Vehicle
From MegaMekNET
Currently, air and naval vehicles are not completely coded or available in MegaMekNET, and so only ground vehicles are available in the campaign. Ground Vehicles come in three varieties: tracked (tanks), wheeled and hovercraft.
Vehicles are purchased by weight, off a house's build tables from factories or from existing units from the combined vehicles' Faction Bay.
Contents |
Advantages of Vehicles
- Reduced Battle Value
Vehicles are handy in a number of ways. Their Battle Value to total weapon damage ratios can be the best on the board. A Mek with similar weapons and armor will cost 2-3X as much in Battle Value as a vehicle. This gives players heavy and assault class weaponry at a light or medium battle value.
- Reduced Purchase Cost
Vehicles are relatively cheap compared to their legged counterparts as well. Costs for vehicles has traditionally been about half of that of an equal weight class mek.
- Heat? Not in Vehicles
Vehicles, because of their simplified and open construction, do not develop heat like their mek counterparts. This enables them to "Alpha strike", or fire all weapons, every round with no heat buildup or penalties. Ammunition dependent weapons do not create heat on Vehicles.
Disadvantages of Vehicles
- Slow and No Going
If you've consulted your vehicle hit table recently you'll notice a few oddities. Namely, when you shoot a vee you have a chance at reducing its movement permanently.
A roll of 2 will completely destroy its movement system, rendering it immobile.
From the front or rear, a roll of 3 or 4 will reduce its MP by 1 permanently (and on a 5 as well if it's a hover)
From the side a roll of 3, 4 or 5 will reduce the MP by 1 permanently.
Volume of fire against vees is your friend. Weapons like SRM6s and LRMs are vehicle kryptonite because the sheer number of hits will slow the vehicle down sooner rather than later.
- Non-random hit locations
This is probably the number one point to remember when looking to fight vees.
While a vehicle's firing arcs are the same as a meks the damage hexsides are different. Consider a vehicle facing north.
Shooting it on the N hexside will hit the front.
Shooting it on the S hexside will hit the rear.
Shooting it on the NE or SE hexside will hit the right side.
Shooting it on the NW or SW hexside will hit the left side.
Occasionaly shots will hit the vehicle's turret (on a 10, 11 or 12) as well but the majority will hit the side you were shooting at, making it very easy to group your fire and destroy vehicles quickly.
- The Burden of Energy Weapons on Vehicles
For Vehicles without fusion engines, bulky power-amplification equipment is needed to operate Energy weapons. As these weapons do generate heat, enough heatsinks must be installed on the Vehicle to allow all Energy weapons to be fired without any overheating.
- Fire AHHHHH!!!
Vehicles will have to roll a CSR (Crew Skill Roll (see Pilot Skill Roll)) to successfully pass though or occupy a hex containing fire.
Vehicle Tactics
Vehicles are like a snake bite. They can be deadly but as long as you get in and deal with them early, plenty of their venom can be avoided. Standard tactics obviously apply (stay within minimum range where possible when facing an LRM boat, stay out of range where possible against AC20 toting mincing machines, etc) but vehicles also happen to have a few achilles heels that can be exploited to good advantage.
Playing Against Vees.
- Getting Partial Cover From Vees is Easier
Say a vee is sitting on a level 1 raised area. If you were to move your meks to the edge of the raised ground, remaining on level 0, you would have partial cover from the vehicle. This is because vehicles are considered to be 1 level lower than meks for firing purposes.
This works both ways as vehicles can hide behind level one the same way a prone mek can, so be careful, it will be easier for a fast vehicle to sneak up on you.
- Standing on Vees
Vehicles and meks in the same hex can't shoot at one another although the mek can still kick at the vehicle, hitting a randomly determined side.
- Vees and Trees
Vehicles have a harder time manuvering in and through hexes with woods. Some ground vehicles won't even have the option of moving through certain terrains (see table 1).
- Spray and pray
Focused groups of many weapons will usually immobilize a vehicle very quickly. So if you cant puncture some thick vehicle armor, use "spray" weapons like SRMs or LRMs and hope or a likely critical.
- Ring of Fire
If possible, start plenty of fires in woods around vehicles. This will limit their mobility options, block thier Line of Sight (LOS) and make them waste rounds of fire at you, on clearing burning woods instead.
Playing With Vees
- High Road, Low Road
Some Vees were made to sit on high ground and rain LRMs down on your opponent, some were made to hide on low ground (cover) till they can scavenge an easy kill or get close.
- Infantry Indirect Spotting
Got a tank with more LRMs then you can shake a stick at, but 3 points of armor on the front end? Use infantry to spot for your vee while it stays behind cover. The Infantry may get chewed up by incoming fire, but they usually have a fragment of the vees BV.
- Stand by Your Van
Standing on your own vehicles will prohibit your opponent from doing so. This will make it so your vehicle will have one extra target to choose from, and one less chance your vee has to take a free kick. If you cant stack a mek on your vee place another vee on in the same hex - a mek cant kick twice in the same round.
- Route 66
Planning your moves in advance is even more important with vehicles then other units. Anticipating terrain you'll need to clear, or preparing places to hide your vee will pay off.
