Duckk wrote:But the Annihilator had to contend with Succession Wars-ridden Inner Sphere designs which had their speeds and weapon ranges reduced. Surviving to get into range was less of a problem back then. Nowadays, with everyone and their pet dog packing some kind of ER or Gauss weapon, it's not as viable anymore.
not really, it's more specialized and requires support, no going out and dueling with a Daishi or anything, but 4xLB-10X can still have their uses and upgrades to LGRs are really nasty direct-fire support.
Duckk wrote:A fair point, but I was restricting myself to post-3050. Succession Wars era was more about juggling heat management and lumbering into melee range than it is in later eras.
That's because of the DHS that alone gives
any Mech +10 heat, for free! But even back then, I had proper mods that worked just fine, My WHM-6S - basically a -6D but with 11tn armor, 21HS & 5xML (the original 2, upgrade the 2xSL to 2xML and add a 5th to the head) I can walk and fire both PPCs or run and fire all 5 MLs (depending on target range) without overheat. My RFL-3S retains the 2xLL, yanks the 2xML (redundant anyway) and replaces the 2xAC-5 with 2xLL, Yea! 4xLL (2 each arm) I added +7 HS and +2tn armor (9.5= to Griffin) it could walk and fire 1 arm without overheat (the 2nd was for redundancy - and mini-looks) or it could stand still (if air attack passes over) and fry all 4 at the passing air unit, overheat +15 (maybe shut down) next turn cool completely as air unit turns around for another pass. (if it survived - 4 8pt hits could cripple any ASF)
Duckk wrote:And is thus the exception that proves the rule: papercut damage isn't viable because you either are doing pitiful damage per turn, or you're forced into cheese designs that other players frown upon and will go out of their way to smack down.
Well, the main problem is the spread. Let say (for an extreme example) we do away with the HLT and the defender gets to decide where he takes the damage, you can hit an Atlas with 150xAC-2 rounds (or SRM/MGs) - 300pt of damage! - and do little or no internal damage, (Red1:)"
just impacted on the surface". You hit that Atlas with 15xAC-20 rounds and
SOMETHINGS coming off! Regardless of hit locations, the 11th round
is going in!
So lets do the math between 4 Atlases, 2 on each side, 1 side has AC-2/SRM/MGs the other Twin AC-20s and (all else being =) each side does 600pt of damage, split between the 2 opponents, with dead average location rolls:
This means that both sides took: H=16.7, R/LA=83.3, R/LL=66.7, R/LT=83.3, CT=116.7. rounded per round that's:(AC-2)H=8, R/LA=42e, R/LL=33e, R/LT=42e, CT=58
(AC-20)H=1, R/LA=4, R/LL=3, R/LT=4, CT=6 (+ 1 to a A,L,ST due to all rounding down)
This means that both AC-20 Atlases took H=4hits (8pt-badly hurt pilots but not dead and Armor intact), R/LA=21hits each (42pt-armor striped with internal damage but still have IS left), R/LL=16-18hits (32-34pt no internals), R/LT=21hits each (42pt-armor striped with internal damage (unless they turn to take damage to rear) but still have IS left), and CT=28hits each (56pt-armor striped with internal damage (unless they turn to take damage to rear) but still have IS left)+4 crit rolls for 2s, Yea, they've been in the thick of it but barring lucky crits or pilot con checks still mobile and functioning.
now:
The AC-2 Atlases took H=1hit (20pt-1 dead pilot), R/LA=2hits each (40pt-armor striped with internal damage but still have IS left), R/LL=1-2hits (20-40pt no internals), R/LT=2hits each (40pt-armor striped with internal damage but still have IS left), and CT=3hits each (60pt-armor striped with internal damage but still have IS left)+1 crit rolls for 2, at-least 1 dead with the other as crippled as the AC-20s are & no turning you back because those AC-20s are going through anyway.
Still the 2s are going to get a lot more crit rolls, but that's probably after one ends up paste-in-a-can, and the 20s will get their crit rolls a whole lot sooner since the 2s are going to have to peal off all of the armor first instead of just a few hits in one location.
Probably, the worst unit in the entire game is
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/SRM_Carrier absolutely useless. The only use I can come up with is putting 1 in with a platoon of LRM carriers for close defense, but there are so many better designs for this purpose. I'd rather have a 4th LRM carrier and spread them out so they can cover each other and fire IDF over the hill. Its 1)slower than a turtle 2)Short Range & 3) light armor. and they didn't even give them turrets despite there appearance. I've only ever used one effectively (ambush in urban alleyway), it still didn't kill the target and just died the next fire phase (crap armor).