Independent Periphery Worlds- HBS paradigm shift

[Colt Ward]

Playing through career again with HBS Battletech and one of the things I overlooked struck me . . .

 . . . AFAIK, nothing in canon counters HBS's implication through the missions that the Houses and two Periphery realms do not have outposts on the smaller/lightly populated independent worlds.  What can some residents of a world that have 'settled' territory the size & population of say Canada along a a planet's coast while the rest of the world is at best frontier and otherwise unclaimed/terraformed if say the Capellan Confederation drops some troops (mechs?  armor & infantry?) to set up a outpost/consulate?

Monitor the colony, support Capellan business interests, keep (then) MoC, Taurian, and FedSun business interests from establishing trade?  Or use the boonies as a deployment/training ground?

This would be more fodder for a AToW or Destiny campaign since it would deal with intelligence operations, corporate espionage, and other personal actions for the most part with maybe the occasional stompy robot.

[idea weenie]

Get sick from some local bug, drop off a bug that mutates in the local wildlife and kills off a keystone species, drop off an invasive species that ruins a local ecosystem, start a forest fire that causes animal stampedes, similar stuff?

It could be fun, for interdicting trade how much would the Capellan colony be willing to spend to block that trade?  Or would it be better if the Capellans tried to get the existing colony under their control, politicking, underground manipulation, public opinion, etc.

Eventually the group trying to keep the Capellans out has to track them back to their base, and deal with them at their source (Mech fight!)

[Colt Ward]

I am not even saying a 'colony' more like the old naval stations in the Age of Sail . . . outpost that are solely gov/military that provide support for trading voyages.  But if a colony trades almost exclusively with Capellan companies (think mercantilism) but a Taurian trader shows up trying to outbid the cut rate cost the Cappies have been getting away with for decades . . . well, just how might that Cappie outpost interact with the Taurian?

There are a lot of IRL examples but we would be tromping on #4.

[Stormy]

The other related paradigm shift is the degree to which Great House planets in border areas also have significant amounts of (procedurally created) interpenetration.

I like the model, admittedly— planetary “control” feels a lot more organic than simply colouring dots on a map.

[Porshadoxus]

This question reminds me of the proxy wars fought between the United States (Democracy) and the Soviet Union / China (Communism) in places like Korea and Viet Nam. The great houses and larger periphery realms could easily use these under-populated periphery planets as deniable battlegrounds for their belligerence; in fact, they likely do.

[BrianDavion]

the problem with proxy wars is the need for proxy is less when you feel comfortable waging active war