Mercenary Mission Motivation

Here it is: comments etc. are welcome

Employers are usually responsible for payment, supply, intelligence, 
strategic redeployment and other sundry issues.
How well an employer carries out these duties can affect the Mercenary's

performance and motivation.

Payment:
To ensure that the Mercenary group's pay is kept up to date, roll the 
Employers Payment Rating.
Poor	D6	Average D8	Good	D10

Results:
1	Payment is not going to be made this month
	Commander must make Rally Roll to get squads to muster
	Low Motivation
2-3	Pay is overdue and lower than agreed
	Low Motivation
4-5	Pay is overdue or is lower than agreed
	Medium Motivation
6+	All pay is in order
	High Motivation

Supply:
To ensure that the Mercenary group's supply needs are met, roll the 
Employers Supply Rating.
Poor	D6	Average D8	Good	D10

Results:
1	No Supply Run is made
	All weapons are at -1FP due to ammo restraints
	Troops Exhausted
	-1 Level of Motivation
2-3	Supply Run is low on foodstuffs
	Troops Tired
4-5	Supply Run is lacking in spare parts
	All systems run at 1 level lower
6+	Supply Run is in order

Reliability:
To ensure that the Mercenary group's intelligence needs are met, and
that 
they are not left out to dry by the employers, roll the Employers 
Reliability Rating.
Poor	D6	Average D8	Good	D10

Results:
1	Agreed Mission Support does not show up
	-1 Level of Motivation (when this becomes apparent)
2-3	Intelligence underestimates level of hostile forces for        
mission
4-5	Intelligence overestimates level of hostile forces for mission
6+	Intelligence reports in order

[While overestimating the level of forces may not seem like a bum deal,
it 
does mean that the player will assign more of his forces than he would
have 
otherwise - and thus these forces count as being in action and will need
to 
be rested sometime in the future.]

[If you feel that the results are too punishing I'd recommend narrowing
the 
result bands from "2-3" to "2" and "4-5" to "3" - You kind GMs you!]

Many of you mentioned the quality of leadership and the esprit d'corps
being 
pivotal factors in the motivation of mercenary troops. I agree. However
I 
think that this is already covered in the rules for motivation by have 
Leadership and Quality Values.

On deciding who qualifies as a mercenary - obviously this is a
contentious 
issue. I think that units such as the Gurkhas and French Foreign Legion 
(while sharing the attributes of mercenary units) are better simulated
using 
the standard rules for military units. They have a definate place in the

chain of command, and are included  in standard armed forces supply, 
intelligence and pay.

On units who are fanatical about their cause - be it Japanese Corporate 
Mercenaries or International Brigades (as in Spanish Civil War) - I'd be

inclined to  assign them a High Motivation.

As for motivational issues connected with support, there's  nice
contract 
negotiation rules in various Battletech Mercenary books, whereby the
quality 
of the unit (basically) grants the units a greater influence on the 
negotiations: I'm not going to go into that in detail now, and will run 
"agreed support" on a quasi role-playing basis.

Experience:

Squads

Units can gain in Experience.

Experience Level	Green	Regular Veteran
Experience Points	0	3	8

Units gain 1 Experience Points after each battle
Units gain 1 Experience Points after each successful mission

Officers

Leaders gain experience points from leading Units better than them.
They gain experience by the same rules as Units
Level 3 Leaders can gain experience from Regular and Veteran Units.
Level 2 Leaders can gain experience from Veteran Units.

Experience Level	3	2	1
Experience Points	0	3	8

Recruitment

Casualty Replacement
Roll Commanders Quality Die vs. Target Number of replacements he wishes
to 
recruit.

Results:
1				Fails to recruit any replacements
Less than TN			Recruits Untrained replacements
Equal or Greater than TN	Recruits Green replacements
Twice TN			Recruits Regular replacements

Experience dilution is as per SGII

Additional Reaction Tests:

Leaving Casualties Behind
Is always taken at Low Mission Motivation Level

[I'd recommend using this if the mercenaries think that they are apt to
be 
maltreated by regular armed forces who capture their personnel]

When Units have taken 50% casualties in total
Low	Medium	High
+4	+3	+2

[This reaction test may be effected in play by the Player choosing to 
withdraw as casualties mount - ie choosing to save his company rather
than 
continue with the mission]

[Just to give you all some idea of what level of game I'm intending to
run 
here's my guideline for force creation - this may seem like a points
system 
and it is, but it's just a guideline really]

Mercenary Platoon

Forces Available: 6 Points

No.	Description				Cost

1	Commander (that's you!) 		(0)

0-1	Command Squad				(1)
	1 NCO, 1 Electronic Warfare, 1 Medic, 3 Security

0-4	Rifle Squad				(.5)
	1 NCO, 1 SAW, 5 Rifle, 1 Other Support Weapon

0-2	Assault Squad				(.5)
	1 NCO, 5 SMG, 2 Other Weapons (Flamthrowers, Demolitions etc.)

0-2	Power Armour Squad			(1)
	1 NCO, 1 SAW, 3 Rifle, 1 Other Support Weapon

0-2	MICV					(1)
	1 Armoured Personnel Carrier

0-1	AFV					(2)
	1 Armoured Fighting Vehicle

0-1	VTOL					(2)
	1 VTOL, for Fire Support or Personnel

0-2	Special Weapons Team			(.5)
	Any of the following: Local Air Defence, Mortar,
	Anti Personnel Support Weapon, Sniper

0-2	Special Forces Team			(1)
	1 NCO, 1 SAW, 2 Rifle

[In my campaign rules I intend to give Special Forces teams the ability
to 
train militia and will probably allow them to undertake cheesy missions]

Technology Upgrades : 2 Points

Partial Armour					(1)
Full Armour					(2)
Advanced Assault Rifles 			(1)
Gauss Rifles					(2)
Enhanced Systems				(1)
Superior Systems				(2)
Fast Power Armour				(2)
Heavy Power Armour				(2)

Experience: 2 Points
Can be spent to upgrade Quality or Leadership type of a
squad by 1 level

[I'd recommend drawing random quality chits for troops]

Miscellaneous: 2 Points
Can be spent on Forces, Technology Upgrades or Experience

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