TECNOLOGIA DE BATALHA – Using the Thumper or Mortar as a Finisher

Everyone heaps scorn on the Thumper or Mortar because of the random ‘low’, evenly distributed, sandpaper damage. Everyone tries to use it early in the fight to soften up the Opposition and maybe kill the odd light Mech. I take advantage of the sandpaper effect as a finisher. I use it mid to late battle to strip off exposed locations or knock out multiple Mechs with exposed CTs.

Using the Thumper or Mortar to finish off Mechs

Every thread I read about the Mortar or Thumper says they are useless or have no tactical application.

Most of these come from the belief that you should use it early in a battle to soften up Mechs or to severely damage light Mechs. This tactic does not work very well because the damage is quite low and effects every location randomly. Why not turn this effect around and use it to your advantage.

Don’t use the cannon early and delay as long a possible, after you have exposed locations and made them ripe for the cannon to exploit.

How to kill multiple Mechs with the Thumper

Killing Mechs of any size with the Thumper is surprisingly simple.

I am running a 2 x 95T, 2 x 100T lance. A scout / spotter. A close range assault killer. A sniper. A missile boat. Using the attack method below I often kill 2 x assault Mechs in one turn or strip off multiple torso or arm locations, reducing Mechs to weaponless target dummies.

Step1 – Precision hits – set up weak locations
I usually open up with the missile boat to randomly weaken locations. You often get CT or Torso armour down quite a bit.
I follow up with precision shots on the weak location by the sniper and assault Mechs.
This will often open up a torso or CT and expose it. You are looking for around 30 structure left if possible (if you didn’t blow it off anyway). This is not revolutionary. It is a basic tactic everyone knows, to strip weapons off Mechs by destroying key locations, to reduce their firepower.

Etapa 2 – repita
If you got the target low enough, move to the next. In any case the first target will often turn around and hide the location so you would be hitting fresh armour. So move to another target. Hit them in one location to bring it down as close to zero as you can like before.

Etapa 3 – repeat again if you can
Keep this method going as long as you are not taking too much damage and keep exposing locations.

Etapa 4 – Thumper (or Mortar)
This is where the Thumper comes into its own. What you will have is 2 or more enemy Mechs with low structure left in one or two locations or you have actually destroyed a location. The problem is these locations are usually turned away from you and you can’t target them, but the Thumper can, because it hits ALL locations simultaneously. Now launch the cannon.

Resultado: Multiple Torsos and Arms will be stripped off. Weak CTs or missing Torso locations will bleed through to the CT and destroy the entire Mech

Conclusão

This way of using the Thumper gives you and alternative to just hit and hope. If you are patient, target locations and weaken them, you can finish several Mechs (or destroy vital weapon locations).

It takes advantage of the ability to target locations turned away from you and multiple Mechs in one shot. It is fun to watch two assault Mech CT blow up or arm or Torsos come off in one go!

Gives you another reason to keep the Bullshark in your lance, apart from the massive 420 damage its alpha does.

The tactic work well mid game with a Mortar in a 50 to 55T Mech. The smaller opposition you are facing often make it easier to do the strip and thump tactic. Aviso – Mortar only works in vanilla edition Mechs that came out with the original game or Heavy Metal. In BEX, will not work with anything new like Lancleots, etc. The game will glitch and lockup.