Acting Commander Rules and Unit Disbanding

[NorCal CBT]

In light of recent events, I have had to make some interesting decisions about company commander deaths under certain circumstances.

The current rules dictate a minimum rank for a company commander, personnel limitations for commanders at various ranks, and minimum mercenary company size rules.  There's no clear-cut case for this situation so my interpretation of what will happen when a company commander dies and there's no one at a rank of 3/4 or higher to replace them is as follows:

First, the minimum unit size rules take precedence--regardless of a commander's rank, a unit will never go below the league minimum of 1 lance of mechs, 1 lance of vehicles, and 1 lance of infantry.

Second, the unit becomes out of command (if it wasn't already) until such time as a mechwarrior or vehicle commander reaches the rank of captain (3/4).

Third, until a mechwarrior or vehicle commander reaches the rank of captain, one mechwarrior or vehicle commander is appointed as acting commander.  This acting commander receives no company commander bonuses to initiative until such time as they reach the rank of captain, or until someone else reaches the rank of captain and assumes command of the unit.

The Breaking Point

When does a mercenary company disband?  This will occur when a unit can no longer field a valid fighting force due to inability to pay for repairs or replacement units.  Until then, a unit operates as normal under the rules applicable to it based on its command status.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Allen

[Josh Cochran]

Sounds good to me.

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From: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of NorCal CBT <cbtn...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 10:13:05 AM
To: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Acting Commander Rules and Unit Disbanding

 

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[Thomas F.]

Being in Command means you have at least one of each 3/4, 4/4 and a 4/5 pilots.
Having a "hole" in ranks means a unit is out of command.

Is that correct Allen?

T-

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From: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of NorCal CBT <cbtn...@gmail.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 10:13 AM

To: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Acting Commander Rules and Unit Disbanding

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[Allen Antoine]

That’s correct.

Allen

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 21, 2025, at 12:53, Thomas F. <thom...@hotmail.com> wrote:



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[Kamil Pawlowski]

The rules for this are as follows (based on what is written and what has happened in the past):

1. The company commander does not have to be the person with the highest G/P so another unit commander (wm or vehicle commander) is appointed

2. The unit stays out of command until they come back into command.   This can be done either by promotion, or by hiring people at the right levels (if available)

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[Josh Cochran]

Here's a thought....

Tom is out of command, however with a pilot missing he is also below the 1 mech lance threshold. Is he allowed to hire a new pilot to bring him up to 4 mech pilots? If so, can he hire a 4/4 or better pilot or only 4/5?

Cheers,

Josh

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From: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kamil Pawlowski <kamil.p...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 2:09:57 PM
To: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Acting Commander Rules and Unit Disbanding

 

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

There has never been a restriction on the skill level of a hired pilot.   If he has the cash he can hire the level he wants.   the prices are in the rules.

If tom has a mech without a pilot, we have usually allowed replacement hires for KIAs.

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

also, if he so chooses, tom can select a mascot for his unit.

[Tom Ramirez]

I guess I can hold off my turn until this question is answered.

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[Thomas F.]

It was already answered Tom.
You can purchase a new pilot to fill in.

Just read the rules doc for information.  If you need help message me.

T-

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From: norca...@googlegroups.com <norca...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tom Ramirez <tom...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2025 6:28 PM

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

Some of you may not remember this, but my unit CO was killed in a mission against the blue meanies.  

Fortunately, he was not the highest ranking mechwarrior I had, but it did put me out of command till I filled in the missing rank.

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[Tom Ramirez]

That's what I get for not refreshing the browser. I'll have my turn in just a moment.

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[Tom Ramirez]

Okay, so I am reading all this and going over the rule and can see this paradox now. Can I in this case appoint one of the vehicle commanders OR one of the remaining mechwarriors as the "de facto" commander, then hire a 4/5 pilot?

[NorCal CBT]

To answer a few questions that came up while I was MIA:

Tom's case is unique in that he lost his CO while he did not have a mechwarrior/vehicle commander with a skill of at least 3/4.

Regardless of any other rules and limitations, my stance will be that a player's merc unit can always maintain the minimum mercenary company size of 1 lance of mechs, 1 lance of vehicles, and one lance of infantry--fielding a viable combat force consistently becomes very difficult when you potentially limit someone to just one lance of units.

Even when out of command you can always hire or buy personnel or units to replace lost units as long as you are maintaining the league mercenary company minimum size or the maximum number of personnel manageable by the highest rank in your command chain--whichever is larger.

Kam is right that Tom could hire a replacement 3/4, but Tom doesn't have the money for that.

Allen

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

Basically yes.

you can appoint a 6/7 as your commanding officer if you wanted to

in fact you can hire a completely new pilot and make him the CO.

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

I don't recall a rule saying that you have to have a 3/4.

It just means you're out of command.   You start with a 3/4.  

Going further, if go where we had ended up, with infantry for hire often being available, as well as transports, then you don't need to worry about the min force composition.   

From my pov.  a player can keep going till he is completely flat broke.   In fact it makes the story of that unit much more epic.

But, its not my game anymore.

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[NorCal CBT]

On page 11 of the rules doc it says:

Commander

A commander must be assigned to a command lance (q.v.) and have a rank of at least captain.  A commander retains a command until they are killed or removed by the GM.

I had considered changing this, but I think it makes sense that a commander has to be a mechwarrior/vehicle commander with at least a modicum of experience that knows how things work and how to get things done.

I came to the same conclusion about the breaking point for a unit--you can keep going until you can't field a viable force anymore. I don't have a firm definition on what a viable force is, but I feel like it will be pretty obvious to everyone when a mercenary company gets to that point.

Allen

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[Kamil Pawlowski]

Hmm… I’m not sure we’ve ever enforced it, or maybe you are right and we never had to.

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