Battle of Tukayyid Force Sub: Let the bidding begin

[Balrog]

The Clans have burned a path through the Inner Sphere on their quest to conquer Earth. ComStar, based on Earth, obviously does not want this to happen, and so challenge them to a final climatic battle on the distant world of Tukayyid. If they capture the planet from ComStar, they get to keep Earth. The Clans, being so full of themselves with honor and all that crap, accept the challenge and allow the entire ComGuard to deploy to the planet before deciding upon their invasion forces.

Then Q wanders over, snaps his fingers and replaces them with everyone from SD.net. You now must bid amongst yourselves over who will command the battle using the fewest and least powerful ground force from any fictional universe you want. Stupidly large or powerful bids (i.e. "I'll bid a few dozen 40k Titan Legions!") means you'll probably lose the bidding process easily, and thus end up getting sent by Q to Hell or its equivalent to you for an extended vacation. The same is true if your force gets chosen but is defeated in battle, so the goal obviously is to pick one which has the greatest chance of success while still being the weakest of all other bids. Orbital bombardments and other strategic weapons are still not allowed as per original scenario, although giving the bidding process someone using an ISD wouldn't win anyways.

ComGuard is similarly notified about the changes; they're given time to familiarize themselves with whatever force is sent against them and make any alterations to their strategy required. The twelve Armies of Comguard are composed of 6,265 Battlemechs, 2,159 combat vehicles (tanks, artillery, etc.), 120,512 infantry (mostly mechanized, some leg/jump, with their attendant vehicles) and 2,808 Aerospace fighters.

[OmegaChief]

Question; Will we be limited soley to ground and atmospheric assets for our bidding?

I mean I know wet navy assets are probably out (As I think it's an oceanless desert world) but do we get orbital support? Or things that can go into orbit from the surface and vica verse?

[paladin]

Question; Will we be limited soley to ground and atmospheric assets for our bidding?

I mean I know wet navy assets are probably out (As I think it's an oceanless desert world) but do we get orbital support? Or things that can go into orbit from the surface and vica verse?

Per Battletech Wiki, Tukayyid does have oceans. http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tukayyid

[Whiskey144]

Well, let's see.

I bid 1 Imperial Guard Armored regiment, specifically the 12th Tallarn Armored (yes I realize it was destroyed in the Taros Campaign; but the Guard reuses regiment numbers). In support I also add the 2356th Storm Troopers Company, along with an attached Valkyrie/Vendetta composite wing for air transport, and Vulture squadron for air support, and 2 Thunderbolt squadrons for air superiority.

Should we be allowed aerospace assets, then I also append this with 20 Fury interceptors (2 squadrons).

I don't have access to IA3 on this computer, but when I fire up the comp that does, I'll post the regimental composition of the 12th Armored.

[Sidewinder]

Are we limited to units from "Real Robot" series comparable to Battletech, such as Mobile Suit Gundam? Or can we use "Super Robot" robots, like Mazinkaiser? How about units with AI, like Predaking or Trypticon (Transformers)?

[OmegaChief]

Question; Will we be limited soley to ground and atmospheric assets for our bidding?

I mean I know wet navy assets are probably out (As I think it's an oceanless desert world) but do we get orbital support? Or things that can go into orbit from the surface and vica verse?

Per Battletech Wiki, Tukayyid does have oceans. http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tukayyid

Oh sweet, naval assets are in then, this makes things much more interesting!

[Sea Skimmer]

You know that's a smaller invasion force then the USSR had in East Germany alone by a factor of five in manpower and around 1:3 in armored vehicles. More aircraft, but the USSR literally ran out of space for airfields in East Germany anyway. Not a very good basis to try to take over an entire planet from.

[Kingmaker]

IIRC, the clans were each assigned objectives that they had to take and hold, while specific units of Comguard units were assigned to oppose each clan force, so they weren't actually trying to conquer the planet (planetary battles in BT are ridiculously limited in scope anyway, much of the time). Are we assuming that still holds?

[Connor MacLeod]

Frankly I can't even begin to understand how we're supposed to bid if we don't have an idea of what we are facing in terms of military strength, support, etc. Also what about our own logistical requirements, how are thy handled? Are they included as part of the bet, or what? Alot of it also will come down to calcs. Imean if I used high MJ/low GJ lascannon/meltagun calcs for 40K, how would that match up to the opposition? And so on and so forth.

What it really comes down to is we have to know what we're facing in terms of numbers before we can quantifiably "bid" anything - leaving it open ended like this is just inviting a canon/calc argument because everyone is going to bring different assumptions to the table otherwise.

[lord Martiya]

I'll bid two Zeon's infantry regiments, with twenty Dom and a couple Gaw as support.

[Balrog]

Question; Will we be limited soley to ground and atmospheric assets for our bidding?

I mean I know wet navy assets are probably out (As I think it's an oceanless desert world) but do we get orbital support? Or things that can go into orbit from the surface and vica verse?

No orbital support, ground and air forces only. You can throw in some naval units if you really want, but I don't recall any of the objectives being particularly close to any major bodies of water, so keep that in mind.

Are we limited to units from "Real Robot" series comparable to Battletech, such as Mobile Suit Gundam? Or can we use "Super Robot" robots, like Mazinkaiser? How about units with AI, like Predaking or Trypticon (Transformers)?

Any fictional universe, but remember the goal is to use the least amount of force to win the battle. So you can send something like a single Super Robot if you want, but if that robot is powerful enough to tank Death Star laser blasts without breaking a sweat, you'll probably lose the bidding to a weaker but more numerous army.

IIRC, the clans were each assigned objectives that they had to take and hold, while specific units of Comguard units were assigned to oppose each clan force, so they weren't actually trying to conquer the planet (planetary battles in BT are ridiculously limited in scope anyway, much of the time). Are we assuming that still holds?

Yes, the same objectives must be taken and held by the invasion force. How they go about doing that is up to you.

Frankly I can't even begin to understand how we're supposed to bid if we don't have an idea of what we are facing in terms of military strength, support, etc. Also what about our own logistical requirements, how are thy handled? Are they included as part of the bet, or what? Alot of it also will come down to calcs. Imean if I used high MJ/low GJ lascannon/meltagun calcs for 40K, how would that match up to the opposition? And so on and so forth.

What it really comes down to is we have to know what we're facing in terms of numbers before we can quantifiably "bid" anything - leaving it open ended like this is just inviting a canon/calc argument because everyone is going to bring different assumptions to the table otherwise.

Total ComGuard forces on the planet are listed in the OP; which units were assigned to defend which objectives can be found on the wiki Paladin posted, though since they know they'll be facing a different opponent don't assume they'll stick to the same battleplan. If it's which specific designs they use, ComGuard kept a lot of Star League-era machines and their production facilities running, so their armies are stocked with things like Mercury and Thug 'mechs, Gotha and Tomahawk ASFs, et cetera. Supplies and other logistics are included as part of the bidding, so if you think you'll need a week's worth, a month's worth, then you'll have to specify and hope that it's enough. As far as calcs go weapons tend towards megajoules, perhaps low gigajoules, with armor able to provide adequate protection.

[Raxmei]

Given the circumstances simply scoring the bids would be a nightmare.

[OmegaChief]

Are we allowed to use WMD? Or is this like Dune's "No Atomics" style conflics?

[Batman]

Smallest and lest powerful, remember? WMDs probably mean you will be considerably underbidden by numerous parties. Also, since you still have to follow the stupid bidding process that probably means you're still bound by Clan rules of engagement to some extent, which tend to not particularly encourage the use of such.

[Balrog]

Smallest and lest powerful, remember? WMDs probably mean you will be considerably underbidden by numerous parties. Also, since you still have to follow the stupid bidding process that probably means you're still bound by Clan rules of engagement to some extent, which tend to not particularly encourage the use of such.

WMDs are not allowed, as per the original, but none of the other Clan rules of engagement apply, since obviously the Clans aren't fighting.

Given the circumstances simply scoring the bids would be a nightmare.

Some will be harder to judge than most, but here's a good example:

I'll bid two Zeon's infantry regiments, with twenty Dom and a couple Gaw as support.

Way too small. Even if each mobile suit was worth dozens of Battlemechs, ComGuard forces outnumber them hundreds to one. Never mind having multiple cities to capture and hold with only a couple of regiments?

[Steven Snyder]

I would like to bid 1x Dr. Manhattan

[Terralthra]

I bid one Shrike.

[Batman]

I bid one blue Police Public Call Box, and during Q's pompous speech about how I'm totally disrespecting his rules for the scenario and he's so going to punish me for it, use said Police Public Call Box to flee the entire scenario to begin with.

[CBG]

1 bid 1x Ghargatuloth.

[OmegaChief]

Hmmm, in which case I bit three armoured, two artillary and five standard regiments of Imperial Guard, along with one company of Salamander chapter Space Marines.

Air support will naturally consit of transports sufficant to move about one Regiment at a time via air, three fighter squadrens and the Salamanders Thunderhawks.

Oh and naturally all the logistics required to keep everything going of course! Is that sufficant or do you want a buy the numbers breakdown of what's in each specific regiment?

[Sidewinder]

I cheat by bidding Abominus, Bruticus, Devastator, Menasor, Predaking, and Trypticon, plus the Insecticons. That way, I can choose between an army of six giant robots and three medium robots, or an army of 29 medium robots and one giant robot- excluding the Insecticons' potentially infinite number of clones- as needed. With the Constructicons' engineering skills, and the Decepticons' ability to convert alternate fuels and energy sources to energon, the logistical burden will be considerably lightened.

[Ford Prefect]

I bid the Nahel Argama and Judau Ashta's Gundam Team.

[Norade]

I bid a single Stargate replicator.

[madd0ct0r]

I bid one Stargate Replicator, or failing that one minor 40k Ork Waaagh. Say one hulk and 4 Roks worth.

[Sarevok]

Anyone want to put up a formation from Heavy Gear universe ? I would post one but I am only getting started with the board game and RPG (previous expouser was the PC games). The tech levels and aesthetics are close enough that it would be a very interesting fight.