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How are merc tickets advertised?

Murphy

SOC-12
I don't understand how it works. Do mercenaries roam the sector at random sending recon couriers back and forth actively looking for work?

Because there's a lot of tickets like "our forces can't hold out for long so we hire offworld mercs to help us out" but none take into account that finding and hiring mercs and bringing them on-site is going to take weeks if not months -- because we need to travel to a high traffic world which may be a dozen parsecs away.

Another offender is "we're suddenly short of personnel so we hire mercs to guard this installation for 3 months" ticket. Essentially then the installation is unguarded for 1,5 months while we look for mercs, eh?
 
I guess mercs are like a corner grocery store, strictly a local business. :)

You actually make some good points.
I guess that the travel time must be built into the background ... so the HQ knows that they will have a 3 month gap in coverage starting in 2 months, so by the time the agent reaches the Merc company and subtracts travel time to the world, the time is urgent and the merc unit must leave immediately to arrive just in time.

It is a clumsy solution, but the best that I can come up with at the moment.
 
The lack of FTL comms and such is definitely a hassle. IMTU, the mercenary business has several outlets. First of all, there are several high-pop worlds that act as clearing houses for such activity. These worlds host firms that specialize in mercenary tickets and negotiation. Mercenaries contract with these firms for such tickets so that individual employers/governments know where to go to get the services. These firms manage dozens of outfits so that they are capable of meeting needs on a fairly regular basis. In addition, these same firms are likely to have satellite offices in various locations.

The time-lag will be crucial however.

This same concept would tend to support that mercenary groups are often localized to a subsector or, in odd cases if the group is transient enough or large enough, an entire Sector. For most tickets, the need for speed requires that a sufficient force be located within a jump or three of the employer. Other tickets however, such as planned raiding, invasion, garrison and cadre duties can be more distant since the immediate need is far less an issue.

At the same time, the mercenary groups are likely to have to move from contract to contract with very little downtime. In addition, the mercenary groups themselves may be in the business of going out and finding contracts. [See “The Sharp End” by David Drake, Hammer’s Slammers for an example of this.]

For example: Upstart government on Messanta needs a striker force for boosting forces engaged in ground war on their planet. The government sends out a courier to a planet within a couple jumps that has a firm engaged in such services. The firm checks their roster and sees that three groups are available within a few jumps or so. One of the groups is in-between jobs and the other two are finishing up but their deployment would be delayed. The employer’s rep looks over the available ones and requests them in ranked order. All negotiations are handled by the broker themselves.

A trio of couriers/messages is sent out to those three groups with a potential lead-time for the first ranked group. The mercenary groups receive the message and the first one confirms that it can make immediate transit. It begins preparations for departure while the message reply is queued to catch up to the other two groups. So a few days after the message reached group two and three, a second message indicates that it was no longer available. These groups knew that they were ranked second and third so did not begin immediate prep. If they had, say like in an urgent situation, then the mercenaries contract with the brokerage firm likely covers the expenses of such “false starts.” The premium for urgent-immediate contracts is priced to cover such mistakes.

The entire system requires a constant flow of information that is considered the norm for the Imperium along X-Boat Routes where many ships are jumping in and uploading messages and most-recent information for banking and corporate concerns. Once off the X-Boat route, a firm is likely to work within free traders/corporate lines and independent mail routes to get the information to all of the parties.

Generally, the need for mercenaries will have to be foreseen in advance. Or there is likely a good market for retainer agreements with brokerage firms. Those firms are responsible for filling tickets from their merc group clientele.

In thinking about it, it makes for some interesting situations. First, any urgent tickets would not be able to pick and choose from the various mercenary groups since the broker would need to handle it. Second, the brokerage firm that has the largest merc clientele is going to be the most successful since it can cover a lot of ground and fill tickets faster than others.

There are some interesting possibilities for mistakes or just amateur hour cramming. A redlined immediate need contract lands on an artillery regiment when it should go to infantry or similar situations. Mercenaries showing up too late and gaining only expenses paid or an employer refusing to pay late mercenary groups.

In Battletech, a lot of the contracts involve hiring mercenaries to hold the line to free up regular units to push the advance. This would allow more time lag since the war would have ground down to a stalemate or be in a holding pattern until Employer A’s mercs show up and take over defense. Or the mercs show up and provide the strength necessary to push the advance through.

As noted in Hammer’s Slammers, once one party starts hiring mercenaries it is incumbent for the other side to do the same since mercenary units are professional and well-equipped (usually). In that case, a world in conflict may start out a bidding war where ground forces are locked in a fight on the planet surface. One party to the war hires a mercenary unit or two, word gets out and mercenary forces or their reps show up and hang out in orbit broadcasting offers to the other parties of the conflict.

Quite a mess!
 
That was a useful answer, thanks.

My previous merc campaign wasn't much specific on how exactly they were finding employers... I kinda just glossed over it. Now I can try and remedy this shortcoming for my next one.
 
I would imagine Merc Companies do not advertise conventionally. However the may have brokers, mail drops, or contacts on several worlds in an area where they operate.
After centuries their is probably an informal network of brokers, scouts, and agents specializing in finding clients and connecting them with Possible contractors.
If mercs are treated as The Private Security, and Private Military contractors today then they may even have offices, advertising, and formal means of communication.

certainly noble houses and corporations would have a list of possible groups that are willing to handle their non-standard conflict resolution needs.
 
certainly noble houses and corporations would have a list of possible groups that are willing to handle their non-standard conflict resolution needs.

There's no need when you can have Imperial Troops disguised with Harkonnen, er... I mean, Mercenary uniforms.
 
I suspect that a fair number of planets will have military units available for rental as needed for the right price if it is in their planetary system's interest to do so. In my Traveller Universe, Lloyd's Interstellar Brokerage handles a lot of mercenary contracts, from individuals up to regimental-size units. Above that size, it acts as a middleman for discrete planetary discussions.
 
There's no need when you can have Imperial Troops disguised with Harkonnen, er... I mean, Mercenary uniforms. ...

Hey! Those soldiers were on temporary duty, they were! All proper and legal-like.

Maybe there's just a lot of demand. 375 billion people among 439 worlds in the Marches, there's likely to be a lot of brush fires out there. It may take some time and effort to bring one of the big battalion-size operations in, but locating a company, or a platoon in a Broadsword, might be a lot easier. Almost 10% of the worlds have a population of a billion or more and another 10% have a population in the hundreds of millions, so there's probably one or more smaller merc companies or platoons looking for work within a couple or three parsecs of any given world. Those same companies and platoons may be keeping their ears open for work, so news of a local brushfire could draw nearby unemployed units to send a rep to offer their services before anyone local even started thinking about hiring mercs; those with a ship and nothing better to do may bring the whole unit in the hope that they can gain a ticket at a good price by being ready to act immediately.

With only 42 worlds having tech 12 or better available, all a unit needs to do is show up at a world with gauss rifles and combat environment suits with chameleon covers to start the local political leaders on most worlds thinking about how they might use this unit to tip the balance and bring a quick end to a conflict. With half the worlds at TL8 or lower, any reasonably armored grav vehicle would also be persuasive. After that, it's only a short step to them running numbers and sending someone to the company with an offer - if for no other reason than to keep the other side from hiring them. I'm guessing a lot of these contracts have a, "you don't work for our enemies after you work for us," clause, and I'm guessing at least a few of them got offered simply because the merc unit was in the area and the offering party didn't want to chance them getting hired by the other side.

I can't speak for other sectors, but it's likely to be similar.

Book 4 suggested the lowest price a merc unit could accept would be about Cr60,000 per month per platoon, while saying that it cost Cr15,000 per month to field a platoon (a good chunk more if you're also paying for a starship, but the added asset should mean you get to negotiate a higher fee). The example tickets are a good deal more lucrative than that; I don't nknow how realistic those are. However, that would seem to imply a merc unit could spend half or more of its time idle between tickets and still be reasonably profitable.

As a matter of curiosity, does anyone know if those big merc units featured in FFW - "PSG" at Efate and "SPL" at Ruie - were drawn from any specific source?
 
You can stage a company of leg on a converted type A, if you're willing to popsicle them.

Assuming a 12-man squad (a heavy squad by many modern standards), 2 squads per section, 2 sections per platoon, plus 3 NCO's, and an officer, you need 52 total berths.
That's 204 tons SO in staterooms for a platoon of leg. Double up everyone but the 7 NCOs and the officer, and you can fit them in 30 staterooms, or 120 tons of payload.

Note that this is a heavy platoon. A more modern 8 man squad, 3 squads to the platoon, no sections, 1 officer and 1 NCO, you need 26 staterooms SO or 16 in Troops doubled-up.

Medium Platoon is sections using 8 man squads...

So, payload tonnage for Troops:

Unit:Light PlatoonMedium PlatoonHeavy Platoon
Men+Sgts+Off21+4+128+7+144+7+1
(A)Staterooms, Single263652
(B)Staterooms, Sgts & Offs SO15.52230
(C)Staterooms, SSgt, PSgt, & Offi SO142028
Tons, A mode104144208
Tons, B mode62 (64)88120
Tons, C mode5680102

Now, for even a short deployment, you're going to want about 0.1Td per man in supplies, as well...
For an indefinite deployment, more like 1Td per man, to allow for adequate tentage, ammo for a month, and some generators.

Battledress, add at least 0.5Td per man just for the suiting frames.
Gravmobile, it's about an extra 1Td per man for vehicular, or 0.1 per man for grav belts and spares.

Armor may actually be cheaper to ship, due largely to 4 man and smaller "squad" sizes...
A 15 Td heavy tank has a nominal crew of 3, and will need spares... so it's 15 for the tank, 8 or 12 for the bodies, and call it 1.5 to 3 (10% to 20%) for fuel, ammo and spares for a short deployment. for 25-30Td per squad. Until the company level, Armor generally doesn't have "extra bodies" but may have 3 to 5 squads per platoon... so a platoon is 90-150 tons... versus a heavy leg infantry platoon at 107-260 tons.

So, hiring a merc unit without a ship is likely to be expensive... you're chartering a lot of tonnage, and likely having to install temporary staterooms on the charter. Or, you're chartering a liner.

And a Merc unit WITH a ship is unlikely to stick it out if things are going south too quick.
 
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