Map of FWL Military Organization

Made this ages ago.

The old HM:FWL book doesn't just have a map, and doesn't just list regimental deployments for summer 3025, it also has a list* of which provinces and worlds organize their military the way Marik does, or Oriente does, or Andurien does.

Seems like a pretty reliable way to start picking out smaller provinces.

*I forget which page, sorry. It's a purple(?) box in the bottom right corner of a right-hand page. [Next Day Edit: it's page 84, which also says

Across the Free Worlds, many minor variations of the three primary hierarchies exist, due to local government edicts and traditional grants and dignitaries. Below is the military organization used by each state. However, few states, especially the smaller ones, adopt the exact pattern set by their larger cousins. Note that one world is even listed twice.

Courtesy of Reddit user wycca. /Edit]

[Edit, May 15: somehow missed the Stewart Dragoons' Home Guards regiment on Stewart and Juggernaut regiment on Payvand. Now added. /Edit]

3025 Heavy Production: FWL vs MW1e

Remember how the Free Worlds League's manufacturing listings only added up to 486 'Mechs per year instead of the 500 claimed in the text? The most popular solution is to add 14 Thunderbolts per year. I eventually came around to that solution too, but now I think it's actually 13 Thunderbolts per year, not 14.

• The manufacturing chart shows the FWL building only 257 universal designs per year. 13 Thunderbolts would raise that to exactly 270. 
• The Earthwerks corporate profile mentions Thunderbolts instead of Phoenix Hawks, and the manufacturing chart lists the Phoenix Hawk at 13 per year.
• When you line the FWL figures up against my figures from the MW1e encounter tables, the Thunderbolt fits perfectly at 13 per year.

From left to right, the Warhammer, Marauder, Archer, Thunderbolt and Rifleman align so perfectly that I have to suspect these values represent their overall, sphere-wide ratios.

Inner Sphere Population in 3025

Turns out I accidentally hid Le Blanc when I pieced my map together, so I fixed that and did some other cleaning. Full size available here.

I don't think it's a secret that BattleTech's map is based on England's. Probably not a rectilinear projection like the one for 1974-1996 that I colorized below, though... I wish the "warp" tool in my old free version of photoshop would let me anchor points after I've stretched them. My .psd file is here if someone else wants to fool around with it.

House populations are based on those same English regions, too. Didn't find 1980s figures online so I'm using a 1988 World Book Encyclopedia.

Revisiting the Valkyrie Test & the FWL

The ol' MW1e BattleField Encounters and Enemy Lance tables continue to intrigue me. Almost 30% of the 'Mechs turn out to be light, and almost 40% turn out to be medium, which seems to agree with BF1e's later assertion that the light/medium/heavy/assault weight classes are split 30/40/20/10. (Assault 'Mechs are underrepresented on the MW1e tables, I suspect because the "assault" class hadn't been separated from the "heavy" class yet.)

Applying the table's percentages to the FWL's 500 'Mechs/yr would yield 141.53 light 'Mechs/yr, of which 51, 42 and 32 would be Stingers, Wasps and Locusts--and HM:FWL's manufacturing table does indeed show 141 light 'Mechs/yr, of which 51, 42 and 32 are in fact those three bug 'Mechs, although the values for the Stinger and Wasp are swapped; swapping them back would help put HM:FWL's list of most-produced 'Mechs (from the link above) back in order. Gibson shifting four to seven 'Mechs from its Wolverine-M line over to its "troubled" (and unlisted) Hermes II line would fix the rest.

Quick Aside About Bug 'Mechs

TR:3025 estimates the Successor States use 5000 or more Stingers. The 51:42:32 ratio suggests the actual numbers would be around 5100 Stingers, 4200 Wasps and 3200 Locusts; about 12500 altogether. That works for a BattleDroids-ish setting with no other light 'Mechs and 39500-41500 'Mechs overall; but it gets a little tight once we move into the 3025 Housebook setting, even with 55000 'Mechs overall.

51:42:32 is also very close to 25% (9/36ths) Locusts, 33% (12/36ths) Wasps & the rest (15/36ths) Stingers. TR:3025 says the -1V accounts for "more than 75 percent" of extant Locusts, and I can't help but notice that 7/9ths is the simplest fraction to fall between 75% and 80%; you could almost fit all this on a 2d6 table. If the two other bug 'Mechs are similar, then I might expect the -1A to be 9/12ths of all Wasps and the -3R to be 12/15ths of all Stingers.

FWL Mediums

HM:FWL's manufacturing chart shows 187 medium 'Mechs/yr, while MW1e's Encounters and Lance tables would result in 191/yr. It's impossible to make the tables yield both 141 lights/yr and 187 mediums/yr (well, technically you can, but you'd have to use negative values for the frequency of light and medium lances), so apparently I have to increase production of some medium 'Mech by 4/yr.

The Phoenix Hawk, Hunchback and Hermes II seem like good choices because they "increasingly dominated" the League's regular regiments; but the Hermes II, Wolverine and Griffin are bad choices because they'd disrupt the list of most commonly produced 'Mechs. The 486 'Mechs shown on the chart have an average mass of 49.002 tons--I'll try to choose a 'Mech which keeps the chart's average mass as close to that as possible.

FWL Assaults

"Except for the period between 2953-68, when it controlled the Liao Atlas and Victor production facility on Carver V," HM:FWL says "the only new assault 'Mechs produced by the Free Worlds League during the past century have been Awesomes, BattleMasters, and Goliaths," and that there's "four active production lines of this type, producing an estimated 30 units per year"--yet the production chart shows 34 assault 'Mechs/yr, including 11 Stalkers.

The obvious solution is to replace the Stalker line with another one producing 7 Awesomes, BattleMasters or Goliaths. I'd go with the BattleMaster, making it about 2/3rds of the FWL's assault production, since the common BT3e 'Mechs make up 2/3rds of the FWL's production overall. (Though I have to say it's also tempting to replace both the Stalker and the BattleMaster with, respectively, the slow and fast variants of Longbow.)

Earthwerks et al

HM:FWL says the FWL produces about 500 'Mechs/yr of 24 types at 17 facilities, yet the production chart shows only 486/yr at 13 facilities, and replacing the Stalker takes us from 24 types down to 23.

The Earthwerks corporate profile in that book mentions a Thunderbolt line which would fill that gap nicely: it takes the number of 'Mech types back up to 24; being a heavy 'Mech, it doesn't screw up the light, medium or assault counts; and 14/yr is pretty close to what heavy production lines on the chart average (about 12.5/yr). (There's a small chance that I should reduce the Thunderbolts a little to increase Quickdraw production by one or two per year; it's something I'll have to watch for.)

Curiously, the corporate profiles don't mention the Awesome line on Irian, the Stalker (or any other assault) line on Shiro III (they mention Quickdraws instead), the BattleMaster line on Keystone, nor the Shadow Hawk line on Calloway VI. If these production lines got absorbed from other locations, that would help bring the number of facilities up to 17 as mentioned in the text. No doubt some of the shuffling can be chalked up to the reconstruction following Anton's revolt.


SUMMARY:


[Edit, 2017 March 31:  I've removed the summary chart because a couple of the changes are "squishy" and I'll have to treat them as such moving forward; also because charting the manufacturing by location is only really useful for identifying the FWL's seven inactive production lines, which involves analysis I haven't done yet. /Edit]

FWL 3025: the three unnamed ASF sites

I know from HM:FWL (page 118) that the League manufactures 325 Aerospace Fighters at eight sites, including Westover, Lopez, Helm, Marik and Atreus. The other three sites aren't specified. (Bordon may have an LAM site, but LAMs may not count.)

Danais, Regulus and Wisconsin

The Silver Hawk Irregulars are "well supported with light AeroSpace Fighters and light tanks" (HM:FWL page 98). The light tanks are built on Amity (page 160), which suggests another member may build the light fighters. Kalidasa builds 'Mechs, Callison is a trade world, and Shiloh has nothing of value, which leaves Danais. Danais also happens to be one of the tax zones in the Succession Wars boardgame.

Some of the tax zones (Megrez, Bella, Sierra, Landfall, Tellman, Xanthe and maybe Furud) appear to be named for their outermost world. But most of the others are production sites: Westover, Marik and Atreus (fighters); Oceana, Oriente and maybe Ryerson (ships); Oriente and Calloway ('Mechs). Since the last two--Regulus and Wisconsin--aren't at the edge of their zones, I think it's likely that they're production sites too.

FWL 3025: Population Density

The Atlas in the back of HM:FWL includes 28 worlds with populations of a billion or more (and two with populations of a million or less). The mapped provinces have 3.5x as many of these gigapop worlds per system as the smaller provinces do (19/125 vs 9/208), plus averaging 15% more people on each (3.3 billion vs 2.86). That amounts to 4x the population density.

Voting power in Parliament is proportionate to the tax base of your province (minimum of one vote). The provinces marked on the map (minus Ohren and Zion, which aren't listed on HM:FWL page 62) total 320 votes across 125 star systems, which is about 3x as many votes per system (320/125 vs 180/208) as the smaller provinces. This means more than 3x the tax base, since many single-vote provinces would be rounded up to one vote.

So, on a scale of 100 to 200 star systems, population correlates pretty well with tax base.

Smaller scales are difficult to gauge because some provinces (especially disproportionate ones like Gibson, Tamarind and Sirius) are no doubt leveraging populations outside their borders.

It's very interesting how most of the gigapop worlds follow a clear sinusoidal curve--and that the average of Andurien and Lopez (which lie close together in the Duchy of Andurien) would fall right on the curve, and that the average of Oriente and Calloway IV (which lie close together in the Duchy of Oriente) would also fall right on the curve. The average of Marik and Angell II stands ~33% above the curve, but perhaps that's to be expected, since Atreus (capital of the FWL) stands ~66% above the curve.

It makes sense for the population curve to dip near the periphery, but why it would dip between Terra and Andurien is less clear. Perhaps a combination of proximity to enemy borders, to Terra, and to other gigapop worlds?

I'm curious to see how Capellan and Draconis gigapops compare; if there's a consistent pattern, I may be able to estimate Davion and Steiner gigapops. (The Atlases in the old Davion and Steiner sourcebooks didn't include population figures.)

It's also interesting that there are [(radius/14.5)-2] gigapop worlds within [radius] Light Years of Terra. Instead of being spread across regular intervals of area (like the FWL's other star systems are), gigapop worlds show up at regular intervals of linear distance from Terra, which means the ratio of gigapop worlds to regular worlds falls dramatically the further out you go.

A few posts ago I calculated that, for small provinces, the average number of votes per system also falls geometrically the further out you go. Big provinces--which generally have more gigapop worlds--don't change with distance.

Perhaps each gigapop world (or pair of gigapop worlds) is the dense center of a population spread across half a dozen to a dozen worlds, such that the value of any given world would depend on its distance from a population center? This will require more thought.

FWL 3025: Shipyards

The FWL has eight manufacturers of DropShips & JumpShips (DS&JS page 15) operating ten active production sites (HM:FWL page 114). As best I can tell:

• Star Lords built at Clipperton, Loyalty and Tamarind (by SelaSys Inc.)
• Scouts, Leopards, Leopard CVs and Unions built at Oceana (by Irian Technologies, under supervision of the League's Chief Armorer)
• Furies, Buccaneers, Monarchs and Behemoths built at Stewart (by Brigadier Corporation)
• Gazelles and Mammoths built at Oriente (by "Deller, Bingham, and Fouts" or "Keller, Bingham, and Fouts")
• Invaders built at Angell (by Technicron)
• Intruders built at Ryerson (by Andurien AeroTech, a division of Free Worlds Defense Industries)
• Vengeances built at Dieudonne (by Kallon Industries)
• Condors built at Tematagi (by Nimakachi Fusion Products Ltd.)

My reasoning is below the cut. 

The FWL doesn't build big troop transports anymore, which plays to the fractiousness of FWL forces and their reluctance to mount an offense; lack of Mule production helps characterize FWL merchants as versatile traders who prefer Buccaneers; and Intruders plus extra fighter carriers may make up for a lack of small assault ships.

FWL taxes from "Succession Wars" boardgame

Firstly: it's Succession Wars (not BattleForce) that contains a concise overview of BattleTech's history up to 3025. (I'm a little surprised nobody questioned that.)

I wish I'd found a better scan of the Succession Wars (hereafter SW) map, but the borders, names and values all seem faithful. You can see many places where the borders of a tax region follow the contours of a province. Or, looking just below Atreus on the HM:FWL map, vice versa. I suppose FASA drew both from an earlier map.

I've done my best to match them up. 

Now, the Taxes

The Tax Zones look gerrymandered, so I think I can assume the nine outer zones really do represent 10/25ths of the FWL's taxes. If so, and if the known provinces contribute a share proportionate to their votes, then that leaves an average of 0.4 votes' worth for each independent star system; by the same logic, independent systems in the eight inner zones should average 1.5 votes each.

Zone	SW Taxes	Est. from Avg Votes	Okay?
Ryerson	1	1.6	Ok
Oceana	2	1	nope
Marik	3	3.4	Ok
Danais	1	3.6	nope
Atreus	4	1.9	nope
Regulus	2	2.1	Ok
Oriente	2	1	nope
Calloway	1	1.1	Ok
Furud	1	1.9	nope
Xanthe	1	0.7	Ok
Wisconsin	1	0.8	Ok
Tellman	1	0.9	Ok
Westover	1	1.4	eh
Landfall	1	0.5	eh
Sierra	1	0.8	Ok
Bella	1	1.1	Ok
Megrez	1	1.3	Ok

Adding up the votes in each tax zone, it looks like most zones mostly work. They can be tweaked to fit.

Some zones can't work no matter what, just because the dominant provinces have too many or too few votes.

It's interesting that the zones which are low happen to be next to zones which are high by the same amount; maybe some votes were shifted for gameplay, or maybe the 3D positions of the stars don't map well to a 2D surface.

It's also interesting that the Marik Commonwealth and Duchy of Oriente, which support more 'Mech regiments than you'd expect from their voting power, also contribute more taxes in SW; and that Andurien, which is famous for being unhelpful militarily, contributes less SW taxes (Furud) than you'd expect from their voting power.

Provinces in the FWL

To help me place the FWL's last shipyard, I've been working out how much economic activity happens on each world; and since a province's economic output equates directly to that province's voting power in Parliament, I've been searching HM:FWL for clues about how many Members of Parliament each world gets.

• At least four provinces occupy only part of a world: New Assam on Tiber IV (page 145), Ryal on Atreus (page 50), Khe Shang on Tamarind (page 138) and Olympica on New Olympia (page 154). Plus, since the world of Thirty Weight (page 34) doesn't appear on the map, it probably shares a star with some other world.
• At least seven provinces seem to consist of a single world: Kyeinnisan (page 120 and map), Panjang (page 70); and Oliver (page 164 and map) and Dalton, Tania Australis, Gallatin and Bainsville (page 50), which seem to have more than one Member of Parliament.

 

The map shows 18 provinces which claim more than two star systems, amounting to 132 of the FWL's 333 star systems. Assuming that the 201 other star systems contain a single world each, and that the 136 smaller provinces contain no more than two worlds each, then they're split somewhere between

• 88 with two stars, 25 with one star, and 23 share stars
• 70 with two stars, 61 with one star, and 5 share stars

The FWL has over 400 worlds across its 333 star systems, though (page 153); adding extra worlds skews the ratio towards more worlds per province. You can skew it back by introducing provinces with three or more worlds, as  long as "the vast majority consist of one or two worlds" (page 62).

Names Can Be Misleading

Provinces are often referred to by the name of their primary world or ruling House (page 55, 72-74, major provinces on 84). The primary world is usually a "parent-state" supporting the province's other worlds as colonial "client-states" (page 63, 98, 100, 149). The ruler of a planet may be an Earl or Count or what-have-you (page 60) but they're all generically referred to as "dukes" (page 24).

• The Sirian Concordat (or Sirian Concordance) is often referred to as "Sirius" even though Sirius isn't isn't part of it anymore. The ducal seat might be Procyon.
• The Principality of Regulus is ruled by the Count of Harmony from the House of Cameron (page 103, 149), from the ducal seat of Regulus. Harmony and Cameron are also planets in the principality.
• The Duchy of Orloff is ruled by an Earl from the House of Orloff, from the ducal seat of Carbonis (page 24). Orloff is a world too (page 111) but it isn't on the map, so I guess at least one of their stars has multiple inhabited worlds.
• The Province of LeFarge is ruled by an Earl (page 72) who--like the MPs from New Olympia, Silver and Marcus (page 49, 69, 142)--happens to be "MP from Bowang" (page 34, 147) instead of "MP from the province of LeFarge." So Bowang is probably in the province of LeFarge, with some other world being the ducal seat. 
• The Silver Hawks are called "a coalition of independent worlds" (page 64) even though several of them have client worlds. So it's not clear whether worlds like Nestor and Talitha (page 42), Camlann (page 63), Irian (page 124), Holt (page 143), or the nineteen other examples of government (page 73-74) go solo or have client-worlds.

There Used to Be Other Notable Provinces

The FWL has been fragmenting ever since "Camlann vs. the FWL" in 2683, but in 2571 it had only 15 provinces (page 62-63).

• Marik Commonwealth
• Duchy of Oriente (including what would become Orloff and The Protectorate)
• Principality of Regulus (including what would become Gibson, Regulan Free States and Rim Commonality)
• Stewart Commonwealth (conquered in 2295)
• Duchy of Graham-Marik(separated from Marik in 2400s)
• nine other provinces, probably including Tamarind and Abbey, plus Bolan and about half of Steiner's Alarion province (held perhaps as late as 2940s)

Those other provinces would contain about 120 of the modern FWL's stars, but I'm not sure how many would've been colonized at the time, especially since they're mostly in the outer half of the League (colonization figures in MW1e would cut their number by 25%).

FWL 3025: Regimental Compositions (part 3)

Is the number of FWL assault battalions proportionate to its rate of assault 'Mech production? If so, then battalion weights can be my guide to FWL Aerospace and LAM production too.

Assault Regiments: the FWL has only two. The way the 6th Marik Militia describes its three assault battalions makes me think the 20th Marik Militia probably has two. (That regiment might consist of two battalions total.)

Heavy Regiments: the composition of five are known and include two assault battalions. If the other twelve regiments are similar, they'd add another 4.8 assault battalions.

Medium Regiments: the compositions of twelve are known and (assuming the Border Protectorate's Iron Guards and Steel Guards entries are a little mixed up) include a single assault battalion. If the other eleven regiments are similar, they'd add another .92 assault battalions.

Light Regiments: the compositions of four light regiments are known, and (assuming the Iron Guards and Steel Guards entries are mixed up) none are known to possess assault battalions. The compositions of eleven more are unknown.

Unknown Regiments: the 25th Marik Militia is listed on the 3025 deployment tables, but not included in the regimental descriptions. Based on the 57 regiments given, I'll abstract it as containing .19 assault battalions.

Land-Air 'Mechs: the four known light regiments include 2.25 battalions of LAMs; if the other eleven are similar, they'd add another 6.2 battalions. The twelve known medium regiments include 1.67 battalions of LAMs; if the other eleven are similar, they'd add another 1.5 battalions. No heavy or assault regiments are noted to possess LAM battalions, and based on the 57 regiments given, I'll abstract the 25th Marik Militia as containing .2 LAM battalions.

This gives the FWL about 14 assault battalions (8 known and 6 more estimated). That's about 7.78% of the regiments claimed in HM:FWL, while assault 'Mechs are 6.8% of the FWL's annual production--pretty close. Based on that, the FWL's 11.8 LAM battalions (3.9 known plus 7.9 estimated) imply that at least 29 of the Stingers, Wasps and Phoenix Hawks built annually in the FWL are actually LAMs.

Page 115's production table doesn't list LAM variants explicitly the way it does Wolverine-Ms and Marauder-Ms, though, and the LexaTech entry in House Kurita: The Draconis Combine also hints at separating LAM production from BattleMech production. Pending how other Houses shake out, I think I'll peg the FWL at a little less than 12 assault battalions (34/500ths (ie, the production ratio) of its non-LAM battalions) and 12 LAM battalions (11.8/166ths (ie, the previously estimated ratio) of its non-assault battalions), and count LAM production as part of AeroSpace production:

FWL 3025: Regimental Compositions (part 2)

First off, despite a handful of instances of poor phrasing, none of Marik's battalions appear to stick to a single weight class. E.g., the "three full-strength battalions of assault 'Mechs" which make the 6th Marik Militia a "shining gem" include a "jump-jet equipped Ostroc" without batting an eye.

My working theory is that battalion weights line up with the RPG's lance weight table. So light battalions would average 165 tons per lance, mediums 205 tons, heavies 245 tons and, extending the pattern, assault battalions would average 285 tons per lance. Haven't tested it too thoroughly yet since the regimental listings only call out about 17 battalions' worth of 'Mech designs.

from images on Sarna

Land-Air 'Mechs: 4 battalions
Hermes IIs: almost 4 battalions
Wolverine-Ms: about 2 battalions
Archers: over 1 battalion
Trebuchets: about 1 battalion
Crusaders: less than 1 battalion
Wasps: about half a battalion
Griffins: about half a battalion
Locusts: about half a battalion
Orions: about a company
Stalkers: about a company
Spiders: about a company
Marauder-Ms: about a company
Awesomes: about two lances
Goliaths: about two lances
Stingers: one to two lances of trainer 'Mechs
Vulcans: about a lance
Cicadas: about a lance
BattleMasters: about a lance

That's most of the 'Mech types produced inside the Free Worlds League. Phoenix Hawks aren't mentioned except for a single LAM. Warhammers, Hunchbacks, Shadow Hawks, Quickdraws and Riflemen aren't mentioned at all. My guess is that the 'Mechs ranked high on that list are disproportionately numerous in the Free Worlds League, while lower ranked 'Mechs occupy a fraction of the military similar to their fraction in other Successor States.

Also, some 'Mechs are more prominent than you'd guess just from their production numbers, which may indicate higher production in past centuries--we already know that the Trebuchet was "produced in large quantities on Irian" in the First Succession War, and that Goliath and Hermes II production isn't what it used to be either.

I divided each 'Mech's total (from the list above) by its annual production.
I suspect the ones above the red line used to have higher annual production.

A few units not produced in the Free Worlds League got called out too. A Zeus and a Chippewa, salvaged form the Lyrans; an Ostroc, a Cyclops and a Mackie, all known to be long out of production anywhere; one or two lances of Chameleon trainer 'Mechs, which had no current production site until TR:3058; and about a lance of Centurions, which had no current production site until TR:3050 carried a typo forward from House Davion: The Federated Suns. I find the Centurion especially interesting, considering its history with the Trebuchet and that the Lyrans are known to favor one of its variants.

Other items of interest...

• "each [Orloff] Grenadier regiment is organized in classic fashion, with three composite battalions each containing one heavy, one medium, and one light company."
• "the Stewart DropShips that used to carry Crusaders and Goliaths now carry beat-up Wolverine-Ms and Hermes IIs," which hints that past production of the former at least loosely parallels current production of the latter. 
• The 1st Oriente Fusiliers possess four modified Stalkers, which makes me wonder how many in the FWL have been modified to the 70-75 ton "lite" variants.
• The 3rd Oriente Fusiliers' assault battalion "includes a dozen 'Mechs of more than 80 tons," which makes me wonder if the FWL's Banshees are hiding in heavy battalions (three Trebuchets plus a Banshee makes 245 tons) or if the FWL might have a low Banshee fraction overall.
• "The 5th has the heaviest ordnance in the Fusiliers" with an assault battalion of Orions, Awesomes, Goliaths and Stalkers and two heavy battalions noted for including "ten Marauder-Ms," which makes Marauder-Ms sound like they're usually reserved for assault battalions. 
• The 3rd Oriente Hussars "is heavily stocked with older model 'Mechs (Archers, Griffins, Wasps)," a 'Mech plant on the planet Cameron produced its first run of Archers and Wasps for the Principality of Regulus in 2478 "from plans purloined from the Lyran Commonwealth," and "Gibson Federated had been producing Wolverine-M BattleMechs at a tremendous pace" at least by 2562.

FWL 3025: Regimental Compositions (part 1)

I've been wondering how to discuss the FWL's 3025 Regimental listings for weeks now. I can't keep putting it off if I ever want to get around to Lyran 'Mech production, though, so I'll just run through bare-bones observations.

To start with, the compositions of only 23 regiments (and 8 independent battalions) are described or can be inferred. We don't even know how many battalions the other regiments have, since the Capellans and Periphery (the only House books to consistently reach that level of detail) list some regiments as two battalions strong instead of three. (I should probably revisit that issue in the future.)

AeroSpace Weights

The weight listed for each regimental wing looks like it might be influenced by the weight of the regiment's battalions.

Assault Regiments (all two of them): heavy weight wings;
Heavy Regiments: mostly heavy or medium wings, only three (including one with an assault battalion) have a light wing;
Medium Regiments: split pretty evenly between heavy, medium and light;
Light Regiments: split pretty evenly between medium and light wings, with a slight (maybe insignificant) tendency for excessively light regiments to take light wings.

The single example wing has five Stingrays, two Cheetahs, and a recently captured Lyran Chippewa. (That recent action may be why the wing is at half strength.) Given the range of weights, I'd guess that each air lance would be rolled individually.

Infantry and Armor Support

Looking at the merc units, infantry support seems to be a prerequisite for tank support, in the same way that air support is a prerequisite for DropShips and DropShips are prerequisite for JumpShips. There's no telling just how much support is actually present, though.

(The Davion book lists these types of support for its merc units too, but it has exceptions to the Fighter - DropShip - JumpShip progression, and at a glance I see no pattern at all to its ground support.)


Next Time: the 'Mechs

FWL 3025 Manufacturing: AeroSpace Fighters

From left: 100-ton Rievers, 60-ton Stingrays, 25-ton Cheetahs

Based on my earlier figures, the Free Worlds League should have 1100 fighters attached to 'Mech units, and (assuming the same number per collar as for 'Mech units) perhaps another 380 attached to their navy. House Marik: The Free Worlds League (hereafter "HM:FWL") says eight factories build 325 per year. Modeling their outputs on the 'Mech production sites, I'd expect them to produce 90, 74, 58, 39, 33, 21, 6 and 4 fighters respectively.

• The six fighters from 1st edition AeroTech--the Sabre, Centurion, Lightning, Hellcat, Eagle and Thunderbird--are, by all accounts, common and manufactured in every Successor State. The "standard" 'Mechs from the 2nd edition set make up about 65% of the FWL's 'Mech production, so I imagine these six fighters constitute a similarly high percentage of the FWL's fighter production.
• The planets Westover and Lopez both have factories for the Stingray and the Riever (HM:FWL page 126). TR:3025 calls the Riever the FWL's "impressive mainstay" and the Stingray merely "common." Free Worlds Defense Industries (merger of Gibson Federated BattleMechs and Andurien Aerotech) is a larger corporation than Earthwerks despite building 70 fewer 'Mechs; aerospace production probably makes up the difference.
• The Helm asteroid belt has aerospace fighter bays (HM:FWL page 79); it's mentioned alongside both of Kali Yama's 'Mech plants, so I suspect it's also a Kali Yama production site.
• The planet Marik, in addition to being the military capital of the Free Worlds League, has an Imstar Aerospace facility (HM:FWL page 154). Imstar's light Cheetah is said to be Marik's standard fighter and is probably produced at other sites as well (TR:3025).
• The planet Atreus has an unnamed aerospace fighter production facility. (HM:FWL page 153)
• The planet Bordon, home of Allied Aerospace (from TR:3025), probably produces aerospace craft. (It was hit in the same deep raid which destroyed the "secret" factory on Ling; HM:FWL page 44.)
• The Principality of Regulus may have a Corsair factory (based on TR:3025). Given Regulus' share of the military, I'd expect such a facility to produce 18-26 fighters (not necessarily all Corsairs).

The regimental writeups (including merc battalions and extra Andurien wings) show roughly 2/7 of Marik's fighter formations to be light, 3/7 medium and 2/7 heavy. Can't say for sure if production weights break down the same way, but it's a starting point.

From left: 100-ton Thunderbirds or 75-ton Eagles,
60-ton Hellcats or 50-ton Lightnings, 30-ton Centurions or 20-ton Sabres

FWL 3025 Manufacturing: Lost in Oriente

Looking at a map, it seems to me that the...

Regulan Hussars are supplied from Gibson and Wallis
    (66 'Mechs per year / 15 battalions)
Defenders of Andurien are supplied from Shiro III
    (62 'Mechs per year / 15 battalions)
Protectorate Guard, Sirian Lancers and Silver Hawks are supplied from Kalidasa and Oliver
    (89 'Mechs per year / 21 battalions)
Stewart Dragoons are supplied from Stewart
    (28 'Mechs per year / 6 battalions)
Fusiliers of Oriente, Oriente Hussars and Orloff Grenadiers are supplied from Calloway IV
    (44 'Mechs per year / 39 battalions)
Marik and federal forces are supplied from Irian, Keystone, Thermopolis, Kendall, Tematagi and Savannah
    (197 'Mechs per year / 81 battalions)

Oriente doesn't make sense. They should produce at least 50 more 'Mechs per year to support that many battalions. 

 
The House Marik book says "another seven production lines are currently shut down (due to component shortages) or disabled." (From context I think it means production sites, so Irian's dormant Guillotine line doesn't count). Seven inactive sites, plus four semi-active sites inferred from production numbers, should make eleven. I've identified maybe ten candidates:

• In 2987, Lyran regiments crippled a much-prized "secret" light 'Mech manufacturing facility being constructed on Ling. (House Marik, page 44)
• Marik's capture of Asuncion and Bernardo in 2840 significantly scaled down Capellan BattleMech production capability. Known lines include Crusaders (Kallon) and Fleas (Earthwerks). Liao began trading secretly with Asuncion in 2995. (House Marik page 34, House Liao pages 52 and 120, Wolf's Dragoons page 105, and TR:3050)
• Kong Interstellar on Connaught produces some Ostsol parts. (TR3050)
• A major storehouse on Bordon contains the bulk of Allied Aerospace's Phoenix Hawk LAM program. (TR:3025) This is as (or more) promising as what's said of Spiders, Vulcans, Trebuchets, Shadow Hawks, Goliaths and BattleMasters, which comprise 15% of the Free Worlds League's annual production. 
• StarCorp Industries has at least one Longbow production line in the Free Worlds League. The original Stardate writeup says it's manufactured in limited numbers in "most" of the Successor States, but I don't know which (if any) worlds are listed; TR:3058 lists one world each for Marik, Steiner and Davion, but claims in the text that all three lie in the Free Worlds League. 
• The Abbey District and Duchy of Tamarind are the only multi-world provinces with neither strong neighbors nor known production facilities. Although they're described as "torn apart" by the war, they might (like the Zion Province) possess disabled 'Mech production sites. 

Asuncion, Bernardo, Emris IV and Ling all lie in Oriente's sphere of influence. I'm inclined to place two of my inferred Stinger lines in the Earthwerks facilities on Asuncion and Bernardo, because switching from Stingers in the 3025 House book to Fleas in TR:3050 is convenient for continuity. Oriente's shortfall could be explained by unused capacity (lines shut down due to component shortages) on those or other worlds.

Another possibility is that Oriente builds more aerospace fighters or tanks than the other major provinces, and trades to make up its shortfall in 'Mechs.


To be continued later. 

FWL 3025 Manufacturing: Assault Shortage

...the Free Worlds League has had a serious shortage of assault 'Mech production capacity for the past 20-25 years.  ...  As a result of this problem, the League's assault battalions have become increasingly populated with Orions, Warhammers, and other lighter 'Mechs, placing them at a distinct disadvantage against equivalent units from the Lyran Commonwealth, which are well-stocked with new Zeuses and Goliaths. (page 114)

The shortage no doubt began with Anton's Civil War (the Irian plant reopened quickly*, but perhaps not at full strength). I suspect it also coincides with upgrades to the Lyran Furillo plant, and a general retooling of Commando lines to produce heavier 'Mechs.

used without permission

I could dismiss the remark about new Lyran Goliaths since the closest similar statement in the Steiner book names Zeuses and Atlases instead; however, it squares with TR:3025's assertion that the majority of Goliaths are in Steiner hands, and it's possible that the FWL only recently recaptured a Goliath factory from the Lyrans. Stewart is a bit far from the border, but Oliver is an attractive candidate: it's the Goliath's original production site, it's right on the border, and it loses production capacity so regularly that a silenced Goliath line wouldn't be remarkable.

It's convenient that Orions, Warhammers and "others" (which I'll take to be Marauder-Ms) are named specifically, because I can assume the Lyrans produce an equal number of assault 'Mechs. Likewise, since the book doesn't note any similar shortfall or advantage against Capellan forces, I'll assume that assault 'Mechs occupy a similar fraction of Capellan manufacturing.

Except for the period between 2953-68, when it controlled the Liao Atlas and Victor production facility on Carver V, the only new assault 'Mechs produced by the Free Worlds League during the past century have been Awesomes, BattleMasters, and Goliaths. As a result, the League's regular regiments have become increasingly dominated by medium, 45-60 ton 'Mechs like the Phoenix Hawk, the Hunchback, and the home-grown Hermes II. (page 115)

The "45-60" tons might look like a typo, but I'm not sure it is. A lance of 45-60 ton 'Mechs (210 tons) is about average for MW1e's "medium lance," which I believe corresponds with the typical weight of BF1's regular medium regiments. Regardless, medium 'Mechs aren't dominant due to production--Marik production of mediums is actually shorted a bit in favor of heavy 'Mechs. The mediums just aren't suffering as much attrition.


To be continued later.

*EDIT:  it did reopen quickly once they started rebuilding it, but they didn't start rebuilding it for close to a decade.

First Look at FWL 3025 Manufacturing

House Marik: The Free Worlds League (FASA 1622), page 114:

The Free Worlds League presently has 17 fully or partly operational 'Mech production facilities, manufacturing an estimated 500 'Mechs per year. Another seven production lines are currently shut down (due to component shortages) or disabled. Twenty-four different 'Mech types are currently manufactured in the League, with the most common being Stingers, Wasps, Orions, Griffins, Hermes IIs, Locusts, Wolverines, and Warhammers.  

Those most common 'Mechs don't seem to be in any kind of order, unless they're being listed from most-produced to least-produced:

42    Stinger (9 shy)
51    Wasp
42    Orion
41    Griffin
34    Hermes II (2 shy)
32    Locust (4 shy)
36    Wolverine-M
22    Warhammer

21    Marauder-M
16    Trebuchet
16    Spider
15    Archer
14    Hunchback
14    Shadow Hawk
13    Phoenix Hawk
13    Vulcan
12    BattleMaster
11    Stalker
9    Quickdraw
8    Rifleman
7    Awesome
7    Crusader
6    Cicada
4    Goliath

The chart lists thirteen production sites and 486 'Mechs built annually--four sites and fourteen 'Mechs fewer than stated in the text. I know from the Davion and Kurita books that some factories don't get listed in the production chapter, so I'm inclined to think these four "missing" sites were simply too small to appear on the chart, and that they're responsible for the 9 Stingers and 4 Locusts needed to put the "most manufactured" list in order. (Per the Free Worlds Defense Industries profile on page 126, the 2 extra Hermes IIs seem to come from a troubled line on Gibson.)

The corporate profiles don't mention Shiro III's Stalker line (which must be new, since the FWL hadn't built any Stalkers in the past century), Irian's Awesome line (newly rebuilt) or Keystone's BattleMaster line (I don't know why). Per the chart, these three lines produce 30 'Mechs annually; the text says all four make 30 together, but I think that's forgetting to add the Goliath line in, or maybe shorting the new/rebuilt lines.

The profiles also have Thunderbolts instead of Phoenix Hawks built on Keystone (TR:3050 gives it both, so I'll assume the Thunderbolt line is simply fallow in 3025) and Calloway VI retooling for Phoenix Hawks instead of Shadow Hawks (probably a copy error - either the wrong Hawk or the wrong planet).


To be continued later.