So far so good with the Against the Bot campaign, but I have a few questions:
- For Cadre Duty, I get three allied mechs under my control. I've seen some people claim that you should reduce the size of your own lance to three mechs while on this mission, so you don't exceed the 6 unit cap.
Is that correct?
Yep. So you could bring only a max of three Units in the Lance for yourself.
But basically: your campaign = your rules
I personally do just add one 'Mech to my Lance on cadre duties, hire the personal, add it to my TOE and treat those MechWarriors and their 'Mechs as part of my unit. So they gain some experience and develope. You need to get attached to those guys, don't you? I delete the 'mechs and MechWarriors when the contract is over.
- I am accumulating a lot of bonus civilian units, like small APCs and flatbeds, etc. as well as a lot of cheap foot infantry from the personnel market. All these units seem weak and have very low BV values. In a tabletop game they'd be good support units.
Is there any effective way to use them within the standard ATB rules? They don't seem capable of standing alone or worth a slot in a lance, but in a BV matched game they might be ok. ATB has slot limits though.
I'm aware of the special, manually rolled rules for bonuses from having an infantry in your TO&E, but I am more wondering how to use these low value units in general games. I can't even bring them in as reinforcements, unless I put them in my TO&E and give them "fight" or "scout" orders.
I don't want to add too much micromanagement / manual rolling or house rules and I don't want to "cheat"; would it be easier for me to just sell everything that can't justify a slot in a 4 unit lance, and just focus on mechs and powerful AFVs in 3-4 unit lances?
If you have the AtB rules box checked in your MHQ campaign options one infantry platoon counts as much as a 'Mech regarding lance size limits and for your Commander's command rating when it comes to retirement/defection at the end of a contract. The AtB rules have a line that you can put your infantry on defend orders and can use them in any battle where your lance is deployed as defender, so these obviously wouldn't count against your lance size limit (and lance weight as well). To avoid much micromanagement, create a force in your TOE, add your infantry to it and when you have a defender battle just deploy them. You still have to manage their deployment in the MM lobby as they are treated as reinforcements and will enter the game very late otherwise.
I also highly recommend using a mechanized infantry unit as medevac so you can potentially rescue a killed MechWarrior.
As I stated above, your campaign=your rules. It isn't really cheating if you want to throw in some infantry to spice up your MegaMek battles. It adds to the flavour and diversity and you can really come up with some nice scenarios where you have the infantry deployed in the center map and the 'Mechs come in as a rescue, guns blazing and stuff. Besides - we all love those little buggers and there is nothing more glorious in BT as conventional infantry flatening a big stompy robot - oh yeah! ;)
