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[Mephansteras]

I guess I'll grab Captain Halit and give him the codename 'Drake'.

I'm good with not fighting. Free money is nice and fighting cornered rats sounds like a good way to lose mechs.

[Fishbreath]

I plan to play out the update tonight or tomorrow, taking us back to Piedmont and rolling up the next batch of contracts. Here's what I'm hearing as far as action items:

First, there's a strong consensus on taking the money and heading out.

Second, I believe Hasek10 had some reorganization ideas, but I didn't hear anything on that topic otherwise. Reorganization doesn't need to happen immediately, but should be discussed if it's desired.

Either way, speak soon or forever hold your peace, until Saturday when the next entry runs.

[Hasek10]

I plan to play out the update tonight or tomorrow, taking us back to Piedmont and rolling up the next batch of contracts. Here's what I'm hearing as far as action items:

First, there's a strong consensus on taking the money and heading out.

Second, I believe Hasek10 had some reorganization ideas, but I didn't hear anything on that topic otherwise. Reorganization doesn't need to happen immediately, but should be discussed if it's desired.

Either way, speak soon or forever hold your peace, until Saturday when the next entry runs.

Thanks for the reminder Fish. So the way that MekHQ generates OpFor is based on your lance's weight as well as your opponents experience and technology rating as defined in the contract. (ie: A Green unit with technology rating 'A' is generally more dangerous than a Regular unit with technology rating 'D'). Your lance classifications break down as below:

 0-130 tons     - Light Lance
 131-200 tons - Medium Lance
 201-280 tons - Heavy Lance
 281-380+ tons - Assault Lance

To maximize our effectiveness, we generally want to organize our forces towards the upper end of each of these categories.  If a 200 ton medium lance would face the same enemy as a 135 ton medium lance, I know what I would choose.

Current Organization

Flashman
TBolt
Lancelot
Lancelot

weight: 260 (Heavy)

PHawk
Treb
Crab
Treb
Vulcan
Locust
weight: 260 (Heavy)

Proposed Organization
Flashman (75)
TBolt (65)
Lancelot (60)
Lancelot (60)
Locust (20)

weight: 280 (Heavy)

PHawk (45)
Treb (50)
Crab (50)
Treb (50)

weight: 195 (Medium)

Storage/Underneath camouflage tarps: Vulcan

Rationale

The proposed organization maximizes our lance tonnage compositions, and leaves us a spare mech to slot in to either of our lances should we experience casualties. The Locust assigned to our Heavy lance  also provides us some flexibility in that we could conceivably deploy it on scouting duty and successfully complete missions like recon raids. We would have the choice to leave early vis a vis the Locust or slug it out if there's a chance we can control the battlefield.

I would recommend we look to outfit another medium or heavy lance should we start to come in to more mechs.

[Mephansteras]

Makes sense to me.

[Hanzoku]

Not for me, actually. That Locust is a death trap waiting to happen, because it simply CANNOT go against the opposition a heavy lance faces. Its nice to hit the weight limit for the weight class you want to be in, but it's better to do so by using designs in that weight class or just above. Sticking a light mech into a heavy lance means that it'll face heavy and assault designs that will chew it to bits.

[a1s]

Not necesarily. A light design with long range weapons (LRMs I guess? I'm not sure a gauss cannon even fits on a Locust) and high maneurability could be a reasoble asset to the team. The problem is, ours is armed with lasers, so it is meant to get up close (unless I'm mistaken, my BT knowledge is rusty and based off of a video game to begin with.)

[Hasek10]

Not for me, actually. That Locust is a death trap waiting to happen, because it simply CANNOT go against the opposition a heavy lance faces. Its nice to hit the weight limit for the weight class you want to be in, but it's better to do so by using designs in that weight class or just above. Sticking a light mech into a heavy lance means that it'll face heavy and assault designs that will chew it to bits.

I definitely understand not wanting to get the locust shot down in it's first deployment. After re-reading Fishbreath's house rules for reinforcements, we could probably pair the Locust with the Vulcan in an understrength lance and bring them in when their maneuverability would be useful.

edit: It's also thematically appropriate, with our two comstar pilots on duty assignment together. Well I guess both the mechs are custom jobs. That's got to count for something?

[Kanil]

I'm not too worried about sticking the Locust in the heavy lance, 3 ML is a solid design and it can do some work backstabbing or squirreling.

Obviously it can't just walk up to a heavy and get kicked by it, and a 2 gun pilot or something will be very dangerous, but it's still reasonably survivable.

'course I think a Lance should be 4 'mechs, so I'm entirely okay with leaving it as a spare part. Actively choosing to deploy it should also mean you keep it away from things it isn't suited to dealing with, like a swamp or a 2/3 AWS-8Q.

[Fishbreath]

Last Month's Action Items

Hasek10 presented a proposed reorganization, but discussion is still ongoing. Continue the discussion, and we'll finalize our organization before the next deployment.

A strong consensus emerged on taking the money, packing up, and heading out, so that's what we'll do.

Packing Up, Heading Out

The Opinionated Bastards remain on-world for the ceremony around the pirates' surrender, mechs serving as the honor guard. The tech teams mothball our mechs, the administrators accept the final payment and pay out shares, and before we know it, we're packed into a creaky old Buccaneer-class DropShip, headed for the jump point and, eventually, Piedmont.

On the way back, we make a very interesting pickup. An man odd in speech and dress, Ed Yuksel approaches Captain Halit at the Telos IV jump point and says his only desire is to die honorably in battle. He shows us a mech, an unusual-looking Locust painted with a red wolf's head. Despite Halit's attempts to weasel more information out of him, he says nothing else of consequence.




Eventually, Halit welcomes him aboard as a private and promises him combat aplenty.

House Rules (Early Clans)

That's right, our first Clanner. There are several special rules around him (and other Clanners with which we may associate until, say, 3055).

First, his mech is packed with Clan tech, which we can neither obtain nor readily repair. I'll figure out how to represent that mechanically when the time comes. He can't be reassigned, and if he's injured, nobody else is allowed to pilot his mech.

Second, he's here early, before the Clans did much in the way of associating with the Inner Sphere at large. He must therefore be disgraced in some way, cast out by his people. Yuksel's main goal (as mentioned) is to redeem himself with a fighting death on the battlefield. Whenever he's deployed, he'll fight just shy of suicidal.

Finally, since he has no connections to anyone, we won't be required to pay out the cost of his mech on his death. If his mech is destroyed but he survives, he'll expect another one. If we refuse, he'll demand payment and hit the road.

Contract Offers

We return to Piedmont in late June, and unpack the mechs for some training in between contracts. On July 1st, the following offers come in. (Note: I'm still tweaking the game settings to find contract generation options which are neither insultingly bad, like last time, or unbelievably generous, like this time.)

We have six contracts available, all of which have at least something to recommend them.

• The Free Worlds League offers a five-month objective raid, fighting well-equipped FedCom regulars on Laiaka, eight jumps away. Notably, we negotiate for liaison command rights; any allied mechs will be under our direct control. Battle loss compensation is included at 40% of lost equipment value. 20% salvage rights. The estimated profit before shares is 24.8 million C-bills, including an advance of 12 million C-bills.
  
• The Draconis Combine offers a six-month planetary assault, fighting elite but poorly-equipped troops of the Free Rasalhague Republic on Thun, nine jumps away. 50% salvage rights. Battle loss compensation is 10%, and the estimated profit before shares is 27 million C-bills, including an advance of 13 million C-bills.
  
• The Federated Commonwealth offers a five-month objective raid, fighting poorly-equipped Capellan regulars on Propus, 11 jumps away. 30% salvage rights. 10% battle loss compensation; profit of 27.2 million C-bills along with a 14 million C-bill advance.
  
• The Federated Commonwealth also offers a second objective raid, fighting Free Worlds League regulars with average equipment on New Hope, nine jumps out. 20% salvage rights. No battle loss compensation, profit of 25.4 million C-bills, with a 12-million C-bill advance.
  
• The Free Rasalhague Republic wants to hire us for six months of guerilla warfare against poorly-equipped FedCom regulars on Surcin, nine jumps away. We receive no support payments whatsoever, neither for operating costs nor for battle loss compensation. 70% salvage rights. Pay is poorer than the others, too, at 23.8 million C-bills and 12.2 million C-bills in advance money.
  
• Finally, the Draconis Combine has offered us a four-month pirate hunting contract on Kilmarnock, nine jumps away, based on our previous successes against pirates. They're known to be decent mech pilots, but have typically poor equipment. No battle loss compensation, and very poor pay relative to the other contracts on offer, but also low risk and fewer limitations on parts and supply. 30% salvage rights. Estimated total profit of 9.6 million C-bills, and a 7.3 million C-bill advance payment. (All the other contracts have anywhere from worse to much-worse parts access. It'll start to get less important as our administrators improve, but we aren't quite there yet.)
  

As ever, I'm partial to low risk, but we'll see how the voting turns out.

Kill Board

I'm going to leave this in every post, because it saves me having to dig through old ones to find the up-to-date version.

All-Time Leaders

• Captain "Drake" Halit (3, 1 mech)
• Lieutenant "Rook" Ishikawa (3)
• Lieutenant "Linebuster" Atkinson (3)
• Private Frajtov (1, 1 mech)
• Private "Ker-Ker" Ec (1)

Status

It is now July 1, 3050.

Finances

We have 3.343 million C-bills in the bank right now. Our current operating costs are 135,810 C-bills per month.

Supplies

The Opinionated Bastards are back to eleven mechs. We have supplies which enable us to embark on a mission with below-average parts availability, but I'd probably still want to bulk up the stocks a bit if we do.

Unit Market

There are several mechs for sale on the unit market at present, but they're all on the black market, which has a one in six chance of turning out to be a scam. There's a Thunderbolt, a Commando, a Centurion, and a Shadow Hawk; I'll post variants and prices if there's interest in purchasing a new unit.

Action Items

• Should we take a contract, or wait for something better? We have room in the budget to chill for a few months.
  
• Should we buy a mech, or wait?
  
• The following mechwarriors remain to be claimed. To claim a mechwarrior, give me a callsign for one of them. I'll refer to them by their callsign in most places, and bold it so it's easier to find them.
• Pvt. Yuksel
• Pvt. Jamil
• Pvt. Ngo
• Pvt. Frajtov
• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
• Captain Huri "Drake" Halit (Mephansteras)
• Lt. SG George "Linebuster" Atkinson (Hasek10)
• Lt. SG Mariamu "Rook" Ishikawa (Culise)
• Lt. JG Sung-min "Double Dog" Dare (a1s)
• Pvt. Jose "Milspec" Ortega (milspec)
• Pvt. Ferdinand "Woad" Kohler (A Thing)
• Pvt. Jan "Euchre" Kojic (EuchreJack)
• Pvt. Cathrine "Severe" Payne (Burnt Pies)
• Pvt. E-Shei "Ker-Ker" Ec (Kanil)

[Mephansteras]

I'm inclined to go with this one:

The Federated Commonwealth offers a five-month objective raid, fighting poorly-equipped Capellan regulars on Propus, 11 jumps away. 10% battle loss compensation; profit of 27.2 million C-bills along with a 14 million C-bill advance.

Good profit, and should be fairly low risk all things considered. The advance also means we can stock up on supplies before heading out. (Which I gather is easier at our home base then during a mission?)

I'm open to getting a new mech if people think we need one, though the possibility of a scam worries me a bit.

[Kanil]

I say we take the contract that offers the most salvage. (Edit: Guess that means I'm going with the raid on Surcin! 70% vs 30 at best is a massive difference.)

The FWL raid on Laiaka seems most appealing. The primary reason being that having allied units under our command basically sees us get a free unit for each mission, and it actually follows orders instead of doing it's own (typically not very helpful) thing.

Secondary consideration is that fighting better equipped enemies gives us more chance to salvage something worthwhile (unless the salvage rights are terrible?)

Conversely the raid on the FRR at Thun should be avoided, skilled troops with bad 'mechs is both very dangerous and not very rewarding.

[Mephansteras]

I guess that's a good point. You didn't mention what the salvage rights were on any of those contracts.

[Fishbreath]

Oh man, you're absolutely right. Don't know how I missed that. I'll go back and edit the post with salvage rights.

[Mephansteras]

Still going to go with this one:

The Federated Commonwealth offers a five-month objective raid, fighting poorly-equipped Capellan regulars on Propus, 11 jumps away. 30% salvage rights. 10% battle loss compensation; profit of 27.2 million C-bills along with a 14 million C-bill advance.

Between salvage and blc we should make up for any losses incurred and it should be a fairly easy mission all things considered. With that payout we should make a very good profit off of it.

[A Thing]

I'll go with the FedCom Capellan raid too.