Mercenary Units and Tickets

[mbrinkhues]

Well the "arrive by Starship, march into battle with Mules" idea HAS been used (quite sucessfully) in the CoDo Setting of Pournelle. And it would work quite well in 2300AD

BUT: In both games the Orbit to Ground part of a voyage is extremly costly/complex due to the lack of thruster plates and the amount of gear/cargo that can be shipped is very limited. In 2300AD due to the fact that Stutterwarp-Speed is mass-based, in CoDo the ships have to transfer between Alderson-Points

Traveller (except TNE and GT) have no such thing so the only limit to shipping the equivalent of 1st Guards Tanks Army is the price of the vehicles and the transport ships

 

[SgtHulka]

Originally posted by atpollard:
[ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IS JUST MY OPINION...]
If the Ticket prices do not work, then just change them or assume that those prices are "plus expenses". Do not let Credits determine the mission.

Also ONLY MY OPINION or, more accurately, merely for the sake of continuing an interesting coversation...

Referencing Page 20 of Book 4, Mercenary, which I quoted above, I think it's assumed that the patron does pay "plus expenses" unless otherwise stated in the ticket. In this case, the word "expenses" refers specifically to maintenance costs. I think it would be up to the referee whether or not "maintenance" also covers battle damage. Personally, I would say it does. In any case, we don't even learn what "maintenance costs" are until Striker is published, where it's described on pages 34 and 35 of Book 2.

Note that "expenses" most definitely does not refer to either salaries or initial equipment procurement. These are defined within the tickets themselves. For example, Adventure 7 offers a 2 million dollar ticket with the added bonus of double salaries. Nor does "expenses" cover transport for the mercenaries...again this is defined within the ticket itself, an example being Book 4's Commando Ticket.

Another interesting aspect to the "Renumeration" section on LBB 4 that I quoted is that the 60,000 credit figure is based on the number of platoons...not the number of mercenaries. So one way for a Merc company to pad its bid is to have "understrength" platoons. Book 4 assumes a platoon strength of 50 men. But you can get away with a minimum Platoon strength consisting of three eight-man squads and a senior NCO, 25 men total. Each eight-man squad needs to consist, at minimum, of 6 Privates (300 cr and 1 share each), one Corporal (450 cr and 3 shares each), and one Sergeant (550 cr and 4 shares each). The minimum payroll for a squad, then, is 2800 credits per month. The minimum payroll for a platoon is three times that (8400 credits) plus the salary of the Leading Sergeant (700 credits and 5 shares) for 9,100 credits total and . Accepting a ticket offering 60,000 credits gives the above unit 50,900 credits in profit per month, half of which is divided into 44 shares and distributed as follows:

Privates: 578 credits (878/month total)
Corporals: 1,735 credits (2,185/month total)
Sergeants: 2,313 credits (2,863/month total)
Lead. Sergeant: 2,892 credits (3,592/month total)

Compared to a more "typical" 39-man platoon, which would consist of three 12-man squads, each squad consisting of 9 privates, 1 Corporal, 1 Lance Sergeant, and 1 Sergeant, and then an HQ Section consisting of a First Lieutenant, Gunner Sergeant, and Lance Corporal. Total salary for this platoon is 10,800 (Privates) plus 1,350 (Corporals) plus 1,500 (Lance Sergeants) plus 1,650 (Sergeants) plus 600 (Gunnery Sergeant) plus 400 (Lance Corporal) plus 1200 (First Lientenant) for a total monthly payroll of 17,500 credits, leaivng 12,500 credits in profits. Half of that is divided into 51 shares and distributed as follows:

Privates: 171 Cr (471/month total)
Lance Corporal: 343 Cr (743/month total)
Corporals: 515 Cr (965/month total)
Lance Sergeants: 515 Cr (1,015/month total)
Sergeants: 686 Cr (1,236/month total)
Gunnery Sergeant: 686 Cr (1,286/month total)
1st Lieutenant: 1,029 Cr (2,229/month total)

In all cases, recruits are actually encouraged to accept a lower rank and fill out a smaller platoon because they will make more money in the first scenario than the second. Even a former Marine First Lieutenant will make around 1,300 credits per month extra by taking a position as a Leading Sergeant on a merc ticket instead.

Now, looking at the "small platoon" described above, after salaries and shares the Merc Company has 25,450 Credits to spend on equipment. And it has 25 men to equip. That's roughly 1,000 credits per man, and certainly not enough to purchase anything even remotely high-tech. I'd probably purchase the following:

Standard Troopers (4 per Squad, 12 Total):
Cloth Armor 250 (worn default)
Ablat Armor 75 (worn circumstantially)
Assault Rifle 200
--2 Clips 40
Snub Pistol 150
--2 Clips 20
Total Cost=735Crx12=8820

Asst Gunner (1 per Squad, 3 Total):
Cloth Armor 250 (worn default)
Ablat Armor 75 (worn circumstantially)
RAM GL 400
--3 HEAP 150
--3 HE 150
Snub Pistol 150
--2 Clips 20
Total Cost=1,195x3=3,585

Heavy Gunner (1 per Squad, 3 Total):
Cloth Armor 250 (worn default)
Ablat Armor 75 (worn circumstantially)
Light Assault Gun 600
--2 Clips DS 40
--2 Clips HE 40
--2 Clips Fl 40
Snub Pistol 150
--2 Clips 20
Total Cost=1,215x3=3,645

Team Leaders (2 per Squad plus Leading Sergeant, 7 Total):
Cloth Armor 250 (worn default)
Ablat Armor 75 (worn circumstantially)
Submachinegun 500
--2 Clips 40
Snub Pistol 150
--2 Clips 20
Total Cost=1,035x7=7,245

Total Cost of Equipment=23,295Cr
Total Profit from 1 Month Ticket=2,155Cr
Tech Level of Platoon=~8

It's not until the second month of the ticket that this Merc Platoon becomes profitable.

 

[SgtHulka]

For kicks and giggles let's take the above 25-man platoon, a merc group named "Hulka's Hammers", on a Security Mission. They're gaurding a mining camp on Mithril and think it's a milk run. Unfortunately for the, once during the ticket they see combat with rebel forces. The Referee uses Book 4's Absract System to resolve the ticket:

Preperation:
1. Mission: This has already been determined as "Security".
2. Tech Level: Equipment has already been puchased for the Mercs at Tech Level 8. The Indigenous Units are Tech Level 10. Clearly they're being supplied by off-worlders.
3. Size: The mercs are a Platoon (25 effectives, 10-man preservation level). The Indigenous Units are a Battalion (452 effectives, 181-man preservation level). The mercs are seriously outgunned.
4. Efficiency: Mercs 7, Indigenous troops 1. The mercs catch a break there -- the indies are well-equipped, but haven't bee properly trained.

Resolution:

1. Element Engaged: A merc squad (8 effectives, 3-man preservation level) is attacked by an indigenous Company (127 effectives, 50-man preservation level).
2. Encounter Type: Fortunately, a patrol of mercs catch the indiginous company with their pants down. (enemy surprised).
3. Combat Resolution: The mercs can't inflict any casualties, since they have a -7 DM (-5 for squad versus company, -2 for tech level differential). However, since it was an Enemy Surprised Encounter Tyupe, the mercs take no casualties, either.

Despite one scare during which a lot of lead was thrown but nobody hurt, the mercs make it out of their ticket alive and without any losses other than ammunition.

EDIT: Hulka's Hammers are in serious trouble. Pleased with their performance, their employer has offered another month's contract. However, now that they know a little bit about the rebel forces, Hulka's Hammers feel lucky to be alive. They might not be so lucky next month. Yet it's unlikely that they could activate their repatriation bond -- their employer isn't really guilty of anything. And they don't have nearly enough money to secure passage off-planet. It looks like they will be forced to disband.

 

[atpollard]

Alvin York says that "Hulka's Hammers" just fell below the resolution of the combat rules, like the silly High Guard combat where two ships cannot inflict damage on each other because they have sub-spinal mount weapons and too much armor. The exact same encounter under another set of rules would probably yield very different results.

Thank you for the design and combat example. It was a good read and presented things far clearer than any debate of opinions could have.

As an aside, a 'Serenity' like Free Trader could probably hire "Hulka's Hammers", upgrade their equipment for less than his monthly ship payment (what his monthly payment would be if he had not 'skipped' on the bank) and conquer both sides in this security ticket. Then, let the looting begin ...

Of course "Hulka's Hammers" would never behave like that, but it points out the consequences of a "Hard Times" style mercenary campaign. I bet the private security companies operating in Somalia and Iraq are not living hand to mouth and fighting with WW2 Garand Rifles.

A government could easily afford to spend 1% of its GNP on defense - that's a lot of money to hire mercenaries with better than local equipment.

Just some thoughts.

 

[SgtHulka]

Originally posted by atpollard:
As an aside, a 'Serenity' like Free Trader could probably hire "Hulka's Hammers", upgrade their equipment for less than his monthly ship payment (what his monthly payment would be if he had not 'skipped' on the bank) and conquer both sides in this security ticket. Then, let the looting begin ...

The hard part is making enough money for a down payment on that Free Trader!

Originally posted by atpollard:
Of course "Hulka's Hammers" would never behave like that, but it points out the consequences of a "Hard Times" style mercenary campaign. I bet the private security companies operating in Somalia and Iraq are not living hand to mouth and fighting with WW2 Garand Rifles.

Hulka's Hammers should consider themselves lucky. A corrupt quartermaster could have equipped them to Tech 2-standard, with broadswords and jack, and pocketed the difference! Imagine hiring private security in Baghdad and having them show up at the airport with a donkey cart...

Originally posted by atpollard:
A government could easily afford to spend 1% of its GNP on defense - that's a lot of money to hire mercenaries with better than local equipment.

Striker actually provides some pretty interesting rules to this effect. It's at the beginning of Section IV: Integration With Traveller, on page 38 of Book 2. It offers a calculation for GNP, and then gives guidelines on what the yearly military budget would be.

Taking Garda-Vilis rom Adventure 7 as an example...B978868 A...Tech A gives them a base of 12,000 which is unmodified by Trade Class. Multiplied by a population of "hundreds of millions", let's give the benefit of the doubt and say 100 million, which gives it a GNP of 1.2 trillion. Of that, typically 3% is dedicated to military spending...so now we're at 36 billion credits.

Of the total military budget, 30% goes straight to the Imperium. So now we're down to 25.2 billion. Of that amount, only 40% goes to the ground forces (60% reserved for space). Now we're at 10.08 billion.

That's a lot of samolians! It makes you wonder why they need a platoon of Tech 12 mercenaries to help sort out their problems.

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by SgtHulka:
Now we're at 10.08 billion.

That's a lot of samolians! It makes you wonder why they need a platoon of Tech 12 mercenaries to help sort out their problems.

... and why they only have 60,000 credits in petty cash to pay them.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by SgtHulka:
Now we're at 10.08 billion.

That's a lot of samolians! It makes you wonder why they need a platoon of Tech 12 mercenaries to help sort out their problems.

Deniability? "We didn't break any of the laws, it was those mercs, they are criminals and will be tried as such if we ever get the chance."

Or maybe because Striker and Mercenary are two different games? Like trying to apply TCS or FFW to High Guard or LBB1-3

Or more likely the game designers never looked at the numbers between them and just wanted to make each one a fun game in it's own niche.

 

[SgtHulka]

Originally posted by far-trader:
Deniability? "We didn't break any of the laws, it was those mercs, they are criminals and will be tried as such if we ever get the chance."

Heh heh. I think its because of the corrupt ruling council and those bastards back on Vilis. They're bleeding Garda-Vilis, I mean Tanoose, dry, and exporting the profits. Join the Tanoose Liberation Front! Viva Tanoose!

 

[SgtHulka]

Originally posted by atpollard:
Alvin York says that "Hulka's Hammers" just fell below the resolution of the combat rules, like the silly High Guard combat where two ships cannot inflict damage on each other because they have sub-spinal mount weapons and too much armor. The exact same encounter under another set of rules would probably yield very different results.

Probably. But you could also justify the described encounter using Striker. In fact, if you check out the "Striker in Action: A Firefight" on page 13 of Striker Book 1, you see a description of an action remarkably similar, though from the other side's perspective. In the Hulka's Hammers version you have a Hulka Hammers patrol detecting a rebel company on the move before the rebel company detects it. Hulka's Hammers sets up an ambush and throws lead at a flanking squad of the rebels. The inexperienced rebels take no casualties, but most of the squad routes. The company commander gives the entire company orders to halt while he figures out what the heck just happened. He works his way to the squad that was under attack only to discover they're shaken and that Hulka's Hammers have long since disappeared back into the bush. End of action. No casualties. Net result: Hulka's Hammers packs up to leave, wanting no part of the Combat Environment Suit-wearing Advanced Combat Rifle-weilding rebel forces!

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by SgtHulka:
Well said, BetterThanLife. You put into words a lot of what I was feeling while trying to get my head around a LBB 4 mercenary campaign. I hadn't conceived of large merc units dividing down into companies, but that makes a lot of sense...assuming the economics even allow for large merc companies, which I'm not sure they really do.

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
I totally agree with the ticket prices in Mercenary etc. and I totally ignore them in my games. This is really about units and missions, prices come next.

Well, aren't missions by definition entirely dependent on price? The whole point of a mercenary company is to make money. If the mission comes with a ticket price too low to effectively make a profit off of, the merc company should pass. It's possible I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, here, but I'd think the price comes first...only after the price does the unit's owner decide whether the mission is achievable.

As for the size of the force...shouldn't it be variable? Is it more economically feasible to have, say, eight partners who are experts in their respective fields, and then have enough equipment for a Tech Level 12 Company, but have no other "employees"? Then when you accept the merc ticket the first thing you do is recruit your mercenaries on a contractor basis. If you do it on the planet where the ticket takes place, you don't even have to pay for space transport of personel...you just have to transport the equipment.</font>[/QUOTE]It takes 2 weeks on a high population world to recruit a platoon of Mercenaries and most of them would be Green Troops. If you look at the pay scale you will realize the truth that was the Magnificent 7. Men are cheaper than guns. You are only looking at Cr300-Cr500 per soldier per month.Anyone that makes more than that, you are going to want to keep around anyway. Doing it that way, means you are looking at, between communication time, negotiations to fix the price, recruiting time, training time, finding a ride and travel time, 6 month minimum, between when the entity decides to hire a Mercenary Unit and when they have boots on the ground. You could train your own army in that time. And that means that the Mercenary unit is going 6 months before they start earning money. Mercenary Units have to be more responsive to make a living.

The advantage to having a space asset like a Broadsword in this kind of situation is that you can choose any planet within Jump-3 of the Ticket World to base your recruitment efforts on.

Actually the real advantage to having your own space assets is that it makes you more responsive.

Anyway, the above is a long-winded way of saying instead of paying and equipping and housing a company of soldiers "on call" 24/7, just recruit them when you have the ticket in hand. The savings would be substantial.

Though the time between the Entity wants to hire mercenaries to when you have trained boots on the ground is also substantial, you may lose most of those savings in recruiting and training time, sitting around on your butts.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
Doing it that way, means you are looking at, between communication time, negotiations to fix the price, recruiting time, training time, finding a ride and travel time, 6 month minimum, between when the entity decides to hire a Mercenary Unit and when they have boots on the ground. You could train your own army in that time.

Assuming you have trainers, that is. Note that hiring mercenaries as trainers/military advisers is totally realistic, if not exactly the same thing as a mercenary company. For that matter, you can also have incomplete mercenary units consisting only of specialists, vehicles, and the like, which hires out to governments to provide those components of a military force that the government lacks (e.g. transport).

Given the cost of transport in the TU, I suspect that most mercenary units are designed around small, relatively elite forces, and expect that Warm Bodies, if needed, will be local.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Anthony:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
Doing it that way, means you are looking at, between communication time, negotiations to fix the price, recruiting time, training time, finding a ride and travel time, 6 month minimum, between when the entity decides to hire a Mercenary Unit and when they have boots on the ground. You could train your own army in that time.

Assuming you have trainers, that is. Note that hiring mercenaries as trainers/military advisers is totally realistic, if not exactly the same thing as a mercenary company. For that matter, you can also have incomplete mercenary units consisting only of specialists, vehicles, and the like, which hires out to governments to provide those components of a military force that the government lacks (e.g. transport).

Given the cost of transport in the TU, I suspect that most mercenary units are designed around small, relatively elite forces, and expect that Warm Bodies, if needed, will be local. </font>[/QUOTE]If you have an Army then you have enough trainers to train enough people during the course of 6 months, minimum to get Mercenary Boots on the Ground. If you don't have that much then you hire a few Ex-Marines at the nearest Class A starport and ship them over to train your army. Much faster results and cheaper than hiring a Mercenary Unit that you have to wait as long for. For that you don't need a Cadre ticket, just a few Adventurers.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
If you have an Army then you have enough trainers to train enough people during the course of 6 months, minimum to get Mercenary Boots on the Ground. If you don't have that much then you hire a few Ex-Marines at the nearest Class A starport and ship them over to train your army.

You know what we call those people? 'Mercenaries'.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Anthony:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
If you have an Army then you have enough trainers to train enough people during the course of 6 months, minimum to get Mercenary Boots on the Ground. If you don't have that much then you hire a few Ex-Marines at the nearest Class A starport and ship them over to train your army.

You know what we call those people? 'Mercenaries'. </font>[/QUOTE]Yes. But you aren't hiring a Mercenary Unit. (So why there would be a Cadre ticket, in general, is beyond me.) Unlike the other tickets, where the unit has to act like a unit, in general trainers (Advisors?) such as this don't have that limitation. So just recruit them individually yourself.

 

[Liam Devlin]

BTL --Cadre ticket:

Classic example: Claire Chennault's 'Flying Tigers". China, had no airforce, nor trained airmen. By 1945 they did.

Plenty of reasons for the Cadre ticket. read some history.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
Yes. But you aren't hiring a Mercenary Unit. (So why there would be a Cadre ticket, in general, is beyond me.) Unlike the other tickets, where the unit has to act like a unit, in general trainers (Advisors?) such as this don't have that limitation. So just recruit them individually yourself.

Actually, it does help to have a group of trainers who already know how to work together, because it gives you consistency of training and means trainers can trade off to cover particular strengths and weaknesses. In reality cadre forces are usually small groups, not individuals.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Liam Devlin:
BTL --Cadre ticket:

Classic example: Claire Chennault's 'Flying Tigers". China, had no airforce, nor trained airmen. By 1945 they did.

Plenty of reasons for the Cadre ticket. read some history.

I do know a bit about the Flying Tigers. (I even went as far as to read Boyington's book years ago.) Another example is the typical mission for a US Special Forces A-Team. I am not saying such units don't exist. However instead of hiring a unit full of raw recruits and waiting long periods of time, to get your Mercenary Boots on the ground, which recruiting for each ticket causes, you could simply train what you need locally faster.

 

[SgtHulka]

I've got a question about the mechanics of Cadre tickets.

In general, I would think that a Cadre ticket would consist of a small group of Mercs, all with "Recruitment" and "Instruction" skill, heading off into the bush or wherever, to recruit and train a military force...the size of the force defined by the ticket.

However, how does it work when the ticket specifies a merc unit size? The Book 4 Cadre ticket makes sense...it just defines a number of Mercs, not an actual unit. However, the other Tickets I have access to, like 78 Patrons and an Amber Zone from the JTAS specify a unit size.

Let's take Ticket 1 from 76 Patrons. "Stivic offers double standard salaries to a company-sized cadre force, short ticket." The mission is to train and organize an unsuccessful rebellion. Stivik is providing 2,000 small arms, so I'd imagine he expects a brigade-sized rebel army.

In this kind of mission, the "typical" troopers in a company are going to be worthless. What you really need are a lot of instructors and recruiters, and then officers to lead the rebels. A Private with Gauss Rifle-2 is just going to suck up salary without doing anything.

So what's the point of specifying a Company? Are they really saying "Stivic wants about 127 men", and he doesn't expect these men to be organized as a company? So the Mercs show up with 127 Officers and Recruiters?

Or, do the Mercs show up with a "typical" Company, but after training the rebel brigade, Merc Privates are field promoted to Sergeants leading rebel squads, Merc Corporals are promoted to Leading Sergeants leading rebel platoons, Merc Sergeants are promoted to Captains leading rebel companies, Merc Lieutenants are promoted to Major leading rebel battalions, and the Captain is promoted to Colonel, leading the whole kit and kaboodle?

If the latter, how is "double standard salaries" worked out? As per their original, non-field-promoted rank? Or as the rank they take leading the newly-trained rebel brigade?

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
I do know a bit about the Flying Tigers. (I even went as far as to read Boyington's book years ago.) Another example is the typical mission for a US Special Forces A-Team. I am not saying such units don't exist. However instead of hiring a unit full of raw recruits and waiting long periods of time, to get your Mercenary Boots on the ground, which recruiting for each ticket causes, you could simply train what you need locally faster.

Depends on the assets you have available for training; in general if you already have trainers, you're best off using them. Also depends on the time frame involved. If you need troops at some point in the fairly distant future, or at an indefinite point in the future, waiting six weeks for a merc trainer isn't that big a problem.

 

[flykiller]

So what's the point of specifying a Company?

if a company trains a brigade, that's 1 instructor per 16 or so trainees. by book 4 rules that's a little thin, but doable, assuming that every one of them has instruction skill. and I'd imagine that any merc unit that advertises itself as cadre would be heavily loaded with personnel who have instruction skill.