Part 7: Sortie 7 - Starmecha Troopers

Sortie 7 - Starmecha Troopers

For today's special christmas episode of Another Age, I've brought along my merry elves nine-gear crow and motoh to spread holiday cheer throughout the earth sphere. Join us as we hand out presents including grenades, bullets, and plasma to all the naughty little children who stand in our way.








Pilot: Lumberjack
AC: Billboard

Strengths:
-Ludicrous potential firepower between the high dps of his rapid lock missile arms and pursuit missiles
-Highly mobile design and large number of decoys keep him from falling prey to his own battle style

Weaknesses:
-One trick pony in every sense of the word, is effectively neutered by any sort of anti missile system
-Kinda squishy

Strategy:
Bring an anti missile system and he can't do jack shit to you, and he's soft enough to go down quick when you're not worrying about evading his swarms. End of story.

...Okay, fine. Assuming you don't have/can't afford/refuse to use/whatever an anti missile system or decoys, this fight can actually be a bit of a bitch. Your first priority should be to get the fuck away from him, preferably behind him or behind cover (SRBIA is your only option in the wasteland, and it's a good choice given that he'll still pop pursuit missiles even if he can't see you). If you're mobile, playing peek a boo with him from a distance or popping out of cover to smack him with something heavy is your best bet, since dodging his missile arms is a tricky task. But if you're a more tank-y sort, better to load up on some heavy hitters and take him down before he can get a bead on you. But really, just slap on some extensions and take him to task.

As for the build itself, in a world without anti missile systems, it would probably be stupidly good and well worth using for any situation, even if some better choices could be made for back parts. But of course, they do exist, and the massive achilles heel of the build will make you regret ever running with this build.




Pilot: Deerhunter
AC: Tsaden

Strengths:
-Grenade rifle is one of the best weapons in the game for sheer firepower
-Extremely accurate and mobile
-Missile intercept system keeps him from being swarmed to death
-PLOW

Weaknesses:
-Incredibly inconsistent AI
-Limited ammo stores despite attempts to compensate
-Low overall defense

Strategy:
Depending on how the RNG AI gods treat you, this could be a far easier or far harder fight than the previous by a wide stretch in either direction. After dealing with Lumberjack's hard to dodge high damage output missile swarms, Deerhunter can make a quick, clean sweep of you in no time flat. The best thing to do is to stay at a distance and continuously kite him, boost hopping regularly to have him fuck up his shots, and quickly run him out of ammo. That said, however, given the immense power of the grenade rifle, he can devastate your AP with just a single screwup.

Of course, this assumes he's playing at his A-game, which he often isn't. If you're within a certain radius, he'll eschew using his ludicrously OP weapon that fires flaming death and would rather just hit you with his rinky dink blade. In more mobile setups, this means you can often just run around and he'll constantly try to approach and blade you for no good reason. Play it safe, keep your distance, and know that he doesn't have enough health or ammo to bother you for long if you get a bead on him.

In the hands of a human player, though, this build is monstrous. Mostly. Some changes to the design need to be made to keep from going overweight, but the grenade rifle was powerful to the point of banning in Japanese AC2AA tournaments and in one on one AC vs AC combat, a smart and accurate player will have no trouble turning their opponent into a heaping pile of scrap