My Obligatory "I Finished Kerensky" Post
It's finally done!
I decided to embark on my first (and certainly only) Kerensky run well over a year ago as a sort of capstone to vanilla Battletech. People aren't kidding when they say it's a slog--it took so long mostly because I got so bored after ~900 in-game days that I set the game aside for about a year. When I hit the score with about 120 days remaining, I was so done that I just ran out the clock from there.
I didn't want to reroll missions, which meant that 'Mech dissection was going to be my path to success. This made it take a lot longer in RL time, but did at least provide a novel challenge and made some of the missions pretty tense. I also didn't map out my route ahead of time, and just kind of figured it out as I went with the aid of the jump distance map.
In my eventual main lineup, I had two "can-opener" 'Mechs: an SLDF Warhammer and a Grasshopper. These were mostly personal preference, but both maneuverable, capable of delivering a lot of pinpoint damage to a leg, and with reasonable heat management. They were complemented by two (eventually three) SLDF Marauders to perform the remaining surgery and gently bonk the patient on the head at the end. The TAGs were essential for knocking out the pilots of 'Mechs with badly damaged center torsos.
Overall I'm not sure I'd recommend the experience, and I'm not sure I'm happy I did it, but it's definitely a relief to have gotten there.