Armed Force Breakdown for a Baron?

[kronovan]

I'm creating an adventure for ATOW where a Mandriss (Baron) controls a small valley roughly 50 square kms in size. He also owns a successful agricultural business HQ'd in the same valley, which mixes traditional land agriculture with modern high-tech methods. So other than a small town, a large village and an Agri-biz complex, all of the land is dedicated to agriculture. The valley is a flat-bottomed basin surrounded by lime stone karsks, that's bisected by a wide winding river. River canyons at either end of the valley are the only land access points into it - river itself can be transited.  The Mandriss has a manor -more of a stronghold really- which is built into the side of a karsk promontory that juts out about 3 kms from the surrounding cliffs - the only such formation and high ground in the valley.
 
The timeline of the events in the adventure is 3036, so the Late Succession Wars Renaissance era. The party of PCs (7 total) is tasked with conducting  surveillance on the Mandriss' Manor, but can only get their Mechs to within 2 km of any good observation point. This Mandriss has historical ties to House Liao, but his estate is on a world outside the Capellan Confederation. He has warm relations with the Viscount that governs the particular continent his estate is situated on, but cool -to- frigid relations with the Duke that governs the planet.  And the plot thickens...So with that sort of political dynamic and running a profitable company, I figure he sees the need for a force, but how big?

So far I'm thinking a mixed company of Battlemechs and Armor, with an additional mixed company of infantry and security detail. I imagine him having a Guard lance that patrols his manor, with a Patrol lance that patrols the valley and is joined by a lance of hovercraft Combat vehicles. The signature Mech of the Mandriss' ancestors is the Raven, so I'm thinking at least 2 of those in his Guard. One of my thoughts about the Guard, is that the precarious nature of the geological promontory would necessitate some, if not all, 'Mechs in the lance have jump jets. I envision his personal Infantry company as being on the large side and having 3 full-sized platoons. With at least 1 platoon to provide security to the Agri-biz operations, an infantry platoon split into 2 squads to patrol at the canyon access point and another more specialized, security platoon to provide Manor security.

So far all I have is his Guard Lance which is:

2 x Raven RVN 4X Light
1 x Dervish DV-6M Medium
1 x Catapult CPLT-C4 Heavy

I'm really not sure about the Patrol lance and Armor lance. I just know I probably want some heavier Mechs (can't imagine someone like the Mandriss affording Assaults) and hover Combat Vehicles that were used by House Liao and the CCAF; probably early SWs, but it could as early as Star League. I'm confident about coming up with a mized Infantry company that makes some sense.

If anyone can give any suggestions or feedback, it'd be much appreciated.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

As fiefdoms are not predictably scalable*, it's really going to boil down to whatever you like.


*= what I mean is this Barony, consisting of an entire sparsely settled continent, may have entirely different resources and needs for its Baron's private army than another Barony consisting of only a few square miles but located within the planet's lone megasprawl.   And the hierarchy itself is economically meaningless... a Barony may be wealthier than a Duchy.

[kronovan]

...
*= what I mean is this Barony, consisting of an entire sparsely settled continent, may have entirely different resources and needs for its Baron's private army than another Barony consisting of only a few square miles but located within the planet's lone megasprawl.   And the hierarchy itself is economically meaningless... a Barony may be wealthier than a Duchy.

Thanks for the feedback. Some other details about the Baron's/Mandriss' estate:

* I have 5 possible worlds this Barony can be set on, each in a different successor state; which 1 depends on where the players take the campaign. All 5 of them have nothing better than class 'C' for their USIIR Industrial Development and Output rankings; many are 'D'. They're all 'C' or better agricultural worlds; thus predominantly agrarian economies.

*The Viscount's continent is 1 of the smaller on the planet and he doesn't likely have more than 1 mixed 'Mecha and Armor battalion, and 1 regiment of infantry. They likely have a squadron, but it would be heavily biased towards VTOLs due to the rural/agrarian nature of the planet making SAR an important consideration.

* The Barony is far from the urban settlements on the continent -hence rural. As well, being on an agrarian world, those urban centers aren't large; small cities at best with the majority of citizens living in rural towns or villages, if not on farms.

[kronovan]

Whoops - accidentally quoted myself, but can't seem to delete. So ignore this.    :))

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Well again it largely ends up being whatever you want it to be.  Note that also factors in with how powerful/weak the Baron's private army is in comparison to other private armies and the Great House garrison that may or may not also be on-world.

But in a vacuum, I'd say that:

A Lance of Mechs for a largely agrarian Barony sounds about right.  If he's got more than a lance of mechs, either the Baron is probably particularly powerful or the world just has a lot of mechs in its private forces across the board.

A regiment of infantry is kind of light for my tastes, but if the population is low it certainly could be about right as there's only so many bodies the Baron can conscript.  Also: when people say infantry, they usually mean combat troops.  Most of any army is "tail" as opposed to "tooth", so if your private army has 1 regiment of "infantry" but 10+ more regiments of supporting noncombat troops, then that fits my vision of the BTU much better.  Of course, it's your game so YMMV.

If most of the barony is sparsely or unpopulated countryside, airmobility is more important.  Perhaps the Baron also owns a Leopard dropship to put his personal lance of Mechwarriors anywhere quickly, and his conventional forces include fast units like hovers so as to be strategically agile.  Really light tanks can be transported by Planetlifter class VTOLs, which probably combine like chocolate and peanut butter for such a Barony's private army.  Call the cream of the infantry jump troops or parachute capable and you've got quite a nice little force that can respond anywhere on a continental scale fairly rapidly to pirate or hostile border incursions by fellow nobles.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I'd honestly be surprised if a baron had even a lance of actual battlemechs.  I'd honestly be expecting 1-2. maybe 3 tops, with a lance (or perhaps company) filled out with armed industrialmechs.

[JadedFalcon]

The number and quality of mechs and other armed forces available will likely relate to the relative wealth of the noble(s) in control of them. This will likely coincide with how the localized distribution of wealth is weighed. For example, a world with a large underclass could see more wealth accumulated and redirected by the primary ruling elite (feudal ruler, corporate overlord, trade monopoly board of directors, military dictator, etc). So the percentage of the profit that is effectively controlled by the overlord will determine the quality and/or quantity of para-military forces under their employment.

Stipends and additional funding may be secured from governments and corporations on world subject to raiding and other combat, and could also affect the quality and quantity of troops available, while creating other liabilities such as debt or separate chains of command. Offworld sources of military support could include other benefactors with interests in the local economy. These can often be wealthier family and relations, or it could be other corporate, government, or even foreign powers with their own motives for arming their local agent. Powerful pirates looking to launder loot and establish safe havens could also be financial backers.

So if the baron's mech lance is propped up financially by a great house, they may have to do jobs for their backers that they aren't really thrilled about. And in a machiavellian universe, a pro-Capellan noble could easily be supported by other foreign governments, corporations, or agents pursuing their own interests in the region.

[Nav_Alpha]

So a couple factors: terrain, your core business for being and size/cost.

The terrain makes me lean towards jump equiped Mechs. Also, you’re a barony - not mainline regulars, so you’re going to use older gear, hand me downs and family owned Mechs.
And honestly - what would ever threaten you? Mostly these Mechs just keep the locals in line and paying taxes.

Also, based on terrain, I’ve got an interesting suggestion. Why not bulk up with heavy and assault tanks that are rarely deployed due to the terrain limitations. Instead, they operate more as pillboxes around the estate, occasionally rolling out as static defence.
Maybe two lances I’d Demolishers and Shrecks?

Your infantry is key - they’re your face and fist for keeping order and protecting/operating your ah industry.
I’d motorise or mechanise as much as you can and invest in some VTOLs if possible - now you’re highly mobile.

And for fun - why not include a fancy bodyguard unit that watches over their lord?

[DOC_Agren]

The era, that 1 lance of mech is pretty good for what he needs for personal protection
my question is does he pilot a mech, or a family member?

A nice "show" company of Heavy/Assault tanks: 4 Brutus Assault Tanks, 2 Demolishers 4 Shrecks 2 Heavy LRM Carriers.  Mostly deployed either at his Manor or business complex, unless we need a show.

I would have a mobile company of hovercraft used for rapid responce force: 2 Scimitar, 1 Saracen, 1 Saladin back by 8 Harassers

VTOL force of 4 Ferrets, 2 Warrior (gunships)

Then comes his infantry I would equip at least some in Tracked APC, including some up armed models for "crowd" control. 

Now can I ask what the PC's mission is?

[Archangel]

Aside from the obvious possible direct impacts that the Fourth Succession War and the Andurien Wars may or may not have on your campaign, there is the minor issue of Romano nationalizing most private property "for the good of the realm."  Going to be interesting how that plays out in your campaign (assuming you remain historically accurate - in a general sense of course).

[mikecj]

Maybe the Baron is being subsidized to provide the planetary garrison on a border world.  A company is reasonable then post-3030's.

Or "his' company is part of a march militia or home guard etc..

[Hellraiser]

I'd honestly be surprised if a baron had even a lance of actual battlemechs.  I'd honestly be expecting 1-2. maybe 3 tops, with a lance (or perhaps company) filled out with armed industrialmechs.

Agreed, and certainly not experimental Ravens that have only been in circulation for a decade.

I think a lance for a baron would be more likely......... Wasp-1L, Stinger-3R, Locust-1V, Vindicator-1R

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Certainly mechs with the "Ubiquitous" trait are more likely to show up in some Rando Baron's private forces than those that lack it.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Then again, how did they get the Barony?  Maybe they had a curious relic and served their lords well, and 'retired' keeping it and a lance.  Certainly justifiable to pick anything you want for a command machine, at least, if it's the Baron's own.  If you're gonna go maximum ubiquitous, I suppose Archer/Pixie/Bug/Bug would be the most common...hell that might make an actually effective combat force; the bugs spot for the archer while the PXH goes and does something useful to the enemy's scouts, and coordinates with the other ground forces.

[Kasaga]

Call it a Mechanized BN with an armor company and 2 of infantry. You could plus up adding reserve troops of 2 foot infantry battalions and a combat support battalion with a company of MPs, Engineers and Artillery. You could have a medium Lance if Older BattleMechs wouldn’t be out of place on the Barons residence.

This is based off of your 50sq KM plan. Remember that’s not a big area at all. I’d push more for a short BN of 2 companies of motorized Infantry at best.

If you bumped that up to around 200sq KM you could go with what I posted above.

If there was a large population then you can push up what I posted a bit.  This is all fluid but remember they need to support these troops so the infrastructure and supporting troops will number a lot more. 10 support troops for each trigger puller.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I hadn’t paid close attention to the area description, but yeah, that’s tiny.  Like, a modern US city with 20k people might be that big.  Why would a baron have such a small area?

[truetanker]

ArgoMechs, modified or not...

Should allow you your " Patrol "Lance!

TT

[glitterboy2098]

I hadn’t paid close attention to the area description, but yeah, that’s tiny.  Like, a modern US city with 20k people might be that big.  Why would a baron have such a small area?

actually that would be about right for a Baron.. in the successor states, a Baron is basically the lowest noble rank with any real political power attached to it.. and even then that wouldn't be much. they'd usually get a city or industrial center to rule, or something of equivalent importance and size.

a Lance of mechs, with maybe a company of lightish vehicles and a battalion or two of basic infantry would probably be about right. odds are anything bigger would be viewed as a potential for an uprising/rebellion.
though a Baron might well have the funds to hire a company sized merc unit as reinforcements should they be needed. but probably wouldn't unless there was a clear need.. such things are expensive after all.

[Hellraiser]

I would note a couple things.


1.  Some Baronies are entire planets.. IE.  Grayson Carlysle & Glendary.
Much like some Dukes are clusters of worlds... IE... Duke Ricole.


2.  Entire Planetary Militias often have 0 mechs, so saying that a 20KM area Baron has an entire lance is probably a bit much.
In all reality its probably a couple platoons of Infantry & a some APCs for transport.

[Kasaga]

One thing I was thinking about was the civil war on Epsilon Eridani during the FedCom Civil War between the Palatine of Duvic and the county of Shu.  Count Shu had damned near a full cluster of BattleMechs after reorganizing into clan Star/Binary organization fielding around 45-50 BattleMechs plus numerous regiments of infantry and battalions of armor.  I used this to scale down my estimate for a Baron as I stated above.  I wouldn't even think they had BattleMechs unless it was a well populated city with the tax income to afford such things. 

However, they could have 'Mechs especially if that was what you wanted for your story if the Baron had a largesh track of land for agriculture as you stated.  And if that was the case I would run.

Light-Medium 'Mech lance.
Mechanized Infantry Battalion (with organic Tank company) either hover or tracked.
a reserve battalion or two of foot infantry
a company or short battalion of VTOLs for transport/patrol
Mortars and towed artillery for indirect fire support. 

I would not include fixed wing conventional fighters or aerospace fighters.  and definitely no DropShips unless the Baron owned a shipping company like Archer Christofori

[Arkansas Warrior]

actually that would be about right for a Baron.. in the successor states, a Baron is basically the lowest noble rank with any real political power attached to it.. and even then that wouldn't be much. they'd usually get a city or industrial center to rule, or something of equivalent importance and size.

a Lance of mechs, with maybe a company of lightish vehicles and a battalion or two of basic infantry would probably be about right. odds are anything bigger would be viewed as a potential for an uprising/rebellion.
though a Baron might well have the funds to hire a company sized merc unit as reinforcements should they be needed. but probably wouldn't unless there was a clear need.. such things are expensive after all.

Give the population densities on IS world and a general feel for he number of noble, it can't be.  If worlds with tens or hundreds of millions of inhabitants had a noble for every town with 20k people, each with even a lance of mechs, there'd be brigades of mechs on every world.  That's 50 battlemechs per million people, on average.  I'm pretty sure the "cities" barons would be ruling over would have populations in the 6-7 figure range, minimum.  20k people might not even rate a knight.

[Daryk]

All politics is local... If it works that way on this one particular world, that's how it works...

[kronovan]

Many thanks for the excellent responses - lots of good feedback and it's led to me make some changes. I did make an error in my description of the Barony's land area; it's in the vicinity of 1000 sq kilometers. I believe I was thinking of the sqr km's of the townsite and agro-biz complex in my OP - oops!

The 2 Ravens are indeed relics and integral to the theme of the Barony setting, but I was errant in making them more recent variants - changed that. One of my challenges is that, although the main focus of this Barony is a setting for an ATOW RPG adventure, I do use Alpha Strike for any vehicle combat. The players have a Lance and a bit (4 lights + 1 medium), so part of my considerations for the Barony's forces is to make a decent challenge in the area of the manor/stronghold in the event that it comes down to a vehicle battle - unlikely though. And of course there's always the; "what mechs are actually in my collection."  ;)

My thoughts now are to go with my current idea of a Guard lance and to suss out some industrial mechs in the AS Master Unilt List that have stats to create a Patrol lance. Last time I checked though, there aren't many in the MUL that have been converted, so it's going to take some digging. As well, I'm no where fluent enough with the conversion guidelines in the AS Companion to covert any TW industrial mechs. In terms of Infantry, I'm thinking of keeping with a large standing company, but fill it out to a small battalion by adding some militia companies comprised of citizens.

Most of that is fluff though, with the Guard lance and a squad or 2 of the special security platoon at the stronghold, being the forces that are more likely to figure into actual game play. The most important thing is this Barony be a setting that the party of Player Characters can effectively roleplay and adventure in. I'm admittedly taking some liberty with the Battletech canon here, but bottom line is it's got to be fun a location to play in. On the other hand, I do have a few players that have played BT since the 90's and have read some of the books, so there's a bit of a limit to how far I can divert off on my own tangent.  ;)

[Giovanni Blasini]

Having 1000 square kilometers gives you much more room to work with, but I did want to point out how much you can pack into 50 square kilometers.

At the population density of Kenosha, WI (which is only 70 km^2) you can squeeze in 77 thousand people. Kenosha had multiple factories, including the HQ for Snap-On Tools, an entire auto manufacturer, and a clothing manufacturer. Oh, and a coal power plant.

[glitterboy2098]

actually i beleive most of the Industrialmechs have been given cards. they are just tricky to search for.
sarna to the rescue.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:Inner_Sphere_IndustrialMechs
i'm notsure what time period you are using, so i'll focus on stuff that can appear succession wars onwards:

i'd consider the ED-X2M Crosscut if you want cheap and easy to obtain.. it is a succession wars era MOD that yanks the cargo hoist off the common Crosscut logging mech to mount a vehicle flamer. so it should be available in just about any timeframe. combat wise it is pretty limited though. Sarna, MUL

if the Baron's lands include a fair amount of mining, you might be able to use the RCL-1M Dig King MOD, which is another succession wars era refit of a somewhat common industrial. in this case, pulling the rock drill and lift hoist for a pair of SRM4's and a pair of MG's.
Sarna, MUL

there is also the Lumbjeck LM4/P, which is a militia/support mech variant of a heavy forestry mech. it mounts an LRM10 and military grade armor, though it was pretty rare until the jihad. Sarna MUL

the Powerman XI-M MOD or XI-M-B are not a bad choice either, and ought to be easy enough to obtain chassis wise.. the powerman was a common cargo moving industrial mech in the IS before the succession wars, and the MOD's just pull the lift hoists and part of the cargo space for two Medium lasers and an MG (in the XI-M) or a pair of SRM4's 9in the XI-M-B) Sarna, MUL 1, MUL 2

[truetanker]

He's ( she? ) is a Farmer... not a Lumberjack(ette)!

So: http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter?Name=Harvester

TT

[Colt Ward]

People farm trees . . . and I am not talking about orchards.

If you are going with your Guard lance being real mechs, as someone mentioned you can always have armed IndiMechs involved . . . or go with Security Mechs.  They are hybrids in most cases and should be able to give your PC's lights a challenge while yielding parts that could be used to repair your PCs.  This let's the Mandriss milita have some bulk without being inconsistent with setting or being too big a challenge.  Also remember that immobile tanks make good strongpoints & OPs- the Chaos Irregulars have done it and we had a BC story about it being done in the OA.  The Agri-Biz could have four Scorpions around the perimeter for stongpoints.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Also consider that Mercs are considered ubiquitous.

Even the poorest (landed) noble has the resources to hire a lance of professional, self-equipped mechwarriors for the short term.