Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2017 12:22 pm
Having gotten super pumped up for Battletech, but not having sprung for the beta (not that it has the persistent mercenary campaign mode anyway), I went google searching and found that there's a piece of software called MekHQ which handles just about all the calculations and other tedium involved with running a mercenary company (rather than me having to look all that stuff up across fifty different rule books). Tactical battles are handled via MegaMek, the results of which are fed back into MekHQ. It's pretty neat. They've even integrated a random contract/scenario generation system. So, I fired it up and took a crack at creating my own mercenary company fielding giant stompy robots. I'll be posting updates here (with a very occasional screenshot), as well as soliciting occasional input and allowing folks to sign up as members (meaning your nickname gets applied to one of the mechwarriors).
Without further ado, I present the "1st Octopus Overlords" mercenary company:
To begin with, we have MekHQ generate 12 mechwarriors, as well as 10 mech techs, a doctor and an admin specialist (I take admin/transport as he'll help negotiate better transport compensation for our company during contracts, which is a pretty major component of price until we get dropships of our own).
Here's the initial lineup (having generated all the mechwarriors and applied the Against the Bot modifiers to them):
As you can see, our mechwarrior skills aren't terribly amazing, and our mech lineup is... well, anyway. We have three lances, including an Awesome, with its triple PPCs.
Alpha lance is a medium lance, Beta lance is also a medium lance, Gamma lance is a light lance. The lance weight determines the category of opponents that the AtB system generates for us, so the general best practice is to run close to the lance weight limit (130 for light, 200 for medium). Since our mechwarriors are all a little wet behind the ears, I limit myself to medium lances.
We also take out a 2 mil loan to buy some ammo and replacement parts.
Once we've set that up, it's time to pick out our first contract.
#1 The Lyran Commonwealth has a need to hunt pirates on Karston
- Regular/D allies, Regular/F opposition
- 4 months
- House command
- 35% transport costs covered
- 60% salvage rights
- 5M payment with estimated 1.5M profit
#2 The Capellan Confederation wants to conduct guerilla warfare on Kafr Silim against the Federated Suns
- Green/F allies, Regular/C opposition
- 6 months
- Integrated command
- 50% transport costs covered
- 70% salvage rights
- 20% straight support (I think this means they pay personnel salaries)
- 13M payment with estimated 8M profit
#3 They also want to conduct a recon raid against the Federated Suns on Algot
- Green/F allies, Green/D opposition
- 1 month
- House Command
- 30% transport costs covered
- 30% salvage rights
- 2M payment with estimated -250k profit
#4 The Free Worlds League wants to conduct a recon raid agsint the Lyran Commonwealth on New Kyoto
- Elite/D allies, Regular/F opposition
- 1 month
- Integrated command
- 35% transport terms
- 40% salvage rights (exchange)
- 100% straight support
- 1.7M payment with estimated 700k profit
I immediately eliminate #3 from consideration, as we won't be making any money on it. That leaves #1, #2 and #4 as legit options, and will put them to a vote. An explanation of some concepts: Allied an enemy forces go from Green to Elite and A-class equipment to F-class equipment. So, if you're fighting a Green/F enemy force, that means you're fighting fresh faced rookies out of the academy with crappy mechs held together with packing tape. Elite/A means you're fighting the biggest badasses in the galaxy equipped with top of the line mechs they probably just lifted out of an intact star league cache.
Command levels in AtB make it so that you have to take AI-controlled units with you - 2 for Integrated, 1 for House, 1 under your control for Liaison. Losing one of those is a contract breach, which is a major risk as the AI doesn't have the best self-preservation instinct. Additionally, since a Lance is a maximum of six units and the AI-controlled units count against that limit, it means that the number of player controlled mechs we can deploy on a mission is also limited.
#1 will be pretty easy, but isn't much profit (1.5M / 4 months = 375K/month). House command means low risk of contract breaches. We will also be in a Field Workshop for maintenance and repairs which is not ideal but better than the other contracts (meaning our techs are more likely to be able to patch up our mechs without screwing it up and having to buy expensive replacement parts).
#2 will be tough. With incompetent allied AI units fielding crappy mechs against good opposition, not to mention integrated command (up to 2 contract breaches per mission!) and guerilla warfare ("in the field") maintenance modifier means our techs will have a hard time keeping things together and we'll be there for a while and won't have much access to replacement parts if we need them. It's also way the hell out in the southern ass end of the galaxy while the other two contracts are a lot closer.
#4 looks low-profit, but with a duration of 1 month, we won't be there long. It's a quick buck against crap opposition.
So, I'm leaning towards #1 or #4, but I'd like to invite you guys to choose between the three profitable contracts. None of the options have battle loss compensation, so we're on the hook if we lose our mechs.
Without further ado, I present the "1st Octopus Overlords" mercenary company:
To begin with, we have MekHQ generate 12 mechwarriors, as well as 10 mech techs, a doctor and an admin specialist (I take admin/transport as he'll help negotiate better transport compensation for our company during contracts, which is a pretty major component of price until we get dropships of our own).
Here's the initial lineup (having generated all the mechwarriors and applied the Against the Bot modifiers to them):
Spoiler:
Alpha lance is a medium lance, Beta lance is also a medium lance, Gamma lance is a light lance. The lance weight determines the category of opponents that the AtB system generates for us, so the general best practice is to run close to the lance weight limit (130 for light, 200 for medium). Since our mechwarriors are all a little wet behind the ears, I limit myself to medium lances.
We also take out a 2 mil loan to buy some ammo and replacement parts.
Once we've set that up, it's time to pick out our first contract.
#1 The Lyran Commonwealth has a need to hunt pirates on Karston
- Regular/D allies, Regular/F opposition
- 4 months
- House command
- 35% transport costs covered
- 60% salvage rights
- 5M payment with estimated 1.5M profit
#2 The Capellan Confederation wants to conduct guerilla warfare on Kafr Silim against the Federated Suns
- Green/F allies, Regular/C opposition
- 6 months
- Integrated command
- 50% transport costs covered
- 70% salvage rights
- 20% straight support (I think this means they pay personnel salaries)
- 13M payment with estimated 8M profit
#3 They also want to conduct a recon raid against the Federated Suns on Algot
- Green/F allies, Green/D opposition
- 1 month
- House Command
- 30% transport costs covered
- 30% salvage rights
- 2M payment with estimated -250k profit
#4 The Free Worlds League wants to conduct a recon raid agsint the Lyran Commonwealth on New Kyoto
- Elite/D allies, Regular/F opposition
- 1 month
- Integrated command
- 35% transport terms
- 40% salvage rights (exchange)
- 100% straight support
- 1.7M payment with estimated 700k profit
I immediately eliminate #3 from consideration, as we won't be making any money on it. That leaves #1, #2 and #4 as legit options, and will put them to a vote. An explanation of some concepts: Allied an enemy forces go from Green to Elite and A-class equipment to F-class equipment. So, if you're fighting a Green/F enemy force, that means you're fighting fresh faced rookies out of the academy with crappy mechs held together with packing tape. Elite/A means you're fighting the biggest badasses in the galaxy equipped with top of the line mechs they probably just lifted out of an intact star league cache.
Command levels in AtB make it so that you have to take AI-controlled units with you - 2 for Integrated, 1 for House, 1 under your control for Liaison. Losing one of those is a contract breach, which is a major risk as the AI doesn't have the best self-preservation instinct. Additionally, since a Lance is a maximum of six units and the AI-controlled units count against that limit, it means that the number of player controlled mechs we can deploy on a mission is also limited.
#1 will be pretty easy, but isn't much profit (1.5M / 4 months = 375K/month). House command means low risk of contract breaches. We will also be in a Field Workshop for maintenance and repairs which is not ideal but better than the other contracts (meaning our techs are more likely to be able to patch up our mechs without screwing it up and having to buy expensive replacement parts).
#2 will be tough. With incompetent allied AI units fielding crappy mechs against good opposition, not to mention integrated command (up to 2 contract breaches per mission!) and guerilla warfare ("in the field") maintenance modifier means our techs will have a hard time keeping things together and we'll be there for a while and won't have much access to replacement parts if we need them. It's also way the hell out in the southern ass end of the galaxy while the other two contracts are a lot closer.
#4 looks low-profit, but with a duration of 1 month, we won't be there long. It's a quick buck against crap opposition.
So, I'm leaning towards #1 or #4, but I'd like to invite you guys to choose between the three profitable contracts. None of the options have battle loss compensation, so we're on the hook if we lose our mechs.