Advice on Megamek Designs

[Quetzalcoatl]

Though it doubtless will lower my sperm count, I've agreed to join a couple of friends in playing a Megamek tourney (3025) with RP components in honor of the upcoming MW5 game. We've all brainstormed various factions to play, with the usual suspects picking Mercs, Militia, Great Houses, etc. This left me with few choices, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided this was blessing in disguise. My friends immediately set off picking canon Mechs and loading them out with pimped out gear, which has resulted in pretty tiny armies since we are limited by a very small 'budget' in space cash (at least initially). I'm still pretty new to Battletech, so naturally I bypassed the fluff and went straight to the editors trying to get 'perfect' designs. I'm still kind of terrifed by the Mech design programs, so I've been messing around with vehicles instead. Increasingly I've become enamored with the idea of fielding a combined arms force that mostly consists of custom 'vees lead by me in a flexible but cheap mech. In terms of a RP background, this would typically be a home guard unit, but I'm tired of playing the good guys all the time. Instead I've decided I'm going to be a ruthless interstellar bandit. To this end I've started

I'm still pretty inexperienced with the editors, so my designs might be full of suck. Please give feedback.

The only one I've really got done is the Ghoul. The idea here was to create something cheap but effective in large numbers and with ranged support. I think it's also a design that a Bandit tech could probably create modifying an existing chasis like an APC. I'm kind of wavering on finding the right compromise between tonnage, speed, and armor, though I think the weapon system is quite good. I could drop the speed down a notch and bump armor to 5 tons.

Type/Model: Ghoul G-A1
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3025
Config: Tracked Vehicle
Rules: Level 1, Standard design

Mass: 20 tons
Power Plant: ICE
Cruise Speed: 6
Flank Speed: 8
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
2 Machine Guns
1 SRM 6

Armor Factor: 46
Front: 10 Sides: 10 Turret: 10 Rear: 8

Total Cost: 264,000 C-Bills
BV: 170

If this format is shitty to read let me know. I'm not quite sure yet how to post from vehicle construction forge (I think it involves notepad or something).

More to follow.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Ghetto edit: Damn, forgot to put in ammo. One ton for each.

[consequences]

Shouldn't the move be 6/9, not 6/8? Also, your total armor should read 48, not 46.

Let's see, reconstructing the vehicle from the ground up from first principles, 8 tons for engine, 2 for internal, 1 for control, 3 for armor, .4 for turret, 3 for the SRM6, 1 for two machine guns, 1 for SRM ammo, and .5 for machinegun ammo.

Cynically, you probably don't need two machine guns on every tank, especially if you're going to be using it en-masse, and the thing's not likely to survive long enough to go through 15 rounds of ammo without more armor. I'd at the very least drop one of the machine guns for an additional half-ton of armor, if you don't end up going to 5/8(which also would be a reasonable move). If you want to keep the armor that light, you might want to swap the SRM and machine guns for two LRM5s and do the run away plinking game(plus, indirect fire is fun).

In any case, the 20 ton slot is kind of wasted on a tracked vehicle, unless you are anticipating a heck of a lot of fighting in forests. With a 20 ton hover, you might not be able to enter woods, but you get 4.25 free movement(at the cost of two tons for lift equipment, and the need to devote a minimum of five tons to the engine, so use a rating 80 engine for a speed of 8/12, and still have a ton left for more armor, or a 95 engine for 9/14 with the current configuration). Wheeled can't go anywhere it seems, but you at least get 1 free movement at that tonnage. You may also want to look at a fusion variant for energy mounts at some point, it'll cost more in the long run, but the ability to simply go 'nyah' while dancing around at range 18 and lobbing PPC rounds every turn can be worth it(of course, this will require a larger platform, the most you can really shoe into a speed optimized 20 tonner is a large laser).

[Quetzalcoatl]

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the clerical errors. Since I'm still new at this I'm still trying to digest your critique into something I can understand. I couple of thoughts:

*I guess the two MG's were in response to the hordes of infantry I was worried I would have to face. I guess 1 MG with a half ton would work fine too.
*I belatedly realized the campaign we have is on mostly desert planets, though we might do a little fighting in woods. Using Hover is probably not a bad idea (good tip on the engine, btw). The way you described wheeled seemed like itwasn't a good compromise. Oddly enough I now have this vision of me as a Bandit King in my hover 'vee like Lord Humungus from Mad Max, and I find it strangely appealing.
*LRM plinking sounds fun but it isn't really what I had in mind for this vehicle in terms of the sketches/fluff I prepared. I'll probably make something like that though.
*Oddly enough a fusion hover with ppc was what I had in mind for the next design. With it being 3025 I'll probably have to explain how I got my hands on fusion engines as a Bandit (probably by ripping them out of mechs). Would it be worth it to add some kind secondary weapon system to it, i.e. SRM's or MG's?

I suppose the big problem here is I'm not really sure what I'm trying to design. The idea here was to make something better than the Harasser, which seems to me to be far too lightly armored.

Do you have any more thoughts/designs of your own? Next time I might post some fluff and some general 'broad catagories' for the kind of designs I'm looking to create.

[consequences]

Well, when I say wheeled can't go anywhere, it really means rubble, rough, and woods, depending on the individual map you could be fine. And even tracked vehicles are defeated by the Chobham trees that apparently constitute heavy woods.

Also remember that regardless of the vehicle, you aren't allowed more than one elevation change per hex(unless you end up going VTOL, but that's a whole different kettle of worms).

The trouble with an SRM based design is that you're going to be in range of everything the enemy has, and will have to cross potentially 15 hexes of hostile fire to get within your range(only in the face of AC2s, but there's a number of platforms that have them, and LRMs are only three hexes less). So definitely go with the hover for it(I really have no idea what they were thinking when they made the SRM carrier a poorly armored tracked pile of poop), but stick with the 8/12 and up-armor. If you have enough of these depending on cost, you may want to drop the machine guns entirely from some, and switch to two SRM4s instead of the lone SRM6, which gives you twelve shots per, and still an extra half-ton to play with.

The trouble with doing a fusion PPC rig with extra weapons is that the PPC and turret for it are already 7.7 tons. Since you've put a fusion reactor in the vehicle, you're probably going to want to make sure it's got significant armor, and if you are trying to keep the speed up, it gets difficult to cram everything in. Let's see, 25 ton hover, 120 fusion engine(and 130 suspension factor) six tons, 2.5 for internals, 2.5 for lift, 1.25 for control, .7 tons for turret, 7 tons for ppc, leaves five tons for the armor on a 10/15 rig(presuming the megamek designer lets you carry over fractions to the end of the process. Don't ask me about Battle value, I really can't be arsed to bother with it. So if that's the size you end up going for, I'd say leave off the secondaries, maybe adding something if you use a thirty or thirty-five ton chassis for that tasking.

As far as other ideas go, I'd need something to work with before the brain juices start flowing, and strictly 3025 tech actually isn't my strength. My normal approach is too stack as many gauss rifles on a design as will fit.

[Nephtys]

SRMs slaughter infantry just fine, Machine Guns aren't needed.

In 3025, the ideal weapon is the Medium Laser. Though tanks are somewhat punished because of their different heat rules. Alternatively, field an AC10 MBT with some SRMs. The AC10 is cheap and effective in number against mechs. Remember that as a Vee, you're only one hit at all times away from dying horribly or going immobile

[Dark Hellion]

Nephtys, the infantry damage rules have changed, so if megamek uses CBT rules as of 2008 then an SRM 6 will only do 2 damage to infantry. Mguns are actually really damn good at killing infantry, doing 2d6 damage. Flamers are even scarier, doing 4d6 to infantry.

In fact, given that 3025 mechs tend to have heat problems, Vehicular Flamers are probably a very good bet, killing enemy infantry and a few together can shut down a mech running too many PPCs or blow out the ammo of a mech running missile systems without proper heat sinkage.