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I just finished my 1.4 Veteran/Non-Ironman campaign and in late game I faced weird ammont of MEC's in combat heavy missions. Last one was command pod (probably) on facility destruction mission, it was 7 various MEC's + sectoid commander. Not long before it was UFO with 5 MEC's + berserker pod. So many micromissiles, this is not funny at all.

DonCrabio wrote:I just finished my 1.4 Veteran/Non-Ironman campaign and in late game I faced weird ammont of MEC's in combat heavy missions. Last one was command pod (probably) on facility destruction mission, it was 7 various MEC's + sectoid commander. Not long before it was UFO with 5 MEC's + berserker pod. So many micromissiles, this is not funny at all.

Heh, finally a reason to build emp bombs and bluescreen rounds?

From the Devil's Patch Notes, by JL Bierce

— Buffed the apparent usefulness of "Incoming" by massively increasing the number of MECs

The MEC pods are quite interesting. I've ran into numerous 4-MEC pods with varying combinations of MECs, heavy MECs, and archer/longbows by Oct in a Commander Ironnman campaign. There was also a 8-MEC pod on a UFO, which was quite tough and one that I did not come out without some wounds.

MECs have lots of health, armor, ignore cover, can easily flank your soldiers, and of course shoots the dread micromissile. But they have one massive weakness: the grenadier's bluescreen bomb perk. I almost never leave the avenger on a light+ mission without a grenadier with that perk and at least one flashbang that I reserve exclusively for MECs. Even if I take every single other perk on the left hand side of the tree I go for bluescreen bombs on that grenadier. This perk eliminates all of the MECs advantage and reduces them to taking 10-20% shots, which will still hit on occasion but should not wipe your squad.

I also prefer to play with ranged, shooty classes like rangers, shooty gunners, and sharpshooters. Any sort of AP-piercing, multiple shot attacks are devastating against MECs since they take no cover. Once you get abilities like rapid shot, chained shot, close encounters you can destroy at least one heavy MEC a turn with a single soldier, which often translates to 2-4 MECs a turn with a squad of 6. Even that pod of 8-MECs on a UFO didn't take more than 2 turns to defeat.

MECs are also very vulnerable to trojan right now, which synergizes very effectively with bluescreen bombs. I often have no need to go for a 85% control when I know the 100% shutdown will disable the MEC for at least 3 turns and most likely kill it due to the bugged damage.

They're (left tree) Ranger and Gunner food, if you have them properly equipped. But I agree, after october it seems like every team I send out has to have some kind of solution for meeting heavy MECs and Longbows. I haven't gone so far to research EMP and Bluescreen rounds for them, since I'm tight on cores after going heavy on the incendiaries during the midgame but might as well give them a try. A Ranger with AP seems to be able to take out at least one per turn tho, one and a half after Rapid Fire.

Alketi wrote:From the Devil's Patch Notes, by JL Bierce

— Buffed the apparent usefulness of "Incoming" by massively increasing the number of MECs

THIS so much although now incoming is actually broken. I had it reduce damage so much to the point micro missiles actually HEALD my units (basically it was set to do less than 4 damage and incoming reduces damage by 4 so it it subtracts the amount of damage that missiles will deal by 4 and then subtract that amount from your soldier but if the amount subtracted is negative then it adds health to your soldier).

It should probably be reducing damage to a minimum of 1. Kind of funny that the bug is still in the game :p.

Xwynns in one of his recent videos of his latest Legendary campaign had a 4-MEC pod in July.

I had a 4-MEC pod some time ago and I am currently in June. Commander difficulty. Sadly, I don't remember what kind of mission it was, only that I was cocky, so probably under-infiltrated in a high strength region.

That said, depending on my soldiers I sometimes prefer MECs to other soldiers. I can instakill a MEC with a Gunner Chainshot or control it with a specialist way better than I could a normal Advent soldier.

And controlling a MEC can turn a bad situation right around. Somehow, my specialists can hack wayyy further than they can shoot. Got a hilarious situation on a Protect Datatap with a MEC rushing the relay until my specialist controlled it from the other side of the map, turning a hopeless situation into a laughable one.

Icarus wrote:And controlling a MEC can turn a bad situation right around. Somehow, my specialists can hack wayyy further than they can shoot. Got a hilarious situation on a Protect Datatap with a MEC rushing the relay until my specialist controlled it from the other side of the map, turning a hopeless situation into a laughable one.

Specialists have squadsight on most of their drone abilities (hacking objectives and security towers do not qualify for obvious reasons). Some of them don't even require LOS.

Icarus wrote:I had a 4-MEC pod some time ago and I am currently in June. Commander difficulty. Sadly, I don't remember what kind of mission it was, only that I was cocky, so probably under-infiltrated in a high strength region.

That said, depending on my soldiers I sometimes prefer MECs to other soldiers. I can instakill a MEC with a Gunner Chainshot or control it with a specialist way better than I could a normal Advent soldier.

And controlling a MEC can turn a bad situation right around. Somehow, my specialists can hack wayyy further than they can shoot. Got a hilarious situation on a Protect Datatap with a MEC rushing the relay until my specialist controlled it from the other side of the map, turning a hopeless situation into a laughable one.

4 MEC's is one thing, 7 MEC's, 4 of whose was heavy M3 ones is different story. With exceptional luck I can probably kill 4 and control 1, but what to do with another 2 and sectiod commander? Bluescreen bomb is fine, but make it mandatory is not right thing from any perspective.

Tuhalu wrote:

Icarus wrote:And controlling a MEC can turn a bad situation right around. Somehow, my specialists can hack wayyy further than they can shoot. Got a hilarious situation on a Protect Datatap with a MEC rushing the relay until my specialist controlled it from the other side of the map, turning a hopeless situation into a laughable one.

Specialists have squadsight on most of their drone abilities (hacking objectives and security towers do not qualify for obvious reasons). Some of them don't even require LOS.

Friendly drone actions don't require LOS, hostile ones do.

DonCrabio wrote: 4 MEC's is one thing, 7 MEC's, 4 of whose was heavy M3 ones is different story. With exceptional luck I can probably kill 4 and control 1, but what to do with another 2 and sectiod commander? Bluescreen bomb is fine, but make it mandatory is not right thing from any perspective.

I did not view this as a competition. I was merely giving an example about possible pod composition, like how soon you can encounter how many MECs.