As through a glass darkly: The Home of the Terran Supremacy

[Wrangler]

Is anyone working on house books for the other factions like the ConfedSuns or the twin Free Worlds Leagues?

[DarthRads]

Having fixed up the errors and added the errata to the Supremacy book, my passion for writing battletech has been stirred again. I have notes for the Rim and had a great idea for the Confed Suns...

[Medron Pryde]

I was working on a Taurian Magistracy book but got caught up writing my own fiction again...

Stuff I can sell and make money on does have a priority over free work...no matter how much fun it is...;)

[Nerroth]

I was looking over the timeline in the recently-published Touring The Stars: Lone Star, and it seems that there may have been a window of opportunity for the Empires Aflame version of the world to have dug itself out of its post-Amaris crisis.

That said, Lone Star is not shown on the Terran Supremacy map in the EA PDF, though in fairness that map only points out the relative highlights of each realm shown.

So, might it be reasonable to assume that EA Lone Star managed to build itself back up into some semblance of normalcy, but perhaps failed to regain its former status as a regional capital?

[Knightmare]

So, might it be reasonable to assume that EA Lone Star managed to build itself back up into some semblance of normalcy, but perhaps failed to regain its former status as a regional capital?

50/50 chance.

[gyedid]

I was wondering the same thing about EA-Bryant, in light of the last Hallowe'en special.   :D  Would the Supremacy be as two-timing as the Republic in field-testing their prototype Tripods?  More to the point, did they even bother trying to rebuild Bryant's weather control system?

cheers,

Gabe

[Knightmare]

In the canon timeline, rebuilding the storm inhibitors was too costly and a poor investment (Bryant's location made it a choice and easily accessible target for raids).

Since Bryant is now safely ensconced inside the Supremacy's core the world is likely protected enough to warrant the investment should the Supremacy have the loot and expertise to manufacture the inhibitors. The same goes for Venus's sun shield.   

 

[Wrangler]

Too bad we won't get some unique Grasshopper variant for TS. ;)

[HABeas2]

In the canon timeline, rebuilding the storm inhibitors was too costly and a poor investment (Bryant's location made it a choice and easily accessible target for raids).

Since Bryant is now safely ensconced inside the Supremacy's core the world is likely protected enough to warrant the investment should the Supremacy have the loot and expertise to manufacture the inhibitors. The same goes for Venus's sun shield.

Oh, I'd go far to suggest that the TS maintains a kind of subsistence-level DoME agency that helped keep its more marginal worlds habitable, and restored the damage done by the Amaris Crisis.

They would have left the houses to their own devices, of course.

-

[Hellraiser]

Too bad we won't get some unique Grasshopper variant for TS. ;)

Just use the Grasshopper-6K.  Its pure-awesome as is.
Or for that just plain broken & unique feel, the GrassHopper-Reynolds.

[Nerroth]

After seeing the work-in-progress covers for the volumes covering the "Prime" universe's First and Second Succession Wars, one wonders what scene might appear on the equivalent documents over in the Empires Aflame universe, looking at events such as Operation BLACK SHIELD.


One thing I noticed in the EA timeline is that there are dates listed for when four of the five Great Houses recognized, or otherwise treated with, the Terran Supremacy - the Lyrans and FedSuns in 2791, the Capellans in 2808, and the FWL in 2838. Yet there seems to be no listing for a normalization of relations between the Supremacy and the Draconis Combine.

While there may have been some point at which diplomatic relations were established, could it be possible that House Kurita has refused to treat with the Supremacy outright, and continues not to recognize the TS as of alt-3095? If so, that could make for in interesting dynamic - perhaps one on which a post-alt-3095 event may potentially hinge.

[gyedid]

A thought I had about...who is Devlin Stone?

In the Prime universe, did the Arthur Steiner-Davion hypothesis ever pan out?  Because if it's true...

...then in the EA-verse, Devlin Stone is really Arthur Whitman-Steiner, fourth child of Melissa Steiner and Richard "Big Daddy" Whitman.

If he is, then how to explain how he ended up as commanding general of the TSDF?

He was a prodigy at tactics and strategy, but even worse at politics than his now-deceased older brother, Victor Richard Jr.  I would posit that, too far removed from the Lyran succession, he opted to join, or was directed to, the special forces and eventually secret service, LIC or Loki.  He was given a mission unlike any other:  become one of our deepest-cover agents.  Change your face and your name, disavow all your Lyran royal heritage, and become a virtual nobody.  Then you will infiltrate the Terran Supremacy and do your best to rise as high as you can in their command structure, secretly and subtly working to change, undermine, and erode the TSDF from within.  (For the good of the Commonwealth, of course.)  And he succeeded far beyond expectations, going as far as TSDF commanding general.

So yes, there's my take on who EA-Devlin Stone is and how he got there.

cheers,

Gabe

[HABeas2]

A thought I had about...who is Devlin Stone?

In the Prime universe, did the Arthur Steiner-Davion hypothesis ever pan out?  Because if it's true...

Honestly, unless the bosses changed their mind in the last few years, he wouldn't be Arthur. Bear in mind that we actually know Arthur was blown up (they found an ear, as I recall), and we have strong suspicions that if he ever regained his mobility again, it was through prosthetics and probably other cybernetic parts. Stone is all-natural, so far as anyone has even seen or discussed, and his build is way off from what Arthur's was besides the point. He's simply "someone else".

He was a prodigy at tactics and strategy, but even worse at politics than his now-deceased older brother, Victor Richard Jr.  I would posit that, too far removed from the Lyran succession, he opted to join, or was directed to, the special forces and eventually secret service, LIC or Loki.  He was given a mission unlike any other:  become one of our deepest-cover agents.  Change your face and your name, disavow all your Lyran royal heritage, and become a virtual nobody.  Then you will infiltrate the Terran Supremacy and do your best to rise as high as you can in their command structure, secretly and subtly working to change, undermine, and erode the TSDF from within.  (For the good of the Commonwealth, of course.)  And he succeeded far beyond expectations, going as far as TSDF commanding general.

So yes, there's my take on who EA-Devlin Stone is and how he got there.

The beauty of it is that, given how off-canon the EA-verse is, you can still be right. As it is, though, the EA-verse jumbles quite a few things up, which is why we have the alternate versions of Avitue and Berith bopping around (under their birth names, no less) as operatives for two completely different governments, a good forty-to-sixty years after both of them should have died. I never even bothered to explain that one, really.

-

[DarthRads]

The EA universe is not simply an inversion mirror if the prime universe. It's Chaos Theory really, the further you get from the initial point of divergence, the greater the differences will be.

[HABeas2]

The EA universe is not simply an inversion mirror if the prime universe. It's Chaos Theory really, the further you get from the initial point of divergence, the greater the differences will be.

Exactly. It would be impossible to do a 1:1 mirror universe, if only because not every decision or event has only two outcomes that balance out. The Star Trek Mirror universe shown in TOS was barely an inversion unto itself, with all characters holding their same ranks and positions at that moment, but as time went on, and we came to see the Mirror side a few more times, we saw less and less of a direct correlation, since that would make less and less sense. (Such as how Mirror Sisko was basically a pirate captain, and we never saw Mirror Bashir as a doctor.)

For the most part, I blended the notion of a ST-style mirror universe with the notion of time as a river that keeps trying to correct its course, but when your defining moment basically eliminates the creation of entities so powerful that they guided history all along... Well, things get fun.

-

[DarthRads]

For the most part, I blended the notion of a ST-style mirror universe with the notion of time as a river that keeps trying to correct its course, but when your defining moment basically eliminates the creation of entities so powerful that they guided history all along... Well, things get fun.

-

And thankyou again for doing so, giving my brain enough to work with to cook up 3 field manuals. It's a great alternate setting!

[Nerroth]

Now that the PDF documenting the "Prime" timeline's First Succession War is out, it is interesting to see those scattered clues as to how things played out differently over in the Empires Aflame timeline.

One thing that comes to mind is how much of an impact the effects of Operation BLACK SHIELD had on the SLDF-turned-TSDF's ability to consolidate its holdings. Since the concept of leveraging Jerome Blake's control of the HPG network doesn't seem to have been raised by "Prime" timeline scholars, I wonder how key a factor the disruption it caused was in allowing the proto-Supremacy to find its footing.

[gyedid]

Now that the PDF documenting the "Prime" timeline's First Succession War is out, it is interesting to see those scattered clues as to how things played out differently over in the Empires Aflame timeline.

One thing that comes to mind is how much of an impact the effects of Operation BLACK SHIELD had on the SLDF-turned-TSDF's ability to consolidate its holdings. Since the concept of leveraging Jerome Blake's control of the HPG network doesn't seem to have been raised by "Prime" timeline scholars, I wonder how key a factor the disruption it caused was in allowing the proto-Supremacy to find its footing.

Well, there was that, and the fact that the Supremacy had most of the post-Liberation SLDF to work with  ;)  In the Prime universe, Blake only had the 151st Division.  Even if he had tried something like BLACK SHIELD, he just didn't have the manpower to consolidate control over even just the First Circuit worlds.

cheers,

Gabe

[Nerroth]

One detail I noticed is that the area covered by the short-lived Finmark Free Republic in the "Prime" timeline is not a part of the Rim Federation on the EA map. Since the Terran-Lyran agreement establishing the Rim Federation was signed in alt-2792, and the "Prime" timeline's Operation HAIFISCHFLOSSENSUPPE took place in that same year, one wonders if the Terrans were able to dissuade the EA Lyrans from going too nuke-happy over Finmark... or if part of the deal was that the Commonwealth would have a free hand in putting down any other potential "successor states" arising in former Rim Worlds Republic space.

[SCC]

I'd like to know why the Free Rasalhague Republic hasn't come about, remember that EA tries to mirror Prime and I can so see the TS supporting such a movement, as from what I've gathered if the FRR broke away from the DC the TS would leave it alone.

[Medron Pryde]

I think because that would have been ANOTHER faction and I think the main idea of this universe was to have a fewer number of playable factions.

Five "Great Houses," and three Peripheral realms that are large enough to be useful.

The FRR would have been a...tiny realm...dependent on others to keep it alive.

[HABeas2]

The EA is not a perfect mirror-verse, either. The FRR formed in the Prime setting thanks to the machinations of ComStar, and while elements of the Supremacy's intel service DO mimic ComStar's ROM, they answer to the DeChaviliers.

But the bigger reason is likely this: The formation of the FRR was a deal ComStar worked out with a very liberal-minded Theodore as a check against the power of the FedCom, which stretched across over half the Dragon's borders. But in the EA-verse, the FedCom never happened, and Theodore was not nearly as liberal. Freeing the Rassies was just not of any real use to the Combine, especially with so many nice factories in Rassie space, and would have done the Supremacy no favors at all.

So, the FRR simply never happened in the EA-verse.

-

[gyedid]

The EA universe is not simply an inversion mirror if the prime universe. It's Chaos Theory really, the further you get from the initial point of divergence, the greater the differences will be.

Exactly. It would be impossible to do a 1:1 mirror universe, if only because not every decision or event has only two outcomes that balance out. The Star Trek Mirror universe shown in TOS was barely an inversion unto itself, with all characters holding their same ranks and positions at that moment, but as time went on, and we came to see the Mirror side a few more times, we saw less and less of a direct correlation, since that would make less and less sense. (Such as how Mirror Sisko was basically a pirate captain, and we never saw Mirror Bashir as a doctor.)

For the most part, I blended the notion of a ST-style mirror universe with the notion of time as a river that keeps trying to correct its course, but when your defining moment basically eliminates the creation of entities so powerful that they guided history all along... Well, things get fun.

-

I'm not sure I can agree with those statements, even from Herb.  The way the major historical tidbits have been presented in the EA timeline, it seems as though many of the major players in the Supremacy--particularly the heads of Terran C&I and the TSDF Commanding Generals--met fates at worst analogous to, at best directly paralleling, those of their Prime universe counterparts.
So to me, the mirror element is foremost in interpreting how closely the EA-verse should track the Prime universe. 

Of course, if followed to its logical extreme, it would result in a lot of things that just patently make no sense, e.g. what if the Supremacy *had* developed the Clan tech base in the mid-2800s, and then kept finding reasons not to deploy Clan-spec weapons until 3049?

cheers,

Gabe

[gyedid]

But the bigger reason is likely this: The formation of the FRR was a deal ComStar worked out with a very liberal-minded Theodore as a check against the power of the FedCom, which stretched across over half the Dragon's borders. But in the EA-verse, the FedCom never happened, and Theodore was not nearly as liberal. Freeing the Rassies was just not of any real use to the Combine, especially with so many nice factories in Rassie space, and would have done the Supremacy no favors at all.

So, the FRR simply never happened in the EA-verse.

-

Having a FRR-like buffer state might not have helped the Supremacy, but it would've been useful to the Lyrans as a speedbump, if nothing else.  >:D  If anybody in the EA-verse should be fomenting and giving covert support to pro-Rasalhague independence movements, it should be the Lyrans, not the Terrans.

cheers,

Gabe

[HABeas2]

Having a FRR-like buffer state might not have helped the Supremacy, but it would've been useful to the Lyrans as a speedbump, if nothing else.  >:D  If anybody in the EA-verse should be fomenting and giving covert support to pro-Rasalhague independence movements, it should be the Lyrans, not the Terrans.

In the prime universe, the Lyrans had been fomenting rebellion against the Dragon for decades when Teddy K cut them loose. Likely, it is not that different in the EA-verse.

But, see, the Lyrans never actually *intended* to give the Rassies independence; they were simply looking to weaken the Combine's hold enough to make it easier for Steiner to annex their worlds.

I'm not sure I can agree with those statements, even from Herb.  The way the major historical tidbits have been presented in the EA timeline, it seems as though many of the major players in the Supremacy--particularly the heads of Terran C&I and the TSDF Commanding Generals--met fates at worst analogous to, at best directly paralleling, those of their Prime universe counterparts.
So to me, the mirror element is foremost in interpreting how closely the EA-verse should track the Prime universe. 

But far from absolute, even by your own admission...

Of course, if followed to its logical extreme, it would result in a lot of things that just patently make no sense, e.g. what if the Supremacy *had* developed the Clan tech base in the mid-2800s, and then kept finding reasons not to deploy Clan-spec weapons until 3049?

More or less, yeah. See, the timelines parallel enough to allow many of the same personas to come and go at roughly the same time, but there are several significant divergences, including the non-existence of at least three powerful groups that seriously altered the flow of history, and the addition of one whose effects were very much different from the Prime. As funny as it was to contemplate a mirror setting where all the males had opposing levels of facial hair when compared to their Prime counterparts, it would have been the easy way out.

-

[SCC]

OK, got a slight problem with the WarShip list on page 35. I see that the ConSuns have a couple of Avalon's and the FWL and couple of Eagles, but other then that I don't see any other post-Helm WS designs listed, which is a bit weird.

And sorry if it's been asked, but does the TS use MD implants?

[gyedid]

You must have a different version of the PDF; the one I have clearly shows

ConfedSuns:  Feng Huang, Avalon

FWL:  Zechetinu, Eagle, Thera

Combine:  Inazuma, Tatsumaki, Kyushu, Kirishima

LyrCom:  Mjolnir


It's probably just me, but the FWL has 4 Barons.  I wouldn't be shy about turning two of those into Impavidos.

With respect to the Supremacy, it's a bit distressing to me that they have no post-Helm designs, all old soft, Star League stuff.
But if I would give the FWLN the Impavido, then the TS navy should at the very least have the Suffren  >:D
The implication here is that while there has been a modicum of naval innovation in the other states, there has been practically none in the Supremacy.

cheers,

Gabe
 

[Medron Pryde]

In my Stars Aflame supplement I noted rumors that some of the Star League designs are being refitted.

Larger fighter and small craft complements.  Sometimes more armor.  The unstated idea was that they were been upgraded to their Clan stats so people could just slap in a Clan McKenna and play with it.

There was also a mention about upgrading designs to their new Clan design, as well as a possible new building program of totally new WarShips.  One mention was something called Project Leviathan.

;)

I had the Impavidos and Agamemnon being a new building project in the Free Worlds League as well.

Foxes for the Fed Suns/Liao.

Fredesa for the Lyrans.

And "Dragonlord" (AKA Nightlord) for the Kuritans.

Yes, there are some tech issues with Clan weapons and armor, but I figure that some of those could be glossed over by saying "technological espionage" and go with it.  ;)

[DarthRads]

In my Stars Aflame supplement I noted rumors that some of the Star League designs are being refitted.

Larger fighter and small craft complements.  Sometimes more armor.  The unstated idea was that they were been upgraded to their Clan stats so people could just slap in a Clan McKenna and play with it.

There was also a mention about upgrading designs to their new Clan design, as well as a possible new building program of totally new WarShips.  One mention was something called Project Leviathan.

;)

I had the Impavidos and Agamemnon being a new building project in the Free Worlds League as well.

Foxes for the Fed Suns/Liao.

Fredesa for the Lyrans.

And "Dragonlord" (AKA Nightlord) for the Kuritans.

Yes, there are some tech issues with Clan weapons and armor, but I figure that some of those could be glossed over by saying "technological espionage" and go with it.  ;)

I also believe I put a series of optional rules in the Field Manual to enhance the TS fleet, I think the heading was THEY ARE THAT ADVANCED. If I remember correctly, there were suggestions for enhanced armour, AA, point defence and Naval C3...

[DarthRads]

I also believe I put a series of optional rules in the Field Manual to enhance the TS fleet, I think the heading was THEY ARE THAT ADVANCED. If I remember correctly, there were suggestions for enhanced armour, AA, point defence and Naval C3...

Here we go, page 105-106:

The Supremacy Navy – It’s Just Better [Optional Rule]
Some people refuse to believe that the crews of the Supremacy Navy are just better trained and more capable than their Great House counterparts. Instead they prescribe technology in the place of skill.

The theory is that over the centuries, as vessels were repaired, they have been improved. When armour was replaced, it was steadily thickened, greatly enhancing their ability to withstand damage. Fighter scale and point defence weaponry has also been incorporated. Most significant of all was the development of Warship grade C3 systems. Based on the networking systems of the SDS system, the C3 network allows far more effective coordination between Warships and their escorts.

Quick And Dirty Modifications

If you wish to play the Supremacy as having modified their vessels, then apply any or all of the following modifications:

• NAVAL C3 (1% ship mass)
• AA Armament – 1 Fighter scale weapon (typically ER or Pulse Large Laser) for every 200 000t in each arc (Round Down)
  
• Point Defence – 1 Emplacement per 500 000t in each arc (Round Up)
• Armour – Double standard (or up to maximum allowed)
  

 

Virtually all SL Era vessels have more than enough cargo capacity to support any or all these changes.
Under this optional rule a Supremacy Mckenna might actually have -
Armour:
400 500/500 500/500 286
AA (Per Arc):
1 Large Pulse Laser Bay (5 Guns) 1 ER Large Laser Bay (5 Guns)
Point Defence (Per Arc):
3 AMS
+Naval C3