Battletech - Mechwarriors of Fortune - Part 2

Mechwarriors of Fortune – Contract Creation

1)      Choose or roll the mission tonnage

2)      Roll for the employer and target

3)      Roll to determine the mission

4)      Bid for the contract as the attacker

5)      Both sides select their forces, and Support Forces

6)      Both sides select their contract special clauses

Example Contract Record Sheet.

Tonnage 
You and your opponent should first agree to a specific game size – small, medium or large. This sets the maximum tonnage you and your opponent can take in the game.

Once you’ve selected a game size roll 2d6 and consulting the appropriate column to get the maximum tonnage for each side. If you don’t want to roll on the table, you and your opponent can instead agree to one of the listed tonnages – perhaps If time is short you might agree to a 100 ton game, or possibly you might agree ahead of time to a really large game, and pick 600 tons so people can select their forces ahead of time.

Employer

You now determine the faction that is hiring a mercenary company. 
Roll 2d6 and consult the contract table below to determine if the employer is an Inner Sphere or Periphery power, and then roll another 2d6 and look up the appropriate column to determine exactly which faction is looking for a mercenary force.

You then need to determine the target ‐ which of the employing faction’s many, many enemies they are attacking, by rolling a D6 and consulting the following table;

The Inner Sphere approx. 3085

Mission

Your mercenary company will be hired for a specific mission, typically something focused on getting in, shooting up as much stuff as possible, maybe grabbing something while you’re there, and then getting out as soon as possible. Roll 2d6 and consult the contract table below;

The mission type not only determines the scenario you’ll play, but also the maximum amount you could get paid for undertaking the mission, and whether basic salvage rights are given. 
Faster objective based missions like Rapid Recon and Extraction pay less, while bloodier missions like Open Engagement pay more. 
Meanwhile the defender will typically be paid less for missions in which he is guarantee board control at the end of the game, but he will automatically receive 50% salvage rights for any enemy units left on the field.

As an example, two players might have rolled up a 250 ton game, and rolled up the Sabotage mission. This will mean the maximum bid for the attacker is 7,500,000, while the defender’s pay will be 3,750,000, but the defender will also start with 50% salvage rights.

See the Missions attachment for the special rules and objectives for each mission.

Bidding 

Both players now bid for the role of attacker in the contract, both writing their bid as the attacker on their contract record sheet. You can bid as low as you want, but cannot bid higher than the contract’s maximum bid. 
The player with the lower bid is now the attacker, and his mission pay will be whatever he bid. 
The other player will become the defender and his pay for the mission will be the fixed amount given in the defender’s pay column of the Contract Table

Select Forces & Determine Supporting Units

Both players now select their forces –selecting a force from their available units that does not exceed the mission’s total tonnage limit.

No employer is going to commit an obviously inferior force to the field, and so if one side is clearly weaker than their opponent their employer will allocate additional Support Units. 
Both players should calculate their side’s battle value. If any units in the force are connected to a C3 network then those units should have another 5% of their BV added to the total.

The player with the smaller battle value receives 80% of the difference in Support Units.

Example.  The two players have completed their forces; the attackers is worth 3,850 and the defenders 4,760. The players subtract 3,850 from 4,760 and get 910. Multiplying this by 80% you get 728 points to spend on Support Units. For example, the player might use those 728 points to select a Vedette (RAC) with a regular crew.

Support Units will always begin to retreat when they meet the conditions for Forced Withdrawal (which are modified from those in Total Warfare, see the Missions attachment). Note that support units withdrawing from the board will not trigger a General Retreat. 
In addition, Support Units cannot claim objectives nor prevent the opposition from claiming objectives (so a Support Unit cannot complete a Recon roll, or pick up the objective in Extraction, nor do they count as either attacker or defender forces in Take the Position. Nor can a support unit be an objective, such as the target in Assassination. They can attack and destroy the enemy Target in Assassination, and they can attack the buildings in Sabotage.

OPTIONAL RULE – If both players agree, then one or both players can add make up some portion of their original force with models not on their mech rosters. That is, some portion of the force they select to meet the mission’s tonnage, before BV is calculated and Support Units are taken. Players might do this because they can’t make up the tonnage, or because they want a little variety in the units they field, or some other reason, but it must be done with the consent of both players in the game. These Support Units are always regular (4/5), and follow all the Support Unit rules above, and in addition the player will not be paid for the portion of his force made up with Support Units. Instead his total mission pay will be just the proportion of the tonnage made up by his forces, so if he is playing a 300 ton game and puts 200 tons of his own units on the field and makes up the other 100 tons with units not on his roster, he would be paid 200/300 of his mission pay. All forms of income will be reduced by that percentage – the mission, bonus pay and salvage would all be reduced.

Special clauses 

Players don’t just bid on the price of a contract; they also negotiate special terms and conditions – requesting salvage rights, loss compensation, mine fields, artillery support, and so on. Each player is given three points to allocate across the various special clauses, and additional points may be allocated to the player with the smaller battle value (see Select Forces above). You can only take each special clause once, though special clauses may have their own rules for upgrading their effects.

Your accumulated faction points with your current employer can net you additional special clauses, per the following table;

Note you don’t lose your factions points using them in this way, they are kept and can be used in this way every time you work for this employer.

Paid transport – One special clause point. Transport costs are fully covered by the employer.

Salvage rights – Two special clause points. Increases salvage rights by 50%. Some missions automatically grant the defender 50% salvage rights and if that is the case then spending two special clause points will increase salvage rights to 100%. Other missions do not grant either side salvage rights automatically, in these cases a player can pay two special clause points to claim 50% salvage, or four points to claim 100% salvage rights. After the mission, a player with salvage rights and control of the board can claim 50 or 100% of the value of whatever units have been left on the board by the opposition, in their current condition (most abandoned units will be scrap and worth only 20% of their original value).

Loss compensation – One to three special clause points. A player can spend one point to have 10% of any losses covered by his employer, two points to have 20% of his losses covered or 3 points to have 30% of his losses covered. Players will be compensated for units that are lost entirely (except for the value of any crew killed), and for the repair expenses needed to bring Mechs back up to full working order ‐ ie a Hatchetman HCT‐6D is worth 7,633,090, and if it suffered heavy damage, costing 1,526,618, loss compensation of 20% would mean the player is paid 305,324 in compensation.

Bonus faction points – One to three special clause points. For each special clause point spent, the player will get one extra faction point if the contract is successful. However, if the player fails in completing his mission he will get nothing.

Change mission time limit – One or two special clause points. If the mission is timed the player can spend one or more points to change the mission time limit in his favour, with each point spent improving the time limit by one point ‐ i.e. the attacking player might spend two points to increase the time limit for Rapid Recon by two turns.

Recon – One special clause point. Your employer’s forces have performed thorough air recon of the area, giving you a significant advantage on the ground. This allows you to re‐roll your initiative roll three times per game.

Comms Jammer – One special clause point. Your employer has deployed a sophisticated white noise machine targeted at your enemy’s communications, making co‐ordination of forces much more difficult. This allows you to force your opponent to re‐roll their initiative three times per game. If your opponent has selected Recon then it and your Comms Jammer cancel each other out.

Artillery – Two special clause points. Your employer has allocated a Thumper artillery piece to provide fire support during the mission. During the firing phase of each turn the player can select a single hex on the map and roll to hit it with the Thumper, on a roll of 9 or more the attack strikes the target hex, otherwise it scatters in a random direction (roll a D6, with each number corresponding to one of the six possible directions), travelling in a straight line a number of hexes equal to the margin of failure. The artillery piece does 15 damage in 5 point clusters to one unit in the hex (if multiple units are in the hex this unit is randomly determined), and 5 damage to all other units in the affected hex and adjacent hexes. It only affects ground based units, VTOLs and other airborne units are not affected. The attack always strikes the front of the target. The artillery attack is considered simultaneous with all other attacks made during the firing phase.

Anti‐artillery task force – One special clause point. Your employer has tasked a special forces unit with moving ahead of your position and taking out any enemy artillery. If the enemy took artillery, then at the end of each turn roll 2d6, on a roll of 9+ the special forces troops have located and taken out the artillery, and your opponent cannot fire his artillery again in this game.

Air Support – One special clause point. Your employer has committed an aerospace fighter to one strafing run of the battlefield. One time during the game, during the Attack Declaration phase, you can nominate a straight line of hexes five long anywhere on the map. All targets in those five hexes (including structures and friendly units) are hit on a target number of 4 plus the target’s movement modifier and any terrain bonus. Each unit hit is struck with a single 10 point damage cluster to one location, rolled as if the target were hit from the front. You can only spend one special clause point on Air Support.

Special Clauses available only to the attacking player

Air Deployment – One special clause point. The player is able to deploy 100 tons worth of jump capable mechs and infantry by air. They are placed at the start of the second turn in any hex, with any facing, before any units have moved that turn. They can move and fire like any other unit from then on.

Rapid Assault – One special clause point. You have deployed and advanced rapidly and caught the enemy unprepared. The attacker can extend his deployment zone forward an additional six hexes. In the Diversion mission, only the diversionary force is deployed an extra six hexes forward.

Fog of War – One special clause point. An elaborate ruse has been plotted, causing the enemy to get a false impression of your forces. At the end of the first movement phase the attacker can remove one friendly unit and redeploy it from his deployment area, then moving as normal. This unit cannot have performed any attacks or taken any damage. The unit then acts as normal, taking part in the subsequent combat phase like any other unit.

Portable Beagle – One special clause point. One mech with at least one hand actuator is given a portable Beagle Active Probe, which functions the same as a standard Beagle Active Probe. The mech carrying the probe must have marked on its record sheet which hand the probe is carried in ‐ it cannot punch with the hand carrying the probe, nor can the mech carrying the probe wield a club. The probe is destroyed if the mech takes critical damage to the hand actuator holding the probe or if it loses the arm to which the probe is attached.

Orbital bombardment – Four special clause points, only useable in large games, and only in mission where the defender begins in control of most of the board (Escort, Sabotage, Diversion, Recon, Take the Position). The employer is able to support your attack on the enemy’s fixed position with a single strike from orbit with a capital scale weapon. The attacker selects a single hex somewhere on the map and marks it down, before either side has deployed any units. Then, once deployment is completed but before the first turn has begun, the capital strike lands. Rolling 2d6, the attack will hit the target hex on a 9 or more, otherwise scatters in a random direction in a straight line a number of hexes equal to the margin of failure. The strike will damage anything in the impacted hex and all hexes within 2, for a total of 19 hexes impacted. Everything in those hexes takes 10 damage (in two five point clusters). Any mines in those hexes are destroyed, and any hidden unit is revealed, in addition to taking damage as above.

Special Clauses available only to the defending player

Hidden units – One special clause point. The defender can deploy 100 tons of as hidden units. They can be set up anywhere more than six hexes from the attacker’s deployment area, and work as hidden units per the rules in Total Warfare. They can be located by active probes.

Minefields – One to two special clause points. At your request your employer has deployed a number of minefields across the map. For one special clause point the defender can secretly designate 8 hexes as minefields (he should write these locations down on a piece of paper). As soon as a ground unit from either side enters one of these hexes, they suffer 5 points of damage (mechs take the full five points of damage to a randomly determined leg, vehicles to their front armour), and in addition any mech must make a piloting skill roll to avoid falling over, and vehicles suffer a motive system hit. The unit can continue moving after detonating the mine. Once detonated, the minefield is used up and will no longer affect the game. You cannot place minefields in or adjacent to mission objectives. Minefields will be detected by active probes, and will be destroyed if their hex is affected by artillery or an orbital bombardment. You can spend a second special clause point to upgrade to vibrobombs, which do 10 damage instead of 5.

Fortifications – One special clause point. The defender’s employer has spent time constructing fieldworks for the defender to place his forces in. The defender can deploy two units in fortifications – this should be marked with a token when you deploy the unit. The unit has had its lower half hidden making it much harder to hit – it receives +2 to all ranged attacks against it, a fortified mech can hit in the legs treats that damage as missing, while fortified vehicles do not suffer any motive system hits from attacks at range. The unit can torso twist or change facing without losing the fortification, but as soon it moves out of the hex the bonus is lost and cannot be regained. It costs two extra points of movement for a unit to extricate itself from the fortification, unless jumping. Enemy units in adjacent hexes kicking the fortified unit will allocate damage using the punch location table.

Weapons Emplacement – One special clause point, with the option of spending a second point to upgrade the emplacements. For one special Your employer will install two static weapon emplacements, each two levels high, with a turret with a full 360 range of fire, and a construction factor of 20. The crew have a gunnery of 5. They function like standard buildings, meaning they are immobile and therefore ‐4 to be hit. They are placed before standard units deploy, and can be deployed anywhere on the board except in the attacker’s deployment area. They are well stocked with ammo and will never run out. They cannot be salvaged. You can choose to arm the emplacements with either an LRM‐10, two SRM 4s, a large laser or four light machine guns and two flamers.

You can spend an additional special clause point and gain one of the following;

Well hidden – the bunkers are concealed extremely well, enough to offset the standard ‐4 to hit modifier for being immobilised (so they are at +0 to be hit through the game). Grizzled gunner – the crew’s gunnery is improved to 4.

Reinforced – the bunkers use advanced components, increasing the CF to 35.