Niops Militia Infantry Formations

[Giovanni Blasini]

Niops Militia Reservist Foot Infantry

Overview
The most common military force in the Niops Association Militia is, as with most Inner Sphere militaries, the common foot soldier.

In the Niops Association, the majority of infantry formations are comprised of reservist forces.  These part-time soldiers come from a variety of backgrounds and primary occupations, ranging from food service workers to engineers and scientists.  All are dedicated to defense of the Association from outside invaders, typically training one weekend per standard month and two weekends per year, with careful rotation of service ensuring maximum availability.

Capabilities
While not full-time soldiers, the Niops Association Militia endeavors to equip their infantry formations as well as possible, including with protective gear.  The standard infantry kit includes the CSAS Mk.1 ballistic plate armor.  While lacking the environmental sealing of the CSAS Mk. 3 used by other NAM formations, the Mk. 1 still provides considerable protection to its wearer.

Reserve formations are armed with domestic productions of the SLDF's standard laser pistol, the Brightstar J-7.  Like the Clans' improved J-15 laser, Niopian engineers have extended the functionality of this weapon with a collapsible stock and extended barrel attachment though, unlike the J-15, this has mainly simplified and improved weapon handling, rather than extending its range and damage output.

Deployment
Reservist infantry formations can be found nearly everywhere that NAM deploys on the three core worlds of the Niops Association, with the general exception of the asteroid mining facilities and other microgravity/hostile environments.  There, NAM leadership prefers to deploy dedicted XCT Marine formations with the upgraded CSAS Mk.3 environmental armor, in order to both ensure the best survival training for local forces, as well as to not place undue burden on civilian staff in these facilities.  The rare reservist formations serving in these facilities receive the same equipment and training regimen as the frontline XCT Marine formations.

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Foot Platoon Niops Militia Reserve
TTech Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Transport Weight:  2.5
Equipment:
    Primary Weapon: 20 Laser Pistol
    Secondary Weapon: 8 Sniper Rifle (FNF-J12 (Dark Caste))
    Armor:  Ballistic Plate, Standard
Battle Value: 101
Introduction Year: 3145
Cost: 2,086,817.88 C-bills
Notes: None

Platoon Type (Specialty): Foot (None)
    Ground MP: 1
Platoon Size (Squad/Platoon): 28 (7/4)
Armor Divisor: 2
To-Hit Modifier (Range in Hexes):
    -1 (0 Hexes), +0 (1-5 Hexes), +1 (6-7 Hexes), +2 (8-10 Hexes), +3 (11-12 Hexes), +4 (13-15 Hexes)
Maximum Weapon Damage (# of Troopers):
    8 (28-27), 7 (26-23), 6 (22-20), 5 (19-16), 4 (15-13), 3 (12-9), 2 (8-6), 1 (5-2)


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Foot Squad Niops Militia Reserve
Tech Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Transport Weight:  0.5
Equipment:
    Primary Weapon: 5 Laser Pistol
    Secondary Weapon: 2 Sniper Rifle (FNF-J12 (Dark Caste))
    Armor:  Ballistic Plate, Standard
Battle Value: 25
Introduction Year: 3145
Cost: 521,704.47 C-bills
Notes: None

Platoon Type (Specialty): Foot (None)
    Ground MP: 1
Platoon Size (Squad/Platoon): 7 (7/1)
Armor Divisor: 2
To-Hit Modifier (Range in Hexes):
    -1 (0 Hexes), +0 (1-5 Hexes), +1 (6-7 Hexes), +2 (8-10 Hexes), +3 (11-12 Hexes), +4 (13-15 Hexes)
Maximum Weapon Damage (# of Troopers):
    2 (7-6), 1 (5-2)

Edit: MegaMek Lab text formatting bugs continue to screw me again, cutting off additional paragraphs in each section.  I'm going back and rewriting them and adding them in.
Edit 2: OK, think I got it all recreated more or less.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Niops Militia Regular Infantry

Overview
Niops Militia Regular infantry formations are generally similar to their reservist counterparts.  As with the Reserves, CSAS Mk.1 ballistic plate armor is standard for soldier protection, with designated sharpshooters continuing to use domestic copies of the FNF-J12 sniper rifle.  Where they differ from the reservist formations, however, is in the concentration of the few domestic-produced Mauser 960 copies the Niops Association Militia continues to field.  While this weapon system is a considerable step up in firepower over the more common Brightstar J-7 used by reservists, it is far less common due to greater difficulty in reproducing the advanced pulse laser weapon.

Capabilities
In addition to dismounted "foot" formations, NAM Regular formations often make use of light vehicles as motorized infantry.

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Foot Platoon Niops Militia Regulars
Tech Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Transport Weight:  2.5
Equipment:
    Primary Weapon: 20 Laser Rifle (Mauser 960)
    Secondary Weapon: 8 Sniper Rifle (FNF-J12 (Dark Caste))
    Armor:  Ballistic Plate, Standard
Battle Value: 190
Introduction Year: 3145
Cost: 4,569,081.529 C-bills
Notes: None

Platoon Type (Specialty): Foot (None)
    Ground MP: 1
Platoon Size (Squad/Platoon): 28 (7/4)
Armor Divisor: 2
To-Hit Modifier (Range in Hexes):
    -1 (0 Hexes), +0 (1-5 Hexes), +1 (6-7 Hexes), +2 (8-10 Hexes), +3 (11-12 Hexes), +4 (13-15 Hexes)
Maximum Weapon Damage (# of Troopers):
    15 (28), 14 (27-26), 13 (25-24), 12 (23-22), 11 (21-20), 10 (19-18), 9 (17-16), 8 (15-14), 7 (13), 6 (12-11), 5 (10-9), 4 (8-7), 3 (6-5), 2 (4-3), 1 (2-1)
   

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Motorized Platoon Niops Militia Regulars
Tech Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Transport Weight:  5.5
Equipment:
    Primary Weapon: 20 Laser Rifle (Mauser 960)
    Secondary Weapon: 8 Sniper Rifle (FNF-J12 (Dark Caste))
    Armor:  Ballistic Plate, Standard
Battle Value: 169
Introduction Year: 3145
Cost: 7,310,530.447 C-bills
Notes: None

Platoon Type (Specialty): Motorized (None)
    Ground MP: 2
Platoon Size (Squad/Platoon): 28 (7/4)
Armor Divisor: 2
To-Hit Modifier (Range in Hexes):
    -1 (0 Hexes), +0 (1-5 Hexes), +1 (6-7 Hexes), +2 (8-10 Hexes), +3 (11-12 Hexes), +4 (13-15 Hexes)
Maximum Weapon Damage (# of Troopers):
    15 (28), 14 (27-26), 13 (25-24), 12 (23-22), 11 (21-20), 10 (19-18), 9 (17-16), 8 (15-14), 7 (13), 6 (12-11), 5 (10-9), 4 (8-7), 3 (6-5), 2 (4-3), 1 (2-1)


[Giovanni Blasini]

OK, going to pause for a bit for commentary.  I'm seriously considering dumping the ballistic plate, and the idea of differing armor types, and just going with marine combat environmental suits for everyone, splurging on the extra cost, and maybe even throwing in XCT training across the board.

"Why?" you ask?

From a game mechanics perspective, it's got a 2.0 armor divisor without being encumbering, even if it is 15,000 C-Bills, which makes it more expensive than a Hostile Environmental Suit or Ballistic Plate, but doesn't drop the motorized infantry to 1 MP and the foot infantry down to being able to either move *or* shoot.

From an in-universe perspective, a lot of Niops' fortunes is wrapped up in their asteroid mining.  On top of that, they got nuked during the Jihad, and a sealed environmental suit of some kind could be handy when dealing with toxic or irradiated areas.  It would also allow the Militia to standardize on a single training regimen at their new academy, as well as standardize production of a single type of infantry armor.

Thoughts?

[Daryk]

I would go for the more expensive armor for regular units, but cut the reservists down to Ballistic Plate Vests.  Check them out.  They're cheaper, non-encumbering, and give that same SWEET Divisor 2...  ^-^

Seriously, there's a reason I went with modified Tanker Smocks for my Lothians...  8)

[Giovanni Blasini]

I would go for the more expensive armor for regular units, but cut the reservists down to Ballistic Plate Vests.  Check them out.  They're cheaper, non-encumbering, and give that same SWEET Divisor 2...  ^-^

Seriously, there's a reason I went with modified Tanker Smocks for my Lothians...  8)

Doesn't seem to be coded in MegaMekLab.  My only 2-divisor non-encumbering armor options in MML are:

Comstar Kit
Environment Suit, Marine
Lyran 3060+ Kit
Marian Hegemony Kit
Myomer Vest

The only other ballistic plate armor they have is the concealed version, which has a 1.0 divisor.

My other option is to cut the number of secondary weapons to gain back 1 MP, but that just ends up dropping the range entirely.

[Daryk]

My usual go-tos are Lyran and Davion armor jackets.  Not sure why MML is missing vests.  I also see MML isn't accounting for the infantry weapon nerf.  You're probably better off hand jamming things these days...

[Maelwys]

Where are the vests from?

[Hammer]

My usual go-tos are Lyran and Davion armor jackets.  Not sure why MML is missing vests.  I also see MML isn't accounting for the infantry weapon nerf.  You're probably better off hand jamming things these days...

The nerf is in the dev versions. As for ballistic vest need to know what book its in to add.

[Giovanni Blasini]

My usual go-tos are Lyran and Davion armor jackets.  Not sure why MML is missing vests.  I also see MML isn't accounting for the infantry weapon nerf.  You're probably better off hand jamming things these days...

I can count on one hand the number of times I've played on a regular tabletop in the last 10 years and have fingers left over.  The few tabletop games I've managed to play have tended to be our local Alpha Strike games.  Everything else has tended to be MegaMek against-the-bot type deals, either for fun or in support of scenarios for stories I'm writing.

The nerf is in the dev versions. As for ballistic vest need to know what book its in to add.

Confirmed.  I'm running Dev version 0.49.8 and, while it displays the raw damage setting of 0.93 per the book for weapons like the Mauser 960 (see attached "MML Capture 1.JPG"), when calculating actual damage, it reduces the individual trooper damage to 0.60 as expected (see "MML Capture 2.JPG").

Looking at the Militia Regulars ones bears that out.  Right now, and I'll be editing to fix it, it's showing 5 troopers with Mausers and 2 troopers with TAG per squad, and total platoon damage for all four squads is 12 points, which works out to 0.60 * 20.

With that said...it should actually show the two troopers with the same FNF-J12 (Dark Caste) sniper rifles instead of TAG, which it does as of me typing this.  I'd been experimenting with the idea of using TAG, but then switched back to the sniper rifles, and then done an export to clipboard of the unit stats.  But, I think that's an error on my part for switching the secondary weapon but forgetting to uncheck the "TAG Troops" specialization.  I'm going to correct that now.

[Daryk]

Ballistic Plate Vests are on page 288 of AToW, right below the "Suit".  They're a mere 600 C-Bills, 8.8 kg, and NON-encumbering.  Since they cover the torso, they count all of their armor ratings in the calculation for armor divisor...  ^-^

[Hammer]

Ballistic Plate Vests are on page 288 of AToW, right below the "Suit".  They're a mere 600 C-Bills, 8.8 kg, and NON-encumbering.  Since they cover the torso, they count all of their armor ratings in the calculation for armor divisor...  ^-^

That's why we didn't add them not in the list in TacOps. We didn't convert as it felt munchy to have a armor with a full divisor when it doesn't provide full coverage. Might add them unofficial.

[Daryk]

The conversion rules only ever count torso armor.  Do you count the jackets?  ???

[Giovanni Blasini]

The conversion rules only ever count torso armor.  Do you count the jackets?  ???

I don't think it includes the vests, no.  Just the myomer vest and MechWarrior cooling vest.

[Daryk]

If cooling vests are in, the Tanker's Smock should be too.

[Giovanni Blasini]

If cooling vests are in, the Tanker's Smock should be too.

Nope.

Meanwhile, working on a motorized infantry troop that uses the Support PPC as secondary weapons and tows field guns.  The easiest way to set it up is in two or three platoons of 10 troops each with 2 support weapons.  Any suggestions on field guns?

For primary weapon I'm debating between laser pistols for these troops but, for standard troops, I'm honestly considering making the  FNF-J12 knockoffs the standard weapon.  Their damage isn't quite as high as some other options, but are still quite good, and their ranges are just ridiculous.

[Daryk]

To keep that ridiculous range, you need to stick to only one Support PPC per squad.

[Giovanni Blasini]

To keep that ridiculous range, you need to stick to only one Support PPC per squad.

Fair point.  So, something like this:

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Motorized PPC Infantry Niops Militia
Tech Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-D
Transport Weight:  22
Equipment:
    Primary Weapon: 27 Sniper Rifle (FNF-J12 (Dark Caste))
    Secondary Weapon: 3 Particle Cannon (Support)
    Armor:  Environment Suit, Marine
Battle Value: 130
Introduction Year: 3145
Cost: 8,059,960.462 C-bills
Notes: 1 Thumper with 20 rounds of ammo. Requires 15 soldiers to operate.

Platoon Type (Specialty): Motorized (None)
    Ground MP: 1
Platoon Size (Squad/Platoon): 30 (10/3)
Armor Divisor: 2
To-Hit Modifier (Range in Hexes):
    +0 (0-5 Hexes), +1 (6-7 Hexes), +2 (8-10 Hexes), +3 (11-12 Hexes), +4 (13-15 Hexes)
Maximum Weapon Damage (# of Troopers):
    16 (30), 15 (29-28), 14 (27-26), 13 (25-24), 12 (23-22), 11 (21-20), 10 (19-18), 9 (17-16), 8 (15), 7 (14-13), 6 (12-11), 5 (10-9), 4 (8-7), 3 (6-5), 2 (4-3), 1 (2-1)


[Daryk]

Wait... they can have Field Artillery AND Support Weapons? ???

[Giovanni Blasini]

Wait... they can have Field Artillery AND Support Weapons? ???

I modeled my Niopian version after the Taurian one in Tech Readout 3085 on page 215, which also has 3 platoons of 10 troops.  Theirs, however, has two Support PPCs per platoon, for a total of 24 auto-rifles, 6 support PPCs, and then also tows 6 light AC/5s.

So, I don't see why not.

[Daryk]

Cool, I hadn't realized it was possible.  8)

[Giovanni Blasini]

Yeah, just realized I need to tweak that one again to get 30 troops, so I have two Thumpers.  Oops.

[DOC_Agren]

I modeled my Niopian version after the Taurian one in Tech Readout 3085 on page 215, which also has 3 platoons of 10 troops.  Theirs, however, has two Support PPCs per platoon, for a total of 24 auto-rifles, 6 support PPCs, and then also tows 6 light AC/5s.

So, I don't see why not.

need to keep this in mind

[CVB]

Since a platoon can fire either its field guns or its infantry weapons, I would prefer to give my field gun platoons cheap generic autorifles, and with the savings add some more platoons with hi-tech weapons, except for ac/20  platoons. In my experience, the other platoon types are either dead or victorious before their ammo runs out. With AC/20, both the small amount of ammo and the short field gun range leave enough opportunities to use some Daryk combinations.

[Daryk]

Sniper Rifles are CHEAP augmentations to Auto-Rifle platoons.  For a Taurian platoon, you only need six to take that Auto-Rifle damage out to the range of your choice...  ^-^

[CVB]

True, that is a good compromise.  :thumbsup: