30 replies to this topic

[Suskis]

How many mechs usually are deployed on a single planet? I am talking an average planet.
Could it work a 1-planet 1-server ratio? I mean: in WoW 5000 players are hosted on each server, if I recall correctly. If a planet becomes a was scenario, two or more factions could play on said planet bringing there a number of mechs. Is 5000 mech on a single planet an astronomical number or not?

[Gigaton]

5000 'mechs on a single planet is huge. I doubt even battles of Tukayyid and Huntress reached that. Usually it would be perhaps 200-500 per normal planet.

5000 'mechs would represent brunt of any House's Battlemech strength.

Edited by Gigaton, 02 April 2012 - 03:20 AM.

[Semyon Drakon]

I think if you counted every RCT in the invasion of the CapCom and the Merc units and garrison forces you 'might' hit 5000 mechs. Tukayyid featured from memory about 2500 Comstar machines and 1500 Clan machines but that's a very hazy recollection, it was and still is the largest mech engagement in history.

Semyon

[GuntherK]

A lance has 4 battlemechs
A company has 3 lances 12 battlemechs
A batallion has 3 companys 36 battlemechs
A regiment has 3 batallions 108 battlemechs

Some planets are defended by one or two battlemech regiments
Some planets are defended by a single batallion
Some planets are defended by by a single company
Some planets are defended by a single lance
Some planets dont have battlemechs.

On top of that planets may have up to several regiments of conventional forces of armor or infantry, most planets have a planet militia with basic training and equipment that may have or not battlemechs.

Did i answer your question ?

[Strum Wealh]

For modern IS military structure:

Quote

A battalion consists of three companies and is a large organization. It is normally composed of at least thirty-six 'Mechs plus aerospace, artillery, reconnaissance, medical, and numerous other support staff and personnel. Overall, a battalion may consist of over two or three hundred individuals. Battalions are commanded by either a lieutenant colonel (or equivalent). Battalion commanders normally do not participate directly in combat operations, but personal preference dictates this. Most battalion commanders direct operations rather than engage enemy forces.

Battalions are extremely self-sufficient and capable fighting forces. They are capable of traveling over the surface of a planet and deploying significant fire power anywhere within a short period of time. Many mercenary units never achieve a size comparable to that of a battalion.

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Regiments are very large organizations and the great houses normally organize their regular units into regiments; these are the largest formations in common use. This is traditionally the lowest level of organization that a house's high command will direct (outside of mercenary units). Regiments are commanded by colonels or their equivalent. Regimental commanders rarely engage in combat operations personally; the ability to organize a regimental-sized group is usually not possible on the field of battle. The size of the unit in personnel is not just based upon the combat forces, but it also includes the technical, transportation, scout, and other support personnel and materiel. Regiments are self-sufficient units and usually have their own dedicated DropShips and possibly even JumpShip.

Regiments consist of three to five battalions, commanded by a Colonel or General, for a total of one hundred and eight to one hundred and eighty 'Mechs or combat vehicles. Additional support battalions such as infantry are often attached to the regiment as well.

Also, for SLDF military units no longer in general use:

Quote

A Brigade is a military formation typically consisting of 3 or more regiments, usually of similar weight classes and capabilities. This formation was used extensively by the SLDF, but is no longer used by most Inner Sphere militaries. Brigades were usually commanded by a Lieutenant General and limited to being no more than five regiments in size for administrative purposes. Some Regimental Combat Teams were also categorized as brigades.

Examples of BattleMech brigades include the Eridani Light Horse, Northwind Highlanders, Deneb Light Cavalry, or the Sword of Light. The Armor and Infantry units of the Federated Sun's Regimental Combat Teams are also referred to as brigades.

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A Division is a grouping of three brigades, as well as reserves, support units, and an ASF Wing. They were commanded by a Major General or General. The Division was the heart of the SLDF, and were typically assigned to protect a group of star systems within one jump radius of each other, or a particularly important planet. There are no division-sized formations known to exist in the Inner Sphere.

The ComGuards use the term Division to refer to their Level IV units, which consist of 216 combatants. In reality these units are approximately the size of two regiments, which makes them a closer approximation to a Brigade sized formation.

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Used only by the SLDF, a Corps was a group of military forces that defended between 30 and 100 worlds. Unlike regiments, brigades, and divisions, there was no "standard" or "typical" corps. They typically consisted of one to three BattleMech Divisions, two to seven infantry divisions, several independent regiments, and enough WarShips and transport JumpShips to move the entire unit. Each Star League Member State hosted between one and four Corps-sized units.

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During the Reunification War, the Army replaced the Corps as the main organizational unit of the SLDF. Each Army consisted of the Corps level units hosted by the Star League Member State.

As units of this size became impossible due to the damage of the Succession Wars, the term fell out of common military parlance until the Com Guards reactivated it to describe their Level V units. These units, like the SLDF Corps and Armies that preceded them, covered large parts of each of the Successor States, each of the then-twelve armies covering an "hour" on the "Inner Sphere Clock". Unlike the SLDF, a Com Guard Army is mostly an administrative term. The Battle of Tukayyid and Operation SCOUR were the only times ComStar deployed Army-sized formations in combat.

So, it would seem that planetary defenses would generally be composed of battalion-strength (36 'Mechs + support) or regiment-strength (108-180 'Mechs/vehicles + support) units.

Though, it varies from planet to planet based on population, resources, and desirability - as GuntherK pointed out, some planets may be defended by as little as a single lance or a platoon of very determined militiamen.

[Chuckie]

A Canon is kind of small maybe you could fit a Urbie or a Elemental in a really big Cannon.. but I don't think your going to get a lot of mechs in one no matter the planet.

[Thom Frankfurt]

When the Davies pried Tikonov away from us in the 4th SW......

Attackers:All eight Crucis Lancers RCT
Defender:large militia, about 80 regiments (that's a whole bunch of PBI's)
Deep-Space Interdiction Forces (The Night Riders)
MacGregor's Armored Scouts (1
4th Tau Ceti Rangers (1
Hamilton's Highlanders (1b)
2nd Ariana Fusiliers
Ariana Grenadiers (1b)
1st Chesterton Voltigeurs
2nd Chesterton Voltigeurs
3rd Chesterton Voltigeurs

[Morquedeas]

As I recall one of the biggest of the Clan invasion era battles was Luthien which pitted about 800 Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat mechs against about 1300 Draconis Combine and mercs. I would assume that the uper limit of mechs garrisoned on a single planet would not excede 1000 in any normal circumstances.

[Semyon Drakon]

Thom Frankfurt, on 02 April 2012 - 04:10 AM, said:

When the Davies pried Tikonov away from us in the 4th SW......

Attackers:All eight Crucis Lancers RCT
Defender:large militia, about 80 regiments (that's a whole bunch of PBI's)
Deep-Space Interdiction Forces (The Night Riders)
MacGregor's Armored Scouts (1
4th Tau Ceti Rangers (1
Hamilton's Highlanders (1b)
2nd Ariana Fusiliers
Ariana Grenadiers (1b)
1st Chesterton Voltigeurs
2nd Chesterton Voltigeurs
3rd Chesterton Voltigeurs

Keep in mind, an RCT is about 8 regiments of combined arms built around a mech regiment....no wonder Tikonov was a walkover.

Semyon

[SquareSphere]

The books before the clan wars mostly showed action (especially the mercenary books) below the company level (12) per planet.

[Paladin1]

Like SquareSphere said, before the Clan Invasion, the average planet only had about a Company of `Mechs to defend it, not including the conventional forces.

After the Clan Invasion began, that number started to rise, but not much. If you're on a world near an active border, expect to see at least a Battalion of `Mechs. If the border isn't active, expect a Battalion to be the largest amount you'd see.

[Naughtyboy]

not to forget the private market, there is Companies that hire mercenary units to protect their intrests if in an area plauged by pirates, there is examples of when a planet with both regular military/militia forces has tried to get Coperation hired mechs to join in a planetary defence and the mercenaries denied the request stating some clause in their contracts.

[AlanEsh]

Suskis, on 02 April 2012 - 03:02 AM, said:

How many mechs usually are deployed on a single planet? I am talking an average planet.
Could it work a 1-planet 1-server ratio? I mean: in WoW 5000 players are hosted on each server, if I recall correctly. If a planet becomes a was scenario, two or more factions could play on said planet bringing there a number of mechs. Is 5000 mech on a single planet an astronomical number or not?

We are all going to be fighting in a "cloud" of servers, not creating characters on a specific server/planet. There is really nothing WoW-esque about the way this game is going to work. World of Tanks is a much better starting point for getting an understanding of the way we're going to interact in MWO.

[SirDenOfYork]

WOW thats alot of BOOM-BOOM!!!

[Morashtak]

Think of our own planet and the number of strategic resources (cities, landing zones, manufacturing and shipping, etc) that would need to be defended.

A planet with a very well developed distribution system but small or compact number of resources would have fewer main points to defend. A large planet that has a very large number of resources spread out over a large area but an undeveloped transportation and distribution system would need many more units to defend it.

The drop time from the jumpship to planetary landing would allow the defenders to mobilize as best they could. Military war gaming would be used to develop the justification for the number and types of defenders. Each planet would be assigned an adequate defense based on their need and strategic importance... with a little political jockeying thrown in, of course.

Capital planets get the best and biggest (largest number of). Increasingly less strategic planets get increasingly lesser quantity/quality. Planets with little to no strategic value get torches and pitchforks.

TL:DR - It depends.

[Skylarr]

"On 1 May 3052, the largest single engagement of forces in the history of 'Mech warfare began. Twelve armies of ComStar's ComGuard clashed with twenty-five Galaxies of Clan forces on the hills and plains of the planet Tukayyid. The prize for this battle was the glittering blue gem of the Inner Sphere, the home of humanity: Terra."

Galaxy - A Clan military formation consisting of 3-5 Clusters, roughly equivalent to an SLDF Brigade or a ComStar Army.
3-5 Clusters (120 to 375 Points)

Cluster - 4-5 Binaries, Trinaries and/or Super Novas (40 to 75 Points)

Binaries - 2 Stars and/or Novas (10 Points)
Trinaries - 3 Stars and/or Novas (15 Points)
Super Novas - 2 'Mech Stars and 2 Elemental Stars

Novas - 1 'Mech Star and 1 Elemental Star
Star - 5 Points
Point - 1 'Mech, 2 Aerospace fighters, 5 elementals, 5 Squads
Squad - 5 Solahma Troopers

[Kenyon Burguess]

the current time frame is also after the 4th succession war. many units are still rebuilding at this time, it wiould be hard for any house to produce 5k or even 1k mechs without completely stripping all the border worlds of defenses

[Skylarr]

GuntherK, on 02 April 2012 - 03:58 AM, said:

Some planets are defended by one or two battlemech regiments
Some planets are defended by a single batallion
Some planets are defended by by a single company
Some planets are defended by a single lance
Some planets dont have battlemechs.

On top of that planets may have up to several regiments of conventional forces of armor or infantry, most planets have a planet militia with basic training and equipment that may have or not battlemechs.

Did i answer your question ?

Guntherk is correct. The closer the planet is to the border of a possible hostile and depending on what the value of its resources. You Might be able to estimate how much the defendors have on planet. The further away from a planet is to a hostile border, the small the defending force. In that case a Mech force would be assigned to a group of planet to chase Pirates. But, even these remote planets have a small garrison force and may include some light tanks.

Edited by Skylarr, 02 April 2012 - 09:13 AM.

[Seabear]

Most houses used a defense in depth where the front line units would be spred thin but would be backed up by larger forces. Given HPGs and pirate points, it would be possible to reinforce a planet before an attack. Things would have to work out just rignt, but it could be done. Given the info so far, it appears we will be the pointy end of the spear, a company or 2 of mechs on a border march planet. It seems most missions will be raid/defense missions as was the case in most of the lore. That is the place where one finds the most intense mech combat.

Even if there were 5000 mechs on planet, they would be spread very thin to cover the entire planet. Just imagine if there wre only 5000 tanks in the RW, how thin would they have to be spread to cover every major target? A few units in the right place can make a great difference.

[William Petersen]

The idea of this type of sparse military deployment has always seemed ridiculous to me. So few BattleMechs defending *an entire planet*!? And once an invading force dispatches them, well now the planet is owned by the attackers? Even though the defenders still probably have many many conventional troops? Such nonsense. I think, in general, we humans from our single-planet species really have a hard time wrapping its head around all the issues and scale of planetary conquest.

The irony is that we've already had 2 'global conflicts,' so we should understand the concept.