Birds of Prey: TacticsThe Birds of Prey
Tactic of Battle (how to kick butt)
Scouting
You have a lance of hiding enemies, 2 lances of heavy 'mechs and only a company of 'mechs yourself. You can take out those heavies. But what if they get lucky or worse... they use those hidden 'mechs to hit you from behind and take out your command lance!!! Who you gonna call? Scouts! The key to scouting is speed. If your not fast you are gonna get pasted. Good scouts are Jenners, Commandos, Dashers, and any other light weight extremely fast 'mech. In order to reveal a hidden 'mech you have to try to walk within two inches of its position (or into it's hex in the board game), so you have to spread out and and sweep the whole area. alll while trying to keep your speed above 20 inches or 10 hexes. When you find an enemy hidden 'mech do not try to destroy it. Keep going because you don't have enough armor to even risk slowing down. Most scout 'mechs can take a maximum of 25 armor on the center torso including internal structure. When you have found all the enemy 'mechs you can use scouts as harassers but keep speed up.
note: vehicle work just as well as 'mechs on generally flat terrain.
Fire Support
The key to providing good fire support is guessing where the battle is going to go. If you have all your long range 'mechs too close to the enemy forces, they'll get picked a part before you can say uncle. If they are too far they are absolutely useless. When providing fire support you should be within large laser range of the enemy at all times. Artillery is a different story but is in another section. A good fire support has plenty of L.R.M.'s large lasers and maybe some P.P.C.'s. Bombardiers, Catapults, Archers, and Masakaris all make excellent fire support 'mechs. A Fire Support Lance should have 3 fire support units and 1 unit that specializes in short range in case the enemy gets close. A Fire Support lance sits back and pumps everything they have into the enemies units. When using long range 'mechs to-hit rolls of up to 9 are perfectly okay, 10 and 11 are acceptable in extreme situations. 12... well that's up to you.
Assault
An assault lance is usually made up of assault or heavy 'mechs that have a good variation of weapons so that it can hold its own at any range. Atlas, Daishi, Orions, Axmen all make good assault lance members. An assault lance unit needs to have lots of armor because it will often be drawing fire to keep fire support 'mechs and scouts from getting blasted. These lances are the ones that are used to hold off whole attack waves. Assault lances go in shooting like mad and go right for the throat of the enemy. When using an assault unit don't hold anything back unless you're planning an ambush. Assault units can take as well as dish out a lot of damage.
Holding the line
Big 'mechs are slow, that's the problem. Every military unit needs to have something to hold off the enemy until the big guns get there. These units are usually medium and heavy, a lighter and faster version of the assault units. These line holders keep enemy forces from destroying you until your big guys can hit home. Bushwackers, Hatchetmen, Thors, and Loki are good line holders. When using line holders you should get into optimum range and keep the enemy from advancing until the assault units come. When backup arrives, depending on how beat up your line holders are they can either help push the enemy back with the assault units or they can back off for repairs.
Defending
Defending is one of the hardest thing to do. You have to be able to guess what the enemy is planning because if you don't you're screwed. A defending 'mech should be outfitted with long range weapons, a few medium range weapons but short range is not important as you are likely to have automated defenses (turrets). Most attackers will try to hit your turrets from long range so have your 'mechs siting right inside close to the wall or right outside your walls. Fire at basically anything that comes close enough but if something moves out of range do not go after it. Attackers will often try to lead you away from the object you are defending. Sorry, no suggestions on 'mechs to use as defense.
Attacking
Attacking can be extremely simple or amazingly complex.
Simple: Take a bunch of 'mechs and shoot at their base while continuously walking forwards.
Complex: When attacking a base you play a game of hide and seek. Outfit your 'mechs with long range equipment. Stand at the edge of your range and shoot out the turrets. You'll probably be tempted to shoot at their BattleMechs but that can be done later. When the base turrets are destroyed try to get the defending BattleMechs to follow your long range guys. The moment that the defending BattleMechs leave the area of your target, send some fast short range 'mechs to destroy it. After that you should have enough fire power left to finish the remaining 'mechs.
Warning The moment your close range 'mechs attack the base defenders will return to take them out. Pump every long rang weapon you have into the enemy.
Guerilla
Guerilla warfare occurs when you are in a large area and enemy 'mechs are spread all over the place, these battles can take a long time. This tactic can be extremely hard as it takes a combination of scouting, hunting, and assaulting. The first thing you have to do when presented with a geurilla warfare scenario is make a plan. There are three big steps to fighting in these situations.
1. Scouting Scouting in a geurilla situation is different then normal in a number of ways. First,you do not want to do such a sweep maneuver but avoid known enemy contacts as you will need fast 'mechs later. Second, You want to work quickly as you need to advance to the next stage as quickly as possible.
2. Quick Strikes This is where you weaken the enemy for the upcoming clash. For this you want speed as well as firepower, medium and light 'mechs work well. You need to come down on the enemy 'mechs hard from out of forests, water etc. hit them for one or two turns and then get out of there. Hit them when and where the terrain is suitable. Examples of suitable terrain is where forest meets clear and the enemy is in the clear, when you can get on a hill so you can hit them and get back behind the hill, or when you can het them from depth one water and get back down to depth two. You want to spread out damage and wound as many 'mechs as possible. If you do a good job during the Quck Strike phase, the enemy should gather. This is when you proceed to the action phase.
3. Final Assault This is the Final Battle. The enemy is gathered in one area and wounded. Now you execute the Assault phase. You take Heavy and Assault 'mechs and crush the enemy. See "Assault for more details.
Retreating (Running Away)
Although it is not honorable or valorous it is sometimes needed. Do you really think Clan Diamond Shark wanted to retreat from Tukayyid? Running is not that complex. Use a heavier guy that you know will not be able to get away to stop and hold off the enemy the best you can, the rest of your forces flip their arms over the head so they can fire backwards and boot it as fast you can. Try to stay on the other sides of forests from the enemy so they cannot shoot at you.
Chasing
Use go as fast as you can to catch the enemy and always shoot for the one in the lead, stay in the open as the enemy is not likely to hit you very often. Use faster 'mechs to get in front of their forces and slow them down while the heavier 'mechs hit them from behind.
Artillery
There are two types of Artillery, on and off map artillery.
1. On-map On map artillery is harder to use than off map. You really want units armed with c3 and TAG. You need some close range fighters to gaurd your artillery. Hunchbacks, Annhilators, etc. work well for this job. Always aim your artillery for the thickest part of the enemy as artillery does not always hit were you want it.
2. Off-map Basically same rules apply for off-map as on-map except you have to predict where the enemy is going to be because artillery takes a while to land. the up side is you don't have to worry about defending it.
Defending Against Guerillas
Defending against Guerillas is hard because Geurilla warfare is so effective. The key is to have a main body to which your command lance and at least one other lance of battlemechs are attached. and them three or four units to locate enemy units.Normal scouting as seen in "scouting" above will not work in a Geurilla warfare situation because the Geurillas are often also fast units. Every set of units, should have at least one unit with an active probe, tag is nice also. It should also have a unit that can bring down or severely wound a medium or light 'mech in one or two salvos. When moving across the map it is important to stay away from water and to stay out of the open. it is better to take a single point blank shout from an enemy then to duke it out in water or take full salvos from 'mechs on the tree line. The ideal formation is a command lance armed with long range weapons clumped together. A second lance armed with short range weapons circling the command lance. and four lances armed with the mixture of weaponry suggested above patrolling back and forth infront of the command lance. It is okay if these are slow as long as they stay ahead of the command lance. When you find enemies, they will probably be engaging you. Concentrate fire but once they begin to retreat don't follow too far because they could easily be leading you into a trap. In the case that you have tag or c3 use it and bring in fire from the command lance and command defenders. When the regroup your units if half of a certain lance is destroyed.
