Cached out?

[Sjhernan3060]

Post the Wars of Reavings are all Brian Caches pretty much empty?

[JadeHellbringer]

It's hard to say, with such a limited picture of what the Homeworlds look like postwar. That said, with the depleted states of the five Home Clans remaining... look, salvage only does so much to boost a military, and we know a whole mess of production facilities are gone. It's likely those caches would have been bled dry, for sure. Without evidence, my personal guess is that they're down to very, very little if anything left.

[Sjhernan3060]

Thought so - since those caches seemed to be huge places I am curious as to what they are used for?

[JadeHellbringer]

Thought so - since those caches seemed to be huge places I am curious as to what they are used for?

Well... storing ex-SLDF equipment, obviously. ;)

In addition to that (or, if empty, following that), hard to say. Storage? Housing for laborer caste? Floor hockey? We don't have a good enough picture to say.

[Natasha Kerensky]

The nice thing about Brian Caches (and Brian Castles) is that there can always be lost ones waiting to be recovered for your campaign.  Given the confusion of the Wars of Reaving, the total loss of some Homeworld Clans, and the rapid evacuation of certain Spheroid Clans from the Homeworlds, it's not hard to imagine the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions coming across, say, a Viper cache that didn't get tapped during their rapid implosion at the end of WoR or a Raven Cache abandoned when they had to get out of town quickly.  Even if the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions have no caches left of their own, they could come across the caches of other dead or evacuated clans for which the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions would not necessarily have records.

My 2 Kerenskies... YMMV.

[Archangel]

Lets put it this way - All known caches have been bled dry or destroyed (if only to deny usable material to an enemy).  There may be a handful of caches that were forgotten just waiting to be recovered.  What they may or may not contain is anybody's guess.

[beachhead1985]

What about the naval caches? Raided first? Easiest to destroy/scuttle?

[ANS Kamas P81]

The nice thing about Brian Caches (and Brian Castles) is that there can always be lost ones waiting to be recovered for your campaign.  Given the confusion of the Wars of Reaving, the total loss of some Homeworld Clans, and the rapid evacuation of certain Spheroid Clans from the Homeworlds, it's not hard to imagine the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions coming across, say, a Viper cache that didn't get tapped during their rapid implosion at the end of WoR or a Raven Cache abandoned when they had to get out of town quickly.  Even if the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions have no caches left of their own, they could come across the caches of other dead or evacuated clans for which the Adders/Cobras/Coyotes/Lions would not necessarily have records.

So wait you're telling me that the Kerensky Cluster is the 3SW in miniature, complete with Five Key Worlds, Strana Mechty as an Earth standin, and some others that survived a major plastering?

BEN ROME YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, I READ YOUR BOOK!

[Gaiiten]

So wait you're telling me that the Kerensky Cluster is the 3SW in miniature, complete with Five Key Worlds, Strana Mechty as an Earth standin, and some others that survived a major plastering?

BEN ROME YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, I READ YOUR BOOK!

 O0

[marauder648]

IIRC it seems from the book that the Clans have tapped out their naval caches and their remaining Brian Cache's are running low.

[Frogfoot]

Seems most likely to me that there are few to no Brian Cache's left with anything in them. Those known to the Clans should have already been emptied by now, considering their various circumstances. The Society did grab raids on a lot of caches to equip their own forces and their Dark Caste allies too.

I think also there wasn't all that much in the caches to begin with. We saw the Diamond Sharks empty their caches during their last days in the Homeworlds and it only seemed to be enough to make a few vehicle Clusters. Both the Wolves and Falcons were ragged shells after the Refusal War and had to conduct Harvest Trials to build strength, despite presumably tapping into their caches (you can still see quite a lot of SL-era tech knocking around their garrison Galaxies a decade later in 3067).

All those old SLDF Awesomes, Marauders, T-bolts and Warhammers we don't see in Clan toumans? Yeah, I know some people are starry-eyed at the idea of thousands of these things tucked away safely like treasured childhood toys, but in reality they were probably all cored out on the battlefields of the Clans' early days. So even if the Clans stumble across a long-forgotten cache that the Society never got around to using, it'll probably just be a load of mothballed Chevaliers or something.

[The_Caveman]

All those old SLDF Awesomes, Marauders, T-bolts and Warhammers we don't see in Clan toumans? Yeah, I know some people are starry-eyed at the idea of thousands of these things tucked away safely like treasured childhood toys, but in reality they were probably all cored out on the battlefields of the Clans' early days. So even if the Clans stumble across a long-forgotten cache that the Society never got around to using, it'll probably just be a load of mothballed Chevaliers or something.

More likely they were used up during the Pentagon Civil War and/or scrapped for raw materials. The Clans simply didn't have enough combatants, numerically speaking, to have gone through divisions' worth of SLDF 'Mechs before they were rendered obsolete by homegrown Clan designs.

On the other hand the fighting between the Pentagon powers was enormously wasteful and frequently involved the destruction of war materiel caches just to deny access to it to the other belligerents. Something like half of all the Exodus Fleet's ships were destroyed in the civil war alone.

Given the nature of Clan warfare, those SLDF 'Mechs would have been shuffled to the rear echelons very rapidly as new stuff came online. It only makes sense that the Clans were stripping down old Star League 'Mechs for parts to build their IIC versions or recycling the raw materials to build new designs. Myomer, gyros, electronics, and so on could all be reused. Star League endo-steel could probably be reprocessed into the superior Clan version. Whatever couldn't be upgraded could still be broken down and recycled.

[Gaiiten]

BTW I will rather see new designs than the old; new technologies, new horrors of war are what I yearn for.

[cold1]

Adders wore out there stock of SLDF stuff
Per the WoR Supplemental they are currently refilling their Brian caches with new stuff to trade to their minio...errr, hmm hmm colleagues later on.

[Intermittent_Coherence]

More likely they were used up during the Pentagon Civil War and/or scrapped for raw materials. The Clans simply didn't have enough combatants, numerically speaking, to have gone through divisions' worth of SLDF 'Mechs before they were rendered obsolete by homegrown Clan designs.

I think what was left of the Wolf, Coyote and other sponsoring Clans' caches were handed off to Jaime Wolf and his men. After all, they must have been supplied 15 regiments worth of stuff plus stockpiles.

[Archangel]

I think what was left of the Wolf, Coyote and other sponsoring Clans' caches were handed off to Jaime Wolf and his men. After all, they must have been supplied 15 regiments worth of stuff plus stockpiles.

As far as I am aware only Clan Wolf provided any equipment to the Dragoons, some warriors from Clan Goliath Scorpion accompanied the Dragoons to the Inner Sphere after training them.  I don't think the Clans provided that much equipment (although if you factor in the WarShips).  What was left of Clan Wolf's caches were likely emptied during the post-Refusal War rebuilding with the older equipment assigned to second-line forces to replace equipment lost to front-line units while the front-line received the lions' share of new production and isorla.

[Atlas3060]

So wait you're telling me that the Kerensky Cluster is the 3SW in miniature, complete with Five Key Worlds, Strana Mechty as an Earth standin, and some others that survived a major plastering?

BEN ROME YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, I READ YOUR BOOK!

Finally, someone gets why I loved this setting. Also why I'm glad they suffered this fate.
You get your supposed Mad Max 3rd Succession Wars environment, but with Clan tech as the bonus.
Like Peanut butter and more Peanut butter smooshed together.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Finally, someone gets why I loved this setting. Also why I'm glad they suffered this fate.
You get your supposed Mad Max 3rd Succession Wars environment, but with Clan tech as the bonus.
Like Peanut butter and more Peanut butter smooshed together.

And with the way the Clans themselves are set up, the idea of a Lord Humungus is all too easy.

[Gaiiten]

And with the way the Clans themselves are set up, the idea of a Lord Humungus is all too easy.

Brett Andrews????

[JadeHellbringer]

And with the way the Clans themselves are set up, the idea of a Lord Humungus is all too easy.

"IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY, QUINEG? WALK AWAY, STRAVAG."

[Jellico]

Cachey thought for the day.

Why is Clan Ghost Bear running so much SLDF tech (according to the RATs) in FM:WC?
For me the answer is simple.  They have downed their factories and raided their caches while relocating immediately after Tukayyid.

[Wrangler]

Well, i don't think there should be a finite number of Cache but it Pentagon worlds weren't exactly as vast as the Inner Sphere is.  It took a lot resources to build those Brian Castles, but Caches are more storage spots.

If any there, properly small depositories scattered about.  I think the big ones are properly well hollowed out and well known to the Clans. Smaller ones maybe different story.   

I hadn't thought that Wars of Reaving could be on par with Succession Wars, but it makes sense.   

[Sjhernan3060]

Post WOR what would those empty caches be used for? Do we think 2nd line and or Iic stuff was mothballed quickly?

[Sjhernan3060]

It's hard to say, with such a limited picture of what the Homeworlds look like postwar. That said, with the depleted states of the five Home Clans remaining... look, salvage only does so much to boost a military, and we know a whole mess of production facilities are gone. It's likely those caches would have been bled dry, for sure. Without evidence, my personal guess is that they're down to very, very little if anything left.

I noticed that as of 3075 strana mechty had a warship cache was this the ” community box” or was it clan specific? 

[Colt Ward]

With the diseases and Reavings, its quite possible that they started filling up caches again from salvage- after all they JUST made a LOT of new bandit caste and why leave anything unsecured they could use?

IIRC, Strana Mechty caches were for the Clans as a whole- though the Silver Mongoose was likely a single ship 'cache' (hey, its in this parabolic orbit, ease to reach every 6 months) that was for the Jags.

[Stormlion1]

Best way to look at it. By this point the Homeworld Brian Caches are full of what the Clan's didn't want to use. Tanks, old aircraft, Urbanmechs, and LAM's and broken mechs that were barely worth the repair but might be good for parts or to cobble together into frankenmechs.

[Deadborder]

When you look at the RATs for the Society and Burrocks there's a lot of SLDF equipment in there. It makes sense that it was pulled from various caches over the years

[RifleMech]

Best way to look at it. By this point the Homeworld Brian Caches are full of what the Clan's didn't want to use. Tanks, old aircraft, Urbanmechs, and LAM's and broken mechs that were barely worth the repair but might be good for parts or to cobble together into frankenmechs.

That's what I was thinking would be left, with the tanks and aircraft being of support construction. That and unpopular units that were stripped of parts and are more skeletons than anything. Plus some possible stockpiles of old standard tech stuff, maybe even SLDF stuff that they no longer use. After all why dig out an old AC/5 when they could replace it with a Clan spec UAC/5?

I do think what leftovers would vary among the Clans though. Why else would the Jade Falcons have to make LAMs from scratch if they'd had any left in storage?

[Stormlion1]

That's what I was thinking would be left, with the tanks and aircraft being of support construction. That and unpopular units that were stripped of parts and are more skeletons than anything. Plus some possible stockpiles of old standard tech stuff, maybe even SLDF stuff that they no longer use. After all why dig out an old AC/5 when they could replace it with a Clan spec UAC/5?

I do think what leftovers would vary among the Clans though. Why else would the Jade Falcons have to make LAMs from scratch if they'd had any left in storage?

The interesting part would be that during the Invasion the Clans considered Inner Sphere LAM's to be dishonorable and destroyed them with prejudice. But they opened up Brian Caches to arm the Dragoons, not just once but multiple times with new gear. Including LAM's.

[Jaim Magnus]

The interesting part would be that during the Invasion the Clans considered Inner Sphere LAM's to be dishonorable and destroyed them with prejudice. But they opened up Brian Caches to arm the Dragoons, not just once but multiple times with new gear. Including LAM's.

Filthy, freebirth spies deserve dezgra equipment... at least that's how I imagine the Clans rationalized it at the time.