What about this for an army??
(300 pts.)
x2 Highlander Long Toms
X1 Joel Nguyen
x1 Peasant Company

Keep those long toms pounding away on alternate turns with the peasant company acting as a small shield or a formation builder if any unit gets to close. Joel just sits there and protects.

Get a smaller mech and a buttload more of support (Peasants, repair vehicles/transports, etc.). Nguyen cannot protect a single artillery by himself, let alone two.

i see, but couldn't the long toms pretty much hoe any vehicle or infantry peices coming towards if. It would force them to move, push or take 2 clicks of armor piercing. And if they do push they take another click of damage, plus their sitting ducks for next turn.joel has handled almost every mech in a 300 pt game and normally holds his own or kills them.

Arnis , Skariah Paragon or any other fast agility mechs will tear this army apart. Joel can't do anything to skariah , and the first thing I do is to run and base your arties. The long tom is powerful , but very innacurate. Instead, just like what nynax said, get a smaller , cheaper mech and fill in the remainding points with peasants for support (you gonna need it to shiled your arty from basing enemy units)

3 DF trikes

03 inche deployment
20 inch infaltrate
10 inch move
=
33 inches

Joel can only target unit, so by turn two those arty are worthless.

Still though by the time those trikes get anywhere near the arty they will be in pretty bad shape improved targeting or not. Turn 1 Joel smacks one trike for 4 clicks, one long tom hits another for 2 clicks. That leaves a single operational trike for next turn and even then youd have to push it to base an arty.

With that roster your HL toms can be based on turn one by DF trikes, NO matter what. Your artillery probably won't even get a chance to hit them unless you go first. Trust me - I play DF trikes for that sole purpose, you might get to fire your toms once in a battle. The HL longtoms are also inaccurate w/o LOS. Hope for LOS.

In 300 points one well supported HL/Merc Sniper would be better to field. Better yet...one (maybe two) RotS TFA in a HL J-37 is the best bet. The HL TFA is somewhat decent as well. If the artillery rules are changed the RotS TFA will be a god-unit.

JMHO.

-Q

Joel is deadmeat right out of the gate many times. He is totally defensless against an Agility mech in base contact. And with Arnis so popular you are pretty much certain to see him at least once in every tourny you go to. And he is so quick that he'll be under your arty unbrella in 1 turn. All your opponent would need is 1 piece of blocking terrain close to your end of the field that he can hide behind after he moves in his 24" and on his next turn either your arty will be based and pounded on ... or Joel will. Pick a mech that doesn't have a min range restriction and you will be better served.

Here's a better idea:
Joel Brane
2X Long Tom
3X Peasant Company
1X SRM Launcher
1X JI100 Recovery Vehicle

Set it up like this: Have the Toms on either side of the JI100, with the Peasants and SRM Team shielding the Toms, with Joel out front.

Also remember how inaccurate HL Long Toms are. I rarely hit with mine and usually rely on drift to at least hit SOMETHING. Also, with multiple small, fast units, you cannot pog them all, and they will be able to at least base one of the artillery, allowing the rest of the forces to move up. Also, think of it this way, you can only pog one thing a turn if you alternate, and Joel can only engage one thing a turn. That leaves your opponant with and extra action that you cannot do anything about.

Just look out for an opponent who will drop 2 or 3 artillery attacks on your RV while catching the rest in the blast radius. Even drifting won't matter much since the tokens will likely hit something in a cluster that large.

I don't think it's a good idea to cluster units like that. There needs to be some space in between the cannons so your enemy cannot take advantage of a 3 in. blast template. Even popping Long toms in and out a pair of J-37s in either DZ corner might be better. If you must play with long toms.

Long Toms work well entrenched in the far corners of a battlefield - easier to shield and use the big reach.

-Q

In all honesty, Arnis or Skariah will wreck one Joel just as good as the other. I was playing an Arnis in a tournament and ran up against a Joel Brane. As they were both fast agility mechs we were expecting an epic showdown and kept manuvering around to get a good shot off against each other. Then I noticed Joel had a minimum range. Base, failed brake, and 3 turns later we have a warm but victorious Arnis and a burning slag of Highlander Koshi.

I just played an army similar to that against a trike squad of DH plus a blade, crow and some other tanks. I used x 2 long toms and x2 schmitt tanks. result hosed it pathetically, i took 2 clicks of damage total, both from pushing. I salvaged the blade on turn 1, pushed and put most all the trikes on the 3rd click turn 2. worked like a charm

Wow - good going.

-Q