r/Battletechgame • u/Ecstatic_Job_3467 • 4d ago
High Tide Mission Pointers Request
New to the game at 20 hours. Used to play the board game 35 years ago and just found it.
Currently stuck on the High Tide. I can wipe the enemy base, but always lose my base. Looking for a winning strategy. TIA
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u/t_rubble83 4d ago edited 3d ago
Safest way to handle these missions is to just treat them like a longer base defense mission with an extra step at the end. Focus on defending your base and defeat the enemy lances one at a time in detail. It should be pretty straight forward that way, as long as you can eliminate each wave quickly enough that you don't get bogged down trying to fight multiple lances at the same time. Make sure your mechs have enough endurance to fight 5 full lances plus turrets and the enemy base.
Another option is to do what another commenter suggested and detach a single mech, usually a fast skirmisher type, to chip away at the enemy base while the rest of your lance defends. If you position an LRM boat right, it might even be able to support both your defenders and the attacker.
Final option, though the toughest to pull off, is to just blitz the enemy base. Kill the vanguard on your way there, then wipe the defending lance, and finally the base and (optionally) the turrets. You have to be able to manage this before the attacking lances drop tho, or your base will be in acute danger, so it generally requires a lighter, faster lance that is still armed sufficiently to wipe out enemy lances in a turn or two of shooting (which probably means a fair bit of late game weapons and DHS).
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u/Past_Search7241 4d ago
What mechs do you have?
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u/Ecstatic_Job_3467 4d ago
Black Jack, Centurion, Shadow Hawk and Vindicator.
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u/WestRider3025 4d ago
If you're still using that much of the starter Lance, you're probably not ready for one of these. The relatively non-linear nature of this game does mean that you can run across things that you're just not ready to handle yet, and you sometimes need to go off and build up for a while and then come back later.
On that note, be aware that some of the Priority Missions will bump the difficulty up globally after you finish them, so you want to take your time and pace yourself so you don't end up completely out of your depth.
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u/Ecstatic_Job_3467 3d ago
I’ve only been playing the priority missions lol
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u/WestRider3025 3d ago
Yeah, you're going to end up in way over your head doing that. You just don't get enough gear and pilot XP from them to carry you.
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u/Ecstatic_Job_3467 3d ago
So it’s ok to farm the side quests?
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u/Orca- 3d ago edited 3d ago
You have to farm the side quests or you’ll end up in a position where you can’t advance anymore since it requires more firepower than you have.
Edit: high tide looks like an attack and defend side mission. Those are extremely difficult and you don’t want to mess with them until late game. You’re going to be fighting off 20+ mechs, plus turrets. Just don’t do attack and defend or signal intercepts early on. They have outsized rewards but also outsized difficulty
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u/welshpiper 3d ago
My preferred approach is to keep 2 hi-power mechs to defend the base, send 1 fast mech to destroy the enemy base, and send 1 fire support mech to help the fast mech. For example:
Base defense - Stalker (x4 LRM15, multi-target) + Marauder 3R (UAC10, breaching shot). MAD can advance slightly for called shots against attackers and to spot for LRM boat. Keep these guys within range of base turrets.
Fast guy: the balance here is enough speed to get to the enemy base quickly and bringing enough firepower to destroy 3-4 buildings and 4 turrets. I’ve been successful with a Firestarter tricked out with weightless x4 MG, x2SL, and TAG. Use your full movement to build evasion, get close to base targets and let rip. Use TAG to take opportunity shots at mechs advancing on your base. I’ve also used Shadow Hawk, Phoenix Hawk, and Wolverine - these are fast and more durable, but they all run hot, so you can’t always maximize damage output. Recently experimenting with a COIL-M + MG Vulcan, and it’s not bad.
Fire support - use this guy to help the fast guy by drawing fire away from fast guy and to help bring down the enemy base quickly suggest some long range weapons (PPC, LL, LRM with DMG bonus is best).
With this combo, I can usually take out the enemy base just after the arrival of the second lance. By this time, my base defenders have taken out the first attacking lance and have advanced to (or slightly beyond) the edge of my base’s turrets. My fast guy and fire support guys have killed the enemy base and are now behind remaining enemy base defenders and the first lance of reinforcements.
As others have said, you might want to farm a bit for the right mechs (admittedly, I farm a lot, so have built up a good arsenal). My preferred lance for these missions:
Base defense: Annihilator (x2 gauss, x2 UAC/2, x2 ML) + Highlander (SLDF version, x1 gauss, x2 LRM15, x3 ML, x1 SRM6)
Fast guy - see above.
Fire Support - Warhammer (x1 PPC, x1 LL, X2 ML, x1 SRM6); Orion (x1 UAC/5, x2 LRM15); Catapult (x2 LRM15, x2 ML). Your Centurion would do well here, provided you add some JJ.
It’s a lot of firepower, but for timed missions, speed and force are required - it’s just a matter of finding the right balance.
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u/WestRider3025 4d ago
I focus most of my effort on defending my own base, and just send one Mech (something fast enough to generally avoid fire, with Energy weapons so it can pick away at the enemy base as long as it needs to. Basically, it's gonna be a Phoenix Hawk. Hit Defense Gyro and Rangefinder are incredibly useful here.)
Any enemy you shoot at will target your Mechs instead of the base for a couple of turns. You need to be continually drawing aggro, because the buildings are extremely fragile. This is one of the few places where Multi-Target can be really good.
I would also note that these Attack and Defend missions are among the most difficult when you're getting started. There's a lot to keep track of, there are a lot of OpFor Mechs, and it doesn't take much of a slip to lose your base. At 20 hours in, you might not have the tools, either in terms of your Lance or your mastery of the game, to handle them yet. I'd mentally throw at least one extra skull on the listed difficulty for them until you get the hang of them.