This is a new one...

[LongRange]

So I finished the Grave Robbing/Escape priority mission and was working my way back to civilization (at least one that actually liked me) and there was an Assassination job on one of the Taurean worlds. So I thought no problem, I'll do it.

So it opens up with the Target way across the map, a support lance also in his general direction and an ambush lance behind my drop point. Pretty big map too. So I decide to take out the ambush first to keep from getting sandwiched between the lances. No problem. After a couple of rounds they are all down and the support lance is showing up. So I re-position and take them out after a couple of rounds. By this time the target, a Jagermech, comes into contact. After getting LOS, everybody takes a shot and he's knocked down and almost pure orange on the status screen at the end of the turn. Then I'm told he's bugging out, but I figure I'll end this the next time I have a shot.

And BOOM, a Leopard appears out of nowhere and picks up the knocked down target and flies away! I don't know if this is a bug or not but it kind of breaks the immersion. He should have had to at least run for his life for a turn.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I think each map has a static extraction point that the target has to get to. Unfortunately due to bum luck, you knocked him down right at that spot.

I would think this is incredibly rare, however it is a bummer it happened on that mission.

I never had that happen to me, but I did have one occurrence where the extraction point was so close the target extracted in one bug out turn.

 

[Kharille]

I rememeber in a recent mission some guy was running and the spawn point was maybe 4 hexes away. Fortunately I was able to take him out in 1 turn, always rely on long ranged weaponry.

 

[LongRange]

Range wasn't a problem. It was one of those RNG things where, somehow, you shave off all the armor leaving just structure and that's down to a few points and he's still functioning.

I think I had a bug out where the target only had to make one sprint to hit the pickup.

On this one, while I didn't get the main fee, I did get the bonuses for taking out the support lance and ambush lance. So it wasn't a total loss.

 

[Mabberton]

I usually try to avoid shooting the assassination target until he has been drawn in close to my units just in case he is going to be near the evac point. Also helps to get in place for side shots to take out at least one leg to limit his mobility.

 

[LongRange]

I held off using a UAC10 to try and knock down and harvest the mech. He got rescued before the next round.

Oh well, I guess that's what I get for being greedy.

 

[fredman]

I have found that in instances where all or some of his support are still in combat he will not (or is less likely to) run, although it is generally easier to take out the support before he/she shows up. Nevertheless as Mabberton states, I let him get pretty close before turning on him to give him less of a chance to 'bug out'.

 

[LongRange]

Had another weird experience last night.

Was doing an escort mission on the map where you start on a mountain on the left side, usually take out a blocking force, then escort the APCs down the mountain, through a water crossing and back up and across another mountain to the pickup spot on the right side. Depending on the skulls, you may have another lance possibly popup around the pickup once you activate the APCs. There is always a final lance over the mountain between you and your lance retrieval zone.

My tactic is to take out the blocking lance, then run 3 of my mechs across the water and up into forest around the other mountain top while keeping the 4th mech (usually the missile boat) to sheperd the APCs. They usually get spread out going over the water and up the mountain, so I hold back my escort so that they will group together 1 move away from their pickup site, since entering the pickup zone is what activates the final opfor lance.

In this particular instance, the 4 grouped together nicely and I used my moves to position my 3 other mechs to address the coming opfor lance, keeping my guys away from the APCs so they were out of the coverage umbrella and wouldn't move. In this case, the APCs actually reversed to get back closer to my shepherd mech, then moved on the next turn to the zone once I moved the shepherd closer.

I have seen them get stuck, plenty of times. And I've seen them take 3 turns to get everybody into the zone due to spreading. But I've never had them come back to my mech like that. Wasn't a real problem, but could mess up the timing for my battle plan if I was expecting them to either sit still or continue on to the zone.

 

[Insahnity]

I think each map has a static extraction point that the target has to get to. Unfortunately due to bum luck, you knocked him down right at that spot.

I would think this is incredibly rare, however it is a bummer it happened on that mission.

I never had that happen to me, but I did have one occurrence where the extraction point was so close the target extracted in one bug out turn.

Yep, the "Professional" Missions come to mind. if you aren't careful you can accidentally draw out the Professional too early as I did the first time I did it (him sitting in a Heavy while you are limited to a 200 ton lance with nothing over 55 tonnes). I tried taking out a leg to slow him down (and then aim for the second leg), but the bugger got up and limped to the LZ in one turn, 2 LRM boat Centurions pounding away be damned.

 

[Aluminium Gerbil]

I keep a specially outfitted Griffin 2N with 4 Inferno++s, 2 Flamer++s, and 2 TAGs just to give "The Professional" the middle finger.

 

[Insahnity]

I keep a specially outfitted Griffin 2N with 4 Inferno++s, 2 Flamer++s, and 2 TAGs just to give "The Professional" the middle finger.

TAG for the other mechs in your lance? No NARC?

Sorry to go off on a tangent but does it feel that TAG has a horrible (but invisible) hit penalty? On paper it looks very much like a Medium Laser of some kind, but when you fire it, short of it being a guaranteed hit, I can fire a whole bank of med lasers and they all hit but the TAG always misses.

I'm looking at GITHUB Page which supposedly is a dump of the expansion jsons within the asset files. Looks a little dated. https://github.com/caardappel-hbs/bt-dlc-designdata/commit/33bff4ae087cae302bc574c650f9540a98f2d6e9 and it looks like the TAG doesn't have the +1 to hit modifier. If anything given how crucial it is to hit and the low damage it does it should have extra to-hit, not less, given that it already has a low range, takes more (3) slots and way more tonnage than expected.

 

[Aluminium Gerbil]

TAG for the other mechs in your lance? No NARC?

Sorry to go off on a tangent but does it feel that TAG has a horrible (but invisible) hit penalty? On paper it looks very much like a Medium Laser of some kind, but when you fire it, short of it being a guaranteed hit, I can fire a whole bank of med lasers and they all hit but the TAG always misses.

I'm looking at GITHUB Page which supposedly is a dump of the expansion jsons within the asset files. Looks a little dated. https://github.com/caardappel-hbs/bt-dlc-designdata/commit/33bff4ae087cae302bc574c650f9540a98f2d6e9 and it looks like the TAG doesn't have the +1 to hit modifier. If anything given how crucial it is to hit and the low damage it does it should have extra to-hit, not less, given that it already has a low range, takes more (3) slots and way more tonnage than expected.

No hardpoint left for a Narc, also Narcs are heavy (3 tons) and at least 1 more for ammo. Tags only come in at 1 ton. I also prefer extra ballistic/energy dmg over extra missile dmg. TAGs do have mediocre accuracy but that's why I double up, usually at least 1 hits.

I could replace an Inferno with a NARC but it's critical to have all 4 in case a rocket or 2 misses to ensure I get the complete heat shutdown.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Had another weird experience last night.

Was doing an escort mission on the map where you start on a mountain on the left side, usually take out a blocking force, then escort the APCs down the mountain, through a water crossing and back up and across another mountain to the pickup spot on the right side. Depending on the skulls, you may have another lance possibly popup around the pickup once you activate the APCs. There is always a final lance over the mountain between you and your lance retrieval zone.

My tactic is to take out the blocking lance, then run 3 of my mechs across the water and up into forest around the other mountain top while keeping the 4th mech (usually the missile boat) to sheperd the APCs. They usually get spread out going over the water and up the mountain, so I hold back my escort so that they will group together 1 move away from their pickup site, since entering the pickup zone is what activates the final opfor lance.

In this particular instance, the 4 grouped together nicely and I used my moves to position my 3 other mechs to address the coming opfor lance, keeping my guys away from the APCs so they were out of the coverage umbrella and wouldn't move. In this case, the APCs actually reversed to get back closer to my shepherd mech, then moved on the next turn to the zone once I moved the shepherd closer.

I have seen them get stuck, plenty of times. And I've seen them take 3 turns to get everybody into the zone due to spreading. But I've never had them come back to my mech like that. Wasn't a real problem, but could mess up the timing for my battle plan if I was expecting them to either sit still or continue on to the zone.

Now THAT is some excellent and quite Real World Authentic AI mechanics right there. : )

Well done Harebrained Schemes, well done indeed! :bow: