Author Topic: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT  (Read 20107 times)

SCC

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Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« on: 08 October 2017, 05:02:53 »
I think I've expressed this before, but never properly laid out and asking for an answer.

OK to understand why I have troubles with BT's Merc trade you have to understand the situation in Europe when the merc trade was big, or at least my understanding of it. Basically Europe is a big place and it was constantly at war. But here's the catch, the entire continent wasn't at war, only parts of it were and when the war in one area came to a conclusion war would flare up in another area, and so those men in the first area who suddenly found themselves no longer in the army and where unwilling or unable to return to civilian life would become mercs and seek employment in the new warring area.

Now I realize that the above is likely over simplistic and likely missing a LOT of edge cases, but there are at least two key points: 1) It worked because at any given time MOST of the continent was at peace, and 2) The Adventuring Companies didn't normally train their own personal, they recruit people who have left an army. But these two things don't apply in BT (The first could be thought of as occurring between the end of Anton's Revolt and the end of the War of 3039).

Now I can see big a powerful merc outfits like the Wolf Dragoon's being able to get contracts during peace time because people want to be able to deny them to their (potential) enemies but most groups? Not happening, you cost too much to maintain.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #1 on: 08 October 2017, 05:21:04 »
There are thousands of worlds in the Inner Sphere... even when "major" wars are going on, most of them are "at peace".  The places doing the hiring are the ones close to or actually involved in the fighting.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #2 on: 08 October 2017, 05:46:50 »
No such thing as "Peace". Remember, EVERYBODY is under threat from SOMEBODY. Even small one-world corporations hire solitary Mechwarriors to boost their security. Then you've got the nobility, the criminal gangs, planetary governments and freelance operatives.

Somebody is always hiring.


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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #3 on: 08 October 2017, 05:50:24 »
The obvious answer to why are there mercenaries in BattleTech is "because they're cool."

In the original 3025 setting they made a kind of sense, since there were parallels to the situation in medieval Europe:
- Weak central government with limited ability to recruit and train citizens, due to feudalism and distances involved
- Weapons of warfare are expensive and require years of training (Mechs, knightly armor & horses), again making it hard for governments to raise and train enough people
- Constant warfare making professional soldier a viable career option (supply and demand)

However, the setting was gradually rewritten to have each House equipped with large standing armies and centralized recruitment and training academies, and the presence of mercenaries made less and less sense.

They are, however, still cool.
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #4 on: 08 October 2017, 06:50:42 »
My unit started during the Clan invasion Era . The perceived need was to slow down the Clan advance in along the whole front not just in the Draconis Combine . So a Combat Engineering mercenary unit was created so it could go anywhere needed without risk of any state losing face by permitting foreign national troops from crossing the border . I had work site security combat units . After the Clan Invasion Era the unit built defensive facilities , then had a Cadre contract to train the militia in its use. Specializing helps employment . By the end of the Jihad my HQ got blown away but most of my unit was scattered doing contracts or sub contracting . Sub contracts like Salvage and LZ defense and or Artillery support ect  ect . Having a modified Rose drop ship with the small craft bays converted for Tunbo use clears the salvage from the battlefield very fast. The larger the unit the more scattered it component elements . During a very hot conflict I consolidate my units two or three contracts plus HQ . Not during hot conflicts I do five to seven contracts and subcontract jobs plus HQ . ERA matters more than just about everything.
« Last Edit: 08 October 2017, 08:09:35 by Col Toda »

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #5 on: 08 October 2017, 12:27:57 »
Ever read Schlock Mercenary? Thats kinda how I see it working.

In short the universe is very big and bush wars keep breaking out all over the place. The forces available to the Successor States are too few to respond to every cross border or pirate raid so ‘local’ authorities hire mercenaries on an ad hock basis during ‘peace’ time.

During proper wars the successor states hire whatever mercenaries are avaliable because if you don’t your enemy will and even in 3067 mechs are not as common as commanders would like.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #6 on: 08 October 2017, 13:03:10 »
There´s a major monetary consideration:

If you raise a regular unit, you need to either already have the equipment on hand, or purchase it. For a mech regiment, that´ll easily run in the hundreds of millions of C-Bills. You´ll also need to train the personell, and/or remove trained personnel from other units which would probably have benefitted from not removing that personnel.

None of that applies, however, to hiring a mercenary unit. Paying a mercenary unit is more expensive than the running cost of a regular army unit, but you don´t have to pay any start-up cost.

To use some completely made-up numbers: If it costs 500 million to raise an army mech regiment and 1 million a month to maintain it, but a mercenary regiment costs 4 million a month, it´ll take 167 months for the regular unit to be cheaper overall.

Also, hiring mercenaries is a lot faster than raising a regular unit. I dunno how long it takes to raise a regular army unit from scratch, but I doubt it is as quick as the weeks or a few months it takes for a mercenary unit to arrive from Galatea or Outreach or wherever. Plus mercenaries already exist as a coherent unit and thus do not need extensive training to learn how to work as a team.

So, if you need troops quickly and for a relatively limited time, mercenaries are your best bet. If you need long-term combat strength, (and you have the time and the money available) you are better off raising a regular army unit.
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SCC

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #7 on: 08 October 2017, 13:12:53 »
Challenger, that's the problem, for most of BT's history we haven't been getting the regional conflicts that would support the merc trade. Between the start of the invasion and the end of the Jihad the only ones that would count would be the Cappalen-St. Ives war and want went down between the Taurian's and the FedSuns, and since the Jihad? Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.

There´s a major monetary consideration:

If you raise a regular unit, you need to either already have the equipment on hand, or purchase it. For a mech regiment, that´ll easily run in the hundreds of millions of C-Bills. You´ll also need to train the personell, and/or remove trained personnel from other units which would probably have benefitted from not removing that personnel.

None of that applies, however, to hiring a mercenary unit. Paying a mercenary unit is more expensive than the running cost of a regular army unit, but you don´t have to pay any start-up cost.

To use some completely made-up numbers: If it costs 500 million to raise an army mech regiment and 1 million a month to maintain it, but a mercenary regiment costs 4 million a month, it´ll take 167 months for the regular unit to be cheaper overall.

Also, hiring mercenaries is a lot faster than raising a regular unit. I dunno how long it takes to raise a regular army unit from scratch, but I doubt it is as quick as the weeks or a few months it takes for a mercenary unit to arrive from Galatea or Outreach or wherever. Plus mercenaries already exist as a coherent unit and thus do not need extensive training to learn how to work as a team.

So, if you need troops quickly and for a relatively limited time, mercenaries are your best bet. If you need long-term combat strength, (and you have the time and the money available) you are better off raising a regular army unit.
The problem is that the Great Houses will keep those merc units on the books even in times when they aren't at war, when they war they were hired to fight in ends the contract should end, but that doesn't happen.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #8 on: 08 October 2017, 13:46:10 »
I always imagined that House Army action only constitutes the tip of the iceberg.  I.E: Most Mechwarriors and most BattleMechs are actually in petty feudal service rather than Great House.  We just only ever see the spotlight on that tip of the iceberg.   I love analogies, so here's one:  House Armies are to Professional Sports as Petty/Private forces are to neighborhood or pickup games.  What are there more of? Professional Football players, or Amateur Football players?  We just hear much more about the pros.

Mercs may or may not be difficult to reconcile solely on the House Army market, but if you do imagine petty feudal forces as collectively being a dominant market for military action then it becomes easy to reconcile a strong mercenary trade.  Actually it becomes difficult to imagine there *not* being strong merc activity in such markets.  And from this bastion of reliable economic health, it's also easy to imagine the most successful mercs being able to toe in on the major league action as well.  These mercs that show up in fiction and the Merc Sourcebooks are also the tip of the iceberg, and this is borne out repeatedly in those sourcebooks as mentioning that there are countless other, less successful merc companies out there in the Inner Sphere beyond those covered in the given book.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #9 on: 08 October 2017, 13:47:29 »
The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops.  You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment.  Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #10 on: 08 October 2017, 13:50:01 »
One thing that should also be a factor is that a merc unit hired to attack a target means they are not pirates.  The difference between pirates and non-pirates is that the merc unit can point to the contract and say that someone else hired them, so the offended group should go after the hiring party, not the merc unit.

Essentially, the mercs have a big brother, so if the offended party goes after the mercs it will be wasting money, making them a weaker target to be hit again by the hiring group.

The contracts will be encrypted, so espionage and politicking will be used to figure out who hired the mercs, and decide on a proper response.

But if the mercs don't have that contract, they are all alone, and the offended party will make their displeasure known.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #11 on: 08 October 2017, 13:51:46 »
The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops.  You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment.  Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.

Exactly.  And to segue that in with what I was saying:

When it comes to Count Stuffybritches getting into a vendetta with Count Snootyface on Planet Backwater, pretty much the ONLY option available for him to bulk up his private army is to hire mercs.  Frankly, unless he's actually paying for lots of military infrastructure to train his own troops, his entire private army is probably mercs.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #12 on: 08 October 2017, 14:02:44 »
Or you have a situation like in Operation Stiletto where corporate interests are using mercs to secure their facilities in the middle of an unpredictable or decaying political situation.

Multiple sources indicate that most merc commands don't last a year, which means even lower capital investment on the hiring end as no one is around to collect on unpaid contracts. It would also seem that the employing party has a tremendous advantage in negotiations

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SCC

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #13 on: 08 October 2017, 14:37:45 »
The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops.  You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment.  Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.
The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)

When it comes to Count Stuffybritches getting into a vendetta with Count Snootyface on Planet Backwater, pretty much the ONLY option available for him to bulk up his private army is to hire mercs.  Frankly, unless he's actually paying for lots of military infrastructure to train his own troops, his entire private army is probably mercs.
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #14 on: 08 October 2017, 14:53:47 »
The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)

Most Mercs aren't.  The only ones we hear about being kept on retainer or for contracts that span multiple years are generally the biggest ones, which are not and never will be the norm for Mercs.  And that's forgetting that even in between major wars the border skirmishes never, ever stop.  You might need a Merc company to garrison a world for a few months while the normal garrison is on maneuvers, or on a raid.  You might hire some Mercs for a VIP escort on a world with questionable loyalties.

That's all the kind of things that Great House militaries might hire a Merc for.  Tai Dai Cultist is absolutely right that a lot of Mercs won't be hired directly by a major player on the galactic stage.  It's a criminally underrepresented part of the setting, but there are a lot of merchant jumpships and dropships that need their own protection.  A couple mercenary ASFs for a Periphery trade run would be practically mandatory.

These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?

We're told repeatedly and explicitly that the average mercenary unit is roughly a company in size.  Those kinds of units, based on things like the Mercenary's Handbook and FR: Mercs, tend to spend some time between contracts repairing and resting up, spending the money they just made how they want to, and then looking at one of the major hiring halls for a contract.  They don't receive personal invitations for huge contracts.

We're also told repeatedly that most mercenary units fail.
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #15 on: 08 October 2017, 16:16:20 »
Also important-
During hot conflicts:
Mercs are expendable.
Mercs can be company-stored, and then rolled into your own forces once they can't afford otherwise.
Mercs can be bought, sent to do a thing, and then released. It might be cheaper than your own standing force. (Or as someone said above, Mercs can be bought to do a thing, freeing your other forces to do a more important thing.)
Mercs can bolster an assault, where you might have otherwise had to move troops from elsewhere on your front.

"Cold" periods:
Mercs are (occasionally) deniable.
Mercs are available to corporate sponsors.
Mercs are good for dealing with pirates.
Mercs make for great proxy battles.
Mercs can be good to help or hinder an insurrection.

And given that this is Battletech, the "cold" periods are rather few and far between.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #16 on: 08 October 2017, 16:16:50 »
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?

My take is that they're farming out their subordinate units. That keeps the income flowing, while the remainder is off the line (repairing, recruiting, training, etc.)

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #17 on: 08 October 2017, 16:32:20 »
The Gray Death Legion are the best example (IMO) for the existence of mercs in BT (at least those are the ones I know best).

Started as a small unit (Carlisle Commandos) that got betrayed and evolved into Gray Death Legion after a series of events (not important if those events are ridiculous or not).
« Last Edit: 08 October 2017, 16:34:19 by Kentares »
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #18 on: 08 October 2017, 16:44:23 »
Or you have a situation like in Operation Stiletto where corporate interests are using mercs to secure their facilities in the middle of an unpredictable or decaying political situation.


Similarly, planet-level conflicts like the Quetta Land War referenced in Field Manual: Lyran Alliance (which was resolved by national-level intervention in the shape of one of the new Jaeger regiments dropping on-world), or the plot of the novel Initiation to War.
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #19 on: 08 October 2017, 16:46:46 »
Challenger, that's the problem, for most of BT's history we haven't been getting the regional conflicts that would support the merc trade. Between the start of the invasion and the end of the Jihad the only ones that would count would be the Cappalen-St. Ives war and want went down between the Taurian's and the FedSuns, and since the Jihad? Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.
i'm not sure that it has been "regional conflicts" so much as "regional tensions".. thanks to the small sizes of successor state standing militaries, and the general lack of anything resembling sizeable and well equipped militias, and the jump distances of BT's starships, there are a lot of worlds along the various borders that could be the target of raids or invasions by enemies.. but which have no effective defenders. i mean, the Capellan front for the fedsuns has over a hunded worlds within 30ly of the border.. and maybe a half dozen mech regiments. with well equipped standing militias on maybe another dozen. that is a lot of worlds with nothing more than some infantry battalions and maybe a few companies of light tanks to defend them.
the Combine front is much the same, and when you add in the Davion outback and Pirates from the periphery (which can go deeper than a mere single jump).. that is a lot of worlds.

it is those worlds that drive the mercenary trade, IMO. if you are near the border or near the periphery, and you are not one of the lucky few worlds that got a regiment from the standing army.. hiring a lance or a company of mercenaries for a Garrison contract is your best choice. and probably easier than trying to build up a viable planetary militia.. since not only is a militia going to be more expensive, but there is a good chance it could get confused for "rebellion" and bring with it some nasty attention. with mercs you have contracts that have to be reviewed and such to vouch for your intents, and you are getting equipment and trained soldiers for a sizeable discount compared to training and supplying them yourself. (and even better, you can include in their contract "use as advisors/opfor to train the planetary militia" and benefit from that experience even after their contract ends.)

odds are the successor states themselves higher a lot of smaller merc units for such roles as well..  it would be cheaper and easier than raising up new official units meant to be distributed piecemeal, and reduce the logistical concerns some. plus it means that the contracts (and thus the chain of command) comes from a higher level than the planetary governor.. it is a win win, in that the world sees the successor state acting to defend them, and the successor state doesn't have to worry about worlds using 'self defense' to recruit for a rebellion.

then add in the fact that mercenaries make the ideal offensive tools in such tensions as well.. mercs are far cheaper and safer to use for raids across the borders for example.. because they are more deniable, and if they fail you are just out some money, not any part of your standing military. and mercs make ideal pirate hunters, because then you don;t have to divert any of your standing military away from the job of securing your borders. or have to restructure your logistics networks to support a major unit moving into the stellar hinterlands. mercs are far more logistically self contained, and thus easier to support.


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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #20 on: 08 October 2017, 16:52:14 »
Not happening, you cost too much to maintain.
Not compared to raising it from scratch.
The initial training of MW's, building of the mechs, & creation of regimental infrastructure would take years & possibly run into the billions of $$ figure.
If you think you have a use for them, heck, if you just want to pay to have them as a deterrent against your neighbor getting uppity, the salary & maintenance is minimal.

Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.

The problem is that the Great Houses will keep those merc units on the books even in times when they aren't at war, when they war they were hired to fight in ends the contract should end, but that doesn't happen.
In a world where every house is starved for mechs, I don't think there is ever a "drop them from the payroll consideration".
You might drop them for Loyalty, or because you have 0 interest in going on the offensive, or because you want to use those funds to raise house troops.
But I doubt many houses are out there just dismissing Mercs because they don't "want" to have an extra few battalions on call.
Remember, the DC tried to Black Mail the Dragoons into staying because they did NOT want to give up access to that many trained mechwarriors in 3025.

The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?
The FedSuns is HUGE, Hanse was only too happy to have those troops to help defend his boarders.
As far as affording goes.  The Militia & Regular Army figures in BT, even at their largest, are nothing close to the kind of density that the USA or Russia have.  I don't think tax dollar cost is the issue.
Local Leaders do higher smaller units usually but not always, there have been occasions where entire regiments were hired to shore up defenses when federal troops were not available.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #21 on: 08 October 2017, 16:58:17 »
We're also told repeatedly that most mercenary units fail.

Do we know why most mercs fail so quick? 

I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops. 
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery. 
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech. 

That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep. 

So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #22 on: 08 October 2017, 17:24:32 »
Do we know why most mercs fail so quick? 

I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops. 
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery. 
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech. 

That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep. 

So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?

Playing as a merc where you had to restart the game nine out of ten times after your first contract wouldn't be much of a game. It's sort of like in D&D. You're playing someone with exceptional abilities or circumstances, not the scores of NPCs you dispatch.

Iirc a lot of the issue is bankruptcy. Most would-be mercs are not savvy at business and either borrow too much at unfavorable rates, get taken in negotiations, or incur more expenses than they can afford and are forced to liquidate

What's the five year outlook for small businesses? I know this restaurant space nearby that has been four different things in five years. 

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #23 on: 08 October 2017, 17:25:23 »
Do we know why most mercs fail so quick? 

I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops. 
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery. 
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech. 

That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep. 

So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?

In my view:
Most of these merc companies that never got any spotlight are doing contracts that are far below the scope of working for a Great House.  While there's always work to be done somewhere in the Inner Sphere, it doesn't mean there's work to be done right on or near the planet the merc company happens to be on when their current contract runs out.  It's a challenge to keep the overhead covered until you're getting the next paycheck, and that alone dooms many/most.

On top of that, you have the freebooter variable.  If you're a merc captain, you have to find a way to keep your mechwarriors on your payroll and not ditching your company to go join another company that's already got a juicy contract and is looking to fill empty spots in their roster.  You can have a company sized unit fold just by personnel hemorrhage.  All it takes is one or two to bail and potentially the "we're never gonna get another contract" malaise can sap the morale of those who didn't leave right away... tempting them to jump at the next offer for employment they get from some other company.

Scotty

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #24 on: 08 October 2017, 17:25:35 »
There are only so many garrison contracts to go around.  Not everybody (or even most, or even half, or even a tiny minority) get picked for those.  Every month you hold out for a garrison contract that will never come you still have to maintain your equipment and feed yourself, and odds are you don't have a permanent home on planet on a major hiring hall.

You take what you can get.  If you don't, you die of slow starvation or you're forced to sell your 'Mech, which for mercenaries more than any single other demographic in the entire Sphere is their entire livelihoods.  Most would rather die.  Many do.
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guardiandashi

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #25 on: 08 October 2017, 19:02:06 »
remember that a lot of merc units are unbalanced and not even necessarily unbalanced in the sense that they messed up on their combat forces allocation, such as lots of lights with few mediums /heavies to be the heavy hitters, or they don't have or have essentially nothing but infantry, or no aerospace assets, and no/insufficient transport.

all of those can be reasons for a merc unit to fail abruptly.
but one of the biggest, IMO seems to be all tooth no tail units, IE they have a lance of heavy/assault units, a good fire support lance, and a good scout lance.... but no or not enough techs to keep the units operational.  then they either have to hire techs, or rely upon their employer to handle the repairs/maintenance for them, which opens up not just the company store, but also betrayal cuch as the unit goes out on patrol, and the satchel charge, (or sabotaged ejection seat), or even just the sabotaged life support system turns off, and after the pilot(s) die the employer retrieves the "destroyed" units, and either sells or repaints them and now has a unit that they can assign their own pilots to.

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #26 on: 08 October 2017, 20:44:14 »
It should be noted, mercenary companies fail at almost exactly the same rate as restaurants.  Perhaps someone who wrote that book had some experience in that industry?  In any event, no one is shooting at restaurateurs (mostly) so it's broadly belivable that mercs would have a hard time getting off the ground.

As to why they work... honestly, I think it comes down to FASAnomics.  Truthfully, they shouldn't.  As folks have said, mercs are desirable because they're a cheap way to add mech forces on the quick, and because mechs are rare and most planets don't have access to mech defenders.  But, if mechs are so rare, then they should cost dramatically more than they do, or else mercenaries should charge vastly more than they do.  But, like rent controlled apartments, mechs are both rare and cheap, and so who ever has them is in high demand (granted, that's more of a culture reference for me, since I've never lived in a city with rent control, but it makes economic sense).

If the price of mechs was controlled by the market, mercenaries still might have made sense in the neo-feudal era, since there were plenty of privately owned inherited mechs, but they would have charged vast, vast sums.  But never in the modern era with full on mech production. 
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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #27 on: 08 October 2017, 21:09:04 »
I wonder how much the company that runs that Hind in Africa charges...

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #28 on: 08 October 2017, 22:33:07 »
But, if mechs are so rare, then they should cost dramatically more than they do, or else mercenaries should charge vastly more than they do.  But, like rent controlled apartments, mechs are both rare and cheap, and so who ever has them is in high demand (granted, that's more of a culture reference for me, since I've never lived in a city with rent control, but it makes economic sense).

If the price of mechs was controlled by the market, mercenaries still might have made sense in the neo-feudal era, since there were plenty of privately owned inherited mechs, but they would have charged vast, vast sums.  But never in the modern era with full on mech production.
But a Mech is just 1 part of a system, and despite being very important, it is also paradoxically a very small part. Oh, so you own a Mech, and because House Davion only has 15,000 Mechs, you think you can demand a 1/15,000th part of the Federated Suns? Right. You stay put, cause we hereby refuse you JumpShip service to anywhere... let's see how long it takes you to sell me your Mech for a can of beans.

The price of Mechs as with everything IS partly controlled by the market... but the market is NOT efficient, and drastically less so in Battletech.

Kidd

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Re: Explain To Me How The Merc Trade Works In BT
« Reply #29 on: 08 October 2017, 22:44:32 »
Because mercs are COOL. That aside...

On mercs in Europe
Mercs didn't become a thing because of war or peace or surplus in trained warriors. Mercs became a thing because of 1) fragmentation of society, 2) task-specialisation, due to expanding economies, and 3) the invention of money. In short, societies moved from groups of farmers defending themselves part-time from the predations of their neighbours, to groups of farmers led by soldiers using money to hire professional soldiers to help defend them from the predations of their neighbours.

Mercs died out when societies grew large enough that they could raise their own armies, which in the economic sense means they could essentially pay people to be loyal. Thus, condition 1) was invalidated.

On mercs in Battletech
Mechs and perhaps more importantly Mechwarriors are rare. Mercs represent that small % of these resources that prioritise money over national loyalty. The big Merc outfits don't really count, they're like Boeing or British Aerospace or Elbit - nominally private companies, but generally loyal to that one nation. Its these small guys who make up the bulk of the trade.

The world of Battletech is more fragmented than ours mainly because of the interstellar barrier. Hence there is at times a relatively sudden and unexpected local need for extra military might, and that is where mercenaries thrive. Don’t look at them as soldiers, look at them as bank security guards in a world where bank robberies are a lot more prevalent and the police a lot slower to respond.

Hiring mercs is like hiring temporary staff versus permanent staff: they are cheaper and more liquid than State troops; you hire them when your business anticipates a spike in activity, and you fire them when activity levels go back down. All overheads included they cost you less than full-time employees, and being of a temporary nature you can push them around while your full-time employees need to be handled with kid gloves, especially in BT where a significant proportion of them are your cousins and nephews and nieces etc. Temp staff come to you equipped and pre-trained; they're selling themselves as a wholly-inclusive, self-contained, full-stack unit. That takes pressure off your supply and admin network. Lastly, the really desperate ones are expendable - use 'em, abuse 'em, pay any survivors their due and then eject them.

That last factor is a big attraction to people to become mercenaries. They are basically taking on huge amounts of risk in order to hopefully make the big payoff - kind of like the private investment market. And just like said market, you'd see 80% of the private guys lose their shirts to the institutions and the 20% who made the right call or got lucky. So yes, the industry makes little macro-economic sense – but it can make a lot of micro-economic sense.

You're not entirely wrong though - we did see the results of peak saturation in the merc trade in the late 3060s: the 1st major event of the Jihad, the "bursting" of the merc "bubble" on Outreach and subsequently the rest of the IS. So yes, there was a point when the industry became too big to be supported, people with guns couldn't get hired, and with a little motivation and capital injection from the Blakists to accelerate matters, those people decided to turn those guns on the authorities.

If you think you have a use for them, heck, if you just want to pay to have them as a deterrent against your neighbor getting uppity, the salary & maintenance is minimal.
In a world where every house is starved for mechs, I don't think there is ever a "drop them from the payroll consideration".
You might drop them for Loyalty, or because you have 0 interest in going on the offensive, or because you want to use those funds to raise house troops.
But I doubt many houses are out there just dismissing Mercs because they don't "want" to have an extra few battalions on call.
Remember, the DC tried to Black Mail the Dragoons into staying because they did NOT want to give up access to that many trained mechwarriors in 3025.
The FedSuns is HUGE, Hanse was only too happy to have those troops to help defend his boarders.
As far as affording goes.  The Militia & Regular Army figures in BT, even at their largest, are nothing close to the kind of density that the USA or Russia have.  I don't think tax dollar cost is the issue.
WW2 soldier, looking at today's army: "How can the US not have 10% of the population in the army?!"
Nam soldier: "How can the US not have 2% of the population in the army?!"
11th-century militiaman: "Doth not every man, villein, freedman and knight alike owe serjeanty and knight-service unto his liege-lord?!"

As technological advances extend life expectancies, make life more comfortable and make each individual soldier more lethal, people become less willing to risk their lives - especially if the invaders can minimise their practical impact on daily affairs - and smaller armed forces become more capable of controlling larger populations. And money is always, always an issue, because the national budgets reflect more-or-less the priorities of its people; money spent on the military is money not spent on making life more comfortable, 1 way or another.

 

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