So the standard rules indicate that a taurian infantry squad is ten men, with three such squads making up a platoon.
But there is a smaller Taurian infantry unit, the maniple, composed of five guys, two such units making up a squad. In fact, prior to field manual periphery, a Taurian infantry platoon was composed of twenty five men (always listed as two squads, presumably the last five guys were a command maniple).
So, what if, instead of using ten man squads for our "squads", we used the five man maniples instead?
What do you think, too cheesy? Does the fact that a five man squad doesn't have the numbers to use pairs of some of the heavier weapons balance out the shear number of support weapons you could add to the unit? Is this a reasonable justification for fitting the old pre-field manual taurian platoons into the current rules?
Which would you rather use?
I say keep Taurian squads at the "2 Maniples/10 Troopers" level. They're already getting a boost by having 2 extra troopers at the platoon level, plus even if want to deploy at the maniple level it will allow you to deploy a support weapon with each Maniple.
What I would like to see, however, is allow them to have more troopers in the "Mechanized" Infantry Platoons (i.e. Hover, Tracked & Wheeled). There's precedent for them having larger platoon sizes than other powers -- not only do they have the extra 2 troopers per regular platoon, but their Jump Infantry Platoons are 43% larger (30 troopers vs. 21). Plus, it makes no sense for them to switch from a "3 squads per platoon" structure for regular infantry to "4 squads per platoon" for Mechanized. Plus, the limitation of 5 troopers/squad, 4 squads/trooper means that Taurian Mechanized Infantry platoons end up with
less troopers than other Inner Sphere units (20 max, vs. 28 troopers for a Mechanized/Tracked AFFS platoon).
Also... a house rule I have is that conventional infantry platoons can have more than 2 support weapons per squad, they just pay a heftier penalty in movement:
- 3 support weapons per platoon: Jump/Motorized Infantry have 1 MP; Foot Infantry can still move or fire in a given turn, but also require an extra turn to "switch" between movement & combat modes; Mechanized Infantry lose 2 MP but are otherwise unaffected
- 4 support weapons per platoon: Jump/Motorized Infantry can move or fire in the same turn, but not both; Foot Infantry require two turns to switch between movement & combat; Mechanized Infantry lose 3 MP
- 5 support weapons per platoon: Jump/Motorized Infantry can move or fire in the same turn, but not both, & require 1 turn to switch modes; Foot Infantry require 3 turns to switch modes; Mechanized Infantry lose 4 MP
- 6 support weapons per platoon: Jump/Motorized Infantry can move or fire (but not both) in a turn, & require 2 turns to switch modes; Foot Infantry require 4 turns to switch modes; Mechanized Infantry lose 5 MP
- For Mechanized Infantry, once they are reduced to 0 MP, they can only fire or move during the same turn. Any further reduction in MP means they need a turn to switch modes
- While a platoon is switching between modes, it can neither fire nor move.
- Crew limitations still affect the maximum number of support weapons per squad
Example 1: Building an AFFS Mechanized (Wheeled) Infantry Platoon (6 troopers/squad, 4 squads/platoon; 24 troopers total). Deciding to go all out, Joe Bob decides he wants a super-heavy, hard-hitting unit, & decides that every trooper is going to carry the David Light Gauss Rifle (crew size 1E). Following normal construction rules, the range brackets (including the +1@0 hexes for the "1E" crew size) are the same as LRM Infantry (-1 @ 0 hexes, 0 @ 1-3 hexes, +2 @ 4-6 hexes, +4 @ 7-9 hexes; max range 9 hexes). Total platoon damage is 13 (24 Support Weapons x 0.56 = 13.44, rounded down to 13), with damage per trooper as per the Machine Gun row (1 @ 1-2, 2 @ 3-4, 3 @ 5-6, 4 @ 7-8, 5 @ 9, 6 @ 10-11, 7 @ 12-13, 8 @ 14-15, 9 @ 16, 10 @ 17-18, 11 @ 19-20, 12 @ 21-22, 13 @ 23-24). Movement-wise, the platoon can either fire or move during a turn (1 MP), but requires 1 turn to switch between movement & firing (4 MP base - 5 MP for 6 Support Weapons/Squad = -1; at 0 MP they can move or fire; 0 - (-1) = 1, so 1 turn to switch modes). Cost per trooper is 154,919.33385 C-Bills (6000^0.5 = 77.459667), so final cost is 11,897,805 C-Bills (154,919.33385 x 24 troopers/platoon x 3.2 multiplier). Defensive BV is 36 (1.5 x 24 x 1.0). Offensive BV is 43.9344 (3.39 David Light Gauss x 24 x 0.54); Mechanized can't make Anti-'Mech attacks. Final BV is 80 (36 + 43.9344 = 79.9344, rounded to 80).
Example 2: Not being satisfied, Joe Bob decides instead to equip his platoon with the King David Light Gauss Rifle. Because of the crew size (2), he can only assign 3 per squad, so the remaining 3 troopers are issued Federated Long Rifles. The range bracket still mirrors that of LRM Infantry as above. Total platoon damage drops to 12 (12 x 0.68 + 12 x 0.35 = 8.16 + 4.2 - 12.38, rounded down to 12), so it mirrors the SRM Infantry row (0 @ 1, 1 @ 2-3, 2 @ 4-5, 3 @ 6-7, 4 @ 8-9, 5 @ 10-11, 6 @ 12-13, 7 @ 14-15, 8 @ 16-17, 9 @ 18-19, 10 @ 20-21, 11 @ 22-23, 12 @ 24). In this case, however, the platoon can fire and move in the same turn, with 2 MP (4 MP base - 2 MP for 3 Support Weapons/Squad = 2 MP). Each King David trooper costs 178,885.43820 C-Bills, & each Federated trooper costs 21,908.90230 C-Bills, so the final cost is 7,710,503 C-Bills. Defensive BV is 36 (1.5 x 24 x 1.0). Offensive BV is 38.844 (4.12 x 12 = 49.44; 0.86 x 12 = 10.32; 49.44 + 10.32 = 59.76; 59.76 x 0.65 = 38.844). Final BV is 75 (36 + 38.844 = 74.844, rounded up to 75).Note that a standard platoon with the King David would have BV of 81, with the David BV 76, & both would have 4 MP. Costs would have been 5,087,671 C-Bills with the David, 5,701,203 C-Bills with the King David. That's because although these platoons do more damage (standard David would do a max of 10 points, King David 11 points), they're not as maneuverable in battle. So the extra benefit from extra support weapons ends up being balanced out by the reduced mobility.
