(Lieutenant Colonel)

12/16/04 05:43 PM

203.214.146.181

Re: Rules Question

Nah. The real point of using EMP missiles is inflicting an extra point of Heat per LRM that smacks 'em.

We used those retarded munitions once, and I took a Salamander loaded up with EMPs. In one turn, I inflicted an extra 52 heat (or something siilarly obscene) on my opponent, who promptly blew up from an ammo explosion.

EMP missiles are, with the possible exception of Tanden-Charge SRMs, the most broken thing ever put into print for BT. I say "possible" because TC warheads look really disgusting on SRM- heavy 'Mechs, like the Javelin or Kintaro. A bit of good luck, particularly on lighter 'Mechs, can see Tandem-Charge equipped units ripping of arms and legs fairly quickly. And if they manage to roll three Head hits, well...

With ECM bubbles, you've got a range of 6 hexes around the ECMing unit in which you're safe from being Tagged. That's a fair amount of room most of the time, and if you have two units per Lance with ECM, it gets even better.

Another option might be Battle Armour. I'm not sure if BA can be TAGged or not, but since normal Artillery does 5-point clusters of damage, you'd only loose one or two in a single firing round. Even if they can be TAGged, you'll only loose one.

Plan here would be to load up on Achileus (or maybe Infiltrator Mark II Suits, especially if you can drop in your opponent's home edge) and use them for spotting whilst your own units hide.

We'll call this the Greslayer Tactic, since this is one of his favourite techniques.

If you can't do that, move forwards as fast as possible (ECM-equipped APCs would be good here) and then disgorge the Infantry in the middle of the Artillery formation. Apparently these days Vehicles get really shafted on the Armour Facing Rules (as we discovered at the recent NedCon) and so they should be pretty easy to take care of from there, since artillery pieces tend to be a bit light on armour.

If it were me, I'd put together a Com Guard outfit that had C3i and iNARCs, along with Kanazuchi armour loaded in ECM-equipped APCs. Bit of a pity there's no Viking with C3i, but we can't have everything.

Base it around Tessens (fast, TAG, iNARC) and back it up with heavy firepower from Assualt types (perhaps Highlanders). Since you've got TAG yourself, maybe Chapparral tanks could be used, but I'd be more likely to go with LRM carries loaded with Semi-Guided munitions.

Finally, remember to pack Swarm, or better yet, iSwarm ammo. People using bombardment tactics tend to leave their long-ranged units packed tightly together, so Swarm would be a Godsend.