So I talked about just how cheap the JL-1 Raider is for #Battletech, but what does that mean? Obviously, that means it costs less, but how about we look at just how 'affordable' the Raider is from the In Universe perspective. People love talking fake economics, right? 1/12

Primary sources for this little thread are going to be Megamek to calculate C-bill cost for mechs with unlisted prices, and Era Report: 1345, which has the currency converter and multipliers for different currencies and prices. 2/

So that we're all on the same page, the C-bill price for a listed mech is the production cost. We'll be looking at the Sale Price for the unit, which we will measure in Republic Stones, as this is the area of space most likely to see the Raider and its competition. 3/

The Stone is worth 8.70 C-bills. We further modify this by the 'Military Vehicle' multiplier (9.33) to get the rough purchase price of the unit. Example: The Savannah Master is 91,667 C-bills normally. After adjustment, it sells for 98,304 Stones (855,253.11 C-bills). 4/

Now, let's look at the Raider. The base construction price is pretty low at 3,374,500 C-bills, slightly cheaper than the classic CN9-A Centurion, which is no longer being produced. So what does that cost in the Republic? 3,618,860 Stones. 5/

The Raider's primary prey were Militarized Industrialmechs like this 40t Harvester MOD 199M-A, outfitted with a RAC/5. This thing is an officially sold refit, retailing at 1,806,052 Stones. MODs like this were often the only mechs in a PDF's arsenal, and they weren't good. 6/

A closer contemporary to the Raider is the TFT-A9 Thunder Fox. 5t Heavier, it was widely fielded by the RAF, and captured units would show up in the warbands of many of it's enemies. It priced out at around 5,435,390 Stones, assuming the Republic wanted to sell. 7/

Looking over at the Clans, we see the very popular Black Hawk (Standard), which Seafox sold to everyone and anyone. Its a 50t clantech battlemech armed with lasers and streak srms, a solid machine. And the Clanners would sell it to you for 10,044,763 Stones. 8/

The 40t Targe bears mention. A full Battlemech with a Light Fusion Engine, this was also used in the Republic. It sold for 7,748,243 Stones, and is perhaps the only Medium Battlemech of this era with a worse BV on the Tabletop. 812 to the Raider's 817. 9/

It is worth noting that, by 3134, all the tech that went into the Raider, including the TSM, were considered Standard Tech and could be repaired pretty easily. Meanwhile, it's competitors used more exotic and expensive components, which drove up maintenance costs. 10/

This at a time where Communications had to fall back to Jumpship couriers, where you couldn't be certain if the next planet you were heading to would be under new management or not. You broke a proprietary part on that Black Hawk, you're stuck waiting for spares. 11/

All this being said, if you're just getting a lance together to fight your buddy, the in universe costs don't matter. It really is only a concern if you're running a campaign and will typically have no effect on your average game. But these are the sort of details I dig. 12/fin

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