It is our plan to offer a downloadable map of the Inner Sphere for 3025 game play with the print release of IO. Future maps are being explored for other eras. How these would be provided will be determined in the future.
Duly noted, thank you.
(I dream of one day seeing a full-sized map including the material from the four Deep Periphery sectors shown in
ISP3, with rules showing how to expand one's efforts across the Human Sphere - and how to get around troubling astronomical features like nebulae and whatnot. But I probably shouldn't get my hopes up...)
The Marian Hegemony was still considered a pirate faction as of 3025. As such it is not a standard playable faction in the rules. You are of course welcome to create any factions you wish for your game, provided all players agree.
I see, thanks again.
To clarify, is there a particular era in which the Marians would become "playable" in this sense?
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Also, speaking of the Periphery, the note about the DP factions not being available in the Civil War era on page 26 refers to the Clan Invasion era instead.
But on a broader note, it seems odd that the likes of the Hansa and Nueva Castile are considered isolated from the Inner Sphere and near Periphery in all six eras.
Would there not have been at least some limited trade and/or conflict between these powers and their Spheroid and Clan counterparts betwen the late 3050s and the late 3070s?
(There are notes of three Hansa worlds being opened for outside trade, of Blakist machinations in Hansa space, of the RDF being bloodied by Ice Hellion and Diamond Shark, and of long-range Hanseatic connections stretching as far as JàrnFòlk space and the Chainelane Isles.)
Also, while the Hansa and Umayyads appear to be Succession Wars-era entities, I am led to believe that the Castilian Principalities existed in Nueva Castile during the Star League era.
Would it be worth adding the Castilians to the list on page 18, with an asterisk to denote their Deep Periphery status; or were they not notable as a military power at that time, due to their lack of BattleMechs (which were first brought to Nueva Castile by the later Umayyads)?