System for guiding a Mercenary group into the Clan era?

[-Ice]

I'm starting to play BT and for a bit more involvement, I'm choosing to play as a mercenary company and track its progress vs. just using "house mechs" and doing pickup games.  I'm playing as game master for my 11 year old and we are starting small, just a lance in size, and in the pre-Clan era.  Maybe when we get to 2 or 3 lances, I'll have the Clans start dropping in.

I've had quite a bit of dilemma choosing between QSR, BattleForce, Alpha Strike, or normal rules for the game.  Luckily, my son loved the granularity of the QSR/normal rules and didn't like how his Enforcer (more range) ended up exactly like my Hunchback (more punch) on the Alpha Strike record sheets.  We have now played a few games with a few rules from the normal ruleset and working our way in.

My next issue is now to decide on a system for tracking the mercenary group's progress and generating new missions.  Initially, I was thinking of scorning the FM: Mercs and Strategic Ops nitty-gritty as the Total Chaos Warchest system looked easy to use.  I played Sword and Dragon years ago and liked it and I thought it would be perfect as a lighter version of all the record-keeping needed.  However, I had to create the mercenary group and draft the first contract using FM: Mercs (revised) system and the more I look at it, the more difficult it seems for me to convert from FM: Mercs to the Warchest system.  Also, I'm starting to find holes in the Warchest system that would not be there in the more-nittygritty FM: Mercs system.  Armor repair is one --- a fixed support point cost for repair might be quick, but I can't imagine repairing armor on one mech to be the same as replacing internal structure, weapons, actuator, and armor on another mech.  It seems that looking up individual mech costs and tracking down component cost and determining availability --- despite being more time-consuming --- would actually "make more sense" and perhaps even contribute to the immersion factor of the game.

Are my impressions wrong?  Is my thought process flawed?  Please share your experiences with the campaign and tracking systems in BT and I'd especially love to hear from others that play mercenary units.

Thanks!

[pheonixstorm]

I still enjoy some of the bookkeeping options found in Merc Handbook 3055 in regards to buying equipment and the like. In that book you buy 25 ton lots which has basic parts, ammo, etc. Makes a bit more sense than buy everything individually.

Mostly it will really depend on how much administrative work you are into. For a more realistic feel you could even grab the interstellar ops demos and use the system for tracking expenses from there (at least for upkeep and overhead).

Or if you don't want to track everything by hand grab a copy of MekHQ from the MegaMek forum (toward the bottom of the main page). It follows the FM:Mercs (Revised) rules and may make things a little neater. Handle the contracts, repair, pay and purchases from there and do the nitty gritty fights on the maps.

I have been playing BT since the early 90s so I have played by all 3 Merc rulebooks. They all play different and each has something unique that the others fail to cover (at least to my satisfaction).

I do suggest MekHQ for "Administrative" use as it will cut down on the paperwork and leave more time for actually playing the combat part. Even using HQ you can still copy the contract pages from the end of the merc book fill it all out before you plug the data in HQ if you enjoy role-playing the contract negotiations.

Also, for those times you are traveling and don't have the space (or don't want to pack all the books/minis) you can also use HQ to play out your campaigns on a laptop. Useful for vacations n such I would think.

Anyway, FM:Merc and StratOps would be the way to go. Might want to get Mercs 3055 if you can find it cheap enough.

Also, did you pick up all the free products off battlecorps.com?

Last item, if you feel like large scale regiment on regiment check out the BattleForce 2 rules in the StratOps book.

[-Ice]

Wow!  Thanks for the heads up on MekHQ!  That saved me from a lot of Excel programming!  It also double-checked my numbers and we've adjusted the contract CBill payment.  I'll now see how it deals with repairs and supplies.

Only problem is that we were left with 35BP after contract negotiations and MekHQ only awards a max of 10% sign-up bonus so I've had to GM-add the extra.

As for the free products, I've downloaded what I thought would be useful.... is there anything in particular you were referring to?

RE: BF rules.... we won't be doing large-scale battles anytime soon and my son doesn't like how things were abstacted/merged.


I think with the help of MekHQ and sheets and sheets of paper, I'll stay with the nitty-gritty and use  FM:Mercs and StratOps.  I think it'll be fun for us to be tracking armor points and ammo reloads --- I can only imagine fielding a Hunchback with less-than-full ammo or a Trebuchet with only two shots of LRM due to logistics problems.  It'll make us appreciate the "behind the scenes" stuff more.  Right now we are eyeing a BattleMech Recovery Vehicle but it is out of our budget, but later on, I can imagine us going to war with ammo trucks, coolant trucks, scout vehicles, etc. and this will make it just more than a "fight to the death with robots."

[pheonixstorm]

Yeah, HQ can help out a lot. I have been using it for a solo campaign since no one out in my area plays BT. The AI MegaMek uses isn't the best but it has gotten better. I started my campaign in 3000 and have been watching the progress from there. I also use the dependents rules from the last Merc Supplemental book so makes things interesting when your warriors and support staff starts dragging around families.

If you haven't started using Star League tech on your units you will find that you can also do the refit on units to bring them in line with the Clan period though you may be hitting "Advance Day" several times. It's nice not having so much paper to push sometimes but still have that level of micromanagement available.

Glad it could help.

As for the PDFs... Not any one in particular. Tac Ops may have some other rules you may be interested in if you don't have it already or haven't looked at it. There is a lot of history in the battletech universe so there's never a shortage of story material from a campaign perspective.

[Orion]

The dark side of the game - AccountantTech - is calling, and I welcome you into its fold!  Back in the day I tracked ammo reloads, armor sheeting, actuators, sensor suites, and even ejection seats for my unit.  It made running the unit much more interesting and fun to me, as without it, winning and losing just didn't have a real impact.  These days I don't track it in such detail for my stories, as I tend to go with whatever makes the story interesting.

I just keep a spreadsheet with the unit inventory in it, and add and subtract from that as needed.  MekHQ has a lot going for it, but I find I want to keep more detail than it allows about the inventory, as well as the damage sustained in battle.  I like the idea of the warchest system and find it great for a strictly tactical game with no storyline behind it.  Unfortunately, I just can't do that - I get too tied into the story and fluff, and can't go that abstract.  Knowing I have 25 tons/points/etc of stuff isn't enough, I want to know I have 3 tons of Armstrong AC5, and another 2 tons of Pontiac AC5, and that I have 3 spare medium lasers, but none fit in my Centurion.

[ndkid]

One of my three pet coding projects is a codification of BattleTech Mercenary rules. I tend to take long pauses from development when I realize I can't quite mesh together the Merc books with the Strat Ops books, and can't decide how I want to square the circle.  ;D

[Colt Ward]

I would actually say it comes down to do you want to read the headlines about the front from your sideline position or be the offscreen action in plot development events?

My mercs are coming up on a universe shaking event, the Jihad, where they start off in the Chaos March . . . and abandon the area as the universe burns.  Northwind isolated, Outreach occupied, the Protectorate forming and Operation Sovereign Justice are all making events in the area quite busy . . . and deadly.  They lose their land when they flee the forming Protectorate after hearing about Outreach, get caught up in some periphery skirmishes before seeking profit in the dissolution of the League.  In fact, I plan to have them on Gibson for Operation Vijay to attempt to survive that CF.

So it will sort of come down to where you want to be involved.  Extra guns hired for Vic to hit Twycross?  Disposable assets for the Dracs?  One of the few mercs holding to the Rassies- when do you fold?  As a company or so, you could end up tasked with a raid/probe of these alien forces behind the lines while hoping the extraction shows up.  Or maybe you were a FedCom merc sitting on the Capellan border knowing the veteran units in the area are being shifted away . . . and wondering when crazy Romano will try something.  Maybe you were even luckier than that, pirate hunting on the League periphery occasionally finding pirates or wannabe Romans (still pirates) poking across the border.