I dont have any bugs with deployment, idk what you people talk about. Anyone find lightest mechs useless? I mean i thought i could make them good in melee but nope, the damage is too low, albeit the range is great. DFA is useless. Then i've tried them as spotters, but nope, enemies will easily close the range in one turn. Then i've tried to use them as baiters that attrack enemy fire, this is kind of 50/50 wherees i will miss most of the hits, or just downright explode in missile barrage/ppc. Flanking is stupidly bad since the weapons range is minimal on those mechs if you want a decent firewpower, still that's not enough to pierce rear armor and kill the enemy, next round it turn around and murder my little scout. Long range flanking is impossible since most of light mechs cant pack long range weaponry, and the damage output is too small to bring them on missions and have some decent contribution. Any way to decrease initative of enemies beside the morale ability[precise attack or smth like that]?
A standard tactic to make light 'mechs even more of a menace than they already are in TT is to rip out every short-range weapon and drop in long-range ones. Then, not only would they be difficult to hit at short range, they now never close to short range and will plink you to death from medium-long range.
I don't know if it would work in this game but the following is fairly standard in my lances:
Locust: Change all weapons to 1x LRM-5 + 1 ton ammo on an arm. With only 1 LRM as your weapon, do I even have to mention that you shouldn't close with the enemy?
Commando: This is not really a speedster but a light brawler, and so can work with its default weaponry. You can rip out both SRM for a PPC, or 1 large laser and 2 mediums for bracket fire. No ammo to explode your MechWarrior.
Spider: Not much you can do with this one. 2 medium lasers doesn't allow for much room to muck around.
Urbanmech: Remove the AC10 for 1x PPC + 4 medium laser + 2 heat sinks for bracket fire. You end up with the same damage at long range (longer than AC10 for extra gravy), and a ton more damage at short. No ammo to explode your MechWarrior.
Jenner: Remove SRM and medium lasers for 1x large laser + 2 jump jets + 1 heat sink. Jump and gun at long range. Not recommended that you take this for defence missions. This is a raider and harasser.
Panther: Take out the SRM for 3 medium lasers. More potential damage at the same range and no ammo to explode your MechWarrior.
Firestarter: Again, swap out the flamers and MGs for a large laser and a medium laser. Your heat problems are instantly over. Treat it as a larger, more heavily armoured jumping big brother to the Commando.
The key to remember is that you have 10 heat to play around with. In light 'mechs, it is not worth going non-energy weapons because you simply do not have the tonnage to shoehorn in enough energy weapons to create a massive heat debt (Firestarter being the only problem child, but that is because it follows the rule of cool instead of the rule of practical). Just play with bracket fire and an all energy config and you should be rocking more damage at all ranges and your MechWarriors would all be safer without all those explosive ammo lying around. As bonus, you don't have to pay for ammo you don't use. Range is your best friend. It may make it hard for you to hit them, but they are certainly having a much harder time hitting you.