Hello to any that view this.
What this thread is about is 'backstory' for your Mercenary group once it has gotten to a size sufficient to be both independent and unwieldy.
As an example from my own game play on tabletops for decades:
The Playing Group (we never named it) would meet to play B-tech every weekend at a gaming shop for well over 15 years. And I do mean every weekend. Gaming would 'start' just after working hours on Friday, and play would go until midnight or 1am. Play would resume when the shop opened at 10am Saturday, and proceed until 1am. Further, Play would resume Sunday at 10am, and go until midnight. This is a total of 35 hours of play time per week. At 35 hours per week, times 52 weeks per year, and playing for 15 years, this works out to something like 25 to 28 thousand hours of tabletop game play.
In that time, using the results of tabletop battles, one can easily create a 'history' of the unit being fielded. It also provides a solid foundation upon which to fill in the finer details of the backstory generated to cover the unit's existence and 'history' within the game's own ongoing history. Although, you do have to lay down a few rules... like, that no battle result can affect the overall plot lines of existing characters, or planetary histories, or the overall gaming universe's history.
An example of this: The Playing Group, when the Black Widow campaign book was released, all wanted to face Natasha Kerensky. So, most of us got to play all the senarios in the book. Including the three-way battle between our own force, Natasha's, and the Bounty Hunter. Any result that ended with Natasha losing was 'ignored' as inteferring with the Character, and either the resuls ignored, or modified to show a 'hard fought, losing battle' with her. The former was one of my results. Natasha faced the Colonel and both fought brilliantly. The battle ending with both mechs nearly totaled, and with barely a handful of medium lasers between them. Both Mechs ceased fire upon each other, bowed their Mechs to 'honor' their foe, and strode off the battlefield undefeated. In this manner, my personal character, the Colonel of the Star Lions Corps, Fought Natasha Kerensky, and both didn't 'lose', and did not affect the Character of Natasha Kerensky in any manner that would 'upset' the History of the Battletech Universe overall. But, it did give me 'grist for the mill' for my unit's backstory!
Within that context, though, there is still plenty of room to create and 'do your thing' within the Battletech Universe as a whole.
For instance, my own Merc group, the Star Lions Corps. A Mercenary group created by a former Davion Heavy Guards Colonel (who was forced to exit Davion service due to being framed by a 'minor' noble, that used 'connections' to frame the Colonel for a crime he did not commit). Being unable to effectively fight back (lack of said 'connections') the Colonel chose to leave Davion service, rather than go through a 'rigged' Court Martial.
Thus, the Star Lions started out as a Lance sized Mercenary group. After winning dozens of battles and fulfilling several contracts, the unit had grown to have just over a dozen Mechs, 4 or 5 combat vehicles, and a 'lance' (two) Aerospace fighters. At that time, the Star Lions sold three Leopard class drop ships to obtain a Union drop ship.
In a relatively few years, the Star Lions had grown in size to be able to field 3 Companies of Mechs, a company of tanks, at least a 'company' of support vehicles, and more. Funds were carefully set aside during this period to purchase an Overlord class drop ship, and several Leopards.
A few years later, The Mercenary group owned, or had major shares in, 3 Invader class jump ships, several more drop ships of various designs (yes, one was purely for moving Infantry, which had grown to Battalion size).
By this point in the backstory of the unit, the Star Lions Corps was a well established Mercenary Group. And it was expected to grow to Regimental size in time.
This is when the 'personal' side of things got nasty. In real life, one Player simply hated my Mercs for beating his House Unit, every, single, time. It was common practice for each member of the Playing Group to take turns as the Battle Master for a campaign. This particular Player caused my Mercs to be Contracted to House Liao, just before the 4th Succession War kicked off.
When Davion forces came 'knocking' in the Spica System, my Mercs were told, by the Mandarin in charge, to: "Fight and Die to the last. Or we will kill your Dependents."
This was seen as a major Breach of Contract, since the unit was hired only to 'support' Liao forces on planet, and not engage in Front Line combat (Liao does not 'trust' Mercs after all). And thus, the Colonel felt justified in contacting the Davion invasion commander. Contact was established using old codes and personal messages to the general in charge, as well as several of his subordinates. A meeting was arranged, and between them, they created a false battle where the Star Lions were wiped out to the last. This 'combat footage' was 'leaked' to the Liao forces as combat data found in a wrecked battlemech, found in a hard to see location of the 'final battle'.
With his unit 'dead', the Colonel moved his forces in areas not patrolled by Liao forces, eventually circling around to make an attack upon the Main City, Military Headquarters, and Star Port. But only after the Davion commander had engaged the defensive units for those areas. Once Liao forces were fully engaged, the Star Lions struck all three targets in lightning raids. Secondary forces were near-totally wiped out, and the HQ taken, almost without effort.
The raid on the Liao HQ was so swift, overpowering, and unexpected, that the Mandarin in charge was caught in his office, still logged into the Planetary Secure Database. The Colonel chose not to 'bother' the Davion commander with the burden of holding the Mandarin, and having a trial for his actions. Instead, he shot the Mandarin with a las-pistol and granted himself 'superuser' access to the secure database and planetary data network.
With this established, the Mercenary Colonel was able to feed false data to Liao units, allowing the Davions to spring large scale traps, and other tricks of battle, to settle the invasion of Spica as a 'done deal'. The Davion Commander was good for his word, and sent a portion of his invasion fleet to the nearby star system of St.Loris, where the Star Lion dependents were located, freeing them, and giving them transport to Spica.
Meanwhile, the Colonel and the General cooked up a tale of a world nearly seized by Davion, and in peril of being overwhelmed without immediate aid. HPG messages were sent for reinforcements, using the (now dead) Mandarin's own personal security codes. Several groups of Liao reinforcements were sent to the Spica system, and immediately captured by the Davion Fleet occupying both Jump Points in the system.
As reward for turning over all their tactical data on Liao unit compositions, deployments, and near-current orders, the Davion Commander gave the Mercenaries very good 'salvage' rights, and ownership of anything they chose to take from the planet.
Thus, the Star Lions Corps raided three Light Mech Factories to the ground. Taking every piece of equipment available. They also took several of the captured jump ships, as well as nearly two dozen drop ships. These drop ships were loaded with the Star Lions assets, and all the 'prizes of battle' they had taken possession of. This included a minor number of Battlemechs, Vehicles, Fighters, and over 150,000 former Capellan citizens (mostly recruited from prisons). The Star Lions also, while Davion forces were busy finishing off Liao forces on planet, raided every bank on Spica, keeping only the C-Bills, and selling all the House currencies to the Davion General (who would presumably forward it all to Davion Space to be used to destabilize Liao currencies on the open market).
The Star Lions Corps then left Spica and 'raided' St.Loris (with the knowledge, but not open approval, of the General in charge of the Davion forces). Again, every bank was raided, and again, only C-Bills were kept, and the rest sold to the Davions at 'bargain-basement' prices. More 'former' Capellan citizens were 'liberated' and enfolded into the growing Star Lions 'fleet'. Which, I might note, contained exactly ONE Destroyer, and 2 Frigates. Both were captured Capellan warships. The captured ships were part of the 'reinforcements' that survived combat with the Davion invasion fleet at Spica. They had been 'patched up' enough to act as protection for the rest of the Star Lions Corps assets.
The only other thing the Star Lions Corps took away from all this, was a copy of the newly discovered Helm Memory Core.
The Star Lions Corps then exited the Inner Sphere and zigzagged across the southern periphery for most of two years. Stopping at various worlds to buy industrial equipment, hire experts (easily done once they knew they would have access to a copy of the Helm Memory Core), and of all things... tunnel boring machines. With the funds obtained from all the bank heists, the Star Lions were able to 'hire' several independent jump ships and a few independent drop ships to add to their growing 'fleet'.
The Mercenaries would go from planet to planet, trading, and buying equipment, and hiring personnel. Eventually, the unit reached the Perseus-Cepherus Nebula and explored it extensively. They had to, since no planetary systems were on record within its borders. The Corps eventually selected a star they named Stygia, which contained NO habitable worlds. However, the three gas giant planets had, between them, nearly a dozen 'terra' sized moons, which were colonized by tunneling into the depths of the moons to establish living and working areas.
These included building ancient nuclear power plants in special tunnels, designed to have their access tunnel collapsed in the case of danger. And, in any case, would be abandoned, in place, tunnel collapsed, within 30 to 40 years, when the nuclear materials were 'spent', and the output of the plants reduced to a trickle of power. This bought enough time to establish enough industry on the moons, that between them, they were able to produce Fusion Engines and other power sources.
The Light Mech Factories were highly useful in building the industrial base for the lunar colonies, and only much later, were re-tooled back to enable them to produce Mechs again.
During all this, the Mercenaries 'demilitarized' most of their Mechs and used them to assist in colony building. All the weapons and ordinance being stored for later use. During the course of colony building, various mines were established. Some very rich veins of 'rare earth elements' were found and exploited. The resulting ores mined, beyond the needs of the colonies, were shipped, using converted drop ships, and the Corps' own jump ships, to be sold to various Periphery States, Indepenent planets, and even to some Inner Sphere corporations, and further equipment, food, medical supplies, and other needs were purchased and shipped to the Stygia system with the funds obtained.
Thus, one can easily see how a Mercenary force could establish their own colonies and create their own Governmental system. More on that in a later posting, perhaps. But, the 'time frame' for all this, logically, would take several decades, at the least. For my own choice, I chose a 115 year period where the Stygian Compact 'hid' their location from others, and expanded out from the single system they started with, to a point where they had established several more colony worlds, both inside and farther out into the Deep Periphery, creating a multi-star nation of their own.
Once expansion was on the table of options, the old Mech Factories were updated, and newly designed Mechs were built for the new Mercenary force that was to be known as the Ghost Lions Legions. Using rebuilt Star Lion Mechs, and new Ghost Lions designs, the Compact was able to root out most Piracy in their area of control, and have the forces needed to protect their colonies, and those colonies that had languished without contact with the Inner Sphere for centuries. Which became member planets of the Stygian Compact government.
And thus, we get to modern times. The year is 3165 (2023), the Ghost Lions Legions are a known Mercenary force for hire, as well as the main protective force for the Stygian Compact. Oh, and I have not mentioned even a quarter of the 'background data' I produced for all this. No, this long posting is merely a 'taste' of what I created. Please feel free to request further details if you wish.
What this thread is about is 'backstory' for your Mercenary group once it has gotten to a size sufficient to be both independent and unwieldy.
As an example from my own game play on tabletops for decades:
The Playing Group (we never named it) would meet to play B-tech every weekend at a gaming shop for well over 15 years. And I do mean every weekend. Gaming would 'start' just after working hours on Friday, and play would go until midnight or 1am. Play would resume when the shop opened at 10am Saturday, and proceed until 1am. Further, Play would resume Sunday at 10am, and go until midnight. This is a total of 35 hours of play time per week. At 35 hours per week, times 52 weeks per year, and playing for 15 years, this works out to something like 25 to 28 thousand hours of tabletop game play.
In that time, using the results of tabletop battles, one can easily create a 'history' of the unit being fielded. It also provides a solid foundation upon which to fill in the finer details of the backstory generated to cover the unit's existence and 'history' within the game's own ongoing history. Although, you do have to lay down a few rules... like, that no battle result can affect the overall plot lines of existing characters, or planetary histories, or the overall gaming universe's history.
An example of this: The Playing Group, when the Black Widow campaign book was released, all wanted to face Natasha Kerensky. So, most of us got to play all the senarios in the book. Including the three-way battle between our own force, Natasha's, and the Bounty Hunter. Any result that ended with Natasha losing was 'ignored' as inteferring with the Character, and either the resuls ignored, or modified to show a 'hard fought, losing battle' with her. The former was one of my results. Natasha faced the Colonel and both fought brilliantly. The battle ending with both mechs nearly totaled, and with barely a handful of medium lasers between them. Both Mechs ceased fire upon each other, bowed their Mechs to 'honor' their foe, and strode off the battlefield undefeated. In this manner, my personal character, the Colonel of the Star Lions Corps, Fought Natasha Kerensky, and both didn't 'lose', and did not affect the Character of Natasha Kerensky in any manner that would 'upset' the History of the Battletech Universe overall. But, it did give me 'grist for the mill' for my unit's backstory!
Within that context, though, there is still plenty of room to create and 'do your thing' within the Battletech Universe as a whole.
For instance, my own Merc group, the Star Lions Corps. A Mercenary group created by a former Davion Heavy Guards Colonel (who was forced to exit Davion service due to being framed by a 'minor' noble, that used 'connections' to frame the Colonel for a crime he did not commit). Being unable to effectively fight back (lack of said 'connections') the Colonel chose to leave Davion service, rather than go through a 'rigged' Court Martial.
Thus, the Star Lions started out as a Lance sized Mercenary group. After winning dozens of battles and fulfilling several contracts, the unit had grown to have just over a dozen Mechs, 4 or 5 combat vehicles, and a 'lance' (two) Aerospace fighters. At that time, the Star Lions sold three Leopard class drop ships to obtain a Union drop ship.
In a relatively few years, the Star Lions had grown in size to be able to field 3 Companies of Mechs, a company of tanks, at least a 'company' of support vehicles, and more. Funds were carefully set aside during this period to purchase an Overlord class drop ship, and several Leopards.
A few years later, The Mercenary group owned, or had major shares in, 3 Invader class jump ships, several more drop ships of various designs (yes, one was purely for moving Infantry, which had grown to Battalion size).
By this point in the backstory of the unit, the Star Lions Corps was a well established Mercenary Group. And it was expected to grow to Regimental size in time.
This is when the 'personal' side of things got nasty. In real life, one Player simply hated my Mercs for beating his House Unit, every, single, time. It was common practice for each member of the Playing Group to take turns as the Battle Master for a campaign. This particular Player caused my Mercs to be Contracted to House Liao, just before the 4th Succession War kicked off.
When Davion forces came 'knocking' in the Spica System, my Mercs were told, by the Mandarin in charge, to: "Fight and Die to the last. Or we will kill your Dependents."
This was seen as a major Breach of Contract, since the unit was hired only to 'support' Liao forces on planet, and not engage in Front Line combat (Liao does not 'trust' Mercs after all). And thus, the Colonel felt justified in contacting the Davion invasion commander. Contact was established using old codes and personal messages to the general in charge, as well as several of his subordinates. A meeting was arranged, and between them, they created a false battle where the Star Lions were wiped out to the last. This 'combat footage' was 'leaked' to the Liao forces as combat data found in a wrecked battlemech, found in a hard to see location of the 'final battle'.
With his unit 'dead', the Colonel moved his forces in areas not patrolled by Liao forces, eventually circling around to make an attack upon the Main City, Military Headquarters, and Star Port. But only after the Davion commander had engaged the defensive units for those areas. Once Liao forces were fully engaged, the Star Lions struck all three targets in lightning raids. Secondary forces were near-totally wiped out, and the HQ taken, almost without effort.
The raid on the Liao HQ was so swift, overpowering, and unexpected, that the Mandarin in charge was caught in his office, still logged into the Planetary Secure Database. The Colonel chose not to 'bother' the Davion commander with the burden of holding the Mandarin, and having a trial for his actions. Instead, he shot the Mandarin with a las-pistol and granted himself 'superuser' access to the secure database and planetary data network.
With this established, the Mercenary Colonel was able to feed false data to Liao units, allowing the Davions to spring large scale traps, and other tricks of battle, to settle the invasion of Spica as a 'done deal'. The Davion Commander was good for his word, and sent a portion of his invasion fleet to the nearby star system of St.Loris, where the Star Lion dependents were located, freeing them, and giving them transport to Spica.
Meanwhile, the Colonel and the General cooked up a tale of a world nearly seized by Davion, and in peril of being overwhelmed without immediate aid. HPG messages were sent for reinforcements, using the (now dead) Mandarin's own personal security codes. Several groups of Liao reinforcements were sent to the Spica system, and immediately captured by the Davion Fleet occupying both Jump Points in the system.
As reward for turning over all their tactical data on Liao unit compositions, deployments, and near-current orders, the Davion Commander gave the Mercenaries very good 'salvage' rights, and ownership of anything they chose to take from the planet.
Thus, the Star Lions Corps raided three Light Mech Factories to the ground. Taking every piece of equipment available. They also took several of the captured jump ships, as well as nearly two dozen drop ships. These drop ships were loaded with the Star Lions assets, and all the 'prizes of battle' they had taken possession of. This included a minor number of Battlemechs, Vehicles, Fighters, and over 150,000 former Capellan citizens (mostly recruited from prisons). The Star Lions also, while Davion forces were busy finishing off Liao forces on planet, raided every bank on Spica, keeping only the C-Bills, and selling all the House currencies to the Davion General (who would presumably forward it all to Davion Space to be used to destabilize Liao currencies on the open market).
The Star Lions Corps then left Spica and 'raided' St.Loris (with the knowledge, but not open approval, of the General in charge of the Davion forces). Again, every bank was raided, and again, only C-Bills were kept, and the rest sold to the Davions at 'bargain-basement' prices. More 'former' Capellan citizens were 'liberated' and enfolded into the growing Star Lions 'fleet'. Which, I might note, contained exactly ONE Destroyer, and 2 Frigates. Both were captured Capellan warships. The captured ships were part of the 'reinforcements' that survived combat with the Davion invasion fleet at Spica. They had been 'patched up' enough to act as protection for the rest of the Star Lions Corps assets.
The only other thing the Star Lions Corps took away from all this, was a copy of the newly discovered Helm Memory Core.
The Star Lions Corps then exited the Inner Sphere and zigzagged across the southern periphery for most of two years. Stopping at various worlds to buy industrial equipment, hire experts (easily done once they knew they would have access to a copy of the Helm Memory Core), and of all things... tunnel boring machines. With the funds obtained from all the bank heists, the Star Lions were able to 'hire' several independent jump ships and a few independent drop ships to add to their growing 'fleet'.
The Mercenaries would go from planet to planet, trading, and buying equipment, and hiring personnel. Eventually, the unit reached the Perseus-Cepherus Nebula and explored it extensively. They had to, since no planetary systems were on record within its borders. The Corps eventually selected a star they named Stygia, which contained NO habitable worlds. However, the three gas giant planets had, between them, nearly a dozen 'terra' sized moons, which were colonized by tunneling into the depths of the moons to establish living and working areas.
These included building ancient nuclear power plants in special tunnels, designed to have their access tunnel collapsed in the case of danger. And, in any case, would be abandoned, in place, tunnel collapsed, within 30 to 40 years, when the nuclear materials were 'spent', and the output of the plants reduced to a trickle of power. This bought enough time to establish enough industry on the moons, that between them, they were able to produce Fusion Engines and other power sources.
The Light Mech Factories were highly useful in building the industrial base for the lunar colonies, and only much later, were re-tooled back to enable them to produce Mechs again.
During all this, the Mercenaries 'demilitarized' most of their Mechs and used them to assist in colony building. All the weapons and ordinance being stored for later use. During the course of colony building, various mines were established. Some very rich veins of 'rare earth elements' were found and exploited. The resulting ores mined, beyond the needs of the colonies, were shipped, using converted drop ships, and the Corps' own jump ships, to be sold to various Periphery States, Indepenent planets, and even to some Inner Sphere corporations, and further equipment, food, medical supplies, and other needs were purchased and shipped to the Stygia system with the funds obtained.
Thus, one can easily see how a Mercenary force could establish their own colonies and create their own Governmental system. More on that in a later posting, perhaps. But, the 'time frame' for all this, logically, would take several decades, at the least. For my own choice, I chose a 115 year period where the Stygian Compact 'hid' their location from others, and expanded out from the single system they started with, to a point where they had established several more colony worlds, both inside and farther out into the Deep Periphery, creating a multi-star nation of their own.
Once expansion was on the table of options, the old Mech Factories were updated, and newly designed Mechs were built for the new Mercenary force that was to be known as the Ghost Lions Legions. Using rebuilt Star Lion Mechs, and new Ghost Lions designs, the Compact was able to root out most Piracy in their area of control, and have the forces needed to protect their colonies, and those colonies that had languished without contact with the Inner Sphere for centuries. Which became member planets of the Stygian Compact government.
And thus, we get to modern times. The year is 3165 (2023), the Ghost Lions Legions are a known Mercenary force for hire, as well as the main protective force for the Stygian Compact. Oh, and I have not mentioned even a quarter of the 'background data' I produced for all this. No, this long posting is merely a 'taste' of what I created. Please feel free to request further details if you wish.
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