Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Riegien]

So lets get this train wreck a rollin.

As shown in the TO&E thread, you have 20 mechs, 6 heavy vees, 2 light vees (50 or less tons), 4 ASF, and 32 tons of battlearmor available space in your dropship.  This is broken up into 5 lances of mechs, 4 squads of vees in 2 lances, 2 flights of fighters, and somewhere between 4 and 16 squads of Battle armor (4 suits per squad)

In game play, these forces (lances, squads, or flights) must be fielded contiguously, baring specifically stated exceptions.  (if a scenario calls for 18 units to be dispatched, you can take 3 full lances of mechs, 2 squads of vees, and 4 squads of battlearmor, but cannot pick and choose 18 specific units).  This may mean you are understrength from what is maximum allowable in some scenarios.

So, the absolute first thing I need done is the selection of the 3 people for the positions I defined in the rules.  Once CO, XO, and LO are picked, we can move on to selecting forces to fill out the TO&E.

Forces will be chosen using the MUL.  The selections will be made from the Republic era lists (3085-3130), Federated Suns, Filtvelt Coalition, and Inner Sphere General sections.  Also available are units from TRO: 3145 Federated Suns.  Lastly, anything that you think should be included by fluff explaination but is for whatever reason not in either of those lists, Cavalier Battlearmor, for example.
The BV limit will be 1800 to start with, though later units purchased may exceed that. 

Feel free to use this thread for discussion on how you want to build out these forces and who wants various positions.  It is up to you all if you want to do a general discussion to pick units, break up the units and hand them out for each person to build one specific unit (average of 32 units between 6 people is 5.33 units per person) or some other method.

[serrate]

I've been thinking a lot about this since our conversation on Saturday, and I think my viewpoint has changed quite a bit tbh. As far as I can see, the lack of PC's makes these forces quite a bit more, ah, expendable. And perhaps transitional. In the sense that without PC's that need to be "rebuilt", having scenarios where large amounts of our forces are wiped out, and then replaced using warchest points becomes something that might happen on a more regular basis.

So, with that sort of force in mind, perhaps where we're regularly replacing destroyed units with new (different) units, my feelings in regards to 'picking' my own group of units has changed quite a bit. I'm not going to have a connection like I do to my Griffin in the current campaign, and therefore I care less about what specific units are included up-front. By the way, that makes this quite a different campaign and I'm personally fine with that; it's just simply a different experience.

I would also say that I'm not a big fan of the perfect "designer" force. To me, it just doesn't feel true to most militaries and situations. There are some exceptions of course, if we were playing a Death Commandos force, it makes sense for us to design the hell out of it. Pick the perfect units that work well together, perfectly optimized units, etc. But that's not how most forces are built in this time period. Heck, not even the Star League did that for the most part; we've seen that they sometimes went with easy formations where an entire company or even battalion was homogenous.

3145 seems to be a time period where an ad-hoc unit would simply have the commission to get it done, with whatever they had on-hand. In this sense, rolling for random units to fill out the roster would perhaps be the truest selection system we could use. It's also reasonable to assume that players are usually dissatisfied with having zero control over their potential rides. 

I'd propose a combined system, we pick some of it, and we randomly roll for the rest. Would each player be satisfied picking 2 mechs, 1 vee, and either 1 ASF or some of the BA (Mike  ? I'd be fine with this; I'd pick some units that I have in-stock that need to be painted, or I'd pick units that I've already painted and never had a chance to play with. And then I'd try to make sure I also worked on some of the random units as well.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. Once I realized that we essentially weren't having PC's, it just seemed to me that we'd have the opportunity to cycle through a fairly varied TO&E on a regular basis.

By the way, I'm just brainstorming a little here. If everyone disagrees, and wants to pick all their forces, or come up with some other method, that's fine too. Please don't confuse my expressing an opinion with me thinking that it's "right" or "best". 

[ItsTehPope]

Anyone care if I try for a partial theoretical force?

[serrate]

Anyone care if I try for a partial theoretical force?

No reason to ask, bud. If you've got some units you want to suggest, go ahead.

Question to all, irt to the MUL, didn't it previously allow you to create a force? Find units and actually add them to your own personal force? Am I imagining that? I do not currently see that functionality on that site at all, and just in case it was some weird browser issue I tried both Chrome and IE9.

[Death or Glory]

Anyone care if I try for a partial theoretical force?

Go ahead, I want to see how much you can make Travis regret giving us the ability to select units.

[Death or Glory]

So anyone have any preference with regards to which units they choose?

[Black Omega]

How about a Wobbie Spectral LAM?               [just kidding]

[serrate]

Yes, I have a few preferences, primarily in regards to picking some units that I'd like to paint and secondarily, units that would be fun or interesting to play.

However, I'd still like to hear from Travis about how fluid he expects our TO&E to be. We're essentially a house unit, therefore replacements are easier than say, a merc force. Since units that are "truly destroyed" cannot be repaired, they'll be replaced through SP purchases (which may or may not be random RAT rolls). OR, if we have a very specific force, it may be that losses will be replaced with 'like' units.

I don't care which method we intend to use, whether it's keeping essentially the same force throughout the campaign, or rolling in random replacements on a regular basis. I just want to know which it is, because it greatly affects how much I care about our initial forces. 

[Riegien]

I was imagining the forces to be fairly fluid.  You're a house unit, but you are fairly well cut off from the supply chain most of the time.  More like how the Foxes Teeth operated than the Heavy BoG.  Goal being the broad selection to let people take various toys, and then try new things as the game progresses.  Lots of new stuff to fiddle with and see if its fun.  It also gives IWM some time to catch up with the TROs.

Your rate of turnover will be dependent on how much you want to invest in changing over units, your mission choice and success, and how often you get yourselves shot out of your rides.  There will be opportunities to fall back to resupply and purchase the exact same unit that you lost, though that will take time you may not want to spare from the Front.  The unit choices you have now should be available for most of the game barring story changes.  There will also be mission dependent abilities to buy various units, i.e. you capture a Kuritan supply depot and nab a couple Hatamotos or you impress the Sea Foxen enough to earn buying priveliges.  I set the BV limit somewhat low so that salvage from frontline formations and purchasing of new equipment would feel like a definite upgrade.

I am not a real big fan of the RATs.  At the moment I'm more likely to provide a list of available units for purchase and allow selection.

[Death or Glory]

Travis, our current options for battle armor are extremely limited.  We currently have access to one Infiltraitor Mk. II variant, one Sloth variant, PAB-28 Sniper Suits, Sea Fox Battle Armor, Fusilier Battle Armor, and Cavalier Battle Armor (because you specifically made an exception for it).  In order to give us some more options, can we have access to common Federated Suns battle armor from previous eras?  More specifically, I feel that we would reasonably have access to Infiltraitor Mk. I Battle Armor, Infiltraitor Mk. II Battle Armor, Grenadier Battle Armor, and Hauberk Battle Armor.

[Riegien]

Infiltrator Mk1 is out.  I think it was outmoded before 3067 by the infil 2.  Cavalier, Grenadier, Fusilier, Hauberk, Hauberk Commando (tro:Prototypes), Infil mk2(esp the magnetic version), SeaFox will be available, as will IS Standard and Spectre from Filtvelt.

[Death or Glory]

Are there any restrictions on what special ammunition types we have access to?

Edit:  I came up with two more questions.

Units from TRO: Prototypes do not yet have canon record sheets.  Are we still allowed to use them?

Units from the XTROs, TRO: Prototypes, and TRO: 3145 have canon design quirks.  If we choose one of these units, will we use the design quirks it has?

[Riegien]

At the moment, I'm not going to restrict ammunition.  There's been a fair bit of proliferation of anti missile systems and fancy armors to help against them, so we may as well see if they do what is advertised.  (This is not a challenge)  If it becomes an issue, this may change.

I have a copy of RS: Prototypes, so I'm not sure what the issue is there.

As for quirks.  Do you all want to run with them?  Its another layer of complexity on top of normal, and you guys will be stuck with it more than the opfor.  Older designs that do not have established quirks will not have them added.

[Death or Glory]

At the moment, I'm not going to restrict ammunition.  There's been a fair bit of proliferation of anti missile systems and fancy armors to help against them, so we may as well see if they do what is advertised.  (This is not a challenge)  If it becomes an issue, this may change.

I see you like to live dangerously.  You know, I've never actually gotten a chance to use Swarm LRMs before.

I have a copy of RS: Prototypes, so I'm not sure what the issue is there.

I somehow completely forgot about that product even though I own it, never mind.

As for quirks.  Do you all want to run with them?  Its another layer of complexity on top of normal, and you guys will be stuck with it more than the opfor.  Older designs that do not have established quirks will not have them added.

I'm on the fence about it.  It would be interesting to see how much of a difference they make in actual game play, however they're not accounted for in BV, so it could lead to issues.

[Death or Glory]

Okay, I figure its about time we actually started trying to come up with units, so here's my thoughts on our conventional vehicles and battle armor.

Conventional Vehicles:

Vehicle Lance 1 Squad 1: Spotting and battle armor transport
Maxim (I) Hover Transport (Standard) (larger infantry bay and TAG)
Maxim (I) Hover Transport (Standard)
or
Karnov UR Transport (BA) (greater maneuverability and LOS)
Karnov UR Transport (BA)

Vehicle Lance 1 Squad 2: Artillery
Schiltron Prime
Schiltron Prime

Vehicle Lance 2 Squad 1: Missile Fire Support
Heavy NLRM Carrier (better survivability and short range firepower)
Heavy NLRM Carrier
or
Heavy LRM Carrier (more missiles)
Heavy LRM Carrier

Vehicle Lance 2 Squad 2: Heavy Tanks, Fast Tanks, or More Missiles
DI Morgan Assault Tank (Gauss)
DI Morgan Assault Tank (Gauss)
or
Manteuffel Attack Tank Prime
Manteuffel Attack Tank Prime
or
Heavy NLRM Carrier
Heavy NLRM Carrier

Battle Armor:

Heavy Battle Armor:
Hauberk II
Grenadier (SRM/TAG)

Anti-Infantry and Anti-Mech Attacks:
Cavalier (Flamer)
Cavalier (Flamer)

Specialized Support:
Infiltrator Mk II (Sensors)
Infiltrator Mk II (Magnetic)

For the remaining forces, one player gets to select our four Aerospace Fighters and the other five players each get to select one lance of Battlemechs.  I think Rob and Dan have the most experience with Aerotech, so one of them should probably choose our Aerospace Fighters.

Bryan's Lance:
??
??
??
??

John's Lance:
Avatar G
Warhammer WHM-8D
Blackjack Omni D
Centurion Omni A

Mike's Lance:
??
??
??
??

Steve's Lance:
??
??
??
??

Rob's Lance/Dan's UrbanMech Swarm:
??
??
??
??

Rob's Aerospace Lance/Dan's Flying Circus:
??
??
??
??

Is everyone okay with my vehicle and battle armor selections?  Also, is everyone okay with the general plan for selecting the remainder of our force?  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.