Second Look at 3025 Lyran Assault Production

TL;DR? Best guess is ~94 assault 'Mechs/yr, including 33 Zeuses. Exact number of other types TBD; estiumates below the jump-cut. 

Moving carefully with Lyran production because how I proceed here will decide how I estimate the other Houses.

Twenty Thousand

First, I shouldn't have treated 20YU, TR:3050 and MW2e as representing a single point in time. I've rewritten my "79k" post to reflect how things change from one to the next.

I don't know if the "1000 'Mechs per entry" trick will tease any useful data out of TR:3055; I doubt it'll work for TR:3058. (Fortunately I have the Field Manuals to work from. What will be trickier is figuring out how to account for ultra-light 'Mechs.)

ComStar's Cache Under Hilton Head

The Warrior Trilogy says "ComStar has more BattleMechs hidden here than any of the Successor States can claim." Clearly more than Davion's 110 regiments (14k 'Mechs), but probably less than Davion+Steiner's 110+75 regiments (23.7k 'Mechs). TR:2750 has twenty 'Mech entries; at 1k apiece, that would make 20k 'Mechs--right in the middle.

The MW2e affiliation table implies that ComStar expends 1200 'Mechs/yr against the Clans. At that rate, the cache would last 16.67 years, which would seem like a natural fit for the Truce-End date in 3067. 

Except ComStar already pulled at least 8300 to 8900 'Mechs out of the cache between the end of the Fourth Succession War and the Battle of Tukayyid. So the cache runs dry no later than early 3062, more likely by 3060, and even earlier if Focht prepares a secondary cache on Tukayyid. [Edit, Aug 28: Or earlier yet if ComStar continued supplying 'Mechs to the Rasalhague Kungsarme. /Edit]

33 Solahma NPCs

Need NPCs? Here's a bunch. Back at the beginning of June, someone in /BTG/ requested almost-solahma Smoke Jaguars for a "Dirty Dozen" type unit to be assembled in secret by their Loremaster.

I responded with four, each one a different combination of happy or unhappy and ambitious or not ambitious. (I wanted a third angle to differentiate their attitudes, which would've made for eight combinations, but couldn't come up with one.) Named randomly because I never know how to name* Clanners.

Oscar, RFL IIC (Jag AC variant) - mediocre warrior from a group of patrilineal mixings the Jags have given up on. All warriors from that breeding line know that their careers are basically over, no matter what trajectory they were on before. The chip on Oscar's shoulder has worked him into even worse assignments than he'd normally get.

Arkady [insert bloodname], Warhammer IIC (Jag LRM variant) - one of the intelligent commanders who retreated early on Tukayyid. Ousted by a new power bloc but accepted the demotion gracefully. Recognizes a losing battle and respects enemies who devise them.

Lora and Branka, Shadow Cats - relatively young; could've been ristars but pissed off the wrong people. Mistakenly see themselves as the Loremaster's proteges and are convinced that a good showing here puts them on track to a bloodname.

Tamari, Jenner IIC - unusually competent freebirth warrior who was popular isorla among several Homeworld Clans in the four years before Revival. Seems easy going for a Jag - she tries to settle disputes with comrades with Trial by Dance Off (augmented or not) instead of combat - yet really enjoys unaugmented murder and is basically super happy to be in this unit.

I'm pretty happy with these, even if they're not terrifically original. (I'm pretty sure I'm channeling the "mistaken protege," "popular isorla" and "augmented dance-off" concepts from NPCs other people have posted previously.)

After mulling it over a few hours, I posted six more:

Seventy-Nine Thousand

A quick count of the forces in 20 Year Update shows 575.33 Regiments in the Inner Sphere and near periphery. 128 'Mechs per regiment (as described in BattleForce 1e) would put that at about 73600 'Mechs.

AFFC	268 Regiments, 1 Battalions [sic]
DCMS	99 Regiments [including Ghost Regiments]
FRRK	16 Regiments, 2 Battalions
FWLM	72 Regiments, 2 Battalions
CCAF	30 Regiments [some are short a battalion]
CG	50+ [sic] Regiments
TDF	14 Regiments
MAF	12 Regiments, 1 Battalion
OAMC	3 Regiments [full regiments now, unlike 3025]
bandit	[8 Regiments and 4 Battalions]

[Edit August 24: 55000 (the estimated number of 'Mechs in 3025) multiplied by 4/3rds is 73300, a mere rounding error away from my count for 20YU. Per 20YU, the War of 3039 petered out into the usual pattern of raid and reprisal, so attrition should be back in equilibrium with production, which means 'Mech production by 3050 should likewise be 4/3rds of what it was in 3025. (I.e., up to 3600/yr from the old 2700/yr.) The ComGuard was deploying during this period and supplying 'Mechs to other forces, however, which would account for some of the increase.

When the Clans invade they destroy many regiments and capture several factories. Per TR:3050, the Successor States step up production at their remaining facilities. That wouldn't have recouped all their losses, but for the sake of estimating production, suppose we round the Inner Sphere up to 79000 'Mechs (a thousand for each non-Clan enty TR:3050). Subtracting the ComGuard's 50 regiments would leave 72600, or 1.32x as many 'Mechs as were going around in 3025.

I notice that MW2e has 1.33x as much chance as MW1e did of a "Successor State" character scoring a state affiliation (almost 36/36 instead of 27/36). This implies that the Successor States were building 3600/yr shortly after Tukayyid, and agrees with the figure above derived from TR:3050.  /Edit]


If the "Successor State" table represents 3600 'Mechs/year:

Have a 'Mech: 1st Somerset Strikers LAM

On New Year's I saw that I have an awful lot of BattleTech notes sitting idle on my computer, and so I've decided to clean them out, fill them out, and post them. First up is an LAM.

It's 50 tons, moves 4/6/4 on the ground, 5/8 in space, has two ERLLs, a C3 Master, and fuel is a bit on the low side.

At 1136 words the fluff is right at the limit for TR:3025. I could probably shave a line or two off to fit. Were I writing it for a shorter, 550-750 word entry, I'd probably design a second LAM and split half the fluff out to the new design.

Sorry about the small font in this image, you can find the original HTML here. (When I was replying to comments there, I saw that the smaller font on the "reply to post" screen made my two columns line up miraculously well. I just had to take a screenshot.)