3 Force Construction

You start with a budget of Battle Value (BV) or Point Value (PV) for your initial units and a Warchest of Support Points (SP). Completing scenarios and accomplishing objectives earns additional SP for commanders to spend on maintaining their units, training their pilots, and acquiring new equipment. You may maintain and improve your force between tracks with the Chaos Campaign rules from Hot Spots: Hinterlands sourcebook or the BattleTech: Mercenaries box set.

If any units in your force have special equipment not found in BattleTech: Total Warfare, BattleTech: BattleMech Manual, or Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition, then you must bring the rulebooks for that equipment. Unit record sheets can be generated using MegaMekLab or similar tools. Alpha Strike cards can be found on the Master Unit List.

BV costs sometimes do not mach between the Master Unit List and MegaMekLab, especially for conventional infantry units, due differences in the official rules. You must use the same source for all BV costs and all record sheets must agree with the BV costs from this source.

3.1 Optional Rules

BattleTech: Outworlds Wastes is designed to support both BattleTech and Alpha Strike. If the event or league supports both rule systems, then your force must be within all of the BV and PV limits given. If the event or league will only use BattleTech, then your force only needs to be within the BV limits given, or only within the PV limits for Alpha Strike.

BattleTech: Outworlds Wastes is designed for full combined arms play using BattleTech: Total Warfare rules; however organizers may use the Battlefield Support: Asset rules from the the BattleTech: Mercenaries box set instead. There are three common combinations of rules that a league or event may use.

• Total Warfare: Use the force construction rules as written. Use BattleTech: Total Warfare rules for non-’Mech units. Use Battlefield Support: Strikes rules from the BattleTech: Mercenaries box set. Aerospace and artillery units may also use BattleTech: Total Warfare rules.
• Force Assets: Use the force construction rules as written. Use Battlefield Support: Assets rules from the BattleTech: Mercenaries bot set for non-’Mech units. You may only use Battlefield Support: Assets from your force during play, but Assets cannot score objectives. Use Battlefield Support: Strikes rules from the BattleTech: Mercenaries box set. In order to use Battlefield Support: Strikes, your command must have a unit capable of offering the support.
• Hired Assets: For Event Play, you may start with 3,000 BV (100 PV) of ’Mech units; do not add non-’Mech units to your force. For League Play, you may start with 9,000 BV (300 PV) of ’Mech units; do not add non-’Mech units to your force. Use Battlefield Support: Assets rules from the BattleTech: Mercenaries bot set for non-’Mech units. You may add any Battlefield Support: Assets to your force, up to the BSP limit for the scenario, but Assets cannot score objectives. Use Battlefield Support: Strikes rules from the BattleTech: Mercenaries box set. You may use any Battlefield Support: Strikes and your force should not contain these supporting non-’Mech units.

3.2 Event Play

For Event Play, commanders start with a Scale 1 force and each track is played at Scale 1. You start with 3,500 BV (125 PV) to acquire initial units for your force and a Warchest of 3,000 SP. BV (PV) costs for all units are listed in the Master Unit List or MegaMekLab. Force construction must follow these rules:

• You have a modified DropShip, similar to a Trojan, with 8 configurable bays. Bays may be empty and can changed to a different configuration. 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	6 bays
  Combat Vehicle	2 vehicles or 1 superheavy vehicle	3 bays
  ProtoMech	5 ProtoMechs	1 bay
  Infantry	15 tons or 1 unit over 15 tons	1 bay

• You must select units from one faction on the Master Unit List for the era chosen by event organizers. Forces may include units with introductory, standard, and advanced technology. Custom, experimental, and unique units are not permitted.
• Each force must have at least one ’Mech. Your initial force may have no more than two ’Mechs. ’Mechs can account for no more than 3,000 BV (100 PV).
• Each force must have at least one Battle Armor unit. If Battle Armor is not available to the faction in the era, then the force must contain at least one non-mechanized conventional infantry unit.
• Each force must have one unit capable of carrying the Battle Armor (or infantry) unit. An OmniMech can carry standard Battle Armor. BattleMechs can carry Battle Armor equipped with magnetic clamps, but receive a -1 MP (-2 inch) reduction to their Walking MP (p. 227, TW, p. 39, AS: CE).
• You may play non-’Mech units as Battlefield Support: Assets; however Assets cannot score objectives.
• Your force cannot contain artillery, aerospace, or other support units. However, you may have access to Battlefield Support: Strikes for some tracks.
• The BV costs of a unit must be modified to include C³ and TAG.
• The BV (PV) costs do not include Skill Advances. All units start at 4 Gunnery and 5 Piloting/Driving/Anti-’Mech (Skill 4). ProtoMechs always have Piloting 5 and infantry units without anti-’Mech equipment have Anti-’Mech 5. You start with two Skill Advances (one Skill Advance for Alpha Strike); however these advances cannot be applied to the same skill on the same unit.

3.2.1 Sample Forces

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

Both forces can support additional units on their DropShips.

3.3 League Play

For League Play, commanders start with a Scale 3 force but each track is played at Scale 2. You start with 11,000 BV (400 PV) to acquire initial units for your force and a Warchest of 3,000 SP. 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 class DropShip, similar to a Union, 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.

• You 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 (250 PV) in ’Mechs. You are encouraged to try to use the typical ’Mech unit composition of their faction. Organizers may raise this limit to 9,000 BV (300 PV) if they want to de-emphasize combined arms for their league.
• 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. You may play these units as Battlefield Support: Assets; however Assets cannot score objectives.

• In order to use Battlefield Support: Strikes, your command must have a unit capable of offering the support. At least 500 BV (25 PV) must be spent on units capable of offering Battlefield Support: Strikes.

  Support Type	Required Unit
  Offensive Aerospace Support	Attack or fire-support aerospace unit
  Defensive Aerospace Support	Dogfighter or interceptor aerospace unit
  Artillery Support	Corresponding artillery unit
  Minefield Support	Any unit

• The BV (PV) costs do not include Skill Advances. All units start at 4 Gunnery and 5 Piloting/Driving/Anti-’Mech (Skill 4). ProtoMechs always have Piloting 5 and infantry units without anti-’Mech equipment have Anti-’Mech 5. You start with two Skill Advances (one Skill Advance for Alpha Strike); however these advances cannot be applied to the same skill on the same unit.

3.3.1 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 2 infantry bays.

3.4 Buried Treasure

3.5 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.