From your description of the battle it sounds like you got hit by a Long Tom and then finished off by the two mechs you were fighting.
Also, the Mauler you were fighting is extremely important. There is the C variant that carries two UAC-20s and 2 SSRM-6s. That can easily turn all your armor yellow in a single volley. That combined with an Osiris B lobbing an AC-20 into your mech means that a single location could be taking upwards of 750x5 = 3750 points of damage just from AC-20 fire, not to mention the ~600 damage from small lasers and 2400 damage from the twin SSRM-6s.
But, I do get what you are saying. The assault mechs can die extraordinarily fast, and that is a testament to how FASA screwed the pooch on their own game with Level 2 technology.
Assault mechs back in 3025 functioned exactly as you described. They lumbered forward, took a beating, and then stomped the crap out of the enemy. Level 2 tech added in such powerful long range weapons, double heat sinks, and XL engines allowing faster mechs to mount more of them, that the lumbering Atlas of old is quite simply obsolete on that battlefield.
Now the Assault mech's low speed and inability to carry any additional armor, despite the ability for enemy mechs to carry more firepower, has forced it to take on a fire support role. It simply cannot cross no-man's-land in one piece with all the ER weapons, Gauss Rifles, and Artemis LRMs smacking it the second it breaks cover. Now it sits back and trades shots with the enemy with its own cluster of ER weapons, Gauss Rifles, and Artemis LRMs... oh, hey, that's the exact armament of the 3050 Atlas, isn't it?
I hear you, Grimnitemare. I wish they'd put in just 3025 tech so we could battle things out at a speed that battletech was intended, rather than insta-gib alpha strikes from a single mech that do more damage than an entire lance of mechs used to be able to muster. But we are in the minority.
