Maintenance's Facility

[truetanker]

So, in conclusion:

SL-era Wayland, Factory, Repair Pads and Paramour
SW-1 / 2 same, then gone
SW-3 / 4 Dropships, Factory and Repair Pads
Clan Invasion- same, Savior, and limited Paramour production
Jihad /WoR- Jl-50 "Jifty" and Jl-100 Transportable Field Repair units
3100 / 3150- unknown...

TT

[Hellraiser]

Yeah, though, as stated, most any "big" base is going to have a Maintenance Facility for the unit stationed there.

Maybe not on some agriculture farming world that hires a single mech lance, but if your on garrison duty on the same world as an RCT then its likely a big base.

Any world that sports a factory of any stripe probably also has some mech bays near by even if its not actually a mech factory.

Not every world will have one, but, "big ones" likely would.

Anything that sports a "Fort Whatever" location that dates back centuries to the SLDF era.

The Wayland & others don't really give you anything that a Recovery Vehicle & a Leopard doesn't give you, and in a lot of ways its less.

It travels w/ your support caravan but also is tied to that slow rate & can't actually reposition quickly w/o DS support anyway.

A unit w/o DS support & garrisoning some backwater world would want one but anyone in the core of the IS or any regional HQ area with any size to their unit would probably be fine w/o having a "Repair Bay on Treads".


Because I'm curious, I'm looking at a map of the Kathil PDZ.  8 Worlds, and purely from memory w/o reading up on any of them, I'd be willing to bet that 5 of them have a decent chance of sporting a Maintenance Facility on them just from recognizing their names as Factory, Training Base, Regional HQ, Etc etc worlds.

That seems like a lot, but, I figure at least 1-2 in any PDZ/Operations Area can lay claim to one so units can do some annual maintenance cycles.

Beten Kaitos
Emerson
Talcott
Smolensk
Kathil
Monongahela
Salem
Novaya Zemlya

Anyway, I just had to take a look and see how many in a specific area I recognized.

[SCC]

No, mobile field bases are more useful then you'd think, if only because you can repair the unit where it is instead of forcing it to travel for hours back to the DropShip for repairs and then still more hours to get back to the front.

[Hellraiser]

I don't disagree, but that comes with a very big caveat in that you have to have WON the fight & then completely secured the area to the point that the enemy won't be able to show back up & get your MFB.

Given the speed of those things its not like they are running away from anyone, well, maybe infantry.
And with their mass they all off load from DS as Cargo so I'm still not seeing them as something a "raiding" force uses.

Heck, I'm not sure they would even be assigned at Battalion level, I can see why the SLDF used them they deploy DIVISIONS with hundreds of mechs to a single world.  So there, yes, I would agree.

[SCC]

No, even if you lose/are forced to fall back, because (nominally) in BT the losing party is forced to disengage before suffering catastrophic losses.

[truetanker]

If you and a buddy have a pair of Hands, your good to go on dragging back at half speed.

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

TT

[Hellraiser]

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

Mech sized sand castles.........

[Daryk]

Hands are one of the things I think should be standard on ALL 'mechs...

[Hellraiser]

Hands are one of the things I think should be standard on ALL 'mechs...

I get why things like the Locust/Rifleman exist..........  previous art & images, etc etc.
Even some for variety sake  (Stalker)

The ones that get me is where previous stuff had hands & they removed them  (Wasp/Valkyrie)  or   just lopping off 1/2 hands on a mech that seems like it should have them....  (Assassin/Whitworth)

Basically I get "armless" designs, but "fingerless" models bother me.  Like what did that save you?

[Daryk]

Especially before things like Endo and Ferro.

[SCC]

If you and a buddy have a pair of Hands, your good to go on dragging back at half speed.

Hands come in handy for non-battle purposes, Construction, Repair, Fieldworks etc.

TT

And now you're down 3 'Mechs instead of one and can't fall back very fast.

[Daryk]

Hence "non-battle" purposes...

[Mostro Joe]

I believe there was a picture of one in the back of the original TRO:3025.

Yeah good point. That's one!

I think they are one step higher than the drpships cubicles.

That's why I do not understand why in CO those structures were awarded some strange bonuses that had nonsense (a free "repair order"... it has n sense as the rules are written). The conquering of such a structure should be indeed an advantage PER SE, due to the high bonuses provided, very good modificators conferred and the ability to build from scratch some spare parts.

[Hellraiser]

I think they are one step higher than the drpships cubicles.

IIRC the rules difference is that they do the same "level" of repair & refit but that the "Facility" gives you a +2 on the role v/s the DS Cubicle which doesn't.

Similar to how a "Refit" & a "Customization" use the same rules for the most part but a canon refit kit gives you a bonus to the role v/s custom work does not.


For example:

Slapping some DHS & ERPPCs onto a Warhammer-6R in a Dropship would be Custom & "Repair Bay"
Where as, using a Factory Refit Kit from Defiance at a Planetary "Maintenance Facility" would net you the same DHS & ERPPC, but also some Pulse Lasers too, & would be a +2/+2 = +4 to the tech roll.
Or something like that, I don't have the rules in front of me but I know "Refit Kit" & "Facility" were both "safer" to to than "Custom" & "Repair Bay" despite giving you an overall similar level of tech upgrade.

Kits cost a bit more than the total in parts IIRC which is why they give you a bonus but also are limited to canon designs.
They are also quite useful in that they let you do a "Factory" grade in a "Bay" where as custom work can't be done in the same conditions.

"Why yes, I would like you to ship me an Endo Steel frame for my Valkyrie-QA to turn it into a QD & get it done w/o having to go to a factory"

[Mostro Joe]

IIRC the rules difference is that they do the same "level" of repair & refit but that the "Facility" gives you a +2 on the role v/s the DS Cubicle which doesn't.

Similar to how a "Refit" & a "Customization" use the same rules for the most part but a canon refit kit gives you a bonus to the role v/s custom work does not.

Yeah exactly that. That's why I was saying that to have a facility is an advantage yet ruleswise.

[Colt Ward]

Having worked around field repair facilities and in machine shops these rules sometimes make me want to roll my eyes.  As long as you have a appropriate lathe and a few other bits of equipment all you need is time and materials to repair or even craft replacement parts.

Lathes, calipers, industrial press, scaffold/structure, and jigs/dies will over time allow you to build what you need.

[Daryk]

Did you work in aviation maintenance?  Titanium is a whole other ball game...

[Colt Ward]

Still gets cut on a lathe, processes may adjust and your cutting implements may change- diamond tip vs tool steel, etc- but the method is the same.  Patriot's stand even gets into some of the basic machine tools needed to work on mechs when they pull things out of the junkyard.  Parts are formed by cutting, pressing/stamping, bending, heating, or casting; the important parts are knowing what is the best way to work on the material and often times does heat alter it's composition- FREX some alloys will separate with heat because their alignment is un-natural in the process they are created with.  Stainless steel is the easiest example that comes to mind- heat it up enough, like with a cutting torch- and the alloy will break down, forget the fancy name.

The other consideration is tolerances/precision measurements, which is why computer operated lathes, drills, etc were created b/c they can get more precise tolerances than a hand operated machine and because the computer controls the process you can repeat the process to the same narrow tolerances than you could if by hand.

FREX, any machine shop with a lathe- even a hand model instead of one of the computer controlled- could make gauss rifle rounds . . . but it would be more expensive b/c of the waste in material sliced off the stock rather than using cast gauss slugs.

As Hellraiser points out a customization vs a kit based refit's difference is not in the parts (mostly) it is that the kit comes with instructions, has been done before, and standardization in fittings is maintained.  A customization team could achieve the same result without looking at a kit's instructions or having their parts but the process would take longer and cost more due to errors crafting from materials, having to adjust the parts to operate together, and just crafting everything from the back of a napkin to finished part.

[Hellraiser]

I would note that per the most recent errata the Maintenance Facility does have Fabrication Ability, just not for 100% of the parts.


Meanwhile, this bit came up last week.

So I read that the Kell facility on Arc Royal has been clarified to NOT be a full Factory in 3028 when the Wolfhound was produced.

And that some story of Morgan watching mechs come off the assembly line was actually mechs going through "Refurbishment" at the Kell facility because it wasn't a full factory.

Here is where it gets interesting.

Strat Ops has a "Refurbishment Kit" that is designed to increase the "quality" of the mech by 1 grade.

All mechs need these eventually because over time as they take damage & get repaired they lose "quality" which has nothing to do with the model of mech & is just a "wear & tear" or "metal stress" type thing.

Here is the interesting bit.

That "Refurbishment Kit" actually NEEDS a Factory to be done.

So one must ask, how was the Hounds facility NOT a full factory if they were doing Refurbishments?

My guess is the Kell Factory was a full Factory. 
What it wasn't is a company with any active license to produce any particular mech.
They got the Wolfhound license post 4th SW but prior to that since it wasn't a huge facility the LC could have just used to to keep regiments function & do factory grade refits &/or the refurbishments.

Anyway, just an odd bit I read & then couldn't reconcile the changes they had done in canon w/ the SO rules.

[Daryk]

It's not actually a "kit", but yeah, it does take a Factory (CampOps, page 212 now).