Not if it had two gear cards, which was what you were talking about. In that case the only way is the merc card.

D'oh! I forgot in what context we were talking about. My bad. Again, you are correct.

Good responses. I looked at alot of the Gunslingers and the Merc units (Tanks/INF). They seem to have this nasty ability of being a wild card compared to our units of WYSIWYG. I for one, eagerly await to see what we get as 2006 draws near.

Does anyone have all the gear cards listed yet as to what Class of 'Mech they can go on?

No offense but I am a Capellan at heart and "hire" Mercs to fill in tactical holes in my forces. Situation alliances with anything other than House Liao units is a NO-GO for me. I believe I saw a card where Merc units get the Liao faction symbol (and all the nifty abilities with it) for 10/150 cost. Please correct me if I am mistaken. Do Merc = Gunslingers? Are they pretty much the same just a different naming convention or do they have a different faction symbol?

I think you pay a separate recruit cost for the GS pilot, since there are differing recruit costs per faction on the GS pilot card. I'm not too sure, but that's how I look at it.

Ixnaydude

I still don't know if this is clear enough. But this thread has some information on this subject.

http://www.mwrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50071

It looks like one can get around the GS recruit cost by playing the Merc contract card.

Ixnaydude

@CrakRabbit: I think Gunslingers are all Merc's, but not all Merc's are gunslingers. There is some debate on whether a GS can be recruited to a faction (gaining the faction symbol) via Merc contract cards.

If you use the contract card, all units without a faction symbol gain that faction symbol. Now, if you have a GS mech without a pilot, this would count (at least under my interpretation). GS pilots have a recruit cost for factions. This must be paid if placing the pilot in a mech of that faction (such as when one is piloting a SW Thunder Fox, say). If it is piloting a mech without a faction symbol, the cost can be paid to add the symbol to the mech. What is unclear is whether they would have to pay this cost on top of using the contract card, as the card 'makes a unit a member of the faction'. Seems like a waste to pay it twice.

But then, if all you want is a GS, and not infantry or vehicles, it is to your advantage to not use the contract card. The card does not count for VC2, where as if you pay to gain the faction symbol through the pilot recruit cost, that goes into the point value of the mech, and counts as VC2.

Can anyone say "loophole"??? :)

About recruiting merc and gs.

kelly answered to this in the AoD q&a in the BM forum on WK site, the link only for BM:

http://forum.wizkidsgames.com/showth...7&page=9&pp=15

For the rest:

Question: Originally Posted by biglar1976

Lets say I play with both a Gunslinger, in a factionless Mech, and a Merc contract card. Would I:

1) Be able to align my Gunslinger into any faction I wanted by paying the recruitment cost per the faction or...
2) Be forced to pay the recruitment cost for the faction accotiated with the Merc contract card because now my factionless Mech gained a faction.

Kelly answer:

The mercenary contract card allows you to forgo paying a recruitment cost if you use it. If you use a mercenary contract card you do not need to pay a gunslinger’s recruitment cost for that faction.

This is very interesting if you intend to play an assault gs with his mech as most of the pilots cost + 20 points for Liao.

Regards

@Xtatika: But the Liao Merc Contract card is costed at 10/150, as opposed to 5/150 for everyone else. In that case, it will always be cheaper to recruit the GS into the faction using his recruit cost (max 20 for assault mechs), as the Merc contract costs 30 in a 450 game.

Oh, and thanks for the rules clarification. :)

Ok my error, didn't develop enough. You can then add other merc/gs with one card. Hmmm lets say the blade and his pilot ;-) Without aditional costs.

That's the idea. I even thought on a pure merc force recruted to liao. Should be weird to play.

Regards

Look what Bannson's got this set when they were left out of the last set. Hopefully we'll get an Daishi.

Well, after much deliberation I am drastically reducing my Mechwarrior collection. As a part of that I am getting rid of almost all my Liao pieces. So if anyone on this thread is looking for Liao units check out this thread.

http://www.mwrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50191

@Xtatika: A CCAF pure force consisting of all mercs? Weird is an understatement. But then you could be playing a historical battle running a force from the MAC before it was officially absorbed in the CC.

@Castor: I don't particularly care what we get, as long as it's decent, and we get something. Maybe I'll paint my GSers (when I get some, that is), Liao colors...

@broman10: Sorry to see you go. I hope you'll keep with the game at least. If not, best of luck to you.

Why not? Well I'm totally out of the fluff so if fluffwise CCAF doesn't use that much mercs ok. But on game development, it's can simply be viewed as, the main CCAF forces are regrouping, getting a break before re-assaulting the IS. For that they have the BR and can hire Mercs.

On another note, on the survey about AoD, in the question, what could make me buy more boosters, I answered that even if a faction is left out of an extension or base-set, it would be great to at least have a unique mech+pilot. That way, there is still something to drool on :) I'm a little upset not to be able to have a customizable Liao mech to field.

Regards

@Xtatika: That's a great suggestion for factions left out of a set. I'm sure Gunslingers were there attempt at something along those lines, but they still aren't the same as a Unique mech from your desired faction. And I'm in total agreement about the customizable Liao mech...

I'm too big on the fluff myself, but Liao's Veteran regiment, the MAC, used to be a merc group that Liao used quite frequently. Eventually they were 'hired full time', and because an official part of the CCAF. From some scattered readings, it seems that Liao still keeps up the practice of using mercs whenever is convenient, so having a all merc Liao force isn't too off on the fluff. It's just weird to field a faction pure force without a member of the faction actually in it. :)