From reading some CBT novels and sourcebooks, I gather that Inner Sphere 'mechs are typically organized by the Lance (4 'mechs), Company (3 Lances), Brigade (3 Companies) and Regiment (3 Brigades). What I have not been able to find is how this system relates to vehicles and infantry, either as part of their own discrete unit or as an element of a "combined arms" system. I recognize that the different IS governments have used slightly different arrangements, so I guess there will be several answers.

At any rate, I'm hoping to put together three Regiments of Highlanders, but would like to do it "right," or at least as right as I can, given the circumstances. Thanks in advance for your help.

Fairly standard system is 4 squads of infantry to a Platoon (with a squad being 7 soldiers or 4 battle armored troopers). A Platoon is equivalent to a Lance as far as making larger units, so 3 Platoons would form an Infantry Company.

A vehicle Lance is the same as a 'Mech Lance. 4 vehicles to the Lance, and it fits into the larger units the same way.

So a combined arms Company might looks like this:

'Mech Lance (4 BattleMechs)
Armor Lance (4 tanks)
Battle Armor Platoon (12 Battle Armored soldiers)

with the possibility of a Command Lance thrown in, depending.

Of course, as you said, this can vary between Houses, and even between individual commands within a House.

It's my personal interpretation and opinion that the materiel scarcity in the Dark Age has wrought havoc with the old organizational systems of lances and stars. The new method of organization in the Dark Age would seem to be that whatever can be scrounged up and fit upon a transport is what will make up the new unit structure.

It's interesting that the same sorts of resource problems that (less hardcore) players face thanks to the collectible nature of the game are the same faced by real Dark Age fighters, namely that they don't really know what sorts of weapons are going to be dropped into their hands and they have to try organizing and making use of them as best they can, whether it follows the old lance/star pattern or not.

Basically, whatever you can fit inside the point frame you're playing with and that you think will be of some use to you on the field, go with it, even if it's grossly irregular as Succession Wars organization went.

Well, my take on things is that a "standard" game of Dark Age represents more "part" of a battle than the whole unit. So in this particular area, I have a couple of my 'mechs and one or two of my vehicle points, plus a part of or maybe a full Star of battle armor, while the rest of my force is fighting off past the "edges" of the game map. The larger the points, the more of the battle it covers, until you can get to true unit on unit matches.

Though, of course, a straight unit to unit Clan vs. IS match would be pretty unbalanced since Clan units tend to outnumber their "equivalent" IS units by a fair margin. For example, a Clan vehicle Star is 10 tanks to an IS Lance's 4. :)

Pretty close there Enforcer, but its Battalion, not brigade. There were other terms used depending on available units. A demi-company would be 6 mechs/vechiles. Understrength was usually used with Battalion and Regiments, where they would have less then the usual minimum 3 Companies/Battalions.

Once you reached Battalion level things could change based on force strength. A Battalion could be made up of anywhere from 3 to 5 companies of various types of units, and Regiments could likewise be 3 to 5 Battalions strong. At the Battalion level you often had a command lance/platoon and a command battalion at the regimental level. Transportation (dropships/jumpships) and other specialist services were also usually attached at the Regimental level.

RCT composition usually depended on the organization using them. Many of the Star League era RCTs were made up of mostly Mech regiments, while the RCTs made famous by the Fed. Suns (who were actually copying the system the Eridani Light Horse had kept alive for generations), tended to have one or two mech Regiments backed up by multiple Regiments of infantry and vechiles.

Considering the time period and supply situation you'd probably be looking at maybe a Company to maybe a Battalion of mechs (if you have a good deal of industrials in your force) in each of your Regiments backed up by two Battalions of vechiles and Infantry. Figure probably attach an extra company of HQ, Repair and MASH vechiles to each Battalion for support and limit artillery to maybe two lances max in each. Dont count transports against your limit if you're tying them in with set passangers and making mechanized infantry.

That's what I have done; the 'Black Widows' module concentrates on a single 'Mech Company; others go into a larger scale, Battalions, etc.

To complicate things further, Clans have a different table of organization and equipment [TO&E]; they have 5 points to a start, with 5 elementals to a point, or a single Battlemech. So, if you were doing SW/SC, you'd probably have to restructure...

Try posting to one of the CBT boards for a more specific answer; what I've learned is by pulling info from a few of the CBT books. And of course, you won't find reference to ICE mechs; if you use them, you have to adjust accordingly. They won't do much good in a hostile atmosphere, along with other equipment....

Thanks much for the info and advice, guys -- I appreciate it. The recent books have certainly not been terribly helpful in terms of technical details like this . . . virtually every description of troop and vehicle formations is vague.

I agree that the Dark Age probably wrecked whatever the standard order of battle had become for the Republic. If your battalion is stuck defending a world with no 'mech or vehicle factory, you're going to have to fill in any empty slots with captured/salvaged vehicles until the next dropship arrives . . . which puts us in the situation that Legerdemain described. I noticed that the DFA Highlander Valiant LE is just that: recovered and converted salvage from the Dragon's Fury on Addicks.

@ Lobo: whoops, heh, that would be a big jump (company to brigade), wouldn't it? Thanks for catching that.