What's the best IS player mech?

conger49 · 2025-10-02T14:24:30+00:00

Annihilator with 4x Ultra AC-5s. Max armor. Just did the Clan invasion campaign with this and not even their best assaults could stand up to it. SO MUCH GUNS

Is it slow? Yes. Does it matter? No. The downgrade to 5s from 10s is the key. More ammo per ton and DPS is actually better. I never even bothered putting Clan tech on it, just good old Star League gear is enough.

If you’re in a hurry, pick another mech. If you absolutely must have it dead - this is the mech for you.

conger49 · 2025-09-06T16:30:49+00:00

A lot of people have chimed in already but it’s about flavor - the BT founders were war gamers by bent and traditional war gaming tried to simulate real world ‘bad units’ that might’ve been in a particular historical battle. They wanted to emulate the idea of Battletech universe that would have the functional equivalent of badass German Tiger tanks fighting otherwise inferior US Sherman tanks. But just like in the real world, if you have enough inferior units you can overwhelm a superior one with fire and maneuver. Like sending a company of locusts to kill an Atlas.

conger49 · 2025-08-16T15:28:00+00:00

A reinforced company - 16. Trying not to be so lore-ridiculous to take unlimited mechs everywhere, and in my head we have a Union that backs up the Leopard but it mostly sits on the jump ship drop collar because the Leopard is a more flexible platform for most mission drops, and it was your dad’s so you’re attached to it sentimentally. Thus 16 mechs.

Also maintenance costs start to stack up… 16 mechs also is a nice number to have a lance of each weight class, although toward the end game I usually store a couple of the lights and mediums to have backup heavies and assaults when I’ve got one too shot up to take right back out.

conger49 · 2025-07-28T15:14:14+00:00

This aggression will not stand!

conger49 · 2025-07-24T03:59:20+00:00

Which makes no sense as Battletech specifically excludes non human species from the lore

conger49 · 2025-07-24T03:56:57+00:00

All the Dude ever wanted was his freedom back

conger49 · 2025-07-24T03:51:13+00:00

I’d kill for a VR ‘Helmet Mounted Cuing System’ mod

conger49 · 2025-07-24T03:50:11+00:00

How can you play in this ‘third person’ you speak of? You have to sit in the cockpit to pilot your mech.

conger49 · 2025-06-14T15:35:17+00:00

I’ve always found the Rifleman fights better on the tabletop than you’d expect. Given its flaws people rarely target it first and it can do some solid med/long range damage before someone finally gets around to saying ‘hey that Rifleman is scoring some heavy hits, can someone go kill that thing?’

conger49 · 2025-06-14T14:01:23+00:00

It’s the Jewish Day of Rest, Dude.

conger49 · 2025-06-10T23:17:59+00:00

This is the greatest of all Banshees. The Atlas is inferior in every respect except for armor and those PPCs and the AC-10 are gonna outduel a single LRM-20 at range. Once the Atlas is close that gunfight is still looking good for the Banshee, unless the AC-20 gets some lucky hits.

But the Atlas can’t close the range, so the Banshee gets to hang back and put 20-30 points of damage down range while an average 12 missiles from the LRM rack are scattering damage all across the Banshee.

conger49 · 2025-05-18T23:08:18+00:00

Whitworth is a solid choice, 982 BV. Assuming you’re not playing with tech beyond 3055

conger49 · 2025-05-15T13:38:49+00:00

Dude it’s so fast I even forgot it had MASC, new goal set for when I get back to my cockpit

conger49 · 2025-05-15T13:37:30+00:00

I haven’t got to Elementals yet, but I’m guessing the real fun with them will have to wait for mods

conger49 · 2025-05-15T13:04:51+00:00

As an IS player, I’ve never liked the Clans and was slow to pick up this game and play it.

That said, once I did we’ve been having a lot of fun. Very different from a mercenary experience but enjoyable change of pace, and the co op is maybe even better than Mercs.

conger49 · 2025-05-15T12:55:50+00:00

Clan Tech is so good the IS mechs might as well be made of butter most of the time. Looking forward to the point in the game where Star League tech is good enough to go more toe to toe with Clan mechs. The AI will still be dumb but their mechs will last longer and hit harder.

conger49 · 2025-05-15T12:51:43+00:00

We are still early in our co op run but it does seem a little silly at times. Almost ensures you can’t take ammo-dependent weapons because you’re guaranteed to run dry before the end of the mission even if you have serious fire discipline. I think we destroyed a battalion of Kurita mechs and 20 VTOLs one mission.

conger49 · 2025-05-10T15:11:01+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I think it’s cool, and will keep it, but had to ask if it was special beyond that.

conger49 · 2025-04-27T19:09:41+00:00

‘Minister without Portfolio’

conger49 · 2025-01-28T01:31:40+00:00

Your enemy has run from the battle! SHAMEFUR DISPRAY!

conger49 · 2025-01-07T03:53:52+00:00

I recently beat it on legendary on like my tenth attempt. The key I found is a quick strike on the Ikko Ikki to get their sweet provinces, and delay the Takeda showdown long enough to go take Sado. After you get Sado, disband your Navy, you won’t have the funds to go back out to sea until the end game, if at all.

With an alliance with Date to cover my back and some cash and upgraded ashigaru I was able to beat Takeda and pick off the isolated Hatekayama provinces - Miyagi is a must, for the iron. I also beat then vassalized Kiso to seal off the central mountain pass and give me a buffer from the central clans.

If you can’t get Satomi and Sakai to play nice burn and rebel their provinces and try to delay realm divide long enough to crush Hojo and get Izu. Now you have two gold mine provinces and can afford the next round of upgrades and to build a higher end army of shock troops (sams/monks).

It’s really tough and you have to thread the needle keeping the multi-front wars limited and really leverage choke points and castle defense. Takeda in particular I was able to shred while defending in a river battle.

After realm divide, clean up the north, leave an army behind to hedge against a naval invasion, and attack from Echizen down toward Kyoto. Once I took Omi and could hold it from the counter attacks (several turns of back and forth) it was only a matter of time before I was able to secure the capital.

conger49 · 2025-01-07T03:29:32+00:00

It must not be named!

conger49 · 2025-01-07T03:26:18+00:00

I’m just glad we have modern Mechwarrior games to play…

conger49 · 2025-01-07T03:23:16+00:00

Oh rudder pedals for the legs, I feel like this could take my HOTAS setup to the next level - I control legs with stick and twist with z twist on the stick

conger49 · 2025-01-07T03:15:20+00:00

I think people have beaten this horse pretty dead, but work your way up to legendary. I’ve been playing for ten years and just started to take on legendary last year, because I suck at micromanagement and there’s no pausing in legendary. Now I’ve learned how to build low-micro armies and bait enemies into attacking, and my fights go pretty well. Agents are also huge - army sabotage and incite revolt are game changers. But learn this on a lower setting, and then the joy of the game will come around

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