I always seem to miss the chance to get this pantheon. I’ve been changing my build order to get scouts early to discover wonders early, but someone always beats me to the first pantheon and takes Religious Settlements. What strategies can guarantee that I get it first?
How many of you guys/gals make it a point to have ECM and AMS in your lance when you deploy for a mission?
My battle and mech design doctrine has been to have each lance have at least one of each. But I question this doctrinal approach with my Fast Assault lance, which I would ideally like to be the Boar’s Head Atlas, the Sunder OA, and 2 Kodiaks, but I had to replace the 2 Kodiaks with a Cyclops with ECM and an Executioner with AMS. Both have decent long-range weapons, but their firepower rating is much lower than my Boar’s Head Atlas and the Sunder OA, and ofc they aren’t 100 tons (neither is the Sunder but its firepower more than makes up for it). I wonder if the trade-off is worth it.
Is there truly a Hero Annihilator mech in the vanilla, un-modded game? I have all DLC and the database is telling me I have one more Annihilator to discover after the 1A, 1E, 2A, and 1X. But AI tells me there is no true Annihilator hero mech. Ofc, AI could be wrong….
And finally, does anyone have any tips on finding it besides the usual fly to industrial hubs, leave, fly back, etc?
My son just matriculated to Rice University and he tells me that he has to take required Human Sexuality and DEI classes, and that these are either for no credit hours or they are pass/fail only (not sure which, but I think he said the former). This sounds like a new requirement; there was no such thing in place when I went to Rice back in the day. Normally he doesn’t complain about these things, but he indicated that the scheduling is really inconvenient when scheduling around his in-major classes. And I can’t help but think that he may feel it is a waste of his time. If I’ve done my job right as a parent, then he doesn’t need these classes, though to be fair I’m sure all parents feel this way and no doubt there is a history that made Rice admin require this.
So, I’m just wondering, has anyone else heard of this and (to the students), what do you think about them after having taken them? Is it true that you have to take them during the first year only? Is it true that you don’t get credit-hours for them? What kind of weekly time-commitment do these courses require?
I really like the look of the Linebacker and the Cauldron-Born. But I don’t see the point of having either in my hangar when I have plenty of Timber Wolves. If memory serves, they are all equal in speed and the LB and EJ both have enough hard points to have firepower equal to a Timber Wolf. But, they are lighter, which means having less armor, and none of them have jump jets. So… what is the point of them? Help me to see it if I’m missing something, please, because I really want them to be practical.
So, I know it’s probably only been asked a gazillion times, but is there any confirmation as of now that Piranha is going to work or is working on a new DLC for MW5 Mercs? I often here people hear that they heard it from someone else but I myself have not seen anything from my admittedly brief searches. It sounds like there is so much more lore that could be explored, and who cares if Mason is 50+ years old. If necessary, he could have a kid to continue legacy.
And if there is no new DLC planned, how often can you play the game in campaign or career mode and still have fun, as opposed to getting MW5 Clans? I heard Clans does not have the sandbox style design that I love, but maybe it might still be worth getting?
I wish Arena missions after the clan invasions featured enemy mechs with upgraded weaponry. Since my merc unit has lots of clan weapons, shouldn’t other mercs and free-lancers have at least some clan tech?
It’s tiresome that decades after the Clan invasion, everyone else is still using mostly Tier 0 and Tier 1 weapons. I can make it more fun by trying to win with a lighter mech, but how long will that stay interesting?
Just found this baby last night - the Sunder hero mech! And wow is it OP. I replaced the machine guns with clan heavy machine guns, and the flamer and lasers with clan medium pulse lasers, and the SRM4s with Clan SRM6s. It boasts ~233 firepower and deletes mechs with close-range alpha strikes! It can alpha strike multiple times before over-heating, then you just switch to the 12 clan heavy machine guns to drill your target while you are cooling down. And it’s fast - with a base 64.8 kph before upgrades. Sooooo much fun to play.
It’s a pity the mech itself looks kinda.… meh. I like the look of the Kodiak, the Daishi, and the Atlas. But it’s hard to argue with 12 ballistic weapon hardpoints and 6 missile hard points. Oh, and did I mention that it’s fast?
I’m curious to know how many people here (or their family members) do or also do the IAC competitions? For those who don’t know, they are also buzzer-based competitions with question format identical to those of QB questions.
I’ve noticed that at International History Olympiad, some of the best players are those who were already doing Quizbowl. My family was introduced to Quizbowl through IAC but for many players, it’s the other way around.
From the Mahabharata come these words and actions of Karna regarding Draupadi’s humiliation and the sexual assault perpetrated against her:
“And Dussasana, beholding Krishna looking at her helpless lords, dragging her still more forcibly, and addressed her, ’slave, Slave' and laughed aloud.
And at those words Karna became very glad and approved of them by laughing aloud. And Sakuni, the son of Suvala, the Gandhara king, similarly applauded Dussasana.”
(https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-mahabharata-mohan/d/doc6210.html)
“O Dussasana, this Vikarna speaking words of (apparent) wisdom is but a boy. Take off the robes of the Pandavas as also the attire of Draupadi.…
Then Dussasana, O king, forcibly seizing Draupadi’s attire before the eyes of all, began to drag it off her person."
(https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-mahabharata-mohan/d/doc6212.html)
“You are the wife of a slave incapable of possessing anything on his own account. Repair now to the inner apartments of king Dhritarashtra and serve the king’s relatives. We direct that that is now your proper business.
And, O princess, all the sons of Dhritarashtra and not the sons of Pritha are now your masters. O handsome one, select you another husband now,—one who will not make you a slave by gambling. It is well-known that women, especially that are slaves, are not censurable if they proceed with freedom in electing husbands.
Therefore let it be done by you. Nakula has been won, as also Bhimasena, and Yudhishthira also, and Sahadeva, and Arjuna. And, O Yajnaseni, you are now a slave. Your husbands that are slaves cannot continue to be your lords any longer.”
(https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-mahabharata-mohan/d/doc6215.html)
But it’s not Karna’s fault, right? Karna was just misunderstood, right? Actually Karna has many other virtues, right? Actually it was justified because of Yudhishtir’s gambling madness, right? Do tell us poor, dumb Hindus why we err in agreeing with the Mahabharata author and condemning Karna as a villain.
We really need to be enlightened by the people who cry tears because Draupadi was “forced” to marry five husbands and then look the other way when she was enslaved and humiliated, because apparently only you enlightened folk know what real misogyny is….
So, it’s the year 3095 (I think) in my current campaign playthrough. I’ve finished every campaign and high-reward quest in all of the DLC including Chaos Reign, and collected nearly every mech (about 19 remaining to find). I’ve terrorized Clans with impunity, salvaged many of their best mechs, and now I’m bored.
So I’m thinking of importing this to a new career mode beginning in 3015. By doing so, I’m hoping to experience playing with more light and medium mechs that I currently find not practical, while at the same time keeping all of my old hero mechs and clan mechs. I’m also hoping to retrain pilots by throwing away pilots with unwanted traits and save-scumming to get the traits I want with pilots optimized for specific mechs. I’m on an Xbox, so I can’t use mods.
So now I need advice. What is the best way to go about starting a new career?
For example, should I put all my clan mechs and future mechs in cold storage and only bring them out when it would realistically be possible to have them?
Should I put all my clan tech away and only make mech builds with inner sphere weapons? Or should I make IS mech builds with clan weapons, or would that be way too OP?
Should I only select Tier 0 weapons for my mech builds as would normally be available in 3015, only using higher tier weapons when they start becoming available in the markets?
In addition to or in lieu of the above, should I start raising the difficulty level?
Are there any other strategies for playing in career mode that would be different from Campaign mode? In Campaign mode, I usually try to do the missions and HRQ in roughly clockwise order, ending in Kurita space for the final campaign mission. Since that isn’t needed here, and I’ve heard the conflict zone risk levels are set up differently, I wonder if I should change my approach.
If there is ever a new DLC, I’ll probably start a whole new campaign and experience the story all over again, but for now, I’m thinking that a new career is the best way forward.
OK, so when I really, really like a game, as I do MW5: Mercs, I play it so much that I discover the flaws that make me think, “huh? that doesn’t make sense.”
The latest flaw in my eyes is how the game handles pilot ejection. Yes when your mech is cored, you are better off ejecting than dying. But the Battletech tabletop game used to say, “In the 31st century, life is cheap, but Battlemechs aren’t.” So, why would any pilot eject simply because his weapons were all disabled? Would it not make more sense for him to just run away to preserve the mech, or, if the mission were really desperate, try to rely on melee attacks alone?
I thought this was particularly absurd when i was testing out an Arrow-IV enabled Naga with one of my AI players. I previously complained that this build didn’t have enough ammo, but what surprised was when he ran out of ammo in his otherwise pristine mech, and then just ejected. In the middle of the mission. That we were winning hands down.
I was like, “WTF?” First time I had seen that with one of my lancemates….
I have since unchecked that option that allows pilot ejection for my lancemates, but it’s still pretty stupid when done like that, unless there is some aspect of the lore I’m just not understanding.
Hello everyone,
I have a high-school aged son with experience playing buzzer-based competitions like History Bee, History Bowl, and Science Bee, and who also played Quizbowl once (question format and difficulty are pretty similar to to the aforementioned Bee and Bowls). He is interested in improving his history and science knowledge for QB and other similar buzzer-based competitions, and I would like to get recommendations for reading and study materials for him.
Currently, he does questions from QB Reader & Protobowl, does practice questions with a small circle of friends, reads books from the Captivating History series purchased from Amazon, reads Campbell’s Biology for biology questions, and watches relevant content on YouTube such as Epic History TV and Extra History. He uses Wikipedia to supplement his history readings. While the learning journey has been fun, I’m looking for more high-yield materials given that time is very much at a premium. Any suggestions welcome. If it matters, he is a soon-to-be 10th grader.
Hi fellow mechwarriors,
I’ve put together a spreadsheet based on data from Sarna about MW5 weapons and their various features. The idea is to see how weapons compare not just in terms of raw damage per hit, but also damage per minute, damage per ton, range, spread, etc. It’s been pretty insightful and helped me crystallize some build ideas for my mechs.
That being said, the information on Sarna is incomplete. They have not yet updated with the latest weapons, and I have had to fill in the data based on weapons in my inventory. However, there are still some weapons I have not found, and to complete the sheet I’m looking for screenshots of weapon data for the following:
Tier 1 Small X-Pulse Laser
Tier 1 Medium X-Pulse Laser
Tier 2 Large X-Pulse Laser
Tier 1 MRM 20
Tier 2 MRM 20
Tier 1 MRM 30
Tier 2 MRM 30
Tier 5 MRM 30
Tier 1 MRM 40
In exchange, if there is interest, I can look into uploading the spreadsheet for everyone else to peruse.
thanks in advance
These are the mechs that will go in slot 4 on the Deployment screen based on the mission requirements.
Usually I take the AS7-K Brawler, which despite being designated a Brawler in my mech hangar, really only has one good short-range weapon in the form of the C-UAC/20 BF. The purpose of this build is to provide close-in support for my other two, long-range mechs, in case an enemy mech makes it to close range or there is a Clan hot drop right on top of them. At the same time, it is armed with one c-LRM 20 so it can also stand off and deliver long-range firepower. The AMS is what makes this mech stands out, in contrast to the AS7-D which I usually consider to be a better brawler. The AMS gives an additional anti-missile shield, and sometimes I will park it in front of the other two mechs (the DWF-A and the DWF-P) to both intercept enemy missile fire and also guard them against incoming mechs.
I don’t normally like large weapons on my brawler mechs, because I take it as a given that brawlers will get banged up and lose their arms. However, at this stage of my game, clan Large Pulse Lasers are plentiful, so i don’t mind using them. Usually, though, I favor multiple clan Medium Pulse Lasers on the arms, which is what I did with the AS7-D build that I no longer favor.
The alternative to the AS7-K, when I don’t feel like I need a brawler, the LGB-8V, one of the newest additions to my hangar and designed exclusively as artillery with its dual C-Arrow IV launchers. Despite it having space for lasers, I try to avoid taking it into battle and will just part it in a corner somewhere while I take a meandering route to my target, staying just far enough that I can see where they are and letting the Arrow-IV do the rest.
Feedback welcome.
DWF-A AMS Bombardier: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sbvj/comment/oypp5ps/?screen_view_count=5
DWF-P ECM Sniper & DWF-P ECM Fire Support: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sip0/mech_builds_for_ai_players_slot_3_dwfp_ecm_sniper/
My third-slot mech builds for AI players optimized for fighting the Clans - DWF-P optimized for long-range fire (the ECM Fire Support) or long-range sniping (the ECM Sniper).
Both have their jump jets stripped away to make space for heat sinks and ammo. I will usually pick the Fire Support mech if visibility is not good, since its missiles can lock-on even in low visibility situations. Also, it can launch 50 LRMs while its companion mech, the DWF-A (see below) can launch 60, which is pretty impressive. If visibility is good, I will pick the ECM Sniper, which runs hotter, but is fun to watch it going to work with 5 c-ER PPCs.
As with the DWF-A, you want to actively command your lance-mates to park about 1.5 to 2 km away ideally when you know where your targets are, and just let them lay down long-range fire. The two mechs together provide a very good defensive shield in the form of AMS + ECM, while totally destroying any Clan mechs that try to rush their position.
It goes without saying that this mech should never be taken into a brawl.
Feedback welcome.
DWF-A AMS Bombardier: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sbvj/mech_builds_for_ai_players_slot_2_ams_bombardier/
AS7-K AMS Brawler & LGB-8V Artillery: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sszb/mech_builds_for_ai_players_slot_4_as7k_ams/
Sharing with my fellow Mechwarriors, several time-tested builds for my AI lance-mates that are built around several core principles:
This is the first mech (of which I have several copies) that I give to an appropriately skilled mech pilot. It has exclusively long-range armaments with upgrades and weapon grouping favoring its use of its three cLRM20 launchers. The key reason for this mech, as opposed to another missile boat like the Sunder OA1 that can do more missiles, is the AMS window that the DWF-A provides (its companion mech is a DWF-P that provides an ECM window). With 9 tons of cLRM20 ammo, it will never run out of missiles to fire during a mission. You could replace with cLRM20 + Art IV with regular cLRM20 to get back about 3 tons of space to put back some rear armor, but I find that isn’t necessary as long as you play this right. Specifically, when you know where your targets are, have you lance-mate park this mech on a hill about 1.5-2 km away and just let him do his magic. When used in conjunction with his companion DWF-P, the two mechs provide a good AMS + ECM shield
Feedback welcome.
DWF-P ECM Sniper & DWF-P ECM Fire Support: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sip0/mech_builds_for_ai_players_slot_3_dwfp_ecm_sniper/
AS7-K AMS Bombardier & LGB-8V Artillery: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechwarrior5/comments/1v1sszb/mech_builds_for_ai_players_slot_4_as7k_ams/
Chassis: DWF-B
Weapons: 6x Tier-5 PPCx (not seen in this picture, I have since upgraded them), 2x C-MP Lasers
Equipment: 7x Double Heat Sinks, 2x Single Heat Sinks
Upgrades: Refined Armor I, Refined Armor II, Boosted Top Speed, Enhanced Energy Output II (though I have since changed the latter to Boosted Acceleration)
Weapon Group 1: 6x PPCx + 2x C-MP Laser on group fire
Weapon Group 2: 2x C-MP Lasers on group fire
Weapon Group 3: 6x PPCx on chain fire
Weapon Group 4: 2x C-MP Lasers on chain fire
This is the mech for warriors who always wanted to take a nice, warm, sunny vacation somewhere but couldn’t due to the Clans invading your favorite paradise planet. You will never complain of being too cold while piloting this mech, its SIX PPCx will see to that.
Like all brawling mechs, this one is meant for human players only. It requires your AI lancemates to occupy your target’s attention while you creep up and launch a devastating alpha strike using group 1 at the enemy mech’s center torso. The speed boost is a must, but I’m not going to lie, it’s still slow, and you don’t want to be the target of an attack while you are waiting to get into optimal range. You might think having six PPCx is crazy and… you are right. However, compared to other PPCx builds, this one only requires you to close to a distance of 90-100m to get that devastating, one-shot, alpha strike. Group 2 can be used to try for a head shot if your target turns on you and starts firing before you are in optimal range. Or, it can be used to get your target’s attention if his side is facing you and you want him to turn, exposing his central torso. Group 2-4 can be used to swat annoying turrets, tanks, and helicopters if needed. This will one-shot all assault mechs if done correctly, and you get off about 2 alpha strikes in quick succession before you need to withdraw and cool down. You will be exposed and vulnerable if any enemy mechs are left after your alpha strikes, but if you did your job properly, there won’t be any mechs left to counterattack.
This has been tested against the Clans. It is best for assassination missions.
Major weaknesses, aside from the lack of long-range weapons, is that it doesn’t do well when fighting a swarm of smaller, lighter mechs due to its low torso twisting speed. Think Daishi-swatter, not Dasher-swatter.
Feedback welcome.
I wonder if this is just one of those things where someone will tell me to not be such a history nerd.
I wish barbarians weren’t always hostile and always need to be taken out. I like that they can develop into city states, and that you can interact with them, but the key point here is that they will send hostile units your way unless you wipe them out - essentially, commit a genocide.
The reality is quite different. Many nomadic tribes were migratory and eventually ran into larger civilizations which led to wars. But many others just existed quietly and developed into larger civilizations on their own.
I wish Civilization games reflected this better, though I will admit that Civ VI is an improvement compared to other prior Civ games.
What do you think are the coolest looking mechs in MW5? Not necessarily the most powerful or the most “broken,” just mechs that you would be proud to pick up your girlfriend in. This is subjective, I realize, but I can’t help but notice that even when I can make a beastly build with some mechs, like the Corsair, I just don’t want to play them because of how ugly they look.
For me, the coolest-looking mechs would have to be:
Timber Wolf
Phoenix-Hawk (though I prefer the original unseen appearance, these look like they have larger heads compared to the body)
Marauder/Maruder II (again, I prefer the original unseen look, though)
War Hammer
Cauldron-Born/Ebon Jaguar (which I don’t find practical to have when I can have a Timber Wolf, but I still like their look)
Kodiak