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[Burnt Pies]

I'm leaning towards the Fedcom raid on Propus. 30% seems acceptable on salvage, the money otherwise is also good. 10% battle loss comp seems low, but 27.2 million profit sounds like it should suffice to make up for that. The relatively poor equipment of the enemy sounds pretty nice to face as well.

[EuchreJack]

Eh, let's pick on the Capellans. 

I wonder, by "poorly equiped Capellans", if that means "Poorly equipped for Capellans" or "Adequately equipped for Capellans, which means horribly equipped by every else's standards". 

Lets not risk the Black Market: Our employer should have something to offer that would suffice.  We really can't afford to be scammed.
I should point out, that as far as I can tell, I'm the one that needs a mech.

[a1s]

I should point out, that as far as I can tell, I'm the one that needs a mech.

Not really. Lieutenant Dare (me) is also out of a 'mech. I would suggest that we take risk buy a 'mech with the money from an advance on a contract. Otherwise I must (respectfully) request to be assigned a 'mech currently piloted one of the enlisted men on a temporary basis.

[EuchreJack]

I should point out, that as far as I can tell, I'm the one that needs a mech.

Not really. Lieutenant Dare (me) is also out of a 'mech. I would suggest that we take risk buy a 'mech with the money from an advance on a contract. Otherwise I must (respectfully) request to be assigned a 'mech currently piloted one of the enlisted men on a temporary basis.

Ah, nice to not be the only Dispossessed pilot.  A rotation would make sense.

[Kanil]

I wonder, by "poorly equiped Capellans", if that means "Poorly equipped for Capellans" or "Adequately equipped for Capellans, which means horribly equipped by every else's standards". 

It would roll on the Capellan RAT table of the appropriate grade. So poorly equipped by Capellan standards. Expect UrbanMechs.

I'd rather punt unclaimed pilots out of their rides than buy 'mechs, although if that's not an option then getting one for one of our claimed guys makes sense. Preferably one that isn't an ammo explosion waiting to happen -- this is somewhat hard with the current selection. A TDR-5SS/SE would work very well, as would a CN9-AL. The standard versions of those 'mechs would be preferable to the mediocre Shadow Hawk, and while I adore Commandos and love using them, they absolutely do not last and we'd be back to having this problem in a mission or two, tops.

[Fishbreath]

For the moment, I went ahead and rearranged things a bit; Lt. Dare moves into the Trebuchet TBT-5N, replacing Pvt. Frajtov. That leaves Pvt. Kojic (once again) as the only 'mechless pilot. That's one reason why I want to find a mech; that would let me put Kojic into the line without evicting any of the unclaimed pilots who are house-ruled as un-evictable.

[Hasek10]

I'm going to go with Kanil here and suggest we take the Guerrilla Warfare contract on Surcin. 70% salvage rights would almost certainly make up the difference in base pay between the two. In BOTH cases, we're heavily restricted in terms of parts ordering and need to rely on our existing part stockpiles to repair and rearm. 30% salvage on Propis makes it noticeably harder to reel in replacement parts.

While the advance payment in both cases gives us enough money to increase our spare part stockpile (And we'll definitely want LOTs of extra parts), It would be nice to have the option of taking some of the more valuable enemy chassis' back with us after the contract is done.

Either way, we need to make sure we're loaded to the gills in terms of spare parts for this next contract or else run the risk of getting ground down without resupply.

[a1s]

Salvage might be 70%, but it's from a poorly equipped enemy. We are unlikely to find anything really worth 1.5 million/month (and we're giving up loss compensation.) My vote goes to Propus.

[Hanzoku]

I don't know, the main source of income from my games is salvaging and selling enemy vehicles in droves, it far outweighs whatever the contract pays.

That said, guerilla campaigns are brutal because of the complete lack of supply. If the consensus is to go for it, I suggest tripling whatever we think we need in way of supply, and make sure to bring plenty of limbs for all the mechs.

[a1s]

How does one fight a guerilla campaign in a 15m high combat vehicle?
Also, does buying more parts increase our transportation costs? If not, what are the drawbacks?

[Hanzoku]

orbital satallite networks aren't a thing in battletech, so long as patrols don't sight you, its quite possible to manage it, funny enough

[Kanil]

Salvage might be 70%, but it's from a poorly equipped enemy. We are unlikely to find anything really worth 1.5 million/month (and we're giving up loss compensation.) My vote goes to Propus.

I think you are highly overestimating the impact of the "poorly equipped enemy" here, and also underestimating the resale value of a mediocre unit. A Wasp really sucks, but it still sells for like 700,000 C-Bills. You only need to scrap two of them to get to your 1.5m mark.

Vedettes are a common and mediocre tank, but still sell for 250k. The 10 SRM launchers on a SRM carrier sell for a pretty penny. Ditto the AC/20 on a Hetzer.

Based off my current games, I would estimate the difference between 30% salvage and 70% salvage being worth at least 15 million C-Bills. That is way larger of a factor than 3m larger contract or 10% battle loss compensation.

[Fishbreath]

Votes so far...

FedCom raid on Propus
Mephansteras
A Thing
Burnt Pies
EuchreJack
a1s

Guerilla warfare on Surcin
Kanil
Hasek10

Also, does buying more parts increase our transportation costs? If not, what are the drawbacks?

I'm actually well-equipped to answer this one, because I rewrote the code that determines travel costs not long ago. In short, we rent DropShips and pay for transit on JumpShips. JumpShips cost 100,000 C-bills per collar per jump. DropShip costs are determined based on what we have to carry. Since all we carry is cargo (which includes mechs in mothballs), we pay, at present, about 230,000 C-bills per jump—100,000 for the jump, and 130,000 for a Buccaneer to get us to and from planets. It has 2300 tons of cargo capacity. If we go above 2300 tons, it's cheaper to rent a Mule, which has about 8000 tons of cargo capacity and costs about 180,000 for a jump.

Eventually, we might be in a financial position to consider buying a DropShip. I'll put an action item about long-term goals in one of the next few updates.

[a1s]

Also, does buying more parts increase our transportation costs? If not, what are the drawbacks?

I'm actually well-equipped to answer this one, because I rewrote the code that determines travel costs not long ago. In short, we rent DropShips and pay for transit on JumpShips. JumpShips cost 100,000 C-bills per collar per jump. DropShip costs are determined based on what we have to carry. Since all we carry is cargo (which includes mechs in mothballs), we pay, at present, about 230,000 C-bills per jump—100,000 for the jump, and 130,000 for a Buccaneer to get us to and from planets. It has 2300 tons of cargo capacity. If we go above 2300 tons, it's cheaper to rent a Mule, which has about 8000 tons of cargo capacity and costs about 180,000 for a jump.

It sounds like you're saying that it does not increase transport costs ( unless we buy ~1.5k tons of parts in addition to our 0.5k tons of 'mechs.)
So why not buy a lot of spares?

[Hanzoku]

1. Cost
2. Availability

To expand, some equipment like fusion engines are worth millions of c-bills. Large lasers are 700,000 a pop as well. Most equipment is also gated - depending on your unit's reputation and if you're on a contract, it changes what you can freely buy at any given time.