thread: 2006-11-30 : Mechaton FAQ
On 2006-12-01, Tom wrote:
An all-artillery squad that perches on the edges won't work out, but don't discount a good artillery mech.
Load him up with 1-2 artillery, and a Direct Fire and CC weapon and park him on one of your edge-ward stations. His job is to protect your station and rain down hell on everyone else.
Now your more aggressive runners can get out there and go for objectives. And as they encounter enemies, they can spot them (cause you've got a yellow die for that, right?) to help your big shooty clobber them.
Because Artillery isn't any deadlier than a direct fire weapon, you're not going to blunt a charge or take out guys with one shot (despite what happened to Vincent at JiffyCon). What arty really does is provide you with flexibility. The arty mech can be almost anywhere on the battlefield where you need some extra guns and you can shift him instantly from place to place.
Mechaton works well, in part, because you need a mix of mech types and weapons to succeed. There's no "one-trick" army that can consistently win against all comers. So Artillery (and artillery mechs) are an important, but not overriding, factor when building an army.
[From the Only-Played-Once Mechaton Commander Academy Handbook]
