Don't forget, punching with a Banshee is a good choice. It doesn't have arm weapons so you don't lose any firepower. Any hit to the head goes internal and can destroy the cockpit or the sensors. Also, a single SRM missile will decapitate the mech afterwards.
i love to run the atlas and have him pick up a tree on the way to the fight before much shooting has happened. if he can get in close he just demolishes them, ac20, 20 damage tree, and an srm to crit them out
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Kick only hits legs. I want that dream chance of running an Atlas clear through with my Dark Souls style Back Attack or beheading something 4 times over given luck
Good video. After seeing the mathematical probability for falling after missing a kick I can't believe how many times it's happened to me! The Phoenix Hawk is one of my favorite mechs. When the opportunity comes I like to Alpha Strike an opponent (usually in the back) which builds a lot of heat. I've fallen so many times after failing a kick and then failing the PSR that unless the initial roll is lower then usual I don't kick. That's with a 3/4 Pixy. The combo of being overheated and prone pretty much cripples a PXH-1 for the next round. My dice rolls have to be seen to be believed!
Any attack from a mech's left or right flank that rolls on the kick table will always hit the left or right leg of the side you attacked from. You can only put one mech on the flank of a mech, but you can also have a ground vehicle charge the mech from that side at the same time. So you can do two attacks that each target the same leg. If you have the setup this can be incredibly deadly.
A note that the penalty to choosing the physical weapon table is that the standard weapons usually provide a bonus to attack (-1 hatchet, -2 sword) that helps offset the penalty a little
Was expecting a more detailed video on melee attacks. When is the best time to execute each kind. How you execute each one and possible outcome. Even a description of each kind of melee weapon.
1. Kick most of the time. Especially when you have elevation 2. Punch if their head can be destroyed on a successful hit or when their torso is open has a good ammo/weapon exposed. 3. Physical weapon if you have one and it's better than Kick or Punch for some reason 4. Charge or Push if they're near a cliff or you have a domino effect 5. DFA or Club when you want to meme Hope that helps!
I had a great MegaMek game recently where my Thunderbolt and a Kuritan Dragon basically took turns unloading weapons at point blank and then kicking each other's legs to bits.
The Clan Predator mech, along with the Viking (and Viking IIC) have leg weapons. But yeah, very rare. With the Viking IIC, the leg weapons are a safer choice, especially if Quirks are used, because the +1 PSR for no/minimal arms and +1 for heavy armor stack to make a missed kick rather dangerous. Against a ferro-lam mech or one with Reinforced internals, you need to kick with a 75t mech. Against a heavy armor mech, you'd need a 105t mech to get a kick that can decap them. Rare edge cases, but the Viking IIC brought them to mind. Best thing is when a player uses their VTOL rather poorly and you get a kick attack on them. It absolutely destroys VTOLs.
One of my favourite light mechs is the Venom. 4 medium pulse lasers, all on the side torsos, 8/12/8 movement. Only 12 heatsinks, so you need to spend time cooling usually. But it is hard to hit, and hits hard. those 4 mpls can open most backs (some luck needed of course) and then you follow up with 2 puny 3 damage punches and fish for crits. I don't usually kick with it, because if you fall you are as good as dead as 3.5t of armor really isn't much.
Venom is a slightly upgraded spider. It's fairly situational and kinda expensive bv wise. It's a good mech but can be kinda terrain dependant, and, is fragile enough that if an enemy decides to concentrate fire on it early that you can see a big chunk of fairly rare mech go down quickly in a fight.
@@OmniMontel I'd say it is a substantial upgrade, as it is 5t heavier. :D But that is just semantics. And yeah, it is fragile, I mentioned the small amount of armor. It is also very hot in a time where double heatsinks exist. It should have a version with 10 dhs and 5.5t of armor. It is best used to catch lone flankers or when presenting other targets that just can't be ignored.
@@RincetheWind The KC variant does have double heat sinks. It still is fairly hot with jumping and firing even though it only has 3 medium pulse lasers. Double heat sinks reentered production in 3041 with the Fedcom. Dracs introduce the Venom in 3050... Not for sure why it hasn't had an official variety that has full double sinks and a touch more armor other than it's not fun to fight against being hot and fragile if someone uses it smartly.
Fo any of the rule books talk about the head kick?? I love your videos and look forward to putting the things i learned into action. I lose mostvof my games.
I noticed how in the last section, specifically at 11:08 you mention that dedicated melee weapons aren't really worth it. Well, what would make them worth it to you? How about reducing the To-Hit roll bonus of Kicks to just -1 (but in turn giving you a -1 bonus to the Piloting Skill roll if you miss a kick) and making the rule that if a melee weapon attack hits either leg of an enemy 'Mech, the enemy 'Mech in question needs to make a Piloting Skill roll (since something like a Hatchet attack does the same damage as a kick)? Melee weapons in general are underpowered in my view. There's quite a bit that could be done to make them more effective.
Had a fight where I tried to kick a Griffin in a Spider, my pilot missed and fell Griffin turned around, tried to stomp, missed, and also fell, damaging his gyros We then spent several turns in a cycle of trying to stand up, failing, then trying to shoot each other while prone After my Warhammer came over to finish off the Griffin, I immediately gave the Spider pilot the callsign "Worm"
I botched the chance for my Grasshopper to push my brother's Highlander off a level 4 cliff into a lake, because I forgot not to fire my arm mounted weapons :'(
I was hoping for some more rules coverage too. Physical attacks are after Weapon attacks. Except for a few physical attacks that are declared in movement and executed in the physical attack phase (charge, DFA)
@@SendarSlayer sorry, while I agree it would be helpful I don't want to post all of the rules in a video form. People should have to actually buy the book lol.
Pff, I can just always play the 40-ton Kontio, Basically the giant mech version of Rei from Fist of the North Star. Slicing and dicing assholes is always fun.
For custom builds, several variants present themselves: charging, TSM and stick, and the really experimental stuff. For charging, the base rules are extremely lenient since it's punch damage (tons/10) times hexes moved while only taking punch damage in return (all in 5 point clusters). This keeps the goals pretty simple. Strap the biggest engine available onto a mech, add in MASC, and gun it in a straight line into a target. Because of rounding math (round only when the damage is about to be applied), the maximum possible damage varies between 60 damage for an 85-ton mech up to 75 damage at 50-tons and 76 at 40-tons. I find the 50 ton quadmech to be an ideal balance since it can hold the engine (XL, but it still counts) and has many fewer steps to take than the 40 ton mech to reach maximum damage (16 max boosted run vs 20). Quads can skitter around minor obstacles more cheaply than bipeds can, which translates into steps and into damage multipliers. It's terribly inefficient, but incredibly satisfying to say "Charging for 70 damage, I take 10 back" and can dramatically warp what gets shot at since that's the first line of defense. For Triple Strength Myomers and a hatchet or sword, weight obviously plays a huge role and maneuverability is really key too. Hatchets do kick damage (tons/5) using the weapon table at a -1 modifier while swords do punch +1 damage with a -2. TSM will double the damage assuming the mech is at 9 heat or higher. I value armor (everything will be at short range so get used to being hit), mobility (if you must be at range 1, getting there is always a priority), and the ability to maintain exactly 9 heat from a variety of movement options (Jump 5 and Run 8 generate different heat, I like triggering my own TSM before entering melee range, I don't like shutting down heat sinks). At it's best, you can stack a fairly monstrous piercing weapon for the weight class with the same area-denial effect as shown in the Kicking for Light Hunters section before. That said, whiffing is easy and hurts badly since you built around a single dice roll and missed. Getting experimental tech involved can help builds really take off. The magic movement numbers for dodge bonuses are 7 and 10 which are very viable with experimental tech. A 100 ton mech using Mechanical Jump Boosters (Leg Springs that give jump movement without heat, spinning, DfA capability, or engine movement caps like jump jets have) can easily jump 10 for a wild +5 against attacks, max out armor, bring some weapons to kick heat into TSM range, and a mighty axe dealing 40 damage to a single location on a hit. It makes some massive fear zones that nobody wants to wander into since even most Assault mechs taking 40 to the rear center torso drop in a single hit. If you prefer to choose your own facing then max engine size, Improved Jump Jets, and a Partial Wing in atmosphere still cracks the 7 hex jump range at only 3 heat. Charging mechs with Superchargers and MASC upgrades can crack 100 damage with Spikes (slight extra charging damage for reasonably cheap, but can get shot off) and an 80 ton mech can even hit 150 with a Ram Plate (splatbook item to multiply charging damage by 150%, but requires reinforced structure). And if you need a sidearm just in case fights get close, the Vibroblade has you covered. It comes in three fixed sizes and acts like a regular sword when unpowered, but deals fixed damage when active and generating heat. Giving Assault mechs 3-ton swords will never not be funny and stacking a 14 damage sword on a 35 ton mech is pretty cheeky too. Are all of these builds completely lore-ridiculous? Absolutely! Ridiculous fun do drop on the table? Also absolutely! And yes, I am that nerd who built a spreadsheet to calculate possible charging damage for me given several variables so that I could top out my curve.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed it's sad that you can't use lances when charging though, that's what lances are made for. :( Also if ya need help on the community manager thing, I dunno how good I'd be but I'd be willing to offer a hand with what I can!
@@SendarSlayer Slapping around the Republic of the Sphere is not really much to brag about they wasted money and resources on absolute crap projects, and where left to die by the IS. Now it looks like the Wolves might get clapped by the Liao of all people.
