Army Composition setup rules

These rules exist to change up how you create units in Battletech for narrative or “statting up your unit”. Those rules do not consider Battle Value or any other balancing methods and are meant to be based in the lore of the system. This is meant to replace rolling on RAT or the guess work involved in using the Master Unit List. While these rules can be used to build “small scale units”, they are generally better at building larger units like companies, binaries/trinaries and even battalions.

Unit rarity

All ‘Mechs and such are now attributed a rarity value, implying how rare or uncommon a unit would be in this particular unit. Named characters and commanders can always pilot whatever machine they want, so “characters” are in their own category and do not directly affect the composition of the rest of the unit.

If a player wants to use custom units, the rarity of that unit goes up by 1 level. Non-standard variants (Experimental, C refits, named character variants, ect…) also increase the rarity of the unit by 1 level.

CORE units are the base of any detachment. A core unit is generally things that are produced locally and easily procured by the unit. A good example would be the Valkyrie for the Federated Suns or the Panther for the Draconis Combine. Most units in either of these factions will have these as Core units. Core units need to be at least 50% of your unit composition when building a unit, meaning they should be the most common units overall. When dealing with maintenance or repair, core units count as easier to repair than average due to the availability of spare parts for them. No particular ‘mech can be more common than core.

SPECIAL units are rarer machines in a detachment, but not excessively rare. They could be units that do not fit the general mold of the rest of the unit, like a Light ‘mechs in an Assault detachment, or a fast heavy ‘mech in a Cavalry detachment. Often enough, machines that can be salvaged easily from neighbors also fall in the Special category, as they can be maintained and reequipped decently easily, but not as easily as a core unit. A maximum of 50% of a unit can use Special units but can never have more of them than Core units.

RARE units are machines that are hard to acquire or difficult to keep running. They can also be units that go opposite to the type of detachment being used, like an Assault ‘Mech in a poor militia unit or an antique Succession War machine in a Clan front line regiment. Repairs and maintenance on rare units is harder than usual, often requiring more than 50% more time than normal. A maximum of 25% of a unit can use Rare units and can never outnumber the Core units. A unit cannot be rarer than a Rare unit. If that would be the case due to a modifier, the unit is simply unavailable.

Multiple copies of the same chassis

When building a unit using these rules, it might sound like you should put multiple copies of the same BattleMech in a unit, which goes counter to what Battletech often wants you to do, both in lore and in tabletop gameplay. We like to go with the following guidelines when creating units at the Company or Trinary level:

• For Core unit, you can have up to 2 copies of the same chassis (2 Wolverines of whichever variant, as an example) in those medium-sized units.
• If you want to add a third copy of that chassis, it counts as 1 rarity rarer than usual. Same with adding a fourth copy of that chassis.
  • This means you can have 4 copies of a Core chassis, with 2 being Core, 1 being Special and 1 being Rare.
• Special units you can have only 1 copy of the chassis in the same mid-level unit (Company or Trinary).
  • You can add a second copy of that same chassis, but at that point it counts as a Rare Unit instead.
• Rare units you can only have 1 copy of in the same high-level unit (Battalion or Cluster).
• The Ubiquitous quirk allows you to add 1 more copy of a selected Chassis at its lowest rarity rating.
  • As an example, Shadow Hawks are Core unit for your detachment. Since it has the Ubiquitous quirk, you can take 3 of them before their rarity increases to Special.
  • The Thunderbolt is a Special unit for your detachment. Since it has the Ubiquitous quirk, you can take 2 of them in your Mid-Level unit before the next one becomes Rare.

Creating detachment types

When a unit is created with this system, you should setup various “detachment types” for them to use. This informs the players and game masters as to what types of combat unit you are dealing with. As an example, a mercenary unit like Camacho’s Caballeros would have Cavalry detachment and Line detachment. The Marian Legions would have more diversity available to them, with Line breaker detachment, Combat detachment and Penal Legions.

Each detachment types dictate what types of units are Core, Special and Rare for them. A Cavalry detachment, as an example, would have Jump-capable Lights and Mediums as Core units, fast Heavies as rare and jump-capable Assauts as rare. An air defense detachment would have units with a variety of weapons and quirks as core units (LB-X, HAG, Silver Bullet Gauss, Autocannon with Flak, Anti-Air Targeting Quirk), while Special units would be machines meant to defend those units while Rare units would be things not meant for defensive battles. The complexity of the composition rules depends on the unit itself and on what you want to setup.

Detachment is a wide term and can refer to anything as small as a lance all the way up to a regiment. Larger units can be split in multiple detachment. As an example, a battalion could be composed of 3 different detachments to fit various needs.

Support units

The previous rules cover building units with BattleMechs. Any other units are considered a “support unit”, and have Core, Special, Rare rules and must follow the same kind of unit composition rules. You can field 1 support unit per regular ‘mech unit in most detachment.

Conventional infantry is always considered a Core unit. This includes jump infantry, motorized infantry and field guns.

Battle Armors depends on the detachment itself. Generally, OmniMech equipped units will have access to Battle Armors easier than normal and can be attached directly to the original unit itself. As an example, a Jade Falcon Nova will have 5 OmniMechs (3 core, 1 Special, 1 Rare) and carry 5 Elemental Battle Armors (All Core units in that detachment, as an example).

Aerospace Fighters count as support units and follow the previous rules. The rarity of the ASF assets will depend on the detachment and unit type. Some forces have no attached ASF assets and borrows them from other units, making them rarer, while some have fully attached ASF assets, making them more common. VTOL follow more or less the same kind of mentality.

Armored assets come in a few different types. Each of these types can be assigned different rarity measures based on the detachment to explain what units are available.

• Battle tanks are standard armored assets, generally tracked vehicles. They are not as mobile or as flexible as some of the other units but are often tougher and more reliable.
• Hover tanks are fast skirmishers that can cross a variety of more difficult terrain, like swamps and lakes. Their biggest asset is their mobility, but they are more fragile than standard battle tanks.
• Support units are vehicles with functions that are more specialized, like long range missile carriers, ambushers and anti-air platforms.
• Artillery units are meant to fire indirectly from afar.

How to write a composition list

First, split the units per weight categories and then by tonnage. Go through the list of ‘mechs at each tonnage, and consider the following:

• Is this a ‘mech this faction has access to normally?
• Is this a ‘mech that is available and in production at this point in the timeline?
• Is this a ‘mech that is produced locally?
• Is this a ‘mech that is easy to salvage from nearby conflict zones?

Add the unit in the listing if it fits the vision you have, and it fits with the questions above. Afterwards, think of the rarity of the unit you are adding to the list.

A machine which should be more common can be marked with an UP-ARROW ( ↑ ) or with *Unit is always 1 rarity more common than usual*. This means this particular ‘mech could easily be included even in detachments that wouldn’t include them normally. Remember that a ‘Mech can never be “more common” than being a Core unit.

On the opposite side, a machine that should be rarer than usual can be marked with a DOWN-ARROW ( ↓ ) or with *Unit is always 1 rarity rarer than usual*. This denotes a unit that is not as common as others, like most machines which comes from salvage or things that are not produced in large enough quantities to be easily available. Remember that if a ‘Mech is “more than Rare”, it becomes unavailable.