It depends really, you either use Bulwark or you use jump jets to move from cover to cover. Key goal isn't so much to making sure the enemy cannot shoot at you (since more often than not they can shoot at you but you can't shoot at them), but making sure you whenever possible kill enemies before they can take their turn. Because you are always outnumbered, this means your options to go for the rear are limited since if you are fighting a more numerous opponent this would just mean exposing your own rear for far heavier punishment (which is worse the more outnumbered you are; part of the reason you must kill as many dudes as fast as you can is that the general battle scenario has a second enemy group come at you from the side so you have to reposition and keep killing so you don't get rear flanked).
It's decent enough fun early on, but it gets pretty tedious by the time you are using Heavies and Assaults only (and even then, odds are you'll eventually reallocate to 85+ range since that little bit of extra movement range and initiative order is not enough next to just higher effective tonnage; and extra stability now too) and fight only Heavies and Assaults, and it's only more tedious after the patch when stability is no longer an "Achilles' heel" for Heavies and Assaults (quotation marks because it's not really a weakness, they just weren't more resistant to it). And it's already more tedious since the enemy will also go up in pilot skill pretty much parallel to you so you never break out of the encounter equilibrium, so you just end up having longer fights where every advantage you have acquired exists to cancel out an enemy counter-advantage. The only genuine NEW tool to your arsenal is your limited supply of Double Heat Sinks which allow you to make builds previously out of question.
That is a problem with every game that has enemy scaling. You basically have more of the same except longer the further you go into the game. That is a stupid encounter design and another black mark against a game that is already so black that it would be invisible in a dark room even if it smiled.
This is a result of one of the base foundations of the game: HBS wanted to make a XCom type game. The fucktard Weissman basically creamed himself over the idea early on, and we are seeing the results of his dead horse raping.
The only way a game like BTech can have infinite encounters using procedurally generated (PG) missions is if you have infinite number of 'mechs you can control. The "level limit" (i.e., 'mech tonnage) is far too restricted to have that kind of a game design otherwise. You MUST restrict what the player can get so that he doesn't end up with the inevitable 4x 100 tonners 6 missions into a 30 mission game.
Once again, I point to Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, a 1996 game. It gave a mix of PG missions and main quest missions but kept what 'mechs you can get under strict control. It is not until far into the game that you even had a change to salvage a heavy, let alone an assault. Of course, you could buy them, but you'd have to be a master at the game if you want to have the funds to buy an Atlas by the end of the 3rd campaign. Assuming that the Atlas is even available for purchase, that is. And if you want a second one to outfit your buddy? Hahaha! Good luck with that one.
There are a TON of things that M2M got right that a game 22 years later doesn't even come close to matching:
1. Limited funds meaning that if your buddy lost his 'mech, you are likely to be in strife trying to get him another.
2. Very limited salvage (in fact, this is
fixed, which I don't really agree with, but it actually made the game challenging in many ways, but easier in others) means that you are not going to get a whole lance of Clan 'mechs within 2 missions after they show up.
3. A "dynamic" market system where 'mechs and equipment come on the market or disappears (i.e., bought by someone else), and PPCs can suffer a defect recall resulting in a scarcity of PPCs, etc.
4. PG missions that does NOT scale to your level. The very FIRST PG mission, before the first campaign/main quest mission even, can match your 25-ton Commando up against 6 enemy 'mechs of various sizes, all of which would be heavier.
5. Main quest missions/campaigns can and WILL disappear if you miss their starting dates, which usually means less C-Bills and salvage for you. You can play the entire game on PG missions and completely ignore the main quest campaigns except for the Luthien campaign (which is the only mandatory campaign as it is the end chapter of the game) if you want, but my bet is that you're going to be crying in the Luthein campaign if you do.
6. A focus on the established universe, not out-of-place bullshit (note to Kevin: If you like the Spanish so much, you fat dick gobbler, you could have just set the game in Neuva Castile fighting against the Umayyad Caliphate, you flaming muppet! BTech "expert", my arse!).
7. Real TT rules on 'mech building, not made up crap that is in name only.
8. Established 'mechs and variants, not super-mechs for the Mary Sue.
