So! As mentioned earlier, I also back in the force creation days made a 3025-era merc combined arms battalion with some Fedcom background. Two mech companies, 1 vee company, 2 platoons of infantry and three long tom field guns. The gory details:
Company 1: Battle Company
Lance 1: AWS-8Q, THG-10E, FLS-7K, ON1-K
Lance 2: MAD-3R, WHM-6R, HBK-4G, TDR-5SE
Lance 3: HBK-4G, HBK-4G, CN9-AL, CN9-AL
Company 2: Raider Company
Lance 1: OTL-4D, WVR-6M, DV-6M, PXH-1D
Lance 2: WVR-6M, DV-6M, PXH-1D, WLF-1
Lance 3: WVR-6M, TBT-5N, PXH-1D, WLF-1
Company 3: Vehicle Company
Lance 1: Brutus-PPC, Brutus-PPC, Von Luckner, Von Luckner
Lance 2: Condor, Condor, Drillson, Drillson
Lance 3: Pegasus, Pegasus, Saracen, Saracen
Company 4: Infantry/Artillery Company
Mechanized Rifle Platoon
Foot Laser Platoon
Towed Long Tom x3
Total value of equipment is 142.8 million C-bills (note: the 1-company 3057 era unit was 111!), and peacetime operating costs came out to 1,318,000 Cbills/month; I got badly unlucky on my rolls and only got a single Gazelle dropship, so I am a landbound whale. I have plenty of cash though, 28 million C-bills in the bank at the end so I can wait for an Interesting contract. So let's go through the process. As always, comments/questions for cray in italics as I go.
Reputation
Experience Rating: All infantry/arty is regular, 13/11 veteran/regular mechs, 6/6 veteran/regular vees; that comes out to 8.07 average skill and a Regular rating, though if I didn't have infantry I'd be comfortably veteran. C'est la vie. 10 points
Command Rating: This one wasn't done with a ATOW character, so I used the 1d6+1 for all four attributes of a veteran commander. I got Leadership 5, Tactics 3, Strategy 5, Negotiation 5; no traits, so 18 points
Comment: Either I make really poor ATOW characters, or these skill levels are calibrated a bit high; 1d6+1 on average gives you 4-5 in every skill, where for my characters if I'm also points dumping to get good piloting/gunnery I usually can't raise all of them past 3 and have to prioritize one or two.
Combat, Support, and Financial are all 0 points since I did this strictly per Force Creation rules without modification and it's a new unit.
Transportation rating; let's see, I have 24 mechs, 12 vehicles, 2 platoons and effectively 1 artillery platoon and my dropship assets have room for 15 vehicles. Well, it's not nothing, so I only lose 5 points for insufficient transport of machines and 3 points for insufficient transport of personnel, since somehow I doubt I'm cramming all of my 500+ people into a Gazelle. -8 points.
Total Reputation Rating: 20 points (modifier of +2)
Now for finding offers. With cray's change to negotiation, and the rolled negotiation stat above, I'm working against a TN 3 before any bonii.
Comment: Negotiation is a TN 8, Protocol is a TN 9, unless I'm badly wrong; may need to recalibrate the tables with that skill change, since players are effectively getting a +1 bonus! Galatea in 3025 era is a Great Hall. So, the roll for offers is a TN 3 with a bonus of (3 hall, 2 rep) +5, or effectively TN (-2); I roll a 6 to beat it by 8, 3 offers.
Employer rolls are against TN 3 with a +4 (2 hall, 2 rep); rolls are 2, 2, 5. I hate you, dice. The first two are independent, and rerolls give me the Magistracy of Canopus on a 7, Corporation an an 11; the third roll's Marik.
Contract rolls are against a TN3 with a +2 bonus only (2 hall, no rep bonus per cray);' rolls of 5 7 9 respectively give:
Mission 1: Magistracy of Canopus, Planetary Assault
Mission 2: Corporation, Extraction Raid
Mission 3: Free Worlds League, Extraction Raid.
Let's stat out the Canopian Planetary Assault this time. It makes a bit of fluff sense; they're attacking the Capellans around now, and having a full merc battalion that's almost veteran but without any reputation gets them a lot of combat power quickly for relatively cheap. The Canopians in 3025; let's say major power since they're one of the big periphery states, stingy since periphery states are often resource strapped, and neither controlling nor lenient.
Contract Details!
Base Payment: 1,317,610 Cbills a month, 142,862,000 Cbill equipment without dropship; base payment is 8,131,300 C-bills per month
Mission Length: Assaults are 9 months. For the trip out, eehhhh, let's say it's 25 jumps from Galatea to a Capellan frontier planet if we have to go through the FWL and hook over across the Canopian frontier. That makes it 8 months. 17 months; 9 mission, 8 transport.
Operational Tempo: 1.5 planetary assault, not especially high risk... 1.5
Employer Tempo: A major stingy power is 1.2-0.2 = 1.0
Reputation Factor: 20% of 2 is .4, +0.5 is 0.9
Transportation Factor: After thinking about what I need, 24 mechs and personnel, I decide on an Overlord Class dropship and Invader jumpship; I figure the Overlord's vacant bays can be converted quickly and temporarily to quarters for all my spare personnel and still have room to spare. Also, given that I'm fighting on the side of the Periphery against the IS, I'd like to keep the Jumpship around for a hasty escape. So! All 3 invader collars for 25 jumps and then 9 months playing pinochle waiting for disaster, and then the Overlord for 17 months is 8.5% of its 430 million price tag. Throwing it all in the pot, the total transport costs are 54,850,000 C-bills. Woof.
Command Modifier; -2 aassault, -1 rep, -3 total modifier and roll is 6. House Command
Salvage rights; -2 employer, -2 total modifier, roll is 5 (exchange) and then 7 (20%). 20% Exchange Rights, woof.
Support rights; +2 assault, -1 employer, +1 net; roll is a 10. 60% Battle Loss Compensation. HELLO.
Transport terms: +3 assault, -2 rep, net of +1 and roll is 7. 55%
Final Payment: (8131300[base] * 9 [mission months] * 1.5 [Op tempo] * 1 [Employer] * 0.9 [Rep]) + (8131300 [base] * 8 (transport months) * 1 [employer] * 0.9 [reputation] + 0 [support payment] + (0.55 [transport terms] * 54850000 [transport]) == 187, 508,000 C-bills
Subtract out 17 months of peacetime expenses and the transport payment and you're left with a profit of 110 million C-bills. Add to that 60% BLC and a small amount of salvage, and compare to the total equipment cost of the battalion of 143 million C-bills and this is more than fair. If you added in the Gazelle to the equip cost, the profit is 150 million C-bills; I still think including the dropships is going to massively inflate contract compensation unreasonably.
As it is, this contract is a very tempting 'all in' option; if the merc battalion can take and hold their target for 9 months, the huge profits, salvage they'll accrue, and the generous battle loss compensation means that even if the battalion is reduced to a tattered lance of light mechs they'll be able to rebuild at least as strong as they were before; any decent victory will put them at the top of the mercenary heap and able to begin thinking about expansion to two battalions, or acquire their own big dropship. Of course, if they fail... but that's Battletech, right?