This campaign is based on a one year contract.
The contract offers experienced commanders 35000Cr to set up a mercenary operation on Coopers World and start a training camp for the indigenous forces.
Each unit starts with a Veteran Captain and 10000Cr of forces of the players choice as long as the following restrictions are followed.
The unit can include no vehicles as they cannot be transported to the planet.
The unit can include no weapons of grade greater than 4 as these are too bulky to transport to the planet.
Veteran and Elite units must come from the mercenaries available in the commanders home system so if too many units are chosen, the umpire will need to decide who gets them. This will be done using the rules below for recruitment.
Once the players units reach Coopers World, they can select 25000Cr worth of further forces from the standing army or can use that cash to purchase weapons and vehicles from the CMC at a 20% reduction on face value.
The army will not release any command, engineering, or medical personnel or equipment and will not release any howitzers as they need to be bought off world and are extremely expensive.
Honour and Notoriety points can be used to indicate the status of the Mercenary leader to other players and organisations. These scores will be important in attracting good mercenaries to the cause and convincing more prestigious companies that the leader is someone to do business with.
They will also play a large part in contract bidding.
Honour points are awarded by the umpire at the end of each battle based on the tables below.
Single handedly achieving a mission (one player game) mission value/1000 * 1.5
Achieving a mission mission value/1000/number of players
Per kill 1/2 per TU x2 for AFV, x2 for Veteran, x4 for Elite, x4 if killed by close combat.
Per key mission objective seized single handedly mission value/2500
Umpire awards not more than mission/1000 honour points per game.
Extreme bravery 2 5 pts
Extreme skill (lucky dice!) - 1 3 pts
Good tactics - 2 5 pts
So for example, a player on a 20,000 Cr mission with three other players where he makes 12 kills including 2 AFVs and 2 veteran stands and takes a key objective on his own.
Basic mission success 7 points
Seizing key objective 8 points
Kills 12 basic + 2 AFV + 2 Veteran = 16 kills = 8 points
Maximum umpire discretionary awards 20 of which this player would probably get up to 5 for seizing a key objective on his own!
The umpire will take a note of any key moments during the game to award discretionary Honour and Notoriety points. At the end of each game, the key moments will be reviewed and the umpire will decide whether they should get awarded points.
As a player can gain honour and fame for good performance on the battlefield, so can he gain notoriety for incompetence and cowardice!
Notoriety points run alongside Honour points and decide how a player is viewed by other mercenaries and, more importantly, by those parties selling equipment and offering missions. If two players going for the same mission had greatly differing Notoriety, the mission would probably go to the less notorious mercenary even if he had less Honour as he would be considered more trustworthy!
Gaining notoriety.
Any activity that results in the death of own forces 1 per TU
Any activity that results in the death of allies forces 2 per TU
Any civilian killed ** - 1 per civilian or TU
AFV lost to rear hit - 2 per TU
Unit lost to close combat - 1 per TU
Own casualties during the game before saving throws - 1 per 8 TU
Own command broken during game - 1 per command
** There is a 10% chance (1 on D10) (20% for artillery) that a civilian will be killed if a built up area is shelled. This roll is made per dice roll made against forces in a built up area. I.e. 3 times for a mortar shelling a stand in a town!
Umpire discretionary points.
There are no limit to these and they are nominated by the players in their capacity as other mercenary leaders spreading gossip etc! Did you see that idiot attack that town with no infantry support! Dont fight with so and so, he never pulls his weight!
They do have to be supported by evidence and can be raised during the game at any time. Each instance gains 1 point unless really bad then up to 3 can be awarded!
Our commander above is feeling very pleased with himself for doing so well in his mission. However, when the cost is counted, it tells a different story.
Even though he came through the battle successfully, our commander managed to lose 9 TU (although he recovered 6) and this costs him a Notoriety point. Would you fight with a leader taking such massive casualties?
He also managed to get one of those TU killed by strip mining him, add another Notoriety point there!
One of his tanks was shot in the rear chasing for the objective 2 Notoriety points
Finally, his fellow players point out that his glory hunting and the taking of the objective cost them increased casualties as the flank was left unprotected. The umpire awards 2 further Notoriety points for that!
This gives a total of 6 Notoriety points! Quite a high number as will be shown later.
At the end of each battle, the total Notoriety points awarded are subtracted from the Honour points awarded to give the amended Honour points. These are added to the mercenary leaders running total. The Notoriety points are also added to the running total.
Notoriety points are hard to remove as this is a measure of each leaders reputation. The only way to do it is to expend time and effort in a PR exercise to convince others that your reputation is undeserved. This does work in time, but tarnishes the leaders Honour at the same time. Also, the worse the reputation, the harder it is to redress the balance.
Therefore, to remove the first Notoriety point costs 2 Honour. To remove a second costs an additional 4 and to remove a third costs an additional 6 etc. This resets after each mission.
Therefore, in the example above, our commander has 19 Honour points and 6 Notoriety points for this game. To remove all of the Notoriety points will cost him 42 Honour points!!!!!
1st 2 2nd 4 3rd 6 4th 8 5th 10 6th 12
He can choose to remove 3 points for a total of 12 Honour and spend another 12 Honour to remove the other 3 after the next game, but those remaining 3 Notoriety points could hurt his chances of recruiting those Veteran infantry he needs to replace his losses!
So, now we just need to see how these points impact on the rest of the game.
Up to now contracts have been offered including a sum of money seen as fair by the umpire. From now on, contracts will be negotiated between the party offering the contract and the mercenaries interested in it.
The umpire will have an amount of money in mind for the contract as this would have been calculated when working out the basic game set up.
The contract will be offered on the Mercenary wires (the website) with as much information as is available at that time along with any requirements to complete the mission.
Mercenaries will be invited to apply for the contracts. That application will include the price they expect to be paid for that mission and the forces they will commit for that price.
If this is higher than the price set by the umpire, it will then be negotiated. This is where the Honour and Notoriety points come in as these are taken into account during the negotiation. Prospective employers are far more likely to agree a higher price with a renowned commander If you want the best, it costs!
That negotiation could take the form of the employer offering a lower sum with bonuses like money for kills or other specific events. It could result in the mercenary commander reducing the forces he wants to commit to the operation or it could result in no agreement being reached.
This will be decided by a table and die rolls.
Start with a base number of 0.
Difference between umpires valuation and mercenarys request. +1 per 5% difference maximum 50% difference.
Honour points
0 5 +3
6 10 +2
11 15 +1
16 20 0
21 30 -1
31 40 -2
41 50 -3
51 70 -4
71 - 90 -5
91 120 -6
121 150 -7
151 200 -8
201 250 -9
251 300 -10
301 375 -11
376 450 -12
451 550 -13
551 650 -14
651 800 -15
801+ -16
Notoriety points + 1 per 1
If two or more players are playing, all Honour and Notoriety points are averaged. It is possible for mercenaries to bid separately for a portion of the same contract. In this case, their fees can be negotiated individually! These fees are kept secret.
This should give a number between 15 and + 20. Numbers higher than 20 mean that the mercenary is laughed out of town for his demands.
Now the umpire rolls 2D10 and adds this to the number from above. Then the following table is checked.
Modified total Response to mercenary
-10 or less Contract agreed on Mercenaries terms or maximum allowed.
-9 - -5 Counter offer of 75% or bonuses to that value***
-5 - -1 Counter offer of 50% or bonuses to that value***
0 - +2 Counter offer of 25% or bonuses to that value***
+3 - +5 Counter offer of 10% or bonuses to that value***
+6 - +10 Counter offer of bonuses worth 5% of difference value***
+11 - +20 Counter offer of base contract value
21+ Counter offer of base contract less 10%
*** See scenario generation rules (FEV rules) for values of bonuses.
Purchasing and recruitment.
Each month, a list of available mercenaries will be placed on the Mercenary wires. These will be Veteran and Elite troops only as Regular and Untrained troops are not hard to get hold of.
These troops will be listed in the following categories.
Infantry
Tank crews
Other vehicle crews
Artillery crews
Command Personnel
Medical Personnel
Engineering Personnel
Once hired, they will need to be used solely in the role they were purchased for. If they take on another similar role (Infantry to Command or Tank Crew to other vehicle crew), they drop one grade in quality. If they take on a completely different role (Artillery to anything, infantry to crew etc), they drop two grades.
Once the new list of available troops is on the wires, commanders have two weeks to submit their offers for the services of those troops. These offers should state the units the commander wants and the fee to be paid for each unit.
These fees will not only be the amount of money that the commander pays to gain the services of each unit, but will be the basis of the maintenance costs going forward. Units will generally not go for less than the current rates, but could go for far more if more than one commander wants them!
Once all offers are in, each unit with only one offer is rolled for on a D6. If the result is 4+ the unit joins the commander that made the offer.
The modifiers to that roll are.
Each 100Cr less than market price -1
Each 100Cr more than market price +1
For every 2 Notoriety points -1
Honour > 50 +1
Honour > 200 +1 (cumulative)
If the unit accepts more than one offer, then a bidding war will ensue! The commanders involved will be asked to make one further bid. The winner will be the one with the higher bid. If the two bids are within 10Cr of each other, the winner will be the commander with the higher Honour.
Example
Three commanders all want one unit of Elite infantry.
The commanders have the following Honour/Notoriety points 1 120/0 2 80/1 3 - 250/5
They all offer the market rate for the unit of 1200Cr.
The umpire then rolls a die and rolls a 4
This means that the modified results for each commander are
1) 4 +1 Honour greater than 50 = 5
2) 4 +1 Honour greater than 50, -1 Notoriety more than 0 = 4
3) 4 +2 Honour greater than 200, -3 Notoriety more than 4 = 3
So although commander 3 has the most honour, his notoriety is the deciding factor as the mercenary TU doesnt fancy working for such a risky commander!
Now the remaining commanders bid a second time and bid 1300 and 1302 credits respectively. Even though the second commander has been sneaky and tried to guess and just exceed the bid of the first commander, the mercenary unit will choose to join commander 1 as his is deemed the more honourable unit to join.
Commanders will only ever be able to buy from companies that are willing to sell to them, or on the black market.
Arms companies are not too picky about who they sell to as long as youve got the money. Unfortunately, they are picky about having their names associated with notorious commanders and could well refuse to deal with them. Also, they view the amount of money that a commander is likely to have as a function of the Honour that a commander has as this is surely a sign of a successful mercenary.
Therefore, most arms companies will not deal with mercenaries that are just starting out.
Each company has a Business rating from 1 to 10. These define how likely the company is to take an order. Usually, the bigger the company, the higher the number and the less likely they are to deal with small mercenary units.
Every time a mercenary wants to make a purchase from a supplier, they submit the details of the purchase to the umpire.
Commanders deal with the suppliers on a personal basis building up a relationship over time. Suppliers will not accept commanders buying on behalf of each other or selling on equipment at anything other than second hand rates.
The umpire will then roll against the Business rating on a D6. If the modified roll exceeds the rating then the purchase is successful. This process takes a game week. A subsequent request cannot be made to the same supplier until the commanders honour has risen.
Roll modifiers
Order more than 10,000 Cr +1
Order more than 30,000 Cr +2
Order more than 50,000 Cr +3
Each previous order +1
20 < Honour <= 50 +1
50 < Honour <= 100 +2
For each 50 honour > 100 +1
For every 2 notoriety points -1
Modifications required -1
Example
A commander is looking to purchase two heavy tanks. He has three companies to choose from, each with their own products. He has Honour/Notoriety of 90/2
The first company he approaches is a massive conglomerate with a Business rating of 8. To them, his business for two tanks at 11,000Cr is not even worth considering as the most the umpire could roll would be a modified 8.
The second company is a smaller manufacturer which has a rating of 6 but has quite inferior products.
The umpire unfortunately rolls a 4 which is modified by honour and order value to a 7. This would be enough to secure the order apart from the commanders notoriety. The arms company has heard how reckless the commander is and doesnt want their products strewn across the battlefield with all the bad publicity that would bring. Therefore, they turn down the business.
The only course of action left open to the commander is to try an arms dealer. The arms dealer has a rating of 4 but his prices are far higher than the manufacturers and the quality of the equipment is suspect to say the least!
Mercenaries do not have the capability to modify vehicles. This must be done either by specialist workshops or by the manufacturer when the vehicle is purchased.
If the work is to be done by the manufacturer, it must be requested up front and will impact the manufacturers decision as to whether to take the order.
Also, the manufacturer can only make modifications that it is capable of. E.g. a vehicle can be converted to Hover only if the manufacturer sells other hover vehicles in that weight class. Or a 20cm powergun can only be added to a tank if the manufacturer already provides a vehicle with a 20cm powergun!
The cost of any modifications when done by the manufacturer is the base cost x 2 and takes 1 week per 1000Cr cost!
Workshops can make any modification at a cost. Unless the mercenary provides the parts, the modification will cost 4x base. Otherwise it will be 2 x base plus parts.
All workshop modifications take four weeks.
Mercenaries have three ways to sell equipment.
They can sell to each other at rates agreed between them, they can try and sell on the open/ black market by placing adds in the Modern Mercenary. The Umpire will then decide each month whether a third party is interested in purchasing the equipment.
The third way is to sell to an arms dealer who will take anything off your hands at 33% of full price value!
The roll for a sale in Modern Mercenary is a 4 or more on a D6.
+1 fewer than 3 of same type on offer that month.
+1 per 5% of full value less than 50%
-1 per 5% of face value more than 50%
-1 if condition rating is 4 or less.
Another new rule to this campaign is the concept of vehicle condition. This is an attribute of a vehicle like weight etc. The condition of a vehicle is measured on a scale of 1 6 and can decide whether a vehicle is available for a game and can affect a vehicles resale value.
New vehicles have a rating of 6, or 5 if the arms manufacturer has poor quality control.
The rating will go down each time the vehicle is recovered from a destroyed result on a battlefield.
Once the rating reaches 1, the vehicle is considered out of action until repaired.
An engineer can keep a vehicle maintained to its current rating, but to increase the rating requires an overhaul in a workshop and cost 15% of the total vehicle cost per rating increase.
Vehicles must roll equal to or lower than their rating to be available for a mission. If the number rolled is higher than the rating then the vehicle is broken down and not available.
Unlike other campaigns, all unit rosters will be maintained by the umpire and will be available for all to see on the website. Experience points will be rolled for each game by the umpire and added to the lists. They will be rolled for using a D4 for all units participating in the mission.
Any purchases or sales must be made via the umpire and the rosters will be amended accordingly.
Units can be amalgamated if of the same type to share experience but this will cost 10 experience points. The two units experience points totals are added together, reduced by 10 and then halved to get each units new experience.