BattleTech Force Construction: How to part 1 (We're building a Company!)

 Hey Folks, we’re back to work on Force Construction again.  Today we’re going to start the Force Construction process and see how far we get.  Now, because this is BattleTech, and we have plastic minis, i’m going to try and build a force out of the Minis i have.  We’re using Force Manual: Davion (you can read our review here) and use the process we discussed Here)  Buckle Up, we’re about to live our lives a quarter of a mile at a time…’

How do we do this?  

All right, I’m going to go slightly out of order and skip step 1, “Select a BV or PV” because that is not the focus of *this* project. I’ll run totals for this when it’s done, but right now, my arbitrary limits are 1 MILLION Battle Value, and 10,000 points.  I am not going to get anywhere near those, and will shrink things back down to reasonable numbers near the end of this article.  

Step 2: Select an Era

For the sake of making this less complicated, i’m going to select Late Succession Wars. The other eras have extra tech and slightly different choices, but i’m perfectly happy to start here.  

Step 3: Select a Faction

Since I’m using Force Manual: Davion for this project, we’re selecting Federated Suns as our Faction.  

Step 4: Choose a Combat Command

So, i looked through the Combat Commands section of the book for a while when i first got it, and there are a lot of neat choices and units with history, and then i saw the greatest thing in the  Universe.  

The 1st Argyle Lancers have The Fast and The Furious as their unit creed.  My pop culture brain clicked, and then i see that they have Focus (Speed Demon), Fast Withdrawal, and Hit and Run as Special Command abilities.  

So, I’m going to build a 1st Argyle Lancers Company for this project.  What does that mean for what we can actually bring to the table?  

Well, looking at the Unit Brief, we have the following options for the Unit.

L/BM/R  is a light Battlemech Regiment (Makes sense given their Special Command Abilities)

AF/W is an Aerospace Wing (Neat, but not something i am going to focus on for this project)

CV/B is a Battalion of Combat Vehicles. (Again, Neat, but not what I’m shooting for).

They have an experience and Equipment rating of Veteran/D

What does this mean in terms of practical unit building?

Unit Composition (since we’re building a Company for a Regiment sized Unit), our Weight and Experience Rating have to be within 1 step of the listed force.  So, all of our units have to Lights or Medium, and we have to be Regular, Veteran, or Elite pilots.  (If we’d built a Battalion sized formation we’d have to match the listed details in the unit brief).  Note, as the 1st Argyle Lancers don’t have an infantry or Artillery unit listed, we don’t have the option to take those.  

Step 5: Build a Company

So, the longest step of Force Construction is building your component Formations.  I’ll do 1 this week, and then next week I'll build the other two.  I’ve got 3 lances of light and medium mechs i can select for this, so that effectively limits the formations i can use to

Command Lance

Pursuit Lance

Recon Lance

Striker Lance

Support Lance

Light Fire Lance

Rifle Lance

So, looking at the minis i have available, i settle into my first unit being a Command Lance (Makes sense, doesn’t it?) 

Command Lance Requirements: 

Designate one unit as the Force Commander (Will do momentarily) 

At least half the Units (it’s a four unit lance, so two of these chaps) must have the following Role: Sniper, Missile Boat, Skirmisher, or Juggernaut. Non Vehicle Units must also have one unit with Brawler, Striker, Scout.  

The default Command Lance Is Marauder, Archer, Valkyrie, Stinger.  Well, two of those are too heavy for what i can get away with, so the Archer and the Marauder have to go.  That leaves me with a Valkyrie and a Stinger.  The Valkyrie has the Missile Boat Role, and the Stinger has Scout.  So, i need to find a Skirmisher, Sniper, Missile Boat, or Juggernaut, and designate a unit commander.  

I ended up looking through my minis collection for about twenty minutes and i got a very happy smile on my face.  In an homage to a classic anime (I’ll let you do some research to figure out which one), i settle for a Wasp, and a Phoenix Hawk (Either the 1D or the regular 1, i haven’t completely decided).

Note, the Phoenix Hawk isn’t on the Alternate Units for a Command Lance, but it meets the requirements otherwise and is available to the faction.  

So, my Command Lance has

1 Valkyrie (missile boat)

1 Stinger (Scout)

1 Wasp (Scout)
1 Phoenix Hawk (Skirmisher)

So, 1 Skirmisher, 1 Missile Boat, and 2 Scouts.  The Valkyrie, the Stinger, and the Wasp are all Lights, the Phoenix Hawk is a Medium.  I’ll designate the Phoenix Hawk as the Unit Commander. I apply Elite ratings to everyone (which you’ll see on my worksheet at the end of the article) and assign the following benefits for the Command Lance: 

Marksman to the Valkyrie
Eagle Eyes to the Wasp

Tactical Genius to the Phoenix Hawk

You can see where I’ve adjusted both PV and BV on the worksheet.  

And that’s basically the first Lance built!

Now, Next week I’ll build the other two Lances (Thinking a Recon Lance and either a Light Fire Lance or a Pursuit Lance). Week after that I’ll finish up the last bit of paperwork for the Sheet and we’ll see what it all looks like put together.  

Those of you playing along at home, I’ve separated out the Blank Company Sheet Here, and my WIP sheet here.  (The Blank company Sheet is courtesy of Catalyst Game Labs and copies for personal use only are permitted, DON’T GET ME IN TROUBLE AND TRY AND SELL THESE.