In the meantime, let's talk about lance assignments. Here's my initial take on things:
Lance 1 - C3 Lance 1. Cyclops hangs way back; Enforcer hovers around 14 hexes and provides support. 3 and 4 Spot.
1) Cyclops - TAG
2) Enforcer III
3) Axman - ECM
4) Thunderbolt - ECM, Bloodhound
Lance 2 - C3 Lance 2. Fennec and Warhammer hang back and PPC people some questions; Thantaos and Axeman spot
1) Fennec - TAG
2) Warhammer
3) Axman - ECM
4) Thanatos - ECM
Lance 3 - "Command" Lance - Command Mech and a Scarecrow specialty unit; all short-range stuff to be thrown in on a counterattack
1) Marauder
2) Scarecrow - Bloodhound
3) Shadow Hawk
4) Hellspawn - ECM, TAG, Beagle
Lance 4 - "Battle" Lance. All mid-speed, good firepower and armor, good mix of hole-punch and critseek.
1) Avatar
2) Centurion Omni
3) Bushwacker
4) Blackjack
Lance 5 - "Recon" lance. Mostly fast; the Griffin's speed deficiency doesn't matter so much because long-range weapons.
1) Stealth - TAG
2) Jaguar
3) Griffin
4) Firestarter - ECM
You'll note that almost every lance has at least one ECM and a TAG-capable unit. This ensures that pretty much no matter what our force mix, we'll have those tools available to us. The C3 lances end up with 2 ECM units, which are also the spotters, because that way when the spotters get close (as is their job), they end up hosing the electronics on the OPFOR in the bargain. Having 2 ECM in each C3 lance also increased redundancy; killing one of the units won't shut down the ECM field (plus we can be dicks about Ghost Targets and ECCM if Travis wants to break out those rules...).
Generally speaking, I prefer to design lances around speed profiles to ensure that all units can move and shoot together, but that isn't really possible this time. Mech role and special equipment are largely dictating where things go, which means we're going to have to be careful about lances being separated and destroyed in detail.
The single big, obvious change to this is to swap the Griffin and the Hellspawn. The movement profile of the Spawn fits the recon paradigm better, and it gives the Recon Lance an Active Probe. The issue is that it then deprives the Command Lance of both an ECM and a TAG system. Another change would be to swap the Griffin and the Scarecrow; recon units are more likely to encounter infantry anyway, and it gives the Recon group a Bloodhound Probe. The Scarecrow hinders the mobility of the Recon Lance much more than the Griffin does, however, and doesn't even have the benefit of long-range weapons to make up for that.
It should also be noted that if Mike chooses the Jaguar 2, it comes with a Light TAG and an Active Probe - both of which have obvious benefits to the Recon Lance. The Jag 1 gets a pretty hellacious wallop with an ATM6 on a turret (HE ammo...), but x2 cERMLs and x2 cMPLs slaved to a Tcomp, plus x2, 3-gun cMG arrays isn't exactly a light-hitting loadout either.
Thoughts? Questions? Thrown pottery?
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Topic: Force Creation Discussion (Read 27826 times)