BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Non-Canon Units => Topic started by: kaliban on 11 September 2019, 13:01:13
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I have 10M C-Bills and need to raise a combat unit for defensive urban warfare. I need to deal with invading mechs, combat vehicles and conventional infantry circa 3040.
I would like to have (at least) a full company of mechs and/or vehicles plus infantry, but the money is short.
What are your suggestions?
EDIT:
So far I am playing with:
4 Ligth AC/20 Carriers (custom design based on the Light SRM Carrier)
4 Light SRM Carriers (mod) - one less ton of ammo for increased front armor (32pts).
4 Wheeled Heavy APCs carrying 4 Motorized Infantry platoons (Rifle)
Total: 10.2 C-Bills / 5.6k BV2
It is working well to neutralize mech lances of about 6-7k BVs in urban maps. I am using 50/50 of common and inferno ammo in the SRM carriers.
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I am considering to use at least four Motorized Infantry Squads with AC20s (https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=66882.0), but they are not cheap to acquire (1.1M cbills)
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you won't get much 'mech for ten million. It's hard to get decent VEHICLE forces for that budget.
I suggest focusing on motorized squads and platoons, maybe some mechanized units, but focus on two things:
1. distribution
2. bang for your buck.
you need to be able to spread out and emplace, and you need the maximum kill for the Hbill.
to that end, analyze your city, determine the places an enemy 'mech or vehicle will want to go, and mine the everloving crap out of those areas, concentrate on concentric rings of preplanned demo, mine fields, and traps-places your platoon or squad can cross, that will collapse under (and trap) a combat vehicle or battlemech.
iow, yes, you want combat engineers to go with your dakka.
but my advice is next to useless, I'll almost always endorse lots of light infantry when your immediate C-bills aren't conducive to a better alternative.
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You can buy a company of Hetzers (mix of standard and SRM version) for just short of 8 million c-bills.
That, plus LOTS of foot rifle platoons.
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what about:
4 Hetzers AC/20
4 Light SRM carriers
4 Heavy Wheeled APCs carrying 4 Motorized Infantry platoons (or other combinations of foot and motorized)
sounds like a decent Armored Company to deal with a mercenary mech Lance with pretty low maintenance costs
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I'll echo the folks saying light infantry. Auto-rifles are ridiculously cheap, and so are Lyran or Davion armor jackets (not the full armor kits). Both yield Damage Divisors of 2 for quite low cost. Also, use squad deployment to the maximum extent possible. 7-trooper squads with just Auto-rifles do up to 4 points of damage each. If range is a concern, consider Intek Laser Rifles. They cost the same as regular Laser Rifles, but have 3/6/9 range vice 2/4/6. And simply slapping two of them into a squad keeps the damage up at 3 points with triple the range of the just plain Auto-rifles. If damage is what you're after, the cheapest way to increase that is Auto-Grenade Launchers. Throwing one into a regular squad of Auto-Rifles will increase the damage to 5 points with no movement penalty. If you're willing to reduce the squad to shoot or move, two will get the damage up to 6 per squad. Platoon deployment rules reduce the damage a bit.
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I would push to 20mil then get some urb's and SRM carries.
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invest heavily in Scorpion (SRM) light tanks. 466,458 C-bills each, 4/6 movement and they pack twin SRM's and three tons of ammo. half the cost, while each Scoprion has roughly the same durability as the Light SRM carrier, though about half the missile racks. most opponents can wreck light vehicles really fast even in the succession wars, so you might as well make your force twice as hard to kill by making them have to kill twice as many tanks and spreading those launchers out over the map where they have to spend more time hunting them down.
also it would more efficient to stick two foot platoons into the APC's than a single motorized platoon.
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I second the SRM-Scorpions and the APCs, I would go with the wheeled variant so shave off some 10,000 C-Bills and put that into foot rifle infantry. You can try equipping some of them with AC/5 field guns, which add longish range to your force. Then flesh out with combat engineers.
But really, 10M C-Bills isn't that much. Best 'Mechs to buy would be a lance of Stingers, but even those cost more than 1.6M C-Bills per piece.
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Just considering the Light SRM Carrier versus the Scorpion SRM variant. The first seems to pack much more firepower by c-bill.
Regarding the Field Guns, I would like to play with some platoons with one AC/20 but it costs 1.1M C-bills to raise
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Most platoons run in the 1M range, so that's really not out of line. Even straight Rifle Platoons run over 500K. That x2,000 multiplier is a killer.
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Most platoons run in the 1M range, so that's really not out of line. Even straight Rifle Platoons run over 500K. That x2,000 multiplier is a killer.
It goes against the concept that life is cheap in Battletech.
I have played with this motorized AC20 Field Guns a few times: they are quite hard to kill in a urban or forest environment, more than regular combat vehicles
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That's an issue with the rules... best to ask about it in the "Ask the Developers" sub-forum...
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That's an issue with the rules... best to ask about it in the "Ask the Developers" sub-forum...
I can understand the concept, you spend time and money to train infantry, so the "acquisiton cost" is high. On the other hand, the running costs are low.
Even so, I prefer to imagine conventional infantry as green conscripts barely trained. Highly trained soldiers take Battle Armor in Battletech
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Given the mortality levels, I wonder if there's some kind of 'recruitment bonus' involved, analogous to the old 'King's shilling' ... you may not live long enough to earn lots of pay, but here's some money for your family for you signing up ...
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manpower is cheap. The kit is not.
:)
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manpower is cheap. The kit is not.
"And finally, please die in a manner which ensures that your rifle is still usable by your replacement. Now, get on those carriers, you 'orrible lot!"
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I have made some playtest in Megamek and the Light SRM Carrier did well. The Hetzer always has problems due to the turretless design. Anyway, the combination of SRMs and AC20s is good for urban warfare
Looking at the Light SRM Carrier, I noticed that the 5 SRMs placed in the turret weights for 15 tons, so the turret can (theoretically) be adapted to carry an AC20 (in fact, even an UAC/20). The armor is thinner than in the Hetzer but maybe it is viable concept, if you reduce ammo and add somer extra armor to it.
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Lots of savanna masters are super cheap and can play havoc on attacks with their speed. Your mesh just had 8 hover tanks in the back arc, sucks to you.
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Lots of savanna masters are super cheap and can play havoc on attacks with their speed. Your mesh just had 8 hover tanks in the back arc, sucks to you.
also a good way to ensure that no player ever agrees to play you.
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I'd vote to get at least one Urbie, just because! :D
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Old Combat Equipment sourcebook has a listing of common equipment from 3060 era down.
BUT OTOH...
A Darter is faster, carries 3 tons costs 68,568 each, 800,000 for a non- Anti-Mech trained Auto Rifle Platoon.
Hint hint: $9,554,2480 C-Bills
or 11 units!
TT
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Old Combat Equipment sourcebook has a listing of common equipment from 3060 era down.
BUT OTOH...
A Darter is faster, carries 3 tons costs 68,568 each, 800,000 for a non- Anti-Mech trained Auto Rifle Platoon.
Hint hint: $9,554,2480 C-Bills
or 11 units!
TT
do you mean this one?
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Darter
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Eyup!
Neat huh?
A Scout car that masquerades as a APC!
TT
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I have made some Light Trucks (5ton, wheeled, no armor, 9/14 speed) that also carry 3ton of infantry. They cost some 7,000 cbills and have a BV of less than 10.
Sound suicidal but in a urban scenario, moving at 9/14 (+1 road bonus) you can easily move in a way that you get full cover until you disembark your troops - after that nobody will fire at these trucks unless you load troops again.
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Those three tons could be repurposed as 2.5 tons of armor (10 points per side) and one squad (if you use Fractional Accounting for the controls).