippled OpFor reinforcements left at the end and at least 4 buildings.

That's impressive! I had a 45/55/55/55 and only outright destroyed five of the OpFor, because I was so focused on distraction. The first time I played the mission,

Spoiler

I believe an LRM carrier was one of the units appearing unexpectedly on the right, out of vision, and by the time I realized and got over there, it had gotten off three uncontested salvos at the base.

 

[gh0s7]

@Shake Appeal : Yup, just lost that mission because of that particular unit, as I didn't have anybody that could go and hit it once to distract.
Definitely didn't saw that one coming, and the fact I lost Siegfried to a a series of backshots in one single turn didn't help.

Also, what's with the convoys in Flashpoints just blazing ahead of my lance instead of being dependent in the movement of said lance? Had to sprint my heavies and pray none of the apc's would get blasted before I even got into firing range...
Base Defense and Convoy missions (both Protect and Destroy) I avoid as I'm not particularly fond of them, but I don't recall the Protect the Convoy missions having said convoy just going to the exit point without letting my lance take point.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

@Shake Appeal : Yup, just lost that mission because of that particular unit, as I didn't have anybody that could go and hit it once to distract.
Definitely didn't saw that one coming, and the fact I lost Siegfried to a a series of backshots in one single turn didn't help.

Also, what's with the convoys in Flashpoints just blazing ahead of my lance instead of being dependent in the movement of said lance? Had to sprint my heavies and pray none of the apc's would get blasted before I even got into firing range...
Base Defense and Convoy missions (both Protect and Destroy) I avoid as I'm not particularly fond of them, but I don't recall the Protect the Convoy missions having said convoy just going to the exit point without letting my lance take point.

One thing I do to help with this is, before I trigger the convoy, I scope out the map to see where the landing pad is for the dropship. Most times there is a road going from the base to that pad. Then what I do is I send 2 or 3 mechs of my lance ahead, while I normally keep one mech back to escort the convoy. Often the mech I keep back is one that has a good ranged attack so that it can still fire while being behind with the convoy.

This way, even if the convoy is moving quickly, I can still stay ahead of it. Also, if OpFor mechs spawn in to attack the convoy while it is moving, I have a better chance of attacking that OpFor lance before they can start attacking the convoy.

Mind you, I don't forward deploy mechs too far from the convoy, just up the road a little ways. Sometimes mechs can come from an unexpected direction and I don't want to leave my mechs too far out of position.

A lot of the specific placement comes from learning the map, but overall I find that keeping most of my lance a bit down the road when I spawn the convoy seems to work well for me.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Yeah, I scout ahead and leave one mech (my fastest) to trigger the objective in those cases.

 

[Amechwarrior]

Yeah, I scout ahead and leave one mech (my fastest) to trigger the objective in those cases.

Always do this. Before the convoy triggers, you can select a 'Mech for movement, then using the camera, wander the map while holding Left+Alt. This will make the cursor highlight all movement dots in a 4 dot circle around it. You can find the red drop zone spots where the ship will land and pre-place most of your Lance along the route to ensure smooth convoy flow. I leave either my fastest or longer ranged/LRM unit to stay behind and escort the convoy. Make sure to stay beside the road so they don't waste movement going around your units.

 

[AussieGiant]

So I got hammered.

The first part was fine, I got the convoy to the dropship and only lost 2 APC's which did not seem like a major issue.

Then had the base defense. 35/45/45/55 Firestarter, Hatchet (Steiner), Vindi plus Griffen. On the last round before reinforcements the last building went down. I had lost the Hatchet early on and most of my own mechs were in a poor state. I assumed that after making it through the 10 rounds it's just a cut scene and you are fine, because with a 12 v 4 set up I was never going to survive actually getting reinforcements and fighting my way out.

It's spawned again so that's nice. In the meantime Laos now dislike me. Which is fair enough and I didn't like them in the game either. I think I will need at least one Heavy to do this mission.

 

[D-Day]

Out of interest, what did you all choose at the start? Face the sentry lance or take your chances? I chose the latter and ended up facing an Awesome, Wolverine and I think it was a Spider... gee old age sucks. It was only 24 hours ago!

 

[AussieGiant]

I chose to face the sentry lance. 2 Jenner's, a Shadow Hawk and a Griffin. The second lance was Hatchman, Enforcer and 2 x Trenchbucket.

I guess from what you have said @D-Day it is better to take your chances?

 

[D-Day]

The sentry lance was the first drop for the convoy escort, the 2nd drop to defend the base was against 2 lances much like what you faced.

 

[AussieGiant]

So I'm not sure what the difference is then in the briefing choice. My second drop with the base defense was 3 lances. The last one had a Blacknight in it.