MekHQ, prisoners and imbalanced AtB

[Hythos]

I've been searching for information on keeping prisoners. I thought I had read somewhere, that AtB will calculate ransome(?) or other events (not referring to shares/payout: "I'm going to retire now from my Prisoner-position, pay me now, thanks.")
Am I correct in thinking prisoners are best released/escaped, with the exception of those to parlay or be made a bondsman?   

Regarding AtB, I often see a fair, yet still challenging fight... to start.
Then, 5-8 or so turns in, reinforcements arrive.
An example:
My units: 3x Kanga, 1x VTOL, 1x Heavy Laser infantry
OpFor: Upgraded Griffin, Hunchback, Wasp, Vulcan.
Reinforcements: Two more laces of that Company

All units ranked as Regular-Green skill.

Fortunately most were meds, and a few lights, but the first Lance was a fair fight for my force; the rest were over the top.
Which option would tone it down some?
Am I doing it wrong?

[Miekael]

When it comes to prisoners, MekHQ will determine which ones defect after the end of the battle, the results are posted on the right side in the daily event log.  Last I checked, MekHQ will not give you the payout for ransoms, just a 50k bonus for the capture, this might have changed as of 3.9.  It is always best to deal with prisoners right after the battle, ransom off the ones that don't defect (done by GM removal and add funds) and change the status of those that do to free or bondsmen depending on your campaign.

As for options to make it easier, in  the main ATB tab you can lower the overall difficulty.  If I remember right both ultra green and green limit the amount of forces the AI will generate during normal missions.  Also make sure the Opfor is not using double vehicles, this option is in the lower right section of the ATB options.

[Hythos]

Thanks Miekael!

I don't mind having the "double enemy veh" enabled, but it can get out of hand... LOL
The extensive deployment I've seen can include 'Mechs (as this one I've described, contained a full Company: 4 on the initial deployment, 8 in res.

As for the "skill level"; I suppose I had glanced right over it, but regular or better is appropriate, UNLESS this also increases the amount of units and not just their skills. (Gotta play around with it to determine).

Typically, I'll make attempts to capture enemy pilots of greater skill, and if a scenario has several pilots running around at the end, I'll just hit /victory (though, I'm not yet certain if that means they've 'escaped'); But I suppose I'll manually search through the prisoners I do have, and estimate their worth based on skill, then 'thin the heard' through "Ransoms".

[scJazz]

I'm going to refer you to this Post...
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/megamek-games/getting-started-with-against-the-bot/msg957784/#msg957784

Before you start an AtB campaign you should read it.

With the number of options available in MHQ, MM, and AtB itself... it is easy to begin a Campaign you are not ready to deal with :0

[yurisarreth]

The AtB 2.30 rules have a section on ransom payouts for prisoners of various skill and position you can refer to as I do. Had seen mention once that it was planned to be added into MekHQ but as of 0.3.9 it hasnt yet so will have to do it by hand still as was mentioned.

[scJazz]

No Prisoners are handled auto-magically. They are just clear when your looking for the results in the Daily Log and everyone is worth 50k.

[Random]

You could deploy your own reinforcements.
I regard any lance that was deployed but isn't in a fight that week as potential reinforcements.
I deploy mine 12-(walking speed + 1 for jump + Strategy of the onsite commander) rounds.
It gets me out of trouble quite often. 

[scJazz]

You could deploy your own reinforcements.
I regard any lance that was deployed but isn't in a fight that week as potential reinforcements.
I deploy mine 12-(walking speed + 1 for jump + Strategy of the onsite commander) rounds.
It gets me out of trouble quite often.

By the rules any Scout Lance on 1d6 = 5+ can reinforce
any Fight Lance on 1d6 = 6 can reinforce

[neoancient]

The AtB 2.30 rules have a section on ransom payouts for prisoners of various skill and position you can refer to as I do. Had seen mention once that it was planned to be added into MekHQ but as of 0.3.9 it hasnt yet so will have to do it by hand still as was mentioned.

Current support for prisoners is limited to making the rolls for you and reporting the results. I added it before AtB 2.30 came out, so it's based on an older version (2.18, I think). Between having at least one member of my family sick at any given time for the past couple months (including me once or twice), family responsibilities during the holiday season, and another couple project I've been plugging away at, I've had trouble even keeping up with bug reports, but I hope to get back to adding features, updating from 2.29 to 2.30, and refining the AtB system to make it easier for players that have not previously used the system to get started.

You could deploy your own reinforcements.
I regard any lance that was deployed but isn't in a fight that week as potential reinforcements.
I deploy mine 12-(walking speed + 1 for jump + Strategy of the onsite commander) rounds.
It gets me out of trouble quite often. 

Making the reinforcement roll automatically is one of the things that should be coming soon. For the moment, MHQ+AtB considers any units added to the scenario beyond the one for which it was generated to be reinforcements and sets the deployment turn accordingly.

[scJazz]

Current support for prisoners is limited to making the rolls for you and reporting the results. I added it before AtB 2.30 came out, so it's based on an older version (2.18, I think). Between having at least one member of my family sick at any given time for the past couple months (including me once or twice), family responsibilities during the holiday season, and another couple project I've been plugging away at, I've had trouble even keeping up with bug reports, but I hope to get back to adding features, updating from 2.29 to 2.30, and refining the AtB system to make it easier for players that have not previously used the system to get started.
Making the reinforcement roll automatically is one of the things that should be coming soon. For the moment, MHQ+AtB considers any units added to the scenario beyond the one for which it was generated to be reinforcements and sets the deployment turn accordingly.

OMG! In this new year I hope for the best for you and yours. I do understand what you mean though... tomorrow my Mother's best friend will have half of her left lung removed. Last Friday, another friend of the family had a hysterectomy.

Me? all I need is more, stay calm meds... I'm thinking I'm running low at this point :(

[Miekael]

As for the "skill level"; I suppose I had glanced right over it, but regular or better is appropriate, UNLESS this also increases the amount of units and not just their skills. (Gotta play around with it to determine).

Typically, I'll make attempts to capture enemy pilots of greater skill, and if a scenario has several pilots running around at the end, I'll just hit /victory (though, I'm not yet certain if that means they've 'escaped'); But I suppose I'll manually search through the prisoners I do have, and estimate their worth based on skill, then 'thin the heard' through "Ransoms".

The skill level in the ATB does effect how many units the OpFor can roll in regards to reinforcements.  If set to ultra green I believe the bot is limited to one lance, if set to green the limit is two.  Setting to regular or higher will take the limit off and the bot can roll as many reinforcements as the ATB rules allow.  As for prisoner captures, this is automatically determined at the end of the match after saving the remaining units.

[Random]

By the rules any Scout Lance on 1d6 = 5+ can reinforce
any Fight Lance on 1d6 = 6 can reinforce

Meh...my game my rules :)

Making the reinforcement roll automatically is one of the things that should be coming soon. For the moment, MHQ+AtB considers any units added to the scenario beyond the one for which it was generated to be reinforcements and sets the deployment turn accordingly.

It would be nice if this was adjustable it a similar way to the force composition is adjustable (armor/mixed/mech).  I don't know if I'm asking a lot there or not but I thought I'd just throw it out there :)

Oh and while I'm talking about making things adjustable how about some adjustment for the reinforcements.  It's jsut that when I was doing things by hand I use to have the bot being reinforced more often. 1-2 Nothing, 2-4 Light, 5 Medium, 6 Heavy.  I know, I probably should have put this somewhere else nut sometimes I just have to get things out of my head.

[yurisarreth]

Hey Neo its all good man. I know what its like when that evil demon RL jumps up in the face and messes with all your fun so... lol

Seriously thou a BIG thank you to you and all the others that have and will continue to put in so much work on these three progs so guys like me can get a big stompy robot shootem up fix when we need it..  O0