3 Force Construction

Unit commanders start with 10,000 Battle Value points (BV) for their initial units and 3,000,000 C-bills they can use for maintenance after completing their first scenario. Completing scenarios and accomplishing objectives earns additional C-bills for commanders to spend on training their pilots, upgrading units, and acquiring new equipment.

3.1 Force Construction

Commanders create an initial force of up to 10,000 BV. BV costs for all units are listed in the Master Unit List or MegaMekLab. Force construction must follow the following rules:

• Commanders have a modified Union class DropShip with 15 configurable bays. Bays may be empty and can changed to a different configuration. Bay space for all infantry units is shared across bays. Your entire force must fit onto your DropShip. Bay limits are in the table below.

  Bay Type	Capacity	Limit
  ’Mech	1 ’Mech or 1/2 superheavy ’Mech	12 bays
  Combat Vehicle	2 vehicles or 1 superheavy vehicle	5 bays
  Aerospace	1 aerospace unit	2 bays
  ProtoMech	5 ProtoMechs	2 bays
  Infantry	15 tons or 1 unit over 15 tons	2 bays

  Support, Advanced Support, and Advanced Aerospace units are not permitted. Illegal designs and units over 200 tons are also not permitted. Units over 100 tons, such as superheavy ’Mechs, require double the bay space as standard units.

• Commanders must select units from their faction on the Master Unit List for the era chosen by league organizers. Forces can include units with introductory, standard, or advanced technology. For example, the Marauder MAD-3R is a valid ilClan era mercenary unit.
• Forces may include one Unique or Experimental unit. The Unique unit may be Extinct if another variant of the unit is available to the faction in the current era and the faction has the relevant technology base to recreate the unit.
• Each force can start with no more than 7,000 BV in ’Mechs. Commanders are encouraged to try to use the typical ’Mech unit composition of their faction.
• Some scenarios will require infantry/Battle Armor or Combat Vehicles with cargo capacity, so commanders should have at least one of each of these units in their force.
• Unless optional Battlefield Support or off-board artillery rules are used, a force can only include on-map units. For example, artillery and aerospace units can only be used on-map by default.
• The BV cost of a unit includes the skill level. The initial skill levels for a unit may be no better than Gunnery 3/Piloting 4 and cannot differ by more than 3. Average skill levels for factions and units are given on BattleTech: Total Warfare p. 40. ProtoMechs always have Piloting 5 and infantry units without anti-’Mech equipment have Anti-’Mech 5, because these skills are not used for these units.

Commanders are responsible for knowing which rulebooks contain the rules pertaining to all units and special equipment in their force.

Unit record sheets can be generated using MegaMekLab or similar tools. BV costs sometimes do not mach between the Master Unit List and MegaMekLab, especially for infantry units. Commanders must use the same source for all BV costs. All record sheets must agree with the BV costs from this source.

Learning new types of units can be intimidating. Commanders may limit the types of different units in their non-’Mech forces. For example, a force could include only troop transports and Battle Armor so the commander can meet any objectives while keeping new rules to a minimum.

3.2 Sample Forces

Two sample initial forces are provided below. The first force is a Civil War era mercenary company and the second force is an ilClan era Raven Alliance Nova. Pilot names are encouraged, as one of the goals of BattleTech: Outworlds Wastes is to develop the personalized lore for your force.

Additional sample initial forces can be found here.

Both forces can support additional units on their DropShips. However, the Raven Alliance force cannot add any additional infantry bays because the DropShip has the maximum of 5 infantry bays.

3.3 Buried Treasure

3.4 Advanced Force Construction Rules

The Master Unit List lists all major official BattleTech factions. Commanders may create a custom faction list for their force.

To create a custom faction list, go to the Units Tab on Master Unit List. Filter the units to include one faction list and one general list for the current league era. For example, the Pirates faction by default typically includes the Periphery General list. A Dark Caste custom faction could include the Pirates faction list with the Inner Sphere Clan General list.

All restrictions from the basic Force Construction rules, such as DropShip bay limits and only including one Unique or Experimental unit in a force, still apply.

If a faction does not have a general list, then it cannot be customized in this way. Factions without a general list include Mercenary, Kell Hounds, Wolf’s Dragoons, and Society. These factions have the phrase "including Blank General List" on their faction and era specific pages. Adding a general list to these factions would give the commander a disproportionately large number of units to choose from.

Commanders can still create a custom mercenary faction with these Advanced Force Construction Rules. First select a faction list for the region in which the force was founded or primarily operates and then pick an appropriate general list. For example, a mercenary force that was founded in the Draconis Combine but moved to the Periphery after Coordinator Takashi Kurita’s Death to Mercenaries edict could use Draconis Combine faction list with the Periphery General list.

League organizers may allow additional adjustments, such as allowing a commander to use two faction lists instead of one faction list and one general list. Any additional adjustments must be available to all commanders.