Maintenance's Facility

[imperator]

I'm wondering what constitutes a Maintenance facility. Can you have one mounted in a 300 ton Vehicle?  How big is it?  Can it fit in the Dropship 'Mech Cubicle?  A Cargo Bay?  Mobile Structure?

[Daryk]

Campaign Operations, page 211:

Maintenance Facility Refits
These refits require a Transport Bay (see p. 239, TM) for that unit type, or the equivalent, such as a field workshop or Mobile Field Base (see p. 142, TO:AUE).

[imperator]

So does this one get the -2 to repair, just under the Factory Facility?

[Daryk]

The footnotes on page 193 seem to be what you're looking for... My read is that transport bays get you 0 modifier.  "Facility - Maintenance" conditions seem to require a step up from that.  I would require a permanent facility with some (but not all) necessary machine shops attached.

[imperator]

Thank you, that gives me an idea of what a Maintenance facility will look like.  Continuing to work on idea of Lone Mechwarrior in the Periphery, with a 300 ton style recovery Vehicle /Trailer with a Full machine shop in the back.  Maintnence Facility reduces the TN by 2, fabricating a part gets a +2, (only up to C tech), no Team has +6 Mod, but Extra time may reduce TN by up to 4 for x16 hours.  How is my math Holding up.  Im thinking he has access to 21st century machining mill, and 23rd century metal/Hard Plastic printers capable of producing Solid State devices.

[Daryk]

I'm not sure where you're pulling that information from, but with references I'd buy that as your GM... :)

[imperator]

I'm not sure where you're pulling that information from, but with references I'd buy that as your GM... :)

Thank you.  I was wrong about the +6 TN for no Astechs.  Its only +4 (Taken from the Casualty Mod) in Strat Ops Pgs 169-172.  Fabrication rules are later in the same chapter.  Looks like you can also make ammunition, but it is C quality (Jams on To-Hit of 2). As for the equipment named, those are just off the top of my head.  If you have more official sources, pleas list it for me.  Thank all of you for your post!!

[Daryk]

Sounds like you have an OG version of StratOps.  Those rules moved to Campaign Operations.  The table with the casualty modifiers is right above the other one I cited on page 193.

[Hellraiser]

I believe there was a picture of one in the back of the original TRO:3025.

It was a massive structure that mechs could pull up & park in.

There is a vehicle that has a "Repair Bay/Mobile Field Base" in one of the newer TROs I think, maybe 3075 or 85 or 3150, I forget, but, that still isn't a Maintenance Facility.

I think that is the best your going to get.  The word "Facility" implies large building to me.  Mobile isn't really in that picture.

[Daryk]

The StratOps/CampOps definition is in the footnotes:

‡Complete shelter. Ideal conditions, available at any major base. Cannot build all parts from scratch, but enough resources are available to perform superior levels of jury-rigging.

[truetanker]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Paramour

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Mobile_Field_Base

Both of these are your best bet.



You could use MFB inside a Buffalo Superheavy Hover...
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Buffalo

TT

[Daryk]

Those are good, but only rise to "Transport Bay" quality as I read them.

[Hellraiser]

Yep, the Basic Paramour is just a repair truck, so only Class A-B refits.
The Regulan Variant with the MFB allows C-D just like the the base MFB model or any DS.
Those are all Clan Invasion or later inventions since the MFB is a new device as I've read it.

Honestly, Pre-3060, if your looking for mobile repairs you use a Repair truck of any type, if you want mobile field refits then a smaller dropship jumping forward to set up a FOB is your best bet on a campaign.
A Union keeps a dozen mechs in repairs at one time, plenty enough for a full battalion to keep on the move.

[truetanker]

Paramour is SLDF era old.

Industrial Exoskeletons are around, just not labeled. Given monikers as 3050 and such.

Funny, ever seen the MaxTech and MaxTech : Revised before?

Lower left hand corner, it's an ICEMech... holding a mech coolant hose for the then experimental Zues X!

No name, stats or anything else, Mechscale Searchlight, hands, bipedal, ICE powered. TSM more likely Industrial. Looks medium weight...

TT

[Hellraiser]

Paramour is SLDF era old.

That is correct, the Basic one is.
I was saying the Regulan Variant with the Mobile Field Base is from the Jihad.
The MFB was invented post clan invasion.

[Daryk]

Officially at any rate... ;)

[Weirdo]

The Wayland has an MFB, but is WAAAY before the Invasion. :)

[Daryk]

Cool... What do we need to errata? :)

[Hellraiser]

The Wayland has an MFB, but is WAAAY before the Invasion. :)

I found that one too.

Doesn't match the dates given for the MFB being a new creation.

But it does note that the Wayland went extinct in the 1st SW like the rest of the SLDF tech.

So technically it matches up with dates since it was "re-discovered" post Helm Core in 3059

A decade+ after the 2750 weapons, but right after Warship Drives & pre-Snubbie.   So it fits.

[Chinless]

Cool... What do we need to errata? :)

Tac Ops: AUE is at fault here. IO:AE p39 lists its availabilities as being F-X-E-D with a protype date of ~2540 (TH).

Chris

[Daryk]

Has anyone put that in yet?  I don't want to double-tap it! :)

[truetanker]

Wouldn't the Wayland be in Clan possession after all?

Meaning the Tech Caste would be in charge...

TT

[Chinless]

Wouldn't the Wayland be in Clan possession after all?

The design schematics, sure. The Waylands themselves were retired in 2715, so none would have been around to take on the Exodus.

Chris

[imperator]

So are weylands considered mech bay or Facility?

[Daryk]

Should be 'mech bay, as I read the rules.

[Hellraiser]

Yep,  its the same as being on a Leopard or other mech carrier ship.

Which saves you from having to have a DS follow you.

SLDF Decommissioned it in 2715 (not sure why) but the Houses kept them in operation till the 1SW destroyed them all.

[truetanker]

Maybe Paramour took over?

Savior is too new, OP:Bullbog

Looks like after the Wayland and Paramour disappeared, it was pretty much mech bench / Battletech Recovery vehicle bed and static solitary mechbays such as refit pads, factories and Dropships.

Then the Paramour MFB and Savior Repair.

TT

[Hellraiser]

Maybe Paramour took over?

Possible, though, there used to be something called "Repair Truck" which IIRC had some sort of crane/lift & there is some art around here, maybe from Mercs Handbook, I forget.
It was essentially a "generic" version of the Paramour or something like that.  Techs took it out & it had all the tools needed to do field repairs.
Sure it wasn't a full Mech Bay like the Wayland or later era units, but it still did repairs in the field for armor/ammo/etc etc.

[truetanker]

JI-50 "Jifty" Transportable Field Repair Vehicle
Jl-100 TFB

Basically, a lift hoist weights 3 tons, 1 vee crit and can carry or lift half the host carrier's weight.
So even a 20 ton wheeled lift can handle an Atlas's torso, dissembled of course.

Though I wished they made a RS for a Flatbed Truck with a Hoist.

TT

[Hellraiser]

JI-50 "Jifty" Transportable Field Repair Vehicle
Jl-100 TFB

Like the Savior, those are both way later.  (CW/Jihad)

[truetanker]

So, in conclusion:

SL-era Wayland, Factory, Repair Pads and Paramour
SW-1 / 2 same, then gone
SW-3 / 4 Dropships, Factory and Repair Pads
Clan Invasion- same, Savior, and limited Paramour production
Jihad /WoR- Jl-50 "Jifty" and Jl-100 Transportable Field Repair units
3100 / 3150- unknown...

TT

[Hellraiser]

Yeah, though, as stated, most any "big" base is going to have a Maintenance Facility for the unit stationed there.

Maybe not on some agriculture farming world that hires a single mech lance, but if your on garrison duty on the same world as an RCT then its likely a big base.

Any world that sports a factory of any stripe probably also has some mech bays near by even if its not actually a mech factory.

Not every world will have one, but, "big ones" likely would.

Anything that sports a "Fort Whatever" location that dates back centuries to the SLDF era.

The Wayland & others don't really give you anything that a Recovery Vehicle & a Leopard doesn't give you, and in a lot of ways its less.

It travels w/ your support caravan but also is tied to that slow rate & can't actually reposition quickly w/o DS support anyway.

A unit w/o DS support & garrisoning some backwater world would want one but anyone in the core of the IS or any regional HQ area with any size to their unit would probably be fine w/o having a "Repair Bay on Treads".


Because I'm curious, I'm looking at a map of the Kathil PDZ.  8 Worlds, and purely from memory w/o reading up on any of them, I'd be willing to bet that 5 of them have a decent chance of sporting a Maintenance Facility on them just from recognizing their names as Factory, Training Base, Regional HQ, Etc etc worlds.

That seems like a lot, but, I figure at least 1-2 in any PDZ/Operations Area can lay claim to one so units can do some annual maintenance cycles.

Beten Kaitos
Emerson
Talcott
Smolensk
Kathil
Monongahela
Salem
Novaya Zemlya

Anyway, I just had to take a look and see how many in a specific area I recognized.

[SCC]

No, mobile field bases are more useful then you'd think, if only because you can repair the unit where it is instead of forcing it to travel for hours back to the DropShip for repairs and then still more hours to get back to the front.

[Hellraiser]

I don't disagree, but that comes with a very big caveat in that you have to have WON the fight & then completely secured the area to the point that the enemy won't be able to show back up & get your MFB.

Given the speed of those things its not like they are running away from anyone, well, maybe infantry.
And with their mass they all off load from DS as Cargo so I'm still not seeing them as something a "raiding" force uses.

Heck, I'm not sure they would even be assigned at Battalion level, I can see why the SLDF used them they deploy DIVISIONS with hundreds of mechs to a single world.  So there, yes, I would agree.

[SCC]

No, even if you lose/are forced to fall back, because (nominally) in BT the losing party is forced to disengage before suffering catastrophic losses.

[truetanker]

If you and a buddy have a pair of Hands, your good to go on dragging back at half speed.

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

TT

[Hellraiser]

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

Mech sized sand castles.........

[Daryk]

Hands are one of the things I think should be standard on ALL 'mechs...

[Hellraiser]

Hands are one of the things I think should be standard on ALL 'mechs...

I get why things like the Locust/Rifleman exist..........  previous art & images, etc etc.
Even some for variety sake  (Stalker)

The ones that get me is where previous stuff had hands & they removed them  (Wasp/Valkyrie)  or   just lopping off 1/2 hands on a mech that seems like it should have them....  (Assassin/Whitworth)

Basically I get "armless" designs, but "fingerless" models bother me.  Like what did that save you?

[Daryk]

Especially before things like Endo and Ferro.

[SCC]

If you and a buddy have a pair of Hands, your good to go on dragging back at half speed.

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

TT

And now you're down 3 'Mechs instead of one and can't fall back very fast.

[Daryk]

Hence "non-battle" purposes...

[Mostro Joe]

I believe there was a picture of one in the back of the original TRO:3025.

Yeah good point. That's one!

I think they are one step higher than the drpships cubicles.

That's why I do not understand why in CO those structures were awarded some strange bonuses that had nonsense (a free "repair order"... it has n sense as the rules are written). The conquering of such a structure should be indeed an advantage PER SE, due to the high bonuses provided, very good modificators conferred and the ability to build from scratch some spare parts.

[Hellraiser]

I think they are one step higher than the drpships cubicles.

IIRC the rules difference is that they do the same "level" of repair & refit but that the "Facility" gives you a +2 on the role v/s the DS Cubicle which doesn't.

Similar to how a "Refit" & a "Customization" use the same rules for the most part but a canon refit kit gives you a bonus to the role v/s custom work does not.


For example:

Slapping some DHS & ERPPCs onto a Warhammer-6R in a Dropship would be Custom & "Repair Bay"
Where as, using a Factory Refit Kit from Defiance at a Planetary "Maintenance Facility" would net you the same DHS & ERPPC, but also some Pulse Lasers too, & would be a +2/+2 = +4 to the tech roll.
Or something like that, I don't have the rules in front of me but I know "Refit Kit" & "Facility" were both "safer" to to than "Custom" & "Repair Bay" despite giving you an overall similar level of tech upgrade.

Kits cost a bit more than the total in parts IIRC which is why they give you a bonus but also are limited to canon designs.
They are also quite useful in that they let you do a "Factory" grade in a "Bay" where as custom work can't be done in the same conditions.

"Why yes, I would like you to ship me an Endo Steel frame for my Valkyrie-QA to turn it into a QD & get it done w/o having to go to a factory"

[Mostro Joe]

IIRC the rules difference is that they do the same "level" of repair & refit but that the "Facility" gives you a +2 on the role v/s the DS Cubicle which doesn't.

Similar to how a "Refit" & a "Customization" use the same rules for the most part but a canon refit kit gives you a bonus to the role v/s custom work does not.

Yeah exactly that. That's why I was saying that to have a facility is an advantage yet ruleswise.