First Merc Unit (build) in over ten years

[Face]

 For starters, what is the current set of books and rules for building a merc unit out for play with regular rules, not Alpha.

[Feenix74]

As a fellow returnee, welcome back  :thumbsup:

For starters, what is the current set of books and rules for building s merch unit out for play with regular rules, not Alpha.

Select a Clan Sea Fox / Diamond Shark unit from the Touman. Then use RAT to fill it out the Order of Battle, then the hard work of figuring out what merchandise you are going to peddle to other Clans and the Inner Sphere :P

Seriously, try Battletech Campaign Operation manual (CAT35007) with beautiful "classic" Marauder in Gray Death Legion colours on the cover.

[mbear]

For starters, what is the current set of books and rules for building s merch unit out for play with regular rules, not Alpha.

I'm going to assume that "merch" is a typo, and you meant "merc". AFAIK, the most recent rules are in the Campaign Operations book. You can get this as a PDF. There may be some spreadsheets that you can download to help with the accounting part of the game.

Older versions of the rules can be found in Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised.

[Face]

Thank you both. I know from glancing through the catalog and my own resources there are a number of Mercenary ____ books, and while most seem like fluff or additional resources for information, they are not rule supplements. Everything is in CampOps now?

[Sartris]

Campaign Operations now has the build a unit rules

[Face]

I am only about 20 pages into this book (CamOps) and in love with the [high] volume of sarcasm already... I miss this stuff.

[Kilderkin]

My merc force was built with a mixture of campaign operations and using XOTL’s random assignment tables for the given era as well as for average weight distribution. You can use them to roll for mechs or just as a guide for what the current flavour was.

I use MekHQ to keep track of it all.

[Moonsword]

I tend to use random tables and the Warchest system (different chapter although I use Wars of Reaving or Total Chaos as baselines), plus an Excel spreadsheet.  Less fine grained tracking, which can be good or bad depending on what you want.

[Robroy]

Learning to use a spreadsheet for my combined arms regiment was the best thing I could have done. Though I was surprised that salaries and maintenance ran a little over two million a month.

[Major Headcase]

I'm so old and out dated!! 🤣 I STILL uses 1616 Mercenaries Handbook... 😂😂😂

[Robroy]

I'm so old and out dated!! 🤣 I STILL uses 1616 Mercenaries Handbook... 😂😂😂

I am in the same boat. I use Mercenaries Handbook 3055. Though there are  a couple more reasons, they being.
 I don't have the new books.
 Even if I get them i am not redoing my spreadsheets.
So for me you can add stubborn to old and out dated.

[mbear]

Thank you both. I know from glancing through the catalog and my own resources there are a number of Mercenary ____ books, and while most seem like fluff or additional resources for information, they are not rule supplements.

Yes. The Mercenaries Supplemental 1 and 2 books provide profiles for mercenary units that others have created. So if you need a quick look at various forces for inspiration, there you go. Field Manual: Mercenaries is largely the same thing (I think ~75%), but also contains rules for creating units, negotiating contracts, etc. as well. The unit creation rules in FM:Mercs have been replaced by the rules in Campaign Operations.

Mercenaries Supplemental 3 focused more on the "dark side" of the BT mercenary trade. Those mercenaries who were pirates or some other kind of ******. They also updated some of the mercenary unit briefs. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think there were rules for generating your own force of ****** pirates in there too. Again, rules for creating your own pirate ****** were replaced by the ones in Campaign Operations.

[cray]

I am only about 20 pages into this book (CamOps) and in love with the [high] volume of sarcasm already... I miss this stuff.

Glad I could entertain. Note there are a number of erratas and fixes for the rules posted already. If there's something confusing about the force creation and operation rules, feel free to PM me (I can take a number of days to respond) or ask in the supplementary rules forum.