Battletech - Mechwarriors of Fortune - Part 1

I have always been a big fan of the Battletech universe and some years ago now I set about running some tournaments, more of which later, and a campaign system.

For the campaign it was decided that most players wanted a little bit more than just turning up with models and plonking them on the table.  They wanted to feel like each damaging hit would have a long term effect on how their unit would operate.  After all, life is cheap and Mechs are expensive in the Inner Sphere.

I set about building a campaign system that would have an element of record keeping whilst not being overpowering.  A system where each and every C-Bill earned was important and taking risks could come back to haunt you.

Ultimately I wanted a campaign system that would reward players who played to protect their assets whilst still trying to bid on contracts and secure good standing to one or more of the great houses.

Mechwarriors of Fortune was born.

The Campaign system was a hit and players jumped on board to add interesting twists and help streamline the rules.

Here are the results.  

Mechwarriors of Fortune – Creating Your Company

Maybe you’re a long time Mercenary who’s just risen to command your own company.

Or you might be a brave noble with deep pockets and a dream of glorious battle. Maybe you’re a grizzled war veteran who figures as long as he’s risking his life he might as well make some money out of it.

Possibly you’re a psychopath looking for thin legal veneer to cover your need to kill. Whatever it is, you’ve found yourself in command of a Mercenary outfit with weapons of war worth tens of millions of c‐bills, and a staff of loyal comrades in arms or cut throat mercenaries in it for the cash.

You start with 8 MechWarrior’s/Pilots/Vehicle crews with the Gunnery/Piloting stats detailed below:

•  1 Battle-Hardened – 4/4 – this is the Company Commander
•  3 Regular – 4/5
•  4 Green – 5/6

You can assign these to your Mechs and Vehicles as you see fit.

If you want to start with more than six units you will need to purchase additional pilots or crew – you can purchase additional green units (5/6) at a cost of 100,000 c‐bills each.

Your initial Mercenary Company must also abide by the following rules:

• You start with 35 million c‐bills, and can spend as much or as little of that as you want on your starting units, the remainder will be your opening cash balance.

• You must start with at least 8 units that are Mechs, Vehicles or Aerospace.

• All units must be available on the Master Unit List with a price in c‐bills listed. If the Mech is not there or no price is given you cannot select it. A Merc roster sheet is available on the site and players are free to use it to calculate their forces. Note that other sources, such as Solaris Skunkwerks and Sarna list costs – these will often differ from the master unit list and should not be used as a source for costs.

• The exception to that rule is Battle Armour, you can get their prices off the Sarna website. If no Battle Armour price is listed there you cannot take them.

• All Infantry units cost 200,000 c‐bills regardless of equipment or numbers.

• All units must have been deployed by 3085. Master Unit List will give the deployment years for all units.

• All units are limited to tech listed in Total Warfare. Units using technology from Tactical Operations or other sources are not allowed (these units will typically be marked Advanced or Experimental on record sheets).

• You cannot purchase Clan units, Mixed tech units or Proto‐Mechs.

• You can start with up to 16 units total. Once the campaign is running you are free to build up a force of as many units as you please.

• Only one Assault unit can be purchased initially.

• You can purchase Inner Sphere Omni‐Mechs with all configurations available, in which case you pay the price of the highest variant, plus 10% extra for all the pods carrying the gear for the other variants. This gives you the option to choose what variant you want to take in any game. Alternatively, you buy an Omni‐Mech with just a single variant available, and pay just the price of that variant, but this limits you to just that variant, obviously.

Commander

Your most experienced starting pilot, the Battle‐Hardened 4/4 pilot is your Company Commander.

·         The Commander has a few bonuses over standard units. 

• The Commander is the only unit that can choose to remain on the board once a general retreat has begun (see the Missions attachment).

• The Commander is the only pilot that can leave a more expensive Mech for a cheaper Mech, the only unit who will always have his Mech repaired in time for the next game, and the only pilot or who will never agree to work for another company if captured (see the post-game rules).

• If the Commander dies the most skilled Mechwarrior replaces him (if two Mechwarriors have equal skill then the player may choose).

Starting Faction Points

Faction points represent the positive reputation you have with various Inner Sphere powers, based on how well your company has performed in the past. They can be used to gain additional resources to complete a mission, or they can be traded in for a discount on new units.

You start with five faction points, representing the goodwill your Commander and Merc Company have built up with various Inner Sphere factions before the start of the game. You can assign these starting points among the various factions of the Inner Sphere as you please, but with no more than two points assigned to any one faction.

Get out there and play

Now all you’ll need is:

• The Contract attachment that goes through the process for setting up your mission and contract, which can be found HERE

• The Missions attachment that gives you the special rules for the mission you’re about to play, which can be found HERE

• The Wash Up Attachment which goes through all the revenues and costs of the mission you’ve just played, which can be found HERE

• A copy of Total War will probably help as well.

 With the exception of the Total War rule book

 the other documents will be posted on my blog.