Against the Bot Starter Guide

Created by CampaignAnon for use with MekHQ

Version 4.0 (for MekHQ v49.7+)

Changelog:
V3.0 Eighth published version (08/05/19): Total overhaul of prior versions to be new player friendly.
V3.01 Ninth published version (9/11/19): Updated link to Xotl’s Random Allocation Tables.
V3.5 Tenth published version (9/01/20): Inclusion of new Command Center screen (C1) and Personnel
options (B5), plus update to Xotl’s RATs link.
V4.0: Eleventh published version (02/12/2022): New update and overhaul in support of changes made
in MekHQ version 49.7 to Presets, Campaign Options and Unit Creation.

Nothing presented in this guide is official, and provided solely as a fan resource. Xotl’s Random
Allocation tables and NEA’s Portrait Pack are linked here with their permission.

Table of Contents
Section 1: Against the Bot Overview.............................................................................................2
Section 2: Setting up the Game.....................................................................................................3
A: Initial Startup.......................................................................................................................3
A1: Year, General Era overview.............................................................................................4
A2: Built In Presets and Creating your Own..........................................................................6
B: Campaign Options................................................................................................................6
B1: General Tab....................................................................................................................6
B2: Repair and Maintenance................................................................................................7
B3: Supplies and Acquisition................................................................................................9
B4: Tech Limits...................................................................................................................10
B5: Personnel.....................................................................................................................11
B6: Finances.......................................................................................................................13
B7: Mercenary...................................................................................................................14
B8: Experience...................................................................................................................14
B9: Skills.............................................................................................................................15
B10: Special Abilities..........................................................................................................15
B11: Skill Randomization....................................................................................................15
B12: Rank System...............................................................................................................15
B13: Name and Portrait Generation...................................................................................15
B14: Market.......................................................................................................................16
B15: Random Assignment Tables........................................................................................16
B16: Against the Bot...........................................................................................................17
B17: Saving your Preset......................................................................................................19
C: The Company Generation Tool............................................................................................20
C1: Base Information..........................................................................................................20
C2: Personnel.....................................................................................................................21
C3: Background..................................................................................................................21
 C4: Units............................................................................................................................21
C5: Force Organization.......................................................................................................22
C6: The Warehouse............................................................................................................23
C7: Finances.......................................................................................................................23
C8: Works in Progress.........................................................................................................23
D: Starting the First Contract...................................................................................................24
D1: Contract Selection........................................................................................................24
D2: Contract Overview, Forces and Time............................................................................25
D3: Contract Rights and Lance Requirements.....................................................................25
D4: Money, Money, Money................................................................................................26
D5: Editing the Mission......................................................................................................27
D6: Transit Times and You!.................................................................................................27
E: The First Battle....................................................................................................................28
E1: Scenario Generation.....................................................................................................29
E2: Preparing to Drop.........................................................................................................30
E3: Battlefield Conditions...................................................................................................31
E4: The MegaMek Interface................................................................................................31
E5: Post Battle Screen.........................................................................................................31
F: Repairs and Customization..................................................................................................33
F1: Location, Location, Location..........................................................................................33
F2: Repair types and difficulties..........................................................................................34
F3: Extra Time and Overtime..............................................................................................34
F4: Refits and Custom Builds..............................................................................................34
G: Contract Completion..........................................................................................................35
G1: Riding Off Into the Sunset (Victory optional)................................................................35
G2: The Next Contract........................................................................................................35
H: Creating a Mercenary Unit for AtB (Legacy Guide)..............................................................36
H1: The Command Center..................................................................................................36
H2: Starter Funds and Unit Size..........................................................................................36
H3: Pilot Creation...............................................................................................................37
H4: Non combatant requirements......................................................................................38
H5: Generating ‘Mech roster..............................................................................................39
H6: Assign Pilots and Techs to 'Mechs, 'Mechs to Forces.....................................................41
H7: The Warehouse............................................................................................................42
H8: Finances.......................................................................................................................43
Section 3: Extras..........................................................................................................................43
I: Additional Items..................................................................................................................43
I1: Planetary Conquest (Removed).....................................................................................43
I2: Custom Quirk Rules.......................................................................................................44
I3: Resources......................................................................................................................48

Section 1: Against the Bot Overview

Against the Bot or AtB is a single player campaign system for MegaMek’s simulation of BattleTech
where a player can play out a suite of randomly generated missions in every era the game supports,
though in some eras your options may be limited. To get the best experience from AtB as well as
MegaMek, I highly recommend that you have at least a decent understanding of Total Warfare (TW)
or the more recent BattleMech Manual (BMM). Other rules from Tactical Operations (TO), Campaign
Operations (Corrected Second Printing) (CO), TechManual (TM), Strategic Operations (Corrected
Third Printing & Corrected Second Printing) (SO) and Interstellar Operations (IO) are also used
throughout the program. In addition, to understand how MekHQ (MHQ) handles repair and refit
checks, I also direct you to read the Maintenance, Repair, Salvage and Customization chapter in
Campaign Operations. Finally, depending on the Mercenary ruleset that you eventually choose as the
basis of your game, please refer to the Creating a Mercenary Unit chapter in Field Manual:
Mercenaries, Revised (FMMr) or the Force Operations chapter from Campaign Operations (CO).

Section 2: Setting up the Game

A: Initial Startup
The first thing we’ll need to do is launch MekHQ and select the Start a New Campaign button, which
will then bring up the Preset menu below. I will be using the Beginner AtB Preset as the basis of this
guide.
After selecting a Preset, we’ll need to select a Year. In the next section, I’ll briefly summarize the
available eras of play and offer some possible suggestions of when to play.

A1: Year, General Era overview

After selecting the Preset, we’ll have to decide on a year. By default using the Beginner Preset, the
date will set to 01-01-3035. This allows for several years of play in the Succession Wars Era (detailed
below) and a gradual shift to the Clan Invasion Era. However, the exact year is pretty much up to you
to decide when in the timeline that you want to play, so this guide includes a basic breakdown of
some of the “major” eras of the game. In each era, I will rate their possible ease of play in terms of
campaign complexity from my point of view from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Beginner
indicates that there is a limited amount of equipment, unit types and enemy force composition.
Intermediate indicates that there are more pieces of equipment available, units with more complexity
and enemy force composition that adds difficulty. Advanced is typically reserved for facing off against
Clan enemies or mixtech forces.

Star League Era: Current materials define the era as ranging from 2005 to 2780, but for relative ease
of play, you may want to set your game between the years of 2570-2780. This time frame ranges from
the formation of the Star League, the height of the Star League itself as well as its downfall. Since AtB
is relatively self contained, your only limitation here is your knowledge of this era. Recommendations
for a more canonically friendly experience playing in this time period are relatively homogeneous
forces you generate. Instead of a mixed lance of four chassis, roll up a single chassis and then add
some variants to better represent the forces for the era. Rating: Intermediate

Succession Wars Era: Running from 2781 to 3049, the Succession Wars era varies heavily in tone,
though AtB doesn’t particularly discriminate. From 2871 to 2864, technology is still in place, and you
can keep your ‘Mechs running with things like Double Heat Sinks or ER lasers. As the Inner Sphere
slides back into barbarism, from 2865 to about 3020, BattleMechs will be less advanced, and your
fancy tools will burn out, but your foes will suffer the same way. After 3028 until 3049, technology will
rapidly advance, and you might start seeing advanced technology come back into play. Rating: Early
Years: Intermediate; Later Years: Beginner

Clan Invasion Era: Encompassing the years 3050 to 3061, the Clan Invasion is a time fraught with
change. Depending on your choice of contract, playing in this era will either be a higher tech version of
the Succession Wars, or a meat grinder against the Clans. If you can survive, the Clan Invasion is a time
of plenty. If you do wish to face off against the Clans, I highly recommend that all of your pilots are at
least Veteran rated, and that the majority of your units are armed with Lostech or Tournament Legal
equipment. Rating: Intermediate for Inner Sphere contracts; Advanced for Clan fighting
Civil War Era: 3062 to 3067. This small era has less of an impact on the average Against the Bot player,
but a swell of contracts in the Chaos March between Independent Employers, the Word of Blake and
the Allied Mercenary Command under the Wolf’s Dragoons can be profitable, or a death knell. Rating:
Intermediate; Advanced for Clan fighting

Jihad Era: Despite its great viciousness in canon material, the Jihad (3068-3081) of Against the Bot
doesn’t quite live up to the brutality of the setting itself, owing to the limited utility and deployment of
WMDs. Your contracts here will be slightly more varied, as the confusing nature of the Jihad means
you might go from fighting the Word to an uphill slog against the Capellans. Rating: Intermediate

Dark Age Era: This time period (3081-3151+) is likely to be a greater test than any other. Sure you’ve
got Clan technology in spades, but so does everybody else. On the other hand, a lot of groups will
probably end up using IndustrialMechs, so why not show that TractorMech what a Gauss slug looks
like? Rating: Advanced

Era Difficulty Notes

Star League Intermediate
Early Succession Wars Intermediate
Late Succession Wars Beginner
Clan Invasion Intermediate Advanced for Clan contracts
Civil War Intermediate Advanced for Clan contracts
Jihad Intermediate Advanced for Clan contracts
Dark Age Advanced
A2: Built In Presets and Creating your Own
Now that you’ve chosen a year or stayed with the default (I chose the latter), the next splash screen
will be the presets available within MekHQ. I’ve built a few to tinker with previously, but rather than
go over it here in detail, in the next major section I’ll go over the available options after selecting the
Beginner preset, and what each option affects within your campaign. These options are all up to you
to experiment with as you wish, though I do recommend sticking with the selections that the preset
has until you get a few games under your belt.

B: Campaign Options
There are 16 tabs in the Campaign Options window, each covering a different aspect of your
prospective campaign. In the following major section, I plan to go over each tab in detail, and will be
pointing out rules that need to be cross referenced in the appropriate product, with a page reference.
If you find that a rule you’re using doesn’t suit your campaign, or you want to tinker with some of the
values, you can always change them at any time. After making any changes, either hit the “Confirm”
or “Confirm and Save as Preset” buttons. The former option will simply save the options for your
game, while the latter will save those options for future campaigns.

B1: General Tab

Our first tab is also in many ways the simplest, as we can see on the next page. I’ve already made
some changes, so your screen will not match mine. Here you can Name the campaign you’re playing,
which for simplicity’s sake I usually name after the Unit you create. You can also choose the Factions
you can take contracts for, though the non mercenary factions may not always work depending on the
faction selected, as this portion is still a Work in Progress. If you do choose a non mercenary faction,
some missions may not generate properly, so it’s best to refer to the AtB Rules doc to see rules for
them. Underneath the Faction drop down is the Unit Rating Method drop down and the Manual Unit
Rating Modifier box, which uses the Reputation rules on Campaign Operations (starting on p.32) or
the Mercenary Rating rules from Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised (starting on p.153) to
determine your mercenary unit’s overall reputation, or you can disable Unit Rating entirely. These
rules do not exactly translate 1:1 between one another, so I generally advise that if you pick one
method, you stick with it for the duration of the campaign. These two rating methods do influence the
types of contracts, contract clauses and possible benefits that your unit can have. To that end, as
always, I HIGHLY recommend that you familiarize yourself with the two rulebooks previously
mentioned as well as the rules excel file found in the “docs” folder in your MHQ folder. After selecting
the Unit Rating and Method, we can change the date if you have not already done so. At this time,
you can also change your Unit Camouflage and Unit Icon. I’ve selected an SLDF unit because I like the
scheme and did not select an icon for this example.

B2: Repair and Maintenance

On the surface, the Repair and Maintenance tab is quite simple. However, this single tab can often be
the difference between arriving at a contract with functional, intact BattleMechs and showing up with
a pile of parts your incompetent technical staff have contrived to “fix.” The first item on this tab in the
Repair column is the Use era mods for repair rolls option. This uses the Era Modifiers table from
Campaign Operations on p.170 of the Corrected Second Printing and on p.170 of Strategic
Operations before the Corrected Third Printing. Simply put, this option makes it harder to keep your
equipment in fighting trim during the darkest parts of the Succession Wars by adding an additional
negative modifier to repairs. I generally recommend this option be left off if you’re new to the game,
as the penalty can get quite severe. Next is the Place tech assigned to unit at the top of the list for
repairs. Pretty self explanatory, the unit’s tech will be your first choice to repair units with. There have
been issues with this option not functioning, so it’s up to you to use. Third in the Repair column, After
repair reset to the technician at the top of the list is fairly self explanatory as well. The Use Quirks
option, next in the list, uses the Quirk rules from both Campaign Operations and the BattleMech
Manual. In CO, these rules are on p.225, while in the BMM, they are on p.82. Fifth in the Repair list,
Damage/destroy Aero system parts by number of hits taken is a rule that is fairly clear, but I prefer to
leave it off as Aero reparis are difficult enough. Finally, a two part rule, Damage/destroy parts by
margin of failure means that if your technician is repairing or replacing equipment, and by default
misses the check by 3 or more, the components involved could be destroyed or damaged. I
recommend leaving this one alone, though you can reduce the margin of failure or MoF to make
repairs less nail biting. Equipment hit in combat survives on a roll of [X] or better means that when
your units return from a mission, that MHQ will roll and see if equipment survives based on the Target
Number (TN) that you set. I prefer to drop that roll down to 8 or 9, but we’ll leave it as is for now. My
options selected are below:

On the other side of the tab, in the Maintenance column, we have a set of options that directly affects
the quality of your ‘Mechs, as well as how well maintained they are. The very first option, Make
maintenance checks means that after every cycle a check for every unit in your roster is made to
determine how well your technician kept the unit in question maintained during that cycle. A failed
check means that the part might degrade or even be destroyed. I recommend that you keep the
default Maintenance cycle in days at 30, but lower the Maintenance modifier by 1 or even 2 until you
become more familiar with the maintenance system. By default the Use quality modifiers in
maintenance checks rule is on, and this means that the higher quality your units are, the more likely
you can keep them well maintained. Reverse quality names is self explanatory. If you’d prefer the best
quality to be A instead of F, there you go. I personally leave it off, but we’ll have that on for the guide.
Only damage parts that are already at worst quality is a godsend rule, where your techs are slightly
less likely to turn your fancy high tech BattleMech into a pile of useless scrap as long as they’re
reasonably competent. The last option on the page, log maintenance rolls in log file is really only
necessary if you want to go incredibly in depth with the maintenance system, and can be safely left
off. The image at the top of the next page is how the Beginner Preset is set up for the Maintenance
column.

B3: Supplies and Acquisition

The next tab, Supplies and Acquisition determines how you can get your supplies, what skill is tied to
getting those supplies, and how often you can do so. I’ll split this tab in half and cover Acquisition and
Delivery, which are easily detailed. First under Acquisition, is how often you can make supply checks. I
often set this to 2 days per check, while the standard option is once per day. This is because rather
than the preset’s limit of 2 Acquisitions per day, I usually set it to 10 items, allowing me more
freedom to get supplies, just slightly less often. I’d recommend this angle to start. Next is the
Acquisition skill. In previous versions of MHQ, due to how easy it was for Administrative personnel to
gain experience, the relevant skill was almost meaningless. In the current version, the changes to
experience game have made it so really, the choice is up to you. Since a new mercenary unit is unlikely
to have someone with high Scrounge skill, I’ll leave it as Administration for now. Aside from a
reduction in the Penalty for Clan Equipment check to 2 I most often leave these options alone, as they
fit fairly well. Delivery Time is shortened to Days rather than Weeks as a new player aid, so as soon as
you get a few games under your belt I recommend increasing this to 2-3 weeks. Pictured below are
the settings for this section:
The lower half of the tab is where things get interesting. Planetary Acquisition upends the above
section and makes it so that your mercenary unit now has to acquire supplies from the planet you’re
located on. This system definitely adds a new dimension to resupplying your unit, and I’ve often found
I’ve had to carefully ration ammunition and armor on some planets. As a new player, I would
recommend leaving this option off unless you really want a challenge, or feel that the above system is
far too lenient. The only change to the default settings I make is to reduce the Penalty for acquiring
clan parts from non-Clan factions to 3.

B4: Tech Limits

While the Tech Limits tab is explained quite well by MekHQ’s tooltips, I still want to take a moment to
go over the options available on this tab. The Limit Units and Parts by Year option means that you’re
not going to get a sweet new Mad Cat in 3025, and is something I always leave on. Disallow extinct
units and parts being off allows you to try and scrounge up an ER Large Laser or a Gauss Rifle in the
early 3000s when those weapons were long since extinct, so as an option that’s up to you, and I
generally leave it off. By default it’s on, so for now it will stay on. Allow the purchasing of Clan/Inner
Sphere units and parts can define your campaign for you. These two options determine what
components are available for you to purchase through the Unit Market. So if you’re playing a Clan unit
in the heart of the Clan Homeworlds in the late 2900s? Probably not going to be seeing a lot of Inner
Sphere technology. On the other hand, a bunch of hard scrabble mercenaries in the Periphery aren’t
going to see a bit of Clan technology unless it’s shooting at them. Next, the Only allow canon units for
purchase/refits option is up to you. I have an almost comical number of variants and custom units, so
this option is something I don’t ever have on, but if you prefer a wholly canon experience, leave this
on. Third in my overview is the Maximum Tech Level drop down menu. If you set this to Standard
you’re only going to see basic level units available, while dropping to Introductory means units right
out of the Introductory Box Set and TRO: 3039. Advanced and Experimental options means things
from Tactical Operations and Interstellar Operations can be acquired. The next two options, Variable
tech level and Use faction intro dates are pretty clear from their tooltips, but simply mean that in the
former case, as technology becomes more commonplace, that its Tech level will go down. So an ER
Large Laser will be Experimental in the 3030s, but Standard in the 3050s. The Use faction intro dates
changes part availability based on when a faction started using a given part. Finally, the Use ammo by
type option rather simplifies ammunition tracking for missile launchers. Rather than having to keep
track of LRM-5, -10, -15, and-20 ammo types, your warehouse will just pull from a total count of LRM
missiles on a launcher by launcher basis. The warehouse will still show the multiple types however. At
the top of the next page are the settings of the tab.

B5: Personnel
Previously somewhat barebones, the Personnel options have been heavily altered. MegaMek's
developers have included what they call "BattleTech Sims" which will be covered in more detail later.
First off, as your pilots become more skilled and thus more expensive BV wise, the Battle Generator
will attempt to offset your BV by deploying a large amount of low BV units. To counteract this, turn on
Use Individual Initiative Bonus together with the Individual Initiative option in MegaMek, so that the
Bot will not spend forever on its turns calculating the best modifiers for every unit it controls. Next,
the options for Use Toughness, Use Artillery Skill, Allow Special Abilities, and Allow Edge are turned
on. The first two of these options are well explained by their tooltip, while the latter two need more
depth. Allow Special Abilities refers to the Special Piloting Abilities from Campaign Operations and
the relevant Special Abilities tab in the Campaign Options menu. Edge is a stat that allows the
character to reroll the results from specific situations on the battlefield, determined for each pilot by
right clicking on them on the Personnel tab and setting their Edge Triggers. The other changes made
here for my peace of mind are Log Skill Gain in the Personnel Log and Log Special Ability Gain in the
Personnel Log, both of which help to keep track of when that happens.
The next sections under skills related to gameplay are the Medical, Prisoner and Retirement. With
Medical, the expanded rules provide a greater depth to your combat personnel being injured by
detailing more than in terms of simple hit points. The Prisoner rules add the same depth to capturing
enemy personnel.

Retirement is a tricky section and one that I personally recommend is left off for your first campaign,
to be turned on once you get the hang of how contracts work in general. If you do bring Retirement
into play, my recommendation is to turn on Customize Retirement Rolls so that if you get a
particularly large group of pilots that you want to keep on the retirement list you can change the
target number. Otherwise, set the Random Retirement Method to the other state of Disabled.
The last portion of pure rules on the Personnel tab is the section for Salaries. These values are in line
with the rules from Campaign Operations and are generally not something I change, so we’ll leave
them as established in the Preset.

Finally we have the “BattleTech Sims” section, which covers things like marriage, personnel origin and
how long they’ve been with the unit. Previously these details could be overwhelming to a save file, so
I recommended that first time players turn it off until more comfortable with the program. As they
stand now, these new options add a significant amount of RP detail available to your Mercenary
company, and can certainly be useful for breathing life into what otherwise may be a lifeless backend
for soldiers in the unit. The Preset has Manual options for Marriage, Divorce, and Procreation turned
on, and leaves only Random Procreation on. Otherwise, the only portion of the fluff details I might
seriously suggest to keep on is the Time Tracking options, mostly to keep an eye on how your pilots
are sticking around.

B6: Finances
The Finances tab is another tab that is fairly self explanatory, though I would highly recommend
reading FMMr’s and CO’s relevant sections for a clearer grasp of how the various costs are
determined. On this tab, the only major changes I usually make to the options are turning on the Use
Campaign Operations Peacetime Operating Costs and the Use the expanded spare parts modifiers
options. The former adds more tracking in terms of fluffier costs, while the latter makes changes to
pricing on certain units. Other than those two options, I also modify the Clan Tech Price Modifier to a
much higher value than default. Depending on the time frame, this value ranges from 4x (3050 to
3055), 3x (3055 to 3060), 2x (3060 to 3066) and 1.5x (3067+). These values are for Inner Sphere
factions, rather than Clan ones. I personally turn off Pay for Repairs unless the unit I’ve created is
totally without any technical teams. Since this is 3035, I’ve set the Clan Tech Unit Price Multiplier to 6.
B7: Mercenary
This tab has two different options for contract pay. For a more difficult (and very fluff accurate) game,
you may want to use the FMMr option of basing contract pay on the unit’s payroll. For a somewhat
more forgiving game, the CO rules will serve you fairly well. The default values for the percentages
work out perfectly fine in this case. The first of two checkboxes on the page is for Battle Loss
Compensation, or BLC, value. This is a percentage of the unit’s price that an employer will reimburse
the mercenary unit following a scenario for damage incurred. If you have higher Quality parts that will
sell for more on the market, then this option makes it so that the damaged parts are worth that value,
rather than the default. The second checkbox is for Salvage Overages, where if you salvage more than
the percentage allotted to you by the contract, you’ll have to pay the difference out of your final pay.
For a more fluff accurate involvement with salvaged equipment, I would turn this option on.

B8: Experience
This section has a very radical alteration in costs and total skill ups, so I’ll briefly go over the top
section. Overall, I recommend trimming some of the tasks needed to gain experience for techs, as well
as doubling the XP for completing scenarios. These changes allow your pilots and techs to become
better faster, especially with the rather high costs in XP as your unit goes up in skills. See below for
how I’ve set the increases in this most recent Preset.
Next we come to the costs per rank of skill. Rather than the default 5(x4)/10/20/40/60/100 for
Combat Skills, I’ve opted to reduce that to 5(x4)/10/20/40/60/80, to keep a relatively similar curve.
100 XP can take an incredibly long time, even with these more generous payouts. For Technical and
Medical Skills, XP ranges have been changed to 0/5/10/10/20/40/50/60/80. This allows for 0 rated
Doctors and Technicians, meaning there’s less excitement involving lost parts and exacerbated injuries.
Finally in this section, the RPG Skills, Tactics, Strategy, Negotiation, Leadership, and Scrounge have
not gotten any changes to their overall costs.

B9: Skills
While this tab allows you to tinker with options relating to skill checks and levels, I don’t recommend
making any changes to this until you’re much more familiar with the system. Even then, I don’t tinker
too much with it myself.

B10: Special Abilities

The first of the second page of tabs, the only changes I make to this are to change Tactical Genius,
Natural Aptitude: Gunnery, and Natural Aptitude: Piloting to an 80 point XP cost. Yes by the
character creation rules in A Time of War, these skills can only be acquired when the character is first
generated, but fun is fun.

B11: Skill Randomization

In prior versions of MekHQ, it sometimes paid off to tinker with the options on this tab to get the kind
of unit you wanted. After some experience with the way the Skill Randomization system works, it’s
down to personal preference. I haven’t made any changes for this guide.

B12: Rank System

On this tab, you can change the names and grade equivalents that are in your command. By default in
BattleTech, the vast majority of mercenary units retain the old Star League Defense Force ranks, but
you can use whatever rank system you prefer, and prior versions of the Preset made use of the Second
Star League Defense Force ranks.

B13: Name and Portrait Generation

By default, most MekHQ presets assign Portraits only to MechWarriors. In addition to the built in
Portaits that are included with the program, if you have additional portraits to use, either those found
in the Resources section of this guide or from your own images, you can set all of the roles as
generating portraits.
B14: Market
The Market tab consists of two major components, Personnel Market and Unit Market. The
Personnel Market section is fairly simple to make changes to. To ensure that you have a healthy
amount of recruits, the Preset configures the Market Type to “Dylan’s Method.” Other options
generate a bare trickle of recruits, while this is the most generous. I’d also increase the Weight option
to .5 up from .3 for a better distribution to units you already use. The Unit Market section should be
left alone for the most part, as these options work fine out of the box.

B15: Random Assignment Tables

The Random Assignment Table (RAT) tab is of critical importance for your campaign, since this will
determine what units you had available for purchase, to deploy against and have supporting you.
Earlier in the program’s life span, selecting Era relevant RATs was critical to making sure your game
had appropriate units. Now that the RAT Generator is far more robust, it’s perfectly fine to leave that
option selected.
B16: Against the Bot
The most important tab to your overall experience with the Against the Bot system, I’m going to cover
this in depth. First, to actually be able to play Against the Bot, you will have to leave the Use Against
the Bot campaign rule option checked. Moving down the left hand side of the tab, I would
recommend leaving the Skill Level set to Regular until you’re more comfortable with the game. Next,
I’ll go over options I recommend for Unit Administration. I generally turn off all three options
involving Shares as I view Mercenary commands as akin to a military unit more than a business, but
these options are player preference. Next, comes Treat Aerospace pilots like Mechwarriors is pretty
well explained by its tooltip, and means that you occasionally get ASF pilots with their own hardware,
which can be a nice bonus. Track original unit is a take it or leave it option, but can be useful if your
pilots get shuffled around a bit. Next to last in this section, the Use Aerospace add Aerospace units to
your recruiting pool, and the Preset has this item checked by default so that they’re available to you as
you play. However, I would recommend against using them outright in numbers, and if you do use
them, take care to learn how these craft operate. Finally in this section the Use Vehicles and Clan
Opfor use vehicles options add the gamut of vehicle types to Princess’s repertoire, making her that
much more deadly if you’re not on the ball.

Under Scenarios, I would highly, highly recommend you turn off Double Enemy Vehicles, for your
sanity if nothing else. While some vehicles are not very threatening, it’s all fun and games until you get
a dozen Saladin carriers on the field. Everything else is more or less balanced. The OpFor lance type
ratios work out well enough, and I turn down the Enemy turrets/infantry chance as well. For your first
few games, I would advise that you might want to turn off the Use Weather, Light and Planetary
Conditions options, as these can make early combat scenarios incredibly difficult if you are deployed
to a planet with high gravity or receive a number of severe weather effects.

Scrolling down on this tab, we come to the final section, Contract Operations. Contract Operations is
perfectly acceptable with minor tweaks. If you want to operate in a smaller area, then changing the
Contract Search Radius to a smaller value (such as 400 or less LY) can do that. In this section, I do
recommend deselecting Merc company size limits, Restrict parts by mission, and Limit lance
deployment by weight. The first option merely penalizes you for having a force larger than your
Mercenary Rating can support, while the second makes acquiring replacement components more
difficult. If you’re comfortable adding that difficulty, by all means leave it on. The last option however,
is a real ballbuster, and doesn’t give you the opportunity to have an Assault Star or heavier Level II
type unit. As for the rest of the options, you can leave the majority of them as AtB has them set for
simplicity’s sake. As you become more familiar with the game’s OpTempo, you can raise the intensity
for more difficulty. One option I would disable for sanity’s sake out of this list is Generate Chase
Missions as this mission type is often far more difficult than it might seem on the surface, as the
image at the top of the next page rather dramatically illustrates.
B17: Saving your Preset
Once you are satisfied with any changes you’ve made, click the Confirm and Save as Preset button at
the bottom of the window. Clicking that button will bring up the below window, which will allow you
to set ground rules for any campaign created with that preset, like Starting Date, Faction, Planet and
other items. Some items on this page are still a Work in Progress, like the Contract Count.
C: The Company Generation Tool
New to MekHQ version 49.7 is the new Company Generator tool, which will allow you to do all the
unit generation steps that were previously completed over multiple steps and with a number of
outside resources within MekHQ itself. If you prefer to create a mercenary unit yourself using the
method previously recommended in this guide, refer to Section H, Creating a Mercenary Unit for AtB
(Legacy) for the step by step instructions. To access the Tool, click the Manage Campaign drop down
menu as in the image below.

Once opened, the Company Generator Tool will open, and I will go over the components starting on
the following page.

C1: Base Information

The first section of the Tool, the Base Information section will be where you establish the size of the
force you want to generate. Currently the tool does not support generating forces on a lance by lance
basis, so if you want to generate each lance individually, you’ll have to make some changes, which I
will detail after the jump.

Our first item in this section is the Company Generation Method, which for my guide will remain as
Windchild, but my options are easy enough to copy. I’ll be generating a full company here as a simple
step, but if you’re using the Against the Bot Generator that I created, linked to in the Resources
section of this guide, to randomly set your force size and bonuses, feel free to change the total lance
count. If you want to build your force a lance at a time, you’ll need to set the Company Count to 0 and
the Individual Lance Count to 1, and go from there. If you want to have a larger Company with an
attached HQ/Bodyguard Lance, then click Generate Company Command Lance. For now, I’ll leave that
off. I’ve set the Star League Year, which determines what year that any SLDF ‘Mechs will be generated
from, to 2780, but feel free to change this based on the Era information for the Star League
mentioned earlier in this document.

C2: Personnel
The next section is Personnel, where you set how many of each support role you want to generate,
how skills and tags are modified and applied. For the most part I recommend that this portion of the
Generator be left alone, as these options are fine as is. I do recommend that you change the total
number of Mech Techs to 12. Using the Windchild Method, this will generate an error later in the
generation process, but that can be safely ignored. 5 Mech Techs aren’t quite enough for a new
player’s technical needs, as your Techs will be spending more of their time tied up with maintenance
than actually being available to work on battle damage.

C3: Background
For the purposes of this guide, this section, consisting of Random Origin and Starting Simulation, can
be safely left as is. If you want to set a specific portion of space to draw recruits from, you can alter
the specific planet to one of your choosing.

C4: Units
The Units section is where the entire makeup of any force you generate will be radically altered based
on the choices you make for the BattleMech Weight Class Generation Method. Each of the
generation methods available have tooltips describing their weight distributions for each method.
Your choice of weight class is up to you, though I would recommend that someone new to AtB look
into generating a medium or heavier weight force, so as to ensure that you have the firepower to
complete drops without spending a dozen turns watching a pair of Stingers duke it out with a Medium
Laser each. The image below is what I’ll be using to generate my force for this example. Since this is
3035 and Star League ‘Mechs are rare, I’ve selected the Never Generate Star League Mechs example.
The rest of the items in this page don’t affect too much of the unit generation aside from Keep Officer
Rolls Separate, which I’ve kept off so that the unit all rolls on a similar charts and officers won’t
outweigh their unit too badly.
C5: Force Organization
Force Organization is another section that is up to individual preference, though I prefer the NATO
alphabet for my forces, so I’ll be using the IACO (1956) option. I also increased the weight limit on
lance sizes to the maximum tonnage for all lance members to be at the maximum tonnage for the
class, that is 35, 55, 75 and 100 tons.
C6: The Warehouse
Having experimented with the Spares section of the Generator Tool, I have yet to receive anything
other than a decent number of parts, repairs and armor out of the Windchild option, so I’d stick with
that one.

C7: Finances
With the Finances section, we reach the end of the currently implemented components of the
Company Generation Tool. Experimentation with current setup built into MekHQ as of 49.7 has given
me a little napkin math evidence that your starting C-Bill balance will be generally just under 10
million C-Bills, which is a pretty solid nest egg. The only item I would turn off in this list is Starting
Loan, to avoid having creditors right out of the gate.

C8: Works in Progress

Currently the Company Generation Tool is a work in progress, so some features in the window are
listed as (Not Implemented). As of 49.7, these items are Contracts and Surprises. The former of which
will allow you to select your first contract and begin traveling to it as soon as the company is
generated. The latter option so far consists of a number of mystery boxes that provide a random
upgraded mech. The modularity of the Surprise feature likely means any number of things could be
added further down the line.
D: Starting the First Contract
We’re on the first step to victory, fast cars and deep pockets, or defeat, insolvency and armed
creditors. So now we need to get started on contracts and how they work.

D1: Contract Selection

The first step in our process is viewing what Contracts are available. To do so, we’ll need to open the
Contract Market under the Marketplace menu. Once you do so, there should be up to 5 Contracts
available to choose from. If there are not 5 total, you should generate additional contracts using the
Generate (GM) button for a total of five contracts, including any that were previously created by
MekHQ itself. In the image below I have a handful of contracts ready for review:

Once you have 5 contracts, it’s time to review the important parts of every contract. First, review the
Employer and the Enemy. Though the former isn’t as important in the wider scheme of Against the
Bot, the latter most assuredly is. As a small scale mercenary unit, or a first time player, avoid fighting
any of the Clan factions until you’re sure you’re capable of defeating an opposing force that deals
vastly more damage than your own. Next is the Mission Type. Unfortunately the definitions for these
types are not in Campaign Operations, but instead are found in either Field Manual: Mercenaries,
Revised (p.23-26) or the A Time of War Companion (p.220-223). Several Mission Types are not
represented in AtB, such as Terrorism and Assassination.
D2: Contract Overview, Forces and Time
In this case, the Contract I’ve selected is a Planetary Assault for the Lyran Commonwealth against the
Free Rasalhague Republic. Picture below is a small portion of Mission Overview. As we can see, the
Contract Name is arranged [Year]-[Faction]-[Location][Mission Type], making the contract easier to
refer to if you ever want to look it up later. This top section details the Employer, Enemy and Mission
Type as well as the Location and Distance to the location.

Next, we need to review the Force Ratings of the Ally and Enemy AI. In this mission, as seen below,
the Ally force has a Regular skill while the Enemy force is Elite. The Ally has a Rating of C, while the
Enemy has a Rating of F which means that the Enemy will have worse equipment to deploy. Quality
Rating for units ranges from F (the lowest) to A (the highest).

The Contract’s Start Date and Length are covered below. In this case, the Contract begins on March
20th 3035, and will run for a total of five months. Note that it is possible for a contract to be extended
with an Emergency Clause during times of extreme need by certain factions. This is covered more in
depth in the Official AtB TT Rules file included with MekHQ.

D3: Contract Rights and Lance Requirements

Just below the time frame, we have a list of Contract Rights such as Overhead Compensation or the
money an employer pays the mercenary for incidental costs like food or lodging during a contract.

Next is who has Command Rights, which fall into one of these four categories: Integrated, House,
Liaison, and Independent. These are ranked in this list by how restrictive they are. For the most part
for AtB, this merely determines whether you have units from your Ally under your control or under
the control of a friendly AI.

After Command Rights comes Salvage Rights, which also fall into four categories, sorted by how much
salvage the mercenary receives: Full, Shared, Exchange and None. Shared is displayed in MekHQ by a
percentage of salvage.
Our last Contract Right, Support Rights are defined by being either Straight Support or Battle Loss
Compensation (or BLC). Simply put, Straight Support means that the employer will pay a portion of
the mercenary unit’s normal costs, while Battle Loss Compensation means that the employer will only
pay for equipment actually damaged in battle. Depending on the contract type, both of these Support
Rights can turn out to be incredibly profitable for the mercenary unit in question. Pictured below are
what these types are on the Mission Overview. All of these Contract Rights are covered in FMMr,
Campaign Operations or the A Time of War Companion.

Finally in this section are the Required Lances. To avoid a contract breach the Mercenary Force must
meet this minimum at all times during the course of the contract.

D4: Money, Money, Money

The final portion of the Mission Overview dialog is the breakdown of how much profit and expenses
that the contract will entail. This isn’t a guarantee of total profit, just how much MekHQ estimates
that you’ll make. Selling salvage could easily increase your overall profits, just as needing to replace
several BattleMechs could break your unit.
D5: Editing the Mission
If at any point you want to make changes to the Mission, it’s possible to do so on the Briefing Room
tab. Here you can edit the Bot’s camouflage, the mission type, ally and enemy ratings and other
options. I tend to change the camouflage of the Ally and Enemy forces so they look nicer up against
my own troops.

D6: Transit Times and You!

Now that we’ve actually chosen a contract, what the hell do we do now? We need to get to the planet
our contract is on! The first thing we need to do is go over to the Interstellar Map tab of MekHQ.
From here, in the text box next to Find Planet, we’ll need to enter our target planet’s name. Type it in
and hit Enter. Your screen should have jumped right over to the target planet, as below.

So now that we’ve got our target planet selected, we need to hit Calculate Jump Path. This will create
a jump path to our target planet. Once that’s done, hit Begin Transit and we’re on our way to the
contract! Every time you hit advance day, your unit moves closer to the contract’s location. It is
distinctly possible that the initial contract date will change due to transit times. This is okay, don’t
panic.
E: The First Battle
Now that we’ve reached our target planet and the date matches the Contract Start Date (I arrived on
March 20th), it’s time to explain the Lance Requirements from above. By default, every contract will
require one of four roles for lances: Fight, Defend, Scout and Training, and once the Contract Start
Date has been reached, the requirements will be shown and able to be filled on the Briefing Room tab
under Deployment Requirements, an example of which is below. I have to have at least 2 Lances
deployed, and at least one of those to the Fight role. I’ve deployed my two heavier lances to Fight, and
my third to the Scout role.
E1: Scenario Generation
On some contracts, it’s possible for the game to not generate scenarios immediately when you arrive.
Don’t fret, the game will generate those scenarios, just not right away. My example game didn’t
generate a scenario for me to perform until March 23rd, for a mission on March 27th. The scenario I
first received is pictured below.
E2: Preparing to Drop
Now that we’ve got a mission, it’s time to go over the various components of the Briefing. First, let’s
go over the Forces involved. This mission has initially selected Bravo Lance consisting of a Banshee,
Atlas, Longbow and Stalker. Added to that is a single Lyran Mech, a Wyvern, versus the Rasalhague
defenders. These forces are pictured below. I’m fairly confident of my chances on this fight.

If I was not confident of my chances, I do have the option of using my second lance as reinforcements.
To do so, let’s go back to the TO&E tab. Once there, on first glance, you’ll notice that the Command
Lance is highlighted in Dark Gray, indicating its Deployed status. To deploy the other lance on this
mission, right click the second lance, and hover over Deploy Force, the contract you’re on, and finally
the mission. This does not lock the lance in, so you can change your mind and shuffle forces around,
or even swap the first lance out and use only the second lance!
E3: Battlefield Conditions
After the forces involved come the Battlefield Conditions. These are the Map, Map Size, Light Level
and Weather. If your Lance leader has points in the Tactics skill, it is possible to reroll these
conditions, though rerolls are not always favorable. With regards to Light Level, if you are going to play
with this option, I would highly recommend going into the MegaMek Options under File and checking
the option called (Unofficial) No Movement penalty for night/fog under Advanced Ground
Movement, or else scenarios will take forever because your movement is cut to near nothing.
Additionally, do not bring vehicles or infantry to Tornado Weather conditions unless you’re not
particularly attached to them.

E4: The MegaMek Interface

Once your force is ready for combat, it’s time to hit the Start Game button on the Briefing Room
screen. MekHQ launches its own internal MegaMek client to run games with. As for actually
explaining how MegaMek works, this unfortunately is something I don’t have the page space to
explain, and so this guide makes the assumption that you have some familiarity with MegaMek on its
own. Some tips for playing AtB are helpful however. First, make sure to set the Victory Condition to
match the requirements for the scenario in question (in this case 25%). Next, while its not as vital at
this scale, I would highly recommend turning on Individual Initiative under RPG Related rules. This is
because the more units the bot has to make decisions for, the longer (and longer) its turns can take.
Individual Initiative forces both sides to move only one unit at a time, rather than having a choice of
any of its total force. Also, while it isn’t supported by the rules for some of these missions, if your
Force does not all move at the same rate, you may start the game with them deploying on vastly
different turns. I recommend tossing that, and editing your units to all start on the first turn.

E5: Post Battle Screen

After the hue and cry of battle, we come to the Post Battle Screen. First, you’ll get a popup for Control
of the Battlefield. This is based off of the Observations in the Mission Briefing. This Probe mission
states I control the field if I won.

Next comes the Unit Status window. This first page allows you to view the damage each of your
deployed 'Mechs have sustained in the engagement, as well as if any of them were totally destroyed in
the battle and are unable to be salvaged.
The screen below shows I haven’t taken any losses.

The next window is the Allied Unit Status screen, which for me was blank for whatever reason, so
we’ll skip ahead to Pilot Status, which shows if your pilots have taken any hits or are MIA or KIA.
After this is your salvage screen. By all rights, you can only claim units that have not escaped from the
field, so salvage is often shot to pieces.

The next to last two pages are the Capture Personnel Status screen, which shows any possible
prisoners you’ve captured for ransom using the rules from the AtB Rules Document, and the Assign
Kills screen, which allows you to note who got which kill in the game. Finally we come to the Preview
screen, which allows you to fill out an After Action Report for fluff purposes, but for most AtB
campaigns, is likely redundant. If you lost the battle, this will be marked as a defeat.

With that, you’ve successfully (or not) completed your first Against the Bot engagement!

F: Repairs and Customization

Your 'Mechs have a surprising amount of durability, but every battle is going to wear them down. Here
I’ll cover how to perform repairs and go over the types of customization possible.

F1: Location, Location, Location

After combat, your surviving 'Mechs will be placed back on to the roster with whatever battle damage
they received. Depending on the contract type, these 'Mechs will be in one of three sites: In the Field,
Field Workshop or Transport Bay. These sites have variable difficulties, with Transport Bay having no
difficulties, while Field Workshop and In the Field have a +1 and +2 difficulty modifier for repairs done
in those locations. Assuming you own your own DropShip or are on Cadre Duty or similar, I would
recommend that you set all of your ‘Mechs as being in a Transport Bay, while those without a
DropShip would likely be at a Field Workshop. Maintenance Facilities and Factories should be all but
unattainable unless your units is actually posted to a world with a factory or a Mercenary Hiring Hall.

F2: Repair types and difficulties

In my estimation, there are four types of repairs or replacements. These are, in order of least to most
difficult: Reloads, Armor, Component and Structural. Reloads are standardized at 15 minutes, and are
an automatic success, while Armor repairs are 5 minutes per point lost. Component repairs vary by
the component damaged, and Structural repairs differ based on how much of the location was
damaged.

Aside from those, you can also Salvage a damaged unit by right clicking the unit in question in the
Repair Bay tab. This option allows you to remove parts that cannot be repaired so that they can be
replaced. Salvaging components out of a location is the only means of replacing a critically damaged
location. Additionally, if a limb takes a Shoulder or Hip actuator hit, those locations have to be
emptied of all components then scrapped by right clicking the item and selecting Scrap component, as
these actuators can’t be repaired, and can only be replaced by replacing the entire limb.

F3: Extra Time and Overtime

In the process of repairs, you may run into a repair that need more time than your technician normally
has allotted. There are two methods of gaining that extra time. One option is to turn on the Allow
Overtime option next to the Advance Day button. This adds an additional 240 Minutes to a
Technician’s work day, but using that time imposes an additional difficulty modifier to repair checks.
The other option is to change a repair to use Extra Time. By right clicking on the component needing
repair, you can go from x1 to x4 the amount of time needed to perform repairs. This lowers the TN for
the repair at the expense of a tech being focused solely on that repair.

F4: Refits and Custom Builds

Last on our tour of repairs and fiddling with BattleMechs are two ways to change your ‘Mech’s
loadout. Both options are accessed by right clicking the unit in question and selecting the Customize
option. A refit kit is a standardized rebuild into any existing variant of the same chassis, which can get
unwieldy if you eventually develop a full list of custom designs. The other option is to tinker with the
design with MekHQ’s built in MekLab which gives you the full by the minute breakdown of what your
changes will cost in parts and time.
G: Contract Completion
The day has finally arrived, and your grueling death march into bankruptcy is over. It’s the last day of
your contract, and you have a positive score. What do you do now?

G1: Riding Off Into the Sunset (Victory optional)

To complete a contract, either for defeat (through special conditions like losing a Base Defense
scenario, or having a negative contract score) or victory, you have to select the Complete Mission
button on the Briefing Room screen.

Unless your contract is extended through an Emergency Clause, that’s it. Victory (or defeat) is yours!
Pat yourself on the back, and marvel over the fat stack of cash you earned or burned, and move on to
bloodier pastures.

G2: The Next Contract

What to do for your next contract? Well, in canon, after every contract, many mercenaries return to
Outreach or Galatea to get new contracts and hobnob with the rest of their kind as well get technical
expertise and training from the Wolf’s Dragoons (On Outreach). Unless you’re looking for a REAL LIVE
BATTLETECH MERCENARY EXPERIENCE, skip all that and just launch your next contract from the
Contract Market. Though if you’re looking for refit savings from being in a Maintenance Facility or
Factory, then you might want to hoof it back to Outreach or Galatea.
H: Creating a Mercenary Unit for AtB (Legacy Guide)
Prior to version 49.7 of MekHQ, this was the primary means of adding personnel, funds and
materiel to a campaign. As the Company Generation Tool in Section C is still in development, this
section will remain in the guide as a backup resource and for those players who would prefer to
complete these steps themselves.

For this section, I’m going to use elements from my own Against the Bot Generator found in the
Resources section of this guide. Keep this handy while you read the guide if you have any questions.
Once you have access to Field Manual: Mercenaries Revised and/or Campaign Operations, I’d
recommend you create a unit or two using those rules to understand how they work.

H1: The Command Center

Before adding any forces and units, I want to go over the basic screen you’ll see every time you launch
your saved game with MekHQ. The Command Center tab has the Daily Activity Log showing Market
updates, Maintenance checks, Repairs, and Procurement checks on the left. In the middle is the Basic
Unit Information pane, with the Procurement Information section below that. On the right are a
variety of report buttons that were previously on the Overview tab in older versions.

H2: Starter Funds and Unit Size

Per the Generator, every unit starts with a 5 million C-bill slush fund, a Commander, and does not have
to pay for initial units or pilots. A quick roll of a single D6 gives me a 4, which equates to 2 Lances of
units on the Starting Size table. For simplicity, I’ve forgone checking what type of unit each lance is,
and decided on 2 ‘Mech lances which equates to 8 ‘Mechs. If using the Campaign Operations or Field
Manual: Mercenaries Revised rules, then those sourcebooks have the materials needed to fully
generate a force. Before going any further, make sure to turn on GM Mode at the top right. Next,
briefly jump over to the Finances tab and hit Add Funds (GM). Next, change the drop down menu
from Miscellaneous to Starting Capital and enter in the starting 5 Million C-Bills, as below. The
Finances tab will be covered more in depth in a later section, but for now, let’s go to adding Pilots.

H3: Pilot Creation

Let’s start adding pilots at this point. I generally prefer to start with the Commander of the unit. To add
or outright hire a MechWarrior (or any other role), first click the Marketplace drop down menu and
select Hire. From here, you can select any available job to hire for.

Now that I’ve selected for a MechWarrior, a screen will pop up as below. For a Commander, this pilot
has pretty good stats, and already has a rank in Tactics.
In this sub menu are several options. Since we have GM Mode on, we can choose to Regenerate the
character or you can select Edit Statistics allowing you to tweak information about the character.
There is also a drop down menu to change our soldier’s rank. For now, let’s just change the rank for
our Commander to Captain, and hit Add (GM). This will hire the pilot without charging the hiring cost.
A new pilot will be generated automatically, and I’m going to set this pilot as a Lieutenant SG to be the
unit’s executive officer and the leader of the second lance. After that, generate 6 more pilots and
assign them to the rank of sergeant, making sure to set that rank drop down each time. Remember to
hit Add (GM) to avoid paying the hiring cost! If you want to make changes to any of the pilots you hire,
the Edit Statistics screen allows you to alter the character’s age, Origin Faction, Callsign, Skills and
Special Abilities.

H4: Non combatant requirements

Now that we have combat personnel for our unit, we need to hire the support personnel to keep them
functional. Every BattleMech in your force should ideally have its own Mech Tech, so for this example,
I’ll repeat the previous step using Mech Tech in place of Mechwarrior and use Add (GM) to augment
my force with 8 Mech Techs. I generally prefer to hire my Technicians as corporals, with a sergeant as
their nominal NCO.

Next, we’ll need to hire medical personnel. Generally, I prefer to hire only a single doctor per company
of combat units. If your unit employs vehicles or infantry, you’re more likely going to want as many as
three or four per company, but for this example, we’ll stick with just one Doctor. As before, we’ll use
the Hire screen for this, making our Doctor a Lieutenant JG.

After hiring both Mech Techs and a Doctor, we now need to give them the support teams required by
rules, consisting of Astechs and Medics respectively. Now, you can hire every member of these teams
individually, but to bring every team to strength, you need 6 Astechs per Technician of any specialty,
and 4 medics per Doctor. That’s going to bloat up your personnel roster pretty quickly. For simplicity’s
sake, on the Marketplace drop down menu are two submenus for the Astech Pool and Medic Pool. In
both of these options are an option to Bring all the Teams to Full Strength. Go ahead and select that,
and just be aware that each time you hire a Technician or Doctor that the pool is not automatically
increased.
Finally for noncombat personnel, we need to hire Administrators. Campaign Operations and MekHQ
differ on the totals of Administrators needed, so we’ll split the difference and just go with 2 of each of
the four types, set to Sergeants.

H5: Generating ‘Mech roster

Now that we have the people, we need the hardware. There are two methods to quickly generate a
set of units for your MekHQ campaign to use. The first is built into the game itself, under the Manage
Campaign drop down menu. Clicking on Show GM Tools Dialog will bring a dialog containing a Die
Roller and a RAT Roller.

This RAT Roller has a few issues. For one thing, it can only generate one unit at a time, and even then,
it can only generate a unit that you can’t actually review to see what its loadout is without having
another instance of MekHQ or a record sheet open.

The other option available to you as a player is one that BattleTech has used for a long time, namely
rolling on the Random Allocation Tables yourself and going from there. Any RAT will do, though I’m
partial to Xotl’s Random Assignment & Rarity Tables (found in Resources as well) for a quick AtB
force, since it covers a fairly large swathe of time at a glance. Other RATs are found in official products
such as various Field Manuals, Total Warfare, and assorted Historicals. For now though, I’m going to
use Xotl’s tables for canon units only, and generate 8 ‘Mechs, 2 of them Heavy, 4 Mediums and 2
Lights.

Once your 'Mechs are selected, you’ve got to add them to your force. Since this guide assumes you’re
using the AtB Generator these initial 8 'Mechs are added for free. To do that, hit the Marketplace
button, then Purchase Unit, as at the top of the next page.
This will then bring up the Choose Unit window. My first rolled Mech is a Caesar CES-3R. It’s available
for purchase on a Target Number of 6+, but since this is a founding unit, we’ll just hit Add (GM). Do
this for the rest of your 'Mechs, as adding a unit in this fashion does not close the window.
H6: Assign Pilots and Techs to 'Mechs, 'Mechs to Forces
Now that we have our 8 'Mechs, we need to assign our pilots and technicians to them. Let’s start with
the Mech pilots, then move on to Techs. Head over to the Personnel tab and change the Personnel
Type to Combat Personnel to narrow down to just our MechWarriors. Next, right click your intended
pilot and select the Assign to Unit and As Pilot options, finally selecting the unit you want your pilot to
be in, as in the image below.

Technicians are assigned in the exact same manner, just make sure to swap to Support Personnel.
Finally in this section, we’re on to adding our newly crewed 'Mechs to forces. The TO&E Tab contains a
visual breakdown of the full organization of combat units in the unit. Just adding all 8 'Mechs to this
top level of the organization is untidy, and also makes it difficult to alternate forces in combat. Plus
once you start growing as a force it becomes unwieldy. To that end, we’re going to add some Sub
Forces. First, right click the My Campaign force, pictured below, and review your options. Here you
can change the force’s name and description, as well as add a Sub-Force among other options.

I’ve already changed the top level force’s name, so now I’m going to add a sub force called “Command
Lance.” After adding that sub-force, double click on the top level one to reveal its sub-force. Next, as
before right click the Command Lance, and now hit Add Unit, then Mek, and as I’ve done below,
Heavy and finally select our first mech, the Caesar. I’m going to do this for 3 more 'Mechs, then create
another sub-force called “Strike Lance” and add the remaining 4 'Mechs, with the Lieutenant first.

You can experiment with changing for Force Icons to create ones that more closely match Strategic
Operations force icons, but that’s somewhat beyond the scope of this section. For now, we have an
effective force of two lances, ready for contracts.

H7: The Warehouse

Now that our TO&E is arranged, we need to worry about the Warehouse and its contents of supplies
for repairs and reloads. Under Campaign Operations, these parts are paid for, but for simplicity’s sake
your first time through the program, it might be easier to do a somewhat cheat option and go ahead
and add 10 tons of armor, split between any armor types you use, so in my case 5 tons of Ferro
Fibrous and 5 of standard armor. Next, two tons of ammunition for all weapons used by the unit. This
gives you a little bit of leeway on ammunition and armor, but the rest you’ll need to purchase yourself.

H8: Finances
Now that we’ve got armor and munitions squared away, it’s on to Finances. For now, the only Finance
record the unit has is our Starting Capital of 5 Million C-Bills. Once we get going however, it’s possible
to end up in a position where the unit will need a loan to stay afloat. To do so on the Finances tab,
there is a Get Loan button. I wouldn’t recommend starting the game with a loan unless you’re sure
you can pay it off and quickly. I’ve never needed to take a loan for anything either in AtB or in real life,
so I can’t really give advice on how this process works beyond keeping ahead of your payments.

Section 3: Extras
I: Additional Items
In this section, I’ve placed rules and items that don’t really fit within the wider guide, but can be
incredibly helpful for players as a resource. This can be added to in the future, so updates are always
possible.

I1: Planetary Conquest (Removed)

This feature was possible only in prior versions of MekHQ, and is left in for completeness.

It’s possible to change the faction ownership of planets beyond what canon dictates. If you feel like
you want to alter the timeline through your AtB campaign’s actions, here’s how. Firstly, I recommend
that you limit these types of changes to Planetary Assault mission types, otherwise every smash and
grab raid would change the flag flying overhead. To make these changes, we’ll need to go to the
Interstellar Map tab. Enter in the planet whose ownership you want to change, and right click it. Next,
mouse down to the GM Mode option, and select Edit planetary events for [Planet] as in the image
below.
Once you do so, the Edit Planetary History window will open. To change who owns the planet, click
the Faction List button in the center of its line, like the below image, and choose whichever faction
you like. It’s time for ComStar to bring enlightenment to the people of New Avalon, I think.

Once you’ve selected the Faction you want to take control, just click the Save button and bask in the
glory.

I2: Custom Quirk Rules

With the release of the BattleMech Manual and the TRO: 3145 series, most, if not all BattleMech
chassis now have quirks assigned to them for use. There are some examples currently not yet
implemented in MegaMek, but present currently (These are Barrel Fist, Directional Torso Mount, Fine
Manipulators, Good Reputation, Nimble Jumper, Rugged, Ubiquitous and Slow Traverse). MegaMek
has now added the majority of the Quirks from these sources to their applicable units.

However, if you want to apply quirks that design does not normally have, such as Combat Computer
or Improved Targeting, there aren’t really any rules in Strategic Operations for adding them beyond
point balancing, which can be hard to make sense of, since you’re unlikely to want negative quirks. To
that end, I have a dual C-Bill/Tech check method that allows for quirks to be added to designs. This
section is still in development, so it may change between versions.

First, you’ll need to pay a C-Bill cost for the modification. For individual weapon quirks (these are
Accurate Weapon, Fast Reload, Improved Cooling Jacket, and Jettison-Capable Weapon), the cost is
50,000 C-Bills per point of damage the weapon deals, with a modifier of 1.5x for Clan components.
This would be expressed as (50,000 x Weapon Damage). For example, if you wanted to add both
Accurate Weapon and Improved Cooling Jacket to a Medium Laser (5 damage), both Quirk
modifications would cost 250,000 C-bills apiece, for a total of 500,000-C-Bills. The same modifications
to a Clan ER Medium Laser (7 damage) would be 525,000 C-Bills apiece, for a total of 1,050,000 C-Bills.

If you wish, for whatever reason, to make C-bill costs for modifications more expensive, you can add a
multiplier that increases the C-Bill cost per quirk. So the first quirk would be at 1x, while the second
would be 2x and so on.

After paying the C-Bill cost, you’ll next need to make an associated Tech roll. If you’re working on a
’Mech, this would be the ’Mech Tech skill. A Vehicle would need a Vehicle Tech roll and so on. This roll
is made at the Tech’s skill + 4, with an additional modifier of +2 for Clan technology. Using a Veteran
Tech with 5+ skill to modify the Medium Laser from earlier, they would need to roll a 9 (5+4) or better
to successfully complete the modification. If the same tech was working on a Clan ER Medium Laser,
they would to instead roll an 11 (5+4+2) or better.

The rules for adding chassis wide Quirks follow the same rules, though their costs are different. These
costs are listed below:

Anti-Aircraft Targeting: 4 million C-Bills

Barrel Fist: 1.5 Million C-Bills per limb modified

Battle Computer: 6 Million C-Bills

Battle Fists: 3 Million C-Bills

Combat Computer: 8 Million C-Bills

Cowl: 3.5 Million C-Bills

Directional Torso Mount: 6 Million C-Bills

Distracting: 1 Million C-Bills

Extended Torso Twist: 5 Million C-Bills

Fine Manipulators: 1 Million C-Bills

Hyper Extending Actuators: 2 Million C-Bills

Improved Communications: 2.5 Million C-Bills

Improved Life Support: 2 Million C-Bills

Improved Sensors: 3 Million C-Bills

Improved Targeting: 6, 8, and 10 million C-Bills per range band for Short, Medium and Long

Multi-Trac: 4 Million C-Bills

Protected Actuators: 3 Million C-Bills

Rumble Seat: 500,000 C-Bills

Searchlight: 50,000 C-Bills

Stabilized Weapons: 2.5 Million per weapon, or 10 million per limb

Variable Range Targeting: 5 Million C-Bills

Vestigial Hands: 500,000 C-Bills

Omitted from this list are some quirks that cannot be purchased for a Chassis, and are intrinsic to their
design. These quirks are:

Command Mech

Compact Mech

Easy to Maintain

Easy to Pilot

Good Reputation

Modular Weapons

Narrow/Low Profile

Nimble Jumper

Overhead Arms

Reinforced Legs

Rugged

Ubiquitous

Unfortunately, it’s possible to fail a Quirk Modification roll. In the event of such a thing happening, the
weapon or chassis immediately gains 1 negative quirk that cannot be removed. For Weapon
modifications, roll 1d6 and consult the following list:

1: Inaccurate Weapon

2: Exposed Weapon Linkage

3: EM Interference

4: Poor Cooling Jacket

5: No Cooling Jacket

6: Nonfunctional

Regardless of the roll, you can spend a point of Edge (if the Tech has any), to reduce the roll by 1.

For Chassis Modifications, the failed modification is more complex, though some have an obvious 1-1
connection.

Anti-Aircraft Targeting and Battle Computer: Sensor Ghosts. Additionally, AA Targeting may also suffer
the effects of Poor Targeting, as detailed below.

Combat Computer: Cooling System Flaws

Cowl: Cramped Cockpit, Difficult Ejection, No Ejection System, Poor Life Support and Weak Head
Armor. Roll 1d6, using Cramped Cockpit as 1 and No Ejection System as 6.

Extended Torso Twist: Roll 1d6. On 5-6, apply No Torso Twist.

Fast Reload: Ammunition Feed Problem and Static Ammo Feed. Flip a coin, and apply heads or tails.

Improved Targeting and Variable Range Targeting: Apply Poor Targeting to the appropriate range
band, or roll 1d6 and divide by three for Variable Range Targeting, with (1-2) applying to short range,
(3-4) to Medium and (5-6) to Long.

Reinforced Actuators: Weak Actuators or Hard to Pilot

Some Negative Quirks are, like their positive counterparts, intrinsic to the design itself. These are:

Bad Reputation

Illegal Design

Non-Standard Parts

Obsolete

Oversized

Prototype

Weak Legs
I3: Resources
Due to BattleTech’s age and MegaMek’s popularity, a number of fan resources have come about to
give players more tools to use for their games. In this section, I’ll go over a variety of useful resources
for Against the Bot, from others as well as myself.

Xotl’s 3028-3057 Random Assignment & Rarity Tables

This is an incredibly handy RAT for generating forces for the earlier periods of play, giving you forces
that are fairly well grounded in canon sources for Mech distribution for play in the Star League,
Succession Wars and Early Clan Invasion eras.

These tables can be found in a single source at the following Official BattleTech forums link, which has
a further link to Xotl’s dropbox page:

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/general-discussion/3025-3050-random-assignment-rarity-tables-
11-jan-v9-1/

Not-Entirely-Anon’s Portrait Pack

A fairly prolific contributor to /btg/ among other places in the wider BattleTech community, NEA has
graciously allowed a link to his portrait pack to be included in this guide.

www.mediafire.com/file/c181wsgm6r8y6it/portraits.rar

Anon’s Portrait Pack

Another portrait pack made available to /btg/, this pack does contain copies of the original portraits
already in MekHQ. For now, this pack will be left in the guide unless the creator comes forward and
asks me to remove it.

https://mega.nz/#F!W8k3DADS!DZspXeSMrzP2fqALvBclSw

MegaMek’s Official Resources

Located at the bottom of the official downloads page are a number of camouflage schemes, portrait
packs and links to more of the same.

https://megamek.org/downloads
CampaignAnon’s Against the Bot Generator

A fairly quick and dirty way to generate a force for AtB if I’m not in the mood to go through the proper
steps of generating a mercenary unit through FMMr or CamOps.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/kjdgd3rf8xi2oje/Against_the_Bot_Generator.png/file

CampaignAnon’s Customs

I make and play with a LOT of custom designs. Some of them are fairly sane, other involve things like
creating 40+ configurations of the Perseus OmniMech. I’ve also requested quite a few customs from
players I faced off against in the old MekWars leagues from years ago. I’m making a portion of my
customs available here as a resource because I already do so for /btg/ events.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xt7l5y1qp062ehx/CampaignAnon%2527s_Customs.7z/file