Mech Factories

Although there are many different types of Factories and Manufacturing facilities in the BattleTech Universe, there is only one type of factory that will be used in the Astral Dominion League.

Mech Manufacturing Facilities

These massive industrial complexes contain not only the actual assembly lines for building Mechs, but also an integral Refining facility that will convert the Raw Materials (RawM) allocated to it, into the Parts needed for the assembly of those Mechs.

Additional Factory Information

The Astral Dominion League will use as many of the known factories, and their “official” locations in the Inner Sphere (There are approximately 327 Factories located on various planets throughout each Team’s Territory) as possible for Mech Production. The “FASA authentic” Production Line of Mech Manufacturing Facilities and Assembly Plants have been modified to reflect the “Class” of Mechs that were produced actually produced there, rather than the actual Mechs.

Mech Manufacturing Facilities are huge manufacturing complexes that require a massive input of cash, and resources to maintain and operate. Each factory, so long as it has received sufficient funds and materials to operate for a given Turn, will produce a number of Mechs. The cost to “ramp up” a factory for a Turn of production will be pre-established based on what it is producing, and the number to be produced. A Team Leader will have the option of having a factory in his territory in operation from Turn to Turn, within the restrictions of available cash and materials. Ceasing the operation of a Factory for a Turn is one way to conserve resources.

When a Factory has been designated to begin production at the beginning of a Turn, the required amounts of resources will be automatically deducted from that Team’s GNP. At the end of that Turn of production, the new Mechs are placed into a Team’s “War Stocks”, or a “Supply Depot” as detailed below in the re-supply rules.

Factor Usage in Mech Manufacturing Facilities, and Mech Production

The majority of this section is designed to make the costs involved in a Mech Manufacturing Facility’s operation more transparent to Team Leaders. Exact calculations and deductions will be handled by the League’s Automation, requiring a Team Leader to simply select which factories he wishes to activate for a particular Turn, the Chassis that he wishes to build, and the numbers of ‘Mechs that he wants. Maximum ‘Mech Production Rates (calculated but “tonnage”) and Ramp-up Costs at a Facility will be pre-determined, and based on the use of the 2 Economic factors. Each Mech Chassis has have an assigned C-Bill Cost per Mech and an assigned RawM value equal to the weight of the Mech to be produced, plus any “Tech modifiers” to produce that Mech. More advanced Mechs will not only cost more C-Bills, but will take more RawM  (reflected by the Tech modifier) tonnage to represent, among other things, their hardened armor and better weapons.

The specific values have been set by the Astral Dominion League Council and/or designated economist. Since each Factory will build a specific Class of Mech, Factories in the Astral Dominion League will be the only source of NEW Mechs available to Teams during the Campaign.

All Mech production and income is handled by the Astral Dominion League Automation. If Team Leaders wish to reverse engineer the formulas involved in order to better understand how the system works, the Administration will provide documentation. We feel that involving the Team Leaders with the numbers behind everything is overly complex and not necessary unless they request it.

Capturing Factories

In the event that a Mech Factory is captured during a Turn while production is in progress, all Mechs under construction at that facility shall be lost. On the following turn, the new owner can then allocate resources and ramp up production at his new facility on the following Turn. Inner Sphere Team Factories will be incapable of producing Clan Tech (with the exception of Clan Wolf (in Exile) and Clan Nova Cat, and at no time shall a Clan Team Factories be capable of producing Inner Sphere Tech. Certain teams may begin the Campaign with Mechs of a different Tech base, but they may be unable to replace them when they are destroyed, except through Salvage.

Production lines and ‘Mech Blueprints

The Astral Dominion League Automation is designed in such a way, that Mech Production is strictly controlled. Each Factory is assigned a “Weight Class”, as well as a “Production Value” in tons. Factory Weight Classes are broken down as: Light, Medium, Heavy, and Assault. Production Value is a total amount of tonnage (in Mechs) that a Factory can produce in a single Turn. In addition to these features, Factories may produce up to 4 (Four) different Chassis in a single turn, provided that they possess the “Blueprints” for a Specific Chassis.

Each Team is assigned a number of Blueprints, based upon the numbers of each Chassis that they hold in their Forces at the start of the Campaign. This is based upon the fact that if a Team has a very limited number of Mechs of a specific type, that they probably gained them through Salvage or Trade. Those that they have in abundance, they obviously have the capability to produce.

The Weight Class of a Mech Factory means that a Factory can only produce Mech Chassis of that Weight Class in that Factory. A Factory will always be able of producing Mechs of a weight class under its assigned weight class. A Light Factory can only produce Light Mechs. A Medium Factory can produce Medium and Light Mechs. A Heavy Factory can produce Heavy, Medium and Light Mechs. Assault Factories can produce any weight Class of Mech. All Factories may produce up to their Production Capacity in Tonnage each Turn.

If The Rim Worlds Republic had a Medium Mech Factory with a 1000 ton Production Capacity, sufficient funds, and the blueprints for the two 30 ton Mechs, and 2 40 tons Mechs, it could produce all four of those Mechs at that factory to a maximum total Mech weight of 1000 tons.

Teams can acquire Mech Blueprints in two ways: They can research the Chassis through reverse engineering, or they can gain it through Trade with a Team that already has the capability of producing that Mech. While Trade can be the quickest way of acquiring the capability, it is often dependent upon the good will of the owner of that Blueprint. Research and reverse engineering is time and resource intensive. It also requires a Team to hold at least 10 of the Mechs in Question in their forces, in order to have the ability to reverse engineer it. These 10 Mechs can come from Salvage, or Trade. If a Team wishes to work towards researching a Blueprint, it must allocate an entire Factory of the appropriate weight class to the project. The Factory will remain in “R&D”, and unable to produce Mechs until the Research is completed.

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