Author Topic: Who's more powerful: Kurita's Swords of Light or Liao's Warrior Houses?  (Read 9425 times)

glitterboy2098

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...because, unlike the Sword of Light, the Warrior Houses positively seek to fight unfair. These guys get really dangerous when they're outside of their 'Mechs. In the words of CritterTech (coined for WD's Seventh Commandos but equally applicable for the Warrior Houses) if you're fighting these guys you'll find them working in your ammo dump and serving meals in your officers' mess...
this is especially true in the late 3050's and beyond, when you have all the nasty tech tricks the Capcon developed like stealth armor, Plasma Rifles, Thunder-LRM's, Inferno-IV's, etc.. the Warrior Houses would be some of the first to get mechs and munitions to take advantage of these systems, and the ones who would certainly determine the best and most effective ways to exploit them. not to mention that the Warrior Houses appear to have adopted Battle Armor fairly heavily.. and Capellan  BA are also known for their dirty tricks. (who else would stick mine layers on their first domestic suit? or stick Mimetic armor onto their 2nd heavier one?)

Nav_Alpha

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Stealth armour, thunder LRMs, commitment to combined arms tactics and I’d you’re playing in the Jihad... liberal use of nukes.
Add that to a sense of “We must always win” and I reckon you factor CapCon Warrior houses as the hardest bastards around.

Again... my disclaimer is - if you want to take a world, the sheer size and discipline of SoL is what you want. Want to smash the enemy’s ability to fight, terrorise them, etc - a Warrior house is what you want


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MarikMilitaMan

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Since the side-topic of the Knights of the Inner Sphere came up, I'll offer a comment on them: They were repeatedly shown to be elite, easily the best the League had. False Thomas Marik selected them from the ranks of League pilots who were both top-notch at fighting and agreed with his general moral tone... then he made sure that most of them had pretty good machines, FWLM's penchant for ordering absolute crap during that era notwithstanding.

There were numerous shows of their abilities during the Twilight of the Clans storyline. They were chosen to play the clan OpFor in training scenarios because they had the discipline to follow clan rules of engagement... and still ripped up most of their training opponents despite that handicap. On Huntress, they ran full-charge through a swamp to go aid allied regiments and most of them made it through intact and 'on time.' Several other examples of their abilities existed too.

False Thomas Marik wanted a 'parade regiment' for a variety of reasons, but he also made sure they had some substance behind them. I miss 'em, they were fun.

Well now the League is back maybe we'll see the Knights back as well?

Sharpnel

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Well now the League is back maybe we'll see the Knights back as well?
Please, God, no. they wr almost as bad as the Black Thorns
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Dies Irae

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Please, God, no. they wr almost as bad as the Black Thorns

As a Leaguer, I want them back. It was an interesting experiment and I feel bad that they got beaten down the way they went out.

Which also means, as is League tradition, we must now scheme and let tension build until it explodes unchecked into a civil war.

snakespinner

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A civil war in the FWL now that's a good idea.
It's not the FWL without at least one every decade. ;D O0
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worktroll

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A civil war in the FWL now that's a good idea.

No it's not! I suspend all shipments of Oriente IPA until you acknowledge the Captain-General's supremacy!  >:D
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Banzai

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It looks like the Sworders are seen more as a political unit, which is disingenuous.  To apply for the SoL, you need five years of spotless service in  another regiment.  They test them for orthodoxy, but also military skill, and they only take the top 5% of all warriors tested, and need to maintain that edge. They are on the top of the heap for training and procurement, even in the old 3025-days of low industry.  In 3025 (the only books I have available at work), two of the Sworder regiments were elite, two were veteran and one was regular quality, and the 2nd Sword of Light was often held as the best single unit in the Sphere.  In the same era, all of the Warrior House battalions were Veteran quality.

As a Davonista I hate them, but the Sword of Light units have a well earned, long standing record as the fanatical, elite warriors of baddassery in the most militant of the Successor States. They have the history. They have the numbers.  They have the skill.  They have the support of a much more powerful military support system. 

Kit deSummersville

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Well, elite aside from when they are green. Or regular. Or veteran.
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MarauderD

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Let’s put it another way. You are a member in an elite Federated Suns combat team. Which opponent would provide the greatest test of your mettle? I would say an elite reinforced regiment of Sword of Light mechs and their supporting regiments 10 Times out of 10.  Warrior Houses are almost too select, and a single battalion of elite troops can be swamped by three battalions of regular troops, which was evidenced in the 4th Succession war, Operation Guerrero, and the FedCom civil war. Numbers matter, IMO.

snakespinner

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I have always wondered why the SOL regiments have green units when only the best proven mw's can apply.
Seems unusual.
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Tai Dai Cultist

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I have always wondered why the SOL regiments have green units when only the best proven mw's can apply.
Seems unusual.

All star teams made up of all star players can and are beaten by "lesser skilled" athletes that play together.  Same principle is probably applying to units that are "elite" in nature by the real world usage of the label, yet are rated green by the BattleTech sourcebooks usage of elite/green.

massey

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I have always wondered why the SOL regiments have green units when only the best proven mw's can apply.
Seems unusual.

You're looking at particular moments in time, usually after the unit just got hammered.  I think it was the 5th SoL that was targeted by FedCom units over and over again.  They normally would have been disbanded in that situation, but since they were a SoL regiment, they weren't.  Then the Clan Invasion happened and prevented them from rebuilding as normal.

So yeah, normally they're always elite or veteran, but crap happens.

Generally even the green recruits are going to be extremely loyal, and very politically connected.  In modern terms, they'd be a bunch of West Point or Harvard graduates whose dads are big business leaders or senators.

Kit deSummersville

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Well, Green also includes guys who have been around but haven't progressed in their abilities. Dumping all your XP in to Special Interest: Brownnosing won't help you on the battlefield but it may get you a nice posting!
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ANS Kamas P81

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That, and how much of the Sword's work is parade duty?
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snakespinner

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Yes Minister. ::)
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onionmancer

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All star teams made up of all star players can and are beaten by "lesser skilled" athletes that play together.  Same principle is probably applying to units that are "elite" in nature by the real world usage of the label, yet are rated green by the BattleTech sourcebooks usage of elite/green.

Exactly.  The way BT is modeled doesn't account for things like professionalism, situational awareness, morale, loyalty, or coordination, just individual pilot skill.  Everything else gets lumped into an initiative bonus in the back of a field manual or the forced withdrawal rule.  If you view BT as an abstract simulation of combat in the BT world, the SOL probably should overperform in the "real" BT world than what its BT stats would suggest.

LiaoFan

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Rough business.

The Warrior Houses are largely supposed to defend the House of Liao against its own military. But, they’re happy to kick you in the man-berries when you’re not looking. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan’s are hidebound, but larger.

Both can be called political units.

Of course, I say the WHs, but that’s not Mano y mano.


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Alan Grant

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The Capellan Warriors Houses have a replacement problem.

It takes years to raise a new trainee in the House to become a replacement warrior.

We've seen this sometimes in the fluff. When a Warrior House is very badly damaged and needs years to get back up to strength. In the interim the Warrior House effectively ceases to exist as a combat unit, or becomes a diminished garrison unit for a long time. As individuals and as a unit, they are very good. But in sustained warfare it's not a great model. If your losses exceed projected estimates, and the trainees in the pipeline are not sufficient to recoup the lost strength anytime soon, it can effectively knock that Warrior House out of a war.

By comparison the Swords of Light draw on whole academies and their yearly turnout of mechwarriors. They have the manpower  resources to rebuild quickly. So I gotta give this one to the Sword of Light.
« Last Edit: 19 January 2018, 14:58:10 by Alan Grant »

 

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