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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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 Posted: 11-Mar-2007 10:32 Post subject: Battlemechs: Were they truly rare? |
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Talking Point 1:
For no other reasons than that I could, and I was bored, I decided to use the old House Books to determine how many regiments each house had (and, on average, how many battlemechs were in each army, not counting smaller mercenary units and unlisted militias and the like), with the intention of starting a discussion about how "rare" battlemechs truly were compared to the lore which usually made it sound as if battlemechs were exceedingly rare (pop culture mechwarrior worship, mechjocks are the "elite of the elite", etc).
The numbers I came up with:
House Davion has 114 Battlemech Regiments listed, not counting smaller mercenary units, planetary militias, training units, and the odd detached battalion (the detached battalions, if counted, could probably form another 2-3 regiments), with a grand total of 13,680 battlemechs.
House Steiner has 74 Battlemech Regiments, totaling 8,880 battlemechs.
House Marik has 65 Battlemech Regiments, totaling 7,800 battlemechs.
House Kurita has 72 Battlemech Regiments, totaling 8,640 battlemechs.
I don't have a copy of House Liao's book, so I took the totals of the other 4 houses and averaged it out, which came to 65 Battlemech Regiments, totaling 7,800 battlemechs.
It all works out to a total of 390 Regiments, composed of 46,800 battlemechs. Again, this total disregards small mercenary units not listed in the books, planetary garrisons, training units, and any 'mechs found in the hands of the periphery powers/pirates.
Now that I get to the end, I'm not quite sure where I was going with this. Damn I'm bored.
Anyway, discuss!
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1447
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 12:36 Post subject: |
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So lets say there are about 60.000 Mechs of about 1.500 official designs!
An average of 40 Mechs per single variant!
If Mechs are rare depends on the number of worlds that have to be secured! Does anybody know how many habitable systems there are in the Inner Sphere?
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
General
Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 13:35 Post subject: |
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I have the old house Laio's book. Its packed away though so I and IIRC they actually had about a third of of the mechs of the other powers, which is why I have such issues with them suddenely becomming a super power with a mech force that rivals the davions with no one apparentely careing what they are doing. I'll have to find the box with all of my books and try to get you exact numbers.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
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Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 14:34 Post subject: |
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Maybe that there were many 'Mechs, but the rarity may be in the size of stockpiles and production and who says that all regiments on the list were full-sized...
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 14:45 Post subject: |
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Nobody. In fact the books specifically state that some regiments are understrength, and some are reinforced. It all averages out in the end, I think.
_________________
Evil is like a bowl of oranges. Only one, instead, is an orange of DOOM. That orange has a fate to rule over the other oranges with an iron fist. That orange is me.
Because sometimes, there are many guards in the castle.
Ya Rl'yeh!
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 15:41 Post subject: |
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In order to determine the rarity, I think we need something to compare it to. If we look at the equivalent "big boy" on the battlefield today (would that be tanks?) how does it stack up with the numbers currently in use? We also should consider total population. How many citizens per battlemech today compare with how many citizens per "big boy" today?
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 16:16 Post subject: |
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If we go off population then we are going to hit a rock or three, since the pops for a lot of the worlds won't be useable since a 1000 people on a planet or what not isn't going to pay the money to support a mech let a lone a regiement.
Better to go off against something like needs versus usage or try to go with the your original idea and comapre it to tanks and other armored fighting vehicles (APCs, IFVs, Arty etc...).
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
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Seraph
Blighted Sun Battalion
2nd Company
"Seraph's Slaughter"
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Joined: 11-Mar-2004 00:00
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 19:41 Post subject: |
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A point to consider Karagin, just because there is a minimal popultaion does NOT mean the House in charge is not going to station a regiment there. It's more about what resources/infrastructure is in place that needs a military presence.
About the rareity, well I would be more than comfortable in saying that there are at least 10 regiments of tanks to each regiment of mechs. In capellan space each world maintains a garrison group consisting of 1-4 regiments of infantry and tanks. Those numbers are not considered into the main military countings as they are prevelant on all worlds in their domain. They also used mixed forces tactics.
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 11-Mar-2007 20:15 Post subject: |
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Stationing a regiment on a backwater world and claiming that we can figure out the number of regiments via the population are two different things.
Regiments get stationed where the polictical leaders say they will be stationed, not based on the population of a planet or section or what have you.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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SaberDance
Federated Suns
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Joined: 07-May-2004 00:00
Posts: 837
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| Posted: 12-Mar-2007 18:21 Post subject: Re: Battlemechs: Were they truly rare? |
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| Warhammer: 3025 wrote: | Talking Point 1:
It all works out to a total of 390 Regiments, composed of 46,800 battlemechs. Again, this total disregards small mercenary units not listed in the books, planetary garrisons, training units, and any 'mechs found in the hands of the periphery powers/pirates.
Anyway, discuss! |
I think this works out as rare. We know there are "thousands of planets colonized by humans" (OK, so I'm using the cartoon as my base).
At a minimum, the plural thousands means 2,000 planets.
If we treat each planet as an independent state (OK, this is bending the politics of the Inner Sphere, but bear with me), that means about 23 or 24 mechs per planet.
That's two companies.
We have more than that in the weekend Guard Armory down the street. OK, Granted, I live in Kentucky, so the Guard Armory down the Street is Fort Knox, but still.
If each planet is a fief, then each lord averages 23 or 24 vassals. And again, that sounds about right. Each vassal brings a mech, each mech brings its support units, but once run together the mechs work together and the support units are split up.
Some duchies are richer than others, some planets don't have mechs stationed there, but I think it averages out in the end.
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WhizzbangThePowerSquig
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Master Sergeant
Joined: 21-Mar-2005 00:00
Posts: 345
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 13-Mar-2007 11:16 Post subject: |
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I'm thinking that 'Mechs are likely "rare" compared to the rest of the forces. For each mech regiment, how many armour and infantry regiments are there going to be? Lots I think.
Even look at the RCTs developed in the 4th war. 1 mech regiment, and a bunch of other conventional ones. I'm at school right now, so i can't exactly look up the numbers.
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 13-Mar-2007 11:43 Post subject: |
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I was just looking at the 4th SW Military Atlas, and it said that during the second Operation Galahad, the AFFS deployed 30 'mech regiments and more than 200 infantry and armor regiments, then stated that this constituted almost 1/3rd of the entire army.
_________________
Evil is like a bowl of oranges. Only one, instead, is an orange of DOOM. That orange has a fate to rule over the other oranges with an iron fist. That orange is me.
Because sometimes, there are many guards in the castle.
Ya Rl'yeh!
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