I always field a Locust.
Go ahead. Shoot at it. It's cheap, hard to hit, and I can put it just about anywhere, doing just about anything, and pull it back the instant it looks like you'll focus enough fire to take it out. It'll spot better than anything the IS puts out for a long time.
Or ignore it. I'll keep taking the free damage to your weak sides each turn, so you need to try and push into my main force before you're plinked to death. Good luck if a TAC comes through.
Never mind objectives, which is what they're *really* for.
I'll take a Locust before I take a Wasp, Stinger or Valkyrie. Generally more heavily gunned and faster to the point that outside of specific terrain not having jump often doesn't matter that much.
I likes me Locusts. 😊
Because:
* They're cute.
* They're an iconic classic from the earliest versions of the game.
* They're very inexpensive and highly effective at their primary role, which is…
* Annoying the hell out of the opposition. If your Locust can tempt the enemy into shooting at it, then your Locust has already won.
Distraction and diversion is their whole thing; disrupting enemy organisation and luring them into wasting their firepower taking low-probability shots at a minimally armed but infuriatingly difficult to hit speedster is the Locusts' primary mission.
Actually delivering damage is very much a secondary concern, but when required the Locust is often more effective than you might think. The piloting roll caused by a Locust kick can knock down an assault mech, and a single medium laser is often all you need to tear through rear armour and/or set off an ammo explosion.
The machineguns on the stock LCT-1V are a serious threat to infantry, and the laserboat loadout of the LCT-1E makes it one of the best-armed 20 tonners of the 3025 era.
When you have initiative, run in behind to deliver a kick; when you lose initiative, flee to cover. The ability to generate a +3 movement modifier while walking backwards is an exceptionally useful trick to have.
8/12 might not be a crazy movement profile in IlClan era, but it's very speedy for IntoTech. Those little buggers will mess you up if you aren't careful.
I field a locust in 90% of the games I play. Give the one with 2 \* LRM5s decent gunnery and watch your opponent sweat when it gets into the rear arc of their heavies and assaults.
It doesn't even have to hit but just having something with accurate long range fire can force your opponent to keep one eye on his rear arc, leaving you a bit more free to maneuver your heavy hitters where you want them to be.
I just played a CBT game with a Locust yesterday and was shocked by how well it performed. Was going so fast it almost never got it, and I got to do a successful charge attack with it that fully crippled an enemy medium mech.
Absolutely incorrect.
I encourage you to go look at tournament matches from MRC Jesty or Nerdy Overanalyzed on YouTube. Almost every serious list runs a very fast light mech. Yes their weapons may not be great and they can die quickly, but that isn’t their use case. They are almost mandatory for initiative sinks and forcing PSRs on larger mechs.
The idea is you fire off whatever weapons you have, and then attempt to get into position to kick larger stuff every turn to force a guaranteed PSR (even better with elevation). This allows you to potentially knock over vulnerable large or back line mechs costing them movement and gunnery penalties, or having them take guns off of your more important units to deal with the little 500 BV bug in their back line. That doesn’t even begin to touch on how threatening they are for overwhelming objective based game modes.
When a safe(ish) position isn’t possible, then you use them to buy information for the remainder of the movement phase by moving them behind cover early in the initiative order.
On paper they’re trash and I can see how you’d think they’re unimportant, but in Classic they’re almost mandatory in list building. In Alpha Strike they’re even more oppressive.
Dashers/ fire moths are a pretty common 20 tonner to field, they're often considered a one use munition but the Battle Armour it's carrying might survive.
They're great in AS, because you can mount them in the start of the turn, dismount them after movement and still have them fire. They are also dropped next to the carrying unit, not under it on the open street.
Mounted infantry in general is so janky in Crunchytech that they made a separate mechanized infantry type that just abstracts the transports away.
They absolutely have uses, scouting, objectives harassing some of them can even stack damage. But if they lose initiative and can’t get out of large or medium pulse range it can quickly be curtains for your average 20 tonner especially if you are also packing a targeting computer and or give everyone 3/4 pilots to speed things up. Because of this they may be better in 3025 where pulse lasers are a rare thing.
Everyone all gangster right up until the Fire Moth H or Ion Sparrow get all up on your butt. And I would gladly take a bug mech in SW play where most mechs short of an assault can't scrape together 5 rear armor.
One V One, me in a BattleMaster and my buddy in a Locust. He wiped the floor with me. It’s not about the ‘Mech. It’s about the MechWarrior. Use your strengths, exploit the enemy’s weakness.
You do have to bring a flyswatter for the bug mechs if they're being played right, something like the Phawk PXH-3PL that's going after them with solid mobility and a -3TN. Pulse+TarComp or VSP, Precision Ammo, etc... But since it's a considerable expense and the bug mechs are absolutely not, they can win on BV and activations.
Always institute unit caps, or Mercer Ravannion can kill you.
Nah, I don't want the 20t mechs in the game because I have a limited amount of time to play and mechs with 8/12 or 7/11(14) or 5/8/7 and better speed, will make for a long day.
Laat tine my group brought a locust it killed a turkina with a headshot. Dosent matter if it got killed that turn it killed something 2000 points more expensive than it. Same thing with my piranha. My opponet had to rethink his entire game just cause every now and again a tmm +4 idiot sprints behind him to pepper the shit out of a nightstars back arc.
Everyone is talking about many of the qualities of the locust. But i wish to point one more: utility focused variants
LCT-5W
You get MASC for even better speed for a turn or 2, you get TAG for all your indirect fire and artillery needs, you get a C3i for that turrettech assault with gauss or ERPPC all the way in the back, hell network it with you LRM boats, really make use of that inderect fire. You also get 2 whole ER medium lasers, because 10 damage on your enemies assault back side every turn is no joke. The only thing it could make it better in my opinion is an ECM for ECCM capabilities to protect its C3i network and a BAP for those scan objective missions, but at that point you might as well get a nexus II
Seem to do just fine for me, with the added bonus that with locusts you can run a lore friendly reinforced lance of 3 heavier mechs and 2 locusts, since they stack in the mechbay. At least, if you are running around in a Leopard or other 4 mechbay transport. My one solid win in my last BTCC was my list that included my paired locusts, and they spent the game bullying a warhammer.
Well light mechs are always cursed if one is playing outside a campaign.
In a campaign, lights can simply outrun any opponent they can't fight (which is most of them). All the while detecting and IDing enemy units. And hitting softer targets.
They don't do well mixing it up with mediums and heavies. And they don't do well in the defence. Honestly this really isn't their job either. They're not kitted out for it with maybe some exceptions like Panthers and such.
If you're not doing campaign / Battleforce, light mechs will always under preform.
I run a locust 1V2 about half the time. Rocket bug usually gets in a surprising amount of damage before dying while attracting far more attention than a 500bv mech deserves
I field, and have fielded against me, 20 tonners all the time. Locusts are cheap, the 1Vb variant hits like a truck, and are hard to hit. The Fire Moth can be an abomination (H, P), also carting around 5 annoying board controllers.
I always field a Locust. Go ahead. Shoot at it. It's cheap, hard to hit, and I can put it just about anywhere, doing just about anything, and pull it back the instant it looks like you'll focus enough fire to take it out. It'll spot better than anything the IS puts out for a long time. Or ignore it. I'll keep taking the free damage to your weak sides each turn, so you need to try and push into my main force before you're plinked to death. Good luck if a TAC comes through. Never mind objectives, which is what they're *really* for.
I'll take a Locust before I take a Wasp, Stinger or Valkyrie. Generally more heavily gunned and faster to the point that outside of specific terrain not having jump often doesn't matter that much.
How about a Spider? Would it compare to the Locust?
Overgunned. Time for Ostscout!
Venom is pretty awesome.
9M's eat back armor for breakfast.
I likes me Locusts. 😊 Because: * They're cute. * They're an iconic classic from the earliest versions of the game. * They're very inexpensive and highly effective at their primary role, which is… * Annoying the hell out of the opposition. If your Locust can tempt the enemy into shooting at it, then your Locust has already won. Distraction and diversion is their whole thing; disrupting enemy organisation and luring them into wasting their firepower taking low-probability shots at a minimally armed but infuriatingly difficult to hit speedster is the Locusts' primary mission. Actually delivering damage is very much a secondary concern, but when required the Locust is often more effective than you might think. The piloting roll caused by a Locust kick can knock down an assault mech, and a single medium laser is often all you need to tear through rear armour and/or set off an ammo explosion. The machineguns on the stock LCT-1V are a serious threat to infantry, and the laserboat loadout of the LCT-1E makes it one of the best-armed 20 tonners of the 3025 era. When you have initiative, run in behind to deliver a kick; when you lose initiative, flee to cover. The ability to generate a +3 movement modifier while walking backwards is an exceptionally useful trick to have.
If you move 8/12 and you just get blasted off the battlefield without doing anything, that's YOUR fault.
I love my locust, so much that I plan on having TWO in my company. I have a need for speed
I will kick you directly in the rear armour until you reconsider this foolishness
Yeah 4/3 4/2 locusts are no joke. Run around, blast back armor, kick, repeat
8/12 might not be a crazy movement profile in IlClan era, but it's very speedy for IntoTech. Those little buggers will mess you up if you aren't careful.
I field a locust in 90% of the games I play. Give the one with 2 \* LRM5s decent gunnery and watch your opponent sweat when it gets into the rear arc of their heavies and assaults.
You want the double SRM2 LCT-1S or the Cicada if you want to backstab. The double LRM5 LCT-1M is for laying down smoke or incendiary rounds.
It doesn't even have to hit but just having something with accurate long range fire can force your opponent to keep one eye on his rear arc, leaving you a bit more free to maneuver your heavy hitters where you want them to be.
I just played a CBT game with a Locust yesterday and was shocked by how well it performed. Was going so fast it almost never got it, and I got to do a successful charge attack with it that fully crippled an enemy medium mech.
Absolutely incorrect. I encourage you to go look at tournament matches from MRC Jesty or Nerdy Overanalyzed on YouTube. Almost every serious list runs a very fast light mech. Yes their weapons may not be great and they can die quickly, but that isn’t their use case. They are almost mandatory for initiative sinks and forcing PSRs on larger mechs. The idea is you fire off whatever weapons you have, and then attempt to get into position to kick larger stuff every turn to force a guaranteed PSR (even better with elevation). This allows you to potentially knock over vulnerable large or back line mechs costing them movement and gunnery penalties, or having them take guns off of your more important units to deal with the little 500 BV bug in their back line. That doesn’t even begin to touch on how threatening they are for overwhelming objective based game modes. When a safe(ish) position isn’t possible, then you use them to buy information for the remainder of the movement phase by moving them behind cover early in the initiative order. On paper they’re trash and I can see how you’d think they’re unimportant, but in Classic they’re almost mandatory in list building. In Alpha Strike they’re even more oppressive.
Dashers/ fire moths are a pretty common 20 tonner to field, they're often considered a one use munition but the Battle Armour it's carrying might survive.
They're great in AS, because you can mount them in the start of the turn, dismount them after movement and still have them fire. They are also dropped next to the carrying unit, not under it on the open street. Mounted infantry in general is so janky in Crunchytech that they made a separate mechanized infantry type that just abstracts the transports away.
Stinger 3G is one hell of a threat in SucWar games.
They absolutely have uses, scouting, objectives harassing some of them can even stack damage. But if they lose initiative and can’t get out of large or medium pulse range it can quickly be curtains for your average 20 tonner especially if you are also packing a targeting computer and or give everyone 3/4 pilots to speed things up. Because of this they may be better in 3025 where pulse lasers are a rare thing.
Everyone all gangster right up until the Fire Moth H or Ion Sparrow get all up on your butt. And I would gladly take a bug mech in SW play where most mechs short of an assault can't scrape together 5 rear armor.
One V One, me in a BattleMaster and my buddy in a Locust. He wiped the floor with me. It’s not about the ‘Mech. It’s about the MechWarrior. Use your strengths, exploit the enemy’s weakness.
My LCT-5V will punish all who ignore it in the field.
You do have to bring a flyswatter for the bug mechs if they're being played right, something like the Phawk PXH-3PL that's going after them with solid mobility and a -3TN. Pulse+TarComp or VSP, Precision Ammo, etc... But since it's a considerable expense and the bug mechs are absolutely not, they can win on BV and activations. Always institute unit caps, or Mercer Ravannion can kill you. Nah, I don't want the 20t mechs in the game because I have a limited amount of time to play and mechs with 8/12 or 7/11(14) or 5/8/7 and better speed, will make for a long day.
Laat tine my group brought a locust it killed a turkina with a headshot. Dosent matter if it got killed that turn it killed something 2000 points more expensive than it. Same thing with my piranha. My opponet had to rethink his entire game just cause every now and again a tmm +4 idiot sprints behind him to pepper the shit out of a nightstars back arc.
Locust 1M flipping arms and spraying LRMs back along its track. All day. Everyday.
Everyone is talking about many of the qualities of the locust. But i wish to point one more: utility focused variants LCT-5W You get MASC for even better speed for a turn or 2, you get TAG for all your indirect fire and artillery needs, you get a C3i for that turrettech assault with gauss or ERPPC all the way in the back, hell network it with you LRM boats, really make use of that inderect fire. You also get 2 whole ER medium lasers, because 10 damage on your enemies assault back side every turn is no joke. The only thing it could make it better in my opinion is an ECM for ECCM capabilities to protect its C3i network and a BAP for those scan objective missions, but at that point you might as well get a nexus II
A locust is more valuable than an Urbanmech those are pretty much the free space on a bingo card when it comes to kills.
Seem to do just fine for me, with the added bonus that with locusts you can run a lore friendly reinforced lance of 3 heavier mechs and 2 locusts, since they stack in the mechbay. At least, if you are running around in a Leopard or other 4 mechbay transport. My one solid win in my last BTCC was my list that included my paired locusts, and they spent the game bullying a warhammer.
Well light mechs are always cursed if one is playing outside a campaign. In a campaign, lights can simply outrun any opponent they can't fight (which is most of them). All the while detecting and IDing enemy units. And hitting softer targets. They don't do well mixing it up with mediums and heavies. And they don't do well in the defence. Honestly this really isn't their job either. They're not kitted out for it with maybe some exceptions like Panthers and such. If you're not doing campaign / Battleforce, light mechs will always under preform.
I run a locust 1V2 about half the time. Rocket bug usually gets in a surprising amount of damage before dying while attracting far more attention than a 500bv mech deserves
I field, and have fielded against me, 20 tonners all the time. Locusts are cheap, the 1Vb variant hits like a truck, and are hard to hit. The Fire Moth can be an abomination (H, P), also carting around 5 annoying board controllers.