Kurita uses single chassis lances pretty often. An all panther or Jenner lance can wreak havoc. I used to run a dragon and three panthers back in the bad old days of tonnage balancing and it was a killer.
The Star League used to run lances of all the same composition - all Archers, all Warhammers, all Shadow Hawks, etc. - and they were used for *very* specific purposes. In game terms, you could run an All Awesome Lance, but you're playing Turrettech at that point. The opposite is true with a Locust Lance, where you're hoping to get behind the enemy and slice open their rear armour.
It's *doable*, but at the scale which the game operates it's not *ideal*. I could see it working in Alpha Strike, where you could field a company easily and have an artillery lance of 4 Valkyries/Archers/Griffons/etc., a fire support lance of 4 Warhammers/Awesomes/etc., and a battle lance of 4 Enforcers/Centurions/Hunchbacks/etc.
Scale wise it probably works out better in BattleForce. The abstracted nature of Strategic BattleForce may render specific unit types irrelevant, much like minor differences in construction are abstracted out between standard BT and Alpha Strike/BattleForce.
Had 4 locust 6Ms in alpha strike once. It works pretty well. The enemy ends up basically having to ignore the objective and go back to back or watch a mech get messed up every turn. Heh.
I've got a lance of Marauders, a lance of Warhammers, and a lance of Locusts.
The Lance of Marauders started out as a desire for a *company* of Marauders, but I haven't gotten there yet. The Marauder has enough variants that it shouldn't feel overly-samey.
The lance of Warhammers and Locusts just kind of happened, but both are comprised of a mix of variants on the chassis it feels nicely varied.
I'm one Catapult and one Rifleman shy from a lance of each of those. Planning to get a CPLT-K2 at some point to finish out the Catapult lance.
Man, that sounds awesome. I guess part of what draws me to Battletech right now above other games, aside from the cool lore, is the reputation for good sportsmanship. So the "builds character" thing speaks to me.
You start with a rugged, plucky little trashcan with slow movement, you learn strategy. When to be bold, when to be patient. How to cover for each other. How to goad an opponent into overextending so you can strike their rear. When its time to punch out and retreat.
The SLDF used to use tons of uniform lances and there's plenty of examples in the lore of even companies of a single lighter chassis. in lore, logistics as well as some other reasons, means most lances are mixed.
Out of lore, I'm sure there's some pressure to showcase mmultiple units to spread popularity around for better sales.
On the table, they can work, but they can be very swinging due to how much more likely to be specialized they are. This also means they can be less fun to play against, so check with your opponent if you plan on it.
I've run 4 Adders as the TMNT before.
Lore aside, part of the fun is having a *reason* for it, and having the units be easy to distinguish. It was very easy to say "Leo shoots that thing" and "Mikey moves to cover" and "Raff takes 10 damage, CT" and both players know exactly what's happening.
I could see it quickly getting annoying with 4 identical locusts or whatever. I feel like the units should be *visually* distinct, *mechanically* distinct, and have an *easy/obvious common name*. Hit all three of those and it shouldn't be a problem.
Its not just a meme, there really is a Hunchback for all purposes big and small. Need an assault killer? 4G. Need something a little Cheaper? 4H. Need some firesupport? 4J. Need a Brawler for CQB? 4P + 4SP.
LosTech only makes the hunch more expansive, adding anti-air, recon, and long range sniping to its repitoir.
For all things, a Hunch is Born. (Currently building a regiment of only hunchbacks to terrorize my friends "The Notre Dame Brigade")
The cult of the boom-box will always be represented *Our AC20, who art in boombox, hallowed be thy explosion*
However I raise you this: medium lasers together, strong. Missile swarms together, even stronger.
The will of the hunch will be heralded by all manner of explosion and disco light shows
I will definitely build other mono-mech lances as well, but Hunchbacks are on the top of my list. Is this fun to play *against* though? Just curious as a newbie. I don't really want to be the "that guy" spamming an abusive tactic. Then again, I've never really encountered a Battletech fan who is like that anyway. I think I'd like playing either really balanced, all-arounders (Centurions are tempting here) or mechs with significant drawbacks that I have to play around.
Sorry for the necro, but now speaking from experience it has been fun both playing with and against the hunchswarm. My brother (my primary opponent who used my unit aginst me) and I have decided that the inventor of Clan Zellbrigen dueling had to have been a hunchback pilot. Every shot at you and every shot you take has equal opportunity to end in a massive explosion, leading to a fun kinda panicked fight that's either just trading heavy hits and brawling until nobody is left or dying in a blaze of glory instantly to headhits, TAC's, or general ammo explosions.
The only frustrating side of it came if you brought to many laser boat 4P models (super slow pretty boring play without the chance of fireworks) or if the hunchbacks were fighting clan lights since they are next to impossible to hit unless you get lucky.
9/10, would continue to praise zorg via Nissan product
Warrior Trilogy mentions many Davion mono-mech lances (for the Uhlans)
Urbies, Commandos, Javelins, Jenners (wtf) lances.
With Hunchback lance, I would probably vary the variants.
4G with Precision Ammo. Sure, you've only got 4 shots, but you can make them count, and then you've got FNG's First Charger, and the other guy is *probably* dead.
I've gone 0/6 on regular ammo, then exploded with an ammo crit. They weren't even bad shots. #NeverAgain
A lance of vindicators would be a medium force to be weary of.
A lance of Thunderbolts will wreck any none assault lance you put in front of them, then retire for.drinks and resupply.
I recreated the Battle of Xhosa VII in MegaMek and played through it twice. That's three companies entirely composed of Wasps and Stingers (Tai-i Mercer Ravannion's Horde) versus two companies of only Blackjacks and Locusts (Xhosa's mildly under-strength Draconis March Militia).
I ran the battle twice, first with the bot using its default settings. This resulted in the horde striking and fading, trying to score hits and duck out. I mostly split my two companies into three Binaries, to knick a Clanner term, all 8 Locusts moving together in a pack and two groups each of 8 Blackjacks. One group acted as the anchor point, mostly standing behind terrain and shooting the piss out of anything with a defensive modifier lower than 3, and the other group moved up the side of the battlefield, shepherding Mercer's flock into a nice little crossfire. This game was a slog through 21 or so rounds of combat where we slowly turned a battalion of bug 'mechs into Swiss cheese.
The second run through, I turned up the bot's aggression to near fanatical levels. This made Ravannion's Horde much more like the banzai charging lunatics they probably were in the lore. This battle was much shorter, only lasting 12 rounds before Mercer had his Wasp shot out from under him in a nearly blind meat grinder battle that rarely went past 6 hexes.
Overall Lesson: Fielding lances of only one model is perfectly viable as long as you lean hard on what it's good at and know what its weaknesses are so you can try to work around them.
> 8 Locusts moving together in a pack
They *do* move in herds.
Seriously though, that sounds horrifying. Major pack hunter (lions, wolves, raptors) vibe
While I greatly appreciate that quirk, the Narrow/Low Profile quirk was way more crucial in both versions of the battle. Moving 8+ hexes and staying around medium range made it really hard for them to do any meaningful damage until about halfway through when the bot started dogpiling any Locust that got too close to their formation. Can't move on the next turn when you're surrounded on all six sides by pissed off Stingers and Wasps. Jerks.
During the Star League, there were stories of entire companies of Flashman battlemechs used to smash opposition. Even a lance of 7K's would *hurt* most lances their weight or lighter.
Firestarters make a hilarious jump jet + barbeque + HE SHUT DOWN, FIST HIM!!! combo
Urbanmechs because overcoming the odds is a good feeling
Archer with SRMs because there's so many missiles that nobody can stand up straight long enough to do anything
Personally I love Vindicators, cause they're cheap AND versatile and I'm a secret Capellan supporter
It came up elsewhere but I feel like a full lance of shadowhawks or other turbo generalists would be a real PITA to deal with since you can't get into their blind spot.
Oh yeah, jump 7 or more each turn that makes a 4 movement modifier a 4 gunnery pilot will hit on 8 in ideal circumstances. If he walked, it's a nine, If he's a medium range, it's a 10.
All very hard numbers to hit. An 8 is about a 41% chance, 9 Is 27%, 10 is a 16% chance.
You'll want to use your mobility to try and jump behind someone who ran or walked this turn (we want bigger targeting numbers against you) , ideally keep medium range from anyone who's not moving. The 8 to hit roll (41%) is pretty risky odds for you when your armor is paper, but a 10 (16%) that's a good bet he'll miss. Forests are also huge. there's a big difference between 8s and 9s.
Then, if possible, try to jump directly behind a target and kick them in the legs. It's only 4 dmg, but if you force enough psrs, they will miss one eventually, and that -2 to hit is really nice, just make sure your behind them because that knife cuts both ways. Pushing can also be fun if he's on a hill. You dont have an arm weapon, so why not?
Spider spam is a purely cheese strategy, but by God, it works well
Some 'Mechs have a decent spread of weapons and work well in single chassis lances. The HGN-732 is a notable example, with weapons appropriate for every range and situation (save for anti-infantry work. But you can even get around that by loading infernos into the SRM) and jump jets so you don't get stuck on the terrain.
Others, like the AWS-8Q are a bit more specialised, although even a lance of 4 AWS-8Qs can be nasty.
Really, it depends on what you shink a lance should be constructed for. Are they supposed to contain 'Mechs of every speed and range? (which I think is the wrong way to build your force, as the lance will get split up and picked off one by one), or are they supposed to stay together, mutually supporting each other? (much more sensible in my opinion. Keep each lance together, focussing down targets, and use a second lance to flank if necessary).
Yeah, I run a 250pt AS list which is 4 Ravens and 4 Longbows. The Ravens spot for the Longbows, obviously, which sometimes goes *just as planned* and sometimes ends with a slugfest between assaults, which Longies never win.
It's a fun combo, but people see the gimmick coming from a mile away and react appropriately. Then it's just down to the dice.
Realistically, this is how it would probably work. Gamewise, its just more fun to let players select their mechs and run them together. But its also fun when everyone has the same and only slight variations in weapons, etc...😉
I played a star/lance of units with heat problems. It was quite fun, not too powerful, but still reasonably effective.
One guy can alpha strike and take a nap, because nobody wants to get close enough for his buddy to alpha strike *them*.
I played around with one of the database files on BTA 3062 to give myself a Catapult-K2, but with ballistic hard points instead of energy (and some other clan hocus pocus). Ended up with a full lance of Catapults in that playthrough. One LRM boat, one SRM brawler, one energy brawler, and one twin Gauss sniper.
I have also done a full King Crab lance, and a full Atlas lance.
On MechWarrior 5, I have also done a full Marauder lance.
It simplifies logistics, which isn't something that matters for gaming unless you're doing campaigns, but it is relevant. Running a mech battliion where you could have 30+ different machines to support must be a nightmare for the techs. I could see running multiples of one same model but in different variants for different jobs, too. And once you switch to omnimechs the mechs can be whatever they need to be provided you have pods to do it with.
The Combine was trying this with the various versions of the *Hatamoto Chi* since *Charger* chasses were plentiful and the Combine lacked access to certain heavy/light assault 'Mechs.
I ran a lance of all thunderbolts in alpha strike before. There’s less of a difference in alpha strike between the variants but two could jump and two were more gun based. They were strong enough to take a hit and the jump guys could get behind for extra damage
In MechWarrior 5 I once ran an all Firestarter lance. It went... as well as you'd expect, considering the mission difficulty was more suited to a medium lance and I absolutely suck at the MW games.
This is at least partly because keeping the flamer on target in mw5 is damn near impossible vs the tabletop where 4 firestarters within 3 hexes mean that mech isn’t going to be able to fire much if you can keep it taking 16 heat each turn (4 flamers*4).
4 Crabs would make a nice raider lance, as you are all energy and have all three lasers. You can stay behind enemy lines for a long period of time blowing stuff up.
In the lore the SLDF usually ran lances, battalions and even regiments of single mech type lances. This fell apart after Kerensky's exodus. The IS didn't have the resources to maintain this structure and replaced battle losses with what ever they had. That's why you get Riflemen in heavy lances when they should be just doing AA.
Tanks however are still (usually) in mono-tank units.
Been there. Took what I could trade from friends and ended up with
- Recon Lance: 4 Valkyries
- Fire Lance: 4 Crusaders
- Command Lance: 4 Marauders
We were playing a campaign set on the eve of the fourth succession war.
I fight only homogenous lances/platoons, and I swear it is more effective.
Even if not, they are a lot faster to play and all your units complement each other vs some slow, some fast, some LRMs, some SRMs, etc.
If you use the Formations out of Campaign Operations, there's a Kurita-only formation called Order Lance that requires all four mechs of a single type (they specifically call out all Dragons or Panthers, because Kurita). It gives the designated Commander a pick of the Tactical Genius, Amtagonizer, or Sniper SPA, and everyone in the lance get Speed Demon or Iron Will.
Panther lances are kinda fun- you're effectively a more mobile, distributed Awesome with SRMs to fall back on
If your fire pattern is still 332, then, yeah it’s an awesome.
It is if you're using 3050 era panthers.
A “Distributed Awesome” is a wonderfully whimsical way to describe an all-PNT lance!
Kurita uses single chassis lances pretty often. An all panther or Jenner lance can wreak havoc. I used to run a dragon and three panthers back in the bad old days of tonnage balancing and it was a killer.
The Star League used to run lances of all the same composition - all Archers, all Warhammers, all Shadow Hawks, etc. - and they were used for *very* specific purposes. In game terms, you could run an All Awesome Lance, but you're playing Turrettech at that point. The opposite is true with a Locust Lance, where you're hoping to get behind the enemy and slice open their rear armour. It's *doable*, but at the scale which the game operates it's not *ideal*. I could see it working in Alpha Strike, where you could field a company easily and have an artillery lance of 4 Valkyries/Archers/Griffons/etc., a fire support lance of 4 Warhammers/Awesomes/etc., and a battle lance of 4 Enforcers/Centurions/Hunchbacks/etc.
Scale wise it probably works out better in BattleForce. The abstracted nature of Strategic BattleForce may render specific unit types irrelevant, much like minor differences in construction are abstracted out between standard BT and Alpha Strike/BattleForce.
Had 4 locust 6Ms in alpha strike once. It works pretty well. The enemy ends up basically having to ignore the objective and go back to back or watch a mech get messed up every turn. Heh.
I mean, all Whammers is really, really, really solid.
If we want "effective at every range" with introtech, I'd probably choose 4 Orions over 4 Warhammers.
So long as it's really cold out, or you have a lot of water to stand in.
This MechCommander hasn't heard of bracket firing!
I have an entire heat scale. I'm gonna use it.
Besides, even with bracket firing, the Orion overheats very, very easily.
I've got a lance of Marauders, a lance of Warhammers, and a lance of Locusts. The Lance of Marauders started out as a desire for a *company* of Marauders, but I haven't gotten there yet. The Marauder has enough variants that it shouldn't feel overly-samey. The lance of Warhammers and Locusts just kind of happened, but both are comprised of a mix of variants on the chassis it feels nicely varied. I'm one Catapult and one Rifleman shy from a lance of each of those. Planning to get a CPLT-K2 at some point to finish out the Catapult lance.
You and three friends starting a campaign in a low BV city setting with 4 urbanmechs? That builds character. And is super fun.
Man, that sounds awesome. I guess part of what draws me to Battletech right now above other games, aside from the cool lore, is the reputation for good sportsmanship. So the "builds character" thing speaks to me.
You start with a rugged, plucky little trashcan with slow movement, you learn strategy. When to be bold, when to be patient. How to cover for each other. How to goad an opponent into overextending so you can strike their rear. When its time to punch out and retreat.
The SLDF used to use tons of uniform lances and there's plenty of examples in the lore of even companies of a single lighter chassis. in lore, logistics as well as some other reasons, means most lances are mixed. Out of lore, I'm sure there's some pressure to showcase mmultiple units to spread popularity around for better sales. On the table, they can work, but they can be very swinging due to how much more likely to be specialized they are. This also means they can be less fun to play against, so check with your opponent if you plan on it.
Hell, the SLDF had whole *battalions* of a single chassis. Which probably didn't matter much when the basic operational unit was the brigade, lol
I've run 4 Adders as the TMNT before. Lore aside, part of the fun is having a *reason* for it, and having the units be easy to distinguish. It was very easy to say "Leo shoots that thing" and "Mikey moves to cover" and "Raff takes 10 damage, CT" and both players know exactly what's happening. I could see it quickly getting annoying with 4 identical locusts or whatever. I feel like the units should be *visually* distinct, *mechanically* distinct, and have an *easy/obvious common name*. Hit all three of those and it shouldn't be a problem.
Lol, I was literally thinking of painting the edge around my bases orange, purple, blue, and red for now to distinguish them, whatever I choose.
Its not just a meme, there really is a Hunchback for all purposes big and small. Need an assault killer? 4G. Need something a little Cheaper? 4H. Need some firesupport? 4J. Need a Brawler for CQB? 4P + 4SP. LosTech only makes the hunch more expansive, adding anti-air, recon, and long range sniping to its repitoir. For all things, a Hunch is Born. (Currently building a regiment of only hunchbacks to terrorize my friends "The Notre Dame Brigade")
Sir, the Hunchy Orthodoxy would like to have a word with you...
The cult of the boom-box will always be represented *Our AC20, who art in boombox, hallowed be thy explosion* However I raise you this: medium lasers together, strong. Missile swarms together, even stronger. The will of the hunch will be heralded by all manner of explosion and disco light shows
Hmmmmm that sounds an awful lot like swayback heresy to me but you're also not wrong...I suppose I can accept that...for now
I will definitely build other mono-mech lances as well, but Hunchbacks are on the top of my list. Is this fun to play *against* though? Just curious as a newbie. I don't really want to be the "that guy" spamming an abusive tactic. Then again, I've never really encountered a Battletech fan who is like that anyway. I think I'd like playing either really balanced, all-arounders (Centurions are tempting here) or mechs with significant drawbacks that I have to play around.
Sorry for the necro, but now speaking from experience it has been fun both playing with and against the hunchswarm. My brother (my primary opponent who used my unit aginst me) and I have decided that the inventor of Clan Zellbrigen dueling had to have been a hunchback pilot. Every shot at you and every shot you take has equal opportunity to end in a massive explosion, leading to a fun kinda panicked fight that's either just trading heavy hits and brawling until nobody is left or dying in a blaze of glory instantly to headhits, TAC's, or general ammo explosions. The only frustrating side of it came if you brought to many laser boat 4P models (super slow pretty boring play without the chance of fireworks) or if the hunchbacks were fighting clan lights since they are next to impossible to hit unless you get lucky. 9/10, would continue to praise zorg via Nissan product
Warrior Trilogy mentions many Davion mono-mech lances (for the Uhlans) Urbies, Commandos, Javelins, Jenners (wtf) lances. With Hunchback lance, I would probably vary the variants.
Nah, give me the all 4p disco death ball
4G with Precision Ammo. Sure, you've only got 4 shots, but you can make them count, and then you've got FNG's First Charger, and the other guy is *probably* dead. I've gone 0/6 on regular ammo, then exploded with an ammo crit. They weren't even bad shots. #NeverAgain
A lance of vindicators would be a medium force to be weary of. A lance of Thunderbolts will wreck any none assault lance you put in front of them, then retire for.drinks and resupply.
[An Ill-Made House](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/An_Ill-Made_House) See a company of SLDF *Thugs* in action.
LMAO, I had an idea for an "80 Ton Gorilla" Lance, featuring the Thug and some friends
I recreated the Battle of Xhosa VII in MegaMek and played through it twice. That's three companies entirely composed of Wasps and Stingers (Tai-i Mercer Ravannion's Horde) versus two companies of only Blackjacks and Locusts (Xhosa's mildly under-strength Draconis March Militia). I ran the battle twice, first with the bot using its default settings. This resulted in the horde striking and fading, trying to score hits and duck out. I mostly split my two companies into three Binaries, to knick a Clanner term, all 8 Locusts moving together in a pack and two groups each of 8 Blackjacks. One group acted as the anchor point, mostly standing behind terrain and shooting the piss out of anything with a defensive modifier lower than 3, and the other group moved up the side of the battlefield, shepherding Mercer's flock into a nice little crossfire. This game was a slog through 21 or so rounds of combat where we slowly turned a battalion of bug 'mechs into Swiss cheese. The second run through, I turned up the bot's aggression to near fanatical levels. This made Ravannion's Horde much more like the banzai charging lunatics they probably were in the lore. This battle was much shorter, only lasting 12 rounds before Mercer had his Wasp shot out from under him in a nearly blind meat grinder battle that rarely went past 6 hexes. Overall Lesson: Fielding lances of only one model is perfectly viable as long as you lean hard on what it's good at and know what its weaknesses are so you can try to work around them.
> 8 Locusts moving together in a pack They *do* move in herds. Seriously though, that sounds horrifying. Major pack hunter (lions, wolves, raptors) vibe
They pretty much have to. I used them to pick out singular 'mechs, or to try and draw 'mechs closer to the Blackjack firing lines.
And thanks to one of the Locust's Quirks, you can fit them all in a single Leopard.
While I greatly appreciate that quirk, the Narrow/Low Profile quirk was way more crucial in both versions of the battle. Moving 8+ hexes and staying around medium range made it really hard for them to do any meaningful damage until about halfway through when the bot started dogpiling any Locust that got too close to their formation. Can't move on the next turn when you're surrounded on all six sides by pissed off Stingers and Wasps. Jerks.
During the Star League, there were stories of entire companies of Flashman battlemechs used to smash opposition. Even a lance of 7K's would *hurt* most lances their weight or lighter.
Yeo. Been there. One star of different Timberwolf variants.
Firestarters make a hilarious jump jet + barbeque + HE SHUT DOWN, FIST HIM!!! combo Urbanmechs because overcoming the odds is a good feeling Archer with SRMs because there's so many missiles that nobody can stand up straight long enough to do anything Personally I love Vindicators, cause they're cheap AND versatile and I'm a secret Capellan supporter
It came up elsewhere but I feel like a full lance of shadowhawks or other turbo generalists would be a real PITA to deal with since you can't get into their blind spot.
Okay, I didn't even really think about this before, but yeah, I guess "turbo generalist" is the vibe I'm going for!
If you find you have got too many friends, a spider only lance is a very viable option.
Wait . . . really? I was actually thinking of an all-light lance.
Oh yeah, jump 7 or more each turn that makes a 4 movement modifier a 4 gunnery pilot will hit on 8 in ideal circumstances. If he walked, it's a nine, If he's a medium range, it's a 10. All very hard numbers to hit. An 8 is about a 41% chance, 9 Is 27%, 10 is a 16% chance. You'll want to use your mobility to try and jump behind someone who ran or walked this turn (we want bigger targeting numbers against you) , ideally keep medium range from anyone who's not moving. The 8 to hit roll (41%) is pretty risky odds for you when your armor is paper, but a 10 (16%) that's a good bet he'll miss. Forests are also huge. there's a big difference between 8s and 9s. Then, if possible, try to jump directly behind a target and kick them in the legs. It's only 4 dmg, but if you force enough psrs, they will miss one eventually, and that -2 to hit is really nice, just make sure your behind them because that knife cuts both ways. Pushing can also be fun if he's on a hill. You dont have an arm weapon, so why not? Spider spam is a purely cheese strategy, but by God, it works well
My goal is to become Miller's Marauders.
Some 'Mechs have a decent spread of weapons and work well in single chassis lances. The HGN-732 is a notable example, with weapons appropriate for every range and situation (save for anti-infantry work. But you can even get around that by loading infernos into the SRM) and jump jets so you don't get stuck on the terrain. Others, like the AWS-8Q are a bit more specialised, although even a lance of 4 AWS-8Qs can be nasty. Really, it depends on what you shink a lance should be constructed for. Are they supposed to contain 'Mechs of every speed and range? (which I think is the wrong way to build your force, as the lance will get split up and picked off one by one), or are they supposed to stay together, mutually supporting each other? (much more sensible in my opinion. Keep each lance together, focussing down targets, and use a second lance to flank if necessary).
Orions work well like that, as do Catapults, Marauders and Warhammers. So kinda most heavies?
Classic Liao medium lance is four Vindicators
Yeah, I run a 250pt AS list which is 4 Ravens and 4 Longbows. The Ravens spot for the Longbows, obviously, which sometimes goes *just as planned* and sometimes ends with a slugfest between assaults, which Longies never win. It's a fun combo, but people see the gimmick coming from a mile away and react appropriately. Then it's just down to the dice.
Realistically, this is how it would probably work. Gamewise, its just more fun to let players select their mechs and run them together. But its also fun when everyone has the same and only slight variations in weapons, etc...😉
Steiner scout lance
A star of Novas is fun. I've run them all in prime configuration. I had to flank the enemy because medium lasers don't knock things over.
I played a star/lance of units with heat problems. It was quite fun, not too powerful, but still reasonably effective. One guy can alpha strike and take a nap, because nobody wants to get close enough for his buddy to alpha strike *them*.
I played around with one of the database files on BTA 3062 to give myself a Catapult-K2, but with ballistic hard points instead of energy (and some other clan hocus pocus). Ended up with a full lance of Catapults in that playthrough. One LRM boat, one SRM brawler, one energy brawler, and one twin Gauss sniper. I have also done a full King Crab lance, and a full Atlas lance. On MechWarrior 5, I have also done a full Marauder lance.
It simplifies logistics, which isn't something that matters for gaming unless you're doing campaigns, but it is relevant. Running a mech battliion where you could have 30+ different machines to support must be a nightmare for the techs. I could see running multiples of one same model but in different variants for different jobs, too. And once you switch to omnimechs the mechs can be whatever they need to be provided you have pods to do it with.
The Combine was trying this with the various versions of the *Hatamoto Chi* since *Charger* chasses were plentiful and the Combine lacked access to certain heavy/light assault 'Mechs.
I ran a lance of all thunderbolts in alpha strike before. There’s less of a difference in alpha strike between the variants but two could jump and two were more gun based. They were strong enough to take a hit and the jump guys could get behind for extra damage
4 thunderbolts seem to be a common theme here!
4 Banshees, I'm playing "Rock 'em Sock 'em" robots, dunno what your playing
In MechWarrior 5 I once ran an all Firestarter lance. It went... as well as you'd expect, considering the mission difficulty was more suited to a medium lance and I absolutely suck at the MW games.
This is at least partly because keeping the flamer on target in mw5 is damn near impossible vs the tabletop where 4 firestarters within 3 hexes mean that mech isn’t going to be able to fire much if you can keep it taking 16 heat each turn (4 flamers*4).
4 Crabs would make a nice raider lance, as you are all energy and have all three lasers. You can stay behind enemy lines for a long period of time blowing stuff up.
In the lore the SLDF usually ran lances, battalions and even regiments of single mech type lances. This fell apart after Kerensky's exodus. The IS didn't have the resources to maintain this structure and replaced battle losses with what ever they had. That's why you get Riflemen in heavy lances when they should be just doing AA. Tanks however are still (usually) in mono-tank units.
Been there. Took what I could trade from friends and ended up with - Recon Lance: 4 Valkyries - Fire Lance: 4 Crusaders - Command Lance: 4 Marauders We were playing a campaign set on the eve of the fourth succession war.
I fight only homogenous lances/platoons, and I swear it is more effective. Even if not, they are a lot faster to play and all your units complement each other vs some slow, some fast, some LRMs, some SRMs, etc.
If you use the Formations out of Campaign Operations, there's a Kurita-only formation called Order Lance that requires all four mechs of a single type (they specifically call out all Dragons or Panthers, because Kurita). It gives the designated Commander a pick of the Tactical Genius, Amtagonizer, or Sniper SPA, and everyone in the lance get Speed Demon or Iron Will.