You don't have to attack every single round, often it is better to move around keeping evasion up and building up resolve, using the terrain to your advantage, kiting one or more foes until you can focus on it with at least a couple Precision Shots in a row, each one giving you +4 accuracy plus being able to aim at specific locations plus pushing the target initiative if it survives.

There are a number of ways to improve hit chance or deal with evasion:

1. Increase gunnery skills on your pilots, that raises your base hit chance.

2. Early game avoid firing auto cannons every turn, they have recoil, taking a turn between shots avoids that penalty.

3. Focus fire on one target as much as possible, every attack in vanilla strips at least one evasion pip from the target, even if you miss, this means the next unit to attack has to deal with fewer evasion pips on the target.

4. I like to put multi-shot on pilots, then have them focus most weapons on one target, but use one weapon like a med laser or an lrm 5 to attack another unit I want to strip evasion from, then when the main unit I want to hit that target with is up, the target has less evasion.

5. Weapons in arms get an innate +1 accuracy, making them more accurate than torso weapons.

6. Use plus (+, ++, +++) weapons with +ACC effects

Another thing to do early-game when your pilots are low skill and the enemy is mostly light mechs with evasion bonuses. . . melee them.

Melee attacks (and Support weapons) have higher accuracy, so they're quite handy for hitting those pesky Lights.
(as an additional bonus, if your melee attack does enough stability damage, it'll knock all the evasion off and your other guys can shoot it.)

Originally posted by wesnef:

Another thing to do early-game when your pilots are low skill and the enemy is mostly light mechs with evasion bonuses. . . melee them.

This is pretty much the only time I can advocate melee. Can be very useful in cases like this. Still need to be careful. Meleeing means you are going to have low evasion as well.

Originally posted by wesnef:

Melee attacks (and Support weapons) have higher accuracy, so they're quite handy for hitting those pesky Lights.

It isn't so much that they have higher accuracy as it is that they ignore evasion in their to-hit calculation, if I am not mistaken.

And of course, since it wasn't mentioned, having one or even more pilots hit an enemy Mech with Sensor Lock will make it far easier to deal with.

Originally posted by Kathistos Moggolos:

Originally posted by wesnef:

Melee attacks (and Support weapons) have higher accuracy, so they're quite handy for hitting those pesky Lights.

It isn't so much that they have higher accuracy as it is that they ignore evasion in their to-hit calculation, if I am not mistaken.

Ah, right. Yeah, that sounds familiar, guess I forgot *why* they had higher accuracy. :)


edit: a Firestarter with six machineguns (plus either 2x MLas + Jets; or 4x MLas) can be a very effective light mech hunter.

Or a Grasshopper with similar outlook and loadout can be an effective *anything* hunter.

Originally posted by wesnef:

Originally posted by Kathistos Moggolos:

It isn't so much that they have higher accuracy as it is that they ignore evasion in their to-hit calculation, if I am not mistaken.

Ah, right. Yeah, that sounds familiar, guess I forgot *why* they had higher accuracy. :)


edit: a Firestarter with six machineguns (plus either 2x MLas + Jets; or 4x MLas) can be a very effective light mech hunter.

Dont have any of those, I got just started mechs. Also when I melee, the chances of the enemy just going in my back and 1 hitting me is pretty big. Happend last night, alt-f4'd and made this post lol.

Hopefully you started with the campaign instead of jumping right into career mode. Career mode removes all the training wheels right from the start, and it is super easy to get in over your head. Campaign mode also gives you a much better starting lineup with three decent medium mech, and rewards you with a fourth one almost right at the start when you capture the Argo.

Once you can go outside the starting four systems it is a good idea to do a bunch of missions before advancing the plot. Each time you do a plot mission the level of random missions gets a minor bump, and become higher level. So it is important to build up your forces between each story mission, otherwise you might get hit with everything being suddenly too hard.

Other things that can affect the whether you hit are the range to the target, and if the shooter is higher up. Attacking from the top of a hill will give you a greater chance to hit. While it is obvious that the farther away something is the harder it is to hit, certain weapons have a minimum range, and attacking from too close will make it super hard to hit. Longer ranged auto-cannons, and LRMs face this issue, so it can actually be better to back up from something you want to hit.

Multi hit weapons or firing large numbers of smaller weapons have a better chance to score at least some damage. So stuff like PPCs are less useful for hitting dodgy light mechs. On the other hand a LBX auto-cannon (Heavy Metal DLC needed), or some small lasers will be more effective.

A secondary benefit of meleeing enemies is that if they fire support weapons, they strip a second pip. You can use this to rapidly strip the pips from a single target, and then hit them with an alpha strike from another mech.

Because you end up fighting larger groups of enemies, and your ability to move around can be rather limited at times, it is better to focus on having on having a lance that can take hits, and generally last a long battle. So high armour values, and enough ammo and heat sinking that you can keep up a steady rate of damage output. Tactics also need to reflect this by doing stuff like staying in forests, breaking line of fire with enemies you aren't targeting yet (pretty much the only way Dekker and his Spider are going to last more than a battle), and trying to only as few enemies as a time as you can. Jump jets are good at allowing you to get some evasion pips without moving that far, and turning to face the best direction.

Originally posted by Lycon:

Dont have any of those, I got just started mechs. Also when I melee, the chances of the enemy just going in my back and 1 hitting me is pretty big. Happend last night, alt-f4'd and made this post lol.

Have you modified your starting mechs in any way?

And yeah, as Bob asked, are doing doing Campaign or Career?

The stock mech designs are poor in various ways, so a bit of modification can help.

Removing equipment and changing armor values takes zero time, so the first thing I do when I start a new playthrough is rip off a weapon or two (ones that aren't efficient, or don't mesh well with the rest of the loadout) and increase armor.

With the normal starting Campaign mechs, my usual adjustments are:
Vindicator - remove LRM+ammo, add armor
Shadowhawk - remove either SRM2 or LRM5 and it's ammo, increase armor
Blackjack - remove one AC2, add armor
Spider - remove jump jets, add armor


And this sets them up for further modification to be done when traveling between systems, things like:
Vindicator - replace PPC with Large Laser + 2 med lasers, jets
Blackjack - replace second AC2 with an AC5
Shadowhawk (short range) - 2x SRM6, 1x SRM4, Med laser, jets
But those are just my preferences, one can go other ways. /shrug

The main part is More Armor. Yes, you have a little less shooting, but not taking internal damage is important.

In general, I try to have full armor on limbs & front, and 25+ on the rear locations so they can take one ML hit.

Later in the game, when I have more mechs & more freedom to do repairs/refits, my standard method for equipping a new mech is to first max out the front/limb armor, and then adjust the rear armor until I have an even ton or half-ton for other equipment. On light mechs that ends up being something like 20/30/20 or 25/35/25; as the mech weight goes up, the amount of back armor I put on goes up as well (sticking to the X/X+10/X pattern, this seems to end up with the right weight used)

Originally posted by wesnef:

Originally posted by Lycon:

Dont have any of those, I got just started mechs. Also when I melee, the chances of the enemy just going in my back and 1 hitting me is pretty big. Happend last night, alt-f4'd and made this post lol.

Have you modified your starting mechs in any way?

And yeah, as Bob asked, are doing doing Campaign or Career?

The stock mech designs are poor in various ways, so a bit of modification can help.

Removing equipment and changing armor values takes zero time, so the first thing I do when I start a new playthrough is rip off a weapon or two (ones that aren't efficient, or don't mesh well with the rest of the loadout) and increase armor.

With the normal starting Campaign mechs, my usual adjustments are:
Vindicator - remove LRM+ammo, add armor
Shadowhawk - remove either SRM2 or LRM5 and it's ammo, increase armor
Blackjack - remove one AC2, add armor
Spider - remove jump jets, add armor


And this sets them up for further modification to be done when traveling between systems, things like:
Vindicator - replace PPC with Large Laser + 2 med lasers, jets
Blackjack - replace second AC2 with an AC5
Shadowhawk (short range) - 2x SRM6, 1x SRM4, Med laser, jets
But those are just my preferences, one can go other ways. /shrug

The main part is More Armor. Yes, you have a little less shooting, but not taking internal damage is important.

In general, I try to have full armor on limbs & front, and 25+ on the rear locations so they can take one ML hit.

Later in the game, when I have more mechs & more freedom to do repairs/refits, my standard method for equipping a new mech is to first max out the front/limb armor, and then adjust the rear armor until I have an even ton or half-ton for other equipment. On light mechs that ends up being something like 20/30/20 or 25/35/25; as the mech weight goes up, the amount of back armor I put on goes up as well (sticking to the X/X+10/X pattern, this seems to end up with the right weight used)

Im playing carreer. and no i hadent modified it. they already had so little weak weapons I thought I needed em, ill try the armor thing!


played another game, EVERY single enemy mech has more fire power than me, always has 4-5 evasion pips like wtf man. Even my light mechs only get 2 max evasion pips when doing a max move and shoot.... My guys are all ♥♥♥♥♥ retarded or smth, they cant hit ♥♥♥♥. howd they even become mech pilots....
Also might as well not do the extra armor.... 'structure exposed!' 'structure exposed'! lmao.

Not to mention it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spawned me in water and i could move 5 feet lmao. god ♥♥♥♥ this game, alt f4d that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and be done with it.

Originally posted by Jamie Wolf:

There are a number of ways to improve hit chance or deal with evasion:

1. Increase gunnery skills on your pilots, that raises your base hit chance.

2. Early game avoid firing auto cannons every turn, they have recoil, taking a turn between shots avoids that penalty.

3. Focus fire on one target as much as possible, every attack in vanilla strips at least one evasion pip from the target, even if you miss, this means the next unit to attack has to deal with fewer evasion pips on the target.

4. I like to put multi-shot on pilots, then have them focus most weapons on one target, but use one weapon like a med laser or an lrm 5 to attack another unit I want to strip evasion from, then when the main unit I want to hit that target with is up, the target has less evasion.

5. Weapons in arms get an innate +1 accuracy, making them more accurate than torso weapons.

6. Use plus (+, ++, +++) weapons with +ACC effects

Props to the Mod Guy for knowing/remembering how the basic game works...
Because I sure don't! :)

Originally posted by Praxis-W:

Originally posted by Jamie Wolf:

There are a number of ways to improve hit chance or deal with evasion:

1. Increase gunnery skills on your pilots, that raises your base hit chance.

2. Early game avoid firing auto cannons every turn, they have recoil, taking a turn between shots avoids that penalty.

3. Focus fire on one target as much as possible, every attack in vanilla strips at least one evasion pip from the target, even if you miss, this means the next unit to attack has to deal with fewer evasion pips on the target.

4. I like to put multi-shot on pilots, then have them focus most weapons on one target, but use one weapon like a med laser or an lrm 5 to attack another unit I want to strip evasion from, then when the main unit I want to hit that target with is up, the target has less evasion.

5. Weapons in arms get an innate +1 accuracy, making them more accurate than torso weapons.

6. Use plus (+, ++, +++) weapons with +ACC effects

Props to the Mod Guy for knowing/remembering how the basic game works...
Because I sure don't! :)

Second that!

Part of your issue is that career mode gives you some pretty weak starting mechs if you choose random, and even the standard ones are very weak. I strongly recommend you play the first few campaign missions, because otherwise you won't learn some of the basics very well.

In career you are forced to only take some of the easiest missions until you can scrape together a decent lance. Stuff like a Commando, or Locust, are not going to cut it for any mission above .5 skulls unless you are lucky. One of the advantages of the campaign is that you can't even blindly stumble into a Steiner scout lance (four 100 ton assault mechs), even if you try. You would be hard pressed to face a single 80 ton Awesome outside of very specific missions (ones with titan in there name will throw an assault or two at you along side a small number of weak lights), even if you went looking for them.

Seriously, even players that know what they are doing can face issues in early career mode if they are unlucky.

When you start a Career, whats worse than having crap Mechs is you have crap pilots too. A light Mech can be dangerous if there is a good enough pilot in it. But a light Mech and a crap pilot? Ugh.