Thanks!
I mostly GM PbP (Play-by-Post) games (now on Discord) because I lack the opportunity to play in-person, except for very occasionally. I have two or three games ongoing at a given time. Like everyone, I have my strengths and weaknesses; don’t think too highly of me without having played with me. xD
Bahaha I’m sure you’re hard on yourself. You could make a crap ton of money on startplaying.com tho. Not many dms running Star Wars games on there.
It’s “startplaying,games,” actually. The link you posted is harmless, but be careful about accidentally linking.
Oh, I’m not nearly good enough at actual live RP, mainly due to a lack of practice. If it was text-based, sure, but I can’t do liveplay to a quality people would want to pay for. Thanks for the suggestion though! For now, I’m happy helping people for free. :)
Mr.P47 in your opinion if you were the leader of a small mercenary company with a couple million credits how would you comprise your small (army/navy)?
Ooo, that’s a fun question. I’m going to look at three scenarios:
In all of these scenarios, I’m assuming the enemy poses a serious threat—well-armed criminals or insurgents up to professionally-trained military.
First, and this will have to be a series, I’ll look at an anti-piracy company:
Etheria’s Revenge: Founded by a wealthy executive whose beloved wife was killed in a pirate attack on a luxury passenger liner.
To combat pirates, you need fast, heavily-armed warships with plenty of passenger space and ideally some ion cannons. You can skimp on heavy personal-scale weaponry, but you need to make sure you have good, sealable armor. Cargo capacity is a nice-to-have, but ideally, you’ll be capturing the pirates’ warships. For this, you’ll also want crew with experience on spaceships so that they can act as prize crews.
With 2,000,000 credits of start-up capital, we’ll invest in two 4R3 Light Assault Transports (-600,000) and a C-ROC Gozanti (-190,000). Combined, that gives us space for 52 passengers and requires 22 crew. Further, we’ll invest in modifying the Gozanti to carry a pair of G-1A Heavy Starfighters (-260,000). Factor in 10,000 for the modifications, and we’re at 1,060,000.
Attachments: 6,000 for Assault Boarding Tubes for both G-1As, 4,500 (after trade-in) for 2x Medium Ion Cannons for the C-ROC (replacing Heavy Laser Cannons), 16,500 (after trade-in) for 2x Light Turbolasers for the C-ROC (replacing Heavy Laser Cannons), 4,200 for a Tactical Command, Control, and Communications Suite for the C-ROC, 10,600 for High Output Ion Turbines for both 4R3s.
That’s 41,800, bringing us to 1,101,800.
With this setup, the C-ROC serves as the flagship for the company. It carries the crews for the G1-As (4), plus two waves of their boarding parties (12), and support personnel (4; 2x armorer, doctor and doctor’s assistant). The 4R3s each carry two squads (8+8=16), combining for a full platoon. This gives a total of 44 combat personnel, 26 crew, and 4 support personnel—74 personnel.
In combat, the C-ROC provides long-range support to soften up or disable targets while the 4R3s and G-1A’s speed in to launch a boarding operation. From the C&C suite, the company commander directs the battle and coordinates the space battle and boarding operations.
Now we have a budget of 898,200 to outfit the rest of the crew. Beyond equipping everyone, we’ll budget for a 25% reserve stock of armor and weapons, and a 200% reserve stock of consumables (energy cells, grenades, etc.).
We’ll equip the G-1A boarding teams as special forces, giving them better equipment and assuming a higher degree of training, as well as anticipating slightly different mission profiles.
x12 Heavy Battle Armor (60,000)
x12 Squad Tactical Systems (24,000)
x12 Enhanced Optics Suite (21,000)
x12 Integrated Comlink (2,400)
x12 Vacuum Sealed (12,000)
x4 VES-700 Pulse Rifle (3,800)
x4 EE-3 Blaster Rifle (6,000)
x4 Blaster Rifle (4x Integrated Scanner) (6,300)
x12 Vibro-Bayonet (3,600)
x12 Forearm Grip (3,000)
x12 “Renegade” Heavy Blaster Pistol (11,400)
x12 SoroSuub CS-12 Stun Master (6,900)
x12 Vibro-Knife (3,000)
Weapons and armor: 163,400+25%=204,450
x24 Extra Reload (600)
x4 Emergency Medpac (400)
x24 Stimpack (600)
x12 Stun Grenades (900)
Consumables: 2,500+200%=7,500
Total: 211,950
For the normal squads, we’ll go a bit lighter. They’re attacking in force. We’ll split each squad into two fire teams, a shock team and a support unit. One of the soldiers in the support unit is a designated medic, one is a comms specialist, one is technically-certified, and the last is the sergeant. The shock unit will be armed with scatterblasters and high stopping-power carbines, all with bayonets.
x32 Laminate Armor (80,000)
x32 Vacuum Sealed (32,000)
x32 Comlink (6,400)
x8 VES-700 Pulse Rifle (7,600)
x24 Blaster Carbine (20,400)
x16 Bayonet (12,800)
x16 Forearm Grip (4,000)
x32 Integrated Illuminator (6,400)
x32 Blaster Pistol (12,800)
x32 Combat Knife (800)
x4 Tool Kit (1,400)
x4 ShockHold Hardened Comlink (1,800)
Weapons and armor: 186,400+25%=233,000
x32 Extra Reload (800)
x44 Stimpack (1,100)
x8 Emergency Medpac (800)
x4 Medpac (1,600)
x16 Stun Grenade (1,200)
Consumables: 5,500+200%=16,500
Total: 249,500
Substitute weapons:
x16 “Subduer-9” Riot Blasters (20,000)
x16 Force Pike (8,000)
Total: 28,000+25%=35,000
Uniforms: We’ll budget 300 per person (74) for non-armor uniforms: 22,200
That leaves 26 crew and 4 support personnel to equip.
x2 Bacta (Tank) (8,000) [I just realized Bacta (Tank) refers to Bacta volume, not the tank itself.]
x2 Bacta Tank (24,000) [ballparking the hardware cost]
x1 2-1B Medical Droid (12,000)
x1 Miscellaneous medical supplies (1,000)
x1 Miscellaneous technical equipment (5,000)
x1 Miscellaneous security equipment (1,000)
x40 Datapad (3,000)
x74 Spacesuit (74,000)
x32 Blaster Pistol (12,800)
Total: 140,800
Total personnel equipping costs: 659,450
Total vehicle costs: 1,101,800
Total expenditures: 1,761,250
Remaining capital: 238,750
The remaining capital gives us enough cashflow to pay our crew for the first while (~3,200 per crewmember) or invest in a freighter and crew to accompany the group and take on prisoners, rescuees, and cargo.
I had a lot of fun with this, and stayed up way too long. I’ll take a crack at the other scenarios later. What do you think of this one?
Wow you did some serious heavy lifting on this one P-47. Love it. That was well done. That would have taken me a month to come up with lol😂that was really comprehensive.
The one thing I forgot was carrying equipment. x42 Load-Bearing Gear (4,200), x42 Utility Belt (1,050), and x12 Backpack (600). 5,850+25%=7,312.5 (rounded to 7,315)
Remaining capital: 231,435
Going to take a great part of this and try and implement it into our game, youre the man. 
Our crew has a heavily modified -YT-2400BT
But I can’t help feeling like we need atleast a contingent of starships to compliment our small navy. Due to the pain in the butt variant game of Swrpg we play and how incredibly expensive cruisers and modifying hangers into our current fleet is. Any way you can think of that could circumvent that? Or possibly a competent starship or smaller bombers That won’t break the bank? As always thanks for all your time and advice.
I take it you mean starfighter?
I have no frame of reference for the Orphan Maker, so can’t make any comment on that.
If you want starfighters, you need a carrier/mothership, even if they have hyperdrives. If you intend to live in space, your pilots can’t live in their fighters. If you can’t build in a hangar, you need fighters that can conceivably mate to a docking tube for crew transfer.
The Skipray Blastboat is a bomber that ought to work for you. It’s expensive, though. The G-1A is a good multi-role option and has plenty of room for customization. Also expensive. M12-L Kimogila. Also expensive. All three are multi-role, seem to have access compatible with a docking tube, and the first two can carry up to five people (crew+passengers).
If you invest in something that can act as a carrier (modified Wayfarer, for example), then you have a lot more options. The Y-Wing is a solid option, robust and well-armed. The Z-95, R-41, and R-60 are all good snubfighter options, and cheap. They each carry missile tubes, which add to your punch. The Z-95 is the most robust and well-rounded, but the R-41 has ion cannons and the R-60 has a two-point Speed advantage.
Bottom line, absent investing in a large starship you can turn into a carrier, the best option is to select multi-role heavy-fighters you can dock at standard docking tubes. The crews can live on the mothership and board their fighters for combat.
Some really great points I didn’t think about. I’ll have to try and implement some of the advice.
If you were a Dm in the Pre Empire Strikes Back period would you allow the purchase and use of former CIS droids and starfighters? Wonder if it was an underutilized asset or simply non existing. Trying to explore all my options to give the empire a black eye without completely breaking the bank.
Vultures/Hyenas? Absolutely. They would have been issued the shutdown order, but any that weren’t scrapped (battle salvage, private owners, mothballed fleets, etc.) could be salvaged and reactivated either with revised programming or as remote-operated drones. It’s entirely up to the GM to figure out availability, price, etc. I’ve previously run a campaign where the players were able to salvage/reactivate a few Vultures from the hulk of a Recusant.
Same goes for infantry droids, for which we see multitudinous examples.
Second, galaxy-trotting soldiers of fortune:
Zel’s Outfit: Betrayed by her mercenary company and left for dead, she was saved by a Jedi and an ARC trooper, of all people. They traveled together as mercenaries for more than a decade, but when the ARC trooper wanted to start a rebel cell, she disagreed vehemently. The Jedi abandoned them both, and they split up. She started her own mercenary group and met with enough initial success to attract the attention of an investor with deep pockets.
To trot around the galaxy, we’ll need armed transports with plenty of passenger, cargo, and vehicle space. We can skimp on some heavier vehicle-scale weaponry, but we’ll be forced to skimp on ground-support vehicles due to the difficulty of carrying and deploying them. Once on the ground, you’ll need vehicles for scouting, transportation, and combat. Bikes are easy enough, but tanks will be very hard to transport and justify.
With 2,000,000 credits of start-up capital, we’ll invest in two Mobquet Medium Transports (240,000) and two Caisson-Class Engineering Troop Carriers (380,000) for use as assault carriers and vehicle transports. Combined, the Mobquet transports give us 10,000 cargo capacity and 180 passenger capacity, and require 8 crew. The Caisson each have space for one vehicle, 40 passengers, and 100 encumbrance, while requiring 3 crew. There does not appear to be living space for the passengers, so we have to store the troops on the Mobquet transports and embark them onto the troop carriers for ground assaults.
Attachments: 50,000 for Retrofitted Hangar Bays for both Mobquet Medium Transports, 12,800 for Hyperdrive Generators for both Caisson-Class Engineering Troop Carriers (bringing them up to the Mobquet’s class 2).
With this setup, the medium transports serve as the homes and bases of operations for the mercenary company, while the troop carriers provide combat-landing capability to gain an initial foothold. Once they have a secure site, the vulnerable medium transports can land to disembark the remaining vehicles and reserve troops.
In total, that’s 682,800 credits for the ships and modifications.
Now to build the ground forces. First, we need a complement of vehicles. Again, that’s scout bikes, transports, and tanks. I’m going to credit the Mobquets with the ability to carry multiple scout bikes aside from their retrofitted hangar capacity. We’ll say each can carry twelve, for 24. A Caisson can probably carry four speeder bikes in lieu of a silhouette 3 vehicle. Additionally, we have two hangars, each with 5 total silhouette capacity. If we max out the storage, we can fit four total silhouette 3 vehicles, one in each ship, plus a silhouette 2 vehicle in each Mobquet.
Vehicles:
x6 Superflare, Modified Flare-S Swoop (57,000) (4+2 spares)
x18 74-Z Speeder Bikes (54,000) (12+6 spares)
x2 WLO-5 Light Speeder Tank (Sil 3) (230,000)
x2 Trast A-A5 Heavy Speeder Truck (Sil 3) (20,000)
x2 Sunrunner ZX Landspeeder (Sil 2) (17,000)
Attachments: Enhanced Repulsorlift for the A-A5s (6,000), Autoblaster for the A-A5s (6,000), Missile Pack for the A-A5s (20,000), Missile Pack for the WLO-5s (20,000). Each full missile pack includes 10 unguided rockets, for 12,000 total per refill. +200%=36,000 cr.
In total, that’s 466,000 credits for the ground vehicles and modifications.
1,148,800 has been spent on vehicles, before worrying about ammo and equipping personnel.
That leaves us a budget of 809,200 to outfit the crew and soldiers. First step is to organize our units. We have a total of 14 crew, and then space for up to 180 passengers, with a maximum of 80 per wave (not counting vehicle crews).
We’ll split the force into two companies, each with two platoons. Each platoon will be four squads of nine men, including a sergeant, and a headquarters element of a lieutenant, comms operator, and medic. That’s 39 men per platoon, allowing room for a Captain and aide (80 men per company). Of the four squads, three will have a designated marksman and a squad machine gunner, and the fourth will be a specialist squad of missile launchers, repeating blasters, or scout snipers.
On top of that, the tanks, trucks, and speeders have their own crews (3x2, 3x2, and 2x2, respectively). Totaled up, we’re looking at 14 ship crew, 16 tankers, and 160 soldiers, leaving only just enough room for the leader and her staff.
Overstock set to 25% for non-consumables and 200% for consumables.
x160 Padded Armor (all infantry) (80,000)
x16 Blast Vest (all tankers) (3,200)
x174 Combat Knife (4,350)
x156 Entrenching Tools (3,120)
=90,670
Company HQ:
x2 Blaster Pistol (800)
x1 TacNet (1,000)
x2 Electrobinoculars (500)
x1 Shockhold Hardened Comlink (450)
=2,750
Platoon HQ:
x6 DR-45 Dragoon (11,400)
x2 ShockHold Hardened Comlink (900)
x2 Electrobinoculars (500)
=12,800
Consumables:
x6 Extra Reload (150)
x12 Stimpack (300)
x2 Medpac (400)
Typical squads:
x84 Blaster Rifle (75,600)
x12 Under-Barrel Grenade Launcher (24,000)
x12 M-300 Hunting Blaster (Telescopic Optical Sight) (22,200)
x12 Light Repeating Blaster (Weapon Sling, Bipod) (29,400)
x12 3-MAL Secure Comlink (3,000)
x96 Comlink armor attachment (19,200)
x12 Macrobinoculars (225)
=173,625
Consumables:
x132 Frag Grenade (6,600)
x108 Extra Reload (2,700)
x108 Stimpack (2,700)
x24 Emergency Medpac (2,400)
=14,400
Missile squad:
x5 Blaster Rifle (4,500)
x4 DR-45 Dragoon (3,800)
x2 Missile Tube (7,500) (Note: 2 spare/reserve Missile Tubes, immune from +25%)
x1 3-MAL Secure Comlink (250)
x3 Macrobinoculars (225)
=8,775 (+30,000)
Consumables:
x9 Frag Grenade (450)
x9 Extra Reload (225)
x9 Stimpack (225)
x2 Emergency Medpac (200)
x2 Missile Tube Ammo Rack (1,000)
x12 Fragmentation Missile (900)
x6 Plasma Missile (960)
=3,960
Heavy repeating blaster squad:
x3 Heavy Repeating Blaster (18,000)
x9 DR-45 Dragoon (17,100)
x1 3-MAL Secure Comlink (250)
x3 Macrobinoculars (225)
=35,575
Consumables:
x9 Frag Grenade (450)
x9 Extra Reload (225)
x9 Stimpack (225)
x2 Emergency Medpac (200)
=1,100
Scout Sniper squad:
x6 MR-90 Proton Rifle (18,600)
x6 Bipod Mount (600)
x12 M-300 Blaster Rifle (19,200)
x18 Telescopic Optical Sight (4,500)
x9 Blaster Pistol (3,600)
x1 3-MAL Secure Comlink (250)
x6 Electrobinoculars (1,500)
=48,250
Consumables:
x9 Frag Grenade (450)
x9 Extra Reload (225)
x18 Stimpack (450)
x3 Emergency Medpac (300)
=1,425
Tankers:
x16 DR-45 Dragoon (30,400)
x6 Tool Kit (2,100)
x6 Macrobinoculars (450)
=32,950
Consumables:
x6 Medpac (2,400)
Ship crew:
x2 2-1B Medical Droids (24,000)
x2 Bacta (Tank) (8,000)
x2 Bacta Tanks (24,000)
x1 Miscellaneous medical supplies (2,000)
x1 Miscellaneous technical equipment (10,000)
x1 Miscellaneous security equipment (1,000)
x20 Datapad (1,500)
x14 Spacesuit (14,000)
x14 Blaster Pistol (5,600)
=90,100
Uniforms: We’ll budget 300 per person (190) for non-armor uniforms: 57,000
Total non-consumable: 552,495+25%+30,000=720,648.75
Total consumable: 24,135+200%=72,405
Total personnel equipping costs: 793,043.75
Total vehicle costs: 1,148,800
Total expenditures: 1,941,843.75
You’re the man … that is so comprehensive and awesome. Love all the fine details. Definitely wanna take some of these ideas and implement them.
Our group came back to our small base of operations in tattooine to find our spaceport, medical clinic and cantina all taken possession of by the empire by a Member of the ISB. Not to mention all of our ships. We’re kind of in a pickle, take our YT-2400BT and try and blow past a Star destroyer in orbit or purchase a new ship and get out of dodge until we can come up with a new plan. 
Sounds like your plans took a hard right turn! Sounds like a fun campaign.