Locust LCT-1M

"The Locust's 1M model is interesting in that it can churn out a decent volley of LRMs for such a small 'Mech. It's a great harasser, especially if you can use its speed to lob missiles into the weaker rear armor of targets. But it normally has almost no armor itself." - Yang Virtanen

The Locust LCT-1M is a Light-class 'Mech in Battletech.

Description
The 1M variant of the Locust is geared to take advantage of the platform's speed to defend itself as long-range fire support. Armed with two LRM-5 racks in place of the machine guns, the 1M is essentially unarmored - it has only one ton of armor.

Loadouts

 * The LCT-1M has the most versatile hardpoint loadout of the Locust family, as all of its hardpoints are useful ones and it strikes a nice balance of weapon types. The stock 2xLRM5 loadout, in spite of armor problems, is the safest because it never needs to get shot at, and as long as you keep it behind cover it can contribute a little to the fight in every round. It won't contribute for long, though, only carrying enough ammo for twelve full salvos. Dropping the ML (what, were you going to actually get close enough to use it?) and picking up another ton of ammo solves this problem.
 * If for some reason you wish that you'd salvaged an LCT-1S instead of an LCT-1M, you can just replace the LRM5s with SRM2s, put the two tons you save into your armor, and you've got a stock LCT-1S in all but name.
 * If you wish that you had an LCT-1V instead of an LCT-1M, which is frankly ridiculous because you start with the former and not the latter, you can replace the LRM5s with two machine guns and put the three tons you saved into armor. This is why the LCT-1M is the most versatile Locust: it can do everything the others can, with the exception of their most extreme builds.
 * A 2xML + 2xSL build is viable in the early game; you can strip the arms entirely to put what little armor you have were it matters, accepting a small accuracy penalty for having everything mounted in the CT. With this build, use the hit-and-run or evasion tactics you would with an LCT-1V, since you won't be firing from behind cover.

Strategy

 * As such, since it has no armor, don't ever take it. Ever. At least it makes it easy to wipe out.
 * 2x LRM-5 racks will deal a decent 40 damage per turn and a pilot with Multi-Target is able to erase 1 pip of evasion from behind a hill from 2 different targets at 600 meters.
 * If you keep it moving and out of sight this little guy will easily outperform the other two Locust variants.
 * As one of the two Locust variants that you don't start with, there's almost no excuse for fielding this variant outside of morbid curiosity. Packing a measly 1 ton of armor, the LCT-1M is by far the easiest Locust to kill, which is really saying something. Fortunately, its preference for LRMs means that it never has to get into a direct line of sight with the enemy in the first place to be effective.
 * Surviving:
 * The unique advantage of the LCT-1M among its peers is that, so long as at least one member of the rest of your lance is engaging the enemy, this Locust can happily contribute damage (and important stability damage!) from behind the next rock, hill, building, etc. Therefore, while it's still good to keep moving to flank the enemy and reduce the impact of the occasional wild Sensor Lock, it's not quite as critical to keep your evasion up with this one if you have cover to work with. If you somehow do get caught in the enemy's firing arc and can't run behind cover, consider sprinting behind cover to keep your LRM dreams alive. If even sprinting won't get you out of the way, pick up what evasion chevrons you can and pray that the LCT-1M is still standing at the start of the next round.
 * The hit-and-run strategy of reserving until after a 'mech's turn and then running in, firing, and running out again before he gets to respond isn't necessary with the LCT-1M from a survival point of view as you never really need to get close to the enemy. That said, if your aim is to knock the enemy over, it is a good idea to reserve through his first turn (if you're safe, of course) so you can put two LRM salvos into him before he gets to do anything about it.