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Storage And Housing
      Storage facilities for combat units, supplies, and housing for personnel are always an important concern for mercenary forces. As part of a contract, a unit may or may not have receive storage and housing. A mercenary unit usually requires three types of facilities; equipment bays, supply storage, and housing.

Shipping And Transportation
      The rediscovery of space ship construction technology has greatly reduced the cost of general transportation by increasing the number of jump ships plying the stellar shipping lanes. However, there are still not enough ships to guarantee quick and direct travel from any one system to any other system.
      Travel distance is measured in "jumps" between systems. Travel time is measured in days. Although the time for a single jump is so short as to be meaningless, the lengths of layovers waiting for recharging, the movement of drop ships within systems, and the arrival of other jump ships may induce notable delays. Travel to outlying systems may be even more restricted and intermittent.
      Shipping costs are generally rather cheap. This allows cargo and mercenaries to move between planets relatively easily, if not always quickly. Additional charges may apply for transport to or from remote locations or in dangerous situations.
      For the purposes of cost computations, personnel are treated as one ton of cargo.

Scheduled Commercial Travel
      Regular shipping routes exist all over inhabited space. Generally the question is when will a ship reach any given system. These routes are generally safe and dependable, but may be slow.

Military Travel Times
      The following time will be required to move between any two locations by dedicated military jump ships. Dedicated military jump ships are rare and only transport mercenary units when the mercenaries are part of a regular military force.

Shipping Times
      The shipping of highly valuable equipment and/or weapons is not a simple feat. The need to constantly switch cargo between jump ships, temporarily store cargo awaiting transshipment, and shift cargo into and out of drop ships means that there are many opportunities for delays. Because of these delays shipping times are always notably longer than the simple direct travel times between any locations.

Healing And Medical Facilities

Forms Of Healing
      Healing takes place in two ways; naturally or at a medical facility.
      Natural healing represents a person resting after an injury to allow it to heal naturally. This assumes first aid and basic drugs are available, but no advanced medical treatment. Under these conditions, a personality (mech warrior, vehicle crew, etc.) heals at the rate of one hit box per two months. Infantry units heal at the rate of 1 box per month, up to a maximum of one-half of their losses when the damage occurred (not one-half of the unit, only one-half of the losses in the battle).
      Medical facilities may be either fixed hospitals, advanced aid facilities, or Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASHs). For campaign healing purposes, these are all the same. Each facility may perform a number of healing actions per month equal to double the number of operating theaters present in the facility. At such a facility, a healing action allows a personality to heal at the rate of one hit box per month, or a healing action allows an Infantry unit to heal at the rate of 2 boxes per month, up to the maximum of one-half of its losses.

Healing The Dead
      Dead personalities and destroyed infantry units may be healed under certain conditions. If a mech warrior or a vehicle crew was not in a mech or vehicle which was Truly Destroyed (Maximum Tech, page 57), and a medical facility is present within reach of the battlefield, a "dead" mech warrior, "dead" crew, or "destroyed" infantry unit may survive in a critical state. Roll a D6 as a "saving" roll. On a result of 1-3, the person, crew, or infantry unit dies. On a roll of 4-6, the person, crew, or infantry unit is in critical condition. The number of saving rolls allowed immediately after a battle is limited by the closeness of the facility to the battle and the ambulances available. Critical condition persons or crews are considered to have six hits. A destroyed infantry unit in critical condition is treated as an injured infantry unit (previous paragraph) with 100% casualties.
      The number of personnel and/or infantry units which may be "saved" after a battle is limited by three factors; the number of operating theaters, the proximity of the medical facility to the battlefield, and the number of medevac vehicles (ambulances) available. A maximum of one saving action may occur per operating theater, regardless of how many personnel may reach the facility. If a medical facility is located on the battlefield (ex. a MASH unit is physically on the battlefield), no ambulances are required to reach it. If the facility is close to the battlefield, saving actions are limited to double the number of medevac vehicles available. If the facility is distant from the battlefield, saving actions are limited to the number of medevac VTOL vehicles available. Facilities at different distances may be combined to support a single battle.

MedEvac Vehicles
      Any vehicle may be designated as a MedEvac vehicle, provided it has a minimum of five tons of internal cargo capacity, all of which is devoted to the carrying of casualties. Once designated as a MedEvac vehicle, the vehicle many not be used for any other purpose in the campaign. They may never be used as cargo haulers. MedEvac vehicles may never carry external cargo.

Communications
      The ability of mercenary units to communicate with their employers, their suppliers, and the MRBC is vital. Communications take the form of ComStar messages.
      ComStar messages are the only effective method for sending interstellar messages. ComStar messages are reliable, but generally costly. Two forms of transmission exist: standard and express. Standard messages are transmitted when ComStar equipment is optimally positioned. This may mean a delay of days or even weeks in the time required for each message to arrive at its destination. Express messages are transmitted as quickly as possible, but almost always require extra routing and repeat transmissions. The time delay for a message is usually measured in terms of a few days.
      The following costs and times apply to all communications.

ComStar Standard

ComStar Express

Prepaid Replies
      The expense of ComStar messages means that no one feels an obligation to spend money to response to a message from anyone. If someone wishes to insure that the person or organization to whom they are sending a message will reply, the sender may prepay for the reply. If the receiver fails to reply, the payment is lost.
      The cost for a message with Prepaid Reply is double cost for the regular message.

Contracts
      Information about contracts and contract terms is described in the Battletech Hot Spots book.

Contract Numbers
      Contrary to the description for Contract Numbers in Hot Spots, Contract Numbers will not be based on the date a contract was registered. Instead, the Contract Number will simply be an identifier used to make each contract uniquely identifiable. No other significance should be assigned to the Contract Number.

Contract Number Corrections
      FASA, in addition to its other problems, apparently has difficulty counting. At least three duplicate Contract Numbers were found in the Hot Spots book. The following Contract Numbers have been modified as indicated.

Pay Rate
      The Pay Rate for a contract is the amount the employer is offering for the contracted services. The modifiers from the Initial Offer Table may be used, or a rate may be negotiated, at the option of the Campaign Master.

Support
      The Support entry may be expanded to include "Support, Repair", "Support, Munitions", and "Support, Maintenance".
      "Support, Repair" will indicate how the unit's equipment will be repaired after it receives battle damage. Repair may be further categorized as "Parts" and "Labor". Terms such as "Full", "Half", and "None" for parts, should be self explanatory. "Compensated" means the unit must acquire any replacement equipment, but the employer will reimburse the unit for the associated costs. The repair expenses may also be stated as an amount in C-Bills which the employer will pay towards the unit's repair costs. If repair technicians or mechanics ("Labor") are to be provided by the employer, this must be stated separately and specifically in the contract. The resupply of ammunition is not assumed to be part of "Support, Repair".
      "Support, Munitions" will indicate how the unit's ammunition is to be replenished after a battle. If ammunition is to be provided by the employer or its purchase compensated by the employer, this will be specified.
      "Support, Maintenance" will indicate how the employer will assist in the maintenance of the unit's equipment. Maintenance may be further categorized as "Parts" and "Labor". The payment of Maintenance Parts (i.e., paying for the actual maintenance cost of the equipment) is very rare and is not included in a contract unless explicitly stated. The handling of Maintenance Labor is the common condition for contracts. "Full", "Half", or any other fraction or percentage, shall mean that the employer will provide the indicated amount of technical labor to perform the required work, which the unit is not itself able to perform. "Compensated" means the employer will reimburse the unit for any costs above its own ability to perform maintenance. Note that the employer is only providing labor above that available within the unit itself. As many mercenary units have sufficient personnel to maintain their equipment, this is a good bargaining point. This may also be stated as an amount in C-Bills which the employer will pay periodically towards the unit's maintenance costs.

Salvage Rights
      Salvage rights are not covered in detail in the Hot Spots book. The following terms will be used. In all cases, equipment, vehicles, or mechs lost by a unit or employer in combat remain the property of the unit or employer, and are not treated as subject to salvage rights.

Dragoons Ratings

Dragoons Points
      There is no term for the points used to determine a unit's Dragoons Rating. Therefore, the term "Dragoons Point" shall be used for the points awarded toward achieving a Dragoons Rating.

Starting Rating
      All units in the campaign start with the same Dragoons Rating.

Quality Value
      The starting Quality Value for all units is set to that for a Green unit, although the initial four personnel in the unit would actually generate a Regular rating. This is done because most units will immediately hire sufficient Green personnel to make the unit rating Green.

Combat Record
      The Mercenaries (page 149) book indicates that a unit receives 5 Dragoons Points for each three years of uneventful garrison duty. However, "uneventful garrison duty" is not defined. For example, is a two year contract in which one battle occurs during the first month eventful, or is it one month which is eventful, followed by twenty three uneventful months?
      For campaign purposes, any "mission" during which a unit does not receive Dragoons Points for other reasons, will be considered to be "uneventful".
      Also, the term "mission" is not clearly defined. It is implied that a mission is a contract. For clarity in the campaign, a mission shall be a single contract or a period of one year within a contract, whichever is less.

Support
      The method for generating the Support value (Mercenaries, page 150) is not used in this campaign because the rules for technician support have been highly modified from the bookkeeping nightmare described in the Mercenaries book. The following table will be used to determine a unit's Support. The term "technicians" shall apply to Technicians, Mechanics, and/or Aerospace Technicians as appropriate for a unit. All Conditions apply only to members of a unit, not to personnel hired, loaned, leased, etc. on a temporary basis. Regardless of all modifiers or other conditions, a unit's Support value may never be more than five (5).

Dragoons Rating Table
      The following is from Mercenaries (page 149).

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Contents Previous Next Updated 20 June 1999.