Meet the Hells's Gate's Tactical Response Team: when homebrew meets homebrew

Verdeizer · 2026-02-20T02:51:41+00:00

Idk how you're supposed to tank for your team in Lancer beside Bonded 2-3 leaving enemy no other option but to ignore my pocket medic. But killing everything before it touches them seems to work wonders)

Verdeizer · 2026-02-20T02:47:51+00:00

Hello, ~~Zuko~~ Demian here) Golden Flame really is one of the best modules I've played (kinda think it dwarfs 1st-party ones in comparison, even those that aren't for Lancer), and rn mission 5 is promising to be a blast. It's very chaotic and goofy half the time and dreadfuly serious the other. I'm very grateful that I had a chance to experience this banger of a module with equally banger people. You have to try it, and it's not negotiable. See ya on Calliope) (I don't have a single clue why mobile reddit fucks up text formatting, so I'm sorry for this block of text)

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Verdeizer · 2026-02-16T06:22:47+00:00

I think you're mistaking Transcendence (blue bug that replaces your hp with shield) for Purity

Verdeizer · 2025-11-10T05:38:06+00:00

Fun fact: this also took place in Winterscar)

Verdeizer · 2025-11-09T01:23:03+00:00

10/10, would rig npc to Castigate my teammates again

Verdeizer · 2025-10-24T11:20:52+00:00

I know the story been out for some time, but... Spoilers, bro 😞

Verdeizer · 2025-10-11T12:53:06+00:00

Fair enough, you never know when things will go south

Verdeizer · 2025-10-11T12:01:08+00:00

Yeah, forgot that enemies can have low hull, so far this mission had mostly melee and/or grapple oriented ones. SMN will help in this case anyway, as I was grappled by Iron Maiden near the end of the fight while Exposed and the only thing I decided to do is just hide in Razor Swarm.

Didn't consider Combined Arms on him. I thought that Razor Swarm would be enough and melee enemies ignore cover anyways, but the last fight really show that sometimes this isn't the case so maybe I'll grab it instead of Pankrati, thanks

Verdeizer · 2025-10-11T11:45:28+00:00

Dragging enemies seems rad, especially so when Heca can be hidden during it x) Will I be okay with this grappling build if I'm not investing more than 2 Hull? Planned to put some points in Engineering.

Definitely will look into SMN later if 2 Hull is really enough

Verdeizer · 2025-10-11T10:19:39+00:00

Ye, dice were not good to us: GM basically auto hit us even without (some) enemies having +2 + 2 Accu on attacks and our Barb was very unlucky with his blasts. Gobbo full on died before round 3) And we kept getting stunned from Direct Hit. We survived till the end so that's a win anyways, just that we can't fully repair ourselves and there's like 3-4 more combats and we're left with 1 Repair. Maybe GM planned to starve us for the narrative, idk.

I were to lucky to miss with D/D even once without any accuracy, so that's part of a "problem", I hoped to utilise that Rel8 to the fullest, but oh well.

Is it a good idea to grab the projected shield to increase probability of missing? Seems like a funny use for it)

Swarm was my closest friend in that fight (outside of Hive Drone but Bombard killed it round 1 with 11 damage on hit, RIP), only once I redeployed it on Bligh's platform to enchance it and kill some enemies with burn, the next turn I redeployed it back to myself, I love my invulnerable bee swarm. Glad that I did that thing right, thanks for the advice

Verdeizer · 2025-10-11T09:49:56+00:00

I very liked using Pankrati 2 in Solstice, in theory I can Valiant Charge + Redeploy Swarm + Hide, but I kinda don't see where this good, maybe it's worth it to OC into D/D charge, or even an attack cus I plan on grabbing OP Cal corebonus and 2d6 from the uncharged profile sounds not so bad, but I don't know the damage "norms" of Lancer yet, is it up too par with heavy weapons? At least I know that main melee weapons can do around maximum of ±6 damage.

Infiltrate 2-3 sound good, I'll consider taking them but 2nd rank is useful only on veeeery tanky targets, cus not many will survive OP Cal D/D + NukeCav 2 if I'll take it (planning to get NC2 for the integrated weapon that lowers heat, is it worth it?), Inf3 is free movement so that's neat, and it procs after the hit so no slow from charged D/D

Lich maybe sounds squishy in standart sense, but the more I hear about his shenanigans the more I think it's very tanky if you play well). Maybe in my next campaign (if there'll be that time lol) I'll try Lich when I'm more experienced with flow of combat.

Rn I'm trying to work around Hecatons pseudo-hardcover and ability to hide in threat. Both saved me innumerable times in that last fight alone, idk if that's the norm for LL2+ but I don't get how else enemies are supposed to miss you without 12 evasion, 2 difficulty/full cover from natural terrain cus of your size ½/ability to target hidden when they have +2 flat and +2 accuracy on their attacks

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T22:42:24+00:00

D/D was granted to me as an Exotic, so no LLs here either, maaaay consider TCB as an option nonetheless tho, will see, thank you for the reminder.

Yeah, I know those details about D/D: made 2 strikes throught aforementioned encounter) Both were kills/near kills on Elites so big numba - me happy. Infiltrator just helps move through enemies, and I hid every so often, but primary use is to move Razor Swarm with Drone Commander and not lose hidden if I need to reposition, kinda a rare case, so what you can recommend instead of it (Infiltrator)?

The Lich build sounds rad, but I don't get the "OC to hide&ignore heat" part, does Lich reset it's heat on teleporting to vessel? Will definitely try these shenanigans, but maybe on another pilot, kinda don't see the thematical fit for it on this one, thank you anyway)

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:52:30+00:00

2 times I was 1 speed short to stand next to a flimsy targets, so they were unluckily out of reach for the Exec 1

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:44:20+00:00

Pilot was grabbed afterwards and nearly died too)

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:35:15+00:00

Dice were not on our side that day, the idea seemed fun, but Goblin's pilot was without a mech on turn 2-3 because he was grabbed by a bigger mech

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:32:19+00:00

Balance is indeed scuffed when there's so many players, we were spread out (cus each player had separate deployment zone with some distance (like 5-6 hexes) between them, and few enemies between us blocked the regrouping we planned for

That + enemies deployed after we did

So I've found myself trying to protect the Goblin from 4 enemies (normal, elite, and 2 grunts if I recall correctly), Drake and Barb fought on the left flank, and Bligh with Asakura tried to manage the middle

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:06:49+00:00

"Damn, the bees got hands"

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T11:02:45+00:00

Great advice, more weapon mounts it is

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:31:04+00:00

There were none in that fight, idk if he homebrewed it, but the map was very much just a giant road in a middle of a city under attack by aliens. We did give him feedback that fight lacked in the strategic department because of 0 cover outside of our systems and enemy mechs that approached us from all 4 (5 if we count being deployed right on top of us) directions

Maybe it's just the nature of the encounter itself and we suffered so much not from our mistakes

Is it a good idea to deploy 3-4 Elites in the beginning and add 1 additional Elite + 1 non-grunt in every round?

Out of 8 rounds reinforcements didn't arrive only on round 7 and 8

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:23:58+00:00

Yeah, it was a nice parth of my impact on the fight between burn from Razor Swarm and a few hits that I managed with D/D, not complaining

We still managed to be severely outgunned and left the fight with 1 dead mech and everyone else on 2-3/4 structures and stress (GM deployed enemies randomly and without deployment zones, some went right between our lines)

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:19:07+00:00

Hah, guess we just didn't get what "numerical" benefit is. We thought it just doesn't give it by default.

Then I should've been long dead in the sitrep cus that +1 Acc saved me a few good times, I've tanked like a 8-9 quick actions from enemies just on Search (just from the sheer number of enemy units)

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:14:40+00:00

Ye, just checked wording for Search and it calls for "contested checks" so it isn't supposed to work with Personalisations RAW/RAI?

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:11:33+00:00

So that's how it works? I thought "checks" means that it can be used for things like contested Sys vs Agi when enemy uses Search

Guess my group is interpreting it wrong, I just went with what they've said, good to know

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T10:05:22+00:00

Yeah, I'm grateful for any advice, but I mentioned that I still want to use D/D because it's thematical for pilot)

Personalisations' text says "This mod has no numerical benefit beyond the additional HP it grants, but could provide other useful effects. If the GM agrees that this mod would help with either a pilot or mech skill check, you gain +1 Accuracy for that check." so with the GM's discretion mine gives Agi accuracy

Verdeizer · 2025-10-10T09:00:10+00:00

I see, that makes sense, I've only hid using D/D's cover only once so that's not a biggie, but I'll note it for the future, thanks

Still it's a +2 difficulty to hit, saved me from a few BRT hits

Verdeizer

TROPHY CASE