Merc Equipment

[alanb]

Originally posted by plop101:
never, never, let a munchkin have battle dress and a personal battle cruiser with a spinal mount. thats just asking for trouble.

Heh.

No, it's only a problem if you let them have a battle cruiser that is fully automated, or has a crew that is so fanatically loyal that they will never, ever mutiny.

And battle dress is either something you wear on a battlefield, or has a big target painted on it.

Of course the munchkin will be offended when you tell them their character is dead, but that's par for the course. Munchkins generally manage to kill themselves off.

More generally: IMTU, mercs are generally raised and equipped by planetary governments. As such, they get whatever the planetary government can provide/afford. Of course, the mercs themselves may act as brokers in providing this equipment, but this is often viewed with caution by the clients.

The real value of mercs lie in their skills.

Alan B

 

[orc65]

I think the merc unit should provide all basic gear, such as weapons, armour and uniforms.
The average merc will modify it to suit his/her personal taste. Some will have odd headgear, a favourite personal sidearm,etc.

The RLI used to have a surplus store wear the troopers could go and get their basic web gear made to suit their taste, many carried non-standard sidearms, and quite often wear an odd mix of standard uniform whilst in the field.
Many also recovered weapons from the fallen enemy, sidearms were prize items.

 

[Anthony]

As was discussed in another thread:

Transporting mercenaries is expensive; even low passage will be Cr 1,000 per head, one way, and that neglects the transport cost of gear. Counting everything, spending less than Cr 10,000 per mercenary, on arms and training, is likely to be foolish. This pretty much eliminates cheap, low-tech mercenaries, unless you're on a balkanized world and the mercenaries are planetary rather than interstellar. Most mercs will in fact be well equipped and well trained, though they may not have much in the way of mechanized components.

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Anthony:
Most mercs will in fact be well equipped and well trained, though they may not have much in the way of mechanized components.

I agree, with one caveat: it can be _quicker_ to transport a unit in from off world than to raise and train one locally. This can be critical in certain circumstances. Of course, there will always be some kind of time lag, but six weeks* versus six months is a big difference. See the Pacific theatre in early 1942 for details...

*This figure assumes an already existing unit, rather than one raised from scratch, obviously.

As far as uniforms go: I don't see that a merc unit will necessarily be less uniformly outfitted than its employers' regular units.

First, in many cases the mercs will be part of the regular units, and uniformed appropriately. This deals with the "contractor" and "foreign legion" cases.

Second, if the unit is a standing "condottieri" type unit, it _may_ well have its own uniform and standard equipment.

A unit assembled from lots of freelance gunmen might have a considerable range of equipment, but this raises some doubts about their ability to function as a unit... Such a group might make a kind of sense for some special forces units, but for most purposes it doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Alan B

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by alanb:
I agree, with one caveat: it can be _quicker_ to transport a unit in from off world than to raise and train one locally.

Of course, but the point is that it's expensive to transport the unit, so you want to go and hire a highly qualified small unit instead of a poorly qualified large unit.

 

[Andrew]

I see no reason why mercenaries could not have battle dress , tanks and similar heavy weapons as these are not really a threat to the Imperium. Capital warships are another issue.
However I think that within the Imperium the main restriction on Mercanry equipemnt are the imperial rules of war. These ban excessive offworld involvement in a war on a planet and excessive disruption of trade.
Large space battles will damage the trade infrastructure of Imperial worlds and risk imperial military intervention reducing the value of capital ships.
The excessive offworld influence rule will make the use of battledress more difficult most situations involving mercenaries seem to take place on worlds of low to mid tech (TL5-10). Large mercenary formations with very advanced weapons would be a major influence in these wars and if too effective could trigger Imperial intervention. It may be more politic to bring in TL8 Equipped mercenaries to fight the war on your TL-6 Planet than bring in TL-15 troops and risk Imperial intervention

 

[mike wightman]

Capital warships are another issue.

Once again this comes down to the "what do you mean by a capital warship" question .
In the pre High Guard small ship OTU the largest ship given stats was the 1200t Kinunir, the second largest (and biggest LBB2 ship) is the Type C cruiser, later renamed the Mercenary Cruiser. That's a hefty piece of kit for a merc outfit to own/operate and is still effective in TNE and T4.
It is only in the large ship model of the TU, High Guard, MT, T20 where an 800t merc cruiser is an inconsequence in ship to ship engagements.
Come to think of it Adventure 7 Broadsword included a ship combat scenario which pits a merc cruiser and 2 SDBs vs a 2000t Zhodani strike cruiser. While on the subject of A7 the merc unit in this adventure have access to combat armour, battle dress for the FGMP-14 support troops(all 3 of them). And all of this for a ticket on a TL10 world.

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Andrew:
Capital warships are another issue.

The general question is: who owns the equipment?

It is entirely reasonable for a planetary government to buy/lease a capital ship, and hire a mercenary crew for it. This makes it part of their planetary navy, and every thing is fine.

Having the mercs own it is another matter. The Traveller Adventure or some other early source suggested that large privately owned warships were frowned up within Imperial borders. On the other hand, mercs provided by a megacorp might well be part of the "planetary navy" of one of the worlds controlled by the megacorp. But that is where the excessive offworld interference thing comes in.

Finally, however, there is the case of Aslan Ihatei. These are likely to roll up with a bunch of capital ships, and make "land for military service" deals. There probably isn't much that can be done about this, so they are likely to get away with it.

Of course, the main thing to consider is: who are the mercs going to fight? We tend to assume that they will be involved in internal conflicts, but it is entirely likely that they will be fighting _external_ enemies. The Imperium is probably going to have a different attitude to mercenaries deployed against the Zhodani, Sword Worlds, Vargr, Aslan or Solomani, than mercs engaged in palace coups.

As I've pointed out many times before, I tend to de-emphasise the "private army" style of merc unit anyway, so their equipment isn't a problem.

Alan

 

[Whipsnade]

alanb wrote:

"The general question is: who owns the equipment?"

Alan,

IMTU, it depends on how big the merc outfit is. Generally, the larger the unit the less chance they own their equipment. Thus 'Pappy's Platoon' owns the ACRs, mortars, and recoilless rifles it uses while the 'Banasdan Mechanized Battalion' uses equipment that their owners. a planetary government, gives them.

"It is entirely reasonable for a planetary government to buy/lease a capital ship, and hire a mercenary crew for it. This makes it part of their planetary navy, and every thing is fine."

IMTU, the Imperium would look long and hard any 'merc' vessel sporting a spinal mount, whether it 'belongs' to a planetary navy or not. IMTU, most planetary navies are monitors and SDBs; you can build whatever you like for yourself as long as it cannot jump.

"Having the mercs own it is another matter. The Traveller Adventure or some other early source suggested that large privately owned warships were frowned up within Imperial borders."

Oberlindes 'Emissary', an ex-AHL cruiser that can 'only' operate outside of the Imperium.

"On the other hand, mercs provided by a megacorp might well be part of the "planetary navy" of one of the worlds controlled by the megacorp. But that is where the excessive offworld interference thing comes in."

Yup, that's where politics come into it. Like so much in the Third Imperium, if you have the political muscle you can do pretty much as you please.

"Finally, however, there is the case of Aslan Ihatei. These are likely to roll up with a bunch of capital ships, and make "land for military service" deals. There probably isn't much that can be done about this, so they are likely to get away with it."

Th ihatei; once they are allowed across the border, are a special case. However their warships are obsolete by Aslan standards and are second or third hand to begin with. A TL 11 or 12 warship may be scary to a Beowulf or three, but a few TL 15 SDBs could scrap it quickly. Without nuc dampers, most ihatei warships are easy meat.

"We tend to assume that they will be involved in internal conflicts, but it is entirely likely that they will be fighting _external_ enemies."

A very important point. Mercs may also be part of a planetary government's policies to produce veterans for its own home forces.

"As I've pointed out many times before, I tend to de-emphasise the "private army" style of merc unit anyway, so their equipment isn't a problem."

Ditto. All the big units are beholden to someone else. Like Drake's 'Slammers' who began life as a unit of the Friesland planetary army, most mercs are not independent operators. They are sponsored by planetary governments, powerful nobles, and corporations. All of those sponsors will find work for them too!


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
IMTU, the Imperium would look long and hard any 'merc' vessel sporting a spinal mount, whether it 'belongs' to a planetary navy or not. IMTU, most planetary navies are monitors and SDBs; you can build whatever you like for yourself as long as it cannot jump.

And of course you can hire the crews you want... including offworlder mercenaries.

Alan B

 

[kaladorn]

Though in large part I agree with LEW (quelle surprise!), I will add the following:

One major argument may be expense and difficulty of maintenance. I look at BD as a short term assault tool, not something you want to live in for a prolonged Ctr Ins or Inst Sec ticket. Maybe for Raid/Striker actions, but even then for only small parts of some larger operations. And there is a big overhead in jump troop capability if you want it, and if not, just in supporting BD in terms of techs, spares, fitters to help get into it, etc. So only small commando forces or larger forces that have a small BD assault component would use it. Thus, most actions that involve mercs that aren't resolved within 72 hours would be more of the form where conventionally equiped units would prevail.

There is something to be said for being able to get spares locally, and a 20 year veteran of the Imperial Marines given a TL-7 AR will still be damn dangerous. (Queue Mr. Berry)

 

[Jame]

So BD's out unless the unit specializes in assaults. What do you suggest for more advanced (tl 9+) units, specializing in long-term non-assault (or at least, few assault) missions?

 

[kaladorn]

Questions:
- Armoured or Mechanized or Foot Infantry?
- Spec Ops? Or more conventional? or LRRPs or the like?
- Primary jobs as Security/Striker or merely as Cadre?
- Which particular TL would you like an opinion for?
- Degree of available logistical tail - are techs and a repair/resupply base feasible? How about details like arty cover, air support, air transport, etc?

Depending on how you answer these, I'll offer some reasonable suppositions.

 

[Jame]

Primarily mechanized infantry, with tl 9+ (say TTl 11) equipment, with a recon section, a pair of tanks and some AAA. The APCs/AFVs are mixed, with some howitzers and some cannon, to help out. Has some techs, and generally takes Security/Striker/Combat missions. Short "tail," but has a few months' worth of fuel and ammo - the employer is expected to pay for most of it.