4 replies to this topic

[ArcDemon]

I've never been able to get a firm grasp on just how large or small the militaries of the various houses is. Obviously they vary, from the small force of the Free Worlds to the large army of the Combine and the massive combined force of the FedComs.

Based on brigade level strength I estimate the larger houses (former Lyran Alliance, Fed Suns, Combine) must have something in the range of 4500 to 9500 proper battlemechs in their army, plus an unknown number of local militia units. This doesn't include all the armor, infantry and space assets like aerospace fighters, dropships and jumpships/warships.

Does anyone have better estimates, particularly of the other military assets like how many dropships and jumpships a great house might possess, since those assets would effectively determine how many mechs they can move.

[Von Falkenstein]

As far as I recall the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces of 3060 consists of ~77 BattleMech Regiments (plus hundreds of conventional forces), which amounts to 7000-8000 Mechs, so your estimates aren't that far off.

[Adridos]

You must always state the exact year you want to know for these things.

[HexSystem6]

Well, for every battlemech regiment out there, there are roughly 50 conventional force regiments. In addition, each planet will typically have its own planetary militia force that can range from a combined arms battalion to multiple regiments of conventional forces. When armies are listed in the "field manuals" they basically only list the battlemech units to save time and space. Of course then you get listing for the RCT (Regimental Combat Team). Each RCT consists of 1 battlemech regiment, 3 conventional armor regiments, 5 conventional infantry regiments, 1 artillery battalion and, 1 aerospace fighter wing. Now realize that these are listing only the combat elements. House units will have close to a full platoon of technical support personnel for each combat lance, a full platoon of administrative personnel for each battalion and, a full platoon of medical personnel for each battalion as well. (support totals include astechs, cooks, EMTs and, secretaries which can be employed local civilians). Of course, we haven't even brought up the "Black" navy which includes orbital stations, dropshps, jumpships, warships and, various other space fairing vessels. Also, in addition to each house's standing army, they will supplement their forces with mercenary units which range in size from a single person to multiple regiments. These numbers are extremely fluid especially within the past 2 centuries of the history of the Battletech universe. As someone mentioned before, in order to even come close to figuring out some sort of range to work with, we would need to know what time span you are interested in.

Edited by HexSystem6, 15 May 2013 - 09:20 AM.

[Skylarr]

Quote

How many mechs?



Based on the numbers we get in the 20-Year Update, the Sphere has:

Federated Suns State Command: 104.66 (30 RCTs)
Lyran Commonwealth State Command: 154.33 (50 RCTs)
St. Ives Compact: 9.33 (1 RCT from each half of the FedCom)
DCMS: 99
FRR: 16.66
CCAF: 30
FWLM: 72.66
ComStar: 52 Regiments


The problem here is that some states don't actually uses the 108 'Mech model for its regiments (but if you go through ComStar's division composition it works out so close to 52*108 that it doesn't matter). The Lyrans and Suns further complicate matters by having RCTs that are larger than their usual formations. Not only that, but while each of those units is a Regiment on paper, they may be significantly understrength or, less frequently, a little overstrength by having a fourth battalion or attached command unit that gives them a few extra machines.


However, calculated at the following:

AFFS: Nominally 108 'Mechs, but in practise usually 120-132; 132 in an RCT
LCAF: 120; 132 in an RCT
FWLM: 108
St. Ives: 108
CCAF: 120
FRR: 108
DCMS: 108

We get:

]AFFS: 12, 919.2
LCAF: 19, 080
St. Ives: 1, 055.64
DCMS: 10, 692
FRR: 1, 799.28
CCAF: 3, 600
FWLM: 7, 847.28
ComStar: 5, 616


Total: 62, 609.4

would consider that to be the absolute maximum (even with some units being over strength) because at the time there would have been a lot more units with less than their full complement. I would consider something in the range of 90-95% of that figure (56, 348.46-59, 478.93) to be more likely, YMMV.

These numbers also include mercenary units. There's already enough maths going on here at 7am for me to not have much interest in removing them from the equations

Found this on the BattleTech forums.

As stated above each time period will have different numbers.

Edited by Skylarr, 15 May 2013 - 09:25 AM.