My only real qualm is in the OPFOR BV budget. Basically, you will always have somewhere between 80-150% of your own BV, depending on skill level, but in virtually every mission you'll be facing nearly the same BV.
That's more or less accurate, but only for the base opfor size. There are many mechanisms that affect the relative size of the opfor:
- Scenario modifiers
- Reinforcements from previous linked scenarios (both yours and theirs)
- Reinforcements from facilities that haven't been engaged
- Presence of allied forces
- The ever-beloved liaison/house units/cadre guys
Remember also that you can arbitrarily reinforce a scenario with any lance you haven't committed to another scenario to drastically change the odds in your favor. This has a tradeoff, of course, but it's a great way to skew the BV ratio in your favor dramatically.
For example, I just had three scenarios pop in the same track (during a planetary assault).
Scenario 1: Convoy Escort. The opfor was an assault lance and a bunch of tanks. The allied tanks (and, uh, half the convoy) absorbed a lot of the incoming fire, so my lance (an assault, two heavies and a medium) was mostly intact while the opfor wound up with just the three assault mechs, a pair of beat-up phoenix hawks and two Vedettes. We also got three support points by preserving three out of the five convoy vehicles (I keep telling them, it's not my fault that bot-controlled pre-Star League museum piece Shadow Hawk and his "Killjoy" ordnance carrier buddy went charging at two Awesomes and a Battlemaster).
Scenario 2: Assassination. My (assault-assault-heavy-medium) lance, with the help of an allied medium mech lance, not only blew the assassination target to bits (ammo explosion), but completely exterminated the opfor. Well, there were some crippled units that got off the field, but they can't reinforce. My heavy mech took an engine/gyro combo crit, so he can't reinforce, either.
Scenario 3: Harass. The opfor is about 220% of my lance, but I roll a "good intel", so one of the opfor lances gets removed. I also choose to reinforce this scenario with the non-crippled units from the escort and assassination linked scenarios. So now, the opfor will initially be about 180% of my guys (although, it's basically a chase scenario). However, once my reinforcements from the linked scenarios show up, it'll be much closer to even. We will have to fight those three assault mechs, the beat-up pixies and the Vedettes from the convoy escort, but my guys arrive before them as my mechs are faster and my battle commander has decent strategy, so I'll be able to get set up for a good turkey shoot.
So, scenario 3 may turn from a standard chase scenario to a bloodbath. I also could have chosen to just reinforce with the units from scenario 2 if I didn't want to fight the Awesomes and Battlemaster. And, if I wanted to, I could also blow one or more support points on some allied reinforcements (except under independent command). Lacking support points, I could convert my VP/contract score to support points and call in some allied backup as well.
So, basically, what I've hopefully done is given the player more control over the difficulty and pacing of a given contract.
That being said, I may explore giving the player more ways to modify the BV budget for the opfor going forward. I'll admit that my testing has been using company and battalion-size units in the 3025 era (I'm in the middle of the Ronin Wars currently), so we'll see how I do when the clans show up.
You'll also be happy to know that it's still possible to wind up facing a mostly/all tank force and then have a tornado come up. Free win!