Am I doing this correctly?

[Recklessfireball1]

I'm trying to build a late Succession Wars era, Player Generated Mercenary Combat Command (Combat Operations: Mercenaries, pg. 92).  This is a single BattleMech company.  Could someone look over this crib sheet and tell me if my understanding of the process/calculations are correct?

TOTAL CCP’s (Combat Command Points) Available:  12

-FORCE COMPOSITION-
1 CCP for the Company (Total 1)
1 CCP for each of it’s 3 lances (Total 3)
TOTAL CCP’s for Force Composition = 4

-COMMAND EXPERIENCE RATING-
Elite Rating= A total of 4 CCP

-AVAILABILITY LISTS-
No friends or enemies- the unit just draws from the General and Merc unit lists= 0 CCP’s spent.

-SPECIAL RULES-
You can buy the special rule of a canon unit for 2 CPP. 

Wylies Coyotes special rule says:  “The Coyotes never begin a battle with pre-existing damage or reduced ammunition, regardless of the scenario’s specifications, due to their excellent and over-staffed technical corps. In a campaign setting, repair factors (time, cost, etc.) are 20 percent less than standard. The Coyotes may not be fielded as a Force after 3030.”

Pretty sweet ability.  I’ll take that for 2 CCP, thanks.  I do wonder though, as the bit about not being fielded after 3030 is fluff related to that specific unit, do I have to take that drawback if I purchase the rule for my unit? (Not that it matters much, I prefer not to play much after 3025, anyway).

-UNIQUE CHARACTER-
I’m looking at building an elite mercenary company, I’d love to have my Captain to be an elite with additional SPA’s, so I’ll plop down 2 CCP’s for that. 

At this point, I have hit my ceiling of 12 CCP (Force Composition 4 +Command XP Rating 4+Availability Lists 0+ Special Rules 2+ Unique Character 2 = a total of 12).

Yes?  No?  Am I grokking this thing correctly?   

[nckestrel]

Force Composition: one unit type ('mech, armor, aerospace, infantry, etc) up to a regiment in size is 1 CCP.  So you just need 1 CCP for a battleMech company (or up to a battlemech regiment).  You only need to pay more than 1 CCP if you have multiple regiments, or multiple unit types.  Two battlemech regiments and an aerospace wing would be 3 CCP.
The rest looks good to me.
I'd be fine leaving out the 3030 reference .

[Recklessfireball1]

 Cool.  Many thanks for looking over it for me. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

If you're interested in seeing another example of CCPs in play, I tried my hand at converting a merc regiment to that nomenclature.

[Recklessfireball1]

Thanks, that was actually very helpful for seeing how you spent your points.  O0 

And I like how you leveraged obscure background material to create the fluff for your unit.  I, also, tend to take house canon with a grain of salt.  I realize the authors need to attempt to make the sources line up with some degree of consistency but, to a certain extent, this will always be an exercise in trying to pound a square peg into a round whole.

Kind of curious if there is a listed color scheme for St. Cyr HAG, or is that something you'll get to come up with yourself?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Thanks, that was actually very helpful for seeing how you spent your points.  O0 

And I like how you leveraged obscure background material to create the fluff for your unit.  I, also, tend to take house canon with a grain of salt.  I realize the authors need to attempt to make the sources line up with some degree of consistency but, to a certain extent, this will always be an exercise in trying to pound a square peg into a round whole.

Kind of curious if there is a listed color scheme for St. Cyr HAG, or is that something you'll get to come up with yourself?

Red, White, and Blue are the real-life St. Cyr's colors   I'd consider it kind of fun to see somebody on the Kurita side to coopt the tricolor parade scheme that Davion normally owns.

With regards to my writeup... it's firmly non-canon now that the 1st Succession War book has been published, with nary a mention of "my" plucky assault regiment.

With regards to the CCPs... it's a pretty flexible thing.  As nckestrel pointed out, 1 CCP buys you a mech company, or it can buy you 9 companies by way of buying a regiment instead.  A moment of epiphany for me was in realizing despite mention in CM:Mercs of needing quite a few more than 12 CCPs to build a legendary force like Wolf's Dragoons... CCPs are not a force-balancing mechanic.  It's just a way to quantify describing units.. I found that to be rather burden-lightening.  You can build a mech company that's 12CCPs or you can build a regiment that's 12CCPs.  The system isn't meant to make them battlefield comparable... but "lore detail" comparable

[Recklessfireball1]

Red, White, and Blue are the real-life St. Cyr's colors   I'd consider it kind of fun to see somebody on the Kurita side to coopt the tricolor parade scheme that Davion normally owns.

An unusual choice for a Combine unit, to be sure.  I suppose Red is the primary color in that scheme, though.

With regards to my write-up... it's firmly non-canon now that the 1st Succession War book has been published, with nary a mention of "my" plucky assault regiment.

Well, if you're like me, you're a "Take what you want and toss out the rest," kind of guy.  Canon is only canon at my table, insofar as I choose to acknowledge it.  Since I don't play in official CGL tournaments, it's never been an issue for me.

With regards to the CCPs... it's a pretty flexible thing.  As nckestrel pointed out, 1 CCP buys you a mech company, or it can buy you 9 companies by way of buying a regiment instead.  A moment of epiphany for me was in realizing despite mention in CM:Mercs of needing quite a few more than 12 CCPs to build a legendary force like Wolf's Dragoons... CCPs are not a force-balancing mechanic.  It's just a way to quantify describing units.. I found that to be rather burden-lightening.  You can build a mech company that's 12CCPs or you can build a regiment that's 12CCPs.  The system isn't meant to make them battlefield comparable... but "lore detail" comparable

It's a handy tool for creating a sort of "1st Draft" for your 'Mech unit, yes.  O0

That does lead me to a couple of follow-up questions that occurred to me after my original post, though. I was wondering, does the CCP expenditure for my unique character mean that I don't have to pay the PV for increasing the pilot's skill from regular to heroic (since I have the CCP's available now, I figured I would go for broke and make him awesome), or do I still have to expend the build points for that when I construct the company?

Also, since I can now afford to also put him in a custom unit for 1 CCP, I might like to do that.  But, what exactly IS a custom unit?  Does this mean a unique variant like the Griffin "Sparky", or the "Reinsblatt" Banshee?    And, if I choose this option, do I pay for the 'Mech when I spend the points during lance construction, or is it free due to spending the CCP?

Hopefully, you'll understand what I'm asking here.  Not sure if I phrased it clearly, or not. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

CCPs and PVs do not overlap.  You'll still have to pay PVs for a legendary skill level. The way I understand it (and nckestrel can correct me if I'm wrong here...) the benefit to paying CCPs for a legendary pilot is that pilot's skill rating won't count against you towards maintaining an average towards the stated unit experience level.

As for custom units, it basically expands unit availability when using FPs to build a battlefield playing force for your CCP-built merc company.  For example, if you're doing an Early Clan Invasion era merc company you might buy a special pilot who drives a Mad Cat, and since you paid CCP for him you can include him and his Mad Cat in a table-top force without paying the 5FPs you'd otherwise have to pay for Clan salvage in your force.  But both the pilot's skill upgrade (if any) and the Mad Cat itself still have to be paid for through PV no matter what as that's the system meant to make for balanced play.

[Recklessfireball1]

Ah- ok!  That makes perfect sense.  Thanks for the clarification.  O0

[nckestrel]

The only reason for CCPs is to have some reason to not just take everything.  That way if four players are playing and each make their own force, they can make different choices.  As Tai Dai said, PV is still the balm of system, and CCP (and FPs) don't change that.  The non-PV stuff is all about creating differences, not better or worse.

[Recklessfireball1]

So CCP's are, I suppose, a way to mitigate "Fluff Cheese"; like every player saying their merc unit is composed of 5 elite regiments, led by a god-like general with 5 of the best SPA, with dozens of rare mechs and is best buds with Jaime Wolf, Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner?  And PV lets you build the thing you roughed out with the CCP's, within the constraints of the point total your group is using. 

Is that about the gist of it?

[nckestrel]

If you want, you can take more CCPs (optional).
I'm not against the Wolf's Dragoons if that's the way you want your game to go.
But the rules are assuming you don't want to just take everything (else why bother with rules limiting what you can take?).  So the default, limited CCPs force you to make choices.  Do I want mechs and tanks (and infantry)?  Highly skilled?  Lots of units choices (availability lists)? 
And, most importantly to me, it means one Merc group is different from another, making the whole exercise mean something.  I made one choice, you made another.  It might reflect (or inspire) the story of who/what your Merc group is.
PV balances, the FPs and CCPs create differences to reflect/inspire the story.

[Recklessfireball1]

Cool.   O0

[Recklessfireball1]

Okay, so the updated version looks like this:

THE SUCKER-PUNCH IRREGULARS  (Late Succession Wars Era Merc Unit)

-FORCE COMPOSITION-
1 CCP for the Company (Total 1)
TOTAL CCP’s for Force Composition = 1

-COMMAND EXPERIENCE RATING-
Elite Rating= A total of 4 CCP.  I’ll also spend 1 CCP for 1 extra command ability.

-AVAILABILITY LISTS-
The Irregulars have no allies or enemies, and so draw from the general and mercenary unit lists. 0 CCP

-SPECIAL RULES-
As I mentioned earlier, I took the Wylies Coyote ability for 2 CCP.  Hoping to use these guys in a campaign.  O0

-UNIQUE CHARACTER-
The Captain of the Company is going to be Heroic, so I'm plopping down 4 CCP's for that.

At this point, I have hit my ceiling of 12 CCP (Force Composition 1 +Command XP Rating 4 +Extra Command Ability 1 +Availability Lists 0 + Special Rules 2+ Unique Character 4 = a total of 12).

Now to build the Company proper...

LABINSKI'S COMMAND LANCE
Captain Leon "Low-Blow" Labinski.  CP-10Z Cyclops.  Skill 1 (Heroic).  PV: 55
Lt. Albert "Uncle Al" Chan.  DRG-1N Dragon.  Skill 3 (Veteran).  PV: 36
Randal "Quickdraw" Mcgraw.  QKD-4G Quickdraw.  Skill 3 (Veteran).  PV: 36
Dana Donaldson.  JR7-D Jenner.  Skill 3 (Veteran).  PV: 24
Lance Formation Bonuses:  Tactical Genius (Labinski) and Eagle Eyes (Chan and Donaldson)

VON SEIDL'S FIRE SUPPORT LANCE
Lt. Hans Von Seidl.  JM6-A Jagermech.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 37
Wendy Chan.  TBT-5N Trebuchet.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 37
Hap "Madman" Carsburg.  DV-6M Dervish.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 42
"Bouncing" Betty Callahan.  WTH-1 Whitworth.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 36
Lance Formation Bonuses:  Up to two of ‘Mechs in this lance can be designated to have the Oblique Attacker SPA each turn

SANDSTROM'S RECON LANCE
Lt. Dale Sandstrom.  ASN-21 Assassin.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 23
Arnold J. Thurd II.  CDA-3C Cicada.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 23
Lillian Hughes.  HER-2S Hermes.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 29
Jeremy L. Loois.  SDR-5V Spider.  Skill 2 (Elite).  PV: 22
Lance Formation Bonuses: Sandstrom, Hughes and Loois have the Eagle Eyes SPA and all members of the Recon Lance have the Forward Observer SPA.

TOTAL PV to Build = 400 points.

SPECIAL COMMAND ABILITIES (3 for the unit's Elite status, + 1 extra purchases with CCP): 

Camouflage: Ground Units that are part of a Force with this ability and use the Stand Still movement option receive a +2 Target Movement Modifier, in place of the usual +0. Regardless of the scenario, the Force may place half its starting Units as Hidden Units, even if it is the Attacker. The Force may place Hidden Units even in terrain where ’Mechs cannot usually hide.

Environmental Specialist (Clear):
•   Improved Mobility If a Unit in a Force with this specialization starts its turn in Clear terrain, it may add 2” to its Move for the turn, as long as it also ends its movement in Clear terrain and does not change elevation during the movement.
•   Improved Combat If a Unit in a Force with this specialization is attacked while occupying Clear terrain, and there is no Terrain, Environmental or Cover To-Hit Modifier to the attack, the attack receives a +1 To-Hit Modifier as a Terrain Modifier.

Esprit de Corps: A Force with this ability is never subject to Forced Withdrawal or Morale checks.

Tactical Adjustments:  After turn 3, the opposing Force does not gain any bonuses to their Initiative rolls from Command Abilities or Special Pilot Abilities.

Finally, Labinski gets to choose 3 SPA's with a total value of 6 points or less, due to being Heroic.  I chose: Eagle Eyes, Oblique Attacker, and Street Fighter.

EDIT:  After reading the rules again, today, I realized you can also give one unit (other than the Unique character in your force) SPA's.  So I'll give Hap Carsburg (Elite- so he can have up to 2 SPA's with a total value of 4 or less) Oblique Attacker (1) and Sniper (3).
 
So...

1)  Did I do this correctly, with regard to choosing abilities and point expenditure?
2)  Will this unit be any good (or, at least, fun) to play? 
3)  Do you think it's too specialized?