Oh lord, oh Lord, OH LORD....what kind of armor Manticores have ?

[Bladewinder]

There's a neat set of pros and cons for each unit type in the Battletech world.
Mechs are high impact, high value units. Like cavalry they are individually powerful but costly and must be used correctly with the right support to live up to their potential.
Tanks on the other hand are cheap and efficient, the workhorses of the military. Like spearmen. They are the smartest choice when garrisoning the vast territory you control. This can be further split into Wheeled, Tracked and Hover armor and the same with VTOL vs traditional Aerospace but yeah, lots of nuance when you dig into it.

Tanks also have the advantage that you don't need a highly advanced world to make it.
Many tanks (especially in 3025) still use good old ICE (internal combustion engines) with cheap ballistic guns.

Because knowledge and industrial base is still not as wide spread as they should be.
So while your planet might lack the knowledge to produce even the basic fusion engine (like us) but it can still slap together a Scorpion light tank with an AC/5 and a machine gun in record time (again like us).
Then you produce thousands of these and ship em off to various locales.
It also keep the peasants hired, so less chance of uprisings.

Of course there are exceptions like the infamous Alacorn tank which can even make the Clanners sit up and take notice.
When tanks meet high tech, they are almost as costly yet nearly as deadly as the most advance mechs.

 

[TomatoJuice]

I did also board the LRM Boat train. An LRM40-50 Mech with a good pilot kills any vehicle.
Heck I thinks a full Assault LRM Boat Lance one round kills anything in range.

 

[Chaon]

When Citytech came out and brought with it Vehicles. A lot of times people discounted them.

But, a pair of Demolisher tanks backed up by LRM and SRM Carriers were a frightening prospect you only ignored once...

Of course, my friend was VERY fond of Savannah Masters... You couldnt kill them all fast enough, and your Heavy Lance taken apart piecemeal.... Like a swarm of angry bees...

That's why you set tonnage and number limits to avoid Savannah Master swarms from turning a battle into a slaughter....

 

[Squiggly1]

Yeah tank size is kind of unassuming, it fools you into thinking that something like a Striker isn't equal in tonnage to say, a Jenner.

Look at the tonnage for some of the tanks. You're talking 60 to 80 tons of armor and weapons on treads (at 80 tons you're literally getting into Hevy/Assult territory on mechs). The Demolisher packs 2 AC/20's. That's 100 ton Assault level stuff (King Crab KGC-000). Turrets can also bring pain. Look at the Light Sniper - 4 AC/2 + 2MG (that's a crit nightmare with the potential for some headshotting). Then there's the SRM carriers. You don't want to close range on them by accident.

 

[WandererRTF]

Vehicles are fun to play with in TT. However it should be kept in mind that they are seriously vulnerable at the same time. In TT any attack from front or rear against a vehicle has twice as big chance of resulting in a critical hit compared to 'Mechs. From sides the chance is six or seven times as high. In addition to ordinary critical hits there is always a chance of a hit causing motive system damage.

There are however plenty of very powerful vehicles in TT - some of which we are not seeing at all like any of the VTOLs, hover tanks, WiGEs. And this is without even taking the actual aircraft into consideration (like the good old Mechbuster) - or infantry, especially with field guns (my favorites ). All of those may be fragile but they rarely are alone and they do pack serious punch (some of them at least do). But there are variations even of the designs we are seeing in the game. I can only imagine the complaints had people seen these: Heavy LRM Carrier instead of the wimpy stock version. Now with 4 LRM-20s, and they are all in turret (big thing in TT) - granted that it makes Atlas look fast but it works splendidly as a semi-mobile indirect fire platform.

 

[McGrey]

Don't forget heavy turrets. The weapon loadout of an assault Mech, just without all the heat. Thank God they can't move...

 

[Zeusbunnyears]

That's why you set tonnage and number limits to avoid Savannah Master swarms from turning a battle into a slaughter....

Idk how far you are into the campaign, but:

Spoiler: Hovertanks

You get swarmed by a ton of hover tanks in the one LosTech mission. They are piloted by AI and come in two flavors I think - medium and heavy. I’m pretty sure the AI will spam 12 of the little bastards and it becomes a question of survival, not victory

 

[Lardaltef]

A von Lucifer would be scary in this game.


75 ton tank

• 1x Autocannon/20
• 2x SRM 6
• 1x SRM 4
• 1x LRM 10
• 1x Machine Gun
• 1x Flamer

 

[Raithnor]

SomeBODY once told me the world convoy was gonna roll me...

...OK I'm done.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Kovax]

A von Lucifer would be scary in this game.


75 ton tank

• 1x Autocannon/20
• 2x SRM 6
• 1x SRM 4
• 1x LRM 10
• 1x Machine Gun
• 1x Flamer

That's a "von Luckner", not "von Lucifer". Doesn't matter what it's called though, it's still scary, but nowhere near as horrifying as that Alacorn with the triple Gauss Rifles.

The advantage of a 'Mech over a tank is that the tank is optimized for one type of terrain, the 'Mech is more versatile. While a well-designed vehicle can be as effective as a 'Mech in its own element, it's far less effective than a 'Mech if out of its element. The way to beat a vehicle easily with a 'Mech is to engage it out of its element.

Essentially, a Manticore is a 'Mech on tracks: PPC, LRM-10, SRM-6 in the turret, ML in the nose, and enough armor to cover a Medium 'Mech, but all combined into only 5 hit locations instead of 8. Without the motive critical hits of the Tabletop game to leave it immobilized, so you can simply bypass it, it's really hard to deal with.

 

[Lardaltef]

That's a "von Luckner", not "von Lucifer". Doesn't matter what it's called though, it's still scary, but nowhere near as horrifying as that Alacorn with the triple Gauss Rifles.

The advantage of a 'Mech over a tank is that the tank is optimized for one type of terrain, the 'Mech is more versatile. While a well-designed vehicle can be as effective as a 'Mech in its own element, it's far less effective than a 'Mech if out of its element. The way to beat a vehicle easily with a 'Mech is to engage it out of its element.

Essentially, a Manticore is a 'Mech on tracks: PPC, LRM-10, SRM-6 in the turret, ML in the nose, and enough armor to cover a Medium 'Mech, but all combined into only 5 hit locations instead of 8. Without the motive critical hits of the Tabletop game to leave it immobilized, so you can simply bypass it, it's really hard to deal with.

Silly auto correct. Wait how does autocorrect make luckner (this time it went to buckner. Is that even a word?) into lucifer?

 

[Keypek]

The first time you meet a convoy with srm and lrm carriers you just sit there and cry while they destroy you the first turn. It made me dedicate my shadowhawk into an armored vehicle stomper with Dekker full pilot so they can sprint to them quickly when they suddenly appear. Works well on the manticores too. All though I'm sure that'll lose its effectiveness after a while when thinks start getting even beefier.

 

[SpaceViking]

Vehicles are fun to play with in TT. However it should be kept in mind that they are seriously vulnerable at the same time. In TT any attack from front or rear against a vehicle has twice as big chance of resulting in a critical hit compared to 'Mechs. From sides the chance is six or seven times as high. In addition to ordinary critical hits there is always a chance of a hit causing motive system damage

We've been playing the tabletop Battletech for years now and vehicles are way fragile. Motive hits are almost always their doom because once they can't move they are toast. Especially the hovertanks.

That said for a while we had two Demolisher tanks and two Shreks in out mixed unit. Come in close and the 4 AC 20s take you out. Stay far away and the 6 PPCs take you out. Win-win for us!

 

[stjobe]

I had a mission where the enemy were just two units; a 'Mech and a vehicle. The 'Mech turns out to be an Orion so my lance starts to engage that (we were in mediums still, so an Orion isn't necessarily an easy nut to crack), but I send Dekker forward in his Melee Hawk to quickly dispatch the vehicle before it becomes a nuisance.

Well, Dekker probably had to change his underwear when he realised he had just jumped into range of a Demolisher. He fires every SRM he's got (16 at the time), but that of course does little to the massive amount of armour of the Demolisher.

And then the Demolisher fires. For those of you who perhaps aren't familiar with Demolishers, they're pretty simple tanks; they only mount two guns. Two AC/20s.

Lucky for Dekker, one misses and the other one strips his left leg of most of its armour.

Needless to say, the Orion became very much a secondary target on the next round as every single gun that could be brought to bear fired on that Demolisher.

He only got off those two shots.

 

[WandererRTF]

We've been playing the tabletop Battletech for years now and vehicles are way fragile. Motive hits are almost always their doom because once they can't move they are toast. Especially the hovertanks.

Yeah. Kinda the reason why my own custom designs (via MegaMek - lazy me...) always come with a turret. Made even some ICE to fuel cells replacements for some classic vehicles like LRM carriers etc. Sure they cost more - but now they are way more useful.

That said for a while we had two Demolisher tanks and two Shreks in out mixed unit. Come in close and the 4 AC 20s take you out. Stay far away and the 6 PPCs take you out. Win-win for us!

That is the time to roll out the wimpy and next to useless AC/2s. Non-issue for 'Mechs. The utter horror for such tanks.

 

[Lardaltef]

Yeah. Kinda the reason why my own custom designs (via MegaMek - lazy me...) always come with a turret. Made even some ICE to fuel cells replacements for some classic vehicles like LRM carriers etc. Sure they cost more - but now they are way more useful.

That is the time to roll out the wimpy and next to useless AC/2s. Non-issue for 'Mechs. The utter horror for such tanks.

I dunno. The ac/2 carrier with 5 ac/2s might be pretty scary in the game. Especially if there are a bunch of them.