Mercenary Equipment

[robject]

Granted, mercenary groups vary by size and mission; therefore, they vary in their equipment. Equipment ranges from armor and infantry weapons to vehicles and heavy weaponry.

Ok then. An infantry group I can figure out. What about a mechanized group? If your mercenary brigade has grav tanks, how many does it have? What's the ratios of soldiers to armor? And then the next question is transport -- how many or what kinds of starships do you use to transport them? Do they OWN their own transports?

And that leads to the Mercenary Cruiser. It seems to be specialized; in other words, it does not suit all types of mercenary groups. Consider the mechanized infantry group; is there enough room on Merc Cruisers to carry tanks? (I'll have to review the Type C to make sure; maybe it does in fact have enough room, and its cutters do have vehicle carriage modules, so...).

 

[stealth]

I'd go with 40 marines, a grav tank (10dtons) and a grav APC (10dtons). That's what I budget for on Imperial starcruisers (along with a launch).

The class C had only 2 cutters for troop deployment and 2 six ton fighters. But thats all you need. Those cutters have 250Mw lasers and missle and sand racks, as do the fighters. I think it carried three platoons (one company). Yeah, I used to have the book

And all the infantry was equipped to TL-12, as I recall.

 

[stealth]

I allways wanted to write this up:

Imagine a simple grav-car like vehicle, say running improved internal combustion or MHD turbine, armed with quad 120mm auto-loading mortars as a technical vehicle. Give it indirect fire control and for maybe Cr 50,000 you have indirect fire support on a colossal scale. We are talking 8 rounds per second!

 

[Dragoner]

Granted, mercenary groups vary by size and mission; therefore, they vary in their equipment. Equipment ranges from armor and infantry weapons to vehicles and heavy weaponry.

Ok then. An infantry group I can figure out. What about a mechanized group? If your mercenary brigade has grav tanks, how many does it have? What's the ratios of soldiers to armor? And then the next question is transport -- how many or what kinds of starships do you use to transport them? Do they OWN their own transports?

And that leads to the Mercenary Cruiser. It seems to be specialized; in other words, it does not suit all types of mercenary groups. Consider the mechanized infantry group; is there enough room on Merc Cruisers to carry tanks? (I'll have to review the Type C to make sure; maybe it does in fact have enough room, and its cutters do have vehicle carriage modules, so...).

you are going platoons, companies, battalions in lower organization (modern), higher up is battalion, brigade and corps. Battalion IS the basic organization, so as you would have a battalion of infantry a battalion of tanks, etc. . Do not forget to add artillery as that is your real combat firepower; infantry best on defence, tanks exploiting a breakthrough, air defence artillery to cover them all, etc. "Mechanized" is an odd term as it is used to denote track-laying equiped units, and thus superior off road capability, which of grav units are far superior to.

An armored brigade would often be 1 to 1 infantry to tank ratio battalion-wise, with two tank battalions and two infantry battalions, a lighter formation, would be one tank battalion to 3 infantry battalions. Various artillery, ADA, engineer, supply and maintainence units, will be attached at the corps level. Unit formation such as Regiment and Division became rather obsolete by the end of ww2.

 

[robject]

OK, so far you've given me some good suggestions -- for example, artillery.

So, here's a basic grav tank I genned up:

code: AGT
type: Armored Grav Tank
TL: 12
vol: 5 tons
spd: 5  (50 kph)
AV: 70 {ca:20, fp:20, rp:20, sp:32, ps:0, in:40, se:40}
KCr: 2140

AV 70 means it can absorb 70 points of damage. Sort of middling.

One possible main gun would be:

Code  : EPaCF-12
Name  : Early Plasma Autocannon Fixed-12
Range : 6 (5 km)
Mass  : 1200 kg
Damage: Pen-8 Burn-3 
Cost  : KCr 72

 

[Enoki]

Most mercenary groups would be unwilling to fight very heavy pitched battles. It simply would be uneconomical for them. Heavy losses in men and equipment equal a huge loss in profit. So, with that in mind I would expect mercenaries to purchase mechanized equipment that is effective but at the same time inexpensive and simple to maintain.

The main type I would think would be a wheeled all-terrain vehicle on a common chassis that allows them to have flexibility and alot of offensive firepower. Something like the modern day AMX 10RC armored car and a similar wheeled APC would be good choices.

Grav vehicles are simply too expensive most of the time and tracked vehicles, realistically, require a mountian of maintenance.

 

[Dragoner]

Most mercenary units will be cadre/training for local forces with a scattering of special forces/commando units; eg "force multiplication." Armored units, will take more supply and maintenance, formations than a mercenary unit would want to put forth, unless it's a rather large organization. Merc's by nature will be an ad hoc force unless having connections to other militaries, such as serving in a reserve capacity for the Imperial Army. However, they will most likely use a various standard of naming, such as x company or blah cavalry.

One formation, the Recon Battalion, is a particularly interesting formation in both game and merc, as it will most likely have light afv company, a tank company, 2 inf companies (mech) and a heavy weapons company.

IMO, in vehicle combat, I just use a modified spacecraft combat, and use the non-starship table for damage. Assigning damage points to afv's is unrealistic as they usually can shrug off damage until it is a KO and then it's just a question of the vehicle being salvagable or a write off. It's simple and quick, which is a good way to do combat, keeps players attention.

 

[McPerth]

Imagine a simple grav-car like vehicle, say running improved internal combustion or MHD turbine, armed with quad 120mm auto-loading mortars as a technical vehicle. Give it indirect fire control and for maybe Cr 50,000 you have indirect fire support on a colossal scale. We are talking 8 rounds per second!

I designed (MT rules) several years ago a lightly armored grav APC (4 dton) who had a version with just such mortar. The main inconvenience was the ammo itself, as it needed (I repeat, in MT rules) about 0.04 kl and eighted 0.02 ton wach rouns, so, at the rate you tell, fire would be devastating... for a few secconds, after that, ammo would run out (at least onboard ammo, and so the autoloader).

BTW, IIRC its price was under kCr 50.

 

[Dragoner]

Here is another discussion of tanks that may be of relevance:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=23667&page=9



As per the SPA running out of ammo too quick, SPA units have armored ammo carriers.

 

[robject]

I understand that mercenary tactics would be to tend to prefer to attack with overwhelming force on striker tickets. Grav tanks and artillery are useful to mercs if they're needed, but I think mercenaries are generally not interested in long battles of attrition.

 

[Dragoner]

I can see more merc heavy weapons and artillery units then what is traditionally shown, as they will be a decider in combat, just not frontline. Grav tanks? A few units, but one thing is that infantry is cheap, cheap to form, equip and employ. Even then inf needs it's AT, Mortars, support weapons, etc. . Interesting enough, most parties of adventurers are "mercenaries", which shows the brilliance of Book 4.

 

[McPerth]

As per the SPA running out of ammo too quick, SPA units have armored ammo carriers.

Of course they, have, but it takes a little time to transfer ammo from them to autoloaders of the SPG. What I wanted to point here is that the fire rate Stealth talked about could not be sustained for any long (at 8 rounds/sec, I guess you could shoot about 3-4 secconds, and wait some minutes to reload for the next salvo). Not too different from MRLs in WWII, after all...

 

[Dragoner]

Of course they, have, but it takes a little time to transfer ammo from them to autoloaders of the SPG. What I wanted to point here is that the fire rate Stealth talked about could not be sustained for any long (at 8 rounds/sec, I guess you could shoot about 3-4 secconds, and wait some minutes to reload for the next salvo). Not too different from MRLs in WWII, after all...

They could have a quick connect robotic conveyor belt system that would automatically feed rounds into the magazine of the SPA. Eventually, you would shoot off all your ammo, so it would be important to hold to a fire mission of so many x rounds, if a target isn't destroyed, call in further missions.

 

[robject]

Taking the 4518th as representative, it seems that a company-sized mercenary group will be basically 3 platoons of troops --

If I understand troop fire teams correctly, each squad has a battledressed marine.

If it has vehicle support, then each platoon will have appx four grav APCs each, and the company itself also may have a Grav Tank platoon. The 4518 uses 20 ton grav tanks, which seem to be heavy critters indeed.



4518th Lift Infantry Battalion

3x Lift Infantry Companies:
- 3 platoons of 3 squads each of a grav APC + 12 troops.
- Platoon leader in a support APC.

1x Grav Tank Company
- 3 platoons of: 3 grav tanks (each tank has a commander + 3 crew) + 1 command tank with platoon leader, platoon sergeant, and 3 crew.
- Typically, one grav tank platoon (4 tanks) goes with each Lift Infantry Company.

1x Artillery Battery for battalion support
- two artillery sections of four APCs (crew of 5) each:
- section 1 has multiple rocket launchers
- section 2 is armed with remote-controlled drone missiles
- ammunition transport is supplied as needed

 

[Dragoner]

Is that from the JTAS or SMC?

I have seen it before. My feelings is that it is organized for counter insurgency work with the tanks in support of infantry. Otherwise, it is that type of formation that the French fielded in 1940 and the Germans defeated. It is best to assume that tanks are kept in their battalion, as to concentrate firepower, esp if one thinks they will encounter enemy armor.

One thing is does show is the different permutations of military organization, often mission specific, something non-standard mercenary units would be rife with.

Here are some ww2 OoB's, which modern OoB's are derived from, the Soviet and German late war organization is most interesting (and relevant) I think:

http://niehorster.orbat.com/index.htm

 

[Enoki]

They could have a quick connect robotic conveyor belt system that would automatically feed rounds into the magazine of the SPA. Eventually, you would shoot off all your ammo, so it would be important to hold to a fire mission of so many x rounds, if a target isn't destroyed, call in further missions.

It isn' t a matter of how fast you can shoot. Its a matter of how much it costs. For a mercenary force cost per round to bang for the buck is much more important than sophistication. I would think that a typical mercenary force would be predisposed to cheap and efficent mortars firing inexpensive rounds to having an expensive and delicate self-propelled gun firing costly ammunition.
Against most opponets that are not first rate militaries and against "the natives" mortars firing cheap mass produced bombs are perfectly adequite. Maybe mount the mortar in a cheap truck or lightly armored APC for mobility. Add a cheap reasonably flexible and accurate fire control system and you are golden.

The discussion I see here is more akin to a government military's view of things. Somebody else is paying. Top of the line is what we want. Mercenary forces have never operated that way. They work on cheap and effective.

 

[Dragoner]

Each arty system is going to have it's downside, cost but effective is one analysis. If a mortar in a truck won't be effective against another force, so at any price it is too much. Heavy mortars as well, lack range vs their same bomb weight howitzer counterpart. Cannons have superior range but lack plunging fire. IMO, a neo-"Grid Square Remover" M270 system (on a grav chassis) would be most popular as it would have multi-role munitions and the ability to shoot and scoot to avoid counter battery fire.

 

[Mithras]

If only the Type R subsidized merchant was jump 2, it would make a fine ro-ro tank transporter, with plenty of troop accommodation, too.

 

[Enoki]

Each arty system is going to have it's downside, cost but effective is one analysis. If a mortar in a truck won't be effective against another force, so at any price it is too much. Heavy mortars as well, lack range vs their same bomb weight howitzer counterpart. Cannons have superior range but lack plunging fire. IMO, a neo-"Grid Square Remover" M270 system (on a grav chassis) would be most popular as it would have multi-role munitions and the ability to shoot and scoot to avoid counter battery fire.

Mercenaries are not normally national armies under government control. They are forces hired for a specific purpose by governments, corporations and, people that cannot afford a standing army or are afraid of having one. That means they are not normally going to be going toe-to-toe with other military forces; particularly good ones run by powerful nations / systems.

A mercenary commander is going to look at a multi-million credit hi-tech missile launcher that fires missiles costing hundreds of thousands to a million or more credits a shot and decide very quickly he can neither afford nor maintain such an expensive piece of equipment. Its all fine and dandy for a billion credit government budget army but not for a mercenary force that is mostly engaged in keeping the peace or thumping on the local natives when necessary.
A hundred thousand spent on a couple of vehicle mounted good mortars with a decent fire control system and a thousand rounds of ammuntion looks like a much better deal in such circumstances.

That is the reality of mercenary operations. If you want a good idea of a quasi-government run mercenary force look at the French Foreign Legion. That is exactly what they are. They don't get high tech. They get good enough.

 

[rancke]

If only the Type R subsidized merchant was jump 2, it would make a fine ro-ro tank transporter, with plenty of troop accommodation, too.

Use the Type R2 merchant. (That's a type R hull with a jump-2 drive.

And, no, it's not canonical.


Hans