(Research) Refitting damaged units

[Saklad5]

In the refit rules provided on page 211 of the fourth printing of Campaign Operations, the refit class often depends on the components and equipment already present in a unit. When salvaging units after a battle, it is very likely that it will have significant damage, and also that the new owners may wish to perform a field refit to align it with their combat doctrine.

How are destroyed components treated for refit purposes? Are they treated as if they were intact, or are they not counted at all?

As an example, consider a BattleMech salvaged after the pilot ejected, missing a standard cockpit as a result. Would any refit from this point constitute a Class E refit, as a cockpit is being added? If not, would adding a different cockpit than it originally had still be Class E, even though there is no existing cockpit being changed?

If a BattleMech is missing a limb (or suffered a shoulder/hip crit), does a refit ignore that limb entirely or incorporate the time needed to replace it? If all components in an area have been destroyed, does adding different components in a refit constitute replacement (Class B) or new additions (Class C)?


Personally, I think it would be silly for the refit rules to encourage getting fresh replacement components only to immediately swap them out in a field refit. However, I also think it could be interesting to allow normally-intensive changes like engine or cockpit swaps to be easier due to having to replace them anyway.

[Xotl]

Interesting question.  I'll have to think it over and work up some tests.  If you have any specifics you think are relevant other than what you've posted above, feel free to add them.

[Saklad5]

One thing to consider here is the ability to salvage components ahead of time. For instance, if you're waiting on a few parts for a refit, you might take advantage of extra technician time by removing components you plan to replace, stripping armor you're going to swap for another type, and so on.

Depending on the ruling here, doing that separately may allow you to dodge much of the time multiplier imposed by a refit. If that were the case, it may be worth changing how the multiplier works such that it only applies to actual changes in the first place, not removals or repairs. Otherwise, that encourages doing it separately under all circumstances, which is just a lot of busywork.

What I'm proposing, in other words, is making it so tasks that are only possible with a refit (like adding new components) are added up separately from tasks that can be done individually (like removing or repairing existing components). The refit time multiplier would be applied only to the former (representing the necessary testing and recalibration), and the two resulting numbers could be added together to reach the final time.

[Saklad5]

For an example of how this could work, let's take a relatively common canon example: a Hunchback 4G during the Succession Wars with a fully-destroyed AC/20 and no front armor on the right torso. Since AC/20s were relatively scarce at that point, this often resulted in a refit to the Hunchback 4H.

For this to make sense, it's important that it is a field refit (Class B) and doesn't require the rare component being substituted for (an AC/20). So we could say that the missing AC/20, despite not having to be removed (note that salvaging an intact one would also result in it being treated as destroyed), is still present for the purpose of qualifying as a removal.

This is a Class B refit, so the time multiplier is 3. The steps and time involved would be:

• removing two AC/20 ammo bins from the left torso: (2*120) minutes
• adding two AC/10 ammo bins to the left torso: (2*120*3) minutes
• adding an AC/10 to the right torso: (120*3) minutes
• adding two Medium Lasers to the right torso: (2*120*3) minutes
• repairing front armor on the right torso: (20*5) minutes

That adds up to 2,140 minutes, including 340 minutes of work (removing ammo bins and repairing armor) that could be done separately before the refit begins.