So am wondering if anyone has done a campaign yet with no Bulwark skill. This makes Piloting a ton more important. Curious if has a drastic impact on play it would appear to have.
No Bulwark Run
- Thread starter UncleGamer
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I've sort of done it. I have Bulwark only on my character in the lance and I don't use it half the time. I was looking quite long for a replacement for her, but can't find any backer female pilots so far.
It's simple, really, you just use Evasive Movement and jump jets instead. And you use Vigilance instead of Precision Shot. Evasive Movement prefers shorter ranged builds because without Precision Shot you want to use side/rear attacks to focus specific 'mech parts.
It's simple, really, you just use Evasive Movement and jump jets instead. And you use Vigilance instead of Precision Shot. Evasive Movement prefers shorter ranged builds because without Precision Shot you want to use side/rear attacks to focus specific 'mech parts.
Working on one now.
Early game it is going fine. With 4 pips of evasion on all my mechs I barely get touched, but I haven't run across a particularly difficult mission yet.
I will update this as the campaign continues.
Early game it is going fine. With 4 pips of evasion on all my mechs I barely get touched, but I haven't run across a particularly difficult mission yet.
I will update this as the campaign continues.
Bulwark becomes more important later in the game, when you're in heavies and assaults for the most part. These don't have enough movement to generate a lot of evasion pips, and the enemy pilots also become better shots on average. This combines to mean that standing still and soaking damage often works out better than trying to dodge it.
I swear, this forum is like "you can't play without Bulwark".
I do. You can do it too. Even in the late game, when you are facing a King Crab and others and your lance is two assaults and two heavies.
Heavies and assaults can generate decent number of evasion pips (4-5), but you need to have Evasive Movement skill on the pilot and jump jets. So in your line 'mechs you need to replace Bulwark with Evasive Movement for it to work. And jump jets require the 'mechs to be more heat efficient than Bulwark builds - you want to max jump every turn, which generates a lot of heat.
Use terrain better to engage the opponent where you have a lot of defensive terrain and cover. Or where OpFor needs to engage you through bad terrain (radiation, the one that increases stability damage). Jump jets = mobility, so choose your approach carefully.
Also Evasive Movement > Bulwark in the late game.
I do. You can do it too. Even in the late game, when you are facing a King Crab and others and your lance is two assaults and two heavies.
Heavies and assaults can generate decent number of evasion pips (4-5), but you need to have Evasive Movement skill on the pilot and jump jets. So in your line 'mechs you need to replace Bulwark with Evasive Movement for it to work. And jump jets require the 'mechs to be more heat efficient than Bulwark builds - you want to max jump every turn, which generates a lot of heat.
Use terrain better to engage the opponent where you have a lot of defensive terrain and cover. Or where OpFor needs to engage you through bad terrain (radiation, the one that increases stability damage). Jump jets = mobility, so choose your approach carefully.
Also Evasive Movement > Bulwark in the late game.
The first time I played the campaign I played like it was TT... I played with without any ammo weapon for a long time and without bulwark. It's not that hard to do.
Well, of course you can do it. Nobody said you couldn't. You can also go without LRMs and knockdown cheese. It's just the non-default option, because the default tends to be easier. (And if it wasn't the non-default option, this entire thread would be moot.)
How is Bulwark easier (more default) than Evasive Movement, tell me please.
For me Evasive Movement was the obvious choice, because the maps are so vertical, that without jump jets and mobility you lose firepower through limited fire arcs.
Because you don't have to think about where to move to. Also because a move-3 King Crab often doesn't have a lot of options on where to move to.
I honestly think you could just sit still with neither evasion nor bulkwark and still complete the game, if you were determined enough.
Neither is necessary to get a win, they are just nice to have.
Neither is necessary to get a win, they are just nice to have.
You move towards enemy. And once the enemy is close enough, you spread to flank from one or both sides. And then you dance around. I do that at least.
A Crab with 3 jump jets has enough options to move. I know, I run 2 Highlanders and they are the same (i.e. have 3 jump jets, so have the same jump distance).
I've literally never clicked on Bulwark and I've done the entire campaign. Didn't see the need to use it as I keep my guys moving constantly.
This statement doesn't validate your point about Bulwark being default. You can Precision Shot while moving - there are no penalties for movement afaik. And Precision Shot against rear CT is better anyway.
Of course you can Precision Shot while moving. But if you're moving, that means you're probably also spending morale on Vigilance. Whereas if you don't move, that becomes unnecessary.
My current run is going to be entirely Master Tactician + Multishot and Master Tactician + Evasive Move...with the exception of Behemoth who started with Bulwark.
I only spend Morale on Vigilance if I land with one of my 'mechs in the open with the purpose to tank whole enemy lance.
You can move using terrain bonuses and then Evasive Movement + terrain bonus is better than Bulwark, because 50% chance to dodge all ranged fire AND 25% damage reduction is better than 50% damage reduction.
See above about a move-3 King Crab often not having a lot of options on where to move to.
Evasive movement also wreacks havok on the AI: you can easily control avenues of fire and more than once I've had the AI just give up firing more than a single ML because it doesn't want to pay the heat (it's been particularly noticeable since 1.1 but I may just never have been looking for it). I'm starting to think that my inability to get flamers to work, enemy mechs are pretty much never pushing the heat gauge around me, might well be because I *don't* rely on bulwark: the AI is forced to play cool because it never has a good enough position where the heat is worth it.