Artilleriegruppe Kataja

[ANS Kamas P81]

Hm...that's not a bad idea; that would free up a lot of tonnage and still give me enough maintenance bays to keep the force up and running.  I'll keep six 'Mech bays, that way I can drop my command element and Alpha Battery and load the other two batteries as cargo.  I'll also add two vehicle bays to work on the Ferrets, and load the other two as cargo.  I added six foot platoons of bay space, four of which is technicians, one for administrators, and one for a spotter platoon.  That brings my total bay personnel to 190, and my total cargo space to 1144.5 tons.

I'm putting my heaviest 'Mechs in the bays, leaving six 70-tonners and two 60-tonners for a total of 540 tons of cargo.  Food and water...30 days worth is 285 tons for the bay personnel and rounding off to 3 tons for the dedicated crew.  (Why DO bay personnel only get 20 man-days per ton compared to regular quartered crew?)  That leaves 316.5 tons; one month of spare parts is 10.45 tons...that gives me 216 tons of ammunition stored onboard.  One combat load of artillery is 30 tons of Arrow IV and 14 tons of Thumper ammunition, while the bodyguard 'Mechs use 6 tons of RAC2, 6 tons of MML ammo, half a ton of MG ammo, and 1 ton of Streak SRM2s. There's enough cargo space for four full artillery loads, so 120 tons of Arrow IV and 56 tons of Thumper; that leaves 40 tons - enough for three combat loads for the 'Mechs, minus half a ton of MG ammo.

If I step down to just four 'Mech Bays for Alpha Battery, and carry the command element as cargo, that nets me an extra 130 tons.  That's tempting, because I could load some Flatbed Trucks to haul the ammo from the DropShip to the firing position...that is really tempting.  A dozen trucks to support nine 'Mechs, I'll have to go over my ammunition expenditures and cargo lift capability.

Good idea, Doc.  Sent me down another rabbit hole, but it was worth it.  I think I'll go with the four 'Mech bays and the extra trucks.  I wonder how many I'd really need...probably more than a dozen, but I only have so much space.

[DOC_Agren]

 cool. that what you keep us around for right 

and honestly you only need 1 Vehicle Bay maybe for the Ferret for Maintenance..  because if they need more then "routine" maintenance then they are most likely "unflyable" wrecks

And yes I would only keep for Mech Bays, because honestly if you need to combat drop a lance, you have gotten the wrong contact. 

[ANS Kamas P81]

Looking over my ammunition expenditures, a dozen Flatbed Trucks should be enough.  Six of them support the three Longbows, each truck hauling half a combat load of ammunition for the Arrow IV launcher and a Tech Team to reload them; the other six trucks bringing two combat loads of Thumper ammunition each and a Tech Team for the six Thumper carriers.

With just four 'Mech bays, one Light Vehicle bay, and six platoon bays, I come up with a total of 181 bay personnel and 14 quartered crew.  I've got a total cargo bay of 1494.5 tons, so let's budget that.  I'm storing the three Longbows and the Marauder II in the transport bays, since they're the heaviest 'Mechs.  That leaves six Archers, three Riflemans, and a Warhammer in cargo.

30 days bay personnel life support: 242
30 days quartered crew life support: 2.1
BattleMechs in cargo: 670
Ferrets in cargo: 15
Flatbed Trucks in cargo: 120
30 days spare parts in cargo: 11.65
6 combat loads Arrow IV ammunition: 180
6 combat loads Thumper ammunition: 72
4 combat loads RAC/2 ammunition: 12
4 combat loads MML SRM ammunition: 12
4 combat loads MML LRM ammunition: 12
4 combat loads SSRM2 ammunition: 4
MG ammunition: 1.75

That brings me to 1354.5 tons of cargo for the DropShip, leaving me 140 tons left over, but doesn't count my minimal usage in infantry weapons and ammunition - I've only got one platoon and I might as well give them laser sniper rifles since they can recharge direct from the Ferrets.  It's a pretty negligible amount of weight, in all honesty; I can hide it in a rounding error.

I suppose that 140 tons will go to spare armor plate, allowing at least basic repairs.  Let's see...the Archers, Warhammer, Marauder II, Flatbed Trucks, and Ferrets use 1,747 points of standard armor, while the Longbows use 684 points of LFF.  So I'll stock up on 599 points of LFF armor and 1,680 points of standard armor to keep my units protected.

Component replacement from more serious damage will have to wait until I can get access to the supplies the 1st Tamar Jaegers, but I figure the Dare Eternity will be colocating with their landing forces so I'd have access to their repair facilities.  That pretty much covers the supply issue, and spells out nicely what I've got onboard.

Now to get some juicy Clan salvage and upgrade 'Mechs; I want them Clan ERPPCs on my Marauder II already.

[Daryk]

Looking like a plan, but did you drop a Ferret?  I only see three...

[ANS Kamas P81]

Three in cargo, one in the sole Light Vehicle Bay.

[Daryk]

Ah, right... I'm blind sometimes! :p

[Horsemen]

Definitely looks interesting!