I tried out the Flamers when I was deciding between the Firebee and Firestarter. The flamer was in my opinion worthless. It created almost as much heat to fire (3pts) as it did to the target and had no range (long range is 3 hexes). It does do damage (2pts) as well as heat to the target but well still sucks.
anti-infantry is important to have, but not every mech needs it. as long as at least two of you have some form of anti-infantry you should be fine. what you don't want to have happen is to be forced to engage a company or so of infantry in an urban environment and have no way of flushing them out.
Skwi, help me decide. Do you want me to stick around with you guys in my light mech, or shovel me off to Magnus? I don't think it's a bad idea to have a smaller mech with you goys Edit: Also, just realized when some mechs came out, I may upgrade to an Alfar if we ever find one. Or maybe a Dervish to keep with the heavy missile theme... cause the redone artwork looks badass.
So, I'm tempted, even though it's pretty much changing the entire nature of the mech, to throw a standard 245 (getting me to 7/11/7) in to my Firebee, drop all the weapons, pick up three medium lasers another ton of armor. 7/11/7 is fucking beautiful. Also considering 2 medium lasers and a flamer or MG+1/2 ton, to handle infantry. Another thought I had, drop all the SRMs from stock, pick up an LRM10 and a ton of ammo. It's like a Valkyrie only better.
Didn't someone do something similar with a Spider? The problem with being that fast and short range is that if you are up against a good pilot at short range they are likely to hit you regardless. Having a fast mech is fine, but you may want to consider a weapon loadout that will let you engage from further range (like the valkyrie idea). A good example of this is the Cicada 3C armed with a PPC. Best of luck trying to kill that bastard if a competent pilot is behind the controls. On the other hand, I guess if you really wanted to go short range, you could... just be ready for a tougher fight. I would definitely buff your tactics skill asap and seriously consider getting tactical genius. Being light and short ranged can turn fatal very quickly with bad initiative rolls.
Well, being a light pilot, I already planned to get my Tactics skyhigh asap. I don't really LIKE dropping the large laser, but 4 tons was all I had to work with after bumping up the speed. Was just muckin' about, it's more likely I'll drop the SRMs in favor of the LRM10, keeping the 5/8/5 speed. All depends on actual performance in matches, we'll see.
You can turn it into a panther but faster. 1 ppc and 1 srm6 with 1ton of ammo. Gives nice long and short range punch.
Anyone willing to loan me a TP, The TP Mancer says the talos upgrade I wish to do costs me 2 TP and I have one.
