Hey Folks, we’re back with some helpful insight and advice for folks who are sitting down to build their very own force for BattleTech or Alpha Strike. The new Force Manual series is an amazing resource for this. However, it’s BattleTech, (Baybee) and that means its a multi-step process with worksheets and charts. Let’s try and see if we can smooth out some of those steps to make this process work for you, whether you’re a first time unit builder or a seasoned vet.
How do i pick my Force?
This is a deeper question than a lot of people realize. Everyone has a spark that attracts them to Battletech. The history, the giant robots, the military struggle, the science fiction of it all, and a dozen other great pulls that draw us into this setting. Logos are the easiest access point for folks. “What’s the Sunburst with a sword in it? What’s that badass Scorpion thing? Why is there a cool looking Dragon on that disk?” Logos can start us down the Rabbit hole of factions and that spawns a thousand other rabbit holes.
The Force Manuals (we got two so far in the wild) are a wonderful snapshot into a faction for players of all experience levels. My review of Force Manual Davion is Here, if you want my thoughts on it in detail. Suffice, New and experienced players can use the book to build a force for several different eras of play. (Late Succession Wars, Early Clan Invasion, Late Clan Invasion). Let’s take a look at the process and walk you through the steps.
(We’ll do an actual live build of a few different units in the coming weeks)
Step 1 Select BV or PV total
Battletech and Alpha Strike use point values as a balancing factor for games. Battletech uses Batltle Value, Alpha Strike uses Point Value and this determines your budget for the game you’re playing. All players building units with these rules agree to a set Value (depending on the era of play, these numbers can vary wildly).
Each unit on the tabletop (Infantry, Battlemech,Aerospace fighter, etc) has a Battle Value (BV) for Battletech and a Point Value (PV) for Alpha Strike. Players can adjust these numbers up and down by modifying the skill level of the pilots or troops selected (More on this later). The Force Manual has a record sheet for your company to track these numbers.
Once you’ve agreed on your total (as a group, or just for yourself if you’re doing this as a project), you’re ready to do some more looking around.
Note: I personally tend to pick units and sort out the value later, but i’m an iconoclast.
Step 2: Choose an Era
So, the Era you’re playing in can dramatically affect what units you have available. Technology erodes and improves as you move along the historical timeline of Battletech, and new designs are added and others are phased out. Selecting your Era gives you a specific range of units that are available to you.
Again, if you’re playing as part of a league or local play group, everyone should be playing in the same era. Make a note on your Company sheet and move right along.
Note: The Rarity rules we’re going to discuss below are Era dependent, and they will affect what units you have available in different and exciting ways. They are Optional
Step 3: Choose a Faction
BattleTech has a ton of Factions to choose from, and as more Force Manuals get published, the options open up. This will pare down the massive list of units you can choose from for your Battletech force. For the purposes of our project next week, we’re selecting Davion, but that’s something for next week.
If you’re playing a League or Local Play Group, Factions aren’t limited (Probably). Everyone can end up playing for the Federated Suns, the Lyran Commonwealth, or anyone else. These can be broadly assigned as teams, or represent units fighting against each other in one of Battletech’s numerous conflicts. (Discuss it with your friends! Battletech goes pretty good with Discussions).
Step 4: Choose a Combat Command
Each Faction has dozens of Combat Commands that comprise its total military. Specific Combat Commands may dictate your unit’s weight, its skill level, and any additional special abilities it may have. It may also put limitations on what you can bring to the fight. The Force Manuals list the most famous or interesting commands available to that faction, and there’s an entire chapter on the Davion Combat Commands in the Manual.
Note: Combat Commands may also have specific pilots and equipment that can take, and may have special unique rules that aren’t covered by more generic things.
Note: You can choose to build a force from an unlisted Command. These forces don’t have unique histories of their own, necessarily, but they give you infinite options to build “Your Dudes” the force. This also gives you Special Command Ability options that are randomly determined.
Unit Composition:
An important consideration for each unit is its listed composition. Units can have Battlemech, Armor, Infantry, Aerospace, and other unique combat assets. These are sorted by weight. Each Command also has a general experience level. (There’s also the Equipment Rating, which i’ll cover in brief at the end). Player constructed forces must match (within a threshold, which we will cover in detail in a minute) the baseline Command. Also of note, if a unit type is not listed in the Command’s Composition, it can’t be selected.
Unit Organizations:
Now, this will come as a shock to very few, but battlemechs are organized into mech units, tanks into armor units, etc. There are handy organizational charts for how these break down in various books. Force Manual Davion has these starting on page 73, and if you need to refer back to it, you got a book or a pdf.
Step 5: Build a Company
Companies are the basic building blocks of formation construction and can be grouped into large Battalions (which can be grouped into larger Regiments). The record sheet provided in the book is for a single company, so if you’re building more than 1, you need extra copies. A typical company is composed of 3 distinct lances, but you can build short companies if you need to. Let’s take a look at building a Lance
Build a Formation Lance
This step is the Foundational building block of Force Construction, and it’s important to get the fundamentals down. Repetition of this process (like most things) makes it faster and easier, but we’re going to go over some basics.
Formation Type
You’ll see terms like Assault Lance, Command Lance, Pursuit Lance tossed around in a variety of battletech properties and might be wondering what precisely that means. Well, the two parts of this are
Adjective- Assault, Battle, Pursuit, Recon are all descriptors that tell you roughly what the expected battlefield role of that unit is. These have requirements for building the formation, but in exchange for meeting those requirements, the formation provides benefits.
Lance- a standard Inner Sphere unit composition of Four Elements (usually Mechs or Tanks). You can also see this substituted as Star for Clan forces, (5 units) or Level II for Comstar and the Word of Blake (They use a base 6 system).
So, if you see Assault Lance, you can make the educated Guess that you’re going to get four Heavy to Assault Weight Elements.
So, how do you build one? Fair Question, my friend. We’re going to use the system from the Force Manuals to walk you through this, (otherwise why would we mention the book at all?) This one’s a lot easier than other methods from previous books, and i think it’s honestly the best implementation of these rules i’ve seen in a long time.
So, if you’re following along in your copy of Force Manual Davion flip to page 75, and let’s dig in.
Step 1: Choose a Formation type
The Davion Availabilty Tables later on in the book tell you what Formations are available for your selection. Further within each one of those Listings (Assault Lance, Command Lance, etc) a Standard package of mechs is listed. These are the four default choices for a unit of that type in *that Era*.
Step 2: Select Units for the Formation
If you want, you can just grab the four default choices listed and go to town. They’re designed to meet the formation requirements and restrictions for the formation type and are ready to play as is. Each one is a solid unit that you can have a lot of fun learning the ins and outs of the formation.
With each one of these listings is a chart of recommended substitutions. These units are, available to the faction in the Era listed, and meet the formation requirements. You’ll just need to adjust your running BV and PV totals for your force to swap these units in for the ones you swap out.
Note: You can select *any* unit that your force has available from any of the Era appropriate charts. However, the ones grouped with the Formation you’re building have the highest likelihood of meeting the Formation requirements.
Note: Rarity
This one’s critical, so pay close attention. Every unit on the availability chart has a rarity listed, and that determines how many of them you can have. These break down basically as follows:
Iconic: Take as many you like, the factory is still cranking them out at breakneck pace.
Common: You can bring up to four in a Company, and if you’re building bigger than a Company, no more than a third.
Uncommon: You can bring up to two of the specific Uncommon choice, but you can’t have more than four Uncommon units total per Company.
Rare: You get 1 Rare choice, period. (Your rare counts towards your Uncommon cap).
Note: Clan Units can’t be selected at all prior to 3053.
Note: Salvage can show up in the Rarity line, and indicates a unit that is taken as battlefield treasure from a neighboring state. This doesn’t have an effect in the main Force Construction Rules, but you can use it as a qualifier for your home or league games, or future sourcebooks might reference it.
Equipment Rating:
Now this is an OPTIONAL rule, but i kind of like and it makes sense, so i’ll eplain it briefly here. Every Combat Command has an Equipment Rating from A to F (The closer to the front of the alphabet you are, the better gear high command sends you). These ratings, if you are playing with them), add an additional wrinkle of force construction as it limits the number of units you can take from your current Era’s charts and how many you either can or must take (depending on your rating)
I realize that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but i’ll walk you through it during the full builds.
Unique Characters:
Some Combat Commands have access to Unique Characters with their own Mechs (some additional characters are also available in the rules addendum). You can only include one Unique Character per force (I read that as Company, but i could be wrong).
Note: Unique Characters are taken “as is” No substitutions or swaps to any of their characteristics or abilities.
Sub Commands:
Well, what if i wanted to add a lance of tanks to my Mech Company? Or what if i’m bringing an old school Air Lance? These are handled with the Sub Command rules. Basically, so long as they don’t push you over your agreed upon BV or PV allotment, (and your Combat Command has an associated unit of that type) you can add Sub Commands to your main unit.
Some Caveats:
You can only add one Sub Command per Company.
The Sub Command is treated as a separate Company, but may be a smaller formation (as small as a single lance or flight).
Special Command Abilities (SCAs) are allotted to the individual Companies. Your Primary Company chooses an SCA from its Combat Command. The Sub Command must select the same SCA. If they have options for different Sub Command abilities based off their Unit brief, they can select different ones.
Supplemental Formations
You can add separate companies to your Unit that do not belong to your Combat Command (representing local militias, garrison troops, or other unidentified forces). These forces do not benefit from SCAs or other bonuses from your chosen command. Also, be aware that they can’t outnumber your primary force, nor can they be drawn from outside Force Manual Davion.
Step 3: Select Skills and modify BV/PV
For each one of your units, select a Skil value and adjust your PV (According to AS CE, page 29) or assign Piloting and Gunnery Skills and adjust your BV (you’re going to need the Techmanual for this one, page 315). Once you’ve adjusted your values, make the notes on your company sheet and cruise on.
Step 4: Assign Special Pilot Abilities (SPAs)
Up to ONE unit per company may be assigned SPAs (Pg 92-101 of AS:CE or pg 70-82 of CO). A Unique Character, if included, does not count against this limit. Your total number of SPAs is limited by skill rating of that unit as is the SPA Cost.
Now, bear in mind that most standard formations also provide SPAs conditionally to members of those formations. Also, be aware that some Combat Commands change the way SPAs are assigned to formations within it.
Step 5: Do it Again
This only applies if you have unspent BV or PV from your budget, but you now have the process to build a company from start to finish. If you need to refer to the specifics, the Rules Addendum of Force Manual Davion is your Hook up.
Conclusions?!?
WOW, that was a lot, wasn’t it? Doesn’t make the best amount of sense yet, does it? That’s all right, Next week, we’re going to actually tear into the Process and (hopefully) make someone at Catalyst laugh about an unintentional pop culture Crossover when i put together a Company of the 1st Argyle Lancers. I’ll see you then. Note, i’ll be putting up versions of my WIP record sheets for the company as i go along so you can see what this looks like, (and if you’re wanting, you can take them and run with them). Thanks for coming along on this little expedition, and we’ll see you all later.
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