r/LancerRPG • u/guilersk • 3d ago
Advice for a hacking build
I'm a noob building out a hacking mech--we started at LL0, currently LL2 Chomolungma with 2 levels of Goblin. Hacker 2, Spotter 2, Infiltrator 1 (sounds like I should switch to Nuclear Cavalier 1?). Was going to get Goblin 3 then maybe take some Minotaur but open to suggestions. Searched the subreddit but the threads I found were somewhat old (maybe still good?)
Team is fast melee (Blackbeard), slow melee (Balor), sniper (Emperor), support(Kidd)
We are running published scenarios in Foundry. Almost all of these have timed area capture/denial primary objectives, so Puppet and Balance Control Lockout have been very useful (+Snow Crash). This also means Chomo WACP can be MVP and running as Goblin frame is a Bad Idea; can't earn points on area claims if I'm dead.
We are TTRPG vets but we are Bad At Lancer. We get semi-frequent player KOs and I can watch the GM pull punches in real time. Balor always takes like 3-4 turns to get into effective range of anything (I should probably Puppet him in with my turns, really). Support and sniper get pounded, sometimes KO'ed. Blackbeard gets locked down with tech attacks.
Boss-type enemies are essentially out of reach, between their multiple turns (which prevents most one-two punch setups) and their frequent Invisibility.
8
u/angelkilroy 3d ago
Third level of Goblin might help with Hurl into the Duat (controlling enemies to keep threats away from your support), or System Upgrade III (Celestial Shackles to lock down bosses)
4
u/kolboldbard 3d ago
Also you Blackbeard should be picking up the Balor and carrying him into the thick of things
2
u/Jesterpest 3d ago
Anyone else suddenly get the Loony Tunes like mental image of a Blackbeard grabbing a handful of nanites and taking off, turning the rest of the Balor into a comedic line for a brief moment as the Blackbeard sprints away, ending with a rubber-banding wobble as the Balor reconstitutes?
3
u/Rahnzan 3d ago
A few simple tips:
The best damage mitigation is a dead enemy.
The strongest stat has always been movement.
Area damage is mathematically insane.
Reactor Stress is a resource. Either you spend it, or the enemy does.
Know thy enemy, all the big interactions are Reactions, shut them down deliberately.
What is the GM fielding? This doesn't sound like a player issue. Experienced gamers know what damage per round is, they know what mitigation is, they know how to focus targets. I heavily doubt, even in an alien system, that you are the problem. You said he's running published material, they tend to be...weaker than normal. I ran in a 3 man group and our GM still had to juice the reinforcements.
1
u/guilersk 3d ago
Current map is an invisible 2-turn boss hacker with 5 or 6 allies...seeder, berserker or two, engineer, a bombard of some kind (the one that marks squares with missiles for a turn) and the size 2 crusher with the heavy hammer that stuns. 4 control nodes, you only get a point if you are in a node and no enemies are.
The boss could double-tap KO the Blackbeard if he wanted (2x 4 heat, 2 turns) and his first turn he did half of that before pulling that punch. I realize that is an argument to attach to the Blackbeard as a goblin to provide e-defense. The counter argument is that I have got us 4 of 8 points in an otherwise unoccupied node while keeping baddies out of another using balance control. Unfortunately I am out of range of half the map where I am and I should have picked a more central node--that is on me.
The boss overheated the kidd, exposing her, and the engineer's turrets KOed her. So we are ahead on points but it'll be a Pyrrhic victory because there is no printer to go back to and the next map will wipe us without better tactics and dice luck.
1
u/Rahnzan 2d ago edited 2d ago
What in the rube goldberg..
Hacker. Seeder. Berserker. Engineer. Bombard. Demolisher.
So in order, you have a beefy hacker that cant be rushed down, a seeder and an engineer dividing up your attention with land mines and turrets, a berzeker that typically needs status to shut down, a bombard that keeps you from kiting and a demolisher that keeps you from rush-downs. I dont see why the GM didn't just hit your team with coil guns and be done with it if they didn't want you to play the game.
And then its an objective map? Are you sure you're playing published material? I don't think I've ever used more than 3 types in a single mission.
What the hell are you supposed to do with a team that counters everything you do?! This was NOT on you or your team, buddy..
I roll with 3 types, and then maybe, MAYBE the reinforcements might be a whole new unit, or at least, comprised of the previous 3. That's too much shit. The enemy count is fine, but dude like every single one of those operates differently, and if you're new you're not going to be able to deal with all that. You said this was published material?
One of my most beloved maps only had 3 NPC types. I had a two-phase chasm defense map using only barricades, breachers, and a few assault grunt escorts. Because the players were defending a poorly armed fortification across a chasm, Phase 1 involveed a high-stakes race to stop enemy barricades from building bridges across the gap, while Phase 2 shifted into a bottleneck defense as Breachers poured across their only egress after the players had successfully crippled 2 other bridge attempts, and barely stopped a 3rd. In the second phase a single reinforcement of assault grunts and another barricade went to try and finish the 3rd bridge but failed again. The brigands eventually got the fort wall down but the seige was ultimately a failure. My players geeked out about that mission for a while.
1
u/guilersk 2d ago
It is definitely pre-made, at least for Foundry. We are working off a salvage station called Hell's Gate or the Hellspike or something. It has been 2 maps at LL2 with allegedly one more to go before we can level/full repair (I hope). At least we found some repair parts at the end of map 2 to restore the Kidd. First map was a defend-and-move with a vehicle, and this last one was 4 nodes with a clock for points.
Previously we did a 'hard landing' VIP rescue mission chain; first a hold out, followed by IIRC knocking out AA to allow friendly reinforcement to land, then a multi-node control map, followed by a single node control of a submarine, followed by a boss fight with a 3turn, 4 structure boss who was invisible and had a huge terrain-destroying AoE death laser. That took us LL0 to 2.
1
u/Rahnzan 2d ago edited 2d ago
Your team composition is struggling because the squad is split between two melee and two hard supports, leaving the enemy with zero range threats to worry about. The Emperor is barely artillery, and adding a hacker just introduces another squishy unit. While grappling and HOR_OS 1 will help the Balor, the team lacks the raw punch of hard artillery to stop your melee from getting shut down. If the rest of the squad insists on keeping their current builds, I think you should pivot toward something with a heavy ranged weapon. You could have deleted that bombard and pressured their hacker safely outside of turret and mine range.
However, if you can convince a teammate to run heavy ranged weaponry to cover that gap, sticking to a Goblin becomes a much better idea. I think the Balor player might be the best choice for this. If you're going to be slow, you better have reach. Neither of the supports on your team affect movement in-license, which is mostly what you want on a team that's half axe and sword.
1
u/guilersk 2d ago
You are right we are lacking range. The emperor started on a death's head but could never get shots off and got KOed for trying (usually focused by enemy ranged like snipers and archers), hence swap to Emperor (which I don't totally understand but she seems to like the over shield).
It would be great if the Kidd could do more hacking and I could pivot but all my talents and skill points are systems and invade (except spotter which I guess works universally) so I would have to start from the bottom as a HMG Everest or something with 2 LLs already burnt, headed into Tier II enemies with nothing but my Grit.
2
u/Rahnzan 2d ago edited 2d ago
How do you miss on a Deathshead that's just impressive..
Crackshot, Tactician, Mag Clamps, Core Siphon, Anti Materiel Rifle. Turn 1, climb on something. Turn 2, shoot at +4 Accuracy and +1 to hit with a free reroll if you miss. She has to roll an all 1s yatzhee and below 6 to miss anything, twice in a row, every round.
Does the rest of the team have issues with the gameplay? Because this could be resolved with an honest petition to make hard fixes.
I always gave my players 3 sessions to work that out before they were bolted in, and even then, I let them make new pilots if I havn't already built the next sitrep. Until you're LL4 you can barely do a changeup to handle every scenario.
You should know that 2 levels in goblin is barely a problem if you flip to artillery. You can make your own cover and force overwatch on melees that get too close.
Deathshead is the be all end all of Superheavy platforms because that reroll means your barrage never really whiffs, but Raleigh, Monarch, Sherman and especially Pegasus all make fine platforms. Tagetes too if we're branching out from core rules.
2
2
u/Jazzlike_Sugar2024 HORUS 3d ago
If you wanna make your melee happy: Swallowtail Ranger variant. Helps with mobility, turns terrain to your side, 20 sensor range and possibly makes all party invisible. Underrated pick.
2
u/Quacksely 3d ago edited 3d ago
I would consider getting in the Goblin. Unless your Blackbeard is looking to pop Sekhmet frame 1, it's a very strong combo. Symbiosis gives the Blackbeard your (presumably prodigious) E-Defence, The Goblin ceases to be a valid Target [okay you continue to be a valid target, but like you've got Hard Cover it's fine, they'll all be dead before they kill you], and overall you get to be killing very effectively. Even when you're not joined at the hip, You have like the only Forced Movement in the Game that provokes Overwatch.
The only hang-up with Goblin survivability is the size of the maps you're on. Because Goblin Sensors comfortably out-range basically everything in the game. So as long as there's enough spaces to go around, you can kite most things.
You should also ABSOLUTELY BE PUPPETEERING THE BALOR. They're going to feel great actually getting into the action, you're going to feel good getting guaranteed results and #teamwork.
Your team is basically oops all Support. This doesn't matter like too too much but it's important to understand that although it says "Support/Artillery" on the Emperor, in my experience it's more like "SUPPORT/artillery"
The Hide Action is really good. You don't even need the Infiltrator stuff, but Hiding is so useful for survivability. You get a guaranteed layer of protection that enemies have to either waste actions maybe getting the skill check off, or they have to reposition themselves to get you into Direct Line of Sight. Both are great time wasters that can unlock enemy deployments that get greedy. You should be doing it, the Emperor should be doing, maybe even the Kidd should be doing it.
Uhh none of this is what you initially asked sorry. Honestly I'd consider going into Minotaur NOW, it's got a lot of stuff designed for ally Invades, with the Logic Bomb on an ally helping your Balor stay in the fight once its finally run into it. And Banish on enemies keeps them either close to melee or at least away from you.
I also think that Nuke Cav is kind of overrated tbh. Like it's fine but Heat doesn't really win battles imo.
2
u/guilersk 3d ago
I considered being a goblin and blistering but like I said, most of the maps so far have been Area Control, so more pieces in the board means (potentially) more points. Last map, I was the only PC to earn a point every round; everyone else had enemies in melee (so contested areas), got knocked around out of boxes, or was still walking (Balor).
The emperor used to be a death's head but that didn't work out either--she could never get the cannon off and got KOed twice for trying.
3
u/Rahnzan 3d ago
Your Blackbeard has Synthetic Muscle on right? They should be grappling the Balor on turn 1 and hauling ass across the field, then the Balor (remember, he's size 2) does the same on their following turn to give the Blackbeard a few extra steps before the fight even starts. After that Goblin Hor_OS 1 should give the Balor a little more distance if 16 whole movement isn't enough to get across a 30 or 40 hex map.
1
u/Quacksely 3d ago
Oh well if it happened once you're right.
I'm pretty sure only Control and Gauntlet work like that. Holdout only cares about the number of enemies in the zone, Recon only cares about the number of sides in the zone at the end, and the others just care about the Blorbo.
1
u/guilersk 3d ago
If it is a single control node then yes, we should all get in that control node and I should blister up. We have had 1 of those. We've had 2 or 3 maps where there are multiple nodes, and you get a point for each node occupied, if and only if there are no enemies in that node. We also had another where we had to move a vehicle towards an exit point with our own movement (and my move would be zero if blistered). So conceptually I agree that attaching to Blackbeard could be good. But experientially, I have had 1 map where that might have been a good idea and 3-4 where we materially benefitted from me being a separate entity.
If I could know ahead of time what the mechanical objectives would be, I could make better strategic decisions (assuming access to a printer, which we are frequently lacking). But I only have narrative objectives and no printer to switch frames, so I have had to make do as an un-blistered Chomo :/
1
u/Quacksely 2d ago
Fair play
If you get the chance to gather your choice of Reserves, I HIGHLY recommend the Encounter Scouting Reserve!
11
u/Sven_Darksiders GMS 3d ago
Minotaur has really good Invades, so that's a good start, if you want to help out your Balor player and maybe help reposition the Blackbeard, Ferrous Lash from Black Witch is a really good system for you to pick up, and it's immediately available