BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => General BattleTech Discussion => Topic started by: SCC on 08 October 2017, 05:02:53
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I think I've expressed this before, but never properly laid out and asking for an answer.
OK to understand why I have troubles with BT's Merc trade you have to understand the situation in Europe when the merc trade was big, or at least my understanding of it. Basically Europe is a big place and it was constantly at war. But here's the catch, the entire continent wasn't at war, only parts of it were and when the war in one area came to a conclusion war would flare up in another area, and so those men in the first area who suddenly found themselves no longer in the army and where unwilling or unable to return to civilian life would become mercs and seek employment in the new warring area.
Now I realize that the above is likely over simplistic and likely missing a LOT of edge cases, but there are at least two key points: 1) It worked because at any given time MOST of the continent was at peace, and 2) The Adventuring Companies didn't normally train their own personal, they recruit people who have left an army. But these two things don't apply in BT (The first could be thought of as occurring between the end of Anton's Revolt and the end of the War of 3039).
Now I can see big a powerful merc outfits like the Wolf Dragoon's being able to get contracts during peace time because people want to be able to deny them to their (potential) enemies but most groups? Not happening, you cost too much to maintain.
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There are thousands of worlds in the Inner Sphere... even when "major" wars are going on, most of them are "at peace". The places doing the hiring are the ones close to or actually involved in the fighting.
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No such thing as "Peace". Remember, EVERYBODY is under threat from SOMEBODY. Even small one-world corporations hire solitary Mechwarriors to boost their security. Then you've got the nobility, the criminal gangs, planetary governments and freelance operatives.
Somebody is always hiring.
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The obvious answer to why are there mercenaries in BattleTech is "because they're cool."
In the original 3025 setting they made a kind of sense, since there were parallels to the situation in medieval Europe:
- Weak central government with limited ability to recruit and train citizens, due to feudalism and distances involved
- Weapons of warfare are expensive and require years of training (Mechs, knightly armor & horses), again making it hard for governments to raise and train enough people
- Constant warfare making professional soldier a viable career option (supply and demand)
However, the setting was gradually rewritten to have each House equipped with large standing armies and centralized recruitment and training academies, and the presence of mercenaries made less and less sense.
They are, however, still cool.
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My unit started during the Clan invasion Era . The perceived need was to slow down the Clan advance in along the whole front not just in the Draconis Combine . So a Combat Engineering mercenary unit was created so it could go anywhere needed without risk of any state losing face by permitting foreign national troops from crossing the border . I had work site security combat units . After the Clan Invasion Era the unit built defensive facilities , then had a Cadre contract to train the militia in its use. Specializing helps employment . By the end of the Jihad my HQ got blown away but most of my unit was scattered doing contracts or sub contracting . Sub contracts like Salvage and LZ defense and or Artillery support ect ect . Having a modified Rose drop ship with the small craft bays converted for Tunbo use clears the salvage from the battlefield very fast. The larger the unit the more scattered it component elements . During a very hot conflict I consolidate my units two or three contracts plus HQ . Not during hot conflicts I do five to seven contracts and subcontract jobs plus HQ . ERA matters more than just about everything.
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Ever read Schlock Mercenary? Thats kinda how I see it working.
In short the universe is very big and bush wars keep breaking out all over the place. The forces available to the Successor States are too few to respond to every cross border or pirate raid so ‘local’ authorities hire mercenaries on an ad hock basis during ‘peace’ time.
During proper wars the successor states hire whatever mercenaries are avaliable because if you don’t your enemy will and even in 3067 mechs are not as common as commanders would like.
Challenger
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There´s a major monetary consideration:
If you raise a regular unit, you need to either already have the equipment on hand, or purchase it. For a mech regiment, that´ll easily run in the hundreds of millions of C-Bills. You´ll also need to train the personell, and/or remove trained personnel from other units which would probably have benefitted from not removing that personnel.
None of that applies, however, to hiring a mercenary unit. Paying a mercenary unit is more expensive than the running cost of a regular army unit, but you don´t have to pay any start-up cost.
To use some completely made-up numbers: If it costs 500 million to raise an army mech regiment and 1 million a month to maintain it, but a mercenary regiment costs 4 million a month, it´ll take 167 months for the regular unit to be cheaper overall.
Also, hiring mercenaries is a lot faster than raising a regular unit. I dunno how long it takes to raise a regular army unit from scratch, but I doubt it is as quick as the weeks or a few months it takes for a mercenary unit to arrive from Galatea or Outreach or wherever. Plus mercenaries already exist as a coherent unit and thus do not need extensive training to learn how to work as a team.
So, if you need troops quickly and for a relatively limited time, mercenaries are your best bet. If you need long-term combat strength, (and you have the time and the money available) you are better off raising a regular army unit.
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Challenger, that's the problem, for most of BT's history we haven't been getting the regional conflicts that would support the merc trade. Between the start of the invasion and the end of the Jihad the only ones that would count would be the Cappalen-St. Ives war and want went down between the Taurian's and the FedSuns, and since the Jihad? Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.
There´s a major monetary consideration:
If you raise a regular unit, you need to either already have the equipment on hand, or purchase it. For a mech regiment, that´ll easily run in the hundreds of millions of C-Bills. You´ll also need to train the personell, and/or remove trained personnel from other units which would probably have benefitted from not removing that personnel.
None of that applies, however, to hiring a mercenary unit. Paying a mercenary unit is more expensive than the running cost of a regular army unit, but you don´t have to pay any start-up cost.
To use some completely made-up numbers: If it costs 500 million to raise an army mech regiment and 1 million a month to maintain it, but a mercenary regiment costs 4 million a month, it´ll take 167 months for the regular unit to be cheaper overall.
Also, hiring mercenaries is a lot faster than raising a regular unit. I dunno how long it takes to raise a regular army unit from scratch, but I doubt it is as quick as the weeks or a few months it takes for a mercenary unit to arrive from Galatea or Outreach or wherever. Plus mercenaries already exist as a coherent unit and thus do not need extensive training to learn how to work as a team.
So, if you need troops quickly and for a relatively limited time, mercenaries are your best bet. If you need long-term combat strength, (and you have the time and the money available) you are better off raising a regular army unit.
The problem is that the Great Houses will keep those merc units on the books even in times when they aren't at war, when they war they were hired to fight in ends the contract should end, but that doesn't happen.
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I always imagined that House Army action only constitutes the tip of the iceberg. I.E: Most Mechwarriors and most BattleMechs are actually in petty feudal service rather than Great House. We just only ever see the spotlight on that tip of the iceberg. I love analogies, so here's one: House Armies are to Professional Sports as Petty/Private forces are to neighborhood or pickup games. What are there more of? Professional Football players, or Amateur Football players? We just hear much more about the pros.
Mercs may or may not be difficult to reconcile solely on the House Army market, but if you do imagine petty feudal forces as collectively being a dominant market for military action then it becomes easy to reconcile a strong mercenary trade. Actually it becomes difficult to imagine there *not* being strong merc activity in such markets. And from this bastion of reliable economic health, it's also easy to imagine the most successful mercs being able to toe in on the major league action as well. These mercs that show up in fiction and the Merc Sourcebooks are also the tip of the iceberg, and this is borne out repeatedly in those sourcebooks as mentioning that there are countless other, less successful merc companies out there in the Inner Sphere beyond those covered in the given book.
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The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops. You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment. Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.
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One thing that should also be a factor is that a merc unit hired to attack a target means they are not pirates. The difference between pirates and non-pirates is that the merc unit can point to the contract and say that someone else hired them, so the offended group should go after the hiring party, not the merc unit.
Essentially, the mercs have a big brother, so if the offended party goes after the mercs it will be wasting money, making them a weaker target to be hit again by the hiring group.
The contracts will be encrypted, so espionage and politicking will be used to figure out who hired the mercs, and decide on a proper response.
But if the mercs don't have that contract, they are all alone, and the offended party will make their displeasure known.
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The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops. You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment. Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.
Exactly. And to segue that in with what I was saying:
When it comes to Count Stuffybritches getting into a vendetta with Count Snootyface on Planet Backwater, pretty much the ONLY option available for him to bulk up his private army is to hire mercs. Frankly, unless he's actually paying for lots of military infrastructure to train his own troops, his entire private army is probably mercs.
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Or you have a situation like in Operation Stiletto where corporate interests are using mercs to secure their facilities in the middle of an unpredictable or decaying political situation.
Multiple sources indicate that most merc commands don't last a year, which means even lower capital investment on the hiring end as no one is around to collect on unpaid contracts. It would also seem that the employing party has a tremendous advantage in negotiations
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The biggest draw of Mercenaries particularly for the Great Houses is that they're cheaper than raised troops. You don't have to pay to maintain them when you're not employing them, they handle their own training, they provide their own (very expensive) equipment. Especially in the depths of the Succession Wars, it was frequently just flat-out not possible to raise a new Regiment in a matter of days or weeks, but you can hire a Merc unit or collection of Merc units and have them there operationally much faster.
The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)
When it comes to Count Stuffybritches getting into a vendetta with Count Snootyface on Planet Backwater, pretty much the ONLY option available for him to bulk up his private army is to hire mercs. Frankly, unless he's actually paying for lots of military infrastructure to train his own troops, his entire private army is probably mercs.
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?
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The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)
Most Mercs aren't. The only ones we hear about being kept on retainer or for contracts that span multiple years are generally the biggest ones, which are not and never will be the norm for Mercs. And that's forgetting that even in between major wars the border skirmishes never, ever stop. You might need a Merc company to garrison a world for a few months while the normal garrison is on maneuvers, or on a raid. You might hire some Mercs for a VIP escort on a world with questionable loyalties.
That's all the kind of things that Great House militaries might hire a Merc for. Tai Dai Cultist is absolutely right that a lot of Mercs won't be hired directly by a major player on the galactic stage. It's a criminally underrepresented part of the setting, but there are a lot of merchant jumpships and dropships that need their own protection. A couple mercenary ASFs for a Periphery trade run would be practically mandatory.
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?
We're told repeatedly and explicitly that the average mercenary unit is roughly a company in size. Those kinds of units, based on things like the Mercenary's Handbook and FR: Mercs, tend to spend some time between contracts repairing and resting up, spending the money they just made how they want to, and then looking at one of the major hiring halls for a contract. They don't receive personal invitations for huge contracts.
We're also told repeatedly that most mercenary units fail.
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Also important-
During hot conflicts:
Mercs are expendable.
Mercs can be company-stored, and then rolled into your own forces once they can't afford otherwise.
Mercs can be bought, sent to do a thing, and then released. It might be cheaper than your own standing force. (Or as someone said above, Mercs can be bought to do a thing, freeing your other forces to do a more important thing.)
Mercs can bolster an assault, where you might have otherwise had to move troops from elsewhere on your front.
"Cold" periods:
Mercs are (occasionally) deniable.
Mercs are available to corporate sponsors.
Mercs are good for dealing with pirates.
Mercs make for great proxy battles.
Mercs can be good to help or hinder an insurrection.
And given that this is Battletech, the "cold" periods are rather few and far between.
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These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?
My take is that they're farming out their subordinate units. That keeps the income flowing, while the remainder is off the line (repairing, recruiting, training, etc.)
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The Gray Death Legion are the best example (IMO) for the existence of mercs in BT (at least those are the ones I know best).
Started as a small unit (Carlisle Commandos) that got betrayed and evolved into Gray Death Legion after a series of events (not important if those events are ridiculous or not).
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Or you have a situation like in Operation Stiletto where corporate interests are using mercs to secure their facilities in the middle of an unpredictable or decaying political situation.
Similarly, planet-level conflicts like the Quetta Land War referenced in Field Manual: Lyran Alliance (which was resolved by national-level intervention in the shape of one of the new Jaeger regiments dropping on-world), or the plot of the novel Initiation to War.
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Challenger, that's the problem, for most of BT's history we haven't been getting the regional conflicts that would support the merc trade. Between the start of the invasion and the end of the Jihad the only ones that would count would be the Cappalen-St. Ives war and want went down between the Taurian's and the FedSuns, and since the Jihad? Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.
i'm not sure that it has been "regional conflicts" so much as "regional tensions".. thanks to the small sizes of successor state standing militaries, and the general lack of anything resembling sizeable and well equipped militias, and the jump distances of BT's starships, there are a lot of worlds along the various borders that could be the target of raids or invasions by enemies.. but which have no effective defenders. i mean, the Capellan front for the fedsuns has over a hunded worlds within 30ly of the border.. and maybe a half dozen mech regiments. with well equipped standing militias on maybe another dozen. that is a lot of worlds with nothing more than some infantry battalions and maybe a few companies of light tanks to defend them.
the Combine front is much the same, and when you add in the Davion outback and Pirates from the periphery (which can go deeper than a mere single jump).. that is a lot of worlds.
it is those worlds that drive the mercenary trade, IMO. if you are near the border or near the periphery, and you are not one of the lucky few worlds that got a regiment from the standing army.. hiring a lance or a company of mercenaries for a Garrison contract is your best choice. and probably easier than trying to build up a viable planetary militia.. since not only is a militia going to be more expensive, but there is a good chance it could get confused for "rebellion" and bring with it some nasty attention. with mercs you have contracts that have to be reviewed and such to vouch for your intents, and you are getting equipment and trained soldiers for a sizeable discount compared to training and supplying them yourself. (and even better, you can include in their contract "use as advisors/opfor to train the planetary militia" and benefit from that experience even after their contract ends.)
odds are the successor states themselves higher a lot of smaller merc units for such roles as well.. it would be cheaper and easier than raising up new official units meant to be distributed piecemeal, and reduce the logistical concerns some. plus it means that the contracts (and thus the chain of command) comes from a higher level than the planetary governor.. it is a win win, in that the world sees the successor state acting to defend them, and the successor state doesn't have to worry about worlds using 'self defense' to recruit for a rebellion.
then add in the fact that mercenaries make the ideal offensive tools in such tensions as well.. mercs are far cheaper and safer to use for raids across the borders for example.. because they are more deniable, and if they fail you are just out some money, not any part of your standing military. and mercs make ideal pirate hunters, because then you don;t have to divert any of your standing military away from the job of securing your borders. or have to restructure your logistics networks to support a major unit moving into the stellar hinterlands. mercs are far more logistically self contained, and thus easier to support.
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Not happening, you cost too much to maintain.
Not compared to raising it from scratch.
The initial training of MW's, building of the mechs, & creation of regimental infrastructure would take years & possibly run into the billions of $$ figure.
If you think you have a use for them, heck, if you just want to pay to have them as a deterrent against your neighbor getting uppity, the salary & maintenance is minimal.
Mostly peace, any units that survived the Jihad would have gone belly up afterwards due to lack of contracts.
The problem is that the Great Houses will keep those merc units on the books even in times when they aren't at war, when they war they were hired to fight in ends the contract should end, but that doesn't happen.
In a world where every house is starved for mechs, I don't think there is ever a "drop them from the payroll consideration".
You might drop them for Loyalty, or because you have 0 interest in going on the offensive, or because you want to use those funds to raise house troops.
But I doubt many houses are out there just dismissing Mercs because they don't "want" to have an extra few battalions on call.
Remember, the DC tried to Black Mail the Dragoons into staying because they did NOT want to give up access to that many trained mechwarriors in 3025.
The problem I have with the bolded bit is that mercs are kept on contract like they where house forces, for example at the start of the 4th SW the FedSuns shouldn't have had any mercs on the roaster (more or less, I'm generalizing here.)
These guys would be hiring, what, lances and companies then? no way could they afford battalions or regiments, so what do merc groups that large do when one of the Great Houses doesn't need them?
The FedSuns is HUGE, Hanse was only too happy to have those troops to help defend his boarders.
As far as affording goes. The Militia & Regular Army figures in BT, even at their largest, are nothing close to the kind of density that the USA or Russia have. I don't think tax dollar cost is the issue.
Local Leaders do higher smaller units usually but not always, there have been occasions where entire regiments were hired to shore up defenses when federal troops were not available.
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We're also told repeatedly that most mercenary units fail.
Do we know why most mercs fail so quick?
I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops.
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery.
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech.
That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep.
So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?
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Do we know why most mercs fail so quick?
I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops.
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery.
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech.
That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep.
So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?
Playing as a merc where you had to restart the game nine out of ten times after your first contract wouldn't be much of a game. It's sort of like in D&D. You're playing someone with exceptional abilities or circumstances, not the scores of NPCs you dispatch.
Iirc a lot of the issue is bankruptcy. Most would-be mercs are not savvy at business and either borrow too much at unfavorable rates, get taken in negotiations, or incur more expenses than they can afford and are forced to liquidate
What's the five year outlook for small businesses? I know this restaurant space nearby that has been four different things in five years.
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Do we know why most mercs fail so quick?
I mean I would guess there are always contracts to go die in a meatgrinder against the clans, or other high tech well trained troops.
But from playing in HQ a bit it seems like any merc with a lick of sense is gonna look for garrison duty, pirate hunting, or a brush fire in the Periphery.
Your trying to get something where you hope for lots of down time with an enemy that can't even field Star League tech.
That way you can find your feet and hopefully get some salvage without being wiped out and start to get a rep.
So what is taking down all these wannabe mercs?
In my view:
Most of these merc companies that never got any spotlight are doing contracts that are far below the scope of working for a Great House. While there's always work to be done somewhere in the Inner Sphere, it doesn't mean there's work to be done right on or near the planet the merc company happens to be on when their current contract runs out. It's a challenge to keep the overhead covered until you're getting the next paycheck, and that alone dooms many/most.
On top of that, you have the freebooter variable. If you're a merc captain, you have to find a way to keep your mechwarriors on your payroll and not ditching your company to go join another company that's already got a juicy contract and is looking to fill empty spots in their roster. You can have a company sized unit fold just by personnel hemorrhage. All it takes is one or two to bail and potentially the "we're never gonna get another contract" malaise can sap the morale of those who didn't leave right away... tempting them to jump at the next offer for employment they get from some other company.
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There are only so many garrison contracts to go around. Not everybody (or even most, or even half, or even a tiny minority) get picked for those. Every month you hold out for a garrison contract that will never come you still have to maintain your equipment and feed yourself, and odds are you don't have a permanent home on planet on a major hiring hall.
You take what you can get. If you don't, you die of slow starvation or you're forced to sell your 'Mech, which for mercenaries more than any single other demographic in the entire Sphere is their entire livelihoods. Most would rather die. Many do.
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remember that a lot of merc units are unbalanced and not even necessarily unbalanced in the sense that they messed up on their combat forces allocation, such as lots of lights with few mediums /heavies to be the heavy hitters, or they don't have or have essentially nothing but infantry, or no aerospace assets, and no/insufficient transport.
all of those can be reasons for a merc unit to fail abruptly.
but one of the biggest, IMO seems to be all tooth no tail units, IE they have a lance of heavy/assault units, a good fire support lance, and a good scout lance.... but no or not enough techs to keep the units operational. then they either have to hire techs, or rely upon their employer to handle the repairs/maintenance for them, which opens up not just the company store, but also betrayal cuch as the unit goes out on patrol, and the satchel charge, (or sabotaged ejection seat), or even just the sabotaged life support system turns off, and after the pilot(s) die the employer retrieves the "destroyed" units, and either sells or repaints them and now has a unit that they can assign their own pilots to.
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It should be noted, mercenary companies fail at almost exactly the same rate as restaurants. Perhaps someone who wrote that book had some experience in that industry? In any event, no one is shooting at restaurateurs (mostly) so it's broadly belivable that mercs would have a hard time getting off the ground.
As to why they work... honestly, I think it comes down to FASAnomics. Truthfully, they shouldn't. As folks have said, mercs are desirable because they're a cheap way to add mech forces on the quick, and because mechs are rare and most planets don't have access to mech defenders. But, if mechs are so rare, then they should cost dramatically more than they do, or else mercenaries should charge vastly more than they do. But, like rent controlled apartments, mechs are both rare and cheap, and so who ever has them is in high demand (granted, that's more of a culture reference for me, since I've never lived in a city with rent control, but it makes economic sense).
If the price of mechs was controlled by the market, mercenaries still might have made sense in the neo-feudal era, since there were plenty of privately owned inherited mechs, but they would have charged vast, vast sums. But never in the modern era with full on mech production.
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I wonder how much the company that runs that Hind in Africa charges...
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But, if mechs are so rare, then they should cost dramatically more than they do, or else mercenaries should charge vastly more than they do. But, like rent controlled apartments, mechs are both rare and cheap, and so who ever has them is in high demand (granted, that's more of a culture reference for me, since I've never lived in a city with rent control, but it makes economic sense).
If the price of mechs was controlled by the market, mercenaries still might have made sense in the neo-feudal era, since there were plenty of privately owned inherited mechs, but they would have charged vast, vast sums. But never in the modern era with full on mech production.
But a Mech is just 1 part of a system, and despite being very important, it is also paradoxically a very small part. Oh, so you own a Mech, and because House Davion only has 15,000 Mechs, you think you can demand a 1/15,000th part of the Federated Suns? Right. You stay put, cause we hereby refuse you JumpShip service to anywhere... let's see how long it takes you to sell me your Mech for a can of beans.
The price of Mechs as with everything IS partly controlled by the market... but the market is NOT efficient, and drastically less so in Battletech.
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Because mercs are COOL. That aside...
On mercs in Europe
Mercs didn't become a thing because of war or peace or surplus in trained warriors. Mercs became a thing because of 1) fragmentation of society, 2) task-specialisation, due to expanding economies, and 3) the invention of money. In short, societies moved from groups of farmers defending themselves part-time from the predations of their neighbours, to groups of farmers led by soldiers using money to hire professional soldiers to help defend them from the predations of their neighbours.
Mercs died out when societies grew large enough that they could raise their own armies, which in the economic sense means they could essentially pay people to be loyal. Thus, condition 1) was invalidated.
On mercs in Battletech
Mechs and perhaps more importantly Mechwarriors are rare. Mercs represent that small % of these resources that prioritise money over national loyalty. The big Merc outfits don't really count, they're like Boeing or British Aerospace or Elbit - nominally private companies, but generally loyal to that one nation. Its these small guys who make up the bulk of the trade.
The world of Battletech is more fragmented than ours mainly because of the interstellar barrier. Hence there is at times a relatively sudden and unexpected local need for extra military might, and that is where mercenaries thrive. Don’t look at them as soldiers, look at them as bank security guards in a world where bank robberies are a lot more prevalent and the police a lot slower to respond.
Hiring mercs is like hiring temporary staff versus permanent staff: they are cheaper and more liquid than State troops; you hire them when your business anticipates a spike in activity, and you fire them when activity levels go back down. All overheads included they cost you less than full-time employees, and being of a temporary nature you can push them around while your full-time employees need to be handled with kid gloves, especially in BT where a significant proportion of them are your cousins and nephews and nieces etc. Temp staff come to you equipped and pre-trained; they're selling themselves as a wholly-inclusive, self-contained, full-stack unit. That takes pressure off your supply and admin network. Lastly, the really desperate ones are expendable - use 'em, abuse 'em, pay any survivors their due and then eject them.
That last factor is a big attraction to people to become mercenaries. They are basically taking on huge amounts of risk in order to hopefully make the big payoff - kind of like the private investment market. And just like said market, you'd see 80% of the private guys lose their shirts to the institutions and the 20% who made the right call or got lucky. So yes, the industry makes little macro-economic sense – but it can make a lot of micro-economic sense.
You're not entirely wrong though - we did see the results of peak saturation in the merc trade in the late 3060s: the 1st major event of the Jihad, the "bursting" of the merc "bubble" on Outreach and subsequently the rest of the IS. So yes, there was a point when the industry became too big to be supported, people with guns couldn't get hired, and with a little motivation and capital injection from the Blakists to accelerate matters, those people decided to turn those guns on the authorities.
If you think you have a use for them, heck, if you just want to pay to have them as a deterrent against your neighbor getting uppity, the salary & maintenance is minimal.
In a world where every house is starved for mechs, I don't think there is ever a "drop them from the payroll consideration".
You might drop them for Loyalty, or because you have 0 interest in going on the offensive, or because you want to use those funds to raise house troops.
But I doubt many houses are out there just dismissing Mercs because they don't "want" to have an extra few battalions on call.
Remember, the DC tried to Black Mail the Dragoons into staying because they did NOT want to give up access to that many trained mechwarriors in 3025.
The FedSuns is HUGE, Hanse was only too happy to have those troops to help defend his boarders.
As far as affording goes. The Militia & Regular Army figures in BT, even at their largest, are nothing close to the kind of density that the USA or Russia have. I don't think tax dollar cost is the issue.
WW2 soldier, looking at today's army: "How can the US not have 10% of the population in the army?!"
Nam soldier: "How can the US not have 2% of the population in the army?!"
11th-century militiaman: "Doth not every man, villein, freedman and knight alike owe serjeanty and knight-service unto his liege-lord?!"
As technological advances extend life expectancies, make life more comfortable and make each individual soldier more lethal, people become less willing to risk their lives - especially if the invaders can minimise their practical impact on daily affairs - and smaller armed forces become more capable of controlling larger populations. And money is always, always an issue, because the national budgets reflect more-or-less the priorities of its people; money spent on the military is money not spent on making life more comfortable, 1 way or another.
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You're not entirely wrong though - we did see the results of peak saturation in the merc trade in the late 3060s: the 1st major event of the Jihad, the "bursting" of the merc "bubble" on Outreach and subsequently the rest of the IS. So yes, there was a point when the industry became too big to be supported, people with guns couldn't get hired, and with a little motivation and capital injection from the Blakists to accelerate matters, those people decided to turn those guns on the authorities.
Where they actually not able to get hired?
I don't recall that.
Many of the Blakist mercs were low life scum, D-F rated trash, or in Waco/Widowmaker cases, people with 5-50 year old grudges.
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"D-F rated trash" is a symptom of being unable to find work as much as it is a contributing factor to not getting hired.
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There's also the motive for starting up in the first place. A lot of new-hires are probably itching for a challenge to prove themselves and make a name.
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I always imagined that "new" merc mechwarriors are for the most part prior service. Instead of re-enlisting after their first tour(s) of duty, they "go pro" and join with whichever Merc company with which they can get the best deal. Fits in with the sheeple principle which mainly applies to the small folk of the Inner Sphere... makes sense to me that lots of mechwarriors are less interested in loyalty to a Great House and more interested in fame, adventure, and/or fortune.
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I still find this notion that Mechs and Mechwarriors are rare kinda laughable, considering some of the numbers still bandied about regarding Mech production. The Archer is the most common Mech next to the Stalker in the heavy assault categories, and yet Phoenix Hawks and the Bug Mechs outnumber them.
The armies should be much bigger. Where are the Mechs? In the hands of people not detailed in the National Spotlight Propaganda Field Manuals.
That means militias, home guard, personal retinues, and of course, mercenary commands.
And, there's also a surplus of pilots, because people are still worried about becoming dispossessed.
So, there is room for all kinds of trouble, probably on any given world, let alone between two of them. That is how I've been styling a lot of my campaigns, lately. Mercs galore. (Sounds like a new Mercenary Trade Hub name.)
And, after the start of the mercenary system early in the Succession Wars, I imagine it's just a part of the BattleTech culture anymore that mercenaries abound. That makes the move to disarm in the Republic a VERY BIG THING.
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A lot has already been said here about the viability of mercs in the playable periods of Btech. But I would add a few points. One is to look at MODERN mercs, specifically modern private military contractor organizations. The US and many nations employ ESPECIALLY in times of relative peace. One reason is the nature of these forces: many are former special operations soldiers, so these men bring very specialized skills to the work, they are not grunts (much like the merc mechwarrior or aerospace pilot) and second, the independent nature of the organizations removes a lot of the internally monitored legalities and oversight an official force would generate. They can do thing behind layers of obfuscation without congressional oversight or approval, and their actions usually don't drag a nations flag through the mud of public opinion.
Most mercs contracts are single mission jobs. Exactly the kind of cloak and dagger mission the powers will engage in to disrupt and destabilize the enemy during "peacetime" and maintain the cloak of independent action that keeps full war from resulting. Look at US covert and geopolitical actions all through the cold war! The Great Houses use mercs, we used deniable CIA agents and black book soldiers. Little difference.
Add those concerted actions to the spaghetti tangle of intrigue and rivalry of a feudal system spanning thousands of world's and to be honest, until the Clans showed up to scare the bejesus out of everyone and halt a lot of the shenanigans, during the 3rd and 4th Suc Wars, I bet there was more work than there were reliable mercs to do it! That should also remind that not all mercs got steady work even when contracts were there simply because those units were to unreliable, unsuitable, or too small for most contracts. Which is why so many were forced out into the less civilized border areas.
The inner sphere is big, really big, and complex. There will always be the right environment for mercs somewhere, and the fluidity of the spheres geopolitical landscape makes it certain there never truly is a "down time".
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I still find this notion that Mechs and Mechwarriors are rare kinda laughable, considering some of the numbers still bandied about regarding Mech production. The Archer is the most common Mech next to the Stalker in the heavy assault categories, and yet Phoenix Hawks and the Bug Mechs outnumber them.
They are rare relative to 1) conventional military equipment, 2) Star League military sizes, 3) Battletech population sizes, and 4) IRL population sizes. They also get a lot less rare post-Helm Memory Core.
What does the Archer, Stalker, P-hawk and so on have to do with that?
The armies should be much bigger. Where are the Mechs? In the hands of people not detailed in the National Spotlight Propaganda Field Manuals.
No doubt a lot of units are not detailed in the Field Manuals. But I also think those units are also not numerous enough to make a big difference. It makes a lot more sense IMHO that armies in Battletech are smaller, due to the factors I listed above.
And, there's also a surplus of pilots, because people are still worried about becoming dispossessed.
While I agree that there is a surplus of pilots, I'd also argue that the Dispossession phenomenon is more of an issue for people who had private ownership of a Mech, but now lack the necessary contacts and capital to get another one... the phenomenon doesn't apply to everybody, nor does it necessarily imply a drastic difference in numbers of Mechs and Mechwarriors.
And, after the start of the mercenary system early in the Succession Wars, I imagine it's just a part of the BattleTech culture anymore that mercenaries abound. That makes the move to disarm in the Republic a VERY BIG THING.
ABSOLUTELY. This policy is 1 of the interesting plot hooks that attracted me to the Early-Republic era.
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OK, lots of answer while I was at work.
Most Mercs aren't. The only ones we hear about being kept on retainer or for contracts that span multiple years are generally the biggest ones, which are not and never will be the norm for Mercs. And that's forgetting that even in between major wars the border skirmishes never, ever stop. You might need a Merc company to garrison a world for a few months while the normal garrison is on maneuvers, or on a raid. You might hire some Mercs for a VIP escort on a world with questionable loyalties.
I sort of figured that for the really big ones because keeping them on is cheaper then your opponents hiring them. I don't however see mercs being used in the garrison role, at least without a LOT of vetting or being used to supplement an existing garrison.
I also have a problem with the planetary nobles hiring them thing, where are they when the planets are invaded?
i'm not sure that it has been "regional conflicts" so much as "regional tensions".. thanks to the small sizes of successor state standing militaries, and the general lack of anything resembling sizeable and well equipped militias, and the jump distances of BT's starships, there are a lot of worlds along the various borders that could be the target of raids or invasions by enemies.. but which have no effective defenders. i mean, the Capellan front for the fedsuns has over a hunded worlds within 30ly of the border.. and maybe a half dozen mech regiments. with well equipped standing militias on maybe another dozen. that is a lot of worlds with nothing more than some infantry battalions and maybe a few companies of light tanks to defend them.
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Good point there about "regional conflicts" vs "regional tensions" but you won't be hiring (additional) mercs until you need them because those tensions flare. And I'd assume that most, if not all, long term garrisons are conducted by House troops or politically reliable mercs.
Because mercs are COOL. That aside...
On mercs in Europe
Mercs didn't become a thing because of war or peace or surplus in trained warriors. Mercs became a thing because of 1) fragmentation of society, 2) task-specialisation, due to expanding economies, and 3) the invention of money. In short, societies moved from groups of farmers defending themselves part-time from the predations of their neighbours, to groups of farmers led by soldiers using money to hire professional soldiers to help defend them from the predations of their neighbours.
Mercs died out when societies grew large enough that they could raise their own armies, which in the economic sense means they could essentially pay people to be loyal. Thus, condition 1) was invalidated.
Thanks for that. I like to point out that the factors I pointed out likely contribute a great deal, if you're looking to hire and there hasn't been a war in 5 years or more your not likely to get many good offers, at least not quickly.
I always imagined that "new" merc mechwarriors are for the most part prior service. Instead of re-enlisting after their first tour(s) of duty, they "go pro" and join with whichever Merc company with which they can get the best deal. Fits in with the sheeple principle which mainly applies to the small folk of the Inner Sphere... makes sense to me that lots of mechwarriors are less interested in loyalty to a Great House and more interested in fame, adventure, and/or fortune.
Daniel Allard was not prior service but he was an academy grad.
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I also think both the MRC and it's antecedents/descendents help keep the Merc trade alive. While not as powerful as, say, the Bonding Authority in Hammer's Slammers, they do help keep both sides honest. Factions that consistently hose Merc units get black marks, Merc units who underperform or break contract don't get hired again. If the MRC fairly arbitrates that is... (I do think that it needs to be more like the Bonding Authority, with bonds held for both parties. If ComStar had gotten in on this action after the Jihad, maybe under a new name, they'd not be defunct come the Dark Age...)
It helps reduce the chance that the 'scruffy looking mercs' you post for a tour out in the pirate vulnerable reaches of the Outback don't try to get some extra income (extortion, etc) from the people you sent to protect. At the same time deploying mercs out looking for pirates is a good (cheep) political move. "Look, backwater parts of my kingdom, we care! Just not enough to send house troops..."
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Historically, the mercenary trade included a lot of soldiers hired out by their own rulers. Greek mercenary soldiers fought on both sides of many of the conflicts throughout the ancient world, with one city-state providing soldiers for one side, and a different city-state "renting" its citizen-soldiers to the other. The Balearic Islands were famed for hiring out slingers, as was the Israeli tribe of Benjamin. The soldiers got food and minimal pay, while their rulers back home reaped the real rewards.
By the time of the Middle Ages, Europe had developed into a morass of petty kingdoms, with near constant local feuding at one location or another (note that Hessian mercenaries participated on the British side in the American Revolutionary War). The way to tip the balance of an otherwise close conflict was to hire some outsiders from another state to supplement your army, so whoever had the deeper pockets usually won. The strong "need" for mercenaries insured high pay and regular work.
Battletech, likewise, involves local conflicts being decided by relatively small forces, largely due to the costs and limitations of transportation, and once again, bringing in a few mercenaries from some nearby planet to tip the scales and decide the issue before the larger regular House armies can get involved is the quick and easy, but expensive, way of winning. If you recruited and equipped those forces yourself, your superiors in the House would requisition them away from you, but mercenaries give you that extra bit of firepower when you need it without being a formal part of your army, and being subject to the whims of your superiors. You just need enough C-Bills.
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I also have a problem with the planetary nobles hiring them thing, where are they when the planets are invaded?
There's two reasons why we don't hear about Count Stuffybritches' private army helping resist the invading/raiding Great House Army force.
One: The same reason we don't usually hear about local militia forces doing the same. They're below the spotlight which is focused on Great House Armies.
Two: Beyond factor one, there's the "this is literally not in my contract" aspect for mercs hired by local authorities. Even if mechwarriors in service to local powers collectively outnumber the defending (or invading!) House unit(s) by 3 to 1, so long as the invading forces don't make the mistake of stepping on Count Stuffybritches' private holdings they have nothing to fear from his private army. In fact, invading forces have every incentive to humor the private armies during the invasion because should the conquest be successful, Count Stuffybritches will rather collaborate with the new order rather than be divested of his holdings. And his private army is already placed onworld to help enforce control of the world for the new order.
Beyond those two reasons, also consider what private armies DO do: protect the private fiefs/holdings they're contracted (or levied) to protect. Taking out Count Stuffybritches winter retreat is well below what House Kurita or Davion will care about. However, in addition to potential rivals and enemies on the same or nearby worlds that Count Stuffybritches may feel might make a military strike against his fief, there's the ever-present threat of pirates. Consider any sourcebook ever that lists Great House army deployments. Then look at how many worlds each star empire leaves "utterly undefended" by Great House armies. Literally, who's stopping pirates from just waltzing down to that planet and looting every nobleman's estate on that world? Locals, that's who. They just don't show up in those sourcebooks.
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Two: Beyond factor one, there's the "this is literally not in my contract" aspect for mercs hired by local authorities. Even if mechwarriors in service to local powers collectively outnumber the defending (or invading!) House unit(s) by 3 to 1, so long as the invading forces don't make the mistake of stepping on Count Stuffybritches' private holdings they have nothing to fear from his private army. In fact, invading forces have every incentive to humor the private armies during the invasion because should the conquest be successful, Count Stuffybritches will rather collaborate with the new order rather than be divested of his holdings. And his private army is already placed onworld to help enforce control of the world for the new order.
Beyond those two reasons, also consider what private armies DO do: protect the private fiefs/holdings they're contracted (or levied) to protect. Taking out Count Stuffybritches winter retreat is well below what House Kurita or Davion will care about. However, in addition to potential rivals and enemies on the same or nearby worlds that Count Stuffybritches may feel might make a military strike against his fief, there's the ever-present threat of pirates. Consider any sourcebook ever that lists Great House army deployments. Then look at how many worlds each star empire leaves "utterly undefended" by Great House armies. Literally, who's stopping pirates from just waltzing down to that planet and looting every nobleman's estate on that world? Locals, that's who. They just don't show up in those sourcebooks.
I think the above is problematic if we are maintaining the allusion to medieval nobility. If Count suchnsuch has a private army it is likely because his tenure requires military service, in this case supporting and deploying his troops in defense of the holding (probably has his title from the military governor of the planet, who is also a noble in his own right IIRC). Now that's not to say they might not take a "better deal" with the invader, nor contribute more than what their tenure contract requires (i.e. the count might have much more in military assets, but might only require a quarter of those assets be contributed to local defense). In short, the above example is one of allodial feudal tenure, which in the Middle Ages was not common (with a few very prominent examples, i.e. early High medieval Germany FREX), and I have no reason to think would be common in the Battletech era either.
Damon.
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Well, in the BTU, we almost never see cases of the Great Houses "calling the banners" of their vassals. I'm not having even a single instance come to mind at the moment. The Great House Armies are some sort of mashup of a national institution for a feudal society. That's way more complex than the BattleTech books have ever bothered attempting to reconcile. However, I *can* see the possibility of private armies being dragooned by the House garrison commander in a crisis such as an invasion. They'd just be placed in supporting positions in these cases however, where we don't see them making any more of a contribution to the outcome than militia. However again this doesn't work if the private armies are/include mercs. They don't do what they're not contracted to do, end of story.
That aside, we do have a good bit of information about how the "neo-feudal" class arose in the BTU, and it has little-to-nothing to do with providing military arms for lieges when called upon. Nobles in the IS got started simply because you simply needed an authoritarian, top-down command structure simply to keep colonies functioning when at-will communication with and resupply from Terra was not possible. Even during the Star League when the "need" for Nobles was at its weakest, there was so much societal inertia that there was never any attempt to do away with nobility... they just got enshrined as the entitled ruling class "because it's always been that way". Not until the Republic anyway, but that's a horse of a different color. The Republic's broken with all kinds of Sphereoid traditions, and if there is indeed an IlClan coming, their experiments are all moot anyway.
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I've got to agree with Garrand, as part and parcel of being a noble your expected to defend your holding, it's WHY your allowed to raise troops, those troops not showing up in the case of pirate raids and planetary invasions violates that contract.
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I've got to agree with Garrand, as part and parcel of being a noble your expected to defend your holding, it's WHY your allowed to raise troops, those troops not showing up in the case of pirate raids and planetary invasions violates that contract.
Yeah but petty nobles (usually) don't have the entire planet as their fief. There's no expectation, much less requirement, to help defend what's outside your fief. You defend your own fief yes, but are you expected to help defend your (fr)enemies' holdings onwold as well? Nope.
Planetary conquests, much less raids, are (usually) not planet-encompassing conflicts. For most of the planet, the campaign taking place on the other side of their world may as well be taking place on the other side of the empire. Count Stuffybritches' private army might go on alert when the planet is invaded, but his private army has no reason to abandon whats his to go help defend other parts of the planet.
Of course, if the target of an objective raid is within his fief, naturally his private forces would defend it or help defend it if there's a House Garrison that's taking command of the defense. None of the other nobles onworld would be obligated to help him defend it with their own private armies, though.
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We're also told repeatedly that most mercenary units fail.
Mercs of the 31st century are like restaurants in the 21st.
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Mercs of the 31st century are like restaurants in the 21st.
They scowl at you when you leave a 10% tip?
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There's probably an expected mutual defense compact with those who you have a shared physical border and vital infrastructure, like power plants and water purification plants, where not only targets of raids but aren't in your borders.
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There's probably an expected mutual defense compact with those who you have a shared physical border and vital infrastructure, like power plants and water purification plants, where not only targets of raids but aren't in your borders.
I wouldn't bet on it.
Depends on how neighborly the petty nobles are. Count Nelson of House Muntz would just point and laugh if pirates are overrunning his neighbor's fief. And he'd hardly be an outlier. Rivalries are born from proximity. If your ancestral enemy is suffering, in many cases the petty noble will actually be petty and lend no help. Ancestral rivals aren't likely to sign memoranda of understanding or mutual defense pacts anyway.
As for sharing infrastructure... they probably all depend on the same star network that everyone on planet shares. (If it weren't a star network, you couldn't conquer an entire developed planet with a single battle anyway.) Defending the locus of the star would generally fall under the responsiblity of the planetary Duke, Administrator, or local House Army garrison commander. A coalition of petty nobles doing this could be possible, but I'd say that'd be the exception rather than the norm.
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There are examples of private and semi-private forces. The first Black Thorns book saw our heros incountering a five strong private force of some retired general, and we've seen many corporate forces like the Blackstone Highlanders or Korsakovs Kossaks defending Earthworks. We've even seen single mechs hired, such as when some Combine world I've forgotten the same of was hosting both Marcus GeoAvanti and Charlene Boske as corporate mercenaries.
As for calling the banners, the neariest example would probably be the relationship between the Davions and the Haseks and Sandovals. They can offer or withhold their support, they can act semi-independently, and the Davions can issue orders, but they do need to be mindful of how those orders will be received. The FWL has similar problems, but their feudalism is very different.
That said, when it comes to economics and feudalism, mechs aren't really comparable to the sorts of mercenary levies of old, who tended to be crossbowmen or pikemen. They're more comparable to mounted knights, who's horses and heavy arms and armor were prohibitively expensive. Now, that's not to say pikes and crossbows are cheap, but I would argue that the greater bottleneck in raising a company of pikes is training, discipline, willingness. Things a man (or women in the more egalitarian world of BattleTech) can take with them.
Of course, MechWarriors are rare twice over. Not only are mechs hard to come by (nearly irreplaceable in some eras), but mechwarriors seem to be about as common as pro-athletes.
That all being said, it seems that if I were a one in a million talent with an irreplaceable war machine, and I'd gathered together eleven of my similarly fortunate buddies, and I were going to offer my services to a nation of a trillion tax payers with hundreds of worlds and only scores of regiments of mechs and no easy way to expand...
...I feel like I'd ask for somewhat more money than what the source books tell us mercenary contracts are worth. Now, given the trillions of tax payers and extremely limited mech production, it would still probably be cost effective for a successor state to hire mercenaries, or for a wealthy noble to, or a planet. But I feel like successful mercenaries would tend to be living a bit larger (given the restaurant comparison, I'm imagining Grayson Carlyle as the Gordon Ramsay of mercenaries). That's not to say most wouldn't still fail, since mechs are so irreplaceable, and actually being able to win a mech battle isn't an easy thing. But still...
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There's probably an expected mutual defense compact with those who you have a shared physical border and vital infrastructure, like power plants and water purification plants, where not only targets of raids but aren't in your borders.
Except for the canon examples I gave upthread of when there isn't
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If the BT setting continues with the neo-feudal setting, then subinfeudation is probably a thing. To whit, most (if not all) planets have a civil government & a military government, the latter represented by an ennobled individual. His fief would be the entire planet, able to enjoy & use revenues from the planets produce both to support himself as well as support some sort of military (which we have been commonly referring to as a "militia"). Down the line he'll want to subinfeudate -- create smaller fiefs within his holding to support military units. Thus if Duke of Podunk can equally subdivide his planetary fief into 10 smaller fiefs, one he keeps for himself to support his household & household troops, & 9 he gives to his lesser nobles (barons). He gives each baron a fief to use & exploit as they see fit, but MUST contribute x number of troops for defense purposes in the event of an invasion.
Now it is altogether possible that each baron would have MORE troops than they need to fulfill their obligation & ONLY send troops that they are required to fight outside their lands -- retaining the rest to defend their own little plot of land, but nonetheless if we are doing a neo-feudal thing here than a big component of that is the military obligations the nobility have towards defense; the titles are just window-dressing.
But you are correct that the military in BT is a hybrid between a national military and a neo-feudal one, but not that unlike what happened in the Middle Ages (though the scale is much diffierent; most medieval monarchs are not going to have a household army rivalling the totality of their nobles). In Europe feudalism developed due to a combination of decentralized power, a need for local defense & leaders, as well as being wealthy in land but cash scarce. In the BT setting the decentralized power (due to distances) make the neo-feudalism necessary in order to have strong local leaders to keep order.
And this is where mercs come in, since landholders may not always be able to support the neccessary troops due to resource issued (like mechs), so they hire out mercs in order to make up the shortfall, fulfil obligations (i would assume in a setting of private mech ownership that the firstborn son goes off with his private mech to House regiments to gain experience while dad stays home & hires a merc or two to be able to fulfil their obligation to the overlord)...
Damon.
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one thing to remember about landholders and nobles is that they are beholden to higher nobility, up to and including the First Prince/Coordinator/etc.
if a raid happens and a nobleman with mech forces or private forces does nothing while the raiders rampage, they will come under scrutiny by their superiors in the nobility.. and could come under censure.
remember that most of the nobility in the successor states control entire worlds.. even if they do not directly own every square mile, that world is their fief, and the local government operated under their command, nominally. (in practice most nobility would likely be absentee rulers letting the local governments handle the nitty-gritty of day to day management.) on worlds where there are multiple nobles, there would generally be some sort of pecking order based on rank, holdings, or whatever the govern who has the primary power, and thus the main obligations to the worlds defense.
a Nobleman that sat back and did nothing might get away with it only if there was another force on the world not under their control that should have handled it. if said nobleman was the primary noble for the world, and did nothing, he'd be in serious trouble with his peers. would this prevent the noble from letting raiders hurt a rival on world? no. but it means it wouldn't be a case of "sitting in his mansion and watching", it would be a case of "deploy my company to defend these vital sites", and leaving his rivals holdings to their own defenses. then afterwards they can claim it was the rivals fault, for leaving the raided sites less defended.
it is also worth noting that as the nobles generally control entire worlds as their Fief, it would generally be those nobles hiring the mercenary units for the defense of the world, not the planetary government. the Noble has the authority and the funds, after all. many would likely rely on mercenaries for that job than their own "house troops", because of the relative disposable nature of of mercs. mercs are also something that you only need to support while you have them.. if you build up a personal army, and the regional tensions change reducing the risk to your world.. well that is a lot of money you are now wasting. but with mercs you just let their contract run out and then not renew.
as far as "most new merc units fail".. makes sense to me. generally new merc units are small affairs, and shoestring budgets. if you have a lance of mechs, you can't really demand high pay on the safe missions like garrison. which makes it really hard to stay solvent financially. the high pay jobs that can keep you on top of your bills are going to be the high risk jobs like raids, which carry a very good chance that your force will take damage or losses, which mean you have to pay for repairs or hiring replacements.. a string of good raids can put you in the black, but one bad raid and you could end up not only so far in the red you can't easily recover, but also so reduced in strength that you can't get new contracts. which would basically mean the unit dissolves and its members go off to join other units, the property of the unit itself auctioned off to pay the debts.. likely to the next up and coming merc unit.
this would only get worse during the 3050's.. because the starting level wouldn't be much different.. ex soldiers with beat up introtech or early newtech mechs looking for work.. but the jobs that pay would be garrison along the clan front or raids on clan held worlds.. both of which would be very high risk. and the higher costs of the increasingly advanced technology required to be effective would put most of the super-safe garrison contracts away from the clan front too low-return. the bubble in mercs coming out of that time would be purely because there would be so many more ex-soldiers leaving service having fought the clans.. and there were a lot more mechs around for sale because of the tech recovery increasing production, and successor states getting rid of their older, more beat up hardware in favor of new builds and new technology versions.
add in the Wolfs Dragoons, Kell Hounds, and Eridani lighthorse, who sponsored a lot of smaller merc units as part of anti-clan efforts, and the Fedcom and Combine recruiting a lot of smaller units at favorable rates for deceptively high risk missions (like The Combine and Wolcott) and i could see a bubble.. for a brief time becoming a mercenary would be not only easier, but seemingly more profitable.. most of the units would still fail.. not because they went broke and dissolved.. but because they zigged when they should have zagged and became scrap under clan guns. something that would not be as obvious to wannabe mercs coming into the industry.
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one thing to remember about landholders and nobles is that they are beholden to higher nobility, up to and including the First Prince/Coordinator/etc.
if a raid happens and a nobleman with mech forces or private forces does nothing while the raiders rampage, they will come under scrutiny by their superiors in the nobility.. and could come under censure.
remember that most of the nobility in the successor states control entire worlds.. even if they do not directly own every square mile, that world is their fief, and the local government operated under their command, nominally. (in practice most nobility would likely be absentee rulers letting the local governments handle the nitty-gritty of day to day management.) on worlds where there are multiple nobles, there would generally be some sort of pecking order based on rank, holdings, or whatever the govern who has the primary power, and thus the main obligations to the worlds defense.
a Nobleman that sat back and did nothing might get away with it only if there was another force on the world not under their control that should have handled it. if said nobleman was the primary noble for the world, and did nothing, he'd be in serious trouble with his peers. would this prevent the noble from letting raiders hurt a rival on world? no. but it means it wouldn't be a case of "sitting in his mansion and watching", it would be a case of "deploy my company to defend these vital sites", and leaving his rivals holdings to their own defenses. then afterwards they can claim it was the rivals fault, for leaving the raided sites less defended.
it is also worth noting that as the nobles generally control entire worlds as their Fief, it would generally be those nobles hiring the mercenary units for the defense of the world, not the planetary government. the Noble has the authority and the funds, after all. many would likely rely on mercenaries for that job than their own "house troops", because of the relative disposable nature of of mercs. mercs are also something that you only need to support while you have them.. if you build up a personal army, and the regional tensions change reducing the risk to your world.. well that is a lot of money you are now wasting. but with mercs you just let their contract run out and then not renew.
See, I don't think this is actually correct.
Most nobles' fief is an entire world: Going all the way back to 1st ed Mechwarrior, fiefs of scales much smaller than an entire planet are discussed. In the current edition (ATOW) the level of the noble title and the size of the fief are technically unrelated to each other (probably for ease of play), but still fiefs as small as 2 square km are possible. Most nobles are going to be of less than Ducal rank, and most fiefs are going to be smaller than an entire planet. This bears out logically... if a Duke starts with an entire colony planet as his fief, he grants underlings their own fiefs from his own holdings and over a thousand years of inhabitation a world's political map ends up looking like a global HRE.
Collectivized Planetary defense is all the petty nobles' responsibility: There's already two entities doing this. First is the Great House army garrison commander. Even if according to the relevant sourcebook governing troop deployments for the planet in the given era there is no House mech force present, there still is/could be a conventional forces garrison in charge of global defense. Even if there is no mech or conventional Great House Army garrison on world, there's probably a planetary militia under command of the Duke or equivalent authority. If both of these are absent, the world is probably so underdeveloped that it hasn't had a history that left a mess of petty fiefdoms on world anyway to have a discussion about whether or not they'd cooperate for defense.
Peer shaming of a Noble who didn't send his personal army to help in a crisis onworld but outside his own fiefdom: Nope, don't see it. Private armies jumping fiefdom borders on the pretext of "helping our neighbors" is too easy an excuse for outright invasion. Smart petty nobles aren't going to invite the armed forces loyal to their political rivals/enemies in. Hey Count Snootyface, mind if you send troops to protect my valuable asset to help me out here? Pinky swear you won't just occupy it yourself and make a fait accompli claim on it! Of course that's also before factoring mercs... if its not in their contract to be roving troubleshooters across the entire planet every time there's a crisis they won't be doing it. If their contract is to protect the Winter Palace and the Count's Bouncy Bubble Beverage factory, then that's all they're going to be protecting. They're not gonna agree to contractual terms that involve defending the entire world unless they're being paid to defend the entire world.
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Personally I can't accept the theory that there are more or even an equal number of Mechs and forces in private hands as there are in Govt hands, and they just step aside when wars come to their planets. It flies in the face of all other canon evidence and noncanon reasoning just to force-fit an answer to the question of reduced army sizes.
@Garrand - subinfeudation at least down to the planetary leader level is quite obviously the model used in Battletech, with varying degrees of loyalty to the lord paramount. The House Handbooks have examples of minor houses being awarded fiefs of factories, mining operations, asteroid belts, etc and the titles given to them as well.
@TDC - You ask why can't these other landholders just step aside and ignore a summons to help? They can't as they would be ostracised and probably stripped of their holdings immediately once the crisis is over. When the banners are called, you come - that's the deal. In a feudal or neo-feudal setting, this would be explicitly spelled out in a contract. IRL, it is merely implied in what is called a "social contract"... but it is still present. A close parallel would be political parties - if you are a Senator or MP or key Party head, on essential issues you do not vote against your Party. Go against your lord and you are stripped of your title - as Benito Mussolini was.
There is a confusion here with linking "feudalism" and "nobility" with mental images of knights in armour, and dukes and barons and so on. Actually, feudalism is (1 of) the roots of modern law and society. We still use some of the terminology of feudalism today. The simplest example is rent - you, the landlord, owns a freehold apartment. You let out the apartment to a tenant, who pays you rent and possibly maintenance. You in your turn pay the Government quit-rent. Your tenant might sub-let a room to another person - that is closely related to subinfeudation.
What's missing in the modern contract is that your tenant doesn't owe you fealty, and is not obligated to come to your aid when you call your banners ::) nor in your turn are you contractually obligated to do knight-service* in person to the US Army and raise a minimum of ONE (1) M1A2 Abrams tank, ONE (1) F-15 Eagle, and ONE (1) Company of M-16 Riflemen from your tenants, funded by your incomes... that went out with the introduction of scutage meaning the Government uses your tax-money to buy, recruit and train soldiers, instead of you having to be in the US Army yourself, and training in your own time to operate said Abrams tank.
But that is where Battletech reverts back a little to feudalism. As a planetary governor you are a Baron and preside over your planet. Your sons are probably Viscounts and have independent incomes from factories, farmland and mines - think trust fund babies :D But part of your contract to House Davion, implicit or explicit, includes the requirement that you have to hold on to your planet for Davion. (Otherwise he'll find a smarter baron to do it.) So you set aside part of the budget to raise a militia - and because you're smart, you put money into raising household troops too. Additionally, you send your young Viscounts to NAMA Academy where they'll train as Mechwarriors but more importantly, hobnob with Davion's kids and the other Viscounts and Viscountesses, where they'll find favour and contacts and perhaps rich mates - bit like the Ivy League, or so I hear - and you can point to them and tell Davion "Myself and my kids are Mechwarriors with our own Mechs. I hear your Davion Brigade of Guards is short on both. Why not take them on, as a personal favour from me... and by the way, did I mention my planet is opening a new iridium mine and we need export contracts?" Hint hint, nudge nudge.
And to connect all this to the topic - if you're especially savvy, you'll send word to Outreach that you wouldn't mind devoting a little more spare change than usual to hire an extra lance of Mechs as a little surprise, cause something tells you you haven't been raided in a while...
*sadly we are merely called conscripts these days :D
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@TDC - You ask why can't these other landholders just step aside and ignore a summons to help? They can't as they would be ostracised and probably stripped of their holdings immediately once the crisis is over. When the banners are called, you come - that's the deal. In a feudal or neo-feudal setting, this would be explicitly spelled out in a contract. IRL, it is merely implied in what is called a "social contract"... but it is still present. A close parallel would be political parties - if you are a Senator or MP or key Party head, on essential issues you do not vote against your Party. Go against your lord and you are stripped of your title - as Benito Mussolini was.
Pedantic but I feel relevant quibble: I was saying there would never *be* a call to ignore, not that there'd be no consequences for ignoring it. Your neighbors aren't going to ask you for help, because if they do you just grab whatever it is they ask you to help defend. When they cry foul you just appeal to the Ducal or higher authority: "Hey, they *asked* me to take care of it for them. Since they can't defend it, the best way I can take care of it is to do so on a permanent basis. *I* can defend it." And remember, possession is 9/10ths of the law. Once you grab it, it's basically yours.
But again, even if there were such a call, with respect to mercenaries: How you gonna force them to do what's not in their contract?
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To get back to the OP's question . . .
The mercenary trade has never really gone out of style. In fact its in use by first world powers today- it just uses a different PR name. To understand how/why it gets used in the Inner Sphere no matter the time period just look at Blackwater- or whatever they are calling themselves today.
Just as an example . . .
They build their own mil-spec armored vehicle called the Grizzly (look it up, sort of interesting) with various parts subcontracted out. They claimed to be able to be able to produce a vehicle a day from their plant but have not done so (may not have spent enough on lobbyists) due to not winning the MRAP II contract. They own several different training grounds in various locations which are thousands of acres, had several support operations at different airports and own their own fleet of transports to include a 767 and at one time had tens of thousands up to possibly a hundred thousand contractors in Iraq for protective details. All during a period of low intensity war conducted by a collection of 1st world powers, and they were not the only private military contractor in operation at the time- in fact most you did not hear about until something bad happened and it hit the news (see Benghazi).
Compare that to a BT merc unit that had over 5 regiments, their own factory to produce mil spec equipment, have a continent for their own training grounds and owned their own fleet of transports . . .
Mercs (or private military contractors) are groups hired to take on missions either deemed to dirty for national forces- even black ops- to take on (hello plausible deniability). In addition, mercenary casualties are not something that make headlines like it does for national forces and so its a better 'PR' solution . . . especially since all that changes is what type of uniform they wear since a lot of the PMC's recruits are troops who had experience in operations or the war zone. This lets the parent country who hires their own PMCs know the quality & training of the troops. Speaking of casualties it also gets the hiring country out of paying out death benefits, post tour medical costs, medical separation, medical retirement and survivor benefits/support which are very large, very long term. Corporal Snuffy got married 3 months before shipping out. Corporal Snuffy was unfortunately close to a device that went BANG. Now his service is required by contract to pay a stipend to his newborn daughter for the next 18 years, longer if she goes to college and will be subsidizing that cost as well- also be sure to tack in the lifetime stipend to the widow. Compare that to a PMC . . . unfortunately Tech Joe, we are unable to find a insurance carrier who will cover you with a hostage or KIA policy while you are on contract in Sandy Hellhole, Overthere so you will need to find your own carrier to purchase a hostage policy and warzone D&D policy on your dime. I knew both the former and the later example.
Keep in mind that its not a recent phenomenon either- Africa, South America and SE Asia were all places that small time mercenary companies operated in. Sometimes the big boys of the era would play as well, sometimes at the behest of one of the world powers (hello again my friend, plausible deniability) to give support to someone friendly to the world power. Africa in particular is a hotbed for this as you have a lot of balkanization of the population & weak central power along with a lot of money in certain places due to natural resources that get fought over.
This happened in the Cold War, under the radar for most b/c the focus was on NATO vs Warsaw Pact staring at each other across nuclear missiles. It happened before . . . during the 1860s in Mexico with French troops supporting the Emperor, it happened in the Revolutionary War with the Hessians and individuals like Pulaski who trained & fought with Continentals.
So how does it work? Just like it does now, where political powers would rather pay a monetary price than a PR/image price that would be extracted by national forces doing the same things. Its a short cut that becomes a easy road to travel.
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Pedantic but I feel relevant quibble: I was saying there would never *be* a call to ignore, not that there'd be no consequences for ignoring it. Your neighbors aren't going to ask you for help, because if they do you just grab whatever it is they ask you to help defend. When they cry foul you just appeal to the Ducal or higher authority: "Hey, they *asked* me to take care of it for them. Since they can't defend it, the best way I can take care of it is to do so on a permanent basis. *I* can defend it." And remember, possession is 9/10ths of the law. Once you grab it, it's basically yours.
Until the planetary lord says "Nothing doing", makes you give it back, and strips you of your possessions too for being a bad tenant. Ever seen someone try to stab a colleague's back in the office this way? Unless the stabber has the patronage of the boss, it doesn't work out this way.
In fact this was the reasoning used by many of the Dark Age subfactions to take over planets away from the Republic. The only reason it worked was that the Republic was too weak to fight against them.
But again, even if there were such a call, with respect to mercenaries: How you gonna force them to do what's not in their contract?
I think this has come up in BT fiction before actually. And the answer is: you do it or face 1 of 2 outcomes: 1) the defenders win and you're given the boot for not helping, or 2) the attackers win and you either negotiate a new contract with them successfully on the spot, or you die. Trying to play both ends against the middle is a good way to get killed by both sides.
If it sounds a bum deal for mercs that's because it is. Its also a good reason for mercs not to sign contracts like that.
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Until the planetary lord says "Nothing doing", makes you give it back, and strips you of your possessions too for being a bad tenant. Ever seen someone try to stab a colleague's back in the office this way? Unless the stabber has the patronage of the boss, it doesn't work out this way.
There's no guarantee of such justice actually happening though. So long as the land-grabber plays "by the rules" and doesn't do scorched earth/collateral damage, it's easier to just chide the idiot side that lost the valuable resource. They'll know better next time. So long as the valuable resource keeps churning out whatever makes it valuable, it literally doesn't matter which petty noble "owns" it. Sure, some nobles might have the favor of the Duke/Administrator. Those especially are the ones you don't invite into your fief, since the Duke/Administrator is bound to side with them rather than generally not care.
...the answer is: you do it or face 1 of 2 outcomes: 1) the defenders win and you're given the boot for not helping, or 2) the attackers win and you either negotiate a new contract with them successfully on the spot, or you die. Trying to play both ends against the middle is a good way to get killed by both sides.
If it sounds a bum deal for mercs that's because it is. Its also a good reason for mercs not to sign contracts like that.
Mercs are professionals. They have nothing to fear from enemy forces they're not contracted to fight. Only the most unbelievably incompetent of invaders would pick a fight with mercs who aren't contracted to fight them. Likewise a defending planetary authority has enough to worry about in raiders/invaders rather than making more enemies out of the mercs onworld who's contracts don't say they have to fight this particular fight.
Rasalhague's factional hatred of mercenaries is this exact thing. Mercs cited their contracts not covering this engagement or that one, and the local yokels got all upset about mercs not getting into fights they weren't contracted for. After you throw back the pirates/raiders/invaders without their noncontracted help you can try taking it out on the mercs afterwards, but ComStar's got their back (so long as the contract was bonded thru them).
We're probably arguing over pedantics anyway. If you're in charge of the planet's defense and you feel you absolutely need the mercs in the employ of some petty noble(s), rather than pulling the "do it my way or else" card you just make it worth the petty noble(s)' while to help the planetary defense. You don't flat out order them to commit troops because you don't have a way to MAKE them do it, especially not with hostiles inbound. You give them incentives. You recognize some grievance. You expand their fief. You literally pay them to sign a new short term contract with their mercs to cover the upcoming campaign. Hell, you might even play the "do it or you'll be sorry afterwards" card if that's all you have. But you don't have a way to MAKE them do it... coercion by either soft or hard tactics is what's *required*.
New topic so the differences in pov on the nature of petty nobility doesn't derail the thread about mercs:
Mercenary trade in 3145+.
I suspect we're seeing mercs being written out of the game, which is a shame as they've been a core part of it for so long. The Dark Age doesn't have HPG nets OR a currency accepted across the Inner Sphere. That means no regular contact with Hiring Halls, which means mercs are begging for work when a contract ends. Without currency that can be spent anywhere, they're stuck accepting House Bills that are useless except as fire-lighters if they relocate. If the Clans conquer the Inner Sphere (as is possible, given we have an IlClan coming) there won't be any room for mercs anyway.
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The merc trade prospers in Battletech because you never know when you need extra troops who are just loyal to you.
--Local politics got you down? Your cousin Rufus trying to make the claim that he should be the Viscount of Dirtball VII? Not sure how many of your "trusted" men are maybe loyal to him? Hire some mercs. They don't care about your fights over inheritance. You know you can trust them, because they don't care about your planet.
--Need to wipe out some "freedom fighters" that are being a pain in your ass? But some segment of the population is kinda sorta supportive of them? You can't prove it, but you think maybe your own forces sometimes look the other way sometimes? Hire some mercs. Find the right ones, and they'll burn down a few towns without blinking. Then you can blame everything on them, kick them out, and not take the heat for what they did.
--Did you piss away the money that was supposed to go towards keeping your planetary defense forces strong? Yeah that new palace is nice, but now there's hostility on the border, and weren't you supposed to have 2 full mech battalions and you only have 2 companies? Maybe it's time to hire some mercs. They're expensive, but they'll fill in for the forces that you were supposed to have (were obligated to have to protect your landholdings).
Merc units survive because they find a niche.
Some of the big companies effectively become semi-independent House units. You get a long-term contract with a Great House, they treat you right, and they know you're not gonna run off and sign with the other side at the drop of a hat. Some of your officers get minor titles and landholdings, and while the unit is technically a free agent, realistically everybody knows who you are going to be working for even 20 years from now. You got it too good to leave.
Small units can specialize and do only one thing. Lenny's Lancers are a company of bug mechs who function as scouts and raiders. If you want to hire somebody to race into an enemy city and steal something from a factory, or to hit an ammo dump, these are your guys. Just know that they're never gonna engage in real combat and they won't stick around if things go bad. They're good enough that they'll bail on a contract if they think they've been lied to, and they'll count on their rep to get new jobs.
Other units try to diversify. You have a windfall after a particularly successful mission, so you buy a security company and hire out private cops for corporate clients. You've got a regiment of infantry forces who never leave the planet, never engage in real combat, and who get paid very well to guard executives and rough up hippies who protest outside toxic waste-spewing factories. Even after you leave the planet to go on another contract, you keep the security company and it's another source of income for you. Over the years, you develop a lot of ways to make money that supplement your "real job" of being a merc battlemech unit.
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@Kidd I think your exposition is really good. Maybe you'd consider doing an essay for us.
I would add that the primary planetary ruler is more often a Duke, I think, with the title of Baron being a special grant, in some cases, for a particularly important asset like a BattleMech factory complex or other vital holding. You might make an exception for something like a really major industrial holding that swings alot of weight, so that 'CEO' might also be a Duke, but maybe only in terms of technical rank, and not invested with grand strategy-level power.
The other thing I'd like to mention is that, although we find few actual republics in the holdings of the Great Houses, that doesn't mean that most common people are completely powerless, or can't hire mercenaries for their own ends, like putting down a particularly nasty lower to mid-level noble when a planetary ruler is somehow powerless to do anything about it. Torches and pitchforks with some military grade support, if you will. This, of course, varies by planet and Great House. Davion, for instance, is reputed to have high levels of commoner liberty, so maybe this would be something you'd see more of in the FedSuns Outback regions than in more authoritarian regimes.
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@Kidd I think your exposition is really good. Maybe you'd consider doing an essay for us.
I do in fact have the outline of a Fan Article on feudalism and Battletech, tucked away between two fanfictions and an article on JumpShip logistics ;D but its a very big topic, heavy on fan-theory-head-canon*, and I just decided to do another MOTW.
*which is generally a turn-off for me to read, so I am hesitant to inflict my theories on others.
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It should be noted, mercenary companies fail at almost exactly the same rate as restaurants. Perhaps someone who wrote that book had some experience in that industry?
Which is why many a former mercenary commander goes to open a bar and pub.
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(given the restaurant comparison, I'm imagining Grayson Carlyle as the Gordon Ramsay of mercenaries).
You donkey, you let them hit the risotto shipment with infernos! You could have killed someone! Shut it down, shut it down! Get out of here, go back to the base, I'll take care of this.
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In the worst parts of the early Succession Wars, the levels of loyalty and the stability of the power structure were probably a bit more fluid than during the 3rd and 4th. Taking land from a neighboring noble's fief MIGHT be overlooked by your common overlord, but the odds are pretty high that it would be seen as a breach of the terms of your own title. If you're "in" well enough with your overlord, and your neighbor isn't (he's done something to piss off those higher up), the odds are a lot better. If you're using a foreign invasion as an excuse to "protect" and then permanently occupy that territory, you're probably going to pay dearly for it, one way or another, unless you've already made some kind of secret agreement with your overlord.
By the end of the 4th Succession War, the House militaries and power structures seem to have congealed enough that such an infraction would be unacceptable in most Houses.
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The other thing I'd like to mention is that, although we find few actual republics in the holdings of the Great Houses, that doesn't mean that most common people are completely powerless, or can't hire mercenaries for their own ends, like putting down a particularly nasty lower to mid-level noble when a planetary ruler is somehow powerless to do anything about it. Torches and pitchforks with some military grade support, if you will. This, of course varies by planet and Great House. Davion, for instance, is reputed to have high levels of commoner liberty, so maybe this would be something you'd see more of in the FedSuns Outback regions than in more authoritarian regimes.
not to mention the existence of a successor state wide federal judiciary and court system..
if another baron does just seize your holdings, and an appeal to the Duke does not work, you can also haul the other baron before a federal court and have the issue settled there. likely by some non-noble from half way across the successor state who doesn't have ties to anyone involved.
as tempting as it is to perceive of the nobles as autocrats, the fact is that most of the successor states are more like constitutional monarchies, to varying degrees. they have modern legal systems and a system of checks and balances on the power of the nobility to prevent the very sorts of abuses that Tai Dai Cultist presupposes. which we often see in the novels, as the reasoning the villain of the work has to use covert channels, under-the-table deals, false flags, and mercenaries hired through middlemen to achieve their goals.
This doesn't prevent them from abuses obviously, but it does mean they have to be circumspect and aware of the legal repercussions to them. a good example would be how Govenor Wilmarth (a baron, by the description in the novel, though not caleld such by the locals who hated him) on Caledonia was able to get away with his 'reign of terror'.. He was using "public safety" as an excuse to aggressively and heavy handedly oppress a political dissident movement (which while largely peaceful had a few violent members), and when supporters of that movement held rallies, he had them broken up violently by treating them as riots.
a Baron wanting to seize control of a factory on a world wouldn't be able to just march troops in during a crisis and say "its mine now".. not without precipitating an armed response by the Duke against a "rebellion".. but they could manipulate land and stock prices, buy up the other baron's debts, and then make the transfer of the factory part of the repayment of that debt. or arranges a 'pirate' raid that mildly damages the factory in some expensive way, that lets the baron pick it up cheap. etc. wars in the shadows, fought with money, spies, and covert operatives. on the surface, all must look peaceful and legal.. because otherwise their reputation and standing is damaged, making social advancement difficult. and one thing nearly every baron would be aiming for is social improvement. why be a baron when you can be a Count? why be a Count when you can be a Duke? and in some cases where the lineage is close, why be a Duke when you can be First Prince?
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Keep in mind as well that if the barons on this planet are feuding, that compromises their ability to discharge their duties & maintain the defense, so whomever the overlord is has a vested interest in keeping that shenanigans down (because HE has to answer to someone higher than him... a March lord or the First Prince/Archon/whomever). Also keep in mind the nature of nobility in the Middle Ages or a neo-feudal setting: that baron you are messing with might be family to either yourself, or to your overlord. Your daughter could be married to their son, or your son may have married into your overlord's family, etc. Or that baron might be a second son installed by your overlord to provide for him. So if you decide to cause trouble, then some of your peers or your overlord might see it as being personal...
Damon.
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... they have modern legal systems and a system of checks and balances on the power of the nobility...
But do they, really? Plenty of court administered "justice" is doled out to common folk, sure. But for nobles grabbing each other's territory? I'm not so sure. For example, When House Vandenberg had their entire fief usurped, why did its scion and heir have to go thru the events of the original Mechwarrior video game to undo the land grab, as opposed to just filing a grievance with some Davion court? (granted, video game plots are technically considered apocryphal, but it's the most prominent example that came to mind regardless)
What I do know for sure is that sources at least as far back as the 1987 Mercenary's Handbook discuss that the Ares Conventions legitimized military action as a way to settle even minor disputes. That in of itself is critical for the vitality of the mercenary industry in the setting.
...By the end of the 4th Succession War, the House militaries and power structures seem to have congealed enough that such an infraction would be unacceptable in most Houses.
Point granted that petty nobility grabbing each others' stuff is less acceptable in the Clan Invasion to Jihad eras than in those eras before and after. That being admitted, it *is* a perfect time for petty nobility on Davion and Steiner worlds to go grabbing at each other's stuff during the Civil War.
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Wars are a perfect time to grab land from nobles on the other side, not your own. There's a subtle distinction.
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Wars are a perfect time to grab land from nobles on the other side, not your own. There's a subtle distinction.
Exactly, and what about if the noble who has a fief next to yours *is* your enemy? "Us against them" doesn't fly very well in (neo-)feudalism.
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But do they, really? Plenty of court administered "justice" is doled out to common folk, sure. But for nobles grabbing each other's territory? I'm not so sure. For example, When House Vandenberg had their entire fief usurped, why did its scion and heir have to go thru the events of the original Mechwarrior video game to undo the land grab, as opposed to just filing a grievance with some Davion court? (granted, video game plots are technically considered apocryphal, but it's the most prominent example that came to mind regardless)
actually that is an example that helps show my point.
the plot of that game goes that Anders Moon is under house vandenburg. during a pirate raid, Duke Vandenburg* is killed and an important artifact required for he succession ceremony is stolen. with Gideon too young and the artifact missing, the local legal authorities declare the succession is to be delayed until the heri, Gideon, becomes 23 years old. Then House Vandenburg's rivals, House McBrin, 'discover' some evidence that implicates House Vandenburg in the raid, with the Vandenburgs consorting with the pirates, only to double cross them, leading the pirates to attack in retaliation, leaving Making House Vandenburg lose prestige and putting the succession into question, since the evidence basically implicated Gideon and his father in Treason against the Fedcom. which led Gideon to flee the world, create his merc unit, and seek out both the artifact and proof that the evidence against his family was falsified. if he doesn't achieve that by the time he turns 23, house McBrin would be given control off the world.
it isn't a case of the rival just showing up with some troops and saying "my world now", but rather the rival hiring mercenaries to conduct a false flag raid as part of a conspiracy to discredit another house, while using the legal system to enact a transfer of power.
*that the control of a minor world in a system was a duke, and not a baron or count is probably a bit of early installment weirdness.
Exactly, and what about if the noble who has a fief next to yours *is* your enemy? "Us against them" doesn't fly very well in (neo-)feudalism.
then you get labelled a traitor, and your holdings and forces crushed by house troops sent to put down your 'rebellion'. time of war or not, an outright attack on a neighboring noble of the same house would be viewed as actions against the state, and responded to as such. because as a noble you are obligated as part of your fealty to defend the realm.. which includes your neighbors lands, because they are part of the realm. attacking your neighbor in open warfare is a blatant detrimental act to the defense and readiness of the realm, and thus the higher nobles would be forced to act to stop the aggressor.
far more likely would be the noble deploying his own forces in such a way to leave his neighbor more vulnerable to attack.. like not placing the troops where they can react to enemies hitting the neighbors worlds, or using influence at court to get the house troops deployed to your worlds in large numbers than your neighbor's, making them more attractive to attack.
not to mention organizing raids or invasions of minor worlds on the enemy side meant to gain glory for yourself (and if you are really clever, you raid enemy worlds close to your rival's worlds, so that the retaliatory raids hit your rival, and not you. )
in both cases the goal is to make your rival appear weaker or more foolhardy, and yourself stronger and more valiant.. impressions that you can then parlay into better standings at court and opportunities for social advancement or acquisition of further power in the various noble intrigues.
in many ways the politics of the inner sphere can be summed up at a Ten Thousand Gambit Pile up.. with every nobleman involved in one or more schemes, all at the expense of the other noblemen, at various different levels.
edit: it is worth noting that had blatant internecine warfare with no legal repercussions been a thing, books like The Price of Glory would have been over very quick.. why would a rogue precentor and the Duke or Irian have to contrive a scheme involving using other mercenaries pulling an atrocity under a false flag in order to discredit the grey death legion and get them arrested and held.. all so the Duke of Irian could grab the grey death's landhold? they could have just landed troops in overwhelming force and taken it. they had to do the false flag atrocity because they had to ensure that when they went in for the landhold, they had clear legal basis to do so.
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New topic so the differences in pov on the nature of petty nobility doesn't derail the thread about mercs:
Mercenary trade in 3145+.
I suspect we're seeing mercs being written out of the game, which is a shame as they've been a core part of it for so long. The Dark Age doesn't have HPG nets OR a currency accepted across the Inner Sphere. That means no regular contact with Hiring Halls, which means mercs are begging for work when a contract ends. Without currency that can be spent anywhere, they're stuck accepting House Bills that are useless except as fire-lighters if they relocate. If the Clans conquer the Inner Sphere (as is possible, given we have an IlClan coming) there won't be any room for mercs anyway.
Both problems make it harder to be a mercenary unit but I believe they don't make it impossible.
For example, is Galatea still a hiring hall? If so, there should be agents from the surrounding nations (Lyran Commonwealth, Free Worlds League, Galatean League, Republic Remnant, and so on) with contracts to offer. New contracts may be slow in coming since they have to come in via JumpShip Express but they should have something. There's no lack of work to be done on that side of the Sphere.
The currency problem can be worked around. Mercenaries can always ask to be paid primarily in goods, e.g. ammunition, or in whatever currency they trust (e.g. Clan Sea Fox).
If ilClan unifies (most of) the Inner Sphere, we may see the mercenary trade shut down but we won't know until the book is in our hands.
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Galatea is once again the main center for mercenaries. the MRBC operates from there, though it lost some of its neutrality since the loss of outreach. (FM3145, pg176)
actually that page starts the mercenaries section of FM3145.. the merc business is simultaneously much riskier.. and booming. there are a lot more contracts and a lot less regulation.. but there are also a lot more problems. there are few reliable employers anymore, with many of the ones that used to be reliable like the Lyrans and Davions facing major financial and organizational issues, though there are a lot more smaller employers around.
the collapse of the C-bill and the republic Stone makes it trickier to handle finances in general, and distribution issues and high general demand means supplies are scarce and prices on the market are high. many mercs have started using ammunition as currency (how very Metro2033), which has made the market situation even worse.
Galatea is also its own semi-independant nation at the moment.. the Galatean league. it was created after grey monday to defend it and the surrounding worlds from attacks by the Falcons, Wolves, and Bears.
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About local brush wars between nobles. I think the best canon example is operation Flash point. The world has two counts and a bunch of Barons governing through a house of lords/parliament . In order for the lesser count to go after the top one he has to frame him for bombing the house of lords killing most of them.
So in the Lyran half of the FC you need some legal argument/fiction to go to war with an other noble. PR is also a part of the campaign so the people do matter at some level.
The two counts were said to be the only mech owners of the planet . The text says twice what the PCs have with the assumption trough-out the text that the PC have a company. So say 2 companies plus a command/personal lance for each counts. (+ some conventional troops). The barons household troop are said to range from a platoon of foot infantry to a few companies of armor/infantry.
So the counts could take over some baronies pretty easily if they wanted too but dont due to other constraints.
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Generally, nobles in Battletech are fairly well entrenched and have a lot of power besides their title. But that doesn't mean that they're obligated to help out other nobles, or likely to seek their assistance. And going and complaining to a more powerful noble just makes you look weak. You aren't some oppressed minority fighting for civil rights, you're a damned noble. The top 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%. You're expected to handle your own business, not go bothering the guy above you because somebody else was mean to you.
Baron von Buttwipe is a low level noble on the backwater FedSuns planet of Mudball V, a world with about 100 million people on it. He owns 30% of Buttwipe Motors, the Volkswagen equivalent of Mudball V. He sits on the board of directors of half a dozen different companies (but never actually attends in person). He has landholdings about the size of the western half of the United States, but it's so sparsely inhabited that most of the land is pretty worthless. He collects some fees and taxes from the people who live there on top of what the local government needs to function, but by the time he gets his cut, it's just enough to maintain his mountain castle and do maintenance on his estate. There's an AC-5 factory within his territory, and while it's technically owned by some off-planet megacorp, the Baron owns the 400 miles of train track that connects the factory to the starport. Protecting that factory is a vital part of his power base. He sends a representative to the planetary legislature, and he gets to appoint one of the judges on the planetary supreme court. His power is extensive. To protect this, he maintains a lance of mechs (2 Griffins, an Enforcer, and a Javelin) and two companies of Scorpion tanks, as well a battalion of infantry and a "private police force" who operate pretty quietly and make problems go away.
All this power comes from Baron von Buttwipe's family history, going all the way back 800 years ago to Victor von Buttwipe, a businessman from Earth who paid a bunch of settlers to go plant flags saying "property of Victor von Buttwipe" all across the countryside. For a while, the family ruled that land as absolute monarchs. Everyone who lived there was an employee of the Buttwipe Corporation, and since the only law came from corporate security, let's say that losing your job had really bad consequences. But eventually they ran into other people on the same planet who felt they were absolute monarchs. This led to a series of wars until eventually some sort of peace treaties were signed. Then you had peace on Mudball V. That is, of course, until Count Jackboot from a neighboring star system comes in and threatens to conquer everything unless you pay him tribute. He didn't call himself "Count" Jackboot at the time, he called himself "King of the Universe, Emperor-for-life Jackboot" back then.
Eventually, these wars and conquests settled into what we think of as the normal Inner Sphere neo-feudalistic system. But that took a while. People had to get their asses kicked and learn their place. Eventually these planetary dictators ran into the really big dogs, the Haseks, the Sandovals, and the Davions. And everybody had to fall into line. And the Davions would recognize your claim over your land and property, and in return you put their picture up on the wall and send some money their way. And you of course have the obligation to protect your own stuff. You're not Baron von Buttwipe just because the Prince likes you, you're the Baron because you've managed to successfully hold onto your property for the past several centuries.
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What this means is that any noble who has to go through a federal court system in order to get his stuff back, isn't going to be a noble for long. It means he can't protect his own stuff. He's weak, and he's going to be an immediate target for every aggressive neighbor. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be marching mechs into the courtyard of your mountain palace. They'll know how far they can bend the rules and still get away with it.
Now, a full-scale invasion from House Kurita? No minor noble is expected to hold them off on his own. The planetary ruler is expected to fight those battles, but if the invasion crosses over into your territory, you have a vested interest in protecting your own stuff. Baron von Buttwipe doesn't want to see the AC-5 factory destroyed, so he'll bring out his personal forces to protect it. But you can't really count on your neighbor sending troops to help you, they've got their troops busy defending their own important stuff.
Raids and other minor attacks, you're expected to defend your own stuff without help. That's why you're the Baron and why you get to be in charge of such a vast area of land. If you go crying to the Duke that you need help against pirates, well you do that too often and he's going to wonder why he doesn't just get rid of you and increase his own landholdings.
What this does is create a huge market for mercenaries, as long as they know how to find work. It's like playing the stock market, you can make a ton of money or you can lose your shirt. There are lots of nobles out there who find out they need a bigger military, and they need it quickly. Hire a company of mechs, and suddenly all the other Barons on Mudball V better watch out. You're a force to be reckoned with. Now, once tensions cool down, a merc unit will want to look for the next guy who has mis-managed his estate over the last 20 years, and needs a quick show of force so that his aggressive neighbors will back off.
There are tons and tons of little raids and little conflicts, and that's where the average merc unit finds its most regular work. That's their bread and butter.
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As a small aside, I don't see why the collapse of the C-bill should be all that big of a deal in and of itself. Can't the various House currencies simply be exchanged at the borders, or in whatever passes for a bank or something? Sure, somebody is gonna take their cut, but given that it's not a monopolized industry, if their cut is too high, move over to the next place in town, right?
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Exchanging currency is yet another inconvenience to be dealt with, not a "game over". There's enough trade across borders so that merchants would be willing to accept foreign currency which they can use a month or so down the road, in exchange for a percentage of the value: "Sure, I'll take K-Bills. The official rate is 1.3 to the L-Bill, but I won't accept less than 1.4 per."
The merc gets merchandise for about 90-95% of the "official" value for his money, and the merchant uses the bills a month later when his ship crosses over into the Kurita half of his trade run, with the 5-10% surcharge as "interest" for the time that the funds were "less useful" in Lyran space.
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Good conversation gents!
Though I am seeing a piece of info that hasn't been mentioned that may play a factor in the mercenary trade.
A local Duke is not just in charge of a planet. A Duke is in charge of a star system with potentially multiple counts, barons, viscounts, etc controlling fiefdoms on other worlds, moons, asteroids, mining facilities, space stations, etc. Each one existing under completely different defensive requirements. Hiring mercs for those niche rolls could be more efficient. Not to mention if Count Bob has a fiefdom on the 4th planet that's on the other side of the sun, well you might just want to put a merc unit there so you know the local force it loyal to your coin and not anything Count Bob may purpose.
Also, with the nobility controlling a system and not just a planet in mind, it not as impossible to see that perhaps there are an equal or greater number of mechs existing outside the armies of the Great Houses.
Example:
Say each House has 50 BattleMech regiments give or take.
That's 250 regiments for the five Great Houses total. (50 regiments x 5 Great Houses = 250 regiments)
That's 27,000 total mechs in the armies of the Great Houses (250 regiments x 108 mechs per regiment = 27,000)
If an equal number of mechs exist outside the Great House armies and they are equally distributed between the 2000 star systems (give or take) in the Inner Sphere.....
That leads to 13.5 (round up to 14 for simplicity) BattleMechs in each SYSTEM outside Great House control. If a system has more than one world that is populated (something that occurs regularly in the Lore), then you would only have a lance or two of mechs outside Great House control on any world or moon or asteroid throughout the Inner Sphere.
As those mechs cannot be everywhere, there will be a need for Mercenaries to fill in the gaps.
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Exchanging currency is yet another inconvenience to be dealt with, not a "game over". There's enough trade across borders so that merchants would be willing to accept foreign currency which they can use a month or so down the road, in exchange for a percentage of the value: "Sure, I'll take K-Bills. The official rate is 1.3 to the L-Bill, but I won't accept less than 1.4 per."
The merc gets merchandise for about 90-95% of the "official" value for his money, and the merchant uses the bills a month later when his ship crosses over into the Kurita half of his trade run, with the 5-10% surcharge as "interest" for the time that the funds were "less useful" in Lyran space.
I'd say that's more true of being paid in House Bills in the pre-Dark Age eras. In the Dark Age, we see in the sourcebooks that Mercs are preferring to be paid in munitions rather than House Bills. That says alot about how little reliability there is in exchanging currency, even at suboptimal rates during this period.
Going back to the Hiring Halls in the Dark Age: yeah they're open, but without a working HPG network they're useless unless you're actually on that planet. In earlier eras maybe you never had to physically *be* at a hiring hall world and relied on brokers and inbetweens to negotiate contracts so you just move your unit from contract world to contract world rather than from contract world to hiring hall to contract world. FTL communication is once again done by courier ship. I suppose it's *possible* to conduct Hiring Hall business from off-world over 32nd century snail mail, but it'd surely be inefficient. That makes for smaller profit margins for mercs and hiring patrons both... but those combine to hit mercs doubly (less profits, and less contracts b/c patrons less likely to use Hiring Halls).
If the IlClan doesn't conquer the Inner Sphere or otherwise institute a new age of PeaceTech, if Mercs are to stick around to a degree resembling the 31st century and before some things are going to have to change back in their favor or the industry will just starve, aside *possibly* for a handful of very powerful and influential merc outfits that could feasibly remain independently operating.
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Good conversation gents!
Though I am seeing a piece of info that hasn't been mentioned that may play a factor in the mercenary trade.
A local Duke is not just in charge of a planet. A Duke is in charge of a star system with potentially multiple counts, barons, viscounts, etc controlling fiefdoms on other worlds, moons, asteroids, mining facilities, space stations, etc. Each one existing under completely different defensive requirements. Hiring mercs for those niche rolls could be more efficient. Not to mention if Count Bob has a fiefdom on the 4th planet that's on the other side of the sun, well you might just want to put a merc unit there so you know the local force it loyal to your coin and not anything Count Bob may purpose.
Also, with the nobility controlling a system and not just a planet in mind, it not as impossible to see that perhaps there are an equal or greater number of mechs existing outside the armies of the Great Houses.
Example:
Say each House has 50 BattleMech regiments give or take.
That's 250 regiments for the five Great Houses total. (50 regiments x 5 Great Houses = 250 regiments)
That's 27,000 total mechs in the armies of the Great Houses (250 regiments x 108 mechs per regiment = 27,000)
If an equal number of mechs exist outside the Great House armies and they are equally distributed between the 2000 star systems (give or take) in the Inner Sphere.....
That leads to 13.5 (round up to 14 for simplicity) BattleMechs in each SYSTEM outside Great House control. If a system has more than one world that is populated (something that occurs regularly in the Lore), then you would only have a lance or two of mechs outside Great House control on any world or moon or asteroid throughout the Inner Sphere.
As those mechs cannot be everywhere, there will be a need for Mercenaries to fill in the gaps.
I think that exposition on Dukes is based on fairly reasonable and consistent assumptions. Your math on BattleMech numbers also seems pretty good.
I'll posit that for this model/standard era, roughly a company's worth of 'Mechs are in hands outside of the Great House armed forces, but there are also the Militias to account for separately, sometimes.
Sometimes you count a Militia's BattleMechs, if they have any, as part of the larger Great House armed forces, sometimes you don't, and that's usually era specific. I'd suggest this dozen BattleMechs are counted as belonging to that Militia and sometimes not, without a hard and fast rule to be applied because there simply isn't that level of homogeneous organization operative most of the time. It may be a case for a little due diligence.
The dozen BattleMechs are an attractive average to work from and possibly even the default assumption. That average might not be quite so reliable when you get down to specific systems and worlds for campaign planning, for instance.
Only because there are some worlds that are plainly, obviously and irrefutably more attractive to the accumulation of forces than others. This is a constant in some systems, and a variable in others according to the tides of history and various operations. So we take that into account, right?
There's a caveat. When I look at it like a table where you'd say, "Ah, I rolled a 7, that's one company's worth of medium 'Mechs in somebody's hands, together or not. I apply the border world modifier, the House modifier and the Industrial, Technological and Population modifiers and that gives me 8.3 BattleMechs in the system not belonging to the House armed forces. My mercenaries will have to contend with two lances and some change."
I mean, you might do that for a pickup game. MekHQ does that, to some extent, and various video games have their own force generator rules, of course. Those can, however, wind up a little jarringly out of step with the broader context of that world with historical events it might play some small part of, even if only by being in proximity.
I just take numbers like those with a grain of salt and when I look at a world as the potential site of some action I start accumulating data and stuff before I make a decision about what kind and how many forces I will assume are present.
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@Shin Ji - that's a lot of cash you're losing in foreign exchange. Companies operate on tight margins most of the time. 10% profit is a VERY good day, 5% far more likely. When you lose 2% in forex, that's 2% in proportion to revenue, but 20% to 40% in proportion to profit. The C-bill was directly analogous to USD in our world - relatively stable and trusted and therefore used to denominate everything when comparing cross-border figures. Taking that away is like... like... taking away English dude!
@CungrVanck - actually the Successor States have usually maintained an average of 100+ active Mech regts, and systems with more than one habitable planet are canonically rare.
I said it upthread and I'm repeating here, the number of active Mechs or combat forces not stated in the books can't be a significant proportion of the stated forces, perhaps not more than 20%, in order to avoid throwing the universe into the sink at Ludicrous Speed. If 36 Mechs land on a planet and fight 36 Mechs plus an additional 7 from the miltiia, that's doable. Its not doable when 36 Mechs fight 36 Mechs and another 36 "off the books".
The one exception I'd make to the rule is infantry.
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I don't want to speak for CungrVanck, but I think his point was that the "off the books" units wouldn't be concentrated like the House units. much less with the House units...
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it is worth noting that Comstar and the HPG's were the foundation of nearly all the interstellar networks in the successor states.. including the banking systems. without the rapid communications allowed by the HPG's, the worlds within a successor state would not be able to easily communicate financial records and transactions using house bills.. which would result in each world basically being on its own. so the house bills are not only going to be fluctuating relative to the other house's currencies.. but also from world to world within each successor state, depending on local economic conditions.
this would help explain why mercs would be reluctant to accept house bills.. 10 D-bills on New Avalon will have different buying power than the same amount on islamabad, or Gambier, etc.
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The worth of money is entirely in who is willing to accept it, and acceptance is tied to what the receiver thinks he can get for it. The C-bill is paramount because all nations, and many if not most planets can supply themselves with all other resources, with the exception of HPG communications. The universal necessity of paying Comstar aside, there is no reason why anyone would even bother to give you a clipped cent for your House scrip. (Try paying off your local grocer in say, Thai baht. Even in our world where forex is much easier and really all he needs to do is go down to the bank and change it, your grocer is more likely to tell you to shove your baht where the sun don't shine.)
From a merc's perspective, therefore, C-bills are an absolute necessity unless they decide to tie themselves to a House. In fact, if not for New Avalon ordering a planet to trade in D-bills, there's no reason why they'd even consider accepting those. A fully self-sustaining ecosystem could well run on Remagencoin or Kathilcoin, if not for the need for interstellar communications.
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The worth of money is entirely in who is willing to accept it, and acceptance is tied to what the receiver thinks he can get for it. The C-bill is paramount because all nations, and many if not most planets can supply themselves with all other resources, with the exception of HPG communications. The universal necessity of paying Comstar aside, there is no reason why anyone would even bother to give you a clipped cent for your House scrip. (Try paying off your local grocer in say, Thai baht. Even in our world where forex is much easier and really all he needs to do is go down to the bank and change it, your grocer is more likely to tell you to shove your baht where the sun don't shine.)
From a merc's perspective, therefore, C-bills are an absolute necessity unless they decide to tie themselves to a House. In fact, if not for New Avalon ordering a planet to trade in D-bills, there's no reason why they'd even consider accepting those. A fully self-sustaining ecosystem could well run on Remagencoin or Kathilcoin, if not for the need for interstellar communications.
You probably can't pay your grocer in baht, but you could probably find people in other countries willing to accept dollars or euros. D-bills are going to be stable enough that people will accept them. C-bills are more easily transferable, sure, but you're normally only going to be changing your money over when you change employers. That normally isn't so often that you can't make arrangements. And even if you are changing employers that often, that's okay too because you'll come back around to this employer soon enough.
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You probably can't pay your grocer in baht, but you could probably find people in other countries willing to accept dollars or euros. D-bills are going to be stable enough that people will accept them. C-bills are more easily transferable, sure, but you're normally only going to be changing your money over when you change employers. That normally isn't so often that you can't make arrangements. And even if you are changing employers that often, that's okay too because you'll come back around to this employer soon enough.
The grocer analogy works like this: your local grocer will only trade in currency he believes in. Even with banking facilities he is unlikely to accept baht - he actually trades in what will be accepted by people he expects to pay, such as his suppliers and other vendors around him. Ultimately, the biggest vendor is the government who levies fees and taxes, so the accepted currency is usually what the government accepts.
A self-sustaining planet is like the grocer's neighbourhood supply chain, only worse because of the interstellar gulf. The planet could in fact issue its own Remagencoin or Kathilcoin, because the currency mostly circulates internally. They can theoretically survive with little need for interaction with other systems*. Being a minimum 14 days' travel away from any other human settlement is strong reason for them to do it. What I was saying in a somewhat roundabout way is that the reason why they don't is because 1) Davion would order them to use D-bills, and 2) Comstar would not accept planetary scrip.
Take away both those certainties however, and nothing stops a world from imposing its own currency. Which is why the post-Blackout mercs using commodities like ammunition and perhaps armor plate is absolutely believable, to me.
*incidentally, another feature of a feudal society
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Pedantic but I feel relevant quibble: I was saying there would never *be* a call to ignore, not that there'd be no consequences for ignoring it. Your neighbors aren't going to ask you for help, because if they do you just grab whatever it is they ask you to help defend. When they cry foul you just appeal to the Ducal or higher authority: "Hey, they *asked* me to take care of it for them. Since they can't defend it, the best way I can take care of it is to do so on a permanent basis. *I* can defend it." And remember, possession is 9/10ths of the law. Once you grab it, it's basically yours.
That's the one thing about the BTu that we don't get to see a lot of - politics on the local level. Seriously, every planet, so far, is it's culturally stylistic version of Mayberry.
But, in a feudal set-up, neo or otherwise, the game of thrones is apt and ever-present, and very complex. You have honorable people who will go above and beyond what is required of them, aiding and making allies because it's the right thing to do. Then, you have the people aspiring for that next better position because there's nothing else better to do. Every planet that has to deal with nobility as the primary version of government should be reading like every bad fantasy novel and anime, with some villain posing as an ally to some other folks, yet privately scheming to hire away some of their soldiers at an appropriate moment so that they can step in and save the day and show off that they are capable where the other guy isn't.
It really, really should.
But again, even if there were such a call, with respect to mercenaries: How you gonna force them to do what's not in their contract?
You can't. But! If you're the noble that hired a force for local defense, and you've spent time with them, you can probably gauge whether they'll be open to a quick and dirty subcontract for just that moment. If the merc unit is somewhat noble, they may do it.
And, then, there's also the long game that we're missing. This mercenary trade has been going on for centuries. Some small bands might fail simply because they're no longer truly mercenary. They landed a nice little defense contract, and kept it up for a couple generations, and at some point become part of the lord's personal retinue, dropping any pretenses of being a mercenary unit.
They've effectively gone native, and they're in a secure enough position that they don't have to worry about being tossed out.
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Tai Dai, i'd be more accepting of your "nobles can take anything they want from rivals through main force, with no fear of repercussion by their peers and liege lords" stance if you can point me to a place in the setting where they have done just that. because everything i've found so far points to nobles in every successor state scheming because they can't just drop in with troops and take what they want, and being deathly afraid of the social and political backlash from their peers and liege lords should their various small and hidden uses of force will be found out.. a stance that would not happen if they knew the higher lords would just look the other way.
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Pfff, Duke Ricol invade another nation without approval from his superiors, failed and still managed to work his way up the ranks of power.
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...actually the Successor States have usually maintained an average of 100+ active Mech regts, and systems with more than one habitable planet are canonically rare.
I said it upthread and I'm repeating here, the number of active Mechs or combat forces not stated in the books can't be a significant proportion of the stated forces, perhaps not more than 20%, in order to avoid throwing the universe into the sink at Ludicrous Speed. If 36 Mechs land on a planet and fight 36 Mechs plus an additional 7 from the miltiia, that's doable. Its not doable when 36 Mechs fight 36 Mechs and another 36 "off the books".
The one exception I'd make to the rule is infantry.
Where I was saying I feel there'd be collectively more mechs and mechwarriors outside service to Great Houses than those within, I wasn't saying that once an invader dispatches the defending House garrison there'd then be an even larger number of mechs in private armies onworld after that.
I was simply saying I feel there's more mechs and mechwarriors in all the private armies added together than in the great house armies.
Some 3025 numbers as example:
House Kurita has just over 400 worlds, and control of 80 mech regiments in its House Army (13 mercenary, and 67 DCMS mech regiments). That leaves 80 worlds with a House Army mech garrison, and over 300 without one.
House Davion has almost 500 worlds, and control of 110 mech regiments in its House Army (30 mercenary, and 72 AFFS mech regiments). 3025 deployment puts many multiregiment merc outfits all on one world, but even if they were spread out more than canonically accurate to say no more than 1 mech regiment per world, that still means almost 300 worlds again are undefended by House Mech forces.
The two military powerhouses of 3025 leave very roughly 2 thirds of their worlds undefended by House Mech forces. Granted, there's probably some House conventional forces on many, perhaps even most of those worlds. The mech-centric nature of the game leaves that detail unspecified. But since it IS a mech centric universe, to me it stands to reason that the petty nobility on those 2/3rds of the worlds in those empires want some mechs precisely because their respective House Lords haven't bothered to post any there. Protection from mech-armed Pirates is a primary reason to want/need mechs in your own private army. Keeping up with House Jones is a secondary motivation: once they have Mechs... you'll need some too to remain at political parity with them once they possess mechs and mechwarriors.
For mercs, most of the inner sphere is fertile ground for low-level warfare that's literally beneath the notice or care of the 5 Great Houses. So long as the players on any given world don't let their wars make the respective House Lord begin to care, there's really nothing sociologically stopping them from warring upon each other, which means there may not be work for mercs on every single planet, but there's enough of these planets that there's always work somewhere.
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Tai Dai, i'd be more accepting of your "nobles can take anything they want from rivals through main force, with no fear of repercussion by their peers and liege lords" stance if you can point me to a place in the setting where they have done just that. because everything i've found so far points to nobles in every successor state scheming because they can't just drop in with troops and take what they want, and being deathly afraid of the social and political backlash from their peers and liege lords should their various small and hidden uses of force will be found out.. a stance that would not happen if they knew the higher lords would just look the other way.
Oh I do agree they need a modicum of political cover to just grab one another's stuff.
But a bare modicum of cover is pretty easy to accomplish. The game focuses much higher than the petty noble level, so their examples are underrepresented. EDIT: But as mentioned upthread, there's Duke Ricol's shenanigans. There's also the apocryphal plot of MW1, Ryan Steiner's shenanigans over multiple novels, and I'm sure there are some others as well. Even Ideal War discusses low level warfare falling beneath the notice or care of its relevant House Lord (although that one isn't petty nobility related).
Instead I'll give you an example at the Great House level: The War of Davion Succession that took place during the Star League. Mary Davion had by contemporary accounts, abdicated her claim to the New Avalon throne before marrying into House Kurita. That didn't stop House Kurita from claiming some legal "fiction" as basis for their outright invasion of the Federated Suns to support her Luthien-born son's claim to said throne. Only when the War drug on and got out of hand did the Liege (House Cameron) step in and put an end to it in OPERATION SMOTHER. Had Kurita won the war quickly, there would have been a fait accompli and it would have been over with. Physically possessing the throne on New Avalon surely would have outweighed the legal arguments of either side regarding her son's claim to it.
Where that kind of example is being set, I'm sure it's being followed at lower echelons.
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Ricol's main plots were a Kurita attacking Steiner worlds (not his own supposed allies), while his involvement in the Rasalhague resistance movement was purely political scheming (as was that resistance movement), and as part of the Black Dragons he actually advised against the use of force for political changes and gain, in favor of using political influence for gradual change.
i've already pointed out that the plot of MW1 is about political scheming (using the description from the game itself)
Ryan Steiner was involved in a secessionist movement in Skye (which HAS to rely on main force in the primary stages of the succession if it is to work), and yet most of what he was involved in was still a shadow war fought with spies, assassins, and false flags.. not open warfare.
Ideal War is a complicated issue because it was the WOB and the local nobility conducting "peacekeeping" operations on their own worlds (much like Wilmarth was doing on Caledonia, and any noble is required to do), with a conspiracy involved to prevent the cause of the uprisings and the means being used to fight them from becoming known off world.
there are frankly terrible examples, because none of them actually involve any of the stuff you are claiming.
as for the great house level.. well that is to be expected. ultimately the War of Davion succession was a nation vs nation conflict, like many others. the succession claim was just an excuse for the invasion. entire nations fighting other nations is to be expected. and as real world politics have shown, it is very hard for those outside the conflict to force the aggressor to give up anything they have stolen through invasion. short of everyone else declaring war and doing their own invasions of the area.
but being grudgingly open to inter-nation warfare is very different from a state tolerating what would basically be a constant low grade civil war between its own constituents. which is basically what the nobles you describe would be involved in. there would be no scheming or hidden plots involved, because they could just hire some soldiers and go and take anything they wanted. it would be highly unlikely that any successor states could actually exist with such a structure.. they'd shatter themselves apart through sheer anarchy. it is notable that this is exactly what happened to the Republic of the Sphere post Grey Monday, when the ability to monitor and punish the actions of their political constituents was lost. the scheming ended, the knives came out, and the state died as everyone with ambition suddenly discovered that a couple lances mechs and some conscripts could take whatever power , wealth, and authority they wanted with no more repercussions than having to defend it from the next guy with the same idea.
the only way it could maybe work is if there was some sort of highly stylized dueling culture involved, with honor codes and proxy battles... but as we've seen with the clans, it doesn't really work with such a system either. it just keeps the damage low enough that everyone involved can claim it works, while its adherents find every loophole they can to exploit it.
and if there was a clan style dueling culture governing inner sphere low level politics, the clan arrival would not have been such a WTF moment for the inner sphere.
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Where I was saying I feel there'd be collectively more mechs and mechwarriors outside service to Great Houses than those within, I wasn't saying that once an invader dispatches the defending House garrison there'd then be an even larger number of mechs in private armies onworld after that.
I was simply saying I feel there's more mechs and mechwarriors in all the private armies added together than in the great house armies.
Some 3025 numbers as example:
House Kurita has just over 400 worlds, and control of 80 mech regiments in its House Army (13 mercenary, and 67 DCMS mech regiments). That leaves 80 worlds with a House Army mech garrison, and over 300 without one.
House Davion has almost 500 worlds, and control of 110 mech regiments in its House Army (30 mercenary, and 72 AFFS mech regiments). 3025 deployment puts many multiregiment merc outfits all on one world, but even if they were spread out more than canonically accurate to say no more than 1 mech regiment per world, that still means almost 300 worlds again are undefended by House Mech forces.
The two military powerhouses of 3025 leave very roughly 2 thirds of their worlds undefended by House Mech forces. Granted, there's probably some House conventional forces on many, perhaps even most of those worlds. The mech-centric nature of the game leaves that detail unspecified. But since it IS a mech centric universe, to me it stands to reason that the petty nobility on those 2/3rds of the worlds in those empires want some mechs precisely because their respective House Lords haven't bothered to post any there. Protection from mech-armed Pirates is a primary reason to want/need mechs in your own private army. Keeping up with House Jones is a secondary motivation: once they have Mechs... you'll need some too to remain at political parity with them once they possess mechs and mechwarriors.
For mercs, most of the inner sphere is fertile ground for low-level warfare that's literally beneath the notice or care of the 5 Great Houses. So long as the players on any given world don't let their wars make the respective House Lord begin to care, there's really nothing sociologically stopping them from warring upon each other, which means there may not be work for mercs on every single planet, but there's enough of these planets that there's always work somewhere.
I am going to dispute part of your analysis, not the overall numbers that is or sounds right but your assumption that all units are deployed either all or nothing IE a full mech regiment on planet, or it has no "national" unit at all.
I remember quite a number of source books indicating that that units like the 12th davion guards, (a 1 regiment unit) has the regiment garrisoning 4 planets, 1 battalion on each, with a roving "response" battalion that rotates periodically through all 4 planets, but often is on the "central" planet where it can move to any of the others quickly.
another point is that each house, allocates those forces depending on perceived, value, and threat for the worlds in question.
for example New Avalon has typically 4+ regiments at all times, because it has: Axhernar battlemechs (makes locust, wasp, phoenix hawk, enforcer, dervish, a bunch of subassemblies.) Corean Enterprises (makes centurion, and Valkyrie plus parts) Lyncomb-Davion Intratech (makes stuka, lightning, and hellcat aerospace fighters, plus subassemblies)
in addition NAIS, NAMT its also the house capital, etc, but its a long way from the borders, so ...
the point is that most of the "high risk" border worlds will typically have large garrisons, with lower "risk" and less "important" planets having corresponding smaller garrisons, sometimes as little as a lance to company sized force.
now granted the house lord would LOVE!! to have a big enough army to have a full regiment garrison on every world (granted they likely still wouldn't deploy them that way, but would have say a battalion where a lance/company garrison is now, with the remainder concentrated, on the "critical" planets, and a big force to use to go on the offence.
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I remember quite a number of source books indicating that that units like the 12th davion guards, (a 1 regiment unit) has the regiment garrisoning 4 planets, 1 battalion on each, with a roving "response" battalion that rotates periodically through all 4 planets, but often is on the "central" planet where it can move to any of the others quickly.
Regiments have 3 battalions, not 5.
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Mercs aren't exactly known for following the standard IS force structure and the Dragoons regiments have had force strengths as high as 145% which is defiantly into having 5 battalions territory.
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Tai Dai, i'd be more accepting of your "nobles can take anything they want from rivals through main force, with no fear of repercussion by their peers and liege lords" stance if you can point me to a place in the setting where they have done just that. because everything i've found so far points to nobles in every successor state scheming because they can't just drop in with troops and take what they want, and being deathly afraid of the social and political backlash from their peers and liege lords should their various small and hidden uses of force will be found out.. a stance that would not happen if they knew the higher lords would just look the other way.
The whole of Initiation to War was a book about just this sort of situation- even that one group that did not keep up their own mech forces hired mercs!
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...there are frankly terrible examples, because none of them actually involve any of the stuff you are claiming.
Granted they're not examples of petty nobles on the same planet warring upon each other, but they are examples of wars that came about due to lesser powers than a Great House.
as for the great house level.. well that is to be expected. ultimately the War of Davion succession was a nation vs nation conflict, like many others. the succession claim was just an excuse for the invasion. entire nations fighting other nations is to be expected. and as real world politics have shown, it is very hard for those outside the conflict to force the aggressor to give up anything they have stolen through invasion. short of everyone else declaring war and doing their own invasions of the area.
but being grudgingly open to inter-nation warfare is very different from a state tolerating what would basically be a constant low grade civil war between its own constituents. which is basically what the nobles you describe would be involved in. there would be no scheming or hidden plots involved, because they could just hire some soldiers and go and take anything they wanted. it would be highly unlikely that any successor states could actually exist with such a structure.. they'd shatter themselves apart through sheer anarchy. it is notable that this is exactly what happened to the Republic of the Sphere post Grey Monday, when the ability to monitor and punish the actions of their political constituents was lost. the scheming ended, the knives came out, and the state died as everyone with ambition suddenly discovered that a couple lances mechs and some conscripts could take whatever power , wealth, and authority they wanted with no more repercussions than having to defend it from the next guy with the same idea.
I have issue with alot of what you just said:
1: Your use of the word nation. Davion vs Kurita is a clash of empires, not nations. There's a huge difference between what the words mean. Neither the Draconis Combine nor the Federated Suns is a nation. Writers and TPTB that occasionally say otherwise literally don't know what they're talking about ;) Examples of groups that would arguably qualify as interstellar nations include the the Azami, Rasalhague, Skye, The Clans, many Periphery powers, and perhaps a few others.
2: The War of Davion Succession was NOT like any other Davion vs Kurita war in one special way, and that one special way is exactly why I chose it as an example. Both Houses recognized a higher authority and were both vassals of that authority (the Star League Court). You're free to disagree, but I still say that particular war is the same thing as two Counts having an armed "disagreement" over a succession issue... the difference is only a matter of scale. Rather than having fiefs that span stars, on the same world we could have fiefs that span cities and towns.
3: I strongly dispute the notion that just because two petty nobles have the same liege lord they're automatically on the same side. As a matter of fact, it's probable that in many planets' cases there are ancient fiefs with just as ancient grudges born primarily out of having to look at each other all the time. You can be enemies just because you're neighbors even more easily than you can be considered allies just because you're neighbors.
4: It'd be anarchy if nobles could just have free reign to war upon one another? Yep. That was the critique of the Ares Conventions back when they were ratified. Again consider that even during the unparalleled peace of the Star League, it was not just socially acceptable to use armed force in lieu of some other option like taking someone to court, it was socially acceptable to do so as an option of first recourse.
Sure, sure you can't have every fief at war with every other fief at all times, obviously that'd be interstellar anarchy. That's why you have to do both of two things: 1, maintain at least some veneer of legitimacy to what you're doing, no matter how flimsy (Mary Davion's abdication was forced and illegal, therefore her son deserves the throne!), and 2 keep the fracas from putting your liege in a position to have to tacitly condone or otherwise address the violence. (e.g. The First Lord unleashing the SLDF to stop the War of Davion Succession that didn't resolve itself cleanly).
Never forget the BTU is at its heart a dystopian setting. It presumes a very dim view of human nature. That's why I see more more Machiavellis and Baelishes/Littlefingers around than Starks or Atreideses.
the only way it could maybe work is if there was some sort of highly stylized dueling culture involved, with honor codes and proxy battles... but as we've seen with the clans, it doesn't really work with such a system either. it just keeps the damage low enough that everyone involved can claim it works, while its adherents find every loophole they can to exploit it.
and if there was a clan style dueling culture governing inner sphere low level politics, the clan arrival would not have been such a WTF moment for the inner sphere.
Actually, there IS a highly stylized dueling culture involved in the IS in the form of the "chivalric warfare" that evolved over the course of the Succession Wars. Battles take place away from populated areas, JumpShips and HPGs are off limits, you acknowledge defeat and withdraw without further damage to the world if you're outmaneuvered in the field, etc. Of course the unwritten code wasn't always followed, but it was followed often enough to set the norm. The Clans weren't alien because they had their quirky rules different than the IS's about honorable warfare.. they were alien because they were surprise invaders from beyond the unknown and had wunderwaffen like Omnimechs and BattleArmor.
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I am going to dispute part of your analysis, not the overall numbers that is or sounds right but your assumption that all units are deployed either all or nothing IE a full mech regiment on planet, or it has no "national" unit at all.
I remember quite a number of source books indicating that that units like the 12th davion guards, (a 1 regiment unit) has the regiment garrisoning 4 planets, 1 battalion on each, with a roving "response" battalion that rotates periodically through all 4 planets, but often is on the "central" planet where it can move to any of the others quickly.
That's a fair response. But OTOH I think there are more sources that suggest that spreading regiments out to cover multiple worlds isn't actually done (normally).
If you look at the NAIS Atlases of the 4th SW, the defending units in Kurita and Liao space are almost always entire regiments all onworld together. That couldn't have been the case if they were spread out protecting multiple worlds as you describe.
And it can't be a Kurita/Liao vs Davion doctrine thing, because the same phenomenon carries thru virtually all sourcebooks that discuss battle outcomes. War of 3039 and Clan Invasion books also discuss entire regiments being onworld when attacked, so it's also Davion and the Davion-influenced AFFC that have entire regiments together when attacked.
Going back to what I was saying about there surely being a lot of mechwarriors and mechs outside of Great House service:
If you were to assume all of the following:
There are about 300 worlds in an empire w/o a Great House mech garrison
There are on average 12 mechs on each of those worlds in private hands
That'd mean that there's over 33 regiments worth of battlemechs in that one Great House in the hands of petty vassals and such. I'd say that still makes for a whole lot of "normal" company sized merc outfits when you multiply similar rates across each of the 5 Great Houses.
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Going back to what I was saying about there surely being a lot of mechwarriors and mechs outside of Great House service:
If you were to assume all of the following:
There are about 300 worlds in an empire w/o a Great House mech garrison
There are on average 12 mechs on each of those worlds in private hands
That'd mean that there's over 33 regiments worth of battlemechs in that one Great House in the hands of petty vassals and such. I'd say that still makes for a whole lot of "normal" company sized merc outfits when you multiply similar rates across each of the 5 Great Houses.
Those numbers are in contradiction with this:
I was simply saying I feel there's more mechs and mechwarriors in all the private armies added together than in the great house armies.
I'd really like to know how you characterise one group of planets as a nation, and another group of planets as an empire.
And to recap: You're saying that nobles are constantly fighting wars (hot or cold) with each other on their planets, with the tacit approval of the government, for which purpose they keep private Mech armies to themselves, making up the majority of Mechs in the Inner Sphere, which is why the House armies appear under-manned, and when an invasion occurs some of these Mechs will refuse to participate in the planetary defence, and this is again tacitly allowed by the planetary ruler, and an exchange of Great House control goes peacefully without the intervention of these Mechs?
I find that a little hard to believe. This theory discards much of what we know about the Battletech universe mainly to address a non-issue (army sizes). There isn't any canon evidence for this sub-planetary warfare - there isn't a single instance where say Prince Davion lands on a Kurita planet and is told "Lords A, B and C are sitting this one out, so we'll only have to deal with Lord D and the planetary militia" in conventional Successor State warfare. There might be a couple of instances in the Civil War or Dark Age, but I'd say those are probably exceptions rather than the rule.
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I believe we're getting very far afield of the salient point that was "Mercs don't fight who they're not contracted to", which was fairly quickly clarified to on the point of "minor nobles do a lot of hiring small Merc units".
"Majority" might be pushing it, but the biggest (the 1%, if you will) Mercenary units in 3025-3030 comprise something on the order of 15+ Regiments (EDIT: holy shit I was way off). Hell, between the Wolf's Dragoons (5), Kell Hounds (2), Northwind Highlanders (4), Gray Death Legion (1), Waco's Rangers (1), Eridani Light Horse (3), Hansen's Roughriders (1), Fighting Urukhai (3), Blue Star Irregulars (3), Brion's Legion (1), 21st Centauri Lancers (1), Dioscuri (2), Dismal Disinherited (3), 15th Dracon (1), Filthy Lucre (1), Grave Walkers (2), Grim Determination (1), Illician Lancers (4), Langendorf Lancers (1), Lexington Combat Group (3), Little Richard's Panzer Brigade (1), Lone Wolves (1), 17th Recon (1), Screaming Eagles (2), Simson's Cutthroats (1), Smithson's Chinese Bandits (2), 12th Star Guards (4), 12th Vegan Rangers (4), Wylie's Coyotes (1), and MacCarron's Armored Cavalry (5, still technically Mercs in that period), that's over 65 full Regiments of 'Mechs ignoring all other kinds of units like infantry and armor before we even start getting into Battalion sized commands, which are still significantly less common than Company or Lance sized units. It's not outside the realm of reason to suggest that there are another 175+ Regiments spread across all Mercenary units.
Sources: all of these units are listed in Combat Manual: Mercenaries.
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Those numbers are in contradiction with this:
That's because for my headcanon I presume a lot more than just 12 mechs per planet on average. But rather than argue my head canon, I'm trying to be more conservative. (those numbers also are presuming that any place where there's a House mech garrison, noone has a private army)
I'd really like to know how you characterise one group of planets as a nation, and another group of planets as an empire.
na·tion
ˈnāSH(ə)n/Submit
noun
noun: nation; plural noun: nations
a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.
em·pire
ˈemˌpī(ə)r/Submit
noun
noun: empire; plural noun: empires
1.
an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress.
Since bulk of the Inner Sphere is a hodge podge of planets of disparate cultures (despite the efforts/propaganda of Houses Kurita and Liao to the contrary) that means empire is a more fitting description than nation.
In the places I mentioned as being plausible examples of interstellar nations, they are more-or-less contiguous areas of shared cultural values/identity/language. Nation fits them better than empire.
And to recap: You're saying that nobles are constantly fighting wars (hot or cold) with each other on their planets, with the tacit approval of the government, for which purpose they keep private Mech armies to themselves, making up the majority of Mechs in the Inner Sphere, which is why the House armies appear under-manned, and when an invasion occurs some of these Mechs will refuse to participate in the planetary defence, and this is again tacitly allowed by the planetary ruler, and an exchange of Great House control goes peacefully without the intervention of these Mechs?
Constantly fighting wars? Yes, but in the sense that across the Inner Sphere, there are always petty wars being fought on at least several planets any given time. Not in that every petty noble is constantly engaged in warfare.
These constant wars are why they have private armies? You betcha.
And the House Armies appear undermanned because of the private armies? Nope, never argued that. Apologies if it appeared that's where I was going.
Some private armies will refuse to participate in planetary defense? Yes and no. They "participate" by defending their own fiefs and refusing to step foot outside them. If House Kurita comes for the world and never sends forces into Baron von Obstinate's fief, then he just might watch the invasion over the holovids and congratulate the winner afterwards. If the defenders won, he cites how he protected whatever "vital strategic" assets in his fief from the invaders. If the invaders win, he offers fealty to the new regime in exchange for keeping his title/position. Will EVERY petty nobleman behave this way? No. But will some? Sure. Will most? In my dystopian view of the BTU, I say again yes. The Lawful Good Houses that refuse to bend the knee to the invaders get weeded out when invaders win and divest them of their holdings. The surviving Houses are the ones that are morally flexible. Aristocratic Darwinism.
...There isn't any canon evidence for this sub-planetary warfare -
Just a handful from one sourcebook (HB:HD)
Parma: Noble on Noble warfare exactly as I'm describing
Cogdell: Peasant rabble vs Noble private army warfare
Kittery: Capellan peasant insurrection being left to the planetary authorities to handle
there isn't a single instance where say Prince Davion lands on a Kurita planet and is told "Lords A, B and C are sitting this one out, so we'll only have to deal with Lord D and the planetary militia" in conventional Successor State warfare. There might be a couple of instances in the Civil War or Dark Age, but I'd say those are probably exceptions rather than the rule.
Lords A, B, and C sitting it out is fundamentally the same thing as just sitting on whatever strategic assets are physically located in their fiefs. If conquest of the world doesn't require taking those assets, then there's no reason to bring A, B, and C into the fight.
The Battle of Luthien (3052) scenario book does describe militia forces above and beyond the House (and mercenary) forces involved in the major campaign facing off with peripheral Clan forces going after secondary or tertiary objectives. Same fundamental idea, and for all we know plenty of planets have a militia that is formed by private armies banding together for mutual defense rather than being a permanent, fulltime formation.
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That's because for my headcanon I presume a lot more than just 12 mechs per planet on average. But rather than argue my head canon, I'm trying to be more conservative. (those numbers also are presuming that any place where there's a House mech garrison, noone has a private army)
Which, of course, isn't the case, since on multiple occasions in scenarios we've seen corporate BattleMech security forces guarding important factories (Irian, Defiance, etc.) -- so it's actually MORE likely that a planet valuable enough to have a BattleMech regiment from the House army may have private BattleMechs on world as well.
Just a handful from one sourcebook (HB:HD)
Parma: Noble on Noble warfare exactly as I'm describing
Cogdell: Peasant rabble vs Noble private army warfare
Kittery: Capellan peasant insurrection being left to the planetary authorities to handle
As was mentioned above, Operation: Flashpoint's entire premise is exactly two petty nobles with BattleMech units slugging it out on a single world. That local 'Mech force, now unified, reappears in the Jihad sourcebooks as the Kaumberg Planetary Guard during the scenarios set around Democracy Now's efforts in the region.
Several mercenary units (the Martian Cuirassiers spring to mind immediately from Mercenaries Supplemental) have their start as a private corporate security force that the corporation started hiring out; Grandin's Crusaders from Total Chaos is exactly a small noble military unit of "Mechwarrior-Knights" that decided to go mercenary to help support the Grandin family.
There's plenty of room for small mercenary units drifting around. I actually think there's too many regimental-size units, but lance or company-sized units seem entirely plausible to me.
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If a noble refuses to assist his overlord in defending the world, and his fief has been granted under the stipulation that he provides certain forces for the defense, then the attackers BETTER win, or he's going to be in trouble for failing to provide the required forces. "I was busy protecting this other important asset" doesn't cut it if/when his overlord specifically ordered him to reinforce another group. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it's definitely not the norm that we see in the setting.
A noble may only send the required forces, and withhold the other half (or whatever he's got above and beyond the requirement), so there's likely to be a modest amount of additional force on planet beyond the officially stated defense, but that extra can't always be counted on. Depending on the planet and noble, those extra forces may be a mere token infantry platoon to discourage thieves and saboteurs, or a real military force in its own right, with Battlemechs.
Then there are private and dedicated local defense units: corporate security, palace guards, and such, which as a general rule will never leave their posts to participate in events outside their narrow areas of responsibility. They're not counted in the planetary garrison, and will only be engaged by an attacker if the specific focus of their responsibility is threatened. That means, an attack on RunOfTheMill Industries will need to include their corporate security lance in an assessment of the planetary defenses, but an attack on the local starport would not need to include them.
Then there are the "security" forces of the planetary government or leading nobles, mostly intended to put down local uprisings rather than guard against invasion. That will consist primarily of infantry and a few armored vehicles. Again, it's not considered part of the planetary garrison, but any determined assault on the planet that's more than a raid may need to deal with them at some point, particularly if the defender is willing to fight and risk collateral damage to hold the cities.
Add mercenaries to that list, a LOT of mercenaries, in House, local noble, and corporate employ.
All of this adds up to a LOT of units that are not listed as parts of the House armies, and a lot of opportunities for mercenaries at multiple levels, with only the big players at the top level being detailed in the novels and source books.
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I have to agree. A noble's land tenure is based on his ability to contribute troops or equipment at the request of his overlord. What you are describing Tai Dai Cultist is a type of tenure called an allod, in that the land is held WITHOUT a reciprocal promise of military support when requested. In the European Middle Ages allods were relatively rare (with some major exceptions, such as the "Tribal" states of the Holy Roman Empire for a time). I can't see anything in the Battletech setting that suggests the status of land tenure as being allodial in nature -- what would be the point in investing nobles with titles and land then? The setting has always been a neo-FEUDAL one, and a big aspect of European-style feudalism was land tenure in exchange for military service. Are there petty wars, backstabbiing and maneuvering? Sure, just as there was in Europe for much of the Middle Ages. Not denying that sort of thing happens or could happen. But if your planet is invaded and the planetary overlord invokes your tenure agreement and you DO NOT show up for muster, then yes you better hope the invaders give you a better deal. If they don't then you will likely find your fief confiscate & military action taken against you to forcibly remove you.
When we are talking about feudal tenure, it helps to know that as a lord on your lands, you do not necessarily OWN those lands. Ultimately the land is owned by whomever is at the very top of your government (King, Emperor, etc), you are just a tenant on that land, and you pay your rent through military service. So the only reason you get that land is with the expectation of military service; doing otherwise could be seen as like a contract violation. So I also don't buy the idea that a local noble is going to "sit this out" in an invasion, unless he is prepared to take a huge risk in doing so...
Damon.
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When we are talking about feudal tenure, it helps to know that as a lord on your lands, you do not necessarily OWN those lands.
With regards to the BTU at least, nobles DO own their lands. As far back as the 1st ed RPG, nobles are sovereigns of their own fiefs. Yes they have lords, but they're in practical terms kings of their own petty kingdom.
Kovax: Let me ask you a question. Do you presume that when a planet is raided/invaded, *every* military fighting force resists the attackers? Not necessarily talking about private forces here.. I'm asking does every armed force around the globe abandon their garrisons to go resist the invaders' landing zone? If so, how do defenders avoid being pulled out of place by a simple feint that leaves the rest of the planet undefended?
My large-scale view is that when you invade or perform an objective raid, you're not facing every single military defender on the entire planet.* You're facing what's defending that particular campaign objective. Particular targets of military value across the entire planet all have their own defenses, and they usually don't abandon those posts just in case invaders execute another combat drop in *that* vicinity. Canonical example going back to the 3052 Battle of Luthien: There were about a dozen militia regiments defending the rest of Luthien while the spotlight-receiving House and Merc regiments defended the Imperial City and Kadoguchi Valley. That's the paradigm in which nobles' private armies can just stay home without getting their owner in hot water: they're not disobeying an order to come join the battle elsewhere... the order is normally never given.
*: the natural followon is that conquerors don't have to face and defeat every single armed soldier on the planet because one the decisive battle that made the defending house garrison boost for orbit leaves the remaining indigenous forces outmatched by the victorious invading house force... numbers are irrespective when the invaders control loci of power and there's little to no appetite among the locals for a partisan war. Even if militia outnumber the invaders 10 to 1, without a house force to lead and motivate them they're generally going to just submit to the new order. It's very well established that planets aren't fought over to the last man; once the "ceremonial" battle has been fought and lost, the defenders cede the planet until such time they can come back to retake it (again it's basically the same idea as the Clans' Trials of Possession, just less "formal"). Locals generally just salute a new flag/administrator/lord and go about their business as it ever was. personally, I see no reason the petty nobility have to be excluded.
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But if your planet is invaded and the planetary overlord invokes your tenure agreement and you DO NOT show up for muster, then yes you better hope the invaders give you a better deal. If they don't then you will likely find your fief confiscate & military action taken against you to forcibly remove you.
Damon.
There's ways of getting out of military tenure like paying a scutage or it could be outside the terms of the military tenure (like the 40 days a year, just an example). The lord can't just demand you send everything if it's not within the terms of the military tenure. That being said, I'm sure Tai Dai understands that nobles have obligations and if that obligation is show up for muster with troops or to send troops then they will (if they can't get out of it). Just don't expect every noble to send everything he has, more along the line of what his obligation to his lord says he has to.
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There's ways of getting out of military tenure like paying a scutage or it could be outside the terms of the military tenure (like the 40 days a year, just an example). The lord can't just demand you send everything if it's not within the terms of the military tenure. That being said, I'm sure Tai Dai understands that nobles have obligations and if that obligation is show up for muster with troops or to send troops then they will (if they can't get out of it). Just don't expect every noble to send everything he has, more along the line of what his obligation to his lord says he has to.
Yes this is correct, and I did mention in a previous post that a lord would probably have more military assets on hand than his tenure obligation would require, in order to have something local to defend his own assets, fulfill obligations with some assets being down or absent, etc. And of course the option probably exists to provide cash instead of actual service (which is where mercs come in).
Damon.
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TDC and cpip, thanks for the canon excerpts, I believe you have points there, but the question is: which is the exception and which is the rule? Is Parma, the example TDC gave, repeated across all the planets of the IS or is it the outlier (which I propose is why it is singled out for mention.)
What I and I think Garrand too are trying to describe here are the basic fundamentals of Battletech's neo-feudal society (as a backdrop to the original question of "why is there a market for mercs"), or how things normally work. Our stance is that this is how things are 80% of the time, while there are obviously noble rivalries, instances of internecine war are neither common nor approved of by the powers-that-be e.g. using the first example given, the Davion War of Succession was quelled by the Star League, rather than the First Lord leaving them to sort it out amongst themselves, contrary to TDC's proposition:
If the invaders win, he offers fealty to the new regime in exchange for keeping his title/position. Will EVERY petty nobleman behave this way? No. But will some? Sure. Will most? In my dystopian view of the BTU, I say again yes. The Lawful Good Houses that refuse to bend the knee to the invaders get weeded out when invaders win and divest them of their holdings. The surviving Houses are the ones that are morally flexible. Aristocratic Darwinism.
I think that is where we disagree.
In any case, whichever model of feudalism is adopted, we know there is ample scope for mercenaries.
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In the BT universe they are always a need for interim trained troops . Having mercenaries train militia instead of house regular army units do so frees up those troops for other things . During an offensive the house artillery component gets hosed by an aerospace strike and you hire Mercenaries to fill in until a fresh unit is equipped and trained . Corporate security should the on site management thinks the militia cannot hack it
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With regards to the BTU at least, nobles DO own their lands. As far back as the 1st ed RPG, nobles are sovereigns of their own fiefs. Yes they have lords, but they're in practical terms kings of their own petty kingdom.
Kovax: Let me ask you a question. Do you presume that when a planet is raided/invaded, *every* military fighting force resists the attackers? Not necessarily talking about private forces here.. I'm asking does every armed force around the globe abandon their garrisons to go resist the invaders' landing zone? If so, how do defenders avoid being pulled out of place by a simple feint that leaves the rest of the planet undefended?
The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle: the locals may have forces requisitioned, particularly in the area of the immediate threat, with a few additions being brought in from further away for reinforcement. Other units will be left in place to guard their respective fiefs or objectives. The local lords who have their forces requisitioned may (or may not) have additional assets above and beyond their required contribution, so even if they are called, they may (and probably do) still have SOME forces defending their own land. Forces may also be called up for campaigns, so some assets will occasionally be drawn upon and sent off-world. Again, not everything will be called, but whatever is demanded (up to a maximum of the agreed amount) had BETTER be sent.
The ruling noble and/or House military commander on site will generally make the call, knowing that he doesn't dare amass everything possible because it will leave other targets unguarded. If he calls, and you refuse, you're in trouble. If he calls absolutely everyone together, and his amassed forces are caught out of place if/when the attack turns out to be a distraction for the real attack, then HE's in trouble. Depending on the invaders, they'll probably replace him if they win, and the local lords under his authority will either need to swear new loyalties to their new House and overlord, or lose their fiefs. Whether the invaders fight each of those individual lords, or just break the main planetary army and let the various local lords capitulate without further combat, depends on the situation.
As for ownership of land, that "ownership" is generally conditional upon each heir renewing the vows of loyalty upon taking control of the fief. If the vows of fealty are not renewed by the new lord, control reverts to the next higher authority, and the fief may be entrusted to a more loyal and dependable vassal. It takes a serious infraction to remove a lord from his fief (lords can't revoke their vassals' fiefs without just cause), but ultimately the local lord does not "own" the land in the long run, although it's typical for a landholding family to retain control for centuries. They've got complete control as kings of their own petty kingdoms, as long as they pledge fealty with each new generation.
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The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle: the locals may have forces requisitioned, particularly in the area of the immediate threat, with a few additions being brought in from further away for reinforcement. Other units will be left in place to guard their respective fiefs or objectives. The local lords who have their forces requisitioned may (or may not) have additional assets above and beyond their required contribution, so even if they are called, they may (and probably do) still have SOME forces defending their own land. Forces may also be called up for campaigns, so some assets will occasionally be drawn upon and sent off-world. Again, not everything will be called, but whatever is demanded (up to a maximum of the agreed amount) had BETTER be sent.
The ruling noble and/or House military commander on site will generally make the call, knowing that he doesn't dare amass everything possible because it will leave other targets unguarded. If he calls, and you refuse, you're in trouble. If he calls absolutely everyone together, and his amassed forces are caught out of place if/when the attack turns out to be a distraction for the real attack, then HE's in trouble. Depending on the invaders, they'll probably replace him if they win, and the local lords under his authority will either need to swear new loyalties to their new House and overlord, or lose their fiefs. Whether the invaders fight each of those individual lords, or just break the main planetary army and let the various local lords capitulate without further combat, depends on the situation.
As for ownership of land, that "ownership" is generally conditional upon each heir renewing the vows of loyalty upon taking control of the fief. If the vows of fealty are not renewed by the new lord, control reverts to the next higher authority, and the fief may be entrusted to a more loyal and dependable vassal. It takes a serious infraction to remove a lord from his fief (lords can't revoke their vassals' fiefs without just cause), but ultimately the local lord does not "own" the land in the long run, although it's typical for a landholding family to retain control for centuries. They've got complete control as kings of their own petty kingdoms, as long as they pledge fealty with each new generation.
Well there are different types of nobles.
Baron von Billy is descended from a mechwarrior 100 years ago who bought himself a title. He owns a very large farm (say ten thousand acres), acts as head of the local government (like being the Emperor of Kansas), and gets certain noble benefits (everybody looks the other way when your idiot son wrecks his Hover-Ferrari with a blood alcohol content 5 times the legal limit). In exchange, he promises to supply one Battlemech in good working order, and a mechwarrior to pilot it. Normally the eldest son goes through mechwarrior training, and signs up with the family mech in Duke Steve's army. In this way, Baron von Billy has met his obligations and can't be asked to do more. All of his power rests upon performing this service. Fail to provide a mech, you lose your land.
Baron Johnny, on the other hand, has family lands that go back 700 years. His great great great (etc) grandfather was one of the first people to land on the planet. Baron Johnny's family has very deep ties on this world. At one point they ruled as absolute monarchs. He has the same title as Baron von Billy, but that guy is "new money" compared to Baron Johnny. Johnny is still in charge of his land because there were a series of wars, and his family had the military force to prevent anyone from taking it. Eventually they signed an alliance with some other monarchs in the area, and that's how his land eventually became part of the Free World's League. But you can't just swap him out and give his stuff to somebody else. He's got too much power for that. You can't make Baron Johnny do anything he doesn't want to do unless you're willing to send a company of mechs there just to fight him.
It's all a matter of how deeply somebody is dug in. And the individual nobles are going to know what they can and what they can't get away with. In general I think they'll supply the forces they've promised to provide. Anything extra is basically "outside their contract". Remember that a lot of these guys have real political power that is outside of their official titles. A Duke may be higher ranking than a Count or a Baron, and you may technically owe fealty to the guy above you. But that doesn't mean that the higher up guy can survive without the support of the lower ranking men.
You think about lower ranking nobles shirking their responsibilities, but what about when your liege is an idiot? A battalion of hostile mechs lands 100 miles outside of the starport. Duke Doofus IV realizes that he doesn't have enough forces to defend it, and he's going to lose. He panics and sends out a demand that every baron on the planet send everything they have to save his stuff. If you're the barons, do you want to leave your households undefended? All because the Duke was a moron and didn't bother to properly defend his own stuff? Nope, you won't do that. And a Duke that demands that sort of thing from other nobles will quickly find that he's pissed off everyone underneath him and now he's facing a rebellion on his own world.
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The situation with Duke Dufus IV is a case where things break down and you've got rebellions or refusals. Normally, either whoever is a step up from Duke Dufus is going to step in and try to sort out the mess afterwards (showing up with reinforcements), with a long drawn-out legal battle after the fact over who violated their oaths and WHY (your fief is probably safe if you can prove that he's a complete idiot, and that his orders were a threat to the House), or else the sorry Duke is going to lose to the invaders, in which case it doesn't matter what the Duke ordered, after he's deposed and replaced.
There are shades of gray where personal power and connections come into play, so Baron von Billy might suffer sanctions or confiscation of property, while Baron Johnny gets away with it. They might also have sent a portion of their required force, risking penalties while still "mostly" following orders. It probably also matters whether Duke Dufus was outmaneuvered and failed to engage, versus losing because he was slightly outmatched without your assistance.
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cleanup
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In any case, whichever model of feudalism is adopted, we know there is ample scope for mercenaries.
I think we can agree to agree. That's ultimately what I was getting at: mercs get lots of work from patrons other than Great House Lords.. petty nobility is collectively a major employer too.
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You think about lower ranking nobles shirking their responsibilities, but what about when your liege is an idiot? A battalion of hostile mechs lands 100 miles outside of the starport. Duke Doofus IV realizes that he doesn't have enough forces to defend it, and he's going to lose. He panics and sends out a demand that every baron on the planet send everything they have to save his stuff. If you're the barons, do you want to leave your households undefended? All because the Duke was a moron and didn't bother to properly defend his own stuff? Nope, you won't do that. And a Duke that demands that sort of thing from other nobles will quickly find that he's pissed off everyone underneath him and now he's facing a rebellion on his own world.
Keep in mind however that the Duke can only obligate that his vassals contribute forces that their oaths of Homage guarantee (this is the contract between the lord & his vassals). If the vassals are smart & actually care about their own personal territorial integrity, they'll have MORE assets available than what their feudal obligation requires. FREX lets say the local baron has an obligation of 1 Bn of light hovertanks & 1 Bn of rifle infantry, to be called up for service for defense of the planet in the case of invasion (or other operations -- depending on the actual agreement). Depending on the location of the world & the likelihood of being invaded, that local baron might have an entire REGIMENT of tanks & a regiment or two of rifle infantry available as assets, giving him a powerful force left aside for local defense. I would imagine nobles on border areas likely to get invaded would do this precise thing, whereas ones in the interior or likely not to get invaded would have only slightly more than their obligation. I would imagine FedSun barons in the Crucis March busily soiling themselves in terror during the 1st SW as they realize how inadequate their military assets were the Dragon comes pounding down the street (and start clamoring for as many mercs as they can get their hands on)...
Damon.
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Keep in mind however that the Duke can only obligate that his vassals contribute forces that their oaths of Homage guarantee (this is the contract between the lord & his vassals). If the vassals are smart & actually care about their own personal territorial integrity, they'll have MORE assets available than what their feudal obligation requires. FREX lets say the local baron has an obligation of 1 Bn of light hovertanks & 1 Bn of rifle infantry, to be called up for service for defense of the planet in the case of invasion (or other operations -- depending on the actual agreement). Depending on the location of the world & the likelihood of being invaded, that local baron might have an entire REGIMENT of tanks & a regiment or two of rifle infantry available as assets, giving him a powerful force left aside for local defense. I would imagine nobles on border areas likely to get invaded would do this precise thing, whereas ones in the interior or likely not to get invaded would have only slightly more than their obligation. I would imagine FedSun barons in the Crucis March busily soiling themselves in terror during the 1st SW as they realize how inadequate their military assets were the Dragon comes pounding down the street (and start clamoring for as many mercs as they can get their hands on)...
Damon.
Of course the local barons have more. The discussion in this thread has meandered a bit here and there. Somebody upthread made the argument that even after you've supplied whatever forces you were supposed to provide, other nobles can call on you for more support. I disagreed.
What military obligations you're supposed to fulfill will vary from planet to planet and era to era. On some no-name world in the midst of the 3rd Succession War, a low ranking noble is probably supposed to provide something like one or two mechs. Of course, he's going to want forces to protect his own property as well. I tend to inflate Battletech army sizes to what I consider more "realistic" (ha ha) levels by doing this. Because you've got a lot of little guys protecting their own interests, the overall forces appear smaller than they really are.
So let's go for a quick and dirty example.
Mudball VI
Population: 80 million
Ruler: Duke Dimwit III
Other nobles: Barons 1-5
Major cities: Capital City (10m), Springfield (2m), Brockway (1.5m), Ogdenville (1.5m), North Haverbrook (1.5m)
Official defending forces (provided by the Duke): 2 Battlemech companies, 1 battalion Scorpion tanks, 1 regiment infantry (with transport vehicles), 4 ASFs
Forces supplied by Baron 1: 2 Battlemechs
Forces supplied by Baron 2: 1 Battlemech, 2 Hunter Light Support Tanks
Forces supplied by Baron 3: 1 Battlemech, 4 Warrior H-7 VTOLs
Forces supplied by Baron 4: 2 Battlemechs
Forces supplied by Baron 5: 2 Battlemechs
Additional forces on planet:
-Each baron has a lance of light vehicles and a battalion of infantry he keeps on his own lands. Barons 1-3 have a little more wealth, and each retains a pair of light mechs as well.
-The Advanced Optics Medium Laser factory retains a lance of mechs (2 Jenners, 2 Phoenix Hawks) a lance of Striker tanks, and 2 companies of infantry.
-The Duke has a lance of medium/heavy mechs, 6 Mechbuster fighters, 2 lances of Saladin hover tanks, and a battalion of infantry as his "personal guard" that doesn't leave his castle grounds.
-Capital City maintains a lance of Urbanmechs and a regiment of foot infantry.
-Springfield has 2 Stinger mechs and a Wasp, and a battalion of infantry.
-Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook each keep a battalion of infantry and a pair of light mechs.
-There are approximately 20 regiments of foot infantry and 5 regiments of very light vehicles (too weak for real record sheets -- treat as mechanized infantry) scattered about the planet. These units have assigned positions around the planet and so are never concentrated in any one area. At most, attackers will face a few companies in any one place.
-There is also an air force of 24 Defender Medium Strike Conventional Fighters. Like the infantry, these are spread around the globe and the most an attacker is likely to face is 4-6 fighters.
-There are also approximately 1 battalion of combat vehicles, and 5 or 6 mechs that are in private hands (i.e., organized crime, lone nutjob survivalists, etc) that are completely off the books and nobody is aware of them.
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If you look at the forces of Mudball VI on paper, you're likely to just see the Duke's forces and the reinforcements by the 5 barons. So almost a full Battlemech battalion, a battalion of light tanks, and a regiment of infantry. This is what shows up on the viewscreen when military strategists are looking over the planet. And most of the time, that's all you have to worry about facing. The rest of the forces are people's personal household guard (or corporate defense forces, or the mech grandpa keeps in the barn), and they aren't going to march out to meet you unless you are attacking something they want to protect. Half the forces on planet are not interested in taking on every little invasion that occurs.
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Back to the original original question, the merc trade exists for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it exists because of cash. But there are non-monetary reasons as well.
For the Houses/Nobles, it gives you:
-A quick source of trained soldiers in times of need
-The ability to raise more troops (temporarily) than your lands can normally support
-Access to specialized units that can fulfill rare sorts of missions
-Throwaway guys that nobody will miss
-Plausible deniability when you attack somebody else
-Well treated mercs with long-term contracts become almost as good as another House unit
-Forces that have instant loyalty to you, not that idiot cousin of yours...
For the mercs, it gives you:
-Legitimacy
-A chance at immense power and wealth
-A way off this godforsaken rock
So from a House/Noble perspective, it makes a lot of sense. Even if it isn't that cost-efficient in the long run, you need more soldiers right this minute. There are all sorts of units available, and you get to pick and choose. You can hire some ragtag band of mechjocks that you intend of just feeding into a meatgrinder. They're D- rated, everyone will think they screwed up. Or you can hire some highly specialized group to do a job that you normally wouldn't have the ability to pull off.
From a merc perspective, there's always the chance to get rich. While there's a lot of risk to it, if you were born just a poor kid who was good at the mech simulators, you don't have many other paths to success in the Inner Sphere. Merc life also gives you legitimacy, which is very important if you maybe don't have a good past. Or if you stole something important (like a mech).
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From a merc perspective, there's always the chance to get rich. While there's a lot of risk to it, if you were born just a poor kid who was good at the mech simulators, you don't have many other paths to success in the Inner Sphere. Merc life also gives you legitimacy, which is very important if you maybe don't have a good past. Or if you stole something important (like a mech).
I mentioned it upthread but I think it warrants being mentioned again: A good portion of the mercs out there are veterans of one of the various House Armies. Not every mechwarrior considers himself particularly tied to a Successor State.. and once you've been trained and have an initial tour of duty on your military file/resume, there's the temptation to "go pro" not just for money, but also perhaps adventure! Mercs are "always" getting into action whereas most House Army regiments are sitting in garrison most of the time. Sure, it takes a certain personality type to forgo more of a steady but potentially boring job for a risky one. But those types of people are surely out there.
Mercs are also mostly seen as legit, respectable professionals in the BTU. There's generally no shame involved in terminating service to a House Lord in favor of merc work. For example, in Steiner space serving as a merc is normally viewed as every bit as honorable as serving in the LCAF.
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In addition to the forces you're OBLIGATED to send, other nobles could "request" additional forces, but you're not legally obligated to comply. Depending on your and their contacts and connections, it may be prudent to comply, or to at least make a token effort at compliance. Any noble with an ounce of functioning brain cells wouldn't demand or request 100% of your domestic defenses, otherwise there wouldn't be any defense against a local uprising or secondary attack. Likewise, any vassal with an ounce of functioning brain cells would look for some legally permissible way of "delaying" the departure of at least some of his forces, for the same reason. Any rational House drawing up the terms in the first place would leave such loopholes and loosely worded phrases to allow a small amount of discretion, while rigidly enforcing the main body of the requirement.
I see it pretty much the way that massey does, with a substantial amount of "stuff" that's not considered to be a normal part of the planetary garrison, but a small amount of it MAY still be present, or show up later in support, depending on where the attacker lands.
Varying portions of that assorted "stuff" will be owned by nobles, corporations, or a few well-connected individuals, and some of those entities will hire mercenaries for defense of their assets, instead of, or in addition to, owning their own forces. Little or none of that is beholden to the leading noble, although it may be "practical" in certain cases to provide some measure of support upon formal request, rather than get on the noble's bad side. As with most other things in life, what you must do or what you can get away with are often dependent upon who you know, and how many favors you or they owe.
In a society with long communication delays and a need for local authorities to exercise their own judgement, there will inevitably be a lot of "shades of gray" in the laws and regulations, to allow for some flexibility. There's a reason why military units are rated for loyalty, and nobles are probably a lot less reliable.
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In a society with long communication delays and a need for local authorities to exercise their own judgement, there will inevitably be a lot of "shades of gray" in the laws and regulations, to allow for some flexibility. There's a reason why military units are rated for loyalty, and nobles are probably a lot less reliable.
And this helps explain why the official units that are on the books which happen to be at least a month's travel away are deployed the way they are, and that a raider or invader isn't free to hit the 'unguarded' worlds with impunity. There's something there that will offer a speed bump, or an outright obstacle. And, the defenders of a stellar region probably never have to actually lift off unless it 'looks serious'.
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To bring this back up . . . I came up with another area/reason mercs get hired . . .
Depending on how the planet is set up, you could have the planet's head noble/ruler/council limiting the number of armed retainers subservient nobles/polities could have on hand. This limits the strength of those who might rebel though it also limits the strength the planetary ruler can call on based on their oaths. So if a noble is staying with in the law (ex England's 1468 law and Henry's clarifications in 1487 & 1504) which limits what sort of forces they can have on hand, well if you are planning a rebellion you will need formed troops from somewhere . . .
Say as an example you can have only a company of mechs, none assault weight, and two companies of infantry- not to be Jump, Airborne trained or mechanized (IE not supported or moved by IFV/ISV). If desired the noble might replace a mech in the bodyguard company with a pair of combat vehicles, again none of assault class, for a maximum of 24 vehicles. No noble will be permitted aerospace fighters or conventional fighters though they can have two armed small craft and a maximum of four armed VTOLs which are restricted to light ACs, MGs, SRMs & LRMs. No one shall be allowed any artillery of any sort. No noble shall have any water vessel over 200t nor armed in any manner except as permitted to VTOLs.
So either you break the law and raise your own forces in your fief (where does the equipment come from & how does it get past customs) or you send a emissary in secret off planet to go hire mercs using money you also managed to secretly transfer off planet. And its a LOT easier to get specie off planet than it is to ship weapons on planet.
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You can also use the mercs as a fun excuse.
"No, I don't have extra weapons being given to my armsmen. Those weapons belong to the mercs and are strictly for use in a training setting, as all the weapons are turned back in at the end of each day"
The noble just never happens to mention that there is a crate with gold bars near the merc dropship and an understanding that if things go bad, the mercs load up that crate of gold while the locals grab the guns. The key is for the mercs to not get pegged as thieves, one idea might be where the noble 'coincidentally' had some gold nearby when the trouble started, and used that to buy the guns under the 'emergency access clause'.
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It takes more than weapons to make soldiers . . . if they are not trained to use them and cooperative tactics then its just a armed mob.
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We have rules for mobs, too.
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Of course, the local minor noble could rotate his troops, so he's only got 2 companies of infantry AT A TIME, but has trained up 6 more companies over the past 5 years. Every 6 months, he releases 75% of his infantry back to their former jobs, and hires new recruits. At the end of it, he's got 8 companies of active troops and trained reserves that he can call up, if he can get the weapons to arm all of them.
That's where the mercenaries come in: they serve out their contract, and at the end of it, leave without a lot of their smaller stuff. It's hard to smuggle weapons onto the planet through Customs, but who notices when you're bringing them in legally and then NOT taking a portion of them with you when you leave? The 'Mechs are pretty obvious, and the ones that arrive are very plainly the same ones that leave. The small arms, not so obvious.
The next merc group that shows up in their place is hired with the unadvertised intent to assist the rebellion. Now the noble has the 'Mechs and vehicles at his command (the new Mercenaries) for combat in the field, plus the armed and trained infantry (his reserves, called up) to take and hold the cities.
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Merc units provide nobles and the Great Houses with a military force that still grants you plausible deniability. Want to attack your neighbor but don't want attacked in response? Mercs. Need to wipe out some rebels that are kinda popular with the locals? Mercs. Need somebody to attack an "ally" who you don't really like? Mercs. Need somebody to reinforce your lands in an emergency after you spent the money that was supposed to go towards maintaining your armies on cocaine instead? Mercs.
Mercs give you a well-trained, instant army whenever and wherever you need it. You also get access to specialized forces that you might not normally use. I'm sure you can hire somebody who has a company of Crusaders that have replaced all their missile launchers with torpedoes. Really really useful in the right situation, but not exactly something you'd need to purchase and maintain for yourself. These guys only do amphibious assault and defense, nothing else. And they probably get a lot of work across the Inner Sphere, because most people don't need that kind of thing all the time.
What do mercs get out of it? They get legitimacy. Are you the 7th son of a minor noble, who isn't going to inherit anything? Run off with your dad's Locust and join a unit that is blasting off for a world halfway across the Inner Sphere. Did you just murder somebody and you need to get out of Dodge fast? Grab a rifle and sign up with a merc security force. They've got their own transports and nobody is going to ask you for ID. Are you a skilled mechwarrior who maybe stole somebody else's ride? Do you want to not be just some House regular who is assigned whatever crap mech the captain wants you to pilot? Join a merc unit. Piloting a House mech and you manage to cockpit-crit that enemy Griffin? Nobody else was around or saw you do it? Drag that sucker into some heavy woods or into a lake and come back later. Then join a merc unit.
There would be a never-ending source of generally dissatisfied people who can (at least temporarily) place their hands on some military equipment. Mercenary work lets you legitimize your ownership of it, even if it's in another nation. Sergeant Bob Smith stole a Wolverine from his backwater FedSuns militia unit 20 years ago, and nobody ever sees him again. They sure aren't going to connect him to Ace Ramirez, daring mercenary captain with a mysterious past (with an eyepatch and a cool beard). That Wolverine has been blasted apart and repaired so many times that none of the serial numbers match anymore. Bob Smith has a whole new life, and no one will ever be the wiser as long as he never goes back to that dustball planet he left when he was just a kid.
Legitimacy is a very valuable thing.
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Merc units provide nobles and the Great Houses with a military force that still grants you plausible deniability. Want to attack your neighbor but don't want attacked in response? Mercs. Need to wipe out some rebels that are kinda popular with the locals? Mercs. Need somebody to attack an "ally" who you don't really like? Mercs. Need somebody to reinforce your lands in an emergency after you spent the money that was supposed to go towards maintaining your armies on cocaine instead? Mercs.
Need to get back after someone hired some mercs to attack you? Hire your own mercs to attack their mercs! After all merc contracts need to be a matter of public record after all, otherwise their pirates. After all, legitimacy is a very valuable thing.
What do mercs get out of it? They get legitimacy. Are you the 7th son of a minor noble, who isn't going to inherit anything? Run off with your dad's Locust and join a unit that is blasting off for a world halfway across the Inner Sphere. Did you just murder somebody and you need to get out of Dodge fast? Grab a rifle and sign up with a merc security force. They've got their own transports and nobody is going to ask you for ID. Are you a skilled mechwarrior who maybe stole somebody else's ride? Do you want to not be just some House regular who is assigned whatever crap mech the captain wants you to pilot? Join a merc unit. Piloting a House mech and you manage to cockpit-crit that enemy Griffin? Nobody else was around or saw you do it? Drag that sucker into some heavy woods or into a lake and come back later. Then join a merc unit.
No reputable merc unit is going to hire anyone with major black marks on their record, and if you stole a 'Mech? Well they'll probably steal it from you.
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Need to get back after someone hired some mercs to attack you? Hire your own mercs to attack their mercs! After all merc contracts need to be a matter of public record after all, otherwise their pirates. After all, legitimacy is a very valuable thing.
I'm going to disagree a bit there, but on grounds of how the contracting is actually done in the BTU. Which is a very fair point upon which to quibble given the nature of the thread. But here it is: Just because a contract was bonded thru ComStar doesn't mean it's subject to FOIA requests or the BTU equivalent
That being said though, military force is much more acceptable in the BTU than it is in international circles in the real world, and that's a cultural survival from the Ares Conventions that were hammered out in the Age of War. When the Conventions are mentioned in a historical context, there's usually a mention about how the criticism of those Conventions is that they made warfare a politically viable option of first resort. I conceptualize this as warfare is pretty much the option you choose when instead you'd take someone to court in the real world. In the BTU, fighting a raid over an IP breach is as normal as a frivilous lawsuit is today. A merc company doesn't have any more reason to hide their identity than a lawyer does in the real world. Especially in late SW contexts, fighting is much more like a ritualized (but very violent) sport than true warfare.. mercs that get beat on the field of battle concede defeat and go on about their business. Again delving into my headcanon, but I don't imagine mercs generally get any more (or less, to be fair) butthurt about getting beat on the field of battle than sports teams do on the pitch or gridiron. See the Dragoons-Big Mac rivalry for the main example here. Of course, the Waco Rangers-Dragoon "rivalry" could be a counterexample, but I like to think of the former being more representative of the merc industry than the latter. To each one's own.
Something that I've always wrangled with was how exactly Hiring Halls work. First of all, the Hiring Hall has to be more than a physical compound with negotiation rooms. It's clearly got to be a network moreso than a location, or else you'd have to physically go back to Galatea or Outreach after every contract to get a new contract. And sequeing off of that, I also envision a Hiring Hall as having vendors as a significant part of that network. Vendors that sell everything from mech parts to uniforms to Prickly Pear Rations. I don't mean to rehash the disagreements I've had with others upthread, but just to reiterate I've always seen the Great House Armies as being only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the military industrial market. If you're a defense manufacturer, you'd be crazy to NOT sell to the secondary markets as well. Besides, I just can't get past the suspension of disbelief for ordering replacement parts from some sort of Space Amazon.com that we've never heard about. It's that, or the big meta problem of there being people wherever PCs go holding on to valuable military materiel who for some reason only sell to people who happen to be PCs.
Whether or not that all is indeed "true" for the fantasy universe, something I really wrangle with is OPSEC for Hiring Halls. I know megamek isn't canon, but bear with me here. From a sample contract, the following information is all present:
1) Which Great House is hiring
2) Which Great House is the target
3) Which planet is the target
4) Start date of the contract
5) What forces exactly they require
6) What forces you'll face
All that info is required for the game to function, whether it's megamek or a RPG. But here's the thing, that info being viewable by anyone who happens to be walking thru the Hiring Hall (or has passed vetting process for said Hiring Hall) could give that information to the entity listed in 2) and basically render the entire mission militarily unviable. And there's basically no way to prevent it from happening, not unless your headcanon allows for ComStar to crack any and every cipher ever going out over a HPG. Now, to be fair, maybe you do. But even if ComStar sees MIIO or ISF spoiling info back home about a raid coming to one of their House's worlds, would ComStar actually DO anything about it? Not so sure. They're getting their brokers' cut no matter what.
So, the fact that noone ever uses contract info targeting their faction to spoil those contracts seems to indicate it doesn't happen. The WHY of it just ever seems to go into head canon. I personally presume that you really don't get all the information presented in a meta sense. There's serious reasons why you don't dare ever give out each of those 1-6 until the contract is already signed, but there's game balance and even lore reasons why each piece individually has to be given. You could argue that there's some sort of NDA that a Hiring Hall uses, that way you're obligated to keep military secrets that you glean just by browsing available contracts secret, even if you don't sign said contract(s). I don't see how it's enforceable without an omniscient ComStar, however. I kind of like the idea of turning what we've seen in the meta game mechanics on its ear: a merc captain looking for contracts doesn't to a Space Google search on the Hiring Hall computer boards for available contacts... the Hiring Hall instead has the merc put in his criteria (I won't work for Kurita, I can put 12 mechs in the field, I'm available starting on this day, I'll do these kinds of missions, etc) and then based on the criteria he gets contact info for negotators with pending contracts that meet his search criteria. Then, in the course of the negotiations face to face (or hologram to hologram, or whatever) the vetting of the mercs can take place and the mercs can begin to get more militarily sensitive info before formally signing on.
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Not providing that hiring hall information up front is a way to justify serious premium charges. I'd think it actually makes the merc trade economically viable. And without delving into rule 4 territory, I'd say the BT universe is more averse to using military force than more than one part of the real world, but that's more based on (lack of) capacity than anything else. The miniscule size of BT forces has been well debated, and even with the factors you've outlined elsewhere (which I think are all reasonable), they're STILL far smaller than anything we have now.
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I'm going to disagree a bit there, but on grounds of how the contracting is actually done in the BTU. Which is a very fair point upon which to quibble given the nature of the thread. But here it is: Just because a contract was bonded thru ComStar doesn't mean it's subject to FOIA requests or the BTU equivalent
That being said though, military force is much more acceptable in the BTU than it is in international circles in the real world, and that's a cultural survival from the Ares Conventions that were hammered out in the Age of War. When the Conventions are mentioned in a historical context, there's usually a mention about how the criticism of those Conventions is that they made warfare a politically viable option of first resort. -Snip-
Actually there would have to be something like FOIA, the target would be able to demand that C* produce proof of any contract or be well within their rights to declare the group responsible pirates/outlaws. Furthermore they'd be able to demand the terms in order to determine if the group did something they were NOT hired to do, and under the Ares Conventions I can imagine that things like blocking traffic and littering might get you in trouble. And those criticisms? Well why hasn't violence stopped be a politically viable option of first resort?
So, the fact that noone ever uses contract info targeting their faction to spoil those contracts seems to indicate it doesn't happen. The WHY of it just ever seems to go into head canon. I personally presume that you really don't get all the information presented in a meta sense. There's serious reasons why you don't dare ever give out each of those 1-6 until the contract is already signed, but there's game balance and even lore reasons why each piece individually has to be given. You could argue that there's some sort of NDA that a Hiring Hall uses, that way you're obligated to keep military secrets that you glean just by browsing available contracts secret, even if you don't sign said contract(s). I don't see how it's enforceable without an omniscient ComStar, however. I kind of like the idea of turning what we've seen in the meta game mechanics on its ear: a merc captain looking for contracts doesn't to a Space Google search on the Hiring Hall computer boards for available contacts... the Hiring Hall instead has the merc put in his criteria (I won't work for Kurita, I can put 12 mechs in the field, I'm available starting on this day, I'll do these kinds of missions, etc) and then based on the criteria he gets contact info for negotators with pending contracts that meet his search criteria. Then, in the course of the negotiations face to face (or hologram to hologram, or whatever) the vetting of the mercs can take place and the mercs can begin to get more militarily sensitive info before formally signing on.
I'd make the argument that short term mercs aren't hired on for those sorts of things, rather their hired to plug the gaps caused by pulling other forces out of their garrisons for the raid.
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Actually there would have to be something like FOIA, the target would be able to demand that C* produce proof of any contract or be well within their rights to declare the group responsible pirates/outlaws. Furthermore they'd be able to demand the terms in order to determine if the group did something they were NOT hired to do, and under the Ares Conventions I can imagine that things like blocking traffic and littering might get you in trouble.
Generally I agree. Legit mercs will be able to provide a ComStar/MRBC verified assessment of the company to prospective employers. Services of being independently assessed are surely covered by the membership dues mercs pay to BE bonded and/or registered via Hiring Halls. I'd imagine these "resumes" include things like an independently verified assessment of the numbers of mechwarriors, experience levels of pilots and the unit in aggregate, and so on... including a record of success (or lack thereof) on prior bonded contracts. Everything that's wrapped up into what would later become "Dragoons ratings". That way you're not solely taking the mercs' words for what the mercs have done and are capable of.
I'd just quibble that ComStar is any where near open enough to provide that same information to someone just for the asking, outside the context of being seriously interested in hiring the said mercenaries. I'd also think that missions done "off the books" away from ComStar or Hiring Hall aegis would of course remain militarily secret between merc and employer.
And those criticisms [of the Ares Conventions]? Well why hasn't violence stopped be a politically viable option of first resort?
The why is basically best answered as meta: it's more fun to have a game where openly stomping with warbots is more fun than a game where you have to engage in cloak and daggers to justify getting to the stompy action. The how? Well I mentioned it upthread... I think it's simply a cultural survival. Inertia, in other words.
I'd make the argument that short term mercs aren't hired on for those sorts of things, rather their hired to plug the gaps caused by pulling other forces out of their garrisons for the raid.
I'd agree with ya here. It makes much more sense for small companies to hire on simply "as retainer", and then do short term contracts with their employer on a provisional basis as necessary. (hey, our last Recon Raid shows that the 69th Arcturan Hussars aren't currently in-garrison... we've got a now-or-never opportunity to sneak a small force like yours in to raid their under-guarded supply depots before they return... You game for the mission?) Of course this sort of arrangement doesn't fit neatly in with the established Hiring Hall lore, though.
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I'd agree with ya here. It makes much more sense for small companies to hire on simply "as retainer", and then do short term contracts with their employer on a provisional basis as necessary. (hey, our last Recon Raid shows that the 69th Arcturan Hussars aren't currently in-garrison... we've got a now-or-never opportunity to sneak a small force like yours in to raid their under-guarded supply depots before they return... You game for the mission?) Of course this sort of arrangement doesn't fit neatly in with the established Hiring Hall lore, though.
Well, it could as long as the retainer contract is what the hiring hall issued to any and all merc units. In fact, I imagine that's a vast majority of the open business end. They're hired on by a particular party for a period of time to handle a wide variety of potential combat situations, including but not limited to... and insert list.
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Its alway is been hard to undertstand Mercs at times. In a pure economic sense, aunit commander could sell his assetts and live a life of worry free luxury just off ther interest or a handful of mechs or dropships.
But, if you've ever played Shadowrun, you get a similar concept. High level shadowruners usually have enough gear and cynberware they coudl purchase a permanent luxury lifestyle. But they do what they do because of the life of a shadowrunner.
So, in the end, the main motivation is: poor economic sense, and a perverse attraction to the lifestyle, and a growing attachment to the merc unit that surpoasses any tie to a nation, planet, and for some, it becomes a family. They love what they do, and particulalry don't care too much who they do it for..as long as the employer adheres to a few basic rules.
Making money is, oddly enough, not ultimately keeps a merc in the merc life. Its not being able to imagine living any other way.
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I explain away the money issue with the idea that a powerful merc is really looking to ascend to the status of nobility.
If I'm Joe the mechwarrior with a basic Griffin, I could sell it and get about 5 million c-bills. That's 25 million bucks in like 1990 money. You could live a life of luxury real easy on that. Of course, as a no-longer-mechwarrior, you're just gonna settle down on some planet, and probably get creamed on taxes. The respect, the power, all the status you once had is basically gone. Yeah the money may be nice (even after taxes), but what are you gonna do except just buy a cool car and a nice house?
That's presuming you own your mech legally, which (as I've already indicated) a lot of mercs might not. Selling the thing before you've had the chance to properly launder it and scrape off all the serial numbers might get you caught. So you probably have to be a merc for a little while first before you can cash out.
But... let's say you stick with it for several years. Despite what the game might show (where every battle is between equal forces and you lose most of your mechs), most merc contracts are probably pretty easy. Low risk. It's the really exciting ones that stand out, but a well-executed raid probably pays well and you don't have that much risk of getting killed. Eventually you might earn enough money so that you're both rich and you keep your mech.
Of course, a lot of guys luck runs out eventually, but they don't think about that most of the time.
A guy who has been successful for a long time might end up earning himself a title, and that's where the real money comes in. The guys who hit it rich, hit it super super super rich.
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I explain away the money issue with the idea that a powerful merc is really looking to ascend to the status of nobility.
If I'm Joe the mechwarrior with a basic Griffin, I could sell it and get about 5 million c-bills. That's 25 million bucks in like 1990 money. You could live a life of luxury real easy on that. Of course, as a no-longer-mechwarrior, you're just gonna settle down on some planet, and probably get creamed on taxes. The respect, the power, all the status you once had is basically gone. Yeah the money may be nice (even after taxes), but what are you gonna do except just buy a cool car and a nice house?
That's presuming you own your mech legally, which (as I've already indicated) a lot of mercs might not. Selling the thing before you've had the chance to properly launder it and scrape off all the serial numbers might get you caught. So you probably have to be a merc for a little while first before you can cash out.
But... let's say you stick with it for several years. Despite what the game might show (where every battle is between equal forces and you lose most of your mechs), most merc contracts are probably pretty easy. Low risk. It's the really exciting ones that stand out, but a well-executed raid probably pays well and you don't have that much risk of getting killed. Eventually you might earn enough money so that you're both rich and you keep your mech.
Of course, a lot of guys luck runs out eventually, but they don't think about that most of the time.
A guy who has been successful for a long time might end up earning himself a title, and that's where the real money comes in. The guys who hit it rich, hit it super super super rich.
A million times this is my typical explanation, you probably don't want to be a professional soldier all your life. You do Merc work to pay the bills, see new people and places, take really nice Canopian vacations (Premium package, ka'ching) and eventually buy out your mech from the unit taking a job teaching at whatever your Successor State's equivalent to a Combat Training Center is for the next group of Patriots. The losers become pirates or dispossessed waiting for another Merc group with a salvage Mech that needs a pilot (which are supposedly rare, like 1 in a million rare).
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Well, BT is nothing like real life. I'm sure plenty of no name characters retired but fans seem to find big names living to a rip old age and not dying a violent death more odd.
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I've used this trope often in writing character histories: mercs are soldiers. They are good (or think they are) at what they do - soldiering. Other trades they either dislike or do not have the skills/qualifications to do. What can an ex-soldier do anyway, be a mall cop? So that is what they do.
That settles motive. On the topic of means/resources/wealth: that's best answered by asking around, "what would you do if you had a million dollars?" Most people would basically retire on that money, or use it for immediate short/medium-term gains including buying apparel, cars, a house. But there are a few who would use that wealth to start a business or invest.
In a nutshell, mercs are ex-soldiers with an entrepreneurial spirit and the wherewithal to make the attempt.
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Without disagreeing with any of the other motivations already suggested, I think it's also true in the BattleTech universe that a BattleMech isn't a bad investment of wealth. It represents stable employment not just for you but for generations of your extended family, and any civilian equivalent in cash or assets is - I think - held to be even riskier and more volatile.
Actually there would have to be something like FOIA, the target would be able to demand that C* produce proof of any contract or be well within their rights to declare the group responsible pirates/outlaws. Furthermore they'd be able to demand the terms in order to determine if the group did something they were NOT hired to do
What does it matter if they were contracted to do the thing or not? If the thing they did is abhorrent, the targeted House will undertake punitive strikes and set bounties anyways.
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What does it matter if they were contracted to do the thing or not? If the thing they did is abhorrent, the targeted House will undertake punitive strikes and set bounties anyways.
If the DC contracts the Dragoons to raid FS planets and steal military supplies that's fine, they're covered by the contract as legal combatants, but if the Dragoons raid FS planets to steal supplies without a contract, like what actually happened before Misery, then that's theft and probably murder assuming that people where killed in the raid.
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There are a lot of questions about how nations maintain operational security in an open merc market. What's to stop the Fed Suns from creating "Bob's Blasters" as a merc company, and just look and see who is hiring and for what?
We just have to shrug and say that somehow things work out.
Regarding the Houses auditing the hiring records, you don't need that. Nobody has to tell House Kurita that "oh yeah, those Davion boys hired these guys to do this job". Instead they'd just contact Comstar, and Comstar would confirm that Billy's Badasses were under contract at the time a given mission happened. Realistically, probably nobody bothers with that. Highly rated merc units are almost always under contract. F-rated units are just a step above pirates anyway, and nobody is going to care if you hit them for tearing up your stuff.
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There are a lot of questions about how nations maintain operational security in an open merc market. What's to stop the Fed Suns from creating "Bob's Blasters" as a merc company, and just look and see who is hiring and for what?
Merc hiring is probably not an open-tender process. More like backroom personal negotiation via selected known intermediaries and representatives.
Yes, the various State intelligence agencies would definitely try to infiltrate the processes, and spend equal effort ensuring their prospective employees haven't been penetrated by other agencies. Likewise Comstar/Dragoons would be doing the same to keep such shenanigans to a minimum, for their own good name... welcome to the spy game :D
...nobody is going to care if you hit them for tearing up your stuff.
possibly, as with insurance companies and unions, the MRB/MRBC sets higher fees for future contracts. If employers do not play nice with the employees, employers pay more. No, you cannot summarily execute mercs for "violations" without going through adjudication. Oh you did? Well then the next bunch of mercs are going to demand higher pay, AND there'll be an extra 15% on the MRB/MRBC brokerage fee.
though with this industry and this being Battletech, I imagine this is all largely nominal and there is very wide latitude for unacceptable behaviour. Kurita got away with "Death To Mercenaries" for quite some time, after all...
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If the DC contracts the Dragoons to raid FS planets and steal military supplies that's fine, they're covered by the contract as legal combatants, but if the Dragoons raid FS planets to steal supplies without a contract, like what actually happened before Misery, then that's theft and probably murder assuming that people where killed in the raid.
I'm not on board with putting the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable military action on the basis of whether or not there was a legit/bonded contract for said action.
Why? Because, as I mentioned previously, violence is an acceptable option of first resort. I'm going to argue that actors like nobles and corporations can execute moves against their rivals with battlemechs rather than lawyers. The (original, and also now corrected) Amphigean Light Assault Group background lore explicitly confirms this, as those mech regiments began as "corporate security" rented out as leg breakers for corporate-scale loan sharking. This being the case, I'd also argue that actors like merc captains and House army field commanders fit exactly in to this category of actors who are permitted to unleash the mechs on a target without formally explicit sanction. The nature of communications in the BTU means military operations are fundamentally not like modern/real world ops where commands are explicitly given from national HQ, and actions are monitored real time from the same. The BTU is more like ages past, where field (and naval) commanders are given broadly and generally worded orders. There's no time for a mech regiment CO to relay back to Luthien or New Avalon about an opportunity that just presented itself and to receive permission to go capitalize upon it... they are authorized and expected to just act (in accordance with those broadly, generally worded orders).
So yeah I'd argue that someone of the social elevation of a colonel or major (whether House, Merc, or otherwise) is perfectly "fine" making naked grabs for whatever floats his fancy. The more 'egregious' the breach of peace of course, the more eloquence and political clout may be necessary afterwords to beg forgiveness, granted. But so long as the fighting itself is what's generally deemed as acceptable conduct, there's no fallout there for the mechwarriors.
Bringing it back to the quoted post: I'd say that the difference between "legit" mercs and bandits/pirates is actually fuzzy. It's based on behavior rather than legal/financial status, and can be influenced by the eye of the beholder. If you're sore about how a merc company conducted themselves against you, you certainly might take it up with ComStar/MRBC. But they're not an impartial party, and if you're either not sure ComStar will play it straight or if you're sure you'd lose a grievance if they did, you just call them whatever you want and put bounties out there regardless.
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So yeah I'd argue that someone of the social elevation of a colonel or major (whether House, Merc, or otherwise) is perfectly "fine" making naked grabs for whatever floats his fancy. The more 'egregious' the breach of peace of course, the more eloquence and political clout may be necessary afterwords to beg forgiveness, granted. But so long as the fighting itself is what's generally deemed as acceptable conduct, there's no fallout there for the mechwarriors.
Sure. Just know that that sword cuts both ways: it would also be "acceptable conduct" for someone else to wipe out said colonel in turn.
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Sure. Just know that that sword cuts both ways: it would also be "acceptable conduct" for someone else to wipe out said colonel in turn.
Exactly.
Or put a bounty on him, if one doesn't have the forces available/in position to do so. Bounties being thrown tit for tat across the FS/DC border was a recurring point in early materials.
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possibly, as with insurance companies and unions, the MRB/MRBC sets higher fees for future contracts. If employers do not play nice with the employees, employers pay more. No, you cannot summarily execute mercs for "violations" without going through adjudication. Oh you did? Well then the next bunch of mercs are going to demand higher pay, AND there'll be an extra 15% on the MRB/MRBC brokerage fee.
though with this industry and this being Battletech, I imagine this is all largely nominal and there is very wide latitude for unacceptable behaviour. Kurita got away with "Death To Mercenaries" for quite some time, after all...
What I mean is let's say some unit comes in and raids your planet. And in addition to stealing the prototype flux capacitor or whatever, they think it's a good idea to blow up some oil refineries, launch an LRM-20 salvo into an orphanage, and loot and pillage on their way out. The type of scenario that SCC was suggesting.
An A-rated unit is not going to do that, unless they were specifically hired to do it. But some F-rated unit very well might. SCC's point was that if you're the target of that raid, you're going to want to know if they had a legitimate contract for that attack. I don't think it matters. Nobody's gonna miss Gary's Gunmen, an F-rated company of ramshackle mechs piloted by a crew of no-good nimrods. If the Draconis Combine wants to declare them pirates, then hunt them down and wipe them out, nobody is going to stand up for Gary's Gunmen. It doesn't matter if they have a contract or not.
But good luck trying that on someone with a good name.
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But good luck trying that on someone with a good name.
Yeah, that's where I'm getting at.
I prefer figuring out the stated nominal rules of the system, and only then find out how it's undermined and subverted. In this case, as you say; if it's some no-name band, no one will care.
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*snip*
The BTU is more like ages past, where field (and especially naval) commanders are given broadly and generally worded orders.
*snip*
Hence "maintain" a Navy, and "raise" Armies...
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I'm not on board with putting the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable military action on the basis of whether or not there was a legit/bonded contract for said action.
You do realize that means that anyone who can claim to be a merc can now commit any crime and face ZERO consequences. And such distinctions have been in the game since the Wacco Rangers/Dragoons feud started and their codified in the current rules.
What I mean is let's say some unit comes in and raids your planet. And in addition to stealing the prototype flux capacitor or whatever, they think it's a good idea to blow up some oil refineries, launch an LRM-20 salvo into an orphanage, and loot and pillage on their way out. The type of scenario that SCC was suggesting.
Yep, but if they didn't have a contract to steal the capacitor that's another crime as well.
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I'm not on board with putting the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable military action on the basis of whether or not there was a legit/bonded contract for said action.
You do realize that means that anyone who can claim to be a merc can now commit any crime and face ZERO consequences. And such distinctions have been in the game since the Wacco Rangers/Dragoons feud started and their codified in the current rules.
We may not be exactly on the same page here. I was saying that in the BTU, launching military action in of itself wouldn't be considered a crime. Now, taking actions like deliberately stomping on ejected pilots may or may not be formally considered a crime in the post Ares-conventions timeline, and certain actions like raping and pillaging almost certainly would still be. But even when such individual behavior rises to the level of being deemed criminal by one party, it doesn't necessarily follow that the patronizing party will agree. They could insist that the rules of engagement permitted (or even required) the "crime" to occur or decline to agree that the behavior was criminal in nature at all. Jurisdiction in such cases where the crime wasn't egregious enough for the patron party to take their own sanction against the force/commander/pilot in question makes actual prosecution impossible unless they return to "the scene of the crime" on yet another raid, and then there's the obvious problem of how exactly are police to actually apprehend a bunch of mechwarriors loaded for bear ;)
Theft is a particularly tricky one. If there's a bonded contract to go steal the next planet over's water filters, obviously there's no "theft" in the criminal sense. It was a military op, and by both mine and yours points of view that's legit/above board. However, I'm saying that if the raid occurs without a bonded contract (or explicit orders from interstellar HQ serving as the legal equivalent for a House unit) it's still treated the same way as a "legit" military op. The other side can get upset about the theft, but there's bugger all they can do about it directly. Launch reprisal raids, yes. Place bounties, yes. We see both in the lore. Theft gets even trickier, as things that aren't the target of an interstellar raid can go under the umbrella of military operations. You say theft, the accused says "commandeering". That absolutely goes on. When the "commandeering" from the local civilians gets out of hand, yes it can get them in trouble. There's explicit game rules going back to the original Mercenary's Handbook (see page 64).
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You do realize that means that anyone who can claim to be a merc can now commit any crime and face ZERO consequences. And such distinctions have been in the game since the Wacco Rangers/Dragoons feud started and their codified in the current rules.
Yep, but if they didn't have a contract to steal the capacitor that's another crime as well.
Except you use mercenaries too. And if these guys are any good, you may want to hire them.
Yes, a Successor State could go after a merc unit if they really wanted. Make their lives hell. We saw the Combine do that with Wolf's Dragoons. Didn't work out too well for them. Now, against a smaller, less important unit? Yeah they could probably take them out. But how many resources are you willing to send after some two-bit merc company?
Besides... you hire units just like that yourself. Who cares if they stop to rape and pillage a little bit as long as they get the job done? I mean, if they do a good job, you might want to hire these guys next.
Now the leaders of Dirtball VI might hold a grudge, but so what? What are they gonna do? Issue an arrest warrant for the mercenaries? These guys already rampaged through your city, setting it on fire and doing whatever the hell they wanted. You obviously don't have the forces necessary to stop them from coming back and making your lives worse.
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Except you use mercenaries too. And if these guys are any good, you may want to hire them.
It does raise the question of how many mercs try to keep their heads down on a raid, and how many try to network, and leave their business cards.
It sounds funny but if you become a big enough merc unit you could have the attitude of leaving your mark as a look how good we are concept.
You too can hire us and we will do this to your enemies instead.
All for the low price starting at 9.99! (million Cbills)
Still houses and the such have to be somewhat respectful to mercs and not lay down the law on every unit that hits them or no one will work for them.
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Yeah, that's where I'm getting at.
I prefer figuring out the stated nominal rules of the system, and only then find out how it's undermined and subverted. In this case, as you say; if it's some no-name band, no one will care.
I know I've used that for setting up fights for a merc company of mine. They run under the radar a lot and get the occasional attack from people 'seeking out a pirate band in this region of Astrokaszy'.
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It does raise the question of how many mercs try to keep their heads down on a raid, and how many try to network, and leave their business cards.
It sounds funny but if you become a big enough merc unit you could have the attitude of leaving your mark as a look how good we are concept.
You too can hire us and we will do this to your enemies instead.
All for the low price starting at 9.99! (million Cbills)
Still houses and the such have to be somewhat respectful to mercs and not lay down the law on every unit that hits them or no one will work for them.
I figure that, outside of covert operations, identifying yourself as the force behind an attack - after the fact at least - is required by unwritten rule. If nothing else, you´d want the target to know who to turn to in order to pay ransom for prisoners taken.
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Now the leaders of Dirtball VI might hold a grudge, but so what? What are they gonna do? Issue an arrest warrant for the mercenaries? These guys already rampaged through your city, setting it on fire and doing whatever the hell they wanted. You obviously don't have the forces necessary to stop them from coming back and making your lives worse.
I could actually see them putting out a wanted poster with 'engage on sight - shoot to kill' orders, or hire out a force to track the group/individual down and bring them in for justice or provide proof of death. This, too, could be under the radar.
And, I have an interesting question to ask - How many mercenaries aren't house/state forces in disguise? Is it possible that a lot of the 'failed' mercenary units might be small raiding forces put together by a regiment/militia to keep their skills sharp and running under the guise of a shell corporation, and after the raid, they 'disband' never to be seen again? They could also be hired by another shell corporation for that raid.
For that matter, how many merc units disband to avoid reprisals from mission they've taken, only to reform under a new guise?
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I figure that, outside of covert operations, identifying yourself as the force behind an attack - after the fact at least - is required by unwritten rule. If nothing else, you´d want the target to know who to turn to in order to pay ransom for prisoners taken.
While they were solvent I figure ComStar would be an easy go between for getting your people back regardless of who the attacker was (house or merc) or how covert the op was.
Even without ComStar I would figure there would be scads of unscrupulous sorts trying to broker deals of any sort where they could take a cut of the action.
So if you are willing to pay for your people back and even if you don't know who took them but they are willing to ransom them back, someone will find a way to be a no questions asked middleman.
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Merc hiring is probably not an open-tender process. More like backroom personal negotiation via selected known intermediaries and representatives.
Yes, the various State intelligence agencies would definitely try to infiltrate the processes, and spend equal effort ensuring their prospective employees haven't been penetrated by other agencies. Likewise Comstar/Dragoons would be doing the same to keep such shenanigans to a minimum, for their own good name... welcome to the spy game :D
Well let's think about how this could actually work. Keep it as close to the source material as possible without having obviously exploitable holes.
Let's say I run a standard merc unit, maybe a Battlemech company that's been around for like 15 years or something. I've got a ComStar rating (I honestly don't remember exactly how the rating system works). But we'll say that that rating is a combination of a bunch of different factors, like a cross between an eBay seller's rating and a credit report. Having a history of doing mercenary work is going to get you a higher rating (and thus more job offers).
The Federated Suns is not going to take bids on their upcoming secret raid on the Draconis Combine from just anybody. "Hmm... what about this unit? 'Takashi's Ninja Dragons.' Never heard of them before, but they look pretty good. Let's see what they'll bid on this raid against New Samarkand." Nope. They're going to want somebody who has a long history of working for various Houses. So if I did some work for the Lyrans for a few years, and say the FWL after that, and then did a little pirate hunting for the Kuritans, even if I only did on "okay" job, I'll get a better merc rating than if I had exemplary service to one House for the whole time.
Part of what they're rating is your legitimacy as a merc unit. A Great House might take a small force and spin them off into a "merc unit" temporarily to try and spy on others. But they're not likely to let that unit go work for other people for 10+ years. As soon as your unit service record starts passing the normal enlistment time for a House military, your rating probably goes up. It's like when you turn 25, your car insurance gets cheaper. Let's say the Fed Suns and the FWL have a 4 year enlistment, and the Combine and Lyrans have a 5 year, and the Cappies have a 6 year. Once your unit hits that 4 year mark, your rating goes up (because it's less likely that you're a plant). At 5 it goes up again, and at 6 it goes up again. It's not proof that you aren't a spy, it's just showing that it is less likely that you are.
Backwater assignments, like pirate hunting or garrison duty on no-name planets, those jobs are probably pretty easy to get info about. Some planet that is 5 jumps deep into Combine space, they need some extra mechs for a year or two because hostilities are higher and whoever was stationed there is getting moved somewhere else. Everybody in the Inner Sphere knows that people are getting moved to the border (the Dragon is making a show of force, and wants the Fed Suns to see). So it's not like there's a big secret to protect. You do some assignments like that for a while, or missions where you just take care of local trouble (Baron #1 hates Baron #2, and needs some muscle). Do it long enough and people think you're probably a real merc unit, and it's not actually a secret long-term scheme by a House to spy on people.
So that's the first thing they'd look at. Your "credit rating", so to speak. Anybody with a credit rating below a certain point doesn't even get to see most of the contracts available from ComStar. To even get in on the bidding process, you've got to have been around a while. If somebody has been a merc for 30 years, it's a pretty good bet that they aren't actually spies (I mean, you know, except for Wolf's Dragoons, but whoda thunk it?).
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Second thing. Before you "graduate" up to a higher level and get to bid on more contracts, you probably get spied on by any House who even thinks about hiring you. Phones tapped. People go through your mail. Somebody in a van parks down the street from your house and watches you with binoculars. Cute girls meet your techs at the bar and get them drunk, then seduce them. They're looking to see if you're really who you say you are.
In this sort of "background check", they probably don't care if one of your mechwarriors is a serial killer who is on the run from the law. Oh, it'll go in the report, but that's not what they're looking for. Again they just want to know that it's safe to let you bid on certain contracts. Ironically, if they find out every little secret you have, it probably weighs against your rating. Nobody wants to bid a secret mission to a unit that can't keep its mouth shut. If your chief tech is laying there in bed with a beautiful spy woman, telling everything he knows, she's going to write down "Do Not Hire -- Talkative Morons" in her report.
And honestly, having people who do have a criminal record in their history probably makes you seem more legitimate. 12 upstanding Captain America types who appear out of nowhere with squeaky clean records, that's unusual. But if you've got a guy who killed a man in a bar fight on New Avalon, and then hightailed it? Another who "borrowed" a Zeus battlemech from the Lyran military when he was passed over for promotion? A third who is accused of sexual assault on four different planets? Yeah that's probably a real mercenary unit, and not a bunch of spies.
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The third security precaution is fake missions. So you bid on a raid, and let's say the first couple of times, you don't get hired (because nobody is actually getting hired). Each time there's a little bit of information that could be useful to the Combine. Spies would watch you like a hawk to see if you try to leak info to them. Who do you meet with? Do you make any suspicious HPG transmissions? This wouldn't just be the House intelligence agencies, it would be ComStar as well. If they're going to give you a good rating, they don't want you betraying people. I mean, they don't really care, but they'll at least do a passable job of monitoring you. You're using their equipment and all.
Now, I don't think the Great Houses maintain a massive group of spies just to watch mercenaries. There's probably a group of them who go over new units that you're considering hiring, at least until they've been adequately vetted. After a while, you just trust their rep. Everybody knows that Eridani Light Horse is a real unit, and they're honorable. And you wouldn't hire some D-rated unit to do a secret mission anyway.
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How many mercenaries aren't house/state forces in disguise? Is it possible that a lot of the 'failed' mercenary units might be small raiding forces put together by a regiment/militia to keep their skills sharp and running under the guise of a shell corporation, and after the raid, they 'disband' never to be seen again? They could also be hired by another shell corporation for that raid.
For that matter, how many merc units disband to avoid reprisals from mission they've taken, only to reform under a new guise?
Rebranding your unit might prevent an enemy commander from issuing on-the-spot bonuses against you, but I don't think disbanding does anything to make existing bounties uncollectable.
Also, if you're going to false-flag but not frame someone for it, why create a paper trail at all? Seems like a liability.
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I would imagine that rebranding isn't common. We saw it done solely to mislead at the Battle of Wolcott, where the DCMS answered a batchall with service records for a 'brand new' regiment made up of Genyosha mechwarriors. But that's an exception, and one where the misled party is notably unskeptical of shenanigans.
I'd imagine that in the BTU, a mechwarrior's service record follows him from unit to unit, and even from house service to mercenary employment. Kurita made up some phony personnel records for their elite pilots making them look like greenhorns, but I don't think that'd pass inspection for anyone who's not an early Clan Invasion Clanner. Certainly not without a valid MRBC/Hiring Hall certificate of validation on a resume/service record, I doubt a merc captain or prospective employer would take a falsified record at face value.
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Wondering if the MRBC keeps dossiers on mechwarriors then? So lets say Joe's Jumpers merc company has a bad time/defaults on its liabilities & rebrands as Franks Stompers, goes looking for a contract. There's no prior record of this merc company (a red flag but not necessarily a disqualifier), so the House in question pulls reports on the roster. If THOSE members have no history, or a suspicious history (I'd thing the MRBC is pretty well trusted as a reliable source of info anyway), then maybe they don't get the contract. I would think that's a normal part of the contract negotiations process & helps weed out suspicious organizations, making a spin-off house espionage merc company harder to do.
That being said, I would expect a House to be extra cautious about who they hire, with landed nobles a little less picky, and corporations or private entitites the least picky. That might be were merc start-ups get their initial experience -- working corporate security -- besides the record of the start-up leader who may have gone independent from an older, established merc command...
Damon.
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Wondering if the MRBC keeps dossiers on mechwarriors then? So lets say Joe's Jumpers merc company has a bad time/defaults on its liabilities & rebrands as Franks Stompers, goes looking for a contract. There's no prior record of this merc company (a red flag but not necessarily a disqualifier), so the House in question pulls reports on the roster. If THOSE members have no history, or a suspicious history (I'd thing the MRBC is pretty well trusted as a reliable source of info anyway), then maybe they don't get the contract. I would think that's a normal part of the contract negotiations process & helps weed out suspicious organizations, making a spin-off house espionage merc company harder to do.
That being said, I would expect a House to be extra cautious about who they hire, with landed nobles a little less picky, and corporations or private entitites the least picky. That might be were merc start-ups get their initial experience -- working corporate security -- besides the record of the start-up leader who may have gone independent from an older, established merc command...
Damon.
I find it hard to imagine a MRBC/Hiring Hall bonding process not storing data on their clients. Not only do they serve as an ostensibly arbitrary party that can verify the authenticity of a merc's claims about his prior service, they can target him for HPG spam marketing based on his history on file. "Hey our records show you buy tons of LRM ammo every month, you might be interested in a special offer going on with a Shigunga distributor within 1 jump of your contract location!"
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I find it hard to imagine a MRBC/Hiring Hall bonding process not storing data on their clients. Not only do they serve as an ostensibly arbitrary party that can verify the authenticity of a merc's claims about his prior service, they can target him for HPG spam marketing based on his history on file. "Hey our records show you buy tons of LRM ammo every month, you might be interested in a special offer going on with a Shigunga distributor within 1 jump of your contract location!"
It's still the future of the 80s. I think spam HPG messages are moving it into the present too much.
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It's still the future of the 80s. I think spam HPG messages are moving it into the present too much.
I assure you spam existed in the 80s. It was snail mail, which HPG traffic is closer to anyway than email. It was called junk mail instead of spam, but yeah same thing.
Of course the costs involved in analyzing a merc outfit's C-Bill expenditures for real world style targeted marketing are impossible to figure. How much does it cost to send out a catalogue of wares? How much does it cost to send a catalogue to every merc company currently bonded with MRBC/Hiring Hall? How much does it cost to transmit, gather, and analyze the C-Bill expenditures of a given merc company? These numbers are impossible to know, so it's either financially viable or it isn't, depending on which answer you prefer. Personally, I suspect they do exist.
Granted, it might be a bit too "modern" to produce adverts based on location and spending habits, but junk mail ultimately was doing the same thing all along.. just less efficient. Besides, it doesn't get much more 1980s than cheesecake pull out posters ostensibly picturing hardware rather than nude or scantily clad models. The lore even mentions that none other than Natasha Kerensky posed for them in-universe at least once (and you can even find such in-universe pinups of her on a google search, a famous one is from the WD SB), so you know mercs in 3025 got nudie catalogues of pro gear transmitted to them :D
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Remember it's a universe with little or no central authority, massive amounts of data and severe impediments to communication. The MRB is more a brokerage and the MRBC a union board; neither body would really have the resources to audit the movements and actions of individuals and organisations across several thousand square light years of space. Not even Comstar would have had access to cross-border and proprietary government data, which I imagine is heavily encrypted and mostly physically transmitted rather than via HPG.
There's probably a group of them who go over new units that you're considering hiring, at least until they've been adequately vetted. After a while, you just trust their rep.
Varying levels of due diligence, according to procedure, and subject to resources... which of course would never be enough for the task at hand.
they can target him for HPG spam marketing
Courier jumpships likely remain the primary means of interplanetary mass-media communication, not HPGs.
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Granted, it might be a bit too "modern" to produce adverts based on location and spending habits, but junk mail ultimately was doing the same thing all along.. just less efficient. Besides, it doesn't get much more 1980s than cheesecake pull out posters ostensibly picturing hardware rather than nude or scantily clad models. The lore even mentions that none other than Natasha Kerensky posed for them in-universe at least once (and you can even find such in-universe pinups of her on a google search, a famous one is from the WD SB), so you know mercs in 3025 got nudie catalogues of pro gear transmitted to them :D
*Cough*Dillon Precision*Cough*
I'm quite sure the hiring halls will have info on the units available for intentional employers. It just seems like something that would be available as part of a review and bonding system, if not there's someone with the information for sale. Outreach and Galatea sound like spy playgrounds as much as anything. If your intelligence agent didn't tell you who the Merc Colonel's Academy Roommate was, they aren't doing their job right.
For what it's worth, part of the MRBC's stature is that it tries to be a cartel for quality Mercs and that includes driving prices up. The Great Houses are willing to work with it because reliable Mercs are better tools in their power plays.
The way I see raiding offers, they would be written as House X raiding House Y, dates including transport, and minimum unit size. Both sides know the targets, and are defending them as best possible/
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Courier jumpships likely remain the primary means of interplanetary mass-media communication, not HPGs.
Not so sure about that. Why? the only advantage a jumpship has over an HPG is the ability to carry physical goods. In a universe of HPG transmissions, however, there is no need to do so. Likely the HPGs work like the post office, but with digital information, handing messages or mail off from one HPG to another depending on the routing information. A high speed squirt of data later and the receiver gets it at the destination. At which point it either goes out as an email (or equivalent), or goes to a printshop to be snail-mailed (FREX magazines or physical books). Heck, I would imagine for regular traffic companies set up standing contracts with local printhouses to print of editions of books or magazines for the local clientele.
Damon.
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Bandwidth. Unless data transmission rates have been retconned...
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I don't know that HPG transmittion rates have been retconned, but I do know that game materials never really accounted for the possiblity, nee probability that preexisting orders for HPG traffic already meeting bandwidth and the resulting bottleneck rendering the planetary compound technically unable to process the PC's desired communication (for parts, reinforcements, whatever).
The built in delays for sending the communication have always been, IIRC, based on celestial alignments. You might have to wait 12+ hours for your message to go out, but that was because you had to wait for the next HPG in the chain to rise on the local planetary horizon. Indeed, the rules supported the notion of paying premium cash to send a message right now, using whatever HPG is currently up in the sky, even if that's not the most direct route to your ultimate destination.
The rules ever saying it takes X amount of time to send Y amount of data was a brain fart of a mistake on the part of TPTB... it works at the primary level of addressing PC experience (it provides a ticking clock plot device) but it doesn't work when extrapolating what those numbers mean for the universe at large beyond the PCs themselves.. it's basically assuming that nothing ever goes on in the universe beyond what involves the PCs. Which is true from a meta standpoint, sure. But not a good way to gauge how a universe "works".
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Also, if you're going to false-flag but not frame someone for it, why create a paper trail at all? Seems like a liability.
Plausible deniability on both sides? I've read enough in various field manuals that some regiments conduct raids which aren't sanctioned by the state. It makes sense to me that the regiment would have some way of disguising themselves. You can only get away with 'random new pirate group' in a region of space for so long. People get familiar with the wanted posters or any other means by which pirates are identified.
But, a new merc unit? They're a dime a dozen.
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Not so sure about that. Why? the only advantage a jumpship has over an HPG is the ability to carry physical goods. In a universe of HPG transmissions, however, there is no need to do so. Likely the HPGs work like the post office, but with digital information, handing messages or mail off from one HPG to another depending on the routing information. A high speed squirt of data later and the receiver gets it at the destination. At which point it either goes out as an email (or equivalent), or goes to a printshop to be snail-mailed (FREX magazines or physical books). Heck, I would imagine for regular traffic companies set up standing contracts with local printhouses to print of editions of books or magazines for the local clientele.
Damon.
ComStar charges a huge amount for HPG transmission. Most communication appears to be more like a telegram rather than a long, rambling e-mail with video attachments and things. Unless speed is really important, you could save a lot of money by just paying a guy going on a jumpship voyage to take along a data disc and give it to people at the next planet.
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Plausible deniability on both sides? I've read enough in various field manuals that some regiments conduct raids which aren't sanctioned by the state. It makes sense to me that the regiment would have some way of disguising themselves.
In my view those unsanctioned raids are better explained by the distributed nature of C2 in the BTU. That is, the regimental commander largely acts without imperial oversight. If he sends forces out without being told to, it's because it's within the purview of his broad standing orders. If the raid was labelled as "unsanctioned" in the lore, that to me means that the CO wrote a check to his House Lord that his pedigree/connections/glibness couldn't cover.
Keeping it from fully becoming a tangent here: I'd see it the exact same way for a large enough merc group. If a regiment or battalion is contracted to protect a chuck of the border (even one world), it may follow that the mercs would be encouraged or even expected to launch some proactive raids/action to keep their assigned sector protected. And if they do something that causes a fuss, their CO too would have to explain it away to MRBC/Hiring Hall rather than the House Lord. Or fail to satisfactorily explain it, as the case may be.
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In my view those unsanctioned raids are better explained by the distributed nature of C2 in the BTU. That is, the regimental commander largely acts without imperial oversight. If he sends forces out without being told to, it's because it's within the purview of his broad standing orders. If the raid was labelled as "unsanctioned" in the lore, that to me means that the CO wrote a check to his House Lord that his pedigree/connections/glibness couldn't cover.
Keeping it from fully becoming a tangent here: I'd see it the exact same way for a large enough merc group. If a regiment or battalion is contracted to protect a chuck of the border (even one world), it may follow that the mercs would be encouraged or even expected to launch some proactive raids/action to keep their assigned sector protected. And if they do something that causes a fuss, their CO too would have to explain it away to MRBC/Hiring Hall rather than the House Lord. Or fail to satisfactorily explain it, as the case may be.
I'm thinking of instances where they're specifically told not to, maybe because it's become too much of a habit with said regiment.
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I'm thinking of instances where they're specifically told not to, maybe because it's become too much of a habit with said regiment.
Those instances are few and far between.
And even in those instances, those troops may see asterisks on those orders. "Yeah behave, but of course you still have to do what you have to do to keep the troops on the other side of the border from being able to build up..." Or, in the case of the Ronin Wars, the rebel DCMS units surely didn't see themselves as rebelling, but answering the subtle and unspoken call from the Coordinator that politics wouldn't let him put into explicit orders to take action to un-%^&$% the situation of having had to relinquish worlds to the FRR. Might makes right in the entire BTU, not just among the Clans. So long as you were victorious, it's easier to get forgiveness after the fact than if you were defeated.
But yeah tangent alert. Unless a merc group is big enough to be equitable to a House army field command (and thus have the authority and expectation for independent action as a field command), this train is largely not relevant. But in the 31st century where full regiment and multi-regiment merc outfits are common, yeah this is very relevant.
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I still think it's far more plausible an idea than not. There's always the higher end lord sending a missive to the other side warning him/her to reign in their eager forces or see the start of a new war.
There's always that line that people are pushing but trying not to completely cross.
Especially in the Clan Invasion Era, when houses were supposed to be 'working together' against the clan menace. Or during the Second Star League. Or, even that one agreement between houses Liao, Marik, and Kurita during the 4th succession war.
FWL and CapCon have strong rivalries, and we see that resume with the dark age.
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I still think it's far more plausible an idea than not. There's always the higher end lord sending a missive to the other side warning him/her to reign in their eager forces or see the start of a new war.
There's always that line that people are pushing but trying not to completely cross.
Well, the reason I find the notion of going to the bother of hiding a force's identity for a raid to be unlikely is for two reasons. (note, unlikely, not never done!)
One: The notion I mentioned upthread about using military force being a socially acceptable thing. Again where in the real world you'd unleash lawyers on someone to settle a greivance, in the BTU you send in the mechwarriors instead. There's just no reason to hide who they are, who you are, and why you've unleashed them to avoid censure. Trick them into launching reprisals against someone else? Ok, that's potentially a tack, but there's no reason to hide your identity to avoid fallout from your peers.
Two: The sheer headache of the paperwork. Let's say you do launch a raid and successfully hide your identity and noone ever knows who did it. How do you recognize your mechwarriors' actions in that raid... do you not give out any recognition or awards? (not to mention no combat incentives for your troops at all? yeah that'll go well..) How do you handle the requisition for parts to cover the costs of the raid, given that you've officially not just been on a raid? If you make it known to your side but not the other to allow for the paperwork to function, then that's a very, very poorly kept secret that defeats the purpose of having gone through the bother of hiding your identity in the first place.
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*snip* do you not give out any recognition or awards? *snip*
Yes, that's exactly how it works. If awards are given, they're very non-specific. It's one of the reasons there's so much boiler plate in real world award citations.
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There's more to recognition than fancy medals and ribbons that get pinned to a uniform.
If you keep a combat op "off the books", the participants of that op don't get to benefit from having that combat experience recorded in their personnel file. That will have implications on promotion and pay.. particularly the latter for mercs who normally get paid based on experience levels. Disavowing ops would have an impact on pilots like saying a star athlete's stats from certain games don't count for contract negotations.
The BTU is a neo-pre-Westphalian setting.. most mechwarriors are in it for factors other than nationalism... especially mercenary mechwarriors. Doing things that negatively affects their bank accounts is a terrible policy.
Again, the level of offense taken at the Great House level when this regiment or that one jumps the border is normally rather low. Even if the Houses are for example generally working together to combat a third party, it seems that launching a recon raid or a smash and grab has about as much response as in the real world when a surveillance aircraft flies right along an observed border or claimed waters: A shrug and acknowledgement that that's how Things Are Done in the world. It ain't worth escalating; respond in kind. You don't really think the Great Houses never raided each other during the 3050s do you?
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The communities that do those kind of ops in the real world operate more on word of mouth within them (i.e., reputation) than by what's written down anywhere, and that's no impediment to their promotions. "Excelled in combat operations during the last 12 months" can cover quite a lot of ground without revealing any details on an evaluation.
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You don't really think the Great Houses never raided each other during the 3050s do you?
I imagine they did. The fact that we haven't heard about it in fiction can be indicative of the nature of the raids. (Instead of simple oversight by the writers.)
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I don't know that HPG transmittion rates have been retconned, but I do know that game materials never really accounted for the possiblity, nee probability that preexisting orders for HPG traffic already meeting bandwidth and the resulting bottleneck rendering the planetary compound technically unable to process the PC's desired communication (for parts, reinforcements, whatever).
in short, HPG transmission limitations is a problem for private individuals, not planetary gov'ments or Great Houses.
Sure, but we were talking about commercial junk mail directed to individuals. Even if corporations enjoy slightly better transmission rates than private individuals, mass-mailing individuals might still be prohibitively expensive.
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One idea for dealing with pirates, while also keeping hirer confidential, would be the attacked sending a report on the raid to Comstar, and asking them a pointed question about if everything in the raid for contract number (as specified by raiders) is accurate and within contract limits. The local Comstar office would first look through their database to see if that contract number exists (fairly easy to do, also easy for someone to fat-finger the letters/numbers), and at the same time is sending a list of th damages by the attacked party to the main office. If the contract exists, then the main office copies the details for that contract from the main database to the requesting station. The main office also looks over the damages, so if there is a contract they can determine if the damages were excessive or not. If there was no contract, then the unit will face some very pointed questions, and potentially getting labeled as pirates. Since it is happening at/near the Comstar Merc Contract HQ, the new Pirate Hunting Contract pops up very quickly. The requesting station (once it receives a copy of the contract with names edited out) will go over the contract vs damages and explain to the attacked party if they can get compensated.
Of course, at every step of the process, the attacked party is paying for the investigation. They pay for the contract lookup, the contract transmission, the time used by the Adepts/Precentors to look over the contract, etc. So having a good reputation is important here, as even though you just blew up the local radar tower at the spaceport in addition to stealing the cargo that was being loaded, the attacked party knows that you operated per the contract, it wasn't just because one person in the spaceport tower mooned the raiders' CO.
ComStar charges a huge amount for HPG transmission. Most communication appears to be more like a telegram rather than a long, rambling e-mail with video attachments and things. Unless speed is really important, you could save a lot of money by just paying a guy going on a jumpship voyage to take along a data disc and give it to people at the next planet.
With the mention of a Yottabyte storage in the final Jihad book, I could see companies storing the addresses/imagery locally, and sending short codes to a planet detailing which image to use in their mass mailing, which group of people it should go to, what the discounts should be, and any other special promotions.
So instead of transmitting the logo via HPG, they have already sent a data packet of several dozen logos via jumpship, and the mass mailing campaign selects one of them (and possible variations on colors). They don't send the specific address of each person, they just send a series of numbers that corresponds to specific mailing groups. They don't specifically state BOGO LRM ammo, they just send a '03' in the special offer field telling to use special offer number 3, and a final comment field that lists corporate plans, so the on-planet representative can adjust as needed.
An example of the logo might be a shiny sphere graphic used in part of the logo. Instead of transmitting the full data on the colors used in that part of the sphere, the outline is already in the corporate servers. They then receive an X-Y coordinate where the shiniest part of the sphere should be, the direction of shade, and how rapidly the shade changes. Similar to Adobe Acrobat where you create the sphere by typing in values. All that is transmitted is the values, instead of the full colors.
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Not so sure about that. Why? the only advantage a jumpship has over an HPG is the ability to carry physical goods. In a universe of HPG transmissions, however, there is no need to do so. Likely the HPGs work like the post office, but with digital information, handing messages or mail off from one HPG to another depending on the routing information. A high speed squirt of data later and the receiver gets it at the destination. At which point it either goes out as an email (or equivalent), or goes to a printshop to be snail-mailed (FREX magazines or physical books). Heck, I would imagine for regular traffic companies set up standing contracts with local printhouses to print of editions of books or magazines for the local clientele.
Damon.
Comstar charges based on message traffic and size - and also, not every system has an A-circuit connection to the main network. Some systems get a batch every few weeks or depend on Comstar couriers because they're not seen as big enough to support the level of investment that building an HPG requires.
Plus, those "couriers" are also going to carry small goods to these systems they're sending transmissions for. You jump in, drop off the dropship who was coming here anyways to trade, pick up the guy who you left here two weeks ago, and dump messages to the local planetary government.
Also, there are security reasons to run your pony express, which may factor into things.
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my thoughts since I never really thought about it much are kind of like this:
contracts:
the contracts are typically mostly boiler plate specifying the type of contract, duration and similar.
retainer, raid security, garrison, training, etc. within some contracts (such as retainer) there is an enormous amount of leeway for specific duties as requested. much like most jobs today where there is essentially always: and other duties as requested.
I am sure there are distribution flags that can be set on contracts for a fee explicitly denying the release of the details of the contract to various parties for a period of time up to and including "forever" what this means is that the summary report might read like:
merc unit (A1254890) redacted has been retained by insert name (redacted) to conduct contract type (redacted) from the period of insert date range (may or may not be redacted) duties include (redacted) ....
and on and on, so when the target of the "raid" gets their requested copy of the "valid" contract, its not much more than there was a contract, and someone did it. there typically wouldn't be breadcrumbs for them to track down who it really was that did a hot drop into their city and went on a shooting, kidnapping, and raping spree they just know that someone did it and at least parts of the event was sanctioned.
now what they can always do is complain to comstar / MRBC that "someone" did actions on planet during times, and you would like to take out a contract and complaint, branding them as war criminals /pirates for "reasons" at which point the hiring party would get (shortly) as in up to a few months later notification that there is a complaint that one of their possibly retained units are accused of "insert complaint" at which time "someone" reviews the complaint and either laughs it off, or acts upon it based on the reputation THEY are trying to maintain.
as far as ratings, as I remember it, there are a number of factors that determining your units rating:
your specific unit size and type (doesn't directly factor in)
your units support capacity, (can you maintain and repair your unit) you get a higher rating if you can without outside resources.
transportation, (how much of your unit can you transport and to where)
technology when 3050-3055 rolls around the tech base of your unit becomes a factor, if you are rocking star league and clan tech you get a bonus on your rating.
mission history success and failure. successful missions (contracts) increase your rating failed ones lower it. you can also (as a unit) request arbitration if you failed objectives if they were not feasible to achieve, (basically you argue that your employer lied about the nature of the mission/contract, and that you tried in good faith to fulfill the contract) this can lower the employers rating and or impose sanctions on them if the review agrees with your complaint (as a unit)
being a member of a merc unit does not automatically absolve you of committing crimes depending on the nature, but shooting up a weapons emplacement MAY be considered when you blew up the apartment complex on the block that was backstopping it. unless you blatantly just opened up on the apartment building just because you could.
as far as data transmissions using the HPG system, I agree that "spam mail" as a general thing may or may not be a thing, (I suspect it is) but that a lot of groups pay for what amounts to local "markup code" based inserts.
So lets say someone subscribes to the "Girls of Tharkad" (hot girls on a cold planet.... ) magazine, if they get it on Tharkad it is likely to have one set of adverts in the magazine, if you receive it on luthien, or New Avalon, many of the adverts will be tailored to your current location at the time of receipt and depending if it is an ezine, or hardcopy, printed at a local printer.
as I remember it the charges for comstar service while somewhat high aren't really THAT bad.
factors were the size of the transmission (1 cbill per page of text) priority, and distance so if you are sending 1 page of text 50 jumps (roughly) that might cost 50 cbills at the standard priority rate, less as a just make sure it gets there "whenever" and more depending on the priority all the way up to: I want it there today... even if that means you have to wake up all the hpg operators this is an A1 emergency price is no object message.