This campaign is meant to provide a strategic context for games of Alpha Strike while limiting the scope of the rules to what is available in the quick start rules. The goal is to provide a positive Alpha Strike experience for new players, while offering more experienced players strategic complexity that is lacking in beginner games.
Anyone can start (or restart) a Mercenary Company, though there are some things they will need. First, they should get a copy of the Alpha Strike Quick Start rules, available for free here. If you go looking for the rules on your own, make sure you get the pdf file with multiple Mechs on the first page, and not the file with a single Warhammer on the first page as that version is out of date. However, Catalyst Games might be using the *wrong* image to link to the *right* rule book, so when in doubt, check the copyright date. Additionally, each player should have measuring tape and dice, though many players have these and are frequently willing to share (ask first!). Players will also need a way to keep a record of their mercenary company. PDFs of helpful forms are available here, but whatever works for them is fine. Last but not least, they will need some Mechs!
The cheapest way to acquire Mechs of your own is to print paper stands. Players can get some from images on Sarna.net, scaling them down to 1.25 inches (roughly 30mm) across the bottom. A 1.25 inch diameter circle will stand in for a base in the short term. Some gamers may be willing to loan miniatures for new players to use, though issues about availability may arise. Many game stores sell miniatures that can help a player grow their collection. There are also online stores that will sell specific Mechs if your local store doesn't have one you want in stock.
Once a player has all of these materials, they can form a Mercenary Company. This campaign allows three different types of forces: Mercenary Company, Government Forces, and Pirate Bands. For brevity, each will be referred to as a "force" when the type of force doesn't matter. When the type of force does matter, it will be specified. The differences, in summary, are:
Importantly, once a player has selected a type of force, they are not locked into that choice. While there are requirements to meet and consequences for doing so, players can switch force types during the campaign if they desire. They should seriously consider the ramifications of their choice, but if they want to try a different campaign style, that option is available. Additionally, if the campaign doesn't seem to be going their way, they don't have to ride the death spiral all the way to the end: a player can retire their force at any time and build a new one if they like.
Once a player has chosen their force type, they build the force. Building a force is fairly easy, though there are some encouragements that players can take note of that might make it more interesting. These are not requirements, and players are free to follow them or not, as they like.
Each force will start off with a Company of 12 Mechs. In this case, "Company" refers to a military unit size, not a business venture. In BattleTech, in the Inner Sphere and Periphery, a "Lance" has 4 Mechs, and a "Company" has 3 Lances, or 12 Mechs. Players will begin with a Company of Mechs. These should be recorded in their campaign record, noting the chassis and the variant. While not required...
Once the player has chosen their Mechs, they should copy the mech's stats down onto a record sheet. Players are encouraged to use a pen (or other permanent tool) to record the statistics and capabilities of the Mech, like maximum armor and weapon damage numbers, but to use a pencil to record the amount of damage taken and the effects of damage. This way, the damage can be erased when the Mech is repaired, but the record of the original state remains.
If a player wants to play as a Clan Faction, they only have 2 Stars (10 Mechs) to start. They are encouraged to play as a Government Force, as Clan Mechs will be difficult to acquire during the campaign.
Each force starts with 12 Mechwarriors (10 for Clan) to pilot their Mechs. Of these 12, one of them has Skill 2, three of them have Skill 3, six of them have Skill 4, and two of them have Skill 5. (Clans don't include the Skill 5 Mechwarriors). While they don't have to be named, Mechwarriors with names tend to develop more character over the course of a campaign. If they are not named, they do need to have unique ID's so that their Skill level and status is recorded. Additionally, they don't have to be assigned to Mechs at this time, though they can be. Finally, players may wish (but are not required) to appoint Lance and Company commanders.
Next, players record their DropShip. Each force starts with a Union DropShip, which has four different different statistics that should be recorded: The Mech Bay, the Aerospace Hangar, the Cargo Bay, and the Travel Cost. A Union DropShip's Mech Bay holds 12 Mechs, its Aerospace Hangar can hold aerospace assets worth 8 Battlefield Support Points (more on this later), its Cargo Bay can hold 2 cargo points of cargo (not very much), and its Travel Cost is 1,200,000 C-Bills (yikes!). These are all static values and will not change, so they can be recorded in pen. Clans start with two Clan Broadswords.
A mercenary company is only as good as its reputation. Having a good reputation allows a force to demand certain concessions from their employer during contract negotiations. Reputation comes in two different types: General Reputation, and Faction Reputation.
General Reputation is how well known the force is, and how effective they are known to be. This has nothing to do with how well they are liked: a terrifying force of murderous pirates can have a high General Reputation because they are good at their jobs, while a loyal but incompentent commander can have a low General Reputation because they are not. General Reputation never goes down, but goes up more slowly than Faction Reputation. All forces start with 0 General Reputation.
Faction Reputation is how well the force is liked by a faction. It can be gained or lost as a force helps or hurts a faction. Faction Reputation is needed to purchase faction equipment from factions, and if a force's Faction Reputation drops too low, that faction won't hire them until they make amends. Faction Reputation is recorded separately for each faction. Most forces start with 0 with all factions (don't worry about recording it until reputation is gained), but Goverment Forces start with 3 reputation with their faction.
Mercenary Companies and Pirate Bands start with some spending cash to get started: 2,500,000 C-Bills. This should be recorded in pencil as it will certainly change. Lastly, and most importantly, the force needs a name. Every Mercenary Company of note has a name. No up-and-coming hot shot pilot wants to join up with a mercenary band that doesn't have a good name. The honor rolls in military academies have long lists of armed forces and their recorded histories. The terror that drives a merchant prize to surrender before a pirate flag is only stoked by the stories, carried on the name of that band. Pick a good name for the force.
Contracts are listed here. The contract board refreshes every week. Old contracts can be recalled by entering the contract number at the bottom of the page. For brevity, a collection of missions will be referred to as a "Contract," though that name only applies to Mercenary Companies. For Government Forces, they are "Orders," and for Pirate Bands, they are "Hunts." Regardless of what they are called, they have the same components.
Contracts have seven different negotiable components and seven different non-negotiable components. When a contract is selected, there may be a chance to negotiate the negotiable components of the contract, but the non-negotiable components are set; if they are unacceptable, the contract should not be taken. Contract details can be recorded here.
The baseline contract is different for each type of force, based on their values and opportunities. The baseline contract establishes the starting numbers for the negotiable components. For Mercenary Companies, everything in a contract is negotiable. For Goverment Forces, they can negotiate a bit with their superiors about their Orders, but there are some thing they can't get. For Pirates, they are working for themselves, so there is no one to negotiate with.
| Points | Pay | Repair/Replace | Salvage | BSPs | Command | Travel | Reputation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0% | 0% / 0% | 0% Exch / 0% Keep | 0% | Integrated | 0% | - |
| 1 | 10% | 20% / 0% | 10% Exch / 0% Keep | 10% | - | 10% | - |
| 2 | 20% | 40% / 0% | 20% Exch / 0% Keep | 20% | - | 20% | - |
| 3 | 30% | 60% / 0% | 30% Exch / 0% Keep | 30% | - | 30% | - |
| 4 | 40% | 80% / 0% | 40% Exch / 0% Keep | 40% | House | 40% | - |
| 5 | 50% | 100% / 0% | 50% Exch / 0% Keep | 50% | - | 50% | +1 favor |
| 6 | 60% | 100% / 10% | 50% Exch / 10% Keep | 60% | - | 60% | - |
| 7 | 70% | 100% / 20% | 50% Exch / 20% Keep | 70% | - | 70% | - |
| 8 | 80% | 100% / 30% | 50% Exch / 30% Keep | 80% | Liaison | 80% | - |
| 9 | 90% | 100% / 40% | 50% Exch / 40% Keep | 90% | - | 90% | - |
| 10 | 100% | 100% / 50% | 50% Exch / 50% Keep | 100% | - | 100% | +2 favor |
| 11 | 110% | 100% / 60% | 40% Exch / 60% Keep | 110% | - | - | - |
| 12 | 120% | 100% / 70% | 30% Exch / 70% Keep | 120% | Independent | - | - |
| 13 | 130% | 100% / 80% | 20% Exch / 80% Keep | 130% | - | - | - |
| 14 | 140% | 100% / 90% | 10% Exch / 90% Keep | 140% | - | - | - |
| 15 | 150% | 100% / 100% | 0% Exch / 100% Keep | 150% | - | - | +3 favor |
To accept a contract, a force cannot have a negative reputation with the Employer Faction; if they do, they cannot accept the contract. Before the force accepts the contract, they may adjust the negotiable terms of the contract by spending Negotiation Points. The number of Negotiation Points available to spend is equal to the force's General Reputation plus their Faction Reputation with the Employer Faction. When a Negotiation Point is spent, increase the number of points in a Negotiable Component by 1, using the new value for that component as shown in the chart. For example, if one Negotiation Point were spent to increase the baseline mercenary contract pay rate, that component would increase from 10 to 11, and the pay rate of the contract would increase from 100% of Base Pay to 110% of Base Pay. Forces can also reduce the amount points in a Negotiable Component, increasing the number of Negotiation Points they have to spend.
Once they have spent the points they wish to spend adjusting the contract, the Travel Cost is paid. This cost is the Travel cost of all the force's DropShips. This is reimbursed by the Employer according to the Travel Rate. The full amount of Travel Cost must be paid by the force before the reimbursement is paid. Only after the Travel Cost is paid (and potentially reimbursed) is the Contract considered accepted. After that point, no further negotiations may take place. Players should record the number of the contract in case they need to recall details about it in the future.
Once a force has accepted a contract, they work the missions of that contract one by one. Missions can be worked in any order, unless they are linked engagements in a "Mission Chain" (explained later). To work a mission, the player finds an opponent to control the Opposition Forces (OpFor) for their mission. Each mission has a recommended list of mechs for the OpFor to use. It is not expected that every player own every possible combination of models for every mission, so some combination of imagination, suspension of disbelief, and use of proxy models should cover any gaps in a line up. Typically, each player will play two games in succession: one as their force, and one as the OpFor for another player's mission. The players play a game of Alpha Strike as normal, keeping track of damage to the player force's mechs during the game.
When working a Mission Chain, the player must "assign" Mechs to the Mission Chain. While they are assigned to the Mission Chain, those mechs may not be used in any other missions until the last mission in the chain is completed. Additionally, only those Mechs assigned to that Chain may participate in missions that are a part of that Chain. Finally, unless they are destroyed, all mechs assigned to a Mission Chain must deploy on every mission in that Chain.
Games are played according to the rules of the BattleTech Alpha Strike Quick Start booklet. Use this guidance here to determine the details of each mission scenario:
After a mission, if the Primary Objective was completed, the mercenary force is paid according to the contract terms: the Base Pay is modified by the negotiated Pay Rate to determine the actual payout. If the Secondary Objective was also completed, add 50% to the Pay Rate to determine the actual payout. This additional 50% is percentage points, so 80% Pay Rate + 50% for the Secondary Objective is 130% of Base Pay.
After a stand-alone mission, or the last mission in a Mission Chain, forces have the opportunity to repair armor. After the last mission is completed, they can repair everything else. The employer will pay the mercenary a portion of the repairs according to the terms of the contract. These must be actual repairs completed; the mercenary cannot total up the value of the repairs and collect the payment without actually making the repairs. If the mercenary negotiated Replacement terms, those are paid out at the end of the contract.
The mercenaries control the field if they are present on the field and no OpFor is present. In that case, all of the Salvage is recovered by them. If not, no salvage is recovered. The mercenary must turn over all salvage to the employer, less any they are allowed to Keep under the terms of the contract. Additionally, they are paid for the Salvage they turn over according to the Exchange rate of their contract. The value of a destroyed mech is equal to its starting value minus the cost to repair it.
If the force completed the Primary Objective, they gain one "check" to their general reputation, and one "check" to their faction reputation with the employer's faction. They may gain additional "checks" to their faction reputation depending on their contract terms. At any time, but probably most conveniently at this time, they may erase a number of "checks" from their factional reputation equal to one plus their current factional reputation to increase their factional reputation by one. They may erase a number of "checks" from their general reputation equal to one plus double their general repution to increase their general reputation by one.
If the force did not achieve the objective, they do not gain, nor do they lose, reputation. Mercenaries do not lose reputation with the enemy faction, it is understood they are just in it for the money.
Any contracted forces that interact with loot assets become pirates (see Joining and Leaving Factions, below). Their reputation with the enemy faction decreases by one. This can push them into the negatives.
If a Mercenary Company has any unspent BSPs after the last mission in a contract is completed, they are paid 25,000 C-Bills per unspent point.
Every pilot that took part in the mission rolls to see if they increase their skill. To determine this, the player rolls 2d6 and adds the pilot's current skill value. If the total is greater than 12, the pilot's skill improves by 1.
Every pilot in the company, regardless of whether they took part or not, must be paid according to their skill. If they are not paid, they leave the force. Pilots who improved their skill use the new value. Government forces do not have to do this, their salaries are paid by their faction.
| Skill | Pay |
|---|---|
| 5 | 1,000 |
| 4 | 1,500 |
| 3 | 2,500 |
| 2 | 4,500 |
| 1 | 10,000 |
| 0 | 25,000 |
Every Mech must have maintenance performed on it after every battle. This is true of Mechs that did not participate, and even of those which were destroyed (if the salvage is left to rust, it's going to be harder to repair later). This cost goes up with the size of the Mech. If this is not paid, the Mech receives one point of damage to its Structure, (which may result in a critical damage as per normal damage to Structure). Government forces do not need to pay for this, it is taken care of by their faction.
| Size | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3,500 |
| 2 | 4,000 |
| 3 | 4,500 |
| 4 | 5,000 |
After a mission is complete, a mercenary force may determine that it's not in their best interest to continue with the rest of the contract. If they decide to break their contract, they reduce their general reputation by one and their faction reputation with their former employer by two. If they are still able to take contracts after that, they are free to take another contract that is available to them.
Running a Mercenary Company involves more than just fighting battles. The day to day operations are much more involved with finance, maintenance, human resources and logistics than with combat. Below are the things that mercenaries get up to when they are not fighting, and the times when they are allowed to do them.
Due to the uncertainty of frontline deployment and the risk to valuable maintenance and repair personnel, extensive repair and reconstruction are not possible in the field. For that, companies will need to withdraw back to secured areas away from the fighting. For this reason, only Armor may be repaired in between missions of a contract. After the final mission of a contract is completed, then other types of repairs can be made. Note that Chain Missions are not finished until the last mission is complete, so not even Armor may be repaired on mechs assigned to the chain until the last mission in the Chain is completed.
Repairs to Clan Mechs cost double the above amounts.
If a Mercenary Force has any damaged Mechs when they Accept a contract, those damaged Mechs will not be covered by Repair/Replace terms.
Forces can recruit new pilots between contracts. They may recruit as many novice pilots (Skill 5) as they like, paying them double their per-mission pay rate (1,000 x 2 = 2,000 C-Bills) as a sign-on bonus. Additionally, at the end of a contract, they may recruit one experienced pilot. To determine the skill of the pilot available, they should roll 2d6, cut the result in half, and round down. The result is the skill of the pilot who is available for hire. They must be paid double their per-mission rate to be recruited. Government Forces are automatically provided with Skill 5 pilots when they suffer loses, and may not recruit normally.
Mercenary Forces and Pirate Forces may purchase Mechs available to them (filtered here). Government Forces don't purchase units, but they may swap units between contracts: They simply remove one unit from their roster and replace it with another available to their faction.
Mercenaries and Pirates (but not Government Forces) may purchase Mechs that are only available to specific factions if they have enough reputation. For every 1 faction reputation point that a force has with a faction, they may spend up to 1,000,000 C-Bills per purchase to buy Mechs that are available to that faction. For example, if a force had 2 reputation with the Draconis Combine, they could buy a Wasp WSP-1K, as it costs less than 2,000,000 C-Bills. Purchasing in this way does not reduce their reputation, and they must be able to pay the C-Bills to complete the transaction.
Mercenaries and Pirates can purchase "refit kits" for Mechs. Refit kits allow a Mech chassis of one variant to be converted to another. The cost of a refit kit is equal to the price difference between the two variants plus 10% of the cost of the cheaper variant. Forces can only purchase a refit kit for a Mech they would be able to purchase normally (either because it's normally available to them, or because they have sufficient reputation with faction who could purchase it). Once a Mech is converted, another refit kit would have to be purchased to convert it back.
Mercenaries and Pirates that wish to sell a Mech can do so for 60% of the value. If the Mech is damaged, determine its value by subtracting the cost to repair it from the undamaged cost.
Mercenaries and Pirates can purchase DropShips to allow them to transport additional Mechs. Below are the DropShips available in the Inner Sphere during the Clan Invasion, with their costs, travel costs, and hangar space for Mechs, Aerospace Battlefield Support, and Cargo:
| Name | Cost | Travel | Hangars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buccaneer | 150,000,000 | 750,000 | 76 Cargo |
| Leopard | 180,000,000 | 900,000 | 4 Mechs, 8 BSPs, 1 Cargo |
| Jumbo | 210,000,000 | 1,050,000 | 300 Cargo |
| Union | 240,000,000 | 1,200,000 | 12 Mechs, 8 BSPs, 2 Cargo |
| Overlord | 450,000,000 | 2,250,000 | 36 Mechs, 24 BSPs, 4 Cargo |
| Clan Broadsword | 250,000,000* | 1,250,000 | 5 Mechs, 2 Cargo |
* The Clan Boardsword is included here for reference, but is not available for purchase.
Sometimes forces get into a tight financial spot and just need a little help to get out of it. Mercenary Companies (but not Pirate Bands or Government Forces) can take out loans equal to no more than 50% the value of their Mech forces. They need not take out the entire amount, and indeed should not take out a larger loan than they need. Each time they complete a mission, they must pay back 10% of the loan. If they cannot make this payment, they must sell a Mech to cover the payment. If they cannot or choose not to make the payment, the only remaining options are to go Pirate or retire the force (see below). Once they make 15 payments on a loan, the loan is repaid.
Mercenaries, Pirates, and Government Forces are not stuck in their ways. If they would like to make a permenant change to their organization, they may.
Mercs and Pirates without loans may request to be folded into a Goverment force. To be accepted, they must have a General Reputation of 3 or greater, and a Faction Reputation with the faction they wish to join of 5 or greater. If they do, they immediately lose 5 reputation with that faction and gain all of the benefits and shortcomings of being a Government Force.
Goverment Forces that wish to go Mercenary drop to -1 reputation with their former faction. From then on, they operate like other Mercenary Companies. Pirates who wish to go straight may do so if they have a non-negative reputation with one or more factions. They simply take that faction's contract and don't touch the loot counters.
Mercenaries or Goverment Forces who want to go Pirate can loot the Loot Asset Counters during a mission. They may finish out their contract normally, but they will become a pirate after the contract ends. Mercenaries who miss a loan payment also become pirates. Government Forces that do so take a loss of reputation in the same way as if they had gone Mercenary.
Players may choose to retire their force at any time; they simply stop taking contracts with that force. They are free to start another force as normal if they like.
